Ayah 153-163
In his exhaustive study of Surat Al-Baqarah, Nouman Ali Khan reflects on the second and longest chapter of the Quran. He explores how Allah, in his own words, answers some of the most compelling questions being asked about Islam today by both Muslims and non-Muslims.
Our mission is to spread awareness of the message and divine beauty of Quran across the world support our [email protected] that's ba y y i n H dot o RG. So, what I want to share with you today inshallah is reflections and some, some teachings from about 11 out of the Quran, if a lot allows for that, for our time to be productive, I hope to go through 11 out for those of you that are taking notes, which are obviously only on the sister side.
This is IRA number 153 to 163 1532163 of SoTL Bukhara, you guys know circle Baqarah is the longest surah of the Quran. And the first part of the surah, a huge chunk of it is dedicated to the nation that was given revelation before us. That's the Israelites Vanessa in, they were given the Torah, and they were given messenger or prophet after prophet after prophet to renew the teachings of the Torah. And this went on for many, many, many centuries, Allah gave them a chance to live by this book, and be a role model for all of humanity. Everyone in the all the nations of the world, were supposed to not just get the message of Islam from a person, you know how you do that to a person as
an individual. But actually, you were supposed to receive the message of Islam from an entire nation that models the religion. And that was supposed to be the Israelites. That's why I kept giving them prophet after prophet after prophet so they could make the case to all of humanity. This is what it means to live under a laws law. And so Allah says, any football to come out and I mean, I gave you preference over all other nations. But the sad tragedy of history is that Allah chose them, Allah gave them all these chances, but they disappointed Allah in many, many different ways. And there's a long list of why they disappointed a lot. And basically, if you have been given a responsibility,
and you fail to fulfill that responsibility over and over and over and over again, you're gonna get fired. You're gonna lose your job. And essentially what Allah does is he removes the Israelites in this first part of Bukhara. He says, No longer do you deserve this recognition. I am taking that title away from you, and I am sending my messenger instead of sending a prophet among you, I will send it among the Arabs now, from the children of this mine. And that's our messenger Muhammad sallallahu alayhi wa sallam, the last of all messengers, when he sent this final messenger Elisa to saddam, it symbolized a few things. I won't go into those, but I do want to highlight where we begin
today. I am number 153. A lot of turns to now the Muslim nation us and he's addressing us now the newly formed chosen people. We are now the chosen people of Allah. We have taken up the responsibility that was originally handed to Bani Israel. It was handed to the Israelites, they've demonstrated failure, you're up next. That's what's happening. So Allah azza wa jal says, Yeah, you helina a monster. He knew this. Somebody was solid. Those of you who have Eman, seek help. Seek help with two things. And I'll make it simple for now. Seek help with patience and seek help with prayer. It's hard to understand what that means. But the first thing I want to tell you is this is not the
first time ally is saying this. In total nakara. He actually said exactly this to the Israelites when he opened his address with them. By the end of that opening address, he said was that he knew that somebody was Salah, were in the halaqa, viola, Tony, Allah and Allah Shireen use you meaning the Israelites should seek help with patience and prayer. Again, I haven't explained what that means yet. But it's important to note that this is a repetition. Why is that important? Because they were given the exact same instructions, but when a lot talk to them at first, and now the switch is symbolized in that now Ally's saying exactly the same thing to us. And this demonstrates that we now
have the very responsibility that they once had your turn to seek help. Now when do you need help? When you have a huge responsibility, when you have a large task in front of you, you need help. And unless as the only way you're going to find help, in times of trouble is two things a server and a follow up. So let's dig into both of these for a little bit and understand what Allah means by them. For the Muslim community in Medina, when these IOD came down, they were not the most educated community, actually, the Jewish community was far more educated. They were also not the majority, the non Muslims were the majority society. The prophets I seldom lived as a minority in Mecca. And
he also lived as a minority in Medina, even though the Muslims were influential now, and he had governance. The Muslims as a people were still an influential but still a minority. The majority of people were non Muslim, and the majority of people were even critical or questioning of Islam. They challenged them, you know, and for anybody who became Muslim, they had family members who were non Muslim, and they were having these conversations all the time. Their faith was constantly being challenged, it was constantly being questioned. And in that environment, unless as the only thing that you
You're you're gonna seek help from number one is Southern, you're gonna have to hold on to your faith despite criticisms. There are two major challenges for the Medina community. Listen to this carefully, two things that were challenging their faith. One, there were people asking difficult questions of the Muslims. There are people asking difficult questions, rabbis, priests, people of other faiths. Why does your book say this? Why do you believe that? How can you pray in that direction? That stuff is what was going on in Medina? That's the one is they would they have to deal with difficult questions? Do you guys see that there's a parallel between that and ourselves today?
Right? That's the first. The second was not only were they suffering from difficult questions, there was a population of people that hated Muslims questions or not, whether you have the answer or not, it doesn't matter. They still hate your guts. And they would like to see you completely annihilated from the face of the earth, they absolutely despise you. And they would like nothing more than to spill your blood, and they are bloodthirsty for you. And they're scheming and conspiring and doing whatever they can to come after you in one way or the other. Some of these people are doing it openly, like the coronation Makkah. And some of these people are doing it behind closed doors, like
some of the treacherous tribes of the Jewish community, inside Medina. But there's this enemy that's trying to hurt us. That's the second trial that they're going through. What that does is, on the one hand, the Muslim might be the the first attack, they might be hit with confusion, because when you get asked difficult questions, you start suffering from confusion. On the other hand, if you're going to be attacked or ostracized, where you're constantly under some kind of political pressure, then this will create a situation of fear. So there's two things that the Muslims that will destroy their faith. One is confusion. And the second is fear. The fear and these two are still alive and
well today. What is happening with so many of our young, and so many of our young college students, high school students, even elementary and middle school students, they get asked very different questions, difficult questions about their faith. And it's not even our young people who go into the office and by the watercooler people are asking them strange questions about Islam. And they don't know the answer, and they get shaken up. Then on top of that, there's Trump is done. And they get even more worried now we're crashing Canadian immigration websites, they're probably a lot of Muslims on the
on that website, you know, so there's all this pressure on us. And in this environment, being openly Muslim is much more difficult than being openly anything else. You know, there's a huge pressure on the Muslim community a lot as our gel is describing a scenario in which the pressure on the Muslims was much worse than when you and I think we're going through right now. And he told us, you need to seek help from patience, meaning the word suffer, it doesn't just mean to be patient, by the way, it means to be constant, don't flinch. Don't fall into doubt. Be strong on your faith, don't be afraid, stand in front of the difficulty. By the way, suffer doesn't mean that you don't, you're not scared.
Somebody does not mean that you're not somebody means you're scared. And you're asking for less help give me more sublime, so I'm not sure I can deal with my fear. Fear is a human emotion, and I'll put that inside this, I can never get rid of it. It's always going to be there. Just because you're a better believer doesn't mean you're no longer afraid. But what it does mean is a level give you suffer, and you seek help with it. And what is it like gonna do, he's gonna give you the strength to be able to deal with your fear, and you'll be able to move forward despite your fear. Despite your concerns, you'll be able to move forward. Some it also means something else. Southern means you
don't get distracted perseverance. You know, this the alarm in Arabic, it suggests you don't get distracted, you have a goal, you have a target, you have to achieve that target. There will be distractions along the way, don't get lost, stay on point. stay on target. You know what happens, for example, for a student, I'll give you a parallel, a young man goes to college, His goal is to graduate, but by the time freshman semester is over, there are all these clubs and you know, social activities. And there are handouts, and there's a temptation to cut more classes, and to change your major because it's too hard because your best friend is in that class or That girl is in that class
or something else or the other. You start one way and you start changing course, you lose sight of where you were headed. Unless as the only way you'll be able to seek help is if you stay on course, you don't let these things bother you. Politicians will come and go you know difficult situations, environments will come and go. But this Dean and your mission is going to stay. They're going to stay we have we have we were asked committed to a law before difficulty and after difficulty. Our goals and our objectives as a people did not change. Our religion didn't change our values didn't change what is right and wrong did not change. We are still who we were no matter of the world
changing around us and the environment change
Being around us. That's the that's Southern. But there's here's the beauty of Islam is what I find one of the most beautiful lessons in the Quran in my 1617 years study of the Quran every time Allah gives us something abstract something that seems like it's, you know, an idea like suburb have suburb um you're like where do I get it? I can give you a lecture you guys should have suffered and you have confidence in me Be strong and be firm and you're like okay, is that on sale outside of the bazaar? Where do I get it from? How do I get something and then you hear like at lectures about duck Wah, we should all have duck Wah please increase your duck walk gala is it is the quiet the
cafeteria downstairs? Can I bite some bite into some of it and have it? Where do you get it from? So sometimes we feel like these ideas. They're difficult to physically or practically internalize. What Allah does in the Quran is every time he'll give you an ideal. He'll give you a practical exercise. Here's how you practically get Subbu What does he do is that he knew the Sabri masala prayer will build your sub.
