From Darkness to Light – Surah Al-Taghabun
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Channel: Nouman Ali Khan
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AI Generated Summary ©
The Arabic language uses "naught" in various ways to describe the lack of knowledge or connection to a person, as it relates to the concept of denying and hiding things. The use of " "naught" in Parables ofteenth Century is used to describe the lack of faith and acceptance of actions, while "by" is a sign of being safe. The importance of protecting one's safety and security is emphasized, and the use of "we" in the statement is discussed. The use of "we" in the title of the book they are reading is also discussed, as it relates to the internal state of the heart.AI Generated Transcript ©
What is iman in the end?
I want I never wanna turn this off
because this is what gives me real peace.
I don't want this to disconnect from me.
I don't want to be disconnect and that
cannot happen unless the insides are inconsistency
with these. Assalamu Alaikum. Before you begin this
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Thank you.
Once again everybody, Assalamu alaikum.
This session I'm going to try to talk
to you about
the
Arabic origins of the word kufr and the
word iman,
and some interesting observations,
involving that and that what what that can
do to inform us about what Allah is
saying in this ayah. So let's begin with
Kufr, because Allah says,
Right? So we're gonna talk about Kufr a
little bit.
The night or the blackness of the night.
When a person does kufir of his
items, if I did kufr of this bag
or this phone, I stuck it in my
bag where you couldn't find it. I put
it deep inside a container,
so it's in the in the black darkness
of the container.
Right? That's actually the act of kufar.
When a,
a horse rider is wearing metal armor
but he's hiding the armor under regular clothes,
he's doing kufr of the armor.
He's hiding it.
Every just like the the the night covered
something, meaning the darkness covered something, enveloped something,
the the darkness did of
it. So an overshadowing darkness or putting something
in a hidden place. Everything that covers something
or everything that anything that hides something is
doing of it. So if you're hiding money
in your pocket, you're doing of that money.
If you're hiding jewelry in a box, you're
doing kufr of that jewelry. You understand? That's
the original
literary meaning or the literal meaning of the
word
to cover something in its blackness, in its
darkness. Okay?
Now
When something is completely enveloped and none of
it shows,
none of it can be seen.
And actually the covering here is something like
burying.
And the kafir in Allah
is actually an example of that. So the
kafir of Allah is an example of someone
who puts something in the dark.
Because a person like that, when they do
kufr,
they are hiding in the darkness, deep within
themselves.
They find some dark place within themselves
to hide what they know to be true
of the existence of God and his greatness,
the seen and the unseen evidences. Meaning, they
see external evidence for God, they hide it.
They feel the internal evidence for God, they
hide it. And that's what makes them a
kafir.
Someone who buries the light of Allah that
Allah gave them deep inside them so that
it keeps,
you know, unseen.
Waqad Zakar al Rahib. Rahib is a famous
scholar, Imam Rahib al Fahani,
who wrote a Muft Adath gharib al Quran.
Tough tough words in the Quran or strange
etymology in the Quran. So he talked about
the origins of words, some words in the
Quran, very famous dictionary of the Arabic language,
classical work.
Any connection to someone else, then they're doing
kufr of them.
So one meaning was to hide something
deep and the other is I like, if
you and I are friends and that the
police show up, I don't know this guy.
Then if I say, I don't know this
guy, I did kufar of you.
I have no connection to this person. That's
called Tabari. And this is actually used in
the Quran in that meaning.
On the day of judgement, disbelievers, what does
he say about them?
Then some of you will be doing kufr
of other people.
You guys used to sin against Allah together,
but on judgment day you're like, I don't
know this person.
I have nothing to do with them.
Ibrahim alayhi salaam
will tell his people, I do kufr of
all the shirk you do, meaning I disconnect
myself. I have nothing to do with the
shirk you do. In fact, he even said
this to his people along with some of
his few followers.
He said, We do kufra of you, meaning
we disconnect ourselves from you. So there's disconnect,
denial, and there's hiding, concealing. Those are the
two meanings so far.
So that's just an something I already explained
to you. Okay.
And this is also why Kufr is used
for someone who denies the either the existence
of God
or the existence of the evidence of Allah
being the one true God.
