They Criticized The Prophets ﷺ Marriage Surah Al Ahzab Summer Quran Seminary Nouman Ali Khan

We we're not here to accept or reject people. We're our the pursuit of truth means you're accepting or rejecting evidence one case at time, one situation at time, one investigation at time. The same scholar may have said something ingenious in some some things and absolutely verifiable in some things and may have not done great job in some other things. And we can't not benefit from the good that they did. If this was very important for your guidance to know exactly what went down, Allah would have recorded it. The prophet would have told us about it. Allah and his messenger's job is to communicate guidance. If they didn't do so, there's reason. There's reason. All you need to know is it wasn't working. That's all you need to know. And every other detail, just put big none of my business sticker on your notes. Like just look at that every day. This video is an extract from our deeper look of surah alab which is currently taking place live in Chicago right now during our 4-week intensive summer Quran seminary. But for the first time ever, we're also streaming the entire thing live exclusively within the TV app itself. It will not be here on YouTube or social media. So register now on bayatv.com to join Ostad Norman and other students on this transformational journey every evening from 7 to 10:00 p.m. Central Daylight Time. You can also catch up with the replays afterwards. So everyone, we're going to talked to you about the historical analysis based on reliable reports. another thing I'll say here is that this is something that you'll get exposed to over the course of the month. We believe in religion that emphasizes the importance of verification and it emphasizes the importance of following knowledge and not following things that are uncertain. Like we pursue truth, we pursue certainty. That's part of the core DNA of Islam, right? We don't just believe in something because it feels good to believe in it. And we don't believe in something because our parents told us to believe in it. That's actually the Quran's criticism of other religions. That they're not based on reason and the pursuit of truth. If you were to boil down the pursuits in our our religion, they just boil down to two things. The pursuit of truth and the pursuit of justice. That's it. Those are the two pursuits. And the ultimate truth is Allah in that sense too. Right? So you'll find the the legacies of the prophets, all the debates that that are mentioned in the Quran, all their struggles that are mentioned in the Quran boil down to those two things. The pursuit of truth and the pursuit of justice. The Quran criticizes two key groups of people. Two key groups of people. One group of people that were engaged in injustices. They're, you know, unjust to the orphan or unjust to, you know, innocent people. They kill unjustly, they steal unjustly, they they violate the rights of the weak, etc., etc. That's injustice. It's the that's the battle against injustice. And then there are people that spread falsehood. It's battle for truth. It's the pursuit of truth. And within that pursuit of truth, the Quran even comes after people that claim to be people of knowledge, like the rabbis, right? They had knowledge but they were using their legitimacy their titles to bend the truth to whatever they what served their interest. So Allah even exposed that they people that claim some sort of copyright or some kind of license to the truth can actually become corrupt also that they can use it for whatever other means political means and other other sorts of means. Our history Muslim history is not immune from these problems. We're not we don't have glorious cleansed detoxed history. We have difficult history. And there are people who made up stories about our religion. And then they popularize those stories that happened, right? And then the problem is when when we over time became passive as civilization, we became passive Muslims. So you've heard certain stories growing up and that's your Islam. Your Islam is based on these stories that you've heard your whole life. And then someone comes along and says, "Actually, that's not real thing. That's not legit." etc. You're like this is what I'm you think my parents my my villager my grand you know my my the biggest beard uncle know tell told me this story how could it be wrong etc etc we have this idea of appeal to authority who are you to question something when someone so much older than you or someone so much more credentialed than you didn't question it the problem isn't truth doesn't come from an age truth doesn't come from person truth comes from evidence right so you you have to follow the evidence you have to follow the you know the the to the source and we apply this in every other situation except for our religion unfortunately right so Muslims became very far more interested in I'm just going to not think about something and just take it for what it is and not question it I'm not telling you to question everything and become skeptic however there are things that we have you don't have choice but to challenge it because your fra goes against it the Quran goes against it the the the legacy of our prophet phetallam goes against it. And there's going to be things like that that are sometimes even mentioned in our books. There are things that are problematic that are mentioned in our books. That's fact. You can't get around it. You know, not too long ago, we were studying and and right and is one of the letters that is not translated. It's just Allah said noon, right? So the Sahabah many of them had opinions about what noon means. And one of the suggested meanings of noon from some of the companions of the prophet sallall alaihi wasallam was that it's giant whale in the sky whale in space and on the fin of that whale the earth is spinning. Right? That's an opinion found in classical tier. Now do we accept that opinion? Some people went as far. Their loyalty to well if the sahhabi said it they must have got it from somewhere. So there must be an invisible whale in space. And now you can find YouTube videos of Muslims who believe in whales and space and the atheists make fun of it and all that kind of stuff. Well, here's what's actually going on. One, no, no, that's not what noon means. Two, the Sahaba weren't necessarily telling you that's what noon means. They were saying, tried to find out what it means. asked around. The only thing came across is this story about noon. That's all I've ever heard, but still don't know what it means. But just because they're citing this thing about noon doesn't mean that's what they believe. That mean that's mean that's all they found when they asked around. Meaning they were explorers themselves. They weren't just taking something and saying don't know. This is telling you that the legacy of the prophets of of the Sahabah was actually exploration. They were thinking about the word of Allah and trying to find out what it means. Actually, that whole story about whale and the fin, that's from Jewish tradition and the the and there were Jewish tribes in the area and that story was floating around about what that noon might mean. So, what I'm saying is history is more complex than just found it in book. There's more going on and we are supposed to be sophisticated civilization. We're supposed to be thinking more deeply and more critically. There's two extremes now. either if found it in book written by somebody some sheh somebody consider like like you know like the Catholics have the pope we have popified figures in Islam too so if they said it kalas that's the end of it right there's that level of loyalty to the scholar or there is forget about the scholarship they they talked about whale who needs scholarship right there's these two extremes either throw out the whole kitchen sink or take the whole thing no if you're if you're We we're not here to accept or reject people. We're our the pursuit of truth means you're accepting or rejecting evidence one case at time, one situation at time, one investigation at time. The same scholar may have said something ingenious in some some things and absolutely verifiable in some things and may have not done great job in some other things. And we can't not benefit from the good that they did because they we found something. And yeah, this this this new psychosis that Muslims have developed. found the sheh. He made mistake. don't don't understand this psychological disorder. You found human being who made mistake. Congratulations to you. Really happy for you. Now that found that they made mistake, you can't listen to anything they ever say. Well, thank Allah. The person who's saying it has never made mistake, which is why we should listen to everything they always say, right? because they they crossed the the the threshold for not making mistakes. They have immunity. They took vaccine. They they have vaccine, right? They took that. Everybody else they can find the mistakes of except themselves. Subhan Allah. This is what happens when we become obsessed with personalities as opposed to obsessed with the argument with the evidence. And so what what I'm saying here in the first historical analysis based on reliable reports is what mean. We have to take critical look at history. We have to take critical look at the