Qur'an 30 for 30 | Season 3
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Juz' 7 with Imam Tom Facchine | Qur'an 30 for 30 Season 3
In juz 7 of the Holy Qur'an, Allah paints a vivd scene of the hereafter, where the prophets are gathered and spoken to about what their followers did after they returned to Him, addressing the different theological doubts that arise. Dr. Omar Suleiman and Sh. Abdullah Oduro are joined by Imam Tom Facchine as they discuss how prophethood is Allah’s primary way of guiding us and how salvation is through remembering Allah, especially in times of ease.
Download the new eBook "Qur’an 30for30: Seerah Edition" here.
Transcript
This transcript was auto-generated using AI and may contain misspellings. Before we get started, inshallah ta'ala, just to remind everyone to please make use of the resources b'dinah ta'ala at yaqeeninstitute.org If you haven't downloaded the e-book just yet, then make sure that you do inshallah Also, Shaykh Tahir's du'a workbook, Dr. Tasneem's workbook on habits, Shaykh Abdullah Uduroo's workbook on convert resources, everything that he has there Alhamdulillah, it's a lot to benefit from, so please do benefit from it all inshallah ta'ala And also, a request to please donate to Yaqeen inshallah ta'ala amongst the many worthy efforts b'dinah ta'ala that are out there this Ramadan Of course, everything that we do is free and accessible to the community and inshallah ta'ala we will be keeping it that way Alhamdulillah, we're blessed today to have first-time guest, Imam Tom Fakini Alhamdulillah wa baramin, I got that right, right? Nailed it Alhamdulillah wa baramin Imam Tom inshallah is actually authoring a paper for us now Alhamdulillah, under Dr. Tahir, I guess on something, parentalism, why all religions can't be true Very interesting subject You converted to Islam, you embraced Islam, Shaykh, in 2011, right? Yeah, 2010 2010, masha'Allah Yeah Masha'Allah, officially, officially You wanna tell us about that really quick? Really quick? It's no big deal How was it, how? Well, there was one moment, it all happened, no, actually it was a very long process which is why I kind of tease about, you know, my conversion date, I took my shahada in 2010 I went to college and I had a Moroccan professor who was a Muslimah and I took a lot of courses with this individual and when I first met her, she wasn't very practicing but over the four years of us being at the same institution, she became practicing and I, through her, met a local imam and I was able to ask different questions and sort of explore this more for myself
and the big thing, and here's the quotable passage, is that for me Islam had a guidance for every single situation that a human being would need and I hadn't found that in any other system that I tried to explore before Some systems, they'd have stuff for your personal growth but they wouldn't have anything about society Other systems would have things for society but nothing about you as an individual When I kind of started dabbling in Islam, I was floored by how specific and how comprehensive it was and that was the beginning of a long process of learning and even experimenting with worship, fasting, prayer and eventually in 2010 I took my shahada Alhamdulillah, and you went to Medina after Sheikh Abdullah had already left Sheikh Abdullah, you're getting old, that's what we're trying to say You were already out of there Pow, pow, pow Mashallah And, Imam Ta'ala, I'm sorry, I have to ask you this because I was reading the bio You used to be the imam at Muslim Community Association of Mohawk Valley Still am That's pretty awesome Did you ever cut hair on the side? I'm sorry? Did you ever cut hair on the side? See, that's a dad joke, that's kind of my thing now I think that's my thing Slap your knee, Tal, slap your knee Thank you I mean, all joking aside, I have cut my own hair for probably about 15 years, so yes So you're not required to have a mohawk to be the imam? No, no, who knows, I mean, with political changes, anything's possible Alhamdulillah, Sheikh Abdullah, admit it, that was good It was natural, I'm trying to get better at this
I have to support everybody watching, it was not good We're really happy to have you, Sheikh, honestly, really happy to have you We've heard wonderful things about you through Sheikh Tahir and those that know you, Alhamdulillah And people in your community, mashallah may Allah protect and preserve you And we're looking forward to seeing your paper and also hearing your comments today, bidunna ta'ala So inshallah, Tal, we'll get started Bismillah, alhamdulillah, salatu salam wa rahmatullahi wa barakatuh wa al-aalihi wa sahbihi wa man wana So we're officially now in Juz 7 Alhamdulillah, Rabbul Aameen And subhanAllah, this is a Juz that, first of all, it is a turning point Because it's the first time that we go from Madinah to Mecca, Quran Mecca, Quran, of course, which is heavy on themes of the hereafter And, you know, Tawheed and Akhira is very, very heavy You know, when it comes to Mecca, Quran, but in Medina, of course, we're still in Surat Al-Ma'idah