Aqeel Mahmood – Tafseer of Surah AtTakwir Part 2
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AI: Transcript ©
Inshallah, we're gonna continue with the tafsir
of the surah, which we started,
last week.
And this was
Surah to Taqir,
and we were about halfway through the Surah
where Allah, Subhanahu wa ta'ala, he says,
After Allah
describes
some of the things that will take place
just prior to the day of judgment,
for example,
the sky splitting
and
the Bihar,
the the seas,
the the water in those
seas
bursting into flames.
And
when the newborn child is asked for what
crime
is it go for what crime was it
killed,
when Allah mentions all of these things,
he
tells us the consequences
of,
the actions of individuals.
So
Allah then says
that on that day, meaning when all these
things happen,
that's going to be a day. And what's
the significance of that day?
That on that day every single person will
know what he's brought forth, what is prepared
for that day.
And Allah
in another aya,
he describes in more detail,
he explains this aya with another aya. Where
Allah
says, that Allah says on that day when
every person will be confronted with all the
good that he's done.
And all the evil that he that he's
done.
He would hope that between it and between
his sins is a huge,
a large distance.
So on that day, a person will want
to distance himself away from the sins which
he committed.
And this is a reminder for all of
us that just like on the day of
judgment, a person would like himself to be
distance from
his sins and the haram which he may
have committed.
Likewise, an individual can
avoid that by distancing himself from haram in
this dunya.
So a person when he distances himself from
any type of haram, any type of
evil, then this is something which will benefit
him in the because
it's not gonna be a means
of, him entering into hellfire or earning the
punishment of Allah.
And this includes for example individuals,
people.
You know, we have individuals who are people
of people of evil. People who commit evil.
People who have a evil tendency. People who
for example
have bad habits. So when we socialize, when
we mix with them as the prophet
said that a person will be raised up
with the people,
of his kind or the people that he
used to socialize with in the dunya.
So a person, if he hung around, if
he socialized with evil individuals, people with bad
habits and he picked them up and he
committed sins as a as a result of
this, then he'll also be raised up with
them on the day of judgement. So Allah
subhanahu wa ta'ala he says
and then Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala
starts to make oaths. He starts to make
oaths and he swears by specific things. So
Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala he says
And when Allah says
even though the the the here, we understand
the to be a negation.
Means no. But when Allah makes an oath
for example
like in this ayah.
When Allah says
it's not considered to be a negation. Allah
isn't saying I don't swear by
for example
but instead it's emphasis.
So when Allah says
he's emphasizing
his oath on.
When Allah says
then this is emphasis
of his oath on or with. Some scholars,
they said,
does mean negation.
Some scholars say
does mean negation,
but it's as if Allah is saying, I
don't need to swear by these things.
Allah is far superior for him to make
an oath or to swear by these types
of things.
So some scholars have mentioned this as well.
So here Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala, he says,
that I swear by and
are the stars which appear and then they
disappear.
They come for part of the night and
then they go away or they come for
the night and then they're not there for
the for the for the for the day.
They're there during the night, but then during
the day when the sun comes out, they
disappear.
So Allah
says,
I swear by the retreating stars, you could
say. Stars that appear at one moment in
time and then they're not present at another
another
portion of the day.
Those that run their course and then they
disappear.
So they appear for a portion of the
night and then they'll disappear. You may see
them and also you may not see them.
And I swear by the night as it
closes in.
When he explained,
this he said
he said can mean the darkening of the
night.
The night as it starts to darken. Other
scholars, they said this means the night as
it starts to as it starts full stop,
as it begins, when the night actually begins
or when it covers the people.
So by the night as it begins or
when it's when it starts to become apparent
and its effects are shown on the rest
of,
the creation on on the land, on the
earth and so on and so forth.
Allah makes another oath. He says, by the
dawn when it breathes.
Meaning, when the when the when the dawn
when the day itself is beginning, when the
day itself,
starts.
And Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala,
in other ayaat as well, he makes oath
by the day and the night.
