Yousuf Raza – Ramadan Nights 2021 Day 13
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مَنْ يَهْدِهِ اللَّهُ فَلَا مُضِلَّ لَهُ وَمَنْ يُضْلِلْهُ
فَلَا هَدِيَ لَهُ وَنَشْهَدُ وَلَّا إِلَٰهَ إِلَّا اللَّهُ
وَحْدَهُ لَا شَرِيْكَ لَهُ وَنَشْهَدُ أَنَّ مُحَمَّدًا عَبْدُهُ
وَرَسُولُهُ مَنْ يَهْدِهِ اللَّهُ فَلَا هَدِيَ لَهُ
وَمَنْ
يُضْلِلْهُ
فَلَا هَدِيَ لَهُ وَمَنْ يُضْلِلْهُ
وَرَسُولُهُ أَرِنَا حَقِقَةَ الْأَشْيَاءِ كَمَاهِي اللَّهُمَّ أَرِنَا الْحَقَّ
حَقَّ وَرِزُقْنَا اتِّبَعَهُ وَأَرِنَا الْبَاطِلَ بَاطِلًا وَرِزُقْنَا
اجْتِنَابَهُ أَمِنٌ يَا رَبَّ الْآلَمِينَ We left off
mid-passage in the middle of the ruku
last time we go on from ayah number
148 in surah an-nisa أَعُوذُ بِاللَّهِ مِنَ
الشَّيْطَانِ الرَّجِيمِ لَا يُحِبُّ اللَّهُ الْجَهْرَةُ بِالسُّوءِ مِنَ
الْقَوْلِ Allah does not like that evil be
spoken of openly إِلَّا مَنْ ظُلِمٍ except in
the case of the one oppressed وَكَانَ اللَّهُ
السَّمِيعًا أَلِيمًا and Allah is ever hearing knowing
the wisdom in both parts the idea that
you speak about randomly without effect the idea
of just talking about bad that's going on
for the sake of it is not something
that Allah appreciates any idea, any thought any
propagation of evil is discouraged unless it is
to some effect and that effect is that
it is towards the cause of justice if
that is missing then all you're doing is
creating chaos creating hopelessness unless you have something
practical to offer unless there is something good
that that you're inviting to or that you're
opening the conversation for unless it is in
the category of social justice what is it
that you're doing evil injustice just as coffee
table talk is not appreciated unless it is
going to translate into some efforts towards justice
whatever those efforts are however those efforts are
coordinated it's in the case of a person
who is unjustly treated and how the mazloom
and between the mazloom and Allah there is
nothing direct access and the entire surah was
looking to inspire the Muslim community to become
that community in which the mazloom is not
really mazloom that those most vulnerable to become
mazloom are empowered and become contributing members of
the community honored respected but if that's not
the case and the elements of hypocrisy within
are going to try their level best that
any efforts towards that direction are sabotaged or
that the role that they're required to play
and these are the more privileged members of
the society they don't play that role so
whether you reveal some good or conceal it
or you forgive an evil then for sure
Allah is ever forgiving capable of capable as
well so he's forgiving but he's forgiving despite
being capable of punishing capable of the entire
spectrum and those who refuse to believe in
Allah and his messengers and they intend to
discriminate between Allah and his messenger and they
say we believe in some and deny the
rest and they want to adopt a middle
ground between that now this attitude of picking
and choosing in scripture this attitude of picking
and choosing in the ayat of Allah this
attitude of picking and choosing between whatever has
been revealed according to your taste according to
your liking according to one thing or the
other but for the most part it ends
up being arbitrary it is not according to
some real standard it is not according to
something some valid avenue of knowledge something that
is anything in depth it's a superficial arbitrary
random picking and choosing and once that door
is open really who is God if not
the person's own self or whoever that person
is whatever cult leader and whatever he wants
if that's what you want to do if
that's what you want to adhere to the
doors to evil that that opens up you've
already seen the danger of what the human
self is capable of the deception that the
human self is capable of and then you
open up these doors you don't take truth
seriously you don't take standards of truth seriously
and you play around with them you don't
even want to talk about truth or standards
of truth you just come up with your
own truth and you come up with your
own standards self fabricated and you expect others
to just tolerate that and be okay with
it because that's what you want to do
that's your freedom that's your freedom but your
freedom is impinging upon a whole lot of
else what's going on within the society it's
impinging on the freedom of a whole lot
of other people and it's creating an injustice
for them exploiting their vulnerabilities this sort of
freedom this sort of blind exercise of freedom
and liberty is not real freedom it is
irresponsible and if that becomes the social norm
then what doors are you opening up anyone
can pretty much do anything in the name
of picking and choosing within religion but in
the name of God their methodology is unclear
these are really disbelievers there's no doubt in
that if they're going to present themselves to
be accepted as believers no matter who they
are no matter where they come from that
they should be taken on face value for
their claim to Iman no that anything goes
and everything goes all religions are the same
all people are the same whether they choose
to believe this or they choose to believe
that or they choose to reject this or
they choose to reject that and that they
should be treated accepted equally what does that
even say what does that even mean accepting
everyone's opinion no matter how contradictory it is
what does that say about your understanding of
truth your commitment to truth and is your
commitment to truth in consequential is that not
going to have a bearing in the society
and how things go on in that society
if everything goes if anything goes then what
is it that you're really standing for if
the greatest value that you espouse is the
value of tolerance then that is presupposing that
the only value you espouse then a why
is that value supreme that anyone who comes
up with anything should be accepted why why
is that value supreme and given we accept
accept okay we entertain that value that value
is based on a presupposition that everything that
emanates from all human beings is entirely good
if a human being comes up and says
that he believes in ABC and not D,
E, and F and we say okay that's
perfectly fine that's your right you can do
that and your truth is just as valid
as the one who accepts D, E, and
F and rejects A, B, and C that's
supposing that both of them have absolutely no
evil predispositions whatsoever and that choice with respect
to what truth they're following and which truth
they're rejecting is coming from the best place
possible and can only have good results that
they are inherently inherently only capable of doing
good that there is no possibility of evil
that the choosing of ABC and rejecting of
D, E, and F will not result in
evil at all and we know that's not
true our own experience says that human beings
are capable of great evil and that emanates
from whatever beliefs they have that what is
action if not a manifestation of a belief
held by an individual at whatever level and
you want to just let it be belief
is the determinant of the conduct of a
human being of a people of a community
and you want to be okay with anything
goes there you're pretty much saying you're okay
with any evil that comes from it or
you're saying you're naive enough to say that
there is no evil that can come from
it and you're saying that brandishing the standard
of tolerance brandishing the value of tolerance giving
that the supreme position where does that truth
come from?
Why do you believe in that?
How does that make sense?
And understandably this attitude more popular now than
ever before in the history of humanity these
variants of the Deen-e-Ilahi that Akbar
brought out the way it is popularized today
and it is a reaction to an intolerance
also arbitrary a rigid holding on to beliefs
that the given flexibility that truth allows that
the probabilistic nature of truth of belief is
not considered at all a particular belief is
projected is put out as the only belief
to be rigidly held across the board with
utter inflexibility utter rigidity and people are judged
and condemned as if it is the day
of judgment and they are God so understandably
the belligerent certainty that strips away the the
basic human dignity of freedom of choice altogether
is met with a reaction and extreme reaction
of accepting absolutely everything and both of them
result in the same Dhul both of them
the conversation has to be deeper than that
it has to be more nuanced it has
to take into consideration truth and standards of
truth olaika humul kafiruna haqqa wa a'tadna lil
kafireena a'dhaban muheena wal ladheena amanu billahi warusulihi
and those who believe in Allah and all
his messengers walam yufarriqu bayna ahad minhum and
they never discriminate between any of them olaika
sawfa yu'tihim ujurahum these are the ones whom
Allah will soon bless with their rewards and
Allah is ever forgiving ever merciful yas'aluka
ahlul kitab the people of the book demand
of you an tunazzila alayhim kitaban minas sama
'a to bring down to them a book
from heaven faqad sa'alu musa akbara min
dhalik but they demanded something even greater than
that from Musa faqalu arinallaha jahrah they said
we want to see Allah outright straight out
we want to see him so the thunderbolt
struck them as a result of their injustice
that was an uncalled for demand thumma attakhadhu
al'ijl then they took the calf for
worship min ba'di ma ja'athumul bajinat even
after clear signs had reached them fa'afawna
an dhalik but we let all of that
go wa'atayna musa sultanan mubin and we
granted a clear authority to Musa wa rafa
'na falqahumul tur and we lifted, we raised
the mountain of Tur above them bimithaqihim in
order to take a covenant from them, an
oath from them, wa'qulna lahum and we
said to them udkhulul baaba sujjada enter the
gate prostrating when they conquered Jerusalem under Yusha
the instruction was enter in humility wa'qulna
lahum la ta'du fissabd and we told them
do not transgress the boundary of the Sabbath
wa'aqadhana minhum nithaqan ghalitha and we took
a firm covenant from them fa bimaan naqadihim
mithaqahum and so it was due to their
breaking of the covenant wa kufrihim bi aayatillah
and because of their rejection of the aayat
of Allah wa qatlihimul anbiyaa bighayri haq and
their unlawful unjust killing of prophets wa qawlihim
quloobuna ghulf and their claim that our hearts
are wrapped up and we have everything that
we have to have no more nothing necessary
we reached the maqam of absolute certainty absolute
knowledge wal taba'a wal taba'a allahu
alayha bi kufrihim it wasn't that their hearts
were wrapped up it was that Allah had
sealed their hearts because of their kufr because
of their refusal to believe fala yu'minuna illa
qalila so they will not believe except you
do you wanna have that accepted as well?
