Mustafa Abu Rayyan – 27 Tafseer Surah alBaqarah Verses 144147
AI: Summary ©
The Surah is important in preparing individuals for the roles of the messengers, and the importance of facing the Kaaba is discussed. The historical backlash against Islam is discussed, including the use of the "has" meaning in the Bible and confusion surrounding the "has" meaning. The church's stance is not on the right, and following rules of Islam is important. The importance of faith and acceptance of reality is emphasized, and sharing hadiths and following rules of Islam are emphasized.
AI: Summary ©
This following
Jews. The surah is about 2 Jews and
a few pages. And,
why is it that the first chapter the
first
20 pages or so
had not a lot of fiqh in it?
Because
the and the rulings that we will be
coming across, such as when you are praying
make sure you face the qiblah. That is
a ruling. That is an Amr. Face the
Qiblah.
Fast the month of Ramadan.
It is in Amr. Right? And when Allah
speaks about the that we have to do
it is in Amr, commandments.
For you to be able to follow commandments
you must understand the importance
of following,
and what happened to those that didn't follow.
So you've just been told about the best
followers.
Prophet Ibrahim Alaihi Salam. You've been told about
the worst followers, the Bani Israel.
You've been told that and I mentioned this
in one of my early lessons.
The Surah revolves around
2 main themes. 1 is preparing the Ummah
to become the best Ummah,
to become the that
is mentioned in the beginning.
Khalifa. Allah is going to make a Khalifa
on this earth.
Those that
will, fill the land with justice
and call to us to heed and fulfill
the roles of the messengers.
This is
this, and
this Quran is preparing you for that role.
That you're being
taught as an
There has been that came before you
and when their prophets commanded them, they didn't
obey, they did not say
That Allah told us about these people.
About how often they went against the prophets.
The different reasonings they had. How they didn't
obey, how they didn't follow
and
which What is this surah called? Surah Tull?
Let's go back to the story of the
the cow.
Moses people,
Allah is commanding you. Command, right?
Commanding you what? And
was their reaction.
Are you are you messing with us?
Are you marking us?
And then they start asking and they're questioning
what kind of baqaar is it?
Until Allah subhanahu, until Musa says to them,
the cow
He described the baqaar for them. It's not
an old one, it's not a very young
one, somewhere in the middle.
But that doesn't matter. What matters is you
have been commanded.
What you are being
told to do.
This is what it means to be a
believer
and this surah is preparing you to understand
that concept.
So,
after telling you about all of the stories
of those that didn't obey, didn't do what
they were told,
now you're ready.
And you have been told the importance of
following, now you're ready to hear the.
Now when Allah tells you,
face the you will say, yes I will
hear and I obey.
When you were told to fast you will
say, I hear and I obey. Do you
guys understand why you had 1 juiced
preparing you, and now the following just is
about the actual rulings?
Speaking of these rulings,
we were talking about the changing of the
qiblah, And how the prophet sallallahu alaihi wasallam
Allah tells him that once the qiblah will
be changed and this is known as abrogation,
and we discussed what that is. That Allah
changes one rule to another.
And that this is something that you'll find
in the Quran and in the sunnah is
known as nasa.
That
when this happens
people will start speaking and saying, what's wrong
with Muhammad salallahu alaihi wa sallam? Why he's
changing his mind? First he was facing towards,
Jerusalem. Now he's facing towards,
Makkah. What's going on? So Allah mentions that
these people are the sufaha.
The the ones the the foolish ones.
And the sufaha
have been described as Surat Al Baqarah twice.
Once referring to the
and once referring to those that don't follow
Ibrahim alaihis salam.
Ibrahim and whoever will turn away from the
religion of Ibrahim
except those who are foolish.
Now, now the verse we're gonna start from
today
is
describing
the state of the prophet,
and how he hoped the Qibla would be
changed.
Now the verse we are reading today
came before the ones we read last week.
So,
and the verse after
chronologically came after the one we're gonna read
today. But when we are reading it Allah
tells the the the order of the Quran
and in how it's read is not the
same as the order of the Quran as
in how it was revealed. So here Allah
says, so this is the beginning of the
qibla change. How did it happen?
