Yousuf Raza – Ramadan Conversations Episode 2 Arise and Pray Surah AlMuzzamil 17
AI: Summary ©
The speakers discuss the importance of educating oneself and others about education, guessing in science, and reciting words in order to achieve control and stability. They also touch on the topic of weight on surah Bafara and the importance of understanding the meaning of words in speech. The success of a meeting is highlighted, and future events are suggested.
AI: Summary ©
All right, bismillah wa salatu wa salamu ala
rasool Allah wa ala alihi wa ashabihi ajma
'in Salamu alaykum everybody.
We are live on our second day of
Ramadan Maybe the first day for a lot
of you It is second day for us
here in the US and a lot of
other parts of the world We're going right
along to our second lesson for the day
But before we do that, I did say
that from our first lesson in which we
spoke about Surat Alaq the first five ayat
There was a couple of points that I
wanted to make Before we moved on to
our next lesson So the last two ayat
Allah SWT tells of course very quickly reiterating
Rasool Allah salallahu alayhi wasalam Being a muahid
Very concerned about his role in society the
general state of the society the state of
the people What they're going through this how
society is really and how tawhid fits into
all of that What can he possibly do
the response that he's getting is that you
need to read you need to educate yourself
and What education education for the sake of
education or education for the sake of your
Rabb in the name of your Rabb and
what it does it mean to be educated
in the Name of your Rabb the way
his rububiyah manifests itself physically in the sense
that his rububiyah brings you from an alaq
Where you were that helpless utterly dependent very
vulnerable little thing In the womb of your
mother he brings you out to become this
strong Relatively independent human being Step by step
stage by stage you gain that strength that
maturity Allah gives it to you He empowers
you so the way he empowers you physically
there is an empowerment that takes place spiritually
and intellectually and that takes place through the
process of Reading and in this reading, of
course, you have the material is available that
which you can educate yourself through Is available
it is your willingness You're volunteering yourself putting
yourself forward to actually read in the name
of your Rabb Right, and what sort of
allama al-insana Allama al-insana ma lam
ya'lam before that allama al-insana bil
qalam.
He taught the human being with the qalam
There is an indication and it is implicit
in these ayat it has opened up more
of The broadly two categories of knowledge that
knowledge which is transmitted person to person generation
to generation In a preserved form that whatever
human beings acquire and acquire painstakingly acquire in
the sense that there is an effort in
involved in the process of education in the
process of learning and growing and that is
preserved and passed on so that whoever is
to come later can benefit from the efforts
from the struggles of Their mentors their teachers
their previous generations so they can build on
it.
So there's no recreation of wheels that is
necessary So it is a tradition of knowledge
of education through which humanity grows Right, so
the response to Rasulullah sallallahu alayhi wasallam's problem
is not just an individual response It is
a collective response that a society generally needs
to be educated and educated particularly in that
form of acquired knowledge One form of knowledge,
of course second knowledge allama al-insana ma
lam ya'lam Allah teaches the human being
that which he did not know now this
particular Ayah may be Indicating more towards a
site type of revelatory knowledge revelation as it
comes as an intuitive experience which of course
in the case of Prophets who have this
security and protection given to their revelation experience
that it is a guaranteed protection from any
sort of demonic interpolations from any sort of
demonic involvement so that it is from Allah
through and through purely that teaching that aspect
of learning Completely no idea no chance of
knowing and we know this today That the
development of human beings in any field of
knowledge even in the field of acquired knowledge
What we understand now as scientific knowledge the
probability of the importance of right guessing in
formulating hypotheses How important guessing right even in
making the hypothesis that is to be experimented
upon The probability was so unrealistic It was
so it is Unimaginable that that those hypotheses
Were guessed rightly from the outset from the
get-go That we were right so many
times so that knowledge progressed the way it
did and we are where we are in
our stage of development as a human race
today that there was definitely there was this
Non-human Inspiration Within this process that allowed
for us to Guess rightly to reach the
right guess Formulate a hypothesis Are we back?
I'm reconnecting.
Okay.
Now we're back my apologies.
So in order to guess rightly in order
to get to The more likely guess hypothesize
it.
Of course, that doesn't make that that guess
is absolutely right.
