Qur'an 30 for 30 | Season 4
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Juz’ 1 with Imam Tom Facchine | Diseases of the Heart, Identity, & the Choices We Make
In Surah al-Baqarah, Allah introduces three categories of people (the believers, the disbelievers, and the hypocrites) and three categories of creation (angels, jinns, and humans). Through the stories of Bani Isra’il, Allah draws parallels between these categories, the state of our hearts, and what truly separates believers from everyone else.
Hosts Dr. Omar Suleiman and Sh. Abdullah Oduro are joined by Imam Tom Facchine in this year’s first episode of Qur’an 30for30 to take a new look at Juz 1 to help us reconstruct our worldview and make the most out of this Ramadan.
Download our FREE eBook “Qur’an 30for30: Judgment Day Edition”.
0:00 - Introduction
4:47 - Dr. Omar Suleiman reflects on three categories of people in Surah al-Baqarah
7:45 - The three categories of creation (angels, humans, and jinn)
10:24 - The parallels between the two categorizations
11:42 - The difference between the questioning of Bani Isra’il and of the angels
13:24 - Sh. Abdullah Oduro reflects on the story behind the name of the second chapter - “al-Baqarah"
17:13 - Allah’s categorization of rocks and how they relate to hearts of humans
19:50 - How to soften your heart in Ramadan
21:08 - The parallels between the categorizations of people and their hearts
22:34 - Imam Tom reflects on the pitfalls of taking faith as identity
25:28 - The central problem of Bani Isra’il
28:42 - Extreme focus on identity can be a type of tribalism
30:00 - What it really means to have faith
Transcript
This transcript was auto-generated using AI and may contain misspellings. Welcome back to Qur'an 30 for 30. My co-host, Sheikh Abdullah Aduro, our first guest, Alhamdulillah Rabbul Ameen, Imam Tom Fakini, Alhamdulillah. Welcome, welcome Masha'ikh, how are you all doing? Alhamdulillah, I'm good, good, Alhamdulillah, glad to be back here. Alhamdulillah, doing well, can't believe it's already been a year since last time. SubhanAllah, subhanAllah. So before we get started, to remind everyone inshaAllah, every morning you're going to have your Jannah series release. Every evening we'll be doing Qur'an 30 for 30 inshaAllah ta'ala, and we have a whole bunch more, so please keep up with it all in Ramadan bint Nidai ta'ala. And we also want to remind you in this first session inshaAllah ta'ala to go ahead and sign up for the daily giving, automate your donations bint Nidai ta'ala. We look forward to your support as we always do in Ramadan bint Nidai ta'ala and beyond. And Alhamdulillah, as we're getting started this year, I'm sure first and foremost, before we get into the juz where we're going to be covering the Muslim world view, first of all, everyone is wondering where is the ping pong video? Shaykh Abdullah, where is the ping pong video? You really want to start off the Qur'an series with that, Shaykh? Are you sure? Wow, wow, wow, I don't know, I don't know, I don't know. Ask some of your confidants over there about the ping pong video. We have another series coming up, by the way, too. We're not done. Why are you trying to cause trouble already? So there's a conspiracy between Shaykh Abdullah and the brother who recorded it, Chance, I'm calling you out, to hide the ping pong video. So they put it somehow as mysteriously as lost as Shaykh Abdullah was in the ping pong game. Alhamdulillah. Blessed to have you, Shaykh. We'll definitely have our rematch. So we'll give you a chance. Hopefully the footage will get discovered in the meantime. And Imam Tom, Alhamdulillah, to our Yaqeen viewers, Imam Tom, you're going to be seeing a lot more of him, Bid'ah Ta'ala.
