Riyad Nadwi – 10. Actionable Tafsir Dars 10
AI: Summary ©
The "ar dates" in Islam are the root of names, parentage, and followers. The importance of the "ar dates" is discussed, including the concept of time and scale, compassion, and womb. The womb is a microcosm environment protected from extreme temperatures and radiation, and the "verbal" system is discussed as the most powerful thing in nature. The power of words and experiences, including forgiveness and peace, is also emphasized.
AI: Summary ©
The doctor had said to me, he needs
a kidney, or he needs liver, or he
needs something, I would have given it because
my sense of value for my own life
had been transformed in the in a split
second. That's why I'm seeing something had happened
that that turned my own sense of value
upside down. I used to be very careful
about who were my own and value my
own life, but now I value this
newborn,
this new person who I've met, this baby,
more than my own life.
And this is why I say to people,
you know, when if you ever think that
your parents don't like you or do not
love you, then ask yourself, well, take the
lifeboat challenge. You know what the lifeboat challenge
is? It's if there's a parent,
2 parents and a child and on a
ship that's sinking, and there's a lifeboat with
one seat, who do you think will get
the seat?
The parent will always say, save my child.
If a robber wants to kill and he
says, I have to kill one of you,
and the parent will always say, no.
Kill me but save my child.
That is what this rahma does.
It makes you become, it makes you
lose the value of your own life
in comparison to the value of the child.
Allah captivates your heart such that
it is of no value to you when
it comes to the child.
And for that reason,
Allah has placed strong demands
about this relationship
of taking care of the parents' heart.
With a view towards enhancing
pious cognition and righteous conduct.
Last week, we began
looking at the meaning of the two
words, Ar Rahman and Ar Rahim, in the
Basmah.
And And in that discussion, there were 6
points to keep in mind, which I will
quickly summarize.
The first was that these are names of
Allah Subhanahu Wa Ta'ala by which we are
able to call upon Allah. These are names
which we can seek Allah's mercy and favor
for he
has explicitly told us in the Quran
say call
upon Allah or call upon the most merciful
whichever name you call to him belongs
the best of names.
Point number 2 was that the root of
these names
Rah, Hamim, the root from which these names
are derived,
the
the letter combination and the scale. There is
meaning in the letter combination
and also in the scale. All of the
scale, there are
layers and layers of meaning in which
we had the verb
another example of the richness of the Arabic
language.
We said that when something when food is
rich, it has lots of ingredients. And so
when a language is rich, it means that
it has lots of meaning embedded in its
units of meaning.
And the units of meaning are found in
the
in Arabic, in individual letters,
in letter combination, in letter positions,
and also in predetermined
scales as in we in the case of,
which is what
both of these names are on the superlative.
They are in Sirat al Mubadah,
which is the superlative scale, the word rahman
on the scale of fa'alan, which is
a scale that depicts
a saratu or shumun,
which is breadth
and inclusion,
extensive coverage,
and vastness of intensity.
It depicts the meaning of something all encompassing
as
on the scale, we have words like, and,
which is all encompassing
qualities
to which is,
to which the one is,
completely
taken over by this quality when when it
when it,
is embedded when when it's,
engendered by someone.
Point number 4 was that
Allah's compassion for his servants can be placed
into 2 broad categories. The first category
was rahmatullahillahaal
aam, the general mercies to all his creation.
Bringing them into existence
is a general
mercy of Allah
and proportioning
us in the right
proportions of body
and form,
providing sustenance for us for for all his
creation.
So Allah draws attention to this fact in
verse 7.
Oh, lord. You have been compass all things
in mercy and knowledge.
So forgive those who repent and follow your
way
and protect them from the punishment of the
hellfire.
The second category of Allah's Rahmah
Rahmah is Rahmatuhu Al Khasa,
his special mercy. And this is the mercy
that is focused on believers.
There are these are
in the mercies of Hidayah and Tawfirq of
guidance and mercies,
granting of opportunities for good deeds. These are
all these mercies seems to all fall under
the second name, which is Ar Rahim.
