The Journey of Conviction

15. A Thematic Overview

Summary (2b/c)

Surah Al-Imran 190-195: The Journey to Conviction (cont.)

“Who remember Allah while standing or sitting or [lying] on their sides and give thought to the creation of the heavens and the earth, [saying], "Our Lord, You did not create this aimlessly; exalted are You [above such a thing]; then protect us from the punishment of the Fire.” (Sahih International)

 فقنا عذاب النار : Protect us from the punishment of Hell. Decent people think about helping everyone, not just themselves

“Our Lord, indeed whoever You admit to the Fire - You have disgraced him, and for the wrongdoers there are no helpers.” (Sahih International)

 ظلم : Putting something where it does not belong

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“Our Lord, indeed we have heard a caller calling to faith, [saying], 'Believe in your Lord,' and we have believed. Our Lord, so forgive us our sins and remove from us our misdeeds and cause us to die with the righteous.” (Sahih International)

 مناديا : “a” caller, as opposed to “the” caller – the caller is someone you don’t know  We have to judge the message, before we judge the messenger

•  كفر عنا سيئاتنا : imagery of burying sin (rather than simply covering it) because when you take shahadah your previous sins are forgiven

•  توفنا مع الأبرار : “take us” with the righteous, as opposed to “cause us to die” because we know this life is only temporary, that we will be given life again when we are resurrected.

  •  Islam teaches us to live life ready to meet death

  •  In other faiths there is a distance between the deceased and the living, but in

    Islam there is no distance. The family of the deceased washes the dead body, carries the body, buries the body, and the community follows the procession to the graveyard to help with the burial. For Muslims, death is a spiritual experience.

    “Our Lord, and grant us what You promised us through Your messengers and do not disgrace us on the Day of Resurrection. Indeed, You do not fail in [Your] promise." (Sahih International)

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 We see the increase in belief as Surah Al-Imran progresses because in the 9th ayah the believer was talking about Allah, but now the believer is talking directly to Allah. (You do not fail in your promise).

“And their Lord responded to them, "Never will I allow to be lost the work of [any] worker among you, whether male or female; you are of one another. So those who emigrated or were evicted from their homes or were harmed in My cause or fought or were killed - I will surely remove from them their misdeeds, and I will surely admit them to gardens beneath which rivers flow as reward from Allah , and Allah has with Him the best reward." (Sahih International)

•  فاستجاب : the ف indicates that Allah immediately answers the dua. But there are two استحاب and اجاب :words for answering in Arabic

  •  أجاب is used to mean answering something and immediately seeing that it was answered...like when you make a payment on paypal and you get a confirmation email immediately that your payment was processed.

  •  استجاب is used to mean that your request has been granted but you don’t immediately know... like when you get admitted into college but are waiting to get your acceptance letter. There is a period of time in between your acceptance, and your knowing that you have been accepted.

•  Reflections on Dua

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 In difficult times, we don’t ask Allah to change reality, we ask for the strength to handle reality

 When a loved one passes away, we don’t ask Allah to bring them back to life, we ask for the strength to have patience through our grief

 For those who ask for the strength to deal with reality, Allah will change reality for them

•  “ثبت أقدامنا” “Plant our feet firmly” – this dua was made by the believers at the Battle of Badr. They knew how badly outnumbered they were, but they didn’t ask Allah for military support. They asked Allah to rid them of the fear in their hearts, and to give them the strength not to run away. So Allah gave them the strength by boosting their iman and courage, AND he changed reality by sending 3000 angels as military support.

•  الصالحين good people
  Surah Al-Imran 190-195: The Journey to Conviction

  “No doubt, in the creation of the skies and the earth, and the conflict between the night and the day are signs for people with clear minds."

 Who are the people of clear minds, who are أولى الألباب? A person whose thoughts are not polluted by useless things, a person who thinks about meaningful things.

•  There are people who are obsessed with things like sports or a TV show or books or certain technologies.

•  Junk food analogy: if you eat junk food all the time nonstop and eat the occasional healthy fruit or vegetable that’s still not good! Similarly, if we drown our minds in video games or social media but obsessive TV shows and sometimes learn something good that doesn’t mean we are being clear!

•  In the Qur’an, there’s also the heart. The emotions are associated with the heart. The Qur’an’s argument is that it will convince your mind through rationality and

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logic. But sometimes the Qur’an uses emotion because emotion appeals to the heart, that works better - fear, sadness, happiness...these can work where logic doesn’t sometimes.

