Adnan Rajeh – Sunday Tafseer- 68 Part 3- Surat Al-Qalam
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The speakers discuss the importance of belief in God and the definition of everything is acceptable. They also discuss the concept of "opigeration," which is the ability to do things without consequence. The importance of dismissing things is emphasized, and the importance of not dismissing things is emphasized. The speakers also discuss the legacy of empathy and generosity in protecting and building on wealth. They emphasize the need for empathy and generosity in protecting and building on wealth.
AI: Summary ©
Six is in an Islamic school, and just
a small piece of paper, just write down
a question and have them write down an
answer and just gather them and read them
later.
I answered, my question once was, what is
haram in Islam?
Like 65% of them, I'm not joking
with you, 65% of the kids who
did this, this was a survey that was
distributed maybe to 130 kids over three years,
65% of them answered everything.
That was their answer, like the word everything,
right?
And I would sit down, so let's go
through them, what is everything?
It's not everything, it's just the stuff that
this society is telling you is valuable and
important and significant and it's cool.
Yeah, so drugs and khamr and zina, and
if that's what the society around you is
telling you is like, oh, thumbs up, you
should be trying to do that, then yeah,
it's gonna feel like everything is haram, but
really it's only a couple of stuff that
you shouldn't do.
Even when it comes to food, it's only
a few things you shouldn't eat, drink, a
few things you shouldn't drink.
When it comes to sexual relationships, that's an
exception, and we always talk about that being
an exception of the rule.
There's two exceptions when it comes to belief
in God, it's very restricted, it's only one.
When it comes to sexual relationships, it's only
one thing that's acceptable.
Everything else is just, just don't do one,
two, and three, and then you have everything
else is open for you.
So it's really not that way, but it's
just when you're living in a place and
a time where the emphasis is on haram,
then it seems like it is, but it
isn't.
So these verses that we recited, the Prophet,
peace be upon him, was told not to
do a number of things, and the categories
of these things are actually very important.
So, فَلَا تُطْعِي الْمُكَذِّبِينَ Don't be someone who
denies the truth.
Don't be like someone who, a denier of
the truth.
And the way I want you to think
about this is just, every time you hear
something you shouldn't be, think of the opposite
of it.
Think of what the opposite is, and when
you look at the characteristics that are defined
by the opposite terms of what you're told
not to do, you see a very beautiful
character kind of evolve, like something is created
that is actually quite magnificent.
So المُكَذِّبِينَ, denier of the truth, someone who
is biased and lacks objectivity and will not
accept righteousness when they see it, right?
The opposite of that is someone who is
objective and righteous.
وَالدُّ لَوْ تُضِهِنُوا فَيُضِهِنُونَ Compromise, someone who compromises
their principles.
Don't be someone who is upright, who stands,
has استقامة, has integrity, does not compromise their
principles, does not sell out, won't, nothing that
defines them, nothing that they believe in, nothing
that they care for dearly or that they
see as a principle is for sale.
Nothing can be at some point, yeah well,
they always say everyone, the price for everything,
well not really, not everything, not everyone, and
that's really, the exception to that I think
is what Muhammad ﷺ brought, that no, certain
things cannot be bought, you couldn't buy him,
because you didn't have anything that he wanted
from you, it's hard to buy someone who
doesn't want anything that he got.
If I want your money then yeah, if
you give me enough of it then you
can buy me, but if I don't want
your money then, like you're offering me something
that is useless to me, that is worthless,
it has no worth to me at all,
so then you can go after coercion, coercion
is different than compromise, right, coercion is different
than compromise, compromise you do it willingly, you
do it willingly, you perform taqwiyah, you normalize
something that is not normal, for a fee,
for a hefty fee, or for some form
of status, when you're coerced to do it,
when someone is doing it with a gun
to your head, that's different, you're being forced
to do something, you're actually Islamically absolved from
that, like you're forgiven, to a certain degree
you can be forgiven in those moments, but
when you do it willingly, but someone paid
you heftily for it, that's a different thing,
تُدِهِنُوا فَيُدِهِنُونَ Compromise and they'll do the same
thing, so the opposite of that is someone
who has integrity and is upright, وَلَا تُطِعَتْ
كُلَّ حَلَّافٍ مَّهِيمٍ Right, الحلاف المهيم, حلاف is
someone who is dishonest, they're always making oaths,
I swear, Wallahi, because they have to, because
they know they have no credibility, because everything
they're saying is a lie, so they have
to try to emphasize that they're truthful and
they're not, right, the opposite of that is
someone who is honest, so so far, someone
who is righteous, adheres to the truth, someone
who has integrity and stands for their principles,
and someone who is honest, right, or truthful.
