The Parable of Desert Horses
Nouman Ali Khan – A Deeper Look – Surah An-Nazi’at
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So today when Allah says when nozze it her car when now she taught in Ashta was so Behati Subha for Serbia Kati Saba car fell muda Bharati, Amara, these five Ayat are one passage. And these this let me briefly translate for you. And I will purposely make my translation confusing or ambiguous. So you appreciate what the complication is. Allah says I swear by those that pull, as they drown, they pull as they drown Nazjatar Harca when now she thought in Ashta, and I swear by those that release completely, completely let loose, was sad. Behati sub ha. And I swear by those that swim smoothly, or swim rapidly, you can even say, for sabe Kati Sabka then those that get that march forward and
get ahead, fall muda Bharati Umrah than those that plan or execute the plan with perfect decision making. This is these five IR now that seems very, very ambiguous. Who is pulling and what are they pulling? What are they releasing? What is swimming? What is getting ahead? And there were tons of opinions actually. And somebody called it out because they got excited. It is in fact one opinion, angels. But there are many other opinions even amongst Sahaba. So start with that what could be pulling and diving in here and now hold Mala Iike 10 Zero news bunny Adam and Abdullah who will be Abbas Abdullah bin Arma, if not above so the Allahu Taala in Houma was their opinion, they say that
this is the angels that dive into people that they drown themselves inside ourselves and pull out our souls when we die. That's what it's referring to. And so if you interpret it that way, the rest of the five Ayat are going to be based on this conclusion. Right, so then they're gonna say, well, they dive in, and they yank the soul out of the center. Because when the center soul is pulled out, it's like, it's like pulling wool or like a piece of wool out of thorns, like a tears as it pulls out. So that's that excruciating experience of the body, the soul being pulled out of the body, as opposed to one national party, national national national means movement with smoothness and ease,
we saw hula, and so it means that the believer soul is taken out smoothly, like water pouring out of a jug, it just smoothly comes out, and then we're sad. Behati sub half a Saba cardi Sabka. Then these angels take the soul and they swim up to the skies. And they get ahead and ahead and ahead, meaning they're racing for this soul to be judged, the one that's just been pulled out it's the occasion of death, and then fall muda Bharati Amara, then they execute the command of Allah, what should we do with the soul? Should it be blessed? Should it be wretched, how should it be punished, etc. That's the interpretation, right? That's not the only interpretation. And mind you this
interpretation does not come from the messenger of allah sallallahu alayhi wasallam. Okay, well, he knew Doom, then. Xiaomin ofoh, Kala ovoca And Al Hassan Macatawa. We are Aveda, these are also Sahaba. And it means their stars, the ones that pull back, like you know how stars fall sometimes a shooting star, they and they dive and they drown somewhere and then the rest of the interpretation is based on stars drowning. Then another comes along here in New Forster. Hannu Ohtani here with 10, zero Illa muda Hibiya. It's people that have gone far away from their homeland, and their homeland is constantly pulling at them and they want to go back home. Or they have you know, their religions
that are constantly pulling at them and they don't want to leave their religions. You see how many creative opinions there are in so many different directions on just one idea. By the way, I'm not giving you the full list here. I found 39 early opinions on these ions and you could make a pretty strong criticism if it's 39 things then it could be anything. Right so we're gonna we're gonna have to deal with that issue. And shallow Tyler, where he Oh, Cassie, tansy obviously have this it's the bowl that pulls on the arrow. And then it swims away in the air and a great the arrow races ahead and it hits who it's supposed to hit mobility camera. Well he'll Minaya turns, you're on new foods,
which is similar it's the angels of death who take the the souls away. Well, he'll wash 10 Zero 10 Zero ill Kela it's the wild animal that captures the sheep and is pulling it by its teeth and taking it away. Whoa, well here Hayden who's rt 10 Zero Anna Anna T ha. Or it's still it's the it's the horses of the Muslim warriors, meaning the Mujahideen of that day that are diving into the enemy forces and pulling the reins of their horses as they dive into the forces while he or li to clear on coalition that he who will be held or it's the winds that pluck the trees out they yank the trees out of the ground. You can see that diving and pulling out is an
A number of interpretations. Wash, how to have the hill acquired Jamie and Anna Halimeda Iike 10, zero Urawa bunny Adam, and the most famous of these opinions, in fact is that it's the angels that pull back, pull the pull the souls of the children of Adam out, been to shelter is going to actually disagree with that. And I'm after doing a lot of study and pondering and thinking of my own, I have come to find myself more convinced of her position, I want to start by saying, I'm not saying this is the right interpretation. I am saying that this is the interpretation I find most convincing. You have to do your own reading, come to your own conclusions. Right. And that's that's the end. If you
would think that once the Hobbes opinion is sacred, then you would never find another Sahabi with a completely different opinion, and yet another Sahabi with a completely different opinion. That in and of itself is evidence that this is an exercise left for all of humanity. And on the note of contemplating on the Quran, I want to say a couple of quick things. The messenger of allah sallallahu alayhi wa sallam gave us the Quran, the greatest teacher of humanity taught us the Quran Rasul Allah Himself sallallahu alayhi wa sallam, you ever wonder 114 surahs? How come Allah's Messenger did not comment on every single ayah?
