Zia Sheikh – Tafseer Of Surah Bani Israel Session 15
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AI: Transcript ©
Insha'Allah, we're starting from ayah number 66
today of Surah Bani Israel.
And in the previous lesson, we heard about
the very famous encounter that took place between
the shaytan and Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala
and his disobedience when Allah subhanahu wa ta
'ala told the malaika, the angels and shaytan
himself to prostrate before Adam alayhi salam and
he refused.
And at that point, he asked for time
to be given to him so that he
can mislead as many people as possible and
lead them to the hellfire, which Allah subhanahu
wa ta'ala gave him.
Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala gave him every
opportunity that was possible for him so that
he can mislead the human being and warned
us that we are the enemies or he
is our open enemy.
So we need to understand that.
Now in this selection of verses, Allah subhanahu
wa ta'ala addresses us as humans and
tells us that how he has given us
so much status and how much honor he
has given us in comparison to all of
the rest of the creation.
And as a token of our appreciation, we
should only worship that creator who gave us
such a status and who gave us such
an honor in this world.
So basically it starts off by telling us
how he enabled us to go in the
ocean and collect the blessings of the ocean
and to travel from place to place.
And then after that, people, they see the
power of the ocean and yet they don't
understand Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala.
And then finally, it culminates in a beautiful
verse which tells us about how the status
of Adam alayhi salam and the progeny of
Adam alayhi salam have been given such a
great honor.
So we start off by Allah subhanahu wa
ta'ala telling us رَبُّكُمُ الَّذِي يُزْجِي لَكُمُ
الْفُلْكِ Your Lord, your creator, Allah subhanahu wa
ta'ala is the one who makes Izja.
Izja, there are two meanings of this.
One meaning is that he shepherds for you
your sheep, your ships.
So just like a shepherd, it basically looks
after the sheep and doesn't allow them to
wander off so that the wild animals can
eat it.
Similarly, Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala shepherds the
ships while they're in the sea and basically
takes care of them while they're traveling.
So that's one meaning.
And another meaning of Yuzji, it basically means
that Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala made the
travel on the oceans easy for you.
Yuzji, meaning making something easy.
So Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala says, Your
Lord made easy for you the boats in
the ocean, meaning the running of the boats
on the ocean.
And in this day and age, we have
another form of travel, obviously, which is air
travel, which is even more wondrous and even
more marvelous that Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala
has enabled us to do that.
And if you think about it, 300 tons,
when a plane is taking off, it's approximately
300 tons of weight which takes off in
the air and flies in the air across
the oceans at about 500, 600 miles an
hour and it takes you from place to
place within a matter of hours.
So Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala enabled us
to do that.
That's just an amazing ability that the human
being has been given.
But in the day and age when the
Quran was revealed, Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala
talked about something that the people may have
been familiar with, which was the travel on
the ocean, which they were capable of doing
at that time, which was traveling easily from
place to place.
So who is the one who enabled them
to do that?
Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala.
And who is the one who enables us
to fly across the oceans in these planes?
Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala.
And why did He enable you to do
that?
Why did He enable you to travel across
the oceans?
So that you can seek His fadl, so
that you can seek His blessings.
Now the word fadl has been mentioned again
and again in the Quran in the context
of wealth.
And many people, they have this understanding or
misunderstanding that wealth is evil.
Wealth is inherently evil.
Or wealth is inherently bad.
But Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala, throughout the
Quran, He actually has used good words for
wealth.
Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala has used the
word khair for wealth.
He's used the word fadl for wealth.
So the reality is that that wealth, which
is earned in a halal way, while not
neglecting the commands of Allah subhanahu wa ta
'ala, then that is khair and fadl.
Otherwise, if a person is neglecting the commands
of Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala and he's
earning from haram means, then that is not
fadl.
That is actually wabal.
That is ash-shar upon a person.
It is an evil thing which he will
be questioned for on the day of judgment.