مَهِين, someone who has no, المَهِين is someone
who is humiliated, someone who just does not
have any self-worth, they don't have self
-value, they don't feel that they're worth anything,
so they feel inferior to other people, that's
مَهِين, so the opposite of that is someone
who is humble, it's humble, humbleness and confidence
is the opposite of humility, you don't want
the toxic opposite of being inferior, which is
being arrogant, you want the non-toxic one,
which is confidence, where you're confident in who
you are, you're confident in your choices, you're
confident in yourself, you feel a certain degree
of strength in where you come from and
who you are, and that's very healthy, and
children should have that, now it should not
turn into racism and supremacy because that's obviously
another toxic مصيب that the Qur'an talks
about, but المَهِين is not what we want
either, humbleness is not to be someone who
is a doormat and people walk back and
forth on you, no, humbleness is someone who
understands the nature of equality that actually exists
in this world, that we are all exactly
absolutely equal, and there's no way for us
to differentiate from one another, or for us
to point out that one of us is
better than the other until يوم القيامة when
Allah سبحانه وتعالى gives out the degrees, only
then, and even then you couldn't do it
yourself, that's something that God Himself will offer
but you don't get to actually strut around
bragging because it's not yours to begin with,
it's something that's offered to you by God
Himself, so the opposite of مَهِين, someone who
has confidence, someone who has an identity, we'll
talk about identity but someone who has that
strength in their character, حَمَّازٍ مَشَّاءٍ بِنَمِيمٍ, and
I put these together as someone who is
socially, who is socially evil, or socially inappropriate,
or socially sinful, الحمَّاز is someone who is
backbiting, and مَشَّاءٍ بِنَمِيمٍ is someone who is
gossiping and moving, he said this, she said
that, did you hear what this person said
about yourself, these horrible, horrible social behaviors, the
opposite of that is someone who is socially
appropriate, and someone who actually unites and does
not, what do these things do, I always
look at them from their outcomes, what does
حَمَّازٍ مَشَّاءٍ بِنَمِيمٍ do, it divides communities, it
divides groups, it weakens the unity of a
population, a population that is engaging in gossip,
and backstabbing, and مَشَّاءٍ بِنَمِيمٍ and غِيبَةٍ is
a community that is going to fail, the
opposite of that is the person who unites
people, unites groups and brings them together, I'm
just showing you the five, the opposites, مَنَّاعٍ
لِلْخَيْرِ, مُعْتَدٍ, أَثِيمٍ, someone who withholds خَيْر, someone
who has the ability to offer something helpful
but they don't, they can but they don't,
the opposite of that is obviously someone who
does, someone who looks for opportunities to distribute
خَيْر, they are trying hard to distribute خَيْر,
مُعْتَدٍ, someone who transgresses against others, someone who
اعتِدَى, is when you transgress and you go
and you take something or oppress someone and
you take something that's not yours or you
harm them in their lives or their wealth
or their integrity, the opposite of that is
someone who is just, someone who is compassionate
as رَحْمَةٍ, أَثِيمٍ, someone who is sinful, someone
who falls into social sin, meaning someone who
does things that the society sees to be
inferior, behaves in ways that is low, that
is a part of the low life of
community, so أَثِيم, that's what is sinful and
that's what, that's how they define sin, someone
who keeps on falling into the mistakes that
society all look at and say that's, I
need the person who cuts the red light
and parks their car in front of, and
cuts the line and is pushing and shoving
in a supermarket and doesn't hold the door,
أَثِيم, someone who is just sinful, they don't,
they just don't think about anything else and
the opposite of that is someone who is
not, someone who stays away from sin, someone
who استقوى, أُطُلٍ, الْأُطُلِ is someone who is
rude, who is disrespectful, who is heavy in
the way they treat other people, who lack
tenderness and kindness, the opposite is someone who
is tender and someone who is kind, زَنِيم
is someone who does not have a strong
identity, so they want to belong to a
group that they're not a part of, زَنِيم
هو الدَّعِي, الذي يدَّعي إلى قوم غيره, someone
who just, who tries to act like they're
from a different culture or a different tribe
or a different group, that's what a زَنِيم
is, someone who is not, who is almost
embarrassed of their lineage or embarrassed of their
background or embarrassed of where they come from,
and the opposite of that is someone who
has identity, who actually feels proud and confident
in their background.
So when you look at these, at these,
زَنِيم, descriptions, you end up with a picture,
because you told the Prophet ﷺ, don't be
these things, and زَنِيم, logically, simply speaking, then
he's being told to be the opposite of
these things, so be someone who is righteous,
be someone who has integrity and does not
compromise their principles, be someone who is truthful
and honest, be someone who has confidence, be
someone who is socially, who socially unites people,
who looks towards uniting communities, not dividing them,
be someone who gives خير, who distributes goodness
in every direction, be someone who is compassionate,
be someone who has تقوى, who stays away
from sin, who is not sinful, be someone
who is tender and kind to others, and
be someone who is proud of their lineage
and proud of their background and has a
good identity.
See, we talk about this a lot here
because we feel it.
Younger people growing up feeling that they don't
belong, and they want to belong, so they
give up and they wish they weren't Muslim,
and you don't know about these things until
you have conversations with kids, and they're comfortable
enough to tell you how they actually feel.
They're in a position of identity weakness, where
they feel that they don't, they're not proud
of who they are, they don't want people
to know where they come from, they don't
want to talk about the country that they
hail from, and they don't want to talk
about the religion that they belong to, so
they never bring it up.
So their name is Muhammad, so he's happy
to be called Mo, and if his name
is Yusuf, he's happy to be called Joe.
It's just easier that way because it doesn't
have to come up, right?
It doesn't have to actually come up because
there's some degree of embarrassment and shame of
being, and that's what we as Muslims have
to push back against that strongly.
For the hope, and the security, and safety
of the next generation, we have to make
sure that they're very, very proud and confident
in their identity and who they come from,
and subhanAllah what happened over the last year
and a bit in Palestine, it brought out
a lot of that.
People started, especially younger people in universities and
high schools, they start to come out and
wear the kufiya, for example, and talk about,
I'm from Palestine, and I'm from Syria, and
I'm from Mosul, and I'm from there, wherever
country, and they had a little bit of
pride in that, a sense of this is
something that matters, and it's important that I
talk about this, and it's nice to see
that, but it will fade away, as everything
does.
Everything fades away.
The affinity to any cause will fade away
if there's not active movement towards supporting it
and strengthening it, and keeping it alive.
