5) Quran Study: Surah 56:75, 57 (2/17/89)

Study From Azhar 5, Sura 56:75 & Sura 57 By Lisa

Speaker 2 (0:02) A'ūdhu biLlāhi mina sh-shayṭāni r-rajīm. (0:22) Bismi Llāhi r-Raḥmāni r-Raḥīm. (0:25) As Rishād said, we're starting with verse 75. (0:30) I'll just comment it. (0:34) In Sūrah 56, verse 75, the Honorable Qur'ān. (0:48) I swear by the positions of the stars, and it is an awesome oath, if you only knew. (0:55) I'd like to stop there for just a second, because we could talk about that all night. (1:04) We know now, though it was not known 1,500, 1,400 years ago, how awesome an oath this truly is. (1:15) 1,400 years ago, they could see the stars, and looking up in the sky, being awed by them, as we are today. (1:23) But for us, having the knowledge that we have, we know that what you can see in the night sky is just the minutest fraction of the stars there. (1:34) I'd like to read just a little bit of passage, talking about how big our galaxy and universe really is. (1:49) I don't want to go too far with it, but just to give us a little bit of a feel, again, of how awesome an oath this truly is. (1:56) Because it is a more awesome oath than we can really comprehend, even though intellectually we can try, it's beyond our comprehension. (2:10) Our sun is only one of perhaps a million stars within our galaxy, the Milky Way. (2:16) The size of the Milky Way is awesome. (2:19) It would take us 100,000 years at the speed of light to cross it from one end to the other. (2:26) Bearing in mind that the sun's light travels 93 million miles in four minutes, we can appreciate the vastness of the Milky Way. (2:42) It's 100,000 light years across. (2:46) From the outer limit of our galaxy, how significant is the planet Earth of the solar system? (2:54) Our next door neighbor galaxy, the closest galaxy to our Milky Way, is 2 million light years away. (3:05) These are all established scientific facts that a civilized and highly educated generation is fortunate to know. (3:12) If we go to the center of our neighbor galaxy, can we visualize the planet Earth of the Milky Way galaxy? (3:19) How significant is it at that distance? (3:24) By moving away from our galaxy to the nearest galaxy close to us, we are already talking about incredible distances, millions of light years. (3:33) Yet our universe contains a great number of galaxies. (3:37) Back in the 1950s, Shane and Wharton drew the first map of the universe and its galaxies. (3:44) One thousand galaxies were surveyed then. (3:48) And since then, scientists have discovered one billion galaxies, more than a million times what was known 30 years ago. (4:00) Can you imagine the vastness of our universe with its billion galaxies and billion trillion stars? (4:06) We are now talking about billions of light years within our universe. (4:10) Have you lost track of our planet Earth? (4:18) How significant is our planet Earth? (4:35) It is very important to keep this size and our significance, or perspective, in order to appreciate the significance or insignificance of teeny creatures who inhabited this planet for a brief period of time. (4:52) And then we have one of the psalms. (4:55) This is from Psalm 8. (4:58) When I behold your heavens, the work of your fingers, the moon and stars which you set in place, what is man that you should be mindful of him, or the son of man that you should care for him? (5:17) And yet we get up in the morning and we think, we're so important. (5:23) This is truly an awesome oath. (5:25) And God is swearing, I swear by the provision of the stars, and it is an awesome oath if you only knew. (5:35) This is an honorable Quran, and a perfectly preserved book. (5:40) None can touch it except the righteous. (5:43) It is a revelation from the Lord of the Universe. (5:48) We have in our hands the only thing that we need. (5:54) God has blessed us with this incredible blessing. (5:57) This is our roadmap back to God. (6:01) And we know that it is an honorable Quran, and it has been perfectly preserved. (6:09) We in this mosque know that better than any people on earth. (6:14) We've been incredibly blessed, incredibly blessed. (6:21) The miracles continue to come, flooding us, absolutely flooding us. (6:29) Showing with no uncertainty, in no uncertain terms, that this book is perfectly preserved. (6:36) And that not only is it perfectly preserved, but it is so incredibly coded that there is no way that any human being could have even approached, to the slightest degree, approached writing even one's own. (6:52) It's beyond us, truly, for me. (6:56) And we know now also that none can touch it except the