Zia Sheikh – Tafseer of Surah AnNahl Ayah 84 onward
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The importance of shaping one's attitude and behavior to be a witness during upcoming court proceedings is discussed, including the need for positive information and control over one's N subjects. The speakers emphasize the importance of being careful and testing one's character, while also emphasizing the need for positive information and clarification in court environments. The importance of following the sun during court proceedings and praying for guidance and clarity is emphasized, along with the need for positive documentation and clarity in everything.
AI: Summary ©
In the name of Allah, the Most Gracious,
the Most Merciful.
On the Day when We will raise from
every nation a witness, then those who disbelieve
will not be allowed, nor will they be
excused.
And when those who are unjust see the
punishment, they will not be lightened from it,
nor will they be given respite.
And when those who associate others with Allah
see their associates, they will say, Our Lord,
these are our associates whom we used to
invoke besides You.
Then they will say to them, You are
liars.
And they will say to Allah, On that
Day, peace.
And that which they used to fabricate will
be removed from them.
Those who disbelieve and turn away from the
way of Allah, We will increase them a
punishment above the punishment because they were corrupting.
On the Day when We will raise from
every nation a witness, then those who disbelieve
will not be allowed, nor will they be
excused.
And We have sent down to you the
Book as clarification for all things, and as
guidance and mercy and good news for the
Muslims.
We are going through the Tafsir of Surah
An-Nahl, and InshaAllah today we are going
to be starting from Ayah number 84.
Allah SWT in these verses talks about the
events of the Day of Judgment, particularly when
it comes to the people of Shirk, how
they will be treated by Allah SWT, and
how they will basically become helpless because they
will not be able to do anything, neither
their so-called gods will be able to
help them.
In fact, their gods will actually denounce the
actions of those same Mushrikeen who used to
worship them.
So this is basically the summary of today's
lesson, InshaAllah.
Allah SWT says, وَيَوْمَ نَبْعَثُ مِن كُلِّ أُمَّةٍ
شَهِيدًا On the Day that We will resurrect
from every nation a Shaheed, a witness.
So what does the witness mean?
A witness means that Allah SWT will call
each and every Prophet to testify, and then
Allah SWT is going to ask that Prophet,
did you give the message or not?
And then that Prophet is going to say,
yes, I gave the message, I gave it
to such and such people, all of these
people that are in front of you, I
gave the message to them.
So the Nabi, the Prophet is a Shaheed,
he is a witness in that sense that
he is witnessing against his Ummah.
If you've been coming for Salatul Fajr, you
will know that Allah SWT, I've been mentioning
a verse in which Allah SWT addresses our
Ummah and says, وَكَذَٰلِكَ جَعَلْنَاكُمْ أُمَّةً وَسَطَىٰ لِتَكُونُوا
شُهَدَاءً عَلَى النَّاسِ وَيَكُونَ الرَّسُولُ عَلَيْكُمْ شَهِيدًا We
made you in the middle nation, meaning middle
in terms of attitude and not being extreme
in any way, shape or form.
We made you the middle treading nation and
لِتَكُونُوا شُهَدَاءً عَلَى النَّاسِ so that you could
be a witness against the people.
According to the Riwayat, what does this verse
mean?
One meaning is that when the Anbiya A
.S. will bear testimony against their own nations,
for example, Nuh A.S. is going to
be called by Allah SWT and he is
going to be asked, did you give the
message or not?
So Nuh A.S. will say, yes, I
gave the message.
Allah SWT is going to ask Nuh A
.S.'s people, did he give you the message
or not?
And they will say, no, he didn't give
us any message.
We didn't get any message from him.
So Allah SWT then will call our Ummah
to testify and he will ask us, did
Nuh A.S. give the message or not?
And we will testify on behalf of Nuh
A.S. that yes, he gave the message.
And how do we know?
How can we be a witness?
Because of the fact that Allah SWT told
us already in the Quran that Nuh A
.S. gave the message.
