Moutasem al-Hameedy – The Monumental Tafsir #60 Surah Al Hadid
AI: Summary ©
The speakers discuss the misunderstandings of the concept of justice in Islam, including its negative impact on individuals and the importance of faith and the use of the word "naive" in the Arabic language. They emphasize the importance of learning Islam and the importance of protecting religion, while also addressing the importance of the heart and its driving force in achieving success. The speakers stress the importance of avoiding rushing to accomplish things and not overthinking the words of Allah.AI: Transcript ©
We continue with Surat Al Hadid,
and,
I believe we started reading from verse
25 to 27,
and we I was just sort of making
the commentary on on that,
but
we did not finish.
So we'll try to pick up from where
we left off.
Hopefully, that would be the point.
I think we reached the point in verse
number 25 where Allah says
Allah says we have sent our messengers with
the clear signs, clear proofs,
and we sent with them
the book
revelation.
All messengers received revelation from Allah subhanahu
wa ta'ala.
Right?
And we talked about al mizan
and what it means. Right?
Justice,
the concept of justice, the concept of balance,
right, which really, like the whole world runs
on this principle,
The principle
of
justice. The principle of justice. And it's
a big problem when people try to implement
Islam, which is based
on justice,
and is an implementation of the principle of
justice, because justice is a divine principle.
One of the names of Allah is Al
Adl.
So some sometimes people hold on to some
instructions,
right, or some kind of apparent meaning to
the negligence
of how this
instruction fits within an ecology
of other instructions, of the whole Islamic system.
And you can't apply you can't that that
would be an act of contradiction.
Islam
with injustice,
that's contradiction in terms.
That is contradiction in terms. And
all of the Muftaddiyah
in the history of Islam,
their problem,
main problem was
that they broke Al Mizan,
justice.
So the Khawarij,
when you listen to their arguments they seem
to be powerful.
Why? Because all their arguments what was the
arguments of the Khawarij?
Quran.
All of it Quran
and sometimes Hadith.
And they used it against the Companions
That puzzles you.
A lot of the Muftali are of today
as well, a lot of their arguments,
a lot of their discussions
is what? Quran
and Hadith.
So you'd say how come? Yes.
You can take
what is true and apply it in a
way that breaks justice. Al mizan.
Al adal.
Break that. And that would be injustice.
That would be
injustice and that would be against Islam. That
would be an abuse
of Islam. So you would apply a verse
and neglect another verse.
Right?
You don't see how a verse functions within
as we said a system or an ecology
of other verses and a hadith. This is
how fiqh is made.
This is how fiqh is derived from the
principles. Many people have this naive idea that
fiqh is what?
Oh, 1 hadith,
take the ruling, that's the ruling.
Period.
No, that's not how fiqh works.
Actually some of the scholars they said it's
a bid'ah that people started to take a
text on the apparent meaning of a text
and arrive at a ruling. That's not how
fiqh is is derived.
The companions didn't do this.
And you actually sometimes,
and I
you you come across this many times, but
and then there is you find the companions
and many of the companions
in public
don't seem to have done what the hadith
says.
So there are hadith that have an imperative
command, do this.'
So this is 'Amr'. 'Amr' in the Arabic
language in Surafiq imperative
do, right? It means obligation unless there is
what? There is another indication
that removes it from command
to recommendation.
Right?
And there are the principle on Sur Al
Fakk,
Okay? So the command is for means obligation,
means obligation,
unless there is another indication
that removes it from obligation, either to recommendation
or something else.
So, there would be a hadith from the
prophet salallahu alaihi wa sallam and then someone
would
see, 'Okay, so that's the ruling. You have
to do this.'
But when you check you find that the
companions
some of them,
abided by
the apparent meaning of the hadith, some of
them didn't.
Then you would find someone who just started
studying Islam. When I said just started studying
Islam, I mean a few years.
That could be up to 10 years.
And if that person is not studying well,
it could be up to 30 years. They're
still a beginner, right? And they would say,
you know, we don't take,
or who do you follow? The companions or
the Prophet sallallahu alaihi wa sallam?
That's not a question to be asked. Who
do you think the companions followed? Oh, you
think you're more you're you're you're more eager
to follow the prophet, salallahu alaihi wa sallam,
than the companions?
But it's what? The lack of knowledge.
The lack of knowledge.
When
the
companions
when there is a hadith and the actions
of the companions don't seem many
of the companions don't seem
to abide by it. And this action
is known among the companions to be practiced.
And there is no one who says, oh
you you have to abide by this hadith.
Like the companions did not give advice
about that. What does that mean? That means
the understanding of the companions that this is
not an
obligation. Because this in itself is a proof.
This is why the scholars say we follow
the Quran and the Sunnah based on the
understanding of
the companions, the early generations. That's what it
means.
This is what it means. Otherwise
we'd end up being like the Khawarij.
We'll use our own mindset which is again
we said problematic in many ways. We'll use
it to interpret the Quran and the Sunnah.
We would arrive at conclusions that are far
from what the prophet salallahu alaihi wasalam, his
companions radiallahu alaihi wasalam, practiced.
Okay. So
this is al Adil. This is al Mizan.
So people establish justice, and everything in Islam
is justice.
Every ruling in Islam, every instruction in Islam
is justice. The moment it departs from justice,
it's
and we send down Iron
and with Iron there is so much strength
There is some bas sun shalid. Bes means
strength, and it means
the power to destroy,
The power to destroy.
And that's true.
And you would see that
iron, and this many scholars say this includes
metals in general.
Metals in general
are used in a lot of in a
lot of areas of our life for a
lot of utilities, a lot of tools.
And here it talks about
power. It talks about power because you need
the truth and you need power.
The truth,
although it has its own power, but in
this world,
in this test of this life where Allah
allows forces to compete against each other, you
will need
power.
You will need strength.
