Zia Sheikh – How the Quran holds so many meanings in the same verses Khatira Day 7
AI: Summary ©
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AI: Transcript ©
Today inshallah I am going to be going
through a few verses in Surah Al-A
'raf which we recited last night and we
are going to have an example of a
meaning which was specific to the reason why
it was revealed and then a general meaning.
So Allah SWT He reveals in the Quran
wording which is very general.
This is the usual methodology of the Quran
that even though it may be about a
specific reason why those verses were revealed but
Allah SWT always keeps the wording general so
that the same words can be applicable to
other people, humans until the day of judgment
from a different perspective.
So in this case we have a selection
of verses which is addressing the Kuffar of
Quraysh and what they used to do was
they used to make Tawaf around the Kaaba
completely naked and their reasoning was that we
are committing sins in these clothes so it
is not appropriate for us to be making
the Tawaf around the house of Allah SWT
in these dirty clothes so therefore we are
going to remove the clothes and make the
Tawaf around the Kaaba naked.
So this was their thinking and this was
the background to why they were doing that
and according to the history even though they
used to do it naked it was there
was a different time for men and a
different time for women.
But this is something that Allah SWT never
ordained upon them, Allah SWT did not tell
them to do such a thing.
So in these verses if we look at
it from the perspective of why these verses
were revealed we will understand it with one
meaning and then we will look at it
from a different perspective from a general sense
and we will get a meaning which is
applicable for all of us in this day
and age.
So the first aspect, the first meaning addressing
the Kuffar of Quraysh, our
children of Adam adopt beauty at every Masjid,
at every place of worship and eat and
drink and do not be excessive.
So at the same time while they were
in the state of Ihram they used to
say to themselves that we are not going
to eat any meat and any by-products
of meat they also used to avoid.
So Allah SWT says that adopt beauty when
you go to the Masjid meaning dress appropriately
when you are going to the Masjid and
also do not make things Haram upon yourselves
which Allah SWT has not made Haram.
Eat and drink Halal things and do not
be excessive because Allah SWT He does not
love the people that are excessive and wasteful.
Then Allah SWT addresses the Prophet Sallallahu Alaihi
Wasallam and tells him to tell the people,
Qul Man Harama Zeenatallahi Allathee Akhrajalai Ibadihi At
-Tayyibati Minal Rizq.
Tell them O Prophet of Allah who made
Haram the beauty of Allah SWT and also
the good of the Rizq, the pure from
the Rizq and the sustenance.
So who made it Haram for you to
wear clothes when you are going to the
Masjid?
Who made that beautification of yourself Haram for
you and who made it Haram for you
to stop eating meat in the state of
Ihram?
Again applicable to those people in the sense
that these verses were revealed addressing them and
for that reason.
So who made Haram for you the Ihram,
the clothing and who made Haram for you
the pure Rizq and the sustenance that Allah
SWT has given you?
Nobody made that Haram, Allah SWT did not
make it Haram.
Tell them O Prophet of Allah that these
things are for the people of Iman in
the worldly life and exclusively for the people
of Iman in the hereafter.
So it means that Allah SWT gives blessings
to believer and non-believer in this worldly
life.
So just the same way that we are
enjoying his blessings, we are enjoying the air
that we breathe, we are enjoying the food
that he gives us, we are enjoying the
clothing, we are enjoying the housing, we are
enjoying our families.
So the disbelievers, they also are blessed with
these things in this world.
But in the hereafter, Exclusively the blessings are
going to be for the believers and not
for the non-believers.
This is how we explain the Ayat, the
verses for people that know.
What this means is, is that Allah SWT
is giving you an allowance and he is
giving you a ruling and this is a
ruling that actually a person feels good about.
That I am allowed to adopt beauty, I
am allowed to spend money upon myself, I
am allowed to eat good food, Allah SWT
is allowing that.
So Allah is saying, by saying, by this
final part of the verse, This is how
Allah SWT explains his Ayat for people that
know.
That means is, don't just focus on these
things which seem to be good for you.
All of the other verses, all of the
other commands, to believe in one Allah and
not commit shirk, to make sure you are
praying five times daily, to give zakat and
those things that seem burdensome to you, they
are also verses from Allah SWT, they are
also commands from Allah SWT, so don't forget
them too.
Make sure you implement them.
After that Allah SWT says, Now the question
is, then what is haram for us?
What is haram for us?
And the word innama is used here.
And innama in Arabic is used for what
is known as, that means that for an
objection, for a question that is not put
into writing, but you would assume that there
is a question there that is being answered.
So the question is, what is haram for
us?
