Juz’ 20 Qur’an 30 for 30
How can we find security and certainty in Allah? Dr. Omar Suleiman and Sh.
Abdullah Oduro are joined by Sr. Najwa Awad and Dr. Amir Abu Ghudda to
reflect on gems from juz 20, including accountability in difficult times,
humbling ourselves during both blessings and hardships, and seeking security
in Allah…
Sunnah walhamdulillah, wasalatul salam wa rasulullah wa ala alihi wa
sahbihi man wala Welcome everyone to Qur’an 30 for 30. Brother Amir was
just talking about the superiority of Canadian internet to American internet. I
figured we should start with that. You caught it when we were getting started
or not. That’s not part of the video? That’s part of it, yeah. You got caught. You
got caught. You might as well wear a MAGA hat at this point after you dissed
the internet like that. I dissed the internet? You did. You said that American
internet is inferior to Canadian internet. Oh, I dissed American internet, sure,
yeah. See, this is the legal side of you coming out. I hope we take a snippet of
him saying you might as well wear the MAGA hat. Just make sure that
everything gets that. So, alhamdulillah, we are actually, inshallah ta’ala, in
session now. I want to welcome Sister Najwa, of course, who is no stranger,
alhamdulillah, to the Yaqeen audience, masha’Allah, part of the trauma
series, has been a part of much of the content, the mental health content,
regular on 30 for 30, alhamdulillah, and really one of one of our most blessed
contributors, alhamdulillah, Sister Najwa, it’s wonderful to have you once
again. Ahlul Sahla, how are you? Thank you so much for having me. It’s always
really nice to be here. Allahumma alaikum wa alhamdulillah. And Brother
Amir, alhamdulillah, Amir Abu Ghudda, first time on 30 for 30, but
alhamdulillah, not your first contribution to jfln, alhamdulillah, but I
mean, we’ve enjoyed some of the papers that you have written. Amir being
someone who comes from a background of usool, but also a legal
background, alhamdulillah. So, I was talking about the legal answer to your
diss on American internet speeds, you know, it’s everything. The pandemic
has slowed down our internet speed. Clearly, Canadian internet speed is
better.
You know, we submit ourselves, we’ve submitted ourselves to poutine already,
being a great dish, a great suhoor dish, post-workout food for Sheikh Abdullah.
And we’ve submitted ourselves to Canadian internet, but Amir, Sheikh Amir,
it’s great to have you, alhamdulillah, I mean, zakal akhir for the wonderful
contributions that you’ve written, alhamdulillah, thus far. And I know what’s
also in the pipeline and excited to see what comes up. Welcome to 30 for 30.
BarakAllahu feekum, wajazakum khayran, and I appreciate your confessions,
as we say in Arabic, al-a’tiraf sayyidul adillah. So, confession is the master of
all evidence, so we’ll hold that against you. Oh man, Sheikh Abdullah, I’m a
little worried about him, man. I’m a little worried, a little worried. No, it’s good,
it’s good he said confession, we actually said najwa here, so it just fits
perfectly, you know, it’s like… That is true, that is true. One line is what I have
to talk about today. We take pride in, you know, being interdisciplinary at
jfln, but we’ve got too much interdisciplinary stuff going on here. So you
got Sheikh Abdullah, bodybuilder, sheikh, you got mental health specialist,
lawyer, there’s just too much here. I don’t know what I’m a specialist in, you
know, but alhamdulillah, I’m just glad to be here with you all, but this is a little
too much going on, alhamdulillah, but we pray this is part of the maturation,
alhamdulillah, al-ra’meen, you know, of jfln.academy that we’re able to
involve all of this expertise, alhamdulillah. So Amir, in Canadian law, if Sheikh
Abdullah picks me up, can I sue him? If he like just starts bench pressing me in
the masjid? Well, I guess based on your historical relationship, I’ll safely
assume that you have consented to that. And with that consent, I’m not sure
you can sue him.
Masha’Allah, masha’Allah. Yes, yes. For the record, that shouldn’t be taken
as… Yeah, we’re gonna have to have the whole audience sign waivers.
Insha’Allah, we’re happy to have you. We’ll put a display here, by the way, at
the bottom of the screen. And then the Ottoman Majalla, that’s the last thing.
