Mohammad Elshinawy – The Surahs Of Protection – Surat Al-Ikhlas
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The speaker discusses the title of Muhammad's third serah, which is the command verb for "has been recited" meaning in various Muslim culture. They stress the importance of remembering the meaning of "has been there" and "has been there" in the context of the surahs, as well as the significance of "has been there" and "has been there" in the title of Islam. The speaker also discusses the use of "has" in the language and the importance of "naught" and "naughty." The discussion concludes with a brief advertisement for a book.
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We 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 azza wa Jal to
bless this gathering of ours and write it
in all of our scales of good deeds.
The prophet Muhammad Sallallahu Alaihi Wasallam said in
a hadith that is authentically reported in Sahih
Muslim,
wamajtamaaqoomunfeebaytimimbuyutillah
and there is never a group of people
that gather in one of the houses of
God like this one, right?
Yatluna kitaballahureciting
the book of Allah, the Quran.
And
studying it together rehearsing its meanings together reflecting
on it with each other.
Ilah except that 4 things happen
Ilah Rashiatumur
Rahma except that
tranquility
covers them.
When Azalat,
mercy covers them.
Mercy descends upon among them, and tranquility
covers them.
And the angels surround them,
and the 4th one is greater than the
first 3. Wazakarahu
moolallahu fee maniinda.
And Allah Azzawajal
makes mention of them with those that are
with Him, Subhanahu Wa Ta'ala.
And so we pray that this is one
of those gatherings and that Allah
looks upon us in this gathering with pleasure
and that he enlighten us through his book.
We are gathered insha Allah this evening to
study the last 3 surahs of the Quran.
So chapter
112, chapter 113, chapter 114.
Also known as al Muawithat
These are known as the surahs of protection.
'Aud as we will get to when we
go word by word means to resort to
something for protection, resort to refuge or shelter
these are known as Al Muawwidhat.
So
the Surahs of protection,
why are they called the Surahs of protection?
Because the Prophet Sallallahu Alaihi Wasallam used to
recite them so many times
every single day as we will mention this
evening bi'ilillah
for protection.
And also because 2 out of these 3
surahs literally start with the word
I seek protection. So the majority of them
begin with an express statement explicitly
seeking
refuge or protection with Allah Subhanahu Wa Ta'ala.
So
the first of them is Surat Al Ikhlas
Kulhu Allahu Ahad. Surat Al Ikhlas or Surat
Al Samad or Surat Kulhu Allahu Ahad. This
is a 112th
Surah of the Quran
and this is
one of
the greatest
chapters in all of the book of Allah
Azzawajal
despite its brevity,
despite it being so brief.
To the point that the Prophet Sallallahu
Alaihi Wasallam said,
in an authentic hadith in fa'ina
ta'adeelu through tal Quran.
It is equivalent to 1 third of the
Quran.
Someone were to tell you and you didn't
know this hadith, what is equivalent to 1
third of the Quran? You'd think of 1
of the largest surahs. The the 100 plus
surahs, the first 7 surahs after Al Fatiha.
Something of this nature, right?
But it was Kulhu Allahu Ahad.
Due to the meanings in Kulhu Allahu Ahad
and the reward in Kulhu Allahu Ahad, it
is equivalent to 1 third of the Quran.
And in the other hadith of Mu'adhil Juhani
radiAllahu An, the Prophet Sallallahu Alaihi Wasallam said,
whomever recites Qulhu Allahu Ahad 10 times,
Allah Azzawajal
will build for him a mansion in paradise.
And so it was said that Umar radiAllahu
an
said, You Rasulullah ivan sanukfir.
In that case we're gonna do a lot
of this. Like this is a really good
deal. Like is there a limit on this
deal? Like 1 per customer or something? We're
gonna do a lot of this.
Allah is better
than you
at giving you more and Allah is more
giving than you can ever be doing. Allah
is more than you.
Just remember that, open ended.
