Ramadan 2019 #04 – Is this the most controversial Surah_

Salam Alaikum warahmatullahi wabarakatuh

Alhamdulillah wa salatu salam ala rasulillah. We begin by creating a worship a handover to Allah, and asking Allah to send these Peace and blessings upon the final prophet Muhammad, even Abdullah, so Allahu alayhi wa sallam, and all those follow his way with righteousness until the end of time. So today, I'm going to approach things a little bit differently. In the previous episodes, we've been looking at specific verses of the Quran in the Tafseer. Today, instead, I want to look at a surah in general,

and just give some context to that euro so that people understand it better. And the reason for this is that this the next surah in the Quran, Surah An Nisa, the chapter of woman is perhaps the most controversial surah in the entire Koran, from a perspective of non Muslims or liberal Muslims, or Muslims who just grown up in the West. And the reason for this is that there are many topics in the surah that

go against the current cultural norms, right? What modern society says is right and wrong. This surah has a different perspective on these topics. So this is something that that kind of becomes a fitna. For some of some young Muslims who all they know is the current culture. I have many young Muslims who've grown up in the modern world, all they know is the current culture, they don't know anything else outside of it. And you believe whatever the modern culture says to be right and wrong. That's what's right and wrong. And as a result, when they find things in the Quran that go against the current culture, it shakes the mind, it shakes their faith, and it can become a fitna for them.

So I believe it's important that we tackle this surah from a more broader perspective, trying to understand exactly, you know, what a lush mantel is seeing and why he's seeing it, and why the surah feels controversial to us, but he's not feel controversial to the people who came before us. So Sudan. So why is it controversial to people today? Well, in the Sudan, we have diverse seeing that a woman's inheritance is half of what has her brother gets. In the Shura, we have diverse that seemingly allows a man to hit his wife. In the surah, we have diverse allowing polygamy in the surah, we have diverse seeing that a man has authority over his wife that his wife should obey Him.

So know all of these concepts to modern society, they seem, they seem outdated, they seem misogynistic, they seem

to be in favor of the man over the woman. And so this makes these verses seemingly controversial to people who are exposed to them for the first time. So you know what, the first thing I want to explain here is that this idea of these verses being controversial, this is a very new idea. This has only happened in the past 50 years. Before that, nobody really looked at Surah Nisa as being a controversial issue, or rather the opposite. Let's go back to the time of the Prophet Muhammad Sallallahu wasallam. In the time of the Prophet Muhammad sallallahu alayhi wa sallam, we find that woman in Makkah, did not have the right to inherit. So when the sewer was revealed, saying that they

receive half the share of the brothers, plus the brothers have to take care of them financially. This was, you know, considered quite liberal for each time, we find that in ancient out of society, men used to physically abuse their wives, and this was considered normal. And then the verse of the Quran was revealed, limiting this to very, very specific circumstances. And that too, you know, a lot of limitations are what can be done, and that you will it being makueni being against assume that because the Prophet Mohammed slussen himself never hit a woman, he never did. And he wants to have a not to do so, even though he did not outright prohibited so the Sunnah is not to do it.

Right. So compared to the society we're living in this verse and its explanation by the prophets lesson was quite liberating for each time, we find that in the ancient modern society, some men had 10 wives, some had 20 wives, and there was no concept of fairness between wives. And so when sure aneesa was revealed, seeing a man is only allowed for wives, and he has to treat them equally and fairly and justly, this was considered, you know, to be giving woman more rights. So these verses that you read today look upon as controversial, the ancients looked upon it as something in the complete opposite lacked. And so what happened was, this was really the understanding of these

verses for the next few centuries. So a lot of over 1000 years, people looked at these verses as something good, something beautiful, something beneficial, something that made society stronger, something that made marriages happier,

Something that made homes run smoothly. But then a fitna happened in the past 50 years that has perhaps affected all of us whether we like to admit it or not, whether we accept it or not, and that has twisted our understanding of these verses, and made us you know, many of us look at it in a way that we're not comfortable with it. So, in the past 50 years, the feminist revolution took place. And with each wave of feminism, surah, Nisa became more and more unpalatable to the to the average person. Until today, we live in a time where the idea of seeing a woman should obey her husband, or that the husband has authority in the home is like something you know, that you can't even say, you

can't even think about saying it. Right.

