Ahsan Hanif – Quran Tafseer – Page 173 – The Curse Of Arrogance
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The speakers discuss the challenges of persecution and negative comments on the same day, emphasizing the importance of being steadfast on actions and witnessing and sharing experiences. They also touch on the origins of Prophet's teachings and the importance of finding a way to avoid false teaching. The transcript emphasizes the need for people to be aware of their actions and practicing Islam, avoiding false accusations and false hopes, and practicing and following guidance. The transcript also describes a successful entrepreneur and false hope founder who wants to gain only the dandy, but also wants to gain only the datch.
AI: Summary ©
I seek refuge in Allah from the accursed
Satan In the name of Allah, the Most
Gracious, the Most Merciful Peace, mercy and blessings
of Allah be upon you In the name
of Allah, the Most Gracious, the Most Merciful
All praise is due to Allah, Lord of
the worlds There is no punishment for the
righteous, and there is no aggression except against
the wrongdoers I bear witness that there is
no god but Allah, and that there is
no partner for Him except Allah, God of
the first and the last I bear witness
that there is no god but Allah, and
that there is no partner for Him except
Allah, God of the first and the last
Allahumma salli wa sallim wa barik al-abdika
wa rasulika Muhammadin wa ala alihi wa sahbihi
ajma'in Who
were given the command that they should not
fish on the Sabbath, on the Saturday And
in order to circumvent these rules of Allah
azza wa jal These commands of Allah subhanahu
wa ta'ala, the shari'ah that was
given to them by Allah azza wa jal
They used to put out their nets before
the Sabbath and lift them after the Sabbath
Because on the day of the Sabbath, the
fish would be plentiful And on the rest
of the days of the week, they wouldn't
see any fish As a test from Allah
subhanahu wa ta'ala Rather than be patient
upon this, be steadfast upon the commands of
Allah azza wa jal Sacrifice knowing that Allah
azza wa jal would reward them and honor
them and give them eventually relief Because in
all of those situations, Allah subhanahu wa ta
'ala will always eventually give to you relief
Anyone that's been through a challenge or a
trial in their life knows No matter how
difficult that challenge is, that eventually comes to
an end You may have had a difficult
time in a job But eventually that job
will finish or you will get a promotion
or you will change or someone will leave
Something happens to give you relief That is
often the case in the dunya And so
challenges always end, especially when there are challenges
like this from Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala
When a person is being tested in their
iman Even if it takes a number of
years, Allah azza wa jal will give to
you relief in the end And so it
is about being steadfast upon this And that
is what we find in the stories of
the prophets If you look at the story
of Yusuf a.s. or the story of
Ayyub a.s. Or the stories of the
prophets where they went through great trials of
a personal nature Or a different type of
trial You will always find that after a
while, even if it is a number of
years There is an end to that, that
they find So Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala
tells us that those people tried to circumvent
those commands of Allah azza wa jal And
amongst them were people who rebuked them And
people who didn't rebuke or partake Allah saved
those who rebuked And Allah azza wa jal
punished those who partook in the evil that
they did And Allah azza wa jal doesn't
really mention what happened to the third group
But a number of the scholars of tafsir
were of the position that they were also
saved Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala then tells
us how Allah azza wa jal decreed upon
the people of Who did this and continued
upon their evil A number of punishments and
a number of trials And how that they
would be people who would sell their religion
for a small paltry sum of the dunya
Thinking that Allah will forgive them either way
As if they have some guarantee from Allah
A covenant or a pact from Allah azza
wa jal That it doesn't matter what they
do, Allah would forgive them And so Allah
azza wa jal warns us against this And
he says that those who do hold on
to the teachings of Allah The scriptures of
Allah azza wa jal And they perform and
fulfill their obligations Those are the people that
