SELECTIVE TRANSCRIPTION 'DIVINE SPEECH - AL FATIHAH' BY NOUMAN ALI KHAN (Malaysia 2014) بسم ال الرحمـن الرحيم الحمد ل رب العالمين الرحمـن الرحيم مـالك يوم الدين إياك نعبد وإياك نستعين اهدنــــا الصراط المستقيم صراط الذين أنعمت عليهم غير المغضوب عليهم ول الضالين
Bismilaahir rahmanir Rahim Alhamdulillahi Rabbil 'alameen Ar Rahmaanir Raheem Maaliki Yawmid Deen Iyaaka na'budu wa 'iyyaka nasta'een Ihdinas Siraatal Mustaqeem Siraatal lazeena'an 'am ta'alayhim, ghayril marghdoobi 'alayhim wa lad daalleen ALHAMDULILLAH "let's skip Bismilaahir Rahmanir Rahim because that would take 3 hours by itself. But we're starting with 'Alhamdulillah'. Now when we translate Alhamdulillah to english what do we say? 'Praise to Allah' , 'All praises belongs to Allah' etc.What I want to start with is actually the difference of 2 things. Actually the word 'Hamd' means 2 things at the same time. It means Praise and Thanks. And by the end of this lesson, I will explain the explain the difference between these 2 things because they are very different and they are combined inside the word 'Hamd'. So what are the 2 things in 'Hamd'? Praise & Thanks. The next piece I want to ask you to understand the difference between a noun and a verb. A noun is a person, or a thing, or a place or an idea. 'Hamd' is a noun because it's an idea. Basic definition. A verb is something either is a past tense, a present tense of a future tense. So if you say 'I prayed' that is past tense. If 'I pray' it's present tense and if you say 'I will pray' it's future tense. Now this ayah 'Alhamdulillah', 'Hamd' is for Allah. So 'Hamd' is not a verb, it is a noun. When the khatib gives his khutbah, he says 'Inna Alhamdulillah, Nahmadahoo, Wa nastaeenahoo, Wa nastagfirhoo'. have you heard this before? Right before you go to sleep did you hear that? Now he says 'we praise Allah', is that past tense, present tense or future tense? that's present tense, right? So that's a verb. But Allah when He said 'Alhamdulillah'. He use a noun. So there's a difference we have to understand. Why dont we say we praise Allah? Allah makes us say 'Alhamdullillahi Rabbil 'Alameen'. Now I told you noun is a person, place, thing or idea and a verb is a past tense, present tense of future tense. Tell me about a noun. A noun does not have tense, a noun is permanent. A verb is temporary. Allah use 'Hamd' because His 'Hamd' is permanent. If we say we praise Allah, that's present tense, which means we say nothing about the past. Was there 'Hamd' in the past? yes but we didnt say it. Is there going to be 'Hamd' in the future? yes we didnt say we only talk about the present. But Allah describe 'Hamd' that covers the past, the present and the future and is beyond time so He says 'Hamd' that's permanent . There's a big difference in saying I praise Allah or we
praise Allah, and 'Hamd' that belongs to Allah Now the 2nd point, When I say I praise Allah, who's praising Him? When I say you praise Allah, who's praising Him? You are.. If I say the muslims praise Allah, who's praising Him? The Muslims. In other words, whenever you have a verb, you have to have someone to do it. You cannot just have a verb without someone doing it. You cannot just say 'eat' ... who ate? You cannot just say dive, you have to tell me who does it. somebody has to do the verb, you cannot have a verb by itself. Can you have a noun by itself? Yes.. A noun doesnt need someone to do it but a verb needs someone to do it. We praise Allah but who will be doing the praise? we.. but the 'Hamd' of Allah does not need a doer. Whether all of us are doing the 'Hamd' or Allah or none of us are doing the 'Hamd' of Allah, if the entire creation is doing 'Alhamd' of Allah or nothing is doing the 'Alhamd of Allah, there is STILL the 'Hamd' of Allah . It does not depend on us. you see, a verb depends on doer, a noun depends on nothing. So Allah makes his 'Hamd' independent of us. Whether you and I remember Him or not, 'Hamd' of Allah is still a fact, it's real. The reason I'm telling you this examples is because we say 'Alhamdulillah' ALL the time. In language there are many ways of saying things. You can praise Allah in many ways, you can say 'Alhamd' belongs to Allah , you can say 'We praise Allah', you can say 'You must praise Allah' like an explanation of a command but does it make a difference? Yes it does. And which one does Allah choose the perfect one? If you choose any other options something is missing. And that is why I want to explore all other options. And only if you explore all these options you really appreciate how perfect 'Alhamdulillah' is. Now let's take another step. Now what if you say 'Hamdu-lillah' not 'Al-Hamdulillah'. You know what that means? That would mean some 'Hamd' belongs to Allah. By putting 'Al' which means all 'Hamd', every 'Hamd', the perfect 'Hamd' belongs to Allah. So even the 'Al' is important. Now let me take you even further. The Khatib gets up, he says ' Inna hamdulillah', when he's really excited he didnt say 'Inna alhamdulillah' . Now what word did he use in the first word? 'Inna'. Does the Quran say 'Inna Alhamdulillahhi Rabbil 'alameen'? No. Anybody knows what 'Inna' means? It means for sure. without doubt. Definitely. I dont like to use the word 'verily' because I dont know what that means. Have you ever used 'verily' in your life? Do you go to a restaurant and say 'Verily I need a discount'? do you ever say that? . So if you dont use it , then you dont have to use it for the Quran, leave it alone. 'For sure, definitely Hamd belongs to Allah'..it's a very powerful way of speaking. The question is if it's powerful, then how come Allah doesnt say it? Allah says in the Quran ' Innal-laah 'alaa kulli shay'in Qadeer', doesnt he say that? 'Innalaha 'alimun bizatis sudur', He says 'Innallah' all the time. So what's the difference between ' Inna Alhamdulillah' and 'Alhamdulillah' and why is this 'Alhamdulillah' perfect? I have to tell you the difference between 2 more things. Sentences of information and Sentences of emotions. Let me give you a simple example. If I'm teaching you, I'm giving you information. So I'm teaching you something about 'Al-hamdulillah'.. that is informational. If a non-muslim come to me, a Buddhist come to me and says I want to know about Islam, and I say All Praise belongs to Allah, Alhamdulillah, I'm teaching him. Is this informational or emotional? Informational. Next, I got a phone call, my wife says 'the baby .. she went to the doctor, she's ok' and what do I say when the baby's ok? I say 'Al-hamdulillah'. Am I being informational or emotional? Emotional. So sometimes I say Alhamdulilah it's information and sometimes emotional. Ok for those of you who are students of Arabic, these could be the difference between Jumla inshaiya and Jumla khabariya. The rule of Arabic is when you use 'Inna' it has to be about information. But if you dont use 'Inna' then it could be informational or emotional. When the students of tafsir is sitting down with the books and he's learning about 'Alhamdulillah' , his experience about 'Alhamdulillah' is informational. But when that same student is standing in front of Allah and reciting the Al-Fatihah, then the 'Alhamdulillah' is emotional! You see.. so that it's speaking not just about the 'ard'.
