Nouman Ali Khan – Divine Warnings and Human Skepticism – Surah Qaf
AI: Summary ©
AI: Transcript ©
Messengers warn about 2 things. 1, worldly destruction
of nations.
2, the worst the worst destruction than that,
the resurrection
punishment that's coming thereafter. So there's it's 2
parts. And you'll see in Meccan Surahs, they're
2 they interplay with each other. As far
as Allah is concerned,
1 is just a preview to the next.
So the fact that Nuh's nation was flooded
is a preview to what's gonna happen when
they are raised.
Right? So they're not 1 or the other,
it's 1 then the other.
Allah has given this incredible noble Quran
and he called upon it as evidence, you
make your own conclusions but instead of pondering
upon this Quran and instead of thinking about
the majesty that it's giving you, instead the
word bal is used. In other words, they
didn't give it a chance. They didn't ponder
upon it. They didn't think about it. And
instead
They found it strange that a warner came
to them from among themselves.
They 1 of the ways it's interpreted is
how come no angel came? How come a
warner came from among ourselves?
It needs to be understood here that they
didn't use the word messenger. How come a
messenger came to them from among ourselves?
Right? They all from among themselves. Rather a
warner came, a came from among themselves. This
sets the tone for the rest of the
surah. A warning is about an imminent threat,
a danger that is coming. And the danger
that is coming, first of all, is their
own death, and what is gonna transpire thereafter.
But there are 2 in in the Quran,
when you talk about nations being preached to,
when they're being given a message by any
messenger,
messengers always talk about 2 different dangers.
2 different dangers. 1 danger is long term,
which is the day of judgment and whatever
happens thereafter, Which means day of judgment connected
with hellfire.
Right? That's the danger.
But the other danger is
a messenger is here, which means you guys
are on the brink of worldly
destruction as well.
The formula in the Quran is as follows.
It's you know, if you don't study it
carefully, you get the opposite conclusion of what
I'm gonna say. And I'll start with the
opposite conclusion.
Messengers came, people didn't listen, nations got destroyed.
That means messenger when messengers come, what's coming
soon? Death and destruction. Destruction's coming soon. So
messengers might as well be the angels of
death and destruction because once they come, you
know things are gonna go bad. And even
Sunday school kids know, yeah yeah we know
Nuh came and they drowned. Yeah yeah we
know Hud came and you know.
Messenger, doom. Messenger, doom. Messenger, doom. Isn't it?
And you get this picture where you associate
messengers with what? With doom. And that that's
a really big problem.
The the the the right way of looking
at it, well, the way the Quran paints
this picture is that Allah gave all societies
a chance to flourish.
And then societies took an evil turn. Societies
glorified bad things.
Their evil deeds were beautified to them by
the shaitan, by the devil. And they would
embrace those evil deeds, encourage each other to
those evil deeds to the point where that
society is on the brink of destruction.
They're gonna fall apart anyway.
And it is when they reach that brink
of destruction,
is when Allah sends a messenger to hope
in hopes of turning the tide and saying,
Guys, you're heading towards destruction.
I'm here to try to stop you.
I'm here to try to help you.
Pretty much every time did they listen to
those messengers or no?
They didn't, and they ended up where they
were gonna end up.
The point that's being made in the Quran
is not messengers came and they were destroyed,
it's messengers came and even though they came,
they were destroyed.
The point being made is they tried to
stop the destruction for happen from happening. The
fact that they're telling you that this building
is falling apart is not their fault. You're
the 1 not taking care of the building.
When you don't listen to their warnings and
it falls apart, you don't say, well the
last thing I remember is the guy was
telling us the building is gonna fall apart
and then it fell apart.
You know like how people blame the weather
forecast?
You know, I'm just telling you what's coming.
I'm giving you
ample time to prepare yourselves and fix the
problem. That's what messengers came to do. So
once again summarizing,
messengers warn about 2 things. 1,
worldly destruction of nations.
2, the worst
destruction than that, the resurrection
punishment that's coming thereafter. So there's it's 2
parts. And you'll see in Makkan Surahs, they're
2 they interplay with each other. As far
as Allah is concerned, 1 is just a
preview to the next.
So the fact that Nuh's nation was flooded
is a preview to what's gonna happen when
they are raised.
Right? So they're not 1 or the other,
it's 1 then the other.
So when Allah talks if he if he
talks in the some surah about a nation
being destroyed in this world,
then he doesn't even have to say what
happened to them afterwards.
That's already understood.
That's already lazim al malzum.
It just necessarily leads to it. Okay?
Now they found it strange. Allah doesn't say
who. When you use a pronoun like they,
then you're saying you didn't say the disbelievers
found it strange, Jesus says they found it
strange. So it's actually a comment about all
of Makkah.
