Zia Sheikh – Tafseer Of Surah Bani Israel Session 13
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AI: Transcript ©
In the name of God, the
Most Gracious, the Most Merciful.
In the
name
of God, the Most Gracious, the Most Merciful.
Say, Call upon those whom you have claimed
besides Him, for they have no power to
remove harm from you, nor to change it.
They are the ones who call, seeking the
means to their Lord.
Which of them is nearer, hoping for His
mercy, and fearing His punishment?
Verily, the punishment of your Lord is to
be warned.
And there is not a town, save that
We will destroy it before the Day of
Resurrection, or punish it with a severe punishment.
That is written in the Book.
And We have not prevented that We should
send signs, except that the former people denied
them.
And We gave Thamud the she-camel as
a witness, but they wronged her.
And We do not send signs, except in
fear.
We are starting inshallah from ayah number 56
of Surah Bani Israel.
If you remember, in the last week's lesson,
we have been talking about the importance of
Tawheed, and how these particular ayahs, or this
section of ayahs, talk about the importance of
only worshipping Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala.
The first ayah basically goes along that same
pattern, and challenges the kuffar of Quraysh that
they should only call Allah subhanahu wa ta
'ala.
And if they are calling other than Allah
subhanahu wa ta'ala, then those things, statues,
idols, gods, whatever you want to call them,
they have no power to do anything in
front of Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala, and
in comparison to Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala,
they obviously do nothing.
As many ayahs of the Qur'an they
suggest, that if, for example, a fly was
to try to take away their food, they
would not be able to push away this
fly.
This is how powerless they are.
If you've probably seen, in many cultures, in
many religions, they put offerings of food in
front of the statues.
For barakah, or whatever it is, that they
give to the statues.
Flies, and insects, and everything, take away that
food, but you see that those same statues,
they cannot do anything.
So this ayah, it is along those same
lines.
Allah says, qul, O Prophet of Allah, tell
them, call those that you wish, whatever you
wish, whatever you want, call them, meaning make
dua to them, call out to them, whatever
you want, whoever you want, other than him,
other than Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala.
فَلَا يَمْلِكُونَ كَشْفَ الضُّرِّ عَنْكُمْ They will not
be able to have the power to remove
harm from you, وَلَا تَحْوِيلَ, or to take
it away, or to change it, or to
turn it away.
Removing, or at least turning away, none of
the two, those statues, and those idols, they
don't have the power to do that.
So this is a challenge to anybody who
is committing shirk.
So what they used to say was, Allah
says in other verses in the Quran, وَلَا
إِن سَأَلْتَهُمْ مَنْ خَلَقَ السَّمَاوَاتِ وَالْأَرْضَ لَيَقُولُنَّ اللَّهُ
If you ask them that who created the
heavens and the earth, they will say Allah.
Allah created the heavens and the earth.
So they believed in Allah.
But at the same time they used to
worship those idols.
And they used to say, مَا نَعْبُدُهُمْ إِلَّا
لِيُقَرِّبُونَ إِلَى اللَّهِ زُلْفَةٌ We only worship them
so that they get us closer to Allah.
They are a وسيلة to Allah.
They are a means to get closer to
Allah.
Otherwise we believe in one Allah.
And particularly, again throughout the Quran, Allah gives
the example that when they used to be
in huge trouble.
And the example given in the Quran again
and again is that if they are caught
in the middle of a storm, in the
middle of the sea, what do they do?
They call only to Allah.
But then when they are on the land
and Allah saves them from that storm, then
they turn back to the idols and they
start worshipping the statues again and again.
So again when they used to be in
turmoil and difficulty, they only used to worship
Allah and call out to Him.
So here Allah places that challenge to them
and tells them that call whoever you want
other than Allah, they have no power.
Going back to that ayah that I just
mentioned, مَا نَعْبُدُهُمْ إِلَّا لِيُقَرِّبُونَ إِلَى اللَّهِ زُلْفَةٌ
We only worship them so that they get
us closer to Allah.