As Allah says. By the by the night
as it covers everything by and by the
night, by the night as it,
brightens up everything. So Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala
swears by
the night and the day in other places
in the Quran as well. And this is
because of the of the the
the
the the huge
the the huge creation
of the night and the day and its
significance in our lives. How we depend on
the night and we depend on the day.
How, for example, if the 24 hours were
just daylight, we wouldn't be able to survive.
Likewise, if it was completely
dark for 24 hours, we also wouldn't be
able to survive. We depend on these things.
We depend on the night. We depend on
the day. And it's Allah who created them.
Allah swears by the sun and the moon
for the very same reason. Because we depend
on them. A person depends on these things.
And they're magnificent,
huge, amazing creations of Allah Subhanahu Wa Ta'ala.
So Allah swears by the night here and
then he swears by the day.
Others they said, tanafas
literally it means to breathe.
Anafas in Arabic means to breathe.
Other scholars, they said this
this meaning,
literally it means to breathe, but here it's
referring to as soon as the day starts.
As soon as the day breathes its breath,
as soon as the the dawn as soon
as the the morning itself starts, as soon
as it becomes dusk, as soon as the
sun rises.
When it brightens and the the day actually
begins
And it's it's amazing how Allah
uses different descriptions
to describe the day and the night and,
you know, other descriptions in the Quran.
It's beautiful especially when when you read it
recite it in Arabic.
As the morning,
breathes and as the mornings begins, as the
morning starts.
Allah
now is making these oaths. He's swearing
by the day and the night and so
on and so forth.
And then he responds and answers these oaths.
And he says,
He says, verily, this is the word of
a most honorable messenger.
Meaning the statements that are coming out of
this this man's mouth
are the statements
of a messenger.
These words that he's saying these
are the is the speech of the messenger
of Allah sallallahu alaihi wa sallam.
And a a honorable a righteous
messenger. Somebody who's honorable.
And the the muslim themselves, they testified
to the the honesty of the prophet
when they call him.
So Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala, he says,
He says, with
the
or
the the word
is referring to the one who is very
powerful, possesses power.
So Allah says,
this is the speech of a noble
messenger, From the one who possesses power.
And he is,
with the lord
of the magnificent throne, the high lofty throne.
So Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala he's describing here
Jibril alaihis salam
because Jibril alaihis salam is the one who
is from the most powerful angels.
So Allah is saying verily this is a
speech of
the noble messenger,
and he possess he is the one who
is possess he possesses a position of power
and
he's with
he's with the owner of the throne
secure in his position.
So as we know from the greatest of
the angels is the angel Jibril alaihis salam.
And anytime
Allah
has a message for the angels, he tells
the angel Jibril. And the angel Jibril tells
the rest of the angels. We mentioned, I
think last week as well, how Allah will
tell the angel Jibril,
tell
tell the angels that verily Allah loves such
and such.
And so the angel Jibril acts as a
messenger for Allah
to the rest of the angels.
Just like you have the,
the the messengers relaying the mess the speech
of Allah
through the angel Jibril to
the people.
Likewise,
you have the angel Jibril alaihis salam acting
as a messenger for the rest of the
angels.
And so he has this high authority in
the sight of Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala and
Allah gives him more
descriptions. He describes him in in more detail
and he says that
he's someone
who's obeyed in the heavens.
Somebody who's obeyed in the heavens. People obey,
follow his instructions.
Meaning the angels, the rest of the angels,
they listen to whatever the angel has to
say.
And he is someone who is trustworthy.
Ameen is somebody who is trustworthy.
Allah says, and your companion isn't somebody who's
insane. He's not somebody
who's mad.
And
in other ayaat as well, Allah
reassures the messenger of Allah
reassuring
him that he's not somebody who is insane.
He's not somebody who's crazy. He's not somebody
who's gone mad.
Because and this is an interesting point.
During the time of the messenger of Allah
sallallahu alaihi wa sallam,
when he was calling people to the worship
of Allah in the early days of the,
what was one of the accusations,
thrown towards him? That he was somebody who
was
insane, somebody who was crazy, somebody who was
someone who was mad.
