Surah Ar - Rahman - A Deeper Look #17 There Is No Escape

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Last time in this Surah or Rahman series,

human beings actually need recognition from each other.

We, it doesn't matter how you pretend you don't, you do.

You need your dad to be able to, you want to hear your dad say I love you.

Or I'm proud of you son, you need it.

You need your teacher to be able to say good job on the homework.

Right? Your boss to be able to say that was a great job on the project.

Thank you. Or you want to hear a thank you.

You want to hear a, you know, you exist.

I see you, you know.

What happens to people in the, they're in a stadium.

And the, the athlete just goes like that.

And he just pointed randomly at the Pepsi vending machine.

But the guy in the stands, he's like,

you know, he's just got recognized.

His life has changed.

You know, he pointed at me, you know, there's a human need for recognition.

And Allah is who just separates himself from that.

And he says, actually, I don't have that you do.

I don't have the need for recognition.

That's, that's, that's one of the things that makes you mortal.

That's one of the things that makes you hulk.

The chalik doesn't have it.

You have it.

It's actually Allah's Rahma that he allowed himself to be recognized.

He allowed himself to be recognized.

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

So

uh both you two heavy loads.

So Calan you two heavy loads.

Let's dig into this iron first understand the word

freeing your ourselves up.

Al Farahul is she al-Khulu.

Amma Yushri Luhanhu.

Farahul means to be empty of other things or to to relieve yourself of other things that

were preoccupying you.

Wahhu atemthilu liliya tinnat bi-shay.

And it's used as an analogy when you become focused on one thing.

Free yourself for your guests.

In other words, he was giving him advice that when your guests come over,

make them feel like they have your full attention.

Right? So offruh liya diyafik.

And then finally, I'll read this and translate both.

Allahutayal alaysa lahu sh-shuhl.

Yafrul huminhu.

Scholars got a little bit troubled by the phrase,

will free ourselves up for you because it sounds like I'm busy with something.

I'm going to stop doing that and I'll free myself up.

Right? And that sounds inappropriate for Allah.

Right? To free himself up for something.

As if something else was preoccupying him.

Because when when you're preoccupied with something,

it means you're unable to do other things until you free yourself up.

How can that that that seems like a limitation?

How can you attribute a limitation to Allahutayahu?

This is where we learn the difference.

There's a very important feature of the Qur'an.

The Qur'an uses humor.

The Qur'an uses sarcasm.

The Qur'an expresses emotion.

And we cannot look at the Qur'an all the time literally.

We can't.

Allah, for example, will say hearts became hard like rocks.

Right?

You cannot look at that literally.

Allah says the sun was sinking into muddy water.

The sun was not sinking into muddy water.

That's how it looked.

Like the, you know, I love watching the sun drown into the Pacific coast.

Right? The West coast.

The sun is not drowning into the coast.

That's how it looks.

This is the language of literature.

Not the language of science.

So the same way, this is the language,

this is literary and emotional language.

Allah is saying He'll free himself up

to give us a pretty scary hint.

Right now he described everyone is in need of him.

And by extension, what he didn't say, which is understood,

is everything is in need of him.

The sun and the moon are following the precise measurement

because Allah is putting it that way.

The stars and the tree are doing such stuff

because Allah is making them do that

and keeping them in place.

Now imagine Allah is essentially telling the human being,

threatening the human being and saying,

human being engine and saying,

all these, this universe that you think is preoccupying me.

How about I stop maintaining it?

How about I allow it to fall apart?

So you feel like I have, you have all my attention.

Isn't that what Judge Mente is?

Allah is going to allow the, you know,

the maintenance of the universe to fall apart.

Let it collapse, let it do what it's meant to do all along

because actually it's essence is destruction

and the only thing holding it in place is Allah.

So when He decides to not hold it in place anymore,

maybe then you'll realize,

oh, wow, Allah is letting that go.

So now I'm the sole focus of His attention.

So this is actually sarcastic language.

It's not speaking about Allah's focus.

It's speaking about how we think about Allah

in incorrect ways, human beings in jins

and it's responding to that.

Then the word,

any large quantity, any large, you know, volume of things

is called a thick, like for example,

you know, in Nitarikun, Fikum,

a Thakalein, Kitabullahu wa Hattrati.

The Prophet's life, Salam, is leaving two heavy things.

The book of Allah and His legacy behind, right?

So that's the word, the word Thikal is used in that way.

But let's actually understand the word Thikal in some other ways.