Then this name appears in the Quran
with the definite article attached to 4 other
names
in the first case it was Ar Rahman
Ar Rahman U Rahim
and then in the second
it is in in
the the the Rahim is attached to Tawwab
and then in the third instance, we have
it in Surah Yunus, Huwal Ghafoor
So Rahim is also attached to
and the 4th carrier the the 4th name
the 4th name it is attached to is
in Arum Bakar Al Aziz
Al Rahim
and this is in Surah Tushu Ara.
So forgiveness,
Al Aziz has to come when Allah is
Ghafoor and he is a is Rahim
and he is Dawab,
is that
forgiveness must come from a position of strength.
So he says, Aziz al Ghafoor. He's in
he has a he is he is in
a position of power and strength, and he
has the power. He has the capacity to
forgive.
Point number 5 was that we
recognize quantity and scale by comparisons and we're
not very good at
recognizing
scale. Human beings are,
hopeless at scale unless we have something to
compare to
And when we read in the Quran where
Allah says that his rahma, his mercy,
spreads over all things,
then,
we needed comparisons
to understand that at a at a deeper
level.
We needed to reassess our sense of scale
for the creation of Allah because if you
say all things, what what does all things
mean?
And in terms of size, so to reassess
our sense of scale,
Allah's creation
of countless creatures that are somewhat tiny, somewhat
large, even microscopic, the ants, the bugs, the
micro the microbes.
And each one of them
is found in their own ecosystems,
in their own,
own ecosystems receiving sustenance from Allah Subhanahu Wa
Ta'ala.
And we might not see them all, but
we know they exist,
and they are all kept alive by Allah's
sustenance.
And then among his
creation,
on on one end of the spectrum, it
is we are the giants compared to the
bugs and the the microbes. But then on
the other end of the spectrum, we are
the we are the tiny ones
when we look at
Allah's enormous
creation of billions and billions of large galaxies
and trillions of stars,
all also surviving
through the power of Allah.
He, iqr, Allah
tells us
that look, each of these
bodies are orbiting and they're swimming in an
orbit.
Now all of these
magnificent creations
from the tiniest microbe to those that stretch
out trillions and trillions of miles in all
directions
into the vastness of space
are Allah's creations.
But of all the species and the heavenly
bodies
are dwarfed
by another creation, and this was what the
sense of scale
was meant to rearrange in our mind that
we see that when we think about large
and we,
envisage the scale of the largest of the
universe, that's the full extent of where our
mind can go. And here, we are asked
to take it further. Allah
is giving you an idea. Look. All of
this is minuscule
compared to my other creations. And what
what what other creation should you compare with?
Then think about my.
That this
has covered all the heavens and the earth.
Everything else is Corsi. And Corsi has said
we didn't know the braille,
meaning of what it looks like, but we
know that, there there are indications.
Some people translate this as throne, but,
some people say the place of defeat.
And and then beyond the and the difference
between the
and this world is like a ring thrown
in the desert.
A ring in a desert, in a vast
desert, the comparison between that is nothing. This
entire universe in which we live is like
a is like a ring. If you throw
a ring in a desert, it the the
comparison is is such, the a large desert.
So and then above the Kursi, there is
the
for
instance, the wall of the mighty throne. So
then you have Kursi and above Kursi there
is Arch
and the difference between and this is all
fully explained.
In Hadith we said.
So the difference between
the Kursi
and the Arch
is the same in sense of scale between
a ring and a ring tossed into a
desert,
the difference between that. So imagine all of
that and above that, over and above that,
Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala is telling us that
that above that
above
the arch
is
that My mercy
predominates
My wrath,
my anger overpowers my anger. Above all of
that, above all of that creation, that sense
of scale, we have Rahmati,
that my my my mercy predominates my wrath.
It is above the ash, it is above
the Kursi, and it's above the 7 heavens,
and it's above the 7 Earths.
That is
the mark of Allah's dominion.
It is rahma. It is compassion.
The highest declaration in the entire creation
that is the label of compassion,
Rahmati.
