 Bismillahirrahmanirrahim. As-salatu wa s-salamu ala Sayyidina wa nabiyina Muhammadin wa ala alihi wa sahbihi wa salim. As-salamu alaikum wa rahmatullahi wa barakatuh. Bismillah. Today, insha'Allah, we will be starting Surah Al-Rahman. One of the Suras that we all love to read. One of the Suras that shows the blessings, the bounties that Allah Subh'anaHu Wa Ta'ala has created for us. So if we have a look at the last two eyes of Surah Al-Qamar, the Surah before Surah Al-Rahman, the Surah Al-Qamar ends with Indeed, the righteous will be enjoying gardens and rivers in a seat of honour with the powerful Almighty. Listen to these two words with the powerful Almighty. This is so majestic, it touches the heart. But Allah Subh'anaHu Wa Ta'ala starts the next Surah immediately by saying Al-Rahman. So this powerful, the most powerful, the Almighty is the same as the most merciful. He is the most merciful. So Allah Subh'anaHu Wa Ta'ala talks about being mercy in several Suras. And to show that he will have mercy for the Ummah of Sayyidina Muhammad Sallallahu Alaihi Wasallam in the Day of Judgment. And this is one of the promises that he has given to Sayyidina Muhammad Sallallahu Alaihi Wasallam when he said When Sayyidina Muhammad Sallallahu Alaihi Wasallam was so worried about his Ummah, about his nation. Allah Subh'anaHu Wa Ta'ala promised him that we will not let you down with your Ummah. So Allah will have the mercy for us in the Day of Judgment. And Allah Subh'anaHu Wa Ta'ala says So everyone, everyone will come back to Allah Subh'anaHu Wa Ta'ala to the merciful, to the most merciful. We will be there. When we start by saying Bismillahirrahmanirrahim We start with the name of Allah Subh'anaHu Wa Ta'ala. Bismillahirrahmanirrahim Someone might say, oh, how can I, how can I do something good? I made so many sins. How can I, how I feel ashamed to stand in prayer? I cannot meet Allah Subh'anaHu Wa Ta'ala. So Allah Subh'anaHu Wa Ta'ala is saying Bismillah by the name of Allah, get into any action by the name of Allah The most merciful. Ar-Rahman Now what's the difference between the two words Ar-Rahman and Ar-Rahim? So Ar-Rahman is for both believers and non-believers. Even the non-believers have mercy among each other. And Allah will have mercy on them when they do something good, then this will be recognized. But Ar-Rahim is for the believers only. And the proof is Allah Subh'anaHu Wa Ta'ala is merciful with the believers. He shows extra mercy to the believers. So to start with Surah, we find that this Surah has 78 ayahs. And it's a Makki Surah. It was revealed before the migration of Sayyidina Muhammad sallallahu alayhi wa sallam to Medina. And it's the only Surah that starts with one of the names of Allah Subh'anaHu Wa Ta'ala, Ar-Rahman. In the Surah, we will find an ayah that was repeated 31 times and we will talk about that. And the reason that this Surah was revealed, there are several reasons. The non-believers used to say, when they were asked to prostrate to Allah to believe in Allah, they used to say, And when it said to them prostrate to the most merciful, obey the most merciful, believe in the most merciful, they would say, what is the most merciful? Should we obey to someone who gives orders to us? They don't believe. They don't believe in Allah Subh'anaHu Wa Ta'ala. So their word was, what is a Rahman? So this Surah is an answer to this question, Another reason for the revelation of this Surah is that when the non-believers used to say about Sayyidina Muhammad SAW, He is taught by a human. A human is teaching him Quran. So Allah Subh'anaHu Wa Ta'ala answered in this Surah, Ar-Rahman, The most merciful, taught the Quran. So this is the starting point of the Surah. Ar-Rahman, the most merciful. This is one of the most beloved names of Allah Subh'anaHu Wa Ta'ala to our hearts. It gives us tranquility. It gets us back to connect again with Allah Subh'anaHu Wa Ta'ala. We know that he is merciful. We know that no matter what sins we have, we have a merciful God. So Allah Subh'anaHu Wa Ta'ala taught the Quran. The Quran is a catalogue for the life of man. It has everything that a human being needs from birth to death and even after it. So whoever applies the rules of the Quran would be a winner. As I mentioned, it has everything related to man. Allah Subh'anaHu Wa Ta'ala created