Nouman Ali Khan – Overcoming Lifes Challenges Through Patience and Hard Work – Surah At-Talaq
AI: Summary ©
AI: Transcript ©
When you destroy the sanctity of the family,
eventually you will get to a society.
That's the first domino, sanctity of the family.
What's the last domino?
This ayah.
As-salamu alaykum.
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So now I'm gonna talk to you quickly
about two dimensions of ma'ataha.
This phrase that Allah does not place a
burden except whatever He gave them, except with
whatever He gave them and within whatever He
gave them.
So let me explain this in by way
of an analogy.
So this abstract idea will become easier to
understand.
Think of a student who's super super smart,
doesn't even have to do any homework.
He can get easily 100 on the exam.
If he spent 5 minutes studying, he'd get
100 on the exam.
But this kid gets a 90 on the
test.
Another student, mathematics was not in his genes.
He has to study 20-30 hours and
barely get to a 65.
Yeah?
A teacher knows that the one who earned
that 65 put a lot of work in
to get to that 65.
And the student who didn't put any work
in got a 90, but even if he
put a little bit of work in, he
would have gotten a 100.
Who is the teacher, a real teacher, who
is he disappointed with?
The 90 student.
On paper, the 90 student is better than
the 65 student.
But in reality, in reality, fast forward 10
years, he's not in 5th grade, he's in
university.
Because if you're a smart kid, everybody tells
you, you're so smart, you're so smart, you're
so smart, things are easy for you.
You start getting used to not doing so
much work and getting through the test.
And the kid who wasn't told, you're so
smart, you're so smart, he was used to
doing the hard work.
Now they're in university, both of those guys.
And for the first time, the subject matter
is so big that being smart is not
enough, you've got to do work.
You can't just go through university being smart,
you've got to get through university doing work.
But the kid who was super smart, was
not used to doing work.
So now for the first time in his
life, he fails a test, fails an exam.
And the kid who was getting 65s, he
got a B, or he got an A
-.
He got fine, because he's used to doing
work.
And the kid that was so happy getting
90s without any effort, falls into depression.
I used to be really smart in school,
I don't know what happened, maybe I became
dumb.
I'm just not smart anymore.
He was on top of the hill, and
then he falls all the way to the
bottom.
He might even drop out of school, because
he never learned the proper working habits.
You understand?
Allah is saying two things.
Allah does not put a burden on anyone
more beyond their budget.
But also, Allah has not put a burden
on you except according to your budget.
In other words, if you were capable of
more, Allah made sure you are capable of
more.
So, Allah expects you to do more.
You were given more wasr, He expects more
infaq from you.
So, it's not just it's within your budget
that Allah expects, but Allah expects more from
people who He gave more to.
Allah expects less from people who He gave
less to, but actually exactly according to their
maximum.
Like Allah, if I have the potential of
doing more, Allah expects more from me.
I'll give you a personal example for that.
Alhamdulillah, according to some people, I'm famous.
So, because I'm famous, I could just turn
a camera on, and put a mic on,
and I could just say something.
And I've been learning for a long time,
so I could just say something from within
the 20 years of what I've learned, and
not really open another book.
And I'll still have an audience.
There'll still be people sitting there listening to
what I'm saying.
And I can produce content.
And then I can look up what are
the different kinds of trending content, what are
the subjects that are trending, get more views.
And I can pick up on those subjects
and start talking about those subjects.
And I can be successful in the social
media realm, or in the popularity realm, or
in the content production realm.
It's easy for me.
I've tons of experience speaking.
I have tons of things I can talk
about.
I can just run my mouth all day,
start a podcast, do whatever, right?
Or I could just sit back and say,
Allah has given me this opportunity.
Allah has given me the resources.
Allah has given me people in my life.
And He's given me an opportunity to serve
His book.
And I know I'm capable of studying it
more than I ever have before.
And I know I have a capability of
connecting people that are studying the book, and
getting more extraction out of the endless treasure
of the Quran.
Then maybe Allah has given other people that
opportunity.
He's given me more of that opportunity, right?
So now I need to decide whether I'm
just gonna put a camera on and do
my minimum.
