Omar Suleiman – Tafsir Surat Al-Mulk – Part 1
AI: Summary ©
The transcript describes various narratives and their significance in the Qwork, including the surah-understandings of Islam, the use of "ta'am" to express pride, and the importance of remembering one's actions in the future. The transcript also discusses various misunderstandings and errors that people are making during the aftermath of the world, including recounting their experiences with the "roaring fire" of Islam, the
the aftermath of the world around them, and the
the world around them, the
the world around them, the
the world around them, the
the world around them, the
the aftermath of the world around them, and the
the world around them, the
the world around them, the
the world around them, the
the world around them, the
AI: Summary ©
Assalamualaikum warahmatullahi wabarakatuh.
Bismillah walhamdulillahi wassalatu wassalamu ala rasool Allah wa
ala alihi wa sahbihi wa man wala.
So before I get started inshallah ta'ala,
Jazakumullahu khayran once again to everyone for putting
this together and particularly you know I said
this last time at the last retreat but
I do mean it.
The brothers and sisters at Miftah take the
lion's share of the work so while we
have all of our organizations up there we
all know that it's Miftah that's a running
point and being the MVP alhamdulillah.
So we want to thank our brothers and
sisters particularly at Miftah for hosting and being
the catalyst subhanAllah for what used to be
a dream of so many organizations coming together
to work together for the sake of Allah
subhanahu wa ta'ala and to have the
presentation of ilm dominate and be at the
forefront.
So I ask Allah to reward them all
and to reward you all for making the
sacrifice.
How many of you are from out of
town by the way?
Allahu akbar.
That's awesome.
Can you do that one more time?
I want to see.
How many of you are from Michigan?
All right so it's like you're outnumbered you've
been invaded alhamdulillah.
Also on the Ramadan series I'm going to
ask another step from you which is that
you take that YouTube link and you share
it inshallah ta'ala with your groups.
So who's going to commit to doing that?
Can I see your hands if you're going
to do that inshallah?
All right all the people from Detroit didn't
raise their hands.
I see how it is.
So I'm going to talk about surah al
-mulk inshallah ta'ala and divide it into
two sessions.
Now talking about the surah you could take
two different approaches.
We could either go tafsir ayah by ayah
or we could talk about the dominant themes
bidden allah ta'ala and the structure and
how that fits into the overall virtue of
the surah.
And of course this surah is one of
the most powerful surahs in the Qur'an
especially as it pertains to life and death.
It's also one of the earlier surahs in
the Qur'an and so it has that
tone of warning those that are rejecting the
messenger sallallahu alayhi wasallam that are turning away
from allah and that are failing to connect
the world around them to the afterlife that
awaits them.
And because it was so precious you'll often
find that those that speak most fondly about
the early Meccan surahs and this was just
a reflection by al-imam al-qurtubi rahimahu
allah ta'ala.
Those of the muhajireen that were early on
in islam had a particular affinity to the
first surahs that gave them a great sense
of steadfastness and connection to allah subhanahu wa
ta'ala as they were facing the most
vicious of torment.
And that's why you find for example abdullah
masood radiallahu anhu who is the primary narrator
of the virtue of the surah.
He described he said that when i enter
into the garden of the hamims, the hamims,
when you come to al-hamim the surahs
that start with hamim it's as if i'm
strolling in these beautiful gardens.
It's my favorite part of the Qur'an
to get into.
Why?
There's no fiqh in al-hamim.
There's no jurisprudence.
It's all about allah, the reward, the punishment
for those who disbelieve.
It is a beautiful connection to allah subhanahu
wa ta'ala.
It's full of that iman infusing spirit of
giving someone steadfastness in the face of great
tribulation.
And so that was his favorite portion of
the Qur'an and we find that he
is the one who narrates the virtues of
surah al-mulk as well.
Surah al-mulk has two other names.
Does anyone know what they are?
Tabarak, of course, but that's not what i'm
referring to in particular.
Nicknames.
Other than that that which forbids and it's
also al-munjiya.
It's that which rescues.
So it is both al-mani'a and
al-munjiya.
It is that which protects and that which
rescues.
And the prophet sallallahu alayhi wa sallam was
narrated in a hadith from abu huraira radiyallahu
ta'ala anhu to say that there is
a surah in the Qur'an of 30
verses that interceded on behalf of a man
until he was forgiven.
Other narrations the prophet sallallahu alayhi wa sallam
mentions that 30 verses that intercede on behalf
of their companion.
So subhanAllah in this narration he's talking about
a specific man and the prophet sallallahu alayhi
wa sallam was given scenes of the hereafter
as we know.
So he's seeing sallallahu alayhi wa sallam a
man who is standing in front of Allah
subhanahu wa ta'ala and 30 ayahs coming
forth and arguing on behalf of that person
until that person was forgiven.
Another narration it argued on behalf of its
companion.
So it's interceding and it's arguing and the
scholars say the beauty of that is this
idea of persistence of surah al mulk on
the day of judgment when the Qur'an
comes forward you have this surah that is
arguing on your behalf that is persistent and
seeking your forgiveness in front of Allah subhanahu
wa ta'ala.
Now something very important here is that the
narrations that I mentioned do not specify a
particular time of the recitation of surah al
mulk because you know that typically the recitation
of surah al mulk is at what time
of the day?
The nighttime, right?
The narrations that I cited do not actually
specify a time.
