Yousuf Raza – Quran Daily Surah al Fatiha Intro 2
AI: Summary ©
The speakers discuss the importance of acceptance and clarification in guidance for achieving spiritual success. They emphasize the need for personalized acceptance and acceptance in love, and the importance of experiencing emotions and embracing them in order to achieve success. The speakers stress the importance of acceptance and clarification in guidance and the need for personalized appreciation for the human being. They also emphasize the importance of understanding and embracing one's spiritual experiences in order to achieve success in spiritual journey. The speakers stress the importance of acceptance and clarification in guidance and the need for personalized appreciation for the human being. They end by discussing the importance of acceptance and clarification in guidance and the importance of experiencing emotions and embracing them in order to achieve success in spiritual journey.
AI: Summary ©
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.