Surah Ar - Rahman - A Deeper #19 - When the Truth Shows on the Face

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Last time in this Surah Ar-Rahman series, wait I thought the whole point of judgment day was what?

Ask about the sins and now he's saying on that day none shall be asked about their sins. No

human, no gin. What in the world? How does that make any sense? Let me explain.

To help you follow along and reflect more deeply, we've created a companion workbook for this series.

download it at bayina.com forward slash Rahman.

So we're almost done discussing the scary stuff that's at the heart of the surah. What I want to do

today is pick up from where we left off, give you an overview and then in inshallah we get to see

the the the other side of the equation. So Allah says in ayah number 39 on that day nobody will

be asked, la yus alu an them be he nobody will be asked about their sin neither the human being

nor the gin. And this is again the opening scene of judgment day. The interesting word here is

them one of the many words in the Quran for sin. So say you're janna there's different words

in Arabic that are used for sins. And them actually comes it's related to like you know like the

some pots are very deep and you have a ladle or like a really deep spoon that can get to the bottom

of it without you getting scorched that's that spoon is called a mithnaba. The then is called

the is the tale of an animal a bucket that goes all the way to the bottom of a well is also called

a zennab. So and it's a fnab is also used for you know like politicians they give a lot of

rhetorical speeches and people get fired up and a lot of people follow them without thinking about it

right. Those kinds of people that just follow a politician around no matter what they say or do

and they don't change their views you know they're called fnab the lowest of the people who don't

have a brain for themselves. So the tale the long spoon the low bucket and low intelligence people

so there's a common thread between all of these words which is what lones right lones or something

embarrassing almost the word themb is used for something that an action that brings me low

that lowers my my my my dignity my status my rank you can also think of them as something that's

embarrassing like the tale is the embarrassment of the animal. In fact there was a poet who used to

talk about the pride of his people his his people his tribe's name as a nickname was Anfunaka

like the the nose of the camel. So they call their tribe the camel knows because the camel is very

tall and the nose is the pride it's all the way up high you know like the image of somebody who's

stuck up right so the another poet who was roasting them called them venabunaka like the tale of

the camel right so he was trying to embarrass them by switching their name from the nose of the

camel to the tail of the camel coming back to the point in the ayah Allah is using the word them

to say that there are things we do that are embarrassing and on that day the embarrassing sins

don't have to be asked about because as I was mentioning is going to get get unfolded the embarrassment

will show where on the face right so the word is it's appropriate to that the other interesting thing

is there's a the interesting difference between Sayyia and Thumb both words for sins and Surat Al-Fathe

is a really nice place where both of these words occur together. Thumb is also used for the

Prophet Sayyid al-Salam you know so Liyar fill Allah lakallahu ma taqaddamah min Thumbika so the

Thumb is used for Rasulullah so Lallahu alayhi wa sallam so how do we understand that well

easy example of that would be let's just say somebody comes to this masjid to pray Fajr right

and they get here basically even before the Adhan is given every day they just get the first

person here opens unlocks the doors and comes here in praise and there's somebody who never comes

in praise and never even gets up for Fajr and one day something gets in their head and they

decide they're going to come for Fajr right but they don't come for the first part of the prayer

they barely make it to the second rakah and they join for Rukur so they made it but they kind of

made it at the end and the person who normally prays every day and opens the door one day he got

late and he joined at the same time so there's two people who joined at the same time second rakah

they caught Rukur at the same time one of them this is like the height of his spiritual career

like this I was in the masjid for Fajr and I got Rukur and the the person next to him this is

like one of the worst most embarrassing days of his spiritual career because what's happened to

me how did I get this late he's so disappointed in himself what I'm trying to get at is people maybe

embarrassed by different things because their standards are higher or lower right now there's

some things that everybody should be feeling bad about their stealing is wrong there's not like

some people are not embarrassed by stealing and other people are poor embarrassed the wrong is

wrong lying is lying but when it comes to good deeds or when it comes to you know things that

that are expected of us people some people hold themselves up to a higher standard other people say

I'll just follow the bare minimum I'll get I'll be okay like you you guys see this in in the classroom

or in the workplace right there are some students that hold themselves to a higher standard and they

just want to keep excelling so they're even in depression if they get a 95 right and then there's

another student so long as they got a 66 you know 65 I don't know I'm disappointed 66 yeah

