Aqeel Mahmood – Tafseer of Surah alAla Part 4
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AI: Transcript ©
Inshallah, we're going to be continuing with the
tafsir
of Surat Al A'la.
And before we start, who can remind me
what we covered last lesson?
Those of you who are here or those
of you who heard it later on online.
Anybody remember what we discussed, what we talked
about?
Okay. So one of the things we talked
about was the fact that the Quran in
and of itself is something which is easy
for a person to memorize
based on the ayah in Surat Al A'la
where Allah Subhanahu Wa Ta'ala, he says,
We are going to make you recite it,
so
don't forget it. And also we said another
meaning of this ayah is we are going
to make you recite it
as a result of which you won't
forget it.
And depending on the meaning and the of
the ayah,
the the meaning itself can change.
So if we say we are going to
make you memorize it and learn it, so
don't forget it. It shows us the importance
of
memorizing the Quran, but not only memorizing the
Quran, keeping what one has
memorized.
Keeping what one has learned and memorized from
the book of Allah because of its importance.
And so that's why it's,
it's
a shame that many people, and, you know,
we're all guilty of this to a certain
extent,
that we memorize portions of the Quran,
but we don't,
either retain its memorization over a large period
of time, or we don't take lessons from
those ayaat as we're supposed to. So
we are going to make you memorize it,
so don't forget it. Meaning don't forget the
recitation, don't forget the lessons from it, don't
forget the ayaat that you've memorized
and spent your time,
and your your life and your years,
memorizing
this book,
and this,
this guidance from Allah Subhanahu Wa Ta'ala. The
second meaning,
we are going to make you read it
and learn it,
as a result of which you won't forget.
And we talked about the meaning of the
second,
interpretation of the ayah. Anybody remember what that
was?
So when Allah says,
we are going to make you read it.
We are going to make you learn it,
memorize it. We shall make you recite it.
As a result of which you won't forget,
we said that this shows
that one's
strength of memory
and how well a person memorizes something is
from
Allah Subhanahu Wa Ta'ala. Because Allah says,
we are going to make you recite it
as a result of which
you won't forget. The here is is means
as a result of which, because of which
you won't basically forget.
Meaning, it's Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala who gives
a person first of all the ability to
be able to learn
surahs,
ayat from the Quran and understanding those surahs
and ayat. And I think we mentioned last
week or maybe before that, we said you
could have a group of students in a
classroom and they all have the same teacher,
but every single person, his understanding of the
lesson is different.
They don't all understand the lesson exactly the
same way. One person may understand everything. He
may even, subhanallah, understand it more than the
teacher.
He may end up correcting the teacher himself
because the teacher maybe is doesn't know as
much. And then you may have other students
in the class who have no idea what's
going on. They're sitting there and they're just
thinking, what's happening? I have no idea what
he's talking about. And they're both in the
same class. The teacher is exactly the teacher
is exactly the same, But the level of
understanding is different. Why is this the case?
Because the creation of Allah isn't the same.
Every single creation of Allah is different. One's
weakness may be another strength. Another strength may
be another's weakness may be somebody else's strength.
So this shows us that people with regards
to their understanding,
they're different,
and the only common
thing between all of them is the fact
that if it wasn't for the sake of
Allah,
they wouldn't be able to learn and they
wouldn't be able to memorize, they wouldn't be
able to understand. So understanding is from Allah
Subhanahu Wa Ta'ala, and we mentioned,
a proof and evidence of this from the
time of the companions.
Anybody remember?
The issue of how it's from Allah that
he causes people to understand certain things.
When the
yeah. Sorry?
Okay. We didn't mention that. That's a good
that's a good, example. So Zaydun Nothabit
he was,
from Medina,
and he was the one
who and also Uthman ibn Affan
they chose him to be the one responsible
and in charge of and the head of,
writing the Quran and and
basically
gathering the Quran together into 1 single book,
compiling the Quran. He was the the one
who was in charge. And he was someone
who was very young when the messenger of
Allah SWALLAM,
came to Madinah.
And in fact, he had memorized the most
Quran from the Ansar at the time. So
when the prophet
arrived in Madinah, they showed him and they
presented to him because
they said he has memorized the most Quran.
And
he was one of the main scribes of
the Quran. He would write it down as
soon as it was
revealed. And so he could read, he could
write. So he was told by the messenger
of Allah, to memorize the Hebrew language, the
language of the Torah, the language of the
book of the Jews.