What are the things that Allah SWT has
made haram for us?
So the answer to that is, Tell
them O Prophet of Allah, that indeed Allah
SWT has made haram, my Lord has made
haram, alfawahish, meaning indecent things, Allah SWT has
made haram, those that are apparent and open
and those that are hidden.
So again addressing the kuffar of Quraysh that
were doing this, what we would say is
a completely indecent act, they are being addressed
and they are being told that that is
haram for you, to be exposing yourself, to
be exposing your nakedness in public and especially
around the most sacred of places, around the
Kaaba.
This is one of the fawahish that Allah
SWT has made haram.
And also, in addition to the apparent and
open fawahish, internally a person having a corrupt
mind and thinking about the nakedness of others
and thinking about illicit things and wrong things,
that is also made haram for you and
that is being prohibited for you.
Wal-ithma and general sins, wal-baghiyah bi
ghayril haqt and transgression without any right.
So there is a transgression that a person
does to stand up against a tyrant, to
stand up against a person who is oppressive,
the best jihad according to this hadith is
to stand up against an oppressive king.
So to have transgression without a right, the
king is doing everything for you, the ruler
is doing everything for you, he is fulfilling
your needs and he is not preventing you
from practicing your Islam.
So you stand up and rebel against that
person, this is al-baghiyah bi ghayril haqt.
And what else is prohibited?
Wa an tushriku billahi ma lam yunazzil bihi
sultana and to commit shirk with Allah SWT
about which he has revealed no proof.
Obviously when there is no shirk, when he
has no partners, how can he reveal any
kind of proof for it?
In fact the proofs are against it, against
the partners of Allah SWT which we will
hear at other times inshallah, wa an taqulu
ala Allahi ma la ta'lamun and he
has forbidden for you to say things against
Allah SWT about which you have no knowledge.
So obviously when they came to this conclusion
of making the tawaf around the Kaaba naked,
that came from their own minds, nobody told
them that, no Wahi came to them and
no Prophet told them that they were supposed
to do that.
They made a false accusation against Allah SWT.
So this is the meaning from the perspective
of why the verse was actually revealed in
the first place.
But again like I said before, there is
a tendency in the Quran to be very
general in its wording and when we see
the general wording, we take that generality into
consideration and not the actual reason why it
was revealed.
So if we go through those same verses
again from the perspective, from our perspective, we
will see a different meaning based upon our
understanding too.
It will give us a meaning which is
appropriate for us too.
And this concept of the generality of the
words is known in Arabic and Usul Tafsir
as Al-ibratu li-umumil-lawt la li
-fususil-mawarid.
What is taken into consideration is the generality
of the wording, not why it was actually
revealed in the first place.
So now let's go through the same verses
keeping us into consideration.
Allah SWT says, Ya Bani Adam, khudhu zeenatakum
ainda kulli masjidin wa kulu washrabu wa la
tusrifu.
O children of Adam, adopt beauty whenever you
go to the masjid.
So whenever you go to any place of
worship, adopt beauty.
So wear nice dresses, wear good clothing, smell
nice, be presentable, be in a state of
dress that you would feel proud of going
in front of somebody.
So this is the type of dress that
you are supposed to have when you come
to the masjid.
Wa kulu washrabu wa la tusrifu.
And Allah SWT has given you blessings to
eat and drink.
So eat and drink from them but do
not be excessive.
Meaning, do not be excessive, eat within the
limitations that Allah SWT has put upon you
as the Prophet SAW has instructed upon you,
as the science of medicine has told you
that you should eat within these means.
Wa la tusrifu, do not be excessive because
Allah SWT, He does not love those people
that are excessive.
And then the question is, Kul, tell them
O Prophet of Allah, man harrama zeenat Allah
illatee akhrada liibadihi, who has made haram the
beauty of Allah SWT that He has sent
or He has allowed for His slaves.
So many people fall under this trap of
thinking that if I am to be a
good Muslim, I have to wear like dirty
clothes all the time or always be dressed
very simply and wear shoes which are torn.
This is not what is Allah SWT wants
from us.
He has not made this beauty haram for
us.
He has allowed us to adopt the beauty
that we want to and there is nothing
wrong with that again with the condition that
it should not be excessive.
For example, excessiveness would be that a person
can wear a watch for $100 or $200
or $300 rather than spending $5,000 or
$10,000 or $20,000 on watches which
is also common.
Some people if they have the money, they
waste the money on those things.
So this is an excessive thing.
Recently, I heard about a handbag which was
sold for like a million dollars.
A handbag that women carry around, that was
sold for like a million dollars.
So this is excessive.
