SeekersNotes: Exploring the Qur’an with Shaykh Yahya Rhodus – Class 5 Notes

SeekersNotes: Exploring the Qur’an with Shaykh Yahya Rhodus – Class 5 Notes

Notes by Sister Shagufta Pasta

Apologies for the delay in posting these notes! I haven’t been at home much this past week.

Verse 15: Has the story of Moses reached thee?

• Rhetorical purpose: see Allah bringing solace to the heart of His beloved.
• Makes us ask: What is the station of this creation that when Allah sees his prophet (peace and blessings be upon him) troubled, He reveals a verse to comfort him?

• General point: the story of Moses and Pharoah appears many times in the Qur’an. Very important story. In different junctures we hear different aspects of this story. Many meanings ot this story that are very relevant for our time. One lesson here: some person can attain great status even being in the belly of the beast. Some people wil grow up in societies that in themselves are societies of unbelief, and yet they themselves will be the means for the demise of unbelief.

V16: When his Lord called out to him in the holy valley of Tuwa.

• • Allah called out to Moses in this sacred valley of Tuwa. Allah spoke to Moses. Learn from this that there are sacred places. There are places that are special and we deal with special places and special people and times with tadheem (exaltation)
  • If Ramadan comes and goes and we don’t have tadheem, our heart is dead. If we don’t have tadheem for jumu’ah, our heart is dead. If we don’t have tadheem for the mosque, our heart is dead. If we don’t have tadheem for our Muslim brothers and sisters, our heart is dead.
  • We have to have tadheem in our heart for the Messenger, peace and blessings be upon him. We exalt him. We respect and honour him.
  • Saying the name Muhammad is not like saying other names. We are supposed to say Rasulullah and all of his other beautiful names
  • To have tadheem means that in our hearts you esteem it.
  • If you have a bottle of water with water from spring and bottle with zam zam water, though we shouldn’t waste water and mistreat any of Allah’s creation,  we use zamzam in a different way. We are going to pour it  in different cups and stand up and face qibla before drinking, and going to say special dua. Will have increased amount of esteem
  • When walk in house, different than when we walk in a mosque.
  • Tadheem: it translates into respect and honour for these things.

Verse 17: Go to Phaorah because he has transgressed all bounds

• • • Pharoah known to be a very bad person, He was a tyrant. And Allah is commanding Moses to go to Pharaoh. Imagine this! We learn from this that you and I have to have courage. We are part of a message that is of a heavenly origin. We have the keys to understand everything in the world.
    • Recall Shaykh Hamza Yusuf’s poem Springs Gift: Muhammad has God on his side.
    • Doesn’t matter what technology is out there.
    • If everyone in world was to plot against you, you will always be successful  and honoured. Even when people were placing excrement on the Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him), he was honoured.
    • You and I ..where is our courage? We are the followers of Sayyidna Muhammad peace and blessings be upon him..
    • We have to believe deeply that what we have is the best thing that we could have.
    • This is the source of our izza (dignity) as Muslims. Whoever seeks izza from other than Islam, Allah will humiliate. If seek izza from books or beauty, or any other things. Source of izza is Islam.
    • Many of the Muslim today have an inferiority complex. Feel like the West has outstripped them.
    • People are asking “Why do they have it? But the question should be: Do you really want it?
    • We are grossly overconsuming. Everything we need is already there.
    • Think of the courage of Moses.

3 types of arrogance:

1)    worst is the arrogance human beings show towards Lord
2)    Messengers
3)    Other human beings

In reality: We cannot be arrogant to a rock, to insect, to animal. To honour and respect what Allah has told us to respect and honour is from the essence of our deen.

V18: And say to him, “Would you purify yourself from sin?”

• • Zakat relates to purity because it purifies your wealth.
  • Meanings of purity, purity in all of the different ways that we stray. This is a comprehensive word
  • Whenever we are trying to serve and help people, the  foundation is gentleness. Only move to coarseness in certain situations.
  • People want to spend time with are people who are gentle and soft.
  • Greatest purpose of the sending of the messengers…is hidaya (guidance). Guidance is that which points to and leads to the truth. One of the verses of the Fatiha:..guide us to the straight path. We say this at least seventeen times a day if praying 5 daily prayers.
  • Rest of the Qu’ran is about guidance in great detail. One of the names of Book of Allah is the guidance (al-Huda) Guidance to what? Path.
  • In reality travelling back to our Lord. Qur’an is guidance that we arrive safely in the travels that we are making.
  • Part of the reasons that it is so important that these meanings are solidified is that the closer we get to the end of time, stranger Islam and religious teachings become in the minds of people. Prophet told us this. If people think that you are strange, good thing. If you were to fit in the modern world, would be serious pb.
  • Much of modern world is based on falsehood
  • People who have reverence in their heart who will benefit from these stories.