What does it mean when you come across
a hadith that speaks about the virtue of
a surah that doesn't specify the amount of
times you should be reciting or a particular
time that you should recite it?
What that means is that the prophet sallallahu
alayhi wa sallam is alluding to the frequency
of its recitation and the frequency of reflecting
upon its recitation and acting upon the recitation.
So the scholars say three things.
Frequency of recitation.
So like when the prophet sallallahu alayhi wa
sallam mentions about the names of Allah.
It's not just knowing the names of Allah
in a nasheed.
The frequency of recitation.
The frequency of reflecting on the recitation and
the acting upon the recitation.
Now all of you mentioned nighttime for good
reason.
There is another hadith from Jabir ibn Abdullah
radiallahu ta'ala anhu that the prophet sallallahu
alayhi wa sallam would not sleep until he
recited two surahs.
Who knows what those two surahs are?
As-Sajdah and Al-Mulk.
All right so there's another narration from Jabir
radiallahu anhu that the prophet sallallahu alayhi wa
sallam would not sleep until he recited As
-Sajdah and Al-Mulk also in al-Tirmidhi.
And then finally the famous narration about protection
from the punishment of the grave.
It's narrated from Abdullah ibn Mas'ud radiallahu
ta'ala anhu that whoever recites surah Al
-Mulk every night, Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala
will protect that person with that surah from
the punishment of the grave.
And this is where he mentions that we
used to call it Al-Mani'ah in
the time of the prophet sallallahu alayhi wa
sallam.
That which protects and that in the book
of Allah there is a surah and everyone
who recites it every single night has taken
a great fortune from Allah subhanahu wa ta
'ala.
Now this narration in isolation there are question
marks about its authenticity okay.
However because of the amount of times that
it has been narrated and acted upon the
scholars say that it is something that you
can hope for bi-idhnillahi ta'ala that
if you recited every single night bi-idhnillahi
ta'ala and of course the hadith of
Jabir radiallahu ta'ala anhu which has a
stronger chain than this one suggests that you
can hope for that virtue of being protected
from the punishment of the grave and subhanAllah
the scholar said at the very minimum you
know what does it mean that it protects
you from the punishment of the grave?
The virtue of the surah itself but also
that if a person really reflected on the
surah it would prevent them from doing the
deeds that would warrant a'zab al-qabr.
It's that powerful of a surah in and
of itself it would prevent you from doing
the deeds that would bring about any notion
of punishment and of course the surah itself
is full of the remembrance of death it
starts off literally with the remembrance of death
and it's full of the remembrance of the
hereafter so you are protected from the first
station or punishment in the first station of
the hereafter which is immediately after death and
so there's a profound connection there that happens
as well.
Now let's start with the from the very
beginning and you go to the very first
ayah and just the first word could be
the entire session and I'm very serious about
this.
Now when you see something outside and it's
beautiful what's the first thing that you usually
say?
SubhanAllah.
Don't say you say you know it's not
true right it's not in our common you
know practice to say but you say subhanAllah
right.
There are certain statements that the attribution is
exclusive to Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala and
to no one else in any form whatsoever.
Tabarak is one of them okay so fi
'il tabarak you cannot attribute tabarak to anyone
not even the prophet sallallahu alayhi wasallam.
Just like subhanAllah you can't say subhan and
put anyone else's name there.
Can you do hamd of someone else?
You can tahmiduhu, you can praise him but
you can't obviously attribute the ultimate praise like
you can't say alhamdu that all praise is
to this person right.
But when it comes to these two statements
of tabarakarrahman and subhanAllah or tabarakallah and subhanAllah
there's absolutely no situation in which you can
attribute it to anyone but Allah subhanahu wa
ta'ala and so what is the difference
between the two and what exactly does this
mean okay.
Number one what it means is that Allah
subhanahu wa ta'ala is the source of
all blessing and that nothing is blessed except
through him.
So in in his essence subhanahu wa ta
'ala he is blessed and he's the source
of all blessing and nothing can be blessed
except through the proper source tabarakah wa ta
'ala.
So there's a very profound usage of this
for example if you're living in the time
of the birth of Isa alayhi salam okay
and you're seeing a baby speak from the
cradle one of the most stunning miracles in
the history of mankind.
Maryam alayhi salam carrying Isa alayhi salam and
then being attacked by Bani Israel and as
al-Qurtubi rahimahullah says she sat on the
ground nursing this baby and the priests the
rabbis of Bani Israel surround her and at
that moment qala inni abdullah atani al kitaba
wa ja'alani nabiya wa ja'alani mubarakan
aynama kunt okay.
Isa alayhi salam says I am the slave
of Allah.
I'm not God himself.
His first words inni abdullah atani al kitab
wa ja'alani nabiya.
He gave me the book and he made
me a prophet wa ja'alani mubarakan aynama
kunt and he made me blessed wherever I
may be.
So he made me mubarak and this was
an attribution that no one can bless except
for the source of all blessings subhanahu wa'ta
'ala.
So it's not just a miracle but anything
good that is coming to me and coming
through me is actually to be attributed to
Allah subhanahu wa'ta'ala and of course there
are other benefits to take from that as
well.
So it is a unique praise that isn't
befitting to anyone else because this surah of
surat al mulk talks about what only Allah
can do and what only Allah can give.
