Ep 1: A Surah with a Deliberate Design | Surah Ar-Rahman: A Deeper Look | Nouman Ali Khan | Ramadan

Everyone, I'm uh deeply filled with uh anxiety and also with joy that I'm getting to share uh some lessons from. It's actually the more I study this surah with my team, the more I realize the profound depth and beauty inside of this surah. And I'm praying to Allah that he makes it easy for me to communicate some of those lessons to you and do at least an ounce of justice to this remarkable gift that Allah has given us in this surah. So what I'm going to do in this first session is make some introductory comments that will set the stage for us better grasping the materials of this surah. uh in there are different ways to divide the subject matter of this surah but I'm going to give you an easy division and then later on as we dive deeper we're going to take a kind of a more complicated look at the division okay so the first thing we're going to see in the surah the first subject we're going to see is going to revolve around the Quran itself the greatness of the Quran and what a mercy the Quran itself is that's going to be its first subject it's going to quickly switch from that to a description of uh the order the cosmic order of the universe. How Allah has made things in order you know out in the galaxies in the in the larger universe uh and the skies and from there the focus is going to switch to the earth and what Allah has done on the earth. So basically in this this large this second passage we get the Quran then we get the skies then we get the earth then we get us again Allah says he created us from a a dried up kind of dirt he's going to start he's going to mention the jin for the first time uh that he created the jin then he's going to bring the the attention back to the sky again and that's going to be where he says he's the he's the master of the easts and the west he's going to go from there and talk about the seas. The last time he talked about the earth, now he's going to talk about the seas. And then at the end of all of that, he's going to talk about how everything is going to actually come to an end. This this world is temporary and the only thing that will remain is Allah. Now, when we get to that point in the surah, there's the heart of the surah, the core of the surah. And the core of the surah is going to deal with criminals on judgment day and how judgment day is going to look as as soon as judgment day begins. What's it going to look like for criminals and how they're going to end up in hellfire? May Allah not make us. So that's the that's the middle of the surah. And then after the middle is done, there are two more sections. And those two more sections are Allah will introduce us to a pair of gardens a pair of gardens and he's going to describe that pair of gardens and when he's done describing it he's going to describe yet another pair of gardens. So two jennas followed by another two jennas. So these are the sort of a layout of the subject matter of the surah. How is that all making sense together? How does everything connect together? What's the point of putting these things in this order? This is some of the stuff that we're going to try and explore as we study this surah. But at least you have a bird's eye view of what's going on inside of this surah. To help you follow along and reflect more deeply, we've created a companion workbook for this series. Download it at baya.com/raman. >> It's also noteworthy that there are groups of suras in the Quran. Okay? So there are there are places in the Quran where a bunch of suras are together and together they form a group and that group is connected to each other. They're they're they're complementing each other and fulfilling each other in some way. This belongs to a group of suras that begins with number 50 and ends with 56. This is surah number 55. The group starts with what again? 50. And ends with 56. What these suras have in common? They're all Makkah. They're all from Makkah. Okay? They all say something special about the Quran. Every one of them has something unique to tell us about the Quran. So whether it's orah or it's and then after that it's going to tell you something about the Quran. Then you're going to see then you're going to see again and then you're going to see I'm not translating these ayat yet but giving you an idea that all seven of these suras 50 51 52 53 54 55 56 all of them somehow say something about the Quran. All of them have other themes too but that's one of the things that that strings them together. Now I'll tell you something about these seven suras. Okay. The first of them is surah number 50 and has basically there's no other surah like it really. It's a unique signature surah. Okay. After that there are two suras 51 and 52 and if you study and carefully you'll realize they are twins. They're pairs of each other. They're very closely connected. All a lot of the subjects that are coming in in that is somehow being complemented in. So 50 stands alone and 51 and 52 are pairs. Then you get to 53 and 54 they are pairs. And interestingly, one is called the star and the other's called