I'm going to just talk about, subhanAllah, what a merger is And it's really profound because when you think about, you know, Medina Where it's talking about the community and things that are very obvious to people That are in front of them, the laws that they're practicing The potential consequences if they don't practice those laws properly And so many things It's really mainly focused on the things that they are being commanded to do here And the consequences that they don't yet see But, you know, in this surah, you see this turn Towards a very vivid scene in the hereafter And it's where the prophets are being asked What response were you given from the people? So the prophets themselves, the messengers themselves are being asked So it's like a merger of the russul, the messengers, and the akhira, the hereafter Which becomes extremely prominent in the next surah And the Mecca features of the Quran So you go to verse 109 Allah Subhanahu Wa Ta'ala says
يوم يجمع الله الرسل فيقول ماذا أجبتم Allah gathers all of the messengers And Allah says to the messengers How were you responded to? ماذا أجبتم Now every prophet and messenger Had an experience, right? And they could talk about how they were responded to While they were still alive And of course some of them had experiences You know, of turmoil and You know, passed away With complete rejection from their people Some of them had rejection for many years And then acceptance at some point from a small group Some were accepted by the majority of their people But obviously once they passed away They don't know what happened after they left this earth, right? And of course, SubhanAllah, the prophets Allah Subhanahu Wa Ta'ala told us On the Day of Judgment you have prophets that are standing And it's a scene, right? Some messengers and prophets that had Hundreds of people behind them Some thousands, some millions And some prophets and messengers with one or two people And some with no followers whatsoever So Allah gathers them all together يجمع الله الرسل And Allah Subhanahu Wa Ta'ala says ماذا أجبتم How were you responded to? Now they respond قالوا لا علم لنا إنك أنت علام الغيوب We don't know because you are the knower of the unseen And some of the scholars say that this is a You know, a humble way of saying to Allah Subhanahu Wa Ta'ala You know, we don't know the full answer Because it could be that some of those that responded Did not respond in truth It could be that some left the faith after we left this earth We don't know But truly, O Allah, you are the one that knows the unseen And the ulama say double meaning here, which is very beautiful You know the unseen as in the hearts of those Who professed faith while we were alive And you know the unseen in terms of That which happened after we left this earth
Now the Prophet Sallallahu Alaihi Wasallam was spoken to in the previous surah In surah An-Nisa فَكَيْفَ إِذَا جِئْنَا مِنْ كُلِّ أُمَّةٍ بِشَهِيدٍ وَجِئْنَا بِكَ عَلَى هَٰئُلَٰئِ شَهِيدًا And it was one of the hardest ayat for the Prophet Sallallahu Alaihi Wasallam to read When Allah Subhanahu Wa Ta'ala says How will it be when we bring every nation forward And we bring the Prophet as a witness on that nation And we bring you, O Muhammad Sallallahu Alaihi Wasallam As a witness upon all of those nations And this caused the Prophet Sallallahu Alaihi Wasallam, you know, deep pain It brought him to a place of great humility He would weep Sallallahu Alaihi Wasallam When he read or when he heard this ayah Knowing his position on the day of judgment Sallallahu Alaihi Wasallam Now here, surah Al-Ma'idah, the focus is on Isa Alayhi Salam And the change is rapid Allah Azawajal is talking about Isa Alayhi Salam and Isa Alayhi Salam Being asked by his followers to call upon Allah Subhanahu Wa Ta'ala for a table spread For the Ma'idah And Isa Alayhi Salam makes this dua Allah Subhanahu Wa Ta'ala responds to his supplication And the table spread comes down And then right after that, SubhanAllah, rapidly You suddenly go to a conversation Where instead of Isa Alayhi Salam calling upon Allah Subhanahu Wa Ta'ala for a dua It is Allah Subhanahu Wa Ta'ala now in verse 116 Who is speaking to, who is summoning Isa Alayhi Salam And wa ithqalallahu yaa Isa ibn Maryam aanta qulta linnas ittakhiduni wa ummiya ilahayni min dooni allah So after Allah mentions his favors upon Isa Alayhi Salam Allah Subhanahu Wa Ta'ala says Oh Jesus, son of Mary Did you ask the people, did you command the people to take you and your mother as gods besides Allah Subhanahu Wa Ta'ala Qala Subhanak He says Subhanak, glory be to you, how perfect are you You know, and this is the response by the way
