Zia Sheikh – Ramadan Khatira Day 29
AI: Summary ©
The speaker discusses the importance of animals and their behavior during running, as well as the connection between horses and the slave race. They also discuss the importance of wealth in fulfilling one's dreams and achieving their own success, citing examples such as Al-kayla and the speaker's own success. The speaker explains that wealth is earned in a certain way and only earned when rewarded, and that wealth can be used for personal and professional reasons, but not for evil.
AI: Summary ©
As we know, we completed Surah Al-Adiyat
last night, the whole Juz Amma last night,
and part of that is Surah Al-Adiyat
which I want to talk about.
It's a very short surah, but it's a
very powerful surah in the message that it
gives us.
And if I was to say that it
was one of my favourite short surahs, that
would not be an exaggeration because of the
message that it actually gives.
So, what this surah is talking about is
horses.
Horses, and you know, sometimes you say you
have this, there's a saying that a picture
tells a thousand words.
Sometimes words are described in the Quran that
are so vivid that it just becomes like
a picture.
And the way that these ayat describe the
horses, it really puts you right in the
middle of the action as they say.
So if you pay attention at how Allah
SWT describes those horses and how He takes
an oath by them.
Allah SWT says, I swear by those horses
which are running, and it has two meanings.
Swiftly, and it can also mean, and while
running they make the sound of snorting.
The sound that a horse makes, panting sound,
or the sound that comes from a chest
as it runs out of breath.
So this is an oath that Allah SWT
takes by these horses that are running so
swiftly, that are running so fast that they
are completely out of breath and they are
snorting and making this heavy sound coming from
their chest and from their mouth.
So Allah SWT is taking an oath by
these horses.
And in the course of their running, when
their hooves are hitting the rocks, what's happening
is that when these hooves hit the rocks,
the sparks fly out of the hooves.
Sparks fly out of the rocks.
So if you have a flint rock and
it is hit by metal, what happens?
Sparks fly out.
So these horses, they are running fast, swiftly,
and they are breathing very heavily, and when
their hooves are hitting the rocks, sparks are
flying out of these rocks because of the
ferocity of the way that they are hitting
the rocks with such pace and with such
force.
And these same horses, they attack the enemy
early in the morning.
This is something that the Arabs were very
famous for, that they didn't like to attack
at night because they used to think that
a coward is a person who attacks at
night while his enemy is sleeping.
So they used to attack in the morning
in full broad daylight while the enemy is
waiting for them and prepared for them so
that there is an actual fight, not just
attacking and sneaking up like they do in
this day and age with missiles from far
away.
Allah SWT protect the whole Ummah from the
situations that they are facing nowadays.
So they attack in the morning early.
So these horses, again three ayat now, they
are running swiftly, breathing heavily, sparks are flying
out of the hooves as they are hitting
the rocks and they are attacking early in
the morning.
And as they are attacking the forces, the
dust is flying around them.
So when their hooves are hitting the sandy
areas, then the dust is flying around them
also.
The dust, because of the hooves, it becomes
all around them.
So if you put the ayat before it
together with this one, it really gives another
meaning.
Why?
Because early in the morning, there is dew
in the grass and in the sand, there
is moisture.
So if the hooves are hitting the sand
when it's moist, it's not supposed to fly
around in a dusty way.
But despite the dust being moist, the horses
when they hit this ground with such severity,
it even makes dust at that time, it
shows the force that the horses are actually
exerting while running and attacking the enemy.
So when they hit the ground, the dust
is flying all around them.
And when the master tells them to get
into the thick of the enemy, right into
the middle of the enemy, these horses, they
dive into this force, the opposing force of
the enemy and they don't flinch for a
second, they go right in the middle of
this group, this congregation and this opposing army.
So this is the description of horses.
Very vivid and I'm sure that the way
it's being described, it's really created a picture
in your mind as to what these horses
are doing and how brave they are and
how they are listening to their master and
actually just willing to do everything for their
master.
And then Allah SWT then brings what is
known as Jawabul Qasam.
And we've mentioned earlier in the month, what
is Qasam and what is Jawabul Qasam.
So these six ayahs before, or these five
ayahs before, these were combined, they become the
Qasam.
The oath that Allah SWT takes by those
horses.
And then the Jawabul Qasam is this ayah.