'Alhamdulillah' is also about our hearts. Allah is speaking about the heart and the mind.. and so 'Alhamdulillah' What if you say 'praise Allah' like a command. Is it Allah the authority so he has the right to command us, he can tell us to do something . But let me tell you about command. First of all, commands are interesting language because when you give a command there's only 2 possibilities. If I gave my daughter a command, I tell her.. 'Bring me some water'. There is possibility #1. She will bring me some water. There is possibility #2. She wont bring me some water. Now for the rest of you, there may be 2 different possibilities. I asked you to do something, either you do it or you dont do it. If you do it, it happened. If you dont do it, it didnt happened. In other words, you're in charged now because it's your responsibility now. Allah didnt say YOU praise Allah, because that would depend on us but the Al-Hamd of Allah doesnt depend on us. Otherwise, that would mean if we do it , it happens and if we dont do it , Al-Hamd doesnt happen. But Al-Hamd is already there. One time when I was in college, an atheist student who came to me and said 'why does your God want us to praise Him so much? Why do he want us to pray to him 5x, say Alhamdulillah, praise him all the time, why does he need your praise??' And I said 'Listen my friend, I want to explain to you that actually in Islam, Allah does not need all that. How do I know? because he said 'Alhamdulillah' . He doesnt need us. It's already there, you cant change it. So I told you 'Inna Alhamdulillah' is informational and 'Alhamdulillah' is informational and emotional. But you know when you have eid and you're going to dress nicely and you're going to stay after fajar for a change, and then you're going to walk after prayer, and you're going to take different path, not your normal way, and when you're walking, you're going to say 'Allaahu akbar. Allaahu akbar. Allaahu akbar. Laa ilaaha illallaahu wallaahu akbar.Allaahu akbar walillaahil hamd ' Al-fatihah says what? 'Alhamdulillah' but you said what? 'lillahi al-hamd' what's the difference? it's the same word but the difference is the reverse. 'Lillahi' was at the end now it's at the beginning. 'Alhamdu' is at the beginning now it's at the end. Everything makes a difference. Why do you say 'lillahil-hamd'? but He says 'Al-hamdulillah'. Well actually at the end of surah Jathiyah (45:36) he does say 'Fallillahil hamdu Rabbis samaawati wa rabbil ardi rabbil aalameen'. Many times he says 'Alhamdulillah' like 'Alhamdulillahil lazee 'anazala all' abdihil kitaaba wa lam yaj'al lahoo iwajaa' (18:1) . Sometimes he also says 'lillahil hamd'. Whic one would you pick? which one is normal? I give you 2 choices. Choice #1 : I Pray Maghrib ... Choice #2: Maghrib I Pray.. Which one is normal English? First one is normal. Even 'Maghrib I Pray' sounds like star wars but still it's understandable. It's strange but it's english. Which one is normal? I ate lunch or lunch i ate? I saw you, or you I saw? 'Hamd Belongs to Allah', 'to Allah Belongs Hamd'. Which is normal? 'Hamd Belongs to Allah' is normal. I'm not saying one is right, one is wrong. I'm saying one of them is right, one of them is unusual. Do you understand? Now here's the secret behind this.. When the arabs use this unusual order, then actually what they mean by that is 'only' . They dont have to say the word 'only'. They use this unusual order. In other words, 'I ate lunch' is normal, but if you say 'lunch I ate' , the arabs actually means by that 'I only ate lunch', so I did not have breakfast, I did not have dinner. When I use to be a teacher, I use to have boys and girls in my class, and they were 2 girls zaida and fatimah at the back, they used to talk to each other all the time. So I called Zaida, 'hey Zaida', She said 'I was not the only one'. What is she saying? 'If I walk to the principal's office, fatimah's coming with me'. But she did not say fatimah was talking too.. she use the word 'only'. And just because she used the word 'only' I understood she's telling me something more. If somebody says 'I'm not your only friend', then what is he saying? you have all friends, it means something more.
Allah says 'Al-Hamd' only belongs to Allah, but when He says 'walillaahil hamd' in surah Jathiyah, ard ONLY belongs to Allah. Are you saying something else too?. 'Al-Hamd' will only belongs to Allah, it does not belong to anyone else. When you're arguing with someone or correcting someone, then you say 'hey 'Al-Hamd only belongs to Allah, not someone else'. Now, surah Jathiyah is a debate with the people who do syirik. Now the people of syirik, they do Al-Hamd of Allah but the problem is they do Al-Hamd with other things too. If you tell a musyrik 'Alhamdulillah' maybe he has no problem, he says 'ok i'm good', 'Hamd' belongs to Allah and also he has some more. This actually happened to me one time. I was driving one day in Lousiana and I was running out of gas. A guy pulled over in a pickup truck and a shotgun in the back and a cowboy hat. And I'm getting gas and he's getting gas and he looks at me and goes 'you're from Islamabad?' and I was like 'no from New York' and then I said 'Hey.. Praise the Lord' and he goes 'Amen brother.. I agree' and he walked away. Because when I say praise the Lord, what is he thinking? Is he thinking Jesus or someone? I dont know what he was thinking. The musryikun were told that 'Hamd' only belongs to Allah, this was important because they have to learn 'Alhamd' only for Allah. But when muslims are talking to each other, I dont say 'Hey Hamd' only belongs to Allah ok? nobody else' . So I dont say 'Lillaahil Hamd' but what do I say to him? 'Alhamdulillah' to the one who knows. But for the one who doesnt know and he's doing the wrong thing what do we say to him? 'Lillaahil Hamd'. Because Allah told us in Al-Fatihah that every human being already knows! It is inside of them and it is in their fitrah and so there is no need to argue with them. You begin Al-Fatihah with 'Alhamdulillah' because inside the heart of every human being, there is no argument. If Al-fatihah begins with 'Lillaahil Hamd', that means the Quran begins the argument with people. The Quran did not begin with that. Sometimes there is need for debate. So Allah debated in Surah Jathiyah but for all of humanity and all of believers there is no need for debate.
Now lets move a little further. We say 'Alhamdulillahi' and what's the next word..? 'Rabbil 'alameen'. What if I say this ' Alhamduli rabbil 'alameen'... 'Hamd' of Allah belongs to Rabbil 'alameen. what are we saying? Why do we have the word 'Allah' there? We could just say 'Alhamduli Rahman' or 'Alhamduli Rahim' .. Allah has so many names, you could pick any names why pick the word 'Allah' there, what's the benefit of that? Let me tell you something.. When you get introduced to someone or the first time you meet someone, you say assalamuaalaikum then the first thing you say is 'my name is so on'. And after you introduce them with your name, you tell them something about yourself. You do not meet someone new at the airport and you turn to them and say 'assalamuaalaikum I'm a teacher'.... Shouldnt it be 'assalamuaalaikum my name is abdul kareem and I'm a teacher'? First you say you name and then you describe yourself. Al-Fatihah is Allah introducing us to Himself. And when you introduce yourself, what's the most important thing? Your Name. Here's the other thing, Allah Himself says He has many Names. Ar-Rahman, Ar-Rahim, Al-Khaliq, Al-Hakim, Al-Qudus, Al-Aziz, etc. If we say 'Alhamdulli Khaliq', then the 'Hamd' is for the Creator.. so that means I'm only grateful to him and I'm only thanking him beacuse He Created. If I say 'Alhamdulli Hakim' I'm only grateful for His Wisdom. If I say 'Alhamdulli Aleem' I'm only grateful for His Knowledge. If I say 'Alhamdulil Qudus' I'm only grateful for His Purity. If we say 'Alhamdulli Rahman', I'm only grateful for His Mercy and His Love. But I want to be grateful to Him for His Guidance, His Creation, His Mercy and all at the same time that's too many Names, how are we going to thank Allah for everything? Allah only can teach us. So He give us one word.
