All language subtitles for Complete Tafsir of Surah Al Mulk by Nouman Ali Khan-en

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is

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today we're attempting to go through

some lessons from suratul mulk and it is

a difficult exercise to say the least

for myself because

makkan surahs of the quran easily get

underestimated

and they get assumed to be all virtually

the same or very very similar so you get

an overview kind of thing this surah

talks about the

one also talks about

this one talks about that one also talks

about then we kind of

kind of gloss over some of the beautiful

nuances and intricacies that are unique

and that are identities of each and

every one of these remarkable gifts from

allah azzawajal so my attempt is not

only to kind of give you well allah

talks about this and he does deal with

this elsewhere too well we're dealing

with this not elsewhere we're going to

deal with this at a time and i you know

my own you could say philosophy in

dealing with the study of the quran

that i hold very dear to myself is every

surah has a unique signature

and it has a unique message

at the end of the day the conclusions

may be virtually the same but the way

allah arrives at those conclusions is

unique right so the argument the

conclusion may be the same but the

argument used to present that conclusion

is unique every single time and the kind

of insights and the kinds of things

allah wants people to think about and

ponder over

are different pathways you know

we'll guide them to through our multiple

pathways and so each surah takes a

unique pathway and that's part of the

beauty of the quran this surah is unique

for many reasons

it's first of all in its placement in

the quran even though that will be a

later

study exhaustively

this is this begins the last chunk of

makkan surahs in the quran so you have a

cluster of madani surahs that are

together

that start from suratul hadid all the

way to sultan

so 57 to 66 and from here on roughly to

the end of the mushaf you have pretty

much makkan quran so this is the final

final area of the of the quran where

surahs get relatively shorter the rhyme

schemes are more apparent the style of

the surahs are very distinct they

actually have a unique signature to them

by themselves the way the surahs most of

the surahs flow in this part of the

quran

the other thing that's very beautiful

and unique about this surah

is that it actually

is one in which about which the prophet

sallam commented multiple times

so i mean typically you find one or two

narrations about a surah

and the

surah especially you know if you don't

distinguish between what is sahih and

what is generally found in some tafsir

somewhere you'll find tons of tons of

benefits of asura are blessings of a

surah but when you start discriminating

in terms of what is authentic and what

is not that's reduced to maybe one or

two per surah but suratul mook is unique

because there's multiple like it seems

as though the prophet sallam had a

peculiar interest

in making sure muslims remain connected

with this surah

on

pretty much a daily basis and they give

a lot of value to these words so i will

go through some of these narrations to

introduce ourselves in the surat and

kitab

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from the book of allah it is nothing but

