Turn Away From the Ignorant – Quran Reflection [7-199]

spill on Henry Lau salatu salam ala rasulillah who Allah Allah He was so happy he will mela Today we are we are in javas number nine, our verse for today for reflection in sha Allah to Allah is from Surah above verse number 199 Lux kind of Allah says for the left, what Allah says, Be gracious, this is one translation of this part of this verse. There's a few different ways to translate this be gracious, or it can be said that show forgiveness or it can also mean take what is given, freely take what is given to you. Now, what does this mean? In general, what Allah has presented to Allah is speaking about here is being mild and gentle, in dealing with people and this verse really is the

topic of this verse is how we deal with people how we deal with people who we are reaching out to people that we may disagree with people that we may be giving Dawa to people that we may be calling towards goodness, people that we want to have a dialogue with people that we want to have a discussion with. This is you can think of it as a manifesto or a methodology for us as believers when interacting with others, that we may be having a dialogue with. So the very beginning that the beginning of this verse at the very beginning, Allah says, For the Love, that show forgiveness or be gracious, as we said, Take what is given freely. This is a very beautiful, it's very beautifully

put, because what Allah is saying here, like literally what what Allah is saying, is accept what people give to you. So don't push them too hard. Treat people and we can say treat people according to who they are, rather than treating them according to who you are. And if you think about Subhan, Allah, I want you to do this right now, I want you to think about the last time or any time in your life that you've had a dialogue with someone about something that you felt very strongly about, and you were trying to convince them of something or you're trying to convince them of your point of view, are you trying to convince them of what you think is right, and you're trying to change their

mind. So put yourself in that position, and then we can start applying this idea. So Allah says the very first step is that we need to know and understand who we're speaking to. And it is unfair to speak to them according to who we are. So you can look at someone I usually like to bring, like some of the most extreme examples here. Someone who, let's say,

has racist ideology, right, someone who has some racism. Now, if we approach them according to who we are, we would think immediately to ourselves, that is a despicable thing that is horrible, to have these racist ideas, or thoughts or feelings or whatever. And if we're treating them according to who we are, we may not even even start that dialogue, right? Because we're just so disgusted, we're so unhappy. We're so we're so mad, we might be mad that how can someone say something like this or believe something like this, now, this conversation is gonna go nowhere, nothing productive, is gonna come out of this conversation, we may end up belittling this person putting them down, we

may end up even, you know, crossing the lines in terms of using language that is not acceptable, it's dynamically, our behavior, if it's dictated according to who we are, then we're setting ourselves up to fail. Now, if we treat them according to who they are, now, we can begin to try and understand their perspective. Try and understand who they are, right? So we say to ourselves, okay, this person has this racist ideology or this racist thinking, what has led them to this position? Well, they have been raised in a way where this is what they were exposed to. They're constantly surrounded by people who are reinforcing these ideas. They've been brought up in an environment

where this is what they were taught. And especially you know, when someone is taught something, we talked about this in earlier sessions, when someone is taught something from a young age from an early age. It is it's it's really ingrained in them. And it's very hard to break apart and loosen up those ideas, to get rid of those ideas and those beliefs. And so now, if we, if we approach them according to who they are, then maybe we can have a dialogue with them, we can start this discussion and so part of our character has to be we have to have a character of gentleness and leniency when it comes to the dialogue. And also this is important because this helps us manage our expectations.

If you've ever been in an argument with someone if you ever talked to a racist, and I have spoken to quite a few racists in my life, may Allah protect protect all of us. As I mentioned the other day, I was actually born in Georgia.

I'm originally from the south. And you know, I lived there for some time, and I came across this straight up racist

People, and some of the things that I heard, you know, I remember being in like late elementary school or early Middle School, some of the things that I heard that I would even be ashamed to even repeat and quote, some of the things that I heard from some people, you know, I've had discussions with people that, you know, are very, very frustrating discussions, as I'm sure many of you have. And so it's important once again, so the point is to manage our expectations, we can't expect someone who has been brought up in that environment, to understand our perspective, and to understand sometimes how vile and disgusting some of those ideas and beliefs are. And so if we hold

them accountable to our standards, then as you said, as I said, we're just going to be completely frustrated and angry, and we're going to be like, I can't even talk to you, right, and I can't like there's no dialogue here. There's nothing to be like, I can't even deal with you. And that and that is it, you know, so it's not going to be very productive in terms of reaching out and making data or changing someone's hearts and changing someone's heart, shape people's hearts and minds, it's not going to be very effective. So this is why this is so so beautiful law is literally saying here take what is given to you work with what you have, right understand the person standing in front of you,

