Surat Al Kahf - 82

foreign his reasons for why he built that wall and why what was behind it but before then in the previous verse i spoke about how allah azzawajal saved two believing parents from several calamities not just one several calamities he saved them from a child who was growing was going to grow up to be a horror for them in countless ways we tried to count those ways in which he was going to be a terror for them in fact the worst of those ways was he was going to cost them their own faith so they were going to end up covering for their criminal child and in the process losing their own faith too and one of the reasons allah allowed for that child's life to be taken sooner was because he wanted to preserve the faith of those parents he knew that is a trial they cannot bear allah has told us in the quran allah does not burden any person with any burden that they cannot bear though that ayah is about sharia that allah gave us law that we he knew we could carry it also represents a deeper wisdom and that is some people can handle some things other people cannot handle the same thing some people can handle the heat other people are just dying in the heat some people can handle a long class other people are in a coma in 20 minutes they can't handle a long lecture there are different people with different thresholds in different things these parents and some parents may not be able to cope with the loss of a child they may never be able to cope from them and other parents may actually have more of a threshold for that pain than other parents allah knows who has what strength and what weakness so our trials in life are not actually the same because allah did not give us the same capacity to bear certain kinds of tests and whatever tests do come our way are within our capacity together now i did address one of the philosophical questions that is raised by this and that is that well sometimes there are people that are given a test that they cannot bear for example somebody dies of a disease the test was a disease and they couldn't bear the disease and they died somebody was given a trial and as a result of that trial that difficulty they were given the death sentence falsely that was also a trial that technically they could not bear they were killed so how does the ayah still hold that allah does not test anyone except with what they can carry first of all it's referring to allah's guidance but second of all by being able to carry a trial it doesn't mean that you survive that trial it actually means your faith survives that trial that actually at the end of the day that the burden that allah has put on you and me even if it costs us our lives allah will never give you and me a trial that will cost us our faith that will cost us our faith and this is an important consideration because for a lot of people or some people a trial becomes the reason that their faith disappears i prayed so much i even went to umrah i even did hajj i fasted so many ramadans i earned halal i stayed away from haram and look what allah did to me i'm done no more for me what's the point in other words that trial becomes an excuse for them to say this was this is not something i could have born and therefore their faith gets compromised right allah is saying that's not a justification you will never be given a trial that will justify you losing your faith and allah does know there are for some people there are certain trials that they will end up losing their faith as a result they don't have the capacity to hold on to their faith as a result of it and allah will not put them through that trial he will not give them a trial that will he knows they won't be able to handle and that's what he did for these parents but the point that i want that i didn't illustrate yesterday that i really wanted to highlight today is i tried to say that if and any of you that are parents know this no child is ever the replacement of another child no child can replace another child even if you have a child that's rebellious disrespectful walks a run you know leaves the house runs away from home or moves out doesn't call back doesn't speak with the mother or father with respect etc etc and you have the other child that is an angel he's at home taking care of the parents you know providing and making sure everything's okay respectful kind all of those things and yet still the mother feels the pain for the child that's rebellious the mother misses the child that that went away the child that's getting drunk the child that's not listening to her you see that it's not like a parent says well you know at least i got one one other two is okay you don't feel like that your heart is still with the child that's even if their heart is not with you your heart is still with them your heart is still with them for a mother and a father right so allah azzawajal used this language that seems hard to understand we intended to replace for them better than him that's how it's commonly translated the ayah we intended to replace that child with someone better than him now try to think about it from the parents point of view these parents don't know that their child was baby hitler they don't they don't know that they don't know he was going to growing up to grow up to be a terrible criminal and all of they have not none of this knowledge all they know is their child was brutally murdered that's all they know they know nothing more and then allah's plan was eventually they will have another child but you and i know if we were to put ourselves in those parent shoes that even that new child is not a replacement of the one they lost he will not this new baby this new boy or a girl and by the way most of us did believe it was a girl the new child was a girl that's most opinion that this new child is not a replacement of the old one the old memories are not going to disappear the scar of the loss is not going to disappear the trauma of it won't disappear so why is allah using the word ibdal and according to so thoroughly replace to completely replace this is actually this this wording is really important sometimes allah uses extremely specific language because he's pinpointing something very very specific and sometimes allah uses he purposely uses broad language because when he uses broad language then more things are incorporated than one specific thing so look if the language was overly specific let's keep it in english for now allah could have said and allah replaced that