Qur'an 30 for 30 | Season 3
20 / 30
Juz' 20 with Ustadah Najwa Awad and Ustadh. Amir Abu Ghudda | Qur'an 30 for 30 Season 3
How can we find security and certainty in Allah? Dr. Omar Suleiman and Sh. Abdullah Oduro are joined by Sr. Najwa Awad and Dr. Amir Abu Ghudda to reflect on gems from juz 20, including accountability in difficult times, humbling ourselves during both blessings and hardships, and seeking security in Allah.
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Transcript
This transcript was auto-generated using AI and may contain misspellings. Sunnah walhamdulillah, wasalatul salam wa rasulullah wa ala alihi wa sahbihi man wala Welcome everyone to Qur'an 30 for 30. Brother Amir was just talking about the superiority of Canadian internet to American internet. I figured we should start with that. You caught it when we were getting started or not. That's not part of the video? That's part of it, yeah. You got caught. You got caught. You might as well wear a MAGA hat at this point after you dissed the internet like that. I dissed the internet? You did. You said that American internet is inferior to Canadian internet. Oh, I dissed American internet, sure, yeah. See, this is the legal side of you coming out. I hope we take a snippet of him saying you might as well wear the MAGA hat. Just make sure that everything gets that. So, alhamdulillah, we are actually, inshallah ta'ala, in session now. I want to welcome Sister Najwa, of course, who is no stranger, alhamdulillah, to the Yaqeen audience, masha'Allah, part of the trauma series, has been a part of much of the content, the mental health content, regular on 30 for 30, alhamdulillah, and really one of one of our most blessed contributors, alhamdulillah, Sister Najwa, it's wonderful to have you once again. Ahlul Sahla, how are you? Thank you so much for having me. It's always really nice to be here. Allahumma alaikum wa alhamdulillah. And Brother Amir, alhamdulillah, Amir Abu Ghudda, first time on 30 for 30, but alhamdulillah, not your first contribution to Yaqeen, alhamdulillah, but I mean, we've enjoyed some of the papers that you have written. Amir being someone who comes from a background of usool, but also a legal background, alhamdulillah. So, I was talking about the legal answer to your diss on American internet speeds, you know, it's everything. The pandemic has slowed down our internet speed. Clearly, Canadian internet speed is better.
You know, we submit ourselves, we've submitted ourselves to poutine already, being a great dish, a great suhoor dish, post-workout food for Sheikh Abdullah. And we've submitted ourselves to Canadian internet, but Amir, Sheikh Amir, it's great to have you, alhamdulillah, I mean, zakal akhir for the wonderful contributions that you've written, alhamdulillah, thus far. And I know what's also in the pipeline and excited to see what comes up. Welcome to 30 for 30. BarakAllahu feekum, wajazakum khayran, and I appreciate your confessions, as we say in Arabic, al-a'tiraf sayyidul adillah. So, confession is the master of all evidence, so we'll hold that against you. Oh man, Sheikh Abdullah, I'm a little worried about him, man. I'm a little worried, a little worried. No, it's good, it's good he said confession, we actually said najwa here, so it just fits perfectly, you know, it's like... That is true, that is true. One line is what I have to talk about today. We take pride in, you know, being interdisciplinary at Yaqeen, but we've got too much interdisciplinary stuff going on here. So you got Sheikh Abdullah, bodybuilder, sheikh, you got mental health specialist, lawyer, there's just too much here. I don't know what I'm a specialist in, you know, but alhamdulillah, I'm just glad to be here with you all, but this is a little too much going on, alhamdulillah, but we pray this is part of the maturation, alhamdulillah, al-ra'meen, you know, of Yaqeen, that we're able to involve all of this expertise, alhamdulillah. So Amir, in Canadian law, if Sheikh Abdullah picks me up, can I sue him? If he like just starts bench pressing me in the masjid? Well, I guess based on your historical relationship, I'll safely assume that you have consented to that. And with that consent, I'm not sure you can sue him.
