 Bismillah ar-Rahman ar-Rahim, al-hamdu lillahi rabbi l-alameen, wa-afdabu s-salati wa-atamu t-taslimi ala Sayyidina Muhammadin wa ala alihi wa sahbihi ajma'in. We praise Allah Subhanahu wa ta'ala and send the blessings and salutations upon His Prophet Muhammad sallallahu alayhi wa sallam. So today we are in session two in Tafseer Surat Yaseen. Last week we talked briefly about the Surah that Surat Yaseen is a Meccan Surah. All of Surat Yaseen is a Meccan Surah. And we read the first eleven ayahs. Today inshallah we'll start from the twelfth ayah and then we'll move into the story, the story of Ashab al-Qariyah, the dwellers of the town. In verse number twelve Allah Subhanahu wa ta'ala says, Inna nahnu nuhyi il-mawta wa naktubu ma qaddamu wa aasarahum Wa kulla shay'in ahsainahu fi imamin mubin. Inna nahnu nuhyi il-mawta, verily we shall bring the dead to life. We shall certainly bring the dead back to life. Wa naktubu ma qaddamu and we record what they have sent ahead. Wa aasarahum and their traces, i.e. what they left behind. And their traces left behind that affect others. Wa kulla shay'in and everything have we preserved to the last detail in an all-expounding primal record. Everything have been counted in a clear registry. So this ayah follows the first eleven ayahs. As we mentioned last week, Surat Yasin focuses on the fundamentals of the religion. It focuses on Tawheed, on Allah Subhanahu wa ta'ala. It focuses on Prophethood, the Risala of the Prophet sallallahu alayhi wa sallam. And focuses on the hereafter. And for this reason it's called Qalbul Quran, it's called the heart of the Quran. If the heart is sound, the body is sound. If the fundamentals of faith are sound, our iman is sound. And on the day of judgment, we will have a happy face. Here we get to the ayah that talks about what the disbelievers hate to hear the most. Most disbelievers at the time of the Prophet sallallahu alayhi wa sallam, before the time of the Prophet, at the time of the other prophets, even today, they deny the existence of the hereafter. So this, this, this, this topic of Al-Baas-u-Wal-Nushur resurrection and gathering and the day of judgment and that life and that human beings can be brought back to life again, that's one of the thing that the disbelievers do deny vehemently, like with passion. And in the Quran, we see that the day of judgment is mentioned in so many places, more than a hundred places. And talking about the day of judgment is mentioned also in different ways. Sometimes Allah swt is talking to humanity as a teacher talking to students. Sometimes is talking to them with certainty and force. Sometimes it's just stating a fact. The Quran approach the day of judgment from different angles, depending on the audience that may read the Quran. Allah swt in this ayah is answering their denial and focusing on this particular matter, saying Inna Nahnu Nuhiil Moutah, we give life to the dead. And if we look at this ayah, we see that it is, it is embedded with emphatic words. The first word is Inna, Inna is a word in Arabic that is used to emphasize something. And then it's followed by Nahnu, we, because Allah swt could have said Inna Nuhiil Moutah. There was no reason to mention we. And we is another mu'akkid, is another way of emphasizing the statement, i.e. we, no others. It's only us, it's only we. And this we is the royal we, is Nuhiil Nuhiil Moutah, Inna Nahnu Nuhiil Moutah, Nuhiil Moutah. And that's something very easy for us, Inna Nahnu Nuhiil Moutah, we are going to do it. And this is going to happen, whoever wishes to believe, Allah wassala, whoever wishes to deny it, Allah wassala. And the time will show them whether it's true or not. In the Quran in more than a hundred times, a hundred plus times, Allah swt emphasizes that Al Mayi Tu Sayi'ah, the dead shall be brought back to life, in more than a hundred places. In that Allah will resurrect those who are in the graves, Inna Nahnu Nuhiil Moutah, we give life to the dead. This is as we mentioned in reference to the resurrection. There are also other meanings that can be attributed to this ayah, Inna Nahnu Nuhiil Moutah, that don't they see that Allah swt brings the earth back to life? Every year, in winter the leaves fall, in autumn the leaves fall, in winter the trees are dead, in spring the earth goes back to life. And we're used to it. We take it for granted, but had Allah swt created us in a way like the trees, in autumn we get weak, in winter we die, some animals hibernate. Let's say Allah swt created us in a way that in winter we dies, and when spring comes we come back to life again. And if we were to see this day after day, day after day, we get used to it and we take it for granted. While the tree is coming back to life, is itself a miracle. But because of repetition, we don't see it as something unusual. Inna Nahnu Nuhiil Moutah, Allah