Taraweeh Reflections (2024)
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“Israel” in the Quran | Taraweeh Reflections
Why was Yaqub (as) named Israel? And what do his two names mean? And why does Allah use His name differently in different ways? Is this relevant to Bani Israel and the concept of Israel today?
Transcript
This transcript was auto-generated using AI and may contain misspellings. How do we feel about Israel? Just a pin drop silence. I was expecting like a protest chant or something like that. You guys get where I'm going with this. We're about to go into surah Yusuf. And inshallah ta'ala as we get into surah Yusuf, we'll be studying the story of Yusuf a.s. and his father Yaqub a.s. whose name is also Israel a.s. But not, let's just put it to the side so that the Zionists can have their fun in the comment section of this video wherever they find it. We are not talking about the settler colonial project, the illegal, genocidal, maniacal state of Israel which is a complete abomination of the name Israel that we attribute to Yaqub a.s. nor the people that claim lineage because neither of those things are true. Yaqub a.s. lived in a place, it was not called Israel, nor was it called Israel after he passed away. Nor are the people who claim a connection through covenant or through lineage to be referred to in a noble way when they carry out these acts, these maniacal acts against our people. May Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala give victory to our brothers and sisters in Palestine. Allahumma ameen. So now that we've gotten that out of the way, let's talk about Israel the prophet and why he's named that and who he is and what's the story behind his name and what it means for us today. Because we're talking about claiming the purity of these things, the purity of these symbols. He has two names. One of them is Yaqub. And the name Yaqub comes from the word Aqib which means successor. SubhanAllah there's something so deeply profound about his name. There are multiple implications of his name. One of them, Aqib, is because he was born as a twin to his brother Alis. And he was the second twin. And so when he comes out of the womb, and you can imagine subhanAllah,
a family that struggled with the idea of lineage, the idea of children coming, right? Not only is the wife of Ishaq blessed with Yaqub, but there is another child as well. And Yaqub comes out right after his brother. And so that's one of the implications of his name, to follow along his brother. There is an interpretation of his name that we would not accept from an Islamic perspective, which is to supplant. And that is the suggestion that he used trickery, which is not found in the Quran obviously at all, that Yaqub used trickery to take away prophethood from his brother Alis, Isa, and replaced him. And obviously to us, a prophet would not employ trickery to become a prophet of Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala. So we would reject that interpretation. But this is one thing. He is Yaqub. He followed his brother immediately in coming out of the womb. The other one subhanAllah is the Bushra, the glad tidings. Think about Ibrahim alayhis salaam and Sarah when they received the glad tidings of a child. They have not been able to have a child for all of these years. Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala blessed him with Ismail alayhis salaam through Hajar alayhis salaam 13 years prior. And then suddenly the angel comes to these older two people, to this old couple. And what does the angel tell Ibrahim alayhis salaam and Sarah? Not only did they get the Bushra of Ishaq, the Bushra of a child Ishaq, ومن وراء Ishaq, Yaqub. Like subhanAllah, look how Allah answers the prayers and look how Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala fulfills the covenant towards his people. That you have a child that is coming and we have gifted you from that child, a child from that child. And there will be many many children from that child. And you will live to enjoy both of them and that is actually part of the Bushra. SubhanAllah, part of the glad tidings is that Ibrahim alayhis salaam got to see with the coolness of his eyes,
his son Ishaq and his grandson Yaqub as well. And Yaqub is a beautiful child, a noble prophet of Allah. SubhanAllah, someone who embodies so many of the traits and qualities that we wish we could have. And we learn about his patience in the story of Yusuf alayhis salaam and that is just one dimension. One dimension of his life alayhis salaam. And so that is one interpretation as well as the succession, the story of succession. A family that gave up hope on children and Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala blessed them with nations. And here subhanAllah in that is what the Prophet salallahu alayhi wasalam said about Yusuf alayhis salaam. The most noble lineage. Think about his lineage. A prophet, the son of a prophet, the son of a prophet, the son of a prophet. There is no person who ever had a lineage more noble than Yusuf alayhis salaam. Yusuf, the son of Yaqub, the son of Ishaq, the son of Ibrahim. What a noble lineage that he had. Prophet, prophet, prophet, prophet. So there is the story of succession. Now the name Israel, when does it come to Yaqub alayhis salaam and what is the implication of the name Israel? Now a rule of thumb when you are reading the name El, El refers to what? Ilah, God, Allah. So for example those of you who might remember when I taught Jibreel alayhis salaam, Jibra, Jibreel, Jibreel is Abdullah, the slave of Allah, right? So Jibreel, you will extract the meaning of the first part and then you will take the second part of it. El refers to God himself. Israel, what does it refer to and what is his name and why is this the name that is given to him? Again an interpretation that is not found in the Quran is that at some point he wrestles with God or wrestles with an angel and his name changes from Yaqub to Israel, right? Like an upgrade.
