Yousuf Raza – Ramadan Nights 2021 Day 5
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The speakers emphasize the importance of empowerment and growth in history, protecting and preserving one's values and community, avoiding negative consequences, and avoiding harm. They also touch on the cultural and political dynamics of Islam, including the belief that sex is biologically obvious and the importance of privacy and privacy in marriage. The responsibility of the father and mother in maintaining clothing, social standards, and family members' mental health is emphasized, along with the need for a culture of the woman to live with her parents' emotions and a provision for death and life. The challenges of divorce, Marital affairs, and economic affairs are also discussed, along with the importance of protecting and preserving the people they lost and making small mistakes.
AI: Summary ©
لِيَحْكُمَ بَيْنَ نَاسِ فِي مَخْتَلَفُوا فِيهِ To settle
the matters of dispute between the people.
So now already, even prior to the coming
of the Prophets, the people have started disputing
with each other.
They have started experiencing this اختلاف.
The Prophet brings in this standard of revelation
of scripture so as to settle those disputes.
وَمَخْتَلَفَ فِيهِ And nobody disappeared with it.
Now whatever it is, إِلَّا الَّذِينَ أُوتُوا Except
those who were already blessed with it from
before.
That they had started differing in scripture itself.
That they had some form of scripture before.
And the Prophet comes in, brings in a
new set of ayats of Allah, affirming those
before and correcting them as well to settle
the disputes that have come in.
To confirm and to correct.
People look at those and they have a
similar response.
مِنْ بَعْدِ مَا جَاءَتْهُمُ الْبَيْجِنَاتِ After clear signs
had reached them, تَغْيِنْ بَيْنَهُ Out of a
jealous animosity to each other.
Now their positions on truth is not necessarily
based on standards of truth.
It is based on jealous animosity.
Positions of what is right and what is
wrong are being taken not for logical reasons
but for psychological reasons.
And usually psychological reasons which are unknown.
Or at least for the person making those
claims, those psychological reasons are put to a
side and speaking without bias.
This is wholly objective.
This is wholly, this is entirely what the
scripture is saying.
Right?
So if iftilaaf is taking place, even with
the messengers, even with their message, scripture is
being cited, referenced.
And Allah unveils that the motivation, or the
reasoning is not logical but psychological.
And what kind of psychology is being employed,
or what kind of psychological reasoning, that which
is unconscious.
Specifically, what kind of unconscious reasoning is taking
place?
That which is out of a conceit, out
of an arrogance, out of a jealousy against
the other and a sense of superiority for
the self.
That's where the iftilaaf is coming from.
فَهَدَ اللَّهُ الَّذِينَ آمَنُوا But Allah guided the
ones who believed لِمَخْتَلَقُوا فِيهِنَّ الْحَقِّ بِإِذْنِهِ to
the truth about which they deferred by His
permission.
So how natural iftilaaf is, and how the
attitude of imaan being open to ayat of
Allah as and when they come to you
allows for this process of guidance to move
forward.
Despite this inner tendency to be biased to
the point of being jealous, to the point
of being arrogant.
وَاللَّهُ يَهْدِي مَن يَشَاءُ إِلَى صِرَاطٍ مُسْتَقِيمٍ And
Allah guides whomever He wills, whomever Allah wants
to the straight path.
And this phrasing is used multiple times within
the Quran.
وَاللَّهُ يَهْدِي مَن يَشَاءُ إِلَى صِرَاطٍ مُسْتَقِيمٍ And
the man is read both ways, that the
man refers to Allah.
Allah guides who Allah wants to the right
path.
And also Allah guides whoever wants to be
guided towards the right path.
So the man can go towards the human
being as well.
And we know from the Quran, the way
the process of guidance is described, that it
is mutual.
It is Allah, of course, yes, His permission,
His izan, His grace, His rahmah, His qabal,
all of that.
But of course, the human being has to
make choices as well.
Human being has to open himself or herself
as well, has to put aside that arrogance,
that fixation in the face of the ayat
of Allah.
أَمْ حَسِبْتُمْ أَن تَدْخُلُوا الْجَنَّةِ So do you
think you will enter paradise?
وَلَمَّ يَأْتِكُمْ مَثَلُ الَّذِينَ خَلَوْا مِنْ قَبْلِكُمْ Well,
there have not come to you trials like
the ones faced by those who have passed
away before you.
Because yes, this ikhtilaf becomes incredibly daunting.
This ikhtilaf becomes incredibly frustrating.
Why so much ikhtilaf?
Why do people have to be this way?
Why can't everything be straightforward?
Why can't everything be straightforward?
Why can't Allah simply just spell out everything
like a list?
A, B, C, D.
Do this, don't do this, do this, don't
do this.
Why is there so much of a room
for interpretation in which people do derive their
own meanings and then hold on to those
meanings and then argue on their basis and
then fight on their...
And the fights get ugly.
The fights even get *.
Why does it have to be like that?
The fights that are not * in which
physical blood is not shed but as far
as emotional blackmail is concerned, as far as
spiritual blackmail is concerned, no stone is left
unturned.
Any sort of emotional, spiritual abuse that you
can possibly muster is put in there.
So it gets incredibly frustrating.
We could have all just been guided.
Allah says, anything is that simple.
Do you really think that you would...
Everything would be spoon-fed to you like
that, that you wouldn't have to go through
what people before had to go through?
This in itself, the room for interpretation that
is left and there will be people who
will make legitimate use of that room as
there needs to be legitimate use for that
room in which the human faculties, the human
abilities, that of reason and others have to
be employed justly, judiciously, according to some standards.
That is necessary.
Otherwise, the human being, the role that Allah
has in mind for the human being, Allah
being the Rabb and the human being being
abd and ibad, the empowerment of the ibad
requires that that judicious use of reason, that
judicious use of some standards of knowledge, of
the effort that is going to be put
into acquire, to continue to acquire knowledge and
guidance, that that room is there for that
empowerment to really take place.
That room is there for that process of
growth to take place in which these hurdles
of bias, of jealousy, of arrogance, these are
overcome.
That room is there so that the human
being is an active agent in this progression
of history.
Not just a passive recipient gets a command,
follows it, that bit.
No, Allah Subh'anaHu Wa Ta-A'la
wants for there to be a greater room
for the human being.
We see in the entirety of the life
of Rasulullah Sallallahu Alaihi Wasallam, he didn't get
any ayah revealing to him right after Ta
'if, okay, you know Yafrab?
There's like Aus and Khazraj there and they're
pretty cool.
They'll be really nice to you.
Why don't you just go talk to them?
That never happened.
That never happened.
And why don't you just, you know, take
off right now?
That didn't happen.
He, Sallallahu Alaihi Wasallam, had to struggle one
term after another, one tribe after another, one
conflict after another, one abusive encounter after another,
before finally Aus and Khazraj came into the
picture, before that migration.
We read it retrospectively.
We already know the story.
Rasulullah Sallallahu Alaihi Wasallam did not know the
story.
He was actively involved in writing the story,
taking choices.
Other people's choices were being taken into consideration
as well.
So the room, whether it is scriptural interpretation
or it is interpretation of other ayat, or
it is interpretation that leads to choices, strategic
choices in one's lifetime, that room is there
for that human involvement or that human, again,
potential for good as well as potential for
evil.
And that results in conflict that becomes frustrating.
The conflicts do get ugly.
They get, you start looking at scripture weird.
It does, the ikhtilaf and the extent to
which the ikhtilaf has gotten in this day
and age, where there is so much, and
so much of it makes sense.
And then so much of it doesn't.
And the postmodern tendency to just equate all
of it as equally wrong or equally right,
and that negate that there is any al
-haqq at all is very appealing.
It is very attractive.
It is very convenient.
Because once you do that, it liberates you
of responsibility.
It liberates you of a whole lot of
the tediousness of the process itself.
It is liberating to be settled on doubt.
Doubt is a very natural, and we're going
to talk about it today as well.
It is a very natural part of the
process of iman and the process of guidance
and the process of knowledge, very natural.
But to fixate yourself on doubt and be
okay with it and be satisfied with it,
especially in matters of spiritual concern, religious concern,
intellectual concern, you would not do that in
any other aspect of your life.
It's usually spiritual, religious, and intellectual that this
kind of an attitude is taken.
In all other matters of immediate concern, hayat
-dunya concern, where your food is concerned, where
your livelihood is concerned, you would not settle
for doubt.
You would not just sit on doubt and
be okay with it.
I am doubtful for the rest of my
life.
I am okay being doubtful.
Doubt is all we can get.
We cannot get any faith at all.
Those who have faith, it's just because they
don't know any better.
And there it is.
Okay, you want to give those explanations?
Do you give those explanations when you make
choices for your livelihood, what you're going to
eat, who you're going to marry?
Is that how you settle your opinion?
Is that how you direct yourself towards any
path in your life?
So why these double standards?
Where do these double standards come from?
There you're willing to overcome all obstacles of
all the different choices that you have, of
all the conflicting opinions that come in front
of you.
And you take a path.
You never settle for doubt.
There, there.
وَلَمَا يَأْتِكُمْ مَثَلُ الَّذِينَ خَلَوْا مِنْ قَبْلِكُمْ While
there have not come to you trials like
the ones faced by those who have passed
away before you.
مَسَتْهُمُ الْبَأْسَأُ وَضَرَّأُ وَزُلْزِلُ How hard did those
conflicts get for the people before you?
They were stricken by hunger and adversity to
the point of having tasted each other's war
or potential for war.
وَزُلْزِلُ And they were violently shaken.
حَتَّى يَقُولَ الرَّسُولُ وَالَّذِينَ آمَنُوا مَعَهُ To the
point that the Prophet and the people who
had believed with him cried out, مَتَانَسُ اللَّهُ
When is the help of Allah coming?
It got that bad.
You're already frustrated.
مَتَانَسُ اللَّهُ In your air-conditioned study rooms
with your webcams and chat boxes where after
every argument you're going to go and grab
yourself a sundae, مَتَانَسُ اللَّهُ ice cream sundae
مَتَانَسُ اللَّهُ or whatever else.
This is already getting to you.
مَتَانَسُ اللَّهُ Do you have any idea how
bad this إختلاف got?
مَتَانَسُ اللَّهُ It led for the Prophet and
the people close to the Prophet.
