Yousuf Raza – Ramadan Nights 2020 Day 10
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AI: Transcript ©
Alhamdulilah, we praise Him, we ask His help,
we ask His forgiveness, we believe in Him,
we trust in Him, and we seek refuge
in Him from the evils of our souls
and from the evils of our deeds.
Whomsoever Allah guides, there is no misguider for
him, and whomsoever He misguides, there is no
guide for him.
And we bear witness that there is no
god but Allah, alone, no partner for Him.
And we bear witness that Muhammad is His
servant and Messenger.
The best hadith is the book of Allah,
and the best guide is the guide of
Muhammad, peace and blessings be upon him.
And the worst of things are its events,
and every event is a creation, and every
creation is a misguidance, and every misguidance is
in the Fire.
My Lord, open my chest and ease my
matter, and clear a point from my tongue
so that my speech may be understood.
O Allah, benefit us with what You have
taught us, and teach us what benefits us,
and increase us in knowledge.
O Allah, increase us in knowledge.
O Allah, accept from us.
O Allah, show us the reality of things
as they are.
O Allah, show us the truth as it
is, and grant us to follow it.
And show us the falsehood as it is,
and grant us to avoid it.
Ameen.
O Lord of the worlds, peace and blessings
be upon you.
We begin with where we left off from
surah Ali Imran, which was, I believe, ayah
number 156.
Please correct me if I'm wrong.
We're continuing from ayah number 156.
Yes, yes, okay.
So continuing from ayah number 156, we are
speaking about the battle of
Uhud.
There is, these ayahs are being revealed in
the aftermath of the battle and all the
lessons that can be drawn from the victory
turned to defeat and how then the defeat
can be turned to a whole lot of
lessons that are necessary for the purging of
the community that is going to be given
incredible responsibilities, that already has an incredible responsibility
and has to carry that forward.
So, continuing then.
أعوذ بالله من الشيطان الرجيم يَا أَيُّهَا الَّذِينَ
آمُنُوا يُّهُوْ هَا فِي الْإِلِيْبِ لَا تَكُونُوا كَالَّذِينَ
كَفَرُوا Do not be like those who did
kufr.
وَقَالُوا لِإِخْوَانِهِمْ And they said to their brothers,
إِذَا ضَرَبُوا فِي الْأَرْضِ While they were traveling
through the earth, أو كانوا غُزًّا Or they
were fighting, لَوْ كَانُوا عِنْدَنَا مَا مَاتُوا وَمَا
قُتِلُوا Had they been with us, neither would
they have died, nor would they have been
killed.
So, particularly in the aftermath of the Battle
of Uhud, this is going to come primarily
from that group of Abdullah ibn Ubayy that
defected, that last minute did not join the
Battle of Uhud, and for them to see
the results, they're like, حَا!
See?
Should not have gone.
Had they not gone, they would still have
been alive today.
Whether that is said on an occasion such
as the occasion of Uhud, which was huge,
and those martyred were صحابة رضي الله تعالى
عنهم the best of Sahaba at that as
well, or any other occasion where there is
such a convinced, such an arrogant comment that
the way I do things, or the choices
that I have made, or that we have
made, they are so much better.
And it's only because they didn't choose our
way, they weren't with us, is why they
were struck the way we're struck.
That is, looking at the calamity, the مصيبة
that did take place, or the death that
took place as an absolute evil for one
thing, as nothing good can come out of
it.
Whereas the entire commentary from the beginning to
all the way now, and all the way
to the end of these passages is that,
yes, it is a defeat, and it hurts,
and it's difficult.
None of those aspects have been denied by
these passages at all.
Rather, they have been affirmed.
The Qur'anic commentary is far more nuanced.
Whereas this comment, had they been with us,
they would not have died.
It is so reductive and it is so
arrogant.
It is this defensive attribution in which they're
looking to boost their own ego and reinforce
their own opinions as to the only good
opinion that they ever could have been.
The Qur'an takes issue with that.
The Qur'an takes issue with that.
Allah...
مَا مَاتُ وَمَا قُتِلُوا لِيَجْعَلَ اللَّهُ ذَلِكَ حَسْرَةً
Allah makes such thoughts cause of regret and
anguish في قلوبهم in their hearts.
How much of what...
If this...
If that...
The kinds of doors that this opens up
to.
The kinds of...
The negativity that this breeds.
The kind of...
Reductive thinking.
The way it excludes the bigger picture.
It excludes Allah from the explanatory notion of
how these things take place.
وَاللَّهُ يُحِي وَيُمِيتُ Allah brings to life.
Allah puts to death.
وَاللَّهُ بِمَا تَعْمَلُونَ بَصِيرٌ And Allah is watching
whatever you do.
وَلَإِن قُتِلْتُمْ فِى سَبِيلِ اللَّهِ So if you
are killed in the cause of Allah أو
مُتتُمْ Or you die لَمَا غُفِرَتْهُمْ مِنَ اللَّهِ
وَرَحْمَةٌ خَيْر Definitely forgiveness from Allah And His
mercy is better.
It is better.
That's what you're looking to get.
It's not death happened.
Prior in the comment that is referred to
as a comment of Kufr Right?
It is emanating from the people of Iman
But it is a comment of Kufr It
is looking at death As an absolute end.
And utterly bad.
As if nothing good can come from it.
The رَحْمَةُ of Allah The رَحْمَةُ of Allah
The bigger picture مَغْفِرَةُ from Allah How about
entertaining all of that in these conversations?
مِمَّا يَجْمَعُونَ As compared to whatever they amass.
Because then what is this death being looked
at?
Oh, death, the ultimate loss Life, had they
continued to live it Look at how much
more They could have been able to do.
How much more They would have been able
to amass.
How much more they could have been Able
to accumulate.
And now that They've lost it.
It is it.
Loss.
Nothing else but loss.
End of story.
What's the point of all of this?
Is what naturally follows From that line of
reasoning.
And The commentary And Allah's way of Looking
at Uhud and how he is Encouraging us
Teaching us to look at All experiences of
loss With this Holistic lens In a more
nuanced way Is The lessons learned The commentary
In these ayat in Surah Al-Imran Is
the process of Bringing life From death In
and of itself That the experience Of death,
the experience of loss The experience of suffering
How it is so rife with life How
Martyrdom Is The people getting Martyred, the shuhada
Their eternalization Their becoming More and more Their
Alive Even after dying How that as a
process There's a legacy that they Leave that
the Surviving Muslims Have to Continue that Process,
take on the mantle of Responsibility that we
are to Draw life from these experiences That
there is going to be And how to
draw life From those experiences Is what is
being elaborated over here That from here on
in All of what happens Is Is Is
Inspired by Experiences of suffering Lessons learned That
the sacrifice of the martyrs The sacrifice of
their very lives Is Towards The cause or
towards Making the world And the lives of
people more Alive More and more alive, more
tawhidic More connected with Allah The testimony that
they have given Of their faith, of their
belief In Allah that should be A living
reality In the world that they leave behind
And then of course their The eternal life
that they get In its own place In
its own Incredible place in the hearts Of
green birds But nevertheless the process Of Getting
life out of those Experiences Of martyrdom yes
But generally Other experiences of loss And suffering
وَلَأِمُتْتُمَ وَقُتِلْتُمْ لَإِلَىٰ اللَّهِ تُحْشَرُونَ Whether you die
or be killed All of you are certainly
going to be brought back Before Allah فَبِمَا
رَحْمَةٍ مِّنَ اللَّهِ لِنْتَ لَهُمْ And so again
coming back to Rasulullah ﷺ It was the
mercy from Allah That you were lenient towards
them So Rasulullah ﷺ Eventually forgave The archers
Despite How much of a loss How much
of Suffering resulted from The Disobedience that took
place And Allah says that this is Special
mercy from Allah that you were able To
do this وَلَوْ كُنْتَ فَضًّا غَلِيظَ ٱلْقَلْبِ Had
you been strict Had you been rigid Fierce
hearted لَنْ فَضُّوا مِنْ حَوْلِكْ They would have
dispersed from around you They would have dispersed
From around you They're already guilt ridden The
people who've gone into Uhud Regardless of what
they've done Going into Uhud says a lot
about where they stand In terms of faith
And the kind of Vulnerable position that they're
in Surviving after So much has gone wrong
Because of them The guilt that they're already
Drowned in If you were to augment that
Hit them while they're down You can rest
assured that this is it They're gone They're
gone Rasulullah's mercy in that Particular situation is
A reflection of Allah's rahma فَعْفُوا عَنْهُمْ So
let them go You've already been lenient With
them, carry this Attitude forward, forgive them وَاسْتَغْفِرْ
لَهُمْ And ask Allah to forgive them as
well It shouldn't be just a superficial forgiveness
It shouldn't be just a show That you
put up And then you're carrying something against
them Some sort of resentment in your heart
Against them, ask Allah to forgive them as
well That even in their absence Without there
being people around Your personal connection with Allah
Is such that you're Constantly bringing them into
your Conversations with Allah Asking Allah to forgive
them So really purging yourself of any possibility
Of again Rasulullah ﷺ lost Hamza And not
to belittle In any way the other Seventy
But Hamza رضي الله تعالى عنه And everyone
else That's not a small loss To get
Emotionally riled up And When you see the
people who are actually Responsible The disobedience of
whom after explicit Orders led to all of
it It's but natural So the process of
Letting it go, being lenient Asking Allah to
forgive them Don't just ask Allah to forgive
them It doesn't even stop there And consult
them In In your decisions Whatever decisions have
to be made Whenever choices have to be
made Mashfara That's the name of the game,
real mashfara Authentic mashfara, where people's feedback Makes
a difference Not just, you know, what do
you have to say What do you have
to say, what do you have to say
And then whatever you had decided from before
Is what is implemented Rasulullah ﷺ would not
put up This pretense of mashfara He would
not come out Two meetings with all decisions
Made prior and then That's it, the meeting
is a formality Rasulullah ﷺ would Give weightage
To what everybody had to say And even
change his own opinion On account of what
takes place In those meetings Uhud is the
Biggest example of that Not once, not once
did Rasulullah ﷺ Say that This happened because
My idea was right We should have stayed
in Medina Abdullah bin Ubay said that And
he also said that My idea was right
and we should have stayed in Medina And
this wouldn't have happened had We listened to
me Rasulullah ﷺ did not And how this
taking their Mashfara seriously within meetings Is the
next level of recognition As to how he's
not carrying any resentment How they have been
Really genuinely forgiven And when you've resolved a
