Safi Khan – Soul Food A thematic tafsir of Surah AlQasas Chapter 28 For College Students
AI: Summary ©
The speaker discusses the importance of acknowledging one's morality and values in the context of one's faith. They emphasize the need to push forward and stay forward, not abandoning everything else in society. The importance of prioritizing one's deeds and not taking things past their deeds to avoid going to the next level, and the importance of prioritizing god's priority and not taking things past their deeds to avoid going to the next level. They also discuss the importance of the soul food and how it will be printed out in September.
AI: Summary ©
Okay.
Everybody.
Welcome to Soul Food.
Hopefully, we'll be looking at,
going live with Soul Food, in person sometime
soon in the near future.
From the live of Texas. And I got
their
their they got a little bit better in
terms of their, their COVID in particular. We're
going to have, you know,
so far,
for roots, we've actually made lots of posts,
artwork live there in person.
Through like an arts machine method obviously,
the past 2 Mondays.
And then, in trial,
obviously, I lost permission,
we'll be able to host Sohu very soon,
sometime in person. And I know that's, you
know, as a someone who joins us, I
know that's kind of like a dream of
hers. You might as and talk again.
At some point, because I think I think
I don't know what's other thoughts on. I'm
I'm extremely like like
like, like, I like seeing people in front
of me and not only like if you
like my face on, I get everything in
my face.
It's Yeah.
Same here.
I'm like, I need this human interaction. You
know? Right. It it it it Apart? Yeah.
Exactly. Exactly. It's it's fixed me apart, but,
and
we're we're really looking forward to,
to to sharing this space with everybody,
in the near future again, Insha'Allah.
So,
today is actually
today we,
together now we'll be completing this
amazing chapter of the Quran. Right?
Assalamu Fatima, I don't know when did we
we finished Surah Yusuf, like, I believe back
when we were in person, I believe, almost.
Right? Like, we were we it was, like,
February, March.
Yeah. We did in person. We finished in
yeah. You're right. In February.
Yeah. And,
yeah. No. You're good. And, and now, we
ever since March, we started this new Surah,
and we were kind of thinking what would
be really cool to cover after the story
of Prophet Yusuf. Prophet Yusuf's story is so
legendary,
that you almost have to like top it
with a story that's either as amazing or
even better.
And we chose to do the story, the
narrative of prophet Musa,
insuatul Qasas. And alhamdulillah, we've had such a
good time in these past, you know, 3,
4 months. And as you can tell,
one of the really cool things about,
you know, the the the narratives of the
Quran is that they take a long time
to tell. Right? It's not just like a
normal story book that you just open up
and you can read it in, like, a
day or 2. It's like one verse equals
like 20 minutes of conversation and reflection,
because that's just the way that Allah subhanahu
wa ta'ala does what he does. Right?
It's just beautifully dense in its meaning and
amazingly deep in its in its reflection. And
so now, hamdulillah,
we are finally at the last couple of
verses of Suratul Qasas.
We
of Suratul Tassos.
We're literally at the end. This is
the last 3, 4 ayats that we have
to go through today.
And,
and and literally, you know, we are
at the finish line here with this 28th
chapter of the Quran,
that we started 4 months ago. And Insha'Allah
we have a short announcement for you guys
coming up at the end of the session
today, which will kind of reveal a little
bit of what we're gonna do in the
future Insha'Allah in regards to soul food. So
today what we're going to talk about, and
if you guys saw it on the title,
it the the flyer today said being unapologetically
Muslim. And if you're on Facebook or Instagram,
you see that the title says being unapologetically
Muslim. So what's on the Fatima? Before we
even dive into the verses,
what do you it's a very loaded kind
of phrase, right, being unapologetically
Muslim.
What does that mean to you?
How how is somebody when they see it?
And I think, you know, because of Islamophobia
and a lot of difficulty, and you and
I have had conversations
about,
you know, how to upkeep this kind of
moral compass when the rest of society around
us is struggling a lot with this morality
and its values.
So how
do we as as Muslims,
how are we supposed to stay unapologetically?
Or we're supposed to be very, very thorough
in our in our steadfast ness.
