Ahsan Hanif – Quran Tafseer – Page 134 – Why Are We Tested
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AI: Transcript ©
Welcome to another episode of out of Seer
page by page. Insha'Allah Ta'ala. Today we are
on page 134
which is in the 7th verse of the
Quran, Surah Al Anaim. In the previous episode,
we mentioned those verses in which Allah subhanahu
wa ta'ala
gave to the disbelievers a number of signs
and a number of questions that he commanded
them to reflect upon and ponder over.
For example that if Allah
was to take away someone's hearing, someone's sight,
someone's ability to understand,
then who would be able to restore those
abilities to them besides Allah
or if Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala was to
stand upon a group of people,
that his punishment subhanahu wa ta'ala whether it
was open or whether it was sadr, whether
it was something that they anticipated or they
didn't anticipate,
then who other than the disbelievers would be
destroyed?
Allah then told us that the message or
the responsibility of the prophets and messengers and
their role is simply to convey the message,
to give glad tidings and to give warnings,
to call people to Allah to remind them
of Allah
and how those who turn to Allah
as a result of that message, they accept
it and heed that warning, Allah will honour
them, and Allah will forgive them for their
sins, and Allah will restore upon them the
greatest of reward. And as for those who
disbelieve and turn away, those who reject the
signs of Allah and His prophets and messengers
then those are the people that will be
given the everlasting punishment of the fire of
* on Yomul Qiyamah.
Allah then tells us that the Prophets of
Allah
or the Prophet Sallallahu Alaihi Wasallam
doesn't control Allah's treasures,
doesn't know the unseen, isn't an angel, he
only does as he commanded.
He only follows the commands of Allah and
the revelation that
Allah gives to him. So those who follow
that revelation of Allah
alongside him or they believe in that revelation
that was sent to him, those are the
people that will benefit from the Quran.
And they are the people that Allah azza
wa Jal who is for them their Oliya,
their protector and helper in this life and
the next.
We concluded the last episode with those verses
in which Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala is speaking
about the status of the believers and especially
the poor amongst them and the needy amongst
them and how they as a virtue or
by virtue of their Iman are greater and
more beloved in the sight of Allah than
the wealthy affluent Quraysh leaders, their nobility
who are full of arrogance and disbelief
and they have spite for the religion of
Allah
and the Prophet Sallallahu Alaihi Wasallam. Allah tells
the Prophet Sallallahu Alaihi Wasallam
don't distance those people, those believers.
Don't tell them to leave your sittings. These
are the people who call upon Allah. They
show humbleness before Allah They show devotion and
submission to Allah Subhanahu Ta'ala and Allah loves
them as a result.
As for those people who are arrogant, who
turn away from Allah with disbelief,
even though they may have the power of
the dunya in terms of wealth and station
and influence and so on. In the sight
of Allah azza wa Jal they are worth
nothing.
And that is why Allah azza wa Jal
says that this is a fitna for them.
That they always question why
surely if this religion was true, we would
have been favored over the poor and the
needy. Surely we with our tribes and our
tribe names and our lineage and our nobility,
Allah would have favored us with guidance if
it was true guidance over these people who
have nothing to their name, have no wealth,
have no nobility, have no influence, have no
station. They are nobodies essentially when it comes
to the worldly sense. But as we said,
Allah as
he mentions in that verse. Alisallahu bi'ala mabishaqeen.
Does Allah not know best who from amongst
his slaves is grateful? Does Allah not know
best who from amongst his slaves is sincere?
Who wants guidance? Who will be truthful in
seeking that guidance? And so Allah does not
look at your wealth, does not look at
your influence, does not look at all of
those materialistic things. Allah
looks at the taqwa of your heart, looks
at the purity and the nobility of your
heart and that is what he bases this
upon
and it is concerning these people
and their rights and the respect that they
should be afforded to the believers that we
continue
with today in that topic from verse number
54
and the statement of Allah Subhanahu Wa Ta'ala.
