Yousuf Raza – Ramadan Nights 2021 Day 8
AI: Summary ©
The title "Ok," in Arabic is used to describe actions and events, including the importance of sexuality and desire, the need for men to be rich and strong, and the need for spirituality and acceptance of Islam. The title's use of "Ok," in Arabic is emphasized, as it describes actions and events, including the importance of honoring the person they are addressing, respecting others' privacy, avoiding double-standing and double-standing beliefs, and the importance of religion in shaping behavior and perception of oneself. The segment also touches on the negative consequences of seeking too much, the importance of consistency and bravery, and the need for pride in one's behavior.
AI: Summary ©
As-salamu alaykum wa rahmatullahi wa barakatuhu.
We're continuing from where we left off yesterday.
We were able to conclude Surah Al-Baqarah
and we see how the themes that were
elaborated in Surah Al-Baqarah, how they are
also alluded to and complimented in Surah Al
-Imran.
Again the first ruku, more of an introductory
nature, some of the very important principles with
respect to Qur'an and attaining guidance from
the Qur'an are highlighted.
Its continuity with the previous scriptures, that particular
attitude that looks towards a fixity of interpretation
as the interpretation and then looks to create
discord from there.
So moving right along from those passages or
that passage to the next one.
This next one is reported to have been
revealed right after the Battle of Badr.
Now we will see most of Surah Al
-Imran as a commentary on the Battle of
Uhud, but this one ruku is tied in
with a comment or some sort of feedback,
if you will, from the Jewish tribes around
Mecca who in passing were talking about how
Battle of Badr was a fluke, how Rasulullah
ﷺ and the Sahaba got lucky and the
people who came to Badr from the side
of the Quraysh were a bunch of old
men who had no skill in war and
if the Muslims were to ever confront real
men then they would taste what it means
to be in a battle and then they
would be defeated.
So it is possibly in response to that
that this passage comes in.
A'udhu Billahi Minash Shaitanir Rajeem, Inna Allatheena
Kafaru, those who have disbelieved Lantoognee Anhum Amwaluhum
Wala Auladhuhum Minallahi Shai'a, their wealth and
children will not avail them against Allah at
all, Wa Ulaika Hum Waqoodun Naar, and it
is them they will be the fuel for
the hellfire, Tadabu Aali Fir'auna Walladheena Min
Qablihim, their persistence is like that of the
people of Fir'aun and those before them,
Kaddhabu Bi Aayatina, they rejected our Aayat, Fa
Akhazahum Allahu Bithunubihim, and so as a result
Allah seized them for their sins, Wallahu Shadidul
Iqab, Allah is severe in punishment, Qul Lilladheena
Kafaru, tell those who refuse to believe, Tha
Tughlabuna Wa Tuhsharuna Ila Jahannam, you will be
overpowered and driven to * altogether, Wa B
'is Al Mihad, and it is the worst
place to rest, Qad Kana Lakum Aayatun Fi
Fiataynil Taqata, and there is for sure a
sign for you in the meeting of the
two armies in the battlefield, Fi'atun Tuqatilu
Fi Sabilillah, one army was fighting in the
cause of Allah, Wa Ukhra Kafiratun, and the
other, the one of disbelievers, Yaraunahum Mithlayhim Ra
'ya Al-'Ayn, whom they clearly saw as twice
their number, so one in terms of fact,
the Muslims could see that the Quraysh or
the people from Mecca were twice their number,
right, clearly twice, actually more than that, and
another way is that the Quraysh were so
intimidated that they saw the Muslims being twice
the number of what they actually were, Wa
Allahu Yu'ayjidu Binasrihi Man Yasha, and Allah
helps, Allah strengthens, with His own help, whoever
He wants, Inna Fi Thalika La'ibaratan Li
'Ulil Absaar, and in that is a lesson
for those who have insight, that Rasulullah Sallallahu
Alaihi Wasallam and Sahaba Radhi Allahu Ta'ala
Anhum, what they were able to pull off,
what they brought to the battlefield at the
time of Badr was everything they could possibly
muster in terms of strength at that time,
and by all probabilities, calculations, that was insufficient,
but for Allah Subhanahu Wa Ta'ala and
what Iman in Allah brings onto the table,
it multiplies the impact, what faith is able
to do, what conviction is able to do,
and then what Allah is able to do,
the variables in that occasion, the calculation of
odds, they go off, it's a different equation
altogether, now you're entertaining possibilities that weren't
there before, as far as planning is concerned,
as far as strategy is concerned, as far
as doing whatever you possibly can is concerned,
Rasulullah Sallallahu Alaihi Wasallam and the Sahaba would
not leave any stone unturned, they would do
whatever is within their capacity, with respect to
material resources, strategy, planning, to do everything possible,
not leave anything undone, and then the equation
is flipped, with Allah's help, beautified
for men, made alluring for men, or for
humans, but specifically since this talks about women,
the translation would typically be men, but then
generally we abstract from this the importance of
sexuality, so beautified for men are temptations or
desires, would probably be a better translation than
temptations, beautified for men are desires from women,
with respect to women, and sons, and
heaps of treasures of gold and silver, and
branded horses and cattle, as well as well
-hilled land, these are the commodities or of
the life of this world, so these three,
whether you look at it historically, or you
look at it psychologically, or you look at
it with respect to how they're highlighted in
literature, sexuality, the urge, sexuality, power, and
money, the three Z's in Urdu poetry, and
then you look at how for Freud, the
ultimate motivation for all human action stems from
a rather broader perspective for sexuality, or of
sexuality, than he's given credit for, but sexuality
nevertheless, desire, pleasure, Banin representing children, or particularly
sons, which in that particular culture is a
sign of, is the sign of strength, of
power, of social strength, social position, and then
of course, horses, cattle, land, all of that
signifying the importance of money, these are the
three drives, those three instincts that human being
or human action is motivated by, that human
action, what is that action for?
It is typically for one of the three.
Now, you put Freud, Marx, and Nietzsche, for
Freud, it would be pleasure, for Marx, it
would be money, for Nietzsche, it would be
power, and they would give respect to the
other, but for the most part, for them,
it is the one, it is power, it
is pleasure, or it is money, and they
would either reduce the importance of the other,
or just explain that in the context of
what they have preferred, what is their basic
or fundamental instinct that they've identified.
For the most part, if you look at
the offer that Rasulullah ﷺ was made at
the very beginning of his prophethood by the
Meccans, they would come up and they couldn't
see why he was doing what he was
doing.
For them, even religious and spiritual endeavors at
the end of the day were in the
service of one of these three.
They were selfish pursuits.
Religious pursuits were selfish pursuits.
And so they came to Rasulullah ﷺ, and
they're like, let's cut to the chase here.
Let's just not beat around the bush.
What is it that you want?
You want money?
How much do you want?
We'll make you the richest man of wealth.
Is there a woman you want to marry?
Point to her, we'll marry her to you.
Let's end this.
Do you want power?
We don't usually have that king business, monarchy
and stuff, but we'll do that for you.
We'll make you king.
So as far as they're concerned, from what
they could possibly understand, there could be no
motivation other than these three.
At least they were less reductionist than their
modernist counterparts for whom it has to be
one of these three, and then the others
are subordinate.
Even for them, spiritual religious activities are in
the service of one of these three and
do not have an independent value, do not
have an independent place within the human personality
that you can choose to, independent of pleasure,
power and money or desire for money, look
to do something genuinely spiritual or religious.
It didn't make sense.
And so the offer that they made, and
we have to take this very seriously for
the fact that the Quran validates the place
that these three instincts have as mata'ul
hayat al dunya.
You want to live in this hayat al
dunya, this mata' or these material realities, of
life in this world, they have to be
taken seriously.
We've spoken repeatedly in the second half of
Surah Baqarah particularly as to how ignoring them,
when we make the mistake of, see they
made the mistake, the Quraysh in the time
of making Rasulullah ﷺ this offer, they were
not valuing spirituality, religiosity at all as something
which is an entity in and of itself,
independent of the other three instincts.
They wouldn't do that.
For them, it can't be anything else.
If you're being religious, you are being selfish
and you are looking to satisfy some sort
of pleasure need or power need or money
need.
It has to be that, it can't be
anything else.
And that's most of the modernist reading of
religion as well.
Modernist reading of any pursuit for meaning, anything
meaningful that you're doing, it has to be
done for either pleasure, power or wealth.
It has to be.
There is no other explanation.
Each would isolate their own and they would
reduce all human action to that particular instinct,
whichever one they chose.
When we react and in reaction present a
spirituality, which is similarly an instinct, which is
similarly a drive, which is similarly, what do
we mean by an instinct or a drive?
It is arising from within and it is
pushing us towards whatever it is that we're
doing without much of a control or much
of a choice that we make as a
human being.
Then we're making the same mistake they did.
When we opt for spirituality or religiosity in
reaction and we reject all these three, just
the way they rejected spirituality or they rejected
each other, again, we're falling into the same
trap.
And it is precisely when we do that,
when we read spirituality as a drive that
comes from within, which is blind, which we
have very little to do in terms of
choice and that being the only motivation at
the expense of the importance of sexuality or
pleasure, power or wealth, then that actually ends
up reinforcing the case for the people who
were looking to explain spirituality in terms of
pleasure, power or wealth.
Because any such pursuit historically has shown that
ultimately those who were so vehement in their
spiritual claims and so they were so firm,
they were so belligerent in their rejection of
all these others, ultimately it became clear that
for them as individuals or for them as
groups, there were some pleasure interests that were
overriding their spiritual pursuits.
There were some interests of power.
There were some interests of wealth that ultimately
took over, that ultimately devoured their spiritual.
History is rife with examples.
Whether you look at the tag team of
the church, the monarchy in Europe, or you
look at the prevalence of child abuse, or
you look at how many an estate is
made by leaders, how much property and wealth
is gathered by religious leaders as a consequence
of religious activity, it becomes pretty apparent.
So when the Quran is placed in the
context of this tug of war, where one
is pulling towards pleasure, the other is pulling
towards power, the third is pulling towards wealth,
and the fourth is pulling towards spirituality, you
have to be very careful of not falling
into this trap and then, okay, spirituality, let's
go on that side, and anything we see
that's siding with spirituality, it has to be
right, and anything that's siding with anything else,
it has to be wrong, so let's just
jump into the battle and look at the
Quran from that lens as well, and there's
huge problems.
There's huge problems, and we've seen how those
problems manifest.
The validation that the Quran is giving to
all of these, the portrayal of a spirituality
that is in relationship with all of these,
with sexuality, with power, with pleasure, with wealth,
we spoke about how in the context of
the Ramadan or Sawm, the importance that the
Quran accords to sexuality.
We spoke with respect to, between Ayatul Kursi
and the end of Surah Baqarah, the importance
that the Quran accords to economics, and here
we see within Ahlul Imran, this entire narrative,
the Rasulullah ﷺ and the Sahaba in the
battlefield, in the battlefield, with arms in hand,
and to see how the Quran accords an
importance to this aspect of power, how it
is indispensable for spiritual ends, for spiritual attainments.
You can't be a wuss and expect that
your spirituality or your spiritual goals will be
attained.
