They Know Al-Lateef in Gaza | Dr. Farhan Abdul Azeez | Juz 7 Qur’an 30 for 30 S7 | Ramadan Series

Gaza and the Names of Allah: A Testament to Al-Lateef

If you're going through a hardship, like the people of Gaza are, we find some of us questioning the wisdom of Allah or we say, where is Allah? But then you see the people of Gaza who are living it, going through it, and they're not questioning that. How do you reconcile the love of Allah with this pain that they're going through? But Allah عز وجل is علام الغيوب, there are layers to this and Allah سبحانه وتعالى knows all of the layers of the unseen. He sees and encompasses everything.

You know, I may see a mountain, but I don't encompass it. When I see Uhud, I see one angle, one side, one shade of it, but I can't totally encompass it. When we see on our phone one particular scene that we see in Gaza, know that there's thousands of that.

السلام عليكم ورحمة الله وبركاته, everyone. Welcome back to Quran 30 for 30. الحمد لله رب العالمين We are in Juz 7 now, so I want to remind you all, بإذن الله تعالى, to please donate, support the work of Yaqeen.

If you haven't already, then please do, بإذن الله تعالى. It is in this time that we truly look for your support. And of course, after the support of Allah سبحانه وتعالى.

And we hope, إن شاء الله, you're finding this content to be beneficial to your heart, to your spirit, بإذن الله تعالى, to your deen. And I ask Allah عز وجل to uplift us all with the Quran. اللهم آمين We're joined, الحمد لله رب العالمين, by Dr. Farhan Abdul Azeez.

The Name Al-Haleem in Gaza

حياك الله, Dr. Farhan. الحمد لله, it's always good to have you here. ما شاء الله, you're in Gaza it seems more than Dallas these days.

So you've been back and forth multiple times. May Allah سبحانه وتعالى bless you and accept from you all the times that you've been there. And you've witnessed these ayaat of Allah سبحانه وتعالى in person, right? These people of Quran and these people that manifest meanings of these verses that perhaps otherwise are usually not manifest.

And so, first of all, just جزاك الله خيرا for going and for constantly being there with our brothers and sisters. May Allah accept it from you all. And all the doctors that go, الحمد لله.

It's not a small deal. And secondly, جزاك الله خيرا for making the time to be with us, man. I get to be part of it, الحمد لله.

Shaykh Farhan, on a serious note, I'm just going to start with this. On a personal level, what's the name of Allah that kept coming to your heart and mind when you were there in Gaza?

سبحان الله. The most, honestly, was probably Al-Haleem. Because of the statement of Abu Bakr, after one of the initial incidents of persecution, when he was beaten to the point that he fell unconscious and his face was disfigured. When he awoke, he kept saying, يا ربي ما أحلمك ما أحلمك How forbearing you are to us, O Allah, despite going through what he went through, to the point of near death.

Because you see the people of Gaza, سبحان الله, what they're going through, it's hard to, you know, you see social media, you see everything, but when you see the people living it, it's very different, your day to day, every part of your life. But then to still have full faith in Allah, without any doubt, without any shaking that Allah is with us, you know, that Allah loves us, it doesn't match, you know, like, well, this is your worldly state. But then at the same time, you're saying Allah loves us, you know.

The People of the Quran

What do you think makes the people of Gaza - what could you say about their relationship with Allah that's very unique?

I think without a doubt, without a doubt, every trip is the same thing, comes up again and again, and it's the Quran. Their depth of the relationship with the Quran. I mean, August 2023, 13,000 حفاظ in Gaza, this small little piece of land that Allah has created on earth. Not just 13,000 حفاظ graduates, in that month, August 2023, 13,000 حفاظ recited from الفاتحة to الناس, in one sitting from memory.

I mean, that gives you an idea, what kind of people are we dealing with here? I actually recorded a brother and I was interviewing him. He was used as a human shield one day. He was a nurse at Shifa Hospital. He's a حافظ of Quran himself. He's using him as a shield going room to room, hospital, because they thought army was there, but they're not. He told me that when I went back and listened to the audio, I said, there's no way he meant recited الفاتحة to الناس in one sitting.

