Qur'an 30 for 30
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Juz' 2 with Tesneem Alkiek
Sh. Omar Suleiman and Sh. Abdullah Oduro, joined by special guest Tesneem Alkiek, explore gems from the second Juz' of the Holy Quran.
Transcript
This transcript was auto-generated using AI and may contain misspellings. Alhamdulillahi rabbil alameen, wa la ilaha illa allah al-zalameen, wa la aqeematu lilmutakeen. Allahumma salli wa sallim wa barak ala abdika wa rasulika Muhammadin salallahu alayhi wa salam, wa ala alihi wa sahbihi wa salam taseeman kathira. So Jazakumullahu khayran to all of you for joining once again. I hope you enjoyed your first day of fasting and you didn't overeat like some of us did. But I pray that Allah azawajal put barakah in your food and your fast and in all that you're doing and that you're finding it fruitful in these moments. Today we released Alhamdulillah the first episode of the Angels series, if you missed it. And we also released the first episode of From Deed to Habit on Yaqeen's social media outlets. So please catch up with them inshallah. And reminding you once again inshallah ta'ala to please consider supporting Yaqeen Institute inshallah ta'ala with a tax deductible zakat eligible donation inshallah ta'ala this month of Ramadan. And we'll get straight into Juz number two inshallah ta'ala. So there was so much richness in this that I had a hard time skipping over the entire concept of dua. And to be honest with you, the idea of supplication of dua weighs heavy on me in these first three adza of the Quran. It's almost like Allah azawajal is teaching us how to make dua for the rest of the Quran. And then if you look at the duas of the prophets, the supplications of the prophets, you can actually plug them back into those formats. And so that's why the virtual khutbah today I talked about comparing the dua of Adam alayhi salam, which comes on the heels of a slip and the dua of Ibrahim alayhi salam, which comes on the heels of an act of obedience and what that means for us. But I want to continue and I know Sheikh Abdullah inshallah is going to go into detail with kutiba alaykum usliyan kama kutiba ala lathina min qablikum min shahru ramadana allathee unzila feehi alquran. And subhanAllah that beautiful moment in taraweeh when you first hear the imam in taraweeh recite shahru ramadana allathee unzila feehi alquran. May Allah subhan
ala'la allow us to recite it in our taraweeh and also to live to witness that moment once again. So we left off juz one and the change of qibla is mentioned to Mecca, which is a return to the Abrahamic way. So Ibrahim alayhi salam making dua to Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala for there to be a, you know, an ummah that would uphold the concepts, the theology, the khuluq, everything that has to do with this message and Allah blessing Ibrahim alayhi salam through his noble descendants and the Prophet Muhammad salallahu alayhi wa sallam doing just that and then now turning us back towards the qibla. And then comes the ruling of fasting now and shahru ramadana allathee unzila feehi alquran. Ramadan is mentioned as the month in which the book was revealed. And in fact, we know from the Prophet salallahu alayhi wa sallam that every holy book was revealed in the month of Ramadan. Every holy book was revealed in the month of Ramadan. The Prophet salallahu alayhi wa sallam said the suhuf of Ibrahim alayhi salam, of Abraham peace be upon him, the Psalms of Dawood alayhi salam, the Torah, the Injil were all revealed in the month of Ramadan and the Quran was revealed. The final revelation was also revealed in the month of Ramadan. So we mentioned that you start off by asking Allah for guidance, which is surah al-Fatiha. Allah responds with surah al-Baqarah which is that, dhalikal kitabu la rayba fee hudan lilmuttaqeem This is a guidance for the pious. And then Allah Subh'anaHu Wa Ta-A'la shows us the different ways that people interact with guidance on the basis of the condition of their hearts and their willingness to abide by the principles of guidance and the requirements of guidance. So Allah did not wrong anyone. Allah did not make this message too difficult for people to be able to grasp. Some people came into it with a noble intention and Allah Subh'anaHu Wa Ta-A'la always elevates them, even if they fall short at times. Some people come in with
