Suhaib Webb – Heavy Rotation (five) Explanation & Application of Sura Qureish
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Know that. Give the confidence as much as
you can. Okay. Great. Alright. Thank you guys
so much. So,
we'll go ahead and get started. Just, quick
check on the schedule. I think what we'll
try to do a job on today is,
like, wrap up right before Moffat UP, and
then we'll pray mock up together, and then
so that will conclude,
Yeah.
Thank you. So we begin by praising God
Almighty and sending peace and blessings upon our
beloved prophet Muhammad and all of the
prophets
to everybody.
Hope everyone's well under the heat.
It's good to be here again, spending time
with each and every one of you.
So we reached now, like, the 106th
chapter,
which is called the Quraysh, and it's sort
of Quraysh, the chapter called Quraysh. And,
I noted
that there's sort of a relationship that's happening
here that starts with
a chapter called by time.
Because every, like, chapter that's going to come
after that almost to the end is going
to
record for us some moments, some important moments
that impacted the prophet's life,
peace be upon him, whether at a macro
or micro level. And then also we can
try to find,
you know, the best translation is to translate
this into our lives as best we can.
Right? To find some kind of relationship with
our own space.
So the first chapter after that chapter was
the chapter called Humazah about the type of
people,
specifically, that the prophet dealt with in Mecca
who were, you know, invested in slandering him,
invested in talking about him, and then even
creating sort of
rifts amongst his community.
I remember, when I lived here on 15th
and v, my wife and I years ago,
and there was a cover story I did
for the Washington Post Magazine.
And this lady was, like, taking pictures. She
followed me around. Actually, she came to the
center DC event in there. Actually, in that
in that, essay.
And so
she told me in Ferguson, she saw certain
news outlets
paying people to go into
the crowd
and, like, start fights.
And then trying to frame it as black
Americans are causing trouble.
And she was like, some of the people
that were paid actually were not even black.
So that is sort of one of the
things that the prophet had to deal with,
like people coming into spaces
and trying to create
disunity.
And we see now, like, what's happening in
this country. You can think about so many
different areas,
How, differences are really sort of ripping
the very fabric the social fabric of the
country sort of in half.
Then the next
chapter that we read is sort of feel
about the elephants. So the first is about,
like, social phenomena.
The second is about
supernatural phenomena.
Islam doesn't believe in superstition. It does believe
in the supernatural.
And we learn that by believing in certain
unseen things.
And so here,
in this chapter, one of the great events
that happened to the prophet's community,
the broader community was the attack on the
Kaaba that came from
Yemen
and the attempt to destroy it and eventually
destroy it, and eventually, that army was destroyed.
And so that takes us now to the
prophet's tribe,
Quraish.
It's very interesting, you know, that you have
a chapter named after a group of disbelievers.
And so that should tell us about sort
of the
the depth and layering of Islam. It's not
shallow. Well, just because something may come from
someone who's not Muslim, we reject it, or
a name or a title is not from,
like, the Muslim community or our theology.
That's not how we operate.
We have a very important axiom in Islam,
a legal axiom
that hopefully we can teach the axioms here
one day. And that axiom is especially if
you're a new Muslim. When I became Muslim,
you know, I thought, like, everything's haram, you
know, to the point that my mom, she's
like, I'm not Muslim, man. Like, you wanna
live like this? You wanna
eat whatever you eat and listen to it
and not listen to whatever you not listen
to and
whatever whatever. She's like, listen, baby. I'm not
Muslim just in case you wanna know. But
she's like, this is, like, hard. Right? You
have that zeal maybe when you, especially, I
was very young, when we accept Islam. I
wish I would have learned this axiom
that says the origin of everything that is
untexted.
Untexted means there's no ruling.
So there's nothing like pork. Like, pork is
forbidden or alcohol alcohol is forbidden.
There's nothing there. What even Hazem the great
Mayorkan
jurist said,
like the Sharia hasn't said anything about it.
So the the the default for that is
permissibility.
So
So that means now I'm I'm I'm very
much,
invigorated as a Muslim to engage and participate.
I'm not timid. Everything's haram. No. Everything's halal
till you prove it's haram.
And sometimes people come, they're like, is it
halal? Is it halal? It's not the question
that should be asked. It should be, is
it haram? Because the default
is permissible.
That's why if you go to the 3rd
verse of the 5th chapter of the Quran,
it says forbidden for you
is animals that have died roadkill. You know?
Sure no one wants to eat roadkill.
By animals that have died of themselves,
pork.
Here, the passive is important. The passive participle,
it has been forbidden for you because it's
been forbidden because its origin was what?
In order for something to become forbidden before
it was forbidden, it had to be what?
Permissible.
It's a very important verse. This is a
very important verse. That's why Allah
says It's forbidden to bury your mothers because
some people before the time of the prophet
alayhis salatu salaam, they
married their moms.
So the origin of everything, unless there's a
text for it, is permissibility.
So here here we see the name of
Quraysh. How could you name it? Can you
imagine, like, if you told someone, like, we're
gonna name a chapter or, you know, hypothetically,
like, you know, Anacostia.
They'll be upset. How could you name it
after these kufar?
Right? They lose their mind.
The origins of things is permissible.
Yeah.
So
let's thank you for sharing that, by the
way. So he said, like, the 30th chapter
is called the Romans.
Right? So we can learn something, especially in
the the cultural wars of America that are,
like, very shallow.
You know, they tend to dim the ability
to think constructively
and critically.
Like, this kind of stuff, why don't we
care about? Call it whatever you wanna call
about it. You can call it whatever you
wanna call it.
But what do you mean by what you
say?
What do you intend by what you say?
So the chapter is actually named after the
prophet's tribe.
And it starts out in here, doctor Mustafa
Khattab. We have these translations for you guys.
I have another box if we need more.
They gave me so many boxes. My wife's
like, what do you do with all these?
I was like, I have no idea. Read
them, like, a 1000 times.
But he actually translated it really nicely because
there are three potential meanings for this part
of the chapter.
And if you remember in Surat Fatiha,
I told you that, like, these are articles
of preposition
are means to stop and pause. Like, if
you really want to, like, engage in
thinking about the meanings of the Quran,
when you find, like, an article of preposition,
like, mark it and try to think about
what's happened.
