Yousuf Raza – Ramadan Conversations Episode 17 We saw you look up… Surah alBaqarah 142144
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Okay, bismillah, alhamdulillah, wassalatu wassalamu ala rasoolillah wa
ala alihi wa ashabihi ajma'een.
Qala tabaraka wa ta'ala fi kitabihil kareem,
ba'ad an aqool, a'udhu billahi minash
shaitanir rajeem, bismillahir rahmanir raheem Sayaghulusufaha'u
minannasi ma wallaahum an qiblatihimu allatih kanu alayhaa
Qul lillahi al-mashriq wal-maghrib, yahdi man
yashaa'u ila siratim mustaqeem wa kathalika ja
'alnakum ummatan wasataa litakoonu shuhadaa alannasi
wayakoonarrasoolu alaykum shaheedaa wama ja'alna alqiblata allatih
kuntu alayhaa illa lina'lama man yattabi'u
arrasoola min man yanqalibu ala aqibaih wa in
kanatla kabiratan illa alallathina hadha Allah wama kana
Allah liyudhi'a imanakum inna Allah binnasi la
ra'ufur raheem qad naraa taqalluba wajhika fissamaa
falanu walliyannaka qiblatan tardaaha fawalli wajhaka shatara
almasjidil harami wahithu ma kumtum fawallu wujuhakum shatara
wa inna allatheena ootu alkitaba laya'lamoon anahu
alhaqqu min rabbihim wama Allahu bighafilin amma ya'maloon
sadaqallahu al azeem rabbish shahli sadri wa yasir
li amri wa ahlaa lughatami al lasani yafqahu
qawli Allahumma anfa'na bima allamtana wa allimna
ma yanfa'una wa zidna ilma Allahumma arina
haqiqata alashya'i kamahi Allahumma arina alhaqqa haqqa
wa murzuqna ittiba'a wa arina albaatila baatila
wa murzuqna itjtinaaba ameen ya rabbal alameen assalamu
alaykum wa rahmatullahi wa barakatuh to all of
you watching thank you for tuning in and
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the good stuff so moving to the episode
for today we're going to be talking about
a very important incident that took place one
of the first things that happened within, after
the migration within the first two years this
is right around a year, year and a
half that Rasulullah ﷺ and the Sahaba ﷺ
they had been facing both the Ka'bah
and Baitul Maqdis, Jerusalem as we know it
today in the Meccan period it was possible
technically, the Qibla the direction that you're supposed
to face that when you're praying was Baitul
Maqdis it was Jerusalem one of the aspects
that is a part of the continuity within
prophethood is that Rasulullah ﷺ was required and
the Sahaba were required to follow the Shari
'ah of the previous people which were of
course the Jews and the Christians so the
Shari'ah would remain the same unless something
would be revealed to say that this has
to be changed and so the Qibla for
the Muslims before Rasulullah ﷺ of course there
were the Jews and the Christians would be
considered Muslims of the time they were people
of Tawheed for them it was Ka'bah,
no I mean, sorry it was Baitul Maqdis,
it was Jerusalem and so that is what
it was supposed to be for Rasulullah ﷺ
and the Sahaba but the way Rasulullah ﷺ
and the Sahaba would pray would be such
that they faced both the Ka'bah and
the Baitul Maqdis they could easily do that,
they were within Mecca so you can stand
on one side of the Ka'bah such
that you're facing Baitul Maqdis at the same
time now that they've migrated to what became
Medina that's geographically not possible they're in opposite
directions so either you face the Ka'bah
or you face Baitul Maqdis now as far
as Baitul Maqdis is concerned the Sahaba and
the Prophet himself they don't have any emotional,
traditional attachment to it it is something that
most of them haven't even seen for Rasulullah
ﷺ, yes the journey of Isra and then
Mi'raj he did stop by Baitul Maqdis
had that experience but other than that, there
isn't any such relationship that the Sahaba can
can think of with respect to Baitul Maqdis
it is just that this is what they're
required to do, this is what Allah wants
them to do for Rasulullah ﷺ as well
the attachment to the Ka'bah in Mecca
was something that he held very close to
his heart this is the house that Ibrahim
ﷺ made you can imagine Rasulullah ﷺ having
many a memorable religious experience associated with the
Ka'bah growing up he was a Muwahid
he did know of Ibrahim's legacy and then
even after Prophethood the centrality of the Ka
'bah was affirmed through revelation itself its importance,
its significance what it symbolized so the attachment
that he had for the Ka'bah was
at a different level but when Madinah migration
has taken place to literally tear yourself away
from the direction that you're used to from
the Ka'bah that you're attached to to
something that you're not really attached to the
only reason why you would attach yourself to
it would be because Allah says so Allah
says it's important it has to be done
and so they did it and so they
did it now they're doing it and the
ayat are commenting that this was necessary this
was important so very quickly why did Allah
do this?
