Mustafa Abu Rayyan – Story Nights The Sons Of Adam – The First Crime
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The segment discusses the history and importance of the Prophet's teachings in protecting oneself and avoiding suffering. It emphasizes the importance of avoiding comparing oneself to others and protecting one's health and lives. The segment also touches on the negative consequences of actions and the dangerous consequences of giving things for others to receive. The segment provides insight into the importance of protecting one's health and lives and learning from the Prophet's teachings.
AI: Summary ©
As-salamu alaykum wa rahmatullahi wa barakatuhu.
Alhamdulillahi rabbil alameen.
Ar-Rahman ar-Raheem.
Malik yawm al-deen.
Allahumma laka l-hamdu wa ilayka l-mujtaka
wa bika thiqa wa alayka l-tuklan wa
la hawla wa la quwwata illa billahi l
-aliyyi l-azim.
Rabbi ishrah li sadri wa yassir li amri
wa hal'uqatan min lisani yafqahu qawli.
Allahumma la sahl illa ma ja'altuhu sahla
wa anta ja'al al-hazzana iza shid
sahla.
Allahumma salli wa sallim ala sayyidina wa habibina
Muhammad wa ala alihi wa sahbihi ajma'in.
Insha'Allah ta'ala, as promised, this evening
we're going to be reflecting over a story
that is mentioned in the Quran.
And this story is mentioned in Surah Al
-Ma'idah, Ayah 27 onwards.
And although it is a surah that is
mentioned later, it is among the earliest incidents
of human history.
It's among the earliest incidents of human history.
Of course, we believe that our history of
humanity starts with Prophet Adam, alayhi salam.
And this qisah, it has a lot of
benefits for us as a way to understanding
what it means to be human, what are
some of the sins that can really put
us on a dark path, what are some
of the root causes of some sins, and
how they manifest themselves, the wisdom of the
laws that are in our deen and where
they come from, and much more, insha'Allah
ta'ala.
So this story is known as qisatu qabil
wa habil, the story of qabil and habil.
Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala does not name
them in the Quran.
Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala just says, وَتْلُوا
عَلَيْهِمْ نَبَىٰ أَبَنَيْ آدَمٍ And recite to them
the story of the two sons of Adam.
The two sons of Adam.
So we know that they are the two
sons of Adam.
And immediately, and this is something that all
of us have to understand.
Whenever a story is mentioned in the Quran,
often it is not as detailed as a
story that is expanded upon in the sunnah
or what's known as the Isra'iliyat.
Isra'iliyat meaning the narrations that come from
the people of the book.
So you have a story, Allah subhanahu wa
ta'ala often in the Quran will mention
the most important points of that story.
And the reason is that this is why
often you won't find mentions of names and
places in the Quran.
Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala does not tell
us when exactly it was, what their names
were, because that's actually not that important.
What's important is the moral behind it.
And we are able to relate to it
more when you remove it far from the
individuals.
This thing happened, but understand it can happen
to you.
Something similar can happen to you.
And the point that is being emphasized is
the lessons and the morals that you will
find in that story.
So Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala commands the
Prophet, وَاتْلُوا عَلَيْهِمْ نَبَىٰ بَنَيْ آدَمَ إِذْ قَرَّبَا
قُرْبَانًا فَتُقُبِّلَ مِنْ أَحَدِهِمَا وَلَمْ يُتَقَبَّلْ مِنَ الْآخَرِ
قَالَ لَأَقَتُلَنَّكَ قَالَ إِنَّمَا يَتَقَبَّلُ اللَّهُ مِنَ الْمُتَّقِينَ
Allah says, and recite to them the story
of the two sons of Adam.
إِذْ قَرَّبَا قُرْبَانًا When they both offered a
sacrifice.
So the first thing we learn about them
from the Quran is that these two sons
of Adam both offered a type of sacrifice
for Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala.
فَتُقُبِّلَ مِنْ أَحَدِهِمَا وَلَمْ يُتَقَبَّلْ مِنَ الْآخَرِ It
was accepted from one and rejected from the
other.
قَالَ لَأَقْتُلَنَّكَ The one whose offering was rejected
said to his brother لَأَقْتُلَنَّكَ I will kill
you.
And then he replied to him إِنَّمَا يَتَقَبَّلُ
اللَّهُ مِنَ الْمُتَّقِينَ Allah only accepts from those
that have piety and taqwa.
Let's read the ayat and we'll come back
and explain it further.
Then Allah tells us that they started to
speak to each other.
And then لَإِنْ بَسَطَّ إِلَيَّ يَدَكَ لِتَقْتُلَنِي مَا
أَنَا بِبَعْصِنِ يَدِي إِلَيْكَ لِيَقْتُلَكَ إِنِّي أَخَافُ اللَّهَ
رَبَّ الْعَالَمِينَ If you, now the one who
was threatened is speaking If you, oh brother,
should raise your hand against me to try
and kill me I shall not raise my
hand against you to try and kill you.
Why not?
إِنِّي أَخَافُ اللَّهَ I fear Allah سُبْحَانَهُ وَتَعَالَى
رَبُّ الْعَالَمِينَ The Lord of the Worlds So
here you have again, how did he respond
to the threat of his brother?
He said, if you're going to try and
harm me, I'm not going to do the
same.
Why not?
