Zia Sheikh – Tafseer of Surah BaniIsrael Session 23 Final

In the name of Allah, the Most Gracious,

the Most Merciful.

We're on the last

two ayahs of Surah Bani Israel and basically

it's going to be a brief lesson today.

Allah subhana wa ta'ala addresses the Prophet

ﷺ and you've probably noticed the theme as

the surah has progressed that the majority of

the surah is addressing the disbelievers and their

objections against the Prophet ﷺ.

Here also the same thing is happening.

Allah subhana wa ta'ala is telling the

Prophet ﷺ, قُلِ دُعُوا أَوِدْعُوا رَحْمَانَ.

Tell them, O Prophet of Allah, make dua

to Allah subhana wa ta'ala or make

dua to Ar-Rahman.

اَيَّمَّا تَدْعُوا فَلَهُ الْأَسْمَاءُ الْحُسْنَةُ Whichever name you

use or whichever name you call, then for

him are beautiful names.

So there are a couple of riwayat which

are associated with this ayah.

One of the riwayat is that the Prophet

ﷺ, one day he was praying salat and

while he was in sajdah, he was making

dua to Allah subhana wa ta'ala using

the words, Ya Allah, Ya Rahman.

One of the mushrikeen heard this and in

the morning he started propagating amongst the people

saying that look at this man.

He tells us to only worship Allah and

he insults our gods and tells us not

to worship them and he tells us only

one god but yet you hear him making

dua saying Ya Allah, Ya Rahman.

He's calling out to two gods.

So according to this riwayat, this ayah was

revealed because of that.

To tell the people that Allah subhana wa

ta'ala has many beautiful names that he

can be called and you can call out

using those names including Allah, Ar-Rahman, Ar

-Raheem and so on.

So this is one riwayah.

Another riwayah suggests that there was a person

who used to be in Yemen who used

to be a mushrikeen and he used to

be known as Rahman.

And when people heard the Prophet a.s.

saying Ya Allah, Ya Rahman, they said who

is it that you're calling out to?

Are you calling out to your god or

are you calling out to that person Rahman

who lives in Yemen?

So Allah subhana wa ta'ala revealed this

that Rahman is not the name.

It may be the name of a person

by coincidence but it is the name of

Allah subhana wa ta'ala and when you

call to Rahman you are actually calling out

to Allah subhana wa ta'ala himself.

So Allah says here, Tell them O Prophet

of Allah, call out to or make dua

to Allah or make dua to Rahman.

Whichever one you call to then indeed for

him, for Allah subhana wa ta'ala are

beautiful names.

And do not raise your voice with the

salat and do not suppress it and seek

a middle way between the two.

And there are a few riwayat about this

also.

One understanding is that it refers to all

of the five times daily salat.

That do not make jahar in all five

salat.

Jahar means to read the qirat loudly.

Don't make jahar in all of the salat,

all five of the salat.

And also don't make khaft in all of

the salat, meaning don't make them all sirri,

meaning quiet.

But in maghrib, isha, fajr, do jahar, meaning

read it loudly.

And in zuhr and asr, read it slowly.

Okay, so this is one meaning of this

ayah.

So the Prophet ﷺ used to read loudly

in those salats, in fajr, isha and maghrib.

And he used to suppress in zuhr and

asr.

Also, there's a riwayat that suggests that Abu

Bakr, whenever he used to pray, he used

to suppress his voice low.

And when he was asked, and Umar, he

used to raise his voice up loudly.

Abu Bakr was asked, why do you do

this?

Why do you suppress your voice so low?

He said, I am whispering to my lord

and he is more knowing of my needs.

So I don't need to raise my voice

so loud.

Only he hears it, only Allah hears it

and that is sufficient for me.

And he was told, the Prophet ﷺ told

him, you're doing good.

Umar was asked, why do you do this?

Why do you raise your voice so loud?

He said, that I want to scare off

the shayateen and I want to wake up

the people who are sleeping.

That's what I read loudly and he was

also told, Ahsan, you are doing a good

job.

So both ways were approved by the Prophet

ﷺ.

And then this ayah was revealed.

