Juz’ 17 Qur’an 30 for 30
The beauty of our world is not only a means of reflecting upon Allah and His
mercy, but also on the cycle of life and death. However, there are those that
are heedless and blinded by the grandeurs of this world that they forget the
hereafter. Ust. Zaynab Ansari joins Dr. Omar Suleiman and Sh. Abdullah
Oduro to reflect on juz 17 and keeping the hereafter in mind.
As-salamu alaikum wa rahmatullahi wa barakatuh everyone. Welcome back
to Qur’an 30 for 30. Bismillah, alhamdulillah, wa salatu wasalamu ala
rasulillah, wa ala alihi wa sahbihi wa man wala. Alhamdulillah, rabbal ameen.
As we are now getting into the second half of Ramadan, I wanted to remind
everyone inshallah ta’ala about two things. Bid’innahi ta’ala, as you all have
been following the Judgment Day series in Qur’an 30 for 30, our programming
really kicks into another gear in the last 10 nights. And inshallah ta’ala, we
start that off with a webathon. That runs for a few hours on the 21st day of
Bid’innahi ta’ala to take us right into the 21st night. Obviously, we look for your
support in that webathon inshallah ta’ala. And we also hope you benefit from
it. If you’ve attended these webathons in the past, you know that there are just
gems upon gems upon gems. So we actually do do topics and we divide them
amongst a broad range of speakers similar to what we do on 30 for 30 to get us
ready for the last 10 nights inshallah ta’ala. And so we ask you to tune into that
webathon inshallah ta’ala. The information will be coming out. Now, of
course, I’ll be reminding you every night inshallah ta’ala until then. We will
adjust the 30 for 30 programming when that time comes, bi’idhnillah. And
then last 10 nights, we’re going to have a nightly du’a with Sheikh Suleyman
Ghani. We’re going to have nightly late night reflections inshallah ta’ala with
Sheikh Yasir Burjas and myself. So the YouTube channel will be running pretty
much the entire day and night, especially throughout the night, bi’idhnillah
ta’ala. Once we get into the last 10, we pray that it will all be beneficial and
that inshallah ta’ala you continue to support our work bi’idhnillah ta’ala. With
that being said, alhamdulillah, we have Ustada Zainab Ansari with us,
mashaAllah, joining us from Knoxville, Tennessee from the Taisir Seminary.
May Allah bless you and bless the work that’s being done over there. How are
you Ustada Zainab? Salam alaikum wa rahmatullah wa barakatuh.
Alhamdulillah, I’m doing well. Good to see everybody. Thank you for inviting
me. It’s very exciting to be here again. Alhamdulillah. Alhamdulillah wa
barakato. We’re blessed that you could join us. And I wanted to mention this
because we’ve been talking about interesting suhoor.
So before I ask about food stuff, you’re from New Orleans, or you were born in
New Orleans, alhamdulillah rabbi. So a fellow New Orleanian here,
alhamdulillah rabbi. How long did you live in New Orleans before you moved
to, did you move to Atlanta after that? Is it New Orleans and then Atlanta? Is
that the journey? That’s correct, Sheikh Omar. So my mom very much being
from Detroit and of that mindset was like, I can’t stay here very long. So my
parents ended up leaving New Orleans when I was about a year, I think a year,
year and a half old, then we went to Atlanta. So, but it’s still kind of stayed with
me in terms of the food and the culture and those things. So what’s your
favorite soul food, suhoor, iftar? Like what does a Southern iftar, suhoor look
like? You know, subhanAllah. So for me, it’s actually, and this is actually from
my mom, right? She’s from Detroit, but there are Southern origins there
because she’s African-American. So our iftar just the other night was actually
beans, cornbread, and a kale salad, which I think is a very Southern soul food
thing. I don’t know about the kale part, but the beans and the cornbread. But I
can tell you’re from New Orleans because you say New Orleans properly. You
know, here’s what happens with New Orleans is that you’ve got people that
say New Orleans, and then you have those that try to be exotic, like Sheikh
Abdullah says, Nolens or something like that. I knew it. Sheikh Abdullah, you
went to New Orleans recently, right? Yes, I did. I tried calling you to find out
about the cuisine with your brother, mashallah, he looked out for me. Oh,
man. You weren’t answering your phone. Alhamdulillah, it was beautiful, man.
The shrimp spot, the shrimp po’boys. There you go. I forgot the name of it.
Po’boy. There’s nothing like it. It’s a long line. Waited there for a long time.
There’s nothing like it. You go to those like 100-year-old restaurants, 150-yearold restaurants that serve those fried oyster po’boys, fried shrimp po’boys,
there’s nothing like it. Yeah, it was really nice, mashallah. See, that’s my dad’s
favorite sandwich, by the way. Mashallah, really? So he is like, you need to try
shrimp po’boys. This is like years after we leave New Orleans.
And then he was in Knoxville recently trying to find shrimp po’boys. We found
this one restaurant, but the guy in his skin couldn’t find any workers. He’s like,
do you have someone who can come and cook for us? Literally is what he
said. Alhamdulillah, mashallah. Allah bless your father, bless your mother.