When those who believe in our revelations come
to you, oh, prophet sallallahu alaihi wa sallam,
then say,
Peace be upon you. Your Lord has taken
it upon Himself to be merciful. If any
of you has foolishly done a bad deed
and afterwards repented and mended his ways, then
Allah is Most Forgiving and Most Merciful.
This is from the status of the believers.
And look at the way Allah
gives to them rights and honor and respect
that even the Prophet
is commanded to deal with them in a
certain way.
Speaking to the Prophet
and
remember if this is how the Prophet
should behave
towards the believers and the way he should
address them and so on, then what about
me and you
Who are less in station and in virtue
than the Prophet sallallahu alaihi wa sallam when
we meet other believers and especially those from
amongst the believers who are from the Uliya
of Allah azza wa Jal, from the people
of knowledge and the people who spend their
time worship of Allah azza wa Jal and
the elderly and the people who have rights
over us from our parents and others.
When those who believe in our revelations come
to you, meaning they are mumineen, they believe
in Allah azza wa Jal, they have sacrificed
their desires
and temptations of the dunya and the whisperings
of Shaitan
to submit to Allah
and devote themselves to him. When they come
to you then say, Salaam Unekum.
Greet them with the greeting of peace. May
Allah peace be upon you. And the greeting
of peace is the greeting of Jannah. The
greeting that Adam alaihi wasalam was taught in
Jannah so that he could go and greet
the angels
and the greeting of the Muslims from that
time until today and until Yomul Qiyama
and it will be the greeting of the
people of Jannah when they enter into the
abode again on Yomul
Qiyama.
On that day the greeting will be the
salam. What does it
mean when we say may peace be upon
you? The word salam means peace
and safety from evil and harm. And so
when you say Assalamu Alaikum, you are asking
for Allah azza wa Jal safety upon that
person. For Allah to bestow his safety and
peace and contentment
and tranquillity upon that individual.
And what an amazing greeting when 2 people
meet one another. And this is why it
is from the gravest of mistakes that we
don't teach our children what it means. We
don't teach our children the importance of the
salaam. That when we enter into our own
houses or we see our own family members,
we don't give salams to one another.
But rather its very common amongst our
youth and our youngsters and our adults
that they will greet one another with good
morning and hallow and other types of greeting.
When Allah has given us a greeting that
is far greater, noblier
and has an amazing meaning attached to it.
And that is that every time you see
another Muslim and you say Assalamu Alaikum, even
if you don't complete
the rest of that salaam by saying
you ask Allah's blessings and blessings upon them,
but you say Assalamu Alaikum,
even that small greeting
that is in and of itself something which
shows that you love your brother. It's something
which or sister, it's something which you which
you spread love between yourselves through it And
that is why it is the greeting of
the people of Islam.
That you ask every time you meet another
Muslim that Allah bestows his safety upon them.
That Allah ahsawajal
bestows peace and tranquillity
upon them. And that is why the Prophet
said salallahu alayhi wasalam shall not tell you
of something that if you were to do
it that love would come amongst you that
you would love one another.
Spread the salam
because why wouldn't you love someone when they
are making dua for you? And when you
are making dua for that person and that
person then responds and what do they say?
Wa Alaikum Assalam and may Allah's peace and
safety and tranquility and contentment be upon you
as well. What an amazing greeting that the
people of Iman have. And so the Prophet
is taught this etiquette
of greeting the Muslims and responding to their
greetings and therefore it is etiquette that the
Muslims should have mutually amongst themselves.
And from the rights of the believers is
that Allah
has taken it upon himself that he will
be merciful towards them. Allah is merciful to
everyone, all of his creation is under the
mercy of him Subhanahu wa ta'ala. But the
believers have an additional mercy. And that mercy
is the mercy that comes as a result
of the Iman and it is the mercy
of forgiveness of their sins.
