Daily Recitals Episode 10 | Surah Al-Ikhlas | Mufti Abdul Wahab Waheed

Daily Recitals Episode 10 | Surah Al-Ikhlas

أسلام عليكم ورحمة الله وبركاته — dear brothers and sisters, welcome back to our series, The Daily Recitals, where we try to dive into the last surahs of the Qur'an which we recite on a daily basis in our prayers, our sunnah, in our nawafil. Alhamdulillah we have finished all the way to Surah Masad and hopefully you can watch the prior surahs in our series in this playlist. Today insha'Allah we'll be speaking about Surah al-Ikhlas.

The Virtues of Surah Al-Ikhlas

Surah al-Ikhlas is one of the most virtuous surahs in the Qur'an by the blessed tongue of the Prophet ﷺ. There was a man who was an imam within the city of the Prophet ﷺ and in his prayer he would constantly make it a sunnah of his that he would recite Surah al-Ikhlas in every single raka'ah. The sahabas, seeing this to be unusual and not seeing this done by the Prophet ﷺ, went to the Prophet and said to him, "Ya Rasulullah, this man recites Surah al-Ikhlas in every raka'ah — he attaches a different surah to it, but he still recites it in every raka'ah. We haven't seen this before."

They weren't complaining to the Prophet ﷺ — it was more so that we haven't seen this before so we want to make sure it's alright. The beautiful sunnah of the Prophet was that he would make sure to hear the other side and then come and create his judgment. Not, "Oh, what's wrong with you? Why did you do that? Don't you know I've never done this before?" No — just relaxed, calm.

He said to him, "Why do you always attach this surah when you recite, when you lead salah and when you lead your people in prayer?" And the man replied, "O Prophet of Allah ﷺ, I recite this surah because of my love for it, and if you want me to be the imam of this masjid, this is my condition — that I will not leave this surah." And the Prophet ﷺ said, "No, no — don't leave the surah. Rather, let me give you some glad tidings, dear brother."

"Let me give you some glad tidings that due to your love of this surah, Allah has made Jannah wajib for you. This love that you have for this surah is so powerful that Allah also loves you."

One day the Prophet ﷺ was walking outside of the masjid after Isha prayer with some sahabas, and as they were walking he heard someone reciting Surah al-Ikhlas. The Prophet ﷺ, as he heard him, said: "Wajabat, wajabat" — it has become compulsory, it has become wajib. The sahabas asked, "What has become compulsory?" He said, "Jannah has become compulsory, because the love that this person is reading this surah with is something which has touched Allah's mercy, and Allah's mercy has descended upon this individual." (Sahih al-Bukhari, Hadith 774; Jami' at-Tirmidhi, Hadith 2901)

Such a small surah with such a profound effect. We're so fortunate that this effect is found within the smallest surah of the Qur'an. So no one has an excuse to say, "I couldn't do it, I couldn't have learned it." Only three verses.

The Connection Between Surah Al-Kafirun and Surah Al-Ikhlas

Moving forward, Surah al-Ikhlas was a surah which the Prophet ﷺ himself had attached a tradition with, and he had a norm to recite this surah in specific times of the day. He would make sure to recite Surah al-Kafirun and Surah al-Ikhlas in the sunnah of Fajr. In his two raka'ah of tawaf, he would only recite Surah al-Kafirun and Surah al-Ikhlas.

So this cannot go unnoticed. There was a reason why the Prophet would recite these two surahs together, and mufassirun dive into this and come to the conclusion that these two surahs are directly connected. You have your religion, I have my religion. You have your way of life, I have my way of life. What broke us apart? What was the difference that we couldn't agree upon? The difference that we could never agree upon is — you couldn't believe in my one Allah. You believed in gods; you believed in the fact that Allah was there, but you couldn't believe in the fact that Allah is the only one that is there. So the connection is found within Surah al-Kafirun and Surah al-Ikhlas.

One Third of the Qur'an

Allah begins this beautiful surah that is equal to one third of the Qur'an in the narration of the Prophet ﷺ. Mufassirun go into details about what "one third of the Qur'an" means. Some say that the Prophet kept it general — let's keep it general. You can get the reward of one third of the Qur'an by reciting this surah. Therefore, we should recite this surah for those that we want to give reward to, and definitely for ourselves and our own family members.

Some mufassirun say that "one third of the Qur'an" means that there are three main themes which Allah has covered in the Qur'an. One is tawheed, second is risalah, and the third is akhirah. Every ayah, every surah falls within these three themes — they all cover one of these three themes. And Surah al-Ikhlas goes into the most detail regarding the one theme that is discussed, which is at-tawheed, the oneness of Allah.

