Adnan Rajeh – Sunday Tafseer- 68 Part 4 Surat Al-Qalam
AI: Summary ©
The transcript discusses the importance of avoiding negative emotions and embracing the natural value of one's relationship with God for addiction counseling. The segment also touches on the legacy of generosity and the importance of honoring others. The segment ends with a discussion of misunderstandings of people and their actions during a crisis, and the importance of avoiding anger and blending it into acceptance.
AI: Summary ©
So last week, so what we did last
week is we recited the story of Ashab
al-jannah that exists within Surah al-Qalam,
and I didn't obviously conclude telling you the
full story So that's what I'll do inshallah
today, and if we have time at the
end I will continue reading into the next,
into the third Sorry, into the fourth paragraph
of Surah al-Qalam because if we kind
of, I break down these smaller Surahs into
paragraphs just for purposes of ease so you
can understand what he's talking about.
The first paragraph was just the initiation or
the acknowledgement of the Prophet's character and ethics,
and the second paragraph was the explanation of
what those ethics were by talking about their
opposites Which is what we did last week,
the week before, and then the third paragraph
is the first story That is on record
that the Prophet received and the Sahaba heard,
and it's an ethical story.
He's talking about Ashab al-jannah And this
story continues to be a story for me
that every time I read I walk away
with something that I did not have the
first time I read it, like it's one
of those stories where it Just keeps on
getting more and more interesting, as simple as
it may be It just has a lot
of, the way that it's told, it's the
beauty of the language that is used to
tell the story Every once in a while
I read it, I'm like ah, he used
that word, or he said it that way,
subhanAllah Saying it that way just brings forward
a meaning that I had not thought of
before Let's do a quick recap A wealthy
and generous gentleman passed away He owned a
large orchard, a large garden, with a lot
of trees in it, different fruits and different
crops And this man had a beautiful habit
of allowing poor or needy Individuals to come
in the morning of harvest to take whatever
they wanted, to fill their baskets and to
take home whatever they wanted Before they harvested
the crops and picked all of the fruit
off the trees and went and sold them
And he did very, very well, and he
did this for many, many years He had
three sons, and unfortunately they didn't share their
father's Outlook in terms of this behavior, so
once he passed away His children didn't want
to continue this, they wanted to do something
different They felt that their father was being
abused, or was being taken advantage of And
I want to talk about that for a
moment, because it wouldn't be fair for me
to move forward in this story without saying
I always believe, and the Qur'an is
very good at that, the Qur'an actually
tells us all of these things that they're
saying Not to demonize them, but to humanize
them, so that we can figure out why
they thought the way they thought and why
they did what they did You have to
see it from their perspective, so that we
don't fall into that perspective To them, their
father was being taken advantage of These poor
people, many of them probably weren't as poor
as they were letting off to be They
were being a little bit greedy, they were
coming in and they were taking more than
what they needed That makes sense, the young
person, the son, is looking at these people
come in to their father's orchard every year
They're seeing them outside of this moment, they
see how they waste their money How they
don't take care of their wealth, how they
don't work very hard And then they come
the morning of harvest, and they want to
take And they see them being greedy, taking
more than maybe what they need And they
see them as people taking advantage of their
father And taking advantage of his wealth So
they built a certain resentment towards them So
they couldn't wait for their father to get
out of the picture, so they could stop
them from doing that Is that what they
said?
There's a vengeance here, there's an issue that
no miskeen will enter today Why?
Because they're fed up with them They're fed
up with this category of people who have
been taking advantage of their father They're freeloaders,
they have no interest in helping They've probably
been offered a job at the orchard a
couple of times and didn't want to take
it because they were too lazy But they'll
totally come in for the free fruit, and
they'll take as much as they want They
don't even show adab when they take it
See, have I swayed you a little bit?
Have I swayed you a little bit?
Are you feeling a little bit more negative
about these miskeen?
See, you haven't even seen it, and you
also feel a little bit, this is not
the nicest So these guys, for 20 years,
they had to watch these miskeen These people
who are calling themselves miskeen Come in and
take advantage of their father And abuse his
kindness And take something that is theirs They
have no interest of ever actually getting out
of the status of being miskeen And working
and getting their own jobs And they're showing
a certain degree of greed that is very
unattractive And they feel that their father is
naive And he's not protecting his own wealth
And he's letting people take advantage and walk
all over him Understand?
This is their perspective This is how they
see it And I have to be honest
with you Yeah, I mean, you could probably
maybe even agree with them every once in
a while If at a certain point they
talk to you, you may be convinced They
may sway you with their argument You're like,
yeah, yeah, I know All these freeloaders They
come in the day They say, no, no,
this is your wealth Yeah It's not easy
to keep a straight mind And a straight
heart It's not easy Shaytan doesn't like it
Shaytan absolutely despises someone who is generous for
the sake of Allah Ya Akhi, Ya Ukhti
Being generous for the sake of Allah Means
that something like that doesn't bother you That's
what it means Being generous with someone who's
hardworking Forgive me That's more difficult for it
to be for the sake of Allah It's
actually more difficult If someone's working really, really
hard And you support them financially Or support
their education Or you stand by them That's
more hard to make sure that's for the
sake of Allah Because this person Makes you
feel that they deserve this help Right?
So you feel like you're taking care of
someone Who deserves to be taken care of
You're doing it because you fear That if
you were in their situation He would want
someone to do that for you Understand what
I'm saying here?