all the injustice that that resulted in where
do you draw the line?
where do you draw the line?
how do you know that this absolute tolerance
of yours is not going to produce hitlers
and more and more hitlers how do you
know that this playing with truth the way
you're advocating making this an open game how
do you know that this is not going
to result in all of what you see
is the manifestation of what the Bani Israel
did that they are being criticized for was
that they took hegemony over the truth and
they just played with it accepted it where
it suited them and rejected it where it
didn't all the time thinking that they were
the custodians of God of his word of
scripture they could do whatever they wanted what
good did that bring?
what good has that ever brought?
you're opening doors to all kinds of bombings
in the name of religion when you espouse
that when you allow people to do that
what are you then along what standard then
are you going to place that or any
sort of prohibition over that how will you
with what face are you going to say
that no no no do not become a
Hitler or a suicide bomber do not kill
people how do you do that?
on what standard?
you took that right away from yourself when
you made the standards so arbitrary the standards
for truth so they will not believe except
few وَبِكُفِّهِمْ وَقَوْلِهِمْ عَلَىٰ مَرْيَمَ بُهْتَانٍ عَظِيمًۭا and
you did their refusal to believe in their
horrible slanders against Maryam وَقَوْلِهِمْ إِنَّ قَتَلْنَا الْمَس۪يحَ
عِيسَةً and their claim that they had killed
Isa ibn Maryam they accused Maryam salamun alayha
of all that they accused her of they
claimed to have killed Isa alayhi salam everything
is open game وَقَوْلِهِمْ إِنَّ قَتَلْنَا الْمَس۪يحَ عِيسَةً
رَسُولَ اللَّهِ we have killed Isa ibn Maryam
the messenger of Allah وَمَا قَتَلُوهُ they did
not kill him وَمَا صَلَبُوهُ nor did they
crucify him وَلَكِنْ شُبِّهَ لَهُمْ but it was
made to seem so that is what it
appeared to be وَإِنَّ الَّذِينَ اخْتَلَفُوا فِيهِ but
surely those who differ in it لَفِي شَكٍّ
مِّنْ they are definitely in a doubt about
it مَا لَهُمْ بِهِ مِّنْ عِلْمٍ they know
nothing about it إِلَّا إِلَّا اتِّبَعُوا all they
do is follow conjecture that's what you're opening
the doors to what does it mean to
follow conjecture, follow assumptions arbitrariness
of truth arbitrariness of standards along which truth
is accepted to be truth arbitrariness of faith
that's done why do you feel like it
think it's right sounds right looks right I
think it makes sense empty statements empty statements
and you want to have that accepted sounds
very innocent you know what's the big deal
let it be catastrophes across history on account
of not letting this truth be taken serious
on both accounts leaving the door open and
letting people say whatever it is that they
want to and to expect for that to
be tolerated or to the other extreme where
a particular group takes absolute hegemony belligerent certainty
and rejects all other legitimate interpretations within the
range that truth allows that faith allows that
standards allow complete rejection وَمَا قَتَلُوهُ يَقِينًا Undoubtedly
they did not kill him مَا رَفَعَهُ اللَّهُ
إِلَيهِ in fact Allah raised him to himself
وَكَانَ اللَّهُ عَزِيزًا حَكِيمًا And Allah is ever
mighty, wise وَإِمَّنْ أَهْلِ الْكِتَابِ إِلَّا لَيُؤْمِنَنَّ بِهِ
قَبْلَ مَوْتِهِ And there will be no one
from the people of scripture but they will
have to believe in Isa عليه السلام before
he dies وَيَوْمَ الْقِيَامَةِ يَكُونُ عَلَيْهِمْ شَهِدًا Moreover
he will be a witness against them on
the day of judgment again taken to be
indicative of second coming of Isa عليه السلام
فَبِظُلْمٍ مِّنَ الَّذِينَ هَادُسُ So on account of
the injustice of the Jews حَرَّمْنَ عَلَيْهِمْ طَيِّبَاتٍ
أُحِلَّتْ لَهُمْ We disallowed them even some of
the pure foods previously permitted for them we
spoke about in بقرة how that happens, we're
gonna see in more detail in أنعام as
well how this goes ahead we already spoke
about it as to how Shaytan leads to
the development of this حَرَّمْنَ عَلَيْهِمْ as it
works pretty much in the same way as
the institution of بدعات as the development of
بدعات on one side and the declaring the
حرامness of stuff on the other and Allah
says that we did that Allah takes credit
for it that's what He opened the doors
for that's the way Allah misguides people Allah
takes this to the next level as well
وَبِصَدِّهِمْ عَن سَبِيلِ اللَّهِ كَثِيرًا for their act
of averting people from the way of Allah
if the way of Allah is made so
broad that absolutely everything any way that is
taken is equally the way of Allah you're
averting people from the way of Allah or
you make it so narrow and then you're
a standing guard around it and nobody can
enter it except your cult members again you're
averting people from the way of Allah and
if you're such ridiculous representatives of scripture of
Allah, of the messengers of the way no
one wants to be like you no one
wants to follow you no one wants to
no one wants Allah if that's how you're
going to represent him if that's all of
who he is as you say and as
you represent وَبِصَدِّهِمْ عَن سَبِيلِ اللَّهِ كَثِيرًا their
act of stopping people from the way of
Allah this ugliness that is standing in the
way of Allah this stench this rot that
you attribute to him is it a wonder
that people turned away from Allah altogether no
more so than in the past couple of
centuries and you want to blame them in
whatever ways you want to blame them by
all means but first look within yourselves as
a religious people as a religious community what
have we done وَأَخْذِهِمُ الرِّبَى and their practice
of taking interest وَقَدْ نُهُوا عَنْهَا and they
were forbidden from doing so وَأَخْذِهِمْ أَمْوَالَ النَّاسِ
بِالْبَاطِلِ and their practice of devouring other people's
properties wrongfully وَأَعْتَدَنَا لِلْكَافِرِينَ مِنْهُمْ عَذَابًا أَلِيمًا
and we have prepared for the disbelievers among
them a painful torment لَكِنِ الرَّاسِخُونَ فِي الْعِلْمِ
مِنْهُمْ however those of them who were well
rooted in knowledge والمؤمنون and those who were
believers يُؤْمِنُونَ بِمَا أُنزِلَ إِلَيْكَ وَمَا أُنزِلَ مِنْ
قَبْلِكَ believe in what has been sent down
to you and also in what was sent
down before you وَالْمُقِيمِينَ الصَّلَى and those especially
those who established prayer وَالْمُؤْتُونَ الذَّكَى and those
who engaged in the practice of zakat وَالْمُؤْمِنُونَ
بِاللَّهِ وَالْيَوْمِ الْآخِرِ and those believing in Allah
in the last day أُولَئِكَ سَنُؤْتِيهِمْ أَجْرًا عَظِيمًا
These are the ones upon whom we will
bless We will bless them with a great
reward We will bless them with a great
reward إِنَّ أَوْخَيْنَا إِلَيْكَ We have sent revelation
to you, O Messenger of Allah We have
sent revelation to you, O Messenger of Allah
So the entire closing of the previous passage
with respect to how the doors are still
open Allah is not racist Allah is not
going to refuse a people on account of
their heritage or what their ancestors have done
so long as they choose to leave that
path so long as they don't continue to
rationalize the sin of their ancestors the zulm
of their ancestors so long as they don't
continue to repeat the legacy of the shayateen
that their ancestors have become and if they're
going to continue to do so, Allah is
going to continue to reject them.
