Laylatul Qadr (The Night of Power)

Laylatul Qadr (The Night of Power)

Opening Supplications

In the name of Allah, the most Merciful, the most Compassionate. May Allah's peace, mercy, and blessings be upon our Master Muhammad ﷺ and upon his family and companions. There is no power nor strength except with Allah, the Most High, the Most Great.

O Allah, teach us what is beneficial to us, and benefit us with what You have taught us, and increase us in knowledge. O Allah, send down Your wisdom upon us and spread Your mercy upon us, O Lord of Majesty and Honour. O Allah, open for us the doors of knowledge and grant us the success of the righteous.

May Allah's peace, mercy, and blessings be upon our Master Muhammad ﷺ and upon his family and companions. May Allah's peace, mercy, and blessings be upon you.

Introduction: Ramadan Greetings

Alhamdulillah, for people that are online and also for people that are here, Ramadan Mubarak. Inshallah, may this month be a month of fasting and purification for all of us. Inshallah, may it be a month of solidarity where there is not. Our Ummah right now is very fragmented and there is a lot of tribulation. So, may Allah bring us together and unite our hearts. Because He is the only one really that is capable of doing that. We have certainly proven incapable.

The Revelation of the Quran on Laylatul Qadr

Alhamdulillah, I was asked to speak about Laylatul Qadr. So, I wanted to speak generally just about the month of Ramadan and specifically what Laylatul Qadr means for the month. The verse in the Quran that the word comes from, the Inzal, which is the alighting of the Quran, coming down. Nazara means to come down, like rain comes down. When a guest alights, he is called a Nazil, because they descend upon your house. So, the coming down of the Quran, according to this chapter, which is the chapter Suratul Qadr, in the last Juz of the Quran.

This coming down, according to the Quran is that (إِنَّا أَنزَلْنَاهُ - Inna Anzalnahu - Quran 97:1). The pronoun "hu" there, refers back to the Quran. And it's very unusual generally in Arabic, you don't use a pronoun unless you have a reference. So, the antecedent, what the pronoun goes back to, generally has to be actually stated. But in this verse, it's not. And the Mufassirun say the reason for that is because it's just known. In other words, it's a way of magnifying the reality of the Quran.

The Meaning of Qadr

So, (إِنَّا أَنزَلْنَاهُ فِي لَيْلَةِ الْقَدْرِ - Inna Anzalnahu Fi Laylatul Qadr - Quran 97:1). Qadr is a very, very complicated word in the Arabic language. It means different things. But one of the meanings of Qadr is rank or stature. So,

somebody who is Dhu Qadr, is somebody of stature or rank in a society. And so, a night of Qadr is a night of great stature or rank with God. This Laylatul Qadr.

And then the ulama differ about what the Qadr here means. Because the Quran in another verse where it says that it was revealed on a blessed night. And it says that every important or momentous affair is delineated on that night. In other words, that Yufraq means to, there's a Furqan. So, it's literally, it's specified what's going to happen. And so, from that, one of the meanings that's taken is that this is a night where the Aqdaar or those things that are measured out for the coming year are also put forth. And so, it's an important night from that perspective.

Divine Decree and Human Free Will

Because we believe that Allah has measured everything out. That He (قَدَّرَ كُلَّ شَيْءٍ - Qaddara kulla shay'in). And this is one of the things that we believe in the creed that we adhere to. There are six objects of faith that the Prophet ﷺ described in the sound hadith when Jibril عليه السلام asked him what faith was. And one of them was he said that you believe in the Qadr, khayrihi wa sharrihi. That you believe in the Qadr or what is measured out.

Some use the word fate which comes from our old English. The idea of what's fated for you, what's decreed for you. But the problem with that is that you get into the problem of determinism. And this is something that Muslims, we don't believe that things are determined without participating in that determination. In other words, that the human being has free will. And so this is where, this is one of the divine secrets.

And Imam At-Tahawi says it's something that you can't really penetrate. How things are determined and yet at the same time how we have free will in our own lives. How we act and we have to take responsibility for our actions. And we will be judged according to our actions. So this is a balance.

In essence, one way of looking at it is like you have Newtonian physics and you have quantum physics. And you can't apply the two at the same level. Newtonian physics doesn't apply at the quantum level. And quantum physics doesn't apply at the Newtonian level. There are different ways of looking at the same reality from different dimensions. And so the same is true for this mukhayyar musayyar problem in theology. That Allah has decreed everything and yet we earn our actions.

And so we are going to be taken into account. He is not asked about what he does but you will be asked about what you do. And so that's very important to understand that we believe in essence that Allah measures everything out. That he has given everything because qadra also means to measure. And so that he has, everything has a taqdeer.

The Power of Measurement

And we now know this, one of the secrets of this civilization and its power. And it's interesting that qadar is related to qudra which is power. And so sometimes it's translated as the night of power. Because measurement is one of the means by which people are empowered.

The ability to measure things gives incredible power to human beings. And this is why one of the things about western civilization is they are obsessed with measuring everything. They literally measure everything including the weight of all of the elements that make up the earth. And so hydrogen has an atomic weight that's been measured. And all of the elements that are on the table of elements have been measured. And so this is one of the secrets of measurement is that gives you power over things.