Like you easily end up in a position
where you're doing it Kind of for yourself,
not for them And you're kind of doing
it because It's nice to do something and
see it Come to fruition See it thrive
and work And it's harder to make that
Actually for the sake of Allah When someone
is a freeloader And they're disrespectful and rude
That's actually where you get to show If
you're for the sake of Allah Because they
irritate you And you're like, you know what,
get out It's not your fault It's the
fault of I'm the idiot who opened the
door To defeat someone like you So this
is where it's very clear to you Where
it's for the sake of Allah When you're
doing it with someone else You can say
it's for the sake of Allah But your
intention can get swayed You can lose the
clarity of your intention Because the person is
actually doing well They're benefiting, they're learning So
you have to be very particular You have
to be very accurate And you have to
know your nafs well To make sure it's
sincere But someone who's not A misbehaving, rude,
disrespectful Poor person Is easier in terms of
the clarity of your intention Because your nafs
comes out Guns blazing Close the door Kick
him out Never give this person again So
you're like, no, I'm not doing it for
them I'm not doing it because I want
them to be Grateful to me Or to
show gratitude to me I'm doing this because
Allah Has been generous with me And I
have to be, for his sake Generous with
his creation Regardless of what they do with
it So it's easier actually to figure out
your intention with that When people are doing
really well I hope you're getting what I'm
saying here I'm not saying that you're not
doing it for the sake of Allah When
you help someone Who does well with what
you help them with I'm just saying that
it's harder to figure out Where shaitan and
nafs come in and ruin that You have
to be very, very precise To figure out
where shaitan found his way in And now
you're just But when someone's rude No This
is clear cut Because your nafs comes out
and says, no Punch them in the face
and never help them again And that's where
you can say, no We're doing this for
the sake of Allah And it's clear, it's
clear cut So for them, that's what they
saw They saw people coming into their father's
orchard Who were belligerent And they weren't respectful
towards their father So they They were convinced
that this is not worth doing Their problem
was the value of generosity That was their
problem They didn't understand why they were doing
this If you do things And you're hoping
For recognition You're hoping for the person to
applaud you And to do really well With
what you gave them And use it well
And you know Go far with the small
help that you offered them And then recognize
you later As they give their speech They
thank you If that's what you want Then
tell people that Because that's not for the
sake of Allah I expect if you ever
help me with anything And you want something
in return, you tell me up front I
hate when someone does something for me And
I figure out later on that they were
hoping for something in return It bothers me
Like why did you do this for me
If you told me you wanted something in
return At least you respected me enough for
me to think Do I want to go
into this or not I may say yes,
and there's nothing wrong with that There's nothing
wrong with me doing a favor And expecting
a favor The problem is if you lie
and say No I'm doing it for the
sake of Allah The sake of Allah means
I never have to worry about this again
Like I don't have to think about this
later on And then worry about repaying you
Or doing something for you Because you did
this and you actually had no expectation Actually
you don't want me to do something for
you Because if I do something for you
then you'll feel like Now I got repaid,
I'm not going to get it from Allah
Are you understanding the problem?
This is a big problem This is a
problem we have as human beings And as
Muslims we have to take time and think
about it Understand it so we know what
we're doing If you're doing something for someone
And you want something in return Be very
clear about it, and there's nothing wrong by
that There's nothing wrong by doing something That's
what selling is Selling and buying is basically
that I'm going to give you this You're
going to give me money in return If
you're not going to give me money in
return I'm not giving it to you, that's
what selling is Selling is very open, is
it haram?
No, selling is how you make a living
But if you do something for someone else
And in your heart and mind You're expecting
something in return And you don't tell them,
you cheated them And it's worse if you
tell them I did this for the sake
of Allah Really?
Then why are you expecting me to do
something for you?
Who did you do it for?
Allah?
Did I expect something from him?
Why are you expecting something from me?
No, I did it for you, so what
do you mean by that?
Oh, you wanted something in return You didn't
tell me that when we began You should
have told me Because at least you gave
me the opportunity to make a choice Whether
I want to take this from you or
not You heard of the term of You
get help with strings attached So if you
have a string attached to your help Tell
the other person Tell them If there's a
string attached If you're like, well, at least
be You know, be humble about it No,
that's a string That's an attached string I'm
going to help you, but you have to
be humble about it You have to show
humility I'm going to help you, but you
have to use what I help you for
To improve your life These are all strings
attached And sometimes it's okay Like I'm not
saying it's wrong to do that I'm just
saying you have to say it But if
you say it's for the sake of Allah
That means there are no strings attached The
government will give you money And expect you
to use it in a certain way Strings
attached, very clear Good reason for it, needs
to be done I expect them to do
that way But when you give help, you
have to be very clear With your kids,
are you doing it for the sake of
Allah?
