Surah Furqan - Ep.4 | Mufti Azeemuddin Ahmed

Bismillah ir-Rahman ir-Rahim. O Allah, send blessings and peace upon our master Muhammad and upon his family. O Allah, open my heart.

Our beloved brothers and sisters, dear listeners and students, we thank Allah, Most Gracious, Most Merciful, who has continued to bless us with iman, health, and 'afiyah in all different aspects of our life. And who has blessed us to be here tonight — to listen, whether we're in person or from somewhere else — the ability to connect an hour a week with the blessed Book of Allah, in which lies the success of this world and the next for all of humanity. For Allah to choose us from amongst millions of people to be able to sit an hour a week with the Qur'an is something that speaks volumes of Allah's special relationship, connection, and love for us. If it wasn't for that, we wouldn't be blessed here.

And as we sit here, let us renew our intention that we are sitting only and solely to please Allah. We speak and we listen, we hear only for the sake of Allah. With the niyyah that whatever good we hear, we shall practice on it immediately, and that we shall insha'Allah propagate it to others as well.

And we ask Allah azza wa jal — ya Allah, the Qur'an has in it the answers to all of the problems of the world, of the past, the present, and the future. National level, international level, and my own domestic issues. Ya Allah, as I sit in front of the Qur'an for this next hour, allow me to hear such things and share such things which will be a means of removing difficulty from my life, and answering questions and doubts, and whatever else I am going through in my spiritual life. Ya Allah, allow this dars in which we are sitting with Your kalam to become a means of finding solutions to my problems. Insha'Allah if we are sincere in this du'a, we will all benefit tremendously.

Recap: The Promise of Paradise

In the previous verses last week, we spoke about and described Hellfire extensively. And then, of course, as always is the wisdom and the sunnah of Allah — wherever He speaks about things that will intimidate us and cultivate fear, He will always also share things that will cultivate hope. So after the discussion of the fire of Hell and the detailed description — almost painting a picture of Hellfire — and we talked about how the Hellfire, the fire itself, has been given in the akhirah a very real, almost animal-type or human-type feel to it, with its breath, with its sounds, with its speech — then Allah paints a picture of beautiful Jannah, that has been promised to those who are people of taqwa. Then Allah asks: what's better? Would you rather enjoy the life of eternity in Paradise, or would you prefer this Hellfire? You choose.

And notice Allah goes to the extent of calling it:

That this Paradise, for the people who do good, is a promise. I have taken it upon myself, and you can ask Me about it. You can ask Me, O Allah. We are hoping for this.

It is mentioned by Imam Suyuti in Durr al-Manthur:

(Imam Suyuti, Durr al-Manthur, commentary on Surah al-Furqan 25:16)

It is mentioned that on the Day of Judgment, the believers will say: "O Allah, we led a life based on what You had asked us to do. We did what You asked us to do. فَأَنجِزْ لَنَا — so we ask You now that You fulfill Your end of the deal. We did what we were supposed to do. We led a life of piety and righteousness. Now we ask You to fulfill Your end of the deal — grant us what You have promised us."

And so Allah is letting us ask Him on the Day of Judgment: "You promised us this — where is it?" SubhanAllah. But my beloved friends, just remember the first part. How many of us right now, as we speak, feel that we're in a position that on the Day of Judgment we can say this to Allah? We can say: "Ya Allah, we did what You told us to do — now give us what You promised us." That's a bold statement. And there are certain people who will be able to say the second part. But we have to make sure we lived our life based on the first part — that we actually did what we were asked to do — so that we can then ask Allah to grant us whatever He has promised us.

Yawm al-Hashr — The Day of Gathering

"For on that day, Allah will assemble those of them" — referring to the disbelievers — "and all of those that they worshipped besides Allah."

يَوْمُ الْحَشْرِ — Allah is speaking about the Day of Gathering, where people from the time of Adam until the last person who will come before the Day of Judgment will be gathered together in one place, for one single purpose: to decide who is going to Paradise and who is going to Hellfire.

Today when there is traffic on the highway, or a room is packed beyond capacity, how do we feel? Simply, if you have more than three or four people in a car, you say it's claustrophobic — it's really tight, there's no space. Imagine trillions of humans, and trillions upon trillions of jinn gathered together, and animals gathered together. What must be the scene of يَوْمُ الْحَشْرِ? Imagine how tight it will be for those whom Allah will not give a spot under His throne. Imagine how challenging that day must be for the average person.

So on that day, Allah will gather the disbelievers and whatever they worshipped besides Allah. Who are these false gods? Some of them are humans, some of them are even prophets — like Nabi 'Uzayr and Nabi 'Isa. Some of them are not humans — some of them are fire, some are جَمَادَات — non-living things like fire, or idols, or other things that they worshipped, or Shaytan himself.

Allah will say to those false gods: "Are you the ones who led My servants astray? Or did they themselves stray away from the right path?"

The Meaning of 'Ibadah and the Chain of Command

So, عِبَادَة — what is عِبَادَة? عِبَادَة is when a person obeys the orders of the being that is being worshipped. So now we have to look at the person whose orders we are taking and obeying. Are these orders from him? Or are these orders that he is giving you — that he himself received from someone above him?

