Introducing Surah al-Furqan

Occasion: A transcription of a lecture delivered as part of the reflections on Sūrat al-Furqān, on December 5, 2019Source: A transcription of a video lecture by Dr. Ahmed Abouseif — Watch the original video on YouTube

Praise be to Allah, and peace and blessings be upon the servant of Allah, His Prophet and His Messenger, our master Muhammad, and upon his family and Companions, with abundant peace. O Allah, we ask You for the good of this gathering, its blessing and its virtue. O Allah, make us among those whom Your angels surround, upon whom Your tranquility descends, whom Your mercy covers, and whom You mention among those who are with You. Amen, O Lord of the worlds.

And now: we have had reflections on Sūrat al-Furqān over the past months, and glory be to Allah, how quickly the days pass! I ask Allah, glorified is He, to let us spend them in obedience to Him.

What came before: the light, the Furqān, and the dominion

We recalled together that al-Furqān came between an-Nūr and ash-Shu'arā', and we mentioned that the significance of this is that this noble Qur'an, which is a light for the whole earth, is the means that separates and distinguishes between right and wrong, between truth and falsehood. And if there is in reality any idle talk, it exists in the way the poets speak; as for the true stories, they are the stories of Allah, blessed and exalted. And our societies, which are built upon light and the Furqān, are not like those societies that are most like the spider, and so on to the rest of what we said at that time.

And we said another time: Allah the Exalted said ﴿تَبَارَكَ الَّذِي نَزَّلَ الْفُرْقَانَ﴾ [al-Furqān: 1] ("Blessed is He who sent down the Criterion"), and He said in another place ﴿تَبَارَكَ الَّذِي بِيَدِهِ الْمُلْكُ﴾^[8] ("Blessed is He in whose hand is dominion"). So it is as if the Furqān, which is the Qur'an, is exactly equal to all the dominion of Allah, mighty and majestic; for dominion without a method does not stand straight, and the method is not realized except on the ground of reality, and thus the equation is complete.

Servitude: the door to receiving the method

And we mentioned in our previous sessions the saying of the Exalted: ﴿تَبَارَكَ الَّذِي نَزَّلَ الْفُرْقَانَ عَلَىٰ عَبْدِهِ…﴾ [al-Furqān: 1] ("Blessed is He who sent down the Criterion upon His servant …"), and that we will not be able to apply the Furqān unless we embody servitude. Imagine an employee in a company who lives with the spirit of the manager: he receives no orders and no instructions, and he does not sign in and out, so his state is bigger than the existing system, and consequently no output comes from him. But if he feels that he is an employee, a secretary for example, who receives orders and instructions and carries them out, then he proceeds within the system. Likewise, if we do not feel servitude before Allah, blessed and exalted, we do not receive the method that comes from Him as instructions and orders; rather we treat it as one treats equals, so we say: Allah legislated, and we can legislate; Allah said, and we can say. And this is the logic that people speak with when they do not embody servitude before the Lord of the worlds.

For the worlds a warner: whom does the Qur'an address?

And His saying ﴿لِلْعَالَمِينَ نَذِيرًا﴾ ("that he may be to the worlds a warner") reminds us of our agreement that in the noble Qur'an there are methods that organize the life of all humanity. We have in the Qur'an instructions specific to the believing Muslim society, and instructions specific to all people. So when we hear ﴿يَا أَيُّهَا النَّاسُ كُلُوا مِمَّا فِي الْأَرْضِ حَلَالًا طَيِّبًا﴾ ("O people, eat from whatever is on earth that is lawful and good"), this is a benefit for humanity, and not a matter concerning the health of the bodies of believers to the exclusion of others; rather it is a general command. And when we hear ﴿يَا أَيُّهَا الَّذِينَ آمَنُوا كُتِبَ عَلَيْكُمُ الصِّيَامُ كَمَا كُتِبَ عَلَى الَّذِينَ مِن قَبْلِكُمْ﴾ ("O you who believe, fasting has been prescribed for you as it was prescribed for those before you"), this is a command specific to the believers. And other commands come in which Allah directs the address specifically to the Prophet Muhammad ﷺ, such as when He says ﴿يَا أَيُّهَا النَّبِيُّ إِذَا طَلَّقْتُمُ النِّسَاءَ﴾^[9] ("O Prophet, when you divorce women"). You may ask: why was the Prophet singled out when the matter of divorce is general for the Ummah? We say: because it is an exceptional matter and not an obligatory command. As for all the obligatory commands that we were ordered to apply on the ground of reality, we were addressed by them as believers: O you who believe, do this, and do not do that.

Then Allah described His right to this servitude, saying: ﴿الَّذِي لَهُ مُلْكُ السَّمَاوَاتِ وَالْأَرْضِ وَلَمْ يَتَّخِذْ وَلَدًا وَلَمْ يَكُن لَّهُ شَرِيكٌ فِي الْمُلْكِ وَخَلَقَ كُلَّ شَيْءٍ فَقَدَّرَهُ تَقْدِيرًا﴾ [al-Furqān: 2] ("He to whom belongs the dominion of the heavens and the earth, and who has not taken a son, and has no partner in dominion, and has created everything and determined it with precise determination"). But this logic does not please many of Allah's creatures.

