Aqeel Mahmood – Gems From Surah AlIkhlaas
AI: Summary ©
AI: Transcript ©
There was once
a man from the Ansar from the people
of Madinah,
and his name was Khulsoum ibn al Hidam.
And Khulsoom ibn al Hidam
used to lead the people in prayer
in the first Masjid that was ever built
in the history of Islam.
Masjid Quba.
The masjid that was built even before the
Prophet's Masjid in the city of Madinah.
He used to lead the people in salah
and when he used to lead them in
salah,
after he would recite Suratul Fatiha,
he would follow-up his recitation of Fatiha
with Suratul Ikhlas.
Once he had recited this surah,
he would recite another surah after this. But
he would always recite this surah.
Without fail,
he would recite this specific surah in every
salah, in every rakah.
And so the people who were praying behind
him, the other companions,
they started to say amongst themselves, why does
he always recite this surah? Why doesn't he
just recite another surah? Why does he always
stick to reciting the Suratul Ikhlas every single
time? Maybe if he left it, maybe if
he didn't read it sometimes, or left it
altogether and read another surah instead.
So they approached him and they asked him.
They said, can you, you know, leave this
surah? Don't recite this surah all the time.
Read another surah instead.
And they consider him to be
the best from amongst them.
You know the one who they respected the
most. That's why he was the imam. When
the messenger of Allah alaihis salatu wa sallam
left the city of Makkah and made the
hijrah to Madinah, When he arrived in Kaaba,
he stayed in the house of Kulthun ibn
al Hidim.
So this man was someone who was respected
amongst the companions.
So when they approached him and they asked
him, they said, you know, read something else,
read other surahs, don't always read Suratul Ikhlas.
So he said to them, I'm not going
to stop reading Suratul Ikhlas. I'm not going
to stop reading it. And if you want,
you can have another imam who will lead
you in the prayer. But me, I can't
leave reciting this surah. I'm going to carry
on reciting how I'm reciting. So they went
to the com they went the companions, they
went to the messenger of
alaihis salatu wa sallam, and they told him
this situation. And so the messenger of Allah
alaihis salatu wa sallam, he called Kulsun ibn
al Haydham.
He called him and he asked him. He
said, What stops you from doing what your
companions are asking you to do? And he
said, O Messenger of Allah
He said, O Messenger of Allah, I love
reciting this surah. Verily I love reciting this
surah. And the Messenger of Allah
he said, Your love for this Surah will
cause you to enter into paradise.
Brothers and sisters, this Surah
is a Surah most of us recite every
single day.
Maybe for the correct reasons and maybe because
it's convenient for us because it's such a
a short surah.
It's a surah which most of us know,
most of us memorize at a young age,
most of us recite it every single day
in our salawat.
Yet how many of us
actually understand what Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala is
telling us in this surah? What is his
message? What is he trying to convey to
us? What is Suratul Ikhlas all about?
What is the meaning behind these words that
we recite every single day?
Nowadays when a person prays, it's like as
if he's absent minded. He's not focused on
the salah. He's not paying attention to what
he's reciting. It's just a formality. He goes
through the motions. He says what he needs
to say and does what he needs to
do.
To such an extent that sometimes we pray
as salah, we pray asr or magrib, and
the time for the next prayer comes and
we're thinking have I prayed asr?
Did I pray asr? A person can't even
remember. We can't even remember if we prayed.
So a person, he needs to be focused.
He needs to understand what he's doing and
what he's reciting in the salah.
And
every single one of us here needs to
understand
and try to
gain some insight into the tafsir of Suratul
Ikhlas, and the virtues of Suratul Ikhlas, and
the status of this beautiful surah.
This surah is known as Suratul Ikhlas,
and Ikhlas
means sincerity and it also means purity. And
the reason why it's called Suratul Ikhlas
is because this surah is unique in the
sense that it's only message,
the only thing that this surah talks about,
the only subject that it covers,
the only thing that it deals with is
Tawhid.
Is the oneness of Allah Subhanahu Wa Ta'ala.
It doesn't talk about anything else. All it
talks about is the oneness of Allah. And
this is why another name for this surah
is Surah Tawhid.
The surah of Tawhid.
Because it doesn't deal with anything else except
the oneness of Allah Subhanahu Wa Ta'ala. From
the virtues of this surah brothers and sisters,
is that this surah
is equivalent to a 3rd of the Quran.
