Aqeel Mahmood – Tafseer Surah AlKafiroon Part 1
AI: Summary ©
The importance of the icing on the cake is discussed in Islam, with emphasis on the importance of reciting the surahs and the personality of the Messenger of Islam. The speaker explains the benefits of worshipting one's God for a year to benefit one's faith and the importance of accepting one's God as gods. The speaker also discusses the pillars of Islam, including belief in Allah's followers, belief in Jesus, belief in the Holy Spirit, belief in the holy holy holy holy holy holy holy holy holy, and belief in the creator's attributes. The importance of belief in the holy holy holy holy holy holy holy holy holy holy holy holy is emphasized.
AI: Summary ©
So last week we finished with the, tafsir
of Surah Al Nasr. And today, InshaAllah, we're
going to be
starting the tafsir of Surah Al Kafirun.
Surah Al Kafirun. Allah Subhanahu Wa Ta'ala, he
says,
Say, O Muhammad sallallahu alaihi wa sallam,
O disbelievers, O Kafirun,
I don't worship what you worship.
Nor will you worship what I worship.
And I won't worship that which you which
you are worshiping.
Nor will you worship what I worship.
To be to you be your religion
and to me be my religion. So this
is the surah, inshallah, which we are going
to, do the tafsir of today. And And
what we're going to do today is we're
going to, first of all,
mention
the virtues of the surah.
We're going to mention
the virtues
of the surah, what what this surah, Okay.
What are the virtues of this surah? What
are the things that make this surah,
important that give this surah a certain status
in Islam? And also why this surah was
revealed? Okay. So we're gonna talk about first
the virtues of this surah and then talk
about why the surah was revealed. We talked
before about, you know, certain surahs which were
revealed because of an incident.
So something might have taken place during the
time of the messenger Raul alaihi wa sallam,
and as a result of that,
a surah was revealed or ayat were revealed.
And also if somebody said something, if somebody
asked something to the messenger of Allah SWALLAM,
then Allah
would reply.
Okay. And then the third category was if
a surah or an ayah was revealed,
okay, due to the wisdom and hikmah and
and the the wisdom of Allah
Nothing actually happened. Nothing actually took place. Nobody
asked anything to the messenger of Allah But
it was just down to the wisdom and
hikmah of Allah Subhanahu Wa Ta'ala. So inshallah,
we'll start with the virtues of this surah.
What makes this surah so special? Surah Al
Kafirun.
First of all, the messenger of Allah alaihi
wa sallam from the virtues of this surah
is that he would
recite this surah
along with Suratul Ikhlas. Which one is Suratul
Ikhlas?
He would recite these 2 surahs,
okay, in the 2 raka'at that he would
pray
after the tawaf.
So when he would perform tawaf, he would
finish performing the tawaf, and then he would
pray 2 raka'at. And this is a sunnah
that when a person finishes making tawaf of
the Kaaba, he would pray 2 sunnah prayers.
Those 2 sunnah prayers, he would recite Suratul
Ikhlas and he would recite Suratul Kafirun. So
whenever a person finishes his tawaf and he
prays after he finishes tawaf, he should recite
those 2 surahs. So he would pray, reciting
those 2 surahs. Secondly,
he would recite
these 2 surahs, Surakafirun and Suraklas,
before the fajr prayer. The 2 sunnah that
you pray before fajr, he would recite these
2 surahs, and
And also, he would recite them
after
the Maghrib prayer. The prayer we've just prayed,
the 2 sunnahs you pray after the Maghrib
prayer, he would recite these 2 surahs. He
would recite Suratul Ikhlas and he would recite
Suratul Qafirun.
So why would he recite these 2 surahs
at these times?
After before Fajr prayer and also after the
Maghrib prayer, why would he recite these 2
surahs? What's so significant? What's so special about
these 2 surahs? First of all, we talked
about Suratul Ikhlas.
Suratul Ikhlas This surah, it talks about the
exclusivity
of Allah Subhanahu Wa Ta'ala. How Allah Azzawajal
is unique. There's nothing like Allah Subhanahu Wa
Ta'ala in his oneness, in him being self
sufficient. There's nothing like him. He doesn't give
birth nor was he born. It talks about
Allah Subhanahu wa Ta'ala, the oneness of Allah.
This surah, the one we're going to the
tafsir of today, is of associating partners with
Allah Subhanahu Wa Ta'ala. He's affirming Tawhid just
before he goes to sleep. So it's recommended
for a person to recite this when he
goes to sleep, and just before going to
sleep.
Also,
reciting
this surah
and the surahs that come after it that
we've already done the already done the tafsir
of,
Surat Al Nasr, Suratabat yadaabilahabiyunwatab,
Suratul Ikhlas, Sura Falak, Sura Nas. These surahs,
a person
should recite them while he's traveling
in order to increase his provision.