So those are the ten characteristics the Prophet
a.s. was told to be, and if
you think about them, that's who Muhammad a
.s. was.
And you think about him, he was someone
who adhered to the truth at all costs.
He never compromised any of his principles.
He's someone who's always honest, always truthful.
He was someone who was very confident in
himself, and was humble, was never a doormat,
a.s. He never divided.
If anything, he was someone who was always
gathering people.
One of the most interesting characteristics about him,
a.s., he's always bringing people together.
He was a shepherd as a kid.
He learned to do this at a young
age.
To not divide, but rather to find ways
to bring people together.
He was someone who was always performing khayr.
He never transgressed and harmed a soul in
his life.
He stayed away from all actions that were
sinful.
He was always tender.
He was always someone who had a clear
identity in who he was, and no one
could take that away from him.
That's describing Muhammad a.s. But in the
way of telling you, don't be the opposites,
don't be these things, because these things suck.
And you stay away from them and you'll
be fine.
And then the verses at the end, which
we didn't have time to talk about last
week, and I'll just quickly.
So, he says here, As for, this is,
subhanAllah, in Arabic, it's hard to explain to
you.
This end here at the beginning, this one
preposition here at the beginning of the verse,
if you remove it, you would end up
with a verse with a completely different meaning
altogether.
Like, the whole ayat would all crumble in
what they mean.
Because if you go from, Now you're saying
that everything that was told not to do,
was actually a person, or that Aisam was
like that, and this is what he had,
again, linguistically it all fails to make a
sentence that makes sense.
But this end at the beginning, is actually
transitioning from a number of commands, of don't
do this, don't do this, don't do this,
don't be like that, as for the other
person, as for the person who didn't listen
to this, and performed these behaviors that I
told you not to perform, and did it
because of the following.
That's what this end is saying.
So, someone who has wealth and who has
children, the person who performed all these things,
the person who was a mukathib, who was
a hammaz, who was manna'il al-qayr,
who was zanim, all these things, they did
it, the reason that they were brave enough
to make all these mistakes and not care,
they had a lot of wealth, they had
a lot of children.
So there's two types of strength that are
defined in the Qur'an.
There's financial strength, and there's social strength.
And maal and banoon, or maal wa baneen,
are the two types of strength.
Maal is the financial, and children is the
social, because you have a lot of children,
so you have a strong tribe, and they
can all bear arms, so that you're protected.
So that's how the Qur'an kind of
looks at these things.
So an kaana tha maalin wa baneen, the
fact that this person had wealth and had
social status, idha tutla alaihi ayatuna qala asatiirul
awwaleen, when our signs were recited upon him,
and ayat here are not verses, by the
way, ayat are not verses, ayat are signs.
Remember this in the Qur'an, maybe out
of the 120 times that the word ayat
are in the Qur'an, maybe four of
them mean verses.
The rest of them are signs.
When our signs are recited upon them, what
signs are you talking about?
The ones that we discussed in Surah al
-Mulk.
These are the signs of God, by the
way.
That's how the Qur'an defines these things.
The Qur'an does not require you to
become a high intellectual or a scientist to
be able to reflect upon the signs of
God.
Now if you do become, then that's a
big plus, because the more you know, the
more you understand the intricacies of the globe
that you live on, and the life that
you experience, the more in awe you will
be of whoever put this in motion, which
is Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala.
But the basics is what the Qur'an
is asking you to look at, just the
basics.
The fact that water and sun can make
a seed grow, and bring forward a form
of life that you can later on eat.
Because we take these things for granted, right?
As human beings, one of our pitfalls in
life is that we just take things that
happen all the time, we take for granted.
If they keep on happening, then we're just
going to not care.
Because they're always happening, so we're easy.
And that's why people take their parents for
granted, that's why they take their safety for
granted, their health for granted, because it's always
there.
Every morning, wake up, you're breathing, you're eating,
you're feeling alright.
Next morning, wake up, you're breathing, you're eating,
you're feeling alright.
After a while, it doesn't matter.
Until it's taken away, and then suddenly like
that, just take me back to that.
Just anyone, take me back to that.
I don't want, whatever, what was I worried
about?
Why was I depressed most of the time?
I don't care, just give me back that.
I just want to breathe normally, I want
to be able to eat normally, and I
want to be able to sleep at night,
and nothing else.
I don't want to be scared for my
life every second, every minute, because of...
So the Qur'an asks you to look
at that which is right in front of
you, and contemplate it.
And contemplate the basics of Allah.
This person, who was mukathib, and zaneeb, and
hammaz, and masha'im, and bimanameem, and manna,
all these things, because he was wealthy, and
he had a lot of strength and power
and status, and he had control, he could
tell people what to do, and people revered
him, respected him.
When our signs were recited upon him, and
he was reminded of our signs, it's voodoo
of the early, ancient centuries.
It's all there.
Myths.
Myths of the early folk.
It's easy to dismiss.
It's important for us, by the way, as
human beings, to dismiss things.
It's important.
We have to do that.
Because we all have a bit of a
problem with our self-images.
So instead of actually listening to someone, and
figuring out what they stand for, give me
a quick blurb, and I'll find a flaw,
so I can dismiss them.
Ah, this person's that.
And you think about that, it's one of
the worst things you can do.
Like you took a human being, with all
of this person's history, and their hopes, and
their dreams, and their accomplishments, and you broke
them down to one word.
Just one word.
That person's arrogant, or he's loud.
Imagine it happening to you.
Like I think about it myself.
If they break me down and say, ah,
he's loud.
That's it?
There's nothing else about him?
There's nothing?