us the eyes so we should not. He asked us in the catalogue not to look at anything haram. He created for us the ears and we have not to listen to any haram. He gave us the hands so we have to abstain from stealing. He gave us the tongue. The tongue is the only muscle in the human being that does not feel tired. But we have not to use our tongue for lying, for backbiting. So Allah gave us all the bounties. He created us. He perfected us. He gave us a catalogue, a programme so we have to follow in our life. He created man. He taught man the only eloquent of speech. What is Al Bayan? Al Bayan is to be able to express yourself to someone who is listening to you and to make him understand what you want to say. This is your language. This is the language that you are speaking. So if your family speak Arabic, then you will be fluent in Arabic. If your family speaks Urdu, you will be fluent in Urdu. If whatever language the family speaks, then the child will get this language from the environment he lives in. If you want your child to learn another language, to be more eloquent, then you have to put him in the environment that teaches him this new language. So Allah taught Adam all the names, all the names and those names were transmitted to us. Now let's go back again. A baby would learn the language of his family. His grandparents learned the language from their parents and the grandparents learned it from their grandparents. Go back up, up, up until you reach to Sayyidina Adam, who was taught all the names by Allah. I remember in the ayah Allah says, He didn't say the actions or the verbs, only the names. He taught Adam the names. So this is Rahma from Allah SWT. This is a mercy from Allah SWT that he created some kind of communication between people so they can understand each other. And the more learned one is the more eloquent one. So what did Allah SWT do also? He created everything in this dunya. The sun and the moon move by precise calculation. Very precise, so accurately. The sun indicates the beginning of the day and the end of the day also. So it indicates a day. The moon indicates the beginning of the month and the end of the month. And if you think about this, the worship, worshipping Allah SWT, most worships are connected to the moon and not to the sun. For example, if we connect fasting to certain days, then these days will be the same. If it's hot day, it will stay hot, we will always be fasting during hot days. If it's a cold day, then we will always be fasting in a cold day. But in order not to fast always in the same time, always in summer, for example, in order not to go to Hajj always in summer, Allah SWT linked these worships by the moon. And we know that the lunar year is always 11 days earlier than the previous year. And that's why we fast during all the year. It's not just in summer, it's not just in winter. And this is out of the mercy of Allah SWT that he made us, now we're talking about fasting, that he made us fast certain hours, not always the longest hours. So to go back to the sun and the moon, we know that Allah SWT said in Surat Yasin, It's not allowable for the sun to reach the moon. Both never collapsed anytime, they never touched anytime, they never got closer anytime. They might be one in front of the other, but not at the same place. And this is the scale of Allah SWT, it's a precise scale. It's precise calculation. When Najmu and Shajar-u-Yas-Judan and stars and trees follow the orders of Allah SWT. We know in the Arabic language the word and Najm has two meanings. The first one and Najm, the meaning that we all know is the star in the sky. But the second meaning, we call the plant that grows on the surface of the earth, without a stem we call it Najm. So we have two meanings of Najm. And if we look closer at the ayah, we are talking here about plants and trees. In the previous ayahs, we talked about a shams wal qamar, the sun and the moon. Think about this, the sun and the moon are in a pie, the plants and the trees are on the ground. So everything in this dunya was created according to the calculations to the precise catalogue of Allah SWT. Everything is following the orders of Allah SWT. Everything is fulfilling the mission that they were created for. And the heaven he raised high. Do you see any poles that are holding the heavens? No? It's