Mohammad Elshinawy – Lessons From Surat Al-Asr & Al-Humazah
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AI: Transcript ©
We begin the name of Allah. All Praise and Glory be to Allah, who
may his finest peace and blessings be upon His Messenger, Muhammad,
and his family and his companions and all those who adhere to his
guidance. We ask Allah Azzawajal to make us among the best of those
who adhere to his guidance. We ask Allah Azzawajal
by every name that is his, that he named himself with, or revealed in
any one of His scriptures, or disclosed to anyone of his
prophets, or kept in in the knowledge of the Unseen that is
solely with him that he make the Quran the spring that quenches our
hearts and enlightens our chests and removes our sadness and
dispels our anxieties. Allahumma ameen,
so we welcome everyone back to our studies on the short Surahs of the
Quran and lessons to be taken from the concise, brief, short Surahs
of the Quran, and inshallah tonight, we continue with another
two of these brief, concise Surahs chapters of the Quran that likely
we all memorize, even the little children. The kids memorize these
surahs. But of course, the point is not to memorize the Surah, but
the point is that these suar change us, that they shape our
character
as our mother, Aisha, radiAllahu anha said about the Prophet
salallahu alayhi wa sallam. Qan his character was the Quran. Was
shaped by the Quran. He was the Quran embodied sallallahu alayhi
wa alay wa sallam. And so it is an act of great devotion, an act of
jihad, also right the struggle to push ourselves to recite more of
the Quran and reflect on more of the Quran and enhance our
implementation of the Quran. And we pray that these sessions
together will be
helpful towards that insha Allah azza wa jal so surat al ASR and
surat al humaza.
Surat al ASR
is three short verses, right? And it begins with Allah subhanahu wa
swearing by Al ASR. He says, wala ASR means I swear by Allah.
And why is Allah, Azza wa jal swearing when he is the king that
is the most truthful of speakers
and does not need to swear, but he swears by things to call our
attention to their greatness, or to call our attention to the fact
that most people overlook their greatness, their significance. And
so he swears here by Al ASR and what is the meaning of Allah in
general. Is time, like all of time, the dimension of time, the
fourth dimension, if you will, right
the span of time from the beginning to its from its
beginning to its end, if you will.
But the scholar said that could be true for the word Zaman as well
time span, or it could be true also for the word dah, which means
time but ASR has a subtle, nuanced additional meaning involved, which
is it is time at this as it is running out.
So think about the astral prayer. It is the late afternoon prayer as
the daylight hours are beginning to accelerate in their departure,
as the day is beginning to run out. And so it is almost like
Allah Azza is swearing by time. The time is the dimension in which
we live, right? It's our exam period. The time for the exam is
running out. Yes, the clock is ticking and it is almost up and
time is nearly up. We know one of the Salaf the early Muslims, he
actually said,
I never truly understood, he means, internalized the meaning of
Allah swearing by the passage of time, except when I heard
an ice salesman. Imagine someone with a block of ice selling his
ice out in like a hot desert market smelting really fast. Yeah,
he says, A man selling his ice after the astral prayer. So the
day is winding down. People are closing up shop. He's selling his
eyes saying to the people
who will buy some ice from me. Irham many Abu asmaali, have
mercy. Have some sympathy on a man whose capital is melting. You know
your capital, the money with which you invest, and try to get a good
return on, try to profit from. He's talking about the ice because
the day is running out and he doesn't have a fridge, and so he's
not.
Going to be able to sort of stow this in a cool place and sell it
tomorrow. It's now or never. These are the final hours of the day.
I'm either going to make use of this or it's gone forever. He
said. So it struck me the reality of what it means by Al. Salat Al,
the day is running out. Our time is running out. We are sort of
departing as we speak. And I'm either going to make the best of
this, or else I'm not going to have it back. It'll sort of hit me
what surat al as all about.
And you know, before we move any further, this should give us pause
about how in the world
do people unless they're not thinking and just following the
crowd. How do we celebrate
a year passing over us annually? Right? Like, on what basis do you
celebrate a piece of you being removed or gone? Right? You are
trickling away. We are sort of inching towards the great What is
there to celebrate a time for introspection, and not just
annually. This should be daily, right? Because we are, as Al has
said, Oh, son of Adam inama and maududa, you are a set number of
days, either the haba, yaw muq, the habadok, when one of your days
is over, a part of you is goes with it. Yes,
and it's not just the days, you know, in the ayah when Allah Azza
alayhim, don't this was in the context of oppressors, but it
applies to us as well. Allah says, Don't be hasty with them, with the
oppressors. In nama na ullahuma, we are certainly counting down for
them.
Ibn Abu Asmaa Allahu anhuma said about counting down for them. He
said it means Al and fess, the breaths, the inhalations, the
exhalations. You know, imagine person is born and there's like a
counter, and the counter is a decreasing counter. What's it
using? Is it hours? Is it minutes? Is it seconds? It is breaths. You
are born with X number of breaths, and they continue to
diminish until your time is over. And that is why bin Jared pavari,
also Rahima Allah, He narrated the Sahaba Radi Allahu anhu, when they
would gather. And then, before they go their separate ways, they
would sometimes or oftentimes, bid farewell to each other by reciting
to another sulf like he would tell him,
see you next time. Inshallah while Asmaa salah, Hathi wa Taala sab as
if to say, hey, now make good use of your time. Think carefully
about what you're going to use the rest of your day for. Let's make
the best out of it. Let's optimize the usage of our time.