These 39 years I've been alive, and everything,
the people I've known, the things I've done,
the hopes, and the dreams, and the failures,
and the mistakes, and the successes, and the
helps, all of that, just to one word?
And you put me in a category, and
you close the door, and that's it?
You do it all the time to other
people.
Think about what it's done to you.
It's very hurtful.
So what he did, yeah, it's all garbage.
It's all garbage.
And he just closed the door on the
absolute truth.
On the absolute truth.
Something that would have changed his life.
Something that was offered him.
A chance at immortality after death.
Something that would offer him a life that
he couldn't dream of, and wouldn't dream of,
even with all of his wealth, and all
of his social status.
He wouldn't find.
He dismissed it with a word.
That's what arrogance does to you.
That's what arrogance does to you.
When you have wealth, and you have strength,
you start dismissing people.
Now, this, and that.
And you start just categorizing, putting them in
little boxes, compartmentalizing them.
Here's the box for all the arrogant people
that are all cocky, and annoying.
Here are the people who are this, and
here are the people.
It makes life easier.
We do that because it makes our lives
easier.
Because it's much more difficult to actually listen
to a person.
See them as human beings, and empathize with
them, and see where they're coming from.
That's much more difficult.
It takes way more energy.
It's much harder.
So we don't.
And that's what he did.
Now, some scholars will say it was Walid
al-Muqira.
The father of Khalid ibn al-Walid, may
Allah be pleased with him.
His father, Walid, was one of the supreme
leaders of not just Quraysh and Mecca, but
of Arabia itself.
And some scholars say that the person who
was meant here is him.
And he's talked about it a little bit
in the Qur'an, a couple of places.
We're going to talk about it again when
we come to Surat al-Muddathir, and I'll
share his story a little bit more in
depth when we come to that piece.
But it's someone who just didn't.
He just dismissed things.
He could afford to dismiss things.
You can never afford to dismiss things.
When you're offered the opportunity to hear something,
to listen, or to be educated, or to
be shown a way, or shown a thought.
We don't do this well as Muslims, by
the way.
I'm saying this, and I'm talking about you.
I'm not actually talking about Walid al-Muqira.
He's dead.
He's been dead for a long time.
And I don't know who exactly would identify
with him anyways.
I'm talking about us.
As Muslims, we do this all the time.
As Muslims, within Islam, within our own circles,
we do this all the time.
There's always, I know in your mind, there's
a couple of Muslims that you know, maybe
shuyukh, that you've already kind of categorized.
What's the number one description for doctors in
the Middle East?
The number one description.
If you ask fulan about a doctor, eight
times at a time, what's the first word
he'll say?
Hmar.
Immediately.
Idiot.
Donkey.
The number one description of a doctor.
This person went to school for 15 years.
And he's practiced for 25 years.
One word to describe everything.
It's easier that way.
It's easier to do that, rather than to
say, maybe the day that you went and
asked for a prescription that you shouldn't even
have taken, he didn't give it to you,
maybe you were at fault for it.
Maybe it wasn't his fault.
Maybe this was the...SubhanAllah, this is how we
are.
And this is why I think this piece
of this paragraph at the end that I
kind of jogged through last week, I want
you to think about.
You were told not to do a number
of things.
Ten characteristics, don't be like that.
Be the opposite.
Be like Muhammad alayhi salatu wasalam.
Then, this description of a specific one.
Someone who allowed their financial and social wealth
and status to let them be dismissive.
Of what?
Not of fulan, some random joe, like myself.
Who cares what they...of ayatuna.
See the word?
The signs of God himself.
The signs of the divine.
You can get that arrogant.
Or you can dismiss that.
Dismissing a person.
We do this, we're going to do this,
whether you listen to me today or you
don't.
You're going to fall into this.
We are going to do it at some
point.
May Allah forgive us all.
May Allah forgive us for these things.
But this person didn't do that.
He didn't dismiss a person.
He dismissed the signs of the divine.
That's what happens.
These small mistakes that exist on the inside,
if you don't tame them, if you don't
remove them, they turn into monsters.
Or else how did Iblis say no?
How could you?
Right?
How could Iblis say no?
Isn't it mind-boggling that Iblis would say
no?
Not really.
If you understand what arrogance is, it's not
that hard to understand it.
It can happen.
Oh for sure it can happen.
You and I could have the same problem
too if we don't listen to these characteristics.
When Allah told us, you are rooted and
you stand upon a very solid character.
Great character.
And then he explains to us what that
character is.
You don't compromise.
You're someone who is righteous.
You don't lie.
You're someone who is always out for khair.
You never transgress against people.
You have confidence.
You have identity.
You're someone who knows.
These are the things you need.
You have these characteristics.
Then you'll be alright.
You'll be able to protect yourself as life
dishes out to you what you're not looking
forward to.
We're going to start with ayah number, سَنَسِمُهُ
عَلْ خُرْطُومِهُ سَرَطِيَنَ We are going to label
him upon his nose.
يَوْمَ الْقِيَامِ He'll come, he'll be labeled at
the part of his body that is most
apparent to people.
This piece is the one that protrudes out
the most.
You stand straight, the part of you that
is most ahead is your nose.
Rarely is it anything else, honestly, unless you
have some pathological problem with your forehead or
your chin.
If you're standing straight, your nose is the
farthest.
So it's the thing that's closest to people,
farthest away from you.
The tip of your nose.
So he'll be labeled there so that people
can see.
This person of great wealth and high status
who dismissed the signs of God because he
allowed himself to pick up all the negative
characteristics in his life.
And he sold out, and he lacked all
these things.
يَوْمَ الْقِيَامِ He's going to be, he'll be
clear.