Once a man came to the messenger of
Allah alaihis salatu wa sallam and told him,
O messenger of Allah, there is a man
who gets up during the night to pray,
and all he prays is Suratul Ikhlas.
That's all he prays. He doesn't pray he
doesn't recite anything else. The own all he
recites is Suratul Ikhlas.
It was like as if he was trying
to demean
and lower the value of his night prayer
because that's the only surah he would recite.
And so the Messenger of Allah he
told him, Inna hala ta'alu Thiru Surahul Qur'an.
Verily this surah is equivalent to a third
of the Quran.
Now this shouldn't
make a person think that if I read
this surah three times,
I've I've recited the whole of the Quran.
And it shouldn't stop a person to refrain
a person from reciting the rest of the
Quran. Why is it equivalent to a third
of the Quran?
The Quran in of itself
covers 3 main topics.
From the topics that the Quran covers is
rules and regulations.
How a person should pray, how a person
should do wudu,
marriage and divorce,
fasting,
and how to give charity.
Things that relate to rules and regulations in
Islam.
The second thing that the Quran covers is
rewards and punishments.
The rewards of those who do good deeds.
Stories of those who are from the righteous,
and things that they used to do.
The punishments of those people who used to
sin,
and what they used to do. Examples of
those people from the past, and their punishments
in the Haw fire.
And the third category that the Quran talks
about is a Tawhid, the oneness of Allah
Subhanahu Wa Ta'ala. And this is why
Suratul Ikhlas
is considered to be a thoroughth of the
Quran, a third of the Quran because all
this Quran talks about is a Tawhid.
Another virtue of this Surah brothers and sisters,
is the fact that if a person loves
this Surah,
if a person loves this Surah,
his love for this Surah as we have
already mentioned will cause him to enter into
Jannah. It will cause him to enter into
Jannah.
Because
Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala
has ordered us to do lots of things,
lots of deeds,
lots of obligations.
And when we do an act of worship
we are doing it
to gain the closeness towards Allah Azzawajal. To
gain the love of Allah Subhanahu wa ta'ala.
You know when we do something for our
parents, when we do something for our family
members, and we know that if we do
this they will love us for it.
They'll become happy, and they'll love us because
we are doing those things for them.
And they'll become happy,
and that increases the love between each other,
between you and your spouse for example, or
you and your children, or you and your
parents.
This surah, loving this surah, reciting this surah
will cause you the love of Allah Subhanahu
Wa Ta'ala and will cause you to enter
into Jannah.
So every single person should have a love
for this surah. Every single person should have
an affection for this specific surah. From the
virtues of this surah,
is that it's a source of protection
for the believer at night before he goes
to sleep. Ayesha radhiallahu anha, she said that
the messenger of Allah alaihisrati wasallam, before he
would go to sleep, he would cup his
hands together.
He would cup his hands together
and he would blow into them and he
would recite, QuluallahuAhad,
Quluallahubrabbil
Falak and Qulu Abu Rabil Nas. The last
three surahs of the Quran.
And then he would recite these and then
he would wipe his face and the rest
of his body, and then he would go
to sleep. So this Surah is a source
of protection for the believer before he goes
to sleep.
This Surah brothers and sisters, why was it
revealed?
At what moment was it revealed?
Some of the Quraysh and those who used
to worship idols,
they would come and they would try to
challenge the Messenger of Allah Alaihi Wasallam.
They would try to, you know, trick the
Prophet
and try to find some fault in this
so called new religion that he's trying to
propagate to the rest of the people. And
so they would say to him,
Tell us the lineage of your Lord. Where
does your Lord come from?
And so Allah Subhanahu Wa Ta'ala he revealed
this surah.
And
I wanna go through this surah and the
ayaat and what they actually mean. So that
next time we pray, next time you're in
salah and you're reciting this surah, or you're
in salah and the imam recites this surah
you can understand. And you know what this
surah means, you know what Allah subhanahu wa
ta'ala is saying. Allah Azzawajal
he says,
Say he is Allah the 1,
The messenger of Allah Alaihis salatu wa salam
was given this surah and Allah subhanahu wa
ta'ala is saying, say he is Allah the
one. Who is he talking to? The messenger
of Allah alaihis salatu wasalam.