evidence that we have and how reliable it is and where does it originate from and how far back can we take it and if it's not 100% and if 70% we should be comfortable saying hey that's 70%. You know we can't be entirely sure. So but what how does that impact our understanding of the Quran? Here's how it impacts it. The Quran is absolute. The Quran is the explicit word of Allah. It's spelled out. And then you have some reports that may not be as reliable. You cannot take the stuff that's not as reliable and use it to override the meaning of that which is you cannot take the you know the implicit and override the explicit. Do you understand? And that's what often we do. We often take the words of the Quran and we take report and the report is not the strongest evidence and we start imposing it onto the ayah when the ayah isn't saying that. So we're going to engage in that journey. I'm setting that stage. I'm preparing you for the stuff that's coming, right? Because that's one of the one of the grunt works. So one of the the difficult tasks we're going to have to engage in anyway. So the second is the development of who is to us. This is going to be development like where the prophet where what we feel about the prophet in the beginning of the surah and how our feelings towards him and our understanding of him evolves and changes. It's actually he also is undergoing kind of special training in this surah because he's being tested in unique ways that he has not been tested before and it's crazy to say right has been tested in so many ways. You would think almost towards the end of the of the prophet sallall alaihi wasallam. This is now fifth or nearly the sixth year of the the migration right so if you count it it's about 18 out of the 23 years of revelation are practically gone 18 out of 23. You would think the big tests are all over. No no no some of the toughest tests are just now after all of that. Now we're landing there. So and then of course there are going to be different elements in this surah. don't could have given you an overview of all the subjects in this surah. haven't. But we're going to see different elements and we're going to make sure we understand how each of those elements are actually they look separate but they're working together. I've written I've list read non-Muslim literature orientalist literature on this surah. There are people who claim that the Quran is an incoherent text. What that means is the Quran's suras or chapters, they're not quite chapters, they don't make any logical sense. They're all over the place, right? they they're not they don't come together. The subject keeps moving and shifting and things like that. There's no chapter-like organization in the Quran. And the number one surah they quote to to claim that the Quran is incoherent and doesn't have any structure structural integrity or or flow logical flow isahab. They use this as the case they make for the incoherence of the Quran. We're going to look at as case of the remarkable coherence of the Quran. Well, we're going to do the opposite. We're going to look at how beautifully things are tied together in way only Allah can do. Human beings can't. Okay? And finally, we're going to look at certain anchors and the connections to previous revelations. What that means is there are certain key terms in this surah and we're going to see how those key terms were used in suras that were revealed before this surah and how they are also those terms are reaching climax as they approach this surah. Okay. So that's our that's our four-step process. You'll see it throughout the month, inshallah. Now, want to share something with you. You know, don't just want to give you lectures about the surah. want to give you certain things that even beyond the study of that you're going to do with me this month, in your own study of the Quran, in your own exploration of the Quran, there are some things want you to become mindful of. want you to have certain tools that will help you think about the Quran better and more effectively. And so one part of the Quran is when Allah is commenting on an event in the prophet's life sallallahu alaihi wasallam. There's different pieces of the Quran, right? There's oaths in the Quran and parables in the Quran and stories in the Quran and laws in the Quran, etc. There's all these different components. One component is Allah is talking about an event in the in the prophet's life sallallahu alaihi wasallam. When you get to place in the Quran when Allah is talking about one of the events in his life, then here's suggested process. First, understand the historical event. So, in this case, told you there are four historical events. We're going to try to understand them, right? So, first you don't even look at the ayah. You're just trying to understand the historical event. What happened? Then you're going to look at the revelation, the Quran, as commentary on that event. And let me pause here and help you understand what mean by that. It's it's actually pretty deep. Hey guys. Hey you. Okay, they're having too much fun though. I'm jealous. Okay, so here here's what mean. Let's just say there's news about what you know Trump tweeted today or something or there's news from Ukraine or there's news from the United Nations, something. there's some news event everybody's it's spread the news spread but there's one expert that you trust there's an there's an analyst there's scholar there's researcher there's geopolitical thinker etc etc you're like okay everybody's talking about this event but don't want to hear from 14-year-old what they think and Tik Tocker want to go to this expert want to get their opinion on what how do understand this event everybody knows the event happened but that analyst that thinker that intellectual they will give you perspective nobody else could give you because they have deeper understanding of the politics, the the the economic undercurrents, the social, etc., etc. You understand? have, you know, certain friends that work in certain governments in higher levels, right? And something's going on in that country and watch the news. I'm like, "What's going on?" And called them and said, "No, no, that's not what's going on. Let me tell you what's going on." Because was in the meeting and the with the with the generals and this is what they were talking about, etc. was like, okay. Yeah, the news tells you one thing, but the people on the inside have different story. You understand? So there's this the idea of expert opinion on something, right? Even if it's the same event, do we all understand the same event the same way? No, we don't. That depends on our level of knowledge, our level of understanding. Now, think about this. There's an event that happened in the prophet's life. Who's about to comment on it? Allah is going to comment on it. Allah is going to reveal certain ayat talking about that event. In other words, it's not that we have to understand the ayat better by understanding the event. No, you can't understand the event unless you understand Allah's ayat. Allah's ayat are the commentary on how to understand that event. So what we've done is we've reverse engineered this and what we've done is let's understand the ayat by understanding the event. What I'm saying is let's understand the event by understanding the ayat. The ayat are going to highlight the event in way that no historian could highlight it. Not even the people that experienced it could highlight it. They couldn't figure it out what's going on. Only Allah could. Only Allah could. I'll give you an easy example of that and it'll come in handy for this surah too. it's fat. When Hudabia was signed, mult thousands of companions th you know hundreds if not th in the thousands of the companions were frustrated when the treaty was signed. They all witnessed the same event. They're all upset. They all see this as loss. They all they're all angry. All of them. Not with no exceptions. Everybody's upset. And the Quran comments on the same event. And the Quran common sense is we've given you an unequivocal undisputed open victory before that ayah came. And the ayah came right after the signing. Soon after the signing when they're when they're basically taking their walk of shame back to Medina in the sense that's how the Sahabah are feeling. It's walk of shame. We came here to do Hajj. We couldn't even do Hajj. And Allah is revealing we have given you the most open victory. There's no ayah in the Quran that describes victory in more explicit terms than surah fat. But it doesn't look like victory to anybody. It looks like loss. It looks like humiliation. How is this victory? The Quran commented on something that no human being could understand the reality of. Only Allah could. Now understand what Allah means when he says that the Quran is light. What is the function of light? Light helps me identify the reality of an object. If there was no lights on in here and it was pitch black outside, don't know how far something is. don't know how big something is. don't know if there's snake in front of me or child in front of me. don't know the reality around me in the absence of light. The Quran calls itself what? Light. What that means is the Quran is means by which we can understand the reality of something. So when there's event and then the ayat come the ayat are putting light on that event that no