So, li tabtaghu min fadli, Allah subhanahu wa
ta'ala enabled you to travel from place
to place.
And one of the main things that you
can do is seek His fadl, seek His
wealth, seek money, and seek sustenance.
All of these things fall under the meaning
of fadl.
innahu kaana bikum raheema, indeed He has always
been merciful upon you.
So the wording is kaana bikum raheema.
Kaana, it indicates consistency and continuity that He's
always been raheem, merciful for you, that He's
enabled you to do that.
wa idha masakumu dhurru fil bahd, dhalla man
tad'una illa iya Now, think that you're
travelling in the ocean and suddenly a storm
comes.
And the storm is basically throwing the boat
left and right.
And it becomes dark.
And the only thing that you can see
is basically your own hands.
It's basically pitch black, thunderstorm, lightning, rain coming
down and the boat is being thrown left
and right.
On this day and age, you can say
a plane that is going through very gentle
air and then all of a sudden severe
turbulence hits the plane.
And it's rocking up and down.
And basically you are saying what we say
laa ilaaha illallah kal maa par wajih at
that time, right?
So everybody's afraid for their lives.
So at that point, the only thing that
a person thinks about is Allah SWT.
And asking Allah SWT to have mercy that
if I die in this situation, that Allah
please forgive me.
So the situation was the same with the
mushrikeen of Mecca.
Whenever they used to be in that kind
of a very torrid and terrible situation and
Allah SWT gives the same example of going
through the ocean in four or five places
in the Quran.
That a person is going through the ocean
and a storm hits him and then he
doesn't call his statues and idols allat and
al-uzza and manat.
He doesn't call any of them.
He only calls Allah SWT.
And the mushrikeen of Mecca used to do
that.
They only called Allah SWT at that difficult
time and they used to forget about the
rest of the idols.
So this is what Allah is saying.
That whenever harm touches you in the ocean
then the ones that you call, meaning the
idols that you call they all become astray.
Except him.
Except Allah SWT.
There is a story of Ikramah ibn Abi
Jahl.
He ran away from the Prophet SAW after
he conquered Mecca.
And he basically got onto a ship so
that he could escape from the conquering Muslims.
He had been an enemy of Islam throughout
his life and now the Muslims are back
so he was afraid that they may take
revenge.
So he went and he tried to escape
on a ship.
What happened?
The storm came and started rocking the boat
left and right and people started saying to
each other إِنَّهُ لَا يُغْنِي عَنكُمْ إِلَّا أَن
تَدْعُوا اللَّهَ وَحْدًا It's not going to benefit
you unless and until you only call Allah
SWT.
You make dua only to Allah SWT.
So Ikramah thought to himself.
The son of Abu Jahl, he thought to
himself وَاللَّهِ إِن كَانَ لَا يَنْفَعُ فِي الْبَحْرِ
غَيْرُهُ فَإِنَّهُ لَا يَنْفَعُ فِي الْبَرِّ غَيْرُهُ If
only he benefits us while we are in
the ocean then the same thing should apply
while we are on the land.
