Ahsan Hanif – Quran Tafseer – Page 156 – The People Of Al-ARaf
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The Jannah River fire is a war of fear between Muslims and Muslims, with the possibility of negative consequences for those who do not believe in Islam. The fear of the firing of people is emphasized, and the importance of providing hope and support is emphasized. The sermon emphasizes the need for individuals to call upon the people of the fire and receive water or food, and to avoid false assumptions and avoid suffering. The importance of strong foundation is emphasized, and the need for people to be aware of their actions is also discussed.
AI: Summary ©
I seek refuge with Allah from the accursed
Satan In the name of Allah, the most
Gracious, the most Merciful Peace and blessings be
upon you In the name of Allah, the
most Gracious, the most Merciful All praise is
due to Allah, Lord of the worlds And
the final destination is for the righteous And
there is no enmity except against the wrongdoers
And I bear witness that there is no
god but Allah, One and has no partner
God of the first and the last Welcome
to another episode of our Tafsir Paid by
Page, and inshallah ta'ala today we are
on page 156 of the Quran which is
in the 8th Juz of the Quran, Suratul
A'raf.
In the previous episode we mentioned those verses
in which Allah subhana wa ta'ala spoke
about the punishment of the people of the
fire, and how those people will be thrown
into the fire, they will be driven into
it in crowds, as nations, as groups, and
as they enter into it they will curse
one another, and they will be gathered therein,
all of them, in their multitudes, in their
millions if not billions that Allah azza wa
jal will bequeath when entering to the fire
from the humans and the jinn, and therein
they will begin to curse one another, and
to blame one another, and the people who
were the followers will say to their leaders,
or the last of them will say to
the first of them that it was because
of you that we were misguided, and they
will make or ask in that fire that
Allah azza wa jal doubles the punishment of
those people, that Allah multiplies the punishment of
those people, and Allah will say that all
of your punishment is multiplied, all of you
will have the greatest of punishment or the
severest of punishment in the fire, and those
people who came before, or the first of
them, or the leaders amongst them will say
to those who followed that you have no
favor over us, you were no better than
us, just as we disbelieved and rejected, you
also disbelieved and rejected, just as we turned
away from Allah's message, you also did, you
have no favor over us, there is no
honorable thing that you did that we did
not do, and so we are all the
same in this regard, Allah azza wa jal
mentioned how those people will never enter to
Jannah, that it is impossible in the sight
of Allah azza wa jal that they will
enter to Jannah, just as it is impossible
in this world that you can take a
camel and place it into or drive it
into the eye of a needle, it is
extremely, it is impossible, and therefore likewise it
will be impossible for those people that they
will ever enter into Jannah, rather their abode
will be the fire, and they will be
covered by it, above them and below them
and surrounding them, all they will see is
the fire, Allah subhana wa ta'ala even
spoke about the people of Iman and righteousness,
and how they because of their Iman and
their righteousness they will have Jannah, and that
is where they will remain, that will be
their abode, and how Allah azza wa jal
will extract from their hearts evil feelings that
they had towards one another, because that is
human nature, that even with another Muslim and
another believer and another person of righteousness sometimes,
that is human nature that you may have
a disagreement with them, that you may have
had some type of rancor or feelings amongst
yourselves, but Allah azza wa jal extracts it
from the people of Jannah, because in Jannah
there is no such thing as anything which
is evil or harmful, and the people of
Jannah Allah azza wa jal tells us will
praise Him, because they will recognize and acknowledge
the great blessing of guidance of Hidayah that
Allah azza wa jal placed upon them and
gave to them in this world, and as
a result of which they were saved, whilst
many of their fellow humans and jinn were
placed into the fire.
