Nouman Ali Khan – The Lights of Faith & Action on Judgement Day – Surah Al-Hadid
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AI: Transcript ©
The fundamental light is something Allah empowered you and me with
already. So somebody's saying, Lafayette, I just don't have Iman.
I don't know what to do. First thing you should do is stop lying
to yourself. That's probably the first step. Because you have it,
you just don't want to use it. There's something inside. It's
already there. Allah wouldn't be asking you to double click that
file in your art drive if it wasn't, the file didn't exist
already, you understand? So he says, Yes, I knew ruhon, beta ad
him, Wabi Amani, this is a very powerful thing, because people
feel, when it comes to spiritual growth, that they're powerless.
Some people just have it, and I just don't got it. And that's a
cop out. That's That's something Allah is now removing from our
wrongful thinking, you know, in terms of our faith. Salamander
Gom, before you begin this video, just quickly wanted to let you
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Thank you. I told you a Levina Amanu. You remember a Levina Amanu
was an umbrella term that included three groups of people, and the
third group had an A and A, B. Do you remember that? Right? So even
people that are visibly believers, even if their faith has withered
up or dried up on the inside, they're included in that too. But
on Judgment Day, how you were labeled on the outside is actually
irrelevant. On Judgment Day, how I saw you and you saw me no longer
matters. I see you as a believer. You see me as a believer, all of
those labels and all of that benefit of the doubt, all of that
is gone, because judgment day is not about how we see each other.
Judgment Day is about how Allah sees us directly, without all the
filters, with all without all the social filters and the
protections. None of them are there. In fact, the hypocrites
Allah describes the fact that they consider themselves Muslim is like
a shield. It tahadu, Ayman, aham, Jun, Natan, they took their faith,
their oath, meaning their Islam as a shield. In this life, it is a
shield. But on Judgment Day, does anybody get to have a shield
before Allah? No taramah, you've left behind all the wrappings you
were covered in. You're unwrapped, you're completely vulnerable. And
so now Allah doesn't use the phrase al ASI and Navina Amanu
those who believed the verb form. He actually uses the nominal the
noun form, Al munina When Muna believing men and believing women.
What's the difference between using the verbal form and the
nominal form. I'll explain this in English to you guys. If I say he
teaches, he teaches that's a verb or a noun, teaches that's a verb,
but if I say he's a teacher, is that a verb or a noun? Now, that's
a noun, right? So teaches is a verb and teacher is a now. Now, if
I say he teaches, that means maybe he teaches on the weekends, maybe
he teaches sometimes it's not a permanent thing. Maybe he teaches
part time. Maybe he teaches just in the summer, right? The verb is
temporary. A verb an act, doesn't define you, because it's limited
in its scope, either by the present or by the future, or by
the past, or by the circumstance, it's limited. But when you call
somebody a teacher, then you've kind of described a part of their
identity like you, that's part of who they actually are. You know,
like when you talk to somebody and you say, who are you? They say,
I'm so and so, I'm Zainab Ahmed, I'm Kareem. Then you say, what are
you? And they say, I'm a gamer, right on this. I'm a tiktoker, or
I'm a I'm a blogger, no, basically meaning I'm a useless human being
that has no purpose in this universe. I'm a teacher. I was
something, I'm something, but that er is part of their identity, is
it not when Allah describes believers, believers, not those
who believed, that's the verb, those who believe that's the verb.
But now the noun is being used, believe, believer, male believers
and female believers. That's the phrase that's being used,
believing men and believing women as a noun. You know what that
means? These were the people that internalized that faith to the
point that it became a part of their identity, course through
their veins. They had it for real. It was solid within them. It was
stable within them. Yes, faith goes up and down, and teachers
have good days and bad days. Some dudes, they're better teachers
than other days. Isn't that what happens? But at the end of it all,
there's still a teacher, aren't they? There are some people, yes,
they'll have spiritual, you know, fluctuation in their faith. Maybe
Fridays will be higher than Saturdays. Ramadan will be higher
than post Ramadan. That'll happen. But at the core of it, there's a
there's a live, there's a minimum.