I think one big thing is that sometimes
people think that being unapologetically
Muslim
means that you're rude. You know, you're you're
you're disrespectful.
You're rude. You know, you're in people's face
about it and things of that nature.
Being unapologetically
Muslim
is not about treating people in a bad
way. You know, that's actually against, you know,
just being your Muslim nature is actually against
how you should be as a as a
Muslim, but rather what it actually means is
about, you know, not being afraid to worship
Allah the way Allah has asked you to
worship him. You know, the prophet and the
companions there, they're going through a lot in
Mecca.
Right? To the point where the story is
revealed when they're doing making hijra. Right? So
they're going through a lot in mecca. There
is a lot of just torture. You know
you have a lot
of being pushed through the streets. You have
you know you have.
Like you have so many different situations and
different people going through so much because of
their faith and Allah
is telling them that you know you're
you don't have to be scared of these
people because know that Allah has got your
back. You know, that
Allah knows that these people are wrong. And
that's like the I have this I at
first, I I remember,
85, the Allah says,
says for you to say, this is what
you need to say. This is something that
you need to you know, we talk about
positive affirmations all the time. A lot of
times telling the prophet that this is what
you say, That my Lord is most knowing
of who brings guidance. Like I am a
messenger. I'm just here bringing this. You know
what I'm saying? Just dropping this off.
Also I was telling them that
you don't compromise
you don't compromise your faith, and you're not
wrong. Just because so many people are claiming
that you're wrong, you're not wrong, that this
is your faith. This is what you're practicing,
and recognize that this is part of, like,
being unapologetically
Muslim.
Really incredible actually that you
mentioned that is that, the first, literally the
first part of this entire,
I guess, stanza of of of verses here,
Allah says,
and what's really cool about this y'all,
this this this verse is really deep and
it hits me really hard. As the sun
of Fatima was talking about it that this
verse was or this surah
was majorly revealed to the prophet
when he was doing his hijrah, meaning, like,
he left his hometown
and he was going towards his new home,
which was called the city of Medina, or
at that time it was called Yasser. And,
you know, there are so many narrations about
how the Surah is so,
it's so,
it's so
for the Prophet,
because Allah to ease his pain
of leaving his home,
He told him the story of another prophet
who also had to leave where he was
from,
and and that was the story of Moses.
And what's really interesting
is that there are so many other points
in our lives, right, where Allah subhanahu wa
ta'ala, we can relate to this where Allah
Subhanahu Wa Ta'ala kinda keeps us telling us
to go on, to continue on, keep pushing
forward.
There was another moment in the prophet's life
where this is actually kind of relative where,
there was a journey that he went on
that was miraculous called the Isra wal Mi'raj.
And when he went, to the heavens and
he saw the prophet's And when he went,
to the heavens and he saw the prophets
that came before him,
he saw a plethora of of of prophets
and messengers, you know, including,
prophet Halun, prophet Ibrahim, prophet Adam, Yusuf,
Dawu, you you name it. And and of
those prophets that he met was prophet Musa.
And one of the narrations of that meeting
between these two prophets was that Musa alayhis
salaam, one of the narrations
say that Musa alayhis salaam was
a little bit, you know, he was a
little bit sad. And so the prophet sallallahu
alayhi salaam goes, why are you why are
you upset? Like, what what's wrong? And prophet
Musa alayhi salaam, he tells the prophet sallallahu
alayhi he says, well, there's a prophet that
will come after me
who more of his will enter paradise than
my own will.
And at that point, what was really, really
amazing is that at that point, the prophet
salallahu alaihi wasallam was still in Makkah, and
he only had a handful of people who
believed in his message. Right? It was very
few people. It was as though like, you
know, you and me were, you know, teaching
or you and me were kind of putting
together a group of people to socialize and
hang out, only 2 people showed up. And
although you know there's quality and, you know,
we're we're taught that in Islam is that
quality always triumphs over, quantity.
But at at a certain point, you know,
the prophets of Allah, we know that their
their their job, right, to to to recite
the verses, to to teach, to teach with
wisdom, and also use Zakid and to to
purify their people. And so the jobs of
prophets were, at the end of the day,
to guide their people towards salvation.
