Nadim Bashir – Surah Summaries #10 Surah Yunus – Divine Decree, Dar us Salam, and Instability of this Dunya
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The Surahiva themes include the importance of choosing one's path based on faith and knowledge, the story of the past, and the need for responsibility to take responsibility for oneself. The speaker emphasizes the importance of investing in the duniya to avoid loss and potential peace in the future, and the need to take responsibility for oneself to achieve success. The Surahiva also highlights the importance of learning to live life consistent with Islam's teachings.
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Inshallah, we continue our series
taking 1 surah at a time inshallah in
order
and just trying to present an overview of
what the Surah
is, and then choosing one important lesson from
that Surah inshallah.
Today's Surah is Surah Yunus.
And Surah Yunus is one of the Maqi
Surahs that come,
after a a slew of Madani Surahs. You
have Surah Baqarah, Al Imran, Nisa, Ma'ida,
and so many Madani Surahs, and now you
have some Maqi Surahs that are gonna be
coming up. And you have Surah, you have
Surah Yunus, you have Surah Houd, and then
you have Surah Yusuf. And even in the
time of the Prophet
these were 3 Surahs that were revealed back
to back,
in their early days. Some happened in the
early days of Mecca, some happened a little
later, but they're all 3 were revealed in
Mecca.
Surah Yunus, as you all know, that the
Maqi Surahs, their themes are very consistent across
the board. It is about Tawhid,
it is about,
Risala,
it is about Aqira,
and these are the 3 most important topics.
And not only that, but nations of the
past
that the O'odos were very familiar with, such
as Qom 'A'id, Qom Islam,
and so forth. But there's one important,
a very different take when it comes to
Surah Yunus.
And the ulama they mentioned that it is
not just about iman
and akhirah that Allah
is emphasizing on, but Allah
is taking a little different of our approach,
and he's emphasizing on
He is emphasizing on
which is also part of our deen and
part of our faith system. As you remember,
when the prophet
he was approached by Jibril alaihis salam in
the very well known hadith of hadith of
Jibril alaihis salam, wherein he asked that, what
is Islam?
He asked, what is iman? And Rasulullah
he mentioned, what is iman? And at the
end of that response he says,
is to believe in Allah
The qadr and the qaddah of Allah
And everything is from Allah
However,
however,
we all understand that though the qawah and
qadr is there, Allah
has given us
a full control of what we do. There
is a difference between humans and animals.
There's a difference, and there's a reason why
humans, the human being is gonna be questioned
on the day of judgement, and and the
animals are not gonna be questioned on the
day of judgement.
Angels on one hand, they only have one
thing called obligations.
Animals on the other hand, they only have
one thing called free will. And that is
why these are 2 creations that are not
gonna be questioned on the day of judgement.
On the other hand, the
and the they both have both things. They
have obligations
and they have free will. Though Allah
has already written
everything that has that is going to happen,
but Allah
put the choice in our hands that we
get to choose what is right for us,
and we get to make decisions.
Allah has given us intellect, and
Allah has given the human being a special
status
because of their knowledge, and because of their
intellect. So no one can make an excuse
on the day of judgment that, You Allah,
your your The fact that you had already
written for me, that I'm going to Jannah
or Jahannam, This is why I am in
Jannah or Jahannam. But rather Allah subhanahu wa
ta'ala gave us the power to choose
our own path of life.
When we studies When you talk about
another important component is that we understand that
Allah is Al Hakim.
And we have that iman and Allah that
he is the most wise, and when he
does something, he knows exactly what he's doing.
And that is why
in the same surah, in the very beginning,
the very first ayah, Allah
he mentions
about exactly this. That Allah
he
is he is Al Hakim.
So Allah Subhanahu wa ta'ala says, aliflamra
tilkaayatulkitabil
Hakim.
And at the end of the surah,
Allah says,
Allah Subhanahu wa ta'ala he brings hikmah in
the beginning. He brings hikmah at the end
of the surah. Hence Allah Subhanahu wa ta'ala
is saying that everything happens to the wisdom
of Allah. Allah has created a system, but
at the end of the day, Allah has
given us, you and I, the choice.
In this surah, you will see that Allah
in the very beginning, he talks about why
he created everything in the skies and the
earth. And there's a hikmah and a wisdom
of this behind
of this, of Allah Subhanahu wa ta'ala. After
that, Allah Subhanahu wa ta'ala interestingly he says,
about the people of Mecca, he says
Allah has sent down the Quran. But Allah
is saying that these people in Makkah,
the reason
why they are ghafil,
they are heedless from the ayat of Allah,
is not because the qaba and the qadr
of Allah,
but rather it's because of their own choosing.
They chose this dunya
over the akhirah.