just a word. And it is. And he has set, Allah SWT has set up the balance. What's a balance? The balance is a symbol of something that would give the views to everything. What should we do? We should follow the views. So why did Allah SWT created this balance so that you may not transgress your balance? He just said, it's not allowable for the sun to reach the moon, nor does the night overtake the day. But each is in an orbit, swimming. So there is a balance in this dunya. And we have, we as humans have to keep this balance. Allah SWT ordered us to be so, we have to be so. He ordered us to, to be good. We have to be good. This is the balance. If we follow the orders then we will be, we will be winners. We have to do that. وَأَقِيمُ الْوَزْنَ بِالْقِسْتِ وَلَا تُخْصِغُ الْمِنْزَانِ So establish dews injustice. And do not make deficient the balance. Your balance should establish just always. You should be fair. You should be fair in all your relations. To Allah, to Prophet Muhammad, to people, to nature, to children, to plants, to animals. You have to give every, everyone their dews. And we, when we explain Surah to the Mu'taffifin, when we reflected on that Surah, the Surah started with ويل للمطففين الذين إذا كتالوا على الناس يستوفون وإذا كالوهم أو الذنوهم يخصرون It's wall to those who, who give less than dew. When they take a measure from people, they take it in full. But if they give by measure, they will cause loss. They will not be just. So this is again from the mercy of Allah SWT that he wanted to have justice and dews and rights for everyone. والأرض وضعها للإنام And the earth he laid out for creatures. وضعها means he made it flat so that we can live on it. الإنام is everything that Allah SWT has created and has روح. So Allah SWT has created earth. And there are people in everywhere. And he made this earth huge so that if someone got restrained in one place, they can leave and go migrate to another place. Whether for to seek knowledge, to seek sustenance, to see whether running away from wars, whatever. You can always leave one place to go to another place. والأرض وضعها للإنام And what did he place in it? والنخلو ذات الأكمان The rain is fruit. And palmetries having sheathes. There are dates in these palm trees. So there is food on this earth. And imagine that look at the air. It starts with fruits. Surah Al-Waqarah, when Allah SWT said, Wa Fakihateen Min Ma Ya Taqayyaroon Wa Lachmi Taayyurin Min Ma Ya Shtahoon. And fruit of what they select. And then followed by the meat of their desire, whatever they want to eat. And this gives us the fact that it's more healthy, it's so healthy, it's healthier to start eating fruit before you start eating the meat. Wa Al-Habbu Dhu-Lasfi Wa Al-Rayhan. Allah also created for us grain. So Al-Habbu Dhu-Lasfi, grain having husks and scented plants and the pulps of those grains. Al-Hab, for example, we have wheat, lentil, beans, ever beans. So these are called Habb. Al-Asuf is the cover. So what is the relation? Wa Al-Habbu Dhu-Lasfi Wa Al-Rayhan. So let's take the wheat, for example. The wheat has a cover and it has the inner seed. So when you want to grain it, grain it all. Don't separate the cover from the inner part of the wheat. And that's why we have so many problems with wheat and flour these days. They don't use it as what Allah recommended them to use it. Wa Al-Habbu Dhu-Lasfi Wa Al-Rayhan. Fabi'i ala'i rabbikumatu kathiban. So which of the favors of your Lord would you deny? Which of the blessings that Allah Subhanahu Wa Ta'ala has created for you would you deny? You choose. Here look at the ayah, rabbikumah, to kathiban. So we have dual here. Allah is talking to two things, two entities here. Sayyidina Muhammad sallallahu alayhi wa sallam said, I read Surah Al-Rahman, this Surah, I read it for two, the Jinn. And they answered, they reacted to it way better than you did, you human. Whenever I used to say, Fabi'i ala'i rabbikumatu kathiban, when I got to see, to say, which of the blessings of your Lord would you deny? They said, not with a single one, ya Allah, we deny. We do not deny a single one of the blessings, we thank you. So we have to learn this. Whenever you read Surah Al-Rahman and you pass by, Fabi'i ala'i rabbikumatu kathiban, you should answer, la bi shay'in min ni'mika rabbananu kathib, falaka alhamd, we don't deny