Tafsir of Surat Al-Raad #03
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Channel: Adnan Rajeh
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The transcript is a jumbled mix of characters and symbols, making it difficult to summarize. The transcript appears to be a jumbled mix of characters and symbols, making it difficult to summarize. The transcript is a long long sentence and is a jumbled mix of characters and symbols. The transcript is a long long sentence and is a jumbled mix of characters and symbols.AI Generated Transcript ©
Peace be upon you, and praise be to Allah, Lord of all the worlds.
So insha'Allah, ta'ala, good morning.
We'll continue from where we left off last week in the Tafseer of Surah Al-Raad,
and we stopped at ayah number 10, which in retrospect was not the best place to stop,
but that's where we ran out of time, so we stopped.
So at the end of this second cluster of Surahs in the Quran from Yunus to Al-Raad,
then each one of these Qusuras takes an Islamic discipline, and it focuses on an aspect within that discipline
that is undeniably critical, extremely important for the discipline to actually uphold its value.
And in Surah Al-Raad, the concept that is talked about are the idea of laws or rules,
and it's not jurisprudence rules, but rather the rules or the laws that Allah SWT uses
to govern His universe, the laws that surround us at all times,
and that exist around us in every aspect of the observable world that we're a part of,
which is why the first page was just him subhanahu wa ta'ala listing or talking about the facts of creation,
the facts of existence, going through what we see on a daily basis.
The Quran does that often, because we tend to have the habit of taking for granted
that which we see on a daily basis, that which is consistent and constant in our lives,
even though some of these constants around us are probably the most interesting phenomena,
needing or requiring our reflection and contemplation, they deserve it.
But because it's always there, it's always happening, we tend to just ignore it,
or we look at it and take it for granted, it's always there,
so there's no need for us to look at it, even though we should,
and that's what those verses were talking about.
Allah SWT took our attention to the sun and the moon and the mountains and the rivers
and all the fruits that come from the ground and the diversity of it all
and the oneness of the origin of them all.
He pointed out, there are signs within all of these things for reflection, contemplation,
and those who have intellect.
And when he made some commentary afterwards, which is what we recited a little bit last week,
he started again subhanahu wa ta'ala, he went into other laws,
Allah knows everything, he knows all that every womb, every female carries in her womb,
and he knows when the wombs expand and the fetus grows,
and he knows when it doesn't and there's a miscarriage,
and everything is given a specific precise amount of time and provision on this planet,
even if it's small, even if they don't live a fetus that undergoes miscarriage within the first couple of weeks.
Allah SWT points out that that was the time that Allah SWT had provided for it,
and that's what it was going to get.
Even things that seem to you that are useless or meaningless,
Allah SWT has,
is the omniscient regarding the unseen and the unseen, the great and the highly exalted.
It is equal to him, it's all the same to him.
Those of you who speak secretly,
and those of you who speak openly,
those of you who walk quietly at night,
and those of you who walk openly in the day,
and then we stop there.
And he continues to describe the people who behave in these different ways,
those who speak secretly, those who speak openly, those who walk at night quietly, those who walk openly in the day.
It's all the same to him, it doesn't change, it changes for me.
I only know that which you say openly.
I only know when you're doing things that I can see.
I don't know aside from that anything.
And I can try to figure out as much as I can,
and I may be able to surveil to the best of my ability,
but still there will be aspects of you that no one can know.
It's just impossible to know what every person is thinking at all times.
I know governments try, they do a pretty good job,
but they can't figure out everything.
There are things that exist inside your heart that will stay with you.
But to Allah, it is all the same.
Whether you make it apparent or you don't,
whether you say that which goes against what you actually feel or you don't,
Allah, it's all the same.
So he continues talking about the jalla jalaluh within the ayah that we're going to recite.
So we'll start with ayah number 11.
I'm going to try and make it to ayah number 15 if we're capable this morning.
I seek refuge with Allah from the accursed Satan.
In the name of Allah, the Gracious, the Merciful.
In the name of Allah, the Gracious, the Merciful.
In the name of Allah, the Gracious, the Merciful.