And also we have in Sahih Muslim
of the great virtues of the Surah
is that they came and complained to the
prophet sallallahu alaihi wasallam that the man who
knows the most Quran out of us, every
time we have him lead the lead the
salah, lead the prayer because he knows more
Quran,
he does not
stop reciting Kulhu Allahu Ahad in every single
rakah.
It's like come on man, we like we
all know this surah, right? Like why this
surah?
He recited every rakah
not because of the shortest Surah. Maybe that's
the reason why we may recite it a
lot, right? In fact,
some narrations would say that what he would
recite whatever
and then recite
after
that before bowing. It doesn't mean that he
would recite it only
but he would not bow until
he recited
he had to
before he bowed, before he made ruku.
And so they sort of like blamed him
like stop doing this.
And he said listen, I'm gonna keep doing
this. If you don't like it find yourself
another imam.
I'm not putting this down. And so they
went and they complained to the prophet sallallahu
alaihi wasallam and so he said Salu
who? Ask him, Limay Faruzhalik, why does he
do that? Like what's his logic here?
And so they asked him and he said,
Inna hassifa tur Rahman
it is the description of God. It is
the
illustration if you will. The Sifa, the qualities
of the Most Merciful,
Ar Rahman Allah.
And that is why I love to recite
it.
I love to recite God's description. Is there
anything better than description of God?
And so the Prophet sallallahu alaihi wasallam said
approvingly,
akhbiruhu
go tell him that Allah loves him
because he loves that surah.
And he said go tell him and nahu
bahu iyaha
athkhalatuljannah
that his love of that surah has admitted
him meaning guaranteed for him admittal into paradise.
The great virtue of Qulhu Allahu Ahad.
And so what are the meanings of this
surah? We'll go by it little by little,
word by word as best we can, insha
Allah asking Allah to
ease our task. So it begins by saying
It's one of the surahs of the Quran
that begins with the word
and is the command verb for say. It's
commanding you, instructing you to say the following.
You know someone
overconfident in their intelligence can say Allah is
telling us say, so we're supposed to now
skip that word and just say what's after
that, right?
Some have actually said this, I don't mean
scholars.
And of course this would not be correct
because the prophet alaihis salatu wa sallam kept
repeating the word Qul.
He didn't do we understand the Quran better
than him? Sallallahu alaihi wasallam. He never stopped
saying say.
Alright?
And that brings us to an important point,
it's not just to be funny here.
Why did Allah aza wa Jal place the
word say there?
It's as if it's saying keep saying,
right? Or it's as if saying say to
everyone not just you. Get other people to
hear it and get other people to say
it, Echo it. Echo it and repeat it.
And it's also as if the it is
saying when someone asks you who is Allah,
say to them
it's like credibility.
It's like it's almost like a quotation. Right?
Allah has said for me to answer this
way. This is not even my preferred explanation
for who is God. No. No. No. Allah
has said, say,
the following when people are asking who he
is subhanahu wa ta'ala. Right?
But to bring it back to the the
the interpretation of echo, keep repeating this. We
see that in the
Minimum.
In the sunnah, the nafil before Fajr, the
morning prayer,
There's a Sunnah, there's a voluntary prayer we're
encouraged to pray before the Fajr prayer, right?
2 rakas.
The first rakah he would recite Khuluallahu ahad.
The second rakah he will recite
Khuluallahu
ahad, right? He would do that. Now, just
quickly, same exact practice one.
Maghrib and witter.
Okay?
So
the Maghrib prayer we just prayed, there's 2
rakas of recommended prayers, nafil sunnah, right? Mustahabrativa
whatever we call it. After we just prayed
them,
again. So, that's 2.
Then there's the way to the prayer
where he would often pray this
sallam. So that's 3. Look at how much
echoing of this surah is happening in a
Muslim day, in the prophetic day. Then what
else do we have?
No, no, more salah, more salah.
