Zia Sheikh – Tafseer of Surah Nahal Ayah 68 onward 12232015
AI: Summary ©
The segment discusses the history and benefits of hive, including the use of "verily" for male and female hive, the science behind the process of creating honeys, the potential benefits of different colors and tastes, and the potential for "verily" to protect against natural disasters. The controller of the beast, Allah, has said that it is a cure for humanity, and he is capable of raising people up and giving them something to practice. The operator concludes by discussing the potential benefits of honeys, including the potential for long life and practice.
AI: Summary ©
I seek refuge in Allah from the accursed
Satan.
In the name of Allah, the Most Gracious,
the Most Merciful.
There is no sound.
Go to this side.
I seek refuge in Allah from the accursed
Satan.
We are starting today from ayah number 68
of Surah An-Nahl, which is, the surah
is entitled The Honey Bee.
And this is, this ayah that we are
reciting today, it is related to the honey
bee and the miraculous nature of the production
of honey that Allah SWT had ordered the
honey bee to produce for us.
So Allah SWT says, وَأَوْحَى رَبُّكَ إِلَى النَّحْلِ
Your Lord, He makes wahi, He gives orders
to the bee.
So this word wahi, when it is used
in terms of the Prophets, it refers to
the wahi that we know, in terms of
Angel Jibreel coming, giving the Prophet SAW the
revelation, the Prophet SAW memorizing it.
All of the different forms of wahi that
came to the Prophets SAW, that is the
original meaning of wahi.
Other than that, Allah SWT has used the
word wahi in many other contexts.
اذ يوحي ربك إلى الملائكة Allah SWT, He
mentions that He has sent wahi to the
Malaika, meaning He gave them orders, and this
is related about the Battle of Badr.
Also, Allah SWT says about the Prophet SAW,
about all the Prophets SAW, اِنَّا أَوْحَيْنَا إِلَيْكَ
كَمَا أَوْحَيْنَا إِلَى رُسُولٍ مِّن قَبْلِكَ So all
of these verses related to the wahi that
was sent to the Prophets SAW.
He sent wahi to His chosen slaves of
Allah SWT, and this wahi would not be
the wahi that we understand it in terms
of Jibreel AS coming down, rather Allah SWT
put into people's minds some things to do,
and guided them, told them that this is
the best way, and put it into their
hearts.
So, for example, when we make istikhara, Allah
SWT guides us, so that's also a form
of wahi.
It's mentioned in a hadith of the Prophet
SAW, that the only remnant of wahi left
for the slaves of Allah SWT, after the
Prophet SAW, is the dreams that come to
a person.
So the dream, whether that's through istikhara, or
Allah SWT gives a message through a dream
to a person, then that is a smaller
form of wahi that comes to us.
So this is also wahi.
So, Allah says about the Hawariyeen, about the
people of Isa AS, his companions, that I
sent wahi to the Hawariyeen, to the companions
of Isa AS.
We gave wahi to the mother of Musa
AS, to breastfeed him.
Once you fear for his life, then put
him into the river, and we know the
whole story as to what happened with Musa
AS, but the point here is that Allah
SWT gave a form of wahi to the
mother of Musa, meaning put it into her
heart, that she should do what she actually
went on to do, by putting Musa AS
in a basket, and putting him into the
river.
Also, Allah SWT uses this word wahi for
the shayateen.
That the shayateen also, they form and give
wahi to their own friends, meaning this refers
to the wasawis, and the shaytan making people
do things, so the word wahi is used
also in that context.
Allah SWT, he says about the Day of
Judgement, on the Day of Judgement, the earth
will speak up, and witness against the people
that were walking around and committing sins, or
doing good on the earth, the earth will
bear witness for them or against them.
So, the earth will give its news, why?
Because Allah SWT gave wahi to it, commanded
it to do that.
So the wahi comes in different contexts, different
ways, but the real wahi is only the
wahi that is given to the Anbiya AS
through Angel Jibreel.