We see the turning of your face upwards.
It was the heaven.
We shall turn you
to a prayer direction, that will please you.
SubhanAllah.
We strive to please Allah. Hear Allah's pleasing
the prophet sallallahu alaihi wa sallam. Shows you
how Allah loved the messenger. Allah is saying,
we will give you a kibre that pleases
you.
So,
a few things.
The prophet sallallahu alaihi wa sallam hoped to
face the Kaaba. The scholars did discuss why.
Why did the prophet wanted to face the
Kaaba? Because he was told to face the
Baytul Maqdis.
Why is it that he was hoping for
the qibla to be changed?
There are a lot of opinions.
And some of the they say,
it was because he had
a connection with the Kaaba.
He was from Mecca. His people work away
from Mecca.
His grandfather Ibrahim built it. It had significance
in Arabia.
If he faces the direction of prayer towards
the Qibla,
this might result in the Arabs accepting Islam.
So it wasn't for himself,
it was for the dawah.
Another reasoning that the mention is
that,
the
When he was facing towards the, the Betul
Maqaddas, that the Yahud would say,
look at Muhammad, he follows our Qibla but
not our faith.
He follows our
but not our faith.
So it was a point where they would
say listen, you're halfway there, just become a
yahood.
So the prophet had felt like he he
wanted to turn away from that, towards towards
the Kaaba. They mentioned other reasons as well.
Al Muhammed, the prophet
hoped to face the Kaaba.
Allah sees
it in his heart. Allah then allows
the prophet salallahu alaihi wa sallam to face
towards
the Kaaba. Some ulama
mentioned
that this might be a problematic. Why?
Because
Allah's commandments are lost commandments, and they're not
dependent
on the prophet's,
wants. Allah commands whatever is the most
right. So, the prophet sallallahu alaihi wasallam also,
if the Allah told the prophet to face,
why would he want to face elsewhere? Won't
he want to devote himself to Allah subhanahu
wa ta'ala?
And the way they answered is they said
is that
this happened in stages.
1st he was told to pray to Masjid
Al Aqsa.
Then
this verse was abrogated which a verse that
we've met we we covered
wherever you you face it is the direction
of of Allah
direction of prayer. So there was a period
where the prophet didn't know where
the new qibla was going to be. He
was told the qibla would be changed. He
didn't know where it's gonna be changed to.
He hoped it was the Kaaba. Allah says,
we know that you've been turning upwards with
your face, hoping for the direction of prayer
to be the Kaaba. I will give you
a qibla that pleases you. So the moment
the prophet is hoping to face the qibla
is at a point where he doesn't know
where the is going to be.
In any case,
Allah says,
we see your face.
We see I see the turning of your
face towards the heavens. What's interesting is the
Ulemaq they say,
that when why
the prophet was he looking upwards?
Literally was he looking upwards?
Or was he glancing upwards?
And this is why some ulama they say,
we see the turning of your face, meaning
your eyes. The prophet would look upwards naturally
hoping for what? For revelation.
And the person,
when we are looking at something, we look
at it in 2 ways.
I can either glance this way
and see who's sitting there, glance,
or I can turn my face. Right?
The turning the face is the.
The glass thing is just another.
Why, when do people just glance and not
turn their face?
If they don't find the thing important.
If you're not if it's not important enough
for you to turn towards it, you won't.
You'll just glance it from the side eye
it. Right? Or if you are worried about
it and you don't wanna be noticed you're
looking at it.
The prophet
this is why the tabir of the Quran,
he was turning his face. The prophet wasn't
glancing upwards. He was facing upwards
in hope of revelation, because he's he's
neither is he afraid to look
nor is does he find Allah
Of course, he glorifies Allah, so he was
actually looking up, which is why Allah uses
the the term
not
And Allah knows best.
So he was commanded then,
indeed then we shall turn you
that will make you pleased or that you
love.
So turn your face
towards the Masjid Al Haram.
Wherever you are, o people,
the Muslims of course,
turn your faces towards
the Kaaba.
As for those who are given the scripture,
the they
know that the turning of the prophet
to the Kaaba is the truth. They know
this.