When you can determine things, literally give it determinations or terminus is end. So you can define it. And so Allah has power over all things. And he measures all things. Allah (يُقَدِّرُ كُلَّ شَيْءٍ - yuqaddiru kulla shay'in). He measures all things. So he knows how many breaths that you will have in your lifetime. He knows how many grains of sand there are. He knows how many atoms in the universe there are. All of those things are in the knowledge of God. And so this human ability to measure which gives us power can never in the presence of the divine ability to measure. It's just cancelled out. We're nothing. And that's where the human being becomes arrogant and forgets that.

Divine Power Over Human Arrogance

One of the things that Allah says in the Quran when he makes the likeness of this world. He says, it's like water that came down from the heavens. And it mixes with the things in the earth from what humans and what animals eat. And then Allah when he says (حَتَّى إِذَا أَخَذَتِ الْأَرْضُ زُخْرُفَهَا وَازَّيَّنَتْ - Hatta idha akhadhat al-ardu zukhrufaha wa-izzayyanat - Quran 10:24). Until the earth, when the earth takes on this ornamentation and the people on the earth think that they have all this power. (وَظَنَّ أَهْلُهَا أَنَّهُمْ قَادِرُونَ عَلَيْهَا - Wa dhanna ahluha annahum qadiruna alayha - Quran 10:24). So Allah uses that verse.

The earth takes its ornament and becomes adorned with all this light and electricity. And cities now look so amazing if you go in high places and look at them. So it's decked out and it's adorned like the heavens. Now the earth, if you see pictures of the earth from the satellite, it looks like the heavens used to look with all the stars. Now the stars are put out. But you see all this ornamentation.

But it says, (وَظَنَّ أَهْلُهَا أَنَّهُمْ قَادِرُونَ عَلَيْهَا - Wa dhanna ahluha annahum qadiruna alayha - Quran 10:24). They think that they have power over the earth. And then at that point Allah says our command comes. And then Allah says that he leaves it as if it had nothing to give forth at all. (جَعَلْنَاهَا حَصِيدًا - Ja'alnaha haseedan - Quran 10:24). We make it as if there was nothing there. (كَأَن لَّمْ تَغْنَ بِالْأَمْسِ - Ka'an lam taghna bil-amsi - Quran 10:24). As if it did not give any foliage the day before.

The Measurement of Laylatul Qadr

So this Qudra that comes from this measuring that Allah measures all things. And Laylatul Qadr is a night of measuring. And that's why one of the things that is measured out is the night itself is equivalent to the measurement of 83 years and 4 months. So even the night is measured out with (أَلْفِ شَهْرٍ - Alfi shahr - Quran 97:3). And that's something about Allah's Qudra because he's displaying his Qudra in the actual night of power.

He's showing you that I can make a night that in its measurement of reward of what you do in it is equal to a thousand months. And so that's one of the extraordinary gifts that this ummah was given.

The Blessing of Compressed Time

Because the previous ummah according to the Prophet ﷺ, the previous civilizations, the pious of the past, they had longer times than we did. And there was more Baraka in their time. Because as we know, we used to have tapes, people had tape cassettes. They don't have those anymore. But one of the things about tape cassettes is when you rewind them and it gets towards the end, it starts speeding up. And so one of the things about time is that towards the latter days, they speed up. And so things go much faster. So people now are experiencing time. Even young children are talking about how quick time passes. Whereas children traditionally, they don't have that experience. Time is very stretched out. So Allah can stretch out time. And He can contract time. And so on this night, He gives us the reward of a thousand nights.

And this is a way that over a lifetime, you can actually, because most people will fast, maybe, I mean if a person lives, they start fasting at 12. And Imam Malik, رضي الله عنه just to mention this on a side. A lot of people forced their children to fast, which Imam Malik considered it child abuse. He actually said it was Ta'dhib for children.

And even though the Shafi'i Madhhab and other schools encourage fasting, we have to remember that in the middle parts of the Ummah, where most Muslims reside, they're very reasonable hours. But when you get into places that are further north, you get into places where you're looking at very long fasts. And children actually need glucose. They need, their brains are developing. And so to deprive them of that, that's a little aside. That Imam Malik considered it that children should not be made to fast.

The Purpose of Childhood Religious Training

Because the purpose of having them pray early was because they had to become accustomed to praying every day for the rest of their lives. Whereas with the fasting, all of us have to get used to the fast every year. So when you come Ramadan, all of us have to get the first three or four days we all suffer the same way. Because we're not accustomed to fasting. Unless people fast during the year.

The Descent of the Quran

And so in this chapter, Allah says that he sent down the Quran. And according to the tradition, it came down from the Lawh al-Mahfuz in one event. And so Jibreel عليه السلام brought it down. And then from that, from the Sama' ad-Dunya then, over a 23-year period, it's given to the Prophet ﷺ piecemeal. So it was not given one event. But it was also the beginning of the revelation according to the tradition is also on Laylatul Qadr. So the actual beginning of the first revelation that the Prophet ﷺ gets is also on the Laylatul Qadr.

When is Laylatul Qadr?

Now just an aside, a lot of people believe that it's on the 27th. And there's definitely a lot of evidence for that.

But the fact that the Prophet ﷺ did not delineate it. That he left it. And he left it in the last 10 nights. And particularly in the odd nights. To give the Ummah more incentive to use these last 10 nights for the best of their ability. To gain the immense reward. But some, one of the Andalusian scholars actually said that you should look for Laylatul Qadr every night of the year. That was his view. And that's just expecting something from Allah. Because Allah has many things concealed. And one of them is great reward in actions. So this night is a blessed night. And tonight's the 27th night. It's also right now in the Haram. It's the 27th night for them also. Which is very rare for us. Where we have the same night with the people in Arabia. In Mecca and Medina. So that's a great blessing.