In the name of Allah, the Gracious, the Merciful.
So he continues, Subhanahu wa ta'ala, to talk about
minkum man asarra al-qawla wa man jahara bihi.
It's equal to him whether you say secretly, openly, with a uqat, quietly at night,
openly during the day.
That person who does all these things, what they have are muaqibat.
Muaqib, I've never heard the word muaqib muamalat.
It's a famous phrase for someone who takes on cases within governmental departments.
Muaqib is someone who takes on cases within governmental departments.
Muaqib is someone who follows up with things.
Muaqibat are those who follow up on each other.
They're in succession.
It's a description to something that is not talked about here.
So what is deleted or what is implied is the word mulaika.
So, mulaika tun muaqibat.
So, every person, regardless of where they are, they are a mulaika.
They are angels of Allah, Subhanahu wa ta'ala.
Or in succession, one after the other, following up with whatever it is that you're doing.
Mimbayni adayhi in front of him or in his future as he moves along.
Wa min khalfihi, whatever happened before or behind him.
Meaning regardless of whether you're moving forward or backwards,
whether we're talking about what happened in the past or what's happening in the future,
they are mulaika muaqibat.
They are angels of Allah, Subhanahu wa ta'ala.
Who is in succession will continue to follow up with whatever it is that you're doing.
Muaqibat min bayni adayhi wa min khalfihi.
Yahbabun awmin amr illa.
Awmin amr illa here is pushed towards the end of the sentence to emphasize it.
But linguistically, it should be up at the beginning.
Muaqibat min amr illa.
That's how the meaning is.
Mimbayni adayhi wa min khalfihi.
Yahbabun awmin amr illa.
But Allah, Subhanahu wa ta'ala, put it at the end to emphasize it.
Yahbabun awmin means they observe him.
So hafizh is an interesting word.
There's different meanings for the word hafizh.
Inna nahinah zilna zikra, for example.
Inna lahu la hafizhun.
That's one usage of it.
Subhanahu wa ta'ala is another usage of it.
So whether it's protection to preserve something,
or whether it's to observe something,
all of these meanings are relevant when you use the word hafizh.
We also use it in terms of memorizing something.
But the common thread is preservation.
If you memorize it, then you preserved it inside you.
Protect it, then you preserved it from harm.
Observe it, then you preserved it from being forgotten,
or from going unnoticed, which is what the siyaq,
or what the context here is focusing on.
Allah, Subhanahu wa ta'ala, within these verses is focusing,
or he's pointing out his knowledge.
Allah, He knows, Subhanahu wa ta'ala,
all that which is carried within the womb of a female.
Al-Ghaybi wa shahadat al-Kabir al-Muta'ali says it again in the verse after it.
And he's pointing out that it doesn't make a difference how you behave.
It is all going to be recorded.
It's all accounted for.
Nothing goes without being recorded.
Nothing goes without being documented.
So ya'fadunahu here, these melaika that follow up one after the other.
Ya'fadunahu, they continue to observe and watch.
Nothing goes unnoticed.
Regardless of what it is that you did,
it will all be written on your book on the Day of Judgment.
So you put it back at the beginning of the sentence.
Meaning based on the creed or based on the command of Allah, Subhanahu wa ta'ala.
So these melaika, muraqibat, they are a part of Allah, Subhanahu wa ta'ala's command.
Then every living thing, their actions will be preserved.
Now, does Allah, Subhanahu wa ta'ala, need the melaika?
The answer is no, obviously it's no.
But why are they there?
Because for us, on the Day of Judgment,
to have other creations that were there as witnesses,
who actually witnessed that which we said, or that which we did,
is meaningful in terms of judgment.
It's very meaningful for us in terms of judgment.
Whether it's for good or for bad,
the human being tends not to accept judgment if there was no witnesses to it.
And that's recorded in the Quran as well a number of times,
where the human being refuses the judgment of,
will be in a state of denial of what happened,
until Allah, Subhanahu wa ta'ala, provides him with those who will bear witness,
those who are actually there.
The melaika write the books,
so that the human being can open and can read on the Day of Judgment.
