Zia Sheikh – Ramadan 2015 Khatira Day18
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And as we know, Allah SWT mentions in
great detail how He commands the honeybee to
go round to the mountains and the trees
to collect nectar, which is then turned into
honey, about which Allah SWT declares, فِيهِ شِفَاءٌ
لِلنَّاسِ There is a cure for humanity in
that honey.
So this surah actually, from the beginning to
the end, it talks about various kinds of
blessings that Allah has blessed us with in
terms of the fact that He has given
us so many different things that are under
our control.
Animals and sheep, camels, goats, even elephants, they
are all under our control and they are
under the service of the human.
In addition to that, Allah SWT mentions other
blessings, which I'm going to be referring to
right now.
There is a riwayah in which the Prophet
SAW, this riwayah is in Ibn Kathir, a
person who was a Bedouin, he came to
the Prophet SAW and started asking him many
questions, and the Prophet SAW, he started responding
to the questions using these verses, which were
revealed to him.
And they were specifically about the blessings that
Allah SWT has blessed the humans with.
So Allah SWT says, وَاللَّهُ جَعَلَ لَكُم مِّن
بُيُوتِكُم سَكَنًا Allah SWT, He made for you,
from your houses, a sakan, a place of
living.
Now the strange thing is, the word sakan,
in Urdu we say sukoon, what does sukoon
mean?
Sukoon, what does it mean?
Comfort, peace, right?
So in Arabic, the word sakan basically means
a place to live.
So when you ask somebody in Arabic, أين
تسكون?
Where do you live?
The actual literal translation of أين تسكون is,
where do you find peace?
Where do you find peace?
So maskan, maskan also means your dwelling, it
really means a place of peace.
And the reality is, we have so many
sayings in English, right?
There's no place like home, alright?
The reality is, that when a person comes
to his home, he finds the most peace
there.
So he may go for a vacation, and
he may stay at the most expensive of
resorts and hotels, 5-star, 6-star, 7
-star nowadays.
But yet, the feeling of peace and tranquility
a person gets, when he gets to his
house, is completely different.
Okay?
He may have a bed which is 10
years old, but he feels more comfortable sleeping
in that bed, than in any other expensive
bed that he might find anywhere else.
Okay?
So this is why the place of the
house in Arabic is called sakan, it is
from the word sukoon, because a person finds
peace there.
So however humble that house may be, it
may be just a one bedroom apartment, or
a two bedroom apartment, but still, the home
is the home.
So he finds peace there.
So Allah SWT said, Allah SWT has made
for you, from your houses, peace, or sakan,
or a place of dwelling.
And the Arawi, the villager, when he heard
this, he said, Yes, that is true.
And the Prophet SAW continued, and he said,
Allah SWT made for you, from the skins
of animals.
And again, something we take so lightly nowadays,
the fact that an animal gave its life
for us.
An animal gave its life for us, and
we eat the meat of that animal, and
we use the skin of that animal.
Okay?
So, Allah is mentioning here, that he made
for you from the skins of the animals,
the leather of the animals, houses, meaning, we
use those skins for tents, and so on,
that you can carry around easily.
You find them very light.
Whether you are in travel, or whether you
have stopped your travel, and you are residing
at a place, but those tents that are
made from animal skin, they also, they give
you refuge.
And then, on top of that, those same
animals, you use the wool, the hair, and
the other components of the animal, the hair
and the wool, etc.
For what?
For other things.
For clothing, and for weaving, and so on.
Sweaters are made from the wool of the
animals.
Again, that animal, it's giving up part of
itself, so that you can benefit from it.
Another blessing of Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala,
you made from these things, goods and benefit
until a fixed time.
And the ayah continues.
And all the way, the Bedouin continues to
say, to the Prophet a.s. Yes, yes,
that's true.
That is true.
The ayah continues.
Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala made for you
from what He created, shadows, meaning shade.
So again, whatever the form of that shade
is, whether you're underneath a tent, or whether
you're in an air-conditioned house, or whether
you're in an apartment, Allah subhanahu wa ta
'ala gave you shade.
So, many forms of shade that Allah subhanahu
wa ta'ala gave you.
Some people who live in mountains, Allah subhanahu
wa ta'ala blessed them with caves, so
that they could take refuge within the mountains
also.
So, even people have found refuge in caves.
Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala made for you
garments, that protect you from the heat, and
made you garments that protect you during the
time you fight.
So, Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala again, He
gave us different types of garments.
Sometimes you have garments for the heat, we
have cool cotton clothes nowadays, and also we
use, nowadays we have new technology, which, you
know, the sports manufacturers make, to make their
shirts and so on, that even though that
shirt gets wet, it still stays dry.
This technology was, the intelligence for that technology
was given to us by Allah subhanahu wa
ta'ala.
And then we have that, we have clothing,
which protects us during the cold months.
The wool and the leather, and the thick
clothing, the padded clothing, Allah subhanahu wa ta
'ala enabled us to make those things, for
the cold months.