You know, human beings and jins start thinking that they are such a massive population

that I want you to visualize this.

You know, when police try to arrest a rioting crowd

of like a thousand people, five thousand people,

ten thousand people, how many people can they arrest?

A few hundred, a few dozen.

What happens to most people?

They run away and because they run scattered in every direction,

there's too big of a crowd for you to be able to catch all of them.

Like, you know, if the kids were misbehaving in the playground

and the principal walked in, all the kids dispersed,

the only one that gets caught is the one he could reach and grab onto, right?

So you'll see these seams all the time.

The police come and they beat down somebody

while everybody else is running.

So they just catch whoever they can catch, right?

So the idea that we're such a large population,

the chances are enough of us will escape.

Not all of us are going to get caught,

because of just the sheer volume of humanity.

And Allah says, yeah, you think you're such a heavy population?

Let's see.

Let's see how well you escape when I free myself up for you.

So this is Sanaf Rulakum, and you have Thakadan.

The other meaning of Thakal, which is heaviness,

perhaps is a reference to the burden of sins and disobedience and rebellion

that each human being has been carrying on themselves.

Right?

And as a result of it, they have actually burdened the earth.

The earth feels like it's overburdened with the sins of this creation, the human being,

inspired by the Shayatine.

Right?

And so, when Allah says,

in,

wahakhrajat el-Ardu,

ascala'ah,

that the earth will spit out its burdens.

And part of those burdens is it's carrying these sinful souls

that it rejects because the earth was designed to be an obedience to Allah,

and it allowed for these disobedient souls to live on it.

It spits them out on judgment day.

It regurgitates them.

It doesn't want to keep them inside.

Allah allowed them to be, Allah allowed the earth to relieve itself

of this mutation,

this impurity that's inside it.

These dirty souls.

Right?

So,

athakalan could actually be referring to the sinful burdened souls

of both jins and human beings,

these people,

these populations that have a lot to pay for,

because they've burdened themselves.

It's also interesting.

This imagery of weight and lightness,

like Allah says in Suratul Nisaat,

he says,

Allah wants to lighten your burden,

which means Allah is giving you rules that make life easier,

but also means that on judgment day,

you won't have a heavy burden to carry

if you obey Allah, right?

But now, with this word,

I think we should understand

that these words are not for all of humanity and all of jinn.

These words are now for those that are to be threatened on judgment day.

Those are the ones being talked to.

Another really important subtlety inside this ayah

is you will notice,

sena fruhulakum,

a you have thakalan.

And fabiayi ala'i'rab bi'kum is not used what's used.

Arab bi'kumaa.

So you would expect here sena fruhulakumaa,

a you have thakalan.

We will free ourselves up for both of you.

You two heavy populations.

However, he says,

we will free ourselves for all of you.

Qum is all of you,

it's not the pair,

it's the plural.

So why is switch from the pair to the plural?

Because on judgment day,

right now, jins and humans are two separate groups.

But when judgment day starts,

those same shay al-thin that were coming and whispering to me,

and if I listen to them,

they became my partners in crime.

Judgment day happens,

and that same jinn that was messing with me my whole life,

that same shay al-an,

he's going to be like,

yeah, me too.

Hey, who are you?

I'm Karin.

I've been with you a long time, bro.

Let's just...

Listen, I don't want anything to do with you right now.

I know I've been what's washing you with my whole life,

but I'm just going to try to run.

So they're trying to get away from each other,

but they're going to be raised together.

Where these people,

these devils are invisible to us now.

They won't be on judgment day.

And so we are now together,

and the Qum captures together.

So now for Wulakum,

even though you're two heavy populations of humans and jins,

now you're bound together,

because you work with each other.

You did this together.

So this is talking about people who listen to the shay al-thin.

Who did evil things?

Whether you hate badlahu me la badlahu,

they're the ones that inspired each other.

This is the population that's being talked about.

Okay?

Fabiayi ala ya Rabbi kumatukatheba.

Now this, this ayah,

what other wonders of your master

are you still going to be in denial of?

Are you still going to dismiss?

Is actually

taken on a new flavor.

You see in the previous ayat,

you know, just ponder your creation.

Just ponder what Allah has made in this world.

Just ponder that your death is coming.

Now realize that Allah will free himself up

and you think you're just walking around denying him.

The time is coming where you're not going to have that freedom.

He's going to, he's going to put his full attention on you.

And when that happens,

there's an announcement being made.

This Surah is the opening scene of Judgment Day.