the intention to twist and they always fail and they always fall on their faces. May Allah Subh'anaHu Wa Ta-A'la protect us. But I want you to connect this now, right away Allah Subh'anaHu Wa Ta-A'la as he tells us about shahul Ramadan, the month of Ramadan. Allah says, wa li tukmeelu al-iddata wa li tukabbiru Allaha ala maa hadakum Okay, SubhanAllah, so that you finish this period of Ramadan and that you glorify Allah and you praise your Lord for that which He guided you to. So the Quran starts with a du'a for guidance. Al-Baqarah is the response, surah al-Baqarah, this chapter is a response saying here is the book of guidance. And Allah mentions Ramadan as the month in which we really learn the value of that guidance. Okay, and then du'a is mentioned again, wa idha sa'alaka ibadi anmi fa inni qareeb And when my servant asks you about me, then I am close to him. ujeebu da'watad da'i itha da'an I respond to the call of the caller when they call upon me, so then let them respond to me and believe in me so that they may find guidance. So guidance becomes manifest in our lives when we do as Allah tells us, which is mentioned in the lives of those who obey and your calls upon Allah for guidance are answered. And then Allah Subhanahu wa ta'ala emphasizes the onus on us once again, ya ayyuha ladheena aamanu udkhulu fissidmi kaafah wa la tatabiru qutuwata shaytan O you who believe, enter into submission, enter into what God calls you to fully, no loopholes, stop trying to play around with guidance, don't try to use it for error or misguidance. Enter into this fully, no games, only sincerity. If you fall short with sincerity, Allah Subhanahu wa ta'ala will support you, but do not follow the footsteps of shaytan and goodness will indeed come to you. And SubhanAllah, even though, and this will be my final point before I hand it over to Sheikh Abdullah inshaAllah ta'ala, even though it
extends beyond Surat Al-Baqarah here, we have the greatest ayah of the Quran in Ayatul Kursi that then comes up within Al-Baqarah. And the last, which as much as we speak about our own weaknesses, we speak about the glory of Allah, right? So after talking about our own weaknesses and our inevitable shortcomings, you have the glory of Allah Subhanahu wa ta'ala, which is so perfectly highlighted and beautifully illustrated in Ayatul Kursi in every way. It is the greatest ayah of the Quran, that which we recite before we sleep. And then what do we end Surat Al-Baqarah with? And this is just beautiful, SubhanAllah. It's like how do you bring this all back together? The last dua of Al-Baqarah, so Al-Fatiha starts, is the beginning of the book and it's a dua for guidance. Al-Baqarah ends with a dua for firmness on that guidance. Okay? Al-Fatiha is asking Allah for guidance. Al-Baqarah is ending with asking Allah for steadfastness upon that guidance. And there are so many duas of the Prophet Sallallahu Alaihi Wasallam, Allah mahdini wasaddidni, Allahumma anta rabbuna farzuqna al-istiqama, the dua of Al-Hasn al-Basri Rahimahullah ta'ala, Allahumma as'aluka al-huda wa al-tuqa, right? All of these prayers and supplications where the Prophet Sallallahu Alaihi Wasallam asked for guidance and then asked for steadfastness upon that guidance. And so the last dua of Al-Baqarah is a reaffirmation. We believe in Allah. We believe in the angels. We believe in the prophets. We believe in the books. We believe in the day of judgment. We believe in divine decree and we are submitting to that. Because remember Allah said this is a book of guidance for who? Shaykh Abdullah talked about this yesterday. Alladheena yu'minoona bilghayf, those who believe in the unseen. And right here we're affirming, oh Allah, we believe in the unseen. We believe in the unseen as it has been told to us by the one that you divinely revealed this book to and the Prophet Sallallahu Alaihi Wasallam. And
then we ask Allah to allow us to rise to the task of guidance and not fall like those who came before us. Okay? Not to take on the burden, not to be overburdened the way that people that came before us failed under their burden. And so we will inevitably fall short, but we ask Allah Subh'anaHu Wa Ta-A'la for what? Wa'afu anna wa khfir lana wa arhamna. That Allah Subh'anaHu Wa Ta-A'la pardon us and forgive us and show us mercy and that Allah Subh'anaHu Wa Ta-A'la allow us to rise to this task and not fall into the pitfalls of nations that came before that failed. So al-Baqarah really fits in perfectly with that guidance and it shows us that Allah Subh'anaHu Wa Ta-A'la does not give us a burden that we cannot handle. And when we try to handle, when we try to handle the burden that He does give us of belief and what comes with belief, He will help us along the way with ease. He will help us along the way with forgiveness as long as we turn back to Him when we fall short, so long as we remain sincere. And I believe that Sheikh Abdullah is going to talk a little bit further about