Mohammad Elshinawy – Lessons From Surat Al-Kawthar
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The transcript discusses two Surahs from the Quran, one called boss's short surahs of the Quran and the other one called "the great suhabs". The meaning of "na" and "na" in Islam is discussed, as it relates to political and cultural beliefs. The importance of praying in gratitude and being mindful of one's behavior is emphasized, along with the importance of avoiding har and being in conflict if one is not going to win a war. The speaker also discusses the importance of not being burdened by the Sharia and being in conflict if one is not going to win a war.
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We begin the name of Allah. All praise
and glory be to Allah, and 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 teach us that which benefits
us and benefit us with that which he
teaches us
And to increase us in beneficial knowledge, we
ask Allah to also protect us from knowledge
that doesn't benefit.
And a heart that is not humbled.
And an appetite for this world that is
never satisfied,
and from a prayer, a supplication that is
not heard, not accepted.
We welcome everyone back to our,
study of the concise surahs of the Quran.
The short surahs of the Quran that we
find
at the end of the Mus'af,
Allah
knew that they would be easier for us,
and knew that they would be more revisited
by us, And he knew that these would
be recited more than any other surah,
or surahs, longer surahs in the Quran.
And SubhanAllah, there is no shortage of wisdom
in them. There is no shortage. Actually, it
is not even,
calculable. You cannot measure or come across. No
one ever can. The greatest scholars
never will ever get, past what is a
shoreless ocean.
And so
in our in our last session together, we
studied Surat al Nasr
and Surat al Masad.
The great victory and support that Allah
gave to the prophet sallallahu alaihi wa sallam
and Surat Al Masad which was the defense
of the prophet sallallahu alaihi wa sallam,
against
the, the smear campaigns and the abuse
of his uncle Abu Lahab and his wife,
the wife Abu Lahab Jamil.
Tonight, insha'Allah, we will discuss 2 other surahs
that are quite similar in theme actually which
is Surat Al Kawthar and Surat Al Kafirun.
Surat Al Kawthar and Surat Al Kafirun.
So as for Surat Al Kawthar,
Surat Al Kawthar is also a surah that
was
revealed
entirely for the Prophet
in his defense
and for his,
appeasement.
Just like Surat Duhah also, that we gave
a khudbuabah a few weeks prior.
And
why are all of these so necessary? Because
naturally,
when the religion of Allah azza wa jal
comes to the world, it will have opposition.
And that opposition will try to get creative.
And ad homonyms meaning personality attacks
are one of the ways You're either gonna
attack the religion. If you can't attack the
religion, you're gonna try to cast suspicion,
delegitimize
the bearer of the religion. The prophet sallallahu
alaihi wa sallam. And if you can't do
that, you'll try the sahaba. Alright? If you
can't do that, you'll try the,
the scholars of Islam. This is age old.
We find this all throughout the Quran.
Nuh alaihis salam, the very first messenger.
He says to his people,
You mock us one day, we will mock
you back the way you mock us. We
will have the last laugh,
if not in this world then on the
day of judgment. And then you fast forward
all the way to the prophet sallallahu alaihi
wa sallam. It's not even just him in
his lifetime.
Even his Sahaba and his lifetime were attacked.
Their personalities
were put under question.
And it is This is actually very interesting,
what what the Quran does with this. Because
in Surat
a Tawba,
which is the surah that unpacks so many
of the qualities of the hypocrites,
it discusses them
mocking
mocking the symbols of their religion. The personalities
that symbolize the representatives of their religion, the
great suhabah.
And then the Surah says what? I just
wanna capture one point before we get into
Al Qauthar.
If you ask them why they were mocking
the Sahaba,
they're going to tell you,
We're just joking. It's just that we actually
mean to make fun of them and things
like this, and we were just joking.
When we said they were cowards in the
battlefield, and said all they really care about
are their stomachs, meaning their next meal. We
were just joking as if these are innocent
jokes. Right?
What did Allah say?
He he called them out on this. He
said,
Are are you actually, like you dare
mock
Allah and His signs and His messenger?
Don't apologize, it's too late now.
You have disbelieved
after your faith.
So he considered it a form of disbelief
to mock the representatives of the religion because
that is because he knows they're actually mocking
their religion.
Had they not been Muslim, had they not
been carriers of Islam, they would not have
been mocked. Right?
And so, likewise with the Prophet
he got this more than anyone else.
We said in Surat Al Duha that they
the revelation interrupted and they say, Hey, where's
the revelation? Why isn't it coming anymore? Why
are you asking why isn't it coming? You
didn't believe it in the first place. As
if like you're say You're so eager. Right?
Where's the wahi? The Surah Duha came down
in the pens of the Prophet saying,
Your Lord has not detested you, your Lord
has not abandoned you.