Above the 7 heavens, above the 7 layers
of the universe, above the 7 layers of
heaven, above the Coursia and above the Arsh,
the magnificent throne written is a declaration
of the rule of compassion above all else.
Is it too loud? Is it
affecting you?
No? Okay.
Now
this is the vantage point of scale
from which we need to start to recognize
the spread of Rahma, the spread of Rahma,
the spread of mercy in the world.
The spread does not is not limited to
this tiny world if you if you compare
it to the that
it it expands. It's it's it's above it's
beyond that.
It is it has covered everything.
It covers everything, it encompasses everything
in existence.
And point number 6 was that to link
our understanding of the meaning of Ar Rahman
through
what Allah tells us about His blessed name
Ar Rahman.
What what does what does Allah says? First
that this is his name. He says, Ar
Rahman. Allah Subhanahu Wa Ta'ala himself is saying
that I am Ar Rahman,
and
we then discussed
the possible reasoning for naming the womb. Then
he says that I,
and
I created the womb.
And I derived the name for it from
my own name name. So after telling us
who he is, he then tells us where
we came from. We all came in this
world via the womb
and but the human body, as we said,
is designed to be hostile to foreign organisms.
It has immune system. It has bone marrow.
It has all kinds of protections that will
isolate any foreign body in the human enters
the human body. It isolates and destroys.
But the womb
that lives in this hostile environment functions in
the exact opposite.
It
in that environment, instead of isolating, attacking, and
destroying, it accommodates, it nourishes, and it facilitates
flourishing of an organism. It shows compassion and
mercy to an organism. It indulges in caring
and protective behavior, and in so doing,
it embodies Rahmah.
And therefore, in the womb of our mothers,
we experienced our first
encounter
with the caring instinct of Rahmah, the caring
instinct of compassion,
the caring instinct of love and connection.
Rahma
first manifests
in the first moments of our lives for
all of us in the womb. This compassionate
behavior is ultimately from Allah
who named the womb Rahim
after his blessed name Al Rahman.
Now today, that was the summary of last
week. Now today,
what we have this, that we have covered
so far
is consistent with what we are called upon
by Allah Subhanahu Wa Ta'ala in the Quran
to do. This is an imperative.
Allah Subhanahu Wa Ta'ala
calls our attention
in the Quran
to observe,
to look, to see, to witness,
to witness,
to look at the traces
and the effects of his mercy. Allah
calls us towards that. He calls our attention
and says, look in the in the verse
and this is in sort of room,
verse 50. Allah says,
Look at the traces of the mercy of
Allah.
Look for it. Look at it. So observe
the effects of the mercy of Allah. Look
at the traces of Allah's mercy and you
will see them because
My mercy has covered everything. It's everywhere.
So we started looking at, of course, the
wide and vast coverage of the mercy, the
scale of it, and then we pondered his
mercy
in the first moments of our lives
in the womb.
Now we will look at 2 other aspects
of manifestations
of Allah's Rashma,
one found in protection he provides for us
in another hostile
environment,
and and the other in
loving connections we have with one another as
human beings.
The first one is a is is a
macro scale
of the same harsh or a similar harsh
and hostile environment in which the womb functions
as a place for refuge and care.
If you take the human body in the
womb as a microcosm,
the macrocosm
environment in which our home,
this planet upon which we live, exists is
also a harsh and hostile environment.
Our planet Earth is
catapulting
through space
thousands of miles an hour
in one of the most extreme environments imaginable
in space.
It's an environment with extreme heat,
most extreme cold.
It's a vacuum lacking of oxygen coupled with
deadly radio radiation and solar stones,
which makes it the most dangerous place for
life to exist.
If you happen to be
sent into space without special protective gear,
the oxygen in your lungs will expand and
rip your lungs apart, and your blood will
boil, and you will die
in within a few seconds.
The Earth
exists in this deadly environment exposed to
those lethal temperatures
and radiation every day,
but it's not affected, it has protection.
Like the womb, Allah Subhanahu Wa Ta'ala
has created
an atmosphere around our planet,
5 layers thick
to deflect these harmful
substances,
the the radiation, the trip, and
through this atmosphere, it traps moisture and light,
and our home is protected.
