A Thematic Commentary On The Quran #29

Smilla Rahmanir Rahim Al hamdu Lillahi Rabbil Alameen wa salatu salam ala Sayidina Muhammad in while the early he was happy he had Jemaine we're back.

So welcome to the Friday halacha. And we are still commenting on Surah Al Mati decimal number five in the Quran. And we have come to the set of verses starting with verse number 27. And the segment of the surah talks about the story of the two children of Adam

Alayhis Salam, or Bill and hubby.

And this is Abel and Cain. And this is a very beautiful story for us to actually reflect upon benefit from and since we are making a thematic commentary, sometimes you might notice that we are going a little bit fast and sometimes we're just taking our time because when we see a lesson that is worth sort of stopping by and spending time with where we can draw some practical lessons. I think it's worth doing that

so probably today we're going to dwell for a while on this beautiful story of the sons of Adam and try to draw as many lessons as possible from it.

So it starts with what's reality him never been a Adam I'd be happy if Ottawa O'Bannon fair to have been I mean, a hottie Hema Wella muta pub, Ballymena Haleakala Abdullah neck, Paula enamel Jakob Allahu Minnelli Mata teen

relate to them the truth or profit

or relate to them in truth or profit the story of Adams two sons how each offered a sacrifice, an act of devotion to Allah subhanho wa taala.

April's offering was accepted while Keynes was not so keen threatened, I will kill you.

His brother his brother replied God only accepts the offering of the sincerely devout

the imbecile Taylor Yeah, that can eat up to La Nina and Abby basically Yediot uniquely Aktueller in the half Hola. Hola, Bella. And I mean, if you raise your hand to kill me, I will not raise mine to kill you because I fear God, the Lord of all worlds in New York to undergo IVF me What if my catheter called me and I was having now with Lika Jazza or violin in

I want to let you bear the sin or bear your sin against me along with your other sins, then you will be one of those destined to the fire. And that is the reward of the wrongdoers. For Babu Atala who never got a fee for Katella HuFa also the Hamina has hidden

yet Cain convinced himself to kill his brother. So he killed him becoming thereby a loser.

For bathala hora being your battlefield RW RIA who okay for you worry. So, as he called layaway letter, I just do an akuna Mithila hurdle or IB February. So at Fe for us the Hamina nerdy mean, then God sent a CRO digging a grave in the ground for a dead crow in order to show him how to bury the corpse of his brother. He cried LS have I even failed to be like the scroll and bury the corpse of my brother. So he became regretful a very profound and powerful story. And again, this takes us to the principle that we reiterated many times. The Quran is not about entertainment, although we might find it entertaining, like the deeper we connect to the Quran, the more entertaining we're

going to find it. But again, it's not a book of entertainment. It's a book of guidance, and clear science. It's a book of light. And it's a book of lessons for us to learn. And these lessons are extremely beneficial and helpful in our journey to Allah subhanaw taala. So Allah tells us the story of the two sons of Adam, Abel and Cain.

And the story doesn't mention so many details now in the in the in the Bible, you're going to find more details. And again, we don't know how authentic or how accurate these details are. So as Muslims, Allah, we believe that what Allah gave us in the Quran are the details that we need more details would not be helpful in terms of lessons so Allah gave us what we need in the Quran here. So Allah says, to Prophet Muhammad Sallallahu Sallam convey to people the story or the great story and the news of the two sons of Adam,

when each one of them made an offering to Allah, which is an act of sacrifice, or an act of devotion, to show obedience and compassion

Lance with the law of Las Panatela to to express their devotion and their obedience to Allah subhanaw taala. So Allah accepted from one and did not accept from the other. And we know that the one that Allah accepted from is called haben Abel. And the, the son whose sacrifice was raised was rejected was Adil. Okay.

And it might seem, and this happens as well, even for people who read the Arabic language, people assume, Oh, Allah accepted the sacrifice of one of them, but rejected the sacrifice of another

as if this is a random act of choosing, but we have to see everything that Allah subhanaw taala does, within the context of his names and attributes, that he is fair and just that he is merciful. And that He is all knowing, and he's wise. So since Allah subhanaw taala, rejected canes or carbines offering, because it is not something to be accepted the way he offered it, or the manner in which he offered it or what he offered, or maybe the intention with which he offered, or anything that is related to this act of offering, turned it null and void, turned it useless. It, it actually beat the purpose of the whole offering. And that made it without any value. That's why it was rejected.

