Ahsan Hanif – Quran Tafseer – Page 72 – Calamities Can Be Tests Or Expiation
AI: Summary ©
The speakers discuss the importance of Allah's statement about actions and the importance of providing perspective to understand one's past experiences. They emphasize the importance of showing immediate repercussions of sin and dis comply with commands and actions to avoid negative consequences. The speakers also discuss the history of Islam, including predictions of a battle between two armies and actions of Islamists against Muslims. The importance of the holy grail and its recognition by the Bible is also emphasized. The sermon on the importance of the Hayran language in protecting Muslims from evil behavior is offered.
AI: Summary ©
Welcome to another episode of our page by
page. Insha'Allah Ta'ala. Today we are on page
number 72 of the Quran which is the
4th Jewish surah to early Imran.
And we are coming now towards the very
end of this passage of this long topic
and subject matter that Allah
has discussed in Surat Aliramran and that is
the battle of Uhud.
And Allah
will conclude in this next in this episode,
and some of the next episodes, some of
the issues that are remaining with regards to
this particular, with this particular battle that took
place in the 30 of the Hijra during
the lifetime the prophet sallallahu alaihi wasalam.
In the previous episode, we spoke about how
Allah azza wa Jal spoke about the importance
of the prophet sallallahu alaihi wasalam being of
a good disposition,
having good character, being gentle, being kind, being
merciful towards the believers. And had he been
the opposite, harsh,
hard
hearted strict
stern
then many of those people would have dispersed
from and from amongst him And Allah is
a which I'll also mention in the previous
episode as we as we said, Allah is
a which I'll also mention to the fee
with that he bestowed upon us of having
a messenger from amongst the believers who would
come and teach us his revelations,
purify us and teach us the book and
the wisdom.
So today we begin from verse
165 which is the last verse on the
previous page, page 71.
But we said that we would mention it
together with today's verses
and that is the statement of Allah subhanahu
wa ta'ala.
Why do you say when a calamity befalls
you?
Even after you have inflicted twice as much
damage on your enemy, how did this happen?
Say to them, you brought it upon yourselves.
Indeed,
Allah has power over everything.
Allah, subhanahu wa ta'ala, in this verse is
now concluding the issues of,
the battle of Uhud and one of those
issues or one of those points of the
prophet that Allah is mentioning as a principle
as a lesson that we can all benefit
from
is the way in which is concerning the
believers the believers who on that day suffered
in the sense that they lost 70 odd
of their brethren
70 odd of the companions of the Prophet
sallallahu alaihi wa sallam who martyred on that
day and so Allah ajawajal is saying that
you question yourselves
and you said, how could this possibly happen
to us?
The fact being that we
that 70 of our brothers died on this
day. Like so as we said before Hamza,
radiAllahu anhu was the 1st ambassador in Islam.
He was the 1 the prophet salallahu alayhi
wasalam first sent to Medina to call the
rest of the people of Medina to Islam.
He was considered to be from the from
the major companions of the prophet, Somalahu alaihi
wasalam. Then you have other companions, maybe slightly
less known, but also people to people, the
likes the likes of the father of Jaggard,
radiAllahu, and the companion by the name of
Abdullah Muharram.
You have a companion by the name of
Hambala
who got married on that day of of
of the battle of Uhud, and he and
he, died on the battlefield,
or he got married the night before the
battle of Uhud, and he died on the
battlefield.
All of these different stories that you have
concerning the martyrs of that day.
Allah
says that when this calamity befell you, you
asked yourselves, how did this happen?
Even though you inflicted twice, as much damage
upon them Meaning in the previous year, on
the day of the battle of Badr, which
took place in the previous year, the second
year of the hijrah of the prophet, salallahu
alaihi wa sallam, it is said that when
the Muslims fought in the battle of Badr,
the Muslims killed 70 of the Quraysh
and
they imprisoned 70.