This is something that a lot of people,
especially in the Indian subcontinent, they are engaged
in, in terms of going to graves and
worshipping there, prostrating and even making tawaf around
the graves and doing strange innovations at the
graves of pious people.
Irrespective of who those people were and how
pious they were and how close they were
to Allah, not discounting their status with Allah
but to do these types of things, this
is contrary to the concept of tawheed and
it takes a person into committing shirk and
associating partners with Allah.
So any person who is doing that with
this excuse, the same excuse that the kuffar
of Quraish had, that we only worship them
so that they get us closer to Allah,
this is not acceptable to Allah and only
Allah we ask and we make tawaf only
to Allah.
After that Allah says, أُولَٰئِكَ الَّذِينَ يَدْعُونَ يَبْتَغُونَ
إِلَىٰ رَبِّهِمُ الْوَسِيلَ أَيُّهُمْ أَقْرَبُوا وَيَرْجُونَ رَحْمَتَهُ
وَيَخَافُونَ عَذَابًا Those that they are calling, those
that they are calling, meaning those statues, those
idols, or in some cases Isa that the
Christians worship, or the malaika that some people
used to worship, or Uzair that some Jews
said was the son of Allah, those that
they are calling other than Allah, what do
they do?
يَبْتَغُونَ إِلَىٰ رَبِّهِمُ الْوَسِيلَ They themselves are looking
for a way to Allah.
They are seeking a way to Allah.
They need Allah.
They worship Allah.
And they are competing with each other.
أَيُّهُمْ أَقْرَبُوا وَيَرْجُونَ رَحْمَتَهُ وَيَخَافُونَ عَذَابًا
And they fear his punishment.
So this is a very loaded ayah with
so many lessons to be learned from it.
First of all, the main gist of the
ayah is that those people that worship other
than Allah, those same things, or the same
people, or the same prophets like Isa, they
are seeking a way to Allah and they
want to get closer to Allah themselves.
They worship Allah themselves.
And we ask this question to people who
believe Isa to be God or son of
God.
We say that it is well known that
Isa used to pray.
If he is God himself, then what is
the purpose of him praying?
It doesn't make sense, right?
So, similarly is the case with all of
the things that people worship.
We've heard earlier in the surah that everything,
وَإِمِّن شَيْءٍ إِلَّا يُسَبِّحُ بِحَمْدِهِ Everything makes the
tasbih of Allah.
Stones, rocks, trees, etc.
So all of these things, they themselves are
making the tasbih of Allah.
So they are in need of Allah themselves.
So how can you turn to them and
ask them to help you and assist you?
So this is one thing.
And they are all competing with each other
in trying to get closer to Allah.
So as we should do, we should all
compete.
وَفِي ذَلِكَ فَلْيَ تَنَافِسٍ مُتَنَافِسُونَ So competition, تنافس
and competition with each other should be in
trying to get as close to Allah as
much as possible.
Whereas what we do is الحاكم التكاثر.
We try to compete each other in worldly
things and materialistic things.
The thing that we need to be competing
in is to get closer to Allah.
The next thing that's mentioned here, يَرْجُونَ رَحْمَتَهُ
وَيَخَافُونَ عَذَابَ All of these things that you
worship, they have this thing which is known
and which we also should have within us,
الإيمان بين الخوف والرجاء.
Iman is between the hope and the fear
of Allah.
This is a very important principle in Islam.
If we go to either extreme, if a
person is more inclined towards the mercy of
Allah, then a person, he will continue to
commit sins and he will say, Allah is
going to forgive my sins, so I'm just
going to continue committing sins.
So this is one aspect.
And if the other aspect is there, that
a person just thinks that he's going to
be punished, then he's going to think that
I've committed so many sins, Allah is not
going to forgive me anyway, so I'm going
to just lead my life and continue anyway
because I'm not going to be forgiven.
So both of these extremes, they are important
to avoid and we have to stay in
the middle.
And it's a well-known saying of Umar
r.a who used to say that if
all of humanity was in front of Allah
and if it was announced on the Day
of Judgment that there's only one person that
is going to be forgiven from the whole
of humanity, I would hope that I'm that
person.