In the verses that we will continue with
today, verses 44 onwards, Allah subhana wa ta
'ala now speaks about a discussion that takes
place between the inhabitants of Jannah and the
inhabitants of the fire, the people of paradise
and the people of the fire, and Allah
azza wa jal says A'udhu Billahi Minash
Shaitanir Rajeem The
people of the garden would cry out to
the people of the fire, we have found
what our Lord promised us to be true,
have you found what your Lord promised you
to be true and they will answer yes,
a voice will proclaim from their mist, Allah's
curse hangs over the disbelievers of the evildoers,
here Allah azza wa jal mentions to us
a conversation that will take place between the
people of Jannah and the people of the
fire, and this seems to be Allah azza
wa jal knows best before Allah subhana wa
ta'ala finally decrees that the people of
the fire cannot call out to anyone, they
can't call out to the Angels or the
people of the Jannah or to Allah azza
wa jal himself, but before that stage takes
place as a further means of humiliation, as
a further way of degrading these people of
Jannah or of the fire, Allah azza wa
jal gives them the ability to talk and
to converse so that they will know and
these are different layers of punishment upon them
because even though they're in the fire, there
is still some semblance of hope, they hope
that the Angels may do something, they hope
that their friends and the people that they
knew were now in Jannah may do something,
they hope in the mercy of Allah azza
wa jal and bit by bit or stage
by stage, point by point, Allah azza wa
jal cuts off all of this hope and
that is a greater form of punishment because
if a person is in a place but
they have a semblance of hope that there's
an escape, that there's an exit, that there's
a way out, that hope sometimes gives them
a great deal of strength and a great
deal of confidence but Allah azza wa jal
removes that from the people of the fire
in different ways, from them is this here,
this conversation where the people of Jannah will
call out to the people of the fire,
they will say, we found the promise of
our Lord that Allah gave to us to
be true, what is the promise that Allah
gave to them that was true, that if
they have Iman, the people of Jannah, they
do righteous deeds, they uphold the halal and
the haram, that Allah will save them from
the fire and that Allah will give to
them the eternal blessings of Jannah with all
of its good and all of its many
blessings.
So the people of Jannah will now call
out to the people of the fire that
what we found is true but did you
find also what Allah promised you to be
true, that if you disbelieve, that you rejected,
that you're people of sin and evil, that
Allah will punish you in the fire just
as the prophet sallallahu alaihi wasallam said to
those enemies of Islam on the day of
Badr who were killed on that day as
he threw them as they were buried and
they were thrown into the wells of Badr,
the prophet sallallahu alaihi wasallam said to them,
do you find now what Allah promised you
to be true, the promise that you were
given, do you find it to be true
meaning that you now know the reality because
they're in their graves and the angels of
punishment have come upon them and they know
now the reality of that situation, do you
find Allah's promise to be true, in some
narrations, it is said that Umar r.a
said O messenger of Allah, how can you
speak to corpses?
These are people that are dead, they're corpses,
how can you speak to them?
And the prophet sallallahu alaihi wasallam said what
I say to you O Umar is not
more clear than what they can hear from
me, meaning that they can hear me just
as clearly as you can O Umar r
.a, but the point is here that the
prophet sallallahu alaihi wasallam said to them the
same thing they hear the people of Jannah
saying to the people of the fire, we
try to guide you, we try to advise
you, we try to help you and we
told you this is what Allah is promising,
this is the law of Allah azza wa
jal, that cannot be changed or altered in
any way, cannot be manipulated or transferred in
any way and you rejected and denied it
and now that the decision or the judgment
of Allah has come to pass, have you
found what Allah promised you to be true,
they will say yes because they will have
to acknowledge on that day, the doubts that
they had have been removed, all that remains
now is certainty that Allah's promise is true,
that what Allah azza wa jal told us
was true, that what we found in the
Quran was true, that what the prophet sallallahu
alaihi wasallam was true, so Allah's voice will
call out on that day in their midst
that Allah's la'na, his curse and rejection
hangs upon those who did evil and so
those are the people therefore that will enter
into the fire and remain therein for eternity,
in verse number 45, Allah azza wa jal
describes these people and he says, those
who turned others away from Allah's path and
tried to make it crooked, those who denied
the Hereafter, these are some of their major
traits that they turned away from Allah azza
wa jal, they blocked others and obstructed others
from coming to the path of Allah subhanahu
wa ta'ala, they tried to make the
laws of Allah azza wa jal and his
religion crooked and they denied the Hereafter and
some people had all of this and some
people had some of this, some people had
a religion that they came from Allah but
it wasn't his true religion because they made
it crooked, they manipulated and altered it, others
from amongst them denied the Hereafter, others from
amongst them obstructed the people from coming close
to the path of Allah azza wa jal
and some from amongst them did all of
this and so Allah azza wa jal speaks
about these people that these are some of
the traits that they have and as a
result of which they will be in the
fire for all of eternity.
Allah azza wa jal now speaks in these
next coming verses about the concept after which
this surah is named and that is the
A'raf.
Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala says in verse
number 46 a
barrier divides the two groups with men on
its heights recognizing each group at their marks
they will call out to the people of
the god and peace be with you, they
will not have entered but they will be
hoping.
Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala says that between
these people, so Allah azza wa jal just
mentioned the conversation between the people of Jannah
and the people of the fire, he says
between the two of these people Jannah and
the fire, the people of Jannah, the people
of the fire there is a hijab, a
construction, a barrier of sorts and this barrier
is called the A'raf.
And upon this there will be men that
will be standing and waiting, people, men and
women that will be waiting upon this barrier.
This barrier is the dividing barrier between the
fire and between paradise.
They will be standing upon it by which
because and that is why you often find
in some translations that the word A'raf
is translated as meaning the heights.
So it is something which is extremely high
this barrier by which the people who stand
upon it can look upon both people, both
groups, the people the inhabitants of Jannah and
the inhabitants of the fire.
Allah azza wa jal says that on these
on these heights or these A'raf, there
are people who can recognize each group by
their markings, meaning when they see the people
of Jannah, they can recognize the people of
Jannah because the people of Jannah will look
a certain way, they will be illuminated a
certain way.
Allah azza wa jal will honor and bless
them in a certain way that will be
recognizable to everyone.
And likewise the people of the fire will
be darkened and humiliated and downcast in a
certain way that also makes them recognizable.
So these people can see the two people
and they can recognize who they are.
So when these people look towards the people
of Jannah and salamun alaykum, they will call
out to the people of the garden and
they will say salamun alaykum.
They will give them the salam is the
greeting of peace, the greeting of protection because
the word salam as we mentioned before means
that may Allah give to you and grant
you peace and safety from every harm and
evil.
It's the salam that we the greeting of
the people of the world, the Muslims one
to another and is the greeting of the
people of Jannah.
And so when they look to the people
of Jannah, they will give to them that
greeting.
These people that are waiting that are upon
this place, the Araf, they are have not
yet entered into Jannah.
They look and they see and they give
those greetings, but they haven't entered.
But they hope that they will be from
those people because if you saw those two
groups of people on yawm al-qiyamah, which
person in their right mind wouldn't hope to
be that Allah azawajal will help them to
be from those people of Jannah.
But then they will look to the other
group as Allah azawajal mentions in verse 47.
And when their glance falls upon the people
of the fire, they will say our Lord
do not let us join the evildoers.
So when they look the other way and
now they see the people of the fire
with all that they will have the people
of the fire of disgrace and punishment and
evil and hardship and all of the things
that Allah azawajal has mentioned to us and
has described to us of the punishments of
the fire and they will see those terrifying
images before them.
They will turn to Allah in dua and
they will say oh Allah don't make us
from amongst those people.
Don't make us from amongst those people.
So they will hope to be from the
people of Jannah.
They will see and hope to be from
amongst them and they will not hope to
be from the people of the fire.
Allah subhanaw Then continues in verse 48 and
he says still continue with these people of
the Araf and
the people of the heights the Araf will
call out to certain men that they recognize
by their marks and they will say what
use were your great numbers and your false
pride.
Allah azawajal says that as they look towards
these people of the fire, they recognize these
people and they see them and they ask
Allah for protection for not being gathered alongside
them and with them and to be from
amongst them.
These people of Araf or some of them
will call out to some of those people
of the fire that they recognize by their
markings and that is why the Sharia talks
about the markings of the people of Jannah.
The people of Jannah are known by their
attributes, their physical attributes as the prophet told
us sallallahu alaihi wasallam in the hadith of
Abu Huraira when he was asked how will
you recognize your ummah on the day of
judgment and the prophet sallallahu alaihi wasallam said
that my ummah will be they will have
lights or illumination on their limbs, their forearms,
their feet because of the wudu that they
made.
All these parts and limbs that you wash
multiple times a day in wudu as you
wash them, they are illuminated on yawm al
-qiyamah.
I will recognize my people as a result
of that.
So whoever can increase that illumination then let
him do so according to many of the
scholars of Islam, the meaning of that is
the hadith that the more wudu that you
can do the better.
So that's why it was the common practice
of the Salaf that they would make fresh
wudu even if they didn't need to make
wudu but to refresh your wudu, to make
fresh wudu, to do wudu as often as
you can.
It is something by which you increase that
illumination for the people who who go into
the fire.
One of the ways that they will be
extracted from it is as the prophet told
us sallallahu alaihi wasallam that the fire will
consume all of the Muslim except for the
prostration mark upon their forehead.
