Tafseer Reflections #05 – Surah Al-An’am

This one that happened the Rahim Al hamdu Lillahi Rabbil Alameen wa salatu salam ala MBI almost saline. And we know we're converting them Mohammed Ali after the Salah was going to sleep Allahumma eliminare May and found no one fat, that'd be my limp Tina was in their own money out on the line. I mean, we're doing the tafsir of salsa and I'm so if you guys are new, we can go on for a few weeks. Now, why did we pick certain anime because certain anime is a Meccan surah. Okay, so all of the revelation that was given to the Prophet salallahu Alaihe Salam in the Koran can be divided into two main time periods. The first is that which came down during the Meccan period. And the second is

that which came down after they made the Hijra to Medina. And the different themes and purposes and sort of objectives of those two different periods are entirely different. Okay, the Muslims in the Meccan period, or a lot like us, but they were worse off. They were an oppressed minority. They were persecuted. They had to conceal their faith for a long time. And then even after they made it public, they had to be very, very careful and strategic about how they were going to make it public.

And so that it's reflected or that as that fact is reflected in the types of revelation that was sent, Allah Spano Tata sent them things that were most suitable to their situation and to the level of their faith, mostly about Tawheed, about what to believe in our feeder theology. Who was ALLAH? Why should you only worship Him? And since we are mostly in Mechon, sort of situation, you know, that's why we've started with Mechon revelation, because there is a sequence to Allah's revelation, that is intentional, and it's on purpose, and it has wisdom, because everything that Allah does has wisdom. And so Allah subhanaw taala started with the Meccan sorrows for a particular purpose. And

that's why we start with a, the Meccan sorrows as well, for a specific purpose. But the thing that makes sortal An item interesting is that it's one of the longer sorters. It's not one of these very, very short sorters that you're used to from the end of the Koran. And maybe we'll do another program at some point that's going to be focused on those short sores that everybody kind of knows, or at least they've memorized, but they haven't understood what they mean, we should probably do a different program with that maybe an intensive or something like that over the breaks. But when it comes to sort of alarm, it's interesting because it's a longer surah. And so there's more time to

unpack a lot of different things. Okay, there's more space to talk about different things. And so Allah Spano, Tata, and sorts of alarm talks about things that he doesn't necessarily talk about in the rest of the Meccan sorrows, or at least not all in one place. So he addresses superstition, he addresses atheism, he addresses you know, false religious ideas, taboos, right people's relationship to tradition, when it goes right when it goes wrong. And he talks about how can we differentiate between the true God and the false god? How can we differentiate between a true prophet and a false prophet? Then we talked about some of that last class. So today, I lost found to Allah continuing

off where we left off, we had talked about how he gives us these tools to differentiate who's a real prophet and who's not not a real profit is a fake profit. And because Allah subhanaw taala, doesn't want us to be just dependent on new revelation. He wants us to be able to use our brains, he gave us these brains, he wants us to think for ourselves. And so instead of us having to wait around, you get all these crazies these days, I say, I'm a prophet, or I receive prophecy and the people in the church speaking in tongues and stuff like this. I say, I'm doing just what God says. We don't have to wait around for another four. And we don't have to wait around for another revelation. Allah

subhanaw taala told us in the Quran, how do we spot a true one from a false one? And that's what Allah does with everything. He does that with Gods, how do you spot what what really deserves to be worshipped? And what's just playing around? And so he said that some of those criteria, were, you know, how do you ascertain? Or how do you tell when a prophet is sincere? Okay, they don't claim to make you rich, right. It's not a get rich, quick scheme, from the Prophet alayhi salatu salam, and none of the prophets ever promised, getting rich quick to their followers. And if somebody comes to you, and they claim to have some sort of spiritual inside track, whether they're a saint or a Lea,

or a prophet or whatever, and they promise you that you're, they're going to make you rich or whether that person is lying. That person is lying, and the person is the devil. Because nobody can promise you riches. riches are up to Allah subhanaw taala. Your wealth is decided by Allah subhanaw taala. And if it were that simple, then every single believing Muslim would be rich. We'd all be driving around the Maseratis and breweries and wearing bling and how but that's not the case. Right? Because there are people of faith that are doing the right thing that are poor. And this is true at the time.