Prayer isn't just an obligor we have we have done such an injustice to the institution of prayer the way a Koran talks about prayer, and the way we think about prayer are two worlds apart. They're worlds apart. We think of prayer as an obligation. If you don't do it, you're gonna burn in *. That's how Muslims think about prayer. That is a problem. Prayer is actually the means of our strength.
Prayer, and why is it the means of our strength? Now I'm going to get to this point. The idea was we want to develop some more like how do we get Southern through Salah. But how is it going to help us why how how in the world is going to help us and what does it mean to seek help? Two things, remember here, I know I'm going to give you a lot of lists. But hopefully these ideas will get organized in your mind, inshallah, there are two kinds of help
you help yourself, you get stronger, and you get somebody to help you. There's two kinds of help somebody training, they're trying to lift more weights, they max out. And every time they max out they can only lift 200 pounds. And they keep trying that well guess what in a week's time, they can lift 210 pounds, because they push themselves harder and harder and harder. The way the more they can handle more now because the more you push yourself, you are actually helping
yourself with prayer, you yourself are becoming stronger. You yourself are becoming more capable of handling challenges. That's one part of esteana of seeking help. The other part of it is somebody else helps you
there's two parts one you help yourself to somebody else helps you the beauty of this ayah seek help using PATIENTS That is to say seek help through the prayer suggests one you will become stronger as a people if you utilize the prayer properly and to only then when you become stronger, you are qualified for Allah's help. Allah will also help outside help will also come but it doesn't come on its own. Allah wants to see whether you maxed out on your own first, did you do the most you can first then He will send his help. Let me give you one example of that. When the Muslims went into battle against a crush, the first major battle in the life of the Prophet sallallahu alayhi wasallam
is the Battle of butter. And many people here know that we were outnumbered 123 or more or worse, okay, so there were three times bigger and army and maybe 2030 times more equipped than we weren't that that was the odds that were against us. When we went into battle. A law says he sent angels down. He sent angels into the army and he sent 3000 angels, which actually made it a three to one disadvantage against them. And it's actually infinitely more of a disadvantage. Because those aren't even human beings they are what angels. But those angels did not come while the Muslims were sitting in Medina saying y'all law just send angels because you can handle it. I'm going to stay home and
pray for this angelic intergalactic battle to be over soon.
Allah will not send angels until even if you have a stick in your hand you come out into the battlefield
and you show up ready to die. And then Allah says you know what you have shown me everything you've got. Now you deserve some angelic help. Now we'll send you angels, you understand the help of a lot we can pray for the help of a low but the help of Allah will not come unless we have done everything to help ourselves. That is the formula of Islam of the Quran. Now let's talk about the prayer. How does the prayer gives you the strength to help yourself. How does the prayer give you the strength to seek the help of Allah. When we stand in prayer, we're standing humbly by the way we're standing the whole
Other time you see this kind of a stance is a military. It's a standing like an army and like complete perfect rose. And the only time you see people move in perfect unison exactly at the same time moving getting up standing. The only time you see this is what kind of discipline, military discipline. And the only other time you see that nobody says a word except if a law gives permission is judgment. A judgment is when humanity stands. And they're just that soft, fun law and they're going to be enrolled Allah describes them in rows, just like the stand in prayer nyata kalamoon they're not going to be talking just like we don't talk in lamina Vina la hora man except the one
gives permission to so it's actually a rehearsal for judgment day too, but understand something here, when you become organized, do you become stronger?
The Prayer is an exercise for Muslims to learn discipline for Muslims to become more organized for Muslims to move at the same time in obedience of a love for Muslims to forget about whether or not they're wealthy or poor, or their their this color or that color knowledgeable or not. Every one of them is an equal asset. As a matter of fact, there cannot be a single gap. If there is a gap. Somebody has to fill it, isn't it. Everybody's lined up together. It's incredible that we have perfect rose that is a it's a thing of beauty, like people come non Muslims come and see a Juma prayer of people that don't even speak each other's language. You could send me sitting next to
someone you can even say hello to them in the same language. And when a chemist Salah happens, they're all like, Whoa, wow, these guys are like, have they been rehearsing this stuff? Because they're like soul aligned. And these are the same people that park outside like it's Meena Bazar in Karachi, like, they don't even know their lines. There. They can spark industry, like, you know what's happened. We don't learn the lesson of discipline in prayer. As soon as the salon the salon is done, we're like, oh, we don't need that anymore. Let's go back to chaos, because it's working so well for us. You know, the first strength of the Muslims is actually in discipline. That's one of
the first lessons of salon that will give you perseverance and strength because we feed on each other strength. Here's the other thing. When you're standing in prayer, then you're bowing down. And then you're such thing, I made up the word such thing. Because prostrating, I can't use that word anymore. I'm tired. I used it one time, I was saying, hey, so you guys know about prostration. And this kid raised his hand he goes, isn't that a? Isn't that? Isn't that a procedure? is not an operation. I was like, No, I'm never using prostration. Again, such thing is what I'm gonna use.
When you're bowing down or putting your head on the ground, who are you putting your head before? A lot when you're standing with humility and fear, who are you standing in front of it is training you that the only time you humble yourself and you bow yourself and you stand afraid is before a lot, which makes you lose the fear of everyone else. It gives you strength, the only one I will bow before, figuratively or literally in my head, or physically is going to be alone. The only one I will stand in front of humbly afraid of being judged. Afraid of punishment. The only one I will do that with is a lot. The only one I will have hopes with is Allah is that he knew that somebody was
Salah, show a lot. That attitude when you stand in prayer, and guess what allows help will arrive. And that's that second part allows helpful arrive is how the eye ends in a llama sobbing, no doubt about it. A lot is with those who have suffered.
He mentioned two things he said suffer and prayer. And then he said I'm with those who have suffered. Why didn't he say I am with those who pray? Because he could have he mentioned two things he could have ended the ayah with either one. I'm going to be by those who pray or I'm going to be by those who have suffered. We're learning something very valuable here. Not everybody who prays actually gets the right stuff out of the prayer. What were you supposed to get out of the prayer.
But for some people, it's an empty exercise. It's
like the criticism of the mushy Kuhn. It's cries and sounds, that's all it is. It's nothing more, but those who find the spirit of the prayer and find their strength, know that Allah will be with you in the law. masabi. I also told you that the questions were being asked of the Muslims, which can make them doubtful, right?
Where do you find the answers to those questions? You find those answers to those questions in a laws book jar and How cool was that? How can bottle the truth has come and falsehood will disappear? What is the best way to internalize the message of the Quran is when you stand in prayer. When you stand in here the IOP being recited. It removes your doubts
it casts those away, it strengthens you again, the tragedy of the oma today is most of us, when we stand in prayer, we don't know what's being recited. That's a reality. I don't blame you for it. You were born in Wisconsin. And you know, you you never learned any Arabic, that's not your fault. Your parents didn't even know Arabic, so it's not their fault. And even if you knew Arabic, it's like the Arabic to order a shell or a mile from like Cairo. So it's not going to help you with your Salaam, much. So that's not your fault. But you know what, we have to recognize something. When the Sahaba sought help from the prayer, they sought help with Allah's words that gave them comfort that gave
them strength, that build their confidence, all we hear is one night and konkola NFR. And you've heard we hear that we then were like, Oh, that's really nice a la hook, but we don't hear the message. The prayer was fundamentally about the message. So we're gonna have to do something, we're gonna have to do something short term, and we're gonna have to do something long term, short term, we're going to have to compensate by studying the Koran that we pray.
