Mohammad Elshinawy – Lessons From Surat Al-Sharh
AI: Summary ©
The importance of Islam's teachings and positive actions for people to benefit is emphasized. The concept of "the culture of expansion" is discussed, along with the weight of a man's weight on his back and the importance of finding a way to bring others back to their natural forms. The importance of death and staying focused on the Lord'sare is emphasized, along with the importance of not being afraid of hard times and being aware of the experiences of hard times.
AI: Summary ©
Welcome back to our gatherings reflecting on drawing
light from the verses of Allah subhanahu wa
ta'ala.
We ask Allah to teach us that which
benefits us and to benefit us with that
which he teaches us and to increase us
in knowledge.
We ask Allah to grant us beneficial knowledge
and pure provisions and righteous acceptable actions.
Allahumma ameen.
So tonight inshallah we will be discussing both
surat ash-sharh, surat ash-sharh and we
never covered surat al-qadr and so we
will cover that tonight as well inshallah wa
ta'ala.
Surat ash-sharh is another one of the
concise surahs that most people in the room
have memorized.
This was a Meccan surah that came down
upon the Prophet ﷺ and it is very
similar in its theme and in his objectives
to the surah before it, surat al-duha.
It came to reiterate to the Prophet ﷺ
and to the believers, his followers after him
or through him, through addressing him it is
extended to those after him.
But it speaks about the great favor of
Allah upon the Prophet Muhammad ﷺ the same
way that surat al-duha does.
We haven't covered surat al-duha at least
in the Friday nights yet.
But just keep in mind that although we're
going to be discussing these distinctions and these
great favors Allah has bestowed upon the Prophet,
they are proportionately extended to the degree that
you are one of his followers ﷺ.
Most of the favors given to the Prophet,
a share of them is given to the
follower to the extent that they follow him.
Some obviously are exclusive like prophethood, like wahi,
revelation itself, but when Allah promises to take
care of his Prophet, he also promised to
take care of the followers of his Prophet.
يَا أَيُّهَا النَّبِيُّ حَسْبُكَ اللَّهِ Allah is enough
for you وَمَنِ اتَّبَعَكَ مِنَ الْمُؤْمِنِينَ and those
who follow you.
And Allah is enough for those who follow
you as well.
So that theme, that motif should be carried
with us in our understanding of every verse
that seems to be at face value about
the Prophet.
How does it relate to us should always
be there.
A point for yourselves.
I wanted to have it projected on the,
but I guess it's not written.
I made a slide deck for nothing.
Anyway, the first verse Allah Subhanahu Wa Ta
'ala says, أَلَمْ نَشْرَحْ لَكَ صَدْرَكَ Have we
not expanded for you your صَدْر, your chest?
What does that mean?
First of all, نَشْرَحْ is the reason why
it's called the chapter of شَرْحْ, the chapter
of widening or expansion.
So the word شَرْحْ in Arabic means to
expand something.
Even like we use the word شَرْحْ with
commentary because you're expanding, expounding on meanings.
You're widening it, making it more accessible, more
intelligible, more coherent.
It also means to disentangle something.
When something is sort of entangled and confusing,
you sort of separate it so it's clearly
visible.
And so Allah is saying to the Prophet
ﷺ, have we not expanded for you your
chest?
Have we not expanded for you your chest?
Meaning we have guided you to the best
of inner states.
That's what it means.
You know, the other verse in Surah Al
-An'am, Allah says, فَمَنْ يُرِدِ اللَّهُ أَن
يَهْدِيَهُ يَشْرَحْ صَدْرَهُ لِلإِسْلَامِ Whomever Allah seeks to
guide, يَشْرَحْ صَدْرَهُ, He expands his chest for
submission, for Islam, right?
وَمَنْ يُرِدِ أَن يُضِلَّهُ يَجْعَلْ صَدْرَهُ ضَيِّقًا حَرَجًا
كَأَنَّمَا يَصْعَدُ فِي السَّمَاءِ And whomever Allah wishes
to misguide, not randomly, not unfairly, but because
they don't want guidance, right?
Whomever Allah wishes to misguide, He makes their
chest ضيِّق, tight.
So شرح is the opposite of ضيِّق, I'm
just using it for the contrast.
ضيِّقًا and it says حَرَجًا, حَرَجًا is translated
as discomforted, right?
But also the Arabs say حَرَج or حَرَج
for like when you get stuck in the
thick of a forest, entangled, basically, right?
