Before We Move On To Surah as Saba........

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xbG1LABtjZA

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lJezFjbn-6M

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YvtI0YPhTGA

friends , dato and tansri,

before we move on to surah as saba, let us learn a wee bit more about imam al ghazali aka abu hamid ibn muhammad al ghazali , a mujjadid of his time .

let us listen to shaykh hamza yusuf's discourse on the ihya the magnum opus of imam al ghazali

i love this lecture because it allows differences of opinion and practice in our ugama.

syukur al hamdullillah  , islam is a spectrum.

it allows for a spectrum of practice and leeways within the ambit of 'la ila haillallah muhammada rasullallah'.

and that is a special gift and barakah  from allah.

of course there are people out there though who insist  that  only their version of the ugama is the only unadulterated version of the ugama, and the rest are 'bida'ah', bida'ah and bida'ah.

nonetheless as i always say, i am not going to argue with guys who wish to go thru life with 'blinkers'. 

ignorance is not only the preserve of the idiot class.
it seemed over the last 50 years, thanks to the power of the petrol riyal, it has also crept into the psuedo-scholarly class!

they choos eto go around with blinkers, that is their choice.
this is a free country still despite the utter nonsense going on at the top.

now back to imam ghazali's ihya. 
the ihya is not for the amatuers, that i must admit.
certainly not for nominal muslims who still query in their heads, [ if they have a head at all ! ], ' if allah is fair, why are children still born disfigured? '.
certainly , the 'ihya' will suffocate this class of muslims.
they have to start with muqadam.

it is for  muslims who are serious about their ugama and want to do better.

it also appeals to the  more ' serious deep divers for pearls and gem ', people of distinction, who nurse the idea of flying 'across the sirat ', a possible ' jannah tanpa dihisab'.

there exist levels and levels within islam.

al ghazali in his 'ihya' still addresses the lay believers, but occasionally like 'whales' in the deep ocean, he oftentimes emerges to the surface, 

and that is when the deep divers, the elites,  looking for 'pearls and gem', get their ' highs '.

people of distinction use their days for 'cari makan' to support themselves and their family and to contribute positively to society. 
they start their days with the right 'nawaitu' , to be closer to allah.
they sleep little at night, also to be more closer to allah.

they are lovers of the beloved.
allahualam.

dr nik

http://drnikisahak.blogspot.my/2016/11/all-of-us-can-fly.html


http://drnikisahak.blogspot.my/2015/10/truncated-lives.html

' to the blind eye, the resplendent ray of the sun, only felt as heat ...'

' ya mukalibal qulub thabit qalbi ala di nik

 ya mukalibal qulub thabit qalbi ala ta 'atik'

' oh! the one who changes hearts firm my heart in your deen
 oh! the one who changes hearts firm my heart in your obedience'

Surah al Ahzab....epilogue

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ErHRvX-zaFY

friends, dato and tansri,

in the world of the souls, allah asks, ' alastu birab bikum? ' [ am I not your Lord? ]
' bala sha hidna!', [yes! indeed YOU are... ] we answered, surprised why HE asks at all.

but by time, it has been shown that man , in the great majority , has been heedless.
' ghaflah ' is the order of the day.

dr nik

http://drnikisahak.blogspot.my/2016/12/umrahour-time-for-renewal_8.html

Surah al Ahzab....ayat 60, 70 and 71

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kOu6LQdAZP0     [ lect 32 ]

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ThL7D-NuSBQ      [ lect 33 ]

friends, dato and tan sri,

when you guys speak,  speak straight!; and if you cannot speak straight, then, speak objectively and  with wisdom.

that is the message from ayat 70.

HE leaves us no choice actually.

ayat 71 is still about 'calling a spade a spade'.

elsewhere in HIS book, allah definitively advised,

O ye who believe! Follow not the footsteps of the devil. Unto whomsoever followeth the footsteps of the devil, lo! he commandeth filthiness and wrong. Had it not been for the grace of Allah and His mercy unto you, not one of you would ever have grown pure. But Allah causeth whom He will to grow. And Allah is Hearer, Knower. [ an nur, 21 ]

that is our ugama.

amal maaruf, nahi mungkar

in malaysia in 2016, for 5 years now we have allowed ourselves to be run by a gang of pirates and robbers.

a consequence of not speaking and thinking straight and not 'calling a spade a spade'

it is akin to following the 'footsteps of the devil'.

