Yousuf Raza – Ramadan Nights 2021 Day 1
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The transcript discusses various aspects of Islam, including finding fulfillment, finding satisfaction, exaling love, and finding happiness in life. It also touches on the complexity of human perception and the potential for conflict and death caused by a lack of human knowledge, desire for knowledge, and desire for human ability to experience life. The conflict is caused by a lack of human knowledge, desire for knowledge, and desire for human ability to experience life.
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is replicated in all our other relationships to
the detriment that we see in ourselves and
in our societies, to the devastation that we
see really.
And because that dynamic is not sustainable in
which we have relegated ourselves to this absolutely
inferior position of complete insignificance, because it is
unsustainable, it is but natural that somewhere along
the way, unconsciously even, we begin to reverse
the dynamic altogether without recognizing it consciously.
And we're going to talk about it when
we speak about hypocrisy a little bit today,
more detailed in the future.
We start to look to become the masters
ourselves and enslave God.
That this dialectic, this dialogue, because it is
not a real dialogue, it, this relationship, there
is a rebellion, whether that is an inner
rebellion or it manifests itself outside consciously as
well.
God is looked to, the prayer, the person
who is praying is looking to conquer, is
looking to take over and dictate to God,
use his name to fulfill their own vanities,
to fulfill our own personal vested demonic ends
and sanction them in his words, sanction them,
get a license for them using his words.
Whatever it is that suits us is embraced,
propagated, turned into slogans even, and whatever it
is that doesn't, remain quiet about it.
And we see as we will progress, that
was the, one of the main diseases of
Bani Israel that is going to be criticized
in the first part of the Qur'an.
So the Qur'an begins in the most
inviting of manners, looking to initiate this dialogue
really that extends throughout the Qur'an and
then throughout your life.
That this back and forth of human acknowledgement,
appreciation, and gratitude before Allah is reciprocated.
What do I mean by that?
If we go into the text of Fatiha
itself, that would help.
So with this little introduction, now we move
in to Fatiha itself.
Alhamdulillahi Rabbil Alameen.
All praise and gratitude is for Allah, the
Rabb of the Alameen.
Now praise and gratitude means an acknowledgement, it
means an appreciation of everything that everyone has
received.
It is a conscious appreciation on the part
of the one saying the words, right?
And Hamz denotes practical appreciation as well, practical
gratitude as well.
It is not just in words, it is
in the form of an understanding for sure
and it is in the form of action
as well.
Express, the willingness to express gratitude, the fact
that he deserves gratitude.
Now we, there's a lot of talk about
gratitude in all of your positive psychology and
self-help genre, but one essential aspect that
would be missing in that gratitude narrative is
who is it that you're being grateful to?
Because if they're, the one you're being grateful
to is an individual who says something back,
then that's a real relationship.
If you're just being randomly grateful, if you're
just being, I am grateful for this, who
you are grateful to is not emphasized, is
not highlighted, then it is very likely that
that space of who you should be grateful
to is going to be filled by unconscious
and a lot of times evil intents.
You may end up being grateful to your
own demons, to your own chayatin.
It is quite likely.
Your unbridled instincts may take that place.
A Hitler kind of a dictator or a
cult leader may end up taking that place,
that a good person's goodness is not directed
in those deep words, those deviant ends.
So it is from the very beginning, whether
it is bismillah or it is alhamdulillah, the
individual that Allah is, is established.
Alhamdulillahi rabbil alameen, the Rabb of al-alameen,
of all the worlds, of all the realms,
those seen, those unseen, those that are more
conceptual, more abstract, more real, more concrete in
front of us, Allah is the Rabb of
all of them and the reality of all
of those worlds is also being presented before
us.
The idea that He is the Rabb and
as complicated as we have made that discussion,
primarily because we have tried to simplify it
way too much in a reductive, degenerate, master
-slave relationship, Allah is Rabb beyond that.
Allah is Rabb, Allah is a much greater
Rabb than that.
The typical example that I give, because we
have this, when we say Rabb abd, we
think master-slave and we think white master,
African slave, a couple of centuries ago and
all kinds of heinous and dictatorial, dehumanizing activities
going on, that is not the image we're
looking for.
That is not at all what we're looking
for.
What we're looking for is something along the
lines of when Muhammad Rasulullah Sallallahu Alaihi Wasallam,
even before he was prophet, he lived a
life to be followed, to be emulated.
He was an incredible role model even before
becoming a prophet.
What he was to Zaid, who was his
slave, to the point that when Zaid was
asked and offered to be freed, his uncle,
his father came to finally having discovered him
after losing him in his childhood, like here
we are, we were separated, now we're here,
we can take you back.
The Messenger Sallallahu Alaihi Wasallam is like, if
he wants to go back, you can take
him.
And Zaid says, no, I don't want to
go.
I want to stay here.
I'd rather live with this man, with Muhammad,
than go with my own father, my own
uncle, back to my own tribe.
I'm not doing that.
I would rather remain his abduh.
And they were shocked, like you would, you
prefer slavery over freedom?
And Rasulullah and Zaid said, yes, if it's
his, you don't know who he is.
And what I have become, or what he
has made out of me.
And it was at that point that the
Messenger Sallallahu Alaihi Wasallam liberated Zaid, yet Zaid
remained committed to Rasulullah Sallallahu Alaihi Wasallam out
of his free choice for the rest of
his life.
The abudiyah required from the alameen, actually, not
just from the human being, is that of
a free person, is that of a liberated
person, not one that is incarcerated and fettered,
not a slave.
A free person's willful submission, willful dedication to
Allah, to which Allah responds by willfully helping,
aiding, facilitating, and even changing the course of
history for that person's objectives and goals.
They align with those of Allah, and then
Allah's aligned with that particular person, as we
see manifest beautifully in the life of Rasulullah
Sallallahu Alaihi Wasallam, and the Sahaba, and many
others before and after them.
Alhamdulillahi Rabbil Alameen, Ar-Rahman Ar-Raheem, who
is this Rab, his mercy, his incredible mercy,
which in terms of its intensity, which in
terms of its persistence, requires that a single
word cannot cover how merciful he is, how
gracious he really is.
His grace as is experienced by every single
one of us throughout our lives in different
ways.
Just in conversation the other day with one
of my collaborators, and the effort, the pain,
and suffering of years, and how that culminated,
and she was saying how every single one
of her du'as was accepted in exactly
how she wanted for it to be accepted,
and she was dumbstruck that this is too
good to be true.
How did this end up happening?
After years of effort, years of struggling, years
of suffering, every single du'a in exactly
how she had wanted for it to be,
and throughout that pathway, throughout that time period,
throughout that process, there were moments of hopelessness,
there were longer than moments, days of hopelessness,
pessimism, negativity, fears, insecurities, all of that, but
then how even all of those periods of
suffering fell in place, and could be seen
in retrospect as being meaningful, and as being
a manifestation of God's grace, Allah's graciousness, and
how it was flabbergasting that that could take
place.
All of us, every single one of us,
have these experiences of where it's just too
good to be true.
How did this happen?
It is what I needed, even though what
I wanted could have been something different, and
how this grace envelops us from all sides,
from everywhere, and it's frightening how much, with
how much intensity, and with how much persistence,
it's there, and it's imploring, it is Allah
speaking to us through His grace, lovingly inviting
us to see Him, to appreciate Him.
It's how He speaks.
One of His languages through which He communicates
to us is a language of love, is
a language of grace, is a language in
how things around us, in our lives, they
become such that they are the ingredients for
our growth.
One of the avenues that I did not
talk about, I spoke about how it's not
a degenerate master-slave relationship, but Rabb is
one who is primarily concerned with our growth,
that His Alameen, and specifically within His Alameen,
the human being becomes the best version of
their selves, literally, right?
So it aligns with the self-help goals,
that human beings become or manifest the potential
that Allah has kept inside of them, inside
of us, and grace, the Rahmah of Allah,
is such that it is His loving invitation
to bring that, that love expresses itself to
the love of the mother, to the love
of the father, to, and since as human
beings, parents will be restricted, parents will be,
they will have shortcomings, there may be limitations
in how much that love expresses itself, it
will manifest itself through other features as well,
through other events in history as well.
As we know from the life of Rasulullah
ﷺ, his childhood was stricken with constant deprivation,
with constant loss, as if it would never,
the process of bereavement would never stop, yet
there was, through all of those periods of
loss, a constant echo of Allah's Rahmah, of
His love, as one caretaker after another showered
him with the affection that he honored throughout
his life, that left and that impacted his
personality, that we could see him reminiscing about
later in his life.
And we have those experiences ourselves, in how,
in so many diverse sources, through so many
diverse avenues, Allah's grace, in a very subtle
way, because He's also Latif, but in a
very definitive way, reaches us.
The month of Ramadan being a manifestation of
Him being Rahman, the Qur'an being a
manifestation of Him being Rahman, and Him being
Ar-Raheem, says that that persists, it perseveres,
the grace, even across the year after Ramadan
as well, in signs across the world, across
other disciplines, beyond the Qur'an as well.
Ar-Rahman, Ar-Raheem, Maliki Yawm al-Din,
He is the Malik, the master of the
day of judgment, the day of retribution, the
day where the record is set straight, where
everything is sorted out, and how we experience,
again, in our routine lives, consequences, actions, choices,
have consequences, that the manifestation of His Rububiyyah
is through His grace, His love, but also
through the consequences that we see of our
responsible as well as irresponsible choices, how they
come in front of us, and the more
they come in front of us, the more
this principle, this habit, that we experience, that
Allah reciprocates, and that He will ultimately reciprocate
on the day of judgment, where everything will
be, where all the gaps that were left
out will be filled out, whatever injustices that
were there in the world, and they were
there because as just as Allah is, He
wants the human being, and the freedom of
the human being particularly, to be accommodated in
the way the world works and how it
proceeds, and so when naturally the human beings
are irresponsible and unjust, injustice does prevail, and
that record is going to be set straight
when Allah is the Malik-e-Auminteen, but
in both of these processes, in us being
provided for through His grace, and us having
to see the consequences, very often through pain,
through distress, through grief, in our daily lives,
both of these are manifestations of His Rububiyah,
of Him bringing out our best potential, of
Him bringing out our best potential, and it
continues through the day of judgment.
The Rububiyah of Allah continues through the day
of judgment, even there, whatever is, whatever gaps
in the expression of our potential are left,
they're being filled out, that although we don't
have free choices on the day of judgment,
as we do in this world, to respond
as freely as we would have been able
to in Dunya and here, but in Akhira
as well, the process continues, the process of
Rububiyah takes up a new form altogether, even
in Jahannam, even in Jahannam, and we will
talk about that more in detail as the
passages open up.