The 2 rakas behind Hijrah Maqam Ibrahim and
Tawaf, the 2 rakas of Tawaf. After you
go around the Kaaba, then you pray 2
rakas behind Maqam Ibrahim. The station of Ibrahim
you recite Khuliyahu al kafirun Punu Allahu Ahad.
Right? It's not necessarily the Muslim day but
look at how
how much primacy, how much emphasis he gave
to these these surahs. We have 4 now
places. Where else is it?
After fajr and after asr outside of the
prayer,
so he would pray it right before fajr
then offer his fajr. Then right after fajr
he used to sit in his place until
the sun rose and remember Allah azza wa
Jal. These are called al karu salbahee wal
masa which means the words of remembrance for
the morning and the evening before sunrise and
before sunset. These are prime times, prime hours
to remember God, to refresh your world view.
What are these avkaar? These avkaar are supposed
to be translations of what is in the
heart, right? And refreshers for what's supposed to
be in the heart. And so they are
to replenish for us the centrality of Allah
azza wa jal. So he's reciting them
3 times before sunrise, 3 times before sunset.
How much is that so far?
So we'll remove tawaf. I'll be nice.
123 then another 3,
that's 6, and another 3 before sunset, that's
9. Where else do we have qurrullah ahad?
After every salah, He would recite each of
the last 3 surahs once. So, when you
do your dhikr after salah, you also say,
Qur'Allahu Ahadrubbilfalakku aar bin nas each of those
3 surahs. So, that's 5 more. So we're
at what?
We're at 14.
Where else?
Bedtime. The Prophet alaihis salatu wa sallam would
recite these 3 surahs 3 times each and
blow into his hands and wipe over whatever
he could reach, meaning comfortably reach of his
body
of these 3 surahs. So that's how much?
Seventeen times a day at a minimum he
would be reciting,
Keep repeating these words. You know why? Because
we have to understand
that our tawheed, this is about the oneness
of Allah as you will say, the whole
surah is about the oneness of Allah azza
wa Jal. The oneness of Allah will continue
to get crowded in your heart until the
day you die if you're not on top
of it. It needs to be constantly maintained.
You mix with people and you mix with
life and its ups and downs and all
of this, right? You constantly need to refresh
this.
That's why he used to say in part
of the morning remembrances before sunrise,
a 100 times.
There's no God but
All control belongs to Him and all praise.
He controls it in the best way. And
all praise belongs to Him
and he's over all things capable. A 100
times. Sallallahu alaihi wa sallam. Because this is
necessary.
Otherwise your tawhid, the oneness of Allah and
its perfect form
is diminished, is eroded, is stained in the
hearts.
He
is
Allah. Allah is the personal name of God,
right?
Uhad.
Uhad is what?
What does Uhad mean?
Uhad means the distinctly one,
the uniquely one, the one and only.
It's not like 1 but we can divide
him by 3. It's 1. Alright?
That is the difference between the Arabic word
Wahid
which means 1 and ahad
which means 1 and full stop.
Indivisible,
unparalleled,
there's no room for anything else, ahad. Say,
He is Allah the 1 and only Subhanahu
Wa Ta'ala.
Allahu Samad.
He is Allah
Al Samad. What is Al Samad? Al Samad
is one of the great names of Allah
Subhanahu Wa Ta'ala
and I have to be careful not to
spend this entire hour on Allah's name as
Samad and there is a paper published by
the Akkien Institute on Allah's name as Samad
and I would refer you all back to
benefit to it to benefit from it. But
basically
the word Samad, the Arabs used the word
Samad about a few things. Okay?
And then Allah Azzawajal claimed this name as
solely His.
Okay?
They used to use the word Samad regarding
something that is solid,
meaning it doesn't have a it's not hollow.
Something it's not vacuous. It's not just a
shell with an empty, you know,
interior. So on something, that's why, you know,
in the salaf, the early Muslims when they're
explaining the word samad linguistically,
they would say
that which has no hollowness inside.
That's what it meant in the language. We'll
get back to how this all makes sense
later. Okay?
