Moutasem al-Hameedy – The Monumental Tafsir #84
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The transcript describes the meaning of various topics in Islam, including the meaning of rab and the meaning of waif, the importance of worshipping Islam, and the negative consequences of modern civilization. The segment emphasizes the need for strong faith in Islam, providing guidance and support, and avoiding labels like bragging or doing nothing. The importance of understanding the physical and psychological dynamics behind things and avoiding giving too much information is emphasized, along with the need for people to pray and not just get rid of their shadow. The segment also touches on the negative impact of misunderstandings and the importance of knowing the context and actions of Islam.
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As-salamu alaikum wa rahmatullahi wa barakatuhu, Bismillah
ar-Rahman ar-Rahim, alhamdulillahi rabbil alameen, wasalatu
wasalamu ala sayyidil mursaleen, nabiyyina Muhammadin wa ala
alihi wa as'habihi ajma'een, Allahumma a
'allimna ma yanfa'una wa infa'na bima
a'allamtana wa zidna ilman inna ka anta
al-'alim wa al-hakim, Allahumma ya mu'allim
Adam a'allimna wa ya mufahima Sulaiman fahimna,
Allahumma azwaghal ikhlasa laka fil qawli wa al
-amad.
So we'll continue with Surat al-Tur, the
tafsir of Surat al-Tur, and the last
thing we discussed was the verse 43, and
I just wanted to add some things, or
just go over it quickly, am lahum ilaahun
ghayru Allah, subhanallahi amma yushrikoon.
So after Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala presents
possible objections, or possible reasons, perceived reasons as
to why Quraysh reject the message, or have
rejected the message of Prophet Muhammad sallallahu alaihi
wa sallam, Allah lists them and debunks them,
shows how foolish they are, so they don't
justify the rejection of the message of the
Prophet sallallahu alaihi wa sallam, or the opposition
to his person.
Then finally Allah concludes with this possible, again
even if it's realistically impossible, but for the
sake of argument, Allah still says, am lahum
ilaahun ghayru Allah, or do they have ilaah,
a deity other than Allah, someone that they
worship other than Allah, okay ilaah, and it's
actually a good opportunity now to understand something,
what's the difference between rab and ilaah, rab
and ilaah, sometimes in the Qur'an Allah
uses rab, and sometimes Allah uses ilaah, so
fundamentally what's the difference between rab and ilaah
as words, both of them refer to Allah
subhanahu wa ta'ala, what is the difference
between rab and ilaah, yes, rab is the
nurturer, like what does God mean, in general
God, the high power is still rab, you
want to take another chance at ilaah, okay
cool, Allah
says your ilaah is Allah, where is this
coming from, so
rab is the nurturer, the one who takes
care of you, the one who provides you,
ilaah is the one who is worshipped, to
whom you offer worship and devotion, correct, yes,
that's the basic difference, rab, rab, and I
think we spoke about the word rab linguistically
previously right, does anyone recall, we went into
the word rab in detail, the word rab
and what it actually means right, so the
one, simply in brief, the one who takes
care of you, I'm not sure where this
is coming from, it sounds to
me like the AC, so
that's rab, ilaah, ilaah, from what, from worship,
the one who is worshipped, the one who
is worshipped, devotion, worship, obedience, love, okay, the
ultimate goal that you pursue, that's ilaah, that's
ilaah, okay, that's the basic thing, so when
both are mentioned in the same context, each
one holds its own meaning, but when one
of them is mentioned, it includes the other
in reference to Allah, so when we say
innama ilaahukumullah, it means he's your rab and
he's your ilaah, okay, whenever one of them
is mentioned, it refers to both of them,
but why does Allah in certain contexts choose
to use the word rab and why in
other contexts he uses the word ilaah, because
the context calls for a different emphasis, for
a different emphasis, Allah says alhamdulilahi rabbil alameen,
that refers to the natural goodness of Allah,
the inherent goodness of Allah, alhamd, which again
calls for the recognition of this and for
praise, rabbil alameen, so Allah wants to emphasize
what?
Allah wants to emphasize that he is the
originator of the world, he is the nurturer
of the world, the one who takes care
of the world, sustains it and keeps it
together and provides for everything in this world,
in the creation, and he sustains it and
he keeps it and he's in charge of
it, he has power over it, Allah wants
to emphasize this, but the meaning, there is
a deep, if you dig deeper, there is
a meaning that is implied that he's also
al ilaah, but the emphasis, Allah wants the
emphasis here to be on rab, the nurturer,
so he uses rab, he uses rab, a
very interesting verse Allah says about the heavens
and the earth, had there been an ilaah,
an ilaah, for the heavens and the earth,
other than Allah, they would have been corrupted,
you would assume that priority comes to the
word rab, right, if there were two, more
than one rab, then there would be conflict
and things would disintegrate, there would be conflict
and issues, but Allah uses ilaah here, had
there been objects of worship, true objects of
worship, right, in the heavens and the earth,
other than Allah, they would have been corrupted,
why?