righteous. (7:01) What does that mean? (7:02) I mean, that doesn't mean physically touch it, but it means that no one can get from this Quran unless they are righteous, unless they are truly seeking God. (7:12) And beyond that, and more importantly for us at this point, we know that no one could discover this miracle without being righteous. (7:21) There is no way. (7:22) This miracle is as awesome as anything we can imagine. (7:27) God has already sworn by the position of the stars that this is enough. (7:33) This Quran is honorable and it is perfectly preserved. (7:36) And that is, it's overwhelming. (7:40) It's absolutely overwhelming. (7:42) So we know, first of all, we know that this Quran has been preserved, but we also are given very clearly, the strongest of proofs, that the discoverer of this Quran is indeed righteous, which is something that, of course, we will all hear otherwise, because that's the way Satan was, so we can all get it right. (8:08) But we know very clearly that this miracle and the revelation itself had to have come from God. (8:20) There is no way we could have made it up, or it could have been tricked from God, that anyone could have tricked God to discover the miracle, any more than they could have tricked God to be the prophet and the revelator of this gift. (8:43) Verse 81. (8:44) Are you then evading this message? (8:47) Do you make it your share that you reject it? (8:51) Your soul will reach your throat someday. (8:54) Then you will look around. (8:56) We are closer to you, to it, your throat, than you are, but you cannot see. (9:02) If you do have any power, you should reclaim your soul, if you are truthful. (9:10) Look at how many people are fighting this miracle. (9:15) These verses, to me, are specifically directed to them, as well as, obviously, to those who rejected the Quran. (9:24) Are you evading this message? (9:26) God has already said that the Quran is perfectly preserved, that none can touch it except the righteous, and yet there are those who say that they are Muslim, who say that they have studied the Quran, and yet they reject the miracle of God. (9:43) And they do it out of ego, because they don't like what it leads to, which is worshipping God alone, and leaving all of the tradition, all of the falsehood, all of the garbage, and coming back to the very simple truth. (9:57) It is very simple. (9:59) It's not easy, until you make it easy, until you allow it to be easy. (10:07) It's very simple. (10:08) And it's very straightforward and clear-cut. (10:13) Those who are evading this message, and that's truly what it is, I mean, anyone who reads this, reads this Quran, has to evade it, or follow it. (10:22) If you follow it, there's no way you can follow the Hadith and Sunnah, there's no way you can accept all of the other garbage, if you are following the Quran. (10:31) So, if you're reading it, and you're still following the Hadith and Sunnah, you are evading the Quran. (10:43) Do you make it your share that you reject it? (10:45) Well, it takes a lot of work, I think, on some level, not to accept the truth. (10:53) You have to work at rejecting the truth. (10:56) And I think that when you tend to do that, or when you do that, then you become fanatic about it. (11:03) Personally, I think that's a lot of what we're seeing. (11:10) And it's very clear from the next verses that none of us control our lives. (11:15) None of us can stop death when it comes. (11:20) God is closer to us than our jugular vein. (11:24) He stands between us and our hearts. (11:29) We know that God is in control of the minutest detail in the universe. (11:35) He controls every atom, every subatomic particle within our body, within the rest of the universe. (11:44) That power is so awesome and so incomprehensible to us that it's probably easier for most people to ignore it because it's too scary to realize that there is a power that is that great. (12:00) And yet we're here to come back to that realization. (12:05) We're here because we did not remember that when we were in God's presence on the heavenly plane. (12:16) And we're here again, as Laurie so beautifully expressed. (12:21) We're here again to try and come back with a second chance. (12:29) Can I stop here? (12:31) Are there any questions or comments? (12:33) Looks like we're good. Speaker 6 (12:37) Is this your Arabic book, actually? Speaker 2 (12:47) Oh, I'm sorry. (12:48) I don't know when the Arabic has a double meaning. (12:50) I'm sorry. (12:53) I'm sorry. (12:54) Thank you. (12:55) Excuse me. (12:58) The footnotes. (12:59) The Quran is by no means a regular book. (13:02) Only the sincere