Ar-Rahmah Lecture Series Surah Baqarah: ayah Page 1

Transcription

1 Surah Baqarah: ayah Page 1 Friday 5/2/2014 Surah Al-Baqarah Ayah : In this portion we will learn about the prophets and their status, spending in the way of Allah and then we will learn about one of the most important ayahs of the Quran Ayat-ul- Kursi. Then two ayas about two types of people. AYAH 253: This ayah is referring to all the prophets and Allah has given them different statuses with Allah. The most beloved and of highest status in front of Allah are the Rasools. And even among the Rasools there are degrees where one is above another. Among them some that Allah spoke to directly and raised the degrees of some of them. we don t know which ones were raised in degree we just know that some were above others. Who were the ones who spoke to Allah? We know Musa was known for talking to Allah. The Prophet Mohammad spoke to Allah when he went up the night of Mairaj. Adam also spoke to Allah. The rest of them Allah spoke through revelation. Eesa, son of Meryem is used to refer to him repeatedly. He was granted the proofs and evidences. He was born without a father, he could speak as an infant, then with Allah s command, he used to bring dead to life, give sight to blind and cure the leprosy.all with Allahs command. Allah supported him with Gabriel (angel) because he had so many enemies and Allah raised him to the heavens when they were trying to kill him. And he will return back to our world, he will marry, he will break the cross and everywhere Islam and he will bring Tawheed to the people. After Prophet Mohammad, there is no other prophet, Jesus will not come back as a new prophet, he will come as one of the people from Mohammad s ummah. Humanity owes a great deal to the Rasools for their ahsans (good works towards them). there are people who did good things and they are written about in books and they are known for benefiting the society like scientists, inventors or philosophers.

2 Surah Baqarah: ayah Page 2 But there are people who contributed to society in such a way that it will continue to benefit people in dunya, in the grave and in the day of Judgement. So to know and learn about these people, the Rasools, is the best thing we can do. If a mother loses her child and someone returns her lost child to her, the mother is so grateful. So the one who rejoins us with our lost Lord, we are not as grateful to them. The Rasools reunited us with our Rab through the revelation and through the Rasools, Allah has communicated with us. They told the conditions of the hereafter, the purpose of life, the way to live our lives, the conditions of jannah and hell. They told us what is success in life or we would have been lost. They are the link between Allah and the people and their job was to simply convey Allah s messages. But they went above and beyond to do that so much that they tolerated terrible treatment from people but didn t give up on their people. And what a great favor of Allah that from the beginning of mans world, Allah kept sending down reminders after reminders. And after the last Rasool was sent, Allah kept the message pure and safe and took the responsibility to keep it alive & protect it so no other people will be misguided. So some have been given a higher degree than others. Surah Isra ayah 55 Allah tells us he gave some Prophets books and not others. But the prophet Mohammad used to ask that he not be in any degree higher than the other Rasools. In a hadith he said none of you should ever say that I am of a higher degree (better) than Yusuf So Allah is saying there is a different degree and the Prophet is saying don t give me any higher rank. Is this a contradiction? No In fact, there is on one side the Prophets humbleness. And the other is that when these things become a source of fighting, it is not good. When one person says my prophets better than yours and they start to fight over this. There is a hadith where a muslim and a Jewish man started arguing. The jew said I swear to Allah who gave Musa control over all the world the muslim got upset and he slapped the jew and said is he more high than our Rasool Mohammad?! the jew went to the Prophet and complained to him. So the Prophet said don t give me higher rank among the prophets. When we all wake up on the day of judgement, I will see that Musa