Allah, Subhanahu wa ta'ala, does not require the book,
nor does he need them to write it.
But for us, it's just the process that allows us to accept the consequences.
This acceptance is underrated in terms of what it actually means, Yom al-Qiyama.
I don't think there's anyone who goes to jail in this world that does not feel he's mavloum.
If you go to any prison, everyone in prison is,
they're unjustly everyone.
Yom al-Qiyama, people are walking towards,
and they don't feel injustice.
They're upset, they're sad, but they're not claiming injustice.
They're upset, and they're very sad, and they're pleading for mercy,
but they don't feel like they're mistreated.
They don't feel they don't deserve it.
It's a very scary aspect of what happens on the Day of Judgment,
but they don't feel that this is something that,
what is this, and there's no, they feel this is beyond fair,
but they were just hoping for a pardon of some sort.
They were hoping, everyone does.
If you make, no matter how big the mistake is,
you always hope that somehow you're off the hook.
But no one really goes to jihad, and I'm feeling that,
yeah, I know I don't deserve to be here.
I should have been somewhere else.
That's Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala said.
That to me is probably the scariest piece.
The scariest piece that people walk feeling,
yeah, no, this is beyond what I deserve.
I was just hoping for something different.
Why? Because of the amount of documentation,
and how it's recorded, and the witnesses, it's all there.
So once it's open to you, when you see it, you don't feel that.
And no one goes to jannah, by the way, feeling that they deserve it either.
No one walks towards jannah feeling that,
nope, I did a good job, and this is where I should be.
No, it's all, I barely made it.
I only made it because Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala
made a bunch of things, and he subhanahu wa ta'ala
times many folds, all of my good deeds,
and that's why I made it.
I would have never made it otherwise.
That's the feeling of everyone going to jannah,
and people going to jannah, they don't feel,
nope, this is what we deserve.
I think it's worth your time to contemplate
what could happen, you omil qiyamah,
that would put people in that mindset.
I think it's a topic or it's a point that is worthy of reflection.
What could happen, you omil qiyamah,
when you're standing in front of God,
that would cause someone to go to jannah and not feel,
because no one goes objecting, no one goes yelling and screaming.
This is not fair.
No one says a word, this is what they feel.
So what happened, what exactly did they,
what occurred within that moqif,
within that situation, the circumstance,
when they stood in front of Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala,
this is why these verses are in the Qur'an.
There are those who are keeping close attention to everything.
They follow up one after the other.
From the back, wherever he is, wherever he is going,
in his path, in his future, they're always there.
Everything is being recorded, it's all being observed,
nothing is forgotten.
For fairness, for points of achieving justice,
nothing is being forgotten.
What happens when people are standing in front of Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala
and feel like, yep, this is what I deserved,
because no one really accepts punishment,
or wants to accept punishment.
They must stand in front of Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala
and be shown the reality of who Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala is,
who they were, and then what they did.
When they see that reality and they see their actions,
it makes no sense to them at all,
that they did what they did, Allah being who he is,
and them being who they are.
It made no sense, and the more they were shown what they did,
the more they felt that this makes no sense,
and it just kept on going, and after a while they felt,
this is ridiculous, what was I doing?
How could I have allowed myself to live like this,
or to think like that, or to behave in that manner,
when Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala is Allah,
and I am who I am.
It makes no sense at all.
That's what happens, Yomul Piyama,
is that reality is just pounded,
and it's just repeated time and time again,
until the human being feels, I don't know.
I don't know what I was thinking.
I don't know where my head was.
I can't understand.
Look at me, why was I doing that?
Why didn't I repent for that at least?
Why didn't I feel that that wasn't appropriate,
at least at the time, at least ask for forgiveness?
Why were my deeds so bad?
Why was I always focused?
Why did I always want more?
Offering so little.
Why did I have no reverence for Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala at all?
I didn't care what He commanded,
what He said, when He was looking at me.
It didn't matter to me.
Why didn't it matter to me?
Why was I asking Him for more, and I didn't care?
And it just keeps on happening,
and happening, and the abd feels,
that's why,
Iqra'a kitabaka,
kafaa binafsika liyawma,
alayka hasiba, read your book,
you will be the judge of yourself.