Nothing racist about that إِنَّ أَوْخَيْنَا إِلَيْكَ We
have sent revelation to you, O Messenger of
Allah كَمَا أَوْحَيْنَا إِلَى نُوحٍ The way we
sent revelation to Nuh وَالنَّبِيجِينَ مِن بَعْدِهِ And
the Prophets after him وَأَوْخَيْنَا إِلَى إِبْرَاهِيمَ وَإِسْمَاعِيلَ
وَإِسْحَاقَ And we sent revelation towards Ibrahim, Ismail,
and Ishaq وَيَعْقُوبَ وَالْأَسْبَاطِ And also towards Yaqub
and his descendants وَعِيثَ وَأَيُّبَ وَيُونُسَ وَهَارُونَ وَسُلَيْمَانَ
As we did to Isa, Ayyub, Yunus, Harun,
and Sulaiman وَأَتَيْنَا دَاعُودَ زَبُورًا And we blessed
Daud with the Psalms وَرُسُلًا قَدْ قَصَصْنَاهُمْ عَلَيْكَ
مِنْ قَبْلِ And Messengerss Those stories we have
mentioned to you before وَرُسُلًا لَمْ نَقْصُصْهُمْ عَلَيْكَ
And there are Messengers about whom we have
not related to you وَكَلَّمَ اللَّهُ مُوسَى تَكْلِيمًا
As for Musa, Allah spoke to him directly
رُسُلًا مُبَتْشِرِينَ وَمُنذِرِينَ Messengers giving glad tidings and
warnings bringing warnings لِأَلَّا يَكُونَ لِلنَّاسِ عَلَى اللَّهِ
حُجَّ So that the people don't have any
argument against Allah بعد الرُسُل after the Messengers
So what was the intent of sending the
entire quadrant of Messengers one after the other
repeatedly from Adam Alayhi Salaam or more specifically
from Nuh Alayhi Salaam to Rasulullah ﷺ so
that people don't have any case against Allah
that if people are going to be indicted
if people are going to be implicated, punished
held accountable for not living up to the
greatness of their potential rather living up to
the evil of their potential and enacting the
wuln that they did and the crimes that
they committed when they are called to justice
then they cannot plead ignorance they cannot plead
that they did not know they were not
informed that the case was not built in
front of them undeniably that Allah took it
upon Himself that the Messengers fulfilled that role
and now those who are going to be
implicated those who are going to be punished
it is only those to whom the message
was explicitly spelled out explicitly spelled out and
yet they refused or they turned away, they
did not pay heed or they didn't take
it seriously if the Messengers had done their
job and we are going to read in
Surat Yunus Allah's standard of the job having
been done is very high it is very
high to the point that when Yunus Alayhi
Salaam perhaps left a very small sliver of
what he was supposed to do which was
practically him just leaving a little earlier than
he was supposed to got frustrated, left Allah's
permission had not come even though the signs
of had started coming but permission for Yunus
Alayhi Salaam had not come for it to
become clear the Balaghul Mubeen to happen a
few more days, maybe a week or so,
more was required of Yunus after years and
years and years and perhaps decades had already
taken place but he left that sliver he
left early before fulfilling that and the people
of Yunus were not punished they were not
punished they got off the hook so they
saw the signs of Azaab and the Azaab
did not destroy them Allah takes this very
seriously that people have been adequately warned for
punishing them and here we have these belligerent
claims, no every single person who isn't Muslim
today in this day and age in the
world is definitely 100% going to the
hellfire yeah, if Allah deems that they heard
the message adequately no, they did hear the
message adequately but how can you make that
claim?
no, the message was clear it's on the
internet they could have googled it yeah and
they would have googled it and your face
would have popped up and you would have
been the one explaining it and that's not
cool Allah is just and His justice
does not require our fatawa our condemning of
people with this belligerent certainty because it makes
us feel good about our own selves it
gives us a ticket to paradise that's not
how it works it does not seem like
how it works وَكَانَ اللَّهُ عَزِيزًا حَكِيمًا and
Allah is ever mighty and wise لَكِنِ اللَّهُ
يَشْهَدُ بِمَا أَنزَلَ إِلَيْكُ Allah bears witness to
what He has sent towards you يا رسول
الله وَالْمَلَائِكَةُ يَشْهَدُونَ that He sent it with
His own knowledge وَالْمَلَائِكَةُ يَشْهَدُونَ the angels bear
witness وَكَفَى بِاللَّهِ شَهِيدًا and Allah is sufficient
as witness but yet Allah's revelation of that
ilm through Rasulullah ﷺ the weight and the
burden that Rasulullah carried that I have to
communicate it as clear as day without any
doubt to the truth of what He's presenting
He carried that burden to the last day
or at least to the Hajj, the farewell
pilgrimage أَلَاهَا الْبَلَّغْتُ have I communicated it clearly
and they all said yes you have he
got that testament he breathed a sigh of
relief now the burden is on you فَالْيُبَلِّغْ
أَشَهِدُ الْقَيْدِ the one who are present take
you to those who are absent that we're
not really doing or haven't done a great
job at whatever is debited against us is
credited in the favor of the ones that
we were supposed to represent the message clearly
to and we could not have done a
worse job obviously in the day and age
that we're living in إِنَّ الَّذِينَ كَفَرُونَ those
who refuse to believe and hinder others from
the path of Allah قَدْ ضَلُّوا ضَلَالًا بَعِدًا
they have gone far far away from the
right path those who refuse to believe and
they're oppressive unjust Allah is not going to
forgive them وَلَا لِيَهْدِيَهُمْ طَرِيقًا and He will
not guide them to the straight path who
comes to them they rejected on account of
rejecting that truth and not believing in it
their action continues to be as unjust as
it was or even more unjust Allah is
not going to do it why?
إِلَّا طَرِيقَ جَهَنَّمْ He will guide them only
to Jahannam to hellfire خَالَدِينَ فِيهَا أَبَدَى they're
going to live there forever and ever وَكَانَ
ذَلِكَ عَلَى اللَّهِ يَثِيرًا that's very easy for
Allah يَا أَيُّهَا النَّاسِ قَدْ جَاءَكُمْ مِنْ رَسُولُ
بِالْحَقِّ مِنْ رَبِّكُمْ people the call of Rasulullah
ﷺ being global being universal there has come
to you a Rasul بِالْحَقِّ مِنْ رَبِّكُمْ with
the truth from your Rabb فَأَمِنُوهُ to believe
خَيْرًا لَكُمْ that is better for you وَإِن
تَكْبُرُوا but if you refuse فَإِنَّ لِلَّهِ مَا
فِي السَّمَاوَاتِ to Allah belongs everything in the
heavens and the earth وَكَانَ اللَّهُ عَلِيمًا حَكِيمًا
and Allah is ever knowing, ever wise يَا
أَهْلَ الْكِتَابُ people of the scripture لا تَغْلُوا
فِي دِينِكُمْ do not transgress in your religion
the greatest criticism against religion comes from religion
itself it's supposed to come from religion itself
and that's been the case since forever you
pick up any scripture you pick up any
scripture and the strictest tone that that scripture
takes is towards the people of religion it
takes them to task it takes their practice
of religion almost the extreme practice of religion,
the transgression within religion, in the name of
religion religion comes as the critic for that
the critic for that and that's how it
was supposed to be but the more and
more religious people become insecure the more and
more this self-correction stops taking place it's
going to come from somewhere and it starts
coming from atheists it starts coming from people
who come off as rejecters of religion or
at least organized religion altogether and you see
within their rejection, within their criticism, so much
truth so much truth and you see it
precisely because that was the way of scripture
that is how scripture criticized religious people and
wanted for the institution of religion for the
teachers of scripture to continue this practice so
that the people of religion stay on target
somewhere along the way it got lost the
cultish practices within religiosity became so rigid that
that self-criticism the way the institution was
supposed to repair itself and grow those portions
of scripture, those tools were not developed they
were lost and so when others pick those
tools up build them, develop them and lash
out against religion then they lash out against
the entirety of religion they're not they're not
precise with how those tools are used it
is not incisive careful it is not surgical
it is it is not a surgeon's incision,
it is a butcher's cut what do you
want to call it?