So you and I were as an oma, we're gonna have to start learning what this book is actually seeing and pondering over it. Because that exercise was automatically included inside the prayer, since it's not possible for us to be inside the prayer right now, we're gonna have to make up for it. And if we don't, we're not gonna find the somebody we're looking for. You understand. So we can't just say our prayers, like the prayers of the companions, something has to be something has to give. The second, the long term thing we're going to have to do is we're going to have to facilitate the learning of the Quran and the learning of the language of the Quran for ourselves, even if it takes
years and our next generation. So 10 1520 years from now, our kids and our grandkids are not going to say, I wish I knew what I was saying in prayer. Our kids shouldn't be saying that there is no excuse left, in a time where there are there are villages in the world that don't have electricity, that don't have running water, and have access now to education. They now have access to education, because of the world we live in, there is no excuse left for the Muslim Ummah, that they don't learn the language of Allah 's book. And they don't empower their next generation. And we need to have a plan in place. And we need to have a vision in place that we do that because we want to be the
people who truly seek the help of Allah is that he knew that somebody was Salah, in a llama savini Now, once it builds that strength in you, Allah says in the next ayah one of the scariest things we've just been inaugurated as the nation that replaced the previous nation. He says one Taku Lima, loopy, Sabina, he Ahmad, but
don't you dare say about those who have died in a less path who were killed. Anybody who's being killed in a less path that they're dead? No instead alive. He doesn't even say they're alive. He just says alive exclamation mark. Yeah, American law Hola, hola. Hiya, Hiya. They're alive. When I cannot rule, however, you have no realization, this is very powerful. The first thing that I'd like to share with you about this ayah
is that now we're being told, what kind of strength and commitment Do you have to have a slump? When you're standing in front of Allah? What is it? What does it remind you of what did I say not just discipline, it is a rehearsal for which day judgment thing. And if you are preparing yourself constantly for judgment day, that means that you are more ready for that journey to Allah than anybody else. Which means you are not afraid, like every other people have death. And if you're holding on to this religion is the reason you will be killed. So be it. Because that means I'll just go meet with a lot. And actually, I know that this isn't death. Every time I stand in prayer, I
recognize this is just one step in life. And the next step is when I'm going to go meet with a lot. So don't you ever see again, anybody who got killed in the last path that they're dead? No alive? You don't you actually don't realize it. The other amazing thing here is you you're thinking about fear and you're thinking about intimidation has changed completely. Those that died in the last path, those that died because they held on to their faith. Like you know, your son and his family and Makkah, they died and they were killed in a lost path. Those kinds of people are now your heroes. And you're talking about them and you reciting about them and you reliving their history is
also bringing them back to life. It's interesting. We believe in life after death. Yes, you guys know that. But the one who was killed for their Islam. They're actually a special kind of life after death. In our literature, in the sacred literature, the people who die for the sake of Allah who were killed because of Islam, they have a special kind of death.
Actually a different even even though we believe in buttons and that's the kind of life to what is special about it. Allah will tell us a few hints. We don't know everything about that life. We know a few things. He says For example, for the Hina Bhima Tahoma human family he, they are overjoyed because of the gifts of lions giving them
so they're not alone. They're actually hanging out among each other partying and laughing it up because of the gifts Allah is giving them when you're stumped Sharona, binladin Anima animal hakuba him in healthy him, and they're congratulating each other about the people who haven't yet joined them.
So in a sense, they have a view into you and me. Like, you know how you watch sports, you're like, I hope to win in the playoffs. I hope they do good. There's like most believers that have passed away, that are actually rooting for us. In this other life of theirs, they're alive. And they're actually part of our support. They're praying for us and they're congratulating, they're congratulating each other, that more of us are coming to meet with them. Allah, hopefully I lay him while they're congratulating each other that more of us are coming who will have no fear anymore, and no sadness anymore. That's another Emraan. But now unless as here when I came
in, but knowing by the way that other people have sacrificed a lot more than you and I have, it gives you strength,
and just gives you strength. It makes you more confident. I tell you like the things that I've learned even recently,
it gave me strength. I was going through a little bit of depression because of what's been going on with the Muslim community. I'm By the way, I am not nearly I am the farthest from depressed about the elections. I am not worried about the elections at all. I am not one of those people, I'm sorry, at all. It doesn't bother me one bit. If anything, I think this is going to make the Muslim community stronger. If anything, it's going to make our young women more bold when they stand up and wear their hijab on college campuses. It's going to give them it's going to give our young men a spine. So when people say things about them, they know how to respond with intelligence. They're
going to the world will the United States and the world over we'll see how Muslims stand up for themselves, they're going to see that it doesn't worry me. We are not a people that are afraid. We are a people that face challenges, because Allah has given us His Word. He's given a strength. So I that's on a side note, I'm not worried. But I want to share one story with you that really like my gut was wrenched when I heard it.
So you guys know that there's a historical Muslim community in Granada, Spain, right?
The Spanish, the Muslims in Spain actually also went through an inquisition. Like the Jewish Inquisition, the Spanish Inquisition wasn't just directed at the Jewish community, it was also directed at the Muslim community. And the way they in some of the historical documents describing that Inquisition is very, very difficult to read, soldiers would walk into your home, they would ask for the wine and the pork.
If you don't have it, you were killed. Because that is an indication that you're Muslim, which means you must be killed. So the Muslims in order to protect themselves would keep water in their homes, wine and pork. That wasn't good enough, a few you know, sometime later, the soldier said, the Muslims have caught on, they have wine and pork in their home, we can tell who's a real Muslim and who's not. Now we're gonna bust into their doors, we're gonna ask them to bring the wine into pork and drink it in front of us and eat it in front of us. And the Muslims were forced to do it. And Allah just says for money.
If money if you were forced to do something like that, there's no sin on you. So the Muslims got away with that, too. They're like, it's not good enough. We're still not, they might still be holding on to their Islam. We're gonna make them drink pork, drink, drink alcohol, eat pork, and then we're going to make them curse, their profit and step on their book.
That's what we're gonna make them do. We're gonna make sure there's no Islam left here. They wanted to gut Islam out of that society. The few Muslims that were left in hiding, the scholars of the time gave them special instructions. The instructions were when you're going to pray, stand behind a wall, like stand against the wall, lean against the wall, and then pray.
Because if you're leaning against the wall and praying, nobody can come, the soldiers won't come from behind on stab you or slice your neck. You can't see the enemy coming from behind. So wherever you are, just pray against a wall and always have a copy of the Bible in your pocket. So if the soldiers are coming and they're not sure what you're doing, as they get closer, just pull out the Bible and start reading it. So they won't know that you're white, that you're Muslim. You know what's crazy, centuries later, centuries later. Now there are families Christian families,
Granada, Spain, who are discovering that their ancestry was Muslim, and entire families, extended cousins included are accepting Islam.
And you know, they're the strangest Christian community in the world. They're a peaceful Christian community now. They're the only Christian community in the world. Whenever they read the Bible, they stand against a wall.
To this day, you know where that comes from, right? They don't even know their ancestors were Muslim saving their lives.
That when you read when you when you study that, and you read what those people went through, then you're like, yeah, we're okay. We got this No problem, a low test, and those who die in the last pass, don't say about them that they're dead, they're alive when I can let us rune. Now the ayah for the rest of us look, the reality of it is even though we say you're alive, give us Shahada in your path. The reality of it is a lot historically has not killed most people. Most people, most believers don't die in the path of love. They're not killed in the path of alone, you're not gonna die on a battlefield or somebody persecuting you, most likely, that's not the case, the mass
majority of us die. You know what I
mean? Like, if you were to be killed in a less path, or even if you just die, most of us have a regular death, death because of disease or accident or something else, right?