He just joined us full time as our research director of Islam and Society, Alhamdulillah. Last year, Imam Tom had a really bad setup. You were like in a tree house somewhere and it was all blurry and you were on the phone. All of a sudden, you've got like this crisp, sharp, beautiful setup. So Alhamdulillah, someone made du'a for you last Ramadan when they were watching you, Shaykh, and you got the setup now, Mashallah. That's for sure, Alhamdulillah. Shaykh, welcome to the team, man. Welcome to the team. Alhamdulillah. It's a wonderful team to be a part of. What are you going to be doing, Insha'Allah, Tadim, before we get started? Yes, so as the research director of Islam and Society, the whole idea is to focus on the Islamic worldview. So we're going to be looking at contemporary ideologies and worldviews that dominate and do work on us that we're not aware of. Sometimes they operate in the background. We're going to try to shine a light on those and deconstruct those and reconstruct the individual's framework and their paradigm and their lens for understanding the world. So they live in based off of the Quran and Sunnah and our traditional scholarship. And that's going to be done in a team effort through me and everybody else who's already working for Yaqeen. And then also I'm going to be trying to recruit new folks who will help us towards that mission. So I'm very excited for that. Insha'Allah, Tadim. And that is our, in fact, theme for this Quran 30 for 30, Bid'ah Al-A'idah, the Muslim worldview. So every year we have a theme. We just had the book come out for last year's Judgment Day series co-author with Sheikh Ismail Kamdara. Alhamdulillah. So please do download it if you haven't already. But this year we're going to be looking at the Muslim worldview, insha'Allah ta'ala. And that's going to be the theme as we go through juz' by juz' and I'm very excited about that, Bid'ah Al-A'idah. Sheikh Abdullah, I got it. There's got to be a joke before I start. One more thing. It's got to be a joke. We just got back from Umrah. So I want to see if you can figure this out. Then I'll start insha'Allah ta'ala. So Sheikh Abdullah, what do you call someone in the gym who stays on the cycle?
It's always on the bike. Someone in the gym that's always on the bike? Yeah. I don't know how. A cycle path, Sheikh. A cycle path. Okay. Okay. Tom, what do you think about that one? There we go. I got a face problem. Tom, you got to do something. I wish Tom's camera would fit your day job. It's very embarrassing how that joke didn't land. It would have been better. Maybe we could have gone back to Tom's old setup. Khair, insha'Allah. That's a granddad joke. That's a granddad joke. I'll try to do better tomorrow. Please. Bismillah. So shall we get started? Alhamdulillah. Alhamdulillah wa salatu wa salamu ala Rasulullah wa ala alihi wa sahbihi wa man wala. On a serious note, we're very happy to have you all back. Alhamdulillah. And as I said, the Muslim worldview. So subhanAllah, every time you read the Qur'an, it gives you something new. And as we sort of mapped out how we're going to cover the first juz, there's something very interesting about Surah Al-Baqarah. And to remind everyone, this is of the first surahs in Al-Madinah. So it's kind of the constitution for the Muslim community. And one of the things that you start to see are the broad categorizations that manifest themselves in very specific behaviors throughout the surah. So I want you to pay attention to this, bismillah ta'ala. In the very first part of Surah Al-Baqarah, Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala introduces three broad categories of people. The believers, the disbelievers, and the hypocrites. So Allah azawajal talks about, Alladhina yu'minuna bilghayb, those who believe in the unseen, wa yuqimuna as-salat, wa mimma razaqnahum yunfiqoon. They establish the prayer based upon their belief in the unseen, and they spend from that which was given to them. And so they are motivated by this belief in the unseen, and they are working towards the hereafter,
and they are fully committed towards achieving that Jannah from Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala. So the believers are trying to get back home to Al-Jannah, may Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala allow us to get there. Allahumma ameen. And they believe in the unseen as if they can see it. Then Allah talks about Al-Kafirin. And Allah says about the disbelievers, a-an dharatahum am lam tundirahum la yu'minoon. Whether you warn them or not, they will not believe because they have seals on their hearts, which Shaykh Abdullah inshaAllah ta'ala is going to talk about what those seals are. But they are people whose motivations are preventing them from having a pure creed and a pure stride. And so the problem is not in the lack of proof, of intellectual proof for them to believe. The problem is that they are pursuing something other than belief, so how can belief fill their hearts? Then Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala mentions the hypocrites. wa minan nasi may yaqooru aamanna billah wa bil yaumil aakhir From those who say we believe in Allah and the Day of Judgment, wa maahum bi mu'mineen, and they are not believers. So Allah azawajal talks about the hypocrites. So these are people who do not make their disbelief obvious. They are so intoxicated by their pursuit of this world that they will use belief. They will even stoop to the level of using the cover of belief to pursue this world, to pursue this material world. So they are the worst of the three categories. SubhanAllah, there is something really interesting that I only noticed this time around about the next categorization. So you got the believers who have a pure pursuit and a pure creed. You have the disbelievers who have an impure pursuit, therefore they have an impure creed. And you have the hypocrites whose pursuit is so impure that they will even use the purest cover of belief in order to maximize their pursuit of this dunya. But subhanAllah, pay attention to this.