The Prophet salallahu Alaihe Salam, and then there are people who are of faith doing the right thing that are rich. Okay? Allah subhanaw taala wants to break that association in our minds throughout the Koran to try to let us know and make us understand that there is no connection whatsoever between your wealth and your faith. Okay? In the sense that being wealthy doesn't mean that you're doing something, right. It also doesn't mean that you're doing something wrong. Being poor does not mean that you're doing something right. It also does not mean that you're doing something wrong. Faith is a separate thing. Now, wealth effects, it can have a spiritual dimension to it. It can be a

fitna, it can be a test. Right, but so can poverty. And so it's not something where we can look around and tell we don't have any sort of prosperity gospel equivalent within Islam. The other sort of thing, right, that was a criteria that Allah gave us was that the true prophet is not going to claim to be able to do more than he can, he's not going to claim to be an angel. He's not going to claim to be son of God, or part of God, or really God, right? A true prophets gonna stay in his lane. He's gonna say, well, listen, I'm just a messenger, you can take the message, you can leave the message. It's not up to me. But if you look at all the false prophets in history, they all start

out with a claim. And then you wait a few years, and that claim gets a little bit bigger. And then you wait a few years, and that claim gets a little bit bigger. When you see somebody starts off saying, I'm not a prophet, I'm not I'm just a guy. Then he starts to get big headed. And then it's like, okay, well, maybe actually, I'm a I'm a prophet. Yep, that's right. I'm a prophet. Then a few years later, you can see even bigger headed, like, Okay, well, actually, you know, I'm the Matthew, I'm the chosen one. I'm the person who's supposed to come back and lead everybody, I'm the Savior. And then to a certain point where some people even go and say, Well, you know what, I'm God, Allah,

You gotta listen to me. And I swear by Allah and unica actually had an argument and discussion with somebody who told me that he was ALLAH. I was like, Okay, well, that's different. But you know, so these people are real. This is not fairy tales. Okay.

So those were some of the criteria. Those were some of the criteria. And Allah subhanaw taala told us the things that he controls specifically, right, the last thing, the last criteria law had told us is that a true prophet is not going to act like he understands every single thing that's going to happen in the future. Right to be able to,

you know, it's not a fortune teller. Right? This is how the digital is going to get a lot of people, right. A lot of young people that want to talk about the Digia. Okay, well, this is how he's going to get a lot of people that he's going to put himself where he's going to try to give people that curiosity, that thing that they want, I'm going to tell you about what's going to happen. I'm going to tell you about this, when I tell you about that, right? Or you go to the palm reader, you go to the fortune teller, oh, you're gonna get married next year? Oh, you're gonna have big money you're gonna get Yeah, all these things, right? What? Why do people do these stupid tests online, on

Instagram On Facebook, because they want to be told the things they want to hear. Okay, they want a fortune teller, because they don't want to do the work for themselves. They want to have it foretold for them. Okay, so that's not what a prophet supposed to do. And if somebody claims to be doing that sort of thing, then that's not a prophet at all. Okay, and so within this larger within this larger sort of thing that Allah is saying, okay, talking about what is a prophet and what isn't a prophet is part of a larger discussion that Allah subhanaw taala was telling us about why we only worship Allah. Why don't we also worship the prophets? Why don't we also worship the angels? Why don't we

also worship the righteous people? Why don't we also worship this and that and the third, and he's trying to draw a clear distinction between being the creator and everything else? Right. Okay, if nothing and no force and no entity and no being has the sorts of abilities to create, to truly know everything that's going to happen to control your provision, your wealth, or your poverty or whatever to control what's going to happen in your afterlife, then why would we spend even a second thinking about praying towards worshiping anything else other than the Creator? So Allah spent the audit he continues, and he says, Call me unit G calm. Meanwhile, a marital battery well battery to

the owner who Todaro walk off theater engine, I mean, how the hell are they gonna check it in? So Allah puts up a situation and he does this all the time. He says, You guys know this yourself? Okay, I'm not telling you. A lot of people get it wrong. They think that religious truth and theological truth. It's some sort of new cutting edge theory, they got to find this new fact nobody's ever thought of before.

It's always the stuff that's hiding right in plain sight right in front of your face, the stuff that you always knew, but you didn't really apply. So Allah says situation, let's imagine here for a second.

If you're in a situation, you know, you're out in the desert or you're out in the forest, right? Sometimes some of these roads here in central New York, you know, they get snowy

We're getting into winter time, they just closed down 90 Right a couple of weeks ago or whatever. When buffalo got hit with the lake effects, though, you could be traveling on 90, and maybe the lake effect snow hits six feet, dumping on you that close down the highway, right? There's nothing you can do. Maybe your whole car is gonna get buried. Maybe you know you lose power, maybe your car breaks down. Right then who are you going to call out to? No cell phone service? Nobody knows where you are. Who are you going to call out to save you. There was something going around social media today because I don't know if you guys saw but in Jeddah in Saudi Arabia, they will have floods in

Saudi Arabia doesn't get a lot of rain. And so when it does rain, it's actually very dangerous. Because if they get a lot of rain, all of a sudden, they can't handle it. So like people actually the cars get swept away and like people's houses get swallowed up by water.

