Zia Sheikh – Tafseer of Surah Bani Israel Session 12
AI: Summary ©
AI: Transcript ©
There's one thing that I had not seen
in the Prophet yet, and I had not
evaluated him for that, I had not tested
him for that, so I thought that I
would test him.
I had given him a loan of some
dates, and I had got the promise from
him that those loans, those dates would be
returned at such-and-such a date, but
I went earlier than the due time, and
I demanded that he give me the dates
at that particular time, and I accused him
of trying to wriggle himself out of not
paying that debt back, right in front of
everybody.
I basically used such words that would have
been embarrassing for anyone.
So the Prophet, and Umar, who was sitting
there, and when he heard this Jewish person
being rude to the Prophet, he got up,
and he took his sword out, and he
said, just give me permission, O Prophet of
Allah, and I'll finish him right here and
now.
The Prophet, sallallahu alayhi wa sallam, told him,
put your sword away, and he said, give
him back his sword, and for using these
harsh words against him, O Umar, make sure
you give him extra, so that his feelings
are not hurt.
And this was enough for the Jewish person.
He realized that all of the qualities that
he had seen in his scriptures were found
in the Prophet, sallallahu alayhi wa sallam, and
he became Muslim there and then.
So these are incidents of the Prophet, sallallahu
alayhi wa sallam's life, that we should take
a lesson from, and in our discussions, in
our dealings, even in our disagreements, our disagreements
should be in such a way that we
don't hurt anybody's feelings, and we disagree in
such a way that our respect for each
other and our love for each other is
not diminished.
Everybody disagrees from time to time.
There's nothing wrong with disagreeing, but the way
to disagree is something that we need to
learn.
As they say, agree to disagree.
So Allah, subhanahu wa ta'ala says, Tell
them, O Prophet of Allah, or tell my
slaves, that they should say words that are
good.
Because the Shaitaan, he tries to intervene between
them, and he tries to make people fight.
He tries to make you.
It's mentioned in a hadith, لا يشير أحدكم
إلى أخيه بالصلاح فإنه لا يدري أحدكم لعل
شيطان أن ينزغ في يده في حفرة من
النار Nobody should point a knife, any weapon,
towards his fellow Muslim brother.
Okay, so a knife, nowadays a gun, anything
should not be pointed at your Muslim brother.
The hadith says, because a person doesn't know
when the Shaitaan might try to intervene and
push the person and provoke the person into
doing something that is inappropriate and land himself
into the hellfire by doing that.
Okay, so Islam is a preventative religion.
It makes us, you know, stop short of
doing things way before they become a problem,
and this is that indicate that, that we
should not, we should not even point a
weapon at somebody, let alone take the weapon
out.
Okay, so this is one thing.
And another hadith, the Prophet ﷺ said, المسلم
أخ المسلم لا يظلمه ولا يخضله التقوى هاهنا
And the hadith goes on to say, وقال
بيده إلى صدري And he pointed to his
chest, a Muslim is the brother of a
Muslim, he doesn't oppress him, and he doesn't
disgrace him.
The Taqwa is here.
Taqwa is in the heart.
Prophet ﷺ mentioned it, but the point is
that a Muslim should never disgrace any other
Muslim.
He should not insult him in any way,
shape, or form.
And then the ayah goes on to say,
إِنَّ الشَّيْطَانَ كَانَ لِلْإِنسَانِ عَدُوًّا مُّبِينًا Indeed, the
shaitan, for the human being, is an open
and clear enemy.
So, obviously the shaitan is going to try
to work his tricks into relationships between a
husband and wife, between brothers in a community,
and create rifts and create difficulties, create arguments.
Remember that whenever arguments and disputes take place
in any society, or in any family, the
khair and goodness is removed from that society.
Remember the hadith of the Prophet ﷺ, that
he was actually seeking Laylatul Qadr, and he
was making i'tikaf for Laylatul Qadr to find
out when Laylatul Qadr was going to be
revealed.
And he emerged from the moment in which
he was making i'tikaf, and he saw two
people arguing, two people fighting with each other,
and the information that he had for Laylatul
Qadr was removed from him.
So, just imagine, because of two people arguing,
we've been deprived of the knowledge of Laylatul
Qadr until the Day of Judgment.
Just imagine that.
So, this is the result of a disagreement
taking place between two people, people arguing and
insulting, we have lost the knowledge.
So, just imagine the fights that take place
in communities, lawsuits that take place, and disagreements
that take place, and the police are called
in, and so many problems that occur within
communities, how much khair and goodness is that
community being deprived of, that is something that
we should think about.