It is a necessary means, and it took
Rasulullah ﷺ over a decade to gather sufficient
means to be able to make Badr possible,
to have enough of a group of people,
and we will see in Ma'idah, Musa
ﷺ was refused by his people.
He did not have that critical mass to
do what he had to do, because for
the people for whom clearly, pretty explicitly, pleasure,
power, and wealth is all there is, through
their religious and spiritual ends, again, the slogans
that the Quraish are using are all spiritual.
They're all religious.
Gods of our father, our gods, his cutting
of our tradition, cutting off of our ties,
all of what he's done, they're using religious
slogans.
Towards what end?
Power, pleasure, and wealth.
It's when you deny the importance when you're
preaching and you're teaching, and even for yourself,
that is precisely when these very human instincts
override all your spiritual endeavors, before you even
know it, before you even know it.
And so many pathologies that we see within
religious people, within religious people, within religious families,
for not taking these three seriously.
And so the people that Rasulullah ﷺ and
Sahaba have confronted in Badr are people whose
gods, we know, but for them, pleasure, power,
and wealth are gods.
And those are the gods that they're ready
to die for.
But, والذين آمنوا أشد حبًا لله For the
people of Iman, their love for Allah is
greater.
And so they're also employing power as a
means.
They're also in pursuit of a pleasure that
follows.
That is, أُخْرَى تُحِبُّونَهَا Or at least one
of the أُخْرَى تُحِبُّونَهَا Success and victory being
the primary other that they're looking for, other
than the pleasure of Allah.
And it does not negate their pursuit of
Allah's pleasure.
It does not negate their pursuit for forgiveness,
or it does not negate the meaningfulness of
what they're doing, the self-transcendence of their
actions, if there happens to be any one
of these three honored in their particular positions.
كَادِ الْفَقْرُ يَكُونُ كُفْرًا Kaad al-faqru yakoonu
kufra Already leads to kufr.
It is made explicit.
So, ذَلِكَ مَتَاعُ الْحَيَاةِ الدِّنْي If these are
the commodities, or the means for the life
of this world, you cannot get along without
them.
Everything that you have to do for the
hereafter has to be done in this world.
You cannot expect to do in this world
without these material realities.
They have to be given their proper place.
So, the spiritual essence of the Qur'an,
if you will, is more validating, is more
affirming of materialism than any materialistic text you
can possibly find.
But that materialism, which is modernist in its
logic, is at the expense of spirituality, is
to the exclusion of spirituality and religiosity, and
art as well.
It is to the exclusion of all of
that.
Whereas the Qur'anic affirmation of material is
with its affirmation of the spiritual.
That is one of the greatest achievements of
the Qur'an.
And that is one of the ways it
is most relevant in modernist times, in postmodern
times.
That those inherent contradictions within modernist thought that
result in that postmodern relativism, the Qur'an
bypasses that logic altogether.
It does not employ that logic altogether.
But our religious zealots fall into that modernist
logic, that tug of war.
Okay, this is a tug of war going
on.
Is this the primary?
Is this the primary?
Is this the primary?
Spirituality is primary.
Allah is primary.
Allahu Akbar.
Jump into the field and blow yourselves up.
Doesn't work.
Didn't work.
Hasn't worked.
Won't work.
And to think that it is going to
work when it hasn't worked so far, that's
neurosis.
That is madness.
So Battle of Badr is a representation of
a people on one side for whom shahawat,
baneen, wal-qanatir al-muqantarat min al-dhahabi
wal-fiddah, these are their gods.
They're inherently self-contradictory and mutually contradictory, but
nevertheless, that is what shirk is, right?
Gods.
And they're there to serve them.
And on the other hand, those who, for
the love of Allah, for their commitment to
Allah, have put all of these ayat of
Allah in their appropriate places, and that's the
fuqan that is coming in.
So they carry the mata'ul hayat al
-dunya and this husn al-ma'ab that
Allah promises.
They're related so wonderfully well within their personalities.
The monks by night and the riders, the
warriors by day.
It is unfathomable.
It is inconceivable.
For to our modernist lenses, it doesn't make
sense.
How can they be so committed on the
battlefield in the morning?
And how can they be so ascetic to
their worship at night?
It doesn't make sense.
We can conceive of one or the other,
but both brought together, that was the grand
achievement of Rasulullah ﷺ, of sahaba radiyallahu ta
'ala.
It was incredible what they were able to
do.
Should I inform you of something better than
that?
For those who have taqwa, so now the
Qur'an tells Rasulullah ﷺ, okay, this is,
these are the primary motivations that all of
these people are carrying.
These are the gods.
These instincts have become gods.
Fair enough, and they're actually going to be
called as such in later portions of the
Qur'an.
They've already been called that in the Makkan
Qur'an.
We will read that as well, but these
have become gods.
Let me tell you something better than that.
For the people of taqwa, remember what we
spoke about taqwa.
Taqwa is a consciousness of Allah, a consciousness
of your actions, and a consciousness of your
own self.
So we are being wary of whatever is
inside, whatever is outside, and whatever is to
be done.
Whatever is knowing Allah, knowing yourself, you make
the best possible choice.
And with their Rabb, you want the best
for them.
Even in these dimensions, rivers, gardens beneath which
rivers flow, is that not a manifestation of
wealth?
Is that not a manifestation of wealth?
So the Qur'an's exhortation, spiritual exhortation, is
also appealing to those primordial instincts, very human
instincts.
They will live therein forever.
Is that not appealing to their urge for
power, for eternal strength?
And pure spouses, is that not an appeal
to their sexual instinct, to their pleasure instinct,
to their instinct for companionship?
And the pleasure of Allah.
And the pleasure of Allah.
So within one ayah, Allah places all of
these together.
As far as Allah is concerned, all of
them can be taken together.
Bigger picture, bring akhira into the picture.
But when you do bring akhira into the
picture, you do not get rid of these
even there.
You do not get rid of these even
there.
And you're exhorting or you're advocating a paradise
in which all of these wonders and pleasures
and power and all of that is going
to be there.
Over here, you're absolutely denigrating their importance.
But how does that make sense?
You denigrate these as absolutely vile, heinous.
They're almost criminal acts.
Allah is watching.
Allah is seeing His Ibad.
He knows.
Alladhina yaqooloon, those who say, Rabbana innana amanna.
Oh Rabb, we have believed.
So forgive us our sins.
Because let's be honest, when you're looking to
balance all of these within one human personality,
showing all of these different polarities, these contradictions,
these conflicts, because they're all in conflict with
each other.
These are like sub-personalities within a human
being.
And this unity, despite that inner conflict, that
diversity inside, within one personality, you're bound to
make errors.
You're bound to slip.
You're bound to make mistakes.
You are bound to go wrong.
You are bound to sin.
And that's the process.
Rabbana innana amanna.
And so they're always, always conscious of, why
do our duas, why does our istighfar become
so meaningless?
Because the struggle is over once you've completely
lost that inclination to balance.
Once that battle inside to move with this
polarity, this unity despite multiplicity.
That's a better way of putting it.
The multiplicity within the human personality.
Within our own subjective experiences, we see thoughts
that are 180 degrees from each other.
One moment this, the other moment completely different.
Horrifyingly different.
And you're like, oh my God, how could
I even think that?
So it becomes difficult.
But it is part of this process of
bringing all of those multiplicities in some sort
of a relationship with each other.
And what is a relationship without conflict?
There's incredible conflict inside.
So forgive us our sins.
And save us from the punishment of hellfire.
So there's this recognition within these people.
It engenders a humility, which a belligerent certainty
cannot have.
There is no humility in the dua of
a person who's already sacrificed a good chunk
of his personality and just focused himself on
one.
There's no battle, there's no struggle.
It was a one-time choice and that's
it.
No more, this is how I'm going to
be for the rest of my life.
Maintaining that and how that's unnatural, that's a
struggle, yes.
But for the greatest part, it's an escape
from that struggle.
It's like suicide.
You run away from that conflict altogether.
And that punishment of hellfire will be how
the balance or the unity could not be
achieved.
And it was one of the, that took
control despite ourselves.
We lost the control, the goals that Raboobiyah
aspired us to achieve went out of the
picture.
Those goals became a means to an end
of pleasure, an end of power, an end
of wealth, and that's it.
And that finds a reward in the hereafter
as fire, as the hellfire.
As-sabireena wa-as-sadiqeena wa-al-qanateena
wa-al-munfiqeena wa-al-mustaghfireena bi-al
-ashaa.
So these people are expressing this humility, this
dua while being steadfast, persevering, constantly struggling, constantly
steadfast.
Sabr as consistency.
Sabr as doing what you have to do
despite not having that inner drive to do
it.
Sabr as doing what you have to do
despite not having the external circumstances conducive to
doing it.
Wa-as-sadiqeen, truthful people.
And that's the one quality of being honest
with yourselves.
Because either way, when you're giving precedence to
one of the four, to the exclusion of
all others, you're being dishonest with yourself.
To who you really are, to what is
inside of you, what is yours.
This is all a part of you as
human beings.
And whoever says, and whenever they say, I
have no inclination to x, y, or z.
X being *, y being power, z being
wealth.
Okay, you're in big trouble already.
That statement in itself is betraying a dishonesty,
a self-deception.
The truthfulness that comes forth and then affirmation
of the spiritual as well.
And then living it with all of this.
And these are obedient people, committed.
Charitable, always spending.
Because the very powerful tendencies for any of
these things to just take over and destroy
you, turn your religious activities into nothing more
than acts of hypocrisy, spending in the way
of self-confidence, charity.
The way for that, the key to that
spiritual growth.
Wa-al-mustaqfeereena bil-as'al.
And despite all of this, they're constantly seeking
Allah's forgiveness during the last hours of the
night.
Shahidallahu annahu laa ilaha illa hu.
Allah Himself testifies that there is no ilah
except Him.
Wa-al-malaika.
As do the angels.
Wa-ulul ilm.
And the people of knowledge.
What ilm?
All that ilm that the Qur'an validates
as as reliable knowledge.
That ilm should be a means to testifying
laa ilaha illa Allah.
Fa'imam bil-qist.
The upholder of justice.
Laa ilaha illa hu.
There is no ilah other than Him.
Al-Aziz al-Hakeem.
The one with izzah, with might, with power,
with authority.
Al-Hakeem and wisdom.
And there's so much in these two attributes
that speaks to the greatness of Allah.
But it's going to be repeated multiple times
and we're going to come back to it
at some point.
Inna ad-deena inda Allahi al-Islam.
And the deen, for sure, with Allah is
only Islam.
Islam not as a label, but Islam as
a way of life.
A conduct.
A set of habits that you look to
dawn, bring within your within your personalities, within
your daily routines, within your interactions.
And those who were given the book earlier
did not differ.
Except after true knowledge had reached them.
Taking out portions.
Out of jealous animosity.
Again, power overrides religious endeavors.
And how does that happen?
How does one or the other of these
instincts override even religious efforts and turn that
into nothing more than hypocritical pursuits?
Rejection of the ayaat of Allah.
Al-ilm.
You don't, you just, no more holding on
to portions.
One portion above the other.
Looking to arrogate that or looking to establish
its absolute superiority in the absolute inferiority of
all others.
Or the absolute subjugation of others.
