Ahsan Hanif – Quran Tafseer – Page 159 – The People Of `Ad
AI: Summary ©
The history and cultural context of Islam are discussed, including the origin of the Prophet A.S. and the use of shtick in gaining acceptance and understanding of one's own culture. The importance of evidence-based media and sh matter in sh patterning behavior is emphasized, with the need for people to be more aware of their actions and serve and worship. The message of Islam is not just to worship, but to serve and worship, and sh matter is not just to do what, but to be better and be more successful.
AI: Summary ©
I seek refuge with Allah from Satan the
accursed.
He said, O my people, worship Allah.
You have no other god than Him.
Will you not take heed?
Hud A.S. is the one that came
after Nuh A.S. So, there may have
been other prophets that came in between Nuh
A.S. and Hud A.S. Allah knows
best, but from the stories of the prophets
that we have in the book of Allah
A.S. Hud A.S. is the one
that would have come after Nuh A.S.
And that is based upon what we will
see in this passage and the context that
we see herein.
So, Hud A.S. is sent to his
people.
Who are his people?
A people known as Aad.
Allah A.S. says, وَإِلَىٰ عَادًا To the
people of Aad.
And Aad is the name of a nation.
Name of a nation that used to live
in Yemen.
So, they resided in Yemen.
And so, it's one of those nations that
was Arab.
And so, the prophet Hud A.S. was
also an Arab.
And so, these were people that were known
even to the Arabs at the time of
the prophet S.A.W. Meaning that they
had heard of these past nations that existed
like the people of Aad.
Because they were in the Arabian Peninsula, and
the Arabs generally knew their lineage pretty well.
And they had heard of these other tribes
and nations that existed once upon a time.
So, Allah A.S. says to the people
of Aad, We sent to them their brother,
Hud A.S. How is he their brother?
He's their brother because he's one of them.
He's their brother in terms of citizenship and
tribal, in the tribal sense and in the
nation sense.
Because he is from amongst them.
Just as the prophet S.A.W. was
from Quraish.
He's the brother of the people of Quraish.
Even the disbelievers amongst them in the tribal
sense, not in the religious sense.
And so Allah A.S. isn't speaking here
about the religious sense.
That he was a brother to the people
of Aad.
Because many of the people of Aad were
upon shirk.
But he was their brother in the tribal
sense, in the nationalistic sense.
And that is as Allah A.S. mentions
also in the Quran that Allah has divided
us into nations and tribes.
So that we may know one another.
And also as Allah A.S. mentions in
Surah Ibrahim.
That Allah A.S. didn't send a messenger
except that he spoke the tongue of his
people.
Meaning that he was from them, and he
knew them, and he was familiar with their
culture.
And so the prophets were chosen from their
people.
And that way they would be known in
terms of their ancestry, and their lineage, and
their nobility, and their honesty and character.
But also because then they would be from
amongst their people and be able to understand
the dynamics of that people.
Because anyone that's moved to a different country,
or married into a completely different family and
culture.
Will know that it takes a long time
for a person to become accustomed to, acclimatized
to the different ways that people do things.
Not necessarily good things they do or bad
things they do, it's just the way that
people are.
People have their cultures, their histories, their traditions.
And as long as it's not haram, that's
not necessarily something which Islam tells you to
abandon either.
However, for a newcomer, a new person that
takes time to get used to.
And so rather than sending prophets to people,
and then he has to learn about them
and become accustomed to them and so on.
Allah A.S. chooses from the people their
prophets so that it will be easier in
that sense.
And they will be more willing to know
and understand who their prophets and messengers are.
His call was the same as the call
then of Nuh A.S. As we mentioned
in the previous episode, O my people, اعبد
الله, Worship Allah alone.
ما لكم من الله غيره You have no
God besides Him.
أفلا تتقون, Will you not have Taqwa?
Will you not fear?
Will you not take heed?
Because otherwise you will have punishment.
So just as Nuh A.S. gave the
glad tidings and the warning of punishment, likewise,
Hud A.S. also does the same.