Kafaa binafsika, you won't need anyone but yourself
to judge yourself.
You're the one who's going to give judgment,
whether this book and the actions
in it are worthy of reward,
or worthy of something different.
But that's why those mala'iqa are there.
Maqqiba, mala'iqa maqqiba,
they are there to follow up,
to keep track of everything,
just so that you don't go yom al qiyamah
and missing something.
Whether it's good or bad,
like it doesn't, the taqib here,
the following up, that constant follow-up
is not just to pick up the bad stuff.
No, it's there to pick up the good stuff as well.
And then subhanahu wa ta'ala lays down Allah.
For which this surah is here?
This surah, one way or the other,
is rotating around this law.
Inna Allah la yughayiru maa biqum.
Indeed Allah does not change maa biqum.
What is with or about or regarding
a group of people?
I mean the status of people.
Hatta yughayiru until they change
maa bi anfusihim that which is about themselves.
Meaning the status of themselves,
their souls and who they are as human beings.
This ayah here,
I'm going to give you the context of it
and then we're going to look at it from a,
we're going to zoom out and look at it as a general law.
As a general law, we understand what it means, I think.
But let's just take what the context here is.
Here's what he actually uses this wording in the Quran.
He's referring to the fact that
if things are going well for you,
Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala will not make them go unwell.
You won't remove a good status from people
until they decide to change how they're behaving
from positive to negative.
Like people are doing well,
they are doing well and Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala
is putting them in a good situation.
He doesn't change that subhanahu wa ta'ala
until they change, until they change the way they are.
So it's actually the opposite.
We use it as a law when you zoom out,
we use it for the fact that if we're in a bad situation,
it's not going to get better until we get better.
And that's true.
And that is true based on the wording of this ayah.
It's 100% true.
But this ayah, when it was used,
it wasn't used that way.
It was used the opposite way.
It was a warning to Quraish.
It was a warning to the people who were doing well.
The ila fi quraishin ila fihim
riha leta *a'i wa al-slayif.
I mean, shayman quraish
the ila for being, for taking for granted
and feeling entitled with the blessings
Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala gave them.
The blessing ila fihim, they're taking for granted
the journey of the winter and the summer
as they go to Damascus and go to Yemen
and they make their wealth.
They were doing well.
So Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala is saying,
you won't change your status until you change
to the worst, which happened to them.
They decided not to do what was right.
So they lost their sovereignty.
They lost their pull.
If you think about it, Quraish, they got broken.
And they were mended again
because the Prophet, alayhi salatu wa salam,
is from Quraish and the rulers of the Muslim world
for the first maybe 700 years
were Quraishin from Bani Umayyan from Bani Abbas.
But they got broken.
The Prophet, alayhi salatu wa salam,
conquered Mecca and he removed their rule
and the people who once opposed him, alayhi salatu wa salam
didn't have the pull or the strength
or the status that they once had.
So as a story being told to them in Surah Al-Rad,
this is exactly what happened.
Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala won't change your status
and take away your wealth and take away your authority
until you change what's in your hearts
and that's what they did.
They changed for the worst, so they lost everything.
But this law, if you zoom out and take it as a generic law,
no, it works the other way as well.
It works in every way.
The law of change.
Statuses won't change until people do.
People have to change.
You have to change in order for there to be change.
For us to think that somehow the status will change
without us changing is just very, very naive
and it lacks any degree of wisdom and realism
and it's not pragmatic at all.
If any of you, those of you who are a bit older
who in life put in a lot of effort to achieve things
know that by the time you achieve what it is you set out to achieve
by the time you really achieve it and get there
a part of you almost feels like it wasn't worth it
because it took so much of your life.
It took so much of your time.
When you were younger, you would imagine the moment of achievement
as the moment that everything would just be amazing
and if you were given that achievement right back then,
at the beginning, you would be out of your mind
that you got there, that you actually have that.
But by the time you got to where you wanted to be,
the wounds of the wars that you had to go through to get there
were so heavy and you were so tired and it was so difficult that
you're like, yeah, I'm here.