So we agreed upon a principle with which we wait until implementation is realized, and it is the principle of servitude: if we feel that we are servants of Allah, glorified and exalted, we apply the obligation.

An example from the home: roles and partnership

And I remind you of what we said when we spoke about roles inside homes: if each of the two parties tries to take the role of the other, the family collapses. The wife is a wife within the limits of being a wife, and the husband is a husband within the limits of being a husband. In cooking, washing, arranging things, and the conditions and psychology of the children, there are specialties for the mother that the father cannot perform. So if he says to her: "You are not needed, and I can do everything," then the moment this feeling reaches her, the home is broken. Likewise, if she begins to feel that she is independent of the other party's existence and says: "What need do I have of him, when I can work and earn and take care of my affairs," the family is demolished. And I say: a partner, neither an owner nor a slave; she is a partner and he is a partner. So if we feel the spirit of partnership, and that neither of the two partners can do without the other, life goes straight. But if one of us begins to raise his head and says arrogantly: "I need nobody," then all the principles may break.

So we agreed that the regularity of the principle of servitude is what brings about a person's uprightness upon the method that the Lord of the worlds wanted.

What did the disbelievers say?

But will the disbelievers stay silent? Will they leave off their work? Let us look at what they did. They said first: ﴿وَقَالَ الَّذِينَ كَفَرُوا إِنْ هَٰذَا إِلَّا إِفْكٌ افْتَرَاهُ﴾ [al-Furqān: 4] ("And those who disbelieve say, 'This is nothing but a falsehood he has invented'"), so they accused the Prophet ﷺ of speaking falsehood, of speech very strange to the ground of reality. And they said: ﴿أَسَاطِيرُ الْأَوَّلِينَ اكْتَتَبَهَا فَهِيَ تُمْلَىٰ عَلَيْهِ بُكْرَةً وَأَصِيلًا﴾ [al-Furqān: 5] ("Tales of the ancients which he has had written down, and they are dictated to him morning and evening"). It is as if we were saying today about a person that he is raving. And if someone said: how can he be raving when he speaks logical speech? They would say: no, the speech is logical, but the one transmitting it is the one who is raving. So the Qur'anic answer came simple: ﴿قُلْ أَنزَلَهُ الَّذِي يَعْلَمُ السِّرَّ فِي السَّمَاوَاتِ وَالْأَرْضِ ۚ إِنَّهُ كَانَ غَفُورًا رَّحِيمًا﴾ [al-Furqān: 6] ("Say: 'It was sent down by He who knows the secret in the heavens and the earth. Indeed, He is ever Forgiving, Merciful'").

But they did not stay silent. We began with the accusation against the method, so the method was answered, and we came out with neither truth nor falsehood on the subject of the method; for they tried to criticize what the Prophet speaks, so the answer came to them, and they began to speak about the one who says the words: ﴿وَقَالُوا مَالِ هَٰذَا الرَّسُولِ يَأْكُلُ الطَّعَامَ وَيَمْشِي فِي الْأَسْوَاقِ﴾ [al-Furqān: 7] ("And they say, 'What is this messenger that eats food and walks in the markets?'").

People's expectations of the caller to Allah

And we spoke last time about people's expectations of the caller to Allah, and how they expect him to be like a magician who solves all problems, so that even if we go to him with any problem, he is required to solve it in five minutes. And the caller is a human being like the rest of humanity: right comes from him and error comes from him, anger comes from him and calm comes from him. You find him sometimes in a bad mood and sometimes in a calm mood, according to circumstances and nature; and perhaps he left the house cheerful or left with the world constricted upon him in some way. So we must imagine that this is a human being who gets hungry and thirsty, travels, strives, sleeps and gets tired, and so on.

The comfortable life, and the caller among the people

And we move to another stage with His saying: ﴿تَبَارَكَ الَّذِي إِن شَاءَ جَعَلَ لَكَ خَيْرًا مِّن ذَٰلِكَ جَنَّاتٍ تَجْرِي مِن تَحْتِهَا الْأَنْهَارُ وَيَجْعَل لَّكَ قُصُورًا﴾ [al-Furqān: 10] ("Blessed is He who, if He willed, could make for you better than that: gardens beneath which rivers flow, and He could make for you palaces"). We agreed that callers to Allah live a life like the rest of the people, did we not? They too want to live comfortably, to eat and drink well, to feel that they have a social standing in society, and to have a couple of good coins with which to buy a decent jalabiya, own a clean car, and put their children in a respectable school. This feeling exists in all people naturally. But the Lord of the worlds, glorified and exalted, says to us, as it seems, and the wording of the transcript is confused here: this life of yours, do not imagine that you will rise to the level of the rich who live on the earth.

And look at our master the Prophet, peace and blessings be upon him; among the things we learned is that it was offered to him that the mountains of Mecca be turned into gold for him,^[1] and he ﷺ refused. And he was given the choice between being a prophet-king and being a prophet who is not a king, so he chose to be one of the individuals of the Ummah, one of the people. And his state reached the point that the Bedouin would enter the gathering and ask: which of you is Muhammad?^[2] For he did not wear a robe different from the rest of the people for them to recognize him; rather he was one of them: he dressed like them, ate like them, drank like them, and sat with them in their manner of sitting, not sitting in a particular posture like the posture of kings or presidents or leaders. That was his nature. So what is required of the caller to Allah is that he live in the midst of the people; so we do not neglect the callers, nor make them live at a lower level, nor ask them to live at a level higher than the levels of the people; he is like the people, managing his life in the manner we mentioned.

