Zia Sheikh – Tafseer of Surah AnNahl ayah 64 67 12172015
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We'll just close the door, inshallah.
Inshallah, today we are continuing from ayah number
64 of surah an-Nahl.
Last week we finished off with one ayah
in which Allah swt declared that he sent
anbiya alimus salatu wassalam to all the previous
nations that came before us and we mentioned
that our ummah is the last ummah and
based upon that the Prophet ﷺ was the
last Prophet and therefore the responsibility of prophethood
and calling people towards Allah swt becomes our
responsibility.
So carrying on that same message of sending
anbiya alimus salatu wassalam, Allah swt addresses the
Prophet ﷺ directly and when we have the
Prophet being addressed directly, indirectly the ummah is
being taught something also.
So Allah swt says, وَمَا أَنزَلْنَا عَلَيْكَ الْكِتَابَ
إِلَّا لِتُبَيِّنَ لَهُمُ الَّذِي اخْتَلَقُوا فِيهِ O Prophet
of Allah, the book was revealed to you
so that you could clarify for them that
in which they have ikhtilaf, that in which
they are disputing.
So what used to happen, as we mentioned
before, the anbiya alimus salatu wassalam came, they
gave the message, they taught the ummah and
the people accepted and then after the Prophet
left, died or was raised in the case
of Isa alayhis salatu wassalam, the people started
forgetting and started committing shirk again, started idol
worship and tainted, contaminated the message that the
Prophet had come with.
So what Allah swt is putting all that
mixing up and changing into one word, which
is called ikhtilaf.
ikhtilaf basically means a difference of opinion, okay,
ikhtilaf, disputing, difference of opinion, so they disputed
difference of opinion from the Prophet that had
given them the message.
It was different to the message, the original
message that was given to them.
So they did ikhtilaf of that message.
So Allah says to the Prophet sallallahu alayhi
wasallam, O Prophet of Allah, we sent you
the book, we only sent you the book,
so that you could explain to those people
that have this ikhtilaf, that have this dispute,
wahudan warahma, and this book is guidance and
it's a mercy.
It's guidance and it's a mercy.
What does guidance mean?
What is the definition of guidance?
Guidance means bayan al-tariq al-wadih lil
ghayat al-nafi'a, to define a clear
way to a beneficial objective, that's what guidance
is.
And if I was to give you an
example, somebody comes to me and asks me
for directions to get to a certain place,
for example a halal restaurant in the city.
So if I am to guide him, that
guidance is what?
Bayan, it is al-tariq al-wadih, I'm
giving him a clear definition of something which
is going to give him a benefit at
the end of it.
Which is the benefit?
The benefit is going to, he's going to
reach his destination and he's going to benefit
from the consumption of the restaurant.
So in this sense, we have a guidance
from Allah SWT and that guidance is to
get to al-ghayat al-nafi'a, which
means the beneficial destination, the beneficial objective, which
is to get success in this world and
in the hereafter.
So this is the purpose of the Qur
'an.
In another verse of the Qur'an Allah
SWT says, وَنُنَزِّلُ مِنَ الْقُرْآنِ مَهُوَ شِفَاءٌ وَرَحْمَةٌ
We have revealed for you from the Qur
'an what is shifa, it's a cure.
It's a cure from what?
Not just physical illnesses, but also spiritual illnesses
that we have inside of us.
It's a bigger cure for that.
We have obviously physical illnesses and the Qur
'an helps in curing physical illnesses in conjunction
with taking medical advice.
The reading of the Qur'an, the ruqya
and so on, it's beneficial for that.
But the main thing that the Qur'an
was revealed for was shifa and another verse
says, شِفَاءٌ لِمَا فِي صُدُورِ It is a
cure for what is in the heart, the
illnesses which are in the heart, in the
chest, which is the illness of ignorance, the
illness of jealousy, the illness of hatred, the
illness of looking down upon people, the illness
of arrogance.
All of these are illnesses that are in
our heart and we need to remove them.
So the Qur'an, if we follow its
guidance, it is a cure for those illnesses.
And rahma, what does rahma mean in this
context?
So Allah SWT follows up guidance with mercy.
So one is to get guidance temporarily.
And mercy is that you get guidance in
such a way that it guides you for
the rest of your life and you don't
need any more guidance after that.
So this is the mercy of Allah SWT.
This is rahma.
This is why Allah SWT has put hudan
and rahma.
And where shifa and rahma is together, Allah
SWT has put it together, why?
