Qur'an 30 for 30
11 / 30
Juz' 11 with Dr. Osman Umarji
Sh. Omar Suleiman and Sh. Abdullah Oduro, joined by special guest Dr. Osman Umarji, explore gems from the 11th Juz' of the Holy Quran.
Transcript
This transcript was auto-generated using AI and may contain misspellings. And she was telling me about that now. It's probably because my router is far away from me. JazakAllah. As-salamu alaykum everyone. Abdullahi wa s-salamu alaykum wa rahmatullahi wa barakatuhu. Bismillahir Rahmanir Rahim. Alhamdulillahi Rabbil Alameen. Wa la'udhu wa la'na ila anzalameen. Wa la'aqeebatu fi'l-muttaqeem. Allahumma salli wa sallim wa barak ala abdika wa rasulika Muhammadin salallahu alayhi wa sallam wa ala alihi wa sahbihi wa sallim tasliman kathira. So now we're in Juz 11. Congratulations to all of you on finishing the first third of Ramadan. May Allah Subh'anaHu Wa Ta-A'la accept it from you and allow you to move strong into the second part of Ramadan and then the third part inshaAllah Ta'ala. Every day of Ramadan is a day of rahmat, of mercy and forgiveness and bismillah ta'ala being freed from the punishment. Tonight inshaAllah ta'ala we start with the last part of Surat At-Tawbah and stretch all the way through Surah Yunus into the first few verses of Surah Hud. So Juz 11 starts from verse 93 of Surat At-Tawbah and it goes all the way through Yunus into verse 5 of Surah Hud. SubhanAllah I'll give a beautiful story just so my New Orleans folks, I know that some of you might be watching, some of you might remember I posted about Abu Abd al-Jabbar Khan, may Allah have mercy on him, a brother who loved the masjid and who passed away due to COVID-19 just before Ramadan. And I used to always recite the first page and a half of Surah Yunus. It's one of my favorite portions of the Quran. By far the first page and a half of Surah Yunus up till Wa akhiru da'wahum al-alhamdulillahi rabbil alameen I would always recite that. And so he used to make fun of me. He said you always recite that and then he said I'm going to memorize it just by you reciting that so much. And so subhanAllah I thought about him as I was preparing for tonight and Allah Subhanahu wa ta'ala have mercy on him and grants him shahadah, Allahumma ameen. So we get into now Surah Yunus. So Surah Tawbah, as we said, Surah Tawbah is at the end of Medina, right? It was revealed after Tabuk.
So we're talking about nine years after Hijrah. Now you come all the way back with Surah Yunus and Surah Yunus is the lowest point. It's two years before Hijrah. Okay, so subhanAllah it's a switch from the highest point of Islam to the lowest point and this is something that Allah Subhanahu wa ta'ala does with us in the Quran constantly switching us from Badr and then to Uhud and then back to Badr, right? To remind you not to get too excited, that you don't become stuck in one phase of it. So the story is told in a way that we constantly learn lessons and it's not a storybook the way that you would read a storybook, but rather it keeps taking you between these different flashpoints of Islam so that you learn the lessons that are necessary. Now what you have here is the first chapter of the Quran that's named after a prophet and it's significant that it's Yunus Alayhi Salaam, okay? And in fact now you have after the long Surahs, Surah Yunus and Surah Hud. So the first two chapters that come after Surah Tawbah are the first two chapters in the Quran that are named after the prophets of Allah. Why Yunus Alayhi Salaam and then Hud Alayhi Salaam? Yunus, who is Jonah, Yunus Alayhi Salaam, the prophet Jonah, is not just the first Surah here to have, or is not just the first prophet to have a Surah named after him, but he's also actually the first prophet that was mentioned to the Prophet SallAllahu Alaihi Wasallam in Revelation, okay? Where? Fasbir li hukmi rabbika wala takun ka sahibi alhuti idh nada wa huwa maklum. Okay? When Allah Subh'anaHu Wa Ta-A'la revealed to the Prophet SallAllahu Alaihi Wasallam in Surah Al-Qalam, be patient with the decree of your Lord and do not be like the companion of the whale when he called out to Allah after he was swallowed.
