Episode 6 – Surah Al-Qasas – Nouman Ali Khan
June 11, 2016
This audio is brought to you by Muslim Central. please consider donating to help cover our running costs and future projects by visiting www dot Muslim central.com forward slash donate.
Are Illumina shaytani r rajim Bismillah Ar Rahman AR Rahim pawsey. Me Tikka tokita been moving at low income in musawah philology never really called me me noon. Rubbish. Us silly Emily wahoo Dr. Melissa de Cali for hamdulillah salat wa salam O Allah Rasool Allah Allah Allah He was a man. So mama today inshallah everybody we try to get to know so it'll cost us the 28th sort of the Quran. It features in its most in as long as section a story of Musa alayhis salam Musa being the most mentioned messenger in the entire Quran over 70 passages dedicated just to Musashi Salaam, but the way that he's talked about in this surah stands alone and very, very unique. Everywhere else in the
Quran, when you talk about Musa you make cursory references to when he was a child and he was saved. And you intellectually Haha, but most of the time you talk about you know, from the mount onwards In other words, when he saw a fire, he left his family behind to check on and try to get some flame for the family and there he spoke with Allah. And from then on, he challenges the Pharaoh. And those episodes are repeated in one snippet or another all over the Quran. But what sorts of causes does is actually it's almost like a prequel it takes us back to that scene when he was about to be you know, killed because the armies of Pharaoh were gonna come in and slaughter everybody. And his mother had
thrown him into the river and from there, his entire life story leading up to the mountain. And even though this passage or this surah does cover what happens when he challenges the Pharaoh and how that transpires. And we learn new details about that as well. The primary emphasis is everything leading up to the mountain like what was his story before he got to the mountain? How did he end up getting married anyway? How did he escaped Egypt? Why did he have to run from Egypt? You know, why were they after him? Why do they want to kill him? what compelled him to come back all of that stuff is captured very, very beautifully and in a very dramatic way, in the beginning of the surah.
Something you should notice about storytelling in the Quran. A lot of places in the Quran, Allah will tell a story. And by the time he concludes the story, he'll have a special comment just to the Prophet himself. Salallahu alaihe salam look, all of us are audiences to the story. But the first audience to this story is the original recipient of the Prophet himself and a subtle Salaam. So Allah will say, by the way, here are lessons that you need to take from the story meaning the Prophet himself and his subtle Salaam. So this is a special acknowledgement of the Prophet being the original recipient of the Quran that you'll find in multiple cases, a story being told, followed by
commentary to the Prophet. Now what's really cool about this surah in particular, you really appreciate the power of Quranic discourse. If you acknowledge how it's organized, if you take take some observation about how the sutras are organized, this is a fairly long sutra. And what you'll notice at the end is a replica. In other words, in the beginning of the sola, you have a long account of mooses life, followed by a comments to the Prophet. At the end of this surah you have another story, another character, his name is qarun. And he's not talked about in detail anywhere except in this place. So this surah the stories that contains our unique right even the chapters
that it unfolds of the life of Musa and of course, what we learned about Koran is unique. We don't learn anything else about him anywhere else in the Quran the way we do here. So that tells us the story of qarun. And as soon as that story is done, you guessed it, the surah concludes with comments to the Prophet. So story with comments in the beginning story with comments at the end. That's how this whole thing is kind of organized. And then in the middle is the meat of the sutra, which I'll tell you about in a second. But first I want to tell you that musen qarun, what's the point of putting them both in the same surah and on the opposite ends of this surah you'll notice about the
story of qarun Allah will tell us things that make you think that kind of like he's the alternative version of Musa like everything Moosa isn't qarun is everything qarun isn't Musa is he begins Allah begins in La coruna Canon tomie Musa qarun was from the people of Moses, he was from the nation of Musa so they have something in common Muslim Quran. But then he says for Baba Allah him he rebelled against his own people. Contrast this in the beginning with Musa who went even though he was living as a prince in Egypt in the castle, he was living among the lower class Israelites who were subjugated as slaves, even then he would go out to help them. So even though he was in a position to
truly not care for his people, he would, and here you have Carl who lives among his people and rents them out and sells them out and makes a lot of money spying on his own people, that sort of thing. Then you find musallam had exhaustive amounts of wealth, but he would throw himself in the middle of the day to help the poor and the needy, and that's why he would come up come out into the city. He never left him in Africa at a time when everybody was asleep. Because most
Islam it was illegal for him to help the Israelites, you know, as an Egyptian as especially a prince, but he would actually go at a time when everybody's taking a nap and then he would do his volunteer activities. On the other side, you see the opposite picture. You see Carl Harada coming up zenity he comes out into his city and tourists people all decked out. And he's just showing off what wealth he has the ride he has, and people are looking at him saying, you know, yeah, later Lenin with lama otakar. One Man, I wish what qarun had if we only had what he has, like he wants people to be jealous of his status. By the way, if you were to compare, Kowloon has nothing compared to what