why were they required to face Jerusalem when
they wanted to face Ka'bah?
it could just as well have been the
Ka'bah the change could have taken place
in Mecca the change could have taken place
immediately upon migration, no there was a good
18 months a year and a half that
it took for the Qibla to be changed
and so Allah says that this is how
قُلْ لِلَّهِ الْمَشْرِقُ وَالْمَغْرِبُ let's start from the
beginning the ayah goes, ayah number 142 Surah
Al-Baqarah this is the beginning of the
second juz' سَيَقُولُ الصُفَهَاءُ مِنَ النَّاسِ the foolish
people will soon object مَا وَلَّاهُمْ عَنْ قِبْلَتِهِمُ
الَّتِي كَانُوا عَلَيْهَا what turned them away from
the Qibla the direction that they were facing
before قُلْ لِلَّهِ الْمَشْرِقُ وَالْمَغْرِبُ tell them the
east and the west both belong to Allah
يَهْدِي مَن يَشَاءُ إِلَى صِرَاطِ الْمُسْتَقِيمِ Allah guides
whoever wants towards the straight path and this
is a point to sit on and reflect
for some time whoever wants to grow this
capacity for free choice to identify it within
yourself foremost and then to develop it it
is something that requires to be nurtured it
isn't something that we can just simply take
for granted oh I have free will, I
can do whatever I want to not so
easy, not so simple there are so many
things that we think we're doing out of
our free will, free choice but there's influences
over them that we're not even aware of
that are unconscious as we identify them and
so many of these unconscious influences have to
do with childhood attachments and so for the
Sahaba in particular the childhood attachment to their
tradition, to the Ka'bah that they've grown
up watching and loving and admiring so it's
a religious attachment but it is a religious
attachment with a very strong emotional sentiment as
well the strong emotional sentiment what that does
is that it ingrains this rigidity this sort
of it is this and nothing else kind
of an attitude and it is important for
a mature religious development to grow past that
rigidity to grow out of that rigidity to
develop that will that can based on context
based on situation adjust, adapt however painful it
may be it has that capacity for that
capacity to develop this particular incident shows how
important it is the same Surah Al-Baqarah
talks about how the Bani Israel they were
so attached to worshipping a calf for example
that even after being liberated from Firaun that
attachment, that religious sentiment associated with calf worship
and these are Muwhidun, these are people of
Tawheed these are people of Bani Israel these
are people coming from a lineage of prophets
yet they had this deep seated love for
calf worship it is something that they had
grown up with and to tear them away
from that to tear them away from what
they had become so rigidly attached to and
held to be sacred was important for their
religious development as well as it should be
for every single individual and community for that
matter developing religiously to break through those rigidities
those unyielding, inflexible this is it and nothing
else attitude that is a level of religiosity
and at a particular age it is a
necessary level of religiosity it's the only religiosity
you would know but it is incredibly important
to grow out of it to develop through
it to break through those this and nothing
else, don't you dare it is inconceivable to
move hither or thither in a completely intolerant
sort of a religiosity that looks at an
object or a ritual as sacred in and
of itself not something that the sacredness is
accorded to or ascribed to by a responding
being by a God, by Allah who responds
who listens, who sees who knows and therefore
understands that the context is different, the situation
is different the same level of obedience or
the exact same replication of a ritual is
practically not feasible is not possible they understand
a relationship with that Lord a Lord who
is actively seen not an idol who has
just issued a statement or they have come
across this perfect statement coming from this perfect
idol static and now that you have attained
to perfection there is no moving hither or
thither no left or right, no beyond that
there is nothing beyond perfection just sticking with
it and so that sticking with the quote
unquote perfection idolatrous worship becomes ingrained in their
personality and they become intolerant people, rigid people
people you cannot dialogue with people who cannot
adapt, who cannot adjust you take them out
of their religious comfort zone and they freak
out, now what do we do?
it's chaos, it's * we want our heaven
back what is the heaven?