the moon. So they're both this the depiction of the same night sky, aren't they? Najam and Alam, right? and they they very closely connect with each other both in and okay then we get to the surah we're dealing with right now 55 and what's the last one 56 and these are very closely connected to each other so the twin the pair of this surah is actually when I my my hope is after this study is done my next surah study will actually be it's going to be in Toronto all of these are being recorded the ones I mentioned are already done the That's those series are finished. T was in Jakarta and you know like uh Variat was in Glasgow and this is all over the place right Najum was in Dallas. So but now inshallah after we finish this then I'll I'll get to the last surah of this group in Toronto inshallah by Allah's permission and that's going to be but I'll tell you something really cool about I'm going to divide the subjects of a different way. Now I gave you an overview but I'll divide it a different way. The first thing is going to be the Quran. The second thing is going to be this world. This world, whether it's the skies or the earth or the seas, that all amounts to what? This world. Then there's going to be the horrors of judgment day. That's the third. Judgment and hellfire. Okay. So, let's go over that again. What was the first one? The Quran. And then the sky. This world. This world. Basically, this universe including this world. Okay. And then the third is the horrors of judgment day. Then you have, you know, let's just say starters Jenna, starters Jenna, and then you have elite Jenna. Okay, you you got the economy package and then you got the deluxe package. Okay, the executive suite Jenna. So you got started two levels of Jenna, pairs of each, right? So that's your five subjects. Now I'm going to skip the last part of the last part of I'm going to skip that. I'll come back to that. That's the last p the last passage of Bakya. Really interesting. I'll tell you something very cool about that in a second. But before then, if you go if you work backwards, the fifth subject in Bakya is the greatness of the Quran, which was the first subject in Rahman. Working backwards, the second subject in Waka, Allah says, did you make the rainfall or are we making the rainfall? Did you make the fire from the tree or are we creating the fire? What's he talking about? this world. The second subject in Sutman was this world. Working backwards, the next subject in Rahman is the horrors of judgment day. And working further backwards on you, you get the people of the right hand. The people of the right hand will be in what? Jenna. And then you get the first and the foremost believers. The very elite of the believers. That's the first subject of Bakya. So what's happening inah we're working backwards from where started they kind of start mirroring each other but the only thing left is the last passage of surahul waky in a sense you could say the last passage and also beginning of of surah bakya what's really amazing about that is many of the subjects in the end of wwaka are complementing what we study in surah kafk is which one 50 so 51 and 52 are paired 53 and 54 are paired. 55 and most of 56 is paired and whatever is left over from 56 is paired with 50 back again. So everything connects and it becomes a bound unit of suras. It's really remarkable cohesion inside the Quran. You might feel like suras in the Quran are kind of like you you can't tell how they're connected to each other and how the subjects join together, but this study really helps you see the Quran as a book. So now with that little bit of a background let's begin with some observations about surah alman eventually these notes and these lectures will be converted into books and study materials right so but but I I wanted to share my notes on the screen with you so you get an idea of what goes behind the scenes in preparing for these lectures so you feel some of my pain right and also I want you to kind of get in the in the zone of what does it mean to study the Quran right so this is my way of doing that but some things that I really want you to know. I'll I'll make you take a picture or write down or whatever. So, here's some things that are unique by not mentioning in other words suras is the majority of the Quran. Two-thirds of the Quran is Makkah suras. But most of the time when Allah mentions his names, he mentions two names, right? So, you know, he mentions pairs of names. There's no pairs of names in. So that's the first unique thing. There are no moral teachings. What's right and what's wrong? You know what you know whe whether it's charity or kindness or prayer or you know uh you know injustice or any there's no mention of wrong. What what is wrongdoing? What is good? What is moral teaching? None of it's in this surah. Then there's no mention of prophets or angels. Well, not directly anyway. I mean the the prophet sallallahu alaihi wasallam will be addressed but not really talked about not really a subject in this surah and then other suras in this group you'll see at least mention of destroyed nations of the past because the