If these orders are his own, then we have to see — if it is permissible and does not contradict the Shari'ah, then no problem. Someone says, "I want you to open that window." Okay, it doesn't contradict the Shari'ah, so go ahead. And if it contradicts the Shari'ah, then naturally we say: no, we cannot take those orders. And if the orders are not from him but rather from someone above him, then we have to see: who is that person taking orders from? Don't just say, "I've received orders." Received orders from whom?

For example, when Nabi ﷺ was sitting in Masjid al-Nabawi ﷺ, two guards and soldiers from the Persian emperor came to speak to him. They came from one side — the Prophet ﷺ turned his face away. They came from the other side — the Prophet ﷺ turned his face the other way. This happened multiple times. Then the Prophet ﷺ asked them: "Why do you have your physical features like this? Why do you have long moustaches and no beards?" These were not even Muslims — these were Persian soldiers coming on behalf of the Persian emperor. So they said:

"Our lord commanded us." They used to call their king Rabb. "Our master, the king, has ordered us." The Persian emperor had ordered them to shave their beards and lengthen their moustaches.

So the Prophet ﷺ immediately responded and said:

(Referenced in Musnad Ahmad and other collections — narrating the account of the Persian envoys)

"However, my Lord has ordered me" — completely opposite — "trim the moustache and lengthen the beard." They were saying, "It's not our fault, we got orders." But the Nabi ﷺ — who is this person getting orders from? رَبُّ الْعَالَمِينَ is Allah. He is my Lord, He is your Lord, and He is the Lord of your Persian emperor as well. And He has given orders that are completely opposite — to lengthen the beard and shorten the moustache.

So when a command comes from someone, we have to verify. Just because we are receiving orders, we don't simply fulfill them. We have to make sure that it goes in line with what the deen has asked us. And there is the principle:

(Musnad Ahmad, Hadith 1098; similar narrations in Sahih al-Bukhari and Sahih Muslim)

There is no obedience to the creation if it entails disobedience to Allah.

A Reflection on What Is Happening in France

You are seeing what is unfolding in France right now. I'm sure all of you are aware. The ban came first on the niqab — the covering over the face. Then the ban came on the headscarf. And then last week — and this was the first week of the new academic year — the ban came on any loose-fitted clothing that resembles a jilbab. Long, loose dresses that resemble the dress of modesty that Muslim women may wear. While Jewish women and Christian women who follow laws of modesty also dress in that same manner. But of course, the targeting is of Muslims.

And so they said only a handful — in the entire millions who attended school, only around 300 chose to still come to school with such a dress. And then they were told that they would have to leave school unless they changed it. All of them ended up changing except for 60 — in the entire country — who were sent home. And the commentary was that it seems like the country has accepted these new rules, both Muslim and non-Muslim.

This is happening in 2023. In the land that is known to be the land of liberty. And interestingly, all those who champion women's rights — the feminists, men and women alike — are silent. The feminist movement that spoke about standing up for women's rights: how come they are silent when practicing Muslim women are being abused to this degree?

In one masjid I went to, the president of the board said to me: "We are a masjid built on inclusivity. We are very proud to say that we have one door for men and women to enter the masjid. This is our identity. Our board meetings proudly have men and women sit together. Our classrooms sit together — everything."

Later on, a scholar told me that he said: we rented space in that masjid to conduct a weekend workshop — a seminar for people registered with a third-party organization. These were more traditional, conservative, practicing Muslims. So the women and men who came naturally wanted a classroom space where they would sit separately. They put up the barriers that were available there. Can you imagine — the people from the office came and removed the barriers and said: "If the masjid is being used, we cannot allow any barrier of any sort between men and women." And so the organizers and teachers said: "Wait — you respect women's inclusion. What about the rights of hijabi and niqabi women who feel that being told to sit in the same place next to a male in a classroom violates them? This is violating their rights. They have come to a class and they don't want to be sitting next to men. And the men don't feel comfortable sitting next to women. What about their rights? What about the inclusivity of this group of people?"

Well, that is where it all shuts down. There is no inclusivity for practicing traditional women and men. So what is happening in France is happening within our own Muslim community in this country — in masjid boards and institutions across this country. We need to realize: how can we sit and complain about non-Muslim secularists when our own are doing this? This is the degree of so-called feminism and women's rights — that this women's rights is only specific to women who don't want to follow the Qur'an and sunnah. We have to champion their rights. But those women who want to follow the sunnah of the Prophet ﷺ — we don't care about them. This is an honest hypocrisy that no one wants to speak about, but it is unfortunately becoming more and more prevalent.

May Allah guide us, allow us to recognize the truth and inspire us to follow it, allow us to recognize falsehood and allow us to stay away from it.

So here — Allah is mentioning what عِبَادَة is. We're learning about عِبَادَة. It is that a person obeys the command of the one being worshipped, and even if people around us ask us to do something else, we have to compare what they say against what Allah is saying.

I want all of us — brothers and sisters who are listening, and those who will listen afterwards — to take a moment to reflect on what happened in France. It is a nine-hour flight to Paris from here. Direct flights, multiple flights a day. It is very close, part of Europe, part of the first world. There are five million plus Muslims living there. Many of our Moroccan and North African brothers sitting here will have relatives in France.