And that one word has ALL the Names of Allah in it at the same time. Which one is that? ALLAH, so you say 'Alhamdulillah' because there's no better way to praise Allah than 'Alhamdulillah'. Musa a.s. was with Harun a.s. and they were arguing and debating with firaun and finally Musa a.s. had a challenge with the magicians. And the magicians were eventually defeated and they fell into sajadah. Firaun was confused and asked what happened. He didnt understand what happened. So the magicians got up from sajadah and they said ' aamannaa bi Rabbil Alameen' (26:47), 'We believe in the Rabb of Alameen'. No mention of Allah . So they only say we believe in the Rabb. The problem is Musa a.s. was talking against firaun and he himself thinks that he is Rabb. So when the magicians say they believe in the Rabb, what might firaun think ? Firaun thinks 'I know!'. You see..there's confusion so the magicians, they said 'aamannaa bi Rabbil Alameen' and they turned to firaun and said no.. 'Rabbi Moosaa wa Haaroon'.. not firaun but the Rabb of Musa a.s. and Harun a.s. (26:48) ! Because when you dont mention the word 'Allah', is it possible that someone believes in the incorrect Rabb? Is that possible? Firaun believes in himself as Rabb. The musyrik might believe in something else as Rabb. So if the Al-Fatihah begins with 'Alhamdulirabbil alameen' everybody will have a different concept of Rabb, so Allah made it exclusively clear this will begin with 'Alhamdulillahi Rabbil alameen' so there's no confusion now. I started by saying there's a difference between praise and thanks. Now I will explain the difference. 'Al Hamd' means both praise and thanks, if it was only thanks, the words will be 'Al syukrun Lillah'. If it was only praise, it would be 'Al Hamid dulillah' . But Allah say 'Alhamdulillah' which is both praise and thanks. Now let's understand this a little bit.. You go to a family's house who has a baby. You see the baby .. Do you praise the baby or do you thank? if you praise, you can say 'that is so cute' . Even if it looks like an old man you say it's cute etc. Whatever you say, you're not thanking but you're praising the baby. When you want to buy a nice car, a porsche or something, do you praise the car or thank the car? 'It's a nice car' and you would not go to the hood of the car and say 'thank you thank you'. you dont do that. So you praise but you dont thank. So sometimes you can praise without thanking, it's possible. There are people watching the World Cup, they're praising the team but they're not thanking the team. Sometimes you can thank without praising. Let me give you an example. Ibrahim a.s. was raised in a house that was full of syirik. His father builds idols. Ibrahim a.s. is commanded to be grateful to his parents. The commandments are for all the prophets. He has to say thanks to his father. He thanks him but he will never praise what he does, but he still has to thank him. Musa a.s. was raised under firaun. . He would thanked him but he would not praise him. That was a favour firaun did for him and he owed him thanks but not praise. It's two different things. 'Alhamdulillah' - what are we saying? Praise and Thanks at the same time. Now in English we have to use 2 words. And when you use 2 words, you are separating them. But in Arabic of the Quran, it is one word which means all these things are always together all the time. I dont praise Allah sometimes and thank Him some other times, I always praise and thank Him all the same time, they're never separated. In other words, when you see a view of a mountain, you dont just praise Allah, you thank Allah. And when you are going to through difficulty, example 'How are you doing? , Oh I lost my job, things are pretty bad.. Alhamdulillah'. But sometimes people say 'Alhamdulillah' but they dont mean it. Not only 'Alhamdulillah' is informational but it is emotional so you have to have the emotion of praising Allah and thanking Allah when you say 'Alhamdulillah' You have to have both of those things, no matter what is happening to the life of the muslims, goes back to this one thing and everything is fine..and that one thing is 'Alhamdulillah'. We have to have the attitude that we praise and thank Allah for everything that He Does. We thank Him in difficult times the same way we thank Him in easy times.. that's 'Alhamdulillah' . Remember 'Alhamdulillah'
is permanent, which means no matter what's happening , 'Alhamdulillah' is still true and doesnt change. Your world changes, your life changes, your health changes but 'Alhamdulillah' doesn't change. But for some people, 'Alhamdulillah' is working when the money is good and 'Alhamdulillah' disappears when money disappears. 'Alhamdulillah' disappears when family problems start. Allah describe it as permanent and we have to have a permanent attitude towards the 'Alhamd' of Allah. Can you imagine the scholars of Islam, the ulama of tafsir, they go through the entire Quran word by word and said 'why is this so beautiful?', 'why is this so perfect?', 'why is the benefit of this and that?', 'why if I say it in another way?'...and they did this entire exercise for the entire Quran..Subhanallah! What an incredible book !! What other book is there going to be for scholars and people who dedicate their WHOLE life exploring every word and figuring out the treasures. RABBIL 'ALAMEEN Ok let's speed this up. We finished some discussion of 'Alhamdulillah', now we're going to talk a bit more of 'Rabbil 'alameen'. The first thing I'd like to share with you is I'm reminding you that Allah is introducing Himself to us in this surah. And after He says that 'Alhamdulillah', the first description he chose of all of His descriptions was 'Rabbil 'alameen'. So it must be the first foundation of our relationship with Him. It must be something very important that establishes our relationship with Allah before everything else. He is also many things. He is Ar-Rahman Ar-Rahim, He is also Maaliki Yawmid Deen. But the first thing you and I need to know is 'Rabbil 'alameen'. Let's go over from the beginning. Allah owns you and me. All of us understand the concept of ownership. You own a pen, a car, a phone, laptop, all these things. When you own something, sometimes you dont have full authority but Allah actually has full authority. Now when you own something, is it guarantee that you will take care of it? Do we always take care of it? Do you take care of all your clothes, shoes and technology. You know some of you have a whole rack of vcrs from 1997 etc, but you dont take care of it but it's there. Allah owns you and me, He has absolute authority over you and me and He takes care of you and me. The the other issue.. Why say the giver of gifts? because whatever Allah gives you, definitely it's a gift. When your boss gives you a cheque? is it a gift? no, you earn it , you work hard and you earn it. But when Allah gives you something, it's never something you earn. We never earn anything from Allah. We only get gifts from Allah. There's a big difference now. When your paycheck is less that what you expected, you expect a cheque of RM1,000 but you got a cheque of RM800, do you complain? yes because you deserve it. But when you get a gift for RM800, do you say ' what's the matter with you, what kind of gift is this?'. Do you do that? You're really messed if you say that !. When you get a gift, and you know that you didnt deserve it, and it's not something to expect... (and if you expect it, It would be a payment or salary), then it's a gift! Now what that does to you and me is Allah has been saying you have 5 fingers on your hands, some of you have 4 fingers, some of you walk straight, some of you walk awkward, or both of your legs or no legs at all, everything you have or whatever you dont' have, you dont get to complain because you dont earn it ! He gives to whatever He wants. Nothing I have is my own actually. I myself , I dont belong to myself. Inna Lillahi wa inna ilaihi raji'un. You know, we worry about the clothes we wear, the house we live in, the property we own, all of these things, but at the end of the day we ourselves are property of Allah, we're going under the ground, we're going back to the earth of Allah. And then we're reminding each other ' Inna Lillahi wa inna ilaihi raji'un'. Just like this one belongs to Allah that's proof that he did not own himself, Allah took him. Just like that one day, He'll take us, one day we'll be gone.
Al Qayyum, the one who maintains and we depend on, that means you and I are not capable of living from one breath to the next breath, one second to the next second. The one who is allowing us to keep and to maintain our lives is Allah . In other words, Allah is never absent in our lives. Some people when they are in difficult times, they ask 'where is Allah when I needed Him?' . You know what? your heart is still beating, right? That's not because you put the battery inside. Your lungs are still contracting and expanding, Allah is doing that for you and He is still doing that for you. And the tongue that you are using to complaint about Allah, guess who is making that tongues work at the time that you're complaining, that is Allah too. The voice that's coming out from your throats is Allah's. It's always there, He's maitaining. Now, I'm going to say some words to you and you tell me the other end. All these words are relationships. One the one hand you have teacher, on the other hand you have student. On the one hand you have parent, on the other hand you have child. These are relationships. Some of Allah's names there are relationships, some have no relationship. For example when He says He's Wise, there is no relationship. But when Allah says He's the Creator, what is the relationship? On one hand is the creator, on the other hand is the creation. On the one hand is the giver, on the other hand is the receiver. Now, the word 'Rabb' , owner, that's one one side. What's on our side? If Allah is owner, what am I? I'm property. The term used for human property is 'ard. So Allah is Rabb and I am 'ard. That's all I am. By calling Himself Rabb automatically he calls me 'ard. But sometimes we have a teacher but we have a student that who doesnt know he's a student. Sometimes we have a parent but the child doesnt like acting like a son. Sometimes you have a husband and the wife is not acting like a wife and vice versa. And here you have the Rabb and sometimes you have people who dont act like 'ard. This one word 'ard' is actually the summary of the entire Quran, my teacher used to tell me. He said one thing that Allah wants us to know