But in this ayah, Allah subhanahu wa ta
'ala only mentions the heat.
Okay, why?
Because obviously, in those days, the people used
to use, and even nowadays, in the hot
desert, you protect yourself from the heat, and
the sandstorms, by covering yourself completely with the
clothing.
Okay, so that's why, when people are in
the desert, they have the, obviously the jalabiya
that they're wearing, but they also, sometimes when
the sand is blowing, they have to cover
their whole head, with the scarf, so that
the sand which is blowing, doesn't hurt them.
And at that time, the wind that is
blowing, is very, very hot indeed.
And that can also scorch the skin, it
is so hot.
So Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala mentions specifically
the heat.
And also, He gave you the ability to
make armor, to protect yourselves, during warfare.
Nowadays, we even have bulletproof vests, which protect
a person from bullets, made out of kevlar,
right?
So again, that intelligence was given to us,
by Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala.
And all the time again, this Bedouin kept
on saying, yes, that's true, yes, that's true.
At the end, Allah says, This is how
Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala completes his blessing
for you, so that you would submit.
After pondering over these blessings that Allah has
given us, what else can we do but
submit to Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala?
And say that, oh Allah, you gave us
all of these things, you gave us protection,
you gave us our houses, you gave us
shade, protecting us from the heat and the
cold, you gave us comfort in our homes,
you gave us comfort in our families, the
least we can do for you, is just
do what you want us to do, and
lead our life in your obedience.
That is the least that we should do
for Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala.
But at this point, the Bedouin, he got
up and walked away.
Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala revealed the verse,
If they turn away, then oh Prophet of
Allah, your responsibility is just giving the message.
Openly giving the message.
So, we have to do the same thing
to everybody.
Give the message, try to explain to them
the blessings that Allah has created, and hopefully
they understand, and they submit themselves to Allah
subhanahu wa ta'ala.
Many people will not understand, they may turn
away and not accept Islam.
يَعْرِفُونَ نِعْمَةَ اللَّهِ ثُمَّ يُنكِرُونَهَا وَأَكْثَرُهُمُ الْكَافِرُونَ
They recognize the blessings of Allah subhanahu wa
ta'ala, and yet they continue to deny
them.
And most of these people are kafiroon.
Kafir can have two connotations.
One, they are disbelievers, or they are ungrateful.
In both cases, basically, they can be actually
synonymous with each other, both words.
Because ungratefulness leads to actual disbelief of Allah
subhanahu wa ta'ala.
So, in any case, what does Allah subhanahu
wa ta'ala want us to understand from
this?
Look around, think about the blessings that Allah
subhanahu wa ta'ala has given us, and
be grateful to Him, and gratitude entails that
we spend our life in obedience to Allah
subhanahu wa ta'ala.
The next verse I want to talk about
is a verse in which Allah subhanahu wa
ta'ala talks about, first of all, the
verse before that.
There's a story that Uthman ibn Mat'oon
was a sahabi, he came and sat with
the Prophet ﷺ in the masjid one day,
and while he was sitting with the Prophet
ﷺ, the Prophet looked at him, and he
looked up at the sky, and then he
looked back down again.
And then he did that a second time.
So, Uthman is wondering what's going on, and
he said, Ya Rasulullah, I saw you doing
this, what happened?
He said, while you were sitting here, this
verse was revealed to me.
And it's a verse that probably each one
of you is familiar with.
Whenever we have the Jumaa khutbah, at the
end, the khatib, he says this verse, Inna
Allah ya'muru bil adl wal ihsan wa ita
'i dhil qurba wa yinhaa alil fahsha'i
wal munkari wal baghri Allah subhanahu wa ta
'ala, He orders people to do justice, and
to make ihsan, to do good for people,
and to give to the relatives, and He
prevents from immorality, and evil, and transgression.
Ya'idukum la'allakum tadhakkaroon Allah subhanahu wa
ta'ala is advising you, so that you
may take heed.
So there are different points that we need
to think about.
First of all, Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala
used the word adl first.
First and foremost is justice.
And then after that is the word ihsan.
Justice comes before ihsan.
When a judge passes a judgment in a
case, he doesn't put across the ruling of
ihsan.
He gives the ruling according to what the
Islamic ruling is.
And then after that, the victim of the
crime, he decides whether he wants to do
ihsan or not.
This is what Islam teaches.
First is adl, then after that comes ihsan.
Similarly, in the case of inheritance, many people
think that, okay, I have a good relationship
with my brother, if I take his share
of the inheritance, he's not going to mind.
Well, that's not how it works.
First, you have to be just.
You have to distribute the inheritance first, and
then after that, if he wants to be
kind to you, and he wants to give
his share of the inheritance to you, then
that's up to him.
Justice comes first.
In the case, for example, of capital punishment,
a person murders somebody, the judge will pass
a judgment.
If the person is guilty, that he is
going to get capital punishment, and then the
option is given to the victims that you
can either take blood money or you can
forgive the person completely.
But first, the ruling is that the person
has to be killed for the sin of
committing a murder.
