Zia Sheikh – Tafseer of Surah Nahal The Bee Session 1
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I seek refuge with Allah from the accursed
Satan.
In the name of Allah, the Most Gracious,
the Most Merciful.
The command of Allah has come, so do
not ask to hasten it.
Glory be to Him and high above what
they associate with Him.
He sends down the angels with the Spirit
from His command upon whom He wills of
His servants to warn that there is no
god but I, so beware.
He created the heavens and the earth in
truth.
High above what they associate with Him.
He created man from a sperm, and behold,
he is a clear adversary.
Today, inshallah, we are going to be starting
the tafsir of Surah An-Nahl.
An-Nahl refers to the honey which is
mentioned later on in the Surah in which
Allah SWT talks to us about the miraculous
nature of the efforts of the bee in
collecting honey and the healing properties of the
honey that Allah SWT created for us.
So that, inshallah, will be mentioned later on.
This surah is a Makki surah, and as
we mentioned before in previous lessons of tafsir,
Makki surahs generally focus on the issue of
Tawheed, rejecting the worship of others other than
Allah SWT, the condemnation of statues and the
shirk that the people of Quraysh were engaged
in, and talks about the hereafter and things
of that nature.
So basically it talks about mainly issues related
to Iman and Tawheed.
So this is a characteristic of Makki surahs.
Whereas Madani surahs, they talk more about rules
and regulations and so on.
So this surah, it talks about those same
things that I mentioned.
Allah SWT starts off the surah with a
very dramatic beginning.
He says, The command of Allah SWT has
come, so don't rush it.
This has many many meanings, which I'm going
to go into now.
But the way that it starts off, it's
a dramatic statement.
At the beginning of surah al-anbiya, Allah
SWT says, The people's hisab has come close
to them, while they are in ignorance, turning
away.
So here Allah SWT uses the same kind
of methodology to bring about a dramatic statement
to make people understand the gravity of the
thing that he's talking about.
And the statement is simply that the command
of Allah SWT has come, so don't rush
it.
When the Prophet used to give dawah to
the mushrikeen, the kuffar of Quraysh, he used
to also warn them about an impending punishment
that is about to come.
The kuffar of Quraysh used to say, bring
that punishment.
When is that punishment going to come?
Such as the verse, O
Allah, if this is true, the message that
Muhammad is bringing to us is true, it's
from you, then send down stones from the
sky in the form of rain, or send
a very painful punishment to us.
This is what the dua that they used
to make.
So in response to these kinds of challenges
or statements of ridicule against the Prophet, Allah
SWT mentioned this verse.
And it says to them very clearly, the
command of Allah SWT has already come.
So the word is in past tense.
And you will find across the Quran, Allah
SWT uses the past tense to refer to
something which is going to happen in the
future.
The past tense is usually for something that
happened yesterday, a few minutes ago.
But Allah SWT uses the past tense for
things like the day of judgment, life after
death, life of Jannah, life in Jahannam.
The punishment of Allah SWT, the command of
Allah SWT.
In this case, the command of Allah SWT,
He says it has already come.
So why does Allah SWT use past tense
in all of these situations?
To denote something which is completely certain.
It's so certain, it's as if it's already
happened.
So because if we say something about tomorrow,
for example, I say that I'm going to
visit the doctor tomorrow.
So I make an appointment, I set the
alarm clock.
Anything can happen that will prevent me from
going to the doctor on time.
And I may end up going to the
doctor.
Because anything can happen in the future.
But if I say that I went to
the doctor yesterday, there's no changing that.
It is certain.
I went and I had my appointment, it's
already done.
I had it.
And so Allah SWT uses past tense to
denote certainty.
About something that is so certain to happen
that it's just like the past tense.
It's as if it's already happened.
So here the past tense is used.
The command of Allah SWT has come already.
It has already come.
What is Amrullah?
The Amr actually means command of Allah SWT.
And there are three interpretations from the scholars
of Tafsir.
One is that the punishment of Allah SWT
has already come.
Meaning Allah has decided when it's going to
come.
He has given the command of when it's
going to come.
But when it will actually occur, it has
not occurred yet.
But the command has already been given of
the punishment of Allah SWT.
The second interpretation of this is the hour,
the day of judgment.
The command of Allah SWT has already come.
Meaning Allah SWT has already preordained and written
when the day of judgment is going to
come.
And it will not come a minute earlier.
Don't rush it.
And the third opinion.
Meaning the recompense of what Allah SWT has
promised you, it has already come.
Meaning it has already been decided.
It has already been ordained.
It has already been commanded by Allah SWT.
Do not rush it.
So this not rushing it, it is It
is because of their ridiculing the Prophet SAW.
They were ridiculing the Prophet.
When is this punishment going to come?
You say punishment, punishment, punishment.
When is it going to come?
Allah SWT said it's already been fixed.
