Moutasem al-Hameedy – The Monumental Tafsir As Sadi #78 Surah An Najm
AI: Summary ©
The speakers discuss the importance of avoiding evil deeds and rewarding those who do them, avoiding negativity and theology, avoiding major impressions, avoiding major impressions, and finding one's own success in social media. They stress the importance of avoiding major impressions and finding one's own success in social media, praising oneself and not just for personal reasons, and choosing clothing that is notMVally or rooted in religion. They also discuss the choice of options for men and women, including praying for their favoriteisha and having a good time.
AI: Summary ©
Bismillah ar-Rahman ar-Rahim, alhamdulillahi rabbil alameen,
wassalatu wassalamu ala ashrafil mursaleen, sayyidina Muhammadin wa
ala alihi wa ashabihi ajma'in, wa ba'du.
Allahumma a'allimna ma yanfa'una wa nafa
'una wa ma ajantana wa zidna ilman innaka
anta al-'aleemul hakeem.
Allahumma rizqu man ikhlasa laka fil qawli wal
a'mal.
We continue with Surat an-Najm.
And we can see, subhanAllah, Surat an-Najm
is full of lessons that we can draw
on.
And that's a blessing, subhanAllah, that's a blessing
when it comes to the Qur'an.
The meanings that come with reflection are very
powerful and profound.
And it's a provision from Allah subhanahu wa
ta'ala.
When he opens up doors for you, that
you make connections, that you arrive at certain
conclusions, that doors open for you as you
read the Qur'an.
That's a blessing from Allah subhanahu wa ta
'ala.
So we pray that Allah allows us and
opens more of his blessings and the lessons
that he gives us as we deal with
this tafsir.
So we reach to verse number 31.
Let's read and then comment on them bi
'idhnillahi ta'ala.
Bi
'idhnillahi
ta'ala.
يُخْبِرُ تَعَالَىٰ أَنَّهُ مَالِكُ الْمُلْكِ المُتَفَرِّدُ بِمُلْكِ الدُّنْيَا
وَالْآخِرَةِ وَأَنَّ جَمِيعَ مَنْ فِي السَّمَاوَاتِ وَالْأَرْضِ مُلْكٌ
لِلَّهِ يَتَصَرَّفُ فِيهِمْ تَصَرُّفَ الْمَلِكِ الْعَظِيمِ فِي عَبِيدِهِ
وَمَمَالِيكِهِ يَنفِّذُ فِيهِمْ قَدَرَهُ وَيُجْرِي عَلَيْهِمْ شَرَعَهُ
وَيَأْمُرُهُمْ وَيَنْهَاهُمْ وَيَجْزِيهِمْ عَلَىٰ مَا أَمَرَهُمْ بِهِ
وَنَهَاهُمْ عَنْهُ فَيُثِيبُ الْمُطِيعَ وَيُعَاقِبُ الْعَاصِي بِالْحُسْنَةِ
بِالحَالَةِ الْحَسَنَةِ فِي الدُّنْيَا وَالْآخِرَةِ وَأَكْبَرُ ذَلِكَ
وَأَجَلُّهُ رِضَى رَبِّهِمْ وَالْفَوْزُ بِنَعِيمِ الْجَنَّةِ To
Allah belong all that is in the heavens
and all that is on earth and so
He will requite those who do evil for
their deeds and He will reward those who
do good with the best reward.
Those who avoid major sins and shameful deeds
except for minor lapses verily your Lord is
generous in forgiveness He knows you best from
when He brought you forth from the earth
and from when you were fetuses in your
mother's womb so do not claim purity for
yourself for He knows best who is truly
righteous Here Allah tells us that He alone
owns everything in this world and the hereafter
and that everyone in the heavens and on
earth belongs to Allah and He controls and
directs them in the manner of a great
king with his slaves They are subject to
His will and decree and to His laws
and regulations He issues commands and prohibitions to
them and requites them on the basis what
He commands and forbids them to do He
rewards those who obey and punishes those who
disobey and so He will requite those who
do evil deeds including disbelief and lesser misdeeds
for their deeds that is for what they
do of evil He will requite them with
a severe punishment and He will reward those
who do good by worshipping Allah and treating
the creation of Allah kindly with the best
reward that is with the best reward in
this world and the hereafter the greatest and
most sublime of which is the pleasure of
the Lord and attaining the bliss of paradise
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يزيل عنكم الجرائم والمآثم خصوصا إذا كان العبد
مقصوده مرضات ربه في جميع الأوقات وسعيه فيما
يقرب إليه في أكثر الآنات وفراره من الذنوب
التي يتمقّت بها عند مولاه ثم تقع منه
الفلتة بعد الفلتة فإن الله تعالى أكرم الأكرمين
وأرحم الراحمين أرحم بعباده من الوالدة بولدها فلابد
لمثل هذا أن يكون من مغفرة ربه قريبا
وأن يكون الله له في جميع أحواله مجيبا
ولهذا قال تعالى فلا تزكوا أنفسكم أي تخبرون
الناس بطهارتها على وجه التمدح هو أعلم بمن
اتقى فإن التقوى محلها القلب والله هو المطلع
عليه المجازي على ما فيه من بر وتقوى
وأما الناس فلا يغنون عنكم من الله شيئا
ثم قال لهم أولئك الذين يغنون عن أسوأ
الخطيئة والأعمال المسكينة أي أنهم يقومون بما يستمتعه
الله عنهم من أعمال المسكينة المسكينة التي تكون
أسوأ الخطيئة وأنهم يغنون عن أسوأ خطيئة مثل
الغناء والشرب والشربة والموت والأسوأ الخطيئة إلا للأسوأ
الخطيئة هذا يعني أسوأ الخطيئة التي لا يستمتع
بها الشخص أو أنه يقوم بها أكثر من
مرة ولكن بشكل صحيح فإن فعل ذلك لا
يغلق الشخص من أن يكون من أولئك الذين
يفعلون الخير إذا حدث ذلك عندما يقوم بأعمال
المسكينة ويغنون عن ما يستمتع به سوف يأتي
بمغفرة الله التي تجمع جميع الأشياء لذلك
قال وقال الرسول صلى الله عليه وسلم الجمعة
إلى الأخرى والرمضان إلى الأخرى هم خطيئة لأي
شيء يأتي بينهما حتى يتجاوز المسلمين هو يعرفك
أفضل من عندما أحضرتك من الأرض ومن عندما
كنت مرأة في أمك هذا يعني أن الله
يعرف أفضل كل حالتك ويعرف أفضل من أحد
الأشياء التي تجمعها ومعظم الأشياء التي تجمعها وهناك
الكثير من التهديد وليس هناك تهديد قوي أفضل
من الوقت عندما أحضرتك من الأرض ومن عندما
كنت مرأة في أمك wound and it is
still present in you, even though Allah Azza
wa Jal has given you some strength to
help you carry out what He enjoins you
to do, the weakness is still present.