Because that is what they were actually insinuating
by their question, your Lord hates you, your
Lord has abandoned you. They used to even
say sometimes the demon of Muhammad has not
visited him in a while. Meaning he he
hasn't brought us any more Quran.
Surd Al Kawthar follows the same logical progression.
They would come to the prophet or
speak within earshot of the prophet
not where is the wahi, why hasn't it
come? Where are the sons of this man?
Why doesn't he have any male children?
In other words,
he is He's what?
He he's going to be short lived. No
one's gonna carry his name, no one's going
to carry his legacy. You're also in a
very patriarchal tribal society. Right? This is a
big thing. And so Allah subhanahu
wa ta'ala ends brings Sur Al Kalthar to
say, you call him Abidar.
He's cut off. This man is just It's
like, Don't worry. Just hold out. This was
their final hope now. That okay. We can't
do anything with the Quran. We can't go
do anything with the growth of Islam. Just
wait it out. Look, he doesn't have any
sons. Just a matter of time, he's gonna
die and that his religion is going to
die with him. So Allah sends down
which ends with what?
Those guys holding out, boiling inside shaniyah because
those that despise and hate you, they are
actually the ones that will be cut off.
And so you just keep going, O Muhammad
and do not pay too much mind to
their mockery, to their insults.
Let's try to now walk through a bit
of the meanings of the words of this
surah.
Bismillahir Rahmanir Rahim, Allah
says,
We
And this is the royal we. Many times
people ask why is there a we when
Allah is singular. This is the royal we.
Even among humanity,
this is a convention of language when they're
trying to sort of suggest,
their their power or their authority
to to make a certain decision, or pass
a certain verdict, or you know, a legislation,
they say, we have decreed. You and who
else exactly? Right? They mean the royal we.
They don't mean sort of
multiple.
So they use this language and so it
was
employed by the Quran as well. We
have granted you
granted you O Muhammad Al Kawthar.
And Al Kawthar comes
from kathir.
What is kathir?
What's kathir?
Plenty, many. That's it. Right?
So
means we've given you up in abundance.
Right? That's the general linguistic meaning of this
word. And certainly Allah
has given the Prophet sallallahu alaihi wasallam in
such an abundance
that is unmatched by any other prophet
of Allah, both in this world and in
the next.
Part of that part of that abundance
is a river
in paradise
that belongs to Him salallahu alaihi wa sallam
that follows the same name.
That follows the same name.
The river of Al Qauthar. The Prophet sallallahu
alaihi wasallam told us that Al Qauthar is
a river,
that its
its water
is brighter,
or whiter brighter than a leban, than than
milk.
He said, and it is more fragrant than
perfume.
He said,
and sweeter than honey.
He said,
and he there's so many and
how wide it is, so vast, you can't
see the two banks of the river. He
says,
its,
vessels, the containers you drink from, the cups.
Are as abundant
as the stars of the sky.
As abundant
as the stars of the sky.
And of course we know that Al Kawthar,
he will even be
allowed
to
give people to drink from it
before Jannah. In the first of the day
of judgment,
those who drank from his sharia essentially. Right?
Those who
drank from his sunnah will be allowed to
drink from his river. Because the hadith mentioned
that some will be pulled away and he'll
say, They are from my ummah. They will
he will be told by the angels, You
have no idea
what they introduced after you. How they swerved
left and right and try to
disown or displace or replace your your teachings.
You have nobody, you don't have any children,
you're about to get cut off. Allah says
what? We've given you so much.
Right? And you know they say the numbers
of the cups.
Right? This is either a reference to the
great numbers of his ummah.
Right? How many people are named Muhammad now?
You know, even in London. There was I've
seen this governmental report. Even in London in
2019,
Muslims are a minority in London, right? They
have some presence of course. They're concentrated there.
The UK Muslims, a lot of them. But
even in London, they're still a minority.
And the number one baby name
in London in 2019 is what?
Muhammad
sallallahu alaihi wa sallam. Right?
By the way. Right?
But like you will have no children, you
have no children, you're worthless, your time is
almost up. Allah is telling him these will
be the numbers of your ummah.
And he's even fast forwarding him to the
point
of the reunion. Like you're going to be
sitting with your ummah. May Allah make us
of them. Say, I mean. We're gonna be
sitting with him and he's gonna be giving
us from the cups, Right? So Allah moves
him past,
right? That ugly scene, that taunting, to the
scene of the reunion when all of the
followers of Muhammad will be brought to him.
And also, the scholars said this could also
be a a reference to the, to the
great numbers of the scholars because the correlation
between scholars and stars is something we've
spoken about in the past in both ayats
and a hadith.
So this is of the abundance he gave
him is Al Qawthr the river. But he
gave him so much more. When the Prophet
alaihis salatu wasallam said for instance, I was
given
5 things that no prophet before me
has been given. Who remembers them?