وَلَا تَجْهَرْ بِصَلَاتِكَ وَلَا تُخَافِذْ بِهَا وَابْتَغِي بَيْنَ

ذَلِكَ سَبِيلًۭا Meaning, don't go to either extreme.

Don't raise your voice so loud that it

becomes uncomfortable for people and don't suppress it

to a degree that nobody can hear it.

It should be done in a way that

when you're reading Quran or when you're leading

the Salat, it should be comfortable for people

to hear.

So this is what it's meant by وَلَا

تَجْهَرْ بِصَلَاتِكَ وَلَا تُخَافِذْ بِهَا وَابْتَغِي بَيْنَ ذَلِكَ

سَبِيلًۭا Ibn Abbas says that this ayah was

revealed not about Salat itself, but it was

revealed about dua.

When a person makes dua to Allah SWT,

then he should do it in such a

way that he is conversing with Allah SWT,

not completely in his heart and not out

loud that he is disturbing other people, but

basically in a way that he is saying

something but also not disturbing others.

So this is one understanding.

There are other riwayats about this issue also.

It's a riwayat in Bukhari, Ibn Abbas RA

who says that this ayah was revealed while

the Prophet SAW was in Mecca.

And whenever he used to pray with his

companions, he used to raise his voice with

the Quran.

And the Mushrikun, when they used to hear

the Quran, they used to start cursing him

and also cursing Allah SWT, cursing Ibrahim AS

and so on.

So this ayah was revealed that you don't

have to read it so loud that the

Mushrikun can hear it.

You can do it in such a way

that only the immediate people around you are

hearing it.

So this is according to a riwayat of

Bukhari.

Aisha RA also says that it was revealed

about du'a, making du'a to Allah

SWT.

And Ibn Jalil also says the same thing.

Now how can you combine between those two

riwayat?

One says it was about Salat and the

recitation of the Quran in Salat.

And another says that it was about du

'a.

Aisha RA and also Ibn Abbas RA who

says it was about du'a.

So the scholars have combined the two and

said that maybe the Prophet SAW was praying

and in the course of praying the Salat,

he was making du'a at the same

time.

Like Qunoot or in Sajda and so on.

So this is the understanding that we have.

So Allah SWT says that Do not raise

your voice in Salat or du'a and

do not suppress it too much.

Seek between the two a way, meaning a

middle path between the two.

This ayah basically summarizes the whole surah and

whatever was mentioned in the surah about the

tawheed of Allah SWT, the oneness of Allah

SWT, the fact that he doesn't have any

helper, he doesn't have any child, and the

belief that we are supposed to have in

Allah SWT as related to his tawheed.

So basically all of the ayat that we've

read, you know, arguing against the mushrikeen and

the arguments of the mushrikeen and their beliefs

and their claims and their demands and so

on.

This basically sums up the answer that you

have to give to the disbelievers about Allah

SWT that this is what your belief is

supposed to be.

And if your belief is not according to

this, then your belief is not intact.

It is not complete.

Allah SWT says and tell them, O Prophet

of Allah, All praise is due to Allah

SWT who did not take any child.

So alhamdu, this alif-laam, it is actually,

there are different forms of alif-laam if

you study Arabic.

And one form is known as istighraaq, that

all praise is due.

All praise is due to Allah SWT who

did not take any son.

So this goes against the belief of any

person that believes that Allah SWT had a

child.

We've mentioned before that some of the mushrikeen

of Mecca, they used to say that Allah

SWT has daughters and the angels of Allah

SWT are in fact his daughters.

So this was one belief that this counters.

The other belief it counters is the belief

of Isa AS, the Christians who believe that

Isa AS was the son of God.

The second thing.

The third thing, some Jews, not all Jews,

but a faction of Jews, they used to

believe that Uzair AS was the son of

Allah SWT.

So to counter this, Allah SWT clearly says,

He didn't take any child.

There is nobody associated with him in the

kingdom.

Meaning nobody is equal to him in the

kingdom.

Nobody can be equivalent to him in the

kingdom.

If there were more gods than Allah SWT,

then there would be corruption in the earth.

Meaning there will be a disagreement between these

gods that how do we run the affairs?

Should it rain?

Should it shine?