So after the recognition of His Rububiyah, of
His Rahmaniyah, of His dominion, and especially that
on the day of judgment, we respond, or
the appropriate response is coming towards Allah as
a community, because it is in the plural,
committing ourselves to His Rububiyah, committing ourselves, saying,
Ya Allah, You love us as our Rabb,
and our choices have to be responsible, they
have consequences, so as a community of people,
of individuals, we come together, committing and dedicating
ourselves to You, to fulfill our potential as
the One who holds us beloved, to become
in the image of what He sees of
us, even if we don't believe that about
ourselves, even if we think we can't become
that, but no, no, no, the One who
loves us is our Rabb, sees that we
can become that, so we trust, we have
faith, and we back ourselves up, we carry
that confidence in ourselves because He has that
confidence in us, we trust ourselves because He
trusts us, and we do that as a
community, and we make more responsible choices, because
there's consequences, there is accountability, only You, Ya
Allah, do we commit ourselves to in that
fashion, or in that commitment of Ibadah, that
dedicated commitment towards Allah, which is so comprehensive,
it impacts, it puts in place, it honors
all dimensions of our life, individual as well
as collective, and then it's a big, it's
a big ask, it's an incredible ask, so
Ya Allah, we turn to You for help,
we turn to You after trying our level
best, again the one word that is used
in Fatiha for help to depict Dua is
the word that connotes having tried our best
first, that Dua in the Quran as it
is depicted is not an escape from action,
is not an escape or evasion of responsibility,
Dua in the Quran as we see it
is an expression of faith, of Tawakkul, and
of hard work, it is an active process,
a believer is in the act of Dua
when he or she is working like crazy,
studying like crazy, giving like crazy, teaching like
crazy, learning like crazy, serving like whatever it
is that you can possibly imagine that is
taking this world closer to how Allah wants
for it to be, it is an act
of Dua, it is an act of prayer,
it is a dialogue with Allah, right, so
the effort is included but also included within
that is a recognition of a person's own
limitations, a person's own inabilities, it is an
expression of ability as much as possible but
then there's lines drawn, restrictions around that ability
as well for which we fall to Allah,
for which we ask Allah to take care
of the rest, and whatever gaps that were
there in our efforts to fill out those
as well and we turn to Him and
to Him alone with reliance, with the Tawakkul
that He can and that the results that
come forth from it are what is required
for this whole process, this whole meaningful interaction
between Allah and the human being to bear
fruit.
Again, it is not just human being, a
single human being with Allah, it is a
community of human beings dialoguing with Allah, so
implicit within this is the Jama'ah, is
the congregation or community of humanity that is
supplicating this.
So guide us to the straight path, how
is it that we come together and become
all of that, because these are big aims,
big goals, this commitment to Allah, this Tawheed,
this Ibadah, that too as a community, we
need guidance, how will it work?
We're living in very novel circumstances, we're living
in very different times, we need guidance.
But despite the novelty of the situation, how
new everything is, how different the challenges may
appear to be, it is not that they
are absolutely dissimilar and something so out of
the blue that humanity has never ever experienced
anything like that at all, no.
There is so much in tradition, there is
so much in the history of humanity that
we have to learn from, so many people
whose efforts made human life what it is
today, their sacrifices have facilitated both in terms
of faith and belief, in terms of idea
and also in terms of work, in terms
of even the facilitations of life that we
have, there is a lot that was done
before us to make it happen.
So we ask to be guided to the
path, the path that they were on, that
they brought humanity to, in dialogue with Allah,
we want to be able to continue that
path forward, continue on that path forward.
And as a result we take into Allah
and take the world, take the community on
the right path for where Allah wants us
to go.
The path of those or the way of
those who are favoured, who were blessed, who
were accepted, who had this reciprocal relationship with
Allah.
But not of those who earned your, who
were, who earned your anger.
Allah was very angry with them, why was
he angry with them?
Because he had a lot of expectations.
He trusted them, they betrayed his trust.
He expected them to do and they didn't.
Allah was angry, they earned Allah's anger.
The anger of Allah rings through history as
to how irresponsible, how supercilious, how utterly arrogant,
how incredibly heinous their crimes against Allah were.
And really the Maghdoobi Alayhim is not a
particular race, it is not a particular religion,
it is an attitude.
Just like An'amta Alayhim, just like An
'amta Alayhim was, it is, we find examples
of it across history, across nations, across races.
Just like that Maghdoobi Alayhim and Dallin is
an inner tendency, it is a potential that
human beings have.
Yes, that has had concrete manifestations within particular
races, within particular religions, all religions, all religions,
especially scriptural religions, especially people of scripture, that
how they went bad.
The examples that are rife within the Qur
'an, others will fall in this, we will
see these patterns in others as well.
That of An'amta Alayhim, that of Maghdoobi
Alayhim, that of Dallin, but specifically people of
scripture.
We will see in Baqarah, we will see
in Ahlul Imran, and then we will see
within ourselves, in our own history, how we
have, we are manifesting the attributes of Maghdoobi
Alayhim, those who earned Allah's wrath, and Dallin,
those who went astray.
We will see that to specifically identify these
terms with particular nations, with particular races, in
particular periods of time in history, is a
very convenient way of absolving ourselves of how
this may include us, or how this is
including us.
Because remember, this is a dua that we
are making to Allah.
And so we are acknowledging, recognizing that this
potential of going down these pathways of deviation,
of earning Allah's anger, they're very much open
to us.
We may as well be on them as
we speak, as we speak.
A lot of our tendencies that are finding
expression, a lot of our habits in the
world across the past year, years, even today,
may be an expression of Maghdoobi Alayhim and
Dallin.
I have to carry that in my heart
five times a day when I'm praying to
Allah that this is what is going on,
and that this is what I need help
with.
If it is not going on, it can
very well go on.
These are not extra words.
These are not just fillers.
Allah's Kalam is meaningful.
And if He is asking for us to
repeat this again and again and again and
again, this is as personal, as relevant to
us.
Every single potential, that of Anamta Alayhim, that
of Maghdoobi Alayhim, that of Dallin, is inside
of me.
I need to be saying these words with
that recognition.
And if I really have that recognition, the
intensity that each of these words carry, then
will I really be mindless?
Will I really be having issues concentrating in
every prayer all the time?
The more mindful I am, the more I
remind myself, the more consciously aware I am
of the significance of Anamta Alayhim, Maghdoobi Alayhim,
and Dallin.
And of course, that significance, that recognition, it
is through these gatherings, through this learning, teaching
process, through my time with the Qur'an,
through my connection with its meaning, and all
the other ways that Allah communicates with us,
to come to that understanding.
Moving right along, Bismillahirrahmanirrahim, Alif, Laam, Meem.
So we go straight into Surat Al-Baqarah,
begins with Alif, Laam, Meem.
We don't know its meaning, but that does
not mean it is not meaningful.
There is so much that Alif, Laam, Meem
communicates to us.
To begin with, it garners within us that
attitude of respect, that you should have when
you're approaching a text, any text, that you
are looking to learn from it, and your
own inadequacies in not even being able to
understand, quite honestly, what three simple letters put
together signify, what they mean.
And so any arrogance that you're carrying, that
will preclude any possibility of growth that that
text has to offer, particularly if it is
scripture, then that has to be put in
place.
Alif, Laam, Meem, what does it mean?
I don't know.
And there is so much more that I
don't know.
There is so much more that I need
to know.
So rather than superimposing pretty much all my
whims and desires in reading into whatever it
is that I'm reading, I should look to,
as best as possible, understand what is being
said, what is being implied in Alif, Laam,
Meem is the miracle of language, the miracle
of language.
What distinguishes human beings, what distinguishes human beings
from all other creatures is this language.
We don't know what Alif, Laam, Meem means
specifically, precisely, but Alif, Laam, and Meem, that
they signify something and that is important for
us, is a very human experience.
The alphabet of any language, they are an
incredible, incredible, inexplicable experience, phenomena
that demarcate being human with being any other
creature.
And it specifically, specifically empowers the human being
to become that, and that, to participate in
that dialogue with Allah, to understand Him and
to speak with Him, to talk to Him.
That's just human.
Alif, Laam, Meem tells us about all of
that.
Alif, Laam, Meem tells us about Rasulullah ﷺ,
again, being blessed with a scripture, which is
an arrangement of this alphabet, really, but an
arrangement by Allah, and how that arrangement by
Allah, the wonders it was able to pull
off, the wonders that Rasulullah ﷺ and the
Sahaba were able to pull off, motivated, guided,
empowered by the Qur'an.
It is really what the Asa of Musa,
his miracle that Allah had given him, it
devoured everything that the magicians were able to
fabricate.
And Rasulullah ﷺ, his miracle, the Qur'an,
showed that potential once in history.
It was able to devour all the falsehoods
that were being fabricated in the time that
people were being exploited in the name of.
And the Waheed was, it showed itself, a
trailer of itself, in that time in history.
And it has that potential.
It has that potential of organizing people around
truth.
ذلك الكتاب لا رئيب فيه This is the
book about which there is no doubt.
هدى للمتقين It is a guidance for those
who have taqwa.
Again, you made a du'a, you asked
for guidance.
إهدنا الصلاة المستقيم Okay, here's the book.
Here's that book.
That book that you made du'a for,
that book that was indicated towards, alluded to
in the Torah and the Injil, this is
that book.
This is that book.
You're asking for miracles, this is that book.
No doubt, it is هدى للمتقين.
It is guidance for who?
The people of taqwa.
Again, three dimensions of taqwa, and we're continue
to come back to them.
Being aware of yourself, being aware of Allah,
and being aware of your actions.
At least three dimensions of what it means
to be a person of taqwa.
Being aware of yourself, aware of your actions,
aware of Allah.
All three together.
All three together.
Any one of them misses out and there's
something wrong with the taqwa that comes around,
right?
هدى للمتقين It is a guidance for the
people of taqwa الذين يؤمنون بالغيظ.
Who are these people?
These are the people who have imaan in
al-ghayb.
Now they believe in the unseen.
They believe in that which is beyond their
limitations, beyond their whatever it is that they're
able to perceive through their senses.
There is what we see as signs around
us, what we hear, and all of what
we see and hear is representative of all
of what is not here.
This is generally how human beings operate, right?
What is said and what is represented by
what is said, right?
What is apparent and what is signified by
that which is apparent.
What is this a sign of, right?