Let's go guys. Pop quiz.
You're gonna tell me you were fasting today
and just I know, I know. Sheikh Ghabisullah.
I thought you're trying to save the day.
Sisters, save the brothers quickly.
Okay. That's 1. Sis, what were you saying?
What was the question?
Okay. So it's my fault because I forgot
to say what I always say at the
beginning of the talks. The dividers on the
right,
remove them towards the wall so you can
see the screen. I'm not saying stare into
my pleasant face, but it does help. The
visual aid does help retain attention.
And I apologize in advance. Yes.
Okay. But in this particular hadith, there were
5 mentioned. He said, I was given victory
by way of fear from a month's journey.
A month before my my army arrives, Allah
strikes fear into the enemy and they have
a change of heart. Right?
And they abort mission.
The other one was as
doctor Shahid mentions, and the entire earth was
permitted for me as a masjid, meaning a
place of sujood. That you don't have to
go to a masjid proper, a musalah within
a masjid
to make salah wherever
my umma finds themselves. At a time of
prayer, they can simply pray.
He said, the earth was made for me
a masjid,
and a means of purification.
Means what? If there's no water, you can
use the earth. The dry earth
for,
this ablution as we know as And
he also said,
and the great intercession.
Permission to intercede on behalf of the entire
creation, to start judgment, start reckoning was granted
to him and no other prophet.
And my ummah was permitted
to benefit from the spoils of war.
Because in previous nations,
the
those who fought in the path of Allah
Azawajal
were not allowed
to consume from the spoils of war. If
they were victorious,
they would have to gather all of the
spoils in a central location and Allah would
send a fire from the sky to incinerate
them as a sign of acceptance.
And there is a hadith also that says
I was given 6 things that no other
prophet,
was given.
And the 6th Those were 5. The 6th
one is, and every prophet was sent This
is what relates back to Al Qathar now.
Every prophet was sent to a particular people
but I was sent to all of humanity.
So he will have more members in his
ummah
than any other prophet, any other
messenger.
And of course, also of of what he
was granted as part of that shafa'a, even
we should mention it because if we're not
gonna mention it to the Qawthar, then when?
He was also granted Al Maqam al Mahmood.
You know,
we are told that whomever makes that dua
after hearing adhan
gets
eligible for
the the intercession of the Prophet salallahu alaihi
wa sallam. The hadith on this is clear.
But what is that dua? You should learn
it. Part of that dua is what?
And O Allah,
elevate Muhammad sallallahu alaihi wa sallam to the
station of praise that you had promised him.
And so that station of praise is that
moment
of shafa, that moment of intercession
when everyone will praise him because it was
a deadlock and nobody could release the tension
of the day of judgment,
you know, appeal to Allah effectively to start
the judgment already even if we're going to
the fire,
Right? That's the idea.
Except Him, so they will all recognize His
virtue. That only He was able to do
it. And that's why it is called,
The station of praise
or the praiseworthy station. So that's Inna Aqaynakal
Kawthar. We've given you so much. It includes
the river called Kawthar but it is even
so much beyond that as well.
So pray. This is a command verb,
pray, for your lord,
one har and sacrifice.
And so, first of all Allah ahsawajal is
telling him, I'm giving you and will continue
giving you like I've given no one. And
so because of what I've given you, pray
to your
Lord.
But this applies to all of us as
well. That prayer is a
exercise of thanks.
It's a devotion that is supposed to be
seated in thanks, in gratitude.
So pray. Why? Because of
And so why do we pray? How often
do we actually
sort of
train our children upon this mindset. Right? That
we're praying in gratitude to Allah subhanahu wa
ta'ala. Why do I have to pray? He
has done this for us and done that
for us, and done this for us, and
He only asks that of us. It is
pray. You know, I read an article in
a Muslim magazine a few years back
about someone
that was taught to hate prayer
by his Muslim
parents
because of the way they used to wake
him up for fajr.
It was always shaming, and blaming, and guilting,
and sort of terrorizing, and what's wrong with
you, all of that. Right? How about we
sort of shift the way we explain this?
Shift the way we speak about this. Right?
So pray to your Lord. You know also
what is
worth reflection here is that he's in a
lot of pain, salallahu alaihi wa sallam. He's
human.
To say that he cannot have sons is
bringing back the memories of the fact that
he did have sons and one after another
they died in his lifetime. It's not that
he didn't have sons
But every time he had a son, right?
He would pass.
And so Allah is telling him, escape to
the prayer.
So just escape to the prayer.
You know when people are talking to you,
one of the People nowadays,
because they don't have this treasure of salah,
they seek out all these myopic like this
destructive
coping mechanisms.
Right?
Allah is saying, Talk to me.
They're talking to you in this sort of
belligerent way, in this you know, humiliating way?