Actually, every time I go to New Orleans, that’s the first thing I do is I go to that
spot that I sent Sheikh Abdullah to, to have my fried shrimp po’boy. It’s like a
sunnah of going to New Orleans, you know? Well worth it, well worth it. We
apologize to the Hanafis that don’t eat shrimp. As far as this program, it’s like
teasing upon teasing. Wait till Mufti Abdur-Rahman Waheed comes here to
kind of mess with him. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Jazakumullah khairan. Tayyib,
inshallah ta’ala, we will get started. Bismillah walhamdulillah wa salatu wa
salamu ala rasulillah wa ala alihi wa sahbihi wa man wala. So we are now in
Juz 17, and I just got signed out of my account. So I don’t know what that
means for us, but alhamdulillah, I mean, I’ll probably have to read off my
phone then, inshallah ta’ala, my notes. I don’t know if Sheikh Abdullah just
hacked my account. It might be good. But alhamdulillah, as we’ve been
talking about the two different groups of people and what those two groups
actually look like, when you come to Juz 17, you actually start to see once
again that Allah Azawajal continues to talk about these two groups. And this is
really a familiar theme when you get to Mecca Quran and realize that a lot of
this is Quran that was revealed in Mecca or some ayat in Mecca, some ayat
that were in Madinah. So you start to see the difference between the two
groups. And we ask Allah Subh’anaHu Wa Ta-A’la to make us amongst those
that have maqamul mahmudah, that honored delegation with Allah
Subh’anaHu Wa Ta-A’la. SubhanAllah, the last episode yesterday on
intercessors on the Day of Judgment, that is that honored delegation of Allah
Subh’anaHu Wa Ta-A’la. It’s actually one of my favorite episodes from the
entire Judgment Day series.
May Allah make us from those who gain the intercession of our Prophet
Sallallahu Alaihi Wasallam, but also are elevated to a place where they can
intercede on behalf of others. Allahumma Ameen. So look at the last part of
Surah Taha, which is from the previous juz. Verse 122 is that verse, Wa man
a’radha AAan dhikri fa inna lahum ma’ishatan dhanka wa nahshuruhu yaum
alqiyamati a’ma Allah talks about the one who turned away from his
remembrance, having a constricted life. And as we said in the beginning of the
Judgment Day series, the Prophet Sallallahu Alaihi Wasallam explained this as
a moment in the grave, in fact. The constricted life in the grave and then being
resurrected without sight and being completely lost and confused and
wandering on that day and demanding the blessings that they took for granted
in this life. And of course, as we said, they also have a constricted lifestyle
here, constricted chests, constricted hearts, because they don’t ponder the
remembrance of Allah. And when they don’t ponder upon the remembrance of
Allah, they’re not able to grasp the deeper meanings of life. And so that’s how
Surah Taha ends, right? Now I want to look at verse one of Surah Taha from the
previous Juz and then go into verse one, the first ayah of Al-Anbiya and the first
ayah of Al-Hajj, which is just very profound. Remember the very first ayah of
Surah Taha was, Ma anzalna AAalika alqur’ana li tashqa Taha ma anzalna
AAalika alqur’ana li tashqa illa tathkiratan li man yakhsha That this is not, the
revelation was not meant to cause you distress. The revelation is a mercy from
Allah Subh’anaHu Wa Ta-A’la. It’s a cure, it’s a healing. It was not meant to
cause you distress. And if you look at the first verse of Surah Al-Anbiya, Allah
Subh’anaHu Wa Ta-A’la says, Iqtarabalinnasi hisabuhum wa hum fee ghaflatin
mu’adidun That the people’s hisab is coming close, the time of people’s
judgment has drawn near. Iqtarabalinnasi hisabuhum
So as it’s coming closer to them, wa hum fee ghaflatin mu’adidun They are
heedlessly turning away. They are immersing themselves further in
heedlessness. And this is actually, you know, one of the great ironies as Imam
Ibn Rajab Rahim Allah Ta’ala I believe mentioned, it was either him or Ibn AlJawzi Rahim Allah mentioned a profound point that, you know, as the world
goes on, you find that obviously people’s righteousness declines and
corruption increases. And just by nature, the longer we are here, the closer
we’re getting to the day of judgment. But you find that the remembrance of the
Akhirah becomes less and less. And the public manifestations of ghaflah, of
heedlessness, of materialism, of self-worship, and all of that that takes
people away from Allah Subhanahu Wa Ta’ala, you find that that increases. So
it’s counterintuitive. You’re getting closer to the end of times, yet you’re acting
like the hereafter doesn’t exist collectively as mankind. But on the individual
level, right, your hisab is coming closer, you’re getting older, and you’re getting
closer to that day. But if you are insisting upon a path of ghaflah, if you’re
insisting upon a path of heedlessness and ignorance, then you are mu’idhun,
you’re turning away from Allah Subhanahu Wa Ta’ala. And when you’re turning
away from Allah Subhanahu Wa Ta’ala, it’s not that you’re actually pushing
away the day of judgment or the hereafter, you’re just pushing away the Lord
of this dunya and the Lord of the day of judgment. You’re pushing away the
guidance from Allah Subhanahu Wa Ta’ala that is for your own benefit. And so,
you know, the first ayah of Taha is reminding you why the revelation is here.
