Qur’an 30 for 30 | Season 6
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Juz 9: The Betrayal of A Blissful Life | Dr. Tahir Wyatt
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How do I answer Allah’s call? What is the secret to connecting to the Divine? How do I know I am living out the purpose of my life?
Join Dr. Tahir Wyatt with hosts Dr. Omar Suleiman, and Sh. Abdullah Oduro as they explore Juz 9 of the Qur’an, delving into the lessons of power, gratitude, and divine protection. Reflect on the reminder in Surah Al-A’raf that reveals how turning to Allah brings true life and how the pursuit of worldly gains can lead to spiritual blindness.
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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.Trying to gain access to people in power actually distances you from the most powerful feeling that you will get power from being close to someone or something that\'s more powerful that you find a sense of security in that power and that could be the essence of shirk / polytheism respond to Allah and to his Messenger when he calls you tho that which will give you life As-salamu alaykum wa rahmatullahi wa barakatuh, everyone. Welcome back to Quran 30 for 30. Alhamdulillah, we\'re in Juz 9. We have the one and the only, mashallah, Shaykh Tahir Wyatt. I think we\'ve made too many, I think we\'ve overdone the whole West Philly thing now. I think we\'re done with it now, right Shaykh? Put it to bed, man. Let it die. I think there\'s still some left over in the tank. Uh-oh. Alhamdulillah, Shaykh Tahir. You\'ve held multiple positions at Yaqeen, Alhamdulillah, Executive, you know, Senior Content Editor, Director of Systematic Theology. I don\'t even know, Shaykh, how many positions you\'ve had, but I just know you\'re from Philly and you\'ve been at Yaqeen for a long time, right Shaykh? By the grace of Allah, for both, by the way, for being from Philly and for being a part of this wonderful organization, Alhamdulillah. So Shaykh, I do have a dad joke about Philly though, man. All right, let\'s see if you can get it. It\'s actually pretty easy. All right, let\'s go. Why did the cheesesteak need therapy? You got it, Shaykh. Hold on. Why did the cheesesteak need therapy? Why did the inanimate object need therapy? Oh, you\'re trying to make this too hard. There\'s too much artisanal. All right, come on, give us it. What is it? Because it had too much beef. Oh, man. No, no. No, no. It\'s pretty good. When you have beef, you need therapy? No, you don\'t need therapy. Yeah, if you have a lot of beef. You need an intervention. No, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no. You need an intervention before it escalates. Which sometimes comes to a therapy. Before it escalates. All right, man. The internet is abound with jokes about Philadelphia.
Oh, really? I didn\'t even know that was a thing. Yeah, yeah. SubhanAllah. That\'s a thing. May Allah forgive them, too. Shaykh, it\'s great to have you on, Alhamdulillah, as always. SubhanAllah, last year, I think the episode with you was probably the one that caught most people, because really giving a roadmap for how we approach life in the Qur\'an. And this year, we\'re doing life lessons from the Qur\'an. And SubhanAllah, every juz builds on the other. So last juz, we talked about consider every sin as a form of ingratitude. I wanted to share a reflection today that also builds upon that in terms of pursuit. So we often talk about pursuit of possession. We don\'t talk about pursuit of power, because that usually speaks to a very small group of people in society that are pursuing power in the sense of position, like in a meaningful political sense. But there are other pursuits of power as in pursuits of access. And so the lesson that I want to give today is trying to gain access to people in power actually distances you from the most powerful. And it comes from the ayah in Al-A\'raf, verse 114, where Allah subhanahu wa ta\'ala is telling us about Fir\'aun speaking to his magicians and preparing them for the big moment. And as he\'s making them promises, he says, قَالَ نَعَمْ وَإِنَّكُمْ لَمِنَ الْمُقَرَّبِينَ Yes, and you will also be amongst those who are close to me. So not only will I give you some sort of reward and compensation for acting in the way that I command you to act, for putting Musa (عليه السلام) in his place, for shining with your sorcery and magic, but I\'ll also make you close to me. And a lot of people pursue power, pursue access to power as a means of dignifying themselves. And that can be extremely humiliating. Like if we actually zoomed out from ourselves, like I met this person who\'s famous. I met this person who\'s powerful. I got myself a picture or this person knows me or this person mentions me. I got someone\'s number. I got someone\'s whatever it is.