So the first prophet that the Prophet Muhammad SallAllahu Alaihi Wasallam had revelation come to him about in the capacity of the Quran was Yunus Alayhi Salaam. And now as you're reading the Quran in its beautiful structure, the first Surah named after a prophet is named after Yunus Alayhi Salaam. And there's a profound lesson in that. Why? Because Yunus is, of course, a prophet who at one point gave up and turned away from his people and ended up in, you know, not just at a low point, but physically at the bottom of the ocean, in the belly of a whale, under the darkness of the night, calling out to Allah Subh'anaHu Wa Ta-A'la, and not only did Allah save him, but Allah elevated him. So he was better off after that tawbah, after that repentance, than before when he turned away from his people thinking there was no hope in them. So it's very instructive that that's the first prophet that was revealed to the Prophet SallAllahu Alaihi Wasallam, and that as you're reading the Quran, the first Surah named after a prophet is him. Then you have Hud Alayhi Salaam. So what's the connection between Yunus and Hud? And the people of Hud are, of course, the people of Aad. There's some incredible commonalities to pay attention to. Number one, the people of Yunus and the people of Aad, meaning the people of Hud Alayhi Salaam, were both idol worshippers. OK, so it relates very clearly to the people of Mecca. One group was destroyed, as in Aad. One group repented and turned back to Allah and welcomed their prophet back, which is in the case of Yunus Alayhi Salaam. Both of these are parallels of Mecca. Why? Because some of the people of Mecca would live long enough to become Muslim and welcome the Prophet Muhammad SallAllahu Alaihi Wasallam, peace be upon him, back to Mecca, whereas others would be destroyed and never return.
So SubhanAllah, it actually speaks to both types of people that are in Mecca, those that would be destroyed like the people of Aad, those that would call the Prophet SallAllahu Alaihi Wasallam back, that loved the Prophet SallAllahu Alaihi Wasallam, that believed in him when he came back to Mecca a decade later. The theme is the oneness of Allah and the hereafter, which is the Meccan theme of the Quran in general and what these people rejected. So you basically have a choice, right? You're being called, you're either going to be like the people of Yunus Alayhi Salaam who called him back, or you're going to be like the people of Hud Alayhi Salaam who insisted on their rejection and were dealt with in like manner. In verse 93 of Surah Yunus, there's a connection. I'm sorry, in verse 93 of Surah Tawbah, Allah Subhanahu wa ta'ala mentioned those who were to blame as radhu bi-an yakoonu ma'il khawalif. They were pleased to be amongst those who held back, verse 93 of Surah Tawbah. Now connect that to Surah Yunus where Allah Subhanahu wa ta'ala says, waradu bilhayati al-dunya watma'annu biha. I don't have the verse number actually. It's the second page, probably the seventh or the eighth verse, where Allah Subhanahu wa ta'ala mentions those, waradu bilhayati al-dunya watma'annu biha. They were pleased with the life of this world and they found contentment, or they thought that they would find contentment and tranquility in it, meaning they attached themselves to those false ideals and those false gods. And as a result of that were khalalif in the eternal sense, right? They're left behind in the eternal sense from the salvation of their Lord. So the same word is used. One group, the hypocrites in Surah Tawbah, that were pleased to be amongst those who stayed back, and this group that were pleased with that which is in this world, that attached themselves to the things of this world and were pleased to be amongst ahl al-dunya, the people of this world, and as a result lost everything, right? So there's those that held back and were held back in the worldly sense,
