Teachings from the Qur’an and Sunnah in summary

As-salamu alaykum wa RahmatuLlah wa Barakatuhu.

I hope we are all fine. In shaa Allah we will start our presentation soon

In the Name of Allah, the Most Gracious the Most Merciful

The best of Praises belong to Allah the Most Gracious the Most Merciful. The Most Gracious the Most Merciful. Master of the day of Judgement. You alone we worship and You alone we ask for help. Guide us upon the straight path, the path of those whom you have favoured and not that of those who have incurred Your Wrath nor of those who have gone astray. Aameen.

We ask Allah to shower upon His Noble Prophet SAW, His saluations, peace and Blessing. We ask Him to bestow the Same upon the household of the Prophet SAW, his companions and all those who help on the path of Allah till the day when there shall be no shade except the shade of Allah SWA.

Indeed we should count ourselves favoured by Allah if we find ourselves in a program like this to learn about the religion of Allah and to empower ourselves with that which will help to perfect our worldly affairs and also our religious affairs.

Servants of Allah, the topic of discussion today is “Teachings from the Qur’an and Sunnah.” We ask Allah to make ease our presentation and also grant us the maximum understanding in order to assimilate whatever will be said and to be also to propagate it. May He forgive us our sins and also the mistakes we might commit in the due course of our presentation. Aameen.

Verily, the ideal way of life of a muslim is governed by the Qur’an and the Sunnah of the Prophet SAW. Everything that we need in this world and in the hereafter has been taught to us by Allah and His Messenger SAW in the Qur’an and through the Sunnah of the Prophet SAW. So when I was given this topic, I was at a loss on how to tackle it. Because the entire Qur’an is filled teachings. From Fatiha to Naas. And if we are to talk of teachings from the Qur’an then we are actually referring to taking the surahs one after the other and then learn what each surah teaches and virtually treating the tafseers of the surahs, which we are not yet qualified to do.

Humans, as Allah SWA created us, are all different. We all come from different places and we are all faced by different situations. And that is the reason why I pray that, irrespective of what we learn from the Qur’an through our discussion today, it will have an impact in the lives of all those who are taking part on this presentation.

Allah the Most High started surah al Baqara with the following, “Alif, Lam, Mim. This is the book about which there is no doubt, a guidance for those conscious of Allah.”

Allah the Sublime, says about the Qur’an which He sent down to our Noble Prophet Muhammad the son of AbduLlah, SAW, that indeed the Qur’an, the Book of Allah, the Apogee of all revelations, the summary and yet more comprehensive version of previous revelations, is a book that contains no doubt.

That this Qur’an is a book which presents no doubt to those who read it. It presents no doubt to anyone who comes across it and ponders about. So here comes a question? What if a person reads a portion of the Qur’an and does not understand it, isn’t this a doubt that has been casted upon this person?

The answer to this question is that, misunderstanding is different from doubt. A person can understand something and still doubt it. With the Qur’an, the fact that a person reads a part and does not understand it does not mean there is a mistake in the Qur’an. If this person is willing to know the truth he would ask and will get an answer. And that is one of the reasons why Allah places in every generation someone who understands the religion of Allah very well and will teach it those of us who will not understand according the words of our noble Prophet SAW. So definitely, the Qur’an is book which was revealed to an unlettered man, who is the best man to be ever created and it is filled with absolute truth and accuracy in all senses. But Allah does not end there.

Allah continues. What does Allah continue with? Allah continues with the reason why the Qur’an was revealed. He continues with the reason why indeed the Qur’an is book with no doubts, with no errors. Allah says, “a guidance for those conscious of Allah”

In some translations which is often used the word pious is used in substitution for the statement “conscious of Allah”.

And who are the pious people servants of Allah.           

In the most basic of explanations, the pious are those who obey the commandments of Allah and His Messenger and stay away from the Prohibitions of Allah and His Messenger. But there certain characteristics which are used to describe the pious in the Qur’an and also in the Sunnah of our Noble Prophet SAW. If one finds himself possessing some or all of these characters then he should thank Allah and know that he is threading in the right path withoiut any shred of arrogance or pride.

 

Allah says, “[those] who believe in the unseen, establish salah and spend out of what We have provided for them.”

When we say that a person is pious what do we mean by that. Such a person must believe in the unseen. The unseen are matters that are known to only Allah. You believe that it is only Allah who has knowledge of the unseen. You believe that there is life after death. And that the torment of the grave is true. These are some of the matters of the unseen. After that you establish salah.

Salah is the most important act of worship in the religion of Allah. Among the pillars of Islam, salah comes next to testifying that there is no deity worthy of worship except Allah and that Muhammad SAW is His servant and Messenger. On the day of Qiyamah if a servants salah is perfect or deemed appropriate by Allah SWA then all his deeds will be deemed appropriate.

Salah is one the places and situations that Allah does not reject the prayer of a servant. But that is only when we give the salah its due rights. In our previous presentation entitled how to attain the Mercy of Allah that the Prophet SAW is reported to have said that Allah the Sublime said, I have divided Salah between me and My servant into two.

When My Servant says, The Best of Praise Belongs to Allah the Lord of the Universe, Allah says, My servant has praised me. When My servant says, the Most Gracious the Most Merciful, Allah SWA says, My servant has Exalted me. When My Servant says, Master of the Day of Judgement, Allah SWA says, My servant has Glorified me. And when My servant says, You alone we worship and You alone we ask for help, Allah SWA says, this is between me and My Servant and I have granted for My Servant whatever he will ask.

But servants of Allah, this conversation between Allah and His servant can only occur when you give your salah its rights. And this favour can only be gotten by those who pious.

Allah then says, “and they spend out of what We have provided for them..”

We are still talking about those who are conscious of Allah SWA, those who are pious. May Allah make us among them. Allah says they are those who spend out of what He has provided for them.

Servants of Allah we live in an era in which people only give Allah SWA when they have excess money of wealth to spend. People only give in the path of Allah only when they consider themselves to be rich. When people give out to Allah only when they are in difficulties and need something from Allah.

Servants of Allah, Allah is telling us that those who are indeed and actually conscious of Allah and are the true pious servants are those who give, those who spend out of what Allah has provided for them, whether what Allah has provided for them is more or very small, whether they are in need or not, whether they are rich or very poor that they don’t know where their next meal will come from. These are the people Allah SWA is talking about. These are the true pious servants. May Allah make us amongs them.

To cap off our lesson from the Qur’an which is basically talking about the pious servants of Allah I will like to make mention of the verse of Allah in which Allah SWA says about His conscious servants,

“And those who, when they commit an immorality or wrong themselves[by transgression], remember Allah and seek forgiveness for their sins- and who can forgive sins except Allah?...”

Allahu Akbar.

Allah is talking about His pious servants again. But these servants committed immoralities. These servants wronged themselves. These servants went against the commandments of Allah but how come Allah describes them among those whom He SWA considers to be pious.

This is the reason. These servants of Allah remembered Allah SWA whiles they were engrossed in disobeying Him. They remembered Allah whiles committing immoralities. They remembered Allah whiles they were committing acts that would lead them to Jahannam and what did they do when they remembered Allah. These servants sought for forgiveness. And who forgives sins lest Allah.

May Allah make us among His pious servants. And May He grant us Jannah. Servants of Allah due to unavailability of time to make adequate preparations I will end here and we pray to Allah to make us beneficiaries of whatever we have learnt. As-salamu alaykum wa RahmatuLlah wa Barakatuhu.