understanding the group of people standing in front of you understand, whoever it is, look at who they are, when you start this dialogue and this discussion with these people. And then Allah says what motivated and enjoin that which is correct or that which is right. So Allah is telling us here that yes, we begin with forgiveness, we begin with gent with gentleness and leniency. But what we should never forget that as a Muslim, as a believer, we do have to stand up for that which is right. And that which is correct. And so out of our leniency and gentleness, we should never betray the truth. So it's one thing to use good language and be be gentle and be being soft hearted in the way

we deal with people. But the message itself should not be changed, or altered or perverted, right. So we should never say that someone like you were talking about racism, so we should never say, you know, that's what you're saying is okay, in in a in a bid to win their hearts, right? We can say, Okay, I can see where you're coming from, or I may be able to see where I disagree, and this is wrong. But I see why you would think that way. So something like that. We're not changing the truth, we're not changing that which is correct or that which we view to be correct. And so Allah is commanding us here, enjoying that which is good, do not sacrifice the message itself. But the

previous portion of this verse shows us how to enjoin that which is correct, we enjoy it with good character with gentleness with forgiveness, as we said, by managing our expectations, that is the the way, the manner in which we enjoy that which is good, because once again, there are some people who jump to what motivated Earth enjoying that which is good. And they forget about the manners of how to enjoin that which is good and and to encourage people to do good. By the way, if you're interested in this topic, I have a video on this topic. It's it's called, it's actually a lecture called

only God can judge me in which I go through the conditions of enjoining. A number of innumerable for now, hey, Alan welcome, you know, in joining that, which is good, and stopping people, or restricting people or discouraging evil or bad, we don't just get up and start telling people like this is wrong, you can't do this, and this and this, and this, and this, and this, whether it be you know, social issues, or whether it be even spiritual, religious issues, you know, the head on police, and I know you've all heard terms like that. But there is there's etiquette and there are conditions that must be met before we get up and say what you're doing is wrong. And so one of those

is understanding the person one of the, one of the the things we need to fulfill ahead of time or, or before we get into enjoying the good and forbidding the evil is that we understand who we're speaking to, and that we use appropriate language and we're aware, we're gentle with the person that we are speaking to. And then Allah says, Well, I read that I didn't enjoy him and turn away from those who are ignorant or those who act out of ignorance. Now, what this means is that we should be persistent, we should continue to enjoy and that which is good to stand up for the truth. We should continue to encourage people to do that which is correct, we should continue to try and bring people

closer to Allah. We're talking about a spiritual, the spirituality category here. But that being said, we will eventually at some point come across those who simply refuse to listen or those who become abusive in their interaction with us. The

Those who begin to act completely out of ignorance. Now, how do we respond to that? Allah says what I did that I didn't gently turn away from those who are ignorant. This doesn't mean cuss them out and then turn away. This doesn't mean yell back at them and be like, you know, you're like this, you know this, and then walk away. And I know a lot of people are like, yeah, yeah, I do this, you know, I walk away. And what they what they mean by I walk away, I give them a piece of my mind. And then I walk away. And so yeah, I'm fulfilling what this verse is telling us No, walk away means don't stoop to their level. Don't be abusive, the way they're being abusive. Don't insult them, the way they're

insulting you, before you do any of that if that urge comes upon you. What do we do? We turn away and we walk away. And that is why actually, the next verse is very important, because the next verse actually tells us why someone may be motivated to respond to evil with evil or respond to abuse with abuse or bad language with that language. In the next verse, Allah says, What millions 100 communists share party does is one. Firstly, it has been that if an evil suggestion comes to you from this ship on, then seek refuge in a lot, it would be nice

to be near him in a shelter in that regime, I seek refuge in a lot from the occurs she upon in knows me earlier, Allah is all hearing and all knowing. Now this is very important here, because what happens, how does this shift bond work that she had gone can cloud our mind, especially when we're, it's a heated debate, it's a heated discussion, and we're going at it back and forth, and back and forth. And the person says something offensive, they say something, and let's take ourselves out of the picture, right? So if it's, if it's personal, right, we have a personal disagreement with someone, let's take everything else out of it. Okay, we will personally be offended, and we may

