Divinely Sheltered – Reflections on Surat Al-Hujurat 07

slotzo salam ala Rasulillah

Marina begin the name of Allah All Praise and Glory be to Allah and means find his peace and blessings be upon His messenger Muhammad sallallahu alayhi wa sallam, the Messenger of Allah and his family and his companions and all those who adhere to his guidance.

May Allah azza wa jal teach, I'll send you that which will benefit us and benefit us with that which He has taught us and increase us in knowledge

and righteousness and sincerity

and strength.

So, we are resuming our discussion on surah Taha gerat. And the last, I guess, or the previous section of the surah was the reality of brotherhood in Islam and that the fraternity or the brotherhood of faith is the truest brotherhood, without disregarding or dismissing

the legitimacy of other spheres and layers of of brotherhood and fraternal bonds and relationships.

And after speaking about the reality of the truth, brotherhood, Eliza genuine this against the things that could jeopardize it such as mocking one another, such as using offensive names, stereotypes,

ridicule, backbiting, suspicion, and otherwise.

This next as we move on to this evening, the 13th I have so that her gerat widens the scope now to the widest Brotherhood, which is the brotherhood of humanity at large.

Allah azza wa jal says yeah Yohannes no longer Yeah, you have Latina Manu Oh, you have believed now it is yeah, you harness all humanity in a HELOC gonna come in Vicodin, Wanda, we created you from a single male and female meaning add the money his salon and his wife Hawa or evali has Salam. What's your Elena come? Sure, Reuben Wakaba in

and out of that single pair of male and female, we formed you into nations and tribes lead to our raffle so that you may come to know one another or familiarize yourselves with one another or recognize one another. Those are all I think adequate translations. We made you into nations and tribes so that you may know one another. In a chroma coma and Allah here at Polycom, certainly the most honorable of you in the sight of Allah are at kakum the most righteous or the most pious at kakum Literally, those with the most TEPCO

and so this is speaking about the why this fraternity the fraternity of humanity right. And the prophets Allah Allahu alayhi wa Salam o will also spoke about this fraternity when he said

la Umino Hadoken had you hate Belia he he may you hipbone enough see, none of you truly believes until they love for their brother what they love for themselves. In this particular Hadith as a no Rahim Allah set, Imam unknowingly. This is talking about your brother in the human race, not your brother in faith. Because other narrations of this hadith mentioned had to hit belly NASCI

Meenal Heidi math to hit booty enough sick until you love for all people the good that you love for yourself.

But after we speak about we are all brothers.

And Allah has made us into nations and tribes to know one another. Then he told us about the most accurate measurement or yardstick of human value of human value. And that is taqwa That is God consciousness or piety or righteousness.

Meaning people having the tough core of Allah in their heart and in their conduct. So in origin, Allah Allah Zildjian teaches us the quality of humanity,

but then based on their actions, they stratify they take different ranks at different levels. And you know, it is important in something that comes to mind theory with this idea, as we proceed in explaining it and we will only cover this idea today in sha Allah Zhou agenda this evening.

Is that Allah Tabata, Kota Allah is telling us that the truest metric the truest measurement between people's value respect to value is taqwa. But at the same time, we don't actually know how much tech well

Someone has right like it's.

But nonetheless, he is turning our attention to not measure people based on TEPCO because you never fully can. But to stop measuring people on such a conclusive level, stop being so sure, stop overestimating the value of worldly metrics, obvious metrics, because we do that right based on someone's wealth is admired based on someone's social status. You know, he is revered based on someone's lineage, he is accepted or rejected in marriage, right? This is just all cultures perpetuate this this concept that humans are not all equal, but then based on what, right? So Allah Azza saying, You're right, all people are not equal. But Taqwa eclipses, all the factors that you

rush to think about, these are not the most important factors. So look for Taqwa as best you can, and realize that you can't fully know the value of people so be careful of overestimating your faulty metrics.

And this again, happens in every generation, in every group of people.