30 ayaat and it makes a case on behalf

of a person

intercedes meaning it makes a case for

a person and gets him out of the fire

and enters him into jannah

subhanallah so that's one introduction

to the surah in

the quran

from no doubt a surah from the quran and

when you have a naked beginning in an

arabic classical arabic sentence surat

and with the quran that's actually to

create a mystery and it's also

an incredible surah from the quran made

up of 30 ayahs that makes a case on

behalf of a person

until he has been granted forgiveness

and that's the surah that begins

this is intermedia

you know

he would recite that and he would recite

altogether so he would he wouldn't go to

sleep until he would recite these the

narration says

then

and the narration is long but at the end

of it

allah

a remarkable surah from the quran that

argues on behalf of its companion

interesting uh you know hasamat an sahib

manyakara uh right so he it makes a case

on behalf of the one not the one who

recites it but the one who accompanied

it

the one who became a companion to the

surah so in the language of the prophet

saws he's suggesting that one has to

develop an intimate relationship with

the surah hatta

until it gets him into jannah into

heaven

um

is a prevention it prevents from

punishment in the grave

so if you notice all the other

narrations were helping us get out of

trouble on judgment day and even pulling

someone out of the fire suggesting

somebody may already be in the fire and

then be pulled out of it because of this

surah

that suggestion is there too but here

before even judgment day begins when you

and i are in our graves

we are warded off from danger because of

the benefits of this surah may allah

make us all a surah

okay so now just a little bit about how

the surah is organized i don't go into

detail in the beginning i like to have

that unravel as the surah unfolds and

kind of give you bits and pieces as we

go along but essentially the surah is

broken up into six parts the longest

section of the surah is actually the

second section

it's the longest it's a bit of of the

surah it takes much of the real estate

and it's also unique in its signature

one thing that tells is very telling

about this surah is that even though

allah will talk both about people who

make it to heaven and people who are

going to end up in hell there's a huge

amount of

bias

and much more real estate is granted to

the people of hellfire

so talk of jannah is very little

talk of jahannam is much more and when

that happens and sometimes that pendulum

is swings so you have some surahs where

you have much more jannah discussion

much less jahandam discussion right so

what does that mean that actually

suggests that these surahs are

you know surahs that have that there's

more talk of hell than there is of

heaven are focused more on disbelievers

and the the contention and the warnings

and the discourse with the disbelievers

has intensified

right so when when india is more and

it's akkad it's more emphasized that

actually suggests according to some of

us don't even they use that as a basis

to say this must have been later on in

makkah as opposed to earlier on in

makkah because indar takes a heavier

toll warning and being more aggressive

this is something that happened a little

bit later on like the quran is less less

and less and less

you could say soft

in its rhetoric against those who came

out and were you know they weren't just

disbelievers they were now enemies to

islam they were aggressive against the

muslims they were you know things were

you know getting heated up on both sides

so even the language of the quran gets

heated up as things intensify right so

that may be a suggestion that this is

later

there's actually virtually no narrations

about the the the uh sababa nuzu of this

surah and that's okay that's actually

a luxury so you have that for some

surahs but you don't have that for many

surahs you know but we know generally

that it's makkah and from the style it

seems that it's later

let's get right into it inshaallah allah

the word tabarak

is difficult to translate i'll give you

a rough translation and then rip it

apart as we go

so

often translated blessed is he in whose

hand all dominion lies or all kingdom

lies

he's capable over all things so that's a

rough kind of general translation

blessed is the one in whose hand is all

kingdom and he's over all things

completely capable but let's dig into

the word tabaraka a little bit

it's the

pattern it's a certain verb pattern from

the word barakah while barakatuhka

was

this is a few things that i'd like you

to take note of you don't have to write

this arabic stuff down but i'd like to

read through it so i can refresh my

thinking too right

the first thing is the word barakah in

arabic we kind of mean it to as blessing

but in arabic actually means excess in

goodness

okay excess in goodness

will say what is beyond expected

so for instance this this this part for

example you had one bowl

or you know one container of food it's

tupperware of rice or whatever it is and

you have eight people to eat

and they all ate from it and they're all

filled and there's still some left that

little tupperware had barakah in it it

produced more good

than was expected more good came of it

than was expected right similarly

barakar could be that you know you set

some good advice you give somebody some

good advice maybe you should consider

you know trying to memorize the surah

too

or something you just said that just a

few words but your words allah gave them

barakah so what happened they ended up

memorizing the entire quran and then

there they made all of their children

profound and then they started a mother

that teaches and oh my god all of that

happened because you said maybe you

should memorize suratul kothar

you know so that would be barakah in

your words

it's

enhancing something far beyond

expectation that's the first meaning of

the word barakah okay we'll look at the

meaning of the word and then what it

does in the ayah a little bit later but

let's just focus on the word for now the

second implication

of this word is actually

to of something to last

of something to remain of something to

become permanent and that's why

when a camel sits down it ain't bhajan

you do whatever you want it it's not

going to move

right so that's called

they say

it also when birds are sitting for a

long time on water

when birds are just sitting there and

they're not moving that's also called

buru kulma

and so the idea of it is not only

goodness that increases you know when

something increases a lot that becomes

unstable

right to give you a visual of that kids

are playing with legos or blocks and

they're putting blah blah blah blah blah

and the more they add guess what happens

the more the more unstable it becomes uh

you know the same thing happens with

i mean it's probably a bad example but

no such thing i guess

masjids

when it's small

things are good when they get really big

problems occur

empires governments when sahaba were a

small band of people no problem

when the numbers increase

instability

there's the the the insertion of

hypocrites

right and a great you know the great

work of allah turning into empire for

example

right when businesses are small lean and

mean

when they grow bureaucracies

right so

in anything that grows and grows beyond

expectation it comes with a lot of

problems but the word barakah is

actually interesting in that it prevents

that from happening not only is

something growing but it stays stable it

stays constant it has tabat in it so

it's it's an interesting play on both of

those ideas together so now let's look

at the implications on the ayah of you

know what is allah saying about himself

the first meaning is the one who has

this ability to instill barakah in

everyone and everything that he created

so he he is the one who empowers what

you do and what i do what you say and

what i say and what i earn and what you

earn with baraka

he's the one who puts barakah inside a

seed and it can grow into a tree

right now he's the one who does that so

by calling upon him with that with that

attribute or that verb that's what we're

saying allah enhances things beyond

expectation

that he himself is beyond what you would

expect

and you can never compare him to any

creation that he himself is more than

you can ever imagine every time you

imagine allah to be something he will be

more than that so when we try to

encompass the wisdom of allah whatever

concept we have he is more than we can

encompass when we try to encompass the

mercy of allah the care of allah the

forgiveness of allah it will always be

beyond what you can contain in your mind

it will always be more than that so this

is within and it's always going to be a

constant it's not something that's going

to go away our concept of allah should

be above our imagination

like our concept of hope in allah should

be above what we put like we think about

hope in other people

right

we should think more or

higher of allah

so this is this is the two implications

one he gives barakah too or he enhances

more than expected his creation and

things they do and what they are and

himself he is enhanced more than we

expect both of those meanings hold true

then

the word tabaraka some of you are

students of the arabic language it's

this pattern of the arabic language

in arabic when you say allah it usually

is two parties

it's usually two parties like ta'awan

it's two parties okay or tasharok

there's two parties

but if there's no

other party and you use it singular by

itself with certain words with this

pattern usually occurs for two

you don't say tanafasa by itself

you have to say

you have to add two people have to be

involved

but when you have a word by a verb by

itself

like in the case of tabaraka this

actually becomes a kind of hyperbole

intensely empowered or embedded with the

power to increase it becomes intense

as they would say

to be bound together but

from that pattern it's very tight it's

very well wound up so the idea of

tabaraka is actually it's different from

even

you know you could say baruch actually

in arabic in a similar meaning to to be

full of blessing or to be full of

barakah but tabarika is more empowered

version of it so extremely full of this

power to enhance and extremely far

beyond your expectation and more

enhanced than you can ever imagine is

the one allah the helmulk notice allah's

name is not mentioned allah says

so we move on quickly to the next point

allah doesn't mention his name he just

says

you know

no mention of allah

allah

almighty

no mention of allah

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he actually made it a mystery on purpose

