If You Were Cruel – Quran Reflection [3-159]

Now this minute 100 in Dallas Salatu was Salam ala rasulillah Allah Allah He was sahbihi Ramon wala so today we're in just number four or the fourth portion of the Quran. Now real quick Let me tell you what solos and verses make up the fourth Joy's or the fourth portion of the Quran I know in the Dacey culture that causes sebata. Right, so this is a fourth socata.

So, Joe's number four to Soros number one, sort of earlier, Milan, versus 92, to the end of Amazon. Number two sort of a Nisa from the beginning to verse number 23. Once again, the fourth juice is made up of silica adenium Milan vs 92 to the end, and sort of an ISA from the beginning until verse number 23. So today we are going to be covering verse number 159 from sort of earlier Moran which is the third surah in the Quran. So let me get right into this verse inshallah to Allah or the Billahi min ash shaytani r rajim Bismillah R Rahman r Rahim. Allah has power to Allah says for Bhima recommend him in Allah healin tele hum. Allah says it is out of Allah's mercy, that you have been

lenient with them. Now, who is Allah speaking to here? Allah is speaking to the Prophet Mohammed sallallahu alayhi wa sallam, what is the context here? Well, the context here is the Battle of ahead. And in particular, or more specifically, the, you know, after the battle ahead, when the prophets I send them was dealing with the companions, who disregarded his specific instructions during the battle. And because of some of the companions disregarding that specific instruction of the profits of a lot sending them. The Muslim suffered quite a few losses. When before that, if they had just followed through with the instruction of the Prophet Muhammad, as I said them, this battle

was a it was it was it was pretty much one it was it was a victory for the Muslims. But because some of the companions, they became a bit hasty. And they made some assumptions. And because of that, the battle, you know, the Muslims suffered quite a few losses in the battle, the Prophet Muhammad Sallallahu. I mean, he was saying them himself. And this is actually very important to understand when we're talking about this verse, the prophets that I sent him himself was injured, and he was injured severely. The prophets I said to them, was injured to his face to his body or set him was bleeding, he was pierced Salalah and he was sending them during this battle. And as I said, Muslims

suffered quite a few losses. Now, it is important to understand that context because it is in that context, that Allah who is penalised to Allah is praising the Prophet sallallahu Sallam for being gentle, and lenient, and kind and forgiving to the companions. So Allah Subhana, Allah says, febby mashima can meet Allahu lindera home that it is from the urashima of a lot. It is from the mercy of Allah, that you were lenient with them. And what that tells us is that the gentleness the leniency, the the the, the gentle nature, the gentle character of the Prophet sallallahu sallam, this was actually a blessing from Allah who's Panama data to the Prophet so I said, this was a mercy of, of

Allah to the Prophet. Why was this a mercy? Why was this a form of Rama? We find out in the following portion of the area where Allah says, What Oh, couldn't have been if you were cruel. Elisa, if you were cruel, if you were harsh hearted, Len felt bloomin Holic that they would have basically run away from you, they would have abandon you, you know, the word phones are fallen here means you know, someone or someone who is a very rude or coarse or harsh or impolite in particular in their speech. So, if this is the first you know, characteristic of the person sending mentioned here, that it was in his speech, the way the prophets I send him spoke, he was gentle, he was soft,

he was kind and forgiving in his speech of any of the earlier you know, in the Arabic language is something which is you know, thick it is course, it is harsh, once again, but honey that is someone who is, you know, you say someone is difficult in their, in their, in their deep, you know, in dealing with them, meaning it's it, they're always just they're a tough person. I'm sure some of you have had teachers in the past, who just their the way their character was the way their their nature was, was that they're just a tough person they were just difficult to deal with. And a lot here is reminding the profits that I send them that if you were like that if you were, if you're, you know,

cruel and rude in your speech and in your behavior. If this is how you were then they would not have stayed with

Do you would not have

and this Subhana Allah this devotion that the companions had to following the the Prophet civili send them this would not have been there, Allah said, Lenin sub lumen, how they can learn sobu actually comes from infobar and infeld law is to basically disperse, scatter, move away, move away very quickly. So they wouldn't they put a lot of time apart in the province, they said that they wouldn't have lost it, they would have run away from you Why? Because to be real, the ask is very big, what the prophets I send them is asking of the companions is very, very difficult and in general, right, the amount that the companions sacrifice for Allah Subhana Allah, and in

specifically here in case of putting one's body, one's well being on, you know, in endanger one's life in danger. This is a big ask, but the companions never complained. They never made excuses. They they were committed to the cause of Islam, and they were committed to the Prophet civil rights in them. And so this is the So Allah is saying that look, if your character was different, if you were harsh, if you were hard hearted, if you were rude in your speech, if you're cruel in your speech, then these same people would have run away from you. And this tells the Subhana Allah, how important good character gentleness and leniency is, that if people would run away from the Prophet

