All praise is due to Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala, blessings and salutations upon Muhammad sallallahu alayhi wa sallam. This evening I will continue from where I left off last night. And as you know it was the introduction of the series that we have commenced with. I had ended where we were making mention of why is it that the stories of the previous prophets are made mention of.
And I made mention of one point and I'd like to go further. But before I do that... It is important for us to highlight where we got the word stories from. Sometimes it does not sound appropriate to use the word stories when it comes to the Quran. Rather we'd say the lives of the prophets.
Someone might say we'd rather say something else. But if you look at the words used in the Quran, Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala says to Rasulullah sallallahu alayhi wa sallam, فَقُصُصِ الْقَصَصَ لَعَلَّهُمْ يَتَفَكَّرُونَ So narrate to them the qasas, the stories, in order that they may ponder. So these stories are narrated to us for what reason? That we may ponder, and we may learn a thing or two. Rasulullah sallallahu alayhi wasallam was told in the Quran, وَمَا كُنْتَ بِجَانِبِ الطُّورِ إِذْ نَادَيْنَا You were not there, O Muhammad sallallahu alayhi wasallam, at that mount when we called out to Musa alayhi salatu wasallam.
But how did you know about it? We informed you about it. We are fortunate that Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala has informed us as well about it. I said yesterday, if it was not for revelation, we would never know what it was. So we have selected the word stories because it is the closest.
In fact, in surah Yusuf, Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala says, right at the beginning, نحن نقص عليك أحسن القصص بما أوحينا إليك هذا القرآن We are narrating to you the best of stories in that which we have revealed in this Quran. So that is the best of stories. So Allah calls it a story.
Now, if we look at why or some of the other reasons that these stories are made mention of, it is in order to be a consolation and a comfort to Muhammad sallallahu alayhi wa sallam and to anyone who wants to carry out that work. What does this mean? Allah says in the Quran, وَكُلَّنَّ قُصُّ عَلَيْكَ مِنْ أَنبَاءِ الرُّسُلِ مَا نُثَبِّتُ بِهِ فُؤَادَكَ وَجَاءَكَ فِي هَذِهِ الْحَقُّ وَمَوْعِظَةٌ وَذِكْرَى لِلْمُؤْمِنِينَ And each time we mention for you a story of those of the past, it is in order to comfort you, to grant you strength, to strengthen you. you to be a form of consolation for you when you know the stories of the past you will be able to relate to what is happening now in your midst and indeed in this Quran the truth has come as a reminder for those who believe so we ask a lot to grant us a reminder from these particular stories now let us commence from the beginning of creation right at the beginning Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala created the bin And he told the pen, write whatever is going to happen up to the end.
That was the instruction of Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala. How exactly it happened? We do not need to know.
Why do we say we do not need to know? Because there are certain things that our brains and our minds are incapable of understanding. We will never be able to understand. In the same way that the other creatures have a brain according to their capacity, and they feel that they are sophisticated, and they feel that they have improved, so does man.
Man feels he is so improved and he has eyes. Can you see what we call the unseen? The answer is no.
We believe that they are jinn kind. Can we see them? The answer is no. We believe the angels come and go.
Can we see them? The answer is no. Which means our eyes are restricted to a restriction placed by Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala. So there are certain things, if they are not in the Quran, we will not need to know them. If they are not in the correct sunnah of Rasulullah sallallahu alayhi wa sallam, we will not need to know them.
However, there are certain narrations known as Rewayat Israeliyah The Israeli Rewayat Who is Israel? Israel is the Prophet Jacob, may peace be upon him. He was also known as Israel, Ya'qub a.s.
Now there are narrations that have come to us via the people of the book, more so the Jewish clans and tribes who were there at the time of Rasulullah s.a.w. and before. So those narrations, how do we treat them? Because we find them, people have read them, and as I said yesterday, there are some similarities between... all these revelations. There are three types of these narrations.
One, those which the Quran or the Sunnah have negated and disagreed with, those we would throw them out completely. Secondly, those which the Quran has confirmed or the Sunnah of the Prophet sallallahu alayhi wa sallam has confirmed, those we will take them, not because they were found in the riwayat Israelia, but because they were found in our narrations and they were found to be in conformance with what the Prophet sallallahu alayhi wa sallam said. what sallallahu alaihi wasallam brought.
