Ahmad Saleem – Tafseer – Tajweed of Surah Fatiha #003
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AI: Transcript ©
Bismillahir Rahmanir Rahim, Bismillahir Rahmanir Rahim, Bismillahir Rahmanir
Rahim, Alhamdulillah As Salaamu Alaykum wa Rahmatullahi wa
Barakatuhu, InshaAllah we are
going to start Surat Al-Baqarah.
Surat Al-Baqarah is revealed in which era,
who knows?
Is it Makki or Madani?
How do you know?
Okay, so that's why it's Madani?
That's Surat Yusuf, excellent, that's Surat Yusuf, that's
Surat Yusuf, that's Surat Al-Baqarah.
Excellent, so it's a Madani surah, most of
the surahs that have a lot of legislation,
don't do this, don't do that, this is
how you eat, stay away from this, eat
this, walk like this, talk like this, behave
like this, sleep like this, get married in
this way, divorce in this, all of those
type of surahs generally are considered Madani surahs
because they have legislation and Madinah was the
time of legislation for Prophet ﷺ.
Now coming to Surat Al-Baqarah, Surat Al
-Baqarah has some introductions that we're going to
give today, if Allah gives us Tawfiq we'll
probably go through some of those introductions and
then if we're able to start the surah
we'll start, otherwise it is important that we
start with a basic introduction for everyone InshaAllah.
So, firstly, how many names does Surat Al
-Baqarah have?
Does anybody know any other names of Surat
Al-Baqarah?
Anybody knows any Surat Al-Baqarah different names?
Why is it called Baqarah firstly?
Regarding the cow, so there's a story of
the cow, which nation was the story about?
Musa Alayhi Salaam or Banu Isra'il, good.
The second is the surah is also called,
Prophet ﷺ said, Iqra'u Al-Zahra Wain,
read Zahra Wain, the two lights, okay?
The surah is also called Surat Al-Zahra,
Al-Zahra, Alif, Zaha, Wa, Hamd.
Why, what is Zahra?
It embodies in it illumination, your path to
guidance is illuminated and embodies in it Hidayah,
guidance and it has Azeem Muajrin, it has
a lot of reward.
The next surah is called the Sinam, Surat
Sinam Al-Qur'an, what's a Sinam?
The hump of a camel, okay?
And it's called Sinam Al-Qur'an because
it is the biggest surah of the Qur
'an, it's the most prominent in size, okay?
So it's also called Sinam Al-Qur'an
because it's the longest surah, okay?
The next is Surat Al-Fustat Al-Qur
'an, okay, Fustat Al-Qur'an, what's Fustat?
Something that covers you, shrouds you, okay?
So, Surat Fustat Al-Qur'an alludes to
that, Fustat is like a Fustan, what do
they call it?
Dress, like you know, I don't know the
woman dressed, it's like a, not a bridal
gown but it's like a very fancy evening
wear gown.
Why is that?
Because number one, it is extremely beautiful in
its eloquence, the surah.
Number two, it shrouds all of that which
is important for the ummah to understand, and
they must know.
As a matter of fact, during the time
of Imam Malik radiallahu anhu, Imam Malik rahimahullah,
during his time it was customary that whenever
somebody would finish the understanding, i.e. they
would have finished memorizing, understanding the rules of
it, of Surat Al-Baqarah, and now they
have become, they've gone through the entire Surat
Al-Baqarah, they would slaughter a cow, and
they would do the waleema, i.e. they
would call up everybody in the neighborhood and
they would do a big party, inshaAllah, after
slaughtering a cow.
So we will go to Dr. Asim, when
we finish Surat Al-Baqarah, he will arrange
for us a cow, and we'll also do
that inshaAllah, we'll follow this Imam Malik, and
many scholars that came after also, we'll also
follow Imam Malik.
This was something out of this greatness that
we have now accomplished.
The Salaf as-Saleheen, they used to say
that man haftuha feena Surat Al-Baqarah jadda
feena, whosoever memorizes Surat Al-Baqarah amongst them,
for verily he has become, i.e. they
would give him a level of a grandfather,
i.e. he would be honored in the
majlis, he would be considered like a leader
of the community.