child with a better child with a better child it was more pure so a child for a child but allah didn't use that language he said there's no bar of ibd there's no value the health isn't used in the ayah now what does that do it actually broadens the way we understand that ayah it's not a child that is being replaced with a child it's a situation a circumstance that's being replaced with a situation so allah is not saying one child is the replacement of another child in fact he's saying that the first child the situation that child was going to create was not something those parents could have born and not only is this child this is this new child that they've been given but the situation that allah has created as a result of that child is purer for the parents not only is the child purer because the muscle in it so it could be this grammar thing but the point is it could be that the child is purer but also the situation itself is purer it's more righteous for the parents themselves their faith will not be put on trial because of the the devastation of the child and then he said and that also means that he this is closer to allah's mercy for them so not only will this child be more you know better at keeping family ties and relations and honoring the womb and we'd be loving and caring which is meaning the meaning of inside the word but also that the mercy of allah the rahmah of allah is now closer to those parents than ever before like allah has shown them more now than ever before this is similar to the ayah in loving care is closer certainly it's close to those who excel so allah has actually given them this this so we shouldn't think of it as i started by saying you and i know no child will replace another child and that's not actually only what allah is saying allah is saying allah has replaced their circumstance with a better circumstance so now he comes to the third explanation they came to a town a recap is they came to a town where nobody showed them hospitality some important things that you should keep in mind in order to understand this ayah better some quick review is beneficial musa end up in this town and the first thing allah tells us is they sought to get food from its people what that also means is that they didn't just go to one place they went to multiple people looking for where they can buy food where they can get food but they get somebody to cook for them some place right now the the answer to that would have been the straightforward answer to that would have been they didn't feed them they had they asked for food they tried to get food and they wouldn't get fed that would have been the answer but allah says the language changes they refused to show them any hospitality you see food is a part of hospitality but there's a lot more that goes into hospitality than just food isn't it there's also a smile there's also opening the door there's also kind words there's also the tone of language there's also body language there's also physical gestures there's also intimid you know intimidating making someone feel welcome and making someone feel unwelcome you don't even have to raise your voice you can your face can make someone feel get out of my face you could you could tell someone to get lost without saying the word right you can be in a neighborhood and feel calm and you can go through one street and say i better walk a little faster here you know and you know what i'm talking we're in new york we turn plenty of those corners you know we got to drive a little faster right with a two second stop at the stop sign it's not going to be two seconds because you know this is not a hospitable situation so when he when allah says they refused to show them any hospitality they were very hostile people overall not just about food they were just hostile they were just aggressive people and so then after this has to be kept in mind that they were extremely ruthless uncaring rude you know aggressive kinds of people right and with that mentality this this is what they're experiencing this is the vibe they're getting from that town and they end up at a wall in the middle of town or somewhere some massive structure that is on the verge of collapse this wall allah describes it wants to collapse and you know according to the seer narrations actually he collapses the wall and rebuilds it he didn't just fix it he allowed it to he actually demolishes it and reconstructs the whole thing anew so it's quite a bit of work now you have to understand and i i'm i was involved i'm still involved actually with construction work on my campus so i know how many how many breaks construction guys take for food it's actually most of their eight seven and a half out of eight hours of their work is uh you know coffee break you know so so here you have two people that came into town hungry they're already hungry they're already looking for lunch break and without having any food now there's this entire entire construction project which is not a 20-minute job you understand so there's doing this entire job and they don't get compensated they're about to leave and of course busan islam didn't ask the question but made the comment which was the last thing that happened right why you could have just been compensated for that now the explanation ask for the wall it was actually for two orphan boys two orphan young young children is actually you know they say for before teenage years right so they're pre-teens you could say they're eight years old ten years old young kids but two two uh orphans that were in this city there's also really interesting comment because previously allah called it right he called it so he says they translate that in the english translations of the quran as a town or a village but now he's saying there were two orphan boys in the city they were in the city and the word medina the root letters actually suggest civilization which is a subtle way of the quran commenting on something a place could be advanced in its technology not like a village the architecture could be very superior to what you find in third world countries the highways could be extremely magnificent and impressive you know the infrastructure the electrical grid the you know the the services all of them are first world top of the line but the people are ruthless the people are ruthless so the the buildings look beautiful but the humanity is ugly you see that so there's this contradiction being described they're living in a city and a city is