Qur’an 30 for 30 | Season 6
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Juz 7: Between Justice and Mercy | Ustadha Roohi Tahir
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In your many roles in life, do you lead with justice and compassion? Allah has prescribed mercy upon Himself—so how do you reflect that in yourself? What does it mean to fear Allah while trusting in His boundless mercy?
Join Ustaadha Roohi Tahir with hosts Dr. Omar Suleiman and Sh. Abdullah Oduro as they reflect on Juz 7 of the Qur’an, exploring the balance between justice and mercy, how trials are a form of divine grace, and what Allah’s mercy will look like on the Day of Judgment.
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Download our Qur'an 30 for 30 Life Lessons Journal to record your own reflections as you watch this series.
Transcript
This transcript was auto-generated using AI and may contain misspellings.Yesterday, we talked about the real test of justice being with those who you dislike. Today my lesson is, prescribe mercy upon yourself, especially when you\'re in charge, in charge in quotes, and the reason being that you\'re never really in charge. That displeasure of Allah is so much more in my heart and in front of me, that I will not allow this fear of whatever\'s in my moment right now to debilitate me from moving forward and doing the right thing. The day that Allah subhanahu wa ta\'ala will spare the chastisement on that particular day, that is a form of mercy, and that mercy is withholding harm from us. As-salaamu alaykum wa rahmatullahi wa barakatuh everyone, welcome back to Qur\'an 30 for 30. Alhamdulillah, as we\'re now a week into Ramadan, we want to remind you all, bi\'idhnillahi ta\'ala, to please contribute to Yaqeen bi\'idhnillah. I hope you\'re benefiting from all the content that\'s coming out. Insha\'Allah ta\'ala you\'ll follow along. As this Ramadan series, every week looks different from the week prior. So hopefully week two bi\'idhnillahi ta\'ala will be something that you enjoy as we\'ll be transitioning bi\'idhnillahi ta\'ala in every week of Ramadan within the Ramadan series itself. So may Allah subhanahu wa ta\'ala reward you all. We\'re blessed to have with us alhamdulillah al-Rabb al-\'Alamin, Ustadha Roohi Tahir. I hope you\'re doing well. How are you? Alhamdulillah. Alhamdulillah. Alhamdulillah, doing well. Ustadha Roohi has been with us from the very beginning of Yaqeen. Alhamdulillah al-Rabb al-\'Alamin. Truly blessed. You\'ve seen it from start to finish. You have written multiple papers, masha\'Allah. A lot of people maybe overlook some of the papers on tazkiyah, thinking that there\'s a randomness to them. And there really isn\'t. Tawbah is very structured. And you\'ve written a lot about repentance. Shukr is very structured. Gratitude is very structured. You\'ve written quite a bit about that, alhamdulillah. So we have your papers, your journals. I encourage everyone to go to the website, insha\'Allah, to search up Ustadha Roohi\'s papers on tawbah, on shukr. And bi\'idhnillahi ta\'ala, they\'ll find a lot of benefits and may Allah reward you for all that you\'ve put forward. Last time we talked about justice.
Surah al-Ma\'idah is all about justice. And I actually wanted to switch, insha\'Allah ta\'ala, to another theme that shows up in Juz 7. So yesterday we talked about the real test of justice being with those who you dislike. Today my lesson is prescribe mercy upon yourself, especially when you\'re in charge, in charge in quotes. And the reason being that you\'re never really in charge. Allah subhanahu wa ta\'ala says in verse 12, as we now move on from Surah al-Ma\'idah, قُلْ لِمَنْ مَا فِي السَّمَاوَاتِ وَالْأَرْضِ قُلْ لِلَّهِ كَتَبَ عَلَى نَفْسِهِ الرَّحْمَةَ لَيَجْمَعَنَّكُمْ إِلَى يَوْمِ الْقِيَامَةِ لَا رَيْبَ فِيهِ الَّذِينَ خَسِرُوا أَنفُسَهُمْ فَهُمْ لَا يُؤْمِنُونَ Allah subhanahu wa ta\'ala says, ask them, O Prophet, to whom belongs everything in the heavens and the earth? Say, to Allah. And this is as the scholars mention, if they refuse to answer, or even if they are answering, right? Tell them exclusively to Allah subhanahu wa ta\'ala because the mushrikeen would not just say to Allah they belong, they would also ascribe other gods in the process. So say to Allah subhanahu wa ta\'ala. Then, كَتَبَ عَلَى نَفْسِهِ الرَّحْمَةَ Allah has prescribed upon himself mercy. This is so profound because who could prescribe upon Allah except for Allah, right? Like we live in a generation where we want to create gods, fashion gods that fit what we believe God should be, right? And so religion is crafted in the imagination of man in order to pursue desires. And in that process, deities, gods, Allah subhanahu wa ta\'ala mentions that at the root of that and at the end of it is that you are worshipping yourself. أَرَأَيْتَ مَنِ اتَّخَذَ إِلَٰهَهُ هَوَاهُ That you\'ve turned yourself into an idol, right? Because if you are creating the idol from your brain, you know, we think about AI terms, right? You feed the AI things and then the AI creates imagery, right? If you\'re creating a god from your brain, from your thoughts, then you\'re actually making yourself your own god.