about Him is that He is Rabb and that everyday we'll forget a little bit or a lot, and we will make mistakes and we will have to remind ourselves that He's Rabb, we're 'ard. That's the essence of the Quran, accept the fact and you're fine. But there's a big problem. You know, in the United States, when I teach the same course I used to teach a long time ago, when I talk about 'ard how do I translate 'ard? Slave!. In America we used to have slaves a few centuries ago...so somebody used to say ' I dont like slaves'.. Eg, slavery is bad, slavery means they put people in chains, you whip them, you punish them, you torture them, you take away their respect and dignity, and you treat them like animals. By the way in human history, are slaves treated like animals, put in chains and humiliated?. Yes absolutely. The example of human slavery in the Quran is Bani Israel, Firaun have made them into slaves and they were humiliated. And actually that means that the slavery itself is humiliating. Human beings want to be free. Slaves have no respect. By the way, somebody's a teacher, an accountant, doctor, janitor, masjid iman, scholar but the lowest title available in humanity is slave. There's no lower job description than that and everybody else is better than slave.. Allah took for himself 'Rabb' and he give you the title 'ard' and nobody likes to be at the bottom.. But the unique thing is.. in America, when they had slavery, did the slaves like their masters or hated their masters? They hated their masters. First chance they got to get free, they got free.. some of them tried to run away and got killed. Some of them were tortured because they disobeyed their masters. In other words, the slaves dont love their masters, the slaves hate their masters. Emotionally they never thank or praise their masters. Allah is the only Rabb that before you even know he is 'Rabb', you do a 'Hamd' on Him.. Alhamdulillahi Rabbil 'alameen. They will never be any Rabb other than Allah who will ever get 'Hamd'. They are people that can try to be rabb. They tried and maybe some people consider him rabb but he'll never have the 'Hamd'. That's only for Allah. So Allah says that you will praise Him, thank Him and appreciate Him before you even enter into this relationship. And He says 'Rabbil 'alameen'. I wont go into too many details tonight , I'll keep it simple so that you know the meaning of this lesson. 'Alameen' is actually used in the arabic language, not
just what the translation says 'Lord of the World'. I dont like the word 'Lord' because it's old English, nobody really knows what that means. I like 'Master', Rabb is Master. Which means if He's Master, we are slaves. I don't even like 'servant' because 'servant' is part time. 'Slave' is full time but 'servant' is only servant when he's at the job. A slave is a slave when he's sleeping, when he wakes up, when he sits, when he's eats, when he's young, old etc. I like 'slave' better, it's an honour from Allah that he is slave. Now 'alameen' . It actually means nations, people. 'Alameen' is actually used in arabic not just for worlds but for different cultures. So when I come to Malaysia, I'd say that this is a beautiful alam, this is a different alam. When I travel across the United States, I used to live in New York, when I moved to Texas, I thought 'this is a beautiful alam', people actually say hello! So, 'alameen' actually means different cultures, different nations, different generations, different ethnicities and Allah is saying that he's the Rabb of not just the arabs or indians, europeans etc, He's the Rabb of every nation and every culture, and every ethnicity and He takes care of everything and provides for everything. Every human being on this earth belongs to Rabb of Alameen and He's the Rabb of All. AR RAHMAN AR RAHIM
Definition of 'Ar Rahman Ar Rahim'. Most Gracious, Most Merciful. What does gracious means? Do we use 'gracious' nowadays? The word Ar Rahman Ar Raheem have to do with 2 things, they have to do with love and care. The first person you think of a human being, the one who loves and care for you is mother, which is why the word 'rahmah' is used for the value of the mother. The closest thing you can imagine within the human experience is the mother. Now the relationship between the mother and the child is simple, it's love and care. So Ar-Rahman ArRaheem has to do with love and care. But why do Allah use 2 different words? What's the point? So I'm not using the word merciful right now. I need you to remember 3 things about Ar Rahman. I need you to remember 2 things about Ar Rahim. I will not give you the technical details. Here are 3 things about Ar Rahman. Firstly, it is extreme. Secondly it is happening right now. Thirdly it's temporary. That means Allah is not just saying He's loving and caring, but He is also saying He is extremely loving and He is extremely caring. Secondly, Allah is not saying He is loving and caring eventually, or loving and caring in a month, but when is he loving and caring? Right now, it's happening as we speak. Meaning Allah is giving us His love and His care right now. Thirdly, the word Ar Rahman is a pattern, as a muslim in the arabic language, we say different words that sound like Rahman, all of them are temporary. Example, the word 'atshan' which is thirsty, is that permanent or temporary? temporary. So Ar Rahman is also temporary but with a condition. Thirst is temporary because water is taken away. Allah's Rahman is there, something might come from you to get rid of it. It will only be temporary if you get rid of it, just like you can get rid of thirst by water. You can get rid of Allah's Rahman by doing something. We'll learn about that in a moment. So there are 3 things about Ar Rahman:- extreme, right now, temporary. How many things do we need to know about Ar Rahim? 2 things. Firstly, it's always, it's permanent (different from Ar Rahman that is temporary) . Secondly, it is not necessarily happening right now (different from Ar Rahman which is happening now) Example, I say to someone my wife is patient but I'm in Malaysia and she's in Texas right now. Do I know that she is being patient right now? maybe she's going crazy and breaking plates, I don't know what she's doing. If I tell my brother my wife is patient, I probably should say insyaallah wallahu a'lam! If you say about
someone he's a nice guy, even when he's not here. But do you know if he's being nice right now? no.. So the same way you were describing Allah as loving and caring. But the word Ar Rahim doesnt mean necessarily mean Allah is engaged in the act of love and care right now. let me tell you one amazing thing about these 2 words. If Allah only send Ar Rahman, then the Ar Rahman of Allah would be extreme but it would be right now but not be permanent. They'll be something missing. So Allah added Ar Rahim and by adding Ar Rahim, what would it become also permanent. The one thing that was missing is covered in Ar Rahim. If Allah always have Ar Rahim, the problem is it would not be extreme and it would not be right now. So by saying Ar Rahman Ar Rahim, now it became extreme, it became right now and it became permanent . Nothing is left. But you also have to understand why Ar Rahman first and then Ar Rahim second? Let me give you a simple examples. You go to the office, you get paid at the end of the month. And you leave your office at 6.00pm. Now it's 5.30pm at the end of the month. Your boss is suppose to give you your cheque but your boss is not there because he's stucked in traffic. He says he's trying to get there , now it's 5.45 pm and you have to go. Your flight is in 2 hours and if you dont have this cheque you can't go. And your friend comes to you and says it's ok, our boss is reliable, he's good. And you say thank you very much my brother, my boss is reliable, but I wish he's reliable RIGHT NOW. I know he's reliable but I dont care, I need his cheque right now. Human beings when they're in trouble, they dont care about the future, they care about right now. If you're really hungry and you go home, and the wife says 'what do you want to eat next week?' and you say 'what?? give me some food !!!!' ... and once you finish eating your food and you say 'so what are we going to eat next week?'.. So in other words, if you're in trouble what do you care about? right now, but when right now has been taken care of, you think about the future. If you have no money, you think about where am I going to eat the next meal. If you have money, you're thinking about your savings, investments, children's money, marriage, etc. In other words, when you have the immediate you worry about the immeadiate first , you care about the future later. Allah gives us Ar Rahman right now and now that your immediate is taken care of, you start thinking about the future so Allah gives you Ar Rahim. He takes care of your present and He takes care of your future. Is that beautiful? Ibnu Abbas r.a. once said Ar Rahman is for this dunia and Ar Rahim is for the akhirat for the believers. This is amazing because this dunia is temporary just like Ar Rahman, and akhirat is permanent just like Ar Rahim ! Ibnu Abbas r.a. says it all in one line. MAALIKI YAWMID DEEN Now before I take you to Maaliki Yawmid Deen but I want to tell you a story: I used to teach kindergarten.. worst job in the world ! :) .. These children, and I used to teach at other schools, all the teachers are VERY strict. So when I went in, I told the teachers and said I'm not going to be strict, I'm going to tell them stories, I'm going to play with them, I'm going to do tricks with them, I'm going to stand on the table, I'm going to stand upside down on my hands..they're going to LOVE me ! The teachers have had experience, they looked at me at laughed. So on the first day, I went in and told them that we're going to have fun, I told them stories, I told them jokes.. The kids are loving it . When the class came to an end, they went awww. The next day, I walked into class, they kids were excited and I thought this is amazing. So for the first 3 days we did no work. on the fourth day I came into class and say 'ok kids open up the books'. Did the kids open their books? no.. 'Hey.. tell us another story'...'Hey stand on the table again'... 'No kids, it's time to open your books'.. 'Nooooo!!.. Tell us a story !!'.. There was one child who was at the back of the class and he was writing his name on the wall and he was looking at me !. And his friend came to him and said 'hey he's looking at you, the teacher sees you' and the boy replied 'yeah but he's a nice guy !'