associated actually with civilization with educated people with advancement and development that's where the word medina gets used and here you have this comment from allah that yes they they were in a city but the people weren't very kind or merciful right and so here you have allah azza saying this was for two orphaned boys in the city and then allah meaning underneath the wall there was a treasure for them a treasure for them now that treasure could be money it could be gold it could be minerals it could be diamonds it's something buried underneath that wall it's deep down inside and it's meant for them means it doesn't necessarily belong to them but it's meant for them and this is also interesting language which means it's for you but not yet right it's for you but not yet and now allah is telling us this there's a treasure there it is meant for them but he still doesn't tell us where it came from we don't know where this these assets came from or what they really are but allah will give us a clue he says and their father used to be righteous their father used to be a good man so their orphan obviously their father has passed away now allah saying their father is righteous it's interesting what you find among the sahaba and the taberin and the early commentators on this ayah you know what they say they say this father isn't their biological father this is their seven generations above great great great great great great grandfather like it wasn't even their dad it was their great grandfather used to be a good man and allah is rewarding that good man for the good that he did in his life seven generations later allah knew that some of his children will end up being orphans and he will bless them [Music] and that you know what that also tells you allah never says indeed that the treasure belonged to the father he never said that he simply said their father was a good man and there was a treasure under the wall not the father's money and because if it was the father's wife fell into another dilemma if it's the father's money he should be giving it in in mirath in inheritance to his sons and his daughters and then the the the inheritance gets passed down how can it skip seven generations and then these two boys get it right so actually that's not even what it seems to be the case if even if he's not their physical or even if it's their media debt or not that's not even the point the actual point is it's not necessary that the money that was underneath or the treasure the diamonds the gold whatever it was that was underneath those minerals that were underneath were actually the property of the father it was something you know we have in some states i don't know if we have that in new york i know we have it in texas we have finders keepers law they have finders keepers laws where i come from we have all kinds of fun laws we have stand your ground laws too you know what that means if somebody's standing on my front porch or if i'm standing on somebody's front porch they can say marge get my gun i could shoot you in the face and say i stubbed my ground standing on my property so that's not murder that's just stand your ground right so it's a different world when i left it when i left new york and moved to texas they go you go to some stores outside they got a picture of a gun and it says we don't call the cops this is that's just how it is but the point i'm making is you know finders keepers means unless it's registered right if you found like you know money buried in your backyard from a bank robbery in the 20s or something then technically you get to keep it it's yours you don't have to report it or not it's finders keepers if you saw you know found a bunch of diamonds or whatever we're not saying oh i found a car i have a key inside so you know not like that because that's a registered piece of property but i'm talking about unregistered property right so it may be that this is the way this guns came from it could be natural resources it could be some bank heist that the guys buried here and they're gone and allah cleansed it through the dirt of the wall and now it's meant for these kids but the idea here is really powerful that some time back for no good deed of these kids these kids are just kids but they're being given something in this life they're being helped out by allah with this in this life because of the goodness of who their father maybe even a father they never met maybe a father who never even knew them [Music] maybe a father who never even knew them can you imagine that some person back then did something and the goodness is being you know we we think about uh especially those of you that alhamdulillah have successful businesses or you're doing well in your career you're doing well financially then you start getting buzzers around you they're called financial managers right hey do you want to do some estate planning would you like to write your will some wealth management you know how do you want to pass on your wealth to your future generations and you they want to have this plan for succession planning right for where the property is going to go and all of that stuff look at allah's design he gives us a glimpse into his design for how he even not only looks out for the dean of future generations because in the previous ayah what did he protect he protected the dean of those two parents but in this incident he's actually not only protecting protecting the dean of these two kids he's protecting their dunya he's giving them a way of surviving in this world with monies with wealth that is meant for them because of the good deeds of their father long ago so allah is not only looking out for my spiritual good and he means no good you know this dunya has occurred some people get more islamic than islam and this dunya has occurred all of its blessings are just a fitnah and the only blessings are in jannah really why would allah not give these children jannah why is he giving them a concern this dunya because this is also this is also a gift from allah there's also something to take advantage of and to be grateful for and it was meant for them and it was a reward it was a spiritual reward the the reward of something spiritual of a father being good can be something material too it can be something material too this is actually the vastness of allah and mercy that's being shown in this ayah so he says and their father used to be a good man so their master intended that both of these children should