Okay?
After that, the choice is given to the
relatives, whether they want to do ihsan or
not.
So, adal comes first, and then ihsan comes
after that.
And sometimes we flip the equation, okay, we
flip the equation, and we say, okay, somebody
does bad to you, well, first you forgive.
No, you need to know what your rights
are, and then after that, after knowing what
your rights are, then you forgive, and actually
that may be even more rewarding for you,
that despite knowing what you could have got
from that case, you were forgiving, so that
is something that is more pleasing to Allah
subhanahu wa ta'ala.
And then after that, Allah says, wa ita
idh alqurba, to give to the relatives.
Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala wants you to
give to the relatives.
And sometimes that's even more difficult than giving
to strangers.
Why?
Because in whichever family you are in, there
are always going to be some form of
politics.
Okay, some kind of history.
You did this to me 10 years ago,
and I've never forgotten it.
You never came to my son's wedding.
I've never forgotten it.
Okay, we hear this all the time in
our families, right?
Now that same person who has a grudge
against you for 10 years, now he needs
something from you, and he comes to you,
you say, ha, now you want to take
something from me, and ask something from me,
and ask a favor from me, and for
the past 10 years, you've been bothering me
about that wedding that I didn't come to.
Okay, so, wa ita idh alqurba.
That's where you have to step on your
nafs, and give that person whatever he wants,
and fulfill his need.
This is what is meant by giving to
the relatives.
Okay, so, the relatives, and of course the
Prophet A.S. said, that when you give
to your relatives, it is a double reward.
You get the reward of sadaqa, if the
person is needy.
You can even give zakat to your relatives,
except for your parents, grandparents, parents, children, grandchildren,
etc.
Other relatives, you can give zakat to them,
if they're needy.
But, when you give zakat to them, you
also get the reward for silatul arham, which
is in joining good relationships with your relatives.
So, you get a double reward, when you
are doing this with your own relatives.
So, wa ita idh alqurba.
wa yanha anil fahsha'i wal munkari wal
badr Allah A.S. forbids from fahsha.
Fahsha means immorality.
And immorality is a specific type of sin,
which is related to lewdness.
And nowadays, we can just sum it up
in one word, *.
Which is prevalent everywhere, on people's computers, smartphones,
everywhere.
We need to understand, that this is becoming
pandemic, to a point that people are becoming
addicted, and it's creating huge problems in families,
it's creating divorces.
So, this is something that we need to
understand.
We have to get out of our systems,
if we are involved in something like this.
It is...
It contaminates our hearts, it contaminates our connection
with Allah A.S. and it destroys our
households.
It destroys our Islam from within.
We don't develop any khushu and connection with
Allah.
We don't feel like making dua to Allah
A.S. So, this is all as a
result of a person being involved in this
type of activity.
So, this all falls under the word al
-fahsha, immorality.
And then Allah A.S. then, He talks
about sin in general, wal-munkar.
Allah A.S. forbids you from munkar also,
and al-baghi, transgression, is also a type
of sin.
Ya'ibukum, Allah A.S. is advising you,
so that you may take heed.
After that, there is a mention of a
woman, who used to be in Mecca, and
what she used to do, she used to
weave a cloth, all day.
And then at the end of the day,
what she used to do, she used to
unravel the whole thing that she had woven.
Okay, so, for example, we have our grandparents
or old people in our communities, you know,
they like to knit, right?
So, just imagine that the woman has been
knitting the whole day, she made a piece
of cloth or a sweater or something for
you, and then at the end of the
day, she takes it, and she basically unravels
it all, and she's left only with the
thread.
So, what does Allah A.S. want to
tell us from this story?
Allah says in the following verse, don't become
like this woman, who does the weaving all
day, and then at the end of the
day, she basically unravels everything.
What does it mean?
What it means is, that we do so
many different types of deeds.
Okay?
We go out of our way, for example,
to wake up in the morning to come
for Fajr prayer.
Okay?
And we go out of our way to
make sure that we fast the whole day,
and we are hungry and thirsty.
But as soon as we pray the Fajr
prayer, we go outside and start backbiting about
somebody.
We start slandering somebody.
The whole effort that we made, basically, becomes
unraveled just like that.
Just like that woman, who unraveled that cloth
at the end of the day.
Okay?
The same thing, we fast all day, and
then we engage in haram after breaking our
fast.
Or we eat something, which is from haram
means, or haram sustenance, or at the end
of the day, or during the day even,
we backbite, we look at something wrong, we
listen to something wrong, and the whole reward
of the fast, basically, becomes unraveled, just like
the cloth of this woman.
Specifically, Allah SWT mentions in these verses, the
issue of fulfilling promises and covenants.
Okay?
That's a specific wording that Allah SWT uses,
but in general, you can say, for any
deed that a person does, it's just like
that unraveling of the cloth.
Basically, all the effort goes to waste.
So, this was towards the end of Surah
An-Nahl.
I pray that Allah SWT gives us the
tawfiq to understand and practice what has been
said and heard.