Mohammad Elshinawy – Lessons From Surat Al-Nasr & Al-Masad 112
AI: Summary ©
The importance of the Quran's teachings and their use in improving the understanding of the meaning of "surud" in Arabic language is highlighted, along with the significance of "verifification" and the significance of "the fet" in the conquest of Mecca. The historical context of Islam is discussed, including the year of AD stroke, the use of warships and deadly weapons, and the importance of forgiveness in shaping one's behavior. The transcript also touches on the meaning of "will" in various context, including the meaning of "will" in various context, and the importance of forgiveness in shaping one's behavior and actions.
AI: Summary ©
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 to teach us that which
benefits us, and benefit us with what he
teaches us,
and to increase us in knowledge. We ask
Allah to protect us from knowledge that does
not benefit,
and from an appetite
for this world that is never satisfied.
And from prayers that are not lifted up
to him, Allahuma'amin.
We welcome everyone back to our discussions
on the short surahs of the Quran, the
concise
but
powerful. Concise but
no less sacred, no less potent,
no less inspiring
verses of the book of Allah Subhanahu Wa
Ta'ala. And And our appointment tonight inshallah will
be with Surat Al Nasr,
and Surat Al Mas'id
And before I begin, I wish everyone to
just reset
their their perspective.
That Allah
when making certain surahs, certain chapters of the
Quran shorter than others,
he knew they would be more digestible
and more easily memorized than others.
And so these being the shortest and therefore
the most oftenly repeated surahs of the Quran
is by design.
Right?
Their meanings
are the most potent meanings, the most important
meanings,
and therefore, he made them the easiest to
commit to memory,
and to know by heart.
So the first of them tonight is Surud
al Nasr,
the chapter
of al Nasr. Al Nasr is translated as
victory,
translated as support, translated as triumph,
and we'll get to that inshallah.
But this was the
last
full surah of the Quran to be revealed.
So there were verses revealed after it according
to
many scholars,
the very last verse of the Quran to
ever come out was,
And fear a day in which you will
be returned to Allah.
And how perfect the final verse that is.
Likewise, this surah is the final full surah
to be revealed from the Quran.
And so Allah
says
and means if and when.
If and when. So the word in and
the word
in the Arabic language both,
imply possibility
if this happens.
Right?
But in is for those things that are
unlikely.
If
a corrupt Muslim comes your way, right,
meaning it's unlikely that a Muslim would lie.
Right?
If 2 parties of the believers
are, go to blows. They go to war
with each other. Believers, their faith restrains them
from hostilities. So it's unlikely, in. But is
for something
if it happens
and when it happens because it's gonna happen
or very likely to happen. Right? So
If and when the earth is shaken with
its final earthquakes, the day of judgment. Right?
Likewise here,
If and when
the naser of Allah, which I will translate
as the support of Allah,
comes
when if and when it comes,
the support of Allah
and the conquest.
So one at a time. What is the
support of Allah, and why are we translating
as support? Because Allah promised support every believer
and not every believer had victory like worldly
victory. Because if we say victory, the victory
that comes to mind is the political victory.
The personal or the earthly victory like victory
in war for example. Right?
And that did not happen to every believer.
Yes?
The the people of the trench in Surat
al Buruj were burned alive. They were scorched
in an inferno to death. And Allah said,
That is the great success.
What is a great success?
What is the nasr they were given that
Allah supported them? Meaning gave them steadfastness,
they did not waver in their faith even
when they were being killed. That is the
idea.
Allah said,
we
will certainly
give
give victory,
support. Right?
Steadfastness.
To our messengers,
some of the messengers were killed. Right?
And the believers, some of the believers are
killed. Right?
In
the life of this world. So it is
talking about this world.
Therefore,
Allah will support everyone, meaning avenge them, give
them victory against their oppressors, their persecutors
in the next life, definitely.
But in this life, sometimes, yes. Sometimes Allah
in his wisdom chooses to showcase their faith
and their steadfastness
and supports them
until
sometimes even he gives them the rank of
martyrdom. It's still support.
Right?
That is why when they asked that imam
Ahmed Rahimahullah,
what is support, he said support
is for you to remain upon the command
of Allah no matter what they do to
you. That's naser. That's real victory. That's the
most important victory.