The next ayah, Allah SWT says, رَبُّكُمْ أَعْلَمُوا
بِكُمْ إِنْ يَشَاءُ يَرْحَمُكُمْ أَوْ إِنْ يَشَاءُ يُعَذِبُكُمْ
Your Lord is more knowledgeable about you.
This ayah is actually connected with an ayah
that came before.
In last week's lesson, we learnt, Allah SWT
says, نَحْنُ أَعْلَمُوا بِمَا يَسْتَمِعُونَ بِهِ إِذْ يَسْتَمِعُونَ
إِلَيْكَ We are more knowledgeable about what people
are listening to when they are listening to
you.
Remember in the last week's lesson, we heard
that some disbelievers, they used to come and
secretly listen to the Prophet SAW while he
is reciting Quran in Qiyamul Layl.
So, connected to that, Allah SWT says, رَبُّكُمْ
أَعْلَمُوا بِكُمْ Your Lord has more knowledge about
you.
And here, Allah is saying that Allah SWT
has the knowledge as to who deserves His
guidance more and who doesn't deserve the guidance.
Meaning, those people that want guidance, Allah SWT
will give them guidance.
Those people that don't want guidance, they don't
seek guidance, Allah SWT is not going to
give them guidance.
This is what it's referring to.
So, Allah says, رَبُّكُمْ أَعْلَمُوا بِكُمْ And here,
Allah is, through the wording, He is indicating
His closeness to us.
رَبُّكُمْ He's your Lord.
So, whenever, I mean, in any relationship, right?
Say, a father-son relationship.
The father, he has knowledge about the son
and what kind of habits he has, what
kind of attitude he has and what he
likes, what he dislikes, what he eats, what
he doesn't eat.
So, the father for the child.
So, here, Allah is using the word رَبُّكُمْ
to indicate His closeness to us.
That your Lord, He has more knowledge about
you.
After all, He's your creator.
He's your sustainer.
He's your provider.
He knows every single thing about you.
He knows everything that you like and you
dislike and what is in your heart and
what you're thinking.
And, you know, whatever, you basically will probably
know less about yourself than Allah SWT.
So, رَبُّكُمْ أَعْلَمُ بِكُمْ Your Lord, He has
more knowledge about you.
إِنْ يَشَاءُ يَرْحَمُكُمْ If He wanted, He would
have mercy upon you by giving you hidayah,
okay?
And if He wanted, He could punish you
by not giving you hidayah, by not giving
you guidance, okay?
So, this giving guidance and not giving guidance,
it's not in the wording, but the Mufassereen
have said that this is what is meant.
The wording is, if Allah SWT wanted, He
would give you mercy and if He wanted,
He would punish you.
So, giving mercy by giving guidance and depriving
you of guidance is وَمَا أَرْسَلْنَاكَ عَلَيْهِمْ وَكِيلًا
وَكِيلًا وَمَا أَرْسَلْنَاكَ عَلَيْهِمْ وَكِيلًا O Prophet of
Allah, you've not been sent as a Waqeel
with them.
Waqeel in Arabic is somebody that you give
responsibility to and you give power of attorney
to.
And basically, a person who's been given responsibility.
So, the Prophet SAW was simply sent as
a person to warn and to give good
tidings.
Just give the message.
But the Prophet, he used to sometimes, he
used to take things very very seriously and
he used to become upset when people didn't
use to accept Islam.
And there are many instances in the Quran
in which Allah SWT consoles him.
In Surah Al-Baqarah, for example, Allah SWT
says that if you would destroy yourself you
would destroy yourself in pursuing them because of
the fact that they're not becoming Muslim.
And this has been mentioned in a few
places in the Quran.
So, here Allah says again, وَمَا أَرْسَلْنَاكَ عَلَيْهِمْ
وَكِيلًا O Prophet of Allah, you've not been
sent to become a Waqeel and to basically
be upon them and on their heads until
they become Muslim.
Your responsibility is only to give the message.
Whether they accept or don't accept, that is
in the hands of Allah SWT.
إِنَّكَ لَا تَهْدِي مَنْ أَحْبَبْتْ وَلَكِنَّ اللَّهَ يَهْدِي
مَنْ يَشَاءُ وَرَبُّكَ أَعْلَمُ بِمَنْ فِي السَّمَاوَاتِ وَالْأَرْضِ
And your Lord, He has more knowledge of
who is in the heavens and the earth.
And again, this is related to that again,
who is deserving of Hidayah and who is
not deserving of Hidayah.
وَلَقَدْ فَضَّلْنَا بَعْضَ النَّبِيِّينَ عَلَىٰ بَعْضٍ وَآتَيْنَا دَاوُودَ
زَبُورًا Indeed, we gave some Prophets a status
over the others and we gave Dawood AS
the Zaboor, we gave him the Zams.