They know it's the that
came from the Lord. Allahu bi grafeen and
Allah is unaware.
Or
what they are doing. So here Allah is
telling us,
number 1, Allah is saying, oh Muhammad I'm
going to change the Qibla.
I know that you've been looking towards the
heavens for revelation to change it to the
Kaaba. That command that is fulfilled from now
on face the Kaaba. Just you know also
the believers. Everyone has to face the Kaaba
in prayer, and and then Allah said ask
for those that have been given the scriptures,
the and the.
They know it's the truth. Question. What truth
did they know?
They know that this is the truth that
came from your Lord. The Ulemaq, they say
it could mean 2 things. One, it could
mean they knew
that the prophet would face towards the Kaaba,
and it was mentioned in this book in
that detail.
So in this scriptures it said, a final
prophet would emerge and that prophet, his qiblah
would be towards the Kaaba. So they had
this detailed information. That's one view. Another
is, no, they just knew that you were
a prophet. And if they know you're a
prophet, then they know everything you say is
the truth. Thus they know it's from Allah
subhanahu wa ta'ala.
And, there are many many narrations mentioning that
the detailed descriptions of the prophet was in
their scriptures.
If you look at it, from what the
that we have about the the descriptions
of the prophet
in the Torah that was present at his
time
is a lot more detailed
than descriptions.
I wouldn't even call them descriptions now. I
would say the alluding to the prophet in
the bible today. So you'll have certain verses
in the bible.
Because the bible consists of the New Testament
and Old Testament. Right?
You'll find in it
verses or or that that allude to the
final messenger, Muhammad salallahu alaihi wa sallam. But
when we find out the
the conversation between the prophet and the yahud
in his time, it was extremely clear. It
wasn't it wasn't something ambiguous. It was very
clear. He will look like this. He will
talk like this. He will say this. So
they had a lot more clear instructions
which is why the following verse will make
sense when Allah says they recognize the prophet
just like they recognize their own children.
In any case and and that also proves
that the Old Testament and the New Testament
have been changed a lot more since then
as well. They have been changed and cropped
a lot more since then.
Because Allah knows everything and what they are
doing.
So the Qibla.
Facing the Qibla, what is the ruling of
it? It is from the condition of the
prayer. It's from the surud of the salah.
So your salah is not accepted if you're
not facing the qibla, the direction of prayer.
Now the direction of prayer has 4 levels.
Level 1 is when you have to face
the Ka'aba directly
and you're not allowed to miss it. When
is that? When you're in the in the
Masul Haram. This is why the it's circular
because everyone has to face
the Kaaba.
The second is when you're not in the
Masjid when you are in the Masjid, and
when you're not in the Masjid, you're outside
of it. Then you have to face Masjid
Al Haram.
Then you have to face Masjid Al Haram.
Like people are in their hotels or the
outskirts of Makkah, they face towards the mosque.
Because they can't pinpoint the
the Kaaba.
Then you have people that are further away,
they face towards the direction.
So today, when we pray, we're facing towards
the general direction. We can't pinpoint it.
And, also
let's say you are somewhere where you do
not know where where the Qibla is. You're
in a city, you're you travel and you're
somewhere and you don't know where the Qibla
is. What do you do?
Your first responsibility is to see if there
are mosques in that city. If there are
mosques in that city and you can get
there then you find out the qibla from
there and you pray towards it. Well, nowadays
we have apps that would suffice.
But the ulama of old would say
If the city has mosques
you pray wherever they're praying to. Which is
why what you're not allowed to do
is
and I've seen this happen twice. In my
life it didn't happen twice. Someone that would
disagree with the mosques, in that particular place
and say, you know what? They got the
qibla wrong, and he would pray towards a
different direction than the Muslims. This is not
allowed. You go with a general,
a Muslim in the way they pray towards.
And more often than not, it's always correct
because it's very difficult for people to disagree
to agree upon something that is false.
And then you have
If you do not know what the is,
you have to try. You have to try
and and think about it and see if
there's anything that can help you. And then
you pray towards that. And if you're wrong,
Allah will accept your salah.