Because that's the one that extends into the
next life.
And so when there comes the support of
Allah, Nasrullah
and means to open.
And so when a land is opened,
meaning
the resistance
stands down,
that's called conquest, the Arabs called open.
I usually like to translate the word open
as liberate because when a land is open,
for the believers, they're not going to exploit
it.
Right? They fear Allah
So fat, even though it is conquest, what
comes to mind usually with conquest
is like *, pillage and burn. It is,
you know, destroy,
the water supply. It is kill the innocent.
That's what comes to mind with conquest because
most people that have the leverage, the power
to conquest are corrupted by that power, and
so they are oppressive in their conquests.
Whereas when the believers,
let alone the prophets,
are granted conquest by Allah, it is actually
a liberation.
A liberation even for the people that are
being
conquered. Those who just lost militarily. Does that
make sense?
Okay.
But this is these are the 2 meanings.
Like, when Allah gives you his support, he
kept you steadfast, and he supported you in
other ways as well. It is more general
than that, but most importantly, it is about
support upon the deen, and a subset of
that due to its great highlight is the
fet the fet here is the conquest of
Mecca.
So the this surah
came down at the great conquest of Mecca,
and of course the conquest of Mecca was
a conquest like no other in many respects,
not just one respect.
You know,
the prophet salallahu alaihi wasalam
was given unique
distinct characteristics
as a gift from Allah azzawajal.
He said, I was given 6 things that
no other prophet before me was given.
Maybe for a later time we can discuss
the 6. But one of them, he said,
I was given victory
by way of fear
from a 1 month's distance. So my army
sets out to a place 1 month before
I arrive,
Allah
causes the hearts of his enemies
to
have cold feet, if you will,
to get unsure of themselves and to abort
the mission.
But in the case of Mecca,
the people of Mecca,
they were at war with the prophet sallallahu
alaihi wasallam how?
There was the treaty of Al Hudaybiyyah, a
peace treaty when they saw his strength gaining,
they no longer wanted to fight, and they
were beat up from, like, the fatigue of
battles year over year. The Muslims are getting
stronger. They're getting weaker, and so they they
hit sort of a a point where they
don't wanna fight anymore. They give them a
treaty. I will not fight you or your
allies, and you don't fight me or your
allies or my allies.
Quraysh
had to sign that had to basically give
it in it to a treaty because they
couldn't fight.
But they tried in an indirect way to
weaken the allies of the prophet so
Quraysh, the Meccan tribe, supported
Banu Bakr, which was their ally, to fight
Hosea, the ally of the prophet
an allied tribe.
So by that, they broke the treaty. And
so the prophet sallallahu alaihi wasallam
set out with the army from Medina, and
he made a special dua.
And he said,
Oh Allah,
render them unaware
of
my whereabouts,
my news.
And so they did not know that he
was coming until he was at the outskirts
of Mecca
They were caught completely off guard,
and so they couldn't fight.
And once again, despite the fact that
he was given the upper hand by Allah
and he caught them so off guard, he
could have decimated them. But
instead,
he went to the went to the doors
of the Kaaba. In the famous incident, he
marched straight in and he removed these false
idols that were rivaling Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala.
And then the leaders of Quraysh, who were
war criminals, they they were asked by him,
what do you think I will do with
you?
And so they said,
in the famous report, oh, our noble brother,
son of our most noble brother, because he's
from Mecca like them. Right? Same ancestry.
Of course, now noble brother.
And so the prophet sallallahu alaihi wasallam
said,
go, you are unbound. Clean slate.
Fresh.
And that is another way that this was
a conquest like no other,
that it was without bloodshed.
And then after that, the year after the
conquest of Mecca, to accelerate a little bit
here, was known as Amr Wufud.
It was the 9th year known as the
year of delegations
because people stopped
coming to him as individuals and becoming Muslim.
They would send the delegations, meaning groups at
a time,
to
pledge to him that our entire tribe has
become Muslim.
And that is the next verse in Surat
An Nasr refers to this phenomenon
when Allah
says,
and you, oh Muhammad, are witnessing now.
And NASA, the people
entering
into the religion of Allah
in waves.