Whereas the offering or the act of devotion that was fulfilled and

completed by heavy by April, was mid conditions. And it was sincere, it was done according to the, the the divine order, and thus it was accepted. Had RBL or Kane made his offering, meeting the same conditions, there would have been, it would have been accepted. And well that shows with Allah subhanaw taala there's no favoritism Allah, Allah subhanaw taala does not favor us based on our skin color, based on our agreeableness, based on

our background, based on how humorous we are, or off we have a very light pleasant color character. It's not about that. The criteria with the criteria with allotments are based on one thing and that stuff Allah the Prophet salallahu Salam says in the Hadith,

I love Allah Allah been Jimmy and Jimmy and I'll be there is no merit. There is no status for an Arab over an Arab or an Arab over an Arab wala Li Li Li Morales was with like for red person over a black person or black person over a red person or etc. No merit for any person except for Taqwa.

In a chronicle in the law here at Qualcomm, the most noble among you, the most dignified people among you are the ones with more Taqwa that's the only criterion and parameter with which Allah spent Allah judges people. So had Cain made an offering out of taqwa, out of sincerity, done in the with the right intention, according to the commands of Allah subhanaw taala, they would have been accepted.

But obviously, he did not meet the conditions and thus, they were rejected. And instead of corbeil, or Cain,

learning from his mistake, he actually did something that Satan or IBLEES

had done previously, which was when Allah subhanaw taala commanded the angels, and in their company was a bliss, Satan, when Allah commanded them to prostrate before Adam, all of them did, but it bliss rejected and refused to obey the divine command. And when Allah subhanaw taala questioned him about this, he actually blamed Allah for it. He said, Febby men have a wait any Oh Allah, because you sent me astray. You pushed me astray, by forcing me to, or expecting me to prostrate before Adam when I don't want to do that, or I'm not convinced of that again. So he had the guts to blame Allah for his own blunder for his own mistake. And that's exactly the mistake that cane or RB has fallen

into. And that was, instead of instead of him considering or trying to take the rejection of his offering as feedback that there is something wrong you did that violated your act of sacrifice, which you need to fix, and then it will be accepted. So you need to fix your ways. Take it as feedback, don't take it. Don't take it personally. He didn't do that. And instead, he looked at his brother with a sense of envy. Why was you offering accepted and mine was not so instead of looking at the real, genuine reasons as to

why his sacrifice or offering was rejected. He actually lied to himself by taking it personally, and blaming it on his brother. So as if his brother became the, the barrier between his offering and Allah subhanaw taala. And his logic basically works something like this, had you not been there or my brother and had not had you not really made a better offering, my offering would have been accepted. So you because you are so good, you became the barrier, you became a very you became the standard according to which Allah is judging me. And all of this basically is nonsensical. But again, this is an act of taking things personally then playing the victim, and blaming and blaming

someone else for for your mistakes. And that's what she binded or Satan, when he did bliss, he actually he turned the blame on Allah subhanaw taala. And on Adam, so he said to Allah, You sent me astray, by expect me expecting me to prostrate to Adam, when I actually I don't like Adam, I don't have any sense of respect for him, I have only hatred and envy towards him. And then what he did, because this is what happened, what Satan decided to do, he decided to destroy himself.

In in the process of destroying Adam. So he blamed Adam, ultimately, for his fall for his for his folly. And then he decided to take revenge against Adam, by holding Adam responsible for the situation that Satan

was now in. Again, it's all it's the whole blame game. It's a whole playing the victim, and shifting the blame to innocent to innocent people. That's what kn o kabhi. Did here. That's exactly the same mistake, instead of looking and fixing, looking at his own mistake trying to fix it, and then get his offering accepted. He actually he blamed.

He blamed his brother happy are able and you will find this across the board. So for example, we have Prophet Lord alayhi, Salam

when because he was someone who did not engage in homosexuality, and, and in unethical sexual behaviors, and completely messed up lifestyle. And he advises people to give up on this and lead a healthy, decent, ethical lifestyle. And he called them to the worship of Allah subhanaw taala. What did they say instead of taking his words, or at least giving his words a chance, or give him a benefit of the benefit of the doubt and try to see freely He has a point. Instead, they actually blamed him and they said, a courage or an open mind Korea to come in homeowners when you talk about heroin, you know, kick, loot, and his household, kick them out of your town, these are people who

