Nadim Bashir – Conversations In The Quran #9 Trials Of Wealth
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Today, inshallah, we'll be taking a story from
the Quran. As you all know that on
Monday nights, we cover conversations
that take place in the Quran. We cover
those conversations.
Today's conversation comes from Surah Al Kahf. And
as you all know that Surat Al Kahf
has 4 primary stories.
1 is a story that teaches us that
there is something called a trial of faith.
Then there is a next story, which is
the story of a man of 2 gardens,
which teaches us the trial of wealth.
The 3rd story is the story of Musa
and Khadr,
which teaches
us that there is something called the trial
of knowledge.
And then the 4th story is related to
Dhul Qurnayn,
which teaches us the, the trial of authority.
These are four things that if you I've
given a talk about this before, that if
you understand, if you reflect on the world
that we live in, every single fitna that
we have seen or we are currently
observing in the world, it'll fall into one
of these 4 categories.
So the story that we wanna focus on
today is a second story. Why?
Because this story teaches us that when it
comes to wealth or anything that is given
by Allah Subh'anaHu Wa Ta A'la,
often people become arrogant. And what is the
punishment
when someone becomes arrogant? So Allah Subh'anaHu Wa
Ta A'la, he begins the story by tell
by telling us, wadribalahum
mathalarajulayni
ja'alna
li ahadihimajannataylimin
aanabin
wahafafna hoomabinakrin
wajalna
bayinahumazara'a.
Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala he begins the story
by telling us that
there is a man
who has been given so much by Allah
Subhanahu Wa Ta'ala. See in the Quran, when
Allah Subhanahu Wa Ta'ala wants to refer to
someone
who has been given a lot, often Allah
Subhanahu Wa Ta'ala would say that this person
has been given abundantly by Allah Subhanahu Wa
Ta'ala.
But in these 2 first ayats
regarding this passage,
Allah clearly defines
what is that blessing that Allah Subhanahu Wa
Ta'ala gave him. First of all, Allah Subhanahu
Wa Ta'ala says, We did not give him
only 1 but we gave him 2 gardens.
2 gardens
of grapes.
Okay. So, wadriblahumathalarjuayni
jalnaliahadihima
jannatayni min a'anabin First of all, grapes. To
have a garden or a vine of grapes
was something that was at that time considered
very luxurious. A person who has a garden
and a grapevine garden is something that is
considered as a sign of their wealth and
a sign of their prestige. So Allah Subh'anaHu
Wa Ta A'la says, it is not just
a grapevine
but it is a grapevine
that is surrounded by what?
Day trees.
Then those date trees between the date trees
and these vines,
you find crops in the middle. So you're
now I want you to picture this. This
is Allah Subhanahu Wa Ta'ala
telling us describing for us how much Allah
gave him. Then on top of that, Allah
Subhanahu Wa Ta'ala is telling us that this
garden,
was it producing or was it not producing?
Allah Subhanahu Wa Ta'ala says that,
In fact, before that he says,
There was never a time
where this gardening did not produce.
It produced
all the time, and it produced abundantly.
And then, the next question that many people
may ask is, if you ever go to
a very beautiful garden,
you find different trees,
different trees producing different plants, different, crops and
so forth and different fruits, but then there
has to always be a water source. Right?
Yes or no? So Allah Subh'anaHu Wa Ta'ala
tells us, wafarjalnahkilaalahumana
hara In the middle of this, there is
a full irrigation system that is helping produce
all these trees and plants and these beautiful
fruit. So Allah subhanahu wa'ala is telling us
that this person had what we may refer
to someone who has it all. If you
look at some people, you feel like, man,
this person they have it all. They have
everything going on for them. Likewise,
this person was such they had everything going
for them. Now, Allah Subhanahu Wa Ta'ala tells
this tells us,
what was the nature of this person?
Instead of
giving this thing to Allah Subhanahu Wa Ta'ala,
instead of showing their gratitude to Allah,
they began to say things such as what?
Wakalallahu thamaronfaqalalisaqhibihiwahuayuhayahu
anaathanumin
kamalalalwaazunafra.
He had a neighbor. Now both of these
are Muslims. Okay? They both are Muslims.
But this person had a lot of wealth.
The other neighbor did not have so much.
