Yousuf Raza – Ramadan Nights 2021 Day 6
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The speakers discuss the importance of recognizing and forbearing in community interactions, forbearing, and forgiveness. They also discuss their language translation plans and the use of word recordings. They mention their experience with a divorce and how it can lead to conflict. They also discuss their language translation plans and how they are. They ask for further clarification on their questions and encourage others to ask questions.
AI: Summary ©
مَنْ يَهْدِهِ اللَّهُ فَلَا مُضِلِّ لَهُ وَمَنْ يُضْلِلْهُ
فَلَا هَدِيَ لَهُ وَنَشْهَدُ وَلَّا إِلَٰهَ إِلَّا اللَّهُ
وَحْدَهُ لَا شِرِيكَ لَهُ وَنَشْهَدُ أَنَّ مُحَمَّدًا عَبْدُهُ
وَرَسُولُهُ أَمَّا بَعَدْ فَإِنَّ خَيْرِ الْحَدِيثِ كِثَابُ اللَّهِ
وَخَيْرِ الْهَدِيَ هَدِيُ مُحَمَّدٍ صَلَّى اللَّهُ عَلَيْهِ وَسَلَّمُ
وَشَرَّ الْأُمُورِ مُحْتَثَتُهَا وَكُلَّ مُحْتَثَةٍ بِدْعَةٍ وَكُلَّ بِدْعَةٍ
ضَلَالَهُ وَكُلَّ ضَلَالَةٍ فِي الْنَّارِ رَبِّ اشْرَهْ لِسَدْرِي
وَيَسِرْ لِأَمْرِي وَخْلُ لُقْطَةً مِنْ لِسَانِ يَفْقُّهُ قَوْلِهِ
اللَّهُمَّ انْفَعْنَا بِمَا عَلَّمْتَنَا وَعَلِّمْنَا مَا يَنْفَعُنَا وَزِدْنَا
عِلْمًا اللَّهُمَّ رَبَّنَا زِدْنَا عِلْمًا اللَّهُمَّ أَرِنَا حَقِقَةَ
الْأَشْيَاءِ كَمَا هِي اللَّهُمَّ أَرِنَا الحَقَّ حَقَّ وَارْزُقْنَا
اتِّبَاعًا وَأَرِنَا البَاطِلَ بَاطِلًا وَارْزُقْنَا اجْتِنَابًا آمِن يا
رب العالمين السلام عليكم ورحمة الله وبركاته I
hope everybody is well I believe this is
our sixth session today if I'm not mistaken,
sixth day session number one and we will
look to conclude Surah Al-Baqarah today, hopefully
we are in the third juz we are
starting the 34th ruku today and
we're going to be starting with we're going
to be starting with the passage which talks
about Ayatul Kursi right?
so we have spoken about most of the
second half of Surah Al-Baqarah now as
well I'm not going to go over the
distribution I will talk about the distribution of
the second half the address to يَا أَيُّهَا
الَّذِينَ آمَنُوا after the change of Qibla has
taken place the change of address takes place
and with that change of address all that
is necessary for a people of scripture to
know so as to really fulfill the role
of that scripture and develop that genuine community
is taken up with respect to aspects of
rituals meaningful rituals being highlighted with respect to
aspects of social dealings being highlighted with respect
to aspects of community service, community building in
the way or in the form of a
social cause are also highlighted right?
so these three dimensions that we spoke about
when we spoke about Ayatul Bir that of
faith, Iman right?
that of a social endeavor, a social effort
a meaningful cause that you've taken up within
the society and the third being meaningful rituals
themselves right?
so with these three you find that the
second half of Surah Al-Baqarah alternates with
each of them right?
and then of course there is a very
important fourth dimension in which your social dealings
are highlighted as well in speaking about divorce
and related issues and very importantly as will
be the subject today for the most part
of the passages today dealing with economic issues
and we spoke about the analogy of a
rope as to how the strands of a
rope are wound together you see these subjects
or these themes in the second half intertwined
with each other now over here in the
34th Ruku just before Ayatul Kursi the Ayah
speaks about spending in the way of Allah
again that social cause that you speak about
or that's important the community building that dimension
of community building empowering the people of society
who are vulnerable that finds two ways one
way of empowering people that are vulnerable is
to give to them right?
you spend to empower them to help them
get out of whatever tight spots they may
be in fair enough?
but then another way of empowering them is
to ensure that the community or the society
that they're living in the general principles of
justice in that community are such that they're
not exploitative that they're not abusive and that
requires that struggle and that struggle which at
that particular time in Rasulullah Sallallahu Alaihi Wasallam
struggle with the form of fighting in the
way of Allah so this passage begins with
an exhortation to spend in the way of
Allah and spending in the way of Allah
is in both of these ways with respect
to directly to the people who are in
need and then of course to the cause
itself so that eventually the cause if it
leads to the believers prevailing or if it
leads to the truth prevailing justice would ensue
and the exploitation and abusiveness would be curtailed
Bismillah Ar-Rahman Ar-Raheem A'udhu Billahi
Minash Shaitanir Rajeem Bismillah Ar-Rahman Ar-Raheem
so you who have believed spend from what
we have provided you before there comes a
day where there will be no exchange there
will be no friendship nor any intercession والكافرون
هم الظالمون and it is the disbelievers who
are the zalim who are unjust it is
this zulm that they're doing in the society
it is the zulm that they're doing with
themselves by not recognizing that it is this
effort that has to be put in which
is going to be a means of salvation
on the day of judgment why would you
not spend?
why would you not give?
why would you not look to do more
and more?
is if you have some wishful conceptions of
the day of judgment that there will be
some way for you to barter your way
out or some way for you that your
friendships or kinships or mentorships or whatever ships
will bail you out or some sort of
intercession will take place especially for you and
ultimately you will be in paradise Allah Subhanahu
Wa Ta'ala reasserts that stop singing yourself
those lullabies your efforts how about banking on
those?
your spending how about increasing yourself in there
rather than reinforcing the wishful beliefs and the
question arises and the question has arisen earlier
as well within the surah why do you
do that?
why do you put yourself through this?
why should you spend?
why should you struggle?
why should you have to bear through suffering?
so much loss the khawb the naqsim min
al-amwali wal-anfusi wal-thamarat why bear
through all of that?
so yes people should be empowered people should
be there should be justice they should not
be exploited but the effort that it takes
and the pain that goes into all of
this why should one subject themselves to this
to begin with?
why not let it be?
it is the way it is right?
this is the way of the world people
are always subjected to injustices why not ensure
that I am not exploited I am not
abused and I worry about that and really
that in itself is a lifetime's effort to
ensure that I don't get exploited and my
interests are secure and for the most part
that is the way of life for most
of humanity that you invest your time your
energies your talents so as to secure your
self-interest so as to ensure that you're
not vulnerable now to invest that or some
portion of that time so that others are
not vulnerable so that others' interests are secure
at the highest level why would you want
to do that?
