Nadim Bashir – Conversations In The Quran #14 Story Of Nuh
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AI: Transcript ©
Today's conversation in the Qur'an is coming
from Surah Hud, and before I get into
this ayat, it's a really small conversation.
For the last two weeks, we had the
story of Thalut and Dawud Alayhi Salaam in
Jalut.
That was a long conversation, but today's conversation
is really short, but there's a lot of
lessons to be learned from it.
So Surah Hud, first of all, is a
Makki surah, and the one thing that we
need to understand that in this surah, Allah
mentioned the story of Nuh Alayhi Salaam and
the destruction of his son.
Now, he had many sons, but there was
one son in particular who decided to go
against the message of Allah Subhanahu Wa Ta
'ala, and he thought that there's some things
that are going to be able to save
him, but Allah Subhanahu Wa Ta'ala destroyed
every single person on the face of this
earth who was a kafir, Allah destroyed all
of them, including even the wife of Nuh
Alayhi Salaam, and that is why in Surah
Al-Tahrim, Allah Subhanahu Wa Ta'ala mentions,
ضَرَبَ اللَّهُ مَثَلًا لِلَّذِينَ كَفَرُوا مْرَأَةَ نُوحٍ وَمْرَأَةَ
لُوطٍ Okay, Allah Subhanahu Wa Ta'ala provides
the example of two women whose husbands were
prophets, whose husbands were believers, but they were
not believers.
Who are they?
Imra'ata Nuh, Imra'ata Lut, the wife
of Nuh and the wife of Lut Alayhi
Salaam.
So this is why Allah Subhanahu Wa Ta
'ala mentions that He destroyed everyone, and the
message, because this is a Makki Surah, the
message that Allah is sending to the people
of Mecca is that no matter how much
you might think you are associated with Ibrahim
Alayhi Salaam, because you are the custodians of
the Kaaba, no matter how much you might
feel like you are connected with the Prophet
Sallallahu Alaihi Wasallam, because you are the Quraysh,
and he's from the Quraysh and so forth,
but when the time comes, and if the
wrath of Allah comes, then associations and families
will not help at that time.
When the wrath of Allah comes, it takes
away anyone who disbelieves in Allah Subhanahu Wa
Ta'ala.
So this is the message that Allah Subhanahu
Wa Ta'ala is trying to deliver to
the people of Mecca.
Now, in this story, Allah Subhanahu Wa Ta
'ala mentions that Allah gave Nuh Alayhi Salaam
the order to build a huge ship, an
ark, and Nuh Alayhi Salaam began to build
an ark, and the water, there was no
water to be seen, and people began to
make a mockery of Nuh Alayhi Salaam.
You're building such a huge ark, but where
is the water going to come from?
Is it just gonna be here for us
to see?
And they made a mockery over and over
again.
And Allah Subhanahu Wa Ta'ala, He highlights
that in the Qur'an and the Sunnah
of the Prophet Sallallahu Alaihi Wasallam.
And then Allah Subhanahu Wa Ta'ala says,
حَتَّىٰ إِذَا جَاءَ أَمْرُنَا وَفَارَتَ النُّورُ قُلْ نَحْمِلْ
فِيهَا مِنْ كُلٍّ زَوْجَيْنِ اثْنَيْنِ وَأَهْلَكَ إِلَّا مَنْ
صَبَقَ عَلَيْهِ الْقَوْلُ وَمَنْ آمَنُ Allah Subhanahu Wa
Ta'ala mentions, He gave very clear instructions
to Nuh Alayhi Salaam.
You need to go, take your family, every
single person who became a Muslim, who believes
in you and the message of Allah, take
them along with you in the ship.
And take two of the animals, one male
and one female, take these pairs of each
animal, and make sure you put them on
the ship along with you.
And then Allah Subhanahu Wa Ta'ala, of
course we all know that Allah Subhanahu Wa
Ta'ala sent a very strong, you know,
Allah Subhanahu Wa Ta'ala opened up basically
the floodgates.
And the entire world was engulfed in water.
In fact, in Ibn Kathir rahmatullahi alayhi, he
mentions in his tafsir, that Ibn Abbas radiallahu
anhu says, that there was so much water,
that if you saw the peak of any
mountain at that time, the water was 15
meters even above that.
Now I know that in America we don't
deal with meters too much, okay?