I fear Allah سُبْحَانَهُ وَتَعَالَى Then he continues
speaking إِنِّي أُرِيدُ أَنْ تَبُؤَ بِإِثْمِي وَإِثْمِكَ فَتَقُونَ
مِنْ أَصْحَابِ النَّارِ وَذَلِكَ جَزَاءُ الظَّالِمِينَ Rather what
I want is for you, if you're going
to kill me, if you're going to harm
me Then you bear my sin and your
sin And you will be among the people
and the dwellers of the fire And that
is the recompense for those that transgress In
other words, if you kill me, I'm not
going to try and strike you or kill
you And if you end up succeeding, you
will take my sin on And you will
be among the dwellers of the fire So
now all of this, he's trying to dissuade
him If you do this, first of all,
I'm not going to fight back And if
you end up succeeding, you will be among
the dwellers of the fire You will take
on my burden and my sin And why
would he take on his sin?
We'll explain that further Then Allah says فَطَوَّعَتْ
لَهُ نَفْسَهُ قَتْلَ أَخِيهِ فَطَوَّعَتْ لَهُ نَفْسَهُ قَتْلَ
أَخِيهِ And then his soul permitted, his nafs
This man, the one who was threatening, the
one whose offering was rejected by Allah It
allowed him to kill his brother فَقَتَلَهُ And
he killed him فَأَصْبَحَ مِنَ الْخَاسِرِينَ And he
became among the losers The moment he took
another life, he became a murderer, he became
a killer He transgressed upon his brother, he
became from the losers What is he losing?
He's losing Jannah, he's losing Allah's pleasure, he's
losing a lot Then Allah continues the story
فَبَعَثَ اللَّهُ غُرَابًا Then Allah sent a crow
يَبْحَثُ فِي الْأَرَضِ digging in the ground Now
why was this crow digging in the ground?
Because the concept of burial was unknown to
them at that time This is really early
on in human history So now he has
the dead body of his brother And some
of the narrations, and I'll go back to
the story and tell you all of the
backstory Some of the narrations mention that he
didn't know what to do with his brother
So he was just carrying him around And
you know what happens to a dead body
after a while And he just didn't know
what to do He didn't know what to
do until Allah sent a crow And digging
in the ground And why was this crow
digging in the ground?
Some of the narrations, they mention that this
crow killed another crow And then started to
dig the ground and put the body in
فَبَعَثَ اللَّهُ يَبْحَثُ فِي الْأَرَضِ لَيُرِيَهُ To show
him كَيْفَ يُوَارِي سُوءَةَ أَخِي How he's going
to hide the soul of his brother Meaning
the disgrace of his brother's dead body And
then he started speaking The killer He said
يَا وَيْلَةَ أَعَجَجْتُ أَنْ أَكُونُ مِثِلَ هَذَا الْغُرَهَبِ
فَأُوَارِيَ سُوءَةَ أَخِي فَأَصْبَحْ مِنَ النَّادِمِينَ And he
said Woe to me Have I failed to
even be like this crow Who was able
to hide And I wasn't even able to
hide or bury or take care of the
body of my brother Now then what happened
was Allah mentioned the following ayah مِنْ أَجْرِ
ذَلِكِ Because of this And we're going to
expand more later What does it mean because
of مِنْ أَجْرِ ذَلِكِ Because of this كَتَبْنَا
عَلَىٰ بَنِي إِسْرَائِيلِ We have made obligatory upon
the people of Banu Israel That أَنَّ مَنْ
قَتَلَ نَفْسًا بِغَيْرِ نَفْسٍ أو فَسَادٍ فِي الْأَرْضِ
فَكَأَنَّ مَا قَتَلَ النَّاسَ جَمِيعًا Whoever kills another
soul Or spreads corruption on the earth It
is as if they have killed all of
mankind So if someone wants to make sense
of the laws prohibiting murder Or the strict
laws against them or the penalties etc Then
understand that human nature is That if we
don't check ourselves If we don't fear Allah
If we succumb to our desires Then we
are able to do great harms to each
other وَمَنْ أَحْيَاهَا And whoever saves a life
فَكَأَنَّ مَا أَحْيَى النَّاسَ جَمِيعًا Is like the
one who saved all of mankind How many
times have you heard this ayah being quoted?
Whoever takes a life is that if they
killed all of mankind Whoever saves a life
You've heard this many times, correct?
People use it a lot This ayah is
mentioned right after the story And this is
to tell you Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala
Who is the creator of mankind Knows the
type of laws that are going to be
The most beneficial to mankind Allah subhanahu wa
ta'ala knows our nature This is why
when two people get married There are certain
laws they have to abide by Man has
to provide Woman has to do this There
are certain rules put in place For parents
and children when they live together There are
certain rules put in place Obedience, responsibility, taking
care of your children etc And for society
at large There are certain rules put in
place All of these rules that are from
the Qur'an and the Sunnah Are there
to ensure People are protected People are protected
And Allah is teaching us here This is
what your human beings are capable of That's
why these laws are in place Let's go
back to the beginning of the story There's
a number of principles I want to share
with you Number one is Really the point
of the story And the benefit of the
story We actually can just stick with those
ayahs And reflect over them and it should
be enough If you go to the first
ayah You see two men Or brothers They
both do an act of worship They both
make an offering An offering is an act
of worship We do offerings all the time
Right Or sacrifice all the time You sacrifice
your sleep to wake up on Fajr You
sacrifice your money to give Zakat And Sadaq
and charity All of these are types of
sacrifices That we do for whose sake?