In order to increase his wealth, to increase
his provision, and it also,
strengthens a person physically and strengthens his appearance,
beautifies his appearance.
The Messenger of Allah
once he met one of the companions,
Jubaibinimutahim.
And this companion, when he met the messenger
of Allah
the messenger of Allah
he said to him,
Yeah Jubaibir, oh Jubaibir, would you like that
when you travel, you would be the best
in terms of your appearance,
and the best in terms of your Zaad.
And Zaad is like provision,
it's like wealth. Okay? And that's why one
of the books that was written by one
of the authors of the past, he wrote
a book called Zadul Ma'ad
by Ibn Al Qayyim. Ibn Al Qayyim wrote
this book and it was called Provisions
of Ma'ad, Provisions of the Traveler.
And it was called Provisions of the Traveler
because he wrote this book while he was
traveling.
He never had no,
you know, books with him. So he wrote
this book while he was traveling.
Okay. And it all he talks about is
the
the the personality of the Messenger of Allah
How he was, his character,
his habits, how he would sleep, how he
would wake up, you know, how he would
be with other people. Okay. And it's an
amazing book SubhanAllah. And you know it's translated
into English as well if anyone, you know,
wants to buy it. And he wrote this
book while he was traveling, which is which
is why it's called Provisions of the Trafalzad
ul Ma'ad. So he said,
would you
like to be a person when traveling?
The best example in terms of your appearance
and also with regards to your provision. And
so Jubaib said yes. Yes I would. And
so the messenger, Rav alaihis salami, said then
recite
the last surahs starting from Kafirun
to Anas,
starting and opening with the basmala.
What's the basmalah? Saying Bismillahir
Rahmanir Rahim. So say Bismillahir Rahmanir Rahim, start
with kafirun and then work your way all
the way to Suratul Nas. And so Jubeir
ibn Muti'am SubhanAllah he said, wallahi, by Allah
I didn't have much wealth. I was someone
who wasn't very wealthy and I wasn't noted
for you know, being physically strong or being,
you know, having a, you know, a good
appearance, you know, in terms of my body.
And he said since I started reciting these
Surahs, I became the best
in appearance
and I had the most wealth. I was
given wealth by Allah Subhanahu Wa Ta'ala while
I would be travelling until I would return
back from my travels.
So, you know, you have these benefits,
of these of these of these surahs
that, you know, a person should try to,
you know, implement inshaAllah. So why was this
surah revealed? Why was Surat Al Kafirun
revealed?
The scholars, they say that the reason why
this surah was revealed is because and before
we go into it, this surah is a
Maqi surah. It was revealed while the Messenger
of Allah sallallahu alaihi wa sallam was still
in the city of Makkah, before he made
hijrah to the city of Madinah. So this
surah was revealed
because some of the Quraysh
tried to bargain with the Messenger of Allah
SWA wasalam. They tried to negotiate with him.
Some of the senior
people and some of the elders of Quraysh.
What did they say? They said, you know,
people like Walid ibn Mughira, who was from
the elders. Walid ibn Mughira, Harith ibn Qais,
Umayy ibn Qalaaf. These people were like the
seniors of Quraysh in the city of Makkah.
So they said to the Messenger of Allah
SWALLAM, they said, Oh Muhammad, why don't
you worship our gods?
Okay, so they're trying to bargain with the
Messenger of Allah. They're saying, why don't you
worship our gods, and if you worship our
gods, we'll worship your God.
So you know,
you rub my back, I'll rub you scratch
my back, I'll scratch your back. You know,
you help us, we'll help you. Let's meet
sort of halfway. This was halfway for them.
So they said,
you worship our gods and we'll worship your
gods.
We'll worship
your god for a year.
And then once that year finishes,
the 2nd year, we'll worship your god. So
worship our gods for a year, and the
2nd year, we'll worship your god for 1
year. And we'll do this every single year.
Okay? So we'll take turns. Okay? Worship Allah
for 1 year, and the other year we'll
worship the idols. Okay? This is what they
said. So,
then they said if what you've come with
if this religion that you've come with and
this God that you, you know, you worship,
If what you've come with is better
than what we have, then we'll take a
portion
and
a part of the good of your faith.
You know, if there's some good in your
faith, we'll take the goodness of it because
we're worshiping Allah for 1 year as well.
Okay? And they said if what we've come
with is better with regards to worshiping our
idols,
then you've taken a portion of it and
you've benefited
and we'll benefit we benefit as well.
So everyone's a winner. Everyone benefits.
Okay. So you worship your God for a
year and go worship our God for a
year. And so the messenger of Allah SWALLAM
he said,
I seek refuge. He said, Ma'adullah, I seek
refuge in Allah that I associate partners with
him.
And so then they said okay, if you're
not gonna worship our gods, if you're not
gonna worship our gods, just accept our gods
as gods.
Just accept that they're gods.
You don't have to worship them, just accept
that they're gods.