So 70 of the enemy died, 70 of
them were taken as captives or prisoners of
war. And so Allah is saying that, yes,
70 of your brothers died on the battle
of Uhud, but you inflicted double that upon
them, either in terms of what you did
in terms of killing them or in terms
of taking their captives
and their, you know, their prisoners of war.
And this is one of the ways in
which Allah
lightens or consoles the believers
after what took place on the day wahat.
And that is Allah Subhanahu Wa Ta'ala gives
to them perspective.
And that is always important in major calamities
and in major trials of life, whatever that
trial may be, whatever form it may take,
it is important to put things into the
larger, greater perspective
to understand
everything that happens in your life and to
see this as one event in a chain
of the rest of your life or in
in the whole greater picture of what is
your life. So sometimes, for example, a person
may be,
afflicted by a major calamity. Maybe it's the
loss of a loved one or something to
do with their health or something to do
with their finances and wealth. But to remember
that Allah has given to you so much
more. And that is what Allah is saying
here to the believers, that Allah gave to
you double that in terms of victory in
the previous year. So, yes, you lost here
but that doesn't mean that Allah
has forsaken you. It doesn't mean that Allah
doesn't love you. It doesn't mean that Allah
subhanahu, this is the way that Allah decrees
that certain things would happen and we mentioned
some of the the wisdoms already of why
Allah sometimes decrease defeat upon people from those
reasons as we said was that Allah ahsawajal
can show the difference between the true believers
and those who don't have true iman in
their hearts. Because otherwise, those people of hypocrisy
and others would always constantly be with the
believers because they're always winning. But when you
lose, sometimes those people leave you. They abandon
you. You see their true colors. You see
their true worth and value.
And so Allah says, but you question
when this happened?
How did this happen to us? Where did
this come from? Why did this calamity befall
us? Allah ahsawajal responds
say that it is something which you brought
upon yourselves.
Meaning when you differ amongst yourselves when those
companions are the archers of the mount, when
they differed amongst themselves and some of them
left because they wanted the spoils of war
and so on, this is as a result.
And this is something which we know that
Allah tells us in the Quran that that
which befalls us of calamities is often as
a result of our own doing, our own
our own sins of what we have earned
in terms of our own deeds and actions.
And so here we have a clear example.
They disobeyed the command of the prophet salallahu
alaihi wasalam and so Allah says that you
were struck with the calamity that you were
then struck with. And likewise within our lives,
how often do we not do what Allah
is obligated?
How often do we fall into the haram?
How often do we ignore the commands of
the Quran and the sunnah? How often do
we oppress others and so on. And then
as a result, there are calamities.
And sometimes those calamities
are immediate.
Sometimes those are not necessarily calamity as in
there has to be a major thing, but
sometimes it can be a relatively small thing.
So for example, you may lie
or you may cheat and then as you're
walking, you bang your foot. You hurt yourself.
You trip. You fall
over and you can automatically feel someone who
is conscious of this and is aware of
this, you can sometimes link that I just
did that thing which I shouldn't have done.
I just committed some Haram I just sinned
and disobeyed Allah
and immediately now Allah
has tested and tried me with this thing
And that is what some of the scholars
of the past used to say,
that when we do something wrong, we see
its effects
in the way that our families treat us
and in the way that our animals treat
us, meaning the animal that we're riding. So
today, I'm riding my horse and the horse
is just being stubborn. The horse isn't listening
to what I want it to do. It's
not going the way or ride allowing me
to ride it the way that I would
normally ride it. Or for example, you come
home and there's absolutely no reason
as to why your wife, your husband, your
children shouldn't be very happy with you. There's
no reason why they should be giving you
grief and difficulty, but for some reason, they're
just not in a good mood. For some
reason, you're going home and there's problems and
there's tension and there's issues.
Maybe it's not because of something that you
directly did, but it's because of a sin
or repression that you committed outside
and these are the results that you're face
facing now. Subhanallah, that is something how how
Allah sometimes
shows us the immediate repercussions
of that which we have done in terms
of sin and disobedience.
