Calls of Faith: The Last Call of Faith in Surat Āl ʿImrān

Occasion: Transcription of an evening (ʿishāʾ) khatira delivered on 12 July 2026 Source: A transcription of a video khatira by Dr. Ahmed Abouseif — Watch the original video on YouTube

Tonight we stand with the last call of faith in Sūrat Āl ʿImrān, in which Allah, blessed and exalted, says: ﴿يَا أَيُّهَا الَّذِينَ آمَنُوا اصْبِرُوا وَصَابِرُوا وَرَابِطُوا وَاتَّقُوا اللَّهَ لَعَلَّكُمْ تُفْلِحُونَ﴾ (O you who believe, be patient, persevere in patience, remain stationed, and be mindful of Allah, so that you may succeed).^[1]

Patience, perseverance, and remaining stationed

This call differs greatly from the other calls that commanded patience, for here Allah has joined patience (ṣabr) with perseverance in patience (muṣābarah). What is asked of a person is to be patient with a present reality, whereas taṣabbur, striving to be patient, requires that this reality be renewed in his mind. If a person loses something and is patient over that loss, he is being patient over something that has passed; he wants to heal himself from it, and he says: a calamity happened and is over, and God willing it will not be repeated. But taṣabbur requires, in both word and meaning, that the person expect the calamity to occur again. So whoever has suffered a loss was patient over the first loss, and then braced himself in patience in readiness for the second. Then comes the word for remaining stationed, ﴿وَرَابِطُوا﴾ (and remain stationed); that is, bind your hearts firmly, the hearts by which you will seek help, by Allah's leave, through this repeated loss.

Why loss at all?

O Lord, be gentle with us, why do we lose? Because that is the basis of life. The Lord of the worlds, glorified and exalted, has taught us from the very first moments of our worldly life that life passes, and that every second that passes over us never comes again. So the basis of life is loss. Then time carries a person along, and he moves from one stage to another, losing one thing and taking on another: he loses childhood with all its randomness, play, and lack of responsibility, and moves on to youth and the renewal of desire within the self, then to the stage of reason and the marriage contract and what follows. And in every stage he leaves, he loses something he had before.

And if Allah decrees that a person earns money, does all the money that comes to you stay in your hands? Or do you lose some of it by choice? You pay the rent of the house, the mortgage installment, the car installment, and then you go to the store, fully conscious and in your right mind, and you buy things and spend money. So the money that was in your hand, you lost by your own choice. We lose our lifespans, we lose our money by choice or against our will, and we lose people; one who lived with his parents loses his father after a while, and loses his mother. And we ask Allah for protection, safety, and well-being, and well-being itself a person loses from time to time; after being whole, you find the aches of the thirties, then of the forties, then the fifties, then the sixties. Glory be to Allah! This is the basis of life.

Between this call and the calls that preceded it

But I want to link this call with the previous calls in this blessed sūrah. We agreed that in Sūrat Āl ʿImrān there are seven calls of faith in which the Lord of the worlds addresses the believers seven times, and that we saw the calls recur eleven times in Sūrat al-Baqarah. And I wondered: are there other calls in Āl ʿImrān? I found six calls to the People of the Book and seven to the people of faith. So how many do we have? Six to the People of the Book and seven to the people of faith, thirteen calls in the sūrah. So what is the level of harmony among them?

For about a week I had been researching the "architecture of the distribution of the calls": exactly where in the picture of the sūrah did this call come? And why did it come in this place and not another? And I was linking the call with what precedes and follows it in the course of the Qur'anic context. So when do the calls begin in the sūrah? The first call is at the sixty-fourth verse, that is, after sixty-three verses. And the verses of Āl ʿImrān, al-Baqarah, and al-Nisāʾ are not short, so the sixty-fourth verse may have come after four or five pages from the start of the sūrah. So what came before these calls?

