Zia Sheikh – FullTafseer Of SURAH ALHadeedSession 4Ayah 21 onwards
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AI: Transcript ©
The pursuit of happiness, pursuit of peace, pursuit
of satisfaction, pursuit of, you know, riches, pursuit
of money.
So, this pursuit is basically, if we think
about it, that's what everybody is rushing towards.
So, this imagery is something we need to
keep in mind, what Allah is telling us.
What He's telling us is that you're rushing
towards one thing.
You're rushing towards the thing that all humans
are rushing towards.
The rat race, okay?
Money and capitalism, houses, cars, everything that you
assume that it will give you happiness and
peace in your life.
The reality is that what you should be
rushing towards is forgiveness from your Lord.
Because that's the thing that is going to
benefit you eternally.
The thing that you're rushing towards now, it
is going to benefit you temporarily.
And you're going to leave it all behind.
So, this is what is meant here.
Rush, race towards maghfirah from your Lord.
And towards a Jannah whose width is like
the width of the heavens and the earth.
So, you know, whenever you have a rectangular
shape, right?
You have the length and you have the
width, okay?
And the width usually, when you measure or
when you look at a rectangle, the width
is regarded as the shorter side of the
rectangle.
So here, Allah is saying that rush towards
a Jannah whose width is like the width
of the skies and the earth.
So this, according to Mufassireen, Allah is very
purposefully using the word width to indicate that
what Allah is talking about, the length or
the width of the heavens and the earth
is the width of a Jannah.
So what do you think about the length
of Jannah?
How long is it going to be?
So the length is usually bigger than the
width, okay?
So that's why Allah uses the word width
here.
And rush towards the Jannah, the paradise, whose
width is just like the width of the
sky and the earth.
And who has it been prepared for?
It is not just for anybody.
As is mentioned in the hadith of the
Prophet ﷺ, The merchandise of Allah is expensive.
It's not something cheap.
It's not something that comes easily.
What is the merchandise of Allah?
The merchandise of Allah is paradise.
But who has it been prepared for?
Allah describes in the verse, It has been
prepared for those people that have Iman in
Allah and all of His Prophets.
Iman and all of His Prophets.
This is Iman in Allah and all of
His Prophets, which also means, obviously, when a
person has true Iman, then he follows it
up with good deeds.
So this Jannah has been prepared for such
people.
This is the Fadl of Allah ﷻ.
He gives it to whom He wants.
He has the greatest Fadl, the greatest bounty,
the greatest blessing.
As we mentioned before earlier in the surah,
That our deeds in comparison to the mercy
of Allah ﷻ and the bounties of Allah
ﷻ, that Allah ﷻ has prepared for us,
our deeds are nothing.
Our deeds, they are nothing in comparison to
the bounties Allah ﷻ has prepared for us.
So indeed, when Allah ﷻ blesses us with
a Jannah, which is so huge, that it's
mentioned in a hadith that the last person
that is going to come out of paradise,
out of Jahannam, and he's going to be
put into paradise, his Jannah will be ten
times bigger than this world.
So just imagine what the Fadl, the blessing
of Allah ﷻ is, the grace of Allah
ﷻ is, the generosity of Allah ﷻ is.
For what?
For what we do.
Just pray five times a day for ten
minutes.
Try our best to just stay away from
these sins.
Do our best to be good Muslims.
And in return for that, Allah ﷻ wants
to give us so much.
So indeed, this is the Fadl of Allah
ﷻ.
This is the generosity of Allah ﷻ that
is being displayed here.
So this is what is meant by This
is the Fadl, the blessing, the generosity of
Allah ﷻ.
He gives it to whom He wishes.
Allah ﷻ, He is the one who has
the greatest Fadl and the greatest bounty.
Then after that, Allah ﷻ then goes into
describing an aspect of the human's life.
When a person is going through this life
and he is trying his best to please
Allah ﷻ, then generally speaking, there are going
to be hardships that come about.