Temperature, heat that maintains that faith is there, and that's
what characterizes them as a meaning. It doesn't mean they have
the same level of faith all the time, but it does mean they
maintain at least a minimum spiritual energy within them and
Allah, and that energy, that constancy that they develop, that
minimal constancy that they develop, that is now how they are
being described on Judgment Day. So what used to be inside has now
come outside. It used to be baton. Iman used to be bath, but on
Judgment Day, Iman will become Vahid. And in the beginning in Al
awwal, it used to be bath, and in Al akhir, it will become Vahid.
Why am I using these words? Because Allah said about himself,
what? Well, oh, well, Ah, hello, right. So now Iman, that is hidden
inside my chest will become baton. It will become vital, become
apparent on judgment day. Then you will notice here that Allah said
Al mutmin, well, muminat and mumin, well, muminat believing men
and believing women. You should, you should know something about
the Arabic constructions. When you say believers, Al mumin, the
masculine plural form, Jama mud, when you use that form in Arabic,
it includes men and women. It's actually inclusive of men and
women. When you say Al Muna, it's exclusively women. So if I say,
Yay, you
al Muslims, does that include men and women or no? Yes. But if I
say, Ya ayatu, Hal muslimat, then it only includes the women, so
that the in plural form, generally speaking, the masculine, the
grammatical masculine in Arabic is inclusive and the feminine is
exclusive.
The point I'm making is, if it's inclusive, and we just said Al
Munin, sorry, okay, if I said Al mumin, that it would have included
women already, wouldn't it?
And why, you have to go out of your way and mention what Al
muminat. We have to pay attention to that because it was already
included. So it's being mentioned. Kind of out of Allah is going out
of his way to mention it. Okay, Al muminat ibn ashurs theory on this
is in Madani Quran Allah went out of his way to show the role of
women and the status of women in many matters, being equal to the
status of men. And
that's why Allah highlighted them, especially, even though
grammatically, there's no need to especially outline them.
And Judgment Day, the light is coming, and you shouldn't think
that the light is coming from believing men and not believing
women. And or women are just kind of, secondly, included no
especially also believing women. In fact, it's as if the women are
being given a special honor in this ayah, you will notice this as
a continuous theme in these nine Surahs from Suratul Hadid all the
way to Surat at tahirim, the subject of women will come up over
and over again. In fact, women are a major subject in the Quran
Quranic studies, there's a women are a major theme. Recently, I
read on on women in the Quran I'm not going to tell you the name of
the book. It was horrible. It was so bad. It was just it was so bad
because somebody was like, really woke, and they wanted to awoke the
Quran,
and they put their brain to sleep, to be woke,
right? And they wrote this a horrendous piece of work,
horrendous. They just wanted to, you know, because now there's a
new theme in Gender Wars in media and in movies and everywhere else,
right? So you'll notice that a lot of male actors in movies are now
acting very feminine, and a lot of female actors are acting very
masculine, right? So that's the kind of this new New Age kind of
thing about, you know? This, you could be a five year old girl and
she beats up 10 guys with swords, and then she goes, ha, you know,
and yeah, girl power, that kind of thing. And the guy's like, I'm so
nervous right now. I'm just really in my feelings at the moment. I'm
triggered. And she says, Come on, let's go. And,
you know, not that I watch movies, but, uh, for
Islamic reasons anyway, so,
but the point, the point, regardless, is that women have
been highlighted very especially, and we shouldn't. We should study
the Quran, not in reaction to what's happening in the world. So
we shouldn't say, Okay, I'm going to look into the Quran and see how
much of women's live, or feminism or equal rights. Can I find in the
Quran? Because you already came to the Quran with a bias, or if you
come from a very traditional patriarchal society where men have
a very high role and women are basically treated like trash, not
even recycled, then you want to reinforce that, and you're going
to come to the Quran to.