subhanAllah, shaykh al-islam al-tamiyyah talks about
this and he says, because salah al-ibad
laysa ala yaqtasiru ala al-rabubiya, basically,
cultivation and optimization of the creation does not
solely depend on providing them with their basic
needs, their worldly needs, their environmental needs, it
stands mostly on the spiritual need, so things
without worshipping Allah will be corrupted, including humans,
so their existence becomes corrupted, becomes a source
of corruption and ends up in disaster and
annihilation, so he says, not only do we
depend on Allah as a rab, but we
also need Allah as al-ilaah, more than
we need him as a rab as well,
our need to worship Allah is greater than
our need for the provision that Allah offers
us, and the care that Allah subhanAllah takes
of us, so that's why Allah uses in
this, had there been gods to be worshipped
in the heavens and the earth, other than
Allah, they would have been corrupted, so creatures
without worshipping Allah subhanAllah ta'ala will end
up in corruption, disintegration and destruction, that's why
humans need Islam, that's why they need the
worship of Allah, more than they need air
to breathe, more than they need shelter to
protect themselves and live safely, more than they
need food and drink, they need to love
Allah subhanAllah ta'ala, they need to obey
Allah and seek him as their ultimate goal,
so Allah says, أَمْ لَهُمْ إِلَٰهٌ غَيْرُ اللَّهِ
أَمْ لَهُمْ إِلَهٌ غَيْرُ اللَّهِ Do they have
Ilah other than Allah, that means both, do
they have a god other than Allah or
a rab other than Allah who provides for
them, this is where they get the audacity,
and the boldness to say what they say
and to respond with defiance to Prophet Muhammad
salAllahu alayhi wa sallam, is that what they
are depending on?
Right, because if someone shows a strong attitude,
they must have some backing right, they must
have something to rely on, something strong to
cover their back, so Allah says, what is
giving them the audacity to do all of
this, to be so defiant, where is it,
do they have what, a rab other than
Allah to support them really, to defend them
and to give them victory, but Allah is
also saying, or do they have what, an
Ilah other than Allah, meaning do they have
an object of worship other than Allah, and
that tells you that humans, when they worship
Allah truly and properly, as Prophet Muhammad salAllahu
alayhi wa sallam came with, they reach the
apex of the human condition in every aspect,
including strength, dominance and power, so Allah is
saying, that where do they get this power
from, they are acting as if they have
power, this power can only be achieved when
what, when your Ilah is Allah, so there
is potential within humans that cannot be reached,
cannot be matched by the way, but through
any way or any means, other than worshipping
Allah, somebody might think, but why are Muslims
weak, Muslims are weak because of the weakness
of their Iman, someone says, oh no, no,
it's political, it's military, it's numbers, it's resources,
no, no, it's only this, because Allah subhanahu
wa ta'ala left us to ourselves, when
Allah leaves you to yourselves as Muslims, what
happens, it becomes a matter of numbers, and
resources, yes, who has more soldiers, who has
more artillery, who has more machinery, who has
more weapons, and so on and so forth,
yes, now it's a matter of calculations, but,
إِن يَنصُرْكُمُ اللَّهَ فَنَغَالِبَ لَكُمْ if Allah is
giving you victory, no one can defeat you,
these numbers, they don't count after that, okay,
so Allah is saying, do they have a
God, like an object of worship other than
Allah truly, that's gonna get them to this
level of strength, where they can defend their
position, then Allah says, سُبْحَانَ اللَّهِ عَمَّا يُشْرِكُونَ
Allah is far above and greater than who
they associate with Him, because what do they
associate with Allah, creatures like them, creatures like
them, so when you worship creatures, what do
you expect yourself to be, what do you
expect your life to be, what do you
expect to go, what do you expect your
future to be, what about your lifestyle, what
is it going to be, human life, the
human condition disintegrates without the worship of Allah,
not only the provision of Allah, without the
worship of Allah, the human condition is ruined,
because humans, without worshiping Allah, they will degenerate,