When ma kanalillahi an yatakhidha min waladin subhana, surat Maryam That, and in other places in the Quran, you know, how perfect is he Glory be to Allah Subhanahu Wa Ta'ala That a god would be attributed to him or a partner would be attributed to him ma yakoonu li an aqoola ma laysa li bihaqq Isa Alayhi Salam says it is not befitting for me to say what I had no right to say inkuntu qultuhu faqad alimta If I was to say it, oh Allah, then you would know that ta'lamu ma fee nafsi wa la a'lamu ma fee nafsi You know what is inside of me, I do not know what is inside of you innaka anta a'lamu alghuyub You are the knower of all that is unseen So Isa Alayhi Salam of course is saying to Allah Subhanahu Wa Ta'ala that, you know, of course I never said it and you would know had I said it You know my secrets, I don't know your secrets, oh Allah And of course this is not an accusation of Isa Alayhi Salam This is not actually a grilling of Isa Alayhi Salam This is a prophet being brought forth, right? And this is when the accused is, you know, told, you know, what they've been accused of This is when the one who has, you know, been said to have given a certain testimony on earth is asked about that testimony in the hereafter So Isa Alayhi Salam is saying, Subhanaka, I never said that, oh Allah maa qultu lahum illa ma amartani bihi He continues to say, I never told them anything except what you ordered me to say an i'balallaha rabbi wa rabbakum To worship Allah, to worship God, my Lord and your Lord And then here is where this becomes very very interesting wakuntu alayhim shaheedan maadumtu feehim I was a witness over them as long as I remained over them falamma tawafaytani kunta anta alraqeeba alayhim But then once you took me, oh Allah, you were the witness over them
At that point, I could not, you know, I could not call them to anything I couldn't control how my name was being used I could not control the narrative of my own message at that point I could not control my followers, I could not speak to them or correct these types of things once I left this earth wa anta ala kuddi shay'in shaheed And you are a witness over all things, oh Allah So Isa Alayhi Salam is saying, look, I can't control what happened after I left After I left the earth, things have been said, things have been done but ya Allah, you are the raqeeb, you are the one who continues to be the controller of all things And then Isa Alayhi Salam says, intu aazibhum fa innahum a'ibaduk wa intaghfir lahum fa innaka anta al-aziz al-hakim If you punish them, they belong to you after all But if you forgive them, you are surely the almighty, the all-wise SubhanAllah, this ayah of Isa Alayhi Salam, you know, invoking Allah Subhanahu wa ta'ala in that way on the day of judgment, you know, for those that may have been led astray in regards to who he really is and in regards to his message took the narrative in a way that it was not meant when he brought the message He says this to Allah Subhanahu wa ta'ala and there's something very touching and I'll end with these two hadith with the Prophet Sallallahu Alaihi Wasallam Something very, very, very touching with the Messenger Sallallahu Alaihi Wasallam that Abu Darda radiAllahu ta'ala Anhu, rather it was Abu Dhar radiAllahu ta'ala Anhu He said that qaam anabiyu Sallallahu Alaihi Wasallam bi aaya hatta asbaha yuraddiduha He said that the Prophet Sallallahu Alaihi Wasallam spent the entire night with this one ayah from the Quran repeating it over and over and over again and it was intu aazibhum fa innam ibaduk wa intakhar lahum fa innaka anta al-aziz al-hakim The same ayah that if you punish them, O Lord, they belong to you after all but if you forgive them, then you are the Almighty, the all-wise So the Prophet Sallallahu Alaihi Wasallam submitting himself in this regard
The Prophet Sallallahu Alaihi Wasallam who described himself in this life that I am like a man who kindled the fire and I have to stand in front of that fire and I'm trying to catch people as they're jumping in and the Prophet Sallallahu Alaihi Wasallam aazizun alayhi ma'an itum harisun alaykum bil-mu'minin wa ra'ufun wa raheem deeply empathetic, deeply caring for his followers, wanting to make sure that he holds everyone in but even the Prophet Sallallahu Alaihi Wasallam knows that he can't do anything once he dies This was the Messenger Sallallahu Alaihi Wasallam who in Uhud said Allahumma khfir li qawmi fa innahum la ya'lamoon, O Allah forgive my people, they don't know any better and this is the Messenger Sallallahu Alaihi Wasallam who was pained by every single person he could not save and so he's repeating the words of Isa Alayhi Salam as comfort for himself that you know my brother Isa Alayhi Salam also, he did not have control over the hearts of people and over what happened to people after he left and this last hadith SubhanAllah where the Prophet Sallallahu Alaihi Wasallam describes the Day of Judgment he said Sallallahu Alaihi Wasallam that there will come to me, rijal min ummati fa yu'khadhu bihim dhaat al shimal, that there are people from my ummah that will be coming towards me on the Day of Judgment and then suddenly they'll be taken to the left side so I'll say, rabbi ashabi, rabbi ashabi, my lord, these are my companions, my lord, these are my companions fa yuqal innaka la tadri ma ahdathu ba'dat, you don't know O Messenger Sallallahu Alaihi Wasallam what they did after you passed away fa aqoolu kama qala al abdu salih, so I will say like the righteous servant, he means Isa Alayhi Salam the righteous servant, my righteous brother said wa kuntu alayhim shaheedan madumtu fihim, falamma tawaffaytani kuntu anta al raqeeb alayhim, wa anta ala kulli shay'in shaheed I'll say the exact same thing, that I was a witness over them as long as I could be amongst them but once you took me O Allah, then you are the ultimate guardian over them so subhanAllah, this idea here of, you know, even I, the Prophet Sallallahu Alaihi Wasallam