And so that is an ASR sort of you squeezing the most out of your
day, the most out of your moment, right? You know, by the way,
squeezing is that term is operative. Why? Alsir, in the
Arabic language, is what juice. It's called juice alsir. Why?
Because you squeeze out of the fruit what you want, right? Or we
say asrathiab Al surib is when you squeeze the clothes after you've
rinsed them, to get the water out before you hang them, to
accelerate the drying process. And so you're either going to squeeze
what you can out of your short life, or else life is going to
squeeze out of you your opportunity. It's a squeeze. It's
the final hour. It's the 11th hour, as they say, and Allah Azza
doesn't just swear by time and make you think about it, or
passage of time and make you he tells you that the exam is almost
over, and I'm letting you know now that most people have failed the
exam. It's very daunting. Actually, the very next verse
says, What insanal, certainly the human being, meaning the default
on all those who fall under the classification human being, all of
humanity, la fi husr are in a state of loss.
And he doesn't say in the LIN Sal, either the human being is surely a
loser or a failure. He says, Lafi Hus is in loss, putting us under
the impression that he is surrounded by all sides, right by
components that contribute to his loss.
And this is found elsewhere in the Quran that sometimes, a lot of
times, the closest people to you, intentionally or not, could be
contributing to this in I mean as wajikum Wala adikum, adu wakum
varum,
that you know among your spouses and your children are an enemy for
you. An enemy for you is not someone necessarily ill intending
like really wants you dead, and so they're intentionally putting
poison in your meal. And I don't want you to go home paranoid,
right? But they could work against your survival. Work against.
Your salvation, you could be surrounded by factors that are a
challenge to this. You know, one of the most beautiful things I've
heard about sutal ASR
is that Allah says in surat al ASR that the human being is in a state
of lust, so surrounded by lust, and the surah itself
is surrounded by what usually is the reason for people to be at a
state of loss, to not make the best out of their lives. The Surah
before it is Al Haku, the competition for more and more,
increase material, increase wealth, right? And the likes. And
the surah after it is wait only cool li Huma, satin lumaza. It's
the people that are mocking and scorning and contemptful and
ridiculing others. And so you're in a state of loss. And one of the
reasons why you're in a state of loss is that you're too busy
competing with people, or too busy sort of criticizing people you're
preoccupied with, people you're not focused on your own salvation,
right? The Surah will tell you to be busy with people in the right
way, but that is how most of us are stuck. They're stuck between
Al hakam the competition, right? They have a phone, I need a newer
phone, and they have a car, and I need the newer car, and they have
this house, and so I need to sort of upgrade my house. Everyone's
like that social comparison. You know that the rat race of
competition or and these are obviously interchange, because if
you actually get an edge on people, then you start looking
down upon them, right? Then there's the other one, which is
you tearing people down and slandering people and backbiting
people and making fun of people and and to the end of it, right?
So the human being is in a state of loss.
Then he says, Subhanahu wa Taala ill led SABR, except for those who
believe and work righteous deeds and encourage one another towards
the truth and encourage one another towards patience. There's
a lot here. The Quran is so brief, but so potent. First of all, it
says, except for those you know, you don't make an exception and
then state that it's going to be the majority, right? Yes, you
don't say except for 90% no, you say except for 10%
so the human being is in a state of loss, except, here's the select
few. You want to know how to be among the select few? Here they
are, except a ladina, except those
he didn't say ill, let the alihan, except for the one who believes he
said Ill ledina, except for those. So those who are going to survive
are actually a group, you know, you think like, oh, the whole
world is sort of like, you know, do me in so I'm going to just look
out for number one. And you actually can't. That's why we keep
saying over and over again the power of community and the
importance of community. And this whole idea of like becoming
religious over YouTube is like a ruse. It's not going to work. This
whole solitary religiosity thing is a complete misunderstanding, a
dangerous and perilous one, right? Illa ladina, except for those,
they're a group of people that are going to be helping each other get
to where they need to be. Inshallah, they are gonna push
each other and automate trade for each other.
And, you know, like, even encourage each other. Like, I'm
energetic today and you're lazy, and so I'm gonna pick you up, and
then I'm, I lose my energy, and then you're and so we feed off of
each other. It's going to have to be
a collaboration. Uh,
uh, believe work righteous deeds. Encourage one another upon the
truth, encourage one another upon patience. So everyone around you,
if you will, the for the most part, are contributing to your
loss. You're going to have to start impacting them so that they
don't they're not impacting you. We always say you're going to give
Dao, or Dao is going to be given to you. You're either going to be
sort of taking the initiative and being proactive, or else you're
going to be on the receiving end, and you're going to be reactive,
which is a disadvantage.
And so yes, you are busy with people, but busy with people in
the right way, in a way that benefits them, and it reciprocates
in a healthy way, a healthy cycle comes back to you as well. So
that's the total answer. That's the the
prescription in a nutshell. And this is why Imam ashef, the
Muslims would just reflect on this surah alone. It would be enough
like if you sit there and unpack what it has for you, it's the it's
the blueprint that will never lead you astray. And so what should we
take away? What should we take away from the surah when we read
it? The first of them, obviously, is take advantage of your time,
because most people won't. Most people, their time is going to be
running out, and they're going to just be sinking deeper and deeper
into loss, just as the Prophet.