He gave the message for 950 years.
So this is one meaning of shaheed, that
we will be witnesses on behalf of Anbiya
A.S. If you can imagine, when a
witness is called to the stand, he is
called to the stand on the basis of
his character.
If the person's character is not moral and
there are doubts upon the veracity or the
morality of that person, that person's testimony is
not going to be accepted by the court.
But the fact that Allah SWT is going
to accept our testimony, it shows us what
he thinks of us as an Ummah.
And this is one of the specialties of
our Ummah also.
There is another meaning of that verse which
I won't go into.
I mentioned it in Salatul Fajr this morning
about how when we say good things about
a person who is deceased, Allah SWT accepts
that.
And if we say bad things about a
person that is deceased, Allah SWT also accepts
that.
Prophet A.S. saw two janazahs going past.
One, people said good things about the person,
Prophet A.S. said wajabat.
And then another janazah passed by, people said
bad things about the person, so the Prophet
A.S. said wajabat.
It has become obligatory.
So the Sahaba said, ma wajabat ya Rasulullah?
The Prophet A.S. replied, shahadatul qawm.
The people, testimony.
Antum shuhada'ullahi fil-awd.
You are the witnesses of Allah SWT on
the earth.
So basically, what this means is that we
have to be very careful when we talk
about people that have passed away, that have
deceased.
We have to be careful that we don't
say anything negative about them.
We try to make sure that we always
say positive things.
So Allah says, wa yawma naba'atum min
kulli ummatin shahida.
We are going to resurrect from every nation
a shaheed, a witness, meaning the Prophet.
Thumma laa yu'zanu lillazeena kafaroon.
Then the disbelievers are not going to be
permitted to do anything.
They are not going to be able to
talk without the permission of Allah SWT.
They are not going to be allowed to
move.
So they are not going to be permitted.
Allah doesn't say permitted to do what.
So basically it means that they are going
to be just held in place and they
cannot move without the permission of Allah SWT.
They cannot do anything without the permission of
Allah SWT.
And they are not going to be able
to make isti'atab.
Isti'atab means to request Allah SWT to
be pleased with them.
They are not going to be able to
put any requests in for Allah SWT that
Allah forgive them or be pleased with them
and overlook their sins.
No, no requests are allowed from such people
who are disbelievers.
And when the people who are wrongdoers, they
did dhulm.
Dhulm in the sense that they disobeyed Allah
SWT.
This is the biggest dhulm.
They committed shirk.
This is the biggest shirk, biggest dhulm.
Those people that did dhulm, when they see
the punishment, then it will not be lightened
for them.
The punishment will not be lightened for them.
And they are not going to be given
any kind of respite, any kind of opportunity
or any more chances.
This could mean either on the day of
judgment or immediately when people are about to
die and they are dying in the state
of kufr and shirk, their azab and their
punishment starts as soon as they see Malakul
Mot.
As soon as they see the angel of
death, then there is no chance for them
and that punishment starts immediately.
Those people that used to commit shirk, they
are going to see their shuraka, meaning they
are going to see idols that they used
to worship or the humans that they made
equals with Allah SWT or anyone that they
put to the level of Allah SWT and
committed shirk with, they are going to see
those shuraka and Allah SWT has used the
word shuraka, it means partners.
So their own partners, meaning they are going
to think that these people that we are
worshipping or these idols that we are worshipping,
they are going to be our partners on
this day.
But what is going to happen?
They are going to say first of all,
These are our partners, meaning that these were
the ones that we used to commit shirk
with, with you and we regard them as
our partners.
And we used to call them other than
you, meaning we used to commit shirk with
you, with them, meaning we used to make
dua to them instead of you or Allah
SWT.
Those idols, they are going to be given
a tongue and they are going to be
able to talk or Isa AS for example,
those people that took him to be God,
he is going to denounce.
Anybody who was in that position is going
to denounce the fact that they were the
partners of Allah SWT.