and by the way, the ilmah mentioned here, and I know I've gone over time, I apologize and I'll pass it to Shaykh Abdullah momentarily the fact that the Prophet Sallallahu Alaihi Wasallam will see people who lived with him and became companions in his own lifetime and prayed janazah on him Sallallahu Alaihi Wasallam and then subhanAllah, they went astray after he passed away, that's very painful, very painful, right? imagine someone said, ashhadu annaka rasool Allah, while he was alive and then went to Musaylimah or one of the other false prophets after he passed away and the Prophet Sallallahu Alaihi Wasallam sees them on the day of judgment and as they're coming towards him, they're taken away from him and of course, you know, this is, you know, an admonishing to all of us to stay to the sunnah of the Prophet Sallallahu Alaihi Wasallam even after, long after he has passed away, may Allah Subhanahu Wa Ta'ala keep us firm on his way and may Allah Subhanahu Wa Ta'ala keep us firm on the message and the way of the messenger and keep our hearts and our feet firm upon that which is pleasing to him Allahumma ameen, jazakumAllahu khayran, I'll pass it over to Sheikh Abdullah inshallah jazakumAllahu khayran, bismillah wa salatu wa salam wa ala rasool Allah wa ala alihi wa sahbihi wa man wala amma ba'du interestingly, speaking about the Prophet Sallallahu Alaihi Wasallam and how he had this empathy for his followers and his empathy for humanity and for the ummah, alayhi salam it's important that we as human beings, you know, when looking at the sunnah of the Prophet Sallallahu Alaihi Wasallam that we try our best to learn it in order to internalize it and understand it, to practice it which is a direct implementation of the Quran and as Allah Subhanahu Wa Ta'ala says, wa maa atakum arrasoolu fakhuhu and whatever the messenger comes to you with, then take it wa maa nahakum AAanhu fantahu and whatever he prohibits you from, then you should stay away from it or to finish yourself from, you know, to stop doing it or to partake in that action that differs with his sunnah there's one thing I want to talk about in the chapter of Al-An'am where Allah Subhanahu Wa Ta'ala mentions in the 63rd verse to the 65th verse
something that's very very interesting about our humanity as we know Allah Subhanahu Wa Ta'ala talks about our humanity and how we are as human beings being that he is Al-'Aleem, the all-knowing he knows what was, what is, and what will be and even the hypotheticals it's interesting here how Allah Subhanahu Wa Ta'ala speaks about a certain group of people or how he tells the Prophet Sallallahu Alaihi Wasallam to mention something about Allah that shows us our reality as human beings but in particular addressing those that disbelieve in him and that is that of SubhanAllah, dare we say in one word, complacency it's important for the Muslim if they are complacent or if they are in a state of sakina, an ease at times of ease that they recognize Allah Subhanahu Wa Ta'ala and they worship him and recognize him in times of ease as well as times of hardship not to only resort to Allah or thinking about God or resorting to God's grace at a time of hardship Allah Subhanahu Wa Ta'ala tells the Prophet Sallallahu Alaihi Wasallam to say Qul man yunajikum min dhulumati al-barri wal-bahri tad'uuna hu tadharu'an wa khufyatan la'in anjana min hadhihi lanakuna'nna minash shakireen Allah Subhanahu Wa Ta'ala tells the Prophet Sallallahu Alaihi Wasallam to address them with the question a rhetorical question a rhetorical question is a question to where you know the answer to where the people that were the disbelieving people here knew the answer to this question and the question is as follows Say, O Messenger, who rescues you from the darkness of the land and sea when you call upon him imploring him aloud and privately if he should save us from this crisis we would surely be among the thankful so here we want to break this up Allah Subhanahu Wa Ta'ala tells the Prophet Sallallahu Alaihi Wasallam Qul, which is a small sign whenever we see Qul that is a sign that he is a prophet because Allah is telling him to say divine inspiration so here Allah Subhanahu Wa Ta'ala tells him to say
