yahood in in arabic they're called yahood or so those who
uh who are jews and then nasara there's a khiraf about
some of the ulama say it's from nazareth so they were called the nazarenes the nasara from nassaran
and then sabine dr cleary actually has a very interesting
i really like this here so he said in verse
256 of the same chapter there's no compulsion in religion it is not certain
exactly who these sabians were pen rice it was one of the orientalists that did a
dictionary says they consider themselves followers of the prophet noah as islam spread over the globe after the
passing of the prophet muhammad sallallahu alaihi salam the term sabian seems to have been understood depending on the time and situation to include
other great eastern religions like zoroastrianism and buddhism the primary verb from the
root sabaa means to rise as of a star hence some of them said they were worshipped the stars
but here i mean they couldn't worship the stars if they're amongst people
so using the sense of the root as referring to rising stars the name and the image
of revering celestial bodies might also figuratively represent
followers of remote lights of revelation so these are
the remote lights of revelation that were more distant from the early community of islam
than where judaism and christianity so you know muslims tend not there are in
our history many muslim sages that really understood hinduism to be
a a divinely revealed religion we can't say that for any certainty it's not
it's not possible unless the quran or the clearly states that but the great dara
shuru the the great scholar
and prince he was the son of shah
jahan who built the famous taj mahal incredibly pious person but devout
devout committed to
just finding the truth and he wrote an amazing book called mashmal bahrain in the meeting of the two oceans he
actually learned sanskrit he knew he read the the torah the
new testament the hindu scripture all in the original languages he's a
brilliant man but he um
in his own right he was given a mantle by his sheikh who was a kashmiri and he actually said he went to the paradise of
kashmir to learn these these realities he so he wrote a book on
the shepahat of the of the oliya he wrote biographies of the saints but
he he actually translated it's the first translation of the of the upanishads
into persian and so it was a really really momentous event that he did this
and from that came the first translation into french so it was translated from translation into french and then it came
into english but he was convinced that the um
that the hindu religion was a religion of toheid and that the common people misunderstood so what you see in the
kind of common expressions is just like you see in some of the muslim lands where you have ignorant muslims
you know tying things onto tombs and doing things you always find ignorance amongst uneducated peoples but aloha
adam who the sabians are
those who believe in god in the last day those are the real two fundamental things believing in god in the last day
there's a hadith in a bukhari that even if there's a mustard weight of belief in
god that people are going to get out of hell eventually so who do good and have
their reward with their lord they have nothing to fear hof and husan are
are put together because hope is fear of something in the future housing grief is
over things that happened in the past so these are people that are live in the present and this is the they say
that the the the sage the the person uh this of this um
commitment to reality is somebody who lives in the present they're not in the past or the
future this begins really with bani israel and
dr cleary removed that i think because he wanted to focus and he actually mentions that he he he
uh he mentions in his uh in his commentary that this verse of which i have only translated
part contains a beautiful summary of a believer's relationship to god and
humankind and i think it's really important uh because i think the reason
why he omitted is because again these many of these verses are speaking to benny is
and and looking at kind of the the view of that they had they were remiss in in
practicing what they were told to practice and that's how the verse ends but this middle section so this is what
bani is commanded and we this is a so
so it's a beautiful summary of what he said of your relationship with god and then your relationship with humankind in fact
ibrahimovic says that this is the summation really of
the the prophetic uh message because he said it has uh an action that is hospital
it's specific to the heart and that's tohit and then it has an action which is cross to the body the specific to the
body which is the physical prayer the movement of the prayer salah because that's the comma of the
prayer is a physical thing and then it has it's it's got something specific to
wealth so it's got the heart to heed the body prayer the wealth
your zakat and then the general ruling which is
towards allah's creation and then he puts it in the order that it's appropriate so the first is walid
because of their huck your parents their right is so great and then your relatives and he says
so those people that are related to you first and foremost uh that have blood ties with you and then with religious
ties and then waliyatama because they're the orphans are the the weakest people there's nobody
weaker than an orphan if if you think about it because these are children
children that do not have parents and who cares more about a child than the mother and the father so a fatherless
child is the weakest and that's why immediately after you know your blood ponds the orphan
itself taking care of the orphan and also the widow many many examples of that
because they also are at the end of life like the children at the start of their
life they don't have their caretaker very often there are widows at the end of their life that don't have the
caretaker the husband that was looking after them and then the mesakin
the weak amongst us is not to the people over you they're the ones that give hassan to you so it's looking at those
below you this is where your son is and then how do you treat all of humanity
i mean this is a the the power of these verses really are
they're just so stunning in their perfection really and and this is this is what's so
extraordinary about the quran is that you can look at it superficially but when you actually go into it and see the
arrangement and then
that's the general relationship with him just just how many problems result from people not
speaking kindly we recently had this poor boxer get in a fight on an airplane because
somebody was just wouldn't stop unrelenting you know and
or we had uh you know a a slap that was heard around the world
because somebody made a joke about somebody's uh bald wife you know that was a fa i mean just
you know how many problems would be eliminated just by implementing and all of humanity and lin nasi
speak beautifully to people speak speak nicely to people just being nice it's
not that difficult but there's just so many angry people out there
and partly because people haven't weren't speaking nicely to them
right i mean that a lot of it is just the abuse when they were young being told horrible things being bullied