They used to also use the word Samad
to refer to
someone,
a soldier
that could withstand
others in the battle. He didn't need to
stop,
to rest, to eat, to drink. So if
a soldier can last for longer without a
water break, they would call him a Samad
soldier.
Samad to them. What what comes to mind?
This guy doesn't need much water. This guy's
impressive.
That was a description of the soldier that
can maintain without much liquids.
Okay?
And the word Samad also
referred to the one
that others
run that others resort to for help
Resort to for help. How does this all
tie in together? Anyone wanna try?
We're all an illusion. I don't wanna get
crazy here. But we are all an illusion.
Like we look like we have strength but
at the end of the day, we fall
apart. Right?
Something that is hollow looks like it's wood
but there was termites inside, right? It looks
like a log, looks like it's reliable. You
step on it, try to grab it, it
falls apart. Yes?
Allah
is the only true inherently,
intrinsically
knowledgeable, powerful,
capable, wise.
Right? It's not a veneer. It's not a
shell. It's not just an appearance. It's reality.
He is through and through. That's why ibn
Abbas radiAllahu anhu when they asked him what
does it mean that Allah is a Samad,
he gave like a long list.
He said,
the the most knowing that is perfect, he's
not hollow, it's not just like it's not
just a front, you know, perfect in his
knowledge and the most powerful that is perfect
in his power and the mow the eternally
living that is most perfect in his life.
His life is perfect. Right?
Utterly independent,
utterly flawless Subhanahu Wa Ta'ala. That is the
idea.
And that means he's not even dependent on
time which means he can last. He outlasts
everyone. Subhanahu Wa Ta'ala. Right?
And because no one else is like that,
remember the third meaning of asamad now? Everyone
has to resort to him to compensate for
their deficiencies.
Everyone has to resort back to Him to
compensate for their hollowness,
right, for the the the thinness of their
abilities, their competence, their independence, none of that.
It's all just a shell.
And so that is the meaning of Allah
being a Samad. That's why, you know,
if you go through translations of the Quran
after you heard this explanation, I hope it'll
all make sense. Some translations say Allahu Samad,
God the eternal refuge.
Everyone goes to him. Right? Or they'll say,
God the sustainer because he's the one that's
not sustained. He's the sustainer.
He doesn't need food, drink, water, friends. He
doesn't need anything. Where so he's the one
that doesn't need anyone or anything at any
time
and is the one that is needed by
everyone and everything at every time.
Makes sense? We're good now? So that is
the meaning of he's the one and only
and he is a Samad.
You know of the beautiful
points mentioned here regarding Allah's name, a Samad,
Is that As Samad is the name of
Allah, is a name of Allah that only
appears once in the whole Quran.
Some of the names of Allah only appear
once in the whole Quran.
Why does it appear only once in the
whole Quran?
Some have said because it's something we all
already know.
We all know that there's a supreme. We
all know deep down inside there's this higher
power, this superior
that we resort to when push comes to
shove. It is in our fitra
even if you don't know the pronunciation of
the word samad, we all recognize a God
as someone that is Samad,
someone that is reliable, someone that is dependable,
someone that is independent of any needs.
Right? This is of the explanations.
Another reason why
is worth stopping at the name of Samad.
Why is it mentioned only once in the
Quran? They said this is of the ajaz
of the Quran,
of the inimitable
nature of the Quran.
If you recall when we were speaking in
the past
about what makes the Quran so amazing. We
said the Quran you can actually show prove
that Muhammad could never have spoken it Sallallahu
alaihi wa sallam because his everyday words
mathematically,
sorry to use it,
don't match the Quran. Like if you take
all of the vocabulary of the Quran and
then all of the vocabulary of Sahil Bukhari
it's impossible that these are all from the
same person. You can't censor yourself and use
these words for one book
and other words for another
book, another audience
for 23 years and never slip.