they operate like butchers they do away with
the whole thing they do away with the
whole thing so whereas the surgeon's incisions as
painful as they may be without anesthesia is
meant for repair is meant for better growth
even if it it is distressful for a
time period the butcher's slaughter it is no
holds bar it's criticism there is no, whatever
criticism that you see from the greatest of
atheists against religion, against religious people they haven't
said anything new about religion that you will
not find that the deeper texts the more
neglected texts the ignored texts ignored portions of
scripture haven't already said before only when scripture
said it for those deeper, more reflective, more
honest texts within the religious traditions said it
it was for the surgical removal, the surgical
excision of tumorous growths of neoplastic growths of
cancers and looked to preserve what was good
but when it comes from outside and it
comes from an anger towards religion and in
a lot of ways the anger being justified
as well it looks for a belligerent rejection
of religion altogether a call to anarchy here
we see this beautiful representation of how religion
owns up to its own responsibility of self
-repair people of the scripture do not transgress
in your religion do not say anything about
Allah except the truth for sure Messiah, the
son of Maryam, Rasool Allah is the messenger
of Allah his special word which he directed
towards Maryam from Allah so believe in Allah
and his messenger and the gravity of the
situation we're going to talk about in surah
kahf and how heavily this digression or this
misguidance how this impacted humanity we're going to
talk about when we get to surah kahf
so believe in Allah and his messenger do
not say the trinity stop it that is
going to be better for you for sure
Allah is the only God he is exalted
above that he has a thank to him
belongs whatever is in the heavens and everything
in earth and Allah is sufficient to be
relied upon never will the Messiah disdain that
he is the he would not look at
that as scornfully he would not take that
as being put down as being dishonored, disrespected
neither would the angels look at it that
way the angels that are close to Allah
whoever disdains Allah is and is arrogant Allah
will gather all of them towards himself every
single one of them as for those who
believed and performed righteously Allah will grant them
their reward in full and he will grant
them more out of his more and more
the bonus takes over it's far greater than
the reward itself as for those who disdain,
who scorn and are arrogant Allah will punish
them with a torturous punishment and they will
find for them no one other than Allah
as a protector or a helper people there
has reached you in clear and we have
sent down to you a clear right light
as for those who believe in Allah and
those who hang on to him Allah will
soon admit them into his mercy and grace
and he will guide them to a straight
path leading to himself they ask you for
a legal ruling they ask you for a
fatwa tell them that Allah gives you a
fatwa a ruling regarding kalalah a man who
does not have his parents are not alive
he doesn't have any descendants nor does he
have any children no heirs either side if
a man dies without any children but he
has a sister then she will inherit half
of what he leaves behind while if a
woman dies in such a condition she does
not have a descendant or a descendant then
she has a brother her brother will inherit
the entirety of her property but if the
deceased has two sisters each of them will
inherit one third of what he leaves behind
and if the deceased has three or more
brothers and sisters both then the share of
one male will be equal to that of
two females Allah makes everything clear to you
lest you go astray and Allah knows everything
moving right along to surah al ma'idah
this is going to be the last of
the madani surahs this cluster of madani surahs
right at the beginning of the mushaf we've
already spoken of we see the similarities of
themes how each surah is complementing the other
continuing the discussion forward but also bringing up
issues that haven't been brought up in the
previous ones we see the emphasis shifting as
well more on one group Bani Israel in
the first and the Nasara in the second
both of them in the third but more
so the munafiqeen within the Muslim community being
addressed all the time showing us how the
fragmentation that Shaytan brings about we spoke about
it I think it was ayah number 119
in surah al nisa you use that as
his modus operandi and then you map that
on the expressions or manifestations of that in
the Bani Israel expressions and manifestations of that
in the Christian community the expression of that
the manifestation of that in the Muslim community
and as we go on to an'am
we will see how that manifested in the
mushrikeen themselves in the Quraysh in Makkah it's
the pattern in its principles remains the same
manifestations it refers and so from those examples
we understand the principles better and then using
those principles we see what examples we're expressing
what similar examples or different examples were manifesting
as a community a'ufu billahi minash shaitanir
rajeem bismillahir rahmanir raheem ya ayyuhal lazeena aamanu
you who have believed a'ufu bil'uqood
fulfill your promises fulfill all contracts so there
is the black and white contracts that you're
gonna have at the time of a business
deal let's say the check mark for whatever
you sign or even online there's those contracts
that you have your rights, your responsibilities the
marriage contract that you have and then from
the black and white it goes to more
of your word your commitment to someone and
it goes from there to what you morally
owe to other people that you may not
have said so as such as explicitly as
I'll do this by then by this time,
by this date I'll be there at this
time on this date I'll have this done
at this time, on this date you can
have it written down, you can say it
verbally, concretely but then there is that which
you owe them morally may not have to
have said it explicitly but your conscience bears
witness to it there is a degree of
concreteness within yourself as to what you're supposed
to live up to even if the other
person is oblivious of it and then there
is your contract with Allah so all of
these the entire spectrum the most concrete to
the most abstract the more you become a
person who fulfills his word who is truthful
in fulfilling his word the more you know
you're on the right track the very beginning
of hypocrisy is with lying not living up
to their word not living up to their
commitments and then it expresses itself across the
entire spectrum from the most concrete to the
most abstract all
four-legged animals from livestock are lawful for
you again the religion or the demonic religiosity
we saw that there's a lot of in
there random random prohibitions and rigidly pursued and
there's no fulfilling of contracts the is not
taken seriously enough the are taken very seriously
takes priority in divine religiosity and as for
the prohibitions are concerned the list actually begins
with everything is lawful for you a four
-legged animals except a few that you were
it was recited upon you that you shouldn't
eat from that you were asked to abstain
from hunting so without violating the prohibition of
hunting while you are in and you're in
one pilgrimage that time you do not hunt
definitely Allah commands whatever he wants and the
last phrase being all the more significant since
there is a subtle control that a subtle
interpolation that human beings take over when they
start inventing a romance more and more they
also what are they balancing it out for
and what right have they given themselves what
divine rights have they claimed for themselves and
how dangerous that is oops I did not
turn on my mic let me start this
over all
right quick review for the other recording that
I'm doing the first we've concluded starting with
and going on to talk about meaning fulfill
your contracts live up to your promises all
across the board those most concrete the ones
you have written down black and white to
the most those most abstract the ones that
you have with allah the ones you have
which is your conscience uh committing to allah
himself and then the word that you give
everyone people living up to their rights your
marital contracts everything across the spectrum that takes
priority it is a sign of hypocrisy it
is a sign of munaf and nipak who
not live up to those contracts it's contrary
to iman and then uh the priorities that
contracts should take commitments and promises to take
being a person of truth of that develops
how that is reflective of your iman that
develops your iman further as well and then
not being able to do that would result
in the religion of that we spoke about
the demonic religiosity that we spoke about here
the divine religiosity begins with that uh all
four-legged animals are lawful for you except
the ones that were recited to you in
the state of akram however that limited time
period no hunting takes place allah commands what
he wants this is allah's prerogative give him
that right don't try to wrestle that away
from him the more you look to wrestle
that away from him the more uh dangerous
the more authority you're giving to where the
authority does not belong and that is where
it's going to be exploited and abuse is
going to result injustice is going to prevail
yeah you have believed that do not violate
the sanctity of the symbols of allah nor
the sanctity of the sacred month the sacrificial
animals and the garlands that mark such animals
and do not violate the sanctity of the
visitors of the sacred house visiting it in
pursuit of the grace and pleasure of their
rab so this is a contract upon you
the hospitality that you owe to the people
visiting the house of allah but you are
in when you have uh when you are
no longer in the state of ikram you
have taken the ikram off you've exited that
state then you're allowed to hunt let not
the hatred of a people for having stopped
you from visiting the masjid al haram and
that do lead for you to transgress against
them so again maida one of the last
surahs to be revealed after the conquest of
mecca um there are new muslims there are
people who have entered into islam and will
be performing pilgrimage who until very recently were
sworn enemies to rasulullah and the sahaba and
they were out to get them kill them
destroy them they could have they would have
done anything so although they have been accepted
into the fold of islam it is quite
possible and maybe it is not just possible
it is a fact that there is resentment
and hatred against them in a considerable uh
a sizable chunk of the muslim population from
medina and so they're being it's being identified
that that hatred in its own place do
not let that lead for you to be
unjust that you treat them differently now they
have equal rights and that has to be
honored that is a contract upon you and
collaborate with each other in righteousness and piety
and do not collaborate in sin and transgression
understandably within a community you cannot have absolute
peace absolute love that is not possible that
doesn't exist a community will definitely have resentment
one faction being or the other one organization
being resentful of the other even hateful towards
the other one individual being hateful or resentful
towards the other absolutely normal perfectly fine no
problem your your contracts with each other your
commitments to each other entail that despite that
hatred and resentment you perform or you live
up to the justice that is expected of
you that's the bottom line within organizations within
factions within movements within a single group there
will be resentment there will be hatred it's
a given where there's two people there is
going to be two of the most loving
people will have this ambivalence that they're harboring
which is necessary to nurture a mature relationship
bottom line principle being live up to your
contracts live up your commitments with each other
do not be unjust and what is the
the the principle for it as long as
you're working together for righteousness and taqwa promoting
birr promoting righteousness promoting goodness spending in the
way of Allah empowering the underprivileged empowering the
vulnerable making them less and less vulnerable promoting
truthfulness promoting promoting this exercise of people becoming
aware of themselves of Allah of their responsibility
developing that healthy community together this collaboration will
allow for you to overcome that hatefulness that
resentment that naturally enters in the eyes on
the prize the more you have this self
-transcendent goal that all of you are working
towards that will bind you that will bring
you together despite your differences whether they're racial
differences whether they are differences of you having
been competing against each other for whatever reasons
or whatever that you may have had your
arguments and fights and even wars over the
the strength of meaning the strength of a
self-transcendent goal of righteousness of taqwa is
such that it can bring you together regardless
of those past experiences that's true for any
relationship if if your dedication and your commitment
is to the which is essentially outside of
yourself it is also outside of the other
person that you're relating with as long as
your progression is towards that you can get
along the resentment in its own place hatred
in its own place it'll bring you together
it'll help you overcome with time that resentment
that you might have that not just you
might have you will have me and do
not collaborate in sin and transgression because ultimately
sin and transgression promoting of evil within society
that inherently makes you more and more selfish
more and more self-centered and the more
that happens the more room you're giving for
the resentment and the to act itself out
the more impulsivity you're giving rise to the
more immediate gratification you're looking for and the
more lashing out is going to take place
the more hatred is going to develop that
you're allowing that hatred to grow more and
more and more and more because essentially Uthuvan,
sin and transgression promote this cutthroat selfishness within
individuals and so the more the collaboration is
towards something like that ultimately that Uthuvan is
going to eat up the individuals working together
towards it and you can have a goal
which is apparently that of Birr but your
intent which is that of Itham and Uthuvan
and the results will be the same.