They're not even worried about the fact that
they have to meet Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala
one day. They have no idea or they
don't even realize that they have to stand
before
Allah on the day of judgement. So this
is not something
that Allah can be blamed for, but rather
they need to take the blame. They need
to take the responsibility
that they chose this dunya over the akhilah,
and they chose dunya over the book of
Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala.
Also we find in the same surah, in
many places that Allah
he talks about duniya. Allah
in the same surah, again he talks about
his
he talks about his creation, and he he
steps away from that, and again he comes
back to the same idea
that how he has created everything.
Then, in the same surah, Allah
challenges
the mushrikun.
Allah
challenges them. That first of all is that
how can you How can you even think
that this is such a hard concept for
Allah
that he sent Rasulullah
Why is this so baffling to you? That
a man who was within your own midst,
and you knew him, you knew he was
Sadiq Al Amin, he was Sadiq Al Masdook,
and now you have a problem, and you
have a problem with the decision of Allah
that he made him a prophet, why is
it so difficult for you to understand?
Not only that, he was amongst your selves,
and he was just a layman, and you
had no problem. And not only that, but
you have a problem with the fact that
we gave him the Quran, we gave him
the book of Allah
and you have a problem with the Quran
in itself, and you're trying to take out
mistakes from the Quran,
If this is what you wanna do, go
ahead. Try to replicate the Quran.
Allah is challenging
the kuffar of Makkah. That if you think
that the Quran is something that is,
you know, trivial, it is not so difficult
to make Come up with, then go ahead.
Try to come up with 1 single surah
to to try to,
discredit the Quran.
We also then find at the end of
this surah, very beautifully, there's only 3 stories
are mentioned of the past. And you have
to ask yourself,
why these three particular Surah, or stories in
the Quran, or in this Surah? There is
a story of Nuh alaihis salam. There is
a story of Firaun and Musa alaihis salam.
And then we have the story of Yunus,
because fittingly,
if it's called Surah Yunus, then of course
it has to have the story of Yunus
alaihis salam. There's only 3 stories of the
past mentioned in this Surah.
The question is, why?
And once again,
these these three stories, they tie into
It ties back to the overall theme of
the Surah. How so? Let me explain.
The story
of someone can say that Allah
had already destined that they are to go
to the fire of Jahannam. Allah had already
destined that Allah will destroy them. Yes, Allah
may have destined this, but they chose this
path of theirs. We know from the stories
of the Quran, that the When the very
first civilizations
that started
and developed the idea of, of idol worshiping
was the Qawm and the people of Nuh
alaihis salam. These are the people who started
this idea, and it continue into human civilization.
So Allah
is saying that these people, they chose their
own path.
Their destruction cannot be put on the shoulders
of Allah but
they chose this path for themselves.
Then you have the story of Firaun, and
someone can say that what about Firaun? Firaun
took his shahada.
Why didn't
Allah accept his shahada? Why didn't Allah
accept his iman and his faith? Perhaps, again,
we come back to the same discussion of
al Qadawal Qadr. And here Allah
had destined that this person is gonna go
to the fire of Jahannam, and he took
his faith. Then how do you answer that?
And the easy simple answer is is that
that
Firaun
did not take his shahada out of his
own desire.
Firaun did not take his shahada because he
actually had conviction
in Allah and in the message of Musa
alayhis salam. But rather he took his shahada
because of fear.
Because of fear, when he saw
This was such an arrogant man, by the
way.
When the seas parted,
he was telling his own army that, look
at my power. Look at my pudra. This
is what I can do. Till the very
end, when there was no fear involved, he
kept on thinking that he is dharab, and
he is the perhaps the only tyrant, the
only arrogant in the Quran that is mentioned
that he called himself a malik, an an
ilah, an arab. He has mentioned all these
things 3 things about
himself. Then when the time came that he
saw that the situation
was beyond his control, and he has no
more control anymore, that is when he took
his shahada. And by the way, the condition
of a shahada,
as we all know, even in the Quran
Allah says,
You have to believe in the unseen. That
is why Rasulullah sallallahu alaihi wa sallam said
that even there comes a point in a
man's life
that when he begins to see the reality,
his tawba is no longer accepted.
His tawba is no longer accepted.
When a person begins to see the reality,
the doors of Tawbah are closed. This is
a person who never accepted Islam, and iman
Bil Ghaib. He took iman Bil Mushahada. And
that is why the ulamaadi say that Allah
knows within his infinite wisdom because he is
the all wise that had Fir'awn saved, was
saved in that situation.
Again, he would have claimed to be a
rub, and a malik, and an ilah. And
that is why Allah destroyed
them. And then you you have the story
of Yunus alaihis
salaam.