satellite sending them, then can we expect that if we are rude to people, we are harsh with them we are, we are difficult with people, that they will continue to support us and be with us and and they will continue to be devoted to us and they will continue to follow along with what we are saying that is the lesson here for us. And so a lot is reminding the prophets, some of my said to them, that it is a mercy of Allah, that Allah gave the prophets I send them this character, this lenient and gentle character. And this is why Allah has finally to Allah

testified from above the seven heavens to the character of the prophets of Allah and he was sending them. Allah says, In the Quran, Allah Hello Can when you are indeed upon a alvim, a great and immense character. This is the character that Allah has penalty Allah testified to, for two reasons. One, for the Prophet, Mohammed Salawat, I sent him himself that to remind him that it is important that this character is part of the message that he is delivering. And number two, and this should be obvious for us is that this is a reminder for us, that if we're going to take Islam from the prophets about some of what it's sending them, we cannot divorce the character of the prophets, I

send them from the message itself. Because it's not just the message. It's also how the message was delivered by the prophets that a lot is sending them. If the prophets I said him himself, who received direct revelation from Allah in now young people and in our and in our, in our, in our here you have Allah says, he doesn't speak of his own desires, rather it is revelation from Allah. If the prophets I send them who received direct revelation from Allah, if the companions and once again it is the person and those around him, the prophets I send him his rank, and the companion that amazing generation, if they would run away from the prophets I send them they would run away from the

Prophet, some satellite send them, then how can we think that we can deliver the message of Islam? We can speak on Islam, we can talk to people about Islam, we can try to encourage goodness. And we tried to discourage evil or bad that if we're doing it in a harsh way, in a difficult way, how can we expect that people will listen? How can we expect that we will have an impact on people's hearts? And that is twofold. Here. The lesson is twofold. Number one for the profits that I send them. And number two for us, when we take on this responsibility of you know giving out or speaking to people by stem or in a you know, there are lots of how a lot of times but when I say debt, or people hear

the word debt, they think, you know, formerly giving down like you set up like a data table, or like, you know, someone says I may die or if you look at their like their,

their their instant profile or their Twitter profile. It says like, I'm a die, right? This is not what we mean by like, yeah, that's part of that, of course. But there is something as simple as I am calling someone to goodness, I'm caught, I see something good. And I want to encourage people to do good, that is dour, that is invitation towards good, or I see something bad and I want to invite people to leave that. Right. That is the data that we are speaking about when we're talking about having good character. So this was a character of the prophets. I send them for us it means that if we're going to take

that responsibility, then we have to have this good character as well. And this is why we should not be surprised. We should not be surprised when you find that a person may have the truth, but no one cares about it. No one wants to listen to them. Because that is what comes about, with harshness with someone who is not gentle with someone who is not lenient. And that is why a lot of times when we look at our piety, we we think of, you know, acts of worship, we think about, you know, is someone pious or not, we think about how much do they pray, how many good deeds do they do? What are they fulfilling their obligations, you know, these, these, these, these acts of worship? And we

forget sometimes that part of piety is good character, the Prophet sallallahu send them a hadith I'm sure many of you have heard. He said in the my birthday, he said I've been sent or I've only been sent Litem Mima macadam and efnep. I have only been sent to perfect, good character to show you what good character is. And the word in Arabic is what is known as known as the article of exclusivity, which you know, sounds very technical, but it basically what that means is, it's saying I'm only I've always it's as if the promise is sent in the saying, in NEMA. I've only been sent to show you what good characters to perfect good character. Is that the only reason the prophets I send them

with sent yes or no.

No, no prosthetic was said to teach us though hate is said to teach us how to worship Allah, so on and so forth. But good character is so important that the Prophet sallallahu alayhi wa sallam phrased it in this way, because he knew that this is something that people would be little, he knew that the nature of human beings is to look at certain things that we can count, we can be very objective about it and say, you know, I prayed my five daily prayers, I gave my zeca I've made hedge, like I do this and that I can count that and therefore I'm a good Muslim, or I can count that and therefore you're a good listen. But how do you count objectively count? good character? Well,

you actually can but it's difficult. Right? Do we look at a person who is gentle in their, in their in their behavior and how they treat people, someone whose speech is pleasant, someone who is who is who is lenient with others, someone who is kind to others, someone who gives other people the benefit of the doubt someone who is is is, is is soft, and in the way they do what people? Do we look at that person and this is the test for us. Do we look at that person and we say, Masha, Allah, that's like, that's an amazing Muslim. Right? That's that person. They're just, you know, in their Dean, like, they're, they're amazing without looking at their acts of worship. Yes, the acts of