And
that is that the one who out of
ignorance or foolishly does a bad deed.
Meaning they do bad deeds because every single
human, every single Muslim sin, every single believer
will do evil deeds. There is no Muslim
after the prophet sallallahu alaihi wa sallam that
is infallible in that way. Every Muslim sins.
Everyone commits misdeeds. Everyone commits major sins and
minor sins and someone. Some more and some
less. But Allah has made it incumbent upon
himself
that he will be merciful towards the believers.
That if they do evil
so long as they do what?
But then they repent to Allah
and they amend their ways. And these are
therefore the conditions of the mercy of Allah
azza wa Jal. Number 1 that you make
tawba. And tawba is to show remorse and
regret and return to Allah azza wa Jal
and seek his forgiveness and mercy and repent
of him subhanahu wa ta'ala. Wa aslih
and you mend your ways meaning that you
leave off that sin, that you make that
firm conviction, that determination in your heart that
you will not turn back to sinning against
Allah disobeying Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala. And there
is a sincere intention in your heart.
And even then if you sin again because
of your weakness, because of the whisperings of
Shaitan, because of the temptations of the dunya,
you are told to go back and make
that type of tawba, sincere tawba again. If
you do this,
then your Lord Allah is Most Forgiving
and Most Merciful. These are the rights of
the believers.
And so this verse is in addition to
the verse that we mentioned in the previous
episode of how the Prophet salallahu alaihi wa
sallam Jum'ah expelled these people from his gatherings
and sittings. Because these are the people of
virtue. These are the people that Allah will
shower his peace upon, his mercy upon his
forgiveness upon. So why wouldn't you want to
be in their company? Why wouldn't you want
their friendship and their companionship?
Why wouldn't you want to always be surrounded
by people that Allah is blessing and that
his mercy is descending upon. And that is
why this issue of good companionship,
of good friendship, of having good people around
you is so important because these are people
that Allah's blessings
are continuously
descending upon.
And if you are in their company then
Allah blesses you as well. And that is
why the Prophet told
us
that there are a group of people who
study for the sake of Allah ajawja. They
gather together to study the book of Allah
ajawja and study the original of Allah subhanahu
wa ta'ala and the angels come to that
gathering of knowledge and they make a ring
around them. And then another group of angels
comes and makes a second ring on top
of the first and a third ring and
a 4th ring until it ascends all the
way back to the heaven. And then when
they finish their gathering of knowledge and they
disperse,
those angels are sent back to Allah azza
wa Jal and Allah asks them and you
know Subhanahu Wa Ta'ala where did you come
from? Who did you come from? What were
they doing? What do they want? And so
on and they respond. O Allah, we came
from people seeking knowledge. O Allah, they only
do it for your sake. O Allah, they
want your reward and they seek refuge from
your punishment. And Allah says, I grant to
them, I give to them, I will give
to them and respond to them as they
please. That's from the virtues of seeking knowledge
and learning your religion. But then the angels
say, O Allah, amongst those people
was a person who was passing by and
he simply sat with them. Meaning he didn't
really come to seek knowledge. It wasn't really
his intention. Either he came into the masjid
and saw people studying so he thought let
me go and sit down and listen to
what they are saying. Or maybe someone that
his friend grabbed or someone grabbed and said
let's come, I'm going to the masjid, there's
a talk, you come with me and they
bring them along. Meaning they didn't have the
motivation intrinsically themselves to do so. But for
one reason or another through one circumstance or
another, they end up in the same place.
Oh Allah, what about that person?
The prophet said salallahu alayhi wa jal says
in this hadith, he says and they also
will have the same reward.
Because these are a group of people that
those who sit amongst them will not be
deprived of their reward.
That's an amazing virtue. That you are with
people that even if you yourself
are not the best, are not the greatest,
are not the most virtuous, as a result
of their virtue, those blessings also come to
you and you benefit from them. And that
is why
it is important that we are people who
always look for companionship.