Whoever refuses to believe in the ayaat of
Allah should know that Allah is swift in
taking into account.
So if they argue with you, tell them,
I have submitted myself entirely to Allah as
have those who follow me.
And say to those who have been given
the book and the illiterate ones.
So the Yehud and the Nasara being the
Utul Kitab, the people who have been given
the book, and Umiyyin being the Mushrikeen.
They don't have scripture.
They haven't been given revelation or they don't
have the history of prophets the way the
Jews and the Christians do.
So say to those, Ya Rasulullah, people given
the book and the illiterate ones, have you
submitted yourselves?
It is this Islam, this conduct that is
required of you.
And then if they did submit, then they
are the ones who are rightly guided.
But if they turn away, it is only
upon you to convey the message to them.
Allah is watching, keenly observing his Ibad.
So Rasulullah ﷺ, of course, he would get
the desire that he had or the passion
that he had, the love that he had
for humanity, the knowledge that he had that
what their rejection entails, it would worry him,
grieve him, to the point that the Qur
'an comes in and consoles, Ya Rasulullah.
You'll see that in Surah Kahf, a couple
other places as well.
You might just drive yourself or this might
just consume you, this grief of them having
not responded.
Allah says, Allah is Baqir.
There's a warning in this, there's a love
in this.
Allah sees everything, Allah has everything accounted for.
Inna allatheena yakfuruna bi aayaati illa.
And definitely those who refuse to believe in
aayaat of Allah.
Wayaqtuluna an-nabijiina bighayri haqq.
And they kill the prophets without right.
Wayaqtuluna allatheena ya'muruna bilqisti minan naas.
And they kill the people who exhort justice.
Those who are carrying the standard of justice
in society are carrying the legacy of the
prophets.
And those who are not, necessarily, there are
strongholds within society, religious, political, social, economic strongholds
within society, who are benefiting on account of
an injustice in society.
And when anbiya come with al-ilm and
on account of the aayaat of Allah and
exhort to justice, they're going to be seen
as enemies.
And they're going to be targeted.
They're going to be criticized.
They're going to be, there's character assassination that
begins and culminates with assassination efforts themselves.
Fabashshirrhum biAAthab an-alim.
So give them the glad tidings of a
painful punishment.
Wulaaika allatheena habiqat a'maluhum.
These are the ones whose deeds will become
void.
Any good that they do.
It's not that these people haven't done good.
They have done good.
The Quraysh did a lot of good in
their hospitality, the honor of their word.
In opening the doors of the Ka'bah
to everyone, giving them water, giving them food.
The Quraysh had done a lot of good.
And they were very proud of all of
that good that they'd done.
But in the face of the anbiya of
Allah, the aayaat of Allah, refusal to accept
and insistence on rejection brought out the worst
in them and all the good that they
had done, void, wasted.
Fid dunya wal aakhir.
In this life as well as in the
hereafter.
It's not going to last.
Their legacy is bound to fail.
Wa maa lahum min naasireen.
And they will not be any helper of
any kind for them.
Alam taraa ila allatheena ootoo naseeban minal kitaab.
Haven't you seen those who have been given
a portion of scripture?
YudAAoona ila kitaabillahi liyahkuma baynahum.
When they are invited to the book of
Allah to settle their disputes, a fraction of
them turns away.
You submitted to that book.
You acknowledged your commitment to that book.
And when that same book is brought out
as a standard to judge you, you refuse.
You turn away.
Wahum mu'aradhum.
And then they are averse.
This contradiction does not make sense.
How does this contradiction make sense?
It makes sense at a, if you dig
deeper, that your affiliation with the book was
serving some other end that you did not
accept or you did not acknowledge.
So what can that possibly be?
My connection with the book of Allah, okay,
it brings me satisfaction.
It brings me tranquility.
It quenches or it dispels my anxiety.
It gives me a good, you know, good,
goody, goody feeling.
I get the satisfaction of, you know, salvation
on the day of judgment, having some sort
of a connection with Allah.
And then as soon as that book makes
demands of me, of my conduct with others,
asks better from me, I don't like that
part too much.
So for one reason or the other, I
justify an excuse and rationalize my way out
of that exhortation to a change in conduct
or more judicious conduct.
So what is it that I really have
submitted to the book or the goody, goody
feeling that it brings, the tranquility, how it
treated my depression and anxiety?
I mean, that was the invitation, right?
You believe in this book and your depression
is treated.
But then when that comes with demands of
rectification of conduct, I refuse.
That's where it makes sense.
The motivation was less spiritual and more the
pleasure that it brought.
But of course, that's all taking place at
an unconscious level.
That's why there was a refusal to do
what the book commanded, especially if that doing
entailed a degree of anxiety and loss in
itself.
We weren't ready to face that.
We weren't ready to confront that.
وَهُمْ مُعْرِضُونَ And they are averse.
ذَلِكَ بِأَنَّهُمْ قَالُوا How do they say that?
لَنْ تَمَسَّنَ النَّارُ إِلَّا أَيَّامًا مَعْدُودًا The hellfire
will never touch us except for a few
days.
How does this attitude manifest itself as creed,
as an aqeedah?
Even if we do go to the hellfire,
it's only going to be for a few
days.
So the satisfaction that this creed brings make
any sort of demands of change or growth
in terms of conduct, shari'ah, social responsibility,
irrelevant.
Why bother?
Why put yourself through all that trouble?
وَغَرَّهُمْ فِي دِينِهِمْ مَا كَانُوا يَفْطَرُونَ And they
are deceived within their religion, within their being
by what they have abrogated, by their lies,
their concoctions.
فَكَيْفَ إِذَا جَمَعْنَاهُمْ So how will it be
when we will bring them all together لِيَوْمِ
اللَّهُ وَإِيْبَ فِي عَنَ دِيْهِ Which is definitely
going to come.
وَوُفِّيَتْ كُلُّ نَفْسٍ مَا كَسَبَتْ And every individual
will be paid back all of what they've
earned.
وَهُمْ لَا يُضْلَمُونَ And no injustice will be
done to them.
قُلْ لِلَّهُمَّ مَعْلِكْتُ الْمُلْكِ So say, Ya Allah,
of the kingdom.
تُؤْتِ الْمُلْكَ مَنْ تَشَى You give the kingdom,
the sovereignty, power to whoever you will.
وَتَنْزِعُ الْمُلْكَ مِنْ مَنْ تَشَى And you take
away power, kingdom, sovereignty from whomever you will.
وَتُعِزُّ مَنْ تَشَى And you honor whoever you
will.
وَتُذِلُّ مَنْ تَشَى And you humiliate whoever you
will.
بِيَدِكَ الْخَيْرِ All good is at your disposal.
إِنَّكَ عَلَىٰ كُلِّ شَيْءٍ قَدِيرٌ You have power
over everything.
This particular du'a comes as a command
that people of this religion, the people following
this Prophet, they're not going to make small
the importance of strength, of power.
They're going to understand it, attribute it straight
to Allah.
They're going to understand the Izzah that it
comes with.
They're going to resort to Allah for all
of what is necessary.
And they're going to make all the efforts
necessary to attain it for the means that
it is.
They're going to give it that respect.
All these words, Izzah, Khayr, power, mulk, Allah's
giving it, Allah himself being powerful.
Is this a denigration?
Is this the Qur'an doing away with
how integral, how important, how indispensable, how much
of a prerequisite material strength is on the
way of Allah, through the way of Allah,
across the way of Allah.
تُولِجُ اللَّيْلَ فِي النَّهَارِ You make the night
enter into the day.
وَتُولِجُ النَّهَارَ فِي اللَّيْلِ And you make the
day enter into the night.
وَتُخْرِجُ الْحَيَّ مِنَ الْمَيْجَةِ And you bring about
the living from the dead.
وَتُخْرِجُ الْمَيْجَةَ مِنَ الْحَيْنِ You bring about the
dead from the living.
وَتَرْزُقُ مَن تَشَاءُ بِغَيْرِ الْحِسَابِ And you provide
without measure to whoever you will.
All of these manifestations of Allah giving power,
taking away power, and in taking away power,
giving power.
The cycle of life and death.
The cycle of day and night.
Representative of the Qudra of Allah.
لَا يَتَّخِذُ الْمُؤْمِنُونَ الْكَافِرِينَ أَوْلِيَأْ مِنْ دُونِ الْمُؤْمِنِينَ
Let not the believers take the disbelievers as
their friend against believers.
So, again, we use these sort of ayat
as, okay, there can be no collaboration or
there can be no interaction or friendship between
Muslims and non-Muslims.
There could not be a more superficial reading
of these ayats, especially when taken together.
This and what comes to the very end,
28th Juz, مُمْتَحِنَة It is made very clear.
It is made very clear that justice between
you, between people, no matter who they are,
no matter where they come from, is of
primary importance.
This is a particular instance.
This is a particular situation.
The Kafireen that are being referred to as
the Kafireen who have declared war against the
Mu'mineen, who have declared that there's an open
battle going on, who have allies from people
who have the destruction of the Muslims in
mind, that is what is being criticized.
فَمَنْ يَفْعَلْ ذَلِكَ And whoever does this, فَلَيْسَ
مِنَ اللَّهِ مِنْ شَيْءٍ فِي شَيْءٍ He has
nothing to do with Allah.
This kind of alliance that they're making, thinking
that it would strengthen their interests, again, they're
hypocrisy coming forth.
They're still Muslims.
They're still claiming Iman, but they want to
have friendships on both sides.
Whichever side comes out on top, I'll get
side with them.
إِلَّا أَن تَتَّقُوا مِنْهُمْ تُقَى Except when taking
a precaution against them in prudence.
Even in these situations, tempered strategic alliances, they're
still allowed.
وَيُخَذِّرُكُمُ اللَّهُ نَفْسَهُ Allah warns you of Himself.
وَإِلَى اللَّهِ الْمُصِيرِ And Allah is the ultimate
return.
قُلْ إِن تُخْفُوا مَا فِي سُدُورِكُمْ Say, whatever
you hide within yourself, within your chest, or
you expose it.
يَعْلَمْهُ اللَّهِ Allah knows it.
وَيَعْلَمُ مَا فِي السَّمَاوَاتِ وَمَا فِي الْأَرْضِ And
He knows all of what is in the
heavens and the earth.
اللَّهُ عَلَىٰ كُلِّ شَيْءٍ تَضِيرٍ And Allah has
power over everything.
يَوْمَ تَجِدُ كُلُّ نَفْسٍ مَا عَمِلَتْ مِنْ خَيْرٍ
مُحْضَرً That day, every individual will find whatever
good he performs present before him.
وَمَا عَمِلَتْ مِنْ سُوءٍ And whatever of sins
he committed, تُؤَدُّوا لَوْ أَنَّ بَيْنَهَا وَبَيْنَهُ أَمَةً
مَعِيدًا He will wish that day that there
was a huge gulf between him and his
sins.
وَيُحَذِّرُكُمُ اللَّهُ نَفْسًا Allah warns you of Himself.
وَاللَّهُ رَءُوفٌ بِالْعِبَادِ And Allah is very kind,
very empathic to His Ibad.
He's warning they're coming from a place of
love.