What about us? What about the other trials, that's the only thing that you should mentally prepare yourself as not to die in the path of Allah. But short of that, when I know that one, there can be a min and COVID he will do and he will not send me another one he will enforce he was a mirage. Oh, absolutely. All of you are going to be tested. Allah says he swears by it. He swears by the fact that each and every one of us is going to be tested in one way or another be shaken in the ayah means you don't know the way you'll be tested. be shaken also means your test is going to be different from mine. And my children's test will be different from mine, the young generation, their
test is different. My test is different. What I faced in high school is not what they're facing in high school, the girls that you know, that were 1819 years old, 20 years ago, and the girls that are 1819 years old, now, their tests are completely different. This is the beauty of the word be shaped and in the eye a number one condition, we will absolutely put you to the test, no doubt about it with all kinds of things. And they will have to do with what we now hope you will do. They will have to do with fear and hunger, fear and hunger. Think about that. All kinds of tests that will have some kind of fear and some kind of hunger, there are people that are afraid that they won't get a
job because they're Muslim today, isn't that the case that they're going to be discriminated against? There are people that are young women that are afraid to put a hijab on when they go outside, or let their daughters go to college, they're afraid of the harassment that might happen. They're afraid to get on a bus. Or to get into the subway in New York City, they're afraid our children are afraid of being bullied in schools like that horrifying incident of a young kid who can be committed suicide in England. And that's not the only case wherever I have traveled in the western Muslim world, children are being bullied in schools, no exceptions. No exceptions. It's in
the city I live in, in Dallas. It's here all across Texas, it's in Ohio, it's in Illinois, it's in New York, it's all over the place. It's all across Canada, it's all across Australia, children are being terrified in schools, and they can't defend themselves, we have to defend them. The Muslims, if you're not going to stand up for anything else, one of the places we have to just grow a spine and make noise is the school system.
Because most of our kids are not in Islamic school, that's just a reality. And they can't be they they're not going to be and those kids deserve a good education without the kind of harassment that they're going through right now. Those are our children that we have to stand up for. And that's on you and army, we have to go to every school, you know, board meeting, every one of them be the annoying Muslim there. And we better show our face. And they better know we're not going anywhere. And we have to learn to speak their language, you know, what their languages, lawsuits, that's their language. And if you don't, if you don't understand their language, then they're not going to
understand what you're saying. And this speaks more than anything else. This is the language of the land, you know. But anyway, I digress. You know, Allah says that he will test you with fear, anything to do with fear. There's going to be fear about you know, whether or not we're safe here. We have a future here. Our businesses will survive here. There's those kinds of fears. Then the law says, You are the wisdom of it. I'll briefly mentioned there's a there's a sequential thing here. First comes fear before the horrible thing happens. There's fear. After it's happened after war, there's hunger. So Allah says there will be trials before the difficulty and there will be trials
after the difficulty
And those are both legitimate trials but and you will face all kinds of them. But then he gets to what is my favorite part of this ayah? Why not a minute and Wiley will unfussy. What some arati there are three kinds of losses. Please listen to this part carefully. There are three kinds of losses. Allah mentions, the first loss is money, wealth, or when we won't even call it money, we'll call it wealth. The second loss is people. And the third loss is fruits. Now, I'm going to ask you, what were the three kinds of loss mentioned in the ayah? What was the first one? Well, good, what was the second one? People and the third one? fruits. Now let me tell you what wealth means for the
Arabs of the time. Their goat, their camel was wealth. Their farmland was wealth. There, their palm tree was well, the dates were well, actually one of the currencies of the time was dates.
Okay, that's the poem and that was a currency of the time, milk was, well, the skin of the animal was well, it wasn't just currency, anything they had at their disposal that they were using was their wealth. For us. It's our bank accounts, it's our cars, it's our assets. It's our clothes. It's all these things that we have at our disposal Allah says and I will absolutely test you by taking away some of those things Noxon Minh, and while some money will go down, sometimes business will be good. Sometimes it'll go down. Sometimes your your everybody else is getting a promotion. And because your name is Muhammad, Abdul Karim when Abdullah when you're not getting a promotion, you
know, like Muhammad Ali, yeah.
Nope. So you're you're suffering, or you're even being demoted, everybody else is getting a job, you're not getting a job because of the name on your resume. that's gonna happen. That isn't that is a difficulty we're gonna face. You know, there are people that are not going to give you business because of your name, otherwise, they were going to give you a business. You know, Oh, I didn't realize you guys are Muslims, I'm not dealing with you. Otherwise, a perfectly legitimate business is gonna be lost because you're Muslim. This is and just generally about lost, that will suffer. But Allah says, because of your Islam, you will suffer financially.
By the way, one of our trials, it was even asked, the Haram ways of making money are so easy in this country.
And the Muslims want to get into business. But this store has liquor in it that one has a lot of machine in it. This one is a mortgage, that one is Riba based This one has alcohol, etc, etc, etc. And we have to take a loss on every investment. Everybody else gets ahead, we stay back. People that are into ribba, they can make real estate deals and become millionaires, even though they they've got like 20 homes on a mortgage, and they're all being rented out or mortgage out. And they keep building on their their virtual Empire because of whatever we have to be, we don't have those luxuries. So we get held back, isn't it? How do you think they build these mega churches, they don't
take they take interest based loans. We don't take those. We don't take our machines, the basement and it's got the carpet that smells like socks from 1987. And, you know,
that's awesome. And women like you when they go into such that they get a nice head massage from the wall every time and
that's our reality, there's gonna be a seminal one. But the thing that I wanted to highlight now is actually an enforce, what does it mean loss of people? What does that mean? It means people that are killed. That's one kind of loss. There are also people who we depended on and they died.
Their community leaders, elders, people that are pillars in our society, great scholars, that we look to that we asked them and they Allah takes them. And we feel like what are we going to do without them now? How are we going to survive, there's going to be next seminar. And for those people that we love, and we need, they're going to go in, that's going to happen even within our families. There are people that we depended on that are taking their time came and took them. That is something we're gonna have to deal with. There's another people log loss of people, when you become serious about your religion.
There's, you know, there's two kinds of audiences here, I would imagine most of you have Muslim family. But I also imagine many of you have non Muslim family. And because of your Islam, both of you, the Muslims, and the non Muslims, because of your Islam, you have lost some people in your family.
They don't want to talk to you anymore. You started praying, they stopped talking to you. You wear a hijab, or you started learning some things about Islam or whatever. And they're like, no, you're the object of ridicule. Now, you're the object of criticism. They want nothing to do with you. You've been ostracized, you will suffer a loss of people because of this religion. That comes with the territory. Congratulations. And I didn't just say congratulations by accident. It's coming. Well
machinist, Siberian congratulations. The exact word is coming. But I there's one more thing left. I talked about money. I talked about people what's left? Kreutz? You know, this is the most amazing part because money for them included fruits. Remember, I told you dates were also currency crop was also currency. Allah already mentioned what includes fruits, then separately mentioned fruits again. And this is a really beautiful addition in the ayah. Because it's highlighting something both about money or wealth. And about people. Fruits when it comes to people is our children.
Loss of children. That's one of the meanings of fruits aren't my fruit is my children.
The second meaning of fruit? Not some kids were like, I'm not a fruit.
No, not that kind of fruit.
But the second is actually much more difficult to understand. So let me give you an example. First, it'll help you understand it.
Somebody owns a tree back in the day, they just own one tree and it gives them fruits. Yeah,
that tree got the, you know, the fruit came. It's perfect, it's ripe. They picked all the fruit, they gathered it in the basket. And that night, somebody came and chopped down their tree.
Okay, now they're very upset that their tree was destroyed, but they have some silver lining, what is the silver lining, at least I got the fruits out of it. Right. Now somebody else has a tree and they have fruits, and the fruit is ripe. And somebody came in burnt their tree down before they got to pick it.