SallAllahu, alayhi wasallam said near matani, mabuna, fihi, Makati,
Ramin and NAS Al sahatu Al faraq. Here are two blessings that many,
many people are greatly cheated for. You know, mahbu and Rabun is
like to be cheated bad. It's not just to be like
short changed. You know, when you buy something for 10 and sell it
for nine, that's a loss, right? But that's not Robin. Robin is
when you sort of, you bought it for 10, you sold it for one.
That's Robin. So he's saying two things, two favors. Most people
are so cheated for Al Saha,
health, right? Ability, well, Farah and time free time who
cheated them? Did Allah Azza cheat them? Of these two? No, they
cheated themselves of these two by not taking full advantage of them.
You know, you think of the Sahaba Radi Allahu AKM, every time, like
we life happens, they always recalibrate you to think of the
Sahaba and what they used to draw from the Prophet alayhi salatu
wasallam ibn Umar RadiAllahu, famously, when he heard that the
Prophet sallallahu, alayhi wa sallam said, whomever prays a
janazah prayer, a funeral prayer, it is written for him a kirat,
like a huge hill of good deeds. And whomever follows the funeral
procession, meaning after the prayer until it is buried.
Another kirat is written for them, and the Hadith continues, and each
kirat is the size of Mount. When he said that, he became so
frustrated with himself, he said, How many mountains have we
squandered? Right? I'll catch the next gen. Yes. You know Abdullah
ibn Al nubara, great early scholar, Hanafi scholar.
He was once asked a question, a question, you know, when you enter
salah and the Imam already came out from brokur and goes into
sujood, are you supposed to join the prayer or just wait there
until the Imam comes back up, because I miss the raka anyway.
There's no point, right? It won't count anyway, since if I've missed
Raku, I've missed the Raqqa, if I've missed the bowing position,
so should I just join anyway? Or should I just wait till the next
raka officially starts? The scholars discuss this. But what I
want you to think about is Ibn Mubarak when he was asked, if I
find the imam in sujood, do I jump into Jude or wait? So he said, No,
no, no, jump into Jude, even if it won't count as a Raqqa. He's
saying what it could count as a sajdah. He said, maybe that will
be the sajda that tips the scale. He said, How do you know this
won't be the sajda that gets you forgiven? So this whole idea of I
missed out catch it. Next time you say no, no, no, you You Die Hard,
if you will. If there's something to be sought, you seek it. If you
missed some of it, you don't miss all of it. And they took this from
the Prophet alayhi salatu wasalam. You know, he used to pray his
night prayers, salallahu, Alayo, salaam. And whatever his was, his
daily devotional or nightly devotional, his regiment in the
night, if for whatever reason, he was sick or preoccupied and he was
not able to pray it at night, he would pray. He would make it up
during during the daytime.
And so he would be concerned about missing out on it altogether. And
he would try to get you know of it, what he could
they would consider it sort of a huge loss, a big loss to miss out
on an opportunity. I don't want to deflate you, but I'll share with
you something that
hatimil Rahima Allah once said,
Take from it, sort of the spirit of the anecdote. Don't take it too
literally, because you might throw in the towel.
You might lose hope. I may Allah forbid, but he says,
fattening Marah, salatul, JAMA, falam, you azini, Illah, Abu
ishakal, buchari, wahda, one time I missed praying in the masjid,
one time I missed praying in the masjid, and nobody gave me their
condolences. I'm really sorry for your loss, and may I love. Give
you patience, brother.
Nobody gave me condolences except Abu as a scholar named Abu as from
the lands of Uzbekistan, the city of buchara. He says, wala umat
Ali, wala la azani, Ekta RAM in ashrati, alaf, and if I had lost a
child, if I had missed out on one of my children, more than 10,000
people would come pay their respects. He says, wad Ali. Canna
was mostly but a diniya. And this is a clear indication that people,
in people's eyes, the religion isn't as important as the worldly
stuff, because they didn't, sort of like feel that it was a big
deal that I missed the prayer, but they would feel like a.
A big deal that I lost a child.
This is sort of like the mentality they had, the sense of urgency
they had when it came to this, and so taking advantage of our time.
Clear, straightforward. Number two, as we already said, the sense
of community. Because, you know, without community, you know, the
man who killed 100 people, he told them, leave this and catch up with
people that do that, to think you're going to change in an
environment that is not conducive helpful towards change. It's like,
you know, trying to rinse yourself off before you come out of the
sewer. It's not really going to work. It's just going to get
muddier, just going to get Messier. It's only going to be for
a moment, but then you're going to sort of get soiled all over again
immediately. So community is very important. Ill ledheena, except
for those
am and who believe faith is what changes your perspective. It's
when you believe there's a hereafter. When you believe time
is running out. You look at everything different, and you size
up everything different. You look at the salah differently. You look
at serving creation differently. You look at forgiving people and
their offenses differently. It just everything gets rearranged,
the value assigned to everything. And then it says, Amirul swali
hat. Now you're awake. When you're awake, you're trying to scramble
to get out of the burning building, as Sally had doing all
of the good deeds. What a sob, happy wa tawa sab a SABR. And
they encourage one another with good. Encourage one another with
patience.