حَرَجًا, tight and congested, suffocating كَأَنَّمَا يَصْعَدُ فِي
السَّمَاءِ As if they are ascending through the
skies, the oxygen is weak, right?
You can barely breathe.
So why did Allah Subh'anaHu Wa Ta
-A'la expand the chest of the Prophet
ﷺ?
So he can be able, right, to undertake
his mission.
So he can be able to fulfill his
purpose.
Because you know, many things can get in
the way of you fulfilling your purpose, right?
And more often than not, they're internal.
They're not always diseases like the internal disease
of arrogance and pride.
It could be your fear, right?
It could be your sadness, right?
Whatever, there are many things in here.
You know, when the Prophet ﷺ sought refuge
from Allah from the famous eight, there's eight
things he used to say in a well
-known supplication.
He used to say, اللهم إني أعوذ بك
من الهم والحزن Oh Allah, protect me from
anxiety and grief.
وأعوذ بك من العجز والكسل And I seek
refuge in you from inability and laziness.
وأعوذ بك من الجبن والبخل And I seek
refuge in you from cowardice, being a coward,
and from being stingy.
All those six are in here, right?
وأعوذ بك من غلبة الدين وقهر الرجال And
from being overwhelmed by debt and from being
overpowered by men, subjugated by men.
Those two are external.
Six out of the eight are internal.
These are obstacles, internal obstacles.
And so Allah ﷻ, when he wishes well
for a person and he wishes the best
for obviously the Prophet ﷺ, he expands his
chest, he widens it, he disentangles it, he
frees it so that he can embrace the
mission.
He can lean in, right, without fear, without
sadness, without discouragement, without disinterest, by the way.
Sometimes you wonder, like, is there, should we
continue or not?
Some people might, yes?
You know, some people, they go through the
same burdens as us, but Allah also coupled
it with a passion.
You know, some people, even in the worldly
life, you go through your business, you go
through your workday, the other person puts in
as much work as you, but you just
like doing it, so it's lighter on you.
You're able to accommodate what comes with the
job.
Why?
Because you love it.
So they said of the meanings of sharh,
of expanding his chest, is to fill him
with love for it, meaning an interest for
it, a passion for it.
And also, the scholars said Allah could have
said, أَلَمْ نَشْرَحْ صَدْرَكَ Have we not expanded
your chest?
What they said, he said, أَلَمْ نَشْرَحْ لَكَ
صَدْرَكَ Have we not expanded for you especially,
for you, your chest?
Why for you?
They said the additional for you is to
give the meaning of special expansion, unique expansion.
Obviously, no one had more guidance than the
Prophet ﷺ internally, but also there were other
aspects.
Like when the Prophet ﷺ literally, in a
sense, physically, in a sense, he had his
chest opened, right?
On two different occasions.
You know the incident when he was in
the Badiyah in his early years ﷺ and
his brother from nursing ran home, Muhammad's dead,
what happened?
The angel came and opened his chest, right?
Two men came, of course these two men
were Jibreel and Mikael, the archangel Gabriel and
Mikael Michael.
And they opened his chest and they pulled
out his heart and they washed it, they
rinsed it in zamzam and ice.
And they removed from it this black mark
and they said, هَذَا حَضُّ الشَّيْطَانِ مِنْكَ This
is Shaytan's, the devil's share of you.
What does that mean by the way?
Does that mean like the evil of the
Prophet was removed?
No.
His potential for evil was removed.
The access point of Shaytan, there was no
evil in him ﷺ, right?
But we are all corruptible.
He was not.
That was the Isma, as the scholars mentioned.
That was the susceptibility to Shaytan, sort of
you being subject, potentially subject to Shaytan.
And so have we not expanded since your
childhood?
We initiated.
Now bring it back to the meaning in
Surah Al-Duha, Surah Al-Duha speaks about
when the revelation came down and then it
paused for a while and he became very
worried and his chest became tight and Allah
ﷻ said, haven't we taken care of you
in the past?
You were an orphan and we took care
of you.
You were poor, you were ignorant, we taught
you, right?
This Surah comes and says, didn't we expand
your chest as well?
Meaning the one who did this for you
will carry you the rest of the way
as well.
Will carry you the rest of the way
as well.
And this is also why the scholars did
not limit expanding his chest, guiding him in
the most perfect way to the incident of
his childhood.
They said it also refers to expanding his
potential for guidance through the revelation.