he made it a mystery on purpose and this

is part of the rhetorical style of the

quran sometimes allah will not mention

his name he'll say the one in whose hand

all kingdom lies

the one in whose hand all kingdom lies

now the thing

is when allah removes himself from the

equation by not mentioning his name

this is actually to show the limited

mindset one of the things it does it

shows the limited mindset of people who

did not believe in god

so when they thought of someone who has

all kingdom in his hand

you don't expect the mushrik to hear

this and think of allah you expect a

believer to hear this and they think

about allah

but when the kafir the muslim when they

hear this they don't think about allah

unless you spell it out

they're thinking about some king

some king who has kingdom all kingdom in

his hand and now they're racking their

minds thinking from their point of view

how do you have a king who's got all

kingdom in his hand

but if he has all the kingdom in his

hand then how is there more

how is that because if he's already got

everything

how can there be more

you see what i'm saying

and so

and what have we ever heard of a king

that

is that stable

that just stays and there's no

challenging his authority and

you know from the two meanings of

tabarrok like he's actually establishing

this unique kingdom of his first

i want you to think about this kingdom

that doesn't budge from its place

doesn't move from its place now think

about the words

the one who you know

is actually mukaddam the the java is

which

the one who

only in whose hand there is kingdom

and namaste raqqa only in whose hand

lies all kingdom

all kingdom so it's exclusively

belonging to allah

and all of it belongs to allah

it's not some part of it is exclusive to

allah all of it is exclusive to allah

now think about the word

which i'm translating as kingdom or

dominion it actually includes every

possible strand of meaning of grandeur

everything associated with greatness is

encapsulated in that one word mulk jalal

glory power

sultan authority

respect and dignity and the ability to

legislate with the sarf and to do

whatever one feels

and greatness

all these attributes are actually

combined inside this one king

this is also even more unique again from

the point of view of the jahil

from the point of view because remember

there's so much mention of hellfire in

the surah so there are people who are

obviously in denial that are addressees

so from their point of view

when they hear and he's over he's

completely in control over all things

right

and we'll we'll have to understand the

difference between mustafi and kadir too

today

right so when we say he's in control or

capable we'll dig into that in a second

but i want you to understand what's

going on here as far as the theme of the

ayah you have a king imagine just some

king not allah you know

some king and he's got a great kingdom

he's got a massive empire

okay and some village is rebelling

what's he gonna do

he's gonna send the army isn't he he's

going to send his army is he going to go

himself

somebody is speaking out against the

king

somebody's you know engaged in a kind of

uh

rebellion against the king and they're

they're speaking out they should be

punished

is he going to punish him himself or is

he going to send someone and by the way

did he hear the guy rebelling or did he

have to hear it from somebody who heard

from somebody and it was reported to him

isn't that the case

so you the the bigger his kingdom the

less direct control he has

isn't that the case

he may have control over his minister

the guy right next to him

of not all the servants in the land but

at least a servant that serves him water

he has control directly but everything

else is in direct control he has no

direct input on anything else he's

simply delegating this king is simply

delegating right

but how is it that he has all kingdom in

his hands and he himself is capable over

all things

you understand this contrast on the one

hand you've got this macro view of

kingdom

and on the other hand you've got this

microscopic every last bit he's got

control over this uniqueness of allah

azzawajal established in this beautiful

beautiful ayah

but the other thing is khadir simply

doesn't just mean capability it does it

has the meaning of constantly and always

capable by the way

and it's ism

to some kind of constancy something that

always lasts right

and we'll we'll get to that in a in a

bit when we get to the next ayah but

understand one more thing here the word

khadij comes from the word kadar which

can mean a couple of things capability

but it can also mean limit

allah has put a limit to all things

and allah is the one who sets limits on

everything else

notice the first half of the ayah gives

limitless kingdom to allah and only to

him

and then enhances him and enhances him

and enhances him beyond imagination

and he enhances his creation beyond

imagination if he wishes but he's also

the one who's capable of putting

limits

you know he's the one the one who's

unlimited himself can limit all things

else

he's the one who can you know put a stop

that's the next beautiful thing

this speech it could be that it's simply

a statement of fact

he is incredibly full of the power of

barakah and he's in complete and it has

complete dominion over all things and

he's completely in control right this

these could be statements of fact

could also be a statement of insha now

let me tell you what insha is in arabic

it refers in linguistics to a statement

you make out of emotion

a statement you make out of emotion

like for instance the statement

alhamdulillah

is a statement of fact praising

gratitude in fact is rightfully

belonging to

allah but when you catch the bus

and you say

you're actually not making a statement

of fact you're expressing your emotions

that's insha'a

and sha means when you say something

emotional not necessarily informational

and

an informational statement is either

true or false you say yes or no at the

end of it

an emotional declaration is no yes or no

at the end you don't say alhamdulillah

and somebody says false it doesn't make

sense

that's that that's not how it works

right so

the language

could be a statement of fact but

actually from its language just like we

say

yes he did

it's not allah rewarded you it's

actually may allah reward you

may allah reward you right

it's not allah forgave him it's not a

statement of fact it's may allah forgive

him

right

so similarly

may he be

may he be

or how blessed is the one who it's like

a statement of emotion

okay

it's and this is actually now

illustrating how one should be in awe of

allah when they begin reciting the surah

like

it's you know by the way a statement of

fact employs your mind and a statement

of emotion employs your heart

right and so the beginning of the surah

is conquering our hearts and our minds

in just the baraka ladies

now just one quick comment about

and we'll move on to the next ayah

which is uh just an interesting thought

about the way allah describes himself

you know he says

he says you grant kingdom to whoever you

want that's what we say to allah you

grant kingdom to whoever you want you

grant dominion to whoever you want you

take it away from whoever you want

in other words kingdom and authority

and what it means is actually something

that is defined by allah

and if you look at it in that sense what

muk actually means to allah then our

shallow definitions disappear

compare yusuf alaysalam to the the

minister who throws him in prison

according to allah who actually has mulk

you know compare musa

who actually has a work if there's a

vaher of al-mulk there's vaher of

authority and dominion

but you know a kingdom a king is only as

strong as the army standing behind him

who's backing him

right

who's backing firaoun and who's backing

musa

seriously right

who who's got milk the the people the

num the three times the number that are

showing up from quraysh or the barely

armed sahabah buddha

right there's legions of angels behind

them they've got moles behind them you

know so it changes our perception when

we say

if you're subjects of his kingdom and

your loyal subjects of his then he's got

you covered he's the one who protects

you you know so in this in this

beginning ayah there's also not only the

grandeur and the kingdom of allah it

serves two purposes immediately it

serves the purpose of warning those who

will stand against this king

and immediately it serves the purpose of

giving a sense of security to those who

are loyal to this king

you know because if we were under his

kingdom we should be all right

you're messing with that king you're in

serious trouble so before you even say

anything else

that's established that's that's where

this is headed you're you'll have to you

know say about yourself you'll have to

declare about yourself which side of

this kingdom you belong to are you on

the rebellion or are you under in

submission now the last i know i keep

saying last but another thing came to

mind so i should share it with you uh is

actually about what's going on in mecca

at the time who's considered the rebels

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consider the muslims rebels they

