Zia Sheikh – Tafseer Of Surah BaniIsrael Session 19
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AI: Transcript ©
I went for a walk with the Prophet
ﷺ in the fields in the outskirts of
Medina.
And at one point the Prophet ﷺ was
sitting on and leaning on what's known as
a Asib.
Asib, it actually has two meanings.
Asib can mean the tailbone that is at
the base of the spine.
It can also mean a date palm which
has had the leaves and everything removed.
So the Prophet ﷺ was leaning either towards
his backside or on this date palm, he
was leaning on it.
A group from the Jews passed by and
some of them started talking to each other.
Ask him about what a ruh is.
And some said, don't ask him.
Some said ask him, some said don't ask
him.
The people that said don't ask him, basically
they said that if he answers you, that
means he's a Prophet.
He knows things that other people don't know.
And others basically wanted to challenge him in
such a way and defeat him by asking
him questions about which he could not answer.
So this was this discussion, ask him, don't
ask him.
Ultimately they did ask him what is a
ruh.
So he continued to sit on this date
palm and he stayed quiet.
Abdullah ibn Mas'ud says, فَظَنَنْتُ أَنَنَهُ يُحَيْلَي
I began to think that the wahi is
being sent to him.
And then he started reciting, وَيَسْأَلُونَكَ عَنِ الرُّوحِ
قُلِ الرُّوحِ مِنْ أَمْرِ رَبِّي وَمَا أُوتِيتُم مِنَ
الْعِلْمِ إِلَّا قَلِلَا I am telling you about
the ruh.
Tell them that the ruh is a command
from my Lord and you have not been
given knowledge about this except very little.
So we look at so many, and there
are a couple of other riwayat that I'll
go into.
But the Prophet ﷺ responded to them with
this ayah.
And we've seen throughout the ages so many
medical advances and so many things that we've
discovered about the human body.
But yet the human soul, about the thing
that basically which keeps us alive and the
thing that keeps our body moving, the thing
that which is enabling me now to see
and talk and to sit in front of
you and move and to have the five
senses, this soul is something that we don't
really know anything about.
No scientific research has been done on it.
Nobody can tell us what it's about.
And basically still after 1400 years, we can
very clearly say that Allah told us the
truth.
وَمَا أُوتِيتُم مِنَ الْعِلْمِ إِلَّا قَلِلَا You've been
given very little knowledge about what the ruh
actually is.
So there's a couple more riwayat that I'll
go into.
Ibn Abbas says that the Quraysh, they addressed
the yahood.
And they actually used to respect the people
of the book.
And they used to ask them questions.
Why?
Because they knew that they had knowledge of
the scriptures from before.
And they used to come and visit them.
So they came and asked them the questions
and said, Tell us something that we should
ask Muhammad that he will not be able
to.
So that we can say that he's not
a prophet.
So they said, they asked him, they told
him, they told the Quraysh, the Jews told
Quraysh, ask him about what a ruh is.
And they asked and then this ayah was
revealed.
Ibn Jarir narrates from Ikramah, he says, that
the people of the book asked the Prophet
ﷺ about a ruh.
And Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala revealed this
ayah, وَيَسْأَلُونَكَ عَنِ الرُّوحِ And they said, they
responded back to the Prophet ﷺ, after this
ayah was revealed, وَمَا أُوتِيتُ مِنَ الْعِلْمِ إِلَّا
قَلِيلًا They said, تَزْعَمُ أَنَّا لَمْ نُؤْتَ مِنَ
الْعِلْمِ إِلَّا قَلِيلًا وَقَدْ أُوتِينَتْ تَوْرَاهُ وَهِيَ الْحِكْمَةُ
You're telling us we haven't been given so
much knowledge, yet we've been given the Torah,
and it is full of hikmah, it is
full of wisdom.
And this is again what Allah subhanahu wa
ta'ala says in the Qur'an also,
that the Torah is تَبْيَانًا لِكُلِّ شَيْءٍ It
was given to the Jews, it was given
to Bani Israel, and it had guidance, and
it had a lot of knowledge.
But what this ayah is saying, وَمَا أُوتِيتُ
مِنَ الْعِلْمِ إِلَّا قَلِيلًا What it's saying is,
that in comparison with the knowledge of Allah
subhanahu wa ta'ala, you've been given very
little knowledge.
We've all heard the story of Musa a
.s. and Khidir, right?
Khidir or Khidir, however you want to pronounce
it.