Allah the Exalted said to His Messenger ﷺ: ﴿تَبَارَكَ الَّذِي إِن شَاءَ جَعَلَ لَكَ خَيْرًا مِّن ذَٰلِكَ جَنَّاتٍ تَجْرِي مِن تَحْتِهَا الْأَنْهَارُ وَيَجْعَل لَّكَ قُصُورًا﴾ ("Blessed is He who, if He willed, could make for you better than that: gardens beneath which rivers flow, and He could make for you palaces").

The Hereafter is absent: ﴿بَلْ كَذَّبُوا بِالسَّاعَةِ﴾ ("Rather, they have denied the Hour")

Then He said: ﴿بَلْ كَذَّبُوا بِالسَّاعَةِ﴾. And here is the problem of the polytheists, or those who do not want to commit to the method of Islam, who do not want to submit to the method of the Lord of the worlds: that they do not believe in the matter of the Hereafter, and cannot take in that there is a Paradise and a Fire. You find one of them having reached eighty or ninety and still coveting the inheritance of his sister, or wanting to rob so-and-so, or plunder such-and-such, or build on land of falsehood. Uncle, may Allah be pleased with you, there are only two steps between you and departure! But he does not believe that there is a day on which judgment is made between those in dispute, which is the Day of Resurrection.

So what is the importance of believing in the Hereafter, and what is in it of reward and punishment? We said before: its importance, first, is seeking reward from Allah in everything. Do you remember when we spoke about the woman who works in the house night and day, tiring herself, running about and striving, and at the end of the day her husband says to her: thank you? It is her right, of course. But if he says nothing to her, she did not work for him; rather she worked for the Lord of the worlds, glorified and exalted. So if we come after ten years or fifteen years and the man says to her: no, thank you, may Allah reward you well, I have had enough up to here and we are finished; then let her not say: I worked for him! Rather let her say: I worked for Allah. And if the Lord of the worlds is the One who pays the reward in full, then do not wait for the reward from that simple servant who may be limited in his understanding and simple in his conceptions. And the same story applies to the one who says to his friend: I stood by you and supported you and did such and such for you; he did not work for him, but rather worked for the Lord of Might, glorified and exalted. So the presence of the Hereafter in the servant's mind makes him always seek reward for his deeds before Allah, blessed and exalted, in every small and great matter.

Even the morsel that you cook in the kitchen, you cook it for the sake of our Lord, glorified and exalted, to nourish these bodies so that they may be obedient to Allah, mighty and majestic. And this is a very important point, and I say it quickly as we run along: your intention while you feed people can be that they be upon obedience, and this may be a cause for them to be upon obedience. I say it a second time: my intention while I stand feeding my wife and children can be that I want to feed bodies so that they obey Allah. This intention in itself may be made by Allah an intercessor for them actually being upon obedience, and for Him to keep them established upon the method. So the intention, the intention, in every work we do, small or large: a word, an action, running about, buying things, money spent, everything, seek reward for it with Allah, blessed and exalted.

The scene of the Fire

Allah the Exalted said: ﴿بَلْ كَذَّبُوا بِالسَّاعَةِ ۖ وَأَعْتَدْنَا لِمَن كَذَّبَ بِالسَّاعَةِ سَعِيرًا﴾ [al-Furqān: 11] ("Rather, they have denied the Hour, and We have prepared for whoever denies the Hour a blazing fire"). And here we meet painful and powerful speech: ﴿إِذَا رَأَتْهُم مِّن مَّكَانٍ بَعِيدٍ سَمِعُوا لَهَا تَغَيُّظًا وَزَفِيرًا﴾ [al-Furqān: 12] ("When it sees them from a distant place, they will hear its raging and roaring"). You know inhaling and exhaling; the Fire blows out, and a person is disturbed by it most intensely. We ask Allah for safety, O Lord of the worlds. And we have in Sūrat al-Mulk where Allah, glorified is He, presents a similar depiction, and makes us understand that the Fire too has an inhaling and an exhaling: ﴿تَكَادُ تَمَيَّزُ مِنَ الْغَيْظِ كُلَّمَا أُلْقِيَ فِيهَا فَوْجٌ سَأَلَهُمْ خَزَنَتُهَا أَلَمْ يَأْتِكُمْ﴾ [al-Mulk: 8] ("It almost bursts with rage; every time a group is thrown into it, its keepers ask them, 'Did there not come to you …'"). It is as if the Fire is a living being dealing with living beings.

Are we agreed that when Allah the Exalted created creation, He placed a spirit in everything? Even inanimate things, which from our point of view are inanimate, have a spirit in them. The Lord of Might, glorified is He, says: ﴿وَإِن مِّن شَيْءٍ إِلَّا يُسَبِّحُ بِحَمْدِهِ…﴾^[10] ("And there is not a thing except that it exalts [Allah] with His praise …"). The spirit in the inanimate may differ from the spirit in the plant, from the spirit in the animal, from the spirit in the human being, but as long as it is a created thing, it has a spirit that suits its creation so that it performs its function in the most complete way until the Hour comes. So the disbeliever says on that day: ﴿يَا لَيْتَنِي كُنتُ تُرَابًا﴾ ("Oh, I wish I were dust"); because the dust performed its task and passed on and its matter is finished, and it was among the equipment, and when we reached here everything went away.

