Ahsan Hanif – Quran Tafseer – Page 128 – The Virtues Of Surah Al-AnAm
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Welcome to an episode about qafsir, faith by
faith.
Today, we're on page 128
of the Quran, which is the first page
of Surah Al Anam in the 7th Juds.
Surah Al Anam
is the 6th chapter of the Quran, and
it is a makki surah. And it is
a surah that is dedicated to the oneness
of the worship of Allah Subhanahu Wa Ta'ala.
Meaning, Allah mentions
many of the reasons as to why the
creation of Allah Subhanahu Wa Ta'ala should worship
him alone and why should we we should
uphold the tawheed of Allah
and
how those people who turned away from the
path of tawheed,
the associate departments who worshiped
Allah but those people have swayed greatly from
the path that Allah
has has wanted for all of his creation.
Allah
begins in the Surah
by pleasing himself
from the first verse. Allah says
Praise belongs to Allah who created the heavens
and the earth and made darkness and light.
Yet the disbelief disbelievers set up equals
to their lord.
Then Allah
begins by praising himself as he is deserving
of all praise.
And within the Quran, there are 5 Surahs
that begin with the praise of Allah, a
salawood, and Surah Al An'ala be one of
them. The others being Surah Al Fatiha, and
then Surah Saba and Surah Fathir,
and Surah Al Gath. These 5 surahs in
the Quran begin with the praise of Allah
Subhanahu WA Ta'ala. Note that Allah is worthy
of your praise Subhanahu WA Ta'ala. And we
went into detail as to the meaning of
what the word hamd and the praise of
Allah means when we began
this tafsir program and series with the tafsir
of Surat al Fatiha and the statement of
Allah
So Allah is worthy of all praise, and
the believers constantly praise Allah
because Allah
is worthy of all praise in all situations
and circumstances.
Because even when when we're in difficult circumstances,
when there are hardships upon us, Allah is
still worthy of all praise. Because Allah still
guided you to iman And Allah still bestowed
upon many blessings, not least of them being
the Quran and the sending of the prophet
So even though you may be suffering,
you may be going through hardships and trials
and calamities in many different ways, but the
greatest blessings of Allah
upon you out outweigh
more or outweigh the the hardships and the
trials that you may have,
placed upon you or that you may be
going through at this current moment. And so
Allah is always worthy of what place. And
that is why Allah is good that there
are surahs of the Quran in which Allah
begins the surah with his praise. And surahs
of the Quran in which Allah ends with
his praise, like surah al Islam.
And there are surahs of the Quran which
in the midst of them Allah praises himself.
So Allah is deserving your will praise at
the beginning
and deserving of your praise at the end
and deserving of your praise throughout,
our lives and throughout our existence.
Allah,
when he praises himself
it is to show the tea
is the one where your worship alone subhanahu
wa ta'ala. So Allah praises
himself
and he says in the sura
All place belongs to Allah
who created the heavens and the earth. So
Allah is is deserving of praise and therefore
deserving of worship and also
deserving of glorification,
deserving of every type of worship because he
is the one who created the heavens and
the earth. He's the one who formed them,
and he's the one who originated them, and
he's the one who shaped them, and he's
the one who placed each and every single
thing that we find within them. He's the
one who placed them there, subhanahu
and Allah is the one who made darkness
and light. Allah is the one who made
darkness and light. And without Allah is making
that darkness and making that light, we will
be in a situation of either perpetual light
or perpetual darkness or of nothingness in which
we will not be able to live our
lives. Allah throughout the Quran, many places speaks
about this blessing
of the day and the night of light
and darkness. And note that within that there
is a meaning also
of the spiritual light and darkness. The spiritual
light of iman as opposed to the spiritual
darkness that is disbelief and turning away from
Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala. So Allah is the
one who has created all things. He is
the one who has placed all things and
he has made all things subhanahu wa ta'ala.
And that is therefore the power of Allah
and
his command over the universe and his ability
to do as he pleases. No one can
stand in front of Allah and demand anything
from him nor can we force anything upon
our own and creator. But it is Allah
who decides and he does as he pleases
Despite all of this, despite Allah's creation of
the heavens and the earth, despite placing dark
and light therein,
Allah
says, let the disbelievers
set up equals to their law. Meaning, the
disbelievers are those who turn away from Allah
and his worship alone to the worship of
things besides Allah
then why then would we worship other than
Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala?