You know, for saying, for example, that in very, very specific circumstances, if a spouse hit the other spouse, you know, just once out of anger because of something major that happened, it wouldn't be a sin, it wouldn't be right. But it wouldn't be as an either, even to say something like that, today, it's, it's considered quite controversial, is because really, you know, this controvert this controversy comes from the time we are living in, we're living in a time we will get all our values and ideas from the Western world. And we kind of raised the idea that whatever they say is right and anything else is, is evil and must be rejected. But I want us to to relook at this. So I go, let's

relook at this from two perspectives. Firstly, from the perspective of Allah knows best. And secondly, from the perspective of is what the West doing really working for them? Right. So from the perspective of Allah knows best, we go back to Surah Baqarah, we unless you have a handle that says that perhaps you dislike something, and it is good for you. And perhaps you love something, and it is bad for you. Allah knows best and you know not so very important verse, I think, the entirety of Surah Nisa should be understood in light of this verse, the entirety of your answer should be understood in light of this verse, that there are certain things in the surah, that you may not

like, you know, Allah allows a man to have four white allies may demand authority, so you may not like it, but it's actually beneficial for you, if you accept this as being part of the deal, right. And again, we don't have enough time to go into all the details, many others have have have discussed these verses in details. And we perhaps in the in the comments, we can discuss that in more details in Sharla. But this is the point perhaps you love something and it's bad for you, perhaps you love the freedom of the West, right? That it gives us. But to have this freedom may not be good for our souls, maybe it's leading many of us into sins, that we wouldn't have fallen into if

we live in a more conservative society. Right? Maybe this freedom is causing more divorces, maybe it's causing marriages, to break down people to avoid knowledge altogether, you know, and this is causing the decline of society. So perhaps you love something, but is bad for you. Allah knows best. And really what this verse is telling us is to trust a lot more than a lot those specially as human beings, we are constantly going through life, gaining new experiences, gain new wisdom, and in light of this changing our understanding of the world changing ideas of what's right and wrong. And so for us to think that the ideas that in our minds in our 20s is the Absolute Truth, and that we never

want to change our mind to any of these topics. This is really, you know, not evil on our part, because the reality is, every single one of us, as we go through life, we're going to look back and say, I really believed that before I was really naive, right? I mean, look, look at modern society. How they're backtracking on so many of these issues. Has this new freedom lifestyle really benefited society? I would say no, I would say that women who are following any Islamic lifestyle have more inner peace, they have more contentment, they have happier homes, they have more secure families, right? I would say the woman and men living in a modern society are dealing with more depression,

more suicide cases, more broken homes, more divorces, more children out of marriage, you know, more mental health issues are all stemming from this lifestyle from this hedonistic lifestyle just of just pursuing whatever your heart's desires. And this is even the West themselves are backtracking. Because, you know, when we were young, you had this idea of freedom, you know, to interact with the opposite gender in any way that you want. And because of that, you know, a lot of incidents happened that blew up recently with the meet to movement. And now the backtracking now suddenly, we have the web saying, you know, don't be alone with a woman, we have Western is saying that don't shake hands

with woman, you know, we have Westerners saying Be careful in doing business with the opposite gender, you know, it's as if they they are returning to the fitrah they are returning to the Sharia because the ideas are not working, they are just causing more problems in society the idea they are replacing one set of problems with another set of problems. So I have a personal philosophy that applied to cases like this, can you give it to you now perhaps you can you can apply to your life as well. But I believe

Whenever we replace a manmade idea with another manmade idea, we are simply replacing one set of problems with a different set of problems. So in the old system of the West, we women were oppressed, we had one set of problems, when that was replaced unless guidance was ignored, and it went to the opposite extreme of modern society and modern feminism. We've gotten rid of those old problems, but we've replaced them with new problems. And the way to find that balance to to get away from both sets of problems to find inner peace, contentment, happy homes, happy lives, happy marriages, is to come to the middle part, the balance part, which is the Sharia, which allows

guidance, which is the Koran. And so if you approach surah, Nisa, from this perspective, that Allah knows best that modern societies laws are not working, and if we apply a large loss to our lives, instead, perhaps we'll be happier, perhaps you'll be safer, perhaps you'd have more contentment and better marriages did inshallah destra is no longer controversial at all. Rather, the surah is a guidance and a blessing for us. And it makes life easier for us and it creates a contentment in a peace in our lives. And this really makes the sutra you know, something that that you love, because you learn to love and trust us wisdom, guidance. So that's what I wanted to say today about Surah

Nisa hope you find this beneficial. And please if you find that if you know of somebody who's struggling with the surah who's struggling to understand the surah properly then share this share with them this video so that hopefully they can also gain a better perspective on this Georgia Farah Welcome to one and you can below let me know Salam Alaikum warahmatullahi wabarakatuh