how that ties into Isliyam inshAllah. Fadlul shaykh. BarakAllahu feekum. Bismillah wa salatu wa salamu ala rasoolillahi wa ala alihi wa sahbihi wa man wala amma ba'du. JazakumAllah khair. That was a beautiful reminder and a beautiful summary and SubhanAllah, you know, when just putting it all together, I love how, you know, when we look at the generality of the Jews or the general thematic structure of the Jews, it kind of puts it all in perspective. And that's what's mostly important that we understand the general matters of the in before we get into the specific issues. And that's what's very important when it comes to being firmly grounded as a person of faith, you know, and as a Muslim, firstly, recognizing who Allah is and who he is not. You know, when I was in my I think it was my second year of Al Medina, it was a month of Ramadan. And, you know, I never seen, you know, a gathering like that. I mean, it was in the masjid of Nabawi. And I was with a dear friend of mine, SubhanAllah, I'm thinking of saying his name
so close, but I'm not going to say it. Wow, we were, you know, this brother, SubhanAllah, he's an amazing brother. SubhanAllah, we, you know, he said, man, we got to go to the masjid a little before before before Asr, because it gets really packed because we want to get to you know, Safal-ul-Awwal. So when we got there, we stayed there till Maghrib, he introduced me to some brothers, we had the tamar and the haysa and, you know, we're starting to eat and then taraweeh comes in and we pray the taraweeh. And SubhanAllah, you know, in myself, I'm being totally honest in myself, I was like, wow, this 20 pretty long, they were saying pretty long surahs, you know, it was the baiti, mashAllah. And when the taraweeh was made, he started making dua. And then my man just started crying. I've never seen him cry. He was just bawling, just crying, crying, crying. Ameen, Ameen. And I remember I was saying to myself, wow, I was thinking that this was so hard to stand in prayer, but him tasting that sweetness of crying at the very end, I want that. Right? So this SubhanAllah, when we were done, I was like, man, why? What was it that made you cry so much? He said, I'm just so glad that Allah has blessed us with this religion, you know, and that he's allowed us to reach this month of Ramadan, it could have been much more difficult for us. And that's what I want to capitalize on, where he mentioned in the chapter number two, verse number 185, where Allah Subhanahu wa ta'ala mentions, as Shaykh Omar mentioned, where Allah addresses or mentions the month of Ramadan, because right before that, he says ayyaman ma'dudat, when he talks about that fasting was prescribed upon you as it was prescribed upon the nation before you, perhaps you may be mindful right after this, he says ayyaman ma'dudat, that they are some numbered days. And then the next verse, he says shahru Ramadan. So some scholars say that shahru Ramadan is acknowledging what those numbered days are. What are those numbered days? shahru Ramadan, allathee unzil
feehi alquran, that the month that the Quran was revealed in as a form of guidance and clarity and guidance to show you the criterion between right and wrong. Then Allah Subhanu wa ta'ala goes into some of the ahkam generally, famanshahida minkumush shahraa falyasum, and many of us probably know this verse or encountered it in our local communities, alhamdulillah, we're all fasting together inshallah. Whoever witnesses, as he says, whoever witnesses the month then yasumhu, then they should fast that month. waman kana minkum mareedan aw ala safarin fa iddatum min ayyamin ukhar. And whoever amongst you was sick or traveling, then they're appointed days that they make up are for some ayyamin ukhar, some other days. But what I want to capitalize on here is what is so beautiful about this verse, and beautiful about the religion of Islam. Allah Subhanu wa ta'ala says at the end of this verse, yureedu allahu bikum al yusraa wala yureedu bikum al usr. yureedu allahu bikum al yusraa. Allah wants for you ease, and he does not want for you hardship. Let's just stop here for a minute. Many of us have become Muslim. We were not Muslim before, or we were Muslim, but at the age of 16, 17, 9, we asked ourselves some crucial questions that had to deal with God's existence. We asked ourselves some crucial questions when it came to the actions of man, and how that reflects on Islam, and that may have affected the way that we believe. So some of us have converted to Islam, and we were born Muslims, but we never really acknowledged it until an encounter or some knowledge that we came upon. So Allah Subhanu wa ta'ala is saying here that he has made the religion easy, and that he wants to make the religion easy upon you. So the ahkaam that were mentioned earlier, if you're sick, or if you're traveling, then you can make those days up. This is what we