consider them outcasts crazy people that

are questioning and defying authority

they're the ones in defiance the opening

ayah of the surah actually flips that

equation and says you're the rebels and

they're the ones respecting authority

so it actually criminalizes those

who were criminalizing the muslims

and it flips that equation entirely

subhanallah and just think about the

fact that rasulullah

has no standing army has no authority in

quraysh he's the laughing stock of of

these people much less the object of not

just ridicule but also of torture and of

scheming

you know by the end of the surah will

learn they're hoping he dies

and there hope some of them even hoping

to kill him that's why in

allah comes up

you know if allah didn't even kill me if

he even did allow me to be killed

that comes up because they're hoping to

kill him and yet and you know when

somebody comes alone i just i want you

to imagine this crazy scene because you

guys don't watch movies so i'll tell you

um

you have this one guy there's this huge

army that shows up with like their king

and their

their cavalry and they've got their

spears and their shields and all of that

stuff and they show up and they're

obviously now you're hoping the camera

turns to the other side and there's an

equally large army on the other side

before they run into each other but

there's one guy there

just standing there unarmed

and he's just looking at them and he

says if you know what's good for you

turn around

and they're all like

who's gonna make us turn around

hill says me

and they say you and what army

right

like how do you who are you to say

you're that's that's a lot of big talk

from somebody who's got nothing with him

you know

this is big talk

this is big this is very like aggressive

speech

coming from a person who has no

physically visibly no position to be

speaking like this

this is extremely offensive to those in

power

quran was actually extremely offensive

extremely effective i have no qualms

about saying it

it was

how do you go to the authorities in the

in your region the quraysh and just talk

straight to them and say

it's not just a religious statement it's

not just about theology you're

challenging their authority to their

face

and you're

basically saying you guys are incapable

of doing anything when you say allah is

capable over all things

first of all you said you have no

authority he has all authority all

kingdom in his hand

and he's got more than imaginable

and whatever little you have

he gave you

and by the way he's capable of

everything which actually suggests that

you're what's left for you

you're capable of

nothing

what a slap in the face

this is how the surah begins it empowers

the believer as they understand that

allah is behind them

it challenges the disbeliever in in this

aggressive non-apologetic kind of way

and then he goes on to describe that

king the one who has all all power in

his hand and says

the one who created death and life so he

may test all of you which of you is

better when it comes to action that's a

rough translation of the ayah

women

and the one of the most incredible

you know manifestations of when he says

i'm capable over all things

well what's what could be a better

demonstration of being capable than the

power over death and life

what's a better cape you know here's a

sampling of what i'm capable of

here's the sampling of what i'm capable

and by the way there are several reasons

why death perceives life here

that we can think about

and one of the first that comes from the

texture and the tone of this surah is it

is a surah of indar it's a surah of

warning and when you warn someone and

you're talking about allah warning you

then allah is capable of

well he already gave you life what's he

capable of right now

death

he actually sets the tone for those i am

capable of giving you people death

and it's not just

like he says

in other places the one who gives life

the one who gives death the one who

gives life no the one who created death

the one who created death and life this

is unique in the entire quran allah does

not talk about death as a creation other

than here

he uses the verb he gave death

and

to give life to give death and to give

life but to create the institution of

death that's this is the exclusive place

where it is mentioned and it's actually

illustrating a unique power of allah

azza we think of

we think of death as the absence of life

right but allah is actually forcing us

to change our thinking about death it is

an actual entity it is a creation

it is a creation of allah

death

you know and in the context in which we

think about death it's very different

from a disbeliever we think of death

actually as a a bridge that we pass

and we enter into a different kind of

life

it's a different it's another creation

of allah that we enter

another created phase for ourselves

like this

journey that we're going through in this

world right now as i as i live and

breathe is one phase that allah created

for me and the other the one the one

that starts at the moment of my death is

yet another phase that he created for me

it's not the lack of existence death to

the believer is not a lack of existing

you know

so the words

are very pointed

it's not just he gave you death so you

cease to exist

you know it's not adam adam

you don't exist anymore no no no

this is a creation of allah and by the

way think of from the from the ignorant

point of view the ignorant point of view

is very important by the way to me in

quran studies point of view is

everything

if you're studying a passage about ya

bani israel you better understand the

jewish point of view

he's talking to them so what are they

processing as they hear it how would the

rabbi think about this

understand their point of view if he's

talking to the quraish

well how would they process this

you know we process this as revering

believers

right and sometimes

they will actually document their

thoughts on these ayat

as they are internalizing it from the

point of view of revering you know

believers full of awe

but it's also equally important to

understand this from the point of view

of the one who didn't believe because

the quran addressed all of them

what was going on in their minds as they

heard this has allah been mentioned by

name yet no only a grand king was

capable over all kinds of things who

created the institution of death meaning

he's beyond it

he's beyond death and by the way think

about kingdom

think about imagine a king who's got

every bit of control in the land there's

nobody that can stand up to him what's

the only thing that will get rid of his

kingdom

his death

you could have absolute control

you could have every last subject in

your kingdom

love you and be loyal to you and be

ready to take a bullet for you and take

the arrow and the spear for you

but your kingdom is still gonna come to

an end why

because you're gonna die you can't you

can't outlive

your mortality that's not that's going

to come to an end and by the way as you

approach your death

you know what goes down

you become less and less capable

you become less and less capable your

kudra goes down

he didn't say he's capable meaning

immediately capable he said constantly

capable

he said constantly why because

unlike any other king who as even as

they approach death

their ability starts going down allah's

is beyond that he created the

institution of death for all else but he

is

he is above and beyond it he is more

than that he is more than any king you

can imagine you see how the word tabarak

now comes into play

you know it it's now it's beyond your

concept of

death and life our kingdom

you can't think of him like any other

king he's taken that away now so allah

called

that's one thing

the second

is you know

the power to create anyway even when he

says the word

like when he says

just in the word creating the fact that

he's a creator

you know when you think about a creator

you think about someone who is who who

produces unique things like an architect

or an inventor

or an artist and they they do something

only they can do like a work of art that

somebody produces somebody could try to

replicate it but it's unique to them

right and it's something that they're

it's their invention

is saying he's the kind of king

you could by the way somebody can make a

beautiful building could another

architect come along and replicate it

it's possible sure

that's possible

could somebody could could a great you

know seamstress was very creative come

up with some kind of clothing garment

and somebody else can replicate it

easy

could an artist make a painting and

somebody makes the same painting

possible

so anyone who creates it's possible that

someone else can replicate their

creation

he creates

he created death

he created and he created the

institution of life

you want to try and replicate those

it's far beyond you

he is mutabatic in that sense too

what he creates is above and beyond what

you can ever do

his enhancement way above and beyond his

creation

so this is the second implication here

now

a lot of commentary you find in tafsir

about you know why it's proceeding

some say because in the beginning when

he created he created us lifeless for

example the dirt that he created is

lifeless or the nuthwa the drop of semen

is is lifeless etc right

uh

foreign

you used to be dead and he brought you

to life

you know and then he'll give you death

he'll bring you to life again and then

you'll be brought back to him so he

mentioned death first there

right so he some argue that this is the

reason for which death is mentioned here

first because that's the original

creation of allah

oh my god i love this one

allah mentions death here before he

mentions life because it gives you a

sense of urgency i better show my

loyalty to this king before he gives me

the death penalty

nothing will give you get your act

together than the prospect of you dying

so he actually created a sense of

urgency by saying i created death by the

way

you're in my death not the death we used

to experience before but the death

that's looming over us he's talking

about the death that's coming

and he put that first to give you a

sense of urgency just to think about

even its correlation with

allah is in control of every single

death

and every single breath of life

like it rattles the imagination

but actually of these tafasir and these

thoughts and these reflections on what

death and life could imply here the one

that i found the most compelling and

from a textual point of view because of

what's going on in the passage and i'll

try to explain that is kanna bill

dunya is

[Music]

