Eternal Light

HeartBeats(1): The Heart of the Quran September 18, 2009

The Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him) is reported to have said:

“Ya-Sin is the heart of the Qur’an. The one who recites it solely for Allah’s Sake, his sins will be forgiven. Read it on behalf of your dead” (At-Tirmidhi).

The Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him) as saying,

“Reciting Ya-Sin at the beginning of the day makes the rest of the day easy for the person till night approaches. Also, reciting it with the approach of the night makes the rest of the night easy till the next day.”

The Heart of the Quran.

InshAllah I want us to start Tafseer for Surat Yasin together. I’m really excited to start at Ayah 13 though, so for the first 12 Ayahs I thought we would do some general “HeartBeats” (reflections).  Here are some of mine, please don’t hesitate to share yours!

The Verses:

Familiarize yourself with Ayahs 1-12 in any way you prefer…If you would like this nice link:
Ayahs 1-8: Part 01
Ayahs 9-12: Part 02

(Make sure to use the –> arrow at the bottom right to move through the ayahs)  Shared via AddThis

HeartBeats:

Ayah 1:

I love mystery.  These letters just amaze me.. because nobody knows for sure the secret behind them.  I also noticed that surahs that start with these letters are always Surahs that have stories that make you analyze and THINK.

Ayah 2:

If Allah swears (takes an oath by) something in the Quran, that automaticallly proves its importance…

Here Allah takes an oath by the Quran and calls it “Al-Hakeem”: The Wise.

SubhanAllah, no book in all of humanity entails more wisdom than the Quran.

We should really, really, really take advantage of that.  Especially us as youth… I took a course once where the Prof gave us a list of 18 (or more?) things that people usually hold of high importance… love, family, freedom, success, wealth, self-worth…etc.  He asked to pick the five most important for us and put them in order of importance.  I remember putting “wisdom”-one of the terms listed-as being really high.

SubhanAllah, ever since I can remember I’ve always craved wisdom.  I have not yet attained a level of wisdom, but I feel like its an everyday something that I really strive and wish for.  ”And whomever has been given wisdom has been given much good.”  That’s is one of the many reasons I love the Quran.  The wisdom.

The thing about wisdom is it saves you time; it gives you life.  Everyone in this world on their deathbed comes to roughly the same general conclusions about life and what’s important.  Almost all people that are old will tell you that hard-work pays off.  They’ll tell you money isn’t everything.  They’ll tell you to be patient.  So subhanAllah if we are going to realize all these things eventually, why not use them to live our life rather than dedicate our whole lives to discovering them?

Wisdom comes through experience.  And the Quran is Al-Hakeem.  Why not experience the Quran? Through Tafseer, through reading it and learning it.   Don’t we all agree that we need all the widsom we can get??

Ayah 3…

So Allah has sworn by the Wise Quran that the Prophet Mohammad (peace be upon him) is from the ‘mursaleen’ (messengers).  It is said in first person: “innaka”

Ayah 7…

Indeed the Word (of punishment) has proved true against most of them, so they will not believe.

I thought that translation was hard to understand.  This Ayah is really deep-but the tenses get confusing.

It’s saying that that “al-qawl” (translated as the “the Word of punishment”) has “come true”.  But this is saying that the punishment ALREADY has occured, while at the end of the translation we see “so they will not believe” which seems to be in the future… As if they are punished before they even disbelieve!!

I will give you a second to go back to the verses and see what I mean…..

SubhanAllah that is the exact power of the Ayah!  I don’t think I know the words or have the intelligence to be able to describe it, but I think if you ponder it long enough you’ll get the idea.  The “Word” of punishment is in past tense because it was decreed upon them, because Allah knew that they would not believe-although they had the full free-will to do so-and thus it was decreed beforehand what punishment they would recieve..

Ibn Jarir said: “The punishment has become inevitable for most of them, because Allah has decreed in the Mother of the Book (Al-Lawh Al-Mahfuz) that they will not believe.”

Another way to look at it is: It was decreed by Allah beforehand this simple rule in life: those who turn away from warnings and reminders and disbelieve shall recieve punishment.  This group fell under that category, and thus this rule applied to them.

Also, these verses were revealed to COMFORT the Prophet, and so the matter is tied back to decree, so that the Prophet is not saddened deeply over their case- it is something meant to be.

Then connect this Ayah to the next ones to see what their punishments were…the barriers, their blindness from the truth…all punishments for not taking warnings seriously…

Ayah 11…

This Ayah answers two questions….

Who is warned (when a messenger is sent to warn)? Two characteristics :

1. Those who follow the Reminder=The Quran.  Because if you follow the Quran any reminder will click with you because you are familiar with it already!
2. Those who fear Al-Rahman in the ‘Ghayb” in the unseen.  What’s so special about them? Fearing Allah when alone, in the unseen, when nobody else is there, is a mark of SINCERITY.  Those who are sincere will be warned, and a reminder will benefit them.  May Allah make us from among these people.

What’s his Bushra? What Glad Tidings do these people recieve?

1. “Maghfirah” Forgivness.
2. “Ajr Kareem”.  A Generous Reward.  Not a stingy reward, a generous reward… JANNAH  Jannah is a generous reward: You be good for a few years on dunya, you get ENDLESS, AMAZING, reward FOREVER! Sounds generous, “Kareem” to me!!

Ayah 12…

Everything is recorded in detail.  Does that fact scare us or relieve us?  Are we relieved because we remember that even if humans forget our favors upon them, our creator will not: and thus we must not seek to please them anyway, but to please the One who will be judging us?  Does it scare us when we remember all the little details of deeds we have offered, the little hurtful words we threw unknowningly, the unrestrained glances, the little “tiny” actions we forget about…all recorded?

Does it evoke a bit of both emotions?

OVERALL THEMES:

Reading through these Ayahs, the common themes seem to be:

1. Status of the Quran and Prophet Mohammad (salla allahu allayhe wassalam)
2. Reminders and warnings sent to people.
3. Rejection of the majority of people for warnings; the barriers around them that no longer allow them to see the truth nor follow it.
4. The severe punishment of those who reject warnings.

Let’s-Apply-Together

• Share your own heartbeats!
• Read Surat Yasin with tonight or this morning with a fresh niyah of gaining this reward!
• Get ready to read HeartBeats 2 for this Surah coming soon!! (Or already up!) Warning: It is much longer than this, take breaks reading it and forgive me for its length but I promise the material is worthwhile

And Allah Knows Best.