Allah continues
in verse number 2 and he says,
He is the one who created you from
clay and specify the term for you. And
another fixed time, not only to him, yet
still you doubt.
Allah
is the one who created you from clay,
meaning in your original form, Adam alaihis salatu
wasalam. And Allah is in the Quran when
he speaks about the creation of humankind, he
speaks about it in 2 ways.
1 is the original creation, meaning the first
creation of humankind,
and that is the creation of our father,
Adam alaihis salam, was quoted from. As Allah
mentions in many places in the Quran, in
the story of Adam and Evelynis, that Allah
created Adam alaihis salam from clay. And then
Allah, the second one which speaks about the
creation of mankind is then the progeny, the
descendants of Adam. The descendants of Adam are
created from, as we know, the sperm drop.
And so Allah sometimes says that he created
us from clay and sometimes he tells us
that he created us from a sperm drop.
There is no contradiction between the 2, but
we are speaking about 2 different contexts.
But note that the origin of mankind goes
back to Adam alaihis salaam, and the origin
of Adam or his creation or his creation
came from clay, which is clay. So Allah
says here that he is the one who
created you from clay.
And so
Allah created humankind
when there was no one similar to humans
before Adam alaihi salaam. So Allah originates creation,
and that is something which we see in
the story of the creation of Adam alaihi
salaam and the story of Adam and Iblis
that Allah when he first quoted Adam alayhi
salam, no one had seen a question like
that before. Not the angels, not Iblis, no
one. And so Allah originally
informed him
in the way that he pleased.
And Allah
has specified a term for you. That is
that he has given you a term in
which you will live in this life. You
will remain in this life. So Allah creates
you and then you live for a certain
period of time. And therefore, Allah is the
one who gives life and the one who
gives death. And the one who controls life
and death is the one, therefore, worthy of
being worshipped alone.
Why would you worship someone? For 1, they
can't control your outcome, doesn't have any control
over your destiny, doesn't control how long you
will live for or when you will die.
And so Allah is the one who determines
how long you live for and how long
you, spend upon this earth before death comes
to you.
And then there will be another fixed time
that is only known to him, Subhanahu Wa
Ta'ala, and that is the time of the
akhirah, when it will come and when the
people will leave this world and be resurrected
on that day. That is also knowledge that
is belonging to Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala. And
so again, from the signs of Allah that
is right to be worshipped alone is his
knowledge, his power of the unseen, his knowledge
of the unseen, his ability to know each
and every single thing, subhanahu wa ta'ala.
And yet you are still in doubt as
Allah
says. You still doubt. You doubt about Allah.
You doubt about resurrection.
You doubt about the day of judgment. We
doubt about the truthfulness of the Quran and
the truthfulness of of the,
of the,
the the truthfulness of this region of Islam.
And look at how Allah azza wa ta'ala
when he speak about the the spiritual aspect
of light and darkness. When Allah
in the first verse spoke about it, he
spoke about darkness in the plural.
Allah calls darknesses
many types. He mentions it in the plural
form. Whereas when it comes to light, he
mentions only 1. And that is because the
path to Allah is
the. The straight path is only one that
leads to Allah.
But when it comes to darkness,
to disbelief,
to ignorance,
to turning away from Allah, then it contains
and follows many paths. The paths of shirk
are many. And so Allah says,
Yet
you are still in doubt. And that doubt
can take many forms.
So there are some who will worship many
gods besides Allah and some who will only
worship 1 god besides Allah and some who
will worship
stones and rocks and trees and animals and
others who will worship angels, yet others will
worship the fire or the celestial bodies of
the heavens, the sun, the moon, the stars
and yet some will worship no one. Do
neither any god exists. All of these are
different types of documents.
All of you are in doubt, but the
Nur is 1 and that is the path
that leads to Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala. And
that is why Allah ahsawwajal then continues in
verse number 3 and he says,
He's Allah in the heavens and on earth.