man yunajjikum min dhulumati albarri walbahar who was the one that saves you from the darkness of the land or the sea and some scholars mention that this darkness is general darkness or it's specified here to the darkness when you were on sea or you were in the land and I don't know if any of you have ever been on a ship you know maybe a cruise or whatever the case may be in the darkness it is darkness upon darkness you don't know what is coming to get you there are no lights there so when you are in a ship or in the sea and you are only relying on the wind from the sea for example nowadays we have something that is motor controlled but if the motor goes out if the ship starts to sink you don't know what to expect at that time is when you will call on that which you relied on your fitra will come out your natural inclination will come out the things that you severely call on that you know naturally can save you you're going to call on it so Allah Subhanahu Wa Ta'ala is telling the Prophet Sallallahu Alaihi Wasallam to ask him this question who is the one that saves you in the darkness of the land or sea the darkness of the land it could be many things that could be harmful to you from animals from insects from people right any of these things can be harmful to you so the Prophet Sallallahu Alaihi Wasallam is asking them what who is going to save you from these two situations as we are either on land or on the sea so all of the earth who is the one that saves you from any of these these situations that you may encounter then what happens when you are in this situation that you would call on him which means which means debasing yourself you would call on Allah with total humility you would call on your deity with total humility how many times have we said really meaning it oh God help me some of us it may have been a test you know an actual academic test you say oh God
if you help me I'm going to do this or you know you want a child or you want something oh God if you give this to me I'm going to do this as though it is reciprocity or reciprocal or I owe you this if you do this for me we see the mentality sometimes that we have when we're overpowered or were to indulge with distractions that will call us away from who Allah ultimately is who he really is being that he has control over all things anyway so Allah Subhanahu Wa Ta'ala said in the Prophet Sallallahu Alaihi Wasallam to say at this time who's the one that saves you from the darkness of the land and the sea to where you will come to the degree or to the point of calling on him openly aloud or kufya silently because some of us may not say it out loud but we feel it inside the Quran is so deep it is so precise in painting the picture of your reality as a human being whether you know it like it or not many times we as individuals as human beings internally will call on that which we think will save us so Allah Subhanahu Wa Ta'ala is telling the Prophet Sallallahu Alaihi Wasallam to paint the picture for them who's going to save you or who's the one that has saved you or who's the one that will save you in the darkness of times or in the darkness of the place whether it's land or sea to the degree to where you will call on him in open or secretly and you will say what the in anjana minhavi lana kunan namina shaykhinin then he mentions the actual statement if you were to save us from this we would surely be amongst the thankful if you were to save us from this we would surely be amongst the thankful and that's so interesting SubhanAllah you know many of us we may have children and we were definitely of this type especially in our teenage years you know when you're a teen you know you call your mom you call your dad some of us may say okay what do you want I don't want the I don't want the parents to look at their children now look over at them now but definitely we've reached that age or you are of that age where when you call
mom or dad it's for something that you want you always want something or it's the friend that only when they call you they want something so here it's we're calling on Allah Subhanahu Wa Ta'ala because we need something that we know he can ultimately give us but in times of ease we don't call on him we don't call him we call on other than him or something along with him at his level and degree of mercy and of rights and of grace and of magnificence and that is the essence of polytheism that is the essence of what we call shirk Allah Subhanahu Wa Ta'ala gives the Prophet Sallallahu Alaihi Wasallam an answer here Qulillahu yunajeekum minha wa min kulli qarbin thumma antum tushrikum the Prophet Sallallahu Alaihi Wasallam was told to give this answer if you notice he asked the question who saves you from the darkness of land and sea and you call on him openly and silently to where if you were to save us we would be of the thankful the Prophet Sallallahu Alaihi Wasallam answers it he doesn't wait for their answer Allah says Qulillahu yunajeekum minha Allah is the one that saves you but what's so beautiful here is he brings it back a step back and looking at the reality of God he is one that saves you from it and from every affliction every car every affliction whether you know it or not Allah is the one that saves you from it and that is the beauty of Islam and the beauty of Tauheed the oneness of Allah making Allah one in your heart ie in your actions when you call on him in your actions when you try your best to implement the framework that he has given to you known as the Sharia the Islamic way of life well the Prophet Sallallahu Alaihi Wasallam is saying Allah is the one that saves you anyway not just this call that you are asking but in every situations think about how many sins that we've committed that we have forgotten and Allah forgives you for that think about the times where you've come
