Zia Sheikh – Tafseer Of Surah Bani Israel Session 9
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AI: Transcript ©
We are going through the Tafseer of Surah
Bani Israel.
And inshallah, today we are going to be
starting from Ayah number 36.
In the last lesson, and the last couple
of lessons in fact, we've been talking about
things that Allah SWT has prohibited us from
doing.
So he started by talking about the disobedience
of the parents, and then the killing of
the children, then Zina, and then, you know,
taking the, usurping the wealth of the orphans,
and so on and so forth.
Many things that were from the prohibitions of
Islam were mentioned.
And finally, we talked about last week, the
issue of not cheating people when doing business.
Today, Allah SWT starts off with something which
is a social phenomenon, which if we were
to implement it, social circles and communities would
be saved from a lot of distress, and
a lot of problems, a lot of fights,
a lot of arguments, and even households would
be prevented from these types of things.
And that is the pursuit of those things
which a person does not have knowledge.
And generally speaking, what that refers to is
when a person is accusing somebody of something
that is not true, or he has misgivings
about a person, he has in his heart
something about a person that's not true, or
he tries to dig up information about a
person, you know, and tries to advertise that
information throughout the world, and this all leads
to disturbances within a community, and disturbances within
a family, disturbances within an environment.
So Allah SWT tells us, وَلَا تَقْفُ مَا
لَيْسَ لَكَ بِهِ عِلْمٌۢ Do not pursue something
when you don't have knowledge.
Now this word تَقْفُ, it is from the
word قَفَا قَفَا means the back of the
neck.
So the back of the neck, the word
تَقْفُ means also, it can mean to strike
somebody on the back of the neck.
So it can mean, do not strike somebody
on the back of the neck.
Because usually when a person pursues these types
of things that I've just talked about, it's
usually behind somebody's back, right?
So, don't strike somebody on the back of
the neck means, that don't pursue knowledge which
you don't have, and don't spread stuff which
you don't have knowledge about.
That's one meaning of it.
And another meaning is, to basically pursue somebody,
and to follow behind somebody.
And again, when you follow behind somebody, what
is it?
You look at the back of his neck.
You look at the back of his head
when you're following him.
So again, the same meaning applies.
Don't pursue this person, don't go after this
person.
And from this word, same word, is the
word قَافِيَةُ In Urdu we use the same
thing also.
قَافِيَةُ شَعْبِ which means that the rhyming of
the poetry, which follows, right?
Which follows, the rhyming of the poetry means
the first line, and then the second line
follows the first line, and then the third
line follows the second line.
So, the rhyme, it follows, that's why it's
known as قَافِيَةُ because of the following that
takes place.
Also, there was a village, a group of
people amongst the Arabs, that were actually known
as قَبِيلَ الْقَافَةُ Why?
Because they were experienced in tracking people.
They used to look at people's footprints, and
they used to be able to track people
using those footprints, and they were actually called
القافة because of the fact that they were
experienced in pursuing people.
So, وَلَا تَقْفُ مَا لَيْسَ لَكَ بِهِ عِلْمٌ
Do not pursue that thing that you don't
have knowledge about.
Now, when Allah SWT uses the word knowledge,
it basically eliminates all of the things which
are not knowledge.
علم is one thing, anything other than علم
is what's known as ظن.
ظن means just thoughts in a person's head.
علم is knowledge, to know something, to absolutely
be sure of something, and anything other than
that is not علم.
So, do not pursue something which you don't
have علم about, meaning don't pursue things which
you are not certain about.
There are a few hadith which we should
keep in mind.
What does this actually mean?
Ibn Abbas RA says that, لَا تَقْفُ مَا
لَيْسَ لَكَ بِهِ عِلْمٌ It means لا تقول,
don't say something which you don't have knowledge
about.
And Aufi says, لَا تَرْمِي أَحَدًا بِمَا لَيْسَ
لَكَ بِهِ عِلْمٌ Do not accuse somebody about
something that you don't have knowledge about.
Qatada says, لَا تَقُلْ رَأَيْتُ وَلَمْ تَرَىٰ Don't
say I saw and you didn't see.
وَسَمِعْتُ وَلَمْ تَسْمَعْ And I heard and you
didn't hear.
وَعَلِمْتُ وَلَمْ تَعْلَمْ And I know and you
don't know.