Some give the name of at-Tawheed to al-Ikhlas as well. Imam Suyuti rahimullah says there are more than 20 names that we can derive from this beautiful surah.

The Background of Revelation

Allah starts off by saying — getting into the verses — prior to this is the background and some of the virtues. In one narration, a Jew came to the Prophet ﷺ by the name of Abdullah ibn Salam, who was concealing his faith. In another narration, there was a mushrik in Mecca that came to the Prophet ﷺ and asked, "What is the lineage of your Allah?" Another narration comes where a man asked, "Allah has created all of this — who has created Allah?"

So the Prophet became upset by hearing this question, and of course his iman was boiling. And Jibreel عليه السلام came down and responded: "Tell them, O Muhammad ﷺ, that there is no lineage for Allah." At that time, in that era, lineage and family tree had great importance. Your lineage — that you are a Hashemite, that you are from the family of the Umayyads — was a sign of respect, a force of honor. So he said, "If we believe that lineage brings honor, what is the lineage of your Allah?"

So the Prophet ﷺ of course would only speak when wahi would come. He said, "The lineage of my Allah — I can't speak about this. Allah will tell me how to respond to such a question." And Jibreel عليه السلام came and said: "Say to them, O Muhammad ﷺ, that Allah is One."

Verse by Verse: The Meaning of Surah Al-Ikhlas

قُلْ هُوَ اللَّهُ أَحَدٌ — "Say: He, Allah, is One"

Allah starts off by saying قُلْ هُوَ اللَّهُ أَحَدٌ — "Say to them, O Muhammad ﷺ, that He, Allah, is One." Naturally in any language — and I don't want to speak about the syntax of this too much because it might get a little boring, but for the sake of trying my best to explain it — generally in any language a pronoun comes after the noun, right? You say the noun first and then later on in the next sentence you use the pronoun. You don't use the pronoun first.

So why did Allah say هُوَ first? What was the purpose? The idea behind it is: when you know someone is the only one that can fit a description, you don't have to say the person's name — it's already understood who you're referring to. If I go home and I ask, "Who put this food together?" and the answer is, "She made this for you" — I don't have to think about who that "she" is. I know it's my mom, or my father, or my sister, or my wife. It's already understood that it can only be this person.

So when Allah says هُوَ, there can be no one else that fits the description of هُوَ except for Allah. Who? That person. Just to make it clear — who is that person? It is Allah.

Who is this Allah? He is أَحَدٌ — the ayah, the verse which describes Allah in the most profound way. Allah is not just "one" in the ordinary sense. The word أَحَدٌ — Ahad — doesn't change. There's no second meaning, there's no second form of the word Ahad. There's no second or third tense of Ahad. Ahad is alone.

Say to them: Allah is alone. He is unique in His oneness. How is He unique in His oneness? There is nothing, no creation, there is no one that is similar to Him. Some can say, "That person — he is very different than me in the way he writes, but I walk similar to him. She is very different than me in the way she speaks, but I write similar to her." Sometimes we can find similarities in different qualities. Allah says: No, no, no. There is no one that can be similar to me in any of my qualities — in my dhat, in my actual being, and also in my qualities. He is Ahad. He is alone.

The mushriks believed in the idea of Allah — they would say "Allah" — but they couldn't grasp the idea that there is only one Allah, and that's where the difference came. Say: Allah is unique in His oneness and He is alone. Allah said: if there was someone else, this setup wouldn't work. There's only Me. There's no one else.

اللَّهُ الصَّمَدُ — "Allah is Al-Samad"

Allah continues to describe who this Ahad is: اللَّهُ الصَّمَدُ — that Allah, who is uniquely one and all alone, is also al-Samad. Naturally, when you think of someone who is alone, for humans we think of people that are lonely, that are in need, that need someone to help them. If you're alone, that means no one is helping you. If you're alone, that means no one is at your side.

Allah says: let me clear that notion for you. اللَّهُ الصَّمَدُ — I'm alone, and I'm all-independent. I'm alone — not alone and in need. I'm alone and I'm independent. I'm so independent to the point that everyone is dependent upon Me. When someone is alone, that means there's no one to help them, and that can be a negative thing — a sign of weakness. But for Allah, being alone is a sign of strength: I am alone, but everyone needs Me. I don't need anyone else.

Ibn Abbas said: al-Samad means Allah is internally independent and everyone is dependent upon Allah.

The taking care of the earth and the heavens and the skies is not a task that brings difficulty to Allah — it is very easy. لَا تَأْخُذُهُ سِنَةٌ وَلَا نَوْمٌ — Allah doesn't get tired by taking care of all of us.

