 السلام على أشرف الأنبياء والمرسلين حبيبي إله العالمين بالقاسم المصطفى محمد وعلى أهل بيته الطيبين الطاهرين الذين أذهب الله عنهم الرجسة وطهرهم تطهيرا قال الله تعالى في كتابه الكريم بسم الله الرحمن الرحيم ولقد آتينا لقمان الحكمة أن يشكر لله ومن يشكر فإنما يشكر لنفسه ومن كفر فإن الله غني حميد أهل بيته الطيبين والمرسلين السلام عليكم ورحمة الله وبركاته كما نتبع with the تفسير of سورة لقمان chapter 31 in the Quran and after we have discussed several points in the early verses of the surah now the Quran finally introduces us the surah introduces us to this figure by the name of Luqman a man who was known for his wisdom a sage of his time who was wise and he gives good admonishments to his son and to people around him and we see that this is the first time Luqman is discussed in the Quran and in fact he's only mentioned in the surah in chapter 31 and as we mentioned in the first session that we had that Luqman was not a prophet but a man achieved what some prophets achieved and that is that Allah SWT gave him that wisdom Allah SWT made him wise and this was a gift that Allah SWT endowed him with Allah says in the Quran و لقد آتينا Luqman الحكمة and we have given Luqman the wisdom what does this mean Allah SWT doesn't say that Luqman became wise on his own Allah doesn't say that the wisdom was something that he acquired as a result of hard work as a result of this and that Allah says in the Quran و لقد آتينا Luqman الحكمة we gave we blessed Luqman with wisdom and as we mentioned wisdom is one of the greatest blessings that Allah SWT can give a person after faith the next thing that a person should ask for is knowledge and wisdom and Allah SWT gave that to this lucky man Luqman Allah says in the Quran و من يقتل حكمة whoever has been given the wisdom then this person has been given خيرا كثيرا this person has been given so much and Allah SWT gave it to this man Luqman and that gift is greater than power it's greater than anything that a person would want the wealth greater than anything this is why Luqman he rejected power Allah SWT gave him the option to be a leader to be in a position of power but Luqman he opted out of it and he chose the آفية he chose what is better and he protected himself so here is a very important point and that is that wisdom and knowledge these are given from Allah SWT in fact everything is given from Allah SWT your wealth, your knowledge whatever you have is from Allah SWT but there are some things that we can see that we have acquired and there are other things that they have a blessing to them so for example you go and you study you go and you learn you could learn so much who is it that gives you the power to understand who is it that gives you the power to comprehend who is it that gives you the power to accept and absorb the knowledge and not only are you supposed to absorb it but you're supposed to give it to others and a حديث from رسول الله صلى الله عليه و آله he says المنور وضياء يقذفه الله في قلوب أولياءه نالج is a light and something that illuminates يقذفه الله في قلوب أولياءه الله سبحانه وتعالى will place it in the heart of the أولياء those who are close those who are attached with Allah SWT ونطق به على لسانهم and Allah will allow that knowledge to speak on their tongues so knowledge is from Allah SWT and another حديث from إمام جعفر الصادق عليه السلام he says knowledge is not only on how much you go and you seek knowledge and you go and you learn إنما هو نور يقذفه الله في قلب من يريد الله أن يهديه knowledge is a light that Allah SWT places it in the heart of the one who Allah wants to guide فإذا رت العلم then the إمام صادق who established the school of knowledge he's the one who the knowledge of رسول الله and the knowledge of the Ahl al Bayt most of it was given to us from إمام الصادق عليه السلام he says if you want to be knowledgeable if you want to be wise if you want to be considered a knowledgeable person first you have to go and find in yourself the servitude to Allah SWT go and become a عبد of Allah then Allah SWT will bless you with the knowledge في نفسك فطلب أولا في نفسك حقيقة العبودية go and become a slave not of other people, not of this dunya because this dunya is what distracts us from seeking knowledge this dunya is what brings us away from our goal one of the goals is to seek knowledge and learn go and be a slave of Allah then you're not going to be a slave of any distraction then you're going to be able to seek knowledge فطلب في نفسك حقيقة العبودية وطلب العلمة باستعماله and seek knowledge by using it some people they just want to absorb but they don't want to give it out use that knowledge benefit yourself benefit your life benefit people around you from what you have learned وستفهم الله وستفهم الله بفهمك and ask Allah to help you comprehend and help you understand more so become a slave to Allah SWT a servant to Allah use the knowledge and ask God for the guidance so that this knowledge helps you Allah describes a group of people مثل الذين حملوا التورات كمثل الحمار يحملوا أسفارة some groups of people who were given the Torah they were not benefiting from it they were not using the light of the Torah to benefit them they were just carrying it and then Allah says كمثل الحمار يحملوا أسفارة just like a donkey is carrying something a donkey could be carrying a million dollars on its back but it won't be able to help it because the donkey doesn't know what it's carrying similarly with us when we have