Yousuf Raza – Quran Daily Surah al Fatiha Intro 2

As-salamu alaykum wa rahmatullah and hello to

all those watching, to all those listening.

This is Qur'an Daily.

I am Yusuf Raza and we're talking about

Surah Al-Fatihah.

Another session just giving you an overview.

We're not going into the ayahs just as

yet.

And today I'm going to give you an

overview in the context of a hadith of

the Prophet ﷺ that talks about Surah Al

-Fatihah in considerable detail and we're going to

relate that to the concept of filling up

your cup.

When we talk about living life and being

self-transcendent and being giving and selfless and

you know, just going out there and filling

the world with love and giving out to

people without expecting returns and you know, just

having this this high ideal for ourselves which

is all good and great, but it becomes

incredibly difficult.

It becomes difficult to carry, difficult to sustain,

when you are constantly in this perception, you

have this perception that nobody is giving anything

back to you, that you're not, nobody cares,

that you're not getting anything back, that it's

only you giving, giving, giving, giving, giving, sacrificing,

sacrificing, sacrificing, without anything coming back to you.

And so they come up with this concept

and they tell you that you know what,

you are there's no, it's not all wrong

for you to be feeling that way because

you cannot go around serving from from an

empty cup, that if your heart is a

cup filled with love and you have to

distribute from that and give from that, if

it is running on empty, then there is

only so much you can do, there is

only so much you can give from that

heart.

So you need to spend time filling that

heart up with love, that you have to

develop yourself such that that heart becomes as

filled with love, i.e. it gets love,

right?

And a lot of times, thanks to modern

culture, which is incredibly individualistic and therefore lonely,

we don't find anyone really to adequately fill

that cup to our satisfaction.

And so what goes around are conceptions of

self-love as to how you're supposed to

be filling that cup with your own love,

loving yourself, self-indulgence, giving yourself some time

off, giving yourself some reassurance, some self-encouragement,

and all of that in its own place.

But it's very, very, very self-referential, that

no matter how hard you try to do

it, at the end of the day, you

realize, yeah, but it's only me talking to

me.

And there's only so far that self-talk

can take me in terms of motivating me,

in terms of me valuing myself more, it

has to come from the outside.

The degree or the significance of outside appreciation,

of love that comes externally, that is what

really gets you going.

That's genuinely filling up the cup.

Yes, the cup can be filled up with

self-talk as well, but it can only

go so far.

There's only, you can pull that off to

a certain extent for some duration only, after

that you start sounding ridiculous to yourselves, to

be honest, right?

So what we are talking about here today

in the context of Surah Al-Fatihah, that

even when relations, friends, family, do not seem

to be adequately filling that cup up for

you, and self-talk does not seem to

be working.

Self-love is only going so far.

Then resorting to Surah Al-Fatihah, the way

the Prophet ﷺ alludes to in the hadith

we're going to talk about today, can go

a very long way in making us feel

loved, making us feel appreciated, making us feel

valuable.

That our self-esteem, our self-concept, all

of those things can be greatly enhanced and

it doesn't have to be self-referential.

It doesn't have to be me talking to

myself and I.

That's okay, but you have to take it

a step beyond that.

That's what this hadith gives us.

A key to Surah Al-Fatihah, so as

for Surah Al-Fatihah, to be able to

give us that appreciation and understanding, that recognition

of divine love and to turn to this

source to actually fill up that cup in

our heart and then, yes, go out there

and be more willing and more capable and

have a greater capacity to give and sacrifice

and self-transcend and be more selfless than

we were previously capable of.

So how does this hadith go?

The Messenger ﷺ said that Allah said.

So this is Hadith Qudsi, that is the

Messenger saying that Allah said.

What did Allah say?

قَسَمْتُ الصَّلَاةَ بَيْنِي وَبَيْنَ عَبْدِي That I have

divided the prayer, the salah, the entire namaz

as we call it, in between myself and

my abd.

I am not going to go into what

abd means just yet.

We're going to talk about it in Surah

Al-Fatihah itself, but just understand that this

is a very, very, very, as close as

you can get to Allah's, subhanAllah, terminology.

The word that is used by Allah when

He wants to talk about the closest a

human being can possibly get to Him.

So Rasulullah ﷺ is referred to as abd

in the most sensitive of moments when the

Qur'an revelation is being spoken about, when

Mi'raj is being spoken about.

He is not referred to as Nabi or

Rasul.

