A Deeper Look – Surah An-Naba – The Parable of a Desert Traveler

hamdu Lillahi Rabbil Alameen wa salatu wa salam O Allah say the MBE will mursaleen while earlier he was minister Nabil Suniti Hilario Medina Allah homage Allah mean home Amina Latina Amendola, middle Saudi heart, whatever, so we'll have whatever so the southern Armenia Robert Alameen from Burma bad once again everyone is salam o aleikum wa rahmatullahi wa barakaatuh. We are in the second passage of Surah Nava and the first thing I tried to describe to you is one of the themes that comes out of that passage is that Allah is describing his creative power, and by comparison, showing how incapable we are. So what that does for the argument is How dare you speak to someone whose

capability and power dwarfs yours, right? So it's a lesson in humility, you could argue one way of looking at these lessons. But there are other ways to analyze these IR these very same ideas that I've shared with you just now. One of them is that Allah azza wa jal created everything in pairs. Look at everything that said Allah mentioned he started with Elijah idol of the MaHA was dibala Alta, he create he, he paired the flat earth with the mountain, which is not flat Earth, right. Then he said, he made you into pairs. He mentioned the day and he mentioned the night, he mentioned the star of the sky, and he paired the sky with a brilliant lamp, he built the roof and a lamp inside

the roof, just like you have a ceiling and a lamp inside the chandelier inside it. So he mentioned the skies, and he mentioned the lamp and cited the sun. So things that he mentioned are all in pairs. Okay, except for one. And I'll get to that, because that's strategic yet. So the point of that is, when everything is made in pairs, why do you think this life doesn't have a pair? Right, I'll eliminate everything in pairs. And so this, this existence of yours has also been paired, as a matter of fact, even beyond the pairs that we've been made, created. And I would argue even as wives, not just spouses and men and woman, but a kind of zone zone is your body. And the rule

coincided, we were paired together, there was a rule, it's a separate entity. And there was this physical body, and Allah paired them together. And that's how he made you He made you by two things, you are yourself for creation in pairs. And look at your body itself, how much of your body was made your hands, your eyes, your limbs, he made you in the style of parents, that's how he balanced you. And so Allah is showing us that in this creative style, you know, I like to talk about it when, because a lot of people now understand brands, right? If you if you're into cars, and you see a certain brand car, even from a distance, you can tell what brand name it is, like, if you're into

it, you can tell. Or if you're into watches, you can see it like 20 feet away, somebody's wearing a watch, that's a tag, or that's a Rolex, you could tell if you're into that stuff, you have an eye for it. Same thing with design, or fashion design clothing, ladies can tell a Chanel bag from 20 miles away, apparently. Right? So you know. And the similar thing happens if you're into architecture, if you see a certain building in a city, you're like, I know the architect, but you have to be in that field. And you'll just know, right? Allah himself is a maker, he manufactures things, he builds things, he creates things, and he has a certain signature. Like every designer has

a signature, Allah himself also has a signature. And one part of his signature is pairs. He likes to make things in twos, he couples things together. And so he made you and he made up part of two and two parts. And the same way your life is also made of two parts. Your life exists here, and there's another life coming thereafter. So that's a that's a beautiful way of you know, making that argument. What are you talking about? And it's interesting that the way Allah may Allah subhanho, wa taala, our physical body, and he made this rule, right, and the rule has from the unseen. So part of my existence is actually my existence itself contains something of the unseen. For those of you that

are younger, this will be an easier example to appreciate. My teacher one time asked me we were studying Quran, we got to this Illumina annual rule. For the row home in Amarillo, B, they asked you about the rule, which is translated, they ask you about the soul. Not the best translation, but good enough. They asked you about the soul. And my teacher asked me where are you in Oman? And I thought he's thinking I'm not paying attention. Because you know, my teacher says, Where are you? Like, I was, I was in Jersey right now. No, like, means I wasn't paying attention. But I literally said here. And he said, No, that's your chest. Where are you?

And I said, here.

So he said, that's your body. Where are you? And then I was like, Oh,

now I get it. This is just a machine. This is it's got motors. It's got function. It's got fuel, doesn't it? But there's an operator of this machine. That operator was put inside by Allah that rule. This machine one day we'll explore

There, it's not going to work anymore. The driver, however, is going to survive. And he's going to be taken out of this machine.

And he's going to be taken for questioning. And it's going to end it's going to be given a new body, we're going to be rejected, resurrected a new body, and then it's going to be put back in SubhanAllah. That is the nature of Allah's creation, he did create us in pairs. In any case, the now we get to the interesting parts, what I feel is a really powerful way of the Quran. Speaking to its original audience, you have to understand what early Quran was revealed. The original audience was a bunch of errors, who traveled a lot.