Say that well, Allah had destined for them
to be saved. Yes, Allah had destined for
to be saved. But you look at their
story, and when they saw that Yunus alaihis
salam had gone away, and they saw the
storm of Allah
coming. They saw the adav Allah coming,
they turned to Allah at that time. And
Allah accepted their tawba. Allah accepted their tawba.
And by the way, this is one qom
that Allah
saved. And these were not people like Bani
Israel.
That Allah saved them, and they turned they
they transgressed against Allah. Barad Qaumuny Yunus was
a home
that they they saw the adav Allah coming,
they made tawba, and after Allah forgave them
and Allah saved them, they never transgressed again.
Again, against Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala. They never
went back to their old ways. So this
is what we find in this in this
surah. Once again, the overarching idea is
And the And once again Allah subhanahu wa
ta'ala is trying to tell us that every
single There are a lot of things in
this dunya that we may not understand the
hikmah of, but Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala is
Al Hakim, number 1. Number 2 is, that
all these oms and nations of the past,
including the the people of Makkah, if they
have an ending, a certain ending, it is
not the it's not to be put on
Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala, but they need to
take a responsibility for themselves.
Now having knowing a a good understanding or
a brief idea of what this whole surah
is, just wanna take one in particular
example from this surah that Allah mentions.
Allah
talks to us about this duniya,
and the feebleness of this dunya. How weak
this dunya is. Allah says,
Allah gives the example of this duniya, and
he says, it is like the water that
comes from above.
And it goes in, and it and it
penetrates into the ground.
And Allah
says that as a result of this water
penetrating into the ground, it sprouts
vegetations,
and vegetation that benefits other people. But Allah
says, there comes a time that when a
person, the farmer, he plants and their vegetation
is The the earth is is forth giving,
that a person says that now I am
in control of the situation.
I have full control over my land, and
he thinks that my life is good, and
everything is under control. And he forgets about
Allah
Allah then says,
Allah
says, There comes a time our command comes,
and as a result of our command,
everything becomes stubble. The entire That land that
used to be so forth giving, it becomes
stubble. And you have to ask yourself that
why did Allah give this kind of example?
Because of the farmer. Because the farmer,
he plants a seed, and he wastes throughout
the entire year for that seed to sprout.
These are people who make money at just
few times of the year. So you invest
time, you invest your energy, and you put
so much into this land. And this land
does give a little. But when a person
forgets about Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala, Allah is
saying that Allah takes away everything. That all
this hard work that a person has put
in
overnight,
overnight
without even people realizing, Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala,
he takes everything away.
Like as if it never even existed yesterday.
You know what, if a tornado came through
a place,
and it went through It swept through a
land, or piece of land, you can at
least tell that something was here yesterday. Allah
is saying that at times, Allah will destroy
something
to the extent that you came there the
next day, and after even months years of
plantation,
you will feel like as if nothing existed
over here. This is how much Allah
can destroy a person's land. And Allah will
take away someone's dunya. And then Allah
says, this is what duniya is. We work
so hard for this duniya, and all of
a sudden, overnight,
the stock the stock market crashes. A person
loses all their money. And a situation occurs
around the world from a from a From
an economic perspective, and a person loses so
much money. We see this kind of thing
happen. The bitcoin going up and down and
so forth. It goes up, our heart rate
goes up. It goes down, our heart rate
goes down. This is what the situation is
of this dunya. Allah is telling us, no
matter how much you think you are in
control of your affairs,
you have absolutely no control over your affairs.
Allah is in control of your affairs. And
Allah then says, let me call you to
something. Let me invite you to something that
is long lasting. Let me invite you to
something that's gonna be that's going to bring
peace to your heart and to your life.
Let me call you to Allah
Let me call you to Jannah, a place
where there is no fear. You don't have
to worry about the stock market. You don't
have to worry about what the situation is
because the reality of this dunya is whatever
happens around us, it affects our life. In
Jannah, that is not the case. So Allah
subhanahu wa ta'ala is reminding us in this
in this verse, in this few verses, brother
and sisters, that yes, we live in this
duniya. Yes, we work for this duniya. Yes,
we are affected by our surrounding,
but when we put too much into this
duniya,
when we put so much into this duniya,
and then later on we feel that, Alhamdulillah,
I have a good understanding of the stock
market, I'm this smart and that smart, and
I know this and I know that. Allah
subhanahu wa ta'ala is saying, you have nothing.
And you don't know anything. This is the
reality of this duniya. And if there's one
thing that we can invest into, and an
investment
that we will never ever suffer a loss
at, it is the hereafter.
That is an investment that no person will
ever suffer, insha Allah, in the hereafter. So
I ask Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala that he
makes us from amongst those who focus on
the hereafter. That while we're living in this
duniya, we use this duniya to to the
extent that we need, but we ask Allah
to make us amongst those whose focus is
not his dunya, and that of the