Thematic Overview of Surah al-Baqarah

I'm going to go into snapping on this stuff bureau. We're not we don't hit anyone who does admission only and Butina for me see, Dr. Lena we have to heal them for their money love for me to do

all about Allah the Quran Majeed Tada only be learning more genes than you will get vocabulary most people don't even look

him up

one of the most powerful and beautiful tools of the Quran to reflect on is Surah Al Baqarah. The second to last.

For many of us, we don't really take the time to read the surah to study stuff, see, and to reflect on it. I think one of the main reasons is because it's the longest unit in the Quran. So it's two and a half years, right? It's the first second and a half of the third use of the Quran. So for many people when you're looking for a surah to study when you're looking for some type of seal to do they look for something short you know, we want to do Surah rosters. Class, most maybe Surya sees rakia. But we tend to stay away from the earliest rulers because they really well. And that's a shortcoming on our end because the these law schools are just packed full of gems. Yeah, just packed full of so

beautiful, beautiful messages that can transform our lives. And today, I just want to share some brief reflection on the themes, the overall themes of Surah Al Baqarah, and the history of Surah Al Baqarah. So we can appreciate the sutra and hopefully will motivate us to study the sutra on our own and to recite it more often.

In fact, last week, football was a reflection on one of the verses from the surah. In fact, many of us would have been just taking one verse from the surah and reflecting on it but I want us now live in the overall theme. To Surah Al Baqarah, was actually the first major revelation of the medina period.

Right our history can be divided into the market and the medieval era before he ran up the kitchen, the mountain revelation, focus primarily on our beliefs, believe in Allah, the messengers, story of prophets, the afterlife, Paradise, how these are the core themes of the market chimeras. The Medina Shura has focused primarily on the laws, right the laws of Islam. Things like inheritance, law, marriage or divorce law, Jihad law, fasting for the second Hajj, the laws Surah Albatros, they could reach between those two worlds, because it was revealed in the first year of the hijab. And the first half of the surah is a recap of all our core beliefs. And the second half of the surah is the

laying down of all the laws of Islam.

And so, it says if we seen the transition from Makkah revelation into Medina revelation, as the topics begin to change, right as the theme of belief in Allah and believe in His Messenger is now cemented in the hearts of the believers. Now the topic changes to what is Allah

and there is a methodology behind this. Right there is a methodology behind this method of revelation and this method of education. I shall reveal

the need to first launch to be revealed was don't fornicator don't drink alcohol, people will accept we just we're not going to listen. Right? But the first liquidation with the Akina laws about paradise actually versus about paradise and how and judgment D and Allah and when this was cemented in the hearts of people then only last came out. And Surah Baqarah shows us that moment where the cementation take place in the hearts of the believers because most of the sewers before Surah Baqarah Gosha Suraj even before they are calling on people to believe they are calling on people to think and to dictate and to greed and destroy our Nakara begins by saying

about the believers that you know Alina up no no build up bonus for lambda we

all want

our own zero lake of our own company gobble up the last part is really what I'm referring to what will ask you the Who do you feel they have the again they have conviction in the afterlife. So now Allah subhanaw taala I say we spent 13 years teaching you in the kingdom. Now you have Yaqeen in the Athena now you have conviction in the beliefs of Islam. Now come the laws. And then this is followed by a series of verses explained to us the importance of the law. So Allah subhanho wa Taala inshallah Bakura he explains to us why we should follow the law. Allah created us for a purpose. Allah created us to be funny for to earn to record

in his world on earth, Allah created us to worship. Allah sent out the revelations when we obey the messenger that we follow the Lord of Allah and the wisdom behind the laws of Allah. And then he gives us the day example in the shura of Bani Israel, who rejected some of the gods, they pick and choose what they want from the revelation. And the results of that. So all of this is building up to a central message and that central messages, the law is not coming from your Creator.

obey it, obey the laws of Allah. Right that is the message and so you see the first part matura Baccarat, what you will find in the first draft of the Quran is building up that conviction in the law. And this Allah sent messages before the gods came down before those who are waiting to be successful. Those who rejected it were unsuccessful.