So the Lord of Might, glorified is He, said: ﴿وَإِذَا أُلْقُوا مِنْهَا مَكَانًا ضَيِّقًا مُّقَرَّنِينَ دَعَوْا هُنَالِكَ ثُبُورًا﴾ [al-Furqān: 13] ("And when they are thrown into a narrow place therein, bound together, they will cry out there for destruction"). Bound together: each one in his place, tied up. You know this when we sometimes enter a police station and you find people tied up, standing to one side, and you ask: who are these? And it is said: they are being transferred, meaning they were sentenced to something, or they are going to the prosecution, or otherwise. So the places of these are known exactly. ﴿دَعَوْا هُنَالِكَ ثُبُورًا﴾ ("they will cry out there for destruction"); and thubūr is woe, so they sit slapping themselves and saying: if only we had not done such and such.

We are not compelled to regret

And this is a point I stop at often: why do we need to regret at some point? Why do we not take care? Imagine, may Allah grant us and you well-being, a person to whom a car accident happened, and when we came to look into the matter we found that he had fastened his seat belt, and was going at the proper speed on the road, and that someone else hit him or stopped suddenly in front of him. Can we blame him? No, we do not blame him, because he is not at fault. But if he was going at the proper speed and without his seat belt fastened, and then this man stopped and someone else hit him, he is not at fault in causing the accident, but he is at fault in neglecting the means upon which something greater than the expected depends. For had he fastened his seat belt as he should, the situation would have been different.

So why are we compelled to regret? Why did we leave the children not entering the mosque until a certain time? If only we had taken them to the house of our Lord long ago! Why do we need to regret at some point? Why do we not follow the means in the best way? So if the results come out like Ishmael building the House with his father, then praise be to Allah by whose grace good deeds are completed. And if it comes out like Noah calling his son: ﴿يَا بُنَيَّ ارْكَب مَّعَنَا﴾ ("O my son, ride with us") and the son says: ﴿سَآوِي…﴾^[11] ("I will take refuge …"), then too we say: praise be to Allah, whom none is praised for something disliked except Him. But what did we do? We followed the means. If the son turns out righteous like the son of Abraham, then praise be to Allah. And if he turns out bad like the son of Noah, did we follow the means or not? So again: we are not compelled in any case to regret. Seek the means, seek the means of salvation; for Allah, blessed and exalted, does not deal with servants by the results,^[3] but rather deals with them by the means that they exert. What did you do?

And this is the method we want to follow even with our children. The child comes to me and says: I got 85%, and I say to him: how? And where did the remaining 15% go? Then I sit and torment him, while I see him staying up late, I see him tired, I see him striving, careful about his lessons, not negligent, not wasting his time; I see all this, but it was the decree of Allah, glorified and exalted, that he forgot or a part escaped him. So what he arrived at of the result was not through negligence. But another one who is negligent and got 93%, I need to blame him for the remaining 7%, where did it go? Even though his result is higher than the first one's, why do I blame him? Because he was negligent in some of his means. So Allah, blessed and exalted, only holds servants to account according to what they exert, and does not hold them to account for the results that are in their hands.

And so when I ascend the pulpit: I have prepared my sermon well, and chosen my topic well, and I address people according to their logic, and I deal well, then it turns out that only ten are the ones who understood; this is a blessing and a favor. Or that only one is the one who understood; this is a blessing and a favor. Or that no one understood at all; then I followed the means within what is in our hands. And if all the people understood and benefited and were pleased, this is a favor and a blessing. And the same logic applies with our children, the same logic with our neighbors, the same logic with the people we deal with everywhere.

And the Lord of the worlds, glorified and exalted, said, addressing those who blame themselves on the Day of Resurrection: ﴿لَّا تَدْعُوا الْيَوْمَ ثُبُورًا وَاحِدًا وَادْعُوا ثُبُورًا كَثِيرًا﴾ [al-Furqān: 14] ("Do not cry out today for one destruction, but cry out for many destructions"). That is: do not cry out one cry; cry out and cry out, so that someone hears you, so that the neighbors wake up for you and come to your aid, so cry out as much as you wish; no one will speak to you.

﴿أَذَٰلِكَ خَيْرٌ أَمْ جَنَّةُ الْخُلْدِ﴾ ("Is that better, or the Garden of Eternity?")

