Qur'an 30 for 30 | Season 2
8 / 30
Juz' 8 with Sh. Yousef Wahb | Qur'an 30 for 30 Season 2
Surah al-Araf was revealed in Makkah and contains many stories of the prophets of destroyed nations including Nuh and Lut. It also has reflections on theology and its implementations. Sh. Yousef Wahb, Dr. Omar Suleiman, and Sh. Abdullah Oduro connect these key points of juz' 8 to the Makkan climate at the time, including the pre-Islamic practices and rituals of the Arabs before Islam.
Download our FREE eBook "Qur’an 30for30: The Companion Reader" here.
Transcript
This transcript was auto-generated using AI and may contain misspellings. As-salamu alaikum wa rahmatullahi wa barakatuh everyone. Welcome back to Qur'an 30 for 30. Alhamdulillah rabbil alameen. Tonight we have our new research director actually of Qur'anic studies. It's a real pleasure to have with us alhamdulillah Shaykh Yusuf Wahab. Hayakallah Shaykh Yusuf. How are you? May Allah bless you. Hayakallah. Alhamdulillah. How are you? Akramakallah. Alhamdulillah. Shaykh Yusuf, Egypt or Canada? Which one do you prefer? I tried to catch him off guard like are you going to go pro-Egypt or pro-Canada? Both inshallah. Why does it have to be or? It's like are you Muslim or American? Yeah, that's a good question. Have you experimented with a mix, Shaykh, of any Egyptian and Canadian food? I know it's Ramadan, we're fasting, but have you like put ta'miyya and poutine yet? Yeah, but I started recently to read some of these recipes so I might be missing some of them inshallah. But not yet, no. Hayakallah Shaykh Yusuf. So for the benefit of everyone, Shaykh Yusuf, alhamdulillah, as we said he's our research director actually of a department on Qur'anic studies. And they are going to be publishing quite a bit inshallah this year. There's a lot of research coming from his department, alhamdulillah. I mean very happy to have him join the team in this capacity and I remember meeting Shaykh Yusuf in Canada in fact and subhanAllah immediately was struck by your character and the way that you really carried the garb of al-Azhar and the garb of al-'ilm very proudly. May Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala allow it to manifest in your akhlaq, in your character always, and in your vision and in your work with the community. Hayakallah Shaykh Yusuf. Alhamdulillah. Shaykh Abdullah, alhamdulillah. We're still here man, mashaAllah, we're making it, alhamdulillah.
He hasn't given up on you just yet, alhamdulillah. Still part of the program, alhamdulillah. Very happy to have you as always, Shaykh. Happy likewise. Bismillah ar-Rahman ar-Rahim. InshaAllah ta'ala now we are getting into Juz 8 and I just want to say subhanAllah that I'm already, I don't want to jump the gun but I'm already excited about Juz 9 which is going to be heavily focused on the Battle of Badr. So inshaAllah ta'ala make sure that you follow the trend as we're going through it binAllahi ta'ala and enjoy subhanAllah this Meccan part of the Quran because now we're really alternating between Meccan and Madani Quran. We spent a lot of time with the first few chapters of the Quran which were exclusively in Medina with the exception of a few ayat here and there that may have come in Mecca but exclusively Madani Surahs and then we get into now some of the Meccan Quran as well, some of the Quran that was revealed in Mecca. And we're still in now Surah Al-A'raf and in Surah Al-A'raf we talk about many things that have to relate to creed, that have to relate to aqeedah and the different categories within aqeedah of tawheed and risalah and akhira, monotheism, the concept of a prophet and the concept of the hereafter. And I think it's important to note here that when we start to see the introduction of prophets that came before within the capacity of Surah Al-A'raf, this is not speaking to the people of Medina or the climate in Medina which was familiar with the concept of prophethood. So when we were talking about the prophets as they're coming up in the capacity of the first few surahs of the Quran, keep in mind that the Muslims at this point are interacting with the people of the book who are very familiar with the concept of prophethood.
But when you are speaking to a Meccan climate, they are completely in denial of anything to do with prophethood and anything to do with the hereafter. Both of these things cause them a'jab, cause them a feeling of shock, right? And like how is it possible that a prophet could be raised amongst us? How is it possible that our bones could be assembled and we be raised once again in the hereafter? And so you really see it I think SubhanAllah in this verse, though it's not the first verse we'll talk about, but verse 63 where Allah SubhanAllah says awa ajibtum an ja'akum dhikrum min rabbikum ala rajulin minkum biyundhirakum wa li tattaqoo wa la'alakum turhamoon that you wonder that admonition should come to you from your Lord through a man from amongst yourselves that he may warn you and that you may avoid that which is evil and that mercy may be shown to you. And this is actually plugged right in the middle of the story of Nuh alayhi salam. So you start to see some of the prophets specifically whose nations were destroyed, right? Nuh alayhi salam's nation destroyed, Lut alayhi salam's nation destroyed, Shu'ayb alayhi salam and Salih alayhi salam, right? So you start to see some prophets whose nations were destroyed and the similarity between the Prophet SallAllahu Alaihi Wasallam and Nuh alayhi salam is that what the ulama mentioned that Rasulullah SallAllahu Alaihi Wasallam received very similar treatment from the people of Mecca that Nuh alayhi salam received from his people, especially in the early days of Mecca, which was just a sense of mockery, a sense of treating the Prophet SallAllahu Alaihi Wasallam with some sort of repulsiveness. A sense of mockery of the Prophet SallAllahu Alaihi Wasallam and you know, belittling the Prophet SallAllahu Alaihi Wasallam and in the process only belittling themselves as if like, why would Allah choose you, right? Why you? You know, oh sure this is going to happen. Oh, of course, you know, so mocking the Prophet SallAllahu Alaihi Wasallam.
