The Light of Sincerity and the Fire of Hypocrisy | Qur'anic Parables Episode 1

that is happening and in the midst of feeling the departure of Ramadan, we have a whole month, insha'allah, where we are now going to connect or reconnect with the Quran in a way that will hopefully give us a greater appreciation for it. connection with our recitation and allows us to connect with different elements of the Quran, so this is the first

episode

of the Qur

anic

parables

, the am thad that are in the Quran and the way this will work, insha'allah, is that each week We are going to take a method, one of the

parables

and we are going to talk about it from three aspects, one is the historical context, the other, the second thing we are going to talk about is the parable itself and the third thing is some of the practical elements that we can derive in our day to day life from this parable and inshallah ta'ala the three uh dr uthman you tasnim and I will be rotating what we talk about regarding the parable each week insha 'Allah and tomorrow we will have Qur

anic

miracles and if If you watch the program below you will see that every night we have something, but I want you to pay attention to tomorrow specifically, which will be the miracles of the Quran. that will be exclusively on the Japanese platform at the same time, but make sure to watch it on the yapeen, inshallah platforms, either via Japanese facebook or youtube, and the inshallah time will be uploaded to all other European platforms and then on Wednesday at night, inshallah ta'ala.

Go ahead and we'll move on to the next, the next aspect of the Quran that we're covering, so without further ado, insha'allah, I want to hand it over to Dr. Uthman, uh, to talk about the historical context of The Metal of the Parable that we're going to cover. Today, he presents a series of parables in the Quran that are meant to make us think and reflect, as Allah says, the whole purpose is to create these analogies that make us think deeply about the Quran. In our lives, the first parable that we want to talk about today is giving us the situation in Medina and the prophet Muhammad has given instructions about the three types of people that you will find in Medina and their characteristics and attributes and the first of them are the believers, the second are the disbelievers and the third are the hypocrites and the hypocrites again are unique because there were no hypocrites in Makkah because there was no benefit in being a covert Muslim during that time it was a very difficult time but when Islam began to flourish in medina, the hypocrites began to arise, so allah subhanahu wa'ta'ala, in a way, when it begins, it quickly gives us a snapshot of who the believers are, allah tells us that the believers are those who believe in it first . which is beyond human perception, they are the ones who establish their prayers and there are those who give from what Allah has given them and then Allah gives us a very quick idea of ​​the disbelievers very quickly about those to whom it has been given. given the message, but they simply don't care to hear anything their hearts are sealed their eyes are sealed their ears are sealed Allah says that they will not believe no matter what and that is why these two descriptions of believers and disbelievers are quite simple and their characteristics are quite obvious, but when Allah Subhanallah then wants to talk to us about the nature of

hypocrisy

and the subtlety of

hypocrisy

and the dangers of hypocrisy which he elaborates throughout numerous verses and then ends that whole conversation about hypocrisy with the first and one of the most beautiful parables of the Quran, which is what Shaykh will talk about in the next few minutes and what I find beautiful about this parable is that it actually gives us a basis for the language of the Quran.

How Allah Subhanahu Wa will actually use specific terminology regarding belief, disbelief and hypocrisy. I will pass it on to shechem or to discuss the parable it is actually the first masala in the Quran, it is the first parable and you can see the wonderful job that the creative team at yafkeen has done in turning them into animated gifs insha allah so please favor. Look at it also to really understand how deep it is in the images that Allah is giving us, he says and this is verse 17 of Surat Al-Baqarah, ladies and gentlemen, their example or example is like one. who

light

s a

fire

but once it illuminates everything around them Allah took away their

light

and left them in darkness so that they could not see so again the example is like a person who lights a

fire

the fire illuminates everything around him. around them brings light Allah takes away their light and leaves them in darkness so that they can no longer see.

There is a lot to talk about here in terms of what we take from this life, what we intend to commit to in regards to what we believe belongs to the afterlife and salvation and then the consequences of that belief and one of the things about hypocrites like said Dr. Uthman, they jumped on the bandwagon, they jumped on the bandwagon only in medina when there was a benefit for being a believer and that's why they wanted to claim the benefits. of being Muslims, but not necessarily going through the trials of being Muslim, so whenever a compromise arose, whenever there was something that required difficulties without benefits, then they would find an excuse and they would find a way to back off, so if that was going to happen in battle to defend the borders of medina at that time the community in madinah if that went to prayers where they would not be seen so they would not even bother to go to fajr and you might have heard the hadith of life of the prophet somewhere said that the most difficult prayers for hypocrites are fajr and isha.