But the other thing But the one thing
that this neighbor
did have was the fear of Allah Subh'anaHu
Wa Ta A'la. He had the consciousness and
the awareness of Allah Subh'anaHu Wa Ta A'la.
So these two people they were meeting one
time and the Quran tells us,
They were just having a very simple conversation.
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I
And this is something that often when people
have a lot of wealth, they like to
just slip in something. You know? Like, you
know, oh, you know, your daughter is getting
mashallah, married at the masjid. You know, I'm
just I'm very simple. I'm just going to
do it at the Crowne Plaza. You know,
subhanallah. You know, that's it. You know, just
kalaal. Just I wanna call just like, you
know,
5 500, a 1000 people, halal. Just, you
know, just, you know, something small, you know.
So but the idea is what? Whenever you
say these kind of things, all you're trying
to do is you're trying to showcase how
much you have, you know. Oh, you have,
mashaAllah, a car. Beautiful car. I have I'm
I'm miskeen. I just have 5 cars outside
my house. Yeah. So you see those kind
of things. Right? Okay. So now the point
is that this person, he just slipped it
in. Okay.
You know, Allah Subhanahu Wa Ta'ala has given
me a whole lot more. Now, the key
thing is this. If you look at the
first two ayahs of this passage,
Allah says what?
We gave him.
It's a plural that we did something for
him. Allah is telling us, we did this,
we did that, we gave him such and
such. But when this person is talking about
himself,
instead of saying, Allah gave me. What is
he saying? He says, I.
Everything that I have is because of me.
Ana aqsaroomin kamanalanwazunafura.
You see a person who has a lot
of wealth or they've been given anything from
Allah Subh'anaHu Wa Ta'ala often they forget about
the one who has given them the blessing
of Allah, the blessing in itself. That blessing
is not because of us. That blessing is
from where? From Allah Subh'anaHu Wa Ta'ala. And
this is why we often go back to
the story of Qarun.
When Khurun was told that give some some
of what you have. What did he say?
He says,
Everything that I have is because of my
knowledge. It's because of I am intellectual. I
know how the trade how this how the
stock market works. I know how the trade
market works. I know economics and so forth.
It's always about me, myself, and I. So
Allah Subh'anaHu Wa Ta A'la is telling us,
you see, look at this person. What he's
saying that is all because of me. Then
Allah Subhana Wa Ta'ala says, wadakhala
jannatahu
wahu wawalimulinafsi
He enters into his garden, his beautiful garden,
wahu wawalimulinafsi
He's not harming anyone else but because of
his mentality,
he's harming himself.
And now he's thinking to himself that this
will never ever come to an end. By
the way, a sign of one's arrogance
is that you feel that because all this
is because of me, and I am who
I am, I'm always gonna remain smart. I'm
never gonna lose this. Not realizing that Allah
Subh'anaHu Wa Ta'ala, he can take anything away
from us in the blink of an eye
and overnight.
So this person he has this level of
arrogance. Now, on top of that, what did
he say? He says, wamaaavunusaataqaima
wala inurdu2ila
rabbilaajdanukhairoaminhamukalaba
He's telling himself And once again, it's just
about, you know, it's about, you know, self
delusional
personality
traits. He's telling himself that if Allah Subh'anaHu
Wa Ta'ala has given me so much in
this duniya,
then khalas in the hereafter,
I'm gonna have even more than this. And
by the way, we learned from this, that
when it comes to Allah Subh'anaHu Wa Ta'ala
giving wealth to anyone or taking it away
from anyone, it is not necessarily a sign
that Allah Subh'anaHu Wa Ta'ala is pleased or
displeased with a person. I remember there was
a scholar, he said something very beautiful. He
said in Urdu, I'm gonna say it first
and then I'll explain it in English. He
says that, he goes,
You understand this? That sometimes Allah Subhanahu Wa
Ta'ala he gives
and in that giving he will test you.
That how grateful you are to Allah Subhanahu
Wa Ta'ala. And sometimes Allah wants to test
our gratefulness
by taking something away from us. Sometimes Allah
will test people by giving them so much
and see what their attitude is. And sometimes
Allah will take away from people to see
how their attitude is. Just because
we have in this dunya, it is not
necessarily a sign that Allah Subhanahu Wa Ta'ala
is pleased with us. Now it does not
mean that a person who has wealth, khalas
Allah, is displeased with them. As long as
our wealth does not come between us and
our akhirah. This is the most important thing.