So you’re writing about the Ottoman Majalla, so we’re gonna have to find
something in there about Sheikh Abdullah and myself, our relationship and
what the limits are. And if there isn’t something in there, we’ll put it in as an
appendix. There we go, there we go. Alhamdulillah. Well, insha’Allah, just as
we’re about to get started, one reminder to everyone that we are, of course,
gonna have our webathon insha’Allah ta’ala this Thursday running throughout
the day. And insha’Allah ta’ala, gems and benefits from everyone. We want to
remind you all to tune in, bidna nai ta’ala. It will be highly beneficial
insha’Allah ta’ala about how we can, you know, really go into the last ten
nights strong bidna nai ta’ala and capitalize on some of the themes that we
have been speaking about. But insha’Allah, we’ll go ahead and get started
now. Bismillah walhamdulillah. Wassalatu wassalamu ala rasulillah wa ala
alihi wa sahbihi wa man wala. So I’m gonna actually keep my part very short
because I’m very excited about what we can gain from our guests, bidna nai
ta’ala, and their expertise and their reading in the text. But just as we were
getting started, we were talking about the different ways that our passages fit
into this entire theme of where you find security. And security in terms of
redemption, security in times of peace, in terms of peace, in terms of
tranquility. And there are just two verses, subhanAllah, in just 20 that I wanted
to focus on, both in Surah Luqman, verse 33 and 34. Now, subhanAllah, you
know, last night we were talking about the relationship of Ibrahim alaihi salam
to his father. And there was emphasis on two things, right? The group versus
the individual.
And so the individual that continues to maintain their thrust towards Allah
subhanahu wa ta’ala, while the group, you know, obviously mocks and makes
things very difficult for them. And then we also spoke about the father’s son,
Ibrahim alaihi salam, and his father, and Ibrahim alaihi salam’s heartbreak
over the treatment of his father towards him. So subhanAllah, you have
suddenly here in Surah Luqman, this father advising his son. So with Ibrahim
alaihi salam and his father, right, his father being the transgressor, Luqman alHakim with his son, his son not being the transgressor, but Luqman being the
advisor to his son. And much of that advice circles around or revolves around
this idea of being comfortable, this idea of being, you know, connected to
tawheed and avoiding transgression. And here you have in these verses, 33
and 34, Ya ayyuha al-nasu taqoo rabbakum wakhshaw yawman la yajzi
walidun an waladihi wala mauludun huwa jazan an walidihi shay’a O
humanity, be mindful of your Lord and beware of a day when no parent will be
of any benefit to their child. So this is the case of Luqman al-Hakim and his
child. Nor will a child be of any benefit to their parent. And we just covered in
the last juz the situation of Ibrahim alaihi salam and his father. So everyone is
on their own on the day of judgment, right? You’re not going to be able to lean
on a relative to save you. Inna wa’da allahi haqq Or wa’da allahi haqq, that
inna wa’da allahi haqq, I’m sorry. Verily, the promise of Allah Subh’anaHu Wa
Ta-A’la is true. Fala taghurranakum alhayatu dunya wala yaghurranakum
billahi algharoor So do not let the life of this world deceive you, nor let the
chief deceiver deceive you about Allah Subh’anaHu Wa Ta-A’la. If you
remember, we talked about Surah Furqan yesterday, where the friend who
realizes that he’s been led astray by his other friend,
He turns away from his friend and says that verily it’s the shaitaan that was
khadoola. Shaitaan was the one that tricked me, right? Shaitaan constantly
tricks man. Because when that friend takes you away from Allah Subh’anaHu
Wa Ta-A’la, they are playing the role of the shaitaan, right? In your life in that
sense. So do not let the life of this world deceive you, meaning the allures of
the life of this world, nor let the chief deceiver, being the shaitaan, being the
devil deceive you about Allah Subh’anaHu Wa Ta-A’la. And then, inna allaha
indahu ilmus sa’a Verily Allah alone has the knowledge of the hour.
wayunazzilulghayth And Allah is the one who sends down the rain. Waya’lamu
ma fil arhaam And Allah Subh’anaHu Wa Ta-A’la knows what is in the womb.
SubhanAllah, Allah Azawajal starts off with the hereafter, which is distant from
us and in the future, right? Then he comes to the present, which is the rain that
we can see. Then Allah Subh’anaHu Wa Ta-A’la says, and he knows what is in
the wombs, which of course is at various stages of life. But, you know, we
ourselves were in those wombs and we cannot recount anything from our time
in the womb, nor do we know what is in the womb when a person first
conceives, when a woman first conceives. So Allah Azawajal has knowledge
of the seen and the unseen, the present, the future, and the past. And Allah
Subh’anaHu Wa Ta-A’la says, wa ma tadri nafsun nada taksibu ghada wa ma
tadri nafsun bi-ayyi ardin tamoot inna Allaha alimun khabir No soul knows
what it will earn for tomorrow, and no soul knows in what land it shall die.