And so look at these ayat from their point of view for a moment and try to appreciate something and unnatural. Omaha that didn't we make the earth flat vast, but see it laid out? You know? Now, what is the traveler? Where does where's he traveling? He's traveling in the desert. What does he see in front of him? This vast bed of the earth laid out in front of him? And then Allah says, Well, gee, Bala, oh, tada. And the mountains is pegs. And when he puts his tent, imagine the camera, he sees his tent and behind it, he sees mountains in the same shape. Right? And so when he thinks of his tent, he thinks of a shape like those mountains. When does he pitch a tent he pitches a tent when

Nightfall is coming, because he's traveling night is coming. He's got to settle camp. So he puts down his tent, and he puts down his tent and he and his spouse go into the tent and go to sleep, which I learned ala labasa and by the way, the night is a Libous. Right? The only other time Allah mentioned night and Libous together is when he talks about the spouses in Ramadan. Or hella comme de la cm or Rafa. Illa Anissa eco Munna, leave us alone, they will leave us for you. So the night being a garment is also in the luxury reference to the spouse being a garment. Because the night is when the husband sleeps next to his wife, she becomes his garment He becomes our garment. So the

nightfalls the traveler is now pitched a tent is goes to sleep with his spouse would you know Michael Sebata, your sleep cut you off. Of course after you place the tent you're gonna go to sleep. And now you're cut off. The next thing that happens is what you have Rama Asha, which Allah laid on the bus and the night has become a covering over you. Sleep has cut you off. And then you know what Janelia Liva Allah Maha Rama Asha, and then after that he made the morning and that time for you to earn your living again. And so the traveler gets up out of the tent, because it's morning time. And he's wrapping it up. And of course, he's in the desert. So what's going to happen? He's going to

look at an endless open sky. You know, the Chinese when they used to work on the railroad in the, you know, last century, early on, they used to say the sky is bigger in Texas. Right there was a famous saying the sky is bigger in Texas. I didn't appreciate that until I moved here from New York, the sky is bigger in Texas. And I bet the sky is even bigger in the desert. Well, but enough Oh kakum Southern shader that he put this huge, huge, huge roof on top of you now compare the inside the tent, he's got a roof. And he's hanging a little lamp in there. Right for light. And now that's all done and Allah has his roof. And his lamp is what lesson which I'm not sure Raja and Wahaca, I

wanted to give you the meaning of wadge is shahidul whole Vijan. And why it is actually intensely hot. Of course, you're not going to experience the heat of the sun anywhere like you will in the desert.

And the intensity of that light that light like the brilliance of the Sun if you go to Omaha, especially in the wrong season when it's cheaper tickets, right?

Because it's so real blazing, you can fry an egg on your head. Right? That's how that's how hot it gets. That's the all of this is actually the one night journey of a traveler, isn't it?

That's really powerful. You know why? Because when the night is done, and the day comes, what does the traveler do?

The Traveler rolls up his tent and is on his way.

By making that picture by painting that that scene, Allah is basically describing all of your life is like one day and you're a traveler. And then this day is going to come where you're going to roll up your tent and you're gonna go and as a matter of fact, when that time comes, Allah will roll up those mountains like tents to they'll roll them up and they're gonna go. And that's why later on in the surah was a year at ng Balou LUFA canon saraha the mountains themselves will sail away, they'll be made to sail away and you'll think that's a mirage. You won't even believe your eyes when that happens. So by the imagery of the desert traveler, and that one night experience, Allah is actually

describing the experience of human life itself. That's just gonna pass you by and resurrection is inevitable. This is why if you appreciate other parts of Quran Allah will say Elizabeth May Allah Allah Allah Yeoman, I was only here for a day

I was just here for a day. And so all of this life in this in these ayat is actually like one single day. All of this life is like one single days huddled up. But even that, there's a further argument that I want to share with you, that's, that really shook me. And this is part of the study of the coherence of the Quran. So bear with me, this is going to take a little bit to explain, and it needs extra attention from you. And the four of you that are taking notes, try to write this down, that will help you visualize Okay,

so we start with the earth and unnaturally origami hada, the earth and then well Jabba Allah, Allah, tada, the mountains on top of it as pegs. The Earth Quran describes shifts, the earth shifts, and the mountain puts it in place, holds it together.

Now, the earth in Arabic is feminine, and the mountain is masculine.

And the earth is also good or the earth also gives birth. That's why it's called me ha that to my head is the cradle of a mother.