I\'ve got access to power and that\'s how I find my dignity. That\'s actually extremely dangerous, SubhanAllah. And in the case of Fir\'aun, he\'s using that to leverage his own power over Musa (عليه السلام) and over them in this regard, right? So I\'m going to bring you closer to me and that\'s going to be a means by which you find success. And that\'s going to be a means by which you find happiness. Now, here\'s something that came to my mind, SubhanAllah. These men would fall in sujood, you know, soon after that. They would fall into prostration in praise of Allah, SubhanAllah, instead of Fir\'aun. The way that the story ends is you\'ve got these same magicians saying, we believe in Allah, SubhanAllah, we believe in the Lord of Musa (عليه السلام) and falling in sujood. And it was just a connection that I just thought of. In the hadith of the Prophet (ﷺ), which is in multiple narrations, the closest that a person is to Allah, SubhanAllah, is when he is in sujood. And the promise of Fir\'aun to these magicians was, I will give you qurb, to me. I\'ll give you nearness to me. And the Prophet (ﷺ) is saying, the nearest that a slave is to his Lord is when he is in his sujood. I\'m thinking to myself, SubhanAllah, that truly when you pursue dignity by closeness to anyone else, you end up humiliating yourself. But when you pursue dignity by nearness to Allah, SubhanAllah, you end up honoring yourself. And you see it, because we were actually talking in the previous juz, of Iblis and his promises, right, of leading people astray. Look how humiliated Shaytan is. Iblis is because of his refusal to sujood, because of his distancing himself from Allah, SubhanAllah. Allah, azzawajal, distancing him because of his insistence upon disobedience. So it\'s just something to think about, SubhanAllah,
that the majority will pursue lowly things as a means of elevating themselves. But we can pursue Allah, SubhanAllah, and come close to Allah, SubhanAllah. And that\'s the only qurb, the only closeness that\'s really worth seeking. When you think about it, Shaykh, there\'s the hadith also of the Prophet (ﷺ), man tawada\'a lillahi rafa\'ahullah. How do you actually achieve that elevation that you\'re looking for? It\'s when you humble yourself for the sake of Allah, azzawajal. And then Allah, azzawajal, raises you. So your power actually comes through submission. It comes through submission to Allah, SubhanAllah, because he is al-Qawiyy, he is the powerful. And so through that submission to Allah, SubhanAllah, you\'re raised. SubhanAllah, those are those subtleties that a lot of people will not pick up on until it\'s too late often. And that\'s the essence of tawhid. I mean, SubhanAllah, as you\'re talking about seeking power or getting close to power and feeling that you will get power from being close to someone or something that\'s more powerful than you, you find a sense of security in that power. And that could be the essence of shirk, the essence of polytheism, when it should be directed to Allah, SubhanAllah. I mean, when you even think of strength in and of itself, I always think about the du\'a in the adhan. After the adhan, you say, la hawla wa la quwwata illa billah. You don\'t get any strength. Even though I\'m getting up to do an action of worship, this cannot happen except without the hawl and the quwwah. And what\'s so beautiful is that the hawl literally means like transitioning from one state, one place to another. You can\'t do that except with quwwah. So the fact that I\'m going to worship Allah, I need Allah in order to do that. And that shows the beauty of Allah subhanahu wa ta\'ala attributing everything to him. And that\'s really what I want to talk about is beware of the betrayal of bliss.