For Allah's sake However If you want to
be even more clear For example Eid al
-Adha On the second Eid we make a
sacrifice We slaughter for the sake of Allah
So These types of offerings And acts of
worship whether it's Salah, Sadaqah Anything, any acts
of worship When you do it Allah may
accept it Or may not accept it A
lot of times there is an assumption Alhamdulillah
I prayed, it's in the bag, done Take
it off, send it to Akhira It's in
my bank, I give Sadaqah Masha'Allah Did
you think that every single act of worship
that you do It's done But you have
to remember this There is a difference between
Doing the act of worship And that act
of worship being accepted There is a difference
And the biggest evidence for that difference Is
the story right in front of us Allah
says وَتْلُوا عَلَيْهِمْ نَبَأَ بَنَيْ آدَمَ إِذْ قَرَّبَا
قُرْبَانًا وَتْلُوا عَلَيْهِمْ نَبَأَ بَنَيْ آدَمَ إِذْ قَرَّبَا
قُرْبَانًا Tell them the story of the two
sons of Adam When they both made a
sacrifice They both made an offering It wasn't
like one did and the other didn't They
both did it فَتُقُبِّلَ مِنْ أَحَدِهِمَا وَلَمْ يُتَقَبَّلْ
مِنَ الْآخَرِ From one of them it was
accepted and the other one it wasn't Why
O Allah?
They both did it, why O Allah?
The answer is right there إِنَّمَا يَتَقَبَّلُ اللَّهُ
مِنَ الْمُتَّقِينَ Allah only accepts from the pious
That's why Taqwa is so important Being a
pious, God-conscious individual That Allah SWT That
you are mindful of Allah That you fear
Allah That you love Allah That you have
Taqwa If you have that, the likelihood of
your deeds to be accepted Is going to
be much higher And this is why It's
important that we know what Taqwa is To
check do we have it or not But
let's park that for a second So that's
the first ayah So immediately, what's the lesson
that we learn?
We learn that just because you're doing an
act of worship Doesn't mean your act of
worship is accepted مِنْ لَقَيِّمَ رَحْمَةُ اللَّهِ عَلَيْهِ
He gave a powerful example He said, imagine
two people In the row of the masjid
Praying next to each other, side by side
They're praying They are listening to the same
Quran by the imam Making the same amount
of ruku Coming back up Making the sujood,
coming back up Standing in the same row
One of these people's deed That salah is
so great It's as if it's near the
throne of Allah And the other one It's
under the earth It's not going to be
accepted Why?
They're doing the same thing Same principle Allah
only accepts from the pious Just because you
showed up and prayed Is not enough.
What's in the state of your heart?
Why are you there?
Are you really doing it for the sake
of Allah?
Or were you dragged here by your friend?
Are you really immersed in your salah?
Or is it another chore?
There's so many things Are you distracted from
the beginning of your salah Until the end
of your salah?
Are you thinking about The shopping list?
Where you parked your car?
Are you distracted?
Are you bothered by the length of the
ruku and the sujood?
Or are you enjoying the act of worship
Immersed in it Focused on your own shortcomings
And the greatness of Allah and glorifying Him
What kind of salah are you praying?
So, next to each other They're there But
one can be accepted and the other cannot
And one can have more reward than the
other one That's the first thing you learn
The second ayah you learn about Again What
pushed his brother to kill him Or to
even think about it It was envy, he
was envious Why are you better than me?
Why is yours accepted or not?
How did he know by the way?
How did he know the deeds of his
brother were accepted?
Let's go back to the beginning And let's
tell the story as it's been told In
the books of tafsir So now I'm going
to give you a lot more detail You
have a basic breakdown of the story now
They did an act of worship It was
accepted from one One was accepted, the other
was rejected One got angry, threatening the other
one He said if you kill me I'm
not going to kill you back In the
end of the day he pushed, he killed
him And then he didn't know what to
do in the end He buried him, and
because of this Allah mentioned These rules that
are for the muslimin Are you guys with
me so far?
Let's now look at what are some of
the scholars of tafsir And what are some
of the back story that is mentioned My
brothers and sisters These two men Were the
sons of Adam and Hawa And we know
As we covered the last time I told
the story of Adam That Adam and Hawa
Were sent down from Jannah To the dunya
And when they came They started to populate
the earth And having children And when they
would have children There was a necessity To
continue to procreate So that mankind, so that
we become Who we are today, all of
us by the way We are traced back
our ancestry Back there don't we So what
happened For Them to be able to continue
The progeny And the descendants They would have
to have Different rules than we have now
Right now there are certain people You cannot
marry, you cannot marry your sister You cannot
marry your aunt There are certain people that
you are prohibited of marrying Those rules were
a little bit different Early on And the
way it was, was every single time Our
mother Hawa would become pregnant She would conceive
twins One boy, one girl And these twins
would be considered siblings They would be considered
siblings In other words when they are born
Them two are not allowed to marry each
other Then later she would conceive again And
they would be twins again Both a boy
and a girl And then they would also
not be able To marry each other And
they would be considered what?
Siblings So then how would you continue mankind
What would happen is Each set would get
married to the previous set And that's how
Mankind was formed That's the only way they
could have moved forward with this Does everyone
follow?
