 As-salamu alaikum warahmatullahi ta'ala wa barakatuh This is Faraz Rabani from Seekers Guidance for our weekly Thursday sessions on Reflections from the Quran for the MCC Community and today I wanted to touch upon one of my very favorite verses or very favorite sets of verses in the Quran from Surah Al-Hadeed verses 15-21 and these are a call for us to wake up and they've always struck me very deeply from Surah Al-Hadeed verses 16 onwards ألم يأني للذين آمنوا أن تخشع قلوبهم لذكر الله has the time not come for those who believe that their hearts become reverent to the remembrance of Allah وما نزل من الحق and that which has come down of the truth ولا يكونك الذين أوتوا الكتاب من قبل فطال عليهم الأمد فقست قلوبهم has the time not come for those who believe for their hearts to become reverent to the remembrance of Allah and that which has come down of the truth and that they not be like those who were granted the book before them and the time became long and their hearts became hard وَكَثِيرٌ مِنُونَ فَاَسِقُونَ and many of them are indeed corrupt it has the time not come is it not the time now for those who believe that those who have attained belief those who realise the gift that is faith the gift that is guidance for their hearts to become reverent to the remembrance of Allah to become truly humbled to become truly realised when and I'm saying this first and foremost to myself when will we go from just going about the matters of deen from one deen activity to another deen activity to do this and do that to truly become humbled before Allah to become reverent before Allah to truly be with Allah to achieve that stillness that comes with being with Allah and how does that happen to the remembrance of Allah this is the opportunity of the book of Allah this is the opportunity of engaging in remembrance of Allah and that which has come down of the truth meaning the guidance it contains and to be aware of what has happened to those before us such that their hearts became hard what is it that hardens hearts it is worldliness and that worldliness leads to corruption then Allah S.T. tells us in verse 17 قَدْ بَيَّنَّ الْآيَاتِ لَعَلَّكُمْ تَعْقِلُونَ No well that Allah brings life to the earth after it is dead we have indeed made clear for you the signs so that you may understand No well that Allah brings the earth to life when we look and you are spoiled out there in the bay area but in places like here in much of the world at least the winter is barren there is nothing on the trees there is nothing on the trees there is nothing on the ground but when spring comes things come to life but the metaphor here is referring to the heart that No well that Allah gives life to hearts after their death there is the deadness of lack of faith our hearts have come to life that's why we are gathered as believers fasting, praying listening in concern that life that we find of faith and guidance and spiritual good that is by the life giving of Allah but Allah has made it upon us to fulfill the potential with that is our heart how the example of the good word is like the good tree whose roots are firm and whose branches are in the sky it gives fruit in every season by the leave of its Lord and we have made clear for you the signs both the revelational signs in the book and the existential signs around us so that you may think understand realize and if we understand what matters if we understand that it is worldliness that hardened the hearts of others if we realize from our own hearts that come to life with faith and guidance and good but also just as the hearts come to life and they can die our own life was gifted and it will go Allah connect that spiritual wellness to charity so verse 18 it says those who give in charity virtuously male and female and those who give to Allah a good loan this will be multiplied many fold for them and they will have a noble reward the are those who give in charity consistently those who give in charity consistently unhesitatingly virtuously there are many many implications of this term those who give in charity completely fully generously virtuously these are just some of the implications of this and those who give a goodly loan that's charity given purely for the sake of Allah one of the aspects of that as well is to give a facilitative debt this will be multiplied for them by Allah and they shall have a noble reward the reward is from the most noble and the most generous we could have spent it in this life and we'll get some fleeting benefit we could have given it and kept giving and kept giving and theirs is a noble reward charity those who give is connected in the next verse with becoming of the the gracious the champions of the truth the truly faithful the siddiqun the people of real trueness so Allah says and those who believe in Allah and his messengers those are the truly faithful and here it does not just mean those who profess faith and very often one of the senses of the past tense in Arabic because there is minoun which has a sense of the present and continual and that emphasizes the ongoing nature of an action but the past tense the past tense like here those who believe meaning here it's used the past tense is used for something that is realized those who have those who have believed meaning those who have truly believed meaning those who are truly realized in their faith truly believed in Allah how? by perfecting