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Sunday, July 13, 2014

QUR'AN for Young Adults - (Surah Al-Imran 190-195) - Nouman Ali Khan - Ramadaan 2014 Day 7 & 8

3:190
Sahih International
Indeed, in the creation of the heavens and the earth and the alternation of the night and the day are signs for those of understanding.
3:191
Sahih International
Who remember Allah while standing or sitting or [lying] on their sides and give thought to the creation of the heavens and the earth, [saying], "Our Lord, You did not create this aimlessly; exalted are You [above such a thing]; then protect us from the punishment of the Fire.
3:192
Sahih International
Our Lord, indeed whoever You admit to the Fire - You have disgraced him, and for the wrongdoers there are no helpers.
3:193
Sahih International
Our Lord, indeed we have heard a caller calling to faith, [saying], 'Believe in your Lord,' and we have believed. Our Lord, so forgive us our sins and remove from us our misdeeds and cause us to die with the righteous.
3:194
Sahih International
Our Lord, and grant us what You promised us through Your messengers and do not disgrace us on the Day of Resurrection. Indeed, You do not fail in [Your] promise."

3:195
Sahih International
And their Lord responded to them, "Never will I allow to be lost the work of [any] worker among you, whether male or female; you are of one another. So those who emigrated or were evicted from their homes or were harmed in My cause or fought or were killed - I will surely remove from them their misdeeds, and I will surely admit them to gardens beneath which rivers flow as reward from Allah , and Allah has with Him the best reward."

The Prophet SAWW used to receive revelation in different ways. Sometimes it was through an angel and sometimes it was direct. Once he was lying down next to his wife sleeping and Quran began to be relieved to him. Then he turned to Hazrat Ayesha RA and said, if you give me permission I would like to pray. That shows how amazing his manners are, although he is a Prophet and he doesnt need permission. The Prophet SAWW made wuzu and began to pray and reciting ayaat aloud. He started crying as he recited this and his entire beard was soaked. Then he stayed in Sajdah and kept crying until there was a puddle where he was making Sajda, until Fajr started. The companions are waiting for the Prophet to lead prayer but he is not coming out. The Prophet then finished prayer and said that how can you call me away from Allah when Allah has revealed this ayah. This comes in a Hadith narration.

In this passage, in the first part the person was searching for Allah, in the 2nd part they ask their Rabb for something, and in the third part, their Rabb responds.


The Sahaba used to miss the Prophet and used to go to Hazrat Ayesha RA after his death and ask stories about the Prophet. Hazrat Ayesha would be on one side of the curtain and the sahaba would be on the other side of the curtain. Hazrat Ayesha would say that everything about him was amazing. And she would tell one of the stories. BUT there are a lot of stories and moments that are not recorded but we will learn about them at Al Kauthar, the fountain when we sit there with the Prophet SAWW InshaaAllah.

Who are Oolul Albaab?The people of sound,clean minds? There are ayaat in the alternation of Day and night for clean minds.
Some people become incredible knowledge when they put their mind to it and they learnt enormous amount of data. Some people are obsessed with sports, some with politics,some with TV shows, some with gadgets, and they know so much about them. So some people are super smart but hey spend their mind on things that are not useful.
So Allah says here that there are some people who have pure minds who did not waste their minds on such useless things but thought about skies and the night and day . We would consider such a person very weird who thinks about such things these days. But Allah tells us to think about these.

When you go out you feel a breeze, a wind, which is actually a delivery system of life on planet as wind carries clouds and pollen etc.If there is no wind , plant cannot grow so animals cannot survive, and we cannot survive. Trees exhale Oxygen which we are breathing and which enables us to live.Everything is working in association with one another. Think about the night and the day.  Each have a purpose and they enable us to lead a happy,balanced life. Places where there is lack of sunlight, people have developed emotional issues according to research. We are using everything on Earth for our technology and survival. We are just using the resources Allah has given us, we have not created any raw material. We just worked with the pieces we were given.

Ayaah=means something valuable
Something that has purpose or meaning
Every ayah is distinct and has value.
It also means sign. e.g. wind is a sign that life is being delivered, If life is being taken care of it is a sign that somebody is providing for me.
So everything is a clue
But If peoples minds are filled with useless facts they will not be able to see the bigger picture and the grand scheme of things. Its like somebody is holding a Quran and they learn nothing about the Quran but learn about the paper from which Quran is made. How will that benefit him? It wont! We have become focused on the wrong things, we have forgotten to think about the right things.