I mean why would you want to take
up that pain on yourself knowing that it's
going to be incredibly painful knowing that the
struggle is not easy at all knowing that
all kinds of hardships are going to be
thrust your way knowing that the doors that
you open up on that path of your
own inner evil coming out are so many
and that within your comfort zone and just
fending for yourself is so risk-free or
at least the risk there is very minimal
why not just do that?
so there's a two-part answer to this
question the first part of the answer is
that because Allah deserves it because Allah is
Ilah the only Ilah Allahu la ilaha illa
Hu Allah, there is no Ilah other than
Him so that's the first part of the
answer right there why go through all of
that?
for Him but then saying that He is
Ilah and not having much of an idea
as to what Ilah means it doesn't really
leave us anywhere what does it mean that
He is Ilah?
and we grow up with this understanding la
ilaha illa Allah this is our baptism this
is our initiation within Islam la ilaha illa
Allah ashhadu an la ilaha illa Allah the
first phrase ashhadu anna Muhammadur Rasulullah but before
that la ilaha illa Allah and that's the
earliest memory we have of our initiation within
Islam this was supposed to be that passport
to paradise and we've been saying it for
so long and then we translate it into
our own respective languages whatever we feel best
no one worthy of worship other than Him
what does it mean to us?
what does Ilah signify for me?
is my understanding of Ilah significant enough or
sufficient enough or personal enough to pull me
through all the difficulties along that path that
I say to myself yes, the pain is
worth it yes, it is worth the sacrifice
yes, it is worth spending or risking a
good chunk of my life for some people
the entirety of their lives and pretty much
risking everything or a whole lot of things
and may not even have a lot to
show for it towards the end of it
quite possible what's the answer to what Ilah
means to you should be such that when
you ask yourself these questions it is sufficient
of a response to the why to the
why do this at all and so as
we grow older and as we delve deeper
into what Ilah means or can mean there's
at least three different dimensions in which this
meaning comes in and I believe I picked
this up I learned this from Dr. Israel
Ahmed I believe he picked it up from
Maulana Maududi of course where he picked it
up I don't know but I'm sure it
was the way our traditional tafasir speak about
Ilah and he would talk about it in
three ways that one understanding or one connotation
of Ilah is the one who is intensely
loved and you would use the phrase which
is a phrase in Urdu to mean passionate
love the second category that he would speak
about is one who is who everyone turns
to and relies upon right and then he
would give a usage of that word in
Arabic something to do with the dependency of
a goat child on the the mother goat
something to that effect I don't remember that
but how everyone turns to him is dependent
upon him relies upon him and then the
third meaning or the third area that he
would speak about is he would say that
the first one is the description of Ilah
that you find with the mystics or the
Sufiya the second meaning is what you would
find for as the common understanding for the
general public for everyone to relate with and
the third would be what he would call
the understanding of the philosophers and the understanding
of the philosophers was that Ilah is the
one who baffles the mind who you can't
really encompass in your understanding so these three
connotations or implications we take them further we
speak about Ilah being the one who is
worthy of love the most worthy of love
and we bring to our mind all the
attributes of Allah's beauty we bring to mind
all the attributes that depict his Jamal that
depict his grace that depict his love and
when you put all those attributes together in
your conception of Ilah and you do come
to something of a gnosis, a recognition of
his beauty then his beauty is such should
be such that it motivates you it compels
you it is reason enough for you to
push against everything else that my loving him
is a reciprocation of his love for me
for his grace for me my loving him
is because of how beautiful he is and
he really is he is worthy of all
of these efforts of all of this sacrifice
of all of this struggle of all of
the pain and pain in a physical sense
a psychological sense and a spiritual sense is
worth all that pain a conception of the
beauty of Allah that looks at the Ayat
of Allah in the Qur'an before the
Qur'an, outside of the Qur'an and
reflects upon them in prayer as in Salah
the ritual prayer itself or simply the attitude
of prayer and the attitude of prayer as
a what Allama Iqbal would call the mystic
observer of nature reflecting upon the beauty of
Allah and I am able to pick up
from that reflection, from that act of prayer
over all of those Ayat that you know
what he is the one and that my
love for him because understand the one you
love the one you choose to love is
going to be the source of your growth
wherever whoever is your greatest beloved is
you giving yourself the greatest chance to rise
up to your best and highest potential what
does it mean to love someone what it
means to love someone is that you appreciate
them for their uniqueness it takes on a
whole new meaning when you talk about the
uniqueness of Allah because in recognizing him and
his uniqueness you recognize his individuality, yes but
then his individuality manifested with his attributes within
creation itself and incorporates everything and then who
he can be and who he can be
with respect to a further expression of his
divine potential and is there something of a
possibility that has been left for me to
bring out that divine potential to express that
divine potential to increase him in his perfection
Allahu Akbar Allah is greater but Tabbirullah to
exalt the greatness of Allah even more and
when you commit yourself to this kind of
a love then what this kind of love
is doing for you is that now you
have transcended your own self and the other
the uniqueness of the other and the goals
of the other have become yours the other
has become yours now you're extending beyond the
confinements of your own unique self your own
individuality your own limitations to expand yourself and
that has this polarity that has developed that
has been identified for who I am right
now and where I want to be in
loving this person this polarity, this distance, this
journey and what I'm going to be when
I get there or close to there in
really having loved the other is where my
growth is going to be so the greater
the polarity the greater the other the greater
the scope that I have or the possibility
that I have for my growth and so
like I've said before the one who loves
Allah the most becomes rahmatan lil alameen his
personal growth is such that he is he
has developed within himself the capacity to be
a mercy for all worlds for all people,
for all creatures everywhere, across time he has
the capacity to genuinely cry for people he
has never met for you and me that
capacity that comes in from being able to
embody divine love or love for the divine
within you such that his alameen you now
have a very intimate relationship with and where
he wants to take this alameen you are
now a collaborator in that process you are
now a co-worker in that process and
in becoming a co-worker in that process
you're necessarily transcending yourself going beyond yourself elevating
yourself to have an ilah other than Allah
is to limit that potential for growth for
stopping short along the way at anything within
the alameen and not extending to the rabbul
alameen would mean necessarily that you're excluding so
much of the alameen and then so much
of your own potential by limiting yourself thus
and so this has carried the person further
away from self-interest from self-love whilst
maintaining it at the same time that when
you extend yourself to the love of Allah
you realize that him being the rabbul alameen
he's also your Rabb and both the love
for his alameen and of course love for
him do not necessitate do not mandate in
any way self-nihilation that loving yourself becomes
an important prerequisite absolutely only loving yourself becomes
something that you have to purge yourself from
and grow out of being able to do
that is living up to your potential as
a lover so who that beloved should be
the ultimate beloved that is one meaning of
ilah ilah as the most trustworthy as the
most reliable as the one that everyone turns
to for their du'as again when we
spoke about wal ladheena aamanu ashaddu hubbal lillah
for the most part that conversation was about
this dimension of the uluhiyah of Allah or
our submission or our dedication and commitment towards
him as ilah is when we're recognizing his
power so all the attributes of Allah's power
they come together all the attributes of his
jalal they come together and in coming to
recognize that he is the most powerful who
can really sustain the weight of my being
of my personality of my needs more than
anybody else can and therefore turning to him
therefore committing to him therefore relying upon him
so if in recognizing him as the one
most worthy of my love and in recognizing
all his attributes of jamal of his beauty
I commit myself to his ibadah in recognizing
him as the most worthy in terms of
being most powerful in recognizing his attributes of
jalal I am committing myself to tawakkul upon
him alone so where there was an iyyaka
na'bud in the first part there is
an iyyaka nista'een in the second understanding
the third with due respect I feel that
just to connote or understand the divine or
Allah as the one who baffles and the
one you cannot understand is grossly inadequate within
a philosophical conception of God because then the
un-understandable eventually becomes the un-relatable and
if he is un-relatable then that's just
impractical then how is it that my daily
life my my commitments, struggles, sacrifice find a
motivation in him being Allah when he is
so incomprehensible so distant, so un-relatable the
greatness of Allah's uluhiyah within that within that
scope or within that dimension of understanding that
intellectual dimension is precisely how from his being
the most worthy of love from him being
the most worthy of trust ibadah and tawakkul
respectively he is the ultimate source of meaning
as transcendent as he is the more we
get to know him the more we know
how much more there is to know despite
all of that what we know is substantial
and everything we do know whatever truths we
have discovered encountered even created
as active inquirers or an active community of
inquirers if we put Allah at the center
of those truths they make the most sense
they make reality the most understandable they make
my life the most understandable if it is
put in perspective with him as Allah as
ilah he is the ultimate source of meaning
so as baffling as he may be as
batin as he may be he is the
most zahir at the same time and all
his attributes of truth his attributes of justice
him being al haqq makes everything meaningful
make everything sensible make everything intelligible if finally
the answer of it makes sense to struggle
to suffer in the ways that are necessitated
so when i say allahu la ilaha illa
hu i have something some understanding
of who he is in at least the
three different ways so that i am more
i have that itminan even if i still
have that distress at all of what's required
and all of what is different al hayyu
al qayyum the ever living the sustainer now
the hayat of Allah has that manifestation of
that power that we spoke about again the
expression of his attributes of jalal that make
him the most trustworthy that make him the
one to whom we turn to or
the one that we rely upon him being
al qayyum the one who sustains everything who's
keeping everything qaym everything is qaym because he
is qayyum right so for if i'm looking
for my own qayam then i will turn
to pretty much everything and everything to keep
me qaym and recognizing that they're at some
level or the other they prove themselves inadequate
to keep me qaym that it is al
qayyum who will who was in fact even
through all of the other things that were
keeping me qaym he was the one behind
all of that it was him being al
qayyum that was manifested through all of those
experiences and so relying upon him la ta
'khuzuhu sinatun wala naum the expression of his
hayat of him being al qayyum in that
how he is completely above any need for
sleep or drowsiness whatsoever that any other hayat
or any other life that i bank on
that i rely on that i trust to
give me life ultimately drowsiness, sleep and even
death would overtake them or the other manifestations
of inadequacy no matter who they are and
so they will not be able to hold
me up i'm literally relying, leaning against somebody
to sustain me, to hold me to keep
me from falling and they fall asleep on
the job am i not going to fall?
