WEBVTT 1 00:00:00.000 --> 00:00:12.042 Before we go out, most of us spend a little time on what to wear. The Qur'an calls clothing a gift from Allah, and then it names a better one: “But the clothing of righteousness, that is best.” 2 00:00:12.442 --> 00:00:17.815 Six ayat, recited by Mishary Rashid Alafasy: about eighteen minutes. 3 00:00:18.215 --> 00:00:23.797 We are students, not scholars. If a question needs a ruling, take it to a scholar you trust. 4 00:00:24.197 --> 00:00:28.240 Assalamu alaikum, and welcome to the IMATX halaqa. 5 00:00:29.240 --> 00:00:31.080 Assalamu alaikum, everyone. 6 00:00:31.730 --> 00:00:34.103 Wa alaikum salam wa rahmatullah. 7 00:00:34.753 --> 00:00:47.906 Alhamdulillah, it is good to be together. Let us open with the du'a Allah, subhanahu wa ta'ala, tells His Prophet, sallallahu alayhi wa sallam, to say in Surah Ta Ha: my Lord, increase me in knowledge. 8 00:00:48.706 --> 00:00:53.183 [Du'a: Ta Ha 20:114] Wa qul rabbi zidni 'ilma. — And say, “My Lord, increase me in knowledge.” 9 00:00:53.983 --> 00:00:55.495 Ameen. 10 00:00:56.495 --> 00:01:10.745 Surah Al-A'raf is a Makkan surah. The previous passage told how Shaytan whispered to Adam and his wife, they ate from the tree, and their clothing fell away. They said, our Lord, we have wronged ourselves, and they were sent down to the earth. 11 00:01:11.145 --> 00:01:27.444 Now the surah turns to their children. Three times in these six ayat Allah calls out, ya bani Adam, O children of Adam. The first two calls are about clothing: what Allah gave, and what Shaytan took away. The third brings us to the masjid and the table. 12 00:01:28.444 --> 00:01:55.128 [Al-A'raf 7:26] 13 00:01:55.928 --> 00:01:57.484 Would you start us off, Yu? 14 00:01:58.134 --> 00:02:11.208 O children of Adam, We have bestowed upon you clothing to conceal your private parts and as adornment. But the clothing of righteousness, that is best. That is from the signs of Allah that perhaps they will remember. 15 00:02:11.858 --> 00:02:20.078 Can I ask a basic one first? It calls clothing one of the signs of Allah. I get dressed every morning without thinking about it. How is that a sign? 16 00:02:20.728 --> 00:02:40.920 Look at the end of the ayah. It gives the reason itself: that perhaps they will remember. The thing we do every morning without thinking can remind us who gave it. Ibn Kathir names two parts of the gift. Libas, the clothing that covers, which he calls a necessity. And rish, the outer adornment, which he calls something extra. 17 00:02:41.570 --> 00:02:47.666 And then walibasu t-taqwa. The clothing of taqwa. I never thought of taqwa as something you wear. 18 00:02:48.316 --> 00:03:07.477 Lane gives the verb as putting a thing between yourself and another, to preserve yourself. So taqwa is what you put between yourself and harm. The English word, righteousness, gives the result and loses the picture. That is why it can be a clothing. Indonesian keeps it as takwa, and every Jumu'ah khutbah uses it. 19 00:03:08.127 --> 00:03:15.469 I was reading about it. Al-Qurtubi lists what the early scholars said it is: righteous deeds, fear of Allah, modesty. 20 00:03:16.119 --> 00:03:21.188 And he prefers keeping Allah's command and prohibition in mind, which gathers all of them. 21 00:03:21.838 --> 00:03:28.815 The way I understood it, the ayah isn't against looking good. It calls the adornment a gift before it points to something better. 22 00:03:29.465 --> 00:03:38.643 That's right, Yu. Al-Qurtubi rejects the idea that the clothing of taqwa means coarse clothes. People of knowledge wore fine clothing, together with taqwa. 23 00:03:39.643 --> 00:03:44.036 The second call turns from the gift to the one who took the first clothing away. 24 00:03:44.836 --> 00:04:28.362 [Al-A'raf 7:27] 25 00:04:29.162 --> 00:04:30.116 Viraj? 26 00:04:30.766 --> 00:04:48.020 O children of Adam, let not Satan tempt you as he removed your parents from Paradise, stripping them of their clothing to show them their private parts. Indeed, he sees you, he and his tribe, from where you do not see them. Indeed, We have made the devils allies to those who do not believe. 