dr nik

Surah al Ahzab.......ayat 65 to ayat 69

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zPR51MeT-Bg      

[ part 31 ] of Mufti Waseem Khan's     commentary

friends, dato and tansri,

ayat 65 to 69, are still about al munafikuns, and the 'partial' believers [ for want of better term ] amongst believers.

initially i try to put some 'modern faces' and names to these group of important ayat but wisdom stops me from doing this.

suffice to say that these 'animals' are rampant within most of us now who go by the rather trendy notion that they are 'secular humanists' but still muslim with muslim names; liberal islamists, nominal muslims etc and etc.

dr nik

Surah al Ahzab, 33...ayat 61, 62, 63, 64, & 65...'hour of judgement '

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kbW-q0hAhCY    [ part 30  ]

friends, dato and tansri,

ayat 60, 61 and ayat 62 deal with the al munafikun.

ayat 63 discusses on the 'hour of judgement'.

' you asked me about the hour of judgement, what preparations have you made for this hour of judgement? '

'yes! marm and sir!, mr and madam pm, things may be looking too good for both of you. nothing in the world seem to be able to touch you both! but surely all of us, both you included, are under the curse of allah........unless we have HIS mercy' , even with the proviso we already think we already behave quite 'well'

that summarises ayat 65.

go ahead , walk this earth with your nose up in the sky and your feet pounding, continue your missbehaviour, sir and marm!, and we  will see both you in hell, insyaalah!

both of you think there is no accountability....bad for you.

there are many couples like this from time immemorial. too many in position of power and wealth, especially power. in history no one can surpass pharaoh of old egypt in term of power. surprisingly he is  not destined to go to hell-fire along with his marm. 

sayyeditina asiah was a fine believing lady. 
she had that rare distinction of being already named  destined for  jannatul firdaus in the qur'an.
mashaallah!

dr nik

http://drnikisahak.blogspot.my/2016/09/blog-post.html

Surah al Ahzab, 33.....Ayat 57, 58 & ayat 59; On libel, slander, bida'ah... veils and tudung

[  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=D8N0V5iXda4  ]   part 27, Mufti Waseem Khan's commentary.


[   https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IDWuDaVMoRU&spfreload=5  ]    part 28



[   https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HdXrjbcQToU   ]     part 29



{ this is a long one, 3 hours of lecture  }

friends, dato and tansri,

with respect to ayat 58, we do have to exercise extreme care when we pass remarks about the prophet and his sunnan.

a malaysian national leader once mentioned some years back that if 'kelantan's hudud provisions see the light of the day and is practised, kelantan wil be inundated by sup tangan and its river will be bloodied...'

it is cavalier of him to do so and it reflected his relative ignorance of decorum and ugama.

now we come to ayat 59, again on the veil and 'tudung'. 

but this time directly addressed to the muslimah in general. 

we know it is not going to be popular with some of our sisters in islam!

the alternative viewpoint on the ayat is discussed down here, 

even this probably, will not go down very well with some of them.
the problem with some of our sisters in islam  is with their ilm, or rather the paucity of ilm and adab.

let alone wisdom.[ lack of hikmah fullstop! ]

http://www.islamawareness.net/Hijab/Niqab/rulings.html

Surah al Ahzab.....ayat 53, 54 , 55 & 56

[   https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xZuhr89JeFY  ]   lecture 25, Mufti Waseem Khan


[    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=w5V7bJtmHJ0&t=14s  ]   lecture 26

 friends, dato and tansri,

still on housekeeping rules with respect to nabi's household, visitations and most important of all regarding modesty and veils.

''veils? it is only applicable to the nabi's household'', one  senior card-carrying member of our very own home-bred 'sisters in islam' retorted confidently recently to an equally ignorant local secular press.

omg!, where she get her 'tafseer'  or hadith, i dont know...probably from amina wadud,  whom they have, on their own, elevated  her as a 'mufassirah'!
this is the lady who lead mix gathering of prayer in, i think, new york, to the delight of the west.

a severe case of selective myopia.

these angry ladies have to go back to 'muqqadam', if i may suggest.

ayat 56 is about 'selawat' to the nabi

dr nik

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1sfBQf8ODRw

[ loving the beloved : shaykh ninowy ]

Surah al Ahzab, 33...ayat 50 & ayat 51; housekeeping rules for Prophet's household

 

[      https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=00txXxgSNn4     ]   

part 24, commentary by mufti waseem khan

friends , dato and tansri,

ayat 51 and  ayat  52 are about 'housekeeping rules' with respect to nabi's [ pbuh ] households,

some special concessions given to nabi.

nabi is a universal prophet. on top of that, he was also sent for the 'unseen', the jinns; ie his mission was far beyond the scope of previous nabi and messengers before him.

special position of sayyeditina aisyah also discussed.