The story goes that Musa a.s. went
with Khidir, and certain events took place, and
finally Khidir told Musa a.s., he spotted
a bird that was perched at the end
of the boat in which they were riding,
and Khidir told Musa a.s., see that
bird, it took a mouthful of water from
the ocean.
It took a mouthful of water from the
ocean, that mouthful of water is our knowledge,
and the ocean is the knowledge of Allah
subhanahu wa ta'ala.
So this is what was meant by وَمَا
أُوتِيتُ مِنَ الْعِلْمِ إِلَّا قَلِيلًا that you've been
given very little knowledge.
But the Jews took it the wrong way,
and they said that you're calling us juhal,
you're calling us ignorant people, we've been given
so much knowledge, and yet you are addressing
us this way, so Allah subhanahu wa ta
'ala revealed this verse.
Now what is ruh?
What is actually ruh?
Is it the same thing as nafs?
You've probably heard the word nafs before, right?
Nafs, which is basically distributed into three parts,
or three kinds, or three stages of nafs.
Is it the same thing, or is it
something separate?
So the nafs is basically a person's own
personality, or a person's own conscious that is
within him.
The soul is something that we cannot see,
we cannot feel, and we cannot measure, but
it is something that exists within us, and
the scholars say that just like if you
see any plant, it has veins running through
it, and within the veins of those plants,
water runs and keeps those plants alive.
So you water the roots of a plant,
or a tree, and the tree basically sucks
up that water, and through the sucking up
of the water through its own veins, it
stays alive.
So similarly, inside the human being is this
soul, which is ruh, which keeps a person
alive.
As the summary of the scholars' opinion about
what a ruh is, they say, إِنَّ الروحَ
هِيَ أَصْلُ النَّفْسِ وَمَادَّتُهَا Ruh is the foundation
or the root of the nafs itself.
It's the root of the nafs, and the
source of the nafs is the ruh.
So basically, the ruh is keeping the body
alive, which gives room for the nafs, which
also keeps the nafs alive, which keeps our
personality alive, it keeps our conscience alive.
وَالنَّفْس مُرَكَّبَةٌ مِّنْهَا وَمِنْ اِتِّصَالِهَا بِالْبَدْنِ And the
nafs is basically made up of the ruh,
and it's joining up with the body.
So, the ruh, there's the ruh, and then
the body, and the nafs, three separate things,
but the nafs itself is made up of
the combination of the ruh and the body.
So, in other words, basically the life that
is within us, that is the soul, it
cannot be measured, it cannot be seen, it
cannot be felt, but that is what a
ruh actually is.
Going on, Allah SWT then says, وَلَا إِن
شِئْنَا لَنَذْهَبَنَّ بِالَّذِي أَوْحَيْنَا إِلَيْكَ ثُمَّ لَا تَجِيدُ
لَكَ بِهِ عَلَيْنَا وَكِيلًا If we wanted, we
could have removed everything that we've revealed to
you, our Prophet of Allah.
So, the connection between the previous ayah and
this one, is the limited knowledge that Allah
SWT has given us, in the form of
the Qur'an and all of the other
things that we deem as knowledge, Allah SWT
can remove it at any time.
He can take it away from us at
any time.
The fact is that Allah SWT gave us
the Qur'an, He gave us the knowledge,
He gave us all these things, He can
remove it at any time.
And in fact, one of the things that
will happen before the Day of Judgment, the
Qur'an will be removed from the people's
books, the Qur'an that we have in
book form, and it will be removed from
people's chests.
The Hadith says that the first thing that
will be removed from the people, will be
what's known as Amanah.
The trust will be removed from people's people.
And then the next thing that will be
removed will be the Salat.
The Salat will become something that people don't
pray anymore, even if people are praying, that
Salat will not have any kind of strength
to it.
People will not have any concentration, they'll be
just going through the motions.
And then when this kind of situation arises,
the final step will be that Allah SWT
will even remove the Qur'an from the
people, and then how will people remember Allah
SWT?
Simply by saying La ilaha illallah.
That will be the only thing.
And then finally, when all the people that
say La ilaha illallah, they pass away and
they die, then finally the Day of Judgment
will come.
So there will come a time when the
Qur'an will be removed.
But the fact that Allah SWT has preserved
the Qur'an for us, this is indeed
a mercy from Allah, as the next ayah
also suggests.
Allah says, Indeed, we reveal the remembrance and
will protect it.
This is a promise from Allah SWT that
it will be protected from being changed, from
being manipulated.