Why is this the case? Because there were
Jews in Madinah, and the prophet would always
converse with the Jews and discuss things with
the Jews. And so he was told to
learn the Jewish language so that they could
read the Torah and, you know, have discussions
and conversations
about theology and about Islam and about,
the worship of Allah and so on and
so forth. So the point is he memorized
the Hebrew language in how many days?
14 days.
He learned the whole language in 14 days.
And again, this shows that not everyone has
this ability.
This is something which is something which is
specific to certain individuals. Certain people are blessed
in certain ways, others aren't. Also,
the famous dua of the messenger of Allah
SWAWSALAM
to one of the companions, When
the messenger of Allah SWAWSALAM told who?
Ibn Abbas. He said,
give him understanding of the religion.
And give him understanding of.
Is an interpretation of the Quran.
And so he was
made a dua was made for him so
that he could understand the book of Allah
and understand Islam and understand, fiqh. He was
given knowledge of the of the Quran, of
the book of Allah. The point being that
knowledge is from who? From Allah Subhanahu Wa
Ta'ala. And this is why one of the
duas which the messenger
used to say was,
oh, Allah increase me in knowledge as Allah
says in the Quran as well.
Say, my lord, increase me in knowledge. So
knowledge is something which is from Allah Subhanahu
Wa Ta'ala
and it's something which if a person makes
dua for to Allah, Allah will increase
him in knowledge. So that's one thing we
discussed. We talked about the importance of always
returning and going back to Allah, make dua
to Allah, keeping our intentions sincere
because we're memorizing and learning for the sake
of Allah. And so one of the reasons
why knowledge doesn't enter into the heart is
because our intentions aren't sincere.
Don't forget that it's Allah who gave you
this knowledge.
Meaning, if you forget that it's from Allah
and you forget the reason why you're learning
and studying Islam,
then it's not going to enter into your
heart. You're not gonna really benefit from this
knowledge that you're learning. So
so this is, one of the benefits, one
of the things we discussed. And we stopped
off where Allah Subhanahu Wa Ta'ala, he says,
Where Allah Subhanahu Wa Ta'ala in this in
this Surah ins,
he says, remind for verily the reminder benefits
individuals, benefits
other people.
Remind because the reminder benefits.
And each and every single one of us
has a responsibility,
in one capacity or another
to remind others about Islam, to remind others
about,
doing good deeds, and, you know, reminding others
about staying away from sin and staying away
from harm. Whether that's people that we're responsible
for,
like our spouses, our children, our family members,
or people who are, you know,
friends or neighbors of ours.
And the the best way an individual can
remind others is by he himself being
a good example.
This is the most effective way. When a
person shows good akhlaq and good manners to
another individual, it rubs off. Just like for
example, when someone comes to you and he
has even if he doesn't come to you,
you're in the masjid, you see someone who's
known for his good akhlaq, known for his
good manners. Naturally, you're going to gravitate towards
him.
When someone is known for his good akhlaq,
good manners, he's always smiling, he's cheerful,
okay, and then you know somebody else is
always serious, never smiles,
Naturally, you're going to stay away from that
person and go to the person who is
always smiling. You're gonna wanna meet him because
maybe you wanna feel like smiling or you
wanna smile on that day because something happened
and you're not you're not you're not very
happy. So naturally, you're going to gravitate to
those people who have good and good manners.
The same is the case
for you. When you show good akhlaq, people
will want to gravitate towards you as well.
So it's the same with regards to you
as well.
So this shows us the importance of one
having good akhlaq and one having good manners,
that people will naturally gravitate towards you and
they'll end up doing good deeds as a
result of your good etiquette and good manners.
One of the du'aat, he was saying how
he used to,
be with members of the ISOC in his
university where he was, and
he
would spend time with them, but he never
used to pray. Back then, he he wasn't
someone who used to pray regularly or anything
like this. He said, but once did that
did they ever tell me to pray with
them? Like, once did they ever say, come
and pray with us or do this or
that with us? You know, they wouldn't it
was just their akhlaq and their character that
he was
gravitating towards them and spending time with them
and mixing with them. And he said one
day, they just happened to stop one of
the brothers just happened to stop by a
masjid, and he said I'm just gonna pray.
I'll be back in a few minutes.
And so he said I said I I
said to him, I said, okay. I'll come
out with you and I'll pray as well.
Meaning it was just something which happened as
a result of mixing with people who are
who are of good and good manners and
good etiquette.
And this is how it is in our
person. It rubs off on people. The famous
story of one of the companions who was
in the Masjid as a prisoner because of
one of the battles during time of the
prophet.