If you eat a lot of junk food and eat a fruit once in a while, it wont be enough because our GIT is consumed by useless things and one fruit wont be of any benefit. Similarly we have filled our mind with lagwiyaat, its a tragedy of human mind, a waste. At least cut down the lagwiyaat, to allow your mind to open. Firaun did not want the youth to rise and rebel so every other year he would kill all the baby boys. Why not every year? because he still needed some population for his slaves. Now these days the policy is to keep boys from turning into men by giving them gadgets too many blessings and not allow them to mature and grow, get a job,study or do something. They do nothing with their life. Such boys are not a threat to any wrong in the society. Entertainment is so infinite, our lifetime will end but entertainment opportunities will NEVER be exhausted, so our entire life can be wasted in environment.

The Quran talks to both the mind and the heart

The heart is the seat of the Ruh. The heart remembers, it gets excited,motivated,happy etc so the emotions are associated with the heart on a spiritual level
The mind has to do with intellect and thinking and processing information and memorizing and reasoning.

Some speeches appeal only to the mind,some only to the heart, some to both in our daily life. Human beings are both rational and emotional creatures.

There are some people who become so emotional that they close the door to thinking and some do the opposite. But Allah says that people of sound minds are those who remember Allah and who THINK, both things go hand in hand. In fact, the heart is given priority and mentioned first. So Allah says successful people will come to judgement day with a CLEAN heart(qalb e saleem)
If your heart is not conquered yet, your mind will go on the wrong track. Your heart decides in which direction your mind will be focused. For example, your heart desires that you want to be a doctor,so your mind works in that direction. When we have clarity about what we want then everything becomes clear.

Then when they think,they reach the conclusion that there is no way all of this does not have meaning. Having meaning means AYAH so basically we realize that everything around us is an Ayah which has meaning
He not only speaks for himself but also for others because he has a good heart and he wants good for everyone.

Allah uses nature to develop our morals and beliefs. The Quran trains us to think that everything around us is and has a lesson. Everything is valuable.

In games, we get a sense of accomplishment when we win a game or get to another level. Why do trophies give us such a sense of acievement? In this life, there are no rules, some people work hard and get nothing and some dont work hard and get a lot. So life isnt that fair. But games are relatively fair because it gives us immediate self satisfaction. We love to immerse ourselves in a world which gives us instant gratification for our efforts. And what does Allah say? This life is nothing but a game. What do we do? We earn points, we win trophies. So we dont have much interest in those little games because we are involved in a bigger game with higher stakes. Some people when they lose a sense of purpose and meaning, they commit suicide or become depressed. They lose interest in this game because they dont see any point.

Protect us from the fire, in other words dont let us lose in this game of life. Now that he has realized that there is a purpose, he is seeking the purpose.

Humans are a very dignified creation in this world. The only slavery that liberates us from all other forms of slavery is slavery to Allah. And it dignifies us.People these days are enslaved to trends and enslaved to certain fashions. People think if they dont follow them they will be left out or humiliated or will feel like the odd one out. I remember, in schools where there are uniforms, people didnt look at clothes to judge people but focused more on their personality but where there was no uniform, people were judged first on appearances and later on personality. We ususally associate dignity with how people think of us. But in reality, dignity is from Allah and no human can take it away. Dignity will be taken away when Allah throws someone in the fire. Islamic mannerisms are extremely dignified and such morals and manners increase our dignity.

Wrongdoers in Arabic means=putting something where it doesnt belong=Zalimeen

Master, we have heard the call of somebody calling people to belief and faith, and it lines up with what is in my heart and what I was thinking about on my own after looking at ayaat about there being a Creator, so Lord forgive our mistakes, now this person is ready to die because he knows there is an afterlife ahead.
These ayaat tell the story of those who discovered Islam themselves. But we who were born and raised as muslims dont feel it this way because we never had to search for it.
BUT faith cannot be inherited. We have to reach our own conviction. If we are only muslim because our parents our muslim we will have the weakest of faiths. Our Prophet SAWW said I call to people with my eyes open. Our faith does not have to be BLIND, we reach to the conclusion driven by our heart and mind. Our eyes should only be closed when it comes to Allahs laws.There is no intellect involved when it comes to laws. Because when we believe that Allah is our creator and is perfect and we have reached the conclusion we need to trust Allah and follow Him and not question His laws. We just follow the social and spiritual laws because ALLAH said so.
We heard the call of A caller, it means we dont even know who the person is, so we first judge the idea, then we investigate who is saying it, and when after investigation you realize that the person is very decent you ask further and are interested. But if there character is opposite to their words then they are no longer attracted and they turn back. To respond to the call, we have to move closer to the source. So the sahaaba moved closer to the Prophet SAWW, and so discovered him to be amazing.