Again, the incredible human ability or language that
allows for us to look beyond the apparent,
see that there is a reality, a reality
to be contended with, a reality to be
taken very very seriously that is beyond us,
that is beyond us.
It is a reflection of the humility necessary
for imaan, that imaan as the antithesis of
arrogance.
For an arrogant person, reality is all of
what they have in front of them, that
what they know and that's it.
That sort of an attitude is not going
to get any guidance regardless of if the
source of that guidance is the Qur'an
itself, if the person bringing that Qur'an
is Rasulullah ﷺ.
With that attitude, nothing's going to be added.
You cannot add anything to a container which
is upside down or a container with the
lid closed.
Why is that lid closed?
It already thinks it has whatever it needs
to, right?
So, there is this imaan that is necessary
which is a reflection of humility, which is
a reflection of, okay, I may know something
but it's not absolute, it is not definitive
whatever it is that I know, right?
There is so much space for improvement, for
growth in there.
الَّذِينَ يُؤْمِنُونَ بِالْغَيْبِ So, these are the people
who have this imaan in al-ghayb, وَيُقِيمُونَ
الصَّلَاةِ and they establish prayer.
One of the necessary consequences of taqwa and
of imaan is this engagement with particularly and
specifically that part of reality or that dimension
of reality which is in al-ghayb, which
is manifesting itself in the world around us,
to engage in a dialogue with that, to
communicate with Allah, to communicate with Allah so
as to become less the creatures of stimulus
response and more creatures of choice, right?
Stimulus response, whatever the immediate feen environment stimulates
you to do, you respond accordingly.
A people of imaan, taqwa and salah, what
do they look to do?
Stimulus, reflection, judgment, choice and then action, then
responding and then responding responsibly, right?
How do you nurture this entire space between
stimulus and reaction?
You nurture that space through salah, through this
escape from mechanism because life in its routine
becomes mechanistic, becomes mechanistic.
It has to become mechanistic.
That is how it becomes efficient.
It would not be efficient otherwise without habit
but if it is only habit, there is
no reflection, there is no reconsideration then there
will not be growth either or at least
repair.
It will be growth in a very particular
direction, even cancerous growth perhaps but we want
that freedom to always remain alive, that reflection,
that dialogue, that communication that salah offers, that
escape from mechanism that it offers for us
to become the people that are needed for
this world to become a better place and
we become those people that we need to
become.
وَمِمَّا رَزَقْنَاهُمْ يُنفِقُونَ And spend out of what
we have provided for them.
Again, a phenomena of self-transcendence that is
seen in how much they give to others,
how much they give to others.
That there is a kind of spirituality that
makes you more and more selfish and then
there is that kind of spirituality, that connection
with Allah that makes you more and more
self-transcendent.
That you are so much aware of the
ghayb and the iman in al-ghayb where
there is akhira, where there is Allah, where
there is so much to be taken seriously
that even within your immediate environment if it
seems to be wise, quote-unquote, to hold
on and be stingy and, you know, keep
to yourself and gratify yourself because that is
what living in the moment usually is.
It is, you know, just to take care
of your immediate interests and it is counterproductive
against your desires to give out, to share
because that's only going to have an impact
in the long run.
Where's the long run?
The long run is in the unseen.
It is in the future for which you
have to delay that gratification, for which you
have to put off, for which you have
to believe that there will be a reciprocation,
that there will be a benefit in that
distant future and the further that distant future
or the conception of that distant future goes
all the way to akhira itself, the more
self-transcendent you can be.
The more you can give out from what
you have been provided, what you have been
given.
وَمِمَّا رَزَقْنَاهُمْ يَنْفِقُونَ From what they have been,
from what we have given them, they spend,
they give out and it entails a lot.
Money, yes.
Talent, yes.
Time, yes.
Intellectual potential, yes.
Physical potential, yes.
Aesthetic sense, yes.
So much of what Allah has given the
human being from that giving out, from that
sharing, from that transcending themselves for the benefit
of others.
وَالَّذِينَ يُؤْمِنُونَ بِمَا أُنزِلَ إِلَيْكَ وَالَّذِينَ يُؤْمِنُونَ بِمَا
أُنزِلَ إِلَيْكَ And they believe in what has
been revealed to you, Ya Rasulullah.
وَمَا أُنزِلَ مِنْ قَبْلِكَ وَمَا أُنزِلَ مِنْ قَبْلِكَ
And what was revealed before you.
They believe in this continuity of revelation.
They believe that what Rasulullah ﷺ has brought
has truth.
Incredible, incredible troves of wisdom, of truth.
And we need that.
We need that for our values, to understand
our meaning.
And so they believe in Rasulullah ﷺ and
they also understand that whatever Rasulullah ﷺ is
bringing is not standing in isolation cut off
from its past, cut off from its future.
It is in continuity.
It is a culmination of Allah's dialogue with
humanity, Allah's communication with humanity.
There's scriptures before it that have been fulfilling
that role as well.
And that after the Qur'an being the
last and final revelation of Allah ﷻ, the
communication process between the human beings and Allah
is going to be very different.
That door of that revelation closes, it closes
with Rasulullah ﷺ.
There's other doors, there's other doors but the
significance of that door and how it manifested
itself in the Qur'an, it's been perfected
and that reaches its climax, its culmination.
Now there's going to be other ways but
the revelation area, the scripture, the word that
Allah reveals culminates and perfects itself with Rasulullah
ﷺ.
Dua, dreams, other signs of Allah in the
rest of the universe, we'll talk about those
later.
But for now this chapter, this area, it
closes with Rasulullah ﷺ to believe in that.
وَبِالْآخِرَةِ هُمْ يُقِنُونَ And of the hereafter they
are convinced.
So you have to have these five attributes.
If the Qur'an is going to be
of guidance for you, is going to be
a guidance for you, if you're going to
be a person of taqwa, if this process
is going to have any benefit, if there
is, if iman is missing, if that humility
is missing that comes with iman, if all
of what you know is all there is
to know, then there's very little you're going
to get out of the Qur'an.
If that process of salah is missing, if
that process or that willingness to give is
missing, to benefit others is missing, if the
understanding of the continuity of revelation and its
culmination with Rasulullah ﷺ is missing, if the
recognition of consequences of your action ultimately on
the day of judgment is missing, then the
Qur'an, as far as the guidance that
you ask for in Fatiha is concerned, you're
not getting that.
We may get closer to these, to acquiring
these five prerequisites and then perhaps more and
more doors of guidance open up.
It is a continuous process, right?
But these prerequisites nevertheless are indispensable.
They're indispensable for what we look to get
of guidance.
These are the ones upon guidance from their
Rabb.
Again, that relationship of opens up the path
that leads to the actualization of the greatest
potential that Allah has kept within these people.
And it is them, these are the ones
who are successful.
And it is definitely the same for those
who refuse to believe, the kuffar, that you
warn them or you do not warn them,
they will not believe.
They will not believe.
It's sealed.
Whatever they had to believe, it's fixated, it
is rigid, it is not changing.
Allah has sealed their hearts and hearing, and
over their sight is a veil.
How do you, what is the manifestation of
having iman al-ghayb?
Eyes, ears, heart open.
And as precluding of all possibilities of growth
and guidance, close your eyes, close your ears,
close your heart off.
Not wait, Allah is going to do that
for you.
Because Allah did that as a culmination of
a habit or a series of choices that
they'd continue to make.
They wouldn't use their ears, they wouldn't use
their eyes, they wouldn't use their ears, they
wouldn't reflect with their heart.
They'd close themselves off to all of these
dimensions or all of these channels of guidance.
And so Allah's like, fine, enough is enough.
No more.
You don't honor this, you don't deserve it.
It atrophies, it's taken away.
And for them is a severe punishment.
We break with this inshaAllah and we continue
with the second ruku.
So we are continuing then with surah al
-Baqarah.
We did the first ruku along with surah
al-Fatihah in the first session.
This is session number two.
And we continue with the second ruku.
The first ruku tells us about the first
group of people in response to the dua
in surah al-Fatihah, the group of people
that are going to get the guidance that
they asked for.
And those are the people who have those
five attributes that we spoke about.
And then the second group of people also
alluded to towards the end of the first
ruku of surah al-Fatihah.
Those are the people who have the channels
of guidance or the ways through which you
acquire guidance or the faculties through which you
acquire guidance.
Those have been sealed off for them.
What is depicted is the culmination of Allah's
decision for them that they are alive yet
they are spiritually dead.
That as far as guidance is concerned, they're
spiritually dead.
And that is depicted in the sealed nature
of the heart.
Allah has sealed their heart.
So there's spiritual deadness but that is followed
up but it's not just the heart that
is sealed.
Their eyes and ears have been veiled as
well, covered up as well.
Typically, we would associate eyes and hearing with
an intellectual deadness, right?
That there is, this is what you get
information through, see things, hear things, those faculties
reflect, contemplate, and then things move on.
So there is this relationship that we are
already seeing between the thought processes of human
beings, the perception of human being, and the
spiritual faculties of a human being and the
people who are not to get guidance, all
of this is sealed off for them.
All of that is taken away for them
and the degree of the veil or the
intensity of being veiled is such that they're
not even aware of it that that's how
that's how bad it becomes.
These are people who can physiologically see and
hear.
Their hearing, if you test it out, would
be pretty okay.
Their vision may even be six five six.
So what is spoken of is the one,
the kind of hearing and seeing through which
information, knowledge, is it passes and then it
influences your beliefs.
So that's been taken away.
That's the second group.
The third group of people and the most
interesting group of people, the most detail that
comes up is about this particular group of
people.
Who are these people?
These are the people who claim that we
believe in Allah.
And the day of judgment.
So this pretty much includes all those who
claim Iman, who claim to be believers.
But they're not believers.
Okay, so they think they're believers.
They say that they're believers.
Allah says they're not believers.
They are trying to deceive Allah and the
believers.
However, they deceive none but themselves.
They're trying to convince Allah and the believers
that they actually are people of Iman.
They don't end up deceiving Allah and the
real believers that they are people of Iman.
But they end up thinking themselves that they
are people of Iman.
So these are the kind of people who
are so sure of their faith, of their
faithfulness.
They're very certain not about the pillars
of faith per se or necessarily, but about
their own faith in the pillars of faith.
Does that make sense?
We spoke about the first group and the
first group have a conviction about the hereafter.
They have an Iman in Al Ghayb.
They have an Iman in the whole process
of revelation and how it culminates with Rasulullah
ﷺ.
They have all of that.
They have that conviction.
This particular group is convinced of their own
faith in all of those.
And that is precisely where the doubt is
supposed to be.