all these things and then what he was like i'm really stunning
and when we took your promise that you should not shed blood of your own and would not drive your own from their
homes and then you confirmed again this is bani israel as you yourselves bear witness
so this came because in in medina in medina when the prosaicer moved to medina and
remember the the medaneese people they were agricultural people and
commerce people the jews had the commerce so the jews controlled the marketplace and then the the elves and
the khazraj they had date farms mostly so this is but the jews were merchants they were
they were buying and selling the the beni porreira had a they were the uh
hula fa the allies of al-aos and benin with al-khazraj so
they were even though they were both from benica they're from the same yemeni tribe
and beautiful people also even before islam there's a famous story because they knew
the last prophet was coming there so they always treated people they were famous for their hospitality
because they they believed that there was this last prophet that was going to come and in fact there was about a
hundred years before the prophet isaiah arrived um they were attacked
uh by uh the city was actually and at night they would send food out to
the to their enemies and the the the chieftain who was leading this
assault on medina was so struck by that he didn't understand and then they explained to him
that they had heard that this last prophet would come and they should honor them and this is
why they've the ansar were always famous for this for honoring people so what would happen
is because it was like that you know allah but you know we have in our
tradition with this famous feud for people from this country that know about this the hatfields and the mccoys and
they were actually related so there's this these things that happen and they usually happen over ridiculous things
but you have these uh these fights that occur between people so they had this famous day yom
which they used to say poetry and then it would rile them up they'd get in fights
again but the jews would actually fight with them and what they would do so that
would that because they wanted the else to win they would fight against uh the benin
aldir so the benigoreda would fight against their own co-religionists and they would actually destroy their homes
they would kick them out of their homes they would take their wealth but but here's the odd thing when they were captured
by the house they would actually ransom them so they would pay the ransom
and the elves couldn't figure that out this is like you're you're fighting against them and then you're paying your rent well the torah tells us that we
have to do that because there are co-religionists and so they the owls thought it was crazy that like
on the one hand you're fighting and then on the other hand you're ransoming them so this is why it says
you admitted that it was prohibited for you to fight your co-religion so they told them that and then they asked them well then why are you fighting them and
he said we don't want our allies to be humiliated so it was purely out of pride
that they were going against their uh religion
says you're killed your own people but it's actually the way it said is you kill yourself but it means killed your
own people it's a proper translation but the way it's said in arabic gets lost in here you kill but then you yourselves
killed yourselves and this is because when you kill
your own people it's like killing yourselves and even when you kill anybody unjustly
it's like you killed all of humanity so this is really important
so and drove out of their assisting efforts against them with iniquity and enmity
so
so we gave moses the books and the book is the the pentaton the torah
which has the five books of the genesis exodus deuteronomy
numbers in leviticus so those are the five books of the old testament
and caused the messengers to follow after them so there's a whole succession of prophets
and then we gave clear proofs to jesus son of mary and one of the things that was very
interesting in arabic normally you omit the alef so isa it would normally be written bin
maryam not ibn even though the the aleph isn't pronounced here
but what's really interesting is this makes so it says jesus
but it's like it's a second name so it's like jesus but also the son of mary so
it's it's really letting you know the maqaam of mary and mary's macam after
the prophet sam there's nobody that's blessed more on this planet than mary
i mean no billions of blessings go to mary i mean the the catholics
have a devotional practice to hail mary the ave maria it's a very famous
classical piece hail mary so so uh the um
he is the son of mary and he was given these bayonets so
amongst the beginner first of all she she was impregnated by an angel
so and these are the four the quadra of god is displayed in
these aspects so adam has no no father or mother
has a father no mother isa has a mother no father and everybody else has a father and a mother so the
quadra of allah is displayed completely in in our creation
the um the bailly nuts are many so one she only she was only pregnant for an hour so it
was a very quick uh and then she um
when he came out of the womb he he was speaking and in fact when kash
this is in the talmud by the way so this is not this this was said to mary according to
their own uh and if you read jesus in the talmud which was printed by princeton
university press there's a whole section about this that this is the soundest opinion even though later
there were attempts to say oh we're that wasn't talking about jesus it's talking about somebody else but there's a claim
in the talmud that jesus was the son of panthera who was a roman
centurion and that that stuffed allah that that his mother was was a prostitute and
that's why it says in the quran your mother was not a prostitute so the jews said to her you
are a prostitute and but mary then she just said you know the child and the child spoke
it was so intense that they all left except for zechariah he was the only one that could take it when the child would
speak because it was a newborn child and it spoke and so that was one of the big unite and
then also ibrah al-aqma right the that he he
ibrahim he healed the blind and blind was not like cataract
in arabic is blind from birth so the akma is the
one blind from birth so there's no sight there's i mean these are these are problems with the uh
the actual nerve so the optical nerve so they can't see whereas other types of blindness can be
cured um so that would be less miraculous than the akma right and then and then the abrasive is
the one who has like um these diseases of the skin like leprosy and vitiligo
and other types of i mean about us can be used for different things but it's leprosy is one of the meanings so he was
given these clear proofs and and then he knew what they had in their homes
in in their what can you do like what they had in their homes he also
raised lazarus from the dead i mean that's and that was witnessed by many many
people he expelled the demons from possessed people many many nights
and we strengthen him with the holy spirit so we believe in the holy spirit and that's a pretty literal translation
