The Heavens Earth and Mountains Rejected This But We Were Chosen Dr Yasir Qadhi

today recited the last two verses ofah which is very profound and very deep meaning verse in these verses Allah subhana waa says we offered the am to the Heavens to the Earth and to the mountains they refused to take the am and they became scared of taking the am but insan took the insan was he is wronging himself constantly in state of ignorance Allah will therefore based upon this those who didn't fulfill it Allah will punish the Hypocrites men and women and the mush men and women and and Allah will forgive the believing men and women and Allah is and today inshallah we'll explain little bit about these two verses what exactly is this am and how is Allah subhah wa ta'ala offering it to the heavens and earth and what is the status of man that has taken this reality this verse of course it is verse that is lot of you can imagine over 10 different interpretations have been given we don't have time to go over all of them but we'll go over some of them Allah says we offered the am Al one it is very big responsibility we offered the responsibility not responsibilities Allah didn't say we offered am no it is Al there's one am in the singular there is one very important am which means Allah has entrusted Allah subhah wa ta'ala has given what is an am an AM is something that you entrust with somebody and then you expect something in return back from that am so Allah is saying we offered the am to the Heavens to the Earth to the jibal to the mountains and they refused to accept it and they became scared of it so first and foremost we learn that Allah subhah wa ta'ala is telling us even these inanimate objects they have awareness and perception even the inanimate objects and of course the Quran and the Sunnah and frankly even modern you know science and Modern Biology even seems to suggest it of course their Consciousness is different than our Consciousness but at some level they do have some awareness Allah asael mentions in the Quran there's nothing except that Praises him and Allah says that even the heavens and the Earth are prostrating to Allah subhah wa taala and the prophet wasam said that can hear the of the stones and the prophet said that the mountain of loves us and we love it so he ascribed an emotion to the mountain the mountain of loves us and we love it and as said even modern you know strands of of of biology and of science they are also affirming that even plants and other you know inanimate objects we would consider they might have some type of of Consciousness and of course the Quran affirms this so Allah is saying these inanimate objects and he gives examples the all that is in the heavens the Earth all that is below you the jibal the solid mountains no creation wanted am but insan wanted the am so what is this am so there are as said more than 10 opinions one opinion the is the of Muhammad this is the that's one opinion another opinion the is the Salah we offer them the that they have to Salah pray Salah and they have to pay the Salah the am is they fulfill the obligation of Salah third opinion the am is not just Salah but all of the rituals Salah and Zak and I.E the of Allah subhah wa tala and this is similar to the second opinion the fourth opinion the am is the laws of Allah the waj all of the obligations not just the rituals but the obligations including the including all of the of Islam the fifth interpretation it is even broader than this it is the dean of Allah the dean which is the broadest so if you look at the previous all of them they are aspects of the Deen this opinion the entire Dean is am we offered the religion of Islam to these inanimate objects they all said it is too big of responsibility let us remain at our level don't give us the capacity to rise up because with that capacity we also have the capacity to fall down let us be neutral we don't want to be tested we don't want we want to remain without without having to answer to the am so all of the creation turned it down and insan took it so these are five let's move on so the first five all deal with aspects of Islam we started from one the to Sal to to and then to the entire religion then there's another genre of interpretations these are not dealing with external it deals with internal what is inside of us so what is the am according to another group of Scholars they said one group said and especially those that were the type of Scholars they said the am is free will we have the capacity to obey and disobey according to their interpretation we have ultimate Free Will and according to our interpretation no we don't have ultimate free will our will is always under the will of Allah but without doubt we have type of mashia or will that the inanimate object does not have so according to this this interpretation am is choice and with Choice comes privilege but with privilege also comes the potential for failure so this is another interpretation is Mas or free will another interpretation number seven think we ar on another interpretation is intellect Allah offered all of these entities something that only one species will get and that is intelligence and so insan said want it and by getting it insan became different level but again with that level comes privilege and also comes the opposite yet another interpretation number eight now it is not just it is all of the faculties The Faculty to hear to see to speak to touch we are the only species that has these faculties to that level especially the faculty of Allah taught us this is the that Allah gave us and by the way Bay would include because Bayan requires you can have without Bay you cannot have Bayan without you can have and not be intelligent speaker but you cannot have Bayan without so all of this goes back to the the privilege that man has been given yet another interpretation and this is the interpretation of many of the modern thinkers of our times such as and perhaps also Modi to certain level that am here is social responsibility or in enacting Allah's laws on Earth or the concept of right so the is the responsibility to be