And without it,
the truth
will be defeated.
It will be defeated.
This is why you have the umara and
the ulema. You have the leaders, political leaders,
and you have the ulema, the scholars.
At the time of the prophet, sallallahu alaihi
wa sallam al Khulafa al Rashidun,
these were combined in one person.
But then afterwards,
they split.
They parted ways.
Sometimes they came close, but for most of
the time they became separated.
The authority, the power,
the
political power,
right? Leadership
versus knowledge.
Many times they were in competition.
And benefits, utilities for the people.
And so that Allah shows, Allah knows and
shows
who
would,
help and champion the cause of Allah subhanahu
wa ta'ala and his messengers? Who would stand
with the truth? Because inevitably humans are gonna
fight each other.
Inevitably humans are gonna fight each other. And
Allah says
not
legislated that people push against each other in
this sense,
much destruction
would be caused in the world.
Masajid,
places of worship,
places of business and livelihood would be destroyed.
Why? Because that's human nature. Without divine guidance,
if humans get power,
they will abuse it.
Period.
And his history is a testimony full of
all of those examples.
There might be a period of masking and
camouflaging
that power when this power is used in
a soft way and an indirect way. But
eventually it's gonna get to the point where
it will become blatant and right in your
face.
That's why Allah Subhanahu Wa Ta'ala
legislated the pushback against the evil.
Because other than that if there was no
pushing back against the evil
what would happen people of people who crave
their power,
people who hold the power would spread corruption
on earth. And humans if they are left
to each to to to themselves, what is
going to happen? The earth will be filled
with corruption and bloodshed.
There won't be peace.
Impossible. There won't be peace. There will always
be those minority
who would,
who crave power, who would get power and
authority, and they would they would want to
abuse the others and enslave them.
That's it. History has repeated that over and
over and over and over again. And every
revolution of freedom starts
by
challenging,
a state of oppression
only
to repeat it
itself.
Only to repeat it.
And without Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala, without the
guidance of Allah, if this is not done,
if the removal of evil or oppression or
injustice
is not done
for the sake of Allah
and for the sake of raising the truth
and making it the highest,
it's going to lead to oppression.
So this is why even the question that
people say, what about good causes and people
who have good causes?
For most of those,
these are
power hungry causes
but that are disguised
under something that is noble.
That's how they start.
Look at any human movement,
any civilization,
any revolution
against injustice
and against oppression,
it starts like this, then it starts to
show its wheel.
It starts to show its teeth.
That's how it goes.
Unless,
unless
this position of authority is assumed for the
sake of Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala to establish
the religion of Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala.
That's the only time where justice and equality
is possible.
Keep that in mind. So this is why
people say, Oh, let's join good causes.
You don't know what is the hidden agenda
behind that.
And subhanAllah, it is known today in social
sciences that people who rise
to the positions of power
and authority
everywhere in society,
in social movements,
in organizations,
in business,
in schools,
even in non profit organizations.
Who are the ones who make it to
the top?
The narcissistic type of character.
The power hungry people.
The ones who are relentless,
who
who are senseless and they don't care. They
just wanna make it there.
And they can outlast
everyone.
And a decent person would not be able
to fight in that game, in that political
game. Why? Because the tactics become evil
and very
perdicious and conniving
to a point that if you have some
morality, you can't you can't play that game
anymore.
You can't play me. You can't you can't
beat you can't outlast those people.
And this explains why Alib Nabi Talib
like he was so
He was so fed up with the people
of Al Kufa.
He was so fed up with them.
Who better than Ali Ali ibn Abi Talib
radiAllahu Anhu do you wanna get? Right? But
the people of Kufa always complained against him,
always blamed him
and put him at a great disadvantage.
Why? Because when the environment becomes environment becomes
so corrupted,
you don't wanna be there as as someone.
And this is why sometimes they say, oh,
again,
these, I mean, these hopes might be coming
from a good place. Muslims should get involved
in this and that. I'm not saying Muslims
should not get involved. But
when we say this, we don't realize what
we're getting ourselves
into.
If you're gonna go to the,
the den of the devil
and spend the rest of your life in
it and you think you can win it
over,
I don't think you're being realistic.
Because
if you wanna hold on to your principles,
you can't survive.
If you wanna survive, eventually you have to
give in. You'll become a devil. You'll become
one of them.
And we can see this. And humans how
do humans get changed? How do humans actually
change? How do they get affected?
By being in the presence of others.
Socializing.
This kind of exposure, this is how humans
change. This is why the environment is very
powerful.
It's extremely powerful.
Okay. So
let's not, you know, get ourselves stuck into
this issue but,
this is just part of it. So Allah
subhanahu wa ta'ala here is talking about strength.
Strength. He's talking about military strength. He's talking
about all types of strength because that shows
who's going to stand,
for the truth and support
it even when they are at a disadvantage.
Indeed Allah is the almighty
and he is the powerful. He's the powerful
one. So again, even when when you see,
you know, people of oppression and people of
evil, they have the power.
You have to realize that this is very
minuscule compared to the might and the power
of Allah
So why does Allah allow them to reign
and dominate? Test.
It's a test.
And as a believer, you are able to
transcend this.
You are able to see beyond it. You're
able to put it or give it its
own, like,
size.
And that puts your heart at peace. This
is what Allah says.
Do not be deluded, do not be disillusioned,
do not be disheartened
by
the extravagance and the power and the might
and the the the,
the ascendance of the disbelievers on the Earth.
Very short enjoyment.
Then eventually they will end up in the
hellfire and with an evil place.
But those
who have feared Allah Subhanahu Wa Ta'ala, those
who were dutiful to Allah Subhanahu Wa Ta'ala
then they would have guidance
of bliss from Allah Subhanahu Wa Ta'ala and
so on and so forth. So the believer
doesn't get disheartened.