And they are going to throw.
The word used is and Allah could have
just said, but alqa means to throw something.
Okay.
We've read and we heard in the qiraat
today by Sheikh Yasser when he was leading
the Salat.
Throw your stick down.
So, basically it means that they will respond
back with an insult.
They will throw words at the people that
said this, that said that these are our
partners.
So they are going to say, they are
going to respond back to them sharply and
very harshly.
Indeed you are liars.
Meaning that even these partners or these idols
or Isa AS will say, I didn't tell
you to worship me.
The idols are going to say, we didn't
tell you to worship us.
So they're going to say you're lying.
And also the Shaitaan, he will also wash
his hands of the people and he's going
to say that I
didn't have any power over you.
I didn't force you.
I didn't tie your hands and make you
commit sins.
And there's actually something that we need to
really think about a little bit that the
Shaitaan, how much power does he actually have?
How much power does the Shaitaan actually have?
Does he put a gun to our head
and make us commit sins?
He doesn't.
All he can do is whisper in our
hearts.
He can whisper, make us do, make us
think thoughts.
And then we are the ones that actually
commit those actions.
And that's basically why we have to concentrate
on what's known as Das Girtan Nafs, the
purification of the Nafs.
And making sure that we do not succumb
to the desires of our Nafs.
We do not succumb to what our Nafs
wants us to do.
Because ultimately it's our Nafs that makes us
do what we want to do.
The Shaitaan will whisper in your ear, say,
drink alcohol.
He cannot put the cup to our mouth
and force us to drink it.
We are going to be the ones that
do that.
We are going to be the ones that
actually do that.
So this is to do with the Nafs.
If we don't control our Nafs, then, you
know, it's not the Shaitaan's fault.
And that's what he's going to say on
the Day of Judgment.
He's going to say, I just called you
and you responded.
You're the ones that responded, nothing to do
with me.
All I did was whisper into your ear.
So in any case, the Shuraka, the partners
that people used to commit with Allah SWT,
they're going to say the same thing.
They're going to say, you're liars.
We had nothing to do with shirk.
We didn't tell you to commit shirk with
us.
You did it on your own accord.
And those people themselves that used to commit
shirk, they will become subservient to Allah SWT
on the Day of Judgment.
Because they have no choice.
They have no choice but to submit themselves
to Allah SWT on the Day of Judgment.
Pleading, pleading their innocence, pleading for mercy, pleading
for forgiveness.
There it will be a complete Islam, complete
submission to Allah SWT.
But that will not benefit them in the
least.
And also, Dalla, it means, the literal meaning
is misguidance, but in different contexts, it means
different things.
So Dalla, in this context, means Ghaba, meaning
disappeared.
And this is one meaning.
And Nisyan is also another meaning of Dalla.
And another meaning is The Prophet SAW, before
he got prophethood, he was in a doubts,
questions, you know, no clear guidance.
He wasn't Dall in the misguided sense that
he was committing shirk, or he was committing
sins.
He was Dall in the sense that he
had doubts and questions in his mind that
Allah SWT opened up.
So the word Dalla, it has different meanings
in different contexts.
Here it means, meaning they disappeared.
So, on the Day of Judgment, the people,
the shirk that they used to commit with,
and they used to throw accusations against Allah
SWT, that will all disappear.
And they will not have any kind of
recourse to the things that they used to
believe in.
Again, shirk, idols, Isa AS, anything that they
used to believe is going to help them,
that is going to disappear.
Iftira means false accusations, meaning all the false
that they used to believe in, that will
disappear from them, and it will not help
them in the least.
الذين كفروا وصدوا عن سبيل الله زدناهما عذابا
فوق العذاب بما كانوا يفسدون Here Allah SWT
counts two sins in one ayah.
One is that a person disbelieves.
He disbelieves himself to each his own.
Basically, it is his choice, like Rahaf al
-Din, there is no compulsion in religion to
make a person forced to believe something that
he does not want to believe in.