Moosa has. He's literally in a special favor of the Pharaoh. So if you want to show off well, Moosa is in a far better position to show off wealth, and yet he doesn't do so he just volunteers and serves his community. And on the other hand, you have grown, who has a little bit but likes to show off anyway. And allies few infuriated with him. You'll notice also in the salon, you know, you've got two kinds of villains, you've got the pharaoh as a villain, who's an outside villain, and you've got qarun as a villain, who's an inside villain, he's within the Muslim community of the time. He's embedded within them, but he's also depicted as a villain. And you'll notice one of them is drowned
by water that is drowned by water, and he will be dead he'll out when the corona is drowned his ground into the earth is literally sunk into the earth. And about both of these, you'll notice the pharaoh Allah says Allah fell out in the beginning of the surah, he was he had very high power in the land, and he held his head up high out of arrogance in the land. That's the expression I laugh at. The same root origin is used to describe at the end of story, you know, tilaka de la hora de La Nina, you know, Lou and Phil facade and the same word occurs again, this is the final home, we've made it, meaning the home of heaven, we've made it for those who don't want to lose same origin as
Pharaohs attitude, they don't want to be up high, and show their superpower supremacy and superiority over others. What if I suddenly didn't want to cause corruption, and then again, so that story concludes with comments to the Prophet sallallahu alayhi wa sallam, some really incredible organization. And I want to show you what's happening in the middle of this Sora. If you want to understand the middle, well, you can break it up into two halves also. So you've got two parts that are on either extreme end of the surah. And there are two parts in the middle. And the way to really understand what's happening in terms of subject matter is I'll use a little bit of algebra to help
you understand so I'm going to look at half one and then half, two, okay and half one, you can think of the organization as an ABA organization. And let me tell you what that means. A lot. We'll first talk about the coresh and what kinds of excuses they make. I want to read some of them to you. So the Qureshi will say things like Lola ODM with llama booty Moosa. How come he hasn't been given this kind of stuff Moosa was given. He's telling us all these amazing things that happened with Moses, we don't see any stick turning into a snake. We don't see water partying, so why should we be impressed with Mohammed? Why doesn't he show us impressive things like Musa was able to show the pharaoh the
courage to make lame excuses, and they're immature in the way they are approaching the subject of the validity or the authenticity of the profits lies on them. And Allah compares their attitude to the second group, which is a sincere group among Jews and Christians who hear the message of the Quran and it resonates with them. And we'll talk about them the sincere among the People of the Book and see you know about them, homeboy, he known in Atlanta him called Amanda be in the hall, Hakuna rabina in a condom and muslimeen we believe in it. It is the truth from our master. We've always been Muslim, we feel like we've always been Muslim even before we heard this. So there's a contrast
there's a group of you know, the unlettered kodesh, who make excuses, we need to be impressed like the Pharaoh was impressed. And they don't realize they're calling themselves Pharaoh in doing so. And on the other hand, a mature attitude, even among those who aren't Muslim yet, who heard this revelation and were so moved by it that they want to accept the faith. And then he'll go back to a again, which is the correlation making excuses. Now this time, they'll say in Mark, you know, if we were to follow the guidance, along with you know, to hop off and have dinner, we're gonna get snatched up in the land, we're gonna get taken eaten up because people aren't gonna like us
converting to a different, a different religion. And then Allah will talk about how he gave them favors and how this is a completely lame excuse. They weren't the ones protecting themselves Allah is the one who's been protecting them. And you know, Allah will say, Well, I'm gonna walk in the home Holloman Armenian, which by Alayhi, Salatu Khalifa, then we make it a secure, so your sanctuary wasn't when the army of elephants was showing up, we secured it anyway, you're the ones who provided security because of your paganism. Allah is the one who secured you. So you'll notice this, this first half, you've got the courage excuses, then you've got people who actually have a mature
attitude towards listening to this revelation and considering it, and then he goes back to more excuses that they make, that's the ABA construct that is this, this half of the solar and the other half of the surah. You find another kind of structure and that's a B, A, B, you can think of it like that a B, A B, and I want to point this stuff out to you because I want you to appreciate
How systematic and how patterned the language of the Quran is it's an oral tradition, but it's really beautifully organized. So you will find a lot and what is a and what is being what is in what is B in a Allah will talk about what he does for you in this worldly life, and how he created a temporary worldly life that you can enjoy and the favours that he's given you in this worldly life. And B he's going to depict judgment day, the day on which he'll hold you to account for the gifts that he gave you. Yo do not do him Yamuna D him rather, the day on which he makes a call on them for an akula Shoraka. So a would be worldly gifts from Allah, and what he's done for you in this world
and B will be recognized that a day is coming where you will this was not a free ride. You're answerable for the things you enjoyed here and you're going to be called You know, you're going to be held to account for the false gods that you call called on and then he'll come back again to worldly gifts and say you don't even appreciate how Allah is the one who turns night and day for you got a term in Java Allahu Allah como Laila sama danila, Yeoman kiama Manila Allah He yet he can be the if Allah was to bring night and make it permanent over you, who's what God other than Allah is going to bring about day if Allah decides to make night a permanent thing over over all of you so