All the other forms of wahi are what
are known as ilham, thoughts that come into
people's minds, Allah SWT's guidance, the word wahi
is used in that context.
So here, Allah uses the word, that Allah
SWT gave wahi to the honey bee.
What that means is that Allah SWT has
ordained for every single animal, every single creature,
what it's supposed to do and what it's
not supposed to do.
So the lion knows what it's supposed to
eat, the tiger knows what it's supposed to
eat, the cow knows what it's supposed to
eat, and all of the other animals, they
know what they're supposed to do in terms
of their responsibility.
The snakes, their responsibility is to kill the
rodents, so that the rodents don't get out
of control.
Everything works within a system, so Allah SWT
has done wahi to all of these creatures
to go according to the thing that they're
supposed to do.
So the wahi towards the animals is, the
animals sticking to the rules that Allah SWT
has given them.
So we also, we as humans, we've been
given rules and regulations, but we have the
choice to obey or disobey those rules and
regulations.
The animals, they cannot.
They cannot disobey the rules and regulations that
Allah SWT has given to them.
So Allah SWT, He has given wahi to
the bee, meaning ordered the bee, to make
in the mountains houses, and in the trees
houses, and in those houses that they have
built.
So bees can be found in the mountains,
they can be found in the trees, and
they can be found in artificially built hives,
which basically are domesticated bees.
So this is the third category.
So according to Sammufa Sirin, that the initial
bees were all wild.
Initially, bees were all wild, and they used
to make their hives in the mountains.
Then slowly, slowly they filtered into the trees,
and then after that, when the human being
realized the value of honey, they started to
domesticate the honey bees, started making their own
hives, and even now, to have bees, it's
a big business.
The place where bees are kept are called
apiaries.
And the owners of those bees basically, they
take their hives, put them in fields, so
that those bees can, they can take the
pollen from one tree, from the male tree,
and put it into the female tree, so
that the trees can mate.
So this, actually according to the statistics, one
third of all plants in the world are
actually pollinated by the bees.
One third of all plants.
So if you can imagine, if the bee
was not there, if the honey bee was
not doing its duty and pollinating all these
plants, one third of the world's produce, one
third of the world's fruit, one third of
the food that the human being relies upon
would not be available for us.
One third of the whole crops of the
world, and the fruits and the trees are
pollinated by the honey bee.
So that's an amazing statistic for us.
Also, some statistics related to the bee.
There are actually 20,000 different species of
honey bee.
20,000 different species.
And also, recently, there was a big problem
in the past few years, where we've had
problems with the use of pesticides that resulted
in many, many bees dying.
And there was a special name given to
that colony collapse disorder, that whole colonies of
bees basically dying out, and the farmers having
to rely upon natural pollination to pollinate their
crops and their fruit.
So this problem occurred because of the issue
of the increased use of pesticide, and also,
according to some people, there was a mite,
a small insect, that these bees were being
affected by, and they were eating it, and
because of that, they were just basically being
killed because of that.
But the honey bee, it plays a huge
role in nature's ecological system, and it provides
a lot of services for us.
And if you watch these documentaries about the
honey bee, it's amazing how they make the
honeycomb, and each of the cells of the
honeycomb are perfectly hexagonal, hexagons.
How do they do it?
That is a miracle by itself.
The whole honeycomb is based upon hexagon shapes,
and the hexagon shape, the way it's done,
it makes the hive actually stronger.
It makes it stronger than if they had
square shapes or other shapes.
The hexagon shape, it actually fortifies the whole
honeycomb, and this is, again, one of the
miracles of Allah SWT that we can actually
marvel at.
So Allah says, وَأُوحَى رَبُّكَ إِلَى النَّحْلَ أَنِتَّخِذِي
مِنَ الْجِبَالِ بُيُوتًا وَمِنَ الشَّجَرِ وَمِمَّا يَعْرِشُونَ Allah
SWT gives wahi to the bee that make
or take from the mountains houses, and from
the trees, and from that which they have
constructed, meaning the ones that have been constructed
by human beings, take all of these as
homes.