any of your blessings, ya Allah, and we thank you for all your blessings. This ayah was repeated 31 times in this Surah. Repetition has some benefits, so what's the benefit? It will remind us of each and every benefit that Allah SWT has given us. Each and every blessing that Allah SWT has given us. Okay, but you will say that it will be mentioned in one of the ayahs that talks about punishment. Okay, how can this be a blessing? This is a real blessing that Allah SWT is warning before he punishes. This is one of the points that shows the mercy of Allah SWT. خلق الإنسان من صلصانك الفخار. Allah SWT has created man from clay, like that of pottery. وخلق الجان من مارج من نار. And he created the gin from smokeless flame of fire. You know that Allah SWT created man from clay and then after he perfected it, he blew the spirit in man. خلق تانت له روح. Now imagine yourself, you are building and you want to demolish this building. So what would you do? You would destroy it from top down. Now Allah created, gave the spirit as a روح at the end. So at death, the first thing that will be taken from man will be the روح, what was given to him the last. وخلق الجان من مارج من نار. And the gin is created from fire. Now you might ask the question, how would Allah SWT punish gin in jehannam when they are created of fire? We as humans are created from clay. This is what Quran says, خلق الإنسان من صلصانك الفخار. Okay, get a big piece of stone and hit someone very hard, would he have pain or not? This is clay, this is clay. So Allah SWT is the most powerful, he can do whatever he wants. He can punish from the same thing that he had created from the same material that he had created with. So خلق الإنسان من صلصانك الفخار وخلق الجان من مارج من نار. What's next? فَبِئَقِّ آلَا إِرَبِّكُ مَا تُكَذِبَانَ وَلَا بِواحِلَةٍ يَا اللهَ فَلَكَ الْحَمْدِ Not with a single one, just thank you ya Allah. رَبُّ المَشْرِقَيْنِ وَرَبُّ المَظْرِبَينَ He is the Lord of the two sunrises and the Lord of the two sunsets. What does this mean? How come that we have two sunrises and two sunsets? Okay, for this we would say, we know that in Surah Al-Baqarah Allah SWT says وَلِلَّهِ المَشْرِقُ وَالْمَغْرِقَ To Allah belongs the east and the west, because this is singular. And here Allah SWT says رَبُّ المَشْرِقَيْنِ وَالْمَغْرِبَينَ The Lord of the two sunrises and the two sunsets. So we have dual here. In Surah Al-Safat Allah SWT says رَبُّ السَّمَوَاتِ وَالْأَرْدِ وَمَا بَيْنَهُمَ وَرَبُّ المَشْرِقَ The Lord of the heavens and the earth and that between them and the Lord of the sunrises. What does this mean? How can this be? Singular, dual and plural. For at the same place, wherever we live. Someone lives in, let's say Fremont. So they know that the sunrises from this side and it sets from this side. So there is one place that the sunrises from and one place that the sun sets from. But when we know that the sun does not rise into a place, except that it sets from another place. So when it sunrises for us, it sets for another people. And when it sets for us, then it rises for other people. This means that each rise has a set. Each sunrise has a sunset. And each sunset has a sunrise. So there are two sunrises and two sunsets. Now, let's say that the earth rotates. So for each second, it's sunset, the sunrises for some people and sets for other people, for each second. So this means that it has several rises, places where it rises and places where it sets. And this is how we understand the singular, the plural and the plural way of saying the Lord of the two sunrises and the Lord of the two sunsets, the Lord of the East and the West, where the sun rises and where the sun sets, and the Lord of the sunrises as plural. So now, Allah SWT is saying, Not with a single one, ya Allah. We thank you. So Allah is repeating the ayahs now, okay? Now, when we have this, when we read the different ways that Allah SWT mentioned in the Quran about the same thing. And when those jinn answered Sayyidina Muhammad SAW, let's now stop for a second. When we read the Quran, we have to interact with the Quran. It's not just pages that we are flipping. No. It's a way of reading that When we pass by an ayah that has Istighfar, then we have to ask Allah SWT for forgiveness. When we pass on an ayah that has glorifying to Allah and thanking Allah, we have to