Now like a lot of leaders today, they
can't even recite Surat Al-Fatiha, sadly we're
in a time where Surat Al-Fatiha, the
most essential surah for a Muslim, many of
the leaders in every sector of the community,
from communities to different spaces, they can't even
recite Surat Al-Fatiha.
So sad.
Today I was speaking to somebody who is
a very, he's retired and he has been
a professor for medicine for 36 years, and
I was speaking to him, having a conversation
with him, and he said, this is the
summary of my 37 years of experience in
da'wah, obviously a professor and he was
very active in da'wah.
And he said to me that, as an
Ummah, we have neglected the Qur'an, 37
years, he said I retired now, I'm 78,
but Shaykh I will tell you my summary,
we as an Ummah don't have a connection
with the Book of Allah.
It's so sad, he says, and it is
sad for us for example, on Wednesday night,
Wednesday night, the church that is up the
road, Stone Creek Church, they have 400 cars
that show up for Bible studies.
And on Wednesday night for Surat Al-Kahf,
you hardly get 40-50 people.
Why is that?
Because Qur'an is not important for us.
And when there are serious studies of the
Qur'an, we're even not more interested.
But if it's like biryani, and like a
little bit of story, then everybody wants to
come.
So may Allah give us hidayah inshaAllah, and
give us two.
So these are the different names of Surat
Al-Baqarah.
Few of the other introductions that are necessary
for us to know about Surat Al-Baqarah.
Number one, it has, according to the Mus
'haf, it's the second surah, but according to
the revelation, it is surah number 87.
According to the revelation, it was the 87th
surah that was revealed to Prophet ﷺ, and
it was revealed in Madinah, and it has
286 ayahs.
What is the ultimate maqsad?
Every surah has a maqsad.
What's a maqsad?
The purpose of why Allah ﷻ revealed the
surah.
The maqsad is i'dadul ummah, to prepare the
ummah of Muhammad ﷺ bi imaratil ard, to
establish civilization in the earth, i.e. we
become the forbearers of leading civilization in this
earth, wa qiyam bi deenillah, and it cannot
be done except on the deen of Allah
ﷻ, wa bayan aqsa min nas, and when
we are going to go and interact with
humanity outside, it gives us the category of
people that are going to deal with aqsa
min nas, they're going to be munafiqeen, they're
going to be hypocrites, they're going to be
banu Israel, they're going to be Christians, they're
going to be kuffar, so it categorizes for
us all of those categories, so as a
muslih, as somebody who is a reformist, who
wants to better the society, you must understand
these categories of people.
And in it, the essence of iman, husul
of iman, i.e. everything a person needs
to know about their iman, all of that
is mentioned in this surah.
You want to say one surah that you
need to learn for your aqeedah, surah al
-Baqarah has every ayah and every aspect of
aqeedah covered.
And last one is wa kulliyat ash-shari
'ah, and most of the ahkaam of shari
'ah for your ibadah, you will also get
it in this surah.
Majority of the ahkaam for you to live,
and that is why surah al-Baqarah is
considered one of those surahs that as a
community, we should have year-long courses where
people go through the entire surah.
Obviously, Umar radiallahu anhu, he spent how many
years?
Ten years.
And Abdullah ibn Umar spent eight years, his
son, ten years.
For him, what?
And this is not like ten years, if
we were to study the way Umar radiallahu
anhu studied surah al-Baqarah, it would probably
take us a hundred years.
It was Umar radiallahu anhu that took him
ten years.
If we went on the level of Umar
radiallahu anhu to follow every ayah to understand,
we'll be sitting here, I don't know, maybe
a hundred years before we get there.
So, slow is always better, especially when it
comes to surah al-Baqarah.
Now this surah, why is it appropriate to
come right after surah al-Fatihah, what do
you guys think?
What were the three categories of people who
were told in the surah, surah al-Fatihah?
So in surah al-Fatihah we were told,
an'amta alayhim, ghayril maghdoobi alayhim, walad dhalmeen.
Three categories.
Okay?
The surah comes right after to elaborate on
those three categories for you.
First five verses, an'amta alayhim.
The next two verses, or the next few
verses, entire detail of kuffar, munafiqeen, all of
this, yahood, nasara, all of that, is going
to come and in detail Allah Subh'anaHu
Wa Ta-A'la is going to tell
us who are these an'amta alayhim, who
are these ghayril maghdoobi alayhim, who are the
walad dhalmeen, how not to be like walad
dhalmeen, how not to be like ghayril maghdoobi
alayhim, and how to be like an'amta
alayhim.