They deny those things because they are hiding
them deep within themselves.
And from it comes kafaraniemah
or wakafaraniemahtullah,
jahadaha.
When kufraan is used in one more way
and that is to be ungrateful.
To be ungrateful. And let me tell you
why this meaning came about.
If I deny you
and I hide something let me put this
together in a story. You did a lot
of favors for me. You did everything to
help me. You helped me with my exams.
You helped me get a job and all
of that stuff. And all of a sudden,
I act like I don't even know you
and you've done nothing for me, and I
hide all the favors you did for me.
I put them away in a dark place
where I deny them, and I don't let
anybody else see them either. And then I
act like I don't know you at all.
Right? This is the height of ingratitude.
You're disconnecting from the one who did favors
to you, and you are absolutely hiding, concealing
all of the favors that were done to
you even though you know they were done
to you, but you're not even acknowledging it.
Right? There are people in your life that
you will find that do good for you
pretty good.
Right? You do a lot for them and
then they turn around and say, You? Do
something for me?
What did you ever do for me?
No. All you ever did was cause me
pain. How did I cause you pain? By
existing.
Right?
So they're doing complete this is kufran and
niyama,
the denial of the favor. That's why the
simpler meaning is ingratitude,
But it's actually an entire elaborate story
of ingratitude.
By the way, if
you go out of your way
to disconnect
from someone who's done good to you
and you go out of the way, you
gotta constantly reject the favor that was done.
Right?
Like they let's say they bought you a
car.
Right? And now you're hiding the fact that
they you can't hide the car, but you're
hiding the the papers, the record, all of
that. You're never telling anybody about it because
you want to stay hidden, right?
And you don't want anything to do with
that person who gave you the car, etcetera,
etcetera.
But every time you get in the car,
what do you feel?
A little bit dirty on the inside?
A little bit? And if somebody doesn't even
know the story and they get in the
car. Hey, nice car. When did you get
it?
What happens?
I don't know. I just I
just bought it.
And every time you have to lie about
that, what happens inside you? A disturbance
An irritation.
And if somebody comes along that actually knows,
Hey, I remember your brother got you that
car, right?
What happens then?
Why does this person exist?
How does someone still know I hate it
when someone reminds me?
Because I'd like to keep all of that
what?
Hidden. And then on top of all of
that, if you actually if your brother came
by
Who actually gave you the car?
She was like, oh, I see this face
and you're in his car too at the
time.
I Just burns a little extra
Right? What I'm trying to get at is
there's a kinaya here. There's an implication here.
And the implication is the one who does
kufr
is working so hard to keep it concealed
and working so hard to reject
that they actually live kind of paranoid.
They're on edge. They're not at peace.
You I want you to keep that that
conception in mind. Okay? Now
and the kufr of a blessing or kufr
of a favor is to hide it, and
by not doing any gratitude towards it.
Allah talks about believers that their efforts will
never be unappreciated.
Gets used more for ingratitude.
Kufran gets
used for more denial. Remember there were 2
components,
denying and then, ingratitude?
So the ingratitude
is Kufran,
and
the denial and the hiding is kufr.
But then there's one more word that combines
both of them, and that is kafur
or kafoor rather.
So the word kafoor is both
denying
and ingratitude. But when it's used as a
verb, both meanings can exist. Okay.
Now
That's why in the Quran, kufr comes as
an opposite of iman. Iman means what?
Faith and the rejection of it, the denial
of it, the concealing of it, that's kufr.
But kufr also comes as an antonym of
shukr.
So Allah says
Right? So
Right? So gratitude and kufr also come as
antonyms. So it has 2 opposites.
1 is belief
and the other is gratitude,
which is really amazing. Look at how words
connect in the Surah, how everything is woven
together. You found in the previous ayah, Lahul
Hamd.
Hamd belongs to Him.
Gratitude belongs to Him. And the next ayah
says, among you are those that are ungrateful,
who reject that
Right? And then of course the other meaning
is those who reject the truth, and the
opposite of that is kufr. So it works
with both iman and both against hamd, the
word kafir here. It works with something that
came before, and it's working with something that's
coming right after.
Okay.