You know, even the time of the Sahaba or the Allahu Anhu.

billon Vidal and Nova is a good example. May Allah be pleased with him, the Abyssinian slave who was freed by elbow crystal df and became the advent of the Prophet sallallahu alayhi wa sallam, you read in his biography that

he went to propose to a family for himself and his brother, his blood brother.

And he said he spoke on behalf of the two of them. And he said to the father of the girls.

I am Bilal and this is my brother.

I began even at Habesha, we are originally speaking to slaves from Ethiopia, from our city from Habesha.

couldn't know Bollini for Hidin Allah we used to be a stray and Allah guided us we are muslims now. What couldn't I Bedini for axacon Allah and we were from the slave class and Allah freed us, Allah emancipated us through the teachings of Islam, right, Allah emancipated us for into the way Juna fell Hamdulillah. We're in Timnah Runa, for Allahu Akbar.

If you accept to marry us, to your daughters, then hamdulillah Praise be to Allah Who thank Allah for his favor. And if you prevent us, you obstruct us from the opportunity to marry into your families to marry your daughter's than Allah is greater.

He understands it is possible. There are people in every generation, even the purest generation that can slip in their metrics. And this shows you the importance of Allah telling us this is the metric by the way, right? It's the importance of also reciting this in our prayers, and rehearsing it in our gatherings.

You know, it also tells you that people and they perpetuate a certain faulty measurement of others. This can cause people to see themselves as inferior at times, or superior at times, unjustifiably like it'd be LAN is saying, if you think I'm not worthy to marry into your family, and so you're not gonna let me marry, I'm not gonna get duped by that Allah is greater Allah already gave me my privilege, or Allah already esteemed me through Islam. Right, it will not be reflected on

see myself myself worth. So this is just a little bit of a background or an illustration as to why this standard, this principle is so important to be codified in the book of Allah azza wa jal, and of course it is throughout. An important disclaimer though, since this does arise a lot right in marriage, who families will and won't accept in marriage.

This does not mean that if someone appears to have tough for, you throw all compatibility, you know, assessments out the window, that doesn't mean that for sure, for sure.

I would say race, but race, you know, is arguably not the thing, but ethnicity like, and not even ethnicity because ethnicity includes culture, skin color. Skin color is not a factor. This has nothing to do with compatibility. But I say this because many times we we overdo things, and we're a product of our culture. And the dominant narrative sometimes skews us and we pull out the racism cards too early, though they exist all the time, but we have to pull them right to be able to combat racism, right, and sometimes we pull them out prematurely, and we just cause, you know, frictions and tensions for no reason.

What am I getting at here? It may so happen that a person from a certain part of the world has a certain skin tone and other

person from another part of the world has another skin tone. And so they're not compatible. Right? Not because of the skin tone, but from the part of the world that they stemmed from, there'll be too much too many differences for the marriage to thrive, right. Like, even in time of the Prophet SAW Salem,

his cousin, Zainab, he told her to marry, you know, someone that was from the slave class and she was poorer, she and she couldn't handle it, it was just too difficult for her right, or people from forget, you know, social classes, even economic classes, if someone is, you know, if a girl is being raised on, you know, a certain lifestyle of a father who makes six figures in his life, and then she marries into a family where the husband is hand to mouth, this will lessen the likelihood after the the fuzzies. And the bubbles of the first few weeks and months of marriage are over for her to put up with this. Like, I'm just not used to this. I'm not used to sitting there and calculating stuff

all the time. I'm not used to having to ask someone for allowance. I'm not used to, you know, someone saying, you know, we can use water, we don't need toilet paper, these these types of things could just totally implode the marriage. Right? So class

could result in incompatibility, right? Whether even intellectual class, like if one of the two spouses also, I don't know why it's a deep dive in marriage, but it's probably relevant. If one of the two spouses

has finished their PhD, and the other one has not finished high school. This could cause a lot of traffic in conversations, but Right. And they would struggle to see eye to eye on almost anything, because they're thinking and speaking on two completely different wavelengths. So, compatibility, what I'm trying to say is compatibility is important. Skin color on its own has nothing to do with compatibility. Okay? Very important. Very good.