Okay? Accept that they're gods, and we'll worship
your God.
We'll worship your God. First talim ba'adu alihatina.
They said, just accept, submit to the fact
that these are gods. You don't have to
worship them. And if you do this, then
we'll worship your god, we'll worship Allah.
Okay? And you have to remember
that the Quraysh at that time, they did
believe in Allah Subhanahu Wa Ta'ala.
That's something a person has to remember. They
did believe in Allah Azza wa Jal. They
did believe he was a creator of everything
in existence.
So why did they worship idols?
Liuqarriboona
illallahhisulfa
So Azarullah says, so that it will bring
us
closer
to Allah Subhanahu wa Ta'ala. So that's why
they used to worship these idols. If you
were to ask them who created the heavens
and the earth, they would say Allah.
But they would only worship the idols,
okay, claiming that He will bring them closer
to Allah Azzawal. Just like people nowadays for
example, okay, they make dua to dead people,
they ask dead people or they ask saints
or they ask
other things which won't benefit them. They can't
even benefit themselves. Thinking that if they you
know, ask those
entities those things that they will in turn
ask Allah and it will bring them closer
to Allah Azzawajal. And we know that's not
the case, okay. We've got a direct line
to Allah Azzawajal. We don't need to go
through an intermediary. We don't need to do
that Alhamdulillah. Allah Azzawajal is a samir. He
hears every single thing. We can make dua
wherever we are, whatever we're doing. Allah Azzawajal
will always be there. So
So this is what they said. They said,
if you're not going to worship our God
for a year, okay, then just accept our
gods as gods and we'll worship your God.
So Allah, the messenger of Allah SWALLAM, he
said, I'm going to wait until Allah reveals
something to me. I'm going to wait and,
wait until Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala reveals something
to me. And so,
the next day the Messenger of Allah
went to the Haram,
went to
the the Masjid,
and he went towards the Quraysh. The Quraysh
was sitting in the Masjid, by the Masjid,
by the Kaaba, and when he approached them,
he recited this Surah to them. Qulya aiyuhal
kafirun.
Say, oh, disbelievers.
And then he recited the rest of the
Surah. And when he recited the whole of
the Surah to them, they became angry at
him. They became upset. They became angry, and
they started to curse him, and they started
to swear at him.
Okay? And this is the story of why
this specific Surah was revealed. Surah Al Kahfirun.
Okay?
As a response to those people who said,
okay,
that, you know, you worship your God for
a year and we'll worship our God. You
know, thinking that it was like a middle
ground. But we know this isn't something which
can happen. It's not possible for this to
happen.
Okay? Because
a person if he worshiped,
other things, other idols, then what is he
saying in essence?
He's saying that there's more than one God.
It's not possible for a person to worship
more than one God. If a person claims
to be a Muslim, you can't say that
you can you can worship other gods along
with Allah Subhanahu Wa Ta'ala. That's you know
it defies the whole point of being a
Muslim in the first place.
So Allah Azzawajal,
in the first ayah of this surah, he
says, Qulyaayuhal
kafiroon.
He says, Say O disbelievers.
Allah starts this surah by saying, Oll, Say.
And there's 5 surahs in the whole of
the Quran which start with this word, with
the word qul. 3 of them we've already
done. Qul a'udu brab binas, qul a'udu brab
bilfalak, and qulhuallahu
They all start with the word Qul, which
means say. It's an order from Allah azza
wa ta'ala. Allah is telling the messenger of
Allah to tell the people, say o Muhammad
SAW.
This is the 4th Surah, Surah Al Khafirun.
And there's a 5th Surah which starts with
Qul, which is Suratul Jinn.
This Surah starts with Qul. There's 5 Surahs
altogether
which start with this word. So Allah Subhanahu
Wa Ta'ala, as we mentioned before, is ordering
the messenger of Allah SWALLAM to tell the
disbelievers,
Tell them what I'm about to tell you.
Whatever I'm going to give you now, it's
your job and your duty to deliver this
message to the rest of the people. Which
is why he went to the masjid and
why he
read this surah and recited this surah in
front of the Muslim in front of the
non Muslims, in front of the disbelievers.
Okay? To spread the message that Allah Subhanahu
Wa Ta'ala gave him. And then Allah Subhanahu
Wa Ta'ala he says,
oh you disbelievers.
Al Kafirun,
okay, means disbeliever.
And, you know, in Arabic,
whenever we,
talk about the meaning of a word, we
always give 2 meanings. We always give the
linguistic meaning, what the word means in the
Arabic language, and also what the word means
Islamically.
Okay? And there's always there's always a sense
of similarity between the 2. Okay? So Al
Kafirun
comes from the word Kafir.
Okay? And that word itself comes from the
word Kafara.
