# The One Who Created the Night and the Stars | Taraweeh Reflections

**Author:** Dr. Omar Suleiman
**Series:** Taraweeh Reflections
**Published:** 2023-04-01
**YouTube:** https://youtu.be/WSm-ArIa_zY
**URL:** https://yaqeeninstitute.org/watch/series/taraweeh-reflections/the-one-who-created-the-night-and-the-stars-taraweeh-reflections
**Topics:** Faith, Quran

## Description
The Quran is full of examples of believers who looked up at the night sky and connected to Allah, and others who felt safe under the cover of the night. This Ramadan, help support free content and resources like this. Donate today!

## Transcript
**[0:00]** When you transition to this surah, surah Yunus, which personally is one of my favorite surahs in the Qur'an and particularly the first page and a half. It is subhanAllah one of the most beautiful elucidations of Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala on the creation of the heavens and the earth, the sun and the moon,

**[0:19]** and the way that that creation comes into being once again, and the way that the believers go from a place of being connected to Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala and they have qadama sidqin, they have their promised reward and their promised position with Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala later on.

**[0:35]** And one of the things that you'll notice about surah Yunus and you'll notice about the Qur'an, especially as it's speaking about creation, is this emphasis on the night sky, this emphasis on the night sky. So, huwa alladhi ja'ala al-shams al-diya'an wal-qamara nura wa qaddarahu manazila li ta'ala mu'adada al-sineena wal-hisab ma khalaqa allahu thalika illa bil-haq

**[0:57]** This is just one of the verses where Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala mentions the orbits, when Allah azawajal mentions the creation of the sun, the creation of the moon, the notion of how we benefit as humanity from the way that all of these bodies function in perfect harmony for our benefit.

**[1:16]** And so that we can come to know Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala which is the greatest benefit that we can have as mankind. And subhanAllah this idea of the night sky, the stars, you'll notice there's a lot of emphasis on looking up at night and the stars.

**[1:31]** And this is something subhanAllah that for us maybe we have a hard time connecting to because of the light pollution around us. We don't look up and see stars the way that people in the desert used to look up and see stars. And I want to connect this specifically to what we spoke about today in the khutbah about this connection to the sight of Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala alone.

**[1:53]** When a person is in the desert, and I want you to just put yourself there for a moment. No artificial light and you're in the desert and it's the darkness of the night. Imagine how much more intense your qiyam al-layl is going to be if you wake up in the middle of the night in a desert.

**[2:11]** And you go and you pray by yourself with no artificial light around you. Just think about how intense that salah is naturally going to be. The peace, the connection to Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala and you look up and you see that.

**[2:26]** You feel that connection where it's just you and Him subhanahu wa ta'ala. On the other hand, also one of the things that was known to the Arabs, and of course subhanAllah, the night is the time of the devils and the time of those that want to be like the angels. It's the time of those who sink to the level of the shayateen and the time of those who aspire to be like the mala'ika.

**[2:46]** It's the time where sins take place, historically speaking, right? And so the shameful deeds that would not fly just because of the natural honor of the Arabs at the time, right? They didn't have nightclubs and things of that sort, but certainly the shameful deeds were easier to take place under the night sky as well.

**[3:07]** Also, the hypocrites, which we've just finished reading about in quite, you know, detail in surat al-tawbah, right? To them, fajr, isha, we don't need to go there. No one sees you when you come to fajr and isha. Imagine if you came to fajr and isha in pitch black every single day.

**[3:23]** SubhanAllah. And so the believers saw it as a moment of intense striving. The hypocrites saw it as a moment to where they could intensely avoid any type of worship, sleep in, and then they'll show up at dhuhr and asr so that they can be seen, so they can still be counted amongst the Muslims.

**[3:39]** So the night is a very particular sitr, a very particular concealer that Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala has created for us. And there's a saying from the salaf, they used to have a poem amongst themselves, إِذَا خَلَوْتَ بِرِيبَةٍ فِي ظُلْمَةٍ وَالنَّفْسُ دَاعِيَةٌ إِلَى الْعِصْيَانِ فَاسْتَحْيِي مِن نَظَرِ الْإِلَٰهِ وَقُلْ لَهَا إِنَّ الَّذِي خَلَقَ الظَّلَامَ يَرَانِي

**[4:05]** This was a poem that Hafidh ibn Rajab rahimullah says that many of the salaf used to recite, that if you find yourself alone in the darkness of the night, and the nafs, the self starts to agitate, and says here's your opportunity, no one's watching you now,

**[4:21]** then restrain yourself and be shy from the sight of the Lord and tell your nafs, يا نفس, oh self, oh soul, إِنَّ الَّذِي خَلَقَ الظَّلَامَ يَرَانِي The one who created the darkness sees me. Who do you think made the darkness?

