Nadim Bashir – Surah Summaries #13 SurahRaD
AI: Summary ©
The speaker discusses the importance of the Quran in bringing peace and happiness to people, and how it can impact people in ways that are not impacting them. They stress the importance of fulfilling promises and creating change, including the use of water and foam in various aspects of life. The speaker emphasizes the need for change and the importance of learning from people who have made changes. They also emphasize the importance of connecting one's hearts with Allah through actions and deeds and finding a way to bring change to one's life.AI: Transcript ©
Today's Surah,
after Surah Yusuf comes Surah Surah is
a Maqi Surah,
And it's interesting that this entire Surah is
a battle between Haqq and Ba'tal. It is
Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala
talking about his creation,
and his power,
and how his power and his creation
trumps, and it overcomes the
And the was that the Quraysh, what they
believed in, was the The idols that they
worship was
And Allah
they It says that many ulama they say
about this surah, that in this surah Allah
he gives the example of clouds. When we
talk about ra'ad, when we talk about a
thunderstorm,
or lightning, or thunder, then Allah Subhanahu wa
ta'ala, he brings the examples of clouds.
Because clouds, interestingly, they can either bring some
benefit to mankind,
or they can produce something that is lightning,
that can damage property of people, and it
can be harmful to mankind. So Allah
through one creation of his, he can bring
good from it, and he can bring, he
can bring things that can be harmful to
other To people. Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala in
this surah, from beginning to end, there is
one central message, and that is that the
Quran is the ultimate source of guidance for
each one of us. Not only that, not
only is it the Quran, but there are
other things such as the zikr of Allah
subhanahu wa ta'ala is the ultimate thing that
will bring peace in our life. We all
are looking for peace in life. We all
are trying to find happiness in life. Allah
subhanahu wa ta'ala is telling us, if you
want that peace, you want that happiness,
you have to come to the Quran. You
have to come to the zikr of Allah
And if anyone thought
for a moment
that this is all our deen is, just
the Quran, and to believe in the Quran,
to read the Quran, to study the Quran,
and the dhikr of Allah
No. Allah Subhanahu wa ta'ala says, if you
want jannah, then there's a whole lot more
to that.
Allah talks about fulfilling oaths. Allah talks about
fulfilling promises.
Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala talks about helping others.
Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala talks about bringing people
together.
2 people who are in a conflict. They
don't want to talk to each other to
step
in and reconcile the hearts. Allah
says that this is also part of iman.
And after this passage, Allah
says that all these people who do these
kind of things, and they pray their salat,
and they give their zakat, and they spend
on charity from which Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala
has given us, given them. Allah subhanahu wa
ta'ala says that these are the people who
are going to Who are going to inherit
Jannah in the hereafter.
So in this surah, there is just, there's
few aya that I want to share with
you that are really worthy of our attention.
Of course the entire surah is worthy of
our attention, but there are few verses I
want to bring to your attention today. And
this brief reminder.
First of all,
there is an example that Allah
he gives in this surah.
And the example begins with the words,
Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala he sends down rain.
Now, pause here for a moment.
Anytime in the Quran or most of the
time when Allah talks about sending down rain,
and especially if there's a discussion of the
Quran taking place,
then it is not rain that Allah is
talking about.
Allah is talking about the Quran.
Because think about it for a moment. Just
like Allah says in the Quran,
water is a source of life.
Likewise, the Quran
is a source of life.
A dead heart, a heart that is dead,
devoid of Allah Subhanahu wa ta'ala.
When it comes in contact with the Quran,
the heart is illuminated.
That's number 1. Number 2 is,
just like water comes from above,
and it goes into the ground, and it
might be a dead earth,
then not only that, the rain goes in
and it changes the landscape altogether.
Not only does it benefit the earth, but
then it begins to grow vegetation
that that benefits others. Likewise, a heart that
is dead. Not only does the Quran come
and impact that heart, but then that person
begins
to impact other people. They begin to have
a positive impact on other people. And so
this is exactly what the role of the
Quran is. And this is why you go
back to the lives of the sahabah
Who they were before Islam, and who they
were after Islam. And there is no book
that has brought about a transformation
in the history of mankind.
The way the Quran was able to transform
these people who were known as the sahabah
There
is no book that
that has that kind of an impact. And
this is why we also find in the
Quran, that if a person
who who empties their hearts. You know there
are people who read the Quran,
and their hearts are filled with diseases
and sickness.
And all they will do is they will
try to go into the Quran, and find
ambiguity in the Quran, and find faults in
the Quran because they are approaching the Quran
in the wrong way.
Any person
who comes to the Quran
with an empty heart,
an empty vessel, They have put aside all
their grudges against Islam and whatever it is,
and they come to the Quran with a
clear conscious.
There is no way they do not walk
away from the Quran,
that they And they are not impacted. They
are most certainly impacted.
Why? Because the message of the Quran is
extremely clear. So Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala says,
And then Allah Allah says,
The valleys
became filled with water
to a certain degree
that it does not destroy the properties,
but in a way that water is flowing.