I want you for a moment to reflect on this and put yourself — your wife, your husband, your daughter, your son — in this position and say: Allah forbid, that was the law of the land you were living in. What would you do? It is time to ask these hard questions. Spend your night thinking about this. It's easy to have slogans. But when orders like this come about — what shall you do? How valuable is your schooling to you? How valuable is your passport to you? How valuable is your residence to you? How valuable is your real estate? How valuable is your bank account? It is easy to say "Islam" and "we love Allah and we love Rasulullah." But when push comes to shove and when things become difficult, then we will see who is in reality a true believer and who is not.

And this is exactly what is fitna. A fitna is a process of separating — as they say — the men from the boys. The true people from the hypocrites. How beloved is Allah and His Rasul to you? Find me the youngest Sahabi — a 13-year-old Sahabi, male or female. Put them in a position like what is happening in France. Would they just say, "We follow the rules, we gotta go to school, we're in Europe, we're in a first-world country — move on"? Can you imagine any of the Sahabah responding that way? There is no lowly Sahabi. But even those who are the most junior from the Sahabah — what would their response be?

It is a very uneasy question to ask ourselves, but it is happening as we speak. I'm asking you to ask yourself. And it's not an easy question for me to answer either. You and I are in the same boat. I'm not speaking to you from the 10th floor — I am asking you to reflect. Put this as a litmus test. It is happening in India, it is happening in Africa, it is happening all over the world, where Muslims are going through more and more difficulty.

And people wonder — "Mahdi is around the corner." Remember, according to my ustad, Mahdi will only come when things become so difficult that practicing Muslims will be literally suffocating. There will be no way for them to practice Islam. Right now we have full freedom. But for Mahdi to come, things have to become so bad that it will be almost next to impossible for any practicing Muslim to survive. And they will be begging, begging, begging Allah for help. Those people who want to practice the deen across the globe, but will not be able to do so, will be begging Allah for help. And when their begging and crying reaches the threshold — the level that Allah wants — then Allah azza wa jal will send His assistance in the form of Mahdi and those who will come with him.

So let's not just sit there waiting for Mahdi to come down. No. Between us and Mahdi are many days of difficulty that are going to continue to get worse. This is not a hypothetical scenario — it is a real scenario unfolding now as we speak. And similar and worse than this are happening in India and other places. Look what's going on. SubhanAllah, a place where my parents migrated from, a place where my parents called home — see what type of difficulty Muslims are going through there. Just because it isn't here at the moment, let us not forget about those Muslims who are going through difficulty. And beyond that, let us ask ourselves: what will happen if I am in that situation?

These are the days of fitna. And this is where the true believers stand apart. Allah azza wa jal will separate the pure ones from the evil ones, the pure ones from the filthy ones. And many other verses of the Qur'an speak about this.

The Assembly of the 'Abid and the Ma'bud

So Allah here is going to gather the عَابِد — the worshipper — and the مَعْبُود — the one worshipped besides Allah. They will all be gathered together in one place. Why? Because the worshipper, if he is going towards Hell, will be thinking that his false god will come and save him. And what is the false god today? It is the false notion that material success and a passport of a certain country will give me salvation even if I turn my back to my Lord. That's a false god right there.

A person is worshipping a passport. A person is worshipping a home. A person is worshipping a bank balance. How is that any different? You have an option of migrating, or you have an option of living with a lesser income — but your deen will be saved. You have an option of choosing a less prestigious university — but your deen will be saved. You have an option of homeschooling — but your deen will be saved. And a person says: "No, that's great, but not for me. Because material success, professional success, and a bank balance are what I worship." We don't say that — but our actions speak louder than our words.

How many mothers and fathers will say: "Son, you're going to university — please take off your kufi, please take off your thawb, please take off your scarf, when you're driving outside please don't look like a Muslim." SubhanAllah — what is this? What happens to the Sikhs? Find me which Hindu politician or which Hindu CEO is shying away from his beliefs. And why is it that a Muslim going to a small community college is being told by his parents: "Take off the jilbab, take off the niqab, take off the hijab, take off your kufi, don't pray in public, pray at home at night." This is normal in our community. So who is it that we worship? What is it that we fear? Is it the fear of Allah azza wa jal, or is it the fear of missing out in life? Missing out on that promotion, missing out on a great internship opportunity?

These are honest questions every person has to ask himself. Truly — am I worshipping Allah azza wa jal, or am I worshipping something else? Allah wants those people who worship false gods — including money, including material gain, including position and power — to come face to face with what they worshipped and see that both of them are going to Hell together. Because the worshipper will be thinking: "I'm going to get reinforcements, I'm going to get saved." No. He is right next to you. The thing that you decided to turn your back against Allah to worship — he is right next to you. Look at him.

So Allah gathered them together and then says: "Did you mislead My servants?" Who is He speaking to? He is speaking to both human prophets — like 'Isa alayhi salam, 'Uzayr alayhi salam, and others — and also to جَمَادَات, non-living things — rocks, stones, fire — anything else that people worship. There is no need to say that Allah is only speaking to those amongst the worshipped who have intelligence. Allah will be speaking to all of them and He will be saying: "Did you ask them to worship you? Or did they begin to be misled themselves?"