If you read the whole surah from start
to finish it's what only Allah subhanahu wa'ta
'ala can do and what only Allah subhanahu
wa'ta'ala can give.
There is no human element or transaction that
represents a single ayah of this surah that
anyone else is capable of.
So you might be capable of rahma but
you're not capable of creation.
You might be capable of making someone's life
better but you're not capable in any way
of giving someone life and so tabarakallah and
that's why it starts off with this and
the sister rightfully noted you could simply call
it surah it is the surah in which
we say tabarakallah.
Now by the way because I mentioned it
the difference between subhanallah and tabarakallah.
If you notice subhanallah because they're both unique
attributions that only belong to Allah subhanahu wa'ta
'ala.
Subhanallah actually shows up in the quran to
free Allah from imperfection.
Okay They say that Ar-Rahman has taken
a son subhana that's an imperfection.
Glory be to him he is free from
imperfection and when you speak about Allah subhanahu
wa'ta'ala and you see subhana you find
this subhanahu wa'ta'ala amma yushrikoon throughout the
quran Allah azawajal freeing himself from imperfection and
us affirming that Allah is free from any
imperfection and usually as the ulama say the
word subhanallah come actually from a place of
fear okay from a place of fear and
an example of that is when lightning strikes
right subhanalladi right you glorify Allah subhanahu wa'ta
'ala okay so subhana usually comes in that
capacity now tabarakah tabarak is from place of
blessing recognizing Allah's rizq recognizing Allah subhanahu wa'ta
'ala's sustenance and so for example when you
see someone who has something blessed or beautiful
you say barakallahu laka feeha or barakallahu laka
feehi may Allah bless you with that may
Allah put blessing in that so it's not
actually mashallah mashallah by the way all dhikr
is good so you can say don't sit
there and say i shouldn't be saying subhanallah
right now subhanallah is a beautiful dhikr and
it's something that you should keep your tongue
busy with and it's beloved to our rahman
but i'm just talking about the the sunnah
of when the prophet sallallahu alayhi wasallam would
employ these athkar in regards to a circumstance
that he was encountering so the prophet sallallahu
alayhi wasallam taught us to say when we
say when we see something that someone has
a beauty or goodness barakallahu laka feeha or
barakallahu laka feehi now why don't we just
go around and say tabaraka rahman tabaraka allah
tabaraka rahman because alhamdulillah alhamdulillah encompasses a thanat
wa shukr it encompass encompasses praise as well
as gratitude and so we use that as
a form of dhikr and that's why subhanallahi
wabi hamdihi is such a perfect dhikr because
it employs both the glory of allah subhanahu
wa ta'ala as well as the praise
of allah subhanahu wa ta'ala so allah
starts off with tabaraka because this is something
that only he can do and only he
can give everything that's mentioned within this surah
all glory or blessed is he in whose
hand is al mulk the dominion all right
uh there's a popular dhikr which we also
make now
you're affirming in multiple athkar that to allah
belongs al mulk this is something that i
hope inshallah ta'ala you all will catch
because it's actually a beautiful point when you
call upon allah subhanahu wa ta'ala you
affirm in your hands is all good in
your hands is all good why because when
you're doing talab when you're asking allah for
something you want to affirm the goodness that
allah subhanahu wa ta'ala has you're already
past the affirmation of al mulk he already
we we know he has al mulk we
know allah has all dominion that everything is
possessed by allah subhanahu wa ta'ala therefore
when we ask we ask of him and
we ask him for khair we ask him
for good the disbelievers could not see that
allah subhanahu wa ta'ala possesses all things
therefore why would they ask allah for good
if they didn't believe that allah subhanahu wa
ta'ala possesses all things so in his
hand is all dominion all power the source
of all power the source of everything in
dunya and akhira everything you can see and
everything that you can't see it belongs to
allah subhanahu wa ta'ala now you see
subhanallah why this first part of the surah
literally shapes the whole surah is a tafsir
of the rest of the surah what you
see what you don't see he owns it
and he provides through it and you should
thank him for okay now
the one who created life or death and
then life this is similar to when allah
subhanahu wa ta'ala says in surah al
-baqarah that you were non-existent you were
dead and then allah gave you life and
then allah subhanahu wa ta'ala will give
you death once again and then allah subhanahu
wa ta'ala will give you life once
again why is this so important because if
you interact with allah subhanahu wa ta'ala
first and foremost from the place of a
right to exist then your theology is already
flawed where did you come from?