So this last trip I got back from, I asked multiple people there, Quran teachers and they said, no, it was 13,000 people who did this الفاتحة to الناس in one sitting from memory. And there's so many stories about their connection to the Quran, but in a nutshell, it's their connection to the Quran.

Tarawih During Bombings

And you spent last Ramadan in Gaza last 10 nights. What's it like praying Tarawih in a hospital during bombings in Gaza?

I would say Salah in general, and Tarawih, of course, Ramadan was a very special sweetness to it. Being there, because you're in the blessed land, and specifically Gaza being the land the Prophet ﷺ spoke about.

But then there's, I don't know, there's a different level of enjoyment you get. And I don't know how to put it into words, but even the meaning of the ayat that you recite, what comes to you, and I can't think of things particularly off the top of my head right now, but when you hear the drones above you constantly, I prefer to pray outside, not inside, in the hospital. I would find a place outside, but they say don't go on the roof, it's dangerous.

So, but I would still find a place outside to pray. And when bombs go off, and sometimes this last trip, there was literally a bomb that went off that the ICU door was right behind me. I'm on a balcony, and the blast wave blasted open the door, and I'm praying. And so when you're reciting the words of Allah, with bombs going off, I don't know, it just hits different.

It's where the people there, because this is what they're living for two years. I remember the khutbah you gave, العبادة في الهرج، هجرة إليه. You talked about the hadith, that worshipping Allah in difficulties, like hijra of Prophet ﷺ. When you see their level of worship, you walk around the hospital, you see this corner, this corner, people are praying, you hear the recitation.

When they're sleeping, they have the Quran playing, Shaykh Ajami or whoever, you hear their voice. So there's the people who are, and of course, there's all types of people everywhere. Among the Sahaba, there was amongst them, among the time of the Prophet ﷺ, there were those who were hypocrites as well. But the people of Gaza who are on the deen, man, they are just a different level of just, and you just want to soak in as much as you can from them and appreciate.

The Day of Gathering - Verses from Juz 7

And those are the things that's really hard to put into words until you experience it. I don't know how to explain it. But when you see it, when you see children reciting Quran as they have limbs blown off, when you see surgeons in the middle of the night, after operating all day, fasting with no food, they haven't broken their fast yet.

It's 2 a.m. in the morning, they haven't broken their fast. They're still operating and he's reciting with the most beautiful recitation. One of them I'm thinking about is still in the torture prisons right now. You know, but سبحان الله, you think even at that moment, they're in prison, they're going through what they're going through. What's keeping them strong? It's the Quran. That's what will keep them.

And it's their depth, their relation with the Quran is incredible. And Ramadan, of course, in Gaza was a different experience. جزاك الله خيرا.

May Allah سبحانه وتعالى continue to elevate them. May Allah عز وجل give them victory in this life and acceptance in the next. Accept their shuhada. Have mercy on them. And may Allah سبحانه وتعالى allow us to be activated towards them. اللهم آمين.

In this juz, سبحان الله, there's a lot of gatherings. Allah عز وجل gathering people. There's the gathering of the shuhada. There's the gathering of the rusul. There's the gathering of the hypocrites. There's the gathering of the victims.

And I actually want to start from that place. Surah al-Ma'idah, verse 109. Allah سبحانه وتعالى says:

Consider the day when Allah سبحانه وتعالى will gather the messengers and Allah will say, what response did you receive? And they will reply and say, we have no knowledge compared to you. You alone are indeed the knower of the unseen. علام الغيوب

And سبحان الله, can you imagine Allah سبحانه وتعالى addressing the best of his creation, the prophets, the messengers, all at one time. And speaking to them and interacting with them.

And there are no people that knew Allah عز وجل collectively better than this group of people. And as Allah سبحانه وتعالى is addressing victims, right, on the day of judgment. There are various forms of victimization.

The messengers, many of them were killed. They were almost all denied at some point in their mission. So they've been victimized physically, emotionally, spiritually. Some of them had no witnesses from humanity on earth, right, in the sense that some of these prophets died without followers. And Allah سبحانه وتعالى is talking about this, this moment where he's talking to the messengers.