He's warning this anger is coming from a
place of expectation with when it's broken, coming
from a place of trust with when it
is not upheld.
And it leads to a response.
That is how actively involved Allah is with
your daily lives, with your choices that you
make.
They're not insignificant.
They're not insignificant.
Any parent knows that their responses to their
children's behavior, that even in its anger and
frustration, it comes from a place of love.
It comes from a, would you rather be
absent?
Would you rather be callous, unconcerned?
Let them do whatever the * they want
to.
This is coming from His Rububiyyah.
He's wanting the best for His Ibad.
Continuing from where we left off, ayah number
31.
So there's two ways that the love of
a prophet goes astray or your belief in
a prophet goes astray rather.
One is in the form of love that
it is, exceeds all limits.
It exceeds the limits of God, the limits
of Allah.
And the other way is that it becomes
subjugated to the control
or the way you have, the way your
religiosity is serving vested and entirely vested interests.
So we saw the first manifestation with respect
to Surah Baqarah, how there was no respect
for prophets, that the people who had been
introduced to God through a prophet had established
that connection with God such that they made
the prophet irrelevant.
The prophet was an obstacle in their connection
with God.
It was the way the prophet would present
God, God would be too much of an
other with placing requirements on the people.
Placing limitations on the people, making people live
outside of their comfort zone.
Bypassing that prophet and literally taking ownership of
God like you would of an idol so
that he is presented as an other, but
in reality is nothing more than a projection
of your own self and projection of the
part of yourself which is instinctive in its
essence, selfish, self-serving, entirely to do with
pleasure, power, or wealth.
And so when a prophet would come in
or any other advocate of justice would come
in and look to rescue the concept of
God from how it has been hijacked by
vested interests, that prophet would be looked at
with disrespect to say the least and with
animosity to the point of assassination attempts in
its worst manifestations.
But the bottom line remained that there would
be no impact, no positive impact in taking
on the social responsibility that is necessary or
changing your conduct, growing, getting out of your
comfort zone, wouldn't happen.
The other way in which your commitment to
the prophet is so much that in exalting
the prophet, you exalt the prophet all the
way to the position of God and your
proclamations of love go so far that now
you have taken control of the prophet.
Now you have hijacked the prophet again eliminating
the otherness of God and taking away that
right that you initially gave God that you
would follow in what he wants for you
to do.
And the exaltation of the prophet or the
proclamation of the love for the prophet is
so strong, is so, is loomed in on,
is isolated and exaggerated to the point that
what the prophet himself did or said becomes
irrelevant.
Again, having taken control or a very instinctive
drive and hijacked a spiritual claim and deviation
results.
So this, in these two ways of going
astray, Rasulullah ﷺ is asked to say in
this ayah, that if you really love Allah,
then you have to follow me, then follow
me.
Allah will love you and he will forgive
you your sins.
Because it does become pretty demanding, it's daunting,
it's intimidating, it's okay.
It's a process, it's a pathway, you will
slip, you will make errors, you will make
mistakes, all of that is going to happen.
It is the fear of sin that at
times leads people to resort to these kinds
of hijacking.
And again, a lot of it, most of
it, is actually taking place at an unconscious
level, therefore the hypocrisy.
He will forgive your sins.
Allah is extremely forgiving, always merciful.
Say, obey Allah and the messenger.
But if they turn away, know that Allah
does not like those, Allah does not love
those who refuse.
Allah's love is not absolutely unconditional from day
one to the last day.
That no matter what you do, that is
not going to change.
Yes, there is a default love that he
has for everyone, his Rububiyyah, it extends from
his Rububiyyah.
But then if that is exploited, if that
is not respected for what it deserves, you
cannot take that for granted.
Allah will not have that taken for granted,
because then what that does to those who
honor and respect that love, and really look
to get out of their comfort zones and
grow and struggle and make mistakes and sin
and get up and start again and then
try and struggle and falter and get up
and keep struggling and keep trying in that
ideal that Allah has set for them, looking
at him as not their personal property, looking
at the Prophet not as their personal property,
yes, as a personal relationship.
So either you push them off away so
much, exalt them so much that they're unrelatable,
that they don't care, or they shouldn't care,
or you bring them in so close that
you hijack them, you take control of them.
It's not either way, the relationship is not
possible.
And without relationship, you cannot grow.
Period.
You will remain who you are, invested within
your own self.
There's those cycles, you, yourself, and you, and
it is going round and round.
You can go round and round within yourself,
but you can't grow.
To grow, you have to get out of
yourself.
You have to reach out of yourself, a
genuine relationship with another, a genuine exchange.
إِنَّ اللَّهَ اصْطَفَىٰ And without a doubt, Allah
chose Adam و نُوحًا و آلَ إِبْرَاهِيمَ و
آلَ إِمْرَانَ Adam, Nuh, and the family of
Ibrahim and the family of Imran.
So we saw the first four rukus in
Surah Baqarah being of that introductory nature, these
first 33 ayahs being of an introductory nature
in Surah Ali Imran.
And now, as Ya Bani Israel address started
in Surah Baqarah, from the fifth ruku, here
we see the Christians being addressed with respect
to their prophetic lineage, if you will.
Starting with Adam, Alayhi Salaam, Nuh, Alayhi Salaam,
and then Al-Ibrahim, and then specifically Al
-Imran, the family of Imran.
And the family of Imran, Imran, the word
or the name may relate to two people.
Most relevant to this context is the father
of Maryam Salaamun Alayha, right?
Musa's father was also Imran, but Imran as
the father of Maryam Salaamun Alayha, so that
would make him Hazrat Itha's grandfather.
Above all people.
So they were exalted in that they were
chosen.
These families were chosen.
These individuals and these families.
Zurriyatun ba'duha min ba'd, offspring of one another.
Wallahu s-samee'un alayhim, and Allah is
hearing, knowing.
How Allah's choosing prophets, Allah's choosing families for
prophethood, Allah's choosing nation is indicative of his
active involvement in the progression of creation, of
humanity, and him being seeing and knowing, hearing
and knowing at all times.
If qalatim ra'atu Imran, when the wife
of Imran said, rabbi inni nazartu laka, my
Rab, I dedicate to you, to your surface,
ma fee baqtani, whatever is in my womb,
muharrara, to be dedicated to your service, committed
to your service.
So a practice that they had is that
they would dedicate their children to the service
of the masjid of that time, right?
And so this is what the wife of
Imran did.
Fataqabbal minni, so accept it from me, innaka
anta s-samee'un alayhim, for sure you
are all hearing, all knowing.
Falamma waba'atha qalat, but when she delivered
the baby, she said, rabbi inni waba'tuha untha,
my Rab, I have given birth to a
girl.
Now typically the girls would not be accepted
in the temple for such a service or
in the masjid for such a service.
That's not what, that wasn't the norm.
wallahu a'lamu bima hawadhaq, Allah was fully
aware of what she had delivered, boy or
girl.
walaysa thakkaruka al-untha, and boys and girls
are not the same.
wa inni thammaytuha maryum, and I have named
her Maryum.
Boys and girls are not the same, and
definitely the girl that Maryum salamun alayha was,
no boy can be like her, where she
was or the status that she was granted
or that she earned for herself.
And so I have named her Maryum.
wa inni u'idhuha bika wa dhurriyataha minash
shaytaan ar-rajeem, and I seek refuge for
her in you and for her progeny from
shaytaan, the outcast.
So the dua of Hazrat Isa's grandmother at
the time of her pregnancy with Maryum salamun
alayha and then after having delivered her.
fataqabbalaha rabbuha biqaboolin hasanin, and so al-rab
accepted her a beautiful acceptance.
Now the nurturing that she will get, Allah
accepted this dua of this woman that we
only know this much about, pretty much, and
how it changes history for the entire humanity
for whole times to come from there on
in.
wa anbataha nabatan hasan, and raised her up
beautifully.
wa kaffalaha zakariya, and she was assigned to
the care of Zakaria.
So a nurturing that was provided by her
parents and then by Zakaria who himself was
a prophet, who was the uncle of Hazrat
Maryum, and the chief priest at the temple.
He was given to their care and how
his care, the parents care, Allah is alluding
to that as him taking care of Maryum
salamun alayha and how they raised her in
accordance with how Allah wanted for her to
be raised.
kullama dakhala AAalayha zakariya almihraab and whenever Zakaria
entered her chamber, wajada AAindaha rizqa, he found
with her provision.
tala yaa Maryamu anna laki hatha, he would
say, Maryam, where did you get all of
this from?
talat, she responded, qul huwa min AAindallah, it
is from Allah.
inna Allaha yarzuqu man yinsha'u bighayri hisaab.
Allah gives whoever he wants without measure.
hunalika daAAa zakarija rabba, and that's when Zakaria
called upon his Rabb, qala, he said, rabbi
habli min ladunka dhurriyatun tayyiba.
So there is this desire that Zakaria AAalayhi
salam has had.
He doesn't have a child, but seeing the
provisions that Maryam is getting, he's inspired.
He's inspired to make dua.
So up until this point, he had pretty
much come to terms with not having a
child, given up hope in that dimension.
But seeing that Maryam is getting all of
this stuff from God knows where, from God,
he was like, okay, I mean, there's hope.
I shouldn't give up hope.
And he makes this dua, rabbi habli min
ladunka dhurriyatun tayyiba, you are the one who
hears supplication.
So angels proclaim to him, while he was
standing offering his prayer in the chamber, Allah
gives you the good news of Yahya, confirming
a word from Allah, that he is going
to be testifying to Isa AAalayhi salam, who
is going to be a word from Allah.
A honorable and extremely chaste, and a prophet
from the righteous.
Allah rabbi al-Zakariya alayhi salam responded, My
rab, minna yakunu li ghulamin?
How can I have a son?
Wa qad balaghani al-kibar?
When I have gotten old.
Wa amraati aqir?
And my wife is barren.
Qala kathalika allahu yaf'alu ma yasha.
The response of the angel was, or the
response of Allah was, that is how Allah
does what he wants.
That is how Allah does what he wants.
So Zakariya, in not making this du'a,
until he sees what Maryam is getting, and
he is wonderstruck at her blessings, and that
inspires him to make the du'a.
And even though he makes the du'a,
when the time for the fulfillment of the
du'a comes, he's amazed.
How is this even possible?
It's not, it doesn't make sense.
I'm too old to have a child.
That's not how things work.
My wife has never given a child.
She's barren.
What's going on here?
And subhanAllah, the humanity of the prophet, showing
us how, even for them, this relationship with
Allah and what a process this is, that
there is amazement, there is wonder, there is
shock even, that how does this work?
Qala kathalika allahu yaf'alu ma yasha.
He said, this is how Allah does what
he wills.
Qala rabbi ja'ali ayah.
Zakaria said, okay, my Rabb, show me a
sign.
Give me a sign.
Qala ayatuk, and he responded, Allah said, your
sign is, allatukalliman nasa talatata ayaan.
You will not be able to speak to
people for three days.
So his ability to speak, taken away.
Illa ramza, accept through gestures.
Wadhkur rabbaka kathira, and remember Allah a lot.
Wasabbih bil-ashiji wal-ibkar, and glorify him
by evening and by day.