Allah azza wa jal will preserve for them
their reward In today's episode we continue from
verse 172 And that is the statement of
Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala And
when your Lord took out the offspring from
the loins of the children of Adam And
made them bear witness about themselves He said
am I not your Lord And they replied
yes we bear witness So you cannot say
on the day of resurrection we were not
aware of this In this verse Allah subhanahu
wa ta'ala tells us That Allah azza
wa jal took out from the loins of
our father Adam a.s. All of his
children And made them testify to his oneness
alone subhanahu wa ta'ala In the hadith
or the narration of Ibn Abbas That is
collected in the Musnad of Imam Ahmad The
prophet s.a.w. said that Allah azza
wa jal extracted from the loins of Adam
In a place called Na'man on the day
of Arafah And Na'man is a place in
Arafah or near Arafah In some wordings on
the day of Arafah And that is why
the day of Arafah and the plain of
Arafah And the standing of Arafah is such
an amazing and integral part to the Hajj
As the prophet s.a.w. told us
Hajj is Arafah On that day and one
of the greatest duas as the prophet s
.a.w. mentioned on that day Is the
dua of Tawheed لا إله إلا الله وحده
لا شريك له له الملك وله الحمد وهو
على كل شيء قدير The prophet s.a
.w. said it is the best thing that
I And the prophets who came before me
said Because it is in that place according
to this narration That Allah azza wa jal
extracted from Adam a.s. From his loins
his children Like seeds Like they were seeds
or grains the hadith says And he dispersed
them and made them scattered And then Allah
azza wa jal asked them this question أَلَسْتُ
بِرَبِّكُمْ Am I not your Lord?
This is the pact that all of us
have taken with Allah This is the covenant
that we have made with Allah azza wa
jal And even though we do not remember
being there and seeing it We remember it
in terms of what we call the fitrah
The fitrah is the natural disposition that every
human has That they should worship Allah azza
wa jal alone And as the prophet s
.a.w. said That disposition is corrupted by
society Is corrupted by people's parents Is corrupted
by what they hear and what they see
And shaytan and so on But that is
why even in the most dire of circumstances
People will often look up towards the heavens
Or they will have this thing in their
heart That they need to call out to
someone who is greater One that is greater
and more powerful And has the ability to
control And to help and to give aid
and so on Even those who don't believe
in any God or in existence Sometimes they
have Especially even though they are in those
extremely difficult moments in their life They have
that sensation, that feeling, that emotion And that
is from the fitrah that Allah azza wa
jal has placed in each and every single
one of us And so Allah azza wa
jal said I may not love your Lord
And we replied Yes, O Allah, we bear
witness Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala says Lest
that you should say On Yawm al Qiyamah,
we were not aware of this Meaning that
no one can come on Yawm al Qiyamah
And claim that they did not know that
Allah alone is worthy of worship And so
Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala When the prophets
and messengers were sent When the revelations were
given And they were calling to the Tawheed
of Allah azza wa jal alone As we
mentioned previously in numerous episodes The people who
are pure of heart Who are sincere in
wanting to search for the truth Islam is
something which comes together for them It is
like a jigsaw puzzle where the pieces fit
nicely together Because it is already there in
their heart, the fitrah And when they hear
about Islam and Tawheed It is something which
comes together seamlessly And so they're able to
accept Iman That's because they're sincere and they're
searching for the truth And they're honest and
they're looking And there is a purity of
their heart But those people whose heart is
corrupt Those people who aren't searching for the
truth Those people who are too arrogant to
accept the truth Those are the people that
were rejected Even though their heartstrings may pull
them that way As we see for example
In the time of the Prophet salallahu alayhi
wa sallam We have numerous narrations and stories
That the likes of Abu Jahl and some
of those leaders of Quraish They knew in
their heart of hearts In the deepest recesses
of their heart That what the Prophet salallahu