seekers of the truth will be allowed to understand it. (13:06) C. (13:07) 4144 The insincere will be prevented from acquiring any knowledge from the Quran. (13:13) In fact, those who are prevented by God from learning the Quran claim that this verse means that no one can physically touch the Quran unless he satisfies certain ablution requirements. (13:24) Obviously, this distortion is a clever satanic plot to prevent people from studying God's message to them. (13:31) Our salvation is in reading, studying, and heeding the Quran. Speaker 1 (13:38) It's not really touch. (13:39) The Arabic word does not mean touch in English. (13:43) I will have to find another word. (13:47) But still in English, you can say to me that no one can derive anything else from the Quran unless they are sincere. (13:58) But in Arabic, the word is yamas. (14:01) It is different from yalmas. (14:03) Yalmas is the physical touch. (14:06) But yamas is touch in this meaning. (14:09) Meaning that they cannot derive or understand anything from its letters. (14:16) Because your teacher is God. (14:18) When you read this book, you are directly being taught by God. (14:23) As we read in surah 55. (14:26) It's not a regular book. (14:27) That's why you read it over and over a thousand times and you still find new things every time. (14:33) Unlike a novel. (14:34) You read a novel and that's it. (14:36) You throw it away. (14:36) You don't want to see it again. (14:39) Because every time you look at it, God gives you new information. (14:45) In verse 77, the Quran in Arabic is described as kareem. (14:50) In other places, it's called Quran azeem. (14:54) And in surah 50, it's described as Quran majeed. (14:57) Glorious. (14:58) Azeem. (14:59) Great. (14:59) Kareem. (15:00) Honorable. (15:01) So these are actually attributes of God himself. (15:06) And this is awesome. (15:07) To describe the Quran with the same names of God. (15:11) Azeem, Majeed, Kareem. (15:15) It tells you how great this book is. (15:17) Your salvation is in this book. (15:19) And we're really fortunate to be studying it every week. (15:24) Studying the Quran. (15:24) Hopefully you're reading it every day. (15:27) At least one verse every day. (15:28) Make it a duty upon yourself. (15:32) Because it's a tremendous blessing. (15:37) Not one can touch it except the righteous. (15:40) And we have an international observation to prove this. (15:48) In the American Quran that is coming out in this month. (15:52) That it is a miracle that is like the Quran. (15:56) It ranges from the very simple to the very complex. (16:00) Yet, nobody was allowed to make any discovery in this miracle except those who are connected with us. (16:08) Connected with believers. (16:10) Only believers who believe like we do. (16:13) We believe in worshipping God alone. (16:16) And upholding the word of God alone. (16:19) Just look at the people who made discoveries. (16:20) I want to pass this around. (16:22) Let's do it very fast. (16:23) Just take one and pass it on to the next one. (16:26) This is a summary of the miracle in one page. (16:31) And when you look on the back, under other pieces of the miracle, you'll see that the first verse is 19 letters. (16:37) The number of suras is 114, 19 times 6. (16:40) Is this simple enough? (16:42) The first verse is 19 letters. (16:44) The number of suras is a multiple of 19. (16:47) The first revelation was 19 words. (16:49) The last revelation, 19 words. (16:53) These are famous first revelations and famous last revelations. (16:57) And these are very simple. (16:58) They don't require a computer. (17:00) But not a single person outside the fold of believers was allowed to touch it. (17:09) It's a monopoly. (17:13) You look at the people who made the major discoveries. (17:15) Abdullah, Mahmoud, Ihsan, Lisa. (17:18) Many others. (17:20) Firuz, Ma'id. (17:23) These are the people that we know. (17:25) And they're all people who firmly believe like we do. (17:32) And for a long time I was surprised. (17:35) Why doesn't anybody else find these things? (17:37) Because I needed some support. (17:40) It's very simple. (17:42) When you look at the back, you'll see how simple it is. (17:45) From the missing Bismillah to the extra Bismillah 19 suras. (17:48) Is this difficult? (17:50) I mean the consistency and repetition of the number 19 is so simple. (17:56) Yet nobody, a billion Muslims in the world, but none of them was allowed to find these very simple facts unless they have heard the Quran alone. (18:13) They believed in Hadith and Sunnah and they mentioned other names in their prayer. (18:17) But they are not permitted