Now I just explained that one to you,
so I got ahead of myself. Now let's
talk about Iman. So that was a little
bit about kufr. Now let's talk about Iman.
Iman. A camel that is full,
meaning
it's well it's it's
had enough to drink and it's confident and
it can go a long way.
That would be a camel that is
It's called an Amun. So you can call
your sister that if you're gonna throw an
insult. Okay.
This is where it gets interesting.
From iman comes the word amana.
What is amana? It is something that is
placed deep inside or placed somewhere safe so
you can guard it.
What does that sound like? Kind of like
kufr, because what do you do in kufr?
You put something inside
and now,
an amana is something you put like a
trust is something if you're trusted with something,
you put it in a safe.
You're trusted in something, you put it in
a secure place, right?
Now listen to this. Remember what I told
you? When somebody has kufr, are they in
a state of peace or a state of
anxiety?
Anxiety. For reasons I described, right? Now look
at iman. Iman is associated with the word
Amin. And it is the opposite of fear
and anxiety.
As if the one who has amen, the
amen, is safe inside of a secure fort.
Or a person's heart is completely filled with
something that satisfies them.
They've someone who is is someone who feels
completely safe and secure and calm and at
ease. There's a direct contrast. There's one container
that is deep inside that's causing anxiety
and another container, something's deep inside and it's
causing what?
Calm and contentment and safety and security.
Allah offered safety against
fear.
Are you feeling safe from the 1 in
the sky?
When sleep took over you as a way
of making you feel safe, Allah says,
and this
it also is the opposite of Al Qiyana.
Al Qiyana means dishonesty.
Now what does dishonesty remind you of? The
story I described about kufr.
Here you are receiving the car, hiding the
paperwork, denying that the person did you a
favor, all of that is an expression of
isn't it?
So in a sense,
iman is about honesty
and safety and security
and securing something. And kufr is also about
securing something, but securing something using dishonesty,
ingratitude, rejection of truth, etcetera.
They're both securing.
They're both securing but the the consequences are
entirely different and the intentions are entirely different.
Well the word is used
for the guardian.
Amin is someone who will keep something safe.
Like Allah says,
1 of the names of Allah is Al
Mu'min
it's one of the names of Allah. What
does it mean? The one who guards his
slaves and gives them safety.
The one who secures them with anything that
may take away their safety.
That's why iman
from the same origin is used when you
accept something and you put it deep inside
the container in your heart where it gives
you security
and calms you and you're at rest and
at peace with it. You're not disturbed by
what is inside you. In fact, the opposite,
it gives you safety and security.
And that's what Iman is. Now what's interesting
about Iman, the word Iman, is it's both
and
Often we don't discuss this concept.
Means I'm feeling safe.
Means I'm giving safety to others. The word
is used for the believer,
which means the believer is in safety because
their heart has iman inside it. But the
word is also used for Allah, but it's
not used because Allah himself has safety for
himself, it's because Allah gives safety.
He gives safety. Now this is the exact
opposite of
because the one who is hiding something in
does not want to tell anybody what he's
hiding.
But the one who has the safety, the
one who has iman, who is
with iman, wants to give this safety to
others. They want to actually share this safety
with others. They want others to feel
this feeling that they're feeling.
Look at the linguistic this is we're not
even looking at tafsir right now. We're just
looking at the Arabic
etymology
of
this
word.
Actually means conviction with confidence.
To be sure of something, to be confident
about something.
And actually while you're confident, you show humility
which is really cool. You would think the
people that are super confident are also super
arrogant. Actually the people that are super duper
confident
are humble.
The height of confidence is what?
Humility. Guys sorry for the interruption in the
middle of this lecture.
Just before you continue, I wanna let you
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Thanks so much. To give you an example
this is used in Arabic poetry.
You know,
you have the lion
sitting there
humbled its legs paws pawed out and there's
a dog barking
and what is a lion doing?
Nothing.
It's living the dog bite. The dog's like,
and
then the last thing, I ain't gonna roar.
You're gonna die. It's okay. I don't have
to flex.
You know what that is an expression of?
Way too much confidence
There's so much confidence that you don't even
have to show
your power.
You can just remain in your humble silent
state and it speaks for itself.
You understand?