The sūrah of steadfastness: building, then maintenance

Let us remember together the role of Sūrat Āl ʿImrān. We agreed that Sūrat al-Baqarah is the sūrah of building, the building of the structure of the Muslim community, and that Sūrat Āl ʿImrān is the sūrah of maintenance, and I have previously called it the sūrah of equilibrium or steadfastness. Consider someone climbing a mountain or a pyramid: which is harder, the ascent or staying put on the summit? The ascent is long, and you have built something great in it, but when you reach the summit and want to settle on top of it, you find yourself in need of all sorts of things. So staying on the summit is harder than climbing to it, and this is a well-known matter. And I repeat: staying on the summit is harder than climbing to the summit. So Sūrat al-Baqarah builds the community for you, and Sūrat Āl ʿImrān teaches you steadfastness on the summit you have reached.

And we have understood before that steadfastness comes about through two things, with no third, and neither can do without the other: the first is creed, and the second is the unity of the community. If the articles of belief are present in this community, none of its members will step outside the framework that brings them together. Let me bring it closer with an example: we all work in one company, we carry the same logo, we have the same reference point, we draw our salaries from the same ATM, and the same laws apply to us, so no one can step outside the fence that holds everyone together. Likewise the references of creed: no sooner do you want to wrong me than I say to you: fear Allah, and you say: O Allah, grant me Your fear, and you step back two paces. And you want to wrong your wife, but she reminds you of the Lord of the worlds, and you are about to eat the orphan's wealth when the Lord of the worlds reminds you. For we have a religion.

That is why you see the beginning of the sūrah, and roughly half of it, speaking about the question of tawḥīd and addressing the problems of the People of the Book, and then about the other wing of the community's steadfastness, which is the unity of the community. After that the calls of faith begin.

The opening of the sūrah: preparation for confronting doubts

At the beginning of the sūrah, the Lord of the worlds tells us that this Qur'an was sent down only from Him, the Mighty and Majestic. We have said before that most of the sūrahs of the Qur'an that open with the disjointed letters have, immediately after the disjointed letters, a discussion of the Qur'an or the Book: ﴿الم ۝ ذَلِكَ الْكِتَابُ لَا رَيْبَ فِيهِ﴾ (Alif Lām Mīm. This is the Book, in which there is no doubt), ﴿حم ۝ تَنْزِيلُ الْكِتَابِ مِنَ اللَّهِ الْعَزِيزِ الْعَلِيمِ﴾ (Ḥā Mīm. The revelation of the Book is from Allah, the Almighty, the All-Knowing).^[2] Here, however, before the discussion of the Book comes the discussion of the One who sent the Book down: ﴿الم ۝ اللَّهُ لَا إِلَهَ إِلَّا هُوَ الْحَيُّ الْقَيُّومُ ۝ نَزَّلَ عَلَيْكَ الْكِتَابَ بِالْحَقِّ مُصَدِّقًا لِمَا بَيْنَ يَدَيْهِ وَأَنْزَلَ التَّوْرَاةَ وَالْإِنْجِيلَ مِنْ قَبْلُ هُدًى لِلنَّاسِ وَأَنْزَلَ الْفُرْقَانَ﴾ (Alif Lām Mīm. Allah, there is no god but He, the Ever-Living, the Self-Sustaining. He has sent down to you the Book in truth, confirming what came before it, and He sent down the Torah and the Gospel before as guidance for mankind, and He sent down the Criterion).^[3]