am i not going to break?
and then who's going to put Humpty Dumpty
back together again?
lahoo maa fi samawati wa maa fil ard
to him belongs all that is in the
heavens and all that is on earth again,
manifestations of his of his jalal of his
jamal as well how the conversation within the
ayah proceeds from his jalal, still talking about
his jalal but now starting to talk about
his jamal as well as it is obvious
or as is seen within the samawat and
ard as is seen through what is in
samawat and ard so the one you turn
to, the ilah the one you're banking on
and loving for your own growth you see
the ever-expanding and the ever-growing universe,
the samawat and ard as a manifestation of
what he's capable of of how beautiful you
can turn out given that you go through
this process that you commit to him manzal
ladhi yashfa'u indahu illa bi-idhni it
follows from this greatness it follows from this
power it follows from this incredible beauty that
he would be so transcendent he would be
so distant he would be so removed from
everything that goes around in this world that
why would he even care for what goes
on and if he doesn't care if he's
so far removed, detached, absolute and the world
is as insignificant as it is why should
he care and so perhaps in order to
access him because he's so inaccessible now, other
deities become important other humans become important and
in falling back and relying upon those humans
and deities who will intercede for me before
him who somehow are able to overcome this
unbridgeable gap between him and the world since
he's so transcendent and the world is so
insignificant there has to be these intermediaries who
somehow, again, very ineffably very incomprehensibly they jump
this gap they can jump this gap I
can't jump this gap it's too big of
a gap so my free miracle is going
to be in banking on those on those
deities on those intercessors Allah immediately falls or
criticizes that heavily he falls down on it
very heavily no, who dares intercede that's not
who I am I'm not that far removed
to be nonchalant or callous about what goes
on so who dares, who is it that
can intercede with him except with his permission
if it does happen it is not going
to happen because he doesn't know or he's
not aware it is going to happen precisely
for the opposite reason that he does know
and that too very down to the last
detail who will intercede and who will they
intercede for that's going to be his voice
that is going to be based out of
his knowledge he's not going to be informed
by anybody else about what he did not
know because of his absence in Athens or
whatever it is because he is giving that
honor his greatness his absoluteness his
awesomeness his incredibly incomprehensible, ineffable beauty and conception
and all of that despite all of that
he is so intimate with each human being
that he knows exactly what is in front
of them he knows exactly what is behind
them so there is no justification for these
conceptions of the convenient conceptions of intercession and
escaping the path of love or the struggle
that love necessitates and they encompass nothing of
his knowledge except what he wants except with
his permission except what he wants them to
know his throne extends across the heavens and
the earth his throne extends across the heavens
and the earth again, the beauty and the
majesty of his being as it extends across
the and earth and he is not tired
of continuously preserving them always actively engaged in
preserving them protecting them rather and he is
he is the most high and he is
the most great the most high in how
you see his throne, his dominion his majesty
extend across the heavens and the earth and
he is how actually he is in
how he is from his position of
height or superiority he observing everything in
front and behind and how his greatness is
manifest throughout the majesty with which he has
everything preserved and protected in the heavens and
the earth so in trying to understand why
do all of this that's at least something
of the first part of the answer the
second part of the answer there is no
compulsion in religion there is no compulsion in
religion so despite being in
all of these ways he gives the human
being a free choice you want to do
it, you do it, you don't want to
do it you have a choice in the
matter he wants you to come to him
and respond to all of this willingly you
do this out of a freedom of your
will out of your own choice for however
much you want to there is no compulsion
in religion it is a free individual's choice
that leads you to commit to this path
the right path has been made distinct from
the wrong your choice, your call and when
an individual gets a choice to choose his
master he is no longer a slave he
is no longer a slave who can choose
his master or who can choose his beloved
because to love is to be captivated to
love is to choose to enter into the
captivity of the demands of your love once
you have committed to love then the demands
are to be taken seriously and they do
apply and you have committed to them you
have accepted their bondage upon you but you
can always say no you can always choose
not to love but then there will always
be a default beloved in there somewhere and
that will have its implications on you that
space is not going to remain empty even
if it is for those most opposed to
love or the most resistant to love at
the end of the day there is going
to be some level of self love an
incredibly vile degree of self love that is
going to fill that space and that is
going to express itself as such so there
is no compulsion in religion that despite all
of his greatness his beauty, his majesty, his
power his jalal, his jamal how meaningful he
makes everything you can still say no and
this free choice is the second reason why
because taken up freely it offers the greatest
possible benefit taken up forcibly it's...
forget it forget it so whoever renounces who
are the taahood or what are the taahood
anything that has exceeded its limits so exceeding
its limits not recognizing its confinements and claiming
to be more than what it actually is
so in pretty much everything in creation when
it's claiming divinity when it's claiming to be
ilah or god when an idol that's idolatry
so those with their excessive limitations when they
are put in that place their excessively palpable
limitations yet they're placed those limitations they're allowed
to exceed transgress and they're put in the
place of god so whoever rejects these taahood
and believes in allah who is allah for
all his majesty and all his beauty is
limitation free but for all his love and
all his eminence in giving the human being
freedom allah has committed himself as well in
this relationship in this interaction in becoming a
co-worker with the human being subhanahu wa
ta'ala he has although he didn't have
to he has freely chosen to engage so
when you believe all the taahood and believe
in allah he has grasped the most firm
handhold the one who does this the one
who holds on to allah realizes that the
strongest that allah is not going to let
you go he's not going to let you
fall he's not going to let you break
that ultimately that is the source of the
greatest strength you can possibly get support you
can possibly get growth that you can possibly
get that is not going to break at
all allah is hearing and known so as
the ayatul kursi talks about the greatness of
allah the very next ayah talks about how
despite that greatness he is involved in the
very in his very imminence with each human
being in hearing, seeing, knowing in collaborating in
supporting, in holding that's the second reason why
you turn to allah, you believe in allah,
allah becomes the wali he becomes a friend
he is a friend to the people who
have believed he's going to bail them out,
he's going to be there for them he's
going to protect them he is going to
liberate them from all types of and all
shades of darkness towards light again, to make
sense of things, to give meaning to things
to make everything meaningful that part that representation
of of his friendship as for those who
refuse to believe their awliya their friends are
those limited conceptions idols who have been placed
to replace allah anything from within the aalameen
which has become absolute they drag them from
light into the depths of darkness so from
knowing truth, from having truth the taghut have
the potential of taking that truth or the
light of that truth away from you to
make things more more and more meaningless you
can have those experiences of of meaningfulness but
taghut and reliance upon taghut and that relationship
with taghut to the exclusion of allah will
mean that layers and layers of darkness, confusion
confusion will necessarily be the case more and
more confusion, more and more darkness more and
more meaninglessness less and less truth less and
less justice less and less order more and
more chaos these are the companions of the
fire and they will live therein forever moving
right along we did what we could in
trying to cover the 34th rukuh with ayatul
kursi and the aftermath this relationship of allah
being ilah and in being ilah being the
wali of those who take him up as
their ilah those who have that iman, that
trust in him and we continue from there
to the 35th rukuh ayat number 258 a
'udhu billahi minash shaitanir rajim alam tara ilal
lazeeh aajja ibraheema fee rabbih haven't you considered
the one who argued with ibraheem alayhis salam
about his rabb now when we talk about
developing this iman in allah as ilah in
all of these ways that we spoke about
it isn't something that you just have it
isn't something that you just stumble upon it
isn't something just okay from now on i'm
going to have it that's not how it
works it's a process and there's a proper
way it's better to call it a pathway