Now Allah Subhanahu Wa Ta'ala has
just as he has created the womb to
protect the fetus in the hostile environment of
the human body, he also created this protection
for our planet from the dangers of space
with a protected roof,
A protective
roof. And
he says in,
in verse 32,
that we have made the sky a protective
ceiling,
and but they,
from its signs, are turning away. Now there
are several meanings to the verse
to this verse.
The first is in which the verse is
explained by another verse. And if you remember
our
principle in Tafsir that we established in the
video Surah of Tafsir is Quran by Quran
first and foremost.
So in Surah Al Hajj, Allah says
that he restrains the sky from falling upon
the earth,
the sky from well, the sama, and we
will talk more about what the meaning of
sama is.
And and then
that protected from falling and affecting the earth.
And the second meaning is in Surat Al
Hajjr
or Waafid Naha Minqul Shaitaanin
Minqul Shaitaaninir Rajeeb,
that we have protected it from every devil
expelled from
from Allah's mercy.
And here,
is the meaning that this virus
is is also carrying, and bearing mind what
we said about multiple meanings
in
one sentence or in one word.
It's it's it's not contradiction, but it is
fortification.
And it it gives the mind the ability
to it gives you more and more hooks
to engage with it. Deeper and deeper meanings
come through it. So you're saying here that
this is it's also a protection
from the devils.
It is protected from from the shayateen, from
the devils with with the stars. That's another
area another meaning. And then a third meaning
is that
that it is it is protected from from
collapsing.
It doesn't collapse.
It it it it it stays in place,
protected from collapse and breaking. And then the
4th meaning is that it's protected by virtue
of not being in need of pillars.
It is held without pillars. That's also another
form of protection.
It's
and then the 5th meaning is that it
is it is above it is a roof,
an arsh. It's the roof of Jannah.
Now if we ponder the meanings of these
two words, these words of saba and saqf,
used in the past, these are two words
that are used, and here we're in the
realm of meaning and language which is our
also one of our principles of looking at
tafsir,
and we take the meaning of we take
the word the first word, sama. What does
sama mean?
Now it's often translated as heaven or sky,
sama,
but summer or generally,
that's everything that is above you. So it
is
but is
in in opposition to the earth and but
it's also,
Anything that is above you and discovered you.
So, a samaa a sahab. Samah is,
the the clouds are also known as samaa.
And matah is also known as samaa.
The so the words that are, anything that
is above you.
Now
and the second word,
the word
means
means that he's placed
the the the cover of your house is
known as Saf, roof. Literally roof.
To have a roof over your head is
known as Saf. Saf Tafar. Hey. Hey.
It's
the thing that is in relation to the
ground. So we're on the ground and there's
we have a roof,
a roof over us. And this word also
appears in Surat Al Tur. In verse 5,
Allah
says,
and the and the raised,
sky, but the raised roof.
That it is like is it like a
roof for the house?
Now, if we take the meanings of
as whatever is above,
it will also include things that can harm
us. There are the radiation, the other extremes
of temperature, all the things that are above
us that may fall upon us, they are
also part of the Samah. They are allowed
they are not allowed to fall on the
Earth,
then we will
things that will fall and cause devastation on
the Earth.
And attached to this meaning, if we add
the word, which is a roof
roof,
the in relation to a house. Allah has
given us this house, which is protected saqf
and maqwaba,
then you get the sense of protection on
a grand scale.
The fact that
ours is the only planet
we know with an atmosphere that protects us
from harmful
aspects of space is clear evidence
that life on this planet
is being protected.
If Allah did not provide this protection
in the form of the atmosphere, then we
would all freeze to death.
If if that atmosphere was to disappear tomorrow,
we would eventually
the first thing is that we will freeze,
and and then,
for some strange reason also, the scientists say
that
the the the seas will boil over,
and we will have no light, even though
the sun will still be there,
because the way the light is refracted
off the atmosphere,
that is what makes us see. But if
you go into space, there's darkness even though
there is the sun there. So the light,
even that that is a blessing that Allah
causes that refraction of the light, and then
we see, we are able to see with
the sunlight. We wouldn't see any of that.
