Moutasem al-Hameedy – The Monumental Tafsir #76 Surah An Najm
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AI: Transcript ©
Alhamdulillahi rabbil alameen, wassalatu wassalamu ala ashrafil mursaleen,
sayyidina muhammadin wa ala alihi wa ashabihi ajma
'een, wa ba'du allahumma a'allimna ma yinfa
'una wa infa'na bima a'allamtana wa
zidna ilman innaka anta al-'alimun hakeem.
Again can you hear me good?
Insha'Allah they will fix the sound as
we go.
So we continue with Surat an-Najm, bi
-inni Allahi ta'ala, and I believe we
reached verse number 19, right?
Okay, so we will read the commentary of
Shaykh Ibn Sa'di, rahimahullah, and listen to the
translation and then we will insha'Allah try
to see if there are beneficial points that
we can comment on.
Qal imam Sa'di rahimahullah ta'ala, a'udhu
billahi minash shaitanir rajim, afara'aytumul lata wal
uzza, wamanata thalitata alukhra, alakumul dhakaru walahul untha,
tilka idhan qismatun dhiza, inhiya illa asma'un
samaytumuha antumu aba'ukum ma anzala Allah biha
min sultan, in yattabi'una illa al-dhanna
wama tahwa al-anfusu wala qad ja'ahum
min rabbihimul huda.
Amlil-insani ma tamanna falillahi al-akhiratu wal
-ula.
Lamma zakka ta'ala ma ja'a bihi
Muhammadun sallallahu alayhi wa sallama minal huda wa
dinil haqqi wal-amri bi'ibadati Allahi wa
tawheedihi, zakara butlana ma alayhi al-mushrikuna min
ibadati man laysa lahu min awsafi al-kamali
shayt, wala tanfa'u wala tadhur, wa innama
hiya asma'un farighatun anil ma'na sammaha
al-mushrikunahum wa aba'uhumul juhhalul dhullan.
Ibtada'u laha minal asma'il batilati allati
la tastahakuha fa khada'u biha anfusahum wa
ghayrahum minal dhalal.
Fal-alihatu allati bihazihi al-hal la tastahakuhu
mithqala dharrati minal ibadah.
Wahadihi al-andadu allati sammauha bihazihi al-asma'
za'amu annaha mushtaqatun min awsafin hiya mutasifatun
biha.
Fasammau allata minal ilah al-mustahaki lil'ibadah,
wal-uzza minal aziz, wa manata minal manan
ilhadan fi asma'illahi, wa tajarriyan alash-shirki
bihi.
Wahadihi asma'un mutajarridah, muntajarridatun anil ma'ani.
Fa kullu man lahu adna muskatun min aqlin,
ya'lamu batlana hadhi al-awsafi fiha.
Having commended that what Muhammad ﷺ brought of
guidance, true religion, and the command to worship
Allah and affirm His oneness, Allah subhanahu wa
ta'ala now mentions the falseness of what
the polytheists did of worshipping that which did
not possess any attributes of perfection at all,
and had no power to bring benefit or
cause harm.
Rather, they were mere names, devoid of meaning,
that the polytheists and their ignorant, misguided forefathers
had made up.
These were unreal names that the idols did
not deserve, and by giving them these names
they deceived themselves and other misguided people.
Gods such as these are not deserving of
even an atom's weight of worship.
They called these idols by these names, claiming
that they were derived from characteristics that they
possessed.
So the name of Al-Lat was derived
from the word Al-ilah, meaning that which
is deserving of worship.
The name of Al-Uzza was derived from
the word Aziz, mighty.
And the name of Manat was derived from
the word Al-Mannan, bestower of blessings.
This was a profane distortion of the names
of Allah, and a way of associating others
with Him.
But these names were devoid of meaning, because
anyone who possesses the slightest reasoning will realize
that these attributes are not applicable to these
idols.
He said, And
everything that Allah has sent down as authority
is false, corrupt, and is not taken as
religion.
And they themselves do not follow a proof
that they are certain of what they are
going to receive.
He only pointed out to them that they
are corrupt, ignorant, and that they desire associating
others with Allah, and that they are created
in accordance with their own desires.
And the fact is that it is not
appropriate for them to pursue knowledge and guidance,
and this is why Allah said, And the
guidance has certainly come to them from their
Lord, i.e. what guides them in the
path of monotheism and prophethood, and all the
requirements that the servant needs.
Allah has made all of this clear and
clear, and has guided him to the intended
goal, and has established for him some evidence
and proofs of what should be followed for
them and for others.
So there is no excuse left for anyone,
nor is there any argument after the statement
and proof.
