Sulayman Van Ael – The Divine Names 9
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AI: Transcript ©
Alhamdulillah, if it's not that straight, it's okay,
isn't it?
With the will of Allah, today we are
going to have a look at the Qur
'an and how the verses in the Qur
'an are mainly and almost always connected to
the Divine Names, which I find to be
very special and intriguing.
Because when we look at Aqidah today, we
see that Aqidah is disconnected from Fiqh.
Like the names of Allah, when you think
about Fiqh, you don't think about the Divine
Names.
But when we look at the ayat in
the Qur'an that have everything to do
with Fiqh, like signing contracts, like marriage, like
divorce, like inheritance or inheritance, whatever, all these
ayat in Fiqh are usually connected to Allah's
names.
And now when we read Fiqh very often,
it is disconnected from the names of Allah,
which is very special.
Why?
Firstly, we want to ask ourselves the question,
are these Divine Names connected to the verses
of Fiqh?
Because we as Muslims, we grow up, and
me as a convert, I'm a Muslim too,
so we as Muslims, we grow up reading
the Qur'an, but we never ask ourselves
questions.
Like if I were to look at my
bank account, and I would see that there
is £50 missing, I would start an investigation.
I said, I didn't spend £50.
Where has it gone?
Hello, can you help me?
Can you help me out?
I would even go to a judge for
£50.
So meaning that little, small, tiny amount of
money, I would really want to find out
where it went.
But where did the meanings of the Qur
'an go?
How many people, from the moment they were
Muslims, really invested some of their time, not
all of their time, some of their time,
to study the Book of Allah.
And this is one of the main problems
and the main issues today.
It is when Allah said in the Qur
'an, كِتَابٌ أَنزَلْنَاهُ إِلَيْكَ مُبَارَكٌ لِيَتْدَبَّرُ آيَاتِهِ
وَلِيَتَذَكَّرَ أُولُّ الْأَلْبَابِ He said, a Qur'an
that we have sent down upon you, O
Muhammad, and it is a blessed book.
The problem is when we start with English
terminology, or any terminology, translating the Qur'an,
then we will never be able to give
its due.
This is the first thing we have to
know.
The Qur'an can't be translated.
That's impossible.
So this is why it's very wrong to
call this a translation of the Qur'an.
It is an interpretation of the one transmitting
it in another language.
It's not Qur'an.
And this is why our Fuqaha are very
clear, that you can't read the Qur'an
in another language than the Arabic language during
prayer.
One of the opinions of Imam Abu Hanifa,
may Allah have mercy on him, he mentioned
that Abu Hanifa left that opinion, who said
you can read Fatiha in Persian, if you're
not able to read it in Arabic, but
he left that opinion.
So the opinion is not even there.
So we can't translate the Qur'an.
It is one of the possible meanings of
the Qur'an, but wait.
We all know that there is more than
one Qira'ah, isn't it?
And more than one Riwayah.
We have Warsh, we have Hafs, we have...
So why do they say a translation, which
is already wrong, of the Qur'an?
No, of Hafs.
We became so negligent of the Qur'an
that we don't even have...
when people translate the Qur'an, there is
no methodology.
Like when you make a choice to translate
it, was your grammar the grammar of the
people of Kufa or the people of Basra?
And why did you choose this and not
that?
They do it with all the books apart
from the Qur'an, because Shaitan is there.
If we connect to the Qur'an like
we are supposed to, our souls will go
around the Kaaba before we pray.
This is figuratively speaking, OK?
I'm not really saying you're...
So we need to go back to the
language of the Qur'an, and like one
of my teachers in Al-Muallaqat, these beautiful
Arabic poems once said, like the Qur'an
was revealed in the midst of the most
eloquent Arabs ever.
The Arabs would say a tribe is strong
when they have three things.
One would be a soothsayer, a sahir.
Another one would be a faris, like a
horseback rider, a horse rider, that would be
very good.
And the third one would be a shair,
would be a poet.
If one of these three was missing, then
the Arabs would consider this tribe to be
weak.
These people, they would engage in war, and
before engaging in war, they would actually, what?
Engage in poetry.
Like one would be here, like the enemy
would be here, you would be there.
Before even raising the swords, like Hussain ibn
Thabit, for example, the shair of Rasool Allah
ﷺ and Abdullah ibn Rawaha and so forth,
when the messenger ﷺ said to his companion,
go, because your words, he was a poet,
your words are stronger than our spears.
Your words are stronger than our spears.
So they would go, and then when they
would, you know poetry, Islam poetry, like today
they have battles, isn't it?
Spoken word and this and that.
So they would go, and if you were
able to humiliate the poet, you were about
100% sure that you would win the
battle.
This is how strong language was at the
time.
So now, these Arabs, they used to write
and they used to engage in war for
eight months during the year.
And then we have the Ashur al-Hurum.
Hurum, what do you hear in it?
Either exalted, sacred or haram.
And during these four months, they wouldn't engage
in war anymore.
So in these months, like for example, today
is the last day of the month.
I will be fighting you.
Tomorrow it's from Ashur al-Hurum.
Hello, how are you?
Everything all right?
This is what the Arabs were like.
So now if you know this, and that
the Arabs would get together, there would be
a caravan every year during the Ashur al
-Hurum where people would party, they would drink,
they would dance, make music.
But the climax, the climax of the happening
was the poets of each tribe getting together.
Everybody was waiting for this.
There was horseback riding, camel race, wrestling.
But the poets, everybody was waiting for them.
Because the poets were so important that the
tribe would spend money on the poet to
prepare a poem once a year.
You see, language.
Everything there was about language, about poetry.
So now when they would get together during
these months, at the end, the winning tribe
was honoured during that year.
Their poet won the game.
And then they would stand one next to
the other, one in front of the other,
and they were answering and replying, answering and
replying, and they were never allowed to use
the same word at the end of a
sentence.
And this could go on for hours.
The Arabic lexicon is the largest.
It's the most rich in words.