to touch it. (18:21) This is verse 77. (18:25) By the way, in the front you see a very complex miracle. (18:29) In the circle, this was no longer the biggest number in the world because this is already obsolete. (18:39) Abdullah on his birthday yesterday made it obsolete. (18:43) In this circle, the number begins with the first verse in the Quran. (18:48) So if you look on the left, there is an asterisk on the left side of the circle. (18:53) And you see, we start by 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7. (18:57) These are the verses of the first surah, 7 verses. (19:01) Followed by the total number of verses in the surah, which is 7. (19:05) Then you move on to the next surah, 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, all the way to 286, the number of verses in surah 2. (19:12) Then you put the total number of verses in surah 2, 286. (19:14) And you do this all the way to the end of the Quran. (19:17) When you get to the end of the Quran, if you look on the right side, you see this big arrow that says total number of verses in the Quran. (19:23) You put that. (19:25) Now you have a very long number that is, I like it in the metric system, it's one kilometer long. (19:31) And it consists of 12,696 digits. (19:36) And it is a multiple of 19. (19:38) If you go on, if you see now, look on the right side of the circle, in the middle of it, with the big arrow that says total number of verses in the Quran. (19:49) After the asterisk comes the total number of verses in the first surah, which is 7. (19:54) And next to it, the 7 verses, 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7. (19:58) Then you put the total number of verses in surah number 2, and so on. (20:02) So what we're doing in the lower half is we are reversing the position of the total number of verses. (20:07) Instead of putting it at the end of every surah, we're putting it at the beginning of every surah. (20:13) And brothers and sisters, the number is divisible when you go to the end. (20:16) So now, this is a circle. (20:19) When you connect the two numbers, you have what was, until yesterday, the day before yesterday, the longest number in the world, 25,388 digits. (20:29) And that's a multiple of 19. (20:32) Now, what Abdullah did to make this number obsolete, he added the number of every surah. (20:38) Okay, let's go now to the asterisk on the left side of the circle. (20:43) It begins with the numbers of the verses of the first surah, 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, followed by the total number of verses in this surah, which is 7. (20:52) Now between the two 7s there, you put the number of the surah, 1. (20:56) And he did this with every surah, and you guessed it, the number is still divisible. (21:02) It's just incredible. (21:04) And there's more. (21:06) If you put the number of the surah at the beginning, or at the end, or in the middle, it's still divisible. (21:14) So this will be, in the Ramadan issue, the Muslim perspective, you're going to get more and more details. (21:22) So now, I don't know how many digits there are from the first surah to the last surah, the numbers. (21:29) 1, 2, 3, 4, did you count the digits? (21:31) 1, 1, 4? (21:33) Surah 1, surah 2, surah 3, surah 4, all the way to surah 1, 1, 4. (21:38) Do you know how many digits? (21:45) 474, you add that? (21:46) Yeah, I did. (21:56) Yeah, because you're putting it next to the child, you're not adding. (21:59) Just put it in. (22:02) There's a by-the-way miracle. (22:03) 1, 2, 3, 4, all the way to the end of the Quran, 1, 1, 4. (22:08) You put the digits next to each other. (22:11) 474 digits, and it's a month of 19. (22:13) So you put that, you add this to this number, which is 25,696, you add 474, now you have the biggest number in the world. (22:24) And it's out of this Quran. (22:28) 2, 4, 25, 3, 88, plus 4, 7, so it's about 25,800 numbers, digits. Speaker 5 (22:36) And that is divisible. (22:38) Do you put it at the beginning or at the end, or in the middle? Speaker 1 (22:41) In the middle, meaning between the last verse and the total number of verses. (22:46) If you look on the left side of the circle, you see the asterisk, and above it you see the number of verses in surah Fatiha number 1. (22:54) 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7. (22:56) Followed by the total number of verses in the surah, which is another 7. (23:01) So if you put the one between the two 7s that you see there, that's the number of the surah, and you do this in all the surahs, it's divisible. (23:07) If you move the number of the surah and put it at the beginning, so