And this is talking about one person or
the example of one person, but it's there
for us to learn.
Unless we learn these things, unless we change
our ways then, the Prophet ﷺ tells us,
أَلَا إِنَّ لِكُلِّ غَادِرٍ لِوَاءً يَوْمَ الْقِيَامَةِ تَقُولُ
هَذِهِ غَدْرَةُ فُلَانٍ Every betrayer, every traitor يَوْمَ
الْقِيَامَةِ will come with a لِوَاء.
يَوْمَ الْقِيَامَةِ is a banner that follows him
around saying this is the betrayal of فُلَان.
It describes, you run away and it follows
you.
You run away from, because you don't want
people to know, and the banner just follows
you around so that everyone can see the
act of betrayal.
May Allah ﷻ protect us.
Alright, so we're going to recite from ayah
number 17.
I'm going to read until the end of
the story.
So ayah number 33 or 34.
Scholars differ on where the paragraph actually ends.
So I tend to finish it at 34,
but many scholars will end it at 33.
And this is the first, keep this in
mind, this is the first story that he
would hear ﷺ in the Qur'an.
The Qur'an, 33% of the Qur
'an, roughly speaking, is stories.
33%, a third of the Qur'an is
stories, roughly speaking.
So you can imagine that the first story
that he would hear ﷺ and the first
story that the sahaba would hear would have
a certain degree of importance, right?
So because Surah Al-Qalam is such an
early surah, and this juz'ah in general
is an early juz'ah, we get to
kind of see some of the early, early
verses that they heard that talk about certain
things that no one had, they had never
heard this before.
This concept or this idea had never been
presented before, so they got to hear it
first time.
So this is the first story that we
have that the Prophet ﷺ had ever heard,
or the sahaba.
So it's a very meaningful story, and you
see that this story has like, it's a
very layered story by the way, it's a
beautiful one, simple, it really is simple, but
then the verses and the way it's told,
there's a bunch of things I want to
talk about.
It's a very ethical story, obviously, playing into
the theme of Surah Al-Qalam, which is
what you need, ethically speaking.
Surah Al-Mulk is what you needed from
a knowledge perspective, what you need to know.
Surah Al-Qalam, what you need to carry
in terms of ethics and characteristics and principles.
So this story is a very principle driven
story.
So let's recite it insha'Allah ta'ala,
and then I'll try to go through some
of the meanings.
I don't think we'll finish it this week,
but I'll give you enough to think about
until we see you next week.
Surah
Al-Qalam, Surah Al-Qalam, Surah Al-Qalam,
Surah Al-Qalam, Surah Al-Qalam, Surah Al
-Qalam, Surah
Al-Qalam, Surah Al-Qalam, Surah Al-Qalam,
Surah Al-Qalam, Surah
Al-Qalam, Surah
Al-Qalam, Surah Al-Qalam, Surah Al-Qalam,
Surah Al-Qalam, Surah Al-Qalam, Surah Al
-Qalam, Surah Al-Qalam, Surah Al-Qalam, Surah
Al-Qalam, Surah Al-Qalam, Surah Al-Qalam,
Surah Al-Qalam, Surah Al-Qalam, Surah Al
-Qalam, Surah Al-Qalam, Surah Al-Qalam, Surah
Al-Qalam, Surah Al-Qalam, Surah Al-Qalam,
Surah Al-Qalam, Surah Al-Qalam, Surah Al
-Qalam, Surah Al-Qalam, Surah Al-Qalam, Surah
Al-Qalam, Surah Al-Qalam, Surah Al-Qalam,
Surah Al-Qalam, Surah
Al-Qalam, Surah Al-Qalam, Surah Al-Qalam,
Surah Al-Qalam, Surah Al-Qalam, Surah Al
-Qalam, Surah Al-Qalam, Surah Al-Qalam, Surah
Al-Qalam, Surah Al-Qalam, Which
is technically speaking, what zakat is, right?
وَآتُ حَقَّهُ يَوْمَ حَصَادِهِ So our zakat when
it comes to if you own land, or
you have crops, or you have trees, it's
not like the zakat that you pay for
your wealth, your bank account.
It's not where you wait for a year
and then you pay it.
No, when it comes to crops and to
trees, the day that you harvest, if you
put together more than 650 kilos, or 600
kilos, then you give either 10% if
you didn't pay any money into this and
the sky just watered it for you or
5% if you were irrigating yourself.
So this man, apparently, was a mu'min billah
subhanahu wa ta'ala and he knew that
zakat needed to be paid upon crops and
upon trees and the fruits on the day
of harvest, so he did it beforehand.
He had all the people come in, take
what they wanted, and then he would harvest
it and ship it out and sell it
and make his money.
He passed away.
The story is a story of legacy.
It teaches us a critical point that should
scare you.
There's a lot we're going to learn in
this story.
I'm going to point out maybe five or
six things that are important.
But the absolute, the very important aspect of
this is that when a beautiful ethic or
principle or value is established, you are at
huge fault if you remove it, if you
stop it.
If an act of beauty has been established
and upon your hands it is removed, be
very, very careful.
Be very, very careful of being the person
who stops an act of khair or removes
a beautiful value that existed in the community.
Be very careful.
This man established a value of generosity, of
empathy towards the needy and the poor.
He established a habit for them.
He did something beautiful.
But his three young boys, or his three
sons, they didn't see it that way.
They didn't feel the same way.
Because that's what you inherit.
I'm going to give you the bottom line
of the story at the beginning so that
we can read it and you can see
it at the end.
That's what you inherit.
You inherit values.