Even when you saw see all of those
massacres, you saw all of this evil. Now
that doesn't mean we don't do anything, we
don't say anything. No. But it just means
don't let your cry come from a place
of despair. This is not something that pleases
Allah. And this is something that doesn't help
the truth by the way,
and doesn't help the weak.
The reality is that the heart of the
believer
is unbreakable in that sense.
Why? Because they see beyond the circumstances.
They see the might of Allah Subhanahu Wa
Ta'ala.
And that can only be given by faith.
This is not an intellectual kind of like,
stunt.
You know? Oh, yeah. Let me just think.
Oh, yeah. Allah is more powerful than this.
No. If in your heart
if in your heart,
you know, this truth is not alive
and you're not living it day in and
day out, and if it doesn't shape your
life,
if it doesn't color
all of your existence,
you won't be able to call on it.
It will just be it will be merely
a cold and distant thought and won't be
consequential in how you process the world. That's
the difference between mere thought and iman.
That's why when you pray, you're engaging with
these truths. You are rehearsing them. So you're
building that momentum and that strength
that allows you to transcend that,
allows your perception to expand beyond what your
eyes can see and what your ears can
hear.
So the believer lives in a bigger world,
far bigger spectrum of reality than most people.
So we don't wanna be captive to the
immediate reality. That's what faith, you know, offers
the believers.
And there's not a way to escape from
from reality. On the contrary, that's how you
put reality in its right place.
You give everything its true proportion
in in the whole in the bigger picture.
Okay. Let's read, which,
which verse you were going to read? Sorry.
Just say again.
4436,
We sent our messengers
with clear signs? Exactly. Yes. Go ahead. Yep.
Sent our messengers with clear signs, namely the
evidence and proof that pointed to the truthfulness
and soundness of what they brought,
and sent down with them the book,
namely all the scriptures that Allah sent down
in order to guide people and show them
the way to which will benefit them in
their spiritual and worldly affairs
and their and their and their criteria of
justice
or equity in word and deed.
The religion that was brought by the messengers
is a com is completely just
and equitable in its commands and prohibitions,
in its rulings on interactions among people,
in its criminal code and
retaliatory
and prescribed punishments,
in matters of inheritance, and so on. That
is so that people may uphold equity
as part of the religion of a law,
which also served many of their own interests,
which are too many to be counted.
This indicates that the messengers were in harmony
with regard to the foundation of religious laws,
which is the upholding of equity
even though concepts of justice may have varied
according to time and circumstance.
And we have sent down iron
in which there is great power for warfare,
namely tools for war such as weapons, armor,
and so on, and benefits for humanity,
which is what is seen of its benefits
in all kinds of industry,
crafts, vessels,
and farm
implements
to the to the extent that there are
very few things that do not need iron.
So that Allah may make known those who
help his cause and his messengers,
although they cannot see him, that is, so
that he may test people by means of
which he has sent down of the book
an iron,
so that it so that it might become
clear who will help his cause and help
his messengers
when they cannot see him, which is when
faith is one of benefit before seeing the
unseen
worlds, at which time there will be no
benefit in believing in them because at that
point, faith will have become inevitable and undeniable.
Verily, Allah is strong almighty.
That is nothing is beyond him and no
one can escape him. By his strength and
might,
he sent down iron which is which
strong tools are made, and by his strength
and might,
he is able to defeat his enemies.
But he tests his close friends with his
enemies
so as to make known who will help
his cause although they cannot see him.
Here, Allah mentions the book and iron together
because by means of these two things, Allah
causes his religion to prevail and makes his
word supreme.
By means of the book in which is
proof and evidence
and by means of the sword which defends
and supports it by Allah's lead.
Both of them are based on justice and
equity
which is indicative of the wisdom and perfection
of the creator
and the perfect nature of the laws which
he has prescribed on the lips of his
messengers.
Having mentioned the prophethood of the prophets in
general, Allah now mentions 2 of the elite
prophets,
namely the noble prophets.
Among those whose descendants Allah conferred prophethood and
the scriptures.
Hence, he says,
we sent
and conferred upon their descendants prophethood and the
scriptures. Okay. So just one second. So here
again, sort of that's what we
pretty much talked about
and now Allah Subhanahu Wa Ta'ala is going
to talk about,
specifically about Nuh Ibrahim
and he will mention,
Isa alaihis salam.
So these are examples of Prophets who were
sent with the book,
who were sent with the book of Allah
and the guidance
and then Allah will elaborate more on the
followers of prophet
please. We sent Nuh and Ibrahim and and
conferred upon their descendants prophethood and the scriptures.
That is the earlier and later prophets were
all descendants of Noah and Ibrahim, peace be
upon them. Similarly,
all of the scriptures were sent down to
descendants of these 2 noble prophets.
Some of them, that is some of those
to whom we sent the messengers,
are rightly guided
and followed their calls submitting to their commands
and were guided by them. But many of
them are evildoers
who fail to obey Allah and obey the
messengers of prophets as Allah,
subhanahu wa ta'ala, says elsewhere.
But most of humankind will not believe no
matter how eagerly you desire it.
Then after
then after them, we follow them with other
messengers of ours, and we sent them and
we sent after them alisa alaihis salam,
Allah singhaza
alaihis salam
for mentioned because the context is speaking of
the Christians who will claim to be followers
of Ayesha of Ayesha Alaihi Salam.
We gave him the gospel,
which is one of the books of Allah
and instilled kindness and mercy in the hearts
of those who followed him.
This is this is like the verse in
which Allah Subhanahu Wa Ta'ala says, you will
surely find that the bitterest among among people
in enmity towards the believers are the Jews
and those who ascribe partners to Allah.
And you will surely find that the closest
among them to the believers in affection are
those who say we are Christians.
That is because among them are scholars and
aesthetics,
and they are not arrogant.