you have 1, 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 7, that's divisible. (23:15) And if you put the total number of verses at the beginning, so you have 1, 7, 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, you still have a divisible number. (23:22) So it sounds like almost a physical impossibility, but it locks every verse. (23:31) Somebody called today and said, how do you know it's only the two verses in surah 9? (23:36) You notice that surah 9 is mentioned here. (23:39) If you look at the upper right corner of the circle, it says total number of verses in surah 9. (23:44) You have to use 127. (23:46) This fellow was coming from Louisville, Kentucky, and he said, how do you know it's only the two verses in surah 9 that violate the code? (23:54) So I told him, because every single verse, what we see here, every single verse in the Quran is authenticated as divine from God. (24:02) Every single one, except these two. (24:06) So it is fitting to mention why God swears by the position of the stars, that this is a Quran Kareem. (24:19) By the way, Al-Quran Al-Kareem has a numerical value that's 68493, the numerical value of this, the official name of Al-Quran Al-Kareem. (24:32) Just to change the subject and make it a little bit likeable. (24:36) Do you know how they count the stars? (24:38) I'm sure some of you do, but anyway, they go out in the night and take a picture of the sky. (24:43) They take a picture, they put it in a computer, and the computer will count the number of stars in that area, in that picture, and there's a formula that tells you what the circumference from the inside of a circle is, and then you can tell from this picture how many are in the whole circumference of the whole star. (25:06) And you do this a hundred times, and then you take the average of the hundred times, and you have almost exactly the number of stars, a billion trillion of them. (25:17) And these are the ones that we see. (25:19) Because if our sun is in the next galaxy, we will not be able to see it, because it is one of the dim stars. (25:28) What we see are only the bright stars. (25:33) This is how we count them, I swear by the positions of the stars. (25:39) Because they are in perfect positioning, perfect orbits. (25:43) They don't crash into one another. (25:53) There was something else I wanted to mention. (26:02) Any questions? Speaker 6 (26:19) Yes. Speaker 1 (26:27) Right, right. (26:28) Yeah, we have two halves that are divisible by 19. (26:32) So what I'm doing here is just making them into a circle. (26:35) Well, the upper half is a multiple of 19, and you have the total number of verses at the end of each sura. (26:42) The lower half is a multiple of 19, and the connecting group has nothing to do with anything. (26:48) But in the lower half, you have the number of verses at the beginning of every sura. (26:53) If you look on the right side of the circle, look at the right side of the circle at the big arrow that says total number of verses in the Quran. (27:01) Below that, you see sura al-Fatiha with the total number of verses, which is 7, at the beginning, not at the end. (27:06) So you have 7, 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7. (27:10) And instead of 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 7. (27:15) Both of them are independently divisible by 19. (27:17) I just put them next to each other. (27:24) And it's because the upper half was a discovery by Firoz Karmali in Canada. (27:30) And he ended up putting the total number of verses in the Quran at the end of the number. (27:37) The lower half is Abdullah's discovery, and the total number of verses comes ahead of the sura. (27:45) So the total number of verses in the Quran fits right there ahead of the whole Quran. (27:52) So I put it in a circle. (27:54) This circle is now obsolete. (27:56) Great, but obsolete. (27:58) We have better circles now. (28:05) Any other questions? (28:08) Okay, back to Lita and verse number what? Speaker 2 (28:11) Verse number 88. (28:16) Thereafter, if he is one close to me, then happiness, flowers, and gardens of bliss. (28:22) And if he belongs with those on the right, then peace to you from those on the right. (28:28) But if he is one of the rejecters, the strayers, then the abode of retribution and burning hell. (28:35) This is the inevitable truth. (28:38) You shall glorify the name of your Lord, the Great. (28:45) Verse 88 and 89, actually all of these verses refer back to the beginning verses of this sura, where it talks about the high heaven, the lower heaven, and hell. (28:59) And we see again in 88 how beautiful the highest