Taraweeh Reflections (2024)
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The Original Torah from Allah | Taraweeh Reflections
The Qur'an reminds us of Allah (swt)'s previous revelations, including the Torah that was revealed to Musa (as). What are the virtues of the Torah, and what remains of it today?
Transcript
This transcript was auto-generated using AI and may contain misspellings. Assalamualaikum Warahmatullahi Wabarakatuh A'udhu Billahi Minash Shaitanir Rajim Bismillahir Rahmanir Raheem Alhamdulillahi Rabbil Alameen Wa la'unwana illa AAala alzaalimeen wa alAAaqeebatu lilmuttaqeen Allahumma salli wa sallim wa baraka ala abdika wa rasulika Muhammadin salallahu alayhi wa sallam wa ala alihi wa sahbihi wa sallim tasneeman kathira So, tonight inshallah ta'ala I'm here to talk to you about the Torah I'm serious No one said in their ears Why are we talking about the Torah? Let's talk about the Torah as Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala spoke about it Okay? And let's start with that inshallah ta'ala In the very beginning of Surah Al-Baqarah, Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala mentions Alif la'meen thalika alkitabu la rayba fee hudal lilmuttaqeen And then what? Someone give me the next ayah Alladheena yu'minoona bilghaybee And then what? And then what? Okay, and then next? MashaAllah, they all memorize Surah Al-Baqarah from It's from the miracles of UIC It took one night walladheena yu'minoona bimaa unzila ilayka wa maa unzila min qablik Those who believe in what was revealed to you and what was revealed before you At the end of Surah Al-Baqarah The divine verses that were given to the Prophet salallahu alayhi wa sallam In the heavens kullun aamana billahi wa malaikatihi wa kutubihi wa rusuli They all believe in Allah, they believe in the angels, they believe in the books And they believe in the messengers Surah Ali Imran starts off with Alif la'meen Someone give me what it says next nazzala alayka al kitaba bil haqqi musaddiqal nimaa bayna yadayhi wa anzala al tawraata wa al injeel
min qablu hudan lil nas wa anzala al furqan Amazing Surah Ali Imran starts off with something very similar That Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala sent down this book to you in truth Just like Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala sent down the Tawraa and the Injeel Before that it was hudan lil nas A guidance for the people Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala described the Quran hudan lil mutaqeen and hudan lil nas A guidance for the pious, a guidance for the God conscious, a guidance for the people Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala describes the Tawraa feeha hudan wa noor When Allah azawajal revealed it, it had guidance and light inside of it And Allah describes the Injeel, the Gospels that were revealed to Isa alayhi salam feeha hudan wa noor That it had in it guidance and light The Quran Allah does not say in it is guidance and light Allah calls the whole Quran hudan an noor Guidance and light What happened? How is it subhanallah that we are supposed to hold these original scriptures in such high regard? And what does that mean for us today? To say as a Muslim it is one of arkaan al iman One of the articles of my faith That I believe in the Tawraa that was revealed And I believe in the Injeel that was revealed Why is it an article of faith and what does it mean today? So it is way too long to go through a full dars, a full lecture Or actually dissect the Tawraa then and the Tawraa now So I will give you some highlights inshallah ta'ala Number one Many of the ulama say the Tawraa and the Injeel are the greatest revelations of Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala after the Quran And there is a correlation between what was revealed to ulul azmi min ar-rusul The greatest of the messengers and the greatest of the messages So what came to Musa, what came to Isa Suhuf of Ibrahim The Zaboor of Dawood
What came to the greatest messengers are necessarily the greatest messages The Quran being of course the greatest that was given to the Prophet salallahu alayhi wasalam What is the Tawraa? What was it then and what is it now? How did the tahreef, how did the alterations of the Tawraa happen to where it is what it is now And what does that mean for us today? Subhanallah this is a rich discussion amongst the ulama The Prophet salallahu alayhi wasalam mentioned that I have been given in the place of the Tawraa The as-saba'a min al-mathani aw at-tiwal The seven often recited surahs or the seven long surahs The seven long surahs being in of course according to many of the scholars When you look at the first seven of the Quran Some of them said that if you were to take after