Verily, Allah is all-knowing, all-aware. There are so many gems here to connect
just in this ayah here. The ulama mention, for one, if you look at
yunazzilulghayth, Allah Subh’anaHu Wa Ta-A’la sends down the rain which
speaks to the sustenance in terms of earning. So if you connect the rain
coming down, which is the first part of this sequence here, to how Allah
Subh’anaHu Wa Ta-A’la talks about death,
Mada taksibu ghada, no one knows what they will earn tomorrow. So you don’t
know what rain will fall upon you. You don’t know what your profits will yield
the next day. So you don’t know what you will earn tomorrow. And then Allah
Subh’anaHu Wa Ta-A’la mentions, ya’limu ma fil arham, he knows what is in
the wombs, right? And then when he talks about death, Allah Subh’anaHu Wa
Ta-A’la is the only one that knows in what earth you will be put in, what part of
the earth you will be put in, right? Bi-ayyi ardin tamut. So this idea,
Subh’anaHu Wa Ta-A’la, of the transition here, that Allah is the one who sends
down the rain for which you depend upon in terms of your rizq for tomorrow,
what you will earn. And by the way, just as you do not know what is in the
womb, you do not know what part of the earth you will be in, right? So
basically this idea of certainty only being in Allah Subh’anaHu Wa Ta-A’la and
not in what we earn or what we’ve tried to predict or what we try to, you know,
set for ourselves and finding security only in that. And as I said, you know,
security is of various types and inshaAllah Ta’ala, each one of our guests
bismillah will touch on a different element of that. And inshaAllah Ta’ala how
Allah Azawajal is where we place our certainty and security in because He is
the only one who knows, He is the only one who forgives, and He is the only
one who can light the way forward for us. InshaAllah, Sister Najwa, bismillah.
The story of Musa is one of my favorite stories in the Quran. And, you know,
when I was thinking, I was even having trouble narrowing it down to what it is
that I wanted to talk about. But, you know, I thought it would be most helpful
to talk about something that actually is not talked about very frequently, but
something that I have found is very useful for some of my clients, especially
clients who feel, you know, in our psychotherapy sessions, feel very stuck and
feel like they have,
They are in a place where they cannot come back from something they have
done or, you know, a really difficult place of hardship. And the ayats that I’m
referring to are specifically the ones in which Musa accidentally killed
someone. So after Musa alayhis salam had reached maturity, there was one
day where he was walking and he came across two people who were fighting,
one of his people and one of the enemy. And he intervened and in him
intervening, he hit the other guy and he died. And we know that Musa alayhis
salam had a tremendous amount of strength. It was an accident. And I like to
use this example that, you know, Musa was a prophet of Allah. And there’s so
many, so many gems, so many things that we can take away from the
immediate ayat and the steps that Musa alayhis salam took afterwards that
we can use in our own lives to help us during extremely difficult times. One of
the first things that we see is that Musa alayhis salam immediately asked for
forgiveness. He said, my Lord, I have definitely wronged my soul, so forgive
me. So he forgave him and he is indeed the all forgiving, the most merciful.
And subhanAllah, it really reminds me of Adam alayhis salam, who also had
made a mistake and then he, you know, he immediately repented and Allah
forgave him, which is a huge contrast to who, to Fir’aun and Shaytan, who
actually have a lot of things in common in terms of just persisting with what
they did wrong and having no accountability. But, you know, even when we’re
looking at accountability, when we have made a mistake, there’s a lot about
the psychology of self-blame. And I think oftentimes what happens is when
we make a mistake.
Or even we do something knowingly and it’s really not good and we find
ourselves like, how did I get here? How do I ever come back from this? It’s very
helpful to look at what happened with Musa in that, in this whole story of
Musa alayhis salam, in Surat al-Qasas, when we start out, you know, even
before he was born with Fir’aun being the tyrant that he is, and then the story
of him being born and going to the home of Fir’aun and then to this very
moment, and then later on that the story continues, is that he doesn’t
personalize this event. And a lot of times when we make a mistake, it’s very
easy for us to personalize it. And what ends up happening is initially we think
that we’re doing good and that we are being accountable for what happened
and that it’s a healthy sense of guilt, but it can actually go one of two ways. So
when something really negative or unexpected happens, we can look at it as
one moment in time. This is something happened to me. This is, you know,
qadr Allah, it’s not something I anticipated. And it’s one moment in my life, but
it does not define my life. Or there’s another camp where you take a negative
incident and you personalize it and then you start to identify it, identify with it,
and it becomes like a characteristic, a negative characteristic of who you are.
So you do something wrong and then you feel like, okay, well, I’m inherently
bad. I am unforgivable. I cannot come back from this. And it becomes
ingrained in one’s psychology. And of course, as you can imagine, who tends
to be more prone for depression and trauma? The second camp. And that’s
because they are personalizing what happened. It’s not to say not to be
accountable. It’s important to be accountable as we saw that Musa was,
But not to let it take over the trajectory of the rest of your life and say that
because of this one thing, I cannot come back from it. And I like to bring this
up in session with clients who feel stuck that there’s no way I can come back
from it. And we can see that, alhamdulillah, from the psychology of Musa, of
the things that he did, that yes, there is. And subhanAllah, Allah forgave him.
Allah forgave him. In that same ayah, when he asked for repentance, so he
forgave him and he indeed Is all forgiving, most merciful. The other really
interesting thing about how Musa coped with this situation afterwards is that
he used his faith on Allah, the reliance of Allah on Allah as an anchor for him.