reach mature age is actually used for comes from means toughness they reach the mature age in which they are their minds their bodies have reached full strength this is basically they become men so and this is the age in which from an islamic law point of view and quran quranic law point of view also when a young man is responsible fully for his or her his actions but right then the prayers are mandatory on you and hajj is mandatory on you and fasting is mandatory on you and the apply on you meaning you cannot do things you're held fully accountable for what you did you know how in the court system in the secular court system you have like juvenile courts right you have adult courts and you have juvenile courts well one in in sharia and in the revelation given to the rasool says when a young man reaches this age beyond puberty then he's considered a man so there's no in between child and juvenile and then man there's either child and then man those are the two categories and this actually impacts the way in which we raise our sons in particular because then we raise them to be men the moment they become teenagers and give them responsibilities like a man would be given and we don't say oh he's just 17 he's just a kid no he's just a kid because you're treating him like a kid and you know what it's it's even gone far beyond that now you have 30 year olds that that is just a kid look he's just dirty yeah yeah so so man the the threshold for manhood the guy's got gray hair but he's just a kid now still right so the threshold has changed but the idea in our deen is very powerful we're supposed to raise children to prepare them for manhood and it's not just something in islam it's actually something in the fitrah if you study the sociology and the anthropology of many cultures around the world there were celebrations of young men coming into manhood and there were rituals around it and then responsibilities were given to them this is a tradition across many cultures in the world and the quran actually endorses this kind of thinking this kind of like sense of responsibility for young people but anyway allah intended that these two boys should become older men now this needs to be said is building a wall he does not control the future there's no way for him to know that these orphan boys by the way are they living in a nice town where people are kind i already set the stage for you these people lose their temper even over the question of asking for food so you can imagine that stray dogs have a better chance of surviving in a town like that than two orphan boys the chance of those two kids getting run over getting taken advantage of even getting killed is very high and there's no way this except because ella has told him allah intends that somehow these two boys are going to survive their orphan years and reach manhood they're going to get to that point and that when they reach that point they are going to be the ones that will try to extract and at that point they will make an attempt to extract their treasure now in the beginning we saw kenzan lahuma that kind of so there was a there was a separation between guns and there was a lamb in between this is not islam right doesn't mean this this was meant for them i remember i told you there's a treasure meant for them but now he doesn't say they will get the treasure that was meant for them this time he says they will then attempt to extract their treasure so the language changes this is a direct it's called it's a direct final why because this is this is again really beautiful language in the quran allah is telling us that those boys if they if they had access to that treasure too early imagine because their orphan years would have been easier right because they don't have money they don't have to live like you know kids that are running around on the street looking for scraps to eat and barely survive they could have had an easier life you can imagine in that society orphans are not going to be shown mercy if two people asking for food won't be shown mercy what chance do orphans have so why not allah why didn't just allah tell them hey by the way just grab the treasure it's for you your dad was a good man here other could just dig it out and give it to them no because they're in the kind of town where if you see two kids two helpless defenseless kids with a lot of money what's very likely what's very likely what do you if you have an expensive watch and you're walking through a shady neighborhood you know you're going to take it off right if you know what's good for you you're going to take it off put it away and you're going to walk fast isn't that what you're going to do if you're dressed up looking like you're dressed up and you're going through a rough part of town you know you better like take your tie off and look a little beat up a little bit because you want to know you don't look too nice in some parts that's you're just uh asking for it you understand there's a reason we don't let our kids go out in the middle of the night right there's a reason you were taught even as a child if your dad gives you money put it in your pocket put in your pocket don't walk around with it in your hands you don't do that you don't know where the left hook is going to come from you know so if these kids acquire these diamonds this gold and they're just happy playing with it next thing you know those p those kinds of people the ones that were so selfish and self-centered and greedy and ruthless who's to know somebody's going to find two bodies of a couple of boys and nobody and nobody cares because they're orphaned so nobody's filing a report because it's not any parents that want to start a murder investigation no government cares right so they're just uh you know no questions asked and that money disappears allah knew that it's meant for them but it is not theirs yet because they don't have the power to grab it they don't have the power to defend it so he allowed them to reach an age where they could be strong enough to get a hold of it and then they would attempt to take it out imam dove into another problem he said how will they know how will they know that the treasure is because the ayah doesn't tell us the ayah doesn't say that other than went to these boys and says boys listen when you turn 18 start digging we don't we don't know this so do these kids know that there's a treasure waiting for them or is there something else allah deliberately did not tell us and