Hence, the Christians
are more gentle and softhearted than others because
they follow the teachings of al of Raees
alaihi salam.
As for monot monasticism,
we do not prescribe it for them. They
invented it. What is meant by monasticism
is extra acts of devotion.
They made it up themselves and opposed it
as a as a duty upon themselves,
committing themselves to things that Allah had not
prescribed for them or imposed on them. Rather,
they took it upon themselves on their own
initiative,
seeking thereby the pleasure of Allah. Yet despite
that,
they did not observe it faithfully.
That is, they did not do it properly.
Thus, they fell short on 2 counts by
inventing it
and and by not adhering to what they
had imposed upon themselves,
and that and that is usually the case
with them. But among them were some who
did not adhere to the command of the
law. Hence he says, so we granted those
among them who believe the reward.
That is those who believed in Muhammad Sallallahu
Alaihi Wasallam as well as believing in A'esha
alaihi salam. Allah gave to each of them
according to his level of faith, but many
of them are evildoers.
So again,
these are just
again, details that Allah Subhanahu Wa Ta'ala talks
about the prophets,
and, the first messenger to humanity was Nuh
alaihis salam.
He was Nuh alaihi salam,
and, from Nuh, all the prophets
from his
progeny,
all the prophets were sent.
From Nuh was Ibrahim,
and then from Ibrahim,
again, all of the prophets and messengers were
the descendants of Ibrahim
alaihi salam.
Allah mentions again, Isa alaihi salam here, and
there are two points that we should take
as well from here.
Monasticism
or, basically,
to be
extreme,
to add more than what Allah
prescribed.
So they turned into monks.
They
separated themselves from the people. They secluded themselves.
They lived
as hermits.
Right?
Only just to worship Allah Subhanahu Wa Ta'ala.
Again, this is something Allah did not legislate
upon them, but they wanted to do that
out of devotion.
So they wanted to leave the whole world
behind,
right, and just worship Allah Subhanahu Wa Ta'ala.
And in order to fill that kind of
scope that they invented for themselves,
what they did was,
they
they had to come up with new acts
of worship. And in Islam,
bidah
is is a big,
big red flag.
There's no Ibtida. There's no bida.
And the prophet, sallallahu alaihi wa sallam, mentioned,
Those who invent,
introduce into this affair of ours something that
is not from it,
then
they will have it rejected. Or it is
an act of rejection,
meaning an act of rejection
of what the prophet sallallahu alaihi wa sallam
came with. So bida'ah is a very big
issue and the prophet sallallahu alaihi wa sallam
said in the famous Khutbah that he would
say most of the time or start his
speech with most of the time,
and every innovation
is misguidance.
And the understanding of Bidah is is actually
it's not an easy concept
to understand. Sometimes people apply Bidah so loosely,
even to things that are halal to be
done, or that aspects of bid'ah that are
permissible.
And sometimes there are people who
take a lot of liberty to the point
that they really
introduce something into Islam to the point of
changing it. And you can see that a
lot of the distortion that happened in the
previous religions,
or some of it, started with what? With
people who wanted to go more in wanted
to go,
you know, into extremes in worship. So they
introduced something.
So part of the preservation of Islam is
to hold to is to hold on to
the sunnah of the prophet sallallahu alaihi wa
sallam. This is why you will find some
scholars are very, very strict when it comes
to holding on to the sunnah
and not departing from it.
Al Imam Malik,
Rahimahullah ta'ala.
A man out of his love for seemingly
out of his love for the prophet sallallahu
alaihi wa sallam,
He said because in in, in Madinah there
is a mikat.
There is a mikat, which is called today
Abi'ar Ali. Right? Abi'ar Ali, you make your
ihram from there. You start your state of
ihram for umra'u Hajj from there.
So this man,
again, seemingly probably out of love for the
prophet
He asked the Imam Malik for a fatwa
and he said,
I want to start my Ihram,
from where the grave of the prophet
is.
So Imam Malik said, Aksha alayk al Fitna
I fear for you such a great tribulation.
Hear the tribulation of confusion and losing your
religion.
Salman says,
What's what about this? It's a couple of
miles that I'm
adding to the distance.
So it's not much. It's pretty close. Then
Imam Malik recited the verse at the end
of Surat.
He said, Allah Subhana Wa Ta'la says the
meaning of the verse, let those beware,
or let those
who change or who do not follow the
instructions of the prophet, salaw alaihi wa sallam,
beware of a fitna or a severe punishment.
So somebody might say, what's the big deal?
Why do you make a big deal out
of this? But this is how you preserve
the religion because every if everyone feels like
it, let me add this, let me add
that. This feels nice. This looks beautiful. Why
don't we do this? Why don't we add
this?
Over time,
you're gonna change religion itself. This is how
cultures change, right?
How do cultures change over time?
Because people would adapt to new conditions or
people would,
introduce things they like
or people would borrow things from other cultures.
And eventually what happens, sometimes a culture changes
where it's completely
becomes a completely different type of culture, right?
But the religion of Allah Subhanahu Wa Ta'ala
is Allah's guidance, divine guidance. You can't mess
with it. You can't play with it. So
so this is why you will find some
scholars very, very,
very strict when it comes
to, again,
introducing new things into the religion.
And the thing is Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala
knows your limits.
So Allah Subhanahu Wa Ta'ala prescribed for you
what you can.
And Allah prescribed like again a higher level
for people who want to exert themselves
and still
Allah applied what you can call sort of
like the bare minimum, bottom line. You shouldn't
go below that because below this is the
destruction of your heart. So that's the bare
minimum, keep it. Which are the obligations?
The obligations and then the scope between those
is huge and people are at different levels
and these will match the levels of Jannah.
So there is enough for you.
The prayer of the night is 2 raka
2 raka. Like each unit is 2 raka.
Majority of the companions, they say you can
pray as much as you want.
