Yousuf Raza – Ramadan Nights 2021 Day 7
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AI: Transcript ©
Yaqqahu qawlih.
Allahumma anfa'ana bimaAAalamsana waAAalimna ma yamta'ata
wa zidnaAAilmaa.
Allahumma Rabbana zidnaAAilmaa.
Allahumma arina haqeeqata al-ashsha'ika mahee.
Allahumma arina al-haqqa haqqa wa rizqna al
-tiba'a wa arina al-baatil al-baatil
wa rizqna al-jtinaba.
Ameen Ya Rabbil Alameen.
As-salamu alaykum wa rahmatullahi wa barakatuhu.
So we're going to be picking up pace
today inshaAllah.
We will be finishing surah Baqarah and starting
surah Ali Imran.
We do plan on finishing 15 juz inshaAllah
within this month of Ramadan.
Surah Baqarah was a cad's floor, but that
would mean that we can go a little
bit faster in the rest of our sessions
inshaAllah.
Moving right along to the 37th ruku.
And as we've seen from since the conversation
started with Ayatul Kursi, there is more and
more mention of infaq fi sabili nana.
Again remember infaq as opposed to nifaq.
Nifaq is hypocrisy.
Infaq coming from the same root being very
closely tied to the concept of nifaq as
well.
So linguistically the words are similar, yes, and
conceptually they're very similar.
And that hypocrisy being the disease, infaq fi
sabili nana being the prevention.
Now being the prevention, it is not as
we discussed yesterday or in the last session,
is not necessarily have to be.
There is no guarantee.
There is no 100% immunization, if you
will.
You can, given the wrong attitude, still get
infected.
Your infaq can be for all the wrong
reasons.
So regarding that as well as we go
on.
A'udhu Billahi Minash Shaitanir Rajeem.
Ya ayyuha allatheena aamanu anfiqoo min tayjibati ma
kasabatum.
So you who have believed, spend in the
way of Allah.
Spend from what you have, from the pure
things that you've earned, your efforts, your hard
work.
Spend from that.
And of what we have produced for you
from earth.
And do not aim to spend from it
the defective of it.
So when it comes to spending, the crumbs
off your table.
If all of what spending ends up being,
or your charity, your sadaqat in the way
of Allah for others.
If they are taking out the trash from
your own house, giving the worst of what
you have.
Then that says something.
And that says something about priorities.
That says something about how seriously all of
this is being taken.
How important, remember as far as the individual
is concerned.
The spending in the way of Allah, or
spending for others, or spending to support those
in need.
If there is a spiritual goal of it,
for it.
That of personal growth, for the individual's own
growth.
Which has to be kept in mind.
And if keeping that in mind, all that
ends up in charity, is what needs to
be filtered out of your house to begin
with.
What you need to dispense away.
Then there is something really wrong there.
So, And don't aim to spend from it
the defective of it.
You would not have taken it.
Simple standard, you don't know, is this something
I would, is this something worthy of my
spiritual goals.
Is this something worthy of being given to
somebody else.
Would I take it had it been given
to me.
Except with closed eyes.
And know that Allah is Ghani and worthy
of praise.
Again, the attributes of Allah, especially the one
of Him being Ghani.
Him being rich.
Him being, Him having pretty much everything.
Right, and His Ghana being put out as
a reminder.
And His being worthy of praise.
Put in front of us that you are
giving in the way of Allah.
Remember, Him giving you these opportunities despite being
Ghani.
These are opportunities.
So take them as such.
Shaytan threatens you of poverty.
And more than any other phenomenological experience that
we've had or experiences in our own head
that we've had.
This particular demonic experience would stand out.
That when it comes to spending in the
way of Allah.
The thought cycles that begin.
The ideas that start popping into our head.
As to how many other more needs we
have.
That we could put this money to use
for.
So even the very basic charity that we're
doing.
The Zakat that we're giving.
Or the Sadaqat that we are being asked
to give.
As soon as we start reflecting or considering
the possibility of giving.
All the alternate options that open up.
All the needs that just start springing up
in our heads.
And how if we give here or spend
here.
What about those other options?
What about all those other needs?
What about this?
What about that?
What about this expense?
That expense?
The balance sheet opens up in our head.
And typically the balance sheet is headed towards
or the conclusion for the balance sheet is
also drawn.
That there is, you can't give this particular
place or this much.
It's too much.
It's not needed.
You can give it later.
You have these other priorities.
And then you would find that pretty much
the same amount for something frivolous.
That was not on that original list of
needs.
Would just spring out of your pocket and
out.
The thing is bought.
Whatever it is, you've already purchased it.
It didn't take long for you to swipe
on your phone or your credit card or
take the bills out of your wallet.
Without thinking twice about it for something that
you're not even going to need.
Or you're probably not even going to use
a lot.
When it came to charity.
When it came to spending.
When it came to fee sabeelillah.
When it came to infaq.
There was this entire thought process.
The whole balance sheet was drawn.
And the conclusion from the get-go.
When the balance sheet was being drawn.
That I shouldn't spend or I shouldn't give.
When it came to spending in something frivolous.
For something trivial.
For something that you just saw.
While shopping.
Online, whatever.
The whole process didn't exist.
The ideas of faqr or the ideas of
other pressing needs didn't come up.
So shaytan threatens you of poverty.
And commands you to immorality.
So what would you rather do?
And there's one thing that both of these
have in common.
Faqr and fahsha.
Immediate gratification.
They're looking for self-indulgence.
Pingeness.
And fahsha.
Both have that one end in mind.
Self-indulgence, immediate gratification.
Right?
And both of those are essentially destructive.
When it comes to if they become the
norm.
Or the ruling factor.
The main principle around which your decisions are
being made.
And so what does shaytan want?
For you to not grow.
His ends are the exact opposite of what
your Rabb and his Rabbubia has in store
for you or wants for you.
What his ideals are.
Right?
So faqr or threats of faqr or apprehensions
about faqr.
And fahsha would hold you back from all
of those avenues.
And lead for you to self-indulge.
Immediately gratify.
And not grow.
وَاللَّهُ يَعِدُكُم مَغْفِرَةً مِّنْهُ وَفَضْلًا While Allah promises
you His forgiveness and His grace.
The forgiveness and grace from Allah.
Ability to atone or opportunities to atone.
And grow more and more.
وَاللَّهُ وَاسِعٌ عَلِيمٌ And Allah is all-encompassing
and knowing.
يُعْتِلْحِكْمَةَ مَنْ يَشَاءُ He grants wisdom to whoever
He wills.
وَمَنْ يُعْتَلْحِكْمَةَ And whoever is granted wisdom.
فَقَدْ أُوْتِيَ خَيْرًا كَثِيرًا He has definitely been
given a great wealth.
خير in the Quran is utilized to connote
wealth as well.
And here when the conversation about wealth and
spending from your wealth is taking place this
ayah pops up in between.
This ayah about wisdom being a great wealth.
And one of the things that have been
taken out from this placement of this ayah
in this entire context of spending في سبيل
الله is that one way to attain wisdom
hikmah is to be more and more self
-transcendent is to give out more of yourself.
To give out more from you.
To do more.
Infaq في سبيل الله And fadaqat is a
way of nurturing wisdom.
Now what does charity have to do with
wisdom?
For one thing, the more you're giving out
the more you've allowed for yourself to step
out of those vicious cyclical those vicious cycles
of demonic thought.
You've allowed for yourself to step out of
those where most of your thought was in
the service of the stinginess and the fahsha.
Most of your thought was being employed to
rationalize your vested interests.
To rationalize selfishness.
That's all of what it was in the
service of.
Again, your intellect, your reason incredibly potent incredibly
it's what human beings are distinguished on the
basis of, right?
But it can be employed as a tool
towards demonic ends.
When you've started to give out when you've
stepped out of that when you've identified from
within your own self these processes of rationalization
in the as demonic strategies that your own
intellect is being used against you and you're
coming up with all of these excuses for
not giving more, for not giving now.
Right?
And being able to step out of it
being able to give opens those doors for,
okay, now that reason is available for other
ends for more divine ends for more self
-transcendent ends Right?