Allah Subhanahu Wa Ta'ala then says in verse
number 55:
In this way We explain the revelation so
that the way for sinners
may be made clear.
Allah says that We have made the signs
clear
and the revelation clear
and the explanation of that revelation is also
clear.
Whether it is something which you understand as
a result of the Arabic language or because
it is from the basics of Islam
or you need to go back to the
books of tafsir and the scholars of tafsir
and acknowledge from them and ask them concerning
the meaning of these verses but it is
clear and it is something which Allah has
explained.
But also that you would know the way
of evil, the way of the sinners. Because
if you know the revelations of Allah and
the path of the believers and then Allah
as he often does in the Quran also
tells us the opposite
so that you can be aware of it,
that you can seek refuge in Allah ajazul
from it, that you can stay away from
it, that you can recognize its danger and
therefore remain far from it. Allah ajazul has
made both clear And that is from the
mercy of Allah Subhanahu Wa Ta'ala. And that
is why our religion doesn't only focus on
the good, doesn't only focus on the obligations,
doesn't only focus on the commands to do,
doesn't only focus on the reward, but it
also mentions the calamities,
the trials, the evil, the punishment
because there is a balance in
knowing both. And by knowing evil, you know
how to stay away from it and protect
yourself and others from it. Whereas if you
only know good when evil comes upon you,
then you may not necessarily know the way
of combating the evil. And that is why
Hudifah radiAllahu an, the famous companion of the
Prophet Sallallahu Alaihi Wasallam, he
said that the people would ask the Prophet
Sallallahu Alaihi Wasallam about the good, but I
would always ask about the evil out of
fear that it would strike me. So the
religion has both
and you are told to seek knowledge of
both and Allah has
made both
paths clear.
In verse 56 Allah says:
Say I am forbidden to worship those you
call upon other than Allah.
Say I will not follow your vain desires
for if I did, I would stray from
the path and cease to be rightly guided.
Allah ajazul commands, said the Prophet to make
clear that if those people are going to
turn away,
reject the signs of Allah, reject the message
of Allah, reject the Tuhid of Allah then
this is my position and the position of
the believers who follow the Prophet sallallahu alaihi
wa sallam. Say to them:
I am forbidden
to worship those Gods that you call upon
besides Allah Subhanahu wa ta'ala. Those Gods that
you worship besides Allah, those idols that you
worship, Jesus that you claim is the son
of Allah, whatever it may be. I am
forbidden from worshipping anyone besides Allah azza wa
Jal. That is my religion. That is my
belief. That is the path that Allah azza
wa Jal made clear to me.
And say to them that I will not
follow your desires because their shirk
with Allah azza wa Jal, their disbelief, their
rejection, their denial of Allah's signs and His
message, all of it is a form of
following their desires. Following the traps of Shaitan,
their desires of Shaitan, their own whims, their
own desires because they don't want to be
in submission to Allah, they don't want to
devote their worship and their life to Allah
Azza wa Jal, they would rather follow
their temptations and their desires and the whisperings
of Shaitan and say that I will not
follow your desires.
Because if I were to do so then
I would stray from the path, I would
be from the misguided and I would not
be from the rightly guided.
In verse number 57, Allah Subhanahu Wa Ta'ala
then continues and he says:
Say, I stand on clear proof from my
Lord, though you deny it.
What you seek to hasten is not within
my power. Judgment is for Allah alone. He
tells the truth and He is the best
of judges.
Allah Subhanahu Wa Ta'ala says in this verse
again commanding the Prophet
to continue and state his position
and say
As for me I have clear proof of
my Lord. My religion is not based upon
heresy or hearsay. It's not based upon rumors.
It's not based upon the practices of forefathers.
It is based upon knowledge and evidence, based
upon revelation from Allah azza wa Jal, based
upon clarity from Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala And
likewise the believer
is someone who bases their religion upon a
similar level of clarity
and knowledge and understanding.