That is precisely, perhaps better than doubt, suspicion
is supposed to be.
That the self, the nature of self-deceit,
the nature of the human unconscious, the moment
you start becoming clock sure, you have this
rigid certainty about your faithfulness, about how much
of a mu'min you are, about how much
of a Muslim you are, of how great,
committed, dedicated, strong your faith is.
That's actually a sign of hypocrisy.
That's actually a sign of the third group
of people who think they're guided, but they're
actually not.
When we look at the Sahaba, those are
the people who, the direct addressees of the
Qur'an, received it straight from Rasulullah ﷺ,
they were always suspicious of their own faith.
They were suspicious of their own faith.
They were fearful of hypocrisy within themselves.
Ibn Abi Mulaika, one of the Tabi'een,
he said, I believe 17 or a similar
number, he said that that's how many Sahaba
I met, and every single one of them
was afraid of hypocrisy from their own self.
Afraid of nifaq.
Afraid of nifaq.
That's how unconscious this whole process is.
That's because primarily it operates through self-deception.
The person who has it thinks they don't.
Which is why it becomes all the more
important to engage with the Qur'an in
depth.
To engage in your salah deeply, reflectively, suspiciously
even.
Because it is that suspicion that will help
us nurture this faith better.
When there is no suspicion, when there is
that certainty, that rigidity, what is there to
improve?
What is there to work on?
What is there to put in an effort
for?
They haven't deceived anyone but themselves.
They have deceived themselves into thinking that they
are people of iman.
And they do not even realize it.
The unconscious nature of the whole process.
Their hearts are suffering from a disease.
The disease is in their hearts.
Nobody afflicts themselves with a disease.
A disease just happens.
And because it is a disease of the
heart, it's hidden.
And Allah increases them in that sickness.
Not a pretty picture.
It's infecting the heart.
So it's hidden.
It's marked by self-deception.
And Allah is continuing to increase it.
وَلَهُمْ عَذَابٌ أَلِيمٌ And for them is a
painful punishment.
بِمَا كَانُوا يَكْذِبُونَ Because they're always lying.
This habit of lying.
And not just telling untruths.
I mean that's one, of course that's one
form of lying.
And that's an important thing to guard against.
But then lying reflects and represents so much
more than that.
When truth continues to manifest itself before you.
Rejecting it.
Refusing it.
When the consequences of your own actions are
proving, are showing that you're on the wrong
track.
Continue to lie to yourself that no, no,
no, you are on the right track.
That you are going in the right direction.
That this is how it is supposed to
be.
And then to beef up those lies with
whatever sources you want.
Just to beef up those lies.
Because what those lies are reassuring you of
is that you're okay.
And that no other effort needs to be
made.
And no changes need to be brought in.
No reflection is necessary.
No reconsideration is necessary.
That maybe you have to take a u
-turn and then you know take a right
turn a little to the other way.
And then go down that path one more
time.
And take a different turn.
That's quite a lot of effort.
You might as well you know just lie
to yourself no, no, no, this is the
road I had to take.
And it will take me to the destination
that I wanted to go to.
And to back that up with any source
of knowledge you can find.
If that's ayats of Allah, why not?
If that's a hadith of the Prophet ﷺ,
why not?
Pick them up, cut paste them, and back
up your position.
In fact, Allah says this, that's why I'm
doing it.
It's lying in the face of truth, denying
the truth, rejecting the truth repeatedly.
And then covering up those lies with rationalizations,
justifications, and quote-unquote evidence, which is only
confirming that that certainty that's already there, that
conviction that you don't want to have any
suspicion about.
And when they are told do not create
trouble in the land, what is the manifestation
of their misguidance?
What is the manifestation of their lack of
faith despite their claim and offshore certainty about
faith?
It is the fasaad in the world.
What is emanating from them in the world
that they're living in?
Is it any good or is it evil?
And when it is shown to them and
they're told, look, this is bad, this is
wrong, this is fasaad, this is corruption, trouble,
they're gone.
But definitely we are the ones reforming, we
are the ones doing islah, we are the
ones setting things right.
Without a doubt, they are definitely corrupt.
They're creating trouble.
They're messing things up.
They're wreaking havoc.
You look at the degree of self-deceit.
Fasaad is all around and people are telling
them, this is messed up, like messed up.
This is actual efforts of repair.
This is actual efforts of fixing things up.
We're the ones doing that.
Everyone else is messed up.
Everything else is messed up.
We're the only beacons of hope left.
But they don't realize it, the degree of
blindness.
They can't even see the evil emanating from
their own hands.
And when they are told to believe like
others believe, to be believed like the idiots
believe, they're like sacrificing, they're giving out, they're
benefiting the community, they're benefiting others.
They're engaged in this contemplative prayer, this dialogue
with Allah, their connection to revelation and Rasulullah
ﷺ, their fear of accountability and how that's
leading for them to do all of what
they're doing.
They're constantly looking inward, looking to improve themselves,
looking to benefit themselves, looking to go further
and further upon guidance and reflect if there
is any misguidance that they're on.
And look at all of that going on.
Look at the lives of the sahabah or
anyone from the time of the sahabah to
today, because it is, the guidance doesn't end
there, does it?
We have a lot of in our history
as well, that we are eating from the
fruits of their labor and sacrifice.
So there's so many role models, examples there.
But they're like, no, to believe in the
idiots and also in our own lives, to
be able to identify, to be able to
see good people doing good work outside of
yourself, outside of yourselves.
That is an incredible ability to have.
It is so easy to believe in guided
people who have passed away.
Because then again, you can mold them according
to your taste.
You can mold them according to however it
is you want to live your life and
not be molded into something better.
Something closer to your potential, something more beneficial.
Should we believe like the idiots believed?
Allah says, no, no, no, no.
They themselves are idiots, those who are saying
this.
But they have no idea.
When they meet people who have believed, the
other believers, they say, we believe.
But when they are alone with their own
demons, and their demons, these shayateen can be
other human beings, the other party that they're
also good with, that they get along with
as well, or their own shayateen, the shayateen
within, the demons inside.
Qalu, they reassure them.
Inna ma'akum.
We're with you.
We're with you.
Inna ma'akum mustahzeoon.
We were only messing with those.
We were only mocking those.
We were only playing with them.
We were only just humoring them.
You know, it's good to just get along
with people, maintaining contacts.
Because the inherent motivation of nifaq, of hypocrisy,
is self-interest.
And a person who has self-interest as
their primary motivation in life, that's all they're
ever concerned with.
And that self-interest can be the self
-interest for for money, for power, for pleasure,
you name it.
But, and there's nothing wrong with money, power,
pleasure, for the self, as long as it
does not become the ruling passion, the main
motivation for everything that goes on.
To the point that even a person's religious
potential, or religious activities, they succumb to this
ruling passion, this ruling instinct.
That's what's demonic about it.
And that's the overwhelming drive for all action,
even religious action, even spiritual action.
It's when that happens that the person becomes
a source of sharr.
And it is when fasad emanates.
And so a manifestation of that self-interest
being the drive, the main overwhelming drive, and
that tendency is very real.
It is that tendency that we're looking to
contain with Ramadan.
Right?
When that does happen, that person is, of
course, he wants to keep it good everywhere.
Diplomatic here, nice there, have it good with
those people as well, be in their good
books as well.
Because you don't know which party is going
to come out on top.
You don't know what favors they can do
for you.
So you want to have a very good
relationship with them.
And it becomes very scary.
Because you want to talk about being ummatan
wasata, the balanced people.
You want to be the people of balance
or the people who avoid extremes.
And then this diplomacy, there seems to be
a lot of overlap there.
And we look hopefully to see how to
be able to distinguish that because it gets
very, very scary.
Is this diplomacy?
Is this being balanced?
The middle of me not being either towards
either of the extremes?
Is that being balanced?
Or is that hypocrisy?
Right?
So they reassure either their demonic impulses or
their shayateen friends, their evil friends, we're actually
with you.
Don't worry about it.
We're messing with them, whatever good that we
were.
So essentially, whatever good that they have to
do with good people, their instincts, their demonic
potential is very hard pressed.
It's very taxed.
It's very drained.
It's like, what the *?
That's not what we signed up for.
Where to party and whatnot.
Where's the money?
Where's the power in all of this?
And I don't know, don't worry about it.
Ultimately, that's where this is going to get
me.
Just messing with them, humoring them, keeping all
good with them.
So as to get it, this is all
going on in the head.
Or this is all going on in very
private parties or private gatherings.
If these shayateen are real people, Allah is
mocking them.
And He lets them grow in their rebellion
as they wander blindly.
These are the ones who purchase misguidance at
the price of guidance.
Why would Allah do something like this to
anyone?
Why would Allah, and in the previous passage
as well, why would Allah steal somebody's heart?
Allah says because these are the people who
purchased misguidance at the price.
They had guidance.
They had the opportunity.
It presented itself before them.
They refused to see it.
They weren't able to see it.
They didn't have the right attitude to be
able to see it.
They looked away.
They ignored it.
They refused it.
They chose misguidance.
So their bargain brought no profit.
And why would they do that?
They would do that because it is something
immediate that they're gaining from it.
Some gratification that they're getting there and then.
But Allah says that doesn't profit.
It won't bring them profit.
So effectively their self-interest driving them drove
them to their self-destruction.
It told them that this is the best
deal you can get.
Keep it good with everyone.
And that didn't work.
As much as interested as they were to
preserve themselves, they lost themselves and counterintuitively, the
self-transcendent actualizes themselves as we saw in
the first passage.
The one who looks to go out beyond
sacrifice, delay gratification, discipline themselves, open mechanism to
freedom, become that responsible person of integrity, open
to guidance, open to responding, open to giving
and all of those things look to be,
there's too much openness, too much vulnerability, too
much risk, but then that's where the growth
lies as well.
That's where the self-actualization actually takes place.
فَمَا رَوْ بِحَدْ تِجَارَتُهُمْ وَمَا كَانُوا مُهْتَدِينَ مَثَلُهُمْ
كَمَثَلِ اللَّذِ اسْتَوْقَدَ نَرَى Their example is that
of a man who kindles a fire.
فَلَمَا عَضَأَتْ مَنْ حَوْلَهُ So when it illuminates
his surroundings, ذَهَبَ اللَّهُ بِنُورِهِمْ Allah takes away
his light.
Allah takes away their light.
وَثَرَكَهُمْ فِي ظُلُمَاتٍ لَا يُبَصِرُونَ And left them
in utter darkness, unable to see.
