Zia Sheikh – Tafseer of Surah Nahal Mindset Ayah 45 onwards
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AI: Transcript ©
I'm going to talk a little bit about
the Qur'an, and I'm going to talk
a little bit about the Qur'an, and
I'm going to talk a little bit about
the Qur'an, and I'm going to talk
a little bit about the Qur'an, and
I'm going to talk a little bit about
the Qur'an, and I'm going to talk
a little bit about the Qur'an, and
I'm going to talk a little bit about
the Qur'an, and I'm going to talk
a little bit about the Qur'an, and
I'm going to talk a little bit about
the Qur'an, and I'm going to talk
a little bit about the Qur'an, and
I'm going to talk a little bit about
the Qur'an, and I'm going to talk
a little bit about the Qur'an, and
I'm going to talk a little bit about
the Qur'an, and I'm going to talk
a little bit about the Qur'an, and
I'm going to talk a little bit about
the Qur'an, and I'm going to talk
a little bit about the Qur'an, and
I'm going to talk specific nature of Makki
Surahs is that it talks about Dauhid, the
oneness of Allah s.w.t, denounces Kufr
and Shirk and things of that nature.
So today Allah s.w.t is going
to be talking about the mindset that people
have about being at Aman, being at peace
with themselves, thinking that no punishment is going
to come to me.
So what is their attitude and what should
be their attitude and what should they be
fearing in terms of the punishment of Allah
s.w.t. So we start off with
Ayah number 45, Allah s.w.t says
Are those people that are making Makr and
they are making evil plans, are they at
ease that Allah s.w.t is going
to sink them into the earth.
So there is a few points here, first
of all, what does Makr mean, Makr means
to make plans at night when nobody is
watching.
Make plans, devious plans against people, against enemies,
against anyone that goes against you, to make
plans at night, this is called Makr.
And usually, according to the Mufassireen, the word
Makr is used for those people that hatch
these evil plans because they don't like to
or they are not capable of facing up
to the person, their challenger, right in public
and in full view of everyone.
So therefore, they resort to these kinds of
evil plans at night, in the dead of
night because of this cowardly nature.
So Makr is basically the first step of
cowardliness.
To be a coward, a person, what he
does is he makes Makr at night because
he cannot face up to his enemy.
And especially when the people are making Makr
against Allah s.w.t, they are being
disobedient to Allah s.w.t, obviously they
cannot face him.
They cannot face Allah s.w.t, so
all they can do is make evil plans,
which will never ever come to fruition.
Allah s.w.t says, وَمَكَرُوا وَمَكَرَ اللَّهِ
وَاللَّهُ خَيْرُ الْمَاكِرِينَ They make Makr, Allah s
.w.t makes Makr too.
So Allah's Makr is not that he is
making devious plans, but Allah s.w.t
is using the same word that they are
involved in to basically denounce them.
And this is again an example of that
maybe, that for example, you tell your child
to do his homework before going out to
play, okay.
So he, instead of doing his homework, what
he does, he goes out to play thinking
that you haven't noticed.
So you have noticed and you call him
inside and you tell him, so you want
to play outside while you are going to,
while you are supposed to be doing your
homework, wait a minute, I am going to
play with you now.
What does that mean?
You are not going to play with him,
you are going to punish him, okay.
But you are using play to compare yourself
with the action that he did that he
is not supposed to do.
So Makr is not that Allah s.w
.t is doing Makr because he is above
evil actions.
Allah is using the word Makr because his
enemies are making Makr against him and against
Muslims, against Islam, so Allah uses that terminology
to denounce them.
Allah is the best of the planners.
So are those people that make Makr of
evil things, that plan evil things, are they
at ease, that Allah s.w.t is
going to sink them into the earth, what
does Khasf mean?
Khasf means to make a person basically disappear,
pull him into the ground to such a
degree that he disappears.
So that's why the word Khusuf is used
to denote the eclipsing of the sun.
In Arabic Khusuf is when the sun is
covered by the moon to such a degree
that it's completely covered and there is no
sign of the sun left, it is completely
hidden from view.
So when Allah s.w.t does Khasf
and pulls the people into the ground, they
are going to be completely obliterated and never
going to be found, this is what Khasf
means.
And Allah s.w.t mentions that about
Qarun.
We made Khasf of him and his riches
and his house into the earth.
So Allah s.w.t has used that
punishment for various people over time, we need
to learn a lesson from that.
So are they at ease that Allah s
.w.t will not sink them into the
ground and make them disappear into the ground?
