Qur’an 30 for 30 | Season 6
19 / 30
Juz 18: Seasons of Allah’s Mercy | Sh. Joe Bradford
Your greatest competition for growing in faith is yourself. To truly get ahead, you must find balance and strive to be enveloped in Allah’s mercy—because it’s His mercy that will carry you to the finish line.
Join Sh. Joe Bradford, Dr. Omar Suleiman, and Sh. Abdullah Oduro as they explore juz 18 of the Qur’an, diving into business, balance, and how the furqan (criterion) helps us distinguish between right and wrong.
Download our Qur'an 30 for 30 Life Lessons Journal to record your own reflections as you watch this series.
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Transcript
This transcript was auto-generated using AI and may contain misspellings.When you pursue Allah subhanahu wa ta\'ala, the way that He taught you to pursue Him, and in the times and places that He taught you to pursue Him, then you\'ll get to places that you otherwise would not be able to reach. This means that their livelihood is business. They\'re just smart enough to know when the business is profitable and when there\'s something more profitable. For us to act upon that truth is what will make us of the righteous warners. It will make us of those that make the right judgments. As-salaamu alaykum wa rahmatullahi wa barakatuh everyone. Welcome back to Qur\'an 30 for 30. Alhamdulillah, as we\'re getting into the last 10, we want to remind you all insha\'Allah ta\'ala to please contribute to Yaqeen. You can go ahead and plug in your donation below bi\'idhnillahi ta\'ala. We count, of course, first and foremost on the mercy of Allah subhanahu wa ta\'ala and of course all of you to continue to invest in this work. So jazakum Allah khayran for being viewers and being a part of Yaqeen, alhamdulillah, in every way. And we are joined by none other than Shaykh Joe Bradford here in Houston. How are you doing Shaykh? Alhamdulillah, how are you? Alhamdulillah, so Shaykh Joe is a masha\'Allah scholar of Islamic law, especially finance, has written a lot of books. I mean Shaykh Abdullah said, which book, you know, should we talk about your book? He said, which book? So which one? Okay, okay. What are some of the titles? Simple Zakat Guide. This is the 10th year anniversary of Simple Zakat Guide. Alhamdulillah, 40 hadith on wealth and earning. I have Qadumi\'s Hamdi Primer, a few others, yeah, and some more to come out. Just a few, just a few. We got a dad joke for you Shaykh. Okay, what\'s up? Do you pay zakat on your zakat guide? Do you pay zakat on my zakat guide? Inventory, oh. Really happy to have you, alhamdulillah, and you two go way back. Yeah, alhamdulillah, this is another romantic, you know. What\'s your anniversary? You said 10 year anniversary, so which one of you guys remembers your anniversary,
meeting each other? I met him when he was holding his second son. Allahu Akbar. That\'s when I met you, Muhammad al-Masjid. That was the day after you took shahadah too, wasn\'t it? Yeah, roughly. Yeah, you were teaching us. Yeah, it\'s another mentor of mine, another one of my shuyukh. Yeah, so how many years? 20 what? How old is your second? It\'s gonna be 24. 24. Yeah, 24 at least, almost 25. Yeah, beautiful. Alhamdulillah, insha\'Allah, we\'ll go ahead and get started, and we have, I think, you know, masha\'Allah, really powerful lessons, speaking about balance and speaking about consistency, and obviously as we\'re getting into the last 10, your eyes on the prize, so it makes it very easy for me to reflect today on the lesson that I have, which is you can\'t afford to give up your lead. You can\'t afford to give up your lead. Shaykh Waleed actually just spoke about this, and it made it very easy for me, alhamdulillah, to keep my lesson short, but it\'s a very interesting verse, which is verse 61, where Allah subhanahu wa ta\'ala says, that verily, it is they who race to do good deeds, and they are always taking the lead. Now, if you read the translations, they are all over the place on this verse, because generally speaking, yusari\'oon and yusabi\'oon are looked at the exact same way. Rush to do good deeds, run to do good deeds, race to do good deeds, they all kind of convey the same context, and so the tafsir of this verse is very interesting because the ulama had to look at the differences between yusari\'oon and yusabi\'oon in this regard. What are the connotations here between these two? Rushing, competing, running. And we talked about this idea in the last juz\' of running to do better, or good is not good enough, right? That was the lesson. Good is not good enough. Try to be greater than where you already are. But the ulama speak about this verse in many different ways. First and foremost, they say yusari\'oon fil khairat refers to the pace. Yusabi\'oon refers to outpacing others.
