Sadullah Khan – 7th Post Witr Talk Ramadaan 1444 2023

We continue our theme

moral guidance

from everyday experiences.

There is a specific verse in the holy

Quran

that literally brings us down to earth,

and it pertains to Iblis's refusal

to follow Allah's command.

And the command was for Iblis

to humble himself to Nabi Adam, a.

Iblis is questioned as to why he refused

to obey the command of Allah,

and Iblis rationalized

his response.

He rationalized

his response,

and he framed it in a seemingly logical

manner.

Quran says,

he was asked,

what has kept you from humbling

yourself according to Allah's command?

So he said,

I am better than Adam.

Thou has created me, oh, Allah, from fire,

whereas you have created him, from soil or

clay or dust.

So the reason for Iblis' disobeying the command

of Allah

was because he considered himself better than Adam,

alaihis salaam,

and the reason for that was

Adam alaihi salaam was created from dust or

from soil,

and Iblis was created from fire.

The question that arises,

is

Iblis' argument valid?

The basis for his disobedience to Allah

was the difference between the physical makeup

of the 2.

1 of fire,

that's Iblis,

and

the other is of Nabi Adam made of

sand or clay or soil.

Now if we examine the basis of Iblis'

claim,

it clearly reveals the erroneous nature of his

assumption. This is very important for people of

us when key positions or managerial positions

or positions of authority.

Because sometimes

we presume something and we make a decision,

And it may be a good intention,

but sometimes that good decision or seemingly good

decision can block other good things. For example,

I may suggest, let's start an Arabic class

tomorrow.

Of course, the 1st week, you'll have a

100 people, but the 4th week, you won't

have so many because why? Arabic is not

a class you can do in 4, 5

weeks. It takes years, and after years, you

learn some stuff. Whereas, do Tajweed class in

6 weeks, you can do it. So the

idea that people who come for will be

greater than they will come for Arabic for

that matter. So my suggestion of Arabic, it's

a very good suggestion,

but is it practical?

Is it what people want? And by my

suggestion,

a better suggestion maybe,

denied or shelved.

Now if we examine Iblis' claim,

it clearly reveals the erroneous nature of his

assumption.

Of course, fire has great value.

Fire

is a source of heat

and heat is a source of energy.

I think Eskom needs that.

But it's also the main component of *.

As for soil or clay or dust,

among the primary components of soil and clay

are water,

which is the liquid of life,

organic matter,

gases,

air,

microorganisms,

but the largest component of soil is the

mineral portion, about 45

to 50%

of the volume of soil

is

mineral mineral.

Humans and soil

contain minerals

and both are chemical systems

sharing a common composition,

comprising of main major and minor traces of

chemical elements.

Both human being and soil has oxygen,

hydrogen,

carbon,

sulfur,

phosphor,

calcium,

magnesium,

sodium,

potassium,

iron, silicon,

zinc, selenium,

copper, manganese,

fluorine,

all found in soil, also found in the

human body.

Oh, may you from dust.

All these are essential to human life.

By the way, for argument's sake, besides faulting

Adam,

besides faulting Iblis for his arrogant refusal to

obey Allah's command,

he should realize that soil holds an advantage

over fire

because

you can blot out fire

with sand,

but nonetheless.

So we have to be cognizant of the

fact

that if the start of your argument,

if the premise of your argument is wrong,

and very often we continue debates and arguments,

even in religious circles.

The premise is already wrong, so you bolt

on your premise and you get emotional about

it, and you quote the verse from here

and quote from verse from there, but the

premise is faulty.

So the conclusion can never be right.

So we have to be cognizant of the

fact,

if we start a discussion on argument

and the

beginning of it is wrong, if the premise

is false, the conclusion will always be incorrect.

So

fire is not necessarily better than soil in

our discussion here,

but Iblis

rationalized

his decision to disobey Allah.

And the basis of his argument was flawed,

and the basis of his argument, despite seemingly

logical, was unsound.

So be cautious

how we rationalize

things.

If our assumptions are incorrect,

our understanding of things will be defective.

Because if the premise of our reasoning is

mistaken,

then the conclusion

we make

could then also be

wrong. We could potentially harm ourselves

and even maybe misguide others even with good

intention.

And that's why

I conclude

Oh, Allah, make us of those who are

rightly guided

and make us a source of guiding other

people.

And Allah, let us not lead other people

astray

nor allow us ourselves

to become astray.