Israel means the one who is bound to Allah by covenant. Isr refers to abiding. Like when you have a prisoner and you tie up a prisoner, the way Shaykh Yasir if he tied me up, what would he call me? His Asir, right? So he is bound to his Lord, not by compulsion or hatred. He is bound by covenant, right? He is bound by his covenant with Allah. And this is something extremely profound and extremely beautiful in the story of Yaqub, a man who honors his covenant with Allah. And the call to Bani Israel, the children of Yaqub, is honor the covenant. Honor the Ahad, honor the Mithaq, the covenant that you took with your Lord, the covenant that Allah gave you, and directly tying the favor of God to the covenant that you honor with God. And Yaqub is a man who is devout in honoring his covenant with Allah. And here you see, subhanAllah, the beauty, and I don't have too much time to go into this so I'll make it very quick, the beauty in the Quran in when Allah uses the name Yaqub and when Allah uses the name Israel, when they're both interchangeable. Yaqub refers to the story of succession. Bani Israel, Israel is whenever his name is brought up in invoking the covenant, invoking following the prophets, keeping to what was given to you. You're not just chosen and then the covenant has nothing. No, you are given victory when you abide by the revelation. You're given God's favor when you respond to God's revelation. Those two things are interchangeable. And we find with him, Israel, Yaqub, this beautiful honoring of the covenant. And I'll just give you two things very quickly, subhanAllah.
The only prophet of Allah whose death conversation with his children is recorded as Yaqub. أَمْ كُنْتُمْ شُهَدًا إِذْ حَضَرَ يَعْقُوبَ الْمَوْتِ إِذْ قَالَ لِبَنِهِ مَا تَعْبُدُونَ مِنْ بَعْدِهِ Were you present when Yaqub was with his children? Right, the succession. MashaAllah, Allah blessed him with 12 children. And as you can see, that came with its test as well. But nations were born out of that. And Bani Israel has prophets, has beautiful worshippers as well, right? The prophets of Bani Israel and Ubad of Bani Israel and things of that sort, right? There are worshippers that are there as well. And Yaqub is speaking to his children. He says, what will you worship after me? Renew your covenant. قَالُوا نَعْبَدُوا إِلَهَكَ وَإِلَهَ آبَائِكَ إِبْرَاهِيمَ وَإِسْمَعِيلَ وَإِسْحَاقَ We worship your Lord. We worship the Lord of your father. We worship the Lord of Ibrahim, the Lord of Ismail, the Lord of Ishaq, the one Lord. And we are to Him, Muslimun. We submit ourselves to Him. So subhanAllah, the story of succession is deeply tied to the story of covenant. What will you hold on to? And here's where it becomes so beautiful. When Zakariya a.s. made du'a at the end of Bani Israel, when prophethood is about to leave Bani Israel, he said, يَرِثُني وَيَرِثُ مِنْ آلِيَعْقُوبِ Grant me a son. Because Zakariya sees the end of prophethood amongst Bani Israel. Grant me a son who will inherit from me, not money, knowledge, and prophethood. And الِيَعْقُوبِ All of the goodness from the first to the last of the story of Bani Israel, let my son embody that. And indeed, Yahya a.s. embodied the best of Bani Israel. التَمَسُّكْ بِالْتَوْرَاءِ He was someone that held on to the Torah and authority. He had the best qualities that you could possibly have. A beautiful prophet of Allah s.w.t.
And finally, dear brothers and sisters, when Allah then talks to the children of Bani Israel, what's the first mention of Bani Israel in the Quran? Surah Al-Baqarah يَا بَنِي إِسْرَائِيلُ اذْكُرُوا نِعْمَتِيَا الَّتِي نَعَمْتُ عَلَيْكُمْ وَأَوْفُوا بِعَهْدِي أُوفِي بِعَهْدِيكُمْ The first time they come up in the story in the Quran, remember my favor upon you, hold on to my covenant and I will fulfill my covenant to you. It's the story of grabbing on to the covenant. The favor of Allah s.w.t. is indeed through the covenant. The Prophet s.a.w. said that we, the Prophets, we do not leave behind inheritance, we leave behind knowledge. Whoever takes their share of it has taken a noble share. We become the extension of those Prophets, not through blood but through covenant, through abiding by the revelation and by following the revelation of Muhammad s.a.w., the last of the Prophets. We pray that Allah s.w.t. will make us shuhada with all of the Prophets on the Day of Judgment as the Ummah of Muhammad s.a.w. as honoring the revelation from Allah s.w.t. Allahuma Ameen. JazakumAllahu Khaira Wassalamualaikum Warahmatullahi Wabarakatuh
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