So now they would come together, do this,
and when the poems were very strong, they
would hang it on the Kaaba.
Because the Kaaba was honoured for them.
Because there were still some parts of the
religion of Ibrahim, even though it was a
bit altered, a lot actually, with shirk and
so forth, but they would hang it on
the Kaaba.
And this is what mu'allaq means, something
which we hang onto something.
So the best poems, they would take them
and hang them.
Some they say there are three mu'allaqat,
and that's a very strong narration.
Some say there are seven, others they say
there are ten.
The ten mu'allaqat, some say mu'allaqat
al-asr, some say mu'allaqat al-saba'
and some say mu'allaqat al-thalath.
Imam al-Zamzami, may Allah have mercy on
him, he has a very large explanation.
Someone who wants to become strong at the
Arabic language has to read the mu'allaqat,
understand them, dissect them, and breathe them.
Why?
My teacher in mu'allaqat, Dr Abdullah al
-Masri, he was asking us to give a
sharh, an explanation of the mu'allaqat.
When you read these mu'allaqat, you actually
think that you don't know Arabic.
You read them, if I were to give
it to you now, and you understand 30
% of it, apart from min and ila,
the words, and you understand 30%, become my
teacher.
I will pay you per hour.
Someone?
So what I'm trying to say is, he
said, if you master the mu'allaqat, only
then, only then, will you be able to
be astonished from the language of the Qur
'an.
Because the Arabs were so strong in language,
but when the Qur'an was revealed, look
at the importance they gave to language, but
when the Qur'an was revealed, they were
not able to come with one ayah.
They were able to write mu'allaqat, engage
in war with poetry, and when we read
it, because we are, I am, and people
like me, and us maybe, we are ignorant
of the Arabic language.
We look at qul huwa allahu ahad.
What's about qul huwa allahu ahad?
Okay, it's from Allah, good, but what's special?
qul huwa allahu ahad, khalas.
Why couldn't they come with the same thing?
Because when they saw this, they said, this
is not qawnul bashar.
Subhanallah.
They knew that it weren't the words of
a human being.
This was how strong the Arabic language was.
This is not qawnul bashar, this is from
a sahir, or a shaytan is inspiring him,
or he has stolen it from other tribes
and religions, but they said this, there is
tilawa and halawa, they knew it, but they
didn't want to give up their power.
You see this?
So now, when you know that this was
the strength of the Arabic language, and that
these people weren't able to reproduce one single
verse, what does that mean?
That the miracle of the Quran is not
primarily a scientific miracle.
It is the miracle that God of all
spoke to men, to mankind, to man, to
mankind, and that the very proof it being
from Allah is in the words itself, in
the construction of the sentences.
This is not human.
law kana min indi ghayri Allah If it
were from someone other apart from Allah, la
wajadu feehi ikhtilafan kathira then they would have
perceived and found within the Quran many contradictions.
Once I was in Fez, and I saw,
there was an Arabic language teacher, and he
said, at a certain point, I fell very
low in my Iman.
I left faith.
He said, because I was just a cultural
Muslim, and I heard so many things about
the Quran, I started doubting.
He said, but I'm an Arabic language teacher.
I'm very strong in Arabic.
And someone told me, why don't you look
at the linguistic aspect from the Quran to
revive your faith?
He said, how is language going to revive
my faith?
He said, I challenge you.
So he went and did research.
He said, I was looking for one grammatical
mistake, one wrong sentence construction, one word that
could have been better replaced by another, and
I didn't find one.
He said, and I recovered my Iman through
language in the Quran.
This is the importance of language.
Primarily, why do we say ayah?
Ayah means a sign.
Every verse is a sign that God has
spoken to us.
It's a sign.
You see?
So, if we look from this perspective at
the Quran, then we know that we really
need to get things going and to really
start learning the Arabic language until we become
very strong.
And then we look into the Quran, and
you read, I'm just going to give you
an example.
Here from Surat Ar-Rum.
I'm going to take it here.
So I'm taking the Quran so I can
tell you which verse number.
This is one thing I regret.
When I memorized the Quran, I didn't memorize
verse numbers.
The majority don't do that.
But now, if my son, Laith, is going
to memorize Quran, then he has to memorize
it with the verse numbers.
Like he would go, He's not just going
to say Rum.
He's going to say, Okay, I lost it
here.
Rum 34.
People that preserve the word of Allah.
Can you imagine?
Lately, I was talking to my wife, and
we were talking about the Quran.
And then we said, SubhanAllah, the Quran is
so strong that even people that don't memorize
the entire Quran, that which they memorize, they
defend it with their minds.
If I were to say, Right or wrong?
Wrong.
Why?
Alhamdu.
Right?
Unless you say, No, it's one of the
four Qiraat of Shahada from Hassan al-Basri.
But we're not asking that.
So you would protect it.
Right or wrong?
Wrong.
And this is one of the reasons why
the Quran was first memorized and then written
down.
If it would have been written down, people
wouldn't have memorized it, and nobody would have
known if there was something wrong in the
Quran.
The other scriptures, they were written down before
they were memorized.
So now, when it was memorized first and
then brought to those who memorized the Quran,
they were all testifying, This is right.
This is right.
You forgot to mention something.
So this is the miracle of the Quran,
that even people that don't understand the Arabic
language, they memorize 604 pages.
Isn't this sufficient as a proof that the
Quran is from God?
Tell me, who can literally, apart from people
with a photographic memory, which is the minority
amongst the minority of the minority, who is
able to memorize a vowel text, not making
a mistake between wa and fa?
None?
And u and a?
604 pages in the name of God.
This is a miracle.
And this is what Allah SWT promised, وَلَقَدْ
يَسَّرْنَا الْقُرْآنَ لِذِكْرِ فَهَلْ مِن مُتَّكِرٍ And we
have made the Quran easy for you to
memorize, to understand, to learn, but who wants
to?
Wanting is doing.
And the moment you start doing, Allah will
start giving.
If you want to memorize the Quran now,
Wallahi, I promise you, you will memorize it.