I would imagine Bukhari Muslim with the hood, all of the books of Hadith should be full, first and foremost of what explanation of every single ayah so you don't have to have any disagreements. It's all color, color. Rasulullah sallallahu alayhi, Salam done deal, that will be finished. Because once he gives us an interpretation, there's no room for me to say no, no, it could mean something else. Or it could mean this. Or it could mean that it's over our messenger spoke SallAllahu sallam, but he didn't speak. And there's a wisdom in the fact that he didn't speak. First of all, there's so much wisdom inside of the idea that if the messenger began to explain the wisdom of one higher than the
rest of his mission wouldn't be over.
Because this word is so deep, it's like oceans that don't come to an end. Second of all, our messenger Isotta son was given this book, what was the purpose of this book, Leah de baru it, so people they reflect on the ayat. So they reflect on the ayat if the messenger sallallahu alayhi, wasallam. Did all the reflecting, then what we'll do, now that we'd say we just he already did the work, we don't have to think about the Ayat of Allah, then the Ayat of Allah attack Loon, why don't you understand? Why don't you apply your intellect? Why don't you ponder? Why don't you think of and by the way to double, which I'm translating as reflection comes from doober, which means behind
Allah said this, what is what is behind this? What's the deeper view of this? Let me take a closer look, you know, to understand something, how we say in English inside and out, you know, or you said this, well, what is behind what you're saying, you know, what could be what could possibly be the intent, that is an exercise Allah wanted human beings to engage in and what a beautiful, intimate exercise between the slave and the Master, the Master spoke, and the slave is wondering, I wonder what my master is saying here. Let me ponder, and another slave comes in, he ponders. And these slaves, by definition are humble. They're humble, and they're in awe of the words of their masters.
So when a slave says, I think, only Allah knows, but I think this is what he means. And someone says you might be right. But I think this is what it means. And here are my reasons, people aren't going to make up meanings. They're going to think a lot and research a lot and ponder a lot and look at the language carefully and the context carefully before they come to a conclusion about what they think it means. But you know, everyone has different levels of knowledge, different levels of experience, different backgrounds, and so they're going to see different things. And they're going to engage in that exercise. that exercise is a beautiful, beautiful connection between a slave and
the master. That's a gift Allah gave us in the Quran. And you know what's happened in so many parts of the world, I can at least speak with confidence of the part of the world that I come from South Asia.
recite the Quran, if you think about it, you might cheat on my gift to you. Because you might start wondering how this idea applies to your life, and you might be wrong. And if you're wrong, then you're going to be misguided. And you're going to end up you know, just you know what, there are people with much longer beards than yours, that do that have read people, other people's reflections, let them do the thinking about the Quran. Your job is not to think about the Quran, you just recite it and let other people think about it. Because you're not qualified to think about it. Tell me something. When these ions came, the majority of the this early Quran isn't it early Quran,
early Quran the audience's non Muslims or non Muslims. Those non Muslims if they had the same attitude, this is not for us to think about. This is for some ILM to think about this is for a valuable element to think about this for a student to think about if you haven't studied tweed, if you hadn't studied Arabic and number one sort of thing other than you haven't read or a normal Quran intercede and this and this and this until then you until you do all of this you can't be thinking about the Quran.
then would anybody have thought about the Quran?