For that selflessness to be rewarded with wisdom
as a consequence you'll be able to see
that so much of the Quran does not
make sense it does not make sense because
of this demonic economy or demonic economics that
goes on in our head so much of
the Quran does not make sense so much
of what needs to be done self-transcendence
doesn't make sense giving, spending, forgiving all of
that it's completely irrational in that economics and
so unless you take that leap unless you
step out of those circular reasonings you're not
going to be able to make sense of
a whole lot of things you're not going
to be able to see how charity relates
with personal growth how it relates with social
growth how the development of the community is
not going to be happening without giving out
without infaq fee sabeelillah there is going to
be so much that is going on within
the head of that person which is going
to make him ungrateful unable to see others
in pain because they're so caught up in
themselves again we talk about infaq fee sabeelillah
as a cure or as a prevention against
hypocrisy because essentially a hypocritical person is so
caught up with himself that they're unable to
see pain in the world they're unable to
see problems in the world they're unable to
see opportunities of meaning in the world precisely
because all they can see is their own
victimization all they can see is their own
pain all they can see is how they've
always and these terminologies are going to be
used always been unjustly treated how they've always
been deprived how they've always been exploited anything
that there is to be grateful for any
good that's happened to them all of a
sudden gets covered up everything outside and everything
unjust that is done to them that will
be true of course it's selectively picked up
and it has it's made the only experience
or the all-embracing experience and anything that's
going on with anybody else and their needs
and their problems reflexively the thought process that
kicks in yeah well but me I've this
been through this and this and that and
why should I give right so this whenever
a human being sees another in pain or
in need the very spiritual tendency or very
human response to give to help to support
to empathize there is an obstacle in that
path and that obstacle comes from this self
-centeredness that immediately on looking at the other
in need and in pain your own there's
this avalanche of thoughts about my needs, my
pain, my abuse how I've been victimized and
before you know it the other person's pain
is lost it can't even be seen anymore
and you've just lost yourself or thrust yourself
in the midst of of self-victimization of
self-pity and in that entire process justified
and rationalized not giving not empathizing not looking
at the other person's side of the picture
and implicitly or as a as a consequence
of all of that that you end up
doing nothing for anybody else most of your
life becomes all about you all about you
for the most part, for the majority the
earnings, the efforts, everything at maximum it will
extend to children or family at maximum the
rest of the community, the rest of the
society the world is going to * anyways
so to be able to step out of
that these vicious cycles of self-centeredness these
vicious demonic cycles of how you will be
worse off if you were because really giving
out to others makes yourself vulnerable when you
give out to others you are opening the
doors you are making yourself insecure by having
less you are opening yourself up for the
other to look back and say I want
more or this isn't enough or you need
to do more for the other to not
appreciate those possibilities are very much there that
the very people the very community you are
looking to serve they come back at you
they say you are no good you are
not going to find immediate appreciation or gratitude
in response to whatever it is that you
do and you start thinking is it even
worth it?
are these people even worth it?
why should I be giving to them?
so to go back into your cocoon to
go back into that self-centeredness the world
doesn't deserve it nothing is going to change
everything is too bleak everything is too pessimistic
everything is too dark unjust, exploitative they are
doing it worse than I am and we
have all of these people to identify who
are actually doing it worse than we are
وَمَا يَذَّكَّرُوا إِلَّا أُولُوا الْأَلْبَابَ none will learn
a lesson except those who understand وَمَا أَنْفَقْتُمْ
مِنْ نَفَقَةٍ أَوْ نَظَرْتُمْ مِنْ نَظْرٍ whatever you
spend in charity or vow a vow فَإِنَّ
اللَّهَ يَعْلَمُهُ Allah definitely knows it so another
thing that comes up when you do reflect
over okay what is my giving going to
do?
what is little old me and the little
old charity that I have to give in
the face of all the problems in the
world so once you are able to finally
get yourself out of your own crap which
is all the demonic cycle allows you to
see and look around in the world what
you see is that oh my god there
is so much of this crap in other
people in the society in everywhere so what
if I clear a little bit of it
out so what if I help in this
way or that way what difference is that
going to make Allah steps in and says
whatever it is that you spend whatever it
is that you spend فَإِنَّ اللَّهَ يَعْلَمُهُ Allah
knows it Allah knows it that butterfly effect
or to put barakah in that that little
whatever you give foremost for the hikmah that
that opens the doors for you to and
the growth that it allows for you to
attain and then what you can do thereafter
the human resource that is developing within you
and then of course within society in the
long run that is going to clear out
that whatever unsolvable irresolvable issues that you see
in the world فَإِنَّ اللَّهَ يَعْلَمُهُ وَمَا لِلظَّالِمِّينَ
مِنْ أَنصَارٍ and the unjust people they will
get no helper so this bending in the
way of Allah Allah knowing however little it
may be Allah is promising you His help
that whatever you step out for against injustice,
against oppression Allah is with you Allah's help
is with you and when you do it
in the face of injustice and oppression and
you feel that all the help seems to
be with them Allah reassures you وَمَا لِلظَّالِمِينَ
مِنْ أَنصَارٍ the unjust people will get no
helpers إِنْ تُبْدُوا الصَّدَقَاتِ فَنِعْمَاهِ and so if
you give your charity in public it's good
وَإِنْ تُخْفُوهَا وَتُؤْتُوهَا الْفُقَرَاءُ but if you give
it to the poor secretly فَهُوَ خَيْرٌ لَكُمْ
that is better for you that is better
for you spiritually as far as the public
good that comes out of a public charity
that's awesome it motivates others, it inspires but
whatever you do secretly that's good for you
precisely because it's for the most part assisting
you in overcoming you're not serving one selfish
interest for another so spending out in the
way of Allah for the main part for
popularity to be seen and accepted by others
rather than the bigger goal that it promises
can also be dangerous so minding that as
well and having a mix of what's spent
publicly and what's spent secretly وَيُكَفِّرُ عَنْكُمْ مِنْ
سَيِّئَاتِكُمْ and it will remove from you some
of your sins you have سَيِّئَات you've made
mistakes wrongs sins, they're there all over your
balance sheet spending in the way of Allah
helps cover those up under the carpet forgotten
done, dusted وَاللَّهُ بِمَا تَعْمَلُونَ خَبِيرٌ Allah is
aware of all of what you do لَيْسَ
عَلَيْكَ هُدَاهُمْ you are not responsible to guide
them يَا رَسُولَ اللَّهِ وَلَكِنَّ اللَّهَ يَهْدِي مَنْ
يَشَٓىٰ in fact it is Allah who guides
the one who wants to be or the
one who Allah wants to guide again Rasulullah
ﷺ frustration again we're in Medina when these
ayats are being revealed a decade in Mecca
has already passed yet his frustration when people
don't respond, yet his frustration when they don't
see what is so clear to him from
the Qur'an what is so clear to
the Sahaba and so when others don't see
despite him having spent everything on the reform
the guidance at the level of community is
not coming Allah reassures him, Allah consoles him
so see from age 40 all the way
to the revelation of these ayats and then
of course all the way to the passing
away of Rasulullah ﷺ if there is one
word that describes his life is that he
spent everything everything and anything that he had
was spent in the way of Allah was
spent for people to see actually even prior
to age 40 Rasulullah ﷺ was spending for
the good of people for the support of
people when he didn't even have money all
he could do was help somebody out with
their chores, he'd do that if that's all
he could do, he'd do that he wouldn't
let any opportunity go by but that wouldn't
change anything problems were too big for him
to solve and now we're in Medina and
so much of more than two thirds of
the Qur'an has been revealed only a
small pack of believers and it is, it
would get to him and so Allah would
reassure him it is Allah who guides the
one who wants to be guided or the
one Allah wants to guide وَمَا تُنفِقُوا مِنْ
خَيْرٍ فَلِأَنفُسِكُمْ and whatever you spend for charity
it is of benefit to you so as
individuals it is going to it has come
to strengthen you as a community it is
going to come back to your community and
make it grow as counterintuitive as it may
seem it is going to lead to the
development of that community وَمَا تُنفِقُونَ إِلَّا ابْتِغَاءَ
وَالْحِلَّةَ provided you spend with the intent of
pleasing Allah for the pleasure of Allah وَمَا
تُنفِقُوا مِنْ خَيْرٍ يُوَفَّى إِلَيْكُمْ whatever you spend
will be given back to you in full
وَأَنتُمْ لَا تُظْلَمُونَ and you will not be
treated unjustly in the hereafter yes, but we
know for a fact that more and more
charity means more and more a stronger community,
a stronger economy even لِلْفُقَرَاءِ الَّذِينَ أُحْسِرُوا فِي
سَبِيلِ اللَّهِ charity is for the needy who
