Ahsan Hanif – Page 121 – The Cursed Children Of Israel Quran Tafseer Series
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AI: Transcript ©
Muhammad.
Welcome to another episode of the art of
Seer page by page, Insha'Allah today we we
are on page 121
which is the final page of the 6
jaws in Surah Al Maidah.
In the previous episode, Allah Subhanahu Wa Ta'ala
mentioned the belief
of those people who
took a mental extreme
in their belief regarding Alisa Alaihi Salaam and
his mother Mariam alaihi salam. Allah subhanahu wa
ta'ala said that they disbelieved
those people who said that Risa alaihi salam
was the son of Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala
and how Isa alaihi salaam himself spoke to
his people and he addressed them, the people
of Bani Israel, and he clearly stated to
them
that his Lord and their Lord was Allah
alone, that they should worship him alone without
associating any partner with him. Subhanahu wa ta'ala.
As I mentioned inshaAllah as we come towards
the end of this Surah Surah Al Maidah
we will see again how Allah will address
this issue with Isa salaam
on the day of judgement. And that is
that Isa
salaam never called to his worship, just like
every other Prophet that came before him and
the messenger of Allah Sallallahu Alaihi Wasallam, our
prophet Sallallahu Alaihi Wasallam Muhammad that came after
him. Every single one of them only called
to the worship of Allah alone. No prophet,
no messenger,
no righteous person would ever call to the
worship of anything other than Allah Subhanahu Wa
Ta'ala. And so Allah mentions this in the
Quran
And that because of their disbelief in this
issue, because they said that Isa was the
son of Allah,
that Jesus was the son of God, They
have,
they will be in the fire. They will
have the punishment of Allah
They will be in fire for eternity for
Allah has made Jannah haram for such people.
And similar to that statement is the other
statement
that Allah or God or Allah is 1
of 3.
Is 1 of the trinity, the father, the
son, the holy spirit. That's also an act
of disbelief or a statement of disbelief.
And so Allah
then says,
but there is only one true God and
that is Allah Subhanahu Wa Ta'ala. Allah Azzawajal
calls those people to turn back to him,
to make tawbah to him, to seek forgiveness
from him Subhanahu Wa Ta'ala by accepting Islam
and by worshipping Allah
alone.
Allah
then tells us the true status
of Isa and his mother Mariam Alayhi Musalat
wa Salam. As for Isa Alayhi Salaam, he
is from the greatest Prophets and Messengers of
Allah that He sent to mankind, And we
believe in many of those aspects concerning what
is authentically narrated about him, whether in the
Quran or in the sunnah that he was
given a virgin birth, that Raeesah
could heal
the blind and the leper, that he could
bring the dead back to life, as Allah
mentions in the Quran that Allah Azzawaj deceived
him from the crucifixion and raised him up
to the heavens, that he will return back
at the end of time, that he will
rule with justice and so on. All of
that we believe because it is established either
in the Quran or in the sunnah by
Prophet Sallallahu Alaihi Wasallam. We have no problem
believing in that and accepting that. But none
of that amounts to divinity.
None of that means that it is elevated
beyond the status of being a messenger and
a prophet of Allah Subhanahu Wa Ta'ala. And
so Isa Alaihi Salam Ala Azzajid says
his true status is that he is a
prophet and messenger of Allah. And it is
therefore important for the Muslim to know that
everyone has a status that Allah has given
to them. Your parents have a status that
you have to respect and afford honor to.
The scholar of the Imam has a status
in this religion. The Awdulillah
has a status in this religion. The Prophet
of Allah have their status in this religion.
The Uliya of Allah have their status. Everyone
has their status. But you don't go above
and beyond what that status means.
As Allah will tell us in the Quran,
if your parents tell you to do haram,
you can't do haram just because they said
so, because you should give them your obedience
and your love and your affection, But you
should still be good mannered towards them. But
you don't place them above the the position
that Allah gave. They can't tell you not
to do haram. They can't make the halal
haram and haram halal. Likewise the scholar or
the righteous person or the willy of Allah
you can't take them above their status and
start making dua to them instead asking them
for their help,
trusting upon them in terms of divine nature,
fearing them in the divine way and so
on. The Islam had for them and likewise
the Messengers and Prophets of Allah including our
Prophet Sallallahu Alaihi Wasallam he has a status
beyond which cannot be elevated.