I knew I know this stuff right so they they have a they have a lower standard so long as they can

pass they're fine they're not embarrassed by it this is actually referring to every person has

a gauge inside them whether whether they think society thinks of it as bad or not because you know

we're living in a time it's interesting we're living in a time of morality and what is right and

wrong is so subjective now remember the whole conversation about my truth versus your truth

right so everybody's got their own truth so everybody's got their own standard of what thambi is

you know so we all have relative fitra now right but judgmentate comes that everybody actually

recognizes there's no more pride in your own version of morality we all come back to the actual

morality and we all realize what embarrassing things we've done instead right all the all the layers

that society put on and all the fake layers that we put on ourselves all of them get scraped off

what Taraktum Mahawalaikum Allah says you left behind all the layers that we had wrapped you in

right so the judgmentate all of those layers gets scraped off so nobody's going to be asked the

other the other thing to subtly note about not being asked is that you know if somebody's being

because the scene was there being shot at remember the sky is shooting at them and there's bombings

going on and you could just ask hey why are you doing this to me hey what you know what have I even

done why why is the police firing at me without even an investigation right they have the right to

ask that no they don't because on that day you don't have to even be asked you will already know

how incriminated you are like people aren't even going to pretend that they're not criminals

they can't even pretend about that so there's no need to ask another interesting thing

comment here is that there's two aspects of justice that justice has to be done

and justice has to be demonstrated listen to this carefully justice has to be done and justice has

to be demonstrated now what what does that mean let's say you have a secret trial right there's

somebody got you know put it in court and there's a secret trial when there's a secret trial

the judge comes out and says the evidence is a secret the testimony was secret the proceedings were

secret and I have declared that this person's guilty right why are they guilty can't tell you all

of that is what secret but if justice was done what is the public going to believe was that justice

no because we don't just want to see justice done we want to see justice demonstrated we want

to see the public trial right now Allah is the ultimate just ultimately just he actually does not

need a judgment day to be just he could just take people straight the moment of their death he could

just pick them up and put them in jahan and put them in jahan as he wants he could do that because

the entire proceedings of a trial and every deed is being shown and the record is being shown

and the deeds are being weighed and all that stuff that's actually not justice that is what

it's the demonstration of justice there's a difference between justice and demonstration of justice

Allah on that day isn't just doing justice he's demonstrating justice and it's he's demonstrating

justice to the people before he puts them in wherever he puts them and it's not just showing

them mercy it's the demonstration of mercy so there's absolutely no excuse left you know

somebody gets thrown into jahan and I'm like yeah we say Allah is just what I didn't get a trial

I mean it wasn't like where was my day in court I'll give you him court I'll give you

in day in court but even the beginnings of that is the person who who may have even argued that

they did nothing wrong they will know in and of themselves what they had done wrong for me

ayah la yara biqmatu qatimah now with this threatening language Allah comes back to that same

question you're araful mujdi muna bi si mal this is the ayah we're at now the criminals shall

be recognized by the marks on their faces so seema can be marks on faces can also be facial

expressions as we'll see in a second for you khadu bin Nawasi wal akdam then the person shall be

taken so it's not you khadu na it's you khadu he shall be taken so it's an interesting switch so

it would have been you're araful mujdi muna bi si mal him fa yuh khadu na bin Nawasi wal akdam

but the ayah is fa yuh khadu bin Nawasi wal akdam so the singular version is being used so the

switch in the link the transition would be criminals shall be recognized by the marks on their faces

and he shall be taken you were expecting to hear they shall be taken because who was talked about

criminals right but the rest of the ayahs and he shall be taken by the foreheads

and the feet so each one's being taken by foreheads and then back to the plural again so there's a

mix of the plural in the singular that's happening here we're going to discuss that in a second

what first thing i want you to know here is the development of the scene and what does that mean

while judgment they started people like Allah says i'll free myself up for you so na fruhulakum

then he openly challenges runaway if you can go ahead knock yourself out then as we try to run away

our people criminals try to run away may Allah not make us from them they're being shot down

min nada nwanuhas then if that wasn't bad enough the entire sky starts bleeding

molten brass and copper and dripping like oil turning blood red then now people don't even have

to be asked but even as they don't have to be asked another thing their their look the look on

their faces and the mark on their faces is showing this mark on the face is an important you know