Because He knows of your weak condition, divine
wisdom and generosity dictate that He should shower
you with His mercy, forgiveness and pardon, bestow
His kindness upon you and remove evil deeds
and sins from you, especially if an individual's
aim is to please his Lord at all
times and he is striving to do that,
which will bring him close to Allah most
of the time, and he is fleeing from
sins that may lead to him incurring the
wrath of his Lord.
Yet he slips upon time after time.
Allah is most generous and merciful.
He is more merciful to His slaves than
a mother to her child.
Therefore, such a person must be close to
his Lord's forgiveness and Allah will surely respond
to him in all circumstances.
Hence Allah says, so do not claim purity
for yourselves, that is, do not tell people
that your souls are pure by way of
self-praise, for He knows best who is
truly righteous.
The place of righteousness is the heart, and
it is Allah who sees it and will
reward what the heart contains of righteousness and
piety.
As for people, they cannot avail you in
the slightest before Allah.
Okay, so these two verses are subhanAllah very
profound and there are two things that we
can talk about here.
First, the connection between judgment and ownership or
al-mulk.
Al-mulk in the Arabic language, you can
say mulk, you can say milk, not milk
is the drink, but milk with kasra.
Okay, pretty much close, the meaning is close.
There are some differences in the usage, but
the meaning is the same.
And the meaning of mulk, the root, ma
la ka in the Arabic language, is to
hold something together and have it completely under
control.
So for example, the act of kneading the
dough in the Arabic language, when you do
it very well, right, and the dough becomes,
holds itself.
When the dough holds itself strongly, this is
called in the Arabic language, for example, malakat
al-mar'at al-ajeen, the lady has
malakat, okay, al-ajeen, the dough.
That means she has really kneaded the dough
very well that it holds itself so strongly.
It holds itself strongly.
When you hold onto something and never let
it go, you call this malaka as well.
But when it comes to the original or
the principal meaning, that's having control that no
detail escapes Allah subhana wa ta'ala.
He has a say over everything.
And Allah subhana wa ta'ala connects judgment
and recompense with mulk.
In surah al-fatiha, malik yawm al-deen,
right, malik, the king, the master of the
day of al-deen.
Al-deen is what?
Recompense, judgment, justice, bringing everything to a state
of justice and equilibrium.
That's al-deen.
Why?
Because somebody might want to do justice, but
they don't have the means.
They don't have the control.
So who can execute or achieve complete justice
and fairness?
Who can put everything in its rightful place
eventually, totally?
The one who has power, control.
Because you might want to do justice, but
you don't have control over everything.
And this happens a lot, you know, when
you try to arbitrate between husband and wife,
right?
You don't have control.
You give suggestion, but when one of them
doesn't like it, you know what?
They don't care.
They don't care.
So you're trying to help, but when someone
refuses, when you're trying to give people good
advice or good judgment, and you're trying to
settle the affair, and they want, you know,
you're frustrated, you can see the damage that
is happening by refusing to commit to justice,
right?
Why?
Because you don't have control.
But Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala has the
ability to judge with justice and he also
has the control.
So malik yawm al-deen.
And this is why also Allah says here,
وَلِلَّهِ مَا فِي السَّمَوَاتِ وَمَا فِي الْأَرْضِ And
to Allah belongs what's in the heavens and
the earth.
Everything belongs to Allah.
Everything is Allah's.
So he has control over that.
Why does Allah mention ownership here and mastery?
لِيَجْزِيَ الَّذِينَ أَسَأُوا بِمَا عَمِلُوا وَيَجْزِيَ الَّذِينَ أَحْسَنُوا
بِالْحُسْنَةِ So that those who did evil, Allah
will give them what they truly deserve.
Because he is capable.
He is capable of making his justice materialize.
Not only is he able to judge fairly,
but he is also able to bring that
or to materialize his justice, make it a
reality.
وَيَجْزِيَ الَّذِينَ أَحْسَنُوا بِالْحُسْنَةِ And to recompense those
who did well or did good, Allah will
recompense them with good, with what they truly
deserve.
So that's the connection between mulk, ownership and
power and judgment.