he says death and life

and death is actually an illusory

reference it's a reference to what we

have in this world

what you what you all you have in this

world is actually some form of death you

know the prophet salallahu was told

which translates into a number of things

it could mean you're going to die and

they're going to die

you're no doubt you're going to die and

no doubt they're going to die but

actually as a journalist it also

suggests you are already dying and so

are they

you're already dying we're experiencing

a little bit of death

every day

our life is running out if you

experience if you think of death as

worldly death as the running out of your

human life

complete running out of human life

and that little sand is going through

the hourglass

a little bit of it is going through

every single day every single minute so

we're experiencing droplets of death

constantly

and then the taste of it is given to us

every night when we go to sleep

you know so he alludes to sleep as death

too

so we're actually in this world we are

our exhaustion our bodies decaying over

time as we age all of these are actually

miniature aspects of death and of course

the ultimate decay is in the grave when

the body completely goes through decay

but it's not like it's not going through

a decay now

what i was capable of doing how i was

capable of exerting my physical body

when i was 18 is not where i am now it's

not going to be the same it's not going

to be the same 30 years from now

you know or 40 years from now it's not

going to be

you know

the the wrinkles on our skin we can't

control doesn't matter how much botox

you do

you know

the the eyesight getting weaker the

hearing the hearing loss the hair going

away things are gonna things are gonna

happen to our body these are all

actually

miniature deaths of some parts of our

body

you know it's not your whole being

that's died some part of you is

constantly dying so what i'm trying to

say is when he says he created death

it's actually a reference to what what

happens in life to you right now

and he created life which is the

ultimate life where is their intention

to when does the phase of our existence

begin when there is no more

deterioration you stay exactly as you

are

so actually this is reference to he

created worldly life

which culminates in death

and he created the ultimate life

thereafter which lasts forever

and if you look at it from that point of

view then actually the rest of the ayah

makes complete sense the reason that

compels me to look at this

interpretation more than the others is

that it

it makes the last part of this ayah fit

beautifully

so he may test all of you

look if death

if this was referring to like not the

the life that's coming afterwards

then there's no point in mentioning a

test

why is this life a test for the believer

how you know a test is something which

you either pass or fail

by definition

when there is an iptila or you either

pass it or you fail it

when are we going to know if we passed

or failed

when are this when is the benefits of

passing

or the consequences of failing

faced by the human being

after death

in the next life

that's when i get to see whether i

passed or failed

otherwise if that's not my concern none

of this is actually really a test

it's just stuff i go through right now

that has no consequences other than

right now

the only reason you can you and i can

call this a test is because in a test

you're being evaluated and your value

comes forward in the next life the value

of what you did or didn't do comes

forward in the next life so he created

the institution of death and life

thereafter so that he may put all of you

to the test

so he may test all of you subhanallah

now

notice if i keep going back i keep going

back because it's so amazing that

and the

weaving of the words of allah we started

with the word tabaraka which means

something that is constant

an institution that's constant that

doesn't fluctuate and also tabarik means

something that increases beyond

expectation just like this world will

lead into death and after death beyond

your expectation there's another life

so he's mutabatic in what he created and

one of the biggest samples of him being

mutabatic being full of barakah to

create more than what you expect is

actually

so it's actually a

a chronological sequence he created

death that's coming and life thereafter

so he may put you to the test

now what is that test a yukon

allah so which of you is better

if some translations say best i don't

like that translation this is the

symptom

it's for comparison purposes it's not

absolutely because it's a mudaf or

islamic

if you say

that's actually superlative if you don't

put the llama tariff then it's not

superlative it's comparative it's who is

better

who is better in terms of deed

there's a difference between better and

best isn't it

you know when you're best

then only one person can be the best

you can't have two people that are the

best

best means number one

but when you say better

when you say better you've got a lot of

people that are better

and by the way you may never be the best

but you can certainly become

better

there will never be a day in my life

where i say finally i'm the best that i

can be

but i could be able to say alhamdulillah

i'm doing what

i'm doing better

right it's actually a mercy of allah

that allah did not expect perfection

allah expected improvement

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just show me improvement

and by the way some people improve

slowly some people improve quickly

some people make long strides some

people are willing to give everything

they own for the sake of allah and some

people can give a percent of what they

own and that's that's improvement from

zero

that's fine

you know

allah has promised the most beautiful

things to all of them

you know everybody will make progress in

their own way it's it's actually a

beautiful thing that allah created this

institution to see which of you is going

to make strides to improve so it's not a

fatalistic view that's the beauty of

desire it's not a fatalistic view it's

not death is coming i'm not the best i

give up

you know i this is very pointed to me

because of the culture i come from

this hits me in a different way because

of me being pakistani

and for those of you that are indian

among the south east asians

you know

you know why because we're instill it's

we know it's in still dinners in our

education system if you don't score the

highest in your class

if you didn't rank first in your class

why aren't you dead yet

don't even show me your face

why do we even send you for an education

what's the point number

two you know like

and you know what how many that that

means the vast majority of children that

are going through this education system

expect the only way you're worth

anything is if you are

the best and if and by the way those who

are the best suffer from the most

extreme form of arrogance

right they suffer from the most i came

number one in my class and then that's

that guy's on a that drug his whole life

you know he can't get out of it and the

rest of them suffer from clinical

depression

and that depression doesn't just remain

relegated to the sphere of education it

actually transfers the over into the

kind of parents they become down the

road the kind of spouses they become and

the kind of view they have of their

spiritual life

they'll say to themselves since i am not

the best believer

what's the point anyway

and they'll give up on all their

practices prayer all together practice

all together i'm not perfect and the

rationale they will argue is amazing

look i'm not perfect okay i can't do all

that stuff

they'll actually offer that rationale

and that entire diseased mindset is

crushed in just one word

he didn't ask you to be perfect stupid

he didn't ask you to be perfect

subhanallah

yeah we're going to be here till 5. okay

so

now listen to this

the one who understands properly isn't

just someone who understands right from

wrong good from bad

but

actually truly understanding this who is

better in terms of deed is actually

understanding if you can distinguish

between

good and better

and worse and worse

in other words you're constantly going

to have to make choices in life you have

limited time death is looming i have

limited time we can do so many good

things in our life

let's look at start at the positive we

can do so many good things in our life

you and i have to prioritize what good

thing can i do that is of maximum

benefit to me and the people around me

that i can present before allah because

i have limited time

i'll give you the analogy because

analogies help us get understand stuff

you've got 20 minutes left

and you have 30 questions

to solve

some questions are worth three points

some are worth 15 points some are worth

25 points etcetera

[Music]

which should you spend your time solving

first

the questions that are worth the most

points you should probably tackle first

before your time runs out so even if

your time ran out before you get to the

extra credit or the one or two pointers

that you made the most of your time

actually embedded in it who is better in

terms of deed actually suggests you

actually constantly have to make

prioritizations in your deeds

what are the things i have to tackle

right now

what are the what's the best thing i can

do that's on the positive side but this

actually has a as a view on the negative

side too

also means to remove ugliness from our

deeds there are problems that i have

there are things i should better about

myself

right

none of us are perfect we all have flaws

but there are some flaws that are

mission critical we need to get to get

rid of those and some things are you

know they could take some time

it's nice if you got rid of them but

they're not mission critical

if for example someone's not praying

they're not praying

and on top of that they're not reciting

quran every day

they're missing out on two things

which of them should they take care of

first

you've got a bigger problem this is this

is deducting major points from your

akhira

why don't you get rid of this problem

first prioritize this

and then take care of the other because

you have limited time

so understanding the value of good and

bad and understanding what big bad

things i have to get rid of

what major flaws i have to work on and

what major good deeds should i be

engrossed in right now as opposed to

things that can wait

at the end of the day even in worldly

life you and i have a list of things we

wanted to accomplish in the next 24

hours

and we never get through them

right i want to get there

and we don't get through them and you

know what happens most of the time you

have two kinds of people you have people

that have don't

they don't have a good sense of time

management

so they'll just do whatever came to

their mind

and then they at the end they go ah i

had to do this this and this and i

forgot it

you know i was supposed to put that in

the mail i was supposed to open the

account i was supposed to do that and i

completely forgot it now and passed the

deadline and then there are those who

look at that list and say

all right what do i need to do today

and if i didn't do it today there'll be

a problem and they check mark those and

they take care of those things first

and then if there's time left over yeah

this is smart time management right it's

actually in the words

is the entire philosophy of time

management in the quran in the small

phrase

okay

now

allah

and he

is the ultimate authority

and he's the ultimate granter of dignity

al-aziz does two things the one who

possesses and grants dignity and the

ultimate authority

as a colossal

supreme authority on whom no one can

overcome

oh no one can overpower it's called the

aziz this actually furthers the idea of

biadihil mulk doesn't it and that's why

it's actually even

it's actually mentioned before because

the conversation is about allah's

authority primarily first and foremost

okay

the one who also grants dignity and

grants authority and grants capability

to whoever he wants from among his

slaves the word aziz or isa in the

arabic language is a combination of two

things ibn al-faris a great linguist of

the arabic language his philosophy

actually was that most roots of the

arabic language have two flavors and

then they blend

they allude to two things and then they

come together so izza actually has two

things it has elements of kua in it it

has elements of elements of power

authority things like that and it has an

element of quran

a dignity and nobility

okay so

allah has the ultimate authority but

also possesses dignity and that's why

it's come as an antonym for you

right it comes as an antonym of those

who are humiliated those who are

dignified

on the other hand you have al-aziz like

for example

right which is an authority the

implication there is authority but it's

actually a combination of both of those

flavors because sometimes you have an

authority that doesn't command respect

that happens and sometimes you have

respectful people that have no authority

and aziz kind of combines

both of them right both of them so now

allah azzawajal is that authority that

commands respect

you know as the king but it also as an

implication

is beautiful in that allah is saying

allah will grant you the authority to be

able to do good deeds

because only he can

he's al-aziz so he'll actually grant you

the authority so you can do what you

need to do to make the most of your life

also if you were to do good deeds he's

the one who will grant you respect

doesn't matter if the quraish make fun

of you or the disbelievers poke fun at

you and everybody thinks you're crazy

and humiliated as that doesn't come from

them he's al-aziz he gives it you just

do good deeds and you let the dignity

come from allah not from people we don't

actually look for respect from people we

look for respect from allah we don't

assume that we are only going to be able

to act

you know if we are granted authority by

people we're only assuming that we are

going to be able to have that ability

when that authority is granted by allah

so al aziz is actually it frees us from

a lot of social pressure

that name and our relationship with that

name frees us from a lot of those

pressures now

fine allah has given me the ability and

he's honored me with the ability to do

these good things am i going to do them

to perfection

no am i going to do make the most of my

life no i'm going to try to do better

but i'll follow on my face quite a bit

right

so

he should also overlook

if he's only al aziz then i'm probably

not going to meet his expectations

so beautifully he actually says

they're exceedingly forgiving

the and it's important to note that

siratul mobile

one who forgives

one who forgives exceedingly and this is

different from sifa necessarily it is

sifa is actually a dormant quality

okay

is a dormant quality something that you

possess like a hakeem someone who has

wisdom

that doesn't mean they're they're

demonstrating their wisdom that even if

they're sleeping they're hakeem

okay but as a food is only food when

they're engaged in the act of forgiving

and a lot in the act of forgiving so

it's an active quality so allah azza by

the way his authority is an ism

the authority he doesn't necessarily

execute his authority on you all the

time

he doesn't he gives you some freedom

you know he'll give you some room and he

doesn't always grant dignity

but he is actively involved in giving

forgiveness is actually empowering the

meaning of al-fur here at the end and

it's giving a lot of hope to the ones

who listen that even if you've messed up

before and you've been on the wrong side

of this kingdom

you can come on through it's okay

you're going to be forgiven and he's not

just forgiving he's exceedingly

forgiving and by the way never lose

sight of the fact that this ayah began

began with allevi

you can't lose sight of that fact you

know why

allah

[Music]