27 00:04:48.670 --> 00:04:53.745 La yaftinannakum. Fitnah. Careful, in Indonesian that word means something else. 28 00:04:54.395 --> 00:05:12.757 It does. Lane gives the root's first picture: putting gold or silver into the fire, to separate the good metal from the bad. So a fitnah is a trial that shows what something is really made of. In Indonesian, fitnah means slander, a false accusation. That is only one small part of the Arabic word. 29 00:05:13.157 --> 00:05:27.483 Notice what the warning rests on. Ibn Kathir says Allah points to what Iblis already did. He had Adam put out of the place of ease into the place of hardship, and uncovered what had been hidden. That shows how deep the hatred is. 30 00:05:28.133 --> 00:05:36.949 For me, it's the word parents. Whatever he did to them, he would do to us. As a father, that is the warning I would want my children to hear first. 31 00:05:37.599 --> 00:05:42.813 He sees you from where you do not see them. Does that mean no one can ever see the jinn? 32 00:05:43.463 --> 00:05:57.706 Al-Qurtubi reports that the scholars differ. Some took this ayah as proof that the jinn are never seen. Others said they can be seen when Allah wills. He quotes al-Qushayri: Allah has made it the normal pattern that people do not see the devils. 33 00:05:58.356 --> 00:06:00.707 So the point isn't to go looking for them. 34 00:06:01.357 --> 00:06:08.857 No. The point is the warning, and the ayah's last line: the devils are allies of those who do not believe. 35 00:06:09.857 --> 00:06:15.573 Now the passage gives people's own defence of a practice they kept at the House, and Allah's answer to it. 36 00:06:16.373 --> 00:06:47.222 [Al-A'raf 7:28] 37 00:06:48.022 --> 00:06:50.017 Victor, would you read it for us? 38 00:06:50.667 --> 00:07:03.010 And when they commit an immorality, they say, “We found our fathers doing it, and Allah has ordered us to do it.” Say, “Indeed, Allah does not order immorality. Do you say about Allah that which you do not know?” 39 00:07:03.660 --> 00:07:21.725 Ibn Kathir explains the practice. Before Islam, Arabs apart from Quraysh would not go around the Kaaba in clothes they had disobeyed Allah in. They borrowed a garment, and whoever could not went around unclothed. He calls it a practice they invented, following their forefathers, and then claimed was Allah's command. 40 00:07:22.375 --> 00:07:34.933 Can I be honest? I understand them a little. When I became Muslim, I learned most things by watching people I trusted. If everyone you trust has done something for generations, and calls it worship, wouldn't you assume it came from Allah? 41 00:07:35.583 --> 00:07:52.031 That's a fair question, Viraj. Look at what the ayah answers. Not the first thing they said, we found our fathers doing it, though Ibn Kathir counts that as part of what went wrong. It answers the second: Allah has ordered us to do it. That is where the habit got Allah's name on it. 42 00:07:52.431 --> 00:07:57.281 Then it asks them a question. Do you say about Allah that which you do not know? 43 00:07:57.931 --> 00:08:03.585 And fahishatan. Fahishah. We say it for something shameful, something nobody should do. 44 00:08:04.235 --> 00:08:22.734 Its root comes twice in this one ayah. Fahishatan, an immorality, is what they did. Bil-fahsha, immorality, is what Allah does not order. Saheeh International has immorality both times. So the answer uses the same word as the deed. What they did, Allah never orders. 45 00:08:23.384 --> 00:08:34.412 There's a narration in Sahih al-Bukhari about how it ended. Abu Bakr sent Abu Hurayrah at Hajj to announce that after this year no idolater will make Hajj, and no one will go around the House unclothed. 46 00:08:35.062 --> 00:08:38.883 That was the year before the Farewell Hajj, at the House itself. 47 00:08:39.883 --> 00:08:44.292 After what Allah does not order, the next ayah says what He does. 48 00:08:45.092 --> 00:09:05.739 [Al-A'raf 7:29] 49 00:09:06.539 --> 00:09:08.155 Salma, the next one. 50 00:09:08.805 --> 00:09:23.410 Say, O Muhammad, “My Lord has ordered justice and that you maintain yourselves in worship of Him at every place or time of prostration, and invoke Him, sincere to Him in religion.” Just as He originated you, you will return to life. 51 00:09:24.060 --> 00:09:35.293 Ibn Kathir reads it as two conditions for any good deed to be accepted. That it follows the law the messengers brought, and that it is free of shirk. Sincere to Him in religion is the second. 