this is one of the most important parts of learning these stories this particular story of three stops allah deliberately you know classifies certain information that's how i like to put it he's not going to tell us how they will come to know he's not going to say what divine plan he has that somehow they will end up digging exactly where they're supposed to dig whether it's something preemptive they already know or they were they ended up noticing that the wall is collapsing again in 10-15 years and they because of the good soul that they have decide to start digging and fixing it up again and as they're fixing it finders keepers law we don't know but we do know that they will make an attempt to do so right and this is actually kind of beautiful because allah is telling us you know the christians say this thing they say the lord works in mysterious ways right we've got a story about that this is actually what this is allah works in mysterious ways he doesn't have to tell you exactly how it's going to play out he will tell you though he intends these boys will get to old age and by the way to me the fact that these boys will reach older ages even more miraculous than them finding the treasure because in that society you know in those kinds of societies in the world children of that age that are orphaned have a high mortality rate that's the reality of the world today where you have cities where there's ruthlessness where there's public structures that are not being taken care of like a wall that was not being taken care of and you have a higher degree of poverty and you have children that are in large numbers you know orphaned or homeless then they are put to crime they are put to make turned into peddlers they're abused and many of them countless numbers of them are killed that's a reality of them but allah intended that these two somehow will survive the slums they'll survive that hard life and he and if he can make a plan for that then he can certainly make a plan for them to find what is meant for them there's also a beautiful way of you and i learning that what is meant for you through the most impossible odds will come your you will get to it you will arrive at it not not a second before not a day before not a time before you're supposed to arrive at it sometimes you come into a blessing like a job you're like why didn't i just apply for this job sooner or some of you get married and you say why didn't we meet each other 10 years ago it would have been so much easier why didn't i have this ten five years ago this would have been so much better last year there's so many blessings that come your way and you're like man this is so great i wasted so much time isn't that thought come in people's hand what is allah teaching us in these ayahs he's telling us there are so many things that are meant for you but they will not be yours until the time comes so the time in which it came was the time it was meant to come it's supposed to come at that time and that is a plan from allah for you and you don't have to look at this sometimes you know people we have this tendency human beings have this tendency we can look at something from the lens of gratitude or that same thing from the lens of ingratitude somebody you can give somebody their favorite food and they could say you know there were so many years i couldn't even eat this i didn't couldn't even afford it just be thankful for what you have now instead of reminiscing about you know so many years of now you have to relive your sadness because there's a pizza slice in front of you you don't you don't have to turn a positive into a what into a negative but human tendency what is it even when we have a positive we want to turn it into a negative these kids can run into the treasure when they're 18 19 years old and they both sit there why didn't we do this before remember how much we got how much we were starving when we were 10 if we had this done oh my god instead of being happy at what allah just gave you you're angry why didn't the fedex delivery come sooner why is the delivery lane why didn't it come on my schedule right because you know what human beings do they think human beings think that what they if they can guess that the good thing the thing they want if they it can come to them sooner it would be better for them and a human being you and i don't realize when we think like that we're forgetting that the one who decided that this should come later not sooner is allah and we forget that allah is looking out for me better than i can look out for myself the human being is begging for some harm to come his way but his dua for that harm sounds like he's asking for something good and then allah says and the human being has always been in a crazy rush extremely in a rush you're in so much of a hurry to get your problem solved and you're asking allah just give me this one thing this one thing allah knows if he gives you this one thing now your life will be destroyed if these kids got that treasure too soon they would have been murdered imagine you imagine and there could be allah when can you make us rich please i would just weak i would love some diamonds yeah diamonds are coming just wait eight more years 10 years why couldn't you give it sooner because it's part of allah's plan and so what did allah say here yes so they would try and extract their treasure the treasure that was meant for them and so so beautifully that this is said he says and you here you can look at us in arabic what that means is when in the ayah allah is giving us the reason all of this was done because of a rahma rahma means an act of love and care this was done out of love and care from your rabb this was done out of love and care from yoga loving care for who loving care for those children loving care for that father that used to be good that used to be good now imagine you and i think when we die one day i'm not going to care about what's happened you know some people ask are you going to remember me after you die no bro i have angels asking me about my deeds the day on which a man will run away from his brother the mother his father his wife these guys like i'm already running away from my wife so that's easy i already got practice but you know so the idea is no no once i die here i have no concern about whether you live or you start where this happens because i'll have bigger problems but you know what we are human we do worry if you're the only provider for your family you do