morally, socially, psychologically, in every aspect of life,
somebody might say, okay, what about the modern
civilization, well wait, wait, because things have a
life cycle, even things that are evil, they
have a life cycle, they have a moment,
they have a peak, they reach a peak,
it's just part of their life cycle, but
eventually they will disintegrate, so you are still
in the middle of it, so don't judge
too early, still, still, modern civilization is way
too young even to judge, you know, what's
going to happen with it, okay, so that
was the comment that we wanted to add
about this, so let's continue with verse number
44 to 46, Imam Sa'di said, I seek
refuge in Allah from the accursed Satan, وَإِن
يَرَوْا كِسْفًا مِّنَ السَّمَاءِ سَاقِطًا يَقُولُوا سَحَابٌ مَّرْكُومٌ
فَذَرْهُمْ حَتَّى يُلَاقُوا يَوْمَهُمُ الَّذِي فِيهِ يُصْعَقُونَ يَوْمَ
لَا يُغْنِي عَنْهُمْ كَيْدُهُمْ شَيْئًا وَلَا أُمْ يُنْصَرُونَ
يقول تعالى في ذكر بيان أن المشركين المكذبين
بالحق الواضح قد عتوا عن الحق وعسوا عن
الباطل وأنه لو قام على الحق كل دليل
لم اتبعوه ولخالفوه وعندوه وإن يروا كسفًا من
السماء ساقطًا يقول ساقطًا أي لو سقط عليه
من السماء من الآيات الباهرة كسف أو قطع
كبار من العذاب يقول سحاب مركوم أي هذا
سحاب متراكم على العادة فلا يبالون بما رأوا
من الآيات ولا يعتبرون بها وهؤلاء لا دواء
لهم إلا العذاب والنكال ولهذا قال فَذَرْهُمْ حَتَّى
يُلَاقُوا يَوْمَهُمُ الَّذِي فِيهِ يُصْعَقُونَ وهو يوم القيامة
الذي يصيبهم فيه من العذاب والنكال ما لا
يقادر قدره ولا يوصف أمره يوم لا يغني
عنهم كيدهم شيئًا أي لا قليلا ولا كثيرا
وإن كان في الدنيا قد يوجد منهم كيد
يعيشون به زمنًا قليلا فيوم القيامة يضمحل كيدهم
وتبطل مساعيهم ولا ينتصرون من عذاب الله ولا
هم ينصرون هنا الله يقول أن المؤمنين الذين
ينصرون الحقيقة الواضحة قد اختفوا من الحقيقة والاستمروا
في الخطيئة وأن حتى لو كانت كل الوثائق
والوثائق موجودة لدعم الحقيقة فهم لن يتبعونها وهم
سيقاتلونها ويقاتلونها if they were to see pieces
of the sky falling on them, that is,
if clear evidence were to fall upon them
from the sky in pieces, in other words,
if large pieces of punishment were to fall
upon them, they would say, this is nothing
but a mass of clouds, that is, this
is just clouds piled up as usual in
other words, they do not pay attention to
what they see of signs and they do
not learn anything from them, there is no
remedy for such people except punishment and chastisement
hence Allah says, so let them be until
they encounter that day of theirs on which
they will die, which is the day of
resurrection, when they will be afflicted with inestimable
and indescribable punishment and chastisement the day when
their plotting will avail from them nothing, small
or great, even though in this world they
may be able to survive for a short
time by means of their plots, but on
the day of resurrection their plots will come
to naught their efforts will prove worthless and
they will not be aided against the punishment
of Allah, as he says, and they will
not be helped ok, so Allah subhanahu wa
ta'ala here continues, once Allah exposed all
of their arguments, and he showed the weakness
in all of them and the irrationality in
all of those possible stances or arguments as
to why they opposed the Prophet Muhammad salallahu
alayhi wa sallam Allah eventually gives us the
conclusion, and we Muslims should really heed this
and we should understand it, ok, that hidayah
comes from Allah, guidance is from Allah and
I know it's difficult, now people start to
have the issue with the qadr, an issue
with the qadr, people are guided because Allah
guides their heart, ultimately, somebody says, so those
who are misguided, they are not guided because
Allah didn't guide them?
yes, everything is with the qadr of Allah,
many of the early generations of salaf, they
said that the boy, the young boy who
was murdered by al-khidr when he was
created, he was stamped kafir, he was stamped
kafir, and we have hadith from the Prophet
salallahu alayhi wa sallam, when Allah brought the
children of Adam, all the progeny of Adam
from his back Allah
got a handful of the people, and he
said these people will be in the hellfire
and I don't care, it's not like Allah
doesn't have rahma, Allah has rahma, but they
deserve to be there and Allah took a
handful and he said these people are for
Jannah and I don't care, meaning I don't
go back on what I say, so ultimately
why do people, why are people guided and
people are misguided?
because Allah wrote so, is there any injustice
in that?