3 Surah Baqarah: ayah Page 3 is already holding on to the thrown of Allah and I will have no idea if he woke before me or he never slept. So don t give me a higher degree over the other Rasoosl. Every Prophet should be respected by us just as the Prophet is respected. The degree that has been assigned to them is assigned by Allah so we just have to accept it and we are not to give them degrees over each other. People go overboard and start fighting over this topic in their love for their prophet. Like giving Jesus the status of Allah s son. We know from Hadiths how much Allah loved and honored the Prophet but when these hadith were told, the Prophet did not tell them in arrogance and happiness. Gave this information to the people to convey Allah s message. Prophet told us the day of Judgment, I will be the imam, khatib and will be speaking on behalf of them and I am not saying this with arrogance or pride He also said after the earth opens up I will be the first to rise and I will be clothed in the cloth of Jannah I will stand on the right side of the thrown where no one else will be allowed to stand. He said on the day of judgement, I will be the leader of the children of Adam and I am not saying this with pride, and in my hand will be the flag of the people and I am not saying this in pide. All the children of Adam and others will all be under my flag and when the ground opens, the very first one to rise up will be me and this is not with pride So the Prophet said over and over that he is not saying any of this with pride but we learn about his status through these hadith. When the night of Mairaj happens we learn that he was the imam of all the Prophets and lead them in prayer before rising to the heavens. So he does have a great status but we should never use that to lower the status of the other peoples deen and prophets that brought it to them. We have to let non-muslims know that we believe and respect all the prophets and it is part of our deen to believe in them. This topic is not just limited to talking up the prophets. It is the nature of the people to talk about anyone they respect and follow to the extent that they look down on others who don t follow the same. Just look at the many many arguments people get in to regarding the different opinions of the 4 schools of thoughts in our deen.

4 Surah Baqarah: ayah Page 4 Did the four main imams say after they go we should fight amongst ourselves and kill each other and call each other kufars? In fact, they used to consider each other their teachers. They were students of each other and respected one another greatly But we took our differences to such an extent that people don t pray in each others mosques anymore and fight over who will lead and who will pray behind who. On the Day of judgment, we will be asked if we are following the Prophet, not which sect we followed. We have made everything about the 4 imams and who follows who. On the day of judgment, the Prophet will ask us why we split his ummah into sects and divided it. Our fighting is so bad that now Muslims who are not practicing refuse to come towards the deen because all they see is the religious people fighting & calling each other kafirs. If Allah had willed, the generations after the Rasools would not have fought against one another. Beasue they had been given clear proofs. But because every person is wanting to prove himself #1 and others below him. If I acknowledge the other person is also right, then people wont just listen to me, they will go to the other person for advice. Some believed in the rasools and some denied them and committed kufr. If Allah had willed, they would not have faught. So some one reading this ayah would think, did Allah want them to fight? The answer is that Allah sends down tests to see who can pass and who wont. Allah has sent down the guidance, rasools, hadith and everyone has been given it but some choose to believe and some refuse. Allah didn t stop them from refusing so he could test them. He gave us freedom to choose so he could see our choices and test us. There is Allah s will (what he wants that everyone be a believer) can he not make that happen? Of course he can but He also gave us freedom of choice. He wants to give us the choice to choose the right path or wrong one. He has given us the choice so He could see who is right and who is failing the test. Allah does what he wills. We have no right to question his will. A sahaba said if Allah chose to give ahzab to everyone, it would not be cuel because he can do what he wants. And if he choses to be merciful to everyone, then his mercy will be greater than our deeds combined Besides Allah there is no other entity that can do whatever he/she wills.

5 Surah Baqarah: ayah Page 5 AYAH 254: Oh you who believe spend from what your Rab has given you in his cause. Allah has given it to you and he is asking you to give part of it in his cause so there is nothing wrong with that. He has given it to us and he can ask for it when and if he wants. If we remember Allah has given our wealth to us and he has rights on it. those who are rich today in this world, they will be the poor ones in the hereafter except those who spend of their wealth left, right, front and back in the cause of Allah This means spend whatever you can but as long as you spend in Allah s cause you will be safe. Prophet said on the Day of Judgement, the momin will be under the shade of his sadaqah Prophet said whoever gives a pair *(of something) that person will be invited into Jannah by all the doors leading to it. Give now until the day comes when no amount of spending, no friends, no intercession, nothing will help you any longer. Think of all the money, jewelry in our bank boxes.if you die tomorrow, where will that go? Will it benefit us in any way? There was a sahabi who came to the Rasool. The prophet asked him about how many children he had, how many horses, goats and so on. So he answered, he said I have 1 son, 2 horses, 60 goats. Another man said he is lying. He has 4 sons not one, he has 4 horses not two and he has many more goats than 60. So the prophet asked him about it. He said how can I be a muslim and lie, especially in front of you? I said I have 1 son because the son who dies in allahs cause is truly my only son because on the DOJ he will be my strength. About the horse and goats, I have given you the number of the ones that are mine and he is quoting the number which belongs to others (this is because the hadith that the prophet said you guys are tending the goats and sheep of others not yours the sahabahs said how can that be? the prophet said whtever you have not spend in the path of allah is not yours, it belongs to those who will inherit it after you. Whatever you have given in Allah s cause is what truly belongs to you and will benenfit you ) so he had only quoted the number of horse and goats that he had donated in the cause of Allah.