So he said like
implies, like, there's something there. I need to
think deeper. I need to find it. So
here
this lamb, like the name Lee in English,
is an article of preposition. Something's going on
now. And very rarely do you start a
sentence with this. It's very strange.
So
there is an opinion,
you know, that actually is connected to the
chapter before
it. So we made them like this. We
destroyed them and rendered those enemies of god's
house like this
for the security of the Quraysh.
That's why some,
I don't wanna make it too complicated for
you, of,
which we read from the 7 okaraat. You
find it's not the mainstream,
but there is a print that doesn't have
the. And
cool, you pause.
For the security of the Meccan. So
we just we destroyed that army from Yemen
for the security of
the people in Mecca. And, also, that's a
that's a sign that we remember that even
the order of the Quran, we consider it,
like, miraculous.
Although its ordering wasn't completely agreed upon until
the time of.
Didn't change from Abu Bakr's most half or
the most half under Hafsa in the time
of Omar, but was officially, again, this is
the order of the Quran.
The other meaning is really interesting also, and
that is
that
if we think about this chapter, it's also
helping us locate,
like, not only in our own lives, how
can we
sort of gain
the strength to swim against the currents at
times
that may challenge
us, but also how do we inject ourself
into society.
And one of the best ways
is to remind people of blessings,
to remind ourselves of blessings.
That's why the Quran says, you know,
be thankful to me and don't
reject my blessings.
And and being in a state of of
gratefulness
is not an easy place to be. That's
why Al Qazari, Imam Abuhammed in his book,
the last book he wrote, Minhajul Abideen.
He said that one of the seven qualities
of a person who lives a life of
faith and dedication
is to be in a state of gratitude,
To be in the state of shukr.
And in Islamic sort of the our theological
sort of
epistemology,
thankfulness is more than just like saying thank
you.
The word shukr is from a word which
means a fat camel because the Arabs, they
used to say,
You know, like the camel is thankful.
But actually what I meant
literally was that the camel was fat because
the sign of a generous owner was that
he or she would feed the camel well.
So the camel would exhibit
signs of a generous lord.
So now you and I, as we live
through our lives,
do we exhibit now figuratively
the signs of Allah's grace upon us?
So the word in its literal meaning means
like a large camel.
Then over time, the Arabs, they they they
used it, like, figuratively and the figurative took
over for the literal. No one says that
now, like, you know, a Tesla Shakira.
Nobody says that. They say, you know,
that person is thankful. So it's not just
lip service is what I'm getting at. It's
a deeper sort of thankfulness.
And that's why in the Quran it says
act
act O
family of David.
It
says you should act in grace, not just
speak,
not just say it,
but to be somebody who is
sort of giving back and translating the recognition
of
grace that they've received
to others.
So the other meaning here is
that you should give thanks for this security.
Because out of everything we've given you, like,
if anyone's ever been to Mecca, like, right
now, today, this is like a cold day
in Mecca. You know what I mean? Like,
it's really hot. Like, it's really, really hot,
especially in the summer. Like, you'll go to
the masjid,
and just walking, like, 5 or 10 minutes,
you start to feel dizzy. You start to
feel compromised.
Right? It's really, really hot. We saw thousands
of people. I think 1500 people maybe died,
right, this year. May Allah accept,
them, and, you know, it's unfortunate how they
passed away, but it's just like it's that
hot.
So when you see, like, Mecca,
you wonder, like,
why Mecca? You know? Like, why here?
Like, geographically, it's really difficult. The terrain is
harsh. The weather is harsh. Things are tough.
So they are a people some scholars say
the reason that they were chosen is that
they have no excuse except to recognize blessing,
like, just geographically, your climate. Everything is such
that any accomplishments you have
is a blessing because it's so difficult here.
And even life is threatened there. At a
basic level, a person, if they were left
in the desert,
in the Hijaz, how long would they live
before that organs begin to shut down without
water?
It's tough. It's harsh. It's difficult.
So Allah says,
we'll talk about it in a second.
Due to the security of, and safety of
the Quraish,
then at least worship Allah for this.
That's the meaning. And that's why the translation
here, he got it really nicely. At least
for the favor of making
you habitually secure.
Like, he really translated this part well. Allah
bless him.
So
like out of all the things that you're
not seeing, right, out of all the blessings
that you have,
because just existing here is is a great
blessing. The fact that you can live here,
especially at that time.
Right? They didn't have AC. They didn't have
deodorant. They didn't have things. They didn't have,
like, you know, electrolyte,
stuff you could dump in your water.
At least
at least for the security that you have
in a general way,
worship Allah.
Translate that into gratitude.
So that's the second meaning.
The other meaning is very interesting too, and
we'll build on it in a second, but
just to share it with you. The idea
that something's missing, just like
like there's a word that's not there. You
have to sort of think about it
and put it together.
And and this word is tadjebu.
Oh, jebu.
And it's talking to people who are watching
the Quraysh, people around them.
It's saying, like, you should be amazed at
the Quraysh. Like, again, how are they surviving?
You should be amazed at their security.
You should be amazed at sort of the,
you you know, the fact that they're able
the functionality of this
place. Because it defies, like, sort of
what anyone would expect.
So we'll talk about that in a second.
So there are 2 ways to read this,
actually 3 according to the 10 Quran, but
we'll make it easy for
without yeah.
Means safety
from Alafa.
The reading of
Abu Amr al Basri
is
without the without the,
from alif,
like the word like the letter alif.
But here it means alif means to bring
together, to join.
So
there are 2 meanings here. Right? 1 is
for the security,
tranquility,
safety of the. The other is their unity.
The fact that you found the ability to
be together
in spite of all these challenges and differences.
And we could combine the meetings actually as
well.
Then it mentions, like, because to travel together
and work together, you need to be in
a group. Right? So that's the second meaning.
But also to travel, and this is what
most people go with, especially in those days
to travel, right, to go from one place
to another.
If you've ever been, I don't know if
people have been to Medina
or Cairo.
I haven't been to Pakistan, so I don't
know about Karachi. I've heard from my friends.