He has a status beyond which he cannot
be elevated subhanahu wa ta'ala. And that is
why when the man came to the prophet
salallahu alayhi wasallam when he said, oh Allah,
oh messenger of Allah, I ask you to
intercede on behalf of Allah, ask Allah to
intercede on your behalf.
The Prophet sallallahu alaihi wa sallam said, 'subhanAllah,
SubhanAllah,
SubhanAllah.'
And Shaitanullah he said,
'Glory be to Allah, glory be to Allah,
Allah is far above high, higher than this
subhanahu wa ta'ala. You're asking Allah to intercede
on my behalf? You're asking Allah to intercede
for you to to me? That's not the
way that we have our religion. And so
the prophet sallallahu alaihi wa sallam would correct
these beliefs when people used to take him
and place him above his station. Then the
man came and said, O Messenger of Allah,
Masha Allah who was shit. It is as
Allah Wilt and as You will. The Prophet
said,
don't say that, but rather say
that which Allah alone will. Because the Prophet
doesn't control the heavens and the earth, his
decree and will isn't something which is always
going to be
as we've seen throughout this Sira, many occasions
the prophet salallahu alayhi wa sallam wanted something
and it wasn't to be. Because Allah didn't
want it to happen in that way. And
so therefore, it is Allah alone that decrees
and wills
in the divine universal way.
And so therefore, every person has their status.
The status of Maryam alaihis salaam ala told
us is that she is a siddiqah,
They are a rung or a station just
below the station of the prophets and messengers
of Allah. Alayhi Musa Allah. And that is
why in our Ummah, the siddiq of this
Ummah was Abu Bakr radiAllahu an every single
issue at every turn and point he believed
and confirmed without any hesitation.
Didn't need a long discussion,
didn't need moments or days or hours to
think about it. Immediately something would happen, he
would be the first one to submit radiAllahu
anhu and that is because he was a
siddiq. And so Allah
mentions to us this concerning the belief that
we should have concerning Risa alayhi salam and
his mother Mariam alaihis salam and from the
greatest signs that they were not from the
divine is that they would devour
food, they would eat food, they were in
need of food just as me and you
and everyone else. That means that there was
a weakness in them, a deficiency in them
like with every human that we are in
need of certain things for our survival
and well-being.
Today we continue
from verse 77 and that is the statement
of Allah Subhanahu wa
ta'ala.
Say, oh, people of the book, do not
overstep the bounds of truth in your religion,
and do not follow the whims of those
who went astray before you. They led many
others astray and themselves continue to stray from
the evil even path. Allah Subhanahu Wa Ta'ala
gives to a very give us us a
very important instruction and even though Allah is
referring to the people of the scripture, the
Jews and the Christians,
this is a command that the Muslims should
also be very mindful of. O people of
the scripture,
don't go to extremes in your religion, Don't
overstep the bounds that Allah
has set and the limits that Allah has
placed. That is an instruction to every person.
Us as Muslims, we can't go beyond the
bounds that Allah has set because unfortunately there
are amongst the Muslims who will take the
Prophet sallallahu alaihi wa sallam and they will
give him certain acts of worship and devote
them to him. There are certain people who
believe that the Prophet salallahu alaihi wasallam is
living with us right now. He can come
and he can sit with us. He can
be present or that he knows elements of
the unseen or that he can help and
benefit
or avoid harm for us and so on
and so forth. There are people who give
stations like that to other than the Prophet
to some of the ODI of Allah
righteous people, righteous scholars, people of ill, people
of knowledge and so on. They give to
them that status that they don't deserve. That's
not our religion. Don't ever go to extremes
beyond beyond
who the person is. And that is why
the Prophet Sallallahu Alaihi Wasallam said on his
deathbed, may Allah curse those people who went
to extremes in their religion. Don't go to
extremes concerning me the way that people did
with their prophets.
Don't say that I am the son of
Allah or that I am equal to Allah.
But rather say that I am the servant
of Allah and His messenger.