I'm not If you are, good for you,
I'm not I'm taking care of my kids,
I expect them to behave I expect them
to perform At a certain level And if
they don't, I'm going to withhold everything I
give them May their Lord be generous with
them I'm not They're going to take this,
and they're going to behave with it appropriately
I'm expecting something in return When I give
for the sake of Allah I don't care
If I ever see you again And if
I see you again Please never bring up
the fact that I helped you As I
will not Because I did this, and I'm
asking this in the In the Islamic literature
Going back in old days The story where
a man came to another man With wealth
And he said Take it, it's not for
you He said Take it, I'll take it,
give it to me It's not from you
Meaning, when he gave it to him It's
a story, but Take it, I'm not giving
you, I'm giving Allah I'm dealing with Allah
So I'm giving it to you But I'm
not really to you, I'm giving it It's
not really for you, it's for Allah The
other person has the same level I'm taking
it, but I'm not actually taking it from
you I'm taking it from Allah And this
is like a heightened level Of spiritual understanding
of things The man who owned the orchard
Did it for the sake of Allah He
didn't ask their backgrounds He didn't question Their
intentions He didn't follow up with what they
did with the wealth that they took None
of that None of it He just gave
them Had no interest in anything else The
sons who were standing there Were looking at
the people Seeing if they were Worthy of
the help Seeing if they were Worthy of
this help And they concluded Rightfully so, that
they were not Worthy of this help Rightfully
so If you are trying to judge Whether
people are worthy of your help or not
That means you're not doing it for the
sake of Allah You're doing it, you want
the people to benefit You have some other
agenda in your mind Which is fine But
when you're doing it for the sake of
Allah You're not trying to judge them Whether
they are worthy of your help or not
Who are you to judge them if they
are worthy or not To begin with Are
you worthy of Allah's help Am I worthy
of what Allah has given me so far
In my life And if I say yes
or I think yes Or for a moment
I believe that somehow That's affirmative Then I
am way more lost Than anyone Who can
ever be saved That I am way more
lost Than a person could ever be saved
in life If I think that I am
worthy of what Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala
gave me Worthy That's a big word Deserving,
entitled, those are big words Where do you
get them from, based on what Am I
able to say that what I've been given
so far I deserved it and I deserve
more to come La ilaha illa hu La
ilaha illa Allah How is that even possible
for me to think this How can anyone
think that So when Allah subhanahu wa ta
'ala gives you And he gives you with
the generosity that he gives And there's no
judgment of your worthiness And he keeps on
giving me Despite I on a daily basis
I'm sinning and disobeying him And defying him
And I'm not performing my behaviors even remotely
close When I give someone else for the
sake of Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala I
should be giving in the same way Where
I'm not judging their character I'm not seeing
if they're defying me or not I'm not
seeing if they like me or not I'm
not seeing if they're going to treat me
well or not I'm giving the wealth, which
is what the Prophet alayhi salatu wa salam
did That's how he lived his life That's
what Remember Don't be someone who withholds Why
would you withhold good, that's why I didn't
talk about it then, I just said Withholding
goodness or khair or help I didn't say
exactly why Because this is where it's going
to be understood It's going to be understood
in this story People withhold goodness They withhold
it because they feel the person in front
of them is not worthy of it You
feel that often We all do sometimes You
know what When a car stops at a
light Somewhere in the middle of the city
One of those guys With little Cardboards written
on it They walk around Asking for a
handout You're like, give it to them, they'll
use it for weed So you don't give
them You judge them You judge whether they
are worthy of your Little help Whatever small
help you're going to show them You're judging
them to see if they're worthy Of that
help or not As if you know what
their life was like As if you know
what they've been through And why they are
where they are As if you have the
ability to do that Who has the ability
to do that Do you know what this
person has been through Do you have any
idea I feel more bad for them than
I feel bad for people back home Impossible
You know why The person back home Who
stands there and asks If you did really
well, you would have gone maybe four steps
ahead This miskeen Is asking Do you understand
the potential he had in life here Do
you understand here in this country how far
you can go In terms of how much
money you can make How much you can
learn How well you can do for yourself
When you're in a position where you can't
really do well for yourself If you end
up not doing that well You couldn't have
done that well to begin with The ceiling
of how great you could have been Wasn't
that high to begin with So you're not
that far off But a person who's not
doing well here He could have done so
much better for himself I feel bad for
them Anyone in the world Would have loved
to live in a first world country How
horrible is it For you to live in
a first world country And be the hobo
standing at the light Asking for wealth For
that to be your Imagine If you're going
to spin the wheel And you're hoping that
You end up not being born In a
slum somewhere In South America or Central Asia
Or mid Africa You're hoping you're not going
to be born there You're like oh yes
I got born in a first world country
But then you end up the 1%
that's going to be Standing at the Traffic
light asking for wealth In the majority of
your existence Or addicted to a drug What
could be worse than that I'm trying to
get you to see Don't judge people They're
a mistake These three young gentlemen Now you
understand that verse That middle verse from Allah
Where he says Yeah They woke up that
morning And they had the ability to deprive
others From the wealth that they had Shame
on them for doing it Shame on them
For when they had the ability They actually
exercised it You could deprive people of your
wealth And you exercised that How could you
Based on what Why would you do something
like that How are you going to meet
Allah Are you going to say I deprived
him Why didn't I deprive you Are you
going to say I deserved it He didn't
deserve it Are you going to make that
argument I want to come and watch that
Please invite me If you want to make
that argument I want to come and watch
it I want to see you make that
argument to God No no no He didn't
deserve my wealth But no I deserved everything
you gave me I want to watch that
I want to see what happens I want
to see how easily and quickly You are
disseminated and destroyed Logically through arguments That you
just didn't take enough time to think about
And how that's going to backfire on you
In the most negative way You could never
even imagine That's why this ayah is there
وَغَدَوْا عَلَى حَرْضٍ قَادِرِينَ Yeah They had the
ability I gave them the wealth And they
could deprive people for sure Why are you
depriving them again Well they're not deserving They're
hobos Hobos are a bunch of people who
don't work And they take advantage of us
You say, you don't say That's what they're
doing You've judged them all What do you
think your dad was My dad was a
naive old man Who allowed people to walk
all over him Or your father was someone
who truly understood What it meant to do
something For the sake of Allah Someone who
understood The true meaning of generosity You give
and you don't look You don't look back
The people who met him in his life
You understand that one of the words That
were said about him This is the Arabi
After Hunayn Would go to his people And
he would say اِذْهَبُوا فَآمِنُوا بِمُحَمَّدٍ Go and
accept whatever Muhammad Is teaching He didn't fully
understand it himself He was the type of
person who didn't really Theology was not a
priority on his list Go and accept whatever
Muhammad is Why?
فَإِنَّهُ يُعْطِي عَطَاءَ مَنْ لَا يَخْشَى الْفَقْرِ He
gives Generously at a level of Someone who
has no fear of poverty It's like he
doesn't fear being poor one day He gives
as if he doesn't have any plans For
his family As if he doesn't look at
his bank account and say leave something He
just gives, he doesn't care He doesn't care
who he's giving And whether they deserve it
or not That's not his question فَإِنَّهُ يُعْطِي
عَطَاءَ مَنْ لَا يَخْشَى الْفَقْرِ You want?
