What Does Denial Really Look Like in Surah Ar-Rahman

Understanding Creation Through Divine Perspective

Last time in this Surah Ar-Rahman series He made the earth accessible and made it for all kinds of creatures. You know who has a much better understanding of all kinds of creatures, even better than like the nature documentaries we make? The jinns have way better perspective, first-hand perspective on all of the species here. Plus on top of that, they have access to beyond this earth because they travel around, right? So they have, from what Allah tells us, they have more access and more view of the universe than we do.

And they have more view of the planet than we do. They have more understanding of the planet than we do. In fact, it also seems like they are multilingual too.

This is something now we're going to dig a little more into what this then means. And finally, we're going to come to why it says رَبِّكُمَا, both of you, like humans and jinn. Why? Because Allah didn't mention humans and jinn yet. So why use both of you? But we'll get to that question next.

What Forms Does Takdheeb Take?

So what forms does takdheeb take? What I mean by that is, what are the things that people are undermining? What are the things in this surah, when Allah asks this question, what are the things that he's mentioned that people are neglecting, ignoring, undermining, dismissing?

Denial of the Quran's Divine Origin

The first of them is الرَّحْمَٰنُ عَلَّمَ الْقُرْآنَ, the fact that Quran is from Allah. Nah, he's just making up some stuff. It's just new brand of poetry. That's all it is.

Or the academic in a university will say, this is an interesting Arabian phenomenon that emerged in the 7th century. Then they'll try to diagnose the Prophet ﷺ or how the Quran was probably developed over time and went through several iterations. Big words for stupid ideas. That's what they'll do.

Then there'll be others who'll say, oh, yeah, you guys believe in the Quran? Why? It's so harsh. It's so barbaric. The God of the Quran is so cruel. The minister might come to you, the preacher might come to you. Our God is love. Your God, Allah, He's just a destroyer. I mean, look at what happens in the Quran. Have you heard what happens in the Quran? Jahannam.

There's a denial of the Quran being what? Rahma. In the Quran, in the beginning, Allah said, And somebody said, oh, let me collect all the ayahs of hell and show you how the Quran is not Rahma. Right? I can prove it to you. I'll make a YouTube video about how the Quran is not Rahma. Great job. You have just undermined all of Islam single-handedly. Excellent.

Denial of Divine Creation

Now what are we going to do? God having created the human being. Well, you're going to be there. People are in denial of that. Not only are some people that used to believe in different idols and different kinds of gods or reincarnations and all kinds of things. But then there were people that believe that God himself became human.

Then there are people who believe that there is no God. We're just accidentally here. We just happen to exist. We're no different than just a bacteria. We're no different than a cockroach. We're just a more advanced version. Like the PC used to be basic. And now we have, if you look at a computer from the 1980s and you look at an iPhone now, there's a big evolution in technology. We're just an evolved version of ants. We're just a much more advanced version of bacteria. That's all we are. So there's no God involved in the creation of the human being.

Dismissing the Gift of Speech

And then our ability to speak, our ability to communicate, why should I think that's special? That's just some accident of evolution. The human being's greatest ability, which is speech, we're like, you know, it's not that great. Why do we have to consider that a rahma from Allah? Our ability to communicate.

And I love these arguments that people make. What if there's a species that's much more better at communicating than we are? Can you keep waiting for that? Right? Look at this interesting thing that happens in our brain, the speech center in our brain, you know, and evolutionary biologists can tell you this. They can't figure out where that came from. Like there's no precursor to that part of the brain.

The Mystery of Human Creativity and Beauty

And our ability to do bayan, we didn't just do bayan to survive. Human beings, because they have uns, which sets them apart, it's a new trend that's happening in evolutionary biology. They're calling it aesthetic evolution. I was just talking to a scientist recently. There's a new emergence, this concept of aesthetic evolution.