Would anybody would you know, when I'm not doing a tableau de la hora and whoever thought about the Quran? You know, how would they have pondered? What brought them to Islam to begin with? Is the fact that they thought about what was being said. They considered it for themselves. They asked questions I Allah says, I told Lisa Ilene, these are Ayat for people who ask questions. When do you ask questions when you don't understand something? When do you ask questions? When you become curious, I wonder what this means? How could this benefit me? You're supposed to come to the Quran with questions and our assumption that somebody who has studied somebody who studied Tafseer somebody who
studied the Quran with a teacher with a chef and gotten any Java has the answers to the Quran is false. All humanity if all of our minds were put together to study the word of Allah, we would only get drops out of this endless ocean we have to be humbled to the word of Allah. So while the you might think what I'm saying is being arrogant with the book of Allah, I'm actually saying that is humility with the book of Allah. Nothing supersedes the word of Allah. No one attempt of any one human being the only interpretation we will say, you know, we submitted our Atlanta and there is no cold laughter It is the word of the messenger Salallahu Alaihe. Salam and that's it. Other than
that, it's our it's our genuine sincere exercise. Ya Allah, what are you saying? This is why we have a profoundly diverse history of the field. This is why there are so many interpretations of the Quran, because people made genuine exercises. And of course, there's criticism between them. Of course, there are debates between them. And that that will continue. By the way, this is the nature of knowledge itself. That's the last side common the nature of knowledge itself, scientific knowledge, historical knowledge, the knowledge of any field, if you're in medical school, if you're studying engineering, if you're studying programming, what programming was 30 years ago is not what
it is. Now, people came along critiqued, refined, revisited, enhanced, you know, and they further that knowledge. Same thing with biology. Same thing with medicine. Same thing with architecture, same thing in every single field. Human beings don't say well, this was already studied. We don't have to revisit it. They go back, ponder over it again. They look at it again carefully, and they discover more and then they discover more. And this is the study of the ayat creation is also called Ayat revelation is also called out the formula by which Allah furthers knowledge and humanity is not different between revelation and creation. It's the exercise of pondering and asking questions. So
may Allah azza wa jal make us sincere students. I don't want this to be well, I read this idea and I feel like this, it says this. It's not just about our feelings, it is a genuine inquiry. But most importantly, if the attitude is correct, this is the word of my master, I will come to it with humility, but I will think about what Allah says, I don't want to bend the word of Allah to what I want it to mean. I want to bend myself to what is what I find most convincing. I this is the this is the nature of our relationship with Allah spoke May Allah azza wa jal you know granted sincerely sincerity in our journey to Allah's book. So she says, Rahim Allah.
No accelo It may not. Let us see the Nazjatar Bill, Bill Bill Halal Mahira do not de la Javi Hayden Cozart come on colors. The machete was Idaho middle of a city. She says what I find most convincing about this, these ayat, the ones that pull as they dive that's what she's talking about. She says what I find the most convincing is this is talking about horses that are being written by raiders by looters by bandits. Back in the Arab times. One village, one town gets raided by another town in the middle of the night. That's what happens and they get robbed and how do you don't rob somebody on a camel? You don't do that. That's like robbing somebody with a shopping cart. Like
that's not gonna work. You don't rob somebody with a donkey? You robbed somebody with horses. You'll come and you read quickly. You read their camp quickly and you get out of there in the dark of night. That's what you have to do. She says, no, no, no, I also she says I'm strongly inclined to believe this is talking about Raiders that are robbing a village or robbing or raiding a town. And it's not talking about the Muslims fighting in the path of Allah. She disagrees with the machete and others who said this must be the believers fighting in the path of Allah riding their horses against the enemies, you know, and she gives her reasons.