When Allah azza wa jal also says, you know, the best of you in the sight of Allah are the people of the most suffer. It doesn't mean that people cannot have distinctive qualities either.

So what do I mean? Or is there value to being humble? Yes, even if you're not Muslim, is there value to being intelligent? Yes, even if you're not Muslim, is there value in being generous? Yes, there is. Even if you're not Muslim, right? There is honor ability there. These are honorable qualities on independently on their own.

And can those be a product of our different upbringings? Yes, they can. Right? That is why it is not all baseless stereotypes. When we say these people in this region are known for their generosity, like that tribe.

If you don't have his meal, he's going to divorce his wife.

This is, by the way, ignorance, but I'm just saying, I'm talking about where it comes from. That sentiment of My honor is inseparable from my ability to honor my guests. So be generous and gracious with my guests. And so this is what without getting into this is in their nature, it's in their DNA and talk about like, you know, genetic archetypes, or genetic, you know, underpinnings for this stuff, or it is nurture just for their society. So the Arabs, for example, had certain distinctive qualities. They had some horrible ones too, but they had certain distinctive qualities that were very meritorious, they were very virtuous, like their generosity, like their bravery. Yes.

That doesn't mean on the individual level, that Arabs are superior. No, some Arabs of the noblest classes of Arabs deserve nothing at the end of the day, but the hellfire, the lowest bit of the fire, but as a type of people, they could have had qualities, right. Islam is not against that. That concept, you know, the Western civilization, by the way, they have been known forever for their humility. Like, even to a point now where, you know, people that come from different parts of the world and experience Western civilization, European and American for the first time.

They say these people have this humility to them. Even the humility that they brag about, it's kind of a little bit contradictory, but they brag about their humility. Like they take pride in being humble and letting everyone speak and Okay, let's vote about this. And this is this is for 1000s of years. Like the prototype for having a parliament was the council's in Athens 1000s of years ago. So this was like, you know, their bread and butter would they took great pride in that. They were known for this. The Arabs did things

Really, they weren't great with, you know, roundtable discussions. But it worked for the early years of jihad and that difficult part of the world they were the generations of jihad, right? They're leaders of Islam I'm sorry when so much Jihad was taking place.

So Islam does not overlook the fact that people in tribes could have distinctive qualities that put them ahead of others as a type of people. But what Islam is saying is all of that considered accepted, validated gets eclipsed by Taqwa. You put that next to Taqwa. And it winds in the face of Taqwa.

And that's if we're coming back to the point I started with now that tough one nobody knows. So don't be so sure. And that is why the I NS within Allah, Allah Muhammad, Allah is fully knowing Allah is best acquainted, not you.

What do we know when we're dealing with people?

Like people dry brag about ancestry lineage, right? We know for a fact that we all have the same lineage.

That's what this is saying. If you pay attention, we created you from a single you want to talk about origins want to talk about common ancestors, single payer, male and female, let's it and before this male and female, they were dust.

So it is all a common ancestry here.

As the Prophet sallallahu alayhi wa sallam said, all of you stem from Adam and Adam stems from dust, the dust on the ground. What else do we know?

We know that the differences between us certain nations, certain groups in humanity may be superior than others in certain things. That is also from Allah, Allah caused you to be born here, and him to be born there. Once again, nothing we can brag about the ISS, we created you from a single pair of male and female, and we chose to make you into nations and tribes. So put it down. It's not yours. Even validating the strengths of where you came from, and what you may have came from a good family became a good person that's from Allah azza wa jal. And we also know that Allah turned us into sets of nations and tribes for a specific person purpose, and that is Lita our raffle, this ayah follows

along so that you may know one another. What is the what is the point what is behind saying so that you may know one another? The scholars gave two explanations here. So the specific purpose of turning us into groups turning us into collectives, turning us into populations, distinct populations, they said Lita out of which that you may go get to know one another. What is getting to know one another entail? What does it provide? What does it offer us? The scholars gave these two explanations. The first of them is that solidarity there it comes from knowing one another.