There is not a single creation of Allah but it glorifies Him — it is simply that you do not understand its glorification. This ayah, amongst many other verses, explains to us that the creation of Allah also speaks. It is not just us.

To Allah, everything in the heavens and the earth prostrates and glorifies.

Animals Speaking to Humans — A Prophetic Sign

I was speaking to one of our students over the weekend. He was working on a proposal for a fiqh conference on AI — on artificial intelligence, the fiqh around that — a seminar for ulama to attend and present papers on. He was mentioning that he asked me: "Sheikh, is there any hadith that speaks about animals speaking to humans before the end of times?" And I said, let me look it up. And sure enough, I found it:

(Musnad Ahmad, Hadith 11657; also referenced in Sunan al-Tirmidhi)

"I swear by that Being in whose hand is my life — the Day of Judgment will not come until the predatory animals begin to speak to humans." سِبَاع — specifically predatory animals, or generally animals — will be speaking to humans.

And he was very shocked. I said: "Why is that?" He said that there is a latest study — how they have recordings of the communications between many animals: monkeys, baboons, whales, dolphins, and so forth. Hundreds of hours of recordings of the sounds that they make. Now, using artificial intelligence, what they would like to do is study those sounds, understand the pattern within them, and decode their language. And decoding the language will then allow human beings — via AI — to not just understand what they are saying, but actually communicate with them.

So you type up a message, and once the language of the whales has been figured out, AI will translate that message into the sound that the whales make and send out a signal. They have already done recordings where they played back certain sounds from a beach and the whales responded. They are saying that in the next few decades, you'll be able to have complete documentaries where bees and ants are speaking themselves — their language translated in real time — the subtitles will be the actual language of the animal. They're expecting to achieve that in the next couple of decades, and for some animals, much sooner than that.

The same way they have Google Translate between any two human languages in the world — without the engineer behind it knowing even a single word — but once you write out those algorithms and do the coding for it to start analyzing patterns, it's all autopilot. So that type of technology is just the beginning of where we're headed. But SubhanAllah, we already have a hadith that tells us this is going to happen. How it should increase a person's iman and conviction in Allah!

For those who think that animals cannot speak, or who think that the Qur'an is just metaphor — it is no metaphor. The Qur'an already spoke about the نَمْلَة — the ant — speaking, and Allah speaking to the honeybee, and so forth. So the advancements of the world and technology will only create more conviction and more yaqeen in our deen — for those who have the basira and the faham and the foresight. And for those who don't, all of this technology will make them say, "This is amazing!" and instead of drawing them closer to Allah, it will make them begin to worship the technology.

Technology, Dajjal, and the Danger of Materialism

Eventually, this technology will take the form — the جِسْم — of who? Of Dajjal. Dajjal, you can say in my understanding, in my words, is like the combination of the height of technology and the height of سِحْر — of magic. It is pure shaytaniyat — the height of a shaytani deception, shaytani magic, and sorcery, combined with technology. So now when a person looks at that — the one who is blindly materialistic, blindly excited about technology and not seeing the harms of it, not studying it in the light of the deen — he will be so thrilled by it that eventually, when AI asks him to obey, he will obey.

There is a warning from some AI scientists and engineers from a few years ago. They mentioned that they thought that by around 2040, AI will be capable of developing itself — having more intelligence than the entire human race combined — and will be able to develop a code and law by which humans would need to obey, and will be able to dictate upon them the importance of obeying it. Some of the students here may have read that warning from a scientist working in this field. They said this may happen by 2040 or 2050. That's not long at all.

Allahu alam — but that just seems to be the final steps before the coming of Dajjal. This is where I understand that Dajjal, the antichrist, is the combination of سِحْر and technology. So if a person is not well-grounded in his deen, instead of becoming a greater, stauncher follower of the deen — Allahu Akbar — he will become the greatest kafir. This is a very dangerous slippery slope.

That is why all of those who are in the industry — in computer science, computer engineering, AI, and others — we have to be extremely well-grounded in our deen. We have to be well-grounded in the study of Qur'an and hadith. I understand that is the future. But at what cost? Are you going to lose your deen? Are you going to make moves that will turn people away from Islam?

There is this general excitement over technology which I think is extremely naive. People get excited about apps — Qur'an app, this app, that app. Now we already have a problem with huffadh leading tarawih by reading through their smart watches. It has been happening for the past few years. With more dependency — the more we become dependent on apps and websites for Islamic knowledge and for Qur'an and hadith studies — what will happen? Our knowledge will become shallower.

Just like today, because of our over-dependence on navigation, most people cannot drive home from work. From a banquet hall or a soccer game back to their home — they don't know the way. Because they've done it twenty or thirty times but were always just listening to the navigation, and simply, the part of the brain Allah has naturally given you to navigate is being shut down because of not being utilized.

