Bilal Philips – Quranic Reflections #10

00:00:05 --> 00:00:30

			Salam Alaikum Warahmatullahi Wabarakatuh My dear brothers and sisters, this is another verse from
the Quranic reflections series. And it is from Surah Al Baqarah or in Khun tomb fi ryyb A man
Oiselle na Allah Aberdeen to be Surah Tim MIM mislay.
		

00:00:31 --> 00:00:39

			And if you are in doubt about what I have revealed to my servant, bring another chapter like it.
		

00:00:41 --> 00:01:00

			The first point of reflection on this verse is that Allah challenges humankind to produce a chapter
of a literary work similar to that of the Quran. If we're in doubt about the Quran being from God,
		

00:01:01 --> 00:01:03

			Allah is basically saying you won't be able to do it.
		

00:01:05 --> 00:01:12

			But actually the elsewhere in the Quran, Allah mentions this challenge
		

00:01:14 --> 00:01:18

			to other times, starting actually from the whole Quran.
		

00:01:20 --> 00:01:27

			If you don't believe that this is from Allah produced one complete Quran like it, having failed
		

00:01:29 --> 00:01:35

			to meet that challenge, Allah reduced it to 12 chapters like it.
		

00:01:37 --> 00:01:43

			And having failed to meet that challenge, Allah reduced it down to one chapter.
		

00:01:45 --> 00:01:52

			And we have, towards the end of the grant very short chapters, only a few verses law.
		

00:01:54 --> 00:01:59

			But no one manage to do so.
		

00:02:01 --> 00:02:02

			The second
		

00:02:04 --> 00:02:05

			point of reflection from this
		

00:02:07 --> 00:02:10

			is that the challenge which was made
		

00:02:12 --> 00:02:15

			was not just an empty challenge.
		

00:02:17 --> 00:02:20

			1400 years ago,
		

00:02:21 --> 00:02:28

			when the prophets enemies had every reason to attempt to meet the challenge,
		

00:02:29 --> 00:02:30

			they weren't able to.
		

00:02:32 --> 00:02:45

			Instead of boycotting the Prophet SAW Salem, his family, his clan, Banu Hashim conspiring to kill
him by bringing people from all the various clans,
		

00:02:46 --> 00:02:47

			offering him
		

00:02:49 --> 00:02:52

			material things to give up the message,
		

00:02:53 --> 00:02:57

			pushing his uncle to try to convince him not
		

00:02:59 --> 00:02:59

			to
		

00:03:01 --> 00:03:04

			continue with this message of Islam.
		

00:03:06 --> 00:03:08

			In spite of all of that,
		

00:03:09 --> 00:03:13

			and the lives that were lost in the battles
		

00:03:14 --> 00:03:20

			that they ended up fighting with the Prophet SAW Salem and his followers after they fled to Medina.
		

00:03:24 --> 00:03:32

			It doesn't make sense that if all that they had to do to defeat him, was to imitate a chapter of the
Quran.
		

00:03:34 --> 00:03:39

			And they would not have not done so if it were at all possible.
		

00:03:42 --> 00:03:43

			The third point of reflection
		

00:03:45 --> 00:03:49

			is that we should be conscious of the various miracles of the Quran
		

00:03:50 --> 00:03:53

			to further strengthen our own faith.
		

00:03:54 --> 00:03:58

			Allah mentions a number of
		

00:04:00 --> 00:04:18

			things about the world in which we live, whether it's the expanding universe, the Big Bang, the
development of the embryo, at a time when there were no microscopes to have revealed that
information.
		

00:04:20 --> 00:04:25

			The mountains of ice in the atmosphere
		

00:04:26 --> 00:04:31

			all kinds of things that we've only discovered in recent times.
		

00:04:33 --> 00:04:40

			These should strengthen further our faith because we're living in a world of science.
		

00:04:42 --> 00:04:48

			So since science has played such a big role, where the scientists have become
		

00:04:50 --> 00:04:56

			the priests of the new religion of science we have in the Quran
		

00:04:57 --> 00:04:58

			challenges
		

00:05:00 --> 00:05:04

			to science, how in the world could Prophet Muhammad Sallallahu sallam,
		

00:05:05 --> 00:05:08

			a desert Arab? Bedouin
		

00:05:10 --> 00:05:12

			have known these things,
		

00:05:13 --> 00:05:15

			if it were not from God.
		

00:05:19 --> 00:05:20

			The fourth point
		

00:05:22 --> 00:05:23

			is that
		

00:05:25 --> 00:05:29

			in my translation, I've translated
		

00:05:31 --> 00:05:37

			what We have revealed to our servant, as
		

00:05:39 --> 00:05:46

			what I have revealed to my servant. The reason why is because
		

00:05:47 --> 00:05:49

			the we and our
		

00:05:50 --> 00:05:55

			are what are referred to as the royal way
		

00:05:57 --> 00:06:17

			that when powerful figures, find this evening Old English, still used today, even by the Queen, when
she talks about herself going by herself, anywhere, she still uses we, and it's used in the courts,
British courts in Old English, it is very common.
		

00:06:19 --> 00:06:25

			But people have forgotten it, it's no longer in common use.
		

00:06:27 --> 00:06:41

			So when they read in the Quran, where Allah says, what we have revealed is this this is evidence
that God isn't one is plural. But no,
		

00:06:43 --> 00:06:48

			it's not that God is plural there multiple gods three gods in one are these kinds of things. No.
		

00:06:50 --> 00:06:54

			It's it's a matter of status.
		

00:06:57 --> 00:07:07

			In the same way in Arabic, when I say to you, peace be upon you. Salam aleikum.
		

00:07:08 --> 00:07:13

			Technically speaking, that means peace be upon all of you, but I'm only talking to you alone.
		

00:07:14 --> 00:07:16

			I could have said salam alayka
		

00:07:17 --> 00:07:20

			or if you are female As salam o Allah ke
		

00:07:22 --> 00:07:31

			but instead I've chosen to say salaam aleikum, calm which means you are and that's honoring,
		

00:07:32 --> 00:07:39

			showing a sense of honor, not that you are a plural. You are singular. But referring to you in this
way.
		

00:07:41 --> 00:07:43

			Gives you honor
		

00:07:44 --> 00:07:48

			said it was rahmatullahi wa barakato.