Because the example given by mufassireen is that
you have a doctor for example, he sees
that you have a spot on your face,
and he looks at it and he gives
you a superficial type of cure, he gives
you some ointment to rub on it to
see if it gets better.
But then a doctor will look at it,
an experienced doctor, a better doctor will look
at it and he will try to get
to the root of the problem, why you
got that spot in the first place.
Is it because of stress, is it because
of your diet, is it because of something
more severe than that, is it cancerous, is
it benign, what is it?
So this is what the better doctor is
going to do.
So it's not just shifa that the Qur
'an gives us, it's also rahma that it
gets to the root of the illness that
we have, which is the misguidance, following the
ways of the shaitan, following the nafs, and
clearing everything out from inside us, this is
what rahma is in this context when it
refers to the Qur'an.
So وَرَحْمَةً لِقَوْمِ يُؤْمِنُونَ And this is specifically
for the people that have iman.
If you don't have iman, you're not going
to benefit from the Qur'an.
Iman is, basically you can say there are
two lights that are put together.
You have the light of iman and then
the light of the Qur'an and that
put together, it gives you guidance.
If a person does not have the light
of iman within him and he's simply given
the light of the Qur'an, it's not
beneficial for that person.
Allah describes the disbelievers or the munafiqeen that
used to listen to the Qur'an and
then as soon as they left, they used
to say مَاذَا قَالَ آنِفَ وَمِنْهُمْ مَيِّسْتَمِعُ إِلَيْكَ
There are some people that listen carefully to
you.
حَتَّىٰ إِذَا خَرَجُوا مِنْ عِنْدِكَ قَالُوا لِلَّذِينَ أُوتُوا
الْعِلْمِ مَاذَا قَالَ آنِفَ As soon as they
left, meaning they stepped outside the building, they
stepped outside from that majlis and they immediately
said, what did he just say?
I didn't figure out anything, I didn't understand
anything.
Probably we can take that same example of
so many lectures and khutbahs and everything we
hear, that we're in the masjid and we
get affected by them and we feel that
we're benefiting but then as soon as we
step outside, it's gone immediately.
So it has to be much more than
just listening superficially and just enjoying the lecture,
it has to be much more than that,
we have to put it into practice.
So this Qur'an is guidance, it's a
mercy for people of iman, not for the
people that don't have iman, not for the
hypocrites, if you truly want to benefit then
you need to work on your iman and
that is a constant struggle, it's not something
that comes overnight.
We have to constantly work on our iman,
as the Prophet ﷺ said, الإيمان بضع وسبعون
شعب Iman has more than 70 branches.
So 70 branches means we have to work
on every aspect of our iman, which means
akhlaq, ibadah, mu'amalat, our dealings with people,
our manners, basically everything that the Prophet ﷺ
taught, in it is a part of iman.
So we have to implement all of those
things inside us and then the Qur'an
will be beneficial for us.
After that Allah ﷻ then, after giving us
the spiritual dosage and telling us the spiritual
benefit of the Qur'an, He then takes
us to the physical world and makes us
try to recognize His greatness through understanding and
seeing the physical things that Allah has created
for us.
Allah ﷻ says, والله أنزل من السماء ماء
فأحيى به الأرض بعد موتها Allah ﷻ, He
sends down from the skies water and He
makes alive that earth after it was dead.
So we see that all the time, especially
in Texas where we have like a dry
season, if we don't have rain for a
long time, the grass on the lawn becomes
dry and then all of a sudden you
have a couple of days of rain and
immediately everything starts becoming green and lush.
And maybe in Texas it's not even that
much, but you see it more in other
states which are to the north maybe, like
Virginia and North Carolina and so on, how
the greenery just erupts straight away after the
rains fall.
I think one of the things that was
taught to me, one of the first things
that was taught to me when I came
to the U.S. was, April showers bring
May flowers, something like that.
Showers in April bring flowers in May.
So this was something that I learned.
So Allah ﷻ says that He sends down
this water for you, you see it with
your eyes, you see it coming down, you
see that it's benefiting you and without it
you cannot survive.
Allah is the one who is sending it
down to you.
He is making the dead earth alive in
front of you.
And this example is given of the dead
earth again and again throughout the Qur'an
to show people that the same way He
makes this dead earth come alive and these
dead plants come alive, He is going to
make you, when you die, come alive also.
It's not difficult for Allah ﷻ to do
that.