history report can put no other document can put and so that's the ultimate lens by which to understand the event. That's the ultimate lens. Now what we've done is because we reverse engineered it we're like let's shed light on the ayat by these reports right? How you going to shed light on light? Light sheds itself on everything else. It's not the other way around. And this has bad consequences in our understanding. We start getting gaps in our understanding because of that. So what I'm saying is what's your process? First, okay, first just look at the reports. First look at what are the historians saying, then look at how is the Quran shedding light on this? How is the Quran talking about this event? But then there's the third. Now that the Quran talked about it, you have to ask yourself really hard question. What am supposed to learn from this? Okay, so there's this thing that happened. And then we know Allah talked about it. get it. And this is how Allah talked about it. But in the end, the goal of all of it is my guidance. Your guidance. That's the third step. What are the universal principles? What are the guidance? What what what am getting from this that I'm supposed to take? What's my take-home? What's my takeaway? Cuz the takeaway cannot just be interesting information. The takeaway cannot just be learned lot about history. That can't be the takeaway. We're going to go through lot of history this month. We're going to go through lot of ayat, lot of taps or lot of, you know, commentary. That's lot of information. But that's not the takeaway that all that hard work. So, we get the best takeaway we can if you don't do this step three, you missed the whole there's no you cooked everything. You didn't eat it, right? You got no nutrition out of it. It's delicious food but you didn't consume it. Right? So that's this is the ultimate objective. The third piece is the ultimate objective. And in in one way you can say that one and two are and three is that's another way to think about it. One and two is the study and three is well what does this study mean for us? That's contemplation. That's contemp because we're supposed to study the Quran and we're supposed to contemplate the Quran. Okay. So this is process that want you to become familiar with. Now, now we're going to talk little bit about the controversial marriage and why this controversial marriage of the prophetam to our mother is at the center of the surah and how we will see that this is huge gift of Allah to this this marriage and he was married to you know in his lifetime 11 women 11 mothers of the believers right but this one marriage is special gift of Allah recorded in the Quran for this and we're going to see So everybody's looking at it as controversy, right? And the Quran is going to take something that's controversial and what's he going to turn it into? blessing. He's going to reverse engine like it's it's light that without Allah's light, we wouldn't have seen it. You ever seen those UV rays or lights that you could you shine on them and now you could see things you didn't see before or X-ray vision? That's what the Quran's going to do. So even though I'm using the word controversial marriage, controversial marriage from the shallow lens, but by the time we're done looking at it from the Quran's lens, it's going to be the blessed marriage. It's going to be something else entirely. And then we're going to be ready to take something away from it that's going to illuminate our lives. Right? So it's repeated in the very beginning in ayah number four, in the middle between 36 to 38. And at the end towards because it's 73 ayat of the surah, it's all the way at the end in surah number ayia number 69 also. And there's some references to it in 58 and 60. And what's interesting is me mentioned there are four major events right that are in this surah. And this sto this reference comes up in the neighborhood of each of those events. Like there's the reference to this and then another inc another historical event then reference to this then another incident. So all the other events in the surah are kind of circling around the marriage of Zah to our prophetam. So this is kind of like the tie-in to all of them is what's happening. Okay. Now we have to understand something about the history the the backdrop of the surah and I'm going to lay some things out for you before show you the next slide. Badr was our first military victory. Everybody knows that was pretty devastating loss right the prophet himself was almost killed. This was one of course in part because of the treachery of the hypocrites. But this also had other consequences. It emboldened people to question the leadership of the prophet sallallaihi wasallam because if he's the prophet guaranteed victory from Allah, how could he lose? Right? How could he lose? And there's because we were confused by we're following the prophet of Allah and we lost and the prophet himself was almost killed. What kind of he was almost how could be the prophet of Allah and he's almost killed right? So what Allah do? Allah revealed almost 60 ayat of surah al Iran surah number three to help us understand just to process the commentary on how to make sense of after it happened was given to the prophet sallall alaihi wasallam in Iran after the re after the battle of okay now even though now that that we lost let's understand the the geopolitical climate the Quraysh got their revenge because they lost in bad and now they got their revenge. Not only did they get their revenge, they're little bit fired up. They're like, "Man, we got him." And they're down right now. They're injured. This is good opportunity. We need to strike back and finish the job. But we know even if we win, we're not going to be able to finish them off. We need more than that. Ash on the other side, the prophet sallallaihi wasallam had treaties with Jewish tribes, right? And some of those Jewish tribes, they were treacherous against the prophet sallallaihi wasallam. They broke their treaties and some of those tribes got expelled in the meantime from Medina and some of those tribes vowed revenge against the prophet sallall alaihi wasallam. So after not only are the Quraysh emboldened they're like we should come back and fight more. The Jewish tribes that are in the proximity of Medina are now going around trying to rally everybody and say look this is problem for you guys. It's also problem for us. This Islam thing is spread like virus in Medina. We need to end this problem. So you guys come from the outside, we'll take care of business from the inside. We're and it's going to be easy money. Let's just kill all these people and take all their lands, all their homes, enslave their, you know, women and children, whatever we got to do. We'll just take all of it. And if the two of us are not enough, let's convince other tribes that this is going to be easy money, easy victory. Let's get us all together, which is the different groups, different tribes, all thinking this is going to be an easy victory because we're all together. And now these legions of, you know, tens of thousands are coming for the city of Medina. This is not battle that's going to happen on the battlefield. It's going to happen inside the city. So this is civilian warfare. It's not battlefield warfare. They are completely okay with killing killing civilians. But were on battlefield. This is going to be inside the city of Medina, right? So they're and the enemy is now okay with killing civilians, which is lesson by itself, right? And it's not one of them that's okay with the killing of civilians. Aab groups of them are okay with the killing of civilians because they each see some some level of economic benefit for themselves. They're not even ideologically interested in killing the Muslims. They're just interested in killing the Muslims because it's going to bring them easy money. Sound familiar? Right? And they they're all completely okay with it together. And so they come as an onslaught against the Muslims. Now the only thing Muslims can do is dig trench by one Sahhabi's suggestion to keep them from entering the city and basically creating rampage and mass murder. Right? So all the Muslims can do is survive this wave. And of course they do. Alhamdulillah. Right? By Allah's permission, Allah is going to comment on that in the surah. This final attack failed. Now want you to understand the this failure and why this failure is so crucial from the Quresh's perspective. The Qur are the big dog. They're the US of the time. Okay? If the US if the if the Qur come and attack other people might get more brave and join. Now that they couldn't get far, they lost they didn't win rather. It's expensive to come out and bring your military. It's it's expensive to pay for your military convoys, their food, their supplies, their water, their animals, right? Their upkeep, their housing, and all of it, and tending to the sick cuz they're all camped out in the desert outside Medina. It's campgrounds. So, they have to build an entire base and stay there for weeks and weeks and weeks on end. It gets more and more and more expensive. And all those tribes that joined, they joined because it's going to be easy money. So, it's going to get good return on investment, but now they're losing money by the day and there's no return on investment. They're losing all this cash and