So there was a guy, there was a guy that was in his car, okay. And like the waters over his car, I mean, like, his car is entirely surrounded by water and it takes his car away, like almost like, you know, just like your kid dropping something in a in the bathtub. Okay, and then it takes them wherever it takes him. And then suddenly, he's able to get out. And he's on this little island next to his car and like the waters is rushing around him. But he knows that there's no way he could survive without Allah. He gets down and he prays right there is crazy, the video elite, there's water all around him and he's praying and he's making a smile. He's praying to Allah, Allah thanks

just because he knows that there's no chance that he was going to survive. unless Allah subhanaw taala saved them. Allah says the same thing here. He says, look, and listen, if you're in the darkness on the earth or on the sea, who you're going to call who's really going to who's the one you're going to reach out to? Even the atheist, okay? They fly in the air on one of these planes. What happens? The engine cuts? Oh, my God, that's what they're gonna say, Oh, my God, God, help me. Help me. God help me, God, all of a sudden, everybody knows who to call to. When things get real. Right? Everybody knows who to call to when things get real. So allows us, Hey, let's be honest with

ourselves. Right? If that's what you're gonna do when you really depend on it, and why aren't you going to do it? Now? When you're in times of ease, when you're not with your back up against the wall when you're not in a life or death situation? Okay, you're going to call out to Allah Spano, Tala. And then the law says, I'm going to tell you what you're going to do. Even if I were to save you, the majority of you. You'd go right back to into what you were doing before. He says he says that in Jannah mean heavy in an economy check it in. He says that people even promise they say okay, God, God, if you really exist Savion then I'll be a righteous person. Right? People try to negotiate

with God. They try to barter, they they try to make a deal. Wherever you before.

Now, now it's important to you. It wasn't important to you before. Allah says call Allah Who eulogy caminha, women, Polycom from interim to stricken. It says, okay, Allah is gonna save you. A lot can save you from anything. But how are you going to act after? It's not an issue about proof? Because a lot of people get wrong. It's not an issue about it's an issue about knowing facts. It's an issue about who's sincere, who's virtuous enough to believe who's got enough faith, because a lot of people even if they're in that exact same situation, and Allah said something like an angel to save them, what's going to happen when they get to safety, they're going to go right back to doing what

they were doing before from antitrust recon, then you're gonna go back to shake.

Well, who will call who Allah a yerba Alikum bourbon mint okay comb oatmeal, Tatiana Angelica. He says that say to them, he talked to the prophesy sodomy said Tell the people Allah is Able Allah is able to send the punishment whenever he wants. You don't have to wait until you're out on the ocean or up in the sky in an airplane or driving down the interstate. You can be in your living room. And Allah if he wants to, he can send something upon you that you're in the same exact situation.

Oh, yell, yell bisa, calm Shia or unique about the combats Ebola? or Allah says, You know what else that he could do if he really wanted to, he could make you into sects. And that's a really, really interesting comment that alone makes, because Allah subhanaw taala compares sectarian sectarianism in this verse to a natural disaster. He was just talking about what if you're in the darkness of the Earth, or if you're in the sea, or if some one of these sorts of situations that we automatically kind of understand? And then he says, or if and he says, the LBC comments like he basically covers the truth to you, so that you break up into sects, where you learn about local myths about and so

you fight each other.

Many of us come from places on earth

Right, where that goes on. There's this group fighting this group, whether it's an ethnic group, against this ethnic group, or this tribe against that tribe, or this religion against that religion or this nation against that nation, this is sectarianism.

And Allah uses the language, each of you tasting the punishment of the other. Right? If Allah subhanaw taala wants, He can turn people against each other. You guys watching the World Cup?

A little bit, right? Who's gonna win?

Brazil you think okay, Brazil? Brazil is really strong. What do you think?

Argentina, okay, Brazil, Argentina. Okay, so imagine these, these these teams? Okay. Brazil, Argentina, you know, France is strong, you know, they got a lot of injuries, whatever. What happens if they're on the pitch, and they all start fighting each other?

Are they going to beat anybody, no chance, no chance. They have to work together. If they don't work together, they're cooked. And that's why you see teams that have a lot of individual talent, like, take Portugal for like, for example, or other teams like Portugal, they have a lot of individual talent, but they don't have chemistry. They don't get along. And then if they start fighting each other, well, you can forget it. They're not going to do anything. Okay, last time, the same thing to us. We have this mesh G, we have this Muslim community in Utica. Okay, if Allah wants, he can put love in our hearts. And we can all work together, we can make something beautiful, right? We can all