So here, Allah SWT is describing the different
statuses of the Prophets.
Now, there's one ayah in the Quran in
which Allah SWT says لَا نُفَرِّخُ بَيْنَ أَحَدٍ
مِّنْهُمْ We don't differentiate between the Prophets.
And in a Hadith, the Prophet AS, he
says that do not differentiate between the Prophets.
The Hadith is, I'm trying to look for
it, I came across it earlier.
لَا تُفَضِّلُ بَيْنَ الْأَنْبِيَٰ Do not give Fadhl
between the Prophets AS.
So, what does that mean?
Firstly, the ayah.
لَا نُفَرِّخُ بَيْنَ أَحَدٍ مِّنْهُمْ means that we
don't differentiate between them in Iman.
We have Iman in all of them equally
and without any difference.
Just like we have Iman in the Prophet
AS, we have Iman in Isa AS, Nusa
AS, Nuh AS, Adam AS and so on.
All Prophets, we have Iman in them equally.
لَا نُفَرِّخُ بَيْنَ أَحَدٍ مِّنْهُمْ But as for
their status, Allah SWT says, تِلْكَ الْرُّسُلُ فَضَّلْنَا
بَعْضَهُمْ عَلَىٰ بَعْضٍ The Prophets, we have given
one status over the other.
They have different statuses.
Okay, now who are the best of the
Prophets?
The best of the Prophets are أُولُو الْعَزْمِ
مِنَ الْرُّسُلِ which Allah SWT has described in
Surah Al-Ahzab.
أَنَا مِنَ النَّبِيِّينَ مِثَاقَهُمْ وَمِنْكَ وَمِنْ نُوحٍ وَإِبْرَاهِيمَ
وَمُوسَىٰ وَعِيسَ أَبْنِ مَرِيَمْ Beloved Prophet ﷺ, Muhammad
ﷺ, first and foremost, Nuh ﷺ, Ibrahim ﷺ,
Musa ﷺ, Isa ﷺ, these were all أُولُو
الْعَزْمِ مِنَ الْرُّسُلِ These were the highest of
the Prophets.
These were the ones that had the biggest
conviction, the best of intentions they had, the
best of convictions in terms of their status.
And also in Surah Shura, Allah ﷻ mentions
the same Prophets.
Now, amongst those Prophets, أُولُو الْعَزْمِ مِنَ الْرُّسُلِ
there's no dispute amongst the scholars that our
beloved Prophet ﷺ is the best of the
Prophets in his status.
And now the question is, what does the
hadith mean in which the Prophet ﷺ said
that do not لا تفضل بين الأنبياء What
that means is that do not give priority
or status to the Prophets based simply on
the fact that you like one Prophet over
the other, meaning without any proof.
So for example, a Christian says that no,
Isa ﷺ is the best Prophet simply because
of the fact that he is the one
that he follows.
Or a Jewish person, he says simply that
Musa ﷺ is the best Prophet based simply
upon the fact that it's his Prophet that
he's following.
This giving priority or giving a status is
based upon what's known in Arabic as عصوبية
Simply for the fact that you dislike any
other Prophet so you give that Prophet a
status.
Obviously, we love our Prophet ﷺ the most
but all the proofs indicate that the Prophet
ﷺ was the highest because he led all
the Ameer alim ﷺ on Laylatul Mi'raj
and many, many other proofs that indicate that
he was the best of the Prophets.
So Allah says وَلَقَدْ فَضَّلْنَا بَعْضَ النَّبِيِّينَ عَلَىٰ
بَعْضٍ وَآتَيْنَا دَعُودَ زَبُورًا Specifically, Dawood ﷺ is
mentioned for the fact that he was given
Zabur.
Dawood ﷺ was famous for his recitation and
the fact that it is mentioned that his
voice was so sweet that the birds, they
used to come and listen to his recitation
of the Zabur and some of the Sahaba
that had the best of the voices when
they recited Qur'an the Prophet ﷺ used
to say to them وَوَطِيتَ مَزَامِيرَ دَعُودَ You've
been given from the instruments of Dawood ﷺ
in the beauty of your voice.
So Dawood ﷺ was famous for that.
So he's mentioned specifically in this ayah.
Inshallah, we're going to stop over here and
we'll carry on next week.
The couple of ayahs, they're quite lengthy and
they require a lot of detail.
Inshallah, we'll go into them next week.
I pray that Allah ﷻ gives us the
feeling to understand what has been said and
heard.
As
-Salaamu
Alaikum