As we talked about before, the blessing of recognizing what Allah has given you and then acting accordingly to the sharia and the way that he tells you to use those faculties, for example, your eyes and what you watch and what you listen to. But SubhanAllah, in the chapter of Al-A\'raf, roughly verse number 191 and 192, Allah subhanahu wa ta\'ala, before this, he talks about how he gives the individual children a righteous child. As he says, SubhanAllah, But when he bestows upon them a healthy child, they attribute to him partners in what Allah has bestowed upon them. So in a time of happiness and being given something, you attribute it to other than the one that has given it to you. Exalted is Allah above that which they associate with him. Allah is far from any association from his creation because he is al-Khaliq. So in thinking about the reality of Allah subhanahu wa ta\'ala and the whole concept of polytheism is giving creation godly characteristics and devoting yourself to that form of creation in different ways. Allah asks a rhetorical question after that to where it just should cause one to think and to ponder. When he asks him, he says, Are these individuals, do they associate with Allah and his divinity, those that create nothing, rather they themselves are created? A very simple, basic question for anyone that has that motherboard, the fitrah, that natural inclination and acknowledgement of a deity, of a maker. Are they creating partners or saying that the one that is al-Khaliq, al-Raziq al-Mudabbir, the one that\'s the creator, the sustainer, and the maintainer and the controller of all affairs, are they associating partners with him?
And in reality, wa hum yukhlaqun. And then he\'s saying, and they were created, which is interesting here that Tahir bin Ashur mentions the fact that Allah subhanahu wa ta\'ala is affirming in the Arabic language, the fi\'l mudari\', or the present tense, is showing, that they were, this concept of creation has always been there and it\'s always been known. And Allah is asking, are you giving forms of creation to the one that created them, like characteristics? And then he says, They have no power to help others, nor can they help themselves. So Allah subhanahu wa ta\'ala is talking about those idols in which that these people worship. Once they were given a righteous child, they attribute it to something else or someone else. But in actuality, they were created and they can\'t even help you. And that\'s what\'s so beautiful when Allah subhanahu wa ta\'ala is like negating the deity or the greatness or the comparison even to Allah subhanahu wa ta\'ala by mentioning these characteristics. Can they even hear you? They were created. How if they\'re created, they deserve to have any type of endless, unconditional devotion manifested in different ways, fear, love, honor, seeking barakah, seeking blessings. So that\'s what\'s so beautiful about this line of questioning, how Allah asks the rhetorical question for you to ponder and think and stop. Just stop and think, this person or place or thing that I\'m worshiping, does it have characteristics of that which can end, which can die, which can perish? If it does, how can that be my Lord? How can that be my creator? And that\'s what\'s so beautiful about learning about Allah subhanahu wa ta\'ala and his beautiful names and attributes, which requests and demands from us to acknowledge that via different aspects of worship,
particularly when you\'re given something that you want. And you notice how he said, when he gave them a righteous child, you\'re given something that you want and anticipate, and that happiness will cause you, if you\'re not careful as it was with the Mushrikun here, to associate partners with Allah subhanahu wa ta\'ala to something other than Allah subhanahu wa ta\'ala. And that continuously is not acknowledging the blessings of God, which can cause the heart to slowly shrivel and die in regards to remembering who Allah subhanahu wa ta\'ala is. As the Prophet (ﷺ) mentioned, many benefits on the benefits of dhikr, that for instance, that it is like the difference between the heart that is living or that is dead. And what\'s so beautiful, and I end with this in Transcendency of Tahrir, how Ibn Qayyim mentioned, SubhanAllah, the heart, the benefits of remembering Allah subhanahu wa ta\'ala and dhikr Allah, that it relinquishes the lack of a relationship with the creator of the heavens and the earth. That when you mention the name of Allah subhanahu wa ta\'ala, it livens the heart. It brings life to the heart. So when remembering the greatness of Allah subhanahu wa ta\'ala, it serves as a means to liven the heart to further come into actions. And that\'s where we transition on to Mashallah. Can I say something really quick before we transition, Shaykh? I was thinking as you were speaking about this, about the dead, and I know you\'re gonna be speaking about what true life actually is. But the connection between the mortality of creation and worship not being suitable for that. Abu Bakr as-Siddiq (رضي الله عنه) was speaking about khayru khalqillah, the best of Allah\'s creation. man kana ya\'budu muhammadan (ﷺ) fa inna muhammadan qad mat. Whoever used to worship Muhammad (ﷺ), Muhammad (ﷺ) has died. Whoever used to worship Allah, then know that Allah subhanahu wa ta\'ala is hayyun la yamut, Allah azzawajal is ever-living and does not die. So even the best of Allah\'s creation, being the Prophet (ﷺ), mortality disqualifies him, right?