It took a toll on my life to get here.
But that's the reality of existence.
It doesn't work any other way.
Anything that you get, by the way, outside of that law,
it doesn't last.
If somehow you're given an achievement,
without actually working hard for it, you will blunder it
because you don't understand the value of it
because you didn't really work hard enough for it.
If we believe that our umma, in terms of its status,
is going to change for the better,
without us changing on a sincere and profound level
in a way where it's not impressive or surprising anymore
that things work out for us,
then we don't understand Allah SWT.
Right now, for us to think that things somehow
are going to snap a finger like that,
change to the better, it's just delusional.
It's delusional thinking.
I say this and people get upset.
Every time I say it, people get upset
and I have to get a couple of messages or someone standing up
saying, Allah, ala kulli shaytan qadir,
He can change everything.
Yahya, I know.
I know that He is ala kulli shaytan qadir.
He can change things to us.
It's not like we're speaking about a God that is mute.
He explained.
He told me how things are going to change.
He took the time to explain to me how changes occur.
He talked about it.
So it's not going to happen like that.
It's not going to change suddenly without the people themselves
showing a large amount of consistent change.
Consistent change.
It's not going to happen.
That's His promise, subhanahu wa ta'ala.
That's what He promised us.
After you show a consistent change
and you stick to it for a long time
before you actually see this change of the status
it's going to be
That's how this is going to be.
It's going to be the point that after that change happens
it will be difficulty, after difficulty, after zelzala
and the man will be shook to the core
until if there was a prophet amongst us
with everyone else he would turn to Allah
and say when is your victory going to come?
Not an objection
but in just a complete loss of composure for a moment.
Just loss of composure.
When is it going to be?
I don't know.
But to imagine that somehow it's going to happen
outside of that context is just delusional.
And I think that we suffer from this disease as Muslims.
I think there's a widespread disease amongst us
of delusional thinking that imagining that
no it will all happen, it will all happen
as things are somehow it will all just turn around.
There's no actual change occurring amongst people.
And if I can just pop that bubble for you
that's not how it's going to happen.
No.
We're not going to see this in our lifetime.
We're not going to see this in our lifetime.
It's going to take another generation or two
of work, of constant work, of constant change
before you see, if you want to actually see change.
If this ummah is going to find its way back to a status
where it has dignity, where it has integrity,
where it has some degree of unity,
where it's capable of defending its vulnerable and weak,
where it's able to talk about rights that have been taken away.
Before that happens it's going to take a generation or two
of hard work before we're able to turn the ship around
and actually make a difference.
This is not the lack of belief in Allah SWT's ability.
Wherever he wants will be.
That is not debatable.
That's what we're reading here.
But this is based on his explanation.
This is based on his explanation of how the world works.
These are his laws.
Everything goes according to his laws.
You can't go against his laws,
and expect things to work out anyways.
That's just not how it happens.
The Prophet A.S. did not achieve that stability.
If you think about it, after three years of Mecca,
that's where most people would have felt,
alright, be persevered, look at the number of people who have been killed,
look at those who were standing on ground.
No, it was a 23 year court of just ongoing persecution
and oppression and forced out of the country in war,
after war, after war, after war, after war.
Failures in the midst of all of it and problems.
His story, A.S. was not a graph that looked like this.
No.
This wasn't what it was.
At the end there was an achievement.
But to get there, a lot had to happen.
A lot had to happen.
And as a group, we have not, I don't think we're there yet.
I don't think we're on that path yet.
I think we're still quite held back on many fronts and for many reasons.
This is not lack of acceptance of Allah Subhanahu wa ta'ala's decree.
No, no, no, that's the opposite.
I'm trying to get you to respect his decree, Subhanahu wa ta'ala.
Respect the sunnah that he put on this planet and put in this world
so that we may make the choices that will allow the change to occur.
He promised it, but he promised that in order for that to happen,
we would have to happen.
In order for change to occur, change would have to occur.
Things won't change if there's no change.
Things will stay exactly the same for as long as we are exactly the same.
It doesn't mean you stop making dua.