And the prophet
always his sadness was that, you know, Mecca
just wasn't getting it. They just weren't getting
it. There were only a few people that
got it. But him meeting Prophet Musa, you
know, in the that level of heaven where
he met him was really legendary because at
that point, Musa alayhis salam told him, he
said, wow. You know, there's a prophet who's
gonna come after me whose Ummah will more
of them will enter paradise in my own,
and prophet Musa, alaihis salami was huge. So
the Bani Israel. He was like, that's, like,
massive amount of people. And that was just
really reassuring for the prophet.
And one thing I want to kind of
ask everyone to reflect on
what are the moments in life where you
felt that Allah was telling you to keep
pushing that, keep pushing on,
right?
Because there are several moments in your life
where you're gonna feel like quitting.
You know, like, I'm sure there are days
today
that I just did catch a break this
week. He's done terribly for me. I mean,
the past 5 months, for god's sake, because
it's, like, absolutely horrendous for most people that
are living in this world right now. I
mean, it's tough. People are losing jobs. People
are losing family members.
People are losing what they normally do on
a day to day basis.
And it's been a difficult year.
But
within those times of difficulty, there are also
moments where Allah gives you signs, and he
tells you just continue. Just push forward. You
got this. Continue going. So one point of
reflection that I wanted to kind of bring
about to everybody before I let us add
a Fatima kind of, you know, teach us
or narrate us the second ayah is what
are what are those points of of Allah
encouraging you? What are those points of Allah,
subhanahu wa ta'ala, encouraging you to push forward?
What are those moments in the past week
or the past month or the past couple
of days even where you felt that there
were signs that Allah
was telling you, just continue. You got this.
You can keep doing it, right? So just
think about that inshallah as we kind of
reflect over these next couple of ayahs. So
if you want to go ahead and insha'Allah
just maybe reflect with us a little bit
about, you know, ayah 86,
what Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala tells us.
So in ayah 86, Allah
is talking to the prophet So this entire,
like, section is still as, like, think of
it as a consolation to the prophet where
Allah and the Muslims, Allah is letting him
know, you know, we're I'm here for you.
Like, I'm here for you. So Allah tells
him,
he says, well, like, you didn't you yourself
didn't even realize the scripture was being sent
to you. Like, you yourself, even if you
wanted to come up with it because, you
know, that's what that was the claim. Like,
oh, he's a sorcerer. He's a poet. He
came up with this by himself. Allah is
saying you yourself cannot have expect expected
this book to have been sent to you.
Like, it it wasn't in your wildest dreams.
And then I was from the says that
in that
it it was sent to you as a
mercy from your lord. And I find this
just kinda like to talk about this a
little bit. I find this to be so
beautiful because a lot of times when we
think about our faith, we think about our
religion.
We think about us following, you know, Islam
and things of that nature. We kinda feel
like sometimes people,
the way it's presented to us or the
way that is hounded on us, it becomes
like a burden. Right? Like, you I have
to go read Quran right now. And, like,
I just I can't, like I just so
you know, I think about my old Quran
teacher. I think about this, and I think
about that, and it just makes me motivated
and all this stuff. You think about your
religion to be a burden when Allah
has constantly
told us himself
how the religion is supposed to be and
and you know a lot of times like
I used to tell my friends. We'll have
conversations and stuff like that. And we'll always
say that when someone shows you who they
are or their intentions, you believe them right
Allah
shows us exactly
what the religion is Allah
shows us exactly what the Quran is, exactly
why the Quran is the word of Allah,
why we're supposed to follow it. And so
what Allah is literally telling to the prophet
is that, yeah, times are hard and things
are difficult and people don't believe in you.
And not only that, it's not even about
the whole belief thing, but they're being like
obnoxious and they're fighting and they're, you know,
hurting you and they're hurting the people around
you and all these things. But know that
this is not a reflection of the religion.
It's a reflection of their actions. And Allah
says this in Surat Baha too. He says,
We didn't send the Quran down upon you
so that it can cause you to be,
like, have grief,
so it can give you anxiety, so that
it can be something that's stressful.