Like from being worshiped. And that\'s something SubhanAllah that\'s very beautiful and powerful. Like Allah azzawajal tells us at the end of Surah Al-Kahf. Qul innama ana basharun mithlukum. But what makes me different? I am a human being like you are a human being. So that disqualifies me from being worshiped. Yuha ilayya, but I do receive revelation. I receive revelation. So that\'s what makes me different. And that\'s what makes it an obligation to obey me because obedience to the Messenger (ﷺ) is obedience to Allah. Faman kana yarjul liqaa rabbihi. So whoever actually hopes for, longs for that meeting with Allah. Fal ya\'mal amalan salihan. Then let him do righteous deeds that is compliant to the sunnah of the Prophet (ﷺ). Wala yushrik biibadati rabbihi ahada. But to not associate any partners in the worship of Allah subhanahu wa ta\'ala in their worship, right? Not associate any partners with Allah subhanahu wa ta\'ala in that worship. And so you have that concept of the Prophet (ﷺ). Highlighting the fact that he\'s a human being, but he\'s not like the rest of the human beings. He doesn\'t deserve to be worshipped, but he deserves to be followed unconditionally, (ﷺ). So with that, Alhamdulillah wa salatu wassalam wa assalamu alayhi wa ba\'ad. The lesson that I want to convey today, biidni Allah ta\'ala, is that revelation is what brings life. Revelation is what brings life. Allah azzawajal tells us in Surat Al-Anfal, the 24th ayah, Ya ayyuha ladhina amanu istajibu lillahi walirrasuli idha da\'akum lima yuhyikum. O people of Iman, people who have believed, verify that belief, right? Verify that Iman, validate it by doing what? As Allah azzawajal says, Ya ayyuha ladhina amanu istajibu,
respond to Allah and to his messenger when he calls you to that which will give you life. Respond to that call. When you\'re called to that which will give you life, and that is revelation. Inno wa\'lamu anna allaha yahoolu bayna almar\'i wa qalbihi wa annahu ilayhi tuhsharoon. And know that Allah comes between a man and his heart. In other words, that heart that is the seat of real life. Know that Allah azzawajal comes between you and that heart and that to him you will return. I think it\'s very important to go through this ayah step by step because when we talk about istajibu, respond, that is not a delayed response. It\'s SubhanAllah to take it back to one of the main stories in this actual Juz, the Juz of Tasi\', the ninth Juz of the Qur\'an. The sorcerers that were hired by Fir\'aun and who had practiced sorcery their entire life and who were the all-stars of the sorcerers. These were not just like any old magicians. These are the all-stars. He put together the all-star team. He\'s Fir\'aun. He doesn\'t have anything impeding him from putting together the best team. But SubhanAllah, and you look at this, you look at they lived a life of major, major disbelief in Allah SubhanAllah. In an instant, you look at what happens, SubhanAllah, when Musa (عليه السلام) throws his staff and that staff turns into a serpent and devours their sorcery. What happens, SubhanAllah, you don\'t have like, oh we need to go back and think about this for a little bit.