Allah says in the Quran, وَإِذَا كَانَ مَا
هُمْ عَلَيْهِ غَايَتُهُ اتِّبَاعُ الظَّنِّ
وَنِهَايَتُهُ شَقَاءُ الْأَبَدِيُّ وَالْعَذَابُ السَّرْمَدِيُّ فَالْبَقَاءُ
عَلَى هَذِهِ الْحَالِ مِنْ أَسْفَهِ السَّفَهِ وَأَظْلَمِ الظُّلمِ
وَمَعَ ذَلِكِ يَتَمَنَّونَ الْأَمَانِ وَيَغْتَرُونَ بِأَنفُسِهِمْ وَلِهَذَا
أَنْكَرَ تَعَالَى عَلَى مَنْ زَعْمَ أَنَّهُ يَحْسُلُ لَهُ
مَا تَمَنَّ وَهُوَ كَادِبٌ فِي ذَٰلِكِ فَقَالَ أَمْ
لِلْإِنْسَانِ مَا تَمَنَّ فَلِلَّهِ فَيُعْطِي مِنْهُمَا مَنْ يَشَاءُ
وَيَمْنَعُ مَنْ يَشَاءُ فَلَيْسَ الْأَمْرُ تَابِعًا لِأَمَانِهِمْ وَلَا
مُوافِقًا لِأَهْوَائِهِمْ Exalted
be Allah far above what they say.
They are no more than names you have
named, you and your forefathers for which Allah
has not sent down any authority.
That is, there is no proof or evidence
for the soundness of your view.
Anything for which Allah did not send down
any authority is false and corrupt and is
not to be taken as religion.
They themselves were not following any proof to
give them certainty about what they believed.
Rather, what led them to that corrupt belief
was conjecture and sheer ignorance and their own
inclination towards polytheism and innovation that was in
accordance with their whims and desires.
In fact, there was nothing to make them
follow conjecture, such as lacking access to knowledge
and guidance.
Therefore, Allah said, Although guidance has come to
them from their Lord, that is, guidance that
shows them the way to affirmation of Allah's
oneness and to prophethood and to all that
people need, Allah has explained all of that
in the most perfect and clearest manner and
has established evidence and proof against them that
require them and others to follow it.
So no one has any excuse or argument
after there has come clear explanation and proof.
As for what they follow, all that they
base it on is conjecture and it will
ultimately lead to eternal misery and punishment.
So continuing on this path is the utmost
foolishness and worst wrongdoing.
Yet despite that, they still indulge in wishful
thinking and deceive themselves.
Hence, Allah denounces those who claim that they
will get what they wish for, for they
are lying.
Is man to have everything he wishes for?
Nay, to Allah belong the hereafter and the
present.
So He gives thereof to whomever He wills
and withholds from whomever He wills.
So the matter is not in accordance with
their wishes or with their whims and desires.
Okay, so in this section, Allah subhanahu wa
ta'ala, in the first part of the
surah, Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala defends Prophet
Muhammad ﷺ, establishing that he is on the
truth, that he is truthful and he doesn't
speak for himself, and that whatever he saw
was the truth.
And then, now he turns to the people
of Quraysh, exposing their stance, that you are
not in a position to accuse Muhammad ﷺ,
right?
Because if your house is made of, as
they say, house is made of glass, don't,
I don't know, don't throw stones on others,
whatever.
Look at your own way of life, look
at your own religion, look at your own
style, your own lifestyle.
You are accusing Prophet Muhammad ﷺ of lying
or deceiving or learning from someone else, and
that he is bringing falsehood.
But look at yourself and what do you
worship?
And you would find this always with the
people of falsehood who are arrogant and outspoken.
They always have the strategy of offence as
the best strategy of defence.
So they would initiate an attack so that
they distract you.
When you are attacked on your own turf,
you're so troubled, you don't have time to
deal with facts.
And if you look at the Muslims today,
a lot of the propaganda against Muslims, that's
exactly what has been happening.
That is the style.
Those who accuse Muslims, Islam, of spreading by
the sword, look at their history.
It's a projection.
What they are doing, these accusations, are pure
projection.
They would accuse the Prophet ﷺ because he
married Aisha at that age.
Look at their own lives.
But they hide those statistics.
They don't bring them in that context.
They actually even highlight the Muslims.
There are Muslims who commit mistakes.
There are Muslims who don't even pray.
There are Muslims, again, who count as Muslims
but they are not actually Muslims.
There are hypocrites among the Muslims.
There are Muslims who have a faith crisis
to the point of disbelief.
So in Islam, they're not Muslim.
But in today's world, they're called Muslim.
And there are Muslims who are Muslims but
who commit sins and crimes.
But if you compare a lot of the
problematic behaviors of Muslim population to the non
-Muslim population, you know, the difference is quite
drastic.
So, for example, there's a lot of, always
this issue comes up by, for example, in
the UK.
It's always brought up against the Muslims, grooming
gangs.
Because there are some incidents where some Muslims
are luring some children for sexual abuse.
There have been some incidents.
But compare those to the incidents committed by
Muslims, which are usually highlighted, blown out of
proportion, posted everywhere, compared to the natives, right?
The natives of the UK.
There's no comparison.
The numbers are huge.
Especially among the same family.
Many times by parents, by relatives, first degree
relatives, abusing the children.
But those don't get the media coverage.
So, then they try to associate Islam with
all of these false practices.
The whole thing about terrorism.
Let's face it.
Superpowers in the world are pillaging across the
world.
Destroying populations.
Bombarding innocent people.
Wiping out cities and villages.
Disrupting, and they've been doing that for centuries.
The whole world, look around in all of
the corners of the world.
Who's been wreaking havoc in all civilizations and
populations?
Who's been disrupting people's lives?
Political entities?
Who's been doing all this damage?