It doesn't mean that you stop working hard.
It just means that you have to understand the degree of work that has to go into this.
If it was easy, then what's the point of this whole story?
If all we had to do was just start praying a little bit more
or make dua a little bit louder, a bit more loud,
and things would all just turn around within,
then where's the story here?
It's like you're giving a medical degree to an 18-year-old who just applied to medical school.
No, you have to go through the four years of medical school,
and then you have to be pounded in residency for three or four years.
Then you have to do two years or three of fellowship,
and then by the time they hire you, you don't even want to work anymore.
By the time you're hired, you're tired of life and you're tired of doing it all.
And what seemed as the most amazing accomplishment of your life
is now something that is vomit-inducing and you're tired of all of it.
And it goes for every aspect of life.
It's how everything in life happens.
When you're younger, you imagine having a family and children.
By the time you have a family and children, you have put in so much thought.
There's nothing left of you to begin with.
There's a proverb in Arabic,
No generation will become prominent and capable
until a generation before it is completely used.
Until the generation that came before them are completely...
There's nothing left of them.
They have put in everything, they're just skeletons.
They're done.
Nothing comes easily.
Nothing comes just by...
These are his laws.
These are the laws.
To imagine that things will happen outside of his laws, subhanahu wa ta'ala,
it can.
It can.
But for you to bank on that is incorrect.
For you to bank on something happening outside of his laws
means you don't understand what you're supposed to be doing here.
That's not how you plan things.
You don't plan and you put in the plan and in order for this all to work,
we will need a very large miracle to happen at some point in the midst of it.
So that's how we're going to move on.
That's insane.
That's insane.
No one puts a plan for a company by saying,
here are the steps and we will cry in the middle of these steps.
An amazing law breaking phenomena,
a miracle that will just change everything because everything we're doing is wrong.
But no one...
If you have someone planning that,
when you get rid of that CEO and you get someone else to come in
and actually make steps,
that makes sense to get you to allow the outcome to actually be achieved.
You can't count for a miracle in the midst of your planning.
It's ludicrous.
That's basically what we're doing.
We're coming up with a plan and we're counting on a huge miracle to occur.
Allahumma s.a.w.
That's how we want things to happen.
Yeah, that's what we think.
Because Allah is Allah.
Okay, but did you read his book at all?
I know who Allah is, but just by chance.
Did you read what he said?
He didn't...
He told you don't count on anything happening outside of...
Allahumma s.a.w.
He's capable.
He's capable.
The next time they raid the Kaaba, they'll take it down.
They did.
The Kaaba was knocked down after the Allahumma s.a.w.
a number of times.
A number of times it was knocked down by Muslims.
Al-Hajjaj, Qasaf, Al-Kaaba, Al-Manjaniq.
Al-Hajjaj put a siege around Mecca
and with the catapults,
there were two large rocks and boulders upon the Kaaba,
breaking half of it.
While it happened within the first...
the grave was still moist.
The Muslims did this to themselves,
is what we did.
Learning our history is very important
because there are very bright moments
and there are very dark ones as well.
In order for all of us as a group,
as a nation to grow,
we have to look at that which worked
and that which completely didn't.
And then we have to take lessons
from what worked and from what didn't.
Instead of taking a one-color brush
over all of history,
because we have two groups who do this,
those who, one big stroke of nice and bright history,
everything is just amazing,
or those who do the opposite.
And our nation, the Muslims right now,
if you look at them as a large group,
they're divided into two groups of people
who look at it differently.
When it's just human history, there's good and there's bad.
When people did well,
Allah swt did well for them.
And when they didn't, they didn't.
I advise everyone at some point
to study the historical era of the Mongols
entering the Muslim world.
Because if you think this is bad,
then you haven't read the historic records of that era.
That's all.
You just haven't opened,
in the beginning, when Nihayel ibn Kathir,
or Tariq al-Kabir ibn Nathir al-Jazari,
you just haven't opened up those books to read
their account of what occurred
when Jankiz Khan decided to enter Baghdad
and kept on going in for the years that this happened.
You didn't read.
