Divine Parables #07 The Panting Dog Gutted By Greed 7-176

So we move on now to Suratul Arraf.

In Suratul Arraf, there is another parable to

be reflected on Insha'Allah,

wherein Allah a zawajal he says,

And mention to them, oh prophet,

the great story of the one whom we

granted our verses to,

and he separated

himself from them.

And so as a result,

Satan pursued him, chased after him, and that

man became of the deviant.

And had we wanted, we would have elevated

this man with it,

with the scripture that we gave him.

But

the unfortunate

situation of this man was that he clung

to the earth, meaning he clung to the

worldly life,

and he gave in to his base desires,

his lowly appetites.

And so his example is like the example

of the dog.

If you chase him away he pants

and if you leave him alone he still

pants, tongue out, panting for air, right?

Then Allah defines the parable straight away and

he says, this is the example of those,

not him,

those

who disbelieve in our verses.

So recall these stories to them, oh prophet

so they may continue to reflect on them.

It is very difficult

to to pick what we're going to talk

about in this parable. It is huge. But,

you know, the scholars sometimes mention that this

is the example of a corrupt scholar from

the previous nations.

And of course, that that is,

clearly what it is referring to, but to

limit it to that could render it almost

irrelevant for us.

Like, I'm not a scholar, has nothing to

do with me. Alhamdulillah. I'm not that guy.

Right?

However, this is not just about the scholar.

Of course, the the it's a big deal

if it's a scholar because

the biggest thing he feared for

was Alaim al Mudiloon, corrupt religious leaders.

However, this is less likely among the scholars

than it is among the regular people because

the more ayaat, the more hadith you have

just in terms of ratios, the closer to

guidance you will be. Right?

And so this is about every person that

has knowledge,

and his knowledge separates from his actions.

This is the more operative way to read

this.

The twins of faith are knowledge and actions.

And, of course, you will always have more

knowledge than you act upon because it's easy

just to listen and learn than to actually

live and practice.

But if you allow the gap between your

knowledge and your actions to widen too much,

your faith is broken.

Your certainty is is fractured.

That is the idea.

And he said recall to him the store

to them the story of the one we

gave our verses to,

and they drifted away from them. You know,

it says

means to skin something away from something.

And

remember we said you're not supposed to hold

on to the Quran, you're supposed to tie

yourself to the Quran? Now this picture is

telling you the Quran is supposed to be

your flesh and your blood and flowing through

your veins. It's not even tied to you,

it flows through you even.

And so he skinned himself away, and that

also is a a scary thing because they

said skinning happens slowly.

It's a slow process when you're skinning an

animal. Right?

So, likewise, this person at the end disbelieved

in our verses. It happened slowly.

That that is what, you know, Ibrahim Taymih

Rahimahullah would would refer to when he said,

Every time I measure up my statements, mean

things I know, against my actions, my practice,

I become afraid that maybe I actually don't

believe anymore because, like,

how big does the gap need to be

for you to just be honest with yourself

and say, you don't believe in it or

else you would have practiced it. Right? So

that is the idea. He slowly slowly slowly

drifted

this person,

and then it says Shaitan chased after him

once he did that and this is like

you know your skin protects you right

He skinned himself away it's almost like that

was when the shaitan smelled blood because the

skin is peeled now and so the Shaitan

which is the wolf of the human being,

didn't the Prophet alaihis salatu wa sallam say

stick to the community because the wolf eats

the stray sheep?

He means Shaitan is the wolf of humanity,

right? And so it was when he skinned

himself, when he separated himself, that's when Shaitan

chased after him, and he became deviant deviant.

And then Allah azza wa Jal said, and

if we wished,

we would have elevated him with it, with

what with our scripture.

But it's not favoritism. It's not random. He

explains. He says, but he chose to insist

pretending like he's immortal. He clung to the

earth.

Keep accumulating and piling on and accepting worldly

offers at the expense of your profile with

Allah. That's what he did. And so his

example became what?

Like the helpless dog, like the parched dog.

Right?

Panting and panting and panting, reminding us that

he missed out on this world before the

hereafter.

It's an all or none sale. Right?

You miss out on this world before the

next when you let go of your religious

commitment.

As the

he used to say,

the poor, you know, he feels bad, the

poor these poor people that are attached to

this world, they exit it without knowing the

sweetest thing in it. They said, what's that?

He said it is

knowing Allah ahsawajal,

experiencing nearness to Allah ahsawajal

because you know you collect from this world

with what money can buy but this is

the one thing money can't buy, right? And

so he's panting, panting, panting a lost cause.

You know, there's a a few

quick things I want to mention here in

the last 3 minutes. The first of them,

if we wished we would have elevated him

with it,

He went down, he went from human to

living the life of an animal.

Allah

whenever he gives you fear, he always gives

you hope as well. Right?

He said he could have been above human,

not beneath human. He doesn't say we could

have kept him there. He says, if we

would have we would have elevated him with

it,

He said he can do that to the

human being, and that is the story of

humanity. And I always love striking this sort

of,

hierarchy for people.

Allah

gave the animals desire and no intellect. Right?

And

he gave the angels,

right,

intellect and no desires,

and then he gave you

desires and the intellect.

So if you give in to your desires,

you become like the animal rather worse because

you are more equipped.

And if you reign in your desires, not

remove them but restrain them, you become superior

to the angels in the hereafter.

We would have lifted him with these verses.

This is like revealed reason. Allah gave you

revelation to refine your reason and intellect further.

This is the first thing. The second thing

is the scholars said that

Allah raising you with his verses happens in

this world as well. The prophet alayhis salatu

wasalam when he said,

Allah lifts with this book many people and

demotes others because of it, because of them

neglecting it, The great Indian scholar, Mulla Al

Qari,

he says, and we even saw this in

this world. Look at the early generations of

Islam, the people that did not have religious

knowledge, but they had royal ancestry from big

big name tribes, they were forgotten in their

ignorance.

And the people that committed themselves to Allah's

book,

they became the the

the the light posts, and they became the

the lamps

and the light houses for the ummah.

He said, and that is why you see

the leaders of the ummah, meaning the scholars

in the early periods

were the majority of them were actually from

what he said were freed slaves from the

slave class. Overnight, because of their commitment to

the Quran, Allah put them at the top

of society, subhanAllah.

And the last thing is, in this final

minute that, alhamdulillah, I've kept today,

another hope here.

He peeled himself and that is when Shaitan

chased.

Right? He smelled the blood, if you will.

That's my explanation,

we're extending the metaphor.

Allah is telling you that shaitan will not

always see you, notice you, chase you. You

know, he's invisible, you don't see him. Right?

But if you are close to his book,

even outside of Ramadan,

you will be invisible to him. You will

be immune to him. He only got hopeful

to chase after this man, after this man

drifted. So there is so much hope here.

Allah has set you up to be even

transcending your human capacity in the hereafter greater

than the angels, and Allah has also set

you up to be immune

greatest enemy the shaitan.

greatest enemy the shaitan.