Bilal Philips – My Writings Tafseer Soorah Al-Hujurat
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so that when I come to LA here, we're going to cattle during the 80s.
I did a number of writings, perhaps publications didn't take place at the time that things were written. But they're, nonetheless, the writings of the 80s. Among them, is tafsir Surah anhydrite.
And this design of the cover is the original design, this is how I designed it. Currently, it's available with this by International Islamic publishing house in Riyadh, it has also been widely received very positively, and has affected many people in that. I tried to include in it as much knowledge as I could from all the various fields. Actually, there was a conference held in Trinidad in 1980 8081.
And I was invited
by the cough to accompany Some chefs from Riyadh, from Saudi Arabia and elsewhere, who were going to teach in a conference. It was for one week or two weeks, preparing to add those who would be carrying the message of Islam in the region. So students, and others were invited from the region whether from Belize, from Jamaica,
from Barbados, Grenada, from Guyana, South America, as well as Trinidad and Tobago, and other islands. As I said, I was invited there for two purposes. One that I would translate for the chef who is teaching Tajweed who will be teaching the Quran Arabic
proper pronunciation of the Quran, since this were for the leading figures in the Dawa of the region, and also the assigned me Surah gerat. To teach while I was there, at first, I didn't understand why saw for gerat in particular, you know, it was chosen out of
the Quran many chapters, why several 100 I've never come across any special mention of Surah gerat You know, from the Dawa perspective etc. Anyway, as I went about preparing the tafsir probably been cut here and I'll go to B and other MUFA serene as I began putting the Tafseer together and then looking at the situation of Muslims in the Caribbean, the West Indies and how these verses and concepts were relevant to them beneficial etc etc. I came to understand why they chose the tafsir of Surah gerat Because it does zero sir I will draw it is connected up with community building, it deals with so many issues that are related to community, whether it is establishing the province of
Salem as being the one to be followed by all
or it was treating people
equally, that there is no differences of consequence among us, except by Taqwa or it was you know, dealing with other issues of character, you know, backbiting and all these other kinds of things. So, the sewer is very, very comprehensive Alhamdulillah I prepared the tafsir and taught it at the conference, and the notes which I had prepared for it were re copied and circulated amongst those who attended. And from there, other copies were made and for this year
collected later on, in the early 90s, as I was starting to publish my own books myself, since I couldn't find publishers, this was among one of the early publications tafsir Surah, Allah gerat Perhaps among the
points which were raised in the tafsir, which was a benefit to Muslims of the region, in general, and globally for Muslims, on one hand, I went into rebar in depth, and, you know, stress the importance of avoiding it, the great penalties and Islamic view on rebar as being very harsh, because of the harm that comes from it. But at the same time, you know, I had discussed with brothers, they're from Trinidad, about alternative means of putting their money together and using it and benefiting from it, you know, which was cooperative banking became a form of cooperative banking. And from it the setup a cooperative for Muslims particular, and which lasted for many years
and benefited many people saved them from the grave sin of dealing in Riba. The other thing that came out of the book, The tafsir, Surah, gerat, was that the naming systems, which a lot of Muslims were confused about, and were wiping out their names, their family names, etc, I clarified for them the importance of keeping their family names, you know, and only changing their given names. So, for myself, my name was Dennis Phillips, okay, my given name Dennis, I wish I could change, I changed it to be Lau, you know, but the family name that I came from that should be maintained, it's my father's name, Bradley Phillips. So
the proper naming system, which the province of Salem approved, you know, was, the first name is your given name, the next name after your father's name. So,
you know, I tried to clarify for them because people were wiping out their names altogether. And they would look down and those people who didn't, who kept any part of their, you know, pre Islamic name.
So, I clarified that for a lot of Muslims around the world, new Muslims, etc, and save them from the negative impact which came from wiping out their family names, where their families look, look at them as having abandoned them altogether. Of course, there are many other points. So 100 has so much in it, you know, that this could be a
one to three hour lecture easily. But just suffice to say these two points stood out in my mind.
And also, you know, warning people from that time of not declaring other people to be kafirs, or disbelievers simply because they did something which this Believers do. You know, that disbelief in an act does make a person a disbeliever. You know, unless the person in terms of their faith they're a man, they're their souls, they hold disbelief
spiritually