And especially when a person converts from a
different religion to Islam.
And this was actually revealed about those people
that converted from paganism and idol worship to
Islam.
And they had to make so many sacrifices.
So obviously they made sacrifices.
And during those sacrifices, a person can feel
that, you know, why is it that I
am going through so many difficulties?
Why is it that I am going through
so many hardships?
On the flip side, sometimes a person goes
through good times.
And he has a good job, a stable
job, could become a nice house, a very
nice wife, a medium wife, obedient children and
everything.
This is basically the ups and downs of
life.
Hard, easy.
And comfortable and sometimes uncomfortable.
And hardships followed by ease.
Ease followed by hardships.
This is basically the rotation that we all
go through.
So Allah ﷻ is describing in this verse
something that will make us very comfortable and
make us very happy to understand it.
If only we understood what Allah ﷻ is
telling us in this verse.
If we understood this, then really whatever happens
to a person, his situation and his connection
with Allah ﷻ and his relationship with Allah
ﷻ will never change.
He will always have that same relationship and
he will always keep in touch with Allah
ﷻ and he will always maintain a very
stable life.
So Allah ﷻ says, مَا أَصَابَ مِن مُصِيبَةٍ
فِي الْعُرْضِ وَلَا فِي أَنفُسِكُمْ إِلَّا فِي كِتَابٍ
مِن قَبْلِ النَّبْرَةِ Whenever any hardship or difficulty
or trial or tribulation, مصيبة means some trial
or tribulation or hardship.
If it comes on the earth, on the
earth meaning in the form of earthquakes, in
the form of hurricanes, in the form of
tornadoes, in the form of hailstones.
Anything that is regarded as somewhat of a
disaster, this is a tribulation that comes on
the earth.
وَلَا فِي أَنفُسِكُمْ And also in yourselves, meaning
a person becomes sick, a person he has
a bereavement in his family, somebody passes away.
A person basically has personal problems that he
has, a divorce that he goes through sometimes.
So Allah is saying that whatever happens to
you, whether it's in the earth generally or
specifically that happens to you, إِلَّا فِي كِتَابٍ
مِن قَبْلِ النَّبْرَةِ Everything was written before the
earth was created.
Allah SWT, He wrote everything and everything was
destined to happen before Allah SWT created the
earth.
That's why it's mentioned in a hadith, إِنَّ
اللَّهَ كَتَبَ مَقَادِيرَ الْأَشْيَاءَ قَبْلَ إِنْ يَفْلُحَ السَّمَاوَاتِ
وَالْأَرْضِ لِخَمْسِينَ أَلْفَسَنَةٍ وَعَرْشُكُمُ عَلَى الْمُرَامِ Indeed Allah
SWT, He wrote down the destinies of everything,
of all the things before He created the
heavens and the earth, before 50,000 years
before He created everything.
So everything was written prior to that.
So now, what happens is, that when a
mu'min, when a believer is faced with this
difficulty, he turns to Allah SWT and he
says, قَدَّلَ اللَّهُ مُمَّا يَشَاءَ فَعَلَ Allah SWT
had destined this to happen and whatever He
wanted, it happened.
Now this doesn't mean that a person should
not be grieved, he shouldn't be upset, he
shouldn't be worried.
Of course if a person is sick, he
loses somebody in his family, he loses his
job, there is a natural tendency to be
upset.
So this natural tendency should not boil over
into complaining about Allah SWT and complaining about
what Allah SWT has written for him.
And complaining to Allah, Oh Allah why did
you make this happen to me?
Even at the death of a person, it
was very common in the old days and
still in many cultures, that when somebody dies,
the women at the burial or at the
place in the house where the person died,
the women are wailing and complaining, if the
husband dies for example, the wife is complaining,
why did you leave us alone, why did
you leave us without any person to look
after us, why did you leave your children
orphaned, why did you leave your wife widowed
and so on and so forth, complaining.
