Islamic Studies PDF

Taimiyyah Zubair 124 And mention when Ibrahim was tried by his Lord with commands, And he fulfilled them. Qala innija'ilukalinasi imama Allah said, indeed, I will make you a leader for the people. Qala wa minzuriyeati Ibrahim said, is this also for my descendants? Qala layana lu ahdilwalimin Allah...

Taimiyyah Zubair 124 And mention when Ibrahim was tried by his Lord with commands, And he fulfilled them. Qala innija'ilukalinasi imama Allah said, indeed, I will make you a leader for the people. Qala wa minzuriyeati Ibrahim said, is this also for my descendants? Qala layana lu ahdilwalimin Allah said, my covenant does not include the wrongdoers. Now in the previous ayat, the previous verses, we learned that the Bani Israel were addressed, specifically Allah reminds them that, uddkuru nirmatiallati anamtu 'alaikum, remember My favor which I bestowed upon you, and the fact that, ani faddaltu kumalalalalalamin, that I gave you preference over the worlds. I gave you preference in so many ways by giving you scripture, by sending messengers to you, by giving you guidance when the people around you were covered in darkness. And then they're given a warning that fear a day when no soul will suffice for another soul at all. And even a father will not be able to save his son. Each person will be concerned about himself. And no compensation will be accepted from any soul and no intercession will benefit any soul walahum yunsurun nor will they be aided. Meaning, you cannot rely on your great ancestors for your salvation on the day of judgment. You have to believe and you have to do something yourself right now. And in the verses before we learned about how the Bani Israel are, you know, reminded over and over again through different ways to believe in the messenger sallallahu alayhi wasallam and fulfill the covenant of Allah. And then, you know, Allah Subhanahu Wa Ta'ala reminds them of the different favors that He bestowed upon them. For example, how He saved them from firaun and how He gave them, you know, man and salwa and water in the desert and also how they made different covenants with Allah, but they broke them. But Allah still had mercy upon them, still gave them multiple chances. And then a final warning is basically given in verses 122 to 123 that, you know, yes, you are children of Ibrahim. Yes, you are children of the prophets of Allah, but realize that on the day of judgment, no soul will be able to help another soul. We learned earlier about how the Bani Israel would say that. Fire will not touch us except for just a few days. Or that layaduhulaljannata ilaman kanahudun awnasara. Their assumption that they were for sure going to enter paradise. So here, their misconception is basically being removed that, yes, you are the children of righteous, but do not think that they will save you on the day of judgment. Your pious forefathers will be of no avail. You have to do something yourself. And even when it comes to any compensation that you can offer to ransom yourself on the day of judgment, it's not gonna work because the Bani Israel, you know, in their history, we can see many times where they were taken as captives and then they were set free. But on the day of judgment, no one nothing is going to set you free. And then no intercession is going to benefit. And even the intercession of the righteous will only benefit those whom Allah Subhanahu Wa Ta'ala allows and they will not be helped. So what's the message over here? The message over here is that if you don't believe in the way that Allah Subhanahu Wa Ta'ala wants you to believe, if you don't live the way that Allah Subhanahu Wa Ta'ala wants you to live, you are not abiding by the covenant of Allah. And if you are not abiding by the covenant of Allah, then don't expect that you will be given paradise. Don't just assume that you will have salvation on the day of judgment. And now we see that Allah mentions in detail Ibrahim alayhis salaam. And this is something very important for us to understand, this placement of Ibrahim alayhis salaam's mention right after the mention of the Bani Israel. You see, the Bani Israel, who are they? Remember that they are the progeny of Israel. And who is Israel? Israel is Ya'qub alayhis salam, the grandson of Ibrahim alayhis salam. So basically, the Bani Israel are descendants of Ibrahim alayhi salam. Now in the bible, we see that there are many promises that God makes with Ibrahim. Alright. Right in the beginning, in the book of Genesis, chapter 12, verse 1 to 3, it says that the Lord said to Abraham, go forth from your native land and from your father's house to the land I will show you. Meaning, Ibrahim