The greatest thing that expands your chest, right?
Your heart if you, is what?
The revelation itself.
The revelation itself.
You were in the dark and we showed
you the light.
You were lost and we showed you the
way.
You were sad and we gave you a
path.
We gave you relief.
And that brings us actually to the next
verse, which is not up here and I'm
pointing up here.
وَوَضَعْنَا عَنْكَ وِزْرَكَ Allah says, have we not
expanded for your chest?
He said, وَوَضَعْنَا And we, وَضَعْنَا means we
lowered for you, meaning removed from you.
وِزْرَكَ meaning your burden, the weight that you
carried.
What was the weight that he carried?
Let me ask now so that we don't
make this too one sided.
What is this weight?
Let me, let me actually recite two and
three together.
وَوَضَعْنَا عَنْكَ وِزْرَكَ We relieved you of the
weight of your burden.
We relieved you of your burden.
أَلَّذِي أَنْقَضَ ظَهْرَكَ That heavily weighed down your
back.
أَنْقَضَ means it made it creak, like your
back almost broke.
What was the nearly back breaking weight, nearly
back breaking burden of the Prophet ﷺ?
The da'wah, okay, the call.
So he worried about the call, worried about
the mission.
That is one interpretation.
His sadness about the revelation, all right.
We removed it.
We resumed the revelation, okay.
So the worry about the message, the call
to the message, the da'wah.
So one meaning, and once again, these meanings
many a times are compatible.
They're not contradictory.
They're not conflicting.
One meaning the scholars gave, the burden that
weighed down your back, we removed it from
you.
They said the burden of sin, we forgive
you for all of your sins.
Of course, there's the discussion, do Prophets commit
sins?
Do they commit sins?
Who says they commit sins?
Do the Prophets commit sins?
Sisters, agree or disagree?
Yes?
Yes?
No?
We have any no's in the crowd?
We have any, it depends?
You only have one vote, brother.
Didn't you give a talk about double standards
yesterday?
I'm joking, of course.
So let us start at a point of
agreement.
It's always easy when there's sort of discussions.
The point of agreement is the Prophets would
never commit disbelief.
And they would never withhold the message.
And they would never commit a major sin.
Would they ever commit a minor sin?
Possibly.
It is a discussion, right?
Possibly.
A minor sin that does not discredit their
integrity, right?
Yes sir?
So what about when Musa A.S. killed
a man?
The Prophet S.A.W. said it was
an accident.
He didn't mean to kill him.
He struck him in the spirit of justice.
And he underestimated his own strength and the
man died.
The Hadith says that.
It's not my sort of explaining it away.
كان الذي قتله موسى خطئاً نحديثه في تشفاعه
Yes sir?
Or he was not a Prophet at the
time.
But that would still discredit, yes?
What about Adam A.S. eating from the
tree?
It says he forgot.
And forgetting is not a sin.
For us, maybe they were held to a
higher standard.
That's where the dispute comes from.
That every single one of them, right, has
a very clear explanation for why it may
not have been a sin.
Yes sir?
What about Prophet Yunus when he left?
Jonah when he left?
What do you say to that?
It's a good one.
He's thinking.
He actually didn't do anything wrong per se.
He abandoned, he shunned people that were corrupt
and evil.
People who rejected God's message.
Allah held against him the fact that he
did not wait for permission to make hijrah,
right?
So it was a higher standard, some scholars
will say.
In any case, whatever minuscule sins may have
been committed by the Prophets, Allah here would
be saying, I removed from you the burden
of those sins.
You know the great Imam of Qira'ah,
of Tilawah, Hafs ibn Sulaiman, many people recite
their Qur'an through the narration of Hafs.
Their chain of transmission passes through Hafs.
One of his students was once reciting to
him the Surah, his name was Ziyad.
And when he recited, وَوَضَعْنَا عَنْكَ وِذْرَكَ الَّذِي
أَنقَضَ ظَهْرَكَ And have we not removed from
you your burden that weighed down your back?
The great Imam Hafs ibn Sulaiman began to
cry.
So his student said to him, what are
you crying about?
This is like a happy verse.
Like Allah is saying he forgave the Prophet
of all of his sins.
He said the sins that weighed down his
back and he had no sins.
So what do our sins do to us?
Should we not feel the weight of the
sins on our backs?
Why do we not feel the weight of
the sins on our backs?
That's the idea.
That's what made him cry.