decision Then Once you've made a decision And
you're never going to make a decision Based
on 100% certainty That doesn't exist Every
single decision is based on There's a lot
of There's a lot of ifs and buts
Because it's Necessarily about events that haven't taken
place There's only so much You can predict
There's only so much you can work through
There is a gap and that gap is
covered By a leap of faith That gap
is covered by as much As your understanding
as you can possibly bring into it As
much as your knowledge you can bring into
it As much as Mashfara that people Can
bring into it So now that knowledge base
is Nearing As close to possible To conviction
as possible But then there's always going to
be a gap Whatever Mashfara you're taking Whatever
decision you're in the course of Do not
look for 100% certainty This pursuit of
100% Certainty actually results In the indecisiveness
And the constant Even after having taken a
decision Going back and forth And that's the
worst thing you can possibly do You're neither
here Nor there You say this one day
and the next day You're going in a
different direction And that messes everything up That
messes everything up So where does that Fill
in the gap come from Fill in the
gap comes from Your relationship with Allah The
gap between Where you stand in terms of
how convinced You are and 100% certainty
That gap In probability Is filled up by
Allah Allah loves the people of Allah loves
the people Who rely on him Relying on
him means That even when Whatever it is
that you're choosing to do It apparently backfires
Apparently backfires For all emotional Understanding or emotional
appraisals Of the situation It does backfire Then
recognizing At that point recognizing And even when
making the decision That even if it backfires
All goes awry All hits the fan or
whatever There's good in this And there Is
life In the most deathly Of situations Where
is that going to come from Where is
that perspective going to come from Of being
able to see that life Even in death
It is going to come from recognizing Allah
is the one who brings To life and
gives Death so therefore The whole process of
life and death Is life giving If Allah
helps you No one can overcome you If
he forsakes you Then who is there to
help you after him Because there is going
to be There are thoughts We've already seen
how the Quran talks About the Oh my
God, God is not on our side Maybe
he's on their side Maybe he likes them
Maybe they're on the right track Maybe it
was latul zamat after all All of these
thoughts are being Entertained They're entering in And
so Allah is like okay You want to
play this, you want to do this If
Allah lets you go Where are you going
to go If every defeat, every time you're
down Every loss that you experience Every failure
that you experience Results in you starting to
doubt The whole process all together And give
up Fair enough, give up, where the *
are you going to go Who do you
have Other than Allah What if Allah chooses
to do this Allah lets you go Allah
backs out on you If he really backs
out on you, what are you going to
do What can you do فَمَن ذَا الَّذِي
يَنصُرُكُم مِّن بَعْدِهِ فَوَعَلَ اللَّهِ فَلْيَتَوَكَّلِ الْمُؤْمِنُونَ So
on Allah alone Let the believers put their
trust Tough love That's how love works وَمَا
كَانَ لِنَبِيجٍ أَنْ يَغُلُّ It is not for
a prophet to defraud وَمَن يَغْلُل And whoever
So it's the war booty And then the
hypocrites Particularly Who want it all for themselves
Or a whole lot more for themselves They
see Rasulullah ﷺ Distributing with justice They didn't
look at it as justice The standard of
justice in their head is Whatever comes to
me is just Whatever goes to somebody else
is unjust And so Rasulullah ﷺ is not
conforming To their standard of justice They're accusing
him Hinting at it or explicitly That he's
There's corruption involved There's corruption in how this
Distribution is taking place This is a prophet
It can never do that And whoever does
do that يَأْتِ بِمَا غَلَّ يَوْمَ الْقِيَامَةِ He
will bring whatever he held back Whatever he
Whatever he hid for himself Whatever he cheated
the others off of He's going to bring
it on the Day of Judgment If a
prophet does do that ثُمَ تُوَفَّقْ كُلُّ نَفْسٍ
بِمَا كَاسَبَةً Every individual will be paid in
full For everything that he earned وَهُمْ لَا
يُظْلَمُونَ And they will not face any oppression
whatsoever فَمَنِ اتَّبَعْ رِضْوَانَ اللَّهِ So he's the
one who seeks the pleasure of Allah كَمَنْ
بَأَ بِسَخَطِبْ مِنَ اللَّهِ Can he be like
the one who has Incurred the displeasure from
Allah وَمَأْوَاهُ جَهَنَّمُ And his abode is the
Hellfire وَبِئْسَ الْمَصِيدِ And it is an evil
destination So you're looking at it from the
perspective of We lost the battle Hang on
We lost the battle and Allah is on
their side Can the ones who were In
this for the Ridwan of Allah And the
ones who were In this for displeasure and
wrath Of Allah You're gonna equate them You're
gonna put Allah on the other side هُمْ
دَرَجَاتٌ عِنْدَ اللَّهِ هُمْ دَرَجَاتٌ عِنْدَ اللَّهِ There
are different levels with Allah وَاللَّهُ بَصِيرٌ بِمَا
يَعْمَدُونَ Allah is watching what they do لَقَدْ
مَنَّ اللَّهُ عَلَى الْمُؤْمِنِينَ And for sure Allah
has already Favored the believers اِذْ بَعْثَ فِيهِمْ
رَسُولًا مِّنْ أَنْفُسِهِمْ When He raised among them
A messenger from within themselves How was Uhud
possible To begin with?
Aus, Khazraj People from Quraysh A couple of
people from the Jewish tribes A couple of
people from Outside of Medina How did this
diverse Group of people land there to begin
with?
How did these 1000 minus 300 How did
they show up?
Why are they there?
Why are the Quraysh being challenged?
The way they've never been challenged After they've
been defeated Utterly humiliated at Badr How did
this happen?
Where did this all start?
Remember the dua of Ibrahim Remember every single
Criticism that we have Discussed so far From
Baqarah all the way to Half of Ali
Imran Of the Jews and the Christians As
to how the Deviant representation of religion That
they carry The degenerate religiosity As we continue
to call it How the hallmark of that
degenerate Religiosity has been Social irresponsibility Social Injustice
And that social injustice is carried out Or
manifested in two ways Either the good Some
people are silent And that silence is criminal
Or there's Overtly bad people Carrying out that
injustice And in the face of All of
this What is that religious authority doing?
Or what is that religion doing?
It is Focusing more and more On the
nitty gritties Or that which is not priority
Meaningless rituals Becoming obsessions Becoming Obsessive compulsions actually
And in addition To that The religion of
haramness Becomes the religion of the day The
order of the day Obsessive Self punishment By
constraining Matters upon yourself All the manifestation of
a guilt For not living up To the
mantle To the responsibility That comes from Allah
Channeling that guilt In these deviant useless Directions
And before You know it The sentiment or
the Religious potential Of individuals as well as
the community Is in the service Of pleasure
Power and wealth Of a Privileged class Or
even For the rest of the public where
At least their wishes are being fulfilled You're
gonna be okay So Now Iman Becomes Amani
Faith in Allah In Akhira In the messengers
Distorts Allah becomes Or Tawheed becomes Possessive monotheism
Where you're looking to control him And in
his name Justify all the vile All the
evil All the Obsessive compulsions Two Akhira
becomes Your ultimate wish fulfillment Paradise Three Prophets
become Your intercessors Those who are going to
stand before Allah and intercede for you and
have you forgiven And this is Iman becoming
Amani Iman having been Hijacked By Primitive infantile
Instincts Wish fulfillment Pleasure Power Wealth and how
that manifests Externally in the society as well
So many people Disenchanted from religion Because of
this Corruption that emanates There from And how
does that Follow Where does that What
That degenerate religiosity There is a Continuous refusal
to acknowledge the Ayat of Allah It has
to come It can only stand This fragmented
understanding of religion Where what do religious Rituals
have to do with Your Iman What does
that have to do with Your interactions with
other people Your responsibility within society All broken
up All broken up And how do you
maintain these fragments By rejecting A set of
Ayat By rejecting a set of Ayat This
whole compendium This whole process Rasulullah The way
Ibrahim Prayed for him and the way the
Dua is fulfilled Is instructive as to how
Precisely these Degenerate manifestations of Religiosity are corrected
for So the first Function becomes يَتْلُو عَلَيْهِمْ
آيَاتِهِ لَقَدْ مَنَّ اللَّهُ عَلَى الْمُؤْمِنِينَ So Allah
has favored the believers إِذْ بَعْتَ فِيهِمْ رَسُولًا
مِّنْ أَنفُسِهِمْ When He raised among them A
messenger from within themselves يَتْلُو عَلَيْهِمْ آيَاتِهِ He
recites upon them His Ayat The Ayat through
which Allah Is going to be known in
this holistic Comprehensive way Where He is the
God Of your personal life, of your Masjid
Of your society Of your interactions with your
Spouses, with your children, with your friends With
the broader community The Ayat Bringing all of
that together Bringing all of that together يَتْلُو
عَلَيْهِمْ آيَاتِهِ Where there was The degenerate religiosity
There was a rejection of Ayat وَيُزَكِّيهِمْ And
purifying them This entire process Of تَزْكِيَة Uhud
being a very important manifestation Of that And
how it is This process that rids you
of those Primitive tendencies Of those infantile tendencies
Of hijacking Your Iman, of your Iman Turning
into Amani Of your will to pleasure Or
will to power Or will to money Taking
over your will to be religious Or your
choice To be religious It takes that over
It is very strong And the process, the
entire process Of تَزْكِيَة Is to generate this
degree of Self-consciousness To develop From that
level of self-consciousness And self-consciousness means
Identifying these aspects of your personality And these
tendencies within your personality The incredibly Powerful tendencies
that they are To be able to See
them inside oneself Being oblivious To their presence
And to think that you're too Spiritual or
too righteous to ever have Had them or
you have Successfully overcome them The moment you
said your Kalima is Again, infantile It is
childish It is, as we see Even in
Uhud, the process Is continuing It's a continuous
process of Couraging To be able to self
-consciousness To be able to see that within
Ourself, followed by self-discipline Not self-nihilation
At any place Honor each of those instincts
In their appropriate place Some of them are
a means to an end The end is
Identified Through the ayats And Others are going
to be by-products Of those Efforts that
you have to put in The disciplined efforts
Self-consciousness Self-discipline Self-transcendence Transcendence to
what?