The Quran: Our Guide and Salvation

So now what I want to do before I think I'm supposed to open this up for questions and answers. But what I wanted to do was. I wanted to quickly. One of the most important things of Ramadan is going back to the Quran. And Allah. When he mentions (شَهْرُ رَمَضَانَ - Shahru Ramadan - Quran 2:185). He says (هُدًى لِّلنَّاسِ وَبَيِّنَاتٍ مِّنَ الْهُدَى وَالْفُرْقَانِ - Hudan li-n-nasi wa bayyinatin min al-huda wa-l-furqan - Quran 2:185). So it's a guidance for people. It's a clarification of that guidance. And it's also a discriminatory. Allah is giving you something that enables you to discriminate. Between right and wrong. Between good and evil. Between what's pious and virtuous and what's not.

The Ummah's Abandonment of the Quran

And so the Quran is this great gift that's been given to the Ummah. And one of the things that all of the tribulations of this Ummah have come from abandoning the Quran. All of our tribulations. Including abandoning the Sunnah. Because the Quran is where we're told to follow the Sunnah. But all of it comes from the Quran. And the Prophet ﷺ made a complaint to his Lord in the Quran (وَقَالَ الرَّسُولُ يَا رَبِّ إِنَّ قَوْمِي اتَّخَذُوا هَذَا الْقُرْآنَ مَهْجُورًا - Wa qala ar-Rasulu ya Rabbi inna qawmi ittakhadhu hadha al-Qur'ana mahjuran - Quran 25:30). That my people have taken this Quran. They've abandoned it. And so the Prophet ﷺ himself complained about the fact that the Quran was abandoned.

The Need for Deep Study of the Quran

And our Ummah. One of the things about our Ummah is that people. A lot of people read the Quran. But very few people actually study the Quran. Very few people. And one of the things that you'll find about, for instance Christians. Especially Evangelicals. Evangelicals tend to really know their Bible. Because they take it very seriously. And they study it. And they actually. If you ask an average Evangelical. What's the book of Genesis about? I guarantee you. They'll be able to give you a pretty good summary of the book of Genesis. But if you ask a Muslim. What's Baqarah about? Just like ask them. What is Surat Al-Baqarah about? What are the themes of Baqarah?

Reflecting Deeply on the Quran

Because the Quran demands a type of.

Don't they reflect on this Quran deeply? Tadabbur is to take something to its end. To penetrate. And go to the end. And the Quran can never be penetrated. But here it means to delve deeply into the Quran. To really try to understand it. And so, this is one of the things that is very important for the Ummah. Is to restore this relationship with the Quran.

Collective Study of the Quran

That no group of Muslims gathers in a house of the houses of Allah to recite the Quran. But then it says (يَتَدَارَسُونَهُ - yatadarasunahu) baynahum. And (يَتَدَارَسُونَهُ - yatadarasunahu) is where they study it together. And one of the things I think you should always. It's good to have somebody who's more knowledgeable than other people in a situation. And that's why you need scholars. But at the same time, we have to get out of this utter dependence on the scholar. We ourselves have to be actively engaged in learning. And if we don't do that, it becomes a very passive experience. So that people never really actively move to understand the book of Allah. And the Quran demands that people reflect on it. It tells us to reflect on the Quran. And think about it. And study it. And study its ayahs. So that's very important.

Ibn Juzayy's Framework for Understanding the Quran

One of the great Mufassirun of our tradition, Ibn Juzayy al-Kalbi, he actually gave a beautiful summation of the Quran. And he said that the Quran. If you want to know, like if you ask somebody. What is the purpose of the Quran? Like what could we reply. People will come up with different things. But he actually gave a beautiful definition of the Quran. He said that it was (دَعْوَةُ الْخَلْقِ إِلَى عِبَادَةِ الْخَالِقِ وَالدُّخُولِ فِي دِينِهِ - Da'wat al-khalqi ila 'ibadati al-khaliqi wa-d-dukhuli fi dinihi). And so it's calling creation to worship the creator. Meaning humans and jinn. To worship the creator. And to enter into his deen. So he says that.

But that itself. That purpose. Then demands two things. The first is (مَا تِلْكَ الْعِبَادَةُ - Ma tilka al-'ibadah). What is that 'Ibadah. Like what are we being called to. And then (مَا هِيَ الْحَوَافِزُ - Mahiya al-hawafiz). What are the incentives for entering into that Deen. And he says that also is further divided.

He says that the 'Ibadah is (إِعْتِقَادٌ وَأَحْكَامٌ - I'tiqadun wa ahkamun). It's your understanding and it's your practice. So there, like all things, we have theory and practice. So it's your understanding. It's changing your understanding about the world. About God. This is the metaphysical component in the Quran.

Basic and Advanced Understanding of Tawheed

Which has really. I mean, there's a basic Islam that you need to understand. That it's enough of a person. If they just come into Islam. And we have a Sahabi that did this. Who came into Islam. Went into battle. And he died. And so it was enough for him to know the most basic thing about Allah. That there's no God but Allah. (لَا إِلَهَ إِلَّا اللهُ - La ilaha illa Allah). Right. There's no God but Allah.

And at the most fundamental level, Surah Ikhlas. Which is one of the extraordinary gifts of this Ummah. Is Surah Ikhlas. Because it takes a very common person. If they have an understanding of that one Surah, they really have a theologian's understanding of their Lord. Because those eight things that it negates. And it's called the via negativa in the west. Which is, it's a, like negative theology.