worry if something happened to you what would happen to your kids even though allah is the provider and what is allah azzawajal giving us in this ayah a small hint for those that do good that perhaps allah means even if your children or your future generations might go through a trial for some allah will provide it is because of the good you lived so maybe as a parent the fact that you try to live a good life might end up bringing ease into the lives of your children generations later and you you don't even know that you're actually securing this is this is what you call life insurance right this is this is generation planning that we live a good life and we're actually bringing not we're not just hoping for the deen of our our future generations but their dunya becomes better because of the kinds of lives we live because the only reason allah gave here is their father used to be a good man here's another thing in these islands two incidents one incident the child was murdered and allah said i allowed that child to die because i was looking out for the parents in the previous story so who was he looking out for the parents and in this story these kids are going to benefit but why are they going to benefit because their father either immediate or generations back their father was a good man in both cases allah is doing something to benefit who the parents he's benefiting the parents and he's actually highlighting something that allah azzawajal really looks highly looks highly upon parents parents that are trying to leave lead a good life parents that are holding on to their faith it's also really interesting you've heard the phrase you've heard this many times iman and good deeds iman and good deeds they get coupled together in the quran right look at the beauty of these ayah the first incident the parents were described those two parents had iman in the next story allah says so it's kind of this this idea that parents you know heads of family that that live a life of faith and do good that they are doing the best thing they possibly can for their children this is another powerful lesson because sometimes when you as a father try to live a good life your cousins your uncles your brothers your friends will tell you bro you can make so much more money yeah it's not haram with a capital h it's haram with a lowercase age it's not that bad look up think about your kids they got to go to college cuny's getting expensive you know don't you want to send them to a private school how are you going to afford their education yeah it's haram but you know everybody allah knows allah understands compromise your deen just a little bit think about the future of your children so we all have iman we don't have to all have saliha you know you have enough i mean there's too much it's okay just keep that for ramadan you'll be fine what is allah telling us about and people often compromise their principles because they're looking out for their kids your money and your children are a great trial for you and what allah is telling us is actually holding on to our faith and holding on to good good deeds staying good staying away from that is actually one of the ways we can secure risk for our children in ways even they couldn't have imagined i mean from where you couldn't even imagine right and that that's for the person who has taqwa and this is it's so beautiful that here you are doing good deeds and you're not just benefiting yourself you're benefiting others that are coming others that are coming subhanallah you don't even know i don't even know that the good that came my way the educational opportunity that came my way right the friends that i met the teachers that i met the business chances that i had all those things maybe they were the result of some great great great grandfather of mine who did something good back then and allah wrote as a result of his good deeds that seven eight generations later somebody will bear its fruit i don't know that but it's a beautiful thought isn't it it's a really beautiful thought that one day we're going to meet those people in our ancestry and there we're going to see what they did that allah blessed us with in this life it's a it's a beautiful beautiful thing and so in this ayah we're actually learning this generational connection it's the opposite of what allah describes also in the quran there are people that are going to be in hell fire and the hellfire is going to be stuffed may allah put us in the hell fire it's going to be stuffed with people there's no room and the next the next generation is about to come in and the next generation after that and they're like uh these are the people that misled us because the next generation is blaming the previous generation and they're all cursing each other so they're a source of each other's curse and here you have in this ayah and these ayah children that are actually each other's blessings and and they're the parents that are children's blessings down the road and we pray that allah gives us that in our in our lives so he says as a mercy as an act of loving care from now we also learn that does not work on our calendar nor on our schedule nor can it be directed in the direction that we want allah can decide when and how to illust how to deliver his and even though these young men you know these young boys received worldly goods eventually that doesn't mean they had an easy life does it they were they were orphans in a tough town that automatically means they had a tough life necessarily that implies they had a tough life in other words allah does not give you a life only full of blessings life for a believer and life for human beings is meant to be a mix of blessings and trials and blessings and trials and blessings and trials the only time we have a life where there is not going to be any trials is in the achara after the ultimate trial is done then we get a life without any difficulties but even these children that are going to receive a treasure had to live a life of yatama right they have to they have to be orphans first you have to live a tough life first and then eventually allah opened the doors for them and at the end of all of that he says by the way one of the extrapolations it's interesting in the quran i wanted to help you see the logic of the quran here short surah many of you might know it so an interesting language he says have you seen the one who lies against the religion then how does he lie against the religion he pushes