wait a minute who created you to where
you can even have this argument with god
or about god you came from a place
of non-existence therefore allah subhanahu wa ta
'ala speaks to that now realize allah is
speaking to a people who don't believe in
life after death you know subhanallah you live
in a society where most people will speak
about some notion of reunification some notion of
moving on and transition even the the slightly
religious christian or an agnostic will talk about
you know i hope they're in a better
place now i hope they're together imagine living
in a society surrounded by people who believe
with some sort of certainty nothing happens after
you die you become bones and you're done
and that was their creed that was their
theology that removes any type of hope in
the hereafter that removes any type of fear
of accountability it also completely takes away the
incentive of abstaining from something evil in this
life or doing something of virtue unless that
virtue pays you something worldly therefore being charitable
and being generous in the society of the
arabs has a worldly virtue it gives you
some sort of prestige it gives you a
tribal sense of superiority so it completely removes
that incentive altogether and allah is speaking to
them now subhanallah this is the opposite of
who those who believe in the unseen like
surah al-baqarah starts off with saying this
guidance is only going to be relevant and
necessary and beneficial to those that believe in
the unseen and allah is speaking to a
people here who only believe in what they
see they literally refuse to accept anything that
would exist beyond what they can see so
allah subhanahu wa ta'ala starts from the
place where you were not even a mentionable
creation subhanallah you were not even a mentionable
creation after allah subhanahu wa ta'ala says
you were not even mentionable you did not
exist at all okay to test you
to see who amongst you will be the
best in regards to your deeds now i'm
actually going to do the last part first
inshallah ta'ala and then we'll come back
to the middle for a moment allah mentions
two names here in particular and the scholars
say if you relate this to the ayah
he is al-aziz he is too exalted
to test you out of abath out of
purposelessness allah is too great to inflict trial
and test upon you from a just from
a place of play or folly or purposelessness
so he is aziz and he is ghafoor
allah is too forgiving and merciful merciful to
set you up with this test to fail
allah did not use did not set you
up for failure allah subhanahu wa ta'ala
gave you the tools to succeed in this
test so he is testing you in this
life but his test is meaningful and his
test is passable and he wants to forgive
you and he is always most honorable subhanahu
wa ta'ala and you know some of
the scholars commented on this they said you
know sometimes when a person becomes powerful they
inflict test on those that are beneath them
simply to reinforce the notion of their power
upon them and this was a habit amongst
the powerful of the arabs right the fun
in the games you know the king's entertainment
okay allah subhanahu wa ta'ala does not
put people to test without purpose and allah
subhanahu wa ta'ala does not put them
to a test that they can't pass now
subhanallah there's another notion here and it is
actually my favorite part of the surah because
we talked about it last night he wants
to test you subhanahu wa ta'ala to
see who amongst amongst you will have the
best deeds not not the most deeds now
remember we talked about in the qiyam all
right because we elaborated on this notion quite
a bit and start with the society of
the prophet that this is being revealed to
and how they're going to interact with this
verse and subhanallah you'll start to realize that
that warp theology is starting to make its
way back in our time with the meccans
when you talk about virtue they only saw
virtue in regards to one thing which was
charity like they didn't have a sense of
ibadah from salah and siyam and hapsun nafs
and restricting yourself from anything the idea of
a virtuous person was exclusively a generous person
and it was specifically a generous person who
could give a lot if you were not
a powerful person with a lot of money
that could give a lot of money you
were really discounted from any type of religious
virtue at the time they didn't have the
notions of haya the notions of modesty and
things of that sort it all came from
al-karam from generosity and they mentioned it
particularly from the part of this person fed
this many people this person gave this much
to this many people now if you think
about it in our day and age when
we see religiosity heading towards that way it's
just about being a good person and so
who's the you know this person that we
should celebrate it's someone that struck gold and
has millions and millions of dollars doesn't matter
how they acquired those millions and millions of
dollars but they have millions and millions of
dollars and they gave this amount of charity
to this place and that person is celebrated
in society and they get the mic and
they say you know i just wanted to
put god first and i know i have
a responsibility okay but that can't be all
that can't be the only way that you
express religious virtue and just like every other
virtue that had to be taught to pull
people out of the warped world views of
jahiliyya some of the companions the poor companions
thought that this kind of still applies you
have to think about how radical the change
is now in the thinking when the prophet
sallallahu alayhi wasallam says to the poor ansar
that you're on the same level as the
rich you have your ways of sadaqah too
that one dirham can surpass a hundred thousand
dirhams that's such a foreign concept to the
arabs what do you mean you get good
you you have a lot of money and
you feed a lot of people no no
no it's more than that who memorizes the
hadith from last night anybody we repeated it
like seven times abstain
from the prohibitions and you will be the
most righteous of worshippers and be pleased with
what allah subhanahu wa ta'ala has allotted
for you and you'll be the richest of
people it is one of the most profound
advices that you can take in life your
idea of worship and becoming an ascetic your
path to asceticism your path to becoming a
great abid of allah subhanahu wa ta'ala
is not through doing more more more more
more no abstain from the prohibitions you'll be
the greatest of abad in the sight of
allah subhanahu wa ta'ala you'll be the