Those of you that are in the world
of business, in the world of medicine, the
world of tech, whatever specialization you're in,
sometimes you meet a super expert in your
field.
Someone who's really accomplished in their space.
You know what you notice about those people?
They don't talk much.
And then you meet someone who hasn't accomplished
months but they really wanna impress you. And
what do you notice about them?
They talk a lot.
So the truly confident are actually humble
and the not so confident are very
verbal,
very vocal.
Right? And then you can tell
you can tell who's who's what. You could
just read the room and tell who knows
what. So what if harul kudur
That you're in your even from a spiritual
sense when we accept the commandments of Allah,
the deen of Allah, the the belief system
that Allah has given us, and it has
settled in our hearts and our hearts are
filled with it.
Okay. Now
Allah says,
He believes or he listens to the believers,
meaning
he the Prophet listens to the believers and
accepts what they're saying.
He accepts,
you know,
without skepticism what they're saying. Like believers would
come and tell the Prophet something
and instead of saying, I'm not sure what
you're talking about. He would completely,
wholeheartedly
accept what they're saying.
Is also
is also when somebody says something to you,
you completely and openly accept it. And that's
our relationship with Allah. Allah says it, we
have no skepticism. We accept it immediately. That's
a state of comfort that we have with
Allah Azza wa Jal's words.
Okay.
Oh, by the way,
here's a word we say at the end
of the Fatihah.
What do we say?
Ameen Bilmad
Bilmad
Wa Amin Bil Qasr Ma'anahu Allahum Mastajib AAitakabbal
Fahi Amin Al Asr This word actually means
O Allah accept,
but it also actually means You Allah give
tranquility into my heart.
Give me the calm
bring the Amin in,
You know, all I accept.
So just a few more notes because, you
know, I just had to do this with
Iman. It deserves it.
The origin of the word amin is when
a person feels deeply content within,
satisfied within, and their fears and anxieties have
gone away.
When a person is in a state of
amun,
meaning they're completely content, that state is called
amun.
Allah says about whoever comes into the haram
for good intention,
they are
How many people have gone to Hajj or
Umrah ever?
Okay. The first time you went and the
first time you saw the Kaaba, there's something
that took over you.
There's a calm that came over you. There's
a feeling that came over you, perhaps a
feeling you've never really quite felt before and
that's something Allah promised about his haram. Whoever
enters it, enters into the state of Amin.
And those of us who Allah has not
provided the risk and the gift of seeing
his haram yet, may Allah open that door
for all of you.
Let the person who's thinking about Islam put
them in a place where they feel completely
safe so they can make that decision without
any pressure. So
that's Okay. Last thing.
I think it's the last thing. Oh, yeah.
1 2 more things. Okay.
Iman
is actually to for the per the person
to accept the truth and actually declare that
they have they have accepted that truth.
And this happens when 3 things come together.
The heart is completely accepted something
and the tongue has accepted it.
And the actions are in line with that.
When you're acting against your feelings, you feel
a disturbance.
When you're being kind to someone you hate,
it bothers you.
Or when you're being mean to someone you
love, it bothers you inside.
When your heart and your actions are in
contradiction, it creates a friction.
It creates a dissonance inside you.
Iman means being in a state of peace
and calm. I cannot be in a state
of calm unless my insides and my outsides
are synced.
There's no contradiction between them. I'm not acting
against my own beliefs.
You know? There are people that I've met
that, like, have a sinful life,
Muslims that have a sinful life. They're about
to walk into a club, but right before
they walk into a club, You Allah, I
know this is bad. I'm really sorry. Okay?
Like really really sorry.
Okay. I gotta go. And then they go
inside.
You know?
And even though they could go inside and
they they'll they'll describe because I talk to
people like that. I wanna know what goes
on in their head. Right? They're like, so
what do you feel when you're in there?
It's like, I just turned it off. I
was like, turn what off? I was like,
turn turn my heart off.
I just don't want to feel
because if I turn it on, I'm gonna
feel what horrible.
I'm gonna feel terrible.
And then when it's all done,
then sometime later, I can't even I I
I'd like to keep it off, but it
what happens to it?
It turns back on and I feel horrible.
I feel really terrible about what I just
did.