So some of the scholars refer to it in this way. The quickness of your own strive, and then getting there before everyone else. And so we have that saying from Wahab radiAllahu ta\'ala anhu that, do not let anyone, if you can, do not let anyone reach Allah subhanahu wa ta\'ala before you, right, in your competition towards Allah subhanahu wa ta\'ala. Some of the scholars like Ibn Abbas (رضي الله عنهما), he said, sabakat lahum min Allahi as-sa\'ada, that it\'s Allah azza wa jal\'s acceptance and happiness meeting them before they even get to it. So it\'s your shortcomings in your strive. There are inherent shortcomings, no matter who you are in your strive towards Allah subhanahu wa ta\'ala. But Allah\'s mercy when he sees you turn towards him in striving, and this is especially important when you get into the last two nights of Ramadan, Allah subhanahu wa ta\'ala\'s mercy will meet you along the way, and will bring you to where you need to get. And many of the scholars mention in this regard as well, that the first part of this is the opportunity. The second part of this refers to it being at the right time. Because when you pursue Allah subhanahu wa ta\'ala, the way that he taught you to pursue him, and in the times and places that he taught you to pursue him, then you\'ll get to places that you otherwise would not be able to reach. So for example, someone might worship Allah subhanahu wa ta\'ala all night long, and it\'s not Laylatul Qadr, right, on a random night of the year, and someone might observe Salatul Isha and Fajr and Jama\'a on Laylatul Qadr, and give a little bit of extra ibadah, and their reward is far greater. And that\'s the beauty of following the Sunnah of the Prophet (ﷺ) in this regard, is that it allows us to reach in these Nafahat of Allah, these seasons of Allah\'s mercy, places that we otherwise would not be able to reach on our own. Now the concept, the lesson that I want to kind of leave off with, and then hand off to you Shaykh Joe, of you can\'t afford to give up your lead. You know, one of the things that you realize with the Salaf, is that they weren\'t just racing with each other, they were constantly racing with themselves. It was like they didn\'t need another person in the room, for them to be driven to that next step, right. They\'re constantly,
they\'re striving against themselves, to push themselves to that next place. And the context of this, it\'s in Surah Al-Mu\'minun, so I mentioned verse 61. The verse before that, Allah subhanahu wa ta\'ala mentions, وَالَّذِينَ يُؤْتُونَ مَا آتَوا وَقُلُوبُهُمْ وَجِلَةٌ that they are those who do whatever good they can, while their hearts are fearful. أَنَّهُمْ إِلَىٰ رَبِّهِمْ رَاجِعُونَ That they know that they will return to their Lord. And so, what that kind of gives me of an image is, you look at race cars, and sometimes you look at, you know, these cars, and the exterior does not tell you the story of the engine at all. Right, sometimes you see two fighters, and it\'s like, one fighter looks like he\'s going to crush the other guy. But there\'s something internal, there\'s a quality there, that allows for this person to be superior. The engine is different, right. And the heart of the believer, the heart particularly of someone who is constantly racing to do good, and trying to outpace others in their pursuit of Allah subhanahu wa ta\'ala, that heart carries fear, fear of not being good enough, fear of being deficient with their ibadah of Allah subhanahu wa ta\'ala, not as a negative read of themselves, but as a beautiful read of Allah subhanahu wa ta\'ala, that Allah is worth my greatest effort, and I know I\'m not quite giving it my perfect effort, my greatest effort, I can still go a step further, I can still go a step further. That fear of it not being accepted, that Allah would not accept that deed because of its deficiency, or because of our sins. You can\'t afford to give up the lead because a lot of times, you get to a certain place in your spirituality, and you say, all right, alhamdulillah, I arrived, and then next thing you know, you will corrupt your gains, and you\'ll fail to gain what is still ahead of you, because you get to a place of complacency. So to constantly be engaged in, بادروا بالأعمال الصالحة, rush to do good deeds, يسارعون في الخيرات, rush to do those good deeds, and at the same time, وَهُمْ لَهَا سَابِقُونَ always try to be first place when it comes to your ibadah with Allah. SubhanAllah. That\'s beautiful. I mean, you\'re mentioning that,