Then in the opening of the sūrah He tells me something astonishing: ﴿هُوَ الَّذِي أَنْزَلَ عَلَيْكَ الْكِتَابَ مِنْهُ آيَاتٌ مُحْكَمَاتٌ…﴾ (It is He who has sent down to you the Book, in which are verses that are clear…) and others that are ambiguous. So what is the place of these words in the opening of the sūrah? It is a preparation; because you will be receiving these doubts from those who are going to be discussed in this blessed sūrah, namely the People of the Book. It is as if the Lord of the worlds is laying down for you the stabilizing rule from the beginning: be careful, for there are verses around which doubts may arise, or which people may misunderstand, or which may become confused in their minds so that they do not know how to apply them in their lives and fall into doubt. That is why the motto of the people of faith, wisdom, reason, and tawḥīd is: ﴿رَبَّنَا لَا تُزِغْ قُلُوبَنَا بَعْدَ إِذْ هَدَيْتَنَا﴾ (Our Lord, do not let our hearts deviate after You have guided us).^[4] And when were we guided? We were guided with ﴿اللَّهُ لَا إِلَهَ إِلَّا هُوَ الْحَيُّ الْقَيُّومُ﴾ (Allah, there is no god but He, the Ever-Living, the Self-Sustaining). And when might we get muddled? With verses that are clear and verses that are ambiguous: ﴿فَأَمَّا الَّذِينَ فِي قُلُوبِهِمْ زَيْغٌ فَيَتَّبِعُونَ مَا تَشَابَهَ مِنْهُ ابْتِغَاءَ الْفِتْنَةِ وَابْتِغَاءَ تَأْوِيلِهِ﴾ (As for those in whose hearts is deviation, they follow what is ambiguous in it, seeking discord and seeking its interpretation), whereas ﴿وَالرَّاسِخُونَ فِي الْعِلْمِ يَقُولُونَ آمَنَّا بِهِ كُلٌّ مِنْ عِنْدِ رَبِّنَا وَمَا يَذَّكَّرُ إِلَّا أُولُو الْأَلْبَابِ﴾ (and those firmly grounded in knowledge say: We believe in it, all of it is from our Lord; and none takes heed except those of understanding).^[5]

So from the beginning of the sūrah the Lord of the worlds sets out for us the obstacles that stand in the way of uprightness and commitment to the principles of tawḥīd, and the first pickax for demolishing all of this is the worldly life that people live, so He, glorified, says: ﴿زُيِّنَ لِلنَّاسِ حُبُّ الشَّهَوَاتِ مِنَ النِّسَاءِ وَالْبَنِينَ وَالْقَنَاطِيرِ الْمُقَنْطَرَةِ مِنَ الذَّهَبِ وَالْفِضَّةِ وَالْخَيْلِ الْمُسَوَّمَةِ وَالْأَنْعَامِ وَالْحَرْثِ ذَلِكَ مَتَاعُ الْحَيَاةِ الدُّنْيَا…﴾ (Made attractive to people is the love of desires: women, children, heaped-up treasures of gold and silver, branded horses, cattle, and farmland. That is the enjoyment of worldly life…).^[6] It is as if He, glorified, is telling me from the start: if you find a person who is not on the truth or not on the path, then either he has deviated in his soul, so his soul has swerved toward the world and become clothed in it, craving it and taking from it; or he has deviated in his mind, so that the doubts put to him from outside the Muslim community have become confused for him.

From the choosing of the family of ʿImrān to the disbelief of those who saw the miracles

If we went through the verses one by one, it would take too long, so let us take a quick leap. The Lord of the worlds tells us that He ﴿اصْطَفَى آدَمَ وَنُوحًا وَآلَ إِبْرَاهِيمَ وَآلَ عِمْرَانَ عَلَى الْعَالَمِينَ ۝ ذُرِّيَّةً بَعْضُهَا مِنْ بَعْضٍ وَاللَّهُ سَمِيعٌ عَلِيمٌ﴾ (chose Adam, Noah, the family of Abraham, and the family of ʿImrān over all the worlds, offspring one of another; and Allah is All-Hearing, All-Knowing), then: ﴿إِذْ قَالَتِ امْرَأَتُ عِمْرَانَ رَبِّ إِنِّي نَذَرْتُ لَكَ مَا فِي بَطْنِي مُحَرَّرًا فَتَقَبَّلْ مِنِّي إِنَّكَ أَنْتَ السَّمِيعُ…﴾ (When the wife of ʿImrān said: My Lord, I have vowed to You what is in my womb, dedicated, so accept it from me; indeed You are the All-Hearing…) ﴿فَتَقَبَّلَهَا رَبُّهَا بِقَبُولٍ حَسَنٍ﴾ (so her Lord accepted her with a good acceptance).^[7] What is this story? It is as if He is telling me: I will relate to you the story of the People of the Book, not starting from ʿĪsā, nor even from his mother, but from his grandmother, from the grandmother of ʿĪsā, upon our Prophet and upon him be prayers and peace. What exactly happened? So that you may grasp the reasonableness of the matter in your mind, take in the issues set before you, and stay straight on your course with them. Then the verses go on, and Zakariyyā comes into the context, and Maryam comes to us, and the miracles that the Lord of the worlds, glorified, accomplished at the hand of the Prophet of Allah ʿĪsā, upon our Prophet and upon him be prayers and peace.