Masha'Allah, masha'Allah. Yes, yes. For the record, that shouldn't be taken as... Yeah, we're gonna have to have the whole audience sign waivers. Insha'Allah, we're happy to have you. We'll put a display here, by the way, at the bottom of the screen. And then the Ottoman Majalla, that's the last thing. So you're writing about the Ottoman Majalla, so we're gonna have to find something in there about Sheikh Abdullah and myself, our relationship and what the limits are. And if there isn't something in there, we'll put it in as an appendix. There we go, there we go. Alhamdulillah. Well, insha'Allah, just as we're about to get started, one reminder to everyone that we are, of course, gonna have our webathon insha'Allah ta'ala this Thursday running throughout the day. And insha'Allah ta'ala, gems and benefits from everyone. We want to remind you all to tune in, bidna nai ta'ala. It will be highly beneficial insha'Allah ta'ala about how we can, you know, really go into the last ten nights strong bidna nai ta'ala and capitalize on some of the themes that we have been speaking about. But insha'Allah, we'll go ahead and get started now. Bismillah walhamdulillah. Wassalatu wassalamu ala rasulillah wa ala alihi wa sahbihi wa man wala. So I'm gonna actually keep my part very short because I'm very excited about what we can gain from our guests, bidna nai ta'ala, and their expertise and their reading in the text. But just as we were getting started, we were talking about the different ways that our passages fit into this entire theme of where you find security. And security in terms of redemption, security in times of peace, in terms of peace, in terms of tranquility. And there are just two verses, subhanAllah, in just 20 that I wanted to focus on, both in Surah Luqman, verse 33 and 34. Now, subhanAllah, you know, last night we were talking about the relationship of Ibrahim alaihi salam to his father. And there was emphasis on two things, right? The group versus the individual.
And so the individual that continues to maintain their thrust towards Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala, while the group, you know, obviously mocks and makes things very difficult for them. And then we also spoke about the father's son, Ibrahim alaihi salam, and his father, and Ibrahim alaihi salam's heartbreak over the treatment of his father towards him. So subhanAllah, you have suddenly here in Surah Luqman, this father advising his son. So with Ibrahim alaihi salam and his father, right, his father being the transgressor, Luqman al-Hakim with his son, his son not being the transgressor, but Luqman being the advisor to his son. And much of that advice circles around or revolves around this idea of being comfortable, this idea of being, you know, connected to tawheed and avoiding transgression. And here you have in these verses, 33 and 34, Ya ayyuha al-nasu taqoo rabbakum wakhshaw yawman la yajzi walidun an waladihi wala mauludun huwa jazan an walidihi shay'a O humanity, be mindful of your Lord and beware of a day when no parent will be of any benefit to their child. So this is the case of Luqman al-Hakim and his child. Nor will a child be of any benefit to their parent. And we just covered in the last juz the situation of Ibrahim alaihi salam and his father. So everyone is on their own on the day of judgment, right? You're not going to be able to lean on a relative to save you. inna wa'da allahi haqq Or wa'da allahi haqq, that inna wa'da allahi haqq, I'm sorry. Verily, the promise of Allah Subh'anaHu Wa Ta-A'la is true. fala taghurranakum alhayatu dunya wala yaghurranakum billahi algharoor So do not let the life of this world deceive you, nor let the chief deceiver deceive you about Allah Subh'anaHu Wa Ta-A'la. If you remember, we talked about Surah Furqan yesterday, where the friend who realizes that he's been led astray by his other friend,
he turns away from his friend and says that verily it's the shaitaan that was khadoola. Shaitaan was the one that tricked me, right? Shaitaan constantly tricks man. Because when that friend takes you away from Allah Subh'anaHu Wa Ta-A'la, they are playing the role of the shaitaan, right? In your life in that sense. So do not let the life of this world deceive you, meaning the allures of the life of this world, nor let the chief deceiver, being the shaitaan, being the devil deceive you about Allah Subh'anaHu Wa Ta-A'la. And then, inna allaha indahu ilmus sa'a Verily Allah alone has the knowledge of the hour. wayunazzilulghayth And Allah is the one who sends down the rain. waya'lamu ma fil arhaam And Allah Subh'anaHu Wa Ta-A'la knows what is in the womb. SubhanAllah, Allah Azawajal starts off with the hereafter, which is distant from us and in the future, right? Then he comes to the present, which is the rain that we can see. Then Allah Subh'anaHu Wa Ta-A'la says, and he knows what is in the wombs, which of course is at various stages of life. But, you know, we ourselves were in those wombs and we cannot recount anything from our time in the womb, nor do we know what is in the womb when a person first conceives, when a woman first conceives. So Allah Azawajal has knowledge of the seen and the unseen, the present, the future, and the past. And Allah Subh'anaHu Wa Ta-A'la says, wa ma tadri nafsun nada taksibu ghada wa ma tadri nafsun bi-ayyi ardin tamoot inna Allaha alimun khabir No soul knows what it will earn for tomorrow, and no soul knows in what land it shall die. Verily, Allah is all-knowing, all-aware. There are so many gems here to connect just in this ayah here. The ulama mention, for one, if you look at yunazzilulghayth, Allah Subh'anaHu Wa Ta-A'la sends down the rain which speaks to the sustenance in terms of earning. So if you connect the rain coming down, which is the first part of this sequence here, to how Allah Subh'anaHu Wa Ta-A'la talks about death,
