Yousuf Raza – Ramadan Conversations Episode 24 Dont let your numbers get to you… Surah atTawbah 2527
AI: Summary ©
AI: Transcript ©
الحمد لله والصلاة والسلام على رسول الله وعلى
آله وأصحابه أجمعين والتبارك وتعالى في كتابه الكريم
بعد أن أقول أعوذ بالله من الشيطان الرجيم
بسم الله الرحمن الرحيم لَقَدْ نَصَرَكُمُ اللَّهُ فِي
مَوَاطِنَ كَثِيرَةٍ وَيَوْمَ حُنَيْنٍ أَذْ أَعْجَبَتْكُمْ كَثْرَتُكُمْ فَلَمْ
تُغْنِي عَنْكُمْ شَيْئًا وَضَاقَتْ عَلَيْكُمُ الْأَرْضُ بِمَا رَحْبَتْ
ثُمَّ وَلَّيْتُمْ مَدْبِرِينَ ثُمَّ أَنْزَلَ اللَّهُ سَكِينَتَهُ عَلَى
رَسُولِهِ وَعَلَى الْمُؤْمِنِينَ وَأَنْزَلَ جُنُودًا لَمْ تَرَوْهَا وَعَذَّبَ
الَّذِينَ كَفَرُوا وَذَلِكَ جَزَاءُ الْكَافِرِينَ ثُمَّ يَتُوبُ اللَّهُ
مِنْ مَعْدِ ذَلِكَ عَلَى مَنْ يَشَاءُ وَاللَّهُ غَفُورٌ
رَحِيمٌ صَدَقَ اللَّهُ الْعَظِيمُ رَبِّ شَهْدِي سَدْرِي وَيَسِرْ
لِيَمْرِي وَحْلَ لُقْطَةً مِنْ لِسَانِ يَفْقَوْا قَوْلِي اللَّهُمَّ
انْفَعْنَا بِمَا أَلَّمْتَنَا وَأَعْلِمْنَا مَا يَنْفَعُنَا وَزِدْنَا عِلْمًا
اللَّهُمَّ أَرِنَا حَقِقَةَ الْأَشْيَاءِ كَمَا هِي اللَّهُمَّ أَرِنَا
الحَقَّ حَقَّ وَارِنَا الْبَاطِلَ بَاطِلًا وَارِزُقْنَا اجْتِنَابًا آمين
يا رب العالمين So, our third last episode.
This is nearing the end.
The ayaat that I recited in front of
you are from Surat At-Tawbah.
This is the fourth ruku.
We're just going to do these three ayaat
today.
And the reason why we're doing these three
ayaat is that these three ayaat comment on
the incident of Hunayn.
The Ghazwa of Hunayn, Rasulullah ﷺ, after the
conquest of Mecca, after the greatest victory, which
was Hudaybiyyah, culminated in the conquest of Mecca.
Interestingly, you will not find a direct commentary
on whatever went on between Hudaybiyyah and the
conquest of Mecca.
We find instructions and revelations for what happens
after the conquest of Mecca.
And a few, of course, instances before.
But as for the conquest itself, which for
us would be the biggest deal, it doesn't
need to be mentioned as such.
Because, of course, the significance of it is
realized as it is.
So what we see after the Treaty of
Hudaybiyyah, Rasulullah ﷺ goes on to invite, to
send letters to Persia, to the Roman emperors,
to other countries, Abyssinia.
And, of course, there's contingents that are being
sent to various places in the Arabian Peninsula
as well.
Now you have this freedom to travel.
Not only the freedom to travel, Rasulullah ﷺ's
own personal focus was Mecca.
Until the Treaty of Hudaybiyyah, he was not
looking here and there.
Everything else was connected to how it would
influence the campaign for Mecca.
We have been driven out of our own
houses.
The house of Allah is in that city.
Before looking here and there, we need to
get back.
Get it back, get back there.
Then the global leg of the mission of
Rasulullah ﷺ would officially begin.
He's still the Rasul of Allah to the
entire world, for all mankind.
But his focus is on Mecca until the
very end, until the Treaty of Hudaybiyyah.
But since the Treaty of Hudaybiyyah symbolizes victory
over Mecca, it's only a matter of time.
Fatah al-Mubina has taken place.
Rasulullah ﷺ now focuses on the other domain
of his responsibility as Rasul, and the letters
and contingents start going out.