Then comes a pivotal point in which Allah the Exalted says: ﴿فَلَمَّا أَحَسَّ عِيسَى مِنْهُمُ الْكُفْرَ…﴾ (But when ʿĪsā sensed disbelief from them…).^[8] So why do people disbelieve? Can you imagine people seeing a messenger who heals the blind and the leper, brings the dead to life by Allah's leave, and tells them what they eat and what they store in their houses? And is there in the world of life a miracle greater or more powerful in effect than that Allah brings the dead to life at his hands by His leave? So what calls them to disbelief? The Qur'an tells me: be careful, we said a moment ago that there is corruption in souls, and when corruption occurs in souls, do not ask about the logic of reason or about persuasion. So do not try to convince him.

Let me clarify: we have two kinds of discourse. A rational discourse, in which you speak to a person who understands, so the sentence leaves your mind and reaches his mind exactly. And a person who speaks to you with emotion, so what comes out of his tongue does not come from his mind but from his heart and feelings, and your discourse was directed to his mind, but his mind has closed its door and opened another door, the door of the heart and feelings. That is why, when we speak between husbands and wives, in many matters you are speaking in one direction and she is speaking in an altogether different one; you speak with logic, reason, an ordering of ideas, and method, and she speaks with her feelings. So when a woman's feelings dominate her words, you have two kinds of discourse that are unequal, that do not even meet. So if you say something and find the reply illogical, do not be surprised; the speech has all come from the heart and the feelings, and this is not a fault in them, for this is their function, and we only need to understand it.

So we are before a matter in which the Lord of the worlds shows us that those who disbelieved disbelieved only because their souls prevailed. Take, for instance, someone you are speaking to who is greedy, and you say to him: we agreed from the beginning that we have five that we will divide in two, so how much is each one's? He says to you: three and two. So you say: we agreed to split it equally, so it is two and a half and two and a half. He says: no, we will not divide it that way. Or he gives you an answer that has nothing to do with the matter, and so removes himself from the story. And so it is with the people of disbelief: ﴿فَأَمَّا الَّذِينَ كَفَرُوا فَأُعَذِّبُهُمْ عَذَابًا شَدِيدًا فِي الدُّنْيَا وَالْآخِرَةِ﴾ (As for those who disbelieved, I will punish them with a severe punishment in this world and the Hereafter).^[9] Why did they disbelieve? Their souls prevailed over them.

The calls to the People of the Book: six calls

The calls to the People of the Book begin from the sixty-fourth verse, and the sixty-three verses before it form an introduction to them. And this is the first call: ﴿قُلْ يَا أَهْلَ الْكِتَابِ تَعَالَوْا إِلَى كَلِمَةٍ سَوَاءٍ بَيْنَنَا وَبَيْنَكُمْ أَلَّا نَعْبُدَ إِلَّا اللَّهَ وَلَا نُشْرِكَ بِهِ شَيْئًا وَلَا يَتَّخِذَ بَعْضُنَا بَعْضًا أَرْبَابًا مِنْ دُونِ اللَّهِ﴾ (Say: O People of the Book, come to a common word between us and you: that we worship none but Allah, that we associate nothing with Him, and that none of us takes others as lords besides Allah).^[10]

Let us pause at this call for half a minute. When I say to someone: "Come," he is originally walking in another direction, and I am calling him to me. And whoever calls someone with "Come" is turning toward him, not away from him. So the basis with the people of tawḥīd is that they turn toward all people and turn away from no one. Why? Because your role is only the role of a dwelling. Imagine a hotel room: does it open its door to Muslims only? It opens to everyone who has the key. So what opens our doors? The acceptance of people and the turning of creation toward us. Your heart is always open to all human beings who want to seek a blessing. And because you are a caller to Allah, you are not only open-hearted to whoever wants to enter, but you go out with your heart and mind after people to draw them into your life. These are the concepts of daʿwah, and we will speak about them in more detail.