greatest of worshippers the beautiful saying of abdullah
mubarak he
said that for me to abstain from a
dirham that has a doubt in it is
better than giving a hundred thousand and a
hundred thousand and a hundred thousand a hundred
thousand until he said it six times so
abstaining from one dirham of haram is better
than giving six hundred thousand in that's my
path to allah subhanahu wa ta'ala i'm
not tempted by that i'm not lured by
that that's not why allah put me here
to put numbers there by the way ramadan
is coming please do give to your capacity
all right it's a muftah and all the
others all right but the point is you
can't encapsulate religiosity in that and especially you
can't escape other elements of religiosity through that
more more more who's doing more who's doing
more who's doing more this isn't a worldly
competition there's ihsan there's excellence and sometimes the
sincerity of the small deed is far greater
to allah subhanahu wa ta'ala than the
plentiful deeds that yield nothing but arrogance and
a place of entitlement in the heart which
the arabs had that and even when the
prophet sallallahu alayhi wasallam received revelation you know
one of the the interpretations of two men
who said you know if the quran would
have been revealed to one of these people
why didn't it come to alwaleed ibn mughira
he feeds more people than muhammad sallallahu alayhi
wasallam he's a rich man he feeds a
lot of people the quran should have came
to him why not urwa ibn masood he
owns all these gardens he takes care of
the pilgrims why muhammad sallallahu alayhi wasallam you
see that's the only way they could encapsulate
religiosity allah subhanu wa ta'ala wants to
see ihsan from you and the saying of
hassan abbas rahim allah ta'ala as well
that we talked about last night that the
worshippers do not worship allah subhanahu wa ta
'ala the worshippers don't worship allah subhanahu wa
ta'ala with anything greater in his sight
than leaving off that which allah subhanahu wa
ta'ala has uh has commanded them to
leave off so it starts with the basics
it starts with ihsan becoming aware of allah's
sight upon you seeing through the layers of
this world seeing through the layers of the
heavens seeing through the delusions the distractions and
the difficulties allah is watching me and i'm
being tested by allah and it is personal
and allah is seeing where is my ihsan
where is my excellence and
then allah subhanahu wa ta'ala says the
one who created seven heavens in layers now
what this is speaking to is that there
is a layer of the heavens that you
can see and then there are layers that
you cannot see and allah subhanahu wa ta
'ala has perfectly constructed them so he's going
to call you subhanahu wa ta'ala to
reflect on all that you can see for
the rest of the surah but he's starting
off with saying what by the way there's
a lot that you can't see and it's
beautifully profoundly functionally coherently constructed in a way
that only that he can do but let's
let's start with a simple person let's start
with what you can see what you see
is no inconsistency in the creation of the
most merciful what you see is that everything
is functioning in harmony so you only see
the surface level of this dunya and so
you're unable to ponder anything beyond that so
let's talk about the surface level you see
the function subhanahu wa ta'ala in this
particular surah you can't see past it therefore
we'll talk about what you can see okay
and allah azawajal mentions by the way that
there are people that walk around in this
world and they are so blinded to the
reality of the world around them that when
death comes you know you die and then
it's like a veil being pulled from your
eyes and now you see clearly all right
so let's see how this all functions in
particularly or in particular with this ayah everything
functions in harmony in the solar system one
millisecond would set off the entire system likewise
even in your own body the way that
you function i know we have doctors in
here the way that you function anything that
goes wrong there are so many things happening
all at the same time and they are
functioning in harmony with one another and you
can't appreciate all of what that gives you
we're going to show you our signs in
the furthest horizons as well as in yourself
until it is made abundantly clear to you
that this is true okay so allah says
you don't see any inconsistency in the creation
of ar-rahman notice by the way allah
mentions here to say that's mercy because you
don't have to know that it's there you
don't have to be able to see all
of the consistencies you just have to trust
that ar-rahman has it under control that
ar-rahman who created all of this is
making this a source of goodness for you
so you don't have to come to this
you know recognition in your time you know
to understand the function of jupiter right and
and you know protecting the earth you don't
need to understand all of these things you
just need to know ar-rahman has not
put any inconsistency there so allah says go
ahead and return your vision to the sky
look and look and look and see if
you see any type of cracks see if
you see any type of breaks or inconsistencies
and allah says return your vision okay and
allah subhanahu wa ta'ala says that your
eyesight will come back to you humbled and
it will be fatigued exhausted if you're looking
for a flaw you're only going to tire
yourself out now subhanallah this is a um
this is a powerful usage of language um
if you ever go to hajj and you
go to wadi muhassir wadi muhassir uh wadi
muhassir the valley of muhassir is between minna
and this is the place that allah subhanahu
wa ta'ala destroyed abraha and his army
that's why the prophet used to pass through
it very quickly between minna and so muhassir
literally means cut off cut off you're going
to come back cut off fatigued unable to
piece things together the only thing that you'll
be able to say is there must be
something out there but we just don't know
what it is right that's that's really what
it is because you're not going to be
able to completely deny all intelligence in the
design so you'll come back and you'll say
maybe there's something out there but that something
is not consequential to me in terms of
how i have to act and how i
have to live my life so subhanallah you
go from again those who believe in the
unseen and they are deeply connected to allah
subhanahu wa ta'ala through all of the
scene and they use the scene to connect
to the unseen meaning when they see things