Not as people, but as waves. Nations at
a time. Right? Tribes at a time. And,
like number 1, who would have ever thought
that the Muslims a few short years ago
were a handful
chased and driven out, killed and mauled.
No one knew if Islam would survive,
and here it is now
thriving thriving thriving
in unimaginable ways.
It's also interesting how this is one of
the proofs of his prophethood to the people.
You happy now?
Let's go take a hike.
They saw his miracles,
not many people believed. They saw his character,
not many people believed.
Right? They received his Quran. Not many people
believed.
And then he's successful on earth.
Everyone suddenly, wholesale believes.
This is the nature of humanity.
They judge books by their covers.
They respect and gravitate towards power and strength.
Everybody wants to be on a winning team.
Yes?
So only after he won did they actually
start entering Islam
in waves.
You find people entering into the religion of
Allah in waves.
You know, some of the scholars said, why
now
all of a sudden, the cap gets ripped
off? Things just start flowing. Why?
They said, perhaps the order of the Surahs
gives us a hint as to why. You
see the Surah right before this, which we
haven't gotten to yet,
ends with You have your religion. I have
mine. I'm not giving into any compromises.
So it was the power of his belief
got tested, and Allah gave him his
When you are
bending
on your principles,
unwavering in your creed, your convictions, your beliefs,
you got your religion. I have mine. There's
no mixing. Right? Over the years, they could
have got tired. They could have got fatigued.
Like, you know,
we say in in Egyptian,
like, you know, the the the eyedropper or
the the ear dropper? They just get a
drop at a time. They were only getting
a drop in the bucket each time. You
could start saying, okay. Maybe, like, what if
we meet it at, like, we'll worship your
god, you know, 1 year and our god
1 year. That was the offer, by the
way. Like, let's find a sweet spot. Right?
But when they remained, Allah gave them the
and they remained steadfast
After Allah tested
their firmness,
he let it happen in waves.
And so anyone who wants the floodgates to
open needs to know there's a period of
waiting, and you will be tested
on your
that I'm staying on my you have your
deen, I have my deen, and then Allah
will eventually open it in this world. In
this world before the next.
Okay.
The the third and last verse says, and
this is one of the 3 surahs of
the Quran that only have 3 verses. It's
pretty amazing.
Like, this Quran that
baffled
the masters of rhetorical
expression
of language
told them give me anything. In the end,
it said, alright. Just give me one surah.
There are 3 different surahs in the Quran,
Surat
al Asr and Nasr and Al Kawthar. Kauthr
being the shortest of the being the longest
of them in terms of word count and
a Nasr in the middle. Do you 10
words. 13 words. Give me something. Alright? So
this is the 3rd and last verse here
now in the Surah. Allah says, and you
pe you see people entering their religion in
waves, what do you do?
Then praise
the glory of your lord, or praise your
lord and glorify him.
And seek his forgiveness
for he is constantly
opening the door for repentance and forgiveness. But
let's break it down a little bit.
So glorify.
Like means glorified is Allah. That means Allah
has no imperfection. He's glorified above
imperfection.
You know, like to distance something is called
in Arabic. So it's subhan or
means to distance Allah from any flaw.
Right? Glorified is God. Perfect is God above
flaws. That's what subhanAllah or tasbih means.
And glorify Allah
by also praising Him. Hamd is to describe
Him as perfect. He's not like this and
he's like this and like this and like
this. So hamd is praising Allah with the
the his perfect qualities,
and tasbih
is you negating from Allah any imperfect qualities.
Is that clear?
There's a third instruction as well,
which is and seek forgiveness from him. So
make
and
make
and seek forgiveness from him.
Those three instructions,
the prophet sallallahu alaihi wasallam would apply them
in his ruku
as an interpretation of this verse.
As our mother Aisha radiaallahu anha, I believe,
said, he used to
apply this verse in his ruku since the
time it came down, meaning he spent
those last few months of his life, sallallahu
alaihi wa sallam,
saying in his ruku, in addition to subhanahu
alaihi wa sallam, right? He was saying,
Subhanak
So Subhanak, right, tisbih,
Allahumma, my lord,
oh Allah
our lord,
and with your praises I celebrate,
oh
Allah forgive me. So he would apply these
3 in his ruku
By the way, why are we seeking forgiveness
here?