If you want it, Allah makes it easy.
But wanting is not wishing.
It's a very big difference.
I would really like to make some money.
Yes, I would like to.
But now you start working, you say, now
I believe you.
When you wake up before Fajr, an hour
before Fajr, saying half a page a day,
three ayat a day, and you do it
consecutively 40 days, then it will become a
habit.
If you do something for 40 days, it
becomes a habit.
But people usually keep up for a week
and a half.
That's it, 10 days.
Goldfish, memory of 10 seconds, we eat 10
days.
We can hold on to something.
Now they said that we forget that goldfish
can focus longer than we can due to
the usage of social media.
Our focus is a mess.
Scroll, scroll, scroll, scroll, scroll, scroll, this, this,
this, all the time.
We forgot how to focus.
And this is also why we don't advance
spiritually.
Because we are so used to change our
focus, and getting to Allah is in need
of focus.
Studying is in need of focus.
It's boring today to stay focused on one
still thing, on one thing.
People divorce because marriage becomes boring.
People stop with a certain sport because it
becomes boring.
Everything is boring apart from this.
Hup, hup, hup, hup, hup, all the time.
Yes, here we go.
So, to come back, the Qur'an, the
language of the Qur'an, is the primary,
the real miracle of the Qur'an.
Within it we find the fact, the fact.
Science is not facts, it's theory.
The fact that Allah has spoken to us.
So now, what I want to do is
the following.
I want you and myself, until next week
we have a class, or is this a
fortnight class?
Next week.
So I would like to use this week,
what you are going to do, you are
going to read the Qur'an randomly.
Meaning you just open a page, and you
read it.
And then you're going to look for Allah's
names in the Qur'an.
Okay?
When you do this, you are going to
look at the context wherein these names were
mentioned.
And then I want you to make a
connection between the verse and the names.
Is that clear?
So that we read the Qur'an attentively,
focused.
Because now we just read it, and these
names are there, but it doesn't do anything.
And the reason why we read the Qur
'an, usually it's for the barakah.
Oh, it has been two weeks that I
didn't read the Qur'an.
Let me read some Qur'an.
SubhanAllah, don't you feel, my wife, my son,
my daughter, whatever, that the atmosphere in the
house has changed.
Oh yes, let us read some Qur'an.
I have a headache.
Oh, let me read some Qur'an.
I think I'm possessed.
Let me read some Qur'an.
I want to get married.
Let us read some Qur'an.
Somebody died.
Let us read some Qur'an.
It's just barakah, barakah, barakah, barakah, but the
barakah of the Qur'an is in understanding
and practice.
That's where the barakah is.
And this is exactly that which we as
Muslims don't seem to understand.
We focus so much on tajweed.
And you can say, but this is important.
Well, I know I have 10 qiraat, 14
qiraat.
So I'm not saying it just for the
sake of it, but we are so much
focused on tajweed, which is important, and on
voices, and on tunes of how to read
Qur'an, that we just forgot the essence
of the Qur'an, which is understanding and
practicing.
If there is no understanding of the Qur
'an, there is no practicing of the Qur
'an.
And without the Qur'an, you have no
connection whatsoever with Allah SWT.
The Messenger of Allah said, like in Sahih
Muslim, he said, this is Allah's rope.
Hold on to it.
And then in the Jam of Imam Suyuti
narration, one is on Allah's end, and the
other one is on your end.
So hold on to it, because then you
will never go astray.
When you hold on to the Qur'an,
you will never go astray.
And this Imam Ghazali, rahimahullah al-azwajal, ihya
al-muddin, he made something very, very clear.
He said, when you read Qur'an, there
are two types of people that read Qur
'an.
We're not even talking about the barakah people.
No, the barakah people, but people that really
read Qur'an, two types.
The one who says, I'm going to read,
so Allah can listen to me.
Allah, listen, I'm about to read your word.
Bismillahirrahmanirrahim.
I'm reading.
He said, the other one is saying, I'm
sitting, I'm nothing but a means, through which
I will listen to God.
Is the difference clear?
So you are reading, but you're actually listening
to what Allah has to say.
Your voice is created, but everything which, the
meanings that come out of your mouth are
not.
It's just your voice.
You are listening to Allah.
And if you read Qur'an like that,
or like this, then bi-idhnillahi subhanahu wa
ta'ala, it will be a transformative reading,
a transformative recitation.
And this is why Abdullah ibn Abbas said,
it's more preferred to me to read Surah
Zilzalah slowly than to read all Surah Al
-Baqarah, in another narration, all the Qur'an
very quickly.
In the time of Umar radiAllahu anhu, they
would consider someone having memorized Al-Baqarah and
Al-Imran to be a scholar.
Why?
Because it wasn't about reading.
They would memorize and practice.
Abdullah ibn Sa'ud radiAllahu anhu said, we
used to come to the Messenger salAllahu alayhi
wa sallam and we would take from him
five ayat.
Five ayat they would take from the Messenger
salAllahu alayhi wa sallam.
Then we would leave him.
We would memorize it.
Then we would understand it.
Then we would practice it.
Then we would invite towards it.
And then we would come back for five,
maximum ten verses.
Now, we all want to memorize.
Which is good.
But the majority doesn't.
I'm sorry, the majority of people saying, I
want to memorize, they never do.
The people that don't talk are the ones
that do.
If you want to memorize, you don't say,
I would like to memorize.
That's not someone who's going to memorize.
Someone who is already memorizing, say, I want
to finish, that is someone who's going to
memorize.
Is the difference clear?
Now we're all people with books under our
arms and saying, I would like to memorize.
It won't happen.
Get started.
It doesn't matter how long it takes.
Even if it's 17 years, so what?
But because when I say 17 years, what
goes through many minds is, oh, that long?
But the problem is we're already saying for
20 years or 17 years or five years
that we want to memorize the Qur'an
and we don't.
This is from Shaytan.
That he says, 17 years.
These 17 years will pass anyway if we
live.
So at least you don't miss out.