There are other places in Dokur'an

where there are episode two, episode three, episode four of Judgment Day.

Other phases,

because Judgment Day is a long day.

But this Surah is the opening chapter.

Like, what happens in the very, very beginning, right?

And there are other Surahs that have this opening scene,

different aspects of that opening scene.

This is one of them.

So an announcement is heard.

Ya Ma'shar al-Jinni wa l-Insi.

Gathering of Jins and human beings.

In his tatatum antanfudhu min aqtaaris samawati wa l-ard fanfudhu.

If you see yourselves capable of piercing through the peripheries of the skies and the earth,

then go ahead and do so.

This is, I mean, this is my own translation of the ayah.

But let's dig into some things here.

Who was addressed here first?

Human beings are Jinn.

Which is unusual because the primary

adressy of this Surah so far has only been human beings.

So the context has switched just a little bit.

Why?

Well, this is one of the two ayat in Dokur'an.

That are about a challenge where Jins and human beings are challenged.

One of those challenges happens in this world,

and the other is happening in the opening scene of Judgment Day here.

Okay?

So one of them is in Surah Al-Isra, Surah No. 17.

And the other one is here.

So let's talk about that one for a second.

Allah says,

Tell them if human beings and Jins were gathered to produce the likes or the equivalent of this Quran,

they will not be producing anything equivalent to it,

even if they were to back up one another.

We already told us Jins back up human beings for all kinds of projects.

Here's a project you can back up each other all you want.

You're not getting anywhere close.

What is that project?

The production of something like Dokur'an.

If you were paying attention,

they're Allah mentioned human beings first.

Hulla ibn Ishtamaat al-Imsu wa l-Jinnu.

Here, this is the second challenge.

Judgment Day comes.

Hey, if you think you can escape, go ahead.

That's the second challenge.

The first challenge was make something like Dokur'an.

That was in this life.

The second challenge is go ahead and escape on Judgment Day if you can.

That's the other way around.

And this announcement, the Jinn are mentioned first.

What's remarkable is producing something like Dokur'an,

Dokur'an is Bayan.

Isn't it?

Who was taught Bayan?

Jins are human beings.

We learned that in this Surah, didn't we?

Allama Hull Bayan.

So who's more capable of that challenge?

Of producing.

If there was, if there was someone ready to accept that challenge

of producing the likes of Dokur'an,

it would be the one who has Bayan.

And who's that?

Human beings.

So human beings were mentioned there first.

Between the ability to escape,

if you compare the ability to escape between Jins and human beings,

who's more capable of escape?

Jins are way more capable of escape than we are.

So Jins are mentioned first, here.

There's a remarkable precision in Dokur'an down to the word level, right?

And what's really also interesting here is,

Allah mentions, if you can,

if you can pierce through the peripheries of the skies and the earth.

Skies are mentioned first.

Earth is mentioned second.

Jins are mentioned first.

Humans are mentioned second.

Because Jins are much more capable of escaping into the skies.

And human beings are going to be running around,

trying to escape somewhere into the earth, right?

So there's a correspondence between Jinn and Inns

and a Samawat while inside the Ayah.

So you see something about how the Ayah is organized.

Now let's dig into some, some words.

Brief comment on Masha'r.

Masha'r comes from Masha'r.

Arabs here know, non-Arab's might also know.

Masha'r means what?

Ten. Masha'r means a large family,

a family of nearly ten or ten or more.

Masha'r means groups of ten, ten and ten and ten,

meaning people that come in legions,

people that come in groups, right?

So actually even though all of Jins

and all of criminal human beings are gathered together,

they're actual bunches,

they're clicks,

they're posses that are showing up.

They're Masha'r's each one of them, you know?

Because they were not, not everyone knew everyone, right?

So there's a certain group of people,

certain social group that knew each other.

So, Qathratun, pida dach, pida dachhuli asya wahtilatiha,

mukawuanakiyanan, matrabid,

a lot of things coming together.

So Allah is actually describing the scene of lots and lots of Jins

and humans made up of smaller groups getting together.

Now, that's a Masha'r al-Jinniwal ins.

We don't, this is not that important,

but now let's go to Antanfudu,

Inistatatum Antanfudu.

The word Nathad is used for nostrils, earlobes,

any skin pores, anything that has an opening.

Is Nathad.

And it's used for an arrow that if somebody shot an arrow to,

like a shot an animal,

and the arrow went inside the body and came out of the other side,

but only the tip of it came out of the other side,

and pierced through the other side.