like go to each other's funeral prayers and attend each other's weddings. And we could all like have a youth center and a basketball court and soccer teams and it can be amazing. Or if Allah wants to, he can break us up in the sects. He can turn us against each other. He can make the people with light skin, racist against the people with dark skin, or the people with this tribe, racist against people, the other tribe are the people, the people from Africa don't like the people from Arabia, and the people from South Asia don't like the people from African, all these sorts of things. And then what happens to us, every single one of us becomes poor. Every single one of us stops

benefiting from the other, we become weak as what happens. And if you become weakened, divided, well, you look at Muslim Spain. You look at Muslim Sicily, you look at all the places in the Muslim world where Muslims used to control now whose their Muslims got kicked out why they get kicked out. Because they weren't together. They weren't united, they became prey, it became easy to defeat. So if Allah subhanaw taala, he's making a deep point here. He said, just like you have your natural disasters, if you're not taking care of your faith, if you're not worshiping Allah, subhanaw taala alone, he can turn you all against each other. He can let confusion come over you. So you break up

into sects and you start fighting each other and you don't get a thing done.

Don't want to go in too hard on this community. But when I ran into one that's, you know, some people don't know that there has been a machine here since 1994. The old building. Now it's under the law. This is much better under the law, but are all building that we had up until recently. It's been there since 1994. Right? You talked to some people. They don't know that there's a message on Campbell street.

People who have been here for decades, right? Is that a problem?

As a problem, okay. You got people, I go to the funeral prayers. A Bosnian guy passes away. I go to the funeral prayers. Somali guy passes away. I go to the funeral prayers. I go to the Somali funeral. I'm the only white guy there.

The only guy that's not a Somali there?

If I go to the Bosnian

funeral, I don't see a single Somali there.

Is that a problem? Yes, that's a problem.

And this is why nobody knows we're here. And this is why we don't have a footprint in the community or why people don't put themselves out to help us. Because what are we doing? We got to work together. If Allah subhanaw taala describes breaking up into sects as a punishment,

like a disaster, then we should be doing the opposite. We got to work together and we've got to be together.

So Allah is Able to do it all he can make a problem come to you even if your own in your own living room he can make you divide up into sects and start fighting each other. So Allah says on lowercase and on Saturday full at law Allah whom you have got home, this is how I show you the examples. I spell them out I put them all up on a table for you to understand, hoping that you will gain understanding while Canada will be here homak will who will hack coalesce to alikhan beaverkill was about the other than says that and your people despite you giving every type of example possible

or still reject you can never touch data that says they continually deny, deny deny you and he says Canada they lie. But Lilina capital V tech leave, Valentina Cafaro you kept the boon. They know that it's the truth, but they lie.

Even though it's the truth will literally communicate. He says to the province lesson on what to say how to react. He said, Listen, I'm not responsible for you. And that's also the sign of a true messenger. He's not going to get uptight about it. He might be sad, but it's not his responsibility at the end of the day, the people who are going to roll with you are going to roll with you and the people who aren't you're not responsible equally never in Mr. Carter was over town and Moon every single affair every single major thing has its end and you're going to figure it out. You will see what's going to happen what either right Alladhina hula Dona Allah gives us now a practical tip.

Because the prophesy Saddam didn't have to just deal with the lying nature of his people. He had to deal with their Issa with their mockery, right. Do we ever find ourselves marked as Muslims in the United States? Yes, we do. Okay, you had you had English fans showing up in quarter two with with Crusader outfits on right, you guys saw that and they were prevented. You got all this stuff with the LGBTQ and the rainbow this so the rainbow that, you know, go on all these politics play it out every day. And we get made fun of oh, look at how backwards they are. Oh, look at how oppressive they are to their women. Oh, look at how this and that and the other they should get with the times

it should man this isn't the this isn't the six hundreds anymore. Right? All this sort of stuff. So Allah subhanaw taala is telling the prophets of Allah holiday was telling them how are you going to deal with this? If this is that why you got to it now hold on a fee. Yeah, Cena for hours and home. If you see people making fun of our signs, the things that we spelled just spelled out for you turn away from them, get away from them had say a hold of the Hadith and Lady until they change the topic and go into something else. The last part, I was trying to say that we can't legitimize other people's behavior. Sometimes you got to check people. Sometimes people, they will test you to see

what they can get away with. They'll say something to you trying to see your reaction.

And the last mile data is trying to tell us that we can check people and that we should check people.

For example, the story I always own and pardon me if you've heard this story before, but when I was in college, I wasn't was not yet a Muslim. Okay. And I took a class on Islam. And the teacher was had a very sort of prejudice against this lab. And she taught a book in which someone takes a copy of the Koran almost half the piece on it in the book. Yeah. And there's Muslims in the class

that was a non Muslim. And when it came to the time to discuss the book, I was upset, because humbly that was my sense of justice. I said, this isn't right. I don't know why this has happened or why we're studying this in the classroom. This is very disrespectful. This is very insulting. Okay. Some people, they're gonna try to push and see what they can get away with, you know what they did in Canada this year, you guys see,

I think it was a it was either a high school or college. They had some sort of LGBTQ rally or something like that. And they put a sign up with a picture. It was an animation wasn't a real photograph. It was like a drawing of two hijabi sisters kissing each other.