Who is going to be devastated more,
the one who had the fruit right in front of them. And they never got to pick it. You see what I'm saying? Elia is saying not just fruit as in money, he's talking about the fruit of your labor, fruit doesn't just happen, you have to put a lot of work in, Allah will give us a special kind of test each of us, there are things we're going to be working on working hard to achieve. Somebody somebody is working hard to get into a school, and they won't get their admission, somebody else is working hard to finish a project. And something comes and wipes all of their effort away. Somebody else was all they wanted to do was build a house or build this savings or whatever. When that is when that's
taken away. It's not just money that you lost, you lost so many years of labor, you start thinking to yourself, I had put so much into this, and it's all gone all of a sudden, and ally is telling you, I will give you those tests, that's not somebody else. When you're going to be sitting there going, why did I have to suffer? Why was the fruit of my labor taken away? Why was all that effort gone to waste? What was the point of that? Like, for example, in my personal case, my life work is the organization I've built. But you know, if tomorrow it disappears, the kind of catastrophe, I would feel my life work. Everything I put into it, all the sacrifices I made and it just disappears.
It just is gone. What kind of devastation would I feel so much more than that we you know how much work and labor we put into raising our children. You raise your child, you try to give them the best possible education, you try to protect them from all kinds of fitna. And at the end of it all, this kid says I don't want to be Muslim anymore.
I don't know how many cases I can tell you if people like that.
kid says I don't want to be Muslim anymore. The kind of devastation the parents go through all that work. All and this was the fruit of my labor. This was what I was building and how did this happen? You know, this is a thammarat. But then, if Allah says he's gonna make us go through all these tough times, how's he going to end the iron? The iron should be and by the way, I'm sorry. I'm sorry. You're gonna go through this. just deal with it. He says instead, well, Bashir is Fabien congratulations to those who have suffered. Is this the first time am I saying Southern? In these ions? No, remember in Allaha na savarin. Allah is with those who have suffered. It's incredible.
How do we hold on to Allah with prayer, remember that we hold on to Allah with prayer and allies with those who are going to get someone out of their prayer. Which means you will never lose Allah, Allah will always be with you. capital W. Allah will always be with you in this ayah there are things that are no longer with you. Is that true? The money is no longer with you. The people are no longer with you. The fruits are no longer with you. Congratulations, Allah is still with you. That's what a blessing. Well bless you this slavery. This is the way of my teachers you and me that you will lose everything else. But the one thing that should give you devastation is when you lose a
lot. Don't
lose a lot and you'll always have a reason to be happy. Before this session is done, I will give you a an explanation or clarification about Subbu because it's one of the most misunderstood concepts in our religion. And I feel that most people that talk about suffer in religious circles, talk about it incorrectly, and actually very in a very problematic way in a poisonous way. So I feel obligated before this is over to share with you some things about summer that I think necessary for you to hear, inshallah, I know I'm testing your attention span, but I'll keep going inshallah.
No, Alaska says congratulate who people who have what
not just any people who have some special group, a special kind of summer people, a special kind of family. What makes them special is the next ayah and levena eva Saba Tomasi baton kalu in Allah He was in LA, he Rajan, listen to my translation carefully. The patient ones, the constant ones who, whenever the thing that hit them, whenever calamity struck them, they respond by saying, We belong to a law, no doubt, and only to him we are going to return. Allah has now given us a statement. That statement is we belong to Allah and to Him, we will return, I want you to understand what that has to do with Southern Andes. What is the connection between the statement and submit? Again, by way of
analogy, if I give you a scenario, it'll make this easier to understand, okay.
Back in the day, people used to be very poor, and they would send their sons to go do trade. Okay, they would put them on a ship and say, go to this other land, go earn some wealth, and then come back. Yeah. Or they would send their sons to get an education like we do. Now. There are mothers in Pakistan and Bangladesh and Egypt and Morocco to send their children to Australia or to England or to the United States to get an education, and then come back. And when they're sending them, they give them advice. They say this money that I've given you, make sure you invested in this on the way there there are going to be bandits they're going to be robbers Watch out for them. Also on the way
there in old times, on the way there, there are going to be these dancers and these clubs and these other frivolous activities. And you you're a young man, you'll be tempted, you might blow all of the money or your family savings on this stuff and get distracted. Don't get distracted, stay away from danger and stay away from distraction. Go and do this business. Right? Stay diligent, stay calm, be patient. And when you make that wealth come back home. Same way the mother says to her son, or her daughter today, you're I'm sending you to college, there's going to be a lot of clubs, and a lot of parties and a lot of drugs and a lot of crazy stuff. Stick to your studies. Don't get caught up in
that stuff. Pick your roommates carefully. Don't go out late at night. Don't get yourself in trouble because I'm not going to be there to watch you. And I'm hoping you know in a few years, you come back home. What was their starting point home? What was their ending point? What was their ending point supposed to be? home they started at home they ended at home. This is the analogy I wanted to give you about in Allah he were in LA he Rajon? What is our starting point as humanity we began with Allah.
Our starting point was who? Allah or mugdock is Allah. Then Allah sent us on this earth. Yes. And he sent us on this journey. And on this journey, he told us there's gonna be things that scare you, there's gonna be times of hunger, there's going to be distraction, trial difficulty, you're gonna keep going through this journey. But you know, at the end of it all, you're gonna come back to who you're gonna come back to me, you're gonna come back home. While you're in this journey, it's easy to get distracted. So Allah says the people of the ultimate suffer are going to be the people whenever difficulty comes instead of getting distracted, they remind themselves I started with a law
and I'm going to end with a law and this is just a bump on the road. This is just something I'm going through right now. But this is not my job. This is not the stuff of my journey. My journey is much bigger than this you see how empowering that is. In Nadella he were in LA he Roger on, you realize that you're on a journey to ally and this is just it'll come in it'll go, sickness will come and go. This life will come and go but my journey to allies there. My journey to allies and going away. This is the Ultimate Teaching of Southern now this is the time where Allah says people who can live by this are not normal people. This is not an easy thing. When difficulty hits. When you get
into a car accident or you know you get sick you guys get diagnosed. I know a lot of young people that have been diagnosed with multiple sclerosis MS is horrible disease to go through constant pain turnings.
Eventually losing control over your limbs some 20 year old walking around and they just fall to the ground they have no control over their legs randomly. so humiliated in public you know, it's it's a debilitating disease so many different trials that we you know so many of us are going through whether they have to do with money or sickness or anything else a lot as our agenda is gonna tell us if you can develop in Nadella he whenever he Rajon, which is not easy. Actually somebody lying in a hospital bed and somebody comes in says have somebody like, easy for you to say.
Okay, yeah, I've heard it before. Thanks.
It's very hard to hear when you're in pain. When I'm at when I'm hungry. I'm not easy to deal with. I'm getting hungry slowly, by the way, so I don't know how the question answers are gonna go well.
But, you know, when you're losing patience, when you're when you're exhausted. When you're suffering, then it's not easy to have patience. So Allah says, I know it's not easy, and if you can accomplish it, well, I salute you literally, unless as I salute, you will not allow him Sana Watanabe Marama. That's the next hire. Those are the people upon whom Salutations, congratulations. Special bonds come from a law firm.
And a special loving, caring mercy comes to them from Allah, everything you go through here, when you go back to meet Allah. Allah says, I know you had some pretty big bumps on the road, I'm going to make those up to you.
And you are going to be so happy when Allah makes those up to you. You're going to be overjoyed.
But then a lot adds what would I call home one motor one? Those are the people committed to guidance, my favorite favorite part of this passage. Now ecoman motor don't those are the people committed to guidance. A lot didn't say this time those are the actually patient ones. Because the entire passage was about patience, right? But he says no, these are people that are committed to guidance. We are now learning something new about guidance. guidance is actually not in this passage. guidance is not how much knowledge you have how much Arabic You know how much Koran you've memorized, how many lectures you've heard or slept in.
That's not guidance. You know what guidance is. guidance is when you're going through a tough time. And you can still hold on to what Allah says.
You can still hold on you don't go down the road of haram because you're going through a hard time. You still believe in Allah and you still persevere and you still don't disobey Him. No matter how tough the temptation is, how strong it is. God and through an akuna cofra The Prophet told us bankruptcy can make someone disbelieve it can almost make somebody just believe lose their faith in the law together. You can still hold on to Allah, Allah Himself salutes you, Allah Himself sounds milliwatts upon you, and then I'll come on you and these are the people committed to guidance. Now I want to share with you the thing about Southern you guys need to listen to this one carefully.
Because I've heard this enough times, and I feel like this is oppression. So I'll start with the wrong idea of someone. Somebody's husband passes away.