al-Fatiha, al-Baqara, al-Imran, al-Nisa, al-Ma'ida, al-An'am, al-A'raf That that is the approximate length of the original Tawraa to Musa alayhi wasalam So some of the scholars said that is what was revealed in terms of length to Musa alayhi wasalam Some of them said the character of those seven If you look through the seven, the first surahs of the Quran as we're going through now What are you listening to? You're listening to obviously a reminder to honor the covenant with Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala And you're listening to a lot of law, legislation, right? Sharia, a lot of Sharia comes down in these chapters of the Quran Because these are the first chapters that were, you know, for the most part with the exception of al-An'am That came down in Madinah by which a society is built, right? So dietary laws, marriage laws, laws of war, ethics All of these things come in these surahs, right? In these chapters And a reminder that victory comes through upholding the covenant with Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala And destruction comes with turning your back on the covenant with Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala So stories of victory and stories of destruction
So some of the scholars said that this is the essence of the Tawraa as well A lot of law and a lot of reminder to uphold the covenant And if you uphold the covenant then you'll have the success of those who came before And if you turn your back on the covenant you will have the destruction of those who came before So some of the scholars said that Another thing that the Prophet salallahu alayhi wasalam mentioned Is that the Tawraa was revealed on the sixth night of Ramadan And by the way the Prophet salallahu alayhi wasalam said this about all of the revelations The major revelations That it coincided to the month of Ramadan That Allah azawajal chose to deliver these divine messages in the month of Ramadan So you have the Tawraa that came down in Ramadan to Musa alayhis salam Divinely written, divinely inscribed One of the greatest revelations that came How much of it is still there? There's a lot of debate there too And I can't unpack it all But you'll find the writings of Ibn Hazm and Al-Bukhari, Ibn Taymiyyah, Ibn Al-Qayyim Talking about how much of the Tawraa remains today And how much of it was altered And how was it altered? Okay, and this is where it starts to get very interesting Some of the scholars They said if you look through the history of the Tawraa That most of it Or I'm sorry That there is in it most of what was divinely revealed But the tahreef The alteration of the Tawraa Came through the additions In terms of the bulks of it What does that mean? وَيْلٌ لِلَّذِينَ يَكْتُبُونَ الْكِتَابَ بِأَيْدِيهِمْ ثُمَّ يَقُولُونَ هَذَا مِنْ عِنْدِ اللَّهِ Woe to those who write the book with their hands And then they say this is from Allah So Ibn Al-Qayyim says When you think of the sections Of the Tawraa that were added Especially when it comes to the stories of the prophets And things that contradict Some of what we would see As fundamental to the law
Fundamental to the legislation Fundamental to the character of the prophets He describes this in a very interesting way That they elevated the words Think of like the tafsir of the Tawraa They elevated some of the writings over time That were politically driven That had agendas and things that contradicted And they put them into the divine book And so it broadened the Tawraa And so the divine words Many of them are still there There are a lot of similarities If you read the Old Testament And you read from our law You'll find a lot of similarities Right? And so there's a lot of original scripture there And some of the proofs that he uses Is when the Prophet ﷺ saw When the Tawraa was presented to the Prophet ﷺ Or when it was brought to him As the Jews in Medina were governed by The laws of the Tawraa The Prophet ﷺ was reclining on a pillow And the Prophet ﷺ took the pillow behind his back And he put it under the Tawraa So those scholars they say That that would either just be a sign of respect Or the Prophet ﷺ honoring what may remain Of divine revelation Because certainly there is something in there That is still that what Allah ﷻ revealed So it's the bulk of man-made writing That was added to it over time Also the many, many, many translations And mistranslations And little changes here One word changes here One word changes here And so what Ibn Hazm ﷺ mentions Is that a thousand changed words Or something to the essence of a thousand changed words Right? Completely alters the meaning Let me put it to you this way If someone was to document or transcribe A conversation between two people Or tell you about something that happened Between two people And they don't like you Or they have something to push Then somewhere in there There are going to be some words that are true Sentences that are indeed true But there will be changes And things that could completely change And alter the character So حَبَّةٌ حِطَّةٌ Allah ﷻ mentions some of these examples One word here