say Alhamdulillah. We have to say Subhan Allah. When there is an ayah that talks about repentance, we have to say, ya Allah, we ask you, we witness that we are repenting. And we want you to accept that. We have to interact with the Quran. It's not only just ayahs that are being repeated. There is something that we have to be aware of every time that we read this Quran. And Subhan Allah, each one of these ayahs that are repeated in the same surah remind you of all the blessings that Allah SWT has created for you, in you and for you. Fabi'ayi ala'i, rabbikum atukadhiban. Maraja al-Bahraini al-taqiyan. So Allah SWT released the two seas, meeting side by side. What does this mean? We can read the next ayah and understand both together. Beinahuma barzachun laia bariyan. Between them is a barrier, so neither of them transgresses. All right, now what does this mean? So the water of the two seas meet together but they don't mix. And this is of the mercy of Allah SWT. Imagine that the pure water, the tasty water meets with the salty water and we only have salty water. How can we drink? How can we live? How can it will be impossible? Take for example, the Red Sea. The Red Sea is open to the Bahra al-Arab, okay, from the south. And this is the only place that this sea is open to because it's as if it's semi-closed sea. Now, this Red Sea meets with Bahra al-Arab in Babel-Mendab Street, the gate of Babel-Mendab. Now, the scientists noticed that the Red Sea, the water of the Red Sea is thick, heavy and because of strong evaporation and the closeness of this, it's semi-closed, the Red Sea. So the water is so salty. So it goes down of the Bahra al-Arab. The water do not mix. And the same thing is for the Mediterranean and the Atlantic Ocean. They both meet at the strait of Gilberta. So the current of the water gushes into the Atlantic Ocean. They don't mix completely. They meet, but they don't mix again. Which of these blessings do you deny? None, ya Allah, we thank you. So what would the merge of these seas, of these water, do? Out of both seas comes the Red Sea. Pearl and coral. By nature, both the pearl and coral live in salty water. They live in the place where these seas meet, where the pure water, where the non-salty water meets the salty water. We know that there are cultured pearls now, but this is not what it's meant. So Allah Subh'anaHu Wa Ta'ala is saying, wa lahul jawar il munshayatuhu al-bahrik al-A'lam. And to Him belong the ships elevated in the sea like mountains. So the huge ships that float on top of water are what are likened to mountains on earth. Think about this area, where there are huge, big ships at the time of Sayyidina Muhammad sallallahu alayhi wa sallam. No, these things were built centuries ago. This is an indication that the Quran is not the words of Sayyidina Muhammad sallallahu alayhi wa sallam. This is an indication that Allah Subh'anaHu Wa Ta'ala knows what was, what is, and what will be in the future. Think, reflect, reflect on what you are reading. Which of the blessings of you Lord would you deny? Naniya Allah. We believe in all the blessings. We believe in all what you have created. We believe in everything that you have done. And we thank you for that. So now, let's think of what Allah Subh'anaHu Wa Ta'ala wants us to know from these ayahs. Allah wants us to think deeply, not just to read in flip pages. The same Surah, amazing Surah, so powerful Surah, starts with mercy, gives tranquility, makes us think of Allah's bounties. So this elaboration on the Surahs, these meanings of the Surahs will get us to understand the deep meanings. And of course, Allah is the All-Knowing. We just do our best just to get whatever Allah gives us of the knowledge. But the real knowledge is with Allah Subh'anaHu Wa Ta'ala. So we ask Allah Subh'anaHu Wa Ta'ala to connect us with the Quran. We ask Allah Subh'anaHu Wa Ta'ala to give us comprehensive understanding of the Quran. We ask Allah Subh'anaHu Wa Ta'ala to guide us with the Quran. We ask Allah Subh'anaHu Wa Ta'ala to enlighten our path with the Quran. And we ask Allah Subh'anaHu Wa Ta'ala to make us of those servants of Allah whom he is pleased with, whom they got the orders of Allah Subh'anaHu Wa Ta'ala and fulfilled everything that they were asked for. This is our class for today. Insha'Allah we will go on next time.