The Eight Negations in Surah Ikhlas

Because Allah, he says it negates that he's more than one. It negates that he has any need of anything. And then it negates causation. That Allah is neither caused nor is he adapted a direct cause of something. Like a cause and effect relationship to creation. So he doesn't have that relationship of a type of cause and effect. Even though we say that he's the cause of the world. But it's not in a cause and effect relationship. And this is, gets people out of the problem of the eternity of the universe. Because the cause is always related to the effect. And then it negates any likeness to God. Any Nadir of Allah. And so that's one thing.

Understanding Allah Through His Names and Actions

But what he's saying is that when you go deeper into that to understand Allah. Allah also reveals His self through the names. And through His actions. And through, like plague is a good example. The Prophet ﷺ was asked about. Aisha asked him what is a plague. When a plague comes on. He said it's a punishment from God. And so anything that comes into the world that is foul, it came from the sins of human beings. So a lot of the diseases that we have, that these come originally from sins of human beings. But then we all suffer from the sins of some. And that's why Allah says (وَاتَّقُوا فِتْنَةً لَّا تُصِيبَنَّ الَّذِينَ ظَلَمُوا مِنكُمْ خَاصَّةً - Wa-ttaqu fitnatan la tusibanna al-ladhina dhalamu minkum khassah) - Quran 8:25). Fear. Guard yourselves. Guard yourselves against tribulations. That don't just affect the guilty amongst you. They affect everybody.

And the Prophet Muhammad ﷺ says, for instance, that sexual perversions won't manifest into people except they will be afflicted by diseases that their ancestors didn't know about. And so this puts an onus on people to speak out against these things. Because if you don't speak out against them, they proliferate. And they affect everybody. So somebody gets a disease through a blood transfusion. And they're an innocent person. But they're affected by the source of the disease. Where it came from. Which is sinfulness.

Understanding the Metaphysical Laws of the Universe

This is a metaphysical understanding of these things. And it's difficult for people. Because a lot of these things

are deeply troubling. And they force people to look at themselves instead of looking outside of themselves for the source of the problems. And Ibn Qayyim al-Jawziyyah wrote a beautiful book about this. Just showing how all of the problems in the world come from sinfulness of human beings. And obviously, you can't, if you see anybody afflicted, you can't judge them. And you can't, that's another thing. Individual what happens to individuals. Because like I said, innocent people are afflicted by these things as well. So you withhold your judgment. Because we're not judges. But we're meant to understand these things at a deep level.

So that's one of the things that the Quran teaches. Is it teaches the nature of the universe that we're in. And how it works. And what are the, just as you have physical laws, you have laws of cause and effect. You know, if I hit that, I get a sound. Because, and that can all be explained in physical law. Well there's also metaphysical laws of cause and effect. And those are difficult to understand. They take a while. But they're embedded in the Quran. They're brought out from the Quran. Many of our scholars have brought them out. But they're brought out from the Quran through study. And through understanding of these ayahs.

And what's beautiful is that it's consistent. It's not inconsistent. And that's where Allah negates the idea that they're going to contradict each other. And apparent contradictions in the Quran have all been resolved by our scholars.

The Seven Core Themes of the Quran

And so, so he says that all of the meanings of Quran go back to these. One of them is what is that worship that we're being called to. And then the other is what are the incentives to enter into that religion. And then, so he says, what we're being called to in terms of worship is 'aqidah and ahkam. Is what we believe about our Lord. About his acts. His attributes. The world he's created. About the messengers. About our judgment. About the last day. All those things. And then also those legal rulings that we're bound to follow from this religion. The fact that we have to pray. The fact that we have to fast. Pay zakat. Do these things.

But then he gives the incentives for that. And the incentives are two. One is what's called targhib. And the other is tarhib. So targhib is basically what we would call the carrot. You know, that Allah is saying if you do this, you get a reward. Or whoever does this gets this. And the other is the stick. Which is that if you do this, this will happen. If you don't do this, this will happen. It's a warning. So this is called wa'd and wa'id. The promise and the threat.

The Highest Level of Worship

And this is the way most people are motivated. Imam al-Ghazali and others has said at the highest level, the Muslims rise above this. What are called the Ahrar. The people that worship Allah like Suhayb Ibn Sinan al-Rumi. Who, who, who, it was said of him, whether there was a Jannah or a Fire or a paradise, he still wouldn't have disobeyed Allah. And so that's the highest level of people that worship Allah. Because he's worthy of that worship.

But then he says that if you go into detail, that you will find that all of the Quranic meanings go back to seven meanings. All of them go back to seven. And the first one (عِلْمُ الرُّبُوبِيَّةِ - 'Ilm ar-Rububiyyah). Which is knowledge of our Lord. The second is the (النُّبُوَّةُ - An-Nubuwwah). Which is knowledge of prophets and the messengers who've been sent. And the third is the (الْمَعَادُ - Al-Ma'ad). Like eschatology. What happens after we die. And then also the wa'd and the wa'id. The threats and the promises. And the threats for disobeying Allah. And then the ahkam. Which are the rules that Allah has given us. And the qasas. Which are the stories that Allah has told.