So you can\'t prescribe on Allah what Allah does not prescribe on Himself. And it is from the mercy of Allah that He prescribed on Himself mercy. Because if Allah subhanahu wa ta\'ala wanted to prescribe on Himself only justice, then we would have no say in that. If Allah wanted to subject us all to His justice, as Ibn Mas\'ud (رضي الله عنه) mentions, لَوْ عَذَّبَ اللَّهُ أَهْلَ سَمَاوَاتِهِ وَأَهْلَ أَرْضِهِ If Allah was to punish all of the inhabitants of the heavens and the earth, لَعَذَّبَهُمْ He would punish them, وَهُوَ غَيْرُ ظَالِمٍ لَّهُمْ And He\'s not an oppressor towards them. If Allah subjected us to His justice, we\'d all be in trouble. If Allah took the blessings that we have and then weighed them against the worship and the obedience that we put forward, we\'d all fall short. But the Prophet (ﷺ) said in the authentic hadith that when Allah subhanahu wa ta\'ala finished His creation, when He created the creation, Allah عز وجل prescribed with Himself on the throne that My mercy has overtaken My anger. رَحْمَتِي سَبَقَتْ غَضَبِي أَوْ غَلَبَتْ That My mercy has overtaken My anger. And so Allah prescribed on Himself mercy. The scholars mention that there are various manifestations of this mercy from Allah subhanahu wa ta\'ala. For one, it\'s the blessings that He gives you in the first place. That Allah عز وجل allows both the believer and the disbeliever, the righteous one and the wicked one, to benefit from His blessings. It\'s from His رحمة. The second one is that Allah subhanahu wa ta\'ala does not hasten His punishment. We talked about the sahabah of the Prophet (ﷺ) and how some of them came from very difficult backgrounds. Imagine if Allah subhanahu wa ta\'ala punished Abu Sufyan right away. Punished Wahshi right away. As soon as Wahshi (رضي الله عنه) threw the spear and martyred Hamza (رضي الله عنه). Imagine if a spear came from the heavens and killed him. So that\'s obviously a very deep example. But even in our regular lives, imagine if we got shocked every time we committed a sin. Or if we immediately felt the punishment every time we committed a sin. So in Allah\'s mercy, Allah subhanahu wa ta\'ala delays the punishment for us, giving us a
chance to repent. Also, from Allah\'s mercy is that Allah subhanahu wa ta\'ala does not let any hardship that the believer faces go in vain. Meaning it will be a means of expiation. So it will ultimately end up being a mercy for that person on the Day of Judgment so long as they are patient. They have ihtisab. So long as they seek Allah subhanahu wa ta\'ala\'s reward in that process, Allah subhanahu wa ta\'ala will allow that tribulation that they went through to be a means of mercy for them. It will actually be a means of elevation for them on the Day of Judgment. Lastly, Allah subhanahu wa ta\'ala has an exclusive mercy for the believers on the Day of Judgment. While he has shown mercy to all of his creation, Allah subhanahu wa ta\'ala has promised the believers especially that they will have a special form of mercy on the Day of Judgment. And that\'s not being unjust to everyone else. That\'s being especially merciful to the believers. But the life lesson here for us is that when you are in a position of authority, you can subject yourself to justice or you can subject yourself to mercy. And of course, worse than that is to subject yourself to less than justice. But if you subject yourself to mercy, if you incline towards mercy, mercy in a way that doesn\'t permit injustice to happen on your watch. Meaning what? You know, sometimes mercy can be an injustice. If you allow for injustice to go unchecked, then that\'s actually permitting cruelty, right? Or allowing cruelty to happen. But if you always are justice-minded, right, and you don\'t have that idea of al-\'afw, that idea of being pardoning, that idea of being forgiving and merciful, then all of your relationships are going to fall apart. Your authority is going to be a nightmare. So if you make mercy your natural inclination, meaning what? Look, even as I\'m subjecting someone to justice, I\'m always inclining towards wanting to forgive, wanting to show mercy, wanting to ensure the best case scenario for everyone involved in this.