And the last one
that clarifies here
that it's a mercy from your lord. And
so then
So don't have the back of those who
disbelieve. Like, literally
means to have somebody's back.
Like, to be somebody who's, like, you know,
just be their right hand man, you know,
like, trying to help them out just to
see, like, oh, okay.
Like maybe if I compromise here and help
you out a little bit, then you will
like be nicer to me. I also like
no.
No. That's not that's not why you're sending
here. That's not why the book is sent
to you. You know, they're gonna do what
they wanna do regardless.
Mhmm. SubhanAllah.
And, you know, it really brings about
a a a a reflection or a parallel
to the fact that,
this life is going to present itself in
a very, very ornate or like a very
beautiful way. Right? There are so many things
in this life that seem so appealing for
us. Right? Just there are so many things
in this life that seems so appealing for
us. Right? Just do whatever you wanna do.
Just, you know, just just abandon, you know,
a way of thought and, you know, and
I was actually really interested. I was talking
to a community member earlier today. I remember
it's actually a parent I was talking to
and, you know, she she and I were
having a conversation about how to kind of,
keep this idea of Islam within our young
Muslims. Like, how do you do it? How
do you honestly teach them that Islam is
something that they want to do?
And I was very honest with her. And
I told her, I said, look, you know,
auntie, with all due respect,
it it we're fighting an uphill battle. You
know? We're fighting an uphill battle. I mean,
it's just true. And and and and anyone
who says otherwise is probably, masha'Allah, at a
level of like, like, that I'm not at
yet. You can just kind of like completely
close off everything else in society that tempts
you. But for the average Muslim, right, for
you and I,
the reality is that this world is extremely
tempting and it's and it's a way that
it presents itself to us where,
your, you know, just do whatever you want,
fulfill whatever desires you want, right? You know,
why get up at like 6 am to
pray,
sleep in a little bit. Right? Like, get
get your rest. You deserve it. You worked
so hard. And, you know, and and and
this is kind of Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala,
telling the prophet Sallallahu alaihi wa sallam, he
says, you know, don you know,
don't don't, you know, don't don't be a
supporter of that lifestyle. That's not you.
That's not you. That's not who you are.
Because Allah has given you too much for
for you to turn on him like that.
You know, Allah has given you too much
to turn on him like that. And then
the next ayah in in verse 87,
Allah Oh, my favorite ayahs. It literally one
of the most powerful
ayahs in this entire Surah.
He he Allah's kinda what's out, and he
says in this in in the in this
ayah, he says, and let them sorry. I
gotta pull it up here on the the
screen for you guys so you can see.
And never let them avert you from the
verse of Allah after they have been revealed
to you. Don't let them discourage you. Don't
let them discourage you. This is this you
know, the word aya, it's actually an Arabic.
A lot of us kind of refer to,
like, just verses. Right? It's Quran. It's it's
this is sentence verse in the Quran, but
it's not. It's actually it parallels to the
meaning of signs and miracles. Mhmm. You know?
Everything that he's given you. Right? Don't let
them divert you from these blessings and miracles
you've seen in your life. Right?
And it just takes a person to sit
back for a second and be like, wow.
Okay. Allah has given me all this. I
cannot deny it. I cannot deny it. And
then it says,
And never be of those who who who
who partner up others with Allah that that
get their priorities mixed up with Allah. Do
you have any reflections from this ayah? Yeah.
I find this to be really beautiful for
two reasons.
1, this entire Surah was revolving around, you
know,
making that hijrah him also Allah bringing the
example of Musa alayhis salam, you know, for
for for the prophets to reflect on.
And in Suratul Taha, when Allah is telling
his conversation with Musa al Islam, Allah tells
him, you know,
I'm your Lord,
like I've
called you here. Take off your sandals. He
tells him, like, I'm Allah. You should worship
me, all these things. And then Allah says,
he uses the same verbiage.
He tells Musa Al Islam don't let people
who do not believe in what you believe
in. Okay? They do not worship what you
worship.
They follow their own desires.