And men are described as support supporters of family and stability and Tamkeen and, you know, Sakina, etc, etc. Right? First, Allah describes that the earth and mountain are married.

And immediately he says, man and woman are married. Well, hello, Conoco as Elijah in a beautiful.

And by the way, the let's stick with that first one, the earth and the mountain are paired together. Think of it visually a huge patch of land. And the most prominent thing is what the mountains, if you go to the end of this passage, you see a huge sky, and the most prominent thing in that sky is why the sun, so he starts with that the large landscape and then the thing that sticks out, and he ends with the large skyscape and the one thing that sticks out, that's how the passage begins and ends pair and pair. The second thing he mentioned was that He created man and woman in pairs. And if we go on and reverse backwards, he mentioned what Leila labasa Jiang, Maha Rama Asha, he made the

night a garment a covering. And he made the day a means of earning a living. And by the way, on the one hand, he said men and woman and on the other hand He compared them to night and day.

Which is very it's truly amazing. Other places in the Quran, Allah will say well, lately it I have shot the night when the hottie that agenda the day Wilma halacha dakara will answer and how marvelously he created the male and the female, the male and the female are their relationship is actually you can learn a lot about the relationship between a man and a woman in the Quran. By studying the relationship between night and day.

That's the beauty of these iron.

Men and woman if you want to understand their relationship, you'll learn a lot about it through studying what, nine and eight. What did Allah say about the night? And by the way, it's not like Oh, which one is night is the man the night and the woman the day or the woman the night or the man the day? Allah didn't say for a reason. You have to look at it as a whole. So let's look at it as a whole. How did he describe the night as laborers?

And what is one of the parts of the relationship of a marriage a man and a woman they have to cover for each other? They have to be intimate with each other. They have to be loving to each other. They have to be romantic with each other. They have to be each other secret keepers like closes a secret keeper. They have to shield each other. You know if something like like you know how when you're cooking oil spatters. If you're wearing clothes that comes on your clothes, but it didn't burn you the part of you that was uncovered God, you know. So when insults are coming towards your wife or your husband, you took them and you didn't let them come to your spouse you shielded them. That's

part of you being the boss. From physical love to emotional support to protection to keeping each other secret to giving each other a regular accompany to being so close and understanding everything about each other the good and the bad. Cover. You know clothes cover the beautiful parts of a relationship. Clothes also cover the ugly parts of the body, don't they? Spouses, there's some parts of the humor of a spouse or the beauty of a spouse that is only for the other spouse. And there's some parts of the ugliness of the spouse. And the flaws of as I said are only for the other spouse nobody else should know. That's Geralyn Leila Nebojsa, but there's this personal part of our

relationship with our spouses. That's like the night but the day makes everything public, doesn't it? And he says vagina nahama Asha and the day is a means by which living is made. He can't go to work. If she doesn't take care of the house. He can't get his job done if she doesn't provide support, or maybe they both have to run the business together.

they'll happen to even in the time of Sahaabah, both men and women are working on the farm that happened to they have to cooperate with each other about schedules. Who's gonna pick up the kids? Who's going to help with the homework? Who's gonna do the dishes today? Who's gonna do this? Who's gonna do that? What about the backyard? What about the front porch? What about, you know, all of this needs to be negotiated between both of them, they have to work it out together, they won't be able to do it. By the way, that's what I'm not what am I talking about responsibilities? Right. So a marriage is about love. And a marriage is also about what responsibilities so what happens is,

unfortunately, in Muslim marriages, it's all about responsibilities.

And dating is all about what love the Quran is picture of a man and woman coming together is love with responsibilities, and you won't be able to keep up with your responsibilities because they're boring and exhausting. And they tire you out, when you get tired, night comes and you need what

you need the night to be able to do the stuff that happens in the day.

And if you didn't get the charge from the night, you can't do the stuff in the day. And if you don't provide a living in the day, you're not going to be able to have a comfortable night. They need each other. He can't just be on a honeymoon, you gotta hit the ground to you have to hit reality to. But these two things go cycle like day and night. Keep coming. There's a part of the time there's a part of the day where you're best friends and there's a part of the day where it's strictly business. Did you pay that bill? Did you do this? You're like, why didn't you send a heart with that? No, no, no, this is right now we're just we need to we'll I'll send you the heart later. I know you need to pay

that bill. You know, there's parts of your relationship that are serious business, there are other parts of your relationship that are very Lovey Dovey, and you need to keep those two things balanced. You can't just become one or the other like night and day so beautiful.