It's going to come.
Don't rush it.
There's no need for you to rush it.
Allah SWT has already ordained it.
Pure is Allah SWT and He is above
all that they associate with Him.
So the problem that the Prophet SAW was
trying to fix was shirk.
So what the response that the Prophet SAW
was that you know this religion that you
are inviting us towards, this religion that you
are inviting us towards, it's something that our
forefathers never even contemplated.
We've been worshipping these idols for decades and
centuries.
Our forefathers used to do it.
And now you come up with this new
religion or this new thought process telling us
to leave everyone except one God.
Remember that they used to believe in Allah.
But they also used to believe in associating
partners with Allah SWT.
So Allah says, Allah is pure from this
and above all the shirk that they commit
with Him.
Allah SWT sends down the angels.
Why does Allah SWT send the angels with
this message?
Because there is, you know, there is a
wavelength that Allah SWT has, which we cannot
reach.
We cannot get close to Allah SWT's humans.
The Prophet SAW, despite his high status, he's
still a human being.
So Allah SWT used to send the angels
that are a little bit closer to the
humans.
And even despite that, the Prophet SAW, when
the Wahi used to come down to him,
he used to become very, very tired.
And he used to start perspiring and sweating.
And his body became heavy and sometimes feverish.
And he said in some hadith in Bukhari
that sometimes the coming of the Wahi, the
revelation is just like the ringing of bells.
So just imagine that if somebody close to
your head is ringing a bell and how
difficult that would be to kind of endure.
The reason for this difficulty was that the
Prophet SAW had to come up to the
wavelength of Jibreel AS to actually receive the
Wahi, just like radio signals, right?
If you don't get the correct wavelength, you
can't get the signal of the radio.
You have to get the correct wavelength.
So in this case, the Prophet SAW bringing
himself up to the wavelength of Angel Jibreel,
it was difficult, it was hard upon him.
It was very difficult upon his body, physically,
very physically taxing.
He had to do it to get the
Wahi.
And that's why at the very, very beginning,
what used to happen to the Prophet SAW,
he used to become very feverish and he
used to become very, almost sick.
And he used to come down from the
cave of Hira and tell his wife Khadija
RA, Zammiloonee, Zammiloonee, or Dathiroonee, Dathiroonee, means cover
me with a blanket, cover me with a
blanket.
So Allah SWT sending the angels down and
not basically sending the message directly, is so
that that little bit of a wavelength that
the Prophet SAW has to make up, it
is easier for him than actually conversing directly
with Allah SWT, which was difficult for him.
So that's why he used to send the
angels.
Birruhi min amrihi, the word Ruh, the word
Ruh, it has been used in many different
meanings in the Quran.
One meaning is the soul, right?
It is the soul through which we live,
through which we have the ability to move
our arms and legs, the way to breathe.
And the Ruh, when it's taken away from
us, physically we cannot do anything anymore.
We become a dead body.
Without the soul, the body is dead.
So that's one meaning of Ruh.
The other meaning of Ruh is Angel Jibreel
himself, he is known as Arruhul Ameen.
Nazala bihi arruhul ameen, ala qalbika litakuna minal
munzireen.
Arruhul Ameen and also in Suratul Qadr, tanazzalul
malaikatu warruhul.
So Arruh refers to Jibreel, is one opinion.
And so here it means Wahi from Allah
SWT.
The Wahi from Allah SWT, Allah SWT sends
this Wahi through angels.
And why does Allah SWT use Arruh to
describe Wahi?
The scholar says that he is using this
word Arruh to describe the Wahi because it
is the very thing which will give us
the life of the hereafter.
It is the thing that gives us the
life of the hereafter.
Just like the Ruh inside our body now
is giving us a worldly life, when Allah
SWT ordains death for us and writes death
for us, that Ruh is going to keep
us alive.
But the Ruh that Allah is sending with
the angels, it is that Ruh that gives
us everlasting life in the hereafter.
So this is why Allah SWT referred to
the Wahi of the Quran and His commands
as Arruh right here.
So Allah SWT sends down the Malaika with
Ruh from His command.
The angels come down through His command.
And the angels come to and approach whoever
Allah SWT wants from His slaves.
So every single prophet that was chosen by
Allah SWT, the angels used to come to
him and give the message and the Wahi
and the revelation to him.
And what was the gist of the message?
And warn them.
Warn humans that they are not worthy of
worship except me.
Have my awareness, be aware of my existence.
The message that each and every one of
us brought to the Anbiya' Alim.
Allah SWT goes on to say Allah SWT
created the heavens and the earth with the
truth.
Meaning with the truth means here that He
didn't do it just as a joke or
for no reason.
Do you think that you've been created just
as a waste?
No, Allah SWT created the heavens and the
earth with the truth meaning for a reason.