the Quran when we have resources of knowledge we have to try to benefit from them now لقمان he was given that knowledge الله says in the Quran ولكد لقمان he prepared himself to absorb the knowledge but the knowledge and the wisdom was given to him by Allah and we have several stories and in this surah we will describe several of the admonishments we are going to talk about the admonishments of لقمان but first how did لقمان become wise we have many stories of the wisdom of لقمان we have a hadith it says that he used to be a lumberman he used to go and collect wood we have a hadith that says he used to be a shepherd and in this hadith it says that he had a master a master who ordered لقمان to slaughter a sheep for him so it's suggesting that he might have been a slave at one point in his life or he might have had someone who he used to work for so he used to he had this master and this master tells him I want you to go and slaughter a sheep for me and I want you to bring the two best pieces of that sheep so what are you going to bring the thigh, the breast what are you going to bring what are your favorite pieces of the meat of an animal so لقمان he goes he slaughters the sheep and he brings the tongue and the heart so the master he tells him how come out of all of the pieces of meat of the sheep you chose the tongue and the heart لقمان did not say anything and this is the sign of a wise person someone who doesn't always speak then the master he tells him okay now I want you to go and bring go and slaughter a sheep and bring me the worst two pieces the worst pieces that you could find in the sheep so once again he goes and he slaughters the sheep and he brings the tongue and the heart once again so the master was surprised he says when I said bring the best pieces you brought the tongue and the heart and when I said bring the worst pieces you brought the tongue and the heart what is it what's going on are you confused he said no I brought the tongue and the heart because if they are pure there is nothing greater than the tongue and the heart and if they are not pure then there is nothing worse than the tongue and the heart لقمان is trying to send a message talking about my heart and my tongue talking about our heart we have to tame our heart we have to control our heart we have to purify it this is why Allah talks about ونفس قد أفلح من زكاها you have to purify your soul you have to purify your heart and your tongue you have to purify it so if it's good if it's pure it could be the best thing for you and if it's not pure then it could be the worst thing for you and this is the message that لقمان is trying to send of course لقمان he has many words of wisdom one day he saw a man فراءه رجل كان يعرفه قبل ذلك so a man saw لقمان who knew لقمان before لقمان became so wise and someone who was a sage and someone who used to give out knowledge and words of wisdom so the man who used to know him apparently they used to work with one another they used to herd sheep with one another something so he tells him ألست عبد بن فلان aren't you the slave of this family aren't you the abd of this family قال بلا he said yes then he tells him فما بلغبك ما أرى then what made you so great what made you have so much wisdom and so much knowledge that people come to you and they seek advice what made you become such a great person people used to seek advice from لقمان and this is a sign of a wise person you go to someone who has knowledge and you seek knowledge from them and you seek advice from other people so لقمان he answered what made him so wise what were the secrets to the wisdom of لقمان قال قدر الله first he says this is Allah this is God having an impact on my life واداء الأمانة and giving the trust that people have trusted me in if someone has trusted you with something whether little or whether big you have to keep that trust وصدق الحديث and being honest when I speak I am honest I don't lie I don't tell lies to other people وترك ما لا يعنيني and leaving things that do not concern me do not getting involved with things that do not have to do with me so let's go through this one by one first قدر الله لقمان he became so great but when he was asked why did you become great he didn't say it was me he didn't say it was my hard work he didn't say it was my struggles my blood sweat and tears he said this is God he said this is Allah we have to learn from لقمان and this is the sign of a wise person that you give credit to Allah and anyone who right away they want to take credit for themselves and they say I did this if they want their ego to control them that's not the sign of a wise person that's not the sign of a knowledgeable person knowledge and wisdom and pride and ego do not go together with one another if someone has knowledge and they have pride and ego that ego will be the reason that they will fail at one point it will be the reason of their demise it will destroy them so he is not being arrogant he says this is Allah he is giving credit to Allah he is saying God made me who I am if God has guided you if God has allowed you to do anything don't say I did this and I did that because who is it that helped you who is it that guided you who is it that supported you in whatever good that you have done it's all Allah Shaytan Iblis used to be a knowledgeable and he still is knowledgeable but Iblis his arrogance caused his demise Iblis knew everything Iblis used to