mada taksibu ghada, no one knows what they will earn tomorrow. So you don't know what rain will fall upon you. You don't know what your profits will yield the next day. So you don't know what you will earn tomorrow. And then Allah Subh'anaHu Wa Ta-A'la mentions, ya'limu ma fil arham, he knows what is in the wombs, right? And then when he talks about death, Allah Subh'anaHu Wa Ta-A'la is the only one that knows in what earth you will be put in, what part of the earth you will be put in, right? bi-ayyi ardin tamut. So this idea, Subh'anaHu Wa Ta-A'la, of the transition here, that Allah is the one who sends down the rain for which you depend upon in terms of your rizq for tomorrow, what you will earn. And by the way, just as you do not know what is in the womb, you do not know what part of the earth you will be in, right? So basically this idea of certainty only being in Allah Subh'anaHu Wa Ta-A'la and not in what we earn or what we've tried to predict or what we try to, you know, set for ourselves and finding security only in that. And as I said, you know, security is of various types and inshaAllah Ta'ala, each one of our guests bismillah will touch on a different element of that. And inshaAllah Ta'ala how Allah Azawajal is where we place our certainty and security in because He is the only one who knows, He is the only one who forgives, and He is the only one who can light the way forward for us. InshaAllah, Sister Najwa, bismillah. The story of Musa is one of my favorite stories in the Quran. And, you know, when I was thinking, I was even having trouble narrowing it down to what it is that I wanted to talk about. But, you know, I thought it would be most helpful to talk about something that actually is not talked about very frequently, but something that I have found is very useful for some of my clients, especially clients who feel, you know, in our psychotherapy sessions, feel very stuck and feel like they have,
they are in a place where they cannot come back from something they have done or, you know, a really difficult place of hardship. And the ayats that I'm referring to are specifically the ones in which Musa accidentally killed someone. So after Musa alayhis salam had reached maturity, there was one day where he was walking and he came across two people who were fighting, one of his people and one of the enemy. And he intervened and in him intervening, he hit the other guy and he died. And we know that Musa alayhis salam had a tremendous amount of strength. It was an accident. And I like to use this example that, you know, Musa was a prophet of Allah. And there's so many, so many gems, so many things that we can take away from the immediate ayat and the steps that Musa alayhis salam took afterwards that we can use in our own lives to help us during extremely difficult times. One of the first things that we see is that Musa alayhis salam immediately asked for forgiveness. He said, my Lord, I have definitely wronged my soul, so forgive me. So he forgave him and he is indeed the all forgiving, the most merciful. And subhanAllah, it really reminds me of Adam alayhis salam, who also had made a mistake and then he, you know, he immediately repented and Allah forgave him, which is a huge contrast to who, to Fir'aun and Shaytan, who actually have a lot of things in common in terms of just persisting with what they did wrong and having no accountability. But, you know, even when we're looking at accountability, when we have made a mistake, there's a lot about the psychology of self-blame. And I think oftentimes what happens is when we make a mistake
or even we do something knowingly and it's really not good and we find ourselves like, how did I get here? How do I ever come back from this? It's very helpful to look at what happened with Musa in that, in this whole story of Musa alayhis salam, in Surat al-Qasas, when we start out, you know, even before he was born with Fir'aun being the tyrant that he is, and then the story of him being born and going to the home of Fir'aun and then to this very moment, and then later on that the story continues, is that he doesn't personalize this event. And a lot of times when we make a mistake, it's very easy for us to personalize it. And what ends up happening is initially we think that we're doing good and that we are being accountable for what happened and that it's a healthy sense of guilt, but it can actually go one of two ways. So when something really negative or unexpected happens, we can look at it as one moment in time. This is something happened to me. This is, you know, qadr Allah, it's not something I anticipated. And it's one moment in my life, but it does not define my life. Or there's another camp where you take a negative incident and you personalize it and then you start to identify it, identify with it, and it becomes like a characteristic, a negative characteristic of who you are. So you do something wrong and then you feel like, okay, well, I'm inherently bad. I am unforgivable. I cannot come back from this. And it becomes ingrained in one's psychology. And of course, as you can imagine, who tends to be more prone for depression and trauma? The second camp. And that's because they are personalizing what happened. It's not to say not to be accountable. It's important to be accountable as we saw that Musa was,
but not to let it take over the trajectory of the rest of your life and say that because of this one thing, I cannot come back from it. And I like to bring this up in session with clients who feel stuck that there's no way I can come back from it. And we can see that, alhamdulillah, from the psychology of Musa, of the things that he did, that yes, there is. And subhanAllah, Allah forgave him. Allah forgave him. In that same ayah, when he asked for repentance, so he forgave him and he indeed is all forgiving, most merciful. The other really interesting thing about how Musa coped with this situation afterwards is that he used his faith on Allah, the reliance of Allah on Allah as an anchor for him. And an anchor, you know, in psychological terms, is when you use something to help ground you, to give you a sense of security in a time where there is no security elsewhere. And, you know, I think in Western psychology, there's, they praise having a really strong internal locus of control, meaning that you are in control of your actions, you're in control of your own fate, you're the master of your own destiny, and that you can change the trajectory of things. But in times of really big hardship, this can feel like such an enormous task. And we know through Islamic psychology that, this is not correct anyhow, but that there is a tremendous amount of safety, of certainty that we get in knowing that, yes, we have control of our actions, and yes, we can take steps to things that we want to, but that ultimately Allah is in control. Allah is in control of everything. And we see how he uses Allah, his faith in Allah as an anchor. He says, my Lord, deliver me from a wrongdoing people. I trust my Lord will guide me to the right way.