It still has to be tested But to
test you need to narrow down The fact
that human beings have been able to narrow
down So well that they narrowed down to
that which was more likely to be correct
that is simply Statistically speaking very improbable.
It was incredibly unrealistic Highly unlikely the odds
were totally against us, but we did it
This is something that we would find revelation
Continuously alluding to as Allah teaching people that
which they did not know that they could
not know without something of an intuitive and
the most refined form of intuition, of course
is Revelation itself and how important it is
for these two aspects of knowledge to be
taken together and Proceeding further from there now
this is the experience that Rasulullah sallallahu alayhi
wasallam has the second revelation By consensus that
Rasulullah sallallahu alayhi wasallam experiences is surah Muzammil
The ayah of the surah begins Ya ayyuhal
muzzammil.
Oh you who are wrapped up Let's rewind.
Let's go a little back.
Why is Rasulullah sallallahu alayhi wasallam Wrapped up.
Why is he covered himself up?
After the revelation after Iqra after the first
experience in Ghar Hira in the cave of
Hira Rasulullah sallallahu alayhi wasallam as we said
before he wasn't jumping down the mountain with
hallelujah.
I got it.
I am a prophet Yes, we did it.
This is it now life is gonna be
different.
I'm gonna save the world No, nothing of
that sort Rasulullah sallallahu alayhi wasallam was Terrified
he was positively petrified to the point that
he felt his initial response But reaction rather
to that experience was this was a demonic
experience What I just experienced was demonic and
I'm this is some sort of possession This
is some sort of maybe I've this was
poetry that I was receiving.
I don't want to be a poet I
don't want to be a majnun.
I don't want to be someone who's Who's
gone crazy.
I don't want to be known like that
and rather than going back to the people
and Having this associated with me.
I might as well jump from this mountain
That is how severe, that is how overwhelming
his response was sallallahu alayhi wasallam And so
when he gets home the first thing that
he says to Khadija radhiAllahu ta'ala anha
is zammilooneen He tells her cover me Cover
me again beginning of this surah.
Ya ayyuhal muzzammil.
Oh you are covered up Why did he
cover himself up in the aftermath of that
revelation because he was scared He was petrified
horrified Feeling very very vulnerable What just happened?
He literally thought that he almost died the
squeezing experience physically painful So Rasulullah sallallahu alayhi
wasallam was in a very very terrified state
when he comes to Khadija radhiAllahu ta'ala
anha The reason why he asks her to
cover him is To feel a greater sense
of security a sense of protection to overcome
the state of fear that is That as
a direct result of that first revelation, he
is still confused.
He is very very Scared that he's that
this was something very horrible that just happened.
And so Khadija radhiAllahu ta'ala anha Important
to know how she responds to this And
this will pave the way for when we
talk about her passing away the response that
Rasulullah sallallahu alayhi wasallam has at that time
Tells us of her significance at this point
First, of course, she does cover him.
She holds him physically Embraces him.
His head is in her lap for the
entire night She is comforting him She is
reassuring him physically and emotionally She is reiterating
before him that you are the person Who
is mindful who maintains the ties of kinship
sila rahmi as we understand it tying up
relationships or maintaining relationships Ensuring that those relationships
are strong and those were the defining characteristics
of Rasulullah sallallahu alayhi wasallam Again, these are
all things the values that he carried from
prior to revelation Stuff that he was concerned
about you are charitable kind giving people all
the time no way something like Something that
devastating is what you're saying a demonic experience
is going to happen to you That's her
first reasoning That she's offering Rasulullah sallallahu alayhi
wasallam She's emotionally consoling him.
She is Rationally telling him how it is
impossible that something evil were to overtake him
Given how good he's been the second thing
that she does She takes Rasulullah sallallahu alayhi
wasallam to get an affirmation from an expert
in the field and that expert in the
field happens to be what Qabal Nawfal and
He attests to Rasulullah sallallahu alayhi wasallam experience
as being consistent with what he finds in
the biblical tradition and Consistent with the prophecies
Within the biblical tradition and that Rasulullah sallallahu
alayhi wasallam is in fact Rasulullah sallallahu alayhi
wasallam So he testifies to his experience as
being not a demonic but a divine Experience
something that is coming from Allah.