swt Ali Amran says, yukhrijul hayya minal mayiti, wa yukhrijul mayita minal hayya. And the ulama explains yukhrijul hayya minal mayiti out of the disbelievers, come believers. Sometimes the parents or grandparents are disbelievers, the children are believers. Wa yukhrijul mayita minal hayya, and out of believers the children could be disbelievers. The son of Prophet Noah became a disbeliever, but the son of Ibrahim is a believer. Sometimes this could refer to bringing a person out of ignorance to knowledge, because knowledge is life and ignorance is death. Inna Nahnu Nuhiil Moutah, the surah is usually read upon the dead, those who are about to die, those who are dying, those who are in the grave, anyone who is about to die. Dying of ignorance, dying physically, dying spiritually, we all need to revive ourselves by reciting the surah. Wa naqtubu maqaddamu, naqtubu maqaddamu. And we will record, we record that which they have set forth. Everything that we do in our life is being recorded. And Allah SWT has assigned angels to record all our deeds. Ma yalfizu min qawlin illa ladayi hiraqeeb wa nateed, as he mentioned in surat qaf. Said, no word. Does he utter without a ready watcher beside him recording? In a way that we don't know how, recording everything we do. Wa naqtubu maqaddamu, whether all the deeds are recorded, whether they're good or bad. And recording is for all. Then on the day of judgment, Allah SWT may reward, may not reward, may forgive, may not forgive. The point here that Allah SWT is taza mazalik. That's something that's going to happen for all humanity. All of us, our deeds are being recorded. So basically we write our own book. Each one of us is writing their own book, the book of deeds. And on the day of judgment, this is a work in progress. It's a draft. Once we die, it's published now. It's no longer a draft. It's ready for publication. And good deeds will make us look handsome on the day of judgment. If we want our face to shine and look handsome, we want to write a good book. We want our book of deeds to be full of good deeds and not the opposite. But the point here is that the deeds are being recorded and they have been preserved. So there is no probability of error or forgetfulness or increase or decrease. It's exactly as it was done. We can think of this for those who are in accounting and business as a retirement fund. This is your account. And every deed you do, you're depositing something in your account. And when you retire on the day of judgment, you're going to see what's in your account. Is it good or bad? Is it up or down? When act to move, and on the day of judgment, our deeds will testify, either for us or against us. While our deeds are being recorded, when act to move, act to move, Allah SWT, since He gave the command, it's attributed to Him. However, it's not Allah who Himself record these deeds. Allah's angels that record the deeds. Wa-a-sa-raham, and also the traces. I.e., these are deeds that we haven't done it, we haven't done those deeds directly. Those are deeds that are being done indirectly. Those are implications of our deeds, or the results of our deeds, or the fruits of our deeds, or the traces, the footsteps of our deeds. I.e., whatever we earn in this life in terms of deeds, the fruits of what we earn in our life and after we die is also recorded. So, the deeds that are done by us, and so, as well as the effects of those deeds, that we may not have, they may not be done by us directly. As Allah SWT mentioned, as the Prophet SAW mentioned, that إذا ما تبني آدم, إن قطع عمله إلا من سلاس. In a well-known hadith, when the son of Adam dies, all his deeds عمله إي عمله لنفسه, not عمله غيره له, لكن عمله لنفسه. His deeds for himself, for himself or herself, come to an end, except three. This will continue after he dies. A knowledge that is beneficial. If someone teaches another person or another group, when parents teach their children, when community facilitates for a session of knowledge, knowledge that is beneficial. Secondly, a righteous child who prays for him, children that pray for their parents, every time they pray for their parents, that good deed is also recorded for the children as well as for the parents. Or ongoing charity, sadaqa jaria, that's the third. Or ongoing charity that he leaves behind, like he opens a school or opens a free clinic or opens a mosque. Or has a wakaf, has a trust. إذا ما تبني آدم, إن قطع عمله إلا من سلاس. These are as-sara. Whatever we do in this life is written in our book of deeds, as well as the effects, the deeds that are done as a result of our deeds. And they're not done by us directly, but they're done maybe by our children or by some knowledge that we benefit others. And then those people benefit others. And those people benefit others. Whatever we do today, the Prophet has a share of what we