So this is something that is forbidden in
Sharia.
Yes, normal grief as mentioned at the time
of the death of the Prophet's son, the
Prophet, the Sahaba saw tears rolling down his
eyes.
So the Sahaba said, Ya Rasulullah, why are
you crying?
Basically they thought that this was against the
concept of acceptance from Allah SWT.
So the Prophet SAW replied, this is a
natural grief that every human has.
And there is nothing wrong with expressing that
natural grief.
But then overdoing it to the point that
you are complaining about Allah SWT and complaining
very very vocally, this is prohibited in Sharia,
which is known as Naumah.
So we say that whatever Allah SWT ordained,
whatever He has written and whatever He wanted
to happen, that happened.
And then on top of that Allah says,
Indeed that is very difficult, that is easy
for Allah SWT.
For Allah SWT to write something and destined
something and to write something to have it
happen before 50,000 years, that is easy
for Allah SWT.
And then he goes into tackling the mentality
that people have.
Now there are two situations that happen to
humans.
The natural human instinct.
When a person is going through good times,
he has a lot of money, he becomes
rebellious and he becomes arrogant.
And he becomes a person who is not
very nice.
And you see that with these stars all
the time, right?
These film stars or pop stars, they make
a little bit of money and when they
make this money, they basically think that they
are just on top of the world and
everybody else should basically follow them around and
just almost worship them.
And without naming any names, you hear about
this all the time in the news, that
the arrogant nature of the things that they
tend to do.
They think that they are above the law,
they think they are above human etiquette, they
think they are not obligated to be polite
to anybody anymore.
So this comes with that territory of having
ease in one's life and having the money
and the riches and all the rest, the
adulation and the fame and all the rest
of the things that basically when mixed together
and a person is not controlling it, it
becomes a means for a person's implosion.
So this is one aspect of the human
nature.
Then on the other hand what happens is
that a person when he is going through
difficulty, then he is at a loss and
he is grieving and he becomes hopeless.
So both of these things Allah SWT addresses.
So in the previous ayah He said Allah
SWT wrote everything, everything was destined to happen,
everything was written by Allah SWT and now
He says why did that happen?
He says, Firstly, whatever you lost out on,
you should not be upset at that.
You should not lose hope and become disconsolate
at what you lost or whatever passed you
by.
And this is mentioned in a hadith that
really whatever is going to come to you,
it is not going to pass you by.
Whatever Allah SWT has written for you to
happen, it's not going to pass you by.
And whatever that wasn't going to come to
you, it would not have come to you
anyway.
Allah SWT has written everything.
The pens have been raised and the paper
has become dry.
Meaning Allah SWT wrote everything and the ink
of that writing has become dry.
And in another hadith the Prophet SAW said
that the word When you say the word
if, then this opens up the doors of
shaitan.
So you go to a job interview and
you do whatever you can to try to
pass the interview and to get that job.
And ultimately you don't get the job.
So now you're thinking, you're sitting at home
depressed and wondering what it was that went
wrong during the interview.
And then you think to yourself, if only
I had given my answer this way rather
than that way, then maybe I would have
landed that job.
If I had worn a suit rather than
dressed casually, maybe I would have landed that
job.
If I had smiled a little bit more
at the manager, maybe I would have landed
that job.
So this word if, this word if about
the past tense, the Prophet SAW said don't
dwell on it.
And there's such a great wisdom in this.
That if a person thinks about this, that
a person should not be dwelling about these
things, it actually saves him from a lot
of problems.
It saves him from depression, it saves him
from being miserable, it makes him satisfied with
what Allah SWT has decreed for him.
And this is basically a lesson, a huge
lesson we learn from this ayah.
لِكَيْ لَا تَأْسَوْا عَلَىٰ مَا فَاتَكُمْ Should never
be upset and become disconsolate or hopeless about
something that passed you by and something that
you lost out on.
