Tafseer of Juz Amma – Surah Ash-Sharh, The Most Praised Man
Ramadhan (2017/1438) Lecture Series by Sheikh Muhammad West, Imam of Al-Awwal Masjid, Cape Town, South Africa
Muhammad West – Ramadan 2017 – Episode 7
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We live in a sheetala gm spiller Manor him. Al hamdu Lillahi Rabbil alameen wa salatu salam Ala Moana serene Sayidina Muhammad Allah He was a big mine, my beloved brothers in Islam sir Mr. de la he obrigado Jazakallah height for being with us this evening and Al Hamdulillah we've reached the seventh night of Ramadan. One week has now passed. And we have to ask ourselves with one week having completed itself and only another three weeks or so remaining. Have we achieved the objectives? Are we on track to achieve that objective of having our sins forgiven? Getting closer to our last panel dialer? We ask Allah subhanaw taala to bless us in what we have done thus far of fasting and salah
and other good deeds. And we ask Allah subhanaw taala to grant us the strength to increase in our good deeds for what remains of the month Mean while hamdulillah we continue with our Tafseer of Jews ama and we mentioned yesterday that sooner to Doha, and surah Allah Masha Allah casada rock revealed together at a time when the prophet SAW Selim was going through tremendous hardship, tremendous
emotional turmoil, but inside the stress and the hardship of being a newbie, and the rejection he was receiving from his people was taking a toll on him emotionally. And he was getting to the point where he was about to break down upon a law all of us will go through days like that, all of us will go through moments in our life where we feel the world is too much for us to handle. When work or family or our children, financial burdens will weigh down on us so much, that we feel that we don't have the strength to go forward. And it's in those moments and times that we look at the surahs to bring us comfort to bring us ease and to remember ultimately Allah subhanho wa Taala is the answer
Allah subhanaw taala is, you know the origin of where we came from and ultimately we will return to Him Alhamdulillah so Allah subhanho wa Taala begins surah Allah Masha Allah casaco the question and it's a similar question to the questions a lot asked in saltwater. So if we remember in what Allah asked the Prophet sois alum, did I not find you? Did he not find you an orphan and give refuge? Did he not find you in need and give you self sufficiency? Did he not find you learn further find you lost and give gave you guidance? These questions are of course a rhetorical and they will ask to the prophets of Salaam to remind him. Look at how far you've come look at how far you know you've
progressed and how Allah has been with you all these years, that if you look at, you know, sometimes we focus so much on the the bad time that we're going through now that we forget how Allah brought us out of previous bad times and brought about the good times. So Allah asks a similar kind of rhetorical question. At the beginning of the Soto when Allah says, Allah, Masha Allah Castlerock as have we not have we not expanded your chest for you? Have we not expanded your chest for you? A number of points on this ayah number one.
It is a receipt similar to the questions in Surah Taha, it's rhetorical in nature, it is meant to give affirmation to the prophets of Salaam that Allah subhanaw taala is with him. Number two, the word shadow half. And I'm not sure I shadow her means to expand or to open it to spread out. It also means to explain and clarify. So if for example, if I say
I've explained this Hadeeth it would say I might share have it I clarified it. So what is the screening and the expansion of one's chest mean? It's a it's it's a it's a statement in the Arabic language. And if we look at the Quran, there are two three places in the Quran. We this phrase, Allah expanded my chest or x Allah expanding the chest. The one place in the Quran which is mentioned in the very very famous to our of Nabil Moosa, Celebi masala salatu salam, Prophet Moses, when he was lost in the desert, and then he came to the burning bush and Allah subhanaw taala spoke to him. Allah said to me Moosa, I've chosen you to be my Prophet, go with my message and go and
challenge around go and challenge Pharaoh, who is of course the most powerful man on earth at that time. And me Moosa being burdened with this massive task. The first thing he asks Allah is rubbish or Holly salary, oh my lord, expand for me, my chest. What Moosa is asking Allah give me the confidence. Give me the strength, give me the internal courage to face this massive task. You've given me this huge task.