The Story of Pharaoh and Moses

And much of the Quran are stories of the previous people. The most repeated story in the Quran is Pharaoh and Moses. Because this is the most repeated human phenomenon. Is the relationship between the oppressor and the oppressed. So that's a metaphysical reality. That the world is by its very nature, you have these, these problems. These human problems. You have people that oppress other people. That they (يَعْلُو - Yalu). They, you know, Pharaoh exalted himself in the earth. And so they exalt themselves over other people. Whether it's through ethnicities. One people thinking they're superior to another people. Or gender. Where you have men that oppress women. Because generally men have more physical strength. And so they very often can have that advantage over women. And so they get into relationships where the woman is oppressed. And there are examples of that in the Quran. Like Asiya, the wife of Pharaoh, is a good example. Where she begged Allah to save her from Pharaoh. And then also wealth. So you have class. And Shaitan will use these as ways of dividing people also.

And so the story of Pharaoh and Musa has all of these things. Because it's got, it's, first of all, they kill the men and they keep the women. So there's, there's the sexual slavery. And then the ethnicity. You have the Coptics. I mean, they wouldn't call it traditionally in the Tafsirs. They called them Coptic. But you have the Egyptians. And then you have the Israelites. And so they see them as less than them. So there you have the ethnicity. And then you have the wealth. They're poor. And Pharaoh is rich. So right there in there you have that.

And Allah uses the example of (إِنَّ فِرْعَوْنَ وَهَامَانَ وَجُنُودَهُمَا - Inna Fir'awna wa Hamana wa junudahuma) - Quran 28:8). He gives the Pharaoh, in Pharaoh and his. So there you've got also the military industrial complex. It's all there. Because Pharaoh is, you know, he's the government. And then you've got Haman. Right. Like he's, he's the, you know, the intelligence and the brains behind. And then you've got the Junud. The military. So you've got, you've got, you've got the builder. Like he's the one, Haman's the builder. He's the one that is making all the things. And then you've got the military that's supporting them. So it's all there.

The Timeless Choice: Moses or Pharaoh

That story is a very important story in the Quran. Because it's this is the reality of life on earth. And and it's been going on for a very, very long time. And so Moses. Moses. You're either Mosaic or your Pharaonic. It's one or the other that's the choice and if you just say I don't want to be either well, you've joined Pharaoh because there's no, you know silence is complicity, you know, you're complicit by just being silent. But it's one or the other but then it's how do you behave in that situation and that story has amazing insights into because you've

got you know, the Israelite that's fighting with the Egyptian and then Moses sees him and he defends the oppressed but then the next day he sees him doing the same thing he realizes this isn't the way to respond to the oppressor, you know that this is not so there's a lot in there to digest but that the qasas are very important in the Quran.

The Seven Themes in Surat Al-Fatiha

And then you have, so if you look all of these are in Surat al-Fatiha. All seven meanings. And the seven, the Fatiha is seven verses according to Imam Malik and with all respect to the Shafi'i opinion and I'm not saying this because I'm Maliki but the Maliki position is very strong because the hadith in Sahih al-Bukhari says that (قَسَمْتُ الْفَاتِحَةَ بَيْنِي وَبَيْنَ عَبْدِي فَإِذَا قَالَ الْحَمْدُ لِلَّهِ رَبِّ الْعَالَمِينَ - Qasamtu al-Fatihah bayni wa bayna 'abdi fa idha qala Alhamdulillahi Rabbil 'alamin)

So in the sahih hadith, Allah begins the hadith Qudsi that begins the Fatiha with (الْحَمْدُ لِلَّهِ رَبِّ الْعَالَمِينَ - Alhamdulillahi Rabbil 'alamin). And so Malik divided (اهْدِنَا الصِّرَاطَ الْمُسْتَقِيمَ صِرَاطَ الَّذِينَ أَنْعَمْتَ عَلَيْهِمْ - Ihdina as-sirata al-mustaqim sirata al-ladhina an'amta 'alayhim). And then he makes that there's a ayah. So in Warsh, the first ayah is (الْحَمْدُ لِلَّهِ رَبِّ الْعَالَمِينَ - Alhamdulillahi Rabbil 'alamin), and then he splits the last ayah in the in the recension of Hafs 'an 'Asim, which is what most people read. So you'll see (بِسْمِ اللهِ الرَّحْمَنِ الرَّحِيمِ - Bismillah ar-Rahman ar-Rahim) number one and then (الْحَمْدُ لِلَّهِ رَبِّ الْعَالَمِينَ - Alhamdulillahi Rabbil 'alamin).

So (الْحَمْدُ لِلَّهِ رَبِّ الْعَالَمِينَ - Alhamdulillahi Rabbil 'alamin), the Rububiyyah is (الْحَمْدُ لِلَّهِ رَبِّ الْعَالَمِينَ - Alhamdulillahi Rabbil 'alamin). That's Rububiyyah الرَّحْمَنِ الرَّحِيمِ Ar-Rahman ar-Rahim - Quran 1:3( مَالِكِ يَوْمِ الدِّينِ - Maliki Yawm ad-Din - Quran 1:4) is the Ma'ad. It's eschatology. (إِيَّاكَ نَعْبُدُ وَإِيَّاكَ نَسْتَعِينُ - Iyyaka na'budu wa iyyaka nasta'in Quran 1:5). There's the ahkam of the 'Ibadah. And (إِيَّاكَ نَعْبُدُ وَإِيَّاكَ نَسْتَعِينُ - Iyyaka na'budu wa iyyaka nasta'in( اهْدِنَا الصِّرَاطَ الْمُسْتَقِيمَ - Ihdina as-sirata al-mustaqim - Quran 1:6). And again the the the prophets. (اهْدِنَا الصِّرَاطَ الْمُسْتَقِيمَ صِرَاطَ الَّذِينَ أَنْعَمْتَ عَلَيْهِم مِّنَ النَّبِيِّينَ - Ihdina as-sirata al-mustaqim sirata al-ladhina an'amta 'alayhim min an-nabiyyin(. So the Nabiyyin, as-Siddiqin but the Nabiyyin, that's the Nubuwwah. So you have Rububiyyah, Nubuwwah, and then you have the Ma'ad and then you have the wa'd and the wa'id that (صِرَاطَ الَّذِينَ أَنْعَمْتَ عَلَيْهِمْ - Sirata al-ladhina an'amta 'alayhim - Quran 1:7). So the path of those you are blessed. (غَيْرِ الْمَغْضُوبِ عَلَيْهِمْ - Ghayri al-maghdubi 'alayhim - Quran 1:7), the wa'id and then also that relates to the previous people so the qasas are in there so all of those meanings are embedded in Surat al-Fatiha.