And
when you have
everybody in the city,
basically, more or less,
calling somebody crazy. Imagine you live here in
Birmingham,
and
you say something,
and people see you, people observing you, people
are sitting with you, people are talking to
you.
And 99% of them are telling you
that you're insane.
They tell you you're crazy.
Most people are telling you yourself themselves, they're
telling you that you're insane.
What would you eventually start to believe
when 99% are telling you you're insane?
You're gonna think the same thing. You're gonna
think that's, you know, everyone's telling me I'm
insane.
Maybe there's something not wrong with me. Maybe
there's something, you know, there's something wrong with
me. Maybe I need to see a specialist
or something.
And so, subhanallah, who better than to reassure
the messenger of Allah
than Allah
himself.
So it's reassurance
from Allah.
It's reassurance and this also subhanAllah
shows you the mental fortitude of the messenger
of
For him to be able to continue with
the message,
even though people are throwing accusations towards him
like this.
Non stop, day after day after day, week
after week, year after year, 13 years in
Mecca.
And people are saying these types of things.
To have that mental type of strength, that
mental fortitude, the strongest man will crumble
with these types of accusations.
You know,
mentally, a person physically may be strong,
but mentally, a person may crumble.
Mentally, a person may be destroyed even though
he has a strong physical, you know, body.
And so it really shows us how the
messenger of Allah
was somebody who was perfect.
You know, physically,
mentally, he was somebody who was had the
more he had the most strength.
This is why we know
the famous hadith
where he reminded us about strength. He said
the strong one isn't the one who can
take the other person down, but the strong
one is the one who can control his
anger.
And this is a mental thing.
And if you think about it, it's true
because somebody who's somebody who becomes angry,
it's very easy for someone when he loses
when he loses his temper, when he becomes
angry to hit somebody,
to strike at someone, to punch someone, to
kick someone. It's easy. It's easy to throw
something,
to say something you'll regret.
That's easy to do. What's hard is when
somebody hits you,
when somebody slaps you.
What's hard is to control yourself and not
to strike back, not to retaliate.
That's real strength.
That's inner strength. That's a different type of
strength now.
Because the first thing we would think is
I'll show you.
You just hit me in the face. You
have no idea what's coming your way. You
made a big mistake.
But what's even harder is for someone to
control himself,
to not even retaliate in a physical way.
And, subhanallah, this is what truly shows
real real strength.
And,
I knew somebody. I I know a brother
who used to be,
back in the in in the old days,
in his days of Jahiliya. He used to
be a bouncer.
And I used to say to him, you
know,
there was an incident when I was in
Madinah,
where
some of the hujjah or some guests from
the coming to coming to Saudi Arabia, they
got into a scuffle.
It got quite physical
by the Haram as well. So these things
happened. I don't know what it was about.
I was coming from the Jami. I was
going to the to the Haram, and there
was a, you know, a a scuffle between
2 people. It got really serious.
And the police came, and there was a
couple of police officers.
And compared to the people who were fighting,
they weren't as big. They were quite small.
And they were trying to stop it. 1
of them was trying to stop it and
then he would back off because they thought,
how how are we gonna stop this? You
know, we got no there's no chance of
us stopping this. And so you got me
thinking, subhanAllah, what do you do in that
situation?
How do you stop? It's one thing that
and this again goes back to the point
about, you know, a person it's easy for
a person to fight. It's easy for a
person to, you know, unleash his anger physically.
But it's another thing to,
you know,
suppress things,
you know, to stop things,
to diffuse situations.
So I asked him, I said, how you
know, when when whenever you got into a
fight or whenever there was a fight between
people, how would you what would you do?
How would you stop things? And he would
say, I wouldn't physically do anything. I would
just talk to them.
And then when he would talk to them,
their
their focus is is elsewhere.
You know, it's a different
energy that they're using now. It's a different
thought process.
It's nothing physical anymore. Now they have to
use their brains. They have to use their
minds. They have to listen, and they have
to respond verbally.