Take How much do you want?
Take until you're satisfied It's not my job
to judge you Whether you're worthy or not
He gave Some of the leaders of Quraish
On the day of Hunayn In a long
story where Ansar got a little bit upset
Safwan was given Abu Sufyan was given so
much Abu Sufyan was a very rich guy
He was given مُؤَلَّفَتِ قُلُوبُهُم And I love
this little piece of the story Where he
gives him A hefty amount of wealth And
Abu Sufyan is Absolutely He's just ecstatic With
what he was given, happy So he tells
the Prophet رَسُولَ اللَّهِ أَعْطِنِي مَنْ يَحْمِلُهُ مَعِي
Give me some Send people with me to
help me carry all this So the Prophet
who was giving Who gave him all of
this Turns to him this time And sharply
tells him يا أبا سفيان أَخَذْتَهَا وَحْدَكَ فَحْمِلْهَا
وَحْدَكَ You took it yourself You carry it
yourself What he meant by that was way
more profound Than just taking it home He
was telling him, no no, you took this
Yourself, you're going to have to carry it
yourself So take all of it You're happy
with the dunya, take it But you have
to carry it yourself This gentleman, this man
who passed away Started a legacy of generosity
For his children He built a legacy of
a value Where generosity was It's rare for
true generosity To be practiced appropriately And sincerely
in the world It is rare Than you
think I'm poking at this topic with you
Because I want you to think about it
for yourself Generosity is a beautiful value It's
not very commonly done appropriately Most of the
time there's something in it Something in it
for you Some judgment going on Or something
being expected in return for it For the
sake of Allah You cleanse This generosity from
all of that From all of that That's
why you find it, we're going to read
very soon وَلَا تَمْنٌ تَسْتَكْثِرُ Don't give with
قَوْلٌ مَعْرُوفٌ وَمَغْفِرَةٌ خَيْرٌ مِّن صَدَقَةٍ يَتْبَعُهَا أَذَى
يَا أَيُّهَا الَّذِينَ آمَنُوا لَا تُبْطِلُوا صَدَقَاتِكُمْ بِالْمَنِّ
وَالْأَذَى For those who believe, don't ruin your
صَدَقَات بالمن من is where you remind someone
of it every once in a while You
don't want anything in return Nothing in return,
just remind people of it every once in
a while Hey, remember when I bailed you
out?
There's nothing I don't want, don't bail me
out I enjoy reminding you Every once in
a while of doing it It's أذى, it's
harm Ever had that before?
When someone did something for you and keeps
reminding you Here, خذ يا أخي, what if
you gave me, take it back I beg
you, take it back I don't want it
anymore Because there's no generosity in you doing
something for me and then rubbing it in
my face every chance you have There's nothing
cool about that These guys, they سبحان الله,
the beauty of the story are three young
men that failed, completely failed to recognize what
their father was actually doing.
The beauty of what their father had achieved
It wasn't the orchard and how successful it
was.
He was able to achieve a level of
sincerity within the generosity that he had established
that was almost perfect They failed to see
it They failed to see that he had
built a value that was bulletproof That he
had built a value of generosity A legacy
in his wealth that was perfect That there
was nothing in it for shaytan Nothing in
it for the nafs It was only for
Allah The first thing they wanted to do
when he died is to ruin it The
first thing they wanted to do when he
died is to ruin it and to take
it away So Allah took away their wealth
altogether He took away the wealth altogether, not
because Allah wanted them to enjoy it, but
because they ruined the one good thing that
they had Because it's not about the orchard
and the wealth that he left That's not
important.
What you inherited from your father is the
legacy of that value What you inherited from
your father are the values that he left
with you.
That's what you inherited and that's what you
have to keep.
What do the prophets leave?
The prophets don't leave dirham.
They don't leave wealth.
They leave values and legacies of knowledge That's
what they leave.
That's what you have to take.
That's what's worthy of taking Everything else is
dunya.
Dunya comes and goes.
One day you have a lot of it.
The other day you have little of it
It doesn't matter.
No one remembers what you owned.
No one's going to remember you for what
you had in your life.
They're going to remember what you were.
What type of person you were It's going
to be your character, your values is what
we're going to remember about you That's what
sticks with you I was maybe 18 or
19 running this old masjid in Syria.
And they didn't know me by my dad.
They knew me by my grandfather And all
they told me, these old men in their
80s.
I spent 11 years running imam of this
old masjid in our village, built by Shaykh
al-Qadiri who was one of the students
of Shaykh Ibrahim al-Ghanayin Great scholars of
our time, Syrian scholars Anyways, this masjid was
an old masjid.
It was very very old.
And they had built a big one and
everyone had gone to that one.
I was taking care of this one.
And who played in the old masjid is
the old men who helped build it or
were in it when they were children And
they were all of the generation of my
grandfather.
My grandfather died he was very young.
He was my age.
He was very young when he died And
he and these men, because I was his
grandson, they knew, understood that ok, he is
the grandson of our friend or our peer,
who passed away a long time ago.
Men in their 80s Oh, they're very old
Most of them don't even know how to
pray properly There was one of them who
used to pray.
He had to do three sujood every time.
Three sujood Ya Abu Nasr, it's two Nope,
he does three.
When he prays with us, he'll do two
When he prays alone, it's three every time
Ya Habib, Ya Abu Nasr, you can't have
Another, the old man He would stand at
the end of the saf and he would
turn towards the imam Like, Ya Abu Muhammad
al-Qibla Nope, he's going to stand on
the side So no matter what we did
So the only way to fix it is
to get him to stand behind the imam.
That way he'll stand.