If while you let's say you're in the
airport, there's no qiblah and you are praying
and you're wrong. Someone taps your shoulder tells
you brother you're facing the qibla, please turn
to the left. You can do that and
any salah you prayed before that is valid.
You don't have to repeat your prayer. What
is the evidence for it? When the verse
of the qiblah,
came down.
Some of the Sahaba were praying. These are
Sahaba Muslim. And while they were praying,
they changed the direction as within their salah
and did not repeat the prayers that came
before. And as you mentioned in our last
lesson when Allah says,
and Allah
will not hold your your previous actions
in in in vain. They will be accepted.
They won't be lost.
That it is referring to any prayer that
was prayed towards the previous qiblah.
So one more time, let's read the Ayah.
Allah says,
Verily, oh Muhammad, we have seen the turning
of your face towards the heavens,
in hope of revelation to tell you to
face the
Kaaba. We shall turn you to that shall
please you.
So turn your face in the direction of
Muslim.
Just you know also the believers,
And also and and wheresoever you are, oh
people, turn your faces in that direction. And
then Allah mentions
as for the people of the book,
they know
that is the truth from their lord.
And
Allah
unaware of what they are doing
regarding
disobeying the prophet, regarding believing in the prophet.
Allah is aware of everything.
An interesting, point point I would like to
share with you guys regarding the the Kaaba.
There's a hadith that is,
narrated by Atabarani,
and and so also Abdurazap and his mussanaf,
Where the prophet
sent some of the companions to Yemen. So
we know the prophet sent Mu'ad ibn Jabal
to Yemen. We know he sent
to Yemen and he also said a combined
so
when he sent him, he gave him instruction.
It is hadith. Although there is khalaf in
its
authenticity. The prophet said to him when you
go, go to San'ah. And this shows you
how old San'ah is.
Go to San'ah. And when you go to
Sanah the prophet said go to
Bustan o Badan. To the park or the
or the Bustan, the the garden of of
of Badan. It's a place. So the prophet
is giving him what? Very clear instructions. And
when you go there, he said,
build a mosque.
And make it towards, face it the mountain
or the peak of the mountain called Din.
So the prophet gave him these instructions.
There's a Sheikh
The the Sheikh is,
he is
heavily involved in researching,
the, or the,
the proofs
of the prophethood,
Especially as it relates to scientific matters.
And, he's very known for this.
So
he used Google Earth,
and he went to this mosque that the
prophet sallallahu alaihi wa sallam,
told to be built. Because this mosque now
is the Grand Mosque of Sana'a. Right? So,
it's a very special mosque because,
it is a mosque that the prophet himself
ordered to be built.
And of course, it's been expanded and everything,
but it's still facing towards the same qiblah
that was the that was given.
So,
the
the qibla is facing towards this mountain peak.
So they
measured, they took a, they drew a line
of the map
from this mosque, the middle of the mosque,
to the peak of that mountain. And from
that mountain, its direct line, and it goes
straight to the Masjid Al Haram,
straight to the Kaaba.
Right? And he said that without,
the science of mapping
and and and and all that knowledge,
The prophet giving him this this very specific
direction
is among the proofs that he was a
messenger from Allah subhanahu
wa ta'ala.
It's very interesting, research
that he'd done.
He actually So he actually used Google. So
when Google Earth, what was that? 2,000 and
10? When when, that went live, that app.
I don't know. But it was during that
time, so it's quite recent
that he that he did that
experiment. And it goes directly. In fact, Shahad
Abi Zendani mentioned that that line went straight
to between the Hajil Aswad and the door.
Like it goes directly to the to the
Kaaba.
And in any case, we are told to
face
the Kaaba. This is our direction of prayer.
Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala then
speaks about the relationship between the prophet and
Ahlul Kitab. And Allah says,
And even if you were to bring to
the people of the scripture
every single type of proof.
They will not follow your kiblah. They will
not follow your kiblah. Why is that? Why
is that if Allah is saying to our
prophet, no matter what evidence you bring them,
no matter what proof you bring them, no
matter what eye you give them, they will
never follow your kiblah.
And then Allah of course the the answer
to that is, like we covered in earlier
verses,
is Anad and Hasid. It was their their
envy. It was, their stubbornness
and their,
need to be in charge. Because one of
the
main reasons why the yahoots, especially their leaders,
didn't follow the prophet
was because he threatened their authority.