So this is just
and so the point, therefore, here is that
just as Allah's Rahmah reached us,
in the first moments of our life,
in the hostile environment in the human body
through the caring nature of the Rahm, through
our mother's womb,
hence Rahmah also reaches
out into
the extreme harsh
environments of the space to protect us in
the atmosphere.
This planet has a protected roof above our
heads.
This is an effect of Allah's rahma that
we must recognize.
Look at the traces of the mercy of
Allah.
Look above the ash,
high in the sky, deep within,
he covers everything.
And my mercy covers everything.
That is the first trace for today. The
second trace that we wanted to look at,
which
I wanted to talk about, was the concluding
part of the Hadith we started to read,
the Hadith I read to you earlier, which
we read last week,
where Allah
after reminding us
of
the link between
his blessed name,
Ar Rahman,
and Rahim,
the womb. He named the womb, Rahim.
He created the womb.
Allah goes on to draw attention
to
the secret of the connection,
a secret that stands in contrast to,
the the secret of human connections
that we have. We have we have relations
and connections and affiliations with each other. And
Allah Subhanahu Wa Ta'ala is explaining that
in contrast. There's a
as opposed to the individualism
in the modern world or in, selfish gene
narrative that we are familiar with. In the
hadith, Allah
is saying
that, yes, I am the Rahman and I
created the womb. And then he did something
else. He says,
and then I then he indulged in Istiqab.
He said, I derived the name,
and whoever maintains this link,
I will maintain my link.
That's our bataktu,
or I I I will sever them. So
whoever maintains it, I will maintain this link,
and whoever serves it, that is family family
ties.
Now
now why is this
important
to note?
What
is the link here?
Now as we said in the beginning, that
this series
was
more that we wanted to
engage with meanings of words of the Quran
in a more profound way,
so that the effect
will be the effect that our understanding and
perceptions of the words will be transformed and
not
remain
in just the English translations of the words,
because there's a problem with that. And, I'm
gonna give you an example. You know, in
the 19 nineties, when I was,
doing my PhD, I conducted several,
types of research. And one,
research project that I did
was a priming research,
a priming project.
And those of you who studied,
the cognitive science or the Nobel or psychology,
priming is when you give
a subject
a word or an idea and then see
what it does
and then conduct experiments to figure out what
they
what's going on in their mind. And there
are several ways you can follow this up.
So in this
I I I did a conducted this research
about,
precisely on this word, rahem, the womb.
And the
I looked at
it in the minds of speakers of English
and minds of speakers of Arabic. And the
aim of the research
was to determine the
semantic fields
in the minds of the speakers, the speakers
of English and the semantic fields of these
words
in speakers of Arabic.
And
the results were conclusive, but, in a nutshell,
when I asked Arabic speakers to tell me
the first ten words
that pop into your mind, you know, after
I will give you a word, and I
want you to tell me,
after I say this word, you just tell
me 10 10 words that pops into your
mind. And through this, we
can,
ascertain that, look, there's some linkage. There's some
mental linkages between these concepts that are coming
out because you have primed the person with
one word. And the word I I used
that I said was Rahim.
And
when I presented this to Arabic speakers,
the first
word that came out when I said when
I said, what's the first ten words,
after
I give you this word, Rahim,
they said the response was,
Allah,
you know,
the the benefits and the merciful, the compassion,
mercy, love,
children, family ties. These were the words that
came out when when we spoke. So what
we are saying here,
that
there's a there's a
specific semantic field in which this word exists
in the mind of Arabic speakers.
Now what do you think happened when I
asked the English speakers?
When I asked the English speakers, I wanted
to bring the projector to show you
the results of a in Sharla we'll set
up for next week. I could show you
next week.
But,
Yeah. So when I asked English speakers
to tell me the first ten words that
came into their minds when I presented them
with the word womb, which is the equivalent
in in Arabic,
the words that popped into their minds
were blood, illness, surgery, hysterectomy,
operation, and hospital.