But otherwise he's going to stand over there,
his face is towards the imam They're old
men They still had, honestly in my opinion,
better religiosity than all of us put together.
Honestly They had better religiosity in their hearts
and in their minds Even though they didn't
do the movements perfectly, there was an aspect
of their life experience and their understanding of
God and their understanding of their role that
honestly I learned from more than I can
even share with you So while I spent
11 years, they all died within 11 years.
Every year one or two of them passed
away I never talk about this because for
some reason, even though it's been so long
I can't seem to get through the talking
without getting emotional.
So probably the reason is that I was
17, 18.
What do you think I knew?
What do you think I knew?
About anything?
Idiots.
I know nothing But they put up with
me They were the grandfather figures They took
care of me.
They made sure that all the mistakes I
made they weren't rubbed in my face And
all the decisions that I made that weren't
good they embraced me.
And they embraced the kids that were in
the masjid.
And they were these old men figures who
just patted on the backs of the next
generation and allowed us to grow and allowed
us to learn allowed young 15 year olds
and 14 year olds to lead prayer in
a village that honestly had no history of
this ever before.
And they allowed it to happen and they
never complained about how long the Salah was
or how horrible the performance was.
They never bothered them I think about them
and they're gone But you take something from
me I don't even know why I'm telling
this story I completely lost my train of
thought here I have no idea why I'm
saying this The reason I'm saying this is
that they knew me just by my grandfather
and these old men every time I sat
with them on an off time, like a
time where we weren't talking about anything specifically
all they would say is just tell me
of how generous my grandfather was with them
how he would buy them this and get
them that it was almost annoying because one
of them he would tell me all of
your grandfather used to take me to all
of the families but for me he would
bring me two chickens because you know I
like chickens and one day I'm like fine,
I'm going to go home today I'm going
to go buy two chickens and bring it
home to you so you have two chickens
and I actually did, it was broken not
out of generosity, I just wanted to stop
telling me this * story of my grandfather
doing it but it dawned on me years
later that they still remembered that they still
remembered it he is gone now, he is
gone and his inheritance is taken by his
heirs and his heirs don't talk about him
and their children don't know him and his
name never comes up and he doesn't matter
to you, he's gone but the people who
still remembered lived 45 years after he passed
away to my knowledge 45 years after he
died there are still people talking about how
he was generous that is an inheritance that
is something you leave behind that's a legacy,
that's a value that value later on was
instilled was instilled indirectly in me, not to
the degree that it should have, but it
reached me meaning his legacy of being generous
somehow made it to my mind so I
had to hold myself to that standard, I'm
not even remotely close to what he was
like but now I at least have a
standard to hold myself to something to live
up to that this is the image that
I was left with I don't care about
what he left me in terms of land
and how many trees, I don't even know
I'm not even living there, I was kicked
out I'll never go back and live there,
so it's not something to hold on to,
but I still hold that with me I
carry that with me, that's how he treated
his family, that's how he treated people, he
made sure that he went out of his
way, he was very poor by the way,
he never had money he lived and died
and never had wealth in his life, but
he made sure that little he had, he
gave something to others that's an inheritance that's
what you take, they didn't see that they
didn't see that, I'm trying to drill this
point in because this story is so beautiful
they didn't see it and they got all
self-righteous, and these are people who are
not worthy, not worthy of our Jihad's generosity,
you never understood your Jihad's generosity you didn't
understand his value, you didn't understand it and
the only way, because Allah loves them because
Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala loves them he
took away from them that which they thought
was valuable, so he could get their attention
to what really was valuable that's why he
took this away, that's why he said right
literally sleeping or figuratively you know what I
mean when they were literally sleeping or maybe
figuratively sleeping, maybe they were just they're awake
but they're asleep they're not able to see
what's when you're asleep, we use this term
all the time, this person is just not
there they're asleep they need to be woken
up, they needed something to wake them up
so they would see what actually mattered in
life and what didn't matter, what you could
easily go through a lifetime and not require
ever to talk about, or ever to even
think about you missed what actually mattered they
were na'imun, so Allah subhanahu wa ta
'ala sent them a wake up call of
the mercy of Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala,
that he burnt their orchard to the ground
do you think about it that way?
did they think about it that way at
the time?
probably not let's see what they said so
they walk over to it it's the same
path they've been taking all their lives they
know how to get to their land because
they've been taking the path from their house
to their land every single day for a
very long time, you don't make a mistake
when you're doing this, they're going there they
take the right turns and then they arrive
at a piece of land that is burnt
to the ground there's no fire in it,
it's just fahm, just coal it's dead, they
look at it and they look at each
other now they know what happened they're not
idiots but they go into grief mode and
they have to go through the five stages
of grief so the first one is denial
falamma ra'oha when they saw it, qalu
they all said, all of them we are
lost we must have taken the wrong what
do you mean you're lost?
you come here every day there's the land
of your neighbour and there's the land of
land this is where your land is all
the time, what do you mean you're lost?
no it can't be, this can't be ours
we're lost, we took the wrong turn, we
made the wrong no you didn't, you didn't
this is it, but this is what happens
this is what happens don't wait in life
until you get hit by something heavy for
a wake up call because the wake up
calls are usually quite are quite unpleasant and
then you have to run through all these
stages you have to go through what are
these stages of grief by the way?
the stages of grief are just your nafs
and yourself not wanting to admit immediately what
is and what happened like you're not being
prepared and not wanting to admit it and
not wanting to accept it so it's like
you're lashing out trying to find some other
way to deal with it, so the first
thing is you just deny it, no that
didn't happen, no that's not the case and
people will go through that, will actually go
through denial sometimes for months I work in
cancer, I meet with sometimes I have to
tell, ok, see you in four weeks, take
four weeks because they haven't accepted this yet
their questions and what they're doing, they haven't
accepted the diagnosis yet, they're not ready we
can't do anything if you don't accept you
have to accept it first you have to
at least get out of denial if you're
still denying it and that there's some way
out of this or that this is just
a bad dream, I can't help you so
take four weeks, come back by then hopefully
you've come to terms with this inna raballoon
what's the second stage?