Allah the Exalted said: ﴿قُلْ أَذَٰلِكَ خَيْرٌ أَمْ جَنَّةُ الْخُلْدِ الَّتِي وُعِدَ الْمُتَّقُونَ ۚ كَانَتْ لَهُمْ جَزَاءً وَمَصِيرًا﴾ [al-Furqān: 15] ("Say: 'Is that better, or the Garden of Eternity which has been promised to the righteous? It will be for them a reward and destination'"). What do you think? Sometimes we, in order to bring those we address closer to a certain action, mention the results to them and do not mention the steps of the road. Meaning that my son, for example, studies and strives, so I get up and say to him: have you not seen your uncle so-and-so the doctor? How beautiful his house is! He drives a nice car, masha'Allah, and there is no place that calls for good except that he stretches out his hand and helps people. Do you know that this man reached this great standing? And he is also responsible for such and such, and does such and such, and works in such and such. This great standing that he reached, because of what? Because he used to study when he was your age. So when I mentioned the results, I mentioned them to make the one addressed love following the same means. And I can mention the life story of this great so-and-so, and at the same time mention the life story of that other so-and-so: have you seen so-and-so who is always stumbling, and his state is what it is, and life is a mess for him, and he does not find what to feed his family? Do you know why? Because when he was your age he did not study. So our Lord, glorified and exalted, says to us here: is that better? Is it better that a person cry out for many destructions, or the Garden of Eternity which has been promised to the righteous?

﴿كَانَتْ لَهُمْ جَزَاءً وَمَصِيرًا﴾ ("It will be for them a reward and destination"). Glory be to Allah the All-Powerful! A reward for deeds, and a destination decreed for them from the beginning in view of the knowledge of Allah the Exalted that preceded them to this good. I say it a second time (send blessings upon our master the Prophet, peace and blessings be upon him): ﴿كَانَتْ لَهُمْ جَزَاءً﴾ ("it will be for them a reward"); and the reward is based on what? On deeds. ﴿وَمَصِيرًا﴾ ("and a destination"): either the intended meaning is a permanent destination from which they do not deviate, so they are in Paradise, abiding in it forever, or it is a destination decreed for them from the time Allah the Exalted wrote these deeds or these results in the records of deeds before Him on the Day of Resurrection, in the Preserved Tablet. And you know the recording by Allah, glorified and exalted, of the deeds of human beings, as the Prophet ﷺ narrated that the child is in his mother's womb a clot for forty days, then a lump of flesh for forty, then such and such, then the angel comes and writes and writes, and four words among them: wretched or happy.^[4] So wretched or happy, our Lord, glorified and exalted, wrote from the beginning.

Allah's knowledge involves no compulsion

Well, when He wrote it from the beginning, did He write it in order to command people: you, go and do an act of obedience, and you, go and do an act of disobedience? No; rather He wrote it because He knows; knowledge preceded from the beginning. Imagine: I entered the classroom in which we are sitting, and I said to myself: this girl will pass, and this girl will not get a good result, and this girl's maximum is 70%. So I wrote this down in my notebook from the first lesson, as a clever teacher, I wrote the students' results before they were examined. Then when they were examined and I applied the results on the paper that I had written, I found that the result matched exactly. Did I compel the students to do what I had written? No. So what is the story, then? The matter is not tied to the deeds of these people; the matter is tied to the knowledge of Allah. So if you want to debate: are we driven or given choice? Then do not debate the movement of people; debate the knowledge of Allah, and say to Him: why, my Lord, do You know that we will be good or bad? Can we debate the knowledge of Allah, glorified and exalted? The matter is settled with this simple picture, and Allah, blessed and exalted, knows best.

Send blessings upon our master the Prophet, peace and blessings be upon him. So we said: ﴿كَانَتْ لَهُمْ جَزَاءً﴾ ("it will be for them a reward") for deeds, ﴿وَمَصِيرًا﴾ ("and a destination") either a permanent destination from which they do not deviate, or a destination decreed in that it is in the knowledge of Allah the Exalted that your soul is righteous. And look now: how will I be good if our Lord knows that I am bad? No; rather our Lord knows that you are good, but until now you do not want to show yourself that you are good.

I say it a second time: some of them say: why should I be good as long as our Lord knows that I am bad? I am bad, I smoke cigarettes and do such and such. Or you say to me: I talk a lot about anything, so I am bad, and that's it, I've submitted my affair to Allah, glorified and exalted, I am bad and our Lord wrote upon me that I am bad, and it looks like I will go to the Fire in the end, and that's that, so what will I do, I mean? So you get up to answer this one. So what do I say to him? I say to him: who told you that you are written as bad? Do you see what is in the Preserved Tablet? He says to me: no. So I say to him: well, is it not possible that our Lord wrote you as good? He says: then why do I do this wrong? So I say to him: so that you realize the ugliness of the wrong and return from it to what is right. Try always to match your studying with the 100% that the teacher wrote for you from the beginning of the year. Do not match the deed, the two hours in which you played, and say: no, the teacher wrote upon me that I will fail. Have you understood the matter? So the student now plays for two hours, and as he plays like this, he says: oh no! The teacher wrote for me that I will fail, and I am playing! So we say to him: no, these are two hours of play, like each other, I will forgive you for them, but go back and make them up.

And therefore we find, when we understand this story, that we can take in the matter of the Prophet's ﷺ saying: «كل بني آدم خطّاء وخير الخطّائين…»^[5] ("Every son of Adam is a sinner, and the best of sinners …"). So if something comes from us, it does not mean that we are written as wretched; rather it is very likely that we are written among the people of happiness. So what does this mean? That Allah, glorified and exalted, gave us the opportunity so that we know that this error is truly an error. And look: the most upright people are the people who have tried sins.