alayhi wa sallam had brought The Quran that
they would hear being recited Was the truth,
was from Allah That it made sense That
it's something which was good and pure And
according to guidance and mercy But their arrogance
wouldn't allow them to accept it Their evil
wouldn't allow them to accept it Their love
for the dunya wouldn't allow them to accept
it And so those are the reasons why
they rejected And so Allah subhanahu wa ta
'ala says That we all bore witness to
this So that on the Day of Resurrection
no one can come And have this excuse
that they didn't know Allah azawajal says, continuing
with this on verse 173 Or
lest you say it was our forefathers who
before us ascribed partners to Allah And we
are only the descendants who came after them
Will you destroy us because of the falsehoods
that they invented Meaning that this is also
not an excuse Because as we've mentioned before
this is the most common Or one of
the most common justifications for the people of
shirk And one that they will use in
this life and the next Our forefathers, our
ancestors were upon this We only followed their
way That's what they said in the time
of the Prophet salallahu alayhi wa sallam To
those who would want to accept Islam like
Abu Talib Will you abandon the religion of
your father, your grandfather Your great-grandfather, your
ancestors, your elders And so Allah azawajal says
that this won't be accepted to them On
the Day of Resurrection you can't say we
weren't aware Because you took that covenant, that
fitrah is in your heart Nor can you
say it's because of our forefathers That we
did this and we only followed their way
It won't be acceptable Because Allah azawajal has
given to you that guidance Has given to
you that And that is why as is
the position of a number of the scholars
of Islam That even those people who lived
at a time where they received no message
No prophet came to them They will be
tested on the Day of Resurrection And their
test is based upon the fitrah that they
have in their heart That Allah azawajal will
give to them a test on the Day
of Resurrection That someone will come to them
with a pure message of Allah azawajal And
the pure and noble amongst them will accept
it And those who weren't will reject it
So they will have that test on the
Day of Resurrection As is mentioned in some
of the narrations And is the position of
some of the scholars of Islam And Allah
azawajal knows best And that is because of
this issue of the fitrah وَكُنَّ ذُرِّيَّةً مِّن
بَعْدِهِمْ أَفَتُهْلِكُنَا بِمَا فَعَلَ الْمُبْطِنُونَ So will you
destroy us because of that which they invented
That won't be acceptable To blame others To
say that it was the work of our
forefathers Or our elders or our leaders As
we've mentioned before in these verses When Allah
azawajal speaks about some of the debates that
will take place Amongst the people of the
fire and their arguments How each will blame
the other The followers blame the leaders and
the elders The elders blame the followers And
so that won't be accepted Because all of
them will be in the fire All of
them will have their punishment in the fire
And so Allah azawajal is saying that this
covenant that Allah azawajal took On Yawm al
-Qiyamah they will have no excuse from it
They will have no excuse from it on
Yawm al-Qiyamah And that is the position
of the majority of the scholars of Tafseer
Even though some of the scholars said That
Allah azawajal on the day that he extracted
from the loins of Adam Those children And
made them testify These statements then that you
won't have an excuse That you can't follow
the path of your forefathers Was said to
them on that same day Because Allah azawajal
knew in his infinite knowledge Which of them
would be believers and which of them would
be disbelievers But the position of the majority
of the scholars of Tafseer Is that this
isn't a statement that was made at that
time But rather it will be made on
Yawm al-Qiyamah That this will not be
an excuse for them That they disbelieved because
of what it is that they did And
that is what Allah azawajal then says in
verse 174 وَكَذَٰلِكَ نُفَصِّرُ الْآيَاتِ وَلَعَلَّهُمْ يَرْجِعُونَ In
this way we explain the messages So that
they may turn to the right path So
Allah azawajal has made everything clear And Allah
subhanahu wa ta'ala has guided the people
Given to them the path or shown to
them the path of guidance Allah azawajal sent
to them prophets and messengers And gave to
them revelations Anyone who is pure of heart