How did his people respond?
Allah A.S. tells us in verse 66
قَالَ الْمَلَأُ الَّذِينَ كَفَرُوا مِن قَوْمِهِ إِنَّا لَنَرَاكَ
فِي سَفَاهَةٍ وَإِنَّا لَنَظُنُّكَ مِنَ الْكَاذِبِينَ But the
disbelieving leaders of his people said, We believe
you are a fool and we think you
are a liar.
So they reject him.
Just as Nuh A.S.'s people rejected him.
For Nuh A.S. they said, We think
you are upon dalalah, upon misguidance.
What are they saying now to Hud A
.S., the people of Aad?
We think that you are a safih upon
safaha.
Safaha is someone who is foolish.
Doesn't know what they are doing, doesn't know
what they are saying.
You see someone who walks around and doesn't
really know how to understand what they are
doing or how they are doing or how
to speak or how to conduct themselves in
social settings or how to interact with people.
You say that person is a fool.
Foolish in their behavior.
Foolish in the way that they speak.
Foolish in the way that they think.
That's what they claimed of Hud A.S.
A prophet that was anointed and chosen by
Allah A.S. To be from amongst the
best of his creation.
From the best of the creation of Allah
A.S. Not only that, وَإِنَّا لَنَظُنُّكَ مِنَ
الْكَاذِبِينَ And we think that you are a
liar.
So again as we said in the previous
episode, Those accusations that were made against our
Prophet A.S. It wasn't the first time
that they were made in the history of
humankind.
He wasn't the first prophet or messenger.
And that is why as we mentioned previously
that Allah A.S. The Prophet A.S.
in the Quran on a number of occasions.
Look at the stories of those who came
before you.
Look at what they used to say.
Look at how they dealt with their prophets
and messengers.
You are not the first one of Muhammad
A.S. To be dealt with in this
way.
So just as the Prophet A.S. was
called misguided.
Nuh A.S. people called him misguided.
And just as the Prophet A.S. was
called crazy or mad or foolish and a
liar.
Then likewise the people of Ayah are calling
Hud A.S. the same thing.
And that's because again Shaytan has overcome them.
Iblis has overcome them.
And they don't know the path back to
Allah A.S. And they are so immersed
in their misguidance, in their disbelief, in their
shirk with Allah A.S. That they can't
even recognize the truth.
They can't see it.
And they can't recognize it even when a
prophet of Allah brings it to them.
And so Hud A.S. responds and he
says in verse 67 قَالَ يَا قَوْمِ لَيْسَ
بِي سَفَاهَةٌ وَلَكِنِّي رَسُولٌ مِنْ رَبِّ الْعَالَمِينَ He
said my people there is nothing foolish about
me.
On the contrary I am a messenger from
the Lord of the worlds.
Just as Hud A.S. said that I
am not upon misguidance.
I am a messenger from your Lord and
I am sincere to you.
Then likewise Hud A.S. is saying the
same thing.
There is nothing foolish in what I am
saying.
Because you can tell the ramblings of a
fool.
You can tell the ramblings of a mad
man.
You can tell when someone is crazy by
the way that they act and the way
that they speak.
That's something which most sensible people can do.
And that is why when the prophet of
Allah A.S. during his time when the
Quraysh used to say to people he is
crazy and he is mad and so on.
Some of them would say let us go
and listen to him.
Everyone knows what a crazy man sounds like.
Everyone knows what a foolish person sounds like.
You don't need a degree or some type.
It's known.
It's well known.
You go and sit with someone who is
crazy.
You will come away thinking that they are
crazy.
And if you don't come away thinking that
they are crazy then they are probably not
very crazy.
And so this is exactly what the Quraysh
had.
The same type of propaganda against the prophet
of Allah A.S. This is what we
see here when it comes to the people
of Ad and Hud A.S. He said
I don't have any craziness with me.
The things that I am saying they make
sense.
They are things that are logical.
They are things that are based upon evidence.