The second, the first ayah of al-anbiya is reminding us that some people are
turning away from what is becoming more and more inevitable to them. And
then the first ayah of al-hajj, surah al-hajj, Allah Subhanahu Wa Ta’ala says, Ya
ayyuhal-naas attaqoo rabbakum inna zarzalata al-sa’ati shay’un a’zeem Allah
Subhanahu Wa Ta’ala says, O mankind, O people,
Ittaqoo rabbakum, be mindful of your Lord, inna zarzalata al-sa’ati shay’un
a’zeem that the trembling of the hour is a mighty thing. It’s a mighty thing. And
so, subhanAllah, you have here comparison, right? Where you have people
that are in ghaflah, that are turning away and heedlessness. Heedlessness
does not change the circumstances or the consequences of the deeds. It
simply dulls your own perception of those circumstances and those
consequences. So you are purposely closing your eyes. And taaha, you know,
a person’s complaining about blindness at the end of a taaha, and then you
get into al-anbiya, and it’s, you know, you are purposely closing your eyes to
what is on its way to you. Taqwa is hyper awareness and consciousness. So
taqwa being the opposite of ghaflah here, right? So the next surah, Allah
Subhanahu Wa Ta’ala is calling for taqwa. It taqwa rabbakum, be mindful of
your Lord, right? And when you’re mindful of your Lord, then you won’t be fee
ghaflatin mu’ridhoon in a state of heedlessness and turning away from the
inevitable. Now, subhanAllah, you see the multiple scenes here. And actually
many of them that we’re talking about in the Judgment Day series actually
show up here. Surat al-anbiya, verse 47, the famous verse, wa nada’ almawazina al-qista liyawm al-qiyamati fada tuzdalamu nafsin shay’a wa in
kana mifqa’a l-habbatin min qardarin atayna biha wa kafa binaa hasibin Very
famous verse, we will set up the scales of justice on the Day of Judgment, and
no soul is going to be wronged in the least. And even if a deed, the weight of a
mustard seed is done, then it will be brought forth. So Allah will bring forth the
deeds on the Day of Judgment, but you won’t be wronged. Wa kafa binaa
hasibin And Allah Subhanahu wa ta’ala is sufficient as a reckoner, as an
assessor. So here, SubhanAllah, you have the scene of the mizan, right? What
are you putting in your mizan?
And by the way, SubhanAllah, as we get into the third part of the Judgment Day
series, there’s going to be a lot about the mizan, a lot about the mizan, and the
details of the scale, the details of the mizan. May Allah Subhanahu wa ta’ala
make our mizan heavy with good deeds. Allahuma ameen. So you have the
scene of the mizan. And then I’m going to bring in conclusion to these last two
ayat, this comparison between two, going from al-anbiya into al-hajj. In alanbiya, verse 103, Allah Subhanahu wa ta’ala says, la yahzunuhum al-faza’u
al-akbar wa tatalqaahum al-malaika hatha yawmukum allathee kuntum
tumAAadun That they will not be disturbed. Allah is talking about the
believers. They will not be disturbed or grieved by al-faza’u al-akbar, by the
supreme shock. And the angels will in fact greet them and say, this is your day
which you have been promised. So SubhanAllah, you have people that are
completely at ease with al-faza’u al-akbar, the great shock, right? You’re
talking about the initiation. It doesn’t get more terrifying than that of this day,
right? But Allah Subhanahu wa ta’ala is saying that the believers are going to
be put to ease. They will not grieve. May Allah Subhanahu wa ta’ala make us
amongst them. Allahuma ameen. And the angels will be comforting them and
telling them, remember, this is the day you were promised. You know, you
knew this day was coming. You were not from the people of ghaflah. You were
not from the people of heedlessness. You were preparing yourself. So
remember this day, you were told about it. You recited Quran about it. You
acted towards it. You’re okay. And you’re being escorted in a certain way.
SubhanAllah, what does Surah Al-Hajj begin with? What’s seen from the day
of judgment? Verse two, the very second verse, yawma tarawnaha tadhalu
kullu murdi’atin amma arda’at wa tala’u kullu dhaati hamlin hamlaha wa
tara’an naasa sukaara wa maa hum bi sukaara wa lakinna a’adhaab Allahi
shadeed Allah Subh’anaHu Wa Ta-A’la says, the day that you will see a nursing
mother abandon the child that she is nursing. And, you know, the shock of
that day would cause a pregnant woman to deliver prematurely.
And you will see people looking like they are drunk, but they are not drunk. It is
the gravity of that day. So the people just running around, confused, lost,
looking for answers, looking for a path, and they don’t find a path. Why?
Because they were fee ghaflatin ma’ridoon what Allah Subh’anaHu Wa Ta-A’la
says in the beginning of this juz, fee ghaflatin ma’ridoon they were in
heedlessness, turning away, whereas those that were prepared are being put
to ease. It’s not that the day is less severe, SubhanAllah, this is something that
one of my teachers had mentioned in tafsir of this ayah. It’s not that the day is
less severe, it’s that Allah Azawajal is sending you the angels to comfort you
and let you know you’re okay. So it’s not that the scenes are, you know, not
grave, right, as you’re seeing them, but it’s you’re okay because you were
ready for this. So don’t be sad. Allatakhafu wa la tahzanu Don’t be afraid,
don’t grieve, is what they say to you, what the angels say to you when you’re
dying. And on that day when you see, you know, al-faza’ al-akbar, the great
shock, don’t worry, don’t be sad, you know, this is the day you were promised.