around them they're glorifying allah subhanahu wa ta
'ala and they're connecting even deeper to the
unseen versus those who are looking to the
scene to find fault you know by the
way i'm being very honest sometimes when an
atheist comes up to you to debate or
ask questions and try to bring it's an
impossible discussion you can't win them over rationally
because they're trying to find fault in your
argument they're not listening to you with the
intention of scrutinizing their worldview they're trying to
poke holes in your argument so it becomes
a pointless activity at some point because you're
just going to return back fatigued and frustrated
and allah subhanahu wa ta'ala wa laqad
zayanna as-samaa ad-dunya bimasabih wa ja
'alnaha rojuman lish-shayateen wa a'tadna lahum a'dhab
as-sa'eer allah subhanahu wa ta'ala
says and we have beautified as-samaa ad
-dunya is the samaa that you can see
the heaven that you can see by the
way so we have beautified the nearest heaven
with stars wa ja'alnaha rojuman lish-shayateen
and we have turned it into or we
have made from them what is thrown at
the devils wa a'tadna lahum a'dhab as-sa
'eer and we have prepared for them the
punishment of the blaze now what makes this
so beautiful subhanallah is that even when you're
looking at the sky something that you might
reduce to just being a decorative element still
has a greater function you see so you
look out at the stars and you say
beautiful stars even if you're an atheist you
admire those stars and allah is saying even
then there are functions that you have no
idea about so you're looking out to the
solar system and that which is apparent to
you and none of it is created without
purpose ja'alnaha rojuman lish-shayateen and as
qatada rahimahullah he said that there are three
purposes for the stars number one to beautify
the sky allah subhanahu wa ta'ala says
you thank him allah beautified your universe allah
did not make every part of the world
look the same alhamdulillah the world doesn't all
look like detroit or dallas we'll put both
of our put both of the cities in
that category right it's beauty it's beauty like
that is something to thank allah subhanahu wa
ta'ala for that you get to travel
this earth and you get to see beauty
alhamdulillah allah put flowers and mountains and water
and things that are gorgeous and so the
first thing is saying that that beautification is
something that allah should be thanked for secondly
to repel the shayateen to repel the devils
thirdly as signs for the traveler as signs
for the traveler and there's something deep in
that sense that the traveler a skilled traveler
you know who doesn't need a gps who
doesn't need even those old printed out maps
or whatever it may be a skilled traveler
could look to the north star could look
at the stars and could recognize directions from
the stars especially living in the desert and
what the scholars say about that subhanallah is
that likewise the traveler to allah the traveler
to allah looks up at these stars and
naturally glorifies allah subhanahu wa ta'ala and
shortens the distance between them and allah subhanahu
wa ta'ala so there's signs for the
traveler and allah subhanahu wa ta'ala says
وَعَتَدْنَا لَهُمْ عِذَابَ السَّعِيرِ and we have made
for those devils a great punishment there's a
famous incident that took place with imam al
-shafi'i that's narrated in the books of
the stories of the salaf that you know
he was asked how does allah punish fire
with fire how does allah punish fire with
fire so he hit the man right some
of the books they picked up clay and
threw it at the man and hit him
and he said did it hurt and he
said yeah he said but you were hit
with the same thing you're made of so
that's one way of looking at this like
that's a dumb question right allah knows what
he's doing which is the attitude of the
salaf they don't get too caught up in
the how they get caught up in glorifying
the one who makes that which seems impossible
and that which is possible all make sense
so they glorify allah subhanahu wa ta'ala
and they allocate themselves to worship allah subhanahu
wa ta'ala and they don't bother themselves
with these types of questions but imam al
-shafi'i taught the man a lesson now
there is a beautiful function in the quran
that when allah talks about punishing creation of
fire allah subhanahu wa ta'ala always uses
the word sa'ir which is a fire
that is more blazing than a typical fire
subhanallah a fire that is even hotter than
a typical fire so every time you find
allah azawajal grouping the jinn and ins human
beings and jinn and punishment or allah subhanahu
wa ta'ala talking about punishing fire he
brings this word forth subhanahu wa ta'ala
to let you know that even that is
encapsulated in the beauty and the eloquence and
the coherence of the quran now the next
nine ayat are consequences of the choice so
allah is saying there are some people that
are looking out to the world around them
and everything around them from the scene leads
them to a greater connection with the unseen
and then he says on the other hand
there are certain people that are looking at
the scene and they are completely unable to
connect with even the things around them subhanallah
you know what allah says about them يَعْلَمُونَ
ظَاهِرًا مِنَ الْحَيَاةِ الدُّنْيَةِ وَهُمْ عَنِ الْآخِرَةِ هُمْ
غَافِرُونَ in surah rum allah subhanahu wa ta
'ala says they only know the outside of
al hayat al dunya they don't even know
the dunya they think they know the dunya
they don't even know the dunya they don't
know the dunya they certainly don't know the
akhira يَعْلَمُونَ ظَاهِرًا مِنَ الْحَيَاةِ الدُّنْيَةِ they are
able to see only the most superficial elements
of this world وَهُمْ عَنِ الْآخِرَةِ هُمْ غَافِرُونَ
and they are so much more heedless in
regards to the hereafter and when they pass
away لَقَدْ كُنْتَ فِي غَفْلَةٍ مِنْ هَذَا فَكَشَفْنَ
عَنْكَ غِطَاءَكَ فَبَصَرُكَ الْيَوْمَ حَدِيد we have removed
your veil and now you can see now
you can see and your eyesight is sharp
سبحان الله first their eyesight was حسير was
fatigued cracked, cut off now their eyesight is
حديد sharp you see everything with perfect vision
now the angels that you doubted are coming
to you with punishment the hellfire that you
doubted you're already starting to experience it all
of it is starting to come to you
rapidly and your body is still in the
same place but it's like someone took off
the veil and now you see when you
go to the eye doctor they're saying you
see it now you see it now death
is literally the way Allah describes it it's