So to help you understand what does 15
meters mean, it's around 50 feet.
I did that calculation also today, okay?
15 meters is around 50 feet.
So you're talking about the peak of any
mountain, and then 50 feet on top of
that, this is how much water was everywhere.
In fact, the way the Quran also describes
it, Allah Subhanahu Wa Ta'ala says, وَهِيَ
تَجِرِي بِهِمْ فِي مَوْجٍ كَالْجِبَالِ Allah Subhanahu Wa
Ta'ala says, that the ship began to
sail with them amidst the waves like mountains.
Like this was not just a flood, this
was not just even a tsunami.
You remember several years ago, I think so,
it was more than 10 years ago, there
was a tsunami that took place in Indonesia
and so forth, wiped out so much.
We're not even talking about that, we're talking
about on a scale that is unheard of.
This is how much Allah Subhanahu Wa Ta
'ala, He sent water.
And there was no place, imagine if you're
sitting in that ship, in that ark of
Nuh A.S. Anywhere you see, you don't
see anything but water.
This is the situation, try to picture a
situation like that in your mind.
There might be floods, you might see buildings,
but think about the tallest mountain at that
time, and the water 50 feet above that,
as Ibn Abbas radiallahu anh, this is his
theory.
So Allah Subhanahu Wa Ta'ala says, وَهِيَ
تَجِرِي بِهِمْ فِي مَوْجٍ كَالْجِبَالِ Now when this
is happening, Nuh A.S., no matter how
much his son is a disbeliever, he went
to his son, and the Qur'an says,
وَنَادَ نُوحٌ ابْنَهُ وَكَانَ فِي مَعْزِلٍ The Qur
'an says that Nuh A.S. called out
to his son, that my son, come with
me today.
وَلَا تَكُن مَعَ الْكَافِرِينَ This is not the
day you want to stick with these people,
you will drown and you will die with
the rest of them.
And what did he say?
هِي وَكَانَ فِي مَعْزِلٍ مَعْزِل means a place
where you separate from the rest.
Basically what the ulema they say is, perhaps
the son of Nuh A.S., he found
a place at the peak of a mountain
perhaps, and thought that this is the place
that's gonna save me.
And he's telling his father, you don't know
anything, I will be able to save myself,
I'm a young man, I'll reach the top
of the mountain.
Allah Subhanahu Wa Ta'ala says, قَالَ سَآوِي
He says, إِلَى جَبَلٍ يَعْصِمُنِ مِن يَلْمَا I'm
gonna go all the way to the top
of the mountain, and nothing's gonna be able
to touch me.
Allah Subhanahu Wa Ta'ala says that, قَالَ
لَا عَاصِمَ الْيَوْمَ مِنْ أَمْرِ اللَّهِ إِلَّا مَنْ
رَحِمٍ You think you can save yourself?
This is arrogance.
In fact Allah says, no one can save
themselves on this day, except for Allah Subhanahu
Wa Ta'ala has mercy upon.
And then the Quran says, وَحَالَ بَيْنَهُمَ الْمَوْجُ
فَكَانَ مِنْ مُغْرَقِينَ A wave came between them.
Now you, once again think about it.
If you ever seen an ocean, look at
the waves of the ocean.
One time you get caught into that wave,
خلاص, you're done.
Allah Subhanahu Wa Ta'ala says, وَحَالَ بَيْنَهُمَ
الْمَوْجُ A huge wave came between.
فَكَانَ مِنْ مُغْرَقِينَ And he was amongst those
who drowned, who lost their lives.
Then Allah Subhanahu Wa Ta'ala says, He
addressed the earth.
He want to, once everyone is gone, now
of course the ark is on its way,
and it's sailing through.
Allah Subhanahu Wa Ta'ala is saying, وَقِيلَ
يَا أَرْضُ بِالْعِيمَآكِ O earth, swallow the water
on you.
Whatever water is there, swallow it.
Now of course, if the water keeps on
going underneath, if the earth swallows the water,
but the water keeps on coming from the
top, it's no good.
So Allah Subhanahu Wa Ta'ala says, يَا
أَرْضُ بِالْعِيمَآكِ وَيَا سَمَاءُ أَقْلِعِ The earth, swallow
up the water.
And Allah Subhanahu Wa Ta'ala order the
sky that resist the water.
Don't bring any more water down.