Those were the kinds of so that's the
semantic field. So you have so when you
use a word in Arabic
and when you use a word in English,
you're functioning
in distinct,
very different
semantic fields.
Right?
I've got all the graphics here. I've I've
shown you, but next week, Insha'Allah,
now from this,
the results of this,
what what we see is that there's a
difference between 2 semantic fields of speakers of
English and speakers of Arabic. Even though both
groups of speakers are talking
about the same object. It's a concrete object.
It's a tangible
concrete object. The womb,
this is not some abstract philosophical
idea. This is this is a concrete object.
It is tangible,
yet the meanings are attached
that are attached to it are drastically different
between speakers of Arabic and speakers of English.
When we use a word, there are distinct
galaxies of meaning
that
are activated in our minds. These
semantic galaxies
revolve around streams of thought
along specific pathways
that guides the direction and flow of your
thoughts.
These these
pathways are are guiding how you think about
it, how you feel about things.
So if the semantic field for the word
revolves around illness and medical procedures,
then the pathways
of meaning
will most likely be connected, which is what
we found in the research,
that it it's connected more to episodic memory.
There are 2 types of memory. You can
divide your memory into 2 types, episodic and
semantic. So it is it it it will
be about events that have happened,
that link to meanings.
All these meanings are linked to events, the
episodes, things that happened in your life, either
through conversations one might have had or
news items they might have read or consumed
some personal experience or something like that. An
episode
in the mind linked together via around this
word, more.
Whereas in Arabic, the linkage is not primarily
episodic. No. It's not. It is
semantic.
It is it is because of
and the reason it is semantic, it is
because of the nature of the language. This
is one of the features of the language
that is doing this.
When linguists, you know, when the linguists
study Arabic,
this derivational system,
and one of the
major
experts in
linguists who when he looked at Arabic is
professor Strickovich. So I want to read to
you what what he says.
The formalized abstract structure of Arabic
is uniquely suited for the application of analogical
methods of derivation.
In theory, the simple trilateral route offers almost
inexhaustible possibilities.
The sum 44
verbal nouns which can be derived
from the ground form of a hypothetically
used
trilateral verb. Faghala
should alone be convincing, although startling.
Example of the pure this is an example
of a purely,
of of the theoretical flexibility of Arabic.
To Western students unfamiliar with the schematic
morphological structure of of the language,
the first experience with Arabic suggests
an idea of almost mathematical abstraction,
the perfect system of the 3 radical consonants,
the derived verbal forms with basic meanings, the
precise formation of verbal nouns,
the participles,
everything
is clarity, logic, system, and abstraction.
This is like a mathematical formula.
That is, of course, the first notion,
but it is also the ultimate truth.
In between these lies great the great body
of language,
rich and various
and with its pitfalls and puzzles,
but what impresses itself upon the mind
is the abstract idea of,
of of meaning.
In this form of derivation, the radical consonants
are not changed in any way, but are
built upon and derived from. For example, fa'ala,
ef alu, fa'inun, tafam, mafarul, and so on.
This form of derivation has played the most
important role in the formation of new vocabulary
During the Abbasid period up to the Mongol
invasion from the from the 748
749 to 1258,
this process was used extensively to create large
numbers of scientific terminology
for practically all the sciences.
There were there were simulated terms
for the terminology of entire fields such as
philo philology, astronomy, philosophy, theology, they're all indebted
to this
feature of Istikhaq,
Istikhaq,
which is derivation.
It's the same thing. This the derivational system
of Arabic
guides the meaning of speakers towards particular semantic
fields. It keeps it there.
And in the case of the word
Rahim,
wound,
specifically, it remains in the semantic field of
compassion, of love, of family, of ties, of
relationship with Allah.
Now if we go back to the Hadith
in which Allah
explained to us his creation of the word
of the womb, when Allah says, I'm Ar
Rahman Khalaqta Rahim, that I am Ar Rahman
and I created the womb,
we find that all these meanings are resonating
in it, in that same Hadith. He is
the Compassionate, and what did He do? He
created,
and then He named, and what and then
He did Istiqaq.