But a lot of times, like, old cities
like Fez,
there's walls around those cities. Maybe you've noticed
this. In Doha, in Kuwait City, they still
have, like, the wall. Why? Because people was
freaking crazy back then, man. So after Maghrib,
they would close the wall. If you got
in,
If you didn't get back in time before
that gate closed,
you spend the night out
out there with the,
you know, the the wow folks, man.
Because it was very difficult.
There were bandits. There were people in the
desert. There were people who like pirates who
would rob people.
And and this this continued, by the way,
even during the Islamic era. That's why those
walls are there, you know.
And
Allah
says
says,
the security that they experienced
when they would travel in the winter and
the summer.
People tend to leave them alone,
and they considered it like a bad omen
to attack them.
Why? Here's a very important point. Was it
because somehow the Quraysh had this cool intrinsic
value?
Like I'm Qurayshi,
Right? Leave me alone.
Or is it something else that was a
means of their protection?
What do you think like, was there something
that maybe
in their city, in their town,
that may have forced people to sort of
give them a greater sense of respect?
Or was it because of who they were?
That's my question.
It could be very vindictive.
Could be. Yeah. They were very vindictive. Yes,
ma'am. Thank you. They're like association with the.
So it's stories a little bit round about
the for a long time. Okay.
Sarah. Right, Sarah? Yeah. I have the same
answer. Same answer? Okay. So yeah. Exactly.
And and it's like here's like a a
a really subtle kind of diss
to them because they were very proud. Like,
they always thought it was because of them
that people respected them. It was because of
them
that nobody bothered them. It was because of
who they were and their tribes and this
and that. No. No. No. It's because you
are in the vicinity of Allah's house,
and this is what brings you intrinsic value.
That's a good lesson for us to think
about, like, as we maybe become successful,
as we move on through life, as we
achieve things that we may have been looking
for. Like,
what really brings me value? What's intrinsically my
value coming from? Or if I failed, right,
I shouldn't allow failure
to dismantle me
from who I am and to control me
and subdue me. No. I have certain values
that make me who I am. Certain things
around me that I hold on to.
So it's sort of like a diss to
them because
they were really proud, like in all of
their poetry, they always brag about themselves. And
sometimes they would brag about how the Kaaba
is lucky to have them.
So they they, as we say, right, they
got it twisted.
Right? They sort of twisted it. So Allah
Subhanahu Wa Ta'ala is saying,
like, if you think about all these journeys
that you make to Yemen and at that
time to Basra and Sham,
you know,
you're protected not because of who you are.
You're protected because of the Lord
who chose this mosque,
this sacred place
to be in your town. So that's why
the next verse says what?
Then they must worship the lord. I don't
like the word lord. It's very it's like
a kind of
a strange 1920s thing going on there. But
the creator, the cherisher, sustainer,
that's the word rub.
Morabi is a farmer because
they they raise and they culture and they
is the one that brings us from nothing
and provides us all we have.
Then worship
the creator, sustainer of the house that has
brought you all these accolades and this security.
Who has protected them
from hunger and fear. And
here's some nice points and rhetoric, you know,
just for you to think about it, especially
if you're involved in direct actions against making
sure, making sure, excuse me, that people have
food.
You know, in this country,
parts of DC certainly suffer from grave,
the grave reality of food insecurity,
especially now with the heat.
So here you'll notice it does say
with
from the fear and from the hunger. Because
fear and hunger are known,
but here they're left indefinite to show that
the damage and danger of fear and hunger
cannot be contained.
And this is this is like we've talked
about this more than once. So sometimes I
keep repeating things, like, so when you're reading
the Quran,
I don't want you to leave this class
and rely on me. I want you to
leave this and you have certain skills that
allow you to have a very intimate deep
relationship with the book of
Allah.
The fear and the hunger. It says,
it's like a fear,
a hunger, but you lose something in English.
It's a little bit less pixelated.
The idea here is that, like, that kind
like, hunger, it
it can
really wage
an undefinable
set of challenges that are systemic in harming
people and destabilizing things.
United Nations, years ago, I was at Brookings,
I think, in Qatar, and, you know, someone
was saying Islam Islamo terrorism and they have
all these words. Right? And so the person
from the UN stood up and said the
greatest cause of instability and violence is is
hunger. It's not Islam.
Like, people don't have food. They're gonna they're
gonna have problems.
And protected him from like legitimate fear, fear
of an army, fear of someone coming to
them. And if you think about it, the
chapter makes sense. The chapter before it really
gives you the details of how God protected
him from an army, protected him from an
enemy, and sustained them.
And those of you involved in, as I
said earlier, direct actions,
helping to bring people like food, helping to
ensure that people are taken care of. You
know, it's interesting. Last week, my it's crazy.
My wife and I went to Vegas
for a marriage.
And, yeah, I saw everybody look up. And,
I just became Muslim. No. But,
so went went to, Vegas for a friend's
marriage.
And,
so we went to the strip, you know,
you guys see the strip. And we went
there. It was July 5th, I think July
5th.
And, without our kids, so it was, like,
so good.
And and,
we saw this big bar. Right? Big bar,
like, it's like a yacht, you know. It's
like so long. It's like 100 yards long
bar.
And behind it, they're watching
these massive screens.
And so it's quite it's quite a scene.
You know? And they're watching the Nathan's
hot dog eating contest.
So they're like, they're throwing them down, the
gray gooses. And I mean, they're they're throwing
it down and then they're watching. And the
guy's eating hot dogs so fast. He's regurgitating.
Like, why is he eating? Right?
It's insane.
Like, it looks like sing like something out
of Jahannamala. Forgive me.
And,
so I took a picture. It was on
my Instagram. Like, I took a video of
it because it's just, like, so shocking.
But then I lived in New York for
6 years, and I remember that that place
is Coney Island.
Like, where the contest happens is Coney Island.
In some of the most
impacted areas of New York City,
where you have food insecurity,
a high number is 15.3%.
In Coney Island,
The percent of people who are impacted by
food insecurity is 20.6.
So you have one man who ate 4
liters of hot dogs
in 10 minutes,
which basically means he became 9 months pregnant,
organs.