Remember we mentioned something about the experiments that
they made called author discrimination. They basically build
the software and they put these, you know,
different literary pieces together like Quran and Bukhari
and they say there's no way. No human
being can
avoid using
a you 60% of the words in the
Quran are not in Bukhari or vice versa.
It's humanly impossible to actually do that for
long spans of time. Right?
So,
the Quran being so different from the ahadith,
the everyday talk of the Prophet SAW Alaihi
Wasallam,
right?
Proves that it could not have been him,
could not have been him. But regarding Allah's
name as Samad,
this is not now the Quran with the
Hadith.
Every surah of the Quran, this is mind
blowing,
every surah of the Quran without exception the
scholars have said
contains one word that does not exist
in any other Surah of the Quran.
That's humanly impossible.
Right? You you have one unique word for
every Surah
that won't exist anywhere else. In this Surah
is a it is a summit. You you
won't find it anywhere else. And other surahs
are kawthar, you'll never find a kawthar anywhere
else in the Quran, right?
So Allahu Samad, Allah is the eternal, the
refuge that is resorted to the
one that is
sufficient, self sufficient and he suffices everyone else.
He is the one that has no needs
and fulfills every need. Allahu Samad.
Lam means he does not give birth, nothing
emerges from him.
And he did not emerge from anyone. He
was not given birth to.
And you know this is not just about
like childbearing. This is, you know, in Greek
philosophy, they talk about emanation theory. That's sort
of where did the universe come from. And
that's why
Aristotle used to believe that the universe is
eternal. It just emanates from God. Right? And
God is eternal. Right? And so this idea
was held by many people. It wasn't just
the Christians who said Jesus is the son
of God. No. The Jews said, Uzair is
the son of God. And the the pagan
Arabs would say the daughters, the angels are
the daughters of God. And some of the
the Greek philosophers said, the universe
you you hear it making a comeback nowadays.
We are the universe. The universe is God.
Right? The universe has been good to me
or not been good to me. Right?
To blur the lines
between the creator and the creation as if
they can stem from each other
as if they are 1 and the same.
This is what the Quran came to say
absolutely not. No. Allah is unique.
You see, you know, because if you think
about it, if this surah is about how
uniquely perfect Allah is, is it a perfection
or an imperfection to have children?
This is saying Allah doesn't have children. Right?
Nothing is birthed from God. Right? He doesn't
give birth to anything.
If a human being were incapable of having
children,
is that a good thing or a bad
thing?
It's it's an imperfection. Right?
So then how are we attributing it to
God as a perfection?
Let's go.
Get the get the mental muscle out.
Yeah.
Our children compensate our deficiency.
I'm not gonna be around forever so I
make kids
or sort of like I have a need
for, you know, feeling,
paternity or maternity, the blessing of fatherhood, the
blessing. So I'm I'm I'm my needs are
fulfilled by the child. And that's why it's
sort of a good thing to have a
child. Right?
Whether emotionally, whether in terms of spending on
me, whether in terms of carrying on my
legacy
to see someone extension of me, look like
me, work for me, fulfill me.
But does God
have
any hollowness to him? Does he need to
be fulfilled?
No. He's a Samad.
Right? He's not going anywhere.
He has no needs.
If he's unique, then a child by default
resembles the parent. Right?
And so that is why it would be
a defect
for a God to have a child because
that would be contrary to His uniqueness.
His ahadiyah Allahu Ahad
contrary to His Samadiyah
Allahu Samad
and that's why it would be illogical. It
would be an imperfection for God to
have been born or to give birth.
Does this make sense? We're good?
Okay.
You know how the prophet Sallallahu Alaihi Wasallam
said
Fatima tu bibhaatum minni Fatima is a part
of me.
Whoever angers her has angered me. Right? Alaihi
Salaam.
A child is a part of the parent.
You can't separate.
But the whole idea is God is uniquely
unique and separate. You God is perfect and
distinct. Subhanahu Wa Ta'ala.
