The First Covenant, Blinding, Transformation and Reversal at the End of Surat Yā Sīn

Occasion: Transcription of a Fajr khatira delivered on 11 July 2026 Source: A transcription of a video khatira by Dr. Ahmed Abouseif — Watch the original video on YouTube

At the start of the khatira the Shaykh prayed: O Lord of the worlds, overlook our misdeeds and our sins, have mercy in Your presence on our weakness, pardon our slips, ease our affairs, manage what is in our hands, and fulfill our needs. O Allah, do not entrust us to ourselves or to anyone among Your creation, and bestow Your favor upon us and have mercy on our weakness.

A direct warning to those who broke the covenant

In the blessed verses of Sūrat Yā Sīn our Lord, glorified, says: ﴿وَلَوْ نَشَاءُ لَطَمَسْنَا عَلَىٰ أَعْيُنِهِمْ فَاسْتَبَقُوا الصِّرَاطَ فَأَنَّىٰ يُبْصِرُونَ * وَلَوْ نَشَاءُ لَمَسَخْنَاهُمْ عَلَىٰ مَكَانَتِهِمْ فَمَا اسْتَطَاعُوا مُضِيًّا وَلَا يَرْجِعُونَ﴾ (And if We willed, We could have blotted out their eyes, and they would race to the path, but how would they see? And if We willed, We could have transformed them in their place, so they could neither go forward nor return).^[1] It is as if He, glorified, is delivering a very direct warning to those who broke the covenant. For He said before it: ﴿أَلَمْ أَعْهَدْ إِلَيْكُمْ يَا بَنِي آدَمَ أَن لَّا تَعْبُدُوا الشَّيْطَانَ ۖ إِنَّهُ لَكُمْ عَدُوٌّ مُّبِينٌ﴾ (Did I not enjoin upon you, O children of Adam, that you not worship Satan? Indeed, he is to you a clear enemy),^[2] so He gathered for us every ground of the proof, and no one has any excuse after that.

A covenant before we reasoned

There is a covenant between humanity and its Lord, glorified and exalted. Our Lord, mighty and majestic, says: ﴿وَإِذْ أَخَذَ رَبُّكَ مِن بَنِي آدَمَ مِن ظُهُورِهِمْ ذُرِّيَّتَهُمْ وَأَشْهَدَهُمْ عَلَىٰ أَنفُسِهِمْ أَلَسْتُ بِرَبِّكُمْ ۖ قَالُوا بَلَىٰ ۛ شَهِدْنَا ۛ أَن تَقُولُوا يَوْمَ الْقِيَامَةِ إِنَّا كُنَّا عَنْ هَٰذَا غَافِلِينَ﴾ (And when your Lord took from the children of Adam, from their loins, their descendants and made them testify concerning themselves: Am I not your Lord? They said: Yes, we have testified. Lest you should say on the Day of Resurrection: Indeed, we were unaware of this).^[3] A covenant the Lord of the worlds took from people before they reasoned, before they existed, before they became aware.

But can a covenant be made with one who has no reason? Can there be a covenant between two parties, one of whom does not realize what he is doing? Is that a covenant? The basic answer is: no. So how is the verse to be interpreted, and how are we to look at it? The One who was able to gather these people was able to place in them their sense and their awareness, and the One who was able to bring forth this progeny from the loins of Adam and say to it: Am I not your Lord, was able, glorified, to grant it the capacity to choose.

Then the verse has a greater dimension: ﴿وَأَشْهَدَهُمْ عَلَىٰ أَنفُسِهِمْ﴾ (and made them testify concerning themselves), and the one who bears witness is aware of the dimensions of what he testifies to, aware of what follows from this testimony. And their answer ﴿بَلَىٰ﴾ (Yes) is a logical answer to that question: Yes, You are our Lord, we have no god but You. So what happened after that? The Prophet ﷺ says: كل مولود يولد على الفطرة، فأبواه يهوّدانه أو ينصّرانه أو يمجّسانه (Every child is born upon the fiṭrah, and then his parents make him a Jew, or a Christian, or a Magian)^[4]. That is, there is an environment that comes afterward to have its say, and to take this human being out of the origin of his fiṭrah into another being and a different mind.

Everyone is deluded by what is in his hands

And here our Lord gives us a direct warning: ﴿وَلَوْ نَشَاءُ لَطَمَسْنَا عَلَىٰ أَعْيُنِهِمْ﴾ (And if We willed, We could have blotted out their eyes). Each one of us looks at the world and feels that he is the great teacher who does what no one else can grasp. I alone, I am the only one who understands, I am the one who can, I am the one who gathers this money with my own hands, and I have this influence and this authority. And everyone is deluded by what is in his hands, sensing in himself a power that lifts him above the level of servitude to something close to the level of divinity, if he has not already surpassed it, as that fool said one day: I am your lord, the most high.