So it changes everything. And then the things
that he would say, he would be calm
and the way he was he wouldn't be
aggressive. You know, we think about answers to
be very aggressive kinds of people. He was
saying that, you know, it's it's one thing
being aggressive and you do get those kinds
of people. But he said a person who
when he speaks
and he's able to diffuse a situation just
by speaking, this shows
this is a skill in and of itself.
The point being brothers and sisters
that
when
a person has this mental type of fortitude,
where he's able to control himself
in times of anger, when people call him
certain things, label him certain things,
say that he's certain things, you know, even
in in even in interrogation rooms.
A person was innocent, they'll force the person
they'll force the person to to to believe
that he did something he never did. Or
if he intended to do something,
a person harms somebody by accident,
they would persuade him just so they could,
you know, lock him up. They're persuaded they'll
persuade him that he did it deliberately.
He did it intentionally.
You did feel something. You did want to
hit him. And so a person will crumble
because of the pressure.
And so when it's a whole city
accusing somebody,
labeling somebody as insane
and don't forget the city itself has its
doctors.
They have their own doctors. They have their
own healers. They have their own influential people.
They have their own politicians.
They have every kind of person, businessmen,
you know, whatever they may be, noblemen.
So every single individual, people who have status,
they're accusing the prophet of being somebody who
is insane and it's Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala
who reassures him. It's Allah who's reassuring him
from above the 7 heavens.
And your companion
isn't insane. Your companion
isn't mad.
And he has already seen him in the
clear horizon.
Meaning for sure, the messenger of Allah
saw
him
in the clear horizon
in his truest form. So who? The angel
Jibril alaihis salam.
That for sure and it was
a reality,
and it was a true scene
where he saw him
with his own eyes in his true form.
And the angel Jibril alaihis salam, because he's
the greatest angel, the most powerful angel, he
is the the the the most magnificent in
terms of seeing him with,
with one's own eyes in his truest form.
He has 300 wings.
And
as we mentioned we mentioned previously,
when the revelation came to the messenger of
Allah
the first time, he saw him in his
true form.
And everywhere he looked, all he could see
was the angel,
which shows us the huge size of the
angel Jibril alayhi
And he isn't somebody
who's withholding
knowledge of the unseen.
He's not somebody who's withholding information about the
unseen.
Meaning it's the duty of the messenger of
Allah
Every time he's given revelation by Allah subhanahu
wa ta'ala that he has to
reveal it, he has to recite it, he
has to,
give it to the people and the people
listen and they memorize everything
that comes out of this of the lips
of the messenger of Allah alaihi wa sallam.
So everything which,
he is given, every inspiration,
every wahi which is given to the messenger
of Allah alaihi wa sallam,
he it's a duty upon him to,
pass it on to his companions.
It's not something which is kept in of
himself or or within himself.
And again,
I've mentioned this before in other classes.
I'm not sure if I mentioned it here.
But, you know, the
the
the medium of of speech is something which
is a lot harder for a person to
remember than something written down.
And so the fact that the messenger of
Allah would
recite ayaat
the first time
in its
perfect
mode
without any mistakes,
and then for the companions to hear it
for the first time and for them to
memorize it.
This is something which it's a miracle in
and of itself
because I've started here right now
in the last 15, 20, 25 minutes.
And if I do this same talk again,
I'll probably stutter and make mistakes. I won't
be able to repeat it exactly the same.
And if you went back and told your
family or your friends or relatives what you
heard, you wouldn't be able to repeat it
100%.
You would summarize.
And if somebody else told you, you would
summarize the the summary.
So for the messenger of Allah
to recite the Quran, sometimes whole surahs.
He was given
in one go.
Is 15 10, 15 pages
roughly.
So for him to be given Surahum'ida in
its entirety,
pages upon pages, and he recites it first
time without any mistakes, this is a miracle
from Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala. And it's proof
of his prophethood.
And on top of this,
he would
recite
the same
sections that he would be given
again
years later
exactly
the same as how he recited them the
first time.