do. Everything we do, he is the reason why we're teaching. The companions through their effort and through their sacrifice has a share of what we do. The Prophet, alayhi s.a., also mentioned, and the opposite was also true, whether parents or leaders or anyone in a position of authority, if they implement bad policies or oppressing policies or make people life uncomfortable, this also has effects on them and also on their book of deeds. The Prophet, s.a., mentioned in a hadith narrated by Jareer ibn Abdullah al-Bajali, من سنة حسنة فله أجرها وأجر من عميلة بها من غير أن ينقص من أجورهم شيء. Whoever initiated a good practice in Islam, he will have its reward. And the reward of whoever acts in accordance with it after him without the least degrees and the reward of others. So their reward is not decreased, but you also get a reward. And the opposite is also true. ومن سنة سنة سيئة كان عليه وزرها ووزر من عميلة بها من بعده لا ينقص من أوزارهم شيء And then the Prophet recited the verse وَنَكْتُبُمَ قَدَّمُوا وَأَسَرَهُ The verse in Surat Yasin. And whoever initiated a bad practice on him shall be its sin, along with the sin of whoever acts in accordance with it. So it's like compounded interest, you know, it gets compounded without the least degrees and the sins of others acting upon it. So they get their own sins. وَاَنْ لَيْسَلِ الْإِنْسَانِ إِلَّا مَا سَعَهُ وَلَا تَزِرُوا وَا زِرَةٌ وِزْرَهُ أُخْرَهُ But you also get the traces of those. نَكْتُبُمَ قَدَّمُوا وَأَسَرَهُ This is a very serious verse. إن نحن نحي الموتى There is no escape. وَنَكْتُبُمَ قَدَّمُوا وَأَسَرَهُ And we write our own book of deeds. And then the ayah continued to say وَكُلَّ شَيْئِنْ أَحْصَيْنَاهُ فِي إِمَا مِنْ مُبِينَ And we have counted all things in a clear registry, in a clear book. There are two books. There is a book that is called أم الكتاب. يَمْحُ اللَّهُ مَا يَشَاءُ وَيُسْبِتْ وَعِنْ دَهُ أم الكتابَ أم الكتاب is a book, is a mother of books. This book is fixed and does not change because it reflects the knowledge of Allah SWT from eternity to eternity. And there is a different book. And that book can change because we have an input into that book. And the book of deeds, this is our draft, our work in progress. Now, some people may ask everything, like everything is recorded. Do you know how many people are on this planet? We have 7 billion people. And back to the time of Adam. Now who is going to record all this and manage the recording of all this? كل شيء احصَيْنَاهُ فِي إِمَا مِنْ مُبِينَ This is not your business. This is not our business. Allah SWT is telling us كل شيء احصَيْنَاهُ فِي إِمَامِنْ مُبِينَ The angels will take care of it. Today we have a glimpse of what can happen with technology. The angels have different technology. On the day of judgment, our books, it's like we're living our life again. We see everything. It's not just something writing, something in writing. So this is the end of verse 12. So in the beginning, verse 1 to 11, it talked about the prophethood of the Prophet SAW that he is a messenger in Nakailamina al-Mursaleen, then talked about his mission, his mission is only to deliver and talked about who's going to benefit from that message and who may not benefit from the message. And whatever the case, don't feel sad or don't be worried too much out of grief that those people are not listening to the message. Your responsibility as a prophet, as a messenger is to deliver. So now comes the story. And this story is emphasizing this point. Allah, Subhanahu wa ta'ala, says, wa dhrib lahum masalan ashaabal qariyati is jaa ahal mursaleen. I dhrib lahum masalan and strike for them a signal similitude. Set force for them a parable or as a parable, the people of the town. Or we can say set force for them a parable. Karma, the people of the town. I.e. set force for those who disbelieve from amongst the Arabs, from amongst, since the prophet, alaihi s-salam, is the universal prophet for all those who disbelieve, whether they are Arabs or non-Arabs, whether they are Chinese, whether they exist in the seventh century or the 21st century. Anyone who negate or in denial of resurrection or in denial of the day of judgment, adhrib lahum masalan. And the word that is used here is the word adhrib. Adhrib. Adhrib is to hit, to strike. Whenever this word is used, it connotes something. It connotes, there is a force, and there is a contact, and there is an impact. So when a person hits another person, there's a force, there's a contact, and you leave an impression on the other person. When we say, I hit the ground. I dhrib bi'ashaq al-hajr, or dhrib bi-rijli, al-ardu. You hit the ground, there's a force, there's a contact, and there's an impression, there's an impact. I.e. there'll be footsteps and traces left behind. If it doesn't leave an impact, what's the benefit of hitting? The same thing, this word is used