You should obey Allah you must obey Allah. It was the behind the laws of Allah. And then Allah begins to reveal the laws. And this surah is one of the most law heavy Surahs in the Quran. The ability for us to read the Quran agenda just packed full of Sharia rulings right there very few Surah Al Baqarah Surah Nisa and Shula Maya are perhaps the three they have the most fake rulings on Sharia rulings. But you'll find when you read the second use of the Quran, which is also stood on Bukhara here, it's just look, it's almost almost the entire jurist is just the laws of Islam. Allah tells us the laws of fasting, the laws of marriage, the morals of marriage laws of divorce the goals

of jihad, he tells us the criminal laws of Islam. So in this a lot of laws coming down and again, putting it back into historical context. This was the first and second year of the Hijra. The Muslims are now in their own community. Rasool Allah is now the leader of a community. Now new laws are being revealed to the community because now they're in a position to apply the law, they are now in a position to have a civilization that is built on the Quran, where they can actually apply the laws. So the laws are being revealed. And so the second part of the Surah, it is all of these major laws of Islam.

But one of the beautiful things about this section of Surah Baqarah is in between the laws, Allah talks about the wisdom behind the laws. In between the law, there's always a discussion on the wisdom behind the law. So Allah doesn't just tell us to obey. But sometimes he tells us why. And sometimes it gives us a glimpse at the introducer.

So for example, Allah causes industrial route to fast the month of Ramadan. And then he tells us one, data point data increases. Allah tells us that if you're traveling or sick, you don't have device. And then he tells us why you read the lobby comminution or whether you need to become an author, although once enough for you doesn't want to be completely. Allah tells the believers to go for jihad. Remember, this is revealed around the time of the Battle of battle. These are actually the first version of jihad to be revealed at the time of the Battle of battle. And the Allah reveals that verse and we discussed last week, we had, he said that sometimes you don't like something, but

he's good for you. We're talking about jihad, that you know, you might not like it, but it's good for you. And that applies to all of the gods of Islam.

And so we see this this balance in the Surah, between telling us the gods and telling us to obey the law, but also giving us a glimpse of the divine wisdom behind the law. So Allah is calling on us to hear and to obey. And he's giving us a overall summary of what the Quran teaches in terms of its laws.

So the other themes that you will find in Surah Baqarah besides the laws of Islam, one of the themes that goes throughout the Sunnah are the three different attitudes that people have towards revelation. They are those who believe in it, those who are rejected, and those will be went off record, hypocrites pretending to believe but in their heart initial belief and the Sunnah begins by giving us just five verses describing the believer, and they're just doing verses describing the disbelievers. And then two pages describing the Hippocratic Oath describing the monarchy. So why is there so much more description of the monarchy than the other two categories? Again, go back to the

time when it was

Surah Al Baqarah was revealed in the beginning beginning of the medina in Makkah, they were no Modafinil, you will just believers and disbelievers in Medina, for the first time the Muslims now have to deal with people who are pretending to be Muslim. This is the first time encountering a group of people who are outwardly Musa but inwardly the enemies of Islam.

And they will know about this we don't even know where this group exists sometimes, right being in the Sahaba may not have been aware that they have a monopoly in the Medina. So Allah gave a detailed description of people like this exist. These are their science now

One of the mistakes we make these days, right when we read descriptions of the hypocrites in the Quran, many of us look around and we think what other people Yeah, this guy matches this description that was righteous. No, maybe he's right. And we start judging everybody else in our minds. The purpose of these verses is to look inwardly. Ask yourself, Do I have any of the qualities of a monopoly? Do I have any of the qualities of a hypocrite? And there's a very detailed listing the sooner ALLAH SubhanA, Allah says that the hypocrites and those who

there's very this beautiful description of your choice of words, Allah said Raisa, illallah, homeland books, they do Bill early or in Nevada who Sliggoo when they are told not to cause corruption, urgency, we just, we just reforming we just making things better, we just improving things. Right? The choice of words is very interesting. Mostly word from the word Islam, from the word reformation. Whichever every group uses to describe the methodology these days. Everyone feels they're doing reformation. But each of us have different ideas of what reformation is the other thing sometimes someone thinks that during the Reformation What are they doing this corruption?

Right? You don't even realize that you're doing corruption? I mean, they're not even aware of Allah says, other individual books they do not without the law. Yes, Guru is our says they are causing corruption while even knowing it. So what's the purpose of this versus versus for us to look inwardly at our own opinions and our own methodologies, and to ask ourselves the methodology that I have adapted? Is it causing corruption isn't making things better? Or worse?