Then ﴿إِلَى كَلِمَةٍ سَوَاءٍ بَيْنَنَا وَبَيْنَكُمْ﴾ (to a common word between us and you): are we engaging here with the mind or with the feelings? With the mind; we are now speaking to the balanced mind that grasps the dimensions of the matter. It is as if He says: please, take yourself out of your emotional states and rise to the level of reason. And why do I want him to come out of the focal point of the self? Because partisanship controls him; he is partisan to his religion or his school or his idea, and does not want to move from the stage of being swayed by the self to the stage of reasoning. Let me give our brothers an example: we were once in a meeting discussing one of the issues, and one of the noble shaykhs, may Allah bless him, was so steeped in his idea that he did not want to change it; however far you got with him to a point, you found yourself back at the beginning. So I said to him: Our shaykh, if I convinced you of my point of view, would you change your opinion? He said: No, we are only playing. So I make excuses for this man; what was it that made him drink in this idea so deeply that he does not want to change his opinion about it? And praise be to Allah that we are speaking about small, simple matters in which we differ and agree and there is no problem. But imagine that you are calling someone who is moving to another religion: will he leave Christianity or Judaism and enter Islam? Or leave having no religion, in which he enjoys freedom and unrestraint, no one questions him, and he does not feel the presence of a God? That is why the basis is that we bring the method of reasoning so that we may stand upon the realities of things.

Then the second call: ﴿يَا أَهْلَ الْكِتَابِ لِمَ تُحَاجُّونَ فِي إِبْرَاهِيمَ وَمَا أُنْزِلَتِ التَّوْرَاةُ وَالْإِنْجِيلُ إِلَّا مِنْ بَعْدِهِ﴾ (O People of the Book, why do you argue about Abraham, when the Torah and the Gospel were only sent down after him?).^[11] The verse brought together the influence of the self, since they claimed to follow Abraham, and the sequential logic of the divine revelations to the earth: how can you tell me you are a Christian or a Jew and then ascribe yourself to Abraham, when the Torah and the Gospel were sent down only after him? And the word "Abraham" has become a little ill-reputed today, and is taken in another sense, but in the original legislation it is sound: everyone who ascribes himself to the prophets is Abrahamic in the sense that Abraham is the father of the prophets, upon them all be prayers and peace. And through Abraham we believed in Mūsā, in Yūsuf, and in Yaʿqūb before him, and in ʿĪsā and in Muḥammad ﷺ; you believed in all of these through your belief in Abraham. Indeed, we have mentioned often that we are commanded in our Islam to follow Abraham, for our Prophet ﷺ was commanded by the saying of the Exalted: ﴿اتَّبِعْ مِلَّةَ إِبْرَاهِيمَ حَنِيفًا وَمَا كَانَ مِنَ الْمُشْرِكِينَ﴾ (Follow the creed of Abraham, upright, and he was not of the polytheists).^[12] And the millah is the general school, the way of thinking, the pattern of life, and the receptive pattern of belief. And so as to avoid a question like: we have four rakʿahs at ʿAṣr and three at Maghrib, so how did Abraham pray? Leave this aside; you are going along with the basic goal, which is the general direction.

Then: ﴿هَا أَنْتُمْ هَؤُلَاءِ حَاجَجْتُمْ فِيمَا لَكُمْ بِهِ عِلْمٌ…﴾ (Here you are, those who argued about what you had some knowledge of…),^[13] so the Qur'an takes them out of their zone in which they argue without knowledge. And we also have: ﴿يَا أَهْلَ الْكِتَابِ لِمَ تَكْفُرُونَ بِآيَاتِ اللَّهِ وَأَنْتُمْ تَشْهَدُونَ﴾ (O People of the Book, why do you disbelieve in the verses of Allah while you witness?),^[14] so it stands them before themselves in the position of one who bears witness against himself and not against others, and this is the basis: before you bear witness against people, you must be fit to bear witness against yourself. It is of no use for a person to say of another that he is wrong or right unless he is able to say of himself that he is at some stage of error or correctness. And after it: ﴿يَا أَهْلَ الْكِتَابِ لِمَ تَلْبِسُونَ الْحَقَّ بِالْبَاطِلِ وَتَكْتُمُونَ الْحَقَّ وَأَنْتُمْ تَعْلَمُونَ﴾ (O People of the Book, why do you mix truth with falsehood and conceal the truth while you know?),^[15] then: ﴿لِمَ تَصُدُّونَ عَنْ سَبِيلِ اللَّهِ مَنْ آمَنَ…﴾ (why do you bar from the way of Allah those who believe…).^[16]

So the Lord of the worlds, glorified, is diagnosing for us the ailments that may exist, by narrating the stories of the Children of Israel, or of what was before us.