And then Allah Subhanahu Wa Ta'ala says,
يَا سَمَاءُ أَقْلِعِ وَغِيضَ الْمَاءُ And the water
was diminished.
And then Allah Subhanahu Wa Ta'ala says,
وَقُضِيَ الْأَمْرُ The decision of Allah, the ultimate
decision of Allah Subhanahu Wa Ta'ala is
the one that took place.
They made a mockery of Nuh عليه السلام.
At the end of the day, Allah Subhanahu
Wa Ta'ala did what he wanted to
do.
They were saying that where is this ship
gonna float?
Allah Subhanahu Wa Ta'ala at the end
of the day, this is all Allah Subhanahu
Wa Ta'ala's decision.
And Allah Subhanahu Wa Ta'ala says, وَسْتَوَتْ
عَلَى الْجُودِ وَقِيلَ بُعْدَ لِلْقَوْمِ الظَّالِمِينَ The ship,
it stopped at a place or it was
able to reach a place called Mount Judi.
This is where this ark stopped and this
is where they got off the mountain.
By that time, the water has subsided.
The water majority was swallowed up by the
earth.
Then Nuh عليه السلام, he made a dua
to Allah Subhanahu Wa Ta'ala because he
lost his son.
Though he had other sons, but that one
son that he lost, there was so much
grief in his heart.
So he made a dua to Allah Subhanahu
Wa Ta'ala.
He says, وَنَادَ نُحُ رَبَّهُ فَقَالَ رَبِّ إِنَّ
بَنِي مِنْ أَهْلِي This son of mine was
from my family.
وَإِنَّ وَعْدَكَ الْحَقُ But your promise is the
truth.
What is that promise of Allah Subhanahu Wa
Ta'ala?
That today no kafir is gonna be able
to escape the wrath of Allah Subhanahu Wa
Ta'ala.
Your promise is the truth.
وَإِنَّ وَعْدَكَ الْحَقُ وَأَنتَ أَحْكَمُ الْحَاكِمِينَ And so
he says that you are the best of
all judges.
Then Allah Subhanahu Wa Ta'ala, he responded.
Now I'm gonna, there's a very important lesson
to be learned from this response of Allah
Subhanahu Wa Ta'ala.
He says, يَا نُوحُ Allah is now responding
to Nuh Alaihissalam.
يَا نُوحُ إِنَّهُ لَيْسَ مِنْ أَهْلِكَ You can
be there, you have grief, I understand.
But the fact that this child of yours,
this son of yours did not believe in
Allah Subhanahu Wa Ta'ala, he is not
from your family.
You understand?
He is not from your family.
You know we always say this, that blood
is thicker than water.
We always say these kind of things, right?
To talk about how much a family needs
to be united and so forth.
But in the eyes of Allah Subhanahu Wa
Ta'ala, even above blood comes faith.
Faith is the most important thing to Allah
Subhanahu Wa Ta'ala.
So Allah Subhanahu Wa Ta'ala is telling
Nuh Alaihissalam, إِنَّهُ لَيْسَ مِنْ أَهْلِكَ إِنَّهُ عَمَلٌ
غَيْرُ صَالِحٌ He did, what he did was
completely wrong.
إِنَّهُ عَمْلٌ غَيْرُ صَالِحٌ فَلَا تَسْأَلْنِ مَا لَيْسَ
لَكَ بِهِ عِلْمٌ Then Allah is telling Nuh
Alaihissalam that, you cannot ask about.
You can ask me questions, Nuh Alaihissalam would
ask a question to Allah, Allah will respond.
Nuh Alaihissalam would make dua to Allah, Allah
would respond.
But there are some things that Allah is
telling Nuh Alaihissalam, you have no right to
question me about.
And this is one of those kind of
things.
فَلَا تَسْأَلْنِ مَا لَيْسَ لَكَ بِهِ عِلْمٌ إِنِّي
أَعِذُكَ أَن تَكُونُ مِنَ الْجَاهِلِينَ So this is
Allah Subhanahu Wa Ta'ala reprimanding Nuh Alaihissalam.
Now, what do we learn from all these
different stories, I mean the stories of Nuh
Alaihissalam.
There are several things that we learn from
this story.
The very first thing that we learn is
the importance of patience.
The importance of patience.
Nuh Alaihissalam gave da'wah for how many
years?
950 years.