Towards what those ayats have identified For you
is your Particular Relationship with Allah Is what
that entails Or your society Your communities Transcending
towards that Sacrificing For that That Produces that
self-actualization This Entire process of Tazkiyah As
it takes place through the ayats How it's
intricately tied in With the ayats of Allah
With the relationship with the ayats of Allah
The ayat being the The rope of Allah
That holds you strong That helps you be
conscious Of yourself, discipline yourself Transcend yourself And
therefore as a by-product Actualize yourself Third
function Teach them the kitab What is it
that is priority What is meaningful ritual What
are Actual definitive prohibitions What is sharia that
they do have to Conform to With the
entire Spectrum What is definitive Everything Is not
equally haram Or equally Disapproved Or equally Repugnant
There's shades There's priorities There's Darajat Of people
as well The kitab delineates The kitab Instructs
It doesn't leave It creates this sense Of
a Prioritized Religious activity Of a prioritized Interaction
With rituals Where rituals are meaningful Now they're
tied in with that They're tied in with
those ayats They're tied in with What those
Ayats are calling of you from Within your
roles in society And the prohibitions Are in
line with all of that Al kitab wal
hikmah And wisdom How Hikmah And we use
Derivatives of the word in Urdu as well
Istihqam Istihqam-e-Pakistan Right We've heard that
phrase growing up Probably a chapter in some
of our books The strength of the entire
structure The wisdom Behind The kitab Or wisdom
in the instructions In the rituals The meaningfulness
Of the ayats Of the whole process Of
tazkiyah The rituals Their position, the prohibitions To
be able to discern Everything for Where it
belongs To honor it in its precise position
To not Allow for it To not allow
for All of these areas to Transgress To
relate To one another meaningfully The fragmented Perception
The fragmented ayat Ayat fragmented from each other
Fragmented from the process Of your tazkiyah Fragment
Tazkiyah becoming an end in itself We've seen
that We have manifestations of it across history
Where there is self-purification Self-purification Towards
what end?
Towards an end in itself To bring it
all together And we've seen The people of
Tariqat being Separated from the people of shariat
Shariat being the people of Who are following
that kitab The prescriptions, the rituals, the prohibitions
And the tariqat being The institution for Purification
There is nothing wrong with these things being
Institutionalized but then these institutions Being cut off
from each other altogether And then the people
Doing all the social work have no Connection
with either of the two And that's Messed
up And the ayats are Lost for Ok
now they're hocus pocus material Abracadabra Alakazam We've
read all of this Hikmah brings it all
together وَمَن يُعْتَى الحِكْمَةَ فَقَدْ أُعُتِيَ خَيْرًا كَثِيرًا
How it all Ties it up Ties it
up Gives you that discernment Gives you that
Recognition Gives you that lens To be able
to see Everything in its appropriate Place, strengthen
those Relationships Within this Understanding of Your religion
Your Iman All of it brought together وَيُعَلِّمُهُمُ
الْكِتَابَ وَالْحِكْمَةَ وَيُعَلِّمُهُمُ الْكِتَابَ وَالْحِكْمَةَ So that the
Sahaba Are in a position that Even after
Rasulullah ﷺ Passes away They can carry on
They know how it works They know how
it works So this was what Rasulullah ﷺ
Did consistently For 23 years Without this No
Badr, no Uhud No Fath Makkah No Hudayb,
nothing This was his Morus operandi وَإِن كَانُوا
مِن قَبْلُوا لَفِيضُ الْآلِ مُّبِينَ And before this
they were Way off track Definitely lost أَوَلَمَّا
أَصَابَتْكُمْ مُصِيبًا So why is it then when
a single disaster Struck you قَدْ أَصَبْتُمْ مِثْ
لَيْهَا And you had already Thumped them Twice
this Which you have suffered قُلْتُمْ أَنَّهَذَا You
said where did this come from Come on
You're graduates from the school Of يَتْلُوْ عَلَيْهِمْ
آيَتِهِ وَيُزَكِّيهِمْ وَيُعَلِّمُهُمْ الْكِتَابَ وَالْحِكْمَةِ Or at least
you're still enrolled in that school Even if
you haven't graduated as yet And you're You're
a good way ahead We're in the third
year of Hijrah And so Allah SWT reminding
them Bigger picture back up here What brought
you to Uhud All of this process Everything
that you've learned from here How do you
look at this suffering How do you look
at this loss This defeat How can you
say where did this come from Why is
this so shocking for you Come on Pick
yourselves up قُلْ هُوَ مِنْ عِنْدِ أَنفُسِكُمْ Tell
them this is from your own selves You
can't scapegoat God after all of this You
can't say it was Him He let us
go If He lets you go Don't scape
Not after all of this Not after being
through the process Not after knowing Him and
knowing how your involvement And your choices make
a difference You're going to use His words
against Him And say that He's let you
go That He caused you to suffer defeat
And He owed you victory How No You
know better قُلْ هُوَ مِنْ عِنْدِ أَنفُسِكُمْ Tell
them it is your own selves You did
this, you brought it on Now learn your
lessons قُلْ هُوَ مِنْ عِنْدِ أَنفُسِكُمْ Definitely Allah
has power over everything So the very phrase
that is going to be used To scapegoat
Allah To cop out of our own Responsibilities
Allah puts that phrase at the end Of
the ayah that says it's your fault Allah
is over all things powerful And it is
precisely from that That He has empowered you
And it is precisely because of that Your
decisions, your choices Are consequential Take ownership وَمَا
أَصَابَكُمْ يَوْمَ الْتَقَى الْجَمْعَانِ And whatever happened to
you on the day When the two forces
confronted each other فَبِإِذْنِ اللَّهِ It was with
the Izn of Allah It was with Allah's
permission وَلِيَعْلَمَ الْمُؤْمِنِينَ So He could see the
believers So He could discern the believers وَالَّذِينَ
وَلِيَعْلَمَ الَّذِينَ نَافَقُوا So He could discern the
believers From the hypocrites The time has come
The process of tazkiyah Entails not just an
individual But the entire community Believers Hypocrites This
It has to take place This This catalysis
What is that called?
Cathode?
Anode?
You know Positive on one side Negative on
the other The furqan, the tafriq Between Who's
really on Rasulullah ﷺ's side وَلِيَعْلَمَ
الَّذِينَ نَافَقُوا وَلِيَعْلَمَ الَّذِينَ نَافَقُوا And so He
may know Those who are hypocrites وَقِيلَ لَهُمْ
تَعَالَى وَقَاتِلُوا فِي سَبِيلِ اللَّهِ أَوِدْفَعُوا And it
was said to them, come Fight in the
cause of Allah or at least defend قَالُوا
لَوْ نَعْلَمُوا قِتَالًا لَكْتَبَعْنَاكُمْ When they were told
Fight, come You know, the whole city is
Under attack You signed up for this They
said, if we really Knew that fighting was
going to happen We would definitely have followed
you Why would we not?
We were pretty sure that there wasn't going
to be any fight These Quraish are cowards
It's so surprising that they came هُمْ لِلْكُفْرِ
يَوْمَئِذٍ أَقْرَبُوا مِنْهُمْ لِلْإِيمَانِ They were far closer
to Kufr on that day Than Iman So
every Mu'min Every claimant To Iman, everyone who
falls in the Category of يَا أَيُّهَا الَّذِينَ
آمَنُوا There is a Kufr within me There
is a Iman within me And my choices
Determine which way My pendulum is swinging Closer
to Kufr Closer to Iman يَقُولُونَ بِأَفْوَاهِهِمْ مَا
لَيْسَ فِي قُلُوبِهِمْ They are saying What's not
in their hearts وَاللَّهُ أَعْلَمُ بِمَا يَكْتُبُونَ And
Allah is fully aware Of what they're hiding
الَّذِينَ قَالُوا لِإِخْوَانِهِمْ وَقَعُدُوا Sitting at home They
said about their Their brothers لَوْ أَطَاعُونَ مَا
قُتِلُوا Had they listened to us They wouldn't
have died قُلْ فَضْرَأُوا أَنْ أَنفُسِكُمُ الْمَوْتِ Tell
them you're so all-powerful Avert death from
yourselves إِن كُنتُمْ صَادِقِينَ If you really are
true in this claim وَلَا تَحْسَبَنَّ الَّذِينَ قُتِلُوا
فِي سَبِيلِ اللَّهِ يَمْمَعْتَ Don't consider those who
were killed in the cause of Allah As
dead بَلْ أَحْيَأْ They are alive عِندَ الرَّبِّهِمْ
يُرْزَقُونَ They're being provided They're being given rizq
With their Rabb Their Rububia Relationship is continuing
They committed themselves To growth They committed themselves
To this Rabb-Abd Collaboration So it continues
Even after their death It doesn't end The
The rizq Provision continues How it is What
it's like No eye has seen No ear
has heard No heart has ever imagined We
can venture Analogies Metaphors What it may May
not look like All of that فَرِحِينَ بِمَا
آتَاهُمُ اللَّهُ مِنْ فَضْلِهِ They are rejoicing, celebrating
in what Allah has bestowed upon them Out
of His favor Out of His fadl Given
them more Than what they could have ever
imagined or what they even worked for وَيَسْتَبْشِرُونَ
بِاللَّذِينَ لَمْ يَلْحَقُوا بِهِمْ مِنْ خَلْفِهِمْ And they
are celebrating the glad tidings they receive About
the ones that they left behind Who have
not joined them yet أَلَّا خَوْفٌ عَلَيْهِمْ وَلَا
هُمْ يَحْزَنُونَ That there is nothing for them
to fear Nor regret يَسْتَبْشِرُونَ بِنِعْمَةٍ مِنَ اللَّهِ
وَفَضْلِهِ They are celebrating In the blessing and
favor from Allah وَأَنَّ اللَّهَ لَا يُضِيءُ أَجْرَ
الْمُؤْمِنِينَ And without a doubt Allah will not
allow the reward Of the believers to go
to waste الَّذِينَ اسْتَجَابُوا لِلَّهِ وَالرَّسُولِ And those
who responded To the call of Allah and
the messenger So this passage Relates to The
aftermath of Uhud Two incidents that it may
possibly Relate to One particular incident Is when
Immediately They're still on the battleground Abu Sufyan
has retreated Khalid bin Walid Was of the
opinion Let's go finish them off their down
Abu Sufyan said no We've avenged Badr That's
what we came for We've done it We've
avenged Badr We don't have to go back
This is it They may have regrouped This
or that So there was a possibility That
they would have come at that point And
there That possibility reached The The Muslim camp
which was very Down at that time It's
recovering It's bewildered What just happened Which is
why all of these ayats Are coming in