Now it's not just because it's hard to wake up for fajr and isha, you know, late at night, it's because if you were going to the federer or isha mosque at that time. time without artificial lighting you wouldn't be seen, so you wouldn't claim the benefits, the public benefits of being a Muslim, because they wouldn't notice you in the first place, so why would the hypocrites bother going to fajr and aisha if they were not going to get credit in the community for going out to salah so they only went to the salawath where they would be seen they made their presence unpleasantly known when they were there and they withdrew and found excuses when they were there There was some difficulty and again they sought the benefits of belief, but at the same time they did not want to assume the consequences or suffer the consequences of the belief.

It's not necessarily just suffering the consequences, it's the natural commitment and what comes with the natural. commitment to faith they did not want to commit to anything that would involve difficulties, they only wanted to benefit the believers they are people who will believe in allah simply because they believe in allah and they will commit to believing because it is the truth and they will do what is asked of them because they believe that the Success lies in following the commandments of Allah and the Messenger and sometimes that is going to have a lot of pain and difficulties, you know, involved or built into that commitment, so there are different levels of pain. the difficulties of simply waking up and going to salata fajr where no one would see you, there is the difficulty of going into battle alongside the prophet, sallallahu alaihi wasallam, and not fleeing from his side, there is the difficulty of being excluded or stigmatized when you encounter a again in In a Meccan Climate there are so many different things they have to go through, but the point is that these believers are willing to suffer the consequences of believing in this life and do not necessarily need worldly benefits in order to commit. and believe and that's how you know if you are sincere or not uh you know when Allah takes away the benefit of your belief in this life you still commit to it you know when you talk about the khalas when you talk about

sincerity

when people are no longer looking at you?

Are you still doing what you've done and are you doing it with the same level of commitment,

sincerity

and humility that you would do if others were watching? if you are being excluded and stigmatized? Are you still going to commit to your faith? Will you only do it where it is comfortable for you? Do you act like a Muslim in some context and not in another? So the point is that these are people who want to benefit only in this life of Dean, but First of all, they don't even believe in the hereafter or not, they are certainly not acting towards the hereafter, so Allah says that they are like a town that lights this fire and illuminates everything around it.

Light refers to benefit, then Allah. says then Allah takes away the light and this refers to death now where they can no longer benefit from that belief or that claim to be a believer in any social or personal sense in this world as the light has been taken away from them i.e. They have died but they have not faced the consequences of believing in this life while claiming its benefits, so Allah says I left them in darkness where they could not even see anymore. He has a very powerful explanation for this. He says notice that Allah does not.