eventually winds come and top, you know, campfires turn over, animals die and food gets destroyed and sickness spreads and they're like, you know what? Forget it. I'm out of here." One by one, the tribes, the the some of the tribes that were coming in for easy monies, they start slipping away. This wasn't worth it. This was bad idea. This was bad investment. Eventually, Quresh pulls back too. They can't they can't hold on to the siege. When they when they pull back, it's not the small tribes that lose credibility. Who actually loses credibility? Quraysh. And the Quraysh now know the next time they ask, "Hey, let's get together and kill Muslims." People aren't going to, "Yeah, we we did that already. Thanks. We're not doing that with you again. That already cost us lot of money and it was big waste of time. No thank you. We're done with that. So now they they don't have the kind of clout and the kind of influence that they had before this humiliating loss. This is the nature of big powers. When big powers make an make move and they influence smaller powers to join them, but when they fail in the mission, then they lose credibility across the board. Sound familiar? Like it's just there's some there's some very universal political science things that are happening in the that you see around you all the time, right? So that sounds dangerous. Okay. Anyway, what's happening on the inside? Well, as soon as they leave and Medina is secure, the prophet sallall alaihi wasallam says, "Well, they're the enemy on the outside, but we have an enemy right next door, the Jewish tribe that was conspiring with the Makans to attack Sabbath in the back. But within days, there's the incident of Banuka, which is going to be mentioned in this surah also, right? It's one of the controversial again controversial incidents in the of the prophet sallallaihi wasallam. We're going to deal with that incident also when it comes because they claim it was genocide that thousands of you know people were killed in one day like literally slaughtered in one day. We're we're going to explore the historicity of that when the time comes. But regardless very wealthy tribe has now been defeated and their assets seized because they violated the treaty against the Muslims. Now Muslims are starting to come into lot of money for the first time. Remember in bad we were starving but now money is starting to come in. So now Muslims for the first time the Quraysh have been weakened and the Muslims have been strengthened. So the the things have are politically changing in the region. Within the next year or so 7 8 months to year there's going to be the treaty of Hudia. This these are the seven eight months before the treaty of Hudia. So things are already the tide is already turning in favor of the Muslims. So much so that they're bold enough that they're going to go and attempt to make Hajj cuz is an attempt to make Hajj. Right? The thing is not year ago you couldn't even leave your city because they had camped right outside your city to kill all of you. But now you're not go you're not even staying in your city. You're going to you're going to the the the the wild animals that came to kill you. You're going to them. And you don't go to Hajj armed to the teeth. You go to Hajj basically only with the dagger that you're going to slaughter your animal with. Basically, you go to the Hajj essentially unarmed and they're going to go. If there was ever ever time to kill all the Muslims easily, it would be when they went for Hajj, right? The fact that they go in every and they go in large number. They don't go in small number. When they go in that large number, all the other tribes see that these Muslims are going to do Hajj unarmed like that to Makkah. he's serious, man. Wow. That's show of strength. Everybody's thinking they're going to come back dead. They're their dead bodies are going to return. even describes this. The hypocrites in Medina were convinced that when you leave for Hajj, you ain't coming back. You're all going to die. And they love the idea that they're just going to die off. The thought of that was really good, beautiful in your minds. You thought it was lovely idea that we didn't have to kill them. They're going to go get themselves killed. When they come back unscathed back to Medina, what message does it send to all of the region? Muslims are untouchable. They went into the lion's den, opened the lion's mouth, looked inside, and came back. They have lo they have basically won the region politically in far as far as influence without ever using any military tactic. Is statement that Quresh have no teeth all bark and no bite. So even though the Muslims thought it was loss, it was actually massive victory. You understand? But that victory, the process of that victory began with the battle of the trench. It began with that battle. Okay, now let's look at this landscape. So we're still talking about before Hudia still by this time the prophet Muhammad wasallam was unquestionably one of the most powerful figures in the hij unlike the earlier defensive postures kak all of them were we were defensive basically the Muslims began to project power proactively launching expeditions with the express intent of engaging the enemy and consolidating authority. In other words, other than attacking Mecca, we went after everybody else. We started consolidating power, expanding our region, expanding our territory and and zones. There were some key military objectives number one to to enrich the Muslims, enrich the state. Now, we have to have treasury because barely, you know, there were times that you know in the of the prophetam comes to the prophet and says, haven't eaten for two days, three days." and he lifts his shirt and he's got stones tied to his belly. You guys know the story, right? This is not that time. Now it's time to fill the coffers of the Muslims, the vaults of the Muslims with wealth and build the treasury of the Muslims and build massive military enterprise. This is completely different situation now after so the the of and then the you know where they they intercepted and captured an entire Quresh caravan returning from Syria remember the easy caravans that the Quresh used to take that nobody used to touch well the Muslims touched them and Syria means the when the caravan is coming from Syria it means it's bringing goods from all across Europe and the Levant, the entire Roman Empire. They import goods. The the trading port is Syria and from Syria, they bring it back and they're going to go sell it in Yemen from where it's going to go go into the marketplace in Africa and India and other places. So, they're the pipeline. So, they have all these expensive goods coming from the Roman Empire and from other parts of the, you know, the West and the Muslims capture all those goods, elite goods, import brand stuff. Right now, now this starts helping fund the Muslims in ways they've never seen before. Now there's buffer zone. They have regional control. Now the Quraysh know that their caravans are going to get caught. So they don't go into certain territories where they used to move freely. So you've limited the movements of the Quraysh also in the region, right? and now you know how they came right to Medina and they had to be trench, but now there's perimeter around Medina. You can't even get close to Medina anymore for the kufur for the enemies. So our sphere of influence has expanded. This is important also. There were people that were financing the the campaign against the Muslims, conspiring against the Muslims. The prophet sallall alaihi wasallam instructed specific assassinations of key enemies. You know they they they called them targeted assassinations, drone strikes, right? So the the covert operations, strike teams, infiltrations, those those kinds of objectives, you know, we were in state where the entire city was about to be killed. This was that was all defense. This is not defense anymore. This is what this is offense. You're debilitating your enemy. You're taking out key enemy targets, right? And then four, retaliation against aggressors. anybody who came at us that were medium to smalls size, we went after them and you know there are people that had massacred Muslims and others. Now people know don't mess with Muslims, you're going to pay the price. Now in the region there's actual intimidation of Muslim military might and all of this is happening very very quickly because remember the battle of the trench happens and within year we're going to be maybe little more little less but that's basically when we're going to be in and all of this is happening before. So things are changing for the Muslims very quickly. The three battles of Islam before this bad and all three of them we barely survived barely when we had almost nothing in in Badr. We we took devastating losses in and we got almost genocided in right but this is completely different military landscape. So this is one thing you need to understand about when this surah was revealed. We were already coming into position of power. There are many suras of the Quran where Muslims are in position of weakness and the revelation comes is not coming when Muslims are in position of weakness. So is coming. We're in position of strength. We're in position of strength. Okay. The Qur's hostility remained potent still. Even though we were waiting, they're