to Bring them out of that bewilderment Still
at that point Rasool Allah When this possibility
reaches them Lets them know we've got to
stand up again And they're ready To stand
up again at that point Even at that
point Despite the bewilderment Despite the shock of
what has happened Despite the grief of having
lost Their brothers Despite the guilt That a
lot of them are feeling Despite all of
that they're willing to stand up again So
one possibility Is there The other possibility is
Between the Quraish And The Muslims in Medina
there was This sort of a Communication As
to okay fine Badr, Uhud one each Let's
come back Again in Badr Tiebreaker Let's see
who Finishes off who And there was Rumors
Being spread around that a huge army Is
going to come And this is going to
be it The Quraish are putting together everything
that they can possibly muster And it was
in the face of this that The mu'mineen
are being asked Are you ready for it
Those who responded to the call of Allah
and the messenger In spite of being wounded
In spite of being hurt The damage was
incurred Despite that they stood up The strength
of Iman The strength of faith Is not
Being Damaged at all Not being invincible Not
being It's not in Not having any vulnerabilities
It is getting up Despite the wound Despite
the hurt Despite the pain Despite the damage
Despite all the vulnerabilities مِن بَعْدِ مَا أَصَابَهُمُ
الْقَرْحِ لَلَّذِينَ أَحْسَنُوا مِنْهُمْ وَاتَّقَوْا أَجْرٌ أَظِيمٌ For
those of them who With Ihsan Who have
Ihsan And have Taqwa For them there is
a great reward الَّذِينَ قَالَ لَهُمُ النَّاسُ These
are the ones who were told by the
people إِنَّ النَّاسَ قَدْ جَمَعُوا لَكُمْ فَخْشَعُوهُمْ So
they were told All There is a huge
gathering Of people Are getting together So fear
them Be afraid of them فَزَادَهُمْ إِيمَانًۭ And
this only increased them in Iman وَقَالُوا حَسْبُنَا
اللَّهُ And they said Allah is enough for
us This choice This expression is an expression
Of Increasing Iman And how Iman needs to
be increasing It's not static And these choices
Of what to say Of what to do
Of when to stand They are reflective of
They're not just reflective Of what's going on
They're also They lead to the increase as
well It's a bi-directional relationship وَنِعْمَ الْوَكِيلَ
And how excellent A wakil Someone to be
relied upon Someone to Take care of stuff
Allah will take care of all We stand
up, we're ready to go Odds are against
you, Allah will take care of the odds
فَانْقَلَبُوا بِنِعْمَةٍ مِنَ اللَّهِ وَفَضْلٍ So they returned
With a blessing and favor from Allah لَمْ
يَمْسَسْهُمْ سُوءًۭ The Quraish didn't show up Either
of those occasions وَاتَّبَعُوا رِضْوَانَ اللَّهِ And they
were still pursuing the pleasure of Allah وَاللَّهُ
ذُو فَضْلٍ عَظِيمٍ And Allah is the possessor
Of great bounty This pleasure of Allah This
happiness of Allah This satisfaction of Allah Whatever
it is Whatever it is Behoving His Majesty
It's inconceivable It's inconceivable for us But there
is something Something we can relate to Something
that reflects His personal involvement And care and
concern for us That It is going to
come as a response To what we do
That our doing it Incurs that pleasure It
leads to that pleasure It earns that pleasure
That Says something about Him Something so different
From the robotic perceptions that we Somehow end
up Carrying about Him وَاللَّهُ ذُو فَضْلٍ عَظِيمٍ
إِنَّمَ ذَلِكُمُ الشَّيْطَانُ يُخَوِّفُ أَوْلِيَاءً It is definitely
Shaitaan Who intimidates you From His allies فَلَا
تَخَافُوهُمْ But do not be Afraid of them
There is two readings Of this phrase إِنَّمَ
ذَلِكُمُ الشَّيْطَانُ يُخَوِّفُ أَوْلِيَاءً That the ones Scaring
you of His friends Is Shaitaan Or the
only people That Shaitaan can Actually intimidate With
these thoughts Are those who are His friends
The thoughts are real The fear within That
access Shaitaan has He can create Thoughts of
fear Even emotions of fear Even emotions of
fear But in the face of The thoughts
of fear And the emotions of fear Shaitaan
within People and rumors outside In the face
of them making the choice حَسْبُنَ اللَّهُ We're
going forward That's Iman فَلَا تَخَافُوهُمْ So do
not be afraid of them Siding with those
thoughts Gravitating towards those thoughts Identifying with those
thoughts A.
As your own Not recognizing them As the
demonic access Within your personality To your own
Shayateen Not recognizing that Oh this is me
I can't go I'm afraid A.
B.
Acting on it Identifying in action With it
That is being The friend to Shaitaan فَلَا
تَخَافُوهُمْ Do not be afraid of them خَافُونِي
وَخَافُونِي But be afraid of me Allah says
إِن كُنتُم مُؤْمِنِينَ If you really are believers
وَلَا يَحْزُنْكَ الَّذِينَ يُسَارِعُونَ فِي الْكُفْرِ Let them
not grieve you those who race each other
in Kufr إِنَّهُمْ لَنْ يَضُرُّوا اللَّهَ شَيْئًا For
sure they are not going to harm Allah
one bit The decisions have been made The
swords have been drawn You're in it You're
in it No backing off now No backing
off now Now The Azam has done Has
been done Now تَوَكَّلُونَ Allah means that Come
hay or sunshine You're not giving up Come
hail or sunshine You're not giving up إِنَّهُمْ
لَنْ يَضُرُّوا اللَّهَ شَيْئًا For sure they're not
going to harm Allah one bit يُرِيدُوا اللَّهُ
أَلَّا يَجْعَلَ لَهُمْ حَظًّا فِي الْآخِرَةِ Allah wants
that they have no share in the Hereafter
وَلْهُمْ عَذَابٌ عَظِيمٌ And for them it's a
severe punishment The more they do things like
this The more they're losing out on the
opportunities And possibilities of good in the Hereafter
إِنَّ الَّذِينَ اشْتَرَوَا الْكُفْرَ بِالْإِمَانِ And those who
purchased Kufr at the price of Iman لَنْ
يَضُرُّوا اللَّهَ شَيْئًا They're not harming Allah one
bit وَلَهُمْ عَذَابٌ عَلِيمٌ For them it's a
painful punishment, the possibilities of hypocrisy As to
how it is an exchange Exchanging Taking up
Kufr for Iman وَلَهُمْ عَذَابٌ عَلِيمٌ وَلَا يَحْزَبَنَّ
الَّذِينَ كَفَرُوا And the disbelievers should not think
أَنَّمَا نُمْلِي لَهُمْ خَيْرٌ لِيَنْفُسِهِمْ That the respite
we give them Is good for them إِنَّمَا
نُمْلِي لَهُمْ لِيَزْدَادُوا إِثْمَنٍ Is so that they
increase in sin وَلَهُمْ عَذَابٌ مُحِيمٌ And for
them it's a humiliating punishment مَا كَانَ اللَّهُ
لِيَذْرَ الْمُؤْمِنِينَ عَلَى مَا أَنْتُمْ عَلَيْهِ Allah is
not going to leave the believers In the
condition that you're in Allah is not going
to let you be like this He's not
going to leave you down And out and
forsake you حَتَّى يَمِيزَ الْخَبِيثَ I'm sorry this
is another Allah is not going to leave
the believers In the condition they're in حَتَّى
يَمِيزَ الْخَبِيثَ مِنَ الطَّيِّبِ Until he separates the
evil from good So there's two ways of
leaving the believers One way is Let them
be And not improve their condition That's not
what is being spoken of As I thought
What is being spoken of is The discernment
has to take place The separation Has to
take place The people of Imaan Have to
be distinguished It is the process of communal
tazkiyah The community's tazkiyah Who stays strong Despite
the difficulties Stays with Rasulullah ﷺ حَتَّى يَمِيزَ
الْخَبِيثَ مِنَ الطَّيِّبِ وَمَا كَانَ اللَّهُ لِيُطْلِعَكُمْ عَلَى
الْغَيْبِ And nor would Allah reveal to you
The unseen وَلَكِنَّ اللَّهَ يَجْتَبِ مِن رُّسُلِهِ مَن
يَشَاءُ But for Allah chooses from his messengers
Whomever he wills Imaan is necessitated Precisely because
we don't have Access to unseen It is
faith And therefore There's possibilities Either way And
you Believing in the possibility That Imaan entails
That faith entails That Rasulullah ﷺ Is saying
That is why it's worthy of credit وَلَكِنَّ
اللَّهَ يَجْتَبِ مِن رُّسُلِهِ مَن يَشَاءُ Allah chooses
From his messengers whom he wills They're the
ones who have access To wahy And Allah
Unveils Ghayb to them فَآمِنُوا بِاللَّهِ وَرُسُلِهِ So
believe in Allah and his messengers وَإِن تُؤْمِنُوا
وَتَتَّقُوا فَلَكُمْ أَجْرٌ عَظِيمٌ And if you believe
and have taqwa There will be a great
reward for you Putting all your eggs in
this one basket Not sure Of what's gonna
happen tomorrow Yet committing yourselves That's faith وَلَا
يَحْسَبَنَّ الَّذِينَ يَبْخَلُونَ بِمَا آتَاهُمُ اللَّهُ مِنْ فَضْلِهِ
Let them not think those who are stingy
In what Allah has granted them out of
his bounty وَخَيْرٌ لَّهُمْ That this stinginess is
good for them بَلْ هُوَ شَرٌ لَّهُمْ This
is in fact evil for them سَيُطَوَّقُونَ مَا
بَخِلُوا بِهِ يَوْمَ الْقِيَامَةِ Whatever they are hoarding
Is gonna be hung around their necks On
the day of judgment وَلِلَّهِ مِرَاثُ السَّمَاوَاتِ وَالْأَرْضِ
And the heritage of the heavens and the
earth Belongs to Allah alone وَاللَّهُ بِمَا تَعْمَلُونَ
خَبِيرٌ And Allah is aware of all Of
what you do Continuing from The 19th رُكُوع
Ayah number 181 لَقَدْ سَمِعَ اللَّهُ قَوْلَ الَّذِينَ
قَالُوا Allah has heard The statement of those
who say إِنَّ اللَّهَ فَقِيرٌ وَنَحْنُ أَغْنِيَاً That
Allah is poor And we are rich سَنَكْتُبُ
مَا قَالُوا وَقَتْلَهُمُ الْأَنْبِيَاءَ بِغَيْرِ حَقٍّ We will
record the statement of theirs And Their act
of killing The prophets unduly So The Jews
were saying this Within The vicinity of Medina
The Friends of the Jews Within the Muslims
Were saying this And those who turn out
to be the hypocrites Later on That all
of this Allah calling us for help Allah
Asking us to spend Allah needs us Allah
is needy Allah is dependent And we Are
so High and mighty And rich And independent
Allah says We are noting this down We
got this, we know where this is coming
from And this is the continuation of the
same Attitude of their ancestors Who didn't Even
spare their Anbiya Who were fighting against their
Anbiya Who were killing their Anbiya It's coming
from the same place Allah is Giving opportunities
For spending For Helping him Despite his power
Despite his Istighna, despite him being Ghani, despite
him being aziz You don't see that And
you just flip to the Other extreme all
together وَنَقُلُوا ذُوقُوا عَذَابَ الْحَرِيقِ And we will
tell them, taste the punishment of the scorching
fire They'll be clumped together With the others
from their Ancestry who manifested The same attitude,