Kafar, if you look at the Arabic language
Okay, I'm not talking about the Islamic meaning
now, we're looking at the Arabic language. If
you look at the Arabic language and look
at the meaning of the word kafar, which
is the root word of kafir, of kafirun,
of kafar, all of those words. Kafara means
to cover something up.
When you cover something up it's called kafara.
To conceal something, to hide something, to cover
something up. It also refers means is the
farmer.
Allah Subhanahu Wa Ta'ala he says
Allah Subhanahu Wa Ta'ala he says that this
is like the example
of a rain
who as a result of which as a
result of this rain, a plant
a plant comes out of the ground because
of this rain. And when this hap when
this happens, aajabal kuffar, it impresses and it
pleases the tiller, the farmer, the one who
overturned the soil. So the kuffar here isn't
the kuffar which means a disbeliever.
It means the one who was the farmer,
the one who turned the soil and put
the seed in, and when he sees the
plant, ajabal kuffar. He's impressed with this. He's
pleased with this. He's happy with this. So
this is what is meant by kuffar in
the linguist in the linguistic sense.
And
in the Islamic
sense, what does kafir actually mean?
Kafir
is anyone
who disbelieves
in Allah Subhanahu Wa Ta'ala. And we're going
to go into more detail about what this
entails. It doesn't just mean Allah Azzawajal.
If a person believes in Allah, is he
a Muslim?
He's not a Muslim,
because there's other things that he needs to
believe in.
Okay. There's other things that a person needs
to believe in. If a person believes in
Allah,
okay, but then he says, I don't believe
in the salah. I don't believe I have
to pray 5 times a day. He denies
one of the pillars of iman. Does that
make him a Muslim?
Doesn't make him a Muslim? No. Because he's
denying one of the pillars of Islam.
If a person said I believe in Allah,
I believe that Muhammad was the messenger of
Allah SWAW. I believe in salah, I believe
in zakah, I believe in hajj, but I
don't want to fast the month of Ramadan.
I don't think we should I don't think
we need to fast Ramadan. You know Ramadan's
in the summer and it's 30 days and
you know, you don't have to fast Ramadan.
It's not obligatory. A person doesn't have to
fast the month of Ramadan. Is that person
a Muslim? He's not a Muslim.
Because he's denied one of the pillars of
Islam that an individual must do. You have
to do the pillars of Islam. You have
to believe in the pillars of Islam.
Okay. Now what a person has to remember,
okay, is that this ruling is general.
It's a general ruling.
So for example,
we don't talk about specific individuals
and say fulan, so and so is a
kafir.
Okay. Abdullah is a kafir, Muhammad is a
kafir, Umrah is a kafir, so and so
is a kafir. This is a general ruling
which is applied.
Okay.
This is a general ruling which is applied.
It's very young, a person has to be
very very careful when he's talking about a
specific individual and claiming that
that individual is a disbeliever is a kafir.
The messenger of Allah SWAMI, he said that
if one person
calls another person a kafir,
if one person calls another person a kafir,
then one of those two people
is a kafir, is a disbeliever.
Okay? So if the person who we claimed
was a kafir isn't actually a kafir, and
he was wrong, then that claim of kufr,
that claim of disbelief goes back to the
one who claimed it.
So it's a very dangerous thing to do.
A person has to be very very careful.
Yes. We generalize.
You generalize and you say if a person
denies salah, if he denies
zakah, if he doesn't give zakah, then he's
not a Muslim.
Okay? That's the general rule. But to specifically,
you know, point at a specific individual as
something which you, you know, you have to
be very very careful of because you're putting
your own Islam at risk when you do
this. Okay.
Also another issue here that we have to
look at
is say for example a person
believes in all the pillars of of Islam,
but
he doesn't pray,
you know, because for example he's lazy,
because he's given in to his desires, because
his iman isn't very strong, because for example
you know he works from 9 o'clock in
the morning until 7 o'clock at night and
he just doesn't have the time. He doesn't
have the time and he comes home and
he's tired.
Okay. He doesn't have the time to pray.
Is this person considered to be a Muslim
or a non Muslim?
He's a
Muslim. He's a Muslim.
Why is he a Muslim? Because he's not
denying
any of the pillars
of Islam.
He's he agrees that salah is a pillar
of Islam. He's not saying I don't think
Islam salah is a pillar of Islam. He
agrees that is the salah is a pillar
of Islam, but the problem comes to him
actually implementing it. He's becoming lazy.
Okay? He's becoming lazy. He's he's, you know,
he's fall falling into his desires. His iman
is low. As a result of this, he's
not praying. Okay. Not because he doesn't believe
that it's one of the pillars, just out
of laziness.
So in this case, we say he's still
a Muslim,
but he's sinful.
He's sinful because he's not praying 5 times
a day. Because he's not praying 5 times
a day, he's going to be sinful for
this. He's going to be held to account
for this. And the first thing that a
person is going to be held to account
for on the day of judgment is going
to be the salah. And this is why
they this is why the messenger of the
prophet he said,
the key
the salah the prayer is the key to
paradise. It's the key to Jannah. Because if
your prayer is okay, everything else is going
to be okay. If there's something wrong with
your salah, then you're going to have problems
entering into Jannah. Okay. That's another important thing.
