Yousuf Raza – Ramadan Conversations Episode 11 Why dont you give them a miracle Surah alAnaam 3341
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The speakers discuss the concept of knowledge and its importance in shaping human behavior and emotions. They explain that knowledge is not something that is impossible, but rather something that is something that is something that is something that is something that is something that is something that is something that is something that is something that is something that is something that is something that is something that is something that is something that is something that is something that is something that is something that is something that is something that is something that is something that is something that is something that is something that is something that is something that is something that is something that is something that is something that is something that is something that is something that is something that is something that is something that is something that is something that is something that is something that is something that is something that is something that is something that is something that is something that is something that is something that is something that is something that is something that is something that is something that is something
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Alright, bismillah wa salatu wa salamu ala rasoolillah
wa ala aalihi wa ashaabihi ajma'een.
Okay, so my schedule is a little all
over the place here, so we're not going
on our usual time.
My apologies for that, but we will continue
to do one episode a day, and you
can catch it whenever it is that you
have time.
So today what we're going to be talking
about is one of the most consistent reproaches,
demands that the Quraish would make of Rasoolullah
ﷺ in Mecca is asking him for a
miracle.
So their demand was that you claim to
be a prophet, you say you have access
to God, and you also tell us all
these stories about prophets who brought all these
amazing miracles.
So where's your miracle?
Where is, you know, the earth, the desert
turning into farmland, you know, at the snap
of your fingers or something, or there's like
a river that bursts forth from this earth,
or we see angels coming down, or we
see a book that is, you know, should
give us a book.
You say, you know, that you're getting revelation.
Where is it?
We don't see it.
We want to see it.
And we should see it coming down, or
we should be able to touch it.
And then we'll think about how truthful you
really are.
And this is something that they kept at
repeatedly.
Rasoolullah ﷺ was, this demand was made of
him continuously, and the Quran continued to refuse
that this demand is not going to be
fulfilled.
It was fulfilled before, for previous nations, didn't
turn out very well.
Actually, the consequences for those people themselves were
pretty bad.
They demanded, they got what they demanded, and
they ended up getting the punishment of Allah
because they even then would not believe.
Their refusal to believe is not that there
aren't enough reasons to believe, that there's not
enough evidence to believe.
This refusal to believe is motivated by something
else.
This is coming from somewhere else.
And that motivation is simply the status quo
that they are so used to, the lifestyle,
which is so indulgent.
And the demand of Tawheed, which they see
as all of that disappearing, their authority, their
wealth, their pleasures.
They see that just being taken away from
them, if they accept the prophethood of Rasoolullah
ﷺ, of transgression.
That's what's motivating these demands.
To feed those motivations, to reinforce them, that
is to respond to these demands and fulfill
them.
Allah refuses to do that.
A.
B.
The stage that humanity is in, that infancy
where those physical miracles were necessary, they were
provided.
Whatever the consequences were, there was an understanding
or there was some sense in that fulfillment.
But humanity is not a cyclical process that
one batch comes in and then repeat with
the second batch, with the third batch, with
the fourth batch.
There is progressive development.
There is evolution in human development, human societies.
The ones that come in later, they are
at a different phase of development.
They're in a different place.
And we see this, especially with the messages
that the prophets bring.
There is a difference in those messages in
the sense that, of course, Tawheed remains the
same, but the implications of that Tawheed.
So, for example, with the people of Shuaib
ﷺ, there are economic implications, which you do
not see, especially in the prophets that were
prior to Ibrahim ﷺ.
You don't see that with Nuh ﷺ.
You don't see that with Hud ﷺ, with
Saleh ﷺ.
There are no implications of Tawheed that extend
to the society.
With Musa ﷺ, there were political implications of
Tawheed.
With Shuaib ﷺ, as we said, there's economic.
With Lut ﷺ, there were social implications.
So there's all these additional implications of Tawheed
because the human society is evolving, it's growing,
it's developing.
And with that, where the human beings are
intellectually and spiritually as well, that too is
different.
It is developing.
And with that in mind, with that understanding,
with that recognition, to provide those physical miracles
would undermine, it would defeat the purpose of
a last and final messenger.
Because even prophethood is not going to last
forever.
There is a necessity that for human growth,
prophethood is actually sealed.
That prophethood comes to an end.
It is a dependence that as long as
it persists, there's only so much you can
grow.
And so one of the intents of the
Qur'an is to close this door for
good and empower human beings in other ways,
especially with respect to acquiring knowledge.
That revelation is completed and perfected and no
longer newer versions of revelation are no longer
needed.
So that whatever requirement that the society has
of a revealed text, that is completed with
the Qur'an.
No revisions, no further revelations.