no, remember, Allah's writing, Allah's decree, Allah's qadr
is not separate from his justice, his knowledge,
and his wisdom, his deep knowledge Allah
does whatever he wants, oh that means he
can punish good people, you cancelled all the
names and attributes of Allah and you understood
this in isolation, it applies in context, the
names and attributes of Allah and his actions
apply in context you can't just bring everything
in whole context every time you want to
make a statement, context is in the background,
if you keep cancelling this context, communication becomes
impossible, and that's the problem with disclaimers in
the world, when you manufacture something or when
you offer a service, you have to write
like a hundred disclaimers, and I'm not sure
if it's true, but they said when they
first started manufacturing microwaves, there was this lady
who gave her dog a bath and then
she wanted to dry him, so she put
them in the microwave and he blew up,
so she sued the company, she said there's
nothing on the pamphlet, on the brochure that
says you can't dry animals in the microwave,
and she won, she was, I don't know,
given how much in compensation so the thing
is like, it's a crazy world when you
cancel common sense, and that's what happens with
beginner students of knowledge, they learn something and
they don't know the context, they don't know
the web of connections where this ruling is
nestled in, and it has like hundreds of
other connections, so they come with this ruling
and say that's the ruling oh yeah, but
in this context that we're dealing with, something
else affects it, so it's not as you
understood it at a basic level, oh no
no, you're going against the sunnah and against
the Quran, how do you deal with this?
honestly, how do you deal with this?
it's simple, before you learn, zip up, you
have a long way to go before you
open this and start exercising your tongue, you
have a long long long way to go
but the prophet said convey from me even
if it's a verse, you're not there yet,
you're not there yet because what you are
conveying is nonsense, it has nothing to do
with Islam, it's a deficient, limited, foolish understanding,
but you have the guts, look at the
audacity and how shaitan plays people, you have
the guts to say this is Islam, this
is the sunnah of the prophet, you're lying
because you don't know, because you're speaking without
knowledge, no, I did study this in the
class, yes, the knowledge is not what you
studied in the class, the knowledge also that
has to do with this, that affects this
and contextualizes this, is the classes you have
not taken yet, and the books you haven't
read yet, the principles you haven't mastered yet,
so that's a common issue as usual, how
did we get here?
help us back, what was the departure point?
so the reason people are guided is because
Allah guided them, the reason people are misguided
is because Allah misguided them, is there any
injustice?
no, no, no Aisha, when a young boy
from the Ansar, a little child from the
Ansar, passed away, she said, good
for him, he's going to be a bird
in Jannah, the prophet says to Aisha, maybe
something else, maybe not, maybe it's not the
case, Allah created Jannah and created
people for it, and Allah created Jahannam and
created people for it, Imam Ahmad has a
long section in some of his books where
he mentions that when the angel comes
after four months of pregnancy, the person is
written, as in the hadith of the prophet,
the person is stamped to be a believer
or disbeliever in the womb of their mother
so how are they accountable for what happens
in their life?
there are secrets we don't know, Allah gave
you a choice, and you know that you
can choose, anyone who denies that you have
volition, that you can make choices, someone who
is going against clear reason, I can choose
to drink from this and I can choose
to live it here, can't I?
everyone can do this, so we all know
this, so knowing something at a deep level
does not cancel this fact, so who are
the ones who are guided, the ones that
Allah guides?
we said last week, if you remember, Allah
knows where to put his guidance, and Allah
knows where to allow people to go misguided,
Allah knows where to put his message, with
which people, Allah knows where to put wealth
and where not to put it, according to
his plan, and Allah tests people so Allah
knows where to put wealth, where to bring
lack of wealth, so the family you were
born in was actually decided by Allah, and
it was not a random choice, it didn't
happen randomly, you were meant to be born
in this family, to those parents, in the
conditions you were born in, with the shape
that you were born in, and the DNA
that you were born with everything is with
Qadr, Qadr means what?
The knowledge and the decree of Allah and
the creation of Allah, it's all with Allah,
do we understand everything about how that works?
no, Allah didn't teach us everything, but Allah
said that everything is by his word, by
his command, by his decree, and Allah says,
for whoever among you chooses to follow the
straight path, so Allah proves in the Quran,
clearly proves that you have choice you have
choice, you can choose this or you can
choose that, but Allah also says, وَمَا تَشَأُونَ
إِلَّا أَيَّ شَاءَ اللَّهُ رَبُّ الْعَالَمِينَ and your
choice is bound by Allah's decree, you can't
choose outside of that so will there be
innocent people, will innocent people enter the hellfire?
no, لا يَهْلَكُ عَلَى اللَّهِ إِلَّا هَالِكُ as
the prophet s.a.w. said, no one
will be punished and destroyed with Allah except
someone who deserves it do we understand the
intricacies of how the dynamics of all of
this?
no, there are things that Allah left to
his own knowledge, otherwise, where is obedience?
where is submission to Allah?
where is submission to Allah?