referring to the hypocrites in Surah Tawbah, and then those that held themselves back from the hereafter, and attached themselves to these false ideals, and so were held back from Jannah in the hereafter. And then Allah Subh'anaHu Wa Ta-A'la mentions the believers entering into Paradise, who are just absolutely loving the rewards, and the felicity, and that eternal blessing and delight that comes with Al-Jannah, and just like the angels as they're gathered around Allah Subh'anaHu Wa Ta-A'la, aakhiru da'wahum al-alhamdulillahi rabbil-alameen. So they're saying Subhanak, they're praising Allah Subh'anaHu Wa Ta-A'la, they're glorifying Him, and they're praising Him and thanking Him for the blessings that are constantly unfolding before them. In verse 107 and 108 of Surah Yunus, Allah Subh'anaHu Wa Ta-A'la compares Masjid al-Dirar, which was the masjid that was established by the hypocrites, to Masjid Qubaa, which was the masjid that was built on the foundation of taqwa. And so you see the continuation of that theme of two groups in Surah Yunus, right? The group of believers and the group of hypocrites, and how that manifested itself in early Madinah, where in Masjid al-Dirar, of course, the hypocrites constructed a masjid for themselves with the aims of hypocrisy, not the aims of belief. And Qubaa was for the believers. And SubhanAllah, just one more thing as I pass it off to Shaykh Abdullah, which is very beautiful. Surah Yunus was revealed, according to most scholars, in one sitting to the Prophet Sallallahu Alaihi Wasallam. SubhanAllah, meaning it was revealed as an entire surah to the Prophet Sallallahu Alaihi Wasallam. And that's something that's very beautiful because it's so... The whole Quran is so coherent and well put together, but you can think of that messaging and what it means to the Prophet Sallallahu Alaihi Wasallam
in those moments. And then SubhanAllah, right after that is Surah Hud, which turned the hair of the Prophet Sallallahu Alaihi Wasallam, or you know, gray, some of the hair of the Prophet Sallallahu Alaihi Wasallam gray, which is just like with Yunus Alayhi Salaam, don't be deluded by the delay of the punishment. Yunus Alayhi Salaam's people were delayed and then they eventually made tawbah. Hud Alayhi Salaam's people were delayed, but they were eventually destroyed. Don't wait for that to happen, right? But instead, cling back the way that Yunus Alayhi Salaam did, even in the belly of the whale, and then his people welcomed him back and made tawbah to Allah Subhanahu Wa Ta'ala and became a blessed nation, not a destroyed nation. And so the story of Yunus is unlike no other Prophet in the Quran, and there's a reason why it's put first for us to take instruction from. And InshaAllah Ta'ala with that, I'll turn it over to Shaykh Abdullah. Bismillah wa salatu wa salam ala Rasulullah wa ala alihi wa sahbihi wa man wala amma ba'du. As we see, as he mentioned, jazalallahu khayran, that the Surah of Yunus Alayhi Salaam was mentioned in the Meccan period. Now, we know that there's two periods, primarily there's the Meccan period and there's the Madani period, the Medinan period, where the Prophet peace and blessings be upon him was in Mecca for 13 years, then migrated to Al-Madina, stayed there for 10. Now, when seeing the Prophet Sallallahu Alaihi Wasallam's life in the time in Mecca, we understand that it was a time of establishing the firm hearts, but the firm hearts with Allah Subhanahu Wa Ta'ala, the Exalted, to ensure that your connection with Allah is firm, because there will be, as there were, many encounters that could shake the essence of your faith. Where there are people that are blatantly violent with the Prophet Sallallahu Alaihi Wasallam, and understanding that throughout all of these trials, what's going to literally get you through is your connection with God. And that is something that's profound because even the Hijrah, when they migrated, they left everything.