will follow this And anyone who has corruption
in their heart and evil Then they will
be diverted away from this And so the
believer always asks Allah azawajal To cleanse their
heart, to rectify their heart To make their
heart pure and clean Able to receive guidance
and to benefit from it As Allah azawajal
mentions in those examples and parables That we've
already given That the people are like earths,
different types of land Some land will take
the rain And the rain will benefit it
And vegetation will grow And others are like
land that will not benefit Even if there
is rain that comes upon it incessantly and
continuously They will not benefit, they don't hold
the rain No one else can come and
drink from the rain No vegetation grows from
them And so we ask Allah azawajal to
make us from amongst the former and not
the latter Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala then
says in verse 175 وَتْلُوا عَلَيْهِمْ نَبَأَ الَّذِي
آتَيْنَاهُ آيَاتِنَا فَانْسَنَخَ مِنْهَا فَأَتْبَعَهُ الشَّيْطَانُ فَكَانَ مِنَ
الْغَاوِينَ And tell them the story of the
man to whom we gave our messages He
slowed them off so shaitan took him as
his follower and he went astray In this
verse Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala speaks about
an individual And the scholars of tafseer differ
as to whether this was a specific person
Or whether it is a general story not
referring to a specific individual But a type
of person that there are these types of
people that exist But you will find in
many of the early works of tafseer that
it's referring to a specific individual And those
scholars differ as to who it's referring to
Some of those narrations or one of the
most common of those narrations Without going through
all of this in too much detail One
of the most common of those narrations that
is reported for example in the likes of
Ibn Abbas Is that it's referring to a
man from the people of Bani Israel after
the time of Musa alayhi salam By the
name of Bal'am Ibn Ba'ura This
man Bal'am it is said was a
scholar of the scriptures He had studied them
and he knew them and that is why
Allah azawajal says Mention to them the story
of the one الَّذِي آتَيْنَاهُ آيَاتِنَا To whom
we have given our messages Meaning he had
knowledge and he had the scriptures And he
understood what Allah wanted from him subhanahu wa
ta'ala فَانْسَلَخَ مِنْهَا But then he slowed
them off meaning that he ignored them That
he turned away from them That he chose
not to follow them Why did he do
that?
There are different narrations and there are Judeo
-Christian Many of them Israeliyat and Allah azawajal
knows best But according to those narrations concerning
this individual Because he was given the dunya
instead He was offered a great deal of
wealth And a great deal of prestige and
influence and position That he would ignore the
teachings and call to other than that That
he would favor the leaders of his time
Because of the wealth that they gave him
And he wouldn't call to the teachings that
he knew to be the truth from Allah
subhanahu wa ta'ala And he did so
And because of that فَأَتْبَعَهُ الشَّيْطَانِ He followed
the path of shaitan And shaitan made him
his follower فَكَانَ مِنَ الْغَاوِينَ And he was
from those who went astray This is another
warning from Allah azawajal As we can see
now in these last few episodes Allah azawajal
has given to us a number of warnings
As people of Islam Beware of what took
place to those who came before you From
those people are those who have knowledge Meaning
they know what the truth is They've read
the Quran They know what the Prophet s
.a.w. wanted from them They know what
is correct and what is incorrect What is
halal and haram But they're willing to ignore
it and sell it off for the dunya
They're willing to give it away For something
that is a short term gain or benefit
or profit That they will take And therefore
ignore the statements of Allah s.w.t
Or the guidance that has come from Allah
azawajal And all of these stories Whether it's
concerning Bal'am ibn Ba'ura Or Umayyah
ibn As-Salt Or the other narrations that
you find in the books of Tafsir All
of them essentially amount to the same principle
Irrespective of which person it may have been
And Allah azawajal knows best who it was
However the theme is the same These were
people who were given knowledge by Allah They
were told what is correct and incorrect And
they turned away from it And that shows
to you that knowledge by itself Is not
something which necessarily gives you safety It is