And the third type of narrations are those where the Quran has not said anything, the sunnah has not said anything about it, it is not negated, nor is it confirmed. For those, we have a policy. We say, لَا نُصَدِّقْ وَلَا نُكَذِّبْ We neither believe it, nor do we disbelieve it. We hold it, we might read it, it might create a little bit of information in our minds, but we neither believe nor reject it. We do not actually need to know those details.
So this is something very... important Allah subhanahu wa'ta'ala created the angels and then he created the jinn kind very interestingly he created another kind known as the bin kind even a cathedral Allah makes mention of this in one of his books al bid'ah when nihaya which is the book that I've mainly used for the series as well so he says in there that there was a certain creature or creatures of Allah subhanahu wa'ta'ala known as bin the bin and they were on the earth and on the earth they created chaos and havoc and so on. So Allah sent the jinn to deal with the bin on earth. So the jinn came in and they dealt with the bin and they overcame them and overpowered them and destroyed them completely.
And who was the head of the jinn? One known as Iblis. One known as Iblis, so he was very very proud of his good deed. This is why we say a lesson drawn from this, whenever you do a good deed, don't let it make you arrogant and think I'm holy, I'm pious, the other one is nothing. No, we do not judge books by their covers.
Number one, and number two, no matter what level you are on, look at those who are above you and tell yourself, I have not got anywhere yet. May Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala grant us goodness. And there is a chance that those who might appear to be lower than us, they might overtake us.
overtake us a long, meaning very, very far. They will be ahead of us at some stage. So if we are to talk about them, thinking that these people are below us, who knows, Allah might create a day when they will overtake us. So what happened to Iblis? He became very proud, he was so happy.
So happy that whenever the people, whenever those in the heavens were addressed, he was addressed as one of them. He used to be addressed as the angels. You know, I like to give the example of a donkey.
And I say, when people have come to visit you, the whole... community came and they came riding on their donkeys you say the community came to visit us but you didn't say their donkeys also came because the donkey is part of the community it's come and it's now come to you you don't make mention of it so when Allah speaks of malaika Iblis was also included in it Iblis was also included in it, but he was not from amongst them. He was just included because he happened to be a good person. Like nowadays we say, oh he's such an angel, or she's such an angel and so on. Do we really mean they have joined the ranks of Jibreel?
The answer is no. But what we mean is they are very good and so on. So he was good at the time. Then Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala thereafter informed the angels of something very important in Surah Al-Baqarah.
Imagine right at the beginning of the Quran, Allah is speaking about it, very interestingly. وَإِذْ قَالَ رَبُّكَ لِلْمَلَائِكَةِ إِنِّي جَاعِلٌ فِي الْأَرْضِ خَلِيفًا And remember when Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala, your Rabb, told the angels that I am creating a khalifa on the earth. I am creating a khalifa on the earth.
What is the meaning of a khalifa? It has two meanings, two important meanings. One is one who stands in the place of someone else or one...
who assumes the position of another. Important. So that is the first meaning. Khalifa. They say this person is a Khalifa of Rasulullah s.a.w. that was Abu Bakr al-Siddiq r.a.
They called him Khulafa. Those who came and assumed the position of the other and they continued the work. So that is the first meaning.
The second is more appropriate. One who succeeds another. Those who come succeeding one after the other.
So think about... The angels, they don't die. The jinn kind, Allah knows, but they live very long.
They don't succeed, they actually live very long. But everything on earth, what happens to it? It has a lifespan and it continues.
Adam a.s. came and after a while, his children continued, he was gone. His children went and others came.
Then they were gone and their children came. We are here, we will go after a while, so we are only here for a period of time. This is also known as Khalifa, one who succeeds another. We have succeeded those before us, and those after us will succeed us.
That is also the meaning of Khalifa. So when Allah says, إِنِّي جَاعِلُ فِي الْأَرْضِ خَالِيفَةً I am putting on the earth a Khalifa, it would also mean those who are coming one after the other. They will not last until the end of the earth, but they will come one after the other.
So immediately the angels, they uttered something. They said, أَتَجَعَلُ فِيهَا مَن يُفْسِدُ فِيهَا وَيَسْفِكُ الدِّمَاءَ وَنَحْنُ نُسَبِّحُ بِحَمْدٍ Alhamdika wa nuqaddisulaka O Allah, are you going to create someone and place them on earth who are going to cause chaos and they are going to spill blood and they are going to do a lot of damage on the earth and yet we are here, we are declaring your praise, we are worshipping you. What did Allah say?