Now, it was the context of mentioning all
of this, about the blessings or the miracles
that Maryam is experiencing, that Zakaria is experiencing,
that Yahya was a result of the Christian
community being given a message, that your exaltation
of Isa Alayhi Salaam, who beyond the level
of a prophet, beyond the level of a
human being, is on account of his miraculous
birth, or his virgin birth.
But then all of these other events that
are taking place around him, before him, shouldn't
that mean that all of those people be
exalted?
Above the status of prophets and humans to
divinity?
Allah does this, or at least used to
do this, in that day and age, towards
certain ends, towards the goals that he had
set for humanity.
وَإِذْ قَالَتِ الْمَلَائِكَةِ And when the angel said,
يَا مَرْيَمُ إِنَّ اللَّهَ اصْطَفَاكِ وَطَهَّرَكِ Allah has
chosen you and purified you.
وَاصْطَفَاكِ عَلَىٰ نِسَاءِ الْآلَمِينَ And he has chosen
you over all the women of the world.
يَا مَرْيَمُ أُقْنُطِي لِرَبِّكِ Be obedient to your
Rabb, وَاسْتُطِيْ And perform sajda, وَارْكَعِي مَعَ الرَّاكِعِينَ
And bow down and worship with those who
bow down.
Perform ruku with those who perform ruku.
ذَلِكَ مِنْ أَنْبَاءِ الْغَيْبِ This is news of
the unseen.
نُوحِيهِ إِلَيْكُ Which we reveal to you, يَا
رَسُولَ اللَّهِ وَمَا كُنتَ لَدَيْهِمْ You were not
present among them.
إِذْ يُلْقُونَ أَقْلَامَهُمْ When they cast their pens
to decide.
أَيْهُمْ يَكْفُلُ مَرْيَمُ Which of them will be
the guardian of Maryam.
وَمَا كُنتَ لَدَيْهِمْ And you were not present
among them.
إِذْ يَخْطَطِمُونَ When they were arguing.
So for them, the honor of taking charge
of Maryam سَلَامًا عَلَيْهَا was incredible.
And so they were casting lots.
They were casting their pens to decide who
would get this responsibility.
It came in the lot of Zakariyya.
إِذْ قَالَتِ الْمَلَائِكَةِ Then when the angel said,
يَا مَرْيَمُ إِنَّ اللَّهَ يُبَشِّرُكِ بِكَلِمَةٍ مِّنْ Maryam,
Allah gives you the good news of a
word from Him.
إِسْمُهُ الْمَسِيْحُ عِيسَىٰ بْنُ مَرْيَمِ His name is
going to be Al-Masih Isa Ibn Maryam.
وَجِيهًا فِي الدُّنْيَا وَالْآخِرَةِ He will be illustrious
in this world and in the hereafter.
وَمِنَ الْمُقَرَّبِينَ And of those close to Allah.
وَيُكَلِّمُ النَّاسَ فِي الْمَهْدِ وَكَهْلًا He will speak
to people in the cradle and in his
old age.
And one of the reasons that is explained
in tafseer that why is it significant to
talk about his old age?
Okay, it's a big deal that he's speaking
from the cradle.
That is not what you usually see.
But then everyone speaks in their old age.
Why is that being mentioned?
And this is the reference that people draw
that this is the Qur'an alluding to
the second coming of Isa Alayhi Salaam that
being in old age and speaking since he
never attained old age when he did live
in this world for the first time.
وَمِنَ الصَّالِحِينَ And he would be of the
righteous.
قَالَتْ Maryam said رَبِّي أَنَّا يَكُونُ لِي وَلَدٌ
My Rabb, how can I have a son?
وَلَمْ يَمْسَسْنِي بَشَّرٌ No man has ever touched
me.
قَالَ كَذَٰلِكِ اللَّهُ يَخْلُقُ مَا يَشَاءُ The angel
responded, this is how it is.
Allah creates what he wants.
إِذَا قَضَىٰ أَمْرًا When he decrees a matter
فَإِنَّمَا يَقُولُ لَهُ كُنْ All he says to
it is be.
فَيَكُونَ And it is.
So the world in itself is coming into
being or came into being with respect to
the كُنْ of Allah Subhanahu wa Ta'ala.
The be, and it is.
It wasn't there before.
It came for a word from Allah.
Because of a word from Allah.
Allah's word resulted in creation.
And then creation went along, developed habits.
Habits which were reflective of the sunan of
Allah.
And it is what we get used to
in our daily routines and our interactions with
this world.
The world of أسباب The world of cause
and effect.
But what we forget is that the cause
and effect was, is towards a meaning.
Towards a purpose.
And because growth towards that purpose is not
possible simply in the realm of cause and
effect.
Cause and effect, the maximum it can give
you is more of the same.
Novelty is not possible.
New creation is not possible.
Spontaneity is necessary.
And that spontaneity too is not blind chance.
That too is meaningful, purposeful.
كُنْ of Allah.
So cause and effect is necessary.
Law and habit is necessary.
Even that is not blind.
The reason why the كُنْ doesn't make sense
or the spontaneity does not make sense or
these miracles of Allah which deviate away from
what we are used to is because even
that cause and effect is seen to be
blind, meaningless.
But there is a meaning that that is
progressing towards that has to progress towards.
Because if it was all كُنْ and no
habit again, life would not be possible.
Life on earth simply as a series of
كُنْ, كُنْ, كُنْ, كُنْ, without any cause and
effect, without any laws of nature would be
chaos.
Right?
So the كُنْ of Allah, the spontaneity and
diversity that we experience in creation that cannot
be explained by cause and effect which made
evolution a possibility is not blind.
It is directed.
It is meaningful.
And then the cause and effect, the habit,
the regularity that we see in the material
world, that too is meaningful.
And if for the fulfillment of that meaning,
the كُنْ is necessary as it was, and
it was more necessary before than it is
now.
Because earlier in stages of the creation of
the world and then the progression of humanity,
the regularity was developing.
It was in the process of developing.
And so there was more need and necessity
for the spontaneity of the diversity, for the
diversity in creation, for the novelty in creation.
That novelty stems from that كُنْ of Allah
as the Qur'an represents it.
وَيُعَلِّمُهُ الْكِتَابَ وَالْحِكْمَةَ وَالطَّوْرَاتَ وَالْإِنْجِيلَ And Allah
will teach him the Book and Wisdom, the
Torah and the Gospel.
وَرَسُولًا إِلَىٰ بَنِي إِثْرَائِيلٍ And he would be
a messenger towards the Bani Israel.
أَنِي قَدْ جِئْتُكُمْ بِآيَةٍ مَنْ رَبِّكُمْ And he
will proclaim to them, I have come with
an ayah from your Rabb.
What is that meaning?
That is the ربوبية of Allah.
That is in the direction.
Allah wants growth for humanity, for individuals, yes,
but for humanity in general, his creation, the
climax of his creation.
And if that requires novelty, here comes the
كُن.
If it requires regularity, then that's the world
of cause and effect that you see.
أَنِّي أَخْلُقُ لَكُمْ مِنْ أَوْطِينِكَ هِيَةِ الطَّيْرِ So
the ayah that Isa Alayhi Salaam is given
is that I will produce before you a
clay model of a bird.
فَأَنْفُخُوا فِيهِ And I will blow into it.
فَيَكُونُوا طَيْرًا بِإِذْنِ اللَّهِ It will turn to
a real bird with the will of Allah.
وَأُبْرِهُ الْأَكْمَهَ وَالْأَبْرَصِ And I will cure the
blind by birth as well as the leper.
وَأُحْيَى الْمَوْتَ بِإِذْنِ اللَّهِ And raise the dead
to life with the permission of Allah.
وَأُنَبِّئُكُمْ بِمَا تَأْكُلُونَ And I will inform you
of what you have eaten.
وَمَا تَدَّخِرُونَ فِي بُيُوتِكُمْ And what you have
stored in your homes.
إِنَّ فِي ذَلِكَ لَآيَةً لَّكُمْ And without a
doubt, that is a sign for you.
إِن كُنْتُمْ مُؤْمِنِينَ If you really are believers.
Now all the details that the Qur'an
goes into with respect to Maryam Salaamun Alayha
with Isa Alayhi Salaam all of what his
ayahs were that Allah had given him are
a testimony of the revelation that is coming
to Rasulullah Sallallahu Alaihi Wasallam given that he
had no ability to read or write and
he had no access to biblical revelation.
The way this corroborates information from the Bible
is a repeated ayah that Allah cites within
the Qur'an for the prophethood of Rasulullah
Sallallahu Alaihi Wasallam that it is as if
he was there, but he wasn't there.
Allah was there.
And so he is representing the word of
Allah.
This wahi is coming from Allah.
وَمُصَدِّقَ لِّمَا بَيْنَ يَدَيَّ مِنَ التَّوْرَاتِ And I
confirm what was before me in the Torah.
So of the essential responsibilities of every prophet
is to confirm what was before them.
Identify themselves as a continuity within a lineage,
a spiritual lineage of prophethood.
Do not replace and supplant and reject all
of what was before them rather to confirm
it foremost, affirm what was in there and
identify themselves as a continuity of that.
وَلِأُحِلَّ لَكُمْ بَعْضَ الَّذِي حُرِّمَ عَلَيْكُمْ And to
declare lawful for you some of the things
made forbidden upon you.
And one of the signs of a degenerate
people of scripture or a people of scripture
having gone astray is when they're not fulfilling
their appropriate responsibilities, then they will forbid upon
themselves, become excessively rigid in certain aspects of
religion.
That is what happened with the Bani Israel
and this is what has happened with the
Muslim community as well.
Clear for all of us to see.
وَلِأُحِلَّ لَكُمْ بَعْضَ الَّذِي حُرِّمَ عَلَيْكُمْ وَجِئْتُكُمْ بِآيَةٍ
مِنْ رَبِّكُمْ And I have brought you a
sign from your Rabb فَاتَّقُوا اللَّهُ وَأَطِيعُونَ And
so have the taqwa of Allah and obey
me.