Now, when you talk about a valley, sometimes
the valley is deep. But sometimes the valley,
it might be shallow.
So Allah subhanahu wa'ala is saying that water
has come down from the sky,
and it went into the valleys
based on their certain degree. Now,
this surah was revealed where? I just mentioned
earlier. Where was it revealed? In Makkah. When
Allah talks about valleys,
which valley existed at that time?
The valley of Makkah. Right? Think about it
for a moment. It was the valley of
Makkah. Now, Allah subhanahu wa'ala is saying, the
Quran came upon these people, the Quraysh.
And it went into the land. And just
like water, when it comes into a valley,
it enters into every small gap of that
town, and every single small gap of that
city. Likewise, the Quran came down and it
and it took based
The people of Makkah,
they took the Quran on different degrees.
Okay?
So Allah subhanahu wa'ala is saying that there
are some hearts.
Okay? When Allah talks about
accepting or absorbing water
to a certain degree, Allah subhanahu wa'ala is
saying that there are some people in Makkah,
they they absorb the Quran, and the Quran
changed their life. And there are some people
that they did absorb the Quran, and it
did not change their life. Such as we
find the story of Abu Jahal. Such as
we find the story of Umayyad bin Khalaf.
And there are so many others that they
would go behind the walls
of the house of Rasulullah
alaihi wa sallam. And they would listen
to the Quran being recited. And they were
impacted by the Quran,
but yet the Quran did not penetrate into
their heart. And then Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala
he talks about the foam. See, when we
talk about water,
water, when you see Imagine standing on a
beach, the water is coming to your feet.
What you see is a lot of foam
on the water.
But as soon as that water comes and
it touches your feet, you pay a close
attention to it, that foam is basically nothing.
That foam has disappeared.
Likewise, when we talk about even fire, like
Allah subhanahu wa'ala says, that when when we
talk When he talks about sending down rain,
and he talks about foam. He also talks
about Allah
talks about foam in the context of fire.
Because when you burn metal for example,
or you burn gold, what is the purpose
of it?
You burn gold, you burn the metal, you
might want to make a fork out of
it, you might want to make a spoon
out of that metal, but the very first
process is you have to remove all the
dirt from that metal. You have to remove
all the dirt from that gold. All the
fill that's in there, you have to remove
it. And usually when this process takes place,
there is a foam that is developed
on top of that gold. There is a
foam that is developed on top of that
on top of that that metal. And what
they usually do is, that is when they
remove all that dirt. So when we talk
about water, there's foam. When we talk about
fire, there is type
of foam that does exist. Allah subhanahu wa
ta'ala he says
that
when we talk about the Quran,
every heart is gonna absorb the Quran in
a different capacity.
Each one of us sitting over here,
we are connected to the Quran on a
different capacity.
What my capacity might be is, may not
be your capacity. What your capacity is, may
not be someone else's capacity. But
ba'atil.
The foam represents
the falsehood.
And the water between The water underneath,
or the or the gold underneath,
or the precious metal underneath
represents the haqq. So Allah subhanahu wa'ala is
saying that when you look at the foam,
and you might think that this Because when
you look at the gold, when you look
at the water, the first thing you see
is a foam. But Allah subhanahu wa'ala is
saying that just like the foam disappears,
likewise the and the falsehood will also disappear.
Just like the water remains, and that is
the haqq, the haqq will always remain. And
every single situation in this world, every single
story that you see in this world, and
human civilization,
the Ba'athl will eventually disappear, and the haqq
will always remain. In our matter, in our
context,
it always means that the Ba'atul that does
exist outside,
it will always disappear.
The Ba'atul will always show its falsehood. It
will always show that it is not genuine,
and the only thing that's genuine, it's what's
beneath it, which is the Quran. In this
case the water that Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala
he's giving the example of. So we should
always remember
that we should always be on the side
of Haqq. Though on top we might see
the foam and the falsehood, but that foam
and that falsehood will eventually disappear, and the
only thing that's gonna remain is the water
or the gold underneath.
Another beautiful thing that's mentioned in this surah
is,
Allah is telling these people of Makkah, what
more do you want from me?
I sent a Prophet within your pea amongst
your people. I gave you the Quran.
You know the the power of the Quran.
Allah then
says,
If you truly wanna change, this is Allah
telling the people of Makkah. If you truly
wanna change, the change has to come from
within.
And this is one thing that I will
say, that this is
a maxim of life that we can always
take. You will talk about people who are
life coaches,
when they talk about When they talk to
people to motivate them, the first thing they
would tell them is that you have to
change from within first.
This is the rule of life. Even subhanahu
wa'ala, when we talk to our children,
we should teach our children the same thing.
I as a father, I as a mother,
I can sit here and give you advice
after advice after advice.
But the very first person who has to
change
is who?
It's you.
You have to change first.
You have to have the understanding of something.