there's a better way of going along the
path going along the way and then there's
the way that blocks that path there's attitudes
that block that path first we get an
idea of a person who is defiantly disobedient
and his argumentation is such that he's contentious
for the sake of it he's just argumentative
for the sake of it and then there's
for the sake of something vested for the
sake of something hidden which is going to
be shown as well and then we're going
to get two examples in which the doubt
along the path is honored is completely natural
is understood as such and therefore the people
who encounter it along the path are able
to overcome it as well so haven't you
seen the one who argued with Ibrahim about
his as Allah had granted him kingdom what
was this argument based off of on the
face of it it's an intellectual argument it's
reasoning it's this case against that or this
argument against that or this evidence whatever but
what was vested is that his kingdom he
had stakes and he felt that he stood
to lose them or they were threatened with
what Ibrahim was advocating if Ibrahim when Ibrahim
said my Rabb is the one who brings
to life and puts to death so this
biological process of life and death where is
this coming from this is coming from Allah
it is in his control his response I
bring to life it's me I can give
death the demonstration that he gave called out
two prisoners condemned to death let one of
them go put the other one to death
see what I can do does that make
me God or shouldn't that make me God
or doesn't that justify my claim to being
whatever sovereign that I'm claiming to be Ibrahim
doesn't argue with that doesn't argue with where
he's taking that just lets it be he
has them or he wants them he says
fair enough you want to play this if
this is how you want to pursue this
this discussion if these are your standards for
how you're going to weigh out my reason
then I'll hold you to them I am
not going to contest them his demonstration and
his response to Ibrahim Ibrahim says fine let's
take those standards and move on Allah is
the one who brings the sun from the
east so just make it rise from the
west so the disbeliever was utterly defeated this
again the standard that he himself had set
up in response to Ibrahim he was not
able to consistently maintain it and demonstrate as
he had demonstrated in the prior convention that
he made Allah does not guide such unjust
people or did you not reflect upon the
one who passed by a town so this
example of Nimrud a tyrannical king and how
he subjects his reason in the direction or
in the favor of his tyranny and Ibrahim
catches him short the other example that of
Uzair when he's passing by a town while
it was fallen at its roots so it
was an utterly destroyed town turned to rubble
and he exclaimed it was like a natural
reflex you look at it and you wonder
how is it even possible how will Allah
revive this town after its death this is
not him being contentious this is not being
argumentative for the sake of it this is
genuinely wondering how is it even possible how
does that work and so Allah demonstrated for
him Allah gave him that demonstration again the
importance of experience the importance of demonstration, observation
being validated by the Quran as a source
or as a means of reaching the truth
so Allah gave him death for a hundred
years and then he raised him to life
again and asked him how long did you
remain that way he responded maybe a day
or less Allah responded no you stayed here
for a hundred years now have a look
at your food and drink it has not
gone bad, it is not rotten and look
at your donkey and as the Mufassereen explained
the donkey's bones had decayed and all this
is to make you an ayah from mankind,
a sign now look at the bones how
we assemble them then we cover them with
flesh so when it became evident to him
that this is how Allah brings the dead
to life he said now I know that
Allah has definitely for sure he has the
power over everything so what we learn from
this is how again the Mufassereen explained that
what bones and assembly of the bones and
putting the meat on the bones is being
spoken of, he was made to see his
donkey being brought back and that's an ayah
for him and he becomes an ayah for
the people and when Ibrahim said my
Rabb, how do you bring the dead to
life Allah
asks and don't you believe he said I
believe but I'm asking this for the itminan
of my heart so you can have belief
and not be satisfied in your heart at
the same time so Allah said take four
birds commit them to yourself then
place a part of their flesh on each
hilltop again it is explained by Mufassereen that
he was made to slaughter them and put
pieces of them on different hilltops then call
them back to you they will come to
you right away know that Allah is aziz
Allah is hakeem so this demonstration, this experience
this very natural request made by prophets
to verify what they believe in to show
what is it or how is it that
all of this comes about and how they
are shown the power of Allah through these
now for the most part these incidents are
looked upon as miracles that God performs for
prophets to take them to higher levels of
faith however there have been as fringe as
those opinions may be that these are very
natural experiences that there wasn't anything miraculous that
took place either way and as for the
latter we see that within the Quran itself
especially the ayats that are resorted to or
the ayats that are alluded to are not
of this supernatural flavor if you will they
are not immediately watching a dead donkey come
back to life the ayats that the Quran
repeatedly refers to for a demonstration for us
to observe and reflect are the biological the
physical within the natural world the routine and
the mundane to not just be able to
see and this is something that with the
progression of humanity has become more and more
possible that with the advent of Rasool Allah
with the Quran the progression of humanity to
be able to see the ayats and the
divine hand within the mundane world within the
routine natural world your own routine life within
whatever is immediately in your vicinity around you
be able to reflect on that as capacity
increases and so we see a less and
less involvement of these supernatural events these within
the progression in prophets as well as each
subsequent prophet ultimately with Rasool Allah whereas in
his life and particularly in his campaign for
Islam or his prophethood we do not see
these miracles playing a primary part we do
have mentions of some here and there but
they are not the primary source of his
ayats his ayats are the one in the
Quran and the Quran referring to those that
are accessible to everybody but in any case
the experiences alluded to open up the recognition
and realization most importantly the validation that the
Quran gives through observation, experience and coming to
those conclusions how the Quran through the examples
of prophets themselves lets us know how it
is completely human to have these doubts or
to have these questions and to want to
resolve them not for the intention of argumentation
or just intention for the sake of it
but as genuine inquiry as really wanting to
know and we will see other examples of
that within the Quran as well as we
move on ...
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Again, all of where did, before Ayatul Kursi,
we saw how spending in the way of
Allah was alluded to.
And repeatedly within the surah, especially since the
second part, we are seeing a constant exhortation
of spending in the way of Allah, spending
in the way of Allah, of spending in
the way of Allah.
Here it picks up even more.
From here all the way to the end
of the surah, spending in the way of
Allah is going to be the most frequent
exhortation.
Spend, spend, spend.
Towards what?
We've already spoken about.
So again, how good is it to spend
that what you get back from Allah is
multiplied over, is multiplied over.
Yes, in terms of reward in the hereafter
for sure, but then the impact that this
sort of a practice, when this becomes a
norm in a community, the way the community
will economically develop in the long run, that
this multiplication or this growth, this stability that
the community will get, will develop, is going
to be such that it's unparalleled.
You won't see anything like it.
That apparently for your immediate interest, for your
immediate gratification, it is very difficult to justify.
I'm losing it, I'm giving money, it's gone.
But in the long run, how it comes
back as barakah, how it comes back for
the society to flourish, and then eventually, of
course, that individual as a part of that
society will somehow end up benefiting from that
as well.
And then ultimately in the hereafter itself, the
reward that that generates.
For that charity that you do, you die,
but that the way that charity or that
giving of yourself or from yourself to others,
how the effects that it has even after
your death, even after you're gone, even after
you've forgotten what is it that you gave
or how much of it, how much was
it that you gave, it continues to produce
the good, it continues.
And the more self-replicating a charity is,
the more good it inspires.
Because it's not just that money and how
the money goes from hand to hand and
what it brings to people.
It's what it inspires within people as an
act of kindness and how that trust in
humanity, that there is goodness, how important that
is for the welfare of the society, for
the progression of human society.
In so many different ways, you can see
how these spikes are growing.
Acts of finding kindness are engendering acts of
kindness.
The khair that that money brings, that is
given to others, how it's spread out, the
joy that is spread, the facilitation that it
creates, the impact that it can possibly have.