anyone know?
anger, right?
bal nahnu mahroomoon no, that's not the case
we are deprived someone has taken away what
is ours, al mahroom is someone who is
deprived of something not someone who's unlucky, someone
who's been deprived someone else deprived them so
they're blaming someone else they're angry, bal nahnu
mahroomoon we have been we have been deprived,
now they're angry but they're going to go
through all of these in these verses al
mahroom is the one who has been deprived
of something bal means no that means it's
not ladalloon they've moved on from denial, they're
not denying anymore now they've come to a
new stage nahnu mahroomoon this has always been
the case bad luck, bad things follow us
around people say that nothing ever works out
for me my life is all nahnu mahroomoon
no, it's not like that maybe you went
through a few abtilaat and a few difficulties,
but that's life don't walk around saying things
that are just being angry you're angry because
you didn't get something you wanted may Allah
protect all of us it's a difficult thing
I can't speak about this powerfully or strongly
because I'm subject to it as well we
ask Allah to not burden us with that
which we cannot carry we ask Allah to
show us ihsan and lutf and all of
his decrees because otherwise we're all subject to
this we're lost, no we're not nahnu mahroomoon
we're being deprived of everything that is good
qala awsatuhum so the one level-headed one
awsatuhum is not the middle one as in
older, youngest no, awsatuhum in Arabic wa kadhalika
ja'alnakum ummatan wasata alwasat is something that's
where there's moderation awsatuhum the one who has
the level-headed one amongst them the one
who didn't go through these stages meaning who
just acknowledged what was and accepted it qala
awsatuhum alam akul lakum law la tusabihoon did
I not tell you that we should be
performing tasbih subhanallah qalu subhana rabbina inna kunna
zalimin so they answered him immediately they said
what they should have said now they're not
done their stages yet but they said what
they knew they should have said so why
did he say tusabihoon though?
why specifically that out of everything that he
could have said because really when I think
about this my mind told me that maybe
it should be something different that he's asking
law la here means you should have done
this instead what you should have done is
the following instead of what you actually did
so law la tusabihoon to exalt Allah subhanahu
wa ta'ala why is his point why
is the point here that they should have
exalted God or performed the magnification of Allah
subhanahu wa ta'ala because they answered immediately
qalu subhana rabbina inna kunna zalimin all praise
exalted is our lord indeed we were amongst
those who were oppressive and then they go
into the third stage where they start blaming
they start actually applying blame that's what you
do you start with the denial you get
angry then you apply blame then you bargain
and then you accept they'll come to acceptance
at the end but they start blaming themselves
and then they start blaming each other but
the concept of tasbih in the middle of
it from this level headed gentleman law la
tusabihoon why did you not exalt why did
you not perform exaltation is that what was
missing and why is that what was missing
because this is an important piece of the
story remember everything I've been talking to you
the rant I went on a few moments
ago I was telling you about when you're
generous you have to be generous for the
right reason you have to not judge the
person in front of you you have to
not care what they do with what you
give them all these things right what is
the source of all of that the source
of all of that is being sincere that's
the source of it being sincere is rooted
in your exaltation of Allah and your understanding
of God meaning sincerity is what's going to
fuel your ability to be generous without judging
people for it without expecting anything in return
without choosing who you want to give and
who you don't want to give no sincerity
will fuel that ability to be generous where
does sincerity come from sincerity comes from your
understanding of the almighty how you understand God
the worse the understanding of Allah is the
less sincerity you're going to have ikhlas comes
from knowing God well actually knowing Allah I
want you to think about this are you
telling me that you realize that the king
of kings that the creator of the cosmos
and the earth the ruler of the entirety
of the universe the one who said kun
and put everything into existence the one who
will take the lives of everyone will resurrect
us will hold us accountable and will send
us into destinations that one you struggle with
following his commands there's something else that's more
worthy is that the argument that we're making
the one who of that status when he
tells us do and don't do we're like
well hold on I have another argument here
that's worthy of looking at hold on but
I'm tired or I'm not feeling it today
or I'm not so that is equal to
the command of the almighty the divine the
one who transcends time and space the one
who brought you from nothing and will return
you to nothing and will send you into
two very different destinations on the day of
judgment after he resurrects you from nothing again
that him his commands and his word is
somehow equal to you feeling a little bit
tired this morning how is that possible because
saying that is one thing and internalizing that
is something else tasbih is that tasbih is
having true exaltation of Allah meaning you truly
feel understand, accept, internalize that Allah subhanahu wa
ta'ala is the flawless that Allah subhanahu
wa ta'ala is perfection, that Allah subhanahu
wa ta'ala is al-azim, al-halim,
al-karim al-badee, al-jabbar al-qahhar,
that he is that and everything else is
not and everything else is nothing in his
presence subhanahu wa ta'ala that's what tasbih,
that's what subhana rabbi means is that nothing
is similar to you nothing comes even remotely
close to you, not in my mind, not
in my heart, that is the truth and
that is the reality and no one holds
a candle to anything regarding your status and
you are not similar to any of your
creation and nothing that I don't like in
this life am I blaming you for or
do I hold you accountable for but rather
myself, that's what tasbih is, when you have
that ta'zim of Allah subhanahu wa ta
'ala it generates sincerity and when you have
sincerity you give and you don't care what
people do with it because I'm not dealing
with you, I am dealing with the almighty
himself subhanahu wa ta'ala I gave this
wealth to Allah, here you take it, it's
for Allah and now I'm waiting for Allah
subhanahu wa ta'ala yawm al qiyamah to
reward me for it, I don't care what
you do with it I don't care whether
you're worthy of it or not, I don't
care about anything about you, if I can
help you and I do care about you,
I care and help because Allah subhanahu wa
ta'ala commanded me to do so because
he commanded me to do so I will
care and help but that's it if he
told me don't care then I won't because
who is similar in status to Allah subhanahu
wa ta'ala, are you understanding this is
what it means to be Muslim, you chose
Islam, this is what Islam is Islam is
the tasbih of Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala
if they had tasbih they would have had
the ability to give and not ask questions
and continue this value because they didn't truly
magnify Allah properly, they didn't truly have that
and because they didn't truly have that they
got caught up with the nitty gritty of
things and the details and the stuff that
don't matter and they couldn't and the middle
one, the level headed ones said I told
you we should be in a better state
of tasbih, we should be doing more tasbih
of Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala you guys
subhanarabbina innakunna zalimina indeed we have been oppressive