لِكَيْ لَا تَأْسَوْا عَلَىٰ مَا فَاتَكُمْ And the
other end, وَلَا تَفْرَحُوا بِمَا آتَكُمْ And also
that you do not become too happy with
what Allah SWT gave you.
So when a person realizes that what I
have, what I am earning, what I have
accumulated, the money that I have, the house
that I have, the family that I have,
it is something that Allah SWT gave to
me.
It is not something that is because of
me, it is not something because I earned
it or I was so smart.
There are so many people, Allah SWT gives
us so many lessons.
Most of these multi-millionaires and billionaires, they
were mostly high school dropouts.
Bill Gates, dropped out of high school.
Steve Jobs, dropped out of high school.
Michael Dell, Dell Computers, dropped out of high
school.
Virgin, the guy Richard Branson, Virgin Atlantic, billionaire,
owns so many things, dropped out of high
school and he is dyslexic.
So Allah SWT shows you through these examples
that you have this image and this thinking
that I have to get a degree.
Once I get a degree, then after getting
my bachelors, I'll get a masters.
Once I get my masters, I'll get a
doctor.
And the more I learn, the more I
have a chance of finding a good job.
But this is not always the case, that
happens.
So ultimately, yes you do your bit, you
do your best and you try your hardest.
But it's never written in stone that whatever
you are aiming for and whatever you are
trying to achieve, you will get.
And on the other hand, many people who
don't have the ability, who don't have the
education, but yet Allah SWT gives them so
much.
So, should not become arrogant with what Allah
SWT gave you.
Because Allah SWT had ordained that for you
anyway.
He had written that for you anyway.
It's not your smartness, it's not your intelligence,
it's not your education that made that happen
for you.
And then Allah says, Allah SWT doesn't like
those people who are mukhtal.
Mukhtal means those people that think that it's
something of themselves.
And kahur, arrogant people, Allah SWT doesn't like
them.
So especially in our society, where Alhamdulillah Allah
blesses us with somewhat of a comfortable lifestyle,
we should never get arrogant and we should
just be grateful for what Allah SWT has
given us.
And then the next thing that happens to
such people is, they develop inside them qualities
which are contrary to what Allah SWT wants.
They become arrogant first and foremost.
And they say that whatever I've learned, it
is because of my own efforts, because of
my own smartness.
And then when it comes to the time
for spending and giving in charity, they become
stingy.
They say, well, why don't you do the
same thing?
Why don't you become smart?
Why don't you open your own business?
Why don't you do this X, Y and
Z?
And you could become rich too.
Why are you looking at my money?
So a natural progression of understanding or thinking
that what I've learned is because of my
own effort, the natural progression is that a
person becomes stingy.
If a person realizes that what I have
is given to me by Allah SWT, then
he will give in charity.
Because he knows that whatever he is giving,
Allah can replace it for him.
Allah will replace it for him.
So that's why Allah says in the next
verse that Allah does not like muqtal and
fakhur.
He doesn't like those people that think that
they are something of themselves.
He doesn't like the people that are fakhur,
that are arrogant.
And what are they?
الَّذِينَ يَبْخَرُونَ وَيَأْرُونَ النَّاسَ بِالْبُخْرِ They are the
ones that are stingy and they also order
other people to be stingy too.
This happens a lot in poorer countries.
A person, he takes our money to give
to the poor person.
Other people stop him.
They all don't give it to these people.
These people have made it a profession to
go around begging.
Which is true in many circumstances.
But still, if a person wants to give
in charity, he will be rewarded according to
his intention.
There is no point in trying to stop
him.
So they also order people to be fakhir
and to be stingy.
الَّذِينَ يَبْخَرُونَ وَيَأْرُونَ النَّاسَ بِالْبُخْرِ وَمَن يَتَوَلَّ فَإِنَّ
اللَّهُ رَبَّنِي الْحَبِيدُ Whoever turns away from Allah
SWT, then indeed Allah SWT is Al-Ghani.