You know?
And that's when, you know, even the Hadith
of the Prophet
you know,
The
thief,
when when he's engaged in the act of
stealing, isn't actually a believer at the moment,
which is similar to what this gentleman will
tell me when he's walking into the club.
What does he do? He turns his iman
off.
He switches it off.
Let me not.
Right? And then let me do this and
then let come back. And what is Iman
in the end?
I want I never wanna turn this off
because this is what gives me real peace.
I don't want this to disconnect from me.
I don't want to be disconnect and that
cannot happen unless the insides are inconsistency with
the
outsides. Right? That's what Imam Rahib is telling
us. Okay?
Now both and have
something to do with storing something within. Did
you guys get that?
Okay. Kufr, burying, hiding, concealing something,
plus
being ungrateful or denying any favor done, pronouncing
disavowal.
Who could be more wrong than someone who
hides testimony that they have from Allah? This
is what kufr is. Iman is containing something
within, like kufr.
However, being safe, giving safety, and being at
peace.
So both you have something in, and one
is giving safety, and the other is not.
Look at how Allah describes the situation with
iman. He says in Surat Al A'am,
Which of the 2 groups deserves peace more,
if you have any new if if you
if you know it all?
Those who believed and didn't corrupt their belief
with any wrongdoing.
In the next 3 minutes, I'm just gonna
share with you, I'll come actually I should
read all of this to you because I
don't want to skip anything.
So this is classical commentary on this Iman
and Kufr, the in this ayah.
What Allah means here is there are those
of you when they hear the truth, they
accept it. And
there are those of you when they hear
the truth, they want to argue against
it. That's what he means by kafir.
The one who argues against the truth when
it comes to them.
This is the scary one.
AbbaHaq said this ayah means among you are
those who openly look like they believe, but
actually secretly they are
disbelievers, like the
Or it can also mean those who on
the outside look like they disbelieve,
but actually on the inside they have already
believed.
So it's not so
even the Haqq is recognizing
that this ayah is not about external iman
and external kufr, it's actually about internal iman
and internal kufr which is the real one.
That's the real one. The outside one is
just for social purposes.
But on judgment day, that won't mean anything.
The only thing that will mean something is
the one that was inside. That's the real
one. And so he's saying there may be
someone who looks but
is and there may be someone who looks
but is
you know, like Yasser Omar Ibn Yasir.
There could be somebody who's being forced, but
their heart is content with Iman.
There may be a Hindu living in India
right now in a very extreme right wing
anti Muslim village where if anybody finds out
that they're Muslim, they'll get slaughtered.
So they're attending their temple worships with their
mother and cousin and everybody else, but secretly
they go in a closet or in the
side of bathroom or somewhere pull a curtain
and make 2 rakah and they're doing that.
Right? And on the outside they look like,
Ah, these Hindus, these pagans, but Allah knows
that that person is a what?
Is a believer. They're a believer in Allah.
They're just not in a situation
where they can openly declare their faith.
Right?
This is a narration.
The Prophet
spoke to us 1 night.
And so he said, Some things that are
going to happen.
The Prophet was talking about things that are
going to happen, and he said,
People have been brought to life, people have
been born in different categories.
There's a person who was born a believer
and was raised, lived the life of a
believer, and died a believer.
A person is brought brought into a Kufar
society, born into a disbelieving society,
lives a disbeliever's life, dies a disbeliever.
And a person may be born into a
believing family,
lived as a believer, but died a disbeliever.
And it could be a person who was
born in a disbelieving society,
lived a disbeliever's life, but died a believer.
But this is again describing the internal state.
This is a hadith mentioned by Al Khortubi
in his tafsir of the Saia. And it's
Sahih Muslim.
There could be a person who does things
that look like the kind of things people
of Jannah do.
So he's doing heavenly good deeds
from what people can tell, but this person
belongs in the fire.
And it may be someone who who does
things that look like he's bound for hell
as far as people can tell, and he's
from the people of Jannah.
Our scholars have said about this hadith
That's because Allah has eternal knowledge of what's
really going on with someone.
And Allah has real knowledge of their constraints,
of what the real state of their hearts.
And so Allah will decide according to his
perfect knowledge.
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