On the same page in Surat Al-Baqarah, Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala introduces three categories of species, of existence. Allah introduces the angels, the jinn, and human beings all on the same page. And that is where Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala mentions, wa ithqala rabbuka rid mala'ika inni ja'ilun fil ardi khalifah That when your Lord said to the angels that I am placing a successor on this earth, I am placing custodians on this earth, and of course the word khalifah has various translations here that we won't get into in particular, but you are stewards of this earth. inni ja'ilun fil ardi khalifah So Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala is telling the angels, and this is the first time we're introduced to them, right, in the Quran, about the creation of human beings, and this is the first time we're introduced to them, right, in the Quran. And they say, ataj'alu feeha man yufsidu feeha wa yasfiqu dima' Will you place upon it those who will cause corruption and spill blood? Who are they talking about? They are saying that because as the Mufassirun mentioned, those that preceded us as being caretakers or having that will on this earth were the jinn, and they led themselves astray, and they ended up causing corruption and spilling blood. And Allah azza wa jalla mentions to us Adam alayhi salam specifically from the human beings, and shaytan specifically, or the shaytan, which is Iblis, the head of them, from the jinn. So subhanAllah, angels, human beings, jinn, specifically from human beings, Adam alayhi salam, specifically jinn, or specifically Iblis from the jinn, are all introduced to us on this one page in the Quran. So you have a new categorization. Now this is page 6, by the way. So page 6, a new categorization. Now here is the way that we break them down in terms of their approach here. Angels obey Allah no matter what.
So whether they understand or they don't understand, angels obey Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala lovingly. la ya'asun Allah ma amaruhum wa yaf'aluna ma yu'marun They will not disobey Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala when he commands them. They will do exactly as they are told. So you have the angels and their obedience, even when they don't understand. You have human beings who fall to desire, and you have shaitaan who tempts them to destruction. So you have angels who obey Allah no matter what, human beings who fall to simple desire, and then shaitaan who out of pride tempts them to destruction. So you have a new categorization. And then subhanAllah, you get into the human prototypes, which bring together the first categorization with the second categorization. You have the hypocrisy of Bani Israel, right, who have an impure pursuit, or a large section of Bani Israel, an impure pursuit, and so they use the creed for that. You have a shaitanic human being in Fir'aun, okay? You have a shaitanic human being in Fir'aun whose pride leads him to destroying himself and seeking the destruction of the believers. And then you have those believers and the prophets who turn back to Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala in the midst of hardship. So you have those believers that repent to Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala that turn back to Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala. And so the categories go from believers, disbelievers, hypocrites, to angels, human beings, jinn, to these human prototypes now because obviously we are the recipients of this message, as well as the jinn by the way, the hypocrisy of Bani Israel, the pure disbelief and tyranny of Fir'aun who acts from the same pride that the shaitaan did, and then another prophet who turns back to Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala in Musa alayhi as-salam, along with the loving believers, as did Adam alayhi as-salam in turning back to Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala. Lastly, the questioning of Bani Israel, right?
The questioning of Bani Israel is not like the questioning of the angels, right? So the angels ask Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala, Ataj'alu feeha man yufsidu feeha wa yasfiqu dimaan Oh Allah, are you going to place in this earth a people, an existence that will spread corruption, spill blood? Now when they said that, they were saying that for various motivations, but as the scholars mentioned, there was a fear of deficiency on their part. They loved and obeyed Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala so much that are we not sufficient, ya Allah? Nahnu nusabbihu bihamdika wa nuqaddisu lak. So we glorify you, we praise you. Are we deficient, oh Allah? And Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala says, Inni a'lamu ma la ta'limun. I know that which you don't know. Okay, so the angels, when they question, they're not questioning like Bani Israel, which will question out of hypocrisy. And I'll end with this inshaAllah, and then Sheikh Abdullah can talk about the matter of the heart. The angels question out of wanting to know if they should be loving and obeying Allah more. Bani Israel questions out of trying to escape their obligations. And because of an impurity in the heart. So when Allah azawajal tells them that you are commanded to slaughter Al-Baqarah, the cow, which is literally what the surah is named after, they start coming up with all these questions. Why? Because they're trying to escape obligations. And so the questioning of the angels is not like the questioning of Bani Israel. And so subhanAllah, this worldview starts off with these broad categorizations that Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala gives us from the very beginning of the Quran. And biddenillahi ta'ala, I'll go ahead and I'll pass it on to Sheikh Abdullah to talk about this from the heart, the perspective of the heart. Tell the Sheikh. Jazakum Allah khayran. Bismillah wa salatu wa salam wa ala rasool Allah wa ala alihi wa sahbihi wa man wala amma ba'a. So when talking about the heart, we realize that the chapter was called Al-Baqarah, the cow, which comes after a story that involved Bani Israel,