First of all, it's a comment about all
of Makkah.
Everybody found it weird that a man from
among them who's lived among them 40 years
who they know so well, all of a
sudden comes and gives them warnings.
He's among us. You know, the the look
at it generally,
warnings have to come from the outside.
You have to tune in to some broadcast,
some announcement
that you don't have access to to get
a warning.
Back in the day, if you were gonna
get a warning about a tribe attacking
or some enemy coming, it would have to
be someone who was outside,
who saw the enemy coming, and then they
came running back in and said, by the
way guys, there's an enemy coming. If you
notice the Prophet
did this, he stood on the top of
the mount, and he in 1 of his
first preaching sermons, he said,
I swear by the morning that's coming. And
when they heard that they thought, man, other
side of the mountain,
by morning the enemy will be here. They
all gathered. And even the prophet
asked that rhetorical question, if I was to
tell you there's an emerging army on the
other side of this mountain, would you believe
me? And they said, yes we would. You
know why? Because if he's on top of
the mountain,
he sees it.
He sees
it. But then he preached to them about
something entirely different.
The point is if 1 of you with
no phone devices, would you know, because now
we have things that connect us to the
outside world. But imagine there aren't those things.
And you're sitting in this room and 1
of you says, by the way, there's a
thing there's an army coming this way. Like
where did you get this news?
It's on your phone, somebody text you? No.
I just know.
What how who are you to warn? You're
among you're sitting among us.
So the idea that there's someone warning us
who's from among us is weird.
That's naturally strange.
How could he
Either he went out or someone from the
outside came to him, that's all those the
only 2 possibilities, there's no third possibility.
So now the question is, someone from the
outside did come to him?
And of course the angel Jibreel came to
him. When the angel Jibreel came to him,
whether you believe it or not, it is
actually pretty amazing
to that's happening in our town?
For real?
And that's why even the jinn who believed,
even those who believed in the Quran, they
said,
We heard a Quran that's strange. This is
strange.
And so if you look at the definition
of ajab in the Arabic language, in
Karuma
It is actually denying something that has happened
to you because it rarely ever happens. It's
so unlikely that it would happen.
Guys, sorry for the interruption in the middle
of this lecture. Just before you continue, I
wanna let you know and encourage you that
I want you to sign up for bayonetv.com
and help others sign up or even sponsor
students for bayinatv.com
so we can create worldwide communities of students
that are studying the meanings and the benefit
and the wisdom of the Quran,
and
are spreading that in their own circles. Thanks
so much.
This is the idea of something strange to
the Arabs. How could it be? This is
completely not normal. Right? Now by saying
Allah is saying that it sends shockwaves across
all of the region.
Everybody is saying, he's saying that he's gonna
he gets a message,
he gets an angel talking to him. Now
that message is made up of 3 things
that are hard to believe.
What are those 3 things?
Allah,
afterlife,
and actually of them the hardest to believe
is revelation.
Believing in God, pretty common.
Believing in some afterlife,
pretty common.
Believing that you receive and you get an
angel talking to you from the sky, that's
kinda hard to accept. You understand?
So that third part is actually what everything
else hinges on.
It's actually belief in revelation
that sets the tone for our belief in
God and belief in the afterlife.
It is the 1 that people are skeptical
about the most.
That's the 1 that people are skeptical about
the most. For example,
if somebody doesn't believe in the afterlife,
you should not be arguing about the afterlife.
That's actually a consequence of something before it.
What is before it is? Do you believe
in God?
Well if you believe in a God, do
you believe in an all powerful God?
Okay. Well, if you believe in an all
powerful god then at the very least you
believe that an afterlife is possible.
We got that far.
Now there's still a step missing. Well, how
do you know even if there is a
God? Fine. I believe in a God, and
I believe he's all powerful. He can create
an afterlife if he wants.
How do you know there's a heaven? He
created a heaven or a *. How do
I know he didn't just create a different
planet and he's just gonna move us from
here to there? Or we're gonna you know
come back as cockroaches or you know cats
reincarnation. How do you know that your concept
of what's gonna happen
is is right and my imagination of what's
gonna happen is wrong?
Well the only thing that can solve that
problem
is if God himself tells me what's gonna
happen.
Right? So there's afterlife,
I'm not sure. Well maybe there is a
god, fine. If there is a god, there's
a possibility of an afterlife. Well, the only
way you'll know what that afterlife looks like
is through what?
Revelation. The only thing that can solve that
problem is revelation. I can have some concept
of what that afterlife looks like, somebody else
can have some other concept. Hindus have their
concept of afterlife too.
Right? The Christian concept of afterlife is very
different from the Jewish concept of the afterlife.
It is. They're they're 2 very different views.
Even though they read the same book.