6 Surah Baqarah: ayah Page 6 Wherever the money is that is where the heart is. If all our money is invested in this world, we are hanging on to this world and if our money is given in Allah s cause, it will be waiting for us in the hereafter and that is where our hearts are. Once we die, will we have a chance to donate our wealth to Allah s cause? No. this is the only time to do that. Also, wealth doesn t only mean money. Risq is all the things Allah has given to us. Our knowledge (even worldly knowledge), our health, our energy, our strength, our time.we can give from or use any of these things in Allah s cause and it is going to be a help to us on the DOJ. The kufars are the zalim. Who are these people? The ones who don t give what Allah has blessed them with in His cause. We never think of ourselves as the zalimun or kufars. AYAH 255: Ayat-ul-Kursi Why is this ayah called ayah kursi? Because there is a part in it that says wasi-ya kursi ohuss-samawati wal arth. Obey bin kaab said I had a bag of dates which was missing dates daily. So one day I decided to stay up and guard it. I saw an animal like a boy came in to the house, I said salam to him and he answered. I asked him are you a human or a jinn? he replied I m a jinn I said bring forth your hand he did and I put his hands in my hands and he had hands like a dog. I asked, are all jinns made this way? he said among all the jinns, I am the one with the most strenght I asked him why are you using your strength to steal? he said I heard you like sadaqah and I thought, why should we be losing out on it so I asked him what is the way to keep you away? he said ayat tul kursi then I saw the prophet and told him the story and he replied. he said the truth regarding this because he was the shaitan and he came to steal On the DOJ ayatul kursi will have a tongue and will be attached to the thrown of Allah. Another hadith prophet asked a sahabah have you married? the sahabah replied I don t have that much money how can I do nikah? (no money for mahr) the prophet asked don t you know Qul hu Allah by heart? he said yes I do the prophet said that is ¼ of the quran do you not know surah kafiroon? he said yes I do prophet said 1/4 of the quran is that then prophet asked do you know surah zilzaal? he said yes the prophet said 1/4 Quran is there do you know surah Iza Jaa a Nasrul laahi wal fath the sahabah said yes the prophet said 1/4 quran is that then prophet asked do u know ayatul kursi he said yes then the prophet said 1/4 quran is that

7 Surah Baqarah: ayah Page 7 So ayatul kursi is worth ¼ Quran in ajar. Abu Ayub Ansari said from my wealth, the jinn used to steal. He complained to the Prophet. The prophet said when you see him say in the name of Allah, I m taking you to the Prophet so the next night, he caught the jinn and said that to him. the jinn pleaded and promised he wont return so he let him go. When the sahabah reached the prophet, the prophet asked him what did he say? The sahabah told him he promised he would not steal again so I let him go. Prophet said he will return. Just like this I caught him two three times and he promised everytime and I released him. Then told the prophet and every time the prophet said he will return then when he caught the jinn again and he told him I wont let you go this time. The jinn said if you let me go I ll tell you something that if you say it, no jinn will ever be able to come close to you he said ok what is it? The jinn replied ayat ul kursi then I told the Prophet what he said and the prophet told me he is a liar this was the truth Abu huraira was collecting and storing zakat money and a jinn kept stealing from it. When he was caught he said read ayat ul kursi at night before sleeping and there will be a guard appointed to you and no jinn or shaitan can approach you while you are sleeping all night The Prophet said in Surah baqarah there is one ayah which is the leader of all the other ayahs and a home in which it is recited, shaitan runs away from there and that ayah is ayat ul kursi If your home is pleagued with fighting and temper tantrums that means there is tension. Use ayatul kursi to relieve the tensions. everything has a high point and the height of the Quran is surah baqarah and within baqarah is the hightest ayah the ayat ul kursi Prophet said there is a name of Allah by invoking it whatever dua you make it is accepted but we don t know which name it is. We are told that that particular name appears in Surah baqarah, Al Imran and Tauha. So people investigated which name appears in all these surahs? That name is Hai-yu Ya Qai-yoom. The hai and qaiyoom that is in this ayah is the one that the hadith is referring to. any person who recites this ayah after fard prayer (without talking between prayers end and the recitation) for that person nothing can stop him/her from entering jannah except death