Maintain your patriarchal view. That's also a bias, right? And
both of them are a disservice to the book of Allah. The Word of
Allah is supreme, and you might find that the word of Allah is
more liberal than you would like it to be in some places, and you
might find that the word of Allah is more conservative than you
would like it to be in other places, and it's just how it's
going to be. And you often see people being they're like the
moment they hear something culturally, they're not used to,
oh, this is a new agenda in the Quran. These people are
introducing a new agenda in the Quran. No, actually, you're not
allowing the Quran to speak for itself, or the sunnah to speak for
itself, and in other places where we're pushing into the Quran,
something that's not there just to meet with our new standards of
social justice, right? And we can't fall into that trap, because
our Rabbi's Allah not the culture, right? So Yao matara Al mukminina
Al muminat is an important study the role of believing men and
believing women as distinct from each other. Sob is a really good
place to study that in detail anyway. Another observation is
Allah says, Yes, their light will be running forward. I'll come back
to that. We'll read some of them before sirun On what do they mean
by the light coming forward? I will share my own thoughts with
you first on this, and then we'll read what the scholars have said
about it. There are two lights being mentioned. There's a light
from in front of you, and there's light on your right hand. I would
argue the most compelling interpretation of this to me seems
to be Allah has already mentioned believe and spend, has it, he
said, Believe and spend. And what is spend, what is spent is what
you legitimately earn. Right if you stole and spent, it's not
really Sadaqah. And when you spend, when you earn legitimately,
that is earning by your right hand. And the right hand is also a
manifestation of good deeds, and the right hand is also a literary
construct in Arabic for fulfilling your oaths, like pada Akhada mi
faqum, because when you take an oath, Akhada Yamin, they took the
oath with their right hand right. Nowadays we say we shook hands on
it. It's not the left hand you shook. It's the right hand that
you shook. Right oaths are also taken in court, not with the left
hand, but with the right hand. And that's something in ancient
cultures. It's an Arabian culture too. That's it's a part of the
phenomenon. Allah also mentioned previously Allahu bimasid, Allah
knows what you do. And Allah also said Allah knows what's in the
chest. So what I'm getting at is Allah talked about faith and then
actions, and then faith, and then actions, and then faith, and then
actions, multiple times. What's in the chest is faith.
What you do is your actions. Believe is faith. Spend is an
action. So faith in action, faith in action. And judgment. Day comes
and there's a light coming from in front of you, meaning from your
chest, which must be the light of your what your faith? And there's
a light coming from your right hand, or right in front of right
by your right side, which must be the light of your what actions,
also the deeds that you do, the good deeds that you do, are
written into your book, which on Judgment Day will be handed to
you. If you did well, your book will be handed to you where in
your right hand. So the right hand has the book that has all the good
deeds you did, and those right those good deeds turn into Light.
On Judgment Day, those good deeds are becoming light. The more good
deeds you did, the more lights coming out of your right hand, and
the more good deeds you did, it's probably because you had really
strong faith. So the light in front of your chest is emanating
even more you understand. So both of those are corresponding to each
other, the light of our faith, the light of the of Iman and the light
of the right hand. And now go back to what Allah said in the previous
passage, right in the center, in the heart of the section two. He
said when azila ala Abdi ayat and bayinatin Leo krijakumina
boulumatti, Iran, Nur, in this life, Allah, the purpose of
Revelation is to pull us out of darknesses into light. And we
talked about darknesses and light last time, but now we add a new
dimension to that. Judgment Day will be darknesses, darkness on
top of darkness on Judgment Day. And then Allah, those who follow
this revelation, Allah has given them the light. And the light is
actually twofold. He's given us light on, you know, in front of us
and to the right. And I'm kind of breaking the surprise. But towards
the end of the Surah, Allah will say, You Tikkun, keflahini, Mel
rahmatihi, wa jaald, kung Nuran. He'll give you two portions of His
mercy, two portions. And how many lights are being described here?
Two lights. Isn't that beautiful? By the end of the Sura, he'll tie
it all up, and you'll say, keflaney, me rahmati, where?
Anyway, so that's that's something about the light that, before we
read the scholars, is something that I want you to know from my
perspective on this. Now,
the idea of Nuru hum Allah didn't say light will come.