So SubhanAllah this ayah, verse 63 comes in the middle of these verses about Nuh alayhi salam and that's what the ulama mentioned here, a connection between the Prophet Muhammad SallAllahu Alaihi Wasallam and Nuh alayhi salam. Then you have some really, really interesting seerah tidbits inshallah ta'ala. So you get to verse 28, so let's kind of go back to verse 28 where Allah SubhanAllah says, wa itha fa'alu fahisha qalu wajadna alayha aba'ana waAllahu amrana biha, kul inna Allaha la ya'muru bil fahsha atakuluna ala Allahi ma la ta'lamun This is a verse that if you don't know the seerah context can really be lost on you. And when such people commit fahisha, indecency, they say, look, this is what we found our forefathers doing and Allah also enjoined this upon us. This is also what God commanded us to do. And the response is, you know, not even like, you know, that your forefathers would not command you with fahsha, with indecency, because the reality is that you could actually have fahsha, indecency passed down from generation to generation. And that's one of the ways that it's normalized. But here the response is Allah. God would never enjoin any type of indecency. Right. Because these people, they believed in Allah, but in a spectrum of gods. Right. And so surely Allah SubhanAllah does not enjoin any type of indecency. Are you saying that about Allah SubhanAllah, what you clearly have no knowledge about. So why is it that I say that this is something that could be totally lost upon the reader if they don't know the seerah of the Prophet Sallallahu Alaihi Wasallam or the implications of the seerah here. This fahisha that is being referred to here, this indecency is particularly referring to the jahili practice from the days of ignorance where they used to do tawaf around the Kaaba without clothes. And they would, you know, the men and the women would go out and they would do tawaf around the Kaaba without clothes.
And you know, that's such an inappropriate site. Right. It's so indecent. And it's particularly, by the way, you know, when you start to look into the books of tafsir, you know, I was reading about the particular tribes, because just like when it comes to the burial of young girls, it wasn't all the tribes that used to bury the young girls. Right. Where Allah SubhanAllah mentions, when the young girl buried alive will ask for what crime was I killed. But the fact that, you know, this became OK in Mecca was actually a condemnation of all of the people. Right. All of the tribes for allowing this practice amongst themselves. So even if all of the tribes did not actively participate in female infanticide, it is a condemnation of all of them for allowing it in their midst in that way. And so when it comes to the practice of doing tawaf around the Kaaba in nakedness, this is something that particularly it seems Benu Amir was known for. They used to do tawaf around the Kaaba without any clothes whatsoever, the men and the women. And so what is it and what's the reasoning for it? You know, these are people, SubhanAllah, that were using their gods, using the idols to manipulate people. They did not have a sense of the hereafter. It's all traditions, traditions, traditions. This is what our forefathers did. This is what our forefathers did. So what's the reasoning for it? Well, you know, we don't know if it's holy or not holy. And, you know, we're just kind of making things up. So they take the practice of their forefathers and then they embellish it by saying that, well, this is what Allah commands to. And if you think about how cultural innovations happen within theology, that's how it happens, right? It gets passed down and then you have to preserve the bid'ah, so you decorate the innovation. So you decorate the innovation by saying this is what Allah commanded as well. And these people just, you know, brought, of course, this is bid'ah that is shirk and kufr here, right?
This is the worst type of innovation in religion, which is complete polytheism and just adding a very indecent practice to their polytheism. And, you know, they're saying that this is what Allah must have commanded to us as well, because otherwise our forefathers would not have passed this down to us. And so this is the context of the verse 31 where Allah Subh'anaHu Wa Ta-A'la says, Ya Bani Adam khudhu zinatakum AAinda kulli masjid wa kulu washrabu wa la tusrifu innahu la yuhibbu almustrifeen O children of Adam, take your adornment with you to the prayer. When you go to the masjid, wear your adornment. Make sure that you wear your best clothes and eat and drink without going to excess, for verily Allah does not like those who do israf, who go into excess. Now, this is actually something I'm going to ask Sheikh Yusuf, by the way, because I think it's something that actually piqued my interest. And, you know, Sheikh Yusuf is, mashAllah, when it comes to, you know, the Quran and understanding the meanings of the Quran, I pray that maybe he can comment on this. But it's very interesting that Allah Subh'anaHu Wa Ta-A'la says, Ya Bani Adam here and not Ya ayyuhal adheen aamanu O children of Adam, as opposed to O you who believe. And one of the wisdoms, Allah A'lam, is that the Muslims are living in a Meccan climate where they are not in a place of power. The idols are still there. And so it's a call to all of them to not go around the Ka'bah without their clothes, to not go around the Ka'bah naked. Like even those of you who are still upon your shirk and refusing the message of the Prophet SallAllahu Alaihi Wasallam, don't bring such, you know, such indecency to this place. Allah knows best and maybe Sheikh Yusuf will have something to share there as well. Why does Allah Subh'anaHu Wa Ta-A'la say and eat and drink without going to excess? Because they used to say that we will not eat during the times of our pilgrimage. Okay, again, because this is what our forefathers used to do.