8 Surah Baqarah: ayah Page 8 What is in this ayah? It contains the introduction of Allah. 10 sentences where Allah s introduction is discussed. Whoever we love in our lives like our parents, after they die, if anyone asks us about them, we go on and on talking about them. or about our kids whether anyone asks or not. So what do we say when anyone asks about Allah? If we can learn this ayah and tell what it says, that is sufficient. If we truly knew Allah, we would not love anything or anyone more than Him. There is no one, nothing who is ilaha except ila huwa so here we are saying there is no one who has the right to be worshipped except Allah. So the one who has made all these things and caused them to function he is the only one ilah, no one or nothing else. We consider ourselves owners of our possessions and think highly of ourselves, that is also temporary. The word hai means always in existence. This is a quality ONLY Allah has. He has no beginning or no end. He is the only entity who has this characteristic. He is the hai he has always been in existence and will always be in existence. We cannot categorize his existence in terms of time. That is a human characteristic that we are given time, where Allah is, there is no concept of time. Allah has kept our world, the creatures in this world in existence because he has been in existence always to sustain it. He is qayyum the one who sustains. These two qualities, nothing else can have. Only Allah is Hai and Qayyum. The ever exiting and the ever sustainer. Water, sky, moon, earth were created but Allah has always been in existence so he created these things when? We don t know. Ali (RAH) said during Battle of Badr when the Prophet straightened our rows to get us ready for battle then he fell in sajda and in sajda the prophet started to say in a loud voice ya haiyul Ya Qayyum. During battle when I had gone around the field fighting and I made my way back to the prophets location, I saw that he was still in prostration (sajda) and he was still repeating it in a loud voice. Before this moment in Islam, there was never such a stern time and the Prophet had never prayed with so much emotion in this way before. So we find out that in that condition, the prophet used this name to invoke Allah.

9 Surah Baqarah: ayah Page 9 Also, the scholars of hadith in Syria were sentenced to death so they ran away and reached Egypt. From there they got protection from the Saudi government and went to Saudi from there. The scholars of deen who studied with him said that the hadith scholar was teaching me hadith once and we were climbing the stairs and he ran out of breath. So they found out that he suffers from Asthma. So I said to him you escaped from jail and you can t climb these stairs? How can this be? he answered, I have not escaped from jail. I used to read three duas habitually over and over and it was as if the doors of jail opened on their own for me. One dua was ya haiyul ya qayyum and I used to cry and pray to Allah that he grant me more life so I could do more work for his deen. The second dua was ayat karima And the third was the ayah #62 of Surah Namal I used to recite. And it was the guards of the jail who themselves taught me to escape and gave me the way to do it. We see from these stories how Allah helps and grants his slaves what they ask for. But we have to keep in mind that these are not hadith, we shouldn t make up things like the Prophet said to read this or that a certain number of times because that is not what the Prophet said and we should not make things up on our own. People conjure all kinds of things up but they are not explained in any hadith. Allah is that who neither needs sleep or rest. We say sleep is death s sister that s why we make a dua when waking up that thanks Allah for bringing us back from death. When we are sleepy we are not in our consciousness and we have no idea what is going on around us so if Allah was to sleep, how will our world carry on and function. We can invoke Allah at any time of the night as many times as we want, even a mother gets tired of waking up for her baby because she needs her sleep also. But Allah does not need sleep so he is there to listen when we invoke him no matter what time. He does not get sleepy or tired. The Prophet told the sahabahs 4 things about Allah: o Neither sleep nor tiredness is worthy of Allah o He is the owner of the scales. He lowers them for who he wills and raises them for who he wills. o The deeds of the day are taken to him before the night comes and the night s deeds are taken to him before the day comes. o In front of him there are curtains of noor and fire. If the curtains were lifted from in front of him, his noor is so bright that it would burn up everything which is in his sights no matter how far that may be.