To hijabi sisters kissing each other.

And the thing that they were trying to do, they're trying to play mind games with the Muslims and make it seem like see even the Muslims are on our side.

And no Muslim asked him to do this. And no Muslim said this was okay. And of course it's Nam doesn't say this is okay. And so the Muslim students actually protested and they say, Yo, you got to take this poster down, you got to change this because this is an insult to our religion.

At first, it was a college now that I think about the college didn't want to do anything. I said no, no, no, come on. There's different interpretations. There's a good Muslims and the bad Muslims, right? There's the there's the liberal Muslims who have a good Muslims and there's the backwards like, you know, Taliban Muslims, right? That's how they think of it. Okay. But the Muslim students kept on going. They said, No, no, no, you're gonna take this poster down, you gotta change it. This is an insult. This is not what we believe in. And they had to, at the end of the day, sometimes people are going to push you and they're going to try to see what they can get away with. You got to

check those people. I say not in my name. Right. Someone asked for you for your pronouns. Right?

He him right? She they all the stuff. Maybe you guys don't know. But in the colleges, this is what they're doing. I don't give my pronouns. I don't believe I

and choose my pronouns. I believe Allah made me how I am, Allah made me a man. And if you can't figure that out and figure out what pronouns are appropriate for me, then you've got bigger problems that I can't help.

So you got to check some people for advice on how to fulfill Hadith in writing and Allah subhanaw taala he gives a little bit of a diss here to these people, and it's subtle, he says, he says avoid them or turn away from them until they make fun of something else basically say all they do is make fun of stuff. So they're going to make fun of something else, but at least turn away from them until they change the topic on to something else.

Well, him ima you'll see on the cache, Tonto fella taco bout, a dick ROM, calm and volume in law says, and if you forget, if the shaytaan causes you to forget what I'm telling you, then after you remember, don't sit with these people. Right? Don't be there because everybody wants to use you. And as a Muslim, we got to be aware of this. Everybody wants to use you to make them to give approval to what they want to do. Right? Someone told me that, you know, Hillary Clinton was she was running for president.

She used to put hijab he's in the background of her photos because she wanted Muslims to like her. Right so as part of this like PR stuff, and politicians will do this, especially with Muslims, they want to use us to make it seem like they're cool with us so that we vote for them and stuff like that. Okay, a lot of this stuff is just for show. Right? But the Allah Subhana Allah says if somebody is insulting your religion, if somebody is insulting Allah signs don't sit with him. Check the pushback, and a lot of people need that Rama Allah Allah DNA of tekun Marisa him in shade well that can Vicara alone, yet there could it's not your responsibility, whether they're guided or not

like we can't get our role incorrectly interpreted it's not that we're trying to control what they believe we can't do that. But we can check people to a level of their actions whether Alladhina Takatsu, Dina home LA, Walla Walla, Tamil HYAH to dunya and leave alone people who take their religion as play and level and vanity will not rot who will hire to dunya Allah subhanaw taala pairs three really interesting things here and he says who take their religion and this is really really important because we just talked about how a lot of people try to play off certain Muslims against other Muslims you got the good Muslims and the bad Muslims right? And if you're the one that kind of

you know agrees with everything that the modern culture is saying now then you're a good Muslim and if you don't then No, you're a bad backwards Muslim. Okay.

Are we going to find Muslims that do this? And we do Yeah, we do. We find Muslims that you know, they they like to rub elbows with the politicians and the

the rich and the powerful, and they will reassure these people that yeah, this is what Islam has always said. Love is love, man. You can love who you want, you know, doesn't say anything. It was my favorite one. It doesn't say anything in the Koran about homosexuality. Oh, yes, it does. It doesn't say anything in the Koran about hijab. Oh yes, it does. You hear that stuff? And you hear Muslim say this stuff supposedly Muslims wonder as best we're not gonna judge anybody but supposedly Muslims. Allah says here, leave people alone or whether he Lavina taka dudina whom live in Walla Walla total Hayato dunya. leave people alone who have turned their religion or taken as their Deen live play.

Wala who vanity and was a rotten higher to dunya the work the life of this world has deceived that

which is a really interesting thing for a lot to say. It's as if Allah is saying that the only reason that people would play with the deen like that is because they got something in it for them. Whether it's power, whether it's influence, whether it's money.