And so they don't eat at that time. Now this is a really interesting departure point. They were claiming this as a form of righteousness. And some of the narrations say that the Muslims said when they saw that they would fast in their times of pilgrimage, نحن أحق أن نفعل ذلك يا رسول الله. We have a greater right and if anything we should be doing that as well, a messenger of Allah, because that's a good thing. Nakedness we get, cover the awrah, cover your indecency. But like fasting is a good thing. So shouldn't we fast in our days of hajj as well? Shouldn't we fast when we do our pilgrimage as well? Because they are fasting. And of course Allah Subh'anaHu Wa Ta-A'la instead reveals, كُلُوا وَشْرَبُوا وَلَا تُسْرِبُوا No, these are days of eating and drinking but don't go to excess. Because Allah Subh'anaHu Wa Ta-A'la does not like those who are wasteful. This is something that's very interesting because if you contrast this to Medina, when the Prophet SallAllahu Alaihi Wasallam got to Medina, and he found that the people of the book, particularly the Jewish tribes, were fasting a day to honor the victory of Musa Alayhi Salam over Fir'aun, Ashura, right? What did the Prophet SallAllahu Alaihi Wasallam say? نَحْنُ أَوْلَى بِمُوسَى مِنكُمْ That we should strive to do so as well. We are close to Musa Alayhi Salam, we have more right to Musa Alayhi Salam. We also should fast these days. And of course the revelation comes from Allah Subh'anaHu Wa Ta-A'la, اَيَّامًا مَعْدُودَاتٍ That we fast some days before Ramadan came and rendered those days voluntary. There is a difference between honoring the legacy of the Prophets before, and seemingly honoring the legacy of the forefathers here, when there was no basis to what they did. We act upon divine revelation. So whether it is rejecting the indecent practices, or rejecting an addition of supposedly good that is actually a hardship,
but that has no basis, we reject it. And so that is an interesting point when you read that ayah, where Allah Subh'anaHu Wa Ta-A'la says to take your adornment at the time of prayer, and eat and drink without going to excess. Finally, where we move to verse 73, where Allah Subh'anaHu Wa Ta-A'la mentions وَإِلَىٰ ثَمُودَ أَخَاهُمْ صَالِحًا Allah mentions, and to Thamud we sent forth their brother Salih, and Allah talks about the destruction of the people of Thamud. And of course we are very familiar with جُزَعَمَّا كَذَّبَتْ ثَمُودُ بِتَغْوَاهَا إِذَاً بَعْتَ أَشْقَاهَا Where Allah Subh'anaHu Wa Ta-A'la mentions Thamud killing the she-camel, killing the naqa, and their disobedience of Allah Subh'anaHu Wa Ta-A'la in that sense. Now there is a very interesting seerah incident for this, and that is that Thamud lived in an area between Medina and Tabuk. And they were ta'ad, basically what the people of Ta'af were to the people of Mecca. So they are very similar, and they are secondary of sorts to the people of Aad. And the Prophet ﷺ, when he was on his way to Tabuk, he had the Muslims with them, and they looked around and they saw the ruins of these people, the people of Thamud. And it's known as مِدَاءٍ صَالِح The area of the Prophet ﷺ, and the destruction of those people, there used to be hundreds of thousands, maybe millions of people that lived in these areas. And it's an entire beautiful city of architecture, but it is tainted by the destruction that came upon them, because of their aggression and their transgression. And when the Prophet ﷺ passed by with the Muslims through that area, the Prophet ﷺ actually pointed to, according to some narrations, the well that the she-camel used to drink from. The she-camel mentioned the story used to drink from,
and they drank from that well as well. So they drew from that well also. The Prophet ﷺ passed by the valley that the she-camel came from, and the Prophet ﷺ, he tells them to look around and to observe, what became of this place. And then the Prophet ﷺ, he says to move forward hastily, because he didn't want to reside for a long time in a place where the destruction of Allah ﷻ came. So this is an interesting ayah that connected to this incident in the Sira as well. And the last reflection I'll leave with is the verse in 93, where Shu'ayb ﷺ is departing from his people. ﷺ He mentioned that Shu'ayb ﷺ departs from his people and says, O my people, surely I have conveyed to you the message of my Lord, and I gave you sincere advice. How then can I mourn for a people who refuse to accept the truth? And this of course parallels the end of Mecca, where the Prophet ﷺ is leaving due to persecution the people of Mecca, and settling in Madinah. And inshallah ta'ala with that I'll invite Sheikh Yusuf and Sheikh Abdullah. Sheikh Yusuf, do you have any reflections? I put a very specific question in your way if you had anything, but also any reflections about that inshallah ta'ala. Sheikh Abdullah, if you have any ta'ala. Allah yabarik wa alaikum wa rahmatullahi wa barakatu. I'm sure the beautiful reflections. Actually I thought about the ayah when you just cited it, بَنِي آدم أَخُذُوا مِنْ زِينَتَكُمْ عِنْدَ كُنْتِ مَسْجِدٍ And yes the ayah can be actually looked at from multiple perspectives. We can look at it circumstantially, talking about the community of Muslims in Mecca at that time, not being in power as you mentioned Sheikh, and the fact that the khitab or the address of the Qur'an is still to the universal, is still universal to all mankind or all people that are living during that time. But what is more interesting is a couple of ayahs before this ayah, there is another mention of كُلَّ مَسْجِد again.