Why Athena Berners Lee me Phil Casa may be hard because they were so influenced by this idea that Allah swears by something. It must be something sacred or something noble or something honored. And that's why well which right horse riders are going to be noble not to kuffar, not the robbers. It's going to be Muslims who are fighting in the path of Allah. And that's what inspired them to say that this must be the Mujahideen in the path of Allah that
are being talked about former candidate Muslim enough will attend McKee Highland zoo and she says but in the MChem Quran there were no Muslims with a horse that's going into battle. What you're talking about when these were first heard heard nobody even knew that Muslims are gonna go into battle no Muslim was thinking I'm going to be riding on a horse going all the Quran was saying was be patient make Dawa be patient make Dawa the Quran was not saying just give it seven eight years you'll be on a horse watch that's not what it was saying. So he's like this doesn't even occur to anybody who was at that time when I kinda who NACA Darussalam and without help when you read your
your culture yes region goes to mean however there was no land of Islam and land against we have word there was no Monica versus Medina. So there's going to be a but there are other there was no such thing then we'll call will be under Hagia Sophia Coonawarra dal Hijrah Allah Masha Allah Allahu guna Ma has a left Illawarra and Massoud and this to say that Allah is saying that this will happen. Okay, fine. It didn't happen yet. But some people are saying, but Allah knew that it was going to happen. So he called it ahead of time. And so he's saying that this is referring to something that will happen in the future. She says that doesn't make any sense because the murky Quran is not about
making vague you no extrapolations about the future, which mean nothing to the people in front of it. It's me giving Dawa to them to the truth. And it calls on something from their experience. Yesterday when I was explaining to you doesn't Allah call on you to observe the sun, the star, the you know, the sun, the mountain the earth, things you see around you. So she says, when Allah makes an argument like this, it necessarily is be walking in my shoes, something people have seen, something people have experienced, you know, like a good teacher gives you an example you can relate to. That's what Allah is doing. He's giving an example that the entire audience that's sitting there
listening should be able to relate to, that's the point that she's making. But don't do it in little ignorance or be rabid, you maluna Fie and with the Quran really talk about something so unseen that anybody who hears it even the Muslims will be confused. I wonder what that means. What could Lofoten Quran facilitate or the Atilla KB idea to lob Han. And Quran did this in other places like with the idea to love her, that's the example is coming again. Now, what what she then argues is if you were to accept this interpretation, which again, I'll share with you why I'm inclined towards it, because the rest of the surah fits with that like a glove. Like there is no tackle of there is no hardship
and showing the continuity of the message of the surah if you take this route, so she says you are dual ayat, other half a year so ru fi, Fi UserInfo Bella tackle off if you were to take this interpretation, the rest of the surah becomes easy and you don't have to do any creative interpretation to understand the message of the rest of the surah. And so let's first look at how she's referring to this. This is so much fun. When Nazjatar Nazaire in Arabic Al Jazeera was shed well color to pull at something. But when you add nozze it renkon it's actually in the Arabic language. When you pull something as far as you can pull, like a like an arrow that's been pulled by
the bow as more you can't pull it any more maximum tension. That's actually called Noah's Ark. Meaning you couldn't pull it any possibly more. That's the most you could pull it okay all hard, hard pull. So that's the meaning of NASA to pull but on the other side walls are to fill us the longer we be Myrna Rasul filma originally rock actually means drowning into the water while you start Maluma jazz and fee is Rock Hill Bella you will Nirma and it's also used figuratively when somebody is drowning in goodness or drowning in trouble like we use nowadays man I'm drowning. Or people say man that guy is swimming in money or he's drowning in money Don't be say that it's the
same actual expression figuratively in the Arabic language come out you call Lu Agra Canarsie often close is stuff is so far muda and extreme is also used. The Archer has drowned the arrow into the bow literally drowned the arrow means the bow is almost the arrows entirely inside of the bow. It couldn't be pulled any more there's some inappropriate examples too but hey, I'm teaching a Quran right now so it's all good. Imran does tell you could never home a to school home been never la ha and another ILAHA at Halle Hosni ha. They say in the Arabic figure of speech, that woman drowned everybody's eyes. And what that means is when she walked in, all the men started staring at her and
they forgot there's any other woman in the room. That's that's how they use the drowning meaning just completely lost in this one thing. Now, the reason I shared all of that with you? Yeah, sometimes you read things like that. And you say no, no, I'm studying Islam. So
Raya told mud had tie into Halal facade.