E.g. there is a story of a woman in Alabama who had a dream about the Kaabah, she searched for the cube thing on google and searched for Islam and went to a Mosque to search 100 miles away but got a negative response so came back crying, but then she got a dream AGAIN after 2 weeks and she searched again and then she stumbled upon Shaykh omer suleman fortunately.
e.g. there was a woman who was a trainer at a gym and she accepted islam only because a muslim man lowered his gaze
Such people can make a case against us muslims because we became a source of misguidance for them by having characters opposite to our religion.

When we lead a good life, we become prepared for death. Tawaffanaa means to take us away. Its not death. It means to take us from this life to the next life.

In Ayah 9 the dua says truly Allah does not break promise. But now the believer says YOU dont take your promise. This shows that Allah is closer to us now as we have progressed through the Surah thats why we have used this tense.

Fastajaaba= means immediately their master responded or therefore their master responsed

Ijaaba means that the request is accepted right away and we can see it e.g. a letter
fastajaaba means that the request is responded but we may not see it right away ..so we have to be patient and believe that Allah has responded.
Most duas in Quran are not about changing the reality,rather they are about dealing with the reality and dealing with pain and dealing with situations. People who are happy with whatever Allah decrees and ask Allah for strength then Allah actually does change reality for them, although they are not really asking for a change in reality. E.g. in Badr, the muslims said plant our feet and aid us against believers(dont makes us cowards), and they asked for sabar but Allah sent an army of angels
e.g. people of Ashaab e kahf only asked for help and patience but Allah changed the laws of nature for them

Now Allahs first response is that I wont waste your actions, so lets see what you have got, so Allah emphasises on actions here. Dua needs to be followed by actions to show that you are actually serious

Allah mentioned both men and women because women are dignified here. Women and men are absolutely equal when it comes to relation with Allah. Even when women are in periods, they are still getting sawaab because they are following Allahs command and its also an ibadah.
Allah also highlited them separately because their relationships with Allah has some differences as they are psychologically different.

Then Allah says you are from each other

Now Allah mentions migration. Migration can be from one place to another, and also migration can be from sins and it leads to improvement.
There was an Imam in Vietnam, their village was invaded by some disbelieving rebels. They asked the Imam to eat pork and beer in front of the whole village to demoralize everyone and degrade Allahs laws. He said Fear Allah and not the people. And they shot him in the head and buried him in some unknown spot in the jungle. His brother went searching and found his grave as a rectangle with no leaves and light falling their directly. Its like Allah brought his grave from darkness to light. SubhanAllah..people gave such amazing sacrifices for Islam.
Allah says he will bury the sins of those who give such amazing sacrifices.
When Allah buries the sins then nobody can even tell there was something there to begin with. So there is no trace left.Allah swears to it that he will bury it and make them enter multiple gardens(multiple jannahs) with waterfalls and rivers flowing beneath them

As human beings, we lied to be paid back instantly and get immediate reward for efforts. Allah asks for a lot of restrictions and self restraint and sacrifices and promises Jannah which we cannot even see and we have to DIE before we actually see it. And Allah does not ask us to do amaal for few months or years. Its lifetime submission UNTIL you die, you have to die in a state of imaan! lifetime work with just the guarantee of Allahs promise, it needs a LOT of faith. Belief in the unseen.
The only guarantee we have is the Quran and the Messenger. Allah promises that I will not let you get underpaid, I will record every step, and if you are patient I will reward you infinitely

Every time we are tempted to do something wrong is because the joy comes immediately, its a cash deal, Satan does not offer something for the future but he offers instant gratification. Allah gives us a choice. And just like every plan we make in college for our future has some consequences and decides the end, the same happens here. The decision we make affects our afterlife.

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