No real was given, but he just saw
how the people were with one another, how
they treated him by giving him food. And
when he left and he was freed after
a few days in the Masjid, okay, he
was freed by the prophet.
He went, he performed ablution, performed came back,
and accepted Islam.
The point being that we shouldn't underestimate good
and good manners and good etiquette,
and it's even more important when a person
shows animosity towards you. The best thing a
person can do when a person shows hatred
or animosity towards you is to show good
and good manners
because then they don't know what to do.
They don't know how to react, how to
behave. Because if you're showing good and good
manners and they were vicious towards you, they
were angry towards you, they were ill mannered
towards you, they'll think twice towards you, they
were angry towards you, they were ill mannered
towards you, they'll think twice before
reacting in the same way after you treat
them well and be after after you were
nice to them.
And if they do,
then the onus is on them, the sin
is on them.
And represents badly on them,
to themselves, in your eyes, in the eyes
of the people, and most importantly in the
sight of Allah Subhanahu Wa Ta'ala.
So,
this shows us the importance of reminding
one another because the reminder profits.
Means some kind of benefit.
Meaning people will in one way or another
benefit from the reminder.
The reminder will be received by he who
fears.
Meaning the only the people who fear Allah
subhanahu wa ta'ala will truly benefit
from
that reminder that was given to them. And
again
and the fear of Allah Subhanahu wa ta'ala,
this comes from Allah.
Then Allah Subhanahu wa ta'ala he says
that it will be avoided by those who
are wretched, those who are evil.
Meaning those who aren't,
worshipers of Allah, those who don't have iman,
those who hate
the religion of Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala, those
who don't wanna hear the reminders given to
them, they're the ones who are they're the
ones who
in
it. There he will neither die nor will
he live.
He will neither die nor will he live.
What does this ayah actually mean?
Meaning when he's in hellfire,
death isn't going to come to him in
a number of ways. First of all, because
when a person is being burnt alive, we
expect that person to die
because of the fire. A person can't survive
a fire in this dunya. When a person
is being burnt alive and he's in a
fire, he's going to eventually die because of
the fire, because that's the that's the power
of fire itself.
Whereas Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala,
the fire which he has created of *
isn't going to cause that individual to die.
Meaning this is going to inflict pain and
is going to be a source of punishment,
but it's not going to cause death.
And this is from the miracles of Allah
subhanahu wa ta'ala. Even though it's one of
those miracles which we ask Allah that we
never ever witness,
but it's still one of those miracles of
Allah. The fact that there's going to be
a fire, and that fire will cause pain,
It will cause severe punishment. It's going to
cause severe harm, intense pain, pain which we
can't even imagine, we think of fire in
this world. We can't even imagine being affected
by it. And so the fire of the
akhirah, the fire of the hellfire
is so painful,
so severe, 70 times hotter than the fire
of this world as the messenger said,
but it's not going to cause death.
I mean, it's going to be continuous.
And this is why Allah
says
is going to replace their skin by another
skin so that it will,
repeat the punishment over and over again so
they can taste the punishment again and again.
So this shows us the severe,
you know, power of this fire of
the. Also,
another meaning,
then they won't,
die and they won't be alive.
The death here can also refer to how
no matter how many years go by,
they won't die
not as a result of the fire, but
also not as a result of old age,
for example. Meaning age isn't a factor in
the.
It's for it's for eternity. It's eternal, whether
you're in paradise or hellfire.
So when a person enters into hellfire and
is there for who knows how many years,
it's not going to be a cause for
him to eventually die like we do in
this world. A person lives for 50, 60,
70, 80 years, a 100 years if he's
blessed for to to live that long, and
then he dies after a period of time.
But in the hellfire,
there is no end period.
There is no time as Allah says
every soul will taste death in this dunya.
In the there is no concept of death.
A person isn't going to die in the.
He's not going to,
pass away. There is no death, whether it's
from the the punishment of the fire or
whether it's from natural causes. So, again, this
shows us how in
the hellfire
or in paradise, there isn't going to be
any type of death.
So he's not going to die in the
hellfire
nor is he going to be
living. He isn't going to be alive.
Meaning what? What does this mean?
The messenger of Allah, alayhis salatu wa salam,
it's reported by Imam Ahmed
that he said concerning the people of the
fire.
He said that the fire is for those
who are deserving of it. They won't die
nor will they live. And regarding the people
that Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala wants mercy for,
he will cause them to die in the
fire, then
he will allow the intercessors to come to
them and a man from them from the
from those intercessors
will take his groups
of supporters from the hellfire
and he will plant them, and then they
will come out, and narrations mention that they
will be planted by a river in Jannah,
and they will sprout out like the sprouting
of seeds by a bank by a riverbank.