Allah knows about everyone and He is taking care of everything. It doesn't tire Allah. اللَّهُ الصَّمَدُ — Allah is independent. Don't think that because I'm alone I'm in need. No, no — I'm alone and I'm independent. I'm alone and you still need Me. You still need what I can give you.

He is the one that has the keys of the treasures of the world, in the heavens and the earth. He is the one that gives shifa'. وَإِذَا مَرِضْتُ فَهُوَ يَشْفِينِ — He is the one that, when I get sick, I take my cure from. He is the one that, when I get hungry, يُطْعِمُنِي وَيَسْقِينِ — He feeds me and gives me water to drink.

Who is the one that has created the skies, the heavens, and the earth and provides for all of that which you need? Al-Samad. Allah is al-Samad — independent — and we need Him.

A second meaning of al-Samad is al-Masmood, which means Allah is the objective, Allah is the goal, Allah is what we want to get. So be it that everything else is lost, but we have Allah. A rich person is the one that has Allah — الغِنَى غِنَى الْقَلْبِ — we have Allah in our heart, we have Allah on our side.

Allah is with every single person. When we turn towards Allah, وَيَهْدِي إِلَيْهِ مَن يُنِيبُ — we have to turn towards Allah, and Allah guides us, Allah helps us, Allah brings ease to our life. And once we turn and make Allah our objective, Allah takes care of all of our needs.

"O son of Adam, I want something and you want something, but what happens at the end of the day is what I want. If you take care of what I want, I'll take care of what you want. And if you become stubborn and don't do what I want, I'll tire you out and exhaust you in that which you want — and at the end of the day, what I want is going to happen." (Reported in various narrations of hadith qudsi; cf. Musnad Ahmad and related collections)

Turn towards Allah — He is the goal, He is the objective. Richness is having Allah with us. Poverty is not having Allah with us. Richness is being content. Poverty is being greedy.

Imam Shafi'i says: عَبْدٌ حُرٌّ إِنْ قَنِعَ، حُرٌّ عَبْدٌ إِنْ طَمِعَ — a slave is really a master if he is content, and a master is really a slave if he is greedy. We have to be content with Allah on our side.

لَمْ يَلِدْ وَلَمْ يُولَدْ — "He neither begets nor is He begotten"

Some would say that these are the daughters of Allah — the angels. The Christians said that Isa is the son of Allah. The Jews said — na'udhu billah — that Uzair is the son of Allah. They would say Allah has a child. Allah is pure from that — Allah is too pure. Allah has everything in the world; Allah doesn't need children.

لَمْ يَلِدْ — He has never given birth. وَلَمْ يُولَدْ — and He was never given birth to. There is no lineage of Allah because Allah does not need a lineage to bring Him perfection. Allah is the epitome, the pinnacle, the definition of what perfection means.

وَلَمْ يَكُن لَّهُ كُفُوًا أَحَدٌ — "And there is none comparable to Him"

And there can be nobody — no one, no creation, no scientific methodology, no formula — that can ever compete with the greatness of Allah, that can ever come close to Allah. Nobody can be put even close to the greatness of Allah in any of His qualities. Every quality of Allah is at the highest level — الْحَيُّ الْقَيُّومُ — at the highest level forever.

Some humans — you and I — we can be great. We can be great in sports, great in writing, great in speaking, great in any quality. But a time comes where we see that skill fade away; we become less efficient. When we get tired, when we get old —

You're good at something for a while, and Allah takes it away — it slowly weathers away. But Allah's qualities are always at the highest level. They never get less, and they can never get more, because they're already at the highest level. They are at the very epitome of it.

Nobody can become similar to Allah. Nobody is similar to Allah. Allah is not in need of anyone's help because He is al-Samad.

Closing Reflection

May Allah give us the true love of this surah so it can connect us to the love of Allah's oneness. There's this one specific foundational element that can never be compromised by any single one of us, and that is: Allah is One. And if anyone creates a doubt within this, there are people that should stay far away from us. Allah's oneness is the foundation of my Iman. Allah's oneness is what makes me Muslim. Allah's oneness is what keeps me alive. Allah's oneness is what gives me food. Allah's oneness is what keeps me happy. Allah's oneness is what gives me children. Allah's oneness is what keeps me alive in this world, and what will give me Jannah in the Akhirah, insha'Allah.

May Allah keep us strong on Iman and connect ourselves to these surahs. When we read them, our eyes should fill up with tears when we say:

Allah is only One. Allah is al-Samad — all-independent. Allah never gave birth, nor was He ever given birth to. And there is nobody — no one, no creation — that can compare themselves to Allah.

Alhamdulillahi Rabbil 'Alamin. وَالسَّلَامُ عَلَيْكُمْ وَرَحْمَةُ اللَّهِ وَبَرَكَاتُهُ