It was introspection.
He was inspecting himself internally.
He was comparing himself to how far we
are from the station of the Prophet.
But by the way, feeling the weight of
your sins is of the signs of great
faith.
Abdullah ibn Mas'ud radiallahu anhu said, the
believer sees his sins.
كَأَنَّهُ بِأَصْلِ جَبَلٍ يُوشِكُ أَن يَقَعْ عَلَيْهِ It's
like the example of him sitting at the
base of a mountain and the mountain is
about to topple on top of him.
وَالْمُنَافِقُ This is in Sahih al-Bukhari.
The hypocrite sees his sin like a fly
that lands on his nose فَقَالَ بِهَا هَكَذَا
He just does this.
He doesn't pay it much mind.
He can commit an atrocity, he can usurp
the wealth of an orphan, he can yell
in the face of his mother, he can
sort of neglect one of the five prayers,
it's just not worth stopping at.
So this is actually of the signs of
faith.
In any case, this is one of the
meanings of we have relieved you of your
heavy burden that weighed down your back.
The other meaning, the second of the three
meanings the scholars gave, he relieved you of
your burden by giving you the revelation.
Because the absence of revelation is a burden,
right?
You're left in the dark.
Allah Subhanahu Wa Ta'ala said in the
other verse, مَا كُنْتَ تَدْرِي مَا الْكِتَابُ وَلَا
الْإِيمَانُ وَلَكِنْ جَعَلْنَاهُ نُورًا You had at one
point in time no idea what the scripture
was, what the scripture was.
The Quran, before we send it to you,
you didn't know what it was.
وَلَا الْإِيمَانُ, you didn't know what faith was,
but we caused it to be a light.
We brought the light into your life, right?
And not just for himself, for the world,
نُوْرًا نَهْدِي بِهِ مَنْ نَشَاءَ So that's a
huge relief to the Prophet Sallallahu Alaihi Wasallam.
You know, it should hurt someone, it should
cause someone pain, not just the Prophet, to
see society corrupt and not know how to
fix it.
Because those are two different things.
Knowing there's something wrong doesn't mean you know
the solution.
You know that the master of identifying the
problems, there are many, is not necessarily the
master of identifying the solution.
Two different projects.
So the da'ia, the caller to Allah,
the follower of the Prophet, should also be
weighed down as he was.
How do I fix this?
How do I turn the tide?
How do I sort of change the trend?
How do I bring society out of the
dark?
Allah relieved him by showing him how.
He knew something was wrong.
He just had no idea how to make
it right, Sallallahu Alaihi Wasallam.
So Allah said, I relieved you of that
burden that weighed down your back by showing
you the path forward.
And of course, as we said grief, so
He healed him of the grief.
وَضَعْنَ عَنْكَ وِذْرَكَ الَّذِي أَنقَضَ ذَهْرَكَ That weighed
down your back.
Then the next, the fourth verse is وَرَفَعْنَا
لَكَ ذِكْرَكَ And we raised high for you,
رَفَعْنَا لَكَ for you, especially ذِكْرَكَ your mention.
By the way, this expansion of the chest
and this forgiveness of sins and this raising
of your reputation, your esteem, no one can
give these but Allah Subhanahu Wa Ta'ala,
nobody.
Who can forgive sins but Allah?
Who can immortalize someone's legacy in this world
and raise their mention but Allah Subhanahu Wa
Ta'ala?
That's why you know in the Prophet Sallallahu
Alaihi Wasallam, a man, one of sort of
the poetic leaders of the tribes came to
sort of challenge the Prophet Sallallahu Alaihi Wasallam,
but essentially yes.
And so he said to him, share with
me what you have and I will decide
whether to endorse you or not to Arabia.
And he said to the Prophet Sallallahu Alaihi
Wasallam, مَدْحِزَيْنَ وَذَمِّيشَيْنَ I am the man whose
praise is a trophy, right?
And whose dispraise is humiliation.
Like if I praise you, you can flex
that anywhere, if I sign off on you.
And if I dispraise you, you'll never be
able to shake it off, no one will
respect you.
So the Prophet Sallallahu Alaihi Wasallam heard him
say this and he said ذَكَ اللَّهِ No,
no, that's God, right?
God does that one.
Like we know in Ibrahim Alaihissalam also said
وَجْعَلْ لِي لِسَانَ صِدِقٍ فِي الْآخِرِينَ Oh my
Lord, grant me a good mention among the
latter generations.