attack, let's say, we're above that right? That we will personally not be offended, or we're not going to take it personally. But let's say we're talking about Islam. We're having a dialogue about Islam. And in that dialogue, dialogue, they curse Islam, or they curse the prophets, I send them or they say something more about about Islam or Muslims. Does that happen all the time? You know what Muslims are just terrorists. If you look at Muslims, they have they're just they're just Muslims aren't by nature. They're, they're violent people. are Muslims treat women like this, or, you know, your prophet is like this. And he did this. And I don't want to repeat some of the things that they

say, now what happens to us, in our heart and our mind, it starts to get clouded because the Shia thug comes and says, How dare this person, insult the Prophet sallallahu send them like this, the best of creation, the best man to walk the face of the earth, this person is saying this, these horrible things about the Prophet satellites in them. And when our thoughts get clouded, we can't think clearly, we get riled up, and we turn around and we abuse them, or we insult them or their religion, or their way of life, or whatever their perspective is, the way they insulted our religion, or they insulted our Prophet. And that is what this verse is supposed to protect us from.

So Allah is saying, seek refuge in a law, that if you've reached that point, and like I said, this can even happen on a personal level, on a personal level, sometimes you talk to people and instead of responding to your argument, they start insulting you. Right? They make it personal, they start attacking you, oh, you're gonna say someone like this? Well, here's what I know about how about you when you do this, or whatever, you know, all that kind of stuff. And so out of a need to defend ourselves, we may become abusive to that person. And as I said, even if we take ourselves out of the equation, we may justify our negative or bad behavior by believing that we're defending Islam or

that we're defending the Prophet civilize send them by abusing that person. If you all remember the narration I shared with you I said, all the love about the man who came with the prophets, I send them and he said, assemble a lake, he said, may death be upon you. And I said all the love out of her protective nature of the prophets, I send them out of her love and her predictive nature for the prophets, the prophets, I send them she responded in a similar way. She said, not been assembled a lake and one liner. She said, No, may the May death be upon you and the curse of Allah. Right? Was she doing it for herself? was what she insulted? No, the prophets I send them was insulted. And this

person was actually making a mockery of an important aspect of our Deen they said Um, and so she was upset that upset her. The prophets I send them What did he say to it? What What did he teach? I said about the Allah that and how are baja? He's how he taught, he said.

He said in the Lucha river in the La Jolla Conway harbor rift in America, Lindy. Allah is gentle, and Allah likes gentleness in all of us.

This matters. Yep, V and W i like is enough for you to say, and the same Beatty, meaning Don't Don't, don't cross the boundaries, don't go to a level that you know will take you away from the larger aspect of our Deen. And I find it very interesting to have a law that when someone does something abusive or something bad in the name of Islam or to defend Islam, in actuality, they end up betraying Islam because they betray what Islam teaches us in terms of how to deal with people who may be who may treat us in that way. If we're especially when someone is, you know, fine defending the prophets, I send them by hurting someone else. Well, they're actually betraying the message of

the prophets, I send them because that same Prophet taught us not to hurt people and to harm people in that way. And so this is why this verse is so very important. This is why this is so significant, that Allah says seek refuge in Allah from the from the Shia bond. And the last portion and you know, this is so beautiful, it's Pat, Allah Allah says, in no semi or an alien, certainly he is all hearing and all knowing, meaning, if you are doing it to establish justice or to defend the prophets, I send them or to defend Islam, or even defend yourself. So let's say someone has been talking trash about you. Someone has been saying things about you that are incorrect. Someone has is

slandering you. And let's say someone's slandering you to your face, and they're like, and then we want to react and say, No, you know, you're talking about me, let me tell you about yourself. Like, didn't you do this and we want to do that. What a lot is saying Allah, certainly Allah is all hearing and all knowing, do not for a moment think that Allah doesn't know what this person has done when it comes to their injustice, when it comes to their behavior, how they acted, how they may have oppressed you and wronged you. Allah is all knowing. And so even if in this life, we don't get justice, then we have firm faith, we take solace in knowing that Allah will establish justice in the

end, that in the end on Yama Jessa, on the Day of Recompense, on the day will everyone will get what they deserve. Basically, you will we will, those who do good will get will receive good those who do bad or will receive bad that is what yo Medina The Day of Recompense. Yama Dean, by the way, the word Dean comes from, you know, there are other similar terms.