Inni a'lamu ma la ta'lamun I know that which you do not know. Knowledge is with Allah. Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala had a purpose to create Adam a.s. It's important for us to know this purpose and aim because we have succeeded them. We are now on earth.
Adam a.s. is no longer alive here with us. So we need to know why is it we were created. So Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala continues. This discussion is so beautiful.
It is mentioned in surah al-Baqarah. And Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala says thereafter that He created Adam. Let us spend a few moments how He...
he created Adam a.s. The Quran uses several words. It uses the word turab, it uses the word teen, it uses the word salsal, it uses the word hama im masnoon. What are these words?
One is dust, one is soil, one is clay, and one is the dark clay. So why all these words are used for the same creation? Because it is depicting different stages in the creation of man.
Let us move further. Amazingly and interestingly, Allah took dust from the earth. And that dust was taken from different parts of the earth. And you and I know, that the soil on the earth is different colors.
You have red, you have slightly lighter color, you have a... darker color, you have different shades of brown and so on. So there were different shades and different colors. And he took these from different parts of the globe. From the valleys, from the mountain tops, from the sandy regions, from the rocky regions and so on.
And Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala put it all together. This is why in mankind, nowadays we use the word genes. Not referring to those hipsters that people wear. No. The genes within man.
What what do we understand? If it is in your genes, if something is in your genes, there is a likelihood that it will be passed on to your children, hereditary. So Adam was created from different types, different colors and different qualities.
So from his progeny, there are different colors. And there are people who are easy to get along with, people who are very difficult to get along with, people who are hardcore, strong, powerful, and people who are weaklings. Allah grant us the middle path.
And Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala make us from amongst the best. So Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala created all of them so differently. And this is why we have different colors, and this is why we have different shades, different attitudes and different characteristics and characters. We ask Allah to grant us the best. of all and we ask allah to open the doors for us and our offspring and we ask allah subhanahu wa ta'ala to have mercy on us at all times so allah subhanahu wa ta'ala then speaks about how he created this man do you know that the narrations make mention of the fact that allah subhanahu wa ta'ala first had this dust and then he added water to it it became soil and then he shaped it up it became clay and he left it he left it for a while And then he speaks about the word used in the Quran is Al-Fakhar, meaning the pottery, the clay of pottery.
Why does he say similar to the clay of pottery, but not exactly the clay of pottery? Because for the clay of pottery, Heat is used For man No heat was used Subhanallah No heat was used So if Allah said The clay of pottery It would mean heat was used But he says similar to that Clay of pottery Because there is one thing missing Allahu Akbar So Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala Thereafter He left man Now what was the size of Adam Alayhi salatu wasalam Very interestingly the narration says 60 feet. Now what is a foot?
A foot one would say is about roughly from your elbow to the top or to the wrist and so on. Someone might say roughly 30 centimeters. However, maybe the feet at that time might have been 1 meter.
So he was either 60 meters or he was either, if we were to calculate it with today's feet, 18 meters. Either way, he was huge. Just imagine Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala created Adam a.s. And the hadith says, خَلَقَ اللَّهُ آدَمًا عَلَى صُورَتِهِ Allah created Adam upon his image. Now what is meant by this?
Ask the Christians, they'll give you a totally wrong answer. They'll tell you it means man was created on the image of God. Astaghfirullah, that is wrong.
It is simple to understand. When me and you were born, how were we created? A little seed began to multiply and thereafter the form was given slowly but surely.
But with Adam a.s. it was different. Allah created him.
him on his image from day one, which means he was already big, he already had size, he already had eyes. That is the meaning of creation in his image, not the image of Allah. But Adam was created in the image of Adam wholly in those meters he was already an adult when he was created.
So this is the meaning of it. We must never be confused and think that, you know, they say Jesus came in the form of God. Astaghfirullah, that is totally wrong, it's a mistake. According to us, we cannot discuss that matter with Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala because we would need to see Him and none of us have. So when it comes to Adam a.s.
Allah left him. And when Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala left him, for a period of time, he had a certain very very pious, very pious being who was known as Iblis, who happened to think now, why is Allah doing this? You know, I went on the earth and I sorted things out on the earth and I went to engage in such great acts of worship and here we have Allah creating someone else. So he began to look up and down and he's literally monitoring this creature and he's trying to look and see and survey and take a look at what's happening and he's seen the size and he's seen the belly, he's seen the stomach. One narration says when he checked its hollow, he says, oh, I know I can control this.