Talking about وَأَقِيمُوا وُجُوهَكُمْ عِنْدَ كُلِّ مَسْجِدٍ And maintain your worship for the sake of Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala every time or place based on the understanding and the interpretation of the ayah, of prostration which symbolizes the salah, the prayer. So if we want to look at it from the perspective that those are Muslims living in Mecca that are not in power yet, the khitab is for everybody, this one angle. But the other angle is one of the beautiful characteristics of the Meccan Qur'an specifically is the way it portrays or articulates aqidah in general. Is this mix between how to address the human mind, the human intellect, and at the same time how to address the human spirituality as well. This is the unique combination that we, when we are trying to study theology or aqidah in our modern time, we are trying to attain this level. We are trying to mix and combine between the theological concepts, definitions, arguments that we're trying to understand, to conceive, and to convey to people, to talk about our deen, to refute misconceptions, to dismantle doubts, to prove points about our religion, while at the same time maintaining a constant reflection or manifestation of these theological conceptions and arguments in our hearts as well. One of the great teachers of theology, may Allah be pleased with him, he used to mention all the time that we need to combine between these two concepts of dars al-tawhid and ghars al-tawhid. There is the dars al-tawhid, there is the aqidah class in which we are studying theology, logic, art of argumentation, rational proofs, and all these different disciplines that are very important and needed within certain limits and perspectives, while at the same time we need to understand the ghars al-tawhid, how to implement these concepts in our minds. Applying this back to these two ayat, and again applying the multi-layered meaning phenomena of the Qur'an, yes, that might be addressing the group of Muslims who are oppressed, who are persecuted in Mecca, while at the same time it addresses everybody who is living there. It addresses those people who are making tawafir around the Ka'bah in nakedness,
or people who are not devoting their worship only and solely for the sake of Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala, that you need to maintain your wujud, your faces literally, for the sake of Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala. At the same time, every time you offer salah, you need to cover your outward awrah, which is your body, while at the same time you need to maintain self-introspection and self-purification of your inward awrah as well, covering all the defects of the heart and all the diseases of the heart that are personal. That might be afflicted with in this life. That is just a general reflection, I wouldn't call it tafsir for sure, but just a general reflection on how to maybe make the link, and I think it's two ayat before the ayah that I actually mentioned, waqeemu wujuhakum inda kulli majid, which is a beautiful ayah that portrays our whole view of devoting our worship to Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala, wa ma'ru a'lamin. Jazakumullah khair Sheikh Yusuf. Allahumma shakir. BarakAllahu feekum. BarakAllahu feekum. Alhamdulillah. Alhamdulillah bil almeen. Alhamdulillah. Alhamdulillah bil almeen. MashaAllah, it's, you know, I think we were talking about this before we came on, about how this chapter subhanAllah is a chapter primarily of aqeedah, and as you mentioned theology, and I like how you mentioned that your Sheikh hafizullah, when he mentioned dars wa dars at-tawhid, that it is something that we study, but in the same time it's supposed to be something that is inculcated, you know, within our hearts, minds, and our practice, our implementation of what we study, which is the goal of studying, and alhamdulillah, one thing I love about the chapter of al-an'am is particularly is the concept of Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala talking about guidance, and how subhanAllah, you know, we see the reality of people that come into Islam, and I think I mentioned this last year, I mention it all the time, of coming into Islam is not only a phenomenon of people that were not Muslim, but it also is of those that were born Muslim, and they have had an epiphany in their life, whether it's a person, a friend, a teacher, something they've read, a near-death experience,
and they want to come and do the quote-unquote right thing, and get right with God, if you will, there are a couple of verses that, particularly in this chapter, are very profound in regards to the hudah of Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala, in regards to the guidance of Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala, and how He shows us Allah the Exalted, and guides us to the right way, and as we know, throughout the text of the Quran and the Sunnah, through induction of the scholars, some say there are three or two forms of guidance, there is the guidance, the hidayah, of showing you the way, and then the hidayah of going the way, I mean, there could be, you know, for example, someone, you're trying to, you get, you're lost in a city, and you go to the nearest coffee shop, the nearest convenience store, gas station, and you ask them for directions, you ask them to show you the way, so they show you the way, but it's still upon you to make that choice to go that way, and that's where we understand these two types of forms of guidance. Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala mentions in a chapter, you know, in this chapter, where He talks about in verse number 122, where He asks a rhetorical question, and this rhetorical question is asked, what is very interesting is He asked this question after talking about the meat, the halal livestock, what are the forms of meat that are allowed for you to eat, pronouncing the name of Allah over these animals, or if it's a dead animal, that which you cannot eat if you find it, and it is already dead, and what is the process of that which is particularly halal, or kosher, for lack of better words, if you will, in regards to our meat. But then after that, He talks about the dead heart, and He asks a question, the rhetorical question, and He says after Audhu Billahi min ash-shaitani r-rajim, awa man kana maytan fa ahyaynahu wa ja'alna lahu nooran yamshi bihi finnaas. A portion of this verse, He says, is the dead person that is brought back to life by us and given light in which to walk among people comparable to someone that is trapped in deep darkness who cannot escape?