like a layer is coming off now you
see it so you were walking around and
you were unable to see this existence around
you there are angels around you right now
there are jinn around you right now there
are things that are happening around you, even
from a scientific perspective that you can't perceive
but Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala makes that
very clear so the next 9 ayat as
I said are the consequences of making that
choice وللذين كفروا بربهم عذاب جهنم وبئس المصير
إذا ألقوا فيها سمعوا لها شهيقا وهي تفور
تكاد تميز من الغيظ كلما ألقي فيها فوج
سألهم خزناتها ألم يأتكم نذير so Allah subhanahu
wa ta'ala then says fast forward this
is what it looks like when you're being
punished now again this is a very severe
surah because it's speaking to a particular mindset,
it's breaking through an arrogant mindset in Mecca
but we should also of course take note
here, take heed here because you never know
if you will reach that position of arrogance
even if you're not there now, may Allah
protect us from it surah Qaf Allah does
the same thing, it goes from كَشَفْنَا عَنْكَ
غِطَاعَكَ فَبَصَرُكَ الْيَوْمَ حَدِيدٌ We've removed the veil
now you see, and then Allah subhanahu wa
ta'ala says وَقَالَ قَرِينُهُ هَذَا مَا لَدَيْا
عَتِيدٌ أَلْقِيَا فِي جَهَنَّمَ كُلَّ كَفَّارٍ عَنِيدٌ It's
like the conversation of the angel saying here's
what's presented, the devil saying I didn't lead
him astray, throw him into hellfire, and the
conversation is immediately happening in hellfire so there
is no distance between the conversation of your
denial and the conversation of your consequence so
this is a frequent function of the Quran
as well it takes you from a conversation
of denial immediately to a conversation of consequence,
the same way that it takes you from
a conversation of belief to a conversation of
reward عِبَادُ الرَّحْمَٰن so the servants of the
most merciful they're mentioning why they exert themselves
this way in this life and then right
away Allah fast forwards to the conversations they're
having in paradise, may Allah make us amongst
these people, Allahumma ameen so here وَلِلَّذِينَ كَفَرُوا
بِرَبِّهِمْ عَذَابُ جَهَنَّمَ وَبِئْسَ الْمَصِيرِ إِذَا أُلْقُوا فِيهَا
سَمِعُوا لَهَا شَهِيقًا Once they are thrown into
it they can hear it's inhaling while it
is boiling, subhanAllah this is scary because part
of the fear of the people of hellfire
is that they see it's ready to consume
them on the day of judgment, it roars
for them may Allah protect us تَرَى كُلَّ
أُمَّة جَاثِيَة you see everyone brought to their
knees, it roars for those people, so they're
being thrown into this roaring fire سَمِعُوا لَهَا
شَهِيقًا وَهِيَ تَفُورُ right تَكَادُوا تَمَيَّزُوا مِنَ الْغَيْفِ
hellfire almost bursts with rage تَكَادُو means that
it won't actually happen but it's as if
it has reached it's final point أَكَادُو أُخْفِيهَا
Allah Azawajal says in Surah Taha about hiding
the day of judgment it's as if it's
hidden from everyone, as if it's non-existent,
that's the extent to which it is hidden,
so here تَكَادُو is it has reached the
final point, you know if you're looking at
a meter hellfire has reached the final point
of boiling until it is to the point
of bursting itself or consuming itself and Allah
Azawajal maintains it at that temperature تَكَادُو تَمَيَّزُوا
مِنَ الْغَيْفِ كُلَّمَا أُلْقِيَ فِيهَا فَوْجٌ سَأَلَهُمْ خَزَنَةُهَا
أَلَمْ يَأْتِكُمْ نَذِيرٌ every single time a group
comes in another group is thrown in the
keepers ask them weren't you warned?
weren't you sufficiently warned?
didn't you hear the caller?
now subhanAllah you'll notice here and this is
another profound function of the surah they are
unable to hear properly, they're unable to see
properly they're unable to think properly and this
surah now is going to take you on
a journey of them suddenly hearing suddenly hearing
and suddenly going back and recollecting because السَّمْعَ
وَالْبَصَرَ وَالْفُؤَاد hearing sight and thinking are known
as وسائل المعارف the means by which you
get to know Allah subhanAllah wa ta'ala
the means by which you get to know
Allah subhanAllah وسائل المعارف, so now they start
to hear now, they can hear now, they
can see now they can think now, so
it starts off with hearing, so what they
were denying with their hearing, they were failing
to hear the messenger of Allah, they were
failing to hear the caller, now they hear
the boiling, they hear the rage of the
fire, they hear the rage of the fire,
now they hear an angel saying to them
didn't the human warner warn you?
the angel says, didn't the human warn you?
right, didn't the messenger come to you?
and Allah subhanAllah wa ta'ala mentions قالوا
بَلَى قَدْ جَاءَنَا نَذِيرٌ they will say yes,
that warner came to us فَكَذَّبْنَا وَقُلْنَا مَا
نَزَّرَ اللَّهُ مِن شَيْءٍ إِنْ أَنْتُمْ إِلَّا فِي
ضَلَالٍ كَبِيرٍ this ayah has to be read
properly here, so they will say we denied
and then we said Allah has not sent
you with anything إِنْ أَنْتُمْ إِلَّا فِي ضَلَالٍ
كَبِيرٍ now you can read this ayah two
ways either the people that are entering into
the fire are being told you are but
in great error إِنْ أَنْتُمْ إِلَّا فِي ضَلَالٍ
كَبِيرٍ or they are recounting what they said
to the messenger what they said to the
believers that you're in great error so when
you were telling us about the hereafter and
telling us about something greater than this world
you are in great error you're just being
silly so they're recounting their own words and
Allah says وَقَالُوا لَوْ كُنَّا نَسْمَعُوا أَوْ نَعْقِلُوا
مَا كُنَّا فِي أَصْحَابِ السَّعِيرِ فَاعْتَرَفُوا بِذَنْبِهِمْ فَسُحْقًا
لِأَصْحَابِ السَّعِيرِ and then they say if only
we had listened if only we had reason
we would not be amongst the companions of
this blaze فَاعْتَرَفُوا بِذَنْبِهِمْ فَسُحْقًا لِأَصْحَابِ السَّعِيرِ and
so they are now alienated they are now
cut off from Allah when it comes to
the companions of the fire may Allah protect
us from being amongst them how do I
go back one slide there it goes and
we'll end with this inshallah ta'ala إِنَّ
الَّذِينَ يَخْشَوْنَ رَبَّهُمْ بِالْغَيْبِ Allah subhanahu wa ta
'ala turns it all around now to this
other group of people إِنَّ الَّذِينَ يَخْشَوْنَ رَبَّهُمْ
بِالْغَيْبِ إِنَّ الَّذِينَ يَخْشَوْنَ رَبَّهُمْ بِالْغَيْبِ Those who
fear their lord or they are in awe
of their lord unseen لَهُمَّ خِفِرَةٌ وَأَجْرٌ كَبِيرٌ
that they have forgiveness and a great reward
a mighty reward now subhanallah this ayah is
enough to compensate for everything that's mentioned in
the previous ayat how?