makans were being talked to right this is maki surah the makkan people were behaving in a way that previous nations had already behaved right so they were being given those examples to say hey you're acting like this you're going to get the same fate as they are. If you don't change your ways, but you don't find mention of destroyed nations in this surah, then you don't get the like inah and other suras, you know, they say this, they say he's insane, they say he's a magician, they say it's poetry. They make all these claims against the Quran. No mention of any claims against the Quran. Then there are no direct instructions to the prophet, which is also a common feature of Makkah suras. Like for example, Allah will tell his prophet sallallahu alaihi wasallam, be patient over what they're saying. Or leave them be. Turn your back from them. Don't worry about them. Just commit to what you've been commanded to do. Like Allah will on many occasions Allah will be speaking to humanity. Stop, start talking to his prophet, encourage [clears throat] him, console him, comfort him, and then go back and continue. Right? And you but you don't find that in this surah. Not not again directly anyway. So there are no there's no mention of the word Allah. There's no mention this is remarkable. There's no mention of the word Allah in the entire surah. While uh the word because of and other instances occurs 37 times but but the word Allah does not occur. What's called the word of glory. And then there is there's people who deny the message of the prophet are called kafirun. And the people who worship more than one god are called. There's no mention of there's no mention of in fact the only term you're going to find not even you're going to find. So right criminals there's a unique term being used here for them that's not typically used as a generic term for disbelievers. The generic term for disbelievers in the Quran especially the Makkan disbelievers is either mushikun. You're we're departing from those normal terms. So by by not mentioning some things already we're noticing that this surah is unique. Then there are other things. The only surah in the entire Quran that begins with Allah's name. There's no other surah that begins with Allah's name. You can find like alhamdulillah or subhan but not Allah's name in the beginning. It's the only one and the only surah to actually have an an ayah just as Allah's name. Alman is an ayah by itself. Even though scholars disagreed whether that should be an ayah by itself or not, there were classical disagreements. Is Alman Quran one ayah or is Alman a separate ayah and Quran a se separate ayah? We're we're going to look at both of those positions. But regardless, the fact that it begins with Allah's name and there's plenty of solid evidence that it's an ayah by itself has never happened anywhere else in the Quran. Then Allah is described in this asalam. Well, I'll I'll dive deep into what that means when we get there, but this is a description of Allah that occurs only in this surah. There's no other place in the Quran where Allah will be described this way. So now, not only is the word Allah not mentioned, but the way Allah is being talked about is unique in this surah to the rest of the Quran. And so then there's a unique mention of the jin, which is going to be a fun subject. Might as well get that out of the way now because you guys are interested in Jyn's stories. So what happened what happened in this surah is there was this real issue that Allah is talking both to human beings and to jin and then it be it created a confusion to some people and they said well is the Quran revealed to both human beings and jin is this guidance for humanity and guidance for jin the Quran and the simple answer to that straightforward is no it's not it's not and I'll explain why the jin are not uh they don't have to deal with inheritance law which is in the Quran. They don't have to worry about fasting and breaking their fast and you know cuz you know fasting happens at sunset breaks at sunset right and the gins engage in intergalactic travel m doesn't quite work that way when you're on the other side of the moon you understand so and the Quran is talking about you know for example purification the Quran is talking about you know food food intake the jin are not worried about slaughtering an animal because that's not how they consume they're not from this from the scene world. So much of what the Quran is talking about, pretty much all of what the Quran is talking about is human subject matter, human laws, human examples, isn't it? So then how do we explain that the jin were talked to in the surah, right? That's that it's a it's a valid question and the jin will be talked to very directly in the surah alongside human beings. So some developed this notion that no it's a guidance for jin also and we have to do dawwa to the gins as well and uh then we got crazy questions like do g j g j g j g j g j g j g j g j g j g jins have their own prophets do they have their own I mean why do you need to know if Allah didn't tell you like you know as if our guidance isn't enough for us to worry