Then that\'s going to be to your benefit and that\'s going to be a manifestation of Allah\'s mercy. So incline towards mercy in a way that doesn\'t make you just about justice, because it\'s not always about justice. Sometimes it is about mercy. Sometimes it is about forgiveness. Sometimes it is about overlooking, because you want Allah subhanahu wa ta\'ala to overlook and to be merciful with you. So if you subject yourself to mercy and you\'re on a spectrum from justice to mercy, always, rather than cruelty to sometimes being just, which is the majority of people in authority, then your baseline is justice. But bi\'idhnillahi ta\'ala, your experience and your inclination is mercy. Finally that\'s why Allah subhanahu wa ta\'ala says, inna Allah ya\'muru bil-\'adli wal-ihsan. Allah commands justice and excellence. You need both in society. You establish the weights through justice and then you beautify with mercy. You beautify with forgiveness. You beautify with compassion. You beautify with leaning towards that pardon always. So Allah subhanahu wa ta\'ala kataba \'ala nafsihi ar-rahma. Allah prescribed upon himself mercy. Therefore when we are in quote unquote authority, we think we\'re in charge, we should prescribe upon ourselves mercy as well. May Allah subhanahu wa ta\'ala make us from the just and the merciful. Allahumma ameen. As-salamu alaykum wa rahmatullah. That actually beautifully ties in to the ayah that I\'ve chosen. Bismillah walhamdulillah wa salatu wa salam \'ala rasulillah. So I\'ve chosen an ayah from Surah Al-An\'am as well, ayah number 15, in which Allah subhanahu wa ta\'ala says, Qul inni akhafu in \'asaytu rabbi \'adhaba yawmin \'adheem. That say, truly I fear if I were to disobey my Lord, the torment of a tremendous day. And it\'s the fear part that I\'m actually going to ask us to focus in on. And in this fear is actually what I saw, what jumped out at me this time when I read this
ayah is a profound and very practical lesson of how we can handle all of our fears. Something that we know about fear is that it\'s distressful and fear comes in all forms and shapes and intensities and so forth. It can also debilitate us though, in terms of our actions. And so this ayah actually shows us how we can take something that is very distressful and debilitating and actually use it to empower us and turn it into something that shows us the right course of action. So I chose this for two reasons. One, the specific type of fear that\'s being mentioned here. And secondly, because of just the relevance in the moment. I mean, there\'s no doubt when we think about our lives today, and we\'re thinking about just the sense of fear, perhaps even overwhelming fear. It\'s been crisis after crisis across the world. Whether you\'re in a place where you\'re under direct threat, may Allah subhanahu wa ta\'ala send ease and relief and victory to our brothers and sisters all over the world. Or whether you\'re watching from far away, just the horrors that are unfolding every day. There\'s no doubt that we\'re all impacted by this fear. So the question becomes how and what can we take from this to move forward? And of course, fear is just a very, very powerful emotion. And we want to connect that to in the same way that, for example, other powerful emotions like anger or desire. Fear also has that capacity to motivate our actions. The question is in which direction. The practical lesson in this is to first ask yourself, what is it that you\'re afraid of? And get to the root of that. And is it connected to something that is a loss that\'s in a worldly sense? And I\'m getting to the fear mentioned here, because obviously this is connected to the akhirah, but what is it that your fears are connected to? For example, are you afraid of what others think of you when in a particular situation? Are you afraid to speak the truth?