So my Lord, glorified, tells me with His words: ﴿وَلَوْ نَشَاءُ لَطَمَسْنَا عَلَىٰ أَعْيُنِهِمْ فَاسْتَبَقُوا الصِّرَاطَ فَأَنَّىٰ يُبْصِرُونَ﴾ (And if We willed, We could have blotted out their eyes, and they would race to the path, but how would they see?). Imagine a group walking, all of them sighted, each one aware of what he is doing; this one is in his trade, and that one has a standing in the financial markets, and each one is walking along the road showing off his material power. Then the Lord of the worlds, glorified, blots out these eyes, so they collide with one another, like blind people stumbling about, we ask Allah for safety. So how do you picture the state of these people, with their attire and their clothes, their grandeur and their status, and then this happens to them, and they trip over one another? How do you picture this scene? No one finds a way for himself, nor finds an exit for it, nor can choose a meal, nor rescue himself with a glass of water, nor knows where his walking will take him. Imagine that they cannot even pick up their shoes from the ground once their eyes are blotted out, let alone put on their clothes, let alone find their way to their family, or their relatives, or their wealth, or managing their affairs. The matter is very hard. And yet one of us may say: Don't worry about me, I know. Then the Lord of the worlds, glorified, tells me: ﴿وَلَوْ نَشَاءُ لَمَسَخْنَاهُمْ عَلَىٰ مَكَانَتِهِمْ﴾ (And if We willed, We could have transformed them in their place).

Transformation and blindness

Maskh is turning a thing from its origin into something lower than it. And when the Lord of the worlds, glorified, said to those others: ﴿كُونُوا قِرَدَةً خَاسِئِينَ﴾ (Be apes, despised)^[5] He transformed them and made them apes, despised. So He, glorified, says: ﴿فَمَا اسْتَطَاعُوا مُضِيًّا وَلَا يَرْجِعُونَ﴾ (so they could neither go forward nor return). That is, if a person is in a state of blindness, he feels out his way, and he may take two steps, but the next stage is that He, glorified, is able to stop him completely.

And whoever We grant long life, We reverse him in creation

Then comes His saying: ﴿وَمَن نُّعَمِّرْهُ نُنَكِّسْهُ فِي الْخَلْقِ﴾ (And whoever We grant long life, We reverse him in creation).^[6] So what is the connection between the verses? The Qur'an is warning these people against exaggerating their own importance: do not puff up your self, beware of being deluded by yourself, do not say: I am so-and-so. And it threatens them with this. So what is the relation of long life to reversal? The meaning is: whoever We extend in the provision of the world, in life, and in lifespans, We reverse him. And the relation is that every person on this earth wishes for nothing more than to remain in life longer; all of us want to live forever, a hundred years walking on our own feet. But my Lord, glorified, shows us an important truth: that with long survival a relapse backward occurs.

Or the link is that the matter of transformation is something witnessed within people's hearing and sight, night and day. Imagine a man of great strength, who does as he pleases, moves with utmost ease and makes his decisions, then he is granted long life, and that firm, strong back bends, and he who used to strive in the earth and travel through it comes to a stage in which he cannot toil; and instead of walking on two legs he walks on three, and perhaps on four. What a scene! O Allah, we ask You to let us die without needing anyone, neither ourselves nor anyone among people, O Lord of the worlds, and we ask You to grant us strength until we meet You, and to make it in Your cause, glorified.

Then the Lord of the worlds says: ﴿أَفَلَا تَعْقِلُونَ﴾ (Then will you not reason?). Do you not see the picture before you? So understand, then.

What is required?

What is required is nothing other than that you fulfill what you covenanted with Allah. And what did you covenant with Allah? He, glorified, says in Sūrat al-Taghābun: ﴿هُوَ الَّذِي خَلَقَكُمْ فَمِنكُمْ كَافِرٌ وَمِنكُم مُّؤْمِنٌ ۚ وَاللَّهُ بِمَا تَعْمَلُونَ بَصِيرٌ﴾ (It is He who created you, and among you is the disbeliever and among you is the believer; and Allah is Seeing of what you do).^[7] Nothing more is required of you than to remain upon the Islam that the Lord of the worlds, glorified, wanted, so preserve it.

Being inspired to make du'a is a mercy

And glory be to Allah, the Able, when a person is inspired to make du'a in a situation like this, it is not conditional on your making du'a in prayer or doing such and such, but that you are inspired to make du'a, or that you walk along a road and look at a man and he reminds you of Allah and you call upon Allah, blessed and exalted, or that a need befalls you and you call upon Him. Being inspired to make du'a is in itself a mercy from the Lord of the worlds. You say two words and it is finished, but where is their effect in your life? Perhaps Allah expanded the provision for your family, perhaps He smoothed things for your well-being, perhaps He inspired you to right judgment in your decision, perhaps He subjected some of His creation to help you. You do not know where Allah's relief is, nor when. So hold fast to the guidance you have been given.

The best of creation

And when we speak to the people who have come to the Fajr prayer, we are speaking to the best of creation, whom Allah has singled out to stand before Him in this station while people sleep. You are better than the one who slept through his purpose, and the one who slept is better than the one who spread corruption in the earth and moved about in it. So you are the essence of Allah's creation on earth, so be at the expectation the Lord of the worlds, glorified, has of you.

--- ^[1]: Editor's documentation: Sūrat Yā Sīn, verses 66 and 67. ^[2]: Editor's documentation: Sūrat Yā Sīn, verse 60. ^[3]: Editor's documentation: Sūrat al-Aʿrāf, verse 172. ^[4]: Editor's documentation: The ḥadīth is in the Two Ṣaḥīḥs from the narration of Abū Hurayrah (may Allah be pleased with him), and the wording here is as the speaker cited it. ^[5]: Editor's documentation: This phrase occurs in Sūrat al-Baqarah (65) and Sūrat al-Aʿrāf (166). ^[6]: Editor's documentation: Sūrat Yā Sīn, verse 68, in which there are two readings: "taʿqilūn" with tāʾ and "yaʿqilūn" with yāʾ, and the speaker cited the first. ^[7]: Editor's documentation: Sūrat al-Taghābun, verse 2.