Taraweeh Reflections (2024)
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The Coolness of My Eyes | Taraweeh Reflections
The Prophet ﷺ called the prayer the coolness of his eyes, and we’re taught to make du‘a for our spouses and children to be the coolness of our eyes. What does that all mean?
Transcript
This transcript was auto-generated using AI and may contain misspellings. As-salamu alaykum wa rahmatullahi wa barakatuhu. Audhu billahi min ash-shaytani r-rajim. Bismillahir Rahmanir Raheem. Alhamdulillahi rabbil alameen. Wa la'udhu wanila ala al-dhalimeen. Wa la'aqeebatu lilmuttaqeen. Allahumma salli wa sallim wa baraka ala abdika wa rasulika Muhammadin sallallahu alayhi wa sallam wa ala alihi wa sahbihi wa sallam tasliman kathira. There's a very interesting term that shows up in the Qur'an, specifically in this juz' that we are in right now, but in a few places in the Qur'an, and it's something that we are using in our du'as as well, and that is the term, qurra tu'ayn, the coolness of my eyes. And subhanAllah, you find, as we are in surah al-mu'minoon and surah al-furqan, that this shows up in two ways. Number one, when you look at the first verses of surah al-mu'minoon, Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala says, qad aflaha al-mu'minoon allatheena hum fee salatihim khashi'oon that verily the believers are successful, those who have humility in their prayers. Now if you were to open up a book of tafsir, you would find that in At-Tabari and Ibn Kathir, and most of the tafsir that are based on the narrations of the Prophet ﷺ, they will include a narration right under this verse, which is a very beautiful narration, that the Prophet ﷺ said, hubbiba ilayya al-teebu wal-nisa wa ju'ilat qurra tu'ayni fis-salat that perfume or cologne, sweet scents, and my wives have been made beloved to me, women have been made beloved to me, meaning I naturally incline towards those things. The Prophet ﷺ is saying he loves the smell of sweet scents, and the Prophet ﷺ loved his wives. This was something that Allah put inside of him, hubbiba ilayya. And so there's a natural love that is there. But he said, wa ju'ilat qurra tu'ayni fis-salat but the coolness of my eyes was placed in my prayer.
And if you read that, just without going into any deep sharh of that hadith, if you were just to read that without an explanation, it's very clear that the Prophet ﷺ is saying, that look, these are things that we naturally love, but the way that I love my salah, the peace of mind, the joy that I find in my prayer is greater than anything worldly can offer you. And that is indeed the state of the Messenger ﷺ. Arhna biha ya bilal. Comfort us with it, O Bilal. He longed for the call to prayer. Zaa'isha radiallahu ta'ala anha, who describes the Prophet ﷺ as someone who was very present at home, someone that was very active, someone that was extremely loving ﷺ. But when the call for prayer was made, ka'anahu laa ya'rifuna, most of the Prophets ﷺ did not even know his family. He immediately jumped towards the prayer of ﷺ. So there was a joy that was found within his prayer. Now I'm going to go to the end of Surah al-Furqan with a du'a for a moment. But what is the meaning of qurra tu'in, the coolness of my eyes? There are two meanings that the scholars extract from it linguistically. Number one, qurra or istiqarra, it settles. When you stare at something because it captures you. So something captures your attention. But something can capture your attention because you're scared of it, or because it's amusing, or because it's beautiful in a worldly sense, or many other reasons. But it captures your attention. The point is that your eye falls upon it, and your eye stays. Meaning you find something that is compelling and captivating, and you stick to it. So it speaks to attention. The second thing is al-bard, coolness. Now I don't want you to go down the Google rabbit hole like I went down the Google rabbit hole. Where the Arabs would distinguish between hot tears and cold tears. And there was a theory in the tafasir as well,
that tears of grief tend to be hot and warm, that tears that come out of anxiety tend to burn, and tears of joy tend to be cool. They have more of a lubricating and cooling effect on the eye. Whereas when you cry out of grief, or anger, or stress, there's a saying, hot tears, cold fears. So it's like something burns you. But they said that when you would cry out of joy, it's a gentle tear that comes, and it feels good. It cools the eyes. Shaykh Yasir, when you look at me, do you cry hot tears or cold tears? Don't answer the question. JazakAllah khair. I'm going to assume, you know, Shaykh Yasir, his office was made beloved to him, but his qurra ta'im. I'm not going to finish that. But cold tears are happy tears. Hot tears are tears of grief. That's one of the theories. The point is that there's coolness, comfort, happiness, joy. It's a pleasant look. Now in salah, what the Prophet ﷺ is saying, that the inner peace that produces those types of tears, I don't find that inner peace, and that coolness, and that joy in anything like I find it in my salah. Now subhanAllah, you go to surah al-furqan, which is also in this juz, right after surah al-mu'minoon. وَالَّذِينَ يَقُولُونَ رَبَّنَا هَبْلَنَا مِنْ أَزْوَاجِنَا وَذُرِّيَاتِنَا قُرَّةَ أَعْيُنٍ وَجَعَلْنَا لِلْمُتَّقِينَ إِمَامًا When you ask Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala to make from your spouses and your children the coolness of your eyes, and make us imams for the believers, make us leaders for the God-conscious ones, for the pious ones. So it's interesting, because the Prophet salAllahu alayhi wa sallam is saying in the first narration that I mentioned, that the love that he has for his spouse is not like the love that he has for his salah. Right? But here, the believers say, place in our spouses and in our children the coolness of our eyes. SubhanAllah, there's a narration to Abu Sa'id al-Khudri, radiAllahu ta'ala anhu, who of course is a great companion of the Prophet salAllahu alayhi wa sallam, that he was asked,