when you issue currency. You say, dharab al-nukudan, i.e. the machine comes, and there's a force applied to the nickels, and an impression is left. And this becomes a nickel, or a dime, or quarter, and you have currency being issued. So here, the connotation or the implication is that the example being set forth is an example that's going to leave impact. If an example doesn't leave impact, it's not, we're not just here to hear stories, but we're here to hear stories that can leave an impact. The Prophet, a.s. was commanded in another ayah, fast da'a bima tu'mara, or in sort of a hashar, la wa anzalna hazo al-Qur'ana al-Jabalin, l-ra'aytahu khashi'an, mutasaddi'an. Mutasaddi'an means cracked. The Prophet was commanded, fast da'a bima tu'mara, deliver the message in a way that shows sada'a. Sada'a is like cracking something. When you have a glass, you have a window, and you crack it. When you crack it, the window shatters, the glass shatters. What does that mean? It means it can never go back to its original state. Once it's shattered, it's now in a different, there's a before and there's after. Before, the window is a window. After it's cracked, the window is gone. So the Prophet, a.s. was commanded to deliver the message in a way that will crack the heart and the intellect of those that listen. In a way that after they hear the message, they're no longer the same person that they were before. That's how delivery of a message can or should be done. It's not like our delivery. We just say, we do something and say, I've made da'a'a for Allah. No, we haven't done anything. So here, it says, ud-dhrib lahum masal, and set forth for them a parable. Only one example, only one parable, not many. And what is this parable? Ashab al-Karia, the people of the town. And most commentators mentioned that this town is what we call today in Arabic, Antakya, or in English, Antioch. Antakya can also be called Antakya, has different names. And this town was a vibrant town at the time. If we were to compare it to today's towns, would be like San Francisco, New York, Los Angeles, Miami, Dubai, Paris, Rome. It's a vibrant town. It's not any town. And this town was part of the Byzantium Empire. And also represents the civilization that existed in the Byzantium Empire. ud-dhrib lahum masalan, ashab al-Karia, is jaa ahal mursaloon. So here, there's a tambi, that prophets and messengers were not only in the Middle East, did not only come to the Holy Land and the Middle East part, as some may mistaken misconceptions about this. Because if you read the Quran, Quran mentions 25 prophets and messengers, and they're mostly, most of them were in the, in a particular area, particular region. Allah swt also tells us that there are Rusulan lam naqsusum aleyk, wa immin ummatin illa khalafiha nazir. There is no umma that was left without a warner, without a nazeer, without a messenger. Whether it's in China or Japan or North America, before Islam, the number of messengers are 300 plus, the number of prophets over 124,000 plus. God knows how many prophets were sent. ud-dhrib lahum masalan, ashab al-Karia. So prophets are not just sent in one particular region. They're sent all over the world. Wherever there is a need, Allah swt out of His mercy, out of His grace, did not leave any nation without a warner, without a messenger. This surah, because it talks about the fundamentals of the religion, there are many points that relates to the tenets of faith, to our faith that are scattered in the surah. And we will see now, in this story, many points relate to Aqidah that are scattered. And the Quran wants to bring them back to light and make sure that we're aware of them. It's called the heart of the Quran. And from the heart, there are veins that go through the bodies, that gives life to the body. Same thing here. And the surah that you're seeing, it has veins that talks about various topics that strengthen our iman and make sure that we have the right, there are no misconceptions or no misunderstandings. So it says, ud-dhrib lahum masalan, ashab al-Karia. The word karya, in colloquial Arabic today, it's understood to be a small village, not so in the Quranic sense or in the ancient Arabic sense. A karya is any place where there are houses and people settle in there, whether it's a small area or a large area, whether the city is huge or tiny. It's all called karya. ud-dhrib lahum masalan, ashab al-Karia. So here, we will see that the stories doesn't focus on who they are, or the name of the city, or the name of the messengers, or the name of the people, or the name of the person, jaya min aqsa al-madinati rajulun yasa, doesn't focus on any of this. Because the point is not to name the city or the people. That's not the point. Because the Quran is not a history book, or it's not a geography book, teaching, telling us the geography of