They can't consume that and so when the
people go to try to recognize who are
the believers left in the fire, who are
the people of iman, that's how they will
recognize them and this brings me to a
very important point here.
If a person doesn't make wudu and they
don't pray because if you're not praying you're
not making wudu.
Why are you going to make wudu if
you don't pray and if you're not praying
then how will you be recognized on yawm
al-qiyamah and this is the reason why
a number of the scholars of Islam are
of the position that the person who doesn't
pray is outside of the fold of Islam,
leaves the fold of Islam because and you
know whether you agree with this position and
you think it is the strongest or the
weakest, it is no doubt that there are
numerous narrations in the Quran and the sunnah
that at least allude to something like this,
that threaten something like this and even that
threat is enough for the believer to think
and to stop in their tracks and to
turn back to Allah azawajal and make tawbah.
How will you be recognized if you rarely
made wudu in your life, you rarely prayed
in your life, it's something which you did
once a year, what prostration mark will be
on your forehead when you only pray once
a year or twice a year or a
handful of times a year, you can tell
the people who have prayed their entire lifetime
because you can see the roughness of the
ground that they prayed upon in their upon
their forehead, you can see that they're people
of wudu because they're constantly washing, constantly washing
when in fact most of them the people
of salah often it is known that even
if it's not a time of prayer, but
they just go to relieve themselves of the
karamah of Allah, they come out in the
seat of wudu because as the prophet told
us salallahu alayhi wa sallam, only the believers
constantly remain in wudu before they sleep then
in wudu, when they wake up they're in
wudu, throughout the day they're in wudu, they
like to be in that state of ritual
purity and ritual purification and so Allah azawajal
is saying that these people Allah azawajal so
the people of of jannah are recognized but
likewise the people of the fire will be
recognized, so these people of the araf will
see people of the fire that they will
recognize them from their markings that these are
people of the fire, they will say to
them that which you gathered of the dunya,
of its wealth and all the things that
you amassed and the pride and arrogance that
you showed what has it profited you on
this day, what has it benefited you on
this day, what is it that you claimed
that you would have gained from this on
this day but it doesn't come to you
in any type of benefit, in verse 49
Allah azawajal continues that they will say are
now these the people you swore that Allah
will never bless, now these people are told
enter the garden no fear for you nor
shall you grieve, so they will say to
the people of the fire these people that
are standing on the heights of the araf
and they will say that what you gathered,
what you did in the dunya, what you
amassed of wealth and power and everything else
didn't benefit you and these people pointing to
the people of jannah that were the poor,
that were the weak, they used to make
fun of, they used to ridicule, they used
to mock, these people you claim that Allah
will never bless, that Allah will never show
his mercy to, that Allah will never honor
because they don't have anything that is honorable,
they don't have money like you do, they
don't have because again their mindset was that
money equals favor, wealth, power, influence, this is
what is these people don't have anything, they
spend their life worshiping, praying, reading Quran, what
do they have, what do they know in
terms of this stuff, you said, you claimed,
you took oaths that these people will never
be shown the mercy of Allah azawajal and
that is because of how distant or how
far away they were from the statement of
Allah azawajal and then it was said to
those people that you cannot enter into jannah,
you will have no fear upon you nor
shall you grieve meaning the people of jannah
that you claimed would never go into jannah,
Allah has given them jannah on this day,
another scholar of tafseer said that this is
now an address to the people of the
araf because these are the people that are
neither on either side and they hope to
be from the people of jannah, they want
to be saved from the people of the
fire, Allah is not saying to them you
may enter into jannah alongside those people and
that brings us on to this issue that
the scholars of tafseer differ over and there
are numerous positions concerning who are these people
and why are they standing there on these
heights in between these two places because clearly
these verses show that there are people in
jannah, the people of jannah are in jannah,
the people of the fire are in the
fire and they can recognize both why are
these people waiting and what are they waiting
for and there are many different positions concerning
this but the strongest of them and Allah
knows best or the one that was favored
by many of the scholars of tafseer and
Allah azawajal knows best is that the people
of araf, these people that are standing and
waiting are the people whose good deeds and
evil deeds are equal, equal meaning that there
are people who have iman because that is
the base foundation in order to be able
to go into jannah but in terms of
their good and evil they are equal because
we know from the people of islam are
those people that will enter into the fire
for a period of time that Allah will
determine in order to cleanse them from their
sins and their evil deeds, these are people
who are equal in terms of their scale
of good deeds and evil deeds and that
shows to us that these people will be
made to wait until the end and that
will cause them a level of terror, will
cause them a level of terror because they
don't know which way they will go, they
don't know if they will be from amongst
those people who have to be cleansed or
not but Allah azawajal for those people who
are equal in that regard, it is the
position as you can see from this verse
also that Allah will give to them jannah
because even though they are equal there is
nothing to weigh the balance either way, it
is from the mercy of Allah azawajal because
his mercy overcomes his anger that in situations
like this, Allah azawajal honors those people with
jannah and he doesn't punish them for the
sins that they have committed and Allah azawajal
knows best.