Did you tell them to do this? Did you tell them to form this trinity? Did you tell them to take you as a god beside Allah سبحانه وتعالى? Did you tell them to worship you and your mother? Did you bring them the shirk? And Allah عز وجل knows the answer. And He says, سُبْحَانَكَ مَا يَكُونُ لِي أَنْ أَقُولَ مَا لَيْسَ لِي بِحَقٍ Glory be to you. How could I say what I did not have the right to say?

And He says, If I had said such a thing, you would have certainly known it, because you know what's hidden even within me, but I don't know what is within you. You alone are the knower of all of the unseen. So once again, this common thread of Allah عز وجل as عَلَّامُ الْغُيُوبِ Like Allah knows all of the layers.

Al-Latif Al-Khabir - The Most Subtle, The All-Aware

So this is kind of going to frame much of the discussion within this juz, which you started off with the reminder of our brothers and sisters. May Allah عز وجل give victory to all of the oppressed ones and the weak ones and the downtrodden ones. May Allah عز وجل reward them all and elevate them. اللهم آمين.

But that's what it is. Like we are pained by what we see, but we also believe deeply that Allah sees what we don't see. And amongst those things that Allah سبحانه وتعالى sees that we don't see is Himself.

So you come to this verse:

That no vision can encompass Him, but He encompasses all vision. For He is the most subtle, the all-aware.

So let's start with this verse. This obviously comes into the next surah, into al-An'am, of the layers of the unseen and brings in al-latif al-khabir in a very specific way.

This verse, I mean, when you think about what's happening in Gaza right now, that the one that has given us this beautiful religion and way of life and the one that has given us this beautiful way of understanding Him and interacting with Him, particularly that of His predestination, of what we see happening every single day on our devices or hear from people such as yourself, that have had enough connection with Allah سبحانه وتعالى, enough courage, enough consistency to go back.

And I think we hear it, but I mean, you know, سبحان الله, praying and not knowing what's going to happen to you at that moment. I mean, may Allah bless your family, your wife, not knowing if you're going to come back. This is the closest that we can probably see to that for someone in America right now in these days.

Allah سبحانه وتعالى is well aware of what is going on and He sees it and He encompasses it all. And that's the beauty of this verse. And He talks about seeing and encompassing.

You know, I may see a mountain, but I don't encompass it. When I see Uhud, I see one angle, one side, one shade of it, but I can't totally encompass it. And Allah سبحانه وتعالى, that's why He said, Allah is giving this contrast in all cases. And in this particular situation, He sees and encompasses everything. Only when we see one aspect of it.

So this immediately reminds me, when we see on our phone, one particular scene that we see in Gaza, know that there's thousands of that. There's a lot of that that goes on. And what's important is to hold firm to what Allah سبحانه وتعالى has legislated. And it's not supposed to be easy.

The Subtlety of Allah's Mercy

So I think when you mentioned the knowledge of Allah being a theme, I think that's so crucial to understanding the lutf of Allah when we say Allah is Latif because some of the scholars define lutf to be presented with something in the image that's opposite to what you expect.

So if you're going through a hardship like the people of Gaza are, we find ourselves, we find we meaning as a community, as the whole ummah, we find some of us questioning the wisdom of Allah or we say where is Allah? But then you see the people of Gaza who are living it, going through it and they're not questioning that. So it makes you wonder why we're not even living it and we're questioning the wisdom of Allah when we should be really questioning is our belief in the wisdom of Allah.

If we believe Allah is علام الغيب, in the surah Allah says:

That to Him belongs the keys of the ghayb, the unseen, only Allah knows, no one else knows except for Him.

The surah starts with يَعْلَمُ مَا تَكْسِبُونَ Allah knows what you earn and what you do, so the knowledge of Allah is repeated in surah al-An'am as well as surah Ma'idah ends. Allah knows the difficulties we're going, the feelings we have.

Allah says in the surah that Allah knows, O Messenger of Allah, the feelings you have of sadness from what they're saying about you and character assassinating you and the like.