And that is why the Quran as well
when it is condemning those who attribute children
to God,
it says,
How could there be for him a child?
Right? How? What what does it mean as
a child?
It is unbefitting
for you to think about God that way
is the idea here.
And you know this this
let us conclude this Surah first. The last
verse says, lam yadu walam yulad, he does
not give birth nor was he given birth
to walam yakun lahu kufu an ahad And
there is nothing that is a kufu or
a kufu meaning an equal
arrival to Him Subhanahu Wa Ta'ala. You know,
this is one of the fundamental
factors
that contributes
to people's misguidance past and present.
That they want
to compare God to themselves.
You know,
he died like 500 years before the common
era. I believe his name was Xenophanes.
Also ancient Greek philosopher. He speaks about something
he noticed that every civilization I go to
the people make their gods look just like
them.
He said, like you go to Africa, they
give the god that they draw the statue
Athenians,
they're gonna give god blonde hair and blue
eyes and that's why the Eurocentric
Jesus looks like that. He has European features,
right? When he was from the
Middle East is still a European word by
the way. Right? Because middle of where? East
of where? Right? Middle East is still Eurocentric
by the way. But he's from the lands
of Palestine. Right? He's from the
the lands of Palestine.
And so every
that he says actually, Xenophane says something very
interesting. He says
that
and if,
if the
horses
and I think he said the cows or
he said the the donkeys
were to make idols, statues, they would have
made them looking like horses and donkeys.
He says just everyone wants to make God
sort of subservient
to how they look.
And there there's reasons for this. Maybe a
heightened sense of self, but also you wanna
feel extra familiar with God. Right? And that's
why one of the tests
of of the human being is to believe
in an unseen God.
Yes. We have 99 names for God. We
have all access through them to have a
personal relationship with Him. Right? But you can't
see Him. You can't depict Him. He's beyond
that. Subhanahu wa ta'ala.
And so one of the fundamental factors back
to it of misguidance
is to assume that God is like you.
You know it was said that one of
the reasons why the Surah was revealed
is that they came to the prophet sallallahu
alaihi wa sallam and they kept asking him.
Some people said to him, sif lana rabbik,
describe to us God what does he look
like.
So we can decide whether to accept him
as the God or not. Right? They're gonna
be measuring him against what? Against themselves. They
are the reference point.
In another narration,
they it could have been another instance because
one narration is from the Jews, another narration
is from the big ends, could have been
twice because this is normal. This is like
something everyone does. They said to him,
give us the ancestry of your Lord.
What family does he belong to? Because they're
a tribal society. So if he's from a
big family, we might accept. If he's not
from a big family, we're really sorry. We
we can't sign on to this.
Right? And so Allah azza wa jal imagine
sends down suratul Ikhlas in response to this
to tell them snap out of it. This
whole idea that God is subjected
to your
metrics. Right? God is subjected to your
even the idea of the atheist when they
say but who created God,
snap out of it. You're assuming
that the cause and effect that's part of
your world
applies to the creator of your world. Sorry,
doesn't apply there.
The creator doesn't have a creator.
Right?
The one who created cause and effect does
not have a cause.
And that is logically consistent by the way.
But the idea is even the question of
what created God is because everything you know
emanated jazakalokayo,
emanated from something else.
And so and the surah ends there saying
walam yakun lahu and there is never for
him
any equal. So it's just like Allah is
the only one
and in case there's any doubt left in
you, it's as if you're asking, okay, he's
unique and he's perfect. Okay. Is there anyone
like him? No. There's no kufa for him.
There's no other way. There's no other God.
There's you have no other options but to
believe in this one.
Any questions on this?
Okay, moving on. I want to try to
sort of condense a little bit
with Al Falak and Nas. So, Al Falak
and Nas we said are called Al Mu'aw
with attain. The 2 surahs that begin with
meaning
I which means I
seek
protection.
And they are essentially
2 appeals you're appealing to Allah through these
2 Surahs to protect you.