alright so let's look through this for a
bit if you notice the people of hellfire
are not mentioning sight as a requirement like
we saw the world around us we saw
the messenger they're mentioning hearing and they're mentioning
thinking because that was enough for them to
believe, they didn't have to see Allah showing
you signs was a bonus they didn't have
to see here Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala
is saying those who were mindful of their
lord unseen إِنَّ الَّذِينَ يَخْشَوْنَ رَبَّهُمْ بِالْغَيْبِ Now
the greatest of the unseen is Allah subhanahu
wa ta'ala Allah is the greatest of
الغيب and the scholars mention the most easy
to perceive of the unseen meaning if you
don't believe in Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala,
the rest of the غيب is functionless, it's
meaningless why would I believe in heaven and
* and angels and jinn and all this
other stuff, prophets and messengers, why would I
believe in that if I didn't believe in
a god but the fitrah of a person
is so in touch with this idea of
god and so the idea then becomes, the
pursuit becomes, who is Allah subhanahu wa ta
'ala who is God and what does he
demand of me and then everything God tells
me about himself or about what I can't
see I believe because I believe in God,
so أعظم الغيب, as the scholars say, the
greatest of الغيب is Allah himself now this
ayah has two meanings as well إِنَّ الَّذِينَ
يَخْشَوْنَ رَبَّهُمْ بِالْغَيْبِ they fear Allah when they
don't see him and they fear Allah when
others don't see them I'm going to say
that again, they fear Allah though they don't
see him and they fear Allah even when
others don't see them, both of these meanings
are encapsulated in this powerful verse and they're
encapsulated in the hadith of the prophet ﷺ
that إِحْسَانْ أَكْسَلَنْسُ لِيَبْلُوَكُمْ أَيُّكُمْ أَحْسَنُ وَعَمَلَ that
Allah may test you to see who amongst
you has the most excellent of deeds excellence
is أن تَعْبُدُ اللَّهَ كَأَنَّكَ تَرَى that you
worship Allah as if you can see him
so you fear Allah even in the unseen
إِنَّمْ تَكُنْ تَرَى and if you can't see
him فَإِنَّهُ يَرَاكُ you know he sees you,
so you fear Allah even when no one
else sees you did I lose you all?
okay, alhamdulillah, good so to fear Allah in
the unseen means to fear Allah though you
can't see him and it means sincerity to
fear Allah when no one else sees you
and of course خَشْيَة here is not like
the fear of fright it's awe and love
and obedience that is encompassed within the خَشْيَة
of Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala so they
fear Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala though they
don't see him and they fear Allah when
others don't see them and I'll conclude because
I'm now over time لَهُم مَغْفِرَةٌ وَأَجْرٌ كَبِيرٌ
they have Allah's forgiveness instead of his punishment
they have his forgiveness and how did Allah
subhanahu wa ta'ala start off this surah
وَهُوَ الْعَزِيزُ الْغَفُورُ Allah is the most high
and the most forgiving فَلَهُم مَغْفِرَةٌ مِنَ الْغَفُورِ
the promise held true they have the forgiveness
of Allah from the most forgiving the forgiveness
from the most forgiving وَأَجْرٌ كَبِيرٌ this is
the beautiful coherence of the Quran the perfect
word of Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala أَجْرٌ
كَبِيرٌ and they have a great reward أَجْرٌ
كَبِيرٌ why?
because the doubters used to say إِنْ أَنْتُمْ
إِلَّا فِي ضَلَالٍ كَبِيرٌ you were in great
error and Allah says no no no, you
have great reward you see so Allah subhanahu
wa ta'ala is replacing the voice of
the doubters with his own voice and promise
and that's why the first reading of that
verse, Allah knows best is the proper reading
that this is what the disbelievers are saying
to the believers إِنْ أَنْتُمْ إِلَّا فِي ضَلَالٍ
كَبِيرٌ you're in clear error and Allah subhanahu
wa ta'ala responds with rather, you have
great reward may Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala
make us amongst those that receive it Allahumma
ameen, inshallah ta'ala we'll finish up the
second half in the second session of Surah
Al-Mulk Jazakum Allah Khayran Peace be upon
you