our faith how long will we live saying we believe we believe but we are heedless we don't feel the closeness to Allah we are not present with Allah those who have truly believed in Allah and those who have truly believed in the messengers how do we truly believe in the messengers by living their message and embodying it the messengers were exemplars of virtue the messengers were embodiments of mercy the messengers right believing in them is not just yeah I believe in the messenger I believe in so and so but to strive to live it and one of those things is when we read the Quran and we come to the stories of the prophets the stories of the prophets are not just for your children they are for you and if you want your children to benefit from the stories of the prophets and people ask for which what series, what book do you recommend for our children to read my answer would be you should be the one reading those stories to your children you should be sharing them with your children yes it's good for your children to read and to listen to these stories but what about you being the point of connection for them by connecting to that example of the prophets but also of course having deeply reflected and sincerely striving to realize the guidance of the messengers because what they are the essence of what it means to be a human being peace be upon them those who have truly believed in Allah and His messengers those those are the truly faithful the faithful and the martyrs with their Lord and the martyrs with their Lord they have for them their reward and their light and their light and those who disbelieve and deny in our verses the companions of Hell and those who have truly disbelieved and truly rejected to believe in our signs those are the dwellers of Hell then Allah SWT tells us that this worldly life is nothing but play and idleness and adornment and boasting with one another and outdoing one another and adornment and adornment and adornment and adornment outdoing one another in amassing wealth and family that this is the worldly life and it and Allah will tell us what is its reality know that this worldly life is nothing but play and entertainment and adornment and adornment its decoration one of my friends would say its decoration and boasting with one another to get from place A to place B you need something you need a mode of transportation that will get you there safely comfortably you don't need all these fancy cars I got the latest model and decided and outdoing one another in amassing wealth and family and all the things that relate to family the house and all the other things like an abundant rainfall that impresses the farmers the plural kufar refers to the farmer because the farmers call it kaffir the plural kufar because they cover over the seeds when they plant them just like a plentiful rainfall that impresses the farmers by its produce and then it goes it yaheej then it reaches its fullness begins to yellow it begins to wilt and then it becomes near chaff its gone and in the end a severe punishment and the hereafter there is indeed intense punishment and forgiveness from Allah an absolute good pleasure And this worldly life is nothing but the amassment the amassing of delusion and this example that this worldly life its this bountiful rain that comes down and it impresses the farmer who is the farmer its you and me who are harvesting in this life we can either sow the seeds for worldly harvest that comes and goes and we won't take it with us or we can plant for the hereafter but this dazzling of the worldly harvest impresses for a moment but at the moment it reaches its pinnacle it begins to wilt and it comes to nothing then Allah says in the next life there is intense punishment and forgiveness from your Lord its waiting all we have to do is to answer all we have to do is to answer and this worldly life is nothing but the amassing of delusion and then we read the last verse rush with one another to forgiveness from your Lord and a garden more vast than the heavens and the earth and that's your own garden that's not the whole of paradise that's just your garden is bigger not just than this world but than this universe and all it contains those who believe in Allah and His messengers that is the bounty of Allah He gives it to whomever He wills and Allah is the possessor of bounty of Allah and Allah is the possessor of bounty of bounty tremendous right so these verses like everything in the Quran give us much to reflect on and I'd remind myself in you to take some moments to reflect on these verses from Surah Al-Hadeed from verses Surah Al-Hadeed verses 16 till 21 much could be said about them a little bit on some of what these verses point towards Allah grant us deep understanding and deep appreciation of the Quran and make us of those who attain the realities of what these verses call to Allah bless us in you in this blessed month and may He facilitate for us all to gather with our families with our loved ones with our communities and may we gather in the hereafter in the presence of our beloved messenger under the eternal with pleasure and love of Allah under the ridwan of Allah that may grant us the beatific vision who Juhun Yawmah faces on that day will be radiant gazing at their Lord wa sallallahu ala al-Habib al-Azam wa alihi wa sahbihi wa sallam wa alhamdulillahi rabbil alayn wa as-salamu alaikum wa rahmatullah