So, Allahu wasi'un alim allatheena yunfiqoon amwalahum
fee sabeelillah So those who spend their wealth
in the cause of Allah, thumma laa yutbi
'oona maa anfaqoon manna wala adha Then they
do not follow up what they have spent
with reminders of the gift, neither looking to
offend the feelings of the recipient.
So even within this ultimately noble act of
giving, of sharing, of kindness, there is a
potential for evil.
There is a potential for incredible evil.
So we were engaging in this act as
a way to ward off the potential of
hypocrisy, but then there is an attitude through
which even this becomes a source of reinforcing
the hypocrisy.
That when you are doing all of this
with this sense of superiority, with this complex
of how you are so much better, how
you're so absolutely gifted in comparison to all
these lesser people, and it reflects in your
manner, in your attitude, in how you talk
to them, in how the charity is followed
up with patronizing them, with being condescending towards
them.
And if that's what charity becomes, even using
the word charity, I'm conscious of how it
has now developed so many negative connotations.
As noble as an act as it was,
as virtuous as it should be, charity, I
don't want to accept your charity.
It's become a word of, which carries negative
implications.
There's connotations of, you know, it's not all
that great.
Because precisely our practice of charity has become
such that it is, rather than using this
as a means to purify ourselves and for
developing a community, it has become a way
of reinforcing our hypocrisy, reinforcing our superiority complex,
our arrogance, and it socially manifests itself in
making those stratifications within society more and more
permanent, that the recipients of charity and charitable
treatment are permanently excluded from the mainstream of
society.
That this institution of orphanages, of shelters, of
refugee camps, and what have you, they're a
constant source.
Rather than becoming centers of empowerment, even though
there's money there, there's a lot of money
there, but the attitude of arrogance that that
money is accompanied with, reminders of the favor
and the hurtfulness, is such that whoever is
benefiting from that charity, whoever is economically improving
in whatever way, through that orphanage, shelter, or
refugee camp, or whatever, donation, they're also being
permanently stigmatized.
They're also being fixed, disempowered, that there is
a curse that goes around with them.
That in so many different ways, the society
becomes such that you cannot expect a product
of an orphanage, or a shelter, or a
refugee camp to rise to positions of authority
in the society, to grow, to become a
significant voice in the society.
That these, the different handicaps that people have,
the different difficulties that people have, naturally, or
on account of accidents, or whatever the case
may be, we, through these institutions of charity,
of patronizing charity, and I use patronizing in
its negative connotation, condescending these people, condemning them
to be absolutely defined as a handicap.
That there is within their personality, within their
lives, dimensions other than that handicap, that that
handicap should not permanently define them, should not
be a label that they wear that is
just who they are, and nothing else.
We don't allow for the other dimensions within
their personalities to really contribute within the society,
to really benefit the society like they have
the potential to benefit the society.
And on top of that, the beauty within
that particular handicap as well, that how it
complements, how it allows for them to do
something completely novel, which would otherwise not have
been possible had they not been handicapped.
See what I'm saying?
So when a particular person has a deprivation,
a weakness, whether that's being an orphan, or
a widow, or a victim of abuse, or
any other physical handicap, deafness, blindness, physical disability
in the form of an arm or a
leg, or arms or an inability to walk,
inability to use their hands.
We know there's learning disabilities, intellectual disabilities.
To absolutely define them through those deprivations, through
those handicaps, and not see that there is
so much more to them through which they
can positively contribute within the society and not
creating that room for them to positively contribute
in the society.
We preclude that possibility.
We don't allow for that to happen because
we have absolutely defined them and made them
dependent on a constant influx of charity, not
looking to empower.
Charity that doesn't empower, a charity that patronizes,
a charity that condemns.
But what should have been is that the
other dimension, that being respected as human beings
formal, and then for all of what they
can possibly offer to the society, given that
room, given that space, and then what beauty,
their imperfections and deprivations and handicaps bring to
the human community, to the society to allow
for that to bloom.
That's the kind of charity you're looking for.
That's the kind of institution of sadaqat you
wanna look for, you wanna create.
That's the community.
Whereas our community is such that people are
incredibly afraid that they will be found out
for obvious imperfections or obvious handicaps and how
long it takes that there will be active
efforts that they would take to hide that
people shouldn't find out that I am inherently
incapable of doing A, B, or C.
People shouldn't find out because the moment they
find out, I am a victim of abuse
and exploitation.
I'm going to be looked at as somebody
inherently incapable and flawed and incapable of contributing
anything positive in the society, and that is
going to define me.
And then because that is how the society
defines them, they will define themselves like that
as well and victimize and not look at
themselves in any other way either.
It becomes all the more difficult for them
to manifest the greatness of their potential because
of a constant influx of abuse that looks
at them as nothing else.
It becomes incredibly difficult, not impossible for them
to identify as more than their diagnosis or
the disease or the handicap or whatever social
label they've been stricken with.
And things go from that worse.
And really, who is it?
Who is it that doesn't have a deprivation,
that doesn't have a handicap, that doesn't have,
in some way or the other, or won't
have if they don't already have some sort
of an imperfection?
So with what God complex do we condemn,
do we look down upon, and do we
fix these absolute labels to keep people down
and not rise to their meaningful potential for
the community?
What sort of a God complex do we
have?
What kind of Nimrods do we think we
are?
I give life and I give death.
Who the * do we think we are?
Lahum ajruhum inda rabbihim.
So the people who really genuinely give in
the way of Allah, the way of Allah
is the way of empowerment.
The way of Allah is the way of
justice.
The way of Allah is the way of
accepting people for who they are and looking
to bring the best out of what they're
capable of.
That's the way of Allah.
To make a community in which that's the
norm, that's the standard, and be very fair,
over the past couple of centuries, the Eastern
communities or the Muslim communities have regressed in
this dimension.
The more liberal or the more Western have
progressed in this dimension, where you will find
people who spent a good part of their
lives in refugee camps and orphanages and foster
homes, who've become doctors, engineers, members of the
parliament, congressmen and congresswomen in the West.
But you will be hard-pressed to find
any parallel examples within the Muslim communities.
And so in that sense, closer to Tawheed
and closer to a principle of scripture are
those apparently liberal, secular, and ascriptural or anti
-scriptural or whatever labels we affix to the
Western communities as being the Dar al-Kufr.
The Dar al-Kufr being so much more
of a community than the Dar al-Islam,
apparently.
So allatheena yunfiqoon amwalahum fee sabeelillah Those who
spend their wealth in the cause of Allah
fuma laa yutbi'oona maa anfaqoo mannam wa
laa adha Then they do not follow up
what they have spent with reminders of the
gift, neither do they offend the feelings of
the recipient.
As important as it is to give, it
is all the more important to respect and
honor.
And what is a principle in an individual
interaction is what should be the norm in
a scriptural community.
lahum ajroohum AAindha rabbihim For them, their reward
is reserved with their love.
wa laa qawwifoon AAalayhim wa laahum yahzanun They
have nothing to fear, nor would they regret.
qawloon ma'roofun wa maghfiratun khayr Kind speech
and forgiveness are better min sadaqatin yatba'ooha
adha than a charity followed by a hurt.
Good words, respectful words.
And why maghfiratun?
Because it is quite a possibility that with
these stratifications in society, those who are deserving
of charity, they will offend you as well.
They will carry resentment in their hearts as
well.
They will retaliate and they may transgress and
they may be very offensive.
Towards you, for who you are as this
privileged class.
And so all the more important to recognize
maghfirat, forgiveness as being better.
min sadaqatin yatba'ooha adha than a charity
followed by a hurt.
wa laahu ghaniyun haleem And Allah is ghani
and forbearing.
Again, embodying the attributes of Allah.
Allah tells the people of Iman to do
all of this.
And then concludes with how this is, doing
this would be a reflection of who He
is as ghani and forbearing.
He gives, looking to empower.
He gives, not looking to permanently subjugate, but
elevate.
And in that process, the one that He
is looking to elevate is transgressing, is being
hurtful, and He's okay with that.
He's haleem, is being incredibly doubtful, is being
rebellious.
He's haleem, He lets all of that go.