I like how you made that distinction, the fear of not being good enough, and it\'s not bad thinking about yourself, but you\'re thinking good thoughts about Allah. Right. You know, you always know, okay, I\'m not doing good enough. Okay, there was witr, I didn\'t make witr. Okay, I made witr. Okay, there\'s tahajjud, right? Okay, there\'s other things that I can do. Okay, I\'ve done that. Have I given charity? Have I reached out to my neighbor? Have I sent that text to apologize to the brother or the sister or whatever? Have I done good to my... You know, the deen always gives you the opportunity to be better. Right. Always gives you that opportunity. And looking at it from the aspect of, man, Allah has given me a framework to be a better version of myself than I was yesterday, competing with myself yesterday. I think that\'s beautiful. Just within the fabric of the shariah in and of itself, always gives a human being the opportunity to try to reach, to be better than yesterday and to be great and not just good. So that\'s a beautiful framework, masha\'Allah. Masha\'Allah. Shaykh Joe, any thoughts? And obviously, I\'m really looking forward to hearing your reflections on the ayah that you chose. What you had mentioned remind me of a story that\'s narrated from Abu Darda\'a (رضي الله عنه), that he said, if I had the ability to, I would take all of my wares and all of my merchandise and I would set them up outside of the door of the masjid. And I would only buy and sell outside of the door of the masjid. He said, laa aqool anna allaha lam yuhal al-bay\' wa lam yuharram al-riba walaakinni uhib an takun salawati kulluha fil masjid. I\'m not saying Allah didn\'t allow sale and forbid riba. What I\'m saying is, I like all of my salats to be in the masjid. So he wanted to be a person who was able to both trade with himself and with the people, as well as his trade with Allah. And so he wanted, how can I get that balance? How can I negotiate my life circumstances to be one where I have the freedom to be able to make money, but also the freedom to be able
to make the ibadah that Allah subhanahu wa ta\'ala has there for me. And that\'s why I asked, seeking Allah in the times and the places where he is. I think, if I were to say what my reflection is today, it\'s that business is about balance. If you want to be somebody who is, you want to be the person that\'s always trying to get ahead, you have to have a sense of balance. And the verse that I wanted to talk about was, Allah subhanahu wa ta\'ala says, Men who are not distracted by trade, nor sale from the remembrance of Allah and the establishment of the prayer. The interesting thing about this verse is that it\'s mentioned after, probably the most famous verse after Ayatul Kursi. Right? So everyone knows Ayatul Kursi. Everyone\'s maybe second favorite verse is, And then Allah subhanahu wa ta\'ala mentions, okay, where\'s that Noor? In houses in which Allah has allowed it to be raised. Who is it that has the Noor of Allah that are in the houses that Allah subhanahu wa ta\'ala has raised the mention of? Men. What kind of men? The men who don\'t allow themselves to be distracted by their sale, by their trade, by their business, from the remembrance of Allah and the establishment of the prayer and the giving of Zakah. He said this verse doesn\'t mean that they don\'t do business. This means that their livelihood is business. They\'re just smart enough to know when the business is profitable and when there\'s something more profitable. So they\'re always looking for that and their hearts are always connected to what Allah subhanahu wa ta\'ala is pleased with. We find this was the norm
of the Muhajireen when they came from Mecca. They were people of mercantilism and trade. The Ansar, they were people of agriculture. They were all doing trade with each other and with the outside world. And Allah subhanahu wa ta\'ala praises them as these type of men. I think another interesting point about this is that the praise of these men coming after Ayat Al-Nur shows us that the person who is a man, who is a successful man, who is a material successful man, is a person whose life is illuminated by the light of Allah. When Ubay Ibn Ka\'b was asked, what does it mean? Allah is the light of the heavens, the earth. The parable of his light is like an alcove in which is a lamp, in which is a glass, in which is a wick, in which is lighted by oil. That oil so pure, it almost lit itself. It\'s almost illuminated by itself. He said, This is the parable of Allah\'s light in the heart of the believer. So if a believer has the fitrah, which is what the oil is referring to, the purity of the fitrah, the fitrah on its own guides people. This oil was almost illuminating on its own. So people have the fitrah. When you add to that the light of wahi, the light of revelation, then you have an illuminated heart. If you have an illuminated heart, then it would ergo mean that you\'re not going to be distracted by your business and by your trade and by your, O you who believe, do not allow yourselves and your wealth