But Tuuraka, Tuuraka. So that's another, like you
wanna exert yourself in worship? Do this.
But to invent a new act of worship,
like what you'll find in many celebrations,
in many occasions or doing things in a
new way, introducing
new adkar, inventing them, creating them in a
rhyming way, then holding on to them and
then saying, oh, there are special rewards and
this and that.' Again, this would be you're
legislating.
You're literally legislating.
So Allah
knows that when you impose more on yourself,
you can't keep up with it. Allah knows
you.
Allah knows you. He knows your limits. He
knows what sets you right.
So don't try to play God in this
sense because once you venture, you know, from
your own self to start creating,
some legislation or some
new ways of worship you actually won't be
able to sustain them. And humans keep changing,
we fluctuate.
Okay, let's continue.
This may be addressed to the people of
the book who believed in Musa and Aisha,
peace be upon them,
instructing
instructing them to act in accordance with their
faith by fearing Allah,
refraining from disobedience to him and believing his
messenger Messenger Muhammad Sallallahu Alaihi Wasallam.
For if they do that,
Allah will grant them a double share of
his mercy. That is 2 shares of reward,
1 share for their belief in the earlier
prophets and another share for their belief in
Muhammad Sallallahu Alaihi Wasallam.
Or it may be that the command is
general in meaning and is addressed to both
the people of the book and others.
What is what appears to be the case
and that Allah instructed them to believe and
and Allah instructed them to believe and to
fear him, which includes all issues of religion,
both outward and inward,
fundamental
and and minor issues.
If they obey this important command, Allah will
grant them a double share of his mercy,
The description and extent of which no one
knows about Allah Subhanahu Wa Ta'ala.
It may be a reward for believing and
a reward for fearing Allah or a reward
for obeying the commands and the reward for
heeding the prohibitions.
Or maybe that referring to a double reward
means that the reward will be given repeatedly
time after time.
Give you a light by which to walk,
that is he will give you knowledge, guidance,
and light by which to walk through the
darkness of ignorance,
and he will forgive
and he will forgive, forgive you for your
bad deeds. For Allah is is possessor of
abundant grace. So no one should think that
it's too much for the possessor of abundant
grace to give this reward,
for his grace encompasses
the inhabitants of the heavens and the earth.
So that so there is not a single
moment in which created beings,
which created beings are not receiving divine grace
and bounty. That is so the product so
that the so that the people of the
book may know that they have no power
over anything of Allah's grace. That is we
have explained to you our grace and generosity
towards those who believe.
In general terms,
and who fear Allah and believe in his
messenger salallahu alayhi wa sallam. So as to
let the people of the book know that
they have no power over anything of Allah's
grace.
In others in other words,
they cannot restrict the grace and bounty of
Allah in accordance with their whims and desires
and corrupt thinking. And say that
no one will enter paradise unless he is
a he is a Jew or a Christian.
That is wishful thinking about Allah on their
part.
Allah tells us those who believe in his
messenger, Muhammad salallahu alaihi wa sallam and fear
Allah will have a double share of his
mercy,
light and forgiveness
despite the people of the book. And so
that they may know that grace is in
the hand of Allah alone. He bestows it
upon whom ever he wills,
giving it to those whom his wisdom dictates
should be recipients of his grace.
For Allah is possessor of abundant grace,
and no one could estimate the extent of
His grace at all.
JazakAllah khayra.
So this is, again an advice to the
believers.
Taqwa,
O you who believe have taqwa.
And, again, this is a concept that often
is poorly understood.
It's usually translated as fear Allah or be
mindful of Allah. And again, they don't do
justice to the concept.
Taqwa is,
again, to be to give Allah his rights.
To give Allah his rights.
His rights start in your heart.
Allah has rights on your heart.
And the rights of Allah in your heart
is that you are mindful of Him,
that you remember Him,
and that your heart is fully for Him.
That's Allah's right. You don't have a right
over your heart to choose, I wanna give
it here or there.
You don't have that right.
That heart is created by Allah
and it belongs to Allah and Allah gave
it to you so that you seek Allah
through this heart.
The heart is the device of purpose and
love in your life.
So those who use their heart
to love other things
and to pursue other things are abusing the
blessings, this gift from Allah
It's an abuse.
They don't have a right to do this.
Including those who are obsessed with this worldly
life and its goals, and they have
larger than life goals. Right? And they wanna
achieve them, and they are ambitious, and they
are successful,
but their life is about achieving that, whether
it's academic
or career or financial
or social or political
or whatever.
They live their life for that purpose.
These people are stealing from Allah
These people are stealing
from Allah
because Allah created us to worship him. They've
given their hearts
to something other than Allah, but Allah created
the heart for himself.
And that's the perspective of Islam.
Does that mean we don't pursue any things?
No. There is
a there is a certain configuration in Islam
for pursuing all of these things,
but in the right way.
And these things become stepping stones to Allah,
these worldly aspects.
And you don't obsess about them.
You don't obsess about them. The heart is
for Allah, and it should be for Allah.
So that's Allah's
right
on the
heart. That's taqwa.
Now it's not like
when we think about the hearts of Allah
the first thing that jumps to mind is
what?
External actions.
Right?
You know I pray 5 times a day.
What's the quality? Even if it's 0,
we consider that, oh, I've given Allah his
rights.
I fasted Ramadan. What's the quality?
Near 0.
You haven't given Allah his weight.
All of these actions at the heart of
them is your heart.
At the very core of them is your
heart. These are the salah is an exercise
for the heart, first and foremost.
The body comes as a later engagement.
Salah is a heart engagement. This is what
Allah says
when Allah praises the believers, He says
successful are the believers.
They are the ones who in their salah,
they are in a state of
is what? The action of the heart. State
of the heart.
Then later on Allah says
Later in this sequence, at the end Allah
says, and these are the ones who observe
the rights of their salah.