they're gonna be like One family of Prophet
killers ذَلِكَ بِمَا قَدَّمَتْ عَيْدِيكُمْ This is because
of what your hands have Sent forth, this
is what you have done Your acts you've
committed وَأَنَّ اللَّهَ لَيْسَ بِظَلَّامٍ لِّلْعَبِيدِ And for
sure Allah is not unjust Towards his Ibad
أَلَّذِينَ قَالُوا إِنَّ اللَّهَ عَهِدَ إِلَيْنَا And those
who claim Allah has given us a promise
أَلَّا نُؤْمِنَ لِرَسُولٍ حَتَّى يَأْتِينَ بِالْقُرَبَانِ And that
we will never believe In a messenger until
he produces A sacrifice before us تَأْكُلُهُ النَّارِ
Consumed by fire So one of the signs
that they were given Previously for previous messengers
That were supposed to come Is that something
like this is going to happen And there's
going to be a sacrifice And that sacrifice
is going to be devoured By a fire
and that's going to be A sign that
that sacrifice has been accepted And that's going
to be a sign that that is a
prophet That you have to follow And see,
our books say that And this Messenger Doesn't
do that No fire No sign No true
prophet قُلْ قَدْ جَاءَكُمْ رُّسُلُ مِنْ قَبْلِ بِالْبَيْجِيَنَاتِ
وَبِالَّذِي قُلْتُمْ Tell them Messengers before me have
brought you clear signs And even what you're
asking for That has happened as well فَلِمَا
قَتَلْتُمُهُمْ إِنْ كُنْتُمْ صَادِقِينَ Why did you go
on killing them If you really are truthful
That has happened before And now as we've
spoken before with the progression Of Of humanity
And with The progression of humanity Each subsequent
prophet These sorts of signs These aren't the
kinds that That are On vogue anymore They're
not the ones that Maturity of humanity requires
Now the kinds of signs are Ayats in
the Quran That Affirm Rasulullah ﷺ And then
of course They affirm the ayats Outside A
whole different level Those The miracles of the
previous Prophets, very different Ayats of the previous
prophets Very different There is no correspondence Or
the ayats Or the verses that they have
in their Bible The Prophecies with respect to
Specifically Rasulullah ﷺ This is not This doesn't
go That was for other prophets Prior to
him And Even when those did come You
don't accept them But if they deny you
Many messengers before you have already been Denied
Again alluding to this Attitude that persists Transgeneration
That even the ones that did kill the
Prophets were people from the previous generations But
the Stubbornness, the arrogance That which these people
Are so irrationally manifesting Is Continuing that That
legacy Of evil, of their ancestors And not
being able to Break away from that Is
what they are responsible for They came
with clear signs Written
books And Books with light Enlightening books, written
ordinances Clear ayats, all of that Brought Every
single human being Every single human being Every
individual is going to taste Death وَإِنَّمَ تُوَفَّوْنَ
أُجُورَكُمْ يَوْمَ الْقِيَامَةِ And indeed you will be
paid your full Compensation On the day Of
judgment You forget your death You forget your
afterlife When you make such Horrendous claims about
Allah When you take up these Attitude Against
the ayats of Allah You forget your death
You think You think you're so invincible That
you can take You get deluded by Your
current state Of strength Power, authority So as
to think that it's never going To end
That it isn't temporary And it is This
Forgetfulness Of death That reinforces This arrogance In
which you You Act towards the ayats of
Allah And the prophets of Allah the way
you do And then even Allah وَإِنَّمَ تُوَفَّوْنَ
أُجُورَكُمْ يَوْمَ الْقِيَامَةِ فَمَنْ زُحْزِحَ عَنِ النَّارِ وَأُدْخِلَ
الْجَنَّةَ فَقَدْ فَازْ Whoever is drawn away from
the fire And admitted to paradise Has indeed
been successful وَمَا الْحَيَاةُ الدُّنْيَا إِلَّا مَتَاءُ الْغُرُورِ
And the life of this world And what
is the life of this world Except chattels
of Deception Except articles of use Dunya in
and of itself Is so powerful So overwhelming
The impact that it has And the sensory
impact that it has That The impression that
this is It And nothing else beyond this
It is so potent It is so potent
That it is only This very human faculty
of Believing Of being able to believe And
being able to see Beyond what is sensory
That you can conceive Of a hereafter That
from within this dunya You pick out the
signs That let you know that this is
not all there is In every state Of
suffering In every state Of strength The Possibility
Of letting that get to you To the
point Of thinking that this is it And
nothing else Both those possibilities are there So
in the aftermath Of Uhud When the intense
suffering Has taken place To start making Conclusive
judgments This is it This is telling We've
been cursed, we've been forsaken God is on
their side This isn't working Why Conclusive judgments
already And similarly on the flip side When
you're strong, when you're behind your Fortresses, when
you have your Wealth flowing When you have
all that authority To let that get to
Your head When it presents to you as
the End all, this is it, this is
never gonna This is never gonna Go away
This is it That's the gurur Potential of
dunya The gurur Potential, the deceptive potential Incredibly
potent Incredibly potent Incredibly destructive You will be
Tested through Your wealth and through Yourselves, through
your health Through your strength of your own
selves You are, this is All of the
good The having of it and the not
having of it The presence of it The
absence of it And everything in between The
entire spectrum These are tests Trials, opportunities For
you to Prove Faith that you have A
dog Or any other animal Based on Sensory
experience Can take Precautionary measures What's the What's
the greatness in that Your Privilege on account
Of being human Is being able to foresee
Is in being able to Bring To your
mind Consciously When all the sensory Stimuli around
you Are saying otherwise, they are pointing to
Your strength But your ability to time Travel
in your head through language Such that you
bring death into The equation Such that you
look at Actions having consequences And from Faith
be able to make More responsible decisions That's
what you're capable Of So do not denigrate
Yourselves By just this Sense response Stimulus response
Lifestyle Within your wealth The having of it,
the not having of it Your health The
strength and the weakness of it Pick up
the patterns Pick up what's behind that What
it's representing The bigger picture وَلَتَسْمَعُنَّ مِنَ الَّذِينَ
أُوتُوا الْكِتَابَ مِنْ قَبْلِكُمْ وَمِنَ الَّذِينَ أَشْرَقُوا أَذًا
كَثِيرًا And you will hear a lot of
abuse From those who've been given the scripture
before you And the mushrikeen Don't think you're
just gonna You're gonna be allowed A red
carpet walk That you're doing them good and
you'll You have their best interest in your
heart And they're gonna be all okay and
diplomatic with you No They're gonna be very
abusive, they can't stand you They're gonna pick
out points And start criticizing They're gonna have
a field day When When you're down Particularly
They're gonna add insult to injury Don't expect
any better From them And that's part of
the challenge And it hurts It hurts big
time When you see the abusiveness That people
are capable of The extent to which they
will go To bring you down وَإِن تَصْبِرُوا
وَتَتَّقُوا فَإِنَّ ذَلِكَ مِنْ عَزْمِ الْأُمُورِ But if
you persevere and have taqwa Keep doing what
you're doing Let the barking dogs bite Let
the barking dogs bark And even if they
bite Fling them off Don't mess with them
You don't have to engage with them You
don't There's no reason to engage with them
Until the time is right when you have
to Engage with them As far as their
abuses are concerned As far as their barks
are concerned Don't let them put you off
From what you have to do Sabr in
which is perseverance In the cause that you've
taken up They want to distract you They're
not interested In your truth They're not They're
not giving you There's no constructive element in
their feedback There's nothing like that All they
intend Is to bring you down Their criticism
Is for the sake of Abusiveness and to
bring you down It is out of animosity
Don't let That get to you It will
get to you But even when it does
Get to you It hurts you Practically what
is it that you're supposed to do تَصْبِرُوا
وَتَتَّقُوا Keep going, doing what you're doing Eyes
on the prize فَإِنَّ ذَلِكَ مِنْ عَزْمِ الْأُمُورِ
So that is a matter of great determination
It takes a lot of willpower Resolve To
be able to do that Despite the hurt
coming from outside Despite the reaction you want
to give From the inside to keep going
وَإِذْ أَخَذَ اللَّهُ مِثَاقًا لَذِينَ أُوتُوا الْكِتَابُ And
when Allah took a covenant from those given
the scripture لَتُبَيِّنُنَّهُ لِلنَّاسِ وَلَا تَكْتُمُونَ That you
should make crystal clear to people to humanity
and you should not conceal it فَنَبَذُوهُ وَرَأَ
ظُهُورِهِمْ They cast it behind their backs This
is how they dealt with their scripture You
expect any better from them?
وَاشْتَرَوْا بِهِ ثَمَنًا قَلِيلًا Exchange it for trivial
gain For immediate profits فَبِئْسَ مَا يَشْتَرُونَ How
despicable was their bargain لَا تَحْسَبَنَّ الَّذِينَ يَفْرَحُونَ
بِمَا أَتَوَّ وَيُحِبُّونَ أَن يُحْمَدُوا بِمَا لَمْ يَفْعَلُوا
Do not think those who rejoice in what
they have perpetrated and they love to be
praised for what they have not done فَلَا
تَحْسَبَنَّهُمْ بِمَا فَازَةَ مِنَ الْعَذَابِ Do not think
that they will escape the punishment What does
it say about the personalities that they've developed?
What does this say about them?
They find pleasure They are happy for your
suffering and they are comparing themselves to you
and how much they have and they are
proud of it even though they really haven't
done much to earn it they've inherited it
or they've just they're just eating off of
other people's work and they think that they
have this entitlement that this was their hard
work that got it for them and they
love being praised for efforts they haven't made
What does that say about them?
Don't think that this is going to save
them from the fire.