Don't let them turn you away from your
mission.
Don't let people who are not on the
same page as you turn you away from
the things that you aspire for in this
world. That's literally what Allah says. And then
Allah says that they follow their own desires,
and that is what causes them to perish.
And you will end up being in that
boat. You know, birds of a feather flock
together.
So Allah
gives us he lets us know that there
are gonna be haters that come around. Like
people are gonna make you not want to
worship your your lord. People are gonna make
you not want to properly, you know, practice
your religion. And they're gonna it's gonna start
off with things like, why do you wear
a hijab? Like, what's the point? You know,
isn't that so outdated? It's gonna start off
with comments like, why are you dressed this
way? Why are you trying to be so
pious? Why are you trying to be so
religious all of a sudden? Why don't you
watch this? Why don't you look at that?
Why don't you date so and so? Why
don't you Allah literally tells us, don't let
people who don't understand the purpose of life
guide you on your purpose of life. You
cannot do that because at the end of
the day, they don't have the proper advice
for you.
Subhanallah. It's almost like so the father was
it's almost like to me, it reminds me
of, like, loyalty. Right?
You know, like, when you when you only
look in your family, like, when you're growing
up and you kinda make decisions that sometimes
where, like, you go hang out with other
people instead of spending time with your family.
Only until you kinda get a little bit
older where you're like, dude, I don't care
if my friends are gonna spend, like, till,
like, 4 AM laughing and joking and being
like fools, and it'll be a lot of
fun. But, man, to me, spending 2 hours
with, like, with my mom is, like, way
more meaningful at this point in my life.
You know? And and I think, you know,
one of the most beautiful things is that
once you finally, like, get a little bit
older or not even older, man, like, sometimes
wisdom hits people young as well.
And you kind of hit that loyalty, you're
like, wow, okay, betray Allah like this. Like,
you know, like,
why why am I gonna let somebody who
doesn't really even care about me sway my
thoughts and opinions about my life, right?
That I'm not enough or I'm not doing
enough. And you know what's crazy is this.
I and this is something that just popped
in my head right now.
A lot of
issues that we have today, you know, whether
it's that you know, it's it's, like, self
image struggles or it's struggles with, like, I'm
not good enough and I'm not this enough
or I'm not that enough.
None of that comes from Allah. It comes
from the same people that you feel tempted
by. Isn't that crazy?
Right? Like, the fact that, like, oh, like,
maybe I'm not pretty enough, so I have
to go and look like this for these
people. Those are the same people that we
sometimes get fooled into giving our priority and
loyalty to. And Allah sitting over here and
he's like, you know, he and he's sitting
over here, you know, and and he's saying,
I created you beautifully. Right?
Yeah. I've already given you nobility and dignity.
I don't need you to change for me.
You are perfect the way that you are.
And unfortunately,
you know, when Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala says
that, you know, someone look when the like
like, sometimes, like, we just can't see things
properly. We just can't see things properly. And
only until we get older and sometimes we
kinda hit that sense of, like, spiritual awareness.
We're like, man, Allah has been so good
to me for my entire life. And it's
actually the people sometimes
that have let me down.
And you feel so sucky at that moment.
For the lack of a better term, you
feel so sucky where you're just like, I
gave my attention to these people,
to those distractions.
That's where I get my loyalty to. No.
No. No. I gotta redirect right now. I
gotta redirect my compass and point it to
its true north, which is Allah Subhanahu Wa
Ta'ala. And it's something that's incredibly reflective for
for me to think about. And so in
his last ayah and now, SallAllahu Fatima and
I have reached to, Allah
he says, I'll pull up the translation for
all of you guys who are on Facebook.
I wish there was a way we could
do it on Instagram, InshaAllah, maybe we'll start
doing that next, next month. But Allah he
says in the 88th ayah and so it's
a he
says,
This is like a crazy ayah. Right? This
is like incredible. Allah says at the end,
he kinda like put like a bow on
top. He like puts it together and string
this together and wraps
it up and says, and do not invoke
with Allah any other being, any other deity.
Okay?
And there's no deity except Huwa, except Allah.