You know what that is? Well, maybe the species that survives or the way that species survive is they look for what's most beautiful, not just what's fittest to survive. And the reason they had to develop this idea more recently is because they couldn't answer the question if the only thing that survives is the thing that, you know, or the only thing that moves forward is what's best suited to survive. Why are human beings so obsessed with matching colors? Why are they obsessed with good taste and smell? That has nothing to do with our survival. That's not an evolutionary instinct. That's not a survival instinct.

Why are we into symmetry, music, art? Why are we into delicious culinary tastes? Why are we into poetry? What makes us interested in these things that are all, the one thing that connects all of them is beauty. Why is no other species interested in beauty? Why are human beings interested in beauty? Why is no other species interested in creativity? Why are human beings interested in creativity?

You know, birds are not like, I'm going to make a polygon nest this time. Then next time I'll make a triangle nest, see how that fits better. They're not going to do it. They make the same kind of nest for millions of years. They're making the same kind of nest. Human beings are like, I'm going to try to design a house in this shape and that way. And people are like, oh, that's uniquely ugly. I'll make something better.

You know, human creativity, it can't be explained. It comes from somewhere that isn't part of this earth because everything on this earth rejects creativity. It's just survival. Everything else is about survival. That's what human beings worry about, creativity. Because our ruh was endowed to us by the one that is the most creative of all, Allah. And the most beautiful of Allah.

(Sahih Muslim, Book 1, Hadith 164)

And He put in us a sense of beauty. And when He entices us towards Jannah, He describes the beauty of Jannah. And when He entices us away from hellfire, He describes the ugliness of hellfire. Why are we inclined towards beauty and inclined away from ugliness? That's uniquely human. But then people are going to do takdheeb. They're not even contemplating on themselves.

Ignoring Divine Order in Creation

The sun, the moon, the stars, and all life on earth are subject to divine order and submission. There are people that are just going to not look at that. Not think about that. Not contemplate it. The world has been made beautiful particularly for humans. It's been made for survival of everyone else but made beautiful for us. All of this, you're not just denying one thing. You're not just undermining one thing. You're undermining a whole bunch of things.

The Root Causes of Denial

But practically speaking, why would someone do that? Why would someone do that? There are four kinds of signs that have been described so far.

The signs of revelation, عَلَّمَ الْقُرْآنَ. The signs of ourselves, خَلَقَ الْإِنسَانَ عَلَّمَهُ الْبَيَانَ. That's ourselves. The signs of the heavens, which is, you know, السَّمَاءَ رَفَعَهَا وَوَضَعَ الْمِيزَانَ أَلَّا تَطْغَوْا فِي الْمِيزَانِ. And then the signs of the world around me. The fruits and the goods and the animals and the planet, right?

Lack of Humility

Now the thing is, what kind of person doesn't even have time to think about or dismisses Allah's words? Someone who lacks humility. What is that? What is this book gonna give me that I don't already have? I have better places to get my information. I know better. That's a form of arrogance, isn't it? There's a lack of humility that keeps people from coming towards Allah's words, you know? So Allah describes this arrogance towards His words in other places like Surah Al-Ahqaf.

Lack of Self-Reflection

Then if you're thinking about yourself, like He says, خَلَقَ الْإِنسَانَ عَلَّمَهُ الْبَيَانَ. Why don't we contemplate ourselves? Like if I think about what ability I have, what I'm made of, how I've been made, how complicated I am. Actually, this is one of the most confusing things you can do and deeply spiritual things you can do is just take a walk and think about yourself. And not think about your feelings and what somebody did to you. I'm not talking about that. Actually think about yourself.

Like what am I? It's easy to answer, Who am I? Nouman. What am I? Am I just a composite of flesh and bones? Is that all I am? Am I just a name that was given to me by my parents? Is that all I am? Am I just a collection of my experiences in life like the therapist will tell me? Is that all I am? Am I just a series of traumatic episodes that lead me to be the messed up thing that I am now? That's all I am? It's just a bunch of experiences? Am I just a composite of my memories? That's all I am?