alaihi wasalam is instructed to make hijrah, to leave his homeland in Iraq, in Ur, and go to Canaan. And Canaan is what basically is the land of Israel. And it says that I will make of you a great nation, and I will bless you. I will make your name great, and you shall be a blessing. I will bless those who bless you and curse him that curses you, and all the families of the earth shall bless themselves by you. So in summary, we see that a promise is made with Ibrahim that I will make you and your offspring a blessing for the worlds. Okay. I will make you, O Ibrahim, and your offspring a blessing for the worlds, meaning I'm going to make you a leader for the people of the world. And also in the book of Genesis in chapter 17, it says that God said to Abraham that walk before Me faithfully and be blameless, meaning obey Me and you'll be good. Then I will make My covenant between Me and you and will greatly increase your numbers. So Abraham fell face down, meaning he surrendered, he submitted, and God said to him, as for me, this is my covenant with you. You will be the father of many nations. So Ibrahim alaihis salam isn't just, you know, the father of Bani Israel, but remember his other son Ismail alayhis salam from his descendants is the Prophet sallallahu alayhi wasalam. So Ibrahim alayhi wasalam is not just the father of 1 nation, but the father of many nations. Okay. And then later it says, I will make you very fruitful. I will make nations of you and kings will come from you. And I will establish my covenant as an everlasting covenant between me and you and your descendants you for the generations to come, to be your god and the god of your descendants after you. And then it says the whole land of Canaan, I will give as an everlasting possession to you and your descendants after you and I will be their god. Okay. And then it says, as for you, you must keep my covenant, you and your descendants after you, for the generations to come. So in summary, we see that several promises are mentioned in the Bible that God makes to Ibrahim alaihis salam of land that he and his descendants will have ownership of a certain land and promises of leadership that they will be the leaders of mankind and that they will have prosperity. Okay. However, it's made very clear that this promise is not absolute. Okay. Annie, it's made clear that you must keep my covenant. Right? That you and your descendants have to keep my covenant. You have to do what I tell you, and then you will get this in return. You will get leadership. You will get prosperity. You will get ownership of land, etcetera. Now the Bani Israel, you know, their assumption is that this promise that God made to Ibrahim alaihis salam is applicable till today. Okay. For them, regardless of what they do, regardless of what they do, regardless of their actions. But the Quran makes it clear and even the Bible makes it clear that you must do something. You know, these promises are not unconditional. Okay. There's something that you have to do on your part. So the Bani Israel are reminded that remember the blessings of Allah on you and when you remember a blessing of Allah that means you do shukr. Right? You show gratitude. So Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala favored you. Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala promised you prosperity, promised you leadership, promised you all of these things, not so that you can do whatever you want, but so that you establish the law of Allah. You show obedience to Allah and now that the Messenger of Allah salallahu alaihi wasalam has come to you, what does that mean? You better believe in him. You better follow him. When the book of Allah has come to you, you better believe in it. You better follow it. If you reject it, if you refuse it, then you're no longer fulfilling the covenant. And if you're no longer fulfilling the covenant, then the covenant of Allah is not for you either. The promise of leadership is not for you. The promise of prosperity, etcetera, is not for you. So here, we see that Allah mentions the background of this promise. When was Ibrahim, alayhi salaam, given this promise? Why and what does it mean? So it begins with wa'idhibitalaibrahim ra'bubikalimatinfa'atammahunna. Allah says wa'id and recall when. Meaning Allah is instructing his messenger, sallallahu alaihi wa'alehi wasallam, to remember the story of Ibrahim alaihi wasallam, to talk about it, to mention it, to reflect over it. And this shows us that you take guidance from the commands that are given, okay, the statements that are given in the Quran, but you also take guidance from the people that Allah mentions