My Lord, I am truly in desperate need of whatever provision you may have in store for me. So he uses that reliance on Allah to guide him during a time where he just killed someone, he fled, and he's going to somewhere he's never been before. And so those two elements of when something negative happens, of not personalizing, and then relying back on Allah to help guide you through this. And this is a theme that we see throughout the story of Musa, that from his infancy to when his mother put him into the river, and then when he comes to this point, and then even afterwards, that's upon Allah, even in during these times of difficulty, Allah is with him, with him. And so to summarize, I tell my clients, you are stuck in this thing of not knowing how can I move forward? Follow the steps of Prophet Musa, of knowing that this is one part of your life. It's not going to change the trajectory of the rest of your life if you don't want it to. That this did not prevent the Prophethood from coming. It did not prevent from all the good things coming to Musa. So checking in with yourself, is this self-blame bringing me closer to Allah or bringing me further? And that being a reflection point. And that knowing that you turn to Allah and you rely on him, and then just as Musa did, after he relied on him, he followed up with good deeds. He followed those who needed his help, and he was helped. And so I find these ayat extremely comforting, and I hope that they will be, inshallah, comforting to our viewers as well. And maybe even inspiring for those who feel stuck and that they feel like there's no hope in moving forward. Jazakumullahu khayran, Sister Najwa. SubhanAllah, Musa alayhi as-salam, of course, is the most frequently spoken about Prophet in the Quran. And all of the different snapshots we get of his life
are directly relevant to the themes in the juz. BarakAllahu fiqi for that. Shukr Abdullah, bismillah. Bismillah, rahman rahim, alhamdulillahi rabbil alameen. Wa salallahu wa sallam wa barak to the Prophet Muhammad and his family and companions. Kind of what we spoke about yesterday and even tying it into today with, you know, following the group, the herd mentality. But particularly of those that, as Sister Najwa graciously mentioned, not having that solid anchor, you know, an anchor that you turn to, i.e. as Muslims, we believe in Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala. You know, the statements of controlling your destiny and you have full control over that. We know that that can be a statement that can defy or undermine our faith and our aqeedah, being that we ultimately believe that Allah is our anchor. And he's given us the raw material, i.e. the fitrah, which is the kind of the way that we have the reception to Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala and connecting with our inner self and our pure unadulterated self and allowing that to flourish. And with that being the case, following the shariah, this is how we will flourish in this life and inshallah be with him in the next. What I want to talk about is in Juz 20, it is the chapter of Qasas, where Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala talks about the story of Qarun. And Qarun was, as some scholars say, he was the son of Musa's paternal uncle. Because Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala says in verse number 76, After I seek refuge with Allah from the accursed Satan, Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala says here, introducing Qarun and reminding us of who he was. Allah says, indeed Qarun was from the people of Moses. Some people say the people of Moses, being that he was his paternal uncle, you find scholars have this opinion from Ibrahim al-Nakhari and others. They say that he was from the people of Moses, but he tyrannized them.