One verse a day, 17 years.
Two verses a day, eight years and something.
Wouldn't you like to be a hafidh in
eight years?
You're already saying eight years that you want
to be a hafidh.
Well, two verses a day.
Everybody can do two verses a day.
Two verses a day.
Quloo laaha hatta allahu sanat.
Khalaas, I'm going to sleep now.
If you were to sleep 23 hours and
two verses a day, you're having the kitabillah.
You can sleep 23 hours.
Bismillah, one hour.
You wake up, eat up.
Pray, you have to pray as well.
You wake up for your prayers, seven times
five, 35 minutes, half an hour, awake.
Khalaas, you're hafidh.
The people say, how did you do that?
How many hours?
You say, I was sleeping for 23 hours.
They won't believe you, but it's true.
So this is how easy it is.
I might be exaggerating a little bit, but
it is not as difficult as you think.
It's difficult when you aim for too much.
And this is something I want to give
away for everybody wanting to memorize the Qur
'an.
Shaytan and the nafs, they don't like to
go slowly.
Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala, everything He created,
did He create the heavens and the earth?
Did He create it in six days because
He can't do it in one?
Or because He can't do it in a
second?
No.
It's to show us that it's better to
take time for things.
And Allah didn't take time.
It was His word.
And then, you know, it's not Allah wasn't
taking time.
Allah is not submitted to time.
It was His word.
And He decided that it would take this
long.
So same child in the womb, nine months.
Well, He created Adam immediately.
He created Isa immediately as a baby because
Isa wasn't created of that which we are
created.
There was no man.
So one of the techniques of memorizing the
Qur'an is going slowly but surely.
And if you say like, for example, three
ayat a day, I want to learn the
Qur'an, memorize, I don't know how long
that would take.
Then six years, for example, five years and
ten months.
That's good.
Because we are not living in the desert.
When I wanted to memorize the Qur'an
quickly, I went to the desert in Sudan.
But not everybody can do that.
Not because they're weak, but because their life
doesn't allow them to do so.
So just five, three ayat a day, is
that too difficult?
To be quite frank, how many hours do
we lose out on every day?
If we're just honest with ourselves, a bit
of this series, a bit of scrolling, a
bit of Instagramming, a bit of Facebooking, a
bit of Twittering, a bit of fake live
actually, a bit of YouTube.
You know, like, best fails 2016, best fails
2017, best fails 2018, best fails 2019, the
best of January, the best of February.
So you keep on going and all the
fails are the same.
Just people who are not an expert at
what they do.
So now, when we come back, memorize the
Qur'an in harmony with your weakest moments.
For example, you're a mother, a new mother,
you have a baby, like, late, 10 months
old.
Well, most probably you're not going to memorize
the Qur'an four hours a day.
If you can get to 20 or 30
minutes, that's a lot.
So you are going to say one ayah
a day.
One ayah, that's it.
Because if you aim for too high, you
say five a day, and then you don't
get there, you will be discouraged.
You say, I can't memorize.
This is too much for me.
Qur'an is not for me.
I will never get there.
But you were aiming too high.
You have to adjust your goals to your
potential, to your capacity, and to your environment
and surroundings and occupations.
If you don't do this, then you're living
a dream, in a dream, in a fake
world.
So if now you say one or two
ayat a day, you are always allowed to
do more, but never allowed to do less.
So look at your weakest moments, the moments
where you are sick, moments where you travel,
moments where you don't sleep a lot, and
say, I cannot do more when I'm at
my weakest than one or two verses a
day.
As I said, two verses a day is
Qur'an in 80 years.
That's good, isn't it?
In less than nine years.
Everybody can do this.
So now, to come back, why am I
saying this?
I know it's about the names of Allah,
but if one thing is really reflecting the
name of Allah, it's the Qur'an.
Like every page you turn, you see all
these names, and we are supposed to ask
ourselves the question, why are these names here?
The first thing I said when we just
started this class was because of the connection
between Fiqh, and the names of Allah.
And I believe that disconnecting Fiqh from the
names of Allah was one of the things
that led to a lack of spirituality behind
everything we do as an act of worship.
Be it marrying, divorcing, raising children, funerals, whatever.
All the verses are connected to the names
of Allah.
So what I want you to do, and
it's really homework, and I want you to
share it with me next time when you
come, is to randomly go through these pages
and you find the name of Allah, and
you say, what is this name doing here?
What is this name telling me?
And you're going to connect the name to
what?
To the verse.
And this is what we are going to
do today.
So, under supervised and under observation.
Everything is filmed by the way.
Okay.
The first thing I would like to ask
you here, in Surat Al-Ma'idah, Allah
says, He talks about the fact that we
need to respect our contracts.
And then He tells us in Surat Al
-Ma'idah which animals are allowed for us
to eat from and which we are not
allowed to eat from.
And then Allah makes it very clear when
we are not allowed to hunt, and when
we are allowed to hunt.
And then Allah says, Allah commands whatever He
wants.
He gives any ruling that He wants.
Why is He saying this?
So, we just said in Surat Al-Ma
'idah, it says these kind of animals with
these kind of hooves, for example, are not
allowed.
These ones are allowed and so forth.
Why is this?
Yes.
Yes.
Yes.
So, what does He want from us here
through this verse is obedience and submission.
Because He's about to say, the meat of
the people of the book are allowed for
you.
For men, it's allowed to marry with the
women of the book.
Then He says, that which dogs, when you
hunt, and the dogs bring to you, if
they are being trained, you're allowed to eat
it.
If they are not trained, you're not allowed
to eat.
So, so many things of which we don't
always immediately seem to be understanding the logic
behind.
Well, Deen, it's not with logic.
Even though we can always find a logical
explanation, but the first thing we do when
we hear something is turn off this and
submit with the soul.
And after we have done this and have
accepted that it's from Allah, that He does
whatever He wants, then we will start looking
for an eventual wisdom behind the verse.
What you should know as well is that
the verses, the interpretations that we give to
the verses, and a logical explanation are not
revelations.