They are things that are based upon purity
and goodness because they come from Allah subhanahu
wa ta'ala.
But rather if I am not crazy then
there is only another solution left.
Because either this person is crazy or foolish
or if he is not then what he
is saying has something which is evidence based
which is logical, which makes sense, which should
be considered as worthy of your consideration and
that is therefore that he must have a
higher purpose.
So he said وَلَكِنِّي رَسُولٌ مِنْ رَبِّ الْعَالَمِينَ
Rather I am a messenger from the Lord
of all that exists.
In verse 68 he continues and he says
أُبَلِّغُكُمْ رِسَالَاتِ رَبِّي وَأَنَا لَكُمْ نَاصِحٌ أَمِينٌ I
am delivering my Lord's messages to you and
I am sincere and an honest advisor.
I have come to you as a messenger
from your Lord bringing you to revelation from
Allah azza wa jal giving to you the
words of Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala the
guidance of Allah azza wa jal conveying to
you His messages وَأَنَا لَكُمْ نَاصِحٌ أَمِينٌ and
I am sincere and I am trustworthy and
honest.
And isn't it amazing that these are the
words that they would often use to describe
the Prophet ﷺ the Quraysh would often call
him الأمين the trustworthy one and they would
say he is صادق that he is someone
who is truthful they would say that we've
never heard you speak a lie before or
be dishonest these words that are weighty words
in terms of describing someone's character and someone's
disposition all of a sudden they become like
fluff when he comes and calls people to
Allah azza wa jal which shows that it's
not an issue of right or wrong or
guidance or misguidance to them it was an
issue of following desires it was an issue
of them being overcome by the temptations of
the dunya and the whisperings of shaitan and
so likewise here in the story of Hud
ﷺ he says that I am sincere to
you and I am honest to you and
I am someone who is truthful and you
know my history of being truthful so why
now would you expect me to be untruthful
when it comes to something which is even
greater so when Abu Sufyan went to the
Byzantine Roman leader and the man asked him
Abu Sufyan has he ever spoken about something
like this is he known to lie about
things like this in your normal dealings everyday
does he lie he said no so the
Byzantine Roman leader said if someone doesn't lie
about the small things of the dunya why
would he lie about something greater which is
Allah azza wa jal someone doesn't lie about
the small stuff they have such a level
of integrity and honesty and principle they're so
principled that they won't make lies and they
won't just just fudge around the truth on
small issues that practically everyone else may consider
to be insignificant and not a big deal
if he's not willing to do it on
these small petty issues then why would he
do it about something that is like speaking
about the lord and creator of the whole
universe but this is how they used to
think and so Allah azza wa jal then
says in verse 69 أَوَعَجِبْتُمْ أَنْ جَاءَكُمْ ذِكْرٌ
مِّنْ رَبِّكُمْ عَلَىٰ رَجُلٍ مِّنْكُمْ لِيُنذِرَكُمْ وَاذْكُرُوا إِذْ
جَعَلَكُمْ خُلَفَاءَ مِنْ بَعْدِ قَوْمِ نُوحٍ وَزَادَكُمْ فِي
الْخَلْقِ بَسْطَةً فَاذْكُرُوا آلَاءَ اللَّهِ لَعَلَّكُمْ تُفْنِحُونَ do
you find it so strange that a message
should come from your lord through a man
in your midst to warn you remember how
he made you heirs after Noah's people and
increased your stature remember Allah's bounty so that
you may prosper here Allah Azza wa Jal
tells us that Hud Ali continues his discourse
with his people the people of Aden he
says are you amazed just as Nuh said
to his people also are you amazed do
you find it strange that Allah would send
you a message that Allah would give to
you guidance that Allah would give to you
a reminder that would come through a man
who lives amongst you why is that so
amazing to you Allah Azza wa Jal is
from his most greatest mercy and his kindness
and generosity and bounty upon humankind that Allah
Azza wa Jal doesn't just leave people without