worship God he used to pray and worship for years and years thousands of years according to the hadith but Allah SWT tells him I want you to obey me and prostrating to Adam here his arrogance came in place and he said you created him out of soil and you created me out of fire and I'm greater than him he caused his destruction so if you want to be great if you want to be remembered if you want to remain then what should you do you have to give credit to Allah SWT associate yourself with Allah attach yourself to Allah SWT if you want any project anything that you're doing do it for God it will remain if you do it for this dunya if you do it forever as long as this dunya Allah it's going to last as long as your lifetime last but if you do something for Allah SWT then even after you leave you will continue receiving reward from what you did and in the Akhra the reward is great Allah SWT gives us examples the martyrs the martyrs who gave their life in the way of Allah Allah says don't consider them dead they're alive but if anyone who did anything for God and is purely with God then this person is remained this person remains for as long as people remember Rasul Allah SWT he's not forgotten Imam Al-Hussein there have been many wars and battles millions and billions of people have died in wars and battles millions of people have revolted revolutionaries but Imam Al-Hussein is alive Imam Al-Hussein is remembered every year why? because Imam Al-Hussein اشهد انك ثار الله و ابن ثارح you are the one who revolted for the sake of Allah SWT so here we learn from Luqman he says it is God that made me great it is God that gave me this power and this position this is one second if you want Allah SWT because we said the wisdom and knowledge comes from God now how does God put it? you have to do certain things one is you have to be trustworthy people have to if they give you something whether little or small you have to have people trust you when you make a promise when you tell someone I'm going to do something when someone gives you something to hold and give it to them when they ask for it back Allah says in the Quran ان أداء الأمان is one of the most important practices that the religion of Islam encourages يا أيها الذين آمنوا لا تخونوا الله والرسول وتخونوا أماناتكم وانتم تعلمون all you people who believe do not betray God and betray the prophet and betray your trust that you have with people your covenants with people you make an agreement with someone and here the beautiful thing we have many narrations that say a trust must be kept even if it's with a good person or a bad person some people they say yeah but this person is not Muslim this person is this and that it's okay if I don't keep my promise with this person who said that the trustworthy and the truthful one by who? by the people of Quraish people that did not believe in رسول الله they did not accept the message of رسول الله but yet they trusted رسول الله they would some of them they would give their money and they would ask رسول الله to hold on to their money and their wealth why? because they know he's a truthful person they know he's an honest person and that's one quality they will give you wisdom another is صدق الحديث being truthful being truthful is very important my dear brothers and sisters be truthful with yourself before with other people because someone who's not truthful yes they might be misleading they might be fooling other people maybe other people are going to believe the lies but at the end of the day God knows you're lying and you will know you're lying and this creates this creates a feeling of cognitive dissonance where when someone is lying they're going to know that they're not honest they're going to know that what they're saying is not truthful at the end of the day someone who's not truthful they're lying to themselves you might be able to fool other people but when you fool yourself you're not going to be happy you're going to know that you're a fraud you're going to know that you've cheated people you're going to know that what you have built whether it's an empire or something very small it's built on lies and lies they're not going to take you so far you're going to get caught one day or another so the wise person is someone who says the truth because wisdom is telling people the truth and telling yourself the truth then they're not going to be able to tell themselves the truth they're going to mislead themselves and they're going to mislead other people someone who doesn't give good advice is someone who's going to give in to the worldly desires to this and that and they won't tell a genuine advice but someone who's wise they're going to give a genuine advice to themselves and to other people even if it might harm them financially it might harm them in one way or another but at least they'll know that they're honest and that is a sign of someone who's wise another point the fourth is he says one of the reasons why I became what I became is because I do not involve myself in things that do not concern me this is something very important some people they have to involve themselves in everything they hear a conversation going on here they come and they have to get it they go and they hear something there they see a chat going on and they have to say something sometimes it's better to just hold back sometimes it's better to just control our tongues and control being