One of the unique things that has been
mentioned here that Allah SWT uses the female
terminology addressing the honeybee, and this is something
that 1400 years ago people would not have
been able to differentiate between male and female,
but Allah SWT uses female terminology for the
honeybee, and scientifically it has been found that
the honeybee which produces the honey is actually
female.
So Allah SWT uses the word إِتَّخِذِي إِتَّخِذِي
it is when you are talking to a
female.
If for a male, it would be إِتَّخِذِ
this yaa added to it, it indicates that
Allah SWT is talking to a female.
So the females are the ones that produce
the honey.
And again ثُمَّ كُلِي مِن كُلِّ ثَمَرَاتٍ فَاسْلُكِي
If for a male, كُلُ أُسْلُك فَاسْلُكِي should
be أُسْلُك for a male, and it goes
on يَخْرُجُ مِن بُطُونِهَا all female wordings, indicating
that Allah SWT is telling us that it's
the female that produces the honey.
Allah says ثُمَّ كُلِي مِن كُلِّ ثَمَرَاتٍ then
consume from all the fruits.
So the bee, what it does, it goes
to different flowers, different fruits, and consumes the
nectar from all of these and produces honey
from that.
It comes, regurgitates, and all that, the scientific,
you know, thing that happens to produce honey.
It is a very marvelous thing.
But Allah says كُلِي مِن كُلِّ ثَمَرَاتٍ consume
from all the fruits.
So there's a huge science behind this production
of honey.
If, for example, the farmer wants the honeybee
to produce a specific type of honey, then
he has to take the hives and put
them in a place where there's only that
particular tree.
For example, in Florida it's very common to
have a honey called Orange Blossom Honey.
Why?
Because orange trees are big in Florida.
There are a lot of orange trees.
So a very common honey found there is
Orange Blossom Honey.
So this is a specific type of honey
with a specific type of color and it
gives almost a tinge of the taste of
orange when you eat it.
And then there are honeys made of buckwheat,
clover, different types of flowers, different types of
fruit, and there's a whole science between the
color of the honey, the clarity of it,
and the purity of it.
Different types of honey, raw honey, filtered honey,
and then honey which is basically commercialized to
such a degree that it's pasteurized and made
so it has a longer shelf life.
Different levels of honey and different kinds of
honey.
There's a whole science behind it.
So Allah SWT says, ثُمَّ كُلِي مِن كُلِّ
الثَّمَرَاتِ Then consume from all the fruits فَاسْلُوكِي
سُبُلَ رَبِّكِ ذُلُولًا and tread and go according
to the ways of your Lord in the
state of humbleness and humility.
Again, scientifically they found out that bees, they
actually take a root which is specific to
what they're supposed to do.
They take the root and then they come
back according to the same root.
So Allah SWT, He orders and teaches the
bee to go according to those roots and
not go left or right from those roots.
So again, فَاسْلُوكِي سُبُلَ رَبِّكِ ذُلُولًا Take the
paths that have been given to you by
your Lord in the state of humility and
humbleness.
يَخْرُجُ مِن بُطُونِهَا شَرَابٌ مُخْتَلِفٌ أَلْوَانُهُ فِيهِ شِفَاءٌ
لِلنَّاسِ Comes out from it, from its stomachs
شَرَابٌ مُخْتَلِفٌ أَلْوَانُهُ The liquid which has different
colors.
Like I said, there's a whole science between
different colors, different fruits, different flowers and the
benefits that you derive from those different honeys.
There's a specific type of honey that comes
from New Zealand.
Manuka honey, very expensive and that has healing
properties more than any other type of honey.
And there's a type of honey from Yemen
which is called Sidr honey.
Very expensive also, but very clear.
If you look at it, it almost looks
like water.