are engaged so much in the cause of
Allah لَا يَسْتَطِعُونَ ضَرْبًا فِي الْأَرْضِ that they
cannot move about in the land to earn
their livelihood particularly the أَصْحَابُ الصُّفْحَة the people
of the bench this is the University of
Medina at the time of Rasulullah ﷺ where
these group of people who have committed and
dedicated themselves to learn from Rasulullah ﷺ for
the most part of the day and all
of what they would do is learn from
Rasulullah ﷺ Abu Huraira ﷺ being one of
them Hazrat Ali ﷺ being one of them
for the longest part as well and all
they're looking to do is learn learn Qur
'an learn the application of Qur'an learn
how Rasulullah ﷺ deals with everybody and this
committing that internalizing that and they were to
become later the teachers of the Ummah and
we owe it to their sacrifice our civilization
for the past 14 centuries what it has
given us what it has given the entire
world owes itself to this group of people
having dedicated themselves to doing just this learning
from Rasulullah ﷺ being in his vicinity for
the most part of their day and when
they have made this commitment then they cannot
go around earning their livelihood they cannot so
the responsibility for their maintenance for their care
falls on Rasulullah ﷺ as the head of
the community and as members of that community
encouragement is to give in the way of
Allah the zakat and the sadakat such that
Rasulullah ﷺ can help them better can facilitate
them can maintain their needs better Abu Huraira
ﷺ he goes around one day stricken with
hunger so this learning from Rasulullah ﷺ as
part of that group means a lot of
hunger means a lot of meals being skipped
not having seen the fire lit in your
own house for days and so Abu Huraira
ﷺ one day couldn't keep couldn't maintain it
it was just getting too much the hunger
was getting to him and he's not going
to go around and beg either he's not
going to go ask anybody that I need
money he's the integrity the khuddari as we
say is such that he wouldn't do that
but then again hunger is increasing so he
goes out to Umar ﷺ and he recites
this ayah 273 and he says what do
you think this ayah means and Hazrat Umar
just had a nice discussion with him on
that ayah I think it's talking about these
people and that people and we should be
giving out in the way of Allah that's
that interesting, thank you and he moves on
he goes to Hazrat Abu Bakr ﷺ again,
what do you think this ayah means and
Abu Bakr goes into talking about that ayah
as to what it means and what he
thinks it means and how it should apply
and all of that and then he's like
okay and then he moves on finally to
Rasulullah ﷺ he's like Ya Rasulullah what does
this ayah mean and Rasulullah ﷺ does not
give him a dars or does not respond
with an explanation or a tafsir of the
ayah, he smiles instead and he asks for
a pot of milk to be brought which
was probably given by somebody and when it
is brought and Abu Hurairah is the one
bringing it Rasulullah ﷺ does not tell him
to drink from it straight out although he
is waiting for that, he couldn't want anything
more, he says bring the rest of the
Sahaba Sufiyah here as well and Abu Hurairah
is like I mean come on, you can't
do this to me, you've seen and you
know and you know it's a small pot,
I mean how much but he's like okay
if you say so and he didn't say
all of that he wouldn't say all of
that but you can it is what he
was thinking as he tells us in the
hadith himself he brings the rest of them
out and Rasulullah ﷺ says first them and
he's thinking to himself it's not going to
be enough all of them are going to
drink before I do, there's so many of
them, what about me but he listens and
obeys he does as Rasulullah ﷺ says and
he passes it around and finally his turn
comes and he is sure there's not going
to be enough and Rasulullah ﷺ says drink
and he drinks and he drinks and then
he's full and Rasulullah ﷺ says drink more
and he continues to drink and there is
enough in there and he continues to drink
to the point that he's full, Rasulullah ﷺ
says drink more and he says that's it
I can't drink anymore I am full for
however many hours or days he was hungry
he was full from that cup of Rasulullah
ﷺ even after having given from it freely
تَعْرِفُهُمْ بِسِيمَاهُمْ لَا يَسَطِّعُونَ بَرْبًا فِي الْأَرْضِ يَحْسَبُهُمُ
الْجَاهِلُ أَغْنِيَآءَ مِنَ التَّعَفُفِ the ignorant one thinks
that they are well because of their restraint
جاهل is a very interesting word in Arabic
it is usually the one who is ignorant
and it's probably a good idea to look
at جاهل as we just spoke about hikmah
and how charity opens the doors to wisdom
how charity allows for a person to be
granted wisdom and how does that work جاهل
is not just ignorant, جاهل is one overridden
by emotions جاهل is one who is overridden
by emotions and emotions tend to be very
very instinctive, very very self-centered right, and
so when you are overridden by self-centered,
instinctive emotions, you're caught up in yourself, you're
not able to see around you you're not
able to see the pain around you you're
not able to see the needs of others,
so you really have to be your ignorance
is compounded with self-centeredness and empathy giving
charity becomes all the more difficult تعرفهم بسيمهم
you can only recognize them by their signs,
لا يسألون الناس الحافة, they don't ask from
people persistently, they're not gonna beg, they're not
gonna latch onto their feet and insist we
need, we need, give, give, give, give, give
more, more, more, more, more, no if somebody
sees that they're in need as they should
be able to and this is again speaking
so much of what kind of a community
the Qur'an envisions in which people don't
have to go around asking yet the members
of that community the privileged members of the
community should be concerned so as to know
that they would need, that this would be
of use to them or benefit to them
وما تنفقوا من خير and whatever of wealth
you spend إِنَّ اللَّهَ بِهِ عَلِيمٌ Allah knows
for sure الَّذِينَ يُنفِقُونَ أَمْوَالَهُمْ بِاللَّيْلِ وَالنَّهَارِ so
those who spend their wealth by night and
day سِرًّا وَعَلَانِيًّا both secretly and openly فَلَهُمْ
أَجْرُهُمْ عِندَ رَبِّهِمْ their reward is with their
Rab وَلَا خَوْفٌ عَلَيْهِمْ وَلَا هُمْ يَحْسَنُونَ these
are the people who have nothing to fear
nor grieve الَّذِينَ يَأْكُلُونَ الرِّبَاءُ those who consume
Riba so the best thing that you can
do with your wealth is spending in the
way of Allah right and we're gonna find
out in later parts of the Mus'haf
as we read but then those parts have
been revealed already in the Makkan Quran that
you don't spend beyond your spiritual capacity either
that you end up spending so much that
you're not able to maintain yourself after that
and maintain yourself economically yes but then also
spiritually with respect to your attitude maintain that
positivity or maintain that acceptance or maintain that
sabbah that is necessitated in the aftermath of
having given out right so there is that
balance for sure nevertheless the best thing you
can do with your wealth is spending in
the way of Allah then there is the
worst thing that you can do with your
wealth and that is to give money to
those in need and then ask them or
mandate them to give you back on interest
with interest that would be the best way
for a selfish person to proceed or that
makes sense or if your principle of economics
is self interest you can do with your
wealth whatever the * you want to right
but then that is the worst thing you
can possibly do when it comes to your
spirituality when it comes to your community so
الذين يأكلون الربا those who consume لا يقومون
they will not stand إلا كما يقوم الذي
يتخبطه الشيطان من المس except as those whom
Shaytan has driven to insanity by his touch
again relating to all of what we spoke
about what a جاهل overridden by instinctive emotions
what the common underlying principle that we spoke
about that فحشاء and يعدكم الفقر have self
interest and self interest and interest they have
a lot in common as well that all
you're looking when you're making money off of
money exploiting another person's needs at that time
looking to put them further in trouble or
because on the face of it you're saying
okay I'll help you out but really you're
not helping them out you're making them poorer
in the long run by giving them by
lending them by loaning them at that point
so in the long run you end up
richer they end up even poorer that's the
worst thing that's that can possibly be done
so Shaytan driving you to insanity and quite
honestly we can see it in the society
around us that this is as self centered
as humanity has gotten perhaps in its entire
history maybe in pre scripture days in pre
Abrahamic days you would see this level of
self centeredness and this self centeredness being passed
around or glorified as individualism that's incredible but
we haven't seen a more self centered society
and self centeredness does come with its own
baggage of diagnostic categories of neurotic and psychotic
disorders it does it is at the root
of it and it's self centeredness which is
so socially prevalent it is so ingrained within
the society that if an individual is stricken
by it and will necessarily be stricken by
it in the 21st century can you really
blame them the wisest thing to do the
smartest thing to do is to understand the
instinctive tendency within the demonic tendency within the
instinct for self interest of course self interest
is necessary for self preservation but when Shaytan
touches it his golden touch then the exponential
growth of that self interest it's not just
for self preservation anymore it is for being
incredibly greedy for being incredibly self centered to
the exclusion of anything selfless or self transcendent
and so doors to insanity really have opened
up doors to completely losing it and not
being able to see reality in front of
you.