Is there something more to me than my emotions and my physical being? Is there something heavenly inside me that's beyond even the seven skies that was poured into me that longs for something greater? Is that also me? There's parts of me that are so dark and so low. There's parts of me that are so depressed and so meaningless. There are parts of me that are so animal. And there are parts of me that are so spiritually elevated. That's also inside me? And I'm all of those things at the same time? I'm pretty complicated. That's pretty complicated.

I'm someone who wants to contemplate the Quran and wants to play the newest game on PlayStation all at the same time. How am I all of these things at the same time? Who made me this complicated? Who made me... It's a profound thing to just... If you just contemplate that about yourself. Just خَلَقَ الْإِنسَانَ عَلَّمَهُ الْبَيَانَ. I would become and you would become so much more self-aware.

But you know who doesn't have time for self-awareness? People that are just indulged and like distracted all the time. You're so focused on things that don't matter. You take a part of yourself like your feelings. You take a part of yourself like your entertainment or your appetite or your urges. You take one piece of yourself and you let that invade yourself. And the other parts of yourself, you become blind to them. You don't even think about them anymore. And so that's another kind of takdheeb. We do takdheeb of ourselves. We undermine ourselves.

Distraction from the Cosmic Order

Then Allah says of the heavens, who has time to think about the order of the cosmos? We're sitting here discussing the order of the cosmos outside of this conversation. What are we gonna sit and think about the stars? And think about the moon and the sun and contemplate that. Why not work? I'm gonna think about traffic on the Jersey Turnpike and whether or not I should take the Garden State Parkway. That's what I'm gonna think about.

We got daily things to think about, groceries to think about, bills to think about, friends and hangouts to think about. We're so lost in our world, we don't have time to look up. We're always looking down. Who has time to look up? And so we've become thoughtless. Not thoughtlessness as in insensitive, but we're not people of thought anymore because we're engaged in so many mechanical thoughtless activities that makes us thoughtless. That's another kind of thoughtlessness.

Main Character Syndrome

And then the world around me. I actually put a new term that I just learned, Main Character Syndrome. The world around me is, when it revolves around me, then I'm, yeah, then I'm suffering from Main Character Syndrome. If you're sitting in a gathering and someone's saying something, like, hey, yeah, I just, how are you doing? I'm good, I just came back from a trip. You're like, I went on a trip once. I've been on lots of trips.

You know what that is? For 15 seconds, somebody else was the main character. And you could not tell, you have to be the main character. You have to bring everything back to yourself. Somehow it has to revolve around you. And when that happens, you cannot appreciate anything around you because everything has to appreciate you. Right? You just become so egocentric and so focused on the self that you become blind to everything. And you develop a sense of entitlement. A sense of entitlement. And this is takdheeb.

External vs Internal Denial

We're talking about the takdheeb of the kuffar, which on top, I've written the external and the internal, right? The external takdheeb is when they verbally spoke against the Prophet ﷺ and denied all of these things. Internally, if their heart rejects it too. Because by the way, some people internally accepted it and externally rejected it. Like Walid ibn Mughira. Internally, he accepted Islam. He was impressed with it. But he realized if he openly accepts Islam, he's going to lose his position.

So he became one of the most active campaigners against the Quran and against the Prophet ﷺ because he knew that's not good for me. You know like you have a lot of TV show pundits that spew a lot of nonsense. But actually, it's known. A fact of life. They don't believe any of the stuff they say. But they do it because it pays the bills and it gets them ratings and all of that stuff. Right? So they're saying it because they're pandering to the crowd. And that money or that fame or that popularity or whatever. The clout. That's more valuable to them than their commitment to the truth. That existed back then too. That's also takdheeb.

And we should know when someone's... You don't have to... If somebody was debating with me and I know the reason they're debating with me is not because they disagree with me. It's because they're trying to impress their audience. Then I don't have to debate with them. Because their arguments aren't even genuine. The truth is they actually believe deep down inside.