Out from in front of them, and they're right. He said, their
light, their light. So the difference between saying light
and their light, that means the light belongs to who.
It belongs to them. Now let me ask you this, do you understand this
concept? This is a very powerful concept.
If Allah tells me to spend doesn't that mean Allah has given me the
power to make money because
he told, if he told me to spend, I must be empowered enough to have
money to begin with, to be able to spend if I never had anything to
begin with, how could I spend? You understand? So who has the power
to earn the money? Who's been who's been enabled and empowered
to actually have wealth or to have talent. We have been, we've been
empowered. Yes, when Allah says, Believe,
he says, he said, spend. You can't spend unless you're empowered to
have the money. If he says, Have faith, and that must mean you have
all the all the potential, all the capability within you, everything
needed to actually have what faith Iman is, not something that's just
coming from the heavens and had nothing to do with you. Allah,
decided I don't have Iman. What can I do? Migdu, Allah, put Iman
in my heart. Hold on buddy. Hold on buddy.
Yes. In fact, when he told you to have Iman, Allah wouldn't be
telling you to have Iman, if it's something he does,
if it's just up to him, then he could just say, Okay, I put it on
you. You have it now. But
the fact that he told you to have Iman means you have the power to
have faith. So the amount of light I have inside me and the amount of
light I nourish in my chest is actually up to who. It's up to me,
and what is proving that in this ayah Yasa Nuru, wom yas Nuru,
their light is coming out, light that belong to them. Allah reveals
a light. Allah empowers your light. Allah increases your light.
That's what he does. He enhances the light. He increases people in
guidance, for example. Yet you know
what? You know? Yazidon, hushua, Zaton, Imana, noon, those are
enhancements of light, but the fundamental light is something
Allah empowered you and me with already. So somebody's saying,
let's I just don't have Iman. I don't know what to do. First thing
you should do is stop lying to yourself. That's probably the
first step, because you have it. You just don't want to use it.
It's something inside. It's already there. Allah wouldn't be
asking you to double click that file in your hard drive if it
wasn't the file didn't exist already. You understand? So he
says, Yes, this is a very powerful thing, because people feel, when
it comes to spiritual growth, that they're powerless. Some people
just have it, and I just don't got it. And that's a cop out. That's
that's something Allah is now removing from our wrongful
thinking, you know, in terms of our faith. So yes, anuru, humba
na, idihim, Babi him. And finally, here I've written a note. Anur al
hapiti,
well, mana we which means on Judgment Day, actually, the light
will physically be, feel like a light, an actual light in the
dark, and you're walking towards Jannah because there's a light in
front of you, and the light isn't all the way you can it's not like
the whole highway is lit. You'll like, imagine you have a
flashlight or a torch, you know?
And if you have it, you can only the light only goes so far right?
And depending on the strength of your light, some people can see
five feet ahead. Some people can see 500 feet ahead. Some people
can see a mile ahead, depending on the strength of their light,
right? And if, back in the day, people used to have a torch,
right? They lit the fire and they have a torch. What's the danger of
having a torch over time, what might happen?
The fuel might the oil might run out, the fire might go out, a
breeze might come and take it away. If you have a flashlight
today and you're walking in the woods, what's the danger? The
battery could die, right? So it's not like it's guaranteed that the
light's going to stay, it could flicker out. So in Suratul
taharim, we're gonna find that this light that they're walking
in, they're worried that it's not gonna be the Sakana last so they
ask Allah as they're walking, the believers ask Allah as they're
walking, Rabbah at Mim, Lana, nurana, could you make our light
complete for us? Because even though I had light, I had some
faith. You had some faith. We had some good deeds. Maybe the battery
for our faith and our good deeds wasn't good enough to get us all
the way to Jannah. I mean, it's good, but it's one mile good. It's
half a mile good, but the walk is 10 miles. What are you going to
do? Ya Allah, could you extend the battery life on this.