being that they were ordered to slaughter a cow that was an order by Musa, ultimately by Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala. And this is subhanAllah al-Azeem, it is something that is great because it ties in that which is ma'qul bin ma'soos, that which is known or understood with that which is tangible to us. And I'll explain. When Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala with his other and his predestination, what happened between the people of Bani Israel is that a man was killed amongst them and they started to argue amongst themselves. You can find this roughly in the 70th verse all the way to the 75th verse. What happened is a man was killed amongst them and he was murdered and the tribes of Bani Israel began to argue amongst themselves to where they were almost about to kill each other. Faddara'tum feeha, Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala says when they did faddara'tum ad-dar, is like to push one another against each other to where they were blaming one another. When Moses came to them and he told them, subhanAllah, to slaughter a cow, an tadbahu baqara, qalo ta'takhuduna hazuwa, say, are you taking us as a joke? And then Moses responded, audhu billahi an akuna minal jahileen, I seek refuge in Allah to be from those that act ignorantly. Because this was a revelation from Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala to test them and their faith. Dare we even say a level of blind faith following the messenger of Allah salallahu alayhi wa sallam alayhi salam, Moses alayhi salam, when he told them to take a portion of the cow, to take a portion of the cow after they slaughter it and to touch the killed man with it. But before they did it, they had excessive questioning. As many of us know that they said, what is it? mahi, what is it? ma lounuha, what color is it? mahi inna albaqara tashabaha alayna, what is it exactly? Because all these cows look alike and we inshallah we will follow. But they finally did it. They finally slaughtered the cow. fathaba huha wa ma kadoo yaf'aloon
They finally obeyed the order of Musa, which was ultimately the order of Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala but they were not about to do it. Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala says this in the Quran. Now when Moses ordered them to do this, subhanAllah, it was told to them that, you know, in the tafsir, who the killer actually was. But even after all of this, Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala says, thumma qasat quloobukum min ba'di thalika fahiyya kal hijarati aw ashaddu qaswa Even after all of this, and what is so beautiful here is that Allah says, thumma qasat quloobukum and the scholars mentioned this thumma here is a thumma meaning then, but it really means then after all of this, your hearts are hard still. fahiyya kal hijara It is as hard as a rock. aw ashaddu qaswa And there's many different understandings when Allah says aw meaning or, or along with the fact that it is even worse and harder than rocks. As we know rocks is one of the hardest structures on this earth. Their hearts are like that because of the covenant that they disobeyed fabi ma naqadihim mithaqahum That the covenant that they disobeyed and they betrayed by killing off the prophets and lying in their disbelief. But here SubhanAllah, Allah is saying after these ayat of Allah Subhanahu wa ta'ala was shown, as he mentions in these earlier verses, an ayah, imagine slaughtering a cow, taking a portion of it, placing it on the dead body, they wake up and they say who the killer was. After these ayats, the signs of Allah Subhanahu wa ta'ala, showing that he is an ultimate control, the hearts were still hardened after that. Then Allah Subhanahu wa ta'ala gives the comparison of some of the scenarios of the rocks, which as some scholars say, these rocks, even though they're the hardest structures on the earth or of the hardest structures on the earth, they still get compromised by the water. wa inna minal hijarati lamma yatafajjaru minhu al-anhaar
And then he says, SubhanAllah, and verily from the rocks, that those are the rocks that even rivers gush forth from them. And then there's the other category, those that split open and water pours from them. And then there's a third category, that these rocks fall out of fear of Allah Subhanahu wa ta'ala, min khashyati Allah And there's some beautiful benefits here. Firstly, is that these jamaadat, these things that we can see and touch and feel the heart, the rocks, Allah mentions different scenarios of them, even though those are hard, your hearts, binu Isra'il, are harder than that. Because many of these signs have come forth and been shown to you in different ways. This is where we stop. This is where we have to look at ourselves. This beautiful month of Ramadan is here. The 11 months have passed and we know where our hearts have been hardened. We know where we have been quote unquote negligent. It's another opportunity that Allah Subhanahu wa ta'ala has left you and placed you on this earth for a divine reason, which we ultimately don't know. But we know that the opportunity for our hearts to be softened is there. We have to ask ourselves, what are those characteristics that we've seen of denial of the ayat of Allah Subhanahu wa ta'ala? This is why Allah brings the stories. For you to look at yourself and say, am I taking on those characteristics or am I avoiding those characteristics to be of the ones that he loves and he is pleased with? Because ultimately, when that takes the case, you will be pleased with yourself and with life in which Allah Subhanahu wa ta'ala has given you and presented in front of you on a daily basis. With that being the case, is your heart softened by the remembrance of Allah? Does your heart find tranquility with the remembrance of Allah? The Prophet Sallallahu Alaihi Wasallam, he said, la tukthiru kalam bi ghayri dhikri Allah.