Wrong me internally the sincerity grant me the strength grant me the positivity to do this. So Allah subhanho wa Taala is telling the prophets of Salaam I have already expanded your chest for you I've already given you the physique, the emotional courage to carry this burden. The other place in the Quran with this phrase, the expansion of one's chest. It's mentioned that if Allah wants Good for you, he opens your chest towards Islam, he inclines your chest to Islam, meaning when you see a new lead the commands of Allah and you go through the Quran, and you look at this way of life of Islam you find in your heart contentment you find in your heart satisfaction you find in your heart
satisfaction for the decrees of Allah, for good or for bad you find in your heart, no opposition. If Allah wants Good for you, then he opens your chest in this manner that you don't find doubts. You don't find questions you don't find any ambiguity Allah clarifies the wisdom for you and you find contentment in that and we also lost panatela to places that we live in a time when the goodest becomes strange and being upright is no is different to what society tells you. So we all said Allah Subhana Allah to Allah grants that this these doubts these
these ambiguities removed or removed from our chest and we have certainty and yet clean and trust in Allah subhana wa tada that he expands all our chests towards towards Islam. There is also another connotation to this ayah Allah says did we not expand your chest for you? It could refer to the physical expansion of the chest we know that the prophets are silent as a young boy. And then later just before the night of Israel our Mirage or before the event of Islamic marriage that God Elisa Salaam physically cut open the professor sometimes just remove these hot and washed it with Samsung, and fold it with with Iman and removed from from the heart of an obese also lamp clock, which was
the the was mentioned the hold the police has on all of us. And this expansion of the chest of course, Allah says aleca in this ayah meaning for you specifically that the expansion of his chest is approximately saved was something unique to no other person. And it's very interesting that in the Hadith, we find the Sahaba mentioning that they would see on the chest of enemies also on the score from the cutting that he received, you know, in when he was a younger, a younger person.
So alabi asked this question and to show the prophecies once again, a blessing we gave you another point of this ayah. If we compare this to Surah, what the Ha? In the questions that have lost the profits or supplements or what to her? Lm eg take it man for our did he not find you? And often did he not find you lost? It was in the third person in this sort of analysis lm nasura did we not expand your chest? So what's the difference between going from my third person to a second person? And again, in the context of a depressed person? So maybe if I can give an example, you're going through a depression Why? Because you feel that your best friend has left you. Now a second friend
comes to you and says you know what? I'm not your friend. He has not deserted you. He didn't leave you. He's still with you. He's always been there for you. It's one thing hearing it from a third person but when the your actual friend comes to you and says I have not left you I'm still with you. So instead of what the * it was a third person speaking to the prophet SAW Selim, here in Surah Allah Masha Allah it is as if the Allah Himself is saying to the prophet SAW Selim. Do we not open your chest for you to give him an added emphasis? The next ayah Allah says, and I'm not sure I like us Allah wa unco is rock ellaby oncologia rock did we not lift or remove from you? The Wizard wizard
is the burden. Alevi uncle rock. This burden which is breaking your back was a burden which is weighing down on you so much that you're about to crack wizard, as I said is a burden and uncover is when you put something heavy on a on a table witchy and it begins to crack and Splinter it's about to snap. So ally saying there's a burden this wizard which is a burden that you can't manage on your own was on your back and you're about to, you know, be broken with this burden. We remove this from you, did we not remove it from you? And what is this burden on what doesn't explain what the burden is but from other is in the Quran? For example, inserted calf Allah subhanho wa Taala says for Allah
subhanahu sakara for him Islamophobia Hello, Dr. Saba Omar masasa lamb Will you destroy yourself in grief and those who don't accept this message and those
Don't accept this revelation that it concerned and obese or sometimes so much for every single human being, that was not on guidance, that he genuinely loved every single person and wants to save them the life in the dunya and their life in the era, his worst enemies he would pray for them he would make dua for them they would insult him during the day. In the evenings he would go and he would make to either the last panel Allah guided him Abuja. These reports that Heidi with the promises animado that all lit Abuja, * come towards Islam, this is his main main enemy, and the person who gave him the worst kind of, of treatment and abuse and the professor may do it for him. And it's
akin to someone you know, if you're trying to save someone's life, and if they just want to take this this remedy, it would save their life. And yet, people obviously turn away and each time someone died on disbelief. It internally heard the prophets of Salaam and it became a burden for him. Seeing that after so many years, only a few people were embracing Islam. This was his burden. This was one of the difficulties he received. Also, there's a physical connotation that a Lost Planet Allah mentions that this Quran is cold and tequila, it is something so heavy, that he would want to be placed on a mountain, that mountain would shatter. Sahaba would mention that the prophets
of Solomon he would be on a camel, and if he received the revelation while being on the camel, Finn, the camel would have to sit down because a physical weight would be placed on him it was physically taxing it was physically very difficult on the prophets of Salaam to receive revelation. So Allah subhanaw taala is saying that this burden of guiding humanity of being the last of the Gambia, of being the final messenger of having to save people from jahannam of having to carry this Amana Allah subhanho wa Taala has expanded his chest given him the emotional and physical courage given him the man to be this burden. Again if we draw a parallel to Nami, Moosa, NaVi Moosa again gets this
massive task, go to Freetown and call him to Islam. And then
he says, arbitrarily, suddenly our law open for me my chest, and he asks a very interesting point he says, what he was even mean, Ali Haruna Hey, Allah, give me a helper. This word was eat again, from wizard a burden. Give me someone who will manage or balance the burden with me Give me a supporter Runa a fee, my brother ruins his profit room. So maybe Musa saying this burden is too much for me to carry one man alone. Give me someone to share the burden. Professor Salam didn't have a a Harun. He had the Sahaba of course but as an OB he was alone. So Allah says, I have lifted the burden from you, Allah has helped him to be this burden.