He threatened their authority
and they were afraid of that.
And then Allah
says, and you will never follow their kibla.
You will never follow their kibla. Interestingly enough,
historically there's a lot of dispute or there's
a lot of, regarding did the yahood even
have a qibla?
And,
how old is their qibla?
And with the nasaara, it is said that
they never even had a direction of prayer
to begin with.
So Allah says,
and neither will the yahuul and the nasara
follow each other in the direction of prayer.
So here you learn something important which is
mentioned a few times in Surat Al Baqarah
that the yahood and the nasaara are not
in agreement. Allah says,
The Nasara are saying the Yahud are upon
nothing and vice versa. Here Allah is
saying, they will never follow your kiblah. You
will never follow theirs, and they won't follow
each other's.
And oh Mohammed if you follow them.
If you follow who? The and the Nasara.
Follow what?
Their desires and their whims.
Because what they have is not knowledge. What
they have is not guidance, it's.
When a person is following a path that
is not upon guidance, it's Hawa.
And if you follow their guidance,
after knowledge has come to you, after the
knowledge of where to pray and how to
pray and who to pray to has come
to you. If you follow
them, indeed, O Muhammad, then you are among
the wrongdoers.
Now we know the prophet will never be
among the wrongdoers. And we know the prophet
will never follow the yukulsun al Asarah. So
who is this message to? It's to us,
to the believers.
If you follow them in their desires,
after the knowledge has come to you, then
indeed you are among the wrongdoers.
Then Allah
in verse 146 says,
As for those who who have given the
book,
every time Most of the time the is
mentioned in the Quran,
is actually referring to the Torah.
Because Allah refers to the Quran as the
Quran usually.
There's a few times where Allah mentions the
Kitab
and Allah means the Quran.
But most of the time, al kitab is
referring to the Torah.
As for those who give him, al kitab
of the Torah, or al kitab of the
scriptures, indeed in the Torah.
So, and also the reason why I say
the Torah
here is because it was the yahud in
Madira
that had the description of the prophet salallahu
alaihi wa sallam. Which is why someone like
Abdullah ibn Salam accepted Islam.
He's one of the few of the yahu
that accepted Islam because he was honest,
and he knew that
this man that came from Makkah is the
messenger. So he accepted Islam and he became
among those that were promised
the, 2 rewards.
A reward for being someone that was upon
the religion of Musa alayhi salam or the
way of Musa, I should say, and then
following from Muhammad
Allah says,
ask for those who we have given the
book.
They know him. They recognize him. Who?
The prophet
whom like they recognize their own children.
Here Allah is telling us that the knowledge
that the Yahud have regarding the prophet wasn't
a hunch. Wasn't wasn't a maybe. They were
certain of it.
But they still refused to follow. Now you
might be thinking, how is that possible? How
can someone be so certain of someone and
then yet refuse to follow?
Allah says this, do you really think that
believed he was God?
Did he believe that? Or did he knew
he was lying?
He knew he was lying. It wasn't it
wasn't,
but yet he persisted on this. Right?
Do you have a God besides me? Right?
He insists on this lie.
Allah
says
They denied it, the the message of the
prophet.
But in their heart they, they believed and
they had certainty.
So here you learn something quite interesting, which
is that
one might believe something to be true,
yet deny
it. And a clear example of that is
Iblis.
Think about Iblis. Is Iblis a?
Is Iblis a kafir? Yes.
Does Iblis believe in God?
He does.
He's Allah speaks to him.
He sees the creation of Adam,
yet he is a kafir. So what kind
of kafir is his kafir?
It's not a kafir where he
denies the existence,
he denies the authority.
He says the rules don't apply to me.
Which is why
if the person
says I believe in prophet Muhammad
and I believe in Allah,
but the laws of Islam do not apply
to me.
I'm not gonna follow it. I will never
pray. That person isn't a Muslim. You haven't
Because part of being a Muslim and among
his condition is once known as
It is
to believe that these rules apply to you.
Now you might have shortcomings, you might not
do some, but you have to believe they
apply to you, that there's an authority over
you.