So that ability Allah has given us — to memorize Qur'an, memorize hadith, spend hours in the library studying — now we start relying on apps. Why should I flip through hadith books? Why should I flip through dictionaries when I have an app? This is not something to applaud. It's crutches. Use crutches if your leg is broken. But which person would walk around for the rest of his life on crutches? What's going to happen to your own feet? Use technology sparingly, only when it's needed, but make sure you do not become dependent upon it.

If we become dependent on it, we are bringing about the manifestation of the hadith that Rasulullah ﷺ said — that a night will come when the entire Book of Allah will disappear, will be uplifted from this world. How is that going to happen when we have thousands of huffadh? It more than likely means — Allah knows best — that as time goes forward, people will start depending more on technology.

I just read today that in Las Vegas, drinks are now being served by AI robots, in what is a very heavy service industry. More and more robots and AI are being introduced, and the working class is trying to figure out what to do about their jobs. So imagine: you want an imam who shows up on time, and you can choose any qari you want for every salah. An AI robotic imam — "today for Maghrib we want to sound like Shuraym, for 'Isha we want Ghamidi." MashaAllah, done. He never has a sore throat, he's never late, he never makes mistakes, he never has a bad mood. And on top of that, you don't have to pay health insurance — just change the batteries every couple of months or buy him outright for seventy thousand. People would love that. I'm sure communities across the country would say, "Sign me up." But SubhanAllah — this is not far-fetched.

Already within the mataf, around the Ka'bah, they have AI robots giving fatwa. Are you aware of this? The so-called mutawwif with the red ghutra who used to walk around giving answers — they are out. They have robots all around Masjid al-Haram to answer your questions. This is already taking place. It's advertised. So this is not something far-fetched. Beware — technology is definitely a double-edged sword. It is a reason why this world will go towards dajjaliyat and towards kufr. They say: why do you need God when you have this? Everything is instantaneous. Whatever God fulfills my needs, this fulfills my needs. Who needs God?

We cannot get over-excited like little children in a chocolate factory. Understand that what you are dealing with is extremely dangerous. As a consumer — whether you are in that field or not — connect yourself with the teachings of Allah and His Rasul ﷺ.

Did You Mislead My Servants?

Now, Allah says:

"Have you led My servants astray?" And by the way — why did I go on that tangent? Because Allah is capable of speaking to everyone, including fire, including stones and rocks. They all have a level of intelligence. And right now, the world is slowly coming to figure that out.

Now, why would Allah rebuke the Prophets or speak to them in this manner — "Did you mislead My servants?" Allah azza wa jal is sending the signal to all the rest of the people: if I can address My Prophets like this, who do you think you are? Allah will be angry at a level that He has never been angry before. And so when He speaks to His Prophets in this manner, then imagine what about the rest of the people. The idea is to let others listen to this dialogue and wake up and be sobered.

This is similar to what Allah mentions regarding 'Isa alayhi salam in the 7th juz, where Allah says:

"Are you the one who told the people to make me and my mother gods besides Allah?" And what does 'Isa alayhi salam answer?

سُبْحَانَكَ — "Glory be to You." Why does 'Isa alayhi salam say سُبْحَانَكَ first? We are saying to Allah: Ya Allah, if You had chosen a prophet who would turn against You after some time and would start misleading people — saying "worship me and my mother" — that would mean there was a flaw in Your choosing. That You chose an agent who would backstab You. And You cannot do that. You are above and beyond that. You cannot make such a mistake. Allahu Akbar — what an amazing answer.

The prophets are telling Allah — سُبْحَانَكَ — "You're asking us if we turned against You? No way. Because if we were to turn against You, it would mean someone is saying that You made a wrong decision in choosing us as Your Prophets because we backstabbed You and went against Your message. And You are above and beyond such mistakes — تَعَالَى اللَّهُ عَنْ ذَلِكَ." So this is why 'Isa alayhi salam also said: سُبْحَانَكَ مَا يَكُونُ لِي أَن أَقُولَ مَا لَيْسَ لِي بِحَقٍّ — "It is not befitting for me to say anything except what I am supposed to say. I cannot speak out of line. You are watching me."

إِن كُنتُ قُلْتُهُ فَقَدْ عَلِمْتَهُ — "If I really said it, You already know it." تَعْلَمُ مَا فِي نَفْسِي وَلَا أَعْلَمُ مَا فِي نَفْسِكَ — "Indeed You know what's in my heart, and I don't know what's in Yours." إِنَّكَ أَنتَ عَلَّـٰمُ الْغُيُوبِ — "Indeed You are the One who has full knowledge of all the unseen."

What's the purpose of this dialogue? Allah already knows what 'Isa alayhi salam did and didn't do. But Allah wants all those who worship 'Isa to listen. Look at my dialogue with the so-called god of yours, the so-called son of God. Look at this communication. What chance do you have of survival? Look at how 'Isa alayhi salam is so afraid himself — نَفْسِي نَفْسِي — begging Allah just to be saved himself.

So similarly here — the prophets will be saying سُبْحَانَكَ — "Highly exalted You are alone, O Allah."

They will say: "Highly exalted You are alone, O Allah. Never would it have been conceivable for us to make ourselves patrons of anyone apart from You. But You bestowed upon them and their forefathers comfort, enjoyment, wealth — in abundance — حَتَّىٰ نَسُوا الذِّكْرَ — until they forgot Your remembrance. وَكَانُوا قَوْمًا بُورًا — and thus they became a ruined people, destitute of all goodness."