And obviously there are other ways in which
that can be shown as well. So sometimes
it is immediate but not necessarily always the
case. But sometimes you see it manifesting in
ways and there's no other logical reason. There's
no reason as to why that should happen
except for the fact that you have done
something which you shouldn't have been doing.
And indeed Allah has power of all things.
In verse 166, Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala then
says,
you on the day that the 2 armies
met in Basmuh happened with Allah's permission
and in order for him to see who
were the true believers
and who were the hypocrites.
Allah subhanahu ta'ala and the hypocrites part is
part of the next verse which is 167.
Allah subhanahu ta'ala is saying on the day
that you met 2 armies, met meaning on
the day of the battle of Uhud, Allah
Azza wa Jal gathered the Muslim army and
the non Muslim army together
and Allah Azza wa Jal is saying that
that which afflicted you of that day from
the harm, from the injury, from the loss
of your brothers or 70 odd that were
martyred on that day, that is from the
decree of Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala. Allah decreed
it. And as we said before that there
are numerous wisdoms as to why Allah sometimes
decrees
calamity or defeat or loss upon the believers
from those reasons is that which Allah mentions
here
that Allah may make it known who are
the true believers
and who are the people of Nifaq and
hypocrisy.
Because otherwise, the believers
would always have those people amongst them and
in their ranks who are just there for
the worldly benefits, who are just there for
the worldly accolades.
But the believers also suffer defeat,
also suffer problems because that, for them, is
a way of purification,
of expiation,
of increasing reward and higher status and and
higher levels in Jannah. But at the same
time, it allows the Muslim ranks to be
cleansed from those people who are truly and
sincerely part of them or alongside them. And
that is what Allah says in verse 167.
And so that Allah may make it known
who are the hypocrites. Allah then goes on
in verse 167 to describe the hypocrites and
what it is that they say and what
it is that they do.
He says,
when it was said to them come and
fight for Allah's cause or at least defend
yourselves
they answered
we would follow you if we knew that
there was going to be fighting
On that day, they were closer to disbelief
than belief. They say with their tongues that
which is not in their hearts. Indeed, Allah
knows exactly that which they conceal.
Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala says that on that
day the prophet sallallahu alaihi wasallam said to
them because these are the people who as
we said they stayed away from the battle
day. A third of the Muslim army went
back with the and they retreated towards Madinah.
It was said to them come and fight
in Allah's way or at least defend yourselves.
Help us to defend the city. They said
in response
Had we known that there was actually going
to be fighting, we would have come. These
are not the excuses that they make. And
as we said before, that the hypocrites often
would stay away from the major battles. And
then when the prophet salallahu alaihi wasallam returned,
they would come with their excuses. And the
prophet salallahu alaihi wasallam knew that they were
false excuses,
that they were lying, but he would accept
what they said. Because he's not there to
open up people's hearts. He's not there to
because as Muslims, we can't judge what is
in a person's heart. We have to base
it upon what is apparent. So they would
come and they would say, oh, Messenger of
Allah, I was sick. Oh Messenger of Allah,
my parents were sick. Oh Messenger of Allah,
I had this issue or that issue and
it prevented me from accompanying you in the
army and fighting alongside you. And the prophet
salallahu alaihi wasallam would accept this. And we
know this from the hadith of Karab ibn
Malik radiAllahu an concerning the battle of Tabuk
when he did stay behind along with a
couple of his friends and they missed the
battle without any valid excuse and they confessed
to this in front of the prophet salallahu
alaihi wasalam. He says about the Allahu alaihi
that narration that you find in the books
of hadith, mukhadi, and Muslim and so on.