spirit that is holy they say it's
the holy spirit the sanctified spirit so um the holy ghost or the holy spirit
in in traditional orthodox and catholic and then later protestant iterations
they believe that this is one of the what what in arabic is called the
hypostasis so these are these are like parts of the godhead uh the the persona of the godhead the
three persona uh we don't believe that we believe that the holy spirit although we believe in
the holy spirit the holy spirit we believe is actually the angel it's the the head angel of all the angels
um so gabriel and that's why the prophet saw i said when hassan abu nuthabbit was
reciting his poetry he said may the holy spirit you know strengthen
you in that and people can have that the angelic spirit strengthen them in
their in their um
are you not haughty and arrogant whenever a messenger comes to you right
so whenever you don't like what he comes yourselves don't desire it so then you get arrogant
so some of you branded liars like jesus they they actually called him they didn't believe him they didn't
believe his message they called him a magician and other things
and then others you killed like yahya i mean he was actually killed zakaria according to our tradition
[Music] wretched is that for which they have sold themselves and here estero most of
them will facilitate it means this again arabic you have to be very careful with
the arabic in the quran because ashtara usually means to to ba to to purchase but here it
actually means to sell that they should reject what god has sent down them in arrogant jealousy
so there's a kind of there's a jealousy here you know that
that that why is it coming to them why didn't it
come to us and if you look you know this began if
you look at these verses it's it's you know allah says
remember my blessing that i have blessed you with so the nema there
the bani is being told to remember the nema as a way to direct them to the muni
so one of the things that the people of allah say is
the slaves of blessings are many but the slaves of the blesser of blessings are few
so the the nema here they're reminded you know that allah
gave them all these blessings but he can give bless these blessings to other people as well that it's not simply for
them that that the prophets that there are other peoples that had prophets and
that the final prophet was not from bani israel he's from uh
beni adnan he's from ismail and i will make of
him a great nation how could it be great if it's not a
religious nation how could it be great with god what numbers like god cares about numbers
how could it be great and yet genesis abraham was told that i have heard thee
about concerning ismail and he said i will make of him a great nation.
and the the tents of shiloh i mean the tents of shiloh are in
so that shiloh is is our prophet isaiah so
so they have brought on themselves wrath upon wrath if you reject
this thing if you reject because it doesn't suit yourself
then you you're bringing and that's him you know you you incur this
the wrath and it's not wrath like petulance it's not god's a petulant creature
you know like like human beings god is is beyond emotion god does not
have emotion he's the creator of emotion but his
is only for us to understand because he's given us
so but he doesn't he's not getting angry like oh you've he knows everything
people are going to do so we we don't anthropomorphize our lord
but he says wrath upon wrath
in other words he didn't use magic as some of them claimed the book of solomon is a a cult
book claiming that it was this magic that solomon had so far uh
in in islam not with uh like you know muhammad ali used to do coin tricks and things like that that's that's different
i mean that's my crew but but but
is magic incantations invoking putting spells on people doing these
things that's kofar
they were the ones that used the magic so the he calls them the obsessive were ungrateful
and if you look at his argument for using that term it's very interesting um because
it's it gets to the root of what shaitan is about
and what what came down to the angels at babylon so babel is near al-khufah in
iraq in in the in the country of iraq there was a place babel and babylon the
scarlet lady the of babylon babylon is in the old testament they were very very profligate people
diverted and they were warned and and they were destroyed so babylon is everything
negative in the old testament is personified in babylon
so these two angels americanis
are these two angels there's khiraf about this and you'll get into uh you know
even actually says the hadith about them being given free will they were they were
the most worshipful among the angels and all the angels were complaining about humans because constantly there was all
this these horrible the angels would bring their reports on
what humans were doing and it was all just negative and corruption and all these things and so harut and marut
were given the free will and then they because of that they lost their melakia
they lost their their angelic nature and were given human nature and they did what humans
did and so it was to show the angels that that's one opinion so but you'll you'll
see different things but the point is they did teach
and but they said in them we are a test and that's that's one of the fundamental
fitna also in the quran means different things it can mean sedition it can mean
civil strife right so like civil war is called fitna that fits in
so but here it means test we are a fitna because fatanah iftinhu the original
meaning of it in arabic is to test gold for dross so when you heat up gold you test it for
dross and that's why when things break out when fitna breaks out you see who's gold you see who's silver you see who's
copper and you see who's toxic lead like people really reveal themselves in fitna and that's why it's such a useful
word in that way because whenever fitna when fitness come suddenly people that never do anything they're full of energy
and they're on the phone and do oh did you know this and that and there's where were you like
you never volunteered at the mosque i tried to get you to volunteer for the bake sale you were too busy
but now that there's a fitnah you have so much free time
very interesting humans yeah
and the worst ones are your beast friends right
and this is really demonic because the worst thing that you can do
is separate between a family so when there's love in a family when there's a bond and people that separate that in
fact in the hadith which is in sahih muslim ibris
you know it's it says that
he put his throne on water because god's throne is on water so iblis is a great mimicker
when i first went to to las vegas i realized that it's a perfect imitation of not
perfect stuff of the law but it really looks like the area around mecca
like anybody who's been there and been to mecca they're struck by that fact and
and and las vegas is a international hajj of sin
people make pilgrimage from all over the world to las vegas
to to to sin it's called sin city and and people go
from all over the world to mecca for piety and so
it's clear that he made his his hajj there i mean that's
so he put his throne on water and then he ba
so he sent out his raiding parties syria is a raiding party in a military term so