These are all, they fall under this category
of وَلَا تَقْفُ مَا لَيْسَ لَكَ بِهِ عِلْمٌ
فَإِنَّ اللَّهَ تَعَالَى سَائِلُكَ عَن ذَٰلِكَ كُلِّهِ Because
Allah SWT is going to ask about all
of these things if you do things which
are against what has been mentioned.
And the ayah goes on to say, إِنَّ
السَّمْعَ وَالبَصَرَ وَالفُؤَادَ كُلُّ أُولَئِكَ كَانَ عَنْهُمْ مَسْؤُولًا
Indeed, the hearing and the seeing and the
heart, all of that is going to be
questioned.
So, if you think about it, these are
the three senses through which we derive these
thoughts and these misgivings.
We see something and we think, okay, this
must be the case.
We see a person, for example, going into
a convenience store in the middle of the
night and we automatically assume in our heart
that he must be going to buy beer
at this time of the night.
What else would he be going in for?
So that's, we see something and automatically we
assume.
And then, hear something, we heard something, we
heard that X, Y and Z did something
and we automatically assume that it's true.
So, it starts with the hearing and the
seeing and then it goes into the heart.
And then, after that, we propagate it and
we tell people about it.
But this seeing and hearing and everything, Allah
SWT is going to question us about it.
So, we need to be very careful.
The Prophet ﷺ also said, إِيَّاكُمْ مَا ظَنَّ
فَإِنَّ الظَّنَّ أَكْثَبُ الْحَدِيثِ Beware of dhann, beware
of misgivings.
Because these misgivings and these bad thoughts, they
are the most false of sayings or the
most false talk is the dhann that comes
into a person's mind.
So, this all falls under the category of
something which is known as ghil in the
Quran.
Allah SWT is going to remove ghil before
we are entered into Paradise.
We cannot enter Paradise if we have jealousy
and hatred and if we belittle people and
if we have any kind of thing in
our heart, illness in our heart, Allah SWT
is not going to enter into Paradise.
That impurity has to be taken out of
our heart because Jannah is a pure place,
it doesn't allow impurity inside it.
So, Allah SWT is going to remove it
before we enter Paradise.
So, that removal could be, we need to
be put into the * fire to get
it removed.
And if Allah SWT wants, He can remove
it by Himself but it's a very dangerous
thing to be that a person is actually
involving himself in these type of things in
which he has misgivings about other people.
So, do not pursue things about which you
don't have knowledge.
This is the first ayah that Allah SWT
mentions.
The next one, again very very important.
وَلَا تَمْشِي فِي الْأَرْضِ مَرَحًا Again, associated with
the illness of the heart.
Arrogance, kibr and haughtiness.
Arrogance, a person thinking himself to be something.
There's a very powerful saying of Ali RA.
He says that a person, his beginning is
a drop of impure sperm and his end
is a rotting corpse.
Okay, that's what we are as humans.
We start with impurity, we end by becoming
rotting and smelling corpses and in the middle,
we walk around carrying impurity in our stomachs
and we think that we are something.
This is the saying of Ali RA.
Beautiful saying and something to really contemplate that
what are we and why do we think
ourselves to be so big.
Remember that kibr and arrogance was the thing
that got the shaitan removed from the majlis
of the angels.
Shaitan actually worshipped Allah SWT for thousands and
thousands of years and he was a jinn
but he became so pious that he used
to sit with the angels.
He got this place next to the angels
and so then when Allah SWT commanded the
angels to prostrate to Adam AS only he
had the ability to refuse because angels cannot
refuse, right?
But he refused on the basis of ana
khairun min I am better than this guy.
That was his whole argument.
I am better than him.
You created me from fire.
You created him from soil.
So I am better than him.
So this was the arrogance that eliminated and
got him out from the majlis of the
angels and made him end up to be
rejected until the day of judgment and condemned
to the * fire.
So this is something we need to keep
in mind.
It doesn't matter how much worship we do
and how close we get to Allah SWT
it only takes a flash, a second for
us to basically disobey Allah SWT and become
arrogant and that can take us from the
highest of high and we can become the
lowest of the low.
So we need to be very careful about
that.
So Allah SWT says here Do not walk
on the earth with arrogance.
Do not walk on the earth with arrogance.
And that basically doesn't literally mean walking on
the earth.
It means don't do any action that displays
arrogance.
Don't be argumentative.
Don't always think that you are always right.
Humble yourselves in front of people.
This is what Islam is about and this
is what Islam teaches.
And then Allah says to us and basically
makes us realize what we are and how
significant we are.