52 00:09:35.943 --> 00:09:40.864 And the end: just as He originated you, you will return. Return how? 53 00:09:41.514 --> 00:09:58.604 Ibn Kathir reports more than one reading. Mujahid: He will bring you back to life after you die. Al-Hasan al-Basri and Qatadah: as He created you from nothing, He will bring you back. Ibn Jarir preferred Ibn Zayd's: as He created you at first, so at the end. 54 00:09:59.254 --> 00:10:09.542 Kama bada'akum ta'udun. There's a narration in Sahih al-Bukhari. The Prophet, sallallahu alayhi wa sallam, said that people will be gathered barefoot, unclothed and uncircumcised. 55 00:10:10.192 --> 00:10:22.384 Ibn Jarir supported his reading with it, in the version from Ibn Abbas. In Aishah's version, she asked whether men and women would then look at each other. He answered that the matter will be far too serious for that to concern them. 56 00:10:23.034 --> 00:10:29.143 The way I see it, the passage begins with the gift of clothing and ends with the day when no cloth will be left. 57 00:10:29.793 --> 00:10:35.872 Yes. And on that day only one clothing is left: the one ayah twenty-six called best. 58 00:10:36.872 --> 00:10:40.993 The next ayah names two groups, and why one of them went astray. 59 00:10:41.793 --> 00:11:10.830 [Al-A'raf 7:30] 60 00:11:11.630 --> 00:11:12.152 Yu? 61 00:11:12.802 --> 00:11:22.280 A group of you He guided, and a group deserved to be in error. Indeed, they had taken the devils as allies instead of Allah while they thought that they were guided. 62 00:11:22.930 --> 00:11:31.377 I think of a narration here. The Prophet, sallallahu alayhi wa sallam, said that every child is born on the fitrah. It's in Sahih al-Bukhari. 63 00:11:32.027 --> 00:11:44.589 Ibn Kathir brings it to these ayat. The fitrah is the natural disposition to know Allah, and this ayah gives the reason one group went astray from it. They took the devils as allies instead of Allah. 64 00:11:45.239 --> 00:11:54.133 And the last word, muhtadun. They think they are guided. For me, that's the line that stays. I'm sure about a lot of things. 65 00:11:54.783 --> 00:12:07.851 Ibn Jarir called this ayah among the clearest against those who say a person is only held to account once the truth reaches him and he refuses it. These people thought they were guided, and Allah still named them astray. 66 00:12:08.851 --> 00:12:14.361 And the third call to the children of Adam: back to clothing, and now to the masjid and the table. 67 00:12:15.161 --> 00:12:34.177 [Al-A'raf 7:31] 68 00:12:34.977 --> 00:12:37.113 Viraj, the last one. 69 00:12:37.763 --> 00:12:47.086 O children of Adam, take your adornment at every masjid, and eat and drink, but be not excessive. Indeed, He likes not those who commit excess. 70 00:12:47.736 --> 00:13:09.109 Sahih Muslim reports from Ibn Abbas that before Islam a woman would go around the House with no clothes on, and then this ayah was revealed: take your adornment at every masjid. Al-Qurtubi says the call, ya bani Adam, is to all people. It covers every masjid and every prayer, because a ruling follows the general wording, not only the event. 71 00:13:09.759 --> 00:13:14.827 Wa la tusrifu. Israf. We say it about wasting, using too much. 72 00:13:15.477 --> 00:13:36.906 The verb is about going past the limit. And the ayah ends on the same root for people: al-musrifin, those who go past it, whom Allah does not love. Ibn Jarir reads it widely: overdoing what is allowed, permitting what is forbidden, or forbidding what is allowed. So it is not only the table. It is losing the balance, either way. 73 00:13:37.556 --> 00:13:46.071 And al-Bukhari recorded from Ibn Abbas: eat what you wish and wear what you wish, as long as you avoid two things, extravagance and arrogance. 74 00:13:46.721 --> 00:13:51.790 My wife and I are still learning where that limit is. Especially at an Indonesian wedding. 