Are you afraid of the consequences of doing so in terms of the loss that could come from that, whether it be a career path, whether it be finances? Just simply fear even of the unknown. We all have these kind of fears. What does the future hold for all of us as an ummah, for me individually, for you individually? And just the ultimate fear, of course, the fear of loss of life. And so when we look at all of these, and these are definitely a part and parcel of our life. It\'s a test of life. Allah\'s told us we\'re going to be tested in this way. This ayah teaches us how to leverage in the midst of those, not that you\'re suddenly going to do away with all your fears, but how do I leverage that to then have the right response? And so what this ayah is teaching us is take whatever fear in the moment, whatever you\'re experiencing as real and as intense, and we want to acknowledge that, but then direct it to Allah subhanahu wa ta\'ala. And in directing it to Allah subhanahu wa ta\'ala and our standing in the hereafter, actually in that we realize, and here\'s the connection to the ayah that you just spoke of and the mercy of Allah subhanahu wa ta\'ala, in that is the mercy of Allah subhanahu wa ta\'ala. That while there\'s no comparison to Him, of course, we can kind of understand this with a practical example. The mother that pulls the child\'s hand away from the fire or a sharp object or something and instills that fear of the potential harm. This is Allah subhanahu wa ta\'ala\'s mercy on us too, that He\'s not hastening the punishment. That maybe the tribulation of these fears that we\'re going through are going to turn into this tremendous reward, as you just said. So subhanAllah, this is really a beautiful thing that takes us from a place of intense distress to actually in that moment being able to take that and turn it into praiseworthy fear. The fear doesn\'t go away. It shifts to putting the fear of Allah subhanahu wa ta\'ala in the forefront and enabling us to stand up, enabling us to do the right thing in the moment. And now when you tie that to when these ayat were revealed in Makkah, look at what the
Prophet sallallahu alayhi wa sallam and his companions are going through at that time. And every fear that sort of even the examples I was giving are more intense in that time, right? The same things in terms of ridiculed for speaking the truth, being alienated perhaps even from your own loved ones because of the stand you\'re taking, being forced into an economic boycott or removed from the society, the community that you belong to, being forced to leave your home. And of course, ultimately, the risk to your life, your livelihood, everything you know to be of this world. And yet the Prophet sallallahu alayhi wa sallam and the companions shine in that moment. And it\'s because Allah is instructing him to say that this displeasure of Allah is so much more in my heart and in front of me that I will not allow this fear of whatever\'s in my moment right now to debilitate me from moving forward and doing the right thing. And so may Allah make us from amongst those who are conscientious of this and indeed those are the muttaqeen, right? So may Allah make us from amongst them. It\'s a powerful idea, subhanAllah, that you go from hope in this world to hope in the hereafter, fear of this world to fear from the hereafter. And it connects, subhanAllah, also even to mercy, like an emotion like mercy. Why would, at some point, by the way, this is where the reality of the Qur\'an comes in and the reality of the deen. You know, sometimes a person who\'s in charge, a person who\'s in authority needs to be afraid of Allah subhanahu wa ta\'ala because they\'re not finding anything that holds them back from letting their cruelty go because I\'m in charge, I have the authority right now. So you need to really say ittaqillah, fear Allah subhanahu wa ta\'ala. Like the Prophet sallallahu alayhi wa sallam, we saw the man that was beating a slave and he said to him, Allah is more capable of doing that to you than you are to him. Like whoa. And had you not done so, Allah subhanahu wa ta\'ala would punish you. Had you not stopped, Allah \'azza wa jal would have certainly done to you what you did to that person. So sometimes you need someone to tell you to fear Allah subhanahu wa ta\'ala.