piece that may suggest that Allah is going to take the if the the spiritual effect of bad deeds

and actually turn that into a visible effect let me say that in simple english we do good deeds

right now right but when you do good deeds you it's not like your skin gets nicer

it's not like you people say you have new one on your face that's just you baby you put baby cream on

this is not new on your face okay you just you got oily skin

there is such a thing there's some some what's such a thing well we take that stuff too far

oh my god there's so much new run there instagram filter like there's that's that's that's that's that's

you know but the but on judgment they Allah says that there's light coming from the believer's

chest and light coming from their right hand so it used to be our good deeds you know has no

effect on ourselves but on judgment those good deeds and our good intentions get converted into what

they converted into light and actually conversely people who do bad deeds every bad deed like in

this life the Hadith describes the prophet's life some describes a stain on the heart right

but on judgment date actually becomes layers and layers of actual darkness

actual darkness so here in in this life Allah says he takes believers out of darknesses into light

we don't want to learn nor and the the the tahut mean a nori la dunmat from night light

into darkness is right that's in this life it's a it's a it's a it's a spiritual image and spiritual

light and spiritual darkness but actually that spiritual reality that unseen reality becomes a

scene reality on judgment day it's a different kind of reality that day so now people it's not

just the expression on the face of someone who's like oh my god I know what I did but actually

physically a darkness takes over them this is something people commonly don't understand and they

really misread what the ayah is saying for example in surat al-Alamran in al-Alamran Allah says

on that day shall turn black and some some some faces will turn white and some places some faces will

turn black right and the those who disbelieved or did evil their faces have turned black oh look

there's a racist comment in the Quran what does it mean faces will turn black actually it has

nothing to do with skin color at all the idea of this is turning black is if I turn all the lights

off in this room what will our faces be so i'll be black why because it's actually referring to

the lack of light on them there's no light on their faces they've become completely dark and like

the black pitch of night that's actually it's not talking about skin tone at all you know and this

is why that same analogy is explained elsewhere as good I'm in a lane the darkness on their faces will

be like a piece of a dark night you know a pitch black night so there's lack of light is actually

what's being described here when you say that criminals will be recognized by the marks on their

faces perhaps the mark on their face is actually darkness other places in the Quran on judgment day

you know there's smut on the faces there's tar on the faces there's dirt on the faces you know

basira there's a darkness on the faces on the flip side and so do kiyama navira they're lit they're

illuminated faces right because they're looking towards a la ilar abbiha navira navira ilar abbiha

navira so this imagery of dark and light that becomes actual dark and actual light on judgment day

is really really important the faces are actually going to be lit so their faces are actually in a

sense you know overshadowed with darkness the darkness of their deeds and the lack of light in

their good deeds is actually now manifesting itself then of course when it says criminals shall be

recognized in this way they shall be recognized it doesn't say a law will recognize them or the

angels will recognize them it's saying they shall be recognized this is the passive version of the

verb now passive verbs in English let's take an English example if I say this child got beat up at

school he got beat up who did I not incriminate who like was a one guy who beat him up was it a little

girl who beat him up was was it a five boys that beat him up was it the eighth graders that beat

him a third grader we don't know we just know he got beat up so there's the perpetrators are not

mentioned so when you say criminals shall be recognized you're not mentioning who's doing the

recognizing you get it so then what it is is believers will recognize them oh my god you're you

were my best friend and there's no light on your face oh thank god you're not my real best friend

there's a difference between them they will see the darkness of each other

so this is where I belong angels will see the darkness so it's not just one view it's multiple views

of these people everybody's seeing everybody and so and then the other interesting thing this

Surah does not mention kaffiruun musherikuun valimun the typical terms for deniers of the prophet

alisato salam uses the word mujrimun which is interesting because the Surah began the only

call to good deeds in this Surah was akim ul wasna bilkisti wala toksiru al mizan you know

established the weight with justice and don't shortchange when it comes to the scale which means

and by the way when people shortchange and mess with the scale and cheat and scam their criminals

aren't they so the word mizan now has a correspondence with the word al mujrimun it's a fitting word

for what's being described inside of the surah this is another small indication of how vocabulary

inside a surah is interconnected words inside of a surah or in tart there's an entire whole ecosystem

inside of a surah so it's important to understand the ayat within a surah to to be really

get a grasp of what's going on instead of just isolated ayat on there's an ayat about this