Do you understand me?
So very often, what we try to do
today is sometimes force certain explanations and interpretations
so that a verse would become acceptable and
accepted by the masses.
You see?
And then I mean especially people in the
West, non-Muslims, or Muslims that doubt their
faith.
So we are going to force an interpretation
which is very obvious that this is not
what is meant.
Just to please people.
That's wrong.
At a certain point, we say God is
God.
We are His subjects.
We are His slaves.
He does whatever He wants.
And if people don't agree, nobody forces you
to be a Muslim.
You know?
But now we have these Muslims that pick
whatever they want from religion.
Well, Allah SWT says in the Qur'an,
يَا أَيُّهَا الَّذِينَ أَمَانُوا أُدْخُلُوا فِي سِلْمِ كَافَةٍ
O Believers, enter religion entirely.
Completely.
And don't say, Allah says أَتُؤْمِنُونَ بِبَعْدِ الْكِتَابِ
وَتَكْفُرُونَ بِبَعْدٍ Do you believe in a part
of the book?
And do you deny or reject another part
of the book?
Allah says that the punishment will be connected
to this.
So anyway, we have to watch out not
trying to give interpretations to our religion just
to please people.
That's wrong.
That is the same as تَحْرِيف as, how
do you say that?
Bending away the interpretation from the real meaning.
And this is haram.
Is that clear?
And today, and that's the last thing I
want to say about this.
A lot of people, they don't look in
the Qur'an to find an answer.
They look in the Qur'an to legitimize
their thinking.
You see this?
So they want to say something, for example,
whatever.
I don't know.
Okay, this is halal, in my head.
I think, or people that want to say,
I want to look, I want the West
to accept me.
If we are real Muslims, the West will
accept us because being a real Muslim is
beautiful.
But that doesn't mean that we agree upon
everything.
People are different.
So what do they say?
Okay, if I say this, they will accept.
Okay, let me not look in the Qur
'an for verses and ayat that will emphasize
the fact that I am right.
But they are just turning away from the
real literal meaning of what the verse entails.
And this is dangerous.
This is very dangerous because at the end,
people are creating a new religion.
This is what they are doing.
Saying, I first think, and then I dive
into the Qur'an and the Sunnah, and
I'm going to make this mixture, this chemical
mixture that will eventually explode in my face
on the Day of Judgement, but here it
makes me happy.
It's the elixir of happiness.
And this is very wrong.
So we need to watch out for these
kinds of people.
And subhanAllah, the problem is they are increasing
in number, and those who love them increase
in their followership.
They are their followers.
And why?
Because they try to adapt Islam to the
wishes and the passions of people.
And people are full of passions.
Okay?
إِنَّ اللَّهَ يَحْكُمُ مَا يُرِيدُ Today we are
going just to dive randomly, if that's good
for you, in the Qur'an, and we
are going to see how the names of
Allah SWT connect to the verse.
Bismillah.
I'm just looking.
Here.
Allah.
Okay.
Here.
It's a nice one.
Allah SWT is describing the Day of Judgement.
Right?
And then here He says, وَخَشَعَتِ الْأَصْوَاتُ لِلرَّحْمَٰنِ
فَلَا تَسْمَعُ إِلَّا هَمْسًا SubhanAllah.
He says, and the voices will be lowered
and tempered for Ar-Rahman.
And you will hear nothing.
Some say but breathing, some say but the
shuffling of the feet, whatever.
So, why is it the name Ar-Rahman?
وَخَشَعَتِ الْأَصْوَاتُ لِلرَّحْمَٰنِ Do we have an English?
Yes, we have.
There is a very beautiful one at the
back.
And it's, there is one of Al-Mawdudi,
Rahimahullah.
And I think there is one of Taqiyyah
Al-Uthmani.
There is one, it's in one volume of
Al-Mawdudi.
I think it's a green one.
Yes, if you can have a look, maybe.
Okay, otherwise, I will just take this one,
no problem.
Can you open please, Surah Al-Taha, 108.
Can you do this?
Okay, it's a task of No'man today.
Surah Al-Taha, thank you so much.
Surah Al-Taha, Ayah, I say Ayah, I
never say Ayah like this.
I mix with the Indian Pakistan community, I'm
saying, and I'm saying Ayah.
I heard myself, I even say Imam, and
I used to say Imam.
Nice.
I'm being, converted and assimilated, yes.
I love it.
Verse 108, please.
Do I look Pakistani, really?
Well, this one I never heard before.
You're manipulating me now.
I wouldn't mind because I like biryani.
From the northern part, really?
You say yes, is that true?
Yes.
Are you Pakistani?
You don't look like one.
You look more like an Afghani.
We can switch.
Yes, if you like to.
If my wife is okay with that, I
don't have a problem.
Okay, 108, did you find Habibi?
Okay, Fanda.
That day, no intercession will be of any
use to anyone, except the one whom the
Ar-Rahman has permitted and was treated.
No, the one before.
Then there is 107 then.
Okay, 107.
That day, they will follow the call and
will find no deviation from anyone and the
voices will turn low in awe for the
Ar-Rahman.
So you will hear not but whispers.
Yeah, so here, why the Ar-Rahman?
Look, why is there Ar-Rahman?
We are speaking about this immense day where
Allah SWT will call everybody and everybody will
be called by his names in groups and
so forth.
So why Ar-Rahman?
Al-Jabbar, Al-Qawiyy, Al-Mateen, Al-Azeem,
you know, why Ar-Rahman?
Okay, that's one.
Two, he's merciful.
You should know that a true believer, I
mean a very strong believer, when he reads
the Qur'an and he reads about Yawm
al-Qiyamah, you know, then his heart can't
take it anymore.
You know, he comes into the real world.
He enters into a real world about Qiyamah
and the skies turning red and people being
frightened.
So if you don't save him, and you
would add the name Jabbar, Qahar, it's too
much.
You know, calm down.
There's still Rahmah that day.
You know, it's not talking about Rahmah here,
but there's still Rahmah.