And an anchor, you know, in psychological terms, is when you use something
to help ground you, to give you a sense of security In a time where there is no
security elsewhere. And, you know, I think in Western psychology, there’s, they
praise having a really strong internal locus of control, meaning that you are in
control of you’re actions, you’re in control of your own fate, you’re the master
of your own destiny, and that you can change the trajectory of things. But in
times of really big hardship, this can feel like such an enormous task. And we
know through Islamic psychology that, this is not correct anyhow, but that
there is a tremendous amount of safety, of certainty that we get in knowing
that, yes, we have control of our actions, and yes, we can take steps to things
that we want to, but that ultimately Allah is in control. Allah is in control of
everything. And we see how he uses Allah, his faith in Allah as an anchor. He
says, my Lord, deliver me from a wrongdoing people. I trust my Lord will guide
me to the right way.
My Lord, I am truly in desperate need of whatever provision you may have in
store for me. So he uses that reliance on Allah to guide him during a time
where he just killed someone, he fled, and he’s going to somewhere he’s never
been before. And so those two elements of when something negative
happens, of not personalizing, and then relying back on Allah to help guide
you through this. And this is a theme that we see throughout the story of
Musa, that from his infancy to when his mother put him into the river, and then
when he comes to this point, and then even afterwards, that’s upon Allah,
even in during these times of difficulty, Allah is with him, with him. And so to
summarize, I tell my clients, you are stuck in this thing of not knowing how can
I move forward? Follow the steps of Prophet Musa, of knowing that this is one
part of your life. It’s not going to change the trajectory of the rest of your life If
you don’t want it to. That this did not prevent the Prophethood from coming. It
did not prevent from all the good things coming to Musa. So checking in with
yourself, is this self-blame bringing me closer to Allah or bringing me further?
And that being a reflection point. And that knowing that you turn to Allah and
you rely on him, and then just as Musa did, after he relied on him, he followed
up with good deeds. He followed those who needed his help, and he was
helped. And so I find these ayat extremely comforting, and I hope that they will
be, inshallah, comforting to our viewers as well. And maybe even inspiring for
those who feel stuck and that they feel like there’s no hope in moving forward.
Jazakumullahu khayran, Sister Najwa. SubhanAllah, Musa alayhi as-salam, of
course, is the most frequently spoken about Prophet in the Quran. And all of
the different snapshots we get of his life.
Are directly relevant to the themes in the juz. BarakAllahu fiqi for that. Shukr
Abdullah, bismillah. Bismillah, rahman rahim, alhamdulillahi rabbil alameen.
Wa salallahu wa sallam wa barak to the Prophet Muhammad and his family
and companions. Kind of what we spoke about yesterday and even tying it into
today with, you know, following the group, the herd mentality. But particularly
of those that, as Sister Najwa graciously mentioned, not having that solid
anchor, you know, an anchor that you turn to, i.e. as Muslims, we believe in
Allah subhanahu wa ta’ala. You know, the statements of controlling your
destiny and you have full control over that. We know that that can be a
statement that can defy or undermine our faith and our aqeedah, being that
we ultimately believe that Allah is our anchor. And he’s given us the raw
material, i.e. the fitrah, which is the kind of the way that we have the reception
to Allah subhanahu wa ta’ala and connecting with our inner self and our pure
unadulterated self and allowing that to flourish. And with that being the case,
following the shariah, this is how we will flourish in this life and inshallah be
with him in the next. What I want to talk about is in Juz 20, it is the chapter of
Qasas, where Allah subhanahu wa ta’ala talks about the story of Qarun. And
Qarun was, as some scholars say, he was the son of Musa’s paternal uncle.
Because Allah subhanahu wa ta’ala says in verse number 76, After I seek
refuge with Allah from the accursed Satan, Allah subhanahu wa ta’ala says
here, introducing Qarun and reminding us of who he was. Allah says, indeed
Qarun was from the people of Moses. Some people say the people of Moses,
being that he was his paternal uncle, you find scholars have this opinion from
Ibrahim al-Nakhari and others. They say that he was from the people of
Moses, but he tyrannized them.
And we gave him the treasures of whose keys would burden a band of strong
men. That the keys that he had were so huge that they would burden, that the
keys were so heavy to his treasures that a group of strong men would not be
able to hold them. It would overpower them. And some scholars say it would
be 10 people, etc. But it’s a group of people that imagine the keys they’re not
able to hold. So you can imagine the treasure. So when Allah subhanahu wa
ta’ala is saying this, he says, So some of his people told him, do not exalt. For
really Allah subhanahu wa ta’ala does not love the ones that are exultant.
Meaning that being attached to this dunya to the degree that you are boastful
and that boastfulness leads you to be tyrannical to people. Whether it’s
belittling them or taking from their rights. Maybe the money that you have is
because of your tyranny. So Allah subhanahu wa ta’ala continues on to say the
four forms of advice that the people, that Qarun’s people gave to him. It’s
important here because it’s beautiful that we should remind ourselves in
regards to when we receive something that we have aspired for, we’ve worked
hard for. You’re in school, you finish your doctorate program, mashallah you
become a lawyer or mashallah, a PhD in psychology or mashallah in any
profession that it may be that you have worked hard for and you’ve attained it.