You want to get a handbag for $50,
$70, $200, that is acceptable.
That is beauty that you can adopt but
not to be excessive.
So Allah SWT did not make the beauty
haram upon you and also, He did not
forbid you from eating the pure rizq.
Again, a person would think I have to
always be fasting or I always have to
eat only bread and water to be a
good Muslim.
No, Allah SWT gave you blessings, Allah SWT
allowed you to eat meat and fish and
those things are also mentioned in the Quran
that these are blessings for you.
So, Allah SWT did not forbid you from
consuming these pure things.
These things are a blessing for the believing
people in this world and exclusively on the
Day of Judgment.
This is how we explain the verses for
people that know.
So again, the same thing applies here that
the explaining of verses means that don't just
take these good things that are being given
to you, all of the difficult things that
seem difficult for you, they are also the
command of Allah SWT.
You should also adopt them and put them
into practice.
And then the question again, what has Allah
SWT made haram for us?
And again, if a person thinks about it,
most of the people when they engage in
spending money upon themselves or a lot of
the people, not saying most of them, a
lot of the people when they spend money
upon themselves to beautify themselves or to get
a nice car or to have a nice
house, it is with the intention of, for
example, a person, he beautifies himself, why?
With the intention of looking attractive to the
opposite gender.
This is a wrong intention.
Allah SWT gave you the blessing to beautify
yourself, not with the intention of indulging in
haram and having a haram intention.
So when a person is engaging in beautification
of oneself, it should not be with the
intention of fawahish.
It should not be with the intention of
having an illicit thoughts about the opposite gender
or having them have those bad thoughts about
yourself.
It should be purely and purely with the
intention of keeping oneself clean, looking presentable, looking
presentable when going to the masjid.
This is the reasoning that a person should
beautify oneself or to beautify oneself for one's
own wife or one's own husband.
The unfortunate thing nowadays is the women beautify
themselves when they go outside but within the
house, there is no beautification for the person
that is halal for you.
The same thing applies to the brothers.
When they are in the house, they don't
beautify themselves and make themselves presentable for their
wives but when going outside, they make themselves
presentable.
This is against the rules of shariah.
You should be presentable especially for your wives,
especially for the husbands.
The wives should be presentable and look attractive
rather than looking attractive when they are going
outside.
So Allah SWT says what he has made
haram is al fawahish, meaning the indecency he
has made haram.
Ma zahra minha wa ma batan.
Indecency which is open and apparent and also
internal indecency, having bad thoughts of committing sins
and so on, that has been made haram.
So don't use the excuse of beautification of
yourself to have these bad thoughts and to
attract the opposite gender.
This is not what it's supposed to be.
Wal ithma wal baghiyah and he has made
haram the sin, wal baghiyah and transgression without
a right, wa an tushriku billahi ma lam
yunazzil bihi sultana and that you should commit
shirk with Allah SWT about which he has
revealed no proof, wa an taqulu ala allahi
ma la ta'lamun and you should say
about Allah SWT what you do not know.
So again, many people who get into this
mindset that I have to live like what
we say in Urdu, malang.
You know what a malang is?
A person who just leaves everything, leaves his
home, leaves his children and family and just
spends his life in the masjid or in
a holy place, relying upon people to give
him scraps of food and donations.
So this is not what Allah SWT expects
from us, wa an taqulu ala allahi ma
la ta'lamun.
There is no Islamic ruling for you to
do that.
So to make these claims, this is making
a false accusation against Allah SWT.
So when we look at the same verses
but looking at it from two different perspectives,
we get the meaning of why the verses
were originally revealed and also we get the
same meaning according to our understanding.
So in both senses, the meanings fit very
beautifully and very appropriately and this is one
of the beauties of the Qur'an.
Many meanings we can derive and we can
come to different conclusions from those same wordings
and unfortunately that is a double edged sword.
Why?
How come the terrorists use the same quotes
from the Qur'an that we do and
we don't come to the same conclusion that
they do?
This is why, because the wording of the
Qur'an is very general and if you
don't have the correct knowledge of the Qur
'an, the background of why the verses were
revealed and the reasoning that Allah SWT said
certain things, then you will come to wrong
conclusions.
So it is very important to take the
correct advice from the scholars before coming to
a conclusion about verses because the Qur'an
is a very, very deep.
It has very, very deep meaning.
It has a very broad meaning.
A lot of meanings can be taken from
the same verses and sometimes people can come
to the wrong conclusions like these terrorists have
done giving Islam a bad name.
So I pray that Allah SWT gives us
the tawfiq to understand and practice what has
been said and heard.