The only people who had belief, who have
the certificate of belief from Allah Himself, مَتَانَسُ
اللَّهُ they were led to proclaim, مَتَانَسُ اللَّهُ
When is the help of Allah coming?
They're literally depicted as having, as holding on
to مَتَانَسُ اللَّهُ the last threads of hope.
مَتَانَسُ اللَّهُ The night has become darkest مَتَانَسُ
اللَّهُ and you're crying out, مَتَانَسُ اللَّهُ أَلَىٰ
إِنَّ نَصَرَ اللَّهِ قَرِيدٌ It is at that
point, without a doubt, the help of Allah
is around the corner.
مَتَانَسُ اللَّهُ When it really gets that weak,
مَتَانَسُ اللَّهُ when you are so habituated to
darkness مَتَانَسُ اللَّهُ that you have to call
on every ounce of your willpower, every ounce
of your capacity for faith مَتَانَسُ اللَّهُ to
believe that light is possible.
يَسْأَلُونَكَ مَاذَا يَنفِقُونَ So they ask you, يا
رسول الله what should they spend in charity?
قُلْ مَا أَنفَقْتُمْ مِنْ خَيْرٍ Say, whatever you
spend from wealth فَلِلْوَالِدَيْنَ Give it to the
parents.
The first foremost right is to the parents.
وَالْأَقْرَضِينَ And the relatives.
وَالْيَتَامَةَ And the orphans.
وَالْمَسَاكِينَ And the helpless.
وَبْنِ السَّبِيلَ And the travelers.
وَمَا تَفْعَلُوا مِنْ خَيْرٍ And whatever good you
do فَإِنَّ اللَّهَ بِهِ عَلِيمٌ Allah knows it
fully well.
A community in which Iman really has settled
in is a community in which these segments
of the society they're protected, they're secure.
Their vulnerabilities of age, their vulnerabilities of whatever
difficulty they may have.
The Atama will be handicapped in a society
where your parents or your fathers in particular
are the source of your social position strength,
security, they will be vulnerable.
So the society looking out for them, مساكين,
people who can't fend for themselves for one
reason or the other.
If they're protected and not only protected in
that but they're economically, financially provided for for
them to socially belong.
And we say this all the time that
infaq in the Qur'an is very importantly
economic.
Yes, it is financial.
Yes, but not just financial.
You can be financially giving some and we
will see this in these ayat.
From here on in the subject has already
started for the past couple of passages spending
in the way of Allah, infaq.
And why is that so important, so significant?
The hypocrisy that settled in the Bani Israel,
nifaq, hypocrisy.
It is primarily a disease of not wanting
to give, not wanting to sacrifice.
All the dynamics that take place within a
hypocrite, if you were to isolate them to
one main problem, it is overwhelming selfishness, self
-interest, predominating self-interest.
Self-interest is everything at all costs and
typically the cost of the other.
And so all of what we saw the
Bani Israel manifesting what they did to the
prophets, how they treated scripture, what their attitude
was towards Allah, how ayat will come to
them and they will refuse to acknowledge and
refuse to believe.
At the root of it is this attitude
of being incredibly selfish.
And so nifaq, hypocrisy finds its remedy in
infaq, in spending in the way of Allah.
In spending in the way of Allah, which
is important, yes, for community building financially, of
course, but it is important for community building
in terms of the personalities that develop.
Personalities that have identified the hypocritical tendencies that
they have and are actively, actively, actively, perseverantly
engaged in containing those tendencies.
More than anything else, spending in the way
of Allah is promising you that or helping
you with that.
As we will see, there are ways of
spending that you can be spending and the
result is the exact opposite.
Their hypocrisy is being reinforced.
So we'll talk about that as well.
So they're asking Rasulullah Sallallahu Alaihi Wasallam and
now the good questions have started coming in.
We spoke about the bad questions of Bani
Israel.
These are the good questions coming from the
community of believers and Rasulullah Sallallahu Alaihi Wasallam.
They're concerned.
We don't wanna be hypocrites.
We don't wanna be like the Bani Israel.
They're being described in the Qur'an.
We wanna be the people who are actually
doing islah.
So how much do we spend?
Allah says, whatever you spend from your wealth,
primarily make sure that these groups are addressed.
And again, that's very interesting because this is
not an in-group thing.
This spending, the institution that Rasulullah Sallallahu Alaihi
Wasallam is developing, the authority that he is,
the community leader that he is, what is
coming to him or what is being given
to the government, so to speak, is but
a fraction.
The primary emphasis as far as Iman is
concerned, take care of those who are immediately
in your vicinity.
Take care of those first.
Take care of the most vulnerable segments of
the society.
And even that which is the 2.5%,
the zakat that would be given to the
government or to the political authorities, or even
there, the dispensation is going to be foremost
for the protection of the rights of these
aspects of the society or these incredibly important
and significant facets, aspects, segments of that particular
community.
And whatever good you do, for sure Allah
knows it fully well.
Fighting has been prescribed upon you, though it
is disliked by you.
It may well be that you don't like
it.
And for the most part, the way the
Sahaba and Rasulullah Sallallahu Alaihi Wasallam are by
nature, most of them, and even if that's
not their nature, what they have developed within
themselves in Mecca is a discipline in which
whatever fighting instinct they had, the instinct to
retaliate, they've curbed it.
They've kept it at bay.
They have kept it at bay.
They have disciplined themselves to the point where
even if they wanted to retaliate and they
were all ready to retaliate, and we know
that it's specifically for Umar.
As far as Umar is concerned, for him
to contain himself and not retaliate in the
face of all the tortures, it was *.
For him to hold himself back and become
this non-conflicting person, a non-retaliating person,
a person who loves in the face of
aggression.
Now, for him to have developed, that was
quite an achievement.
And other Sahaba as well, because we know
for a fact that the Quraysh, we know
for the fact that they're a warring people.
They're a people of honor.
They're a people who wouldn't think twice before
standing up for their honor, even if it
is with their sword.
So for Rasulullah Sallallahu Alaihi Wasallam to have
managed to contain all of that for a
good decade, it's pretty incredible.
And now after they've habituated to that, the
demand is to flip it.
Now you have to aggress.
Now the doors to retaliation have opened.
And it is going to be disliked by
you because whatever natural appeal aggression may have
had for some of you, that natural appeal
is no longer there for how long you've
disciplined yourself for how long you've held yourself
back.
And so now the karaha towards the qital,
that's an inner battle that has to be
fought.
Now the qital that takes place is not
going to be for corruption.
It is not going to be for exploitation.
Precisely because it came after such a long
time of defense and self-defense in the
form of self-discipline.
Now the people who are going to do
it are going to do it because they
have to, not because they want to.
And because they're doing it because they have
to, they'll regard all the boundaries that it
comes with, all the restrictions that it comes
with.
There is a naturally aggressive person.
And for that naturally aggressive person, there is
no karaha towards qital, there is an excitement
towards qital.
There is a desire, a fervor, a zeal
for conflict, for bloodshed.
And for that person to find a religious
reason to do that, it was waiting for.
And when such a person does find a
religious reason to do that, out of context
or whatever, when they do execute that, that
results in chaos, that results in further exploitation,
that results in further abuse.
But here the situation is such that the
karaha is being had, wa huwa qurghul lakum.
So it is disliked by you.
Wa assa an takrahu shay'an.
And it is quite possible that you dislike
something, wa huwa khayrul lakum, but it is
better for you.
So you dislike something at an emotional level,
or you like something at an emotional level.
But at an intellectual level, the recognition is
that it is to be done or not
to be done, whatever that value is.
Again, the maturity of a human personality in
developing these values independent of emotions, independent of
emotions.
Emotions are going in one direction, values are
going in the other direction.
Typically, the values that you grow up with,
the values that you are taught from parents,
from environment, they're usually aligned with your emotions.
Usually, they would be the super ego values
for those of you who have a sense
of psychology.
They would align with your emotions.
But once you align yourself with scripture, once
you align with yourself or open yourself up
to the ayat of Allah, to truth and
knowledge where it comes from, that is in
resonance with your conscience, with another part of
your psychology, which does not necessarily have to
align with emotions.
It aligns with truth.
It aligns with truth that you've submitted to.
It aligns with truth that you've accepted.
And in fulfillment of that truth or those
true values, a lot of times you will
have to go against your emotions.
A lot of times you'll have to go
against your super ego values.
That inner conflict, the maturity of negotiating that,
of being able to do what you have
to, even when you don't like it, even
when you don't feel like it, even when
your heart's not into it.
That's a spiritual growth.
That's self-discipline coming in right there.
That's a person becoming stronger.
So you're praying and you don't feel like
it.
That's a very spiritual prayer.
You're doing a lot.
You're fasting throughout the day, not eating, even
though you feel like eating.
That's a spiritual act right there.
Our conception of spirituality, where we align it
with what we feel like doing, what we
want to do, what we don't want to
do as a one-to-one correspondence is
inadequate, is inadequate.
And so a lot of us will feel
very aspiritual, very distant and detached from Allah
when the natural karaha for that which should
be done according to our own values that
we've attested to, submitted to, when we don't
feel that motivation, the motivation seems to have
gone.
Ah, I'm not there with Allah anymore.
And the honeymoon period of religiosity is over.
I don't feel it anymore.
I have become so distant.
It's natural.
And to carry on in that state, that's
incredible.
And it will, there will come a time
where this becomes the consistent practice that the
alignment takes place where now your emotions align
with your conscience as well.
But that's a struggle.
That's a struggle to spend years, at least.
وَعَفَان تُحِبُّوا شَيْئًا And it may well be
that you like something.
وَهُوَ شَرٌّ لَّكُمْ And it is bad for
you.
وَاللَّهُ يَعْلَمُ And Allah knows.
وَأَنْتُمْ لَا تَعْلَمُونَ You don't know.
It is, this is what it means to
submit to Allah as Allah.
That He is telling me my knowledge as
it conforms with my emotions.
It's telling me one thing.
And Allah is telling me something else.
The mission is to recognize that.
يَسَلُونَكَ عَنِ الشَّهْرِ الْحَرَامِ قِتَالٍ فِيهِ They ask
you concerning fighting during this sacred month.
قُلْ قِتَالٌ فِيهِ كَبِيرٌ Tell them fighting during
these months, it is a great, it is
a big deal.
It's a great sin.