One word there And then that's one form of تحريف That's one form of changing it as well And so what do you end up with? Obviously, as Muslims You look at it And you can see so much In terms of proofs of the prophethood Of the Prophet ﷺ So many things that There are similarities between the texts And we say, okay, that's something Something to build upon In terms of our دعوة, right? But then, you've got Benjamin Netanyahu Calling you the عماليق The Amalekites And, you know, the chief rabbi of Israel And these defense ministers Saying genocidal craziness And using that directly To exterminate your brothers and sisters in Gaza Relegating them to less than human beings And animals You say, what is that? And I've caught Muslims Multiple times Which is why this is so important I've caught Muslims multiple times Ascribing to the prophets What we would never ascribe to the Anbiya Right? We would never ascribe to Dawud ﷺ and Nuh ﷺ Some of the things that are written There to be then used To the destruction of populations And so there are additions Certainly from our perspective There are the changes And how do we come to terms with this as Muslims? We have to believe That indeed Allah ﷻ Revealed these books And that these are the greatest of the scriptures Prior to the Qur'an But Allah ﷻ calls the Qur'an what? مُصَدِّقًا مِمَا بَيْنَ يَدَهِ It confirms And Allah also calls the Qur'an مُهَيْمًا Filters Governs So it filters out The laws The ideas And indeed there are changes in legislation But it is the ultimate filter Of everything that came before it Lastly dear brothers and sisters And as I said It's too hard to give an extensive breakdown Of the Torah And what it was And what it means for us today Obviously it's important for us
To acknowledge and to believe As the Prophet ﷺ By the way He even taught the Muslims in Medina That when You know The Jewish communities in Medina Would read the Hebrew To obviously Arabs Right? The Prophet ﷺ would say Just say أَمَنَّ بِمَا أُنزِلَيْنَا وَمَا أُنزِلَيْكَ We believe in what was revealed to you And what was revealed to us Why? Because Whatever truth is there We believe in it already But the Qur'an is sufficient In terms of a shari'ah In terms of a way of life In terms of that ultimate filter That ultimate legislation That ultimate revelation But lastly A moment of appreciation That you look to Why Allah ﷻ Made it such a miracle That the Qur'an is preserved To every single word Every single letter That can be recited All of its qira'at And the qira'at Are documented And preserved And the interpretation Of the Qur'an Is preserved Through the sunnah Of the Prophet ﷺ Because if you lose The sunnah of the Prophet ﷺ Which is the authoritative Interpretation of the Qur'an How it was lived What it meant If you lose that Then you open it up To all sorts of possibilities To then twist Turn in this direction This direction And of course We could never foresee In our lifetimes That someone would dare To take something out of the Qur'an Or add one sentence Into the Qur'an But dear brothers and sisters Look at what's transpiring Around you Subhanallah In terms of the speed of fitan In this day and age The speed of trial and tribulation Allah ﷻ has promised That the Qur'an will be preserved But the attempts The attempts Will remain And beware of the attempts And beware of the sub-attempts Which are of course Then the elevating of You know The writing of man Right? To where it would become Like Qur'an itself Or the removal Of the authoritative Interpretation of the Qur'an
Which is the Prophet ﷺ himself So we say We believe in Allah We believe in what was revealed to us And we believe in what was revealed before us And we believe in the Prophets And we believe in the Messengers And this is similar to نحن أولى بموسى منكم This is our closeness We honor what was initially In those revelations We honor those Prophets And we honor them By abiding by the Qur'an And avoiding the mistakes Of earlier communities To make sure That we treat our scripture That we treat what was given to us With the utmost respect And love and honor And that we abide by it By following in the example Of the Prophet ﷺ And maintaining its recitation May Allah ﷻ make us People of the Qur'an People of the Covenant People of the Ahad Who honor what was given to us May Allah ﷻ join us With all of the Prophets And our beloved Prophets ﷺ Al-Fatiha.
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