Well done Angostura calorie oncologia rock awara anala cabbie crock. And this is one of our analecta The clock is one of the miracles of the Quran.
In the context of the soul of the prophets of Salaam, from his perspective, he was at a of the lowest point in his life, emotionally, he was at the lowest point in his life. And he actually felt like, you know, for lack of a better word, he felt as if he was failing as a messenger, failing as, as an AVI failing as a profit and loss is a lot of fun. And I look at the clock that we have raised your Vicar, you mentioned, very high, we have raised your mentioned and your name and your status exceptionally high.
To the prophets of Salaam, it must have must have seen odd since he was at the lowest point in emotionally. And in terms of results, he's only managed to bring a handful of people to Islam, where's the majority of the world? We're still in darkness. And Allah says he has already raised the status of the prophets of Salaam.
In a few years from that point, I mean, within a decade or so, the prophets of Salaam would have achieved all these objective objectives. And today, when we look with hindsight, there is in reality, whether you're a Muslim or not, you have to, you know, you have to admit the handle of this man who came from them in the middle of in the middle of nowhere in the middle of the desert, didn't have parents didn't have a fortune wasn't a king, didn't have huge armies didn't have even education, so to speak, change the world. That's vanilla abubaker. And Omar Osman Ali, Mao abdomens about six or seven people that he personally taught would go on to rule the world would be the
greatest people or it would be the most powerful people on earth. These were the products of his of his teaching and his mission that allows planet dialysis that your reputation has been made high that your name is your Vicar, your name is going to be very, very high. There is no person on earth, whose life has been so meticulously
documented that we know exactly how he, how he prayed how he ate, how he slipped how he walked, the number of Gray's in his beard that when he passed away, we know every single detail about his life, and 1.5 billion people not only love him, but a scribe to emulate him to try and be like him to look like him act like him speak like him. This little Milan 1.5 billion people will try and force in emulation of him subhana wa.
What other person can claim to have achieved this? Allah says we have raised your status, your status and your victory very, very high.
And the fact that Allah Allah himself says that he makes a lot on the promises in alarma like Etosha Luna be that Allah and His angels are continuously Forever and always praising and sending Salatu the prophets of Salaam and the believers every single day in the Salah five times a day, they sinned Salawat preys upon the prophets also lamps are truly even an abyssal Salaam felt that he was a low point in his life. Allah says Don't worry, your Vicar is made very, very high. And we we 1500 years later can fully see and experience this. He's name in fact one lady's name is a miracle. His name is Mohammed which is the one who receives praise the one who will receive Salawat The one who will
receive prestige Subhana Allah This is his name. And he is the most praised individual that ever walked the earth not just from a perspective of a Muslim, but from a an objective perspective. No one's name is praised daily as his name is praised some Allahu alayhi wa sallam. So I was mentioning to the prophets of Salaam in his depression, for, for blessings that I've opened your chest, I've removed the burden. I've made it easy on your back. And I've raised your name and I've praised and you have a high level of praise for in looser in America. So what is the point of mentioning all these things allies now saying to ayat for in Mr. Lucio, that the valley with the hardship is ease,
surely with the hardship is ease, Allah repeats this ayah twice and if we look at this ayah and the translation is is is not a a true reflection of the eye if we if you look at the eye in front of you, you would see that
for enamel. So you saw that very with the hardship comes ease, hardship is different, there is a verb went out in front of it, and ease is lift, indefinite. So unless it's really the hardship was the hardship comes ease, and the benefit of making hardship the word hardship definite, definite implies that it is specific, it is limited, it is it is confined, whereas ease is not confined, it is limitless. And if you look at your life, and the days that you are sick, the days that are sad, the days that are bad, those are limited days, whereas the easy days, the days you're healthy, the days where you're happy, those are the days where we we can't count those days. Those they seem that
that's the norm. So Allah saying that the difficulty is a very confined limited few moments in your life away as the rest of your life is ease. Also, obviously this is saying that with difficulty immediately will become ease that immediately off the difficulty will follow ease. And if we go into a further more detailed look from a grammatical perspective.
