Quran Study 21 Jan 1983 By Dr Rashad Khalifa
Transcript
0:01 What's wrong with that? Why can't it work in American English?
0:07 But our people, our relatives, the Syrians, practice this.
0:12 Literally, you know, in Damascus when they hang, up to now in Damascus, during my father's time,
0:19 when a man is hung, they actually write his record on a big piece and they hang it on his neck.
0:28 Up to now,
0:29 and during my father's time,
0:31 the plaque on his neck was hung,
0:32 and they wrote on it,
0:34 and put a big plaque around his neck,
0:37 his whole record,
0:38 not for him to read but for others to read,
0:41 and they hang it.
0:42 They actually hang it on his neck.
0:44 And they hang it up to now.
0:46 As a matter of fact,
0:48 during my father's time, we saw it.
0:51 So that's what
0:52 the 'Ta'iruhu fi 'unuqihi' is.
0:53 They take it literally.
0:56 LITERALLY!
0:59 Like you said.
1:04 Can you think of an idiom, an American idiom?
1:07 Idiom?
1:08 What was it, "hit the nail on the head"?
1:10 Oh, I think you want to answer this one.
1:13 Idiom.
1:15 Which one?
1:16 Idiom?
1:17 Or something like that.
1:24 And then we have, for example,
1:26 "given his record behind his back."
1:39 like "raining cats and dogs."
1:41 It doesn't really rain cats and dogs.
1:43 But you do get the record behind your back
1:45 if you have a bad record.
2:00 Oh yeah.
2:03 The reality is everybody will be in Hell,
2:06 initially,
2:08 because God will not be there.
2:10 In the absence of God...
2:12 the absence of God is Hell.
2:14 So, then God comes and becomes Heaven for the believers and becomes a worse Hell for
2:22 the disbelievers.
2:26 Yeah.
2:26 Yeah.
2:29 Right.
2:36 You don't have to prove it, prove it, prove it.
2:39 Oh, everybody is.
2:41 Even Jesus, and Muhammad, and Moses.
2:47 Yeah.
2:49 Everybody.
2:51 Everybody is in Hell first.
2:58 It is not a pun. It is actually...
3:02 Let me explain this point a little bit. We are told...
3:07 We are told that this initial Hell will serve to make you appreciate Him.
3:20 because you will not appreciate the good thing unless you know what the bad thing is like.
3:34 But you see, Hell is not what they picture to you, the fire and the flames for you.
3:40 The terrible fate, but the terrible thing about it is eternity and hopelessness.
3:45 So that initial Hell is not eternal, and it is not hopeless.
3:51 That's why Arik and I were suggesting to stay two years.
3:54 What would you say?
3:56 We'll pass through now.
3:57 We'll pass.
3:57 No, I won't stay.
3:58 We'll pass by it.
4:00 Go to see some things, and stay?
4:02 Exactly.
4:02 You know, or work from that place.
4:04 We'll be transients.
4:06 Like we are.
4:10 Just a transient camp, instead of...
4:13 May I just mention something? May I mention something in the famous Nicene Creed, which was written in the Council of Nicaea.
4:24 It says that, talking about Jesus Christ as part of the belief,
4:30 Then He descended into Hell, and then ascended into Heaven. It's very fancy.
4:38 What is this one?
4:39 The Apostles' Creed, I think. That's the one that has how he...
4:45 Jesus Christ and so and so, then He descended into Hell, and then He ascended into Heaven.
4:51 Which is very, very parallel. It's really close to that.
4:57 You can see that verse.
5:02 Yes.
5:03 Yes.
5:08 71.
5:10 Yes.
5:12 So, initially we all go in.
5:15 Every single one
5:16 of you will initially enter
5:18 therein.
5:20 This is an inevitable matter decreed by the
5:22 Lord.
5:23 It is written in a most powerful
5:26 word in Arabic.
5:32 Hatman. Inevitable.
5:33 Maqdiyyan. A manifest decree by God.
5:37 Some will be taken out.
5:38 I remember.
5:42 We have to read the next verse,
5:44 72.
5:45 Then we save those who work righteousness.
5:48 And we leave the wicked.
5:50 They will be humiliated.
5:58 it only makes sense because
6:00 the sequence of events in the Hereafter
6:02 is that you will be resurrected first.
6:07 Now when you are resurrected
6:09 and God is not there physically,
6:10 then God comes
6:12 differently.
6:14 So the period of absence
6:16 of God's physical presence
6:18 is Hell.
6:25 The Purgatory will be for people who didn't make it to Heaven and didn't make it to Hell.
6:34 People who said La ilaha illallah like a year and a half before they died.
6:40 They didn't get the chance to grow.
6:43 No.
6:43 It's fame-seeking.
6:45 It's hypocritical.
6:47 No, hypocrites will be the fuel of Hell.
6:49 Hypocrisy is not a factor.
6:52 And there is no revision of that.
6:54 Insha'Allah.
6:55 But not one of them is there.
6:58 But those people are, according to the Quran, they have powers of discernment because they
7:03 know they can recognize.
7:04 They know who are the ones.
7:07 Yeah, everybody recognizes everybody.
7:09 No, no, I'm talking about this particular one.
7:10 The Purgatory.
7:11 The Purgatory.
7:12 On the A'raf, they know by the marks of certain people,
7:16 they can tell who are frustrated, and they know the others by their marks,
7:20 So they are people of discernment.
7:23 I don't know if that's the word that you use,
7:24 there are people who have discernment.
7:30 Everybody will recognize everybody, by the way, by their look.
7:37 I don't know if you can tell.
7:41 I'm aware of the flow, but,
7:42 I don't know if you can tell.
7:47 It depends on where you're from,
7:49 and if you have a hill
7:53 or a hill itself that goes down there,
7:56 it's going to go straight down.