in verse number 50 Allah subhanahu wa ta
'ala then continues with the conversation between the
people of jannah and the fire, he says
the people of the fire will call to
the people of paradise, give us some water
or any of the sustenance that Allah has
granted you and they will reply Allah has
forbidden both to the disbelievers.
remember as we said at the beginning of
this episode the people of the fire will
have that semblance of hope, this is how
now it will be cut off from them,
they will have hope so the people of
the fire will call to the people of
jannah because from the people of jannah people
that they will recognize relatives, friends, colleagues, neighbors,
people that they knew, people in this world
that they had dealings with, that they had
a level of coming and going and sitting
and so on with and so because of
that they will call upon them or even
more generally just from for the need that
they will face that they will say أَفِيضُ
وَعَلِيْنَا مِنَ الْمَاءِ give to us from the
water that you have, Allah tells us subhanahu
wa ta'ala that the people of fire
have water, Allah tells us numerous places in
the Quran that they will be given to
drink, that they will be showered, that water
will be poured on them, but it is
a water that is boiling, it is pus,
it is things that they cannot enjoy, that
they can't benefit from, so they will say
to the people of jannah give to us
from the water meaning the cool water that
you have of jannah أَوْ مِمَّا رَزَقَكُمُ اللَّهُ
or from the provision and sustenance of Allah
meaning from the food of jannah and from
the things that Allah azawajal has given to
you from jannah and they will reply meaning
the people of jannah, they will say إِنَّ
اللَّهَ حَرَّمَهُمَ عَلَى الْكَافِرِينَ Allah has made it
haram, prohibited both of these things, all types
of sustenance and all types of provision and
water for the people of kufr, for the
people of the fire and that is when
the people of the fire will know that
there is no hope, that these people who
at least they had maybe some connection with,
they're not able to, whether they want to
or not is irrespective.
Allah azawajal has made it haram, that will
be the command and the law of Allah
subhanahu wa ta'ala and Allah azawajal mentions
why that is, why these people will be
prevented in verse number 51 which is the
final verse that we will take today Those
who took their religion for destruction, a mere
game and they were deluded by the worldly
life, today we shall ignore them just as
they have ignored their meeting with this day
and denied our revelations.
Allah azawajal says that this is the reason
why they have been prohibited from everything, why
they will remain in the fire for eternity
is because they treated this life as a
destruction and a game, they thought that it
was without purpose, they used to mock and
make fun of those people who worship Allah
azawajal, they used to deny Allah, deny his
messengers and prophets, deny his revelations and scriptures
and they would deny everything that Allah azawajal
gave to them and they would show ingratitude
for the many blessings that Allah azawajal bestowed
upon them and the world and the dunya
deluded them, they thought that it was all
that there was to existence is this life,
you live, you die and there's nothing more,
so they worked only for the dunya and
they forgot the akhirah and so because they
forgot, because they were negligent and heedless of
yawm al-qiyamah, Allah azawajal says, فَالْيَوْمَ نَنْسَاهُمْ
كَمَا نَسُوا لِقَاءَ يَوْمٍ هَذَا We will be
ignorant of them, ignore them, just as they
ignored the coming of this day, just as
they pretended to forget yawm al-qiyamah or
they forgot yawm al-qiyamah, then on this
day they too will be forgotten and ignored
وَمَا كَانُوا بِآيَاتِنَا يَجْحَدُونَ and because they used
to deny and ignore the signs of Allah
azawajal, and so Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala
will punish them on that day because of
the evil that they committed in this world,
not least of them, not least of which
was that they rejected Allah azawajal and turned
away from him and they didn't believe in
Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala and with that
we come to the end of today's episode,
بارك الله فيكم وصلى الله على نبينا محمد
وعلى آله وصحبه أجمعين السلام عليكم ورحمة الله
وبركاته