Do not be in excessive talking without the remembrance of Allah Subhanahu wa ta'ala. Because one of the worst people on this earth are the people that have hardened hearts. Comparing the one that does not remember Allah Subhanahu wa ta'ala, their hearts being hard. Dhikr bil lisan and dhikr bil qalb. The remembrance of Allah with the tongue, the remembrance of Allah Subhanahu wa ta'ala with the heart. So using this month of Ramadan as a catalyst to soften our hearts by remembering Allah Subhanahu wa ta'ala, mentioning his name, opening the book of Allah Subhanahu wa ta'ala, and reading the stories of the Prophet. Reading those stories and looking at ourselves. So when we look at the second Jews particularly, looking at Banu Israel and their attitude towards the revelation being the Quran. Look at yourself. What is my attitude in regards to the revelation? What is my attitude in regards to Islam? What is my attitude in regards to this month of Ramadan that is coming here and I have to fast again? I have to because I know that it's better for me. Because if not, there is a huge opportunity, and I want to use the word challenge, to where our hearts can be hardened, to where nothing can penetrate it over a period of time. Fataalahumul amad faqasat qulubuhum. As Allah Subhanahu wa ta'ala says, the time frame passed them by and their hearts were hardened over that period of time. So taking advantage of looking at the story of Banu Israel and seeing the name of the chapter of Baqarah and asking ourselves why, looking at this beautiful story, and asking Allah Subhanahu wa ta'ala to make our hearts soft for his message and for his deen. BarakAllahu fikum. JazakAllah khair, Sheikh Abdullah. SubhanAllah, it occurred to me as you were speaking, look at the coherence of the Quran. So the heart of the believer, the heart of the disbeliever, the heart of the hypocrite, the Prophet SallAllahu Alaihi Wasallam described them as what? He described the heart of the believer as fertile soil, SallAllahu Alaihi Wasallam, that the rain comes down on it, receives it, and then beautiful things grow out of it.
And he described SallAllahu Alaihi Wasallam, al-qalb al-manqoos, a heart that is overturned, so the water just hits it and nothing happens to it. And he described the heart-shaped surface that other people benefit from it, but it doesn't benefit itself. SubhanAllah, so you have the categorizations in the beginning of believers, disbelievers, hypocrites, and then how that manifests itself in the original creation of angels, human beings, jinn, and then how that manifests itself in Adam, shaytan, then Fir'aun, Musa, then Bani Israel, the righteous and the wicked, because there are righteous Bani Israel and there are wicked. And it goes back to the heart. Allah says it's about the heart, right? The heart and how hard the heart is is going to determine whether or not there is a place to where this Quran can land, because the Quran is the water from the sky. The Quran is that rain, so how befitting that Allah Azawajal starts off with this in the Quran, in the order of the Quran that we have this to sort of lay it out. InshaAllah to our Shaykh Tom, we'll hand it off to you and you can inshaAllah take us on a journey through the next level of this. Bismillah, Alhamdulillah, Salatu Salam wa Surah Allah. SubhanAllah, that's a really really heavy reflection for Shaykh Abdullah, may Allah reward him. You know, the first Jews of the Quran is very interesting because you have a very very short surah, Surat Al-Fatiha, and then the longest surah in the Quran, Surat Al-Baqarah. And so, you know, when people approach it, it's very easy to feel a disconnect there between those two surahs, but in fact they're very intimately related. In fact, Surat Al-Fatiha actually ends on a cliffhanger, right? We ask Allah Subhanahu Wa Ta'ala to guide us on the right way, the way of the Prophets, those who were certain that Allah Subhanahu Wa Ta'ala has blessed them. And then we ask Allah Subhanahu Wa Ta'ala to not let us go down the path of two types of people, the people who have earned Allah's anger, and the people who have been let go astray.