and there's an ayat about that well which surah is it in and what was the ecosystem of that surah

right that's that's a really important part of studies so you're your ureful mujrimun abisi maham

the word jaram or mujrim it actually just has it's also really interesting uh i'll tell you what

this means it means earning it also means a heavy basket or a heavy bag that you take all the

dates that fall from the tree you pick it up and you hold a really heavy bag right the heavy weight

of a bag general also means the the weight of a body actually the word mujrim means the someone

who's done a heavy crime it actually has to do with heavy weight which is really cool because the

word mizan is the skill that measures what weight so again a correspondence with that word right

now here's some ayat about just i wanted to just give you a view of how faces are really important in

dokoran faces and facial expressions so the the dokoran is actually putting quite a bit of emphasis

the face and whether it's the believer's face you know si maham fi wujuhi him in atheris sujud in suratul fat

you'll see the mark on their faces because of the effect of sujud some people feel that that's

literally talking about a you know a blemish on the forehead so they'll get like the kind of sejada

or masallallah or do speakers call it the jainamas right that has like a little scrappy thing at the

top so they can just make sure they get the si maham fi wujuhi him in atheris sujud right that's not

what that's referring to what that's referring to is let me tell you like if you're i like silly

examples it gets the point across if you have a kid who loves bullying other kids like he's just

waiting to hurl and insult at somebody sitting in a class waiting who am i going to troll

there's a certain look on their face there's a certain dubious look on their face right and if

they get in the habit of doing that that look becomes a part of them okay teenagers sorry teenagers

but prety when you were pretyns you were so nice you were so nice like yours is a smile on your face

hi mama hi papa how's your day and it was just like this is lit face and then you started

hanging around cynical people that are always criticizing and always seeing negative things and

always dismissing things and whatever whatever whatever uncare uncare like you just all the time

and then your face changes so your your the negativity you have in all your conversations

actually starts impacting your actual face right it has an impact on you people that are always

negative right for a long time does it show on their face yeah totally and people that are just

you know they try to stay optimistic and happy and even if they're not smiling you can tell

this person's at peace there's a like long-term behaviors actually have an impact where

on the face a life of such that right a life of humbling yourself truly humbling yourself humbling

myself before Allah actually has an impact where on the face and by the way saying that it has

an impact on the face means it has an impact on the personality because your face is an expression

of your personality right so what so now when criminals are recognized by their the marks of

their faces there was a certain personality that that they they demonstrated they exhibited and now

it's taking this new form look at that I was telling you Ka'annama uxshiyat wujuhum kitam minalay

as if there are their their faces on that they have been covered with a piece of the night

absaruhum khashi anjajmante their eyes are going to be filled with fear like if you zoomed in on the

eye the way the pupil is dilating is being talked about now in the ayah wujuhum yoma

alayha qabara faces that have dirt covered on them smat thrown on them then the the the the rest of

the ayah when they're going to be grabbed by the the forehead and the feet will get to that in a second

but you know the the the expression of the face even the arrogance of the qafar was captured by

describing their faces right the enemies of Islam among their crimes is thumma nathar thumma abbas

abbasar thumma adbarawastakbar then he stared then he frowned you know then he looked like he's

thinking deeply and then he turned away like Allah is describing every part of his facial expression

you know laus liquna qabi absari him lam masami or dhikr these disbelievers the way they stare at you

is like through their laser beam stare they want you to fall and slip when they hear the Qur'an the

hatred the the visceral hatred in their eyes when they hear you recite the Qur'an right lam masami

or dhikr so actually the face is a really important part of demonstrating arrogance and on the flip

if you look for example at the wisdom lukman was giving his son he said radiallahu rana wala

tussah al-khaddaq al-innasi don't swell your cheek at people again face right over and over again

you find this expression what do you find in the son of the prophet salli sallam al-Basma to

fiywajhi ahikas adaka smiling in the face of your brother is charity it's not just he he he he

sallam al-khaddaq it's that's not what that means it actually means you let go of grudges you let go of

like dual intentions you're actually soft and gentle towards the person you're meeting you know

coming up next time in this surah al-Rahman series they're not going to believe there's a fire

by hearing it on the news they're going to have to see the smoke or get close enough to feel the

heat and then they'll react right so the distinction between our decision making and animal

decision making is actually al-bayan that's the difference