You're seeing this with your own eyes, He
can do the same thing with you.
Inna fee thalika la'ayata liqawmi yasma'oon
Indeed in it there is a sign for
people that listen.
Indeed in it there is a sign for
people that listen.
So the question is, why Allah ﷻ, He
showed you something visual that you see with
your eyes and then at the end, instead
of using the word yanzuroon, looking, Allah ﷻ
used the word yasma'oon, meaning hearing.
Indeed in it there are signs for the
people that hear.
So the answer to that is that Allah
ﷻ and the teachings of the Qur'an
and the Sunnah are basically taught to us
and if we listen, when it means listen,
it means listen, believe, and practice, then obviously
we are implementing what Allah ﷻ wants us
to do.
The first tool of internalization is listening to
it.
Listening meaning listening with the intention of practicing
it.
So you have, for example, a father, he
says to his child, don't you ever listen
to me?
Of course the child listens to you, but
if he is not practicing what you are
telling him, then he's not actually listening.
Okay, so this is what is meant here.
Listening with the intention of actually practicing.
Inna fee dhalika fa-ayatal liqawmi yasma'oon.
In another verse of the Qur'an, Allah
ﷻ describes the daylight and He says, Qul
a-ra'aytum in ja'alallahu alaykumu allayla
sarmadan ila yawmi alqiyamati man ilaahum ghairullahi yahteekum
bidhiyyaa afalaatasma'oon?
If it was continuous nightfall and night all
the time, which god other than Allah ﷻ
would bring about light?
Afalaatasma'oon and at the end he says,
do you not listen?
So he gave you a visual image, something
that you see with your eyes, night, darkness
and light, but then at the end he
said, afalaatasma'oon, do you not listening?
Meaning it's not like the issue of seeing
right now, the issue is listen to the
guidance of Allah ﷻ so you understand his
greatness.
After that Allah ﷻ then goes into describing
a second thing, visual thing that we see
with our eyes all the time.
Allah says, wa inna lakum fil an'aami
la'ibra.
Indeed for you in the animals there is
a lesson, there is a lesson to learn
from the animals.
What does an'aam mean?
An'aam means domesticated animals, cows, goats, sheep,
camels and so on.
These are known as an'aam, the things
that we benefit from their milk, from their
meat and their wool and so on.
So Allah says, indeed in these animals there
is a lesson for you.
What is the lesson?
To understand the greatness of Allah ﷻ.
And he gives only one thing, only one
thing that we benefit from the animal and
we benefit a lot from the animals in
many, many ways like I just mentioned.
But he just gives one example.
What is that thing?
The milk that we consume on a daily
basis.
Without milk most of us would not survive.
Milk in our tea, milk in our cereal,
milk in our coffee, it's a staple of
our diets.
The Prophet ﷺ used to make a special
dua when he used to drink milk.
He said, Allahumma barik lana feehi wazidna min.
O Allah give us barakah in this milk
and increase this milk for us.
So this is again something that we need
to understand that it is good for us,
it's good for our bones and so on.
I know there is an attempt nowadays to
kind of demonize milk.
But how can we demonize something that Allah
ﷻ has said that it's good for you
and the Prophet ﷺ made dua for an
increase in it.
So I'm sure that it is good for
us and we need to keep our iman
in this.
Many people there tout the benefits of almond
milk and coconut milk.
If you read the ingredients of these things,
there are so many artificial ingredients in them.
I don't see the benefit of consuming those
things.
Allah knows best.
So anyway, Allah says that wa inna lakum
fila an'aami al-'ibra Indeed in these animals
there is a lesson for you.
nusqeekum mimma fee butoonihi We give you to
drink.
There is saqa yasqi and there is asqa
yusqi.
I don't want to go into too much
detail.
But when it is in this pattern, nusqeekum,
it means that indirectly we give you to
drink.
So one is that Allah ﷻ gives you
directly to drink from the heavens and He
sends down rainfall for you, that is directly.
But indirectly, nusqeekum, that indirectly Allah ﷻ put
the milk inside there and we then derive
that milk from the animal.
Allah ﷻ says, nusqeekum mimma fee butoonihi We
give you to drink from its stomach, mimma
fee butoonihi and the thing is, Allah ﷻ
has used the word butoon.
Butoon meaning stomachs, stomachs, plural.
And the cow doesn't just have one stomach,
it has plural stomachs.
So butoon, plural is being used.