ثُمٌ بُكْنٌ عُمْدٌ فَهُمْ لَا يَرْجِعُونَ So they
will never, deaf, dumb and blind, they will
never return.
You can have light in your surrounding.
You can even have lit that light for
yourself or somebody could have lit it for
you.
But in order to be able to benefit
from that light, in order to be able
to see the path that that light shows
you, there has to be a sight from
within, a vision from within, not just the
external light that's gonna do it.
So you can have all the signs, you
can have all the ayats, you can have
all revelation, you can have all of knowledge.
But if the sight from within is taken
away, then it's darkness.
It is an inability to see.
It is an inability to see.
And this inability to see, as we have
just learned, is brought on by choices that
the human being makes.
There's a lot of time that light shows
you things you don't wanna see.
Either on the path, those things are too
difficult, asking a lot, and we don't wanna
get out of our comfort zones, that self
-interest.
Or it shows me an aspect of myself
that is ugly.
That is evil.
And I don't wanna acknowledge that.
I don't wanna acknowledge that.
So not seeing what the light has to
show me becomes a habit to the point
that I lose the ability to see altogether.
ثُمَّ بُكْمٌ عُمْيٌ فَهُمْ لَا يَرْجِعُونَ And when
these faculties are taken away, there's no return.
There is no return to guidance.
أَوْكَ سَيْجِبِ مِنَ السَّمَاء Or of a rainstorm
in a sky.
So there's one parable.
That's a parable of a people who are
gone.
If it's gone as in terms of being
kuffar, or it's gone in terms of the
severity of hypocrisy, it's the same thing.
But whether it's talking about the second group
or the third group, it's the same thing.
Second in terms of the three groups are
the first two groups talked about.
The people of taqwa, put them to a
side.
Those are not the ones being talked about
right now.
Even though those are the ones who are
gonna be most afraid of being a part
of these groups.
إِنَّ الَّذِينَ كَفَرُوا The first ayah seems to
be talking about them.
It also seems to be talking about those
who claim to believe but in reality don't
believe, and they've gone to the point of
no return.
They're the same as the kuffar.
And the Quran repeat that again and again.
There comes a point in hypocrisy where it's
the difference between hypocrites and kuffar is irrelevant.
Except that the hypocrites are worse.
This is a slightly lesser, slightly, considerably lesser
degree of severity of hypocrisy.
أَوْ كَسَجِّبِ مِنَ السَّمَاءِ So a rainstorm in
the sky.
فِيهِ غُلُمَاتٌ وَرَعْدٌ وَبَرْقٌ In it are periods
of darkness, thunder, and lightning.
When we talk about guidance, guidance is not
like a path lighting up, big bright lights
and like harps playing in the background and
gentle, angel singing, little children singing, birds chirping.
You're flying across the path of guidance.
That's not how it works.
The Quranic depiction of it is like of
a thunderstorm, a thunderstorm.
There's periods of darkness, there is thunder, there
is lightning.
That lightning is that time you can see
you gotta make it count, go.
But as you go, you have to deal
with the thunder as well.
The light comes first, then comes the clamor.
As you're looking to process what the light
has shown you, the clamor is of the
thunder, is striking the spear inside of you.
It is warning you.
And you're required to move with that clamor
going ringing through your ears.
And then the light goes away and you're
still required to move.
Trusting what the light showed you.
That's faith, that's faith.
That even whenever, whatever it is that you
see is, you don't see that light anymore,
but you did see it before.
You did make some sense of it.
You did make a commitment at that time,
despite the fear that it was associated with.
To continue to walk, even in that state
of darkness, that's what faith requires.
People of hypocrisy in that stage of darkness,
would sit, would stand.
So what happens is, يَجَعَلُونَ أَصَابِعُهُمْ فِي أَذَانِهِ
مِنَ السَّوَاعِقِ أَغْرَى الْمَوْدِ So first of all,
they thrust their fingers in their ears against
the thunderclaps and the fear of death.
So whatever threats or risks, the light of
guidance comes with, they don't want to know
about it.
They don't want, it's just too much.
The fear of death overwhelms.
The fear of self, loss of self overwhelms.
Again, the driving force of hypocrisy, self-interest.
وَاللَّهُ مُحِيطٌ مِنَ الْكَافِرِينَ And Allah is encompassing
of the disbelievers.
يَكَادُ الْبَرْقُ يَخْطَفُوا أَبْصَارَهُمْ The lightning almost snatches
away their sight.
It is so bright.
It is so bright, it's difficult to keep
your eyes open in the light.
فَلَمَ أَضَاءَ لَهُمْ مَ شَوْفِي Every time it
flashes for them, they walk.
وَإِذَا أَظْلَمَ عَلَيْهِمْ قَامُوا But when darkness covered
them, they stand still.
وَلَوْ شَاءَ اللَّهُ لَذَهَبَ بِسَمْعِهِمْ وَأَبْصَارِهِمْ And if
Allah wanted, He could have taken away their
hearing and sight.
إِنَّ اللَّهَ عَلَىٰ كُلِّ شَيْءٍ فَذِيرٍ Allah is
over all things capable.
He's giving them chances.
He's giving us chances.
Repeatedly, repeatedly, repeatedly, repeatedly.
But to a certain point.
Don't make much of what you see as
blinding as it may be, or the initial
encounter with it at least, as thunderous as
it may sound.
But then to be able to get more
out of those signs that you see and
hear in order to walk even when it's
dark.
That's what it means to be human.
That's what it means to be human.
To carry that knowledge forward, those judgments, those
choices forward.
يَا يُهَى نَاسُ اعْبُدُوا رَبَّكُمْ So, O people,
enter into the عبودية of Allah, your Rabb.
This relationship of عبد-رب that we alluded
to before.
الَّذِي خَلَقَكُمْ وَالَّذِينَ مِنْ قَبْلِكُمْ One who created
you and those before you.
لَعَلَّكُمْ تَتَّقُونَ So that you may be able
to attain taqwa.
So that you may be able to really
protect yourself.
See, they wanted to protect themselves.
There's a self-interest in the people of
hypocrisy.
And then there is a self-interest that
the Qur'an is invoking as well.
You wanna preserve yourself?
You wanna save yourself?
Fair enough.
But it's a completely different attitude that is
required to be developed if you really wanna
preserve yourself.
There's a lot of things that are going
to be counterintuitive.
There's a lot of things that are going
to be, to appear to be contrary to
self-interest.
And you're gonna have to, on the basis
of faith, put in that sacrifice.
That's where you're gonna be actually be able
to save yourselves.
Again, transcend to actualize.
Self-transcend to self-actualize.
Sacrifice and give to earn and grow yourself.
Allathee jaAAala lakum al-ardha firasha He's the
one who made the earth a bed for
you.
Wassamaa binaa And the sky, the ceiling.
Wa anzala minassamaa immaaa And he sent down
water from the sky.
Fa akhraja bihee minathzamaraati rizqan lakum And thereby
he brought the fruits as a provision for
you.
We're gonna speak more of this in the
subsequent matkin surahs.
This beautiful harmony in nature that culminates with
a human being benefiting from it.
And how that speaks of Allah's rahma and
his qabal in so many different ways.
Fala tajAAaloo lillahi anzaadum wa antum taAAlamoon So
do not set up equal for Allah while
you know.
Knowing this, knowing all of this.
Having the ilm of how this works.
You have someone else as an ultimate priority
other than Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala.
When Allah, when he's given that place of
priority, ultimately he gives back to you.
And it is giving to you where it
all begins with.
Wain kuntum fee raibin mimmaa nazalnaa alaa abdeena
And if you're in any doubt about what
we have sent to our abd, Rasulullah sallallahu
alayhi wa sallam fa'atubi surati mimmitlihi Then
produce just one surah like it.
So the challenge of the Quran to those
who have a lot of criticism, who a
lot of things to say as to this
is wrong with the Quran or this doesn't
make sense or that doesn't make sense.
Fair enough, what's your alternative?
What's your alternative?
How is that any better?
Simple, straightforward question.
You don't like this as revelation?
Okay, what have you got that's better?
What is it that you believe in?
What is it that you live by which
can do for humanity what according to you,
the Quran and Islam have not been able
to do?
Bring it on, bring it out.
Bring it up, open challenge.
So yes, in this is a challenge with
respect to the inimitability of the Quran as
to linguistic dimension.
But then again, that was more relevant when
the Arabs and especially the poets of the
Arabs, the linguists of the Arabs were able
to appreciate the linguistic awesomeness or inimitability of
the Quran.
We don't have that anymore.
We don't have that level of the experts
of the world or those that are looked
up to are no longer those poets and
linguists.
It may be segments of them, but that's
definitely not the overwhelming more and most influential
people, right?
And let's be fair.
There's more to the Quran, much more to
the Quran than just the linguistics.
The linguistics, of course, it's a whole area.
It's a whole field in and of itself,
but the Quran is not restricted to that.
And the relevance of that in this day
and age is in a particular area.
It's there for sure, but as one of
many others, as one of many others.
So the inimitability of the Quran, the way
the Quran cannot be paralleled or cannot be
replaced or cannot be superseded is in so
many different domains.
And it is how many of these domains
are that again is a reflection of the
inimitability of the Quran or the unparalleled nature
of the Quran, right?
So the challenge is straight out.
And this is a simple, straightforward challenge to
anyone who has this problem or that problem
with the Quran or Islam, whatever that problem
is, whatever that, wherever that issue is coming
from, straight out, okay, fair.
Let's take your criticism.
Let's not get into the details and the
nitty gritties and the response for this and
how you're wrong with this and how you're
right with that and how.
Let's hold that for now.
What is it that you have that is
better?
How is it better?
Straight out.
How?
And this is a guarantee.
This is a guarantee.
Everyone has something or the other that they
believe in, everyone.
Even if it is belief in their own
doubt, whatever it is.
Belief in agnosticism, belief in not taking a
position about anything at all.
That in itself is a belief.
But not going any further than that, whenever
they bring about something or the other that
they have strong issues with, you only have
to hold a conversation with them long enough
for it to be seen that whatever problem
they're accusing you of, at some level, their
belief is riddled with that problem as well.
It's only a matter of time.
It is only a matter of time.
And that they are perfectly okay with that
when it comes to their belief, their faith,
their routine, how they live their life.
But when it comes to something else or
the other, the scripture, to Quran specifically, then
all of a sudden it's intolerable.
It's unacceptable.
And we're not even going as to where
that criticism is coming from, whether it's founded,
unfounded, whatever the case may be.
It is just, fair enough, bring an alternative.
You want, if your criticism is genuine, if
you're really that sincere, and you can bring
out something better, by all means do so.