heaven is. (29:04) We know, of course, that these are all allegorical descriptions, that God uses allegory because there's no way that we, in our present states, can even begin to understand really what is in store for us. (29:17) But we know from the allegory of the highest heaven that it is truly bliss, and that it is wonderful beyond our dreams. (29:28) God says that anything we wish for, anything those who are in the highest heaven, anything they wish for, and even more. (29:39) So God's grace is even greater than anything we can comprehend or desire, wish for. (29:49) And then those on the right, those in the lower heaven, for them also, it's incredibly beautiful. (29:58) And it's peace, peace to you from those on the right. (30:04) An incredible, incredible triumph to be among those on the right. (30:10) But if he is one of the rejecters, the strayers, then the retribution and burning hell. (30:20) We know, again, that we can't comprehend really the awfulness of hell. (30:29) We have a slight idea because we are as far from God as anything in the universe at this point, and we know how hellish this world is and how awful it is, particularly when you step out of God's kingdom. (30:43) We're incredibly blessed to be in God's kingdom, inshallah. (30:47) But as soon as you step out, you know what an incredible hell that is. (30:53) And that is nothing compared to the ultimate hell. (31:00) This is the inevitable truth. (31:02) You shall glorify the name of your Lord, the Great. (31:09) Mashallah. (31:12) Are there any comments or questions on these last verses? (31:17) This was so beautifully discussed earlier, last week and the week before, because we've had those verses before. Speaker 1 (31:27) Again? (31:29) Who's back? Speaker 5 (31:32) I was just so particularly impressed by the end of the verse. Speaker 1 (31:40) Verses 88 and 89 refer to you, to special people. (31:47) And I say this with thanking God, and God can speak out of God's blessings on you. (31:52) We're a very rare, fortunate and blessed group of people. (31:57) And 90 refers to all the people who died before the age of 40. (32:08) And if he belongs with those on the right, those people would be very happy, because they would go to the lower heaven. (32:20) God knew that they deserve, they do not deserve to go to hell, they deserve to go to the lower heaven, because of circumstances that only he knows. (32:30) That's why he took them at bat, the children that came here to perform a function. (32:36) They were assigned souls that God knows deserve to go to the lower heaven. (32:41) Or they lived until the age of 39 or just before 40. (32:44) But God takes them at that time, because had they lived, they would have been swept by circumstances. (32:57) Which brings me to a point that I will be talking about, inshallah, in the khutba two weeks from today, inshallah. (33:07) Where very quickly, God says, we granted Abraham his understanding, for we were fully aware of him. (33:16) This verse tells you it was not Abraham's intelligence that led him to discover God. (33:22) God granted him the understanding because God knew that Abraham deserved to go to the high heaven. (33:31) And the other verse that I wish to share with you is Joseph, when Joseph almost fell for the governor's wife. (33:38) And then God said, if it were not that he saw a sign from his Lord, then God says, we thus divert sin from him. (33:45) So was it Joseph who was so great that he didn't fall in sin? (33:49) Or was it God that protected him from sin? (33:51) It was God who protected him from sin. (33:53) By the way, the verse goes on and says, that he was one of our devoted servants. (34:00) Because he was one of God's devoted servants, God protected him from sin. (34:07) So what I'm saying is that when we agreed with Satan billions of years ago, some of us were swept in the crowd. (34:20) And God knew that. (34:22) This is what God meant when he said to the angels, the angels said, put them all in hell. (34:27) And God said, I know what you do not know. (34:29) So God knows that we were swept in the crowd, some of us were swept in the crowd, and do not deserve to go to hell. (34:38) This is why God granted Abraham his understanding. (34:41) God granted you the fortune to come across the true message. (34:46) It was to him alone, and opposing his word alone. (34:50) It's not because you're clever, or because I'm smart. (34:54) It's because apparently God, not apparently, obviously God, knew that some of us were swept in the crowd somehow, and we agreed with Satan. (35:04) And we deserve the chance to come here to be