he sent out his saraya his raiding parties like they're going out to raid
human beings that's what they do
and the one closest to him in station is the one that does the greatest harm
in in the raiding parties so when they come back
so they come back and they say to iblis oh and he's like on his throne you're listening to oh i did such and such and
such as he said you didn't do anything you know i got him to kill i didn't do
anything i got him to steal you didn't do anything and then one of them that one of them
had
i didn't leave him until i separated him from his wife and iblee says
you're the you're the best so that shows you because all those
other things come from that fundamental breakdown like all the social problems come from
family breakdown and that's why if you look in all these places where there's high crime
just look at the kids where's the father where where was the where was the father
to discipline him to show him the right way to give him the path it's all very clear so that's why all those other
things are nothing because from doing what the one he said
he gets all those other things so break the family destroy the family
that's it
yet they hurt no one thereby except by the evil god and this is important because this is in the end our deen you
know it's only by the island of allah subhanahu wa ta'ala allah has permitted these things for ahikmah and we have to
respect that we looked already at you
you know are you going to put in the earth the one who sows makes trouble and trouble is a brilliant
uh translation when i when i looked at it because i realized you know if you translate a facet as
corruption that's only one aspect whereas if you look at trouble in the dictionary it's got all it's got civil
strife in fact the troubles of ireland are the civil war of ireland they were called the troubles so it's
got everything it's got mental troubles you know like he's in trouble with the law
you know so it really is a it's actually a really good term for that at that point but anyway
so they learn what would harm them not what would benefit them
that those who had bought it had no share in the hereafter khalakleb
that had no share in the lab
and wretched was that for which they sold themselves if only they knew that's bit it says
it's an interesting um like sanne so one is the worst and the
other is the best you know you know what a good man zayd is or
so now anno
so if they had only they had been faithful and conscientious the reward from the presence
of god men and would have surely been better if only they had known
to god belongs the east and the west so allah possesses the east and the west
and here is a joomla so wherever you turn them
so it's it's really indicating the essence of god so there is
the face of god in other and also it's translated um some of them say jihito
law that it's the direction you're wherever you face you're facing god
in allah and that's why
the secret of allah's book is in the names at the end of the ayahs
why would he use that here is it's a brilliant translation i don't know if he's the only one that used that
but it means
that he encompasses all things which literally in arabic was means vast
or wide but here it literally means the omnipresent he's encompassing all things all-knowing alim
so he is in other words wherever you turn there is the is the law and then he knows so
he knows what
and they say god has begotten a son subhanah there's tanziya transcendence
god glory be to godzilla bella who
no to him belongs all this is istit daraq in arabic
in other words it's going no rather no it's changing the the humafist
everything is obedient to god kunut is obedience khan it is the one who's in a state of obedience it's it's the pious
one before god swarath is done at fajr for the shaffirs and the
monarchies
so imam says that the reason that this
whole error came in was because one of the names of god
in the previous shariah was father so the jewish tradition and the christian
tradition use the name father as and and i don't know if it's related
to father you know allah because it's a it's a sanskrit father comes from originally
from sanskrit but it's very interesting that father is very similar
but so he says that it's because
god the father and which was a valid name in fact even tamiya in his extraordinary six volume work on the uh
the bible says that it it was abrogated for the muslims as a name so we can't call god the father because of the
gendered language which makes it very interesting that dr cleary decided to translate this in a gender to this
language because people were thinking that god has a gender with that name
it's very interesting so
the uh god uh subhanah bellahumaf is
he possesses everything in the heavens and the earth
and it is isn't it interesting but badiru the originator didn't use fatiru badiru-samawati the originator so
it has no badiya is truly creative and that's why
you know they used to have uh traditionally there was no such thing as creative writing
courses because there's no such thing as creative writing actually the courses previously were
learning how to imitate other writers so it was imitating great writers so he
actually learned how great writers wrote creative writing is this idea oh you
create it in arabic the word to
to for a human means to lie because the only creator is allah
everything else is imitation humans are only imitating allah is the only
khalakha and that's why there's no such thing really as creative right like he's a creative person creative like how what
what did he create everything is just imitation
and so uh ibdah is is this word vedir
art is a better term it's innovative so you can innovate you know it's something
that somebody does something new and that's from the latin
novaree which is new novus you know new so vadiya is is something
you know an innovation pediru
whenever god decrees anything god says to it be and it is fayocono and that pha is not sababia it was very interesting
because usually if you have an amar you'd have a first sababia
be and it is there's no severe you know there's a because this the sub
of you know them there's no illa there's no there's no cause and effect in that way
there's no sebabee we we use it majasan with allah you know it's a figurative it's purely figurative
and now say we believe in god and what was revealed to us and what was
revealed to abraham and ishmael and isaac and joseph and the tribes
there's but jacob had 12
sons and i think five were from leia
and then he had uh two uh concubine and then he had um
raheel or rachel and raheel who's rachel who's the mother of
um yusuf and benjamin and benjamin uh in the jewish tradition she died in
childbirth with benyamin but raheel was honored by the muslims
and her maqam was in palestine it's still there but now it's a jewish mam the muslims don't visit anymore but it
used to be it was the muslims that actually it was the ottomans that built the makam of
amazing i think leia is buried at the where the uh
where sarah and where all the um in in khalil al-khalil
so the the asbath are the tribes so there's 12
sons reuben was the oldest and you have levi and and and danny and
and jad god which god is still used in egypt that's
one of the sons god jad yeah so these these were the sons