in the Quran. When we ask Allah for guidance in Suratul Fatiha, we say, ihdina suratulmustaqim, suratul ladeena anamtalayhim. The straight path is the path of those, of people, whom you bestowed your favor on. So you need examples. You need people to look up to, people to take inspiration from, people whose, you know, lives you can reflect on because you cannot be what you cannot see. You know, as human beings, we need living examples. We need to be able to see how people went through different trials, how they obeyed Allah Subhanahu Wa Ta'ala, how they succeeded. So Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala shows us the example of Ibrahim alayhi wasalam over here. So wa'idhi batalaibrahimarabuhu bi kalimatin. And in particular, recall when Ibrahim was tried by his lord with commands. And these commands, as I mentioned to you earlier, are both commands that are koni and commands that are shuddery. Ibrahim alayhis salaam, and if you think about his life, his life was not easy. Okay. Think about how as a young man, when he is in his homeland, you know, with his father, with his people, when he refuses to worship the idols that everyone worshiped, what happened? His own father was of those people who gathered firewood, okay, in order to burn Ibrahim, alayhis salam. And then when Ibrahim alaihis salam survived, because Allah instructed that fire to be cool and safe for Ibrahim alaihis salam, Ibrahim alaihis salam's father said to him, wajjurni malihyah. You need just leave me for a very long time. Leave me for good. I don't wanna ever see you again. Go from here because I myself will stone you to death. And you think about rejection, and how difficult it is to be rejected by your own parents, your own father. This is not easy. And then this is not just rejection. First of all, his father attempted to kill him. And when that didn't work, he threatened him again that I am going to stone you to death. This is not easy, Knowing that your parents have rejected you, you know, living with that awareness on a daily basis, this is a trial that many of us cannot even imagine, we cannot even relate to. And we see examples of this where people, you know, for example, when they accept Islam, literally their family cuts them off. Their own parents will not want to see them ever again, will not allow them to come back to the family home. This rejection is not easy. Ibrahim alaihis salam, he was tested through this. This was of klimat koni and this is something that was decreed in Ibrahim alaihis salam's life. Some people, mashAllah, they have an amazing relationship with their parents And there are other people who no matter what they do, their parents are just not happy, not pleased at all. So this is a huge test. This is a huge test. But Ibrahim alaihis salam, what did he do? He fulfilled every test, every command, every decree. And he did not say that, you know, what good did I get by leaving the idols by worshiping Allah. My own family has rejected me. I can't bear this anymore. I have to go back to my family. I need the approval, the love of my father. I need the acceptance of my father. No. He did not give anyone preference over Allah Subhanahu Wa Ta'ala. And that doesn't mean that this test was easy. Remember when I mentioned to you, Ibtila is supposed to be a trial that is hard, that is difficult. And this pain is experienced everyday. So, bi kalimatin kalimatini kauni, so thinking about Ibrahim 'alai sallam's life, how he was rejected by his own father. And then think about how when he, you know, is married to Sarah, you know, when he goes to Egypt, the king captures Sarah. That was also difficult. Ibrahim alaihis salam's life was in danger. His wife's life was in danger. This was not an easy trial. And then you see how Ibrahim alaihi sallam, he does not have any children for a very, very long time. Right? Him and Sarah, eventually, when Ibrahim alaihi sallam is, you know, becomes a father to Ishaq, we learned that he was in his nineties. He was extremely old. And he being becoming a parent when you are in your twenties is easy. Becoming a parent when you're in your thirties or in your forties, it's hard. Imagine having a child at the age of 90. Any what does that mean? That means that, you know, first of all, you've been praying for so long. You have been hoping and wishing for so long. And we see how when people struggle with fertility, how it affects them. And he again, this is a daily trial. You see anyone with a child. You see anyone that is expecting. You know, it does something to your heart. You want a child. You want to become a mother. You want to become a father, but you cannot be. And it's