that's actually what's going on here

the authorities above and beyond your

imagination his forgiveness is above and

beyond your imagination and it's a

constant it's going to be there so

that's why the aladdin

you know a continuation of what came

before is critical and then that same

tabarrok

i know i've been going for a long time

but i really want to finish the first

section is that okay with you guys two

morays

the one who created

the seven skies

seven skies

means a couple of things it's a that's a

difficult word in this ayah there are a

couple of difficult words in this ayah

by the way

has unique vocabulary

right so it's a challenge for vocabulary

so you'll have

there's some interesting language in the

surah anyway

so let's deal with that first part the

one who created seven skies you can say

it

layers

corresponding to something else

can be the bricks on this wall they

correspond to each other they connect

with each other well

okay when things work well with each

other they have tata

okay when things work well with each

other and they are seamless together

then they have mutabaq

another word from

so

seven skies that are seamless they fit

into each other they work with each

other

okay that's one meaning of tibak and

this because it's from the tabaka family

the mufa allah family music

here it's incredibly well connected

seven skies that are incredibly well

connected where you cannot see where one

ends and the other begins

right it's perfectly seamless

that they are also corresponding to each

other and working well with each other

synchronized with each other

can also be the plural of the word tabak

which means layer

he made the seven skies into multiple

layers

so there are two meanings he made the

seven skies seamlessly fused with each

other and at the same time he made seven

skies into layers obviously seven layers

right

now the thing is when you make things in

layers

like a building in layers you can tell

one floor from another

there's a distinct line

but this is also unique because the word

tibak suggests that they are in layers

but they're also seamless

because one meaning of the back is it

seamless it's just a continuous flow

as a master and the other that it's

actually at the same time levels

right the question though arises oh man

i'm gonna drop this on you now

what is this doing here

he was talking about creating death and

life

all of a sudden he starts talking about

what

skies what are skies doing here

you know

allah azzawajal in the quran on multiple

occasions listen to this ayah this is in

baqarah years later this is years later

how could you disbelieve in allah you

used to be dead and he gave you life is

there some similarity and subject to

this what we're studying now

death then life he created death he

created life similarity the next ayah

death

life followed immediately by what

seven skies here what death

life followed immediately by what again

seven skies

it's not like the prophet saws is

consulting what was said in suit and

milk

okay let me do this here it's so

seamless

there's this

in the quran

this is

but listen to this what's the

correlation though

we i just told you for a non-believer

death is the absence of life it's the

discontinuation it's a cut

for the believer what is it

no

it's a continuation seamless

continuation where you can't see where

one ends and the other begins the

believer was lying there coughing and

all of a sudden angels are saying

you know

and he's like in a blink angels are

congratulating him it's completely

seamless and he says in the next ayah by

the way if you want to understand how

seamless death and life are

i will remind you

every time you look at the sky

the one who created seven skies

seamlessly

the one who also created seven skies in

layers

incredible

incredible what he does subhanallah

then

i was thinking about this you know why i

thought about this like where i found

the answer to

what's the correlation

quran

where is the only other ayah that the

book has used

you are going to rise and by the way

that ayah also starts with the sky

incredible

incredible

you know

so here allah says you are going to ride

one stage after another you're going to

ride with an angel who's going to be

your driver your cab driver and he's

going to drop you off into your mom's

womb and you that's going to be a tabak

then you're going to hang out inside the

belly of your mom not paying any rent

that's

then you're going to come out of there

and you're going to cry like a baby

because you're a baby that's a little

book then you're going to grow older

you're going to become an old man that's

another book you're going to die

you're going to go in your grave that's

going to be raised

was used for the layers of life that we

are going to pass through the levels of

life that we're going to pass through

and now allah uses that same word levels

for what the levels of the sky

and

there's some other stuff to drop on you

but i'll wait

you don't see in the creation of

in the creation of the exceedingly

loving and the exceedingly caring notice

allah didn't say

and this is the first time allah's name

is being mentioned in this surah a surah

that was supposed to be a warning to

disbelievers that was supposed to

establish allah's authority from the

very beginning and warned them of death

that is looming over them now first for

the first time introduces allah's name

and not as allah but as al-rahman why

one they were in denial of that name so

it's a slap in their face two you're

missing out guys he's

why are you in denial of him

it's not like he wants to punish you

he wants to take care of you

so the first introduction to allah's

name in this actually

you know it's incredible

allah didn't say you will not see in

disguise

any

flaw that's how it will dig deeper into

you're not going to see any flaw in the

skies he didn't say that he said you're

not going to see any flaw in the

creation of al-rahman

now when you say you're not going to see

flaws in the sky you're only talking

about the skies

when you say you won't see flaws in the

creation of a rahman then is the

conversation limited to the skies

no the conversation has now been opened

to what all creation tell me this what

creation has thus been mentioned so far

what no no not just the sky death life

and disguise and allah says now making

the point himself just like you don't

see any flaw or crack or gap between the

skies and you don't see any claw or gap

or crack between death and life

it's a continuation so will you see all

of allah's creation he doesn't

create things with a gap

he doesn't create things with a flaw

that's just not him

and he is too merciful and caring and

loving to do that in other words the

fact that he gave you a new life after

your death is an act of his care and

love and mercy and everything you see

around you that he created the you know

when you you know how you say somebody

creates something and they they call

they call the engineer when he designs a

new car what was your motivation or some

musician came out with a new song what

was your motivation well my grandmother

used to slap me on the back all the time

and that's why i wrote this song this

country song or whatever

you know

they asked what their motivation was

what is the motivation illustrated of

allah behind all creation

in this ayah

[Music]

an exceeding

overwhelming love care and mercy drives

all creation of allah

all creation of allah

[Music]

and the reason you won't see flaw in it

the reason you won't see any gaps in it

is because he put too much love and care

into it

it's not it's not some mechanical thing

some factory that produce creation

you know when you create something of

your own and you just keep perfecting it

and

fixing it and

you know and a lot of care went into it

like you know when a when a wife cooks

something for her husband or something

or a mom makes a meal for her son

[Music]

you could you could taste the love in

the paratha

you could taste it

you know

it's different from like the burger

joint or something

it's different

you know she could wife your wife could

make cereal for you you'll taste the

love in it

because you'd be like

wow it's really good

you know

something about the spoon i don't know

is one of the most incredible

views of life and by the way this should

shape how a believer thinks right that's

the point of quran is to shape our world

view they think about how many muslims

we look at the world around us and

things allah has created and the people

allah has created and the society that

allah has created and the times that

allah has created that we live in

and all we do is complain

and we don't see allah's mercy nor his

care nor is love

and he says

the reason you see things to complain

about is you've

removed al-rahman from the equation

you're not conscious of the fact that

this is

work

you know

the exceedingly unimaginable

unimaginably loving and merciful

with mercy with allah's mercy and it has

touched everything he's ever made

my mercy my mercy in fact it has

extended to all things

so before it was i'm in complete control

over everything and now he's saying i

haven't created a single thing that i

don't put love and care into subhanallah

now

by not by by limiting or not limiting

the conversation to the seven skies or

to the creation allah has actually

opened our eyes

to explore allah's kingdom more

he's actually invited the human being to

look around and just

constantly remind himself

so next time you travel and you're

looking at the sky or you're looking at

a mountain and you're looking at a child

playing and you're saying

it's actually extended your view of this

ayah to all of your experiences in life

you

know now

it is his exten by the way in the in the

context of the discussion though

in the context of the discussion the

primary creation allah mentioned was

death and followed by death a new life

and that was corresponded with the seven

skies there was a correlation made

between those two things and if you tie

that to the idea of al-rahman it is the

exceedingly merciful who didn't end your

existence with death

it's actually an exceeding act of his

mercy that he gave you a new life

thereafter

people should not think of the afterlife

as a curse or something looming over

them that's going to destroy them why

did allah have to bring me on judgment

day why was this no no no the motivation

behind it is

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what drives it is rahma

you know

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you know for the purpose of showing them