Allah Subh'anaHu Wa Ta'ala did derivation.
Therefore, derivation, Istitaq,
is something that the Creator of the heavens
and the earth does. Istitaq
is something that Allah does. He himself says,
I have derived the name. This is something
that Allah did. And he did for the
womb. He said, so there's meaning and linkage.
Ishtaqaq
Derivation
has divine origins.
Now
what could you say
in more for virtue of a language that
has
a derivation
that is of divine origin.
That is
enough enough said if you and it is
divine.
It is it it facilitates
thinking and connection.
So who maintains this link, I will maintain.
So first, there's the mental linkages that in
the mind. And then there is the physical
linkages, the linkages that we are supposed to
maintain
as a result of that connection in the
mind.
Now what is the nature of this linkage?
We have that explained
in the name in the in the words
of the prophet
Muhammad
who was also
a Rahmah. He said he said, Rahmah. He
is Rahmah.
That he is a mercy to the to
the worlds.
So he was sent, and in in the
Haris he says he explains this. He says,
That Allah divided
Rahmah into a 100 parts.
He divided Rahmah and Barj and Mercy into
a 100 parts.
That he kept with him 99 parts of
it and he revealed to the world
one part of it. 1.
That it it's caused one part of that
mercy to be descended into the world, and
it is with that one
part of the mercy
that all the creations
show mercy to one another.
Even
the wild beast, when it lifts its hoof
so as not to crush its young, it
does so from that one mercy, from that
one percent of Allah's mercy. That is how
it does it. In another river, this one
is Muslim and then there's one that shares
with Muslim and Bukhari, said Rasool Allah SAWSAW
That Allah
has revealed this one mercy, this 1 percent,
this this juice, this part, this 100th part
of mercy.
Among the jinn and among the human beings
and among the
animals, and among the insects.
With this mercy do they show compassion to
one another. That is the source of compassion,
and mercy, and any kindness in the on
the face of the planet comes from that
one
juz, that one part, that one hundredth of
Allah's mercy, that is the mercy.
And with that they show compassion to each
other.
And this is what turns the wild beast
into a compassionate being.
And Allah has retained
this 99
of that
for his servants on the day of judgement.
Now
what this
means is that
compassion,
kindness, and affection between
any 2 living creatures,
including human beings,
can only trace back to a
fraction of the compassion of Allah subhanahu wa
ta'ala which he distributed
among the creation. 1,
true truly compassionate behavior has no other no
other reasonable explanation.
Now as people who are keen on
restructuring perceptions on the basis of Surah Al
Law, which is what this tabseer is about,
there are several points to ponder here.
The first is that Allah's Rahmah covers everything,
we are enveloped by layers and layers of
Rahmah. The second is that Allah's compassion protects
us from hostile environments, both small and large,
as in the womb and from the dangers
of outer space and from the darkness
of space and the darkness of the womb.
And then the third is that we share
something profound
in our hearts, in our mind and soul.
We share
it, not only with other human beings,
but also
with the animals, with the insects,
and with unseen creatures.
And in that,
there are connections of affection across the divide
of species.
When you see a bird
making several 100 trips
to the nest every day to feed her
chicks that are hungry every hour they have
to be fed. Several 100 she's doing this
up and down.
She's doing that because of Allah's mercy. That's
the reason she is doing that.
And so
the 4th
point here is that the first place where
this pure compassion
first manifests
for all of us
is in the parent child relations,
in the parent child relationship.
Here between a parent and the child,
it is it is not only the first
encounter with the most powerful force in nature,
which is many people have studied this and
have have concluded
that this is one of the most powerful
forces in nature, if not the most.
In fact, it has baffled and confounded many
who have tried to explain it away
from without reference to divine origin.
It it is totally captivating
and reconstructing
of one's sense of value.
I'll tell you my own story.
When my son was to be born,
the
midwife
came in and told me that what was
going to happen and when I should come
in and after the birth and,
the whole procedure. And on her way out,
she said to me, and one more thing.
And when you see your child for the
first time, you will cry.
I said, how do you know that?
