Zia Sheikh – Ramadan Reminders Day 12
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The speaker discusses the consequence of pride and arrogance in the culture of Islam, including the use of words like "has" and "has not." They also mention the negative impact of pride on the way people act and commit sin. The speaker emphasizes the need to avoid these negative behaviors and make a habit of avoiding them.
AI: Summary ©
About a selection of verses in Surat Al
-Anfal and Surat Al-Anfal as you may
be aware, this was a surah which was
revealed at the time of Battle of Badr
and after the Battle of Badr.
So the events surrounding the first battle and
then the subsequent events that happened after the
battle, they are mentioned in Surat Al-Anfal.
So the first verse that I'd like to
talk about is verse number 32 and then
subsequent verses after that.
The Quraysh, they knew in their hearts that
the Prophet ﷺ was a prophet.
He, before prophethood, he had never lied and
he was known amongst the people as Sadiq
and Al-Amin.
But despite that, there was this arrogance that
the Quraysh had, that they just could not
get over.
And they used to do things sometimes, which
because of that arrogance, which if a person
is looking from the outside, it would seem
like they were very very foolish in terms
of putting challenges to Allah ﷻ, putting challenges
to the Prophet ﷺ.
And one of those challenges is mentioned in
this particular verse.
Allah ﷻ says and remember, and
remember the time when they said, O Allah,
if this religion is true from you, now
if a person you know, wants to challenge
Allah ﷻ with something, he would challenge something
with something good, right?
If this religion is true, then make me
wealthy.
If this religion is true, then give me
a big house.
If this religion is true, then give me
a nice car.
But their arrogance was such and they wanted
to challenge Allah ﷻ in such a way
that instead of asking for something good, they
said, give us something, send a punishment down
to us.
Okay, what did they say?
That فَأَمْتِرْ عَلَيْنَا حِجَارَةً مِّنَ السَّمَاءِ Send down
a rainfall of stones from the sky.
Now, this was very strange, considering that most
of these people like Abu Jahl and so
on, and it's mentioned in one riwayah that
the person who made this du'a was
Abu Jahl, and the second person is in
another riwayah was Nadr ibn Harith.
These people had actually seen the the punishment
of Allah ﷻ coming down upon the army
of Abraha.
In fact, the birth of the Prophet ﷺ
was known as عَامُ الْفِيلِ وُلِدَ عَامُ الْفِيلِ
If you look at the books of Tariq
of the books of Sirah, he was born
in the year that this event took place.
So they had actually seen firsthand the punishment
of Allah ﷻ, stones coming down from the
sky, sent down by these birds, and the
destruction of the elephants and the whole army
of Abraha in such dramatic fashion, but despite
that they are asking Allah ﷻ for exactly
the same thing.
So this really reeks of arrogance and shows
how daring they were in front of Allah
ﷻ.
So they said فَأَمْتِرَ عَلَيْنَا حِجَارَةً مِّنَ السَّمَاءِ
send down a rainfall of stones from the
sky, or send us a very painful punishment.
Allah ﷻ responded to that and said وَمَا
كَانَ اللَّهُ لِيُعَذِّبَهُمْ وَأَنْتَ فِيهِمْ وَمَا كَانَ اللَّهُ
مُعَذِّبَهُمْ وَهُمْ يَسْتَغْفِرُونَ There are two things that
are preventing the punishment of Allah ﷻ from
coming down.
Firstly, the presence of the Prophet ﷺ.
Allah says that as long as you are
amongst them, O Prophet of Allah, Allah is
not going to punish them.
The second thing, that as long as they're
making istighfar, Allah ﷻ is not going to
punish them.
So the first thing, the fact that the
Prophet ﷺ is amongst them, we need to
learn from this, that we need to keep
the company of the righteous and good and
pious people.
Who knows, maybe it's because of their company
and the fact that they are within the
community or within a certain country, that Allah
ﷻ prevents that punishment from coming down to
that locality or that area, despite the sin
being so widespread.
So Allah ﷻ can do that, as He
says in the case of the Prophet ﷺ,
that because of his presence, Allah is not
going to send down the punishment.
And the second thing, as long as they're
making istighfar, Allah ﷻ is not going to
punish them.
Now, the strange thing was that despite the
fact that these people used to be involved
in so many forms of shirk and disbelief,
they still, as they used to be going
around the Ka'bah, they used to make
istighfar and ask Allah ﷻ for forgiveness.
And it was because of this, these wordings,
that Allah ﷻ had mercy on them and
He did not send down the punishment.
That's how powerful istighfar is and it's something
that we need to make a habit of
in our lives.
Many people think that you only make istighfar
when you commit a sin.
The Prophet ﷺ