He says that as for the hypocrites, they
came and they made their false excuses,
and they lied. And he said, and I
had also the ability to come and lie
because Allah gave me eloquence. Allah gave me
the ability to speak. But I knew that
even if I lied in front of the
prophet sallallahu alaihi wasallam here, Allah would expose
me. Allah knows the reality. And that is
why Karbib Malik
says in the hadith that there was nothing
more beloved to me after my Islam than
the fact that I spoke truth to the
prophet
on that day of taboo. That I told
him the truth in that incident and Allah
obviously after those 15 nights of trial and
tribulation of testing him, Allah Azza wa Jal
revealed his Tawbah and his repentance.
So therefore they come to the Prophet Sallallahu
Alaihi Wasallam. What is their excuse their time?
We didn't actually think that they would be
fighting.
We didn't actually think that there would be
a battle and war. And this is such
a
bad or poor excuse to give because the
Muslims are coming together and preparing an army.
They know that the Quraysh are coming and
they're seething because of what took place from
the battle of Badr. They know that they've
come towards the outskirts of Madinah to destroy
the city and its inhabitants and the prophet
salallahu alayhi wasalam. Not only that, but the
Muslims have stepped outside of the city to
defend.
So it's not like there's the the 2
armies are not going to meet and the
odds are that if the 2 armies are
going to meet on an open battlefield, then
there is going to be fighting. What did
they say? They said, no. We didn't think
that they would actually be fighting. We didn't
actually think that it would get to that
level. And so we thought it wouldn't make
a difference. We'll just go back home and
it wouldn't make a difference. And that is
what Allah says.
That is a state on that day in
which they are closer
to disbelief than iman. That is because of,
you know, the the hypocrisy
that they had in their hearts.
They say with their tongues that which is
not in their hearts.
And Allah knows exactly that which they conceal.
Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala in verse 1 68,
he then says,
As for those who stayed behind and said
of their brothers, if only they had listened
to us, they would not have been killed.
Tell them, oh messenger salallahu alayhi wasalam, then
ward off death from yourselves in what you
say is true. And this is similar to
the verses that we took in a couple
of episodes or 2, 3 episodes ago. Those
passages of the surah in which Allah
mentioned that form the statements of the munafiqeen
and the hypocrites towards the Muslims that fought
on the battle of Uhad was that had
you listened to us, had you stayed with
us, those companions wouldn't have died, there wouldn't
have been injuries, the prophet sallallahu alaihi wasallam
would have been injured. Had you listened to
us, there would have been no fighting or
no killing. And that is because
they want to show themselves to be more
intelligent, more wise, that their decisions were justified,
that what they did was correct and true.
And that is because they only look for
the dunya. They only look for the temporary
benefits of this world. Whereas Allah subhanahu wa
ta'ala is telling us that indeed Allah wants
for the believers what is better and that
is the reward of the hereafter. And that
is why Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala then says
so therefore prevent
from yourselves death if you are able to,
if you are truly truthful. Because they're hiding
from death. They're escaping death in their, in
their thinking or according to their rationale and
their intelligence. They're escaping from death by not
being upon the battlefield, but not pawning themselves
in that situation which they may die. And
Allah says that you can never escape death.
You can never escape death. Allah Subhanahu Wa
Ta'ala in the next number of verses
from
169 onwards and we've now more or less
finished the passage of the surah that speaks
about the battle of Uhad and its lessons
and its many benefits that we can derive.
Allah Subhanahu Wa Ta'ala will now go on
to speak about an issue that is extremely
important and linked to the battle of Wuhad
in
a way and that is the station of
the martyrs
their station and their reward and their position
in the sight of Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala.
Allah says in verse
169.
Rather they are alive with their Lord
well provided for.
Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala says that these people
say what they say if you were with
us, had you listened to us, stayed with
us, you wouldn't have died, they wouldn't have
been killed, there would have been no death.
Allah is saying that's because they think
that the death of this dunya is the
end of everything.
There was nothing after it. But actually this
is only the temporary world that is the
stepping stone to the permanent abode and the
permanent existence.