You know why I told you this story? When you're really nice to someone, then they start thinking you'll never get angry and you can get away with anything. And these children, I was always loving and caring to them, so when I decided to tell them they are rules, they're not willing to listen. Allah, in the Quran if he only told us that He is only Ar Rahman Ar Rahim, there would be a problem. You know what we would do? We would write our names on the wall!. 'Allah is nice, He's Ar Rahman Ar Rahim, temporary, extreme it's all there , it's all good, dont worry about it, it's taken care of, Alhamdulillah, etc' . So I tell you one more story so that you'll understand Maaliki Yawmid Deen. There's a master and a slave. And the master said to the slave, 'did you see that line over there? dont go to the other side. You can do anything you like inside but dont cross the line'. So the slave is playing around not doing any work, he goes close to the line and he sees the master sitting there. The master doesnt say anything. He didnt say 'hey hey get away from the line'. So the slave goes to the line and he falls, he falls on the other side. And immediately, the slave looked at the master but the master didnt say anything. The slave said 'I'm sorry I'm sorry' and the master didnt say anything. And the next day, the slave pretends to fall and he still checks if he gets into trouble and he didnt get into trouble. The next day, he doesnt pretend to fall, instead he puts one foot in this side, one foot on the other side. The master still doesnt say anything. The next day he's already on the other side. A couple of years go by and the master calls him one day and asks him 'hey remember few years ago I told you dont walk to the other side?' and he says 'yeah I remember'. The master said 'I recorded how many times you went on the other side and I decided to punish you for all, the whole at once, so I'm going to punish you for each of those immediately right now!'. I'm talking about Allah and us. Allah is Ar Rahman Ar Rahim but He is also Maaliki Yamid Deen. Watch it !. I just want to tell you something about Mid Deen. It comes from Dīn which is the exact loan payment and what you owe someone. In other words I'll take the exact calculations from you on your Mid Deen. And that's powerful because on the Day of Judgement, we know that our records are going to be shown and it has everything. 'Laa yughaadiru sagheeratan wa laa kabeeratan 'illa ahsaahaa' (18:49), it means nothing big nothing small but everything is in there except the beauty is, there are either people who Allah will go easy on and there are people who Allah will be tough on. You know after 9/11 in the states, when we travel there are a lot of extra securities at the airport, have take your shoes off, belts off.. you know, special muslim treatments. When I used to travel, I used to get stopped everytime, obviously for extra special security. But after a while, I was travelling to California, and I went through the security, I was waiting for the man to say 'sir, would you go over there?' . But they he didnt say that, he said go ahead, and I was confused. So immediately a thought came into my head, a kind of easy hisab. On the day of judgement He gives a book . Some people get their books in the left hand, some in the right. This book has everything you did and everything you said from beginning to the end. Now a lot of those things are good but many many things are not so good. So you have over the book over to the angel, and he will start going through the records. What's happening to you? you're scared, it's your book, it's been read. It's your Mid Deen, everything will be calculated. But for some people, ' Fa'ammaa man 'ootiya kitaabahoo biyameenih, fasawfa yuhaasabu hisaaban yaseera' (84:7-8) you'll be given easy account/reckoning. The Angels might say to you 'thank you, you can go, it's ok' . In other words, you don't get checked for every line, the angels say it's ok, they understand, they're good. So on the day of judgement, there are 2 kinds of people, the people who gets checked on every item and the people who gets easy account. For the people who gets checked, our prophet said for the ones who gets interrogated on judgment day , it's over. But for you and I, pray to Allah that insyaallah we'll get the easy hisab. So either they'll have people who'll enjoy Ar Rahman Ar Rahim or they'll have
people who gets punished by Maaliki Yawmid Deen. In these 3 ayats, Alhamdulillahi Rabbil 'alameen, Ar Rahmaanir Raheem, Maaliki Yawmid Deen is a comprehensive introduction to who Allah is. If somebody asks you who Allah is, these 3 ayats are enough. Notice here also there is a balance. I want to start describing that to you now. This surah is about balance. On the one hand you have Allah being a Rabb and the balance with us being 'ard. On one hand Allah is Ar Rahman Ar Rahim, how is it balanced? Maaliki Yawmid Deen. If Allah only describes Himself as Maaliki Yawmid Deen , we become depressed ! So He gives us hope first, then he gives us some fear. It's also beautiful that when you think about Ar Rahman Ar Rahim, in dunia we think of risks and guidance and good things. In Akhirat we think of Jannah. But on the other end of Jannah is Jahanam. But in the beautiful Al-Fatihah, there is no mention of Jahanam. He mentions Allah's favour, Ar Rahman Ar Rahim, Allah's mercy and love, and then Allah mentions his justice. Not punishment but Justice. Those of you who have a little background in philosophy try to understand this point. Rahmah is on the positive side and justice is right in the middle. Allah mentions the positive and then He mentions justice, He never mentions the negative and that's the beauty of Al-Fatihah. Allah is teaching us actually that by doing so, He will never punish unless it is just and they deny the Rahmah of Allah because He started with the positive. Allah says in the Quran 'why should Allah punish you if you have thanked Him and have believed in Him' (4:147). So many muslims think Allah wants to punish them, that is wrong. Allah does not want to punish anyone. Why do you think He started with Ar Rahman Ar Rahim? IYAAKA NA'BUDU WA 'IYYAKA NASTA'EEN Then Allah, at the end of this, there's a switch that happens, Allah decides to quote us. These are our words, back to Allah. The first part is Allah talking to us. Now, we're talking to Allah. We're learning that the Quran is Allah's way of teaching us to have a conversation with Allah. The Quran is not just Allah talking to us, the Quran forces us to talk to Allah. It is not Allah who is saying iyaaka na'budu, it is us who are saying iyaaka na'budu . It is You alone that we give ourselves into slavery, we give ourselves into worship. And it's so beautiful, that Allah did not command us and say 'Fa'budu'. Look at who Allah is, Alhamdulillah , that the 'Hamd' belongs to Him. He's Ar Rahman and Ar Rahim, He's Maaliki Yawmid Deen, therefore I come to my own conclusion Iyaaka Na'budu . If it was a command, then Allah is forcing you but Allah said it in words that are from yourself. That teaches you that Islam believes in freedom of religion and you have to come to Allah yourself. You cannot be forced to come to Allah. You have to say Iyaaka Na'budu so until you come to that conclusion yourself, you're not going to be forced. It's so incredible that's just inside Iyaaka Na'budu. And they would just say 'I'm ready to become your slave'. And what is Iyaaka? It's actually called ikhtisas. I'm giving myself into slavery only to You. We dont say 'we worship You' but we say 'YOU we worship' . Is that normal or unusual? That's where 'only' comes from. I want to explain to you now the difference between worship and slavery. A lot of times when we talk about ibadah in the Quran, we translate that as worship. But I want to go a step further , I want to say 'worship' and 'slavery'. I give myself in worship and I give myself in slavery. We worship Allah 5 times a day but when are we slaves of Allah? All the time ! When you are in hajj, you're worshipping Allah, but when you're in an airplane you might not be worshipping Allah, you might be sleeping. When you're at work, you might not be worshipping Allah, you might be doing work. Even if you're doing work, you're still a slave of Allah.
The job of slave is to help the master in every relationship. But here Allah wants you to be a slave and then He says why don't you ask Him for help! Subhanallah! The slavery to Allah cannot be compared to slavery to anyone else because every other master wants help but This One wants to give help, it's the opposite. Slavery is forced but with Allah is by choice. Didnt we say Iyaakana' budu on our own? No other slaves become a slave by choice, nobody does that because it's always forced on them. But with Allah this is only slavery in existence that is done by choice and there's a very powerful lesson in them. A slave has to do work all day and he cant take a break. If he takes a break the master hits him. So he keeps working. It is though Allah is saying Allah created human beings in a kind of labour that slaves do. Which means whether you're a slave of Allah or not you will always be a slve, maybe a slave of money, or slave of passion, or slave of culture, or slave of pride. But the only way you can be free from all these other slavery is you become slave of Allah. Otherwise you'll always become a slave of something. There are too many things that keep making me one to become a slave, there are too many things that want to take over my life. I want you to be the one who does wa'iyyaka nasta'een. Here's the other 2 beautiful things. Firstly is wa'iyyaka nasta'een, when we seek His help. We give you a simple example. Sometimes you're driving and you have a flat tyre and you need to fix your car. You have the spare tyre in the back. You put the jack and tried to lift the car, but you're not strong enough. Somebody is walking by, and you asked for a little help. And they helped you out.. This is called the 'aun. The 'aun is you're trying already and somebody comes to help you. The condition of 'aun you were trying youself. When we ask Allah for help, Allah taught us the word that says you were already trying yourselves but you realize that by trying alone is not enough, I have to get Allah's help. On the one hand, you have people who don't try at all. They won't make any effort, they say 'Allah will help me'... 'Why don't you get a job?' 'because Allah hasnt given me a job yet'.. 'Why don't you exercise?' 'because Allah hasn't made me healthy'. You dont get to blame Allah for that because you're lazy. Allah will not help you until you try to help youself.. that's inside nasta'een. The sahabat went into Badar, then the angels came. The angels were not there waiting for them to come. You have to go first, then the help comes. Ibrahim a.s. were thrown into the fire first then it becomes cold. It wasnt refrigerated ahead of time. You'd have to show your part first then the help of Allah comes.. That's nasta'een. Some extremists say 'I dont have to do anything, Allah will do everything'. This is wrong. The other extremists say 'I can do everything, I dont need help, I'm so intelligent'. The slavery lies in the fact that a person can't do anything on his own. So , there are 2 parts in anything accomplished in life:- your effort and Allah's help. And you're reminded of that every single day 'iyaaka na'budu wa'iyyaka nasta'een'. You're reminded of that balance everyday. There are a lot of people who have that imbalance. The Al-Fatihah addresses some of the most important problems that human beings face until the end of time. Now look at 'iyaaka na'budu wa'iyyaka nasta'een', If I ask a young man for help, all I say is 'help', the young man is confused because I only said 'help' without explaining myself. But the one we're talking to, He already knows. 'iyyaka nasta'een' means that Allah knows what you need and Allah knows what you need better than you know. So you dont have to say it, Allah takes care of it. The other beautiful thing is that there are so many things you need that the list would be too long and the Al-Fatihah would be too long, so just say 'help'. So that covers everything Why is 'iyaaka na'budu first and 'iyyaka nasta'een second? There are many reasons I want to give 2 of them. Firstly, why were human beings created? To do Ibadah. So human beings need to understand the real mission. This is a very valuable lesson , there are muslims today who want Allah's help but they do want to do ibadah. They do doa to Allah for promotions, good degrees, marriage,etc but they dont want to be slaves. They dont want to give up their habits that are against Allah's will... 'Just give me some doa that I can get whatever I want'...' , 'I want the iyyaka nasta'een part but not the iyaaka na'budu' . Here's the second lesson that's also beautiful. When we become Allah's slave, that is only for Allah and only for Allah. When we asks for help it's for ourselves. So,
iyyaka na'budu is for Allah, iyyaka nasta'een is for ourselves. And what is for Allah should be mentioned first, and what is for you should be mentioned second. Also importantly, what we do is for Allah, so automatically Allah will take care of you !