And that's what the Quran does a lot of times. People would come and give complaints. Make claims against the Quran. Allah wouldn't even address the answer. Like He wouldn't even respond. He said, they say this, they say this, they say this, ignore them. We know what's really going on inside them. We know what their real intentions are. SubhanAllah. Allah diagnoses the inside. That's also takdheeb.

The Essence: Appreciation

But what does this boil down to for you and me practically? Before I come to the next ayah. Today, this session is just about this ayah. Really what it boils down to is appreciation. If I was to summarize the juice, what this statement comes down to, it's appreciation.

Appreciating Allah as Ar-Rahman. Appreciating the Quran as Ar-Rahman. Appreciating the fact that I've been created as Ar-Rahman. Appreciating the ability of speech as Ar-Rahman. And each one of them results in something. If I appreciate Allah as Ar-Rahman, if I acknowledge that deep down inside, then the thoughts I have about Him are going to change. I'm not going to see Him in a negative light.

Now, when do people see Allah in a negative light? When bad stuff happens. When an earthquake like Turkey happens. When an earthquake in your life happens. Then you see Allah in a negative light. Why did Allah do this to me? Why does He hate me so much? Why does He let this bad person get away with it and I have to pay the price? How come they did this, this, this, and this? They're happy. And I'm the one who gets blamed and accused and hurt and abandoned and all this stuff happens to me and look at them. They're just walking around happy.

The Example of Prophet Ayub

You know, this happened last night. I woke up in the middle of the night thinking about this jinn and human thing that we're going to be studying. And an ayah came in my head and I started reading about it. It's about Ayub A.S. And Ayub A.S. said something so strange.

He said, he turns to Allah. He says, The devil has touched me. The devil has touched me with exhaustion and with pain, with torture. So he's a prophet, right? How can a prophet be touched by who? The devil. So we have to understand what does he mean by that? What does he mean by the devil has touched me with exhaustion?

What this implies is a couple of things. One of them that I want you to know for this discussion is that when a person is exhausted doing the good thing, when they're exhausted doing the right thing is exhausting. It's exhausting. And nobody around you appreciates it. They don't see that you're doing a good thing. And they keep undermining it, undermining it, undermining it. The devil comes. He doesn't just come to you. First, he comes to the people around you and says, say something that will completely demotivate this person. Say something that will break their heart. Say something that will crush their soul. Right?

And they're not saying it deliberately. The devil kind of just whispers this idea to them. And here you were motivated to do something good. Like for example, here's my favorite recent example. Some lady decides she's going to go to the mosque for Jummah. For once she's going to, she decided that she's going to pray again. So she braves herself. She gets brave. She puts the hijab on. She goes and she prays.

And somebody taps her on the shoulder from right behind after Jummah and says, by the way, you're wearing it wrong. Your prayer didn't count. Right? They do that. So shaitaan came. First, the shaitaan came to the lady behind her and said, hey, fix her salah. Let her know her salah didn't count and make sure other people hear it. So she does it. For the sake of Allah, I'm telling you sister, أَمْر بِالْمَعْرُوفِ وَالنَّهْيِ عَنِ الْمُنْكَرِ. Since you are a manifestation of munkar yourself, fix your hijab because that prayer didn't count.

Okay? Now the shaitaan, okay, he's done his job with this lady and this woman that took so much effort to come to the masjid, now shaitaan comes to her. He says, you see why you shouldn't come here? People are so judgmental. You know, they're just bad for your deen. They're bad for your soul. They're bad for your spirit. You know what? I can't even deal with this judgment anymore. I'm walking out of here. That's why I don't wear hijab anymore. This is my truth.

That lady got played by the shaitaan and then the lady in front also got played by who? The shaitaan. And they both, this one thinks they're doing a good thing. This one thinks they're protecting themselves. They both fell for his trap.