He's like, okay, okay, keep going, keep going,
keep coming, keep coming, keep coming.
Allah is ghani and He's looking to empower.
Allah is haleem, He's looking to forego.
Let it be, it's okay.
You don't have to take everybody to task
for every little thing.
That's not the way of empowerment.
That's not the way of nurturing.
That's not the way of bringing people out
of the confinements of these rigid stratifications.
That's not the way of Allah.
That's not fee sabeelillah.
And so implicit in all of those ayats,
ayatul kursi onwards, and other ayat talking about
the attributes of Allah, the answer to that
why that we said, why should you do
this?
Why should you suffer, struggle, give, pain, the
whole why's that we asked?
And we said, because Allah is ilah.
And we said, because you have a free
choice.
We said all of that.
A free choice for the sake of that
ilah, because that ilah wants to empower you
to become more like Him.
In this istighna, in this hilm that He
wants you to embody.
Let that sink in.
What makes it all worth it is that
you become closer and closer to Him.
What does it mean to be closer and
closer to Him?
To be more and more like Him in
His attributes of goodness, of beauty and power.
So if this is your conception of who
He is with you, then that will naturally
become your religious expression in how you are
with others.
Our conduct with people is necessarily a reflection
of what we believe about God.
If that belief is correct, character would be
beautiful.
The results will be good.
If that belief is corrupt, incorrect, the character
will be ugly.
The results would be corruption.
Whether the claim is that there's no belief
in God whatsoever, whether the claim is that
there is this belief about God, that claim
in its own place, it has its importance,
of course.
What is reflected is what is actually believed.
And I have to be so much more
careful about what that is.
And it's a continuous process of monitoring your
behavior, reflecting over your conduct, disciplining it, appropriating
it, improving it, adorning it, so that the
conception improves as well.
And then constantly working on the conception as
well so that it naturally reflects within the
conduct.
Ya ayyuhal ladheena aamanu, you who have believed,
laa tubu qiloo sadaqatikum.
Do not make your charities worthless, bilman, by
conferring that favor upon people by reminders of
your generosity.
Look at how much I gave you, look
at how much I've done for you, look
at how much I've done for society, da,
da, da, da, da, da, da, da.
Waladha, and by hurtfulness, by hurting their feelings,
by hurting their chances, by hurting their humanity
and your community eventually.
Kalladhi yunfiqoo maal awurri'aa an-naas.
The one who spends his wealth only to
be seen by people.
Wala yu'minoo billahi wal yawm al-akhir.
They do not believe in Allah and the
yawm al-akhir, the way Allah and yawm
al-akhir are presented in the Quran, whatever.
They may claim to believe in Allah and
yawm al-akhir, whatever.
Famaathalhoo kamathali safwanin AAalayhi taraab.
His example is that of a hard barren
rock covered with a thin layer of soil.
Fa-asabahu waabinun fatarakahu salda.
Then a rainstorm hits it and turns it
to a bare rock.
Wala yaqudiroona AAala shay'in mimma kasaboo.
And they're unable to keep anything of what
they've earned.
Nothing.
That charity had vilge of an impact.
Nothing of an impact on their personalities and
also on the society.
That charity is worthless.
It is as if it never happened.
It was a lair, a fasaad.
The little bit of rain took away.
What is that rain?
The rain is an analogy in the Quran
can be looked at in one of two
ways.
Many others perhaps, but just two particular ones
to consider right now.
The ayat of Allah are rain.
The ayat of Allah are rain.
Also challenges and difficulties is rain.
We read in the very beginning of Surah
Baqarah, the thunderstorm.
So the rain as knowledge and ayat of
Allah, as the ayat of revelation and other
ayat, when you've killed the land of your
heart by the acts of charity and the
community is killed, the land has been prepared.
And then the ayat of Allah bring the
best out of that human being and the
best out of that community because it's ready.
It's the selflessness, the self-transcendence, the willingness
to empower the other, the willingness to extend
yourselves to the other.
That willingness is there.
So the moment truth comes, there's bloom, there's
flowers, there's greenery.
Similarly, when difficulty or suffering comes and there's
that extending towards the other, there's that self
-transcendence.
Then in moments of suffering, the community turns
out to be even stronger than what it
was before.
Individual personality turns out to be even stronger
than what it was before.
But if that's not the case, if it's
all a facade, a show, then rain just
wipes that layer off.
It can't face the truth.
It can't stand a tribulation.
Oh, it's gone.
لا يقدرون على شيء مما كسبوا And they're
unable to keep anything of what they've earned.
It's like they have no impact on their
personalities.
وَاللَّهُ لَا يَهْدِي الْقَوْمَ الْكَافِرِينَ Allah does not
guide such ungrateful people or such people who
reject the way they do.
I did, okay.
وَاللَّهُ لَا يَهْدِي الْقَوْمَ الْكَافِرِينَ Allah does not
guide such ungrateful people.
وَمَثَلُوا الَّذِينَ يُنفِقُونَ أَمْوَالَهُمْ وَابْتِغَاءَ مَرْضَاتِ اللَّهِ An
example of those who spread their wealth, spread
it out in pursuit of the pleasure of
Allah.
مَتَّثْبِيطًا مِّنْ أَنْفُسِهِمْ And out of a strong
conviction from within themselves.
كَمَثَلِ حَبَّةٍ بِغْتَبُوَةٍ Like a garden on a
higher level of earth.
أَصَابَهَا وَابِلٌ If a heavy rain falls on
it, again, either truth or tribulation.
فَآتَتْ أُكُلَهَا بِعْفَيْنَ It will bring its fruit
in double increase.
فَإِلَّمْ يُصِبْهَا وَابِلٌ Even if it does not
get a heavy rain, even a drizzle, فَقَلْ
A simple, a light drizzle.
That's enough as well.
وَاللَّهُ بِمَا تَعْمَلُونَ بَصِيلٍ Allah sees whatever you
do.
You will see that effort bear fruit.
Whatever follows that effort for the individual personality
or the community in the form of truth,
in the form of Allah, or in the
form of tribulation.
And usually the two come hand in hand.
أَيَوَدُ أَحَدُكُمْ Would any of you like أن
تَكُونَ لَهُ جَنَّةٌ مِن نَخِيلٍ وَأَعْنَابٍ That he
has a garden of date palms and grape
vines تَجْرِي مِن تَحْتِهَا الْأَنْهَا Underneath which rivers
flow لَهُ فِيهَا مِن كُلِّ الثَّمَرَاتِ And there
are all kinds of fruits for him therein
وَأَصَابَهُ الْكِبَرِ But he has become old وَلَهُ
ذُرِّيَةٌ بُعْثَافٍ And he has weak young children
فَأَصَابَهَا اِعْصَارٌ فِيهِ نَارٌ فَاحْتَرَقَتْ It is struck
by a fiery whirlwind burning it down كِذَٰلِكَ
يُبَيِّنُوا اللَّهُ لَكُمُ الْآيَاتِ This is the way
Allah makes the ayat clear to you لَعَلَّكُمْ
تَتَفَكَّرُونَ So that you may reflect So
that you may reflect Again, everything in this
analogy the fruit, the yard, the grapevines the
flowing river You have everything at your disposal
for a continuation of a legacy of a
community for something to leave behind but despite
having it you can lose all of it
None of it can be taken for granted
Effort has to be put in Effort has
to be put in for it to be
sustained for it to really give what it's
capable of giving and to continue to give
it the river as that source of for
it to be able to replenish all of
the fruits as they're used up and the
children for them to be capable powerful empowered
to carry it on that legacy continues and
how an incredibly selfish person may have all
of that whether that's spiritual wealth or spiritual
endowment or blessing from Allah it's knowledge it's
actual wealth to not give out to not
look for it to benefit others outside of
yourself you're pretty much setting up yourself for
when you're going to be most in need
in your old age and your children your
future generations so for this practice
of community building so you have something for
your old age for when you're most dependent
and your future generations who really are dependent
because they're going to have to carry the
burden of your sins, of your selfishness and
that might make them more selfish and the
vicious cycle continues to break free of that
for the choice that you do have and
to look to empower and to give and
really whatever good we do enjoy that we
have in society today is because people in
the past were willing to do that and
they did do that we're carrying the burdens
of a lot of other people as well
who didn't do that and our choice to
either continue to do that or do more
of that to break these cycles of suffering
and to continue and perpetuate and increase the
cycles of good is going to ensure that
what we have our children have it as
well.