that and and what was given to moses and jesus
now look at this so they're all the the jewish prophets right
so but then it says
all the prophets
they're all from god so we unlike the previous dispensations
reject some of the prophets and accept other ones we accept them all
we accept moses i mean we have palestinian kids named musa
you know and they're under israeli occupation they name their kids musa
the the prophet of the jews we have muslims named isa
the prophet of the christians because there are prophets that's why when i was talking with rabbi
lerner may god give him a healing he wasn't well but uh when i was talking about
brother he said when arch i said your citizens are tradition you know we're like
we get what you have and then we get more i mean
we don't make any distinction so even though there's tafadal in the messages and the prophets have greater numbers
they have different makama those things that's that's all but in their essential
prophecy we don't make any distinction between them the prophet saw islam said don't let father
don't prefer me over eunice evan metta in the nebula don't think that
you know no we're we're all from god and and that's why you should never say our prophet's greater than your prophet
or something like that because there's no there's no benefit in that there's no point in in that i mean we
should know who our prophet sam was we should know that but you don't
attack other people's religions or traditions
and your god is one god
there is no god but the one
that is right there everything is right there
and and how does god choose to define himself
after telling us he's one what does he want us to know about him
so the mercy of participating in creation that you participate in being
because god is is the ultimate being and so he has allowed us to participate
in an attribute of his even though it's temporal he's allowed us to participate
in wujoud and that's namited ejad and that is such
a great blessing but then within imdad that yumidu he's constantly sustaining us he's
keeping our bodies most of us 98.6 temperature we've got
things in our body right now that are fighting viruses and bacteria allah
created all of that for us allah is doing all that that's his in debt and then food and sustenance he
enables you to break down your lipids and your proteins and your carbohydrates oxygen to sustain yourself
you know that you breathe in and going to all that and this all from allah subhanahu wa ta'ala
and then look like okay right after that
after he says there's no god but god
he he wants us to see what he why he's god why we should worship him why we should
adore him why we should submit to him
behold in the creation of the heavens and the earth and the alternation of night and day and the ships that sail on
the sea to profit the people and the water god rains from the skies thereby enlivening the earth after it has died
and spreading animals of all kinds of
and spreading animals of all kinds there upon and in the shifting of the winds i mean now we know the whole wind system
on this planet it's a completely organized and in fact it's our human beings that are causing the disruption
of these incredible do not disturb the earth do not corrupt
the earth after we rectified it for you we said it right there in our
signs right and then with sahab and
and then the clouds enslaved there between the heavens and the earth
you know there in our signs for a discerning people they're in our signs for people that
have reason that can think about these things and then uh a little further this is further down
lei said or alberto [Music]
it's one of those comprehensive words it's hard to translate but it has to do with
it can also be charity it can be upright behavior it can be piety it can be obedience
all these things that you turn your faces east and west so in other words it's not the formal
aspect and i think i i really like she has a very nice
here is one of the most beautiful summaries of essential islamic beliefs and practices
it is not righteous that you turn your faces east and west this seems to mean that the heart of religion is not
defined by superficial profession or allegiance as defined in terrestrial terms
some translators what render the wow here as or but the more usual and seems to me
to be more inclusive and thus more suggestive of the transcendental aspect of devotion even as is practiced within
everyday life so it's quite beautiful which you know so
like the east or the west he says the east and the west to make it inclusive here
[Music] the treasured light verse included in this section of readings from the quran
says that the light of god is like a lamp a lit with oil from a blessed olive tree that is neither of the east nor of
the west and then so they those who believe in god and the
last day and the angels and the books and the prophets so there except for the qatar it pretty sums up our belief
and who donate goods and money goods and money it was very interesting
see these are really nice nuance aspects of this translation who donate goods and money
for love of god it also can be despite your love of the goods of the money so
the could be so it has both meanings they give it out of love of god but also they love those
the things they're giving so it's it and that's like the prophet saw i said was asked
you know that you are the best when you're
healthy you're sound because people on their death bed you know will give it away right no when you're healthy and
sound and you fear poverty you you hope for increase and
you fear poverty i mean it's quite stunning to relatives and orphans again the most
important what masakeen women is and the wayfarer and to the needy was
the needy here really are the beggars people who are asking
freeing the slaves and who are constant in prayer and who give alms for welfare and those
who fulfill their promises when they make them and who are patient and suffering adversity and hard times
so is difficulty in your circumstances the is
difficulty in your actual body so they're patient when they have difficulty also
can mean like and poverty and also humiliation those
difficulties the ra can mean here marat or zamana like chronic disease
people have chronic pain for those of us who have chronic pain you
know people who have chronic pain know how difficult it is and traditionally those type people
you know like my mother and father's generation they didn't even complain they didn't even mention it to people because they didn't
want other people to know that we would make them feel bad it's like
you know there's a there was a comedian who died a while back and he
had cancer for 10 years and he never told anybody even his own family didn't know uh jan or daddy
mentioned this to me because he liked this uh norm macdonald but he
he didn't tell anybody he was sick and they asked him why when he they found out he was dying and he said he just
didn't want to make anybody sad you know so there's people that they just they they suffer enduring that's
what it means enduring law you know patient enduring
in war and jihad but also hard times they're all sound meanings suffering adversity and hard
times they're all sound meanings they are the truthful ones
[Music] and then 254.