This idea one of the best ways to save yourself is to work on saving
others. One of the best ways to rinse that heart of yours. When
they ask Muhammad Salim, what is this sound heart that Allah speaks
about in the Quran in several places, he says, An Nasi al the
people that have the most concern good will towards the creation.
These are the people with the purest hearts, right?
If you don't work to better your family, right, then insanity the
human being is in a state of loss. If you don't work to better your
society, don't work to better your community, and they will, in turn,
work to better you, you know, like when you have bad a bad circle of
friends, when you slip from your righteousness, they're happy.
Alhamdulillah, he's not Mr. Goody two shoes anymore. He's not going
to sort of like, you know, annoy us with all this advice, and I'll
see Han preachy talk. They're happy like, Finally, he's one of
us again. He's normal again, yes. And on the other side, if your
circle is a pious circle, and you slip, they want to bring you up to
their level again. So it is that safety net that Allah Azza calls
us to what Allah Subha SABR. So that was surat al ASR. Moving on
now to the second of the two. Surah Surat akamaza, I'm sorry,
surat al humaza. So surat al humaza begins with Allah azza wa
jal saying, wailun likul li humazah, wail whale. You know the
word whale? What is whale mean? May ask some questions to make
sure everyone's still
awake, huh? Woe like W
O, W o, e, what does wo mean? Sometimes translations just don't
help. I agree, but I'm wondering how useful it is for everybody
else.
What does woe mean?
Woe is a threat. Woe to you like you have been forewarned. I am
threatening you. There is a some there is a huge penalty en route.
This is woe. Woe to you. Okay? I know, I know you're going to tell
me, thou art confusing right now. I get it. It's not common English
anymore, but there is not a good term for it otherwise. But it's an
important term to understand. This term arises 38 places in the Quran
wail right.
One point of interest, perhaps, is that it's never in the beginning
of any Surah except in two places, which is this surah, wait only
kulihzah, Woe to every mocking scorner. That's the official
translation.
And the other surah is
Mashallah. Wait a little. Woe to the fraudulent, those that are
like they're shifty in the scales, right? Double standards.
What do these two Surahs have in common? The scholar said these two
are pertaining to abuse of others, abusing violating the wealth of
others, right with your fraudulent dealings and abusing others
through disrespecting verbal abuse, or it's like
so perhaps I.
Allah knows best. The reason why these come immediately at the
beginning of the Surah, because violating the creation of Allah
has a more immediate punishment, and Allah knows best, like the
rights of Allah from his mercy, and also because he doesn't need
it, he may defer them to the Day of Judgment, right? Like what's
the greatest of sins? Shirk Allah may reward you for your otherwise
good in the dunya,
but violating others, more often than not, will come after. People
will haunt them in this world, it's immediate, and so this surah
begins with one of those threats to the people who warn to scorn at
others and mock them. Wei lun wo li coli, to every last Huma Zin
lumaza
to every last means no one's going to escape from this. So it's a
threat front and center for every last humaza and lumaza. What are
humaza and lumaza? These are people that are constantly guilty
of, constantly culprits of hems and LEMs. What's hems and LEMs?
These are just the root words, or the nouns, at least, hems and
LEMs, the scholars said they are different forms of disrespecting
people. Some said hems is to disrespect someone in secret,
right to try to hurt them in secret, like in private, for
instance, right
and LEMs, is to do so in a confrontational way, or to their
face openly. You have many places in the Quran, actually, where
Allah, the Al Mizuka, sadaqat, those hypocrites who mock you
regarding your charity, they say, Oh, you're not sincere. Oh, you
said that's nothing. You gave pennies, right? This is LEMs. Yale
Mizuka, other scholars said it is what you do with your gestures as
opposed to what you do with your words. They used to use them in
different ways. The Arabs, these are not conflicting
interpretations. The point being is that these are people who are
arrogant, and these are people who are condescending, and they are
always making fun of others, either with their hand, their hand
gestures, or with their eye, they're winking, right? Or with
their words, they are insulting and making fun any of that would
fall under it,
but Allah also, you know, he called them humaza. And you know
ham is is is like someone mocking. Lamis is someone mocking, but
humaza and lumaza, it's like Alim is someone that's a scholar, but a
Lama is someone who is a most deeply established scholar, and so
humaza and lumazar people who mocking has become an inseparable
part, has been an entrenched part of their personality. A they're
they're not even capable, either publicly or privately. Either
they're saying something or they're they're doing something,
they're constantly disrespecting people. Does that make sense? So
that they are known in the sight of Allah as humaza and lumaza,
that's their number one quality. That's their personality type.
You know, it is like the hadith of
Oyna rajula layak Vibhu it's a Harold keviba hattava in the
lahikava,
a person may lie and continue to lie until he is written with Allah
as the liar. Some explanations of the Hadith says that his
punishment is that he is not capable of telling the truth
anymore. You know the idea of a pathological liar? He lies like
it's a sickness he has, even when he doesn't need to lie, even
there's like no threat whatsoever, no pressure, he just lies. He just
that's what he does. The humaza and the lumaza are people who are
constantly in the practice of making fun of others.
Why do they do this? What causes them to be this way?