You know, there's even a hadith that says, Whenever people insist on reconciling their broken family relationships, they never fall into need.

Meaning you don't have enough bonds with your family. That is the reason why you're in need, whether you realize it or not, because of the family bonds were strong enough, someone would have eventually been able to pick up the slack, someone would have been moved enough to pick up the slack to shoulder the burden. And subhanAllah nowadays, you know, you think of the nuclear family and you think of how stressed parents are trying to compensate for the non presence of extended family. Right? You see this, it's not just need as in like providing for them and you know, helping them financially it is carrying the load of life, even with elders, you know, when elders become elders,

and they are in need, it is likely impossible for one person around one of their grandchildren

to carry the load, it probably needs to be spread among a group of people, the child and the grandchild and, and so on and so forth. So that it could be workable this way.

And also, you know, part of this solidarity is I just gave the example of keeping the family bonds you get to know one another. He's where they from, oh, this is my family member, I need to take a look out for my family member. But they said also so that you may get to know one another meaning not even just family society, building social bonds, not just family bonds, building social bonds, because how does society function? If you really want to be analytical about it, society functions on trust.

If there is no trust, there is no society.

So many people nowadays in our like atomized world when everyone is off to themselves, we still operate on trust. But trust without justification like why are there so many scams nowadays? Why are there so many scandals? Why is there so much, you know, fraudulent behavior, there's actually a best seller that was just released.

Maybe within the past two years, by the famous Malcolm Gladwell, if anyone knows who Malcolm Gladwell is, anyone know the book?

talking to strangers, it's called.

He's basically studying all of these, you know, high profile cases, a lot of them of why people were duped in the most obvious way. Because they were just trusting too much. Why do you tell people? Why do you accept from people? Why do you why? Because they are all distrusting too much. And his conclusion is basically, we default to trust because we have to, just I can't, life would become paralysis. If I sat there and say, how do I actually know what cause is in it for my best interests? Right?

How do I know? I mean, he could just put me on his basketball team to catch me off guard and trick me because he wants to give the whole world it's very possible, right to us.

Actually, they always tell you give exaggerated examples that for sure are not true. Just so people don't get bogged down. It's like, Oh, my God, maybe he's trying to say something here. Because we trust them with our life for good reasons. It's

one of those reasons I know he's dead.

But this is the idea. society without Lita are awful with that you really have no real basis for healthy trust, okay, and you need trust, and you will trust because you have no choice but to but in order to trust in a way that will not sting you and not increase the insecurities of society, you need to know one another. There has to be familiarity.

That's one of the explanations so that you may get to know one another, so that you can trust and interact and carry and depend on one another.

The other explanation they gave, I actually have no idea how long I've been speaking, what time did we start?

Anyone know, I usually try to look at the clock before I start with

theirs, there's tea very important.

Okay, so I'll be done in 10 inshAllah 1015 Max. The second explanation as to why Allah said, We made you into nations and tribes for a specific purpose. And that purpose is what leads to our awful so that you may know one another

is so that you may recognize in each other, not the group, the separate groups now in each other, your common origins. Because think about this, no matter how different you are from other people, you should be able to recognize that you are all from dust. Have you ever seen a purple human being in real life?

Have you ever seen a purple human being there aren't all human beings have complexions?

That have a counterpart or have

their likeness in dust? Right? The different shades of dirt and dust and mud and sand are the shades of the human complexion? Nothing more. And so Allah made you into these different groups, and you're also different, but so that you may recognize, no, we're not that despite our difference, there is so much about us, that is the same.