IHDINAS SIRAATAL MUSTAQEEM This is our relationship with Allah. We need Allah's help in lots of things. I'd like to give you a silly example so that you'll appreciate this lesson. There's a master and a slave. The master comes and say 'hey you, you're my slave', and the slave says 'well, ok'. After about an hour, the slave says 'so you wanna go get some popcorn?' . What is a slave? A slave does what the master wants. But the slave can only do what the master wants if he knows what the master wants. If the slave have no idea, if the master never told him, he's confused. I just turned to Allah and you just turned to Allah and we say 'Ya Allah we are slaves, ready'. So we need instructions. If Allah doesnt give us instructions, what's the point of calling ourselves slaves, that actually means we're still free. So you need some instructions, Allah teaches us to say Ihdinas siraatal mustaqeem, guidance. I want you to understand the relationship between guidance and slave until he has guidance from the master, because without guidance he doesnt know what to do which defies the definition itself. So to be an 'ard , means to to seek guidance. This 2 things are inseparable which is why in the Quran, over and over again Allah mentions Rabb, Allah mentions Hidayah (guidance). But Allah is with us, He will guide us, so We ask Allah to guide us, Ihdina. But guide us to what? He says Siraatal Mustaqeem but He didnt say Ihdinas illa Siraatal Mustaqeem or Ihdinas lissiraatal Musqtaqeem. Sometimes you say in English 'Guide Us to the straight Path' . In the Arabic, you can say 'illa' , you can say 'li' or you can say guidance using the straight path (Ihdina Bisiraatal Mustaqeem) but none of them are there. What does that mean? Pay attention to this example. If I want to go back to my hometown, I ask one of them how Do I get there...So they give me directions, now they guided me but they didnt go with me, I'm on my own, but that's good enough. When you hold someone's hand, and you take them all the way to their destination, he is with me the entire time. When we get to jannah, we say 'alhamdulillah', the One who guided us all the way to this. In other words, He is with us the entire time and guides us to Jannah. So then we're learning 3 things about guidance. Firstly, we're asking Allah for directions and knowledge. But knowledge is not enough. Secondly we're asking Allah's company. We don't want to go on the straight path by ourselves but to go on the straight path while Allah is supporting us. Thirdly, we're saying that his path itself should make it easy to make the next step. Ya Allah guide me using the straight path. You know like the car on the road, the car helps you travel. Allah is teaching us that the road itself will help you. Do you know that siraat can only be use for a straight path? But if it means straight, why did Allah say siraatal Mustaqeem ? Al Mustaqeem already means straight, but siraatal is also straight. Because Mustaqeem is not just straight, it is straight up. It's straight up because it comes from Allah, not to go forward but to go up. It's from Qiyaam, Qiyaam means 'standing'. Allah talks about the shopkeeper who has the weighing machine and he holds it in his hands and he holds it straight up. I'm asking Allah for guidance on the path that is straight up. That means this path, the longer I travel it the further I get from dunia, and the higher the rank and level becomes, the closer I get to Him. Sometimes people wonder why an ulama or sheikh is crying all the time? He's such a good guy, he is always reading the Quran, going to the masjid, never watch movies. You don't realize the higher you go, the scarier it gets. The higher you go the more difficult it gets.
Ihdinas siraatal mustaqeem is describing the road itself and it's heading upwards. It's a difficult journey and I told you that it leads away from dunia. We need to understand what does it mean to leave dunia. It doesnt mean not to do hardwork and not succeed and not have the most successful organizations and businesses and governments and economies of the world. It means that dunia is in your hands and not in your heart. Allah does not want us to abandon dunia, He does not want us to not build this world, make better countries, better cities, better economies, get better jobs. That is not true. Allah says 'Wa Asta`marakum Fiha' (11:61), He wanted you to build this world. He wanted you to salvage, build and develop the earth but He just don't want you to think that this is the final home. He wants you to work and succeed in this world. But understand that true success is in the Akhirat. There are people who only live for this dunia, they only live for one promotion, next promotion, more money and more money. Their entire life becomes about money. And they used to work 48 hours a week to earn money, now they make 50x more money and they work 100 hours a week, and they used to think to themselves 'when I make more money, I'll have a break'. But that's not going to happen. When they make more money, now they have no break, it's more work than ever before. This is not what Allah wants from us. You can enjoy this dunia, He put things in dunia so that you can enjoy your life, live well. but let's not forget why we're really here. We have no excuse not to worship Him. I shall tell you briefly about the emotion of Ihdina. So, I ask for some water. But I wasnt dying I was ok, if I have no water, I keep talking, no problem. But if I was dying of thirst, would I ask differently, I would beg and say 'please give me some water' . If you really really need something, you become desperate . If you dont and you ask for it, then you go 'oh well'. When you and I recite Al-Fatihah, and when we get to Ihdinas siraatal mustaqeem, How do we ask? Do we ask desperately like we're dying, like we cant do without it, like we absolutely mean it.? And by the way, Allah said we ask ourselves, show us the path of those You favour. And where do you get the answer to that? in the other surahs of the Quran. Which means by reciting Al-Fatihah, you're asking Allah , Ya Allah give me the answer. He gave you the answer in the rest of the Quran, so in fact your doa has already been answered in the fact that the Quran has been revealed. Which means, if you dont recite the Quran, you don't really mean what you're saying in the Al-Fatihah. You asked Allah and He gave, and you dont' take advantage of that. You asked for water, the water was provided and you're not drinking it. We only have ourselves to blame, nobody else.
SIRAATAL LAZEENA'AN 'AM TA'ALAYHIM This ayat is about the people on the road. If you go to a college and you're studying engineering, do you get advice from a student who is in the same class as you or from someone who has graduated and has a job? You get advice from someone who has graduated. The guy who is in the same class as you knows as much as you, he doesnt know what's going on, but the guy who has already finished college, he already got a job , he already knows what the economy is like, which courses are the most important, that's the guy who's already finished. That's why the ayat says ' Ya Allah show me the path of those 'an 'am ta'alayhim, the one You facilitated, You make peace for, You showered the luxury, ease and relaxation for'. This is important to mention because all of this is mentioned in the past tense, 'an 'am ta'alayhim. Not the path of those You favour, but the path of those whom you favoured, because you dont't want to know from current students, but from graduates. When we ask Allah for this, then we know that our role models, the people we look up to, the people we trust and we rely on, they are not people who are neccessarily alive now. Who are the real heroes? The people of the past. And the greatest heroes are the Allah made a part of His Book.