proud Allah so level highlight again worldly gifts, you guessed it, it's going to go back to be again which is the you know reminder of the last day so level say well Yama unity him for Hulu aina Shaka El Nino,
the day on which I'll call them, and he's gonna say, Where are my partners, the ones who used to have so much confidence in the ones you assumed? And what does that mean? potential hidden, and we'll pull out a witness against them from every single nation, there's going to be someone who stands trial and stands witness against them. So this incredible organization of the surah highlights a few things. And I'll conclude with that. The first thing we learned from all of this is that the Quran is a multifaceted conversation, especially mechanical run, you've got stories being told, but we're never allowed to immerse ourselves so much in a story that we lose sight of the fact
that this is part of an ongoing conversation with people in the real world, the profit is actually pulled out of the story. So I said, I'm first. And he's being told, by the way, here are the takeaways from this from for you. You weren't the one sitting by the Walmart contribution. Or maybe you weren't on the western end of the Mount, when a lot, you know, engaged in conversation with Musa alayhis salam, you weren't on the right side of the mountain of tool, you know, a lot like saying you had no access to this, I'm giving you access to appreciate that I'm giving you this miraculous access. And on the flip side, on the other end, when the Prophet is commented to again, well, makuta
told you when you look a little kita, you weren't hopeful that you'll get a book. You weren't wishing to get revelation, I decided to give you revelation, just like Moosa wasn't hoping to get the revelation when he goes up into the mountain. There are amazing parallels to that a lot. You know, he doesn't let you think of the story as a story. He wants you to think of it as something that will help you in your real life. You have in the in the story so cool. Moses mom is about to throw him in the water. And Allah says in Narada, who la ke he says we're no don't worry about it, we're gonna bring him back to you. So he put this divine inspiration in musanze mother's heart that
the baby shall be brought back to the Mom, don't worry about it, he'll come back now how impossible is that she's putting it in a basket in a river. And what's to say the basket won't flip over hit some rocks or, you know, some predator in the water is not going to get it or the basket won't leak. There's so many possibilities, even if it makes it to the short What if it smashes into the short so quickly, maybe so delicate? How is she to know that this baby's gonna survive? What Allah says don't worry about that. We'll bring him back to you. You know, Allahu laiki. So and in some, you know, unimaginable way it does happen. Instead, it's a lot of planning versus a human plan. And it's the
best of all plans right? And on the flip side, by the end of the story in the end of the surah, Allah tells us prophets lie Selim in the follow de la Quran, la de la, same word again, the one who mandated the Quran onto you made it obligatory for you to deliver the Quran will bring you back to the place where you're supposed to come back to. In other words, he will give you security in the very place that is most insecure for you. You know, what was the castle of the pharaoh in Egypt is actually the Kaaba in Mecca. It's the place where idol worship is done. It's the it's the center of leadership of the enemies of the Prophet and yet it is supposed to be the center where allies
worshipped. And Allah says the one who's mandated the Quran on you is going to bring you back there and you're going to be able to go back to it in another place you're supposed to go back to Don't worry about it. Just like the mother was promised the baby will come back. The Prophet is promised to come back to America. It's alluding to the fact that the Prophet is about to leave Medina to leave Mecca to it's and you know, sometimes in the stories of the Quran, there's an indication of what's coming. When the Prophet Musa Islam leaves Egypt and he goes through the water. This is actually a parallel for what's coming for the Prophet himself. sallallahu I sent him because he's
about to leave Makkah and cross over into Medina, and Allah will secure his passage, you know, but Allah says, he'll bring you back. I know you want to come back here. So proud Allah so
With this just a little bit of a general overview of the remarkable organization and the remarkable lessons embedded inside certain classes. One special thing I'll mention about certain classes that really hits me is the story of Tyrone in particular, what Allah does in everything he described about Koran you have to compare it to Moosa, like what's already been said about Musa like he'll say well as income and allow he like, his people told them you should Excel because Allah has done good to you and you should you should inclined, turn back and and do good to people and be the best that you can be. And this is actually contrasting with what, what musala in his youth already achieved,
workaholic and as a mortal sin. He's a person of Excel as mentioned earlier on in the solar system, we're supposed to contrast and compare these two characters. And really in that contrast and comparison we learn a lot about ourselves and learn a lot of the wisdom that is meant to come forth from the Quran, Allah azza wa jal make us appreciate and truly acknowledge the stories of the Quran. Not not as you know, legends of old times are interesting historical facts, but living lessons that we all can benefit our better our lives with. barakallahu li walakum wa salaamu alaykum wa rahmatullah wa barakato this audio is brought to you by Muslim Central. please consider donating to
help cover our running costs and future projects by visiting www dot Muslim central.com forward slash donate
Episode 6 – Surah Al-Qasas – Nouman Ali Khan
June 11, 2016