Then Allah talks about, now since Allah is
saying if you do evil, you'll be recompensed
with what?
Punishment.
If you do good, you will be recompensed
with reward.
So obviously the mind is going to think,
well who doesn't fall in error?
Who doesn't commit a sin?
Who doesn't slip?
All humans, as the Prophet sallallahu alayhi wa
sallam, all humans fall in error.
All of us are going to slip.
All of us are going to slip.
So what about this?
Then Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala says about
the believers, about the ones who do good,
الَّذِينَ يَجْتَنِبُونَ كَبَائِرَ الْإِثِمِ They are the ones
who do what?
Who avoid the major sins.
Major sins.
And major sins, there is the seven major
sins that are mentioned in the hadith of
the Prophet sallallahu alayhi wa sallam.
Right?
الشرك, عقوق الوالدين, الزنا, شهادة الزور, etc.
شرب الخمر.
These are the كبار, we know them, the
major sins.
But these are not the only major sins.
These are the seven major ones, but there
are others and many.
Imam al-Dhahabi has a book called الكبار
and he mentions a huge number of الكبار,
the major sins.
But the scholars agree that, as one of
the التابعين I believe said, لا كبيرة مع
التوبة ولا صغيرة مع الإصرار.
There is no major sin with توبة.
And there is no minor sin with insistence,
insisting to fall in sin.
So a lot of the scholars say that
a small sin, if you insist on it
and stay consistent with it, it becomes كبيرة,
it becomes a major sin.
And also one of the سلف said, the
early generations said لا تنظر إلى حجم المعصية
أو إلى صغر المعصية ولكن انظر إلى عظمة
من أصيت.
When you fall in a sin, don't look
at the small size of the sin that
you have committed but consider the greatness of
the one that you are sinning against, the
one that you are disobeying.
So the reality of كبار, the reason that
they are major, the reason they are grave
sins is that they constitute some sort of
a great disobedience, a challenge to Allah.
So it's about, the sin is not something
that stands independently, you are a part of
it, it's a relational thing, it's a relationship
between you and Allah.
Obedience and sin is a relationship between you
and Allah.
It defines the relationship between you and Allah.
That's the major thing in it.
Sometimes people say, you know, I'll do this
then I will repent.
It's like, okay, I shouldn't be doing this
but I will do it.
You're not looking at the full context because
Allah says don't do it.
So your relationship is not only with the
sin but your relationship is also with what?
With the command of Allah, which means your
relationship with Allah.
So it's not like you are only committing
an action or failing to fulfill an obligation,
which is a sin, you are violating the
limits of Allah and the rights of Allah.
You are infringing on the rights of Allah.
That's what a sin is.
That's what a sin is.
So Allah talks about humanity in the inside
of the human being.
Allah says about the ones who do good
and they will be recompensed with good.
Allah says, they stay away from the major
sins.
What is al-fahisha?
Immorality.
Al-fahisha, what is the difference between al
-fahisha and ithm and al-fahisha?
Ithm includes al-fahisha.
So ithm, sin, is the wider circle.
Al-fahisha is a small circle within the
bigger circle.
So what is the meaning of al-fahisha
other than that it is sin and a
violation?
We need to go to the word, to
the root.
We need to go to the root.
Fahisha, the root is fa, ha, sha, sheen.
Fa, ha, and sheen.
So there is some meaning there.
There is a background in that meaning.
That helps us understand what type of sin
is fahisha.
Why is it singled out?
Anyone knows?
Yes, but I want something more specific.
The brother says shameful.
Anyone can help us?
So for example, in fiqh, if you study
fiqh, fiqh al-buya, transactions, you would come
to something called bay' al-gharar.
Bay' al-gharar is that what you are
buying is not very well defined.
It depends.
You could get this, you could get that.
You could get good quality, poor quality.
You could get a huge amount, you could
get a small amount.
We don't know.
So you are basically buying the unknown.
There is no guarantee.
This is called al-gharar, meaning this is
deception.
This is injustice.
So the scholars say, bay' al-gharar is
haram, but it is okay when the gharar,
if it's tiny, like the anticipation, the margin
of anticipation, right, in the quality of the
product or the amount of the product is
very minute.
That's fine.
That's fine.
Why?
Because it's insignificant.
You can guarantee the quality or the amount
within the standards, fine, but it's a matter
of small degree difference.
That's okay.
That's forgivable.
Maghfur.
So they say, ma lam yafhush, as long
as it does not, what?
Yafhush, fahasha, right?
This is the word.
What does it mean?
If it's not huge and big and what?
Your human nature rejects it.
It's like it really hits you.
It really hits you, right?
That it's so huge and so big that
you can't miss it.
So fahasha is the type of sin that
is despicable, that a decent human nature finds
it repulsive.
Repulsive can be a good word here.
Not necessarily.
The sin itself is ugly.
It's disgusting by itself.
By a good taste, a person with good
taste, with a decent taste, said, that's disgusting.
It's disgusting.
I can't do this.
It's not like they have a problem with
sinning.
No, they have a problem with, it is
despicable.
It's disgusting.
It's reprehensible.
Appalling.
Yes.
Okay, cool.
So Allah says, الَّذِينَ يُجْتَنِبُونَ كَبَائِرَ الْإِثْمِ وَالْفَوَاحِشِ
Because there are sins that are hidden that
are not repulsive.
Especially in our days where there is a
lot of deception, a lot of deception, right?
Actually, many of the fawahish are beautified to
the point that your natural rejection towards them
is bypassed.