I'm going to believe until Allah tells me
everything, if He doesn't tell me everything I
want to know, I'm not going to believe,
good for you, let's see where you end
up, choose as much as you want, you
don't get to choose, why?
because you are عبد, many people don't like
this today عبد, what do you mean?
it's the 21st century, so what?
you're عبد, 21st or the 500th century, you're
still going to be عبد, even if humans
make it to Mars, they're still going to
be عبد, and you're either عبد of Allah
or عبد of Shaytan, there's no third option
there is no third option, you're either عبد
of Allah or عبد of Shaytan, and by
the way, people with their dunya, they accept
this, you accept that with people, you know,
you work with professionals and specialists and you
don't ask them to convince you about everything,
you have to trust them, correct?
you can't possibly know everything when it comes
to a medical condition and all of medicine
when you deal with a doctor, right?
I'm not saying trust doctors with everything, I
mean, obviously, there's a level of trust, but
again, you need to educate yourself, maybe it's
not the best example, but let's say a
mechanic, you're not going to argue with your
mechanic about every part he's going to replace
and about every screw he's going to put
in, right?
why?
because supposedly, he has the knowledge and the
know-how and the expertise, he's not going
to waste his day explaining things to you,
he's going to say, go somewhere else, leave
me alone, you accept that, you accept that,
so that's why we outsource, we trust specialists,
otherwise, you can't possibly know everything and you
can't possibly do everything why with Allah SWT,
Allah has to convince us about every piece
and then we'll be convinced, so where is
faith?
where is faith?
they tell you, oh, that's blind faith, it's
not blind faith, you're born with it, it's
in your heart, and it's your natural state,
and it was taken away from you, so
when you come to Islam, you embrace it
again and when you tap into it, and
you are sincere, you'll find it, you will
find it, and that's why they say, you
know, there's no atheist in the trenches, they
say there's no atheist, that's what they used
to say, there's no atheist in the ditches,
in the trenches of the front line in
war, when you are face to face with
death, I think now they say there's no
atheist on a crashing plane, right?
something like that, when you come face to
face with death, I remember one of my
close friends, may Allah preserve him, brother from
the UK, he mentioned his story, he was
16 years old, and he says he was
swimming, he was on vacation in Spain, and
he was swimming, he said, he grew up
an atheist, his family for the most part
was atheist he didn't have a proper religious
upbringing in Christianity or anything, so he says,
I was swimming, and I didn't realize that
I was carried by the tide, and I
found myself far away from everyone, and far
from the shore, and I felt I was
going to die he said, I knew, he
said, I turned up, and I just said,
he said, I didn't have a name for
him, but I just said, please save me,
you're the only one who can save me,
he said, I don't know where this came
from, I was never exposed to anything about
God, but he said, I knew it for
sure that he was there he said, from
that moment on, I started my search for
Allah, so it's in us, it's not blind
faith, it's blind faith when you just think
intellectually, and you think it's philosophy, it's not
philosophy, it's not a point of view, it
is the only true point of view, it's
your birthright, it's what you're born with, it's
your human nature, it's the core of your
human nature and when you remove the contaminants,
you'll be restored to it, or at least
you'll be brought close to it okay, so
Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala says about the
disbelievers, the reality of them is that the
arguments that they present are not real arguments,
as we said previously, they are a bluff,
right, they're just avoiding the real, they're playing,
they're going in circles, they're chasing their own
tails, they're playing games, they're playing games when
guidance comes to people, and comes in the
right way, and without obstacles, and that's why
sometimes you have discussions with people, you clarify
things because you're removing obstacles, if they have
some misunderstanding, but you're not convincing them, you
are removing obstacles so that the light of
revelation meets the light of their fitrah, and
that's when iman happens that's what Allah says,
noorun ala noor, in surah an-noor, right,
light upon light, the light of the fitrah,
ibn al-qayyim explains this verse, he says,
when the light of fitrah meets the light
of revelation, that's when iman happens so your
job as someone who gets into discussions, or
maybe arguments, is you are removing the obstacles
that are standing in the way, once you
remove them, iman happens, you don't make people
believers, you don't, you're just clearing the way
for it, if you can so Allah subhanahu
wa ta'ala says, these people are not,
as he said in surah al-baqarah, inna
allatheena kafaru sawa'un alayhim a-andartahum am
lam tundiruhum la yu'minoona, those who have disbelieved,
whether you warn them or you don't warn
them, they're not going to believe, why?
because their hearts are sealed, their eyes are
screened, their ears are blocked that's why they
can't see the truth, they can see things,
but they can't see the truth behind them,
why?
because they are misguided, they are misguided Allah
even further says in surah al-an'am,
walaw tara idh wuqifu alannari faqalu ya laytana
nuradd, wala nukadhiba bi ayati allahi wanakuna minal
mu'mineen, bal bada lahumma kanu yughfuna min qablu,
walaw ruddu la adu limanuhu anhu wa innahum
la kadibun and only if you see, when
they stand before the hellfire, face to face
with the hellfire, now they see the truth,
right?