So everything in this passage where it started, I remind you Earth and mountain and that contrasted with Sky and sun at the end. Then man and woman contrasted with what? Night and day second last. But the thing that got me is what's in the middle. What you know, Malcolm Sebata he made your sleep into something that cuts you off.

He made your sleep or cut off. Now that's surprising because everything else in the in the passage is in pairs. Everything. Earth with mountain sky with sun, man with woman day with night. So going to sleep should be paired with one. Think about it. What's the pair to going to sleep? Waking up isn't it? Allah didn't mention it. And stylistically I was thinking everything he mentioned should have been in pairs. But the parents are going to sleep is obvious for everyone. What is it? Waking up? You can come to that conclusion on your own yes or no? Okay now think listen carefully. Going to sleep in the Quran is described as the closest thing you will experience to death. Going to sleep is

paired with death. Now this is why when we go to sleep and we wake up we sell hamdulillah hon lady Jana but at Tana eloheinu show, we don't say Alhamdulillah Halevi a Cavanna. Burma and Amana were Illa him ashore. We don't sell hungry Allah, the One who woke us up after he put us asleep. We say Alhamdulillah who gave us life after he gave us death. So when Allah wants us to think about sleep, he actually doesn't just want us to think about sleep. He wants us to think about death. When we wake up in the morning, we actually experienced resurrection.

Can you come to your own conclusion that sleep comes with what?

Waking up? Sleep comes with waking up? Why can't you come to your own conclusion that death will come with resurrection? You should come to that conclusion on your own. It shouldn't have to be spelled out for you. Look at how beautifully the Quran made the argument for resurrection. The one thing he didn't mention in pairs is the one you should arrive at all on your own. You're smart enough you could figure it out and let people Minelli Shara t have her mu called Monkey Lee Shoraka via the intelligent be intelligent one can take a hint. If you're smart, you can take a hint. So, so beautiful. But that's not where the argument ends. He mentioned now what Enza laminal Nazira Fatima

and sagia lino Khadija be Hogben when a baton was not in alfalfa, and we sent down from morcilla Wartsila. Those that squeeze Montserrat are those that squeezed meaning clouds push against each other squeeze one another and from it the juice comes the water and then fed judge means actually Catarratto Alma or Kapha till SRB meaning heavy pouring rain comes down with clouds fighting against one another and you hear the thunder a sounds of clouds squeezing against each other. That's more Sirat and from it. Allah says We sent down water that pores and pores and pores down the Northridge Abbey have been

One a batter, by means of which we bring out all kinds of seeds turning into intercrop. And all kinds of produce grass, weeds, trees, bushes, all kinds of produce comes the Earth turns colorful because of the rain that comes on the earth. And then he adds water, nothing alfalfa, and gardens that are folded up into each other. The fee fluff in Arabic is when something is muddled into something else, meaning, you know, trees together, you can't tell if that branch belongs to this tree or that one because they're intertwined. That's just not enough of a lush green gardens. Now, let me tell you the significance of this passage. In this passage, basically, what's happening is to

put it simply, here's the Sunday School version, it rained, and the earth came to life, basically, right, it rained and the earth came to life. In other words, the sky and the earth worked together. And out came new life. Isn't that the case? If you look at the passage I just described to you. It started with the earth and it ended with the sky, you remember that the Earth is a cradle. And a cradle is meant to be carrying a baby. It's a me house, it should carry a baby. And by the end, Allah mentioned, the sky is very intense. And now that same sky, from it is what's coming water and where's that water going on the earth. And together they work and what happens? New Life happens.

Allah is telling us that when things are in pairs, new life happens.

When things are in pairs, new life happens, the sky and the earth are paired, and they produce new life. Man and woman are in pairs and they produce new life. Guess what? This entire life this entire life was compared to one day you remember that? This entire life is like one day, and it is paired with another day.

What's what's what is it married to what's this one day marry to the day of judgment. And when these two get married, then there's a new life, either Jahannam or Jana.

That's the point so beautifully illustrated with the imagery of rain and the life coming forth. Allah didn't just make things in pairs. He made things in pairs for a larger purpose. They go to serve a larger purpose. Up until now in this passage, everything we've learned is about one day, isn't it?

But this one day should be married to what? The Day of Judgment. So look at the next day out in yo well. Firstly, Konami, Tata, the day of separation is an appointed time. Now that Allah is done talking about the first day is going to talk about the day that it's paired with because Allah made everything in pairs. You know, it's important I remind you again, when we come before Allah and judgment day, we will testify that on this earth we lived for a day, maybe part of a day. And that itself, the time when we meet Allah is also called the day. So here's this day and here's the state. They come together. That's when a larger purpose is produced.