But the strange thing is, this is again
a huge miracle of the Qur'an, that
firstly, we have so many people that memorize
the Qur'an.
We have people that don't know the Arabic
language, kids, 8, 9, 10, 12, 14, 16,
who memorize the Qur'an, but yet they
don't understand what they're reciting.
So that in itself is a miracle.
That you give a foreign language to somebody,
to a child, a book with a foreign
language, and he memorizes it word for word,
verbatim.
This is indeed a miracle.
And I had a discussion one day with
some Christians, and they said, it's no big
deal, you know, somebody can pick up the
Bible and memorize it.
I think it's doable.
So I told him, no, this is not
what the kids do here.
And this is not what a hafiz is.
If you want to compare yourself with the
memorization of the Qur'an, first and foremost,
you have to find the actual Bible.
First thing.
Secondly, you have to find it in its
original text, in the language in which it
was revealed, Aramaic.
Then after that, the person who's going to
memorize it, obviously, he has to learn how
to read Aramaic.
And then after that, memorize it in its
original form.
Then you can say that a comparison is
being made.
Otherwise, you can't just pick up an English
Bible and memorize it and say that, no,
it's no big deal.
We can do that too.
That's not what the protection of the Qur
'an is.
The Qur'an is being protected in the
way that I've just described, and that's a
miracle.
Now, people, they say that basically, first of
all, the hafiz, the word hafiz means guardian.
And it means a person who's guarding the
sanctity of the Qur'an.
So these hafiz, these people that are memorizing
the Qur'an, they are actually the promise
of Allah being fulfilled right in front of
our eyes.
So that's a miracle.
Because we see it on an everyday basis,
it becomes kind of, you know, we take
it for granted.
But if we think about it, it truly
is a miracle.
And then on top of that, the next
point is something that we never ever think
about, or probably never think about.
And that is that the Qur'an has
not just been protected from being manipulated in
its words and its harakat.
It's also been protected in the method of
recitation.
So when you have a qari, for example,
who recited the Qur'an, who knows how
to recite the Qur'an, generally speaking in
our culture, in India and Pakistan, we say
qari sahib, qari sahib basically means the guy
who teaches our kids Qur'an.
A qari actually is the person who has
an ijazah.
He took an ijazah from his teacher after
reciting the Qur'an to him from cover
to cover, and the teacher now believes that
he knows how to recite the Qur'an
with correct tajweed, and he gives him a
certificate.
On that certificate, it's mentioned that such and
such a person, this person, the bearer of
this certificate, learned from Abdullah, Sheikh Abdullah, who
learned from Sheikh Abdur Rahman, who learned from
so and so, who learned from so and
so, who learned from so and so, and
this chain goes all the way back to
the sahaba, and from the sahaba to the
Prophet, from the Prophet to Jibreel, and from
Jibreel to Allah.
So the method of recitation with tajweed, that
also has been protected by Allah.
So the way that a qari recites in
front of us, we say, what a beautiful
recitation, what a nice recitation, but that recitation
is exactly the same as Jibreel taught the
Prophet, where to make mad, where to make
gunna, where to make ikhfa, where to make
izhar, all of these things, they have also
been protected by Allah.
So this is something that we generally don't
think about, but this recitation of Quran with
tajweed, wherever you go in the world, whether
you go to China, Indonesia, Malaysia, America, Pakistan,
India, Bangladesh, the Quran recited with tajweed will
be exactly the same wherever you go.
So that, again, beautiful miracle, that is something
we don't think about, but it's truly mind
-blowing.
So the fact that Allah has protected the
Quran in so many ways, it is a
clear proof that it is a miracle from
Him, it is a book from Him.
So Allah says, وَلَا إِنْ شِئْنَا لَنَذْهَبَنَّ بِالَّذِي
أَوْحَيْنَا إِلَيْكَ If we want it, we've given
you this knowledge of the Quran, which is
very, very little knowledge.
We've given you the knowledge of the Torah,
which is very, very little knowledge, but we
could even remove that from you.
So the fact that we've given you this,
this is a blessing from Allah.
ثُمَّ لَا تَجِدُ لَكَ بِهِ عَلَيْنَا وَكِيلَ Then
you would not find for yourself, against us,
any kind of helper, any kind of assistant
to help yourself.
Meaning, you would not find any means of
getting knowledge from Allah, if this very means
of knowledge was removed from you.
إِلَّا رَحْمَةً مِّن رَّبِّكِ It's only because of
the mercy of your Lord that He has
allowed you to maintain and retain this Quran.