So the salah is for your heart first
and foremost,
before it is for your tongue and for
your actions. So, the obsession or the
the
the unbalanced
obsession
with the external aspects of salah is not
Islamic
and is not healthy.
The external aspect is an extension of your
heart, and it should be like that. So
for you to do it, to manufacture it
in a way where it's not extension of
the state of your heart,
that's not the action that Allah that Allah
commanded us to do.
So this is the anatomy of actions in
Islam. Heart
in the heart, there is this state of
iman
that is sometimes called knowledge. It's not just
dry knowledge in the in the in the
head. It is real iman.
It translates
into that act of love.
Love of Allah Subhanahu Wa Ta'ala. So that
love translates as will which we call intention.
Drive. It's a drive.
We call it today motivation.
Drive, right? The driving force. The motive.
The ambition behind the action.
That's what we call Niyyah,
intention.
That's exactly the same, by the way. But
this is
more of a social sciences, that's what the
language they developed. But Allah calls it, that's
what Allah calls it. Allah calls
it Some of you want the dunya and
desire the duniya and chase the duniya. Some
of you desire the akhira.
Then that translates the will translates into action.
The will translates into action. And that's the
salah that you see, that is visible, that
our eyes can catch and our ears can
hear the recitation.
But
that's what what is this? This is the
tip of the iceberg.
As they say, this is 5%.
So where's the 95%?
It's invisible.
It's invisible, it's in the heart. So 95%
of your salah is in the heart.
This is why the Prophet SAW says,
You get nothing from your salah but what?
In Islam,
which is comprehension, understanding, is the engagement of
the heart.
So the prophet is saying, you only get
from your salah is what your heart experiences.
What you get from your salah is what
your heart experiences.
So these are the that's
taqwa.
Taqwa first starts with the heart. People think,
oh okay, that's haram let me stay away
from it. That's haram they may not look
at it.
Many people think about haram as sort of
like suppressing yourself and oppressing yourself.
Although in certain
in certain cases, yes, when you can't handle
your desire,
there's corruption in your heart and it pulls
you to the evil, you still need to
resist that at the later stage of the
action which
is like the the the desire is there
in your heart which is evil.
And the intention
or the that the will is there and
it is pulling you to the action. And
finally you slam the brakes at
the last stage of the action which is
putting it in action, like putting it out
into the world. You suppress yourself there, you
get rewarded for that. That's mujahada.
But that's what that's usually the exception. What
do you want? What is the optimal state
of a believer? What should be the normal
state of the believer? You should treat the
desire in the first place
so that
you offset these desires and you fill your
heart with desires, with healthy desires,
so that you don't desire these evil things.
And that's how you can manage sins.
You can minimize them. But if you're just
gonna slam the brakes on every sin,
you will run out of willpower very short,
like very very
soon.
And what happens,
you will lose it. This is why you
find sometimes people are practicing practicing all of
a sudden they lose it.
Or if you get into their personal life,
they might be very resentful people.
So that's that's how taqwa is. Right? So
it's in the heart, the rights of Allah.
Taqwa is to give Allah is basically and
again, excuse the word. It might,
maybe it's not appropriate in English and I
understand but,
for for the lack of a better word.
I can't find a better word. Taqwa of
Allah, as Allah says
All you who believe, remember Allah in abundance.
Do you know what that means? But again,
because these words are still very distant,
cold, and they don't convey meaning. But I'm
I'm gonna use a word and I still
recognize there's a little bit of inappropriate
use there,
but hopefully you can make up for that
for that issue there. Obsession.
Taqwa of Allah is that your heart is
obsessed with Allah.
Your heart is preoccupied with Allah.
Those people who are very ambitious, who go
to sleep, wake up, dream
of their goal. Right?
And they actually, you know,
like, they create all of these vision vision
boards
and they cut out images from magazines of
their, like, dream car or dream house, and
they put it on the walls
so that they keep thinking about it, obsessing
about it, and imagining themselves in that that
kind of obsession. That's worship.
But too much that's worship.
The believer
never forgets about Allah.
That's their optimal state. We obviously fall short
of that mark but that's what we are
that's what taqwa of Allah is. That you
are mindful of Allah. Not just mindful of
Allah, just thinking, oh yeah Allah is there.
That's it. No. No. No. That that means
like that's what my life is about.
That's Allah my Lord. I want to go
to Him. I want to please Him. I
wanna spend my eternal life
near Him.
With Him, in His blessings.
That's what being mindful of Allah. Being mindful
of Allah is just like again when you
obsess about something. That's what mindful But some
people think, oh, subhanAllah, subhanAllah, subhanAllah,
subhanAllah, subhanAllah, subhanAllah. And they're probably watching even
videos
and subhanAllah, subhanAllah, subhanAllah, this is not zikr
of Allah at all. Actually, Ibrahim says something
like this, he says
This is like hallucination.
That's not how you remember Allah. It's your
heart. So
that's the taqwa of Allah.
That your life is about Allah and then
this translates into a lifestyle. Your priorities in
life, your goals in life,
your engagements in life, your
acquaintances, your social circle,
your career, your family, everything
is in that direction. Everything fits within that
vision
of making it to Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala.
And if anything
does not fit into it, you say no
unequivocally.
No second thoughts
Because that's not who you are.
That would be taqwa.
So people think about taqwa as like something
you do on the side,
right? Something technical.
It's just like, 'Okay let me sit, let
me have some moment of taqwa.'
No, no, no. Taqwa is the spirit in
which you live your life. It describes the
state of your heart.
Is it connected to Allah or not? Is
it mindful of Allah? Is it, again,
excuse the word, is it obsessed with Allah
or not? If it's not, you're obsessed with
something else.
You have given Allah's rights to someone something
else or someone else.
Does that mean you're not Muslim? No. But
the thing is
you're falling too short
and you're missing out on so much.