He is the one who doesn't need anything
and he is the one that's praiseworthy.
So basically what it means is that what
Allah gave you, you should give in charity.
And whoever turns away from giving in charity,
Allah has no need for the charity in
the first place.
Whatever a person gives is for his own
account, is for his own investment, is for
his own good, is for his own benefit
in the hereafter.
Now I would just like to finish off
by mentioning a saying of Umar about difficulties
that happen to a person and how he
used to deal with it.
Umar says that ما أصابت بمصيبة إلا وجدت
فيها ثلاث نعم Whenever I was afflicted with
any type of problem, I found in it
three blessings.
There are three blessings that I found in
each and every problem that I came across.
What were they?
أَلْأُولَىٰ أَنَّهَا لَمْ تَكُنْ فِي دِينِ The first
blessing was that that affliction didn't take place
in my religion.
So what he's saying is that okay, if
I lose something worldly, that's fine.
If I lose a camel, or a horse,
or a house, or I lose a relative
even, at least I didn't find any kind
of deficiency in my deen.
So yes, I don't want any kind of
difficulty or any kind of deficiency to come
in my religion.
So that's the first blessing he says.
The second thing, أَلْأُولَىٰ أَنَّهَا لَمْ تَكُنْ أَعْضَبْ
مِمَّا كَانْتُ That I thank Allah SWT that
that difficulty or that problem wasn't greater than
it was.
So I got sick, well, you know, I
got sick but with a flu, or you
know, I was bedridden for a week, or
what about the person who is bedridden for
the rest of his life?
What about the person who has cancer?
What about the person who is in a
vegetative state, in a coma?
My flu is nothing in comparison to those
people.
So I should be grateful that the difficulty
that I went through, it wasn't greater than
it actually was.
And the third thing, أَلْثَالِحَةٌ أَنَّ اللَّهَ يُعْفِي
عَلَيْهَا الثَّوَابِ الْعَظِيمِ وَالْأَجْرَ الْكَبِيرِ The third blessing
when I come across any kind of difficulty,
I believe sincerely, and Allah SWT has promised
that if I am patient, that He will
give me a huge reward for it, a
huge reward for being patient.
As Allah says in the Quran, وَبَشِّرِ الصَّابِرِينَ
Give glad tidings to the people who have
suffered, who persevere, who are patient.
هُوَ بَيْنَ الَّذِينَ إِذَا أَصَابَتُوا مُّصِيبًا قَالُوا إِنَّا
لِلَّهِ وَإِنَّا إِلَيهِ رَاجِعُونَ That whenever any affliction
comes to them, any kind of problem comes
to them, they say that, إِنَّا لِلَّهِ وَإِنَّا
إِلَيْهِ رَاجِعُونَ We belong to Allah SWT, and
to Him we return.
Allah says, أُولَٰئِكَ عَلَيْهُمْ صَلَوَاتٌ لِلرَّبِّهِ وَرَحْمَةٌ وَأُولَٰئِكَ
مُمْتَدُونَ These people get salutations and blessings from
Allah SWT, and mercy from Allah SWT, and
these are the ones that are guided.
So this is basically reflecting upon the promise
of Allah SWT, that if you are patient
in adversity, Allah SWT is going to reward
you for that.
So Umar ibn Abdullah said, These are the
three blessings that I come across each time
I'm afflicted with any kind of problem or
any kind of hardship.
So that's the kind of attitude that we
should have when we come across difficulties and
hardships, and when we have that, we will
realize actually that our life will become much
easier.
We'll never become depressed.
We'll never lose sleep at night.
Leave it all to Allah SWT.
It is known as, To be pleased with
what Allah SWT has ordained for you.
This is what is meant by this.
So this is the summary of the few
ayahs that we read today.
I pray that Allah SWT gives us salty
from Islam, and practice what has been said.
Al
Fatiha.