You need to take something important. I can
sit there and talk to my child
about the importance of education,
and how education is important, and why they
need to get good grades in school and
so forth. But
there's only so much advice you can give
them at the end of the day. If
they don't change, nothing is gonna change. So
this is something that Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala
is telling the people at Makkah. I gave
I sent a Prophet within you. I've given
you examples after examples.
So many surahs have been revealed to help
you understand
one simple concept, and that is to believe
in this man as your prophet, and to
believe in the oneness of Allah subhanahu wa
ta'ala. And if you cannot even do all
that, then the blame cannot be put on
Allah
The blame is on you. The blame is
on you. Why? Because change starts with you
first. The change starts within you first, and
if you're not willing to change, then nothing's
gonna change. And what's beautiful is, a scholar,
he mentioned this very beautifully, he says that
when we talk about, When Allah
says, means thunder and so forth, and lightning.
When we talk about a thunderstorm
coming to existence,
you don't see a thunderstorm coming into existence
just like that in 5 minutes.
It takes a little time. The clouds come
together,
then you, you know, there's there's a whole
process in order for a thunderstorm to develop.
When we talk about a tornado, does a
tornado just come into existence just like that?
No. It takes a lot of elements for
a tornado to come into existence,
and so many clouds moving together. So just
like there are steps
in order for a storm to take place,
there are steps
that take that have to take place in
order to bring a change in our life.
And just like it takes time for a
thunderstorm to come into into development, or come
into existence, likewise, when it comes to change
within our life, it will take a little
time.
Change does not come overnight.
We have to remember this,
change does not come overnight. Step after step,
insha'Allah,
then this will bring anything in life we
wanna do. It takes time, it takes patience,
but then eventually it will come in our
life. And the last lesson to be learned
from this surah, which is a very beautiful
lesson is, Allah
talks about those people whose hearts are connected
with Allah
Let me give you an
example. We lose a family member
in our life.
Often we will say, Why did Allah subhanahu
wa ta'ala do this to us?
We might lose a job.
Why did Allah subhanahu wa'ala do this to
us? We have invested money into some project.
The project failed completely and it crashed.
And what happens is, you lose all the
money. A lot of times the person says,
why did this happen to me?
But a person, Allah says
The only way to bring satisfaction
and peace in our life
is when this heart is in the remembrance
of Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala.
The same person who lost a family member,
if their hearts are connected and they remember
Allah. See, dhikr here does not only mean
but that's not all it means.
It means that when a calamity strikes, or
anything happens in our life,
if the heart remembers
Allah,
like in the case of losing a family
member, yes, there's gonna be pain, there's gonna
be some emotions involved. But if a person
says that this is through the qadr of
Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala, the heart remembers Allah
in that situation, and says, I am okay
with this. Because this is the qadr of
Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala.
This heart will be in a place of
peace.
A person who loses their job,
yes there's gonna be worry. Yes there's gonna
be a little difficulty, a little anxiety and
so forth. But you turn around and you
say that this is from the qadr of
Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala. And the heart remembers
Allah in that situation,
then a person knows that you know what,
insha'allah, just like Allah took away one thing,
Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala will bless me with
another thing. So at that time, a person
again will find peace in their heart. A
person who loses money in a project, they
lose money in an investment,
whether it's anything that you invest money into.
But if you lose money, at that time
you say, you know what?
The heart is connected to Allah. The heart
is remembering Allah, and a person says, Just
like Allah
gave me before,
yes Allah took it from me this time.
Allah
is powerful enough, and he has ability to
give me even more next time. And that
is when, when a person has this positive
thought about Allah, and they don't complain and
say derogatory things, and negative things about Allah
then Allah turns around their situation.
Not only will they find peace in their
life, then Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala will replace
it with something better. So we find in
this surah, once again Allah
talking about his power, the things that he
has the capacity of doing, and
last thing I would say is this, when
we talk about haqq and baatil,
truth and falsehood,
Allah subhanahu wa'ala does not always necessarily
engage
that what are they saying, and there's a
response. You know when we talk about debates,
between Haqq and Baqal, you often find, one
person will say something, the other person will
say something. This is not the style of
Allah
The style of Allah
is,
Allah mentions everything that he has the power
of. And when he mentions all these kind
of things, this is sort of a challenge
to the people of the Quraysh.
That I can do all these, what can
you or your deities, what can they do?
And of course, when the deities cannot do
anything, this is Allah subhanahu wa'ala showing that
the haqq will always prevail over the baqal.
And we find this in many lessons in
the Surah. I ask Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala
to number 1, keep us connected with the
Quran. May Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala make the
Quran a means of inspiration in our life.
May Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala make the Quran
impactful in our life. May Allah subhanahu wa
ta'ala give us ability to make the change
within our self, and come close to Allah
subhanahu wa ta'ala. And thirdly, may Allah subhanahu
wa ta'ala always,
in all circumstances,
we ask Allah
to keep our hearts
connected with Allah through the dhikr of Allah
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