But it doesn't tell us who those people are, right? And so if you look at Surat Al-Baqarah, and even after Surah Al-Imran, it's almost giving you an explanation or an illustration for who that type of person is. And so Surat Al-Baqarah is very, very, very interesting. It's basically one of the main themes is showing us what that pitfall looks like. Okay, you want to be a person who doesn't earn the anger of Allah Subhanahu Wa Ta'ala? Well, we're going to show you what it looks like to earn the anger of Allah Subhanahu Wa Ta'ala, because the Qur'an is like a roadmap to Jannah. And any roadmap, it's not just going to show you where the destination is, but it's going to alert you as to where the dangers are, where the pitfalls are. So this is an extremely, extremely dangerous situation to be in, and we want to make sure that we avoid it. So how do we do it? Allah gives us the story of Bani Israel. And one of the main problems of what Bani Israel fell into is that they took their faith, and they converted it into an identity, rather than keeping it as a covenant, keeping it as an agreement, keeping it as something that was about not who they are, but rather what they do. And this is extremely problematic, and Allah Subhanahu Wa Ta'ala calls them out for it. He says in Surah Al-Baqarah, وَقَالُوا لَن تَمَسَنَ النَّارُ إِلَّا أَيَّا مَن مَعْدُودَ Okay, so they had this belief that they were God's chosen people, and so the fire is only going to touch us for a couple days, we're good. Okay, what does Allah Subhanahu Wa Ta'ala respond with? He says, وَلَا مَن كَسَبَ سَيِّئَةً وَأَحَاطَتْ بِهِ خَطِيَةُهُ فَأُولَٰئِكَ أَصْحَابُ النَّارُ هُمْ فِيهَا خَالِدُونَ No, if people are going to reap what they sow, right, he uses the word kasaba, if they earn evil, if they earn sin, then they're going to be paid back in kind. وَلَذِينَ آمَنُوا وَعَمِلُوا الصَّالِحَاتِ أُولَّئِكَ أَصْحَابُ الْجَنَّةِ هُمْ فِيهَا خَالِدُونَ
The opposite, if people earn, they put their effort into righteousness and trying to do the best that they can in their sincerity, then they will also reap what they sow. So this was the big problem, maybe the central problem of Bani Israel that Allah is telling us not to fall into. They took the fact that Allah had given them revelation and they tried to just construct this identity around it and rally around just that identity as if that guaranteed them salvation, right? We talk about Muslim identity all the time and Muslim identity is an important thing. We talk about we want the youth to have a Muslim identity, but identity also has its pitfalls. Identity is also limiting. If you only make it about identity, it starts to become about who you are rather than what you do. And that's going to have, it's going to prevent you from certain things. One of the things that it prevented Bani Israel from doing, it prevented them from accepting the truth when it came, when it came to anybody outside of their own kind. Allah Subhanahu wa ta'ala says, وَإِذَا قِيلَ لَهُمْ آمِنُوا بِمَا أَنزَلَ اللَّهُ قَالُوا نُؤْمِنُوا بِمَا أُنزِلَ عَلَيْنَا وَيَكْفُرُونَ بِمَا وَرَاءَهُ Is that when it is said to them, believe in what Allah Subhanahu wa ta'ala has revealed and sent down, they say, we're only going to believe in that which was given to us. And they disbelieve or they deny in anything after that. So that's one thing. It put them in a position where they were not prepared to accept the truth because they had overplayed that idea of identity. And so they kind of got arrogant and thought that, well, the truth has to be from within our own in-group. They weren't ready to hear truth from outside of themselves. The second thing it made them do was that it made them overconfident about their own salvation. And it made them very smug towards other people. Allah Subhanahu wa ta'ala says, وَقَالُوا لَن يَدْخُلَ الْجَنَّةَ إِلَّا مَن كَانَ هُودًا أَوْنَصَارًا Look, nobody is going to get into heaven except for people who are Jews or Christians.