Talk to me.
We know that that is the objective of
the prayer. To get to the point that
you want to be with Allah and you
say,
It's you I worship.
Yes?
One har and sacrifice.
So onehar is different from with bah. What's
the difference between bah and and har?
Viewers discretion is advised with yes.
So, inhar is slaughter,
right?
So, if you grab a lamb,
subhanAllah
We're in Dhul Ijya, so this is like
perfectly timed by Allah not by us.
You grab a lamb or a goat or
a, you know, a sheep or a cow,
you're going to slaughter them
as your sacrifice. Right?
But the way you sacrifice a camel is
not by slaughter.
Why?
Because they're really tall.
So you're probably not gonna reach. And if
you reach,
this is Here's the real reason, I'm being
half funny here. Is that it's not very
effective because the neck is so far from
the heart.
So the way the Arab would sacrifice a
camel is called nahr.
Nahr is like the neck opening, right here.
So at the base of the neck, near
the chest, they would just puncture it.
And that would
sort of remove
the blood in the fastest, most painless, most
humane way as well. Right?
So that is nahr. So the scholar said,
the the ayah says 1har
not
so
puncture not slaughter
to reference
camels because camels are more expensive.
In other words, pray your best prayer for
your Lord, and when you sacrifice,
make the most expensive sacrifice you can afford.
It use It said all of that in
the word wanhar.
Right? It used the term that is used
for camels and of course camels are more
expensive
than others. And you know the Prophet
of course like
followed the instructions best.
How many camels did he slaughter in Hajjatul
Wada'at, the farewell Hajj? Does anyone know?
He brought a 100 camels and 63 of
them by hand.
He performed nahr. Also subhanAllah, testament to the
great strength Allah kept in him even over
60 years of age.
Right? Often to battle after battle. The battle
started, you know, when he was 53 years
old onward. Right? And then in his final
year, alaihis salatu is he's slaughtering 63 camels
or performing nahr on 63 camels. This is
a humongous undertaking.
In any case,
Allah saying
so pray to your Lord, and of course
that includes the Eid prayer when there is
nahr, but it's all the prayers.
One har and also perform the nahr, the
sacrificial slaughter for your Lord Subhanahu Wa Ta'ala.
And then the last ayah,
Inna, certainly, shayniaka.
Shana
means to hate. Shana'a means to hate. Walajrimanakum
shana'anu qaumin. Don't be driven by your hate
of a people. It's another verse to be
unfair to them. Don't be driven by your
of someone
into being unfair to them. So means to
hate.
The one that hates you,
He is the he is the one that
is cut off. And that was the term
used against the Prophet So they would use
the word Abtar, he is cut off, meaning
progeny. So Allah is saying, No, they're gonna
find out. They're going to be cut off,
not you.
And of course whoever hates the Sharia of
the Prophet alaihi sallahu alaihi wasallam,
is also cut off from the mercy of
Allah
This is not just about legacy in this
world. To hate the sharia is to reject
the sharia.
Allah Azzawajal said,
That is because these hypocrites hated what Allah
revealed,
and so he forfeited their deeds. Why do
they for because they left Islam. Leaving Islam
forfeits your deeds.
Deeds. So to hate the Sharia,
cuts you off from Allah's mercy because you've
left Islam.
To feel does how about feeling burdened by
the sharia? Because some will say, Wait a
minute. Like, I don't exactly love praying fajr
but I do. So does that mean I
hate the Sharia? People always ask this question.
What do you guys say? What's your verdict?
If you're waking up, no. That is the
basically the correct answer, right?
So the fact that you made yourself get
out of bed means it was heavy on
you. It was heavy on you
but your love for Allah in that moment
superseded your love for your comfort.
Right or wrong? It doesn't mean there's going
to be the no discomfort. That's part of
the chat Part of the challenge. If it
was seamless and easy, it wouldn't be a
real challenge, it wouldn't be a real evaluation.
Correct?
But if you are burdened by the Sharia
to the degree of non compliance,
you're not waking up, you're not respecting the
parents, you're not eating right, you're not dressing
right, then that is a sign of
you being somewhere in the middle between those
two worlds. That's called nifat. That's called the
disease of hypocrisy nifat
working its way,
its toxic way through the heart. So that's
Those are the 3 levels. If you hate
in a way that caused you to reject,
right?
Then
you are cut off. Absar from Allah's mercy.
If you are burdened but you power through,
then that is a great sign of your
faith.
Yes, you might get to a a greater
level of faith where you start enjoying it
more than anything. Right? My favorite hour of
the day is fidget hour. Right? That sort
of thing. I get up excited about it,
Raqiyamulayl.
Yes?
That's the other one. And in the middle
is if you're burdened in a way that
makes you half step or
neglect, then you are in a conflict, and
you need to win that war.