And this woman is crying for a whole year. I just can't get over how much I miss him. I can sense him. I smell his clothes and I cry. I'm always thinking about him. Sometimes it's almost like I can hear his voice. Sometimes I go to sleep and wake up and I just say hey, we are late for the office and you're not there anymore. I do this all the time and I just can't help it. And people around me are telling me why don't you have Southern you should have Southern
Is it okay if I don't have Southern? Am I a bad PR? Am I not a good believer because people say you should trust Allah, you should have thorkild and Allah there's a mother who's devastated because their child is sick, or a child passed away or her parent you know a parent passed away a mother or father passed away and people are devastated. Or they somebody went through a tough divorce and they're devastated. And people are giving them lectures about what have one. Southern when they cry when they're overwhelmed when they're upset when they're scared when they're when they're sad. They're being told you should have someone
tell me something you know a prophet named Yahuwah Hassan
you know how many years he cried.
And you know his sons who are ignorant. complained.
Guru Yusuf Hakuna. How are you gonna keep missing use of you're gonna keep talking about use of get over it already. You're gonna kill yourself. He cried so much. He became why he became blind. No, Allah didn't give him a lecture you should have summer.
It's okay get over it. Use of Cayman is gone. You should have more Sabrina. How come Allah didn't give jacoba Salama lecture, we're expecting grieving mothers grieving father's grieving husbands grieving wives grieving children to be more patient than your home.
Is that not unfair? Is that not authentic?
Why do we set standards on our own community and our own on our own families that a lot didn't set? That's not Southern. You know what somebody, somewhere does not mean you don't cry, you can cry. Somewhere does not mean you don't get angry. Some things will make you angry somewhere. Does that mean you're not gonna be scared, you will be scared. Something means even though you're angry, even though you're crying, even though you're scared, you're not going to disobey Allah and you're still going to trust a law. Trusting Allah does not mean you're not sad anymore. You still have sadness Rasulullah sallallahu alayhi wa sallam was he? Was he devastated when Khadija passes away? Was he
absolutely devastated. That's a human emotion. That's not a lack of sub. But we expect anybody who gets upset Oh, look at look at them. They keep getting upset. They have no summer. Ridiculous. This is so ridiculous. And it's a particular kind of cancerous virus. I know there's no such thing. But still found in India, Pakistan and Bangladesh especially.
We get lectures on subjects that have nothing to do with summer.
And it's absolutely horrifying. absolutely horrifying. Some you are allowed to grieve. You are allowed to seek counsel, you are allowed to stay in grief that is a natural human process that you have to you have to allow yourself to go through Allah himself says, Well, one or the other haka abacha, he is the one who makes you laugh, and he's the one who makes you cry. Your tears are also from Allah. That's like your laughter is from Allah, that doesn't come from ourselves. So don't bring this kind of oppression onto people. Now bringing that to our reality. Are we going to be scared about what's happening in our society? Sure. There's going to be fear there's going to be
intimidation, or be sad over things that have happened. Yes, we are sad. But that's not gonna deter us from our mission. It's not gonna paralyze us. That's the other meaning of sovereign. You know, when you become so sad that you can't do anything anymore. You just become paralyzed. Southern actually means you will, you will stay sad, you will be upset but you're still going to get up and do what needs to be done. You're going to find the strength to keep moving on still. Yahuwah his salon is still a father. He's still a role model. He said he's grieving but he's still got Binyamin tilicho look after he's still got his sons to give advice to he's not just crying in his room and
never deals with them anymore. That is not the father he is. So we have to learn the right principles of some of this this is what I wanted to share with you before I go on and this is the last part that I want to share with you inshallah justice if I was gonna go to 163 but I think 158 We're good. inshallah This is the last I'll share with you I promise in the sofa. Well, merata, Masha, Allah,
Allah, safa and marwah are from the great reminders of Allah symbols that remind you that bring about feelings of a loved one to places that he says suffer and more What does that have to do with suffer and fruits and what does that have to do with the test and all of it allies telling us remember I told you every time Allah gives us an idea, then he gives us a practical, the practical exercises what the running between Safa and Marwa will remind you of all the things you go through in life. Why? Because that commemorates like our Prophet told us a lot more and he was someone that commemorates our mother hygena when her baby was crying, and she could not figure out what to do her
husband Ibrahim on Instagram, left them a pouch of food. The Hadith in Bukhari says and Sikka minalima, a little container, a pouch of water, that's it. When the water ran out, she out the shot, she became thirsty for Atocha Avenue her, her son became thirsty, and she starts running between she goes up this hill to see if there's anybody out there, she can run after and go get water, she doesn't find anybody. So she runs down and runs to the other end, trying to find somebody, she looks around, doesn't hear and doesn't see anybody. And then the words one of the words in this ayah so on this hadith rather, that describes her story. You know,
this, her son, the baby that was lying there, out of thirst, he started twisting and like arching his back and digging his heels into the ground. You know, like if you know how difficult it is to see a baby in pain, like if your babies are teething or something. And they are when you hold the baby arches, its back. It doesn't want to be held like a floppy fish. Like babies do that thing. She sees her baby doing that suffering, that baby is suffering, and she can't sit still. So she runs up this hill, then that hill then this hill and that hill, and that by the way, safa and marwah, these two hills, you know why they're called suffering?
What's
the imovel Kirkeby? Rahim Allah has an opinion I find it very peculiar. He says Adam alayhis salam Adam and Mustafa, Adam, Adam the chosen one was sent down on suffer
when he landed on the earth he landed on suffer suffer. The Arabic word comes from Mustafa, the chosen one the pure Hill. And Marwah is where more are landed, meaning our mother, mother was the same origin as woman. The journey of humanity began on those hills. That's, that's one opinion actually founded to see. And now the journey of this mother, she's running between these hills, and then she hears a voice. She hears a voice and she tells herself saw, saw in Arabic means Shut up. You want to take those notes, those are important su H and Arabic means Shut up.
Like I learned Arabic today at the convention, people ask what did you get out of the convention? Arabic vocabulary? What what kind of saw?
I'll tell you later.
She heard a voice. She couldn't believe what she's hearing. She told herself.
Like she told herself to be quiet so she can hear what's being said. And actually, it was the angel Djibouti and he made a you know, he was digging with his heel and some nourishing say with his wing, she ran over, she dug it open. He disappeared, he dug it open, and water started coming out. And she made a little reservoir around it. Right. And it's actually the prophets I send them would describe had she not done that, and would have been a river flowing endlessly all over the world. And actually, she contained it, it would have flooded the entire Earth. You know, and she contains this water, and she drinks from it and she gives her son to drink. Now, what's remarkable to me is that
this story
has everything.
It has fear, you will be tested with what fear, you will be tested with hunger, you will be tested with loss of wealth, loss of people, she might lose her child, she might lose her food, all of it in one.
And you couldn't get more desperate than a woman a helpless woman with a helpless baby in the middle of the desert.
And to teach men and women of this oma It's so beautiful to teach every single believer how to deal with their trials in life. Allah made the role model what you can call a single mother.
That mother that homeless single mother became the role model for every believer to help them deal with their trials. And that's why we run with Allah Casa units but you know, Houma, the Prophet says, and that's why we run between those two. It's incredible. about that woman, I want to highlight some things. There are two characters in the story. There's a woman and there's a baby. There's a woman and there's a baby. You know what's amazing about that? A lot as origin says have Taqwa of Allah be fearful of Allah be mindful of Allah. Then he says, Do not be one or harm. have Taqwa of Allah and have Taqwa of the womb of the mother. When unless has the womb of the mother and
includes two individuals who does it include mother and child. The only other entity we should have Taqwa of other than a lot of stuck a lot of mother and child in the Quran.