In 10 minutes, you can go on YouTube
and watch the ESPN, the science of eating
hot dogs. It's interesting.
And then you have people in the same
neighborhood. They don't have food.
So it's very important, like, when we think
about these things, like hunger and fear,
that we're not negligent also of our own
responsibilities and commitment to the social contract. But
the fact that they're just, like,
mad drunk, you know, and they're watching this
guy. And then I found out later on,
he he hasn't even set the world record.
The
OG of hot dogs,
Jason Chiddick, he ate 69 hot dogs
in 10 minutes, man.
That's incredible.
God help us. And Allah says, no Quran.
They eat like cows.
He's talking about negligent people.
But what makes it negligent is you're eating
this much and there's no benefit. But then
you have people around you and then you're
watching a a genocide happen
in Gaza and in the Congo where 2,000,000
people have died in, like, just a few
months.
Of course, I can't take on that burden,
but I can at least live responsibly.
Like, let me try to think about people
that don't have food.
And then even in my own city, Coney
Coney Island, as an example,
20.6%
of the people there
suffer from food insecurity. I know one of
the reasons I left New York groceries.
Two babies?
Are you crazy?
It's really expensive. Right?
So Allah here is reminding them, listen,
you've you've been blessed with these things.
So how are you gonna translate these blessings
into
worship?
We'll take a a a few lessons,
inshallah, and then we'll open it up for
questions.
There's a interesting point here though that if
we go the the the meaning of
meaning
like you should you should be amazed
at their security.
We see something that the Quran does over
and over and over again. It has no
problem invoking social phenomena
to gain theological traction, man.
It has no problem
eluding
to certain things
which are well known amongst people
in order to, like, allow them to think
differently.
That goes back to very, like, very early
on when I said, like, the origins of
things is permissible.
Like, what what are the phenomena that we
could think about now
in this current moment in the United States
of America
to bring people's attention to something. Malcolm
was brilliant at this, by the way. Like,
he did it seamlessly.
But you need to ask yourself, and I
need to ask myself,
what are what are the things that we
will use
maybe at a larger social level or local
social level to attract people's attention and to
teach them a lesson? So here we see
something that to be involved in dawah
is not as shallow and stupid as the
dawah bros,
but it demands a certain level of even
like an interdisciplinary
awareness.
What are the social phenomena of of today?
What are the things that I can use
to highlight the contours, the the the lack
of God in that space?
And then I inject a solution.
That's why one of my teachers, he said
something nice about this years ago. He's like,
if you're, like, in the barbershop, you know,
and someone has given you a fade
and,
they said, like,
you and your response would be like, yeah.
I used to wonder about.
Like, that would be something that was, like,
kinda popping in in the street, so to
speak. Like, that was something that people used
to think about, especially when you read their
poetry. Those people around the area of Mecca
would always wonder, like, why are the Meccans
like this? They should be destroyed.
Geographically, it's a disaster. Climate wise, it's a
disaster.
And then 3rd, the people.
And I alluded to it last week. The
word
are 3 opinions about where it comes from.
Number 1,
means
to seek income.
Like, anyone here been to Mecca?
Feels like Manhattan.
Right? Like, at 5.
Right?
Actually, no. No. At 8:8:55.
Like, people in Mecca are about that. They're
about their business, man. They're just, like, moving.
You know? Even in Adam, when you talk
to them, it's like they're tough. No disrespect
to people in Mecca.
Much love to you. We all have our
own unique, special, wonderful, redeeming, enduring qualities.
And one of theirs is they're about that
hustle, man.
And that's something that the prophet had to
deal with.
People that were really about that hustle. That's
why they would go on those trips to
the north and to the south for
income. It's not a bad thing, but they
were known to be tough because of it.
It's nothing wrong with hustle, alhamdulillah.
The second opinion about the word Quraish, and
this is the strong opinion, is from Qirsh.
Samak Kirsh.
No one speaks Arabic. You know what is
Samak Kirsh?
Shark.
He said because they were tough like sharks.
And we say that sometimes, like the Wolf
of Wall Street as a metaphor for
an untethered immoral
businessman. We also say that guy's like a
shark,
a shark with blood in the water.
So they were known to be really tough
and harsh.
So some people said they were called or
is like a form
when like Suhayb,
like Hussein.
It's called Tasir. You change the word to
give it a certain feel.
Here, it was changed to give them a
feeling of awe, like
the sharkers, you know. I was like, these
people were tough, man.
So again, the prophet sallallahu alaihi wa sallamah
is dealing with
tough people.
The other opinion, and you use this word
also in Arabic, coins,
Word coins because, again,
they're about
that hustle.
Yes, ma'am? Is that the same spelling as
the one before the shark?
Just depends on the context. Like, if I
say give me 30, you're not gonna give
me 30
sharks, hopefully.
Right? If I'm in the scene, I'm like,
I saw 30.
Like was it 25¢?
No, bro. It's a freaking hammerhead.
So it'll be like in the context. I
mean in the context.
So Allah
says,
and here we learn something as I alluded
to before I explained the meaning of the
tribe of the prophet
in general, the larger tribe he came from.
It's made up of little tribes
that I'll go back to
like is kind of like the head of
where the Quraysh start.
Right? And all the different tribes,
and so on and so forth to the
prophet
But that is using
social phenomena
and using,
cultural phenomena,
economic phenomena, political phenomena, whatever
to teach people a lesson. We see this
as one of the unique qualities of the
Quran,
especially the last part of the Quran.
So Allah mentions that Quraysh
because that's something that's like
known, talked about, debated,
eulogized,
you name it, right, in poetry, in talks
amongst the people.
But throughout
that 3rd 30th part of the Quran, we
see this.
Again, it mentions something like that happened. It
was incredible. It's this massive
sort of apocalyptic moment where these elephants are
destroyed by birds. Like, wow. That's crazy.
But even the style of the Quran has
no problem invoking the cultural methods
of the Arabs.
So for example,
you know, Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala is talking
about teen, zetun,
figs,
alives,
this
mountain in Sinai in Sinai.
This is very similar to what you might
find in certain, like, Biggie. And forgive me
if this is offending interview, but I don't,
you know, I'm not that person.