With respect to Mecca, what ends up happening
is that one of the allies of the
Quraysh attacks one of the allies of Rasulullah
ﷺ.
Now this is a clear breach of the
treaty.
Abu Sufyan, when he comes to know, and
he comes to know that the Prophet ﷺ
has come to know, he tries his level
best to renew the treaty.
Because in this time, since the treaty, Rasulullah
ﷺ and the Sahaba have gained in political
strength as well.
Now they have the Quraysh, if anything, they're
getting weaker and weaker, or at least staying
the same.
For Rasulullah ﷺ and the Sahaba, economically, politically,
they're growing.
They're developing.
They're much stronger.
Abu Sufyan knows now that the treaty is
over, if it is not renewed, we don't
stand a chance.
There's not even a possibility of putting up
a fight.
If Rasulullah ﷺ decides to advance against Mecca,
we're done for.
And so he goes and he literally begs,
we spoke about it when we spoke about
Surah Yusuf, that his desperation was akin to
the desperation of the brothers of Yusuf ﷺ.
Imploring the Prophet ﷺ, imploring Hazrat Ali ﷺ,
imploring his own daughter, who is one of
the wives of the Prophet ﷺ, get this
treaty renewed no matter what.
Rasulullah refuses, and that is a clear signal
that we're going.
When Rasulullah ﷺ decides to go, he does
not share his plans very openly with a
lot of people.
It's not announced as such.
A specific contingent knows, of course, and they're
required to keep it to themselves.
One of the Sahabi, the incident is in
Surah Mumtahina.
He has family in Mecca and everyone has
this sense that if we advance to Mecca,
there's going to be bloodshed.
Even the army of Rasulullah ﷺ is under
the impression that as soon as we reach
Mecca, there is going to be bloodshed.
So this Sahabi was very afraid that my
family is there.
I need to get the message across to
him.
So a whole incident took place for not
going there, but Rasulullah ﷺ and the Sahabi,
entire army is heading towards Mecca.
Mecca doesn't even have time.
Quraysh do not have time to gather forces.
They don't even have the forces or the
resources or the strength or the courage to
put up a fight.
It is going to be, as they thought,
a massacre.
As a lot of the people in the
army of Rasulullah ﷺ thought, a massacre.
Again, Badr, when forgiveness was given, the prisoners
of war were freed in exchange for ransom.
The reproach that came in the Qur'an,
which we spoke about, the understanding became that,
you know, now it's almost a given.
It's definitely a given that if we get
the upper hand against the people of Mecca,
there is going to be revenge.
Rasulullah ﷺ and the Sahabi approach Mecca.
There is a contingent, there is a small
group of people, even in that army, even
in Rasulullah ﷺ's army, who say it out
loud.
Everyone's thinking it.
They say it out loud.
اليوم, today, يوم الملحمة is a day of
massacre.
There is going to be bloodshed.
Rasulullah ﷺ at that point rectifies and says,
اليوم, today, يوم المرحمة is a day of
mercy.
It is pretty incredible that Rasulullah ﷺ was
reproached for being too merciful after Badr.
But here, the confidence with which he pursues
the line of mercy, he knows that this
is a different time.
And right now, the best course forward is
that of mercy, is that of forgiveness.
So the kind of forgiveness and the extent
of forgiveness that Rasulullah ﷺ extends towards the
people of Quraysh, unprecedented.
You don't do that to the people who
tried to kill you for the best part
of almost 18 years.
The people who tried to torture you, exiled
you for whatever they could muster, and that
wasn't by choice, they wanted to kill, not
exile.
Those who have murdered so many of your
followers, killed in battle, murdered before there was
even any battle, nothing had started.
In Makkah, the murders had started.
The torture had started.
Their properties were wrongfully taken away from them,
forcefully.
Not one, but two, but three migrations had
to take place for the Sahaba to be
protected, for their lives to be protected, for
their religion to be protected.
How many battles had taken place?
Badr, Uhud, Khandaq, to name the bigger ones.
There were minor skirmishes here and there as
well.
This has been going on for the best
part of pretty much the entirety of the
Madri period.
So for them to, and then there was
the treaty, yay, but then the treaty was
violated.
You can't trust them.
Rasulullah ﷺ has the power.
He has the legal justification.
He has the moral justification.
As far as the law of the day
is concerned, not written down as such, but
generally understood what constitutes, what it means to
be civilized at that time.
According to Arab norms, Roman norms, Persian norms,
you name it, whatever is prevalent in the
day.