So he gets a testimony from an other
from an outside source from a source outside
of his family Definitely outside of himself from
a source outside of even the Arab tradition
It is something that is coming from a
Christian tradition essentially a biblical tradition that's the
affirmation that Khadija radiallahu ta'ala anha ensures
that Rasulullah sallallahu alayhi wasallam gets another demonstration
that she gives Another experience that is narrated
in some books of seerah is that Rasulullah
sallallahu alayhi wasallam Still overwhelmed still fearful still
doubtful When he sees Jibreel coming again and
again in different forms Khadija radiallahu ta'ala
anha asks him.
Do you see him at this time?
And He says yes, I do And I'm
afraid that this may be a demon So
she tells him that okay, let's do this.
Let's do a little experiment If and the
hypothesis for the experiment is if he is
really an angel if I were to remove
my clothes He would go away if he
is a demon He would continue to stay
he wouldn't care and Having put forward this
hypothesis that Rasulullah sallallahu alayhi wasallam acknowledges it
accepts it and then they go ahead and
they do it And she does this she
removes her upper clothing the angel as we
now know it was to be he leaves
and When she's put it back on he
comes back And of course, this is the
testimony of Rasulullah sallallahu alayhi wasallam that she's
going by he says now he's gone now
he's come back and so this demonstration that
she provides Rasulullah sallallahu alayhi wasallam is the
Next level or the third level of Reassurance
that he is provided all by Khadija radhi
allahu ta'ala anha who happens to believe
in him even prior to him being in
a position to believe in himself and It
is in this State of utter fear and
insecurity and doubt That Rasulullah sallallahu alayhi wasallam
experiences the second revelation and the second revelation
begins with this Acknowledgement of his insecurity of
his fear and says ya ayyuhal muzzammil Oh,
you have covered himself up Rasulullah sallallahu alayhi
wasallam has covered himself up To protect himself.
This is symbolic of of what we do
when we feel really really afraid When we're
really really afraid and we're contemplative Rasulullah sallallahu
alayhi wasallam is afraid and contemplative reflecting What
is that fear associated with that fear is
associated with insecurity?
What is that insecurity coming from insecurity is
coming from the doubt that he is?
Experiencing now that he had what he never
anticipated.
He would have that religious experience of revelation.
And so he wants to He wants to
Come to believe he wants to resolve this
doubt He wants to understand what just took
place.
And so it is that state of meditation
contemplation reflection associated with fear again our understanding
of What it means to be meditative reflective
Spiritual is far removed From feeling insecure anxious
doubtful to the contrary experiences of nirvana and
peacefulness and calmness and Relaxation shutting everything out.
No Rasulullah sallallahu alayhi wasallam is in a
very different state When the ayats come to
him and say ya ayyuhal muzzammil Oh you
who have wrapped himself up boom now this
is time for you to stand up That
the kind of spirituality that the Quran engenders
which is consistent With again the problems that
Rasulullah sallallahu alayhi wasallam was bringing to the
cave The questions that he was bringing to
the cave in that state The kind of
spirituality that the Quran brings in response is
proactive It is not the resign yourself cut
yourself off and that's your relaxation in your
nirvana That you turn your back to society.
No.
Qum stand but foremost The standing up is
a standing up in prayer.
Qum al-layla illa qaleela Stand up in
prayer except a very little part of the
night So most of the night You're required
to stand up in prayer is the response
that Rasulullah sallallahu alayhi wasallam is getting now
again background Rasulullah sallallahu alayhi wasallam is already
prone to Habituated to meditative practices to practices
of renouncing his Desires, let's see that the
overwhelming desire to sleep overwhelming desire to eat,
etc Rasulullah sallallahu alayhi wasallam in his When
he used to go to the cave of
Hira is already subjecting himself to these reflective
and meditative practices by cutting himself off from
an abundant supply of food drink sleep and
pleasures, etc, right he's Cutting himself off from
that with this revelation of surah al-muddathir
this Practice is becoming more Refined it is
being more It is more definitive.