and your children to take you away from the remembrance of Allah. So who are these men? I mean, if we look, they\'re the people who they don\'t abstain from trade. They engage in trade. It\'s narrated that Umar found a man kind of keeled over praying after Salatul Dhuhr or I\'m sorry, before Salatul Dhuhr in the masjid. And he said, what are you doing in the masjid? And he was, you know, praying kind of slumped over. He cracked him. And he said, what are you doing here in the masjid? He said, I\'m worshiping Allah. I said, this isn\'t the way that we were taught to worship. And why are you here when the men should be in the marketplace doing business? Don\'t kill our religion for us. So the balance comes in knowing when there\'s a proper time and a proper place for their ibadah. And it can many times seem that we want to be religious in the times when it\'s inconvenient for others as a way of being pious. I don\'t know if you were there. But I remember one time in Medina, we all went out to eat. And one of our elders had come, who was a previous graduate. And we were all sitting, they were like in a chicken and rice spot or something like that, Riz Bukhari place or something like that. And one of the brothers pulls out a Mus\'haf and he starts reading. And the shaykh said, brother, brother, it\'s okay. It\'s okay. I remember. I remember. I remember. Yes, I do. Wow. And he\'s reading and the brother said, brother, brother, it\'s okay. No, I\'m reading the Qur\'an. Yes, you\'re reading the Qur\'an. But this is not the place for that. This is a place for us to enjoy each other company, sit and speak. We can end with the Qur\'an, but we don\'t need that right now. So having that balance means understanding that you need time for relaxation. You need time for ibadah. You need time for seeking wealth. You need time for contemplation. You need time for scholarship.
But the defining factor is that they\'re not putting their worldly pursuits over their pursuit of Allah subhanahu wa ta\'ala. I mean, if you think about the ayat that came, you know, to tie this in that came about Qarun. His people told him, use what Allah has given you to seek the abode of the next life. And be excellent to others as Allah was excellent to you. And don\'t forget your portion of this world, right? So the idea here is there has to be balance. The man who is not distracted, who seeks balance, knows that there\'s a time for his, there\'s a time for his Lord. There\'s a time for his health, his wealth, his family. And by making time for those and knowing that there is contentment and gratitude to be shown in each of those, each one of that can become an act of worship. When I\'m at work and I\'m doing business, I\'m grateful to Allah that I have a source of sustenance. When I\'m with my family, I\'m grateful to Allah that I have a source of creating a legacy and a source of peace. When I\'m at the masjid, I\'m grateful to Allah that I have a source of solace and a place to worship. In finding contentment and gratitude with each of those, we can become one of those men. Can I ask you a technical question? Sure. Because I know there are a lot of sisters that are watching this. So how do you distinguish, like for example, from the believers there are men that are truthful to the covenant they made with Allah. Can Rijal sometimes be referring to men and women? Well, the Quranic vernacular was revealed to the Prophet and was directed towards the men of community. Umm Salama herself had this question. Every time it\'s mentioned,
what about the women? And then Allah revealed, so the basis is that when the Quran speaks, it speaks to all the believers. But it was speaking to the predominant group that was hearing the verses firsthand. But it\'s addressing all of the believers, both men and women. So the reward is for both. The reward is for both, insha\'Allah. I think this is beautiful. You talk about especially the athar that you mentioned, that was beautiful. It just reminded me, after Salatul Jumu\'ah, particularly in Medina, you come out to Masjid, everyone\'s selling their graves. It just reminded me of that. Even though they\'d come with their trucks from their markets or from their farms or whatever the case may be. You\'re making me hungry now. There used to be these brothers that they were students. They were from Kyrgyzstan or something like that. The multipot thing. And they would make the mentu. The dumplings. And they used to bring honey from their home country. This is the very first time I saw honey that was as white as snow. And he said it was cotton honey. Interesting. You guys do realize that people watching this are fasting. I\'m just going to put that out there. I\'m not sure. Give me something to look forward to, insha\'Allah. Look forward to. I think when you mentioned that men are not diverted or distracted by the tijara, and how you use that tijara in a way that allows you to make the right judgment call. And I think that\'s important for the Muslim. We\'re held accountable. We\'re called the mukallaf because we have a decision to make. We\'re held accountable for the decisions that we make. And that leads me to the title of what I want to talk about today being let your judgments be a sign of your blessings. That Allah subhanahu wa ta\'ala has given us these faculties.