is this something in this dunya or something in the akhira? Is this in this life or in the hereafter? He said, no, this is in this world, when you see your family fi ta'atillah, in the worship of Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala, in the obedience of Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala. So it's not, you know, for example, a beautiful spouse, or beautiful children, and that type of captivating happiness, where you look at them just out of joy, admiring their beauty, or just pleased to have them, or grateful to have them, or something that's worldly in its nature. Lakin an tarahum fi ta'atillah. When you see your spouse, or you see your children, doing something that is pleasing to Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala. So there's a connection here. The same ibadah that produces joy inside of you, when you see it in your spouses and in your offspring, may Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala grant us righteous spouses and offspring, Allahumma ameen. When you see it in your spouses and offspring, it also produces the coolness of the eye. So you say, alhamdulillah. You see your child praying, you see your child worshipping Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala, you see them implementing lessons that you tried so hard to teach them, and now it finally settled inside of them. What a joyous sight that is. May Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala grant it to us. Allahumma ameen. Two more usages of this word. When Asiya alayhi as-salam saw Musa alayhi as-salam, what did she say to Fir'aun about keeping him? Does anyone know? قُرَّةُ عَيْنٍ لِي وَلَكَ It's actually very beautiful. Let him be the coolness of my eyes and the coolness of your eyes. Let's keep him. Let him be the coolness of my eyes and the coolness of your eyes. And this ties to the Qadr series, by the way. Those of you that have been following, in the very first episode, we talked about a narration from Mas'ud radhiAllahu ta'ala anhu, where he said, the believing soul, on the hadith of al-arwah, that righteous souls are naturally attracted to one another. Ibn Mas'ud radhiAllahu anhu said, if you walked into a gathering and you're a mu'min,
may Allah Subh'anaHu Wa Ta-A'la make us from the believers, Allahumma ameen, and 99 people were hypocrites and only one of them was a believer, your soul would naturally incline to the other believer in the room. That there is something that is majestic, that ties the souls together, that makes the righteous have an affinity to one another, and you can love someone for the sake of Allah Subh'anaHu Wa Ta-A'la the very first time you see them. What does Allah say about Musa Alayhi Salaam? See, it's not just like Asiya said, he's a cute baby. Asiya had seen many babies before. Asiya had seen beautiful babies. But she looked at Musa Alayhi Salaam, قُرَّةُ عَيْنٍ لِي وَلَكَ Maybe he can be the coolness of my eyes and the coolness of your eyes. Allah describes Musa Alayhi Salaam, وَأَلْقَيْتُ عَلَيْكَ مَحَبَّةً مِنِّي That I dressed you with a special love from Me. And so the righteousness of the soul, the purity of the soul of Asiya Alayhi Salaam recognizes the beauty, the purity of the soul of Musa Alayhi Salaam. And when she sees Musa Alayhi Salaam, she's immediately captivated and sees Musa Alayhi Salaam as قُرَّةُ عَيْنٍ, as the coolness of her eyes. The last thing, dear brothers and sisters then, is how Allah Azawajal describes the promises of Jannah. Surah Al-Sajdah, فَلَا تَعْلَمُ نَفْسٌ مَا أُخْفِيَ لَهُمْ مِنْ قُرَّةِ أَعْيُنٍ جَزَاءً بِمَا كَانُوا يَعْمَلُونَ And so no soul knows what We have prepared for them of قُرَّةُ أَعْيُنٍ, of the coolness of their eyes, as a reward for that which they used to do. If looking at a flower in Jannah would captivate you for a hundred years, when you see a flower in Jannah, and you have all the time in the world, you don't have to get anywhere, you don't have to worry about anything, you look at a flower in Jannah, and you could stay there for a hundred years, compelled by its beauty, and it produces joy. What is it like to see the Prophet ﷺ in Jannah? Talk about قُرَّةُ أَعْيُنٍ
What's it like to see Rasulullah ﷺ in Jannah? What's it like to see the family and the companions of the Prophet ﷺ in Jannah? I mean, what are your eyes going to do when you see them there? On top of that, of course, all the rewards and the delights of Jannah, the homes, the palaces, and everything else. But more than anything else, imagine the قُرَّةُ أَعْيُنٍ if Allah grants you the ability to see Him. May Allah ﷻ allow us to stare at Him night and day in Paradise while He is pleased with us. Allahumma ameen. And that's why the greatest gift in Jannah is seeing Allah ﷻ, not anything that you drink or eat, not anything that you do. The greatest gift is being given the ability to see Allah ﷻ. And everyone in Jannah sees Allah ﷻ. But some people see Him more than others. May Allah ﷻ grant us the highest level of Paradise to where we could look up and we could see Allah ﷻ day and night in Paradise and find the coolness of our eyes, the coolness of our hearts in that. Allahumma ameen. BarakAllahu feekum. Wassalamualaikum warahmatullahi wabarakatuh. Al-Fatiha.
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