Stories from Sde Teiman Prison

How that ties into Latif though is, you know it's remarkable because if you have that belief in Allah, that trust in Allah, that relationship with Allah then whatever comes your way, you're able to see the mercy of Allah and even to understand, to believe the mercy of Allah even if you don't see it. That's what's incredible.

There is a brother who, now he's a graduated surgeon. When I met him, he was the final year of his residency in Gaza. They still have the residency, they're still going, they're still working. He was in prison for five months and one of the questions I asked him was because he described horrors.

I mean, you know you talk about how do you choose what to share? An imam who would lead Salah next to Shifa Hospital was arrested in his early 20s and was taken to Sde Teiman Prison which is the worst prison right outside Gaza. That's where all the sexual abuse happens. That's where all the physical, the torture, the worst horrors happen there.

And so when they took him for questioning and they beat him of course, they sleep deprivation and loud music and beatings and humiliation. They would, forgive me, I don't know how much I should share but it shows you the connection. That's why I feel I should share it.

Three times a day they would make him get up and go in a corner and either urinate or defecate on himself. Just stand there and urinate on yourself. But they'd break him. They tied him down, crucified him and sexually assaulted him and then break him.

And then what they did was, and then the brother, Dr. Khalid, the surgeon, he told me when they would sit him for questioning, you know what he would do? You know, when you're a prisoner you're not even allowed to, in Sde Teiman, you're not allowed to move your lips. They see your lips moving, they'll come in and they'll beat you because they don't want anybody talking to each other.

So you're zip tied and you're blindfolded. And so when he would sit in front of them for his questioning, you know what he'd turn to? He would pray. He would pray with his eyes. He would literally pray with his eyes.

And so that, I don't know if they realize it or not, but when they weren't getting him to confess to being, whatever crimes they wanted him to confess to, you were a part of October 7th, this and that, whatever they say they want you to, they'll try and force confessions out of you, of innocent people. They brought a tablet of a live stream of his home with his six-month pregnant wife in it.

And they called in a strike. They asked him first, do you recognize your home? He said, yeah, this is my home. They called in an airstrike and he's live stream watching it and his wife was killed in front of his eyes. And then, not only that, they made him watch until the ambulance, the rescue crews came and pulled his dead body's wife out, six months pregnant.

But سبحان الله, Khalid, who's telling me this, is a حافظ of Quran. The brother who this happened to is a حافظ of Quran. And he's saying he would pray with his eyes and he'd think about لا تُدْرِكُهُ الأَبْصَارُ وَهُوَ يُدْرِكُ الأَبْصَارَ. You know that our eyes cannot encompass Allah, but Allah's eyes can encompass, Allah's vision can encompass all things. The knowledge of Allah.

Khalid, he was assigned to take care of this brother because the defecating on yourself and the urinating on yourself, they would assign Khalid to change his diapers. They would put diapers on him afterwards. So I asked Khalid, coming back to the question I asked him, but I want you to understand what he witnessed and lived through.

I asked Khalid, how do you stay strong? And you know what he said, his response was, how do you keep your iman strong? He's like, he said two things. One, he said, the quick answer, don't let your mind think too much about it. But he said, the other thing he said was, our belief in Allah. That Allah put us in this position because it's better for us.

Can you imagine the horrors he's living? But he's saying, Allah put us in this position because it's better for us. So he said, maybe if I wasn't in the prison, maybe I would have been bombed and maimed and paralyzed for the rest of my life or my limbs blown off or whatever. So the fact that Allah put me here, I believe, it's my belief.

And then he started teaching me, he said, the hadith, he's like, the hadith, the believer, all of his affair is always good for him. But to have that understanding that even in the worst of conditions that you can imagine possible with every day, your fear for your life and your personal safety and your personal honor. And despite that, you have belief that Allah is putting you here for a greater good.

Allah's Mercy Ordained Upon Himself

And what you have to understand is, this greater good may, and that's why the juz also, while it's emphasizing the knowledge of Allah, it also emphasizes the mercy of Allah. The verse comes in Surah An'am:

Your Lord has ordained mercy upon Himself.