still our enemies. is the Jews they also started joining forces and there still represent threat against the Muslims but now we are in different stage. We used to be in survival stage we are now in an internal stabilization stage and at the same time the the community is being consolidated. Revelations are coming about family life, how to be in the home, the dress code, food regulations, Hajj rituals. These revelations are starting to come that are the formulation of community. This is not discussions about survival in military setting. This is about the beginnings of civilization. Now, it's as if the foundation has been laid. Now, it's time to set up this community. And those kinds of revelations are starting to come in the Quran. Now I'm going to skip this part for you and get to something maybe outside of my slides. so I'll talk to you about something and will end today in the the marriage thing I'll talk to you about tomorrow in detail. okay don't look at the slides anymore. Just look at me. So what we need to talk about now is when Muslims are coming into power, the enemy sees that the only thing we can do now is to sew some kind of doubt and confusion and discord within them. was telling you demoralize the Muslim and the easy target for that was the marriage that was happening or that happened with it. See, we're not clear about when exactly it happened. We do know it happened around hijab right at hijab maybe right before hijab or right after hijab. It's something there in that time that this marriage happened, right? But it's by the time the surah comes, the marriage is already done. It's already happened and Allah is commenting on something that's already taken place. Because we know that what it seems to suggest is that people were already talking. There was lot of rumor, there was lot of criticism and controversy, etc. about what just happened here. And in just to understand the brief outline of the story cuz you should know the the basic outline of the story. the prophet sallall alaihi wasallam had you know don't I'm not going to use the word adopted because adoption is actually different than adoption means you take someone and you basically erase their identity and you make them your own child right but sponsoring an orphan or taking care of an orphan they retain their identity but you take care of them the prophet Phetam for long time was taking care of Zade who wasn't actually originally slave but he was you know he his tribe was attacked and he was lost and then he got sold into slavery. So he's not originally from slave sort of situation. But regardless, the prophet loved him so much he considered him his son. That that came that gave the idea of means consider you my son. Like call you as if I'd call my own son. Right? And this is now because he used to be slave. He's been he's been emancipated. He's been freed from slavery. He's now free. But the prophet considers him his son and he still stays with the prophet sallallaihi wasallam and is close to him etc. The thing here to understand is the Arabs were very highass society and they had high tribe, middle tribe, low tribe, slave. They had classes of people, you know, PhD, masters, bachelors, associates, high school, dropout. People have educational hierarchies. People have financial hierarchies, right? People, you know, people might think, no, we're in democracy. We're all equal." Mhm. Yeah. What neighborhood you live in? There's there's projects people and there's the suburbs people and then there's the bling bling gated community people. There's there's classes of society, right? People used to have different quality of horse, right? Somebody's driving donkey, somebody's driving an Arabian horse, somebody's driving pure riding purebred. Is that still the case in the car in the parking lot? Somebody's driving Fiat. He's driving Ferrari. They start with an but they both end very differently, completely different class of people, different class of ride, different class of home, different class of clothing, etc., etc., etc. Isn't it the case? There are class societies. Classes have always existed economically at least. Well, the Arabs were very class-based and tribe based. And even if if you were slave at any point in your life, that label stayed with you. Even if you got freed, you're still freed slave. Like it kind of like it's not the same thing, but even if somebody was in jail and then they got out, right? So they're they're not convict. They're just an ex-convict, right? But the label doesn't kind it was like that. It was stigma that stayed with you. There are even pre-Islamic poets like Antara for example whose poetry was so good it made its way to the walls of the Kaba who was freed slave and he he never escaped that label. He could never escape that label. So who still carries that label in that society in that in that structure okay it's from very highass family. She's from the Hashim clan. She's cousin of the prophet sallallaihi wasallam and she's one of the elite families right so you could think of the poorest neighborhoods in Chicago and the wealthiest neighborhood in Chicago that's the and the prophet sallall alaihi wasallam wants to break the class divide and he wants to make people understand that people should be able to get married regardless of their economic differences or social differences so he recommends that zay zab and Zade get married. And Zanab doesn't think it's good idea. She doesn't think it's good idea. And Zade is also kind of reluctant like don't think she's going to like me very much because I'm supposed to be like I'm supposed to be the head of the household, the caretaker. I'm the of the house and she's going to say you you're the of my house. Like she's already up here, I'm already down here. There's no way I'll have any sort of authority over her ever. So this is going to be very difficult situation that I'm going to be put in. So he's reluctant about it. But the prophet sallallaihi wasallam insists, right? And when the prophet insists out of love of the prophet wasallam, it's not religious instruction. He doesn't say, you know, Allah and his messenger have commanded you to engage. No, no, no, no. It's not that. As we will see when we look at the historical reports, he's just strongly insisting. But the in the end, it's the prophet sallallaihi wasallam, isn't it? Like if he's insisting, it's going to be hard to say no. There are some Sahabah who have stronger will than others. The prophet sallallaihi wasallam asked one young man to sell him his donkey. He said no. No, I'm not going to sell it to you. The prophet is asking you to buy his donkey. No, he can't have it. Right? You wouldn't give it to him. Well, that's okay. Right? So, but in the in the case of and Zab, they cave. They're like, "Okay, fine. We will we'll get married." So, they get married. Now, when they get married, it's just not working out. There's just too much of difference between them. We don't know the inside of the inside story. The reason we don't know the inside story is because it's none of our business. That's why we don't know the story. We don't could tell you she was high class. He was from, you know, slave clan. That's why she just couldn't handle his lower class status. Or, you know, she just did she couldn't deal with living in that kind of housing. could make all that up. It might be entertaining for you, but is that history? No. You know why? Because we don't know. You know why we don't know? Because no one knows what happens between the husband and the wife except who? The husband and the wife. We don't know. All we know is it wasn't working out. That much we know. Why wasn't it working out? Do you think this is what happened? Do you think that is speculation into people's personal lives? Is that something that Islam prohibits or speaks out against? Speculation into people's personal lives. But you know what? For some reason, when it comes to the best people, the Sahabah, we're very comfortable with our speculation. What what must have happened? Why do you need to know what must have happened? What you going to get? What are you going to make char out of that? What? What are you going to get out of that? If this was very important for your guidance to know exactly what went down, Allah would have recorded it. The prophet would have told us about it. So, Allah and his messenger's job is to communicate guidance. If they didn't do so, there's reason. There's reason. All you need to know is it wasn't working. That's all you need to know. And every other detail, just put big none of my business sticker on your notes. Like, just look at that every day. Okay? There's there's nosiness that Muslims suffer from and they bring that nosy. They have they're already nosy in their own personal lives. Right. There's already nosy. So, what are you doing here? How long are you here? Like, mean, people get weird around me. That's okay. I'm used to it. ran into somebody in the elevator. was in another country. You're here. My first impulse was to say no. Like, what's he going to do if say no? Yes, am. what are you doing here? Are you in this hotel now? I'm getting uncomfortable. What floor are you on? How long are you here? You going to be here tomorrow? You come here every day? Is this Is this where you have breakfast? okay. So, like what are you going to do this evening? What? Do know you right