Imagine the best example of it how manipulative
somebody who is always speaking out drugs how
they become that if you're a heroin addict
if you have been biologically hooked onto a
constantly increasing need of heroin what that person
can do literally that person can murder to
get their supply they would lie they would
start selling off the properties or the belongings
of their parents of their household, of their
siblings of whoever they can get their hand
they will steal this is what somebody told
me that a heroin addict and this was
a former heroin addict he would say that
if within our circles, within our junkie circles
this thing is prevalent that if a junkie
has to sell his grandmother's eyes to get
his dose, he will he will and again
without any personal judgment without any individual judgment
because there are so many different factors that
lead a person to be in the midst
of it nobody wants to be there to
begin with and to be honest it starts
off when you're so young and naive that
what kind of blame or judgment can you
really put out there but it is a
social judgment it is something that our society
has inflicted upon us this pleasure worshiping this
hedonistic culture that has developed within the modern
times and then only made worse in post
-modern times what do we have to speak
for ourselves?
Quite honestly being a junkie being a heroin
addict always going at the drug that being
the center of your life makes sense given
the hedonistic logic given the self-centered logic
and interest is economically what heroin is psychologically
or biologically even the way heroin hits the
dopamine centers boom and you're blinded to everything
else and all we want to do is
more more more more more more of this
money does that too in the form of
interest it can have that effect and for
that to lead for the society to be
more and more manipulative to be more and
more exploitative that it is in corporate interest
and it becomes a corporate value it becomes
a business value to exploit others to take
advantage of other people's misery it is mind
-boggling how we've been able to achieve that
people talk about how awesome the west is
how incredibly ethical the people in the west
are and that is true as well that's
a contrast that would spring in your face
when you move from east to west you
will see all of that and in the
hospitals and you will see all of that
but what we don't see is that the
unethical the unbridled exploitation the way it has
found its way in the very foundations of
the economic structures of the society it is
inescapable it is inescapable and somebody somewhere is
suffering because of it even if it is
that somebody happens to be a child in
Somalia and with all of what we look
to do with our charity without addressing this
essentially hedonistic economic principle our charity is only
reinforcing poverty if it doesn't do something about
this so all of what it does is
the nice ethical good people in society they
have distractions they have all of these avenues
to make themselves feel good while the system
the economic system with its incredible complexities is
sucking the blood out of a great chunk
of the population of humanity and we need
to be very clear here a simple chanting
of slogans get rid of interest is not
going to work it didn't work we've been
chanting these slogans for so many decades now
the best of our scholars have been chanting
these slogans the best of what we could
produce in our Mudarrasin of Quran have been
chanting these slogans but enough with the chanting
of slogans if the chanters of slogans if
they haven't been able to see reality for
what it is the complexities within the system
that you necessarily have to dive into understand
and make a real effort which is going
to last a lifetime every single one of
us knows whichever field we belong to whether
it's economics or psychology or psychiatry or whatever
that if we really open ourselves up open
our eyes get out of our own selves
or our own selfish interests that our professions
are giving us and see and look to
resolve and address the issues of our particular
fields it is a lifetime at least a
lifetime so deep seeded are those issues and
that is true for when you speak about
this economic principle this economic value it's a
business value as well laa yaqoomuna illa kama
yaqoomu allathee yatakhabbatuhu shaytaanu minal maas thalika bi
annahum qaalu that is because they say innama
albay'u mithluh riba trade is just like
riba absolutely amazing how you will find this
as with a lot of economic jargon with
a lot of company policy all of what
you you know the covers you can put
on it this one statement has become a
norm in the world that you live in
wa ahalla allahu albay'a wa harrama alriba
but Allah has permitted trading while He has
forbidden riba Allah's response to that logic is
not even getting into it you want me
to reason out why this statement is messed
up Allah says I don't even want to
get into it this is haram this is
halal just take it as such as for
the immediate addressees in Medina of course this
is sufficient it's what Allah says the world
we're living in of course the addressees are
not people who believe in the Quran so
innama albay'u mithluh riba or how trade
is not like riba is open for discussion
it has to be put out there it
has to be delineated how is it different
I don't know how it's different I'm not
an economist I don't know the first thing
about business if I did I'd be doing
a whole lot better at it but for
the very basic that I can muster trade
involves risk riba doesn't riba doesn't interest doesn't
it's guaranteed it is certain growth and risk
entailing choices offer growth psychologically speaking risk
free choices certain definitive choices in which you
are absolutely clear as to what will come
out of it in the short run they
promise maintaining what you have and maintaining what
you have eventually leads to stagnation wherever there
is risk there is possibility of growth there
is possibility of loss as well and from
a psychological standpoint that loss that suffering open
further doors for growth it is as important
in interest you don't have any of that
in a risk free absolutely certain choice the
pursuit of absolute certainty leads to obsessionality a
perfectionism which is impractical within psychology I'm pretty
sure it's going to have a similar output
in economics but I can't say the other
extreme within an economic dealing that of an
incredible amount of risk so when you talk
about bai'a or trade or business compared
to riba trade would be somewhere along the
middle of the continuum in terms of risk
how much risk is involved interest involving no
risk trade involving a considerable risk, business involving
a considerable risk, but then there is gambling
where there is a whole lot of risk
both ends both extremes of this continuum are
as we know those avenues are shut off,
those avenues are closed or they're supposed to
be they're the destruction of the community and
the business route is more and more encouraged
but of course when you become more and
more spiritual business is frowned upon business or
economic pursuits are anti spiritual or aspiritual, they're
like sexuality like they're a compulsion you gotta
do it because you gotta live it's not
encouraged it's not the best thing to do
and lo and behold the world that we're
living in all the spiritual people are so
caught up in their spirituality and the clouds
of spirituality that they've smoked up around themselves
that they have no idea what's going on
in the business sector when Hazrati Umar got
furious at the people in the masjid just
staying in the masjid and not going to
the marketplace, what are you doing and before
we know it we have no place in
the marketplace we're the beggars in the marketplace
we're like dependent on people's crumbs we're too
spiritual for the marketplace, that's not an achievement
that's a tragedy and that's a tragedy brought
about in the name of God, in the
name of spirituality, how does that make sense
how does that make any sense but it
does make sense for that monastic ascetic for
all our scholarship religious and spiritual leadership they
pride themselves for having nothing to do with
any economic or business matter whatsoever and only
having to do the minimal with it and
so then they start catching up in desperation
with all forms of Islamic banking coming up
and Islamic finance and Islamic economics a little
too late a little too late, too superficial
and what are we left with what we
see here repeatedly in Surah Al-Baqarah if
there's anything that you get from this chunk
that we're going to talk about today is
how central economics is for a spiritual growth
if the Quran is advocating spending spending, it
is not advocating asceticism and monasticism it is
not advocating you just have nothing to do
with business whatsoever, the longest ayah in the
Quran as we're going to see is about
business matters وَأَخَلُّ اللَّهُ الْبَيْعَ وَخَرَّمَ الْرِبَاءَ فَمَنْ
جَاءَهُ مَوْعِظَةٌ مِنْ رَبِّهِ فَانْتَهَا so now the
one who receives admonition from his Rabb and
desist he can retain his previous gains وَأَمْرُهُ
إِلَى اللَّهِ and his case is referred to
Allah وَمَنْ عَادَ while the one who repeats
this فَأُولَئِكَ أَصْحَابُ النَّارِ these are the people
of the hellfire يَمْحَقُ اللَّهُ الْرِبَاءَ وَيُرْبِي الصَّدَقَاتِ
Allah deprives the riba of all blessings and
he allows charities to flourish and grow وَاللَّهُ
لَا يُحِبُّ كُلَّ كَفَارٍ أَثِيمٍ and Allah does
not like any ungrateful sinner إِنَّ الَّذِينَ آمَنُوا
وَأَمِلُوا الصَّالِحَاتِ and definitely those who believe and
act righteously وَأَقَامُوا الصَّلَاةَ وَآتُوا الزَّكَاةَ and establish
prayer and give zakah لَهُمْ أَجْرُهُمْ عِنْدَ رَبِّهِمْ
these are the people, for them exclusively is
a reward with their رَبْ وَلَا خَوْفٌ عَلَيْهِمْ
وَلَا هُمْ يَحْزَنُونَ and they have nothing to
fear nor grieve خوف and حزن as essential
consequences of a self-centered hedonistic interest-based
society قَرْبٍ
مِّنَ اللَّهِ وَرَسُولِ then this is an announcement
of war from Allah and His Messenger وَإِن
تُبْتُمْ and if you repent فَلَكُمْ رُؤُسُوا أَمْوَالِكُمْ
you can retain your principal amount again, the
analogy of how self-centered this entire phenomena
is the Quran the most heinous analogy imaginable
is taking up swords against Allah and His
Messenger.