Dane, what what is Dane? Yeah, Det. Dane Dane is a debt. So all debts will be repaid on that day. there's a there's a there's a famous saying where they say come after Dino to done. Basically what that means is the way you treat others is the way you will be treated. And it's kind of like karma. But you know, it's like the halal version of karma. Right? But you what you put out there is what you're going to get right the way you treat others, eventually, you know, the same can happen to you, which is an Islamic concept as long as we attribute it to Allah who's paranoid to Allah, that Allah will establish justice. It's not like the earth or nature, right? Like nature, whatever you

put out in nature is what you will get for us. We we believe in Allah, to Allah. So we understand that eventually, either in this life or the afterlife, people will get what they deserve the good for the good and the bad, for the bad. So this is so when Allah says in no so Muna, Eileen, we learn from that, that Allah is all hearing, all knowing, and we have no reason to feel, you know, or, you know, we may have reason to feel that we have been hurt or harmed. But we have no reason to believe that we will never receive justice, that Allah is fair, Allah is just Allah is all knowing, of course, Justice will be established for us. And if we say if we're our mind is being clouded with

those thoughts from the sheer fun, we say, or the black ministry or Thunder regime, we remind us of Allah's justice, that can calm us down. And in that moment, we have the ability to turn away without speaking to them in which they speak to us. So this is a very significant methodology and Subhanallah if you look at this verse 199 itself, the first verse, it is seven, seven simple words, but the methodology is so very profound. And so applicable in in our lives, right several seven simple words that we apply, that we can take it as a methodology for the rest of our life. So starting today, wherever in that situation, we can recall this. Yeah, I'm certain I've often No,

this is how we, we react in case he or him Allah to Allah. He said, there are three places in the Quran. There is no fourth like them in meaning there are three places in the Quran that accompany one another. And he mentioned this, this verse from that from that place in the Quran, and he mentioned two more places I'm going to give them to you right now. So we have right now, a lot of 199 that's the first place number two sort of noon verse number 96 and

Number three, we have sort of full CNET verse number 34 and 35, but we can just say 34. So I'm going to quickly quickly go over those two other places in the put on sort of the universe number 96. Allah says it's been that he is gonna say, Allah says repel evil with that which is better than that evil. And once again, similar message someone is uses bad language towards us. They're they're abusive in their speech towards us. We don't turn around and be abusive towards them. We repel that evil with Better Behavior. Nunu, Allah be merciful. Allah says we are fully aware of that which they say or that which they describe or that which they utter. Once again, it's the similar message Allah

is all hearing and all knowing, in no seminar I leave it was all hearing and all knowing, likewise, in this part in this verse in sort of the minimum verse number 96, Allah says nothing to be Marielle sukwon We are the most aware of that which they say. So you know, don't think that you need to somehow Allah will take care of whatever if they're attacking the deen of Allah, Allah. Allah will protect the deen, Allah will preserve the deen we do our part, we stand up for that which is correct, but it is not in our hands to change someone's heart. And in this case, we cannot physically stop them from from doing something I remember, I was a first or second day of our Quran

reflections and someone asked someone said, you know, what can we do? If someone's backbiting us? And someone's talking about about us and spreading rumors about us? And realistically, there's not much that we can do. We show up at their house with a baseball bat and be like home even talking about me, right? That's not gonna work or may work but that goes against our Deen. We can't physically stop them. But we know that Allah is just and Well, I mean, let's be real even we took a baseball bat to that person's house is that justice? True justice is the justice of Allah has Panama to Allah, on the day of judgment when all things become known, and all things become clear, we may

go and beat up that person. And I'm not telling you to do that. And please don't do that right, don't harm anyone. We may go beat up that person that would only increase them in their anger and animosity towards us. So what have we really solved? In the end of the day, we maybe made ourselves feel better for a small period of time. Maybe even though usually when we react in violence, it actually doesn't make us feel better. We think it's gonna make us feel better, but it doesn't. But what does it actually salt? Right? So true justice, the justice but last month data and very interestingly, in soda than what we know in verse number 97, the next verse, what does Allah say?

Allah says, well, kohlrabi are the becoming hammers at the shell theme, that and say, Allah is now telling us say, My Lord, I seek refuge in You from the whispering of the shale theme, or the whisperings of the shale thing. Once again, don't forget that this thought has a role to play here that the shale Thun may try to encourage us to behave in that way that someone behaved with us in But seek refuge in the last hour from the chiffon. Likewise, sort of footsie luck, verse number 34, Allah says that the stole hustler to Allah say here, that a good deed and a bad deed are not the same. It's been lengthy here. So Allah says, repel evil with that which is better. And then Allah

gives us an example of how this can be fruitful for us. What is the benefit of it and that's why I did want to mention this verse here as well. Allah says, but you then let the baina Kobe know