What this is referring to is there there are horses. It's
Dark, the tribe like they're on top of a hill, I will paint the movie scene for you. There's a sleeping village down there. And this these guys are lined up over the hill. And nobody should move yet right? The horses shouldn't be moving. So what are they doing to their horses? They're pulling on the reins because when you pull on the reins of your horse, what does the horse do? It stops and they're holding the reins, holding the reins holding the reins and the horse understands that language. The moment you release the reins, what's the horse gonna do? It's gonna march right so when now's the RTR is holding the tension as much as humanly possible. And then when we go to one
national party in Ashta when Nash to Villa you start Malou, Aston Villa, aka Ella the Yes, hello. Hola who? Yes, Hulu, Hulu, actually, it's Nashotah is used in Arabic for a knot, or something that holds something together that can easily be undone. Like if you're not good at tying your shoes and they easily come undone that's a shot actually. Or unsheath or they call it also and so the idea of something that gets released or softened in other words they're holding on holding on Wait wait wait wait wait and all of a sudden go and they release it when nah she thought the master let they let it go entirely. And when when that happens what's going to take place next? The horses are gonna go
downhill they're gonna go and read she says she says about this is about one now she thought the national went through a no diva la Heemeyer Bucha who will ask me ask me he'll look away if Latin minute mean a call. loosening up of the reins of the horse to let it go to unleash it was Salah Behati Subha. A sub allow menos Luffy and yeah, hakuna filma Saba in Arabic actually means to swim or to float. It's used for for boats. It's used for a Safina. It's used for a full choke. You know it's used for a swimmer.
And Allah says literally here and they swim smoothly or they swim piercing through wasabi Hardy Sabra and the frugal mutlak that's been added here sabe hot is enough. But wasabi hottie Subhan it's not just a highly it's also a mutlak. In other words, they really swim. They're piercing through the water. What this is doing is well you'll start out we'll look at and little hail for your car, Lulu Swaby This was actually figuratively used for horses, they will say sometimes the horses are swimming. You know the desert is the ocean of land, right?
And so in the desert, the horses are wide swimming in that ocean. And you know how the water when a when a fast boat goes through it or a shark is going through the water and it's on the surface? What happens in the water? There's a wake in the back. It's like it's tearing through the water, isn't it? When horses are running in the desert? Aren't they leaving awake behind aren't they tearing through the land? They're leaving a similar effect as the ocean leaves. When a speedboat goes through or a jetski goes through or back in the day a shark goes through, you know or is our vessel, a fast vessel. You know make like a boat goes through. So a savvy hottie Sabha is basically
describing this is the kind of thing that you see in the seas. But these incredible animals are showing you that scene on the land. Gamma Yoji who filled Quran Allah subhanho Doom fill full colon FIFA lacking a smartphone. It's also used for floating or swimming in the air meaning move flying. And that's actually similar to when we talk about how man that car is flying. Their car is flying. So there are two implications of wasabi hottie Subhanallah to add to this image, on the one hand, it's piercing through the land, it's violent, like the like the water is being torn open. As the vessel goes, the Earth is being wrecked as these horses go through. So it's violent, extreme and
aggressive. On the other hand, the speed with which they're moving can be compared to flying. And those are the two intense, you know, notions that are added to this image. Now that the horses have been released. It's only natural that they're gonna go super fast. And that's what Sal Behat is. The scene is now intensified. And so as we move forward,
we're gonna see WhatsApp for savvy party sub contenders, no surprise, the fire here is actually to show that immediately and thereafter quickly, now there's a for Arabic students there's Musa Beck, and there's sabich. Musa Arabic mean someone who raises sabich means someone who gets there first, like wasabi Kona Serbia, Serbia, those who get their first translated the first and the foremost right. So WhatsApp for sabich. RT SATCOM means they get their super fast, they get to their destination in no time which
tells you that they have their target in sight. They move very quickly it's incorrect translation to say and they race with one another. There are some suggests that thus racing and you know surpassing one another that would actually be be file Musa Kati, Siva, can not facade be cardi subcon that's a different wasn't altogether sadhaka not subaqua. Okay, so now they get there. Now the thing is, this is what I was waiting for. What's going to happen when they get there? Now now it's on. Now the scene begins. But before we get there, just a couple of quick things. Mulholland fie manasota r1 mubadala when Allah says for sabya carti Sabka they get there quickly they get there immediately.
What's the Atmel who Phil Hale while the camera Kareem and using that for horses is so obvious. Whether we let we decide because Allah Allah was formerly had the he OTEL file melodica to test me correlated VD she will, she will county Cardi B amarilla. Those are the other interpretations. You can find them Intersil like the angels are taking the souls up and they're racing up or they're they get their super quickly etc, etc. She's disagreeing with that. And this, by the way also existed classically. So it's not just her opinion, she's more inclined towards this opinion. What I find unique about her contribution is she's providing a thorough rationale behind it. She's actually
furnishing it with a thought process and a complete imagery that makes it holistic.