any type of guidance that he leaves people
in a sense of not knowing in a
sense of bewilderment not understanding the purpose and
reason for their creation or how they're meant
to live their lives upon this earth it
is from Allah's blessing that he sent you
people that will guide you and teach you
and you have enough sense enough intelligence to
be able to sit down and listen and
to think and ponder and reflect is what
this person is saying does it make sense
does it have truth in it or not
and so that is what his people what
Hud Ali is saying to his people why
are you amazed at this وَاذْكُرُوا إِذْ جَعَلَكُمْ
خُلَفَاءَ مِنْ بَعْدِ قَوْمِ نُوحٍ and remember when
Allah Azza wa Jal made you the heirs
after the people of Nuh and that's why
as we said at the beginning of this
episode many of the scholars of the position
that Nuh Ali Salam is followed by Hud
Ali Salam as the next prophet that is
sent to a major people and nation and
Allah Azza wa Jal knows best but either
way because he's referring back to him don't
you remember that Allah made you the heirs
of those people how Allah destroyed them have
you not heard of their stories have you
not heard of what took place with them
and even the Arabs in the time of
the prophet were aware of those people of
Ad and the people of Thamud these were
Arab tribes and nations that they were familiar
with and so he's asking them don't you
remember what happened to Nuh what the story
of Nuh and his people were and now
Allah Azza wa Jal has given to you
has made you the heirs of those people
وَزَادَكُمْ فِي الْخَلْقِ بَسْطَةً and he has increased
you in your stature because the people of
Hud were a people of military might and
power they were people of strength and they
used to go around boasting about the strength
and the power that they had they were
formidable people of their time and that is
from the blessings that Allah Azza wa Jal
gave to them and Allah Azza wa Jal
speaks about this element of their of the
blessings that they have elsewhere in the Quran
Allah Azza wa Jal speak about it in
detail inshallah ta'ala as we will see
in the different tellings of this story throughout
the book of Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala
this is something which Allah Azza wa Jal
only refers to here in passing because it
is from the many blessings of Allah Allah
sent to him a prophet Allah made them
heirs of the people of Nuh Allah Azza
wa Jal increased them in stature meaning in
their might and in their presence so remember
all of these favours and bounties of Allah
upon you that you may prosper meaning turn
back to Allah Azza wa Jal worship him,
remember him subhanahu wa ta'ala and that
will be something which you will find that
Allah Azza wa Jal will then give you
an increase in if you do so but
if you don't and you don't remember and
you don't ponder over this and you think
it's all down to you as what they
said as Allah Azza wa Jal tells us
elsewhere in the Quran that they would say
the people of Aad they claim was who
can possibly be stronger than us and Allah
tells them don't you know that Allah is
stronger than you so therefore by default he
will be stronger and mightier than you this
is how they used to think however and
so they were not happy with these reminders
of Hud A.S with these messages of
Hud A.S with this call to the
Tawheed of Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala they
weren't happy with it and despite all that
Allah Azza wa Jal had given to them
and that's why blessings sometimes can be a
cause of a person becoming more arrogant more
distant from Allah Azza wa Jal they turned
away they said in response as Allah mentions
in verse number 70 they
said have you really come to tell us
to serve and worship Allah alone and to
forsake what our forefathers worshipped if what you
say is true then bring us the punishment
that you threaten this is their response to
the Prophet Hud A.S are you really
coming with this call that we should worship
Allah alone and do what?