They are the people who pointed the Muslims,
and they pointed a minority of Muslims, but
they obviously generalize, in order to associate this
with Islam itself, and the Muslims themselves.
So now, if you just say terrorism, automatically
you're thinking about Islam and Muslims.
But if you approach it from a statistical
point of view, the numbers are clear.
The numbers are clear.
Who has committed the most crimes?
On a major scale.
On a massive scale.
Across the world.
Let the numbers speak.
No, but it's all twists.
So that's the kind of mental game that
people of falsehood will always play.
That's the kind of mental game that they
will play.
And the problem is with Muslims when they
are thrown, like, they're perplexed by the attack,
and they don't see the moral attack against
them.
And they don't look at the truths.
They swallow that.
And they absorb this as an identity.
They start feeling guilty about themselves.
They start feeling inferior.
They start believing in those lies.
So Allah ﷻ is dealing with these people,
the people of Quraysh, because that's what they
did.
They waged this kind of psychological war against
the prophets.
And they call them a liar.
They call them a sorcerer.
They call them charlatan, an imposter, and all
of that stuff.
But these are accurate descriptions of their way
of life and their religion, and their lifestyle.
That's exactly who they are and what they
are.
And that's one of the major tools in
a narcissist's tool kit.
They would always jump the gun to accuse
you of what they are and who they
are.
So you are confused.
You are, again, shocked at the audacity of
the accusation.
How bold they are.
They invent such a lie that you are
confused.
But it's their reality.
It's their description.
So it's important to develop this defense so
you don't fall for these lies.
And these semantic games, by the way, are
very common throughout.
They're not a new invention.
But probably the scale might be just way
too big now.
But they've been used with all the prophets
and messengers.
There were cold names.
There was some kind of a narrative woven
around them and around their mission.
And those people who didn't search for the
truth fell for those narratives.
Why?
Because they were popular.
Why do people believe stories now?
Because they make sense?
No, because they're popular.
Social evidence.
We think we are logical, but a lot
of our thinking is skewed and influenced by
illogical factors.
What is one of the biggest marketing tools
that actually accounts for much of customer behavior?
What is it?
Social evidence.
Social evidence.
There are a lot of inferior products, but
just because they have the social evidence, they
have the reviews, there's good reviews around them,
that's what people go for.
It's not the quality.
It's not always the quality.
So, it's important for the Muslim to be
in a state of yaqadah, awareness and wakefulness,
not to fall for these things.
This is why you need to build a
relationship with the truth.
Build a relationship with the truth.
One of the highest values in Islam is
the truth.
Al-Haqq.
Al-Haqq.
The truth.
How many times throughout the Qur'an Allah
mentions Al-Haqq?
One of the names of Allah is Al
-Haqq.
When you build a relationship with the truth,
a strong relationship with the truth, and the
truth is levels, it plays out at levels.
There is the central level which is Allah
subhanahu wa ta'ala himself.
The reality of this life.
When you build a strong relationship with these
universal truths, where there is no doubt about
them, there is no question about them, there
is no confusion about them, when you build
that strong relationship, now when it comes down
to the details of life, you are in
a better position to tell and see through
lies.
Because you have a very organic relationship with
the truth.
And this is called Al-Firasa or Al
-Farasa.
Al-Farasa.
And there is a narration that half of
it is weak but half is acceptable, where
the Prophet ﷺ says, احذرو فراسة المؤمن Beware
of this kind of deep insight and intuition,
intuitive understanding or revealing understanding or insight of
the believer.
The weaker part of it, فَإِنَّهُ يَنظُرُ بِنُورِ
اللَّهِ Because the believer sees through a light
given to them by Allah.
That's achieved by the truth.
When the truth has a heavy presence in
your life, solid presence in your life, you
can sense the lies.
Your taste develops in a way that you
can sense there is something off there, there
is a lie.
Muslim scholars actually talk about these details, how
a believer has this kind of sense that
there is something off there.
I can't put a finger on it but
I can tell, this is not how a
feel vibrates in a sense.
So it's important for the believer not to
fall for these narratives that are meant to
shape public opinion.
The masses can easily be moved.
And if you want to fix the masses,
you can't.
This is part of human nature.
In the Muslim tradition, in the Arabic language,
they are always called الدهناء That's the word
for the general public.
And the behavior of الدهناء is mainly irrational.
Irrational.
So the opinion of the majority is not
necessarily the best opinion.
So that's one point which is very important.
So Allah SWT exposes the people of Quraysh.
They were accusing the Prophet ﷺ.
Allah SWT tells them, so let's look at
your own house.
Let's look into your house.
Let's see what you have.
So let's look at the lies that you
guys have made and created a lifestyle and
a religion out of and these are things
you believe in and there is no foundation
for any of that.
What is it?
Oh, there are other gods.
Who are they?
Again, derived from الإله.
So that they want to cast a sense
of divinity.
العزة from العزيز.
The name of Allah, the Almighty.
So they say, something echoes the so-called
Greek gods.
That each god possesses some divine traits but
not all of them.
So there is the god of war, there
is the god of love, there is the
god of beauty.
So for each aspect of the divine traits,
there is one specific embodiment of that and
that's a god.