places. That's not the point. ud-dhrib lahum masalan, ashab al-Karia. Is jaya hal-mursalun in the plural, that messengers came to them. Why? Because it talks about three messengers. As you know in Arabic, we have the singular, dual, and the plural. So plural is three plus. So here there is a story. And stories are very powerful. It's attributed, ancient Greeks actually understood this very well. They used to say, those who tell stories rule society. That's a quote attributed to Plato. Because we are hardwired to be captivated by good stories. If we hear a good narrative, a solid narrative, we get captivated by it. And many doctors or research institutes, they do research on these things. And they find when people are listening to a story, somehow they get aligned. And in an experiment where they scan the brains of people listening to stories, the same area were lit in everyone. As well as the speaker. So that we become aligned. And we become, we get the message embedded in the story. So with stories, you can have power and influence. Why? Because we are, we love stories. We are the product of stories. When I see somebody, I tell him, what's the story? What's going on? When we go to bed, I wanna hear a bedtime story. Mommy, I wanna hear a bedtime story. And the right stories evoke an emotional response in you. The Quran adds another dimension to stories. So when we read, we read stories in the Quran, and the stories create a mental image of what's going on, evokes an emotional response, and also evokes an intellectual response. So if we imagine now ourselves, picture yourself now in Antioch or in this city, and in this story, we're gonna see two chapters, chapter one and chapter two. Chapter one is talking about the messengers, introducing them, introducing their message. Chapter two is talking about this person who came from Aqsa al-Madinati. Rajulun, yas'a, yas'a. It's like you know Sa'a, when you do Umrah and Hajj, there is Sa'a between Safa and Marwa. Sa'a is not somebody walking calmly. Sa'a is yas'a. It's a type of walking. In Arabic, we have 10 types of walking. There is Mashi, and there is Sa'a, and there's Qaqqara, and there are so many types of walking. There is Nas, and Sa'a is one type of walking where somebody is walking with interest. He's walking with passion. There is, he's, he's, he's, he's, hurrying a little bit. He's not walking calmly because he's afraid that he's gonna miss something. He wants to contribute, and he wants to contribute something. He wants to make sure that his contribution is whatever he wanted to say, he wants to make sure that people can hear it. And he's afraid that they may do something to the messengers before he says what he needs to, what he feels he needs to say. So here it says, So what happens? So Allah swt has sent one messenger followed by the second one, and then he strengthened both of them with the third one, the third messenger. And they said, This, this can tell us a lot about the audience that they're facing with. The audience is not an audience that is accepting the message as is. No, they're denying it. Accepting the message as is. No, they're denial. They're denying the message, and they're refuting the message, and they're resisting the message. So the messengers felt the need to affirm and emphasize that we are more saloon. Inna ilaykum more saloon. What was the response of the people of the city? They said, They said, You are just mere men like ourselves. What does that mean? They said their argument. This statement by the disbelievers, if you stretch it, it leads to a circular argument. So their argument is not valid. I either saying, the disbelievers are saying, You messengers, you're liars. You're lying. And the proof that you are lying is that you are people like us. It's like they want to say, If you were really messengers, then you should have been from a different species. Or you should be aliens. Or you should have been angels. As in the case of the Prophet, the disbelievers in Mecca said the same thing. So what is this messenger who eats food and walks in the market? He's like us. So how could he be a messenger? And because he's like us, therefore he cannot be a messenger. Therefore he's a liar. Therefore what should we listen to him? So Allah SWT in the Quran showed us how their argument could lead to a vicious circle. He says, He said, Let's agree with you for the sake of argument. Had we made him an angel, had we made the messenger, the Prophet SAW an angel, or any messenger an angel, we would have sent him as a man. I.e. had we made the messenger an angel, how is an angel going to communicate with you? How are you going to communicate with him? How are you going to understand the angel? There must be common language. Like if you have an alien as a messenger, like these post-modernist they have, they're obsessed with