And He says, kamam mathaluhu fee dhulumati laysa bi kharijin minha. So He makes this comparison, firstly, of the one that was kana maytan, the one that was dead, but the death here is primarily the death of the heart. It is a dead heart. And you find this in Islam, subhanAllah, numerous times, talking about the dead heart, and that the heart is something that is paramount to the guidance of a person. As we mentioned in numerous jalasaats and numerous gatherings before that we talked about, it is important for the Muslim to be prepared, or to be diligent on the situation of their heart. And the name of the heart is the qalb, as some scholars say, because it is constantly in motion, yataqallab, it constantly is in motion and needs to have thabat. That's why the Prophet ﷺ, thabat is to be firm and to be solid on something. And to make sure when you are solid on that, you ask Allah to keep you and solidify you within that belief that you have, whatever your heart is content or trying to be content upon. Hence we have the dua of the Prophet ﷺ, ya muqallib al-quloob, thabbit qalbi ala deenik. Muqallib al-quloob, thabbit qalbi ala deenik. O the one that flips the heart, make my heart firm upon your deen, your religion, the way of life, which is Islam. So Allah ﷻ is asking the rhetorical question, is the one that has the dead heart that we have brought back to life, that walks amongst the people, yamshi bihi fin nas. So here it is firstly acknowledging that there were people that had dead hearts. And the dead heart is ultimately, as was mentioned a couple of days ago, of the one that is distracted by the ultimate distraction, by turning to other than Allah ﷻ, or turning to Allah and others along with Allah at the level of Allah. And that is what is very important here because Allah ﷻ addresses this heart as mayyid,
because the thing that, what brings the heart to life is the one that gave you life, is the tawhid, is the oneness of Allah ﷻ, the belief that there is nothing like Him and everything else is subordinate to Him. It's subordinate to Him ﷻ, glory to Him. So Allah ﷻ is asking this question of the one that has the dead heart and we have brought it to life. And He walks with it, wajAAalna lahu nooran, we have put inside of it noor, a light, yamshi bihi fin nas. With this light, you are walking amongst the people. You are not walking away from them. So in other words, when you have this light of guidance, this light of truth, this light of integrity, this light of love, all the aspects of ibadah, of servitude, that are manifest in different ways in our hearts ultimately and shown throughout our actions, this should be given to other people. But the question is, the noor that you have in your heart, are you allowing that noor to illuminate in front of others to where they can get from this light, they can take from this light, and inshaAllah have their own lights in their heart. Because as we see on media and even in person, online and offline, that there are people with dead hearts, they don't have any direction, they don't have anything that brings them serenity, anything that brings them security, anything that brings them certainty. So when we understand that Allah Subh'anaHu Wa Ta-A'la is the only one that can bring you this light, you constantly ask him for the noor. As the Prophet ﷺ mentioned the beautiful long dua that when he would leave from his house and go to the masjid, وَجَعَلْنِي نُورًا, at the very end he says, and make me noor. He mentions certain body parts of his, and to place in it noor, and at the very end he mentions, and make me noor. Make me someone that is illuminated. Allow this illumination to be of
that which people see and are affected by. So, يَمْشِبِهِ فِي النَّاسِ, amongst the people, are we people that is spreading the noor to everyone else. That is something that we have to consistently ask ourselves. And then he makes the comparison, كَمَنْ مَثَلُهُ فِي الظُّلمَاتِ لَيْسَ بِخَارِجٍ مِنْهَا, is this person that has the noor, that his heart has been given life with the noor, and is amongst the people, as Subh'anaHu Wa Ta-A'la, you know, by a small tidbit that Ibn Qayyim Subh'anaHu Wa Ta-A'la in his book Waabil al-Sayyid, he mentions around 72 benefits of dhikr of Allah Subh'anaHu Wa Ta-A'la. And then from this, he mentions within the 51st point that he mentions on this benefits of dhikr, that it is نُورٌ لِلذَّكْرِ, that remembering Allah, dhikr is remembrance. You're remembering Him in your heart. You're remembering His names, beautiful names and attributes, and those, and how it manifests on you. And you're remembering the dhikr by your tongue. And as we spoke about a couple days with Shaykh Tahir about saying the dhikr of Allah Subh'anaHu Wa Ta-A'la, saying His name Subh'anaHu Wa Ta-A'la, mentioning the name of Allah Subh'anaHu Wa Ta-A'la does something to the psyche, and it does something to the heart. And that is where the نُورٌ is maintained, inshaAllah. So that's a beautiful point here when Ibn Qayyim mentions the importance of remembering Allah Subh'anaHu Wa Ta-A'la and how that gives نُورٌ to the human being spiritually, inshaAllah, and other than that. Then Allah Subh'anaHu Wa Ta-A'la, when he continues on making the comparison, كَمَنْ مِمَثَلُهُ فِي الظُّلُمَاتِ لَيْسَ بِخَارِجٍ مِنْهَا Is it like the one that is trapped in deep darkness and there is no way out. If I was to turn the lights off now, I think I made this comparison last year, I would know within my gym slash studio slash library, I would definitely trip over some cords and knock over some lights because there is darkness. So if we make that comparison as Allah Subh'anaHu Wa Ta-A'la is making this comparison,
كَمَنْ مِمَثَلُهُ فِي الظُّلُمَاتِ لَيْسَ بِخَارِجٍ مِنْهَا The ظُّلُمَات is plural. As some scholars say, the ظُّلم of the eyes, the ظُّلم of the heart, the ظُّلم of the different body parts, just as the Prophet SallAllahu Alaihi Wasallam asked for نُورٌ of these particular parts of our body. So the ظُّلُمَات is in different forms. As the Prophet SallAllahu Alaihi Wasallam said, that the darkness is in different forms, الظُّلُمُ الظُّلُمَاتِ يَوْنُ الْقِيَمُ But when understanding for us now that the Prophet SallAllahu Alaihi Wasallam Allah Subh'anaHu Wa Ta-A'la is talking about these ظُّلُمَاتِ لَيْسَ بِخَارِجٍ مِنْهَا Because sometimes SubhanAllah, it is layers of darkness that we see people upon. It is layers of darkness that when we stop and learn ourselves, we realize that SubhanAllah, I didn't know I had this bad of an anger problem, an anger issue. SubhanAllah, I didn't know that my heart was so attached to that person that has passed away. To the degree, this righteous person that has passed away, to the degree that I may worship them along with Allah. I didn't know that there were layers of darkness when it came to the level of appreciation that I gave to a form of creation that was at the level of Allah Subhanahu Wa Ta-A'la. And that's why SubhanAllah, Allah Subh'anaHu Wa Ta-A'la pluralizes it here by saying ظُّلُمَاتِ لَيْسَ بِخَارِجٍ مِنْهَا Because it is very hard at times for a person to look in the mirror and to ask themselves, SubhanAllah, what am I really doing in regards to showing Allah my gratitude and learning who He is and who He is not. Then Allah Subhanahu Wa Ta-A'la concludes and He says, In this way the evil deeds of the disbelievers are made to seem alluring to them. كَذَلِكَ زُّيِّنَ لِلْكَافِرِينَ مَا كَانُوا يَعْمَلُونَ Particularly as we see this verse was particularly talking about those that had not yet embraced the faith of the oneness of Allah Subhanahu Wa Ta-A'la and then embracing that faith.