**[4:36]** Who do you think created that darkness for you? Who do you think created that sitr, that concealer, that cover for you, to where you could choose to aspire in complete privacy and stillness, or you could choose to do the shameless deeds because you look around and you see,

**[4:53]** no one else is looking. SubhanAllah I was just sharing with Sheikh Yasir, I remember the CD, you all know what a CD is right? I just want to make sure. A CD was this disc for the kids that you put inside a machine and it plays things, before things were on US, actually subhanAllah even USBs are not known anymore.

**[5:12]** Sheikh Mohammed al-Sharif rahimullah, one of the first lecturers, in fact I think it might have been the first lecture I ever heard from him. It was called In the Middle of the Night. Does anyone remember that lecture? Ali remembers it, you remember it? So In the Middle of the Night was one of the first lectures,

**[5:28]** it is the first lecture I think I heard from Sheikh Mohammed al-Sharif rahimullah. It's over 20 years old, subhanAllah. And when they were introducing Al-Maghrib Institute, they were passing around these CDs in different communities to get introduced to this idea. And I remember the story that he started off with,

**[5:45]** subhanAllah I happened to come across that story in Al-Ta'if when I was preparing for my khutbah today. Where a man apprehends a woman in the middle of the night, and he takes her to the side, and as he has bad intentions, he says to this woman who fears Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala,

**[6:02]** ما يرانا إلا الكواكب Look, no one sees us except for the stars. No one sees us except for the stars. And she says to him with full conviction, فأين مكاوكبها

**[6:17]** Where is the one who made the stars? Where is the one who made the stars? And the man was shocked, he was terrified. Because that thought struck him for a moment. Who created your privacy?

**[6:33]** And what unique test has Allah given you with your privacy? You know subhanAllah we live in a time where privacy is one of the greatest fitnahs that we have in our lives. Privacy. Private messaging, private browsing,

**[6:48]** privacy has become entirely compounded in terms of fitnah because of the digital era. And you have to ask yourself, who made that cover? Who created that privacy for me? And if Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala concealed me,

**[7:04]** what is Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala testing me with? And the way that you overcome that, and this is a lot of what we spoke about in the khutbah today, is that you actually start to use your privacy as intimate moments with Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala rather than distant moments from the creation

**[7:21]** where you feel like you're safe to do the most shameless of deeds. Ya Allah, no one is watching us right now, watching me as I can worship you alone. Not ya Allah or no one else sees me right now so I can disobey Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala,

**[7:38]** I can do whatever I want. And you think about the mindset and how shaytan tries to play with a person. You look around and everything is about this idea of being secluded. And the believer uses that seclusion because he understands or she understands

**[7:54]** that Allah created that seclusion for a very specific purpose in your life. And so think about yourself as you're going through these verses inshallah ta'ala, especially in Surah Yunus, and as we continue, especially in Makki Qur'an, even in Juz Amma,

**[8:09]** that emphasis of don't you look up and you see the stars? Who do you think made all of that? Who do you think created that darkness? The one who created the light created the darkness. The one who created the sun created the moon. The one who gave you vision during the day gave you the inability to see the world during the night

**[8:27]** so that you could focus on what is beyond this world during the night because that is the time, as Imam al-Qayyim rahimahullah spoke about, the time that a person cuts their greatest distance to Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala, the travelers in the night.

**[8:42]** It's the time of travel. The time of travel. The time that the hearts travel to Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala. So find ways, if you can inshallah ta'ala, and this is a challenge for all of us, to actually ascend in privacy rather than descend because the majority of people will descend in privacy.

**[8:59]** But the few will ascend in privacy. May Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala allow us to be even better in our private lives than we are in our public lives. And may Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala make us amongst those that are pleasing to Him when we are seen only by Him

**[9:15]** and when we are seen by Him and other than Him as well. Allahumma ameen. Jazakumullahu khair. Wassalamualaikum warahmatullahi wabarakatuh. Al Fatiha.

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