That is what is going to come in
this surah.
Now, every surah has a link, and as
we get to the end of the surah
we'll probably understand the link of the beginning
of the surah and the ending of the
surah.
May Allah give us the tawfiq to go
through the entire surah in our lifetime bi
'idh minnahi ta'ala.
Okay?
With that, there are certain ahadith that talk
about the virtues of surah al-Baqarah.
One of them is that a house in
which surah al-Baqarah is recited, that shaytan
cannot establish their foothold in that house.
Now do you have to recite it yourself?
There is a khilaf, if you even play
it, I have found people that have benefited
by just playing surah al-Baqarah.
We generally have a habit, if we're playing
for like 10 days or 15 days, hey
Alexa, surah al-Baqarah on loop.
Okay?
Surah al-Baqarah, we're just playing and playing
and playing and playing, and usually because if
your houses are empty, they become a place
for shayateen to come and go.
Surah al-Baqarah is playing on all of
your Alexa's outside, and the Qur'an dispels
all of those shayateen and all of those
evil spirits.
The second is, Prophet ﷺ said that this
surah, karkuha hasra, anybody that disowns this surah,
disregards the value of this surah, then that
is going to be remorseful to that person
in life.
But if you hold on to it and
you try to understand it, your life is
going to be filled with barakah.
And only, Prophet ﷺ said, li-batala, i
.e. people who are like heroic and that
give courage, only the courageous people have the
ability to actually go to this entire surah.
May Allah make us do justice, insha'Allah.
We start the surah.
Again, we're going to do the fourth part,
which is the sadaq.
I will recite the part, we'll do the
tajweed together first, then we'll go to the
translation, and then we'll go to the tafseer,
insha'Allah.
A'udhu Billahi Minash Shaitanir Rajeem.
Bismillahir Rahmanir Raheem.
Bismillahir Rahmanir Raheem.
Alif Laam
Meem.
Alif Laam Meem.
There's a huna there.
Alif Laam Meem.
Alif Laam Meem.
Not the huna in terms of like an,
it's like you're pronouncing that nasal sound of
the meem connection, okay?
Not the full huna, the way we have
it.
The next point is every single faculty of
our acquisition, Allah Subh'anaHu Wa Ta-A
'la has placed a cap on it.
Okay?
Your eyes can only see thus far.
Your ears can only hear so much.
Which animal has a more stronger sense of
smell?
A dog or a deer?
Dog or a deer?
Dogs?
Dogs?
Yes.
Deer.
A deer.
A deer's sense of smell, a dog, I
mean, there's a measure that you can measure
the sense of, like, how strong.
So human beings are, like, at, like, I
think, like, we're, like, at 13,000.
I forgot the metric that is there to
smell.
Dogs are at 200,000.
Deers are at 3 million of that metric.
Deers can smell a human being that had
crossed that trail up to two days, up
to two days.
They're able to walk in the trail and
they'll jump.
Like, there was a human being that was
there.
Okay?
So every faculty of ours has a limit.
Our hearing, a polar bear can smell a
prey from two miles in the snow.
It knows that there's a seal sitting on,
you know, it's drifting on a snow, you
know, a broken snow piece and it knows
that it's there and it can head in
that direction.
Okay?
So every faculty of ours has, our hearing
has a limitation.
How do we know that?
Right?
My physics teacher had this tool.
He cranked up the sound.
So he went like, and he kept cranking
up the sound until one point, your ears
stop hearing.
That doesn't mean that there is no sound.
We had the microphone and the microphone was
picking up the sound.
You could see that the sound is there.
But literally, you're sitting there and your ears
don't hear the sound because it's outside of
the frequency range of your hearing.
After that frequency, you're not able to hear.
No, it won't because it's like Allah has
capped it.
So your eardrums won't even vibrate to that
frequency.
SubhanAllah.
Yet elephants can hear subsonic waves and
they can communicate with one another for miles
and miles apart.
And we can't even hear those sounds.
So whales, right?
But we can still hear their sounds.
So the point being, every faculty of acquisition
has a limit.