Something maybe slightly similar here in the Arab
world, among the Arabs, pagan Arabs, is that
العزة, it has, so this is probably, this
has to do with war.
Why?
Because it's Almighty.
مناء from منّان.
The generous, the one who gives graciously.
Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala.
So maybe this is about provision for them.
And so on and so forth.
So Allah says, okay, where did you get
these things from?
Not only that, the Arabs, some of the
pagan Arabs believed that the angels were the
daughters of Allah.
They ascribed daughters to Allah and they said
these are the angels.
The angels are females, according to them.
And they are the daughters of Allah, like
the begotten daughters of Allah for them.
This is what Allah says to them, أَلَكُمْ
وَالذَّكَرُ وَلَهُ الْأُنْثَ Because the Arabs didn't like
to have girls.
Why?
Because there were, again, there were tribal societies,
there was a lot of war, there was
a lot of fights, and who would fight?
Men.
So they needed more men.
And if a tribe is raided and defeated,
their women would be taken.
They would be taken as concubines.
And this was a source of disgrace in
that society.
So they said no, we want to preserve
our honor so we wish we didn't have
girls.
And this is why, not only among the
Arabs, but across the world, burying girls, babies
alive was very common.
Actually, until today, in some areas in the
world, some big countries with big populations, there's
still a lot of مَوْءُودَة There is a
lot.
Should I say the country?
Well, you guys know.
If you just look it up, there are
millions of girls who actually get buried alive
almost every year.
And there was a documentary a few years
ago with someone in the UK, but again,
their parents were migrants.
And she spoke about how her parents buried
some of her sisters when they were just
a few days old in the UK, in
the backyard.
And the authorities knew, but at that time,
we're talking about the 50s, 60s of the
last century, they were very culturally sensitive and
they didn't want to create trouble.
So they didn't really take the investigation seriously.
Okay, so that was part of their culture.
So Allah says, Okay, so look in the
mirror before you talk about Prophet Muhammad ﷺ,
because you have nothing against him and there's
nothing genuine against him.
But let's see what you have.
Then the reality of what you have is
إِن يَتَّبِعُونَ إِلَّا الظَّنَّةُ إِنْ هِيَ إِلَّا أَسْمَـٰهُمْ
سَمَّيْتُمُهُ And that's another part of the deception.
This is the semantic side of the deception.
And it's important to know this.
إِنْ هِيَ إِلَّا أَسْمَـٰهُمْ These are merely names.
Names.
Actually, names here doesn't only...
أَسْمَاء is not only names.
Allah says وَعَلَّمَ آدَمَ الْأَسْمَاءَ كُلِّهَا And Allah
taught Adam all the names.
Now scholars of Tafsir have a lot to
say about this and what it means and
there are some differences.
And still, by the way, the discussion is
ongoing.
What did Allah teach Adam ﷺ?
Is it only the names?
Or what significance is in just teaching the
names?
But many linguists say the origin of language
is names.
They say even verbs.
A verb is a name of the action.
So they reduce back, they reduce language down
to names, nouns.
Originally.
So it's names.
And names are supposed to be telling of
the nature of the thing they signify.
So they're supposed to give you an idea.
They're not just random names.
They're not arbitrary names.
The name is derived from the nature of
the thing.
So it tells you.
It tells you something about the thing and
about its function.
We still have this.
We retain this in language.
So we call a computer.
Why?
Because it computes.
Because it computes.
We have a lot of these names.
They tell us something about the thing that
we're talking about or about its function and
so on and so forth.
So when Allah says, It's not only that
they created titles.
These names, they named them.
Which are empty names.
But they created a whole way of thinking
around them.
A culture around them.
A way of life around them.
A narrative, complete narrative around them.
Complete narrative around them.
And this is what humans do until today.
So you will hear things.
So in their time, it was Allat, Al
-Uzza, Mana, Isaf, Na'ila and others of
their gods.
But today, what are the gods of today?
Which are empty names in reality.
They have a facade to deceive people.
They have a level of truth in them
so that they are not noticed.
Their reality is not noticed.
What are the big gods that are false
names these days?
That people worship?
Individualism.
Independence.
Self-actualization.
Influence.
Achievement.
What else?
Help me out.
Secularism is not necessarily attractive.
Unless someone truly believes in it.
But civilization.
Advancement.
Modernity.
Right?
Very flashy titles.
Empty names.
Empty names.
Democracy.
Yeah.
Well, it depends where you stand, right?
But it's actually not even an empty name.
It's a negative name.
Because feminism has the opposite.
Has really the opposite of what a feminine
really is.
It seeks to transform a female into a
male.
But they call it feminism.
Again, I don't see much value engaging with
them at that level.
As long as you engage at the moral
level.
You don't need to get into all of
this bickering at that level.
Really, all of this bickering and fights at
that level.
You don't need that.
So, as long as you see things at
a deeper level, you can tell.
You can tell the rotten roots of all
of this.
So, there's a lot of names now.
There's a lot of names.
And these are the gods of today.
And people worship them.
Including Muslims.
To a certain degree.
Does this make them kuffar?
No.
But that's shirk al-azghar.
That's al-kuffar al-azghar.
Right?
You're pursuing something beyond what it truly deserves.
Many people are waiting for the moment where
they are independent.