You don't inherit wealth.
Wealth doesn't matter.
The wealth that you inherit you're going to
spend in record time.
Whatever your dad left you, at some point
you're going to use, you're going to abuse,
you're going to sell, you're going to get
rid of.
It's not going to mean...
But what they left you are values.
That is what you want to hold on
to.
You want to hold on to the principles
and the ethics that they gave you.
And honestly speaking, that's what you remember.
You don't remember the things that they left
you.
Most of the time you don't necessarily...
And if you do, then you're even in
bigger trouble than I even thought.
If what you're remembering is, Oh, my dad
left me a piano or a car or
this piece of...
These things they...
It's what reputation he left you.
What did he teach you?
What were the characteristics of this person that
you're going to carry with you in your
life, you're going to build on?
That's what's meaningful.
That's what people inherit.
Which is why the Prophet, peace be upon
him, passed away and left nothing in terms
of physical wealth.
He left nothing because...
And he said it.
وَإِنَّ الْأَنبِيَاءَ وَإِنَّ الْعُلَمَاءَ وَرَثَتُ الْأَنبِيَاءَ وَإِنَّ
الْأَنبِيَاءَ لَمْ يُوَرِّثُوا دِرْهَمًا وَلَا دِنَارًا وَإِنَّمَا وَرَثُوا
الْعِلْمُ فَمَنْ أَخَذَهُ أَخَذَ بِحَضْنٍ وَافِرٍ See, the
scholars are the inheritors or the heirs of
the prophets.
Prophets did not leave behind them dirham or
wealth.
They left knowledge of these things that we're
talking about.
The knowledge of what values are, what is
right and what is wrong, what is worthy
and what is not, what is beauty and
what is ugliness.
That's what they left us.
So whoever takes that is the inheritor of
prophets.
Whoever takes that is spoiled in terms of
their inheritance.
They are spoiled in terms of what they
got.
You got a better cut.
If your siblings walked away with the majority
of the wealth and you walked away with
the characteristics that your father carried, you walked
away with a better cut.
You walked away with a better cut.
Because that's what lives on.
No one remembers what you owned a hundred
years from now.
If you have a grandchild sitting, we'll be
dead in a hundred years and one of
our grandchildren shall, if we do this right,
will be sitting in my spot talking to
people.
And if you, you think they're going to
remember what you owned?
No, they'll remember what you were.
Remember how you were, the way you spoke
and what you did and what you stood
for.
That's what's going to live on.
This father left them a legacy of karam,
of generosity.
A legacy of empathy and love towards the
people who are in need.
He left something beautiful.
They didn't see it, they just saw the
garden.
They didn't see what he actually left.
They saw the garden, the piece of land,
the farm.
We need to protect it and hold on
to it.
That's not the legacy.
The legacy is what your dad did.
It's the fact that these poor people summon
on their own at the morning of harvest,
knowing that they will be allowed in to
take what they want and they won't be
humiliated or mistreated or yelled at or shunned
as poor people are usually treated when they
come with their hands open.
They'll come in and be treated well.
The story, if you go back and read
in the books of tafsir, I'm sorry to
emphasize this piece, but this is an important
context.
The mufasirin talk about this man opening the
gates every morning when the harvest was happening,
welcoming these fukra in.
He would stand there and welcome them in.
Ahlan wa sahlan.
And he would give them the baskets, which
they were going to go use to take
what they wanted.
And when they left, he would ask them,
Did you get this?
I don't see any strawberries.
I don't see any apples.
Here, make sure you take from everything so
that you have...
That's the legacy he left.
That's it.
That's it.
They didn't see that.
They didn't see it.
They just saw the garden.
And they were actually bothered by that.
These freeloaders.
These good-for-nothing freeloaders living off social
support.
Ontario Works, good-for-nothing, making us pay
more taxes type of...
That was their feeling.
Again, same problem of the guy before.
He dismisses the signs of God.
Well off.
He could do that.
Dismiss the poor.
Categorize them all as a bunch of...
What are you doing?
Are you insane?
How could you do that?
How could you be that closed-minded to
think in that manner?
It's impossible.
That's what they did.
They didn't want this.
They didn't like it.
They felt they were being abused and taken
for granted.
Taken advantage of, sorry.
So what did they do?
إِذْ أَقْسَمُوا إِذْ أَقْسَمُوا They swore oaths with
one another.
لَيَسْرِمُنَّهَا الصَرْم الصَرْم is where you leave something
naked.
That's what صَرْم is.
We use it in slang.
صُرْمَك It's a word.
Same thing.
It's the part of you that you don't
want to be naked.
Because it's the naked part.
Meaning the part of you that if it
was exposed, you would feel naked.
There's a part of you that if you
expose it right now, even if you're covered
from top to bottom, you'd feel naked.
Because you don't want it to be.
So صَرْم is when something is left naked.
So what they said, لَيَسْرِمُنَّهَا They're going to
leave the garden as if it's naked.
Nothing's left on it.
They're going to take everything.
مُصْبِحِين Early in the morning.
Before these guys came.
لَيَسْرِمُنَّهَا مُصْبِحِين That's what they swore.
They said لَيَسْرِمُنَّهَا مُصْبِحِين وَلَا يَسْتَثْنُونَ And they
will leave nothing.
See, you can leave it naked, but leave
maybe a few.
You can put something aside for the people.
No, وَلَا يَسْتَثْنُونَ With no exceptions.
We leave nothing behind.
We leave nothing behind.
They had some goodness left in them.
They weren't going to come in the morning
and the poor people who have been accustomed
for the last 20 or 30 or 40
years or whatever and say, get out of
here.