And as I mentioned, all I have is Allah and his messenger, you know, the companions. And all they have is Allah and his messenger. So to reach that state to where everything, your belongings are gone or taken or, you know, are taken from someone, but you have that belief in Allah and that is what keeps you content. That is what keeps you firm because you've established that relationship. Now, scholars have mentioned that that was the primary focus of the Meccan verses, primarily to establish who God is and who he is not and why that matters to the human being. Who he is and who he is not and why that matters. Basically, for you to understand God's names and attributes and the actualization of that in your life and the response that is expected from you to Allah. So when you know that God is the creator, there's a response that's expected and anticipated from you to at least go back to him ultimately. Because Allah being the creator means that he brings things into existence and we only take elements of creation and manipulate it to make certain things in this life. But Allah is the one that brings every essence of things into this life. So that's just the name creator. Look at all the other names. So in the last portion of this verse in the chapter of Yunus, verse number 107, where Allah Subhanahu wa ta'ala is establishing something just to remind you. Now, there are many things that we as Muslims believe in our subconscious mind. But when events, when trials, when tribulations, when encounters happen to us, does that subconscious belief that we have activated to our conscious mind? When we're talking about, you know, right now or, you know, as we will speak in the future about this, what is going on with the virus and any sickness and any affliction that we may face, any dhur, any harm or affliction, adversity, we should know that Allah Subhanahu wa ta'ala has ultimate control over it,
irregardless of what we may see with our own eyes. And when one sees something with their own eyes and may contradict what they are supposed to believe, that's where the firm hearts are exactly that. They stay firm upon that. Allah Subhanahu wa ta'ala mentions in this verse, and it's actually, SubhanAllah, it's kind of a response because the verses that were before that is where the Prophet Sallallahu Alaihi Wasallam, he tells him to speak to the people about primarily Tawheed. So the verse that goes before that, he mentioned before that in verse number 106, he says, wa la tad'u min dhuni Allahi ma la yanfa'uka wa la yadhurruk And do not call on other than Allah with that that does not harm nor benefit you. fa in fa'alta fa innaka idhan min al-dhalimeen And if you were to do that for verily, then you would be of the oppressors. Now the oppression is of what? The oppression of the soul because oppression is taking something out of its rightful place and putting it somewhere else. That's why we have human rights. The rights that we have, that the laws have given us, or that we deserve, if they're taken and put somewhere else, we have the right to demand those rights to be put in their proper place. The right of Allah is to be worshipped and shown gratitude. But when you commit a sin, you've oppressed your own self because Allah is il'ani, He is a self-sufficient. So here the characteristic of the benefactor and the one that brings harm is Allah Subhanahu wa ta'ala and that's where he comes and he shows in the next verse as after Audhu billahi min ash-shaitani r-rajim wa in yamsaskallahu bidhurrin fa la kashifalahu illahu wa in yuridika bikhayrin fa la radda li fadli yuseebu bihi man yashaa'u min ibaadi wa huwa al-ghafuru ar-raheem The verse is as follows, and if Allah should touch you with any adversity, there is no remover of it except Him. Let's stop here for a minute. If Allah was to touch you with any adversity, and the beauty of the Arabic language is that the word in yamsaska and it is what is called jumla sharqiyya, it is a conditional sentence here to show firstly,
that if there was any kind of affliction and the word yamsas literally means when a hand touches the skin. So masal yada, I say to rub something or to touch something. So Allah is giving the slightest form to show you that if any kind of dhurr and that's what he uses here. He uses the indefinite form which is called nakira. Wa in yamsaskallahu bidhurrin, any type of adversity, whether that adversity is a spiritual adversity, a bodily adversity, as we see with Ayub alayhis-salam and you know, spiritual, and also the situation like of loneliness, of you know, may have lost your job, family member, things of that nature. So any kind of adversity, irregardless of what kind of adversity it is that you perceive as an adversity and may later be a lesson for you, Allah Subh'anaHu Wa Ta-A'la is the