So that's the path to Allah Subhanahu wa
Ta'ala that's Taqwa.
And then that translates into again as we
say your interests
become a reflection of your love of Allah.
Your areas of interest will reflect that.
So things that displease Allah
meaning these things are evil in in in
in nature.
You'd have no interest in them.
On the contrary you would have this kind
of rejection abhorrence towards them
because you become aligned with Allah subhanahu wa
ta'ala.
Then that reflects on your actions. So you
perform your salah out of love of Allah,
you perform your fast out of love of
Allah, Your salah is full of love
and devotion.
Your fast is full of love and devotion.
Your Zakah is full of generosity and grace
and devotion and love of Allah Subhanahu Wa
Ta'ala and trust in
him. And then your speech reflects that love
of Allah Subhanahu Wa Ta'ala even when you
engage with people.
People know your obsessions as they engage in
a conversation with you, right? As they observe
you, they recognize this.
As someone who truly has taqwa of Allah,
this should be visible to people. That's who
you are. You are on your way to
Allah. It's clear.
Not like not like you're showing it.
It just shows
as they say
right? The heart
exposes you.
The love, love exposes you.
It's gonna reveal itself. You can't hide it.
And and then all of your again your
choices in life, your attitudes in life, your
response to situations in life all shows that
awareness, that love of Allah, that trust in
Allah, that connection in Allah,
that hope in Allah.
That's and believe in His Messenger sallallahu alaihi
wa sallam and follow him and
all of that. He will give you 2
great portions of his mercy. Again, what does
that mean?
Sheikh Saadi said it could mean many different
things but again it just means great blessings
and mercy from Allah Subhanahu Wa Ta'ala.
And Allah will
give you light. Allah will offer you light.
This is the light of the truth. You
will start to recognize.
You start to see. You start to develop
this kind of,
what's the word? There's a technical word, but
it's it's not gonna be helpful. But this
kind of very
deep insight and intuition, this kind of firasa.
This kind of firasa. Right? You see through
things. You can tell good from evil.
Ibn Taymiyalhamahu
ta'ala he says
The healthy heart
and again this is the heart of Taqwa.
There are things that are revealed to it
that are not revealed to other hearts.
Then he mentions, I don't remember the exact
words of that statement, but he mentions
so he sees a person, he says,
And he sees this person and he knows
this person is a sinner.
He knows,
but he doesn't say anything.
He doesn't say anything. Allah, see, he knows
it for himself.
And he sees the food
and he knows it's Haram.
How? This is the of the believer.
This is the of the believer. And the
believers will have this when,
as Allah as the prophet mentioned, at the
jal when he is when he comes about.
Right? There will be a written on his
forehead. Only believers will see it.
That's the norm. That's the bas'yarah. That's the
norm. So Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala will give
you. When you are when when you have
taqwa of Allah
in your heart
and your speech and your actions and your
lifestyle,
when your life is about Allah, you have
this level of obsession.
What happens? Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala will bring
more light in your heart. It becomes an
upward
spiral.
And we find this in the Quran many
times. Allah says
and have taqwa,
right, towards Allah. And Allah would teach you.
Allah would increase you in knowledge.
And again, this knowledge is not intellectual knowledge.
It's the real iman
that that translates
into realities of life.
All you who believe, if you have taqwa,
Allah will give you Furqaan, the criterion, the
ability to
tell right from wrong, truth from falsehood,
good from bad.
How come? Fill ourselves with a believer.
Allah will forgive your sins.
Allah will forgive your sins.
And then Allah talks that just just to
give a clear message to the
people of the book because they claimed monopoly
over Jannah
when the prophet was mentioned.
Although they changed the messages that were sent
to their prophets and messengers. So they were
not upon the truth. So it was just
a false claim, and the law just exposed
them here. The point here is that, you
know, you miss out on so much
when we
water down our religion in our personal practice.
You know, you're a Muslim, Allah, you have
an opportunity no one
else has. Let people, you know, get whatever
they want in this life. Let them win
as much as they win in this life.
Let them dominate as much as they let
them be victorious as much as they let
them destroy as much as they want. Let
them kill as many as they want.
They're losing. Allah they're losing and you're winning
no matter what.
No matter what. This life is nothing. Allah,
the prophet says,
Had this life was worth only the wing
of a mosquito, a small insect,
Allah wouldn't have given the disbeliever,
even what,
a sip of water.
But
this this this world is worth nothing.
It's literally worth
This world is is going to
be destroyed,
decomposed,
removed. Completely removed.
What is it for? It's just doing a
specific job. That's the value of this life.
That's the only value in this life. What
is it? It's a test.
That's it.
If you do well, if you are on
the right path in this test, that's it.
That's all you want from this dunya. Everything
is gonna end. Everything is gonna
go into destruction.
Once you secure that path to Allah,
you are on the path to passing that
test. That's it. That's what this life is
for.
That's what this life is for.
All of the other stuff and paraphernalia and
all these details,
it's it's worthless.
It's worthless. It's gonna go.
Okay. So I hope, Insha'Allah, this helps us,
set our priorities,
right? And subhanAllah, I would say,
I'm glad that we are having this kind
of engagement. We're getting this time to have
this engagement with the words of Allah subhanahu
wa ta'ala. They are profound. When you start
to unpack verses from the Quran, they are
so profound and they are so relevant. Many
Muslim youth complain that, oh, Islam doesn't seem
to be relevant to our lifestyle.
No. You're just you're not open your eyes
are not open. Your heart is not open.
Your heart is not open. If you invest
in the Quran, you're gonna see so much
relevance. There's no question you have today except
the Quran has the answer and the best
answer of it.
There are those who know, and there are
those who don't know. The more you engage
with the Quran, the more it starts to
reveal of its
gems and secrets.