Or a punishment can come to them from
where they cannot even imagine or they cannot
even understand or they cannot even think.
So just imagine then that a person, he
thinks to himself, okay the people of Aad
they were destroyed by wind and the people
of Lut were destroyed by the angel sending
down stones upon them and Qarun was destroyed
by him being sucked into the ground.
So he takes all of these measures and
he says okay I am going to build
a completely wind proof house that can withstand
the force of hurricanes.
Okay of course Allah s.w.t can
bring a stronger wind that can destroy that
but he is basically taking all the measures
and he builds a house which has solid
foundations that cannot be sucked into the ground
and he takes all of these measures thinking
about all of the different types of punishments
that could come to him but Allah s
.w.t says Punishment can come from where
he cannot even think, where he cannot even
imagine, from examples that have never come before
and we see that from time to time
that Allah s.w.t brings tests to
people in situations that they have never seen.
You know we have seen nowadays sink holes
and we have seen landslides, different types of
earthquakes, different types of hurricanes and tornadoes that
were not present before but they are becoming
more and more present and the excuse given
for that is global warming, climate change and
all the kind of things that are presented
to us.
So the punishment can come from where they
cannot even imagine.
So again the summary of that ayah is
that the people who are doing bad they
should not think that Allah s.w.t
is not watching them, Allah s.w.t
is watching them and punishment can come to
them from many different forms even from forms
that they cannot even imagine, they cannot be,
they can even be sucked into the ground.
Or Allah s.w.t can punish them
while they are in the state of taqallub.
What does taqallub mean?
Taqallub means a person going from place to
place, traveling from place to place, migrating from
place to place, traveling from one end of
the world to the other end of the
world and generally we use this terminology to
denote a person who has wealth and means
and capability to travel from one place to
another, jet setters we call them nowadays, a
person who travels across the world, globe trotters.
Why?
Because they have the money, they have the
capability, they have the power to go from
place to place.
So when a person has this capability he
thinks of himself as somebody who is powerful.
So Allah s.w.t says no, even
those people while they are in a state
of taqallub, moving from place to place and
migrating from place to place, vacationing here and
vacationing there, flying here, flying there, Allah s
.w.t can even punish them while they
are in this state.
Fama hum bi majezeen, and they will not
be able to be majez, majez means they
will not be able to overcome and overpower
the punishment of Allah s.w.t. Allah
says in the Quran, la yaghurrannaka taqallubu allatheena
kafaru fil bilat, addressing the Prophet s.w
.t, I am talking about this word taqallub
again, Allah s.w.t addressed the Prophet
s.w.t and said to him that
those people that are wandering around on the
earth, their taqallub should not fool you.
Why?
Because they think that they are wandering around
and travelling is a sign of their might,
no, Allah s.w.t is even more
mighty than them and there are other ayat
that use the same word in the same
context.
And then Allah s.w.t says, aw
yaakhudahum ala taqawwuf fa inna rabbakum la ra
'ufur raheem, or Allah s.w.t could
grab them while they are in a state
of taqawwuf, what does taqawwuf mean?
Taqawwuf means that a person, he doesn't know
what kind of problem he is going to
be facing.
So if you can imagine that somebody you
love very much, nowadays you know if you
have a teenage son or a teenage daughter
and she is late, she is half an
hour late from where she is supposed to
come from or where he is supposed to
come from, you look at the watch, you
try to call them on the cell phone,
the cell phone is off and it is
going through to voicemail, so that half an
hour for the parents that the child is
coming late from school or from college or
from work, that is the most difficult time
and different thoughts are running through a person's
mind at that time, you know, did he
get kidnapped, did he run into an accident,
you know, it is raining outside, you know,
did the car slip, you know, all of
these kinds of thoughts are running through a
person's mind.
So this is called taqawwuf, aw yaakhudahum ala
taqawwuf, or they can, Allah s.w.t
can grab them and punish them on top
of these fears that they had, okay, so
after the punishment, after these different fears are
in their minds, Allah s.w.t can
punish them after that even.
Fa inna rabbakum la ra'ufur raheem, indeed
your Lord, He is gentle and merciful.
So now you have three ayahs that talk
about the punishment of Allah s.w.t
and Allah s.w.t grabbing people and
penalizing them, punishing them, but then right at
the end Allah s.w.t says, fa
inna rabbakum la ra'ufur raheem, your Lord
is gentle and merciful.