Also it's not just about
the pillars of Islam,
but also the pillars of iman.
The pillars of iman. There are 6 pillars
of Iman altogether, and we're gonna go through
them briefly today inshallah, very briefly, because you
can do a whole series on the pillars
of Iman in and of themselves. But we're
gonna go through them briefly.
The pillars of Islam are things which
a person does physically. The salah, the zakah,
going on hajj, fasting. All of these things
are physical things that an individual does.
The first pillar, the shahada, is broken down
into 6 things. And those are the 6
pillars
of Iman. Those are the 6 pillars of
Iman. So what are the 6 pillars of
Iman?
The 6 pillars of Iman are belief in
Allah,
believing in Allah Subhanahu Wa Ta'ala,
believing in His Angels,
believing in His books,
believing in His messengers,
believing in the last day, and believing in
predestination.
Qadr,
the good and the bad of it. These
are the 6 pillars of Imaan and it's
the same thing with these 6 pillars of
Imaan. If someone says I believe in all
of those things but I don't believe in
the angels. You know, the angels is a
bit strange, you know,
creatures made out of light and they've got
wings and it's I don't I don't know
about that. So I don't really believe in
the angels. I believe in all the other
pillars of Iman, but I don't believe in
the angels. Is this person a Muslim?
He's not a Muslim.
Because he's denying one of the pillars of
Iman.
Okay. And when
the Messenger of Allah SAW
Salam mentioned these pillars of iman,
okay. He mentioned Allah Azzawajal
first. And then what did he say? And
tuqmin bilal. What is iman? To believe in
Allah.
And then he said, he never said the
angels.
He never said the angels. He said his
angels,
Allah's angels. What does that tell you? It
tells you about the importance of Allah Subhanahu
Wa Ta'ala. How Allah Azzawajal
everything goes back to Allah Subhanahu Wa Ta'ala.
Whatever
Allah Azzawajal created,
okay, Allah Azzawajal
is eternal. He is the one who created
every single thing, everything returns back to Allah
Subhanahu wa ta'ala. As we all say,
To Allah we belong and to Him we
will return. So everything that the messenger rahu
alaihi wa sallam mentions after this, okay, he
mentions
his angels,
his messengers,
his books,
the last day, and the the predestination is
also part of, the pillars of Iman. So
Jibril,
okay, when
he came to the messenger of Allah sallallahu
alaihi wa sallam, he came in the form
of a man, and he asked the messenger
of Allah sallam
these questions.
And Umar radhiallahu an, when he was there,
when he was sitting there, he told he
narrates his whole story.
And he says that one day we were
sitting with the messenger of Allah sallallahu alaihi
wa sallam, and a man came and he
was someone who had the whitest of thoughts,
and he had the nicest hair. His hair
was neatly combed. And he said nobody from
amongst us recognized him. We didn't know who
he was. We didn't recognize him. And he
came and he sat directly in front of
the messenger of Allah sallallahu alaihi wa sallam.
Sat directly in front of him. And then
he said, You Muhammad.
O Muhammad sallallam. Didn't even say Rasulullah.
Because in those days, the companions, they would
always say Rasulullah
out of respect.
And so Amr
obviously, you know, as as you you might
think, him being, you know, the stern person
that he was, he's probably thinking who is
this person coming to the messenger of the
prophet sallallahu alaihi wa sallam like this? Saying,
you know, talking like this to the prophet
And
then he said, akhbirni anil Islam. Tell me
about Islam. And so the so the prophet
told him about Islam, the 5 pillars of
Islam. When he told him the 5 pillars
of Islam,
this man he said Sadaqta.
He said you have spoken the truth.
And so Umar radiAllahu anhu he said we
were surprised
that he would ask a question to the
Messenger of Allah
and then he would say you have spoken
the truth. Doesn't make any sense.
If say for example if you're in class
and the student asked the teacher, he says,
you know I don't understand this, can you
explain this? And so the teacher explains then
he says, yeah you're right.
Doesn't make any sense. If you already knew,
then you wouldn't ask in the 1st place,
would you? If you already knew the answer,
you wouldn't you wouldn't ask in the 1st
place. So Umar Radi Law An says I'm
I was surprised that he asked a question
and then he said, yeah, you're right. That's
correct.
And so the man then asked the Messenger
about iman. Fa'akbini anil iman. Tell me about
iman. What is iman? And the Messenger
mentioned these 6 pillars of iman. And then
again he said Sadaqah. He said, you have
spoken the truth. What you've said is correct.
And then he asked him some other questions,
and then this man he stood up and
he left the house.
Umar radiAllahu anhu, he said as soon as
he left, I followed him.