So SubhanAllah, waabshiru biljannati allati kuntum tuAAadoon at the time of
death, that this is the promise of paradise that was given to you, being given to
you now. And here you have the opposite of that, or here you have the second
side of that, the other side of that realm, the promise of Allah Subhanahu wa
ta’ala being realized of comforting the believer at that time. So inshAllah ta’ala
with that, I’ll pass it off to Sheikh Abdullah. Jazakumullah khairan
Jazakumullah khairan Bismillah wa salatu wa salamu wa ala Rasulullah wa
ala alihi wa sahbihi wa man wala Amma ba’du Within our religion of Islam, as
you know, Sheikh Omar mentioned, is the belief that there will be a day that
these events will happen. I mean, he just recently made a series over that day
of judgment and the events that will take place before we actually go to
inshaAllah, inshaAllah, to be with Allah Subhanahu wa ta’ala in Jannah. But
there are those that Allah Subhanahu wa ta’ala addresses in the Quran, those
that were negligent, or those that denied the truth that came to them,
Or those that were combative. And all of these are elements of what is known
as kufr or disbelief. Even linguistically, kufr means that which is an individual
that is ungrateful. They realize a blessing and then they don’t acknowledge it
voluntarily after their fitrah, their fitrah. And this is what is important. Their
natural self and inclination recognizes that blessing bil fardiyan, just naturally
by default. They recognize that this is beyond their capabilities. From our
belief as Muslims to believe that there is a day of resurrection, that there will
be a day of judgment. As we say, maliki yawm al-deen, the owner, the malik,
the owner or the king of this day of judgment, the day that you will be judged.
We also believe as Muslims that there will be a ba’ath, there will be a
resurrection, that you will come out of your graves and that you, your body or
your spirit will come in front of Allah. Your soul will come in front of Allah
Subhanahu wa ta’ala and that is when the hisab will take place. A sequence of
events. I highly implore you to watch the Day of Judgment series because
inshallah, he will be touching on that. What I want to capitalize on is in the
chapter of Hajj, verses number 63 to 65, roughly. Where Allah Subhanahu wa
ta’ala says in verse number 64 as an intro, when he starts off, before that he
talks about how Allah is al-haqq, how he is the truth and how what all the
other people call to is al-baltil. It is something that is a form of, it is not true in
the sense that Allah Subhanahu wa ta’ala is bringing the haqq and bringing the
deen of Islam. Allah Subhanahu wa ta’ala goes on and he mentions
SubhanAllah after Audhu Billahi minash shaitanir rajim where he says Alam
tara anna allaha anzala minas sama’I ma’an fatusbihul ardu mukhdarra inna
allaha latifun khabeer This is verse number 63 where Allah Subhanahu wa
ta’ala says Have you not, Prophet, considered how Allah sends down water
from the sky…
And the next morning the earth becomes green? God is truly the most subtle,
the most aware. Remember how I mentioned to you earlier, we’ve mentioned
numerous times and Abdur Rahman Al Saadi, he mentions this 12th century
Hijri scholar, he says how whenever you see names at the end of a verse, know
that there is a munasaba, know that there is a relevance, know that there is a
connection, that there is a contextual connection that is tied to those two
names or one name and that whole connection is for you to be uplifted
spiritually, i.e. for your iman to increase over preponderance. And this is the
actualization of pondering over the Quran. This is what is wanted for the
individual when they read or listen. When they hear these two names, they’ll
say what is the connection? So here, Allah Subhanahu wa ta’ala asks a
rhetorical question. Do you not see? Alam tara yani al tara Do you not
understand how Allah sends or ponder over how Allah sends water from the
sky and the earth becomes green? Fatusbihul ardu mukhdarra And the fa here
means attaqeeb, meaning that the earth will become green after a period of
time. And as some imam al-sa’adi mentions even that subhanAllah, when we
see from the dampness of the earth, from the rain that comes down and it
soaks up the earth, how it becomes green over a period of time. And
subhanAllah, here when Allah Subhanahu wa ta’ala says, inna allaha latifun
khabir Okay, latif is the most subtle. Khabir is the all-aware. Diqqatul ilm
Meaning that his knowledge is very, very daqeek, very precise. He knows the
precise, small, minutiae things. He has knowledge of it because he is its
creator. He is al-khaliq. So how is he latif? He is latif because he is subtle
because he extracts these fruits, this vegetation from the ground. And that is
the lutfun bikum because he gives it to you for you to be sustained with it. And
khabir, he is the all-knowledgeable of what fruits to extract and when. As we
know that there are fruits per season. There are summer fruits and there are
winter fruits.