The sorcerers fell down to the ground in sajda, Sheikh Omar was talking about, right? Now they\'re the closest. They were distant from Allah SubhanAllah. And then they fell down in prostration and now they\'re the closest that they can be to Allah SubhanAllah. And they said, we believe in They didn\'t wait. Istajibu means respond, right? SubhanAllah. You look at examples from the lives of the Sahaba, our heroes, right? SubhanAllah. And on that note, I think it\'s very important for all of us to really understand the importance of having heroes and people that we model ourselves after. And of course, we\'re looking for living role models and there\'s nothing wrong with that. But we also need to look at the best of creation. After the Prophet (ﷺ) was saying, you talk about Abu Bakr and Omar and others, but Omar specifically, when the ayah in Surah Al-Ma\'idah was revealed about Shaytan and what he wants out of having us addicted to wine or khamr and gambling, and that he wants to create enmity between the believers. And he wants to prevent us from the remembrance of Allah azzawajal and establishing the Salah. So will you not stop? Will you not stop doing that? What did Omar (رضي الله عنه) say? We have stopped. We have stopped. Anas ibn Malik (رضي الله عنه) on the same topic, you know, he\'s saying that he was serving the people. He was pouring the wine for them in the house of Abu Talha, right? In Medina. And they heard a munadin, somebody\'s out there calling, what\'s going on? It\'s some ruckus. So they go out, they want to find out what\'s going on. And it was somebody who the Prophet (ﷺ) has sent to let them know
that khamr has now been prohibited. Abu Talha immediately told Anas (رضي الله عنه), who was younger, he\'s a young boy, pour it all out. Pour it all out. No, wait, let us get this last sip. Maybe, hold on, let\'s just put it up. Maybe, maybe it\'ll be overturned, you know, abrogated by them. We could just keep it in the, you know, pour it out. Anas (رضي الله عنه) he says, so I went out and I poured it out, right? And he says, think about that. It\'s pouring down the streets of Medina because everybody is answering that call. Respond. Respond because they know that the real life is in responding to Allah and the messenger of Allah azzawajal. It\'s in that, it\'s in that obedience, okay? And SubhanAllah, this is where they\'re going to find their true success and salvation. As Aisha (رضي الله عنها) said, right? May Allah azzawajal have mercy on those early women muhajireen, right? The immigrants who are coming from Mecca to Medina. May Allah azzawajal have mercy on them. When the ayah of hijab was revealed in Surah An-Nur, and they were just looking for anything to cover themselves up with. They took part of their lower garment, they ripped it, and they covered themselves with it. They didn\'t wait till they got home. They didn\'t know. It was an immediate response, immediate response. And even the scholars, when they comment on this hadith, they talk about that that their fadl, their virtue, was an immediate response without rationale.
There was no, no, wait till I understand the command, then I\'ll follow. It\'s follow and watch how Allah azzawajal opens up your mind and your heart. Answer that call of Allah azzawajal and his messenger when he calls you to that which will give you life. SubhanAllah, this heart that Allah azzawajal has given us has a metaphysical function, just like it has a physical function of pumping blood through the body. But there\'s a metaphysical function that is absolutely necessary and that is for it to know its creator and to submit to its creator. And if it doesn\'t fulfill that function, it\'s like any other organ that is not working properly. If you\'re not seeing properly, if your vision is blurry, then there\'s something wrong, right? And you need to go, you need to get that fixed. If the heart, SubhanAllah, is not answering and responding to the call of Allah, if it\'s not loving Allah subhanahu wa ta\'ala, if it doesn\'t have healthy reverence of Allah, if it doesn\'t hope in Allah subhanahu wa ta\'ala, then there\'s something wrong with the heart, SubhanAllah, to the point that the heart can die and a person doesn\'t even know. The heart is dead and their chest is the grave. It\'s buried in the chest, but it\'s not serving its function because it does not respond when it hears filth. It doesn\'t stay away from the disobedience of Allah subhanahu wa ta\'ala. It doesn\'t feel any kind of way because it\'s in an environment where the disobedience of Allah azzawajal has been normalized. It\'s an environment where shirk has been normalized. And so it doesn\'t feel anything because of that. And that\'s when we need to revive our hearts. And SubhanAllah, that I believe is what happens every single Ramadan before the Iman of Allah azzawajal. Why? Why? A lot of us think it\'s because of the fast, it\'s because of the