Okay. I wanted to see who this person
was, who spoke to the Prophet
in this way. You know I want to
go out, I want to find him, I
want to find out who he is.
So he said I followed him as I
went as he left the house, I left
the house behind him. I opened the door,
I looked around,
and he wasn't there.
He He just it was like as if
he just disappeared.
And he said I walked around the streets
of
of the city, I couldn't find him anywhere.
He was like as if he just disappeared
into thin air. No way, he couldn't be
found anywhere. He said I went back into
the house and the messenger of Allah SWALLAM
called me. He called him and he said
to him,
He said did you know who the questioner
was? And so Umar radiAllahu anhu said Allahu
wa rasoolhu a'alam. Allah and His Messenger
know best.
And this is what the companions used to
say, if they didn't know an answer to
a question they will say Allahu Wa
Salam. Nowadays if we don't know what a
question if you don't know the answer to
a question, we don't say Allahu Wa Salam
because the messenger Rama Sallam is dead. Okay.
He's not here anymore. So we say Allahu
Wa Salam. Allah knows best.
Yeah. Because the messenger
isn't around anymore. So we would say Allahu
Alem. So he says Allahu Alem. Allah and
his messenger know best. So then the messenger
he said,
that was Jibril the the angel Jibril
He came to teach you your religion.
He came to teach you your religion.
So this is where we find the pillars
of iman and the pillars of Islam and
you know, other things that Jibreel alayhi salam,
asked the messenger of Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala.
So belief in Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala. The
first pillar, belief in Allah. What does it
entail? What does it mean? What do we
have to believe with regards to Allah subhanahu
wa ta'ala? First of all, we have to
believe in the existence of Allah. We have
to know and understand that Allah Subhanahu Wa
Ta'ala actually exists.
Okay. Because people don't believe that Allah exists
in the first place. We have to understand
that there is an eternal being. There is
someone who is all powerful, someone who is
a creator, someone who made everything in existence.
Okay. And if a person was to say,
what's your evidence
of
a creator?
Then we say, we look at the creation
itself.
Okay?
For in order for us to know that
there is a creator, you look at what
he's created. It's like for example, if I
say to you there's an amazing artist.
Okay? Have you heard about this artist? He's
absolutely amazing. He's one of the best artists
who ever lived on the face of this
earth. The the art that he makes is
absolutely incredible. What would you wanna know? What
would you wanna see?
You'd wanna see his art. You'd wanna see
his artwork. You wanna see how good his
artwork is? Okay. Let me see for myself.
So to in order to judge the artist,
you'd look at his artwork. If I said
to you there was an there's an inventor,
the greatest inventor who have lived in the
history in history. Okay? In the history of
the world, there's nobody who's been a better
inventor than this individual. Would you ask me,
what has he invented? Show me why he's
invented.
That's why you would ask. So how do
you know the creator? The greatest artist,
the greatest creator SubhanAllah. Allah Subhanahu Wa Ta'ala
himself through his
creation.
Through the creation of Allah Subhanahu Wa Ta'ala.
And from the greatest creations
is the human being. And this is why
Allah says
and in your own selves do you not
see. The human body subhanAllah is something which
is amazing.
Okay. And sometimes we don't even think about
the body itself.
Simple things, like for example, you know, our
fingerprints.
Every single individual
on the face of this earth has different
fingerprints.
Every single person. No 2 people on the
face of this earth of, you know, over
a 1000000000 people, billions of people on the
face of this earth.
Not 2 of those people have the same
set of fingerprints at the tips of their
fingers, SubhanAllah.
That's a miracle from the miracles of Allah
Azzawajal.
You know, the eyesight.
The eyesight is another miracle of Allah Azzawajal.
You know when we go to sleep at
night,
and we turn the light off,
okay, everything is pitch black. We can't see
anything.
What happens after a few minutes?
You can start seeing things.
Your eyes, you can start making out things.
You know, you can start seeing in the
dark. You can see the wardrobe. You can
see the bed. You can see the cupboard.
You can see your books. You can see
the clothes. Subhanullah.
Your eyes adjust to the dark. You know,
no you know, subhanAllah,
nothing else is as advanced as the human
eye in this regard. And then when you
wake up in the morning, what happens? You
wake up in the morning, the light comes
on. And you're like, ah, the light hurts
your eyes. You know, it's really annoying for
a minute. But then your eyes, what happens?
Your eyes adjust to the light.
SubhanAllah.
So the eye is something which is amazing.
And also, for example, the the ability to
listen,
you know, the ability to listen.
Simple things simple things that we just don't
even think about.
You know, scientists and, you know, people who
design robots,
they made a huge breakthrough after
taking so long, after trying so much, after
trying so hard, after so much effort, they
made a breakthrough in robotic engineering.