Indeed the human being towards his Lord, he
is very ungrateful.
What's the connection between the two?
What's the connection between horses and the slave
to Allah SWT?
The connection is that look at this horse.
He is so obedient to his master that
whatever the master tells him, tells him to
run, he runs.
Despite being tired, despite being exhausted, he will
continue to run, he will continue to run,
he will continue to run.
Even if he falls and he is about
to fall unconscious, he will continue running until
that time.
And then on top of that when the
master tells him to climb over rocks, he
will climb over rocks.
When the master tells him to go over
the sand, it will go over the sand.
And when the master tells him to go
deep into the thick of the enemy forces,
the horse will not stop, it will go
inside the enemy forces without any care for
what's going to happen to it.
Now compare that to the slave of Allah
and how he is disobedient to his master
who provides for him and gives to him
at all times.
How are we compared to that horse?
Allah SWT wants very little from us.
He wants, he demands very little from us,
yet we are so disobedient to him that
we cannot even do the little that he
wants us to do for him.
So this is why Allah SWT is saying
that compared to this horse that is so
obedient to his master, indeed the human being
towards his own master, towards his Lord, he
is so ungrateful.
And then on top of that, this can
have two meanings.
Either that he himself is a witness to
it.
We need to just think about ourselves and
self-reflect for a minute how disobedient we
are to Allah SWT and how far short
we fall to his commands and to his
expectations from us.
So this is one meaning and the other
meaning can be that Allah himself, he is
a witness to this.
Allah is witnessing that how ungrateful his own
slave is to Allah SWT.
And indeed he, this human being, is in
the love of wealth, he is very severe.
Al-khair, Allah SWT has described wealth as
al-khair.
And this is one of the things that
Allah does not describe wealth as being evil
per se.
Allah SWT describes the wealth throughout the Quran
with good names.
Al-fadl for example.
Here, al-khair.
So the wealth is a good thing with
certain conditions.
Number one, it has to be earned in
a halal way, it has to be spent
in a halal way and the rights of
that wealth have to be fulfilled.
Then and only then is wealth good.
But if it's been earned in a haram
way or it's been spent in haram things
and then the right of the wealth in
the fulfillment of the zakat and giving in
charity is not fulfilled, then that wealth is
not khair anymore.
So this is the difference between good wealth
and bad wealth.
So Allah SWT is saying here that the
human, he is very severely in love with
this khair.
He loves the wealth so much that everything
else becomes secondary when it comes to wealth
and money.
Does you not know that when whatever is
in the graves is resurrected and whatever is
attained from the chests is extracted from the
chests that Allah SWT will be fully aware
of on that day of what's with them.
So these three sentences basically sum up what
is going to happen to the human that
basically will be resurrected and then on the
day of judgment it is not our tongues
that will do the talking.
We may claim something, we may claim to
be good Muslims, we may claim to be
obedient to Allah SWT but what is going
to be extracted is what is in our
hearts which I mentioned earlier in the month.
The mouths are going to be closed up
and the rest of the body is going
to testify.
The heart is going to testify whether there
is any iman there or not.
So on that day of judgment whatever is
in the chest will be extracted so what
we have to do is the summary of
the surah basically is that we need to
be grateful to Allah SWT.
We need to be grateful not fill our
hearts with wealth so much, with the love
of wealth so much that we don't leave
any room for Allah SWT in our hearts
because ultimately if that love of wealth is
the only thing that we take into the
grave with us then we are going to
be in trouble on the day of judgment.
We need to fill our hearts with the
love of Allah SWT, with the obedience of
Allah SWT, with the awe of Allah SWT,
with the majesty of Allah SWT, with the
awareness of Allah SWT so that on the
day of judgment when our hearts are opened
up and whatever is extracted from our hearts
there is something that we can present to
Allah SWT and say oh Allah this is
what I had in my heart for you,
this is what I believed, this was my
conviction accept it from me.
This is the effort that we need to
make and in trying to do that just
think about these horses, these dumb animals that
are just so obedient to their master that
whatever the master says they are there at
the bidding and they do whatever the master
tells them to do.
We should have that same attitude towards trying
to please Allah SWT.
This is what the surah is about and
I pray that Allah SWT gives us tawfiq
to understand and practice what has been said
and heard.
As salamu
alaykum.