Am I really doing the right thing because sometimes we get so caught up in our own understandings and our own interpretations, we don't realize that we are the causes of corruption. And so it caused us to look inwardly and ensure that our methodology is not and then what we are calling to is truly the meaning of the Quran and Sunnah and our own misinterpretation of the Quran and Sunnah.

Another quality of the hypocrites laid out in these verses is that they tend to look down upon the massive apostles, they have the identity and your attitude towards the average Muslim, a judgmental attitude towards the average Muslim. So what is it? What is it?

Although I don't know,

when they are told to believe, like everybody else believes they see should we believe that idiots believe super Ha, an idiot is stupid person. Right? So Allah is showing you the mindset of the hypocrite, that they look at the true believers as a bunch of idiots. They look down upon this arrogance in their heart, that they think they are more intelligent than the believers, they think they are better than everybody else. And anyone with the sectarian mindset needs to be we have this because sectarianism makes you feel you're better than anyone else. And you keep making your circle smaller and smaller, because you everybody else is, you know, the off the off the street, while

everybody else is not only are Muslim and other Muslim, and everybody else is perfect, except for you and five or 10 people, right, your clip just gets smaller and smaller. And you think everybody else is super hot. They everybody else is stupid. And you're the only one who's right. We we have this, because the Prophet sallallahu alayhi wa sallam told us that the majority of the amount will always be on the strict part. Right, and what the majority of Muslims cling to, that is Islam. Nobody wants more group 1% come with an opinion. That's not Islam. Right. Islam is not what the 1% hold on to. It's what the majority of Muslims have collectively agreed upon. So for example, the

majority of Muslims in the world believe in praying five times a day.

If some new reformer comes on the scene and said, you only have to pray once a day, or the salah has been abrogated, or that you have understood the verses of Salah we all take him seriously. Right? Because this is a new reformation or misinterpretation of the religion. This is not what the OMA has agreed upon. So it's very important that you look at the broader OMA

as the collective umbrella of right and wrong within Islam, instead of looking at these small pockets of new interpretations that keep popping up all over the world. So Allah warns us about his mindset. And he warns us that this is something that's going to be there from this point onwards, there will be more nothing more there will be people who will be Muslims outwardly but the enemies of Islam inwardly, we need to be careful that we don't become them and then we don't follow them.

Another interesting point in the Missoula law, is that

the first actual command if you will, or Bacara is here are your natural good.

All mankind worship your Lord.

If you actually reading the Quran from the beginning, the first command you come upon is Oh, man

I worship your look

right from the beginning, the first command is talking, worship the Creator.

And that really forms the foundation of everything else. Because everything else is based on worshiping the Creator.

You're not going to follow the Islamic laws of marriage and divorce. If you don't believe in the Creator, you're not going to have any zeal towards jihad. If you don't believe in the Creator. You're not going to pass the month of Ramadan if you don't believe in the Creator, all of this Ibadah all of this in the worship of Allah. And so that's the very first command in the Surah is your your nurse, or God to buckle, oh, mankind, worship your God. And the first story that comes in the sooner the first story in the Quran, if you read it from the beginning, is the story of Adam and Eve.

The first human being and this unique wordings to this story, this is one of the most repeated stories in the Quran, but their unique wordings to the story tulip, aka the link to the overall theme of Surah Baqarah. So Surah Bogra tells us about the importance of the laws of Islam and obeying the law and trusting Allah's wisdom. And in this version of the story, you know, this two things equal points. One is, Allah says he's creating a Khalifa,

creating a creation that would represent his world. And the other important is our argument as far as you don't add the Malays around. You know, the translation is all of the words all of the names, but really the interpretation he taught, he taught me some language, he taught him how to speak, how to communicate, how to put words to your ideas, because no other creation that we know of, besides the angels and the jinn have any type of language, right? You don't have this diversity of languages and thoughts and ideas and the ability to name things the way humans do. Right? Otherwise, I was taught this shouldn't be able to understand be able to communicate. And this is very important

because this tells us that Allah expects more from us than other predictions. Allah is giving humans unique capabilities that they didn't give to animals because he expects more from the human being than you expect from the animals. And this is again, laying the framework for obeying the law.