we have been the oppressors in this situation
and that's why this ayah is written there,
this tasbih that's missing your values come from
the understanding of God this is why that's
here by the way if you've heard my
I break down of why tawheed is so
important, I do this in different courses all
the time and I explain it, it's important
why is tawheed so important the reason tawheed
is so important the reason it's the most
important thing we have in our deen is
because it tells you that the source of
your values and ethics is one it's one
source it's not multiple, so your ethics and
values don't change with time fiqh changes with
time fiqh changes with time there's different things
when it comes to rulings rulings change what
they did back then may be different than
what we're doing today, may be different from
what they do in the future but the
values never do zina never becomes halal theft
and robbery never becomes ok murder never is
ok lying is never ok betrayal is never
ok you always have to be trustworthy, you
always have to be empathetic you always have
to be generous these things are always going
to be there these are values how do
you make sure that those values aren't ruined
you have to have tawheed you have tawheed
that means the red line that the lord
draws in the sand stays there no one
pushes it around no one pushes the line
that way a bit so that we make
more things ok no, the line stays right
there so you pick up a Muslim and
you parachute them into any place and time
and they will continue to see all of
what I just mentioned to be haram and
all what I mentioned also to be wajib
it doesn't matter where they're living it doesn't
matter where you drop a Muslim they will
continue to abstain from alcohol and drugs and
they'll continue to carry themselves appropriately with people
around them they'll continue to be honest and
trustworthy and kind and committed they'll continue to
do that because these are their values whether
you drop them somewhere in this world or
in a different reality or outside a different
planet it won't make a difference because these
are their values because their values come from
la ilaha illallah one source, one source only
so when you have that exaltation of Allah
you can have the values innaka laa laa
khuluqin azeem at the beginning of this surah
you can have the values of these values
that he talked about at the beginning you
will have them if you have tasbih if
you don't have tasbih then you won't have
them you won't have them their consistency will
get lost am I making sense to you
with all this?
I'm sorry if this is getting a little
bit too technical but the beauty of how
surah al-qalam actually works together is absolutely
mesmerizing lau laa tusabbihoon he told them be
honest, is that what you have thought he
would say?
lau laa tukrimoon why weren't you not generous?
that makes more sense, that's what they were
they were stingy that's their problem, no no
lau laa tusabbihoon where did they perform kufr
in any of this?
where did they believe that there was more
than one god in any of this?
where was their shirk in these verses?
nothing, I don't have evidence of anything why
tusabbihoon?
because that's why because the origin of all
of your ethics and values is going to
be the exaltation of Allah, their father musabbih
he had Allah's exaltation in his heart so
he gave wealth and he didn't care he
gave from his wealth, he didn't look because
he didn't see it to be his wealth
anyways it belongs to the almighty so I
give from his wealth subhanahu wa ta'ala
and then I benefit from what he left
me they didn't have that degree of tasbih
they didn't have that degree of sincerity, so
they didn't have those ethics, so they thought
it was about the money and they were
wrong they lost all of it so now
they move on so they denied we're lost
then they moved to anger they were angry
now they're going to blame so they turned
on each other it's your fault the whole
time it was you, you're the one who
kept on saying we should do this, me?
you're the one who thought of this the
first time I never said, you're the one
who talked about this and they start pointing
fingers loam is blame there's no other translation
for it loam is applying blame they're applying
blame to one another more than two parties
are doing it to each other two parties
or more are doing it to one another
you face something so they released each other
and they start applying blame start to blame
they need someone to blame they got it
right the verse before where they carried blame
themselves when they did tasbih, they got it
right good job now you got it right
exalt your lord, never do this again and
accept that it's your own but the nafs
is the nafs most people have to go
through these stages of grief so they rebounded
they went to blame again so they start
blaming each other and then they go into
the fourth stage the bargaining where you become
weak and you hope that someone they
start saying we're in such big trouble maybe
our lord will give us a better one
hopefully our lord will give us a better
one than what he took away bargaining give
us something in return it's the
human nafs they have to go through these
feelings they have to deny and get angry
and blame hope maybe we accepted blame give
us something in return doesn't work that way
they weren't given something in return they continued
the rest of their lives in the lower
middle class they were never given back the
wealth that they lost they never got it
back they had to continue in the middle
class lower middle class for the rest of
their lives but they figured it out at
the end what was the last word the
last thing they said we turn to our
lord meaning we have faith and hope in
our lord they accepted they got it at
the end took them a while but they
got there we have the hope of what
our lord has what he holds for us
that's what we're looking at they eventually came
to that conclusion that is what our lord
has that we look forward to took them
a while they had to go through those
stages but they got there now Allah comments
the last time he commented was they went
and they had the ability to deprive others
and they used it saying shame on them
implicitly here he comments again subhanahu wa ta
'ala that is those stages that they went
through that's pain, that's punishment that's punishment you
lose something that you think is important you
have to accept that to a certain degree
it was your fault and that your life,
the reality of it will never be the
same that's punishment it's hard, it's very hard
it's very very hard a proper understanding of
Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala and your relationship
with him will help you through it the
only way you can wrap your head around
when they happen when a difficulty comes your
way is a proper understanding of your relationship
with Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala this is
exaltation this is what he chose for me
I'm grateful for what he chose for me
it may be painful, it may be hard
but I accept it if you don't have
that then you go through all these stages
you deny it, you get angry you blame
others, you bargain and then you know what
you do at the end you accept it
all the same you accept it all the
same the problem is that you're going to
accept it all the same at the end
if you don't, then it's going to be
it's going to be an ongoing process of
torture and pain and punishment because the only
way the only way that you're going to
get through it is that you accept it,
that this is what it is this is
his decree that's real pain there وَلَا عَذَابُ
الْأَخِيرَةِ أَكْبَرُ and the punishment on the day
of judgment is worse for those who don't
get there those who don't finally perform their
tasbih and exalt their lord and accept his
decree then the punishment on the day of
judgment is going to be more painful, worse
than this it's way worse what does he
mean here?