And so this was their motivation. Well that Kia Biggie l Tuberosa, nevsun Bhima, cassava, la sala hammy and Dooney la Himachali. What are Shafi? What el Terra del cual Adela, Allah you have minha Allah's power to Allah says that,

remember,

remember other people as much as possible, because there's going to come a day when every single soul is going to taste what it is earned, or every single soul is going to be resurrected, they're going to be judged. And on that day, there's not going to be any protector. And that day, there's not going to be any intercessor and there's not going to be any ransom that you can pay. There's nothing that you're going to be able to do you're going to have to come face to face with what you used to do and what you've earned. will let you call Adina Ubers it will be Makassar boo. Those people and he's talking about that people were talking about before are going to be obersee though

is like us like they're detained. Right. They're caught what they used to do, it's going to catch up with them. Right? Let him show Robin Wilhemina Elohim Bhima candle yak followed. They're going to have something horrible to drink in the afterlife and they're going to have a terrible punishment because of the cover the dinner

I have the rejection of Allah subhanaw data that they used to do.

And then Allah subhanaw taala he addresses people directly he says call another woman doula mele and foreigner with a adult Rhoda. One rod do Allah Kobina about it had no law, he says basically say, Are we supposed to call out and rely upon something other than Allah, somebody that's not going to benefit us something that can't harm us? Are we supposed to turn back on our heels? Remember Allah was talking about these people who are got interests? Right, Laura Tomohisa to dunya that they're deceived and deluded by this worldly life. They gave it up for money, they gave it up for power and for influence.

Are we going to turn back on our heels after Allah has guided us? Then he gives an example Kela this the what was Shayateen fill out of the hyaluron Allah who was horrible you're the owner who you know who that Tina? He said as if this person lost the way and he's got people calling to him trying to get him back like come on, but the devil has led led him far, far far away. Well, Mina, little sliver, you know, beyond I mean, like we have been, we have been commanded to submit to the Sustainer of All the Worlds we just said before, who's gonna save you? Who's gonna save you? Whether it's on land or on sea or in the air? In your own homes, guidance, sex, you know, violence all these

who's gonna save you Allah subhanaw taala

so that how can any one of us just sell your deen that easily that cheaply? What, for a little bit of influence in this dunya it's not worth it. It's crazy. It's like trading dimes, for nickels.

What and at the masala Tiwanaku and we have been commanded to establish the prayer and to be aware and conscience unconscious and fear Allah Allahu Allah de la hito. Sharon, he's the one you're going to be gathered towards everything the gathering ends with him. Rahula the Holocaust, summer Watty will abdulhak? Well, we have to clarify Akun he is the one talking about Allah Who has created the heavens and the earth. In truth. Why? Oh, my Akula cool Farrakhan and he's going and he, on a day when he says Be, and it is going to happen, what he says is true, while the whole milk fell off his soul, and he has complete control and possession over the day on which the horn is blown is talking

about the day of judgment of the resurrection, they will have baby was Shahada. What will Hakeem will hobby, he is the knower of what is seen and unseen, the apparent and the hidden and who and he is the all wise and the all informed.

And that's part of the surah Allah changes gears he starts talking about Ibraheem Alehissalaam and Ibrahim is one of the most central figures in our faith and in the Koran.

Partly because Ibrahim was willing to it's not just the lineage, like a lot of people are aware, obviously, Ibrahim is is a forefather of many of the prophets that were aware of, but also the strength of his faith because we always see this tension when Allah subhanaw taala talks about these issues. What's more significant to us the fact that Ibrahim is like biologically related to the Prophet Mohammed Salah center, or the fact that he's an example for us, and all the things that he faced. Clearly the fact that he's an example for us is more significant. And actually Allah says this And according to several spots, he says that he is a he is a horseman, that he is a an example

for you to follow. Right? And we'll get to those sort of later, like all sorts of techniques.

So what is it about Ibrahim? It makes him such an example. Okay, Ibrahim is somebody who had to sacrifice everything for his faith. All right, his father was not just an idolater. His father was the one who made the idols with his own hands, but his father was a big deal. And for him to go against what his father said and was Father did was going to be a tremendous cost to him personally. You know, at another point in the Koran, he confronts his father as far as like, Yo, if you don't stop, I'm going to kill you. Like imagine your father says that. He basically says, I'm going to stone you like

it. I'm not going to sit here and allow you to contradict me and everything that I do my whole work and my whole stature because you gotta imagine the type of honor that a person had in society if they made the idols. Right. And so Ibrahim, he sacrificed everything. And he picked up what he did and he and he didn't just sacrifice everything. He had to leave quietly. You guys know the whole story and there's a bunch of things that happened. Right? He challenges the idols. He goes in he faked second he breaks the idols to show the people that try to demonstrate to them that what you're doing is wrong. Right. And then they gang up on him. They got all the power of the government, the

state behind them, they build the huge fire that about that.

drop into the fire.