Surah al Ahzab.....ayat 49 & ayat 50; Mufti Waseem Khan commentary

[  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ftiF6i90LE0  ]   part 23

friends , dato and tansri,

some  'housekeeping rules' with respect to divorce, marriage:

mufti waseem touches on 'khalwatul saheehah'; mahar; gentlemanly conduct expected from the men in  the messy scenario  of divorces etc etc and etc. 

ayat 50 deals with nabi's [ pbuh] marraige

unlike what has been portrayed in the secular press locally and worldwide globally; shariah deals not only from the 'big picture' view but also takes the 'minutiae' in perspective.

islam is after all the religion of 'big things' and 'small things'.....

allah is ya rahman, ya rahim

HE is also jalal and jamal....more jamal than jalal
HE is ya fatah, ya razak, ya wahab, ya ghaniy, ya mughni

HE is ya rabb and ya zaljalliwalikram

and for those of us who feel we are already 'gedebe' enough, HE is 'supersupergedebe'

....HE is ya mutakabbir.

yet HE is also ya latif [ the subtle one ]

dr nik

Surah al Ahzab, 33..... ayat 46 to ayat 48

[   https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4NhyYyYj7bM    ]

Mufti Waseem Khan went on in part 22 of his commentary to discuss ayat 46 to ayat 49.
Ayat 48 categorically advised believers not to follow and obey 'al kafirun' and 'al munafikun'.
Central to the believers is the belief in the 'unseen', the al-ghaiba,

"..Who believe in the unseen, establish prayer, and spend out of what We have provided for them,.." [ al baqarah, 2:3 ]

Surah al Ahzab, 33.......ayat 41 to ayat 45

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KabzCm4_Wbc    part 1

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iAnJJcTAbPI          part 2       [   shaykh al yacoubi  ]

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gskQP8hCkj4        part 3

friends, dato and tansri,

ayat 41 to ayat 45 is all about remembrance of allah,

"...ya ayyu hal lazi na amanu iz kurullah ha zikran kasira.......", 

zikran kasira....a lot of remembrance, not just any ordinary remembrance, a lot of remembrance!

shaykh al yacoubi, globe trotting daie and scholar formerly from damascus, syria, gave a profound discourse on ' zikr'  in oslo some years back .

he stresses on [1] location, [2] constancy and thirdly on [3] focus, for best effect .

let us listen to him.

after al yacoubi , let us listen to shaykh ninowy whose discourse on 'levels and levels', is very related to this important subject of 'zikran kasira'.

in essence, all of us are travelers on the path towards more closeness to allah.

'innalillah hiwainna ilai hiro jion'

from Him we come, to HIM we return.

dr nik 

[1]  [  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hHqrVPZ0Rx4  ]      shaykh ninowy on zikr

[2]  [    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=blJ8neV3wYU   ]

al junayd al bagdadi was asked in a dream by his mureeds:
' how are you doing with HIM sir?'
' all the isharats and the ibarats, the commas and the apostrophes, the small prints and the big prints, in our discourses, amounts to nothing, once you are gone,.....it is the extra 2 rakaats that you do in the wee hours of the morning that count..',........ something to that effect.


after you finnish with [1], and [2], i can guarantee you that you will have to 'break and split' some neurons in your brain trying to comprehend the next lecture, which is about 'stations'  or 'maqam' of a 'traveler', but still closely related to  'zikran kasira' and 'travel' :

[3]  [   https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3UK2v-0IBqk   ]

this is already my seventh time listening to the good shaykh on his 'travel advisory'. 
my relatively 'secularly wired  brain' still cannot comprehend him fully, but what i can, i try to put here in point form....

1.  the 'early traveler in the path to HIM initially begin to notice the incremental 'volume' of his remembrance in whatever form.
2.  then , slowly, slowly, he enjoys in the 'volume' and oftentimes than not,  slowly slowly more and more 'volume' become effortless.
after years or perhaps decades, he is totally submerged by the 'volume'. he cannot do without it.
3.  finally it is just HIM, he sees HIM everywhere, the rest are inconsequential.
success, failures, ease, difficulty, expansion, restriction, happiness and sadness all become the same...all blunted.

he has arrived, alhamdullillah!

allahualam.