Everything
will end up perishing
and end up coming to its end except
wajahahu.
Now this is interesting because the word wajah
means somebody's face. Right? It means like this
right here. So obviously so there has to
be kind of like a like a little
bit of like a mission that we have
to unsolved where Allah says says,
Everything will perish or everything will end except
Allah's face. Now what does that mean?
The scholars actually say here that there are
a couple of meanings to this.
What's habu? Hu. In this ayah specifically,
some scholars they say that this refers to
Allah
himself, that everything except Allah will be gone
one day. And all of those priorities and
and the attention that you gave elsewhere, those
will all come to an end. The friends
that you had will also pass away like
you will pass away. The wealth that you
have will not be buried with you in
the ground and will not benefit you in
the hereafter.
You know, the house that you had, masha'Allah,
the cars that you drove, you know, the
popularity that you had, you know, the the
the whatever you had in your life, your
career, your job, all of those things one
day will come to an end.
It's up Allah.
And Allah will be the only one that
will remain at the end of your life.
And Allah will tell you, are you ready
now? Like, are you ready to come to
me now?
And and another explanation of followers they say
is that, waj habu also kind of doubles
for your deeds that, you know, like, what
what like, everything will will go away at
the end of the day except your deeds.
Your deeds are gonna be the only things
that will remain with you because that's literally
the proof that you have, that you use
this life that Allah has given you to
benefit yourself for the next life. Right? Then
you've done something. You know, what's the worst
feeling ever at the end of the year
when you graduate? It's like when you have
nothing to show for it. Right?
So a really amazing opportunity that Allah is
giving us is like, hey, do your part.
Take this life and and and make sure
you stamp your name on it. Right? That
like this is something I'm
proud of
of that I can present to Allah subhanahu
wa ta'ala at the end of my life,
whether it be 20 years, 50 years, 70
years, whatever it is. I'll be proud to
present it to Allah
when I finally meet my my my Lord.
And then it says,
here at the end,
Allah says at the end, his his is
the judgment, and to him you will be
returned to him. And it always reminds you
at the end that you'll always go back
to him. You know?
We all know that at the end of
our lives, Allah is the one that we
return to. Right? So the Fatima, do you
have any sort of reflection from those last?
Yeah. I think that too. Like, what I
what I see this I I see, you
know, in connection to a previous I was,
you know, says, don't let things, like, take
you don't let people or things that are
not on your same path that are not
trying to connect to Allah Subhanahu Wa Ta'ala,
they're not trying to make it to Allah
Subhanahu Wa Ta'ala with like a clean heart,
dictate the path that you should take. And
then Allah Subhanahu Wa Ta'ala follows it up
by saying
and don't put anything or anyone before your
relationship between you and Allah. And what's so
beautiful about that is Allah is letting you
know. 1st he says,
don't take things and, like, don't take people's
people's
pathways that are not taking you to the
right path. And how do you do that?
How do you stay keep yourself in the
clear? How do you make sure that you're
practically
you know not going down the wrong path?
Well, the way that you're not going by
the wrong path is by making sure that
Allah and you and your relationship with Allah
is first priority in your life, that you
are you are constantly in pursuit of the
father, the favor,
and the mercy and compassion of Allah. And
then Allah
gives you a reason. Why does God have
to give us a reason? He doesn't.
You know, you should worship me, put me
first because I'm God, I created you. But
Allah
says, There's no one who has any type
of power that Allah has. There's no one
who, there's no God except for him, there's
no deity except for him, that at the
end of the day no one's even worthy
of having that level of, I lost one
thought that
further
drives
that
point.
He says, kudos Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala further
drives that point. He says,
that the only thing at the end of
the day that's gonna exist is Allah.
You only got God.
That Allah will put these different things in
your life, different people to remind you of
him and all that stuff, but it's just
that to remind you of him. You don't
put people, you don't put things before your
relationship with Allah. And then
one who would take he is the judgment.