So there\'s a greater fear of the hereafter than a fear of this dunya, a greater hope in the hereafter than the hope in this dunya. And even in mercy, there is, you know, sometimes I show mercy because I fear losing the mercy being shown to me in the hereafter. So I don\'t want to lose Allah forgiving me on the Day of Judgment, so I\'m going to forgive here. I\'m afraid of losing that forgiveness on the Day of Judgment, so I\'m going to be forgiving here. In the method of Allah, Allah is the greatest of examples. He does exactly the same thing with mercy with the woman that found her child during the battle. He was standing with the companions and then the woman found her child after a battle and she held her child closely and some nourishment, she breastfed him and the Prophet sallallahu alayhi wa sallam said, do you ask his companions as he\'s indirectly asking all of us, do you see how this woman is with her child? And the companions said, yes. He said, do you see her? Would you conceive that this woman would throw her child in the hellfire? He said, no. He said, Allah is more merciful to his slaves than this woman is with her child. And that\'s the topic of what I want to capitalize on today is the magnificence of Allah subhanahu wa ta\'ala\'s mercy. When we talk about justice and talk about mercy and fear of Allah subhanahu wa ta\'ala, that is something that is magnificent because I like how you mentioned that we may have fear, you know, the natural fear. If a lion was to run in here, you know, everyone would run. Maybe not Sheikh Omar, masha\'Allah, you know, you throw a ping pong ball at him. No, but that natural fear that we have is there and Allah excuses us with that natural fear that we may have. But we could reach a level to where we say, I fear Allah subhanahu wa ta\'ala and I\'m not afraid of the consequences of what this person, for example, could do to me. Or we use that fear to do something that is a manifestation of the fear of Allah subhanahu wa ta\'ala that we have.
Although this characteristic that we may have towards creation, if it is used in a way that\'s directed towards the creator and understanding that this emotion, this fear that I have, although it\'s towards creation, it\'s much greater with Allah subhanahu wa ta\'ala, such as love. Love of a relative is conditional because that love of a relative is contingent upon that love of Allah subhanahu wa ta\'ala that we have. If that love of a relative may cause us to disobey Allah. When Allah subhanahu wa ta\'ala mentions, and if your two parents was to call you to disobey Allah, then don\'t obey them. And be good to them, be their companion in a good, well-known way, as long as it doesn\'t compromise that relationship that you have with Allah subhanahu wa ta\'ala. When Allah subhanahu wa ta\'ala says, إِنِّي أَخَافُ إِنْ عَصَيْتُ رَبِّي عَذَابَ يَوْمٍ عَظِيمٍ that I fear this day, that is a great day, an awesome day. The verse right after that, Allah subhanahu wa ta\'ala says, مَن يُصْرَفْ عَنْهُ يَوْمَئِذٍ فَقَدْ رَحِمَهُ وَذَلِكَ الْفَوْزُ الْمُبِينُ Whoever has been spared the chastisement on that day, Allah has bestowed mercy upon him, and that is a manifest triumph. This verse is jamilun jiddan. It\'s a beautiful verse because right after mentioning how you would mention to someone, you know, if they say, why don\'t you do this particular act? Why don\'t you get involved in this particular thing? You say, well, I fear Allah. I fear there\'s going to be a day that I\'m going to have to answer for this particular thing. And that\'s what you mentioned, Sheikh Omar, that when someone ties in something that is intangible or something that we are certain is going to happen in the future, and that is the motivation behind you leaving something or doing something, for someone that may be a little distant from that reality, it automatically reminds them, okay, if they don\'t know, what are you talking about? Well, I believe there\'s a day that I\'m going to have to answer for everything that I do. Or someone that does know what you\'re talking about, and their commitment to that reality
is not as strong as yours at the moment, or in general, it serves as a reminder. Having the mercy on that day when Allah subhanahu wa ta\'ala يصرف عن عباده العذاب The day that Allah subhanahu wa ta\'ala will spare the chastisement on that particular day. That is a form of mercy. فقد رحمه And that mercy is withholding harm from us on that day of chastisement, the day when there is no return. And if having the opportunity to look on the Day of Judgment series by Sheikh Omar, that was done a couple of years ago, to remind us that there will be a day where we have to answer for everything that we do. It serves as a motivation for the Muslim to realize that, firstly, that this life is temporary. And secondly, as mentioned, that if we were to compare the bad deeds that we even remember, the ones that we forgot about are much more than those that we remember. We go in front of Allah and His mercy surpasses His anger, overpowers His anger. فقد رحمه And even in the Arabic here, فقد shows a form of surety and emphasis that, look, if you\'re safe from the chastisement of Allah, that is a mercy. Because if you were to be held by each deed that you\'ve done, we\'d be destroyed. So when realizing the reality of Allah\'s mercy and just pondering over that, understanding that that is a great, great success, فوز مبين. And that\'s why Allah says ذلك الفوز, which is success, المبين. It\'s a clear success. Firstly, as you mentioned, sister, the manifestation of the fear of Allah سبحانه وتعالى is the manifestation and the actualization of implementing this oneness of Allah سبحانه وتعالى and His greatness from all the beautiful names and attributes and having that fear of Him overpowering any other fear. Love of Him overpowering any other love.