10 Surah Baqarah: ayah Page 10 Musa asked the angels does Allah sleep? so Allah commanded the angels to keep Musa up (awake) for up to three nights. So the angels did that. Then they gave him two bottles and told him that he needs to hold on to them and not let the bottles fall and break. Musa took the bottles but he was so sleepty from being up and tired, he would doze off and then wake up suddenly. Finally, he couldn t fight the sleep and the bottles fell and broke. Then he was told if one person who is sleepy cant take care of two bottles, then if Allah slept, how could he take care of the entire universe? So Allah is pure from laziness, sleep, tiredness and does not need them. To him belong whatever and whoever is in the skies and the earth. He is the owner of everything. Man is so sure that his belongings, family, money are all his but in reality nothing belongs to him.its all Allah s. we still question the creator and owner of everything and we don t believe in him and ignore his command. Its like if someone came into our home and did something we didn t want them to. What would we do to that person? How can people spend their lives doing what he has prohibited when we are living in his earth, under his sky and we continue to disobey him. We are so easily impressed with people who have money, power, status but we are not impressed by the one who owns everything even the people we are impressed by. We see the police officer when we are speeding, and we get scared and intimidated. But do we feel the same when we are doing something that Allah dislikes and against his rules? With all that He owns, he still never forgets about any of his creation. But it is us who forget about him. We are smaller than a grain of sand in comparison to all that belongs to Him and still he takes care of all our wishes, provides for everything we need to survive, answers our duas and advises us to remember him when we feel lost. Who is that who can intercede with Allah except with Allah s permission. A boy is mad at his father and he leaves home. The father tells an uncle or another relative, go and tell the boy if he comes and asks for forgiveness & I will forgive him. He didn t say it himself but had someone do the intercession so the person asking for forgiveness wont feel so bad and degraded. We think that the prophets will intercede for us on the day of judgment even if Allah doesn t want to forgive us. Allah allows intercession of his prophets but with his

11 Surah Baqarah: ayah Page 11 permission only. People go out of their way and do thinks that border on shirk to pray to people who they think will intercede for them. How can anyone give Allah new information about us that Allah doesn t already know? Allah even knows our thoughts and intentions. Intercession has two aspects: o Only those who are chosen by Allah will be able to do the intercession o Intercession can only be done for (on behalf of) those who Allah choses. On the day of Judgment we know Prophet Mohammad will intercede to ask Allah to begin the questioning. Others will be doing intercessions for different people for different reasons, but only those who Allah has chosen to do this. Surah Kahf Ayah 53 Allah says He does not include anyone in making his decisions We are relaxing thinking that intercession will save us but we need to realize that its not a guarantee and no one knows who will be allowed to intercede for whom. Allah is he who knows whatever is behind and in front. The future and the past. For him past, present and future are of the same clarity. He knows them all very well. When we do the dua for istikhara, we say oh Allah we are asking you because of your knowledge So we know he knows the future. But we leave Allah and go to others to tell us the future. We go to fortune tellers, astronomers, and others to tell us the future. Why not go to the one who has the most knowledge of the future? Allah even knows the hidden that we don t see about our present. He knows the hidden and what appears to us to be true. And we will ever know the knowledge he has except what he wants us to know. We are ashamed to tell others our inappropriate thoughts but why aren t we ashamed that Allah knows them? He knows every thing about each slave. How many breaths a person has taken, how many times did we blink, how many lies, how many prayers we skipped, how much rights of family did we honor, what did we look at, listen to, speak of, and so on. He knows all this about each and every person from the beginning of time to now and will know the ones for the future also.