They think life is going to be perfect.
That's their jannah.
And that's why it's worship.
People want to achieve the height of their
career.
And they think that's the life that is
worth living.
And you'll live happily ever after.
And things like that.
That's the delusion.
That's the false promise of shaitan.
Many people seek these things and pursue them
as divine objects.
But we just don't call it divine.
And the Prophet ﷺ pointed to this.
That people would fall into grave things without...
And what makes it easy for them to
fall into these things is changing the name.
Like many Muslim sects.
Supposedly Muslim sects worship graves.
Peers in the graves, right?
They pray to them.
They ask of them.
They commit shirk.
And they call it what?
They call it respect for the awliya.
And they call it love of as-salihin.
But you're treating them like gods.
You're giving them the rights of Allah ﷻ.
That's shirk.
Even by the way, if some Muslim speakers
now are telling you, You know the whole
issue of revering the graves.
And rubbing your hands, your face, your body
against them.
Seeking barakah.
And making dua close to the graves.
Thinking there is blessings and barakah.
It's not necessarily shirk.
What did we leave for Allah ﷻ?
Or calling upon those dead.
What did we leave for Allah?
What did we leave for Allah?
It's not worth it that we abuse the
rights of Allah ﷻ.
In order why?
To keep Muslim groups that ascribe to the
Muslims in good harmony.
Because the moment someone directs worship to other
than Allah ﷻ.
They are committing kufr.
They are committing kufr.
So for the sake of political harmony.
We fall into kufr.
Or we acknowledge kufr.
Or we accept kufr.
There is no room for being politically correct
there.
Now, we are not saying that these individuals.
All of those individuals are kuffar.
Some of them are ignorant.
So they might have an excuse of ignorance.
They might.
We don't know.
That's with Allah.
We leave that with Allah.
But the act itself.
Is kufr.
Calling upon the dead in the grave.
Is a clear act of shirk.
So the Prophet ﷺ pointed to this phenomenon.
And he said.
There will be groups in my ummah.
Who would drink alcohol.
Intoxicants.
But they would call it.
Or they would refer to it using other
names.
So they won't call it khamr.
They will call it what?
Spirits.
They will call it drugs.
Weed.
Marijuana.
Other stuff.
They have more fancy names.
Anyone can help us with those like.
Ecstasy.
No, they have this very like.
Not the drugs themselves.
But they have something like.
You can see some skills there.
Khair.
These are just examples.
So humans have this tendency.
To commit what is forbidden.
What is haram.
And how do they lessen the resistance.
Or remove the resistance.
Bypass it.
By what?
Linguistic semantic games.
Change the name.
Change the title.
Right?
So bombard a country.
Wipe out populations.
Innocent people.
And call it what?
Spreading democracy in the world.
Liberating oppressed populations.
Removing tyranny.
Right?
That's how they do it.
Many people.
Many of the general population.
They think this is heroism.
We are saving the world.
And they have no clue what's going on.
So.
A big part of deception.
Is changing the names.
So this is why language in Islam.
Is very very serious.
A very serious thing.
Definitions are a very serious thing.
That's the game that the people of Quraysh
played.
That's the game that.
Everyone who goes into falsehood.
And tries to defend it.
That's what they are going to use.
They will change the names.
And today like.
I think there are some.
Some thinkers.
I forgot.
There are some.
By the way.
There are some books.
But I can't refer to them.
Because they have some good ideas.
But they have some bad ideas.
But a good book.
In general.
Is written by a guy from.
Actually from Montreal.
I read the Arabic translation.
I didn't read the.
It's in French.
And I think it's in English.
Mediocrity.
Mediocrity.
He talks about our times.
These times.
And how.
Like they play with language.
Don't say.
There are mistakes.
This is wrong.
You can't say.
But you can say.
There are things that can be improved.
Yeah.
It's wrong to say.
There are mistakes.
And then they talk about like.
Politics.
They talk about universities.
And how.
The use of language.
Has been.
Limited.
And has been.
There's pressure has been.
Exercised on it.
So yeah.
You speak in a specific way.
And.
If you don't use their.
Their words.
You're an outcast.
You are backward.
You are.
You're not a civilized human being.
You have to use their words.
And their words.
Are actually a twist on reality.
So language.
And the.
You know.
The connection between language.
And reality.
Is very very interesting.
It's a dialectic.
You might think.
Oh language.
Just refers to reality.
No.
Language also creates reality.
By the way.
It shapes reality.
It forms reality.
Okay.
I mean.
This could be extended.
Talking about the concept of truth.
And everything.
But.
That would.
Take us way.
Way away.
From the main topic.
So let's stay there.
إي يتبعون إلا الظن.
وما تهو الأنفس.
إي يتبعون إلا الظن.
So Allah says.
They're only following.
الظن.
And here's a question.
And I don't think.
We're going to deal with it.
But we can.
Let's raise the question.
Give a small.
Quick answer.
And maybe at some point.
We're going to get to it.
Because it's.
It's a nice aspect.
Of the Arabic language.
But.
It's.
It could be quite lengthy.
So I'll leave it for.
A better time.
But.
I'll give you a glimpse of it.
So Allah says here.
إي يتبعون إلا الظن.