about now we have to figure the jin situation out and like we we we really don't. So, let me explain what's actually happening here. Even though this will unfold when we get to the ayah of but let me just break this for you a little bit. Allah has told us in that he has a way of kind of mapping out the struggles of prophets. Not just our prophet, all prophets in the past. This is how we put in place for every prophet enemies. Devils from humans and gins. So now Allah is saying every time a prophet came a prophet had what? Enemies. And he had two kinds of enemies. What two kinds of enemies? Human beings and gins. They inspire each other. Which ones is which which one is actually inspiring which one? Ah so the gins are coming to the humans and saying hey that prophet say this and you're like yeah and then he says then the the enemy of the prophet says it and then when he does it another jin says wow that worked inspired to give some more waswasa so there the kafir behavior is inspiring the shaitan the jin shaitan to do more whispers you understand to make things even harder for the prophets you understand so they are kind of in a partnership but here's The important thing, do the disbelievers know that they are being inspired by devils? No. The of the jin, the devils of the jin are invisible. They don't their partners, the human partners they have to be enemies of the prophets, they don't even know that they have partners. You understand? So they're they're an invisible support for the forces of evil against prophets. Right? Now what Allah is going to do in this surah, he's not talking to all jin and he's definitely not talking to all human beings. Suras have particular audiences. Suras have I'll say that again. Suras have what? Particular audience and you have to pay attention to the language of a surah to say who is this for? For example, you say no no no every surah is for everybody. No, that's not how education works. Because if every surah is for everybody is not for you is not for you. It's for who? It's for the then if if if this is the case that every surah is for everybody then surahba is for you. You know then the thing is when someone's teaching then they have to see who are they teaching and what is the time to teach what. So not every surah should be looked at the same way. First we have to understand who the audience is. And the audience in the surah are human beings and jin that are hellbent on calling this message a lie. And the the word for calling the truth a lie is the verb would be and if two people are doing it you say that phrase is giving away who is the audience of this surah not all gins inah we learn among the jin there are Muslims too there are good ones among them too in this surah we're going to learn that Allah is going to address the invisible enemies of the Quraysh that were inspiring to them to be enemies ofasam. There's further evidence to this. I want you to understand why this is important. You're going to find in this surah jud a description of judgment day then hellfire then heaven. I'll say that again. Judgment day, hellfire and heaven. Now judgment day is only for disbelievers or both believers and disbelievers. Very good. It's for both. But what you're going to find in this surah is judgment day is only described as a horrible event where criminals will be terrified. Who is not being mentioned when Allah mentions judgment day? Believers are not being mentioned. And then when judgment day is mentioned, the horrors of judgment day when they're being shot at and criminals are being told, "Run as far as you can. You're not going to be able to escape." And criminals will be recognized by their face, the marks on their faces. This is the kind of thing we're going to read in the surah. That's judgment. That's not hellfire. That's just judgment day. Is that the state of believers on judgment day? No. So the description of judgment day in surah Rahman is not everything that's happening on judgment day. The description of Rahman's judgment day is only what the criminals will have to face on judgment day. And which criminals in particular? The criminals among the human beings that were being backed up by the jin. And that's why when we get to the description of judgment day, Allah says gathering of gins and humans. If you want to escape, go ahead. You know, so why did he combine gins and humans like that? Because in another place in the Quran, Allah told us some gins and humans work in a partnership. So you know what? Go ahead, partner up and go and escape. So there's a sarcastic commentary on their partnership that's going to take place on judgment day, right? And by on the flip side, by the way, and now they're combined together and they're being burned in hellfire together. Now, when we get to Jenna, what should you see? You should see humans and gins in Jenna. Because if the surah is about all humans and all gins, then when the Jenna conversation goes on, then we should see humans and gins together in Jenna too, you know. But what do you find? And for whoever feared standing in front of the they get two gardens. We go back to the singular. No longer