It is being categorized as something which we
are now understand as a ritual he's being
advised to pray and Praying to a special
form of night prayer so that that renunciation
element is there too Because what Rasulullah sallallahu
alayhi wasallam is going to be up against
Pretty soon and that's what the ayat are
going to testify to it's going to require
a lot of resilience a lot of character
he's going to take a lot of hate
a lot of pressure a lot of Torture
There's going to be very strong opposition and
the degree of self control That is necessary
in the face of opposition that degree of
self-control you train within yourself By renouncing
that which you would immediately respond to you
feel sleepy you go to sleep No, Rasulullah
sallallahu alayhi wasallam fights that impulse.
He's required to fight that impulse stand most
of the night in prayer Understand please that
he's not doing this just out of the
blue impulse and let me just stand in
prayer from now on Some level of habit
has been there from before He is 40
years of age All right, so he is
pretty strong Spiritually as it is but the
level of strength that is required The level
of control and self-discipline that is required
for what he is now being tasked with
Requires this additional vigil within the night.
So um in Layla in La Parilla stand
and pray again I can't reiterate this enough
this the proactive spirituality Symbolized in these words
and of course in now what we understand
to be prayer as it is the standing
part You were sitting down covered up get
up stand and pray the sort of prayer
that Rasulullah sallallahu alayhi wasallam was required to
do that became his sunnah that became an
Obligation for us to follow is a prayer
that requires us to stand up and That
is a that is a sign of strength
That is an indication that you are strong
and when you're standing before Allah, you're standing
before Allah That experience of revelation had literally
pushed Rasulullah sallallahu alayhi wasallam to his knees
He was that overwhelmed and that afraid that
covered up he had to be held Allah
comes with this reassurance after of course all
the reassurances that Khadijah radhiallahu ta'ala had
already given Allah says stand up stand up
and standing up symbolizing taking responsibility Taking responsibility
symbolizing a strength that you can take responsibility
So again the sort of spirituality from the
outset that has been advocated is not the
self denigrating kind Not the sort that requires
you to humiliate yourself and Proclaim your utter
abject servitude and utter weakness.
No stand up recognize the strength recognize the
power and That's where the responsibility is going
to come in if you're so utterly weak
If you're so utterly despicable and useless What
responsibility are you going to carry?
Then the only sort of spirituality that you're
suited for is the sort of spirituality that
shuts the world out the criminal spirituality That
runs away from responsibility Rasulullah sallallahu alayhi wasallam
is told to stand up Stand a part
of the stand most of the night except
a little Half of the night or a
little less than half or increase more than
half Later on in the surah it tells
us the sahabah following in the footstep of
Rasulullah sallallahu alayhi wasallam prayed for One third
of the night half of the night or
two thirds of the night Of course the
intensity that was required for this vigil for
this self-control Was such that Rasulullah sallallahu
alayhi wasallam and the sahabah had to engage
in a pretty strict practice But this was
this burden was lightened With the revelation of
course of the obligation for five prayers.
It was spread out because the burden required
by Even the people entering into Islam in
Medina and then of course subsequent generations is
far less The burden that is to be
carried and so the degree of strength that
is required is far less And it speaks
to the greatness of course of Rasulullah sallallahu
alayhi wasallam But also of the sahabah of
the first generation of the immediate responders the
sabihuna al-awwalun That what they had to
face and it is because they faced it
we have to face less It has become
more Bearable and tolerable for us and we
will talk about it as we talk about
the last two ayat of surah Bafara inshallah
in a week or so where That burden
is lightened, but that burden was heavy And
it was taken up by Rasulullah sallallahu alayhi
wasallam in the very beginning And what is
he told to do?
وَرَّتِّلِ الْقُرْآنَ تَرْتِيلًۭا That recite the Quran in
a measured Recitation and perhaps the best way
to understand it and we are familiar with
these phrases now mindfully recite and that mindful
recitation What that Inspires within you what that
practice develops inside of you is a sense
of stability You are Anxious you're afraid What
just happened?
What am I going to do the fear?
What if this happens?
What if that happens and in that sense
mindful recitation?
controlled measured Properly enunciated step-by-step It
allows it you're consciously and deliberately pushing yourself
to Be calm To take things step-by
-step for within when you're overwhelmed you react
and when you react you're very We tend
to be very All out and impulsive in
our reactions we are Very emotional in our
responses when you do something mindfully Paying attention
to it.