So Qabil Qabil And this is some of
the scholars they say this Which is quite
interesting They say that Qabil And his twin
sister Were actually conceived In Jannah Before they
were sent down Are you guys with me?
So they looked a little bit better Than
the rest of their siblings Right?
They were, and they You could easily start
to feel a bit more special You know
I'm not from up there, I'm not from
up here You lonely dunya people So what
happened was The woman That was born as
a twin to Qabil Qabil is the killer
She was very beautiful And then the following
set Qabil and his twin sister Were not
as beautiful Then Qabil was like This is
not going to work for me This rule
that has been created This law, that's not
going to work for me Right?
I feel like I am Downgrading here I'm
not going to marry this individual I belong
with My The person that I left the
womb with So he Refused the law And
I want you to think about that There
is a law, who set this law?
Allah To defy the law set by Allah
To say no To defy it To refuse
to follow it That is very reminiscent of
who?
Who refused to bow down?
To their father The devil This is a
satanic trait When you hear Allah wants you
to do this You say I don't care
Very dangerous thing to do So then Some
of the riwayat mention That as the dispute
kept on happening That they were told By
their father Adam If this is what you
want Why don't you both sacrifice something For
Allah And whoever's sacrifice is accepted Will be
able to marry such and such So that
was the reason for the sacrifice And there
is something else that you guys need to
know This used to happen actually up to
the time of Bani Israel It stopped during
the time of Muhammad What stopped?
A concept that When certain offerings Were made
to Allah And the way they would know
It was accepted Was that a fire would
Descend from the sky And devour whatever was
presented So they would present something You would
bring it If it's a goat, if it's
a sheep, if it's some crops You present
it And then you would step back And
how would you know it was accepted?
A fire would come and devour it This
is one of the things that the Bani
Israel Said to Prophet Muhammad When They said
to him When they said to him If
you truly are a prophet Because what we
used to hear Is that when A sacrifice
was made That a fire Would come بِقُرْبَانٍ
تَأْكُلُهُ النَّارِ Show us this This is what
we used to see in our previous books
Oh Muhammad, if you truly are a prophet,
show us this So this idea was known
to them So what would happen is that
they would Present something So then now, Qabir
and Habil both have to present something And
offer something for Allah And remember When you're
offering something, and this counts for us as
well When you are doing something for the
sake of Allah When you are giving charity
for example Or when you are doing the
autohia You have to give that which is
precious Not that which you don't want This
is why, among the worst things that you
can do Have you guys ever done Are
there ever Opportunities where you have a clothing
run Where you have a lot of clothes
at home And then you want to give
them away for sadaqah If you're the kind
of person That Packs a bag full of
the clothes that you would never wear And
your children would never wear And you just
want to get rid of them And they're
cluttering all over the house And you just
give that in charity That is not the
kind of sadaqah that you give You give
something that has Some worth and value And
that doesn't mean that you give The brand
new clothes you bought yesterday either You don't
do that And there's a very interesting hadith
From the Prophet ﷺ When he was sending
the great companion Mu'adh ibn Jabal to
Yemen And he mentioned to Mu'adh ibn
Jabal إِنَّكَ سَتَأْتِي قَوْمَ الْأَهْلِ الْكِتَابِ You will
go to a people that are from the
people of the book فَلْيَأْكُنْ أَوَّلْ مَا تَدْعُوهُمْ
إِلَيْهِ Let the first thing you call them
towards be أَنْ يُوَحِّدُوا اللَّهَ To single out
Allah in worship فَإِنَّهُمْ أَطَعُوكَ بِذَلِكَ If they
accept that, then teach them that upon them
is five daily prayers If they accept that,
then teach them that they have to give
a charity And then look what the Prophet
ﷺ said to Mu'adh He said Take
charity from them وَاتَّقِي كَرَاءِ مَا أَمْوَالِهِمْ And
fear Allah, do not take the best of
their wealth So You're not required to give
the best thing you have But that doesn't
mean what?
That you're going to give The worst thing
either Are you guys with me?
So, something that has some level of value
So then, they were told يَا اللَّهُ بَيْكُنْ
أَفْرِيْنْ One of them was a goat herder,
a shepherd And the other one was a
farmer قَابِيل The one who will do the
killing was the farmer So he went to
his crops, and this teaches you something Already
what do we know about him so far?
From the beginning we know He's quite defiant
of the laws of Allah And quite self
-absorbed Those who think he's self-absorbed I
am better, I am this, I'm not going
to marry her She's not beautiful enough All
of this stuff Secondly, he's defiant of the
laws of Allah Thirdly now, when he's told
to get the crops He looked at his
crops And he just grabbed the worst bit
He grabbed the worst And he put that
out Whereas قَابِيل did the opposite And grabbed
the best And as they were waiting The
fire came down and devoured قَابِيل صَدَقَ Or
I won't call it صَدَقَ قُرْبَان, sacrifice And
nothing happened to the crops So this now
is why he gets upset So now you
see Quite self-absorbed Thinks he's better Has
a lot of devilish, satanic traits Of I
am better because of this What did the
shaitan say?
He said about Adam, why are you not
bowing down to Adam?
How can I bow down to Adam?