Things were probably worse.
The number of people that were slaughtered
and the number of cities that were left completely empty,
with no one left in it at all.
It happened all throughout the Muslim world for many years.
It took decades before people were able to get rid of them.
They ended up accepting Islam
becoming a part of our ummah, eventually.
Eventually, that's what happened.
But not at the beginning.
Not at the beginning.
The change requires sometimes extreme events for it to happen.
That doesn't mean it has to happen to us that way.
No, I'm just saying that in order for things to change
for a status of an ummah,
extreme events occurred that would provoke
a certain degree of change in people's minds
and their hearts in order for things to be turned around again.
It happened many times historically for us.
But that's what this law is, in the law.
This is a very important law.
This is why I actually chose this surah.
I think this law is talked about a lot.
It's not really understood.
It's not really practiced.
You want to see change for your ummah,
you have to fundamentally change.
There has to be a radical change in you and in me.
I mean radical change, not violence.
An actual change in our mentalities,
in our attitudes, in our perspectives,
in the way we behave,
in what we build our lives upon
and what we want our lives to achieve
and how we see that life all together.
That has to change.
It has to change in a widespread manner.
I mean, it's not just...
You have to do your part.
And if you change on a personal level,
Alhamdulillah, at least you are pushing,
you're holding the wheel,
you're holding it as much as possible,
but you need a large number of people to do the same
in order to move things in the opposite direction again.
And without that,
then no.
No, no, no.
That's why...
And if Allah SWT wants difficulty
with a certain group of people,
nothing can send back that difficulty.
And none of them, no one,
will find aside from Allah SWT a supporter.
Wal-Wali, someone who stands by you,
someone who stands by you supports you.
You will not find a supporter outside of Allah SWT.
If he decides that difficulty,
is what he wants to come your way.
So if you don't want difficulty with coming your way,
then you have...
Then something has to change.
This ayah comes in the midst of all of these laws,
all of these facts of existence.
In the midst of them, he puts that law,
because as if he's saying,
all of these facts that you are accepting around it,
this is just as much as a fact as everything else.
Everything that surrounds it
are facts that we just accept of Allah SWT's decree
and Allah's creation.
If you accept all these facts,
this law in the midst of them,
just inserted right in the middle,
is just as much as a fact as everything else.
So if you accept those facts, accept this one as well.
And if you do accept this fact,
then it changes the way you think,
it changes the way you behave.
You decide, okay, this won't happen easily.
It's not cheap.
I have to actually make some sacrifices.
Okay.
Yes, recite ayah number 12.
Okay.
Okay.
Okay.
Okay.
So he says,
Here's the one who shows you
a brightening.
There's an aspect of fear in it.
And there's an aspect of hope and desire in it.
It's something scary,
but at the same time,
it brings you the hopes of rain.
So it's also desirable
because it brings rain.
It brings khayr.
I mean, the sound of thunder
is only that creation
praising Allah SWT in its own way.
That everything we imman shaytan
ila yusabihu bi hamdihi
wa laak illa taffahuna tasbihu
and everything.
There's nothing on this earth.
There's nothing that's created,
except it praises Allah SWT
and exalts Allah SWT through his praise.
You just don't understand how they all do it.
They all do it differently.
They don't all say,
That's the praising of the clouds.
That's how the clouds praise Allah SWT.
That is through the sound of thunder.
Yes, it's a geographical.
And physical phenomenon
that can be clearly described.
But that doesn't mean
that the speech of Allah SWT
is the functioning of everything,
the way they're supposed to function.
That's what the speech actually means
in these verses.
So he's the one who shows you lightning.
It brings fear and it brings hope.
And he creates the heavy clouds
and the thunder.
The surah is called thunder.
It's called rad.
Because rad is evidence
of a truth that's occurring
that you may not see.
And because this surah talks about laws
and the critical law is the law of al-haqq,
which has the concept of change within it.
We're going to talk about that.
Tomorrow we'll talk about haqq
because those are the verses.
It explains it very clearly.
The reason is called thunder.
Because thunder, it's a phenomenon.
It's very scary.
It's a sound.