As some has mentioned of Umar Bin Al-Khattab رضي الله عنه But particularly as we see, as I say, the lesson is with the generality of the mentioning of the verse or the goal of the verse not be the specific reason. Although we know that verses of the Quran have been revealed as consequential but we see that the generality of this is paramount. That we understand that there is darkness that can take place within the hearts of people and Allah Subhanahu Wa Ta-A'la will guide them and we should look at the nur that Allah has given us and be thankful for the virtue of this beautiful, beautiful, complete religion of Islam and allow that to spread and understand the danger of darkness and its manifestations. And Allah Subhanahu Wa Ta-A'la continues on later and He talks about the guidance of Allah when He mentions that Allah Subhanahu Wa Ta-A'la opens the heart of someone شَرَحَ اللَّهُ صَدَرَهُ لِلْإِسْلَامِ and He mentions verses, you know, if you have the opportunity to read a couple of verses later and this verse SubhanAllah, this verse as well and the verses that follow SubhanAllah are very, very important in regards to those as I mentioned earlier that have come to the faith of Islam or those that have come to the faith of Islam and they have been Muslim their whole life but they decided to try their best and that attempt that you make, Allah is not negligent of it. Allah is not negligent of the fact that you are looking for that nur to take, to keep, and allow to be illuminated for others inshaAllah Ta'ala So may Allah Subhanahu Wa Ta-A'la make us of those that have nur and allow this nur to illuminate and affect others bi-inni Allah Ta'ala Ameen. JazakAllah Khair. Alhamdulillah. Shaykh Yusuf, I'm just gonna pass it on to you bi-inni Allah Ta'ala. JazakAllah Khair, Shaykh Abdullah. At-fadhal, Shaykh Yusuf. As-salamu alaykum wa rahmatullahi wa barakatuhu, Shaykh. JazakAllah Khair and Shaykh Abdullah for the beautiful reflections, inshaAllah. Drawing from the major Aqidah theme in Surat Al-An'am, the Surah, as was touched on multiple times, addresses a lot of Aqidah issues
and engages in multiple levels with so many different polytheistic and heroic notions and beliefs and at the same time, it documents a lot of the false practices that the Arabs used to offer before Islam. Sayyiduna Abdullah ibn Abbas, may Allah be pleased with him, he said as Imam Bukhari reported that if you want to know and learn about the ignorance of the Arabs, read from Ayah 130 from Surat Al-An'am and onwards towards the end of the Surah where Allah Subh'anaHu Wa Ta-A'la documents so many different practices and false, fake rituals they were offering for their fake gods. When we look at the very first Ayah of today, the Ayah number 111, Allah Subh'anaHu Wa Ta-A'la Yaqul وَلَوْ أَنَّنَا نَزَّلْنَا إِلَيْهِمُ الْمَلَائِكَةَ وَكَلَّمَهُمُ الْمَوْتَى وَحَشَرْنَا عَلَيْهِمْ كُلَّ شَيْءٍ قُبُلًا مَّا كَانُوا لِيُؤْمِنُونَ So the Surah in the same context of Aqidah, offering a lot of different arguments and engaging on multiple levels and at the same time, the Surah is always reminding people that you have a lot of signs around you, you have a lot of different Adillah, you have a lot of different arguments around you. If those arguments are not enough for your rational mind and they're not enough to conquer your heart and open and widen your spiritual horizon to receive and accept the guidance and the hudah from Allah Subh'anaHu Wa Ta-A'la, no matter how many Adillah, no matter how many arguments and signs and ayats and miracles we bring up to you, there is no way you will be guided. And this is exactly what this ayah is saying. And the ayah is very unique because Allah Subh'anaHu Wa Ta-A'la is including in this ayah most of the requests that those people made to the Prophet ﷺ. Those requests, some of them are in the Qur'an, some of them are in the Sunnah and the Seerah of the Prophet ﷺ. Allah Subh'anaHu Wa Ta-A'la says, and even if we had sent down to them the angels, وَكَلَّمَهُمُ الْمَوْتَ even if the dead spoke to them, وَحَشَرْنَا عَلَيْهِمْ كُلَّ شَيْءٍ قُبُلً even if we gathered all things in front of them, you wouldn't have believed in Allah Subh'anaHu Wa Ta-A'la.