وَصَدُّنْ عَنْ سَبِيلِ اللَّهِ وَكُفْرٌ بِهِ But preventing
people from the path of Allah and rejecting
Him.
وَالْمَسْتِدِرْقَى And preventing people from entering the Holy
Mosque.
وَإِقْرَاجُ أَهْلِهِ You know, and driving out its
citizens, its inhabitants.
أَكْبَرُ When Allah is greater in the sight
of Allah.
So this was the incident that happened, the
incident of Nakhla.
Rasulullah ﷺ had sent out an expedition and
he has started to do that.
That when the Quraish, their primary economic stronghold
is their trade, their caravans.
Rasulullah ﷺ immediately after migration, after having settled
down, sets his target straight.
Their caravans, their trade routes.
We're not letting them go.
We're not letting them breathe easy.
When they've done with us, whatever they've done
with us, they have the Kaaba hostage and
they're not letting the true heirs of Ibrahim
ﷺ rid it of the idolatrous center that
it has become.
Or rid it of its idolatry and take
away that what it's propagating in terms of
idolatry in the name of tolerance.
So Rasulullah ﷺ sets his eyes straight on
these trade routes instigating the Quraish.
Coming out with this economic strangulation on them.
And so he would send scouts, armed scouts,
to monitor the movement of these caravans as
well.
And the rules were pretty clear in terms
of they would only initiate any attack.
One when the permission had been given to
them by Rasulullah ﷺ.
And they would keep the sanctity of the
holy month in place.
That was an Arab tradition, an Arab value
that the Qur'an validated.
That this is how it is and we
will value the sacred month.
There will be no fighting in the sacred
month.
Again, it is the tribal laws of war,
of when to fight and when not to
fight.
That's a given and they're accepted as such.
As far as the Arabs were concerned, Rasulullah
ﷺ aggressing against the caravans of the Quraish
was not out of place.
It was the order of the day.
It was how they operated.
It was how they worked.
To have expected for them to operate any
other way would have meant to not take
the material conditions of reality of that day
and age into consideration, which is what Allah
would never advocate.
He would want that these be taken seriously
and you work accordingly.
Rasulullah ﷺ in accordance with those values and
within those values as okay as it is
to target caravans if you do belong to
another tribe, it is not okay to do
so in the sacred months.
There has to be this time of peace.
Now, as it happened, one of the scouting
expeditions that Rasulullah ﷺ had sent in the
valley of Nakhla close to Mecca when the
sacred month had just started, it just so
happened that they attacked the Quraish or the
people of Quraish.
However, one or two of them that were
there because it was a golden chance.
Now, when they brought back what they did
bring back of the war booty or that
booty from that little battle, they, Rasulullah ﷺ
refused to accept it.
He didn't say anything and he accepted it's
a sacred month should not have happened.
And the Quraish made a lot of human
cry.
They look at these people, we advocate values,
they advocate moralities and the sacred months could
not be honored and they shed our blood
in sacred months and they shed our blood
in the sacred months and they shed our
blood in the sacred months.
That there, Allah ﷻ reveals these ayat and
says, you're right, sacred months, fighting in the
sacred months, big deal, big sin.
But all of what you've done, the perpetrations
and again, these are against, these are not
against the Quranic values.
These are against the values of the Quraish,
their values of hospitality, their values of allowing
or opening the Ka'bah, the Masjid al
-Haram to everybody, their values of honoring kith
and kin, their values of honoring blood in
the vicinity of the Haram.
It's all of those values that are being
violated.
Allah ﷻ says that all of these values
are henceforth Quranic values and you did violate
all of them, Quranic as well as your
own tradition.
And so don't come out with the spiritual
blackmail, trying to indict Rasulullah ﷺ and Sahaba
and play victim.
It's much greater in the sight of Allah.
And fitna is worse than killing.
What you're doing, using that religious pedestal, using
that as that religiosity for political strength and
power and therefore exploitation, people's lives, their livelihood,
their personal protection, their belongings, their honor, none
of that is safe with all of what's
going on.
That is worse.
So وَلَا يَذَالُونَ يُقَاتِلُونَكُمْ and they will continue
fighting against you.
So you're not doing any good by giving
up arms.
They're going to continue to fight against you.
حَتَّى يَرُضُّكُمْ عَن دِينِكُمْ Until they turn you
back from your religion.
إِنِ اسْتَطَعُوا If they can.
وَمَن يَرْتَدِدْ مِنكُمْ عَن دِينِهِ And those of
you who turn back from their religion, فَيَمُتْ
وَهُوَ كَاثِرٌ and die as disbelievers, فَأُولَئِكَ حَبِطَتْ
أَعْمَالُمْ such as those whose deeds have become
worthless, everything that they've done, and they've migrated
from Mecca to Medina.
فِي الدُّنْيَا وَالْآخِرَةِ In this life and the
hereafter, وَأُولَئِكَ أُصْحَبُنَا and they're going to be
the companions of the Hellfire, هُمْ فِيهَا خَالَدُونَ
and they will live therein forever.
إِنَّ الَّذِينَ آمَنُوا Definitely those who believe.
وَالَّذِينَ هَاجَرُوا وَجَاهَدُوا And
Allah is forgiving and merciful.
يَسْئَلُونَكَ عَنِ الْخَمْرِ وَالْمَيْسِرِ They ask you about
wine and gambling.
قُلْ فِيهِمَا إِثْمٌ كَبِيرٌ Tell them there is
great sin in both of them.
وَمَنَافِعُ لِلنَّاسِ Although with some benefits for the
people as well.
So there's great harm, but not to say
that there's absolute harm.
There's some benefits as well.
وَإِثْمُهُمَا أَكْبُرُوا مِنْ نَفْعِهِمَا But their sin is
greater than their benefit.
The harm that it brings about and the
sin incurred therefore is greater.
But perhaps at this point, because it hasn't
been prohibited, especially خَمَر, to call it a
sin may not be all that appropriate.
But to translate this as sin, this إثم,
as sin may not be appropriate, especially since
it's being contrasted from the منافع or the
نفعهما, the benefit of it.
So the harm and the benefit.
The harm is greater than their benefit.
It's left at that.
As of now, the prohibition hasn't come in.
وَيَسْأَلُونَكَ مَاذَا يُنْفِقُونَ And they ask you what
to spend in charity.
قُلِ الْعَفْرِ Tell them spend what is the
surplus.
The previous question, who to give the charity
to?
Now, how much should we give in charity?
Again, the response is kept open.
Whatever is surplus, whatever is excess, left to
you.
Left to you.
So much of it and so much of
the miracle of Rasulullah ﷺ and the Sahaba
is that all their, the great chunk of
their struggle was voluntary.
There was no obligation as such.
It was so much of it was out
of the goodness of their hearts, out of
the freedom that they could have not done
it.
And technically, legally, Islamically, it was totally fine.
But they went over and above, above and
beyond speaking excellent and doing all of what
they did.
قُلِ الْعَفْرِ Tell them to spend that which
is surplus.
كَذَلِكَ يُبَيِّنُ اللَّهُ لَكُمُ الْآيَاتِ This is how
Allah makes all His ayaat clear to you.
This is how Allah makes His ayaat clear
to you.
لَعَلَّكُمْ تَتَفَكَّرُونَ So that you may reflect.
So they ask, how much should we give?
Allah doesn't give an exact number.
Even though He could have, but He doesn't.
Why doesn't He?
Because He wants to leave room for your
تَتَفَكَّرُونَ So that your brains don't atrophy.
So your reason doesn't shrivel away.
So that your choice has a role to
play in all of this.
فِي الدُّنْيَا وَالْآخِرَةِ In this life, as well
as in the hereafter, وَيَسْأَلُونَكَ عَنِ الْيَتَامَةِ And
they ask you regarding the orphans.
قُلْ إِذْ لَا خُلَّهُمْ خَيْرٌ Tell them, improvement.
إِذْ لَا خُلَّهُمْ Their growth.
Their rehabilitation within society is the best that
you can do.
وَإِنْتُ خَالِقُوهُمْ But if you mix your affairs
with theirs.
فَإِفْوَانُكُمْ After all, they are your brothers.
See the sense that the Qur'an raised
with respect to minding or guarding the rights
and being careful of not being hurtful or
in any way exploitative and abusive of those
that are vulnerable in the society.
The extent to which the Qur'an goes
made the Sahaba very nervous.
It made the Sahaba very anxious.
What if to the point of being very
careful about sense, as we would say.
And the very little, the smallest of possibilities.
Okay, so there is an orphan that one
Sahabi is taking care of and another Sahabi
is taking care of and they have their,
you know, it's all in the same household
and it is their wealth or their right.
What if somehow something, you know, one great
pair there, one date pair there got mixed
up.
His came to our lot.
Maybe my kid ate one of theirs.
That can't be right.
Allah SWT says, you try your best for
their islah but in these, if these things
get mixed up, that's okay.
They are your brothers after all.
They are your brothers after all.
Allah knows the one who looks, who's looking
to exploit, who's looking to create fasaad from
the one who's looking to reform.
And if Allah wanted, He could put you
in difficulty.
He would say, why did that one date
go from his to his?
No, no, no, no.
He's not going to do that.
Allah is aziz.
He is mighty and wise.
And do not marry the mushrik women until
they come to believe.
And believing slave woman is better than a
mushrik free woman.
Even though that she might seem really good
looking to you.
And do not let your women get married
to mushrik men until they believe.
Because a Muslim slave is better than a
free mushrik.
Even though he may be drop dead gorgeous
for you.
Because these mushrik, they are inviting to the
hellfire that whatever state their polytheism has brought
them to.
And their commitment to their polytheism has brought
them to.
The goodness that it has to offer for
the family and for the society that you're
looking to develop here.
For now, that's from now, that's that's cut
off.
That's been put on.
You can't.
There's too little to gain and too much
to lose.
Allah invites towards paradise and forgiveness by his
permission.
And he makes his ayat clear to mankind
so that they can receive admonition so that
they can remember continuing with ayah number 222
which is the 28th ruku.
They ask you about menses.
Tell them it is a discomfort.
So keep away from your wives in terms
of sexual * during their menses.
It doesn't mean boycott them or lock them
up in a room or do not touch
them at all.
It is not to be taken in that
sense.
It means just a particular coital act is
what you abstain from.
So do not engage in coitus until they
are clean.