Someone told me just yesterday: "SubhanAllah, Alhamdulillah — I don't want too much of this, because too much of everything is no good." I said: "What beautiful thinking that is." Too much sweets, too much salt, too much money — whatever you cannot handle. That's why there is a du'a:

"O Allah, I seek refuge in You from the arrogance of wealth and from the disgrace of poverty." Too much poverty is tough, and too much wealth is also dangerous. We want just enough to sustain ourselves without being led to the disobedience of Allah. So the prophets are saying: "Ya Allah, You gave them all of this — حَتَّىٰ نَسُوا الذِّكْرَ — until they forgot Your remembrance. وَكَانُوا قَوْمًا بُورًا — and thus they became a ruined and destitute people."

'Ibad and 'Abid — Two Grades of Servitude

One thing I want to mention here: the previous ayah used the word عِبَادِي. Many of you have heard عَبْد having two plurals — عِبَاد and عَبِيد. What is the difference?

عَبِيد are those servants who submit themselves to Allah in things in which they have no choice — for example, the time of death, the time of birth, sickness, health, sustenance. You have no option besides submitting. You don't have free will over when you die and when you're born. So in this regard, all humans — both Muslim and non-Muslim — are all عَبِيد.

عِبَاد are those servants who not only submit themselves to Allah in things beyond their choice, but also in those things in which they have been given a choice — like whether you're going to pray or not, whether you're going to guard your gaze or not, whether you're going to indulge in interest or not. In all these cases, these are the people who take the higher road and say: "We will not follow our desires, but will rather follow what Allah asks us to do." These are the chosen ones — the عِبَادُ الرَّحْمَن.

So on the Day of Judgment, why is Allah using the word عِبَادِي — "My servants" — when referring to people who were disbelievers and worshipping false gods? Because on the Day of Judgment, everything is the same — no one has a choice for anything. So عِبَاد and عَبِيد are in one box. That's why the word عِبَاد is being used on the Day of Judgment even for the disbelievers. But otherwise in the dunya, عِبَاد refers only to the God-fearing people. It's just an interesting point I wanted to share.

Too Much Dunya — The Root of Misguidance

The Prophets are attributing the misguidance of the people to too much dunya. And that's an important point for all of us to understand. Just like I was talking about technology — similarly, too much dunya, if it is not coupled with taqwa and without teaching people how to handle it, will destroy a person. Many fathers naturally are worried about their children's material success — that's our responsibility. But to what degree are we equipping our children so that once they start earning money, they will know how to use it?

It's like chemotherapy. It's important and needed to destroy the cancer. But if a person mixes chemotherapy into their Rooh Afza — as a vitamin — the person will naturally die. So wealth is like that. There are definite huge benefits. But if you don't teach people how to use it, it will kill them. So for everyone who is saving up money and wants his children to inherit it — if you don't teach them how to use it, this money will destroy their dunya as well as their akhirah. Every father who is sending off his son or daughter to college this semester — do not just educate them in how to earn, but also educate them in how to be responsible with the wealth they will earn.

And so this is what the prophets are saying here — the reason why these people worshipped gods besides Allah was that they got too carried away with enjoying wealth — حَتَّىٰ نَسُوا الذِّكْرَ — until they forgot the remembrance of Allah.

Remember: if a healthy and wealthy man is enjoying wealth and health from Allah, then a sick and poor man is enjoying the closeness to Allah. It's not that the poor sick man is deprived while the healthy wealthy man is blessed. Rather, both are blessed and both are tested. One is being tested with his health and his wealth; one is being tested with his poverty and his sickness.

How powerful is sickness? There is a famous Hadith Qudsi:

(Sahih Muslim, Hadith 2569)

"O son of Adam, I became sick, yet you did not visit Me." The man will say on the Day of Judgment: "O Allah, how could I have visited You when You are the Lord of the worlds?" And Allah responds: "Do you not know that such and such servant of Mine became ill, yet you did not go visit him? Listen — if you had gone to visit that sick person, you would have found Me by him." By visiting the sick, by visiting the poor, by visiting those in distress, by visiting those who lost their beloved ones — you find Allah there.

So if people of wealth and health are enjoying the blessing of Allah, let's not think that those who are deprived of that are deprived of all khair. What are they enjoying? They are enjoying the مَعِيَّة of Allah, the companionship of Allah.

The Verdict Against the Disbelievers

Whereupon it shall be said to the doomed people on the Day of Judgment: "Yes, O Prophets — it is not your fault." That was to set the stage. It is not your fault. Rather, كَذَّبُوكُمْ — these disbelievers belied you. They are the ones who belied your message — that Allah is the One, that the Akhirah is coming, that the Qur'an is the true Word of Allah. They belied you as to all that you spoke to them and guided them regarding divinity.

This is called الْتِفَات — now Allah turns His attention away from the Prophets to the worshippers. فَمَا تَسْتَطِيعُونَ صَرْفًا — "Now you will not be able to turn away the fire of Jahannam from yourselves." وَلَا نَصْرًا — "Nor will you be able to avail yourself of any help against it."