Allah's khif on Earth to effectively rule over the creation in the name of Allah subhah wa ta'ala we are obliged to treat the to treat the inanimate objects to treat everything around us by establishing Justice by establishing morality that is the am so we have this and this is more modern interpretation but we find elements of it in the past as well of course these are all would say within mainstream there are also opinions we don't have time to get into that are would say outside of our normative mainstream for example the famous philosophical sufii II the one who wrote and whatnot so you know they have different interpretation I'm just narrating to what he said that this am is the Divine of Allah that he placed in the of the servants because they believe that and this goes back to nostic ISM it goes back to elements of ancient religions and whatnot they believe there's spark of divinity in all of us let's say right there's bit of you know Allah's light in all of us we we don't believe this but that's their interpretation so they say this is the that is in the that all of us have to have that am and then of course you have like the nons Sunni groups the for example the famous scholar of the he says the am of course is the the concept of the imams and what not so they have other interpretations but for us in our tradition as said there's over 10 interpretations now which one is right if you look at all of these that have given you the 10 mainstream ones in reality what we are talking about is something that makes insan different from the other and therefore all of these are manifestations of this am some of them are external and that is the religion of Islam and others are internal and that is why are we different from the other and in fact don't see contradiction saying all of these examples that have given are part of Allah's am we created man to be different and we entrusted man with something that the other do not have what do we have that the other do not have well first and foremost we have Allah has given us faculties that he has not given other creation and secondly Allah has revealed to us the religion and the dean and the Quran and sent prophets to us and therefore all of this comes together because there would be no sense of sending prophets if Allah hadn't given us the to understand the prophets there would be no sense to send the Quran if Allah had not given us the knowledge to understand the Bayan of the Quran so the two of these internal and external actually go together because if Allah had created us with but without hi where would be the and if Allah had sent down the hi but without what's the purpose of hi so the is special privilege that we have and the other do not have that privilege is manifested in how we are different and in how Allah has blessed us so Allah says we gave it to all of these creation Now if somebody says how could they have refused we respond is not command is to display literally in Arabic when you say literally like the merchant displays his Wares which indicates Allah subhah wa ta'ala was giving them the choice unlike when Allah said to the angels bow down to Adam there is no choice this is not this is this is command as for this it is clear Allah is giving them choice do you want the and all of the said it is too big of responsibility we would rather remain without being tested and this means we will give up the possibility of being rewarded Jenna but we're also saving ourselves the possibility of entering jahannam it's neutral neither positive nor negative we'd rather remain there then when insan was given this choice insan immediately carried the am he put it on his back want this am now did Allah subhah wa taala give this choice to all of insan the majority of Scholars say no he gave it to our father adam. and when Adam accepted it either we can say that just like we are dependent upon our fathers and their fathers before us like there's elements of our fathers responsibility that we do bear in terms of where we were born in terms of our upbringing and privilege it's something that comes with the territory so when Adam took it on then the children of Adam also have to take it on and another interpretation is that Adam took it on but Adam is symbolic of all of us if we were there we would have done it as well Adam is our father Adam is my father and your father so by Adam accepting Allah is indicating you would have accepted it too that's how you are and third inter interpretation is that actually Allah gave the am to all bani Adam and this goes back to another verse in the Quran has spoken about this think two years ago and that isah when Allah says recall when took the Covenant from the children of Adam from all of the children ofam and Allah said am not your lord and they all said yes you are our Lord so another interpretation actually the am was offered not just to Adam but to all of us and we all accepted that am and this is interesting because some of these you know atheists these agnostics they say didn't have choice wasn't asked whether want to be created or not cuz you know they really fetishize consent right consent to the point of becoming irrational you know consent has role in Islamic law but there are things that are Beyond consent and and some of these agnostics and atheist say it's not fair didn't choose to be created you didn't ask me if they go down that route we can actually we have an argument from the Quran actually we believe you were we believe that choice was given when you were in your soul in your and we as creation as species all of us were eager to accept this am because we wanted that that responsibility because we want wanted that power because we wanted the potential to rise up the potential to be tested and pass the test and we were not that concerned about the the possibility of failure and that's why Allah says man is consistently wronging himself means is doing wrong once he's doing wrong continuously man is not capable of being sinless man is consistently falling short jul you are ignorant jul utterly ignorant is the more stronger if you like sorry it's the