I remember when I was a kid growing
up, I used to sit in a lot
of khudbas when I used to go to
masajid and so forth. And the one thing
I constantly heard as a child was,
if you have wealth, Allah is displeased with
you.
Allah has given you a lot of duniya.
But subhanAllah, if you study the Sahaba radiAllahu
anhu, there were some such as orthnaibinaafan.
There were some such as, aduham bin auf
radiAllahu anhu who were multimillionaires
based on our current standard of living and
so forth. But SubhanAllah they made sure that
they did not let their akhirah
or their their money or their and their
finances and their duniya
get between them and their pursuit
of Jannah. This was this is the most
important thing. Often, what do we see? Yes.
That people who are in the pursuit
of duniya
often and in many cases, they will cross
the boundaries
of what is right and what is wrong,
and they will do something that is wrong.
So this person has this mentality.
And by the way, this is a Christian
concept
that if you have a lot,
then God is pleased with you. And if
you have nothing, then God is displeased with
you. This is not a an Islamic concept.
So now the next thing is, Allah Subhanahu
Wa Ta'ala says that this person
So the neighbor, the one that has been
given a lot, the neighbor he does not
have so much. This first person has already
told him in his face, I have more
than you. But you see this person
when they have taqwa,
when the focus is Allah Subhanahu Wa Ta'ala,
them seeing someone else have more than them
does not bother them.
But yet something did bother him. And what
bothered him? And he gave a response to
this person. Why did he give a response?
He said that He said to this person
that, qalalahu sahibahu wahu wayuhawirahu
akafartabilaliqalakaminturab
thumamin nutufatin thummasawakarajala.
This man who does not have anything, he's
telling him while they're having a very simple
conversation
that remind yourself,
remember that Allah Subhanahu Wa Ta'ala is the
one who created you from absolutely nothing.
Faiththumaminutwatinthummasawakarajah
Then he formed you into a man. The
point is that this man now got upset
and now he's responding to this person. Why?
Not because
he heard him personally, but because he began
to say things against Allah Subhanahu Wa Ta'ala.
He began to assume that Allah is pleased
with him. He began to talk about the
akhirah. So when The one thing that we
learned from this point
is that when we get upset upset with
someone, it should not be for personal reasons
but rather it should be for the sake
of Allah Subhanahu Wa Ta'ala. And a lot
of times people may come and say something
to you personally. I've gave a khutbah about
this, to learn how to let it go.
There's no point in retaliating
when someone says something to you. However,
if someone says something against Allah or someone
says something against His Prophet sallallahu alaihi wa
sallam, then at that time we must learn
how to speak up. If I don't speak
up for personal reasons, I have to speak
up for spiritual reasons. This is the key
thing that this man he did. He spoke
up not because he said something to him
but because he began to say things about
Allah Subhanahu Wa Ta'ala. And then he says,
laakinahu
allahu rabbi, wa laushrikubi
rabbi ahadah. In fact, he is the one
Allah Subhanahu Wa Ta'ala, and I will not
commit shirk with him. Now the question is
that, as I said earlier,
the person who has the 2 gardens, is
he a Muslim? Yes or no? Yes, he's
a Muslim. So then why is this other
man, who does not who is not very
wealthy, why is he telling him and why
is he emphasizing
about tawhid?
Because often what happens is, that when you
make When we make certain things in our
life greater than Allah and as Prophet sallallahu
alaihi wasallam, then the Quran usually refers them
as
Have you seen those people who have made
their desires
their God? Meaning, their desires
have a greater presence in their life
and it controls them. And it dictates them
what to do, and they have a stronger
position in that person's life more than Allah,
this prophet sallallahu alaihi wa sallam. So this
person is not telling him necessarily from the
from the point of view that this person
is committing actually shirk with Allah but he's
reminding him that your desires are getting the
best of you and your desires
are putting are putting Your desires are more
important to you than Allah, Allah and his
Prophet SallAllahu Alaihi Wasallam.
Then he says, walaula izdakaltajannatakakultamasha
Allahu
laqoo wata illa billah He said that rather
when you enter into your garden, rather you
should say Masha Allah.