What Taqullah, observe the Taqwa of Allah as
the spirit of these collaborations the more this
is there the more you'll be able to
overcome the the hatred that you may have
for others most definitely Allah is severe in
punishment so forbidden upon you is Al-Naytah,
dead animals, died by itself, wasn't sacrificed, wasn't
hunted and blood and whatever has been dedicated
to other than Allah as well as the
strangled and that killed by a violent blow
and dead through falling from a height and
those killed by goring of horns and that
from which a wild animal has eaten unless
you're able to slaughter it before it dies
also forbidden are animals which are sacrificed on
altars, on shrines, on areas and places dedicated
for committed to Shirk, committed to the worship
of deities other than Allah and that you
seek decisions through divining arrows so there is
this list of Muharramats of what you cannot
eat from that the Quran takes very seriously,
not to be messed around with short list,
nothing too elaborate, not that you will have
to really suffer on account of not having
access to it if that does become the
case exceptions are made if it's a life
and death situation by all means go ahead
and party not party but you know just
eat the regular amount that will be necessary
to sustain yourself until you have access to
appropriate halal food and Aslam that you resort
to these superstitions that your decision-making process
is involving divining arrows, carrot cards,
palmistry anything and everything which has to do
with occult sciences not that it says that
there's no truth to it maybe, maybe not
but because the nature of occult sciences is
such that it is not amenable it is
not open to external scrutiny just opening the
doors to this type of knowledge knowledge which
cannot be tested which cannot be verified, validated
by somebody else that is way too much
power that is way too much authority in
the hands of this one individual who apparently
has access to the occult that others do
not that cannot be called to account because
it's coming from a place that nobody else
has access to and that degree of power
that degree of authority necessarily opens the doors
for exploitation and abuse that those doors are
being closed one of the greatest achievements of
the Qur'an of the fulfillment of prophethood
with Rasulullah ﷺ that now this door to
the knowledge of the unseen is closed off
that the last member of this group being
Rasulullah ﷺ being the prophet of Islam the
one who brought the Qur'an one of
his greatest achievements one of the greatest responsibilities
was to close this door of exploitation that
nobody just gets up makes a claim to
an unknown unseen unverifiable source of knowledge occult
by its very definition and therefore people gravitate
towards them give them authority in a particular
way and anything can happen from there and
we know the degree of abuse that takes
place because we still have these doors open
in our society people have given so many
people this authority that he has a particular
access and he can predict or he can
see what others cannot even if that is
true what that does to the society what
that does to individuals that the responsibility of
the individual decision-making process what are you
doing with that when you're resorting to all
of these avenues for making meaning for making
sense in your decisions you're clopping out of
the responsibility that you have to take yourselves
for your decisions in all of these ways
so even if it means I'm going to
make that person do my istikhara for me
and then they're going to have an access
and they're going to bring out an information
that then I'm going to have to live
by or make life-changing decisions on account
of because taking the responsibility of taking of
that life-changing decision myself oh too much
what if it backfires yeah well if it
backfires it was your decision it'll be an
opportunity for you to mature if it backfires
and was somebody else's decision and you go
on it was their fault how's that helping
you they told me to do it it
was their istikhara that pointed in that direction
that led me to this decision and they're
like oh my god what if the I
really want to do this and I've made
a commitment to you but my istikhara is
against it my auntie who did that istikhara
she told me that this is not going
to work out for us we can't go
against istikhara now can we where did that
come from where did that come from modern
ways of islamic ways of making decisions through
divining arrows where did all of this come
from Rasulullah sallallahu alayhi wasallam was the last
representative of authentic knowledge from the unseen verified
protected from the influence of shayateen from any
sort of demonic interpolation and on top of
that he opened himself up to external scrutiny
and verification that this is what I'm bringing
your standards your understanding of what is excellence
in a particular area a particular domain fair
enough keep those standards does this excel on
those standards or not go ahead and judge
so not only it's remarkable the last representation
authentic verified demon proof representation of
an unseen source an occult source but looks
to or opens itself to an external scrutiny
external consistency that the verification of for me
and my truth comes from outside of me
you don't take it just on my authority
just because I say so you take it
because it is consistent with what are already
gold standards of truth in accordance with what
you believe whether you regard them seriously or
not whether you fulfill their rights upon you
another story nevertheless they are the current standards
of truth and that's how knowledge develops any
new knowledge that comes in its knowledge or
its truth capacity or it's the degree of
trueness if you will it has to conform
with whatever else is already the gold standard
for truth and so the Quran not only
in that in bringing itself as a contender
as a truth giver it validates the other
sources of truth asks for its own scrutiny
along those standards and is fully confident and
secure that it will live up to it
having done that it says the rest of
the sources that they're not going to do
that open themselves up for that external scrutiny
and the whole shebang that demonic protection none
of that is going on close those doors
enough is enough humanity has wasted enough time
on that gibberish or whatever is true in
that gibberish even that these are all sinful
acts this day those who disbelieve have despaired
of your religion of your deen so don't
fear them but fear me today I have
perfected for you your deen and I have
completed my favours to you the deen upon
Rasulullah ﷺ the way Wahi had perfected itself
the way all of the role that Wahi
had in the evolution of human society Wahi
had perfectly performed no more Wahi necessary the
perfection of deen with the coming of these
ayats now these are not the last ayats
to come these are of the last ayats
there are commandments that come after this so
this is not to say that okay nothing
will come literally after this in the sense
that no more Quran is going to come
after this but the structure has been laid
out the structure is perfected the room that
structure has for movement for development for further
growth those principles have been laid out within
that structure as well so we see that
even after these ayats more Quran comes to
move that structure forward the fundamental structure being
in its own place to evolve it forward
we see that the Khulafah-e-Rashideen the
Sahaba after Rasulullah ﷺ continue the process of
holding on to the structure yes but building
around it expanding it where the structure allows
for expansion a reasonable analogy a very beautiful
analogy would be a child a child that
is born is a perfect perfected completed child
in the essential structure that the child is
supposed to have with the appropriate regions of
growth also in doubt that how that child
is now going to interact with its environment
parents, nutrition, broader society, sources of knowledge and
then grow further so in the perfection of
the structure is the endowment of future development
as well of future movement as well the
perfection of structure does not entail that from
here on in this is it and nothing
else is allowed in or out that truth
has fixated and this is there is no
more truth that is ever going to come
as we have already seen that within that
structure issanurihim ayatina fil-afaq wa fi-anfusihim
hatta yatabayyin lahum annahu al-haq that we
will soon show them within the horizon within
their own selves ayat that is within the
structure the structure has room for it to
accommodate it to relate with it to grow
with it and we saw within the seerah
of the sahaba and the subsequent muslim generations
that whichever region of the world they were
able to go into they were able to
relate with and the beauty of islam manifested
itself in the diversity it was able to
relate with and the diversity that it was