wanting to know, wanting to know, wanting to know, wanting to know, wanting to know. that's okay. Okay. people get feel like people think public people that have public profile are public access like public property also. And so that's okay. But it's not just about celebrities. You go to somebody's house and like so tell me about your shoe size. Tell me about your fingerprints. Like they want to get all this information out of you. And we we think it's okay even within the study of our religion. It's not. It's not. Well, the I'll stick to the facts. The facts are the marriage wasn't working. Zade comes to the prophet sallallaihi wasallam and says it's not working. We're not compatible. How they're not compatible again none of our business. The prophet sallall alaihi wasallam now feels it seems feels reluctant to tell him get divorced. Why? Because whose recommendation was it? The prophet's recommendation. And of course Zanab is from high family. And the thing the sociological reality we don't know this for fact but there are some things we can say with some degree of confidence when you have highprofile family and you have higher tribe or you know prime minister or you know somebody who's you know very famous or whoever right an elder when there's divorce in that family it's much bigger impact it's not just two people got divorced everybody's talking about it can make its way into the news it can make its way into the tabloids it can affect the political situation, you know, because they're high tribe. Every, you know, celebrities, everything about their personal life becomes like sensational, right? So, it's not like everyday people having relationship problem. This becomes much bigger problem when it's high-profile, right? And it's much more looked down upon. That's why, you know, royal princes and princesses, etc., etc., they get married, but they don't get divorced. And even if they get, they do all kinds of stuff, but they don't get divorced because it's bad look, right? So she's from high family and now Zade is insisting that he wants to get divorced. This is going to be very bad look for her and her her clan and her tribe. On top of that, it's the prophet sallallaihi wasallam who recommended this marriage. So the prophet sallallaihi wasallam is telling him don't do it yet. Don't do it. I'm sick. Just don't don't divorce her. Now there are multiple opinions here. Some of them very flimsy, very weak. But the strongest one that can find that think is the most convincing and we'll look at the evidences tomorrow inshallah is that Allah at one point revealed to the prophet sallall alaihi wasallam that he's going to be marrying Zab. Allah revealed it to him while she was already married to Zade. Allah revealed to him that she's going to be marrying him. Now Zade's coming along and telling him that he's having trouble in the marriage. He wants divorce. But the prophet sallallaihi wasallam, he could have done two things. He could have just said to the prophet to him, "Well, Allah revealed to me that I'm going to marry your current wife, so why don't you just divorce her and let's just get this over with and I'll just marry her because Allah has revealed that to me already. So, let's why delay, right?" But what does he do? He says, "Keep your wife. Have tawa of Allah. Do the best you can. Basically, stay in the marriage." The question then is if he knew that he's going to marry her, why is he telling her to what? telling him to stay in that marriage. Again, we don't know why exactly because Allah didn't say Allah just said that he was hiding the tr the the true intent meaning the true intent was Allah has revealed to him that this marriage is going to happen. He didn't want to say why. What can think of, what here's we can what we can speculate. What we can speculate reasonably is if the prophet says, "Well, divorce her because Allah has instructed me to marry her." Everybody around is going to say, how convenient. You told your son to divorce his wife because Allah told you to marry his wife, But he knows that there are that took take any opportunity and they're going to blow this out of proportion and it's going to demoralize the Muslims and it's going to be even more humiliating for Zanab and for and for him and for their families etc etc etc. Like this is going to be huge problem. So even if if Allah has already decreed that I'm going to marry her when that happens that happens but it shouldn't shouldn't make it look like had hand in expediting that. should just tell him just do whatever you can stay with your wife. So it shouldn't look like it came from me. It shouldn't look like that. Right now the interesting thing is Allah told don't divorce her. Explicit words in the Quran. Hold on to your wife. Who's instructing here? Who's giving the instruction? The prophet. The Quran. This surah says whenever Allah and his messenger give an instruction, it is not up to believer to have any choice. This there's an ayah in this surah. I'll say that again. Whenever Allah and his messenger give an instruction, it's not up to believer to have any choice. Yeah. And then Allah gave zed instruction. The prophet gave zade instruction. Sorry. What did he say? Hold on to your wife. Logically, you would assume then that Zade has no choice. He's got to stay in the marriage. In the same ayah, you find and when Zade was done divorcing her, what the prophet told him, don't get divorced, and the next thing you know what happens? He gets divorced. How can the prophet tell him to do something and he went and did the opposite? You know what that proves? That was not command in Islam. That was recommendation as family member. That was recommendation as someone who loves and cares. That was elderly advice. But it wasn't religious instruction. That wasn't religious instruction. So when he told him to hold on to his to his wife, he was just giving general advice, but he wasn't giving him religious mandate. And the and understands the difference between when the prophet sallallaihi wasallam is commanding something as the prophet of Allah and when he's telling him to do something as someone who loves and cares for him. And so when he disobys that instruction, it's not disobedience of Allah and his messenger. It's not so he goes ahead and gets divorced. can't think. not easy. What was saying? Something about Islam. yeah. Okay. This is big point of contention in the surah. We're going to see the prophet sallallaihi wasallam's concern is going to be brought up. Was his concern valid by the way? What do you think? What people are going to talk? Is that valid concern? No. pretty valid. One day she's married to his son and then few weeks later she's married to him, right? This just looks odd. It's disturbing. People would say people are going to make all kinds of com and you know they're the best kinds of people, you know, back in the can't say for sure if they were Pakistanis back then, but they were Pakistani like people. They're like, you know, don't have problem with it. But some people are saying it's really disturbing. There's some people that just how some people are saying like there's no way to justify that and don't even know what to say to those people. Who are these some people? Can you can meet them? No. I'll ask some people if they know some people. You don't want to make it sound like you're saying it, but there's always someone called some people, right? And you just you just throw this on some people and spread and spread and spread. And now even Muslims that are like they love their messenger sallallahu alaihi wasallam. They have honor for him. They look up to him in every way. You have the highest character of all. And what he married his daughter-in-law? What is that? Is that what he did? Why did he do that? Well, you know, and the surah hasn't been revealed yet. The surah hasn't come and said, made you do it because the surah is going to say that." But Allah put the prophet sallallaihi wasallam in that position without even giving him that surah first. He told him that you're going to marry her and he goes and he does it and people are already starting to talk and this rumor is spreading and all this and the the pro the want you to understand that the the the intensity of the problem. Islam comes along and says Islam is basically the higher moral ground. The prophet is the height of the car the the morality and character and Islam is speaking out against indecency and lwdness. Islam is the alternative to these other lifestyles and the ultimate example of that is the prophet himself sallallahu alaihi wasallam. And now there's marriage scandal against who? The prophet sallallaihi wasallam. And on top of that, let's make this even spicier. The prophet sallallaihi wasallam had four wives. He had at the time four wives. Zanab became his fifth. I'll say that again. He had four wives. Zena became his fifth. The Quran has already been revealed that you can marry up to up to how many? Four wives. That's what's been revealed. And now he just married his fifth. so he's got different standard for himself. we all get to have up to four. need. By the way, there are reports about that ayah inah that some Sahabah had more than four wives and the prophet sallallaihi wasallam said whoever you can let go of that are more than four you need to let go. You need to end those marriages because you cannot have