Sūrat al-ʿAnkabūt, Chapter 29 Verses 1-6 presented on 03/08/15 – Session 1
This Sūrah was revealed at a time when Muslims (barely one hundred in number) were being persecuted for their beliefs. In this session:
- Sūrat al-Qaṣaṣ as a preface to this chapter, and al-Qaṣaṣ as a prelude to the ‘ḥijrah’ (emigration)
- The need for faith despite trials
- The fallacy that faith removes all trials, and that worldly success is a sign of God’s ﷻ pleasure with you
- Tribulation as preparation for what is to come
- The understanding of ‘mujāhadah’ (striving) as a prerequisite to the understanding of ‘jihād’
- The ‘Ṣaḥābah’ (Companions; RA) as role models for the ‘Anṣār’ (the helpers)
- Historically, no nation has thrived that has not engaged in ‘mujāhadah’
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Sūrat al-ʿAnkabūt, Chapter 29 Verses 7-10 presented on 03/15/15 – Session 2
There is no obedience to creation in disobedience to the Creator ﷻ.
In this session:
- Beauty and grace in dealing with parents, drawing the line between obedience and non-conformance
- Conclusive knowledge as critical to avoiding confusion in matters of religious and social obligation
- Recognizing our role in the distortion of social practices
- A corollary example in the need to take a collective stance on facilitating marriage
- The appropriate sense of ‘al-Ṣāliḥīn’ (the righteous)
- The fallacy of freedom in light of the violation of Divine rights
- It is for Muslim society to create an ambiance wherein Muslims can be Muslim.
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Sūrat al-ʿAnkabūt, Chapter 29 Verses 11-15 presented on 04/5/15 – Session 3
Allah ﷻ wants believers to expose their belief and the manifest the Islamic code of conduct.
In this lecture:
- The two levels of hypocrisy
- The ‘tafsīr’ (exegesis) and wisdom behind the age of Nūḥ (AS) and the vast knowledge he accumulated during his lifetime
- The ‘muʿjizah’ (miracle) of Qurʾānic brevity
- The magnitude and quality of Nūḥ’s (AS) knowledge of Zoology
- The ark as a marvel of engineering
- Individual accountability, and the role of society as an aid to life and living
- Moral decadence is the flood of our times.
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Sūrat al-ʿAnkabūt, Chapter 29 Verses 16-25 presented on 04/12/15 – Session 4
Truth evades those who submerge themselves in the pursuit of worldly pleasures. In this lecture:
- worshipping Allah ﷻ as a means of thanking Him ﷻ
- the pervasive phenomena of death and resurrection
- the supreme intellect of prophets (AS)
- the inevitable meeting with Allah ﷻ
- the violent reaction of an intellectually defeated people
- adopting a worldview of ‘tawḥīd’ (monotheism)
- Ibrāhīm (AS), as a shining example of one who was born into a community steeped in polytheism yet making the conscious choice of ascertaining and believing in Allah’s ﷻ Oneness
Allah ﷻ does not need to punish, but He ﷻ has the prerogative to do so. It is from the Absolute and Sovereign essence of what makes God ﷻ worthy of worshipping, unfettered by the limitations of human imagination and the impositions of finite thought.
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Sūrat al-ʿAnkabūt, Chapter 29 Verses 26-37 presented on 04/19/15 – Session 5
The tests of the Prophets (AS) are varied, but all difficult and severe.
In this lecture:
- the blessed offspring of Ibrāhīm (AS)
- the tribulations of Lūṭ (AS)
- the mission of Lūṭ (AS)
- what is legal is not necessarily moral
- the mission of Shuʿaīb (AS)
Lūṭ (AS) was sent to address an aberration in the understanding of human nature. Shuʿaīb (AS) was sent to address an aberration in the understanding of the nature of wealth. Their mission is compared and contrasted with that of Ibrāhīm (AS) and Nūḥ (AS) who were sent to address an aberration in the understanding of the nature of the Divine.