that when there is some animosity or doubt, this person is like an enemy between you and this person. I know Allah says, No one even Hemi Allah can make it that this person will become your, your whether you're an HMI which is such a beautiful, beautiful way to put it. But English you know, I don't really even know how to truly describe this, but someone who is a close, close, devoted friend of ours, someone who loves us, and we love this person. Can you imagine someone who is our enemy, someone who hates our guts, or let's flip it around someone who we hate their guts, we can't stand that we're angry at them. We view them as our enemy, that this person can become a close

friend of ours. Let me ask you, is that possible? can that happen? Yes, it can happen. And I want to hear from you today. I want to hear from you. If you've ever been in a situation where someone who you disliked or dislike you became a close friend of yours. And I'm telling you when it comes to Islamic Dawa. We're calling people to Islam. It seems like every so often every so often every you know, every few months, we hear of somebody who went from hating Islam to not just being okay with Islam, like a famous islamaphobe right, somebody who hated Islam. They go from not hating Islam to you know what Muslims right there, okay. You know, they're they're friendly people. It's all good,

but that they accept Islam. We have story after story after story. And this is what Allah is describing here. That you know, women

pal evil with that which is better, that we take the higher road and we show them what our Deen really means to us. Because in the end of the day, it's not about our ego. It's not about us, it's not about saving face. It's about our relationship with the lowest planet to Allah, we value that above everything else. So even when somebody is, you know, saying bad things about us, or they're spreading misinformation about us or whatever, yes, we stand up for the truth. And we clarify, we say, you know, this is not correct, what you're saying is wrong, and this is false. But in the end of the day, there's only so far that we can go there's only so much that we can do. And so we value

our spirituality, we we value our relationship with a large family to Allah. And that means more to us than trying to put this person down or to make ourselves feel better by putting this person down, or to win this argument or whatever it may be. And that that is how we change hearts. And we change minds so that a person can go from being somebody who, who, who hates us or we have animosity with our close friend. And by the way,

in the next verse, Allah says, Well, my unica inla, in the Medina suburb that this will not be attained, except by those who have patience, meaning if you want to be able to do this, you want to take this person, but you have this great animosity and hatred and all this kind of stuff. And you want to make him into a close friend. Well, it's going to take a lot of patience. Well, now you let a woman or her in the heaven or limb, but if you're able to do this, then you have gained a great great prize or a great reward that you will get this is you've attained a great, a great thing basically, to be able to have that type of patience and to change someone's heart or change

someone's mind. This is amazing. The next verse, by the way, Allah says what it means and let me share planning as one pastor it's been very similar to sort of Allah Allah says, and if there comes to you from the Shia thought and evil suggestion, that what do we do? seek refuge in Allah from the Shia THON in know who was Semyon? semi early that Allah says once again, indeed he is the all hearing and the all knowing so this is the this is the principle that we've been taught here this amazing principle is amazing, amazing methodology of how we deal with people who may show some some some some hatred or animosity towards us. And you know, in my class in deception, the class the

seminar, which we talked about this year, thought and detail we talked about that that the default when it comes to the shell thing and the sheer fun is that we don't show them any leniency any gentleness and kindness nothing we don't let them we don't let the sheer thought even utter a word that she upon comes into picture will immediately be nameless, your thought knology we're not going to give the ship on an inch. But when it comes to human beings, it is the opposite right? We show gentleness and leniency and we hope for goodness from them. We encouraging the goodness in them. We try to reason with them we try to talk to them we try to give data to them. But we don't give that

what to the ship on there. It's never gonna happen that you talk to the ship Bonnie like listen, homie, I know you've been you leftist them like a lot like 1000s and 1000s of years ago, you left Islam and you disobeyed a lot and you refuse to prostrate to add value is set up. But you know, isn't about time that you accept Islam? And like, that's never gonna happen. They're never gonna say Okay, you know what, Mr. side this name here in Maryland and USA in the year 2021. Does that Kola head I'm convinced now like you finally convinced me I'm going to become a CIO ain't never gonna happen. But with human beings, the default is His goodness, his well being right. So so we try to

bring out that that goodness, we believe that by default human beings are good. And this is a characteristic of our Deen that we don't believe that human beings are by default evil. Right? We believe that children are born pure and good. And they can be corrupted and you're they're born upon their fifth or their natural inclination towards good. Yes, the fifth thought their natural inclination can be corrupted. But if it can be corrupted, then it can also be rectified as well and that's why we keep hope. We always have hope in people because you don't know who's who can change and the law has passed on those those who sit on one acre and what happens Allah He over Carter