Subhanallah, look at how many civilizations and how
many nations until today hold in high regard
Abraham, peace be upon him.
Even those who lost, who fumbled his message
and confused his teachings and betrayed his legacy
still respect him, right?
Likewise the Prophet Sallallahu Alaihi Wasallam, who has
a higher mention?
Who is mentioned more than the Prophet Sallallahu
Alaihi Wasallam?
Who?
The most accomplished human being, the most well
-respected human being, the most spoken of human
being in all of human history.
A man who was born cut off from
the world as an orphan could not read
and write in the middle of the desert
is the most named after human being with
newborn babies on the planet.
In 2019 the number one baby name in
London where Muslims are not a majority is
Muhammad Sallallahu Alaihi Wasallam.
And I guarantee you they didn't even pull
in all the names of Muhammad.
They didn't add Mehmet, the Turkish pronunciation.
They didn't include Mamadou.
All those are Muhammad by the way, right?
They didn't include the 16 spellings of Muhammad,
right?
Maybe they did.
Who is remembered more?
Who is mentioned more?
The dhikr of the Prophet Sallallahu Alaihi Wasallam
is pervasive, is universal, is unmatched.
You even think of what happens in the
Adhan, you think of the cyclic way time
zones hand off to each other.
At every minute someone is saying, I testify
none is worthy of worship but Allah.
I testify that Muhammad is the messenger of
Allah, right?
This is why the poet, he said, I
forgot the beginning of the stanza.
The bearer of the throne even derived for
him a name from his own name.
He is Al Mahmoud.
We say Alhamdulillah, the praiseworthy, all praise be
to God.
And his name is Muhammad, the praised one,
and it's a prophecy as well.
Who is praised more than him, Sallallahu Alaihi
Wasallam, right?
I forgot the beginning of the poem, right
now I'm drawing a blank.
And so you think of the Adhan, you
think of him being mentioned not just on
the tongues, mentioned in practice as well, right?
All these discussions on Islamic law and Islamic
practice and the nuances of what is and
isn't the Sunnah, this is all a celebration
of Muhammad, Sallallahu Alaihi Wasallam.
Then the next two verses say, فَإِنَّ مَعَ
الْعُسْرِ يُسْرًا إِنَّ مَعَ الْعُسْرِ يُسْرًا Certainly with
the hardship there is ease, certainly with the
hardship there is ease.
So there's a lot to be said here.
Allah Subhanahu Wa Ta'ala is saying whatever
hardships you go through, he can solve it
immediately, but he's not going to.
However, in the middle of the hardship, along
with the hardship, attached to the hardship, there
is ease.
You need to recognize that.
You need to believe that.
And that means many things.
Some scholars said that means that the ease
is already on its way, growing and emerging
and manifesting the moment the hardship arrives.
So Firaun is slaughtering babies.
He's also at the same time raising Musa,
Moses, baby Moses in his palace.
It's already on route.
It's happening in tandem.
And this is important because, you know, most
people don't see the ease that's embedded in
the hardship.
So you have to believe it.
Also, there is ease, meaning goodness for us
within the hardship.
You know, the downtimes, the weak times for
the ummah.
There is great good in it, right?
Is there martyrdom if there is no sacrifice,
right?
Is there filtering out the hypocrites and elevating
the ranks of the believers?
There are certain acts of worship that would
not exist, like patience and perseverance and trusting
God and deferring to where they're not to
be hardship.
That is great good that only comes out.
But also a meaning that they said is
that Allah sends peace into the hearts.
Allah sends tranquility along with and in proportion
to how much you need to get through
the hardship.
With the hardship comes ease.
He doesn't just give you the test.
He gets you through the test as well.
You know, sometimes you look at someone going
through a hardship and say, I can never
handle that one.
Allah would not do that to you.
If you are close to Allah, the help
comes along with the hardship.
He will give you a higher dose of
strength if he gives you a higher test.
He'll double it, right?
He'll double your help.
And this is so eloquently captured in the
wording of these two verses.
I'm going to try my best to explain
it.
But Ibn Abbas said something about these two
verses that deserves, you know, our appreciation.
He said, Allah Subh'anaHu Wa Ta-A
'la said, Indeed, with the hardship, there is
an ease.
Okay?
The, a very specific hardship.
It's a definite article.
The hardship, there is an ease.
This is indefinite.
Could be an ease.
All right?