only remover. And the way that he uses this in Arabic, falaa kashifa, as we spoke about before, I think it was our first lesson, when Allah Subh'anaHu Wa Ta-A'la says, thalikal kitabu laa rayba, that that is the book, there is no doubt in it. So we're showing that as we say laa ilaha, that is the negation of a genus or of any type of that actual object or situation he's talking about. Anything that you can fathom and perceive, it falls into that class. So he says laa kashifa, there is no remover of it. No human being, no doctor, no medicine, nothing has the ultimate authority to remove it. Allah uses those as means, but we do not discount the means. We rely on Allah and we use the means and that is the actualization of trusting in Allah. That is the true tawakkul. And he says there is no remover except him, wa in yuridika bikhayrin, and if he wants for you good, falaa raada lifadli. And there is no repeller of his bounty. Notice how he says the good is his bounty. That's the fadl, that yukhayr, any khayr Allah gives to you, that's from his virtue upon you. And when one recognizes that,
they realize it's a ni'ma. But if one is negligent of that, that's where there is no opportunity for them to show gratitude to Allah. And that is a very, very important aspect of our belief and our closeness to Allah. When people that were worshipping idols, the polytheists during the time of the Prophet, peace and blessings be upon him, it was exactly that message. Always reminding them what ultimately brings, what brings harm, what brings benefit. This is the one you should go back to, the ultimate source, not the portions of creation that have a cause. These are just an effect. So go back to the source. Then Allah Subh'anaHu Wa Ta-A'la enforces and acknowledges, yuseebu bihi man yasha min ibadi. He causes it to reach whom he wills from his servants. Whatever he wants to reach his servants, how he wills, when he wills, that's up to Allah Subh'anaHu Wa Ta-A'la, up to Allah the Exalted. And he says his servants to remind you that you are his abd, you are his servants. And whether you know it or not, you are his servants because you have no ultimate authority to remove any harm from yourself. As soon as you are in a state of deprivation, you rely on something else. Why not rely on the creator of everything that exists on this Earth, including yourself? And that is the call here, that he's calling them away from worshiping anything other than the creator of the heavens and the Earth. And Allah concludes by saying, and he is the forgiving, the merciful, huwa al-ghafuro ar-raheem, because the ghafoor being any mishaps or any mistakes or slips that we may have made in regards to this reality of remembering that Allah is the ultimate benefactor and he is the only one that can ultimately remove any harm for us. And he's the merciful because when we see any dhur, any harm that may affect us, we should understand that ultimately it is a mercy of Allah Subh'anaHu Wa Ta-A'la.
And what's so beautiful is when we face a quote-unquote, quote-unquote trial or tribulation, how many times years later we say, wow, that was a lesson that was learned. It could have been worse. It could have been this. It could have been that. But we look at it and we see the glasses have fallen as the Prophet ﷺ said, yu'jibuni al-fa'lu. He said, I love optimism, to be optimistic and to realize that the mercy of Allah, when it falls upon the person that actually harmed him, is a justice and integrity and evolution. And it's for those persons that Allah has granted wisdom and abundance. That word's become such a favorable phrase when spoken, when given an opportunity to speak about it in terms of a dialogue. And it raises questions — is there really something that al Qaeda is capable of? That it encompasses everything. So may Allah Subh'anaHu Wa Ta-A'la make us of those that always look at everything as a mercy and realize that anything that is good within our psychological state and the way that we think in front of us, around us, is that from his virtue for us. BarakAllahu khair. Wa alaikum wa rahmatullahi wa barakato. Just for the benefit of the viewers, Sheikh Abdullah just talked about 107 from Yunus. I was talking about 107, 108 from At-Tawbah with Masjid Dharar and Masjid Quba. So my mistake, I realized that as Sheikh Abdullah started speaking that it didn't make sense because it's a Meccan surah. So I was like, how did Masjid Dharar and Quba get there? So my mistake, the coffee hasn't kicked in yet from iftar. So brain's not fully functioning yet. Verse seven was, as I said, Inna allatheena laya arjuna liqa'ana wa radhu bilhayati al-dunya wa atma'annu biha wa allatheena huwa al-layati nafa'afilu wa'an So verse seven was the verse, sort of Yunus, where Allah talks about wa la'allu bilhayati al-dunya using the same word as in Surah At-Tawbah. They are pleased with the life of this world. They take refuge in the life of this world rather than in Allah Subh'anaHu Wa Ta-A'la and then drawing the comparison with the believers. So up next we have Dr. Uthman Umarji, Alhamdulillah, our Director of Research Evaluation who's written a lot, mashaAllah, in the last few months, especially about COVID-19, some of the surveys that have been put out there on uncertainty, some of the papers about understanding what's happening. Very pleased to have him with us tonight, inshaAllah. So Dr. Uthman, if Allah will take us away. Jazakumullahu khair, Sheikh Umar. Bismillah wa salatu wa salam wa rasool Allah