فَأْتُوْ بِسُورَةٍ A portion of it.
وَادْعُوشُ هَذَاءَكُم مِّن دُونِ اللَّهِ And follow all
your helpers besides Allah.
إِن كُنْتُمْ صَادِقِين If you really are true.
فَإِن لَّمْ تَفْعَلُوا But if you can't, وَلَمْ
تَفْعَلُوا And most certainly you won't.
فَاتَّقُوا النَّارَ الَّتِي وَقُودُهَا النَّاسُ وَالْحِجَارَ And save
yourselves from the fire whose fuel is men
and stones.
وَعِدَّتْ لِلْكَافِرِينَ It has been prepared for the
disbelievers.
Again, the part of the challenge of the
Quran, like we said, as far as the
Arabs are concerned, as far as when the
revelation is happening, live to Rasulullah ﷺ, it
is a given that the linguistics, the inimitability,
it has established itself over the course of
the Meccan period, the first two, three years
of Medina, that Surah Baqarah is being revealed.
It has been done.
It is there.
It has been shown.
And we can see, and that's something that
is incredible, that this challenge that is put
out, in the beginning it is, the challenge
says bring a Quran like this.
And then as more and more Quran is
revealed, the ease of the challenge, the challenge
is made easier and easier for the people
of Quraysh, for the Arabs.
Okay, you can't bring the Quran, 10 surahs,
10 chapters.
You can't even do that, one chapter, one
surah.
And what is going on progressively?
As the challenge is decreasing, the truth of
the Quran, by virtue of the efforts of
Rasulullah ﷺ and Sahaba, is becoming more and
more established.
Is becoming more and more established.
And that in itself is a message for
us, that for this challenge to have any
relevance in the world that we're living in,
there is an effort that we have to
make as human beings, as believers, as Muslims,
as those who believe in this challenge to
be true, to really show, in accordance with
the standards of the day, of the specialists,
not just linguists, but people who have the,
that impact, that influence, according to their areas
of speciality, we have to, it is upon
us to carry that inimitability forward.
Not just say that it's there, you can't
see it.
There is a part that the messenger played,
that the messengers of the messenger have to
play, which is why the challenge became easier.
SubhanAllah.
fa illam tafAAaloo wa lan tafAAaloo fattaqoo naradati
waqoodooha an-naas wa al-hijara wa iddat
al-kaafireen wabashri allatheena amanoo wa amiloo as
-salihaat anna lahum jannat And give glad tidings
to those who believe and perform righteously, that
for them are gardens, tajree min tahtiha al
-anhaar underneath which rivers flow, kullama ruziqoo minhaa
min thamaratir-rizqan And whenever they're given some
fruit from there, qaloo hadha allathee ruziqoonaa min
qabla They will say it is the same
as what was given to us earlier.
wa utoobihi mutashabihaa And actually they've been given
something that resembles it.
wa lahum feehaa adhwajil mutahara And for them
in there are purified spouses wa hum feehaa
khalidoon And they will live therein forever.
So there's the ultimate consequence of jahannam for
the people who reject, as we saw, but
then those who struggle, those are of imaan,
who are willing to do all of what
we spoke about, first passage of first rukoo
of surah Baqarah Then they find their hearts
content in paradise as well.
There is a validation for their instinctual needs
in jannah as well.
There is an exhortation, encouragement to find fulfillment
of these needs as best as possible, as
much as possible here in this world as
well, provided that that is not overwhelmed and
take so much predominance that it is to
the neglect of responsibility and the role that
that person has to perform as Allah's abd
in the society.
As long as it's not to the detriment
of that, this too is encouraged.
These instincts too are honored and then they
will be ultimately honored in paradise itself.
What is the fruit that they're gonna give
in there that they were given before that?
It is the fruit of their labor.
There is so much to it.
For one thing, the same food becomes better
and better as jannah progresses, but then there
is something of that fruit, the taste of
which they experienced in dunya as well.
Something of it was experienced here.
There was a sliver of paradise that in
their lives they were able to live.
There was something of that purity in relationship
that they were able to develop here as
well.
Maybe, maybe not, but the possibility is definitely
there.
The tashbih or finding the resemblance or identifying
with it in paradise says that it is
something they can relate with.
It is something that a past life in
paradise, past life in dunya, gave them something
of a flavor for, or a taste of,
right?
So it may be more abstract.
It may be more effort within the struggle,
within sacrifice, a strange satisfaction that just comes.
You're not looking for it.
You're not going for it.
It's in the midst of distress.
It's in the midst of pain.
This weird feeling of tranquility.
It's transient.
It's a side effect, but it's there and
it's memorable to the point that they will
remember it in paradise when they see it.
In Allah la yastahyi, and Allah doesn't hesitate.
He doesn't shy away from yadriba mathalam ma
ba'udatan fama fawqaha that he uses an
example of a mosquito or something even more
insignificant.
See, there's certain standards of spirituality that people
have developed that they will now try and
force upon God himself.
And in those standards of spirituality, it's not
just standards of spirituality.
It is standards of what counts as real
knowledge.
It is standards of where that real knowledge
should come from, what qualifies as a good
example, and what qualifies as an insignificant or
a bad example.
What should be reliable or high and really
superior source, and what shouldn't be such, right?
So those standards that are preformed and then
imposed upon God.
One of the trends within our history is
to relegate material reality, the material world, as
not too important of a source for knowledge.
Or to have to resort to those kinds
of examples or that area for lessons, for
knowledge, that wouldn't be very, that would not
behoove highly spiritual kalam, which is coming from
the divine.
It doesn't sound divine.
And so it is that attitude that is
being addressed.
Excuse me, where did you get those standards
from?
How dare you dictate to Allah as to
what is relevant and what is reliable and
what should be a source of knowledge and
what shouldn't be a source of knowledge.
Where did you get that from?
That those are your preformed standards.
Where you got them from is your business,
but Allah is not bound by them.
He wants to give significance to a fly.
He's going to give significance to a fly.
If he is going to give significance to
a material reality, he is going to give
significance to material reality.
He will do that.
He's not bound by your standards.
So Allah does not shy away from giving
an example of a mosquito or something even
more, quote unquote, insignificant.
فَأَمَا الَّذِينَ آمَنُوا فَيَعْلَمُونَ أَنَّهُ الْحَقُّ مِنَ الرَّبِّهِمْ
For those who believe, for them, it is
clear that this is the truth.
This is part of al-haqq from their
Rabb.
Whether it is that fly or even something
more insignificant, more material than that, it is
all part of that continuity of al-haqq,
of the truth that Allah is representing from
their Rabb.
وَأَمَا الَّذِينَ كَثَرُوا فَيَقُولُونَ هَذَا رَضُّ اللَّهُ بِهَذَا
مَثَلًا And for those who disbelieve in them,
what does Allah want with such, with that
kind of an example?
Something from there, يُضِلُّوا بِهِ كَثِيرًا وَيَهْدِي بِهِ
كَثِيرًا Allah misleads many thereby and guides many
thereby.
So in our black and white polarized view
that cannot see anything spiritual and material, that
cannot see anything worthy of knowledge, anything worthy
of providing guidance in material reality and that
material reality that like of a fly, first
Allah says, no, that's most definitely possible.
Not only is it possible, it is necessary
and needed.
First that is rectified.
And then again, that black and white view
that only sees from the highly spiritual, highly
scriptural, only good and grace and wonderful awesomeness
emanating, Allah rectifies that.
No, even with this, Allah can misguide.
Even with this revelation, with this Quran, people
can be misguided.
So there is a possibility of the demonic
within the divine that within the scripture, you
get misguided.
Of all the things that you're required to
pray or seek refuge with Allah from Shaytan,
there is one area that it is mandatory
to do that.
And that is before reciting the Quran.
نَعُوذُ بِاللَّهِ مِنَ الشَّيْطَانِ الرَّجِيمِ Because يُضِلُّوا بِهِ
كَثِيرًا And that guidance is gonna be there.
That misguidance, I mean, it's gonna be bad.
يُضِلُّوا بِهِ كَثِيرًا And He misleads many thereby.
وَيَهْدِي بِهِ كَثِيرًا And guides many thereby.
So to be able to see both possibilities.
How much of a guidance potential apply that
quote unquote insignificant of material reality can possibly
have.
And how much of a misguidance potential scripture
can have.
وَمَا يُبِلُّوا بِهِ إِلَّا الْفَاسِقِينَ But this is
not arbitrary.
This is not random.
Allah misleads with it.
None except those who are defiantly disobedient.
الَّذِينَ يَنْقُضُونَ عَهْدَ اللَّهِ مِنْ بَعْدِ مِثَاقِهِ Those
who break Allah's covenant after it is ratified.
So this covenant that they had with Allah.
And this, the Ahd-e-Alast as we're
gonna talk about in Surah Al-A'raf.
Allah said, اللَّهُ صَلُوبُ بِرَبِّكُمْ And everyone said,
yes, we do accept you.
بَلَىٰ, as our Rabb.
And then the recollection of it or the
conscious acceptance of it when you do become
conscious.
And this is also true for us being
born into Muslim families.
We said, أَشْهَدْ وَلَّا إِلَٰهِ إِذَا اللَّهُ وَأَشْهَدْ
وَإِنَّ مُحَمَّدًا رَسُولُ اللهِ We had no idea
what it meant.
And then we continue as we grow in
knowledge and maturity, hopefully to get a better
idea as to what it means.
And then we reaffirm, we ratify, we confirm
that, yes, we do still believe in this
now that we really understand it consciously and
intellectually.
But then after having done that, breaking it.
وَيَقْطَعُونَ مَا أَمَرَ اللَّهُ بِهِ أَن يُوصَلُ And
sever what Allah has ordered to maintain.
A manifestation of not honoring the commitment to
Allah is breaking relationships.
Tawheed, making a relationship with Allah means making
relationships with others, within your social connections.
Not being able to do that, severing relationship
here and there and everywhere and still making
a claim to Tawheed, there is something seriously
wrong with that.
A Tawheed, a true manifestation of Tawheed is
in making more and more relationships, relating more
and more, especially that would be considered unrelatable.
As Rasulullah Sallallahu Alaihi Wasallam was able to
do his Tawheed, his relationship with Allah, his
mi'raj, his meeting with Allah and communicating
with Allah as best and at the highest
level possible on one side is expressed, the
utility of that or the truth of that
is expressed, is manifested in him being able
to relate with and connect with Bilal Habashi
and Julaibib.