But when they do purify themselves Approach them
the way Allah has prescribed for you.
Now you will not find any place in
the Quran where Allah prescribes or Allah ordains
how is it that you're supposed to have
sexual *.
The amarakumullah is biologically implied.
It is something that is biologically obvious.
The ayat in biology are telling you how
that process is supposed to work.
And Allah loves those who constantly return to
Him.
And He loves those who purify themselves.
nisaukum harthulakum Your wives are tilth for you.
fa'tu harthakum anna shi'tum So approach them as
you wish.
waqaddimu li anfusikum And send forward for yourselves
wattaqullah And observe the taqwa of Allah wa
'lamu annakumulaqoo And know that you will meet
Him.
Again, addressing that very strict monastic tendency, that
ascetic tendency which would look down upon any
such aspect of sexuality is addressed, is called
to account and explicitly addressed that as far
as the spirituality of this Quran is concerned
or the spirituality that Ar-Rahman is ordaining
in the Quran through Rasulullah ﷺ that's not
what it means to be spiritual.
There is no spirituality or no greatness in
asceticism per se.
You're not doing Allah any favours by not
marrying.
You're not doing Allah any favours by marrying
and then abandoning your wives altogether.
That there is good for you in this
interaction, in a sexual interaction that there is
good for your future in this interaction that
this is something that you put forward for
or this is something that you invest in
your future for is what is ordained and
that's something that you need to take into
consideration.
وَبَشِّرِ الْمُؤْمِنِ and give good news to the
believers.
وَلَا تَجْعَلُ اللَّهَ عُرَضَةً لِأَيْمَانِكُمْ Do not make
Allah an excuse as in your oaths.
أَن تَبَرُّوا وَتَتَّقُوا وَتُصْلِحُوا بَيْنَ النَّاسِ lest you
abstain from virtue warding against evil and reconciling
between people.
So when activities that promote good, virtue, بِرَّ
activities that promote تَقْوَى activities that promote إِصْلَاح
and mending relationships between humanity not engaging in
all of this in the name of God.
In the name of God.
And so the asceticism or the monasticism that
looks upon sexual relationships, marriages as anti-spiritual
or even aspiritual Allah says don't put that
one on me.
In a sense, there is بِرَّ in this
relationship.
There is تَقْوَى in this relationship.
And this relationship leads to إِصْلَاح بَيْنَ النَّاسِ
Humanity coming closer together.
Humanity becoming more of a community.
So, all of what this promises and your
oaths in the name of Allah because the
oath of I'm forgetting the technical phrase but
there is a technical phrase in the language
of the church or Catholicism in particular which
they don't marry, right?
For the nuns or the priests it is
a matter of great virtue to not marry.
Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala very bluntly puts
it out there that don't do that in
my name.
At least with the spirituality that the Quran
is looking to inspire in the name of
God you're stopping people from بِرَّ تَقْوَى إِصْلَاح
بَيْنَ النَّاسِ All of these things.
The Quranic spirituality sanctions sexuality.
It does not demand an abstinence from that.
As far as the Quranic spirituality is concerned
بِرَّ تَقْوَى إِصْلَاح بَيْنَ النَّاسِ is developed through
this marital relationship.
وَاللَّهُ سَمِعٌ عَلِيمٌ And Allah is hearing and
knowing.
لَا يُؤَاخِذُكُمُ اللَّهُ بِاللَّغْضِ فِي أَيْمَانِكُمْ Allah will
not hold you accountable for what is unintentional
in your oaths.
وَلَكِنُ يُؤَاخِذُكُم بِمَا كَسَبَتْ قُلُوبُكُمْ But He will
hold you responsible But He will hold you
responsible for what you earn or the deeds
that you do through the intention of your
hearts that you're committed to that you have
consciously intended to do.
وَاللَّهُ غَفُورٌ حَلِيمٌ And Allah is forgiving and
forbearing.
لَلَّذِينَ يُؤْلُونَ مِنْ نِسَائِهِمْ And those who take
an oath to abstain from their wives تَرَبُّصُوا
أَرْبَعَةِ أَشْهُرٌ There is a limit to wait
for four months.
The maximum they can go is four months.
فَإِنْ فَآوُوا But if they reconcile فَإِنَّ اللَّهَ
وَقُولُوا رَحِيمٌ Then for sure Allah is forgiving
and merciful.
وَإِنْ عَزَّمُوا الطَّلَاقُ And if they decide to
divorce فَإِنَّ اللَّهَ سَمِيعٌ عَلِيمٌ Then Allah is
hearing and knowing.
وَالْمُطَلَّقَاتُ يَتَرَبَّصْنَ بِأَنفُسِهِنَّ ثَلَاثَةَ قُرُوءٌ And divorced
women must keep to themselves waiting for three
menstrual periods وَلَا يَحِلُّ لَهُنْ And it is
not permissible for them أَن يَكْتُبْنَ مَا خَلَقَ
اللَّهُ فِي أَرْحَامِهِنَّ That they hide what Allah
has created in their wombs.
That in this time period for to be
absolutely sure that there is no pregnancy and
if there is a pregnancy they're not to
hold back from sharing that from the biological
father وَإِن كُنَّ يُؤْمِنَّ بِاللَّهِ وَالْيَوْمِ الْآخِرِ If
they really believe in Allah and the last
day no amount of spite no amount of
resentment or hatred that there may be against
the former spouse should lead for them to
hold back this information وَبْعُولَتُهُنَّ أَحَقُّ بِرَدِّهِنَّ فِي
ذَلِكِ And their husbands have a greater right
to take them back within that time period
إِنْ أَرَادُوا إِسْلَاحًا If all of them want
reconciliation وَلَهُنَّ مِثْلُ الَّذِي عَلَيْهِنَّ بِالْمَعْرُوفِ And they
have privileges just like they have responsibilities This
is not to be an interaction of exploitation
This is not to be a relationship in
which they are subjugated They have privileges just
as they have responsibilities بِالْمَعْرُوفِ According to what
is reasonable According to what is acceptable That
the عُرْف How the word in itself and
the Quranic usage of it Takes your society
and their social norms into consideration عُرْف معروف
is what is understood to be good It
is like a normative thing It's like social
norms the way they hold it وَلِلْرِّجَالِ عَلَيْهِنَّ
دَرَاجَةً But men do have a degree of
status above them There is one level in
particular And that of financial responsibility that the
men have They are the caretakers So there
is that additional degree that they are given
وَاللَّهُ عَزِيزٌ حَكِيمٌ And Allah is mighty wise
To use that to make it absolute That
it is complete absolute authority With no right
to the spouse Again that is a distorted
diseased and pathological way of looking at it
And if you take that diseased pathological lens
Then yes the use of the metaphor Tilth
or cultivation land It is going to be
read as such as well That there is
no What that metaphor is used to represent
Is sidelined altogether And an objectification is read
into it From either of the two camps
The camps that look to criticize the Quran
For the way it's representing this relationship And
the camp that wants to use the Quran
To justify their misogynistic ends وَاللَّهُ عَزِيزٌ حَكِيمٌ
And Allah is mighty and wise الطَلَاقُ مَرَّتَان
The revocable divorce The divorce that you can
remarry despite is twice The third time the
divorce takes place Then that's it Remarriage has
to wait for another marriage to take place
So divorce the three-month waiting period Within
which they can return to each other And
then if they do return to each other
After that time period is over Even that
is okay But then a second divorce Again
within that three-month period they can come
back But even after that they choose to
reconcile and come back That's fine as well
But then if the divorce for a third
time And they don't reconcile within that three
-month period And the third divorce is done
Then no getting back together No remarriage فَإِمْسَاكٌ
بِمَعْرُوفٍ أَوْ تَصْرِيحٌ بِإِحْسَانٍ Then keep her in
an acceptable way Or let go with good
treatment There is such a thing as a
good divorce There should be such a thing
as an honorable parting of ways A respectful
loving parting of ways And there is such
a thing We will find examples around us
In which a couple does end up divorcing
But they are on the best of terms
when they part ways And they are respectful
of each other's honor Of each other's privacy
They don't feel the need Their insecurities do
not mandate upon them To just throw everything
including the kitchen sink at their ex That's
a vile thing to do That is the
lowest that human beings can possibly sink to
Is to justify In order to justify themselves
Or even victimize themselves They have to disclose
They feel the need to disclose Pretty much
everyone and anyone who is willing to lend
them an ear How that marriage was Or
that divorce was completely and absolutely the other
person's fault They may not say it The
statements or the narratives will begin with Nobody
is perfect We all have our flaws We
all make mistakes And I'm sure I made
some too But what follows after the but
Is pretty much It was absolutely and entirely
his slash her fault And I have been
entirely victimized in this entire process So there
is such a thing as a Way Or
Of parting ways Well, let's see the choice
of words Right Stay together in a good
way Or leave Let the parting of ways
take place Let her go In a beautiful
way So the word used is The one
depicting beauty Your character should It should effuse
beauty A beautiful divorce Have you ever heard
that phrase before?