so there's spend before that day comes there's no
bartering there's no friendship there's no mediation and it is the ungrateful who abuse and oppress
and then this is the great ayat the prophet isaiah said it was the greatest verse abu under he asked him
what was the greatest verse in the quran he mentioned this and he struck him on it gave him a strike on his chest and
said you know congratulations on that knowledge
because this really gets at the again the essence of the quran is really a book about god
from god about god and goes back to god like he he recites
it the prophet isaiah said the best thing that you can give to god is what came from god which is the quran
so it came from god it goes back to god god
allah exclamation mark
the end of time won't come until nobody says allah allah you know you know there is no god but
the one the living the self-subsistent these are two really important
attributes of god drowsiness does not overtake him sinneh is like just a nod off just a knot
does not overtake god nor sleep well i know the humaf is
he possesses that's who god belongs what is in the heavens and the earth who could there be who can intercede with
god ladies who can intercede except by leave of god
god knows what is in front of them and what is behind them but they do not comprehend
anything of god's knowledge
the throne of god extends over the heavens and the earth and the preservation of them both is not oppressive to god it's not a burden
it doesn't weigh him down
and then [Music] comes immediately after that once god's declared
it's amazing no compulsion in the religion
it's clear so if somebody's blind you can't guide them unless they want guidance
but if somebody just says leave me alone you have to leave them alone
[Music] so whoever just believes in idols are things worshipped other than allah
and believes in god and has taken hold of the most reliable handle that uh does not break for god is all hearing
all-knowing those who spend their wealth in the way of god and then do not follow what they spend with reminders of their
generosity or with abusive treatment they have their lord they have their reward with their lord and there is
nothing for them to fear and they will not sorrow again hope kind and forgiving words are better than
charity followed by abuse because there's people that are abusive with their charity they could remind you of how much they
helped [Music] don't tell me uh how much you've done
for this religion that's what the prophet was told to say to these bedouin who were coming out we
supported you we join your religion you know wanting something
don't tell me what a great boon your islam is to this religion
no allah can remind you of his blessings to you so and that's why al-manan is a
negative term except for god god has every right to remind us but when you remind other people
and partly it's because in reality it's from god you were just a subup so don't tell them what goodness you've done for
them because in reality it came from god it's just god has told us you know we have to thank people and encourage people
and then don't nullify your charities by reminders of your generosity or by abusive behavior
as do those who spend their wealth to be seen by the people without believing in god in the last day and what that is
like is a hard stone with dust on it on which a heavy rainfall so it's just barren and there's nothing nothing comes
out of it the example of those who spend their wealth seeking to please god and strengthen their souls is that of a
garden or a null and that it's quite beautiful i mean i don't know if he's the first
one to use that but it's a perfect term because uh noel is a you know the grassy knoll at dallas there's a place where
you know they think there might have been other gunmen but it's called the grassy note because it's an elevator it's an eminence so is
elevated it's in english language no it can also mean null like the null of a bell like nell the death knell of the
bell ask not for whom the bell tolls it tolls for thee but also asks not for whom the bell knows
it knows for thee so null can also mean the ringing of a bell it's a verb to know the bell
the messenger and then this alhamdulillah we got to the end so the mecca i want to get to at least finish
bakara the messenger believe
so the messenger believes he believes the prophet when the jewish rabbi came and gave his description of the torah he
said i meant to be rasulullah i bear witness that i'm the messenger it strengthen his iman
remember when he got the message he was troubled he didn't know
and that was his sincerity who am i that was who am i to get a
message from god who am i and that's why it's so arrogant you see
these people that god spoke to me really god
creator of the heavens and the earth knower of the scene and the unseen spoke to you what did he tell you
i mean it's like that is a sure sign of madness and that's why the prophesied sin was so troubled
but then look here's the proof this is what came out of him it's not like somebody wandering around talking to
himself saying that god's speaking to him i mean this transformed the world
this transformed western civilization all these things that western people see they don't even know that it came from
ikra bismi arabica lady all the mathematics all the architecture all the
science if you read george sartan's multi-volume on the history of science
the first two volumes are all muslim names right
so this is what came out of god speaking to a man
by their fruits you shall know them don't look at isis in the same way you can't look at pedophilic priests to
determine what catholicism is you know no look at our civilization look at what the muslims built
look at look at the taj mahal look at the alhambra palace
what kind of people built those
these are the remnants that we leave behind to tell you who we were so after we're
gone look at what we have left behind if you want to know who the muslims were
look at what these people left behind and those were people that were following this book and they were
following our prophet saw isaiah and that's why they were given toffee and when they die
deviated and the prophet isaiah said you will deviate you will follow the way of other peoples