You know? It's and that's very different from
the Muslim concept of the afterlife.
So it's gonna have to be solved by
revelation.
So now, they find it strange that a
warner came to them from among themselves. So
of the things that he's talking about, the
thing they find the most strange is the
warning.
They're not so much worried about
belief in God.
Why is he giving us warnings?
Now is the Quran only full of warnings?
And did it come originally just to warn?
Actually the Quran says
You came to give good news
and to give warning. So the Quran originally
came to do what?
Give good news. To give good news. Now
and we already read that the Quran came
to dignify people.
The thing is, does it include warning?
Yes.
They reduced
all of the message of the Quran
to what?
Warning.
Allah is saying, I was trying to talk
to you with dignity
and part of that dignity was warning you,
not the only thing, but part of it
was warning you. By the way, how is
warning someone dignifying someone? Listen,
I respect you and out of respect for
you, I'm telling you that you you need
to file your taxes soon because they're pretty
tough in Texas.
You're gonna end up in court. I wouldn't
want you to be in court.
So I mean, I'm a lawyer, I'm a
tax accountant, I'm just letting you know I
noticed that you haven't filed, just letting you
when somebody warns you, like, are they humiliating
you or saving you from humiliation?
They're saving you from humiliation. Even the warnings
in the Quran are there to save you
from humiliation.
But when somebody is narrow minded and they
don't wanna listen, they say, you know I
felt really insulted when he talked to me
about me getting my taxes straightened out or
this and that, like you're like
All you can think about is the fact
that you were warned. You dismiss everything else.
So notice the Quran is full of majd,
but they've reduced it to just in doubt,
just warning. It's so strange that he warns
us.
Why does he warn us?
You know, I was and and you would
think the Quran, if you warn someone and
they're offended, then the Quran should change the
stance. Okay. Okay. Let me be softer on
you. Let me not give you warnings. Because
that's what we do. When we talk to
someone, we think about, well, if I tell
them straight what it is they need to
hear, they might get offended. So maybe I
should not talk to them directly.
But part of you respecting someone is you
being clear and transparent and open with them.
You tell them what you what they need
to hear. You know the thought that crosses
our mind, maybe I shouldn't say anything?
And we think we maybe I shouldn't say
anything out of respect.
The Quran flips that equation and says it's
because it Allah respects the human being, he
says it like it is.
Part of me respecting you is me being
open with you.
That's part of me respecting you.
Even if I have to tell you the
ugly truth,
it is out of respect for you that
I'm sincerely telling you like it is.
That's how I see it.
We have this superfluous superficial
kind of let's just
not say something or let's not let's ignore
the warning side or the ugly truth side
of it because we wouldn't wanna hurt somebody's
feelings.
And then we say we did this out
of respect.
Allah is changing that equation.
Our transparency, our honesty does not take away
respect.
They say
then,
you know, the next words are not
I was baffled by this.
They found it strange that a warner came
to them
among themselves.
Thus, they said this is a strange thing.
No.
Thus the so the disbelievers
said this is a strange thing. In language,
first, you mention a noun, then you mention
a pronoun.
Not the other way around.
You say once upon a time there was
a king,
he was powerful.
You don't say
he, you know, he was powerful, the king
went along.
You mentioned king then you use he,
isn't it? So you're expecting disbelievers
and then they.
What does the ayah do?
They and then
disbelievers. It flips it.
This flip is important because now we're learning
when he says they, he's referring to a
large gathering.
He's referring to everybody in Makkah. Some of
those people are finding it strange initially that
a warner did come, but they might even
accept.
It is strange for the rest of the
that society. But within them, there's a group.
Which group is this?
Disbelievers.
They're not just gonna say it's strange, they're
gonna vocalize their criticism.
See the first group found it strange but
they're quiet.
The second group came out and started talking,
and the first thing that came out of
their mouth is,
This is a strange thing.
This is pretty strange. Now then what is
strange, we don't know yet.
It's gonna be explained in the next ayah.
But before we even say it, they've already
criticized it. This is pretty weird. This is
a weird thing. The word this by the
way as opposed to that.
What's the difference between this and that? Anybody
know?
This is near and that is far. So
we're gonna pay attention to that. The word
means this. The word means
that. The next ayah will
have this gonna have the word that. That's
important. Why? Because they're saying, we've heard this
enough times,
this warning and this whatever is being told
is actually in close proximity to us. We've
internalized what you're saying at least to the
point where we understand your point even though
we don't accept it.
So they say
not but
The like Ibn Kathir would say, they found
it strange that they're gonna be raised after
they die.
So now look,
When eventually we're gonna be dead,
and when by the way, also means when
all of a sudden we're gonna be dead,
and we're gonna be turned into dust,
dirt.