It's as if the verses are saying, now
praise Allah for his support for a lifetime,
and praise Allah for the conquest and victory
he gave you, And praise Allah for the
many people that are entering Islam at your
hands now. And after
till the end of time,
remember, beware. This is not your effort. This
is Allah.
Right?
You see, it's not because he did anything
wrong. He's seeking forgiveness. It is because when
you do something right, Islamically, you're supposed to
seek forgiveness
because right doesn't mean perfect. Perfect belongs to
God. Right?
When he used to finish salah, salah is
the ultimate right.
You say what?
And he used to seek forgiveness 3 times.
Why?
The intention, the daydreaming, it happens. We're human.
So it compensates
not for the crime but the imperfection.
The inherent flawed nature of the human being.
Even the greatest of
of acts in terms of hajj.
Allah says,
after arafa, arafa you get your sins forgiven.
The next verse says
and then come down to do ifadah.
Go to the Kaaba basically.
And seek forgiveness from Allah. Why? Yesterday it
was arafa. Why was he forgiveness from Allah?
How much could I possibly have done
in the last 24 hour? No. It's not
about that. This is part of your adab
with Allah
that to see even your good deeds as
a gift from Allah, undeserved,
flawed, all of that. Makes sense?
Good.
The last thing
is Allah says about himself,
He is certainly
here means what?
Some of the translations of the surah, they
say the most forgiving.
But kafar is most forgiving or ghafur is
most forgiving. Tawab means something a little different.
You know, tawwab sounds like tawba. Doesn't it?
Tawba is repentance.
Allah is always
performing repentance?
No.
Repentance
comes from the word,
means to come back.
And when you come back to Allah repenting,
it's because Allah already came to you
to interest you,
to inspire you,
to call your attention. And then you come
back to him, and then he comes back
to you again. So he does it to
you more than you do it with him.
Right? He comes back to you again accepting
it. Right?
You know what it's like? It's like
in Surat Al Baqarah, Allah azza wa Jal
says, Adam alayhi salam, like, committed the mistake
of eating from the tree, and then what
happened?
Adam received
So he received first.
Allah did not receive the application of Adam,
alaihis salaam to be forgiven first. No.
Adam received
from Allah certain words. Oh Adam, say the
following.
How beautiful is Allah
Right?
Say this so I can forgive you. Repeat
after me.
This is what it means.
Adam
received from his Lord's
words.
Those words we find them through the. Right?
Oh, our lord, we've wronged ourself, and if
you don't forgive us and have mercy on
us, we will be of the losers. How
much are they paying you? How much are
they paying you to do this? Who sent
you?
So the same way Allah gave Adam alayhi
salaam words to say for his tawba, for
his repentance,
Surat An Nasus does the same thing.
Make
make
I'm giving you this why?
Because Allah is always coming back to his
servants,
opening up for them chances to be forgiven.
That's the idea.
He loves to forgive. He loves to overlook
our flaws. He he loves to dismiss
our imperfections.
That is,
Surat Al Nasr.
Can we pull off Surat Al Mas'id?
Let's
try.
Surat Al Masad is the next surah.
In Surat Al Masad, Allah says,
Doomed are the 2 hands of Abu Lahab,
and he is doomed as well. So he's
doomed. The word by the way means ended.
But there's a difference between and between,
like intaha.
When something ends, it can get restarted.
But the word
means ended indefinitely.
Like,
when Allah hands you,
there's no more chances. Right? So that's why
we translate it as doomed.
Doomed are the two hands of Abu Lahab,
and he is doomed as well. So who's
Abu Lahab?
Abu Lahab is the vile uncle of the
prophet sallallahu alaihi wa sallam.
Right? The prophet sallallahu alaihi wa sallam had
uncles
that believed in him and fought for him
like Hamz ibn Abdul Muttalib. Right? And Abbas
ibn Abdul Muttalib.
Then he had uncles that did not believe
in him but still stood by his side,
like Abu Talib. Right?
He went through the ravine. He was put
through starvation because of how protective he was
of Muhammad even though he was a Muslim.
Abu Lahab was neither. He neither believed in
him nor protected him, rather he used to
throw stones at him with his 2 hands.
Got it?