more than four wives. And Sahaba engaged in divorces of those that were more than four. The prophet didn't have that problem because how many did he have? Four. Now he has fifth. Now he has fifth. And so now people are saying first of all his daughter-in-law. Second of all, number five, thought he says you have to live by the book and the book says you have you can only marry four and well rules don't apply to him. Why don't they apply to him? Some people are saying this is little contradiction. love those some people, right? And now this noise is getting louder and louder and louder. Yes, Muslims are politically doing really well. Money is coming in, right? But want you to understand this from the hypocrites vantage point. They're starting to create this noise. The innocent Muslims, they're starting to not have an answer for what they're saying. Let's think of it from the perspective of the wives of the prophet sallall alaihi wasallam because they're his wives. Why did he do that? Why did he marry Zab? They're they're having thought. And then on top of that, not only did he marry Zanab, on top of that, lot of money has come in, right? But you know, the only family whose budget didn't change the prophet sallallaihi wasallam. They're still living the same standard. Everybody else is doing better except who? The prophet sallall alaihi wasallam. And the wives are like, "So we're our lives are no better and now there's even another mouth to feed and another another wife of the prophetam. So there could be an attack on their minds. The prophet sallallaihi wasallam has his own anxiety. I'm supposed to lead these people and they follow me through anything. And if they start questioning my integrity, how are they going to follow me? And I'm not bringing this up. I'm not saying anything about it." And but they're already talking. So there's their perspect there's the prophet's perspective the vantage point there's the vantage point there's the believer's vantage point there's the's vantage point and of course the yhud are loving it they're absolutely loving it like this is this is exactly what we wanted him to be brought down to level where they no longer look up to him they put him he's taken down from his pedestal in the eyes of the Muslims in that entire climate in that entire climate. We're going to see how Allah is going to comment on this entire experience, what Allah is going to address. And what's amazing to me, we're going to get into this tomorrow, but what's amazing to me about this surah, the opening of this surah, is Allah did not concern himself with what the Muslims think. Allah did not concern himself with what the kufur are saying. Allah did not concern himself with the Allah did not concern himself with the mothers of the believers. He's concerned with none of them. His first his only concern at the very top of this surah is prophet whose status is high and elevated. The one who receives news that nobody else receives. What news did he receive? Mary Zanab. Mary Zab. And whenever he follows what Allah has given him, his status is lowered or higher. So the fact that he married Zanab, does it lower his status or elevate his status? It elevates his status. But why was he reluctant to tell to not get to not get divorce? He's reluctant because he thinks people are going to bring down his status and they're going to say bad things about him and it's going to hurt the mission. And the prophet sallallaihi wasallam is being told you need to stop thinking about what people are going to say completely. You need to only be like you you need to be only cautious and fearful of Allah and Allah alone. Is like saying prophet stop caring about everyone else. Don't even entertain the thought of what somebody else will think. Let it all go. Let it all go completely. None of it matters. This is your new test of tawa. There's test of tawa when the enemies are in the thousands and you're in the hundreds. That's different kind of tawa test. There's different test of tawa when they're offering you money and trying to compromise the message of Islam. There's different kind of tawa test when you're in cave and they're standing on top of the cave and if they just look down, you're going to get killed. There's different kind of tawa test. This is different kind of tawa. You know what tawa test this is? This is the fear of what people are going to say. This is this is not the fear of getting killed. This is not the fear of the mission being compromised. This is the fear of the commentary of people. It's human fear. And the prophet sallall alaihi wasallam felt an inclination of it. And allahel told him never let that fear enter you. No this your tawa means you don't get to have that feeling. You can't afford it. You're the pinnacle. You're the height of Muslim belief of of this faith. You don't get to contaminate that faith even in the least bit. You know how in in in surah Abasa frowned but he frowned at blind person. There's nothing wrong with frowning at blind person. No offense was done. But his Allah has set such high standard for the prophet sallallaihi wasallam. He can't even bulge his forehead in front of blind person. The same way he can't even have the thought. What are people going to say? He cannot allow Allah cannot allow that thought for the prophet sallall alaihi wasallam. Before leave you, I'm going to share with you something about something you're if you think this is controversial, I'll give you controversy. in Christianity, the role model is Jesus. Never got married. Second role model is John the Baptist never got married. The Catholic Church, the highest ordained spiritual guide in the Catholic Church are the Pope and then the cardinals and the entire hierarchy of the Catholic Church. Those people and the nuns, what happens with them? They don't get married. In the Christian faith, spirituality and sexuality are opposites. You're either person of faith or the person of the flesh. Lust is the death of your faith. Okay? They're two opposite things. The Quraysh were very open and promiscuous. The Quraysh were Las Vegas on steroids. They were crazy. The Arab the Medina was bad place. Medina was very place if you don't know. Medina had brothel and prostitutes and all kinds of crazy stuff. It was crazy place. Makkah was like that. It was it was not conservative society by no stretch of the imagination. Alcohol, gambling, free, you know, sexual relations. Completely open, super liberal. The the the Jewish tribes, they don't really have they they're more about rituals than they are about these kinds of ethics. But the Muslims brought about this teaching of decency and modesty and shame and and campaign against zena and campaign to lord guard the eyes and all this the modesty campaign right but Muslims don't understand that our modesty is not the same as Christian modesty Christian modesty is that the relationship between men and women itself is basically kind compromise of your faith and at the since you can't do without it at least you can just be monogamous that's be faithful to your wife etc etc that's their whole thing the Quran offers very different view of sexual ethics and the relationship between men and women the prophet sallall alaihi wasallam or the Arabs were okay completely nor marrying more than one woman completely perfectly Okay, divorce is not not the end of the world. You know, in in ca in Catholic religion, you can't even get divorced. You can only get marriage in old. There's no such thing as divorce. Okay? marriage and old means that nikah was bil to begin with. You have to prove it was never an valid marriage. didn't realize she's my sister. They have to prove that some crazy and then that then they get, you know, or they have to prove that she's already married or something. Some crazy accusation. That's the only way the king can get rid of the queen. That's how they do it. That's why they had all these illegitimate relationships because they they don't have that. Islam came and it brought four or five things. I'm going to list them to you that revolutionized marriage itself. How how the world saw marriage before Islam and what the Quran brought, what Islam brought, how it saw after it. Okay. One, Allah made marriage easy. There was no require. There's no high requirements. Number two, it gave men exclusive financial responsibility over the wife and the children. Women aren't financially responsible. Men are exclusively financially responsible for the wife and the children. Three, the Quran made divorce through process. Easy. Follow the process and you can get divorced. Just And the the Quran never talked about why you should get divorced. The Quran just talked about how you should get divorced. So the divorce, by the way, was either either it was too there wasn't even process and you could just throw someone out or you can never get divorced. It's the worst thing ever. What what three things did list so far? What? What was made easy? Marriage was made easy. So no, the whole tribe doesn't have to have this approval or that approval and you know we have to have this ceremony and no just sneak you know. Goodbye. You get married in Dunkin Donuts in Islam. It's still valid. So long as it meets the conditions, it's valid. Right? What's the second? Finance becomes the man's responsibility over the wife and the children. Three, divorce was made divorce with process