Rasulullah ﷺ was perfectly justified if he massacred
everyone in Makkah.
He was perfectly justified.
Or at least the leaders, at least those
who came out to fight, at least them,
he had the justification.
The previous battles also in the commentary of
the Qur'an on them gave him the
religious justification for it as well.
Yet he does not.
He extends to them a forgiveness, which humanity
never saw before and never saw again.
No one's going to be punished.
No one's going to be punished.
Whoever gathers in the Haram is going to
be forgiven.
Whoever gathers in the house of Abu Sufyan
is going to be forgiven.
Whoever stays in his own home is going
to be forgiven.
Pretty much everyone is going to be forgiven.
There are so many options that are being
given just to let them know.
You take these steps so we know that
you know.
It's all good.
And he repeats the statement of Yusuf Alayhi
Salaam that today.
But why is that statement of Yusuf Alayhi
Salaam so significant at this point?
It connects Rasulullah Alayhi Salaam to Yusuf.
Yes, of course.
It tells us about how the year of
grief, the pain that he was in, and
how that pain was demanding revenge.
But Rasulullah Alayhi Salaam transmuted that feeling, that
emotion and extended it towards forgiveness.
It is also extending to the Quraysh that
you are my brothers, the way Yusuf Alayhi
Salaam's brothers were his brothers.
It is sending that message.
This is the sort of forgiveness I'm extending.
It's brotherly.
When you accept, when you respond, the rights
that you will have will be the same
as the rights of anybody else in Medina.
No difference.
No difference.
And so Rasulullah Alayhi Salaam's announcement shocks everyone.
So much more happens after that.
Surah Tawbah is filled with those details.
We don't go there, but we move to
Hunayn.
Now Rasulullah Alayhi Salaam has an army of
10,000 people.
Again, who are they up against in Hunayn?
These are the same tribes that pelted Rasulullah
Alayhi Salaam with stones, with rocks, made his
shoes filled with blood, abused him, drove him
out like a madman.
It was that point where he made that
du'a, اللهم إليك أشكوا ذو فقوة when
he complained to Allah.
That's what Rasulullah Alayhi Salaam, that's the way
he was dealt with by them.
That's the tribe.
And they're waiting for their time.
Okay, you've taken Mecca.
That means now we take you down.
So Rasulullah Alayhi Salaam is advancing against them.
Of course, fa'if or whatever status that
they had, they are no match for who
the Muslims are at that point.
No comparison, no match, but they strategize.
And in the strategy, they ambush.
They have an idea of the path that
the army is going to take.
Of course, it's a huge army.
How many different paths can you take without
being noticed?
And they plant archers as an ambush.
When the archers ambush the army of 10
,000, there is chaos, there is frenzy, there
is fright.
And that's what these three ayat comment upon.
لَقَدْ نَصَرَكُمُ اللَّهُ فِي مَوَاطِنَ كَثِيرًا Allah has
definitely helped you in many battles.
وَيَوْمَ حُنَيْنٍ And the day of Hunayn.
إِذْ أَعْجَبَتْكُمْ كَثْرَتُكُمْ The Qur'an does not
beat around the bush.
It says straight out that all of you,
you contingent of believers, your great numbers pleased
you.
And of course, it's natural for those numbers
to please you.
They got to you.
It's when something good, when something that is
desirable, and therefore pleasing when you have it,
it gets to you.
It had gotten to your heads.
فَلَمْ تُبْنِي عَنْكُمْ شَيْئًا But that did not
benefit you one bit.
You had numbers, but your numbers availed you
not.
وَضَوَقَتْ عَلَيْكُمُ الْأَرْضُ And the earth confined itself
upon you.
You had numbers, you had power, you had
literally the earth at your disposal, but at
that instant, the way things transpired, the earth
itself constrained upon you.
That's how you felt.
بِمَا رَهُبَتْ Despite its vastness.
So you can have vastness externally, outside in
the outer world, but your internal feeling can
be such that it's as if it's all
constrained despite its vastness.
And that's what the ambush resulted in them
experiencing.
ثُمَّ وَلَّيْتُمْ مُدْوَرِينَ And then you turn back
running away.
Impulse, save your lives.
ثُمَّ أَنزَلَ سَكِينَتَهُ Then Allah sent down His
tranquility.
Message has been sent.
When you were weak, you had support of
Allah.
When you are strong, you need support of
Allah.
Your strength, your power, as important as it
is, as much of a sunnah as it
is, it does not displace, it does not
supplant the need for God.