And then the messenger of Allah said
that have you not seen how trees become
green and then they become yellow and then
they become green again?
The point being that an individual
may be saved by the permission of Allah
Subhanahu Wa Ta'ala
after a period of time only Allah Subhanahu
Wa Ta'ala knows if he was someone who
believed in Allah Subhanahu Wa Ta'ala.
So it's not necessarily a condition that a
person won't enter hellfire if he was a
Muslim.
So a person will be punished, a person
will be held to account for his actions
if he disobeyed Allah and if he harmed
people. If a person was a Muslim, but
he killed people, he stole from people, he
harmed people, he was an oppressor on a
small scale or on a large scale, he's
going to be held to account for that.
He's going to be punished for the for
the sins which he committed.
So it doesn't mean a person gets away
scot free, and that person will be punished
by Allah Subhanahu Wa Ta'ala in a way
which Allah Subhanahu Wa Ta'ala has mentioned in
his book and in a way in which
the messenger of Allah has said in his,
in in the sunnah.
So a person will be held to account,
a person will be punished.
And then it's up to Allah subhanahu wa
ta'ala for how long
this believer, this Muslim
will be punished for, and whenever Allah
wishes, he will take him out.
So there's no specific timeline. And a person
shouldn't think to himself, I'll take my chances.
You know, sometimes people say, I'll take my
chances,
and I'll I'll eventually I'm gonna leave,
you know, hellfire anyway.
But if we just think about this concept
and think about this idea, it's very foolish
for a person to even think like this
because, you know, fire in this world, a
person wouldn't wanna go anywhere near it.
And so even more of a reason for
a person to think why am I, you
know, committing these sins
to burn in a fire which is so
much worse than the fire of this world.
You know, when we think about the fire
of this world,
fire which is very, very hot, what color
does it become? It becomes like a blue
color.
And if it come if it becomes even
hotter than this, it becomes white.
And the fire of hellfire is so hot
that it's burning itself up and it's actually
black.
The fire is actually black itself. So one
can, subhanallah, only begin to imagine the severity
of the fire of the * of *
itself.
And so when a person thinks like this,
SubhanAllah, it's very foolish because he he wouldn't
expect to be burnt in this world. You
know, a person wouldn't wanna be burnt in
a fire in this world for, you know,
any amount of time,
you know, 5 minutes or even 1 minute
for no amount of money,
because this is a pain and this is
a type of torture and punishment
which, you know, a sane individual wouldn't even
consider going close to. So Allah, Subhanahu wa
ta'ala, he says,
meaning as a result of a person not
listening to advice,
not listening to people reminding him of a
beneficial reminder,
as a result of him not listening,
the one who
the one who is wretched, the vile soul,
he's going to stay away from him. Sometimes
we have people like this. You try to
give them advice,
and they don't wanna listen to what you
have to say. The moment you start mentioning
Allah, the messenger of Allah, they don't wanna
hear it.
And this is a very dangerous,
path to go down. When a person starts
on this path of not listening to someone
who mentions
Allah and his messenger, then
it's a very dangerous path, and it's showing
the things which he loves and the things
which he hates. You know, the things that
we love, we wanna hear everything about it.
We wanna see it all the time, hear
it all the time, do it all the
time.
You know? So when a person loves something,
he wants to be surrounded by it. When
a person hates something, he doesn't wanna know
about it. He doesn't wanna see it
be be anywhere close to it.
So when a person and this is a
reminder for every single one of us here,
and this isn't just something for somebody outside
who doesn't come to the Masjid, who does
isn't maybe, you know, one of our relatives
or family members who doesn't listen to us.
You know, many times when we give this
type of advice, when we talk about these
types of things, we tend to think about
others who have this problem.
But instead of thinking of others, we should
think about ourselves.
Yani, when somebody genuinely when someone
gives us
a a piece of advice,
mentions an ayah from the Quran, mentions a
hadith for example,
do we really contemplate
the ayah or the hadith in of itself
and think about how we can benefit from
this ayah or this hadith, or do we
think about the individual giving us that advice?
Because it's an important lesson. You know, we
don't look at the specific individual giving that
advice, but we look at the advice itself.
You know what they say, don't judge a
book by its cover.
And it's the same thing. You know, we
have stories from Umar radiaahu an when people
would reprimand him. Old women would say things
to him about about fearing Allah, about being
just, and he will start to cry.
Because it wasn't about the individual giving the
advice, it was about the advice itself.
