Sadullah Khan – 25th Post Witr Talk Ramadaan 1444 2023
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In our theme for the month of Ramadan,
moral guidance we learn from everyday observances and
everyday experiences,
We know that the glorious Quran is the
final divine revelation, send by Allah.
There have been revelations throughout history culminating in
the
final revelation to the final prophet.
And that revelation is a guide for humanity.
It's the ultimate ethical code,
and it is, of course, a primary source
of divine law.
But there's far more to the Quran than
the barakah
of reciting it and of course there's Baraka
in reciting it.
There's far more to the Quran
than reading Surah Yassin for the Taziyyah at
a funeral or thereafter
and that is good to do as well.
But one of the
tragedies of Muslim society
is that we have reduced the Quran purely
to a religious sense that is to do
with liturgy, to do with,
prayer,
to do with, blessings.
Not so much a book of guidance and
not so much an encyclopedia for life.
And Allah says in the Quran,
we have revealed in this book an exposition
of all things.
It doesn't mean the book is a Quran
is, the Quran is a book of science
but it makes reference to scientific phenomena.
It doesn't mean the Quran is a book
of nature, but there are 750
verses directly linked to nature.
And there are over 20 chapters titled
from Baqarah, al Namal,
al
Alfeel.
Numerous verses attur, al layl, alshems,
sun, the moon, the elephant, the ant, al
an kabud the spider.
All dealing with realities of nature. Things that
we observe.
And if you look at this Quran, it
was the primary source for people to become
inspired,
to be motivated
in the early days.
We find scholars and historians and writers and
scientists
Ibni Rusd and Ibni Khaldun
and people like Al Haythami
and Al Khawarizmi were inspired by the Quran.
They became mathematicians and scientists by reading the
Quran.
And therefore it's very important though the Quran
is a book of law, it's a book
of guidance, a book of barakah,
but we must be careful not to limit
it only to that.
So today I want to focus on a
particular verse in the Quran. You know we
are commanded in the Quran to use our
sensory, our conceptual,
our moral faculties
to appreciate the realities
around us and to be heedful of the
signs, ayatulah.
The ayatulah can be the book, the signs
of the book, the verses of the book
of Allah
and also in the creation of the heavens
and the earth are also ayatulullah.
So whether you look at the Quran and
read Allah's verses or whether you look at
nature, you see Allah signs, it's both ayatulah.
And from all of these we can learn.
And that's why Allah began the Quran with
ikhura bismirabbik.
Whatever you read, whatever you observe,
you do it with the observation of tawhid.
So wherever you look,
you will find the book of Allah somewhat
manifested not only in the book sense but
in the ayaat of Allah.
So there are numerous ayaat that heed us,
that calls upon us
to pay attention to the realities around us.
And among these verses
is a particular verse and there are more
than 1 but
Allah says in the Quran,
Do people not see the birds
controlled
in the atmosphere of the sky? We always
see how they fly in formation, thousands of
them and so on and so forth. So
Allah says, do they not see the birds
controlled
in the atmosphere of the sky?
This verse
explicitly
directs our focus
to birds in flight,
to birds
in flight. So let's reflect on this.
And I'll take 3 birds just to give
an indication among the millions of birds.
Just to make us understand when Allah speak
about the ayaat, yes we know the ayaat,
the birds and so on, just to give
us how much depth there is and what
there is in the creation of Allah, in
the majesty of Allah, we don't observe, we
take it for granted.
So 3 birds.
In 2022,
a bar tailed Godwit
was tracked
flying
13,560
kilometers
from the snow
snowy mountains of Alaska
to the warm weathers
of Tasmania,
the Australian state of Tasmania
without stopping for food
or rest,
breaking the record,
tracked for the longest non stop
migration by any bird.
Starting on the 13th October 2022,
sorry. And it flew through rain, through storm,
through snow, through the heat of the day,
through the darkness of the night without
feeding,
without drinking,
without sleeping,
without resting, without landing
for 13 days
and 1 hour
sorry, 11 days and 1 hour until it
landed in Tasmania
on the 24th October
2022.
Only one bird. Remarkable indeed.
There's a bird called the bar tailed godwit
which I've mentioned here now.
We peep people are not aware of the
superpower nature of this particular bird
And it has the capacity
to fly
autopilot,
make their heart and chest muscle bigger by
mid flight, to provide more energy and oxygen
so they can drastically alter their metabolism.
In other words, they can burn their fat
reserves
as they fly. And that is called autophagy.
And now recently it's a means of dieting
for people what they called, you know, not
eating for dieting through intermittent fasting. It's called
autophagy.
This bird does it in flight.
There's a bird called the bar headed geese.
It takes off also from Alaska
and goes to a height of 12 kilometers.
Why 12 kilometers?
Because there is where it takes advantage of
the jet stream and the jet stream is
the flow of air that flows at 400
and 42 kilometers per hour. Faster than any
car you know.
It goes around the earth so it goes
into the jet stream but that jet stream
is minus 57 degrees Celsius.
Now that same bird, if you cut it
put in the fridge, it will freeze at
minus 10 degrees. How does it fly
minus 57 degrees in a wind of 442
kilometers per hour?
The ruby throated hummingbird.
It flies from the Amazon forest,
from the Amazon forest,
migrates from South America
over waters.
In other words, it can't rest even if
it wants to. There's no place to land
in 1st place. Over the Gulf of Mexico
which by the way is the largest gulf
in the whole world,
gulf of water.
The size of this bird,
ruby throated hummingbird is smaller than the head
of a teaspoon.
Adult male weighs 4 milligrams.
Adult weight, adult adult
male weighs 4 milligram. It flies for 5,000
kilometers
beating its wings at 1,000 revs per minute.
It flies over
and days later it lands on the banks
of the Sur Piraba.
Now, how does it fly so far
through all the weather conditions
without eating, without drinking, without landing, without resting.
So we ask,
only of these 3 birds, forget the 1,000
and 1,000,000 others,
What directs the bar tailed Godwit?
Or the bar headed
geese
or the ruby throated hummingbirds?
How are they guided to the destinations?
Who facilitates their annual annual
arduous journey to and fro over thousands of
kilometers,
over many lands through the extremities of weather.
As we observe them flying above, well it's
just another bird,
indeed we ask
what holds them up in that sky
to be able to do these kind of
things?
Allah Subhanahu Wa Ta'ala. In Surah Tabara could
we read when people die?
In that Surah Allah tells us. You see
we read the surah never think about it.
It's a surah we read for dead people
and we leave it dead day wherever it
is.
Allah says
in the
Have people not observed?
It's a verse in the Quran. Not for
the scientists,
but for the Morvie and the Sheikh and
the ordinary guy and for everyone else. Have
people not observed
the birds above them flying,
spreading and fluttering their wings?
None
grants them the capacity
to be held up
doing what he does except who? Ilahur Rahman,
the Most Merciful.
Surely Allah looks out for everyone and everything
for Allah sees everything.
You see,
the birds make their efforts by the natural
innate capacity
that Allah gave them.
But ultimately they rely on Allah.
Ultimately
they must be relying on something.
They rely on Allah
and herein lies the lesson for us as
there are so certain hadith
documented for us by
Rasulullah said, if you were to rely on
Allah
as he should be relied upon,
then Allah would facilitate for you
as he provides for the birds.