The calls to the believers: from diagnosis to prevention

Then He begins the calls of faith. Consider their order: ﴿إِنْ تُطِيعُوا فَرِيقًا مِنَ الَّذِينَ أُوتُوا الْكِتَابَ…﴾ (If you obey a group of those who were given the Book…);^[17] not following, and a warning against intellectual subservience to anyone. Then ﴿يَا أَيُّهَا الَّذِينَ آمَنُوا اتَّقُوا اللَّهَ حَقَّ تُقَاتِهِ وَلَا تَمُوتُنَّ إِلَّا وَأَنْتُمْ مُسْلِمُونَ﴾ (O you who believe, fear Allah as He should be feared, and do not die except as Muslims);^[18] so after we said we do not follow others intellectually, we rally around one another. Then ﴿لَا تَتَّخِذُوا بِطَانَةً مِنْ دُونِكُمْ لَا يَأْلُونَكُمْ خَبَالًا﴾ (do not take as intimates those other than yourselves; they will not fall short in corrupting you);^[19] so do not take from the outside and do not be clothed in it on the inside. Then ﴿لَا تَأْكُلُوا الرِّبَا أَضْعَافًا مُضَاعَفَةً﴾ (do not consume usury, doubled and multiplied);^[20] be careful, for the first place where poison is injected is the economy, spending, and money, so beware of such ailments. Then ﴿إِنْ تُطِيعُوا الَّذِينَ كَفَرُوا يَرُدُّوكُمْ…﴾ (If you obey those who disbelieve, they will turn you back…),^[21] so He alerts us to the outcomes that obedience can lead to. Then ﴿لَا تَكُونُوا كَالَّذِينَ كَفَرُوا وَقَالُوا لِإِخْوَانِهِمْ إِذَا ضَرَبُوا فِي الْأَرْضِ أَوْ كَانُوا غُزًّى لَوْ كَانُوا عِنْدَنَا مَا مَاتُوا وَمَا قُتِلُوا﴾ (Do not be like those who disbelieved and said of their brothers when they journeyed in the land or were fighting: Had they been with us, they would not have died or been killed),^[22] so it is as if He keeps you away also from their method of thinking.

And finally the last call came to us: ﴿يَا أَيُّهَا الَّذِينَ آمَنُوا اصْبِرُوا وَصَابِرُوا وَرَابِطُوا وَاتَّقُوا اللَّهَ لَعَلَّكُمْ تُفْلِحُونَ﴾.

In sum: the Qur'an draws out methods

And the sum of the matter, after we have spoken a great deal: our Lord in the Qur'an draws out methods for us. So if you ask me: what did this sūrah tell you after all these dialogues? It did not tell me: fast five days, nor pray four rakʿahs, and it gave me no detail. But it gave me a general orientation for building the method of thought in the life of the Ummah, so it put distance between you and the conduct of those before you who plunged into all these intellectual, psychological, doctrinal, and behavioral transgressions, and then it cleared you of all that and placed your responsibility on you.