And if it was the opposite, that if
it was announced that the whole of humanity
is going to the punishment of a hellfire
and only one person is going to be
forgiven and one person is going to be
punished, then I would think that I'm that
person and I would fear that I'm that
person.
So iman bayn al khufi wal rajat, this
is what it's about.
The hope has to be there in his
mercy and the fear of the punishment also
has to be there.
Combined, they keep a person balanced.
So one of the other things that Christians
say, and this is a question that comes
up all the time nowadays, maybe they read
it on the right-wing websites or the
Christian websites, that Muslims are basically doing deeds
and their deeds are accumulated and those deeds
are then weighed on the Day of Judgment,
which is true.
But at the same time, we do rely
on the mercy of Allah subhanahu wa ta
'ala, not our deeds.
The deeds that we do are basically to
get that mercy of Allah subhanahu wa ta
'ala to us and to attract the mercy
of Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala.
It's a very important principle to understand.
I don't have time to get into it
in detail, otherwise we're going to get left
behind.
So wa yarjoona rahmata huwa yakhaafoona a'dhaba.
All of these things that you worship, they
have that iman bayn al khufi wal rajat,
they have hope in his mercy and they
fear his punishment.
Inna a'dhaba rabbika kana mahdhura.
Indeed, the punishment of your Lord is something
to be feared.
It is something to be aware of and
to be fearful of, that if he chooses
to punish, if he chooses to bring down
a punishment in this world or the hereafter,
then we are going to be in big
trouble.
After that Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala says,
wa im min qaryatin illa nahnu muhlikuha qabla
yawmi al qiyamati aw mu'adhibuha a'dhaban shadeeda
kana dhalika fil kitabi wa sura.
Indeed, every village, meaning every locality, every dwelling,
Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala is going to
destroy it or he's going to give it
a severe punishment.
It's a very blanket statement that Allah subhanahu
wa ta'ala brings here.
Every single locality, every single town, every single
village is going to be destroyed by Allah
subhanahu wa ta'ala or punished severely.
What does this mean?
Firstly, if we take the ayah at face
value and we take it according to the
exact translation, it means that a day will
come when everything will be destroyed.
The day of judgement is going to come,
everybody is going to be destroyed or prior
to that, what's going to happen is Allah
is going to bring some kind of punishment
to a locality if they are disobeying Allah
subhanahu wa ta'ala.
So basically both things fit.
Everybody is going to be destroyed before the
day of judgement.
Everything is going to be destroyed before the
day of judgement and if not, then prior
to that, because of people's misdeeds, punishments, trials
and tribulations will come down upon localities.
So this is one meaning.
Another meaning is kind of you have to
get a little bit deep into the grammar
of words.
Sometimes in Arabic what is done is that
an adjective is omitted from the sentence.
An adjective is omitted from a sentence because
of the verses surrounding it, a person automatically
understands what it actually means.
And the ayahs surrounding it, they are talking
about people who are not engaging in tawheed,
they are committing shirk, they are disobeying Allah
subhanahu wa ta'ala.
So what does that mean?
Then it means that those villages that are
disobedient to Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala, Allah
subhanahu wa ta'ala is going to destroy
them.
This is what it means.
And the example of that is in the
story of Musa alayhi salam when Khadr is
breaking down the boat, Allah subhanahu wa ta
'ala just describes it as safina, as a
boat, but there is no description of it
as it being a perfectly fine boat.
But after that he says, I put a
fault in it.
That means that it was perfectly good in
the first place.
The adjective is omitted because it says that
I put a fault in it afterwards.
So that's another aspect of this ayah, that
Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala has omitted the
adjective and what it means is that all
villages, all localities, all towns that have disobedience
in them, Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala is
going to destroy them or punish them severely.
This is something that has been written in
the book, meaning, Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala
has written it before the creation, that who
is going to exist for whatever amount of
time, when the punishments are going to come
down, when the trials and tribulations, when the
volcanoes, when the earthquakes are going to come
down, all of that has been written before
by Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala in Al
-Lawh Al-Mahfuz.