involved in things that do not concern us some people are nosy they have to get involved they have to say something sometimes it's better to just watch and listen you don't have to always say everything even if you know you don't always say everything that is known many times when we get involved in things that do not concern us we end up hurting ourselves first we end up doing things that end up harming us so if someone has that habit try to stop that try to control that habit it is said in a story and this is a story that is accepted by all Muslims that عمر ابن الخطاب at the time that he was in power he used to have a habit of trying to find the faults in people so one day he's walking and he hears that there's sounds coming from a house sounds loud laughing sounds so he goes and he peeks over the wall of the house and he sees there's a man who's drinking there's a man who has so the man he tells him you might have caught me drinking you might have caught me doing one thing that's wrong but I caught you with three errors first of all ولا تجسسو and do not spy and you're spying on me second القرآن وقت البيوتة من أبوابها and enter the homes from their door don't enter from the back enter from the side and third الله says in the Quran فإذا دخلتم بيوتا فسلموا when you enter into a house سيسلام سيسلام let that be the first thing so عمر ابن الخطاب I caught you doing one and you caught me doing three wrong things so I'm not going to talk about it and you don't tell anyone what I did this is the we should make it a habit to not involve in ourselves and things that do not concern us something that's going on in people's house doesn't concern me I shouldn't go and get myself involved in what's going on in people's house yes sometimes we do we also have a we have a very important obligation of enjoying the good and forbidding the evil but that has conditions if someone's doing something in their own house I don't have the right to go in their house and try to find the faults of people because if I find the faults of people I'm going to expose my own faults while doing so so here الله سبحانه وتعالى says و لقد آتينا لقمان الحكمة أنشكر لله and we have given لقمان the wisdom to thank الله سبحانه وتعالى and here what is wisdom what is the meaning of wisdom some people they say wisdom is prophethood but this because we have hadith that says لقمان was not a prophet so we know that that's not the case wisdom is doing what's right wisdom many scholars have given many opinions of what wisdom is however wisdom according to the Quran and this is something very we have several types of تفسير one تفسير it's called تفسير القرآن بالقرآن meaning trying to find the meanings of the Quran using the Quran itself because the Quran youفسر بعضه it interprets itself so what is wisdom الله says in the Quran و لقد آتينا لقمان الحكمة أنشكر لله we gave لقمان wisdom that you thank الله سبحانه وتعالى so thanking الله is a sign of wisdom thanking Allah and appreciating God that in itself is the wisdom that الله سبحانه وتعالى is talking about and appreciating is a great blessing appreciating God is a duty we have to appreciate الله سبحانه وتعالى appreciating and showing thanks saying شكر لله appreciating what Allah سبحانه وتعالى has given us this is not only the sign of someone who's a mu'min someone who's a believer you're common sense anyone with ethics anyone with morality anyone you don't even need to be a Muslim a religious person to understand that you have to show appreciation we appreciate people in our lives what about Allah سبحانه وتعالى have we appreciated God do we show appreciation to Allah سبحانه وتعالى scholars they say scholars of theology they say that we humans Allah سبحانه وتعالى created us with the fitra that leads us to find God one of those things is شكر المنعم even if you don't know who God is you don't know who created you but you know you're blessed in your life you want to continue those blessings in your life what do you do you appreciate the one who's sending you those blessings and that will lead you to finding God to discovering Allah سبحانه وتعالى so whoever does not thank whoever is ungrateful this is a sign of someone who's ungrateful someone who's unethical this is why believing in God has to do with your ethics and your morality believing in God is very important so we are taught to be appreciative of people in our lives of our family of our relatives of our loved ones of anyone who does anything good to you right that's common sense you don't need to be religious to know that okay what about the one who gave you everything that you have what about your lord who blessed you with everything in your life is he not worthy of being appreciated how is it that some people appreciate everyone and everything in their lives but they do not appreciate Allah سبحانه وتعالى thanking God is our duty Allah says in the Qur'an و لقد آتينا لقمان الحكمة and نشكر لله thank Allah سبحانه وتعالى و من يشكر فإنما يشكر لنفسه و من كفر فإن الله غني حميد and whoever thanks then this person is thanking for themselves and whoever does blasphemy and does not thank كفر and شكر not believing is opposed is on the other side to thanking Allah سبحانه وتعالى و من يشكر فإنما يشكر لنفسه و من كفر فإن الله غني God does not need your thanks when you thank you are thanking for yourself you are going to be the first beneficiary of thanking Allah سبحانه وتعالى how when you show appreciation