Shaytan can come and play with you and say, you know what, this is what I’ve
earned because of my hard work, period. You stop there. There’s nothing else
that you say after that. In your heart, even without your tongue, in your heart,
you say that to yourself. Sometimes we may say that to our children, but we
forget the name of Allah subhanahu wa ta’ala and where he is in the whole
equation. Allah subhanahu wa ta’ala mentions a statement of the people of
Qarun when he says,
ْح َس َن هَّللاُ
َ
ْح َس ْن َكَما أ
َ
َوأ
ِصيبَ َك ِم َن ال ُّدْنيَا
َوََل تَْن َسى نَ
َر ا ْْل ِخ َرةَ
َوْبتَ ْغي فِي َما آتَا َك هَّللاُ اَل هدا
َسا َد
فَ
ْ
ْي َك َوََل تَْب ِغي ال
لَ
ِ
إ
ُمْف ِسِدي َن
ْ
يُ ِح ُّب ال
لَ
هن هَّللاَ
ِ
ْر ِض إ
َل ْْا يِفAllah says here, the four things that the people of
Qarun, the righteous people told Qarun, or in other words, the righteous
people telling an Individual that was engulfed in the dunya and their riches
and their hard work, and how that could lead them to being disobedient to
Allah, i.e. looking at themselves, whether it’s from the aspect of takabbur, of
arrogance, or in the aspect of belittling those that haven’t reached their level.
Allah says, what they say, the first thing is, but seek through that which Allah
has given you, the home of the hereafter. That’s the first thing. ُللاَّه ك َاَت
َ
َوْبتَ ْغِفي َما أ
َر ا ْْل ِخ َرةِ
هدا
َ
أSo seek from that which Allah has given you, the home of the
hereafter. So immediately Qarun is being reminded that look, this is not going
to benefit you in the next life. Everything that you’re talking about, your keys,
your wealth, you should desire the hereafter. Do not desire what you have
attained because that is temporary. You should desire the hereafter, i.e. do the
actions that serve as an investment in the hereafter. Second form of advice.
And do not forget your share of this world. اَنيْد ُّال ن َم ِكَ َصيبِ
forget not Doَوََل تَْن َسى نَ
your share in this world. Take from this world, benefit from this world, obtain
the wealth that you have, but make sure that you don’t sell your hereafter for
the dunya. As Shaykh Omar mentioned in the beginning of this series of 30 for
30, do not allow what you are doing and the efforts you’re making, the time
you’re spending, the sorrow that you may face from working so hard, don’t let
it stop at the dunya. Don’t let it stop at this world. Make sure that you use it as
an investment in the next life, meaning that the actions that you embark upon
or when you receive it, who are you thanking?
Allah Subhanahu Wa Ta’ala. So remember, take from this dunya, take from this
world, but make sure that it is a means of showing gratitude to God. Third form
of advice. When they say, and do good as Allah has done good to you. ن ْس َحْ
َ
َوأ
ْي َك
لَ
ِ
ْح َس َن هَّللاُ إ
َ
أ ماَك َAnd this is such a beautiful, beautiful statement from Allah
Subhanahu Wa Ta’ala and from the people of Qarun too, to Qarun when they
said, and do good as Allah has done good to you. Remember, ِللَّه اِب لَه
ِ
ِق إ
ْوفِ
َمَما تَ
Remember, any good that you do, it is from the Tawfiq, it is from Allah enabling
you to do that. There’s a small window of choice that you made to do that and
you receive reward from that. Isn’t that such a beautiful thing? Allah gives you
the guidance. He says, just make the intention, you will get rewarded. Make
the effort, there’s more reward in that. Those that made the intention and
couldn’t make the effort, there’s reward in that as well. SubhanAllah, just
looking at the small window of effort that we have to make as Muslims. And
Ihsan, we know comes from that which is excellence. Just do good as Allah
has done good to you. That should be a motivation for us in our professions,
with our children, with ourselves, our bodies, what we eat, what we consume,
that we should do it with excellence. We should be excellent and good to
ourselves and with that we can be good to others. You know, it’s important
that we have this form of Ihsan because Allah has written it upon everything.
ِلِّ ِش ْيٍء
ٰى كُ
َب ا ْْلِ ْح َسا َن َعلَ
َكتَ
هن هَّللاَ
ِ
إThat Allah has written excellence, not perfection,
but excellence upon everything. So making that effort that we give 110% in
everything that we do. As Allah Subhanahu Wa Ta’ala, we will never be able to
repay Him. And the last form of advice, and desire not corruption in the land.
Indeed, Allah does not like the corruptors. Do not desire corruption in the land
because of what you have gotten. Whatever you have been given by Allah
Subhanahu Wa Ta’ala. Whatever you have obtained from your intellectual
capacity, your physical capacity, the characteristics that you may have. Know
that it is Allah that has given you the raw material and how are you using it?