That essentially Riba is announcing war.
It's like you don't care for Allah and
His Messenger.
You've taken up a sword.
Everything that Allah and Rasulullah stand for is
anti-Riba and in being pro-Riba, you've
drawn a sword against them.
Right?
That's how much invested Allah and Rasulullah are
in economic matters.
And silence is complicit.
Even if you haven't actively taken a sword
against them, the best of your scholars, their
silence for the best part of the past
couple of centuries, that's criminal.
That is criminal.
That there is a group of people who
have their swords out against Allah and Rasulullah
and then there's a group of scholars sitting
right next to this battlefield and being Allah,
Allah, Allah, Allah.
What does that look like?
What does that look like?
They have nothing to offer.
No signs.
Not sitting on the fence.
If you're doing tasbih, if you're doing durood,
you don't know what this is going on.
The analogy that Rasulullah draws, the levels of
Riba and the sin that it is, when
we talk about sexuality, * is the most
selfish or along the selfish end of the
spectrum of sexuality.
Self-centered.
Having a sexual relationship with one's mother takes
that to a whole different level.
That's how heinously, how sickeningly self-centered Riba
is.
Again, the connection.
الشيطان يععدكم الفقر ويأمركم بالفحشاء الشيطان يععدكم الفقر
ويأمركم بالفحشاء الفحشاء and the فقر, how they
come together again here within these analogies as
well.
فأذنوا بخرب من الله ورسوله وإن سبتم and
if you repent فلكم رؤوسوا موالكم you can
retain your principal amount لا تظلمون ولا تظلمون
do not exploit and you will not be
exploited وإن كان ذو عسرة and if the
debtor is in a financial constraint فنظرة إلى
ما يسرى grant him time until it is
easy for him to pay وأن تصدقوا and
if you remit out of charity let it
go altogether خير لكم إن كنتم تعلمون it
is better for you if you really came
to know واتقوا يوما ترجعون فيه إلى الله
and be fearful of the day when you
would all be brought back to Allah ثم
توفى كل نفس ما كسبت and then each
individual will be paid in full whatever he
had earned وهم لا يظلمون and they will
not face any injustice very quickly the couple
of things that we've spoken about with respect
to interest just add to that one more
thing and that when interest is spoken of
within these passages it is being contrasted with
trade yes but we always also spoke about
the in fact في سبيل الله how charity
the practice of charity within the society and
how the practice of charity within the society
is reflective of Allah's being ذو الفضل Allah
being the one who is gracious right the
practice of charity is reflective of a divine
attribute being embodied in a human being or
in a human society right and what is
that practice it is a willingness to give
to empower to lead to the growth of
the other that is a divine principle that
is a love habit what he wants to
do and so the encouragement of charity we
have seen in these ayat is always followed
up with attributes of Allah of him being
Ghani of him being ذو الفضل of his
father of him being Hamid and so a
believing community a spiritual community looking to develop
these attributes within themselves and in this context
we look context we look at uh interest
or riba and we see how this is
the antithesis of that divine grace where riba
would then be pharaonic it would be exploitative
it would be exact opposite it would look
to achieve the exact opposite of what charity
looks to achieve where charity looks to empower
and lead the other to grow from the
giving of the self interest looks to make
the self grow more and more at the
expense of the other and that's the words
with which it is um criticize the words
with which it is one of the most
if not the most heinous crimes practically that
can be committed in a society the second
contrast we spoke about the risk of being
born and it is unfair to say that
the the the interest um base transaction is
completely risk-free it is probably better to
say that the risk is born only by
one party and that is the one who
has to pay the interest the one giving
or loaning the money completely risk-free no
problem at all it's the imbalance there that
that is concerning anyways moving right along you
who have believed when you contract a debt
for a fixed period write it down and
let a scribe write it down with justice
between you and the scribe should not refuse
to write as he has been taught by
Allah so he must write let one who
incurs the liability that is the debtor dictate
the terms and conditions and he must observe
the taqwa of Allah his Rab now interesting
how the ability to read and write is
Allah takes it uh to himself obviously you
didn't take tutorship from Allah but it was
the development of a potential which was an
endowment from Allah which was a specifically human
endowment something that characterizes and distinguishes human beings
this uh ability to read and write how
Allah takes it and refers to it as
something that he has taught and he should
not diminish anything from it but if one
who incurs the liability is not mentally sound
or is weak or for some other reason
is unable to dictate by himself it is
guardian dictate with justice get two witnesses from
your own men to witness such transactions but
if the two men are not available then
a man and two women from those who
you approve as witnesses that if one of
the two women forgets then the other can
remind her and the witnesses must not refuse
when they are summoned and do not be
lazy in writing down for its fixed period
whether the account amount is small or big
that is closer to justice in the sight
of Allah and also more solid as evidence
and more convenient to prevent doubts again when
you're uh thinking about what may have happened
how much I owe how much he owes
me or she owes me whatever the case
may be when you are reconstructing memories from
just from your from your head and you
don't have any written account it is very
likely that those that they're going to be
colored that you're going to eventually end up
thinking that you owe less and the other
owes more because memories are not pictures they're
reconstructed and we know that and the process
of reconstruction of memories uh within human beings
is very biased in favor of the one
reconstructing the memory right so given that given
those tendencies uh writing it out and developing
a whole system of writing it out is
what is advocated except
if it's a commercial transaction which is concluded
on the spot which you deal with one
another there is no blame on you if
you don't write it and do have someone
as witness whenever you settle a commercial deal
and let no harm be done to the
scribe or witness and if you do so
it will be an act of transgression on
your part and observe the and Allah teaches
you and Allah knows everything so this was
ayah number 282 the longest ayah in the
Quran hands down there is no longer ayah
in the Quran it is not talking about
salah it is not talking about hajj it
is not talking about saum it is not
talking about jihad it is not talking about
the love of Rasulullah sallallahu alayhi wasallam it
is not talking about tabligh it is not
talking about um or the establishing of the
deen of Allah it is not talking about
any of the priorities that are seen within
the religious people today it is not talking
about any of them it is talking about
a purely economic routine business worldly matter right
and we look back at our religious endeavors
our religious scholarship over the past century particularly
and we do not see this priority reflected
we're always playing catch-up we're always always
found lagging in these affairs always to our
own detriment to our incredible detriment anyone who
is concerned about these matters anyone within the
muslim societies who really wants to do something
genuine for the economic growth and betterment of
muslim countries muslim societies or the world at
large if he is a muslim typically typically
he would be looked upon as a secular
muslim and he would not hail from a
religious background maybe a muslim muslim but he's
not muslim muslim that's that's the standard we're
going to see whereas those who are muslim
muslim in appearance and background and scholarship and
learning and teaching and all of that would
have very little to offer here again we've
been talking about this repeatedly from the very
beginning but this projection of spirituality these dualistic
hermeneutics as i as i phrase them how
do you make sure that the scripture which
has a reformative potential which has a potential
for community building for bringing people closer for
empowering them for justice for order for truth
for all of that how do you take
that potential away from it subjected to dualistic
lenses dualistic lenses how in which there's this
other world there is this afterlife and it
is absolutely superior and then there is this
life and then there is the the trivialities
of this life the frivolities of this life
the the vile evil character of this life
and then you will find this advocacy of
this dualism using scripture using ayat using a
hadith out of context in context whatever the
case may be just to reinforce that dualism
just to reinforce more and more people cutting
themselves off in the name of spirituality so
while the world was um making money and
becoming more and more economically stable interest-based
economies or otherwise we were busy building our
akhira really what kind of an akhira can
you really build at the cost of the
community at least the sense that the quran
has given us so far 282 ayat into
it plus the seven from fatiha this does
not seem to be the religiosity that it's
advocating this anti-world anti-dunya religiosity it's
incredible the efforts of the religious and spiritual
efforts of rasulullah salallahu alayhi wasalam they changed
the economic structure and practices of the arabs
for times to come where muslims would become
leaders in in trade in in finance in
developing these preliminary commandments to entire systems that
was the result of his efforts what's the
result of our efforts over the past couple
of centuries or even past couple of decades
what have we done what have we done
and then if we criticize this incredible negligence