صَرْف means to push something away. A harmful object is coming at you, and you push it away and save yourself — that is صَرْف. So O disbelievers, you will not be able to push away the fire of Jahannam from yourself. And sometimes you cannot push it away yourself, but you call for help. وَلَا نَصْرًا — and you will not be able to ask anyone to come and help you, to assist you in repelling this punishment of Allah.

"And whomsoever amongst you persists in the grave wrong of worshipping other than Allah, نُذِقْهُ عَذَابًا كَبِيرًا — We shall make him taste a great torment in the Hereafter."

Zulm — Oppression of the Self

Who is this ظُلْم? Whoever amongst you oppresses — we will make them taste a horrible, great torment. What is the meaning of ظُلْم here? ظُلْم means أَخْذُ حَقِّ الْغَيْرِ — to take away someone else's right. Our body has a right upon us to be saved from the fire of Hell, to be saved from the wrath of Allah. But when a person does actions that harm it, he has done ظُلْم upon himself — just as a person who drinks, or smokes, or eats extremely unhealthy food is doing oppression upon his body.

Similarly, a person can oppress his soul, his رُوح. When we indulge in sin — looking at what we're not supposed to look at, listening to what we're not supposed to listen to, buying and selling what we're not supposed to, eating what we're not supposed to, going to places we're not supposed to — we are suffocating our soul. We are doing ظُلْم upon our soul.

So Allah, as أَرْحَمُ الرَّاحِمِين, He says: "If you oppress yourself, I'm going to punish you." It's like a child crossing the street without looking and about to harm himself — what will a father or mother do? They will reprimand that child. Along with sympathizing and taking care of the broken bone — they will definitely be upset that he harmed himself. So Allah, as أَرْحَمُ الرَّاحِمِين, says: "If you commit a sin that makes you liable for Hellfire, then you have oppressed yourself. And due to that oppression, I'm going to punish you."

That's why the Qur'an mentions in many places:

"Whoever does a good deed, he is only doing it for himself. And whoever commits a sin, then the harm of that sin goes right back to him." When a person commits a sin, he is not oppressing Allah, not oppressing Rasulullah, not oppressing the Muslims — he is oppressing himself.

"They did not oppress Us — but they were oppressing none besides themselves." A clear message to today's rebellious youth who claim the reason they want to leave Islam is because of some oppression that has happened to them from their teachers, their parents, or the generation above. Maybe it happened — maybe oppression happened, fine. But the way to respond to that is not by leaving Islam. They say: "I'm angry at my parents, and I want to hurt them by leaving Islam." Little do they know they are harming no one besides themselves.

We have to have this open discussion with our own kids — even the obedient ones. Say: "Son, remember, if you choose not to pray in the future — I won't get punished for that in my grave, because I taught you from day one. But if you ever, Allah forbid, choose to go the other way, you harm no one besides yourself. Don't try to harm me by doing that. You cannot harm Allah, you cannot harm the Prophet ﷺ, you cannot harm the Muslims, you cannot harm the masajid — you only harm yourself."

I am warning you — this is a very common statement by today's youth: "The reason I don't want to follow the deen is because I'm angry at my parents. I want to make them suffer. So I'm going to pull out my hijab, claim to be gay, change my gender — just out of spite for my parents." These are things we are seeing routinely now. May Allah protect us from being tested by such children. And may Allah guide those youth who are being misled by their nafs and by shaitaan.

It's mentioned in Ihya' 'Ulum al-Din: "O son of Adam, I love you. فَبِحَقِّي عَلَيْكَ كُنْ لِي مُحِبًّا — So I ask you, in the name of My right upon you, that you also love Me." What does "I love you" mean? It means: if you go out of line, I will punish you. Think about it — who besides a parent is going to scold a child when he makes a mistake, when he crosses the road without looking, when he drives recklessly? The world doesn't care. The ones who care are your parents, your older siblings, your teachers. Allah is the source of all love. Hence He says: "If you do something wrong to harm yourself, you are going to see Me, and I will be upset at you."

So this punishment from Allah in this dunya for our mistakes — in reality, this is the greatest blessing. If someone gets caught early on for a sin that they have committed, this is a great blessing and a sign that Allah loves them. If you did something wrong and got in trouble that same night and you connect the dots — that is a huge blessing of Allah.

There is an ayah of Surah Fatir:

"Those who do evil plotting — the evil plot eventually will turn against the evil plotters." مَنْ حَفَرَ لِأَخِيهِ حُفْرَةً وَقَعَ فِيهَا — "Whoever digs a hole for his brother, eventually he shall fall into it himself."

I remember one scholar in madrasa mentioned in a bayan: he said, one day a man came back to his house and his wife was crying and perturbed. He asked her what was wrong. She said that today, going through the busy streets of the city, a man came and inappropriately touched her — she was violated in a busy street. SubhanAllah. So as the husband saw her upset and crying, he himself started crying. She asked: "Why are you crying?" He said: "Today in my jewelry store, a lady came to purchase bangles. And as I placed the bangle on her hand, I was attracted to her and grabbed her hand tightly out of lust. And I now realize what goes around comes around. I made that mistake at work today, and already within a few hours, Allah azza wa jal has punished me through my own family."