What was his breakthrough that they just goes
up 1 step or 2 steps. And then
once it goes up on that step and
puts his foot down, he has to make
sure that the weight is on that step,
or the weight is on that foot which
is on that second step now.
Because if it's not, then when the second
foot comes up, what's gonna happen? It's gonna
fall over.
So the pressure has to be on that
foot that goes up onto the next step
and then it goes up and at the
same thing has to make sure it doesn't
fall over.
SubhanAllah.
You know how many times do we go
up a flight of steps in a day?
Or go down a flight of steps?
And how easy it is for us?
And that's a miracle from the miracles of
Allah. It's a blessing from Allah Azza wa
Jal. You know, you know whenever we go
up a flight of steps we don't stop
and think hang on a minute. You know
that step is be high. So I need
to make sure that when I lift my
foot,
it doesn't go too high,
it doesn't go too low and it doesn't
hit the step. We never think about these
things.
You just do it. You just go up
a flight of steps. Your brain, subhanAllah, just
automatically judges how high your step is and
you just go up. Your body is just
balanced.
You know, this this this human body which
is like, you know, it's it's the best
machine that's being created, subhanAllah. And this is
why Allah says
I have created
man in the best of forms.
There's nothing like the human being with regards
to how it's been created. And then you
look at the other creation of Allah. You
look at the animals,
you look at the birds, you look at
the, you know, the fish in the sea,
you look at the animals which are on
2 legs, the animals which are on 4
legs, the animals which are, you know, above
ground, the animals which live under the ground.
All these different types of animals.
All of these are signs of Allah Subhanahu
wa ta'ala. The different types of birds.
Okay. Look at the owl for example, how
he can just turn its head all the
way around.
And he doesn't break its neck, he just
turns his head all the way around. And
when it hunts
and it flies and it flaps its wings,
you can't hear it. From the miracles of
the owl, is that when it I don't
want to turn this into like a wildlife
documentary or something, but I just want to
talk I just want to, you know, explain
to you the miracles and the creation of
Allah Subhanahu Wa Ta'ala. The owl when it
flies, okay, you can't hear it fly.
Because if you could hear it fly, the
prey of the owl, the mice and the
other things that it catches, they would know,
they would hear. Even when the owl lands,
you know the flaps of the wings, okay.
When a pigeon flaps its wings you can
hear it on the street. The owl, it
doesn't make any noise when it lands.
There was this man who did an experiment
and he was told when I want you
to lie down,
have some food up, okay? And tell me
when you hear the owl coming.
The owl's gonna come for the food, when
the owl comes raise your hand. So the
man was lying down, there was no other
noise, okay? He was blindfolded.
The owl came all the way to the
human, okay? All the way to that man,
landed next to him and took the food.
And when he took the food, when he
touched when he felt the touch of the
owl, that's when he raised his hand.
He didn't even feel the owl landing next
to him, SubhanAllah.
You know, because the way the wings are
designed, because of the way the the feathers
are designed, and the way the feathers are
made on this owl, it doesn't make any
noise when it lands,
so that it doesn't scare its prey when
it catches its prey to eat, SubhanAllah.
You know, things like this. You know, there
are some fish who live in the deepest
parts of the ocean and the way they
catch their prey, okay, the way they they
eat their prey is by having a light
shining in front of them. They've got like
an antler. Okay? And I think it's called
an antlerfish. I'm not sure. Is it called
an antlerfish? Yeah. An antlerfish. So they have
a light which hangs in front of them.
Okay? And it attracts other fish. Other fish
come and they say, woah, look at this
light. And they go up towards this light,
and it comes closer, and the fish eats
those eats those smaller fish.
SubhanAllah.
So you know you just look at the
creation of Allah Azza wa Jal. You look
at cats for example, cats in of themselves
are amazing.
You know they say if you held a
cat in any in any way and you
dropped it, it would always land right way
up. It'll always land right way up.
You know, this is from the,
from the creation of Allah Azza wa Jal.
So knowing that Allah Subhanahu Wa Ta'ala exists,
that's the first thing. Knowing that Allah subhanahu
wa ta'ala is the creator and sustainer of
everything that exists is the second thing we
have to know about Allah.
Also knowing that nothing should be worshipped except
Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala. Because even the Quraysh
at the time of the Prophet sallam, they
believed that Allah was the creator. They believed
this, but it's not enough if you're not
worshiping Allah.
You have to be worshiping Allah Azza wa
Jal. And fourthly with regards to Allah, you
have to know his names and attributes.
The names and attributes of Allah. Knowing that
Allah
is most merciful.
Knowing he is all hearing, he is all
seeing, he is all forgiving.
Knowing that, you know, Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala
has certain attributes.
He has a hand, but his hand isn't
like the hands of his creation. Otherwise, we're
comparing Allah to his creation.
Okay. Knowing that Allah speaks,
knowing that Allah Subhanahu Wa Ta'ala sees.
Okay. These are all attributes of Allah Azzawajal.