able to produce so to try to take
from this ayah the attitude of rigidity and
fixity and rejection of everything that comes after
it be it of truth it contradicts the
very principles that are contained within the structure
that is perfected it contradicts whatever of truth
was formulated after the revelation of these ayat
within the quran by rasulullah ﷺ himself by
the sahaba, the khulafah-e-rashideen afterwards and
as the situation entailed the subsequent generations we
cannot let that go it's ludicrous to use
this ayah to justify that very attitude of
that the quran so heavily criticized where the
jews said that this is it all the
truth there is is that which we have
nothing else qualifies as truth allah's perfection of
deen is far greater than that far more
beautiful than that اليوم أتممت لكم دينكم today
i have perfected for you your deen وأتممت
عليكم نعمتي and i have also completed my
favors upon you ورضيت لكم الإسلام دينها and
i have approved for you islam as your
conduct in life individually as well as communally
فمن اصطر في مخمسة دين but whoever is
compelled by severe hunger to the point that
they don't have anything else to eat without
inclination to commit a sin there's no rebelliousness
intended but إِنَّ اللَّهَ غَفُورُ رَحِيمٌ for sure
allah is forgiving and merciful the leniency already
being announced the flexibility within the same ayah
that if somebody has to resort to that
which has been declared qaram it is this
this list of haram that has to be
contained that you're going to expand on increase
on without the principles being taken into consideration
the good that was supposed to expand to
the neglect of that through the negligence of
that يَقَلُونَ كَمَاذَا أُحِلَّ لَهُمْ they ask you
what is lawful for them to eat قُلْ
أُحِلَّ لَكُمُ الْقَيِّبَةَ tell them lawful for you
all pure foods what is lawful does not
require a list you don't have to prove
lawfulness you have to prove unlawfulness وَمَا عَلَّمْتُمْ
مِنَ الْجَوَارِحِ مُكَلِّبِينَ and the game taught by
animals you have trained لُعَلِّمُونَهُنَّ مِمَّا عَلَّمَكُمُ اللَّهِ
you train them with the knowledge Allah gave
you again the Quran Allah gave you Allah
did not reveal in a particular scripture how
do you train dogs to hunt or how
do you train eagles to hunt or falcons
to hunt how do you do Allah did
not reveal that in the Bible or the
Quran or any other scripture that we're aware
of but that is also a God-given
knowledge and should be respected as such فَكُلُوا
مِمَّا أَمْسَكْنَ عَلَيْكُمْ so eat of what they
catch for you وَذْكُرُ اسْمَ اللَّهِ عَلَيْهِ mention
Allah's name over it وَاتَّقُوا اللَّهِ and observe
the taqwa of Allah إِنَّ اللَّهَ سَرِيعُ الْحِسَابِ
Allah is most surely swift in settling the
accounts اليومَ أُحِلَّ لَكُمُ الطَّيِّبَاتِ so today all
lawful things all pure things are declared lawful
for you وَطَعَامُوا الَّذِينَ أُوتُوا الْكِتَابَ حِلٌّ لَّكُمْ
so is the food of the people of
the book lawful for you and your food
is lawful for them the completion of this
religion let that not lead for you to
close your doors on them let it open
doors for mutual hospitality وَالْمُحْسَنَاتُ مِنَ الْمُؤْمِنَاتِ
وَالْمُحْسَنَاتُ مِنَ الَّذِينَ أُوتُوا الْكِتَابَ مِنْ قَبْلِكُمْ and
the chaste believing women as well as the
chaste women of those who were granted the
scripture before you they have been made lawful
for you to marry them as well إِذَا
آتَيْتُمُوا هُنَّ أُجُورَهُنَّ provided you give them their
dowry مُحْسَنِينَ غَيْرَ مُسَافِحِينَ desiring chastity not merely
sexual pleasure again that should not be the
single guiding principle of your marriage although an
important principle is one of many others you
have an entire institution of the family to
develop to build the relationship is so much
more than just that sexual pleasure وَلَا مُتَّخِذِي
أَخْدَانَ nor to keep a secret mistresses وَمَنْ
يَكْفُرُ بِالْعِيمَانِ and whoever denies in spite of
iman of faith فَقَدْ حَبِطَ عَمَلُهُ all his
good deeds will become useless وَهُوَ فِي الْآخِرَةِ
مِنَ الْخَاسِرِينَ and he would be of the
losers in the hereafter يَا أَيُّهَا الَّذِينَ آمَنُوا
إِذَا قُمْتُمْ إِلَى الصَّلَاةِ you who have believed
when you stand for prayer فَغْصِلُوا وُجُوهَكُمْ وَأَيْدِيَكُمْ
إِلَى الْمَرَّافِقِ wash your faces and your hands
up to the elbows وَمْسَحُوا بِرُؤُسِكُمْ and wipe
your heads وَأَرْجُلَكُمْ إِلَى الْكَعْبَيْنِ and wash your
feet up to your ankles Now, how closely
your spiritual activities your acts of spiritual purification
how closely tied in they are with your
physical purification how it is to be how
this interaction, how intertwined your physical and spiritual
are is to be born in mind such
that there is no spiritual purification if you're
not regarding these physical rituals or the physical
in the rituals the spirit is important but
not at the cost of the physical and
vice versa and so, washing up جُبُو or
غُسل prior to Salah prior to engagement in
the ritual Ibadah and how the ritual Ibadah
itself is comprised of physical actions again, the
intertwinement of the two dimensions how you're physically
gathering dust unwittingly that in the process of
work in the process of daily chores you
end up getting dirty and that's okay there
is nothing wrong with that that is actually
appreciated Allah loves the smell of sweat because
it is a sign of hard work that's
fine but that doesn't mean you just stay
sweaty and thinky you wash it away you
wash it away just like that acts of
spiritual engagement just in the matter of the
chores that you do or the responsibilities that
you fulfill you gather dust you relieve sweat
you develop an odor and that has to
be ritually, ritualistically, routinely washed away it is
inevitable that when you are in the course
of your chores you will become dirty, even
filthy and it is inevitable that when you
are in the course of fulfilling your spiritual
responsibilities you will flip you will err you
may sin understandable ritualistic cleansing non-obsessive
appropriate, reasonable, committed will help you along the
path of your growth as an individual وَإِن
كُنْتُمْ جُنُوبًا but if you are impure فَالطَّهْرُوا
then purify yourselves وَإِن كُنْتُمْ مَرْضَاءً وَعَلَى سَفْرٍ
but if you are sick or traveling أَوْ
جَاءَ أَحَدٌ مِنكُ مِنِ الْغَائِطِ or one of
you just used the toilet أَوْ لَمَسْتُبُ النِّسَاءُ
or you had sexual contact with women فَلَمْ
تَجِدُوا مَآ and you do not find water
فَتَيَمَّمُوا صَعِيدًا طَيِّبًا then resort to clean soil
يُتَيَمَّم perfectly fine again no rigidity, none of
these things become ends in and of themselves
these are means you have access to them,
great if you don't have access to them,
don't worry wait until you do and just
here's the alternative until you do فَمْسَحُوا بِوَجُوهِكُمْ
وَأَيْدِيكُمْ مِنْ then rub your faces and hands
with it مَا يُرِيدُ اللَّهُ لِيَجْعَلَ عَلَيْكُمْ مِنْ
حَرَجٍ Allah does not want to put any
burden on you how these rituals become a
burden on a person when they become ends
in themselves when there is nothing more to
get out of them other than making them
absolutely perfect and how that absolute perfection is
not even demanded of you when you start
looking for absolute perfection in cleaning yourself or
purifying yourself and how that results in an
obsessive ritualistic behavior not a meaningfully ritualistic behavior
but an obsessive ritualistic behavior and how that
drives you away from the other responsibilities, commitments
وَوْفُوا بِالْعُقُودِ that you have to live up
to the contracts that you have to fulfill
وَلِيُتِمَّ نِعْمَتَهُ عَلَيْكُمْ in order to complete His
favor on you Allah put this upon you
to favor you not to put you through
more difficulty لَعَلَّكُمْ تَشْكُرُونَ so that perhaps you
may be grateful that from here the path
of gratitude becomes easier to pursue and follow
وَذْكُرُوا نِعْمَةَ اللَّهِ عَلَيْكُمْ so remember the blessing
of Allah the favor of Allah upon you
وَمِثَاقَهُ الَّذِي وَاتَقَكُمْ بِهِ as well as the
covenant by which He bound you the contract
that you have with Him إِذْ قُلْتُمْ سَمِعْنَا
وَأَطْعَنَا when you said we listen and we
obey when you said that we have responsibilities
to fulfill that it is an extension of
our توحيد, of our صلاة, of our all
these rituals that we will go around in
society and do the best that we can
وَاتَّقُوا اللَّهِ and in doing the best that
we can there is necessarily going to be
a discipline that is followed there will be
organized efforts that are entailed and listening and
obeying following that discipline following that order is
a necessary part of it وَاتَّقُوا اللَّهِ and
observe the تقوى of Allah إِنَّ اللَّهَ عَلِيمٌ
بِذَاتِ السَّدُولِ for sure Allah knows the secrets
of the chest يَا أَيُّهَا الَّذِينَ آمَنُوا you
who have believed كُنُوا قَوَّامِينَ لِلَّهِ stand up
for Allah شُهَدَأَ بِالْقِصْتِ to witness in justice
so what is this سَمِعْنَا وَأَطْعَنَا in the
direction of it is in the direction of
standing up for Allah standing up for justice
all the time bearing in mind the importance
of a continuous practice of تقوى why?