up short you made the intention to ask forgiveness and you didn't and Allah pardons you for that think about the times where you did ask for forgiveness and Allah forgave you we have to hope from Allah Subhanahu Wa Ta'ala but most importantly are we complacent with the fact that we know Allah Subhanahu Wa Ta'ala is the one that forgives us and we don't ask for forgiveness so that complacency can lead to negligence and forgetfulness and this is the importance of what is called Dhikr remembrance of Allah not just Dhikr of the tongue which is very important and which is a part of our Deen and which is a way of increasing your Iman but just remembering Allah Subhanahu Wa Ta'ala's actions upon you which will encourage you and incentivize or increase you in being an individual that calls on him in times of ease and in times of hardship and the strongest and maybe only way of that is as the Prophet Sallallahu Alaihi Wasallam told one of the companions radiAllahu Anhu, Ihfadhillah yahfadhk preserve Allah, Allah Subhanahu Wa Ta'ala will preserve you preserving Allah meaning preserve the Deen within yourself, Allah does not need us just as was mentioned in the when he mentioned in the last the last page with Isa with Allah Subhanahu Wa Ta'ala the dialogue with Allah and Isa Alaihissalam but preserving the religion of Allah i.e. preserving yourself because the religion is only here to replenish the soul, Allah will preserve you when you make the effort Allah will give it to you and Allah Subhanahu Wa Ta'ala in the Prophet Sallallahu Alaihi Wasallam said Ihfadhillah tajidhu tujahad and that's where we conclude the Prophet Sallallahu Alaihi Wasallam said after that in this hadith preserve Allah you will find him in front of you will find him there for you so let's make sure that we don't only call on Allah Subhanahu Wa Ta'ala in the month of Ramadan although this is what we need to do but make sure that we in our minds and in our hearts have Ramadan as a catalyst for a new good deed to strengthen that relationship with Allah Subhanahu Wa Ta'ala that we call on him in times of ease and resort to him in times of ease not only in hardship may Allah Subhanahu Wa Ta'ala make us of the thankful
may make us of those that recognize his greatness recognize his beauty recognize his magnificence recognize his mercy and recognize the knowledge that he has given to the Prophet Sallallahu Alaihi Wasallam and ultimately to all of us Jazakumullahu khairan, Assalamu alaikum SubhanAllah just a beautiful connection Allah Azza just says Ya'lamu sirrakum wa jahrakum in the very beginning of the surah he knows your he knows your secrets and he knows what you make public what you make known so whether that is the accused and the accuser or the concealed and the concealer it it all comes out right and so Allah Azza is speaking to what he knows is inside of us in this life and he's speaking to what he knows is inside of his prophets even SubhanAllah in the next Jazakumullahu khair, Shafa Allah, Shaftaan please take us away Bismillah Bismillah wa alhamdulillah wa salatu wa salam wa surahillah Surah Al-An'am is one of my favorite chapters so it was really difficult to just focus in on one particular thing that I liked because it's almost as if throughout the whole chapter Allah Azza wa Jal is going through different doubts or going through different maybe theological malpractice or theological mistakes and he's addressing them one at a time but when I was reading through it this pastime one particular passage kind of caught my eye in a way that it hadn't before and those are the verses 87 to 93 when Allah Azza wa Jal is talking about the nature of revelation and the nature of prophethood and the nature of guidance so just for context just before this Allah Subhanahu wa ta'ala is giving like a big list of prophets he's mentioning all these these prophets and as we know many of these prophets the carrier of the carriers of tawheed and the carriers of the divine message many of them were related but Allah says something very very interesting in the 88th verse he says
walaw ashraqu lahabitu anhum ma kanu ya'malun if they had violated tawheed or if they had committed idolatry or polytheism then their actions would have been worthless it's as if Allah Subhanahu wa ta'ala is anticipating a mistake that we might make that we might assume that guidance is hereditary in some sort of way or that guidance can be just passed down from one generation to the next or in a lineage sort of way but Allah Subhanahu wa ta'ala wants us to know that it's not like that that if any one of these individuals had committed idolatry or had succumbed to polytheism then it would have wiped out all the good that they had done very very similar to a different part of the Quran in surah al-Baqarah when Ibrahim when he's talking to Allah Azawajal he says qala wa