Now the question also is that why doesn't
Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala send down miracles
so that the Prophet salallahu alayhi wa sallam
can just show them.
And this is the answer is given in
the next ayah.
Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala says, وَمَا مَنَعَنَا
أَن نُرْسِلَ بِالْآيَاتِ إِلَّا أَن كَذَّبَ بِهَا الْأَوَّلُونَ
The only thing that prevents us from sending
signs is that the people that came before,
they rejected them.
For example, another example is given right after
that.
وَآتَيْنَا ثَمُودَ النَّاقِطَ مُبْصِرَةً فَظَلَمُوا بِهَا We gave
the people of Thamud a she-camel, a
very clear miracle, but they did dhulm with
it, they destroyed it.
The story goes, Salih alayhi salam calls people
towards Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala, tells them
to obey Allah, stop committing shirk, and they
say okay give us a miracle.
What miracle do you want?
Okay, we want from that mountain a camel
to come out of it, out of the
mountain, we want a she-camel to come
out of it, and we want that she
-camel to give birth straight after it comes
out.
So, they asked for it, it was given
to them, now the she-camel comes out,
and just as they had wanted, it was
a huge camel, now the camel is here,
now it has to be fed and looked
after.
So, Salih alayhi salam told them, make sure
you take care of this camel, now your
animals, they go to the stream or the
spring or the river to drink water, one
day your animals are going to go, the
next day the camel is going to go.
Because it needs that much water, it's that
big and that huge.
So, this continued for a while, then the
people got tired.
Our animals need water, our animals need the
grass and the pasture, and this camel is
just taking everything.
So, they decide that they have to kill
this camel.
So, they killed it, and then the punishment
of Allah came down.
So, Allah is saying here that people that
came before, they rejected the ayat that was
sent to them, and the signs and the
miracles that were sent to them, and that's
why Allah is not sending clear miracles for
them.
And this was actually what the kuffar of
Quraysh asked the Prophet salallahu alayhi wa sallam.
They asked him, there are various riwayat, they
said, these mountains that are around us, turn
them into gold, or remove these mountains so
that we can make fields of crops, instead
of having these barren mountains around Mecca, we
want to have flat fields so that we
can do something with them.
So, if you are a Prophet, then make
that happen.
So, Jibreel alayhi salam came and said, O
Prophet of Allah, if you want, these signs
can be given, and these miracles can be
given, the mountains can be turned into gold,
they can be removed, people can use them
for pasture and field and growing things, but
with the condition that if they then still
continue to reject, then the punishment of Allah
is going to come.
Or the option is that we just wait
for them, and we give them a chance,
and we wait for them to have iman
on their own, so the Prophet salallahu alayhi
wa sallam said, no, I prefer to give
them an opportunity to take iman on their
own, and I don't want to risk the
fact that they might reject and be punished
by Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala, so the
Prophet salallahu alayhi wa sallam refused.
So, this is what this ayah is saying.
The only thing that prevented us, Allah subhanahu
wa ta'ala, to send signs is that
the previous people, they rejected the ayat that
was sent to them.
And we sent the people of Thamud, a
she-camel, very clear miracle, but they did
dhulm with it, they wronged it, they killed
it, and then finally Allah subhanahu wa ta
'ala says, And when we do send some
certain signs, sometimes there's a tornado, sometimes a
hurricane, sometimes an earthquake, sometimes a huge thunderstorm
and lightning that destroys certain things, sometimes a
flood, so why do these things happen?
Sometimes the signs Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala
sends, they are simply to put the fear
of Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala inside, and
to make us remember Allah subhanahu wa ta
'ala, and to think how helpless we are
in front of him.
This is, sometimes minor signs are sent, simply
to put the fear of Allah subhanahu wa
ta'ala inside us, and to make us
aware of Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala.
With that we finish, and inshallah we will
continue the next ayah next week.
I pray that Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala
gives us tawfiq to understand and practice what
has been said and heard.
Al
Fatiha.