do you know what he means here?
I don't think you got it yet or
else the awe in your eyes would have
been obvious when someone comes on the day
of judgment and is told you're going to
*, the same thing happens the same thing
happens they deny it, impossible and then they
get angry and then they bargain at that
point there's no way around it the same
thing happens just like these people lost their
wealth and went through all of that on
the day of judgment when someone hears that
they're going in the wrong direction, then they
go through all of those stages again, they
deny they get angry, they bargain they blame
others, they blame?
do we not have examples in the Quran
of them blaming others?
لَوْ لَأَنْتُمْ لَكُنَّ مُؤْمِنِينَ there would come people
وَقَالَذِينَ اتَّبَعُوا لَذِينَ اتَّبِعُوا لَوْ أَنَّ لَنَا كَرَّةً
فَنَتَبَرَّأَ مِنْهُمْ كَمَا تَبَرَّأُوا مِنَّا they start going
to people you're the ones who ruined us
you're the ones who told us we have
long passages in the Quran لَوْ لَأَنْتُمْ لَكُنَّ
مُؤْمِنِينَ لَوْ لَأَنْتُمْ لَكُنَّ مُؤْمِنِينَ قَالَذِينَ اتَّبَعُوا لَذِينَ
اتَّبَعُوا نَحْنُ صَدَدَنَاكُمْ عَنِ الْهُدَىٰ بَعْدَ إِذْ جَاءَكُمْ
بَلْ كُنْتُمْ مُجْرِمِينَ we're not the ones who
stopped you from listening to this you're the
criminal قَالُوا لَذِينَ اسْتَضْعِفُوا لَذِينَ اسْتَكْبُرُوا بَلْ مَكْرُوا
اللَّيْلِ وَالنَّهَارِ you were plotting day and night
to ruin us إِذْ تَأْمُرُونَنَا أَنْ نَكْفُرَ بِاللَّهِ
وَنَجْعَلَ لَهُ أَنْدَادًا as you commanded us to
follow someone aside from Allah so it's all
gonna happen you'll find all five stages of
grief in the verses of يوم القيامة all
five of them you will find their denial
where they look at it and they say
no that's not it this is not us
you'll find the anger you'll find the blame
you'll find the bargaining where they start talking
they look for someone to help there's no
one to help and then they accept finally
they accept but that is way worse that
is way worse because there's no point you
accept or you don't accept you're going تَصْبِرُوا
أَوْ لا تَصْبِرُوا سَوَاءٌ عَلَيْكُم you're perseverant, you're
patient, you're not it makes no difference, this
is it in dunya, however, if you accept
you exalt the name of your lord and
you accept the blame for yourself and you
change then there's hope there's hope, they lost
their orchard but they didn't lose the legacy
of their father they reclaimed his value the
stories that the Mufassireen say is that they
actually performed the proper repentance they performed the
proper repentance and they lived poor in middle
class for the rest of their life but
they reclaimed the legacy of the value of
their father, of their generosity and they continue
to be generous for the rest of their
days that's why the last piece the last
ayah that we recited last week in this
story is what إِنَّ لِلْمُتَّقِينَ عِنْدَ رَبِّهِمْ جَنَّاتِ
النَّعِيمِ indeed, for the pious for those who
prevent these things from happening, they think long
term they find with their lord the orchards
of pleasure and he used جَنَّاتِ النَّعِيمِ because
they're أَصْحَابِ الجَنَّةِ, they had an orchard it
was taken away but they'll be given another
one, it's not in dunya unfortunately but they'll
get it in the akhirah, they'll have جَنَّاتِ
النَّعِيمِ waiting for them if they learn to
make the right choices in their life and
that's the story of أَصْحَابِ الجَنَّةِ and it's
an ethical value driven story that teaches us
something about what we're supposed to value what
we're supposed to see important and what we
shouldn't and how we're supposed to actually generate
that through an exaltation and understanding of God
that allows us to become sincere and allows
us to be in a situation where we
truly, truly respect and truly revere the almighty
سُبْحَانَهُ وَتَعَالَمِي, Allah سُبْحَانَهُ grant us the ability
to continue to understand and I'll end with
that inshallah ta'ala, next week we will
start the the the fourth chapter of surah
al-qalam inshallah ta'ala, same timing 645,
Jazakum Allah khair سُبْحَانَهُ وَتَعَالَمِي, Allah سُبْحَانَهُ grant
us the ability to continue to understand and
I'll end with that سُبْحَانَهُ وَتَعَالَمِي, Allah سُبْحَانَهُ
grant us the ability to continue to understand
and I'll end with that