We have luxuries today because of such people
of infah, such people of giving in our
past and these luxuries which are the norm
for us our children will not have if
we don't look to carry on this legacy
of spending in the way of Allah.
So we begin with Dr. Asma's question foremost.
The third part, I'll just go over all
three.
Ilah as him being the most worthy of
love and all his attributes of beauty follow
from there or love as Ibadah or Ibadah
as love right?
Second, Ilah as the one most worthy of
trust and reliance and so him being the
focus of Tawakkul and all his attributes of
power is Jalal over there.
The third one, him as the ultimate source
of meaning of how he makes everything meaningful
and there all his attributes of truth justice
they come in and just the way his
Jamal and all his attributes of Jamal necessitate
or they lead towards Ibadah love as Ibadah
and his attributes of Jalal necessitate Tawakkul reliance
Dua and his attributes of truth and justice
they necessitate the struggle right?
So in these at least these three ways
is how I understand Ilah.
I hope that made sense.
Okay.
So moving right along we were
speaking about I believe this is from the
passage the second Ruku of Surah Al-Baqarah
when we spoke about self-interest being the
driving force for yeah hypocrisy
right?
And carrying it forward from there isn't saving
yourself from the hellfire similarly a manifestation of
self-interest and shouldn't that also be demonic?
Now when we speak about self-interest when
we speak about being selfish then there is
degrees of being selfish there is degrees of
being selfish in that I am incredibly selfish
excessively selfish when I want everything here and
now for my immediate gratification the more I
am able to push the the gratification further
the more distant the gratification the more delayed
is probably the better word the gratification is
the less self-centered it is and the
more room it creates for others is as
well right?
So for a child to learn how to
share is a very incredible achievement they want
that toy immediately here and now for themselves
not for anybody else but in order to
evade the punishment of their parent or in
order to earn friendship in the long run
they are able to share delay the gratification
of having the toy immediately avoid that conflict
and earn a friend and then the friend
will share with them and they will have
somebody to chill out with yada yada yada
the further the the further this becomes the
more we're willing to delay the more we're
willing to delay the more we're willing to
accommodate others the more we're looking to benefit
others and as we have seen this sort
of self-transcendence eventually does benefit the self
but if its sole aim is only to
benefit itself then it does fall flat on
its face and it is not capable of
even benefiting itself right it's the more the
as desperately as we cling on to self
-interest that is what leads to self-destruction
and self-harm the more we're willing to
let go the further the more we're willing
to delay that gratification delayed for a day
a week or as you're growing as you're
growing and the scope of your contributions is
increasing delaying all the way to the hereafter
now that delay entails a lot of faith
as well more and more faith even within
that child sharing there's a faith that if
I share I have faith or I trust
that this person is going to be my
friend tomorrow or day after and we're going
to be good friends right there's a trust
but there's also a risk with immediate gratification
there's no risk now when the delay is
so much that it's like okay the reward
for this isn't the hereafter isn't escaping not
from the punishment of my payment but from
the punishment of God from the punishment of
hellfire and the form of paradise now the
greater the delay the more the faith the
greater the risk you're willing to take and
along with that there is a greater possibility
of others being accommodated here in the space
that that delay has created and then yes
there is self-transcendence which extends beyond
reward and punishment in the hereafter there is
that as well there is that level that
people attain to quite simply put and it's
really incredible that how sensitive and incredibly almost
dangerous subject of discussion are reflected so beautifully
and simply in the life of Rasulullah ﷺ
when Hazrat Bilal is perturbed to see Rasulullah
ﷺ so distressed and so crying in prayer
and not sleeping and all of that and
he asks him Ya Rasulullah everything past and
future has been forgiven for you why why
now, why do you have to do this
now, should I not be grateful he says
he is going to be in the highest
place in paradise ﷺ yet that doesn't make
him complacent that makes him go above and
beyond that makes him go above and beyond
and there's people who you can find examples
of how people would risk for all the
best that they can understand of the hereafter
of reward and punishment but they would put
that on the line and risk that for
how much benefit it would bring to others
whatever choice they have to make and again
dangerous area or territory to tread into but
oh well Abu Falib the choice that he
makes how for all of what we can
tell his not accepting Rasulullah ﷺ even on
his deathbed is catastrophic from the
perspective of hereafter a huge huge problem there
hereafter hellfire paradise but then the positive impact
that it has on the cause of Rasulullah
ﷺ that the testimony that Abu Falib gives
by supporting Rasulullah ﷺ despite remaining true to
his tradition and his forefathers is the greatest
slap across the face of the rest of
the Quraysh who are criticizing Rasulullah ﷺ precisely
on the issue of being true to their
forefathers Abu Falib comes from that same camp
of holding forefathers in high esteem and says
that that's completely compatible with supporting Rasulullah ﷺ
and the way he did I can't find
another example which is you know that's not
the kind of stuff you you advocate either
so I hope somewhat and then we find
examples right in our in our historical tradition
Rabia Basri she's going to put out the
hellfire and she wants to set paradise on
fire so that people love Allah because he
just deserves it he's just worth it okay
so I hope that somewhat answers that question
moving right along second question okay how is
Aulad-e-Adam destined to fall given the
legend of the fall given the fourth ruku
of surah Baqarah as far as we can
read from the seven times this incident is
brought up within the Quran and everything else
that we know the fall is
not a condemnation the fall is the
the most meaningful event the first act of
human freedom and necessary for the rise of
humanity the human being prior to the fall
whatever paradise that was the human being deserved
better but to get what they deserved potentially
the process of life on earth is necessary
and the rise after this fall is not
to the same free prostration or you know
that Adamic paradise the paradise after the fall
is a Muhammadan paradise without the fall
there is no appreciation of self of God
and even of paradise itself even of paradise
itself right Paradise
is without you in your your blood that
doesn't suit you your paradise is in your
struggle and that's what you deserve and that's
what Allah deserves.
You're both worthy of it.
Okay, so to look at the fall as
a condemnation and the efforts in dunya as
this vile, torturous rehab, this correction facility
from which we have to attain freedom to
reclaim that paradise.
No, thank you.
No, thank you.
That kind of condemnation of dunya, that kind
of demonization of dunya it doesn't fit and
of human effort and of the human being.
And if that's how vile the world, the
human being, and human effort ultimately turns out
to be, what does that say of God
who is the rab of all of this?
All right, moving right along.
Next question.
Thank you.
Okay.
So, in contrast with the hypocrites, inherent motivation
being self-interest.
In contrast with the hypocrites, inherent motivation being
self-interest, self-transcendence would require sacrifice.
Can self-transcendence sacrificial acts also become pathological?
Thank you for asking this question.
And that's the part that I didn't highlight
or not explicitly at least.
When we talk about self-transcendence and if
we absolutize self-transcendence and it's important, then
that ends up being monasticism.
That ends up being asceticism.
And we have repeatedly spoken about how that
asceticism and that monasticism is discouraged, criticized, disapproved
within the Quran.
That the Quran does not advocate for you
to sacrifice that which you cannot sustain.
The Quran does not demand of the human
being self-nihilation.
There is a difference between self-transcendence and
self-nihilation.
If you do not regard self-interest, if
you do not regard the self, then you
have nothing to give.
You have nothing to give from.
You have nothing to give of.
So self-interest is incredibly integral as a
prerequisite for self-transcendence.
If you don't take care of yourself, your
own needs, your own wants, then whatever it
is that you have to give, it's not
going to last and it's going to be
very little.
Right?
So what self-transcendence does is that it
honors self-interest.
What Iman does or what Tawheed does, it
makes even pursuits of self-interests, selfish acts,
self-serving acts, pleasurable acts, acts of attaining
power, acts of attaining wealth.
It honors them.
It makes them meaningful.
They become meaningful pursuits precisely because because there
is no self-transcendence without them.