And the famous story of Sheikh Bimbaaz, which
I think I mentioned before, when he used
to go to the masjid to offer the
salah, and one day he was late. After
the salah, an old man started to complain.
Said, what kind of imam are you? He
He didn't know who it was. He said,
what kind of imam are you? You come
late you come late for the salah. Call
yourself a imam.
After this, the sheikh never ever came late
for the salah ever again.
So who benefits from this? It's the sheikh
himself. So it wasn't about the individual who
gave the advice,
it was about the advice itself and how
one can benefit. The same thing with us.
An individual doesn't look at the in the
person giving the advice to him, who it
was, where he was from,
you know, a person, for example,
gives advice to you,
because maybe you are parked incorrectly.
You shouldn't have parked where you parked.
And you see that person,
and maybe he's a Muslim, but he's clean
shaven.
Maybe he's smoking. Maybe he's maybe he has
some other insufficient inadequacies, insufficiencies.
You know, he's he's deficient in some of
his,
Islamic characteristics.
But the point he was making may have
been correct.
Maybe you were causing harm to others. The
messenger,
what did he say about the one who
clears the path from, you know, clears the
path for other individuals. This is a a
portion of iman.
From belief is to clear the path and
to make the path safe for other people
to walk on.
And so when you're obstructing other individuals and
someone advises you and you get road rage
and you become angry, then you're in the
wrong regardless of who's actually giving the advice.
You can't say, look. You don't have a
beard.
Who are you to give me advice?
And it it doesn't make any sense because
what he's advising you with is something which
is correct,
is something which is right. It's not something
which, you know, is wrong or is incorrect
in terms of the advice that he's giving.
So a person, when he's when we when
we are given advice, we have take that
that advice on board. Solankar is correct.
Solankaj is not something which is haram or
incorrect or something which, is fundamentally
wrong. But, otherwise,
a person should take that on board and
try to understand and learn and benefit from
that piece of advice even if his intentions
were weren't sincere
because ultimately you're going to benefit from that
reminder. So whenever and this is a simple
lesson for every single one of us, you
know, sometimes
we, you know, listen to these lectures and
these, these muhadurat and these talks and for
example,
and we're given certain examples or certain reminders,
and sometimes automatically we start to think of
other people who maybe suffer from certain problems.
You know? We think I know someone who
does this. I know someone who suffers from
this. I know someone who says this. I
know someone who's involved in this haram activity.
But first and foremost, we have to remind
ourselves, we have to think about ourselves how
we can learn from the from that advice.
Because if a person keeps deflecting,
if a person keeps thinking about other people
who have those problems, what ends up happening?
You're throwing stones when you have a glasshouse,
because eventually you're going to become neglectful of
your own weaknesses,
your own insecurities,
your own problems,
because you're too busy thinking about other people
who have those problems.
And this is why, you know, the advice
of the scholars, they would always talk about
improving yourself first and then focusing on others.
Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala, what does he say
about,
the believers?
Oh, you who believe. Oh,
and save yourselves first and foremost and then
your families from the hellfire. Meaning focus on
yourself first. And this fits in and it
and it links into the importance of,
reminding others how
by showing their best etiquette and their best
manners, because this is the first thing a
person sees even before you open your mouth.
You know, they say about interviews, when a
person does a job interview,
they say,
I don't remember the statistics, but they say,
a large percentage
of,
individuals when they see someone coming into a
room, the interviewer, when they see someone coming
into the room, a large percentage of people,
they automatically have decided whether they're going to
accept this person for,
for the job and give him the job
or not before he's even spoken.
Because
they they look at the way a person
looks, the the body language, his behavior, and
so on and so forth.
You know? So this shows us the importance
of having good character, good akhlaq, good manners,
because he has a strong impact. We know
stories of,
the
companions.
There was a Jewish rabbi in Madinah.
When the messenger of Allah SWAAM arrived in
Madinah, he wanted to find out what the
commotion was about. And so he went to
see the messenger of Allah, and he said,
when I saw him, I knew by looking
at him by his face that this wasn't
the face of a liar.
So I had a couple of conversations and
eventually accepted Islam.
Meaning the reason why his heart became,
accepted
or became close to Islam was because of
the the the image
and the etiquettes
and the the way the messenger of Allah
SWAMI actually presented himself.
So it has a big impact. Allah subhanahu
wa ta'ala he says,
So after he talks about the importance of
giving advice,
he says, verily,
the victorious
one is the one who purifies himself.
And also what's interesting is this is linked
to the previous because
it shows when someone takes on board that
advice, what's going to happen? What's the end
result?