The Structure of Surat Al-Fatiha

And then if you look also, as Fatiha has a very interesting structure because if you look at it as the first ayah (الْحَمْدُ لِلَّهِ رَبِّ الْعَالَمِينَ الرَّحْمَنِ الرَّحِيمِ - Alhamdulillahi Rabbil 'alamin ar-Rahman ar-Rahim). So the first half because Allah says that the surah is divided into two. The first is for him so (الْحَمْدُ لِلَّهِ رَبِّ الْعَالَمِينَ الرَّحْمَنِ الرَّحِيمِ مَالِكِ يَوْمِ الدِّينِ - Alhamdulillahi Rabbil 'alamin ar-Rahman ar-Rahim Maliki Yawm ad-Din). So there's the first three and that's all for God and then there's a middle, there's a bridge which is (إِيَّاكَ نَعْبُدُ - Iyyaka nabudu). So the 'Ibadah goes to

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those first three. (وَإِيَّاكَ نَسْتَعِينُ - Wa iyyaka nasta'in) and then the isti'ana is to the next three. So the 'Ibadah is (الْحَمْدُ لِلَّهِ رَبِّ الْعَالَمِينَ الرَّحْمَٰنِ الرَّحِيمِ مَالِكِ يَوْمِ الدِّينِ - Alhamdulillahi Rabbil 'alamin ar-Rahman ar-Rahim Maliki Yawm ad-Din) that's who we're worshipping and then (إِيَّاكَ نَعْبُدُ وَإِيَّاكَ نَسْتَعِينُ - Iyyaka nabudu wa iyyaka nasta'in - Quran 1:5).

(اهْدِنَا الصِّرَاطَ الْمُسْتَقِيمَ - Ihdina as-sirata al-mustaqim - Quran 1:6). Guide us on this straight path. (صِرَاطَ الَّذِينَ أَنْعَمْتَ عَلَيْهِمْ غَيْرِ الْمَغْضُوبِ عَلَيْهِمْ وَلَا الضَّالِّينَ - Sirata al-ladhina an'amta 'alayhim ghayri al-maghdubi 'alayhim wa la ad-dallin Quran 1:7) so the next it's all isti'ana so the 'Ibadah is in the first three and then the isti'ana is in the last three and that middle is the 'Ibadah and the isti'ana. So (إِيَّاكَ نَعْبُدُ وَإِيَّاكَ نَسْتَعِينُ - Iyyaka na'budu wa iyyaka nasta'in - Quran 1:5). So it's an extraordinary surah and Imam Ali said that he could fill 70 camel loads with just tafsir of al- Fatiha so it really has an extraordinary and if you just look at, I have an entire book just on the (بِسْمِ اللَّهِ الرَّحْمَٰنِ الرَّحِيمِ - Bismillah ar-Rahman ar-Rahim) just on that the opening of the Quran because it begins with (بِسْمِ اللَّهِ الرَّحْمَٰنِ الرَّحِيمِ - Bismillah ar-Rahman ar-Rahim).

So that's that's just a quick summary from Ibn Juzayy al-Kalbi of the Quran.

The Hadith About Tribulations and the Quran

This is a time to return to the Quran. I'll just finish. There's a hadith Imam Tirmidhi and others relate it. The Prophet ﷺ said he said that towards the end of time he said that there would be (بَيْنَ يَدَيِ السَّاعَةِ فِتَنَّ كَقِطَعِ اللَّيْلِ الْمُظْلِمِ - Bayna yaday as-sa'ati fitanun ka qita' al-layl al-mudhlim - Sunan at-Tirmidhi 2191). Fitan is another one of these comprehensive words in Arabic, it's difficult to translate but sometimes it means persecution, sometimes it means civil strife, it can mean rebellion and revolution, sedition, what's called sedition, it can also mean just a tribulation, it can mean an enticement like a beautiful woman traditionally is an Arabic name for ladies in Arabia, they call them Fatina so a very attractive woman so fitna is also attraction, it's something you're attracted to and people are attracted to fitna very often but he said that there will be (فِتَنَّ كَقِطَعِ اللَّيْلِ الْمُظْلِمِ - fitanun ka qita' al-layl al-mudhlim) there will be like portions of a dark black night, just one after another just getting darker and darker and Imam Ali when he heard that he said what's the way out? What's the way out? And he said (كِتَابُ اللَّهِ - Kitab Allah), the book of Allah.