So the mu'min finds breathing space.
Okay, okay, carry on.
You see, so this is very important that
we see that Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala
in the midst of talking about al-Qiyamah,
he nevertheless shows that there will be mercy
so that no one would despair and no
one would think that there will be no
mercy.
Is that clear?
Okay, we go for another one.
Okay, unless you want to add something.
No?
Bismillah, and now I won't talk.
It's for you to do.
Yes, Rum 54, Surah 30, Ayah
54.
I had one Shaykh and he wasn't pleased
with us knowing the Surah in order.
He wanted us to know it backwards as
well.
We didn't have to read the Qur'an
backwards, but he would mention a verse.
It's very easy to find the verse that
comes after it.
Like if I were to say now, for
example, and I want you to answer in
less than a second, without thinking.
Qul huwa allahu ahad.
Allah Subhanahu wa ta'ala, right?
But if I now were to say, you
have to tell me what verse comes before
it.
Wa min sharrinna fa'athati fil'uqad.
No.
It's before it, yes, but not right before
it.
You see this?
You have to go back all the way
and then you go downwards.
This is weak Hift, not you, Al-Nu'man.
What comes before Al-Nas?
Ah, Al-Nas.
It's all Nas in Surah Al-Nas.
So do you see, he wanted us, and
if we didn't, if we weren't able to
say this immediately, he would say like, you
are very weak memorizers.
Memorizers?
Do we say it like that?
No, the Ism Al-Fa'il, Al-Nu'man,
of memorizing.
What is it?
Memorizers.
Memorizers?
Memorizers.
Memorizers?
Okay.
Then he would say, you are very weak
Huffaf of the Qur'an.
Okay.
Yes, read please.
Please listen, the women as well, to the
following verse and how the names are connected.
Yes.
Allah is the one who created strength after
weakness and old age after strength.
He creates what He will.
Huh.
All-knowing, all-powerful.
Powerful, we might connect it, right?
But now he says, all-knowing, all-powerful.
I want to give you one principle.
It's when two names of Allah SWT are
mentioned together, they add an extra meaning to
the other name.
Is that clear?
So when the name is separate, it has
a meaning.
When they come together, it still contains this
meaning, but there is an extra meaning added
to what?
To the other name.
So what are these names doing here now?
You, not first Noman.
No, both.
So what were the names?
And he is?
The all-knowing, all-powerful.
Yalla.
So Allah is the one that created you
out of weakness like that.
And then He made us strong and then
He made us weak and old.
And He is the all-knowing, all-powerful.
Why?
Okay, that's one.
Good.
I want a deeper meaning.
As a general meaning, it was good.
Somebody else?
Okay, that's a good one as well.
Very good.
But Allah knows why.
But where is the Qadeer?
When you were born, did you know anything?
Then at a certain age, do you start
forgetting things?
But when you're at your strongest, then you
know things, isn't it?
And you don't seem to forget them as
much as when you are older or as
when you are young.
Can this be connected to Al-'Aleem?
Yes.
So when you get older and you start
forgetting, this is a sign that you are
weak and Allah is all-knowing.
And that your body is decreasing in strength
is a sign that Allah is al-Qadeer.
So you going through these stages are actually
showing you what Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala
does for you and reminds you of His
strength and His knowledge.
He never went through this evolution.
Allah doesn't go through an evolution.
He was always perfect.
So He didn't have moments of strength and
weakness.
He was always strongest.
And He was always all-knowing.
So His knowledge was never preceded through ignorance
and will never be followed by forgetfulness.
So when you see Al-'Aleem al-Qadeer, look
at your state.
Allah is never weak and is always all
-knowing.
Is that clear?
And if you then, in the light of
this verse, when you forget, sometimes it happens
to me, especially when my sugar is a
bit high with my diabetes, sometimes I find
it very difficult to concentrate.
And I might forget a word.
I'm really looking for a word and it's
a very easy word.
This also happens to people in general.
But due to my sugar, sometimes this happens.
And then I have two ways of looking
at it.
Either feeling embarrassed in front of the students,
like, okay, what are they going to think?
Or either use it to say, look at
how weak we humans are and how powerful
Allah SWT is.
So do you see the link between the
names and the evolution we go through and
how Al-'Alim and Al-Qadir, and he's the
one keeping you up.
Because subhanAllah, now for example, Layth wants to
stand.
If he now stands and I let him
go, he will fall.
In two years he won't, inshaAllah.
But then later on, he, maybe his children
or grandchildren, will take him by the arm
because he will fall again.
InshaAllah not.
Ameen.
Say Ameen.
Because Al-Hasan Al-Basri, Imam Ibn Rajab
mentioned, that Al-Hasan Al-Basri, when he
was 100 years old, he jumped from, or
was it Al-Fudayr Al-Qadir Ibn Niyad,
I'm very sorry, I think it's Al-Hasan.
He jumped on a boat when he was
about 100 years old.
And he said, how do you do this?
He said, we preserved these limbs when we
were young against Haram, so Allah preserves them
now when we are old.
So just in brief, when we see that
we become weaker or older, that shouldn't annoy
us.
Because this is a part of being creation.
And we hold on to the one to
whom this doesn't happen.
So Al-'Alim Al-Qadir, and this is just
one possible thing.
So now I want to hear maybe some
other things.
How is Al-'Alim Al-Qadir connected to these
different stages, weak, young, weak?
Yes, Naaman.
It's similar to the north.
Subhanallah.
Yes, subhanallah.
Very good, yes.
Okay.
Go for another one?
So this will be your homework.
Okay.
And there's no wrong answer.
Because some of the ayat, you understand them
with your soul.
I don't mean you don't need Arabic and
so forth, but we're doing it together.
So it's not like you're going to write
a book, I'm just going, this is my
tafsir, you know, we get together.
And if there's a wrong understanding, inshallah, I
will mention it, of course, inshallah.
Okay.
DazukAllah.
This is a very beautiful one.
And they're all beautiful.
Take please Surah Al-Nahl, ayah 115.