So that doesn't make sense, why punishment, punishment,
punishment and then at the end Allah s
.w.t says gentle and merciful, what does
that mean?
There are other examples of that in the
Quran, the whole of surah ar-Rahman, the
word fa bi-ayyi ala'i rabbikumma tukadhiban,
the sentence, it is addressing the jinn and
inns and asking them, which of the blessings
of your Lord do you deny?
Which of the blessings of your Lord do
you deny?
But in some of those verses Allah s
.w.t says, kullu man alaiha fan, wa
yabqa wajhu rabbika dhul jalali wal ikram, everyone
on the earth, on the face of the
earth is going to be destroyed and the
only one that is going to be left
is going to be your Lord, the one
who is mighty, the almighty one.
But and then after that Allah s.w
.t says, fa bi-ayyi ala'i rabbikumma
tukadhiban, which of the blessings of your Lord
do you deny?
Why what is, there is no correlation, destruction
and then Allah s.w.t says it
is a blessing and then later on Allah
s.w.t says, ya ma'shar al-jinni
wal-ins, in istataatum an tanfutum min akhtari
al-samawati al-ard, tanfuthu la tanfuthuna illa
bi-sultan, fa bi-ayyi ala'i rabbikumma
tukadhiban, yursalu alaikumma shuwathum min narin wa nuhasun
fala tantasiran.
When you try to go into the heavens
and earth, you are going to be pelted
with brass and molten rock and all of
these things and then Allah s.w.t
says, fa bi-ayyi ala'i rabbikumma tukadhiban,
which of the blessings of your Lord do
you deny?
So, where is the correlation between blessing and
punishment here?
So, the scholars say that the fact that
Allah s.w.t is warning you, the
fact that Allah s.w.t is telling
you that He can punish you like this
and you can be punished and Allah s
.w.t can penalize you, this is actually
a mercy upon you that He is warning
you.
Otherwise, if He sent that punishment without any
warning, then that would be a sign that
He is a tyrant, He is a valim,
He is oppressive.
But He is gentle and merciful to you,
that's why He warned you not to do
the things that you are not supposed to
do and He told you not to disobey
Him, He told you not to commit shirk,
He told you not to disbelieve and the
fact that He is telling you all of
these things and He sent Prophet after Prophet
after Prophet to guide you, this is an
indication that He is gentle and merciful and
He is a merciful creator to you.
That's why at the end, Allah says, indeed
your Lord, He is Ra'oof, He is
gentle and Rahim, He is merciful.
After that Allah says, Do
they not see?
Again, Allah turns our attention to His creation
again and again, so that we can focus
on the creation and through focusing on the
creation, understand the power of the creator and
here Allah gives us the example of the
shadows that we see on a day to
day basis.
Now, shadows are of two kinds, one thing
is something which is completely in shadow all
the time, there is completely in shade, it
never gets sunlight, like the depth of the
sea, you go deep into the sea, the
sunlight never touches there, completely pitch black all
the time or there is, if you have
like a, like some kind of outpost which
is completely covering and it's there permanently and
the sun doesn't hit it in such a
direction that the sun actually gets inside it,
like a cave or something.
So, this is a permanent shadow, but then
there are other shadows which are affected by
the sun and in the morning basically the
sun will be, it will be shining in
one direction, so the shadow will be going
in the opposite direction and then there will
be a time when the sun is completely
at the top and the shadow is going
to be minimized and then as the sun
sets, the shadows will start to become long
again one more time.
So, Allah SWT, he focuses our attention towards
the lengthening of the shadows and how that
happens every single day without fail.
Allah SWT says, أَوَلَمْ يَرَوْا إِلَىٰ مَا خَلَقَ
اللَّهُ مِنْ شَيْئٍ يَتَفَيَّعُوا ظِلَالُهُ عَنِ الْيَمِينِ وَالشَّمَائِلِ
Do they not see?
Do they not look at what Allah SWT
created from that thing whose shadow returns, يَتَفَيَّعُ
returns عَنِ الْيَمِينِ from the right وَالشَّمَائِلِ from
the left سُجَّدًا لِلَّهِ وَهُمْ دَاخِرُونَ These shadows
are سُجَّدًا لِلَّهِ They are prostrating to Allah
SWT, not literally but figuratively in the sense
that they are subservient to Allah SWT.
The sun rises and sets at the exact
point that it's supposed to.
It never moves from that.
And because of that rising and setting at
exactly the time that it's supposed to, according
to the millisecond that it's supposed to, the
shadows will come exactly as they're supposed to.