إِنَّ اللَّهَ رَبِّي وَرَبُّكُمْ And Allah is my
Rabb and your Rabb فَاعْبُدُوهُ So enter into
His عِبَادَة هَذَا سِرَاطٌ مُسْتَقِيمٌ This is a
straight path فَلَمَّ أَحَسَّ عِيسَى مِنْهُمُ الْكُفْرَةِ But
when Isa sensed disbelief from them Now for
the most part, they're looking at Isa Alayhi
Salaam reminding them of the message of Allah
reminding them of the responsibilities that they owe
to Allah and he is coming with all
of these ayat but you know that doesn't
sit well with all of them They have
a hegemony They have a leadership They have
vested interests They have power Religion comes with
a lot of power with a lot of
sway that you have over people I have
opened so many doors Isa Alayhi Salaam comes
in with all of these ayat and all
these things that they have to do and
then when he sensed that they're going to
disbelieve in him قَالَ مَنْ أَنصَارِي إِلَى اللَّهِ
He called out who is going to help
me in the way of Allah in the
cause of Allah قَالَ الْحَوَارِيُونَ نَحْنُ أَنصَارُ اللَّهِ
And then the disciples For the most part,
they were washermen They were people who would
buy the stream wash clothes and they responded
to Isa Alayhi Salaam and typically that's where
the response comes to most prophets that the
segments of the society which have not been
overwhelmed by the status quo that much and
so they have retained a relative degree of
that freedom definitely more so than the other
people in the society who are so deeply
captivated by their own lifestyles by their own
power, their wealth, their addictions to pleasure that
for them to see the call of the
prophet even if that theme is undeniable and
then to respond to it as appropriate it
is an uphill battle which most people fail
to overcome or to win and so the
response to Isa Alayhi Salaam also comes from
his حَوَارِيُونَ come from that segment of the
population أَمَنَّا بِاللَّهِ and they say we have
we believed in Allah so helping the prophet,
helping Allah we are the helpers of Allah
Allah secure enough and honoring and
loving enough to the point of saying come
help me he doesn't feel or he doesn't
make him small in any way in honoring
the human being and empowering the human being
with this opportunity I'm stepping back I'm not
going to do anything here I want you
to do it yourself do it you carry
the world forward where I want for it
to go and wherever you want for it
to go in my name and I'll do
it in yours أَمَنَّا بِاللَّهِ we have believed
in Allah they said وَاشْهَدْ بِأَنَّا مُسْلِمُونَ and
bear witness that we are Muslim that we
have submitted رَبَّنَا أَمَنَّا بِمَا أَنْزَلْتَ our Rabb
we believe in what you revealed وَاتَّبَعْنَا الرَّسُولَ
and we follow the path of the messenger
فَاكْتُبْنَا مَعَ الشَّهِدِينَ so register us with those
who witness so these are Jehovah's witnesses وَمَكَرُوا
وَمَكَرَ اللَّهِ that's where the name stems from
وَمَكَرُوا وَمَكَرَ اللَّهِ and they plan and Allah
planned وَاللَّهُ صَيْرُ الْمَاكِرِينَ and Allah is the
best of planners so whatever went around the
details of after the conflict that ensued the
helpers that Isa Alayhi Salaam did have the
Hawariyun he had and then there was the
people in the temple the religious scholars and
the religious leaders of the Bani Israel how
they plotted and planned and they confided with
the king at that time to get Isa
Alayhi Salaam convicted and the death penalty was
announced and then whatever happened with that we're
going to go into those details here as
well and then more later on إِذْ قَالَ
اللَّهُ يَا عِيسَىٰ and when Allah said عِيسَىٰ
إِنِّي مُتَوَفِّيكَ I am going to raise you
up I am going to raise you up
وَرَافِعُكَ I'm going to take you back completely
so again these are parts of the Quran
which are used specifically by the Qadianis to
allude to certain beliefs that they have about
Isa Alayhi Salaam then using that what they
have about Mirza Ghulam Ahmad Qadian himself so
these portions become significant from that respect إِنِّي
مُتَوَفِّيكَ I am going to take you back
and the way the Arabic or the words
of the language is played around with or
interpreted in very specific rigid ways the متشابهات
that is between that is within the language
they take it to one particular direction arbitrarily
and fixate it there it has fault it's
fault fault is death death is death it's
done it's okay it's gone but to understand
that even موت is to be fault to
die is to be raised up completely and
then the sister of death which is sleeping
the raising up that takes place there as
well right and this is alluded to within
the language of the Quran that Allah is
the one الَّذِي يَتَوَفَّ الْأَنفُسَ حِينَ مَوْتِهَا Allah
is the one who raises up people takes
them back at the time of their death
وَالَّذِي لَمْ يَمُتْ فِي مَنَامِهَا and the one
who doesn't not at the time of their
death he takes them up or the process
of being fault takes place for them at
the time of their sleep right so there's
a raising up that takes place there as
well now so for Isa عليه السلام who
have been raised to the heavens and not
died the way people die is is highlighted
over there again there's a range of possibilities
within the interpretation to fixate it as just
one and the other and then on the
basis of those conclusions draw separate paths to
the complete exclusion of what the what Iman
demands of you what character conduct justice it
entails within the society it's lost in all
of those vain arguments right what is to
what effect are those interpretive disputes what effects
are they are they bringing about what are
they serving right that's should that be any
standard of what is right or what is
a better understanding or a better interpretation that's
lost in these the rigidity of the disputes
as they arise and then the judgments that
are proclaimed on those who differ with the
obvious understanding وَرَافِعُكَ إِلَيَّ أَنْ رَيَزْ يُتُ مَيْسَلْفُ
مُطَهِّرُكَ مِنَ الَّذِينَ كَفَرُوا and purify you from
those who refuse to believe in you فِي
الدُّنْيَا وَالْآخِرَةِ in this world as well as
in the hereafter وَمَا لَهُم مِّن نَاصِرِينَ and
they will have no one to help them
وَأَمَّا الَّذِينَ آمَنُوا وَأَمِلُوا الصَّالِحَاتِ and for those
who believe and perform righteous deeds فَيُوَفِّهِمْ أُجُورَهُمْ
Allah will repay them fully وَاللَّهُ لَا يُحِبُّ
الظَّالِمِينَ Allah does not like the oppressors ذَلِكَ
نَتْلُهُ عَلَيْكَ so this is what we recite
to you يا رسول الله من الآيات والذكر
الحكيم from the signs and the reminders of
wisdom wise reminder إِنَّ مَثَلَ عِيسَى عِندَ اللَّهِ
كَمَثَلِ آدَمٍ the parable of Isa the likeness
of Isa as far as Allah is concerned
is that of Adam قَلَقَهُ مِنْ تُرَابٍ Allah
created Adam from clay you know parents ثُمَّ
نَبَتَهِل I'm sorry I skipped a page قَلَقَهُ
مِنْ تُرَابٍ ثُمَّ قَالَ لَهُ كُنْ فَيَكُونَ and
then he said be and he was the
element of kun was there أَلْحَقُّ مِنْ رَبِّكِ
this is the truth from your Rabb فَلَا
تَكُنْ مِنَ الْمُمْتَلِينَ so do not be in
doubt about this or do not be among
those who have doubt with respect to this
فَمَنْ حَاجَكَ فِيهِ so those who argue with
you concerning this مِنْ بَعْدِ مَا جَأَكَ مِنَ
الْعِلْمِ after you have received knowledge about it
فَقُلْ تَعَالَوْا tell them come نَبَهُ أَبْنَاءَنَا وَأَبْنَاءَكُمْ
let us summon our sons and you summon
yours وَنِتَاءَنَا وَنِسَاءَكُمْ in our women and yours
وَأَنفُسَنَا وَأَنفُسَكُمْ and ourselves and you ثُمَّ نَبْتَهِلْ
then we earnestly pray فَنَجْعَلْ لَعْنَةَ اللَّهِ عَلَى
الْكَاذِبِينَ and let the curse of Allah be
on the liar so the conviction of Rasulullah
ﷺ in the aftermath of the Quran having
proclaimed its position on Isa عليه السلام with
the doubters those who were presenting doubt about
Isa عليه السلام the way he's represented in
the Quran being in contradiction as to how
they read the Bible Allah says clearly no
doubts here no doubts here go on and
challenge them bring out everyone let's just invoke
the curse of Allah if whoever's despite all
of this despite all of this let's invoke
the curse of Allah upon the one who
is lying إِنَّ هَذَا لَهُوَ الْقَصَصُ الْحَقُّ and
this is the true narration وَمَا مِنْ إِلَهٍ
إِلَّا اللَّهُ there is no Ilah except Allah
وَإِنَّ اللَّهَ لَهُوَ الْعَزِيزُ الْحَكِيمُ and without a
doubt Allah alone is the Almighty the All
-Wise فَإِنْتَ وَلَّوْا but if they turn away
فَإِنَّ اللَّهَ عَلِيمٌ بِالْمُفْسِدِينَ for sure no know
that for sure Allah is aware Allah knows
the corrupters فَإِنْتَ وَلَّوْا but if they turn
away فَإِنَّ اللَّهَ عَلِيمٌ بِالْمُفْسِدِينَ Allah definitely knows
those who cause corruption that at the heart
of this shirk is the fasad that is
going to be created because of the doors
that are opened when you're playing around with
knowledge like that you're playing around you're making
it so arbitrary that without the due diligence
without the due evidence you're making these claims
and when these claims are not consonant with
the ayat of Allah with ilm as ilm
is identified validated by scripture itself then the
doors you open up if it's not in
consonance with those ayat if it is not
in synchrony with those ayat if it does
not take the compendium of those ayat into
consideration contradicts those ayat contradicts that ilm then
what is it in synchrony with?
what is it serving?
it is serving one vested interest or another
and if it is serving the vested interests
of an individual or a group of people
then necessarily that is going to result in
the chaos the fasad the corruption the injustice
that you're going to see in society and
that Allah will not stand for and that
Allah is not going to tolerate in proclaiming
his uluhiyah his authority his exclusivity his
exclusive right to being ilah it is it's
not a it's not a narcissistic claim it's
not god can't stand anybody else what the
is when you turn away from that what
that does and what gods that is serving
so Allah knows fully well the people who
cause corruption even after knowledge has come it
is an insult to truth it is an
insult to knowledge when these sorts of conclusions
are drawn when these sorts of dogmas are
erected and then rather than them these dogmas
being consistent with knowledge knowledge is forced to
be consistent with those dogmas and then knowledge
is fragmented chunks of it are rejected denigrated
made inferior and those fragments are picked up
by others as reactions and conflict and more
conflict ensues and it never ends qul ya
ahlul kitab say people of the scripture again
the way we saw in surah Baqarah how
ruku number 15 to 18 after those 10
that were specific address to Bani Israel there
was like transitionary rukus as we call them
and they brought a lot of the issues
together and then they built up for what
was to come later in the second half
of surah Baqarah we see a similar pattern
here that the portion that we just studied
was an address to the Christian community and
now this being the transitionary ayats from where
the rest what subjects were raised or the
themes that were picked up on in the
previous portion are going to be summarized concluded
and then what is to come in the
rest of the surah the ideas or the
ayat are going to start building up or
setting the stage for those qul ya ahlul
kitab say people of the scripture ta'alaw
ila kalimatin sawaim baynana wa baynakum come to
common terms between us and you what we
share what we hold in common al la
na'buda illa Allah that we won't be
or we will not do ibadah of anyone
other than Allah right so monotheism when you
talk about monotheism then the first thing you're
going to read or study about is that
three Abrahamic faiths are monotheistic faiths Judaism, Christianity
and Islam let's start a conversation from there
let's talk about tawheed let's talk about the
implications of tawheed let's talk about where the
old testament new testament quran come together let's
first attain that consensus we can build the
rest of the conversations from there but let's
first come to what this tawheed should entail
for each of us and we have to
be very fair in the time of rasulullah
sallallahu alayhi wasallam when this call is being
put out to the bani israel and the
the yahood and the nasara it is addressing
it is asking them to look at their
own book and see what is what has
seriously gone wrong and how they are seriously
contradicting their own book now this call is
to all three let's all of us do
this let's all of us turn to our
books and see where we're we've contradicted our
own sources and how we really are not
representatives of monotheism as we ought to have
been that even when the post-modern world
turns towards spirituality religiosity it is doing that
more so than the modern world was doing
spirituality is being taken seriously in the past
couple of decades much more so than it
was prior to that right in the 19th
late 19th century or for the most part
of the 20th century the end of the
20th century and the beginning of the 21st
century spirituality is being taken seriously within the
university even within the west and the kind
of spirituality however that is being taken seriously
is not an abrahamic spirituality it is not
an abrahamic religiosity it is for the most
part in the university a buddhistic or a
polytheistic spirituality that is being taken seriously biblical
or quranic is not part of the conversation
if anything it is a very buddhistic or
it is a very polytheistic reading of the
bible if you look at most of the
jungian readings if you want to get into
psychology most of transpersonal psychology as well if
it does bring in the bible in any
way then it would bring in the bible
in a very uh with looking at it
from a very particular lens looking at it
from a very particular lens and we get
very excited as muslim students of psychology when
we look at positive psychology like you're talking
about spirituality and we're looking at transpersonal psychology
oh they're talking about god and oh my
god jordan peterson's talking about the bible and
we get really really excited without recognizing that
essentially and for sure there's there is huge
um there are treasure troves of wisdom in
all of us there's there's good there is
truth there's um there is so much but
without an appropriate understanding of where all of
this is coming from the logic that it's
bringing to the table and how it is
essentially if certain very important areas are not
addressed not repaired it is essentially essentially contrary
to anything scriptural anything truly tohadic it necessitates
a polytheism it necessitates a polytheism so if
it is accommodating the bible in any way
or biblical stories or prophets in any way
it is doing that in its polytheistic structure
and if we're not able to see that
then before we know it we've carried bits
and pieces and fragments of polytheism and apparently
arbitrarily brought out some form of islam from
them it's uh it is farcical the kind
of efforts that we make or we have
made and it's unfortunate that there are so
many resources within our own tradition within our
own history that would have helped preclude these
comical outcomes only because they're so tragic just
to make it more tolerable you have to
see the comedy in them in any case
so people of the scripture come back let's
talk about what this tawheed is we're not
going to ascribe any partners to him let's
see what that entails and let's not take
we will not take one another as besides
Allah but if they turn away then tell
them that they should bear witness that we
are muslim people of the book why do
you argue concerning Ibrahim?