He takes away the fire, he did not take away the burning. Allah only removed the light, removed the lights, but they remain with the fire with the pain. Why because the fire is the burning part, the pain part is now in the afterlife where their hypocrisy is revealed and they have to deal with the consequences of their hypocrisy now, in the afterlife, where it can no longer be hidden. nothing nor falsely claim any benefits, so the nur has been taken away from them, but the ardor remains now. I want you to move. with me to surat al-hadid which is surah 57 verse 13 and allah gives us this image of the hypocrites and the believers together once again now the hypocrites and the believers when they are together in this life they are in the same space, the same physical space you can't tell the difference between them there are signs but ultimately they are all muslims they are all in the same space uh they all outwardly profess the same things but on the day of judgment now Allah Azza is talking about that community is being classified and Allah says the day when hypocritical men and hypocritical women tell believing men and believing women as they move forward when they begin to walk further, they say wait, we want to benefit from your light you have light we do not have light we want to benefit it is dark here we are afraid we want to have your light and those believers will turn to them and say go back and come back here means come back to the life of that world if you can feel and light your life there like we did then and that will benefit you uh today and then Allah It says that a barrier will be raised between them um inside that barrier there is mercy, outside of it there is punishment and torment, so outside is the punishment the internal consequences now is the mercy for those believers the hypocrites call them and say if we were not with you and they will say yes the believers will answer but you afflicted yourselves you waited you doubted you doubted and illusions deceived you until the order came to you from Allah and the deceiver deceived you about Allah, then the believers have gone ahead with light, they burned with faith in this life, that is, in this life they felt pain, consequences and difficulties for being sincere believers, but now Allah has removed the pain and all they have is the light and the hereafter that extends from their right and in front of them the hypocrites only have the ardor lastly if you go to subhanallah Allah says that oh you believe, repent to Allah sincerely. repentance perhaps your lord will take away your evil deeds and admit you into gardens under which rivers flow on the day when Allah does not dishonor the prophet nor those who believe in him, his light will go before them and to their right and what are they? asking? for now, as they have moved on and left the hypocrites behind, they are saying oh Allah, keep this light for us, perfect this light for us and forgive us and verily you are powerful and competent over all things so subhanallah It is the image. from the beginning when the hypocrites light the fire and benefit from the light only without dealing with the difficulties of faith until the end of this which is given throughout the Quran, the end result of this is that the believers advance only with the light and the hypocrites are left behind only with the fire and we ask Allah to include us among the sincere believers who carry the light forward on the day of judgment and really to add to that so I came everyone thank you for that . introduction to the parable and one thing I wanted to focus on is bringing that home in the sense of what that means for us today, but before that I want to talk about at least my understanding of the parable and the implications that it has and hopefully how that can shape our understanding, but Ash Human mentioned that you have this idea, this notion of light, there are different types of light that you have, which refers to this general light versus nur and nur is used in the entire Koran. constantly to refer, of course, specifically to light, but also in uh as a word for guidance um, it's always in contrast to what you know, this darkness, this detour, so naked, it's not just just light, but it's this, this light that engages us through the guidance of uh, of being Muslim, of having this Islam to guide our path, so the point is that you have this contrast, so what the parable essentially says is that they are lighting this fire and despite the fight.

The fact that this light is coming out, is what we would perceive as light. It is now that you can see that you have these hypocrites they have this light but they don't have the nur, so there is this contrast and even though they can see, they don't actually They are guided and I mention this to connect with some of my absolute favorite versesin the Quran and it is from chapter 28, verses 71 to 72, where Allah says: Can you imagine? Can you imagine this notion, this fact that I can do it overnight all the time, until judgment day forever?

It will always be dark, many like who else apart from Allah would you call to be able to change this reality? I can do it, we can just tomorrow comes, the sun does not rise and it will always be dark until judgment day. was how can they do that and he is telling us this in the Quran that he will always be dark and clever. The incredible thing about this is that the ayah ends by saying: can't you hear? and I will come back to this next the next verse asks the same question, have you ever thought about the fact that I can make it day and all the time on that day of judgment there will always be light, there will never be darkness, there will never be will there be you?

I know this many times and I had talked about this in Ramadan, but what was always fascinating to me about this ayat is that it mixed the endings well so that Allah first says that it will always be night, it will always be like this. In the dark, your sense of hearing naturally increases in the dark, when there is no light, you can hear more those who have no fighting sense, their ability to hear is much stronger than us and naturally, I would think that the last pandara would say, "It's okay, it's dark all the time," can't you see what it says?

Can't you hear it? Even though your sense of hearing is now at its highest point, are you still unable to hear? And in the same way, Allah says that you know. I'm going to do one day I'm going to do this I'm going to have these lights all the time you still can't see even though there's light all the time and really the connection between these these verses what are they? so powerful the fact that the angels say listen I can make it daytime all the time you still can't see you can't see what's in front of you it will still be dark all the time you can listen as best you can but you still can't hear and that in this eye in this parable in surat al-baqarah what is happening is that they are lighting a fire, a fire in the darkness of the fire at night is going to illuminate everything around you, but what you can still I don't see that the naked is not yet available to you, that what is around you can be illuminated, we can have a day all the time, but we cannot see what is in front of us, that sense of true sight, that sense of truth.