call a rukhsah, a concession. The concession in the shari'ah is for particular circumstances and situations, Allah will give you an option, or sometimes as some scholars say, you must take that concession. And all of this is to express the rahmah, the mercy, the love, and the yusr. You know, when we say the name of Allah is al-'aleem and al-hakeem, I love these names as all of the names of Allah are beautiful. But when we look at al-'aleem, is that Allah knows what was, what is, what will be, and some scholars may mention what hasn't been, if it was, how it would be. So that is comprehensive, perfect, flawless knowledge. But the appropriation of that knowledge, when Allah chooses to apply that knowledge, because he knows everything, which is wisdom. The wisdom of Allah Subhanahu wa ta'ala is present at all times. So when we understand that, internalize that within our hearts and our souls, and know what that means on a daily basis, we see that the religion of Islam, the shari'ah, was here because Allah loves you. Allah loves you. Allah only wants good for you. There has to be one person in your life that you know, well, if that person says anything about me, or requests anything from me, I'll do whatever, because they only want good for me. You know, they want, they have that good spirit of only wanting your fortune. They only want you to win. They want you to succeed. Allah wants you to succeed. When we have that in the back of our minds and in the depths of our hearts, that Allah only wants us to succeed and to be moral, clean human beings, meaning our hearts are clean, which will be exemplified by our actions, this is what Allah Subhanahu wa ta'ala wants. We realize that any time we face a challenge, we should look at it as an opportunity to be better people. So when Allah makes this
religion easy, He wants ease for you, and He doesn't want hardship. But at the same time, He knows better than you about you. So as a person that's a father, or you as a mother or older sister, or someone that has some responsibility upon someone, you may do a disciplinary act for that person, and they may not understand it. They may think that it's wrong, but you're doing that on the basis of love, care, affection, knowing what's better for them, because you have experience, and that is the wisdom. So Allah wants for you ease and doesn't want for you hardship, therefore giving you those concessions. So when we as Muslims in our household right now, and we are with our family members, and their studies, you know, it's online, and we have a certain study habit that we, you know, our children used to have, be a little easy on them. Give them a break, give them time to relax, and then let them get back to their studies. But make sure that the mood and the way that you're dealing with your family members, even with yourself, is that you're easy and you're not harsh. When you articulate the religion to people, be easy on them and not harsh. When you want your children to pray at Fajr in the morning and they're not waking up, be easy on them, but maintain the integrity of the religion at the same time. Try not to be harsh. As the Prophet ﷺ told them, that you were, it told Mu'adh ibn Jabal, that you were people that were called muyassireen and not mu'assireen. That you were called to go to the people as people that would bring ease and bring this religion, be easy with the people and not to be hard with them. And lastly, when we look, lastly, that this sharia, as we mentioned before, its basis is ease. Because the ease that he wants from you, along with the struggle that may seem hard at that time, but knowing
that he wants for you ease, the relationship of servitude is a beautiful thing. When you see that there is a hardship that you're facing, but in the back of your mind and in your heart, wallahi, Allah knows what's best for me. As he says, la yukallifu allahu nafsan illa wus'aha. That Allah doesn't hold anyone, put any burden on them, anything in front of them, more than they can bear. Anything that you encounter, Allah ﷻ knows that you're able to handle that in a fashion as long as you try your best. If that's in the back of your mind and in your heart, you will try your level best to implement the action of Islam. But what is beautiful about this is when you make the effort, Allah gives you tawfiq. He gives you the ability. He gives you the feeling. He gives you the strength. The next time to do