communal, you know, spirit. That is part of it. But the major part is our connection with Wahi. It\'s the reconnecting with the Book of Allah azzawajal in a different way that brings life back to this heart. And we should know that Allah azzawajal comes between a person and his heart. And for that reason, we should do, as the Prophet (ﷺ) used to do, make this du\'a as much as possible. O turner of the hearts, make my heart firm on this deen. Make my heart firm. Allow me to be amongst those who answer your call. Make my heart healthy. Wallahi. And I\'m saying this from personal experience. And I know Sheikh Abdullah has had that same experience coming from not being a Muslim to being a Muslim. The difference in your heart, the happiness that you feel because of that connection to revelation, which gives you clarity of purpose, singularity of focus. I know why I\'m here. My focus is the pleasure of Allah (ﷺ). Anybody does not have that, their heart is torn because they\'re tied to too many different entities. They\'re trying to please too many different things. There\'s no singularity of focus and they are dying. And SubhanAllah, both of you before them in their lives, we talked about this point, how the heart withers away if it\'s not answering that call of revelation. And so as our Prophet (ﷺ) used to make that du\'a, we ask Allah (ﷺ) to make our hearts firm on this deen. Sheikh, SubhanAllah, we\'re at that point in the Ramadan series, by the way, anyway, we\'re talking about that transition as we transition into the next realm. But there\'s a reflection that I actually want to maybe hear you in these last few minutes elaborate on. SubhanAllah, it occurred to me as you were talking about this ayah, in the beginning of
Surat Al-A\'raf, Allah is talking about the Shaytan and his promise to come to the believers from every direction. From in front of them, from behind them, from their right, from their left. And here, Allah is saying that know that Allah comes between a man and his heart. Is there a relationship? Is there a connection to be made there between Allah coming between a man and his heart and the Shaytan attacking us from every direction? So it\'s interesting that you mention that because Ibn Abbas (رضي الله عنه), in his tafsir, he says that Allah comes between the kufr and the iman, meaning you have iman and Allah is actually protecting you from the kufr. Right? SubhanAllah. But vice versa, right? A person may not be a Muslim, their heart may be rejecting Allah subhanahu wa ta\'ala, and because of something that they have with them, Allah is preventing that iman from coming to them. It could be arrogance, it could be a number of things that SubhanAllah. And you know, you think about it, you think about it, Allah did not distance the Shaytan until Shaytan refused to come close to Allah. What did Shaytan refuse to do? He refused to make sajda to Adam (عليه السلام). That sajda would not have been for the sake of Adam. It would have been for the sake of Allah subhanahu wa ta\'ala because he asked him to do so. And so that sajda was actually lillah, right? But you refuse to get close to Allah subhanahu wa ta\'ala. And so Allah azzawajal distanced him. When they went astray, when they chose that path, Allah azzawajal sent their hearts away, right? SubhanAllah. So, part of the connection here with Allah subhanahu wa ta\'ala is that Allah azzawajal coming between a person and their heart is actually Allah azzawajal protecting them, protecting them from the Shaytan who is going to come from many different angles very quickly, coming from the
front. He\'s going to attack from the front, meaning that he\'s going to cause Benny Adam in general, the children of Adam, to doubt about their hereafter. What is the connection with the front? It\'s because we\'re traveling that way. Death is in front of us. The hereafter is in front of us. And so him coming from the front is to make us doubt about that hereafter. Coming from behind is that he is ... I\'m making them want the dunya. Well, where\'s the dunya? We\'re travelers. ... In this dunya like a stranger, somebody commuting. The commute means you\'re going this way. You\'re going towards death. The dunya is behind you. Well, that\'s what Shaytan wants you to be preoccupied with that so you\'re not thinking about that. Coming from the right, right is usually associated with good things, right? That\'s the deen. Shaytan\'s job is to make us doubt. He wants to confuse us about our deen. And so that\'s him coming from the right. Attacking from the left is him trying to entice us with disobedience of Allah subhanahu wa ta\'ala with those lowly sins. So Allah azzawajal, protecting our hearts from that, may Allah azzawajal give us the bait. ... I also said that Shaytan doesn\'t come to you from above because the mercy of Allah comes to you from above. And that\'s his tafsir of that ayah as well. And I actually reflected on that ayah in the last juz, SubhanAllah, it\'s so rich. But of course, we\'re out of time, Shaykh, but we really enjoyed having you as always. May Allah subhanahu wa ta\'ala bless you and preserve you. Ameen. Keep you and all of us firm on the path. Allahumma ameen. BarakAllahu feekum. We\'ll see you all tomorrow, inshaAllah.
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