RETURNING TO ALLAH 'PART 1'

Bismillah ir-rahman ir-rahim

Assalam alaykum warahmatullah wabrakatu

By Ustadh Nouman Ali Khan (Quran Weekly)

"Say O My Slaves who have transgressed against there soul! Do not despair of the Mercy of God: for God forgives all sins: for He is Oft-Forgiving, Most Merciful." 

In Sha Allah I will only be talking to you about one Ayah – just one ayah that I feel I will share with you. Those of you that are going to try and remember this In Sha Allah this is Surah Az-Zumar, (Q39:53) is the reference to this ayah, this discussion we are about to have In Sha Allah. In this ayah, there are two conversations. And both of these conversations are really, really important to understand. By the way, in both conversations Allah is talking to two different audiences. One conversation is between Allah and someone who is trying to preach Allah’s message. The other conversation is between Allah and someone who has lived a life of sin and they do so much sin that they have completely lost hope. And they feel as though they are so messed up that at this point they are never going to be able to become a good person again, they feel like they have reached a point of no return.

Once again, there are two conversations. One conversation is between Allah and the one who is trying to send the message to people – a Da’ee – someone who’s trying to preach, someone who’s trying to give good advice or council. And the other is Allah talking to someone who is sinful. When we are trying to give the message of Islam to people, who are we emulating after, who’s model are we trying to duplicate? It’s the model of the messenger of Allah (SAW). When we call people to Allah we try to copy him because he’s the first and the best to call people to Allah.

The ayah begins with the word ‘Qul’: "Say". And its singular. Meaning Allah is saying to one person “Say”. That one person is the Messenger of Allah (SAW). Allah is telling his Messenger what to say when he talks to people. So, remember I told you there are two conversations? There are two lessons? The first lesson is Allah is teaching His messenger what to say. And when we learn that carefully what Allah is teaching his messenger to say, if you and I ever do the work of Da’waa and if you and I ever talk to someone engrossed in sin then we should take this ayah carefully because now we are also learning what we should say to people like that.

The second conversation Allah tells the messenger to tell these people who are immersed in sin – tell them that I am still willing to talk to them directly. What should we say to them? “My slaves” – those of you that have made violations against your own self, those of you that have gone beyond limits, only harming your own selves – I am using a simplified translation to get the message of the ayah across. The first words are: “My slaves”. Who’s talking? Who says “My slaves”? Does the messenger say “My slaves” or does Allah say “My slaves”? Allah says “My slaves”. So the messenger is supposed to go to people and tell them “look what Allah says to who? Says to you. You know when somebody is really upset with you they don’t talk to you? Right, they refuse to talk to you? So you could say you know, that Allah is not angry at you or that Allah might forgive you but you’re talking about Allah. But in this ayah Allah is not only talking to you He’s giving you: Look, He’s talking to you. So you’re reminding the sinful person: Listen, Allah is directly addressing you. Now, when the one who does a lot of sins you know, in Arabic one of the words for that is musrif. Musrif is someone - Allah set a limit – and he went beyond that limit. You know literally, a fence - and you tell the horse to never pass that fence, you train the horse. And when it crosses that fence, the horse is called a musrif, right? Allah sets a limit: don’t do this, don’t look at that, don’t do this, don’t do that, remain within these limits. When you cross those limits, then the - what is this person called? A musrif. The ayah doesn’t say, tell the messenger to speak to the people and say “Ya ayyuhal musrifoon : the people who go past the limits, listen up, don’t lose hope in Allah’s mercy”. It’s not like that. Allah says: “Ya ibaadi: My slaves”, my slaves. You know, in normal discourse, who do you call a slave of Allah? Like that person is such a good slave of Allah. The word ‘slave’ implies someone who obeys the master, who loves the master, someone who listens to everything the master says. Doesn’t it? What I’m trying to get across to you is that this ayah is not talking about people who obey Allah, its talking about people who what? Disobey Allah. Allah talks to them – even talks to them – and says: “My slaves”. Ya ibaadi. This is a term of love and also what they are being told is, no matter how much you’ve messed up, you still haven’t lost your ability to become a slave. There’s still hope alive with you. So much so (that) not only am I talking to you I am calling you by a good name. Ya ibaadi. By the way, the word “a’bd” is used in the Quran for the Messenger (SAW). Subhan Allah. That word “slave” is used for Muhammad (SAW) and in this ayah Allah is using that word to call the person who sins, the person who is immersed in sins. What does He say? ...

(Read on the next post  In Sha Allah)