it again. Then he increases your iman to do the action again. Then he increases your iman, you do the action again. You may wake up for fajr at 6.40, but the next day it'll be 6.20 and then 6 o'clock. So just making that effort, realizing that the religion of Islam, Allah wants ease for you. He wants the best for you. Inshallah, that will serve as a motive for us to be continuous on these beautiful, beautiful days of Ramadan and those to come. JazakAllah khair. As-salamu alaykum wa rahmatullah wa barakato. SubhanAllah, I don't know if you had the old Imam Siraj cassette tapes. I always reference his old cassette tapes, old khutbas. But Imam Siraj has one of those old cassette tapes, Allah desires for you ease. And he talks about the ayah. And the main point that Imam Siraj was making in that was that when Allah says he desires for you ease, it wasn't this open ended just, you know, kick back, don't do anything. It was in the capacity of giving you a command. Allah gave you an obligation to fast. But then Allah tells you, even as he obligates you to do things, there's ease that's embedded within those actions. And those actions are ultimately to facilitate ease in the hereafter, as well as ease through
this life. Because when we worship Allah Subhanahu wa ta'ala, when we do as he commands us to do, we're not going to find constriction in our hearts. And when we find that expanse in our hearts, we'll find the ease in the religion. We'll always find that there are concessions when things become indeed too difficult for us. But the path of guidance and the path to guidance and the path within guidance, all of it, Allah Subhanahu wa ta'ala has facilitated ease throughout. And so there's basically no excuse to disobey him, right? That's the idea, right? There's no excuse for you not to follow because Allah has not been unreasonable in what he's tasked us with, especially with what... he's promising us at the end. And that's really the essence of Surah Al-Baqarah, that Allah gives us the du'a. And it's really powerful because Allah gives us the du'a with tawbah, with repentance, with Adam, gives us the du'a with asking Allah for acceptance with Ibrahim, and then gives us the du'a for takhfif, to make things easy for us in Surah Al-Baqarah, at the end of Surah Al-Baqarah, Allah gives us the du'a to say. And we say that every single night. And that's... he inspires us with the right way to call upon him. Just like he gave Adam the words, he gave Ibrahim the words, he's giving us the words as well, Subhanahu wa ta'ala. So JazakumAllah khayran for that, inshAllah ta'ala we'll turn to our special guest for the night, soon to be Dr. Tasneem Anqib, fellow and director of Expanded Learning, who is going to inshAllah ta'ala share a gem that you should look for in the juz tonight, inshAllah ta'ala. So tafadhal, you go ahead, sister Tasneem. JazakumAllah khayran, salamu alaikum everyone. And shukr Allah, thank you for that perfect transition, because if there's anything that I want to be able to focus on from the message that I leave tonight, is that concept of the sharia being eased, that the laws that were implemented, everything that Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala wants for us, there's so much benefit for. Now before I sort of start, I want to give a disclaimer as to why I'm going to take
the perspective, sort of the gem that I found today, is because I'm currently writing my dissertation and it's on merit, on harm in marriage and divorce. And so surah al-Baqarah is one of, if not the primary hot spot for all the ayats regarding divorce in particular. So over the past several months, maybe year, I've really built a close connection to these ayats. And they're extremely powerful when read in light of sort of historical, larger, bigger picture context, right? So a lot of what I have to do is read through, you know, legal discussions, look through court cases, fatawa, just look at all of these different historical compilations and reactions to basically messy divorces, messy marriages, they're not ending pretty, there's problems, and that's why I'm looking at them, right? Looking at how that harm was dealt with and identified. And I say that all to sort of put things into context because these ayats are so incredibly powerful. Because when you go through, you know, you're reading through this material, this sort of legal material, separate from reading the, you know, the beauty of the Quran, it's extremely dry, it's extremely difficult to read through, and you see how people take things lightly, how they take the words of Allah Subh'anaHu Wa Ta-A'la lightly, how, you know, you can strip things out of context, you can make things black and white. And, you know, sort of the reality on the ground sometimes can be a lot more messy than what you find in these ayats. And so what's so incredibly powerful about these ayats is that despite the fact that they're, you know, they're legal ayats, right? What you'd want to categorize as like sort of the 10% of all of ayats in the Quran that fall under, you know, legal ayats, we read them, you know, sort of shallow reading, we have them read as something that's