He knows your secrets and what you reveal
and he knows what you do. Allah
is God of the heavens and God of
the earth, subhanahu wa ta'ala. He's the one
worthy of worship of being worshiped in the
heavens of the earth. He alone, subhanahu wa
ta'ala. And so just as he is the
one who created the heavens and everything within
it, and he is the God of the
heavens, the one worthy of worship being worshiped
there, then likewise he is the one who
created the earth. And therefore he is worthy
of being worshiped upon the earth as well.
And so Allah
is, as he says, the God of the
heavens and on earth. Aloha
without any partner. And so that is why
the angels
of the heavens and the inhabitants of the
heavens worship Allah
and they submit to Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala
and they do as he commands jalafi'ala
and they will besebay him in any of
his commands subhanahu wa ta'ala. And the righteous
of the earth
from that which Allah has created
from the humans,
from the righteous people of the humans and
the jinn, they only worship Allah alone as
well. And that which Allah has created, that
has no free will upon the earth or
in the heavens also submits to the will
of Allah
So he knows yourself and your jah. Allah
says, you allam musirrakum
wajahrakum.
Allah knows your secrets and that which you
reveal.
So that which you do openly and that
which you hide. So if you show openly
iman, but you hide within yourself kufr, or
you show within yourself openly piety, but within
yourself you hide sin and and and and
evil. Allah knows all of your affairs. And
that is also therefore from the signs of
our Lord and creator, subhanahu wa ta'ala, that
alone is worthy of being worshipped, that he
knows everything, that he has intimate knowledge of
everything, that Allah
knows each and every single thing that you
do and Allah knows the deepest deepest secrets
within your heart. Allah is aware
of the smallest of insects, the smallest of
creatures
that cannot be seen by the visible eye,
can't be seen by the naked eye. And
Allah
is intimately aware of the smallest of particles
and atoms that no one else is aware
of or that no one else is familiar
with. Allah has knowledge of everything from the
smallest of things to the biggest of things.
And Allah has knowledge of the most secret
and intimate of things.
And Allah has knowledge of all that is
open and apparent. And that is why what
we conceal in the depths of our of
our hearts that we don't tell anyone, not
our wives or husbands, not our parents or
children, not the closest and dearest people to
us, Allah
is aware of it. And that is why
when we say words or we do actions,
the intentions may not be known to anyone
else, but they are known to Allah, and
Allah judges according to it. And that is
why he says,
he knows that which you do. He knows
your actions, and he knows your intentions.
He knows what you intended by what you
did and what you did not intend by
what that which you did. Allah knows that
which you left off. For whatever reason you
left it off and that which you chose
to do because you chose to do it.
Allah has knowledge of everything. Subhanahu wa ta'ala.
Allah
says in verse number 4, speaking about those
people who see all of these signs yet
they still turn away.
But every time revelation comes to them from
their lord, they turn their backs on it.
That is the way of the disbelievers.
Allah
shows to them sign after sign, verse after
verse, says to them prophet after prophet, gives
to them revelation after revelation, and people turn
away. And it shows to you the hold
that shaytan has over over humankind,
over people. Shaytan has such a hold over
people that they will see the signs of
Allah reasonably in front of them, and those
people won't be able to believe in Allah
And that is why 2 people can see
the same sign. 1 of them because of
the purity of their heart and their iman
and Allah will see that sign as a
sign from Allah
and the other person will see exactly the
same sign But because of how distant they
are from Allah, how negligent they are of
Allah, how heedless they are of Allah
they won't see within it any sign. Rather,
they will just see it as something which
happens from the phenomenons of the dunya or
they will see it as something which is
just pleasant and and nice to look at,
but they don't make that connection between it
and between Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala. Doesn't Allah
tell
us to travel upon the earth so that
we will see his signs. The believer is
the one who travels and sees the signs
of Allah in the mountains and the oceans,
in the sky, on the earth. They see
the signs of Allah. Whereas the people who
are heedless of Allah
traveled to the same places in the same
way at the same time, and they won't
see any sign that turns to Allah
Rather they will just see
beauty and they will see nice scenery and
they will see things that they will just
be be happy with, but they won't connect
it back to Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala. And
that shows to you how precious iman is
because once you have iman, it opens up
your eyes. It allows you to see that
which Allah has created and the signs of
Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala that pulled back to
his existence and his right to be worshipped
alone.