supernatural dramas and movies, multiple verse, parallel universes, aliens visiting life on other planets. And if there's an alien that comes here, he's going to find himself out of place. So he's going to change his shape to become a human, to look like a human. And he'll try to speak in the same accent or the same language as we speak. He said, had we made him an angel, we would have sent him as a man. I.e. let's say for the sake of argument, we sent an angel as a messenger. Are you going to listen to him? How are you going to understand him? He speaks a different language. How are you going to take him as a role model? He's an angel and you're a human. He has to come to you in front of you in the shape of a man, in the shape of a human being so that he can address you and tells you the message, delivers the message, communicates with you and be a role model for you. And then you would say, well, he's also a man like us. Why should we follow him? They will say, I.e. you must also be a liar. So whether we send an angel or a man, it's going to end up to the same argument. It's a circular argument. And then Allah SWT says, they would have fallen into the same ambiguity and they would have said, thus obscuring for them that with which they themselves obscure. And then they said, and this has been the case for many communities, many communities reject prophets because they are human, claiming that if Allah SWT had wanted to send a message, he would have chosen an angel as his messenger. Why should we listen to a human? And this same objection is attributed to the disbelievers of Makkah, who raised it against the Prophet, sallallahu alayhi wa sallam. They said, What makes him different than us? They think that the messenger has to be different than us. And then they said, This ayah is showing us that those people believed in God. They are disbelievers, but they believed there is a Rahman, there is a creator for this universe. Even though their belief is a corrupted belief, it's distorted belief. What does this tell us? It tells us that atheism is actually a new phenomena. In the history of mankind, atheism is not there. There was no atheism in the sense of today's meaning. But what used to exist before is laghwan fil deen, or laghwan fil iman, or laghwan fil. So up to 300 years ago, 300 years plus, there was no atheism was not registered in the history of humanity. There was a conception that there is a God for this universe, the creator for this universe. And every community, through the corruption of their message, came to conceive of this creator in a different way. So some thought the creator is a sun, some thought it's a moon, let's worship the sun, let's worship the moon. Some thought it's humans, some thought there is the angel of good, I mean there is the God of good and the God of evil. Some thought that we have a number of gods that come together and they form a united company of gods. And some, like the Arab, thought let's worship the idols, let's make idols and worship them. But atheism in the sense that this creator, this universe exists without a creator, without a manager for this whole universe, one that manages the affairs of the universe, this idea didn't exist before. And then to the previous generation, this is insanity, like how could you think this way? So even John Paul Sartre, when he wrote the book on atheism, talked about the history of atheism, he could not go back more than 300 plus years. John Paul Sartre, as you know, is the father of philosophy, and he died recently, 1980, born 1905 to 1980. And he won also a Nobel Peace Prize. In the book of Allah SWT, we find that Allah SWT is always engaging the disbelievers, and those that deny prophethood, deny messengership, but he doesn't pay attention to anyone who falls under what we call today, atheism. He doesn't take them into account. Let's put it this way, because they cannot be taken into account. They're not worthy of being intellectually engaged, because their issue is not intellectual. Their issue is psychological or psychic. Someone might say, well, atheism maybe did not exist at the time of the Qur'an, and that's why he did not engage them. No, Allah SWT had engaged ideas that came way after Islam, but did not engage atheism. This is a lesson for us to find out why what made this person an atheist before you talked to him. So you need to ask many questions before we engage with some people to understand where they're coming from. What is the real issue that made them take that decision or made that jump? What time is it? How could you be messengers? You look like us. No, our Rahman did not send anything. That's a result. If you are mere humans like us and our Rahman did not send any message or any messengers, what's the logical outcome? You must be liars. In Antum illa taqzeebun, now the response of the, this