His knowledge of the munasaba of when it is relevant for you, when it is good
for you, when it is bad for you, is because of his khibra, of his knowledge. We
don’t want to use the word, we can say experience, but of his knowledge and
his element, his knowledge of being all-aware of every single thing that he
creates. Then what he militates with is not some big truck of fruit that is sent
and picked up in the sea to go to nature, but how they connect with one
another to benefit one another. And for us as human beings, how they benefit
us in order to ultimately worship and show gratitude to Allah Subh’anaHu Wa
Ta-A’la. So giving that example of asking the question, do you not see how the
rain comes down and then this takes place because he is the most subtle, the
all-aware. Then moves on after that and he says, lahoo maa fee samawati wa
maa fee al-ardi wa inna Allah lahoo al-ghaniyul hameed. Allah gives two
names again. He says, everything in the heavens and the earth belong to him,
lahoo. God alone is self-sufficient, ghani, and worthy of all praise, hameed. Alghani, al-hameed. Okay, what’s the connection? That he Is everything in the
heavens and the earth belongs to him. Okay, where is self-sufficient? Because
if it belongs to him, he is not in need of anything. This is why the one that is
rich is ghani, because they are not in need to a certain degree because we’re
humans. But Allah is al-ghani, he is a self-sufficient, and the proof of that is,
lahoo maa fee samawati wa maa fee al-ardi. He is in control over it. It is all his,
ultimately. And he is al-hameed because of his ghina. He is all praise because
of his self-sufficiency. When someone is not in need of anyone, you praise that
person because of maybe the hard work that they’ve obtained in order to
reach that level of not being in need or being in need of lesser people than the
average quote unquote person in a particular field and whatever the case may
be. Knowledge of the religion, the ulama, the scholars, they will not need that
many people to tell them about the religion as opposed to a person that is a
layman.
And they are praised because of the hard work and the knowledge that they
possess and the actions that emanate from that knowledge, inshaAllah ta’ala.
So Allah is al-ghani and he is al-hameed. He is all praise, he deserves all
praise, particularly in this particular context because of his self-sufficiency.
Then Allah continues to say, alam tara anna allaha sakhar lakum maa fil ardi
wal fulka tajree fi al-bahri bi amri wa yumsiku al-samaa an taqaa ala al-ardi illa
bi-idhni inna allaha bin nasi ila ra’ufu al-raheem Allah asks the question again,
have you not considered how God has made everything on the earth as a
service for you, service to you, that ships sail the sea at his command, that he
keeps the heavens from falling down on the earth without his permission, God
is most compassionate and most merciful to mankind. He is the most
compassionate, he is the most compassionate and the most merciful being
that ra’fa bikum, the fact that he does not allow this quote unquote
destruction to take place, he allows the ships to sail, he allows this to sail and
to reach its destination in safety, all of this is mercy. In conclusion, Allah
Subh’anaHu Wa Ta-A’la says here, making that connection with what was
mentioned from agriculture and what was mentioned from Allah being in
control of all things, he says here, wa huwa alladhi ahyaakum thumma
yumeetukum thumma yuhyiikum inna al-insana lakafoor Allah says here, it is
he who has gave you people life and will cause you to die and then will give
you life again, but man is ungrateful. Allah Subh’anaHu Wa Ta-A’la talks about
giving life and death and life and even in the Quran where he talks about in the
chapter of al-Ghafir, qalu, that the non-Muslims, they will say, the people that
disbelieve in Allah voluntarily, they will say, qalu Rabbana amattanathnatayni
wa ahyaytanathnatayni, that they will say, oh Allah, you have caused us to die
twice and given us life twice. The scholars differ on what are these two forms
of life and what are these two forms of death
And some of them will say that the two forms of life, the first death,
amattanathnatayni, you have caused us to die twice, is when you are fee
butooni ummahatikum, when you are in the wombs of your mother before the
breath of life is breathed into you, okay, so that’s the first death and then the
second form of death is when we leave this earth, mufarqatir roohi liljasid, as
Ibn Qayyim mentions, that the separation of the soul from the body, that’s the
second death. The two forms of life is when the breath of life is breathed into
you and then the second form of life is when you are going to the next life, may
Allah Subh’anaHu Wa Ta-A’la make us of those that are successful in this next
life. So when seeing this, the connection is how when we look at plants in
agriculture and I highly implore all of you just looking outside of your
apartment in your house and looking at the seasons change and connecting
that to your reality, that’s what Allah wants. When you look at his ayat, use it
as something that increases your iman and that’s why everything other than
Allah is an ayah. It is a sign that Allah is here and he will always be here and he
uses these signs and connects them together for you to take ibar, to take a
lesson from it, to ultimately be of those individuals who their iman and their
faith is increased to where we’ll be recognizing the accountability that Allah
Subh’anaHu Wa Ta-A’la, that we will have in front of them. So may Allah
Subh’anaHu Wa Ta-A’la make us of those that recognize this connection of the
agriculture and make us of those that recognize that there will be a day where
we’ll go in front of him, innahu wa liyyu thalika. JazakAllah khair. JazakAllah
khair, Sheikh Abdullah. Ustadh Zainab, bismillah. Please go ahead.
Bismillahirrahmanirrahim, alhamdulillahi rabbil alameen wabihi nastaeen.