You're going to be victorious. How are you
going to be victorious? Because you're you're what?
Purifying yourself.
So when Allah talks about the importance of
reminding one another,
remind
because a reminder benefits. Those who have will
benefit from that reminder, and those who are
rich won't benefit. They'll enter into the hellfire,
and they won't die and they won't be
alive in that fire.
And then Allah Subhanahu wa talks about the
result of this,
meaning you purify yourself because
you're learning, you're benefiting from that advice. Also
when Allah in the previous ayah, when Allah
talks about the one who lives
and the one who dies.
We talked about the death, but we never
talked about the life. Allah says
They won't die in the hellfire nor will
they be alive. How will a person not
be alive in the hellfire?
We know he's going to be living
because he isn't going to die. But Allah
says he isn't going to be alive, he
isn't going to be dead, nor is he
going to be alive.
How is a person not going to be
alive in the hellfire?
Good. You know, when a person says live
your life to the fullest.
You know, when a person's full of life.
So this is this is the apparent meaning.
When a person is in hellfire,
when the fire sick and the sinner, may
Allah protect us from,
committing,
sins to cause it to enter into hellfire.
But when a person enters into hellfire,
there is no life. There's no life. You
know? And a person says in the dunya,
what kind of life are you leading?
You haven't got life. This guy's got no
life, man. He never comes out with us,
never enjoys himself. He's just busy working all
the time. He's got no life. What kind
of life is this? You know, people say
this.
In the all fire, that's truly the case.
It is no life to lead. It is
no life for a person to be, you
know, happy about. It's no life for a
person to brag about. It's no life to
be proud of. Genuinely,
it's no life to be proud of. A
person may may make fun of someone in
this dunya because he doesn't have fun,
live your life, that he's worshiping Allah so
that he can have a life in the
by admitting himself into paradise
as opposed to having no life in the
* fire.
There is no life. He isn't alive in
the * fire because he's being tortured.
You know, he's being punished because of the
sins which he did in this dunya.
And so as a result of the sins
which he committed,
now and he lived his life to the
fullest in this dunya by doing lots of
sins, thinking that he's gonna enjoy himself.
He doesn't have to worship Allah. Now he
has no life in the akhira because he's
basically just going through a cycle nonstop.
You know? And that's another thing which is
amazing about,
the akhira and the hellfire.
The fact that it's something which is
nonstop.
Allah says.
We're going to re
repeat
and replace
their skin with a new skin so they
can taste the punishment again and again and
again.
And, you know, sometimes
us when we go through
mundane
routines
of work all the time, it's the same
thing every single day.
You know, a person goes to work 9
o'clock in the morning, he wakes up at
a specific time, goes to the bathroom, he's
out by a specific time, gets changed, has
breakfast, sometimes or or he takes breakfast with
him in his car.
Okay? He goes to work. He parks up
in the same spot every single day. He
goes and sits down in the same seat,
in the same cubicle with the same people
around him, opens the same PC and the
same software, does exactly the same thing,
has the same conversation every day,
does the same thing every single day.
Okay. This person may even end up thinking,
and it's not right to do so, but
he may end up thinking he's gonna kill
himself
because he's thinking this is just ridiculous. I
need a change of scenery, and he's sick
of it because it's the same thing all
run over again. And after a year or
2 years, what ends up happening?
What does he think to himself?
I need I need a break.
I wanna do something else.
I wanna try a different job. And so
he tries a different job, and it's fresh
and it's good for the 1st few weeks
or 1st few months. Then what happens?
Same thing. He's thinking this is getting boring
now. It's the same thing over and over
again. Let me try something else. Subhanallah, the
person in this dunya has the choice.
In the,
the one who is in the hellfire has
no choice.
It's the same thing
over and over and over again. It's one
of the punishments of the hellfire.
The fact that he has to suffer
and have the same thing happening to him,
and not only that, but it doesn't ease
over time.
You know when a person feels pain, like
when a person's cold and he has a
hot shower. The hot shower, the the the
warmth of the water stings initially.
After a while, it becomes nice
and soothing because the body becomes used to
it. In the hellfire,
the body won't become used to the heat
and the fire.
It's constantly going to become worse. It's it's
always going to you're always going to feel
pain. It's always going to be bad. You're
never going to become comfortable.
So not only is it repetitive, but it's
also painful again and again and again nonstop,
Never becoming easier as time goes on.
So, you
know, it shows us the
the gravity and the dangers
the obvious dangers and also the serious
punishments and the severity of the punishments of
the hellfire.