Should we have a hurricane?

Should we have a storm?

Should we reward?

Should we punish?

Should we wait?

So there would be a corruption between the

two.

So if there were more than one god.

Now somebody might object to this and say,

that okay, just imagine there is more than

one god.

And they both agree with each other in

something.

All right, they both agree to do whatever

it is that they want to do.

So surely it's still a possibility, right?

So because Allah says that if there were

more than one god, then there would be

corruption on the earth and the skies.

So what if instead of arguing with each

other, they agreed with each other?

So the answer to that is this.

And keep this point in mind, it's very

important.

That if, say for example, one god says

rain, the other says sun.

Okay, then one of them basically submits and

says, okay, it's your choice.

You do it.

You do what you want to do.

So this other one, other god submitting to

the other one, is actually showing a sign

of weakness.

Okay, so showing a sign of weakness for

a god is not worthy for a god.

Okay, because god cannot be weak, cannot be

suppressed, cannot be commanded to do anything.

So again, this principle of agreement doesn't work

either.

Because one agreeing with the other and submitting

to the other is actually a sign of

his weakness and a weak god cannot be

a god.

So keep that point in mind.

So there cannot be any shariq, any partner

in his kingdom.

And there can be no ally for him

in the time of assistance, meaning nobody, Allah

subhanahu wa ta'ala is never in need

for an ally, somebody to help him, somebody

to assist him.

Nobody that is not worthy of Allah subhanahu

wa ta'ala.

Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala is commanding the

Prophet ﷺ, glorify Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala.

Proclaim his greatness.

Meaning when you say that Allah subhanahu wa

ta'ala is the greatest, then he is

greater than all of his creation.

He is greater than anything that you think

is great, Allah is greater.

When we say allahu akbar, we are proclaiming

his greatness, that he is greater than everything

and anything.

He is greater than everything and anything.

Some scholars say, why do we say allahu

akbar four times at the beginning of the

adhan?

Allahu akbar, allahu akbar, allahu akbar, allahu akbar.

There are basically four components of the world

according to the old understanding, that the earth

is made up of wind, fire and water

and earth.

Okay, so the combination of these four, basically

people are believing that this is what everything

is made up of.

Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala is bigger than

all of these components.

Allah is greater than all of these components.

This is one theory, but nevertheless, Allah subhanahu

wa ta'ala is commanding the Prophet alayhi

salatu wa salam, continue to glorify Allah subhanahu

wa ta'ala, do not suppress yourself, do

not submit yourself to the claims of the

other people who glorify anything other than Allah

subhanahu wa ta'ala.

If people have anything other than the greatness

of Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala in their

hearts, this is a weakness of Iman, and

they will not be able to practice the

religion as they should be.

The reason that we cannot practice the religion

as we should is because we have the

greatness of the world in our hearts.

We have the greatness of our job in

our hearts.

We have the greatness of the business in

our hearts.

We have the greatness of the work in

our hearts, our money in our hearts.

And that is why when it comes to

prioritizing between the religion, between the deen and

the worldly things, it becomes easy for us,

because we have not attained that greatness of

Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala in our hearts.

So this is the thing that we need

to be striving for, that the Iman in

our heart becomes so strong that nothing else

is important to us when it comes to

the command of Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala.

And that is what that ayah says, right?

Arabic Allah

subhanahu wa ta'ala counted every single thing

that you could have love for.

Your parents, your children, your brothers, your sisters,

your wives, your houses, your wealth, your business,

everything and anything that you could have love

for, you know, it should not that love

for those things should not be more than

the love for Allah and his Prophet and

striving in the path of Allah subhanahu wa

ta'ala.

And if it is, Allah says, Arabic until

Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala sends his command

down for his punishment.

Okay, so this is what is meant by

Arabic that we should glorify Allah subhanahu wa

ta'ala and understand his greatness to such

a degree that everything else basically shades in

comparison to the command and the will of

Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala.

With that, inshallah, we finish.

We had a very short lesson today, because

these were the two remaining ayat.

The surah has now been completed.

Inshallah, next week, we'll start a new surah.

I pray that Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala

gives us to understand and practice what has

been said and heard.

Ameen.