extremely hard to deal with this test. Ibrahim, radiates and all, was tested with that. He did not complain to Allah. He did not become upset with Allah that, you Allah, you know, you asked me to do this, I did it, but you can't even grant me a child. He was not upset. Fa'atam mahunna. He fulfilled every trial, every command that Allah Subhanahu Wa Ta'ala gave him. And then we see that with Ismail alayhis salam, right, when he has Ismail alayhis salam, we learn in the Quran about how when Ismail alayhis salam was at the age of striving, and he was about 13 years old, something like that, Ibrahim alaihis salam had to slaughter him. Can you imagine? This is something that we cannot even imagine, but Ibrahim alaihis salam was instructed to slaughter his own son. So wa idhi betala Ibrahim raoboobi kalimatin fa'atam mahun. And this was not all. We learn about how Ibrahim alaihis salam was given other commands as well related to salah, related to tahara, acts of purification, rituals of Hajj. He had to immigrate. All of these, he fulfilled them. And especially when it comes to the acts of tahara, we learn about how he was instructed to circumcise himself. And again, at that time, he was not young. He was older. So fa'atam mahunna, no matter what command he was given, he fulfilled them. In Suratun Najim, ayah 37, Allah describes Ibrahim as waibrahim ladhiwafaa, and Ibrahim who fulfilled, and he who fulfilled everything, every command that Allah gave him. Now when we look back at Surat Al Baqarah and all different stories that we have read, we see the test of Adam alayhis salam. Right? When Adam and Hawa were in Jannah, they were warned very clearly not to eat of the fruit of the tree. And what happened, Adam he forgot. So in a way, he failed the test, but he repented and Allah Subhanahu Wa Ta'ala forgave him. We learn about Iblis. What happened? He failed, but he did not repent. We learn about Bani Israel. They were also tested. Right? Like through the Sabbath, through the different covenants that they made. But what did they do? They also failed. Ibrahim, R. S. Salam, Allah certifies over here that Ibrahim Salam passed the tests. And this is our model, the example that we should follow. Wa'idibitalaibrahiem rabauba kalimatidfa'atam mahun So what was the reward of passing all of these tests? Allah said, Innija'ilu kalinasi imama I am going to make you a leader for all people. So this shows us first of all that leadership is given by Allah. Okay? It is granted. Allah made Ibrahim a leader. It's granted by Allah. And real leadership, when a person truly leads others, this is not easy. This is after a lot of sabr, a lot of patience, a lot of testing, a lot of trials. In Suratul Anbiya ayah 73 we learn that We made them leaders who would guide by Our command. So Allah made them leaders. They were worshipers of ours. So leadership is given by Allah. And in another place in the Quran, we learn that lama sabaru whenever they were patient. So it's after a lot of trial and patience and difficulty that a person reaches the level of leadership. So inni ja'ilu kalinasi imama Allah said to Him, I am going to make you a leader for people. And this shows us that in any work that we're doing, when we face challenges, when we face hardship, there is some wisdom behind it. You know, trials, difficulties, we can view them in different ways. One way of looking at them is, you know, poor me, I'm a victim of all of these hardships and trials. And another way is that, of looking at hardship is that this has happened by the permission of Allah. And whatever Allah decrees, whatever Allah decides, there is something good in it. It's not in vain. It's not random. It's not a mistake. There is a purpose behind it. So when you view hardship in this way, then hardship becomes a source of learning and growth and purification for you. In Hadith, we learn, mayuridillahu bi khaylan yusrib minhu. Whoever Allah intends good for, Allah Subhanahu Wa Ta'ala puts that person in trial, in difficulty. Allah Subhanahu Wa Ta'ala wants that person to become better, to grow. So, Allah Subhanahu Wa Ta'ala will put that person in trial, in difficulty. Because difficulty teaches you what ease does not teach you. Right? And also, then, hardship becomes a means of purification. In a hadith, we learned the trials will continue to befall the believing man and woman with regard to themselves, their children, and their wealth until they meet Allah with no sin on them. We also learned in a hadith that the greatest reward comes with the greatest trial. When Allah loves the people, He tests them. Whoever accepts that wins Allah's pleasure. But whoever is upset and angry