But, like, if Biggie or Nas or whoever
they're talking about, Queensbridge or Brooklyn, they mentioned
certain areas
to highlight, to give you sort of, like,
when Pac talks about Oakland. Right?
And forgive me for being generation x here.
I don't listen to that mumble stuff. But
when they're when they're talking about their landscape,
they don't say, like, oh, I'm from 1304,
you know, Bancroft Road,
ZIP code 20904.
Like, that would be the worst bars in
history.
What did they do? They paint an image
to metaphor of the areas that they're from
so you can conclude
where they are from, and then you're like,
wow. That's a cool place. So teen was
Zetun. Who's Zetun?
Who's Zetun?
Right?
Different opinions, but all of the
say, this is talking about certain prophets and
what was, like, unique to their area like
Zetun,
Sayedna Isa Alaihi
Salam in Palestine.
There's a debate about who it is.
Nuh.
Others say Ibrahim.
Is who? Musa.
The Quran does this
It mentions like areas.
Over and over and over again.
And and this is something that the Arabs
did even before the time of the prophet
like,
we can't read his poetry here because it's
bad,
you know. He says,
You know, he's talking about his neighborhood.
And he says, both of you should stand
up and listen to the story of my
girlfriend
between the mountain of this place and the
cliff of this place and next to this
small rock here. But what he's getting at
is his city,
where he's from.
We see this also with Sayyidina Ibrahim
in the 6th chapter of the Quran. He
does it with the stars, he does it
with the moon, he does it with the
sun. He was already a Muslim. People, oh,
this is before he's Muslim. No. No. He
was a prophet at that time. That's why
it says,
Like, these proofs that he used were against
his people, not against him. He was already
a Muslim. But why would he say, like,
I worship we worship stars, worship the moon,
worship the sun. Oh, I don't worship any
of these things. They're temporal.
They don't last. But he's using what's popular
amongst them in their disbelief
to teach them a greater lesson.
And this, I'm not gonna give it all.
It's all over the Quran. You go find
it for yourself, and then you ask yourself,
where are you?
What do you do? What role do you
play? And then how can you find, like,
sort of a cultural,
foothold to enter into the situation where you're
surrounded by people?
I remember in the early nineties, there was
a great Shia imam named Imam Wojaihil in
LA.
And at that time, that was the height
of, like, the whole Crips and Bloods sort
of thing in the early nineties. And he,
you know, he was the one, he's unheralded
for this, but it's well known, who pushed
in
in South Central Los Angeles and brought those
guys together after especially after what happened with,
the riots,
brought them at the table.
And through the story of, like, Imam Hussain,
man,
got the treaty
to take place
between the Crips and the Bloods that lasted
for like 8 years in
LA. The point is like he's able to
find commonality because if theology is,
you know, disconnected
from sociology, it has no meaning, it has
no values to people.
So Allah says
He reminds them who brought this security to
you. It's not you. You have nothing.
People don't like you. You're tough.
Geographically, you're in a freaking volcano.
Right? There's no there's really it's it's a
wonder that you're able to do business because
people
only come here for one reason,
and that's this masjid. Till now.
If the Kaaba was not in Mecca, would
we go to Mecca? Say, hey, baby. You
want a vacation where? Hey, Jazz.
Right? Are you insane? Right? We go there
and and and some of our teachers said
it's like that to make sure people go
for Allah.
Like, it's not Cancun.
Right? You go in there for you go
there, you go in for Allah subhanahu wa
ta'ala.
But that takes us to and I mentioned
it before, but I'll go through them again,
as we think about sort of cultural efficacy
and social efficacy. And it's important as we
push into now this election season
that we don't allow ourselves to be sort
of submerged by the fear of this moment.
We need to own this moment and push
back.
Push with.
But there are sort of 8 qualities we
wanna think about, and I'll mention them again
just because last time, I think I did
it so fast,
that allow us to locate ourselves as we
push in culturally
in a situation.
They're mentioned in Israel to Yusuf and Shole
to Nahal.
The first is.
Say, this is my way. I call to
God
sincerely.
It's like that's the first quality. I should
be sincere to people.
You know, you see
every other day on TikTok,
you know, if you support trash, you're gonna
start to stink.
But we see, unfortunately, some of the
the massive following sort of untrained
voyeuristic
religious
content providers
keep getting in trouble with things.
Whether it's financial fraud,
whether it's sexual immorality,
whether it's cults,
stop supporting those people.
Support what you love. Support what you know
is good for you. It's under DC. It's
like good,
holistic,
good coffee, good tea, good people, good friends.
I wish you to say a good masjid
is a place I can have good friends.
Right? Not just good religious service, but good
friends are a sign of a community that's
doing more than just like talking.
So when we are sincere to one another,
then we we respect and appreciate one another.
And we don't just make to people to
save them. I hate when people do that.
Or people become Muslim and we celebrate them,
then we forget them.
Or we just go crazy over celebrities who
become Muslim. I have a problem with that.
Like, I'm jumping up and down for celebrity,
but there's, like, new Muslims in my mosque
who may be lonely, like, may not have
basic services, may not even know how to
pray.
So sincerity is very important. And sometimes we
think of sincerity as being our individual code
of contact. When I come when I go
home,
like, I'm I'm still imam suhayb. Are you
crazy?
When I go home, I'm honey and baba.
Thank god.
Right? Like when you go home, are you
still, you know, associate director?
Of course not. Right? So
what sincerity means here is of course in
our worship, but also we're like good we're
sincere to people, man. We care about people.
The second quality that's mentioned in the show
to Yousef after sincerity
is
ada basira, is knowledge. Knowledge of 2 things.
Number 1 is religious knowledge. You don't have
to be a scholar.
You just have to be literate.
It's very different. Can you imagine if they
said, like, in order to work out at
this gym, you have to be a scholar?
Like, nobody would go there.
Right? Most people just have a functional understanding
of fitness.
Functional understanding of a grocery store. So, like,
you have to be like Gordon Ramsey.
Well, not him. His eggs are nasty, but,
you know, whoever
you gotta be like them before you can
shop here.