And that is why the prophet
didn't allow people to build tombs on their
graves. Didn't allow people to have own structures
and and even tombstones and so on on
their graves. And that's what we see today
unfortunately amongst many people that when the righteous
people die or the imam dies or their
sheikh dies, they'll build a big tomb upon
it and then people go every year and
they have these types of gatherings and functions
and celebrations and so on. That isn't something
from the religion of Allah Subhanahu Wa Ta'ala.
The prophet
didn't do it for any of the companions
that died during his time and there were
major companions that died during his time. Did
his uncle Hamza
pass away? Saad ibn Mu'adh the leader of
the Ansar?
People
like Musa ibn Umayr radiAllahu an. People like
his cousin Jafar,
his adopted son,
all of these companions
all
of these people died and the prophet didn't
do anything for them. And then when the
prophet salallahu alaihi wasallam died himself, you don't
see Abu Bakr or Umar or Uthman or
Ali or Fatima or Hassan Hussain or any
of them doing this for the prophet salallahu
alaihi wasallam.
So the sensible Muslim, the intelligent Muslim sees
all this and thinks, wait a minute, if
they didn't do it and they were the
best of people,
the closest revelation, they had the most understanding
of Islam and what Allah
wanted and is pleased with, then what need
do me and you have to do it?
Even if it is done with the best
of intentions.
Even let's say for the sake of argument
that it is done for a noble purpose
with good intentions.
At the very least it is innovation.
Because it's not something which is from the
practice of the prophet Sallallahu Alaihi Wasallam and
it could potentially
be far worse than this. And that is
why Allah says don't go to extremes in
your religion.
Don't go to, don't step the bounds in
your religion because by doing so you follow
the whims of those who went astray before
you. They lead many others astray
and they themselves continue to stray from the
even path. You follow someone because he happens
to be you consider him to be a
learned person or you follow someone because they're
the elders in your community or your family,
and it's something which they've been doing and
they tell you this is what we've been
doing. Our fathers taught us this, our grandfathers
did this before them and so on and
so forth. And so you're following a line
and a link. But isn't that
exactly what they say as well? The people
who worship
Jesus besides Allah
The people who worship idols besides Allah Subhanahu
Wa Ta'ala The people who worship the sun
besides Allah. Won't they come and say that
we find our fathers and grandfathers? Why does
a Muslim get to make that excuse and
they don't?
Our religion isn't based upon just the practices
of people. It is based upon what we
find in the Quran,
what we find in the sunnah of the
prophet salallahu alayhi wa sallam and what the
companions were upon because they understood best the
Quran and the sunnah. They lived with the
prophet salallahu alayhi wa sallam and they experienced
revelation and they understood first hand from the
prophet salallahu alaihi wa sallam what they should
be doing and shouldn't be doing. And so
their understanding of the religion is pristine
not least because the prophet salallahu alaihi wasallam
approved their practice of the religion. He was
there living amongst them. He saw what they
were doing. He witnessed
it. He was present there
and so he approved what they were doing.
So if they were doing something, it means
that he allowed it and he was he
was happy with it. And if they didn't
do something,
it's because they knew that there was no
goodness in it. Do we think that we're
better than the companions? That we love the
prophet more than the companions? That we got
closer to Allah Azza wa Jal than the
companions, the companions have the greatest station in
this Ummah after his Prophet Sallallahu Alaihi Wasallam.
And
so
going to extremes in the religion is a
very dangerous issue and one that people should
be aware of.
Allah Azzawajal then says in verse number 78,
Those children of Israel who defied Allah and
disbelieved in Allah
were cursed
through the words of Dawood and Risa the
son of Mariam because they disobeyed,
they persistently overstepped the limits.
Allah
says that because of what they did,
of their kufr and disbelief
and the evil that they did and associating
partners in worship with Allah
despite their prophets and messengers warning against this.
Then they were cursed upon the tongues of
2 of their prophets and messengers,
Dawood alaihi salam, the famous prophet Dawood and
Isa Alaihi Salatu wasalam. And that is because
all of the prophets of Allah that came,
they cursed those people who turned away from
their religion, they cursed the people who went
towards shirk after they made tawhid clear to
them. They were cursed because of their rejection
of their prophets and their messengers. And so
Allah says that the prophets that they respect,
that they honor, that they believe in Dawud
alaihis salam and Risa alaihis salam. These are
prophets accepted by the people of the scripture,
either all of them or some of them.