And so the point here I was trying
to make is that
just knowing
This is why,
Al Ma'alifa,
just knowing is not enough. Iblis
knows. Firaun knew. Allah mentions that towards the
end of his life he knew, but it
was too late. And even towards his life
he knew.
Right?
But knowledge is not enough. You have to
have true faith.
And here the they know,
which is why
to
relegate faith just knowing
is among the most,
the biggest errors. And you have, you have
the early
the early Jahmiyyah. They
they,
they are known as the extreme
They
they say
iman is pure ma'arifah.
Il iman ma'arifah.
Iman is to know, to know. And if
that's the case, who would be a mumin?
Wouldn't there please be a mumin in that
in that scenario? Which is why that is
a very problematic,
description of of what iman truly is. In
any case,
they knew,
yet they denied.
And this is the case of many people,
which is why just knowing is not enough.
You have to follow, you have to obey,
you have to accept.
They knew it like they know their own
children. Allah describes them.
But then Allah mentioned, this is one one
group. So from amongst the yahood, you had
those that knew that he was a prophet
and accepted it and asked it to Islam,
and Allah rewards those. Then you had those
that knew he was a prophet but denied
it,
for whatever reasons. And there are many reasons.
Allah
mentioned that those are
not believers and they will be punished. And
then there was a third group.
Allah says, for a group amongst them,
they would hide the truth. And this is
the scholars,
the They would hide the truth
from the layman.
While they knew. And this shows you another
sin, a great sin which is that you're
not allowed to conceal knowledge.
You're not allowed to conceal the ilm. That's
what they did. They deprived many of their
followers from knowing who the prophet was by
hiding the verses that mentioned him and his
sayyid and who he was.
As for those who are given the kitab,
they conceal the truth
while they know. There's a hadith where the
prophet
mentioned that the person that hides knowledge from
the people, that he will be punished a
a a a punishment on the hereafter.
Interestingly enough, this is why companions sometimes towards
the end of their life they would share
a lot of hadith they heard that they
didn't share before. And one of them is
the famous hadith of Mu'ad Al Jabal where
he says, I was with the prophet
riding,
the a mule, and the prophet
said to me,
and I said yes, oh prophet of Allah.
And the prophet inquired and he said, oh,
you 3 times and he said,
Yes, oh prophet of Allah, respond to you.
And then he said, do you know what
the rights of Allah are and then the
rights of Allah's slaves? And he said, Allah
and his master knows best. And he said,
there's a it's the right of Allah to
be single out in worship.
And if the people do so, it is
their right to Allah to not punish them.
May Allah make us among those. So that
hadith, he only shared it towards the end
of his life. Why?
Because in that same hadith,
the the This is a great gala tiding
that if you're a believer, if you say
then you're from the people of Jannah. And
he said, you Rasulullah,
so so shall I not tell the people.
And then Rasulullah says, don't tell
them because they will rely on this and
not do the act of worship.
So towards the end of his life, he
shared this hadith because he was worried to
be among those that concealed
knowledge.
So, Uhwan I Filar, from these verses we
learned that the prophet sallallahu alaihi wa sallam
was told by Allah to face the Kaaba,
and that it was changed from
from
or or or or Qudus.
And this also goes for the believers,
and that those that deny that they went
against it, they deny the truth, and Allah
is an not unaware of what they do.
And Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala told us about
the,
qibla of our prophet Muhammad,
that they will never follow him, and that
he would not follow him. An interesting, the
the Musa'ikh mentioned actually is
that,
the one of the benefits from this was
the qiblah change happens a little bit before
the battle of Badr.
And
the,
this was a huge test for the Muslims.
And
when the tibla change happened many, some people
apostated. They wanted to accept Islam or they
was like, okay. It's supposed to be from
the. So, they accepted Islam.
When they saw the change, they were like,
okay. This is not for us then because
so it was almost,
clearing the ranks from anyone who wouldn't follow.
Clearing the ranks from anyone who wouldn't follow.
And Allah knows best.
Because right at This is happening in the
2nd year of the Hijra, which is also
when when the battle of Badr happens.
We're going to,
stop here today.