Do you know, now a lot of the
people who pilot those drones that can destroy
villages, can bomb villages and wipe them out?
These people really, they are video games addicts.
That's what they do in their life.
So they got them, they give them some
training and they say, do the same video
games.
Just bomb this village and all they do,
all they see is a simulation.
All they see is a screen.
And for them it's a game.
So they are murdering sometimes hundreds or thousands
of people and it's a game for them.
They don't count as human beings.
And these people are on the border between
reality and a virtual reality.
They themselves most likely are confused.
So with technology, you can, and with a
lot of the deception, the you can commit
appalling sins, things that are so disgusting, but
you don't, you miss out on the disgusting
side of it.
It feels more palatable, more normal.
These things have been normalized, okay?
So Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala says, the
ones who will be rewarded for the good
are the ones who keep away, who stay
away from major sins and from the reprehensible
things.
Why?
Because the reprehensible things, when you violate your
taste, your moral taste, you are never the
same.
You know people, and this is documented by
people who, sorry, people who drink the first
time, people who fornicate the first time, they
feel so much pain after the first time.
People who murder the first time, they experience
excruciating, deep pain.
And usually, how do they medicate this pain?
By doing it again.
And that's the advice that they get from
people who are far ahead on that path.
The Arab poet says, When someone drank alcohol,
they hang over, like they have this headache,
they say, oh, drink more, it will take
it away.
So when you violate, this is your fitrah
saying no.
That's where the fahisha is, it's a clear
and flagrant violation of your taste, your fitrah,
taste, that says no, you still push through
it, you cause yourself damage that sometimes you
might not be able to repair.
You might not be able to repair.
So if you have remains of this taste,
this rejection to evil, hold on to it.
Preserve it.
Many of the scholars say this is a
high level of iman, this is your fitrah
that has not been contaminated.
And we mentioned the hadith, which we said
is a weak narration actually, but the meaning
is correct and is agreed upon.
None of you truly believe until your desire,
your taste, becomes in line with the revelation,
with what the Prophet ﷺ was sent with.
That's a high level.
And we mentioned that the scholars talk about
this, they say, like Imam al-Juwayri called
this fiqh un-nafs, and the scholars took
that, accepted this sort of term that he
coined, and they applied it.
Ibn Samiyyah uses it a lot, Ibn al
-Qayyim uses it a lot.
Fiqh un-nafs.
Fiqh un-nafs is not psychology.
Fiqh un-nafs is actually when your taste
is so trained upon the truth that it
coincides with the truth, often.
It doesn't mean you depend on it, but
it's a good confirmation.
It's a good state to be in.
يَجْتَنِوَّنَا كَبَارَ الْإِثْمِ وَالْفَوَاحِشَةِ So Allah says, you're
not going to be perfect.
إِلَّا اللَّمَمْ The minor issues, the minor slips.
You will slip.
You will forget.
You will be weak, and sometimes you will
be weak in the face of your desire,
and it will take the better of you.
Does that mean you lost your iman?
No.
Pick yourself up, keep pushing.
And a man came to the Prophet ﷺ,
and he said he met, before Islam, he
had a sort of a girlfriend he had
a relationship with.
After Islam, he came in contact with her
accidentally, and somehow he slipped, and he sort
of, something minor happened between them, minor.
And he caught himself, and he rushed to
the Prophet ﷺ, and he was devastated.
And he said, Ya Rasulullah, I did this
and I did that.
The Prophet ﷺ did not answer him.
But immediately Allah sent some verses down on
the Prophet ﷺ, where Allah says, وَأَقِمِ الصَّلَاةَ
طَرَفَيِ النَّهَارِ وَزُلَفًا مِّنَ اللَّيْلِ إِنَّ الْحَسَنَاتِ يُذْهِبْنَا
السَّيِّئَاتِ ذَلِكَ ذِكْرًا لِلذَّاكِرِينَ Which surah?
Hud.
Surah Hud.
Towards the end of Surah Hud.
وَأَقِمِ الصَّلَاةَ طَرَفَيِ النَّهَارِ وَزُلَفًا مِّنَ اللَّيْلِ إِنَّ
الْحَسَنَاتِ يُذْهِبْنَا السَّيِّئَاتِ وَزُلَفًا مِّنَ اللَّيْلِ وَزُلَفًا
مِّنَ اللَّيْلِ إِنَّ الْحَسَنَاتِ يُذْهِبْنَا السَّيِّئَاتِ Indeed, good
deeds will wipe out the sins.
And the Prophet ﷺ says, أَتْبِعِ السِّيِّئَةَ تَمْحُوهَا
وَخَالِقِ النَّاسَ بِخُلُقٍ حَسَنٍ Follow up a sin
with a good deed.
It will wipe it out.
It will become an act of repentance.
It will become an act of repentance by
itself.
You are renewing your covenant with Allah.
You slip, bring yourself back.
Shaytan would love to come in here and
say, you know what?
You're not good enough.
You see?
You are made for sin.
You are destined to sin.
You're not a good person.
So don't try anymore.
Give it up.
You're going to fall.
You try hard but you can't do it.
He will bring despair.
And that's from Shaytan.
So when that happens, what do you do?
Turn to Allah.
And it will not sound, by the way,
Shaytan when he comes into your heart, he
doesn't sound like someone else.
He doesn't sound like Shaytan.
But he comes with what?
Your own voice.
You think this is your own thoughts.
And we call it what?
Self-doubt.
We like to call it self-doubt.