because even at the time of the revelation
of these ayaats the very end of revelation
all تَقْبِيرِ yet the ذاتِ السُّدُولِ the secrets
of your chest that Allah is fully aware
of there's stuff that goes on there that
you want to be very very careful about
that you want to be very very wary
of that you want to be mindful of
as much as possible you don't know what
strikes from within yourself and brings you down
you can't take your own unconscious for granted
not until the day you die so you
keep this practice up يَا أَيُّهُ الَّذِينَ آمَنُوا
قُونُوا قَوَّامِينَ لِلَّهِ الشُّهَدَىٰ أَبِالْبِسْتِ with those practices
lived up to the spirit with which they're
revealed you go ahead and you become people
of justice people of Allah وَلَا يَجْرِمَنَّكُمْ شَنَآنُ
قَوْمٍ عَلَىٰ أَلَّا تَعْدِلُونَ let not the animosity
against some people lead you to do injustice
again of the secrets of this chest of
the chest the unconscious within each human being
how it manifests itself to favor your own
vested interest, we saw that towards the end
of Surah Nisa وَلَوْ عَلَىٰ أَنفُسِكُمْ even if
it is against your own selves, your parents
your children, your own people how that's so
deeply rooted within us and then also deeply
rooted is the other the flip side of
it, resentment towards others and how that resentment
can be so powerful, so overbearing so overwhelming
as overbearing, as overwhelming as your love for
your own self can be your hatred for
the other to the point that it can
hijack your entire system, it can hijack your
entire personality it can hijack your religiosity and
make it demonic make it demonic be very
wary of this resentment of this hatred how
far it can carry you وَلَا يَجْرِمَنَّكُمْ شَنَآنُ
قَوْمٍ عَلَىٰ تَعْدِلُ اعْدِلُ be just هو أقرب
للتقوى that is close to piety any conception
of piety which does not relate itself to
or worse, it dissociates itself from, it cuts
itself off from social relations society rights and
responsibilities privileges and vulnerabilities, all the dynamics that
are going on in your society, if your
taqwa is cutting you off from that that's
not taqwa that's demonic spirituality if it leaves
you so مطمئن if it leaves you to
become so satisfied, your nirvana that you attain
you're such a you have so much aplomb
you're so disconcerted you're on another planet, so
unfazed at what goes around you're so much
at peace what nonsense do you care what's
going on in the world around you?
what sort of a spirituality is that?
just grow up grow up stop this spiritual
* you have responsibilities in the society, people
are suffering it should hurt you you should
want to do something about it, you don't
want to be reactionary and impulsive about it,
fair enough but some rule something some good
some way the world becomes a better place
because of you اعدلوا be just هو اقرب
للتقوى that is closer to taqwa واتقوا الله
observe the taqwa of Allah be mindful of
Allah be conscious of Allah beware of Allah
you disregard Him it manifests in you disregarding
the society disregarding His people His creation any
conception of God any conception of Allah that
is rationalizing your dissociation from people for you
that is not Allah that is not Allah
of the Quran that is a God of
your own fabrication, that is a God of
your own idol that you take in your
hands and it gives you itminan and says
receive as you can be beware of that
itminan seek Allah's refuge from that inner peace
that numbs you that desensitizes you from what's
going on in the world واتقوا الله إِنَّ
اللَّهَ خَبِيرٌ بِمَا تَعْمَلُونَ so observe the taqwa
of Allah, Allah is fully aware of what
you do وَعَدَ اللَّهُ الَّذِينَ آمَنُوا وَعْمِلُوا الصَّالِحَاتِ
Allah has promised those who believe and act
righteously لَهُم مَغْفُرَةٌ مُؤَجْرٌ عَظِيمٌ that for them
is a forgiveness and a great reward وَالَّذِينَ
كَفَرُوا وَكَذَّبُوا بِآيَاتِنَا and those who refuse to
believe and deny our ayat أُولَٰئِكَ أَصْحَابُ الْجَحِيمِ
these are going to be the companions of
the hellfire يَا أَيُّهَا الَّذِينَ آمَنُوا you who
have believed أُذْكُرُوا نِعْمَةَ اللَّهِ عَلَيْكُمْ remember Allah's
favor upon you بني إسرائيل were also they
had the in'aam of Allah Allah kept
reminding them يَا بَنِي إِسْرَائِيلُ أُذْكُرُوا نِعْمَةِ الَّذِي
أَنْعَمْتُ عَلَيْكُمْ وَأَنِّي فَضَّلْتُكُمْ عَلَيْلَهِمْ kept reminding them
now this same phrase in the same words
being addressed to يَا أَيُّهَا الَّذِينَ آمَنُوا أُذْكُرُوا
نِعْمَةَ اللَّهِ عَلَيْكُمْ don't forget Allah's favor on
you remember Allah's favor upon you إِذْ هَمَّا
قَوْمُنَا يَبْسُطُوا إِلَيْكُمْ أَيْدِيَهُمْ like they were told
remember إِذْ نَجَّيْنَاكُمْ مِّنْ آيْلِ فِرْعَوْنِ we saved
you from the people of now يَا أَيُّهَا
الَّذِينَ آمَنُوا being told remember that there was
a people who wanted to harm you يَبْسُطُوا
إِلَيْكُمْ أَيْدِيَهُمْ they were reaching out to hurt
you to kill you فَكَفَّ أَيْدِيَهُمْ أَنْهُمْ أَيْدِيَهُمْ
أَنْكُمْ while Allah held back their hands from
you Allah did not let them harm you
hurt you وَاتَّقُوا اللَّهُ observe the taqwa of
Allah remember Allah in all of this وَعَلَى
اللَّهِ فَلْيَتَوَكَّلِ الْمُؤْمِنُونَ and upon Allah alone let
the believers place their trust وَلَقَدْ أَصَدَ اللَّهُ
مِثَاقَ بَنِي إِسْرَائِيلٍ and Allah did take a
firm covenant from Bani Israel وَبَعَثْنَا مِنْهُمْ أُثْنَ
عَشْرَ نَقِيبًا and we appointed from among them
twelve leaders وَقَالَ اللَّهُ إِنِّي مَعَكُمْ and Allah
said I am with you لَئِنْ أَقَمْتُمُ الصَّلَاةَ
وَآتَيْتُمُ الزَّكَاةَ if you establish prayer and pay
zakah وَآمَنْتُمْ بِرُسُلِي وَأَذَّرْتُمُوهُمْ and you believe in
my messengers and you give them respect you
give them respect and how this one word
respect how much of an integral component it
is of eastern religion of eastern tradition and
how desperately the world is in need of
this respect and that how when we lost
respect for the most sacred institutions we lost
respect for each other we lost respect for
each other and what we're left with is
this artificial diplomacy this fake this
this tea party face that we take up
and how much hatred, rancor, resentment is bred
on the inside وَآمَنْتُمْ بِرُسُلِي وَأَذَّرْتُمُوهُمْ and believe
in my messengers and respect them وَأَقْرَبْتُمُ اللَّهَ
قَرْضًا حَسًّا and give Allah a beautiful loan
again post conquest after Mecca has been won
over conquered conquered the sahabah are being told
and to them all of us are being
told the job is not done this is
only the beginning this is the beginning of
the new phase so much more is left
to be done وَقْتِ فُرْسَتْ هَيْ كَهَا قَامَ
بِهِ بَاقِي هَا نُورِتْ تَوْحِيدِ كَا اِطْمَامَ بِهِ
بَاقِي this Noor-e-Tawheed that requires itmam
requires it from your hands the prophetic phase
of it may be over but this non
-prophetic phase is no less important no less
significant and you will not be held any
less accountable as a community as a group,
as an ummah for failing to live up
to it وَقْرَبْتُمُ اللَّهَ قَرْضًا حَسًّا and you
give a beautiful loan to Allah لَأُكَفِّرَنَّ عَنْكُمْ
سَيْجِعَاتِكُمْ and I will remove your سَيْجِعَات from
you your ill actions from you وَلَأُدْخِلَنَّكُمْ جَنَّاتٍ
تَجْرِي مِنْ تَحْتِهَا الْأَنْهَارِ and I will admit
you to gardens beneath which rivers flow فَمَنْ
كَفَّرَ بَعْدَ ذَلِكَ مِنْكُمْ but if someone from
you disbelieves even after that فَقَدْ ضَلَّتْ سَبَاءَ
السَّبِيلِ he has lost the straight path how
much of a tendency was there for the
victory at Mecca and for the victory that
came after that to get to the heads
of the Muslims so that they really started
start thinking of themselves that the job is
done and we're the men we're the people
and how important is it for them to
continue to be reminded that no no no
no keep it on keep it going don't
take this for granted the work needs to
