Mohammad Ali Hazratji – Reflect On The Quran – Surah Al Kahaf – Ayah 32 To 35
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The use of Allah's subhanahu wa'amala has led to fear and fearless behavior, leading to people feeling scared and fearful. Kibr, a produce of an internal state called kibr, is one of the greatest sins because it is a result of internalization and externalization of what inside is inside. Delusion is a punishment for past sin and is a fallacy caused by denying people's ability to achieve their dreams.
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Now comes the second story, which is ayah
number 32.
Just a couple more comments before I go
to that.
Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala uses every possible
technique that you can use, we analyze them
as techniques, to convince people to come to
the truth.
Okay, sometimes Allah gives you warning, the stick.
Sometimes he gives you bashara, invites the carrot,
right, as we say carrot and the stick.
Sometimes Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala commands you,
sometimes he gives you rational reasons, and then
sometimes Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala tells you
stories, because we love to hear stories, right.
Every possible way to try and convince people
to come to the truth.
Now, what about people who are in that
state of dhulm?
The fact that Allah follows that ayah with
the bashara is also an ishara, that is
not too late.
There is no sin that is too big
for the karam of Allah subhanahu wa ta
'ala, for his generosity to forgive.
No sin, including shirk, as long as the
person repents on time and truly turns back
to Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala.
So we should never feel that I am,
because Iblis will sometimes make people say, you
are a lost case, you have committed sins
that nobody in the world has committed, you
have so many, there is no hope for
you, forget it, enjoy life.
So just remember that you can, as the
hadith says, you can fill the space between
the earth and the heavens with sins and
come to Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala with
tawbah and he will meet you with forgiveness
greater than that.
So there is nothing that a person, no
matter what they have done, that Allah does
not forgive, provided they meet the conditions of
a true tawbah.
So Allah is always kareem, never let hopelessness
or a fear paralyze us, we should always
think good of Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala,
that yes, that he will always forgive us.
And when these ayaats of fear come and
ayaats of hope come, normal people like us,
we get afraid when there are ayaats of
fear, right, we are afraid.
And when there is ayaats of bashara, of
good news, we get excited.
But the people who are closest to Allah
subhanahu wa ta'ala, when they hear, when
Allah inspires them with ayaats of hope, they
become fearful.
And when Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala inspires
them with ayaats of fear, they have hope.
Now how is that?
Now look at the case of Sayyidina Abu
Bakr as-Siddiq, he has been given all
the bashara of goodness from Rasulullah ﷺ.
And what is he saying?
That if one of my legs is in
Jannah and one is outside, I am afraid
that I will be left out of Jannah.
Similarly, Sayyidina Umar ibn al-Khattab who said
something to the effect, he said, if on
the Day of Judgment it is announced that
everyone can enter Jannah except one person, I'll
be afraid that one person is going to
be me.
So that's the fear.
And on the other hand, he also said,
and on the Day of Judgment if the
announcement is made that everyone will go into
Jahannam except one, I'll be hopeful that I'm
that.
So this is how they thought of this.
So they have hope in the fear because
if Allah puts fear, that means Allah loves
you.
Because who Allah loves, He puts fear in
them.
So that's hopefulness.
That Allah is making me afraid of Him
and of Jahannam and the consequences.
That means Allah loves me enough to do
that.
Therefore, I have hope.
So with those comments, we go to the
next ayah, which is ayah number 32, the
new story, which is the story of the
man with the two gardens.
Which is a trial, as we said, trial
of, we had trial of Iman, where we
had these young people, solid Iman, Tawakkul, all
the good qualities.
Now we are going to see all the
bad qualities combined in one man.
Okay.
Trial of wealth, of human resources, and the
worldly parameters of success.
Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala says, So
Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala says, tell them,
put forth in front of them, for them,
a myth, the story, a parable, or a
true story about Rajulain, about two men.
Allah says, we gave one of them, Jannatain,
two gardens, two gardens of A'naab, of
two massive grapevines, you know, gardens of grapevines,
one here and one here.
And you know, grapevines are somewhat fragile, they
need protection.
And then what does he say?
We surrounded them with date palms, giving dates,
and those are solid trees.
So I imagine these two massive gardens, and
the boundary wall is made of date palms.
And those are, you know, two types of
fruits, which are valuable.
And you know, one is delicate, one is
the other, which was the staple food, which
were very, very expensive at the time, both
of those.