How insignificant are you, oh human being?
You cannot rip up the earth and you
cannot reach the height of the mountains.
Who are you?
How insignificant are you?
All it's going to take for the mountain
or a few rocks to fall off a
mountain to kill you.
Or an avalanche from the snow to kill
you.
Or some cold temperature to kill you.
That's how weak and insignificant you are and
you become arrogant when you really are powerless.
We are all powerless in front of Allah
SWT.
So if Allah tests us in a certain
way we would fail miserably.
You will never be able to rip up
the earth and you will never be able
to reach the height of the mountains.
So why are you being arrogant?
Why are we being arrogant?
It's not possible for us to be arrogant.
There's a beautiful couplet which I'll mention.
Do not walk above the earth except in
the state of humility because under the earth
there are so many people that were higher
than you at one time.
If you think that you are protected and
if you think that you have some kind
of a protection around you to prevent you
from dying then how many people died before
you that had more protection than you?
Think about that for a minute.
So all of that is related to arrogance.
It is mentioned in a hadith While
a man was walking amongst his people and
he had two beautiful sheets on him and
he was walking with arrogance.
The Bakhtur means to walk with the shoulders
back, chest out with arrogance.
So he was walking amongst the people and
immediately Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala sucked him
into the earth and he will be sucked
until the day of judgment.
And another we know about Qarun how Allah
subhanahu wa ta'ala sucked him into the
earth which is also mentioned in the Quran.
In another hadith The Prophet sallallahu alayhi wa
sallam said Whoever humbles himself for Allah subhanahu
wa ta'ala Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala
elevates him.
And whoever is humble in his heart he
is Hakeer.
He lowers himself.
He thinks himself to be low but in
the eyes of other people he is Kabeer,
he is big and he is elevated and
he is respected and loved.
So Tawadu' is something that Islam teaches and
this is again contrary to all of the
teachings that we are taught in society today,
right?
We are taught be a man you know
stand up for yourself stand up for your
rights and you know be proud I mean
there is a pride in there is a
certain level of pride that we are supposed
to have as Muslims that we know we
are in the right and so on this
is a certain level of pride.
But arrogance is something that we are taught
in this society.
Be arrogant you know so Islam teaches us
no be the opposite be humble and you
will be respected for that.
You will gain respect in people's eyes because
of that.
And there are many many Hadith which talk
about the same thing.
So after mentioning all of these things that
are prohibited in Islam Allah SWT then says
All of these things are regarded as Sayyid
these are things which are wrong and despised
by Allah SWT and disliked by Allah SWT
and Allah SWT doesn't like them.
So be careful of implementing these things become
a better person by getting all of these
things out of your system and implementing all
of the prohibitions that Allah SWT has mentioned.
Allah then addresses the Prophet SAW and says
This is what your Lord has revealed to
you from wisdom I mean if you think
about all of the things that were mentioned
the respect to the parents taking care of
the orphan and making sure you are not
cheating somebody in business not being arrogant and
not killing a child and all of the
other things that were mentioned these are all
things that are Hikmah the wisdom of building
a society which is beautiful a society which
is united and loving and affectionate and it
has no problems whatsoever if we were to
eliminate all of those things from society just
imagine what a beautiful place it would be
to live ok so this is what is
mentioned here right at the end this is
the wisdom that Allah SWT has revealed to
you O Prophet of Allah so meaning implement
it and you will see the results of
that in front of you and then finally
again it started off with all of this
prohibition it started off with do not worship
except Allah SWT don't worship anybody except Allah
SWT Allah SWT ends all of those prohibitions
with the same ruling do not make any
ilah with Allah SWT any other God to
be worshipped other than Allah SWT otherwise you
are going to be put into the *
fire maluman in the state of maligning maligned
blamed madhura rejected ok so the ayah actually
is addressing the Prophet directly only the Prophet
is being addressed but indirectly we are all
being addressed because the Quran was revealed to
the Prophet directly but indirectly we are being
addressed that shirk is not something that is
acceptable to Allah SWT if we implement it
and if we practice shirk then the result
will be the * fire with that we
finish off inshallah today's lesson I pray that
Allah SWT gives us tawfiq to understand and
practice what is being said and heard yes
she's got some antibiotics for her septic septic
what's that kefir and water based water based
yeah and she's supposed to get something to
protect her from the * fire um I
think she's got the antibiotics the painkillers the
painkillers yeah um um um
um um um
um um um um