The religion that they use to worship Allah
azza wa Jal with and this is even
amongst the Muslims, your religion, the way that
you worship Allah, the belief that you have
concerning Allah, your aqeeda as a Muslim, all
of this should be based upon clear knowledge.
I stand on clear proof for my Lord.
What is that clear proof? The Quran
and the sunnah of the Prophet sallallahu alaihi
wasallam. The understanding of the companions, the understanding
of the pious noble early generations of Muslims
and those who followed in their footsteps in
righteousness. That is the clear proof that Allah
has given to you. That is the path
that Allah
told you to be upon.
And so Allah is instructing here the Prophet
to say that your religion of shirk and
your practices and beliefs and ideologies that is
something which you based upon according to your
whims and desires and the proof that it
is based upon their whims and desires is
that they change,
manipulate,
alter, add, delete as they go, along and
as they please. Something for one time is
good, they add it. For another time it's
not good, they don't add it. One group
of people here for them in that place
is no good, so they ignore it. For
another group
of people it is good so they do
it and so Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala says
here that this
is a form of following your desires as
for me meaning the Prophet sallallahu alaihi wa
sallam I am upon clear proof from my
Lord
even though you deny that proof. You deny
Allah's revelations. You deny his message. You deny
his Quran. You would rather be upon your
falsehood be upon your ignorance be upon the
following of your desires.
As for me, I have not that which
you seek to hasten. It is not within
my power. What do they seek to hasten?
They seek to hasten the punishment of Allah
or they they they they come and they
say that we want you
to show us this sign, that miracle, do
this, do that. All of these demands that
they used to make from the Prophet sallallahu
alaihi wa sallam. Say to them that I
don't have the power to to to grant
to you that which you seek to hasten.
Allah will send his signs when he pleases.
And Allah will send his punishment if he
so pleases, when he pleases.
For indeed judgement is for Allah alone.
He alone is the one who decides. Subhanahu
wa Ta'ala. No one can force Allah.
No one can make Allah do something that
he doesn't want to do. No one can
stand and oppose the decree of Allah Alaihsa
Wa Jal.
All judgement or rule or decrees from Allah
alone.
He is the one who tells the truth.
He does as he pleases
He speaks the truth, his stories are the
truth, his message is the truth and therefore
his promises
are also the truth that which Allah has
told us will happen in this life.
And in the next life, all of that
is the truth and from that truth is
the abode of people and their final
their final residences whether that be Paradise or
whether that be the Hawfa'a, wawakhiwulfarsileen.
And he is the best of judges. He
will best, he will judge between his his
servants in this life and in the next
life. He will judge those who are true
to the message that he sent and the
revelation that he sent and the Imaan that
he instructed people to have, and he will
judge those people who turned away and rejected
and refused the signs of Allah SubhanaHu Wa
Ta'la.
In verse number 58 Allah
says, continuing with this theme of the Prophet
stating his position.
Say, if what you seek to hasten was
within My power, the matter will be settled
between you and Me, but Allah knows best
who does wrong. Say to them, meaning these
people, that this is what you demand from
Me, As they said in the previous verse
that they want to see Allah's signs, these
miracles that they would demand or the punishment
of Allah that
it should come upon them. Say to them
that if that which you demand or that
which you request was within my power to
grant
and it was something which I could give
to you then the matter would be settled.
How would it be settled? Meaning once you
have seen those signs
then there is no scope for you to
disbelieve or turn away and reject because if
you do so the punishment of Allah will
come upon you or
the the punishment of Allah that you're demanding
that you want to see if I'm truthful.
If you're truthful they would say to the
Prophet sallallahu alaihi wa sallam then show us
your your punishment, show us Allah's punishment, show
us these threats that you're making to us.