But that's the one the Qur'an is
advocating وَلَا يَحِلُّ لَكُمْ And it is not
lawful for you أَن تَأْخُذُ مِمَّا آتَيْتُمُوهُنَّ شَيْءً
That you take back from them Anything of
what you had given them إِلَّا أَن يَخَافَ
Except when both parties fear أَن لَا يُقِيمَ
حُدُودَ اللَّهُ That they may not be able
to keep within the limits of Allah فَإِن
خِفْتُمْ أَن لَا يُقِيمَ حُدُودَ اللَّهُ So if
you fear that both will not be able
to maintain Or keep to the limits of
Allah فَلَا جُنَاحَ عَلَيْهِمَ Then as a result
of a mutual agreement There is no blame
on either of the two في مَفْتَدَتْ بِه
On account of what she compensates The husband
to retain the divorce تِلْكَ حُدُودُ اللَّهُ These
are the limits set by Allah فَلَا تَعْتَدُوهَا
Do not cross them وَمَن يَتَعَدَّ حُدُودَ اللَّهُ
And those who do cross the limits set
by Allah فَأُولَئِكَهُمُ الظَّالِمُونَ Such are the unjust
ones فَإِن طَلَّقَهَا فَلَا تَحِلُّ لَهُ مِنْ بَعْدٍ
But if he divorces her It will not
be lawful for him to remarry her after
that This is the third divorce حَتَّى تَنكِحَ
زَوْجٍ غَيْرَهُ Until she gets married to somebody
else فَإِن طَلَّقَهَا But if he also divorces
her فَلَا جُنَاحَ عَلَيْهِمَا أَنْ يَتَرَاجَعَ It is
not There is no blame on either of
them if they reunite إِن ظَنَّا أَنْ يُقِيمَ
حُدُودَ اللَّهُ Provided they think that they can
maintain The حُدُود The limits of Allah وَتِلْكَ
حُدُودُ اللَّهُ These are the limits of Allah
يُبَيِّنُهَا لِقَوْمِ يَعْلَمُونَ Which he makes clear for
those who know Now again All of what
these limits These are the outer boundaries Within
which a marriage is supposed to operate You
don't establish the entire dynamic Of a relationship
on the boundaries Or close to the boundaries
And what do I mean by that is
You cannot have the principles of relationship Or
the manner in which husband and wife Relate
with each other Based on strict rules that
are being derived From those boundaries The contract
or the rules of engagement if you will
They're for matters of severe conflict When they
come in They cannot be used You cannot
operate in a marriage Or function in a
marriage Based strictly off of fiqh rules Within
that landscape Away from the boundaries There is
that interaction of love Of consideration Of mutual
respect Which should take precedence Which the Qur
'an highlights In so many other places as
well The ma'ruf treatment The ihsan treatment
That's to each other That mutual respect That
mutual love That you're supposed to share with
each other That doesn't necessarily Look to conform
to rigid rules It's flexibility is the name
of the game In a relationship Which is
why the rules are so little to begin
with They're so much on the fringe Or
the outer boundary Of where that relationship is
taking place And yeah But when a severe
conflict situation does arise The rulebook has to
be opened up And then you have to
look to work around those And negotiate with
those in mind At that point ignoring those
rules Is the biggest mistake you can possibly
make Because then you're opening the doors To
exploitation more than ever وَإِذَا طَلَقْتُمُ النِّسَاءَ And
when you have divorced women فَبَلَغْنَ أَجَلَهُنَّ And
they have reached the end of their waiting
period فَأَمْسِكُوهُنَّ بِمَعْرُوفٍ أو سَرِّحُوهُنَّ بِمَعْرُوفٍ Then either
take them back On reasonable basis Or set
them free In a reasonable way وَلَا تُمْسِكُهُنَّ
ضِرَارًا لِتَأْتَدُوا Do not retain them in order
to harm them For exploitation Just to retaliate
Get back at them وَمَنْ يَفْعَلْ ذَٰلِكَ And
whoever does that فَقَدْ ظَلَمَ نَفْسَهُ He has
been unjust to himself Whenever a couple Man
or woman Do not honor the other In
the relationship And exploit and abuse Then what
they've done They have abused and exploited the
other for sure But there is a more
subtle And significant Which is why that is
the one That has been brought up over
here The abuse against the own self The
exploitation of your own self You've gone against
your own better potential You've gone against your
own better self So you have done zulm
against your own self That's one lesson that
we get from this ayah And another one
that Hurting them is hurting yourself Doing zulm
against them That's they're an extension of you
You're an extension of them You're the You're
clothes for each other And in not guarding
that Not honoring that You're just hurting this
How the two of you Extend from and
to each other How you are one unit
Not regarding that One unit with distinct individualities
Yes, but that Those distinct individualities Come to
form something Which is distinctive and individual in
its own right And you've done zulm against
that Do not take the ayat of Allah
as a joke The last thing people are
usually concerned about In matters of divorce Are
the ayat of Allah Keep in mind Allah's
favor upon you And what he has sent
down to you In the form of the
kitab The commandments and wisdom يَعِذُكُمْ بِهِ And
he exhorts you thereby وَاتَّقُوا اللَّهِ And observe
the taqwa of Allah Because you can have
all of these The kitab aspect The principles
The laws The hikmah The wisdom Behind the
laws The principles The boundaries All of that
You can have all of it You can
be very well versed in them But minus
the taqwa of Allah You can exploit those
very laws You can abuse on the basis
of that Those very principles وَاعْلَمُوا أَنَّ اللَّهَ
بِكُلِّ شَيْءٍ عَلِيمٍ And Allah knows Know that
Allah knows everything وَإِذَا طَلَّقْتُمُ الْنِسَانِ When you
have divorced women فَبَلَغْنَا أَجَلَهُنَّ And they reach
the end of their waiting period فَلَا تَعْضُلُوهُنَّ
أَن يَنكِهْنَا أَزْوَاجَهُنَّ Do not prevent them from
marryinging their prospective husbands Do not become creeps
إِذَا تَرَضَوا بَيْنَهُمْ بِالْمَعْرُوفِ If they have mutually
agreed in the normal way Stop like stalking
them and raising obstacles in their path And
then you know signing into their Facebook accounts
And sending hate messages to the other person
And then looking to get to the other
person And you know bad-mouthing your ex
And you're like you know stop being creeps
إِذَا تَرَضَوا بَيْنَهُمْ بِالْمَعْرُوفِ If they have mutually
agreed in the normal way ذَلِكَ يُعْضُوا بِهِ
This is instructed too مَنْ كَانَ مِنْكُمْ يُؤْمِنُوا
بِاللَّهِ وَالْيَوْمِ الْآخِرِ Whoever of you really believed
in Allah in the last day ذَلِكُمْ أَزْكَى
لَكُمْ وَأَطْحَى That is purer for you That
is better for you That is so much
cleaner, neater وَاللَّهُ يَعْلَمُوا وَأَنْتُمْ لَا تَعْلَمُونَ Allah
knows and you don't know Don't get dirty
in these matters Keep it clean وَالْوَالِدَاتُ يُرْضِعْنَا
أَوْلَادَهُنَ And the mothers will breastfeed their offspring
حَوْلَينِ كَامِلَينِ For two complete years لِمَنْ أَرَادَ
إِنْ يُتِمَّ الرَّضَاءَ And whoever wishes to complete
the nursing period وَعَلَى الْمَوْلُودِ لَهُ رِزْقُهُنَّ وَكِسْوَتُهُنَّ
بِالْمَعْرُوفِ The father is responsible for the provision
of the mother And clothing according to acceptable
norms Whatever is socially acceptable So despite the
divorce, a nursing mother has to be maintained
The maintenance is the responsibility of the father
And it has to be in acceptance with
their standards With their social standards لَا تُكَلَّفُ
نَفْسٌ إِلَّا وُسْعَهَا No individual is burdened more
than his capacity لَا تُضَارَّ وَالِدَةٌ بِوَلَدِهَا Neither
a mother should be made to suffer because
of her child Now you're emotionally blackmailing a
mother Not financially reimbursing her And for the
most part she will not be in a
position To financially stand for herself in that
critical condition Having to breastfeed, having to nurse
a child And she has to do that
because it's her child And of course she
loves the child And the financial recompensation The
coverage that you need to give, you're not
giving Is exploiting and hurtful وَلَا مَوْلُودٌ لَّهُ
بِوَلَدِهِ Nor should the father to whom the
child belonged Be made to suffer because of
the child It shouldn't be that the financial
compensation Is more than what he's making Or
what he needs to survive on his own
It needs to be reasonable وَعَلَى الْوَارِثِ مِثْلُ
ذَلِكِ The father's inheritors are under the same
obligation So it may well be that the
mother In the demand for the financial compensation
I am breastfeeding your child You need to
give me a million dollars a month What
does he do?
What if he doesn't?
What if he can't do that?
Most likely he won't be able to do
that You can't go to those extents Using
the emotional bond See, you're divorced, fair enough
But as the father of the child And
as the mother of the child You're now
indirectly related As you're each other's ex Fair
enough, you may get away With not having
to see each other's faces For the rest
of your lives You can do that But
if you have a child or children Those
interactions are inevitable And the dirtier those interactions
The less civil those interactions The less respectful
those interactions The worse the outcome for the
children The worse the outcome for the children
And we know this straight out There's credible
evidence to this An abusive marriage A marriage
marred by parental conflict Constant fight Constant mutual
emotional Even physical abuse going on Necessarily has
a negative impact On the children Necessarily on
their personalities And how the personalities develop It's
empirically demonstrable We've seen it We know it
We have it Quantified But a healthy divorce
Would be much better In terms of the
impact that it has And when we're talking
an impact On the personalities of the children
We're talking an impact On the spiritual capacities
of the children Because it may well be
That the damage that is done To the
emotional dimension Or to the personality of the
children It takes away from them Something beautiful
Something incredibly essential For a healthy spiritual development
as well And it's not without a lot
of effort You cannot recover that damage Without
putting in a lot of effort Whatever that
effort looks like But prevention is better than
cure, right?
So an abusive marriage Or an abusive divorce
Either way The children Their personalities And therefore
their spiritual capacities Their religious potential Has to
suffer as a consequence So these issues cannot
be taken lightly These issues cannot be taken
lightly When we're talking about The mutual agreements
arrangements Post divorce They have to be taken
very very seriously You cannot have arrangements In
which whenever the father has a right For
visitation or whatever Or the mother has a
right For visitation or whatever They don't let
any opportunity to go by Without bad-mouthing
him and his family Or her and her
family You may be venting You may be
letting it out But the kid is not
your therapist The kid is not supposed to
be that sponge That sucks up all your
filth and your dirt The kid is a
kid And they're becoming They're developing a person
And they have to live with the filth
That you're showing them Of their other parent
And depicting of yourselves What kind of a
self-concept Are they growing up with?
Because they know that they're Half you and
half them Half of them is dirty Because
of what the dirt you told them about
And then half of them is dirty Because
you're the source You're the one bad-mouthing
One is a bad mouth The other is
a bad person Both of them culminated in
the child What kind of an impact is
that having?