more efficacious or the is called which is don't know how to translate it's called the exaggerated State he is very that's what we call it very so insan is and now pause here does this mean we are at disadvantage if somebody will say well that's not fair wasn't you know it's not my choice that I'm and we respond don't take just one phrase and ignore the rest of the Quran firstly the very next verse we're going to come to Allah mentions the way out and secondly Allah is describing that compared to the other creation man is Hasty man is prone to commit sin and man does not recog recogniz how ignorant he is the other creation actually are more responsible in this regard and this is in the Quran man has been created weak man is so Hasty but these verses should not be taken in isolation of other verses which indicate Allah has privileged the children of Adam Allah has blessed the children of Adam Allah says in the Quran we have honored the children of Adam and we have given them privilege over many of the other creations that we have we have preferred the children of Adam over the majority of other creations and Allah mentions in the Quran about the creation of Adam and he says to the to the he says to the to El why wouldn't you prostrate and bow down to that creation which fashion with my own two hands this is privilege Allah is saying fashion Adam no other creation has been shaped by my own hands other than Adam and Allah subhana wa tala preferred us over all the creation when he commanded even the angels to bow down to us so you cannot just take and and ignore the rest of the Quran no man has been privileged man has been given things but there are also negatives that man has to be aware of and the reason for telling us those negatives is so that we overcome them we do not fall prey to them then Allah says so man took this am and man did not fully think things through but still because of this the lamb here not to get too advanced here it's not really technically for the Arabs in the audience lamb it's rather causal lamb in other words what what what the Quran is saying therefore based upon the am there will be some people who will be punished and others who will not be punished the lamb here it links back to the am based on this therefore some people will be punished who will be punish because theaf what is the characteristic of the maaf he doesn't fulfill the this is literally the characteristic of the MAF and the worst maaf is the one who fails the big am which is the between him and Allah subhana wa tala and that's why in this verse Allah begins before the mus so this also indicates therefore that the is it is the dean of Allah it is believing in Allah because the mush rejects the religion of Allah so am is therefore as we said internal and external and then and so that Allah May forgive the believing men and women by the way both men and women are mentioned and that is not common because usually Allah only mentions the male gender because the female is included to indicate very important Point here when it comes to holding the both men and women are equal and have said multiple times in have said this phrase real equality is equality in front of Allah this is what we believe this is is real equality as for roles and responsibilities this is not equality this is just laws real equality the Dignity of man the responsibilities of the man the Karama of man is the same as the dignity responsibility Kama of woman and this Ayah proves it the will be punished the will be rewarded both are mentioned by gender because both genders equally are responsible for that am now interesting point before we conclude Allah says I'm going to punish the and the and will forgive he didn't say reward he said forgive because there's subtle indication two indications by choosing the word yetu firstly that you will never be able to fully convey the am the way that it is deserved you cannot you canot not give back the am perfectly that's impossible so nobody's going to be perfect but then secondly to indicate another beautiful point no matter how imperfect you are if you try Allah will forgive you you don't need Perfection Allah didn't say and I'm going to reward the righteous because if Allah had said that we would always be wondering how will ever get there Allah said no don't worry no matter where you are if you have if you have IM which means you are trying you have that even the flicker of Iman and you have some attempt don't worry shall forgive the rest the only people who will not be forgiven are the the mus they have no desire for Allah's forgiveness they have no desire to fulfill the am but the who knows there's an AM and who's trying to fulfill the am Allah says don't worry you shall be forgiven just do what you can and Allah finishes this verse what to contrad distinct cuz requires and requires Allah says don't worry you're but I'm and you're jul and am and Rahman so Allah is saying yes you have some negatives but don't worry those will be overlooked by my positives any mistake you make you're any mistake you make am will forgive them and any error you make because you're Jah don't worry myah will Encompass you it will overcome your and so this beautiful Ayah tells us very optimistic message it's very beautiful message and that message is Adam and children of Adam yes you might have been little bit hasty yes you took on big responsibility that the other did not want to take on but and you and there is an element of hastiness an element of and but don't worry wanted you to take this because honored you and will take care of you and will forgive you even if you fall short that is why created you Lee so that Allah can forgive the and the created you to forgive you and created you to show my Rah to you all that I'm asking of you is you recognize that you are blessed you have this am on your backs and you must pay it back to me the best that you can if you do so then there's guarantee from me shall because am and am what beautiful message Allah has given us may Allah subhah wa tala make us appreciate it recognize it and fulfill that am so that we can obtain Allah