He is referred to as the abd of

Allah ﷻ and that is one of the

most beloved characteristics and attributes to Allah and

if He gives that, it's like Him giving

a title to us.

So living up to that is one of

the greatest achievements a human being can possibly

have and please understand that the popular understandings

of it being a slave, especially since the

conceptions, that slavery connotations that the term has

carried over the past few centuries of human

history really, it's a very inadequate translation and

that's not at all the kind of conception

or relationship we would want for ourselves to

have with Allah.

That does not make you feel loved and

appreciated, that it's a purely master-slave relationship.

So I'm not going to go into that

just yet.

We will talk about it soon as we

get into the understanding of what rab is

and what ibadah is and then hopefully we'll

be able to develop this concept better.

In any case, so Allah says that I

have divided the salah between myself and my

abd and for my abd is whatever he

asks for, whatever he asks for.

So if that is recognized for what it

is, if we let that sink in, then

that's huge in terms of giving us confidence

for whatever it is that we're looking to

do, in terms of giving us the leap

of faith that is necessary in taking so

many choices, in making so many investments, whether

financial or social or emotional or whatever the

case may be.

In all of those, I can't do it,

I won't be able to do it, I

won't be able to sustain it, or my

abd is whatever he asks for, right?

So whenever the abd says, so whenever you

recite the first ayah of Fatiha, Allah says

my abd, again the most beloved word, the

most beloved title that Allah can give you,

he uses that title and individually talks about

you, individually, uniquely mentions you.

It is a very, very personal relationship which

is symbolized in this conversation, this one-to

-one conversation that we have to appreciate as

we are reciting surat Fatiha.

And yes, there are initial stages of our

relationship with Allah in which we're imagining this

conversation taking place, but we find traditions redating

back to the Sahaba and the people who

have attained closeness to Allah in our tradition,

who mention this, who narrate this as actual

experience, not mere imagination.

It goes far beyond just you pretending, it's

not pretend at a particular level.

Yes, starting off, we are going on faith,

we're going on belief that this is actually

happening, and then understanding and recognizing it for

what it is that I am being mentioned

by the Rabbul Alameen, by the one to

whom all praise belongs.

He's praising me when he is acknowledging me

as his abd, when he is acknowledging and

accepting my hamd that I am exalting him

with, he is mentioning me in a praiseworthy

fashion as well.

So, it is a bilateral relationship that has

been initiated.

The one to whom all hamd belongs is

praising, is mentioning me in the most praiseworthy

words that are there.

So, you cannot conceive of this as a

master-slave, an absolute master-slave relationship anymore.

This is way too personal for that.

This gives the abd way too much importance

than any kind of master-slave relationship that

we can possibly imagine.

So, there's an exaltation in this prayer of

the human being himself, that the human being

turns to Allah in order to recognize his

exalted status, for him to be able to,

for us to be able to recognize his

greatness, but what he is retorting or coming

back to us with is our greatness, is

our strength, is our ability, is our appreciation

that he has for us, right?

So, that's what we turn to the Fatiha

with.

My abd just is stacking praises upon praise

for me, Allah says.

And then Allah says that my abd, he

has exalted me so much.

He has recognized my exalted status.

And then Allah says that when my abd

says this, then this is between me and

my abd.

This is the center point, the balance.

Everything halfway before this ayah is the human

being exalting Allah ﷻ, but as we know

from this hadith, Allah recognizing that and appreciating,

sending it right back, sending the appreciation right

back.

And then halfway to the other end of

the ayah, iyyaka na'bud is us, iyyaka

na'bud along with the first three.

This is one half of Surat al-Fatiha.

This is purely exaltation of Allah ﷻ, right?

This is the traditional understanding of God that

before modern times, there were religious times, and

in those religious times, it was this recognition

of this power, this grandeur, this greatness, this

awesomeness of Allah, of God that was spoken

about by all religions.

So yes, that is obviously sustained in this,

in the first half of Surat al-Fatiha

as well.

But what is something very, very modern is

the appreciation and the exaltation of the human

self, of the human being, of the individual

communicating with Allah ﷻ, which we find from

the hadith, as in Allah responding to all

of those ayahs that we recite of Surat

al-Fatiha with his appreciation, mentioning us individually

and uniquely with the greatest appreciative word and

title, actually, that he has chosen to give

those people, those of us who turn to

him with this.

So we see the exaltation of the human

being.