mercy and love and care that's why he

created them

so

now

what is that

let's dig into the word

something that has contradiction

something that doesn't add up something

that is flawed

something that is divided up broken up

and doesn't go together

it doesn't seem it doesn't skip one into

the other

uh

it's something if something has the what

in it this word in it then you look at

it and say man if it was that way would

have been better

like you could all suggest an

alternative

ya tim

it comes from the word which means

something that i skipped or missed allah

has nothing that's ever been missed

there's no time that's been missed

there's nothing that's been skipped the

word suggesting anything that's been

skipped

beautiful word man oh my god this is

actually

meant something that goes seeming

seamlessly together now he says mata

actually means things that move far

apart from each other

and are clearly distinct from each other

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so allah does not create things that are

distant from one another and by the way

in the in in quranic philosophy i would

even argue and that's something i talked

about in my previous lecture series in

in

surto nur this came up allah talks about

natural phenomenon in the quran and he

constantly in the quran ties it to a

spiritual reality

in this case seven skies a physical

phenomenon was tied to the institution

of death and life right so spiritual

truth is connected to a physical visible

truth right

and so even between the physical and the

spiritual realm there's no tafawa

there's no gap

there's no i'm pondering over creation

as opposed to i'm pondering over

revelation it is actually seamlessly

connected so you can't possibly ponder

over the sky without making you think of

revelation and you can't possibly think

of revelation without making you think

about the sky and the earth and the tree

and subhanallah

strange language let's start with that

strange language

therefore

therefore

bring your gaze back

bring your gaze back

return your gaze

why not abseil

look

return your gaze returning suggests that

you were already doing something you

left it and you came back to it

doesn't it

but

this is the first time we're being told

actually it's

you know allah says

we skipped that part

saying that you've been looking at the

sky your whole life

you're saying you've been looking at

allah's creation all all this time i'd

like you to go back and look at

everything again

look at it as though you've never seen

it before

start over

start over

don't make any assumptions you'll be

surprised what you see

allah in this incredible ayah is telling

us it's all about the perception with

which you see reality everything changes

everybody will see a tree someone will

see a tree and say man this tree is so

unkept another will see that tree and

say subhan allah allah brought that tree

out of the dead earth like he will bring

me out of the dead earth one day

another will look at that tree and say

this tree offers shade and provides

benefit what kind of creature am i i

don't provide benefit to anyone

it's that same tree but how you look at

it

is going to change everything and now

that you've understood that all creation

is

now the way you look at things should

change entirely so it's like you're

looking at things for the first time

that's why

go back

and by the way

we say in islam for example

when someone came to islam they have

gone back to their original nature

so now go back to look at reality as you

were always supposed to have looked at

it

don't look at it from a materialistic

point of view a scientific point of view

only you know

and a a a a

a soulless view

change your view

change your view

do you see any flaw at all any crack at

all any rip any tear at all now some

have of course because of its proximity

to the previous ayah assumed it's saying

look at the sky do you see any flaw

but if you pay attention to the previous

ayah it's not limited to the

so go ahead and look everywhere

of course beginning with the sky because

that's the most recently mentioned

creation but it's not limited to that go

look around at everything see if you

find any future now the word future got

drove me crazy

i've lost a lot of sleep over future

why

because the word futur

means

a rift a crack

a breach a tear that's what the word

like in the sky tears open

right

right the skies are going to tear open

yet the same word is used in a positive

sense

the one who created the translated is

the one who created me

who says

i had no idea what father meant i felt

better when i read this

it's like okay

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until two bedouin arabs came to me