worship are important, and the obligations are important. Absolutely, they are important. But equally important, is the character is how we deal with people, as Allah Subhana, Allah is telling the Prophet that send them in this verse, that the companion regardless of how amazing your messages, the companions would not have stayed with you, you can have the truth. But if the message is not delivered properly, then then it doesn't matter. And this is why for us, this is such a big lesson for us. That, you know, when we're when we're dealing with people, we cannot divorce, the way the message is delivered, from the message itself, as listened to we look at the way the message is

delivered, as being part of the message itself. So we can we can we can set up as many data tables as we want. We can fast pass out as many flyers we want, we can talk about Islam to however many people, but what's really going to leave an impact is how we speak to people, how we deal with them. And we have seen this we have seen this happen. People you know, you know, there's there's a lot of talk about some phobia, right, depending on where you live. If you live in a country where you know, Muslims are a minority. And sometimes, you know, it's easy to or, you know, we get, we get led down this path where we lose hope, right? We talk about like, how do we, how do we negate all this

propaganda that is out there, all this stuff that basically makes Muslims out to be a certain way? Right? There's so much misinformation that is constantly reinforced through the news, through entertainment, movies, television shows, and so on and so forth. Like how, like, it feels like, it's impossible to counter that. But if you've ever had any type of a relationship with someone who is not Muslim, and they have spent time with you, and they have gotten to know you, you know that your relationship with them is far more powerful than what they see on TV. And I hate to bring up you know, actors and pop culture and things like this.

But Batman himself batfleck Ben Affleck. I don't know if you guys remember this, but he was on. He's on. Bill Maher

TV show or whatever he does I try not to listen to Bill Maher at all because I can't stand that dude. My guide him along I mean,

but basically there was this, you know, and I haven't seen the whole thing I just saw a clip of it online. But you know, he's talking about, you know, terrorism in Islam and the point that Bill Maher was trying to make is that Muslims are more prone to terrorism, which is you know, basically it's it's it's horrific to hear that but because a liberal says it a mainstream liberal says that he tends to do Martin's gonna pass. Ben Affleck was on his show, and he got really upset. And he was like, he was like, that is not true. What about the millions and millions of Muslims that are out there that are not like that, and whatever, whatever. And honestly, people when they heard that they

were like, why is Ben Affleck standing up for Muslims? I'll tell you why. Ben Affleck has Muslim friends. Ben Affleck has actually has close Muslim friends. So when he has spent time with Muslims, he knows like when he hears like terrorism and this and that, whatever. He's like, I know, Muslims. I know what they're like, I know what they're I know what their character, you know, I know them. So how can we say that Muslims are tend to be more violent or Muslim, or more prone to extremism, that is the impact that our character has on people. And so it is very empowering, when we hear something that and that's why as a as a as a Muslim,

we have a responsibility to actually reach out to the people around us. Not too long ago, you know, I had, you know, I had the day, my wife had gone to do some stuff. And so I had, you know, I have two kids, two boys, one, six ones to really protect them and all of our children. They had them for the day, the whole day. So I had basically had a plan out, you know, what activities we're going to do for the day, and I was kind of running out of ideas. And then I know that my older son, Leif, who's six, he loves brownies. And I said, Hey, you want to bake some brownies, and he got immediately got excited. He loves like being part of the process. You know, mixing the batter and

all that kind of stuff. And he said, he said, Dad, but I thought you said you know, we we shouldn't be eating too much like junk food. And I said, Yeah, I have an idea. How about we make some brownies for our neighbors? And he goes, Oh, okay. And I was like, yeah, so so our intention is we want to bake these brownies, and we're gonna give them to our, to our neighbors. And that was, you know, he knows that I'm actually even though I'm an introvert, I forced myself to be as extroverted as possible when it comes to our neighbors because I know that as a Muslim, I have a responsibility, how can you job right, the rights of our neighbors upon us, at least, to check up on them to make

sure everything's okay. And even, you know, when in the quarantine started in COVID. We, I, you know, I made it a point to to teach my kids that we have to reach out to the people around us, regardless of their faith. And so, you know, he knows I talked to them, you know, you know, there's you know, but I was like, No, we gotta we gotta bake some brownies for them. And so I had him, you know, he baked the brownies with me. And then I said, Okay, and you know, I messaged them, I said, you know, we're out the door. And then I said, late, you have to stand at the door, and you have to give the brownies. And then like, for him, it was such an event. And it was like, to me, this is

like, you know, I'm giving out I'm teaching my child, that being Muslim, because he's in that stage right now. Right? Where you like, it's easy to just unload on them, right? You got to pray, you got to do this, you got to do this. This is how long this is how your friends do this. But this is how I'm This is how long, like it can be overwhelming. And so I try to pick my battles. But it's very important to me that I teach him that Islam is more than just a set of rules. Yes, those rules are important. Absolutely. But it's also how we treat people and how we deal with people. And I made a point to him, I made a point to say to him, Look, it's because we're Muslim, that we go out of our