And then he said in it is news of what went before you and also of what comes after you, so it tells you what happened in the past but it also tells you what's going to happen in the future and that's the amazing thing, even though we're here for a very short time, you know people watch a film and even though it's a terrible film they'll keep watching it because they're caught up in it, they want to see what happens at the end, this is a part of human beings they only want to know the end of a story and one of the beauties is even though we have very short lives in relation to the overall life on earth like we're here maybe 60, 70 years maximum I mean some people, but most people the Prophet said (أَعْمَارُ أُمَّتِي مَا بَيْنَ السِّتِّينَ وَالسَّبْعِينَ - A'maru ummati ma bayn as-sittin wa as-sab'in - Sunan at-Tirmidhi 3550) which is a mercy because that's the last decade where people are healthy so that's part of his rahma, people die before they get really sick.

And so but you wonder what's going to happen on earth because you're not going to be here to see the end of the story, well that's part of the reason why Allah tells us, he gives us the whole story, so we know, we don't have to worry about not seeing the end of the film, Allah's already told us what's going to happen and the atheists win, the world that they envision this wonderful world without religion will be a very horrible world, the world was bad enough with religion it's going to be much worse without religion, it's a human problem but it's religion, it's why these nuns take care of people with Alzheimer's, it's why a lot of people will take care of people because they expect a reward from God, I mean there's people that have basic humanity, that's true I'm not going to deny that, there are secularist people that don't believe in God that do have really basic humanity but that's not the norm amongst people without religion and it's been proven in social sciences that people without religion give less charity, they're less likely to volunteer, I mean these are realities of the world.

And so the atheists win because the Prophet said the end of time won't come until nobody's left that says Allah on the earth so we know that they win but they don't win in the next world and that's where things are very different, distinguish yourselves, criminals, everything gets separate.

The Quran: A Decisive Word and Clear Light

And so that's so he said that it'll tell you what comes after and then he says it's a decisive word and it's not frivolous in any way, if you leave it out of arrogance, Allah will break your back and if you seek guidance in other than that you will be, you will go astray, it's the rope of God and it's his clear light, the light has come, it's a clear light from Allah and it's the straight path, the Quran, your appetites will not deviate with this book, if you follow this book your appetites won't deviate because the Prophet said none of you truly believes until his hawa, his desire is in accordance with the Quran and so if you follow the Quran your desire won't deviate and when you speak your words will not be confusing, they'll be clear and opinions will not be, they won't be contradictory and diverse if you follow the book of Allah.

And then he said the scholars never get tired of studying it and the devotees, the worshippers they never weary of it so they can recite it and they really will enjoy reciting it and it's wonders will never cease, there will always be things coming out of the Quran that are extraordinary, people will continue to discover things in the Quran and it's the book that the jinn when they heard it, they said surely we've heard a wondrous book, if you speak, if you quote the Quran it's truthful what you're saying and if you judge by it you will be just and if you act according to it you will be given a reward and to call to it is a means of being guided to the straight path, it will be a protection for anyone that holds to it and it will be a salvation for whoever follows it so I'll end there inshallah.

Questions and Answers Session

And are there, so now do I take questions? Ramadan Mubarak everyone. We have viewers watching and sending greetings from across the United States, Canada, Pakistan, Ghana, Morocco, South Africa, Mexico, the

United Kingdom, Germany, the Netherlands, Jakarta and elsewhere mashallah. The first, salam alaikum, salamat datang.

Question 1: Understanding Qadr and Free Will

So we have a few questions actually regarding the concept of free will in Islam. Memuna asks, I am very confused about the entire concept of Qadr and human responsibility and choice after reading this verse from Surah 76, Surah Dahr regarding following the path of guidance (وَمَا تَشَاءُونَ إِلَّا أَن يَشَاءَ اللَّهُ - Wama tasha'una illa an yasha' Allah - Quran 76:30). And you cannot will it unless we will, if we cannot even will to seek guidance from God but God is the one who wills it for us to even want guidance then how are we responsible for misguidance, is it just God playing all the moves on the chess board, please explain.

Well again I mentioned earlier, Imam Tahawi clearly states that this is one of the impenetrable aspects of our theology and every, all the Abrahamic religions grapple with this issue, the evidence for determinism is extremely high, many mathematicians who are not believers are deterministic like they really believe that the world is completely determined and that when you look at all the variables whatever happens could not have and nothing else could have happened when you take in all the variables and so there's that aspect that's very real about life that things happen like those kids had they not gone to IHOP and the Prophet said to say "law" if it'll open the door of shaitan because shaitan wants you to grieve but I'm using this as an example, had those kids had the food inside the masjid you could think of a million things that could have been different but when you actually look at the situation everything came together to create this horrific perfect storm like that person was just right there at that time when those kids were there and may Allah give them ease and facilitation, Nabra and her family may Allah give her paradise she was at the masjid and doing night prayers but this is one of the things that makes it very difficult for people to understand.

Now that man who did that we believe he was a moral agent, he was a moral agent and so he's responsible for his actions and that he killed her and that he did it but God allows, the free will bargain is that God allows these things to happen, now one of the things about God is he can bring good out of evil and so things do happen and it's very difficult for us to accept it but there's two views of the world and in fact Fakhruddin Ar-Razi has an incredible taxonomy of people and he begins that all the world can be divided into two, skeptics and then people that believe that the fire burns that there's axiomatic truths in the world like something cannot be and not be at the same time so he divides the world immediately into those two and then he divides, so there's the skeptics over there they're just saying we don't know, you can never know, nobody can ever know, then there's the other group and he says that's the majority of people that actually believe that the world has knowledge that there's knowledge in the world, that we can know things.