is now, Qalu Rabbuna Ya'lamu Inna Ya'laykum Lamursalwan. This is now the second statement, and it's more emphatic than the first one. It says, Rabbuna Ya'lamu. That's the first emphasizing. Inna is the second one. Ilaykum Lamursalwan. This is called Lamu'l Qasam or Lamu'l Taqeed or Lamu'l Muzahlaqa. They're all the same thing. Inna ilaykum Lamursalwan. It's a reaffirmation in the face of denial and rejection. They said, our Lord knows that we are messengers to you. And then they stated their message. We are not responsible for those who deny the message. We're only responsible to deliver the message. We do not change people. We can't even change ourselves. But if we say the right things, if we deliver the message in the right way, Allah will create a light that will penetrate the hearts of people who listen. And Allah is the one who changes things, not us. So, the Prophet was advised, لعلك باخر on نفسك على أسرهم. Don't kill yourself out of grief for them. Don't worry too much about them. Just deliver the message. All we have to do is our best. فذكر إنما أنت مذكر لست عليهم بمصيطر. What does this mean? This means that Allah SWT wants us to believe but not by way of force. Not by way of being strong. Not by way of being compelled to believe. But He wants us to believe voluntarily. The messengers deliver the message. We think about it. Reflect on it. And I say, this must be true. I want to believe. Allah SWT will guide me to Eman. So we have to take the first step. When أتان يمشي أتايته وحروبا. When تقرب إليه شبران تقرب إليه زرعان. If He wants to say, Where is the mercy of Allah? All you have to say, Oh Allah, I seek your mercy. Make the first step. Allah will give you mercy. But we want the result without putting any effort. This doesn't work. No pain, no gain. So the إيمان that Allah SWT wants from us is إيمان اختياريون. It's an iman. It's voluntary. And not an iman that some parents may force their children or some communities may force their members in the previous days and the old days. This iman doesn't count in the sight of Allah SWT. And that's not the iman that we want others to have. I think the time is up. So we finished, almost finished chapter one of the story. Chapter two has many points of عقيدة that are scattered in every word of the story. And also has a way of engaging people and others. How to talk to them, how to deliver the message. And also tells us through what's not been said about the audience. It tells us a lot about the audience and their reaction and how how strong they were in their denial. To the point that when they killed this man they killed him in a way that's شرا قطل. In the early Christians used to be killed by sea-sawing. By cutting them in half. So some people are very, very violent when some communities. So we'll, inshallah, talk about that next time. But maybe if there's a question or two. No, for the sady. We die and we live and nothing causes to perish except the passage of time. Does that, would that count amongst those who would be considered people who don't believe in a God or? Yeah, those are the hariyah. The only way to talk about them, inshallah, maybe next time I'll mention a little bit about them. That's the point, no. Apologies, it seems there is some feedback. Any other comments or objection or feedback? Bring it closer. It was from last week. You're mentioning how siraat is a wide road that the person would walk down. Can you also just comment maybe on the difference between there being one siraat but then many subul in the Quran? Yeah. The siraat is one. The subul are many. So these are exits or other small ways that may take you away from the siraat. But what is it that you have in mind? Any questions? Like for example, let me look into it. Don't I say something that without reading first? Any other question? No, I'm not saying. I'm not saying. How they are. Like when you tell stories, you want the story also to be personal. The more personal it is, the more impactful it can be. So the story became personal when that man came. As for the name of the man, it could be any name because the name of the man is a foreign name. It's not an Arabic name. It's a kind of seer. So they say he was a man of profession. He was a carpenter. Some say he was a sculptor. And his name translated into Arabic would be something like Habib. Someone cheerful person. Most commentators mention this. Most commentators also mention that the city is Antioch. These are things that we can find out on our own. Quran is not here to teach us these things where Antioch is or where what's the name of the person. There's a message behind the story that the Quran wants to deliver. So that's the value of the anonymity. It's not to... Because sometimes when you mention the name of some people, our minds get distracted. You want to know more about them instead of the point that's