The inner for inner this word inner means rarely, and it it is attached to the subject of the sentence. If you look at the structure of the sentence, the subject of the sentence the subject of inner is used for ease, meaning the subject and the context of the sentence is ease and not difficulties. So to translate this more correctly, Allah saying Vallely with the with countless ease comes some difficulty with countless is already pizza it comes some difficulty and it's a very difficult different look at this ayah Allah saying life is all about you know your life in general is easy and they will come a few difficult days with it. And obviously the the purpose of repetition
is an affirmation a reminder to the profit or sentiment any depressed person Don't feel bad. The bad days will come Yes, it's normal, it's natural but they will also go and the default is ease so whenever you're feeling down, know that just around the corner, good times will come and that is part of life that we go through a little bit of difficulty but in general last panel dialer once ease for us for in Amarillo So you saw in a minute you saw for either for Stefan sub Isla, Rob because Rob So now a lot
Once again liking sort of the heart of the Allah has mentioned these favors and gave comfort to the prophets of Salaam, Allah is now calling than me so Salaam to an action and Allah saying for either for Dr. fansub When you have completed or when you've become free, funds up Stand up. And a number of interpretations here are applicable. Number one, it could mean once you have, you know you've overcome the sadness and this depression of yours. Now stand up, have the confidence, have the courage. basically get out of out of your funk and go and do your job have the courage and the strength. And Allah subhanho wa Taala is with you. What a lot of bigger follow up your longing and
all your needs and all your concerns, turn to Allah and Allah will suffice you. That's the one interpretation. The other interpretation is run a law, the prophets of Salaam, this would be his daily routine, he would go out and do he stars, which is of course calling people to Islam, guiding his community. And obviously in Makkah, in particular, he was receiving tremendous amount of abuse and persecution and insults and this would physically and emotionally, materially hurt him. So Allah says that once you have gone out and you've gone through this difficult experience during the day fansub in the evenings, fansub stand up meaning insula, and you will and you will find comfort and
strengthen your Salah that Allah his relationship with Allah was one that's upon you know, for us, Salah is a burden. Unfortunately, Salah is a task that we you know, we force ourselves to do whereas the prophets of Salaam he loves performing. So the thing he enjoyed the most in his day was Allah that when his life became difficult, he would ask me out, you know, make the plan so that I could be alleviated. And why because to him, Allah was his most beloved and when you are in the company of the one you love the most that person or that relationship takes away all your hardship. So Allah says that you go out Mohammed or seldom do your job and then in the evenings come and make salah and
then we will be together again, in Arabic, a pharaoh hub, and to your Lord, direct all your cravings, all your desire, all your love, all your everything that your heart desires, turn it to me, and I will give that to you. So go and do the job and whatever baggage they put on you at night you come to me and Allah subhanho wa Taala will be the same minds as a game that in depression, Allah ins by the surah by telling us and the prophets of Salaam and to all of us that go through hardship, allies, the constant in our life is good times will come better will come health, sickness, wealth, poverty, friends will come and go loved ones will come and go. But the constant in
our life is a loss upon our data. And if we put you know that Allah subhanho wa Taala as our focus and as our major concern and Allah subhanaw taala is the central figure in our life. Our life is built on Allah subhanaw taala our relationship with Him that no matter what happens, we will always be able to raise our hands Allahu Akbar and return back to him. If that is our if Allah is our safe place, so to say, then we have nothing to really fear then we don't have you know, no depression will become too much for us to handle. Because to get away to escape from our depression is just to raise our hands and say Allahu Akbar, as the prophets of Salaam did, and Subhanallah after the soul
after these two chapters sort of do her answer alumna Shara the prophets of Salaam, you know, once again found that comfort that the Doha the morning Daybreak came back, the night disappeared and the day came and the profit was soon continued his mission and we know Alhamdulillah we are the products and the result of his his efforts and we are the results of his actions and his success. I mean, ask Allah subhanaw taala to forgive us and ask Allah to put the love for the prophets of Salaam you know for him in our hearts this burden that he carried was really us and our our future and our destiny in kiama this was the thing that burned him the most that broke his heart so much was our was our
well being so we praise and sanitation on him and his family. And we ask Allah subhanaw taala to alleviate the difficulty of all those who are going through hardship or those who are going through depression. And for us here in the Western Cape in particular also las panatela to forgive us and return the reins to us amin was a little lost a number medalla Leo safira musashino hamdulillah amin soleimani Kumara la hora Kato