Do not try sin

But do not sit trying and saying: let us try sins! Do not do this; because your foot may slip and you fall and do not know how to return. So if our Lord, glorified and exalted, is protecting you and shielding you, then remain in this state. And I recall in this the story of one of our teachers, may Allah preserve him and bless his life, who used to tell us: he had a friend, and this friend would say: brother, I wish I would be tested with a sin so that I could realize repentance from it. He got this into his head, and he says: I want to try sin in order to try repentance from it, and let it be a major sin. So they used to say to him: do not presume upon Allah; fear Allah, glorified and exalted, regarding the good and obedience that is in your hands. And this friend kept saying this until Allah, glorified and exalted, tested him with a woman who took him out of everything he had been upon of long obedience, respect, reverence and so on. And we ask Allah, glorified and exalted, for guidance. Ask Allah for pardon and well-being, ask Allah for pardon and well-being.

And the point of the speech: if I have done something wrong, perhaps it is an opportunity that the Lord of the worlds, glorified and exalted, gave me to return to the place of good in the best way.

Show Allah good from yourselves

So we agreed in principle that we should all consider that Allah the Exalted has written us all among the people of happiness, but we want to show the teacher, as we are in the classroom, that we are diligent, to say: teacher, I did the homework, I am present here. And Allah, mighty and majestic, is exalted above comparison, so we make no comparison with our Lord, glorified and exalted, I seek forgiveness from Allah; but as the Prophet ﷺ says: «أَرُوا اللهَ مِن أنفسِكم خيرًا»^[6] ("Show Allah good from yourselves"); show our Lord always the best that you have, and let Him see you in the best form, and show Him that you are present. Imagine a teacher explaining to his students, and the student says: I am present, I am here, fine. Go ahead. And this is the teacher's trust in the student. So when the student comes one time and does nothing, what do you think the teacher does to him? Punishes him? No; rather he says to him: how are you? Then he speaks with him afterward: what is wrong with you, boy? What happened to you? You were good, may Allah guide you, what happened? He says to him: by Allah, my father and mother were quarreling at home as usual and I could not work, and so on. So he says: fine, come, we will sit today for an hour together before you go home, and we will settle everything.

So when our Lord asks us: what is the matter with you, children? You are diligent! We say: my Lord, it is just that we had such and such. Then the lecturer goes on, in a confused transcript here, to the meaning that Allah does not want us to carry worry, and that He sends us new provision and fulfills us in full.^[14] And for this reason we have the matter of returning to Allah, glorified and exalted, returning to Allah, mighty and majestic, the constant ascension that exists in our lives. Imagine: how many prostrations do we prostrate to Allah, glorified and exalted? Seventeen rak'ahs every day, at two each, how much is that? Folks, seventeen times two, how much? Thirty-four. Nice. Thirty-four ascensions every day at the very least, and this is if we do not pray a single voluntary rak'ah. So if we add to the voluntary prayers, we ascend to Allah, glorified and exalted, much more than that.

The night prayer

And after that comes the matter of the night prayer, which the Lord of the worlds, glorified and exalted, made a strong impetus for all callers to Allah, as we said often before: ﴿قُمِ اللَّيْلَ إِلَّا قَلِيلًا﴾^[12] ("Stand [in prayer] at night, except for a little"). This is your remedy to remain confident in yourself, cheerful, comfortable, psychologically stable, able to face the problems of people upon you. So hold fast to the night prayer. We ask Allah the Exalted to bring us to this station, O Lord of the worlds.

﴿لَّهُمْ فِيهَا مَا يَشَاءُونَ﴾ ("For them therein is whatever they wish"): the place before the enjoyment

The Lord of Might, glorified and exalted, said: ﴿لَّهُمْ فِيهَا مَا يَشَاءُونَ خَالِدِينَ ۚ كَانَ عَلَىٰ رَبِّكَ وَعْدًا مَّسْئُولًا﴾ [al-Furqān: 16] ("For them therein is whatever they wish, abiding eternally. It is upon your Lord a promise to be requested"). Sometimes the change in order, the putting forward and putting back, makes us stop. Why did Allah the Exalted say: «لهم فيها ما يشاؤون» ("for them therein is what they wish")? He did not say: «لهم ما يشاؤون فيها» ("for them what they wish therein")! Why? He, glorified is He, does not want to occupy your mind with the bliss before He occupies you with the place in which the one enjoying bliss will be. Imagine that I brought you now a bed of silver, and a mattress, not just any mattress, and the bedspread on the bed we brought for you especially from Damascus, and I don't know from where, from Turkey or from Syria. I convey the bliss to you and describe it, but this bed is placed where? On the bank of the canal? Or in a room two meters by two meters? Or do I describe the house first, so I say: this is the room in which the bed is, before I reach the description of the bed, the room is eighty by ninety, overlooking such-and-such a place? So the mind is occupied with the abode before it is occupied with what is in it. So Allah the Exalted said: ﴿لَهُمْ فِيهَا﴾ ("for them therein") in order to occupy our minds with Paradise, whatever is placed in Paradise, we long for it.