And you know what shaitaan does? The moment you feel exhausted and demotivated, Nusud, he comes and hits you. He knows this is a weak point. Ayub a.s is doing the right, he's sick. He's sick, he's not getting better. He's getting taunts from his family. He's living this miserable existence and every time he's at the height of misery, Iblis comes and says, so your God loves you, huh? This is how Allah loves you. This is what you get for being a prophet. All those prayers, look at how you are. Look at how you're coughing up blood. Look at the boils on your skin. Look at yourself in the mirror. Your family thinks you're disgusting. This is what you call rahma.

And he can hear those thoughts. They're not his thoughts. Whose thoughts are they? Who's trying to implant those thoughts in him? Shaitaan. And he says, Ya Allah, as I feel exhausted, shaitaan sees my exhaustion and he tries to touch me. And he calls on to Allah and says, Ya Allah, no. You know, مَسَّنِيَ الشَّيْطَانُ بِنُصْبٍ وَعَذَابٍ. This is incredible. And he recognizes that in himself.

The Challenge of Appreciating Divine Guidance

Right? So we have to develop appreciation. And what that means is the one that will get in my way is actually going to be Iblis. He's not going to let me see that Allah is Ar-Rahman. Every time I'm getting close to appreciating Allah is Ar-Rahman and I go through any trial, he's going to take that trial and translate it into Allah is punishing me in some way. Allah hates me in some way. Allah abandoned me in some way.

And then when it comes to learning the Quran, I don't want to learn the Quran. It's scary. I don't want to learn the Quran. Every time I... People have even come and told me, every time I start learning the Quran, something bad happens in my life. I've had literally people tell me that. Every time I try to learn the Quran, something bad happens in my life. Like, really?

When the Prophet ﷺ started receiving the Quran, really bad stuff happened in his life too. Every time Quran came, people hated him more. His own family turned against him more. So if something bad is happening in your life when you start coming towards the Quran, you are walking in some level of the footsteps of your Prophet. Congratulations. Congratulations. This is not cheap to come towards the Quran. You have to pay a price. Why is that a bad thing?

But we don't see that. We don't see the appreciation of what price should you have to pay. People pay top dollar to go to a top university. People kill themselves to join the Olympic team. Kill their bodies. Kill their desire to eat food. Kill their sleep habits to join this team. What is Allah asking you to come towards Him? Is He asking you to destroy yourself? And yet we're like, no, it's too hard. This is takdheeb of عَلَّمَ الْقُرْآنَ.

Degrading the Gift of Speech

Takdheeb of خَلَقَ الْإِنسَانَ. Takdheeb of my own self. Takdheeb of the way that I was made. Takdheeb of the, and the biggest one is al-bayan. Allah says He empowered human beings with capable thought. The greatest gift we've been given is our ability to think and articulate.

What's happening in the age of technology? Who's doing the thinking for us now? AI is doing the thinking for us. TikTok is doing the thinking for us. And by and large, in the use of technology, we're getting smarter. But in the ability to articulate our thoughts, in the ability to express our thoughts, our ability to read and pay attention to something that's more than 30 seconds, without this gifted thumb and the index, the shahada finger, you know, عَلَّمَهُ الْبَيَانَ.

Like we should appreciate language. How can the tongue that was given that has the honor of reciting the Quran is now spending so much of its energy using foul language? This tongue is now being used for slander. It's being used for backbiting. It's being used for lowly, pathetic, disgusting things. That's what it's been used for. This ability to communicate that was given to us for the highest purpose is being used for the lowest, lowest thing. How can that be?

This is actually the penetrating question that Allah has asked us in فَبِأَيِّ آلَاءِ رَبِّكُمَا تُكَذِّبَانِ.

What I didn't share with you in this lecture was why the jinn and human beings have been combined here without even having mentioned that. So we'll start with that in the next ayah and we'll move forward.

بارك الله لي ولكم السلام عليكم ورحمة الله وبركاته