Surah al Ahzab, 33.........Remembrance of Allah; ayat 36 and ayat 37

[    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CZQDRjDnfFY    ]  

Part 15 of Mufti Waseem Khan's commentary

friends, dato and tansri,

'was zakirin was zakirot'.

the remembrance of allah tops them all.

astagfirullah; subhanallah; alhamdullillah; allahuakbar; selawat on the nabi.....

a sahabat asked rasulallah, in a well known tradition: 

'is it ok i do selawat on the nabi a quarter of my  time?'

' a little more will be better', answered nabi [ pbuh ]

'half of the time?',

'a little more will be better'.

three quarter of my time?'

'a little more will be better'

'all the time?'

'THAT WOULD BE BETTER'.

imam ash Sha'rani [ circa 1445..], syuyukh, scholar and polymath of his time who, some 500 plus years ago advised his mureeds, to do selawat on the nabi  , minimum, more than a 1000 times a day.

for according to him:

" the heedlessness of our time is imploding.!!, no more real 'murshid kamil' and shaykh around to lead you by the hand, your selawat to the nabi is a useful replacement of that vacuum in ilm and person..... ", or something to that effect.

now in 2016, . 

our collective level of heedlessness cannot be better

let us listen to mufti waseem khan for ayat 36 to 37.

the ayat remind further about zikrullah, about shariah with a detour on faraid [ don't you miss at 28th minute of the lecture please..],  about zaid bin ha'rithah and his failing marriage with zainab bint ja'hst

dr nik

Surah Al Ahzab........ayat 35; Mufti Waseem Khan

[  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QechjvJ8qoU  ]    Part 13

friends, dato and tansri,

ayat 35 is very very special, not only because of its cadence and melodic beauty, even in english and any language, let alone in arabic.

but also specifically, the feminine gender is used, and this is rare in the qur'an.

allah generally chooses to address humanity in the 'masculine' form.

here in ayat 35 of surah al ahzab, HE chooses both 'male' and 'female'.

the divine speech/letters were there from the very beginning, etched in loth mahfuz , time before time.

revealed from time to time, to our nabi, within a period of 23 years during his prophetship, as and when necessary.....that is the understanding of us, ahlil sunnah wal jamaah.

some mufassirun said it was 50,000  years before the earth was formed that the 'event'  in loth mahfuz took place.

i humbly think this is rather academic and superfluous assumption, as 'time' itself is also allah's creation, and man's limited conceptualization of time is only tied to the movement of the moon around the earth and the earth around the sun.

we are very 'limited' in our cerebration,despite what proud secularists thinkers think otherwise.

mufti waseem goes on to discuss each quantum of the ayat:

wal muslimin wal muslimat [ external actions suggesting submission  ]; 

wal mukminun wal mukminat [ internal conviction, 'the hearts', the al qulub , plus the external manifestation of submission..] ; 

wal qhanitin wal qha nitot [ fully devoted to allah; constantly in  allah's obedience ]

was sadikin was sadikot ; [ truthful in their faith ; truthful in words and actions; no pretenses ]

was sabirin was sabirot; [ patience; forebearance; endurance..sabr at the 1st  encounter of calamity ]

wal qhasi'in wal qhasi'at [ humble, humilty,  haya, modesty out of fear of allah ]

wal mutasaddikin wal mutasaddikot ;[ kindness to the poor and needy, sadaqah..... ]

was sau'imin was sau'imat ; [ fasting..]

wal hafizhin wal hafizhot ; [ take good care of their 'modesty' ]....
[ my old tok guru, hamka, is more direct and explicit in his understanding.." laki2 dan perempuan yang menjaga faraj mereka" ]

was zakirin was zakirot ; [ remember allah in abundance...]

all these essentially, in a gist , is to be close to HIM.

that in essence is the pivotal objective.....you want to be close to HIM, fullstop.

all these reminded me of a recent conversation i had with a card carrying member of secular humanism, a long time dato':

' you guys do thing out of fear of allah....what a lowly stance....we do good because of goodness itself! '

a very proud man he is!

there is one young punk, malay chap, [ i have now forgotten his nom de plume, i think it is zuhariapakahnamadiadah ] who writes regularly in the secular press here in kuala lumpur.

he is proud about this motto as well. 