And then after that, you've recognized that then you want to come back and say what we began the discussion talking about, in a Kurama comer in the law had come in for emphasis at Chroma calm, the absolute most honorable, and in the law with Allah in Allah's eyes, that's important. Now, nothing else matters at this point. everyone's opinions when they come from thus, they don't really matter. Right? Those that with Allah, they are the best. And so this person or this group that I think I'm better than and I, you know, I carry bigotry towards any one of them might be superior with Allah than my entire family. Right? And everyone that I hold in high regard, he could be superior in

Allah's eyes, and at the end of the day, it's all it matters.

The Prophet alayhi salatu wa sallam, he said people will stop boasting of their forefathers

or else Allah azza wa jal

will humiliates them will disgrace them. In one Hadith, he said they are like the Beatle. This is a profound Hadith really the

beetle beetles get stepped on right? These bugs on the ground that rolls its dung. It's number two, its droppings with its nose. Like what you're trying to push here the narrative of my ancestors, they came from dust and return to dust they've to decompose. It is the poop on the ground. And you're pushing it. You're trying to promote this toxicity, stupidity, really right. Those who insist on this are like that, like that beetle, that insignificant beetle that pushes done with its nose, it rolls it around in the ground.

Because with Allah, the metric is very different.

And also of the benefits of

the most honorable view in the sight of Allah. Is that now if you're disagreeing, if you're insisting on your superiority complex, you know your supremacy prejudice.

Then your problem is with Allah, you're not opposing these people. You're opposing Allah azza wa jal who deemed them superior if they turn out to be superior. In fact, you know, this is very much like the technique of the Quran to get you to know the right of your parents. Why does Allah azza wa jal say, and your Lord has commanded you to worship none but Him and be good to your parents and be good to your parents and be good over and over and over again, that pair is there. Because just like the right of Allah azza wa jal comes a big part of it is what he's responsible for my existence, the biggest wrong in the world is for me to deny or reject, rebelled against the one my existence came

from right. Likewise, figuratively speaking, in an indirect sense, the right of my parents comes from the fact that they are the most direct reason Allah cause for me to exist, the most direct reason, so he pairs them because they are bound to one another. Likewise, here he is not saying the most honorable of you, and this is the most pious, he's saying the most honorable according to my verdict, meaning if you have a problem with this, you have a problem with my verdict, not just these people.

Two last things I want to talk say and that is what is you know, the equity of Taqwa. Safwa. Being the measuring stick the rule by which we measure or Allah azza wa jal measures.

This is the ultimate fairness because you don't decide what family you belong to. Right? You don't decide what kind of upbringing you have. You don't decide what kind of opportunities you may or may not, you know, people always say he was dealt a bad hand of cards, he was dealt a bad hand he was dealt a bad hand. Allah azza wa jal says this stuff was that everyone has an equal opportunity act, that is the most important factor, it can compensate for everything else.

Not dependent on how much money you have done depends on where you grew up not depend on any of these things.

That was the first the second of them what is self worth?

So,

I mean telco has levels right? But in origin, a telco comes from with higher with higher is a shield. Because the Moutai the person of Taqwa he shields himself he protects himself. From what number one, from this believing in Allah azza wa jal, the worst crime he protects himself from committing that crime. That is why everyone who believes every Muslim has the baseline of tequila, you after you've protected yourself from disbelieving right?

You're conscious enough to not to cross that final red line. The second level of dukkha is when you

protect yourself from a minor disbelief because there is a minor form of *. You know when factors in your life like heresy, innovated beliefs, you know, compromised creed, these blur the lines between creator and creation, right like you believe certain people can be approached the way Eliza is approached or approached as a middleman between you and Allah subhanaw taala blurred beliefs, right that could you know or even you know, showing off the Prophet SAW Selim called it a minor form of *, right? You're looking for the appeasement of people, when you should be working for the appeasement of Allah azza wa jal, this is also a form of minor shift. You're not praying to them,

but you're praying to Allah, as you claim, but so that they'll say Wow, how religious wow, you know how righteous so that would be the second level Tafawa to protect yourself from blurring the lines between creator and creation and his rights. subhanho wa taala. The third level of Dakhla would be to protect yourself from this obeying Allah.