Who are these people? What makes them like this? The very next
verse says a levy JAMA, Malan wa Adela, the one who collects wealth
and counts it or prepares it, a Dada could mean either or, but
it's the money. The money made him feel superior to others. You know,
his most distinguishing quality, like, who is he? Huma salumaza. He
is the one who you know. When you when you describe someone, you
describe someone in a way that separates them from everyone else.
It's their most obvious quality, right? The one who donated the
most, the one who you know prays that much at night. It's something
I.
The quality that is exclusive to them. And so this, it's almost
like the people who mock they're almost always found to be people
who what, who are obsessed with their money, obsessed with their
property, obsessed with their material assets. A Levi GEMA,
Amada, the one who Gemma collects Mel and Mal here is indefinite
meaning all kinds of man. He doesn't care whether it's from
halal. He doesn't care whether it's from haram. He collects money
as if it's his purpose in life. Thinks about it night and day and
collects it from every direction. Jama amalan, okay, some
recitations. Jamal
continues to pile it on and collect it. What a deadda and he
Ade, who come can come from the word ad, which means count, and it
could come from a dead, which means preparation. And so he
counts his money all the time. You guys know, like the the caricature
of Uncle Scrooge in Ducktales, or is this like a horrible reference?
Who knows who I'm talking about. The rest of you are not cool
enough. It's alright. It's alright. You can look it up.
YouTube exists,
huh?
I'm not cool enough for that one.
So the idea of him counting and recounting, in all different his
money, right? Like he counts his total balance, and then he
separates, like, the cash from the stocks and counts them separately.
And then he sort of cross references, do I get the same
totals right? And he can't, or he counts it in the morning, and then
he comes back at at night and recounts it again. Is it still
there,
right? Uh, he's become a super expert at counting his money and
knowing so the idea of Uncle Scrooge, it was a very stingy man
who's the uncle of a bunch of ducks in the cartoon, and he has
this like vault filled with money. And he used to kick the treasure
chest, and he would kick it really hard and know that there's a coin
missing.
Actually, the reason I remember this scene so well is that I
actually found in the sea of Surat al room, when Allah azza wa jal
said, Ya ALA, Muna wahi, Ramin al hayatid, dunya wa hum, Ali Lati
HUM wafidu, and all they know is the outward nature, the exterior
nature of this world.
And they are totally oblivious to the hereafter. Al Hassan Al Basir,
Rahim Allah, he said about that ayah, who are Rajul, the man who
knows nothing but this world. He is the man that places the gold
coin on his nail here
and tells you how much it weighs.
Has someone shaved off some of the gold from the right, tells you how
much it weighs, and he does not know how to perform a single
prayer. He doesn't know how to make salah.
I'm so sorry for connecting Al Hasan with Uncle Scrooge and like
I'm going to cancel myself tonight after this lecture. But this is
the idea. The idea is that some people are super experts when it
comes to finance, and they are as illiterate as it as can be when it
comes to their purpose in life and how to worship their Lord,
Subhanahu wa taala, right? And so this, these people in this surah
are a class of people that have developed this
obsession and self absorption and superiority complex that they are
inherently better than others because of this yah Sabu and nama
Abu Asmaa. And he assumes, yah, Sabu. Here's the third verse. Now
he assumes, you know the word haseva Yak, Sabu in the Quran
is always a reference. The scholar said to a mis assumption, a
miscalculation. He said, calculation, yeah, but people
calculate the wrong way you usually find that
connected to the word yes, Abu right, wah, Sabu na ashwana and
Nahum mo tadun,
so yah, Sabu, he wrongly assumes and na malah, who that his wealth,
ah led who has made him immortal, will allow him to live forever,
a deadahu. You know the idea of like JAMA, ama Allah, who
collected his money? Well, I did the who he has set it aside. He
knows it's right here. He knows it can cover him whatever happens. He
knows he's in control whether he says it or not. I'm in whatever
happens. What's gonna happen? I got so much savings, I got my
assets here, like my money can get me out of any problem. There's no
reason to think about problems I can buy my way out of anything,
and that is why, also they don't show their brokenness in front of
Allah. May Allah protect us and never make us and never make us of
these people, they will wind up not feeling the urgency to pay
their zakat or to perform their Hajj or to perform their Umrah.
When the Prophet Alayhi Salatu was Salam said in NAMA, that Allah has
said in Nama and zeld al Malala is zakat, we only sent wealth down
for the sake of his.
Establishing the prayer
and paying of the Zakat, that's what it's there for. And so as a
result of him being overconfident, feeling like they're immortal,
feeling like the Day of Judgment is something far fetched, and if
it happens, it's probably going to going to be an upgrade, remember?
So give right Kella insanalah, also the human being crosses all
these limits and Rana when he feels like he's self sufficient.
So this person, Allah, does not say, yah, sebuah and namala, who
he believes that his wealth is going to make him immortal, like
is going to send him to Jannah, and like God loves me, therefore
he gives me. No, no, no, yah. Sebuah dahud, his wealth has
already made him immortal. He's not even thinking about hereafter
anymore.
The downward slope is a very subtle slope, and as you go down,
the further you go, the less you realize you're going down. This is
the danger here, right? He's already believes he's set already,
believes he's okay, and so as a result, he does not care who he
hurts. He does not care how he treats others. And this is why he
is a mocking, scornful, disrespectful human being. This is
why he breaks the hearts of people. This is why he is rough,
callous, cruel to others. Wailu likul li Huma satin lumaza a la
Wailua, dada, yah, sabula, he feels like he is immortal, and so
Allah stops him in his tracks, if he's willing to take heed, and he
says, Kella, absolutely not. Leum Be then filho, Tama, he will be
thrown into altama. Altama
is one of the names of the Hellfire. We return to it in a
minute. The name may Allah protect us from the Hellfire
leumba, then he will be tossed.