So, different colors, different benefits and different tastes.
The sweetness will vary accordingly.
There's a very dark black honey which is
called honeydew honey.
So, this makes a very dark honey and
it's not even very sweet.
There's not much sweetness inside it.
Different honeys, different colors, different benefits depending on
what you want to get from it.
So, فِيهِ شِفَاءٌ لِلنَّاسِ In this honey, there
is a cure for humanity.
So, Allah SWT has told us there is
a cure in it for us.
So, this is basically what we believe.
If we are consuming on a daily basis
some honey this inshallah is going to be
good for us because Allah SWT said it.
Whether it's proven by science or not we
believe what Allah SWT has told us.
And there are different studies that have been
done upon different benefits of honey but it
is something that Allah SWT has said فِيهِ
شِفَاءٌ لِلنَّاسِ In it, there is a cure
for humanity.
إِنَّ فِي ذَٰلِكَ لَآيَةً لِّقَوْمٍ يَتَفَكَّرُونَ Indeed, in
this, there is indeed a sign for the
people that do tafakkur, that ponder.
And where does Allah SWT use this word
tafakkur?
About the people who ponder into the creation
of the heavens and the earth.
And after pondering, وَيَتَفَكَّرُونَ فِي خَلْقِ السَّمَاوَاتِ وَالْأَرْضِ
They ponder into the creation of heavens and
the earth and they declare, رَبَّنَا مَا خَلَقْتَ
هَذَا بَاطِلًا O Allah, you didn't create anything
in vain.
So just this bee, the study of the
bee and the things that it can do,
the miracles that it can perform, the way
that it builds its hives, the whole system
of the queen bee and the laying of
the eggs and then the production of new
larvae and the birth of the new honey
bees and then the worker bees, the drone
bees, the queen bee, all have been given
different responsibilities.
That in itself is something that we can
understand that it is only the greatness of
Allah SWT that can enable such a creature
to have such an advanced system.
So Allah SWT says, إِنَّ فِي ذَٰلِكَ لَآيَةً
لِلْقَوْمِ يَتَفَكَّرُونَ Indeed, there is a sign for
people that do tafakkur and ponder and marvel
at the greatness of Allah SWT through looking
at his creation.
So using the honey bee, this is what
we should do.
The Prophet SAW, he said, عَلَيْكُمْ بِالشِّفَاءِينَ الْعَسَلِ
وَالْقُرْآنِ Hold fast to the two cures, عَسَلِ,
honey, and قُرْآنِ So the concept of ruqya
is something that people are kind of lazy
about and they think maybe it's mumbo-jumbo
but this is something that we should do
all the time.
When it comes to protection for ourselves, ayatul
kursi, mu'awwathayn, verses which are related to
protection from a'ayn, magic, and all these
things, we should learn them and put them
into practice.
So the Prophet SAW said, hold fast to
two cures, the cure from honey and the
cure of the Qur'an.
There are many many hadith which talk about
this issue.
The next ayah, Allah SWT says, وَاللَّهُ خَلَقَكُمْ
ثُمَّ يَتَوَفَّاكُمْ Allah is the One who created
you, ثُمَّ يَتَوَفَّاكُمْ then He will raise you
up.
The word yatawaffa, it really means to raise
up.
And it can, the same word is used
in the context of death.
When Allah SWT gives somebody death, wafaat, what
we say in Urdu, wafaaat baagay, so this
is from that word.
وَاللَّهُ خَلَقَكُمْ Allah created you, and He will
give you wafaaat, He will raise you up,
which means that He will give you death.
وَمِنْكُمْ مَنْ يُرَدُّ إِلَىٰ أَرْضَ لِلْعُمُرِ لِكَيْ لَا
يَعْلَمَ بَعْدَ عِلْمٍ شَيْئًا وَمِنْكُمْ مَنْ يُرَدُّ إِلَىٰ
أَرْضَ لِلْعُمُرِ Radheel means disgraced.