He is the one that who that would
take
you into into
account for your actions. He is the one
that we're gonna stand stand before on a
day of judgment. We're gonna be, you know,
you know, you don't wanna stand there and
be like, oh, man, I should have done
better. You wanna stand there where you're you're
ready to meet your maker. You're ready to
meet your creator. You're ready to, you know,
be in the company in the light, in
in the favor, in the in the the
complete mercy
and compassion of Allah.
Allah has given us the blueprint of life.
The blueprint of life is that you always
put god first, that you no matter what
situation you're in, no matter where your life
is taking you, no matter what you're doing
in in life, that you always put God
first. And sometimes
that is gonna look difficult. You know?
Sometimes it's gonna look like you're the strange
one in the land. Sometimes it's gonna look
abnormal. Sometimes it's gonna look like great. You
know, sometimes it will be great. Sometimes it
will be awesome. Sometimes, you know, you'll be
in a group of people where you guys
are all on the same page.
It it's not something that we're human beings.
We're not robots.
You know what I'm saying? So Allah
gives us these verses and these stories and
all of this for us to be able
to still feel our human being nature
and still know the right decision to make.
Subhanallah. Subhanallah. And you know? It's
absolutely
amazing. And and and, honestly, one thing that
I wanted to kind of, and I actually
look back at my my my own, Quran
right here, and I saw one word that
I actually wanted to kind of shortly,
end my reflections on.
In in in verse 85, actually, if you
go back and look at it, Allah says
in the beginning,
The word Ma'adin is really interesting because this
first translates out to surely the one who
has joined the Quran upon you will surely
bring you back to the place of return.
Ma'adin means like a place you go back
to.
And the scholars, they mentioned
that
this Surah, obviously, or this verse specifically was
actually revealed to the prophet in a very,
very key moment of his migration.
So
this beautiful narrator of Hadith, right, this this
amazing companion of the prophet sallallahu alaihi wa
sallam, he
says that during the hijrah, you know, the
prophet, sallallahu alaihi wa sallam, he came out
of Jabal Sur. Jabal Sur, by the way,
was the the
the the mountain that Abu Bakr and and
the prophet, sallam, were hiding in. And he
came out from Jabal Thore, after he was
hiding from the the Quraysh that were trying
to persecute them and capture them. And
he
basically went on, and they had to travel
this route that was very unfamiliar to them
because the routes that were familiar, the Quraysh
knew that they were gonna go go those
routes and so they had to avoid them
in order to not be captured.
And when the prophet sallallahu alaihi wa sallam,
he reached this area called Jufa actually. Jufa
is in this area that he reached, and
it was a well known place on the
way to Medina. It was, like, a well
known route on the way to Medina.
He stopped for a second. There's a narration
that end in in the Sahih narration of
the prophet salsam's, Surah that says that when
he reached Jaffa,
he stopped for a second, and he turned
around,
and he looked back at the route towards
Mecca.
And
it was like the the commentators of hadith
they say, what a heartbreaking moment
That you knew that, like, you you know,
like, that that feeling and I don't know
whoever's moved in here before, like, you know,
like, whoever's moved from a city to another
city because of work or family or whatever
it may be. You turn around for a
second and, like, you see, like, that road,
you know, the interstate highway that goes your
hometown. I'm sure it's not a problem. I'll
hear from Atlanta, and, you know, when you
when you see, like, the the interstate, the
green signs that say this is the way
to Atlanta, like, a part of you just,
like, like it just, like, it aches a
little bit. Right? Because you're just seeing memories,
man. Like, I I know whenever, you know,
I I'm in my my wife and I
and my family, we live in Dallas now.
But I know whenever I go on a
road trip
and I see the the sign for Memphis,
like there's a little bit of a home
that hits me. I'm like, oh, man. Like,
that's where I'm from. Like, that's like that's
like where I grew up, man. Like, that's
where all my memories are from. And the
the the Hadith commenters, they always say they're
like, when when he stopped at Juhfa, he
turned around, he looked, and he saw the
route to Makkah.
And
who could understand what the prophet was feeling
at that moment? Right? And this is when
Allah revealed to him this ayah. Allah says
that, you know, you've been chosen, You Rasool
Allah. Right? You've been chosen to deliver this
message, and surely the one who has enjoined
the Quran upon you will surely one day
bring you back to that place that you
live.