And what does Allah Subhanahu wa ta'ala say? تِلْكَ أَمَانِيُّهُمْ Like this is their vain desire. This is something that they made up. قُلْ هَاتُوا بُرْحَانَكُمْ إِن كُنتُمْ صَلِقِينَ Tell them, bring your proof. Bring your proof if you're really being honest about this. And then Allah rejects it even further and says, بَلَا مَنْ أَسْلَمَ وَجَهَهُ لِلَّهِ وَهُوَ مُحْسِنُونَ فَلَهُ أَجْرُهُ عِنْدَ رَبِّهِ وَلَا خَوْفٌ عَلَيْهِمْ وَلَا هُمْ يَحْسُنُونَ That a person who, again Allah Subhanahu wa ta'ala brings it back to your actions. Allah Subhanahu wa ta'ala brings it back to your choices. Allah Subhanahu wa ta'ala brings it back to what are you doing? What's the state of your heart? If you submit, right? If you submit, then you've got nothing to worry about and you won't have to fear anything. And finally, it made them dismiss. It made the Bani Israel dismiss the good that existed in others. Because again, the truth for them was all about their identity, their in-group. And anybody outside of their group, well they were just plain wrong. وَقَالَتِ الْيَهُودُ لَيْسَتِ النَّصَارَ عَلَى شَيْءٍ وَقَالَتِ النَّصَارَ لَيْسَتِ الْيَهُودُ عَلَى شَيْءٍ وَهُمْ يَتْلُونَ الْكِتَابِ Each side would say, the other guys, they're completely off. They've got nothing. And they would say that mutually about each other and each of them recited from the scripture. It's not possible that both of them were completely baseless and completely off. Each of them had good things and bad things. But their sense of group identity made them reject those sorts of things. This type of extreme reliance or over-emphasis on identity is a type of tribalism. Allah Subhanahu Wa Ta'ala wants us to understand that faith is what you do. It's what you choose. It's your attitude. It's your sincerity. It's your intention. And Allah Subhanahu Wa Ta'ala refers to it as that. He uses the word Mithaq, which is something that's like an agreement or a covenant. And He wants us to know. He wants us to know as Muslims that we cannot fall into the same mistake. And that's why one of the most famous ayahs, most people know this ayah.
It's the 62nd ayah of Surah Al-Baqarah where Allah says, إِنَّ الَّذِينَ آمَنُوا وَالَّذِينَ هَادُوا وَالنَّصَارَ وَالصَّابِعِينَ Right? Whoever believes in Allah and the Day of Judgment and does righteous works, they're going to have their reward. But a lot of people don't pay attention to the siyaq or the context. What are the verses that come before this and the verses that come after this? This comes in a part of the Jews where Allah Subhanahu Wa Ta'ala is completely blasting Bani Israel. He's telling them, look, you messed this up and you messed that up. And you were not grateful for this and you were not grateful for that. And it's as if the reader is about to come to the conclusion, man, these guys were all just horrible. And then Allah Subhanahu Wa Ta'ala says, hold the phone. Wait a second. No, some of them were good, even if the majority of them went astray. And so it's not about what you call yourself. It's not about the label you give to yourself. It's not about your group identity. It's about what you do, what you choose, your principles, your choices. Faith is an agreement and Allah Subhanahu Wa Ta'ala wants us to get the lesson. Wallahu Ta'ala a'lam. JazakAllah khair, Shaykh. And just to be clear, you're saying we still have to be Muslims, but we have to be mu'mineen as well. Of course. So no one puts you out of context. Shaykh Abdullah likes to do this sometimes. No, it has to mean something. That's the thing. Of course we have to be Muslims, but being a Muslim has to mean something. We can't just be Muslims in name only. Oh, okay. Now he gets it. Shaykh, a powerful subhanAllah reflection, I think, that you just brought forth. Bani Israel was also manifesting then something of the shaitan too, right? Because Iblis felt like, wait a minute, you made me from fire, you made him from dirt. I already got to this place. I already am chosen by Allah to be in this place. Who's this guy that comes out of nowhere?