Allah is not going to make a judgment
based on their self-concept Allah is independent
of that وَلِلَّهِ مُلْكُ السَّمَاوَاتِ وَالْأَرْضِ وَاللَّهِ مُلْكُ
السَّمَاوَاتِ وَالْأَرْضِ وَاللَّهِ مُلْكُ السَّمَاوَاتِ وَالْأَرْضِ وَاللَّهُ
عَلَى كُلِّ شَيْءٍ قَدِيدٍ and Allah is over
all things powerful فِي خَلْقِ السَّمَاوَاتِ وَالْأَرْضِ وَاخْتِلَافِ
اللَّيْلِ وَالنَّهَارِ So the passages that made Rasulullah
ﷺ literally lose sleep that when they were
revealed Rasulullah ﷺ comes to Aisha رضي الله
تعالى عنها one night and this is Aisha
رضي الله تعالى عنها remembering reminiscing one of
her most fascinating memories of Rasulullah when he
comes to her and then withdraws from her
this is Aisha teaching this to Sahaba that
Rasulullah came to me, our skins touched and
then he withdrew and then he took my
permission he said, Aisha if it is okay
with you I would like to pray to
Allah and she says, your qurb is beloved
to me but that you pray to Allah
and Allah is also beloved to me by
all means and so he goes and he
does wudu in the most ahsan way and
then he turns to pray and he cries
standing till his beard is wet with his
tears and then he cries in sajdah and
then when he is done with his prayer
he is on his bed, he is laying
down on his side and he is crying
to the point that it is morning entire
night these are not insignificant ayats and so
Bilal comes to Rasulullah ﷺ and asks he
is there to ask permission for Adhan and
he is disturbed because Rasulullah is disturbed he
is like Ya Rasulullah what is this all
about and he responds to Bilal why should
I not be this way what other response
should there be given what has been revealed
to me given what ayat have been revealed
to me and how whoever hears them and
does not reflect over them damn that person
this is does that say anything of the
significance of what this stands for and when
we reflect over the condition of our society
particularly Muslim society how not taking these ayats
seriously what it has done to us as
a people again just a few passages ago
Rasulullah ﷺ primary modus operandi as we called
it he is going to recite upon them
Allah's ayat his responsibility of reciting upon people
Allah's ayat what do those ayat say, what
do those ayat do they affirm other ayat
definitely in the creation of the heavens and
the earth and the alternation of the night
and day the ayat, there are definitely ayat,
in all of these multiple ayat multiple is
like too small of a word infinite ayat
reflecting the infinite potential of Allah manifesting itself
in the form of these ayat the samawat
and ard representing the material universe the
alternation of the day and night the progression
representing time so pretty much everything in space
and time and then how Allama says time
is a matter of life and death for
a Muslim the concept of time everything in
space and time material universe ayat within the
material universe everything that the quote on quote
hard sciences or physical sciences have made a
subject of their study and then how time
and I would contend and argue how that
phenomena of time or the concept of time
how it relates those material sciences or hard
sciences to the human sciences if you will
or the soft sciences and this link we
can appreciate when a similar ayat in surat
fussilat we will soon show them our ayat
in the afaaq samawat wal ard wafee anfusihim
and within their own selves what is not
mentioned there is the alternation of the day
and night and we can see what is
missing there and is present here and what
is missing here and is present there it
compliments and what is present in both the
relationship how time relates these two there are
ayat particularly how devoid of the practice of
dhikr as we are going to see in
the next ayah only studying only focusing on
these ayat and the ayat become ends in
themselves gods other than Allah the understandings that
have developed that have become predominant they disregard
time altogether time is not taken seriously it
is seen as a as a deception as
unreal and therefore also consciousness that for the
most part understandings of psychology continue to contradict
themselves in looking at human consciousness to be
deceptive or a deception in and of itself
not real having said that it was a
religious position to divorce from their area of
focus these ayat and so they have been
taken up by a people who were essentially
devoid or unaware of their spiritual heritage and
so their reading even though it has been
incredibly incredibly transformative revolutionary as to what we
now know but then necessarily because of this
divorce or this attitude of animosity towards anything
spiritual or religious or scriptural specifically is such
that it shows that as much as when
you when you take ayats and separate them
from each other when you break them apart
and you study fragments and you have no
idea how the fragments relate and each fragment
for you is a whole is absolute and
you reject other fragments at least practically or
you subject other fragments to absolute inferiority what
remains with you is a degenerate understanding of
the fragment that you have so minus the
Quran the Bible or any understanding of Bible
in the aftermath of the Quran having been
revealed is going to be a degenerate understanding
of the Bible although it will be rife
with flashes of brilliance similarly any understanding of
the ayats in afaaq in the material universe,
space and time will be degenerate minus its
relatedness to the ayats in scripture it
is but inevitable it is but inevitable you
take up the renal system in the human
body you isolate it the kidney system and
you try to study the kidney system isolated
and it cut off from how it relates
with the neurological or how it relates with
the cardiovascular what are you going to end
up with what sort of a study of
the human body is that going to be
degenerate, incomplete inadequate, inconsistent self contradictory although
rife with flashes of brilliance so inna fi
khalqis samawati wal ardi ayat that gave Rasulullah
at least one sleepless night that we can
mention that we know of not just sleepless
one in which he is crying throughout does
that matter does matter matter inna fi khalqis
samawati wal ardi wa khtilafil layli wal nahari
la ayat li ulil albab for a people
of understanding for the people of lub how
important it is to refined reason this is
refined reason unrefined reason devastating rationalizing
evil even la ayat li ulil albab allatheena
yazkuroon allaha qiyamah wa qu'udah wa ala
junubihim those who remember Allah while standing sitting
and lying down on their sides so the
people of ayat those involved in the
mystic observation of nature also involved in remembrance
of Allah also involved in reflection
upon the creation of the earth of the
heavens and the earth observation remembrance reflection why?
unfortunately as we see things the way they
stand predominantly in the world the people of
observation have no relationship with the people of
remembrance or the people of dhikr the people
of scripture if anything it will be a
relationship of condescension of looking down upon the
people of remembrance the people of scripture will
return the favor for the most part and
then the people engaged in reflection over the
wise the people of philosophy as they've come
out to be they're not going to want
to have anything to do with people of
dhikr scripture and the people of observation three
boxes with very rigid walls with no
communication except that you shout from one box
to the other except the bare minimum which
is necessary and how in just two ayats
they're strung together how the reflection of the
reflectors or the reasoning of those people of
reason the philosophers is as we see it
so devoid of the that that they wouldn't
take the creation or the evidence coming from
the study of the creation of the heavens
and the earth seriously they're going on in
their own their palaces of reason so put
all together all three of them what is
that tafakkur result in our Rabb you have
not created this in vain this is not
purposeless this is not meaningless lo and behold
not taken together isolated compartmentalized from each other
only looking down upon the other subjecting them
to absolute inferiority necessary consequence emanating from each
compartment each box is the meaninglessness of the
universe how it is utterly insignificant of life
of human life is it a wonder that
people find their lives meaningless today when the
custodians of knowledge in the three main domains
it is but a logical consequence of each
of them that even when they say life
is meaningful it doesn't add up and
so what follows from there subhanak exalted are
you because if this life is not meaningful
then what does that say of the one
who created it and so subhanak this is
a word used to whenever any level of
zulm on the part of the human being
is perceived that I have done zulm I
have not given Allah his due respect his
due right I have put somebody else in
his place or I have put him down
I have not maintained the level that he
deserves subhanak exalted are you in recognizing the
meaningfulness of human life of creation is recognizing
the greatness the tasbeeh of Allah so save
us from the hellfire or the punishment of
the hellfire follows from there the understanding of
the hereafter the meaningfulness of dunya necessitates how
that meaning finds ultimate fulfillment in akhira and
the punishment in the fire representative of that
the most the greatest deterrent rabbana innaka man
tudkhil innara faqad akhzaita whoever you throw into
the fire you humiliated him wa maal al
zalimeen again it started with the tasbeeh now
it's mentioned in the pulm these are opposites
of each other antonyms the zulm of taking
this life to be meaningless any wishful belief
any fatalistic belief any deterministic understanding they have
one thing they have one thing in common
they render the life of this world meaningless
if i am by birth automatically guaranteed salvation
in the life hereafter this life is meaningless
if i have no choice if i have
no freedom this life is meaningless whether i
use the concept of god's power and predetermination
to scapegoat him and render myself free of
all responsibility or i use the overly determinant
laws of nature and the power of the
neurochemicals in my brain outside of my control
whichever ones i blame doesn't matter life is
meaningless life is meaningless either way that's the
zulm that's the zulm if i take away
the significance of my actions if i take
away how much it matters to god what
my action is or is not i take
away the meaning وما للظالمين من انصار and
the zalmeen do not have any helpers رَبَّنَا
إِنَّنَا السَّمِعْنَا مُنَادِيًّا يُنَادِي لِلْإِيمَانِ أَنْ آمِنُوا
بِرَبِّكُمْ فَآمَنَّا so with this attitude what the
prophets have to say makes sense so the
munadi of the one calling towards iman is
going to be responded to so we have