That Rasulullah Sallallahu Alaihi Wasallam was able to
relate with the ones in the society no
one was willing to talk to, no one
was willing to incorporate in society.
It was in his ability to honor them
the way they deserved, the way that no
one acknowledged.
So his mi'raj in salah, in speaking
to Allah to the point of going to
him, to the seventh heaven to speak to
him, on one side, the height of his
spirituality expresses itself in the depth of his
social revolution in which he is able to
bring those people in society, which were really
those people in society.
The society looked upon as unrelatable, unworthy, to
really embrace them, make them stand shoulder to
shoulder, call them Sayyidi, that was his Tawheed.
As for people who ratify their covenants with
Allah, they confirm that, yes, we do believe
in Allah, and yet they continue to break
off relationships.
Whether it's in the name of individualism, I'm
becoming more and more independent.
Okay, we know what that done to us.
We're only becoming more and more lonely and
depressed.
Wa yuqsiduna fil arban, create trouble on earth.
Not gonna manifest as corruption on earth.
Wulaikahumul khasirun, these are the real losers.
Hayfa takfuruna billa, and how can you refuse
to acknowledge Allah?
Wa kuntum amwata, as you were dead, fa
ahyaakum, and he brought you to life.
How can you be, again, the love expressed
in the ayat itself, how can you disbelieve
in Allah?
How could you do that?
The dejection that is expressed, how could you?
You were dead, I gave you life.
Somebody gives you something, something very, very trivial,
anything, pencil, water, and morality would have it
that you express your gratitude for something which
is as frivolous as it is, it's life
-giving.
How about life itself?
How about gratitude for that?
And really, when we do look at gratitude,
we dig deep into it, and gratitude is
an expression of an acknowledgement and appreciation of
whenever someone, anyone gives us anything which is
in any way life-giving, life-promoting.
And so the ultimate gratitude should be ultimately
due to the one who ultimately gave us
life itself.
Fuma yu'mitukum, then he will put you to
death.
Fuma yu'mitukum, and then he will bring you
to life.
So it transforms.
And the man, his love expressing itself for
how it was so giving, so benevolent, and
then how it's going to become retributive.
He's gonna bring you back to life.
And not only is he gonna bring you
back to life to finish, necessarily, but to
love more, to give more, life, eternal life.
Fuma ilayhi tur ja'un, and through him,
you will all be returned.
The fourth ruku, we're going much slower than
planned, but that's okay, we'll pick up pace
as we go on.
We are still planning on going cover to
cover within this Ramadan, inshallah.
One thing that I will advise all of
you we haven't put the mus'af on
the screen with this recording or this broadcast.
So I would advise strongly that each of
you has a copy of your own mus
'af with you and follow along the ayat
as they are being translated and explained.
Of course, if you're driving, don't do that.
If you're listening to this as in your
routine exercise walk don't do that, but it
is a recommendation.
Nevertheless, for those of you who are doing
this sitting down and can afford to look
at the mus'af.
Okay, so moving right along, I'm going to
move on to the fourth ruku of Surah
Al-Baqarah.
So this is, actually, I think I only
did ayah number 28 of the third, we
didn't do the last ayah.
We'll do that, the last ayah of the
third ruku and then the fourth ruku.
A'udhu Billahi Minash Shaitanir Rajeem Huwa Alladhee
Khalaqa Lakumma Fil Ardi JameeAAa He is the
One who created for you whatever is on
earth, all of it.
Thumma Astawa Ila As-Samaa Then He directed
Himself to the skies.
Fathawa Hunna SabAAa Samawat And He fashioned them
into seven heavens.
Wahuwa Bikulli Shay'in Alim And He knows
everything.
Allah Subh'anaHu Wa Ta-A'la creating
everything for you.
Every single thing oriented around the human being
rising up to their potential.
Wa Itqala Rabbuka Lil Mala'ika So this
is something that you see in the world
around you.
All that you see is Allah doing or
making you possible.
So there has to be something that you
have to do.
You have that, that is possible for you
to do.
It is all meaningful in terms of what
you see around you in the world of
nature, because it provides you.
You have to be meaningful in some way
to them.
And that's something that actually follows.
That's in the world around you historically.
The love with which or the love that
Allah is communicating with which He put everything,
arranged everything for us.
I did this for you.
I set this for you.
I put up this for you, right?
And then He talks about, okay, let's go
back to the beginning of this love or
this plan that Allah had.
When your Rabb Ya Rasulullah Again, Rasulullah Sallallahu
Alaihi Wasallam is a part of every ayah
of the Quran because it is being revealed
to him, but most specifically so when he
is addressed in that singular, Rabbuka, your Rabb,
your Rabb Ya Rasulullah.
So when your Rabb Ya Rasulullah said to
the angels, Inni ja'ilun fil ardih khalifah
I've decided I'm going to set up a
khalifah on earth, a vice-gerant, a representative.
Qalu ataj'alu fiha The angels are like,
hang on.
Are you going to create in it?
May yufsidu fiha One who is going to
wreak havoc in it, create fasaad on earth.
Fasaad as in the Arabic word fasaad.
Is going to wreak havoc in it, chaos,
corruption.
What are you talking about?
May yufsidu fiha Yes, we could be, man,
he's going to shed blood.
Is that what you're doing?
Because they understand.
What does khalifah mean?
Representative.
There cannot be true representation, a real khalifah
without freedom.
And when there is freedom to do good,
there is freedom to do evil.
And the ultimate manifestations of evil, fasaad on
earth and lachad.
Wa nahnu nusabbiku bihamdik And we exalt your
tasbih.
We perform your tasbih and your hamd.
We do all of that.
Tasbih, hamd, wa nuqaddisu lak And we exalt
your sanctification, your purity.
That's your freedom of shortcoming.
And what more can you want?
What more can there be done?
And as far as tasbih is concerned, as
far as exalting you is concerned, we got
that area covered, perfected.
Fala inni a'lamu ma la ta'lamu
Allah said, I know what you don't.
So clearly what is expected of the human
being is something above and beyond the angelic
level of perfection or the angelic level of
ibadah or the angelic level of tasbih.
The tasbih of the human being cannot just
be restricted to the tasbih of an angel.
As far as an angel tasbih is concerned,
they were already doing that.
The jinn, azazil and iblis, as we're gonna
read later in the passage, as far as
that tasbih, that ibadah was concerned with the
freedom, with the greater degree of freedom than
angels that azazil had, that the jinn had,
he manifested the perfection of that tasbih as
well to the point that he was elevated
to the rank of angels.
No problem.
At least, I'm sure it was very hard
for him to get there.
It was a lot of sacrifice and hard
work and all of that required.
I'm sure he did all of that.
It's not easy being exalted to that level.
We can only imagine, but he did it.
But he did it and he attained it.
He made that his habit.
He earned that title from Allah.
Again, what is required of the human being
is something so much different, so much more.
And it is reflected within this passage in
the refusal of shaitan and the refusal of
azazil to bow down before Adam.
Because the tawheed of angels was a simple,
straightforward tawheed.
The tawheed of azazil is complicated more because
there is more freedom.
It is more difficult, but he does it.
The tawheed of the human being is going
to be, or with the human being in
the picture is going to be all the
more complicated, all the more difficult precisely because
it involves other relationships.
It was that other relationship that shaitan could
not take.
He could not submit to.
He could not see that in submission to
God is, that in to submit to God,
he has to accept this human being and
its superiority.
And it is in relating with other human
beings that we are required to do that
repeatedly.
Not literally bow down, of course, but in
so many different ways, submit, accept, acknowledge, make
space for their individuality at the cost of
our own at times, only to see that
that enhances our individuality in the long run.
That's what a relationship is all about.
It's mutually fruitful, right?
So it's becoming more and more.
And to now reduce as human beings, spirituality
and worship to simply that angelic concept and
making that the ideal of what a human
being is, the one who does those tasbihat,
those ibadat, and does it so perfectly and
so regularly and so with so much devout
attention to make that the ideal is so
anti-Quran.
It is so anti-Quran.
It is anti-prophetic attitude of Rasulullah Sallallahu
Alaihi Wasallam, or generally the Rusul.
That is not what they did.
That is not what they did.
Rasulullah Sallallahu Alaihi Wasallam, his mi'raj, as
much as it is in the actual mi
'raj of going to Allah, it is in
coming back and embracing Julaibib, embracing Bilal, radiAllahu
ta'ala anhu, embracing all of whom nobody
would want to even touch or look at
and embracing them.
That was his mi'raj.
That was his tawheed, right?
So to now identify a spiritual ideal in
which somehow the cutting off of relationships has
been rationalized religiously and spiritually, that selfish spirituality
that just looks to, that it looks for
that ecstasy, that nirvana in isolation, in cutting
off.
Transiently, it may be necessary.
As a transient practice, it is part of
the process.
It is important, but to become an absolute
end.
Remember, Jibreel Alaihi Salaam, as far as he
was concerned, when Allah commanded to destroy a
nation of corrupt, wicked people, he was shocked.
He's like, yeah, Allah, there's that one person
there who was worshiping you nonstop and did
not disobey you for the twinkling of an
eye.
Even him?
I mean, am I not supposed to save
him first?
Isn't that standard protocol?
Allah is like, no, no, no, first him,
first him.
For his angelic attitude, it's as good as
it gets what that person is doing.
Allah says, no, how dare he?
What kind of a selfish spirituality is that?
In the name of God, cutting yourself off
from people?
Absolutely, at the final end?
That can't be right.
Allah says, I know what you don't know.
Wa'allama aadama al-asma'a kullaha And
Allah taught Adam alayhi as-salam the names
of all things.
FummaAAaradahum AAala al-mala'ika Then he showed
them to the angels.
Faqala anbi'ooni bi-asma'iha ula'i
And then he said, tell me the names
of these.
In kuntum sadiqeen If you really are true
in your claim.
So implicit in that complaint of the angels
was, maybe we deserve this khilafah.
Maybe we deserve this rank on earth.
Maybe we should be made in charge.
Maybe we have worked to the level of
rising, to deserve this level of perhaps freedom
and authority.
We should be honored such.
Not this play.
They didn't say it.
Al-Dazeel said it.
Shaytan said it.
The angels were more respectful, but it was
implicit.
Maybe we deserve it.
Allah says, if really your claim is true,
if that's what you want.
To get that position on earth, you have
to have this particular ability.
This particular ability I'm giving to the human
being, not you.
And what is that ability?
It is the ability for language.
To name things.
And it's something that sounds so trivial.
It sounds so, you know, name things, what's
the big deal?
That's precisely the beauty in it.
It has become trivial because it is so
human.