just sort of dry, that these are rules, you follow them, you divorce her, this is what happens, you give her this, you do that, if, you know, all these different things that when we read them at first glance, it's, you know, do this, don't do this, right? This is what's prescribed, you better stay away from this. But that it's that very shallow reading that causes these problems, right? Because if you look closely at the ayats, and really, it gives me goosebumps, and no matter how many court cases I've had to go through, no matter how many, you know, disturbing stories I've read so far, or whatever the case is, these ayats are, they always give me goosebumps when I read them. Because, you know, you've got four to five pages of Antalaq in Surah Al-Baqarah, right? And for those of you who's ever read, who's ever memorized Surah Al-Baqarah know that those are probably the hardest four to five pages in the whole, I mean, to me, like, sometimes the whole Quran. And for many people, at least, you know, I can speak on my own behalf, memorizing the ayah, the longest ayah in the Quran, which comes near the end of Surah Al-Baqarah, about like testimony and will was 1000 times easier than reading the ayat Antalaq. Why is that? It's because, you know, there's obviously a lot of similarities, but there's a lot of the same reminders in the ayat, you know, a lot of the ayat end in with what? وَاتَّقُوا اللَّهُ وَعَلَمُوا أَنَّ اللَّهَ بِكُلِّ شَيْءٍ عَلِيمٌ Be conscious of God, fear God, have taqwa of Allah Subhanu wa Ta'ala, know that Allah knows everything that's happening. وَاللَّهُ خَبِيرٌ بِمَا تَعْمَلُونَ Allah Subhanu wa Ta'ala knows, you know, is informed, is well aware of what you're doing. And just as Allah Subhanu wa Ta'ala is encouraging the believers that to have fear of God, you have similar, you know, reminders. وَتِلْكَ حُدُودَ اللَّهُ Right? These are the boundaries of God. فَلَا تَعْتَدُوهَا فَلَا تَقْرَبُوهَا Do not, don't you dare go past these, you know, these, these boundaries that Allah Subhanu wa Ta'ala
said, don't you dare think of crossing these, right? So powerful and these come, they're so repetitive and it's hard to keep track of the ayat, which one ends with وَاللَّهُ خَبِيرٌ بِمَا تَعْمَلُونَ وَاللَّهُ بِمَا تَعْمَلُونَ خَبِيرٌ Right? Because Allah Subhanu wa Ta'ala constantly in every ayah, in regard to the rules regarding divorce, have some form of reminder that Allah Subhanu wa Ta'ala knows exactly what's happening. You better fear God. These are the boundaries of God. Do not surpass them. And so it's extremely powerful. And one of the most important verses, at least in reference to what I'm doing is, you know, is one that talks about وَلَا تَمْسِكُهُنَّ ذُرَارً Right? So in the process of marriage, don't make it long and complicated just to make, you know, your wife's life miserable, harmful, whatever. And in that ayah, Allah Subhanu wa Ta'ala says, وَلَا تَتَّخِذُ آيَاتِ اللَّهِ هُزْوَةٌ Do not take the ayat of Allah Subhanu wa Ta'ala as basically a joke. Don't, this is not something you take lightly. And so when you put that into context, into sort of like the severity, it's a big deal. Divorce is not, you know, something simple. Let alone a divorce where Allah Subhanu wa Ta'ala says, you know, be kind. And as Shaykh Abdullah reminded me, you know, وَلَا تَنْسَوْا الْفَضْلَ بَيْنَكُمْ Don't forget that goodness between you. Constant reminders and embedded within all of those ayat are وَاتَّقُوا اللَّهِ وَتِلْكِ حَدُودَ اللَّهِ Have fear of God and know God's boundaries. And now the reason why I really wanted to highlight that, I know it's something, it seems like it's something very specific, but it's not. Because when you look at all of the ayats in the Quran, right, any ayah in the Quran that's talking about laws, talking about, you know, rules and regulations, things that we find sometimes we think is just so dry. When you read these ayats and you pick up on these incredibly powerful reminders, and this, I mean, it helps to know Arabic, but you can easily pick this up in