wa ala alihi wa sahbihi wa man wala. InshaAllah, I'd love to reflect over some of the ayat from Surah At-Tawbah. This is a portion that I find very beloved to me. And SubhanAllah, yesterday listening to Surah At-Tawbah and today, one of the things that people often remark about the Surah is that it's a very tough Surah, right? It's a kind of hardcore in some ways, but I always remind myself, this is called Surah At-Tawbah. This is literally the chapter of forgiveness. And I wanna highlight how Allah Subhanahu wa ta'ala facilitates for people based on their intentions. And so, Sheikh Umar, you mentioned this earlier about the contrasting between different nations of between those who rejected their prophets and accepted their prophets. And Allah does this in Surah At-Tawbah when it comes to people who rejected Prophet Muhammad Sallallahu alayhi wa sallam versus those who accepted him and of course, even made mistakes but turned in repentance towards him. And so, I'm just always overtaken by Allah Subhanahu wa ta'ala vastness in his forgiveness for those who come with a repenting heart. He facilitates for everyone who wants good, he makes it easy for them. So, SubhanAllah, in these ayahs that I'll speak about, about battle of Tabuk, which also was mentioned yesterday, when the Muslims were marching out to meet the Byzantines, SubhanAllah, you find the way that two different groups acted and so, SubhanAllah, when the hypocrites, they sought excuses, you find the Prophet Muhammad Sallallahu alayhi wa sallam facilitated for them. And he said, okay, fine, you don't wanna go, I'm not gonna make you go. And there was one example from that that I wanted to highlight that I find just so absurd. And this is an example of Al-Jadd ibn Qais, and that, as the Prophet Muhammad Sallallahu alayhi wa sallam was gathering everybody and he told everybody, no one is excused unless you're either ill or financially incapable, every able-bodied, financially competent man has to get up and come. And so, one man, Al-Jadd ibn Qais, he was a hypocrite, he went to the Prophet Muhammad Sallallahu alayhi wa sallam and or the Prophet saw him and said, how do you imagine fighting the Byzantines this year? So, he came up with literally the worst excuse I could ever imagine. He said, he went to the Prophet and said, I would rather you excuse me and not subject me to such a difficult test. My people know very well that no man is more infatuated by women than I am.
I fear that if I see the Byzantine women and their beauty, that I may not be able to resist their temptation. And so, finally, you see the Prophet Muhammad Sallallahu alayhi wa sallam, okay, you don't have to come. But then I wanted to compare this with the attitude of the believers, and Allah talks about this in verses 117, 118, and 119. Allah says, So, in these beautiful ayat where Allah Subh'anaHu Wa Ta-A'la talks about how Allah has forgiven, already forgiven the Prophet Sallallahu alayhi wa sallam and the muhajirun, those who had migrated to Medina and the Ansar, those who are from people of Medina, who followed the Prophet Muhammad Sallallahu alayhi wa sallam in the hour of difficulty, meaning in this battle of Tabuk, after the hearts of a party of them had almost inclined towards doubt, and then he forgave them. Indeed, Allah is to them kind and merciful. And Allah has also forgiven the three who were left behind to the point that the earth closed in on them in spite of its vastness, and their souls were constricted upon them, and they were certain that there is no refuge from Allah except in Him. Then Allah turned to them so they could turn to Him in repentance. Indeed, Allah Subh'anaHu Wa Ta-A'la is the one who accepts the repentance and is the merciful. O you who believe, be mindful of Allah and be with those who are true. And so this verse gets at, SubhanAllah, Allah Subh'anaHu Wa Ta-A'la, how He is so forgiving of people, of course those who do righteous acts like the Prophet Muhammad Sallallahu alayhi wa sallam and the righteous companions, but even those who make mistakes. And even those who make major mistakes.