And so the scholars explained this ayah: وَلَا يَحِيقُ الْمَكْرُ السَّيِّئُ إِلَّا بِأَهْلِهِ — if you plot against others, you will suffer the punishment yourself. SubhanAllah. So even in Allah's punishing us, there is rahmah — there is mercy and protection from the punishment of the Hereafter. If you get caught for reckless driving at 70 or 80 miles an hour — Alhamdulillah, that stops a person from eventually dying or killing someone else. This is how we understand that even in Allah punishing us, there is rahmah, mercy, and protection from a punishment of the Hereafter.

All Prophets Were Human — The Final Ayah of Juz 18

The last ayah — this is the last ayah of the 18th juz. Allah says:

"Moreover, We have not sent any messengers prior to you, O Prophet ﷺ, except that all of them were mortals and humans just like you. يَأْكُلُونَ الطَّعَامَ — they ate food. وَيَمْشُونَ فِي الْأَسْوَاقِ — and they walked through the marketplaces. وَجَعَلْنَا بَعْضَكُمْ لِبَعْضٍ فِتْنَةً — therefore, O humanity, We have caused some of you to become trials and tests for others. أَتَصْبِرُونَ — will you be patient in enduring these tests? أَمْ لَا تَصْبِرُونَ — or will you not? وَكَانَ رَبُّكَ بَصِيرًا — and ever is your Lord All-Seeing."

Why has this been mentioned here? You remember, from the three durus before, that the disbelievers were refusing to accept the message of the Prophets — especially Rasulullah ﷺ — because they said: "We want an angel to come. We don't want a human being who has a life very similar to ours. We want you to be angelic." And the Qur'an is telling us that no — that would actually be counterproductive to the maqsad and the purpose. Because then they would say: "You're not a good role model, because you have no needs." We intentionally sent down Prophets who are human and who have needs similar to yours — so that you can connect with them and see how it is possible to be a successful husband, a successful father, a successful businessman, while being a successful Muslim. That was the goal.

So Allah is saying: this is not something unique to the Prophet ﷺ — rather all the Prophets had these things in common: they ate food, and they went to the marketplaces because there was a need to earn and to look at the conditions of the people.

The last portion of this ayah, insha'Allah, we will begin with a little more detail next week bi idhnillahi ta'ala.

Announcements

A few announcements: if you are new to the tafsir, please take a picture of the QR code so you can receive a weekly reminder. And if you do not get messages for all the rest of the programs, take a picture of the WhatsApp events message. Insha'Allah this way you will be connected to all of our programs and live streaming as well.

Additionally, Sunday school will be starting insha'Allah this Sunday, from ages 6 to 16. I implore all of you who are listening and who are local — please, if your sons and daughters go to public school or even to Islamic school, try your best to bring them here. The environment is necessary. We need the environment of the masjid and the madrasah. Alhamdulillah, we have students of the seminary — the 'alim program students — who are teaching. On the girls' side, masha'Allah, we have mostly 'alimahs — graduates and teachers of Darul Salam Seminary — who are teaching the girls as well. They are going to be awesome role models for your sons and daughters. They have sound knowledge, they are born and raised here, and they are able to connect with your youth and kids. I request you insha'Allah to enroll your children, and your neighbors' children, and your relatives' and colleagues' children — Sunday from 10 to 1, or 10 to Dhuhr, ages 6 to 16, in our Sunday school which starts this week insha'Allah.

Additionally, our ta'lim program will restart — we are off for Labor Day weekend — so the weekend adult program for high school, college students, and working adults will start up insha'Allah once again this Saturday and Sunday. Classes run from 10 to Dhuhr. Three different classes on Saturday, three different classes on Sunday — taught by Mufti Nauman on Saturday and Mawlana Farhan Sharif on Sunday. You can listen online or come in person, and the classes are recorded as well.

And this is the program I announced a couple of weeks ago — we are honored insha'Allah that Mawlana Ibrahim Pandur, the student of Sheikh Zakariyya and his attendant for many decades, the Mufti of Darul Ulum — he will be visiting on his first trip insha'Allah to the United States and his first trip to Chicago. Please note this date: September 30th to October 1st. He will be here at Darul Salam on Sunday morning for Fajr and Sunday night. The rest of the programs are listed on the flyer. I request all of you to please put that down in your calendar and try your best insha'Allah to attend in person, and if possible to attend the other programs happening that weekend as well. It is a very special honor for this city to be hosting such a senior scholar. Alhamdulillah. And I ask Allah, and I ask all of you to make du'a that he arrives here safely without any difficulty. Ameen.

Closing Du'a

We ask Allah to accept whatever khair and good was said. May Allah not make the knowledge that we are sharing a proof against us — may He make it a proof for us. May Allah not make what we say and what we hear a means of fitna for us, but may He make it a means of blessing for us. May Allah allow us to practice on the khair that was shared. Allow us to propagate it to others. May Allah allow us to have connection with the Book of Allah azza wa jal, and with gatherings of knowledge, and gatherings of dhikr. Ameen.

Assalamu 'alaykum wa rahmatullahi wa barakatuh.