But when the messenger of Allah salallahu alaihi
wasalam
recited this surah after,
after he was given this surah,
he would still say,
He will still say, Say he is Allah
the one.
If Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala is telling the
messenger of Allah sallahu wa sallam to say,
then why would the prophet sallallahu alaihi wasallam
say qul at the same time? If he's
already the one saying it, he's been told
to say it, so wouldn't it be more
appropriate for him to say,
What's the point of him saying,
He's already saying
this the second part or the the the
next three words of this of this ayah,
This shows us brothers and sisters
that the Quran
wasn't something which was just preserved with regards
to with regards to its meaning, but also
it was preserved literally.
Every single word of the Quran, every single
letter of the Quran is preserved.
And it also shows us that the messenger
of Allah Sallallahu Alaihi Wasallam
was simply a messenger.
He was simply a conveyor of the message.
He would receive the message from Allah Subhanahu
Wa Ta'ala and then he would convey it
to the rest of the people. That was
his job, that was his duty. Just as
he was given the revelation
that's how he would give it to the
rest of the people.
And then Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala
he says
He is Allah the uniquely one.
And Allah Subhanahu wa ta'ala mentions this attribute
and this name of Allah,
Al Ahad,
the uniquely one. But before he mentions this
name, he mentions another name. He mentions Allah.
And the scholars they say that from the
greatest names of Allah is Allah itself.
The name which is mentioned most in the
Qur'an, in the book of Allah Subhanahu Wa
Ta'ala is Allah. There is no other name
which is mentioned more. And the greatest verse
in the Quran,
the greatest verse in the whole of the
Quran
starts with the word Allah.
And then Allah Subhanahu Wa Ta'ala he says,
He mentions this name of Allah Subhanahu Wa
Ta'ala.
Uhad meaning the uniquely one.
Allah Subhanahu Wa Ta'ala is unique. Unique in
what sense? In what sense is Allah Subhanahu
Wa Ta'ala unique? Allah Azzawajal is unique in
every single sense of the word. There is
no one who is equal to Allah Subhanahu
Wa Ta'ala. He has no partners, he has
no spouses,
He is unique
in the sense that nothing should be worshiped
except him. He is unique in the sense
that he is the creator of everything in
existence.
He is unique in the sense that he
is the sustainer of everything that exists.
You know, the heartbeat that is in every
single one of us, it keeps pumping,
it keeps beating every single day, every single
minute, even when we're asleep. And it's Allah
subhanahu wa ta'ala who sustains this. It's Allah
Azzawajal
who makes sure that our hearts beating day
in and day out non stop. And when
it does stop then that's the end of
our lives.
Allah Subhanahu Wa Ta'ala he then says Allahu
Samad.
Allah
the self sufficient.
As Samad, another name of Allah Subhanahu wa
ta'ala. And both of these names
are unique in the sense that they're not
mentioned in any other surah of the Quran.
Al Ahad and As Samad are only mentioned
in Suratul Ikhlas.
Allah Azzawajal is self sufficient.
Meaning he doesn't need anything from us. He
doesn't need any help from us. You know
sometimes we do a good deed,
we pray our 5 daily prayers, or we
do an extra type of good deed. We
we decide to give in charity,
or we decide to read some Quran one
day, and we recite or we give in
charity one day, and we're happy, and we're
proud of ourselves,
And we think, yeah I've done such a
good deed today, I don't normally do this.
And you get happy and you get proud.
And it's like as if you're doing Allah
subhanahu wa ta'ala a favor, and then you
don't do anything else for the whole week.
Thinking that's enough for the whole week.
Allah Subhanahu wa Ta'ala is self sufficient.
He doesn't need any of our deeds.
The only reason we're doing the deeds that
we that we are doing every single day
is for our own self.
For the reward of Allah Subhanahu Wa Ta'ala.
So that Allah Subhanahu Wa Ta'ala will give
us the reward and will benefit us in
this life and in the hereafter.
And this is why Allah Subhanahu Wa Ta'ala
he says,
He says, I don't want any provision from
them nor do I wish for them to
feed me. I don't need any food or
drink. I don't need any anything from anyone
else. Allah azzawajal
is self sufficient.
And Allah Subhanahu wa ta'ala he talks about
those who do good deeds,
those who for example pray or they do
other types of acts
for the sake of Allah azzawajal.