And Allah says that they curse them, they
cursed upon their own tongues, they cursed their
followers if they turned away from the path
of Allah Subhanahu Wa Ta'ala.
Because of their disobedience
in following the commands of Allah
and because of them overstepping the limits on
the boundaries of Allah Subhanahu wa ta'ala. Allah
has set limits for everything.
And so from the greatest of those limits
or the greatest limit is the limit that
Allah has set with regards to his worship
and his Tawhid. To overstep that boundary, to
break that limit means that you have now
entered into the fold of shirk and that
is after which or or that is the
the the limit after which Allah doesn't forgive
a person unless they turn back to Allah
in Tawba and they accept Islam and they
turn to Allah and his worship alone.
Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala then in verse 79
he gives to us a very important instruction.
And that is that he says subhanahu wa
ta'ala
They did not forbid each other to do
wrong how vile their deeds were.
Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala says that from the
problems they had
or from the issues they then struggled with
is when people started to stray
to innovate in their religion, started to do
haram, one of the things that they would
not do is speak out against it. They
wouldn't forbid the evil. They would see people
making shirk, they would see people mistorting the
teachings of the prophets and manipulating them, they
would see people misinterpreting
the words of revelation
and they wouldn't say anything. And Allah describes
that here as something evil that they did.
And that is why from the greatest
virtues of this Ummah, from its greatest accolades
as Allah mentions in the verse that we
already covered in Surah Alir Imran,
Allah says, you are the best of nations,
meaning this nation of the Prophet
you are the best of nations that have
been drawn forth for humankind. Why?
You enjoin the good, you forbid the evil
and you believe in Allah. And Allah mentions
enjoining the good and forbidding the evil before
belief even though belief is the foundation of
our religion. But Allah begins with these 2
because they are special characteristics in this Ummah.
Because there were people in the time of
Risa that believed in Allah, people in the
time of Musa that believed in Allah, meaning
that they were sincere in their faith
but they didn't have the aspect that Allah
praised. So Allah praises this Ummah that we
are an Ummah that preaches,
that conveys, that advises, that admonishes,
that encourages people to do good and discourages
people from doing evil and haram. And that
is what Allah
wants in this ummah. And that is why
for the Muslim, it is very important in
their home with their family at least, with
the people that are close to them and
dear to them, with their neighbors, with the
people that they can, they enjoy the good
and forbid the evil. It's not from the
befitting for the Muslim to see something wrong
and evil happening,
haram, oppression and you have the ability to
change it. You have the ability to speak
out against it. You have the ability to
say something and you know that what you
will say will be heard. At the very
least, you can register your your your opposition
to this or your objection to it and
you don't say anything. That's a problem.
And many of the problems that we have
now in our communities as Muslims, many of
the problems that we have with our youngsters
and our youth is because we as the
elders and we as the parents and we
as the teachers don't wanna speak out. Or
amongst our own people, our friends and so
on, we don't wanna say anything. We don't
wanna speak out. We see people openly doing
Haram
openly opposing the religion of Allah Subhanahu Wa
Ta'ala and we won't say anything.
Won't enjoy the good, won't tell people to
pray, won't tell people to give Zakah, won't
tell people to observe the religion of Allah
and we will see haram and we won't
say anything.
And to remain quiet is a sin itself
if you have the ability to speak out.
That's different to the person who is weak,
doesn't have the ability to speak, feels that
if he speaks out, he will be harmed,
meaning people will repress him or harm him
physically or financially. That's that that person is
excused because of their situation.
But you can speak out in many other
occasions. There are people that you can speak
to, that they won't say anything to you,
that they may even respect you and listen
to you. You have a role to speak
to them and to advise them. And so
by not doing so, is sinful.
But not only that, because when the people
stop enjoying the good and forbidding the evil,
then evil becomes prevalent and it becomes the
norm and other people become desensitized
to it and people become accustomed to seeing
that type of evil.
There was a time
when people remember that people used to be
modest.
Or people, even if they were doing evil,
or people that were selling drugs or they
wouldn't go to an elderly person and harm
them. If they saw a sister walking down
the road, they wouldn't say anything to them
because they knew that these people, they have
their honor, they have their position. We may
be doing wrong at haram, but we're not
going to go and that's not something which
a man does. It's not something which is
from the characteristic
of a man, let alone a Muslim man.