translation, right? There's no way you can miss, you know, don't surpass the boundaries of God or whatever the translation reads. When you start to look at these verses and you sort of read in between the lines and you get the message Allah Subh'anaHu Wa Ta-A'la is relaying, it's incredibly powerful. And what happens is that when you have that shallow reading and you don't reflect on the Quran, you don't reflect on the ayat, you don't notice this stuff, we perceive of the Quran, the laws in the Quran, the sharia overall, we think of it as black and white, right? It's either haram, halal, yes, no, do, don't. And honestly, it's really, it's offensive. It's offensive to, you know, to even say that because there's so much, it's so much deeper than that, right? And in this particular case, when we're looking at the ayat in divorce, sure, you know what, there are do's and don'ts, there is haram and halal. But at the end of the day, there are certain things you can get punished for, for abusing and neglecting in this life. But that does not mean you're going to be, you know, you can get away with things and think in this life and think that you're off the hook. Allah Subh'anaHu Wa Ta-A'la, he's literally saying that, you know, don't do this, do this, and fear Allah Subh'anaHu Wa Ta-A'la because it's not just about what you can be held accountable in this life, that one day you're going to be held accountable, you know, before Allah Subh'anaHu Wa Ta-A'la in the next life. And it's a reminder that the jurists also recognize that it's, you know, there's a much more powerful, there are ethical reminders in these ayats, right, that jurists didn't say things are haram and halal. You have al-ahkam al-khamsah, right, you have five, any act can be placed under a category of five different rulings. You can have haram halal, you can also have makrooh, right, disliked. You can have mustahab, something that's preferred, and mandub, something that's just allowed. And so when you look at things on the
spectrum, right, that there's multiple different areas of gray, of things that you should be doing, you shouldn't be doing, what happens is that it's a reminder that when you approach an act, you're not thinking, am I going to get punished for doing this, or is this something that I'm going to get rewarded for? But it's something so much deeper than that, that is this pleasing to Allah Subh'anaHu Wa Ta-A'la? Is this something that's going to bring me closer to Allah Subh'anaHu Wa Ta-A'la? Is this something that's going to push me away? And with that reading, and this is something that I think is just, I want to invite you to do this in any ayah of the Quran, right? Don't think of something as black and white, that it's so much more powerful than that. And try to pick up on those nuances, those little details where Allah Subh'anaHu Wa Ta-A'la ends in the ayah, again, ends an ayah on this really scary reminder of going through divorce, and that tension, that all the hardship that comes with having to split from your spouse of maybe 10, 20, 30 years, whatever it is. Allah Subh'anaHu Wa Ta-A'la, how does he end the ayah? Be fearful of God. Listen, I get it. Times are probably going to be tough now. He's reminding us at our weakest point. Times are going to be tough, but don't you forget the bigger picture. Don't you forget the good and the better and the best. And I think that it's just a really good reminder, especially for those, again, going back to Shaykh Abdullah's reminder that the Shari'ah is ease, right? The Shari'ah is so beautiful in the sense that it has this sort of holistic, more comprehensive perspective. We don't approach law, we don't approach our lives as Muslims as do's and don'ts, right? We do it as everything is incredibly open to us and amazing and doing all in pursuit of the pleasure of Allah Subh'anaHu Wa Ta-A'la. And then when it comes to things that we should stay away from, Allah Subh'anaHu Wa Ta-A'la reminds us in a gentle manner, in a very relatable manner, things that
even in something as difficult as divorce, the way he talks to us, he really talks to us as his creation. He knows our levels, he understands us. And he understands that things are not just going to be yes or no, and that these are things that have bigger pictures and a reminder to really perfect our character when we're approaching even law as just sort of a final, to conclude, just this final reminder that the Shari'ah is truly just this holistic lifestyle. It's not something that we go to when we're in court or we go to when we're in trouble, but it's something that we're constantly reminded of Allah Subh'anaHu Wa Ta-A'la's presence. We're constantly reminded of why we're here, what we're doing, and who we're trying to please. And with that, just a reminder