min dhuriyati he says to Allah what about my descendants are they going to be kind of safeguarded like I am and what was Allah's response he said qala la yanaalu ahdi al-dhalimeen Allah Azawajal said that my covenant it doesn't include the oppressors or those who oppress so Allah Subhanahu wa ta'ala is trying to show us I think that every single person has to take a certain degree of responsibility for our own spiritual development for our own guidance even it's not an automatic thing that's going to be vouchsafed for you due to your identity or due to who your father was or due to your national origin or where your people come from or what your ancestors did right this is something and this is something that hits home for me of course because I'm a convert but it's something that Allah Azawajal reminds us of time and time again
in the Quran there's no shortcut there's no cheat code right when it comes to putting in the work and trying to prepare our hearts and make ourselves sincere to receive guidance and follow it the second point Allah Azawajal makes in the following verses 89 and 90 is that prophethood is Allah's primary way of communicating with us and guiding us Allah Azawajal says ulaika ladheena hadallahu fabi hudahum muqtadi they the prophets are the ones that Allah Azawajal has guided so follow their guidance it's as if and Allah does this and it absolutely blows me away it's as if Allah shows us that there's two extremes so the the previous extreme was someone who uh just like Sheikh Abdullah was saying maybe complacent maybe a different type of complacency where they don't feel the need to purify themselves they don't feel the need to take a little bit of ownership over their guidance and now we have kind of the opposite extreme where Allah Azawajal is almost addressing maybe someone who would take too much responsibility right because sometimes we feel as if we need to be given even personal revelation in order to follow something or in order to affirm something in our lives right I'm waiting to be motivated I'm waiting to be inspired I'm waiting for this or for that or for that right Allah Azawajal it's as if he's saying here that guidance is found in the prophets right we don't have to reinvent the wheel we don't have to take the burden of receiving revelation on ourselves as if we're waiting for some sort of new revelation and that doesn't mean that you don't address your doubts obviously if somebody has doubts about the Quran
or has doubts about the prophet you need to address those doubts to the point where you can get to the place where you're able to have trust for the message and the content of Allah's guidance but it's exactly that it's as if Allah Subhanahu wa ta'ala is saying that at some point we have to humbly admit that we might not understand everything right away and that we shouldn't necessarily put off practicing Allah's guidance until we are fully a hundred percent as if we had been given the revelation ourselves once we learn to trust Allah Azawajal and once we learn to trust the Quran and once we learn to trust the prophet alayhi salatu wasalam there's a degree of our faith that is about submission and is about following and the most certain clear examples that we can follow and we can submit to are those of the prophets who do we ask Allah for guidance or what's the mechanism by which we ask Allah to guide us in surah al-fatiha every single day ihdina sirata al-mustaqeem what's that? sirata allatheena an'amta alayhim right what is for certain the sirata al-mustaqeem it's the path that those who have been blessed followed blessed by Allah with certainty and that's the prophets so and then the final thing and this gets to verse 91 and this is one of my favorite parts of the entire surah Allah Subhana wa ta'ala gets into the why somebody might have this doubt or the other doubt either they were extreme in their complacency or they were extreme maybe thinking they needed to take on some burdens some burdens that they don't really have to bear so that wa maa qadrullaha haqqa qadri they underestimated Allah they didn't grant Allah due portion or his due right and specifically
Allah Azawajal addresses the doubt if qalu maa anzalallahu ala basharin min shayt those who would say or would even entertain the idea that Allah Subhana wa ta'ala didn't give revelation or didn't send down revelation to a human being Allah Subhana wa ta'ala says that this type of belief is rooted in a insufficient appreciation for Allah Subhana wa ta'ala that it is based in a an underestimation of who Allah Subhana wa ta'ala is Allah Azawajal is the most loving Allah Azawajal is the most merciful how could he not give us prophets how could he not give us revelation how could he leave us to figure it out on our own right so to have these to harbor these kinds of doubts and to think that I have to figure it out all on my own or even to think that you know what I'm good I'm a sayyid or I come from this place or that place and I don't really have to do much right maa qadrullaha haqqa qadri we didn't we didn't give Allah his due right Allah Subhana wa ta'ala he's there for us he's got us and he's made it easier for us than maybe we even realize he's given us the Quran and he's preserved it he's given us the sunnah and he's enabled us to benefit from it and every single one of us once we come to that point of trust where we're convinced in the categorical sense of the word that's the time where we have to humbly submit and say okay this is what I'm following and here we go time to follow so we ask Allah Subhana wa ta'ala to make us of those who follow and to give us yaqeen in our hearts so that we get to the place where we can trust Allah and believe that Allah is as merciful and benevolent as he tells us he is beautiful insights exactly