they've seen yawbul qiyama, they've seen the punishment
of the hellfire with their own eyes and
they would say at that moment, only if
we are sent back we would be believers,
Allah says, bal bada lahumma kanu yughfuna min
qablu, what they used to hide and push
down has become clear to them some of
the mufassireen said this is the fitrah, this
is the fitrah that they used to cover
and hide, and that's the meaning of kufr,
kufr is to do what?
in Islam, it's to cover, to cover something,
push it down in the dirt and cover
it, hide it, conceal it because they conceal
their fitrah, right?
so Allah says, no, what they were hiding,
what they were running away from, the truth
that was within them that could recognize the
truth of revelation, now it's become apparent, it
came up to the surface bal bada lahumma
kanu yughfuna min qablu, walaw ruddu la adu
limanuhu anhu wa innahum la kadibun if we
were to return them to the dunya, listen,
that's Allah, Allah says if we were to
return them to the dunya, they would disbelieve
again, even after seeing the hellfire, so it's
not a matter of intellectual conviction, no, it's
not a matter of a viewpoint or philosophy,
no they are created kuffar, and they deserve
it, there's no injustice, it's important for us
to understand this, and this is why the
believer is always on guard, the believer is
always in a state of what?
apprehension, fear the prophet sallallahu alayhi wa sallam,
as Aisha radiallahu anhu said, kana aktharu qasamin
nabiyyi sallallahu alayhi wa sallam, la wa mukallib
alquloob, by the one who turns the hearts,
by the one who flips the hearts, and
he would say, ya mukallib alquloob bithadbid qalbi
ana dinik, oh Allah, you are the one
who turns the hearts, keep my hearts, or
turn my hearts to be steadfast upon your
religion, upon Islam you never take your Iman
for granted, you never take your Iman for
granted, why?
because it's not how good you are, it's
not how good upbringing you are, these are
factors, but it's not what decides whether you
are a believer or not, it's the word
of Allah, so you're always vigilant until the
last breath until the last breath, and you
don't take any credit for your Iman, for
your righteousness, for your prayer, for your memorization
of the Quran, for your da'wa, for
your qiyam al-layl, for your advice, for
your whatever you apply in Islam, don't take
any credit for it don't take any credit
for it, the moment you claim credit to
yourself, this is a false proclamation, it's a
false testimony, and once you start taking credit,
that's when you start going downhill, attribute it
to Allah, Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala is
the one who inspired you with that so
always attribute it back to Allah, always thank
Allah for the good that you do, always
so when they
saw the clouds approaching from the horizon, they
said, oh this is?
that was the punishment from Allah subhanahu wa
ta'ala, what did they say?
they said, oh this is just a storm,
as usual, as the regular storms that we
get, and it's going to give us rain,
Allah says, it is what you asked for,
the punishment that you asked for and the
ayah shah r.a mentions that the Prophet
s.a.w., whenever there was wind, and
the Prophet s.a.w. could see clouds,
the Prophet s.a.w. said, every time
the Prophet s.a.w., like the weather
changed and it became more like stormy, the
Prophet s.a.w. would be very very
troubled, why?
fearing that it's a punishment from Allah, and
that's the Prophet s.a.w. so now
a lot of the hurricanes and the storms
and the tornadoes that destroy people, they say,
oh it's a natural phenomenon, that's how educated
and blind we have become, no, these are
what?
these are punishments from Allah subhanahu wa ta
'ala, these are reminders from Allah subhanahu wa
ta'ala but you know what, we stop
taking lessons, we don't take lessons anymore, we
think when we know the physical and the
scientific dynamics behind something, we think, ok, we
figured it out, no, there is a cosmological
meaning for all of that, although I don't
like this word, there is a divine meaning
behind all of this even if you understand
some of the dynamics behind it, it doesn't
cancel the reason why Allah made it come
to you, it has nothing to do with
it, it has nothing to do with it,
at that level it has a different meaning,
and you should not ignore it, just because
you understand more of the concrete dynamics behind
it ok, so Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala
says, leave them, that's the best that you
can do with those people, leave them to
it, you can't, you don't guide the ones
that you love, you don't guide the ones
that you'd love to guide as well, that's
another meaning Allah says, until the day when
they are struck and then when they are
resurrected, when all of their plottings and all
of their resources will not benefit them, so
in the dunya Allah gives them some leeway,
they can get away with some of their
resources, they can gain some power Allah says,
don't be deceived and deluded by the blessings
and whatever the disbelievers have, it's just short
lived, it's part of the test, it's part
of the test, but on the day of
judgement they will have nothing, literally nothing, because
you came into this world with nothing and
you will return with nothing, and that's your
reality whatever you have is borrowed, is given
to you from Allah to use, and He's
going to test you by how you manage
it They
could have fields of study in universities about
something that is completely useless and misguided and
has nothing to do, and once you go
into it, the arguments are maybe attractive, they
seem to be very intellectual, but you're just
running within an empty circle, where does this
lead you to?