He will bring you back to that place
that you love. So that's what he's talking
about when he says the word,
It's a place of return. And eventually, the
prophet,
he went back to Mecca as a Muslim
as a and he and and the city
of Mecca was a city of believers now,
alhamdulillah, the end of all of it. And
so one point of reflection I wanna share
with everybody is, you know, that word,
it represents a spiritual home that we all
want to reach. And that is paradise. We
all want to get there. We all want
to get there.
So my question to you guys as we
end our our our session for today is
what is your?
What is your end goal? Because the prophet,
even though he was in Medina,
his heart ached for Mecca.
It ached and it yearned to be back
in that place where he was born, where
he knew his family was from, and where
he had all of his roots there. And
obviously, now we know the city of Madinah
as Madinah,
the city of, of light and, you know,
the city of the prophet. But Mecca was
always his hope. Right? It was like where
he was from. That was like where he
started.
And so I asked you guys, and he
had to struggle so much. He had to
give up so much, sacrifice so much to
be where he was in his life. But
Allah promised him that you will surely be
returned to this place. You know? And ask
yourself, make Jannah personal for you. What do
you want, man? I know
You know? And ask yourself, make Jannah personal
for you. What do you want, man? I
know I know very specifically what I want
in. So, Fazam, I'm sure that you, like,
thought about this when you were teaching or
when you were even a student yourself. Like,
you know, everybody has their own objective or
their own subjective opinion about what Jannah will
look
for them. Like, Jannah for me is, like,
filled with chicken biryani and, like, you know,
my family and my parents and my best
friends, and we're all gonna hang out together
endlessly. No no sadness whatsoever.
So what is that for you? Make Jannah
personal for you. And trust me, it will
be a goal that will be easier for
you to reach because you know it's gonna
be exactly like that. Right? Sure. And that
is that is something that, you know, we
wanna work towards, insha'Allah.
So I know everyone had a good laugh
with my chicken biryani, chicken biryani reference. Listen,
bro, you can have whatever you want in
Jannah. If you're a matlumab
person or you're like a person who wants
like mamul and all these different things, like
it's all you man. But insha Allah
gives us everything that we yearn for in
for all of our efforts and forgive us
for any of our shortcomings.
I mean, well, thank you guys so much.
Insha'Allah, this is our last session of of,
soul food, the soulful process.
Really, really cool announcements,
that we're gonna be making really quickly inshallah
is that soul food, starting in September, which
is actually going to be
this next Thursday.
We're actually going to be bringing out thematic
topics every single soul food. So what we'll
do, inshallah, is actually we're going to be
printing out like a flyer or like pentochondria
of a flyer that has the entire month's
worth of topics that we're gonna discuss. And
these topics are gonna be extremely relevant.
Asad Alfama and I were talking about the
earlier this week, what topics we wanna go
over. Some of the topics that we wanted
to talk about would be, like, cancel culture.
Does Islam allow cancel culture?
Does Islam promote
forgiveness, or does Islam promote canceling people out
sometimes? Another couple of things is, you know,
how to, the like, we're gonna talk about
things like the Me Too movement.
What what's it like to kind of discuss
these really relevant topics?
What any other topics that you have in
mind that that I think we're covering through?
Yeah. We're supposed to talk about,
this idea of manifestation,
you know, manifesting what you want in 2021
because we all know 2020.
It's manifesting.
I don't know. It's it's
manifesting just. Am I getting ahead of myself?
I don't know. I like I like we're
we're
gonna be talking about this in Charlottesville. Y'all
don't wanna miss out, in September.
We're gonna be talking about all these different
things that are, like, lingos and terminology that
we use nowadays in in modern day culture,
but how to kind of bring it back
to spirituality and how to kind of always
keep our din as a priority. So we
look forward to seeing you guys in the
month of September. Again.
Gazakal Afarin. You guys, the first, all the
papa for joining us this entire month, and
we'll see you inshallah next month as well.
Thank you. Sake of Allah. May Allah protect
you guys, and inshallah. We'll see you guys
soon.