And here I'm not going to say anything,
because it's supposed to be very obvious.
Even though there are two names.
Surah Al-Nahl, ayah 115.
إِنَّمَا حَرَّمَ عَلَيْكُمُ الْمَيْتَةَ وَالْدَّمَا وَلَحْمَةَ الْخِنزِيلِ
Okay, next one.
Okay, I want this one.
Listen very attentively, please.
Okay, this is the verse we're going to
look at.
Read it out loud.
Okay.
What did you understand from this?
Okay, and this is then connected to?
But to the names?
The mercy of Allah, right?
Very good.
Indeed.
Like, we see that Allah gives exceptions, like
in time of necessity, that we are allowed
to drink wine, eat pork, or dead animals.
With dead we mean animals that weren't sacrificed,
but died, or that were not slaughtered in
an Islamic way.
So, Allah then at the end says, He
is Ghafoor Rahim.
Right?
Or what did He say, Allah Subhanahu Wa
Ta'ala?
Most forgiving, most merciful.
Ghafoor.
Ghafoor Rahim.
Okay, you have to help me out here.
Why forgiving?
Because it's not a sin.
Yes.
I like this.
Yes.
Very often, subhanAllah, when we do something which
Allah Subhanahu Wa Ta'ala has allowed us,
in times of exception, we feel guilty.
This guilt, Abdullah ibn Abbas described it as
a bid'ah itiqadi.
Bid'ah itiqadiyya.
Meaning it's a bid'ah connected to your
conviction.
Because you're not allowed to feel bad when
you do something which Allah has allowed, isn't
it?
It is not a sin.
So, when we would be in that desert,
for example, and we would have nothing, or
like the people of Masakin, in Andalusia, for
example, one of the last bastions of the
Moors, where they, each time before Maghrib, they
would, during the month of Ramadan, gather the
people in a public space, they would gather
them all, and they would go to every
door, knock to take the people out.
And then they had to drink wine, just
a sip of wine, and they had to
eat pork right before Maghrib, during the month
of Ramadan, like five minutes before.
And until today, I forgot the name of
the town, but it's where the bastion of
the last of the Moors is.
When you go there, you see all shops
that sell wine and pork.
You know?
And these people, when you would be living
in their times, and you would have your
children, you would protect them.
You know?
If you were to be alone as a
man, and you wouldn't have any responsibilities, then
you could make the choice to say, I'm
not going to drink it, and I'm not
going to eat it, I'm a Muslim, do
what you want.
But when you're forced to do something, and
you not doing it will eventually be leading
to harming those whom you are responsible over,
then you do not have this choice.
Is that clear?
So in the time of oppression, like you
as a human being or as a leader,
they also differentiate between someone who is in
a leader position and someone who is in
a non-leader position.
But you being as an individual, or you
being responsible over a family for example, and
they say, okay you're going to eat or
drink that wine, or we're going to kill
you, and you're alone, say I'm a Muslim,
I don't care.
But if they threaten, or you know that
if you are not going to take this
sip, and not going to drink, eat a
bit of that pork, that they will maybe
kill your family, maybe abuse the females of
your family, and so forth, then you are
then not allowed not to do it.
Because here, you refraining from it will harm
others.
Of course, this has limitations.
For example, if someone says, kill that person
in times of war, these are just, you
know, kill that person, or we kill, for
example, the one you love, then you're not
allowed to kill.
Because now you are afflicting harm upon someone
else who has nothing to do with your
affliction.
Is that clear?
So it all depends.
But in the case that I said, then
this would be allowed.
And according to some, this would get preference
over refusing it, because you will harm others
at that time.
Now, there are no stupid questions.
What do you mean?
Yes, but he was a leader, and he
was the one that was chosen to be
the Khalifa, and the others were the oppressors.
So at that time, as a leader, you
have the, he had the responsibility of defending
his community and defending the leadership that was
justly given to him.
So we can't compare a leader of a
people to us and ourselves.
Okay, so is this clear?
So SubhanAllah, this is very important.
So no guilt, no feeling of guilt.
This is what the ayah is saying to
us.
It is a mercy of Allah SWT.
There is no feeling of guilt.
Same thing when you join between your prayers
when you are on a hadith.
You join between your prayers when you are
on a journey.
You don't have to feel guilty.
It's a sunnah of the Messenger of Allah,
peace be upon him.
So this is what the ayah exactly, as
has been said, is telling us.
These exceptions are a mercy of Allah SWT.
Accept it.
So if one, you find yourself, the plane
crashed on the North Pole.
I don't know if the planes fly over
the North Pole.
or the Titanic or whatever.
So it crashed and the only thing you
have to stay alive is wine and what?
Pork.
Then you are allowed to eat and drink
غير باغ ولا عد.
So it will just be sufficiently for you
to stay alive and also to have strength
to survive.
But not to party.
That would be extremely haram.
That would be very haram.
And some say باغين would be that you
like it.
So you do not like it.
You don't say, I'm sorry to give the
example but you would not like to say
like, yes, now I have the opportunity to
taste it.
So you are not going to like it.
But you are going to like the rahma
of Allah SWT.
And now the scholars differ.
So what if I have this entire pork
like on the North Pole?
How it came there?
I don't know.
So you have this.
So now you slaughtered it.
Do you have to take, are you allowed
to take the pork with you?
You see?
Because Allah says you can't eat more than
you need.
So am I now allowed to, here we
go, and I start walking.
Is this allowed?
Well, they say if you expect yourself not
to find anything, you know, within a period
which would be sufficient for you to stay
alive, then you have to take it with
you because it's preserving your life.
But if you know that, you know, within
a day or so, and you're sure of
that, but you need to survive for that
day, and if you don't eat it and
you don't drink it, you will never arrive
at your point of destination, then you don't
take it with you.
If you know that you're going to be
on time and you will be healthy when
you arrive, then you are not allowed to
take it with you.
Is that clear?
Okay.
And not eating that which remains is not
considered to be israf.