Ibrahim on a set of is an example for us because of what he is willing to sacrifice and his firmness of faith. You never get a shred of doubt at all from Ibrahim throughout the whole, like, he never has any sort of moment in his story where he's like, there's a lot going to really come through for me. He completely trust a lot the whole time, even to the point where you guys know where he's he's basically catapulted into a huge fire, okay, and why he's flying through the air. An angel comes to him and says, Yo, Abraham, you need any help. And he says from you know, I don't need any help from you. I need help from like, just from Allah. You know, you were me. You were me. If we're flying

through the air, we were like, yes, help me please. Right. But Abraham, he was serious. I mean, he was he was at a such a higher level than us. Depend on Allah, I already know that what Allah subhanaw taala does, is going to be the most just the most fair thing and I'm ready to die. And that's what it comes back to honestly ready to die. This world is just a little, like a larger set a few verses ago. It's just an illusion. It's just like just temporary. And what comes back is much greater. So Allah says, What if called Ibrahim Ali IV Aza and there's some discussion as to what his father's name was, but the majority opinions that was his father as a tuxedo Aslam. And li Hutton.

In the Morocco Acoma cathedral, early movies like are you really, you know, this is a question. There's different types of questions, right, you're gonna ask a question, to get an answer. And then you can ask a question out of disgust. Right? Like, did you really do that? Like, come on, man, that's like, you really root for the Cowboys or whatever it is, you know, it's like about the Cavaliers really? Like, whatever it is, you know, it's like, it's like, You're not asking a real question. You know, the answer is they're adorable question. You're so disgusted that someone could possibly do such a thing. You know, the Eagles, nobody likes the Eagles, you know, just an example.

Right? So here like he's asking his father, you really make the really take these statues as gods.

I was like, what, what is this? It's like, I see you and your people. And he says called MK your people. He distances himself from them. I see you and your people in clear falsehood and clear error.

And Allah says he comments on it. Look at that. A Canary Ibrahima metacoda. Summer what he will always like that. That's the way like, look at how we showed Ibrahim the truth. We gave him guidance. He had clear vision. He wasn't diluted, diluted by anything. Right? Well, you could have minimal meaning, and so that he would be among the people who were certain that has certainty. Then we have this famous story about Ibrahim and he's going out and he's looking at the sun on the moon, the stars, right? Hello magenta Allah He laid Coca Cola, whether it be Fela, Fela, Kala or hibel ethylene. So he basically goes out and he sees some sort of planet or star. And he says, you know,

this is my Lord, and then it sets. And then he says, I don't like that it sets it can't be God, and then he sees the moon. And then he says, Okay, this is my God, this is better than the last one. And then the moon sets and he's like, you know, and so on. And then with the sun, okay. Many, many people popularly cite this as sort of an example of Ibrahim sort of figuring out things for himself. Okay. And that's a minority opinion, when it comes to the interpretation of this verse. But there's several things about this verse in this part of the Koran that indicate that this was not necessarily Ibrahim. Just like he wasn't asking a serious question. He was asking a rhetorical

question. There's a lot of evidence in the text and in the interpretation of the text that demonstrates that Ibrahim was just trying to prove a point. Okay, he already knows that the star is not a God, he already knows that the moon and the sun are not gods. Okay. But he's trying to prove to his people because as people still don't understand.

And there's two of the strongest pieces of evidence we'll say and then we'll move on from this because it's not a super important point. First of all, did Abraham not know that the moon was gonna set before today?

Of course, he knows the moon is gonna set. Of course, he knows the sun is gonna set. So it's like, how's he going to take it for and like, these things happen? 123 Boom, boom, boom, like right next to each other. Did he not foresee that, okay, well, the moon was gonna set, the sun's not gonna come on. Right. Of course, even though he knows the stars are going to set the moon is going to set the sun is going to set, okay, he's demonstrating to his people, that it doesn't make sense to worship anything. That's not the creator. It doesn't make sense to worship anything that's created. The second thing is that we have other quotes in the Quran, where Allah subhanaw taala says that Ibrahim

was never one of the idolaters. Well, lamb Jacobina was tricky, right well Makana minimum stricken different parts of the Quran.