And then he thought to himself اللَّهُمَّ لَكَ
عَلَيْي عَهْدُ He promised to Allah SWT that
Oh Allah I make a promise to you
لَإِنْ أَخْرَجْتَنِي مِنْهُ لَأَذْهَبَنَّ فَلَأَضْعَنَّ يَدَي يَدِي وَيَدَيَّ
فِي يَدِي مُحَمَّدٍ فَلَأَجِدَنَّهُ رَؤُوفًا رَحِيمًا Oh Allah
if you save me from this storm I'm
going to go back and I'm going to
put my hands in the hands of Prophet
Muhammad SAW And most certainly I will find
him gentle and merciful to me Meaning he's
going to forgive me And this is what
he did He went back to the Prophet
SAW And he became a Muslim And he
became a good Muslim at that So this
was an example of what used to happen
But فَلَمَّا نَجَّاكُمِ لَلْبَرِّ أَعْرَضْتُنَ But when Allah
SWT saves you And he puts you onto
the dry land You turn back from Allah
SWT You turn away And this is actually
an example of the waves that we go
through in our lives Of difficulty right Our
lives go through waves of hardship and ease
Hardship and ease Hardship and ease And when
a person is in hardship He turns to
Allah SWT And he basically promises Oh Allah
I'm going to come to the masjid five
times a day And I'm not going to
make any sin anymore I'm not going to
make any disobedience to you anymore But then
when he comes out And he's in ease
Then he forgets all about his promises So
this is basically the mentality of a human
being That when he's in that hardship Then
he will turn to Allah SWT But when
he's in ease Then he forgets about his
promises So the mushrikeen also When they used
to come to the land They used to
forget Allah SWT And they used to go
back to their idols Indeed the human being
has always been ungrateful So again the word
kana is used For the human that continuously
And all the time The human being is
ungrateful And disobedient to Allah SWT Allah asks
the question to those people Are you at
ease that Allah SWT cannot drown you On
the edge of the land He can suck
you into the land too right That's possible
In dry land he can pull you in
Like he did with Qaroon Even there are
instances of quicksand right Quicksand basically Soft sand
that pulls a person in And sucks a
person into the ground That can happen So
are you at peace That you will not
be drowned In the land itself That can
also happen to you Or he can send
you Hasib Hasib means A rain which is
mixed with Which is mixed with rocks Okay
so We see examples of that sometimes In
the form of hail But the real meaning
of hasib Means rain which is mixed with
rocks Okay so just imagine how terrible that
would be So Allah can send you On
the land He can send you this type
of rain Just like he did with the
people of Lut AS Then you would not
find any helper for yourself Okay so It's
not just the ocean And it's not just
in a plain That a punishment can come
to you It can come to you anywhere
Am amintum an yuAAidakum fi hitaratan ukhra Okay
you escape from the ocean this time But
next time you go into the ocean You
don't think that can happen again The next
time you fly in a plane You don't
think you're going to hit turbulence It's going
to happen again Or are you at ease
That he's going to send you back in
it Another time Fayulsina AAalaykum qasifan minabih And
he would send you A very severe wind
Qasif The word is It has two meanings
Either it means A wind which breaks everything
Or it means that kind of a A
cloud Which Which has thunder in it That
makes a sound Okay so he can send
you This very severe wind that breaks everything
And he will drown you Because of your
disobedience Because of your ungratefulness Then you're not
going to find Against us Any tabi' Tabi'
is A helper Not just in any Simple
form Tabi' actually means The person who takes
revenge In the killing Of his own relative
That's what the real meaning of tabi' is
Okay So when Allah SWT Drowns you in
the ocean Who's going to pursue who?
Or if Allah SWT Sends a bolt of
lightning To kill you Who are you going
to pursue?
Are you going to pursue anybody?
What can you do about it?
Are you going to sue anybody?