to try to pick up on that as you read through the Quran, especially through Surah Al-Baqarah, Surah Nisa, you're going to get loads of ayats that come off as laws, as rules. Sometimes you'll read it off as black and white, but no, focus on those ayat that you think, well, how does this make sense? Focus on the detail and have that perspective, that holistic perspective in mind, and inshallah, it'll really open up so many doors in terms of how you approach the Quran and how you understand Islam as a whole. Allah bless you. JazakumAllah khairan. SubhanAllah, honestly, beautiful reflection. When you handle marriages and divorces as an imam, you see that's where, subhanAllah, even the people that are the most religious, they just start thinking about how to make the text fit my situation to my advantage best. And if Allah Azawajal was telling us in Surah Al-Baqarah about people that were twisting text and using the letter to diminish the nature of what Allah Subh'anaHu Wa Ta-A'la revealed for the betterment of people, but like you said, it's so beautiful that with something as sensitive, the most sensitive thing, where Allah will really
test your taqwa and test your adherence is in the most sensitive areas of your life. And when Allah is talking about marriage and divorce, that's where taqwa, the fear of Allah and that consciousness of Allah Subh'anaHu Wa Ta-A'la comes in to really be mindful of Allah Subh'anaHu Wa Ta-A'la and God conscious and don't play, especially there, don't ever play with God's law, but especially there. So I really appreciate that. I'll just say this, there is taskiya even in those long ayat about inheritance and marriage and divorce, there's taskiya, like there's spiritual refinement there. Because I know some people pray taraweeh and they're just, as they're praying taraweeh, when they, once you start getting all those long ayats, you mentioned for you, when you memorize the Quran, you said surah al-Baqarah, that part's probably the hardest for me, surah an-Nisa. I was like, man, this is a hard surah to memorize. I'm going to be honest with you, if I led taraweeh and I had a second part, I'm going to be like, you're leading surah an-Nisa part. I'm going to sit this one out, because even now when I read surah an-Nisa, I struggle. But there's taskiya, if you pay attention, there's spirituality and how Allah keeps on reminding people to be upright and to think about His knowledge and wisdom and His being aware of us as we do all those things. Sheikh Abdullah, I'll give you one minute if you want to give a last ta'lib, last reflection, then we'll send everyone to taraweeh inshaAllah. You got anything you'd like to share? No, just like what she mentioned, that Allah Subh'anaHu Wa Ta-A'la is very protective, especially of His slaves, the human beings. And when there is any kind of oppression, as she mentioned, do not take Allah's verses as a huzuwa, as a joke, or something that is secondary, or something that is supplemental to the way that you are living, to where it's disregarded or you treat it as a burden, to where you may just totally disregard it or even ridicule it to that degree. And then when she mentioned also when Allah Subh'anaHu Wa Ta-A'la says, do not forget the virtue that you have with one another, especially at our homes now,
you know, we as husbands or wives are starting to get to know another side of our spouse because they're at home in the middle of the day. So while you're learning your spouse or learning your children around Luhur time and you're fasting, let's unsullufa lib'haim. Funny you say that. I can hear, I don't know how much you guys could hear my kids, but they were like, you know, there's a lot going on back there. So I'm sitting there and I'm like, la tansawul falq, you gotta be nice, be nice, not to my wife, to my kids here, right? So just to be very clear, you can't get that mad at an 11-month-old. So it's like, there's not much that you could tell her. But JazakumAllah khayran to both of you. That was wonderful. I really enjoyed it. BarakAllahu fiqi. Sister Jasneen for joining us tonight. InshaAllah Ta'ala. Just a reminder to everyone, tomorrow, episode two of the Angel series will be released, as well as episode two from Deed to Habit. And then we'll continue at night, InshaAllah, Quran 3430. Tomorrow we have Dr. Abdullah Al-Uda, I believe, joining us, InshaAllah Ta'ala. So it'll be interesting to hear his reflection as well on Juz 3. Please keep us in your du'a and your taraweeh. And may Allah Azawajal bless you all. JazakumAllah khayran. See you tomorrow. As-salamu alaykum wa rahmatullahi wa barakatu.
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