try to purify themselves. And you again, you probably want to see this being said in a very sarcastic way, are they trying to be pure, right, they're trying to be righteous, they're trying to be better than us. So let's kick them out of this town. So instead of reflecting upon the state of themselves, and and at least, you know, verifying, maybe, maybe we are upon something wrong, maybe what he's offering us is better than that maybe he has a sincere advice to give us instead of doing doing this, they actually again, they played the victim card, they shifted the blame on loot, that he's trying to be so righteous with his people. And he he's setting himself as a standard. And

obviously, they know deep down that they cannot meet that standard. So in order to remove that source of pain, and that Inner Inner torture, that said, let's get rid of the standard completely. So we have no reminder of the good standard. You will find this by the way, across the board, you find the brothers of use of Prophet Joseph and he said and

they said or use of is seems to be dearer to our father than us. So

if we get rid of use of our father would start to love us again use have had no nothing to be blamed for here.

Use Valley son was just an innocent child. And he was a very good child. And instead of them just

seeing it as a very simple act of love from a father to his son. They actually thought oh, we want love for ourselves. And we have use of to blame so let's get rid of him and the love of our father would now would flow to us. That's exactly what the same attitude that Kobe is playing here. And he's saying basically, Oh, happy. You're so good that you're making

may look bad and you will find this in every society, you will find this probably in every family, when you are doing something good when you are being a very good standard, you will find people are not comfortable with you being around. Why? Because you're exposing them just by your example, just by you doing the right thing. And this shows by the way, that being a pride, that following a healthy lifestyle, being morally

you know, reasonable and leading, again, a moral lifestyle and having a great good level of character is a very powerful thing. It speaks volumes without you opening your mouth. Because this kind of human presence, according to ethical principles, according to the truth, according to the standards of the Creator of the heavens and the earth, is a very powerful presence. And again, it speaks louder than words. So it's a very powerful act of that word, by the way.

So

So Kabila is not happy. And he instead of again, seeing where the problem is, and trying to fix it, he actually decides to mask that situation. Again, that's what happens when you lie to yourself. And by the way, we all do this, but maybe to a lesser degree, oftentimes, we don't like seeing the faults within ourselves, or we all see our mistakes, and fix them. We're more comfortable, because it's emotionally, psychologically, it's painful to recognize that we have done something wrong, it's painful to see ourselves on the wrong, it's a huge burden, we feel as if it's a huge burden to fix ourselves after we have done so much. So we find it as an escape to blame something external, and

play dumb, in a sense, the problem that this is a lie, and it doesn't go so far, it just takes us in the wrong direction, it makes us bring about a lot of damage, that is very hard to fix afterwards. And then it's it takes us away from the right course of action. So our bill does basically what he does, he decides to kill his brother, he says, I shall kill you. So his brother clarified to me, he said, You know, it's not about me or you. It's not personal. It is a matter of

Allah subhanaw taala accepts people who do things with according to the right standards, with the right intention, and the right manner of, of practice and in law accepts from and motor pain. If you extend your hand to meet to call me, you, basically, you, you really attempt to kill me, I'm not going to kill you.

I'm not going, I'm not going to defend myself in that state, I'm just going to let you do what you want. Because again, you have to realize, a ver time, there was a Sharia, and it was a different

legal code than what we have now in Islam. So it seems at the time that you could not, it seems, even in the end, then attempt to defend yourself. And, and with the potential with the potential outcome of you killing the aggressor, that maybe was not acceptable. Or maybe it was just an extra level of righteousness from able or heavy,

to completely avoid any possibility of him committing a crime like that. So he said, If you extend your hand to call me, I'm not going to fight back, I'm not going to engage in the same Act of, or in a similar act of aggression. I fear Allah, the Lord of the woods. And that shows there was something about her being, and it shows, it's the same essence that made his act of devotion or his sacrifice accepted by Allah subhanaw taala. Because it shows that he was acting from a place of glorifying Allah, a place of understanding the worth of Allah subhanaw taala. So it was something that led his decisions and led his actions. It was a very, it had a heavy presence in his life, that it informed

and it shaped his subsequent behavior.

So, so he said, I'm not going to engage in that act of aggression, or a similar act of aggression. I fear Allah subhanaw taala that he says, and here's this is the verse number 29, where many people actually misunderstand and this shows that

today, even those who speak the Arabic language, don't have a very good appreciation of the Arabic language, he says, in the audio interview with me where it make effort to call him in as Herbie. Now when Daddy catches up with volume in many people understand this. And the very surface or shallow I would say, understanding of what that means, as if it says, I want you to bear the sin of my murder, and your own sins, so that you end up in the hellfire. And this is the border. This is the outcome or the final place of the wrongdoers and some people think

that have been are able, he wanted his brother to go to the Hellfire as if he wants that to happen as if it was like something he was looking forward to. And I think we have to clarify, clarify this here.