that went before you the jews and the christians and the other religions he told us that and he warned us of that
and that's why muslims have to make taubah and so do all the faith each believes in
god and god's angels right well mo minoon we believe in allah
and his angels and his books and his messages
we don't make distinction these are all prophets from god and they say we hear and we obey him
we ask your forgiveness our lord
does not compel a soul to do what is beyond its capacity this is from allah's rahmah
it gets what it has earned and it is responsible for what it
deserves our lord
do not punish us do not take us to account if we forget or if we air
in because nisian and khatta are different you can forget and you can make a
mistake if we forget or we air to air as human to forgive is divine
right so we make mistakes but we're asking allah and then we ask him for what we know and
what we don't know because sometimes we make mistakes not even knowing
do not place on us a burden
[Music] like you put on those who went before you they had great burdens of piety and
practice the muslims we have it easy compared to the previous dispensations of what they had to do to get close to
allah and we're in the latter days of this ummah which is even easier to get close to allah subhanahu ta'ala in these
latter days when so many people are turning away from allah
and please our lord do not make us carry that for which we lack the strength
and please grant us pardon and forgive us
and have mercy on us you are our mawlana you are our
protector um they have no protector you are our protector
so help us against the ungrateful people help us against the ungrateful people
that are wreaking all this havoc in the earth alhamdulillah so that is uh
i that's what i was hoping to how relevant are concepts like stress syllable intonation pitch the quranic restoration
how do they affect the meaning is there a book explaining the poetics of the quran you know poetics we're using that term
obviously i i understand how he's using that term because quran is not poetry
but but it has in it in english poetry meaning beautiful language not poetry not sure
right so stress civil intonation pitch these are all very important in in in the quran
what are called the in in tajweed those are ishtihad so those are the ishtihad of the the
quran and they're different israel so you have different there are places where it's haram to stop obviously
because it will it will affect the meaning and in the house quran it's very nice because they give you the a little
signal uh of the huh yeah
like not just yet don't stop here right because you can uh
corrupt the meaning of it um like the khatib who said to the prophet
something and then he said because he added a wow where there shouldn't be so
stress is very important syllable intonation all these things when you get into deep tajweed studies
the great quran of this ummah actually learned the muhammad
and recited the quran based on the mahamat so the are
what traditionally in music theory are called modes which are slightly different from key signatures so in music you have key
signatures but you also have modes so you have these famous modes that have been identified like the doric mode
right the phrygian mode these are modes so like there's melancholic modes like if
you look at irish music it's it uses uh melancholic modes that's why when you
listen to it it's it's just not the jigs are very upbeat but a lot of irish music is very mournful
so so uh the great masters of tajweed learned the
modes and they would recite that they still do this believe it or not in fact there's on on youtube there's actually a
then from turkey who shows you the different makaams that are used in the different prayers so the fajr he uses a
makam to wake people up and so the this is how sophisticated our religion got was that they were using
uh the intonations uh to do that and stress so
raising the voice i mean one of the sheikh nuren who allah
lot of people very attracted to his recitation that's those
where he's going up and down those are all regulated so the stress will affect the meaning the wakufa are interesting
because you have like imam who aloha i mean i have no problem with
this some people have a problem but he actually his he said were purely from kash
that uh although according to you can't use it for like you can't the
you can't use kash for the prayer time like to have a question the prayer times in you can't use it you have to
do the go out and measure the shadow or now people just look at the prayer time
on their watch or their adhan which they can end up praying at the wrong time in any case
the um the very interest like help the imam is moroccan he has like kalila
[Music] it completely changes the meaning so
kalila they are a few minaleili they don't sleep at night whereas if you
don't do the waku there it's [Music] they only sleep a small portion of the
night so the the stops can really affect the meaning
that's different from raibafihi and then hudalin so the walks
it gives a lot of possibility for many many interpretations which is really interesting one aspect
of the quran the names of jacob's sons and wives are not in the quran does that information come from yes
they're mentioned in our tafsirs they it comes out of the bible the prophet sallallahu alaihi salam
permitted us to quote the bible and just he said
don't be absolute don't deny it and don't be absolute in its affirmation but
there are many useful things there's been a modern trend amongst the mufasirun to
completely remove all of the israelites there is some benefit in that because a
lot of the superstitions that got into the tafsir came out of
the previous dispensations but on the other hand there's a lot of interesting things how do we understand the quranic
verses give giving glad tidings to jews christians jews and saviors in the light of perennial thought i mean obviously
the perennialists like that verse i think for me the best thing that i've
read on this subject is faisal which is imam al-qazadi's book
that allah allah is going to judge people we're not judges we can't say anybody's
going to heaven and hell the quran makes it very clear that if
people do this this and this they're going to hell but in the end there's something called