So there's now what we're learning is judgment day. Salvation is
about my efforts, my faith, my deeds. But in the end, that alone
isn't enough. Who's going to complete the light? That's Allah,
but you have to have light of your deeds and light of your faith to
begin with, for Allah to complete it, you have to have yours to
begin with, for it to be added to you can't have nothing and say,
Allah, a little light, please. I got nothing over here. No, at Bim
lanaurana means the light's already there. Ya. Allah completed
for us, right? So that's a Nora ha Titi, Anurag, Marana, we means,
actually this light
in this life, in this life, didn't look like physical light. It's not
like when you turn the light off at home and you go to bed, your
chest is like illuminating the room, and your right head is
illuminating your room. You're like, it's so annoying you can't
sleep too much Iman like
this. Is it's a spiritual right light right now. It's within you
right now, right? And where does that come from? These two things
feed each other. The basic point, instead of getting super
philosophical, these two things feed each other. My the what I
feel about Allah and how my heart is attached to Allah depends on
what I do. Prayer will help. Charity will help. Good company
will help. Listening to a reminder will help. All of those things are
me using my right hand, fulfilling my promise, will help. Doing the
ethical thing will help. You know the way they describe good deeds
and spirituality is very similar to what Allah, what Allah has done
in nature with the body the soul is similar to the body in some
ways. The body is made up of multiple muscles. Yes, your
shoulders, your arms, your back, all through you have you're made
up of multiple muscles. The more you, when you when you exercise a
muscle, it's sometimes it has to be uncomfortable for you to be get
to be able to get stronger. If you're a runner, and you run for
the first time, you're going to be, you know, panting in 30
seconds, but the next day, you'll last 35 seconds. And the next day,
45 seconds, and the next day two minutes, the more you run, the
stronger you're getting. Is that true or no? But in order to get
stronger, you have to hit the point of discomfort and break it.
You have to reach your breaking point every time. And that's the
only way your stamina is going to build, isn't it? And the more
you're exercising it, the stronger you're getting all around now,
imagine someone who lied down in a bed and decided not to get up for
a year. They're just gonna lie in bed for one year. Food will be
brought to them. Clothes will be brought to them. I don't know what
the bathroom situation is, but some kind of technology was
developed for them. They are not getting out of bed. For example,
sometimes there are people in a coma, aren't they, and they're in
a coma for six months. Eight months, what happens to them when
the coma is over? Are they able to stand up? Because if you don't use
it, you're gonna lose it. You're gonna lose it. The more you use
it, the more you get an enhanced ability to use it, your ability to
use it gets better and better, and the less you use it, your ability
goes lesser and lesser. Good deeds are a cycle. The more you do them,
the stronger you get.
Meaning, the more you do them, the stronger your iman gets. The Iman
is your fuel. The stronger your iman gets, you're able to do more
good deeds, and the more good deeds you do that end up
strengthening. You know, because cardio you're using your legs,
you're using your body, but it's actually strengthening your heart
and your your lung capacity. It's strengthening you from within
somewhere else. It's not just strengthening your legs, and it's
because you can retain more oxygen in your blood and your your
oxygenating better. You can function better. Your battery life
has increased. The same way, good deeds are making you spiritually
stronger, and then you're doing more of them, and it's making you
stronger. And this cycle, this is the virtuous cycle. This is the
virtuous cycle. But what happens when someone is doing exercise,
using the body analogy, they're doing good exercise, but they're
eating junk food.
What happens? Are they making progress? Still, even if they are,
they're not moving forward. They move a little forward, they move
five seconds back. Then they move a little forward, they move five
seconds back. Because you can't just do the good. You have to also
remove the bad. So in order for me to develop this light on my right
hand, I have to kind of lessen the activity of the left hand,
bad deeds the people who will get their book handed to them in their
left hand. That's the only way these lights are going to develop
and nurture and further. And that's the formula Allah.
Gave us in Yes. Hey
guys, you just watched a short clip from this surah. What I want
you to do now is go through the entire Surah with me. It's called
the deeper look series, and you can catch it on vayina tv.com
under the deeper look section. So get started. You.