arguing

and they looked they were arguing over a

well who owns the well and one of them

says i am the father of it

i was the one who started it and dug it

up

i'm the one who

the first

ditch

was mine

when allah says

is different from

he's saying the first one to t to dabble

into creation the first steps of the

creation were taken by him the most

initial phases of it

the most initial phases of it okay

so then allah says when he says

it does mean both of those things

initial

beginning and rip

and let me tell you the correlation like

in paris will argue the the correlation

between

something that is initial and something

that is ripped when you are you know

making an outfit when a seamstress is

making an outfit or tailor's making an

outfit what do they do first

they tear

they tear

when you are building something what do

you do first

you break you mold

you know

the first phase of creation is actually

manipulation breaking tearing joining

right so future captures that initial

phase of creation

okay

now allah is basically saying

so can you see where it all began

can you see the can you if you look

around can you see where it all started

are you able to see that you know why he

says that

because it's almost like he's asking us

to

asking us if we're witness to the when

the beginning when the creation first

started

allah says elsewhere

i didn't make them witness this creation

of the skies in the earth and i didn't

make them witness their own creation you

weren't around because what's the

original state of creation death be

humbled that the things around you

that you see are they in some kind of

you know under construction phase or do

you see them mature

in their creation

do you see something that's not quite

done yet

you know do you see something just just

started out or do you see them in full

maturity

you know

so he puts the human being in his place

when he says

now take your eyes back again thereafter

stare and gaze again twice over twice

over

take your time ponder over it come back

and look at it again let me tell you why

this is

when you

uh

when you go to a new city

right someplace you always wanted to go

you went to hawaii or something

you're amazed by the place

everything was awesome

then the next time you go but it's not

for just 24 hours you go for a month

still pretty cool but do you start

noticing certain problems

it's not as awesome

and it's good but you know it's got

certain issues

so you start noticing things when you

take a second look

so

at first glance something might seem

very impressive

when you get a little closer take a

deeper look it's not as impressive

you're not as amazed by it

that's the nature of the experience

human experience

allah says in his creation in what he

created take a look

and maybe if you take a second look you

might find some flaw

why don't you look again okay do it

again do it another time

actually means

you know how you say in english look

again and again how many times do you

say again twice that's actually an

expedited expression

look again and again look time and time

again

it's actually again and again even if

it's more than two it's an expression

keep on looking

in this ayah there's also motivation for

you to go back and stare and go back and

stare and go back and ponder over

allah's creation

over and over again but it's actually

you can tell from the languages talking

to the defiant first why don't you

reflect

why don't you go back and find the flaw

this time

by the way they're asked they're asked

to use their eyes are they not

this is an important bit of quranic

philosophy that you must internalize

the quran is an oral message

the quran is an oral message

and people who disbelieve say we will

not believe until we see

we're not interested in what you have to

say and only in what we hear we will

only find something believable if we

what

see it the quran's response is there's

plenty for you to see already

the quran says go look at creation

that should be enough for you to see

and now listen

so they say show us something special

allah say what the sky isn't special

enough

this shows some miracle he'll say your

own creation isn't miraculous enough

but that's not enough you have have you

even thought about it

that's the quran's argument they're

looking for special effects

they're looking for a mountain turned

into gold they're looking for springs

come out of the water

but allah says

you wouldn't be amazed by any such thing

if you saw it you'd call it magic anyway

or

if even quran came down floating paper

from the sky

and came on your hands you'll say

our eyes have been drunk

we are some kind of drugged

what kind of magic has been cast we're

spellbound

so quran doesn't waste its time trying

to tell you that yes some special

effects miracle are coming and then the

quran makes another argument have

visually

and you know dazzling miracles come

before

they have a staff has turned into a

snake water has parted before

blind people have been able to see

before that this has happened

did it help those people

no and by the way when he does show

those

things the track record has been people

still didn't believe

and if he goes out of his way to show

you something and you still disbelieve

what happens to you

you get

ripped apart in this world forget about

the next that's coming you get destroyed

in this world so when did nations get

destroyed after miracles

so

in this surah he is not showing you a

miracle

he's saying if you want to see look at

the creation of

right

and now gives you a new flavor of the

meaning of

it is actually because he wants to

continue to be excessively merciful to

you that he's not showing you anything

else if he showed you anything else you

would be following the same fate as

everyone who came before you you would

be annihilated

this is

that he's not answering your stupid

question

you understand this is actually the

point that's being driven home here

just look at this

no show me something go back and look at

it again

now let's see go back and look at it

this part also drove me nuts

for a while like what is allah saying

here

your eyes shall come back

if you do exhaust yourself looking

around looking at the sky looking at

creation your eye will come back

exhausted

one of the meanings is exhausted but

it's actually one of the shad meanings

of exhausted

actually means matured

chewed away

you do this for monkeys and dogs

actually in arabic literature

okay

get away from me

so when someone is humiliated they

they're ha

actually

when they're humiliated they're classy

when they are

like kicked out of somewhere when they

don't belong

and i have certain thoughts on this but

well first i'll give you the linguistic

meaning a little bit

yes

you ensure that they're far away from

you because it's not

you you are uncomfortable with them

being close to you

someone who you feel is so inferior or

so beneath you or so disgusting to you

that you want to keep them at a distance

and khasi

someone who is

just means small like liter figure

literally small it actually means small

in your eyes someone miniscule or

insignificant is khasi you wouldn't want

to associate with them

right

and then

when you harshly kick someone away from

you

that's actually the meaning of khasi now

this is used for example gunu tiladatan

khasi in turn into monkeys that are

shoot away

right

who's being your eye will be showed away

what does that mean

your eye will be exhausted and shoot

away pushed away kept at a distance what

in the world does that mean i'll give

you an analogy to help you understand

inshallah as best i can and then

will make sense to and this is the last

part of our first section four ayat is

the first section alhamdulillah okay

so here's what it is

um

look i give weird analogies as a

disclaimer ahead of time just to get the

point if it gets the point across it's

my goal okay

um

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so you're at you're kind of

newly got a job

and you're making like 45 000 a year

and you're on top of the world and you

even got yourself like a

prius

and you got yourself like a you went to

macy's or something and you bought

yourself a 300 watch

and you're sitting next to this guy

who's your age

and he's kind of wearing like a

dilapidated old t-shirt you know and

he's in the masjid and he's like hey

what do you do

and i just kind of sit around

i have a job

where do you live oh those apartments

that's yeah see those big ones yeah i

rented one of those

can can i come over to your place

sometime and you kind of you want to

test his what's he done with his life

you've been away you've been out of

touch with him for a while you guys went

to the same school and you're just

catching up and he looks like he's

homeless

virtually and you kind of want to show

them that you know

god what you got what do you got come on

what do you drive what do you do he goes

i just have a bicycle

all right let's go to your place i just

got a bike i got a car

let's go to this place so you pull over

to his place

and there's just a gate

you're like where do you live outside

this gate

he opens the gate and there's an endless

driveway trees on both sides mansion

beachfront property from here to there

you can't see the end of it

and you're just like

and you were insulting him the whole way

right

what just happened

the

sense of

inferiority your sense of superiority

in a flash turned into a sense of what

inferiority because you underestimated

someone

and you thought that they don't have

much to offer

and when you actually looked at reality

it dawned on you how

utterly outrageous you've been

and how we how you should actually get

out of here right now because instead of

they being the one humiliated

you're the one that's it

you're the one that's security guards

concern is he with you

you know you just got put in your place

allah azzawajal talks to the most

arrogant

and he turns to them and says

go look at the creation of

and if you genuinely take a look at it

you're going to feel humiliated who you

are questioning

it's going to come back to you

with a sense of you like you're going to

feel like a dog that should be shoot

away

and you're going to regret what you just

did

and your your eye you know people's you

can see the regret in their eyes

you can see people's regret and shame in

their eyes

your eyes will you will make eye contact

that's why young

look anymore the eye will come back the

gaze will come back back towards you

you just look down

and you'll be filled with regret

if you have any ounce of shame in you

subhanallah

you know the word

amazing

you know regret that's it

but actually

[Music]

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someone whose helmet their head gear the

thing that was protecting their head

which actually means protecting their

pride is taken off they're called a

hasset

to remove something actually you will

feel like your pride has been removed

you'll feel like your dignity has been

removed

if you truly truly gaze you'll be humble

like you've never been humbled before

then

actually means anxiety and feeling

really sad and you know

to be to be regretful and to be full of

shame

what have i done how could i have done

this

and by the way

and this is the the now concluding this

passage inshallah

what a passage subhanallah

look at this

this passage began with the kingdom of

allah

was in complete control over everything

and at the end of it you started

glimpsing at some of his kingdom and you

realize how insignificant you are

in the beginning

he owns all kingdom and by the end

you're the one humiliated

right it's this contrast between the

slave the human being and allah

you notice that allah talked about death

and life

he talked about death and life and then

he correlated it with the creation of

the skies

and the earth notice the language

how many times did he mention creation

twice

twice

then twice he said

take your eyes back and look take your

eyes back and look he mentioned creation

twice he mentioned looking around twice

it's perfectly symmetrical

it's perfectly symmetrical

in the middle to ayat of this passage he

said seven skies he created seven skies

he made them seamless with each other do

you see the matarafi

you don't see any gaps

and then he tied it directly with

do you see any even rip gap is far away

rip is when you rip something there the

gap is even closer

so he goes forget finding tafawa you

won't even find

future

and if you move out a little bit allah

azzawajal mentions

you know death and life

two things

look at look at

take a gaze again twice over once for

death once for life

i'll tell you one last thing about this

this passage and we'll conclude and this

is going to take two minutes i promise

and that is that um

i personally uh i shared this with a

couple of scholars and they agreed with

me there was a possible reflection on

this passage allah says he created the

institution of death and upon death a

believer

and a human being is taken up into the

skies

their soul is taken up into the skies

and then they're brought back

right

and

if allah created seven skies

you can't appreciate how seamless they

are from here

and that's pretty well established by

the next passage because as far as stars

are concerned that's still the first sky

right so if allah says he created seven

seamless skies you wouldn't be able to

appreciate that unless

you went up there a little bit

yeah

so the allah says he created the

institution of death

and then he says to us upon death

go up there and see if you find any

flaws

and as the soul is being taken up

it's looking around and it sees

no flaws and then it's brought back down

some souls are taken all the way up to

the seventh heaven some are just the

first some second right and then so as

it's being brought down

it sees it again

you saw the skies on the way up

you're seeing this guys on the way

down

see the sky and then see it again

and you know

subhanallah

subhanallah so it's it's a remarkable

remarkable beginning to this