forsake all of the gods that our forefathers
worshipped and again how many times already in
the Quran as Allah Azza wa Jal told
us that one of the main justifications that
the people of shirk had was that they
would say this was the way of our
forefathers and our ancestors and here again Allah
Azza wa Jal is telling us that from
the very beginning of humankind from the very
early nations when their prophets and messengers were
being sent to them this is one of
the responses it's like a default response this
is one of those responses that they would
always receive how can we forsake our prophets
and messengers and that continues all the way
to the time of the Prophet Sallallahu Alaihi
Wasallam that was the same thing that Abu
Jahl and Abu Lahab and others said it's
the same thing that they said to Abu
Talib and his deathbed how can you forsake
the religion of your father and grandfather and
so that's what the people of shirk always
do the justification is how can we forsake
the way of our forefathers even though people
always forsake the way of their forefathers when
it comes to the dunya your father was
a carpenter or he was a plumber or
he was someone who sweeped the roads you're
going to take that same position forever and
ever no, you want to do better you
want to increase and he wants you to
increase also and be better and be more
prosperous your father never went to school or
he only went to school didn't go to
college or university you're not going to go
to college and university your father never had
more than a few thousand pounds in his
bank account ever in his life you don't
want more than the same he never drove
except a very old, very old car you're
not going to ever drive anything more in
the dunya we always try to exceed our
fathers and our parents and often we rebel
against them in many things but when it
comes to the most important thing that sometimes
that they may be wrong in that they
may have erred in we're going to be
like no, we're going to stick with this
no, we're going to stay we're not going
to move we're not going to budge from
what they're upon and this is the fallacy
of this how shaitan plays with people how
when it comes to things that aren't important
shaitan couldn't care less about your job or
anything else so he doesn't try to tempt
you in any way and so when you're
left to your own intelligence and logic you
see that if I can do better and
aspire and every parent wants that for their
child as well they want them to be
better than them and more successful than them
and to have a better position than them
that's just human nature when it comes to
parents towards their children and children likewise want
to grow out of the shadow of their
parents and want to be bigger and better
in that sense but when it comes to
worshipping Allah because shaitan and iblis is on
you every single day, every single moment no,
now we're just going to stay upon whatever
they're upon if it's good, it's good if
it's bad, it's bad and we're not going
to make a differentiation and we're not going
to even try and that's exactly what they
said so bring to us your punishment if
that's what you want to do so Allah
says that he responded Hud a.s. in
verse 71 he says he
said you are already set to receive your
Lord's loathing and anger are you arguing with
me about mere names you and your forefathers
invented names for which Allah has given no
sanction just wait then, I too am waiting
he said Allah has already sent upon you
his curse, his anger because of your actions
and what you've done and now you're going
to argue and going to equate the worship
of Allah alone with these idols that you
built yourselves that you named yourselves that you
just imagined things for yourselves and you're trying
to equate the two I'm telling you about
the Lord of the Heavens the Lord of
the Heavens and the Earth, the creator of
all of the Universe and you're saying but
this God that I built yesterday and I
called him such and such and so and
so and now that's equal to Allah a
.s. like it doesn't even make sense in
terms of what it is that you're trying
to do and again, it is because of
how Shaitan plays with people so when he
realized that they weren't going to accept he
said then wait for Allah's punishment that's what
they call for bring Allah's promise, the threat
of punishment show it to us if you're
truthful he said wait for it, I too
will wait so just as the people of
Nuh a.s. rejected Nuh a.s. and
they were destroyed likewise the people of Aad
rejected Hud a.s. not all of them
but the majority of them they were believers
amongst them also as Allah a.s. mentions
in verse 72 the final verse with which
we'll conclude today's episode and that is the
statement of Allah a.s وَمَا
كَانُوا مُؤْمِنِينَ We saved him and those who
were with him through our mercy and we
destroyed those who denied our revelations and would
not believe and so Allah a.s. saved
Hud a.s. and the believers with him
and he destroyed the rest of them took
away from them every single hope and because
of their rejection and their denial and they
were not believers how exactly they were destroyed
that is mentioned also in the Quran Allah
a.s. gives to us in very simple
terms the fact that they're destroyed is enough
how is something which is added detail but
however they were destroyed the fact that they
were destroyed is enough of a sign and
a lesson for those people who take heed
and inshallah ta'ala in the next episode
we'll come on to the third story and
that is the story of the people of
Salih and his nation, the people of Thamud
but today inshallah we conclude with this بارك
الله فيكم والصلاة على نبينا محمد وعلى آله
وصحبه أجمعين والسلام عليكم ورحمة الله وبركاته Ameen