Right? Nobody would shop there. But what we're
looking for, same thing in religion, is like
functional religious literacy
that allows me to
engage my emergent religiosity in a responsible way
and serve people around me. Scholarship is something
very different.
So
knowledge of religion in a functional sense,
the foundational issues fought what's fought, what what
do I have to learn?
The second knowledge is knowledge of the people
that are around me.
That goes back to what we talked about
earlier.
And that's why Imam Ahmed, when he was
asked about the conditions of giving fatwa,
he said one of the conditions is you
know who you're given the fatwa to. Like,
you know they're they're you know them. You
pixelate their culture. That's why Al Qarafi, and
I don't again, don't make too hard. Al
Madiki, he says, if you don't know the
slang of people, you shouldn't give fatwa to
them.
Hada haram. You know, this is not allowed.
And they're like, oh, no. But that that's
not what it means. It's too late now.
So understanding and knowing the people. When I
worked in Egypt, you know what's funny? At
Dara Ifta, when I was training as a
Mufti, none of the Americans wanted to come
see me.
Why? Because they wanna get away with stuff.
But all the Egyptians wanted me.
And,
Why?
Because they knew, like, they could pull the
cultural wool over my eyes, but they didn't
know I had lived there for 6 years.
Right? But the point is, it was weird.
One
my teacher was like,
The Americans never want you. Why? He's like,
Sheikh, because they know they can't
they can't deceive me, Sheikh. But they can
deceive you. What time you thank you so
much. He came and he was like, there's
some movie called the center of the woman.
I was like, Sheikh. I was like, Sheikh,
who are you talking to? He's like, these
people, they're fighting, my husband and wife over
this movie. I was like, I'm a let
you handle that shit. But the point is,
each culture and society has its unique and
even within, like, think about New York. Think
about DC.
Think about how people in Baltimore talk
compared to here.
Right? Places have subtle differences. That's why Imam
Musayuti said, it's a
it's an obligation that every city have its
own Mufti.
Because that mufti will know it's peep he
will know him. She will know their people.
So knowledge of people is very important. So
the marriage
of sociology,
the marriage
of religion I'll give a great example. Years
ago, there was an imam in Pennsylvania
who received a question from a warden in
a prison. And
that imam was new. He was from Azhar
where I went to school, didn't speak very
much English, really sincere, good man, very committed
Muslim. Alhamdulillah,
great family.
He received a question from a warden who
said
the prisoners here, this is the nineties,
so keep in mind this is different time.
The prisoners here, they want to
or excuse me, The the victims of the
car carceral state
want to come together and pray Friday prayers.
So this imam,
according to, you know, most Medhebs,
if you are incarcerated,
the obligation
of observing the Friday prayer
is removed.
Because how could you gather because in ancient
times and dungeons, right, you're not gonna, like,
oh, let's have our interface session
and all come out of our dungeons
and pray Jummah. It will be impossible.
So so this fatwa is kinda coming out
of a mercy. Right? This is something beyond
your bill, even fasting.
So that
sincere imam
went to Muqtas Al Khalil, our book, and
that's the fatwa he gave, like he died
for the Hanafis. So he wrote the word
and it's not allowed for them to pray.
It's not allowed for them to join the
prayers.
Of course, the brothers in in
that were
locked up were
aggravated,
and they reached out reached out to us,
and we contact the imam and explained to
him, no,
imam, jail and prison in America is not
good, but it's not prison under the mamalik
400 years ago.
They actually have Qurans
and tazbees.
They can fast. They bring halal food to
them. And then he said, wow, I made
a mistake.
My lack of knowledge of people
caused me to give the wrong answer.
It wasn't the fiqh that he got wrong.
The fiqh he gave the the filk answer,
the the reliable, manicy,
standard
position.
What was it that was his blind spot?
Was what?
Was culture.
And the opposite also. People sometimes say crazy
stuff. Wait a minute. There's there's opinions here
you need to be aware of.
So knowledge of means
both.
At a scholar level, like that shaykh, but
also at a functional level.
Like, for us who became Muslim I don't
know. When people come to you like, so
have your parents became Muslim? It's like the
worst question you can ask somebody. Is your
brother Muslim yet? It's set out of a
good
vein.
But do you know how much pressure is
on us with our family, man? There's a
lot of pressure. Just think about if you
left Islam, how much pressure you'd be on.
So just sometimes those little things we lose.
The next quality,
The third quality is group work.
We should function, functionality.
We have to be very patient with each
other. You know? I I worry people have
lost a lot of patience.
Someone says something they don't agree with, I
said, I'm out. No. Like,
there there's a lot to be learned
by
by sort of layering relationships and pushing through
that not only will enhance our professional
career, but our personal lives.
Great marriages actually are the art of navigating
serious differences.
That's why I tell people, marry who you
can hate, don't marry who you can love.
They get mad. What do you mean? I
said, look, man.
If you love someone, then you'll be able
to disagree with them. You'll be able not
hate is a tough word, but you'll be
able to disagree with them and argue with
them in a way that it's incubated by
the love that you have for one another.
But if you have no resume of doing
that, how are you gonna bring that into
a relationship? Everywhere I go, someone says something
I don't agree with, I'm out.
But that's not gonna work with kids.
That's not gonna work with family. Today, on
my way out, my 4 year old stood
in front of the door and went like
this.
And she's like, you are going to play
Elsa.
Right?
I was frozen.
Yeah.
Elsa. You know? She's like, you're going to
play let it go. And I was was
like, I need to let the door the
door go, man. Like, I gotta go. Right?
That's life. Right? You gotta learn to to
navigate, negotiate. If you don't start training now
on that, it will impact relationships.
So be very careful of creating a resume
of when someone says something that I don't
agree with I'm out.
Always found it interesting that James Baldwin could
talk to William buck Buckley.
Like, that's that's insane.
Like, if you're gonna slap someone outside their
head and walk out, it would've
been him. But James Baldwin, and he tore
him up. Like tonight, I think well, the
other night I saw Mark LaMon Hill on
YouTube with some crazy Zionist lady.
And he he he's smart. He let her
spew her nonsense just so you could see.
She has no idea what she's talking about.