The orientation remains that we are still deprived of that and I think the most relevant aspect of this is the fact that today we often think that we know exactly what we are talking about and that we know that we are so confident in what we are saying that we're so confident in what we hear that you know a lot of times we just reiterate, retweet, do whatever uh when we see what we see and we think no, all the evidence is right in front of us. of us we have all the facts we have all the Quranic verses we have all these arguments these debates on social media in person we know exactly what we are talking about we are so confident in the way we talk about the things we are so in what we see and in what we hear and, you know, and sometimes we associate hypocrisy with this, you know, a massive sin, this place, the state in front of us is so terrible, but many times these minor aspects of hypocrisy. they're so prevalent within us that because we think of them as something minor, it's something that we know we don't really consider in depth, so now you have this very prominent aspect of hypocrisy where you see things that you think you are seeing. things but you're not actually seeing them, so this and you know the various conversations about this within the Quran are a reminder to really question sometimes the things that you do and chocolate specifically mentions this idea of ​​like on the train, you know it comes up something, a trend arises, you know, things change so quickly, our sense of morality, sometimes we wonder, how can the Quran say this?

How could the prophet have done this? And it is like that. This is a reminder to declutter. to pause and think to ourselves, yes, we see the things that we do today, we see the world as it is today, but is this true vision correct and do we have it and from this arises a kind of questioning that you know everything that we see This is largely based on our limited context, really the bubbles that we live in, and it's a reminder that we need to be really humble in terms of our sources of knowledge and our pursuit of knowledge, and the way that we relate to each other. others. that there is always room for error that there is always room for you to know that you do not have that true guidance and above all, it is an important reminder to pray to Allah for that nakedness.

We don't just want light in your life, what you want, what you want. that light and, you know, it's full of pantara guidance and I hope this serves as a reminder to really be careful with your surroundings and with the athletes to really see and listen to people, yeah, one of the things that ultimately There are as many angles as I hear you both speak this, these parables have an infinite number of lessons. One of the things I thought is that if there are so many images in this, I was thinking that Allah says, imagine a parable of people lighting a fire and I like to imagine I love to go camping and people like to go out in the dark. in the forest if it is completely dark and you light a fire I mean the fire makes you feel warm that fire allows you to see where you could go and of course if you are not careful you could fall into it and get burned that's why Allah is helping us. giving this profound parable to make us hate hypocrisy.

Look, if you, Allah, we are all in darkness, we were all. lost at some point in our life it was thanks to Islam that we can have the nur to see the reality of this life and that is its name that you just brought this point allows us to see the truth as the truth so that we can continue and I think that a Sometimes we think something is true when it is not because we are getting incorrect information, but rather we return to the parable that Allah, when he lights this fire that has heat, has everything we want from it if we choose it.

If you do not act according to the guidance, then Allah will snatch the noodles from you and tells us that the hypocrites keep this. There is still a fire but it doesn't have any lights so I want to think about when you are camping. Imagine if you lit a fire and now you said, "Okay, I know exactly where to go to the bathroom or the path" and then suddenly the fire disappears in terms of light, but it's still burning and what would it feel like to have to walk? around a camp or walking around a place where there was a fire burning but you couldn't see it, you would be very scared and I think this is an insight into the psychology of a hypocrite that deep down there is this conflict because you know they are not doing the right thing. what they are supposed to do and they feel this anguish behind it and that is what Allah is describing to us.

You know that state of psychological torture where you knew what was right and you didn't follow through. that and now here is the consequence of not following the guidance given to you so may Allah make us be among those who always follow the nur of Islam so that our hearts can be enlightened subhanallah and there is also something about control as you think . you control the reward, you think you control the process and the hypocrite thinks they already got it and you know we were talking about this in Friday's webinar about the woman from Ramadan Blues that whoever walks away from my memory then has a constrained life and then they wake up blind on the day of judgment and say lima that is something very powerful that uh is sometimes lost in the hardest theater the reflections on that verse that that person on the day of judgment says to allah why make me blind and used to be able to see, so they attributed sight to themselves the ability to see for themselves, but they attributed the removal of blindness to Allah when it is supposed to be the opposite, correct, that good comes from you, evil . of myself, but it's like you turned it around, you have to turn it around, wait a minute, I could see his right, I could see and you took my sight away, while the believer somehow in his humility even in the moments in that They have moved on and they have the light, you know, extending from their hands in front of them, they are saying perfect, this life for us, we can't do it alone, we are deficient, we are not in control.