And that's not it.
And between these gardens, on the inside, there
was other cultivation.
Whether it was wheat is not mentioned, it's
all kind of staple food.
It could be rice, it could be all
kinds of other things.
So it was not just grapes and this,
those are mentioned, and in between was this.
Now, so it's telling us the massive garden,
beautifully arranged.
Now, the beauty of the garden is only
if it produces.
So Allah SWT next announces, that all the
time, every year, all the gardens produced maximum
consumable, eatable food.
And then never, it wasn't like we had
a bad year crop or pest, you know,
pests came and destroyed.
Every year, these gardens produced everything perfect.
There was never a time the garden didn't
do anything.
Produce maximum for the owner.
Now imagine.
So now this guy is in a state
of perfection.
Every year, maximum.
First, the quality and the quantity and, you
know, whatever he can.
And then we made inside these gardens, you
know, streams and sources of water bubbling out.
So in other words, because your garden, you
have to worry who's going to irrigate it.
Will the rain come?
Will it not come?
Allah SWT made arrangement for that also.
Imagine the scene of this in which rivers
are also flowing.
So it's taking care of itself in the
garden.
Okay, so you don't even have to worry
about irrigating where the water is going to
come.
So all of this state is there.
Now, and for him, there were other resources.
Thamar here, Sayyidina Ibn Abbas said, meant gold
and silver and properties and all other forms
of wealth.
So it wasn't just the gardens.
He was given all other forms of wealth.
For him, there was thamar.
Thamar is all kinds of valuable, especially gold
and silver and those wealthy things.
Now this man has got this and if
you remember, Allah SWT says, we made, we
did this.
Three times Allah said, we gave him this,
we gave him this, we made the water
come out.
Now what does this man say?
Who's got all of this?
And he's got the wealth.
First thing he says, Now before that, and
he was with his, a companion of his,
a friend of his.
And they were in a conversation.
They were having a conversation, two friends, if
you will.
So he says to him, Now look at
this.
He says, I am greater in wealth and
in nafara.
Nafara means human resources, especially in that group,
male sons, because that was the ultimate prize
to have, you know, means manpower.
My sons, my servants, all the people, the
entourage that serves me.
So he tells this man, I have more.
Now what is that an indication of?
Arrogance.
What is the definition of kibr?
What is he saying?
He is interacting with someone.
And he's saying, you are less than me.
That is kibr.
And the second kibr is when the truth
is presented to you.
You say, I don't accept.
That's kibr.
So kibr is an externalization of what is
inside.
It requires externalization that I present to you
the Quran.
You say, I don't accept this.
That is kibr.
Or to feel that I am better than
you.
I am better than you for whatever, whether
it's for wealth.
It can be for intelligence, which can be
for knowledge.
And even in deen, it can be because
I have better amal than you.
Okay.
All of that is kibr.
But that kibr is a produce of an
internal state, which is called ujjb.
Ujjb means vanity.
It means narcissism.
Like you hear examples of former president just
talking about himself.
Inside he feels.
So he is in a state of delusion
that I am better.
I am somebody of just in common sense.
I feel I'm someone very special.
Inside I feel that.
And therefore I express it with kibr.
Kibr is one of the greatest sins because
Rasulullah sallallahu alayhi wa sallam told us in
a hadith that a person who has a
darra and atoms worth of kibr, jannah is
haram for this person.
That Allah sallallahu alayhi wa sallam says in
another narration that kibriyai, this greatness is my
shawl or robe or whatever.
And anyone who tries to * it, I
will put him in the hellfire.
In other words, you should not.
So what is the opposite of kibr?
Softness.
Urdu people should know.
Humbleness.
Yes.
So one crime of this person is he
completely discounted that all of that was from
Allah.
First, he takes it on himself.
Number two, he has kibr.
Now, so that first thing of denying that
all of this is from Allah is also
called kufr.
It's called denying the favors of Allah.
Okay.
There are two kinds of kufr in the
Quran.
One is kufr of iman, the opposite of
which iman and kufr.
The other is kufr and shukr.
Opposite of na shukri is called kufr.
So the first one that we hear is
he took it on himself.
He denied that Allah had given him all
of this.
Second, he showed kibr against his companion.
Now, then what happens as they're walking along
now, imagine this one man who somebody has
literally insulted him and said, but he doesn't
say anything.