And Allah SWT is saying that many of
you will return back to the disgraced age.
What is the disgraced age?
The Prophet ﷺ used to seek refuge from
this age.
When the person becomes very old and senile,
and has dementia, and that person, he becomes
like a child again.
يُرَدُّ إِلَىٰ أَرْضَ لِلْعُمُرِ He's returned back to
the disgraced age.
So when a child is born, he's helpless,
needs his parents, needs his diaper changed every
hour or so, every couple of hours, needs
to be fed, needs to be cleaned, needs
to be bathed, needs to be taken to
the doctor.
So this is an age where the child
is at its neediest.
The old person basically returns back to that
age.
When he or she is at his or
her neediest.
So this is known as أَرْضَ لُلْعُمُرِ لِكَيْ
لَا يَعْلَمَ بَعْدِ عِلْمٍ شَيْئًا So that the
person will not know, after having knowledge, he
will have no knowledge whatsoever.
So a person, he can be the biggest
scientist, and the most intelligent person.
But when it gets to that age, and
dementia sets in, senility sets in, everything that
a person ever learned in his life, he
will forget.
You know, Alzheimer's, for example, comes in, a
person cannot even remember the names of his
own children.
And when his child comes in front of
him, the one that he or she gave
birth to, and was the parent of, that
person cannot even remember who that person is.
Very, very difficult situation, and something that we
should ask Allah SWT to give us refuge
from and protect us from.
So, Allah SWT, He says that you will
be returned back, some of you will be
returned back to this age.
The Prophet ﷺ used to make this dua,
أَعُوذُ بِكَ مِنَ الْبُخْلِ وَالْكَسِلِ I seek your
refuge from stinginess and laziness.
وَالْهَرَمْ وَأَرْضَ لِلْعُمُرِ From being old and weak,
and from this أَرْضَ لِلْعُمُرِ this age, this
disgraced age, when a person forgets everything.
وَعَذَابِ الْقَبْرِ And I seek your refuge from
the punishment of the grave.
وَفِتْنَةِ الدَّجَّالِ And the trial of Dajjal.
وَفِتْنَةِ الْمَحْرِيَةِ وَالْمَمَاتِ And the trials of life
and death.
So this was a dua that the Prophet
ﷺ used to make.
And, you know, we've also heard our elders,
they make this kind of dua also, that,
O Allah, take me away while I'm walking
and talking, so that I don't become a
burden upon my children, upon my family, so
that while I'm healthy to a certain degree,
and I didn't get to a stage where
I have to be carried to the bathroom
and all this kind of stuff, take me
away.
So this is again what we've always heard
our elders make this particular dua.
The Prophet ﷺ made the same dua.
The Prophet ﷺ, he died at the age
of 63.
So not too old.
And he said himself that, أَعْمَارُ عُمَّةِ بَيْنَ
سِتِّينَ وَسَبْعِينَ عَامًا That the age of my
ummah will be between 60 and 70 years.
Beyond that, 70, 75, 80, 85, then that's
when things become difficult for that person and
also for the people around him.
So, after mentioning that, Allah says, إِنَّ اللَّهَ
عَلِيمٌ وَدِيرٌ Indeed, Allah ﷻ, He is all
-knowing and He is all-capable.
Meaning He knows how long people are going
to live and He is capable of giving
a person a longer life.
He is capable of giving a person a
shorter life.
He is also capable of giving people a
long life and He doesn't get to the
stage of difficulty.
He doesn't get to the stage of senility.
His mind is still sharp and He is
still physically able to walk around and, you
know, do His own things.
So, He is capable of showing all these
different types of situations.
So, I pray that Allah ﷻ makes us
from amongst those that have a blessed life
and an easy life and they do not
become a burden upon their dependents.
And with this, inshallah, we finish and we
will continue next week.
I pray that Allah ﷻ gives us something
to understand and practice what has been said
and heard.