He says,
He says, Neither the meat nor their blood
reaches Allah Subhanahu Wa Ta'ala. When someone sacrifices
an animal, another act of worship.
The meat doesn't reach Allah Subhanahu Wa Ta'ala
nor does the blood. Meaning Allah Subhanahu Wa
Ta'ala doesn't need that meat.
We're not sacrificing an animal so that Allah
subhanahu wa ta'ala can eat that food. That's
not why we're sacrificing that animal.
But it's your piety, it's your taqwa that
reaches him.
When a person does
these deeds for the sake of Allah Subhanahu
Wa Ta'ala, when they do these good deeds
for Allah Azzawajal
and they do it purely for His sake,
that's what's going to benefit him in this
life and in the hereafter.
It's not going to benefit Allah Azzawajal,
rather we're doing these deeds for our own
self. And then Allah Subhanahu Wa Ta'ala he
says,
Allahu Samad
He does not give birth nor was he
born.
He doesn't give birth nor was he born.
Now Allah Subhanahu wa Ta'ala
he doesn't mention
birth first.
He mentions the fact that he doesn't give
birth, and then he mentions that he wasn't
born.
Normally
and generally,
ideally he would mention
the fact that he wasn't born first and
then he doesn't give birth.
First he if we think about it he
would mention that he wasn't born, and then
after this he would say no does he
give birth. But it's the other way around.
Why is it the other way around? Why
does Allah Subhanahu Wa Ta'ala say he doesn't
give birth? Lam yalid first and then he
says walam yulat, nor was he born. Why
does he mention that second and he mentions
birth first?
Because the people
differed
with regards to Allah Subhanahu Wa Ta'ala having
a child. And this is why Allah Subhanahu
Wa Ta'ala starts with him giving birth, he
says,
He doesn't give
birth, nor was Allah Subhanahu Wa Ta'ala born.
And Allah Subhanahu Wa Ta'ala in the first
part of this ayah he refutes those who
claim that Allah Subhanahu Wa Ta'ala gave birth
to a child. For example the Christians
who would say that Isa was the son
of Allah Subhanahu Wa Ta'ala.
And the Jews for example, those who used
to live in Arabia, those who were from
Yemen. They would say that Uzzairunibunullah.
They would say that, Uzair is the son
of Allah. And Uzair was from the people
of Israel. He was from Bani Israel
and it said that the people used to
respect him and they loved him and they
would you know hold him in high regard.
Why would they hold him in high regard?
Because he was the only one who had
memorized the whole of the Torah.
He'd memorized the whole of that book, the
book of the Jews.
And that's why they held him in such
high esteem. And they went overboard
in their respect for him and they started
to say that he was the son of
Allah Subhanahu Wa Ta'ala. And then Allah Azzawajal
he says after refuting those who claimed that
he had a child, he says Lam yalidwalam
yulad
He doesn't give birth nor was he born.
Allah Subhanahu Wa Ta'ala wasn't born.
Allah Azzawajal wasn't born. Nowadays
you have people who ask these kinds of
questions.
You are say
they say for example,
if Allah Azzawajal
was the creator,
who created Allah Subhanahu Wa Ta'ala?
If Allah is the Creator, who created Allah?
And they try to trick people.
Atheism is spreading like wildfire.
There's Muslims who are leaving Islam and entering
into atheism.
And a person needs to be aware, he
needs to know how to deal with these
questions.
If Allah created every single thing in existence
then who created Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala?
Allah Azzawajal
is Al Awwal and he is Al Akhir.
He is the creator of every single thing
in existence.
He created everything
and nothing created Allah Subhanahu Wa Ta'ala. And
that's our belief as Muslims.
Because we believe that there had to be
an ultimate creator.
Say for example you're at work,
and you wanted to go on break. And
so you tell your boss, you tell your
manager, I wanna go on break. And so
your manager says,
Let me find out from my manager if
you can go on break. I'm not sure
if I can give you a break. So
he calls his manager and asks him,
can my employee go on break? And then
his manager says to him, I'm gonna call
my boss and ask him if you know,
you can tell that person if he can
go on break. And so he calls his
manager
And then he asks him the same thing.
And then he says I'm gonna call my
manager and I'll ask him the same thing.
Will that person never go on break?