Exact ritual in the exact same way in
exact number of times no moving from there
an obsessive, compulsive religiosity which is associated more
with an idolatrous conception of God rather than
a living being responding being and so the
people said what has drawn them away from
their Qibla, what sort of religion is this?
yesterday it was this Qibla today it is
that Qibla, what's wrong with these people?
what sort of a God is this?
He didn't know better before now he has
upgraded, changed what is changing these people away
from?
قُلِ اللَّهِ الْمَشْرِقُ وَالْمَغْرِبُ Allah belongs, Mashriq and
Mubarik you cannot constrain him with your idolatrous
conceptions, you cannot bind him restrict him to
these unyielding unmoved conceptions unmovable conceptions, no يَهْدِي
مَن يَشَاءُ He guides whoever wants human want,
human will being empowered إِلَى صِرَاطِ الْمُسْتَقِيمِ Towards
the straight path, guidance of Allah will of
the human being comes together to the straight
path so that willing the capacity to will,
to choose is being nurtured in this way
وَكَذَلِكَ جَعَلْنَاكُمْ أُمَّةً وَسَطًى that is how we've
made you a balanced ummah you cannot be
a balanced ummah if you have these deep
seated rigidities, how in the world are you
going to be balanced, you are definitely going
to resort to extremes, because necessarily in different
phases of your religious journey different intensities of
commitment of particular actions are required but if
they are made stagnant then what is perfect
at one point at a completely different stage
at a completely different part of your journey
or where your community is, it is going
to be extremism it is going to be
chaos and that's not something you can work
with, that isn't something that you that humanity
can adapt to then you're going to try
to force all of these changes, all of
these you're going to try to push people
into square pegs round blocks it's going to
be all chaotic وَكَذَلِكَ جَعَلْنَاكُمْ أُمَّةً وَسَطًى لِتَكُونُوا
شُهَدًا أَلْمَاسً and then that responsibility, so you
become witnesses against humankind against humanity, the burden
that Rasulullah ﷺ felt that this is my
وَيَكُونُ الرَّسُولُ عَلَيْكُمْ شَهِدًا and Rasul becomes a
witness against you that on the day of
judgment he's going to be called to account
did you deliver the message?
and he'd say yes I have because if
I haven't delivered the message I'm held responsible
the way to a certain extent Yunus ﷺ
was held responsible and how that mantle passes
on from Rasulullah ﷺ to the community so
much is being said over here that now
that this is the last and final messenger
the level of religiosity that you have to
take up has to be a mature religiosity
it cannot be a religiosity which is which
is afraid of movement which is afraid of
change, which is afraid of adaptation so much
of carrying this mantle of prophethood that has
been passed on from Rasulullah ﷺ to his
ummah, to his people to his followers is
in understanding, is in developing this capacity to
adapt, to change to have that bravery to
face that uncertainty that anxiety that it comes
with and to know from within yourself the
sources of religiosity, the sources of your of
your relationship with Allah because it's a this
movement, this world is evolving this world is
changing you don't live in a static environment
and if you're not willing to move you're
going to disappear you're not going to be
relevant anymore you're not going to be relevant
anymore and that's the testimony that we're getting
time and time again and so to carry
this responsibility of bearing witness against people the
community is presented before Allah, we played our
part if they didn't listen, it's on them
are we in a position to say that?
For the most part, no for the most
part, no وَمَا جَعَلْنَا الْقِبْلَةِ الَّتِي كُنْتَ عَلَيْهَا
قِبْلَةَ الَّتِي كُنْتَ عَلَيْهَا and we did not
designate the Qibla that you formally observed, that
was Baitul Maqdis إِلَّا لِنَعْلَم مَن يَتَّبِعُ الرَّسُولُ
which of you truly follows the Messenger you
wanted Kaaba and Allah said Baitul Maqdis so
to break you from that rigidity to develop
this this was designated and so for a
good 18 months, they followed that Qibla because
their commitment was to Allah not some internal
perceptions idolatrous perceptions of him مِمَّ يَنْقَلِبُ عَلَىٰ
أَقِبَيهِ who would base the truth of Rasulullah
ﷺ on whether it coincided with their fixed
preconceived notions, which they had emotional attachments to
مِمَّ يَنْقَلِبُ عَلَىٰ أَقِبَيهِ وَإِن كَانَتْ لَكَبِيرَةً and
it was definitely difficult, it's not easy Allah
is fully cognizant He is Ra'oof, right?