And therefore this matter of specifications does not exist. All the speech with which the Lord of Might, glorified is He, described Paradise came by way of comparison, but the reality exists where? «لهم فيها ما لا عين رأت، ولا أذن سمعت، ولا خطر على بال…»^[7] ("For them therein is what no eye has seen, no ear has heard, and has not occurred to a mind …"). So if someone says: as for what was written in the Qur'an, it has occurred to my mind, and I see it with my imagination! We say: no, this is an example, these are simple things. So do not be upset when someone says: O Allah, we ask You for the ḥūr al-'īn. You women are the ḥūr al-'īn, there is no one other than you, glory be to Allah, you are the foremost, but whichever of you qualifies herself will be the greatest ḥūriyya, whom the people of Paradise long for, with all the good that is in it.

And it is related that a group were standing in a funeral prayer, and the imam says: I heard, while I was praying with those behind me, a commotion in the row behind me, so I turned and found a quarrel between the husband of the deceased woman, while we were praying over her, and a man standing next to him! So I said to them: folks, I seek forgiveness from Allah, this is not a place for quarrels, what are you doing? The husband said to me: does this please you, Sheikh? For the one next to him was supplicating, saying: «اللهم ارزقها دارًا خيرًا من دارها، وأهلًا خيرًا من أهلها، وزوجًا خيرًا من زوجها» ("O Allah, grant her a home better than her home, a family better than her family, and a husband better than her husband"). Is this speech acceptable?

So the point of the saying is that we picture Paradise before we picture what is in it and who is in it, and then real longing occurs, then real longing occurs.

The reproach of the causes of misguidance

Allah the Exalted said: ﴿وَيَوْمَ يَحْشُرُهُمْ وَمَا يَعْبُدُونَ مِن دُونِ اللَّهِ فَيَقُولُ أَأَنتُمْ أَضْلَلْتُمْ عِبَادِي هَٰؤُلَاءِ أَمْ هُمْ ضَلُّوا السَّبِيلَ﴾ [al-Furqān: 17] ("And on the Day He will gather them and what they worship besides Allah and say, 'Was it you who misled these servants of Mine, or did they themselves stray from the way?'"). This reproach that comes from the Lord of Might, glorified is He, is directed at all the causes of misguidance, and these causes may be human beings. Do you remember in Sūrat Saba': ﴿بَلْ مَكْرُ اللَّيْلِ وَالنَّهَارِ إِذْ تَأْمُرُونَنَا أَن نَّكْفُرَ بِاللَّهِ وَنَجْعَلَ لَهُ أَندَادًا وَأَسَرُّوا النَّدَامَةَ لَمَّا رَأَوُا الْعَذَابَ وَجَعَلْنَا الْأَغْلَالَ فِي أَعْنَاقِ الَّذِينَ…﴾؟^[13] ("Rather, it was [your] scheming of night and day, when you ordered us to disbelieve in Allah and to attribute to Him equals. And they will conceal their regret when they see the punishment, and We will put shackles on the necks of those who …") You remember these verses. O Allah, send blessings upon the bearer of glad tidings ﷺ and upon his family and Companions, with abundant peace, O Lord of the worlds.

So whether the one reproached is a human being, or a claimed god such as an idol, or whatever the causes of misguidance are, Allah, blessed and exalted, says: ﴿أَأَنتُمْ أَضْلَلْتُمْ عِبَادِي هَٰؤُلَاءِ أَمْ هُمْ ضَلُّوا السَّبِيلَ﴾ ("Was it you who misled these servants of Mine, or did they themselves stray from the way?"), ﴿قَالُوا سُبْحَانَكَ مَا كَانَ يَنبَغِي لَنَا أَن نَّتَّخِذَ مِن دُونِكَ مِنْ أَوْلِيَاءَ وَلَٰكِن مَّتَّعْتَهُمْ وَآبَاءَهُمْ حَتَّىٰ نَسُوا الذِّكْرَ وَكَانُوا قَوْمًا بُورًا﴾ [al-Furqān: 18] ("They will say, 'Exalted are You! It was not for us to take any protectors besides You; but You provided comforts for them and their fathers until they forgot the remembrance and were a people ruined'").

﴿مَتَّعْتَهُمْ وَآبَاءَهُمْ﴾ ("You provided comforts for them and their fathers"): the forgotten blessing

And let us look now, and we stop here at a small detail: ﴿وَلَٰكِن مَّتَّعْتَهُمْ وَآبَاءَهُمْ﴾ ("but You provided comforts for them and their fathers"). I am certain, by the permission of Allah, glorified and exalted, that none of us lives a state of misery. None of us is in misery, however many problems we have, however much pain we have: this knee of mine that hurts, and my head that sometimes splits with pain, and my shoulder, and all this talk. All these are temporary matters, but they are accompanied by blessings that cannot be counted. And if each one of us compared what was taken from him with what was left to him, he would choose the state he is in compared with others.

And I always try to benefit from everything I see on the road. And I had a meeting with a number of blind sisters in one of the care homes for good people, and when we heard the voice of each one of them as she spoke about her conception of life, describing life from her point of view, look where the dreams are that the sister dreams? The things we talk about do not exist for her at all. So what happens? What happens is that the one who has been deprived of the blessing cannot imagine the state of the others around him.