Not a single sign came from the signs
of your lord. Whether it's the signs of
the heavens and the earth, the signs of
the universe,
or the signs of revelation.
The prophets that came, the revelations that Allah
sent down. These are signs from Allah
so the believer opens the Quran and reads
it as we're doing, and they find within
it so much solace and contentment.
You see within it signs of tempt the
the the point to Allah
They find within it blessings and within it
many benefits.
And then the disbeliever at the same time
looks at these signs or reads the Quran,
and they don't take anything from it because
their heart is not concealed.
So Allah sends sign upon sign,
but only those of pure heart will be
able to benefit from the signs of Allah
but they turn their backs to it and
they turn away. As happened with all of
the prophets and messengers, including our prophet What
did they do? They denied the truth and
they rejected the signs of Allah
and they mocked and laughed at those signs
and messengers that Allah
said. And that is what Allah subhanahu wa
ta'ala then says in verse number 5.
So they denied the truth when it came
to them, but the very thing that they
loved it will be brought home to them.
Allah
says that when the truth came to them,
they denied it. The prophet of Allah came
with the message of Allah
that people should worship
Allah alone, that they shouldn't commit shirk and
kufa, that they should only turn to Allah
in worship. What did those people do? They
denied
it. They turned away. They rejected their prophets
and messengers. They rejected the revelations of Allah
They rejected the message of Allah
And not only that, but what they did
is that they did worse. They opposed the
prophets and messengers of Allah, and they ridiculed
and mocked
the revelations of Allah subhanahu ta'ala. And worse,
they physically were aggressive and violent towards the
prophets of Allah and the messengers of Allah
alaymusaratusallahu
and the followers and the people who believed
in them.
As we know from throughout the Quran in
other verses.
So not only were they people of rejection
and rejection just doesn't mean here that they
turned away, but there are many different forms
of rejection,
many different types of rejection, and there were
many people that rejected in different ways. Some
of them, yes, they just simply more than
turned away. But there were people who did
more. They opposed. And there were people who
were verbally and physically abusive, people who were
violent, people who actively went and harmed the
believers and killed them, and people who went
to the prophets of Allah and murdered them
as well. And so these are the people
that turned away from Allah azza wa jal.
And because they turned away from the truth
and they denied it, then Allah will punish
them. Allah will give them the worst of
punishments
in the next life.
Allah says for the very thing that they
mocked and that they laughed at, they will
be brought back to them. So they laughed
at what? They laughed that Allah alone is
worthy of being worshipped. They laughed at the
fact that people will be resurrected, that there
will be a day of judgment. They laughed
and denied and mocked at the fact that
there will be a paradise for the believers
and a for the disbelievers, and they rejected
it. Allah says that that which you mocked,
that which you laughed at, that which you
ridicule, they will come to you and you
will see it before you. And so they
will see that which Allah takes before them.
They will see that which Allah
showed to me the truth on the day
of judgment. They will stand before Allah to
be judged. They will be resurrected before Allah
to be accounted for. They will see how
far and power lies before them, and then
they will know the certainty of it. In
fact, they will know the certainty before that
at the time of death when they die
and they enter their graves and the life
of the. But on they
will be told that that which they ridiculed
and mocked and denied and rejected,
this is the truth of that which you
deny.
Allah
says in the next verse, why don't they
look around them? At the many people who
came before them, the many nations who came
before them and the signs that Allah
has given to us through them.
Allah says in verse number 6.
Do they not realize how many generations we
destroyed before them? We established them in the
earth more firmly than you, Sent down a
thunder weighing on them from the sky
and made running rivers flow at their feet.
That we destroyed them for their misdeeds and
raised for the generations after them. Allah
says, do you not look and realize how
many nations and generations came before you? Are
you the first people that Allah created? Are
you the 1st generation of humans to live
up on the earth? You know that there
were many generations that came before you because
you can still see their signs and their
remnants today. We know about the Egyptians.
We know about the Greeks. We know about
the Romans. We know about all of these
ancient civilizations that live. We know throughout the
quran about the likes of Ad and Talmud
and the people of Nuh and the people
of Loth and Madyan and all of these
different generations and nations that lived in the
past. Allah
says that those people that came and lived
before you.