Wasalatu wasalamu ala rasulil kareem. Salamu alaikum again, that was
excellent, mashaAllah. So much to reflect on. So actually just looking out the
window here at my office, we have like a little garden we’ve started at TCR and
it’s just amazing. I mean, surely Allah Ta’ala, I mean, every year you can see
that cycle of life,
Allah Ta’ala reviving the earth. So I wanted to comment. There are a couple of
things that really stood out from your presentation, Sheikh Armada. And
Sheikh Abdullah, thinking about, and I really, what I wanna do is really kind of
tie this back to the Quraysh. I’ve been kind of thinking a lot about the Quraysh
kind of as avatars of surprisingly modernity and kind of how they respond to
the Prophet, peace upon him, how they kind of respond to revelation. And a
couple of things. One is that the Quraysh are, the Quran is revealed to a
people that they are very much kind of a part of this natural world they inhabit
in terms of they’re not disconnected from the celestial sort of signs and the
kind of changing of the seasons and agriculture in the way that we kind of
often are as modern people. However, if you kind of look at the way that the
Quraysh respond to the Prophet, peace upon him, I always say to my
students, when you look at the arguments of atheists, you can kind of see that
these arguments are not novel arguments. These are arguments that the
Quraysh are going to make that Allah Ta’ala refused directly in the Quran. And I
was just listening the other day to I think some podcast or something, and
there was someone, an atheist who was saying that the existence of hardship
is primarily what prevents him from believing in Allah Ta’ala and SubhanAllah,
I was thinking about what Sheikh Omar said about this idea of ghafla. And if
we kind of think about ghafla or this condition of heedlessness in sort of
psychological and emotional terms, I think about behaviors you might engage
in like buffering behaviors. This is basically when we kind of engage in a
behavior because we don’t want to kind of deal with reality of what’s in front of
us. So we kind of find something to kind of occupy our attention to divert us
from Allah Subhanahu wa ta’ala.
So there’s again, so much here that I wanna unpack, but again, thinking about
the Quraysh, their response to the Prophet, peace be upon him, this idea that
they really can only deal with what’s kind of immediately in front of them. They
don’t wanna deal with the idea of the reality of the akhira. They’re in constant
kind of pursuit of the dunya and so on. And they really kind of epitomize what
it means for a human being to not want to deal with things that are difficult
and to be in the state of ghafla, the state of kind of buffering, just sort of not
wanting to deal with these kind of heavy emotions and thoughts. And
SubhanAllah, there’s an ayah that I wanted to mention here in Surat Al-Anbiya,
chapter 21, I believe. And in this particular ayah, here we are,
Bismillahirrahmanirrahim. We have, wa-itha ra’aka allatheena kafaru in
yattakhidhoonaka illa huzuwan ahadha allathee yadhkuru alihatakum wahum
bidhikru arrahmanihum kafiroon. So this is 2136, Bismillahirrahmanirrahim.
And in 2136, Allah Ta’ala revealed, and when those who disbelieve see you, O
Prophet, O Muhammad, they take you not except in ridicule saying, is this the
one who insults your gods? And they are at the mention of the most merciful
disbelievers. So really this is like the ultimate form of ghafla because again,
they’re turning away from all these signs in front of them. They’ve been given
this gift of a prophet and messenger, and this is their response. Their response
is that they can really kind of only fixate on this idea of their gods, their deities
being insulted, not taking the prophet seriously, alayhi salatu wassalam, and
scorning the idea of the mention of the most merciful. So again, the Quraysh,
they’re very interesting in the sense that they have so much in terms of their
own natural environment, and they can kind of connect to the signs of Allah
Ta’ala through that natural environment, but they really are very much avatars,
I think, for so many kind of objections to kind of religion and revelation..
That we kind of think about in terms of modernity. So that’s one thing that I
wanted to mention. You know, the other thing too, kind of thinking about the
signs of Allah Ta’ala kind of writ large, I was also really fascinated by the
opening of the surahs, and this is something that Shaikh Omar mentioned. So
we have the opening of surah al-Anbiya, Bismillahirrahmanirrahim, iqtaraban
lannasi hisabuhum wahum fee ghaflatin mu’ridun. So this is 21.1. The time of
their account has approached for the people, but again, steeped in
heedlessness, this buffering, not dealing with things, with what’s heavy and
with what’s difficult, because they want to play and pursue frivolity. And then
thinking about the opening of chapter 54, Bismillahirrahmanirrahim, iqtarabat
al-sa’atu wanshaq al-qamar. Right, so we know that in the time of the Prophet,
alayhis salatu wasalam, these signs take place, like visible signs of the
coming of the day of judgment, but still the Quraysh want to refute that,
because again, their gaze is along the horizontal always, and never the
vertical. So subhanAllah, I was really intrigued, because someone asked me,
why is the term sa’a used in this context in the Quran? So I was really kind of
intrigued by how Allah Ta’ala discusses time and related concepts in the
Quran, whether it’s sa’a, whether it’s yawm, whether it’s dahr, whether it’s asr,
and that in these particular ayahs, that Allah Ta’ala is conveying something
about the last day with a sense of immediacy, because again, the mind of the
Quraysh is that they cannot really accept this, they don’t want to deal with
this, they want to kind of put this off to some time that’s very, very, very far off.
And the usage of the term sa’a in particular, and the verb iqtarabat al-nas, I
mean, this is frightening, that this is nigh, it’s upon you, it’s around the corner.
So there’s something that I wanted to share that I found when I was kind of
researching the usage of time in the Quran, and this is actually a book written
by Barbara Stowasser on time in the sacred revelation, it’s called The Day
Begins at Sunset. And she writes that the Quran really beautifully balances
time from really two perspectives. It’s gonna define time in terms of a
transcendent and omnipotent God, but at the same time, in the Quran, Allah
Ta’ala gives us features of time that are richly concrete and practical to allow
us to make the connection between Allah Ta’ala’s authorship of all celestial
signs and movements and their benefit to the human race to allow us to use
these signs as ways to do what? Measure time, so that we can do what?