And from those people there are people that believe in deductive truths that you can not just empirical inductive truths like empirical, like fire burns but also that you can, you can actually realize things from universals and you can argue from universals and then he says and that group is the majority and then he says from those you're further divided into people that believe the world was created and then the people believe the world was

always here and he says the majority think it was created and then he says from those that's further divided into two, those who think that the world was created, that it created itself, remember this is I mean this is like we're looking at he died, he died in 1206 I think so we're looking at a 13th century scholar that nothing's changed so we have the same people on the planet, this idea that atheists they're new or new atheism, the new atheists are actually far less sophisticated than the old atheists which is a general sign of the overall deterioration of everything on this planet you know so the atheists of the past were actually much more rigorous in their arguing and their reasoning they were more anyway.

So then he says for those who believe the world was created they're further divided into two, those who believe that there are, that there are only sages and there's no messengers and he calls those the eastern religions like Buddhism and Hinduism and then he says and then

Closing Du'a

So alhamdulillah, may Allah forgive me if I said anything incorrect. May Allah. (اللَّهُمَّ لَا نُحْصِي ثَنَاءً عَلَيْكَ أَنْتَ كَمَا أَثْنَيْتَ عَلَى نَفْسِكَ - Allahumma la nuhsi thana'an 'alayka anta kama athnayta 'ala nafsika). (اللَّهُمَّ صَلِّ وَسَلَّمْ عَلَى سَيِّدِنَا وَحَبِيبِنَا مُحَمَّدٍ وَعَلَى آلِهِ وَصَحْبِهِ وَسَلَّمْ - Allahumma salli wa sallim 'ala sayyidina wa habibina Muhammadin wa 'ala alihi wa sahbihi wa sallim). (اللَّهُمَّ اجْعَلِ الْقُرْآنَ الْعَظِيمَ رَبِيعَ قُلُوبِنَا وَجَلَاءَ هُمُومِنَا - Allahumma ij'al al-Qur'an al-'azim rabi'a qulubina wa jala'a humumina). (اللَّهُمَّ اجْعَلْ هَذَا الْكِتَابَ حُجَّةً لَنَا لَا عَلَيْنَا - Allahumma ij'al hadha al-kitab hujjatan lana la 'alayna). (اللَّهُمَّ رُدَّنَا إِلَىٰ كِتَابِكَ رَدًّا جَمِيلًا - Allahumma ruddana ila kitabika raddan jamilan) (اللَّهُمَّ عَلِّمْنَا مَا لَا نَفْقَهُهُ وَذَكِّرْنَا مَا نَسِينَا مِن كِتَابِكَ يَا رَحْمُنُ رَحِيمُ - Allahumma 'alimna ma la nafqahuhu wa dhakkirna ma naseena min kitabika ya Rahman Rahim). (اللَّهُمَّ اجْعَلْنَا مِنَ الَّذِينَ يُبْعَثُونَ مِنَ الْحُفَّاظِ يَا رَحْمَنُ رَحِيمُ بِاجْتِهَادِنَا - Allahumma ij'alna min al-ladhina yub'athuna min al-huffaz ya Rahman Rahim bi ijtihadina). (اللَّهُمَّ اجْعَلْنَا مُتَشَبِّثِينَ فِي كِتَابِكَ - Allahumma ij'alna mutashabithin fi kitabika). (اللَّهُمَّ وَحَدِ الْأُمَّةَ بِكِتَابِكَ يَا اللَّهُ - Allahumma wahhid al-ummah bi kitabika ya Allah). (اللَّهُمَّ اجْعَلْ هَذَا الْحَبْلَ مَمْدُودًا لِأُمَّتِكَ - Allahumma ij'al hadha al-habl mamduddan li ummatika). (اللَّهُمَّ اجْعَلْنَا نَعْتَصِمُ بِحَبْلِكَ يَا أَرْحَمَ الرَّاحِمِينَ - Allahumma ij'alna na'tasimu bi hablika ya Arham ar-Rahimin). (اللَّهُمَّ تَقَبَّلْ مِنَّا صِيَامَنَا وَقِيَامَنَا وَاعْفُ لَنَا تَقْصِيرَنَا يَا اللَّهُ - Allahumma taqabbal minna siyamana wa qiyamana wa u'fu lana taqsiirana ya Allah). (وَصَلَّى اللَّهُ عَلَى سَيِّدِنَا مُحَمَّدٍ وَعَلَى آلِهِ وَصَحْبِهِ وَسَلَّمْ تَسْلِيمًا كَثِيرًا - Wa sallallahu 'ala sayyidina Muhammadin wa 'ala alihi wa sahbihi wa sallim tasliman kathiran).

Final Blessing

I'll say one thing and I probably shouldn't say it but Imam Malik رضي الله عنه said (مَنْ صَلَّى الْعِشَاءَ فِي جَمَاعَةٍ فَلَهُ حَظٍّهُ مِن لَيْلَةِ الْقَدْرِ - Man salla al-'isha' fi jama'atin falahu hazzuhu min laylat al-qadr), that if you just pray 'Isha on Laylatul Qadr you get your portion like and you can take that different ways but that's how great the night is that just praying the 'Isha in jama'ah is is a big blessing from Allah inshallah.

(وَفَّقَنَا اللَّهُ وَإِيَّاكُمْ - Waffaqanallahu wa iyyakum). (السَّلَامُ عَلَيْكُمْ وَرَحْمَةُ اللَّهِ وَبَرَكَاتُهُ - Assalamu alaykum wa rahmatullahi wa barakatuhu).