When the prophet
was first commanded to go public with the
da'wah,
he stood on Mount Safa and he gathered
the people, and, of
cavalry of horses about to overrun you all,
would you believe me? They said, we've never
experienced a lie a lie from you. We've
never experienced anything from you but honesty. He
said, then know that I am a warner
to you before the coming of a great
punishment. Know that God has sent me. He
was hopeful. His people would believe. They would
be saved.
Of all the people to shout him down,
it was his uncle Abu Lahab. He got
up and he said,
may you be doomed, meaning have misfortune,
he used the word
for the rest of your day. Is this
why you gathered us, this nonsense?
And so Allah himself
defended the prophet sallallahu alaihi wasallam and he
said,
perished are the two hands of Abu Lahab.
Because he used to throw stones at him
after this event. Other scholars said because he
wanted to get back to business, back back
to his stall, his market, his canteen, and
work with his hands.
Right? And so Allah said, doomed are the
efforts of Abu Lahab. Doomed are the earnings
of Abu Lahab, and he is doomed himself.
His wealth
will not avail him nor anything he earned,
meaning not even his children.
Because your childrens are from your your children
are from your earnings. Right?
Prophet said,
The the the human being does not,
consume anything better than what he earns with
his own two hands. He doesn't ask of
others, hand me downs.
And of what you earn with your own
two hands, figuratively of course, are your children.
Right? And that's why Islamically,
your children can work for you,
and you don't have to pay them.
Don't worry. Don't worry. They'll get to do
that to their kids too.
So it's fair. And also because if you
pass, they inherit from you as well. So
it's all one vertical continuum.
In any case,
nothing will benefit
him.
Not
his wealth, nor Maqassar, nor anything has earned.
His status, his popularity,
his big family, his sons, his children, none
of that will benefit him.
There's another interpretation of this verse that here
is not. It's not saying it will not
benefit him. It's
It's like
a rhetorical question. How has his wealth benefited
him? Meaning now that he's in the hereafter.
Right?
It almost fast forward to the hereafter. How
has his wealth benefited him? How has anything
he earned been worthwhile?
He will enter into the hellfire,
a fire of a great flame.
A fire that's Allahab that has a great
flame. You see his name was Abu Lahab,
the father of the flame. And they say
the reason for that is
that he had a very bright face. So
it's almost like the the fire on the
wall would reflect on his face. His face
had its own radiance. He was a handsome
man.
Despite his age, despite everything, he was a
handsome man. So Allah
condemned him using his favorite name. You're Abu
Lahab, the father of the flame. That's what
your nickname was. You're going to enter You're
gonna meet the fire in the hereafter
with a massive flame. May Allah protect us.
And of course, this aya
is one of the proofs of the prophethood
also,
because this man
was condemned to the fire on day 1.
Day 1 that the dawah went public. Right?
Day 1 of the public dawah.
And he died approximately
10 years after that.
All he had to do was say, hey,
guys, by the way, public service announcement, I'm
Muslim.
Quran's wrong, and it would've made the Quran
look wrong. Yes?
Quran's saying I'm never gonna become Muslim. I'm
destined for the fire. If he would've just
faked
being Muslim, he would have made the Quran
look problematic.
But Allah knew
that he wouldn't ever even have it in
him to even fake it.
Right? So he foretold, that prophecy was foretold
from day 1, a decade prior, that he
would die upon disbelief.
His stubbornness would never waver and he would
die a pagan.
And his woman, his wife,
as she carries the haltab, the firewood, you
know, the wood that you carry when you
want a fire to be made. Right?
Or another way to recite this verse
is which meaning she's constantly
She's constantly doing this. Meaning, she's gonna be
carrying it
not for a moment in the fire. She's
gonna be carrying the firewood
forever in the fire.
But why firewood?
They said a few things. One thing is
that they say she used to go around
noble woman from Quraish. She was she had
prestige. She had social status in the tribe.
She would go around and grab wood, firewood
is dry, and to rip from it sort
of, thorns and straws
and to throw it in the road of
the prophet sallallahu alaihi wa sallam.
So it was perfect punishment that she go
collect firewood
in the hellfire.
She's gonna be stoking the flames that burn
her and her and her husband in the
fire.