way, we have to take care of our neighbors, we have to make sure they're okay. We have to you know, if we have something nice, I was like, Do you enjoy brownies? He said, Yes, I love brownies. So we should give those same brownies to our neighbors, right. And part of

our generosity is that we give out of the things that we love. We don't just give out of things that we don't want, right. So usually, if we have extra food leftover, we'll go give that to our neighbors, right? If we do that in the first place. But the stuff that we want for ourselves, when we give from that the stuff that we enjoy from ourselves, that is the character of a believer. So that is what we're that is what we're aiming for. And, you know, obviously, the hearts are in the hands of a loss of data, we cannot force someone to like us, right? But that is part of the message of Islam that is the responsibility that we have to work our neighbors in towards conveying the

message of Islam.

So so that is that is what I wanted to focus on today. But the rest of the i didn't i didn't face the eye but that is the part of the ayah that I wanted to focus on. Let's go ahead and finish this. So I'll start from the beginning Allah Subhana Allah says, By the model I met him in Allah He lynnderella home that is from the mercy of Allah that you were lenient towards them and we set a context here is a very serious context. This mistake

To the companions made, when clicked a phone call, if you were cruel in your speech, if you were harsh, a hard hearted that they would have run away from you, they would have disbanded, they would have abandoned you. Allah says for that, forgive them, pardon them, was still fitting them, pardon them for the mistake that they have made. Not only that, seek forgiveness for them. And by the way, this is from the Sunnah of the prophets I send them that when we forgive someone, we also make the offer them, right. So we say like in our you know, we're not telling them even though it's good to tell them but if we tell, you know, in our heart, we say, I forgive you. Also, we ask Allah who's

penalty Allah to forgive them, we ask goodness for them from Allah Subhana Allah as well. And then Allah says, What shall we do? And this is very interesting to have a line. I wish I had more time to really delve deep into this. But I do want to hear from all of you as well. Allah says, So previously, we said Allah said, pardon them and seek forgiveness, seek Allah's forgiveness for them. But Shall we seek

consult them in, in certain matters? Now, what does seeking their counsel have to do with the rest of this verse that we've already talked about the prophets I send them would always seek their counsel. So Allah doesn't need to command the prophets, I send them here specifically. Because I said I'm always sought their counsel. But Allah is saying that just because they made a mistake, just because they're they made their flood, right, we're as human beings, you know, we talked about this on day one.

Just because they're flawed, doesn't mean we discount all the benefit that they have. Right? So even though they made a mistake, there, their input is still valuable. And that's one of the lessons and as we said, it is important that and for us, right, people are going to make mistakes, when we talk about forgiveness and pardoning people and, and, you know, seeking the most forgiveness for them, you know, it doesn't, you know, we should, we should try our best to still value, the goodness that is, that is that is that is in them. So, Allah says, wish, and there's a lot more to this, but I just quickly wanted to, to touch on that. So Allah says, wish I would have been a model and and seek

their counsel in conducting matters. But either as I'm different to what can Allah once you make a decision, put your trust in Allah? And this, I mean, I'm, you know, once again, I would, I would have you think about this, you know, if we had more time, because this is also very, it's a very, very interesting point here. But you know, a person if you think about it, as human beings, if we trusted someone, and they made a mistake, there's a tendency to start guessing yourself, right guessing your, your you trusting people, you you, you know, seeking their counsel, for example, because the process that I did seek the competitive counsel and he trusted in them, you know, he

gave them a command, don't move from this place, no matter what happens, but they, you know, they, as we said, they became a little careless, some of the companions came became a little bit careless, and there was a you know, that it was it caused a big problem in the battle. And Allah is saying that look, things are not electrified in the process of sending them certain things are going to be out of your hands. So you do the best that you can do, but you that there are some that once you have made the decision, that trust, trust and a lot even though you just went through something very difficult, you went through kind of a loss. But don't think that don't start just just questioning

yourself now and saying that everything I do maybe a loss now, because when you get into that and you have that type of anxiety and self doubt, we become stagnant, right? And we start questioning everything about we have what we have done, Allah is trying to Allah here is reminding the practices of prophets I send them that in the end of the day the outcome is with Allah And so once you've taken the means you've you've you've covered all the bases you've done the research and everything that you need to do you prepared yourself but to work that out Allah, put your trust in Allah because in the end of the day, all matters go back to our trust in Allah has Penwith data in the

law, your head boon material Killeen, Allah loves those who puts their trust or those who put their trust in Him. And so all of this goes back to as we said,

you know, this battle was it was it was it was a traumatizing battle for the companions. You know, it was it was a difficult situation. And so this is a last panel without a counseling the prophets I send them in love counseling, the companions here and that's why, you know, one of my favorite favorite is in this portion of the Quran and that's why I wanted to share to share it with you