And so they would stay away from certain
people. You see a person who's practicing, he's
gotta be stay away from me, leave him
alone. He doesn't wanna harm you.
But now we live in a time where
people don't care.
Women, children, elderly people, no respect for anyone.
And that's because people stop speaking out. And
when you stop speaking out about against against
a small harm or wrong, that gets bigger
and bigger and people become more desensitized to
it and people become accustomed to it and
the next generation that comes or people that
come and follow may not be as good
as the first people because those people who
are closer to some level of goodness and
piety, these people are now further away. They
saw what people were doing before. They wanna
do more. They wanna be better. They wanna
get more. And so they will always continue.
And that is what shetaan does.
Starts off with something small and it becomes
bigger and bigger and bigger until it becomes
a major problem. And that is why Allah
says here that this is what they did.
They saw people
doing haram, making shirk, they didn't say anything.
And Allah says that it was an evil
practice of theirs. So likewise when we see
people doing wrong or Haram, you have to
speak up in the way that you can
with obviously wisdom, with good preaching, with good
manners and good etiquette. It's not about being
controversial, it's not about being
forceful, it's not about being violent or combative,
but it is about you speaking the truth
and advising people for the sake of Allah.
Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala says in verse number
80
You see many of them allying themselves with
the disbelievers.
How terrible is what their souls have stored
up for them. Allah is angry with them
and they will remain
tormented.
Allah Subhanahu Ta'ala says that you will see
that these people, because they are upon some
type of kufr and disbelief, they will become
the allies of other people who are also
disbelievers. In the time of the Prophet Sallallahu
Alaihi Wasallam, as we know
in the Battle of Ahazab, the Prophet
was fighting the confederal armies
and the people that he had peace packed
with from the tribes around Madinah that were
from the people of the scripture, they also
went and sided with
the confederal armies and they broke that pact
and the covenant that they had with the
messenger of Allah Sallallahu Alaihi Wasallam. They would
prefer to be with them because just as
all of the Muslims are 1 in terms
of religion, then all of the disbelievers are
1 in terms of, even though they may
have differences amongst them, but all of them
are upon disbelief.
How evil is that which they did, Allah
says, and how evil
is that which their souls have stored up
for them. Indeed Allah is angry with them
and they will remain tormented.
In the final verse that we will take
today because it is the final verse of
the 6 Jews of the Quran,
Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala says in verse number
81.
If they had
believed in Allah and the Prophet
and what was sent down to him, they
would never have allied themselves with the disbelievers
but most of them are rebels. Allah
says, this is the quote of Allah
All of the prophets that came, they didn't
want money,
fame,
power, status,
anything from the dunya. Their call was simple,
believe in Allah and worship him alone. Believe
in the prophets and messengers that he has
sent, believe in the revelation that Allah has
sent down.
And if you do that, Allah
will open up for you his bounties, and
Allah will give you the blessings of this
life and the next, and the reward of
this life and the next, And Allah will
honor you in ways that you cannot even
imagine.
Those people that know the religion of Allah
and have tasted the sweetness of faith and
Iman, they know how precious it is
and how much they want to keep that
that sweetness of iman, how much they want
to cultivate it and nurture it and how
precious it is to them, more precious than
any type of wealth upon the earth. And
those people who haven't tasted it, who don't
know what it is, then they can afford
to be negligent of it. But those people
who seek it, who strive for it, who
want it, and then Allah allows them to
taste it, those people Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala
is on, Knowing Allah azza wa Jal, knowing
the prophet salallahu alaihi wa sallam, knowing the
Quran, this is from the greatest
attribute or the greatest blessings
that Allah
can bestow upon any individual. Allah subhanahu wa
ta'ala says all they had to do was
believe in Allah, the Prophet salallahu alaihi wasallam
and the revelation
and they would have chosen as their allies
the believers. They would
have chosen as their allies those people who
have a similar type of belief but instead
belief they turned away from the origin of
Allah Subhanahu Wa Ta'ala and turned away
from his dawhid. And with that we come
to the end of today's episode.