A beautiful divorce Versus the dirt that we
see Even, even When people who come from
such toxic environments Toxic, abusive households Where the
parents are constantly Disrespecting each other Constantly Either
within the marriage Or within a divorce Whatever
the situation The personalities that develop As a
result of this And they end up becoming
religious They end up committing themselves To a
religious understanding A particular religion A religious movement
A religious institution They need to be extra
careful That all the manifestations Of pathological religiosity
That we spoke about Within the Bani Israel
Within the Munafiqeen In the description in the
Quran The chances for those pathologies Reflecting in
them And them being pathologically spiritual And pathologically
religious Are incredible And it's very scary There
has to be an added degree of caution
There needs to be an added degree of
suspicion So that these issues are addressed A
lot of times professionally If not for your
own sanity And if not for your own
good Then for your spiritual responsibility For your
social responsibility For the kind of religiosity that
emanates from you Has a social impact It
has a social impact For the sake of
that You need help And you need to
address those issues And those conflicts And those
challenges And be more mindful Of how that
toxicity Becomes toxic religiosity And toxic spirituality These
are facts that we have to live with
These are the facts that we have to
encounter And then when those issues are taken
seriously Then when those issues are addressed What
we're looking at What we're looking at Is
a much more mature spiritual person Person who
has overcome that toxicity The spiritual potential that
will now be manifest Is going to be
far greater Is going to be far more
impactful Is going to be far more beautiful
Than what was taking place before So as
much as those abusive and toxic experiences As
much as they set us up For reflecting
or manifesting toxic religiosities And toxic spiritualities Being
conscious, mindful, and aware of that toxicity And
addressing them through our religious and spiritual struggles
Makes for incredibly beautiful human beings Makes for
incredibly beneficial spirituality For the person as well
as for the people around them Right?
So both sides we have to be mindful
of Toxic environments do not necessarily mean You
have to develop pathologies and become a toxic
person That's not a given The probability and
the chances for that do go up But
human choice nevertheless Is to be taken into
consideration Human freedom has to be taken into
consideration And it does play a part Moving
right along But if both mutually consent And
after due consultation desire Weaning Then there is
no blame on them So there's a lot
of consultation and discussion going on For all
the mutual decisions that have to take place
But if you decide to have a foster
mother for your children Then there is no
blame on you There shouldn't be any spiritual
blackmail going on Or you're not living up
to your motherly responsibilities Why not doing this?
Provided you pay in accordance with the norms
The foster mother should not be exploited either
And know that Allah is watching all of
what you do And those of you who
pass away And leave widows يتربصن بأنفسهن أربعة
أشهر وعشرة These women, the widows should wait
for four months and ten days فإذا بلغن
أجلهن But when they reach the end of
their waiting period فلا جناح عليكم فيما فعلن
في أنفسهن بالمعروف There is no blame on
you in what they do for themselves in
a decent manner والله بما تعملون خبير Allah
is aware of all of what you do
ولا جناح عليكم And there is no blame
on you فيما عرضتم به من خطبة النساء
If you just hinted these women a proposal
for marriage أو أكننتم في أنفسكم Or you
keep it to yourselves علم الله أنكم ستذكرونهن
Allah knows that you will mention to them
وَلَكِلْ لَا تُوَعِدُوهُنَّ سِرًّا But be careful not
to make a secret agreement with them إلا
أن تقولوا قولا معروفة Except that you do
something which is normative Which is acceptable وَلَا
تَعْزِمُوا أُقُدَةَ النِّكَاحِ But do not firmly resolve
the marriage contract حَتَّى يَبْلُغَ الْكِتَابُ أَجَلَى Until
the prescribed waiting period comes to an end
وَاعْلَمُوا أَنَّ اللَّهَ يَعْلَمُ مَا فِي أَنفُسِكُمْ And
bear in mind that Allah knows what is
within yourselves It should not become so much
of a taboo That remarriage is tantamount to
adultery That somebody And one of the reasons
why there will be post-divorce And post
-death of a husband or death of a
wife A greater incidence of adultery Is because
remarriage will have become such a taboo That
there will be sentences and adjectives That are
reserved for people who are looking Oh, how
desperate is she?
She couldn't hold himself, could she?
Ah, he can't hold himself Ah, look at
how Where is all of this coming from?
Allah knows ما فِي أَنفُسِكُمْ Exactly what is
inside of yourselves This sort of This What
do you call it?
These perverted understandings of sexuality within a society
These perverted understandings of marriage and relationships within
a society Then necessarily result in sexual perversions
And extramarital, premarital, post-marital, post-divorce, post
-death Perverted relationships taking place You make taboo
what was not supposed to be taboo And
this is what you're opening the door to
And this is what is then prevailing in
this society But of course, this is the
Quran, right?
And what does the Quran know about what
should and should not happen?
So typically when these ayaat are confronted and
spoken about And Mudarrasin will talk about them
And there's going to be translations of them
and explanations of them But when the actual
situations arise Those slogans, those sentences, those appellations,
those derogatory remarks They're not going to be
withheld It is Quran, but...
And then after the but is the entire
making taboo of all of that So one
of the most frequent problems that we encounter
within our clinical practice Is women after having
experienced divorce looking to remarry And how they're
going to have to confront the society and
their own families For even wanting to do
that or harboring the intent for that It
is one of the most serious problems That
what is everybody going to say?
I want to get married again And wait
till my ex-husband finds out Wait till
his family finds out OMG, what kind of
a social media campaign are we looking for
To tarnish my reputation?
That's what she divorced for to begin with
She didn't want to She was in love
with him since day one And all of
those...
Oh my god But this is just the
Quran, right?
Beware of him Really the people who resort
to these vile strategies These vile Who take
this making these things taboo And talking, gossiping,
slandering about these issues They take it so
lightly Allah is like Beware of him Allah
is forgiving and forbearing There is no blame
on you if you divorce women Even before
having consummated your marriage with them Or having
fixed a dowry for them Give them something
anyway The wealthy according to his means And
the poor according to his means As a
fair provision A duty upon people of ihsan
People looking for a beautiful conduct وَإِن طَلَّقْتُمُوهُنَّ
مِنْ قَبْلِ أَنْ تَمَسُّوهُنَّ And if you divorce
them before having consummated your marriage with them
وَقَدْ فَرَضْتُمْ لَهُنَّ فَرِيدًا While you have fixed
a dowry for them فَنِسْفُ مَا فَرَضْتُمْ Then
give them half of what you had fixed
إِلَّا أَنْ يَعْفُونَ Unless they let it go
أَوْ يَعْفُوَ الَّذِي بِيَدِهِ أُقُدَتُ النِّكَاحِ Or the
one in whose hands the tie of the
marriage is If they forego their half of
the full payment So the husband foregoes And
he just goes ahead and gives the full
amount وَأَنْ تَعْفُو أَقْرَبُ لِلتَّقْوَى And if you
forego Addressing the men specifically If you let
go If you just give the full amount
That is closer to taqwa That is better
وَلَا تَنْسَوْا الْفَضْلَ بَيْنَكُمْ Do not forget graciousness
between yourselves You want Allah to be You
understand Allah to be ذو الفضل The one
who is gracious And gives you more than
you deserve Then when your mutual interactions are
taking place Why does the statement What's in
it for me?
Why should I do it?
He never does it She never does it
Why should I go?
Do not forget فضل بينكم Between yourselves إِنَّ
اللَّهَ بِمَا تَعْمَلُونَ بَصِيرً Allah is definitely watching
Whatever you do حافظوا على الصلوات Guard the
prayers والصلاة الوسطى Especially the middle one So
this is talking about The صلاة العصر One
interpretation And fair evidence for that as well
But then a balanced prayer Is another aspect
that is being spoken of وَقُومُوا لِلَّهِ قَانَتِينَ
And stand up before Allah With true commitment
and obedience فَإِنْ خِفْتُمْ فَرْرِجَالًا أَوْ رُكْبَانًا But
if you're in danger Pray while walking or
riding فَإِذَا أَمِنْسُمْ But when you are safe
فَاذْكُرُوا اللَّهَ كَمَا عَلَّمَكُمْ Remember Allah The way
he has taught you prayer The way he
were taught This does not have to be
The way you would pray when you are
in danger مَا لَمْ تَكُونُوا تَعْلَمُونَ He has
taught you what you could not have otherwise
known وَالَّذِينَ يُتَوَفَّونَ مِنْكُمْ وَيَظَرُونَ أَزْوَاجٍ وَصِيَةً
لِّأَزْوَاجِهِمْ And those of you who die and
leave widows Should leave a will in their
favor مَتَاعًا إِلَى الْحَوْلِ غَيْرَ إِخْرَاجٍ A provision
for one year without turning them out Your
death should not mean that they are now
forsaken They don't have a roof over their
head Give them a year is a reasonable
enough time For the society to be in
a mature enough place For making an alternate
arrangement for them فَإِنْ خَرَجْنَا But if they
leave on their own فَلَجْنَا خَيْرَ عَلَيْكُمْ Then
there is no blame on you This should
not be binding on them This should be
a provision for them This is not incarceration
It is a facilitation فِي مَا فَعَلْنَا فِي
أَنفُسِهِنَّ مِمَّا عَرُوفٌ What they choose to do
for themselves In an acceptable manner وَاللَّهُ عَزِيزٌ
حَكِيمٌ Allah is mighty and wise وَلِلْمُطَلَّقَاتِ مَتَاعٌ
بِالْمَعْرُوفِ And for divorced women is a provision
According to what is acceptable حَقًّا عَلَى الْمُتَّقِينِ
As an obligation upon the people of taqwa
كَذَلِكَ يُبَيِّنُوا اللَّهُ لَكُمْ آيَاتِهِ لَعَلَّكُمْ تَعْقِلُونَ That
is how Allah makes his ayaat clear to
you So that you use your reason Moving
right along with the next passage Now what
we've seen so far in Surah Baqarah After
the conclusion of the first half And we
spoke about the first half The four ruku
introductory Some very important principles A summary of
the Makkan Qur'an All of that right
And then we spoke about the address to
the Bani Israel And the significance of that
And then those transitionary passages The next four
passages With the transition of the Qibla taking
place as well And then the يَا أَيُّهَا
الَّذِينَ آمَنُوا Address starting Since the يَا أَيُّهَا
الَّذِينَ آمَنُوا Address has started Now that the
attention turns from the Bani Israel To the
current believing community Obviously the current believing community
Also was implied Or lessons were definitely there
for them In the يَا بَنِي إِسْرَائِيل Address
as well We spoke about that Them being
a mirror of pathological religiosity What can go
wrong in the religious endeavors Or the pursuit
of the religious ideals in a society How
they can go very wrong Right so that
was definitely for us As custodians of يَا