And I want to highlight specifically the word Qubula because when we look into the different modes of recitation in the Qur'an, there is actually more than one Qira'ah in this word. There is a Qira'ah that maybe you are familiar with, it's the common Qira'ah that we know from Hafs. For example, كُلَّ شَيْءٍ قُبُلً and the Qaf and the Dhamma and the Ba'a. And then there is another Qira'ah that says Qibana with a Kasra underneath both the Qaf and the Ba'a. And SubhanAllah, two diacritic marks add a lot new different meanings to the ayah. And as we know about the beauty of Qira'at is it always emphasizes this phenomenon of the Qur'an, of the multi-layered meanings of the Qur'an, that the same word could be pronounced differently, but it adds more and more meanings that are not contradictory, but enrich the meanings and the interpretations of the ayah. So Qubulan, the first one that we actually know, means if we bring all of these things, right, from all the different kinds, وَحَشَرْنَا عَلَيْهِمْ كُلَّ شَيْءٍ قُبُلً If we gather all different kinds of things in front of them, this is basically the direct meaning. But when we recite it with the other Qira'ah, Qibalan, it adds actually two other meanings to this meaning. The first meaning, as was suggested by a lot of the scholars in Tafsir al-Qira'at, they said Qibalan actually also means a kind of Qabil. Qabil means Kafil, which means if we bring all of these things to guarantee to them that what the Prophet ﷺ is telling them is the truth, they will not believe still. So even all the creatures that Allah ﷻ are bringing, and keep in mind the universality of the word, كُلَّ شَيْءٍ all things, and the scholars of Tafsir al-Qira'at, كُلَّ شَيْءٍ here includes living and non-living beings. So imagine Allah ﷻ is bringing all the creatures, Allah ﷻ is bringing all the non-living things, the rocks, the mountains, the everything that around those people would actually speak, would talk to those people, the polytheists of Makkah, telling them what the Prophet is telling you is truth. This message is coming from Allah ﷻ,
they will not still believe in Allah ﷻ. This is another layer of the meaning. A third layer of the meaning, Qibalan also means Mu'ayyala, which means something that is right in front of you, something that you can sensibly and physically interact with and see by your own eyes. So you can see all these different signs in front of you, but those people are still unwilling to believe in Allah ﷻ. That's why Allah ﷻ included the ayah with saying, وَلَكِنَّ أَكْثَرَهُمْ يَجْهَدُونَ but most of them are actually ignorant. One meaning of that will be, most of them are not ignorant that you don't need to ask for more than one ayah. If one sign, ayah, miracle from Allah ﷻ is not enough for you, if we give you all different ayahs and miracles and signs, there will not be enough of you. This is the level of spiritual blindness that those people feel it. And this is what the Qur'an is trying to trigger in our minds and spirituality that be careful because the hidayah of the Qur'an and the message of Allah ﷻ is based on your spiritual readiness or willingness to receive the guidance from Allah ﷻ. This same Qur'an was revealed to all those different people from the same community and society, but at the same time, they did not receive it in the same way. They did not interact with the Qur'an in the same way because it's all dependent on your spiritual willingness to receive the guidance from Allah ﷻ. Another ayah from the same juz' that I would also like to share reflection on to conclude with is in the same context of engaging with the polytheists and the mushrikeen of Quraysh, of Makkah, Allah ﷻ talks about those people who would say we will not believe until we are given that which the prophets of Allah were given as well. لَنْ نُؤْمِنَ حَتَّى نُؤْتَى مِثْلَ مَا أُوتِيَ رُسُولَ اللَّهِ Ayah number 124. So Allah ﷻ responds to this in a very unique manner, saying اللَّهُ أَعْلَمُ حَيْثُ يَجْعَلُ رِسَالَتَهِ Allah ﷻ is the most knowing where He places His message. And it's a beautiful response because also again applying the same multi-layered meanings
you can look at this same ayah from different perspectives as well. The direct meaning is Allah ﷻ chose Muhammad ﷺ for this message and he knows best who is the most fit for this mission of Allah ﷻ. That's why he's al-Mustafa and the meaning of al-Mustafa ﷺ is the chosen one. Allah ﷻ chose him. Imam Ahmad reported in his Musnad from Abdullah ibn Mas'ud ﷺ that the Prophet ﷺ said إِنَّ اللَّهَ نَظَرَ فِي قُلُوبِ الْعِبَادِ that Allah ﷻ has looked into the hearts of people and he found that Muhammad's heart ﷺ is the best heart of all mankind. So Allah ﷻ has chosen him for himself and has chosen him to deliver and convey his message. So this is a first direct meaning we understand that how Allah ﷻ as this message in the Prophet ﷺ but you want you can also extend this meaning to understand that Allah ﷻ chooses this particular community to send the message to and to choose the Prophet ﷺ and the companions the Sahaba رضي الله تعالى عَلَى to be around him from the same community because he places his message wherever he will ﷻ and the continuation of the same hadith says that Allah ﷻ also then looked into the hearts of the servants and the people after the hearts of the Prophet ﷺ and he chose the hearts of the Sahaba to be the assistants of the Prophet ﷺ to be the people who fight and defend the Prophet ﷺ and fight for the sake of Allah ﷻ one of the beautiful stories that was reported about the Sahaba is one man was in the masjid later on after the death of the Prophet ﷺ and he saw Abdullah ibn Abbas the Prophet's cousin ﷺ walking in the masjid and he didn't know him he didn't recognize that this is Abdullah ibn Abbas so he asked people he said who's this person because he felt in himself in awe of the presence of Abdullah ibn Abbas so he said
هذا عبد الله بن عباس ابن عم رسول الله ﷺ this is Abdullah ibn Abbas the cousin of the Prophet ﷺ the man just as spontaneously on the spot said in his still awe that he was in الله أعلم حيث يجعل وسالة Allah knows Allah is the most knowing of or when and where and who to give his message to subhanahu wa'ta'ala and keep in mind that Abdullah ibn Abbas here represents both the fact that he's one of the companions of the Prophet ﷺ and one member of the family of the Prophet the household of the Prophet ﷺ a third layer that we should also reflect under حيث يجعل وسالة where to place his message is how can we reflect deeply on the entire society of the of the Arab society at that time because if you look at this ayah that we just understood and derived from it that Allah subhanahu wa'ta'ala is praising the sahaba as a possible meaning but those sahaba were from the same community that denied all these signs earlier those sahaba came from the same city and community with those people Allah said if we give them everything if we bring all the signs if we make the dead talk to them they will not leave but yet that was the same community that basically produced those that the best generation of this ummah the sahaba of the Prophet ﷺ thus this should make us also reflect on this should make us reflect on the different social and and and even religious characteristics that characteristics that those people had before Islam how did they receive the message what was the exact problem with the message of the Prophet ﷺ how come the same community gives me Abu Jahl and gives me Umar ibn Al-Khattab how can we understand that both come from the same social political and religious dynamics of the same community this makes us reflect deeply on Ahwal al-Arabi al-Jahili understanding that the community of Arabs before Islam to give us more ability and insight of understanding Islam those people had a lot of merits and had a lot of good akhlaq in the same time had a lot of bad