And so, to summarize, Surah Al Baqarah is one of the most important students in the Quran. It teaches us to obey the law. It teaches us the wisdom behind the laws. It teaches us the laws of Islam. And it really creates the mindset of the believer that the mindset of the believer believer is we are now what

we hear and we obey. If Allah said it, we obeyed if Rasulullah sallallahu ala he was upset that we obeyed. This becomes the mindset of the believer. Yes, the Madonna had different ways of interpreting the Quran and Sunnah. But they all have the same mindset, which is we are and we obey. It's just different interpretations. But at the end of the day, the intention is

to ask Allah to allow us to benefit from the Quran and to live by the people of the Quran. Subhan Allah the Quran is an emergency food. Salim Al Hamdulillah

hamdu Lillahi wa salatu salam ala Mala and to be about on my birthday in DC Kitab Allah, we had the honey Muhammad sallallahu alayhi wa says, with Shodo this morning was the third to hopefully, we

could do the lab in Penang

from the virtue of Surah Baqarah there is a very beautiful Hadith in which the Prophet sallallahu alayhi wa sallam said Do not turn your homes into graveyards. Shaytan runs away from the home in which Surah Al Baqarah is recited. She doesn't runs away from the home in which doula and Baccarat is recited. You have lived their levels of meaning to this or this.

One meaning of this idea is, is that if you recite Surah Baqarah often in your home, it lessens the chance that shaytan has any influence over your family.

It lowers the chance of shaytan being able to whisper into the hearts of your family and misguided and so it keeps the devils out of your home in that sense. The other meaning of this verse and he also connect is that this surah is a Rukia. The surah is a means of protection from jail and from cinema and from any of these negative elements. Right and just a general tip if you're dealing with something supernatural in your home and you don't know what to do about it, you certainly antifungal not gonna sit and read the entire Surah Baqarah right. I know many people who did this me quote

one of my teachers

he told me the story that he's a q&a Convert for Christianity to Islam. So Greek scholar of Islam Alhamdulillah and he says

In 20 years trying to convince his mother to converge and nothing worked. And he said once there was a kid in his mother's house, and she called every Christian priest to get rid of it.

And they did things, whatever the gene wasn't going. He said, eventually mother's house, he sat down, he recited the whole tour of Accra. Everything stopped. Whatever weird stuff was happening, everything stopped, it never happened again. She asked him what he did, and he told me the Hadith that the devils run away from the hole which will occur as recited. And that's what she took her shahada and converted to Islam.

I know many other stories like this, do not underestimate the power of the Quran. You know, many of us when we experience something supernatural, we run to others to help us and sometimes when people might be caught up to sometimes they want to charge you a lot of money. Sometimes they just come and do weird things, they make things worse. Let's start with the basic stuff. I'm gonna start with the three gold standard Bacara This is Allah Allah, Allah, Allah, Allah, Allah is the most powerful way of protecting yourself from the devils. So this is one of the virtues to our background. So what I call upon us to do today is to revive in our families. The tradition of reciting Surah Al Baqarah.

Or as often as possible, is another at least it's in the suit of baccarat meets Baraka into the hole. It brings Baraka into the box. That's another reason to recite the offer. And they are virtually attached to specific verses in the sutra as well. I can go see it in the sutra, as the closing two verses are also special. There's a hadith that says that especial door in Jannah opened when the last verses will have occurred.

Just to celebrate the revolution to power versus so it's a very powerful tool. And that's why we should not we should not like it, no, just because we think it's too long. Now we should take time to decide it. And maybe you can't recite the whole thing in one day split up over three days. Right, three one Jews, the Deaf Jews, the next half to the new dawn, but divide this habit recite Surah Al Baqarah, often teach it to your children

studied it of zero, do the Quranic verses, because really the whole message of Islam is summarized in the Shema. And if we understand Surah Baqarah below based on your background, you will be living Islam.

And this is what the Sahaba did we know the famous stone it was the harbor who spent 10 years just Spanish terracotta. Why? Because for every verse He memorized, he made sure he understood and he lived by it before moving on to the next verse. And He gave a special attention to Surah Baqarah because really this is this is everything, every message and love Islam you can find it in the Sunnah if you are practicing every verse in Israel and you're following Islam to the teeth. So, let us revise the study of the surah let us revise the recitation of the surah let us make it part of all the lines make it part of our board you ask Allah to grant us the correct understanding of the

Quran because of the people of the Quran and to make us those who love and teach the Quran. Probably not enough with dunya Huseynov Avila when he has never done so superhero because Robin is a domestic who was Celine 111 we'll be living up to Estrella