And this journey, this struggle is of a mother and a child. And why am I highlighting this? Because the greatest of trials are the trials of mothers and children. And we have to go out of our way to serve mothers and children. We have to honor mothers and children. We have to go secure mothers and children before anything else before and they're By the way, the fruit of this online, there are mothers in the audience, who are also wives who are also daughter in laws, who are humiliated by their in laws. They are not being honored as mothers and their in laws will be asked about it. There are mothers there are daughter in laws that humiliate their mother in laws, and they will be asked
about it. If you have no respect for someone for anything else. Just honor the fact that they're a mother, that they have shown mercy towards one another. Allah made them the example in the Safa Marwah time insha Allah, these are from the symbols of Allah the last lesson of the I won't even finish this is just one last lesson that I mean. He shared I think it's extremely important for us to understand is as follows. So find miroir sacred Yes or no? Yes. What are you supposed to do with suffian Mandala because they are sacred they remind you of God. They remind you of Allah. We should have a picnic here. No, we should have like a maybe a Quran honey or something there. We could take
some tea there maybe no. Some candles. No you run between them.
That place is sacred who decided it's sacred? Allah Who decides what you're going to do there?
alone.
The places that are sacred are decided only by Allah. And what you do there is decided only by Allah.
This is something the oma has forgotten.
People take a place they declared sacred.
They'll take some some great scholar who passed away and his grave, and they say this place is sacred. Do you have the right to decide what's sacred? Or no? Who did the Shah belong to? They belong to Allah sacred places have a lunch I didn't know. The Botha suggests they belong to Allah you cannot you can add to this list you can take away from this list. You can you MCI sacred Medina, secret oxide secret New Jersey is not sacred, you cannot decide that it's sacred, you cannot add to these lists. You understand that? Number one, you cannot add to these lists. Number two, you don't decide what to do then
that is also decided by Allah, Allah, if Allah wanted, we could have been praying to God there or fasting there. Or we could have done that. Or we could have had to dig our heels into the sand. So water comes out exercise, he decided we're going to run. That's what he decided. And that's what we're going to do. So much of the Muslim world is caught up in made up sacred places, fake sacred places, they go to these fake sacred places, and then they do stuff. That's all made up to Who told you to do this stuff? Well, that's what we do here. Why is this place sacred? Well, if somebody decided to sacred, there was a ribbon around the tree must have been for a reason. So we decided to
build a temple here and build a whole Mossad here and this and that, like, this stuff is actually the the stuff of ignorance. This is why, by the way, Safa and Marwa both used to have idols on top of them, you know that the pagans used to have idols on top of them. And when Allah revealed this ayah, the people, the Muslims of Medina, who were new said, should we even do this? Before it was revealed? Kaaba, we understand it's sacred, but suffi miroir right there, we should destroy them right? Or they're not sacred, because that's what they were the idols are, unless has no they've been contaminated. You're gonna remove the contamination, but we're gonna continue to keep the
sacred, you know, the relic of suffian model, and we're gonna continue to honor it. What what I'm trying to tell you is, in our tradition, in our culture, in Muslim culture, in Pakistan, India, Bangladesh, Egypt, all over, we have added things into the religion that don't belong there. And it's created a lot of problems. It's created horrible, horrible problems. Because why do people go to these places forget that that's how ROM or a chick, I'm not even here to tell you about that. I want to ask a harder question. Why do people go to these places? They go to these places, because they're having a hard time. Isn't that true? Somebody is somebody got lost their hair, they're like,
I need my hair back. I'm gonna go you know, visit that orange box or something and it's gonna get solved. Or somebody who really wants to have a son because they keep having daughters because that's such a bad thing.
Don't even get me started anyway.
You know, and they they want to have a son and so they go to these places. In other words, whenever you have something you want, you go to these places some some whenever you have a difficulty, you go to these places. What did I do in these ions? He taught us how to deal with difficulty didn't need you don't have to go to a place you go to a line if you really want to go to a place where do you go? Safa and Marwa sama will teach you how to deal a lot could have given the water without any effort, yes or no? How many times did he make her run?
The baby Twitch, the baby suffers, she suffers. She's almost dehydrated, dying. And then Allah brought his health because until unless he's your effort, Allah is helping come in. So if you're gonna go to one of those fake, you know franchised Walmart spiritual places, and go and put your request in without any effort of your own. Good luck with that, that will not bring you anything good. That will not solve your problems, come back to Allen's book, come back to the teachings as they're supposed to be. And a lot as always, I will secure you. There was some more stuff I wanted to talk to you about. But we've taken too much time already, or should I go on?
You sure?
Okay.
I'll do it. I was always going to do it.
But I made it seem like this was your decision so you feel better about it.
Just so you know that just happened. You were just part of a psychological, elaborate psychological experiment.
In which you enthusiastically added 15 minutes to an over hour 15 minute lecture Alhamdulillah I'm so happy I studied psychology. Okay.
So anyway,
in levena Allah says in La Nina una Anza nominal Reina de mundo de Lima Barbuda, now hola Nassif in kita Buda kailani como la,
La Nina, this shouldn't take long.
I'll translate the ayah first.
No doubt those who hide what Allah has sent down.
Those who do what? Hide what Allah has sent down. Member edema beja na, hula Nassif in Kitab, even after we've clarified it ourselves, for the benefit of all people in the book, Allah has made the revelation clear. He sent it down and he clarified it. It's in the book and it's for all people.
And there are some people who hide it anyway. hula, hula,
hula, Allah curses such people. And those Allah created certain creations whose only job is to curse such people.
What is their crime? It's one phrase they hide what a lesson down? Yes.
This is actually an echo of something mentioned previously in the surah. Previously a lot talked about the fact that the Jews knew that Muhammad is the final messenger that the Jews knew to do. Some Medina knew that the Quran is the final revelation that the Jews of Medina knew that the Kaaba is in fact the house of Allah, and they hit all of it on purpose. So this discussion about hiding revelation was a revelation dedic directed at the Jews of Medina, the Israelites of Medina. But the eye art I just talked to you about, were they talking to the Jews or the Muslims?
They were talking to the Muslims. Yeah, you know, isn't it and in these ayat, Allah brought up again, those who hide what Allah sends down after it's been clarified for people.
These are not only do they apply to the Jewish community now, who's also included in this warning.
The Muslims are not included in this warning. So far, in this passage, different kinds of trials were mentioned. I'll summarize them, there was fear, there was hunger, there was loss of wealth, there was loss of people, there was loss of fruit you right? Now there's a new trial, a new test that the oma will go through, and this is the one we're going through right now. Which is why I felt I should share this with you before I go.
People are looking at us with a microscope, everything we say.
One of the Muslims have to say they're trying to catch us off guard, create a scandal justify that we are a barbaric people, that were not part of the modern world, that were not loyal citizens of any nation, that we are people that love chaos and disruption, etc, etc, etc. In this kind of an environment, there's a constant offense, and we are constantly on the defense. No, no, we're not crazy. No, no, we don't hate women. No, no, no, we don't want to blow anything up.
No, no, no, no, no, we're even gonna become vegetarians for you
will take carrots and make them in the shape of a cow and slaughter that instead, you know, like,
we get so defensive, and so scared because they ask question, does your Sharia law say that women are second class citizens? Have no to say that? What about this verse over here in the Qur'an?
Ah, well, we
that's what we do. You know what happens with us? We would rather talk about things that are not embarrassing.
And we would rather not even discuss things that are politically incorrect in the eyes of people.
Or we'd rather find an answer that is better for people to hear, and they'll be happy with us. Because if they heard the answer, that ally actually says they'll find it offensive. So we should give them an answer. That's not going to get us into trouble.
So the best way to say is, well, yeah, the verses there, but there's a context
and then get out of it.
Or there's a difference of opinion, and get out of it.
A law is often extremely clear about things. But if we are extremely clear, it'll get us into trouble. Isn't that true? And if we get into trouble, then there's going to be fear, hunger, loss of wealth, loss of people, loss of fruit, we don't want any of these losses. So we can't change the look of a law. We're not capable of that. Let's just
Talk about certain things in the book of Allah. Let's just talk about the other things that are happier and fluffier
about let's just talk about Allah's mercy, or Jenna, or let's just talk about, you know, the fun stories in the Quran. Let's talk about but let's not talk about the nation of law that's
gonna get you in trouble, man.
Don't talk about the art of jihad, jihad. It's in the Quran jihad. Yes, it is. But we're not going to talk about it because it might get us in trouble.