He treated people like they weren't human. He would toss
people around. He would toss their reputations around Table Talk,
right? He had no regard, no. There was no sanctity. Everything was
viable. Allah says, No, he will be tossed now
fee into al khutuma. Al khutuma is one of the names of the Hellfire,
but Allah did not say jahannam. He did not say the hellfire. This
particular name is most appropriate. What is al khutuma?
Haqqama means to break down and crush. It doesn't just mean kesir.
Keser means break. You can break things in a neat fashion, right?
Like you can break down your Legos and rebuild them again, right? You
can break things into neat
subsets of themselves. But Allah says filho, Tama, Haq, Tama, means
something that is reduced to rubble, something that is
powderized, something that is crushed, not just broken. So one
of the names of the Hellfire
is altama, and this is the name that he used referring to where he
will throw those who used to crush people's dreams, break people's
hearts, right, shatter people's self confidence,
tear apart people's reputation. You see the relevance he will cast
him in where the fire that will crush him, that will tear him
apart, that will reduce him well, a he will be tossed into it.
You know, it's similar to the Hadith of the Prophet alayhi,
salatu, salam, even before the Hellfire he said, yo Sharon mutka
beruna, that the arrogant, prideful people will be
resurrected on the Day of Judgment, like specks or ants on
the ground, yatahuman, nasubi, akhdami him, so that Allah will
allow people to trample them, crush them, literally, tramp,
stomp on them with their feet, because they felt they were so
huge, they were so high and mighty, right? They would talk
down to others and felt their wealth put them on top of the
world. Allah will resurrect them in these spec sizes to be trampled
on on the Day of Judgment, before the judgment takes place before
Paradise and the Hellfire are the only two abodes left a
and there is also a hadith thing of the word that the where in the
Prophet alayhi salatu was Salaam. He said chartama, the worst of
shepherds are hotama, meaning people who are callous, people who
are violent, the worst caretakers, not just the shepherds of sheep,
but those who also caretake for their families or their flock in
any respect. And they are aggressive, they are violent, they
are hostile. These are the worst of leaders. These are the worst of
shepherds. And of course, that also includes hurting people's
feelings, right? Verbal abuse. Once again, you know, even.
Quran says this is not just like a parallel we are drawing to tell
you to have some emotional intelligence, because it's
trending in the 21st century. No, no, no, the Quran says, Call on my
roof on khairum in sadaqatin yet baruha,
you to say a kind word is better than you to give someone in
charity and follow it up with harm. Harm is what nasty words.
This is harm. He called it harm. It's a form, if you will, of
aggression. So it's better for you not to give them charity and say,
Allah, may Allah bless you and go ask this person to be polite and
not give them charity is better than giving them charity
and treating them nasty, speaking to them in a nasty way. This is
how you crush people. You crush their
you break their hearts.
And then the next verse says, wama, ADRA Kemal khotomah, and
what can make you realize what Al khutoma is?
In other words, this is a rhetorical question. This is a
convention that's in the Arabic language the Quran uses often,
right? Wama adrakam al khaliah, what's going to make you realize
what the striking blast meaning the Day of Judgment is, and here
in this surah, wa mahokamah, what's going to make you realize
what this crushing Hellfire is? In other words, no matter how much
you read, no matter how much you hear, nothing will make you
realize what the reality of this place is. May Allah distance us
from it.
Wama, ADRA, Kamal, what can make you realize what Al hot Allah is
now rule Allah, heal, muqadda, it is the fire of Allah
that is always kindled.
You know the fire of Allah, meaning it's not the fire of man.
How hot is the fire of man?
We now can melt metal, yes or no. We can melt metal and reshape it,
since the Industrial Revolution, right and before that, manually,
the blacksmiths.
So if we can make fire that hot? And the Prophet salallahu alayhi
wa sallam said, your fire is but one part of 70 parts of the fire
of *. They said, ya rasulallahu Allah, He it is enough. The fire
of this world is certainly enough. He said it is but Allah has made
his fire, the fire of the Hereafter, 69 fold hotter. 69
times hotter than it now Allah. When Allah wants to punish with
his fire,
Al muqadda means it is constantly on.
You know when, when the people built that huge fire in sutal
baruj in the trench and were persecuting the believers and
burning them alive in it. What did Allah say about that fire? He
said, and Nari that IUD, that huge fire which they kindled, they had
to keep sitting around it, Ibu alaqnam sitting around it, feeding
its firewood to keep it kindled. Right? And it's a huge fire, but
still it required maintenance. Had to be maintained. Allah saying,
the fire of Allah is not just more intense. Muqadda, it's constantly
on. It doesn't turn off. Allah, Allahu, AJ namin, Anna, may Allah
protect us from the fire.
And then he said, Al Leti, or Allah, that which
climbs up upon the efida, the hearts. Why the hearts?