Benefit from the time we’ve been given and not fall into that ghafla, into that
heedlessness. So that’s something that I wanted to share as I was trying to
kind of put together my reflection for this, again, so much that Sheikh Omar,
Sheikh Abdullah offered that I wanted to respond to. Another thing as well,
right? Again, going back to the idea of the Quraysh and they can’t deal with the
idea of akhira and they’re so kind of focused on what’s immediately in front of
them, you know, thinking a lot about the last days of the Prophet, peace and
blessings be upon him. And, you know, of course we focus a lot, not, you
know, naturally, you know, on the da’wah, the mission, the ghazawat, the
campaign to the Prophet, peace be upon him, but I’ve been thinking a lot
about what are those last moments like? Because, you know, again, you know,
the Quraysh might be easy to say, well, you know, I’m not like them. I’m a
Muslim, I’m a believer, you know, but subhanAllah, I mean, there’s something
in terms of what Allah Ta’ala is telling us that be careful not to kind of have that
mindset because their inclination was such that they were so,
Which, you know, sort of just, what’s the term, just tenaciously kind of
attached, avidly kind of desirous of this dunya, they couldn’t appreciate the
idea of an akhira. So, you know, and this is part of human nature. I mean, we
fear the unknown, we fear death because, again, all we see in front of us is
this dunya. So when you look at the example of the final days of the Prophet,
peace be upon him, I was just really struck by this. You know, he’s with
Sayyidina Aisha, this is at the very end, and, you know, it really is an example
of how to not just live with beauty and grace and dignity and firm conviction
and yaqeen, but how to pass away in that state. And so this is at the very last
moment and he closes his eyes and he opens and salallahu alayhi wa sallam
and she remembered that he said to her, Sayyidina Aisha radiallahu ta’ala
anha, that no prophet is taken by death until he’s been shown his place in
paradise. So subhanAllah, you know, the Prophet at the end of his life is
actually given that option between kind of having his life prolonged and having
sort of some type of immortality or being with Allah subhanAllah ta’ala in the
akhira. And I think about this again, back to the surah, chapter 21,
Bismillahirrahmanirrahim. Wama ja’alna libashar min qablikal khuld afa imitta
fahumu alkhalidoon And we did not grant to any man before you eternity. So if
you die, would they then be eternal? I referencing the Quraysh. So
subhanAllah, I mean, if the best of creation is going to turn down this sort of,
again, tenacious kind of attachment, avid attachment to this world, right?
What does that show us? Again, how to pass with dignity, with beauty, you
know, with grace. And what’s so beautiful is in that final moment, what the
Prophet does, peace be upon him,
Is that he elects to be with al-mala al-a’la, he elects to be with Allah
subhanAllah ta’ala in the best of company. And he recites this ayah from 469,
Bismillahirrahmanirrahim. Wama yut’I’allahu wa’l-rasool fa’ulaa’ika ma’al
ladheena an’a’amallahu alayhim min al-nabiyyin wa’l-siddiqun wa’l-shuhada’I
wa’l-saliheen wa’u hasna’u la’ika rafiqa And this is on his lips, peace be upon
him, as he is passing away. So again, in every facet of his life, alayhi salatu
wasalam, from beginning to end, a lesson to the Quraysh, a lesson, lessons
for the Sahaba, and lessons for every single person that reflects upon his
beloved seerah and is reading these ayahs in the Quran. So, alhamdulillah,
this is an honor to be here with everybody today, and I pray this reflection is of
benefit. Jazak’Allah khair. Ustaz Zainab, that was of immense benefit,
subhanAllah, and I think it just occurred to me what you just mentioned about
the Prophet, salallahu alayhi wasalam, seeing his place in Jannah.
SubhanAllah, I mean, what, we see Asiya, alayhi wasalam, seeing her place
before she’s taken. There’s no mightier place than the place of our Messenger,
salallahu alayhi wasalam. May Allah azawajal allow us to be in his
companionship. And for those who are in that, Allahumma ameen. As you are
going through this and sort of talking about, I mean, you mentioned Quraysh,
and I really love what you mentioned. You’re as an avatar of modernity and
sort of the opposite of the Prophet, salallahu alayhi wasalam. You have a
group of people so deeply attached to this world that they’re being blinded
from the potential beauty of the hereafter. And then you have the Prophet,
salallahu alayhi wasalam, who is the complete opposite of that, who the
whole world is presenting itself at his feet, and he’s so deeply attached to the
hereafter in such a beautiful way that inspires us until today. Is there,
subhanAllah, I mean, obviously, Sheikh Abdullah,
Feel free to share anything else and reflect on that. Ustadh Zainab, was there
anything about just the, anything further as you’re reading through this juz,
just about the mindset of the people, or anything further you’d love to share
with us? SubhanAllah, this was such a profound reflection. Yeah, absolutely.
So, another thing too, Sheikh Omar and Sheikh Abdullah, is I was thinking a lot
about Abu Sufyan. So one of the things we do in our seerah class is I like to
show little film clips. So there’s the Omar series, there’s the Risalah film. And
there’s this, it’s almost this moment of epic trolling, if you think about it, when
Abu Sufyan finds himself after what, how many years is this? It’s like 20 years
of opposing the Prophet, peace be upon him. And then Abu Sufyan of all
people ends up doing what? He ends up going to Jerusalem, so he’s in AlQuds in the court of Heraclius, who’s the head of Byzantium. And Heraclius by
that time has received the letter from the Prophet, alayhi salatu wasalam.