So he disbelieves.
But then there is a person who disbelieves
and he wants to make other people disbelieve
too.
And prevents from the path of Allah SWT
what is going to be their punishment.
This is what Allah SWT mentions in this
verse.
الذين كفروا Those people that disbelieved وصدوا عن
سبيل الله And they prevented people from the
path of Allah SWT themselves.
So they disbelieved themselves And on top of
that, they misguided other people.
What does Allah SWT say about them?
ذِذِذَنَاهُمْ عَذَابًا فَوْقَ لَعَذَابٍ We will increase a
punishment above their own punishment.
So they get the punishment of Kufr and
they also get the punishment of misguiding other
people.
And we should not think now that Allah
SWT says وَلَا تَزِرُوا وَازِرَةٌ وِزِرَ أُخْرَى That
nobody is going to hold anybody else's sins
on the Day of Judgment.
This is actually a sin that you are
committing that you are misguiding other people.
مَنْ سَنَّ فِي الْإِسْلَامِ سُنَّةً حَسَنَةً فَلَهُ أَجْرُوهَا
وَأَجْرُو مَنْ عَمِلَ بِهَا مِنْ غَيْرِ أَيْنُ قَسَ
مِنْ أُجُورِهِمْ مِنْ شَيْءٍ Prophet SAW said, whoever
starts a good thing off in Islam You
start a masjid off, you start a madrasa
off, you start a hospital off and people
follow in your footsteps and they start doing
something similar then you will get the reward
for it.
But if you start something bad off then,
and people start following in your footsteps you
open a store that sells alcohol and people
look at you that you started driving a
fancy car and you got a huge mansion
people think, you know what, I think I
need to get into that business too.
So people who follow in your footsteps because
of your misguidance or your misdeeds you are
going to be held responsible for it by
Allah SWT.
وَمَنْ سَنَّقِ الْإِسْلَامِ سُنَّةً سَيَّةً فَعَلَيْهِ وِذْرُهَا وَوِذْرُ
مَنْ عَمِلَ بِهَا مِنْ غَيْرِ أَيْنُ قَسَ مِنْ
أَوْزَارِهِمْ مِنْ شَيْءٍ Prophet SAW said, whoever starts
a bad sunnah off he will get the
punishment of what other people do when they
follow in his footsteps.
So, this punishment and the fact that he
is misguiding other people this becomes a means
of other people's misguidance so he will be
held accountable for it and he will get
that punishment for it.
So, زِدْنَاهُمْ عَذَابًا فَوْقَ الْعَذَابِ بِمَا كَانُوا يُفْسِدُونَ
will increase the punishment above their punishment of
kufr because of the fact that they used
to commit fasaad on the earth, commit corruption
on the earth.
وَيَوْمَ نَبْعَثُ فِي كُلِّ أُمَّةٍ شَهِيدًا عَلَيْهِم مِّنْ
أَنفُسِهِمْ وَجِئْنَا بِكَ شَهِيدًا عَلَى هَا أُولَاءٍ Allah
SWT is addressing the Prophet A.S. in
this verse.
Allah says, on the day we'll resurrect in
every nation a witness against them from amongst
themselves.
So, again what was mentioned in the first
ayah that the Anbiya A.S. are going
to come and testify against their own nations
but there's more wording here and the wording
is عَلَيْهِم مِّنْ أَنفُسِهِمْ So, the Prophet is
going to be from amongst themselves.
Okay, so when it comes to testimony if
your son testifies against you that is a
big testimony.
If your father testifies against you that is
a big testimony.
Because the court will say, look even though
he is the father, even though he is
the son, even though he is the brother,
he is testifying against his own.
So, the fact that the Anbiya A.S.
are going to testify upon their own people
this is a very strong testimony in the
eyes of Allah SWT.
So, the fact that they are going to
testify against their own it's a very strong
witnessing.