أَيُّهَا الَّذِينَ آمَنُوا Or addressees of that address
But since that second half began With the
change of the Qibla With you know استعينوا
بالصبر والصلاة All of that We've seen different
subjects The organization of the ayaat and the
passages Is not necessarily linear In that one
subject of the إحكام Or the rituals Fasting
and Hajj Is covered And then you talk
about community affairs Social affairs Marital affairs Economic
affairs And then you move on And you
talk about faith And ايمانيات And all of
that That's not how it is What we
see instead Is that these strands are intertwined
They're not in a chain Like with one
Then the second Then the third Then the
fourth They're the way the links in a
chain would be Rather the arrangement is more
concentric They're more like strands wound in a
rope Right And they're wound around And so
there will be a back and forth You're
talking about one You go to the other
Relating that one with the other But then
carry on with that conversation You go back
to the first theme And then you go
to a third one And then you jump
to the second one And then there's a
fourth And then there's intertwining of One, two,
three, four Four, three, two, one Two, three,
four, one All of this taking place And
that's the distinction And the strength in a
rope In a rope-like arrangement As compared
to a chain Or the links in a
chain-like arrangement That's obvious as well So
for now we had a discussion With respect
to the social affairs Marriage, divorce All of
that And now we're going to the other
strand Within these passages Which addresses The infaq
fi sabiha Allah Spending in the way of
Allah And the struggle in the way of
Allah Which is a consistent theme In the
second half of Surah Baqarah Again going back
to the community in Medina All of these
things are taking place simultaneously A community is
not a place Where when there's one thing
going on The other doesn't exist at all
So you have fasting and hajj Being spoken
of And fasting is taking place And the
institution of fasting is being ordained It's starting
Ramadan is being celebrated It's not happening in
a vacuum That's a society still that has
marital disputes Divorces are taking place Marriages are
taking place All of that is happening There's
taboos There's stigmas There's all of that stuff
that needs to be addressed So it's all
the way in a living society All these
things will take place side by side And
as we see in life as well If
we have one huge issue It's not going
to take place It's not going to be
such that Life comes to a standstill Other
than that issue And life says deal with
that issue Then the rest of your stuff
will go on No, life goes on All
of it side by side One of the
greatest challenges Of managing challenges Is that you
have to do it with all of the
motion With all of the other stuff going
on Simultaneously at the same time Moving right
along So haven't you considered
those people Who left their homes in thousands
Out of the fear of death So this
incident took place After Yusha has conquered Jerusalem
12 tribes have been established But they have
12 distinct leaderships And there's a lot of
conflicts going on Between those tribes And there's
always some sort of a foreign power Outside
of the Bani Israel Some other entity Some
ruler, some military commander Someone or the other
who's always invading Looking to conquer them And
then the tribes are not exactly united against
them either So from that time Another example
is being brought out A group of people
who go Who leave their homes And Allah
said to them die Allah put them to
death And again there's a varied interpretation Is
this a spiritual death Is it a physical
actual death Either way makes sense ثُمَّ أَحْيَاهُمْ
Then he revived them Then he brought them
back to life إِنَّ اللَّهَ لَذُو فَضْلٍ عَلَى
النَّاسِ For sure Allah is ever bountiful Gracious
to people وَلَكِنَّ أَكْثَرَ النَّاسِ لَا يَشْكُرُونَ But
most people are not grateful So if this
was a physical death Or a state of
death from which they were revived Or it
was they became spiritually bankrupt And then there
was a revivification that took place وَقَاتِلُوا فِي
سَبِيلِ اللَّهِ And fight in the cause of
Allah وَعْلَمُوا And remember أَنَّ اللَّهَ سَمِيعٌ عَلِيمٌ
That Allah is hearing, knowing So what would
lead people to not take a stand when
they have to And in this particular case
A stand in the form of a battle
altogether Would be the fear of death The
ultimate loss The fear of losing this or
that Is what leads people to be extra
cautious To the point of being obsessively cautious
To the point of being excessively anxious And
it makes sense But it is to overcome
that fear Not by getting rid of it
emotionally But by doing what you have to
despite its presence emotionally That is what would
count as bravery That's what is being advocated
Right, so وَقَاتِلُوا فِي سَبِيلِ اللَّهِ Advance and
fight in the cause of Allah Death is
your fear An example or repeated examples that
the Qur'an gives This particular specific one
There was a people who were given that
death and revived Death, life, this is a
process This is a process In Allah's grand
structure, death is life-giving Loss can be
fruitful Right, this is what Tawheed looks to
engender Sacrifices are not lost It is only
against one linear standard That you look at
them and like Oh my God, it's gone,
it's over Now what?
Yeah, that's because Who told you that reality
is only along that one linear standard Of
presence and absence That the material presence and
material absence There is so much more to
it than that Right, and to be able
to see that To be able to see
And you will see that biologically as well
That it looks like something is dead And
it's gone But you dig deeper and you
realize that That death was actually what gave
the earth more life to produce Another generation
And this takes place on a psychological plane
This takes place on a spiritual plane This
takes place on a social plane All the
time So much of the life that we
have spiritually Is on account of sacrifices of
our forefathers Some of our own sacrifices اَنَّ
اللَّهَ سَمِعٌ عَلِيمٌ Know that Allah is hearing
and knowing مَن ذَا الَّذِي يُقْرِضَ اللَّهَ قَرْضًا
حَسَنًا So who is the one who's going
to give Allah a beautiful loan?
So there is a construction Or a work
Or a creation That Allah is actively engaged
in And he is inviting people To collaborate
in that project of his In terms of
putting in the work And in terms of
putting in the finances as well This is
Allah's open invitation to Partake with him Collaborate
with him In the creation of something beautiful
And for that a beautiful loan is asked
for فَيُضَعِفَهُ لَهُ أَضْعَافًا كَثِيرًا Allah is going
to increase it manifold He'll give it back
Multiply it وَاللَّهُ يَقْرِضُ وَيَبْصُدُ Allah is the
one who decreases and increases to begin with
It is from him that you're getting it
And he's not even asking for all of
it He's saying just a little bit of
it A portion of it وَإِلَيْهِ تُرْجَعُونَ And
your ultimate return is to him أَلَمْ تَرَأْ
إِلَى الْمَلَئِ مِن بَنِي إِسْرَائِيلَ مِن بَعْدِ مُوسَى
Haven't you seen the leaders of Bani Israel
after Musa?
إِذْ قَالُوا لِنَبِي جِلَّهُمْ لَهُمُ ابْعَثْ لَنَا مَلِكًا
When they said to one of their prophets
Send us a king We need a leader
نُقَاتِلْ فِي سَبِيلِ اللَّهِ We will fight in
the cause of Allah How many times have
we seen that?
That a group of passionate people Zealous patriots
Even jingoists Very They want to do something
for the society For humanity For their country
We need a leader We need one good
leader And that's it We'll rally around behind
that leader And all good will emanate therefrom
All problems are going to be solved We
got the zeal We got the passion We're
going to work We just need to be
organized around a leader قَالَ هَلْ عَسَيْتُمْ إِنْ
كُتِبَ عَلَيْكُمُ الْقِتَالُ أَلَّا تُقَاتِلُ So the prophet
responded to them Is that possible?
That when that situation arises And you do
have what you're asking for You get a
leader You get a king And you are
asked to fight That you refuse قَالُوا وَمَا
لَنَا لَا نُقَاتِلَ فِي سَبِيلِ لَتَسَرُّ Why would
we not fight in the way of Allah?
Again that belligerent certainty So sure of itself
Leaving no room No gap For Maybe we
won't What if we won't?
And then the precautions that would then be
taken So as to guard against that That's
not there either So this belligerent certainty becomes
an ideal This is what we are supposed
to have We will definitely do it وَقَدْ
أُخْرِجْنَا مِنْ ذِيَارِنَا وَأَبْنَائِنَا And they're justifying Why
would we not fight?
Do you know what we've been through?
We've been driven away from our home and
our children فَلَمَّا كُتِبَ عَلَيْهِمُ الْقِتَالَ And when
they were commanded to fight تَوَلَّوْا إِلَّا قَلِيلًا
مِّنْهُمْ Most of them turned away Except a
few As confident as they were As sure
as they were As certain as they were
That they would definitely do it They turned
back So big talk Of a time in
the future where they will When it comes
down to it When the Mahdi comes With
the attitude that you currently have In which
you're not willing to Clean up the mess
within your own personal lives And your immediate
vicinities When the Mahdi comes This specific attitude
Of evading responsibility In your immediate vicinity In
what is immediately in front of you Is
going to lead for you to become His
fiercest opponents When the Mahdi comes وَاللَّهُ عَلِيمٌ
بِالظَّالِمِينَ And Allah knows such wrongdoers وَقَالَ لَهُمْ
نَبِيجُهُمْ And their prophet said to them إِنَّ
اللَّهَ قَدْ بَعَثَ لَكُمْ طَالُوتَ مَلِكًا Allah has
appointed Talut as your king قَالُوا أَنَّ يَكُونُ
لَهُ الْمُلْكُ عَلَيْنَا So first up How can
he be a ruler over us?
وَنَحْنُ أَحَقُّ بِالْمُلْكِ مِنْ When we are more
worthy of kingship than him So first problem
is Why is it him?
Why is it not us?
First the clear-cut declaration was We want
to regain what we've lost In terms of
the territory that was ours And what we
could do with that territory With all the
great stuff that we were required to do
To begin with And has been unjustly taken
away from us We want it back And
now it's all about Okay, who's gonna be
the leader?
Who's gonna be He's gonna be the leader
There's other people among us Much more deserving
of that leadership Again, contrast with the position
in Medina at that time Rasulullah ﷺ is
in that position of leadership But it's not
without any resentment There are people within the
ranks at that time Particularly as we know
in retrospect Abdullah bin Ubayy and his cronies
Who do not look fondly upon Rasulullah ﷺ
As far as they're concerned Rasulullah ﷺ has
displaced them Abdullah bin Ubayy was practically being
crowned Prior to the coming of Rasulullah ﷺ
He had that political leadership That has just
been taken away from him With the coming
of Rasulullah ﷺ And there was a spiritual
leadership In that community as well I'm forgetting
the name When we come to Surah Tawbah
My notes will have the name I will
talk about it at that point And there
was an incredible resentment In that person's heart
as well And most of what went around
In terms of chaos In terms of fasad
I think it was Abu Rahib Something to
that effect In any case Those two individuals
They were the leaders in this hypocrisy That
would create a lot of problems For the
people of Medina So there this sentiment He
doesn't deserve it I deserve it I should
have it Why does he have it?