And also as we mentioned previously as well
in Surah Gashia,
how
the hellfire, the punishment isn't just a fire
itself.
There's other punishments of of hellfire.
What are those other punishments?
Sorry?
Zakon zakon, the tree, things that a person
is going to eat,
things that a person is going to be
drinking,
boiling hot water,
thorny plants which will get stuck in a
person's throat.
So when we think of how fire, many
times we think of the fire, just a
fire. But everything else that is linked to
it is also something which adds on to
the punishment.
Even the angel,
the guardian of *. You know, when we
read the story of the Islam Mirage and
the messenger of
after he led the the the prophets in
prayer. And he turned back and Jibril Alaihi
Salam was there with another with another angel.
And he said, give salam to this angel.
And the angel gave salam first. And the
messenger of Allah Alaihi Salam, he said
that the angel Jibreel alaihi salam told him,
this is the keeper of Hal Fiamarik.
And he said that this angel never smiles.
This angel never ever smiles even though angels
are blessed creatures made of light.
And this also shows us that angels also
smile because the messenger of Allah explicitly mentioned
that this angel doesn't smile, which means other
angels must smile.
But he said this specific angel doesn't smile.
Meaning what?
First of all, because of what he sees
on a day to day basis of hellfire,
it's not something to smile about.
Secondly,
because even the angel of hellfire
isn't a means of ease for those who
are in hellfire.
You know, when a person is having a
bad day, just seeing someone smile at you
makes you feel a little bit better.
But in hellfire,
even the angel of hellfire isn't going to
smile.
Meaning even the angel is going to be
a source of punishment by you looking at
the angel. It's not going to offer any
sort of comforts, subhanAllah.
So this, subhanAllah, shows us the, you know,
the the punishments
are so so many and so severe that
we ask Allah
to protect us from all these punishments. Allah
then says, verily the one
who is victorious is the one who purifies
himself.
Meaning he purifies himself, as Ibn Kathir says,
from despised characteristics,
and he follows what Allah has revealed to
the messenger of Allah.
So he's purifying himself from the bad characteristics
that he has.
And this shows us that
the characteristics that we have, there may be
some
which
aren't good.
Meaning a person,
he may have certain characteristics.
He may have a short temper. It's is
needed to be quick tempered.
A person, for example, may have some other
bad habits that he had over time or
maybe things that, you know, because of genes
or because of family or parents or whatever
it is, his upbringing, he has certain characteristics
which aren't good.
And the one who makes the effort,
the one who wants to purify himself, the
one who wants to change, this individual is
the one who's going to be victorious.
Meaning none of us are perfect. We all
have our inadequacies, we all have our problems
with regards to our character and our personality,
with regards to our character. There's always certain
things that we don't like about ourselves,
but it's upon us to try and change
the way we are.
You know, you hear many people try who
try to say, I can't change the way
I am. A person should be happy with
the way I am. If you don't like
the way I am, tough. That's the way
I am. That's where I'm going to be.
I'm not gonna change.
But as Muslims,
we are supposed to be changing
constantly on a day to day basis. We're
supposed to be improving
because there are certain things that is it's
in our need to be like, but there
are also certain things that we can change.
Meaning every single one of us has these
insufficient you know, these,
deficiencies in our in our character,
but we don't keep those deficiencies.
A person has a habit of talking too
much sometimes.
Okay? This may be something he was born
with, but at the same time, he needs
to control this. Doesn't mean that now just
because he's born with it, he he has
to have it for the rest of his
life.
If he makes the effort to get rid
of those characteristics
and those bad things which he does even
on, you know, in certain situations, it may
not be good for him to talk a
lot, then Allah will reward him as a
result of his efforts because he's doing something
which ultimately is going to benefit him. So
as Muslims,
we do try to improve ourselves on a
regular basis.
So we're always trying to improve and better
ourselves. Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala ask why he
says,
He is victorious, the one who always tries
to purify himself, purify his soul.
He is victorious, the one who purifies himself
and remembers the name of his lord,
Farsullah,
and then he performs the salah.
Now what does all this mean? How how
are all these things connected?
You know, performing salah, purifying oneself, then remembering
Allah, then purify, performing salah. Ibikathir Rahimahullah, he
says,
he establishes
the salah
at its appointed time,
seeking the pleasure of Allah,
obedient to his command, and implementing his sharia,
implementing his law by offering the salah.
Meaning what?
Meaning
a person's salah
isn't
accepted
except if one's intentions are pure.
Also, the the
reverse is also the case.