There's that Ebrahim never worship anything that was a false god. So these aren't questions that Ibrahim is not like on this existential journey. He's not out there by himself trying to figure this out. Okay? He's trying to prove to his people, he's trying to say, look, I was like, you know, like I do with my kids sometimes. Sometimes you need to adopt a false belief or a false argument in order to prove it wrong. You know, so he's gonna was like, Okay, well, let's take this as my God. Okay, is it gonna work? Oops, nope. All right, well, what next? And basically showing them that all of these things cannot possibly be God for them. So let's call a call me in the bury me metrosexual after all

this, he said to his people. I am completely free from what you worship, besides Allah subhanaw taala in the what Jetta what your heel in the federal rasa Marathi well out Hanifa, OMA and Amina Mushrikeen. He says, I've turned my face entirely to the one who has created the heavens and the earth alone. And I am not one of those who worship anything else besides, the last one was Allah and the next verse, And well, I think we'll end here. The next verse proves that this is in the context of an argument that was going on between him and his people, because it says What had you who Oma? Right? And as people argued back, right, and so they're already in this sort of discussion in this

argumentation? It wasn't like Ibrahim is just out by himself trying to figure things out. On June 8, Allah He was like, Are you really going to argue with me about a law where he just guided me? You guys have nothing and you're trying to guide me?

guide yourself first. What a hassle that was required to be in your shell rubbish, aka, I'm not afraid of your false idols. Right? It's like somebody comes. Actually, I told this story before, you know, I had a magician trying to cast a spell on me. Here. We are at the old building. Yeah, some some lady. I saw her in the security camera on the front front stairs of the of the old mosque, doing some sort of like, you know, on her knees doing some sort of prayer or whatever. I was like, Okay, interesting. So I'd go out and talk to her. She's speaking in some language I've never heard, you know, and, um, okay, like, I know, a couple languages, and I can tell what Bosnian sounds like

and I can tell what, like, you know, how sounds like some of the other languages like, you know, like, even like, you know, you know, Burmese like, I can tell what it sounds I can tell if someone's speaking Burmese. I don't know what what it means. Like, it's, Oh, that guy is speaking Burmese. Right? This is not a language I've ever heard before. It was something else. I don't know what it was. And then we had this exchange. And basically, she asked me to kind of do some sharks thing. And I said, No, no, I'm not going to do that. And then she threatened me with some sort of spell. I wasn't afraid, right? I didn't go home be like, Oh my god, like what's gonna happen to me? I wasn't

afraid because I know that what she believes in is false. And that's exactly what you Brahim says here is like, am I going to be afraid of these statues? Like these things that you worship besides a lot? I'm going to be afraid of them.

And you guys aren't afraid right? It's like okay, for a half Wilma, Astrakhan. Wallet a half a minute and the instructor Mila is like how am I going to be afraid of what you guys are worshipping? That's false. And you guys aren't afraid that you've committed something absolutely horrible. You've watched something besides Allah subhana wa Tada. mela Nunez will be here on a consultado that he never ever ever gave you permission or authority to worship for Ale for a Fany a hackle. Huck will bill me in quantum Salem. Which of the two parties deserves or should expect to be safe?

Right? You guys are worshipping stuff besides Allah subhanaw taala who you admit is true. Like they It wasn't that they just believe in their idols besides Allah they believed in Allah plus their idols right? He's like, you guys believe in Allah? How are you going to be not afraid that you're making a lot angry? And um, there's no possible way I'm going to be afraid of these things that you made up and you guys know a lot I never told you to do this. So we ask Allah Subhana Allah for today and for the ability to recognize the truth from falsehood all on my own hacker hacker was looking into battle I don't know about that about that it was just never

do you have any questions from anybody present first any questions

yeah

I think we

like being renewed because

after No

Yeah, that's important. That's an important data

point two. I mean, like when you talk to other people that are Muslims are assuming that are Christians or Jews to bring it back to Ibrahim because Allah says in surah, LM Ron to come to a common word, right, bring them back to something that at least they claim to believe in. Right? Like we can get back we can get down with with Ibrahim and Tao heat and these sorts of things. Even if we disagree about what that actually looks like, then we can have a conversation about that. But we can get back to.

Yes.

Oh, I'm sorry. So the question. Yes. So the people on

the people on Zoom, were asking me to repeat the question that I am responding to, which makes complete sense. So the question wasn't really a question. It was more just kind of an observation that Ibrahim Ali, he said, is kind of the founder of what we call the Abrahamic faiths, or faiths. And so, you know, seeing that as a central figure, that we can rally behind the news and our discussions and things like that to relate to because everybody sort of is it's more settled them, right. It's something that everybody agrees to. It's something that everybody has immediate sort of, allegiance to, and that can be the start of a conversation.

Any other questions either zoom or in person, and then we'll go to

panel

Okay.

Well, we appreciate everybody's attention. This is every week at five every Sunday at 5:30pm right here in the machine. We do tafsir and then every Sunday after a show, which is prayed at 730 we do a small quarter. You're welcome to join us as well. Subhanak Allahu Allah, what we have like I said, I wonder Ilana and the stuff we try to we like so that when I correct a lot