But that's Shaytan messing with you.
So how do I deal with my negative
thoughts about myself?
Well, that's Shaytan.
That's Shaytan.
Because they don't believe in Shaytan, they say
that's you.
And then you go into this whole thing
of a long journey with affirmations, incantations, and
counseling, and therapy, and so on and so
forth.
But it's actually Shaytan messing with you for
the most part.
So what do you do?
Turn to Allah.
Oftentimes people come with the question, you know,
I did this and I'm trying to be
a good Muslim but sometimes I don't feel
it.
And sometimes I can't get myself to do
what I need to do.
I can't be consistent.
Like for two weeks I'm good.
But afterwards, I don't wake up for Fajr.
I don't wake up for Qiyam al-Nail.
I can't stay consistent with my Qur'an.
And they can sense the person is feeling
bad about themselves.
And we said that many times.
There's no way to hack your relationship with
Allah, your relationship with the Qur'an.
I don't have any secrets.
I don't have any secrets that you don't
know.
The one secret is the consistent theme in
the Qur'an and the hadith of the
Prophet ﷺ.
When you feel like that, turn to Allah.
Turn to Allah.
Say, O Allah, I'm stuck.
I'm stuck with myself.
I can't get myself to do that.
Help me.
That's it.
Why do you come to me?
Why do you come to an imam?
Turn to Allah.
Why do you turn to your friends?
Oh, please help me out.
Probably your friend is more stuck than you
are.
Turn to Allah.
This is what Allah wants from you.
Sometimes Allah lets you go into sin.
He leaves you to fall into sin.
Why?
Because He wants you to turn to Him.
Because we start relying more on ourselves.
We say, oh, you know, I have to.
I have to.
It's good.
Like a sense of responsibility is good.
But don't forget, إِيَّاكَ نَعْبُدُ وَإِيَّاكَ نَسْتَعِينُ You
turn to Allah.
Ask Allah.
You feel that you can't be consistent.
You feel you're regressing.
You're falling short.
You can't be consistent.
You know, yourself is defeating you.
Your shaitan is taking over.
Turn to Allah.
Say, oh Allah, that's what Allah loves the
most.
Allah loves the most when you recognize that
you can't do anything of your own and
you know and believe that He's the one
who can help you.
That's what Allah wants to see from you.
That's like the peak of عبودية, of servitude.
That's the best moment of your relationship with
Allah.
So don't try, like, again, there's no way
to hack it.
There's no secret weapons.
There's no techniques.
Anyone who tells you, I'll show you techniques
so you can grow your iman, tell him,
get lost.
Go and find another business.
Yeah, because why do you think Allah gave
us the Qur'an?
But if someone says, come on, let's try
to figure out, understand more the Qur'an,
understand more the hadith of the Prophet ﷺ,
say, yes, that's what I want to learn.
There's no secrets in Islam.
There's no hidden agenda.
There's no, like, techniques that only certain people
know.
Once you hear about techniques, run away.
Run away.
Okay, إِلَّا اللَّمَمْ So you're going to fall
into these things.
That's human nature.
That is human nature.
إِنَّ رَبَّكَ وَاسِعُ الْمَغْفِرَةُ وَأَعْلَمُوا بِكُمْ And subhanAllah,
you know, the mercy of Allah, the Prophet
ﷺ says, وَالَّذِي نَفْسِ بِيَدِهِ لَوْ لَمْ تُذْنِبُوا
لَذَهَبَ اللَّهُ بِكُمْ وَلَجَاءَ بِقَوْمٍ يُذْنِبُونَ فَيَسْتَغْفِرُونَ
فَيَغْفِرُوا اللَّهُ لَهُ Wallahi, if you don't sin,
then Allah would get rid of you.
And Allah would bring a people who would
sin and seek Allah's forgiveness and Allah would
forgive them.
Again, if you use your school education, the
question is going to jump to your mind,
Oh, is this an invitation for sin?
Now, many of us can only think in
textbook format.
This very dry, too direct and blunt language,
right?
Allah says, اعملوا ما شئتم Allah says, do
whatever you want.
Cool, this is an open permission, I can
do whatever I want.
Now, we lost even language, we can't even
relate to language.
This is what?
This is بلاغة This is allegory, these are
figures of speech.
Figures of speech.
So, here the Prophet ﷺ is highlighting that
Allah loves to forgive you.
Allah loves to forgive you and that's why
Allah allowed sin to happen.
People think, why Allah allows evil if He
is good?
If there's no evil, there's no forgiveness.
And the existence of forgiveness and the opportunity
for forgiveness is greater than the absence of
sin altogether.
Because the name of Allah, Al-Ghafoor and
Al-Ghaffar would not manifest in reality.
Although sin is evil, so those who say
evil or good, evil and good are mixed
together.
And Allah, as Ibn Al-Qayyim, and before
him many scholars said, Allah does not allow
an evil into existence unless the good that
comes out of its existence is greater.
Is greater than the absence of evil.
If in the final tally, the good is
not greater, Allah does not allow evil.
Allah only allows evil in as much as
it instigates a greater good.
That solves the problem of good and evil.
Why does evil happen?
Why is there suffering?
Why innocent people suffer?
And so on and so forth.
That solves the problem.
Evil is always contextual.
It's always contextual.
Okay, so Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala is
going to forgive our minor sins.
As long as what?
You keep bringing yourself to Allah.
As long as you bring yourself to Allah.
Allah loves to see you turning to Him.
Giving up on yourself.
Realizing that I of myself cannot do anything.
