Ramadan 2016 - Quran 30 for 30 - Day 7

Quran 30 for 30 - Day 7 - Al Anaam and Al A'raaf June 12, 2016 Juz 8 Of the disbelievers Allah says, even if the angels came with the truth they will still disbelieve. Allah doesn’t force people into disbelief. People who challenge you in your faith are there to strengthen you. NO matter what we show to a person who is misguided, if they insist upon it they will not be guided. Verse 116 If you were to follow the majority of those on they will misguide you. Allah is saying don’t follow the majority, they aren’t necessarily correct. Allah wants to strengthen the believers as they are a minority. Allah will open the hearts of those Allah wishes to guide and those who insist upon misguidance, their hearts will be constricted. This is what happened to Umar Ibn Al Khattab. His heart opened to the deen of Islam. When Allah wishes good for the person h grants them guidance. Verse 133 “And you Lord I free of need…. If Allah wills he can do away with you…” Allah does not need us, he can easily replace us. We should be grateful for receiving guidance. We are privileged. Sacrifice at the time in Makkah in the early days of Islam was a form of Ibadah. Allah reminds that HE (swt) is the possessor of Vast Mercy especially for those who still have not accepted Islam, so do not continue is disbelief. Verse 161 – 163 “Say that My Lord has guided me to the straight path…” Ibrahim (as) is mentioned again, who built the kaaba, that was built for One Allah. Remind them of that so they may stop using the kaaba to worship multiple gods. “Prayer and sacrifice” – these two are equated. To mention Ibrahim is to insist upon monotheism. Everything is for Allah alone. Suratul A’raaf Suratul An’aam – establish the warnings Suratul A’raaf – talks about the consequences for not heeding the warnings? The first ten verses speak about the regret of the people once they have been punished. They lament over their inability to follow guidance. Verse 12 They turned away from guidance only because the messenger was not from their tribe. It wasn’t because they didn’t believe in the message or didn’t believe Islam was the guidance. They followed their ego. Just the same as shaytan said – “I am better than him.” The first racist in the world was Shaytaan – do not follow him! Abu Jahal couldn’t accept it! The surah draws parallels with Shaytaan and the disbelievers of Makkah. Shaytaan blames Allah for leading him astray but Allah has given us intelligence to choose between right and wrong. Allah tells the story about Adam and Hawa eating from the tree and the deception of Shaytaan. But while Adam and Hawa (as) turned back to Allah, shaytan remained steadfast in his arrogance. Shaytaan lead them astray through ingratitude. This is the way Shaytaan gets to us all, beware of his deception. Verse 27 “O children of Adam, don’t let shaytan…” Don’t let shaytan deceive you the way he deceived your parents – Always turn back to Allah. “All praise to Allah who guided us to this and we would not have been able to find guidance if not for Allah…” The believer is ALWAYS grateful! Juz ends off with the conversations between people of hellfire and people of Jannah and their respective rewards.