Why is he doing what he's doing?
And everyone sees what he's doing I'm not
being seen I can do better than him
And how many of our efforts Small or
big How many of them Are marred and
tarnished Because of a refusal To acknowledge this
jealousy Which to a great extent Is natural
Is going to happen If you haven't confronted
it You're not aware of it But nevertheless
containable But the more you deny it The
less you look to contain it The more
it overrides you And you think it's completely
justified He's not been given a lot of
wealth either The Prophet responded Allah has chosen
him over you He's blessed him with knowledge
So he knows And power, strength, the stature
These are the two prerequisites That is required
for the particular thing That he's supposed to
lead you through Not what you have If
anything all of that has probably made you
lazy And Allah gives power to whoever he
wills And Allah is all embracing knowing And
their Prophet told them The sign of his
kingship is وَيَأْتِيَكُمُ الْطَعْبُودُ That there will come
to you the chest The Ta'bud فِيهِ
سَكِينَةٌ مِّن رَّبِّكُمْ Which contains a source of
contentment From your Rabb وَبَقِيَةٌ مِّمَّا تَرَكَ آلُ
مُوسَى وَآلُ هَارُونِ And remains of what the
family of Musa And family of Harun Left
behind Right so As the ayah suggests This
inheritance of Musa alayhi salam Their relics if
you will Were lost The Bani Israel did
not have them anymore And this particular king
Was able to recover them One way or
the other تَحْمِلُهُ الْمَلَائِكَةِ It would be carried
by angels Right so this achievement Or this
grant for him Is a sign for the
people of his kingship إِنَّ فِي ذَلِكَ لَآيَةً
لَكُمْ This is for sure a sign for
you In that إِن كُنتُم مُؤْمِنِينَ If you
really are believers فَلَمَا فَصَلَ تَالُوتُ بِالْجُنُودِ And
when Talut marched forth with the army قَالَ
He said إِنَّ اللَّهَ مُبْتَلِيكُمْ بِنَهَرٍ Allah is
going to test you at a river See
when you imagine When you fantasize About the
future And the great things that you're going
to achieve You usually fantasize The big ones
The you know The grand manifestations of your
achievement The big results that you're going to
get The big positions you're going to have
The big speeches you're going to give The
big victories that you're going to enjoy The
great All of the great, great, big, big
In terms of magnitude In terms of how
many people are witnessing All of that In
terms of the numbers Everything is big, big,
great, great What is usually forgotten Ignored altogether
Is the path that may lead to that
Is filled with mundane stuff Routine stuff Deskwork
Drudgery Right I'm you know This the normal
Everyday stuff To be able to regard the
routine mundane activities As great As incredible As
awesome And to give them that diligence and
meticulous attention That you would to that grand
opportunity Is what greatness is made of To
be able to give that achievement on a
daily basis To mundane matters of routine Apparently
boring stuff A lot of it in isolation
Most of it in obscurity Without anyone knowing
what it is that you're up to To
take that seriously Is what will then result
in the achievements For whenever they have to
come So here too we see an example
You know you would look at The failure
manifesting itself on In the battlefield Refusal to
fight Or you know Cowardice over there But
here it's a drink They're tired They're worn
out And it's a river They require not
to drink from it Simple command Simple routine
order that they have to follow And Allah
is going to test you at a river
Whoever drinks from it He has nothing to
do with me But who does not drink
from it He is of me From me
Except someone who takes a sip of it
You know Fistful That's okay That's not gonna
be that rigid there They all drank from
it except a very few They drank to
their fill So when Taulut and his believing
companions crossed the river They said we don't
have any power Over Jalut That big giant
of a man And his army today Those
who were certain about their meeting with Allah
That they were going to meet with Allah
كَمْ مِنْ فِئَةٍ قَلِيلَةٍ غَلَبَتْ فِئَةً كَثِيرَةً How
many a small group have overcome a large
number بإذن الله With the permission of Allah
Those who look forward to that meeting with
Allah That reunion with Allah And the إِنَّ
لِلَّهِ وَإِنَّ إِلَيْهِ رَاجِعُونَ Attitude They look at
it as an opportunity See we're worthy of
Allah We're going to return to Allah So
it is precisely these encounters Against the odds
or against all odds That we should be
looking to prove ourselves in That our worthiness
of Allah Will come in front of us
وَاللَّهُ مَعَ الصَّابِرِينَ Allah is with the people
who do sabr Again where is the sabr
being mentioned here In just saying nothing in
the face of oppression No we're in the
midst of the battlefield This is as proactive
as sabr gets وَلَمَّا بَرَزُوا لِجَالُوتَ وَجُنُودِ And
when they advanced to fight Jalut and his
forces قَالُوا They said رَبَّنَا أَفْرِغْ عَلَيْنَا صَبْرًا
Our Rabb pour onto us perseverance Again that
belligerent certainty That we will definitely do it
Does not even leave room for this This
plea this invocation This invocation Comes from a
place of a very beautiful suspicion and doubt
About your own self About your own capacity
So there's confidence that is manifest This conviction
that is manifested That we see in the
previous ayah When they're like How many times
has a small group of people overcome A
large group of people with the izan of
Allah And it is their reuniting with Allah
The mulaqullah That is giving them this motivation
They say that to hold themselves strong To
continue going But then in their dua You
see that the other part The self-doubt
The suspicion of their own commitment Capacity, ability
That also creeps in That also slips through
the cracks Not only slips through the cracks
It is addressed maturely In front of Allah
Where it should be addressed رَبَّنَا أَفْرِغْ عَلَيْنَا
صَبْرًا Our Rabb pour perseverance onto us We
need every ounce of sabr we can possibly
get وَثَبِّتْ أَقْدَامَنَا Hold our feet firm Make
sure we stand steadfast وَانْصُرْنَا عَلَى الْقَوْمِ الْكَافِرِينَ
And help us against the disbelievers فَهَزَمُوهُمْ بِإِذْنِ
اللَّهِ And so they defeated them With the
permission of Allah وَقَتَلَ دَاعُودُ جَالُوتًا And David
killed Goliath دَاعُودُ عَلَيْهِ السَّلَامُ Killed Jalut وَآتَاهُ
اللَّهُ الْمُلْكَ وَالْحِكْمَةِ Allah granted him kingdom and
wisdom وَعَلَّمَهُ مِمَّا يَشْهَى And taught him from
whatever he willed وَلَوْ لَا دَفْعُ اللَّهِ النَّاسَ
بَعْضَهُمْ بِبَعْضٍ And had Allah not restrained people
by means of others Checked one group by
means of another لَفَسَدَتِ الْأَرْضِ There would have
been chaos on earth It has to have
come when there is aggression on the part
of one group That aggression has to be
checked, contained by another Otherwise it would have
been complete chaos It could have been complete
chaos وَلَكِنَّ اللَّهَ ذُو فَضْلٍ عَلَى الْعَالَمِينَ And
Allah is always gracious to the people تِلْكَ
آيَاتُ اللَّهِ These are the ayaat of Allah
Now what kind of ayaat are these?
These are ayaat of history These are historical
lessons These are historical ayaat telling us about
Allah About the sunan of Allah About how,
about the habits of Allah About the ways
of Allah نَتْلُوهَا عَلَيْكَ بِالْحَقِّ Which we recite
to you with truth وَإِنَّكَ لَمِنَ الْمُرْسَلِينَ And
without a doubt you are one of the
messengers تِلْكَ الرُّسُلُ فَضْلْنَا بَعْضَهُمْ عَلَى بَعْضٍ These
are the messengers We've exalted some over the
others مِنْهُمْ مَنْ كَلَّمَ اللَّهِ There is one
from them who Allah spoke to موسى عليه
السلام وَرَفَعَ بَعْضَهُمْ ذَرَجَاتٍ And he raised some
of them in ranks وَآتَيْنَا عِيسَى ابْنَ مَرْيَمَ
الْبَيْجِنَاتِ And we gave clear ayaat, clear signs
to Isa, the son of Maryam وَأَيَّدْنَاهُ بِرُوحِ
الْقُدُسِ And we aided him with the Holy
Spirit وَلَوْ شَاءَ اللَّهُ مَقْتَتَ لَلَّذِينَ مِنْ بَعْضِهِمْ
If Allah wanted, people after him would not
have fought with each other مِنْ بَعْدِ مَا
جَأَتْهُمُ الْبَيْجِنَاتِ Especially after clear signs had come
to them وَلَكِنْ اِخْتَلَفُوا But they did differ,
but they did اختلاف with each other فَمِنْهُمْ
مَنْ آمَنُ So some of them came to
believe وَمِنْهُمْ مَنْ كَفَرُ And others disbelieved It
is through this اختلاف that the worthiness of
individuals in their choices to believe or not
come forth وَلَوْ شَاءَ اللَّهُ مَقْتَتَ لُوْ If
Allah wanted, they would not have fought against
one another وَلَكِنَّ اللَّهَ يَفْعَلُ مَا يُرِيدُ But
Allah does what He wants In taking away
the freedom of اختلاف The freedom of choice
is basically a freedom of اختلاف Some will
choose to say يَي Others will choose to
say نَي Right, so the doors to اختلاف,
the doors to fighting have been opened If
Allah wants, He takes that away Taking human
freedom away And instilling a divine decree, a
fixed divine decree That cannot be moved Hither
or thither Allah equates that with His own
freedom being taken away وَلَكِنَّ اللَّهَ يَفْعَلُ مَا
يُرِيدُ Allah does what He wants You take
human freedom away You indirectly take Allah's freedom
away as well He's then just done that
and that's it No movement here or there
A free choice of human beings Means there
will be a free response from Allah as
well To their ايمان and to their كفر
As He deems fit يَا أَيُّهَا الَّذِينَ آمَنُوا
أَنْفِقُوا مِمَّا رَزَقْنَاكُمْ Okay, I don't want to
start with the next رُكُو Especially since it
contains آية الكرسي right now and we have
five minutes left So let's close with this
and we begin with the 34th رُكُو, ayah
number 254 Tomorrow InshaAllah وآخر دعوانا أن الحمد
لله رب العالمين