Some scholars said, because it was the hearts that contained the
arrogance that made them people who
were mocking of others. So it was perfectly appropriate, and it was
also the hearts that they burned. They scorched the hearts of others
with their abuse. And so it was suitable, and the repayment always
comes in kind, that this fire target the hearts in particular.
And some scholars said Allah did not say Al Khali. Here, he said,
tatir. It crawls up on Al EF Ida. And the word F Ida, as opposed to
the word khalib, they can both be loosely translated as heart. F Ida
is the the anxious heart, or the unstable heart, the turbulent
heart, because this person was constantly in a state of
insecurity
with the market his wealth counting right, the insecurity
which causes people to insult others. Where does it come from?
From insecurity you're trying to keep them down, to stand on them
right, to raise themselves up. And so they lived with these
insecurities. And so that is what will be the reason for their for
their punishment, in this way.
It. And then he says, in Naha alayhim Sada, this fire of Allah
that is constantly kindled,
this perpetual flame in Naha alayhim Sada, it is upon them,
locked. It's locked over them or locked upon them.
Why? Why would Allah say in this context that they will not get out
of this?
Some scholars said, as we shared earlier, they thought their money
could get them out of anything right, like, whenever they had a
problem, their mind would go to their money first, right? And
that's what they would instinctually flee to. It can get
me out of anything. It was their God, in a sense.
And so Allah would then lock them in Jahannam a and where they would
not be able to get out. And other scholars said, perhaps the wisdom
here of why, explaining
that the fire will be locked upon them, or they would be locked
inside of it is that they in their prideful arrogance, their conceit,
their haughtiness, they would live separate from the people, right?
They're elitist.
I don't interact with your kind, right? And so in Jahannam, they
will have their own solitary confinement.
And then he said in the last ayah of the surah locked upon them, FIA
din muhdeda in columns stretched.
In it are columns stretched.
That is one translation. So what does it mean? That means they are
locked in, and they are barricaded in with these columns. You know,
those old think of like the fortress gate, and they have the
horizontal wood that they barricade the door with columns
outstretched. In it are columns outstretched, meaning locking them
in.
The other interpretation, I know this is jarring, by the way, it is
meant to be right. The person who forgets these scenes deals with
people
in a
in an arrogant way. And so this is intended to break the arrogance of
the heart and distance us from such a fate.
The other interpretation of ya ahmadine, Mumma, dada, is that
not the fire they'll be locked in and in it is this barricade. No,
the person himself will be in meaning attached into a device,
which is a column,
meaning they're chained up to it. You know, the
the animal, when it is roasted, they're on a the spit right, the
roasting spit, or the the rotisserie spit right. When they
have the outdoors like this that the person himself will be tied
onto this. This is not sort of like a contraption for the prison
cell of the fire. This will actually be something that they
will be tied onto, well, a
and so whomever ridicules the people is a person that has
forgotten
they the hereafter, and whomever deals with the people kindly and
politely and respectfully, this is a sign of them knowing that they
have to answer to Allah and they have to face the reckoning of that
in the hereafter. You know, maybe one final reflection here as we
close, is
we are Inshallah,
promised by Allah Azzawajal to reverse it for a second that every
last person who not just harmed the believers right, but even
spoke ill of the believers, and not just those that we have heard
or seen,
but even those who did it behind our backs. Allah says, What?
Wailun li Kul li humazat in lumaza Woe to every last one of them. You
didn't even know it, and I'm going to make them answer for it.
And if this is true with the gestures, if this is true with the
snickering, this is true with the backbiting, if this is true with
the words, then what about those that have laid their hands or
usurp the assets
of the innocent in every time and every place, Allah will retrieve
their rights, and not a single one of them will slip. May Allah,
Subhanahu wa Taala never count us among the oppressors and forgive
us for our violations of others and avenge the innocent in every
time and every place. Allahu, Amin wa SallAllahu, Salaam alaikan,
abiy and Muhammad wa alihi wa sahabihi ajima in zakallah
khairan.
Any questions?
I
was trying my very best to power through tonight. I'm sure you guys
felt it, and I'm sorry
any questions.
Someone is here? Ah, yes, Joseph, I
Allah.
I don't know if this surah came down about a particular person,
but obviously the elites of Mecca, the majority of which rejected the
Prophet alayhi, Salatu was Salam
would fit this description,
yeah, Amir, different
types of data. Is there
kind of universally? Yes, so when Allah says in El munafi darkila
NAR that the hypocrites, and this would have to mean the major
hypocrites, those who are pretending to be believers, not
someone that has some blemish of hypocrisy, tainting their faith,
but they're of the faithful. They're of the believers, but
those pretending to backstab right, those double agent guys,
right? They are in the lowest pits of the fire, meaning that's
reserved for them, meaning it's not for others, perhaps not even
other disbelievers.
And so, as you said, there are levels, and those levels
are certainly disparate. When they try to mock the Prophet alayhi
salatu, Salam and they asked him,
you couldn't even benefit your uncle. How have you benefited him?
He said, I did, in fact, benefit him. The Dura that I made to Allah
relegated him
to shallow, a shallow part of the fire, and the Hadith continues. So
yes, there are
inshaAllah, neither here nor there is the goal.
Yes,
it's a great question.
First of all, everything we say
in the likes of tonight's talk does not mean that
this cannot be undone, this cannot be remedied. And the Prophet
alayhi salatu was taught to us that the one who repents from a
sin meaning sincerely regrets it from Allah and makes a firm
intention not to return back to it, they are forgiven for their
sin. But how do we remedy this which could bring us back into it?