something that that you wanted to say about what was just said or any reflection i i have a lot but i'm like i'm gonna take another 10 minutes if i do it no go ahead go ahead go ahead honestly i i subhanallah i i think what you just said at the end here like it would be su alvan it would be a bad assumption of allah that he never sent prophets and guidance i think a lot of people like they go from uh organized religion to atheism and then agnosticism like agnosticism being like a middle point spiritual not religious like yeah i'm sure there's a god but he didn't really send anything or we just don't know enough about him what you know but at some point like that that's just a point of like i i can no longer deny the existence of god but what type of god am i affirming in existence if i'm just saying he just left us to figure it all out and and honestly i was there as a teenager subhanallah so as i'm listening to you and and sheikh abdallah and uh you both embraced islam at some point in your lives i went through that that that phase in my own life and i couldn't help but think honestly about the parents that are watching this and like how do i get my kid to appreciate how how amazing this all is right so that was just the thing that came to my mind as well and i'd love any any further thoughts about it you know as we close it out inshallah imam tom talk to us me okay hot take um so in the quran one thing that blows me away is that he often draws our attention to the natural world right he does you know look at the bee look at the mountains look at the earth look at the trees look at the fruits look at every single thing and so i can speak of my own personal experience if i'm just shuttling back and forth
from man-made structure to man-made structure to the car to the pavement to the climate controlled building i kind of lose my sense of allah's calling to me and reasoning with me and appealing to me right because he's using all those things to appeal to us as human beings saying look at these hey look how how can how can you account for this right and so for myself personally i take a block out my schedule make sure that i have a way to kind of be in the natural world as a lost palm that i created it so that i can appreciate when i come across those parts of the quran and he's talking about the mountains and he's talking about the flowers and talking about the trees that i actually have an image in my head not just like a kid's book where it's like this is a flower you draw it no it's like i actually have a little bit of there's meat on the bones right um as we might say for me personally that's um that's a big thing for me me beautiful any final words from your end yeah i mean mashallah i really like how you touched upon you touched on the aspect of parenthood um to ultimately ultimately know it's not us that's going to inject the iman in our children's hearts that's why we have to make dua constantly constantly for our children because it really hit me when you know you look at the son of nuh alayhi salam and now he i'm going to go and resort to the mountain this is a son of a prophet you know uh that didn't listen you know but we have no alayhi salam we say alayhi salam every time we hear him you know it's really allah has ultimate control and are we turning to him at all times not only when you know we find our son or daughter doing something then we get calls and you know it's here talk to my son you know i used to tell the parents no i need to talk to you before i talk to your children you know what were they what were you doing at seven eight nine years
old were you inculcating the deen within them and just using these ayats to bring it back to allah subhana wa ta'ala so we make dua that the parents make dua consistently for for their children for all of our young you know nephews and nieces inshallah it's very very important beautiful session uh imam tom mashallah your community is lucky to have you so everyone that's in the masjid over there please take care of uh shaykh tom inshallah you're blessed mashallah to have and we appreciate you and hope inshallah you can be a regular with us and looking forward to reading the research that you're working on as well may allah bless you and bless your community as always my man still working on ping pong we'll see you at the table inshallah
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