As long as the heart of the believer is pure, as long as the heart of the believer turns towards Allah Subh'anaHu Wa Ta-A'la, Allah will always accept that turning. And so a few stories come to mind that highlight these ayat. One of them, SubhanAllah, you find Al-Jad with his excuse that, I don't wanna be distracted by women. You find the opposite example, there was seven different companions who didn't have the wealth to travel and they were crying their eyes out because the Prophet did not have an animal for them to ride on. And while two of them were actually, left the company of the Prophet Muhammad Sallallahu alayhi wa sallam in tears, they ran into another Sahabi named Yameen Ibn Umair. And when they told Yameen why they were crying, Yameen gave them a camel he had and said, go ahead and join the Prophet Muhammad Sallallahu alayhi wa sallam. So you see that those who want good, Allah will facilitate good for them. The other, the ayah talks about Wa'ala al-thalatha and also the three. So I wanna mention the three that Allah is talking about in this verse, also the fourth, that the verse doesn't speak about. And that is that a few days after the army departed for Tabuk, there was one man from amongst those four. Again, he's not the three that's mentioned in the verse, his name is Abu Khaythamah. So what all four of these shared in common was that there was four righteous believers who did not get up and make the preparations on time for the battle. And they came up, you know, in their mind, they were just procrastinating, a little bit lazy, but they were sincere. And one of them, Abu Khaythamah, he happened to just delay, delay, delay until the army had already left. And so the army had left, and one day he comes back home. Remember, it's burning hot during this time. He comes home and he has two wives and each wife had prepared for him a wonderful meal with cold water in the shade of their yard. And so when he went to his yard and he saw his wives and the food prepared, his mind went to the Prophet Muhammad Sallallahu Alaihi Wasallam and he thought about the Prophet Alaihi Wasallam traveling in the burning hot desert with, you know, those circumstances. And he told his wives that the messenger of Allah
is suffering in the burning sun and the stormy wind, while I enjoy the cool shade and the delicious food in the company of two beautiful women in my own home. He said, this is not fair. By Allah, I will not enter either of your places until I've caught up with the messenger of Allah. He got up, he got on his camel and he took off and he caught up with the Prophet. And he quickly caught up to the Prophet Muhammad Sallallahu Alaihi Wasallam, the army was in Tabuk, and the companions told the Prophet that, Ya Rasulullah, there's somebody who's coming. And the Prophet said, let it be Abu Khaythamah. And when he got close enough, the companions told the Prophet that indeed it was Abu Khaythamah. So you see again how Allah Subh'anaHu Wa Ta-A'la, and the Prophet, when he came to the Prophet, he apologized, the Prophet accepted his apology, and he asked Allah to forgive him as well. So you see that of those four sincere ones, one was able to, in the middle of his heedlessness, he got woken up and he ran to Allah and he was accepted. What happened to the other three that Allah has forgiven? Allah says, and the three of them were Ka'b ibn Malik, Murarah ibn Rabi'ah, and Hilal ibn Umayyah. And Ka'b narrates this whole story, and it's such a beautiful story. Ka'b talks about, he said that, I have never been in a better financial or physical situation to go out for war. But however, when people were preparing, I just kept getting lazy. I told myself, tomorrow, tomorrow I'll go buy it. Eventually the army left, and I was like, you know what? I can still get ready in a day or two. Still, for whatever reason, a few days passed. He said, I didn't make the preparations. And then he noticed when he was walking around Medina, he only noticed two types of people there. He said he only noticed hypocrites or people who are financially incapable of going, or actually more physically incapable of going. And during this time that he's sitting there thinking, man, I should have gone, the Prophet is in Tabuk, and he asked the companions, where is Ka'b ibn Malik? And one Sahabi, he says, Ya Rasulullah, his wealth and his arrogance have made him stay behind. And so Mu'adh ibn Jabal, he interjected, he said, what a foul remark. Ya Rasulullah, we have known nothing bad of him. And the Prophet, he stayed silent. So in this, I always this beautiful lesson that, when your brother is down, he's doing something wrong to your sister, it's not the time to kick them.