Then he said in, repeated it, certainly with
the hardship, there is an ease.
He said it twice.
So Ibn Abbas said, Wallahi la yaghlibu usrun
yusrayn.
One hardship will never overcome two eases.
Where did he get that from?
The hardship, the hardship.
It's definite.
So it's referring to the same one twice.
And ease, and ease, it's not definite.
So there's two different eases here for the
one hardship.
You understand what he's saying there?
Captured in the eloquent language that the Quran
has for us.
So the yusr, the easement, is doubled.
So that you can't be broken as a
servant of Allah Subh'anaHu Wa Ta-A
'la.
You know, other scholars said something else which
is equally beautiful.
They said that it is repeated here, with
hardship comes ease, with hardship comes ease, to
teach us that we need to repeat this.
We need to rehearse this.
Because that's what the surah was about.
The surah started by saying, wasn't there a
moment, and I expanded your chest, wasn't there
this, and then I did that.
So it means you have to repeatedly rehearse
so you don't lose hope in Allah Subh
'anaHu Wa Ta-A'la.
The yusr, the ease that is coming, the
ease that is coming.
So when there is hardship, you should look
for those two things.
You should look for the sharh of your
sadr, from Allah, and you should look for
what?
The ease in the past, to be confident
that it is coming, or it is already
here, in the present.
Those are the two things you need, for
hardship.
That's why even Musa Alayhi Salaam, when he
had the big burden of approaching Pharaoh, what
did he say?
He said, رَبِّ شْرَحْرِي صَدْرِي وَيَسِّرْلِي أَمْرِي.
That's what he said, right?
Oh Allah, expand for me my chest, this
is a scary mission, I have to go
face this tyrant barehanded, right?
Expand my chest for me, and ease my
task for me.
Look for both, from Allah Subh'anaHu Wa
Ta-A'la.
The last two verses say, فَإِذَا فَرَغْتَ فَانْصَبْ
وَإِلَىٰ رَبِّكَ فَرْغَبْ.
So, فَإِذَا فَرَغْتَ, once you complete, you complete
your task at hand.
فَانْصَبْ means what?
Put in the work.
نَصَبْ means fatigue, means tiredness, means exhaustion, means
effort, right?
And so, there's a number of very beautiful
reflections the scholars mention here.
فَإِذَا فَرَغْتَ, once you're completing your task, first
of all, before we say what task, you
should be completing your tasks, right?
Don't be the type of person that just
stop and go, stop and go, stop and
go.
I'm going to read this book, now I'm
going to put it down.
I'm going to become sort of like a
volunteer, no I'm not.
I'm going to pick this, I'm going to
join this course, no I'm not.
I'm going to join this gym, no I'm
not.
Don't be that person.
You know, they say that enthusiasm is common,
endurance is rare.
Allah wants you to be that rare commodity.
Have endurance, when you get into a project,
finish it.
See it through.
Allah says, أَطِيعُوا اللَّهَ وَأَطِيعُوا الرَّسُولَ وَلَا تُبُطِلُوا
أَعْمَالَكُمْ Obey Allah and obey His Messenger and
don't forfeit your deeds.
Don't just, you know, interrupt and cancel your
deeds.
So this is the first thing.
فَإِذَا فَرَغْتَ, once you've completed and you've been
freed up, then get back to work.
Why?
Why do you guys think this is important?
Why get back to work?
Why work hard after you finished your task?
What's the secret here?
Realize that you're not done.
Realize that you're not done.
You know, like after exam week, like no
one talk to me, nobody touch me, no
one tell me anything for a month, right?
I'm looking at you medical students.
This is a very dangerous moment, like the
moment where you sort of can take the
dip and then the dip can prolong, right?
This is why the Prophet ﷺ said what?
صَلَاتٌ فِي إِثْرِ صَلَاةٌ كِتَابٌ فِي عِلِّيِّينَ To
make a prayer after a prayer, meaning what?
Get up and pray your sunnah after your
farad, for example.
This is how you guarantee your seat in
the highest levels.
Don't get complacent fast.
Or when he said ﷺ, whomever fast the
month of Ramadan and then follows it up
with what?
At least six, right?
Six from shawwal, it's as if they fasted
the whole year.
Don't put your guard down with إِذَا فَرَغْتَ,
your farag, your free time.