They come to the garden.
He has not responded.
On a personal insult, he did not respond.
Now, we're talking about the man with the
garden.
He entered his garden.
And in that state of arrogance, Allah says,
who was he doing zulm on?
Not against Allah.
He was doing zulm on himself because the
consequences of that, he is going to suffer.
And then in that state that he was
in, I don't think, I am certain, I
don't imagine that this will ever end.
Tabeeda.
Tabeeda means become extinct.
So in other words, he thinks that this
all that he has is forever.
Because year after year after year, it produces
a hundred percent, hundred percent, hundred and ten
percent.
And the water is there.
Everything is and the wealth and the power.
So he's got another delusion that not only
do I have it, it's from me, I'm
so special, but it will last forever.
Okay.
Then he says, now he goes one step
further.
Now another sin comes.
He says, And I don't imagine, I don't
think, I can't think that the sa'ah,
which is the qiyamah, will ever be established.
So now his iman goes into kufr because
now he is denying the ability of Allah
and the truth of the qiyamah.
And then he goes to another delusion.
He says, And suppose, and I don't believe
this is ever going to happen, but suppose
if I am returned to my Lord, then
I am so special that I will be
given even better than this in return.
Now this is his arrogance.
This is another delusion, thinking that because he's
been given all of this in the dunya,
that is a sign of Allah's pleasure with
me or that Allah loves me so much.
Whereas Rasulullah teaches us that Allah gives dunya
to the kafir and to believers.
But Allah gives deen only to those he
loves.
So these are now, we've got all of
these diseases of kibr, of ajb, of lack
of shukr to Allah to then go on
to think delusion that this life is eternal,
his wealth is eternal, and then go to
doubting that there is a day of judgment.
And then another one that even if there
is, you know, I'm all set.
So he's in complete delusion.
So we talked about the opposite of kibr
is tawadu.
Now this internal delusion of ajb, the opposite
of that is called shuhudu mannaan, or shuhudu
minna, means to witness that every blessing is
given by someone else, which is Allah, rather
than attributing it to a person, you know,
that I am this special.
And then there is ba'da yabidu, which is
the word that was used that it will
never end.
The three letters in Arabic, the same letters
if you flip them around, it becomes abada,
which is eternal.
When it's becoming extinct, and if you switch
it around again, it becomes adab.
Same three alphabets arranged differently, adab, abada, ba'da.
So in general, some have said that adab
is the beginning of anything special.
Adab is the beginning of anything special, especially
the journey to Allah.
Adab with Allah, with his rasool, with his
book, with his deen, and with his creation,
and it should always remain with you, abada.
About this denial of, this level of zulm,
of denying the day of judgment, there is
a hadith in Sahih Bukhari from Sayyidina Ibn
Abbas, which is a hadith of Qudsi, that
Rasulullah ﷺ said that Allah says, the translation
of which is, that the son of Adam
has lied against me, and he has no
right to do so.
And he has insulted me, and he has
no right to do so.
Then he says, as for his lying against
me, it is his saying that I cannot
recreate him as I did before.
Means somebody who says there is no resurrection,
no akhirah, that he is lying against me.
And as for his insulting me, it is
what came in the beginning of this surah,
it is by saying that I have a
son, and I am glorified above taking a
wife and a son.
So what we are seeing is that one
sin follows another.
This man has one, two, three, four, some
of the worst character traits of kufran-e
-na'ma, of kibr, denial of kufr in iman,
all of those coming to each other.
And it is said that a sin, a
person who commits a sin that follows another
sin, is actually a punishment of the previous
sin.
And the punishment of this would be another
sin that will come.
So this Allah ﷻ lets this downhill cycle
go.
And similarly, the opposite, a good deed, if
you do a good deed that follows a
good deed, that good deed is Allah's reward
to you for your previous sin, making you,
giving you tawfiq to do another good deed
and so on so forth.
So if we are doing a series of
good deeds, again, don't feel proud, say alhamdulillah,
la hawla wa la quwwata illa billah.
It's only by Allah's So there is a
fallacy of understanding of the, some of the
wealthy people, delusion that the fact that I
have is because I'm special with Allah ﷻ.
And this is mentioned previously, we've covered that
also in surah al-fajr and elsewhere in
the Quran.
And therefore, we should be careful of that,
that Allah gives the dunya to whoever He
wants.