The other scholars said because she was known
to be,
the woman that strutted the streets of Mecca,
taunting the prophet and his followers in her
poetry.
Right? She used to say,
She you you hear the rhyme. She would
say, Muzammam, the displeased one.
She would put a spin on his name.
Muhammad, the praised one, she would call him
with them, ma'am, the displeased one, Abayna, we
have rejected.
And
his religion we have detested, we have hated.
And his instructions we have, disobeyed, we have
defied.
So it's Jesus taunts them. And the prophet
would see how, like, how much they would
burn from hearing this, how much their hearts
would burn.
And so he used to say to them
to the people to lift their morale, their
spirits, he would say,
Look at how Allah misguides,
diverts away from me, sends another direction,
the insults of Quraysh.
They are insulting the displeased one and I
am the the praised one.
I don't know who they're talking about. It's
not me. Look at the the optimism,
grounded in his faith.
Right? That Allah misguided even their wording. So
they said, she used to burn their hearts
with her insults and
that behavior, and so she will be the
one carrying the firewood
that will burn her husband and burn herself.
She's gonna stoke the her the flames on
herself in the fire. This is the meaning
of
and his wife
in, meaning on,
her neck
is a rope,
a fire
according to one interpretation. But, basically, let's say
a rope or a chain,
because other verses mentioned that chains will be
around the next to the people of the
fire.
Why will why is it mentioned that there
will be a rope around her chain, around
her neck? It's humiliating.
You know, prestigious women
often
call attention to themselves with this jewelry. Right?
And also they said that the the Arabs
used the word
it's from the word jouda. You know jouda
is goodness, like something good quality, even like
good expensive horses are called jiad, Surat Sad.
So Allah didn't say
her neck. He said the jeed, and jeed
is basically has a positive connotation. Like when
you're praising a woman's neck, like she has
a slender neck or an elegant neck or
like an attractive neck. Right? It's called her
jeed. She has a so Allah is saying
this jeed of hers
will be will
be surrounded in chains.
It will not be a at all. Right?
That's that is the the idea behind the
word
choice of according to the scholars.
Around her neck is going to be a
humiliating rope, the rope, a rope of fire
or chains of fire.
She humiliated herself and so she would be
humiliated. You know, ibn Taymiyyah Rahimahullah, I got
to close here. I want to mention 2
more points quickly. Ibnataymihr Rahimahullah,
he said, why did the Quran
make mention
of Abu Lahab's wife?
He said because people are impacted by their
friends all the time, and there's no basically
greater friend than the the friend you're locked
behind closed doors with, like your spouse. Right?
He said, and so the mention of Abu
Lahab's wife
completes the classification
of wives in the Quran. So, like, right
before the Quran ends, there's one final classification
of
of wives.
Okay?
So you have one classification in the Quran
of a good man with a good wife
that support each other in goodness. That's Ibrahim
alaihi salaam with his wife or the prophet
salaam with his wives. Right?
Then you have type
2. Sounds like diabetes or something.
The second one
the second archetype
is the the
good woman
married to a horrible man. And so she's
celebrated for not being
misguided by him. And who's that?
Asiya, the wife of Firaoun.
Right?
Then the third category is the flip side.
The corrupt women despite the fact that Allah
gave them good men,
which is what?
Nuh alaihis salam and Lut alaihis salam, their
2 wives were
wicked.
Not in the sort of marital infidelity sense,
of course. No wife of a prophet ever
did that, as Ibn Abbas
said.
The 4th type is
what
the wife and the husband
assist each other in corruption,
and so they will assist each other in
the instruments of torment and the hellfire.
May Allah protect us.
The last thing we want to say is
what is the relationship, if any, between these
2 surahs?
Some of the scholars have suggested, and it's
a beautiful connection,
that
this is how the dua ended.
Dua will continue until the day of judgement.
But the dawah of the prophet's life has
been completed.
Right? Finally, everyone's become a Muslim. Yes?
Even though that's the case, his ummah still
has a mission. So we must remember how
the dawah began,
which is what
May Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala teach us that
which benefits us and benefits us that she
has taught us and increases in beneficial knowledge
and not allow our share of this to
be simply just hearing and listening and make
us all people of the
Quran guided by it and led through it
to his pleasure and his paradise.
Our loved ones,