Who's this person that's going to suddenly get all of this? And so he's manifesting, or rather Bani Israel is manifesting at that point, the wicked of Bani Israel are manifesting something of the shaitan as well. So Fir'aun is manifesting the tyranny, and Bani Israel is manifesting some of that arrogance that you're mentioning, the wicked amongst Bani Israel. And I think subhanAllah it's very profound because oftentimes our anger with a zalim, with a tyrant, is from this place of like we would never do that if we were in their position. But if the heart is diseased, then the only thing missing is that that person sits on a throne and you don't. That person has the power to act on their disease and you don't. But Allah is saying focus on the disease of the heart, because that's what you will be held accountable for most on the Day of Judgment. So subhanAllah it's just really bringing it back to like think about yourself. Think where you fall in this entire scheme of things. And I want to give you both a chance, inshaAllah, to share sort of a final reflection, then we'll go ahead and close it off with Dina. Just going off of that, yeah, I mean it's almost like a theological shortcut, right? It's like the nefs wants to cheat on the exam, right? We don't want to have to put in the work. And so if we can make our salvation about something that I didn't choose, right, whether it's my skin color, whether it's my lineage, whatever, and I can convince myself that well this is what's going to get me into paradise or this is what's going to bring me success in the afterlife, then I've kind of gotten out of the work. I don't have to put in the work anymore, right? And Allah ﷻ is trying to say, you know, no, it's not about these things that are unchosen, right? You have to submit, right? The name of our deen is Islam. You have to submit and that's something that actually you have to have an intention for and it has certain conditions and it has certain outward sort of elements and inward elements
and you have to do it and there's no sort of substitute for that. Yeah, that's beautiful, I mean when talking about the identity, this is even an indirect message towards Muslims as well, you know, those that don't have any actions whatsoever. They say that they're Muslim but they're not fulfilling the basic criteria and that of being and trusting in Allah ﷻ from His beautiful names and attributes and letting that show through our actions, particularly the actions of the heart, right? So I think that's a very important risalah and directly for Muslims as well, you know, thinking that okay, just because I have this name that I'm going to get into Jannah and that's where subhanAllah, you know, the verses that you mentioned kind of support that and they do support that. Jazakumullahu khairan. You know what else I just realized, Sheikh, when you were talking about it, والذين يؤمنون بما أنزل إليك وما أنزل من قبلك like the tribalism is already being rooted out of the Muslim because they believe in what was revealed to you and they believe in what was revealed to those that came before you. So as Muslims, even though we don't have the tangible, you know, copies and scriptures that were revealed to the prophets of old, we believe in them and we embrace that, right? We embrace sort of the truth that was with those prophets and with the pure followers of those prophets before the final revelation which is of course abrogating yet from the same source of Al-Quran and the Sharia to the Prophet Muhammad salAllahu alayhi wa sallam. But even that, like we're not riding this like new way and this way of excluding ourselves. No, we're actually seeing ourselves as building on the purity of the prophets that came before and the purity of those communities. SubhanAllah. So it's emphasized even in the very beginning as you mentioned. I mean even when we look at Siyam, what's the verse about Siyam, the fasting? Right. Oh, you believe كُتِبَ عَلَى كُمُ الصِّيَامُ كَمَا كُتِبَ عَلَى لَذِينَ مِن قَبْلِكُمْ لَعَلَّكُمْ تَتَّقُونَ Oh, you believe fasting has been prescribed upon you
as it was prescribed upon those before you, perhaps you will be those that are mindful. So it was a means of mindfulness of God from the beginning of time. SubhanAllah, it's amazing, amazing thing. And you can imagine like the effect on the psychology of the Muslims living in Medina now with people of the book. And this is also introducing Islam to the people around them as well, right? That we're a community that follows the true way of Ibrahim Alayhi Salaam and that implements the true way of Ibrahim Alayhi Salaam. And SubhanAllah, this is in the first years of Medina, the surah is being revealed to set the tone of what this faith community is all about. So we ask Allah Subhanahu Wa Ta'ala to make us amongst the sincere and true followers of Rasulullah Sallallahu Alaihi Wasallam and join us with all of the Anbiya and the righteous of old and those that will come after us in the highest level of paradise. Allahumma ameen. It was an absolute pleasure. Shaykh Tom, congratulations once again on your new position at Yaqeen as well as your new setup, mashAllah. We should bring you on every night, man. This is so crisp, mashAllah. And Yaqeen, all of you that follow Yaqeen, you're going to be seeing a lot of Shaykh Tom, inshAllah, especially over the next coming years with Ibn Taymiyyah. He's one of the most productive and insightful people that I've met, alhamdulillah. So we're just blessed to have you, alhamdulillah. Shaykh Abdullah, jazakAllah khair. I'll try to make you laugh tomorrow. Sorry about it. I apologize for my joke being so poor. I'll try to do better tomorrow. I'll get back to the books of tafsir, see if I can come up with something to actually, you know, get you. Yeah, stick with those books, Shaykh. We'll see in the comments what people think about the joke, inshAllah. We already have a general idea. You saw Tom's face. Ramadan hasn't started yet, right? You want to get your last shots in? No, no, no, I'm good. I'm good. I'm good.
You'll shoot yourself in the foot, so it's okay. It's going to be a long, a long month with you, Shaykh. It looks like you're coming ready to throw those punches. I'm ready, Shaykh. Chance has something in the chest, so he's ready. Just wait. Watch Instagram stories. Allahumma zidba banak. JazakAllah khair, everyone. Reminder to follow us, inshAllah, with the Jannah series, with 30 for 30 every night, the khatirahs from taraweeh, and so much more. I will look forward to seeing you all tomorrow, inshAllah, and Ramadan Mubarak once again. Assalamu alaikum wa rahmatullahi wa barakatuh.
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