•  Allah (swt) tells us that the things that are on the earth are something that if we really think about them, will be signs of Him! If we look around, we see that all creation works together for a higher purpose! The wind pushes and forms the clouds, and blows the seeds of a tree. The clouds form and rain and the rain allows the seeds to be implanted and grow, and then that tree grows and leaves on that tree take in the carbon dioxide we breathe out and release oxygen into the air that we can breath, that the wind spreads over the land. Everything is connected!

•  An آية is

  •  something valuable

  •  something that has purpose and meaning

  •  something separate and distinct

  •  something that is a sign

“The ones who remember Allah standing, sitting, and on their sides, and they think about the creation of the skies and the earth. Our Master, you did not create this without purpose. You are amazing, perfect, exalted. Protect us from the punishment of the fire.’"

•  Remembering Allah (swt) is a function of the heart, something that keeps the heart soft

•  Thinking about the creation of Allah (swt) is an intellectual function, it requires deep

  reflection

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•   Allah (swt) is telling us that people of sound minds are people who have soft hearts and remember Allah and ALSO thing deeply; they are not people that are only on one extreme. However, Allah mentions the heart first. The heart comes first. On the Day of Judgment, they will come before Allah (swt) with clean hearts.

•   Human beings love certainty. That’s why we love games, because games give us certain results!

  “Our Lord most definitely whoever you enter into the Fire then You have disgraced him. And for the wrongdoers there are no helpers."

  “Our Lord most definitely we heard a caller calling to Iman to believe in your Lord and we have believed. Our Lord, forgive for us our sins and remove from us our sins/bad deeds, and cause us to die with the righteous.”

 Real faith cannot be given to us by our parents, by our families, or anyone around us. We have to reach our own conviction, on our own, for our faith to be real. YOU have to sit and think about the skies and the earth for yourself, YOU have to ponder for yourself, YOU have to conclude what you believe about Allah (swt) and the purpose of the creation on your own. YOU have to hear the call of Islam and be convinced on the inside.

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Surah An-Nur 35-40 : Light Upon Light (2c)

“Allah is the Light of the heavens and the earth. The example of His light is like a niche within which is a lamp, the lamp is within glass, the glass as if it were a pearly [white] star lit from [the oil of] a blessed olive tree, neither of the east nor of the west, whose oil would almost glow even if untouched by fire. Light upon light. Allah guides to His light whom He wills. And Allah presents examples for the people, and Allah is Knowing of all things.” (Sahih International)

•  Light is of two types: Physical and Spiritual. Humans do not have the ability to see spiritual light like we can see physical light, but by understanding physical light, we will be able to try and understand spiritual light.

  •  Physical light – Sun

  •  Spiritual light – Ruh

•  Arch – refers to ribcage

  •  Lamp inside the arch – refers to heart

  •  مصباح is a tool that tries to replicate the morning (صبح ) : our hearts try to emulate

    the spiritual light of the source of the Ruh

  •  زجاجة : glass covering (protection and refraction)

     Protection against someone trying to blow out the light
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 Even as protection, glass is fragile like the heart  Spreading the light farther than the glass itself

 If the glass gets dirty, then the light wont spread. We do dhikr to “clean our glasses.” We clean our hearts at least five times a day.

•  كوكب دري : brilliant story
   Stars are literally “out of this world”, similary our Ruh’s are from “out of

  this world”

•  شجرة : a tree – trees grow outside the house, not inside (where the lamp is)...this

  reiterates the fact that our Ruh is from out of this world.

•  مباركة : something that keeps giving more

  •  Unlike other species, humans have creativity that continually grows (Ex. Music, Architecture, Technology, etc.)

  •  This desire to constantly improve is a result of our Ruhs spending time in the presence of The One who is complete in His perfection

  •  Our Ruhh longs to return to the presence of Ther Perfect One, so our drive to achieve perfection in our daily lives in the dunya is actually a spiritually driven passion.

•  يكاد زيتها يضيئ : wants to catch light (the Ruh wants to return to the light of Allah)

•  لم تمسسه نار : no fire touched it! aka This lamp doesn’t burn on fire...it’s just pure

  light!

• نور  When the light of Allah’s message meets the light within our hearts, you get

  Light upon Light على نور

•  لنوره : the ل illustrates the idea of going “ALL the way to His light.” Meaning Allah

  will guide you until the Ruh can see Allah again.

•  للناس : Allah gave this intricate example for us, not for Himself! The professor

  doesn’t need the example, the students do!

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