Allah blames them.
He says.
They follow.
الظن.
But Allah.
سبحانه وتعالى.
And Allah says.
وإن الظن لا يغني من الحق شيئا.
And the ظن does not replace.
Certainty.
Or does not replace truth.
Does not stand in the stead of truth.
It's nothing.
Compared to the truth.
But Allah says.
Allah.
Praises the believers.
He says.
الذين يظنون أنهم ملاقوا ربهم.
الذين يظنون أنهم ملاقوا ربهم.
The believers.
Allah praises them.
Allah says.
They have dhun.
That they are going to meet their Lord.
But Allah praises them.
Because of that.
So how come.
These people can't follow dhun.
But the believers can follow dhun.
In their belief.
Okay.
Yes.
Good.
Good answer.
I think this is.
From Ibn Abbas as well.
Said something similar.
That dhun has two meanings.
Okay.
But when someone like Ibn Abbas says it
has two meanings.
He means in the context.
That not necessarily the word itself has two
meanings.
Okay.
And these are not my words.
These are the words of linguists.
Okay.
The majority of the Arab linguists.
They don't believe that a word has.
A meaning in its opposite.
That refers to something and its opposite.
Because you're talking about certainty and the truth.
And then you're talking about dhun.
Pretty much they are opposites.
So how come sometimes you use it.
To mean this.
And sometimes the opposite.
Okay.
So many linguists actually say.
That's not what Ibn Abbas means.
That the word itself doesn't have two meanings.
But a dhun.
Doesn't refer to the conclusion.
It refers to the process.
Refers to the process.
And it's the process of.
Gleaning over the.
Evidence.
Of what you know.
And arriving in a conclusion.
That's what a dhun is.
A dhun is a state of mind.
Is how you feel about something being true
or not.
It doesn't refer to that thing being true
or not.
In itself.
It refers to your experience.
When it comes to your level of certainty.
About this truth.
And how you arrive there.
So the process and the experience.
So the believers.
Because they looked at the right evidence.
And they had the right intention.
The evidence and the clues.
Led them to the right conclusion.
That matches the truth.
It's called dhun.
But it matches the truth.
That's why Allah praised them for it.
The disbelievers.
Because of their wishful thinking.
Because of their agenda.
That led them to look at the false
evidence.
And by looking at the false evidence.
They arrived at some conclusions.
Same process.
Same process.
But different intentions and different conclusions.
That's called dhun.
That's in a nutshell.
But there is again more.
Some linguistic details that would.
Set them apart more.
So they follow a dhun.
And what?
Their self's desire.
Their wish.
And we.
The surah started with what?
Right?
Allah says.
Prophet Sallallahu Alaihi Wasallam does not follow the
hawa.
The desire.
These people.
What are they following?
They are following the desires.
So they are accusing the Prophet Sallallahu Alaihi
Wasallam.
Of following his desires.
But in reality.
This is what?
Projection of their reality.
On the Prophet Sallallahu Alaihi Wasallam.
So this is why.
Again by the way.
Calling things by their name.
Is very important.
Calling a spade a spade.
Is very important.
Very important.
And this is.
Ahlus Sunnah.
One of the things that.
One of the lines of defense that they
had.
Powerful.
One of the most powerful lines of defense.
Against the people of Bid'ah.
Was to.
Keep things.
By the way the Quran and the Sunnah
refer to them.
Those who spoke about the names and attributes
of Allah.
They started using words that are translated from
Greek.
So they would say.
For example.
When you talk about things in existence.
You have.
You have.
And you have.
So they say you'd have.
An essence.
There are things that are an essence.
And then.
Are a lot more like traits.
Or descriptions.
Okay.
And then they have.
There are.
What are Al-Ajsam.
In the Arabic language.
Jisim means body.
Means body.
And mostly physical.
So now when Ahlus Sunnah.
Affirm.
What Allah refers to himself in the Quran.
Allah rose above the throne.
Those who were affected by.
Greek philosophy.
And the so called Islamized version.
Of philosophy.
In their rules.
The rules that they.
Again.
Took from the Greek.
Was if.
They would say.
Movement and action is.
Not an essence.
It's a feature.
Arad.
It's a feature.
It's not an essence.
In itself.
Right?
Because there's no action by itself.
Someone has to do the action.
Correct?
So an action doesn't exist by itself.
It is done by someone.
So it's a feature of someone.
A feature of an essence.
So in their rules.
One of their rules of logic.
Is that.
If there is a Arad.
If there is an action.
There is a Arad.
Okay?
If there is an action.
Then there is a.
That's a feature.
That's a feature.
And a feature.
Is not an essence.
Is not an essence.
But.
And.
I'm not sure if I should take you
into this.
Wrong kind of.
Conundrum.
But.
Okay.
Let's just.
Cut it short.
So basically they say.
Features.
Are temporary.
They're not eternal.
And.
If.
You say.
Allah.
For example.
Rose above the throne.
That's an action.
That's an action.
Or Allah spoke.
Allah spoke.
For real.
So they say.
That's an action.
And an action.
Is temporary.
Is created.
Is hadith.
And the temporary cannot exist.
In an essence.
In an eternal essence.
So they say.
If you say.
Allah.