Your spirituality still needs to remain.
So a small reminder, small reminder that probably
constituted martyrdom of a lot of people to
ensure that this message hits home.
Again, these are not all Badri Sahaba.
They are not all Muhajirun who saw the
difficulties of Mecca.
Some of them, this is a lot of
young blood.
Young in terms of age, yes, but young
also in terms of how long they've spent
in Islam.
As far as they're concerned, they've entered into,
they've joined the winning party.
They're part of the victors now.
So they're like walking with their chests pumped
out.
We got this.
We the strong people.
We the men.
They're being told, no, not so fast.
That's not how this works.
Strength is important.
Rasulullah Sallallahu Alaihi Wasallam has depicted, exhibited in
his sunnah how important it is.
Material resources are important.
And they only become problematic when they get
to your head and what does that mean?
And they have a very strong tendency to
get to your head.
That means that you feel you don't need
anything else or anyone else.
That now, just on the basis of this
strength, you're good.
When the message was communicated, ثُمَّ أَنزَلَ اللَّهُ
سَكِينَتَهُ Then Allah sent down His tranquility.
عَلَىٰ رَسُولِهِ وَعَلَىٰ الْمُؤْمِنِ Upon His Messenger and
the believers.
And how did this tranquility manifest itself?
When all of this took place, Rasulullah Sallallahu
Alaihi Wasallam was looking around and there's frenzy,
everyone's running all over the place.
At that point, Rasulullah Sallallahu Alaihi Wasallam, on
the top of his voice, as loud as
he possibly can, this battlefield, arrows all over
the place, everyone's running.
His slogan that he uses at that point
in the battlefield is so interesting.
And that is what allowed for this tranquility
that he had experienced.
He exhibited it and it permeated the ranks
of the believers and calmed them down.
What was the statement?
أَنَا النَّبِيجُ لَا كَذِب He said, I am
a prophet, I am the messenger of God.
There is no lie in that.
أَنَا I am Ibn Abd al-Muttalib I
am the son of Abd al-Muttalib.
He's referring to his grandfather.
Now his grandfather attaches him or this expression
is announcing how much of a Qurayshi he
is.
His Islam, of course, his prophethood was what
the first statement communicated.
The second statement communicated his tribal, his worldly
position, status.
And Rasulullah ﷺ in bringing both together highlights
the importance, symbolizes the importance of both these
factors being brought together not only at that
instant but in his entire prophethood, his entire
life.
How the holding together of these, the religious
and the secular in such a beautiful relationship
allowed Rasulullah ﷺ to do what he did.
And even at that moment, yes, him rallying
the troops together with this, but it is
not just rallying the troops together in that
instant.
Both these statements, they were instrumental in what
he was able to do in his entire
lifetime.
His prophethood and then all his efforts, politically,
economically, the quote-unquote worldly efforts.
Again, that was unprecedented for the people of
the time.
Their association with spirituality is that it is
anti-everything worldly.
Rasulullah ﷺ brings it together.
تیری نگاہ ناز سے دونوں مراد پا گئے
کون سے دونوں, کس طرح کے دونوں یہاں
پہ.
We see both worlds meeting in Rasulullah ﷺ.
Both worlds finding their best expression, their best
realization in Rasulullah ﷺ's practice.
So now the people hear this, the people
of Ta'if hear this, the people of
the entire army hear this, Medina, Makkah, Quraish,
non-Quraish, all of them hear this slogan.
And that becomes instrumental.
So Allah says in the Qur'an, Allah's
sakinah descended upon the believer's army.
The process through which it descends and then
permeates.
Of that process, one very important aspect was
the slogan of Rasulullah ﷺ.
وَأَنزَلَ جُنُودًا لَمْ تَرَوْهَا And he sent down
forces which you did not see.
وَعَذَّبَ الَّذِينَ كَفَرُوا And he punished the disbelievers.
وَذَلِكَ جَزَاءُ الْكَافِرِينَ And that is the reward
of the disbelievers.
فَمَا يَتُوبُ اللَّهُ مِن بَعْدِ ذَلِكَ عَلَى مَن
يَشَاءُ Then Allah will accept the repentance following
that of whoever wants, whoever is willing, whoever
steps forward.
وَاللَّهُ غَفُورٌ رَحِيمٌ And Allah is extremely forgiving,
always merciful.
وآخر دعوانا أن الحمد لله رب العالمين