And the nature of the Qur'an is
such that it is capable of this dialogue
with human acquisitions of knowledge in the future.
And so more and more, the emphasis that
the Qur'an places is not on those
physical miracles of the past.
They are alluded to, they are referred to,
they are mentioned, of course.
That was part of history, important phase of
human development.
But the ayats or the miracles that the
Qur'an turns people's attention to are miracles
in nature, commonplace.
They're what you find in the mundane reality
around you, routine.
Look at the leaves, look at the sky,
look at the rain, look at the vegetation.
Those are the ayats.
And so even the word miracle is not
employed as such.
The word that we are now maturing towards
is to understand ourselves as well as people
who comprehend ayats.
We are sign interpreting and sign creating beings.
And so the ayat of Allah, the Qur
'anic ayat and then ayat in nature.
There is a very definitive reason why the
Qur'an uses the same word to describe
its own signs and the signs outside in
the material world.
So as to recognize this continuity, to recognize
this purpose of the culmination of prophethood.
It is to open these doors of exploration
of these ayats in the material world.
And to recognize and know Allah better through
these ayats.
And so the demand as it came to
Rasulullah ﷺ, Allah responds to this and this
is ayah number 33 of surat al-An
'am.
قَدْ نَعْلَمُ إِنَّهُ لَيَحْزُنُكَ الَّذِي يَقُولُونَ Allah says
that we know that you're upset by what
they say.
We know that it hurts you.
فَإِنَّهُمْ لَا يُكَذِّبُونَ But you need to know
that it's not you that they deny.
They're not rejecting you.
وَلَكِنَّ الظَّالِمِينَ بِآيَاتِ اللَّهِ يَجْحَدُونَ In fact it
is the ayat of Allah that these unjust
people are rejecting.
Their rejection of you or their abuses hurled
against you, they're rejecting Allah.
It is the ayat of Allah that they
have a problem with.
Ayat, signs that threaten to increase their knowledge.
But that's a threat they cannot take.
Because signs that threaten to increase your knowledge
threaten to change your beliefs.
And they're not in a position to do
that.
They're not willing to accept that.
And so they're rejecting.
They don't want to shed their skins.
They want to continue the way things are.
They're afraid of what that would mean.
To let go of all of these very
fixed, very rigid beliefs that they hold about
themselves in reality.
They've twisted and turned them to their own
ulterior advantages.
Why would they respond to ayat?
So it is the ayat of Allah that
they are rejecting.
وَلَكِنَّ And that's the zulm that they're doing.
Because in accepting that it was, yes, painful
of course.
But ultimately fruitful for their own growth.
And so that's the zulm that they do,
not just with the ayat of Allah, but
with themselves.
وَلَقَدْ كُذِّبَتْ رُسُلُمْ مِنْ قَبْلِكَ And many messengers
before you have already been denied, Ya Rasulullah.
فَصَبَرُوا عَلَىٰ مَا كُذِّبُوا وَأُذُوا But they endured
all the denial and persecution.
They were patient, perseverant.
They had sabr.
حَتَّىٰ أَتَاهُمْ نَصْرُنَا Until the point that our
help came to them.
Help of Allah does not immediately come.
Not at the first stroke of persecution or
difficulty.
Sabr.
They stood strong, they stood strong, they stood
strong, they stood strong.
To the point that they were barely able
to stand.
Then the help of Allah comes.
وَلَا مُبَدِّلَ لِكَلِمَاتِ اللَّهِ And there is no
one who can change the words of Allah.
وَلَقَدْ جَاءَكَ مِنْ نَبَأِ الْمُرْسَلِينَ And you have
already received some of the news of the
previous messengers.
So first response of Allah to this demand
that persecutes Rasulullah ﷺ is to console him.
Console him by telling him they're rejecting us.
They're not rejecting you.
Second consolation, previous messengers, they had to bear
through this as well.
They stood strong.
Now, what comes in after this is more
stern.
It is still a consolation, but it is
far more stern.
It is more on the nature of tough
love.
Because right around this time, the situation was
so difficult, and the demands were so persistent,
and so torturous upon Rasulullah ﷺ and the
Sahaba, that they themselves started harboring, okay, why
doesn't Allah give a miracle?
I mean, you know, it makes sense.
How difficult is it for him?
Why doesn't he just respond to their demand?
And we do have narrations, and we have
an entire surah that attests to this as
well, with respect to the cleavage of the
moon, that something to that effect did take
place.
Something to the effect of the demands that
they're making, at least on one occasion, it
was responded to.
But the general response is no, not fulfilling
your demands.
So they did start wondering, why doesn't Allah
just give what they're asking for?