Are you using It to be thankful or are you letting the dunya be a deception? And
allowing that deception from its beautifications that is within our desires that
we want to attain, are we being deceived by it to where it causes us to neglect
the afterlife. So inshallah, may Allah Subhanahu Wa Ta’ala make us of the
people of Qarun and allow that to be a guiding light for us. To remind ourselves
and to remind those that may be around us that say that verily I have obtained
this from my own self and my hard work. And they do not associate any, do not
attribute that to Allah Subhanahu Wa Ta’ala. BarakAllahu Fiksh, Alhamdulillah.
SubhanAllah, one of the things that is becoming apparent as you are listening
to this is, you have the advice of Luqman Al-Hakim to his father, to his son.
And then after you have Luqman’s advice to his son, you have these examples
of the people who took that advice or who lived that advice and the people
who lived in the opposite way. So humility being a major theme. And you can
be humbled by your blessings, you can be humbled by your hardship. Or you
can become arrogant as a result of those blessings. Or you can become
hardened as a result of those hardships. And Musa A.S. being in many ways,
this person who we see a journey of, like in terms of a learning journey, takes
all of these lessons and embodies them in the most beautiful ways. And he
never becomes a Qarun or a Fir’aun in his life, which is very profound. And he
can draw on his own experiences and he can draw on the bad examples. So
sometimes good advice, bad examples. Bad examples are important as well
to learn from. You can learn from good advice and then you can learn from
good examples, but you can also learn from bad examples. Like I don’t want to
manifest in my own life what that person is manifesting. And InshaAllah Ta’ala,
Sheikh Amir, who I’m very excited to hear from you, despite your terrifying
legal analysis in the beginning.
You’re actually going to be talking about one of my favorite surahs in the
Quran, Surat Al-Ankabut, which I find so much wisdom and so much benefit
in. So InshaAllah Ta’ala, may Allah Subh’anaHu Wa Ta-A’la bless you. Looking
forward to hearing what you have to say. Shami’ah InshaAllah, BarakAllahu
Fiikum. And I’m frankly very glad and I promise those who are viewing us that
there was no previous collaboration before we joined this virtual meeting. But
all I think all of our insights, if we can call them that, are converging very
nicely. And I think what we mentioned or what you mentioned, Sheikh Amir, in
the beginning about this idea or concept of security, where we find security as
Muslims and as believers in Allah Subh’anaHu Wa Ta-A’la. And I think it’s very
much connected to what I would like to reflect on in Surat Al-Ankabut. And I
think typically, and most people, and I’m one of those people, whenever I see
the name of a surah, Surat Al-Ankabut, automatically while I’m reading the
surah, I’m looking for the verse that mentions that word, on the assumption
that it represents sort of a main theme in the verse. So when I read this surah, I
paid extra attention to the verse in which Allah Subh’anaHu Wa Ta-A’la
mentions the spider, Al-Ankabut, in which Allah Subh’anaHu Wa Ta-A’la says,
those of example Theكمثل العنكبوت اتخذت بيتاً وإن أهون البيوت لبيت العنكبوت لو كانوا يعلمون
who seek other than Allah Subh’anaHu Wa Ta-A’la as Awliya, as allies, as
protectors, as sources of security, it’s like the Ankabut, the spider, ًبيتا اتخذت
that takes up a home,
And surely the home of the spider is the weakest of homes ,يعلمون كانوا لوif only
they knew. So seeking security in other than the truth, in something other than
Allah Subh’anaHu Wa Ta-A’la, no matter how confident one is in that source of
security, I assume, now I haven’t spoken or lived in the world of spiders, but I
assume spiders are pretty proud of what they make in terms of homes, and
they’re pretty confident in the home that they built for themselves, but that
confidence means nothing, because at the end of the day, when you zoom out
of that small world of the spider, that home is nothing, and it just cannot
withstand even a very light breeze. And the meaning of this verse, to me at
least, became more apparent as I read it in the context of the verses that
came before it. And you notice that in the verses that come before this
specific verse that talks about the home of the spider, it mentions a series of
stories of prophets, and if you pay close attention, there’s a consistent
common thread among those stories, and then Allah Subh’anaHu Wa Ta-A’la
concludes that line of stories with this illustration of the spider. So the surah
talks about Qawm-Nuh, for example, and how the Prophet Nuh Alayhi Salam
was sent to them for 950 years. And of course we all know from other surahs
that Nuh Alayhi Salam was outnumbered, the people who believed in him
were very few in number, and were very weak, they were not influential people
or powerful people, and they were ridiculed. And even when he was building
the ark, the disbelievers made fun of him. So the people of falsehood and of
evil, they looked like they were winning the day.