So, Allah says, وَيَوْمَ نَبْعَتُ فِي كُلِّ أُمَّةٍ
شَهِيدًا عَلَيْهِم مِّنْ أَنفُسِهِمْ On the day we'll
resurrect in every nation a witness against them
from themselves.
وَجِئْنَا بِكَ شَهِيدًا عَلَيْهِم مِّنْ أَنفُسِهِمْ And O
Prophet of Allah, we're going to bring you
as a witness against all of these people.
Meaning the Prophet A.S. is going to
be called to testify against those nations that
were talking against their own prophets.
And then we're going to also testify on
behalf of and to assist the Prophet A
.S. something that I mentioned earlier.
وَنَزَّلْنَا عَلَيْكَ الْكِتَابَةِ بِيَانًا لِكُلِّ شَيْءٍ وَهُدًا وَرَحْمَةً
وَبُشْرَىٰ لِلْمُسْلِمِينَ And indeed we revealed upon you
the book بِيَانًا لِكُلِّ شَيْءٍ clarity in everything
بَيِّن clear Allah S.W.T. has revealed
the Quran as بِيَان it is clarity by
itself لِكُلِّ شَيْءٍ for everything some people actually
use this verse to justify the rejection of
hadith and they say that the Quran says
that it is بِيَانًا لِكُلِّ شَيْءٍ it is
clarity for everything what that means is we
don't need hadith we don't need hadith but
this is not correct we need the hadith
Allah S.W.T. in the Quran basically
guides us puts down some guidelines and clarifies
certain things for us but going into that
depth we have to go to the hadith
to find out what it means Allah S
.W.T. tells us throughout the Quran أَقِيمُوا
الصَّلَاةِ establish the Salat but nowhere in the
Quran can you find how many rakats of
Salat are you going to perform and what
are you going to recite in the Salat
itself where are you going to read At
-Tahiyyat where are you going to read Salawat
upon the Prophet S.A.W. what are
you going to read in the Sajdah what
are you going to read in Ruku what
are you going to read after getting up
none of this is mentioned in the Quran
so we need the hadith to explain things
for us Imam Sha'arawi he mentioned a
story of a person orientalist who went to
a scholar of Islam and said that you
claim that the Quran has everything in it
the answer for everything in it so if
I was to say there is a bag
of wheat here how many breads can this
bag of wheat make does the Quran tell
you or not so the scholar said that
let's go to the baker and ask him
how many breads we can make out of
this bag so the orientalist thought that he
is one there you say that the Quran
has everything it doesn't have the answer for
this so that means the Quran is lying
so the scholar said in fact the answer
to your question is there well Allah SWT
says if you don't know something go to
the experts and ask them isn't that answer
in the Quran for you so Allah SWT
gave us a guideline that if you don't
know something go to the expert if you
don't know something about medicine go to a
doctor if you don't know anything about engineering
consult an engineer if you want to build
a house ask an architect to make the
design for you so it all comes under
that principle ask the people of remembrance meaning
the experts in their particular fields so the
Quran is in fact the guideline the guidelines
are there and the indications are there towards
what we need but we need the hadith
also to clarify certain things in fact Allah
SWT tells us in the Quran itself obey
Allah obey the Prophet in the Quran whatever
the Prophet gave you, take it and whatever
he forbade you from then stay away from
it it's in the Quran so following the
sunnah of the Prophet is found in the
Quran itself so we are in fact following
the Quran when we follow the sunnah of
the Prophet so we should not get fooled
when we hear people using these kinds of
verses to justify their perverted notions and their
perverted beliefs it is incorrect to assume that
the hadith is rejected because of this verse
so Allah says revealed upon you the book
an explanation and clarity for everything and a
guidance and a mercy and glad tidings for
the Muslims for the people who submit themselves
there are so many qualities mentioned here inshallah
next time when I discuss this inshallah I
will try to go into detail for everything
right now we will stop here inshallah I
pray that Allah gives us the ability to
understand and practice what has been said and
heard