Well, do we have forgotten blessings in our lives or not? Take a deep breath and say: praise be to Allah. And do you know the folks who have allergy season, seasonal allergy? Dawn breaks and our uncle Sheikh Ahmed is reciting, and you say to him: what is wrong, Uncle Hajj? Do you want us to bring you a rod to clear the pipes inside? What is happening? And he says to me: the mere presence of the breath and its going out is a very great blessing from the Lord of Might, glorified is He. And entering the bathroom and leaving it without problems or pain or fuss is a great blessing from the Lord of the worlds, glorified and exalted. And the door of our house closes on us, however much we quarrel among ourselves inside it, is a blessing from the Lord of the worlds, glorified and exalted.

﴿وَلَٰكِن مَّتَّعْتَهُمْ وَآبَاءَهُمْ حَتَّىٰ نَسُوا الذِّكْرَ﴾^[15] ("but You provided comforts for them and their fathers until they forgot the remembrance"). So make the blessings of Allah that are in your hands causes for thanking Allah, blessed and exalted, and not causes for the punishment of Allah, blessed and exalted.

And we stopped at the eighteenth verse ﴿وَكَانُوا قَوْمًا بُورًا﴾ ("and were a people ruined"). We stop here for a little and take a quarter of an hour with questions and answers, and we conclude, Allah willing, after that. May Allah the Exalted reward you well and bless you. A question?

--- ^[1]: Editor's documentation: Something like it is reported in Sunan at-Tirmidhi from the ḥadīth of Abū Umāma (may Allah be pleased with him), and there is discussion among the people of knowledge about its chain of transmission; the lecturer did not mention its wording or its source. ^[2]: Editor's documentation: The story is in Ṣaḥīḥ al-Bukhārī from the ḥadīth of Anas (may Allah be pleased with him) (the story of the Bedouin Ḍimām ibn Tha'laba), and the lecturer alluded to it by meaning without attribution. ^[3]: Editor's documentation: This is the lecturer's wording as it appeared, and it is evident from his context (the example of grades, the sermon and the children) that what is meant is accountability for exerting the means and not for what the outcomes turn out to be, which is not in the servant's hand. ^[4]: Editor's documentation: The ḥadīth of 'Abdullāh ibn Mas'ūd (may Allah be pleased with him) in the two Ṣaḥīḥs, in which is the command to write four words: his provision, his term, his deed, and wretched or happy; the lecturer mentioned it by meaning. ^[5]: Editor's documentation: Narrated by at-Tirmidhī and Ibn Mājah from the ḥadīth of Anas (may Allah be pleased with him), with the wording «كل ابن آدم خطّاء، وخير الخطّائين التوّابون»; the end of the wording came truncated in the transcript («التواب»), so only what is sound of it was kept in the text. ^[6]: Editor's documentation: The lecturer attributed it to the Prophet ﷺ, and the editor has not found an established chain for this wording; so it should be verified before being used as evidence. ^[7]: Editor's documentation: Its origin is a ḥadīth qudsī in the two Ṣaḥīḥs from the ḥadīth of Abū Hurayra (may Allah be pleased with him), and the lecturer mentioned it by meaning; the wording of the Ṣaḥīḥ is: «ما لا عين رأت، ولا أذن سمعت، ولا خطر على قلب بشر». ^[8]: Editor's documentation: The first verse of Sūrat al-Mulk, and the lecturer did not name the surah here. ^[9]: Editor's documentation: The locations, as the verses indicate: ﴿يَا أَيُّهَا النَّاسُ كُلُوا…﴾ [al-Baqara: 168], ﴿يَا أَيُّهَا الَّذِينَ آمَنُوا كُتِبَ عَلَيْكُمُ الصِّيَامُ…﴾ [al-Baqara: 183], and ﴿يَا أَيُّهَا النَّبِيُّ إِذَا طَلَّقْتُمُ النِّسَاءَ﴾ [aṭ-Ṭalāq: 1]; the lecturer did not mention the surahs. ^[10]: Editor's documentation: [al-Isrā': 44], and its completion is: ﴿وَلَٰكِن لَّا تَفْقَهُونَ تَسْبِيحَهُمْ﴾. And his saying ﴿يَا لَيْتَنِي كُنتُ تُرَابًا﴾ is in [an-Naba': 40]. The lecturer did not mention the two surahs. ^[11]: Editor's documentation: [Hūd: 42–43], and the completion of the second is: ﴿قَالَ سَآوِي إِلَىٰ جَبَلٍ يَعْصِمُنِي مِنَ الْمَاءِ﴾; the lecturer did not mention the location. ^[12]: Editor's documentation: [al-Muzzammil: 2]; the lecturer did not mention the surah. ^[13]: Editor's documentation: [Saba': 33], and the completion of the verse is: ﴿…الَّذِينَ كَفَرُوا ۖ هَلْ يُجْزَوْنَ إِلَّا مَا كَانُوا يَعْمَلُونَ﴾; the wording of the verse came in the transcript confused at its beginning and cut off at its end. ^[14]: Editor's documentation: This passage is confused in the transcript, and it is not valid to count it as speech attributed to Allah the Exalted in its wording; it is the lecturer's illustration through a dialogue between a teacher and a student, and he made a point of declaring Allah exalted above comparison. ^[15]: Editor's documentation: [al-Furqān: 18]; the transcript has «بل متعتهم» whereas the verse has «ولكن متعتهم», so the verse's script was kept.