Right? There's something to be gained. The prophet
talks to Al Mughira,
sorry.
He's his arch enemy. We talk to him
in front of everybody.
It doesn't mean we have to put up
with it,
but it's a great resume to create in
yourself. Like, I'm the I have the ability
to work with people.
Right? Especially people that I agree with generally,
but there may be particular differences that we
have. So group work is one of the
conditions as the prophet said,
the help of God is with the
group. We pray in jamaah. We don't pray
alone. We fast together. We do Hajj together.
We do all these things together.
Really,
to create our human capacity
in ways that are very profound
and transformative.
You know, I was with a brother years
ago. He was a Muslim brother from Oklahoma
like me. He speaks 6 languages. He speaks
Bosnian.
Okay? Because he was about that life in
the nineties. God bless him.
And,
yeah. And speaks,
Wolof,
Bosnian, Arabic, Spanish, and I forgot that. I
can't remember how many languages the man speaks.
And so I think Urdu in Persian. And
someone asked him,
how did you learn these languages? He said,
I became Muslim.
Like, what an answer, man.
They're like, well, like, did you formally no.
He's like, no. I just lived with these
people.
I learned their language.
I was, you know, dilated as a human
being and then they're like, where are you
from? He's like, I'm from Oklahoma.
We barely speak English.
Right? Dude speaking 7 languages.
Right? Because he
he pushed into community.
He pushed in, and he he he was
patient. The 4th quality is spirituality was, subhanallah,
take care of yourself, fast, pray at night,
you know, have some piety, avoid the evil
that's around us.
The last quality mentioned in this verse is
not to be like evil people, 10 years.
Sometimes we feel to have utility and agency,
we need to, you know,
sort of emulate
evil. But that's how you lose your light.
Also, I'm not like a religious jerk, right?
But I'm not sacrificing
major principles.
I'm not sacrificing
fundamentals
in the name of Dawah because now I'm
calling to myself.
Years ago,
sorry for the dad stories.
There was this brother who used to come
to I should write a book about the
Friday Halakha in Oklahoma with all the former
bloods
who became Muslim, you
know. I have to change the names.
So there was a brother.
He used to come, and he was telling
me, tonight, I'm going to the club.
Oh, young man.
I was like, club, bro? Like, we're Muslim
now, bro. Like, you go to the club?
He's like, nah, man. I'm giving dua.
I'm calling.
I'm preaching, you know, in the club, doing
the Macarena in the nineties and, like, teaching
shahada.
So I said, look,
man. Enough aside. Right? I think you're being
you're the object. You're not the subject.
Like, you're not giving Dawah there, bro. Like,
you're receiving Dawah.
And then finally, he came, like, a few
months later. He's like, yeah, man. You know,
you're right. It didn't work out. I was
like, oh, shit.
What do you think was gonna happen in
the club? You got there, like, telling people
to take shahada.
It's not gonna work. So we have to
be careful.
The last few colleagues we'll mention quickly and
then we'll open up for questions
is found in sultanahal 2 verses.
Wisdom.
Wisdom means to be
the right way at the right time. It
doesn't mean to always be nice. It doesn't
mean to always be harsh. It's a place
for that. In fact, the word Hikma comes
from a word which means to prevent. So
what do I need to be to prevent
ignorance?
What do I need to be to prevent
in my own self and with others?
The
next
is the style. Like, someone should know how
to communicate,
should be an effective not everybody
is extroverted.
That's not a bad thing. We shouldn't ask
people, oh, give a speech. Nah, man. Bro,
I don't give speeches. Okay. Fine. You don't.
That's not a bad thing.
Go on a street corner and give Dawah.
That's not me. Good. That's okay. At least
they're honest, right?
So the people that push into that moment
of communication should be
skilled
in that area. And the last
that my arguments should be well founded on
research. We live in an age now where
there is a great disrespect
for specialization,
specialist in
academics. It's part of the implosion that we're
seeing sort of of the stretch
of culture and how it's playing out. But
we respect research.
We believe that things should be done right.
So Surat Quresh in a simple sort of
level reminds us first of all to think
about the blessings we have and how do
we translate those blessings into good.
At a broader level, it mentions fear and
food
because these are, you know, fear meanings
Islamically, fear means something that's threatening you physically.
So we think about, like, how a community
can react to making sure, like, domestic abuse
shouldn't be happening, man. How do we,
you know, make sure that people aren't objects
of legitimate
fear?
At a broader level in society, how do
we push in and make sure people are
not the object to fear?
And hunger we talked about earlier.
And then it reminds us again of the
prophet, peace be upon him,
and the challenges of the community that he
was sent to. They were like sharks.
Right? They're very difficult,
and
they failed to appreciate really what was the
source intrinsically of their value.
And that's what we'll appreciate when we die.
Right? Like,
what really matters is gonna stay with me
even when I'm gone.
And that beautiful statement of the prophet as
I finish,
3 things follow the dead person.
Their wealth,
right, their their their family
and their good deeds.
2 of them leave, one of them stays.
Their wealth and their family gonna leave.
What's gonna stay with them after they're buried
is they're good.
So what will truly bring us value is
what we should be focused on, and that
should create like a set of priorities
in our lives. So we'll open up for
any questions or comments that you have.
Sound like we're onto life.
Right.
Was there something that was going on that
specifically
brought,
this revelation.
So
the questions that's being asked, was there any
cause for this chapter to be sent? Right?
Not that I'm aware of. Not that I'm
aware of. Yeah.
But we do.
Scholars do mention though, like, generally, it was
a way to say to the people in
Mecca, like,
would you at least appreciate this?
Right? This is something that you can't deny,
that
you somehow,
in an indescribable
way,
live a secure life.
But think about where you are, and it's
not because of you.
Because if that Kaaba was gone,
you would have nothing. So it's like a
reminder to them in a general way
that
what has secured you and what has brought
you real value
is Allah.
But you've inverted it and you guys think
you bring value to Allah.
I'm just trying to what what is a
more general lesson, not just for the people
of the flesh, but for all the people
that would be, a security
That's beautifully put.
Absolutely. So oftentimes, the Quran will talk to,
like, the worst people
is kinda talking to us.