You're forcing yourself To focus on its steps
on its constituents In terms of recitation you're
forcing on yourself to focus pretty much on
each letter the pronunciation of each letter How
it would sound like And at a cognitive
level you're forcing yourself to focus on the
meaning each word each ayah and How much
Quran has been revealed at this point five
ayat of surat alaq seven ayat of surat
mudaddir Repeat this again and again and again
and again and again and again, there is
something about repetition As to how it allows
for us to take up those the messages
Yes at a cognitive level, of course, and
that is necessary because that cognitive level requires
a Consolidation a strengthening Because what it's up
against is the intensity of emotions which tend
to be very strong and overwhelming so a
repetition Assures that you're giving that boost because
in terms of intensity What is thought out
what is reflected in terms of its intensity?
It is all it does is it nudges
in terms of intensity emotions are huge They're
like trying to take over everything and they
want to be like this emotion and nothing
else.
That's the sort of That's that's the intensity
of emotions and so with Repetition you are
the nudge that a cognitive understanding has that
reflective understanding has You boost it by repetition
more nudges nudges nudges nudges adding up incremental
effect.
But then of course, it's not just The
cognitive aspect of it.
There is a spirituality associated to it.
There is a Very spiritual impact something which
is Resonating with the depths of your your
consciousness and unconsciousness and you're not aware of
it because it's the depths of the conscious
Are unconscious and unconscious is something we're unaware
of there is some sort of resonance that
you're looking for there that you're struggling to
get through to and At some point will
strike so you Continue to practice that vigil
وَرَّتِّلِ الْقُرْآنَ تَرْتِيلًۭا So the very initial Message
that Rasulullah ﷺ is given To move on
from here.
This is the response that he is getting
to augment the response that he himself and
his family has provided is To stand up
at night stand up at night and recite
the Quran in a measured way in a
measured recitation Mindfully again and again إِنَّا سَنُلْقِي
عَلَيْكَ قَوْلًا تَقِيمًا For definitely we are going
to burden you with, cast upon you a
very heavy burden a very weighty burden The
Quran is a burden Again, one of the
reasons why we fail to connect with the
Quran is we turn towards the Quran for
ultimate relaxation You know that nirvana that itminan
and however we misconstrue itminan Whereas what the
Quran is giving is a responsibility and responsibility
is heavy Responsibility weighs you down Responsibility is
something that is Creating anxiety until you get
it done إِنَّ نَاشِئَةَ اللَّيْلِ هِيَ أَشَدُّ وَطْعًا
وَأَقْوَى مُقِيلًا And Allah says that worshipping at
night this night vigil it has a stronger
impact In terms of helping you control yourself
It is it is difficult, but it helps
bring that Discipline that is necessary وَأَقْوَى مُقِيلًا
And it is necessary it is helpful with
respect to upright speech A speech which is
strong and upright and with respect to what
Rasulullah ﷺ is responsible for what he has
to do and pretty much Anything that any
one of us has to do in our
individual capacities in our roles having upright speech
Having a degree of control in our speech
having that understanding that confidence that deliberation thinking
before speaking Understanding what it is that we're
saying being in control of it the night
vigil and In our case the replacement for
that night vigil because of course None of
us prays half of the night or two
-thirds of the night or one-third of
the night or very few of us do
It is those five daily prayers and then
it's augmented with the annual celebration of Ramadan
fasting provides that Alternate and then of course
that understanding of the Quran is tied in
with fasting as well.
And so with that What we're developing in
terms of understanding in spirituality is going to
reflect Manifest in our behavior most importantly in
our speech What we say how we say
it how well we understand it and that
is a measure of course of who we
are as people Thank you so much for
joining.
Thank you for Paying attention.
I hope whatever it is that I had
to offer or is it was understandable and
that it proves to be useful for you
practically if you have any questions at all,
please feel free to drop me a message
in the comments your Feedback would be highly
appreciated And I've gone a little over time
today, but that's okay.
It's a Sunday, right so we can be
okay with that Thank you all I will
see you all tomorrow and tomorrow.
We'll be talking about Surahs Muftahid today.
We did Muzzamil tomorrow We're going to do
Muftathir and see how all three of these
first revelations add up Jazakumullahu khayran wa aakhiru
da'wana an alhamdulillahi rabbil alameen