in our tradition the of allah allah fulfills his what in terms of his threat if he does not
fulfill his threat it doesn't diminish him whereas if he if he didn't fulfill his
promise it would diminish him so the example they give if if a ruler says
to you know some somebody in another land he said wallahi is
like if he comes here i'll slaughter him and then the man comes and he forgives him
nobody's going to say oh that he didn't fulfill his promise they'll actually see it as a good thing
he said oh he's a merciful ruler whereas if he said
if he comes i'll give him a thousand dinars then he comes he says sorry i'm not giving you anything everything you
say ah what a miser that guy was right so allah makes threats he doesn't have
to fulfill the threats but he makes promises and he has to fulfill the promise although he has promised that he
will fill jahannam so that's not a threat that's a promise so
you know people should be concerned about that i'm trying to study arabic to better understand the quran how long did
it take you i mean i'm still learning arabic so it's going on 44 years
arabic is an ocean and you know i still
i still study arabic i learn words i learned a word today that i didn't
know so it's it's the ocean the the muritan is
nobody can learn all of arabic except a prophet so there's always something new to learn
always something new to learn i didn't know tamara meant to for your
hair to fall out you know there's in the hadith it says
the prophet seems his face changed like the the
they say like you know you could see that he was upset in his face but also means for your hair to follow
i didn't know that so there's always something you learn any other questions
i understand the quran is eternal means but i don't see how many verses with us how can those verses be applied in different scenarios then
well remember that the quran is in quran
which is the matrix of the book so the quran there are infinite possibilities with
allah's words allah says if the oceans were inc and the and the forests were pans
the words of god would never be exhausted so allah could rearrange he could i mean
it's just infinite possibilities out of 29 letters allah can adi
and then but there are other possibilities i mean the there are infinite possibilities to
the meanings that that allah could generate from uh from the quran
so what do you think of the view by imam and other scholars that say the mary was
i mean yeah that's been pointed out some of them said asiya also
the prophet isaiah mentioned about the perfected women the kumbh amongst the women
i mean maryam is you know i my understanding the word or what i was
taught the dominant opinion of uh the school of uh of akida that i was taught is that
the prophets are males and the reason for that is
is that the the position that allah has put the the
male in the male is and the male has a daraja the male is
has allah has given an authority to the male
which doesn't diminish the female and it shouldn't be seen like that it's actually a tribulation for the male
because it's it's a it's a big tribulation to be put into that position
so um but if if she was a prophet you know we'll find out in the afterlife
i mean this is a valid difference of opinion the mature the dominant opinion
is that they're from the men but clearly the angel spoke to her which
i mean that's that's a revelation certainly
and there's a difference obviously between the messenger and a prophet so the rasool has the book or has a new sharia
whereas the prophets are given revelation so the idea that that she
had revelation from god i mean that's clearly in the quran and that's why i mean many mention this that that they
considered her to be amongst those who received prophecy um
aloha adam you know i the safe position always to stick with
the majority and the dominant opinions are there for a reason so that's that's where we hold to inshallah
inshallah i hope that you continue to support the college in the last few days of ramadan
even if you've already supported it maybe you could think about giving a second one just out of
a desire to see more that we can do the more you help the more we do the garden
project that has to be specified we don't use any of your donations
uh for things that somebody might think that's extravagant or why are they doing that and
they should use their money more wisely and that's a valid opinion i've thought about that too but my goal is about dawa
and about making this religion again as attractive as it should be
and that's one way that people are attracted it's it's a way to it's like honey you know to bring
uh to to uh to attract people with beauty and then then you can explain to them
what the religion is because we have a lot of bad information about our religion in this country and around the
world and we need to work better you know another thing i've been thinking a lot about is we really need to have more
outreach to the hindu community in the united states because the hindutva is is a very
serious problem um and and the muslims are really under threat
uh in many places where there are there are extremists it's always ignorance
because educated i know that educated hindus that really understand their religion must be horrified by a lot of
what's happening and it's really important not to collectivize people and not to generalize about people but to
really to recognize that there's good people everywhere i mean we have
a hindu lady that's helped us every year with taxes she's a really good lady and she's all you know just a
really sweet lady and i have no reason to have any animus towards her
at all on the contrary she's been very helpful to me and so i feel gratitude and
you know and i think that's the way we should be with people is just judge people
by the content of their character not by the the creed that they happen to follow
because there's a lot of bad muslims you know and and then there's a lot of good
people outside of islam and it's really important just to acknowledge that and to recognize the goodness in people and
i think in doing that we're truer to the nature of our religion and certainly truer to the
nature of our prophet samus he was a mercy to all the worlds
and and and we were said speak nicely to people inshallah
[Music]
[Music]
foreign
you