We tend to take it for granted.
But as one writer writes, if an alien
were to come on earth and observe humanity
and identify what makes them distinct, it is
this language.
It is this ability to communicate.
It is ability to name names, concepts.
Because the world that this opens up for
us as human beings is an incredible world
of imagination.
Incredible world of imagination.
See, we name things and our naming of
things changes history.
Line of control, urine line, Pakistan, India, Kashmir.
I don't know relevant examples from American history,
but this is what I can do from
the history of the subcontinent.
These names and what they did, what they
did, how they changed the course of history.
How people's lives were changed forever.
And we continue to do that.
We continue to do that.
The entire corpus of science is possible by
this incredible ability to form concepts.
To capture phenomena of nature in concepts and
then build on those concepts, mathematically work on
those concepts and then come back to reality,
to nature and make changes.
To then extract from nature, which was previously
impossible.
And to put nature to a use that
was previously inconceivable, unimaginable.
All in the world of language.
All in the world of language.
How our ability to do science has taken
this language or this area of language or
the potential in language to a whole different
level.
How the entire corpus of scripture, revelation, how
that manifests itself in language, right?
So this incredible ability to name things.
And whenever I talk about this, I talk
about the story of Helen Keller when she
describes acquiring that language or that ability for
language and how it changes them.
Turns her from a beast to a human
being, this enlightenment, this spirituality, this mythical experience
that she has.
Being able to name things.
What you've done for yourself is opened up
this realm, this alam, this world of language
in which past and future have opened up
for you.
You can reflect on the past.
You can plan the future.
You can manipulate the present.
You can interpret the present.
You can see signs and hear signs that
are unintelligible for any other creation.
And in seeing signs, the signs are ayats,
you can know Allah better than anybody else,
better than anybody else.
It is this wonderful world that language opens
you up to.
It is this amazing power that language gives
you.
Not only that, you are able to create
signs, create asma.
And those asma, those signs, those words have
literally creative power.
They can change the world.
You can participate in the process of world
progress, world creation, and so also world destruction.
So you can do all of these wonderful
things, but you can also do all of
these heinous things.
And it was all of those heinous things
that the angels, they had some idea of
from before that they're alluding to.
Now, you know, maybe we should do it.
Allah says, no, this ability that a human
being has, it is this.
And so the angels are shown those things
and they say, we can't name them.
Qala subhanaka la ilma lana illa ma'allamtana.
They said, exalted are you, we know nothing
except what you taught us.
So we as human beings, there is that.
So what this teaching seems to be alluding
to in the context of this conversation, that
there is that knowledge which you are just
given, right, which you are just granted.
That's what angels have access to.
That's what they have access to like nobody
else, like none other, which is why they
are the conduits of revelation.
They are the beings that Allah chooses to
carry revelation, right?
Even prophetic revelation, all the way to prophetic
revelation, especially prophetic revelation.
But then there is a knowledge that is
not given like that, like instantaneous giving.
It is acquired, laboriously acquired, step-by-step
acquired, in which the active participation of the
knowledge seeker is highlighted, is especially present.
And that's what is being represented in ilmul
asmaa.
Qala subhanaka la ilma lana illa ma'allamtana.
Glory be to you, we don't know anything
other than what you've taught us.
Innaka anta al-'alimul hakeem.
Most definitely, you are the only one who
is all-knowing, all-wise.
Qala ya adamu anbi'hum bi-asmaa'ihim.
Allah said, Adam, tell them their names, the
names of these things.
Falamma anba'ahum bi-asmaa'ihim.
And Allah, when Adam alayhis-salaam told them
their names, Qala alam aqullakum.
Allah said, didn't I tell you?
Inni a'lamu ghaybas samawati wa-llam.
I know the secrets of the heavens and
the earth.
Wa a'lamu maa tuqdoona wa maa kunthum
takthumoon.
And I know what you reveal and what
you conceal.
So what it is that you made obvious,
what was explicit and what was implicit in
that complaint originally.
And I know the secrets of the heavens
and the earth, but that evil, the doors
to which are now inevitably being opened, that's
only one side of the story.
That is only one side of the story.
This conversation from the beginning of this passage
to now is bracketed between two possibilities.
One is this incredible ability of language.
Again, this is one of the ways to
prevent, to meliorate the evil that the angels
were alluding to that we are very familiar
with.
We have a retrospective view of, and a
personal experience of, and even a personal practice
of.
And it is in this space of language
with this ability of language, can that melioration
takes place, that containment of evil, and the
expression of good can take place, the more
refined our language, languages become, because
that's all of knowledge for us, a huge
area of knowledge, and that too acquired knowledge.
The laboriously step-by-step trial and error
kind of knowledge.
And the other aspect that was more subtle
that I like to allude to, when the
passage began with a reference to Rasulullah salallahu
alaihi wasalam, qala rabbuka ya Rasulullah, that if
the doors to this incredible evil mind, whatever
we experienced in humanity were not opened, if
we were not, well, not a paradise for
the sin that was committed, if that hadn't
taken place, if that paradise had continued, whatever
that paradise was, however that paradise was, Muhammad
Rasulullah salallahu alaihi wasalam would not have been
possible.
For him to be possible, and for all
An'amta alaihim to be possible, from Adam
alaihi salam all the way to today, until
the day of judgment, for that to be
possible, his doors had to be opened.
And the passage beginning with the rabbuka seems
to suggest that with this possibility being opened,
that of the greatness of An'amta alaihim
climaxed with the personality of Rasulullah salallahu alaihi
wasalam, all the rest is worth it.
The risking everything else that can and did
and will take place in terms of evil
and chaos and lajjad, it's worth it.
It's worth it.
And the process of amelioration of containing that
evil, as important as that is, one of
the ways of doing it is in the
area of this ilm al-asma, acquired human
knowledge.
And then there's another which is going to
come up towards the end of this passage.
wa-ibqula lil-malaika tisjudu li-adam And
when we asked the angels to prostrate before
Adam, fasajadu illa iblis, so they all prostrated
except iblis, but he refused, was takbar, and
he was arrogant.
Again, the istikbar as opposed to iman.
We're gonna highlight this continuously.
He refused to accept.
He was arrogant.
kana minal kafirin, he was of the kuffar.
wa-qulna ya-adam uskun anta wazawdu kal
-janan And we said, Adam, live with your
wife in the garden.
wa-qula minha raghadan haythu shi' To mine,
eat from it freely, from wherever you want
to.
wa-la takqarabaa hadhihi shajara But do not
even come close to this tree.
fatakunaa minal dhalimeen Lest you become those who
are unjust.
The potential for dhulm is going to be
opened once you come to this tree.
Again, the idea is that that's gonna happen
because we have the plan for the human
beings being khulafa of earth is there.
But there's the second demonstration that is necessary
that has to happen, the refusal of shaitaan
and then how Allah incorporates that refusal in
his bigger plan, in his bigger plan.
fa-azallahumma ash-shaitaanu anha And shaitaan made
them stumble away from it.
fa-akhrajaahumma mimma kaana fee And they got
expelled from where they were.
wa-qul nahbithu ba'dukum liba'du al-adu So
we said, all of you get down from
here, enemies to each other.
So the door for dhulm has been opened,
the door for conflict now has been opened.
And there can not be any relationship, especially
not a tawheedic relationship without conflict.
And there can not be any tasbeeh in
the way human beings are required to do
tasbeeh without the possibility of dhulm.
So both of these doors are now open.
wa lakum fil-arbi mustaqarrum wa mataa'un
ilaaheen There is a temporary settlement and provisions
for you on earth and the transient nature
of a human being's life, the transience, the
limited, the time bound, bound by death is
an added dimension of meaningfulness that with that
death, with that time boundedness, the greater the
urgency to get something done, that really a
ration, let's say.
fa-talakka aadamu mir-rabbihi kalimaatin And now
because of this wonderful ability for language, the
mistake that was made of getting close to
that tree, the possibility for sin, the potential
for sin that was first expressed, also comes
tawbah.
So Adam received the appropriate words from his
rabb, fatabaAAalay, and Allah accepted his repentance.
innahu huwa at-tawwab ar-raheem And most
definitely, he is at-tawwab ar-raheem.
Again, at-tawwab ar-raheem, the expression for
which was impossible, minus a thinning human being.
And so that potential was necessary for it
to be expressed, for the human being to
thin, to err.
Right?
qul nahbitoo minhaa jameeAAa So he said, get
down from here, all of you.
fa-imma ya'ti-innakum minnee hudan Whenever guidance
comes to you from me, fa-man tabiAAa
hudaya Whoever follows my guidance, fa-laa khawfun
AAalayhim wa-laa hum yahzanoon There will be
no fear that will overtake them, neither will
they grieve.
Again, requires a lot of explanation with this
phrase is repeated many times.
We will get into that as well.
wal-ladheena kafaroo wa-kathaboo bi-aayaatina And
those who disbelieve and deny our ayaat, oolaa
'ika as'haabun naar They are the people
of the fire, hum feehaa khaalidoon And they
will live therein forever.
Very quickly, the ability of acquired knowledge that
was highlighted, and then it ends with the
revelation, the scriptural knowledge, and how the bringing
of these two together and in the face
of human fallibility, the proneness to err in
all the different dimensions, right?
Morally, we will sin.
Intellectually, we will err.
We will go down false paths rather than
those of truth.
Emotionally, we will experience distress and pain as
a result of those errors.
Physically, we will experience our vulnerabilities and pain.
Right?
There is no paradise in the form of
an all-embracing, all-inclusive solution that you
just have, a station that you just achieve,
that perfection, that intellectual, spiritual, physical, social perfection
that you have.
All of those, and we will see this
whenever the story of Adam alayhis salaam is
related, the desire for kingdom, the desire for
ultimate knowledge, all of those desires are legitimized,
but they are placed at the end of
a pathway, at the end of, as a
result of a process, and that process is
marred by trial and error, sin, pain, in
other words, imperfections.
And they are incredibly important for the destination
to come, right?
It is in a conception of wanting all
of those immediately, here and now, and not
be tolerant of any level of error that
is pathological, that is pathological.
And it manifests in so many individual and
collective problems that we experience.
Again, we'll talk more about this.
There's only so much I could say on
this, given the time, but when this story
of Adam alayhis salaam repeats seven times in
the Quran, this was the first instance.
When it comes again, we'll talk more on
that.
So that concludes the fourth turuqoo.
We begin tomorrow, inshallah, with the fifth turuqoo,
ayah number 40, wa-akhiru da'wana an
-ilhamdulillahi rabbil-alameen.