أَنَا خَيْرٌ مِنْهُ I am better than him
خَلَقْتَنَي مِنْ نَارٍ Oh Allah, you created me
from fire وَخَلَقْتَهُ مِنْ طِينٍ And you created
him from clay So how is it that
I'm going to Again, being self-obsessed, self
-absorbed I am this, I am that, number
one Number two, defiance of the laws of
Allah Number three, not even giving the best
stuff For the offering So it wasn't accepted
He clearly wasn't pious He clearly wasn't pious
إِنَّمَا يَتَقَبَّلُ اللَّهُ مِنَ الْمُتَّقِينَ Then what happens
in his heart These Traits that he had
Developed into A disease And that disease, my
brothers and sisters Is envy He became extremely
envious Of his brother You're getting the woman
that I want Your deeds are being accepted
You're the one You're even He's getting envious
of his brother And that envy is dangerous
And the Prophet ﷺ said That hasad, he
said It is الحالقة It shaves It doesn't
shave the head, it shaves good deeds It
ruins you Gets rid of all of your
good deeds You become a horrible human being
In the sight of others and in the
sight of Allah It was envy That was
the reason why Shaytan refused to bow down
to Adam And condemned himself to the fire
It was envy that made Qabil kill his
brother It was envy That made The brothers
of Yusuf Take their little brother Into the
Forest And got rid of him And considered
killing Their brother Very Qabil-like, isn't it,
of them And then later Compromised by putting
him in a well It was envy It
was envy that made Abu Jahl Not follow
the Prophet ﷺ Abu Jahl And those of
you that are not sure Are not aware
I deliver a seerah class every What day,
Hassan?
Every Friday, so if those of you that
are interested Please come to the seerah class
as well So Abu Jahl There's one incident
where This concept of comparison Constantly comparing yourself
to others Wallahi, it's very dangerous Because if
you constantly compare yourself To others, I'll give
you an example Before I get to that
Abu Jahl story, let me give you an
example Now, if you Are given 5,000
pounds today MashaAllah, I need this I can
do things with it, and then you look
this way And the person next to you
got 10,000 What happens to this 5
,000 all of a sudden?
It's not as valuable anymore, right?
How much did you get 5,000?
How about you?
10,000 And all of a sudden what
happens?
The value of what you have becomes less
When you compare it to others This is
how things work, so you need to get
better at what?
Don't compare yourself to others Because if you
don't do that Then what you have becomes
good What you have becomes good Someone has
one child, another has 5 children Another has
no children The one that has one child
He's happy when he looks Alhamdulillah, Allah has
given me a child Alhamdulillah And then he
looks this way, this brother has 5 MashaAllah,
my wife is pregnant, it's number 6 SubhanAllah,
and then what happens?
Comparison kills joy Wallahi it's dangerous, this is
what's happening This is why And that leads
to hasad Because you know, we all compare
We all compare, we all look towards others
Right?
And then it stops happening to you You
know, and this is why You need to
Whenever you feel And what did the Prophet
teach us?
When it comes to dunya Never look up,
look down Look at those that have less
than you Look at those that have less
than you You have one child, brother let
me show you Someone who isn't married yet
Don't forget children, he's not even married yet
You have A job that doesn't pay enough
There's dozens of people Hundreds of people that
have no jobs whatsoever You are living You
are living paycheck to paycheck Well guess what,
someone is living with no paycheck Do you
understand?
It is important that we do this Because
if we don't do this What's going to
happen is We're going to start being less
grateful For what Allah has given us And
we're going to develop this envy Where we
want what other people have And that's where
it starts Wanting what others have Which will
then result into Wishing they never had it
Which will result into Lots of harm coming
to you and others Abu Jahl, yes Do
you know what Abu Jahl's reason was For
not believing in the Prophet?
One time he was listening to the Quran
Him and another one And as they were
listening to the Quran He said to him,
Abu Jahl Listen, it's just me and you
here What do you really think about Muhammad?
And why he's reading?
What do you really think about it?
What do you say about it?
And then he says Now think about this,
he says I have no doubt That what
he's saying is truth It's Haqq But he
said We are Bani Makhzum They are Bani
Hashim When they had warriors, we had warriors
When they were traders, we were traders When
they had this, we had that Where are
we going to get a profit from?
If I concede That he is a prophet
That means from now until the last day
They will definitely have one over us Are
we going to get a profit?
We're not going to get one So he
said to ensure We don't fall behind as
a clan We have to destroy His call,
his mission, his dawah Condemn himself to the
fire Due to comparison and envy Isn't that
something To be honestly fearful of?