continue فَبِمَا نَقْضِهِمْ مِثَاقُهُمْ لَعَنَّاهُمْ so for the
breaking of their covenant we cursed them وَجَعَلْنَا
قُلُوبَهُمْ قَاسِيَ and we made their hearts hard
يُحَرِّفُونَ الْكَلِمَ عَمَّ وَضِعِهِ they tamper with words
taking them out of their proper place وَنَسُوا
حَظًّا مِّمَّا ذُكِّرُوا بِهِ and have forgotten a
portion of what they were reminded وَلَا تَزَالُ
تَطْطَلِعُوا عَلَى خَائِنَةٍ مِّنْهُمْ you will still observe
a treachery from them إِلَّا قَلِيلًا مِّنْهُمْ except
a few of them that's become the nature
of their society that they're a treacherous people
and that's a degenerate people of scripture there's
a demonic religiosity in action and when that's
prevalent in a society trust is difficult mistrust
is everywhere فَاعْفُوا عَنْهُمْ وَاصْفَحْتُ so let them
be overlook, let it go إِنَّ اللَّهَ يُحِبُّ
الْمُحْسِنِينَ Allah loves the people of Ihsan and
it is incredible this attitude that the Quran
engenders that if an untrustworthy person has any
potential of trustworthiness then that potential can only
be brought out if they're trusted to some
extent if they're trusted to some extent and
that is possible at the station of Ihsan
with the practice of Ihsan with the pursuit
of Ihsan that you trust them fully mindful
that they may betray you taking your precautions
as best as possible but being ready and
being trusted may allow for them to tap
into their positive potential which is trustworthy the
قَلِيلَ مِنْهُمْ the few of them who are
capable or worthy of being trusted you're allowing
for them to become more prominent significant and
there are numbers to a hatred a rejection
a belligerent absolute criticism all that it does
is creates the worst in them allows for
that to proliferate your rigidity makes them rigid
that rigidity makes you even more firm you
keep reinforcing each other's hatred that's not how
it works and anyone who has worked with
any couple who are having issues knows that
this this vicious cycle of hatred of blame
where does it lead to?
how is it supposed to be stopped?
one party has to take the step of
letting go and trusting despite themselves وَمِنَ الَّذِينَ
قَالُوا إِنَّ النَّصَارَ أَخَذْنَا مِثَاقَهُمْ and we took
a firm covenant from those who claimed to
be Christians فَنَسُوْحَبْنُم مِّمَّذُكْتِرُبِي they too forgot a
portion of what they were reminded with don't
be like them فَأَغْرَيْنَ بَيْنَهُمْ الْعَدَابَةَ وَالْبَغْضَاءَ إِلَى
يَوْمِ الْقِيَامَةَ so we stirred up an enmity
and hatred among them to last until the
day of judgment when they forget a portion
of their own scripture what they have they
compromise a part of truth do you think
they're going to remain firm in one solid
united group those who rejected that other part
they're going to reiterate the logic of that
rejection within themselves and they're going to further
split up they're going to further fragment because
what led for them to reject what they
were reminded of that may have come from
outside they're not going to stop at that
they've tasted blood and now they're going to
bite themselves if they have to and they
do and we all do the moment arbitrary
rejection of truth becomes the order of the
day you will start arbitrarily rejecting portions of
your own truth the moment you start looking
at reality through a black and white lens
I am white and they're black in the
sense of I am right and they are
wrong I am one and they are zero
and that means they're not to be accepted
at all it is at that time that
that lens will now be used against your
own people they're going to bring out what
they hold as a priority and you're going
to see that from that same no no
no one zero and how this binary will
turn against its own self and even if
it's the last man on earth he's going
to be at odds with himself most of
us are when we pursue that line we're
against we're at odds with our own self
gnawing at ourselves gnawing at parts of our
own personality tearing ourselves up on our own
selves so we stirred up enmity and hatred
amongst them to last until the day of
judgment and Allah will soon inform them of
what they had been doing now people of
the book our messenger has come to you
and he will clarify to you much of
what you concealed from your own scripture that
rejection made it necessary for you to hide
portions of your own scripture make they became
irrelevant that all that is that they're useful
for is this mindless recitation and they have
no bearing on your society whatsoever your own
actions whatsoever you don't even you've forgotten what
it means though he will overlook a lot
his practice is not going to be to
hold you to account for every single thing
he will remind you a lot of your
scripture but he's going to be forgiving there
has come to you from Allah a light
and a clear book Allah will guide through
it whoever seeks his good pleasure the ways
of peace he liberates them out of the
depths of darkness to light by his permission
and guides them to a straight path the
attitude towards which this Quran invites the light
with which or to which this Quran opens
your doors to the realities and the truths
that you are then capable of seeing using
that and how that becomes the exact opposite
of that animosity that rejection of truth necessitated
how this opens ways to peace how this
opens ways to harmony now how accepting this
truth develops within you that criterion that standard
with which you can now accept more truth
and the closer the more truth you develop
the greater the understanding becomes the closer you
become to God to Allah Allahumma anta salam
wa minka salam Allah is the lamb they
have disbelieved those who say that Allah himself
is the Messiah the son of Maryam I
asked them who has any power against Allah
to prevent him in if he decides to
kill the Messiah the son of Maryam and
his mother everyone on earth all together if
he wants مَا بَيْنَهُمَاكُمْ Allāh alone belongs to
the sovereignty of the heavens and the earth
and everything that's in between them.
How dare you take that right away from
Him?
To make these claims.
يَقْلُقُ مَا يَشَىٰءُ He creates whatever He wants.
وَاللَّهُ عَلَىٰ كُلِّ شَيْءٍ قَذِيرًۭ And Allah has
power over everything.
Why do you continue to insist to dictate
to Him?
مَا قَالَتِ الْيَهُودُ وَالنَّصَارَى In the Jews and
the Christians say نَحْنُ اَبْنَا اللَّهِ وَأَحِبَّاؤُمْ We
are the children of Allah and His Beloved.
قُلْ فَلِمَ يُعَذِّبُكُم بِذُنُوبِكُمْ تَوْكَبُنَ Why does Allah
continue to punish you because of your sins?
فَلْأَنْتُمْ بَشَرٌ مِّمَّنْ خَلَقُ Rather, you are human
beings like all other human beings.
The equality in humanity with respect to responsibility,
with respect to punishability.
يَغْفِرُ لِمَنْ يَشَىٰءِ He will forgive whoever He
wants.
وَيُعَذِّبُ مَنْ يَشَىٰءِ And He will punish whoever
He wants.
وَلِلَّهِ مُلْكُ السَّمَاوَاتِ وَالْأَرْضِ وَمَا بَيْنَهُمْ Allah alone
belongs to the sovereignty of the heavens and
the earth and all that is in between
them.
All of these subtle ways of when you're
looking to claim hegemony over the truth, of
how you're looking to claim sovereignty for yourselves
and how damaging that is.
يَاهِلَ الْكِتَابُ قَدْ جَأَكُمْ رَسُولُنَا O people of
the Book, our Messenger has come to you
يُبَيْجِنُ لَكُمْ clarifying things to you عَلَى فَتْرَةٍ
مِّنَ الرُّسُلِ after an interval between the Messengers.
Messengers came one after another, there's a huge
gap.
And comes Rasulullah ﷺ أَن تَقُولُوا مَا جَأَنَا
مِنْ بَشِيرٍ وَلَا نَذِيرٍ Lest you should say,
no Messenger of glad tidings nor a warner
came to us فَقَدَ جَأَكُمْ بَشِيرٌ وَنَذِيرٌ So
there has come to you a Messenger of
glad tidings and a warner وَاللَّهُ عَلَى كُلِّ
شَيْءٍ قَدِيرٍ And Allah has power over everything.
وآخر دعوانا عن الحمد لله ربنا