75 00:13:52.440 --> 00:13:55.307 Nobody has found it at an Indonesian wedding, Yu. 76 00:13:55.957 --> 00:14:01.171 And eat and drink is in the ayah too, so enjoy it. The limit comes in the same breath. 77 00:14:02.171 --> 00:14:15.018 We began with the time we spend on what to wear, and an ayah that calls another clothing best. Three times this passage called out to the children of Adam, and al-Qurtubi says that call is to all people. So it is to us. 78 00:14:15.418 --> 00:14:30.910 The passage has shown what the better clothing is made of. Not immorality, which Allah never orders, but justice, worship that is sincerely His, and staying inside the limit. So we can dress for prayer with care, and give the same care to the clothing of taqwa. 79 00:14:31.310 --> 00:14:33.523 Before we finish, any questions? 80 00:14:34.173 --> 00:14:46.438 Mine is practical. At work I pray in a small room. There's a printer in there, and people come in for paper. Ayah thirty-one says every masjid. Does the ayah, I mean, does it take in a room like that? 81 00:14:47.088 --> 00:15:01.107 The word masjid is the place of prostration, from the root of sujud. In ayat twenty-nine and thirty-one it is every place where we make sujud, not only a building. And al-Qurtubi says the ayah covers every masjid and every prayer. 82 00:15:01.757 --> 00:15:05.144 So I should probably stop praying in my gym clothes. 83 00:15:05.794 --> 00:15:12.926 Take your adornment, the ayah says. Ibn Kathir says the ayah and the Sunnah encourage wearing your best for prayer. 84 00:15:13.576 --> 00:15:24.817 Mine is from the very first ayah. In the tafsir I read, We have sent down clothing. I kept thinking about it on the drive home. Clothes don't come down from the sky. So what does it mean? 85 00:15:25.467 --> 00:15:41.982 Al-Qurtubi gives several explanations. The rain comes down, grows the cotton and flax, and feeds the animals that give wool and hair. Or that Allah created it, which is how al-Jalalayn reads it: We created for you. Or that He taught us how to make it. 86 00:15:42.632 --> 00:15:45.428 So the cotton in this shirt started as rain. 87 00:15:46.078 --> 00:15:48.439 In one of his explanations, yes. 88 00:15:48.839 --> 00:15:51.337 Salma, would you give us the first question? 89 00:15:51.987 --> 00:16:01.541 Ayah twenty-six names two kinds of clothing. We spend real time and money on the first kind. What makes it hard to give the same care to the second, and what helps? 90 00:16:02.191 --> 00:16:04.254 And Victor, the second. 91 00:16:04.904 --> 00:16:16.069 Ayah twenty-eight asks: do you say about Allah what you do not know? Where do we most easily say, Islam says, without having checked, and what would help us pause first? 92 00:16:16.719 --> 00:16:19.579 The full questions are in the study notes for your circle. 93 00:16:20.229 --> 00:16:22.660 That second one will stay with me. 94 00:16:23.660 --> 00:16:26.460 Before we close, what are you taking with you? 95 00:16:27.110 --> 00:16:30.932 The clothing of taqwa. I'll think of it tomorrow when I get dressed. 96 00:16:31.582 --> 00:16:36.214 For me, ayah twenty-eight. To check before I say, Islam says. 97 00:16:36.864 --> 00:16:47.584 Let us end the way the Prophet, sallallahu alayhi wa sallam, ended a gathering. Abu Barza reports he called these words an expiation for what happens in a gathering. Salma, will you? 98 00:16:48.234 --> 00:16:55.062 Subhanaka Allahumma wa bihamdika, ashhadu an la ilaha illa anta, astaghfiruka wa atubu ilayk. 99 00:16:55.712 --> 00:17:05.476 Glory is to You, O Allah, and praise. I bear witness that there is none worthy of worship except You. I seek Your forgiveness, and I repent to You. 100 00:17:06.126 --> 00:17:07.638 Ameen. 101 00:17:08.288 --> 00:17:15.561 Next time, the passage goes on from ayah thirty-two, which asks who has forbidden the adornment of Allah, in sha Allah. 102 00:17:16.211 --> 00:17:20.916 And if you're new to the Qur'an, one ayah is a good place to start. Take it slowly. 103 00:17:21.566 --> 00:17:30.087 If you lead a halaqa of your own, the questions and the study notes for this passage are on the halaqa website, for your circle. Jazakumullahu khayran for listening. 104 00:17:30.487 --> 00:17:33.798 Wassalamu alaikum wa rahmatullahi wa barakatuh.