That you become so Self-absorbed It happened
to Shaitan It happened to Qabil It happened
to Abu Jahl It happened to the brothers
of Yusuf It can happen to you as
well So be very careful Do not be
envious of others May Allah protect us from
envy So Then the sacrifice happened Another point
that has to be We have to pay
attention to His statement Allah only accepts from
those who are pious There's an ayah in
the Quran That Allah talks about Those that
Those that when they do Acts of worship
They do it While their hearts are trembling
with fear Allah talks about them Those who
give And do the acts of worship And
give the charity And when they're doing it
While their hearts are trembling Very confusing Why
would their hearts be trembling If they're doing
acts of worship This is the exact question
Our mother Aisha asked the Prophet Are these
sinners and bad people Why are they so
fearful And he said no Aisha That's not
what it is at all They are worried
Because every time they give Every time they
worship They are concerned Will Allah accept it
Will Allah accept it Will Allah accept it
or not There's that concern And with that
concern comes effort Comes prayer Comes Ya Allah
please accept it Not Alhamdulillah it's in the
bag As if you have a guarantee Allah
only accepts from the pious This is why
you have to have piety And Taqwa If
I have time I'll explain to you A
short definition of Taqwa Actually let me do
it now Because it's an important point The
scholars When they explain what Taqwa is And
why are we talking about Taqwa Because Habil
said to his older brother The reason why
your good deeds were not accepted The reason
why these crops were not accepted by Allah
Is because Allah only accepts from those that
have Taqwa Are you guys with me So
what is Taqwa Linguistically it comes From the
word Waqa Which means to prevent or to
protect To protect yourself So it means Taking
up any form of actions That will result
in your protection In the hereafter From the
fire Are you guys with me But what
does that really mean for us then One
of my favorite explanations There are many I'll
share two with you guys One of them
is It is all about your relationship With
the commandments And the prohibitions of Allah And
the example that was given was By some
of the Salaf Imagine if you were walking
down a path You're walking down a path
And this path is filled With thorns And
dangerous things that can harm you And problems
And some Some of it you can trip
on Some of it can hurt you And
then imagine You are blind or blindfolded And
you're told to walk on that path It's
going to be easy It's not going to
be easy right You're going to step on
glass, you're going to step on a thorn
You're going to hurt yourself, you're going to
trip, you're going to fall You're going to
fall in a ditch You're blindfolded But There
is someone holding your hand This person can
see If this person Tells you to stop,
what do you do?
Go left, what do you do?
You go left Go right, what do you
do?
Go right Step over How much would you
listen to that person?
Of course every single step of the way
Correct?
He said The pathway, this is your life
And those Problems, those thorns, those ditches Those
holes, those issues They are the things Allah
Has prohibited And you are blind And the
one holding your hand is the Quran and
the Sunnah It is the Prophet of Allah
The Deen If you Are the kind of
person Whose relationship with the Deen With the
Quran, with the Sunnah With the Prophet Is
that relationship of the person That was guiding
you earlier Once you get to that stage
You have Taqwa Is that a Clear example?
So next time ask yourself What is my
relationship when it comes to prohibitions?
Do I just run through it?
Do I Actually try and actively listen To
what Allah and the Messenger tell me?
When the Prophet tells us, don't get angry
Do I actually try and control my anger?
When I am encouraged to go And pray
in the Masjid, do I actually try to
do that?
When I am told to guard my tongue
Do I actually guard my tongue?
When I am told to stay away from
vulgar language Do I still swear or have
I stopped that?
Etc, etc This is what we have to
think about, this should be our mindset Another
one was narrated by Ali ibn Abi Talib
Then he said Taqwa Is four things Al
-Khawfu min al-Jalili Wal-Amru bi-Tanzili
Wal-Ridha bil-Qalili Those four things Al
-Khawfu min al-Jalili To fear Allah And
that's very important To fear Allah Is one
part of piety Not all of it, one
of four To fear Allah, and what's fascinating
is What does Habil say to his brother?
This is why you have to constantly Remind
yourself to fear Allah So the first component
of Taqwa According to Sayyidina Ali is To
have fear of Allah The second one is
Al-Amru bi-Tanzili To act upon That
which has been revealed So, to act upon
The commandments And the prohibitions in the Quran
And in the Sunnah, because they've both been
revealed Al-Amru bi-Tanzili Wal-Ridha bil
-Qalili And to be pleased With what Allah
has given you Even if it's little Do
you have a mother's security job?
Alhamdulillah Your business is not Making a lot
of money But Alhamdulillah, enough Allah has given
you a wife But no children?
Alhamdulillah Allah has given you a little amount
of children?
Alhamdulillah Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala Has blessed
you with health?
Alhamdulillah You tested with illness?
Alhamdulillah Whatever little Allah has given you in
this world That you are Pleased with it.
That's part of piety Was Qabeen pleased With
what he was given?
He wasn't pleased, was he?
Being pleased with what Allah has given you
And the final one, Al-Isti'adad To
prepare yourself Liyawmin Raheel for the day of
traveling That you prepare yourself For the day
that you are traveling, meaning what?
Day of judgment.
Those four things Is piety and taqwa.
So if you have Those four things, then
you are among the people That have taqwa,
and if you have taqwa What happens to
your deeds?
They are what?
Accepted And then if we move forward So
then he became angry and he wanted To
kill his brother after being Envious of course
Now a question that we have to answer
ourselves is Why Did Habil Not defend himself?
And some of the narrations actually Mention that
Habil was actually stronger Habil was stronger Yet
he did not Defend himself.
Hassan, do you want to try And answer
that?
Did you raise your hand?
Did you raise your hand or did I
imagine that?
Oh, you were not sure?
Go ahead and try.
What do you think?
That he was scared of Allah And he
was scared that something would happen to Habil
Yeah, he was scared that he would also
Kill his brother.
So yeah Very good.
Actually you are very smart Hassan.
BarakAllahu feek Umm There is a hadith Where
the Prophet ﷺ said If
the two Muslims Meet each other with their
swords Meaning they are both trying to kill
each other It doesn't have to be swords,
it can be knives, it can be guns
It doesn't matter.
But if they meet Each other and they
are both trying to kill each other If
they meet with their swords The killer And
the one that is being killed Both are
going to the fire The companions said O
Messenger of Allah, we understand The killer What
about the poor guy that was killed?
Why would he go to the fire?