No, they weren't going to do that.
They're going to be a bit more diplomatic
about it.
Right?
They're going to do it with a smile.
They're going to rip you off with a
smile on their faces.
They were going to come just earlier.
When do they come?
They come at 7 to pick up their
stuff.
We'll be there at 5.
We'll leave nothing.
And then they come and they'll say, well,
sorry, we were late.
It's better than sending someone back and saying
you don't get anything anymore.
They had some goodness left in them.
They felt like they didn't want to do
that.
It's going to ruin the image of their
father.
So maybe they'll just play around.
They'll go really early.
وَلَا يَسْتَثْنُونَ Leave nothing.
فَطَافَ عَلَيْهَا طَائِفٌ طائف is something that rotates.
So طواف is when you rotate.
So طافَ عَلَيْهَا طَائِفٌ A rotator of some
sort rotated upon it coming from above.
مِنْ رَبِّك What is it?
مِنْ رَبِّك From your Lord.
The Qur'an is not interested in explaining
whether there was a comet or an Isaac.
I don't know.
Who cares?
Maybe there are people who get into these
nitty-gritty stuff for no reason.
The Qur'an tells you what you need
to know.
Whatever it was, something that rotates in the
sky rotated its way عَلَيْهَا upon this piece
of land.
وَهُمْ نَائِمُونَ When they were sleeping.
They were planning to get up early.
They were planning to get up earlier than
the poor people so that they would harvest
it while the poor people were sleeping.
So Allah سُبْحَانَهُ وَ تَعَالَى when they were
sleeping طافَ عَلَيْهَا طَائِفٌ Had one of His
soldiers سُبْحَانَهُ وَ تَعَالَى one of His servants
rotate upon it.
So what happened to it?
فَأَصْبَحَتْ كَثْصَرِيمُ Now, the word that they used
was what?
What did they say what they were going
to do?
أَقْصَمُوا What?
لَيَصْرِمُنَّهَا Right?
That was the word.
So He made it كَثْصَرِيمُ He made it
truly naked.
You want to make the trees all naked?
No.
He made it كَثْصَرِيمُ Something that's actually naked.
There's nothing left on it.
Till this day, Google the place in Yemen
and look at the images.
It's a piece of land that nothing has
grown on since.
Nothing has grown on since.
The only similarity I have to this piece
of land is the حَرَّةَان حَرَّة وَاقِم المدينة
المنورة على زاكينها الصلاة والسلام is surrounded by
two pieces of land that are volcanic rock
from the east and the west.
You can't enter Medina from the east and
the west.
You have to enter either from the north
or the south because till this day this
volcanic rock you can't build a highway on.
You can't do anything on it.
There's no army that can march on it.
Nothing.
You may be above but you can't move
on it at all.
My father had a friend in Medina who
would take me out sometimes and show me
some of these.
It's all black rock and you would take
a penny or a piece of it and
drop it and wait for like six seconds
before it hits something down there.
It's insane how deep some of the cracks
between the rocks actually go down and it
could easily engulf a young child.
It could easily slide in there and never
be found again.
فَأَصْبَحَتْ كَالصَّرِيمِ That thought of that rotator that
Allah sent and it hit it made it
absolutely naked.
You wanted to make it naked?
Well here it is.
كَالصَّرِيمِ فَتَنَادَوْا النِّدَا is when someone is calling.
فَتَنَادَوْا meaning they called upon each other.
This is saying that it wasn't like one
of them.
Usually in these stories there's always only one
person who's really...
No, no.
They were all at the same level of
wanting to do this.
So they all got up early and they
were all calling on each other because they're
all awake.
Ready?
I'm ready.
Are you ready?
فَتَنَادَوْا مُصْبِحِينَ Nice and early in the morning.
What did they say?
أَنِيَغْدُو عَلَىٰ حَرْثِكُمْ الْغُدُو is when you go...
جزاك الله خير When you go early, early,
early in the morning.
الْغُدُو وَالْعَشِي is when you come back at
night or in the evening.
اَنِيَغْدُو Go in the morning.
عَلَىٰ حَرْثِكُمْ Upon your harvest.
اِن كُنْتُمْ صَارِمِينَ If you are still willing
of the intention of taking everything as we
had agreed.
So this verse is kind of explaining that
they didn't go home that night, sleep and
say, Ah, this is...
That was a bad...
We shouldn't have done...
No, no.
The Quran is showing us that their intention
was true.
Their intention of leaving nothing was clear.
Many times you'll make a bad intention in
a moment of anger.
Like someone will do something to you and
get really upset.
So you'll make this bad intention but then
a moment later you'll cool down and say,
No, astaghfirullah, I shouldn't have said that.
I'm not going to do that.
I'm going to do it differently.
May Allah forgive me.
But no, these guys, they swore that they
were going to do this.
They slept at night, woke up in the
morning telling each other, Ah, صَارِمِينَ We're going
to get this done.
Yes, we're going to get this done.
They were still...
Allah knew that.
So that's why what happened, happened.
إِن كُنْتُمْ صَارِمِينَ فَانطَلَقُوا So they...
انطلاق is when you departure.
When you depart, sorry.
So they departed.
وَهُمْ يَتَخَافَتُونَ And they're speaking.
التخافت is when you speak in a voice
that only the person who you're speaking to
can hear.
That's what تخافت means.
When you're speaking in a voice that only
the person that you're speaking...
the people you're speaking to can hear.
It's whispering.
It's whispering basically.
فَانطَلَقُوا وَهُمْ يَتَخَافَتُونَ Why?
Because they don't want to wake anyone up.