And we gave him the treasures of whose keys would burden a band of strong men. That the keys that he had were so huge that they would burden, that the keys were so heavy to his treasures that a group of strong men would not be able to hold them. It would overpower them. And some scholars say it would be 10 people, etc. But it's a group of people that imagine the keys they're not able to hold. So you can imagine the treasure. So when Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala is saying this, he says, So some of his people told him, do not exalt. For really Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala does not love the ones that are exultant. Meaning that being attached to this dunya to the degree that you are boastful and that boastfulness leads you to be tyrannical to people. Whether it's belittling them or taking from their rights. Maybe the money that you have is because of your tyranny. So Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala continues on to say the four forms of advice that the people, that Qarun's people gave to him. It's important here because it's beautiful that we should remind ourselves in regards to when we receive something that we have aspired for, we've worked hard for. You're in school, you finish your doctorate program, mashallah you become a lawyer or mashallah, a PhD in psychology or mashallah in any profession that it may be that you have worked hard for and you've attained it. Shaytan can come and play with you and say, you know what, this is what I've earned because of my hard work, period. You stop there. There's nothing else that you say after that. In your heart, even without your tongue, in your heart, you say that to yourself. Sometimes we may say that to our children, but we forget the name of Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala and where he is in the whole equation. Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala mentions a statement of the people of Qarun when he says,
وَبْتَغْي فِي مَا آتَاكَ اللَّهُ اَلدَّارَ الْآخِرَةَ وَلَا تَنْسَى نَصِيبَكَ مِنَ الدُّنْيَا وَأَحْسَنْ كَمَا أَحْسَنَ اللَّهُ إِلَيْكَ وَلَا تَبْغِي الْفَسَادَ فِي الْأَرْضِ إِنَّ اللَّهَ لَيُحِبُّ الْمُفْسِدِينَ Allah says here, the four things that the people of Qarun, the righteous people told Qarun, or in other words, the righteous people telling an individual that was engulfed in the dunya and their riches and their hard work, and how that could lead them to being disobedient to Allah, i.e. looking at themselves, whether it's from the aspect of takabbur, of arrogance, or in the aspect of belittling those that haven't reached their level. Allah says, what they say, the first thing is, but seek through that which Allah has given you, the home of the hereafter. That's the first thing. وَبْتَغْفِي مَا أَتَاكَ اللَّهُ أَدَّارَ الْآخِرَةِ So seek from that which Allah has given you, the home of the hereafter. So immediately Qarun is being reminded that look, this is not going to benefit you in the next life. Everything that you're talking about, your keys, your wealth, you should desire the hereafter. Do not desire what you have attained because that is temporary. You should desire the hereafter, i.e. do the actions that serve as an investment in the hereafter. Second form of advice. And do not forget your share of this world. وَلَا تَنْسَى نَصِيبَكَ مِنَ الدُّنْيَا Do not forget your share in this world. Take from this world, benefit from this world, obtain the wealth that you have, but make sure that you don't sell your hereafter for the dunya. As Shaykh Omar mentioned in the beginning of this series of 30 for 30, do not allow what you are doing and the efforts you're making, the time you're spending, the sorrow that you may face from working so hard, don't let it stop at the dunya. Don't let it stop at this world. Make sure that you use it as an investment in the next life, meaning that the actions that you embark upon or when you receive it, who are you thanking?
Allah Subhanahu Wa Ta'ala. So remember, take from this dunya, take from this world, but make sure that it is a means of showing gratitude to God. Third form of advice. When they say, and do good as Allah has done good to you. وَأَحْسَنْ كَمَا أَحْسَنَ اللَّهُ إِلَيْكَ And this is such a beautiful, beautiful statement from Allah Subhanahu Wa Ta'ala and from the people of Qarun too, to Qarun when they said, and do good as Allah has done good to you. Remember, مَمَا تَوْفِقِ إِلَّا بِاللَّهِ Remember, any good that you do, it is from the Tawfiq, it is from Allah enabling you to do that. There's a small window of choice that you made to do that and you receive reward from that. Isn't that such a beautiful thing? Allah gives you the guidance. He says, just make the intention, you will get rewarded. Make the effort, there's more reward in that. Those that made the intention and couldn't make the effort, there's reward in that as well. SubhanAllah, just looking at the small window of effort that we have to make as Muslims. And Ihsan, we know comes from that which is excellence. Just do good as Allah has done good to you. That should be a motivation for us in our professions, with our children, with ourselves, our bodies, what we eat, what we consume, that we should do it with excellence. We should be excellent and good to ourselves and with that we can be good to others. You know, it's important that we have this form of Ihsan because Allah has written it upon everything. إِنَّ اللَّهَ كَتَبَ الْإِحْسَانَ عَلَىٰ كُلِّ شِيْءٍ That Allah has written excellence, not perfection, but excellence upon everything. So making that effort that we give 110% in everything that we do. As Allah Subhanahu Wa Ta'ala, we will never be able to repay Him. And the last form of advice, and desire not corruption in the land. Indeed, Allah does not like the corruptors. Do not desire corruption in the land because of what you have gotten. Whatever you have been given by Allah Subhanahu Wa Ta'ala. Whatever you have obtained from your intellectual capacity, your physical capacity, the characteristics that you may have. Know that it is Allah that has given you the raw material and how are you using it?