That is a miracle from Allah SWT.
It is a mercy from Him.
إِنَّ فَضْلَهُ كَانَ عَلَيْكَ كَبِيرًا Indeed, His blessing
upon you is huge.
إِنَّ فَضْلَهُ كَانَ عَلَيْكَ Addressing the Prophet SAW
directly, and us indirectly, that the fadl of
Allah SWT upon you is huge.
قُلْ لَأِنِ جَتَمَعَتِ الْإِنسُ وَالْجِنُ عَلَىٰ أَن يَأْتُوا
بِمِثْلِ هَذَا الْقُرْآنِ If the ins, the humans,
and the jinns were all to get together
and try to bring something similar to the
Quran, they will not be able to bring
it, even وَلَوْ كَانَ بَعْضُهُمْ لِبَعْضٍ ظَهِرًا even
if they were helpers of each other, even
if they assisted each other.
And this is again the challenge that we
see again and again in the Quran.
فَأَتُوا بِسُورَةٍ مِّنْ مِثْلِهِ Bring a surah, bring
ten ayats, bring one ayah that is similar
to it.
And again, the challenge is not to just
bring some verse, the challenge is to bring
a person who doesn't know how to read
or write, like the Prophet ﷺ was, and
then to bring a Quran with such grammatical
perfection and such poetic rhyme and such perfect
information as the Quran, and this is something
that nobody can do.
If all the humans, all the jinns got
together and try to find such a man
who cannot read or write, and yet he
can bring one verse of the Quran like
the Prophet ﷺ did, then the challenge has
been completed, but it will never happen, even
if they try to help each other in
trying to find and locate such a person,
it's not going to happen.
وَلَقَدْ صَرَّفْنَا لِلنَّاسِ فِي هَذَا الْقُرْآنِ مِنْ كُلِّ
مَثَلٍ فَأَبَا أَكْثَرُ النَّاسِ إِلَّا كُفُورًا Indeed, we
have given different kinds of examples in the
Quran.
Why?
So that people could take heed.
The Quran is actually made up of three
types of things.
If we summarize the Quran, there are three
things in the Quran.
One is aqeedah, or the belief of a
person, iman, and things associated with it.
The second thing is the stories of the
anbiya alimu salatu wasalam, and the third thing,
anbiya alimu salatu wasalam and previous nations, and
the third thing are ahkam, or commands from
Allah SWT.
So Allah SWT, in all of these things,
in increasing our iman, in telling us stories
of the previous nations, and also in the
ahkam, in the orders that He gives us,
He gives us many many different types of
examples, so that we take heed.
So again and again, we take different examples,
throughout the Quran we find different examples, so
that we increase our iman, we take lessons
from the previous nations, and also so that
we can become obedient servants of Allah SWT.
So this is what the last ayah means,
walaqad sarrafna linnasi bihadhal qur'ani min kulli
mathal Indeed we gave different examples in this
Quran, different kinds of examples in the Quran,
fa abaa aktharun nasi illa kufura Despite the
clarity of the verses, despite the miracle of
the Quran, despite the no contradictions existing in
this book that Allah SWT has given us,
despite the miracles that I have just mentioned,
the reality is that most people, they will
still reject.
fa abaa aktharun nasi illa kufura The majority
of people, they will continue to reject this
message, and this is a reality.
So, you know, many people, they kind of
lose hope, that you know, we have the
truth, we have the Quran, and we have
written so many books, there's so much information
out there, why is it that still, people
do not take this message?
This is a fact that Allah SWT has
stated many years ago, He told us 1400
years ago, that most people, they will continue
to reject.
So we should not lose hope.
Our responsibility is to talk to people, to
guide people, to give dawah to people, which
is known as ira'at al-tariq.
Our responsibility is to show the way.
To take that, or to be given guidance,
and that guidance to be put into their
heart, that is the responsibility of Allah SWT.
We cannot do anything about that.
So we will continue to see many people,
they will reject this message, they will reject
the miracle of the Quran, in fact they
will say bad things about it, and they
will bring out things and fabricate things about
the Quran which don't exist, to try to
dissuade other people from reading the Quran, so
this will always continue to happen, and this
is a tradition that will continue, we have
to stay steadfast, and we have to make
sure that we are not moved by these
kinds of accusations.
There were a few more verses I recited,
but the time is getting long, so insha
'Allah, we will continue with this next week.
I pray that Allah SWT gives us tawfiq
to understand and practice what has been said
and heard.
Al Fatiha.