redeemed. (35:12) So the people who are taken, like Martin Luther King, taken only a few months before his 40th birthday. (35:19) Malcolm X, being taken two months before his birthday, his 40th birthday. (35:24) And all the other signs that we have seen. (35:27) In fact, if you look at verse 41, where you're holding the book now, you see 41 is the beginning of hell. (35:35) Those of you who make the decision, if you look at the previous surah, verse 41, we know from this circle here that these numbers of verses are designed, divinely designed, for a reason. (35:49) And we have all these mathematical proofs. (35:52) Once you get into the age of 41, you better be worshiping God alone. (36:00) Just a second. (36:01) I don't want to forget what I'm saying. (36:05) So had God left Martin Luther King to live beyond the age of 40, he would have been swept. (36:11) That's the word that brought me to Rabbi Khutba two weeks from now. (36:14) He would have been swept by his environment and his circumstances into maybe mentioning Jesus and things like that. (36:20) He was a pastor in a church, I think. (36:24) But in his heart, and even vocally, he never said anything about Jesus. (36:29) Not that I heard of in his vast amount of recordings. (36:32) He always talked about God. (36:35) So this is why God chose to take him at that time, to protect him from going beyond to this number, 41, and being swept by his environment and his circumstances into Christianity. (36:50) So it would be like we see here on verse 90, If he belongs with those on the right, then peace to you from those on the right. (36:59) And you can be sure that God's justice put these people exactly in the right place. (37:05) He deserves to be in the lower heaven. (37:09) When Satan made that blasphemy billions of years ago, there were degrees of convictions among us that go from the jinns who completely agreed with Satan to the majority of humans who were wishy-washy, to some who were swept in the crowd. (37:26) And hopefully that's us. (37:31) So now Kathy has a question. (37:48) We are the first generation. (37:52) You were not here last week, were you? (37:54) That's what you get for missing a Friday. (38:01) I was just explaining to you why you missed that. (38:22) Okay, you're talking about a very special group of people who will be the closest to God on the Day of Judgment. (38:28) They are very special people. (38:30) And this will be like when the Prophet Muhammad started to preach, well, let's go to Abraham. (38:38) Abraham started Islam. (38:41) And then there were people who were with him when the others would throw him in the fire. (38:47) And then by the time the Prophet Muhammad came, they became idol worshippers. (38:51) Then the message was revealed by revealing the Quran through the Prophet Muhammad. (38:56) And he was secretly preaching. (38:58) And there were people with him. (38:59) Those are very special people. (39:01) This is the first generation. (39:03) And then Muhammad became victorious and he opened Mecca, and all the people in Mecca became believers. (39:08) They jumped in the wagon. (39:09) But they do not deserve the same credit as the people who were with him when he was being persecuted and having stones thrown at him, and he was cast and called names and persecuted. (39:23) Does this make sense? (39:25) So that was a first generation at the time of Abraham, at the time of Muhammad. (39:30) And then 10 years ago, Islam was totally corrupted. (39:34) There was not a single mosque in the world that upholds the commandment to mention only the name of God in the mosque, in the worship practices, and so on. (39:43) And then God renewed the message with this miracle. (39:47) So now we are a first generation. (39:50) And the people who are in this movement, while it is being persecuted and the names and the insults and so on, are very special people. (40:00) Now, 10 years from now, we'll probably have millions, maybe 20 years, 50 years from now, and everybody will jump in the wagon, but they do not deserve the same credit as you do. (40:10) So these very special people will be multiplied from this generation, and after that, when it is famous and successful, and it is the thing to do, they don't deserve the same credit. (40:20) They will not be in the same rank. (40:24) This is what we did last week when we were absent. (40:40) We didn't even know if it was really for you or not. (40:43) We didn't have birth certificates then. (40:45) We were just guessing that the Prophet was holy, and that he was reckoned and given the Quran. (40:51) But it has nothing to do with that. (40:53) It is in the