So the decree of Allah is always tied to his mercy, even if it may not be in this world. And that's where the Akhirah comes in. That okay, even if we don't perceive, and Latif, right? It means something that's very subtle, it's not perceived.

So to understand that the mercy of Allah may not be perceived in this world. I may not understand what I'm going through right now as an individual, this diagnosis that I was given, this suffering that my family had, whatever it is. I may not be able to understand the wisdom of Allah, but my belief in Allah, that Allah is Latif. It's gonna turn out better for me, whether it's now or in the Akhirah.

That's something you see the people of Gaza - it's in their DNA. Like it's embodied. Like how do you go through those tests? A sister, a widow, 33 years old, whose husband was martyred six months after she got married. And she said in her words, I got married late. You know in the culture, 33 to get married, 32 to get married, or whatever she was, 32, 33 when she got married. It's considered late in the culture.

And so she said, but she said, I have full belief in Allah. Because Allah says, Allah defends those who believe. My husband's Shahadah, he can intercede for me. Now he can intercede for his family members. So this is her perception of the difficulties, but it's painted. The perception of their life, the perception of their difficulties, what they're going through day to day is painted in the Lutf of Allah, and understanding what that means.

You know, so when Allah says, لَا تُدْرِكُهُ الْأَبْصَارُ وَهُوَ يُدْرِكُ الْأَبْصَارَ وَهُوَ اللَّطِيفُ الْخَبِيرُ Allah is all Latif, and He's all aware. All these things that we go through, every subtlety, Allah is aware of it. And the ultimate decree of Allah's mercy that will eventually come to us, whether in this dunya, or the akhirah, the khayr that's going to come out of it, we'll all witness it.

The Layers of the Unseen

I mean, there's so many stories from Gaza to share about Al-Latif, and also many other names of Allah. Just some thoughts that come to mind.

May Allah bless you. It's hard to talk about anything else, after what you shared, but what I'll just say, سبحان الله, is you can't see Allah yet, you also can't see the other side of death, right? That was a huge emphasis of last Ramadan. عين اليقين

عين اليقين Like you go from علم اليقين to عين اليقين, the knowledge of what's certain, and then to seeing it. And right when you're dying, you're seeing the angels that you're hoping to be surrounded by in Ramadan, you're seeing, you're already getting a perception into something like, oh, okay, this is reality, right? عين اليقين And it's real, right?

And I think, سبحان الله, we kind of package الغيب, into everything. So there's غيب as in the unseen of divine decree, there's غيب as in the unseen time to come, or the life that's after this life, and then there's the greatest part of the غيب, which is Allah عز وجل Himself.

And it's all packaged, right? And once someone comes to علام الغيوب, right? That Allah عز وجل, the greatest part of the unseen is the one who knows all of the unseen. And if I know His names and attributes, and I connect to that reality, rather than the one that I'm living in at surface level, then I can deal with whatever this surface has to present to me, because I know that it's at the end of the day a thin layer of the layers.

Like when you just compare the magnificence of the غيب compared to this world. It's like, سبحان الله, look at the size of the earth compared to the size of the galaxies that we can see. The smallness of what we see to the greatness of what we don't see. Then the greatest pains inflicted upon us within what we see can be put into the perspective of what we don't yet see.

So this element of Allah knows best, Allah knows best, because أنت علام الغيوب, you are the knower of the unseen. The all knower of all of the unseen, the layers of the unseen is deeply profound, سبحان الله.

So جزاك الله خيرا for sharing those reflections, for giving us a little bit of insight into these people who, سبحان الله, no matter how many times you read about them, see them, hear about them, you can't help but find yourself within this double reality, this dual reality of how amazing are they and how deficient are we. How amazing are they and how deficient are we.

So may Allah forgive us for our deficiency in regards to them, in regards to all of the believing men and women and the oppressed ones around the world. اللهم آمين.

بارك الله فيكم. إن شاء الله تعالى. We'll see you all tomorrow. والسلام عليكم ورحمة الله وبركاته.