I can't even guarantee my own righteousness and
my own sincerity.
I need your help, oh Allah.
That's what Allah loves to see from us.
Allah doesn't want you to be so intelligent.
I know it all.
I know it all and I can figure
it out all.
Because there's no human being like this.
You need Allah to worship Him.
Of yourself, you cannot do that.
So you want to make your way to
Allah with that state of neediness and reliance
on Allah.
But you keep taking responsibility.
Stay consistent.
Do your best.
Stay committed.
And always ask Allah for help.
And whatever good you do, never attribute that
to yourself.
Never.
Never attribute that to yourself.
All of the good deeds you do.
All of the good deeds you manage to
do are a gift from Allah.
And they have nothing to do with your
merit, your excellence.
Or even your being better than others.
Or your merit over others.
Never.
It's a gift from Allah.
And this will help you fall into or
avoid what Allah is warning against at the
end of the verse here.
Do not attribute superiority to yourself or purity
to yourself.
Say, I'm righteous.
I'm a good person.
I pray.
He doesn't pray.
She doesn't pray.
I do this.
He doesn't do this.
There are many people who sin.
Alhamdulillah, at least we don't do that.
You're taking credit.
The moment you're taking credit, the moment Allah
is going to leave you to yourself.
And when Allah leaves you to yourself, you're
done.
You are done.
And this is something the scholars always warn.
Muslims from the time of the Prophet ﷺ
warned against this.
They call it al-ujb.
You're feeling good about yourself, admiring your own
achievements, your own worship.
And this is why I think, if I'm
not mistaken, Hasan al-Basri said, or one
of the other generations, he said, How
often a sin can lead a person to
Jannah.
And an act of obedience can lead a
person to the Hellfire.
Obviously, it doesn't sound right.
But, then he explains.
He says, the person who sins, that breaks
their heart.
They recognize that they are weak, and of
themselves, they cannot be on the truth.
If Allah does not help them, if Allah
does not give them the tawfiq, if Allah
does not guide them, and keep them consistent,
they can't do it.
They're going to be lost.
So that humility that came into the heart,
because of the sin, because of recognizing one's
own weakness, and embracing the truth that only
Allah can get me out of my weaknesses,
and the darkness of myself, and always relying
on Allah, and attributing everything good to Allah,
then the person takes the right path, and
eventually leads them to Jannah.
That's the sin that led to Jannah.
The righteousness that leads to the Hellfire, a
person does righteousness, obviously, and they think, oh,
I'm good.
Look at, like, that's really great.
Even to himself, or to herself.
There's something special about me, there's something righteous.
I'm so unique about this.
I have this, I have that, others don't
have it.
What a great person I am.
What a righteous person I am.
And things like this.
Look at how beautiful my prayer is, and
you are praying.
Where is Allah?
Gone.
So you're admiring your actions and yourself here,
so Allah wants to teach you a lesson.
Because that's deception.
That's not the truth.
That's delusional.
It's Allah who guides you to this.
It's Allah who allows you to do this.
It's Allah who gives you the tawfiq and
inspires you to do this.
So this person starts, what?
Relying on themselves.
Allah leaves them to themselves.
And what happens?
Leads them to the Hellfire.
It leads them to the Hellfire.
I think there was, I'm not sure, one
of the great scholars.
They were traveling, he was traveling along with
his younger son.
Again, his son was a student of knowledge,
and he was going to become a scholar.
So they were traveling with a caravan.
And at night...
Oh no, sorry.
I'm mixing two stories.
Oh yeah, this is actually a contemporary story.
There's this guy, he starts memorizing Quran, teenager,
whatever.
And mashallah, his voice is beautiful, his recitation
is excellent.
He memorizes the Quran.
And they go to...
So the local imam invites him to lead
Salat al-Tarawih at the masjid.
So he goes with his dad to the
masjid.
He's happy, my dad is going to hear
me reciting Quran, seeing me in front of
everyone else.
And the imam really favors me, makes me
the one who leads the prayer.
Yeah, I'm going to make my dad proud
of me.
That's what he's thinking.
So they pray Salat al-Tarawih.
He leads part of it, beautiful voice.
Everyone is happy with it.
And the teenager is going back with his
dad, walking back home.
He's waiting for his dad to say something
good.
He's waiting, he's waiting, his dad doesn't say
anything.
He gets enough and he says, Dad, how
was my recitation?
Didn't you like my recitation?
Did you see all these people who came
to listen to my recitation?
And they liked it?
His father looked at him and he said,
You know my son, all these people came
to pray for Allah, you came to pray
for yourself.
You came to pray to enjoy your own
voice.
And to get people's admiration.
These people came for Allah.
So we don't usually catch this.
We think, oh it's good, this young man
is leading the prayer and he's making his
dad proud.
And we say, we're actually praising this.
We are actually praising this.
And this is called al-ujb.
These things are for Allah, don't do them
for humans.
Don't do them for yourself, don't do them
for anyone.
If you have a share in that, you're
getting into a hidden shirk.
Very, very dangerous area.
So this is all from al-lamam.
So these are the minor sins, we all
fall into those.
As long as you always bring yourself back
to Allah.
Subhanahu wa ta'ala.
You know, you are inshallah on the right
track.
Then Allah says, The forgiveness of your Lord
is very wide and spacious.
Why?
Because, Because He knows you.
Allah knows your weakness.
Allah knows the struggles that you have within,
the inner conflict that you have, the forces
that are acting within you, in your heart.
One pulls you here, the other pulls you
in the other direction.