You can't do that Because this was from
Allah SWT So Allah says You're not going
to find anyone To take revenge against me
Once that happens Once you get destroyed in
such a way Once you see this kind
of punishment Then Then you're not going to
find anyone Against us, against Allah SWT As
a tabi' One who follows or Basically Punishes
Us On your behalf, it's not going to
happen And then finally The last ayah It's
a very very loaded and very very powerful
Ayah which tells us In one summary The
status of Adam And the children of Adam
Very beautiful ayah Allah says Indeed we have
given The children of Adam We have given
them dignity We have given them status And
we've given them The power over the land
And the sea We've given them the power
over the land And the sea And we
gave them the sustenance Of all different things
You see in animals What kind of sustenance
Do they get Only something that they can
hunt They can find, they can fly to
That's their sustenance The children of Adam Their
sustenance comes from all over the world We're
the only creation To whom The sustenance comes
from Across the oceans The fruit that we
eat The majority of it Comes from other
countries Many of the grains that we have
It comes from other countries The rice that
we eat It comes from other countries The
sustenance The pure things, the good things They
come from all over the place And this
is exclusive For the children of Adam وَرَزَقْنَاهُمْ
مِنَ الطَّيِّبَاتِ وَفَضَّلْنَاهُمْ عَلَى كَثِيرٍ مِمَّنْ خَلَقْنَا تَفْضِيلًا
Again very powerful Wording here Indeed we gave
them a status Over Many of our creation
A huge status This in Arabic Grammar is
called مَفْعُلْمُطْلَقْ فَضَّلْنَاهُمْ تَفْضِيلًا You bring the same
verb Again to denote Emphasis, we gave them
A huge status over A lot of our
creation It's mentioned in a hadith Abdullah ibn
Amr R.A. from the Prophet A.S
That The angels they said يَا رَبَّنَا Oh
our Lord أَعْطَيْتَ بَنِ آدَمَ الدُّنْيَةِ You gave
the children of Adam الدنيا, the world يَأْكُلُونَ
فِيهَا وَيَشْرَبُونَ وَيَلْبَسُونَ They eat and they drink
And they wear whatever they like In the
worldly life وَنَحْنُ نُسَبِّحُ بِحَمْدِكِ وَلَا نَأْكُلُ وَلَا
نَشْرَبُ وَلَا نَلْهُ We Make your Tasbeeh Night
and day And we don't eat, we don't
drink We don't get to enjoy anything فَكَمَا
جَعَلْتَ لَهُمُ الدُّنْيَةِ فَجْعَلْ لَنَا الْآخِرَةِ Just like
you made dunya for them At least make
us something In the Akhira Allah SWT responds
back to them and says لَا أَجْعَلُ صَالِحَ
ذُرِّيَةِ مَنْ خَلَقْتُ بِيَدَيْكَ كَمَنْ قُلْتُ لَهُ كُنْ
فَكَانَ How can I make The That creation
That I created with my own hands Just
like that creation To whom I said be
and it became Okay meaning Adam AS was
created with the hand of Allah SWT by
himself And as for the angels Allah SWT
just commanded Them to be and they became
So even in the creation Allah SWT is
saying that there is a huge Difference with
my hand Okay you know you have These
really fancy Cars right All of them hand
crafted And that pushes up The price from
being just a regular Car to being a
car which is $150,000 Okay the Bentleys
and the You know the Rolls Royces All
of them hand crafted So Allah SWT is
saying that I hand crafted Adam AS You
guys you were the What do you call
The conveyor belt You were on the belt
You were mass produced I told you kun
You became and you became into existence I
hand created Adam AS There is no comparison
Between the angels and That which I created
with my hands But the issue is that
the Human has to understand the status If
he understands The status then he can Become
higher than the angels If he understands that
status If he doesn't understand that status Then
he will become worse than The animals He
becomes like the angels Even worse than the
animals How can he be even greater than
the angels Because despite having All of the
desires Despite having all of the Lusts For
this world He suppresses those lusts He suppresses
those desires And he obeys Allah SWT In
every aspect of his life The angels they
don't have any lust They don't have any
desire And they don't have any choice They
have to obey Allah SWT So they're making
tasbih They're making ibadah It's not really a
great big deal But for the human When
he has these lusts and these desires And
these things pulling him in every direction And
he Still obeys Allah SWT Then that is
a great big deal And that person because
of that He can become even better than
the angels And more higher than the angels
So this is what we need to be
striving for Understanding The status that Allah SWT
has given us Understanding the position That Allah
SWT has given us We need to work
and make sure that we don't Disobey him
in this world So that we can get
that status that he's promised us Also in
the hereafter I pray that Allah SWT gives
us tawfiq to understand And practice what has
been said and heard Al
Fatiha