So Allah responds to them, وَإِن كَانَ كَبُرَ
عَلَيْكَ أَيْ عَرَاضُهُمْ But if you find a
reversion hard to bear, if it's too much
for you, فَإِن إِسْتَطُعْتَ أَن تَبْتَغِي نَفَقًا فِي
الْأَرْضِ So if you can, go find, dig
yourself a tunnel in the ground.
أَوْ سُلَّ مَنْ فِي السَّمَاءِ Or a ladder
to ascend the sky.
فَتَأْتِيهِمْ بِآيَةٍ And bring them your sign, whatever
ayah they want, whatever sign they want, whatever
miracle they want, you bring it to them.
So here we see, and it's important within
these conversations between Allah and Rasulullah to bring
these conversations to light as well, that along
with all the reassurances, along with all the
consolations, the love, the affectionate love, there is
this tough love as well.
There are stern reminders as well.
And they became necessary.
And they are necessary in every loving relationship.
This sternness.
And Allah Subhanahu Wa Ta'ala is in
this place reminding Rasulullah ﷺ very strictly.
This is our decision and this is it.
No conversation, no dialogue on this.
Enough is enough, we know what this yields.
أَوْسُلَّ مَن فِي السَّمَاءِ فَتَأْتِيهِمْ بِآيَةٍ So dig
a tunnel in the earth, take a ladder
to the sky, you bring them a sign.
Of course, none of that is happening.
Rasulullah ﷺ cannot do that.
That's what he's being reminded of.
That is what he is communicating to the
Quraish.
This is the response I got.
Again, I'm not claiming to be God here.
I'm claiming to be a messenger of God.
He remains God.
I just communicate.
Even the scolding that I get, the reproaches
that I get from Allah, I am duty
-bound to present that as such.
Nothing held back.
This is what he said, what do you
want me to do now?
وَلَوْ شَاءَ اللَّهُ لَتْجَمَعَهُمْ عَلَى الْهُدَىٰ If Allah
wanted, He could have just united them upon
guidance.
It's not difficult for Allah to guide somebody.
But Allah does not oppress.
Allah does not oppress.
Forced guidance is oppression.
It is taking away human freedom.
If a mother wants, a mother can continue
to carry her child for two years old,
three years old, four years old, five years
old even.
Strong mommies.
They can do that.
They can continue to hold on to their
kids and not let go.
But that is to the detriment of the
child, him or herself.
The child does not learn to walk.
It is important to let go.
To let them stumble.
To let them even get hurt.
So that they develop that strength.
And so the ayats are there.
And you have the faculties and the ability
potentially to see these ayats for what they
are as depicting attributes of Allah.
But if Allah continues to hold you, continues
to send revelation after revelation after revelation, and
that is something that those religions in the
world today that believe in a living prophet,
that is the argument that they make.
Who've had prophets or have prophets in the
previous century, even currently, that's the argument that
they, and that's what it takes away from
human growth, from human development.
What sanctity it takes away from the material
world, from human ability to understand and interpret
this material world, and through this way, through
this route, complement the understanding that comes from
revelation, even improve their understanding of revelation, and
get closer and closer to Allah.
So Allah lets go.
And yes, there's a lot of stumbling that
happens.
There's a lot of falling that happens.
There's a lot of hurting that happens.
Still happening.
But he would rather have that happen than
oppress and take away human freedom.
Because what that would do is it would
make, it would render pretty much everything meaningless.
And Allah refuses to make this universe, make
human life, batil.
That's the one thing that he repeats again
and again in the Quran.
This has not been created batil.
This is haqq.
فَلَا تَكُونَنَّ مِنَ الْجَاهِلِينَ So Rasulullah ﷺ is
being reminded, and everybody else through him is
being reminded, do not be of those who
get overwhelmed by their emotions.
Being jahil is a very important word.
Typically we say that it's ignorance.
That it is, of course.
But a very particular form of ignorance.
It is a form of ignorance that your
emotions ride you.
You are being ridden by your emotions.
Your better understanding, your better reason cannot keep
those emotions in check.
Those emotions overwhelm you.
The freedom that you're required to exercise in
order to keep those emotions in check, those
overwhelming emotions caused by hurt, caused by anger,
caused by passion, caused by desire, all of
these, they start riding you, they start driving
you.
That's somebody who is a jahil.
What does knowledge do?
Which is the opposite of ignorance.
It helps you, it facilitates that reason, that
intellect, the aqal, so that it can keep
those emotions in check.
So that those who know are not the
same as those who don't know.
Because those who know have the power over
themselves.
More of a position to control themselves.
So being of the jahileen would mean turning
away from this knowledge, ignoring this knowledge, being
arrogant in the face of this knowledge, and
continuing to allow those passions, those desires, those
unbridled emotions to drive you, to control you.