What are they saying as they are whispering
to each other?
ان This ان that you see at the
beginning of these verses is to quote them.
So اَن يَغْضُوا عَلَى حَرْثِكُمْ ان is to
put a quotation.
What did they say?
اُغْضُوا عَلَى حَرْثِكُمْ إِن كُنْتُمْ صَارِمِينَ The Qur
'an is quoting them.
It's what they said.
Establishing that this punishment was not excessive.
This is what they wanted to do.
And then they were whispering.
What did they say?
ان لَا يَدْخُلَنَّهَا الْيَوْمَ عَلَيْكُمْ مِسْكِينَ May no
needy or poor person enter your orchard today.
May no person in need enter the orchard
today.
وَغَضَوا عَلَى حَرْضٍ قَادِرِينَ This part of the
story.
This ayah is very...
الحرض We use this in slang as well.
المرأة حردت So what do we mean by
that when we say a lady حردت?
She deprived her husband of herself.
الحرض is when you deprive someone of something.
فَالْمَرَأَ حَرْضَانِ That means she is depriving her
husband from her presence.
Even in Arabic it's used like she's upset.
But really what she's doing is she's depriving
her husband from her presence in the house.
He's paying for this because it's all pain.
It's all bad.
الحرض is the ability to deprive.
وَغَضَو This is an ayah it's between parentheses.
As the story is going there's this verse
a comment from God.
Allah is telling us a story and then
here's just a comment.
وَغَضَو And that morning they went towards their
orchard.
قَادِرِين And they had the ability to deprive
people.
Almost to say I gave them some strength.
I gave them some sovereignty.
So they had the ability.
I gave them the ability.
I put that orchard in their hands.
So they had the ability to deprive others
of it.
الحرض They had the ability to hold it
back from people.
Almost to say is what you have is
not yours.
I gave it to you.
You're going to deprive people from it.
Because you can.
Because I gave it to you.
Because I put it in your hands and
I gave you the ability to control it.
You're going to deprive others of it.
That's what you're going to do.
Alright, fine.
Go ahead.
Go ahead.
مُصِي That's what this ayah says.
وَغَضَو عَلَى حَرْضٍ قَادِرِين That morning when they
went towards their orchard they indeed had the
ability to deprive everyone from what was inside
of it.
Because Allah had given them sovereignty over it.
He had given them that sovereignty.
They were able to control it.
And their choice, their decision when they had
control over it is to deprive people.
الحَرْض is to deprive people of it.
فَلَمَّا رَأَوْهَا And then they saw it.
Anyone know here what the stages of grief
are?
Do you know the stages of grief?
Denial.
Anger.
Bargaining.
Depression.
Acceptance.
So I always say that whoever came up
with them read Surah Al-Qalam and went
through these verses.
Because these poor gentlemen will go through all
five within a couple of hours.
Because they're going.
They have all their workers.
They're ready.
They're ready to go and clean up this
very lucrative orchard.
And cash in that money.
Divide it amongst themselves.
They don't have to lose anything to these
poor people.
Imagine.
I want you to think about this for
a moment.
Because I don't want just for the sake
of this story not being boring to you.
You have to imagine something to you that
is in your mind the core asset that
you own in life.
I'm talking about possessions.
What you really have.
All that you have.
The thing that if it's gone, if it's
stolen or it's removed or it's seized that
you will feel that you have nothing left.
Now it may not be a physical thing.
It may be a person or maybe a
status or a job or maybe something.
But we all have that unless you are
guided enough to realize that you shouldn't have
that.
That the only asset or the only thing
that you need to feel that way about
is your relationship with Allah.
Everything else are variables that will come and
go in this life.
They're not worthy of that response.
But for these young gentlemen as I pointed
out to you they didn't see the legacy
of their father to be what it actually
was.
The reputation he had built.
The kindness that he had distributed.
The love that he had ministered.
The generosity that he had established within his
house and within his character and his family.
They didn't see that.
They saw the orchard.
So all of their future plans of marriage
and opening homes and travel and all of
this.
So they come to it.
Now it's their land.
They've been going they've been walking this same
path every day for years and years and
years.
Now if you walk the same path every
day you can drive your car half asleep
and make it.
And people know that if you know there's
this memory this transportational memory where you can
literally walk down half asleep and you know
where you're going because you walk the same
path every day.
So these young men they know where they're
going.
It's dark at night but they know where
they're going.
So they come to the orchard that they
came to.
Walked at the same every single day for
20 years 25, 30 years they come and
look at it and there's nothing there.
There's nothing there.
So what do they say?
What's the first thing that they say?
فَلَمَّ قَالُوا إِنَّ لَضَالُونَ We made the wrong
we took the wrong turn at Albuquerque.
We didn't I didn't make the right left
or right right.
Denial.
The first one.
Denial.
They couldn't they couldn't what?
No we must have what do you mean
you must have made the wrong turn?
You didn't make the wrong turn.
This is the same turn you make every
day.
But that was the that was the degree
of horror that they felt the moment they
saw it.
Everything that they wanted in life.
Everything that they thought was important that was
valuable burnt to the ground.
So we'll stop with that inshallah ta'ala
because it's Isha and I'll continue this story.
It's a very it's a beautiful story inshallah
you'll find it beneficial.
We'll continue inshallah ta'ala next week.
سبحانك اللهم و بحمدك سبحانك اللهم و بحمدك
لا إله إلا أنت أستغفرك و أتوب إليك
و صلى الله عليه و سلم و أحمده
و سلم سبحانك اللهم و بحمدك أشهد أن
لا إله إلا أنت أستغفرك و أتوب إليك