So the arrow is basically inside the body,

and the tip of it is sticking out of the other end.

That's actually called Nathad, Nathad-o-Saham, okay?

So, and it's also used for a pathway between mountains.

That's also also called a Nathad.

So all of what that all means is piercing through,

like a pathway that pierces through the mountains,

or pores in which, through which you can pierce into the body,

that opening, so the arrow that pierces through the body, right?

So this word is being used now to describe,

basically what you can call crossing the border,

piercing through the border.

And the word for border now, that's being used,

I'll come back to that one,

is Akhtar.

Akhtar comes from the word Qatar, which is a drop,

like Al-Matar, Qatar al-Minalma, okay?

Or two speakers also, no Qatrah, Qatrah, Qatrah, Qatrah,

Qatrah, Qatrah, Qatrah, Qatrah, Qatrah, Qatrah, Qatrah.

But it also means rose of things.

So the visualization here of Akhtar is like, you know,

like security posts.

So you have borders, and you have like a tower,

and then you have a fence, then you have another tower,

then you have a fence, then you have another tower,

and each one of those towers is Akhtar,

and there's a row of them.

Rose of trees are also called Qatar, you know?

The rows of camels that are lined together

are also called Akhtar, right?

The word train also, Qatar is used in that way, right?

So the point is, this is on the peripheries

of the skies and the earth.

The image here is that of, hey,

that looks like it's not a guarded post.

Maybe we can escape from that side.

Oh, maybe that one's a little bit abandoned.

Maybe we can go over there, right?

Find the spots that you think are vulnerable in the border

and go run towards them and pierce through that part

because that'll be easier to get through, right?

Many countries have border crossing issues, right?

And where do people cross the border from?

Where they are most, there's the most vast opening, right?

There's large amounts of landscape,

like Arizona, for example, right?

So there's a more possibility of border crossing

that can happen there.

There are parts of Europe where people are crossing,

you know, crossing by way of sea

because there's large, large area to cover

so they can get through and pierce through the border, right?

So the idea is if you can penetrate through and escape

from this, go ahead and do so.

Now, some people have looked at this area

and they created a new interesting problem

because, you know, the moon landing,

which some say never happened

how could it happen?

Because the Quran says it's impossible

because Allah said,

in dunfudu bin akhtar is samawati wa lard.

Funfudu, not dunfudu, you're not going to be able to do it.

Oh my God, they landed on the moon.

These kufar have made a fake video about the moon landing

and these satellites that are in space and all of that.

These are all fake because Allah says

you're not going to be able to cross.

Easy solution to that problem, ladies and gentlemen,

is that the skies, how many are there?

There are seven skies and the first sky

is decorated with stars.

Allah says, the first sky is decorated with stars

and the stars, the farthest of them

are about 14 billion light years away from us, right?

So we're not, I mean, even if you made it to the moon,

you haven't even made it past like the front porch.

Like you're still, you're still, you know,

you're basically still like in the stoop, right?

So the samawati is a distance,

you haven't even crossed samawati dunya for already.

So no need to panic.

The second thing is this isn't talking about right now.

Allah says, we will free ourselves up for you.

The context of the Surah is important.

When he frees himself up for us, everyone's dead

and you know, he's busy all the time.

Oh, you think he's that busy?

He shall free himself up for you.

And now he says, escape if you want.

What is this scene describing?

This life, this is judgment day.

This is judgment.

We have to be mindful of context.

Mindful of context.

There's so many times people quote an ayah of the Quran

and say stuff and make memes about it

and I read that stuff and I'm like,

can you just read the Surah a little bit?

Can you read a little bit?

Can you read the rest of the ayah sometimes?

Even the rest of the ayah.

Before you put this and people are like,

MashaAllah, MashaAllah, Alhamdulillah, you know.

It's just the level of ignorance

and disregard of the context of the Quran.

And what Allah is saying, which is why we have to look

at a Surah as a unified entity

and you have to respect the boundaries of a Surah.

And you have to look at a Surah like I always invite

my students when you're about to study a new Surah,

think of it as you're entering into a new palace,

a new world, you know.

And you're gonna observe all of its walls,

all of its decor, all of its designs, all of its alleyways,

all of the ways that the colors come together, right?

You're just, you're in awe of this incredible

majestic divine palace, right?

Treat a Surah that way.

Not take one brick from here and say,

I know exactly what this is about.

Oh, hold on, it's a part of a building.

It's part of something larger, right?

So that's the attitude we should have

towards studying Surahs of the Quran.