Now by the way, is Nuh Alaihissalam one
of the elite prophets from the Ulul Azam,
yes or no?
Yes, he is.
Nuh Alaihissalam is from the Ulul Azam.
There is Nuh Alaihissalam, Ibrahim Alaihissalam, Isa Alaihissalam,
Musa and Rasulullah ﷺ, okay?
These are the five Ulul Azam.
Now, in this day and age, we always
believe that success is based on numbers.
Imagine if I did a program here at
the masjid and only 10 people showed up.
What would anyone say about that program?
Was that program a success or was it
a failure?
What would anyone say?
It was a failure, right?
Think about Nuh Alaihissalam.
Nuh Alaihissalam gave da'wah for 950 years.
And how many people converted to Islam?
Some of the ulama and based on some
of the tafasir, approximately 83, 85 people is
what's mentioned in the tafasir.
That's all that people accepted Islam.
You know how many years if you do
the simple math, how much, after how many
years one person would convert to Islam?
If you imagine, I mean think about it,
giving da'wah for 950 years and only
83 people accepted Islam, if success was built
on numbers only, then we would say that
Nuh Alaihissalam was a failure.
But Nuh Alaihissalam was one of the greatest
prophets to come.
In fact Rasulullah ﷺ says, that the very
first nabi to come on the faceless earth
was Adam Alaihissalam.
But the very first rasul, the very first
messenger to come on the faceless earth was
Nuh Alaihissalam.
That's a theological discussion.
I'm not gonna get into right now what
is the definition of a nabi and a
rasul and what's the difference.
I'm not gonna get into that right now.
But the point is that Nuh Alaihissalam, the
reason why he is considered as a successful
prophet is because he carried out the message
of Allah Subhanahu Wa Ta'ala.
He was patient during his da'wah time.
He never complained to Allah that I've done.
I've given them da'wah, they don't wanna
listen.
Khalas, just destroy them.
That was not the case.
Think about it, 950 years.
Today you and I, we give da'wah
to someone in our family for like probably
one week, two weeks, one month, two months,
one year.
And khalas, you know what?
There's no hope for you.
This is how we do things, right?
Nuh Alaihissalam, 950 years.
The very first thing we learn is patience.
And when it comes to success, the success
is built on the effort that we put
into anything.
Number two is that when it comes to
any task, this is something that subhanAllah I
teach the youth all the time.
It's important that when you do any task,
you start it and you complete it.
Nuh Alaihissalam is building this huge ark.
He could have stopped right in the middle
and that would have been a job incomplete.
Nuh Alaihissalam teaches us that no matter how
big the task is, whether it makes sense
or not, if Allah Subhanahu Wa Ta'ala
told him to do something, he's gonna see
through.
He's gonna start it and he's gonna finish
it and he's gonna see through to the
end.
This is what we need to learn and
this is what we need to teach our
youth also.
You know how often...
By the way, if you think about it,
I'm not saying this in the wrong way.
But you know subhanAllah, so many of our
youth when they start college degrees, ask any
youth, how many times have you had a
change of heart in terms of your degree?
They will switch 10 times.
Oh this?
No, a little adversity?
Khalas, I'm changing majors.
Oh, a little adversity?
I'm changing majors.
A little adversity?
I'm changing majors.
This happens all the time.
Yes, I understand.
You might...
For example, a person gets into science.
I want to become a doctor.
And then you're studying science and you feel
like, you know what, this is not my
cup of tea.
I'm more of a different kind of science
person.
Okay, khalas, get into that.
But you see the problem that today what
we have with our children is, they give
up so quickly.
You understand?
When you start something, see to the very
end.
If you need to make the change, khalas,
here and there, make a change, no problem.
But making changes again and again and again
in life is usually not the best way
to be productive.
Another thing that we learn is, no matter
how much people are going to mock you,
you have to also see to the very
end, and you do what you have to
do.
Let me give you a perfect example.
Right now, subhanAllah, based on what we see
in Gaza, okay?
You see every single American politician who will
sit there and say, that I completely support
this genocide, okay?
And inshallah, may Allah destroy them.
Seriously.
No raham, no mercy.
May Allah destroy them.
This thing, what they say, this is a
mockery, wallahi.
To stand in someone's face and say, I
have no problem for babies being killed.
They don't have a heart.
For them to say, this is a mockery.
Just like at that time, that was a
different kind of mockery.