Rose above the throne.
You are saying.
Allah is jism.
Allah is a physical body.
And you're kafir.
Okay?
So that's taken.
Again.
That's a very oversimplification.
But that's really what it boils down to.
Ahlus Sunnah.
They say.
Listen.
In the Quran.
You don't find the word jism.
Referring to Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala.
So we don't accept it.
And we don't reject it.
We stick to the words of the Quran
and the Sunnah.
Okay?
And that's the right view.
Many people now.
They see debates online.
And things like that.
Who should we follow?
You know what?
Stick to the words of the Quran and
the Sunnah.
Allah says.
اليوم أكملت لكم دينكم و أتممت عليكم نعمتي
و رضيت لكم الإسلام دينا I have perfected
your religion.
Completed Islam for you.
Don't take anything beyond this.
Especially when it comes to describing Allah subhanahu
wa ta'ala.
Talking about the Quran.
Talking about matters unseen.
Use the language of the Quran.
Imam Malik.
Some people try to debate with him.
And he said.
We use the Quran and the Sunnah.
We use the language of the Quran and
the Sunnah.
We don't get beyond that.
Imam Ahmad.
They try to get him to say things.
Or to debate.
They try to debate with him about things.
And he said.
We only use what's in the Quran and
the Sunnah.
We stick to the Quran and the Sunnah.
And what came from the Prophet ﷺ and
his companions.
That's the way.
Because any other word you bring.
We're not going to agree on its meaning.
Right?
So we could accept it conditionally.
On the condition that we agree on this
meaning.
But the best thing is to use the
language of the Quran and the Sunnah.
Okay.
I think that's enough here.
But.
Okay.
Then Allah ﷻ dismantles what they said about
their gods.
And about the angels being daughters of Allah
ﷻ.
And Allah says.
This is an unfair ascription.
Or an unfair deal that you are offering
Allah ﷻ.
Allah shows basically how fragile their way of
life is.
And their belief is.
And by the way.
Just because.
We live at a time.
When the modern narrative.
Is alive and well.
And it has its proponents.
And it has the machines.
And it has the intellectuals.
And the think tanks behind it.
And all of the devices that push it.
And spread it.
It seems to be compelling.
And that's an illusion.
That's an illusion.
And we mentioned that many times.
When you live in a lie.
When you are absorbed in a system of
lies.
It's very difficult to see these lies for
what they are.
Now we look at the people of Quraysh
and say.
Oh that's very stupid.
How could someone believe in something like this?
If you lived at that time.
It would be as compelling as what we
have today.
That people call sometimes science.
That people sometimes call truth.
That people call logic.
People call civilization.
It would be just as compelling.
So don't be deceived by the fact that
we live in these times.
And the people who believe in all of
these false notions.
And this false aqeedah.
And this false way of life.
They have the upper hand.
Our perception is bound by power.
Our taste is bound by power.
You know there are people who set taste
among the public.
There are the people who have the power.
We humans when someone has power.
Automatically unconsciously we start to admire what they
have.
We assume what they have is superior.
We start to admire it.
We assume it's right.
Our perception adjusts to accommodate it.
Very important to understand this.
So that we don't get overwhelmed and engulfed
by this.
Okay let's continue.
I think we have some time.
Now seven minutes.
I actually had intended to go a little
quickly today.
But it didn't work out.
Let's see.
Are there any questions?
If you have any questions put your hands
up.
I'll see if we go for questions or
we just read another part.
Two questions here sisters.
Questions?
Okay two questions.
Let's go for the questions.
You know what?
Let's read this bit.
I think we have time to go for
the questions.
Okay perfect.
So some of the Arabs would worship the
angels.
Assuming for them that they were the daughters
of Allah.
So they were of divine nature.
Just worship them.
And that they would be intercessors.
Because that was an underlying logic in a
lot of the paganism among the Arabs.
That these are means or mediaries that intercede
with Allah.
For us but Allah makes it clear that
they don't intercede except with two conditions.
When Allah allows them to intercede.
And this intercession that is allowed is not
allowed for everyone.
It's open only for the believers.
Only for the believers.
So if someone commits shirk there's no intercession
for them.
Angels would not intercede for them.
Yeah so these are the two conditions.
I think we can take the questions now.
Yes.
Okay if I understand your question correctly.
It means you're asking about the siqada and
awareness of what's going on.
So that we don't fall for the deception.
You're asking about at what point I can
tell that my tharasa or my intuition, my
insights are correct or not?
Yeah.
Okay let me answer it this way.
Undoing all of the deception around us is
no easy feat.
Such a huge, huge, huge project.
And it never starts with listening to commentators,
experts, politicians, thinkers.
Never.
Because you're just replacing Allah with another lie.
And there are layers of this deception.
So where do I start?
Build a relationship with the truth that you
have no doubt about.
The Quran.
Belief in Allah.
The reality of Allah himself.
The eternal truths that no one can mess
with.
The day of judgement.
Let them become realities.
Not just information that you get in your
mind.
Okay yeah I just know this.
The truth is something to engage with.
You need to engage with.
In the sense you need to process it.
This is why there is dhikr.
Dhikr is engagement with the truth.
So it's more like workout in the gym.