So Allah Subhanahu Wa Ta'ala starts off
the Surah Al-Baqarah and tells you that
your brain is also a faculty of acquisition
and that has a limit.
There are going to be portions in the
Qur'an you will understand and there's going
to be portions you're going to have to
submit to Allah Subhanahu Wa Ta'ala.
So it starts off by humbling you.
That this same Alif-Lam-Mim, in this
Surah you will not understand but in Alam
Tara Kaifa you will understand the meaning of
Alif-Lam-Mim.
And amongst that, there are 19 other opinions
about what this means.
And we're not going to go into the
meaning of that.
ذالك الكتاب ذات كتاب i.e. referring to
the great status of the Qur'an or
referring to Lawh Al-Mahfuz.
الكتاب ذا بك لا ريب فيه There is
no doubt in it.
Now, to address the concerns of the Orientalists
that this Qur'an has discrepancies in it
because Qur'an was not in the form
of Kitab at the time of Prophet ﷺ,
then why mention ذالك الكتاب?
The answer for that is it is referring
to the book that is in that Lawh
Al-Mahfuz and we know that it is
in a form of a book.
Referring to that.
And the Mu'ajiza of the Qur'an
is that during the life of Rasulullah ﷺ
it was not into the form of a
Kitab but at the time of Abu Bakr
it got into a Mus'haf and at
the time of Uthman seven copies were made
and we have till this day those copies.
Those copies.
ذالك الكتاب لا ريب فيه There is no
doubt in it.
This can be read multiple ways.
You can stop at لا ريب and the
meaning changes or you can stop at فيه
and the meaning changes.
So the meaning is ذالك الكتاب لا ريب
This book has no doubt.
فيه هدى للمتقين In it is guidance for
متقين.
That's one meaning.
The other meaning is ذالك الكتاب لا ريب
فيه This is a book.
There is no doubt in it.
Then what is in it?
هدى للمتقين There is guidance for the متقين.
There is guidance for the متقين.
Remember last time we talked about guidance.
Guidance is of two types.
Guidance of ilm and guidance of amal.
هداية الرشاد وهداية التوفيق That's the word we
used.
i.e. Allah can give a person guidance
of ilm.
هداية is of ilm and هداية of amal.
هداية of ilm is what?
Allah gives that to every…
a baby knows how to suckle.
A non-Muslim baby and a Muslim baby
and a Christian baby and a Hindu baby,
every baby knows how to do that.
That's knowledge.
That هداية is عام How to eat, how
to satiate your thirst, how to know when
you're in pain, how to communicate that pain.
All of that, standard.
هداية of عمل, this is special for believers.
Or sometimes Allah will guide other people that
are not believers into هداية of توفيق, i
.e. towards Islam.
And that is, wallahi this is in the
hands of Allah ﷻ.
You and I, we have very little to
do with guiding someone.
We may want to but we don't.
Okay?
هُدَلِّ الْمُتَّقِين This is guidance.
Which type of guidance over here?
The guidance of توفيق or عمل.
i.e. there is guidance in this, guidance
to do عمل but that guidance is for
متقين.
i.e. if you desire and if we
work hard to get into the ranks of
the متقين then acting upon this Qur'an
becomes a lot more easier for us.
الَّذِينَ Who are these متقين?
What is the definition of these متقين?
The first thing.
الَّذِينَ يُؤْمِنُونَ بِالْغَيِّبِ The first condition that qualifies
us to be a متقين is we must
believe in the unseen.
We must believe in the unseen.
Because our belief in the unseen, the first
element is Allah Subh'anaHu Wa Ta-A
'la.
غَيِّب He is غَيِّب, right?
He is موجود, you can see all of
His creation around you but He is غَيِّب.
Physically you can't see Him.
Okay?
So the first condition is that believers, متقين,
have a quality that they have يُؤْمِنُونَ بِالْغَيِّبِ
They have iman in the ghayb.
If Allah is there, al-Mala'ika is
there, and what are the six things we
have to believe in as part of our
iman?
Allah, wal-Mala'ikatihi, mala'ika, the angels,
wa-kutubihi, the books.
Did you see Injil being revealed?
Did you see Tawrah being revealed?
We believe in it.
Okay?
Mala'ika, did we see the angels?
We didn't, but we believe in it.