He\'s given us the mind to make the right decision. And sometimes we will make the wrong decision. But Allah is al-ghafoor. Allah is the all-forgiving. Allah is the one that also sent the message to the Prophet (ﷺ). And he terms it as al-furqan here. As he says in the first verse of the chapter of al-furqan, he says, Allah subhanahu wa ta\'ala says, So Allah subhanahu wa ta\'ala is saying, Allah subhanahu wa ta\'ala that sent down the furqan, the criterion to his servant. So this criterion al-furqan comes from farq which means to separate. To be able to distinguish between right and wrong. Particularly the Quran can be understood as the furqan here. Being that it is that which when you read it, when you ponder over it, when you act upon it, it allows you to distinguish between right and wrong because it has been given to you from al-haq. From Allah subhanahu wa ta\'ala being the truth. Whatever he reveals in it is truth. And for us to act upon that truth is what will make us of the righteous warners. It will make us of those that make the right judgments. And what\'s so beautiful about this is that we as human beings, as I mentioned the name of Allah being al-ghafoor in our trade, whatever we get involved with, the money that we spend, we\'ve probably made mistakes and what we spent it on or how we spent it, the decisions that we\'ve made and what we want to, especially the bigger purchases in our lives. It\'s important for us to know that we will make mistakes in this process, but the judgments that you have, the judgment to seek forgiveness from Allah subhanahu wa ta\'ala, because you initially have that message that reminds you, that anchor that you can go back to. And that\'s what makes it blessed. So when Allah subhanahu wa ta\'ala is saying here,
blessed is he that sent this criterion down, the Quran, Islam, to his servant. And that\'s what\'s beautiful as well. When you understand this criterion, it makes you more of a servant of Allah subhanahu wa ta\'ala. And the servant of Allah that earns that title of being an Abdullah, a servant of Allah is the one that makes the right judgments. And that is where the Prophet (ﷺ), as Allah mentions the ta\'aleel or the reasoning behind, the reason behind the action of sending down this Furqan, to be a person that is a warner and a person that reminds them of the goodness, that reminds them of when you do the action of good, where\'s it going to lead you? If you persist in the actions of evil, where can that potentially leave you? This is not only for the Prophet (ﷺ), as was mentioned, it is for all of us that we all have this haq, we all have this Quranic world lens, this lens of how we see the world, how we view the world and how we actualize that in our daily lives, how we make our decisions, our choices, are they founded and couched in the righteous message of Islam? Are they couched and come from the Quranic message? Do they come from that which is pure, which that which is pristine, because when we act upon that and we warn people of that in the way that we talk and deal with people, whether it\'s in our daily dealings or whether it\'s in the way that we spend our money or the way that we treat our mothers and fathers, et cetera, this is where that warning can be a blessed thing. When you stick with the message of the Quran, know that everything you touch and everything you do will be blessed, insha\'Allah ta\'ala. Shaykh, you know what this reminds me of? It connects actually beautifully with what Shaykh Joe just talked about. This idea that like most people, and you know this because you\'re in Islamic finance or you know Islamic finance, most people resort to the book to justify what they\'ve already decided is a priority for them. Yes. Like they already have decided on a path and then let me find a way to make this work. Yes.