pair, no longer plural. We go back to human beings. There's there's a there's a switch that's happened. There's a really interesting switch that's happened. So these are indications why the jin are being talked to here. Allah did not reveal the Quran to the jin. If they happened to hear it, they were marveled by it. They were moved by it. Some of them came to believe in it. Others realized, "Oh my god, we got to human beings are about to get guidance. We better upgrade our misguidance strategy." Right? So they they they heard the Quran coming and they realized they've got to up their game to undo the guidance that Allah has sent. Right? So they had different reactions to it, but that does not mean the guidance of the Quran came directly to them. Some of them heard it and they were impressed by it. you know like in surah but that doesn't mean they're its direct recipients or their intent the intent the direct intended audience now uh there like I tell I said two gardens are mentioned that another two gardens are mentioned that's not talked about anywhere else in the Quran and then of course the frequency of repetition that frequency and that much repetition 31 times that does not happen in any other surah in this way so these are some of the things that make this surah truly unique. In addition, there's vocabulary in this surah, words in this surah that don't occur anywhere else in the entire Quran. There's you words like and mar and and we're going to go through all that vocabulary when the time comes. But the point is I want you to appreciate this surah is kind of on its own. It has its own signature. It has its own design. And it it it really does stand unique in many many ways. Now something really cool and interesting. The story of Adam is the story of Adam in no watch this. Allah says to Adam whenever guidance comes to you from me what's the final guidance that came? I mean Adam was told whenever guidance comes and what's the final episode of that guidance the ultimate episode of that guidance Quran Quran beginning of fine he says about Adam I am creating a a human being from mud what's the after what do you see then he says when I make him fall to here too. Huh? He says in this he says he taught human beings speech. He says in the story of Adam he taught Adam all the words. Here he says he taught the human beings speech. You see themes from the story of Adam very nicely subtly emerge in he says to he says to Adam strangely he says in when he put him in Jenna he says you're not going to be parched with thirst and you're not going to be standing in the blazing sun in in heaven. And here what does he say? He says, "What's the ayah when what's ah and Adam was told don't go near and then and then of course saga is in the story of that's the central theme of the story of Adam. Everybody knows that then the stars are above and Adam was in Jenna which Allah describes as you know up in the heavens and then he was brought down from there right so the stars are mentioned in the surah and eventually that system will collapse allahel describes in the surah in Jenna a unique description of the spouses in Jenna in both pairs of jennas you'll see a unique description of spouses in Jenna does that have anything to do with the story about them possibly. You and your spouse find tranquility in Jenna. Interestingly, even the word tranquility to mean to be relaxed. To be relaxed. You're going to find in this surah, they sit back and relax. They recline and relax. He says, "Eat from it whatever you want." And what is Allah going to describe in Jenna in this surah? All kinds of fruit and and drinks. He says in this surah that human beings and devils are working with each other and they should be punished together. The ones that are working with each other. Right? At the end of the story of Adam, he said to uh uh he said to he said, "Whoever among the children of Adam follow you, I will fill all of you with hell altogether." Now he's putting who together? the devil and human beings. That was done in the story of Adam. Interestingly in the story of Adam when Adam was being sent to the earth Allah said to him in it you all will live and in it all of you will die and from it you will be brought out in Allah says everyone here shall cease to exist and only Allah will remain and then resurrection begins where we are brought back again. First he described life in this world. Then he described that you're all going to die. Then you're going to be brought out. Which is actually in summary that was mentioned in the story of Adam. So a really interesting subtle connection between some of the themes inside of this surah and what happens in the Quran with the story of Adam. >> Coming up next time in this surah alman series. But in the ram of a mother, she's absolutely in love with this creature that has no idea she exists. You are nothing. She the if you're a baby, you are nothing to her, mom. You're nothing to her. You don't exist to her. You're doing you're sacrificing yourself for this baby, but the baby actually sees you as non-existent. Does that remind you of our of a human being's relationship with Allah?