We try to rationalize their behavior and might say, well, they did this for this bad reason, not a bad reason. Rather than saying, what are all the possible excuses they could have had? We should have the 70 excuses for our brothers and our sisters. Ka'b continues, he says, as the army returned to Medina, he said that he was like, what am I gonna say to the Prophet Muhammad Sallallahu Alaihi And he's like, the Prophet would come back from his travels. He would go to the masjid and all the hypocrites, they went and they gave their excuses. The Prophet accepted their excuses. And Ka'b comes and he says, Ya Rasulullah, had I been speaking to anyone on the face of the earth, except for you, I would have been able to avoid his anger by giving some excuse. But I know for sure that if I were to tell you a lie to win your pleasure today, Allah would make the truth known to you and I would incur your wrath tomorrow. However, if I tell you the truth and you are happy with me today, I would hope for a better result with Allah. By Allah, I had no excuse. I have never been in a better physical or financial circumstance than when I stayed behind. And the Prophet looked at him and said, Ya Ka'b, you have indeed told the truth. Now wait for Allah's judgment. And then SubhanAllah, Ka'b goes back home and he finds out that he asked the Prophet, did anyone else say something similar to what I did? And he said, yes, Murad and Hilal did. So he felt good that there's other people who are also like truthful. I'm glad I did what I did. So the Prophet SubhanAllah, the judgment came down. He told the companions to boycott these three companions for 50 days, not to say a word to them. And the other two, Murad and Hilal were so distraught, they stayed in their houses. They didn't even wanna get out because people wouldn't speak to them. But Ka'b kept going day after day to the masjid. He'd say salams, he would look at the Prophet. No one would say salam back to him. Prophet would not look at him in the eyes. And SubhanAllah, it got to the point that this became like news. Like everywhere people knew about this boycott. That the King of Hassan, another region, sent a letter to tell Ka'b that, you know what, you've been mistreated. I will not do that to you.
Come to me and accept my faith. And Ka'b, he burned that letter. He's like, man, as my situation got so bad that these other people wanna invite me to their way. And then it got worse. The Prophet then ordered the wives of these three to distance themselves from their husbands. And so 50 days later, at Fajr time, Ka'b, he heard a voice from the top of a mountain. Ka'b ibn Malik, rejoice. And he knew this was good news, finally. He ran to the masjid. He went to the Prophet Muhammad Sallallahu Alaihi Wasallam. And the Prophet told him, abshir, yeah, Ka'b, be happy, be rejoiceful. This is the happiest day of your life, Ka'b, since your mother gave birth to you. And SubhanAllah, the lesson I take from this, and I'll end with this, is that the truth is not always easy to adhere to. Sometimes there's even a steep price to pay for sticking to the truth, but there is a payoff. Paying a small price is worth it for an eternal reward. And no one would take a dollar today and give up a million dollars tomorrow. So Allah forgave those three who literally the earth was constricting upon them. That's how it felt to them because of that sincerity they had. And Allah said, oh, you who believe, be mindful of Allah and be with those who are truthful. So when you're in the company of the truthful, inshAllah you'll find yourself doing the same. I ask Allah SubhanAllah to make me and all of us amongst the truthful and to be amongst the truthful. JazakAllah khair, wa salamu alaykum. Ar-Rahman ar-Rahim. Wa alaykum as-salamu alaykum. JazakAllah khair, Dr. Uthman. SubhanAllah, I mean, it's really telling that this surah, which is so severe, it's about the munafiqeen, it is harsh. It's called surah at-tawbah. It's called the surah of repentance, like as if to invite people back. And SubhanAllah, in this situation, a lot of people think that when they make tawbah, that means that the consequences of their sins are gone. That's not true. But what that really means is that while you might face some consequences after your sincere tawbah in this life, it frees you of any consequences in the hereafter. And Allah SubhanAllah is most forgiving and most merciful. And if a person is sincere in their tawbah to Allah SubhanAllah,
then they're willing to endure whatever it's going to take to come back to Him. And surely He's always willing to take back the sincere repenter. JazakAllah khair for that beautiful rendition of the story of Ka'b and the others. And Allah SubhanAllah be pleased with them. And inshaAllah, tomorrow night, we will continue with just 12. So, JazakAllah khair to everyone for tuning in. As-salamu alaykum wa rahmatullahi wa barakatuh. Wa alaikum salam wa rahmatullah.
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