But it's just evidence
on something else that's happening
in the background
that you don't necessarily see.
You don't see the clouds colliding
with one another.
You don't see them preparing themselves
to actually bring down rain.
You just hear a sound
that is evidence of it.
And that's how the truth
of Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala
is we come to it.
We don't necessarily see Allah
or feel Allah
or touch Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala
or hear Allah.
The physical part is not there.
But all the occurrences within the world
are reminding us of Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala.
Al-Ra'id is an example of that.
It's a sound.
It's a sound.
It's a very strong sound.
But there's no reason to be afraid of it.
Right?
It's not...
There's nothing...
I'm not saying it's empty.
It's just evidence of something
that's occurring a bit farther away
that is going to bring you khair at some point.
And this sound, as powerful as it is,
is really not...
It's not scary.
There's nothing to be scared of.
Because it's just a sound.
Sometimes it can wake you up at night.
I've been woken up by thunder many times in my life.
Thunder is strong enough.
But you know that it's evidence of something
that's happening far away that has khair in it.
And that's why it's called Al-Ra'id.
Thunder.
Because thunder works as that.
That's how you understand the truth of Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala
through the thunders.
Through all of that,
which points towards him subhanahu wa ta'ala.
That points towards the haqq.
And the angels also exalt him in praise.
From the fearfulness of their Lord.
And he sends thunderbolts.
And they are directed towards whomever he wants.
And they go ahead.
And they argue about Allah.
They argue His existence.
And they argue His omnipotence.
They argue His omniscience.
And they argue His wisdom.
And they argue and they argue.
They argue in Allah.
And He's extremely powerful.
The word mihal comes from either a mahala
or comes from haul.
Mahal is to argue.
Or to have a strong argument.
So, they argue about Allah.
And He's the one who has the strongest argument.
Or from haul.
Haul is strength or ability.
He's very powerful.
It's unclear what the origin of this word is.
But no matter how you look at it,
the concept is still the same.
And it's acceptable for you to explain it in either way.
To him belongs the calling or the supplication of truth.
So now he starts pointing out.
The concept of truth is pointing out at the beginning of the Surah Alif Lam Mimra.
And he goes to all these laws, subhanahu wa ta'ala, all these facts.
And he comes back again.
Now he starts talking about Haqlahu.
Da'ahuatul Haqlan to him belongs the calling of the truth of righteousness.
Wa ladina yad'oona min dunihi.
And those who call others aside from him,
this is his example.
Well, end with his example.
It's a beautiful one.
They don't respond to them with anything that is worth at all.
Except like someone who spreads his hands towards water, trying to touch his own mouth.
Fah is mouth.
To reach his mouth.
He is spreading his hands towards water.
He's going after an illusion.
He's going after a mirror.
He's going after something that's not real.
This is the example he's giving subhanahu wa ta'ala.
When you call upon someone aside from Allah, subhanahu wa ta'ala,
you're going after an illusion.
Something that isn't real.
What you're asking for is the opposite direction.
Wa lillahi il-mathalul al-ala.
You're going down this way because you see a reflection.
Your mouth isn't there.
Your mouth is the opposite way.
It makes no sense.
You want to touch your mouth, you go this way.
Why are you going that way?
You're following an illusion.
You're following a lie.
You won't reach your mouth by going that way.
This is the example subhanahu wa ta'ala he gives of those who call upon anyone else aside from him.
Supplication towards him is al-haqq.
If you call upon someone else, it's like you see an illusion.
You just see a reflection.
You see a reflection.
Everything he created subhanahu wa ta'ala has a reflection of him.
Why are you going after the reflection?
Why are you speaking to the reflection of Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala?
No.
You want to actually get to where you want to go?
Turn around and speak to Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala directly.
Everything else is just a reflection.
You're not going to get what you want.
They have no ability to respond with anything.
Only as much as you can touch your mouth by extending your hands towards water.
Towards the reflection of your mouth and water.
It's a beautiful example.
And the supplication of the disbelievers is in vain.
It goes nowhere.
It's empty.
It goes nowhere because they're not speaking.
They're not directed at all.