He empathizes with people He knows how difficult
it would be except the people whom Allah
guides, who had this relationship with Allah who
is their guide?
Allah is their guide so it's a dynamic,
back and forth, dialogical process between them and
God وَمَا كَانَ اللَّهُ لِيُضِيعَ إِيمَانِكُمْ Allah would
never make your faith void so the criticism
that they started going off with if the
Ka'bah is the real Qibla if that's
where you should have been facing then what
about all the people who died and they
were facing Baitul Maqdis all their time what
about their prayers?
Their prayers are not going to be accepted
Dude, he's not a robot he's not a
computer this case sensitive password it just has
to be exactly this way and that he
wouldn't know better he wouldn't be able to
distinguish that's how your irrational mind works or
the irrational part of your mind works not
his, not him so Allah is not going
to waste your prayers he's not going to
waste your Iman إِنَّ اللَّهَ بِالنَّاسِ إِلَى رَؤُوفُ
الرَّحِيمِ without a doubt Allah is kind, he's
empathic he's ra'oof and merciful towards humanity
قَدْ نَرَى تَقَلُّبَ وَجْهِكَ فِي السَّمَاءِ so why
did this change come about?
why at this time?
why not later?
why not earlier?
why at all?
قَدْ نَرَى تَقَلُّبَ وَجْهِكَ فِي السَّمَاءِ Allah says,
O Rasulullah, we saw your eyes turn towards
the heavens we saw your face turn towards
the heavens we saw you look up because
Rasulullah ﷺ, he complies with Allah's command of
Baytul Muqtas and he faces there not disobeying
in any way but he did harbor this
desire that the Ka'bah should be the
Qibla and his desire became destiny Allah says,
he didn't even say it didn't utter it
from his tongue all he did was he
looked up and Allah says, accept it فَلَنُوَلِّيَنَّكَ
قِبْلَةً طَرْضَاهَا so now we will make you
face a Qibla of your choice one that
you like that which pleases you that which
pleases you the pleasure of Rasulullah ﷺ becomes
paramount for Allah and he says, here you
go you want the Qibla changed?
you want the destiny of humanity changed?
here you go, you have attained to that
maqam you have attained to that level we
saw that in Mi'raj we saw that
in the negotiation of the prayers and here
we see that again the human human dignity
that cannot come from anyone other than a
non-human non-human creator, how about that?
Allah Himself فَلَنُوَلِّيَنَّكَ قِبْلَةً طَرْضَاهَا so we make
you turn towards a Qibla of your choice
Rasulullah ﷺ's journey in Mecca patience, perseverance, sacrifice,
struggle has now resulted in a maqam where
he, his will becomes the will of God
فَوَلِّي وَجْهَكَ شَطْرَ الْمَسْجِدِ الْحَرَامِ so turn your
face towards the Holy Mosque in Mecca وَحَيْثُ
مَا كُنتُمْ and wherever you all may be,
addressing all the Muslims فَوَلُّوا وَجُوهَكُمْ شَطْرَ all
of you turn your faces towards that Masjid.
Rasulullah ﷺ looked up Allah turned everyone's face
towards the Ka'bah وَإِن كُنتُمْ وَإِنَّ الَّذِينَ
أُوتُوا الْكِتَابُ and those who are given the
scripture لا يَعْلَمُونَ know that this is the
truth from their Rabb the indications were there,
this was going to happen but why did
it happen at this particular instance Rasulullah looked
up لا يَعْلَمُونَ وَمَا اللَّهُ
بِالْغَافِلِنَ أَمَّا يَعْمُلُنَ Allah is not unaware of
what they do they're all like criticizing, why
did you change why this, what's the status
of the Ka'bah in a sense it's
a displacement for them where they were what
Baytul Muqtas represented for them the Ka'bah,
what's the Ka'bah they don't have any
realization for it but you can see that
in the first 18 months where all of
these negotiations and treaties are going on with
the Jewish people for them to identify with
Islam as much as they already can and
for that having the same Qibla makes a
huge difference but when they've started showing their
colors so to speak and the test is
really being brought in so let's see if
you're willing to you're willing to be flexible
let's see if your rigidities can be broken
the question is put out to them most
of them respond like nah I'll take rigidity
over God