Okay. So we'll stop here inshallah. We can
take a few questions.
Okay. In salah
in salah, do you make dua
in sujud in English, or do you make
it in Arabic?
This is a matter that scholars have differed
about. Some scholars even said that you cannot
mention or you cannot make dua in salah,
even in sujood,
which is not from the adkar that are
prescribed from the prophet salaw alaihi wa sallam.
Okay. So this is on one side.
Why? Because
the prophet said,
This prayer,
is not suitable for any of the speech
of
people.
So, some scholars said any dua that you
make is part of the speech.
It means this, you can only stick to
prescribed du'as from the prophet sallallahu alaihi wa
sallam or from the Quran and that's it.
Right? Beyond that, you can't. Can't. But they
say the sunnah prayers, they are malayl, you
can still do that. It's okay. But the
farba, at least, that's why you have to
be very careful.
Some of them say, no. You can, you
can make dua because there is a statement
from the prophet sallallahu alaihi wa sallam.
There is faqthiuruhfihiminildu'a.
The closest that a person is to Allah
is when they are in sujood. And another
statement the prophet says increase in your du'a
in sujood.
So they say you can make any du'a.
And those would say in Arabic because salah
is prescribed in Arabic.
Some scholars would say
those scholars say if you still wanna make
dua in English
don't use it in your
prayer. Why?
Because you don't wanna jeopardize it.
And especially with matters of disagreement, when it
comes to your salah, your siyam, be on
the safe
side. Be cautious.
Be cautious. It's better to preserve it and
not risk it.
So I would say
yes. I would I would I follow these
these scholars.
I would say,
in sunnah prayers, maybe you can make this
dua'a. Yeah. But don't make it in fault.
Yeah.
Sisters, questions?
Okay. Brothers again.
Yes, Safiya.
No.
You're gonna drag us into something very
very lengthy and
and requires a lot of details. And, honestly,
it's not easy to
comprehend. What I would say,
it's better to
stick to what the prophet sallallahu alaihi wasallam.
Right, did and the companions was known from
the companions.
And if you are,
doubtful about something, I would say leave it.
So just because you mentioned that example, shaking
hands after
after salah. The scholars even scholars who say
shaking hands after salah
because this actually used to be a habit
especially, I don't know in other cultures but
in the Arab world people it
was. Like when I was a child I
remember that was a must.
And then she counts. Right? It was a
must.
Why? Because it became a must,
and it's time for tisbih.
So those scholars actually, they say if it's
done once or randomly
every now and then, like there's someone you
haven't seen in a while and things like
that, fine. But if it becomes a must
after salah and you stick to it,
it becomes a problem. So there are things,
by the way, you can do them randomly,
no issues with them. But if you do
it consistently, now it becomes an issue of
bidah.
Again, bidah is a big topic actually. Very,
very big topic. And it's not easy to
comprehend.
So let's leave it at that.
I would say if you're doubtful, stay away
from it.
Yes.
Yeah. So you say that the prophet will
stop Messengership
here. Messengership.
Okay. The first messenger actually, there's a statement
from the prophet
in Sahil Bukhari,
Abu al Rasoolin Nuhai alaihi wa sallam.
But Adam, there's a difference among
the
scholars.
Is he
a prophet or not? Nabi. Nabi is other
than the messenger.
Okay?
And Nabi
prophet again,
we are translating Arabic into English, but English
doesn't necessarily reflect the difference.
And
is someone who receives a revelation.
He received a revelation.
Messenger
Rasul
Ursil.
So he's supposed to convey a message.
That's the difference between them.
Every
Rasool is Nabi
because you receive a certain relation. But not
every Nabi is a messenger, is a Rasool.
Okay. So these scholars are different. Is
Adam alaihis salam
nabi or not?
Okay. So he's most likely he's nabi, nah,
but not a messenger.
Who was he sent to?
There was none but him.
Right?
Yeah. Any other sisters' questions?
Okay. Sister in the first line, then the
second one afterwards.
I really can't hear this.
Okay. Thank you for asking me a very
tough question which I don't know the answer
to.
So the sister asks the question, if someone
missed many prayers in the past, they
out of negligence. Right? They didn't pray. But
then now when they made toba, they they
started praying. Should they make them up?
Good question.
I used to follow my sheikhs and they
had an opinion.
When I,
a couple of years ago, researched it again,
I became in no man's land. I don't
know.
I really don't know. So I
I don't there there are scholars here and
there are scholars there, but if you ask
me personally, I really don't know. So maybe
you can ask somebody else that you trust
their knowledge and whatever advice you give you
they give you, stick to it inshallah.
No issues. Yes.
Again, I can't hear.
Yes.
Okay.
Are there any specific verses you're talking about?
Like the ones where
And Surat Al Hadid. Okay.
Yeah. So the ones in Surat Al Hadid,
they were full of hypocrites. So in Islam,
there is al Nifaqal Akbar or Nifaqal Azhar.
Nifaqal Akbar
is
Kufar. These are in the hellfire
forever.
Real hypocrites.
But there are levels of hypocrisy. So some
people of Iman might have some levels of
hypocrisy.
So it gets to the point, if the
person becomes kathir,
then they are a major hypocrite.
If they are within the realm of Islam
but they have some hypocrisy,
this is minor hypocrisy.
They are Muslims but they have
aspects of hypocrisy.
Unless they repent, they will be punished for
them and they might even go to the
hellfire to be purified
from those. And then but as because they
have a man, they will eventually make it.
So hypocrisy, yes, is is subtle.
Sometime, obviously major hypocrisy is not subtle,
but,
but minor levels of hypocrisy are subtle.
And when does it become subtle? When someone
is not full a full hypocrite.
They have imam but they have other aspects.
So that's when the doubt comes in. Right?
Or they have they're blindsided.
Is it madh?
So I hope this sort of just sets
the ground
for it.
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