And it looked like the people of the truth were weaker and helpless, and
ultimately victory and the support of Allah Subh’anaHu Wa Ta-A’la was
granted to the people of truth, even though on a superficial materialistic
reading it looks like they were losing at a certain point, but ultimately Allah
Subh’anaHu Wa Ta-A’la granted victory to the truth and to the haqq. And
similarly the surah goes to the story of Ibrahim Alayhi Salam, similarly
outnumbered, and also his people aimed not only to ridicule him as many
prophets were ridiculed, but also they wanted to harm him and kill him. And
you would think that what they wanted to do was guaranteed to work. Allah
Subh’anaHu Wa Ta-A’la says, Fama kana jawaba qawmihi illa an qalu qtuluhu
aw harriquhu Fanajjahu Allahum minannar inna fee dhalika la-ayatin liqawmin
yu’minun And so the response of his people was to declare and call, kill him or
burn him. And they in fact did, of course as we all know, they made a big fire
and they threw him in, and Allah Subh’anaHu Wa Ta-A’la granted victory to
Ibrahim Alayhi Salam and allowed him to survive that attempt. I’m pretty sure
99.999999% of the time if you throw someone in fire, they won’t come out of it
alive. But here, despite being outnumbered and despite the laws of physics
being against him, victory was granted to Ibrahim Alayhi Salam. And then
similarly, the surah goes to the story of Lut Alayhi Salam, similarly ridiculed
and outnumbered by his community who disbelieved in him. And eventually
those who disbelieved and insisted were wiped out, and he and those who
believed in him were preserved and they survived. And then, ila madyan
akhaahum shu’aiban, to the people of Madyan and their prophet Shu’aib.
And Shu’aib was weak, he was old, and in another surah we know that they
even told him, if you were an old man, we would have stoned you. So he was
outnumbered and they did not believe in him either. And so again, on a
superficial reading, they were the more powerful, they had more protection,
more security, but at the end of the day, that didn’t mean anything. Then we up
the ante a little bit and we go to Aad and Thamud, that’s where the surah goes.
Aad and Thamud were more powerful people, and they similarly were
arrogant, belligerent with their injustice and evil and oppression, and
whatever power they had was useless at the end of the day, no matter how
confident they were in that power. And then, SubhanAllah, the surah, or Allah
Subhanahu wa ta’ala finishes this line with the biggest, most obvious
example, and Shaykh Abdullah graciously gave us a beautiful account of the
story of Qarun. And so the verse here says, ن َماَ
َرعُو َن َو َها
alliance this Soَوقَا ُرو َن َوفِ
of three people, you have Qarun, this rich, powerful, private individual, this
private citizen, I’m not aware that he had any official capacity within the state
of Fir’aun, but he was in alliance very much with the interests of Fir’aun, and
Fir’aun was the political leader, and Haman was his main right-hand man. So
you had this alliance of these three powerful people, and Qarun was
destroyed, and Fir’aun and his army drowned, and that tremendous,
enormous power didn’t mean anything. And after that, that’s when this verse
comes and tells us sort of the common thread, that all of this reliance on
armies, on power, on wealth, on numbers, on social pressure,
Belittling the small community of weak people because you are powerful and
they are weak, all of this, no matter how confident and how powerful that
makes you feel, that’s just like the confidence that a spider has in its home.
No matter how confident it is, that home at the end of the day is extremely
weak. And if I may, very quickly, frankly, these verses gave me sort of, I saw a
different meaning in them in the recent days, as we have seen some of the
heart-wrenching scenes from our beloved holy site, Masjid al-Aqsa alMubarak. Helpless people, helpless worshippers who are outnumbered,
overpowered, no one there to help them, no one there to aid them, and on the
other side you have a belligerent, arrogant force that acts like it has all the
power in the world and it’s unstoppable. But we know from these verses that
even though on its face it may seem that they are weak, that they are helpless,
the arrogant, belligerent side, their bayt is bayt al-ankabut, and Masjid al-Aqsa
is baytullah, wa li bayti rabbun yahmeen. JazakAllah khair. Powerful,
subhanAllah. Beautiful. People are entrusted to the blessings that Allah
subhanahu wa ta’ala gives them by which they become belligerent, and as a
result of that Allah subhanahu wa ta’ala takes all the potency away in those
blessings and turns those blessings into a curse for them, subhanAllah. And
al-ghayf, the rain coming and falling, right? Rain is a source of rizq, but just as
we see wind and rain in these natural elements as a source of rizq,
sustenance, they become a source of punishment for these peoples, right?
That we’re relying on the rain coming down and saying, well the rain still falls,
the wind still comes, the blessings keep coming our way, so surely even if
there is a god, he’s not a real threat to us.