The Prophet ﷺ said نِعْمَتَانِ مَغْبُونٌ فِيهِ مَا
كَثِيرٌ مِنَ النَّاسِ الصِّحَةُ وَالْفَرَغُ Two blessings most
people get gypped for, they rob themselves for,
is what?
Health and farag, free time, farag, same word,
فَإِذَا فَرَغْتَ Always keep that in mind.
You know this idea of like, oh man,
it's good, alhamdulillah, I don't have another semester,
so I got some time to kill.
Killing time is like what?
It's like killing, it's like burning money.
It's like, let me destroy some of my
health.
That's what it's like.
Let me kill some time.
It should be incoherent for a Muslim, this
notion of killing time.
Even when you rest, you rest with the
intention of recuperating to get back to work.
And for that, Allah will reward you.
Mu'adh ibn Jabal, رضي الله عنه, used
to say, إِنِّي لَأَحْتَسِبُ عَلَى اللَّهِ نَوْمَتِي كَمَا
أَحْتَسِبُ عَلَيْهِ قَوْمَتِي I expect, I anticipate, meaning
I intend to be rewarded by Allah for
my nap, the same way I intend to
be rewarded for the times that I'm awake.
Okay, other meanings the scholars gave here, am
I really going to do this?
I'm going to skip Surah Al-Qadr again,
Allah knows best.
Other meanings, فَإِذَا فَرَغْتَ فَانْصَبْ When you finish,
they said finish here could be your livelihood.
Like when you finish the stuff you have
to do in life, Allah عز و جل
understands.
But don't give the deen any less effort.
Dr. Khalid gave a reminder about this last
night, right?
So when you finish making a living, you
have to make a living, it's part of
your responsibility, even Islamically.
You have to make a living and support
your family and all of this.
But now, and you power through, so make
sure with your deen you're also powering through,
you work hard for your deen.
So فَرَغْتَ here could be dunya, and then
فَانْصَبْ here is deen.
The Prophet ﷺ said one of the most
hated people to Allah is حِمَارٌ بِالنَّهَارِ جِيفَةٌ
بِاللَّيْلِ Someone who's a donkey by day and
a carcass, a rotting carcass by night.
What does that mean?
Donkeys are known for being sort of like
workhorses figuratively.
They work very hard, they put up with
a lot of stress and strain.
So he's being worked by day, livelihood, right?
And then when it's nighttime, you're a deadbeat.
You got nothing in you to pray the
Isha prayer, to pray the way to pray,
you got nothing.
You're a carcass just rotting there, right?
These are of the most hated people to
Allah.
And so it's as if to say, you
skipped lunch for your work deadline, right?
You stayed up late to study.
So push yourself a little bit with deen
as well.
Yes, you're going to attend class.
Yes, you're going to volunteer.
Yes, you're going to attend the meeting.
Even if you're not feeling up to it,
فَانْصَبْ You finished your livelihood work.
Now you have work for akhirah as well.
This is of the meanings.
Just as you toil for dunya, toil for
the akhirah.
A third meaning the scholars gave, فَإِذَا فَرَغْتَ
Once you're freed up from your activism basically,
your jihad.
Imagine you're sort of out there servicing the
people or fighting for a good cause.
It's all for Allah.
It's all for God.
فَانْصَبْ Now stand up at night and pray.
Because one cannot replace the other.
You're going to need time where you sort
of recluse, where you resign to moments of
tranquility, and speaking to God, and listening to
the words of Allah, the words of God
سُبْحَانَهُ وَ تَعَالَى So فَرَغْتَ here is when
you finish basically the external service.
Stand up and work hard in the ritual
devotion.
Because you need that too.
Meaning don't think this can ever cover for
that.
You need both.
You should be serving humanity, but not at
the expense of your personal relationship with Allah.
You need that so that it all becomes
part of the same mission, the same direction.
Keep these tied together.
The final meaning because it ties into the
verses before it that the scholars gave.
فَإِذَا فَرَغْتَ Once you finish, meaning you've been
spit out of the hardship.
Once you've survived, sorry.
Once you've survived, you've finished the hardship.
Now get to work.
You know why?
Because that's when people get complacent.
In times of difficulty, right?
People are willing to sacrifice, ready to sacrifice,
needing to do whatever it is.
This is no time to go to sleep.
This is no time to go to sleep.
Just because Allah has relieved you, or given
you a bit of what you desire, don't
put your guard down.
You know the idea of like the rallying
call of civilizations is usually what?
Hard times, right?
That's when people really step up.