One second.

So he basically says, he says, I am going to allow you, I'm going to let this happen. I'm not going to resist it. If you decide to take this very huge step of attempting to murder me, I'm going to let you bear the sin of that if that's your choice, and you're going to bear that sin and the sin previous sins that you have done. And obviously, some of them are related to the offering that was that had been rejected by Allah subhanaw taala.

And then he says fit a corner make us happy now. Here for those who understand Arabic there is fat, fat Hakuna many people think fat here means so that you end up in the Hellfire Ziff able once his brother to end up in the hellfire. But this fat in the Arabic language is called fat. And Atiba is basically this letter this preposition in Arabic language fat, it shows outcome, his he sent his brother, if you extend your hand to cure me, this is going to lead you to the hellfire. So he's just explaining this the consequences of the actions of his brother if he decides to go ahead with the act of murder.

Yet this did not deter Kane or Adil from trying to murder his brother and that's actually what he goes to do. And look at the beautiful Quranic expression where Allah says furball words level enough so bachelor fee for Katella who for us Bohannon has seen in football, what the word here

his self, his self.

Curved as if,

as if you have, let's say you have

a wire, if you have a wire, and you curb the wire in a way,

in order for example, maybe to make a knot or to your curb the wire, in order to insert it into like a socket. This is the expression Allah is using fatawa. So his, his self

bent his very nature bent his very nature, in order to make him go ahead with the murder. What does that mean? That means Subhanallah that his sense of envy and jealousy towards his brother,

his sense of blame towards his brother, and lack of self awareness and criticism,

and his sense of aggression.

All of those took over his system and made him do something that is naturally

that he's that his nature would naturally resist.

So his nature as a human being, which is against murder, like murder is a huge departure from human nature. It's, it's, it's a great it's a very huge undertaking. It's not an easy, it's not like drinking a cup of water is not like, you know, waving your hand is a very huge thing. It's a very huge crime. So, his desires, his envy, his jealousy, his sense of aggression, all of this messed up system that he allowed to overtake him, curbed his human nature to make him commit such an atrocity.

And this is a lesson for all of us, that if a person does not take control of their desires, their sense of desire, which is a shower, which is in every human being, and if a person does not take control over this natural sense of aggression, because all of us have the sense of aggression, we have this desire and we have aggression, and from aggression comes envy, jealousy, hatred, animosity,

and pride. And from desire comes our greed and our our overwhelming desires and our indecency. So if you let these desires or these forces control you and you do not control them with your Eman, they're going to change your human nature and make you commit atrocities. unthinkable things. They will facilitate in other verses.

Like for example, last winter season so let's eliminate the beginning of salt and lemon. In Medina you may not have been accurate is a urinal.

Those who did not believe in the hereafter. We have beautified their deeds for them. And this is something about humans Allah says another verse, What Can daddy because a urinal equally omitted Amanda home, we have beautified for every people their actions. So there is something about humans that you have to understand your actions are always beautified to you, especially before you do them. So this is a weakness in humans, we always have a way to rationalize and beautify our actions and decisions. So that's what Kobe did. His desires, his envy, his hatred, curbed and changed his own nature, and made his human nature which is supposedly good, it turned it off track and made him

do he used his forces natural forces to do something that is against the purity of the human nature. So he committed a crime for the word low enough. So he so his desires his eagle, beautified and facilitated and made it easy for him and accessible for him, the murder of his brother the killing of his brother, which is naturally

very like, which we have a natural resistance to. For Katella. We ended up murdering him. And thus he became from among the losers. And then Allah subhanaw taala sent a CRO to bury a dead CRO just to show him by example, how to bury the dead body of the corpse of his brother, what can we learn from the story before we close because my friend is coming near.