From its stomachs, mimbayni farathin wadamin labanan khaalisan
sa'iqan lishyaaribin Between blood and waste, the
dung, Allah ﷻ gives you labanan khaalisan.
Laban, milk, khaalisan, pure.
Sa'iqan, beneficial, lishyaaribin for the people who
drink it.
So, within the same confines, you have the
waste being produced, you have blood inside there,
and within those confines, Allah ﷻ produces for
your benefit, for our benefit, this beautiful milk
which is khaalis, pure, and sa'iq, beneficial,
lishyaaribin, for the people that drink it.
So, unfortunately, what we have nowadays is too
many mixtures inside the milk that is given
to us.
We have most of the milk here, it
is mixed with vitamin D.
Allah knows best how it harms us or
not.
Supposedly, it's supposed to be beneficial for us.
And then you have other mixtures too, like
cows that are not allowed to graze outside,
which is the natural way.
They are basically just put in a machine
and given hay to eat, and then it
is producing milk after that.
So, the purity of the product that Allah
ﷻ gave to us, it has been tainted
by commercialization.
So, the natural thing that Allah ﷻ gave
us, that is the best thing, and we
should benefit from that as much as possible.
But the miracle that Allah ﷻ explained here
is that the same confines of the cow's
stomach, it has waste in it, it has
blood in it, so it comes out pure
white without any tinge of redness or blood
in it, and it comes out without any
kind of waste product mixed inside it, without
any bad smell of waste product.
It comes out pure and white and clean
for us.
In the next ayah, Allah ﷻ gives us
a third visual benefit that He ﷻ gives
us.
What is that?
وَمِن ثَمَرَاتِ النَّخِيلِ وَالْأَعْنَابِ تَتَّخِذُونَ مِنْهُ سَكَرًا وَرِزْقًا
حَسَنًا From the fruits of the date, and
also from grapes, تَتَّخِذُونَ مِنْهُ سَكَرًا, you make
from it, سَكَر.
سَكَر means an intoxication.
So this verse was revealed before the prohibition
of alcohol in Islam.
So in those days what they used to
do, that they used to get dates and
they used to put them, mix them with
water, and they used to leave them out
in the heat.
And this, after leaving it out in the
heat, the sugar in the dates used to
ferment and turn into alcohol, and from that
they used to make, drink this alcoholic drink.
This was known as Nabeel.
Now there is a way to drink Nabeel,
and also not allow it to become fermented
and not become alcoholic, and that is that
you do the same thing, you mix the
dates with water, leave it out in the
heat, but before midday you consume it and
you drink it, and that basically will prevent
it from being turned into alcohol.
So Nabeel is still utilized nowadays, but if
you leave it for too long, then it's
going to become an alcoholic drink.
So Allah says that from the fruits of
the dates and from the grapes, you make
from it Sakar, intoxication.
وَرِزْقًا حَسَنًا And Allah also gave you a
good rizq, a good sustenance.
So Allah has hinted here that Sakar is
not good, intoxication is not good.
Even though this verse was revealed at the
time when alcohol has not been prohibited, Allah
didn't say, سَكَرًا حَسَنًا وَرِزْقًا حَسَنًا He said
intoxication, Allah gave you, that you make from
these fruits this intoxication, this wine or whatever,
and He also gave you, رِزْقًا حَسَنًا, good
sustenance.
So He separated intoxication, He didn't say it's
good, and He said رِزْقًا حَسَنًا, rizq, all
other sustenance that's not intoxicating, that's not bad
for you, that is termed as and defined
as رِزْقًا حَسَنًا إِنَّ فِي ذَٰلِكَ لَآيَةً لِقُومٍ
يَعْفِلُونَ Indeed, in this, there are signs for
people that understand.
And again, the word aql has been used
here, so the logical understanding that we should
always have, before even this verse was, alcohol
was prohibited, that aql is something that we
use, we use our logic, we use our
intellect, to understand what is good for us
and what is bad for us.
So the fact that Allah SWT has not
made it haram yet, the alcohol, still people
are being told to use their intellect and
to differentiate between what is good and what
is bad for them.
So this is why the scholars say that
Allah used the word لِقُومٍ يَعْفِلُونَ for those
people that have aql, for those people that
have intellect.
With that inshallah we finish today's lesson, we
stopped at ayah number 67, inshallah we will
continue with this next week when we will
talk about honeybees and their contribution to society.
I pray that Allah SWT gives us all
people to understand and practice what has been
said and heard.