The reason is that so that we prepare
ourselves for the hereafter.
Allah again says the same word.
Allah is above all that they commit shirk
with Allah SWT.
So again the reason for our existence and
the reason for the creation of the heavens
and the earth was His and His worship
alone.
But human beings, they strayed from that and
started worshiping others.
And this is called shirk.
So Allah says that people forgot their reason
for their existence.
And Allah is above all the shirk that
they commit with Him.
And finally the last ayah خَلَقَ الْإِنسَانَ مِنْ
نُطْفَةٍ وَإِذَا هُوَ خَصِيمٌ مُبِينٌ Allah SWT created
the human being from Nutfah, from as Allah
says in another verse مَا إِن مَهِيم مِن
مَا إِن مَهِيم From water which is despised.
It gets onto your body, you wash it
off.
It's going to get out of your clothes,
you wash it off.
Why?
Because it's a despised fluid.
It's something that you really dislike.
When it's in the state of the fluid
that comes out of our body, we don't
like it.
So Allah SWT created us from that fluid.
But the human being that is created from
this despised fluid, he becomes a human being
and he becomes openly argumentative.
فَإِذَا هُوَ خَصِيمٌ مُبِينٌ He becomes an open
arguer against the one who created him.
The one who created him, Allah created him
and he sees the miracle of that existence
coming to this world every single day.
Sometimes his brother is having a baby.
Sometimes his sister is having a baby.
Sometimes his neighbor is having a baby.
Sometimes he is seeing in his own house
a baby is being born.
Created from what?
Created from that impure drop of *.
But yet it doesn't register in his mind
that there is a creator who created this
and a miracle is happening before my eyes.
So that same human being, he just becomes
older and he thinks he has the sense
and intelligence and he thinks he has enough
intelligence to even deny the existence of Allah
SWT.
So we have many, many so-called intellectuals,
people who are the elite when it comes
to their intelligence and their brains and their
writings and their lectures and their theories and
their equations and their physics and all the
rest of the things, quantum physics and metaphysics,
all the rest of the things that people
who are supposed to be very intellectual and
very intelligent engage in those things.
But what kind of intelligence is that which
takes you away from Allah SWT?
Allah SWT, he mentioned about previous nations that
we gave them وَجَعَلَّ لَهُمْ سَمَعًۭا وَأَبْصَالًۭا We
gave them the ability to hear, the ability
to see and we gave them hearts.
Meaning they had all the faculties that gave
them this intelligence and this ability to differentiate
between right and wrong, between haq and batil.
But instead of using those faculties for that
purpose, they became misguided and they thought they
were more intelligent than Allah SWT himself.
فَمَا أَغْنَ عَنْهُمْ سَمُعْهُمْ وَلَا أَبْصَارُهُمْ وَلَا أَثْئِذَتُهُمْ
مِّنْ شَيْءٍ إِذْ كَانُوا يَجْحَدُونَ بِآيَاتِ اللَّهِ وَحَاقَ
بِهِمْ مَا كَانُوا بِهِ أَسْتَازِيُونَ Their abilities, their
faculties and their intelligence and their vision and
their hearing and their brains, their minds didn't
benefit them in the least when they continued
to reject the verses of Allah SWT, the
signs of Allah SWT and whatever they were
ridiculing Allah SWT about, it became true about
them وَحَاقَ بِهِمْ مَا كَانُوا بِهِ أَسْتَازِيُونَ So
Allah says here, خَلَقَ الْإِنسَانَ مِنْ نُطْفَةٍ Allah
SWT created the human from this drop of
sperm and then he became an open eye
witness to Allah SWT I'll finish off with
this saying of Ali SWT He said that
I'm astonished at the human being that how
arrogant he is and how he can be
arrogant when his beginning is a drop of
impure * and his end is a rotting
corpse and in the middle, he has a
lump with impurity in his stomach and yet
he's arrogant What kind of a person is
this who doesn't realize his beginning he doesn't
realize his end and he doesn't realize his
very existence is full of impurity and full
of things which we despise and yet he's
arrogant So this is basically what we are
about If we don't realize ourselves what we
are, then we'll forget وَلَا تَكُونُوا كَالَّذِينَ نَسُوا
اللَّهَ فَأَنسَاهُمْ أَنفُسَهُمْ Don't become like those people
that forgot Allah SWT and they forgot themselves
They forgot their own reality, what they are
So this is what happens when we forget
Allah SWT and we need to make sure
that we are not amongst those people We
always need to remind ourselves why Allah SWT
created us We need to remind ourselves of
our own limited qualities our limitations, our
sins that we commit and humble ourselves to
a degree that we always think of Allah
SWT as being the one who is above
us, he's our creator and he is the
one who is doing everything for us This
is basically the gist of the verses which
we recited today I pray that Allah SWT
gives us the strength to understand and practice
what has been said and heard