And let us conclude the discussion of Sūrat Āl ʿImrān: we said before that about half of the sūrah tells us about the history of the People of the Book, as if it were dressing all the possible wounds from the presence of these Christians or Jews in the societies, and it hands your religion over to you, and then it begins to call you: "O you who believe." Imagine: ﴿لَا تَتَّخِذُوا بِطَانَةً مِنْ دُونِكُمْ﴾ (do not take as intimates those other than yourselves), and this is counted as a crime, and yet He calls them "O you who believe." And if we compared this with the incident of Ḥāṭib ibn Abī Baltaʿah, when he informed the disbelievers of the Prophet's ﷺ setting out for the conquest of Makkah, and it was a very great crime, and the opening of Sūrat al-Mumtaḥanah was revealed concerning it,^[23] we would find our Lord addressing him and those with him, saying: ﴿يَا أَيُّهَا الَّذِينَ آمَنُوا لَا تَتَّخِذُوا عَدُوِّي وَعَدُوَّكُمْ أَوْلِيَاءَ تُلْقُونَ إِلَيْهِمْ بِالْمَوَدَّةِ وَقَدْ كَفَرُوا بِمَا جَاءَكُمْ مِنَ الْحَقِّ يُخْرِجُونَ الرَّسُولَ وَإِيَّاكُمْ أَنْ تُؤْمِنُوا بِاللَّهِ رَبِّكُمْ…﴾ (O you who believe, do not take My enemy and your enemy as allies, extending to them affection, though they have disbelieved in what came to you of the truth, expelling the Messenger and yourselves because you believe in Allah, your Lord…) up to His saying: ﴿وَأَنَا أَعْلَمُ بِمَا أَخْفَيْتُمْ وَمَا أَعْلَنْتُمْ وَمَنْ يَفْعَلْهُ مِنْكُمْ فَقَدْ ضَلَّ سَوَاءَ السَّبِيلِ﴾ (and I am most knowing of what you conceal and what you declare; and whoever of you does it has strayed from the right way).^[24] We will explain this later, and what follows from the act that took place. And in the end He gives us the example of Abraham, peace be upon him: ﴿قَدْ كَانَتْ لَكُمْ أُسْوَةٌ…﴾ (There has already been for you an excellent example…)^[25] in Abraham, who remains in faith.

So it is as if my Lord, glorified, is once again drawing for the community a methodical line to walk upon. And the address here, as we mentioned earlier, is not an individual address by which Allah treats partial matters, but an address to the Ummah. This is an address to the thinkers in the Ummah, to the educators in the Ummah, to those who make the educational and instructional curricula in the Ummah, and to those who lead the Muslim minds working in the pillars and corners of the Ummah.

I ask Allah, blessed and exalted, that there has been in what we have said some benefit tonight, and that we have at least learned that there are central places in which there are verses that we need to look at and ask: why did this verse come in this place? I ask Allah to bless us and you in this night.

--- ^[1]: Editor's documentation: Āl ʿImrān: 200. ^[2]: Editor's documentation: al-Baqarah: 1–2, and Ghāfir: 1–2. ^[3]: Editor's documentation: Āl ʿImrān: 1–4. ^[4]: Editor's documentation: Āl ʿImrān: 8. ^[5]: Editor's documentation: Āl ʿImrān: 7. ^[6]: Editor's documentation: Āl ʿImrān: 14. ^[7]: Editor's documentation: Āl ʿImrān: 33–37. ^[8]: Editor's documentation: Āl ʿImrān: 52. ^[9]: Editor's documentation: Āl ʿImrān: 56. ^[10]: Editor's documentation: Āl ʿImrān: 64. ^[11]: Editor's documentation: Āl ʿImrān: 65. ^[12]: Editor's documentation: al-Naḥl: 123. The speaker did not mention where the verse is located, and the wording in the transcript is slightly disordered, though what he said agrees with the text of the verse. ^[13]: Editor's documentation: Āl ʿImrān: 66. ^[14]: Editor's documentation: Āl ʿImrān: 70. ^[15]: Editor's documentation: Āl ʿImrān: 71. ^[16]: Editor's documentation: Āl ʿImrān: 99. ^[17]: Editor's documentation: Āl ʿImrān: 100. ^[18]: Editor's documentation: Āl ʿImrān: 102. ^[19]: Editor's documentation: Āl ʿImrān: 118. ^[20]: Editor's documentation: Āl ʿImrān: 130. ^[21]: Editor's documentation: Āl ʿImrān: 149. ^[22]: Editor's documentation: Āl ʿImrān: 156. ^[23]: Editor's documentation: The story of Ḥāṭib ibn Abī Baltaʿah (may Allah be pleased with him) is well known in the books of Sunnah and tafsīr as the occasion of revelation for the opening of Sūrat al-Mumtaḥanah; it is related here as the speaker presented it. ^[24]: Editor's documentation: al-Mumtaḥanah: 1. ^[25]: Editor's documentation: al-Mumtaḥanah: 4.