That person's never gonna go on break. He'll
end up working 8 or 9 hours straight.
The point is brothers and sisters that the
buck has to end somewhere. There has to
be an eternal creator. There had to be
someone who makes There has to be someone
who makes the ultimate decision.
There has to be someone where the buck
ends. There had to be someone who created
every single thing in existence, who decides what's
going to happen on this earth, who knows
what's going to happen in the future, and
what's already happened, what's happening right now.
And this is our belief as Muslims.
Also from our belief is that he was
the first. There was nobody else who came
before him. If I said for example, Abdullah
was the first one to enter into this
masjid.
If I said, Abdullah was the first one
to enter into this masjid, and then somebody
came and said, yes but who came before
Abdullah?
I would say, Abdullah was the first one
to come into the masjid. And he says,
yes yes but who came before Abdullah?
Does the question make any sense? Doesn't make
any sense.
Abdullah was the first one to come into
the masjid, there was nobody else who came
before him.
Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala is Al Awwal, he
is the first, there was nothing which came
before him. And he is Al Aqir, once
everything else ceases to exist Allah Subhanahu Wa
Ta'ala will still be here.
There is nobody who came before him and
there will be no one who comes after
him.
Allah Subhanahu Wa Ta'ala is Al Awwal and
he is Al Akhir.
And then Allah subhanahu
wa
ta'ala
says,
And there is none that is equal to
him. So after mentioning in the first ayah
that he is uniquely 1,
he emphasizes this and he finishes the surah
by emphasizing and stating
this first ayah at the beginning of the
surah. Walamyaqulahuqfuwan
ahad. And there is none equal to Him.
Allah azzawajal
is unique in every single sense of the
word. Nobody is equal to Allah Subhanahu wa
ta'ala.
One of the brothers who's a member of
our congregation,
he mentioned to me that one of his
family members has passed away.
And this is a reminder for every single
one of us.
And we ask Allah Subhanahu Wa Ta'ala that
he forgives all of those who have had
a deceased member of their family or someone
in their family who has passed away.
Every single person shall taste death.
And a person when he prays to Allah
Subhanahu Wa Ta'ala,
when he stands in the salah, he should
stand in the salah
and think
and pray like as if it's going to
be his last prayer.
Pray as if when he leaves the Masjid
he's not He's not going to live anymore.
He's not going to survive the day.
And that he won't be able to pray
after that. And when he recites the words
of Allah Subhanahu Wa Ta'ala, he should try
to
understand and contemplate what he's reciting.
Try to focus on the prayer. The messenger
of Allah he
said, As salamiftahuljannah.
Salah
is the key to paradise.
Prayer is the key to paradise. If a
person's prayer
is, you know, it has problems in his
salah, he's going to have problems entering into
paradise.
If his salah is good, if his prayer
is good, it's going to be easier for
him to enter into paradise.
And a person needs to understand
the conditions of the prayer. What he has
to do in the prayer? What are the
actions of the prayer?
And this is why this weekend
the masjid have organized
an overnight tarbia program.
All about the prayer.
How a person should pray? What is he
supposed to say in the salah? What is
he supposed to do in the prayer? The
actions of the prayer? How can he maintain
the focus in the prayer? What are the
conditions of the prayer? What does he have
to do before he starts to pray?
And so I advise the brothers and the
sisters
I advise the brothers to try to attend
this course, try to register and try to
benefit
from this program which is taking place this
weekend insha'Allah. And they can find out more
information from the registration office.
So is Fufakam, straighten your rose. Make sure
your rose is straight.
Straightening the roses from the perfection of the
prayer.
So please make sure your rose is straight.
The weekly Saturday lecture will take place after
Isha prayer tomorrow and will be delivered by
Sheikh Muhammad Ali and is entitled
Memories of Madinah.
The regular Urdu lecture will take place today
after Isha.
There is a new Quran class for RIva
Brothers every Sunday after Duhr in the Partitioned
Hall.
The sisters at Green Lane Masjid have organized
a gathering for RIva Sisters.
This will take place on Sunday 30th March
from 3 PM till 5:30 PM.
The brothers overnight Tarbia program entitled The Key
to Paradise
will take place tomorrow after Duhr. There are
still places left. Please visit the Masjid office
to register.
The clocks will be going forward this Sunday,
all evening
all evening lectures happening