As for those people that Allah
fevers and Allah honors the believers,
then they, even after death, are not truly
dead
in the way that you understand it, meaning
that there is no existence after it that
they are simply going to rot and there
is nothing more but rather they are living
the life of the barzakh, the life of
the grave and after it on no more
qiyama they will be resurrected.
And Allah subhanahu ta'ala says that for some
of these people as we know from the
sun of the prophet sallallahu alaihi wasallam that
Allah honors the believers in their graves. Allah
subhanahu wa ta'ala expands their graves for them
and he makes them bright and illuminated and
he opens for them a gate from the
gates of paradise so that they can smell
and see Jannah even as they are living
in their graves. And there are no numerous
hadith that speak to
the blessings of the grave and so on
and so forth. So Allah is saying that
these people are not truly dead. Those people
that you claim as being dead are not
truly dead, but rather they are living in
a different way, in a different life with
Allah Subhanahu Wa Ta'ala. And from those people
that Allah azza wa Jal honors, from the
general group
and the general number of believers from those
that are honored specifically
are the martyrs. They are given specific honors
as Allah says,
Do not think that those that have been
killed in Allah's way
are truly dead.
But rather they are living.
And with their Lord, they are well provided
for. We know from the sunnah of the
prophet sallallahu alaihi wasallam that Allah
places their souls in the bodies of green
birds that fly around the shandiliars
of Jannah
and so they are living in the way
that Allah azza wa jal determines that they
are living
The hadith
of, Jabir radiAllahu an, when his father, Abdullah
Muharram, radiAllahu an, passed away, Jabir radiAllahu an,
came after the battlefield,
or the battle had ended
to take the the body of his father
and to bury it. And when he came,
he was extremely upset. And so the prophet
said to him, Jabbir, what is wrong with
you? And Jabeel radiAllahu an said, oh, messenger
of Allah, my father died and he left
me behind as the only male
child.
And I have sisters and a mother that
I have to now look for. And Jabi
radiAllahu an was young in age. And he
also left upon me debt. Debt that he
didn't pay off. Debt that I now have
to go and find money for. The prophet
salallahu alaihi wasallam said that Allah
spoke to everyone that died in the battle
of Uhad. But as for your father, he
spoke to him without any veil, any hijab
and he said to him, wish, what do
you wish for? And your father said, I
wish that I could go back
and fight again in your way, oh Allah,
and die. And Allah Azzawajal said to him,
but rather this is something which I have
decreed that no one can go back to
the life of the dunya after they have
left it. And so Allah azza wa jal,
numerous hadith speak about the way that Allah
azza wa jal provides for and honors the
people of of martyrdom within our religion. And
clearly, when we say martyrdom, it is in
the way that is
established and legislated in the Sharia with its
rulings and so on. Not what we see
in Washington today from those acts of of,
of immaturity that some people do where they
go and they harm innocent people and they
kill Muslims and our Muslims alike without any
due cause or reason or justification,
and they and they consider themselves to be
martyrs. That's not the martyrdom that is being
referred to here. Not is that the jihad
that is legislated in the Sharia. So those
caveats are important for us to remember and
to mention because otherwise people misunderstand these verses,
misunderstand
the text of the Quran and the sunnah
that can be extremely dangerous. Allah subhanahu wa
ta'ala continues and he says
in
verse 170 continuing speaking about the martyrs.
We are happy with that which Allah has
given to them of his favor, rejoicing that
for those that they have left behind,
rejoicing that for those they have left behind
who have yet to join them, there is
no fear nor will they grieve. Allah subhanahu
wa ta'ala says that Allah
will honor these people the martyrs
those who have sacrificed themselves for his cause
and Allah makes them happy and they are
joyous and they are joyous for for the
blessings that Allah has bestowed upon them and
from those blessings is that Allah
tells those people that you don't have to
fear nor grieve. Don't fear about what's going
to come ahead of you and you don't
have to grieve about that which you left
behind in the dunya from your family and
from your loved ones.