Are you using it to be thankful or are you letting the dunya be a deception? And allowing that deception from its beautifications that is within our desires that we want to attain, are we being deceived by it to where it causes us to neglect the afterlife. So inshallah, may Allah Subhanahu Wa Ta'ala make us of the people of Qarun and allow that to be a guiding light for us. To remind ourselves and to remind those that may be around us that say that verily I have obtained this from my own self and my hard work. And they do not associate any, do not attribute that to Allah Subhanahu Wa Ta'ala. BarakAllahu Fiksh, Alhamdulillah. SubhanAllah, one of the things that is becoming apparent as you are listening to this is, you have the advice of Luqman Al-Hakim to his father, to his son. And then after you have Luqman's advice to his son, you have these examples of the people who took that advice or who lived that advice and the people who lived in the opposite way. So humility being a major theme. And you can be humbled by your blessings, you can be humbled by your hardship. Or you can become arrogant as a result of those blessings. Or you can become hardened as a result of those hardships. And Musa A.S. being in many ways, this person who we see a journey of, like in terms of a learning journey, takes all of these lessons and embodies them in the most beautiful ways. And he never becomes a Qarun or a Fir'aun in his life, which is very profound. And he can draw on his own experiences and he can draw on the bad examples. So sometimes good advice, bad examples. Bad examples are important as well to learn from. You can learn from good advice and then you can learn from good examples, but you can also learn from bad examples. Like I don't want to manifest in my own life what that person is manifesting. And InshaAllah Ta'ala, Sheikh Amir, who I'm very excited to hear from you, despite your terrifying legal analysis in the beginning.
You're actually going to be talking about one of my favorite surahs in the Quran, Surat Al-Ankabut, which I find so much wisdom and so much benefit in. So InshaAllah Ta'ala, may Allah Subh'anaHu Wa Ta-A'la bless you. Looking forward to hearing what you have to say. Shami'ah InshaAllah, BarakAllahu Fiikum. And I'm frankly very glad and I promise those who are viewing us that there was no previous collaboration before we joined this virtual meeting. But all I think all of our insights, if we can call them that, are converging very nicely. And I think what we mentioned or what you mentioned, Sheikh Amir, in the beginning about this idea or concept of security, where we find security as Muslims and as believers in Allah Subh'anaHu Wa Ta-A'la. And I think it's very much connected to what I would like to reflect on in Surat Al-Ankabut. And I think typically, and most people, and I'm one of those people, whenever I see the name of a surah, Surat Al-Ankabut, automatically while I'm reading the surah, I'm looking for the verse that mentions that word, on the assumption that it represents sort of a main theme in the verse. So when I read this surah, I paid extra attention to the verse in which Allah Subh'anaHu Wa Ta-A'la mentions the spider, Al-Ankabut, in which Allah Subh'anaHu Wa Ta-A'la says, كمثل العنكبوت اتخذت بيتاً وإن أهون البيوت لبيت العنكبوت لو كانوا يعلمون The example of those who seek other than Allah Subh'anaHu Wa Ta-A'la as Awliya, as allies, as protectors, as sources of security, it's like the Ankabut, the spider, اتخذت بيتاً that takes up a home,
and surely the home of the spider is the weakest of homes لو كانوا يعلمون, if only they knew. So seeking security in other than the truth, in something other than Allah Subh'anaHu Wa Ta-A'la, no matter how confident one is in that source of security, I assume, now I haven't spoken or lived in the world of spiders, but I assume spiders are pretty proud of what they make in terms of homes, and they're pretty confident in the home that they built for themselves, but that confidence means nothing, because at the end of the day, when you zoom out of that small world of the spider, that home is nothing, and it just cannot withstand even a very light breeze. And the meaning of this verse, to me at least, became more apparent as I read it in the context of the verses that came before it. And you notice that in the verses that come before this specific verse that talks about the home of the spider, it mentions a series of stories of prophets, and if you pay close attention, there's a consistent common thread among those stories, and then Allah Subh'anaHu Wa Ta-A'la concludes that line of stories with this illustration of the spider. So the surah talks about Qawm-Nuh, for example, and how the Prophet Nuh Alayhi Salam was sent to them for 950 years. And of course we all know from other surahs that Nuh Alayhi Salam was outnumbered, the people who believed in him were very few in number, and were very weak, they were not influential people or powerful people, and they were ridiculed. And even when he was building the ark, the disbelievers made fun of him. So the people of falsehood and of evil, they looked like they were winning the day.
And it looked like the people of the truth were weaker and helpless, and ultimately victory and the support of Allah Subh'anaHu Wa Ta-A'la was granted to the people of truth, even though on a superficial materialistic reading it looks like they were losing at a certain point, but ultimately Allah Subh'anaHu Wa Ta-A'la granted victory to the truth and to the haqq. And similarly the surah goes to the story of Ibrahim Alayhi Salam, similarly outnumbered, and also his people aimed not only to ridicule him as many prophets were ridiculed, but also they wanted to harm him and kill him. And you would think that what they wanted to do was guaranteed to work. Allah Subh'anaHu Wa Ta-A'la says, Fama kana jawaba qawmihi illa an qalu qtuluhu aw harriquhu Fanajjahu Allahum minannar inna fee dhalika la-ayatin liqawmin yu'minun And so the response of his people was to declare and call, kill him or burn him. And they in fact did, of course as we all know, they made a big fire and they threw him in, and Allah Subh'anaHu Wa Ta-A'la granted victory to Ibrahim Alayhi Salam and allowed him to survive that attempt. I'm pretty sure 99.999999% of the time if you throw someone in fire, they won't come out of it alive. But here, despite being outnumbered and despite the laws of physics being against him, victory was granted to Ibrahim Alayhi Salam. And then similarly, the surah goes to the story of Lut Alayhi Salam, similarly ridiculed and outnumbered by his community who disbelieved in him. And eventually those who disbelieved and insisted were wiped out, and he and those who believed in him were preserved and they survived. And then, ila madyan akhaahum shu'aiban, to the people of Madyan and their prophet Shu'aib.