You want to do good, but there is
a pull for evil.
You're trying to do things sincerely, but then
something else comes and says, do it for
this, do it for that, get this admiration,
get this payoff, and so on and so
forth.
Or you want to do this, but something
else, you know, if you do it, you're
going to lose on this.
There's always this type of conflict.
And these are forces that are acting within
you.
Your nafs, your shaitan, your desires, your fear,
your own personal benefit, right?
And all of, there's a myriad of forces.
There's a huge mix of forces that are
acting within you.
To be able to sift through that is
very difficult.
But you should always try your best.
Allah knows what you're going through.
Allah knows how, you know, the struggle that
you have inside.
So that's why Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala
is forgiving.
He allows some space.
So He forgives when you slip and you
come back to Allah.
As long as you're always trying your best,
Allah forgives those sins.
The problem is when you get carried away
with the sins.
And you keep drifting.
That's where the problem is.
Allah knows, He knows you more than you
know yourselves.
That's what Allah is saying.
And He is the one who brought you
from the earth.
And Allah knows the weakness in the nature,
the elements of the earth.
Allah created you from those elements.
So Allah knows those weaknesses.
Allah knows that you have desires.
And Allah knows the power of your desires
over you.
And the pushback that you have against them.
And sometimes you win, sometimes they win.
Allah knows this.
And as long as you struggle with that
for the sake of Allah subhanahu wa ta
'ala, Allah knows that.
So as long as Allah knows your sincerity,
and you're always coming back to Allah, Allah
will forgive your sins.
The ones that you slip with.
When you were fetuses in the wombs of
your mothers.
Again, you are created, you're weak.
In all of your stages, you are weak.
In all of the stages of your life,
you're always weak.
That's why you need Allah.
Just as you needed Allah when you were
a fetus in your mother's womb to be
provided with everything you need.
You also need Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala
when you are in the womb of this
dunya.
Scholars call this dunya the womb.
The womb.
And one day you will be born out
of that womb.
Into the bigger world, which is the next
life.
Again, don't praise yourselves.
And praising ourselves could come in many different
levels.
Sometimes you could do it blatantly.
Someone says, I am the sheikh so-and
-so.
I am the imam so-and-so.
I am the scholar so-and-so.
I am the qari so-and-so.
I am the hafidh so-and-so.
I am the one who prays fajr every
day at the masjid.
Do you do it?
Do you think there are no people who
do this?
There are people who say this.
There are people.
And if they don't say it, they don't
say it directly, but they imply it.
Hey, did you pray fajr today?
Oh, the breeze was beautiful.
Walking after fajr in the masjid.
What is this?
This is less obvious forms of self-praise.
فَلَا تُزَكُّوا أَنفُسَكُمْ Don't claim purity to yourself.
And this is one reason why the Prophet
ﷺ, one reason.
There are many other reasons, but this is
one reason why the Prophet ﷺ نَهَى رَسُولَهَا
صَلَمَ عَن لِبَاسِ الشُّهْرَةِ The Prophet ﷺ prohibited
people to dress up in a way that
makes them stand out.
Don't be different from the people.
Unless what people wear is haram.
Why?
You don't want to stand out.
And this is why many scholars spoke about
and they blamed other scholars for having a
specific outfit.
There's no specific outfit for scholars.
The Prophet ﷺ dressed up like his people
dressed up.
Scholars from the companions were the same.
He could not distinguish them from other people.
The same of scholars throughout the times.
Unless when it came times or areas, certain
communities among the Muslims, where they were not
dressing up properly.
They were more imitating the disbelievers.
In the sense, that dress was specific for
the disbelievers.
It's not like global or universal.
So, it's not haram in itself.
That dress or that dress code, it's okay
for the Muslims.
And it's better than trying to stand out.
Why?
Because you might say, I'm not doing it
because I want to stand out.
But shaitan is going to come to you.
Shaitan will come to you.
And that's one of the ways.
Shaitan has, by the way, a tool kit
for people who are falling short.
He has a tool kit for people who
are very enthusiastic with worship.
He knows.
He has tools for this and he has
tools for that.
So, he's going to use your momentum.
He will use your momentum against you.
So, this is why it's always, you need
to be careful.
And never take credit.
And anything that makes you stand out or
make you look different, more righteous.
Again, unless you're dealing with haram and halal.
Obviously, that's the boundaries.
It's better to avoid it.
It is better to avoid it.
Again, there are nuances.
There are sometimes different forces, etc.
There are sub-communities within communities.
It could get complex.
But these are just the guidelines.
Let's take some questions.
Yeah, I thought we were going to go
again faster.
But alhamdulillah, I think we made some relevant
points.
We can take a couple of questions, inshallah,
before the adhan.
Keep the questions, inshallah, to the topics that
we talked about today.
Yes, you.
Praise from the outside.
So, self-praise is a problem.
How do you deal with praise from the
outside?
First, praise from the outside is discouraged in
Islam.
And there's a hadith from the Prophet ﷺ.
He says, أُحْثُوا فِي وَجْهِ الْمَادِحِينَ الْتُرَبُ Throw
dust in the faces of people who praise.
Meaning, consistently keep praising others.
Which is obviously not a pleasant trait and
not a good trait.
Sometimes, some praise is necessary.
But, you know, minimally.
That would be the way.
But how do you deal with praise of
other people?
Abu Bakr r.a, when people praised him,
he would make the du'a.
And the du'a was meanings that were
in his heart.