The person who knows himself, uh, will not be arrogant with the
creation of Allah subhanahu wa taala. We know that.
You know you reflect on your own being like we came from dust, and
will soon return to it. Right?
One of the early scholars of Islam, a Ah,
sorry, I'm drawing a little bit of a blank here. But he says,
Kefa, Yate, Ben, Leman yet, sa KAB, battle in NAMA, Hua, it's
crazy. He said he's reflecting. It's crazy how someone can be sort
of, like prideful on this earth when he is nothing but a handful
of its dirt, like the dirt that gets on our clothes and we quickly
want to, like, rub it off, right? That's us, right? He said.
Taq tuvika, what? Arka? Arka. A
that he he's sort of irritated by a bug. Like, look at us. Like,
even the insects bother us, even though we're so much bigger than
them, right? Like, reflect on how fragile a human being is. Yes,
to intin huarta, what to the he bakta, what a hush. That's what he
said. He said, his, his, his odor changes with a little bit of
sweat, right? Get a little bit uncomfortable, the temperature,
the climate in the room, and suddenly you smell bad, and people
want to, like, move away from you, right? What to the he Baka, and
he's irritated by a bug that you can hardly see, imagine, like a
fly lands on your nose, or a little or Allah for beta.
Bug or a mite or something throws you all out of whack, doesn't it?
You're inside. It's it. You can't focus, can't do anything, he says,
And he can be killed by a sip, like a tiny sip of water, right?
It goes down the wrong pipe. You hiccup or sneeze or something as
you're drinking. And then that's it, right? All of a sudden, you're
dead. You drop that in an instant. And so to reflect on how fragile
the human being is is something the Quran calls us to a lot,
right?
This is very helpful. The only thing more helpful than that
is to reflect on the greatness of Allah subhanahu wa, because if you
reflect on the greatness of God, you realize how not so great we
are, how insignificant man is. And also this comes a little bit of
practice like it may seem difficult sometimes to suppress
the ego, but you do it once. I was doable. The next time, it becomes
sort of easier, a little easier and a little easier
to humble yourself, for Allah, Subhanahu wa, for Allah's sake,
that only God is great
to look for opportunities to do that. You know, famously Muhammad
Ali, the boxer. He has a very famous
line late in life when he caught Parkinson's disease. And he, you
know, Parkinson's caused people to have a whole bunch of issues,
right, including tremors, and they start leaning forward. They can't
even keep their balance anymore. And and he was known as a fighter,
the best out there, his precision, his balance, his agility, his
footwork, all of that, right? And so later on in life, he used to
say, in his disease, and he could hardly even pronounce it because
his tongue had become very heavy. He used to say, I. Used to say,
I'm the greatest. And God gave me this disease
to teach me that I'm not the greatest he is
like that's the greatest gift in the world, that realization before
you meet God, because the Prophet alayhi salatu wasallam said that
Allah has said Al urida iwal Allah, to Israeli that pride and
greatness belong to me, feminism, that whomever challenges me in
these two I will break him. I will torment him. So Allah spared him
of that is, that was what we expect through this opportunity.
So to look for these opportunities, to humble yourself
and
to cleanse yourself of those delusions of grandeur, they creep
up on us all, and we have to continuously keep them at bay.
It's a battle, and we're human. Allah knows we're human, but we've
got to try to continually work on it. Sisters. Any questions?
Ahmed, how did differentiate
between
arrogance, but like, I know I'm better than somebody, not
something
Jack
is better than Rob and
so how do I know that I have a better jump shot than Kia?
Without being arrogant.
So this is a great question. I've actually thought about this
question for years. I've actually asked my teachers about it years
ago as well, because where is the fine line exactly? And so the
Prophet sallallahu alayhi wa sallam actually made it very clear
to us when he said, no one enters paradise in whose heart is a
specks weight of arrogance. They said, Oh, Messenger of Allah, one
of us likes to have nice clothes. One of us likes to have nice
shoes. They said, sandals. He said, Allah is beautiful, and he
loves beauty. Al kibum tunas that arrogance is the rejection of
truth and the belittlement of people, okay? And so for someone
to tell you something and you reject it without considering it,
or even if you considered it and you realize it's going to be too
embarrassing to accept you reject, to admit that something is true,
or belittling people right to to treat others as if they are
viable, as if they have no sanctity, kind of a lot of what we
were talking about today, right?
To treat others in a way that reflects that you feel inherently
superior to them, right? So then what's left? Where's the room
there for recognizing distinction? You recognize that Allah has
distinguished you with something. And you keep recognizing that it
didn't have to be this way. I didn't even have to be alive
today, let alone alive and healthy and athletic to the end of it,
right? Many and so you continue to attribute it to Allah, and it
never causes you to belittle others or reject any truth that
they.
May be sharing with you, that's it.
If you, if you see it, you see it as a blessing, not you don't own
it. Allah is testing you with it. That's all.
God's the greatest. Say God's the greatest.
That's all. I was just joking, joking. Kia, I used
to know how to shoot a basketball four kids ago. Okay, he's
going to challenge me after I show now and embarrass me in front of
my
children. Any other questions?
All right? Zach Loveland, everybody.