Right? Because we're not bad. Hopefully, we're not
like the Quraysh were, but it still applies
to me. Like, what do I really have?
It's not because of me.
It's not because of something I've
Allah Subhanahu Wa Ta'ala has provided this for
me.
And then how do I translate this into
like
a life of of gratitude?
So absolutely. It's a really beautiful reflection you
shared. Thank you.
Yes, ma'am? In previous weeks, you've mentioned that,
like, the surahs that come after after the
officer are supposed to, like,
they address, like, big obstacles that the prophet
Saladin has in his life and, like, so
he talked about sort of the less evil
just about, like, when something, like,
major comes, like,
no one lives out there.
Is is this like does the Sura have
a very similar meaning to that? Is there
something like more specific?
Yeah. So, like, sort of hummus ideas, like,
specific
behavioral types.
Is like, this is your tribe, bro.
Like, they're just not grateful for anything. You
know what I mean? Like like, they're not.
At that time, I'm not talking about the
Quraysh now. At that time, like,
they don't even recognize this.
So it it does sort of characterize
his tribe in a way
that reminds us of the kind of people
he had to deal with.
And the next chapter gets back into
specifics
of sort of who those people are.
Yes, ma'am? So I may have missed something,
but you mentioned the bad job at, like,
not being part of the ayah, but the
idea be there. Where does that come like,
that's gonna have to work in your hands?
It's a great question because there's the the
verse starts with a prepositional phrase. That prepositional
phrase has to be connected to a verb.
We don't find the verb there, so it's
understood that, oh, that verb
is there. And so even Abbas is, for
example, like, it means, like, wonder. Be one
be amazed at their security.
So that's where that came from. Why is
that the verb?
And we we're gonna defer. So I think
with no doubt, like, you could put a
verb there that you wanted. But I think
when we find the Sahabas or some of
those early people saying that, we're like, okay.
I'll just kinda save myself the trouble
of putting something that may not be there.
You know?
See what I'm saying? So so those kind
of like, the the bus when I when
I shared it with you guys is coming
from
those sort of earlier,
scholars.
Does that help? That does. Thank you. Okay.
Sure.
Yeah. I mean
Yeah. Oh, Ajib Ajib will
be like, wow.
Yes, sir? I'm trying to find the link
between the second and third verse. You know,
you know, their security is the summer and
winter
trips or something. Right. So towards the south.
So so were people making trips?
Was it related to doing pilgrimage or visiting
the the, the Kaaba?
And so are those related to that? Their
income is kind of related to
the the Kaaba?
These two trips, specifically over the summer and
winter.
So the prophet's grandfather, right, great grandfather Hashim,
he instituted
business trips to the north and south. And
we know Sayidah Khadija,
right, the wife of the prophet, peace be
upon him, she was involved in this. So
what it's talking about now are the trips
out of Mecca to those areas.
Right? And how they were they were
nobody messed with them because when you said
I'm Makawi, like, I'm from Mecca, oh, this
is like they're from the sacred area.
So that's why it's God saying like,
what brought you protection? It's not you. Like
what brought you protection is your nearness to
this house. That's the case. And what if
you were, like, really near to God at
a deeper level?
I see. Yeah. And so that's why it
says fear and fear and and hunger because
that brought income, that brought food, that brought
protection to them.
I don't.
Yeah.
Oh, that's a good question. Thank you. Yes,
ma'am. So I don't really know much about
the history of the Kaaba in terms of
when during the last time it came,
you know, where we prayed to relative to
the Surah.
Did you know any of the timeline was
like, did the Surah come out before we
started praying towards the Kaaba or after? What
was the importance of Kaaba before we start
bringing towards it? So before. Right? Because the
the changing of the Qibla, if you go
to the second part of the Quran, it's
right there, the first few verses.
And that's in Medina.
Yeah. And keep in mind when Surat Al
Quresh came, there was no institute in Salah
Right? It was very early on. It's considered
one of the very early
sort of chapters.
What what sort of worship?
I don't know if it's specifically described. We
know, like, in the Quran, they would like,
some of the sahabs that they pray twice
a day. Like, in the morning and the
evening, they engaged in afkar and dhikr.
But you don't have any law in Mecca.
We talked about it before. Like, there's no
legal
sort of framework that comes until Medina happens.
So ritual ritual practices don't come
really till the very
end of Mecca, beginning of
Medina.
That was a good question.
Trade partners or
groups that did not respect the Kaaba as,
like,
a site
that was created from Abraham?
Like, did all of them recognize that history
before There was, like, a communal omen that
was sort of respected about not messing with
them. But we saw in Sotofil,
the, the Yemeni Yeah. Army, obviously, they had
no problem coming and trying to destroy it.
Now maybe also thinking about, like, the population
of the Arabian Peninsula at that time is
not huge,
right, even compared to now.
I'm not aware of
I can't give an answer specifically to that
question.
Yes, sir?
Other major religions were outside the jazz or
on the,
like, on the,
along the Indian
to,
So just wanna make sure we give people
enough time to socialize. Alhamdulillah.
So let's quickly. Thank you,
to summarize. So in many ways, like, this
chapter sort of reminds us what it means
to be Muslim. Like, what is Islam at
its foundation is to, like, recognize blessings and
then ask myself, interrogate myself, how am I
translating those blessings? Kinda what you alluded to.
Right? Like, how do I translate those blessings
into
a sort of mandate of good
in my own space individually,
then in my family, and then the people
around me.
And and these people that the prophet has
sent, they don't have that ability. Like, they
kind of they've inverted. They're like, no, we're
blessing Islam. Like, we're blessing you. That's why
even some of those people who became Muslim,
if you look at the end of the
49th chapter of the Quran, they're like, you
know, they think they're doing you a favor
by becoming Muslim. But, no, god has favored
them.
Right? They still have this kind of problem.
So we're we're in many ways,
there's a lot happening in that chapter, but
at a base level for us, ground level,
we can take inventory of our lives, ask
ourselves some serious questions, and then begin to
ask, like, how am I translating
blessings that I have into a greater good?
May Allah
bless all of you. We'll see you guys,
next week for Surat Al Ma'un.