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Sūrat al-ʿAnkabūt, Chapter 29 Verses 38-43 presented on 04/26/15 – Session 6
These verses call out the eight categories of men condemned for their rejection of the messenger sent to them. In this lecture:
- the effects of oppression
- the obscure yet real injustice committed in denying Allah ﷻ and the imbalance it creates in the cosmos
- the similitude between those who take other than Allah ﷻ and the house of the spider, an intricate construction with a strong source yet weak manifestation
- insights into the Islamic theory of economics being rooted in the ‘fiqh‘ ( religious jurisprudence) of it
The breath of ‘nubuwwah‘ demolishes the intricate plans of those who reject it, no matter how strong its foundation may be.
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Sūrat al-ʿAnkabūt, Chapter 29 Verses 44-45 presented on 05/11/15 – Session 7
Sūrat al-ʿAnkabūt (29:44-45). This session has tremendous insights into prayer (Ṣalāh) as the ultimate vehicle that will carry the believer to unimaginable heights.
In this lecture:
- the order of ‘ʿibādah’ (worship)
- its comparability to the natural order in all creation
- ‘waḥy’ (revelation) as a foundation of Ṣalāh
- aligning Ṣalāh with individual ‘najāh’ (salvation)
- Ṣalāh as proof of submission
- the body and spirit of Ṣalāh
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Sūrat al-ʿAnkabūt, Chapter 29 Verses 46-47 presented on 08/23/15 – Session 8
It is part of our belief to prepare ourselves to partake in discussions of theism with members of other faiths. In this lecture:
- maintaining a level of readiness for religious interchange
- the prophetic model for such preparedness, the training behind the success
- the need for an academic response to whatever the challenge of the hour is
- an exemplar of verse 46
- the acceptance and affirmation of all ‘waḥy’ (revelation) as a Muslim civilizational value
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Sūrat al-ʿAnkabūt, Chapter 29 Verses 48-51 presented on 08/30/15 – Session 9
The Qurʾān informs us that one component of the ‘sīrah’ (prophetic biography) that is often-overlooked is that the prophet ﷺ never read, and never wrote. Yet he went on to produce a civilization that read and wrote. The prophet ﷺ is the ‘muʿjizah’ (miracle) manifesting Allah’s ﷻ ability to create something from nothing. In this lecture:
- rationale for the unlettered prophet
- the subtle irony in being the people of the book
- ‘waḥy’ (revelation) as the basis for prophethood
- ‘ʿUlamāʾ‘ (religious scholars) as inheritors of the prophets
- the piety of an ‘ʿālim’ (religious scholar) lies in his learning and his dispensation of knowledge
- reading precedes understanding
- The need of the hour is for Muslims to distinguish between the ‘ḥukm’ (ruling) and the ‘ḥikmah’ (wisdom).
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Sūrat al-ʿAnkabūt, Chapter 29 Verses 52-62 presented on 10/04/15 – Session 10
Sūrat al-ʿAnkabūt (29:52-62). True belief is belief in the Truth, and disbelief is belief in falsehood. In this lecture the following key-points were thoroughly discussed:
- disbelief as a punishment by itself
- the aura of disbelief and its inescapable nature
- the effects of Jahannam upon the damned
- the effects of forbearance upon the guided
- the ‘ḥijrah’ (emigration) as a positive and deliberate move
- both sustenance and constraint are from Allah ﷻ
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Sūrat al-ʿAnkabūt, Chapter 29 Verses 61-69 presented on 10/11/15 – Session 11
Conclusion of Sūrat al-ʿAnkabūt. Allah ﷻ is in control of all sustenance. In this lecture: –
- The Creator at the macro and micro levels
- the shocking sensation of eternity and the slaughter of time
- man’s selective reliance on Allah ﷻ and self-attribution
- insights into the ‘ḥijrah’ (emigration)
- the ‘ikhlāṣ’ (sincerity) of the ‘Ṣaḥābah’ (Companions; RA)
- the worst form of injustice as theological
- reading revelation in the language of revelation
- patience in the face of adversity