Nothing, so you're wasting the intelligence that Allah
gave you on something that is useless There's
a lot of that, a lot of this,
many of the Muslim scholars, they said, وَأَكْثَرُ
عُلُومِ الْبَشَرُ لَا فَائِدَةَ فِيهِ Most of the
knowledge that humans have developed, there's no benefit
in it So it's very important, this is
why the Prophet ﷺ used to say, وَأَعُوذُ
بِكَ مِنْ عِلْمٍ لَا يَنْفَعُ I seek protection
in you from knowledge that has no benefit
Some people build fields of knowledge and there
are discussions and conferences and books and journals
and peer-reviewed journals and PhDs and travel
and conventions and all of this, the paraphernalia,
but eventually, what is this about?
What's the point in this?
No benefit in religion, no benefit in the
dunya, there's a lot of that, and some
people waste their life in this, and it's
like my career, it's an obsession, and they
live with it That's the biggest loss, that's
the biggest loss, so Allah says that these
people, eventually, leave all of that, don't be
pulled into all of this complete nonsense, no
matter how attractive it looks or how sophisticated
and educated it looks Leave it behind, خلاص,
focus on what really matters, which is the
greater truths of life, they will have a
punishment, they will be punished, that's what's going
to happen The end of all of this
chaos, they're just going to have punishment, simple,
so you can sort of steer clear from
all of this clutter because it's useless, the
bottom line, they're going to be punished because
of their disbelief, and Allah has the final
say وَاصْبِرْ لِحُكْمِ رَبِّكَ فَإِنَّكَ بِأَعْيُونِنَا So, be
patient with the command of your Lord, so
what does that mean?
Be patient with the responsibility Allah gave you,
to convey the message, and to be upon
the truth, because that's difficult, that's not easy
And it gets even more difficult in the
face of opposition, so the path of the
believers is the path of patience, if you
expect to be a believer and just live
an easy life, you'll be disappointed, it requires
patience, and as time passes on or goes
on, you will need more patience And the
Prophet s.a.w. said, إِنَّ مَنْ وَرَاهِكُمْ
أَيَّامَ الصَّبْرُ Behind you or ahead of you
will be the days of patience, صَبْرْ لِلْقَابِضِ
فِيهَا عَلَىٰ دِينِهِ كَالْقَابِضِ عَلَىٰ الجَمْرِ The one
who holds on to the religion is like
someone who's holding on to a hot coal
of fire, it's burning, you know how difficult
that is, right?
But you can't let go of it, why?
Because it's worse, if you let go of
it, it's worse, it's the hellfire So you
still hold on to it, you take the
lesser pain, no matter how compelling it is
in your immediate experience, right?
You don't let go of it because you
know there's a greater punishment you can't, so
you'd rather have this pain and put up
with it, and this is the reality of
the dunya A little bit of patience until
you make the transition, then things will be
easy, inshaAllah ta'ala وَاصْبِرْ لِلْحُكْمِ رَبِّكَ فَإِنَّكَ
بِأَعْيُنِنَا You are under our watch, we're watching
you and you are under our care But
that doesn't mean you're not going to be
tested, the Prophet ﷺ was injured in the
battle of Uhud, right?
In Al-Ta'if he was chased with
stones, right?
And his feet were bleeding That means they
will not be able to kill you, and
Allah will protect you from much of the
harm they want to inflict on you But
there will be tests, فَإِنَّكَ بِأَعْيُنِنَا And that
will be a means of elevation, these tests
will be a means of elevation وَصَبِّحْ بِحَمْدِ
رَبِّكَ What should you engage with?
Tasbih of Allah, people underestimate what that means,
people think the world is boiling and you
just talk about Salah Many times in the
Quran Allah says وَاسْتَعِينُوا بِالصَّبْرِ وَالصَّلَاةِ Allah mentions
difficult times and He says وَأَقِيمُوا الصَّلَاةَ وَآتُوا
الزَّكَى When someone says, you're just talking about
Salah, you're talking about Wudu, when the world
is falling apart Yet, these people don't know
what Salah is, they don't know, they don't
pray the Salah of the Prophet ﷺ, especially
internally, they don't, and that's why they just
think it's just some physical exercise Allah, people
are dying and you're just doing some physical
exercise, what's that?
Salah is an engagement with the Lord of
the worlds, and it's a fulfillment of the
purpose of your creation, you are doing what
Allah created you for, and that engagement with
Allah is out of this world Why is
there wars?
Why is there truth and falsehood?
Why is there conflict?
Why do you think people die?
Because of this, because of this So you're
forgetting the cause, and you're chasing what?