And there's one thing I'm hoping with this lecture series

like going around and doing these Surahs,

I could have been doing this at home.

Like I could just turn a camera on

and talk about Surah Rahman, I'm cool with that.

But one of the reasons I'm doing this

is because I feel, this is my own feeling,

the study of the Quran is actually

the only orphan subject in Islamic studies nowadays.

Like we were studying everything else.

I mean, I'm taking a thick class,

I'm studying sea lions, I'm studying this.

That's all great, wonderful.

But you know, this whole thing Islam

kind of emanates from where?

From the Quran, that's the core

of our religion, like everything else is the off-shoot.

Everything else supplements this.

And what's happened is now we only study Quran

when one ayah comes up and we want to use it

as a deal for something or the other, right?

It's a reference book, the Quran became a reference book.

Evidences for my real subject.

But nobody says, okay, let's study Surat al-Khamar.

Let's study Surat al-Anham.

No, no, no, which ayah?

Just tell me the ayah, what's the subject of the ayah?

Bro, the subject of Surat al-Anham,

Allah gave us these divine gifts, each one of them,

from the heavens.

We believe in their perfection,

we believe in their endless wisdom,

then how can we don't commit ourselves

to dedicated study of them?

And my belief is it's not just a job

for Islamic universities or scholars,

but this needs to become accessible to the Muslim public.

Like people should just be more and more educated

about Suras of the Quran.

And one Surah at a time, let's, you know,

take one divine gift at a time and give it sometimes.

I'm really happy you guys are getting to do this with me

because I'm hoping this becomes part of a lifestyle for you.

You know, that you're just on a journey,

one Surah at a time, and you're taking some time,

trying to understand what Allah is saying, you know?

And as you're doing that,

maybe you're even making attempts to memorize that Surah.

So even if it takes you six months a year, it doesn't matter.

But by the end of that, you have a deep relationship

with at least one Surah, one gift from Allah,

you have inside your heart, you know?

So that's just on a side note.

But anyway, yeah,

there's so many places to go.

The universe is so big, and not just one sky,

the all of the skies, go ahead, knock yourselves out.

And this is actually the height of sarcasm.

It's the height of sarcasm.

I'm gonna give you guys this old analogy I gave.

I can't think of a better one

because you guys don't watch movies

because you're too religious because you live in New Jersey.

So a highly conservative state.

I'm going to try to relate this to you

from the way of the Kufar who watch movies.

So there's a movie where there's like some criminals

running and the cops are after him, right?

And the cops stop running after him.

And he's just jumping over fences,

cargo, trash, you know, the tripping over trash cans

and all that stuff.

And he's running, running, running.

And the police stop running.

And the police guy gets on the mic,

those big microphones they have.

And he says, hey, put some legs into it.

You call that a run?

Oh, come on, get up.

You can do better than that.

And the cops aren't running.

There's just, he's climbing, he can't climb.

Okay, I'll give you like three tries.

Come on, come on, you got this, you got this.

Now, if the cops are doing that,

saying, go ahead, run, come on, come on, do it.

Knock yourself out.

You know why?

Because they've got them completely surrounded.

So now they're just having fun with the thing,

with the dude, right?

So when Allah says, go ahead.

You know what, go, run.

You think you're going to escape?

Do it.

You know, get your fill.

Let your fill.

You know, in this, in this series of surahs,

I'm reminded of something Allah said in 51.

This is 55 in 51 in the Dariyat.

He said, for firru illa Allah.

Run to Allah.

Run to Allah.

In this life, run to Allah.

And now judgment day comes and he says,

run away from Allah if you want.

Go ahead.

See how that works out for you.

Subhanallah.

You know, the comment I skipped here,

Al-Malai, Al-Usi mentions,

Al-Malai, Al-Alihim, Al-Salam,

Yanziluna, Yom al-Kiyama.

Angels will descend on judgment day.

Like, Wajah, Arab, Wa Malaqoo, Safan Safa.

The angels will descend, rose upon rose.

For your hituna, Bijameer al-Halaiq,

then they will have the entire creation surrounded.

So, if they are Ahum al-Jinn,

well, insharaboo, when the jinn's and human beings

will see them, they'll try and run.

Fala'atuna, Wajhan, illa Wajadoo, Al-Malai,

Al-Halat, they won't find anywhere to go

except angels have already got it covered.

Wa-Kheelah, Amr.

So, this is actually the meaning that he described.

Coming up next 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 jinn.

What in the world?

How does that make any sense?

Let me explain.