Where we can learn is that there are so many lessons. Firstly, there are so many lessons in the Quran that we should read with reflection in order to try to get them. Number two to see that

we humans have a weakness that if we play the blame game, it defies the very purpose of our existence, which is to take responsibility to make choices. The moment you you play the blame card, the moment you take up, the more it's the moment you distance yourself away from your sense of choice, which Allah gave us in order to practice in this life. Number two, if you are someone who blames others, most likely, you're going to commit more mistakes, the same mistakes, and others. And

what we can see as well that even brothers can end up in a state of enmity like this. These are brothers who were born to the same father and mother. And you can see that basically shape on by blowing into human desires and sense of aggression. Shaitan can really get humans to hate one another conspire against one another and commit so much evil. So the reason for why people become really bad, and commit unthinkable atrocities is their desire, and their sense of aggression and their personal ambition. And this is something that makes that should make us very careful as we go about life that we do not allow our desires, and our ego, to take control of our lives and our

decisions. Because if we live from our ego, from our desires, from our sense of aggression, from our sense of self importance, then it's very easy to be blinded to the reality of things and play the victim and see innocent people, as criminals, and as villains. And then we will justify, you know, committing atrocities against them. And that's basically what happens with the far right, as they try to make for example, make some naive people feel, you know, threatened feel that they are victim feel that there is a real threat by this ethnicity, or this religion. And these people they want to take over, they want to destroy you, they want to take your land, they want to kill you, they have a

plot and they have a plan to take over the world, right? They create that so they they blow into the sense of victimhood. So you are a victim you are a target and they blow into the self importance and thus the increase and catalyze their sense of aggression and defense. And then they promise them desires of you know, when you get rid of these people, you will live a very good life a very healthy, wealthy life and you will have everything problems will go away. So they act on these things. And then when these naive people just, you know, buy into this, it becomes easy for them to kill innocent people commit atrocities. And it also a lesson we can learn here is as you see, you

know, even good people can end up

If they allow their desires to take the better of them, they can actually end up in a committing such atrocities brothers can hate one another can kill one another can fight one another. And if you look at Muslims today, you know, there's a lot there's, there's so many reasons why Muslims are not united among themselves, why Muslims, you know, stand against one another, why brothers sometimes hate one another and plot against one another. So.

So we should always be aware of this weakness in us humans that if we do not keep ourselves in check, it is easy for us to slip into being evil. It's not difficult for humans to become evil. By the way, it's not difficult for humans to commit heinous crimes, it's very easy, very easy, and there's something we shouldn't forget. And it makes us humble that there is an evil side in us there is a beast inside of us. And it can be easily instigated and activated. So we shouldn't feel always so good, like we so innocent. This is actually this is a very naive understanding of humans. And this is why we have to keep ourselves in check. And this is why you find Islam that the Quran tells

the Muslims when they have power, when they are given power. They are supposed to act with so much humility, and with justice, and they should not transgress and the remit very, there's a lot of limitations. There's a lot of restrictions on Muslims, when they gain the upper hand. Why? Because power makes us very proud, very haughty, and it blinds us to the evil side of us. And we can commit atrocities we can be carried away with power. So this is why you find in the Quran. There's a lot about adult a lot of advice to Muslims, that and I think this came in Surah Nisa that when the Muslims became more powerful, Allah said to them, you know, when you travel the land, and you see

some people who give you Salam,

you might think, Oh, they're just giving you Salam, because they want to say like, don't mess with us, right? They're just trying to be nice to you are Muslims, because you have power and they, they don't want you to sort of commit any kind of aggression against them. So some Muslims were actually very aware of this and they will say, Are you Muslims or not? And they will inquire more and they would scrutinize these people more. The last one which Allah tells the Muslims don't do that. Well, at all, Lululemon Elkhart, Lake Como Salaam and Esther moment, I do not say to people who tell you Salam Alikum Oh, you're not a really a Muslim.

Why? Because it's very easy when you have power. When you are given power, it's very easy to abuse it. And look at the Prophet Muhammad SAW Selim, when he conquered Mecca, when he took over Mecca, and the people and the people who had tried to kill him many times. They were right in front of him, he could do anything he wants with them, he put his head down as he was entering Mecca, to the point that the tip of his beard was touching the head over his,

the head of his horse, or his camel. And, and he made tawaf in a state of humility. Why to teach conquerors, that victory comes from Allah. And if you human ascribe power to yourself, it's very easy to slip into abusing this power and commit atrocities. So we ask Allah subhanaw taala to keep us upon the straight path and keep us away from abusing whatever he's given us and help us take control of the sense of, of these desires that are natural within us and the sense of aggression that is also natural within us and help us

follow the path that he's most pleased with. So to this, I mean here we come to the end of today's Halaqaat. Again, we just took a small part because it was very important. And Sharla next week, we will carry on with more from Surat Al Qaeda JazakAllah cannon for joining us. And BarakAllahu li comm for your time. Salaam Alaikum Warahmatullahi Wabarakatuh