being conveyed. So here the Quran wants us to focus on the story itself. Not on the people because this is like an archetype. It can happen in any community. And it's not specific to that particular city or that particular people. Can I ask you that? The Qalam, cosmological or any argument of that type. Anything must have a reason. So all of them all people accept that. Anything that comes from non-existence into existence must have a reason. Regardless of their believers or disbelievers. So the believers will say Allah SWT is the one that brought things out of non-existence into existence. Some people will say it's tabia itself. But everybody believes that there is a reason for coming from non-existence into existence. Some people today will say it's chance. That's the reason. The reason for coming into existence is by mere chance, coincidence. Some people will say it's mother nature. Mother nature is so smart she brought us from non-existence into existence. But nobody said there is no reason. There is like this cause and effect thing people accepted. Whether it's a real cause and effect or a parent cause and effect. And some people will the reason is interpreted differently depending on where you come from. So if you are in atheists today you're going to say mother nature. Mother nature is the one that brought us from. Because they have no other, once you eliminate the possibility that God exists what else is there? So either the universe created itself and this is mentioned in the Quran I'm khuli kumin ghayri shay'in I'm humul khali kumin I'm khalaqus samawati wal-arba Balla yuqinun I'm khuli kumin ghayri shay'in They created without nothing. I'm humul khali kumin Or were they the one who created themselves? And that's a da'ura, that's a vicious circle because you have to exist in order to create yourself which hasn't existed which is not in existence yet. I'm khalaqus samawati wal-arba Or were they the one who created the heavens and the earth that came back and created them mother nature created them. That's also da'ura. This is mentioned in Surah Al-Raka these arguments for showing that this is all fallacies. That's not the first thing you would engage in atheists. And there are other questions that need to be asked to know where they're coming from what's the real issue they're facing. And then we can have an intellectual discussion. I mean Jean Paul Sartre, he tried his best and he couldn't trace it back more than 300 plus years from 1950 or something so like 1650, 1630 That's when the first atheists started to appear in the form of atheism as we know today. That's what Sheikh Bouti thinks He thinks it's psychological. It's not. They may deny it whether it had an impact on them or not. It could be that particular experience, it could be different experience that they had in their life later on. If you have comments, please share those comments. The word nothing has different meanings to different people. So our nothing is nothing. We can't even conceive of nothing. Actually nothing is something that we invent. We see something that exists and we say if this thing was not to exist, that would be nothing. That's how we conceive of nothing. We see nothing. We see nothing. We see nothing. That's how we conceive of nothing. So what they call in Latin, ex nihilo. Allah created the word ex nihilo, out of nothing. Complete nothingness. But in physics, nothing does not mean this. In physics or in science when they say this is nothing or nothing can come out of nothing or something can come out of nothing. Their nothing is not the same as our nothing. In physics for you to call anything something it needs to be detectable or measurable. Once it's measurable we can call it a thing. If you can't measure it yet it's still in the realm of nothing. It's like quantum mechanics before they were able to observe. There were nothing. Once it becomes measurable and detectable it takes now a different technical term. It's now something. So when they say something can come out of nothing and if they mean by nothing, some fog or something that is already in existence that's not the same nothing we're talking about. Our nothing is different. I hope that clarifies. Every science has its own terminology. When we hear the word nothing we should not assume they're talking about the same thing. We need to clarify terminologies. Especially when we deal with sciences or with sciences not just physical sciences or also religious sciences or any other sciences because everything is a science. Let's stop here. Allahumma Laka Al Hamd Wa Aalayka Al Mushtaka Wa Anta Al Mustaan Wa Aalayka Al Tuklan Allahumma Jumaana Aalayka Wa Farikna Aalayka Wa Lataj'a Al-Huwa'i Jina Ilaa Ilayka Allahumma Mattyana Wa Aasma'ina Wa Aabsaarina Wa Quwatina Wa Jallu Al-Waarisa Allahumma Takabbal Salatana Wa Siyamana Wa Qiyamana Jazakullah