Nobody will know.
Or am I gonna just, you know, do
more study now than I've ever done in
my life.
And do more work now than I've ever
done in my life.
Because in my mind, if Allah gave me
the opportunity, He expects me to live up
to the vastness of the opportunity.
If He gave me the financial means, the
intellectual means, the social means, the time, the
health.
If He gave me these things, how am
I maximizing that stuff to His service, right?
Those are the options before every one of
us.
With that in mind, in the context of
this surah, what is Allah actually saying to
a man who makes more money?
Allah is saying, be generous.
When you're generous to the woman that you're
divorcing, and you're generous with the children, and
you're generous with the giving of the, you
know, the child support, you're giving more than
the minimum, and you're being generous, you're softening
hearts.
It's a gesture of goodwill.
It's gonna create, you know, ease into the
future.
So don't be tight-* when it comes
to, you know, this area.
And then if you don't have much, okay,
well then give whatever you can.
Allah will put barakah in it.
It's okay.
فَلْيُنفِقْ مِمَّا آتَاهُ اللَّهُ And this is actually
Allah, not just holding us, because fiqh will
describe to you what's the minimum requirement, right?
This ayah is not about the minimum requirement.
The minimum requirement was already in ayah number
6.
Ayah number 7, this concluding ayah, is actually
about, hey, do the maximum that you can.
لِيُنفِقْ ذُو سَعَةٍ مِّن سَعَةِهِ وَمَنْ قُدِرَ عَلَيْهِ
رِزْقُهُ فَلْيُنفِقْ مِمَّا آتَاهُ اللَّهُ And now Allah,
on top of that is saying, and Allah
has burdened you, not beyond your ability, but
Allah has burdened you with certain potential, so
live up to your potential.
Whatever potential Allah gave you.
سَيَجْعَلُ اللَّهُ بَعْدَ عُسْرٍ يُسْرًا Allah will put
in place, after difficulty, He will put in
place ease.
Those of you that are students of the
Arabic language should note, that both عُسْر and
يُسْر are مصدر, مصدران.
They're infinitive nouns.
And infinitive nouns in the Arabic language are
supposed to occur with a لام.
They're supposed to occur with لام التعريف.
So they should be, بَعْدَ الْعُسْرِ الْيُسْرَةِ But
the لام is missing.
So for example, we say in Arabic, we
say correctly, or like the Qur'an for
example says, إِنَّ الدِّينَ عِنْدَ اللَّهِ الْإِسْلَامِ مِنْ
بَعْدِ مَا جَاءَهُمْ الْعِلْ When a مصدر occurs,
the standard for the مصدر is the ل.
Now, when the ل is removed, unusually from
a مصدر, in certain sentence structures, the ل
is removed, it creates a certain effect.
And I'm gonna talk to you about that
effect.
So the نَكِرَ, so it's not every time
you see a تنوين this happens.
This is the تنوين, or you see عُسْرٍ
has a تنوين, يُسْرًا has a تنوين.
They're أسماء منوَّنة, right?
This, when it's an unusual تنوين, so not
every تنوين is unusual.
You can't become self-declared, you know, بلاغة
expert and say, I see a تنوين here,
so I know what's happening.
No, no, no.
Some تنوينs are supposed to be تنوينs.
But some تنوينs are unusual.
They're unusually نَكِرَ, unusually indefinite nouns.
When that happens, a few effects happen in
Arabic.
One of them is تنوّع, the other is
تنكير, and the other is تفخيم.
So let's...
And there's others too, but I'm gonna highlight
these three for you.
What does that mean in basic English for
this ayah?
It actually means, Allah will take any kind
of difficulty, any variety of difficulty.
So in other words, Allah is not talking
about one kind of difficulty.
One kind of difficulty is financial difficulty, that's
been the subject, right?
The guy is spending more, he's spending in
this way, this way, and this way, but
there may be emotional difficulty, social difficulty, there
may be a difficulty of being alienated from
your kids, there may be a difficulty of
people backbiting, there may be a difficulty of,
you know, comments from people, there may be
a difficulty of feeling lonely and isolated, there
are all kinds of internal, external, social, financial,
business.