We will be transformed and become nothing more
than dirt.
That is a far fetched return.
In the Arabic language, the word
also means
Impossible.
Bayid which means far away also means
impossible. Okay? So
So first of all,
the
question is being used used to express how
weird they think this is, how strange they
think it is, and also how it's impossible,
it doesn't make any sense. In other words,
in language sometimes you pose a question
to make someone feel stupid.
Oh, you're gonna teach me?
Oh, he's gonna when you put it like,
oh, we're gonna die and be brought back.
Really?
This is interesting.
This is strange
that when we're dead and we're reduced to
nothing more than dirt,
that must be a really
long way back we're gonna come back.
By the way,
also
Why? Because you don't just get buried and
turned into dirt. How long does it take
before a corpse is turned into just dirt
and there's nothing left?
Decades, maybe centuries.
And then he says, from all the way
that we're gonna be brought back?
From that far away?
I can't even imagine it.
Right? So they say in Arabic, they say
this is impossible.
This is far fetched. Far fetched means, I'm
translating it in the English idiom, it's impossible.
The Arabs have an expression farther than the
the falcon in the sky. What What that
means is it's impossible to catch the falcon
with your arms.
So farther than that. Now, they
also say
This is pretty epic, it's gonna come back
to
to hit us later.
They say,
when we're dead
and our body starts decaying
and starts mixing with the dirt,
some of those specks of dirt were our
body ones, and some of those specks of
dirt were always dirt. Yeah. And now when
you dig up that dirt, it's just dirt.
I don't know which speck was me and
which speck was the dirt.
How are you gonna bring me back? You'd
first have to sift through it and find
the original organic matter that was once me.
And then even if you put all of
those I mean Razi went that far. Razi
is like let's imagine how they thought.
He's like, okay. So what if you could
pick all those specks of dust out and
put them together? Now there's this mound that
used to be you.
Now what?
Who's gonna mold this back into my body?
And even if you did somehow, which is
impossible, who's gonna breathe life back into it?
You know? I I don't understand how this
can ever happen.
Then the other thing what they found strange
was, why are you giving me warnings about
what will happen
after I die? The only warning I should
ever get is that I will die.
I don't care about once I'm dead, I
don't even know warnings.
I'm already dead.
This is so strange that you're trying to
warn me about something
that it's too late,
you know. For them life is to be
preserved, and to them life is what you're
living now.
The only time they've heard warnings are warnings
that put their immediate life in danger.
How are you warning me about what's gonna
happen in my grave?
I know I'm gonna get eaten up.
It's gonna be bad. So what?
When we're lost, you can't even find remnants
of us. We're gonna be brought a new
creation.
No, no. Instead they're completely in denial of
meeting with their Master.
So now the word rajah
Arabic language is cool.
You know, I'll give you some English words.
They're hard, but I'll make them easy to
understand. The word can be transitive and intransitive.
It's.
What that means is it affects oneself or
affects another. Now let me tell you that
in simple English.
Could mean that is a very far fetched
way for me to come back myself.
I ain't coming back that way.
It could also mean that is a very
far fetched way for me to be brought
back.
Not just for me to come back but
also for me to be
brought back. Like what force is gonna bring
me back?
You're thinking first of all, I'm in charge
of bringing myself back, I'm not coming back,
I don't think I'm gonna be capable, and
no force is gonna be capable of bringing
me back, no power is gonna be capable
of bringing me back.
In the hadith Qudsi the Prophet SAWS SAW
Allahu Alaihi
Wasallam
Allah says in these the Prophet is paraphrasing
what Allah says, the first creation is not
more difficult on me than bringing it back
the second time.
The logic of the Quran is natural.
What that means is when I do something
for the first time, it's harder. When I
do it a second time, it's
easier. Right? If you ask me even even
as a teacher, if you were to ask
me to teach a particular surah the first
time, it's gonna be exhausting.
The second time much easier.
Actually,
naturally,
the second time will be better.
Just naturally, the second time will be better.
Same thing with people who build,
same thing with people who cook, same thing
with people Anything you do, first time is
harder,
second time is what? Easier. Easier and better.
And literally what Allah says about the last
about the next life,
The next life is actually
not only easy for Allah
but it's also better. It'll make you the
second time even better than he did the
first time. SubhanAllah.
Assalamu alaikum everyone. There are almost 50, 000
students around the world that are interested on
top of the students we have in studying
the Quran and its meanings, and being able
to learn that and share that with family
and friends, and they need sponsorships, which is
not very expensive. So if you can help
sponsor students on Bayina TV, please do so
and visit our sponsorship page. I appreciate it
so much. And pray that Allah gives our
mission success, and we're able to share the
meanings of the Quran, and the beauty of
it, the world over.