They were so wonderful that Allah made them a part of His Quran so that He can guide you and me. So every story of the past, every good people in the Quran , every legacy of the past as described in the Quran, is an answer to the doa Siraatal lazeena'an 'am ta'alayhim. Even the words 'an 'am ta'alayhim is so beautiful that Allah mentions that 'you' made it easy for them and the 'am ta' comes from the meanings softness and ease. That is why cows and camels are called An'am because they move out slowly, they're not like cats that move fast. Allah is describing to us that there are people of the past that Allah made ease for them. Ya Allah put me on the same path as those you made ease for, because they could not have done it themselves, You must have made things easy for them. So if you put me on that path, that means I cannot do this myself and You will make things easy for me too. That's the idea of 'an 'am ta'alayhim.
GHAYRIL MARGHDOOBI 'ALAYHIM WA LAD DAALLEEN Now in this, as we switch over those this part , Ghayril means I want to be nothing like these people. And of Doobi 'alayhim, how is it translated?.. 'not as those who earns Your anger/wrath'. The problem is, the word 'your' is not there. Whose anger? Allah's anger? but Allah is not mentioned.. He didnt say in the ayat any mention of Himself. It just says those who were receipients of anger and wrath. That's what's mentioned.. The other interesting thing is when you look for role models and good examples, do you look in the present or the past? You look in the past, because the past tense was used. But when Allah talks about the people who receives wrath and rage, Allah use a noun. What's a noun? It's permanent isnt it? Which means you will find that the people who received anger in the past, you will also find them in the present and in the future and you might become one of them. So you have to ask Allah that we wont be one of them. We cannot ask Allah Ghayril marghdoobi 'alayhim without knowing that you might be in danger of becoming them. If you're not in danger, you wouldn't ask . So we're in danger of becoming marghdoobi 'alayhim. When I say I'm angry at you, who's angry? I am. If say I helped you, who helped? I did. If you say you were helped, who helped you? Ghayril marghdoob is passive. what that means they're receiving wrath but Allah didnt say who's angry. There a couple of reasons. Firstly, there are too many of them. Allah is angry at them including the angels, their own followers, their families, the believers. The disbelievers on Judgement Day are also angry at them, the people of Jahanam are also angry at people who are coming in.. There's anger, anger and anger, Ya Allah, dont make me from the people who gets anger from every side, either from You or from Your creations. Those are people whom Allah curse and Allah created the angels for the job of cursing them. Then the last one is 'the lost' , the Daalleen. I dont see it as 'those who are misguided', that is incorrect. I want you to understand the difference between the ones who receive anger and the lost, what is the practical differences, not a complex explanation:- So, I have 2 sons, Walid & Imat. Imat is older, Walid is younger. I go outside for 5 mins after saying to Imat, 'Imat, I'm going to fix my car, I'll be back in 5 mins, there are some chocolates on the table, don't eat it' . Walid is upstairs, he didnt hear it ' . 5 mins later I came back, Imat & Walid is sitting together on the couch eating chocolates. Who should I be angry at? Imat or Walid? I asked 'Imat, why did you eat it then??' , he replied 'I don't know It's really delicious'.. And then Walid says 'I have no idea, I was confused'. What I'm trying to tell you is that marghdoobi 'alayhim are people who do the wrong thing even when they know. For someone who knows and still does the wrong thing, it is logical that you would be angry at them. If I'm a teacher and I give you the exam, and on the day before, I give you the answers and tell you 'Here's the answers, please get a 100% tommorow', and you still failed the exam, the teacher would be angry. But if you're a student who never came to class and
misses all the lessons, takes the exam and he gets a zero, he can say 'he is lost and confused'. So there's a difference between the one who gets the anger and the one who is lost. The one who get the anger has knowledge, the one who is lost has no knowledge. On the one hand, we're asking Allah to give us knowledge but make sure we don't become the people who have knowledge but don't act. On another hand, we're asking Allah dont make us become the people who are ignorant to have no knowledge. So we ask for action in marghdoobi 'alayhim and we ask for knowledge in daalleen . Our entire religion is knowledge and action !. That's all it is. It's beautiful !
THE SURAH Pay extra attention to this part, you'll appreciate it. I told you this surah is a surah of balance. I'm going to show you many ways in which this surah is of balance. Let's begin:In the first part of the surah, Allah describes Himself. Which part? Alhamdulillahi Rabbil 'alameen Ar Rahmaanir Raheem Maaliki Yawmid Deen. The last part of the surah is all about us, Ihdinas Siraatal Mustaqeem Siraatal lazeena'an 'am ta'alayhim, ghayril marghdoobi 'alayhim wa lad daalleen. In the first part Allah is telling us what He wants us to know and the last part we're asking about what we need from him. But what about the middle, iyaaka na'budu wa 'iyyaka nasta'een? As for the middle , the first part is for Allah (iyaaka na'budu), and the last part is for us (iyyaka nasta'een). Subhanallah! In the hadiths Qudsi, about the ayat iyaaka na'budu wa 'iyyaka nasta'een, Allah says 'This is between Me and My slaves ' . That's why it's in between!. That's the first balance. The second balance is the balance between Rahmat of Allah, the loving & care of Allah and the Justice of Allah. The third balance I just told you about recently is you ask Allah for help but you also make the effort yourself. You have to have both, this is the balance inside the word 'iyyaka nasta'een. Then you have towards the end, Allah literally told us to walk on the straight path which is an example of balance itself. A path cannot be straight up until it is pefectly balanced. When you want to put a beam up to build a building, it needs to be perfectly straight up, so even the imagery is that of balance. There are 2 kinds of sentences in arabic. Noun sentences and Verb sentences. Noun sentences describe more permanent, Verb sentences describe something more temporary. 'Alhamdulillahi Rabbil 'alameen Ar Rahmaanir Raheem Maaliki Yawmid Deen' is a Noun sentence! 'Ihdinas Siraatal Mustaqeem Siraatal lazeena'an 'am ta'alayhim, ghayril marghdoobi 'alayhim wa lad daalleen' all of it is a Verb sentence ! So Part 1 is 'now' , Part 3 is 'verb'. What about the middle part? The middle part is verb but it still begins with a noun which means it's a mixture of both. 'iyyaka is a noun even though the central word is na'budu. So what I'm trying to tell you is that linguistically the first part is a noun sentence, the last part is a verb sentence and the middle part is a mix sentence. What do you know about noun? It's permanent, so the noun section (section 1) is about Allah so it's only appropriate that the noun sentence is being used because Allah is permanent. The last section is a verb section, because it is temporary, it is only appropriate that verbs be used for human beings because they're temporary. The middle ayat is in the agreement between us and Allah, part of it is for Allah, part of it is for ourselves. It is only appropriate that it should be a mixture of noun and verb sentence. Linguistically it's a marvel ! It's incredible, human beings can't speak like this , it's impossible.