Mala'ikatihi, wa-kutubihi, wa-rusulihi, messengers.
Did we see any of the messengers?
No.
Twenty-five messengers mentioned in the Qur'an,
did we meet any of them?
No, we did not.
We believe in them.
Ghayb.
Okay?
What else?
Wa-rusulihi, wal-Qadri, khayrihi, wa-sharrihi min
Allah.
That qadr, Allah has a decree.
Our iman is good or bad, it comes
from qadr, it is a decree of Allah
Subh'anaHu Wa Ta-A'la.
And wal-Ba'athi, ba'dal mawt, and the
resurrection after the death, all of these are
ghaybiyat.
Our iman is predicated on ghaybiyat.
Where we have an issue with the next
generation or the current generation is we don't
talk enough about iman.
We don't talk about these six pillars.
We always say five pillars of Islam.
There is a prerequisite to the five pillars
of Islam which is the six pillars of
iman.
If the person doesn't have the six pillars
of iman, the five pillars of Islam are
going to be of no value to the
person.
And when parents talk about my son is
or my daughter is not following the five
pillars of Islam, the issue is in the
six pillars of iman.
What is their belief in Allah?
What is their belief in messengers?
And then especially messenger of our messenger, Prophet
ﷺ.
What is their belief about him?
Those things when they become fortified, the five
pillars and the practice becomes very easy.
Alladhina yu'minuna bilghaybi wa yuqeemuna as-salata.
And they establish prayer.
Iqamat as-salah entails multiple things.
Number one, iqamat as-salah means to establish
the prayer with all of its arqan, all
of the pillars of what is required in
the salah.
When they establish the prayer, they don't miss
out on the key movements that are necessary
for the salah to take place.
Number two, iqamat as-salah means all of
the shurut, all of the conditions that must
be met.
Your clothes are clean.
You're praying at a clean space.
You're facing qiblah.
All of those, your clothes are covering you
what they're supposed to cover.
All of that are met.
The third part of iqamat as-salah is
as Imam Ghazali says, it's the iqama of
salah in your heart, that you're present when
you're praying.
It's not like Allahu Akbar, okay, tomorrow I
have this task and I have to go
do this and have that.
You're trying to just knock off isha so
you can get to bed so that you
can be prepared for tomorrow.
And last thing, iqamat as-salah is jama
'ah, salah al-jama'ah.
All of these aqwal of the salaf exist.
Wa min ma razaqnahum yunfiqoon.
And from that which We have given rizq
to them, they spend.
And this is referring to not necessarily money.
Anything that they have, they can share with
others and others can benefit.
Anything of benefit that Allah has taught you
and you did not know, you can share
with others, is rizq.
Jameel?
Wal ladheena yu'minoona bima unzila ilayk.
And who are the muttaqeen?
They are those who yu'minoona, they believe, bima
unzila ilayka, they believe in this Qur'an.
i.e. unzila ilayka, this Qur'an that
has been revealed to you, O Prophet of
Allah, wa ma unzila min qablik.
And what was revealed before you, wa bil
-akhirateen.
And the key quality of a muttaqeen is,
wa bil-akhirateen, in the hereafter, whom they
yu'minoona, they are certain.
They have no doubt about akhira, right?
We have numerous, numerous examples of our pious
predecessors, our salaf as-salihin, where their yaqeen
in akhira was so much that they could
viscerally actually taste and smell akhira.
The yaqeen reaches that level.
And I do this example, and I tell
people, how is that possible, right?
Once I made a milkshake for my mum
and my sister.
This was before I was married.
And we made the milkshake, and after they
all drank the milkshake, right, this was the
days when I was playing varsity sports, and
before protein shakes became a thing, you would
do what, what would you do for a
protein kick in your shake?
Eggs.
Crack an egg.
Crack an egg.
Two eggs.
And you're good.
Raw eggs in your thing.
You know what I'm talking about.
Eggs was the protein thing you had.
And that was a normal thing within the
high school kids, like in the 90s, that's
what you did.
Like, bro, I'm having a banana shake with
eggs.
It's a normal thing.
It had an afro taste, but you got
used to it.
So, I gave the milkshake to my sister
and my mum, and all I said was
this statement.
I said, how amazing milkshake tastes with raw
eggs, right?
I didn't say anything about the milkshake.