And on top of this,
he would be given
3, 4, 5 years later, 10 years later,
and those
would be placed before
ayaat which he was given
earlier.
So
he would be given ayaat, for example, later
on, and he would say to the companions,
put these ayaat
before these ayaat in this surah in any
surah of the Quran, for example.
And this is subhanallah, it's something if you
think about it something is in your mind
you're not even able to do this.
How can you, SubhanAllah, rearrange and arrange and
he's somebody who can't read and write?
So how can somebody arrange all of this
in his mind and then present it,
you know,
and it's known. We have everything we need
to know about the life of the prophet
even what he used to do in privacy.
So it's impossible for a person to suggest
he knew how to read and write. He
had a hidden he used to hide scriptures
some ways. Not doesn't make any sense.
So all of these things, subhanAllah, on a
logical level, you don't even need to read
recite the Quran.
You know, we know the miracles of the
prophet himself.
But these types of miracles,
a person just has to use his logic
to understand.
But he must have been a prophet of
Allah for him to be able to be
given this Wahi revelation, for him to be
able to recite it perfectly,
and for him to be given other ayaat
later, which he rearranges
himself in the Quran
and places some ayat before some ayat.
SubhanAllah,
it's
it's really a sign from Allah
about the perfection of the Quran and the
fact that it's perfect.
Every single surah.
The perfection of the recitation of the meaning
and so on and so forth. So Allah
Subhanahu Wa Ta'ala he says,
Everything which which he was given
he sent out, he spread
and he relate to the companions
And then Allah
says,
And know is this Quran
the word of the shaitan who is expelled,
the rejected shaitan.
So Allah
says, likewise, if some of you are thinking
this is these are the words of somebody
who's possessed.
These are the words
of somebody who's,
a you know, who's
the shaitan has possessed him. The jinn has
overtaken his body.
The jinn is speaking instead of him.
Then, also, this isn't from the speech of,
a shaytan.
And
one of the,
elders, the senior,
leaders of Quresh
in the time of the messenger of
his name was Alwaleed Abdul Mughira.
And
when he heard
the
recitation of the Quran,
he started to talk about how beautiful the
words were even though he wasn't a Muslim.
And the people panicked.
They said he's gonna accept Islam.
And so Abu Jahl went to,
this individual,
and he said the people are worried that
you're gonna accept Islam.
So you need to say something now
to cover up what you said. You need
to backtrack. You need to say something to
reassure people. So he said, what should I
say? So he said,
tell them
that
Mohammed is a poet.
So he said, he's not a poet. So
I'm the greatest poet around. I know for
sure he's not a poet.
And then he said, tell them that he's
somebody who's insane.
He said, but he's not insane. He's not
a madman.
I can't say something because it wouldn't make
sense. And, of course, this didn't make any
sense.
So he said, tell them he's possessed. He's
somebody who's possessed by the by the jinn.
He said, but he's not somebody who's possessed.
He doesn't show signs of possession.
And this is a conversation taking place between
2 non Muslims.
And this shows us
that they understood, they realized
these types of accusations wouldn't work
because they don't make sense.
When somebody's possessed, you know an individual who's
possessed.
There are certain signs
a person can tell.
You know, the way a person speaks, maybe
the
his behavior,
maybe he has certain things that he does
or he has twitches or he has you
know, the those who do rupiah, those who
read on people, they have certain
ways of know knowing whether a person is
possessed or not. The way he behaves, the
way he speaks, the way he acts.
So they said they even they understood this
is somebody
who who isn't possessed and this isn't the
speech of
shaitan. And Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala is emphasizing
this in the Quran.
Then Allah azzawajal he says
Where are you going? Meaning meaning why are
you fleeing from Allah and his messenger? Why
are you fleeing from the Quran and the
sunnah of the messenger of Allah salar wa
sallam?
Why are you fleeing from the truth?
Meaning these excuses you're making,
you're using these excuses to distance yourself from
the truth.
And sometimes
a person,
he covers his eyes. He he he blinds
himself with these excuses.