And Shu'aib was weak, he was old, and in another surah we know that they even told him, if you were an old man, we would have stoned you. So he was outnumbered and they did not believe in him either. And so again, on a superficial reading, they were the more powerful, they had more protection, more security, but at the end of the day, that didn't mean anything. Then we up the ante a little bit and we go to Aad and Thamud, that's where the surah goes. Aad and Thamud were more powerful people, and they similarly were arrogant, belligerent with their injustice and evil and oppression, and whatever power they had was useless at the end of the day, no matter how confident they were in that power. And then, SubhanAllah, the surah, or Allah Subhanahu wa ta'ala finishes this line with the biggest, most obvious example, and Shaykh Abdullah graciously gave us a beautiful account of the story of Qarun. And so the verse here says, وَقَارُونَ وَفِرَعُونَ وَهَامَانَ So this alliance of three people, you have Qarun, this rich, powerful, private individual, this private citizen, I'm not aware that he had any official capacity within the state of Fir'aun, but he was in alliance very much with the interests of Fir'aun, and Fir'aun was the political leader, and Haman was his main right-hand man. So you had this alliance of these three powerful people, and Qarun was destroyed, and Fir'aun and his army drowned, and that tremendous, enormous power didn't mean anything. And after that, that's when this verse comes and tells us sort of the common thread, that all of this reliance on armies, on power, on wealth, on numbers, on social pressure,
belittling the small community of weak people because you are powerful and they are weak, all of this, no matter how confident and how powerful that makes you feel, that's just like the confidence that a spider has in its home. No matter how confident it is, that home at the end of the day is extremely weak. And if I may, very quickly, frankly, these verses gave me sort of, I saw a different meaning in them in the recent days, as we have seen some of the heart-wrenching scenes from our beloved holy site, Masjid al-Aqsa al-Mubarak. Helpless people, helpless worshippers who are outnumbered, overpowered, no one there to help them, no one there to aid them, and on the other side you have a belligerent, arrogant force that acts like it has all the power in the world and it's unstoppable. But we know from these verses that even though on its face it may seem that they are weak, that they are helpless, the arrogant, belligerent side, their bayt is bayt al-ankabut, and Masjid al-Aqsa is baytullah, wa li bayti rabbun yahmeen. JazakAllah khair. Powerful, subhanAllah. Beautiful. People are entrusted to the blessings that Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala gives them by which they become belligerent, and as a result of that Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala takes all the potency away in those blessings and turns those blessings into a curse for them, subhanAllah. And al-ghayf, the rain coming and falling, right? Rain is a source of rizq, but just as we see wind and rain in these natural elements as a source of rizq, sustenance, they become a source of punishment for these peoples, right? That we're relying on the rain coming down and saying, well the rain still falls, the wind still comes, the blessings keep coming our way, so surely even if there is a god, he's not a real threat to us.
And then it's all taken away from them because they've turned those blessings into gods and put their security in that. SubhanAllah, it's a powerful sequence that you just gave there. I hadn't thought about it before in that way, but the way that the surah starts, the stories of the prophet starts aflash and the stories of tyrants that had this arrogance to them and this intoxication with their power, right? And suddenly made sober by the destruction of Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala and Allah giving victory to the oppressed and to the believers who always put their faith in him. And definitely, what's happening around the world right now in Aqsa in particular, Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala give victory to the oppressed everywhere. I want to open it up in conclusion inshallah to you. Anyone for comments before I do that, just a reminder, because I know some will log off at this point. So tomorrow we have the webathon inshallah. We're actually going to inshallah ta'ala have Quran 30 for 30 at 11 a.m. tomorrow inshallah ta'ala. So noon Eastern time just so that it does not conflict with the time of the webathon inshallah. So you'll get an earlier Quran 30 for 30 tomorrow inshallah with Sheikh Yasser Fahmy bint Naye ta'ala. We hope you'll join for the webathon inshallah. But any comments inshallah from our sister Najwa, Sheikh Abdullah on what brother Amir shared. Or anyone's comments can be about anyone else's comment. First, thanks for letting me know it's 1130. I didn't. No, I'm sorry. I'm sorry sister Najwa. We're losing track of time. I was like, oh no, what are we doing? I'm sorry. You know, it's there's I don't even know where to start. I mean, Hamdallah, like there's so many, so many beautiful things that you said.