And so what do we do deliberately? We hide. We hide things, unless and we hide things because we don't want trouble. Allah says, I will give you a trouble like you ain't seen ever. You hide what I sent down. Allah says Allah will curse. And then Allah created certain angels whose only job is to curse.
You don't know you can handle trouble from people you cannot handle trouble from a lot. Look at the contrast. The previous group, Allah says Allah salutes them unless and Salawat upon them, those who can stand firm, Allah sends his silhouette upon them. He sends His mercy upon them. They're committed to guidance, Allah is with them. This group Allah says Allah curses them.
Wow, what a difference between these two groups.
We don't want to become from this group. We want to be from the first group who would rather face difficulty but not hide their book.
On that note, what did LSA mean botany my beja na hulan nasi Phil kita. After we have clarified it with people, what does that mean? There are things in the Quran that when you hear them, they sound incorrect, or they sound violent? Are they sound harsh?
But when you study them carefully, then you realize there's no violence at all. There's no harshness at all. Who will clarify that? I can't clarify that Who does that? Allah Himself does it himself in the Quran. He does that himself. We don't have to do it. We just have to give the book edge do. The only reason there's controversy about the Quran is people read it at a surface level.
If they reflected if they looked at it deeply, and genuinely there would be no controversy left. There's nothing that you I can talk about in the Quran that I'm embarrassed to share with a non Muslim, not a thing, not one.
Whether it's what your right hands possess, or it's multiple marriages, or it's, you know, fighting in the path of well, you name it, you name whatever you think is controversial in the Quran, I can have a normal conversation with a non Muslim about it. Why not? Because I'm some expert because the law clarifies it himself in a way that appeals not just to Muslims, in the ayah he said enough for all people. A lot will clarify things in a way that will make sense not just Muslims, Allah will clarify things in a way that will make sense to all people have confidence in Allah's words. He knows what he's doing. He knows how to talk. He taught you how to talk, he gives the best speeches.
And we don't have to be ashamed of what Allah says. We have to be proud of what the law says. You have to stand by what Allah says. And by the way, if you commit this crime, what kind of people will Allah curse
alone would never curse believers?
Right? believers can't be cursed. You know what that means? These people who deliberately hide a loss teachings, as far as allies concerned, might even be considered one according to him.
disbelievers that's how serious this crime is. That is the crime of the Israelites. Remember, they got fired for hiding their book, if you're gonna repeat their mistake, you're fired. Not akula caffeine me they were called caffeine look at the next tire in under the market for a woman to juancho for those who did go for those who just believed and died and died in that state, while they were in this what coffin is being talked about in these IOD hiding revelation, hiding the truth. So what if you're eating chicken?
So what if you were celebrating? If you're hiding the truth deliberately, there's a problem. And there's two ways we hide the truth. We hide the truth by not talking about it.
And we also hide the truth but by not living it. When people see Muslims and they don't see Islam anymore. We are hiding the truth. We're the ones hiding the truth. May Allah forgive us. May Allah forgive us for not being the examples were supposed to be. Allah says Allah insha Allah, Allah Allah tala, well, Monica one na ch Marine, those are the people are like the curse of allies on them and the angels and all people why your job was to clarify the book to people with confidence so they can come to Allah when you start hiding it. How will people find a lot and when people come on Judgement and say
We didn't know about Allah even though one fifth of the oma one fifth of the world was Muslim, and they will complain we didn't know about Allah then they will be cursing us. How come you didn't clarify? When you didn't have it in your home? You didn't have access you didn't know how to read you didn't understand. You didn't you couldn't just tell me even a little bit about it. I never saw you living by it. Why didn't you live by it? You deserve to be cursed. Not people non Muslims are going to be cursing these pseudo Muslims on Judgement Day May Allah not make us from them. Holiday nahi ha everything in these if there's two left Holly Dena fee Ha. They will remain in it. Why did
the less ideal remaining? The curse meaning Johanna Why would I say that? We already know it's forever. The Jews believed that they even if they go to Johanna, it'll go they'll go for what? A little while then they'll come out. It'll be a long weekend and there'll be the agenda after that. That's what they believed. A lot of Muslims today believe what?
Okay, fine. I do a lot of super haram stuff. Even if I go though it's not forever right.
Have you heard this attitude before? Allah himself says you commit this crime and you're delusional that you're not going forever. Let me fix you up Holly Dena fee ha they will remain in it forever.
Now you have one whom will either punishment will not be made any lighter for them when our home young Varun and they won't even be looked at. They won't even be given a little bit of time off to meanings of Yumoto and they won't be looked at and they won't be given time off. In other words, your law were Muslim, at least give us a little bit of a break. We're sitting next to them wishing to go into our burning a lot go easy on us. Not gonna be looked at. Not gonna be given consideration. so terrifying, isn't it? That's the other beauty of Quran in my years of studying Quran every time Allah terrifies you.
He gives you hope again.
Like he doesn't leave you terrified.
He says what? You know who? Camila.
Your God is one God. Your God is why did he say we already know our God is one God, what is this ayah doing here? Your God is one God, you know what he's saying? Your God is the same as the God of the Israelites. It's the same Allah, the One who dealt with them is now dealing with you. It's the same inner who gave them a book gave them responsibility, they disappointed him, I am the same and I will judge the same. I gave them mercies and they they took advantage of it and didn't live up to expectations. Now you will be given mercies you will be given tests also, you better live up to it. But Allah says at the end of it all La Ilaha Illa who are Rahmani Raheem, he is alone. No one has to
be worshipped and obeyed except Him. And He is the exceedingly loving, caring, merciful.
And he's always going to be loving, caring and merciful. Allah is at the end of it all. This is how this is why Allah has chosen you because he loves you, and He cares for you. And he wants you to succeed. He gave the worst, by the way, the worst crime is hiding the book of Allah, the worst crime, right? And we're now we're learning in these ions that you know, we cannot afford to become from those people. We want to be from the people who Allah says about them, that he is our Rahmani. R Rahim, our inner inner who Camila Anwar, may Allah azzawajal really make us worthy of being successors to the Israelites, and being able to give humanity the role model that they so badly
need. In every single one of us. I want to end this session. Since this was about a dose of the Quran, I just wanted to share with you just some sentiments about what's been going on in the country in the appointments and you know, in the political sphere. And of course, we're living in Texas, which is extra fun. So, you know, what I wanted to just share with you I'm sure you've heard this kind of a message before. But this is the time to toughen up, grow a thick skin, grow a spine, and be proud of being Muslim. If there was ever a time for you to not be scared, this is how you and I behave now. How you and I carry ourselves now, in this society will determine the future of our
children and their children and their children. We cannot afford to be timid, nervous or scared. We have done no wrong. We are some of the best contributors to this society. We are a NEMA have a lot to these people. And we have to act as such. And we have to stand up for ourselves as such. This is the time doesn't matter what town you live in. You should be going to the town hall meetings locally. You shouldn't be showing your face. So next time somebody says are these Muslims in our town, they're building another mosque. Wonder what they're doing in there. You're sitting there going, Hey, come on over. We'll have some briskets in the mosque.
Let's do it.
They need to humanize us
They don't know who we are. We're too We're too obsessed with ourselves. We don't deal with anybody else. We don't talk to our neighbors. Of course they're scared of us. I'd be scared that you do.
I would just terrifying some of you.
We scare each other at machines.
There are women that have gone to the must've a total of once because of how they were dealt with at the machine, or not even dealt with how they were looked at when they walked into a machine. How they were looked at if we can't even demonstrate mercy to ourselves, why are we expecting the larger society to show us mercy? Why are we expecting that we have to change our ways. We have to take responsibility for what our future is going to look like. A lot of help will not come until you exhaust yourselves and will not come May Allah make us of those who truly exhaust themselves and really become what Allah azza wa jal expects us to become. Especially empower our youth. Remove the
doubts from their hearts, give them confidence in their faith, make them a source of curiosity about their faith for all the kids around them, whether they're in college or in high school or in middle school, or elementary school. May Allah make our children not our weakness but our great greatest greatest strength. And may Allah bless the parents of our community, to give them the right guidance to be able to raise their kids in the best possible way because our Camillo heightened for your patience to sit armonico
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