It's not considered to be israf.
Now, there is a qa'ida, a qa
'ida usooliya, a usooli principle, which says الشارع
لا يأمر إلا بمصلحة خالصة أو راجحة ولا
ينهى إلا عن مفسدة خالصة أو راجحة Meaning,
the sharia only commands things that are entirely
good or, how can you say this, like
when it's 90% good, it is either
entirely good or when the majority of it
is good.
How would you say this?
Okay.
So the sharia doesn't command but that which
is entirely good or mostly good and doesn't
forbid things unless they are entirely bad or
mostly bad.
So this, when we look at surat al
-baqarah, when Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala speaks
about alcohol, right, and about gambling, then he
makes very clear that there are benefits, there
are beneficial things, مَمْ يَسْأَلُونَكَ عَنِ الْخَمْرِ وَالْمَيْسِرِ
قُلْ فِيهِ Meaning, within it are sins and
within it are good things but the bad
things within it are more than the good
things and this is why it is haram.
So some people say, but you know when
it's cold and I drink this little whiskey,
all of a sudden I feel, you know,
some heat.
Well, that's the partly good thing but not
the mostly.
So it's entirely bad or mostly bad and
this is why it is made haram.
The same for example with other things which
have been made haram is because they, we
don't say that they don't contain any good
but the largest percentage within it is bad
and this is why it is haram.
Is that clear?
Now in Belgium there was a rule, this
morning we read it, that you are no
longer allowed to drink alcohol on the streets.
Sallallahu alayhi wa sallam.
Yes.
I think if Muslims would say this in
a Muslim country then we would say, oh,
they're extremists.
So anyway.
Yes.
And in America we got these brown bags.
Brown bags and if you, you have to
hide it in some states.
So anyway, is that clear?
So now, pork, at that time, can we
say that pork now is mostly good or
entirely good in this situation?
In the situation we said when you are
about to die and you have to eat
it.
Mostly.
Entirely.
Well, give me a correct answer next time.
Not at all.
Can we say it's the lesser of two
evils then?
Yes, lesser of two evils.
Either dying, or surviving.
Okay.
And also very important, if you are about
to slaughter the pork or whatever, then you
need to treat it well.
We know this.
It's not because it's a pork that all
of a sudden you can mistreat it or
take a baseball bat and start eating it.
Yes.
No, they wouldn't slaughter it in the name
of Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala.
Yes.
No.
Excuse me?
Yes, but...
You know when you drink wine, when a
Muslim would drink wine, and some Muslims do,
and they would say Bismillah before drinking it,
according to a large group of ulama, they
would be leaving Islam due to this.
Why?
Because the essence of it is haram.
So when you are about to drink that
wine, for example, you are not going to
say Bismillah.
Same with everything which is haram.
If you say Bismillah, then that's really bad.
But about the slaughtering in Bismillah, let me
look up what the scholars might have of
differences between that and get back to you
next week.
Is that good?
So I'm sure of my answer.
So forget my answer.
Forget what I have said.
I want to verify.
Is that good?
Okay.
Yes.
That's no problem.
I mean, it happened.
You don't have to put your finger in
your mouth to get it out or something.
No, that's what some people do.
If it happened, it happened.
And you don't need to do istighfar unless
you were in an environment where you don't
expect to find halal.
And then it's really your fault because you
weren't cautious enough.
So if you're in a place where you
usually don't get halal meat or halal drinks
or whatever, then firstly I wouldn't be in
that place.
Like for example, you are there, then you
need to verify.
This is a part of al-wara, of
being cautious.
Cautious.
Okay.
How long have we been going on?
Ten minutes?
Sixty-five.
Okay, then we have to wrap up.
So what I want you to do for
next week, if you can do it, if
you can write it on a Word document
and then print it so that you give
it to me here and that we can
go over it.
That is what we're going to do next
week.
So we're going to read what you have
written and we're going to share it.
If you don't want people to know your
name, no problem, then you just mention, for
example, no man, no name.
No man, no name.
Yes.
I want to know who it is, but
then I won't pronounce your name.
But I don't see why.
So this is it, inshallah.
So what we took away today was quite
a lot, I think.
So we spoke about, you need to listen
to it now, man, inshallah, at the very
beginning, the Arabs' poetry, the importance of language
and so forth.
So we spoke about that.
And then, subhanAllah, the importance of connecting fiqh
to the names of Allah subhanahu wa ta
'ala.
So try to find these names.
I want names only connected to fiqh or
qiyamah.
So not to what?
Not to jannah or nar.
So fiqh and qiyamah, not to jannah and
nar.
And then take five of them, each one
of you, five names, five verses.
I have started a seerah class every Sunday.
If you want, it's not here.
But you can attend if you like.
Excuse me?
Will it be streamed?
No, it won't be streamed.
It's in Sutton?
It's in Sutton, yes.
And what's the name of the centre?
I don't know, but I contacted them about
live streaming and they said that not right
now, but it will be available on live
stream one day.
Okay, okay.
If you like, I can give you the
address next time, inshallah.
Or would you like, someone who would like
to attend or not really?
If it's in Sutton, would you come on
a Sunday at four o'clock?
Okay.
Okay, then give me one second, please.
No, no, no, it's good.
I will do it right now.
I have it here.
Okay, so it's MCWAS and it's 80 Ruskin
Road, Karshulton.
Code is SM5 3DH.
SM5 3DH.
That's a free course.
Only if you want to buy the book,
then you need to pay for the book.
It's the Fiqh Seerah of Sheikh Ramadan Al
-Buti.
And we are not going to tell a
story, it's rather we're going to explore the
communication techniques that the Prophet, peace be upon
him, applied, the strategies, the way he built
bridges, biased thinking, and polarity management, and leadership
skills.
So this is what we are going to
explore during these eight weeks.
So it's about two hours and 15 minutes
during eight weeks.
The introduction was last week and now we're
going to start with the first one.
There are about, now I think there will
be about 100 people, students.
So if you want to participate, welcome.
Thank you.