Somebody stops doing business with you because of
the divorce going on, somebody stops, cuts ties
with you because of the divorce going on.
So, you know, all kinds of difficulties.
Or the kids are going to school, and
other kids are talking to them about the
divorce, and it's hurting the kids' feelings.
Is there one kind of difficulty?
No, there's a variety of difficulties.
And so Allah did not limit the experience
of someone going through a difficulty in a
divorce to one kind.
And how did He do that?
By removing the ال.
بعد عسرين.
Right?
And then تفخيم also comes from it.
تفخيم actually means that it's not a small
difficulty, it's a big problem.
This is a magnanimous, it's a huge difficulty.
So Allah is acknowledging the grandeur, and the
size, and the magnitude of the difficulty that
can come into a person's life as a
result of the divorce.
And then finally it's also تنكير.
تنكير means unknown.
So right now you're going through a difficulty
because of the divorce or whatever.
But there may be as the days go
by, new problems emerge that you never had
to face.
Or you didn't even know they were on
the horizon, and new problems are coming out
as a result of that divorce.
So now this is Allah not only giving
hope, but He's actually also giving a reality
check.
This is not a small decision.
Divorce is not a small decision.
Be ready for the difficulties you can forecast,
and be ready for storms that are not
on the forecast.
And they'll pop up out of nowhere.
But doesn't matter so long as you give
what you're supposed to give.
Any kind of difficulty that comes, Allah will
bring some kind of ease.
And the same تنوين is used for يسران.
So what does that mean for يسران?
It may not be the kind of ease
you're expecting.
It may be a different kind of ease.
You see, some people, they wish life could
go back to the way it used to
be.
Right?
Because that was easy.
Because in our mind, what you're familiar with
is what is easy.
But Allah might bring you a new kind
of easy.
Allah may bring you a new kind of
relief, a new kind of rizq.
And you shouldn't shut your mind to, no,
no, no, it's not the way it used
to be, so it's not good enough.
It's not the way it was, so how
can this be any good?
Because the only thing that was good is
what I knew.
If the only thing that was good was
what you knew, then it would be the
يسر that is known to you, that would
be اليسر.
But the يسر that is not known to
you, it's a new kind of يسر.
Don't dismiss the new opportunities, new situations that
Allah creates, because you're comparing them to the
past and saying, it's not what it was,
so how can it be any good?
Right?
So just like we shouldn't be hung up
on the past negatives, we shouldn't also be
hung up on the past positives.
There are new positives that can come into
a person's life.
There are new good things that can come
into.
And it may be that the good that
you're thinking is not so big, could be
huge, the ease could be magnanimous, it could
be magnificent, you know.
And it may lead, the domino effect, it
may lead to other goodness that can be
much bigger than any goodness you had in
the past, that all of that can happen.
Also you will notice here that I wrote
here the lack of له or the lack
of لها.
يعني سيجعل الله لها يعني للنفس بعد عسر
يصرى.
Or سيجعل الله له يعني للإنسان للفرد بعد
عسر يصرى.
لم يذكر.
He didn't mention Allah will put ease after
difficulty for the person, or for such a
person.
Allah didn't mention the person.
Therefore by not mentioning the person, Allah is
saying, Allah will create ease for you, the
man who was the subject, who's paying the
money.
He'll create ease for you.
He'll create ease for the children.
He'll create ease for the ex-wife.
He'll create ease for the new family that's
coming.
He opened the door of ease as a
result of this, across the board.
And it's almost as if, if you are
open-handed with your spending, and you're generous
with your spending, you don't know that Allah
will use that, not only to put barakah
in your family, but because of that generosity,
Allah might be using your generosity to create
yusr in the other family, or open some
other doors in that family.
So there's this توسع في المفهوم, في المعنى.
There's this openness in the meaning.
And it's so cool that this ayah began
with ذو سعى.
Like, the one who has more vastness should
give out of more vastness.
And by the end of it, you see
the vastness of Allah's mercy opening up.
The vastness of the ease that's opening up.
So there's a سعى from you, and there's
a سعى from Allah.