If you go and just workout once or
twice you're not going to get anything.
You have to do that every day.
To lose the gains.
Correct?
Same thing with the truth.
The truth is not there for you to
acknowledge.
This is not faith.
It's a workout.
You need to engage with it.
You need to allow it to dominate your
inner space.
To occupy your mind.
When your inner space is preoccupied most of
the time with these eternal central truths of
existence.
You develop this kind of powerful taste for
the truth.
And slowly slowly you start to unpack.
Then I would say after a long period
of time you would read in history.
But a lot of history is written.
A lot of history is written again through
the false lens and so on and so
forth.
So we have heaps and heaps and layers
of deception.
Right?
Can we sort of figure it out all?
No.
I don't think so.
But what you want to do is get
quality truth.
You're going to live with some falsehood.
The more on the fringes the falsehood is
the better off you are.
Okay?
This is a project for life by the
way.
This is a project for life.
When the Prophet ﷺ says, عِبَادَةٌ فِي الْحَرْجِ
كَهِجْرَةٍ إِلَيْ Worshipping Allah at the time of
killing and murder and chaos is like migrating
to me.
To the Prophet ﷺ.
It's not just a passive approach to life.
It's a powerful thing because it gets to
a point where you want to keep the
core of your life and activity and your
mind with the truth about which there is
no doubt.
And subhanAllah many scholars throughout the Muslim history
have spoken about this.
So I'll give examples.
I'll give examples of recent, more recent examples.
I can think of Muhammad bin al-Hassan
al-Nadwi.
A great da'ia.
Okay?
Not every name that I mention is actually
completely infallible and everything they said is right.
But in certain areas, for the most part
they're good.
And their opinions about what I'm saying here
I think are more in line with the
Qur'an.
He spoke so much about people being preoccupied.
And he died just recently, like maybe 20
years ago.
And he was a prolific writer.
Very well established in Islamic sciences.
From Dar al-Nadwa, a great Muslim school,
university in India.
He spoke so much about Muslims being preoccupied
with the nitty gritty details and the daily
happenings of politics.
He says this takes you away from Iman
and it makes you fall for the deception.
He says you want to deal with that
sparingly.
Especially in the early days or stages of
your preparation of being a good Muslim, student
of knowledge.
He says you deal minimally with that.
And then he says there has to be
specific types of people who are advanced in
knowledge, who specialize to deal with what is
happening with the ummah at the political level.
And these people, he says, they're still in
great danger.
And they need a lot of support.
So he delineates a way of actually dealing
with these things.
He says a lot of people politicized Islam
and they rendered Islam into a political movement.
And he says that wipes out Islam.
Kills the spirit of Islam.
And turns Islam into a pragmatic political movement
and things like that.
There are others as well, like Farid al
-Ansari, a Moroccan.
Same issue that he raised.
You have one of the greatest, Muhammad al
-Bashir al-Ibrahimi and Abdelhamid bin Badis from
Algeria.
The ones who fought the French occupation of
Algeria.
These were great scholars.
If you read about the life of Muhammad
al-Bashir al-Ibrahimi, your mind would be
blown at how much knowledge this man had.
How many books, how many texts of the
science of Islam he has memorized.
At the age of 15, he had memorized
something that would take people five lifetimes to
memorize.
And he wasn't just a passive scholar.
He was someone who engaged against the French.
And was very influential.
And eventually, Algeria was freed because of their
works.
Because of their works.
He really complained so much about the Muslims.
And some of the Muslim scholars falling into
the trap of following politics and engaging with
elections and negotiations and all of that stuff.
It actually weakened them.
And he says that they would, he actually
compares it to, subhanAllah, and others, Malik bin
Dabi as well, another Algerian.
They compare it to passive Sufism.
That would support the occupying forces, the occupation
in many Muslim countries.
And they said all of this cry for
rights, your own political rights, is actually, he
says it's a lollipop that is thrown to
you, a piece of meat that is thrown
to you.
So you fight over it and they do
what they want.
We Muslims fall for that and we say,
oh we are aware, I'm educated, I know
what's going on with the Muslim Ummah.
No, you've just, you're just looking from the
same paradigm and you're stuck in it.
So, they actually talk about how Muslims think
that they are doing Islam a favor and
they are freeing the Muslims and they don't
realize that they are sinking deeper in that
sinkhole.
So, yeah, we get too early into all
of these areas.
So that's my advice, you want your hereafter,
really engage with the Qur'an.
This is not a passive approach, it's a
very powerful approach.
Engage with your Qiyam al-Layn, engage with
learning the Sunnah of the Prophet ﷺ.
And honestly, half the advice, leave all these
debates online about all of this group and
that group and that group.
Wallahi, none of that will benefit you.
Stick to the Qur'an and the Sunnah.
Stick to the Qur'an and the Sunnah
and the scholars that are well-known.
And you'll be safe.
And then, if Allah gives you a life
long enough and Allah gives you success to
engage and benefit the Ummah in these complicated
issues, Alhamdulillah, if you die on the way,
as you're making your way there, Alhamdulillah, you
fulfilled your responsibility, you saved your religion and
your heart and you're playing it safe with
Allah SWT and that's what you should do.
So, I hope this helps.
Jazakumullah khair.