Quran, in Surah 46, verse 53, it says, it's what it says there. (41:00) It is based on that. (41:02) Any other questions? (41:04) Go back to Lisa, Surah 57. Speaker 2 (41:11) Bismillah ar-Rahman ar-Rahim. (41:13) In the name of God, most gracious, most merciful. (41:17) Glorifying God is everything in the heavens and the earth. (41:21) He is the Almighty, most wise. (41:25) Everything glorifies God, whether willingly or unwillingly, because God controls every minute atom and subatomic particle in the universe. (41:36) So physically, everything glorifies God, and everything glorifies God mentally, except the human beings, who are absolute idiots. (41:47) We're the only ones who chose, who accepted the freedom of choice. (41:55) So even our bodies glorify God, but unless we make the conscious choice of worshipping God alone, and accepting and realizing his awesome omnipotence and all of his incredible qualities, we do not, our minds do not glorify God. (42:18) But to him belongs the dominion of the heavens and the earth. (42:21) He controls life and death. (42:23) He is omnipotent. (42:27) And yet there are those of us who do not glorify him. (42:31) He is the first and the last, the outermost and innermost. (42:35) He is fully aware of all things. (42:38) He is the one who created the heavens and the earth in six days, then assumed all authority. (42:45) He knows everything that enters the earth and everything that comes out of it, and everything that descends from the sky and everything that ascends into it. (42:54) He is with you wherever you may be. (42:57) God is seer of everything you do. (43:00) He truly is in absolute control of the universe. (43:08) This verse to me expresses it very, very clearly and very, very beautifully. (43:15) Verse 5, To him belongs the dominion of the heavens and the earth. (43:20) God is in full control of all things. (43:23) These verses again and again are saying absolutely what we've been saying, that God does everything. (43:31) And yet it is so hard for us to accept that. (43:35) I mean, you can hear it and you can say yes, but then, you know, you get sidetracked. (43:44) Oh, if I don't take my vitamins, I'm going to get sick. (43:47) You aren't going to get sick unless you deserve to get sick. (43:52) That doesn't mean you shouldn't take your vitamins, because God, you know, God has given us the vitamins. (43:57) He's given us the medicine. (43:58) He's given... (43:59) But we have to remember that God is the one who is controlling everything, who is doing everything. (44:05) God controls our bosses. (44:07) God controls our neighbors. (44:09) God controls our spouses. (44:10) He controls not only the physical things. (44:13) He controls the emotions, the hearts and the minds of those around us and of us. (44:19) As Rashad pointed out so beautifully, God bestowed on Abraham his righteousness, his understanding. (44:26) Well, God says very clearly that he bestows on all of us our righteousness. (44:29) It's not ours. (44:31) It's not ours. (44:32) We... (44:32) You know, God gives it to us. (44:34) He controls our hearts and our minds. (44:37) If we make that one choice, the only thing we really control is that one choice of whether we worship God alone or not. (44:45) Once we've made that decision, he goes from there, he takes it from there. (44:50) And there are a lot of verses that talk about God misguiding those who disbelieve. (44:57) Well, they've made that choice to disbelieve, and he helps them along in that choice. (45:02) Those who believe, he helps them along in that choice. (45:05) And each and every one of us, I know, have experienced that very thing of God giving us strong signs. (45:13) We've made a decision. (45:14) Okay, we've repented. (45:15) We've made a decision. (45:16) And suddenly, God, I mean, just showers us with strong reassurance. (45:23) It's there because we made the choice, but God is the one who's giving the choice. (45:29) It's all we can really do. Speaker 4 (45:30) Okay, I'm done. Speaker 3 (46:09) That helps. (47:12) You see a flower, say mashallah. (47:25) To plant something tomorrow, say inshallah. (47:30) Before you start anything, say inshallah. (47:34) In everything you've got to think, say alhamdulillah. (47:39) When you see a flower, say mashallah. (47:43) To plant something tomorrow, say inshallah. (47:47) Before you start anything, say inshallah. (47:52) In everything you've got to think, say alhamdulillah. (48:48) Each one of us is happy, a flower, say mashallah. Speaker 1 (50:31) We're supposed to say mashallah now. (50:38) Congratulations. Speaker 3 (50:48) Mashallah. (50:50) Good job.