Okay, so thank you for asking that question.
Right, moving right along.
Which translation is being referred to?
Yeah, I said that there's a story behind
it.
I don't think this translation question was specific
to any portion of what we were talking
about.
I feel it was more general.
Am I right?
Okay, so when I did this or started
doing this back in 2012, there's a technical
issue with doing this kind of a program
or this kind of format.
When you're reciting an ayah and then you're
translating or reading the translation, you know that
the translation, especially when you're doing it for
the very first time, is of the portion
that you've read.
It is pretty straightforward when you're reading an
Urdu Mus'haf or an Arabic Mus'haf
with Urdu translation.
Okay, they're pretty straightforward.
The phrase is on top and because both
Arabic and Urdu are right to left, so
whatever that Urdu phrase or Urdu sentence is
referring to is usually immediately above that line
and the ayah is going to be immediately
above that.
When you're using an English translation and you're
doing it for the first time especially, and
even if you're not doing it for the
first time, you're doing the entire cover to
cover, right?
There's going to be very complicated ayahs and
sentences and you do tend to get lost
in long ayahs with long passages as translations.
Which part specifically refers to which portion of
the ayah?
It's difficult to tell, especially since within the
translation there's also already an interpretation and explanation
that is present.
And since the Arabic and English translations are
side to side, they're not, because there's no
right to left in English, right?
It's left to right.
So they're on the opposing sides of the
page.
It is difficult to correspond.
And since you have to do it very
quickly, you're doing a juz or more than
a juz in one night for this sort
of a program, the requirement was a sort
of translation which the ayah or the portion
of the ayah and the portion of the
translation, easily easy to see which portion is
corresponding to which, is up the bottom.
If I can show you, some of you,
whoever's going to be watching or the Zoom
recording or the Zoom, um, this is what
my translation looks like, right?
So it's up and bottom.
Um, since this was for me, the motivation
for me to do this came from a
doctor of the semi, who was my teacher
at that time.
And he's like, do it.
I'm like, I can't do it.
He's like, no, no, you can.
I'm like, no, no, no, I can't.
Um, whatever that back and forth was, eventually
he's like, this is the translation that I've
done for, because he had earlier done, uh,
this program in English.
For those of you who don't know, this
was an initiative that Dr. Asad Ahmed took.
I think it was 1986, 87, late 1980s,
is when he took this initiative where he
said that I'm going to do a program
with Tarawih in which all of what is
recited is going to be translated and explained.
And people are like, you're crazy.
Who's going to watch it?
Who's going to listen to you?
We're going to stay back.
People want to just get the Tarawih over
and done with and leave.
He's like, no, no, no, no.
I want people to understand.
And it's become a movement, um, 30 years
down the road.
There's a lot of people doing it now.
And those who can't do the whole thing
are at least doing summaries.
Um, so this is where it came from.
But of course, again, it was in Urdu.
And then the initiative to do this in
English, Dr. Abdusami did that.
And he, for the reason of this program,
he had to prepare a document in which
this sort of a translation was there.
And so he started the process of translation.
And he consulted, um, whatever English translations he
had at his disposal and whatever Urdu translations
he had at his disposal and explanations in
order to come up with this translation.
And so when he said, just do it,
I'm like, how can I do it?
He's like, here you go.
All you have to do is read out.
I'm like, okay, all I have to do
is read out.
And he handed me all the, all the
documents, um, all the word documents with all
the typos.
And well, his expression of English is very
different.
Um, it's in accordance with his, um, times
and that's not how I speak.
Um, that's not the kind of English, the
English speaking audience or listening audience is used
to.
So there was a lot of, um, there
was a lot of room in that translation
for an upgrade.
And now I couldn't do that upgrade on
my own.
So what I did was that I, um,
consulted whatever English translations I had at my
disposal, whatever Urdu translations and explanations I had
at my disposal, access to an understanding of
at that time, this is back in 2012.
And mostly the resource that I followed was,
um, the, was Dr. Israr Ahmed, his recording
of, I think that recording was from 1998
of the program that he'd done in, uh,
I think it was Karachi and it was
with Taraweeh.
It was the whole, the, what is popularly
known as the Bayan al-Qur'an.
And you find the CDs for that and
the recordings for that under that, um, name.
So I used that, uh, the English translations
that I used were the Sahih International, um,
and Allama Mohammed Asad's Message of the Qur
'an.
These were the two main ones.
Uh, and one was of course the Dr.
Israr Ahmed one.
And then of course I used Urdu translations
as well.
Um, yeah, so that's the, the story.
I will, I did use a little bit
of Mohsin Khan, a little bit of Marmaduke
Bikital.
Bikital, I think that's how you pronounce his
name.
And, um, yeah, that's, those are the main
ones.
Perhaps a few here and there where I
wouldn't, where the expression wouldn't make sense.
So, and yes, what I would do after
that and what has been going on over
the past eight, nine years, um, whatever concept
or explanation that I've understood from another source
of explanation, um, I would incorporate that as
best as I could within that, uh, the
original documents that we prepared.
And, um, the most I would do from
myself if it didn't come from an understanding
or a concept that I picked up from
here or there, or you guys know what
my sources are, uh, or they have been
for the past couple of years, especially, um,
what I would do is I would just
make the, the, the word more relatable.
So I don't think, for example, uh, most
people will be able to relate, relate with
foolish.
You don't really use that that much.
I'm more likely to find idiot relatable.
Um, similarly, I forget what, uh, what usual
translation, how do they translate way?
So, um, I just say, damn them.
Whoa.
Whoa.
To them.
Whoa.
To those.
Whoa.
I mean, you're translating, you're supposed to make
it more relatable.
You're just making it more obscure.
You're using words that people don't speak.
So first you translate and then you translate
your translation.
So I just said, damn them.
Damn it.
These are words we all, we know we
hear.
Um, so that's the most that I would
have done.
And of course the past couple of years,
specifically my, um, studying with Dr. Bassett, and,
uh, through him, the understanding of Iqbal, they
have informed conceptually as well.
So you will find that mostly in the
explanation, um, not really in the translation.
So that's, uh, that's the story of where
the translation.
So yeah, that's that.
So the documents I have right now are,
um, they have those translations and they have
most of my notes.
So when I'm preparing yesterday, for example, for
today, I will go over, I will try
to go over most of what I'm supposed
to talk about today.
I'll review what I have in my notes.
And there's this, uh, there's some other insight
that, that can be shared.
Um, some, some, something that can be simplified
further explained in a different way.
I would just add that to my notes,
um, a quote here or there.
So it's a work in progress.
It's a work in progress.
Okay.
And the translation be shared
depends on, depends on who's asking.
Moving right along.
The last question of the day.
Divorce is something in which both parties, or
at least one has gone through some huge
emotional or psychological damage.
So how in that case is it possible
to part ways beautifully when the separation happened
due to conflicts, arguments, et cetera.
Um, same principle.
So it may well be that you dislike
something and it's good for you.
And it may well be that you like
something and it's bad for you.
So emotionally with all that damage that has
happened, the pain and the distress that you
have undergone, uh, in such a process, one
would be inclined towards even rationalizing that.
No, no, no.
In my case, a beautiful divorce is not
a call for, I am completely justified in
going, making it completely ugly or retaliating.
And it does become challenging, especially of course,
if the other person has absolutely no inclination
towards keeping it beautiful.
Um, then it becomes all the more difficult,
but nevertheless, that a greater challenge, but the
greater the challenge, the greater the polarity between
what you want to do and what you
have to do.
And ability to overcome that polarity or do
what you have to do despite what you
want to do.
Um, being able to sustain that and being
able to, um, meaningfully overcome that is going
to be the difference between growing and not
growing in that whole scenario, right?
And sometimes, yes, it is unsustainable.
We do hope to allow for that to
be forgivable.
It is definitely forgivable.
We ask for his forgiveness throughout the whole
process, but nevertheless, the ideal remains, right?
So I hope that answers at least some
of the questions that most of you put
in.
Um, if there are any others, if there's
further clarification required on, um, what you already
asked, please feel free.
If not, then we conclude.