And then we see within this later half,

within the second part of Surat al-Fatiha,

beginning with wa'iyyaka nasta'een, ihdina al

-sirat al-mustaqeem, it's all the middle part

of this middle ayah, onwards, is the human

being.

And that's what Allah ﷻ says.

Talking about this ayah specifically, this is between

me and my abd, and then the later

half of the surah is all recited as

one in that hadith.

And Allah says, this is hatha li'abdi,

wa li'abdi ma'a sa'al, and

this is for my abd, and for my

abd is whatever he asks for.

Three times in this hadith this is mentioned,

that it is for my abd.

And for my abd is whatever he asks

for.

So the guidance that we implore, the protection

that we seek, the confusion that we want

should be clarified, Allah ﷻ is guaranteeing that

this is something that you will get.

Provided of course, and we're going to talk

about that in detail, we carry that attitude

that is necessary to get that guidance.

But right now, right here, is just an

appreciation of that closeness.

You mention me, I mention you.

That's what Allah says.

You remember me, I remember you.

It's a very, very personal relationship.

It is up close, as close as it

gets.

He's as powerful as he is, as transcendent

as he is, he's very, very imminent.

He's very, very close, closer to you than

your jugular vein.

Right, so that's being manifested here.

Individual responses are warranted by this hadith, guaranteed,

promised, that when you stand up for prayer,

Allah ﷻ reciprocates, Allah ﷻ responds.

And so, to be able to, all of

the attributes of Allah that we're mentioning, to

internalize what those really are, in terms of

his greatness, and how that greatness is reciprocating,

responding, returning, acquitting, turning to us with appreciation

as well, with acceptance, with giving his favor.

And so, if we can really internalize that

love, recognize it for what it is, and

then, as we move further in our spiritual

journey, we will be able to experience it.

And a lot of us may already have

experienced it.

It's how we take that religious experience forward,

after it has already happened, is what makes

all the difference.

And again, those are future discussions, but this

is an experience that we don't want to

miss every Salah, every time we recite Fatiha.

It is an opportunity of an experience in

which we're getting external validation.

So, I spoke about the traditional and the

modern.

I left that halfway.

It is very modern for human beings to

exalt themselves.

It is post-enlightenment.

It is after the scientific revolution.

It is after religion was shunned by the

vast majority of the intellectual elite of the

world, and then it became the popular way

to go, that God was, people turned away

from God to turn towards themselves.

And the autonomy of the self, the freedom

of the self, all of these slogans were

trumpeted, not in their own place, as to

what validity they had, or whatever role they

had to perform at that time, and how

they contributed to society.

Not talking about that just yet, but it

was all self-referential.

It was humans praising humans.

It was humans exalting themselves.

It is just me looking in the mirror

and talking about how beautiful I am.

And that really doesn't say much.

It says something, but it doesn't say much.

If that's all there is, as opposed to

what everyone else is saying, then there's something

wrong with that.

Here we see from Surah Fatiha, the key

to each individual self, not just putting themselves

up for the sake of it, but understanding

that that recognition, appreciation, exaltation comes from outside

of themselves.

It comes from none other than Allah Subhanahu

wa ta'ala.

And if we really allow for that to

settle in, then no matter what predicament we're

facing, how difficult the situation may be, at

least this should give us some sort of

a support.

At least this should help us get out

of that situation, or make the best of

that situation, or perform to our very best

in that situation, or as close to the

very best as possible, as much as we

allow for this to sink in.

Remember the Messenger ﷺ was up against the

might and the cruelty and the injustice of

the Quraysh, and Surah Fatiha was his support

that was bailing him out emotionally and spiritually,

allowing him to face up in the worst

imaginable circumstances, where he was distressed, where he

was incredibly, incredibly afflicted emotionally, that the Qur

'an recognizes that we know you're hurt.

We know you're very, very hurt, and this

is what we've given you.

We've given you Fatiha, right?

So with that recognition, we allow ourselves to

rise up.

We allow our spirituality to be nurtured in

this dialogue that Surah Fatiha is, that if

we are able to recognize that, then inshallah,

there is so much more that the Surah

has to offer us, and we'll talk about

that in the sessions to come.

Thank you so much for watching and or

listening.

I will be back tomorrow, hopefully with the

next ayah, with starting of Surah Fatiha, the

very first ayah.

Thank you for watching once again.

If you like it, share it, leave a

comment.

I'll try to answer as many inquiries and

as many questions you may have regarding what

I've spoken about, what you want me to

address in future sessions as we go through

these ayahs.

Thank you very much once again.