اللَّهُمَّ لَا تُؤَاخِذْنِي بِمَا يَقُولُمْ وَاجْعَلْنِي خَيْرًا مِّمَّا
يَظُنُّونَ وَاخْفِرْ لِي مَا لَا يَعْلَمُونَ O Allah,
do not hold me accountable by what they
say.
And make me better than what they think.
And do not hold.
اللَّهُمَّ لَا تُؤَاخِذْنِي مِّمَّا يَظُنُّونَ وَاجْعَلْنِي خَيْرًا مِّمَّا
يَظُنُّونَ وَاخْفِرْ لِي مَا لَا يَعْلَمُونَ And forgive
my sins which they don't know about.
Okay.
And some scholars mentioned that if the praise
of people makes you feel good about yourself,
then you have fallen for it.
But if people's praise doesn't mean anything to
you, really, it doesn't add or take away,
then you're good.
InshaAllah.
So I'd say that would be the answer.
Okay, before we go, by the way, now
Isha is coming back.
It's going to come back closer to 8.
Eventually, Iqama will be at 8.
So, again, we're not going to make a
decision now, but I just want to get,
since we have a good number today, as
far as I can see.
And I know some people come from, they
drive a little bit to come into this
area, and we have sisters who might have
more limitation in terms of the time that
is convenient for them to be here.
So I want to see, we have two
options.
When Isha comes, 8.
We're not going to decide.
I'm just going to, I want to get
an idea of what is good for you.
We try to accommodate as many people.
Then InshaAllah, I'll discuss it with the management
of the masjid to see what's best.
So we have the option of praying Isha,
and then having the halaqa after Isha.
And that means Isha will be at 8.
Most likely, it will start 8.30. Until
everyone gets here and we start, it's going
to be 8.30. So we'll go from
8.30, 9.30, maybe 15 minutes plus.
Or, we start at 7, and we push
it to 7.50. Something like that.
So who would go with the first option?
After Isha?
Put your hand up, so I can see.
Up, up.
Because I don't see it.
If it's by your shoulder, I don't see
it.
It has to be up.
Okay.
So these are the brothers and sisters.
Okay.
Who's with the second option?
Which is before Isha, at 7?
Up, up.
Only one hand is permissible.
Sisters?
Sisters?
Okay, sisters.
Who's with the first option?
I'm confused.
Put your hand up, so I can at
least get an idea quickly.
Okay.
Second option, sisters?
Okay.
Sisters almost equal.
I don't know.
It's just visually.
It looks like it's equal.
Brothers, more hands for after Isha.
Okay.
I will share the decision with you later
on.
I have to think about it.
We can take one quick question.
Just one question.
I'll give a chance to the sisters.
Question.
Sisters?
No question?
Okay.
I saw some hands.
Yes, brother.
Okay, let me take something from your question
and answer it.
So the way people, men.
I'm talking about men.
Because there's more specifications for how women, females,
their dress code in Islam.
That's different.
And actually, it wasn't different.
Much of the world, women were covered.
Right?
And you look at those old videos.
Everyone now, they're becoming viral.
You look at those old videos from a
hundred years.
And you could really mistake those countries for
Muslim countries, although they were non-Muslim countries.
Right?
So women were covered for the most part.
We live in a very specific time in
history when like, nakedness has become the norm.
SubhanAllah.
Allah understand.
So with females, it's different.
But with males, you know, wearing those casual
pants, trousers, shirts, etc.
It becomes a matter of degree.
Wearing those like, if you wear yoga pants,
brothers, that's not permissible.
But if you're wearing loose pants, they're not
necessarily showing the shape of your aura and
things like that.
These are no longer Western clothes.
They are now no longer Western clothes.
These are now common.
What is called the clothes of the non
-Muslims, there is a specific condition in Fiqh.
They are specific to those non-Muslims.
And for example, you know the cap, baseball
cap?
60 years ago, it was haram.
Pretty much by all scholars.
A minority would say it's okay.
But majority were haram.
But now they became spread.
They're no longer something that identifies or belongs
to the non-Muslims.
Everyone wears them.
Are they haram?
No.
So something could be haram and now it's
not haram.
Some things that have to do with the
illah, the reason why they were haram changes.
So the ruling changes.
So if you actually read books of Fiqh,
some books of Fiqh from the 50s, 1950s,
you'll actually say وَلِبْسُ الْبُرْنَيَطَةَ حَرَمًۭ They used
to call it Burneyta.
Right?
Wearing of that baseball cap is haram.
Because it's imitating the kuffar.
But now sometimes you have sheikhs when they
go for a jog, they're wearing a cap.
Right?
So yes, these things differ.
So early on, wearing trousers and shirt or
pants and shirts maybe 200 years ago was
haram.
It was haram because Muslims didn't wear that
type of dress.
They didn't wear it.
It was the dress code of the non
-Muslims.
As it spread and Muslims started to wear
it and it's not, how can I say
it's not a distinguishing feature of non-Muslims
anymore.
So the illah, the reason for the impermissibility
is gone.
So the ruling follows.
The haram is gone.
So it's okay.
But again, now the nuances matter.
They need to be loose, fairly loose.
But again, something that is very tight obviously
and it shows the awrah clearly or it's
transparent obviously is haram for another reason.
Not imitating the kuffar but mainly it reveals
the awrah.
So let's keep it at that.
InshaAllah we'll meet next week.
I don't think there's another program but inshaAllah
we're going to meet next week same time
after maghrib.
We will let you know inshaAllah what is
the new timing.
So we're still as we are, after maghrib
bi-idhnillah.