The Prophet ﷺ said He was also trying
His best To kill his brother He just
happened to have lost So Habil does not
want to be that guy So when Habil
is saying I am not going to raise
my hand Against you He doesn't want to
be in the mindset That he wants to
also kill Because that would mean that they
were both Trying to kill each other.
That's one Explanation.
There is another Explanation and this is very
important Because we have to look at the
religion holistically Because someone can ask a question
He could say Isn't it Islamically allowed to
defend Yourself?
And we say yes it is The Prophet
ﷺ said in a hadith When he was
asked Who is killed without his wealth His
pride and his ego, is he a martyr?
Whoever is killed While defending Himself, is he
a martyr?
And also One time A companion said, Ya
Rasulullah, if someone comes After me and defends
himself and I kill him Then what is
my ruling?
The Prophet ﷺ said, you have done nothing
wrong You have done nothing wrong for defending
yourself Right, so How do we reconcile that
with this story Where Habil chose to not
defend Himself?
They say, several answers Some said, perhaps Perhaps
because laws Would change over time In Islam
The laws for one Community would be different
than another community Maybe the amount of fasting
That the time of Prophet ﷺ Will not
be the same as the amount of fasting
At the time of Prophet Muhammad ﷺ The
amount of salats will be different The rulings
will be different The punishment could be different
But what stays always the same?
The beliefs Don't ever change So maybe, a
good example of Laws changing by the way
Is What is the ruling of bowing Or
prostrating to another person As a form of
respect or greeting It's haram A lot of
people Misunderstand it As a form of worship
and veneration It's shirk As a form of
respect And greeting, it's what?
Haram So have you seen people that would
bow down For someone in other cultures Or
they do it before there is a Fight
or a sermon or things like that What
is the ruling of that?
We say that is what?
Haram If they intended veneration and worship It
becomes what?
Shirk and idolatry So you have to distinguish
those two things So, venerating and worshiping someone
else And bowing down to him was never
allowed Because that is shirk and shirk is
belief And that was never allowed However, was
there a time Or has there been cases
Where prostrating and bowing Has been allowed as
a form of Showing respect and greeting Yes,
what examples do we have from that?
Prophet Yusuf When his brothers came to him
and they Made sujood, right?
What other examples do we have?
Adam and the angels, right?
So then, did the angels do something that
is haram?
No, Allah commanded them So what if someone
says, why can't I do it?
Because Allah prohibited it for you So we
say So that's a clear example Of laws
changing over time, right?
Just like that Perhaps, the law During the
time of these two sons of Adam Was
that you were not allowed To defend yourself
if someone attacked you And then later, that
law was instilled For us as the Ummah
of Muhammad Is that clear?
So that's one way of explaining it Another
way of explaining it is to say It's
optional You're allowed to defend yourself But you
don't have to defend yourself And there's some
evidence to that The Prophet said in a
hadith When fitna happens Be
the better of the two sons of Adam
When fitna happens Be the better of the
two sons of Adam What does this mean?
The Prophet ﷺ was alluding that There will
be a time Where the Muslims will be
At each other's throats Where there will be
civil war between the Muslims Where they will
be killing each other Fellow believers killing each
other and taking each other's lives And when
that happened, the Prophet ﷺ said If you
can Be the better of the two sons
of Adam What does that mean?
That rather than you have Muslim blood On
your hand, you'd rather what?
You'd rather check out You'd rather take the
hit and die Because you'd rather die Than
have Muslim blood on your hand This was
the advice of the Prophet ﷺ But the
ulema, when they explain that They say, this
is not an obligation This is an option
Because if you defend yourself, you're allowed to
In other words If someone says, Sheikh, are
you telling me That if I'm attacked by
a fellow Muslim That I don't defend myself?
No, that's not what I'm saying By all
means, defend yourself Most likely these kind of
fights What if he's trying to kill me?
If he's trying to kill you, you're allowed
to defend yourself You know what?
You're allowed to defend yourself Why didn't Qabil
defend himself?
Maybe in his law it wasn't allowed Or
maybe he just didn't want blood on his
hands Is that clear everyone?
He became from the losers Prophet ﷺ told
us in a hadith That Qabil By the
way, a point of benefit I keep saying
Qabil, Qabil This name Qabil and Habil Cain
and Abel These names, they are from the
Israeliyat They are not mentioned in the Quran
Meaning, they are from the stories That were
told by the people of the book And
what is the rule Related to the stories
of the people of the book?
If they add context If they give detail
The Prophet ﷺ said Do not reject them
and do not accept them Do not reject
them because it could be true That could
have been their names Do not accept it
fully, why?
Because it could have been one of those
things that have been added And the Prophet
ﷺ did also allow He said Tell the
stories of the people of Israel Tell the
stories that come from them as well And
there's no issue So sometimes when we're adding
context Yeah, let's say Qabil and Habil But
do we know 100% sure that was
their names?
No, we don't.
Allah calls them the two sons of Adam
Is that clear?
Yeah And you do that with a lot
of different things like that In any case,
where was I?
Yes, so he kills him So what did
he kill him with?
They say he killed him with a rock
Just hit him over his head And then
he died And he carries the sin of
every murder after Qabil carries the sin Of
every murder That ever happened after Just like
the Shaitan Carries every sin Every time someone
disobeys Allah The Shaitan Gets a portion of
that investment of his Because he's the one
that started it all And those that Start
a trend of sinfulness Those that Do it
after them They get a portion of that
sin If they start a trend of sinfulness
And who started the trend Of one person
killing another person?