And there's a point to be taken from
this also. And that is that what we
learn from the Prophet Sallallahu Alaihi Wasallam is
that if you see someone that has something,
then usually you should say what? Allahumabarak.
This is something that we learned from the
Prophet Sallallahu Alaihi Wasallam. You say Allahumabarak
or as the Quranic ayah indicates, you can
say Masha Allah
laqoo wata illa billa. Laqoo wata illa billa
means that there is no power besides the
power of Allah Subh'anaHu Wa Ta A'la. So
if you see anyone or even if you
see your own wealth, imagine, mashAllah, you know,
SubhanAllah you come across a big amount of
money. You look at your bank balance. You're
very proud of it.
At that time, you say what? Mashallah,
lakuwata illa billah. When you see someone else
having something, you say, Allahumabatic.
In that way, there will not be any
kind of ain on that other person. So
we try to make sure that we don't
say, you know, we don't look at the
the the amount that we have and we,
you know, we just marvel about it but
we say, Masha'allah
lahuwata
illa billah. Why? Because if Allah wants, Allah
can take away everything that we have in
the blink of an eye. And this happens
to a lot of people in their life.
So that's why we have to make sure
that we make this a point. And then
he says,
Even I don't have as much as you,
but make sure you make it a point
to say, Masha'Allah.
Then this person says,
Then he reminds him that, Listen, my brother.
You are arrogant about what you have. Remember
that Allah Subhanahu Wa Ta'ala can send his
wrath upon you at any time. And SubhanAllah
it is mentioned that right then and there,
the wrath of Allah Subhanahu wa ta'ala came
upon this man. And it is mentioned in
the Quran that,
means that, you know when a person is
in shock,
they put their hands sometimes on their head
and they're just like in state of shock.
So Allah Subh'anaHu Wa Ta'ala is describing the
behavior of this man that the wrath of
Allah Subhanahu Wa Ta'ala came and this person
was looking at it and at that time
he says,
I wish You see once again, he has
not actually committed shirk with Allah but because
he put his desires above Allah. Now he's
saying, I wish I was not ungrateful to
Allah Subhanahu Wa Ta'ala. I wish that I
had made sure that I had put my
arrogance in check but now that the wrath
of Allah Subhanahu Wa Ta'ala came, then this
is this is the wrath of Allah. And
now this person has to learn his lesson.
And at the end, Allah Subh'anaHu Wa Ta
A'la he reminds us that, hunalikaluwalayatulillahiilhaqq
That everything, support comes from Allah Subh'anaHu Wa
Ta A'la. Everything. Allah Subh'anaHu Wa Ta A'la
is our Wali.
Allah is our Maula and we turn to
Allah Subh'anaHu Wa Ta A'la in every single
thing. So this is a conversation that happens
between 2 people. But the most important thing
that we take from this is that no
matter what nirmah,
what blessing we have, we never
attribute that blessing
to ourselves that I have this blessing because
of who I am. I went, I worked
hard. I gave up nights. I did not
sleep at nights. I worked hard. I did
this, I did that and that is why
I have this. Yes. That was a means
but everything that we have, it is purely
from Allah Subh'anaHu Wa Ta A'la And if
someone were to remind us about Allah Subh'anaHu
Wa Ta A'la, then part of arrogance is
that we don't push that person away and
say, you you don't know what you have
or I have or you don't know what
you know. I have more than you and
so forth. But rather, when someone gives us
sincere advice, like this man with 2 gardens.
He was given sincere advice but he never
took the sincere advice. This is what arrogance
is, batarul haqqi waghamtunas.
It's to suppress the truth and to feel
that you are superior to someone else. This
person had exactly that. Ana'aatharumin
kamalan wa'azunafara.
He saw that he was superior and not
only that but when he was reminded about
Allah Subh'anaHu Wa Ta A'la, he did not
take the reminder. Hence, Allah Subh'anaHu Wa Ta
A'la, he deals with arrogance in this particular
way. So we ask Allah Subhana Wa Ta'ala
that every blessing that you and I, we
have in our life, first of all, may
Allah protect that blessing. May Allah Subhana Wa
Ta'ala increase in that blessing and we ask
Allah Subhana Wa Ta'ala to make us for
amongst the shakireen. Allahumma jaa'ala minashakireen
Ameerabaalamin
wa salallahu alayhi
wa sahabiajmaileen
Ameen.