I know, لا يتمالك. Do you know what that means? He is not consistent.
This man will not be consistent. We will be able to push him this way or that way. And he already made a promise. Before the ruh or the soul was blown into Adam a.s., you find Iblis making a promise. He looks at this, this more or less a statue which is now lying.
And he says, no. If I have an opportunity, I'm going to lead you astray. And if you are made to be higher than me, I'll never follow you.
This is what Iblis says. From that time, what was the sin? The sin was he thought he was too holy.
This is what it is. This is why let us be careful. Allahu Akbar.
When Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala has granted us the acceptance to fulfill salah, let's not think we're doing him a favor. Wallahi we're doing ourselves a favor. a favor. And let's not think we're better than the other. Who knows that person might be sacrificing much more than us in a different way.
And they might be closer to Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala than us. So this issue of becoming too holy or feeling that I am it, what does it make us? us do may allah protect us it might make us look at others with an inferiority meaning that they are inferior to us we would have a superiority complex so to speak may allah protect us that's what happened to iblis so when iblis looked at this he was very very upset and angry and he made his promises then allah subhanahu wa ta'ala began or he he blew the rooh or the soul into adam alaihi salatu was salam and where did it start from very interestingly it started from the top from the head So the most honored, the most honored organ that we have is the brain. That is what distinguishes us from the rest of creatures. We have a brain, Allah gave it life first before everything else.
Then as the soul came, meaning as the life... began to come, everything was turning into flesh and blood, flesh and blood. From soil, it was becoming flesh and blood.
And the brain came alive. Then the eyes came alive and Adam a.s. suddenly opened his eyes.
MashaAllah. Imagine what must have happened. adult opening his eyes granted full knowledge Allah says in the Quran we taught Adam alayhi salam the names of everything so we brought everything that was in creation and we told him this is a tree this is a stone this is a mountain so on so he was already taught he was not like us when you born and then you slowly learn and you learn to say Allah and then you learn to say something else and then you learn learn to say daddy and mommy?
No, it was not like that with Adam a.s. He already knew the words and the names of everything. Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala speaks about that in the Quran.
So as his eyes opened, he saw the fruits of Jannah. He was in Jannah. He was in a place that we don't know, we haven't been in yet. May Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala grant us paradise.
So when his eyes opened, he was so happy, he's seen all his fruits and so on. understood what it was and what happened as the soul was blown and it was the life came into his nose and his mouth he sneezed he sneezed so sneezing is a sign of goodness it is a gift of Allah subhanahu wa'ta'ala which protects you from illness that is a sneeze so one narration says the angel said O Adam thank Allah So Adam a.s. says, الحمد لله He says, الحمد لله All praise is due to Allah.
This is where we get it from. All praise, when you sneeze, you should utter all praises due to Allah. So the narration makes mention of how Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala responded to him that Allah has had mercy on you, O Adam. Hence, what happens?
When we hear, when we sneeze, we say, الحمد لله If we hear someone say, الحمد لله We should say, يرحمك الله We should say, Allah has definitely had mercy on you that is the beauty and this is where it started and this is where it came from so as life came into his hands he stretched out to get what Amazing, amazing. He stretched out to get what? What he was seeing.
He was seeing the fruits of Jannah. So he's stretching out, but life had not yet come onto his legs. So he couldn't get there. And this is why the Quran says, خُلِقَ الْإِنسَانُ مِنْ عَجَلٍ And in another place Allah says, وَكَانَ الْإِنسَانُ عَجُولًا Man was always in a rush, always making haste.
Look at us, how do we treat life? Life is like this much, so to speak, from this point to that point. And we try to get as much as we can between this point and that point. And we want to...
fill it as much money, as much knowledge, as much this, as much that. Let us hope that we as Muslims can get as much tarawih into there, and as much Quran into there, and as much sacrifice into there, and as much obedience of Allah into there, so that by the time we get to the other point, we can be granted entry into Jannah, as we mentioned yesterday. May Allah open our doors.
So very beautifully Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala makes mention of how man was always in haste. Have uninterrupted viewing with our ad-free app, OneIslamTV, allowing you to connect deeply with the content. Explore the rich teachings of Islam and strengthen your faith through our regular new content. Download the OneIslamTV app now!