this criminal negligence then it is seen as
being anti-scholarship or religious scholars are being
attacked or religious people are being attacked or
i don't know islam is being attacked who's
responsible for this criminal negligence and who do
we have to blame and then we come
up with oh no no we're not ascetic
we're not monastic we've done this we've done
that we take economics seriously we do we
take this financial matter seriously what effect what
effect oh you know the world that we're
living in and there's like these jewish conspiracies
and there's israel and there's musad and there's
america and wow really you want to whine
now that's the best you have we're going
to defend our irresponsible behavior our criminal negligence
and pretty soon after this with this blaming
of when these conspiracy theories not to say
there's no truth to them i'm sure there
is we know there is but that completely
irrelevant there's nothing more than an excuse in
the context of the conversation pretty soon the
second excuse start coming up oh you know
we're living in the end of times and
the whole end of times narrative is going
to start oh the prophet sallallahu alayhi wa
sallam how dare you really how dare you
bring the name of prophet sallallahu alayhi wa
sallam and his ahadith to defend this criminal
behavior seriously oh no the mahdi is going
to come and you know the mahdi is
going to if we can't really do anything
until he comes then why don't you commit
suicide really kill yourselves off what use are
you if you're utterly useless without the mahdi
you freaking waste of oxygen burden on the
face of this planet oh you know nuh
alayhi salam worked for 950 years and he
didn't stop whining stop whining we're not
gonna do anything we're not gonna get off
our backsides we're not gonna take any responsibility
whatsoever could it be more obvious when
you're not even allowed to say anything this
is allah teaching allah teaching you economics and
then trusting you to take it forward and
you don't in his name how do you
defend that how do you defend that who's
going to take responsibility for the largest percentage
of a religious population which is economically illiterate
who's going to take responsibility that the best
part of your scholarship has nothing intelligent to
say in these areas at all forget about
and if it is in any way intelligent
it's inconsequential and what's worse is that there
are no practical efforts that you can cite
that are taking place to make up for
it because whatever two and a half neurons
you have left in your brain are spent
in rationalizing justifying and coming up with excuses
for this criminal negligence it's incredible and those
excuses happen to be religious where did
this conversation start from ayatul kursi where is
this conversation going to end last two ayats
of surah baqarah what is bracketed between them
entirely economic affairs why doesn't that show in
your priorities why doesn't your tawhid that emanates
from ayatul kursi that you recite after every
prayer and your imaniyat in the
prophets and your whatever you get from that
dua that baqarah concludes with and how you
recite that every night before going to bed
why is your economic practice not bracketed between
that what's wrong you want to be nice
and no not critical you should be positive
you can be cynical but if you are
traveling and you cannot find a scribe then
a security deposit it should be taken and
if one of you entrusts the other then
the trustee must deliver the trust to its
owner and he must observe the taqwa of
allah and do not conceal the testimony for
sure his heart is sinful and allah knows
whatever you do allah alone belongs whatever is
in the heavens and whatever is on the
earth that's another thing that this sort of
a demonic economy precludes allah's right of ownership
because within this demonic economy is an open
proclamation of absolute human ownership absolute human
ownership and we don't care not
that when allah claims ownership he doesn't deprive
humans of any right rather his claim to
ownership practically he says regard that mind it
know it and for that reason these couple
of instructions that you have to constrain yourselves
in these few principles and then the structure
develops from those principles with the application of
the human mind spiritually rooted in those principles
but an activity of of the human mind
nevertheless why would we apply a human mind
and the mind is inferior the mind reason
yes because in parallel to this um to
this criminal negligence of not having done anything
in this in this sphere in this department
that's not the only department there's pretty much
every other uh department of society of social
life that we're responsible whether it's psychology or
sociology or it's politics you name it there's
criminal negligence everywhere this criminal negligence is backed
up by or in parallel to it is
this discourage this discouragement or this um this
condescension for the usage of aqal that the
best part of your time and your sermons
and your aqal even is spent in talking
about how deviant aqal can be how lowly
aqal is it's pretty incredible or a quran
which is rife with so you're
spending most of your time guessing aqal pretty
incredible to allah alone belongs whatever is in
the heavens and the earth whether you expose
what is within you or you keep it
secret allah will bring you to account for
it another symbolic validation to economic matters comes
in the language that the quran uses the
quran the quranic metaphor is very economic reward
punishment loss profit there is a lot of
and we've seen this throughout allah prides himself
in being one of his attributes allah will
bring you to account for it then he
will pardon he will forgive whoever he wants
and he punishes whoever he wants and allah
has power over everything last two ayats that
follow that surah baqarah closes with that this
discussion closes with the only two ayats which
are neither nor madani technically because rasool allah
was neither in mecca nor medina even though
that's where he spent the entirety of his
life he wasn't in either of those two
cities when these ayats were revealed and to
understand the significance of these ayats we cannot
take them away from the seerah of rasool
allah or where rasool allah was at the
time of the revelation of these ayats when
rasool allah sallallahu alayhi wasallam is really with
the the part that we read in baqarah
the point where when it comes where the
prophet and the people with him say matanas
for allah it was that bleak it was
that dark in mecca at that time where
if rasool allah was ever going to say
that that was the time that was the
time where he spent a decade with the
quran with the best of the quran being
revealed and the worst of the quraish coming
in response in the abuses that they hurled
at him in the criticisms that they hurled
at him in the tortures that they subjected
him and the sahabah to the the social
boycott of the entire clan of banu hashim
has just happened it's just barely finished a
pain that not just the muslims but everyone
of the banu hashim has been subjected bubalib
included of where they were literally literally forced
to eat leaves they didn't have enough food
a whole lot of abuses and then to
cap that off rasool allah sallallahu alayhi wasallam
rasool allah sallallahu alayhi wasallam loses the greatest
emotional financial social spiritual support
that he had in the form of khadija
love of his life the one who believed
in him when he did not believe in
himself when he thought he was becoming something
of a poet or that this was some
jinn or seher and he might as well
just jump off the mountain he acknowledges experiencing
all of this he took him in her
arms in her lap and said no this
can't be anything evil because it's you she
gave him the emotional support that he needed
at that time she gave him all the
justifications from his own character to reassure him
at that time where he was thoroughly shaken
up shaken up an entire night spent in
panic and anxiety and she was the one
holding him where she she doesn't stop there
she goes to every end possible to make
him believe in himself he takes him to
warqab and nafs he gets his testimony warqab
is bringing his knowledge of christianity his knowledge
of the bible to affirm rasool allah sallallahu
alayhi wasallam there's an experience with the coming
of jibreel in her presence and rasool allah
is not sure is this a jinn is
this an angel what is this what am
i seeing what am i experiencing why is
this happening to me he takes off her
shirt as a demonstration is he still here
no he's gone see he's an angel he
was a jinn he would have stayed and
everything every single penny that she had was
at his disposal already but then it is
now in the in the way of of
islam stands by him like a rock only
yielding for 10 years you can imagine pretty
much everything that went around in those 10
years she was there when abu lahab said
what he said when rasool allah sallallahu alayhi
wasallam came out in public he had her
to go back to to reassure him to
reinforce him to strengthen him to support him
when yassin and sumayya were killed martyred he
had her to go back to when he
is witnessing the torture of bilal when he
is witnessing the of every single taqabi he
had her to go back to and come
year 10 he doesn't have her to go
back to abu talib's support is ensuring that
rasool allah sallallahu alayhi wasallam is not killed
by anyone in the quraish because abu talib
has his hand on his back as a
mushrik abu talib is gone it's only a
matter of time before rasool allah sallallahu alayhi
wasallam becomes open game hunting season who's the
target who are we hunting he comes back
from taif the worst experience of his life
stoned stoned to unconsciousness led by
street urchins by the bad boys from the
street and before that the abuses from the
leaders of taif he doesn't have khadija to
hold him in her arms tell him it's
okay that it will be okay he doesn't
have abu talib to say don't worry the
quraish are not going to lay a hand
on him he doesn't have that when he
comes back from taif he doesn't have that
so who takes him in his arms who
tells him don't worry allah that's when mirage