But the point is, in the stories of
the Qur'an, we see that every single
prophet suffered mockery.
They were victims of mockery.
But what they teach us is, no matter
how much they're gonna mock, you stick, we
stick to what we have to do.
As a Muslim ummah, what we have to
do today, we stick to that, and we
put our trust in Allah subhanahu wa ta
'ala.
Just like Nuh عليه السلام, he saw the
mockery, he heard the mockery, he's not worried
about it, he put his trust in Allah
subhanahu wa ta'ala.
Finally, the last thing is, when it comes
to children, we always look at our own
children.
And sometimes we wonder, if we have four
or five children, there's always gonna be that
one, the troublemaker, okay?
We usually refer to them as قَبَاب مَنْ
هَدِّي, okay?
That one child, okay?
Everyone, سَبْعَتْشَهَا, okay?
Everyone is good, but there's one problem.
Where?
Why?
You know, same mother, same father, why is
this one child a problem?
We learn from this one story that not
all the children are alike, number one, okay?
Not all children are gonna be alike.
But number two is this.
You see, Nuh عليه السلام, he was speaking
out of his pain.
Ya Allah, this child of mine was my
family.
Now when Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala says,
he's not from your family, that doesn't mean
that he's not the son of Nuh عليه
السلام, that's not what Allah means.
Allah means from the perspective of spirituality, from
the perspective of believing in Allah subhanahu wa
ta'ala, this is what he means.
He does not mean that he's not actually
your biological son, that's not what it means.
But there's a lesson to be learned in
this for all of us too.
And that is that today we are living
in times where sometimes children would do something
and they'll make certain decisions that go completely
against our deen.
Let me give you an example.
I got a call one time where a
sister was telling me that her daughter, her
Muslim daughter decided to marry a Christian man.
Now I don't care what anyone says.
According to Ahlus Sunnah wal Jama'ah, that
nikah is batil.
That nikah is invalid.
It's not allowed.
Now this person is saying, the daughter is
saying that...
She's telling the mother, I want you to
come to my wedding and I want you
to celebrate my wedding.
And the mother is conflicted that what do
I do in that kind of situation.
Do I go and support because she is
my daughter, she's my biological daughter.
But at the same time she's committing something
openly haram.
Do I still go or not?
This ayah tells us, you can never support
your children when they are openly disobeying Allah
subhanahu wa ta'ala.
I told that sister, you are not to
go to her wedding.
You are not to go to her wedding.
So she asked me, do I completely cut
off my relationship with her?
And I said, no, you don't completely cut
off your relationship with her.
If she comes back to you someday later
in the future and she wants some help
or she's looking for some love, you give
her that love, you give her that support.
But you need to always show her and
make sure she understands that you will never
ever support her for her decision.
Because she openly went against Allah and his
Prophet ﷺ.
And there are a lot of cases like
this right now, where the children have decided
that no matter what, I don't care what
my parents are gonna say, I'm gonna go
completely, I'm gonna make such a decision.
We're not talking about small small sins.
We're not talking about that.
You understand?
We're talking about major life decisions that go
against Islam completely.
And they want the blessing of their parents
in that matter, in that situation.
This story of Nuh ﷺ teaches us, you
are not to give them your blessing.
You are not to show them that you
support them.
They might be a biological son, they might
be your biological daughter, but you are not
to support them.
Now if they come to you sometime in
their life and something has happened to them
and they're just looking for some consultation, or
something has happened, they're just looking for some
love, and they come to you, you can
show them that love as a mother, that
I love you as my daughter.
But I still completely, I'm not on board,
I completely disagree, and I reject your decision
of whatever you did.
This is the balance that we need to
have.
Now there are some parents who are like,
no matter what, this is their decision, and
I don't care if they're kafir and so
forth, and if they did this such and
such, they're my daughter.
Well then look at the story of Nuh
ﷺ, how Allah ﷻ treated the situation, and
how Allah ﷻ is helping us understand a
balance.
So these are things that we learn from
the story of Nuh ﷺ.
Once again, there are many lessons, inshaAllah you
can go back to them in the video
and so forth.
But these are things that we learn from
the story of Nuh ﷺ.
I ask Allah ﷻ to grant all of
us tawfiq to apply these kind of teachings
in our life, in our families.
Ameen.
Wa jazakumullahu khair.