And, again, thinking again, thinking about the mindset of the Quraish and how
Allah Ta’ala is addressing them throughout these two surahs, by the way, that
they have this blessing and this mercy and this gift. I mean, that the Prophet is
not, it was not sent except to be a mercy to them, a mercy, of course, to all the
worlds, but this has given to them this gift. So after 20 years of fighting the
Prophet and opposing him and trying to undermine him at every turn, of all
people, Abu Sufyan ends up doing what? Going to Heraclius, Heraclius says,
tell me about this man, who he looks at the group of Quraish that’s there and
says, I want to talk to the person who’s most closely related to the person who
sent me this letter. And now Abu Sufyan, I think, and I just think of this, like
this is a case, like Heraclius, like that’s like an epic troll. You’re going to have
Abu Sufyan now come and he’s going to speak now in defense of the Prophet,
alayhi salatu wasalam.
It’s like the best moment ever. And I think about, subhanAllah, how this comes
full circle. It’s like you cast him out, you exiled him, you persecuted him, you
tortured his followers, you tried to assassinate him. And now you are standing
in front of like the head of the world’s super, like one of the main superpowers
at that time, defending the Prophet. And there’s this amazing moment in the
Armaar series where the actors really do a great job at this, by the way, you
know, where Heraclius says to Abu Sufyan, this message that you kept
rejecting, that you didn’t want to hear and follow, so if you vote for Hiram, one
of the stand-up comedians at the time and follow him around the world. It
happens all the time. It’s like what this bar�� cổ alleged that the black 干
국인이 마치고 다 깨어나�That hispantomaniya related the secrets of Law of
shadow spirit to Hero’s chapter is like. There’s a phrase, where this guy keeps
giving false lectures about how to keep in the foreground so people don’t take
in charge of products that you found in the storehouse. What did this Prophet
ask of you again? And Abu Sufyan falters and he stops and he thinks about it.
He says, well, he asked us to believe in God and not associate partners with
him and establish prayer and paid charity. And you’re just kind of trying to in
that moment kind of inhabit, you know, kind of what how he must feel in that
moment. SubhanAllah, you know, comes full circle for the Quraish. And then
he becomes Muslim and narrates the Hadith. Yes, it is from Abu Sufyan.
Absolutely. So yeah, right out really right after this, he becomes Muslim.
SubhanAllah, SubhanAllah, SubhanAllah. Allah is so merciful that I mean, the
message still penetrated the heart of a man who 20 years rejected the Prophet
صلى الله عليه وسلم and tried to undermine him. SubhanAllah, becomes a part of actually
sending that message down to us. May Allah bless you. Sheikh Abdullah, you
got any reflection, anything that… No, Alhamdulillah, I think I’ve covered it all.
MashaAllah. Yeah. Beautiful. This was very, very enriching. JazakAllah khairan
wa salam alaykum. You had something else that you had to say? One more
ayah if I may. Bismillahirrahmanirrahim. Fa in tawallu faqul azamtukum ala
sawa wa in adri..
Akareebun an ba’idun ma tuwa’dun. I was thinking about this ayah in AlAnbiya again, verse 109. But if they turn away, then say, I have announced to
all of you equally, and I know not whether near or far is that which you are
promised. To me, that’s so beautiful. I mean, that the Prophet صلى الله عليه وسلم exerts his
utmost effort, right, whatever the outcome, whatever the response, he made
sure time and time again to really deliver the message in the best way.
Sallallahu alayhi wa sallam. JazakAllah khairan wa salam alaykum. We really,
really benefited from your presence. We hope to see you year in, year out. And
inshAllah ta’ala more than just 30 for 30, we hope to always benefit from you.
May Allah preserve you, protect you, and bless your family, and bless
everyone there at Taysir Seminary. Please give our salam to Sheikh Hassan alAshhab, inshAllah, and all of the students there at Taysir. Absolutely, and just
a shout out to Yaqeen Institute. It’s like our favorite channel. So I want
everybody to follow, donate, support, make du’a for our mashayikh, and a
wonderful team of volunteers here at Yaqeen. JazakAllah khairan wa salam
alaykum. Wa alaikum salam alaykum wa rahmatullahi wa barakatuh.
InshaAllah ta’ala for the rest of you, we’ll see you all tomorrow, inshAllah, and
we’ll also see you at the webathon on Wednesday, b’di’illah al-A’la. JazakAllah
khairan wa salam alaykum wa rahmatullahi wa barakatuh. Wa alaikum salam
alaykum wa rahmatullahi wa barakatuh. That our responsibility to teach our
truth to this generation is enormous, and it has to be done in fresh and
innovative ways. In Islamic Studies Department, Religious Studies
Department, we don’t have access to lesson plans…
Like core teachers do. When it comes to other subjects, they have access to
great academic research. Unfortunately, most of the research work that is
available in the field of Islamic Studies isn’t Arabic, and many teachers don’t
have access to the language, or they’re not at that level where they can access
Arabic books. And I guess that’s where Yaqeen comes in. Curriculum such as
Yaqeen’s that comes complete with all resources, whether it’s worksheets or
lesson plans or objectives and standards, video resources, reflection
questions. Best part about Yaqeen’s curriculum is that it’s very flexible, it’s
very fluid, it’s not rigid. I assess the need of my student and then I customize
it.
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