happens surah yusuf comes around that time too
but the reassurance necessary the consolation is necessary
that is necessary at that time is such
that standard revelation won't do allah
revealing to rasool allah on earth as incredible
as that is it won't do he wants
them his home and this is what he
gives them for the first phrase it is
a certificate of his iman having been accepted
the prophet believed to get that certificate he
had to go through all of what he
went through that his iman has been accepted
because honestly and we see
this within the quran the reassurance the consolation
that he's getting repeatedly all of the vile
evil that he saw despite all of that
his his humility was such that he would
always fall back on himself did i do
something wrong am i not doing this right
am i required to do anything more and
the quran comes down and says no no
no you're okay they are idiots they are
the vermin of the earth they are the
quran has to come down and tell rasool
allah that you're okay it's them and so
for him to get that certificate of iman
the messenger believed and the messenger believed why
because the messenger for the first part did
not believe when he experienced revelation and hira
as we just spoke about he didn't think
he was getting revelation his humility didn't let
him get there but he had to really
overcome that obstacle he was entertaining doubts about
his own prophethood at the onset of revelation
and then he did believe and boy did
he believe when allah acknowledges and certifies that
his belief is true he believed what was
sent to him from his rab as did
the mu'minun so he not only gets a
certificate for himself he gets a certificate for
all the sahaba and when you go back
there you tell them that allah testifies that
they believed who did they believe in all
of them believed in allah see for a
people who are constantly suspicious of their faith
and productively so proactively so because they know
not everyone who says is actually believing and
testifying they know the possibility of hypocrisy they're
people of quran if there ever were people
of quran for them to get this reassurances
they all believed in allah and his angels
and his books this is not a fabrication
of your mind this is not a projection
of your desires this is what it means
to them because they would be suspicious of
themselves and they would be constantly constantly looking
to do more they believe in his angels
his books his messengers saying that we do
not distinguish any of his messengers in the
sense of and rejecting one that he is
not a messenger he's half a messenger no
messengers of allah they're all messengers of allah
that they've taken ownership of that entire legacy
culminating with rasulullah sallallahu alayhi wasallam and the
lives that they have lived testify that they
are the true inheritors of those prophets they
did not distinguish they did not make less
of any messenger because really when you take
rasulullah sallallahu alayhi wasallam out of the picture
and you have professed faith in others there
is a necessary question what is it that
you believe of belief of rasulullah and his
claim that he's made when you're accepting rasulullah
sallallahu alayhi wasallam and there is truth that
you see in christianity or judaism or any
other religion for that matter is perfectly fine
because we verify that truth that is our
truth that is our legacy but how do
you when you reject rasulullah sallallahu alayhi wasallam
what is it that you say how do
you explain the truths that he brought and
rejecting his truths what does that say of
your truths and they always call upon allah
saying we listen and we obey this is
a free man's submission freely giving in to
allah our rab forgive us our rab imploring
that this is your rabubia that we're connected
with and we will we will make mistakes
we will not live up to it the
way it deserves we will not live up
to our own potential that you have placed
inside of us that you have that you
see in us you know what just let
it go and let us reach it with
whatever efforts that we have to present before
you and to you is our final destination
see this returning to allah when it emanates
from the place that it's emanating from the
the state of the earth of their heart
which we can only imagine really may we
experience it but you can say that this
is this meeting of allah it is with
anticipation and fear at the same time there's
a longing for allah but then there is
also this this nervousness did
you hear this at that time you are
worthy of all the suffering that you've been
through if you were not worthy of it
we would not have put this upon you
allah does not burden a soul beyond their
worth how's that for a translation allah
does not burden a soul beyond his worth
beyond their stature if you're going
through pain if you're going through difficulty not
that you deserve it it's because you're worth
it you're good enough for it you're strong
enough for it it is not a judgment
on your failures and shortcomings it is an
appreciation it is a certification of your strength
and for it for that soul for that
person it's whatever they earn and against it
is whatever it wrought it is fully responsible
in those situations don't
take us to task if we forget or
we make a mistake see it is in
teaching us this du'a that its acceptance
is implicit your mistakes and your forgetfulness you
will not be held to account for provided
it is this attitude that you bring forth
if you become arrogant on your forgetfulness and
your mistakes and don't even see them as
such and there is no there is no
attitude of making any repairs or any reconciliation
or any rectification our
lord do not make us bear a burden
like that which you laid upon those before
us was
placed under that incredibly heavy rock on the
desert sand suffocated beaten deprived of food and
water whipped the sahaba
were placed on burning embers yasser and sumaya
were martyred rasulullah salallahu alayhi was strangulated to
the point of his eyes bobbling out and
all all the pain that they went through
in mecca and medina akhzab everything so that
we wouldn't have to and again in giving
rasulullah this and in mi'raj allah is
telling him that things are going to be
easier for your subsequent generation because of you
because of your sahaba they won't have to
pay a price as heavy for la ilaha
they won't be subjected to this level of
physical pain precisely because you did and
we see that in the dua that he's
gifted with rabbana do not make
us bear a burden like that which you
laid upon those before us because we can't
take it we're not worth it and our
burden is not with that which we have
no ability to bear again when we do
go through experiences where coupled with those experiences
is the thought that i can't take this
i can't take this within those experiences the
counter is that no you can and in
whatever way you are responsible in the state
that you're in is only that which you
are capable of there so if there is
anything in that experience which is actually beyond
your capacity there is no responsibility or accountability
for it either allah knows allah knows but
if you're being put through it for the
most part it's because you can what comes
with it is the ability to take care
but there are resources somewhere within or outside
of you through which you can pull through
may allah let us go be flexible with
us this you know let things glide cover
things up for us and have mercy on
us and you're our friend you are our
friend our guardian friend our protecting friend so
help us against the disbelieving people so implicit
with this gift of dua is the announcement
of acceptance provided dua is made provided the
dua is lived that's what he brought back
from mirage a gift for all of us
this dua is those 10 years of sirah
the experience of mirage along with the gift
of the salawat which is a a reiteration
or a reliving of the mirage for non
-prophets or other than rasulullah salallahu alayhi wa
sallam and that's what baqarah concludes with wa
aakhiru da'aana an alhamdulillahi rabbil alameen one
thing we did not do for the lack
of time but we can do is what
the last two ayat represent within the humility
of the one calling out to dua that
that the mu'min who has believed who has
been certified with that iman and how it
contrasts with the attitude of the bani israel
in the first half of surah baqarah that
we spoke about the humility of the believer
as it contrasts with the arrogance of the
one with the sense of entitlement entitlement to
scripture in this world and paradise in the
next and everything else that goes with it
contrast that and then contrast the rigidity
that comes into that sort of a religiosity
where there is so much inflexibility where there
is so much about that god of the
people who are so who have this self
-entitlement that his forgiveness in so many different
ways is um is not accounted for that
they would be in certain rituals in certain
prohibitions so unyielding that one is led to
think whatever happened to the um to the
maghfirah of allah to the that he he
he lets things go and he lets things
glide and he covers up and he forgives
and he's merciful it doesn't make sense it
doesn't make sense so um something to explore
something to reflect upon moving right along to
surahs now um as most of you know
are um a pair and this pairing is
an important subject within quranic studies as to
how they complement each other they reflect a
lot of the same themes but then they
cover up for each other as well and
how put together you can learn new lessons
which isolated you wouldn't be able to learn
um where the verse would have buckled up
warned the believers to not be like the
bani israel in their uh in the way
they were presented or the way they were
prevailing around rasulallah salallahu alayhi wa sallam at
that time uh this particular one highlights a
tendency to get misguided um the way the
christians did historically right and muslims also did
historically so we have the unique honor within
islam to have been misguided both the way
of the jews and both and the christians
right we would find um both of these
representations uh and not only our history but