Now, let's go a step a little further. Alhamdulillahi Rabbil 'alameen Ar Rahmaanir Raheem Maaliki Yawmid Deen.. all of that is knowledge about Allah. Iyaaka na'budu wa 'iyyaka nasta'een .. this is action . We went from knowledge to action. so the first part is knowledge, the second part is action. The question is what kind of action. We ask Allah 'Ihdinas Siraatal Mustaqeem , we want the straight path. What is the straight path? The straight path is when you have knowledge and action. What if you are missing action, you only have knowledge? What is the word for that? ghayril marghdoobi 'alayhim. What if you have action without knowledge? Daaleen. Now look at this... the surah begins with knowledge, then it went to action, then we ask Allah for us to give us the balance between knowledge and action. Then we ask Allah dont make us from the people who have knowledge but no action, and from the people who have action but no knowledge. The whole surah is a balance between knowledge and action. Now lets go back again. Alhamdulillahi Rabbil 'alameen Ar Rahmaanir Raheem Maaliki Yawmid Deen.. The Hamd of Allah, the praise of Allah, the relationship with Allah, all of it is actually suppose to be entirely personal . Hamd is an emotion that is felt individually. A thousand people are making solat at the same time but no 2 people feel the same way. My emotions are mine, your emotion is yours.. The first part of the surah is personal. Then we say Iyaaka na'budu , we go from personal to 'we'. This entire religion is of balance between being a slave of Allah by yourself and being a slave of Allah with your community. Al-Fatihah is balance between individual and collective. Alhamdulillah is enough reason to become Allah's slave. When they realize that Allah is Rabbil 'alameen, Ar Rahmaan , Ar Raheem and Maaliki Yawmid Deen , they want to become Allah's slave. When we say 'iyyaka na'budu, it is the conclusion of the first part. So if you truly understand Allah, then 'iyyaka na'budu would come out of y our mouth. The last part begins with 'we seek your help', what's the ultimate help? Allah's guidance. So the introduction to the second part is 'iyyaka nasta'een. We ask Allah's help and then the first help we ask is His guidance. How is the help going to be? 'Ihdinas Siraatal Mustaqeem, in other words the conclusion of the first part is in the first part of the middle ayat. The introduction to the last part is in the latter half of the middle aya. It is perfectly balanced. And I tell you, the entire Quran is perfectly balanced. The last surah in the Quran is AnNaas. There you have Qul 'a'oozu bi'Rabbin naas , here you have Rabbil 'alameen. There you have Malikin naas, here you have maaliki Yawmid Deen. There you have 'Illahin naas ('Illa' is someone you worship). Here you have 'iyyaka na'budu. Here you have ghayril marghdoobi 'alayhim wa lad daalleen , are these individuals or entire nations? They are entire nations. So we're asking for protection from social fitnah, fitnahs of groups and nations. In surah An-Naas, He says Min sharril waswaasil khannaas Allazee yuwaswisu fee sudoorin naas minal jinnati wannaas (from the evil of the whisperer who withdraws, who whispers in the breasts of manking of jinn and men), the individual evil . There's social evil in Al-fatihah and we ask Allah to protect us from it, and there is individual evil of waswaas syaitan that comes to each of you individually and it's not a cultural attack, it's not an economic attack nor a social attack, so it's an individual attack. The collective attack is in the Al-Fatihah, the individual is in An-Naas! Rasullullah Salla-Allahu 'Alaihi wasallam says ghayril marghdoobi 'alayhim are the jews. who are the dallin ? The christians. If Allah wanted us to say 'Ya Allah guide me to the straight path' , then He would have said that. But He said 'ghayril marghdoobi 'alayhim. Rasullullah SallaAllahu 'Alaihi wasallam explained what Allah said. I told you that marghdoobi 'alayhim is when you have one thing, and the other thing is missing. But what does Allah tell us about the jews in the Quran? They have knowledge but the action is missing. But what does Allah tells us about the christians in the Quran? They have a lot of worship and actions but they dont have the knowledge.
Rasullullah Salla-Allahu 'Alaihi wasallam is giving us what you can call a case study. If you want to understand the marghdoobi 'alayhim , look at the example of the jews. If you want to locate a case study of the dallin, look at the example of the christians in the Quran. But Allah is not talking about the jews and christians right now, He's talking about the jews and christians mentioned in the Quran because Allah specifically talks about how they had knowledge and act, or how they had no knowledge and they were acting without knowledge. In other words, this is a case study. This is not about all jews and all christians because there are many jews and christians who became muslims . They're not considered as dallin. We as people over-simplif y this matter and judge people.. it is incorrect ! Allah made it open and He taught us to ask Him 'Ya Allah I dont want to become a marghdoobi 'alayhim, nor a dallin. None of us can convert to judaism anyway ! There are efforts being made to convert muslims to christianity, may Allah protect us everywhere. But it's not a real threat, the only time christianity become a threat is when muslims become ignorant. So when you think about the whole ghayril marghdoobi 'alayhim, don't think of the jews and christians first, but think of ourselves first. Just think about the jews and the christians as an example mentioned in the Quran. When the jews were asking what colour is the cow, younger or older, etc (2:68-71), when we start asking these kind of questions about our deen, and we disobey Allah and break things, we have no problem with Riba, alcohol, cheating, stealing, bribes.. and yet we have lots of questions about 8 terawih or 20 terawih etc., then there's a problem ! This is just like the example in AlBaqarah, they're asking the wrong questions, there are bigger problems to solve.. There's disobedience being done and yet they're worried about things that either way it's ok. So we seriously ask Allah ghayril marghdoobi 'alayhim wa lad dallin. Now I'm sharing all of these with you because wallahi I feel personally that Al-Fatiha is one of the most beautiful expressions of wonder in the Quran . I didnt even share with you the other kinds of balance in the Al-Fatihah, like the balance between human beings. Example, If you make human beings judge for all the cases, if you make a woman judge for all the cases, divorce cases, who is she going to favour? women. If you make a man judge fo all the the worst cases, who is she going to favour? Women. If you make a man judge for all the divorce cases, who is he going to favour? men.. especially if he has had a divorce.. that women is going to jail or something ! If you let the government decide everything, the people will suffer. If you let the people decide everything, the government will suffer. They'll be chaos. If you let the boss decide everything, the employee will suffer, if you let the employee decide everything, the boss will suffer. Human beings always have conflict. There's no one party that can say I'm equally favouring you and I'm equally favouring the other. At the end of the day, a human being can either be a man or a woman, which means they can only think like men or women. A representative in the court room can only represent the government or the people, you can't be both. You can only represent the owner, boss or the employee, you can't be both. Ihdinas Siraatal Mustaqeem is the only path that Allah gives because Allah is the owner of the men and the women, the boss and the employee, the government and the people. The only one who can truly give justice. The surah is about finding justice on this earth.. Subhanallah !
THE QURAN So my intention insyaallah is to share just what makes the Quran beautiful and what makes it relevant to our lives. Hopefully the way you read the Al-Fatihah will be different. All I'm going to talk about is how perfect, beautiful and incredible the Quran is. I give you a small example. Isa a.s. in Surah Maryam, he's just 1 day old . He speaks to the people 'wa 'awsaanee bis salaati waz zakaati maa dumtu hayya, wa barram biwaalidatee wa lam yaj'alnee jabbaaran shaqiyya' (19:31-32). He says 'Allah gave me the advice, Allah consult me to solah and zakat, so long as I'm alive'. Then he says 'and Allah told me to be good to my mother and made me not harsh or tough'. So there are actually 3 commands. Now, the first part. The word for 'advice' in the ayat is 'awsaa'. The Quran also uses 'wassaa' . They both mean to give advice and to give consult. 'awsaa' and 'wassaa' are also used when you leave a will. But I want you to understand the difference between 'awsaa' and 'wassaa' so that you will appreciate something about this ayat. 'awsaa' is when you give advice one time. 'wassaa' is when you give advice over and over again. In the Quran, 'awsaa' and 'wassaa' is used interestingly. Everytime Allah talks about inheritance and somebody dies with a will, He uses 'awsaa'. This makes sense because a will is discussed only once at the time of death. Everytime Allah talks about the advice for solah and taqwa and zakat and iman etc, He doesnt say 'awsaa' but He says 'wassaa' because the advice to pray, remember and worship Allah etc should be given over and over again, not one time. So 'awsaa' is used for one time and in the Quran it's used for the will. 'wassaa' is used over and over again and is used for deen. Now come to the 'wa 'awsaanee bis salaati waz zakaati maa dumtu hayya'. Isa a.s. is the ONLY example in the Quran where Allah use 'awsaa' for the advice on solah and zakat. Every other time when this advice about deen being used , 'wassaa' is being used. So how old is Isa a.s. ? He can't get advice over and over again, Allah just give him the advice one time, that's why Allah use 'awsaa'. Now look at this, Allah says about Isa .a.s. saying Allah gave him the advice about 3 things which is solat, zakat and being good to his mother. That's interesting because he says Allah gave me advice for solat and zakat so long as he's alive ! And then He said to be good to his mother. So, he didnt say Allah told him to do solat, zakat and to be good to his mother as long as he's alive. He separated the 'mother' part which is amazing because Isa a.s. will not die until much later and when he comes back thousands of years later, his mother won't be there. But does he still have to make solat and zakat? So he knows that he will outlive his mother. So he can't say he will be good to his mother as long as he lives. Subhanallah! From the day he was born, Allah had revealed to him he will go and come back.! CONCLUSION So we ask Allah for guidance and at the end of it, Allah put the next surah Al-Baqarah. And what's the first ayat in Baqarah? We said Ya Allah give us good instructions.. but what's the ayat ? Alif Lam Mim ! So.. we don't understand that, so isnt that confusing? Nobody knows what that means. That's the biggest instruction ! The first lesson is slave, you don't know anything ! So if you learn this lesson you'll be able to learn the Quran. 'Wallahu 'akhrajakum mim butooni 'ummahatikum la ta'lamoona shay'an' not 'lam ta'lamoona shay'an' (16:78). He is the one who brought you out of the bellly of your mother , you still don't know anything. He didnt say you didnt know anything, He says you still don't know anything. You accept that, you're ready to learn. May Allah make us wonderful students of the Quran, may Allah fill the baraqah of Quran in your house, your families, in your hearts. Amin