the Torah and the gospel were not revealed
except after him don't you use don't you
have any sense at all don't you use
your reason your ability to reason?
up until now you've been arguing about things
of which you knew something why do you
argue about what you know nothing?
and Allah knows while you do not again
the nature of ilm as we acquire it
and ta'lim being a process the attitude
required to engage with knowledge necessarily as children
as teenagers as adolescents as students at whatever
stage we don't know everything we know some
things and necessarily we have to make leaps
to fill in the gaps a lot of
those times a lot of the times that
we make those leaps that we fill in
those gaps our biases necessarily have to seep
in some of them are correct some of
those intuitive leaps are genuinely intuitive they are
from the right origin or they're of divine
origin let's say but then since we're not
prophets those intuitive leaps they're not divine intuition
they may be demonic interpolations they may be
from shaitan now and shaitan playing on our
instincts folding ourselves off to the ayat of
Allah to knowledge means that we cannot perform
that necessary repair within our knowledge within our
understanding within our beliefs and before we know
it those demonic interpolations if we're necessary biases
that we have to have to fill in
the gaps because we're not all knowing they
become idols we become rigid on them we
equate them with what is with what we
actually have evidence for or which was actually
genuinely divinely intuitive and we it all becomes
the same for us and this lack of
openness to the ayat of Allah to knowledge
the results in this idolatry and then whatever
truth is coming that we've closed ourselves off
to it necessitates that we compromise on the
truth that we've already had which was part
of our corpus of knowledge right and so
we start talking about things we have no
knowledge of like before as the people of
the book are being told we're talking about
Isa alayhis salaam we're talking about Maryam Zakariya
you have some knowledge there you have some
sources there's you know there's there's room for
engagement there now with respect to the others
you're jumping and you're now talking and you're
rejecting the ayat of Allah as they're being
revealed in the Quran where does this come
from?
why do you argue about that which you
know nothing about?
what is this complacency with respect to knowledge
these belligerently certain claims in areas that are
not of your own expertise where are these
coming from?
what is that reflecting?
you're making a divine claim of having that
that belligerent certainty is betraying a god complex
are you really that all-knowing?
Allah knows you've confused yourself with him and
that in itself is betraying one of the
motivations of your worship of God in which
it's actually a self-worship of yourself place
yourself in his where he belongs Ibrahim was
not a Jew nor a Christian in fact
he was a devoted dedicated Muslim not the
label the conduct the attitude the way of
life and he was not of actually not
just the label the label is a part
of it and he was not of the
mushrikeen the best claimants to Ibrahim or having
any affiliation with Ibrahim are the people who
follow in his footsteps that's this prophet and
the people who are following him are the
people who believe and Allah is the protecting
friend of the believers it is this this
iman which is their habit or their way
of looking at things and the ayat of
Allah a faction of the people of the
scripture wishes to mislead you and they're not
going to mislead themselves but they don't realize
they're so committed they think they're so right
and they actually feel like they need to
give da'wah to you and in doing
so they end up becoming more belligerently certain
and more misled with respect to what they
have without even realizing it people of the
scripture why do you deny the ayat of
Allah?
while you are your self-witnesses you stand
on ayats of Allah for the claims that
you've made and then when more of those
ayats come in those that your ayat testify
to get affirmation from you are actually rejecting
your greatest affirmer your greatest friend that the
Quran is people
of the book why do you confound the
truth with falsehood?
that's one way of losing truth is that
you allow falsehood to seep in second way
is to hide truth altogether let falsehood in
do not let truth in and whatever truth
that you have that confirms truth that is
outside of you hide it you start losing
it you know it you're doing this knowingly
a group from the people of the book
said to one another believe in what has
been revealed to the muslims to Rasulullah ﷺ
and what the sahaba have believed in during
the early hours of the day but deny
it at the end so that perhaps they
apostate so one of the greatest challenges that
they had is that the people who enter
into this faith and start living it they
affirm they testify to the truth after having
lived it and that testimony counts for something
as part of the group the the what
they carried outside of it what they thought
of it and they gave it a chance
and when they had experienced it they said
yes it was worth it and it is
worth it is worth more than what we
had earlier thought and their faith is increasing
and their commitment is testimony to it like
that's not good so how about we do
this let there be a group of us
that accepts islam and then a few days
later or in the evening at night they
claim you know what nothing much there nah
but they mean it's all fluff there's nothing
much there so that the rest of the
people you know they get they start having
doubts as well oh my god these people
gave it a real chance they really read
it they really understood it they were ready
to live it they had started living it
so don't trust anyone except those who follow
your religion so this in-group out-group
mentality how the group becomes a cult and
the cult takes away your faculties of reason
and how you are more likely to do
what you would never have done by yourself
both in terms of great acts but also
in terms of the most vile acts and
so this is the one of the few
instances in the quran that talks about conscious
hypocrisy deliberate planned hypocrisy for the most part
we see the dimension of hypocrisy being highlighted
قُلْ إِنَّ الْهُدَىٰ هُدَىٰ اللَّهُ tell them ya
Rasulullah the real guidance is the guidance from
Allah أَن يُؤْتَىٰ أَحَدٌ مِثْلَ مَا أُوتِيْتُمْ it's
your fear that somebody else may be given
similar to what you have been given that
truth may be outside of your cult your
group the label of your religion or sect
again the criticism is across the board all
people in the book Old Testament, New Testament
and the Quran it's not that this is
this attitude is criticized when they have it
and it's okay if we have it that
is precisely the attitude that is being criticized
how do you have these double standards?
أَوْ يُحَاجُّكُمْ إِنَّ رَبِّكُمْ so are you afraid
that they will have that truth and they
will argue against you before your Rabb on
the day of judgment قُلْ إِنَّ الْفَضْلَ بِيَدِ
اللَّهِ tell them that the fadl is in
the hands of Allah he gives it to
whoever he wants and it is precisely because
he distributes his fadl across humanity and different
form of ayahs are the expertise or they
become areas of speciality for different people in
different regions of the world in how they
serve as mutual correctives in how they are
able to respect each other or how they
should be able to respect each other and
learn from each other but when fadl in
the form of the ayat of Allah or
knowledge is concentrated with one group only the
exploitation that is then made possible the doors
to which have now been opened up incredible
he bestows it on whomever he wills because
then they're making godlike claims they have become
the all knowledgeable and how whereas the knowledge
of Allah and the fadl of Allah in
its distribution across humanity across time ensures that
these godlike claims are not made وَاللَّهُ وَاسِعٌ
عَلِيمٌ Allah is the all-encompassing and all
-knowing يَخْتَصُ بِرَحْمَتِهِ مَن يَشَهِدْ he chooses for
his mercy whoever he wants وَاللَّهُ ذُو الْفَضْلِ
الْعَظِيمِ and Allah is the possessor of great
bounty وَمِنْ أَهْلِ الْكِتَابِ there are some among
the people of scripture مَنْ إِنْ تَأْمَنْهُ بِقِنْطَارٍ
يُؤَدِّهِ إِلَيْكِ whom if you trust with a
heap of wealth he will definitely return it
to you so the first the Quran criticizes
this cultish practice or this cultish attitude within
the people of this book in which everything
goes as far as everyone else is concerned
your values are only with your own people
your good treatment is only for your own
people and as far as the rest of
the people are concerned they can go to
* you can be conniving with them you
can take interest from them you can betray
them you can whatever you can bad mouth
them you can do all of what you
want and you don't identify any good that
they have and you only proclaim the good
that you have your truth is truth their
truth is not truth your truth is with
the capital T theirs is with the small
p if at all and really it came
from you if there is any truth there
at all we did it first so what
did the people of the Bible will continue
to say oh if there's any truth in
the Quran why is there truth in the
Quran oh because it was copy-pasted from
the Bible we do the same we do
the same any iota of truth or any
undeniable manifestation of truth or progress or development
or growth or that we see in the
West our modern civilization oh Muslims did it
first we started it oh what is that
saying it was taken from us it belongs
to us where's this attitude coming from so
the Quran criticizes this cultish mentality and then
manifests the attitude that you should have that
if there is something good that needs to
be acknowledged acknowledge it be fair be just
there are people from the book who are
good they're ethical they're moral you give them
a heap of wealth and they'll return it
to you وَمِنْهُ مَنْهُ بِذِينَارٍ and there are
those if you give them a single dinar
لَا يُؤَدِّهِ إِلَيْكِ he will not even give
that back to you إِلَّا مَا ذُنْتَ عَلَيْكِ
قَائِمًا except that you continuously have to pester
him ذَلِكَ بِأَنَّهُمْ قَالُوا and why do they