And, you know, with the story of Qarun, it just reminds me a lot of, you know, social media and how sometimes we really do get when we see someone with so many beautiful things and how we get distracted. And we say, like, I wish I, you know, just as those people, I wish that I had what this person has. But ultimately knowing that it doesn't help them at all in the hereafter. And then just kind of hearing that this similar sentiment with the spider, really, it is very fragile at the end of the day. And just being reminded of that really all that stays is Allah and all that stays is our good deeds. So just may Allah accept all of our good deeds this month and just take us into the last ten nights and accept. Inshallah. Hamdallah. Anything? Yeah, I mean, it's kind of mashallah, it all does tie in together. What she was mentioning about social media is a prime example. You know, there's a difference between clout and power, right? You may have some numbers, but how powerful is your your message? How powerful are you? How strong have you become? Particularly that of connection to Allah. Because, you know, the verse right after it was mentioned with Qarun, the people said when they saw him come out, when he came out looking beautiful and, you know, shiny, right? They said the people that, even in Allah terms, the people that love the dunya, they said, we wish we had what he had. Right, subhanAllah. So it goes back. What do you really value? Because the strength of that is just like a bayt al-ankabut. It's not something that is going to last. It's not something that is valuable. So, you know, it's important for us to really look deep and see that what do we value? And is it beyond this physical life? Amir, you got anything, Sheikh Amir, for us? So your take home message?
I just want to, I guess, tie in what Sister Najwa mentioned, which is this anchor, you know, this concept of the anchor. I'm not sure if this is like a scientific, technical term in the world of psychology. But nonetheless, it is something that I guess struck me, which is truly that our anchor at the end of the day is our belief in Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala. It's what anchored the prophets at the times of difficulty and hardship. It's what anchored the believers and it's what allowed them to stay steadfast despite all the hardships that they faced. And if there is anything that lacks an anchor, it's the bayt al-ankabut. So and contrary to that sort of house, we have a strong anchor that will keep us firm, keep us connected with Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala and guarantee for us happiness in this world and the next inshallah. SubhanAllah. You know, I think we should apologize to all the spiders that are watching. This has been a very disparaging session from the Canadian gentleman. Unless, unless, you know, they were maybe created, part of their purpose of creation is to be a ibra for us. So they're fulfilling their purpose that should make them happy. Oh, radun jameel, radun mufhim. Sheikh Abdullah, what's Spiderman's favorite part of the joke? What's Spiderman's favorite what? Part of the joke. Punchline. Spiderman's favorite part of the joke is the punchline because he punches. That's a granddad joke. That's not a dad. That's a granddad joke. We retired the term dad joke. We retired it. And we're going to have to ask Sheikh Omar Hussain if granddad jokes are OK. Maybe we'll ask him tomorrow, inshallah. Inshallah.
To use granddad jokes. You know, when you're trying to be corny, it just sometimes it. Now I can't help myself, even when I'm not trying to be, I still don't know what to do with myself. Maybe out of Ramadan I'll come out better. Insha'Allah. That was amazing. JazakumAllah khayran for everyone for joining us. JazakumAllah khayran. Sister Najwa, Brother Amir, it was a pleasure. Alhamdulillah, Sheikh Abdullah. Insha'Allah ta'ala we'll see everyone for the webathon. And again, insha'Allah ta'ala we'll have Sheikh Yasser Fahmi, 30 for 30, insha'Allah, earlier, bid'na nahi ta'ala, to make room for the webathon. We hope you share the link. We hope insha'Allah ta'ala you continue to support our work. And we pray that we all catch the day of the Qadr. Allahumma ameen. JazakumAllah khayran. Assalamualaikum warahmatullahi wabarakatuh. Waalaikum assalam. Waalaikum assalam. It truly is a blessing how far Yaqeen has come over the past five years. This is a dua come true due to the generosity of Allah, then thousands of donors like yourself. And as we see the need for Yaqeen's work in the world, I'm proud of the legacy we're leaving behind for our future Ummah, insha'Allah. As we remind ourselves that our life in this world determines our life in the hereafter, we push ourselves to do our very best to properly educate our youth, to support our Imams, to impart beneficial knowledge, to instill conviction in the hearts and minds of our community, to inspire change makers, to foster spirituality in our homes, to spread a true understanding of Allah's message, to deepen our love for the Messenger Sallallahu alayhi wasallam, to show people how faith is relevant in their everyday lives. Yaqeen's team is trying to accomplish a lot, but none of it is possible without your support. Be a part of this mission to dismantle doubt, nurture conviction, and inspire contribution, so that you too can build that legacy of a Sadaqa Jariyya for your hereafter.
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