The last comment I'll make about this ayah
is about the meaning of the word سعى.
سعى is used, the one who has more
should give more, right?
But سعى literally means expense.
An expense could be مادي, but it can
also be قلبي, meaning a person is open
-hearted.
A person is not speaking with...
You know, you can give somebody money, but
you can give it with a look on
your face.
Here's your money.
Here's your charity.
Or you could throw a check at them,
or you could make a comment at them,
right?
You could...
Your face could be condescending.
You could just say something like, So, how's
my money doing?
Just throw a little jab here and there,
right?
Allah says, لَا تُبْطِلُوا صَدَقَاتِكُمْ بِالْمَنِّ وَالْأَذْهَى Don't
cancel any good deeds, any charities, anything you
do by making it sound like you're doing
somebody a favor, بالمن.
And by doing anything that causes hurt.
When you do that, the صدقة doesn't even
count.
So part of your ذو سعى, being ذو
سعى, is not just that you're giving more,
but you're giving with an open heart.
You're giving with kindness.
You're giving with dignity.
You're not giving someone and making them feel
like, Oh, they're dependent on you, or they're
a burden on you, or you're doing them
a favor, or they're eating off of your
scraps, and things like that.
You're not humiliating them.
And that's part of the meaning of ذو
سعى also.
Now, لَا يُكَلِّفُ اللَّهُ نَفْسًا إِلَّا مَا أَثَى
I'll just read some of this commentary for
you because I thought it was beneficial.
وَالْمَقْصُودُ مِنْهُ إِقْنَاعُ الْمُنْفِقُ عَلَيْهِ And the purpose
of this ayah is to convince the one
who spends, to do even more so.
بِأَلَّا يَطْلُبَ مِنَ الْمُنْفِقُ أَكْثَرْ مِنْ مَقْضِرَتِهِ Because
Allah has not asked him more than he
can handle.
وَلِهَذَا قَالَ عُلَمَأُنَا And that's why our scholars
say, لَا يُطْلَقُ عَلَى الْمُعْصِرِ إِذَا كَانَ يَقْدِرُ
عَلَى إِشْبَاعِ الْمُنْفِقُ عَلَيْهَا وَإِقْسَاءِهَا بِالْمَعْرُوفِ وَلَوْ
بِشَظَفٍ i.e. دُونَ ضُرٍ Meaning, the one
who is poor is not being asked to
put himself out on the street, whatever he
can afford, he can do without putting himself
in harm's way.
وَفِيهِ تَطْيِيبٌ وَاسْتِمَالَةٌ لِقَلْبِ الْمُعْصِرِ لِمَكَانِ عِبَارَةِ
آتَاهَا خَاصَّ لِلْإِعْسَارِ قَبْلُ وَذُكِّرَ الْعُسْرِ بَعْدُ So
it's a special comment to the one who's
having financial difficulty, because Allah mentioned آتَاهَا after
I told you that.
Allah attributed that to Himself.
So it's a special kind of courtesy given
to those that are going through difficulty.
وَلَيْسَ فِي هَذَا الْخَبْرُ وَعْدٌ لِكُلِّ مُعْصِرٍ بِأَن
يَصِيرَ عُسْرُهُ يُسْرًا This is important.
Allah is not guaranteeing that after every difficulty,
ease will come.
Allah is talking about this particular scenario.
وَمِن بَلَاغَةِ الْقُرْآنِ الْإِتِيَانِ بِعُسْرٍ وَيُسْرٍ نَكِرَتَيْنِ غَيْر
مُعَرَّفَيْن بِاللَّامِ يُطَوَهَّ مُنَ الْتَعْرِيفِ مَعْنَ الْاِسْتِغْرَاقِ So
Allah is saying, He's actually adding the تنوين
that I talked about is special.
He's saying it's special because if He said
difficulty and ease, that would become absolutely every
difficulty will be gone, and every ease will
come.
But since the Lamb is missing, it would
be some difficulties will come, and some eases
will come, but life will never be completely
free from all difficulty and all ease.
It's never gonna be like that.
So Allah is being realistic, He's making you
have realistic yet hopeful expectations because of the
language of the ayah.
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