And in the hadith of Prophet Sallallahu Alaihi
wa sallam said that the, that from the
the the wishes of the martyrs is that
they could go back to the dunya
and tell their family that which they're experiencing
from the honors and the bounties that Allah
is bestowing upon them. And so
Allah says that they are joyous and happy
and that Allah
saved them from the grief and from the
harm that they may otherwise
have have encountered.
So Allah is mentioning these verses here as
we said because
like we mentioned,
the Mona Fikin, the hypocrites, and others were
essentially
looking down upon the Muslims.
They were looking to to,
looking to,
looking to humiliate them, looking to make them
feel bad
and and sad over that which
the Muslims had suffered on the day. Had
you listened to us, had you been with
us, had you just stayed with us, everything
would have been okay. And Allah is saying
rather what Allah Subhanahu Wa Ta'ala has given
to those people that have been martyred on
that day, those 70 odd companions of the
day.
It is far greater
and far more worthier
than that which you would have stored for
them in the dunya, in this life. Allah
Azza wa Jal honored them on that day
and Allah Subhanahu Wa Ta'ala, Allah Azza wa
Jal honored them in the sense that even
till today,
Muslims from across the world when we go
to the city of the prophet
in Madinah,
often more or less, most of them will
go to Uhud.
Many of them will go to the battlefield
of Uhud and they will look at the
area and they will look at the the
battlefield and they will take the lessons and
hear the story of what took place on
that day and they will see the graveyard
of the martyrs of the battle of Uhad
and they will make dua for them As
the prophet did, samaalahu alaihi wasallam, shortly before
his death, he went towards the battle of
Wuhan, the battlefield of Wuhan, and he went
and he made dua for the martyrs of
Wuhud. And so people still go today and
they make dua for those people, those 70
odd companions. We don't have the same for
the people of Badr,
those companions that died on the day of
Badr, or those that may have died in
other expeditions that the prophet Sallallahu Alaihi Wasallam
was part of or that he sent out
during his lifetime. But Uhud is unique. Uhud
is unique that people still go there till
today and they make dua for those 70
people. And that is one of the ways
in which Allah honor those people. That is
one of the ways in which Allah has
preserved
their stories and their remembrance and the mention
of their names. That even till
today, Muslims across the world, young and old,
know the names of the likes of Hamza,
radiAllahu an, local of the prophet sallallahu alaihi
wasallam. And then all the names of the
likes of Musa ibn Walamir
radiallahu an. And even if you don't know
the names of those individuals, 70 of them,
each one of them by name, then you
know generally the story of what took place.
And people still go there and they make
dua for them and they ask Allah azza
wa Jal to send his rahma, his mercy
and his forgiveness upon them. And that is
an honor from the honors of Allah Subhanahu
Wa Ta'ala because from the greatest honors that
a person can receive and favors of Allah
a person can receive and from the greatest
mercy of Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala is that
after your death,
people will continue to make dua for you.
They will continue to remember you. And that
is which Allah only affords to his
only affords to those people that Allah truly
loves. And that is why the scholars of
Islam whose names that we still mention, the
companions of the prophet salallahu alaihi wasallam that
we still make dua for, those amazing personalities
in our religion that even today, we still
remember them. We still make dua for them
and we seek Allah
mercy and forgiveness for them. The final verse
that we will take today is verse 171
in the statement of Allah
They rejoice in Allah's blessings and favor and
that Allah will not let the reward of
the believers be lost. And so those people
that Allah has given to them martyrdom in
the life of the grave and on
the day of resurrection, they will have the
favors of Allah the blessings of Allah subhanahu
ta'ala. They They will have his mercy, his
forgiveness and his reward. And Allah does not
let that reward
be lost. And with that inshallah ta'ala, we
come to the end of today's
episode.