The second pillar, believing in his angels.
And this also includes
things of the unseen. If a person said
for example, I believe in the angels, but
I don't believe in the jinn.
I don't believe a jinn exists.
This person is outside of the fold of
Islam
Because
part of belief in the
angels is also belief in the unseen.
Belief in the angels, belief in the jinn,
belief in paradise, belief in hafa. You have
to believe in these things.
Okay? And this is why Allah
says, Hudalil Muttaqeen,
a guidance for those who have Taqwa, for
those who fear Allah, who are those people
who fear Allah, alatheena yukminoonah
bil ghaybi.
Those who believe in the unseen.
And the unseen is, you know, the jinn
as well, and paradise, and hafaiyah. A person
doesn't believe in jinn. He doesn't believe in
Iblis.
He doesn't believe in Iblis. He doesn't believe
the fact that he misguided Adam alaihis salam.
So a person has to believe in all
of the unseen, including the jinn, including paradise
and also hellfire.
Also from the pillars of Iman is believing
in his books. The books that he gave
to the messengers.
And from the books that he gave were
the Quran to the Messenger Rabad SAW. And
he also gave, for example,
the Psalms
to Dawud or
the Zabur to Dawud
He gave Musa
the Torah,
and he gave Isa
What did he give Isa?
The gospel, the Injeel. He gave Isa the
Injeel. So these are books that we know
about. There were other books but we don't
know about them. And Ibrahim alayhis salam, he
was given the scriptures.
The scriptures of Ibrahim alayhis salam. So as
Muslims we believe in those books, but obviously
the gospel has changed. It's not the same
gospel that,
Isa alayhis salam was given, likewise with the
Torah.
Also belief in his messengers.
Belief in the messengers of Allah Azza wa
Jal. Okay. Belief in
the fact that Allah Subhanahu Wa Ta'ala sent
down these messengers with these books to explain
to the people and to tell the people
about Islam, tell the people about worshiping Allah
Azza wa Jal. Belief in the last day,
the 5th pillar.
So we have belief in Allah, belief in
his angels, belief in his books, belief in
his messengers, and belief in the last day,
the day of judgment, where every single person
will be held to account for what he
didn't, what he said.
Okay. On that day every single person will
be asked about what he did in this
world.
The 6th thing, belief in predestination,
al Qadr.
The fact that Allah Subhanahu Wa Ta'ala knows
what's already happened, what's happening right now, and
what's happening in the future. What's going to
happen in the future?
Everything that's going to take place. Even who
is going to enter into paradise and who
is going to enter into hellfire, Allah Subhanahu
Wa Ta'ala already knows this. And it's been
reported the messenger of Allah SWALLAM, he said
that Allah ordered the pen to write everything
that's going to happen,
50 1000 years before he created the heavens
and the earth.
Before he created the heavens and the earth,
he ordered the pen to write, 50 1000
years before he created them. What exactly was
going to take place on the face of
this earth, SubhanAllah?
So everything has been written.
Okay. But a person
also has to remember that he's in control
of his own actions. You don't know where
you're going to end up. Okay. And you're
in control of your own actions. You can't
blame Qadr for something now. You can't say,
oh, it's because of Qadr that you know
I'm not a Muslim, or I'm not a
good Muslim, or I don't practice Islam, I
don't pray 5 times a day. Because you're
responsible for your own actions.
Okay. That's why it's very important for a
person to do whatever he can, to try
as hard as he can. Not use Qadr
as an excuse because it is just that,
it's an excuse.
Okay. You're in control of your own actions.
You're responsible for your own actions.
So this is what I want to talk
about with regards to, this surah. Talk about,
you know, belief and disbelief. And it's not
a derogatory term. People say that kafir is
saying kafir is a derogatory term.
It's not a derogatory term because a kafir
is someone who doesn't believe in Allah, doesn't
believe in the pillars of Iman, doesn't believe
in the pillars of Islam. That's what it
means. It's not something derogatory. It's someone who
is a disbeliever, doesn't believe in Allah azza
wa jal.
It's not something which is, you know, derogatory
in any in any which way. It's just
a way to seek to distinguish between the
Muslim and the non Muslim.
So inshallah, we'll, we'll we'll leave it there
and we'll carry on,
next week inshallah.
If there's any questions and, I'll do my
best to answer them inshallah.
Any questions?
Yeah. You know,
Iran will be saying when you're traveling, you
should read some Surahs. Which one were they
again? The last Surah is from Kaffirun. So
you have Surah Kaffirun.
You've got certain Nasr
you've got Surah Lahab Tabati Da Bi Labi
Wa Tab, kulladur Abi Falak, kullahu Allahu ahadar
qulladur bin Nas. Yeah. So those last from
from Surah Kafirun
to the end.
And when before you start reading them, you
say Bismillah Rahim
and then you recite them.
Any more questions?
Okay.