do this why do they have this attitude
because they claim لَيْتَ عَلَيْنَا فِي الْأُمِّيِّينَ السَّبِيلِ
we have no obligation towards these out groupers
those who don't belong to us we can
treat them the way we want to they're
open game plunder them, loot them, * them
لَيْتَ عَلَيْنَا فِي الْأُمِّيِّينَ السَّبِيلِ وَيَقُولُونَ عَلَى اللَّهِ
الْكَذِبَ وَهُمْ يَعْلَمُونَ and they're that's why we
lies to Allah in the north Allah would
never justify something like this they do that
in the name of God بَلَا مَنْ أَوْفَ
بِأَهْدِهِ وَالتَّقَى for sure those who keep their
promise their commitment and have taqwa فَإِنَّ اللَّهَ
يُحِبُّ الْمُتَّقِينَ Allah loves the people of taqwa
so if you have commitments regardless if those
commitments are to Muslims or non-Muslims Christians
or non-Christians you have to live up
to those commitments that's a demand of your
taqwa these out-group, in-group, double standards
no فَإِنَّ الَّذِينَ اشْتَغُونَ بِأَهْدِ اللَّهِ وَأَيْمَانِهِمْ surely
those who exchange the covenant with Allah and
their oaths, their promises ثَمَنًا قَلِيلًا for a
petty price أُولَٰئِكَ لَّا خَلَقَ لَهُمْ فِي الْآخِرَةِ
these are the people that have no share
in the life hereafter وَلَا يُكَلِّمُهُمُ اللَّهُ Allah
will not even speak to them وَلَا يَنظُرُ
إِلَيْهِمْ Allah will not even look at them
يَوْمَ الْقِيَامَةِ on the Day of Judgment وَلَا
يُزَكِيهِمْ and He will not purify them there
are opportunities of purification on the Day of
Judgment Allah will not purify وَلَهُمْ عَذَابٌ أَلِيمٌ
for them is going to be a painful
punishment regardless of which group they hail from
what label they carried of what their passport
said وَإِنَّ مِنْهُمْ لَفَرِيقًا and certainly among them
are a group of people يَلْهُونَ أَلْسِنَتَهُمْ بِالْكِتَابِ
لِتَحْسِبُوهُ مِنَ الْكِتَابِ who twist their tongues so
you think it's a quote from their book
وَمَا هُوَ مِنَ الْكِتَابِ and it's not from
that book وَيَقُولُونَ هُوَ مِنْ عَنْدِ اللَّهِ and
they say that it is from Allah وَمَا
هُوَ مِنْ عَنْدِ اللَّهِ and it is not
at all from Allah وَيَقُولُونَ عَلَى اللَّهِ الْكَذِبَ
وَهُمْ يَعْلُمُونَ and they ascribe a lie to
Allah knowingly مَا كَانَ لِبَشَرٍ مِنْ يُؤْتِيَهُ اللَّهُ
الْكِتَابُ وَالْحُكْمَةِ وَالنُّبُوَّةِ it is not possible for
a human being that Allah grants him scripture,
wisdom, and prophethood ثُمَّ يَقُولَ لِلنَّاسِ and then
he says to the people كُونُوا عِبَادٍ لِي
مِنْ دُونِ اللَّهِ me, my Ibad instead of
Allah وَلَكَنْ كُونُوا رَبَّانِيهِينَ rather he will always
say become people of your Rabb so they
will exalt Isa to the pedestal of godhood
but they're not exalting Isa they're exalting themselves
because then now after having made this bid
'ah in their aqeedah that gives them the
right for other bid'at they've given themselves
the right for other bid'at now they
can put words in his mouth which are
their own words their own desires بِمَا كُنْتُمْ
تُعَلِّمُونَ الْكِتَابَ وَبِمَا كُنْتُمْ تَدْرُسُونَ so rather what
the prophet would actually say is ask them
to become people of their Rabb بِمَا كُنْتُمْ
تُعَلِّمُونَ الْكِتَابَ وَبِمَا كُنْتُمْ تَدْرُسُونَ in accordance with
what the book which you keep on teaching
others and studying yourselves stay consistent with their
own book وَلَا يَأْمُرُكُمْ أَن تَتَّخِذُ الْمَلَائِكَةَ وَالنَّبِي
جِلِينَ أَرْبَابًا and he would never ask you
to take the angels and prophets as Rabb
أَيَأْمُرُكُمْ بِالْقُفْرِ would he order you to practice
Kufr بَعْدَ إِذْ أَنْتُمْ مُسْلِمُونَ after you have
become Muslim وَإِذْ أَخَذَ اللَّهُ مِثَاقَ النَّبِيجِينَ and
remember when Allah took the covenant from the
prophets saying لَمَا آتَيْتُكُمْ مِنْ كِتَابٍ وَحِكْمَةٍ behold
since I have given you from scripture and
wisdom ثُمَ جَاءَكُمْ رَسُولٌ مُسَدِّقٌ لِمَا مَعَكُمْ then
there comes to you a messenger confirming confirming
what you already have لَتُؤْمِنُنَّ بِهِ وَلَا تَنْطُرُنَّ
you will definitely believe in him and you
will definitely help him قَالَ أَقْرَرْتُمْ Allah asked
him do you accept وَأَخَذْتُمْ عَلَىٰ ذَلِكُمْ إِصْرِي
and do you agree to take that to
the burden of that covenant from me قَالُوا
أَقْرَرْنَا they all said we accept and so
each preceding prophet would prophesize those that are
to come after him especially the coming of
Rasulullah ﷺ this was part of the covenant
of the prophets themselves and so they would
pass that on to their people that as
my representatives after I am gone every messenger
would tell their people the following messenger who
is going to come especially Rasulullah ﷺ Muhammadur
Rasulullah the last and final messenger he has
to be helped the preparation that you have
to have as a community is to be
his helpers his Ansar and the prophets accepted
this responsibility and their people accepted this responsibility
فَمَن تَوَلَّ بَعْدَ ذَلِكَ so those who turned
back after that فَأُولَئِكَ هُمُ الْفَاسِقُونَ such are
the transgressors أَفَغَيْرَ الدِّينِ اللَّهِ يَبْغُونَ are they
looking for a deen other than Allah's وَلَهُ
أَسْلَمَ مَنْ فِى السَّمَاوَةِ وَالْأَرْضِ and to him
all that is in the heavens and the
earth has submitted this is a religion of
being in harmony with nature in a very
different way than how that's popularly espoused this
is the religion of nature this is the
religion of Allah's creation only when it comes
to human beings coming in harmony means something
qualitatively different given the distinction that human beings
have from the rest of creation on account
of freedom on account of language وَلَهُ أَسْلَمَ
مَنْ فِى السَّمَاوَةِ وَالْأَرْضِ and to him all
that is in the heavens and the earth
has submitted طَوْعًا وَكَرْحًا willingly or unwillingly whether
they wanted to or didn't want to whether
their heart was into it or not وَإِلَيْهِ
يُرْجَعُونَ and towards him is the ultimate return
قُلْ آمَنَّا بِاللَّهِ say we believe in Allah
وَمَا أُنزِلَ عَلَيْنَا and in what has been
revealed to us so repeatedly the Quran asserts
the individuality the distinctness the uniqueness of Allah
understand him through his proper name why is
that relationship other so that otherness is established
so more and more you can purge your
understanding of Allah and your relationship with Allah
from what is a projection of your own
vested interests, desires, biases وَمَا أُنزِلَ عَلَيْنَا and
what has been revealed to us and how
do you do that is you do that
from sources that are outside of yourself what
scripture is giving you وَمَا أُنزِلَ عَلَىٰ إِبْرَاهِمَ
وَإِسْمَعِيلَ وَإِسْحَاقَ وَيَعْقُوبَ وَالْأَسْبَاءَ and you recognize that
in its relationship with the other with its
preceding sources what has been revealed to إِبْرَاهِمَ
إِسْمَعِيلَ إِسْحَاقَ يَعْقُوبَ and their descendants وَمَا أُوتِيَ
مُوسَى وَعِيسَى وَالنَّبِي جُونَ مَنْ رَبِّهِمْ and what
was given to Musa, Isa and all the
prophets from their Rabb لَنُفَرِّقُ بَيْنَ أَحَدٍ مِّنْهُمْ
we do not discriminate between any of them
وَنَحْنُ لَهُ مُسْلِمُونَ and we submit only to
Him, to Allah وَمَنْ يَبْتَغِ غَيْرَ الْإِسْلَامِ الْدِينَ
and whoever seeks a religion other than Islam
فَلَنْ يُقْبَلَ مِنْ it will not be accepted
from him وَهُوَ فِي الْآخِرَةِ مِنَ الْخَاسِرِينَ and
in the hereafter he will be of the
losers كيف يهدي الله القوم and how can
Allah guide a people شَفَرُوا بَعْدَ إِيمَانِهِمْ who
deny after having believed وَشَهِدُوا أَنَّ الرَّسُولَ حَقٌّ
and they bear witness that the messenger is
true وَجَأَهُمُ الْبَيِّنَاتِ and they have received the
clear signs after having made this testament after
having borne witness to this then turning back
وَاللَّهُ لَا يَهْدِي الْقَوْمَ الظَّالِمِينَ Allah is not
going to guide these oppressive people one of
the du'as that the surah started off
with رَبَّنَا لَا تُزِغْ قُلُوبَنَا بَعْدَ إِذْ هَدَيْتَنَا
وَهَبْ لَنَا مِن لَدُنْكَ رَحْمَةً that this you
can't take this for granted you can have
testified to haq and then have lost it
on account of not having that right attitude
of iman which is an attitude of humility
which is an attitude of openness to the
ayat of Allah and so what you have
had from all this time you never seek
to improve that understanding on account of incorporating
more and more ayat of Allah and what
understanding they give to you of Allah وَاللَّهُ
لَا يَهْدِي الْقَوْمَ الظَّالِمِينَ Allah is not going
to guide those oppressive people أُولَٰئِكَ These are
the ones جَزَاءُهُمْ Their reward أَنَّ عَلَيْهِمْ لَعْنَةَ
اللَّهِ وَمَلَائِكَتَهِ وَالنَّاسِ أَجْمَعِينَ that on them is
the curse of Allah and of the angels
and of all of mankind altogether really we
this is a journey it's a process how
can we contain ourselves or satisfy ourselves that
what my understanding of Allah is today it
is the same as what it was 10
years ago 15 years ago when I was
a kid you look at that as a
matter of pride that I have not wavered
from my faith from that immature faith that
there is you you encompassed Allah encompassed Islam
as a teenager or even now as an
adult there is nothing more for you to
learn your understanding of Allah is not maturing
it's not growing what's going on there you
got all of knowledge at some point in
its entirety from one workshop that you attended
maybe on aqeedah all that was necessary okay
good for you so how can Allah
guide a people who have who reject after
having believed or maybe this was just for
Christians right just for Jews we're Muslims after
all they were supposed to improve and grow
and have that output of Iman not us
how can Allah guide a people who have
who deny after having believed and they bear
witness that the messenger is true and they
have received the clear signs Allah is not
going to guide these unjust people these are
the ones their reward that on them is
the curse of Allah of the angels of
all of mankind all together they will live
in that state forever their punishment will not
be decreased nor would they be given a
respite except those who repent afterwards and reform
Allah is extremely forgiving always merciful those who
deny after having believed then they go on
progressing ...
their repentance will not be accepted ...
and they are lost ...
for sure those who disbelieve and die as
disbelievers ...
they will never be accepted from any of
them ...
even the earth's weight in gold if they
offer it as a ransom to escape ...
for such a people there is a painful
punishment and there will be no helpers for
them ...