If they were to come upon you,
the matter would be settled, meaning that there
would be no scope for you then to
repent, to turn back, to have iman as
we know because once Allah's punishment comes and
the people see it then that is the
end for them just as when the soul
is about to leave the body or when
yawmul Qiyama is going to be established then
there is no scope for iman, there is
no scope for repentance, there is no scope
for increasing in good deeds or doing more
in terms of goodness once that occurs or
once that time comes upon a person.
But
Allah knows best those who do wrong.
In the final verse, we will take verse
number 59. Allah azza wa jal says,
He has the keys to the unseen.
No one knows them but Him. He knows
all that is in the land and in
the sea, no leaf falls without His knowledge,
nor is there a single grain in the
darkness of the earth or anything fresh or
withered except that it is written in a
clear record.
This is from the most amazing verses of
the Quran that speak about the knowledge of
Allah
his power and his ability
Allah
says:
To Allah belongs the keys of the unseen.
No one knows them except him. Allah knows
all of the unseen, Subhanahu wa ta'ala. As
Allah Azzawaj tells us elsewhere in the Quran,
that from these knowledges of the unseen
is that Allah knows when the hour will
be.
And He is the one who knows when
the rain will descend and where exactly it
will descend and what time and for how
long it will descend. Because today even with
all of our technology and science and the
ability
to to forecast weather and so on, we
don't have it down to the exact precise
moment. They still need to learn more. There's
still new weather patterns that they need to
study. There's still times and places that they
can't determine how bad a storm will be
or how bad a hurricane will come or
how devastating a certain calamity will be. That
is knowledge that Allah has alone.
And Allah knows what is contained within the
wombs. We may know now in some cases
or many cases whether the child in the
womb is male or female but we don't
know if it's going to be a believer
or disbeliever. We don't know how long it's
going to live for. We don't know if
it's going to live a life that is
a life of wealth and health or a
life that is going to be difficult. That
is knowledge that Allah
has alone
and
Allah
knows when a person will die and in
which land they will die and Allah knows
what a person will earn in terms of
their deeds on the next day and on
this day. That is from the knowledge that
Allah has kept by himself.
No one knows the knowledge of the unseen
except
Him.
Pras for Allah, He knows it all and
He knows everything in the land and the
sea, even in the depths of the ocean
that which no person can see, no person
can witness Allah azza wa Jal's intimate knowledge
of it. Allah Subhanahu Wa Ta'ala then gives
us an example of this. Walmaaatasqutumil
maraka not a single leaf falls from a
tree. All of the millions of trees that
we have across the world with all of
their trees, all of their leaves, all of
their flowers, all of their buds, not a
single leaf falls in a single place except
that Allah has intimate knowledge of it.
Except that He knows of it.
Not a single grain in the darkness of
the earth, meaning in the depths of the
earth, that grain that has been planted there,
that seed that is there, that has been
there for who knows how long and who
knows who planted it and who knows how
long it has been there. Allah has intimate
knowledge of it. It can't be seen by
me and you or the naked eye but
Allah knows it Subhanahu Wa Ta'ala.
Nor anything that is fresh or with it,
whether it is alive or dead or whether
it is soon to live or soon to
die. None of us have that knowledge of
what is contained to that intimate and detailed
level but Allah knows
except that it is in the law of
almaphor in the record that Allah has kept
And it shows you the intimate knowledge that
Allah has and his awareness Subhanahu wa ta'ala.
And so therefore the God and the Lord
that has this knowledge and that has this
ability to know and that it is all
aware is the one worthy of worship. Why
would you make du'a other than Allah when
Allah knows intimately everything that you need, the
hardships that you are going through, the difficulties
that you are going through and Allah knows
best that which is best for you in
terms of that response. Why then would you
turn to Allah other than Allah, Trust in
other than Allah. Ask other than Allah when
Allah
has all of this knowledge and all of
this intimate knowledge of everything that exists in
the heavens and the earth including me and
you and everything that we need and that
which has our goodness and salvation in it.
And with that, we come to the conclusion
of this episode.