only Allah azawajal who guides and keeps a
person steadfast upon kindness There are people who
have studied Islam There are people who are
imams There are people who are sheikhs There
are people who have graduated from prestigious Islamic
universities And then they stop practicing They stop
praying They stop calling to Islam Some of
them May Allah keep us safe Even leave
the fold of Islam It's not a guarantee
And so no one should ever think that
just because they studied Quran Or they went
to a madrasa Or they finished the Quran
Or they went one place or another Or
studied here or read a book Wherever it
may be That that automatically now safeguards them
from the trappings of the dunya And from
the harms of shaitan and from misguidance No
That is never a guarantee And that is
what Allah azawajal tells us here And if
knowledge is not taken and benefited from And
pondered over And acted upon And dua made
that Allah azawajal allows you to benefit from
it Then in and of itself knowledge isn't
something which guides you and saves you And
that is why the scholars used to emphasize
the importance of taking knowledge Understanding, acting upon
it Not just the knowledge Not just the
books Not just the lectures But understand what
it is that you're learning And that's why
we're doing, for example, this tafseer We're studying
different books We're learning about different things So
you not only have the Quran and the
Sunnah But you understand them And the lessons
and principles that they contain That you may
then act upon them And ask Allah azawajal
in your duas according to those principles And
that which you have learnt And then turn
back to Allah azawajal And that is what
Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala then says in
verse 176 If
it had been our will, we could have
used these signs to raise him high But
instead he clung to the earth and followed
his own desires He was like a dog
that pants with a lolling tongue Whether you
drive it away or leave it alone Such
is the image of those who reject our
signs Tell them the story so that they
may reflect Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala says
that had we wished This person through the
knowledge that he had gained Could have been
raised high Because that's what knowledge of Allah,
of his religion Of the Quran, of the
Sunnah should do It should raise you high
It should elevate you from the status of
this dunya Because you know it is temporary
You know that it's all a trial and
test You know that it is only the
trappings and the adornments of this world So
it raises you high Higher to in terms
of your aspiration, your ambition Your love for
Allah azawajal That you desire the akhirah And
what is more pleasing to Allah subhanahu wa
ta'ala And so the dunya is less
significant to you If you get it alhamdulillah
And if you don't get it alhamdulillah But
your aim and goal is the akhirah Had
this person really benefited from his signs Allah
is saying he would have been raised to
that level But what did he do instead?
أَخْلَدَ إِلَىٰ الْأَرْضِ وَاتَّبَعَ هَوَاهِ Rather he clung
to the earth He clung to the dunya
He wanted to lower himself thinking That this
is all that there is in this life
And that is one of the greatest The
most difficult traps of shaitan to escape from
Because it is here in front of you
It's all real and tangible So you're always
thinking about the today and the tomorrow What
I need for me and my family right
now And tomorrow and the next day and
next year And you forget or you put
to the back of your mind What is
the true life and the true existence of
the akhirah This is what this person did
in the most extreme form Because he rejected
Allah azawajal then And clung to the benefits
of the dunya And the trappings of the
dunya Because it was offered to him And
he gained them وَاتَّبَعَ هَوَاهِ And he followed
his own desires So he didn't benefit from
the knowledge that he had فَمَثَلُهُ So his
example in terms of him wanting the dunya
In terms of him loving the dunya In
terms of him wanting to gain only the
dunya كَمَثَلِ الْكَلْبِ It is like that of
a dog إِن تَحْمِلْ عَلَيْهِ يَلْهَثْ أو تَتْرُكُهُ
يَلْهَثْ This is the example of the dog
That is always panting His tongue is always
sticking out, lolling around If you drive it
away or leave it alone It is always
doing the same thing Meaning that it doesn't
benefit him Because of his want for the
dunya That's all he knows So his state
is the same Whether you remind him You