to Allah Allah will give you more and this is what Allah سبحانه وتعالى promises in the Qur'an و إذ تأذن ربكم لأن شكرتم لأزيدانكم و لأن كفرتم إن عذابي لشديد و your lord has has called out that if you thank I will give you more and if you don't then my punishment is severe so this is one if you want more blessings in your life thank Allah سبحانه وتعالى second if you when you thank Allah سبحانه وتعالى you are acknowledging the blessings that you have and that will make you feel better سكولرون they say that in order for you to to live a happy life you have to have positive thoughts you have to have positive you know positive approach towards life and how do you do that? you do that when you appreciate the blessings that you have in your life this is what cognitive behavior therapists say that you your moods are impacted by your thoughts so if you have positive thoughts if you think I'm grateful for this and I'm grateful for that and I'm grateful for these things that God has given me in my life then you're going to be a happier person then you're going to enjoy your life better so this is something that's very important and this is one of the ways that we benefit from thanking and then you also acknowledge people in your lives you don't only acknowledge the blessing itself but you will acknowledge the people in your life so if you're eating a meal you say this meal I'm grateful for it but who is it that made me this meal who is it that provided this meal my job I'll be grateful for it my wife the husband your children the parents you're going to be grateful for people in your lives and this is also something very good because when you're grateful with something that you have in your life الله سبحانه وتعالى will allow that to be blessed a relationship a husband and wife when they are grateful with one another the marriage is going to survive but when they're not grateful to one another when they both not under appreciate one another when they both hurt one another and they don't appreciate one another then what's going to happen then the relationship is going to fall apart if you're working at a company and you under appreciate the company and the company under appreciates you you're going to have a fallout with one another so it makes sense to be grateful to appreciate whatever we have in our lives now a lot of people they say this makes sense this is it's very clear we have to be grateful for our blessings to continue so why don't we do that with Allah سبحانه وتعالى if I'm grateful for my mother for my wife for her husband for your children the children towards their parents for your work for everything that you have who is it that gave you all that you have isn't it from Allah سبحانه وتعالى so if it's from God then show appreciation to Allah سبحانه وتعالى this is why Allah tells لقمان and نشكر لله thank Allah سبحانه وتعالى this is the sign of the greatest wisdom when you appreciate Allah how do you appreciate you appreciate by praying you appreciate by giving charity you appreciate by helping out other people you appreciate by passing on the blessings that God gave you to other people be an agent on behalf of God isn't God the one who gives you also be a giver on behalf of Allah سبحانه وتعالى Allah سبحانه وتعالى in a hadith from Imam صادق عليه السلام Allah tells موسى أوح الله تعالى إلى موسى شكرني حق شكري أو موسى شكرني the way I deserve to be thanked so موسى he passed for a moment how can I thank Allah in the way that he deserves to be thanked so he says يا رب كيف أشكرك حق شكري he asks God how do I thank you in the way that you deserve to be thanked and then he says يا رب كيف أشكرك حق شكري الله سبحانه وتعالى and then he says ليس من شكر أشكرك به إلا وأنت أنعمت به علي anything that I want to thank you with is a blessing that you have given me if I thank you with my tongue this tongue is a blessing that you have given me if I thank you with my hands this is something that you have given me if I thank you with my money with my finances these are finances that you have given me so how should I thank you when everything that I have is from you الله سبحانه وتعالى تزهم يا موسى شكرتني حق شكري حين علمت أن ذلك مني oh mousa you have appreciated me when you know that everything that you have is from me so لقمان became wise because of these things and one of the most important things is thanking الله سبحانه وتعالى now إن شاء الله tomorrow tomorrow night we will explain some of the wisdom of لقمان when he was wise what did he do with that wisdom we ask الله سبحانه وتعالى to increase our wisdom and to make us from the شاكرين from those who thank الله سبحانه وتعالى نسألك اللهم وندعوك بسمك العظيم الأعظم الأعزل أجل الأكرم يا الله يا الله يا رحمان يا رحيم يا مقلب القلوب تبت قلوبنا على دينك اللهم اغفر للمؤمنين والمؤمنات لا حيائي منهم ولا موات تابع اللهم بيننا و بينهم بالخيرات إنك مجيب الدعوات إنك غافر الخطيئات إنك على كل شيء قدير و إلى رواح المؤمنين والمؤمنات نهدي ثواب الفاتح حماع الصلوات اللهم صلي على محمد وآلم محمد will also recite this dua of the month of Ramadan اللهم ادخل على اهل القبور السرور اللهم اغني كل فقير اللهم اشبع كل جائع اللهم اكسو كل عريان اللهم اقضي دينا كل مدين اللهم افرج عن كل مكروب اللهم ردى كل غريب اللهم افكى كل أسير اللهم اصلح كل فاسد من أمور المسلمين اللهم اشفي كل مريض اللهم سد فقرنا بغناك اللهم غير سوء حالنا بحسن حالك اللهم اقضي عن الدين وأغننا من الفاق إنك على كل شيء قدير و إلى أرواح المؤمنين والمؤمنات نهدي ثواب الفاتح حماع الصلوات