And then it’s all taken away from them because they’ve turned those blessings
into gods and put their security in that. SubhanAllah, it’s a powerful sequence
that you just gave there. I hadn’t thought about it before in that way, but the
way that the surah starts, the stories of the prophet starts aflash and the
stories of tyrants that had this arrogance to them and this intoxication with
their power, right? And suddenly made sober by the destruction of Allah
subhanahu wa ta’ala and Allah giving victory to the oppressed and to the
believers who always put their faith in him. And definitely, what’s happening
around the world right now in Aqsa in particular, Allah subhanahu wa ta’ala
give victory to the oppressed everywhere. I want to open it up in conclusion
inshallah to you. Anyone for comments before I do that, just a reminder,
because I know some will log off at this point. So tomorrow we have the
webathon inshallah. We’re actually going to inshallah ta’ala have Quran 30 for
30 at 11 a.m. tomorrow inshallah ta’ala. So noon Eastern time just so that it
does not conflict with the time of the webathon inshallah. So you’ll get an
earlier Quran 30 for 30 tomorrow inshallah with Sheikh Yasser Fahmy bint
Naye ta’ala. We hope you’ll join for the webathon inshallah. But any
comments inshallah from our sister Najwa, Sheikh Abdullah on what brother
Amir shared. Or anyone’s comments can be about anyone else’s comment.
First, thanks for letting me know it’s 1130. I didn’t. No, I’m sorry. I’m sorry
sister Najwa. We’re losing track of time. I was like, oh no, what are we doing?
I’m sorry. You know, it’s there’s I don’t even know where to start. I mean,
Hamdallah, like there’s so many, so many beautiful things that you said.
And, you know, with the story of Qarun, it just reminds me a lot of, you know,
social media and how sometimes we really do get when we see someone with
so many beautiful things and how we get distracted. And we say, like, I wish I,
you know, just as those people, I wish that I had what this person has. But
ultimately knowing that it doesn’t help them at all in the hereafter. And then
just kind of hearing that this similar sentiment with the spider, really, it is very
fragile at the end of the day. And just being reminded of that really all that
stays is Allah and all that stays is our good deeds. So just may Allah accept all
of our good deeds this month and just take us into the last ten nights and
accept. Inshallah. Hamdallah. Anything? Yeah, I mean, it’s kind of mashallah,
it all does tie in together. What she was mentioning about social media is a
prime example. You know, there’s a difference between clout and power,
right? You may have some numbers, but how powerful is you’re your
message? How powerful are you? How strong have you become? Particularly
that of connection to Allah. Because, you know, the verse right after it was
mentioned with Qarun, the people said when they saw him come out, when
he came out looking beautiful and, you know, shiny, right? They said the
people that, even in Allah terms, the people that love the dunya, they said, we
wish we had what he had. Right, subhanAllah. So it goes back. What do you
really value? Because the strength of that is just like a bayt al-ankabut. It’s not
something that is going to last. It’s not something that is valuable. So, you
know, it’s important for us to really look deep and see that what do we value?
And is it beyond this physical life? Amir, you got anything, Sheikh Amir, for us?
So your take home message?
I just want to, I guess, tie in what Sister Najwa mentioned, which is this
anchor, you know, this concept of the anchor. I’m not sure if this is like a
scientific, technical term in the world of psychology. But nonetheless, it is
something that I guess struck me, which is truly that our anchor at the end of
the day Is our belief in Allah subhanahu wa ta’ala. It’s what anchored the
prophets at the times of difficulty and hardship. It’s what anchored the
believers and it’s what allowed them to stay steadfast despite all the
hardships that they faced. And if there is anything that lacks an anchor, it’s the
bayt al-ankabut. So and contrary to that sort of house, we have a strong
anchor that will keep us firm, keep us connected with Allah subhanahu wa
ta’ala and guarantee for us happiness in this world and the next inshallah.
SubhanAllah. You know, I think we should apologize to all the spiders that are
watching. This has been a very disparaging session from the Canadian
gentleman. Unless, unless, you know, they were maybe created, part of their
purpose of creation is to be a ibra for us. So they’re fulfilling their purpose that
should make them happy. Oh, radun jameel, radun mufhim. Sheikh Abdullah,
what’s Spiderman’s favorite part of the joke? What’s Spiderman’s favorite
what? Part of the joke. Punchline. Spiderman’s favorite part of the joke is the
punchline because he punches. That’s a granddad joke. That’s not a dad.
That’s a granddad joke. We retired the term dad joke. We retired it. And we’re
going to have to ask Sheikh Omar Hussain if granddad jokes are OK. Maybe
we’ll ask him tomorrow, inshallah. Inshallah.
To use granddad jokes. You know, when you’re trying to be corny, it just
sometimes it. Now I can’t help myself, even when I’m not trying to be, I still
don’t know what to do with myself. Maybe out of Ramadan I’ll come out
better. Insha’Allah. That was amazing. JazakumAllah khayran for everyone for
joining us. JazakumAllah khayran. Sister Najwa, Brother Amir, it was a
pleasure. Alhamdulillah, Sheikh Abdullah. Insha’Allah ta’ala we’ll see
everyone for the webathon. And again, insha’Allah ta’ala we’ll have Sheikh
Yasser Fahmi, 30 for 30, insha’Allah, earlier, bid’na nahi ta’ala, to make room
for the webathon. We hope you share the link. We hope insha’Allah ta’ala you
continue to support our work. And we pray that we all catch the day of the
Qadr. Allahumma ameen. JazakumAllah khayran. Assalamualaikum
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