You know the idea, the whole cycle.
Hard times create strong people.
Strong people create good times.
Good times create weak people.
They get complacent.
Weak people create hard times.
They ruin the world.
And those hard times create good people again.
So Allah is saying, إِذَا فَرَغْتَ Once you
sort of emerge, finish the hardship.
You've survived it.
Stay working.
How?
How do you stay working in good times?
The last verse says, إِلَىٰ رَبِّكَ فَرْغَبْ إِلَىٰ
رَبِّكَ To your Lord, فَرْغَبْ Aspire.
When you single out Allah in your aspirations,
that's how you can work through the pain,
and work through the pleasure.
You work through everything.
You know the ayah in Surah An-Nisa,
Allah Subhanahu Wa Ta'ala says, إِن تَكُونُوا
تَأْلَمُونَ فَإِنَّهُمْ يَأْلَمُونَ كَمَا تَأْلَمُونَ وَتَرْجُونَ مِنَ اللَّهِ
مَا لَيَرْجُونَ If you're bleeding and you're hurt,
and it's tough, and if you are going
through these difficulties, these wounds, they are going
through pain as well.
They too feel it.
وَتَرْجُونَ The difference is that you hope in
Allah what they don't hope.
And this verse is what we're studying tonight.
إِلَىٰ رَبِّكَ فَرْغَبْ In your Lord, in meeting
your Lord, in being forever with your Lord,
فَرْغَبْ Make that your aspiration.
If that's your aspiration, you'll never stop.
You'll never put your guard down because you're
not there yet.
Yes, you've made some strides, but you haven't
completed yet.
You haven't received the grand prize yet.
So in summation, when the ummah is going
through a period of weakness, this surah is
reminding us to lean back, to be brought
back so we don't despair to the favors
Allah has done for us, for the Prophet
ﷺ, and for us as well.
He's a generous Lord.
He's a capable Lord subhanahu wa ta'ala.
He can do it as well.
And you look for the expansion of your
chest.
Increase your capacity, right?
To endure what's going on.
And also be confident.
Look out for the يُسْر, the ease that
comes with the عُسْر, that comes with the
hardship.
And the final again message in the surah
is beware of those periods of inactivity.
Beware of inactivity in the quiet times, in
the down times.
And the way to be aware of them
is to realize that you're still aspiring.
You're still on a path to your Lord,
and you have not reached Him yet.
Any questions?
I promised to finish by eight, so I
had to break my promise about two surahs.
Dr. Amr, please don't fire me.
Great question.
So why is it that when we say
Allah misguides whom He wills, we qualify it
as those who deserve it or those who
don't want it?
We have general texts to qualify it, such
as إِنَّ اللَّهَ لَيَظْلِمُ مِثْقَالَ ذَرَّ Allah does
not wrong anyone, He's not unfair to anyone,
in the least.
And many texts like this.
And then we have specific texts.
Let's say for instance, فَلَمَّا زَاغُوا أَزَاغَ اللَّهُ
قُلُوبَهُمْ When they deviated, Allah deviated their hearts.
Or when Allah Azawajal said, سَأَصْرِفُ عَنْ آيَاتِيَا
الَّذِينَ يَتَكَبَّرُونَ فِي الْأَرْضِ بِغَيْرِ الْحَقِّ I will
turn away from my signs, I'll blind to
my signs, those who are arrogant on earth
without due right.
وَنُقَلِّبُ أَفْئِدَتَهُمْ وَأَبْصَارَهُمْ كَمَا لَمْ يُؤْمِنُوا بِهِ أَوَّلَ
مَرَّةً And we will turn their sights, their
hearts and their sights for not believing in
it the first time around.
Right?
And you know Mujahid ibn Jabr, the student
of Abdullah ibn Abbas رضي الله عنهما He
gives a good visual demonstration for this at
the ayah in Surah Al-Baqarah فِي قُلُوبِهِمْ
مَرَضٌ فَزَادَهُمُ اللَّهُ مَرَضًا They had a disease
in their hearts, meaning they're guilty of leaving
a disease in their hearts.
So Allah increased them in disease.
He said they did this to the guidance
and he closed his fingers as if the
guidance is targeting here and he went like
this.
So Allah sealed it shut.
Now you can't open your hand anymore.
Right?
Now you no longer have a landing site
for the guidance.
You closed it, Allah kept it closed.
والله تعالى أعلم Hope those are helpful.