akhlaq and had a lot of different fake and false rituals that they offer for their fake gods but at the same time Allah subhanahu wa'ta'ala knew that they had something unique in their hearts they had some beautiful characteristics that if the spiritual power of Islam will trigger it those people would be the best of this ummah after the Prophet ﷺ those are three different layers of meaning that we can understand from Allahu a'lamu haythu yaj'alu risalata one last point I would conclude with is something that Imam al-Razi rahimahullah mentioned about this particular ayah talking about that there is a daqeeqa as he said daqeeqa means a deep subtle meaning that we can derive from this ayah he said that those people were envious of the prophets he said man nu'mina hatta nu'ta mitna ma'ut ya rusulullah we will not believe until we are given what the prophets were given and the respond was Allahu a'lamu haythu yaj'alu risalata he said we should derive from this that the minimum characteristics of the prophets and the messengers of Allah ﷺ is that they are pure completely from any kind of evil feeling hatred or envy because those people when they asked for this that was out of their envy and Allah ﷻ responds saying no you are not worthy of being messengers and prophets he was worthy of being a prophet or a messenger ﷺ why because his heart is completely pure from all these evil feelings of hatred envy and wishing for the detriment of the or the detriments of the blessings of other people that Allah ﷻ has bestowed upon them we ask Allah ﷻ to teach us the Qur'an and we ask him ﷻ to enable us to act upon the meanings of the Qur'an and we ask him ﷻ to accept our fasting our prayers and our ibadah insha'Allah wa jazakumullahu khayrun wa barakallahu fi khayrun Ahsanallahu alayk shaykh Yusuf absolutely beautiful subhanAllah and a perfect tie-in I think to what Shaykh Abdullah was talking about the difference was the light coming into the heart of Umar al-Khattab
radiAllahu anhu and then the light collectively coming to that community and that's where you saw the potential and the possibilities that came out of that community barakAllahu fikum for those beautiful reflections Shaykh Abdullah if you have a minute inshaAllah we have a research directors we go we go far as Shaykh Tahir we went like almost an hour Shaykh Yusuf tabarakAllah we went we're nearing in on that mark so we but but such blessed blessed it's not because you Shaykh Yusuf it's because of us or me I went long but your reflections were absolutely beautiful inshaAllah Shaykh Abdullah if you have any any you know reflection on that no no alhamdulillah mashAllah it was very very very beautiful mashAllah one thing that it was just constantly in my head when he was talking about the two different narrations or you know readings of Qibla it's just that you you have no ultimate control you know Allahu subhanahu wa'ta'ala is in ultimate control but at the same time it is not for you to give up on people right because this verse you know you know it'll say you know last one that was talking about is Qadr he knows he knows if there will be ultimately guided or not but that's not an excuse for us to say you know Allah said it so I'm gonna give up on my my father or mother this person that I've tried and it's not working and this is a message again to those that have embraced Islam as well don't give up on your family you know and always try means to call out to them it doesn't have to be in person it could be a letter it could be something but don't give up on people and know that Allah subhanahu wa'ta'ala has ultimate control and a huge sign if you haven't please read on the story of it I'm Robin Khattab conversion to Islam because I mean you see a little thought of who a man who you know you see him then you realize that Allah is an Hady which is one of his names and looking up the name
of Hady the ultimate guider the manifestation of that is far beyond our understanding but it's something that is so profound for us to trust in and to rely on and I'll stop there Allah subhan Allah so much so much to benefit from honestly and Sheikh Yusuf we're looking forward to all the papers and all the work that's going to be coming out of your department it's the newest department but subhan Allah the establishing the miraculous nature of the Quran sometimes through just appreciating its many layers of beauty and this is a part of it and you know I'm very excited to see bid the night on the effect of that on the community and just like a law I am very grateful to you for joining the team and having the none for the work that you all are doing right now on the research side of that so one more time sheikh Canada or Egypt I'll say Toronto or Cairo does that basically reference Canada or Egypt as well I'm trying I'm trying to deeper maybe if I can you know get to it okay I'll give you one one last thing do you say process or process the word process or process you say process I'm not sure everyone will see you all in short our tomorrow be getting into just nine inshallah on the battle of other article on FICO
imagine an Imam or a community leader imagine our community imagine the issues in our community that we want to talk about imagine the leader who wants to address those issues imagine that leader has a resource has a place to go to that gives both hard data and relevant religious solutions to those issues imagine the confidence with which he can deliver imagine the impact and the positive change that confidence will inspire in the entire Muslim community know that you no longer need to imagine through talk toolkits you clean Institute has made it possible for Imams and community leaders to address our most relevant issues in a way that makes a difference
Welcome back!
Bookmark content
Download resources easily
Manage your donations
Track your spiritual growth
1 items
1 items
1 items
25 items
50 items
9 items