Being just for His sake, overpowering justice for a particular people and indirectly violating the rights of others. When that is the motivation, that is the manifestation and epitome of showing the oneness of Allah سبحانه وتعالى in our belief. And when people see that as an end note, when people see that as the motivation behind that, that is an indirect way of calling people to Islam. Because when they see that the mercy of Allah is great, look, Allah سبحانه وتعالى will forgive you. Just turn to Him. Turn to Him. Fear Him more than you fear anyone else. That serves as a motivation in many different aspects of life and serves as a healing for many different aspects of pain from the individual that may be around you, that may be seeing you, talking to you, and as we should always remember, watching you. So we ask Allah سبحانه وتعالى to make us of those that remember His greatness and remember His mercy when we say بسم الله الرحمن الرحيم and allow that to serve as a means for increasing us in our gratitude towards Him. So true mercy is found on the Day of Judgment. I think that\'s the hadith of the Prophet صلى الله عليه وسلم that Allah عز وجل has spared the majority of His mercy for the Day of Judgment. You\'re only getting 1% here. All the mercy that you see is only 1%. And that\'s from the mercy of Allah سبحانه وتعالى that He has left all of that mercy for the Day of Judgment when we will actually need it most. And perhaps why we see repeated so many times throughout the Qur\'an وَلَا خَوْفٌ عَلَيْهِمْ وَلَا هُمْ يَحْزَنُونَ that that\'s the ultimate things that you endure and be steadfast in this world and deal with the pain that comes with fear and with ill-treatment of others and injustice of others, and Allah is promising you that there will be that day where there will be no fear or grief. When you\'re in the moment, you can\'t see the mercy of Allah سبحانه وتعالى in delaying the response to your du\'a, especially when it means the removal of cruelty or hardship.
But when you arrive on the Day of Judgment, you would see the mercy in that delay of the mercy. You would say الحمد لله, الحمد لله. Just like you can\'t come to terms with injustice in this dunya without understanding divine justice, you can\'t really understand mercy in this dunya without believing in divine mercy and the day when you will need that mercy most. And of course that\'s so prevalent in our fasting, right, that the greatest goal of Ramadan is not that Allah سبحانه وتعالى answers your du\'a in this life. The greatest goal of Laylatul Qadr is not that Allah سبحانه وتعالى gives you the best decree in this dunya for the year to come. The goal is اللهم إنك عفو تحب العفو فاعف عني. The goal is forgiveness and mercy, and if you get that, then that overcomes everything else. Yeah, subhanAllah. And just a reminder for all of us, you know, in this beautiful month of Ramadan, if there\'s a person that has been hard for you to reach out to, you know, that has been hard for you to tell them, you know, I understand, or I\'m sorry, or let\'s work it out, this is the month to do that. And remembering the mercy of Allah سبحانه وتعالى, insha\'Allah, can serve as a motivation for all of us in this beautiful month of Ramadan to take advantage of looking over ourselves and really examining our egos and seeing if that is what was overpowering us and influencing us to leave off that beloved action of mercy. JazakAllah khair. JazakAllah khair. On that note, I believe we\'ll go ahead and end, insha\'Allah, so jazakAllah khair and to all of you for tuning in. Allah سبحانه وتعالى forgive us all for our shortcomings and show us mercy on that great day and may Allah سبحانه وتعالى put in our hearts and our actions all of those qualities that are pleasing to Him. Allahumma ameen. BarakAllahu feekum. We appreciate you joining us. JazakAllah khair. Thank you for having me. JazakAllah khair. And we\'ll see you all tomorrow, insha\'Allah. Assalamu\'alaikum warahmatullahi wabarakatuh.
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