don't remind him Whether you ask him You
don't ask him Whether you give to him
He is always wanting the dunya And so
Allah azawajal describes him like the dog That
is single-minded and focused only on the
dunya Doesn't have any higher aspirations ذَٰلِكَ مَثَلُ
الْقَوْمِ الَّذِينَ كَذَّبُوا بِآيَاتِنَا That is the example
of those who reject our signs فَقْصُسِ الْقَصَصَ
لَعَلَّهُمْ يَتَفَكَّرُونَ So narrate to them these stories
So that they may reflect Allah azawajal is
telling us about these people That existed before
Because these are the mistakes that often we
make as well May Allah azawajal keep us
safe from that In verse 177 Allah azawajal
then says سَاءَ مَثَلَنِ الْقَوْمُ الَّذِينَ كَذَّبُوا بِآيَاتِنَا
وَأَنفُسَهُمْ كَانُوا يَظْلِمُونَ How foul is the image
of those who reject our signs It is
themselves they wrong Allah azawajal is saying Isn't
this such an evil example Someone who's given
guidance Shown what Allah loves and is pleased
with And they ignore it They turn it
away They sell it They reject it They
throw it away And instead what they do
is they want the dunya Even though it's
temporary And by the way those people who
run after the dunya There's no guarantee that
they will attain it Some of them do
But how many of them don't Everyone who's
rejected Islam Are all of them wealthy and
rich and enjoying life Is all of their
life glamorous and happy and full of No,
the vast majority of them don't get very
much of the dunya And so it's not
a surety Because shaitan promises things but he's
a liar Shaitan gives them these false hopes
but he's a liar So shaitan doesn't have
the power to give you the dunya It
is Allah who controls the dunya and the
risb and the wealth Shaitan can only give
you false hope and false promises But we
people will follow those false hopes and promises
As opposed to following the commands of Allah
azawajal And the true promises of Allah subhanahu
wa ta'ala And that is why Allah
azawajal says That there is the worst of
examples And the foulest of images Those people
who choose to do this In the final
verse that we will take 178 Allah azawajal
then says مَنْ يَهْدِ اللَّهُ فَهُوَ الْمُهْدَدِ وَمَنْ
يُضْلِلْ فَأُولَٰئِكَ هُمُ الْخَاسِرُونَ Whoever Allah guides is
truly guided And whoever Allah allows to stray
is a loser That is true success Those
people who understand despite the challenges of the
dunya And its difficulties and hardships That guidance,
success, true happiness Lays in the path that
Allah azawajal has chosen for the believers And
to be steadfast and patient upon that That
is where you will find guidance and ultimate
happiness Even if you have to suffer and
go through difficulty In some stages of this
dunya Allah azawajal will help you in ways
that you can't understand You may not have
wealth You may not have a great deal
of the trappings of the dunya But what
Allah will give to you in terms of
the blessings of contentment in your heart And
the love of Allah And the desire to
please Allah azawajal And the benefits that come
as a result of that Will be far
greater than any of these materialistic things That
you may crave or yearn or desire And
if you are taken away from that Then
even if you have all of the dunya
If you are misguided Then in your heart
you are only wretched And unhappy and discontent
And have no tranquility or peace And all
of those things will not give you anything
And that's why we have so many examples
in the world Of people who are ultimately
rich Or very rich and famous And people
who have reached the pinnacle of fame and
so on And they're committing suicide They're depressed
They're on serious drugs They're always in rehab
There's so many issues that go on Why?
Because if those things in and of themselves
Or a combination of them brought you happiness
Then they wouldn't have a need for anything
else But those things don't bring happiness in
and of themselves If they're not used in
a way that is pleasing to Allah subhanahu
wa ta'ala And earning the ways that
are pleasing to Allah azawajal And so we
ask Allah azawajal that he makes us from
the truly guided And that Allah keeps us
steadfast upon guidance Us and our families and
our children and descendants And that Allah azawajal
keeps us safe from misguidance And from falling
astray and following the traps of shaitan And
our desires that cling to the dunya May
Allah azawajal keep us all safe and firm
upon Iman Barakallahu feekum Wasalamu ala nabiyyina Muhammadin
wa ala alihi wa sahbihi ajma'in Wassalamu
alaikum warahmatullahi wabarakatuh