also our uh and most importantly in our
present right so we will see this um
this this focus the first again also the
way so dakara was two halves this two
will be in uh two halves uh this
is the first 10 passages 10 rukus of
surat ali imran would be in place of
the first 18 that we saw in surat
baqarah and uh or complementing those this comprises
more of uh the hundred and there's 101
ayats in these 10 passages um and then
the second half will address more as did
the second half of surat baqarah like surat
baqarah had the first four rukus being introductory
these two uh the first one third of
the ayats of these first 10 rukus would
be more of an introductory nature and then
the next would the middle chunk will talk
to nasara address the nasara the way bani
israel were addressed in baqarah and then uh
we see the transition and we see the
address turning to the muslim community uh directly
okay so we will talk more about this
distribution as we go on bismillah ar-rahman
ar-raheem alif laam meem allahu la ilaha
illa hu allah there is no ilah except
him al hayyul qayyum the hayy the qayyum
the sustainer again a lot of the surahs
of the quran will begin with uh attributes
of allah so as to introduce the the
mutakallim the one whose kalam this is who
is he his credentials if you will he
is al hayy al qayyum he is the
ilah all of what we spoke about bring
to mind uh in the context of ayatul
kursi he sent the book to you ya
rasulullah with truth with truth in that it
is a representation of truth and representation of
uh what is true meaning it is without
it is not without consequence that you refuse
this whenever you refuse truth any aspect of
that is rejected will have consequences will have
consequences so it is in those two connotations
at least and part of the identity of
the quran a very important self-identification for
the quran is how it confirms what precedes
it it confirms that which preceded preceded it
it is the same god the same hayy
al qayyum the same allah la ilaha illa
hu who sent the tawrat and the injeel
before that as a guidance for humanity and
he had sent down the criteria to judge
between right and wrong standards of right and
wrong it's not relative it is not absolutely
relative there was an oxymoronic term it's that
where you're talking about relativism and then there's
relativism means that there can't be anything absolute
but then relativism is absolute he has sent
down the criterion and those who reject uh
do kufr of the ayat of allah for
them is a severe punishment that is what
it means to reject and allah is mighty
capable of retribution and for sure there is
nothing hidden from allah on earth nor in
the heaven he is the one who fashioned
you who shapes you in the wombs so
in the depths of the wombs and this
is um pretty incredible you reflect upon it
it is the way allah presents the development
of a human being you speak about the
nurturing mother speak about the loving mother uh
taking care of her child loving her child
being very concerned about the smallest need of
the child and allah wants us to think
of him from that stage particularly bringing that
to mind within the womb within the rahm
the source of the word rahmah and how
he is actively engaged in this process of
beautification of shaping of this artistic creation that
is you however he wants it his freedom
being exercised in the womb and how the
manifestation of the freedom of allah his creative
freedom is seen in the diversity in creation
that there are so many of us and
there have been so many of us billion
now and before and yet you will be
hard-pressed to find identical faces identical personalities
there is such incredible diversity which speaks to
the creative freedom or allah's habit of creating
more and more distinct beautiful a rigid
um law-based uh if if it's if
it was mere mechanics the way not very
long ago the conception of the universe as
as being very mechanical was prevalent and it
has influenced and still influences the way we
look at the world um if it was
just that diversity cannot be explained in there
especially the the degree of diversity that we
see if everything was rigidly this law this
happens this law this happens this law this
happens as a result that absolute causality the
cause and effect way of thinking of how
it obscures our vision of reality our vision
of the world our vision of physics biology
psychology and then when we fall into it
and find look to find god within the
strict causality how it obscures our vision of
god how he takes away his freedom his
creative freedom la ilaha illa hu there is
no ilah except him how he his alohia
and this is the reason to love him
this is the reason to um to rely
on him this is a reason reason this
is meaning how meticulously and lovingly involved he
was in making you uniquely beautiful la ilaha
illa hu al azizul hakeem huwa alladhi anzala
alayka al kitab he is the one who
sent down to you the book minhu ayatul
muhkamat so the one who was lovingly and
nurturingly involved in your development as a fetus
as an embryo and even prior to that
is the one who in the fulfillment of
the same theological end heavy word of saying
you know jargon to say meaningful the meaning
towards which she created you then it is
that same meaning it is in continuity with
that that revelation comes down as well that
ayats complement the process the meaningfulness of which
is apparent when you reflect on on those
biological experiences huwa alladhi anzala alayka al kitab
minhu ayatul muhkamat some of the some of
the verses are decisive they are um they
are muhkam they are munna um al kitab
they are the foundation of the book others
are allegorical there's metaphor involved so another way
of putting it is those muhkam the range
of interpretation is is restricted is relatively less
and then there's mutashabihat in which the range
is far more flexible it is far greater
there is a whole lot more that can
be said in there there is a range
nevertheless obviously considering that human beings are part
of this interpretive process of the book those
who have perverted hearts they will particularly
pursue the allegorical part seeking fitna from within
that range the much greater range that is
there in the mutashabihat they will look to
draw particularly those kinds of interpretation which will
seek discord which will seek fitna which will
seek corruption which will make things worse and
they would seek rigid interpretation that this is
Allah has already declared the that it is
there is a good portion that is mutashabihat
there is no one interpretation of it so
going after that which already has that range
going after a particular interpretation from within that
range fixing it to that and nothing else
how that how we know that results in
a fitna no one knows the exact interpretation
except Allah so when you fixate the the
translation of the interpretation it is this and
nothing else and you have to believe in
it as such otherwise you're off the manhaj
you're putting yourself in the place of God
you're putting yourself you're making godlike claims that
is something only Allah can claim how dare
you make those claims and how dare you
exclude others from the circle of Islam on
the basis of this this attitude or these
fixed rigid interpretations those who are well grounded
in knowledge first up we believe in it
our belief is in what has been revealed
all of this is from our rabb now
implicit is in this is that it is
reflective of the rabubiyah and so the interpretation
or at least one standard of the interpretation
would be that which is in consonance with
that rabubiyah which is promising and showing growth
the way we know Allah wants for us
to grow and develop right so i'll have
an interpretation you'll have an interpretation c will
have an interpretation there's there's a whole range
of interpretations that are possible right but of
course they have to stay within even no
matter how much the shahada and ayah become
becomes there's still the range you cannot go
outside of that range and just say absolutely
anything again no relativism implied there if a
range is being accommodated or spoken of necessitated
actually but then which is closer to the
what is intended by Allah the results of
those interpretations of what kind of conduct of
what kind of society that results in is
it the type you would see okay this
is reflective of the rabubiyah of Allah this
is going in the direction that we do
have something of a consensus on that Allah
wants for us to go in all of
it is from our rab and none will
be reminded of it except the people of
reason so already the importance and significance of
reason within this process of interpretation is acknowledged
so you want to ignore that altogether reason
and how reason works logic and its different
facets you do so at your own peril
because what you're missing out on is one
of the most indispensable tools for understanding scripture
itself for making sense of scripture and you
can do away with it you can do
away with refining your understanding of how reason
works or how logic works and how all
of that stuff works fair enough then understand
that some form of a deviant degenerate
unrefined unexamined use of reason is present in
your act of interpretation you're oblivious of it
which is what makes it all the more
dangerous and so again what is this
attitude of humility reflecting the probabilistic nature of
human interpretation that any claims of absolute certainty
on particular interpretations and rigidity thereupon is uncalled
for it's a godlike claim رَبَّنَا لَا تُزِغْ
قُلُوبَنَا I would even say it's a Fir
'aun-like claim Our Rab, do not let
our hearts deviate بَعْدَ إِذْ هَدَيْتَنَا after you
have guided us وَهَبْ لَنَا مِن لَدُنْكَ رَحْمَةً
and gifted us from your special mercy إِنَّكَ
أَنْتَ الْوَهَّابُ for sure you, you are the
one who bestows رَبَّنَا وَالرَّبِ إِنَّكَ جَامِعُ النَّاسِ
لِيَوْمِ لَا رَيْبَ فِيهِ Our Rab, you will
gather all of humanity on a day about
which there is no doubt إِنَّ اللَّهَ لَا
يُخْلِفُ الْمِعَادِ Definitely Allah does not go against
his promise So we conclude with this for
today Inshallah And we continue from the second
Ruku tomorrow وآخر دعوانا And Alhamdulillah, have a
good night