That shadow will never change.
So from March on today, today's date, if
it was sunny today, which is November 19th,
next November 19th, if you measure the shadows,
they're going to be exactly the same if
you measure them according to the millisecond that
you measured it last year.
It's not going to change.
And if there's any change, that will be
because of our calculation, not because of any
kind of discrepancy in the creation of Allah
SWT.
The reason that we have a leap year
every four years is because we cannot get,
you know, 365 days exactly.
Otherwise, after four years, the system goes off.
So the calendar that we have of 12
months, the Gregorian calendar, it is basically a
man-made calendar.
And because of the fact that it's man
-made, it is off by one day every
four years.
That's why you have to add one day,
February 29th, every four years.
So basically, Allah is guiding us and making
us think about these shadows that we see
these are the creation of Allah SWT.
And by seeing even these shadows, we should
think about the greatness of Allah SWT.
Now one important thing we need to note
about the growth of these shadows and the
shrinking of these shadows, it's a constant growth.
That if you sit for a while and
you try to note that growth of the
shadows, the lengthening of the shadows, you're not
going to see it.
Okay?
Yes, if you look at the shadow at,
for example, nowadays 4.30 and then you
look again at 5 o'clock, you'll see
that there's a difference in the length of
the shadow.
But if you monitor it continuously, you're not
going to notice the growth of those shadows.
So this is again the growth of everything
that Allah SWT created.
It is a continuous growth.
It is not something that stutters.
Okay?
Whereas, if you see things that are mechanical
in nature, that are man-made in nature,
they will have a stuttered growth.
And the example of that is the clock.
When you see the clock, the second hand's
moving, there is, it moves and then there's
a pause.
And then it moves and then there's a
pause.
It moves and then there's a pause.
This movement is because of the fact that
it's a mechanical movement.
Whereas the growth of Allah SWT, you cannot
see.
You cannot see a flower, for example, budding.
You cannot see the growth of your child
in front of your eyes because you're with
that child all the time.
But his uncle, that sees him after two
years, MashaAllah, you've grown so much.
Okay?
But continuous growth you cannot see with your
own eyes.
This is another of the wonders of Allah
SWT's creation.
And sometimes we try to kind of see
it by doing what's called time-lapse photography
nowadays, right?
Where you have like a camera that focuses
on one thing and focuses on it for
many, many days and then you speed up
the video and you see the flower budding
and it's amazing how you see the growth
of that flower right in front of your
eyes.
After that Allah SWT says This is a
sajdah ayah.
So please perform sajdah afterwards, inshaAllah.
Whatever Allah SWT says, only if Allah SWT
prostrates whatever is in the heavens and whatever
is in the earth, whether it's an animal
or the angels And the angels, they do
not have any kind of arrogance.
Meaning that even the animals, they obey Allah
SWT as they should.
The angels, they obey Allah SWT as they
should.
They don't have any kind of arrogance against
the command of Allah SWT.
So a lion, it will only eat meat.
And the cow, you know, unless it's forced
to, by tricking it, it will only eat
grass.
It will only eat herbs.
It's a herbivore.
The carnivore will only eat meat.
The herbivore will only eat herbs.
And basically every single creature of Allah SWT
does what it's supposed to do.
The only creature that disobeys Allah SWT is
a human being.
Goes against the nature that Allah SWT created
it with.
So all these creatures, they prostrate to Allah
SWT.
Whatever is in the heavens and the earth,
prostrates.
The sun prostrates.
The stars prostrate.
The trees prostrate.
So this is not a physical prostration, but
a figurative one, that they are obedient and
subservient to Allah SWT.
So they all prostrate, meaning they are obedient
to Allah SWT.
Whether they are animals, angels, creation, everything is
subservient to Allah SWT.
And this is specifically, it can be referring
to the angels, or it can be referring
to all of the creation.
Why do all of the creation obey Allah
SWT?
Because they have the fear of their Lord.
If the human also has the fear of
Allah SWT within him, and he is afraid
of the consequence of disobeying Allah SWT, then
of course he would not disobey him.
يَخَافُونَ رَبَّهُم مِّن فَوْقِهِمْ They fear their Lord
above them.
وَيَفْعَلُونَ مَا يُبْمَرُونَ And they do as they
are ordered to do.
They do whatever they are supposed to do,
whatever they are ordered to do, they do
and they don't disobey Allah SWT.
With that we finish today's lesson.
I pray that Allah SWT gives us something
to understand and practice what has been said
and heard.