Allah gave to them
the establishment upon the earth that which he
didn't have for you, that which he didn't
give to you. Look at pharaoh with all
of his might, all of his kingdom, all
of his power, all of his soldiers, and
all of his palaces and wealth. Look at
the people of Ad who used to go
around saying, boasting,
who who is more powerful and mighty than
us. Look at the people
of and the way that they used to
live
in their in their dwellings,
carving houses into the sides of mountains. Look
at the way that Allah
describes the people of the past and the
generations we gave to them
that which we have not given to you.
Meaning that they were given more in terms
of power, more in terms of wealth, more
in terms of skills and abilities that today
still some of them we are amazed at.
How were they able to construct these pyramids
1000 of years ago with the technology that
they probably had and the skills and engineering
that they had, which are far limited compared
to what we are now able to do
in terms of air travel and science and
technology and all of the things that we
have now access to. They didn't have access
to those things, but they were still able
to build
and to construct and to do as they
as they did by Allah's command and by
his permission.
And we set upon them above the rain
from the sky, meaning that we gave to
them many blessings, gave to them love, gave
to them food, gave to them ease.
And we made the rivers fall beneath them.
Look at the story of of Musa alaihis
salam and pharaoh. Doesn't Musa pharaoh, when he's
boasting about his power and about his wealth
and about his station, he's saying this these
are the the rivers of Egypt formed beneath
my feet. He's boasting about the fact that
he has everything that he possibly needs in
Egypt. Water that comes from the Nile for
his fields and for his people, wealth, slaves
that are that are that are that are
in bondage to him, and the doors he
commands,
wealth and the ability to have this massive
kingdom. All of this is from the wealth
of Allah ajdul gave to him. Allah
says all of these nations that we know
of, all of these stories that we've heard
of, all of the blessings that Allah gave
to them.
But when they turned away from Allah
when they disobeyed Allah
when they made with Allah
when they denied their prophets and their messengers,
when they killed them and they oppressed them
and they harmed them and they tortured them
and they did whatever they did to the
believers.
We destroy them as a result of their
sins.
Those mighty civilizations that today people still look
up to and speak about and reminisce concerning
that today there are no way to be
seen.
They turn away from Allah.
So if Allah
can do that to them, then why can't
he do it to you when you are
weaker? Not as established as they are. Have
less blessings, have less might and power and
ability.
And we waste other generations after them. Meaning,
there are other people who came and settled
in their lands. Other people lived in Egypt.
Other people live in Greece. Other people live
in Italy and Rome. Other people have come
and taken over those places where these mighty
nations were strong. That is from the signs
of Allah
And so true might and power belongs to
Allah. And true eternal life is in the
hands of Allah
for the believers who have the blessings of
paradise.
Allah
says in verse 7,
which will be the,
the final verse that we will take today.
Even if we had sent down to your
prophet
a
book inscribed on parchment
and they attached it with their own hands,
the disbelievers would still say this is nothing
but blatant sorcery.
This is something which the believe the disbelievers
would demand.
Why can't a physical book be revealed from
the heavens that we can see coming down,
that we can touch and feel, that we
can read for ourselves? Why is it revelation
in this way that you come every so
often with verses from an angel that isn't
seen, a revelation that we can't physically see
being descended upon
you. Allah
says here that these people, because of their
disbelief,
because of their rejection,
even if that book was to come down
in a parchment
that was written on that they could then
hold and see and touch that was physically
visible to them descending from the earth. They
would turn around and they would say that
it's from the source we love, the prophets
and messengers. And that is what they said.
You know, Musa alayhi salam, how his staff
that came and ate the serpent, the magic
of the of the of the sorceress. They
turned around and said that he was sorcery.
Then the prophet spit the moon for Quraish,
they turned around and said that he was
sorcery. So likewise here, because of their disbelief
and rejection,
even if you were to give to them
the signs that they demand, they would still
say that it is sorcery. And that is
something which we see throughout, you know, the
past relations. They would demand miracles from their
prophets. Allah will grant them those miracles. They
would turn around and then they will say
that this is another form of bewitchment, sorcery,
magic, craziness, and they would still continue to
disbelieve.
So inshallah, with that, we come to end
of today's episode.
In the next episode, we will continue with
these statements of the disbelievers and how Allah,
a sultan, will fix them.