Sins right with the various levels but sins, protect yourself from disobeying Allah azza wa jal. The fourth level of Taqwa is going to be to protect yourself from what may

harm you in the hereafter.

Sophie nfld Rahim Allah He used to say, in nema asumu Muktsar Tina Leanna. Homewood telco Mala Utica.

They were called people of Taqwa. But he means again a higher level of people have to afford the truth right are one of the truest people of Taqwa because they would get tackled, they would avoid things that are not necessarily avoided by everybody else, they'd played extra safe things that could be a haram.

You don't want to do this until you finish the level below it, right? Some people do this, they have like this just inconsistency. They're there, they commit these major violations on one level, and they want to act like, you know, they, they're pretentious, just like yeah, I'm gonna just just to be extra safe. I'm going to do this and I'm gonna, you know, do a little extra, so on and so don't do that, right? Because you'll make the religion too hard on yourself. And you will also tell yourself, you could tell yourself, Oh, I'm a good person, because I'm doing more than I have to right make sure you're checking your violations, first, you're avoiding them, and then you check

trimming, what could be a violation, the gray areas,

then the fifth level of dukkha is

protecting yourself from whatever will not benefit in the hereafter.

So level four, some of the scholars call it what are pious caution, you piously act cautiously, stay away from things that could be haram because they could they could be or they could lead to or otherwise. And then the level above it, they call it Zuid, which is abstention from the permissible clearly permissible, not gray area, but it could take away from my rank. And so I want to protect that right.

And so, that is the staircase, that which does not benefit in the hereafter. As for you know, like where does what is the reality of death WhatsApp was having a healthy heart, right, a heart that fears Allah azza wa jal, and you know, flees from his anger and his punishment and so by consequence, all we just said, the limbs now fear Allah azza wa jal and avoid these things. The more conscious you become of Allah, the more Vickery performance very helpful. And the better your your your worship, is that's more helpful. It generates more and more Taqwa inside you. This is your your, your your Dakhla incubator, these acts of ritual worship and excelling in them, refining them,

perfecting them, so that you can use them to wake up your heart and truly protect yourself. Protect yourself from a day that the hearts will be like dislodged from the fear of the Day of Judgment, right? The day that we will be asked about everything small and big. The day that we will stand next to the companions of the Prophet SAW Selim, who spent everything spent their lives and their wealth and their blood, and their bodies are varied all across the globe because of what they understood.

What was at stake here, we will stand in front of the Prophet salAllahu alayhi wasallam. And in sha Allah, it will be a good moment for us. But the person of Taqwa the more technical he has, the more he wants to prepare for this day say, am I going to be happy? Will he be happy to see me Holly's salatu salam, or there are also people the angels are not allowing to see the Prophet SAW Selim, they're taking him away.

All this is in mind. And then we the day that we will also stand in front of the Lord of the world. So what is the Subhanallah to Allah?

And all the pretending we'll stop, right because we all pretend we hardly ever get offstage. All of us in our lives, right? As one of my teacher says, you know, we

we have our CVs or like our our reputations, our resumes, and they are actually better than our credentials, our true credentials, and then our credentials, what's on paper is better than our reality. And our reality is not that impressive, if we want to be honest, and so the people of tequila want to generate more and more tough water they can be more and more safe from the day the realities come to surface. And they remain cognizant of how this idea ends in Allaha Alim and Javier Certainly Allah is fully knowing best acquainted subhanho wa taala. May Allah grant us and you hearts of Taqwa and continue to purify them and help us come closer to him and protect ourselves

from whatever would distance us from Him and His pleasure. subhanaw taala and forgive us for our sins, the public of them in the private, the small and the large the past in the future. Allahumma Amin Salallahu Salam, wa barakaatuh b&m Muhammad wa ala alihi wa sahbihi xac Aloha