Qabil Started it and he will continue For
every murder that happens How many murders do
we hear of these days?
I want you to just imagine this How
many murders do you see happening on this
earth?
With bombs and with guns And with everything
From now on all the history of humanity
Is getting a portion of that sin for
him So when Allah says فَطَوَّعَتْ لَهُ نَفْسُهُ
قَتْلَ أَخِيهِ فَقَتَلَهُ فَأُصْبِحَ مِنَ الْخَاسِرِينَ His nafs
allowed him Permitted him to kill his brother
فَقَتَلَهُ And he killed him And he became
among the losers I want that context to
be there for you Look at how much
sin he is accumulating Look at how much
sin he is accumulating Now, if we say
Anybody that sets a trend Or starts a
trend of sinfulness And disobedience And then those
that are inspired by that Or do that,
they will also have that sin You will
carry that sin What about Prophet Adam?
Did he not technically Disobey Allah by eating
from the fruit That he wasn't supposed to?
Does he then also not carry?
If someone asks that question How do you
answer it?
It's very simple You say, you want to
have a go, brother?
Did you raise your hand?
It is because he repented He didn't guess,
he knew So, if you repent Then That
you're not responsible for anyone Even if they
were inspired by you How many times you
have someone enter into Islam But there is
content Out there That is extremely horrid about
them Or they would promote something that is
haram Or they would teach something that is
haram And then they repent and they accept
Islam They're not responsible for that anymore Because
Allah is the most merciful It removed all
that came before So, Prophet Adam And similarly
with Prophet Adam Repented, we know that it's
in the Quran So he is not held
accountable for anything So, inspiring others To make
a mistake or being a transcender You are
held responsible For that, when?
When you don't repent Is that clear, everyone?
So With Qabil, he Then had to deal
with carrying his brother And the ignorance of
what to do with the body Until this
concept of Burial was revealed and he buried
His brother And then Allah mentions After that,
because of this These laws, these very strict
laws Of what happens to the murderer And
how dangerous is it to murder And all
of these things were set For the people
that came after These were some reflections that
I wanted to share With you guys As
it relates to this story And there's a
lot to learn and a lot to unpack
The point, my brothers And my sisters, is
that we don't just take These stories and
Just this, a nice story to hear But
we ask ourselves, what are some of the
things That we can apply?
And I'm going to ask the brothers here
To help me Find practical lessons In this
story I'm going to start in this area
If anyone can tell me what is a
practical Lesson that you feel like you've benefited
From this story that maybe you can learn
from Apply.
Guys, I'm coming to you guys So start
thinking Zayed, I'm looking at you Yes, anyone?
No?
The moment you point fingers, nobody Yeah Anybody?
Constantly checking your nafs Do you want to
elaborate?
Are you checking your nafs as in Whether
you're doing it for the sake of Allah
or not?
Or do you mean like, whether you have
hasad or not What do you mean?
Yes Constantly checking your nafs and ensuring That
you don't have negative thoughts Because it is
those negative thoughts that will manifest Themselves into
actions or something like that Very good Conflict
from brothers and avoiding Conflict and to avoid
conflict You're going to need certain things such
as Thinking the best of others, not assuming
Right?
Again, very Good May Allah keep the hearts
of our brothers close to each other All
of a sudden the hands are coming Let
me start from here.
Yes, go ahead Repent from your sins so
that you're not responsible Yes, brother Isa Be
conscious of Allah in every situation Did you
know he just quotes the Prophet Who said
Have taqwa of Allah wherever you are In
every situation Yes, Adam Yes, when there is
a fitnah Be the better of the two
sons of Adam That you rather That it's
such a dangerous thing to meet Allah with
the blood Of your fellow believer In your
hands that you rather meet Allah with none
of that That
means that the Muslim Continues to be in
a good State regarding their deen as Long
as they don't have on their hands Blood
that is haram Very important point Yes, Hassan
Having sabr Which part of the story did
you find That having sabr?
Who was having sabr?
Habil was having sabr His brother is trying
to kill him and he's having sabr Jazakallah
khair Is there anyone that I skipped on
this side?
Yes, brother You raise your hand and I'm
going to come to you inshallah The danger
of comparing yourself to others The danger of
comparing Yourself to others because that can lead
to what?
It can lead to Envy and hasad Being
grateful for what you've been given Whatever Allah
subhanahu wa ta'ala has given you In
this part of taqwa Now who can tell
me What are the four Aspects of taqwa
as mentioned by Ali ibn Talib What was
it?
Who can tell me the first one?
Let's try to do it together You did
the first one Fearing Allah, yes, second one
Or the third or the fourth, doesn't matter
What was it?
Be pleased with what Allah has given you
And then what was the other one?
Yes, brother Yeah, I was actually looking at
you That's fine Acting upon the The Qur
'an and the Sunnah that has been revealed
And finally preparing yourself for the Hereafter Insha
'Allah I'm going to stop and conclude here
Jazakumullah everyone for coming May Allah subhanahu wa
ta'ala allow us to be those that
benefit from the Qur'an And the stories
in it Every month I deliver one such
session where we cover a story If you
pay attention to our Social media insha'Allah
you should be able to find it Every
Saturday there's something going on But this session
where we cover a story It happens once
every month Jazakumullah Assalamu alaikum