And the same is the case with us
as Muslims.
You know, maybe we're required to do certain
obligations.
Maybe we're required to pray 5 times a
day. Maybe we're required to give zakah,
to be good to our neighbors, to to
obey our parents.
But then we place
certain things in front of our eyes to
deceive ourselves that we don't have to do
those things.
We make excuses.
So just like the kuffar make excuses not
to obey Allah and his,
likewise,
in a way, sometimes we also end up
making excuses
where we don't end up following Allah azza
wa Jal and the sunnah of the messenger
of Allah azza wa sallam. Then Allah azza
wa jal he
says that this is nothing except a reminder
to
to everything that has been created by Allah.
This is something which is a reminder.
Just like Allah
sent prophets and messengers in the past as
a reminder
for their people,
likewise, this is also a reminder.
And just
like every single individual
in previous nations
was born as a believer, born upon the
fitra,
and this is his his nature. And the
nature of a human being
is that he is born
having this understanding of the oneness of Allah.
And then it's the parents, it's the family
who change him to a different religion.
So it's a reminder to people as a
as a whole, and it's also a reminder
to us individually.
Because deep down, we already have this built
inside of us,
this concept of worshiping Allah alone. So Allah
is saying
that is a reminder
to everything which has been created.
It's it's just a reminder
for a person to remember,
the worship of Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala as
he is supposed to.
And this is why Allah
tells us to remind one another as well.
As Allah says
remind because the reminder benefits the believer.
Because we all tend to forget. We all
tend to become,
neglectful or forgetful or, you know, maybe our
focus shifts
from
the worship of Allah from the akhirah to
other things.
Whether it's children or,
our spouses or our jobs or family
or, you know, or or wealth, money or
whatever it may be. Sometimes our focus shifts.
So
the reminder benefits the believer because it puts
him back onto the straight path.
And this is why every single rakawah that
we pray in salah, we will say,
guide us to the straight path Because a
person very easily he can shift away.
You know, other things start to take priority.
And so continuously asking Allah
for guidance
is a means of Allah not just keeping
us upon the straight path, but also making
us firm.
Because some
are firmer on the straight path than others.
And so there's different levels. There are individuals
who are firmer on the straight path, and
there are others who may be on the
path,
and then they may go on to other
paths and they may become distracted. So Allah
subhanahu wa ta'ala he says
For whoever wills amongst you to take the
right course,
the right path.
The straight path. Allah says,
this is a reminder
for the one
who wants to take the right course.
Meaning, it's a choice that a person has
to take now.
Every single one of us has a choice
and he has to decide for himself what
he wants to do.
If he wants to take this as a
reminder, as a remembrance,
as a reminder for him to do
what he's supposed to do as a human
being created by Allah to worship him,
then this is something entirely
upon that individual himself. Nobody can force him
to do something he doesn't want to do.
This is a choice he has to make.
For whoever amongst you wishes to.
To take
a right course, to take a straight path,
to be
put back on the straight and narrow, to
be put back onto the right course.
And then Allah says,
And Allah concludes with this ayah. He says
that you do not wish something,
you do not choose something or will something
or want to do something
except that except that Allah,
the lord of the worlds also will something,
also intend something.
Meaning everything we do
it's under the qadr and the decree of
Allah
himself.
And so we are dependent upon Allah.
And when a person depends on Allah, when
a person puts his trust on Allah, then
Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala will give him success.
Because there is no success without Allah.
There is no,
victory without Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala. And so
Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala concludes
this surah
by mentioning that all power
and every single thing which is decreed
is decreed by Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala. His
will
trumps everything else.
Allah's choice and Allah's decisions,
overpower and over by everything else and every
single choice that we make. Our choices, our
decisions may come to fruition or they may
not. Whereas Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala when he
intends to do something
then it's done exactly how he intended.
And Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala concludes here.
And this is the end of,
the tafsir of Surat Takwir.
And,
inshallah,
next week we'll continue
with, this class. If there's any questions, then
I'll do my best to answer them.
Okay.