the orphan and doesn't encourage feeding those who need it so two things are mentioned he pushes the orphan and doesn't encourage feeding right and in this story what two things do you see first of all they didn't encourage what feeding and then there's a fear that they're gonna push those orphans around even though it didn't have to be said that they're going to push the orphans around allah has already shown us a mentality about a certain kind of people in society that are ruthless all around and if they can find a victim and take their take their assets without any consequence they would do it if they could get away with it they would do it and so allah azza highlights that kind of thinking and here we're supposed to connect those dots ourselves and i didn't do that i didn't do it on my own decision making this wasn't my mission everything that i had done i didn't do on my own all of this was instructed by allah and you know this is so remarkable because when we start this story when he first met allah said two things about khadr when he first met him he said that comes from him now we're ending the story and he says you know they were to extract this treasure this was all done as a rahma can actually go back to all three incidents the ship was damaged the child was killed then now the wall was built and then so that's we gave him from our special vaults some special kind of knowledge clearly islam has knowledge that musa does not have including knowledge of the future for one thing he knows for a fact that these boys are going to grow old and they're going to be digging up this treasure nobody can make that projection that can only come from allah there's no way for you to know that this kid will survive even the next day or next year i can't say about myself how old i'm going to be no person knows what land they're going to die in where they're going to die how they're going to die when they're going to die and yet speaking with such guarantee that he's going to have you know these kids are going to grow up to be this old that's that can only come from revelation right so he says i didn't take this action on my own accord in other words i only took this action because of the knowledge allah had given me the knowledge allah had given me if you combine these two things you learn yet another lesson you and i can never take the kinds of actions that took because we don't have that special vault of knowledge from allah you and i cannot say i did this i hurt this person because 10 years from now you'll thank me for it you and i can't think that way because we have not been given that access we can only act in accordance with the revelation given to us through our messengers the only reason he acted in the way that he did is because allah had given him the kind of knowledge even islam didn't have that's why himself found it shocking what this also means then for for you and i is we cannot have projection-based thinking let me just tell you in a couple of minutes what that means projection-based thinking you know sometimes and i mentioned this in an earlier lecture too some nations go to war and say yeah there's going to be about maybe half a million civilian casualties but we predict that in about 10 years their economy is going to be doing a lot better right and they make these projections there's these strategic economic political projections and based on those projections they justify mass murder because in the long term we're looking out for the better of these this nation this is our projection we see how those projections work out don't we no human being can tell the future and you cannot based on your predictions of the future commit crimes today or take any actions today as if you have guarantees of what is going to happen with the domino effect of events you can't but allah has knowledge of that so he can allow something to happen now knowing the domino effects he's not he's not projecting them he's not estimating them he's not saying there's a 90 chance this will happen he is given this knowledge with a hundred percent guarantee he's speaking about the future the way we speak about the past so it's a completely different ballgame and that's why we can't do that that's why we're not allowed to do that we cannot base our actions on something that might happen in the future or might not happen in the future we have to base our actions on concrete right and wrong in the immediate last thing that is the interpretation that we means the the you know the as far back as i can take you as far back as i can take it from from a wallah from oh well actually means it doesn't just mean tafsir or to explain it actually means let me take you behind the scenes to the original reason and as i've explained in previous lectures can only take you as far back as allah has given him but behind that there may even be far more reasons that even doesn't know but as far as i can take you this is what i got these are the answers [Music] these are the interpretations of what you could not possibly even have the capability of patience with forget he didn't say this these are the things you couldn't bear that would be a bad translation by the way these are the things this is the interpretation of what you couldn't bear that's not what's being said the arabic for that would have been here this is what you couldn't possibly even be capable of bearing so he's not telling musa you're not patient he's telling us you were never given the ability of patience over such things you're not you you don't have that in you you have amazing ability of saber over other things in fact musa is going to give the khutbah uh you know about shukran and about seven and in the quran he is going to have sabha over firaoun and keep repeating that he has support over bani israel he has amazing sabbath but all of that sabha is designed for a certain kind of situation but the kinds of things he had to experience with this teacher he wasn't given human beings were not given the capability to have sabbah over these things if we saw these things happening if we were with khadir these things happening we wouldn't bear it either human beings are not given that capability that is not because they don't have enough faith because allah did not make us capable and that's why he didn't just say he said you can't even you're not capable of patience with me you don't have that ability allah has not given you that ability and allah actually revealed to hader that musa