was it was given process and it was made easy. It was given process and it was made easy. Or remarage was made easy. Remarage was made easy because you know in the previous world in higher society when woman is divorced she is forever what? She's cursed. Don't even invite her to wedding because she'll probably infect other women with divorce. Right. This is jahyia society also in Muslim countries nowadays. What Islam came to change? What Islam came to change? The prophet wasallam with the exception of married mostly divorced or widowed women. So it it completely normal to get divorced, completely normal to get remarried. It took the taboo away. They took the and marrying more than one taking responsibility for them normalized. It was already normal but it was legitimized. It was it was given the religious sanction. You can have more than one. So long as you give them their rights. There's you know there's two kinds of rights. There's qualitative rights and there's quantitative rights. There's love and affection and smiles and d's the feeling or convers meaningful conversations. You can't ever be equal in that. Like you can't even have the two equal level conversations between two of your kids. It's never going to happen, right? You can't have two equal level conversations between mom and dad. Not going to happen. But time, finances, like can you give each one their rights as as what they deserve? That is, you know, you have to give rights. So that's that's the if you could do that normalized right now. What did we do? Muslims, forget non-Muslims, forget about them. What did we do? We came along and we said marriage is too easy. We should make it we should make it little harder. We should make it one we should make it more expensive. We should put more requirements. We should especially make it more difficult for girls, right? And if they're if they're already divorced and of course then on top of that, we shouldn't allow divorce to ever happen because it's the worst it's worse than death. Right? You mean fathers will tell their daughters in the Muslim world now the only way you're coming back here is in your in your box right with your cuff on otherwise don't come back here. So we made we made marriage difficult then we made what? Divorce difficult. Then what's the third thing? No no no financial responsibility. who is the man financially responsible for? Wife and children. No, no, no. Make the man financially responsible for parents, cousins, uncles, you know, cousins, barbers, friends, dog, and money goes everywhere else except it doesn't go where? Wife and the kids doesn't go there. Okay. Parents will say it's ours. We And then the fourth was what? Remarriage. forget it. Last year she was married to his best friend and she got divorced. Now she's married to him. And these women nowadays got colorful personality. The prophet sallall alaihi wasallam was put in the most controversial situation. Someone who's allegedly his own son and he's marrying his alleged daughter-in-law. Right? Why? Because Allah wanted to make clear if it's halal. You can marry whoever you want. There is no married to the she was married to the older brother and then he died and she married the younger brother. She did this and he No. No. Or she's so young he's so old. Or he's so young she's so No. Are they adults? Is it halal? That's it. Goodbye. Goodbye. There's no there's no there's no tongues. There's no mouth running. The prophet sallallaihi wasallam was put in the front line of people making comments. Front line. He could he had to hear the comments from the all of society about this marriage. Why? Because he wanted Allah wanted him to be the just like he has to be in the front of the battlefield, right? He's in the front of this battlefield taking all the arrows of people's mouths so that he breaks something. If he can take it, anybody can take it. If it's halal, it's not problem. If it's halal, it's not problem. If Allah made the fifth one halal for him and he didn't make that halal for anybody else, then he's going to do it because Allah made it halal for him. don't care what anybody else says. If you live in society where second wife is haram for you and third wife is haram for you and the fourth, forget even the second the thought of second wife is haram for you, right? Then let let everybody be angry. It's okay if you're not doing anything wrong. If you're not violating anybody's rights, you know, and this is between husband and wife. I'm not encouraging you guys to go jump off cliff. What am saying is if Allah made something halal, then doesn't matter what people say. There are two I'm going to leave you with this. There are two battles. There are two battles. One battle in Islam is to fight against the haram. Please understand this clearly. One battle in Islam is to fight against the other battle in Islam is to stand up for what is halal. You have to stand up for what is halal because corrupt society will make haram easy and corrupt society will look down on halal. They'll make comments about the halal and you have to stand up for the halal and take the hits for the sake of the halal. And the first one who took those hits wasam. This marriage represents the breaking of all the taboss people create that have no basis in this deen. If Allah has no problem with it, then nobody can run their mouth. That's what this marriage actually represents. That's what the wisdom of this marriage is. And we're going to dive deep into this the incident and what we can pick out from it. But the first the most important thing you need to take from it is how the Quran challenged social ignorance. What are people going to say? People are going to talk. And by the way, who are those people? Do you know who they are? No one knows. But everyone's afraid of them. You know who they are? You and you and you and you and everybody's everybody's afraid of everybody else's mouth. And you know what? That's when when you're afraid of people's mouths. That's when you can only have one fear in your heart. Either you have the fear of Allah in your heart or you have the fear of the people's mouths in your heart. Allah did not give you how many hearts? Two hearts. You can have one heart for the people's fear, one heart for Allah's fear. Allah did not put two hearts inside of any man. And the the the first of that the the the the front the frontier of that battle is fought by the prophet himself. That's why he's told this will not reduce your status. It only elevates your status. You're liberating society from the chains that bind them down. Syrian refugees, flood refugees, Rohingya refugees, earthquake refugees, right? And you have refugees in let's say American, you know, America is it's illegal to even have more than one wife or whatever. But imagine refugee communities, right? And all their husbands have died in war zones, etc. and they have children and there are men that are capable and want to marry more than one but they it's been made haram for them culturally. What's going to happen to those women? Nobody will fulfill their right. Those children will not have father figure. Nobody will take care of them. Crime will increase. Losing the faith will increase. Corruption will increase in society. Desperation will increase in society. All why? Because we didn't stand up for something halal. When you, by the way, every time you close one door to halal, any door to halal, every time you close it, what opens? Doors to haram open. Guaranteed. Guaranteed. Every time you close door to any halal, it will open multiple doors to other harams. Then you only get to blame yourself for closing the door to the halal. That's the reality of it. wasallam is being told marriage in Islam is beautiful. It's fluid. It's open. It's in sense very liberal. You can marry whoever. There's no class restriction. If it doesn't work out, that's okay. That's there's no till death do us part. That's okay. So long as we can be good to each other. So long as we can hold up the the tawa of Allah. can be good husband to you. You can be good wife to me. We should stay together. If we're not able to do that anymore, what's my mother going to say? What's my father going to see? What's my uncle going to see? What are What's going to happen to the kids? What's going to happen to Hold on second. What's going to happen to the kids? Who's more concerned about the kids? You or Allah? Like Allah is not concerned about the kids? We'll talk about that, too. How does Allah protect kids in divorce? We have to talk about that, too. It'll come. It'll come because Allah never allows something that creates fitna. Allah only allow Allah only makes things halal that are good and pure. He only makes things haram that are filthy inherently. So when you close door to halal, you are opening the door to filth. You're creating filth in society. It's our lack of understanding of the halal that we run away from it so quickly and we we create new set of rules boxes that society creates for us. Now, Muslims live in more boxes made by people than ever made by Allah. We live We live in caged societies. We live in cage societies. That's the That's the truth of it. And Allah is not Allah is going to call those cultural standards what they are. Running your mouth. That's all it is. These are just words that just come out of your mouths. That's all they are literally. That's what he says.