Allah perfect this life for us Allah keep this light for us because the believer understands that guidance is such a gift that somehow with all its consequences, difficulties and trials in this life it is worth what comes in terms of difficulties in this life. life and we are very blessed if Allah gives it to us and you know it is not something we did, it is the blessing of Allah and this great blessing of guidance and being able to appreciate the guidance and being able to act on the guidance. Okay, so it's like you know the hypocrite thinks they've figured it out, they're trying to control it, they channel it here there and then eventually they burn out, it catches up with them, the plot fails and they never came through on this. life because the world that they were pursuing using something so valuable and precious that could have given them comprehensive happiness, this world is not giving them happiness, so life was restrictive, so it was not really light and I think that was a beautiful distinction that the test name given between uh you know, uh Allah and and um, you know, it was such a pure light, it had problems and then on the day of judgment, they took it away and it just burns, so Allah, so here's the disappointment on the day of judgment for which it burns. the believer uh here is the fullness and on the day of judgment the reward is light and the reward is right so here is the fullness that even if I'm struggling it's worth it and uh, you know, it's for the sight of Allah and then on the day of judgment, the reward is from Allah and I agree with that, it's very interesting, you know, subhanallah, the psychology, I think you talked about the psychology of the hypocrite here and what it is about, so What is the most practical thing?

I think if you know, maybe we can all give a very quick answer, like what's the most practical thing you can take from this, like in Islamic work and worship, like right now we're all in quarantine, or in a way quarantined, depending on the state you are in. We're in uh, you know, and so we have to learn to do these acts of worship on our own, so what's the most practical thing, like just one thing that you take from this that just tells you what comes to me. the mind. immediately it is that hadith of the prophet muhammad hypocrisy has many flavors, there is the total hypocrite and there is the one who is committing acts of hypocrisy and we must be so cautious even when doing the smallest acts that are tangentially related to being hypocrites, so when we talk , Do we ever lie when we are entrusted with something, do we ever break that promise and if we do it again, the consequence is not that Allah is not harmed in any way by the things we do, but the consequence that?

Allah will eliminate the new from our lives and that is the most dangerous thing that could happen. I want to think about that if I tell the stupid lie when revealing the secret I was trusted with. Allah will eliminate my ability to see things. for who they really are, hearing things and benefiting from them, so that's what I think, just being cautious not to fall into any act that would possibly brand me as being associated with a hypocritical love for them, very powerful, um, I think something specifically in the context now that we're away from each other physically, that we're on social media more and that's just a deep hole that can really suck you in, it's a place where we can easily fall victim to this, you know. a lot of false information or just a lot of information that can be difficult to connect and one thing I'm very particular about is, number one, being open to criticism, accepting the fact that the way you perceive the information is the way you That You Connected the Dots may not be entirely correct, but you also have to be careful with that kind of information going around and really protect your heart and soul when you're constantly reading different things out of context and, hopefully, that's something that You know. you can relate because there's a lot of things that are very overwhelming when you see all this information and again I don't want to say oh, don't seek knowledge or you know, don't trust anything, but again, it's just a humbling reminder that you can always be wrong um and others can always be wrong too, but I asked Allah by begging him um as uh dr mentioned that Allah and grants us the ability to follow that truth um that is something we should always do our own subhan Allah which is a secret charity extinguishes the wrath of your lord, right, still falls within that same image, so uh salah is a secret charity, but I think the most important thing we can take away from this is what they are. your secret good works, right, the hypocrites have bad secrets that come to light on the day of judgment, what are the secrets of sincere believers that come to light on the day of judgment?

Do we have enough of those secrets to make our day light? of the judgment and I pray that Elizabeth makes the two of you among them for your beautiful reflections and thoughts,inshallah, so we will be next week talking about Quranic parables, but again you can look below and you will see all the programs that we have throughout the week, insha'allah, tomorrow, insha'allah, you can tune into the miracles of the quran, in the which Muhammad wrote wonderful articles about the miracles of the quran and they will be on Japanese platforms insha'allah so make sure you Tune in and we will continue to be with you every night insha'allah during the week nights throughout this month and we pray for May Elijah enable us to develop a deeper love and connection with the Quran and may Allah protect us from hypocrisy. and fill our hearts with guidance and fill our actions with uh with uh with your complete pleasure inshaallah ta'ala that we meet Elizabeth, we have that light together on the day of judgment for all of you assalamu alaikum.