12 Surah Baqarah: ayah Page 12 And we claim to know everything and Allah is saying in Quran what knowledge we have given you is very little but we are so arrogant about this ilm and we start to question the knowledge and the Quran and Allah s commands. When kids question us, we say to them you don t know, just keep quiet and we do the same to the lord of all the world. Our knowledge is nothing in compared to the knowledge of Allah. One plane is lost for a few weeks and people have been looking left & right and tearing their hair out to find it but they cannot find it. The cures of the diseases that plague us, we can t find the cure for years of research, but until Allah gives us the knowledge, we can t do anything to cure any disease. All the things that happen to us after death, to our soul, only Allah knows this and unless he allows us to see it. We should all pray that Allah give us some knowledge from his treasures of knowledge about his deen or whatever we want knowledge of. An apple fell on Newtons head and he said that he figured out that there is something called gravity. That was not any miracle of his, Allah decided to give him that knowledge from his treasure of knowledge that there is such a thing called gravity. He has treasures of respect, wealth, knowledge, happiness, all the treasures are with him but we go to others to ask for what we need when we know he has the keys to them. His chair is hovering over surrounding the heavens and earth. We can not understand the chair and what it looks like and what its for, that knowledge is not given to us. Hadith the chair is the place of the Rahman s feet Ibn abbas said if the 7 heavens and 7 earths were spread out and connected still they would only cover the space equivalent to a ring in the vast dessert in comparison to Allah s chair. And the chair is the same in comparison to the size of the throne of Allah. This should tell us the place of the chair in comparison to the 7 heavens and 7 earths. Nothing we know has any significance compared to the chair and the chair is nothing in comparison to the throne of Allah. Hadith: There are 70 curtains of noor and 70 curtains of fire between those who are lifting the chair and those who are lifting the throne of Allah. Each curtain is the size of 500 years distance. If those curtains were not between the two, then the noor from the

13 Surah Baqarah: ayah Page 13 ones who are carrying the thrown would burn up the ones who are carrying the chair of Allah, Allah is he who does not get tired from guarding and preserving these things. We get tired taking care of a house, a town, a country, think of the solar system, galaxy, trillions of stars and then 7 more worlds like this and other creatures and places that we don t even know about, Allah takes care and protects all of them and he doesn t get tired. This worlds have been in existence for such a long time we cannot even comprehend it. And he has been guarding all of it since then. He even prot3ects Hadith Allah s hand is full and the expenditure of day and night on his creation does not deplete his treasures one bit. The prophet asked do you know when the earth and skies were made, how much He spent on creating them? whatever he spent, it did not deplete his treasures even a little bit Abu Darr said I entered the masjid and the prophet was sitting there. The sun was setting and he asked me Abu Darr do you know where it goes? I said Allah and his Rasool know best the prophet said before it sets, it asks permission to do sajda and it is given permission to do sajda and one day will come when it asks for permission and it will not be granted permission to do sajda. It will be told to go back to the place it came from so it will rise from the maghrib This is all the law of Allah and running the creation does not tire him nor does he neglect one thing while attending to another. And he is most high and most great. We cant even understand how high and how great he is. We just have to believe in it. If the oceans became ink and the ink was used to write good things about Allah (his characteristics), the ink would dry out and run out but the things (complements) written about Allah would not end. We can never do justice to this ayah no matter how much time we spend on it. We cant understand the Rab it s describing, his greatness, his status, his grand existence. People joke about the creation of Allah to prove a point, we don t understand who we are actually speaking about. We talk about Allah like He is someone we are equal to.

14 Surah Baqarah: ayah Page 14 If we actually knew the stature of Allah we would shake senselessly. How pure, how honorable his existence. We should pray we are able to recognize and understand the grand nature of his existence and being. The prophet said from where do I find someone like you, You are the one who is worthy of being remembered. Is there anyone like you who should be worshipped? You are the one who is worthy of being worshipped. Is there anyone like you in Mercy, helpful? You are alone, no one belongs to you and you are unique, there is no other example like you. Away from the reach of the eyes and thoughts who can t be praised enough even as he is being praised, that is my Allah