Meaning only when a person has purified himself
is he then going to be willing to
offer the salah and he's going to have
the the the need and the want to
pray to Allah Subhanahu Wa Ta'ala.
You know when a person doesn't pray or
he forgets the salah
and he remembers
he's scared.
He's shocked that he actually forgot to pray.
Maybe he was so busy he forgot to
pray.
And so a person,
you know, according to the famous hadith of
the prophet,
if a person is asleep or he forgets,
then he should pray as soon as he
wakes up or as soon as he remembers.
And so, you know, sometimes a person, he
forgets to pray, he remembers,
you he feels shocked.
You're scared, you're worried, you think, I can't
believe I forgot to pray.
And so it's this feeling that a person
has which shows the pure the purity of
his heart.
Compared to the one who maybe forgotten, he
says it's okay. It's fine. I'll just carry
on. It's normal. I
forgot to pray. It's just how it happens.
It's okay. No big deal.
So there's a difference between, you know, people
who remember
afterwards and then they pray straight away. They
rush to Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala, they rush
to remember Allah Azzawajal. And those who don't
don't don't rush to Allah after they remember.
And again it goes back to the purity
of one's heart.
So they established the salah at its appointed
time seeking the pleasure and happiness of Allah
Subhanahu Wa Ta'ala. Says
that
used to command the people
to give.
He used to command them to give
before
Eid towards the end of the month of
Ramadan,
and he would recite these ayat.
So he would say,
He's victorious, the one who gives, the one
who purifies himself, and he remembers his lord,
and he prays.
So he he had interpreted this aya to
mean that a person who is purifying himself,
how is he purifying himself?
By giving
wealth to charity.
And so this is a means of an
individual
purifying his soul. This is a means of
an individual
purifying
his wealth. And another one of the scholars,
he said that if someone comes to any
of you begging and he wants to pray,
then he should give charity
before
he prays. Give charity before he prays for
verily Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala says
he is victorious, the one who purifies himself,
and he remembers his lord and he prays.
Meaning
these all these things are connected,
and they all complement one another, and iron
sharpens iron.
When you give charity
and then you offer salah
then your salah is going to be purer,
you're going to
be more sincere insha'Allah and also your salah
may have more chance of being accepted by
Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala.
And this is why the scholars they say
that when a person wants to do a
good deed
or even when he wants to make dua
for example,
you should do a deed before
making supplication, before making dua.
So a person, for example, gives gives
charity, then he makes dua to Allah.
Meaning you're doing something good before you request
something from Allah Subhanahu Wa Ta'ala.
Because you're doing a good deed, you're also
purifying yourself
before requesting something from Allah
And also, he
says that,
the famous scholar from the Tabi'in,
he said about this ayah,
he said, he who purifies his wealth and
pleases his creator.
This is what these ayah mean. He's victorious
when he purifies himself and remembers the name
of his lord and he prays. What this
means is that he purifies himself with the
wealth which has been blessed with by Allah
Subhanahu Wa Ta'ala
and he's pleasing
Allah
So you're purifying yourself first and then you're
presenting yourself to Allah by worshiping Allah
So it's a sense of
you know you're purifying the soul before you
worship Allah Subhanahu Wa Ta'ala.
Inshallah,
we'll
leave it here for today.
And then,
next lesson
will
continue and hopefully inshallah
will conclude,
next lesson be inshallah.
If there's any questions,
then I'll do my best to answer them.
So the the hadith, to my knowledge, it
mentions that the fire is 70 times hotter
than the fire of this world.
So, I mean, based on the hadith,
regardless of the temperature or the severity of
the fire of this world, it would be
considered 70 times hotter than even the hottest
fire.
Yeah. Because that's from this dunya, isn't it?
So that's a good point.
Yeah.
So it could be compared to that.
Yeah. Because that's made of fire, for example.
Yeah. So it could mean that.
Yeah. I don't see any
any reason why it couldn't mean that. Of
honor's
best.
Yeah. In the hellfire,
People are you saying that are people going
to be
are people going to be slaughtered in
no.
No.
Okay. Yeah. So that there will be the
slaughter, but as you can see, that's an
exception to general rule.
Yeah.
So the intercessor is going to be someone
from the righteous
in paradise.
Yeah. Based on the hadith. But I'll need
to check this hadith.
It's in,
and he narrates the hadith, and most things
in are authentic.
But let me have a look and
review and check the the hadith. It's in
imam Ahmed,
in, Muslim Imam Ahmed.
So let me have a look inshallah, and
then
we'll go over it next next lesson.