heard the call of the caller calling towards
آمِنُوا بِرَبِّكُمْ يُرَّب again that rububia connection where
do we take all of this betterment, growth,
development our better potential individual as well as
communal grow as a community become better and
better take yourself to new heights فَآمَنَّا so
we believe رَبَّنَا فَقْفِرْ لَنَا ذُنُوبَنَا وَكَفِّرْ عَنَّا
سَيْجِئَتْنَا so our Rab forgive us our sins
and wipe out our misdeeds we will make
mistakes we will sin, we will be wrong
despite everything, despite knowing all of this our
fallibility as human beings is the first thing
that this brings to our understanding let all
of that go وَتَوَفَّنَا مَعَ الْأَبْرَابِ and raise
us up in death among the righteous let
us be righteous the overall balance sheet let
that be more towards Bir towards the people
of Bir towards goodness رَبَّنَا وَآتِ to the
point وَتَوَفَّنَا مَعَ الْأَبْرَابِ what am I asking
for when I'm saying this when I'm done
I leave the world a better place than
when I found it I have played my
part in Bir in taking it towards the
community that it can become the potential that
God has placed in this world I have
taken it closer to that for whatever I
was worth not all the way, I could
have done better in a lot of ways
I may have drawn it closer to I
may have led for it to destruction or
regression let those parts go and overall let
there be Bir me of the Abrar رَبَّنَا
وَآتِنَا مَا وَعَدْتَنَا عَلَىٰ رُسُولِكَ our Rabb grant
us what you have promised us through your
messenger وَلَا تُخْزِنَا يَوْمَ الْقِيَامَةِ do not humiliate
us on the day of judgment again the
humility recognizing the possibility of how despite knowing
all of this despite believing in all of
this we can screw up big time and
so expressing that consistently وَلَا تُخْزِنَا يَوْمَ الْقِيَامَةِ
do not humiliate us on the day of
judgment إِنَّكَ لَا تُخْلِفُ الْمِعَادِ for sure you
will not go against your promise فَاسْتَجَابَ لَهُمْ
رَبُّهُمْ their Rabb heard their prayer هَنِي لَا
أُضِيعُ أَمَلَ عَمَلٍ مِّنكُمْ I will not let
any act of any one of you go
to waste again where did all of this
iman come from the ayaats the observation of
ayaats in the heavens and the earth that
the zikr of Allah the tafakkur over that
resulting in the recognition of the meaningfulness of
life bringing into that the call of the
prophet working towards a better world with the
recognition that there's going to be consequences in
the hereafter recognizing your own fallibility humbling yourself
consistently trying all of that culminates in action
عَمَلَ عَامِلٍ مِّنكُمْ action if our zikr
is not translating into action if our tafakkur
is not translating into action if our observation
of ayaats is not translating into that action
if there is nothing coming out of it
which is making this world a better place
then all that science and then all that
zikr and all that tafakkur it's meaningless it's
for the sake of it's own self zikr
for the sake of zikr observation of ayaats
for the sake of observation of ayaats no
value in science reflecting for the sake of
reflecting intellectual gymnastics what's the use عَمَلَ
عَامِلٍ مِّنكُمْ عَمَلَ عَامِلٍ مِّنكُمْ I will not
let any act of any of you go
to waste مِن ذَكَّرٍ أَو أُنثَى male or
female male or female as far as this
is concerned you're a community there is no
gender segregation here in which the role and
participation of males is important and significant and
that of females is not, no man or
woman بَعْضُكُمْ مِّن بَعْضٍ you're one community you're
related to each other, you're dependent on each
other you go together you pitch one against
the other no wonder you've pitched everything against
each other, why not the genders بَعْضُكُمْ مِّن
بَعْضٍ you're all a community gotta work together
فَالَّذِينَ هَاجَرُوا وَأُخْرِجُوا مِن دِيَارِهِمْ فَالَّذِينَ هَاجَرُوا
وَأُخْرِجُوا مِن دِيَارِهِمْ and those whose action culminates
in this that they migrated and they were
driven out of their homes because the عَمَلَ
عَمَلِم it bites at the people who are
not it bites at the people for whom
this fragmented polytheistic society is just
resulting in their coffers growing their vested interests
and so necessarily فَالَّذِينَ هَاجَرُوا وَأُخْرِجُوا مِن دِيَارِهِمْ
وَالَّذِينَ هَاجَرُوا وَأُخْرِجُوا مِن دِيَارِهِمْ things are not
gonna be easy going gets tough migrate driven
out of your homes وَأُذُّوا فِي سَبِيلِي and
they were persecuted in my cause وَقَاتَلُوا وَقُتِلُوا
and they fought and they were killed لَأُكَفِّرَنَّ
عَنْهُمْ سَيْجِي آتِم I will blot out their
misdeeds their record will be struck clear as
if there was nothing wrong then وَلَأُدْخِلَنَّهُمْ جَنَّاتٍ
تَجْرِي مِن تَحْتِهَا الْأَنْهَارَ and I will admit
them to gardens beneath which rivers flow تَوَابًا
مِنْ عِنْدِ اللَّهِ this is a reward from
Allah وَاللَّهُ عِنْدَهُ حُسْنُ الثَّوَابُ and with Allah
is the most beautiful reward لَا يَغَرَّنَّكَ تَقَلُّبُ
الَّذِينَ كَفَرُوا فِي الْبِلَانِ so do not be
deceived by the uninhibited movement of the people
of Kufr in the land their power, their
authority their victory should not lead you to
believe that they're right might does not have
to be right or that Allah is on
their side مَتَاعٌ قَلِيلٌ this is a fleeting
enjoyment it's temporary ثُمَّ مَعْوَاهُمْ جَهَنَّمٍ then their
ultimate destination is * وَبِئْسَ الْمِحَادِ what a
despicable place of rest لَكِنِ الَّذِينَ التَّقَوْا رَبَّهُمْ
but for those people who have Taqwa of
their Rabb they're concerned with this about this
relationship every relationship requires investment and this investment
with respect to your relationship with your Rabb
being aware of it, being conscious of it
investing in it worrying about it لَكِنِ الَّذِينَ
التَّقَوْا رَبَّهُمْ those who have the Taqwa of
their Rabb لَهُمْ جَنَّاتٌ تَجْرِي مِن تَحْتِهَا الْأَنْهَارُ
for them are gardens underneath which rivers flow
خَالِدِينَ فِيهَا they'll live therein forever نُزُّلًا مِّنْ
عِنْدِ اللَّهِ this is just the initial hospitality
from Allah just the beginning and what is
to come after you got no idea وَمَا
عِنْدَ اللَّهِ خَيْرٌ لِّلْأَبْرَارِ and whatever is with
Allah is even better for the people of
Bid'ah, for the righteous وَإِنَّ مِنْ أَهْلِ
الْكِتَابِ and from the people of the book
لَمَنْ يُؤْمِنُ بِاللَّهِ are those who believe in
Allah وَمَا أُنزِلَ إِلَيْكُمْ وَمَا أُنزِلَ إِلَيْهِمْ and
that which has been revealed to you and
what has been revealed to them خَاشِعِينَ لِلَّهِ
they're humble, they have this fear out of
awe of Allah لَا يَشْتَرُونَ بِآيَاتِ اللَّهِ ثَمَنًا
قَلًّا they do not exchange the ayaat of
Allah for a small price indicative of the
potential there within the people of the book
وَلَيْكَ لَهُمْ أَجْرُهُمْ عِنْدَ رَبِّهِمْ these are the
ones for them is a reward with their
Rabb سَرِيعُ الحِسَاب and Allah is swift in
reckoning يَا أَيُّهِ الَّذِينَ آمَنُوا يُوهُو هَوَ بِلِيْبُ
إِسْبِرُوا وَصَابِرُوا وَرَابِطُوا وَاتَّقُوا May Allah patiently persevere
and compete with each other in perseverance and
strengthen each other in perseverance.
Maintain this discipline, marboot, raabt, stay connected, stay
connected, persevere together, healthy competition in perseverance, marboot,
raabt, raabitu, strengthen each other.
This is not a solo fight.
You don't, you don't want to do that.
Understand the communal nature, the global nature of
the challenge and the strength in numbers use
it.
Wattaq Allah and all of you together be
mindful of Allah.
Be conscious of Allah.
La'alla kuntu flihoon, so perhaps you may
be successful.
Then the possibility of success opens up.
Sitting on your backsides, just doing dua, not
doing anything different, not looking to, I, this
before Ramadan I had this session and we
spoke about all the different dimensions of Ramadan,
this, that, that needs to be done, we
have to pay attention to that, we're not
doing that, we have to reflect, we have
to repair, we've done things wrong, all of
that.
In the Q&A session, one of the
uncles is like, so basically you're saying that
we should pray, that nothing can happen, we
should pray.
That is not what I said, that is
not what I said.
It's complicated, it requires effort, a lot of
effort, a lifetime of effort.
That doesn't mean give up and just pray.
Give up and pray?
Sabr and prayer, what about that?
To Surat An-Nisa, and oh, we're going
to see, one of the impressions that you
get with Surat An-Nisa, whatever's been built
up in Surat Baqarah and Surat Ali-Imran,
you see that pick up pace.
You see the transitions become more frequent.
We spoke about towards the later half of
Surat Baqarah, or the second half of Surat
Baqarah, how it's like the themes are like
a rope wound around, the different strands.
You see the rope getting stronger in a
sense, the transitions between the strands getting more
swifter in a lot of ways.
You see Surat An-Nisa, as if the
rivers that were, if a river that was
flowing from Baqarah to Ali-Imran, it's getting
faster, it is getting even at times stormier.
There is this urgency as well that is
being held, especially since the theme of hypocrisy
really picks up in Nisa, so as to
say that the people of the book are,
if they were the people of Torah in
Baqarah, predominantly, although the rest were addressed as
well.
People of Injeel in Ali-Imran, they're going
to be people of Quran in Surat Nisa.
You will find a greater reference to that.
And there's going to be a whole lot
more of the social issues being discussed as
well.
So picking up, seeing how far we get
today insha'Allah, we will obviously see a
mention of Ahle Kitab, the Yehud and the
Nasara as well, but again not as the
way we saw it in Baqarah.
It is going to be, they're going to
be more clumped together in these conversations.
So moving right along, عوذ بالله من الشيطان
الرجيم بسم الله الرحمن الرحيم يَا أَيُّهَا النَّاسُ
التَّقُوا رَبَّكُمْ People observe the Taqwa of your
Rabb, الَّذِي خَلَقَكُمْ مِن نَفْسٍ وَاحِدَةٍ The One
who created you from one individual.
So, again the universal nature of the call
of the Qur'an, how the universality of
the humanitarian brotherhood or the brotherhood of humanity
that is being alluded to and how the
notion of moving together, of feeling each other,
of identifying with each other, of bridging these
gaps, of bridging these divides, and bridging these
divides motivated by the recognition of a common
ancestry and a common relationship to your Rabb,
that at the end of the day, all
of you, all of you are part of
the same kingdom of ربوبية of Allah.
And different people in different places are performing
different functions which are towards the fulfillment of
Allah being Rabb.
يَا أَيُّهَا النَّاسُ التَّقُوا رَبَّكُمْ So be mindful
of that, be conscious of that, be recognize
that as a community.
There is a sense of Taqwa individually that
is important but then a community that is
Muttaqi, a community that is conscious of its
being a community before Allah, of its responsibility
before Allah, before Allah's ربوبية.
How does that look like?