has does not possess that this capability this is part of the future that hubble knew because you can't tell somebody guaranteed by the way i guarantee you don't have the patience to deal with me you can't i can prove you wrong i can change but he was given the knowledge of the he was told that musa will not have something or won't have the ability some a subtle nuance and will conclude in arabic when you say you won't be capable you say then or what you weren't capable you say that's not there but the arabic here is there missing is that that taken out it's called from from the pattern right or actually a stephale pattern so what what does that missing tab do first of all in in surf in morphology in arabic it is allowed so if you say or you say they're both correct they're both actually good arabic but how come multiple times but this time um is missing now it's very easy it's not complicated even if you don't know any arabic just listen to me and you'll understand that's out there that's there i'll say two words number one number two is duster which one was faster to say number one or number two number two let's do that again which one's faster second one he's ending his conversation there's no more to say there's no more to discuss and the conversation is so final there's no more to discuss after that that he won't even give him the word the long version no we're done by it my job with you is finished allah has instructed me to explain to you what happened in his brief language as possible i have done my job and now allah's instruction to me is to part ways from you you know why because i bet any human being including musa if he was in that company he would have some follow-up questions that was a great lecture thank you you explained the ship you explained the child you explained you know the wall but i have a couple of questions can i have some follow-up questions no no no no no no there's no there's no qa session and there's an immediate parting that he leaves his company subhan so with this we are at the at the tail end of this remarkable story of busan i would encourage all of you to try to go through it in some detail because this this story is really unique it's very different from other stories in the quran and especially for university students college students high school students when you're exposed to different philosophies and different ideas this this story particularly deals with a lot of philosophical crises you know atheists for example lean heavily on why if there is a god why are bad things happening right that's their fundamental lien like that's that's what they lean on when they describe their worldview where was your god when the holocaust happened where was your god when kovit was spreading where was your god when this happened and that happened etcetera etcetera if god is so good why is he doing this this and this and why there's so much purposelessness and actually this is one of those places where because allah will not tell us why he does something typically right he won't tell us why he does something he if a family member of yours passed away may allah forgive them allah will not reveal to you why exactly they passed away why now why not before you know because the the heart says i need to know why why did the child why did this child have to die why did my mom have to die why did my brother have to die why did this one have to die why did that have to happen we need the answer to the why and when we don't get the answer to the why some people feel that that trial and they say there is no answer that means there is no god because i don't see any wisdom in why that happened which means there is no wisdom which means there is no all-wise one deciding this so it's a domino effect leading towards koher you see that so this this story is really important to undo that damage to actually understand why sometimes unthinkable things happen and how things there there is a why and we will never know the full answer but in this the entire point of this these three incidents was it's as if we have the same world i see you you see me right now right but we also believe there are angels on our shoulders we also believe that the gathering of people that are studying the quran angels are surrounding them right allah also tells us there are devils around us around us no doubt about it these devils are watching you from where you can't see them that's a guarantee from allah so they're actually around the angels are around the devils are around right we can't see them because it's all in the unseen now there's a i want you to imagine it's like there's a curtain on your eyes a veil and because of that veil you can only see the physical world the physical you cannot see the spiritual world you can't see it when a person dies is leaving their body yes or no the ru is leaving their body but we can't see it leaving because we have a one we have a veil and a veil only allows us to see the physical world but then in this story what did allah do for musa he lifted the veil behind these incidents just a little bit it's like lifting the curtain behind the scenes behind the scenes of a ship getting wrecked behind the scenes of a boy getting killed behind the scenes of a wall getting built the curtain that human beings cannot lift on their own and you know what happens on judgment day right when we rise again on judgment day we have lifted your veil and your your vision is you know iron clad now you can see crystal clear now because when when that veil is lifted then we're going to actually see the unseen reality right now it's called the unseen because we have that there right and so the purpose of this surah is to actually tell us there's a reason allah doesn't tell you about the unseen. it's not becoming of allah and allah wouldn't be one to inform you of all his reasonings in the unseen allah doesn't owe you an explanation you don't have the act you don't have access to that knowledge and as i said multiple times in this series even his knowledge is just a drop it's just a drop from the actual reasoning in the unseen as is illustrated by the hadith that surrounds this incident so i pray you benefited from today's uh discussion inshallah i'll stop my broadcast now but i'll open it up to any questions you folks might have before i concluded

Channel: Bayyinah Institute

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Id: z44TmbLqqTw

Length: 59min 36sec (3576 seconds)

Published: Fri Aug 13 2021