'doing good for goodness itself'.
to these poor,pompous,arrogant and  ignorant souls, to put god in the bottomline, in between the lines, and in the 'underlined' reveal a certain weakness in thinking!

pompous, arrogant,ignorant beings, these people.....

dr nik

[  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FchHD4wGZps  ]......Part 14

Surah al Ahzab, 33.....ayat 30 to 34

[    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wnnSvyjsUIs   ] ,   part 11


ayat 30 to ayat 34, may not jive or sink very well with some  of our present day sisters in islam.
some highly schooled in the west may even opined that these ayat do not apply to the rest of the muslimah, as they were specifically addressed to the prophet's household.

some may even want to seek for alternative , more liberal viewpoints, and of this, there are many so-called ' scholars ' who are willing to dive in and give them one. 
these ' clowns '  or false scholars have no problem with selling their ' ugama' for a fistful of ringgit or dollars.

unfortunately there are too many of them nowadays.

to these sisters in islam, my advice is:

don't be angry with the 'ulama. 
they are just 'doing a job', an unpleasant and unpopular one no doubt.
financially non rewarding at all, but a necessary one.
our nabi is no longer here.
the ulama' are his 'extension', his 'errand boys'.

listen with your hearts open.
if your hears are not yet open, relisten and relisten.
give time to your souls.
please do stop being angry with 'allah'.
insyaallah, allah will open your hearts in due time.
it is all about ilm , ilm and ilm.
even then, if you are too proud of yourself, or too angry, allah may not open your heart to truth!

[   https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5HeguPESlBE&spfreload=5   ] ,   part 12

Surah Al Ahzab, 33...Ayat 26 to Ayat 30 ; Mufti Waseem Khan

friends , dato and tansri,

ayat 26, ....has to be seen from a  historical perspective.

the jews of bani quraizah  and the bani nadhir bivouked themselves in the peripherry of madinah long before nabi's arrival to yathrib.

they knew that 'the chosen one' would be coming 'around that time  around that place' ,from their 'al-kitab'. does not matter that , by then, the 'al-kitab' had been  changed and pliagarized many times over by their scholars and men of ilm..

they were hoping the 'al mustaffa' would be one of their children....but it was not to be.

that was one big disapointment.

their treachery against the nabi and their subsequent punishment shortly after for breaking a vow, heralds  another future disapointment.

centuries of enmity harboured by present day jews against the muslims, whatever  generousity the  later had afforded to them in spanish islamic period, in the period after the spanish inquisition, and well up to the ottoman's time never could mend their collective anger and hasad.

it is in  their collective 'genes'!

benjamin nethalyahu, simon peres and moshe dayan are and were  just re-enacting that centuries of hasad and anger.

ayat 27, 28 and 29, then took a 180 degrees turn in looking inwards towards the muslim of that day.  but not quite unrelated to the quagmire  that happened to bani nadhir and bani quraizah.

with the spoils of war, came problem.  

with better economic horizon,  problems crept  into the muslim's ummah.

even within nabi's  households were not immuned.

....' when you marry me you take a vow of abject poverty '.....

ayat 30 is about levels and levels......

dr nik

[   https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GBY6ca0ItZ4  ]

Surah al Ahzab [ The Confederates ], 33,...ayat 22, 23 and 24

Friends, Dato and Tansri,

We move on to ayat 22, 23 and 24  from here with Mufti Waseem Khan:

[  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Iw8Rxir1DDk  ]

Ayat 22 and 23  underline the fact that differentiate true believers from the al munafikun.
Calamities, trials and tribulations, and possible loss of lives and limbs , separate a true believer from the al munafikun.

In 2016 and 2017, in Malaysia, the tests are usually from possible loss of income and loss of perceived positions. not any where near to loss of life and limbs.
and even then, too many fail and continue to fail these tests!

Najib Tun Razak , warts,carbuncle, odours and all, continue to be in power because we collectively remain muted, and too many up there in the cabinet and corridors of power, administration and learning and ilm....remain silent and happy with their 'cari makan'.

The silence is resounding, it is almost deafening!
Shame on all of us.

dr nik

' allahum maya mukalibal qulub, thabit qalbi ala di nik
 allahum maya mukalibal qulub thabit qalbi ala ta'atik '

[ oh allah the one who changes hearts, pivot my heart in your din,
  oh allah the one who changes hearts, pivot my heart in your obedience ]


..........................................................