Something that the Quraysh are doing when they're
making these demands to Rasulullah ﷺ, ignoring the
ayat, the ilm, that the Qur'an is
bringing to them.
إِنَّمَا يَسْتَجِيبُ الَّذِينَ يَسْمَعُونَ Allah tells Rasulullah ﷺ,
those who really hear, they will respond to
you.
وَالْمَوْتَ يَبْعَثُهُمُمْ As for those who are dead,
this metaphor of life and death, the people
who are willing to respond to the ayat,
they're willing to grow.
Those people who do not respond to the
ayat, do not accept knowledge when it comes
to them.
They're arrogant in the face of knowledge.
Their claim is, or their choice, is that
whatever I already know is perfect.
No room for improvement.
No room for upgradation.
That arrogance is death.
And so Allah says that these dead people,
Allah will raise them.
Because as hard, or as brittle, as inert,
as dead matter is, you have to...
Physical shock of the highest degree is necessary
to melt or to break through that inertness,
that deadness, that hardness.
وَالْمَوْتَ يَبْعَثُهُمُمْ So Allah will resurrect them.
Allah will raise them.
ثُمَّ إِلَيْهِ يُرْجِعُونَ And then to Him, they
will be returned.
وَقَالُوا لَوْ لَا نُزِلَ عَلَيْهِ آيَةٌ مِّن رَّبِّهِ
And they say, why was a sign?
Why was a miracle?
When they say ayah, they mean miracle.
Not sent down to him from his Rabb.
قُلْ إِنَّ اللَّهَ قَادِرٌ عَلَيْهِ يُنَزِّلَ آيَةٌ Tell
them Allah is fully capable of sending down
any ayah.
وَلَكِنَّ أَكْثَرَهُمْ لَا يَعْلَمُونَ But most of them
do not know.
They don't know what they're asking for.
They don't know the consequences of it, the
implications of it.
وَمَا مِن ذَٰبَّةٍ فِي الْأَرْضِ And there is
neither an animal on earth, ولا طائر يطير
بجناحيه Nor is there a flying creature flying
with its two wings.
إِلَّا أُمَمٌ أَمْثَالُكُمْ Except that they are communities
like you.
They're asking for miracle.
Allah is saying, look at the creatures, animals
on earth.
Look at the birds flying in the sky.
نَفَرَّتْنَا فِي الْكِتَابِ مِن شَيْءٍ We have not
neglected anything in the book.
This is all from the book of Allah.
It's all sacred knowledge out there.
ثُمَّ إِلَىٰ رَبِّهِمْ يُحْشَرُونَ Then all of them
will be gathered to their Rabb.
وَالَّذِينَ كَذَّبُوا بِآيَاتِنَا سُمٌّ وَبُكْمٌ Those who deny
our ayat, they're deaf and dumb.
فِي الظُّلُمَةِ Lying in layers of darkness, refusing
to learn, refusing to look at all of
these miracles in the mundane, in the routine
around them.
مَن يَشَأْ إِلَّهُ يُضْلِلْهُ Allah misleads whoever He
wants.
Or an alternative translation of this, whoever wants
to be misled, Allah misleads them.
وَمَن يَشَأْ يَجْعَلْهُ عَلَى صِرَاطٍ مُسْتَقِينٍ And whoever
wants, Allah puts them on the straight path.
If they make that choice, if they're willing
for it, Allah accepts them.
قُلْ أَرَأَيْتَكُمْ Say, O Rasulullah, have you seen
إِنَّ تَاكُمْ عَذَابُ اللَّهِ أَوْ أَتَتْكُمُ السَّعَىٰ If
the punishment of Allah comes to you or
the final hour comes upon you وَغَيْرَ اللَّهِ
تَدُرُونَ Are you going to call upon anyone
other than Allah?
What happens to all those demands then when
you're in desperate need?
Isn't that a sign for you?
That reflexively, instinctively, you turn to Allah?
أَغَيْرَ اللَّهِ تَدُرُونَ Do you call on anyone
other than Allah?
إِن كُنْتُمْ صَادِقِينَ Honestly say, honestly respond if
you really are truthful.
Who do you turn to when you're desperate?
بَلْ إِيَّهُ تَدْعُونَ In fact, only to Him
you call upon.
فَيَكْشِفُ مَا تَدْعُونَ إِلَيْهِ So Allah removes whatever
you're calling Him for, whatever you're making du
'a to Him for, if He wants.
وَاتَّنْسَوْنَ مَا تُشْرِفُونَ And you'll forget whoever you
associate with Him.
وَآخِرُوا دَعْوَانًا And alhamdulillahi rabbil alaih.