I just made a random statement.
And their yaqeen reached a level, there was
no eggs in their milkshake.
But they believed that there was eggs in
their milkshake.
They started puking.
They started tasting it in their mouth, just
because they convinced themselves.
And they're like, I can taste it.
But yeah, I can taste it.
It's in the mouth.
Right?
And that's what yaqeen does.
Anybody know of any example from Sirah of
a Sahabi, where he tasted Jannah?
No.
No.
Inni la ajidoo reeha al-jannah, reeha al
-jannah waraa al-uhud.
So Rasulullah ﷺ was sitting with a Sahabi,
and a Sahabi, he said, leave me, leave
me.
I can smell Jannah behind Uhud.
He got up, he fought, he became a
shaheed.
Because he told Rasulullah, I can smell Jannah
behind Uhud, it's there, I can smell it.
Because their yaqeen reached that level, may Allah
grant us that yaqeen, right?
So wa bil-akhirati hum yuqinoon, they have
this yaqeen, Ibn Taymiyyah used to say that
an insan, you will never taste the Jannah
of Allah Subhanahu Wa Ta'ala if you
have not tasted the Jannah in this world.
Your yaqeen reaches that level and your connection
with Allah that you taste the sweetness of
that closeness to Allah in this dunya.
He used to say there is a Jannah
for believers in this world.
If you haven't tasted that Jannah, what is
he referring to?
He's referring to the closeness with Allah Subhanahu
Wa Ta'ala in your connection with Allah
that leads to the sweetness.
Dr Ghulam Murtaza Shaheed, he used to say
that, and he used to say this in
Urdu, the connection with Allah is so
tasteless that you can't even feel it and
taste this, it's impossible.
So, Ibn Taymiyyah used to say there is
a Jannah for the believers in this world,
whosoever does not taste it in this world
shall not taste the Jannah in akhirah.
What is he referring to?
That you must build that visceral connection of
yaqeen in this world, may Allah grant us
that.
Ulaika ala hudam mir Rabbihim, these muttaqeen are
the people that are upon their guidance, hudam,
they are upon guidance, mir Rabbihim, from their
Rabb.
That tells you, you can put in the
effort, we can put in the effort, yuqeemuna
salata wa yu'tuna zakata wa mimma razaqnahu min
fiqoon, but at the end of the day
we have to seek that Allah places us
on that hidayah.
Sometimes we can do the actions, but actions
with the blessings of Allah Subhanahu Wa Ta
'ala as hidayah, Allah is like, ulaika ala
hudam mir Rabbihim, these muttaqeen are upon the
hidayah of Allah, wa ulaika hum al-muflifoon.
And these are the ones that are going
to be truly successful, successful in this dunya
because Allah will free them of all the
worries.
They will be connected with Allah Subhanahu Wa
Ta'ala so they won't have any sorrows,
anything happens to them they're able to cope
with the difficulties of this world.
And in the akhirah they are going to
be the truly successful ones.
May Allah Subhanahu Wa Ta'ala grant us
success in akhirah.
Allahumma salli wa sallim ala nabiyyina Muhammad wa
ala alihi wa sahbihi wa sallim taslimin kathira
wa barikillahumma ala Muhammadin wa ala alihi Muhammadin
kama barikta ala Ibrahima wa ala ala Ibrahimin
nakahmin bin majeed.
Allahumma aati nufusana taqwaha wa zakkiha anta khairu
man zakkaha anta waliyuha wa maula ya rabbal
alameen.
Allahumma inna nas'aluka an tarzuqana tilawatul Qur
'ani ana al-layli wa atraf al-nahar.
Allahumma dhakkirna minhuma nusina wa allimna minhuma jahilna
wa rzuqna tilawatahu ana al-layli wa atraf
al-nahar.
Ala al-wajhi allathi yurdika anna.
Allahumma ya Allah, Allahumma anfa'na bima allamtana
wa allimna bima anfa'na wa zidna ilman
ya kareem.
Allahumma inna nas'aluka fi hadhi laylatil mubaraka
an tu salli ala nabiyyina Muhammad wa ala
alihi wa sahbihi wa sallim.
Ya rabbal alameen.
Allahumma salli wa sallim ala nabiyyil akram, nabiyyil
hadi.
Ya rabbal alameen.