He said, yes. Even the big macho ones,
they all break down and cry.
Yes. They all do. They all cry.
And
I didn't understand, well, why would that happen?
But when Yusuf was born and I saw
him, exactly that happened. And I broke down
and I cried. And then I realized that
something happened. Him he he had,
he was put put in an incubator and
had some complications, and the doctor came in
to speak to me, and I realized that
this new person who I just met,
I was now willing to sacrifice. I said
to the doctor, is there anything I can
do to help?
If the doctor had said to me, he
needs a kidney, or he needs liver, or
he needs something, I would have given it,
because my sense of value for my own
life had been transformed in the in a
split second. That's what I'm seeing.
Something had happened that that turned my own
sense of value upside down.
I used to be very careful about who
about my own and value my own life,
but now I value this
newborn,
this new person who I've met, this baby,
more than my own life.
And this is why I say to people,
you know, when if you ever think that
your parents don't like you or do not
love you, then ask yourself, well, take the
lifeboat challenge. You know what the lifeboat challenge
is? It's that if there's a parent,
2 parents and a child and on a
ship that's sinking, and there's a lifeboat with
one seat, who do you think will get
the seat?
The parent will always say, save my child.
If a robber wants to kill him, he
says I have to kill one of you,
and the parent will always say, no.
Kill me, but save my child.
That is what this rahma does.
It makes you become, it makes you
lose the value of your own life
in comparison to the value of the child.
Allah
captivates your heart such
that
it is of no value to you when
it comes to the child.
And for that reason,
Allah has placed strong demands
about this relationship
of taking care of the parent's heart.
Inshallah, next week, we will talk more about
this. But,
yeah. We will continue this next week, inshallah.
We have a lot of time for this
week.
We will come back to this. But the
point here is that we have to recognize
that Allah
has placed in us a powerful
gift of rahma,
and you will see it. You you experience
it as children. And when you have your
own children, then you will also see how
powerful
this
Rahma is in caring, in transforming your life,
in transforming your sense of value, your sense
of scale. So recognizing
that that Allah's mercy has covered everything, and
he's given us a special mercy. That special
mercy is the thing that will that governs
the heart of your parents.
That special mercy is the thing that makes
a parent
when they're asleep. Even when they're asleep, they're
conscious
of the life and the safety of the
child.
You know, child parents do not roll over
and crush their children in bed. The only
time they do that is when they're intoxicated,
but it doesn't happen because you are conscious
of your child even when you are asleep.
That is how powerful this rahma is. Anyway,
next week, inshallah, we will continue. May Allah
give us this mercy, grant us, open our
hearts, and bless us
to value it and to see it.
Look at the traces of the mercy of
Allah. When you're when you're when you see
the love
in your appearance, I know that it is
the trace of Allah's mercy. It is.
This is the mercy of Allah.
It is divine. It has come from Allah.
Okay. Let's pray.
Oh, Allah, grant us refuge and protection from
all sin.
Oh, Allah, we have gathered here today seeking
your guidance and your grace.
We are begging for your forgiveness.
We are repenting for all our sins.
We are seeking your love and your mercy
with hands raised as beggars do. We are
all beggars
begging of you, oh Allah, your kindness, your
love and your mercy we need.
Oh Allah, forgive us. Oh Allah, you are
the most kind. You are the most merciful.
Do not turn us away empty handed.
For if you were to turn us away,
we will have no one to turn to.
We have no one, O Allah.
You are our only hope, our only savior.
Our only savior, you Allah. We have no
one to protect us.
Protect us and protect our brothers and sisters
suffering
all around the world and in the land
of Masjid al Aqsa. Oh Allah.
Our poor brothers and sisters,
our innocent children, our mothers, our fathers, our
elders,
and our sick
of suffering,
immense pain and torture.
At the hands of those who have lost
all sense of humanity and mercy,
With these feeble
hands, and with the and with painful hearts
and tearful eyes,
we beseech you, O Allah.
Help us, and help our brothers and sisters.
Have mercy upon us. O Allah, you are
Ar Rahman, and you are Ar Rahim.