Let me find a way to make this contract permissible. Let me find a way to make this fit. Very few people are actually looking at their lives through the Quranic world view and then changing their actual lives to fit that view. So it\'s almost like if I was to sort of pyramid it out, like you can\'t understand your priorities unless you understand truly the lawful and the prohibited, halal and haram. And you can\'t understand halal and haram if you don\'t know al-haq and al-batil, truth and falsehood, like at the foundational level, which the Furqan gives us. And then your priorities will sort of emanate from that and that\'s what we\'ve really been talking about. So there\'s like a smooth stream here between those things. Absolutely. How do you tell people it\'s not always about making it permissible, but it\'s also about making it prophetic, beautiful and part of your priorities? Yeah, I mean that\'s a real challenge sometimes to get across to people because my personal approach is, I\'m not here to be the one to necessarily say yes or no. I want you to understand the principles. And what I find is that if you can get people to invest in learning the principles, they themselves will see it. Say, no, no, no, I\'m not comfortable with that. Because they look, you know, this is, okay, but so-and-so shaykh signed off on it and he stamped it for them and that was enough. That could be enough for them. But are we happy with that, right? Do we want to be trying to do the best that we can or are we just seeking something to get us by? And when you put the focus on what are the substantive meanings and values that are behind this, even if we said that it was okay but yet it\'s still detrimental, would it be allowed? I always give people the example. This example was given to me by a brother who\'s a physician a long time ago.
He says, you know, it\'s not just that it\'s halal. The idea is that if it\'s halal, am I also consuming it properly? He goes, watermelon, halal, right? Everybody, more food for people that are fasting. Watermelon is halal, right? But if I eat a whole bunch of watermelon, I\'m going to get a bellyache. So are you telling me that the halal can harm you? Yes, if you overconsume, if you do it in the wrong way, if you use the blessings that Allah gave you in the wrong way, then it can become harmful. I mean that\'s one of the reasons why that was mentioned in the verses about Qarun, right? وَلَا تَنْسَ نَصِيبَكَ مِنْ الدُّنْيَا Don\'t forget your portion of this world, but you have to be seeking for Allah first like you mentioned. If you don\'t put the principles, you\'re putting the cart before the horse. So especially when you spice up watermelon. You walk into the masjid for iftar, and you see watermelon, and it\'s spiced up for some reason. Oh, so my very first iftar after I accepted Islam, I went to a brother from Pakistan\'s house, and everything was naar. Everything was just... You don\'t mean fire like we say in the south to express... No, it wasn\'t fire in a... That\'s not fire. It was so good. It was like the hellfire shooting out of my mouth. And he\'s like, oh, brother, I\'m sorry. I didn\'t realize that you can eat this. Here, come and have some fruit chaat. I said, oh, alhamdulillah, fruit salad? I\'m all for this. Bro, the fruit salad had spices in it. The fruit salad burned my mouth. And then he came and he gave me a glass of water. I said, I just want to ask before I drink the water. Does the water have pepper in it, too? Masha\'Allah. He\'s a beautiful brother, masha\'Allah. So we know what not to serve. If any of you are having Shaykh Joe come to your house, please don\'t serve him that. I have a quota of spicy food once a month.
Beautiful reflections. Great to have you on. And people definitely can find you online, joebradford.net. My apologies for my Twitter feed, but .net is where you can find me. Give the man joebradford.com. This is an appeal on behalf of Yaqeen Institute and everybody else. Give the man joebradford.com. Please, no one uses .net anymore. This isn\'t 1990s. Also, masha\'Allah, I do want to mention, we\'re going to have Shaykh Ammar Shaheen, Zidni Institute, with our beloved brother, Dr. Ahmed Khater, and all of them. I know you teach courses on fiqh with Zidni Institute. We want to shout them out. They\'re doing amazing work, too, masha\'Allah. JazakAllah khair, Shaykh. May Allah bless you and increase you. May Allah allow us to benefit from what you\'ve shared with us, Shaykh. JazakAllah khair. JazakAllah khair. JazakAllah khair.
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