with what Allah has decreed with the trial, then that person earns the wrath of Allah. So Ibrahim alaihis salam, and he his life was not easy. Every test, every command was difficult. You know, when you travel for Hajj, it's not easy. Imagine Ibrahim alaihis salam didn't just travel once from Palestine to Makkah. He traveled many times, many, many times because at one point he came and he left Hajil and Ismail over there. Right? Then another time he came and he built a Kaaba. Another time he came, he was supposed to slaughter him. So we know of at least 3 or 4 times that Ibrahim alaihis salam visited Makkah. This also is not easy. So Ibrahim alaihis salam, he went through all of this hardship. Why? Why did Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala test him? Just like that? No. For a reason. So that Ibrahim alaihis salam would be an imam, a leader for all mankind, for all people. An example whom people can follow and also someone who we look up to. So, inni ja'ilukulinasi imama. Ibrahim radhi salaam, what is his response? Qala wamanzuriati. He says, and is this also for my offspring? Or please also for my offspring, make them an imam also. And he immediately, he asks for this favor for his children. You know, there are some people who are very, you could say, focused on themselves only. So if they get something good, they're very happy. And there are other people who, as soon as they, you know, get something good, they think about others. And others, especially those who are closest to them. When you look at Musa alayhis salam, Musa alayhis salam is given prophethood and he asks that his brother is also made a prophet. Right? We see Ibrahim alayhis salam is given this honor that you are a leader for all mankind and Ibrahim says, all to my children, all to my offspring. This shows that Ibrahim was really not a selfish person. He wanted good for others. And also, remember that when you truly believe in something, when you believe that something is good, then you want it for your children as well. You know, there are of people who are content with, you know, for example, praying themselves, giving sadaqah themselves. They're very happy. They're content with their lifestyle, their religious quote unquote lifestyle. But when it comes to their children, they don't encourage their children to go on the same path. They're more concerned about worldly success for their children. So they should get into the best schools. They should married at the right time. They should settle well. They should have a good source of income, etcetera. What about their salah? What about their relationship with Allah Subhanahu Wa Ta'ala? Think about it. If you believe that something is good, you want it for yourself and you also want it for those whom you love. Ibrahim alayhi wasalam immediately asks that his children should also, you know, have a share of this goodness, of this privilege. So Allah makes it clear Qala la yanalu ahtirzwaleemin that My covenant does not include those who do wrong. My covenant is not unconditional, it is not for all of your children, for all of your offspring. No, it is only for those who do as you did. Ibrahim, he fulfilled all of the decrees, right, all of the commands. So among your offspring also, whoever will follow in your footsteps, okay, they will share in this privilege. But those who don't follow in your footsteps, those who are thalim, those who do wrong, then this promise is not for them. And this shows us that a thalim person, an unjust person, does not deserve to be a leader. A person who does wrong by disobeying Allah, by harming others, falling short in their duty to Allah, then such a person does not deserve to be a leader. When we look at the Bani Israel, did they commit zulm? A lot of zulm. A lot. And you just think about how they were so interested in magic and they used magic to separate husband and wife. And instead of learning the book of Allah, they were so eager to learn magic. This is zulm. They made a covenant with Allah, the mithaq. Remember the mount was raised over them and then they turned away. Right? So we saw many examples of how the Bani Israel were thalimin. So it's made clear over here that even though they are from the offspring of Ibrahim, they're not in a position of leadership of mankind, and hence the promises that Allah made to Ibrahim, are not for them. In Suratul Safat, ayah 113, Allah mentions women's rjiyatihima muhsinum wazhalimulinafsihimubeen that from their offspring are those who are muhsin, those who did good, but there are others who clearly do wrong to themselves, who clearly violate the limits that Allah has set and commit injustice.