The collateral, it doesn't mean it's insignificant, but
that's just the consequence, the reflection, so you
can't leave the core You can't leave the
core, especially when you have nothing else to
do, just watching news, and, I don't know,
protesting and running out and saying, you know,
that's better than Salah This is not the
religion of Muhammad ﷺ, this is not the
religion of the Prophet ﷺ, people who say
this, for them Salah is just some external
physical exercise that's empty and has no, just
rituals you do out of obedience The Muslims,
the early Muslims in Mecca, Allah made an
obligation upon Qiyam al-Nail, they were supposed
to pray most of the night at some
point, why?
Because you cannot deal with this life and
the challenges and the threats, the great threats
in this dunya unless you have a strong
Iman, how can you have strong Iman if
you cannot stand in prayer before Allah for
hours?
You can't, it's not a political movement, although
you'll have to engage with politics, it's not
a social movement, although you'll have to engage
with the social aspect of it It's not
physical movement, although you'll have to still engage
with that, the heart of this is what
Allah wants from you, this, it's the heart,
that's what Allah looks at, that's your reality,
that's your essence, that's what Allah created you
for, that's what Allah wants from you, that's
what gets you into Jannah So don't lose
the focus, and don't bring contradiction where it
doesn't exist, with the affairs of the Muslims
and the essence of Islam and the Muslims
The Prophet ﷺ every time he was troubled,
when you say troubled, like things were falling
apart, how would he pull himself together?
Aisha said, anything happens, anything troubles him, he
goes to Salah, was he escaping?
No, he was getting to the source of
his strength, he was calling upon Allah, because
without Allah you can't do anything And this
is not lip service, this is like a
true statement, this is the reality of the
believer People say, we should pray in the
morning, the evening, what about life?
Life is here for worship, there's no life
that stands alone, if there's no worship, there's
no life Life was given to you so
that you worship, so worship is not something
that you force on life, life is an
offshoot of worship, it exists by virtue of
worship, it owes its existence to the concept
of worship, so don't underestimate what worship means
And worship is the life of the heart,
which is the highest form of life, it's
the highest level of human self-actualisation, not
what they claim, not what those people claim,
that's real self-actualisation That's the highest level
of life, where the human condition is at
its best, where the experience of life is
the best, is the best, and this is
why Allah refers to people who don't believe
as what?
As cattle, because that's the level that they
live in, and they don't know what it
means to live at that level, so they
judge it from a distance and they have
no clue So with this, Alhamdulillah, we're done
with Surat At-Tur, and inshallah we're going
to move eventually to, I believe, Surat Al
-Dhariyat, I'm just going to have one or
two quick questions, if they are quick, we'll
answer them You need to speak up, Alhamdulillah,
yeah, he's been Muslim for 30 years now,
Mashallah, Tabarakallah, Allah Mubarak, yes, sisters, yes, you
have to speak up Okay,
so first just a clarification, we don't pray
Salat to uplift ourselves, we pray Salat to
connect with Allah, the uplifting is a by
-product, it's a fruit, it comes, but we
don't seek it as the goal, otherwise we
would like to use Islam, but not be
used by Islam, we want to serve Islam
and not get Islam to serve us This
is a common attitude today, which is the
attitude of arrogance of the modern life, many
Muslims are bringing it into Islam, I'm not
saying about your statement, but this is a
very common phenomenon, right?
So we pray to connect with Allah, so
people who don't know much about Quran, how
can they pray for long?
Do you know, keep repeating it, you think
that's like nothing, that's actually how, there are
many narrations from many of the Tabi'een
and the early scholars that that's what they
would do And I think I mentioned Abu
Sulayman Al-Darani, one of the ones who
are known for their worship from the early
generations, he said sometimes, he used to pray
most of the night, if not all of
the night, and he says So
he says that I'm stuck reading first night,
second night, third night, the same verse, I
can't go past it, because of the meanings
that are flooding my heart, the beauty of
this verse, the meanings, the light that comes
with it, I can't let go of it,
so I'm stuck with it, literally helpless, stuck
with it He says then Allah, look at
his statement, he says Allah blesses me with
some heedlessness, and I slip out of it,
and I can continue, so he's one verse,
so it's not about how much you've memorized,
you know one page, keep repeating it, the
Quran, like the first time you read it
is not like the second time, the second
time is not like the first time, third
time is not like the second time Each
time is different, each experience with the Quran
when you read it, if you are having
the same experience, your heart is not engaged,
if you are having the same experience with
the same surah, with the same page, every
time you read it, your heart is not
invested in the Quran, period, period, let's just
call it as it is We'll have to
end here, InshaAllah we'll meet next week, 6
.45pm, by the way, brother Yahya, because he
answered two questions actually, very very powerful questions,
may Allah reward you, honestly very very difficult
to answer, especially without proper background, so excellent,
we're going to offer you a gift I
hope I haven't forgotten it, I have it,
so it's Cambodian original InshaAllah, hopefully you'll like
it, InshaAllah, Jazakum Allah khair