8:07 they will sneak into Heaven.
8:13 but they will suffer even worse
8:15 from the presence of God.
8:17 The baby soul
8:20 suffers more in the presence of God
8:24 in Heaven.
8:25 So when they sneak up to Heaven
8:27 and become closer to God, they cannot stand it.
8:30 They shatter, and they go back, voluntarily, they go back to Hell.
8:35 The nearness to God is so bright, so they sneak back again.
8:37 They will spend an eternity in this way.
8:42 They keep hoping that maybe when they come closer to God,
8:45 they will be able to stand it, but they can't, and they go back.
8:49 So it breaks the monotony for them.
9:00 They will spend an eternity circulating between hell and a worse hell, which is heaven. That sounds
9:11 ironic, isn't it?
9:15 So that's why when the time comes, the people whose souls have grown will enjoy being in heaven
9:21 automatically.
9:22 And the ones whose souls were shrunken and small, they suffer terribly.
9:29 It was worse than hell. Worse than hell. And the proof is that they prefer to go on and
9:37 go back to hell.
9:43 No one could argue with the fact of it.
10:04 Yes, Abdullah, we'll come to you.
10:20 You're also Abdullah, aren't you?
10:23 We're all Abdullah.
10:46 When all of them combine against you and your plan, you should realize that you are on the right way.
10:58 I guess the main idea here is
11:04 that every believer is in some kind of a trial, or is shunned.
11:20 Because the thing is, we have to live with the one truth.
11:32 And the thing is, we should know that, you know, maybe we are not going to see one another again.
11:52 He was a great believer, despite that, he was still... so, I didn't think that, you know, he...
12:01 And, um, the others too, well, I didn't get to know them, but, uh, and he was, he made some kind of good, and he just... he just did. Uh, well, the rest of us were on it, you know, all the time.
12:21 But I'm sure that every believer will have some kind of miracle in their life, just for themselves, to build their belief.
12:39 Just as it was in the past.
12:46 In the past, they used to have those outward works.
12:51 We used to see for ourselves.
12:54 We used to see for ourselves.
12:55 We used to see for ourselves.
13:00 It can be a miracle that is perceived by everybody in this community, you know,
13:06 it can be a sign of hope or something.
13:10 It can be a sign or a miracle.
13:12 It can be a sign of hope.
13:16 Or it can be a spiritual thing.
13:21 Not necessarily a divine sign here,
13:23 but it could be something that... it could be a miracle for the person.
13:31 I got a letter from a graduate school in New York City, I got a letter from...
14:03 The question here was, "Do you not believe?"
14:08 Of course, Abraham does believe.
14:12 But he wanted his heart to be at ease.
14:15 We had a very good example of that growth here.
14:21 We were very fortunate
14:23 when we had the unique, great fortune
14:27 of having the miracle of the Quran come out of this mosque
14:32 in the whole world, proving that every word
14:37 of this Quran is from God.
14:41 A very, very unique, great,
14:45 very humbling discovery, and we are...
14:49 we didn't realize how great it was in this mosque, but
14:52 I guess we do now. We do realize how great it is.
14:57 But, I'm sure each one of you met people who say, when we believe the Quran is from God, we don't need this.
15:06 So now what they're saying, we are better than Abraham, we don't need the reassurance.
15:12 We did believe in the Quran from God before the discovery of this miracle in the Quran.
15:18 But when we saw it, our faith was strengthened greatly.
15:22 In Sura 74 and Sura 98, God says this is to strengthen the faith of the believers.
15:30 Our faith was strengthened.
15:35 So this example here of Abraham asking and needing reassurance, means that sincere
15:43 believers need reassurance, and require reassurance.
15:50 But there was nothing wrong with it.
15:53 Also the bird miracle was an actual incident
15:56 where Abraham took four birds
16:01 and studied the markings on the birds.
16:07 And then he cut the birds in pieces
16:09 and put one piece on the top of each hill.
16:13 Far, far apart.
16:15 And when he called them,
16:17 God actually put the birds together.
16:22 The same principle applies to the martyrs; of course God has the angels do that,
16:30 He doesn't have to do it Himself; it's all done by His command.
16:36 So this is an actual incident, showing resurrection of the dead, and the verse before this too.
16:45 Remember the one God resurrected from death after 100 years.
16:54 The belief in resurrection is very important.
16:59 It is required along with belief in God.
17:09 So, we're going to quit now, but I want to remind you that, as we will see throughout
17:18 the verses of the Quran, it is very important that we develop our soul and let it grow.
17:24 The more your soul grows, the higher is your rank for eternity.
17:33 And one of the most intensive worships that make you grow, is the dhikr at dawn.
17:45 It's really a shame to sleep through it, when there's a shift change going on right at this time,
17:51 between night and day. So don't sleep through it. It is a blessing. It's not a terrible chore, you know, to just
18:03 wake up and come to the Masjid at 6 o'clock in the morning. It's a very pleasant thing.
18:08 We are going to institute that. The commemoration in a group is also very effective, because
18:24 when one person in the group next to you is uplifted, all of us feel it.
18:32 Also, there will be a little change to the program. We used to study Arabic after the Fajr prayer.
18:40 But the point was made that after the Fajr prayer we are very high
18:48 and the Arabic lessons are really a let-down.
18:52 It's like crashing down from very high.
18:56 So we're going to move the Arabic language lessons
18:58 to before the Quranic study and lecture.
19:02 So the people who want to study Arabic will come.
19:05 This is not
19:08 to say that studying Arabic is inferior to being a Quranic student.
19:11 Tomorrow there will be no Arabic lessons,
19:13 as Rukhansa has a full day at work.
19:16 Mm-hmm.