Foremost it begins with this, yes, the understanding
of Allah being the Rabb, but it begins
with this, this understanding of having a common
ancestry أَلَّذِي خَلَقَكُمْ مِن نَفْسٍ وَاحِدَةٍ أَلَّذِي خَلَقَكُمْ
مِن نَفْسٍ وَاحِدَةٍ وَخَلَقَ مِنْهَا زَوْجَهَا And from
that He created its mate, its partner وَبَثَّ
مِنْهُمَا الرِّجَالَنْ كَثِيرٌ وَنِسَاءً you
into thinking that you're absolutely disconnected from each
other The diversity hails back to a common
origin وَبَثَّ مِنْهُمَا الرِّجَالَنْ كَثِيرٌ وَنِسَاءً وَاتَّقُوا اللَّهَ
الَّذِي تَسَاءَلُونَ بِهِ And observe the taqwa of
Allah, the One in whose name you demand
from one another In common language, in every
language You pick up Punjabi, Urdu, English, whatever
Asking in the name of Allah, it is
an inerasable part of every language You will
find atheists saying, for God's sake man You
have to consciously rid yourselves of these statements
They're so reflexive, they're so part of the
language And they're reflective of yes, it's an
unconscious expression It's a habituated expression, it's something
you pick up from society for sure But
it is also reflective of this instinctive calling
on the name of God As well, which
is alluded to in other parts of the
Quran Especially when you're in real trouble, life
and death situation So this instinctive calling on
God Or asking each other in the name
of God So for God's sake خُدَاكَ نَامًا
اللَّهَ وَسْتَعِ So all of these phrases that
are in common usage In which the name
of God is present But God is absent
The taqwa of Allah is absent His consciousness
is not there The name is just a
part of language So Allah is like, look
at that use in language And just be
mindful of the name that you're taking Take
that seriously Be aware of what you're saying
What would it mean to take that name
seriously Not just use that name as a
rhetorical device وَاتَّقُوا اللَّهُ الَّذِي تَسَأَلُونَ بِهِ وَالْأَرْحَامُ
And you have to have the taqwa of
Allah But you have to have taqwa of
arham Your relationships You're tied to each other
The rahm And your relationships Rahm Rahma Rahman
Rahim Uterus The uterus of a woman That's
the origin word What ties humanity together It
is femininity Humanity is held together by womanhood
The language Again, this is surah nisa Right
Minding relationships Being conscious The word for being
conscious of relationships Taqwa It is coming in
the same line as observing the taqwa of
Allah Taqwa of arham Arham Stemming from rahm
Does that say anything?
Can you Can you Possibly Have anything Of
a universal brotherhood Without giving due regard And
honor To womanhood Can relationships be minded At
all Can relationships Be regarded At all Without
a regard For women And the most feminine
Aspect of women The uterus Hidden Within the
word itself As the biological organ is The
site Of Or the stage For the Greatest
expression of Allah's Creativity The stage For the
greatest Manifestation of Allah's Rububiyah Of how Nothing
And something Utterly Dependent And then Something utterly
Incredible And how all of that takes place
In the rahm Of a woman So observe
the Taqwa Of Allah Observe the taqwa Of
arham Inna allaha kana alaykum raqiba For sure
Allah Is Has always been and will always
be Watching very carefully Watching very carefully Why
should I Regard another Human being It has
something to do With With With recognizing How
these Bonds Of motherhood Of Sisterhood As
a man If I am not able To
respect Women I will not be able to
respect men For how How utterly dependent Each
man is Has been and will be On
women How each woman is Tied To Men
Inna allaha kana alaykum raqiba Wa atul yatama
amwalahum And give the orphans their properties See
What is Utterly reprehensible in the Arabian society
The treatment of orphans And in the definition
of an orphan Is Not having a father
And how vulnerable The child of a single
mother Or the child of a Deceased father
Becomes And how much regarding that Orphan is
representative Of overcoming This Misogyny This
Exploitation Of the weakness and vulnerability Of Agender
in society Wa atul So the first Segment
of the society That is To be empowered
In a Tawheedic community In the name of
Allah In the name of Relationships Wa atul
yatama Amwalahum Wa laa tatabaddalul khabeetha bittayyib And
do not replace the valuable For the worthless
Which is literally done If the rights of
the Orphans are not given And they have
some valuables In inheritance Things that belong to
them But because they are in your custody
That you might just feel The right or
the authority To replace that which is good
That they have With that which is Not
as good And keep the good for yourself
That is a literal Expression of Replacing What
is tayyib With that which is khabeeth And
more generally More abstractly Just the attitude Just
the attitude It is so tayyib It is
so beautiful to mind These relationships And this
empowerment Of the vulnerable In the society It
is so important You are going to Take
that away for exploitation Wa laa ta'qulu
amwalahum Ila amwaleekum And do not consume their
wealth Into yours Devouring their wealth Exploiting their
weakness Innahu kana huban kabira It has been
an incredible sin Always It has always been
a sin That's never been okay Scripture or
no scripture This scripture, previous scripture It's never
okay to do something like that Wain khiftumal
laa taqusitoo fil yatama And if you fear
That you will not be able to treat
the orphan Justly Especially if the orphan is
A girl Fankihu mataba lakum minal nisaa Then
marry Women of your choice Mathna Wathulatha Waruba
Two, three or four Fain khiftumal laa ta'diloo
Tawahidah But if you fear That you will
not be able to do justice Then only
One Now The issue of polygamy The Arab
society is essentially A polygamous society Where there
is no limit On The number in polygamy
So First up A limit is being placed
On how far that polygamy can go Okay
Two Three or four That's not The limit
is not just In the number That is
being defined The limit Is in terms of
A condition A fulfillment of Justice Right Now
These ayat are used And I know People
Who In the name of fulfilling a sunnah
In the name Of fulfilling The command Apparently
That this ayah is Putting forward So they
would represent it as a command You're being
commanded To marry two, three and four The
ayah doesn't finish There's a comma But never
mind It's looked at as a command You
have to And they go on a campaign
For promoting Polygamy As reviving a sunnah And
How that is going to be Oh so
beautiful Fair enough Leaving aside how they
How this entire Social cause Is justified It's
utility in Certain cases In it's own place
How The orf or the Culture In which
you are practicing This in which you are
advocating This Is utterly ignored How the Outcomes
Of the Practices of polygamy In your current
Day and age In your particular societies Are
not given due Regard So as I understand
it And I don't have A global experience
as such I haven't lived in every city
Of the world but Lahore, Islamabad And now
A small city in the US I have
lived in And I can say this much
And my Sample is necessarily biased I'm a
psychiatrist I can say this much Any effort
or any practice of polygamy That Has come
into My notice Hasn't worked out That everyone
involved Everyone Involved The first wife, the second
wife And the husband and the children Have
suffered Have suffered Do we want to take
this In consideration It may be different in
Karachi It is more prevalent in Karachi It
may be different in Saudi I don't know
I don't know I can't say But do
we want To see what this is doing
Under what circumstances This is usually done Typically
There may be exceptions I do not deny
that I do not have the entire sample
in front of me But typically From what
I have seen The option for second marriages
Third marriages In the societies And populations that
I have Experienced with Is resorted to When
the first one hasn't worked out When there
are Grievous failings On the part Of the
couple But more so the husband And fulfilling
The justice That the first relationship Demands And
there is this fantasy That Justice will be
done In both In the second Attempt How
does that make sense Your habits of relationship
Your personality Unanalyzed Unaddressed For its inability to
Relate with another person In justice If it
failed the first time How is it going
to succeed the second time Especially when you
are not conscious Of where your failings were
Especially if your entire explanation Of the situation
was She is not good enough Or she
is not grateful enough I am sure there
is a lot A lot that is wrong
with her For sure But is she entirely
to blame And the second She that you
are bringing in Interestingly When the rationalizations Proceed
When she is being criticized Inevitably a criticism
For the gender that she represents Is also
brought in Women are like this Quote on
quote The second you are bringing in The
second wife that you are bringing in Is
from the third gender Is she not a
woman This attitude that you carried Into the
first marriage In which your superiority Complex and
the Misogyny Your denigration of women Including your
mother And sister This is precisely that habit
Of thinking this attitude That is going to
Damage the prospects of your second Marriage And
Given that we are culturally I am talking
about Pakistani people And I can say this
for American society as well Culturally monogamous Women
Who are usually ready And willing For a
To be a second wife Or to be
a third wife Usually there may be exceptions
There may be Exceptions They have Serious issues
That Have to be addressed More responsibly More
professionally And A misogynistic attitude From someone Who
has failed at his first relationship Is not
Going to fix that Is not going to
fix that Is Entirely incapable Of fixing it
Perfectly capable of worsening it And that does
happen And that Does happen Okay So again
Exceptions all across the board I am sure
they are But these points have to be
taken seriously These issues have to be Taken
seriously We all, all of us Enter into
relationships With baggage With damage That's our jahez
That we take into every relationship Men and
women We are carrying the ghosts of our
past We are carrying our Histories of childhood
Traumas And abuses And deprivations Whatever, all of
that Prior relationships Whatever the case may be
We carry those into A marriage Typically One
marriage Our first marriage A singular marriage And
it takes a lot of doing A lot
of effort A lot of conscious effort on
the part of both To make that relationship
Therapeutic That is one of the functions Social
functions of relationship That it helps people overcome
Their It brings the best out of them
Despite the scars Despite the damage Despite the
trauma It's how the two Tangle through life
It's what they are supposed to do And
to have this Idealized conception that It went
wrong the first time It'll be okay the
second time There's plenty of fish in the
sea Doesn't work It is a very immature
conception It is a very uninformed conception Especially
Especially When the advocates All of what they
are citing is It's for the sunnah It
is to help someone in need Really?
Savior?
Messiah?
Everyone else is listening Everything else is checked
off Superman?
You found a new damsel in distress?
Fair enough The fact that they are sexually
dissatisfied Is not gonna come up It's not
gonna be brought out The idea That their
sexual Dissatisfaction Stems from Sexuality being An entirely
Selfish and Masturbatory experience Even within a marriage
Has never been Taken into consideration How is
that going to Have different effects the second
time around?
Where the other person Is only An object
Of sexual fulfillment More than Anything else It's
a recipe for Disaster It's a recipe So
you wanna ignore all of this And chant
slogans of Quran and sunnah Go ahead Go
ahead Good luck with that Good luck with
that فَإِنْ خِفْتُمْ أَلَّا تَعْدِلُوا فَوَاحِدَةٌ But if
you fear that you will not be able
to do justice Then only one أَوْمَا مَلَكَتْ
أَيْمَانُكُمْ Or the captive which your right hands
possess That is Going to be another issue
that people have But we're gonna leave this
off This phrase is gonna be repeated again
We're gonna talk about it then ذَلِكَ أَدْنَأَ
اللَّا تَعُولُوا That is more likely that you
may not incline to injustice وَآتُ النِّسَاءَ صَدُقَاتِهِنَّ
So we're gonna Continue this From tomorrow So
we'll leave it off at the third Ayah
We're not going to go into the fourth
one just yet Okay So that Concludes Our
discussion for today وآخر دعوانا الحمد لله رب
العالمين