Continuation of the tape from the exegesis of the beginning of Surat al-Waqi'ah.

The Shaykh : Allah the Exalted said: , and the Basmala is a verse of the Book of Allah that is independent; it is not attached to what follows it nor to what precedes it. For this reason, the stronger position is that it is not a verse of Surat al-Fatihah, and that if a person limits his recitation to to the end of the surah, he has performed the pillar and his prayer is valid. If we considered the Basmala to be part of al-Fatihah, his prayer would be invalid if he did not recite the Basmala, because he would have omitted a verse from it—meaning from al-Fatihah. Therefore, the correct view, without doubt, is that it—meaning the Basmala—is not a verse of al-Fatihah nor of any other surah. As for His saying, Blessed and Exalted is He, in Surat al-Naml: , this is a transmission of the book of Sulayman (peace be upon him). It is not part of the Qur'an that Allah revealed to Muhammad (peace and blessings be upon him and his family) as legislation for this Ummah. Rather, it is a report of what Sulayman (peace be upon him) wrote, Allah, Mighty and Majestic, said: to the end. Allah omitted the answer to the condition in these verses so that the mind would consider every possibility, meaning that when the Event occurs, the great terrors will appear, and the people will be divided. And what happened is what Allah and His Messenger informed about regarding what will occur on the Day of Resurrection. And His saying: is like His saying: , and the intended meaning is the Day of Resurrection , meaning: its occurrence is not a lie, but its occurrence is the truth and inevitable. Belief in the Day of Resurrection is one of the six pillars of faith that the Messenger of Allah (peace and blessings be upon him and his family) informed Jibril about when he asked him about faith, saying: . Allah the Exalted often pairs belief in Him with belief in the Last Day, because belief in the Last Day encourages a person to do good deeds and to stay away from bad deeds, because he believes that there is another day in which the doer of good is rewarded for his good and the doer of evil is punished for his evil. means: it is a lowering and a raising, meaning: some people are lowered in it and others are raised. Who is raised? Allah, Mighty and Majestic, said: , so the people of knowledge and faith are those who have elevation in this world and the Hereafter. And those other than them are placed low according to their distance from faith and knowledge. Thus, it lowers the people of ignorance and disobedience and raises the people of knowledge and faith. How many a person in this world is high in status and honored by people, yet on the Day of Resurrection he will be among the most lowly of the servants of Allah. The tyrants and the arrogant will be gathered on the Day of Resurrection like dust, with people treading on them with their feet, even though in this world they were arrogant, proud, and haughty toward the servants of Allah. But on the Day of Resurrection, they will be placed low and humiliated, having been disgraced by Allah, Mighty and Majestic, , meaning: it was shaken with a great shaking. For this reason, He said: , meaning: a great shaking, and you imagine how the water in a vessel shakes when you shake it. So the earth on the Day of Resurrection will shake by the command of Allah, Mighty and Majestic. And this is like His saying, the Exalted: and His saying, the Exalted: . So means: it shook and was shaken, meaning: it shook greatly, : it was scattered and descended and became a rolling sand dune. For this reason, He said: like the dust we see when the light of the sun reflects in a dark room. You find this dust and feel it in the light of the sun. : scattered. These solid, hard mountains, where the rocks are larger than camels, or perhaps a single mountain is a single rock, will be on the Day of Resurrection scattered dust by the command of Allah, Mighty and Majestic. So the earth will remain without mountains, trees, valleys, or sand. As Allah, Mighty and Majestic, said: , meaning the earth . The address is to humans in general , "pairs" meaning: groups, as Allah, Mighty and Majestic, said: , meaning: their groups. And He said, the Exalted: , meaning: groups. So the meaning of is: groups , with no fourth: the Forerunners, the Companions of the Right, and the Companions of the Left. So the people will be divided on the Day of Resurrection into three groups, with no fourth , which Allah the Exalted mentioned without arranging them in order of merit. The Companions of the Right are between the Forerunners and the Companions of the Left in rank. So Allah began with them, then mentioned the Companions of the Left. Then He mentioned the Forerunners. But in the detailed description, He began with them arranged according to merit. So He began with the Forerunners, then the Companions of the Right, then the Companions of the Left. And this detailed arrangement is contrary to the general arrangement. And this is one of the styles of eloquence. means that He, Mighty and Majestic, informed that one of the groups is the Companions of the Right. Then He said: , who are they? Their detailed mention will come, if Allah wills, , meaning: those who are the source of misfortune. And their detailed mention will also come. These are the best of the groups. And His saying: , the most correct grammatical analysis is that His saying: is the subject. And its predicate is , meaning: that the Forerunners to good deeds are the Forerunners to the reward in the Hereafter. So it is as if He said: The Forerunners are the Forerunners. The Forerunners in this world by good deeds are the Forerunners in the Hereafter by reward. , the brought near to whom? To Allah, Mighty and Majestic. So they are in the highest of the gardens, and the highest of the gardens is closest to the Most Merciful, Mighty and Majestic, because al-Firdaws, which is the highest level of Paradise, is above it or above it is the Throne of Allah, Mighty and Majestic. So His saying: means: to, to whom? To Allah, Mighty and Majestic. , to Allah, , so He mentioned their dwelling place before mentioning their rank. And as it is said: the neighbor before the house. And as the wife of Pharaoh said: , what? , she began with the neighborhood , and here He said: before beginning to mention the reward, because their nearness to Allah, Mighty and Majestic, is above everything. May Allah make us and you among them. , meaning: in this great station in which is what no eye has seen, no ear has heard, and what has not occurred to the heart of any human. And He added the gardens to the pleasure, because its inhabitants are pleased in their bodies and pleased in their hearts. As He, Mighty and Majestic, said in Surat al-Insan: —recite what follows it—, radiance on their faces and joy in their hearts. So they are in the pleasure of the Gardens of Pleasure, the pleasure of the body, or the pleasure of the heart, or both? Both, the pleasure of the body and the pleasure of the heart, , this is from the pleasure of the body, , this is also from the pleasure of the body. . This is from the pleasure of the body, and so on, of what Allah, Mighty and Majestic, mentioned of the pleasure in Paradise. If there were nothing in it but that a person is immortalized in it, not dying and remaining healthy, not becoming sick, and remaining young forever, not growing old, and above all of that, the looking at the Face of Allah, Mighty and Majestic, as Allah the Exalted said: , meaning: above the best. So the Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him and his family) explained the increase as the looking at the Face of Allah. O Allah, make us among those who look at You in the Gardens of Pleasure.
It was said: The intended meaning is the previous nations. That is, the nation of Muhammad (peace and blessings be upon him and his family). According to this view, the smallness of this nation is relative to the multitude of the previous nations. The meaning is not that those who enter Paradise from the previous nations, considering every prophet, are more numerous than those who enter Paradise from this nation. It was also said: The intended meaning of "the first" is the first part of this nation, meaning a group from the beginning of this nation, and a few from its end. This view is the correct one. Indeed, it is the necessary one, because the Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him and his family) said: meaning half of them. In another hadith: . Accordingly, it is not correct for us to say "a few from this nation and many from the previous nations." Rather, we say: A group, meaning many, from this nation from its beginning, and a few from? From its end. "Surrar" is the plural of "sirr." It is what a person uses for sitting and sleeping. The scholars said: They are woven from gold. That is, they are reclining on their hands and their backs. So they are in comfort in their hands and their backs. That is, they are facing one another. This indicates the spaciousness of the place, because if the place were narrow, it would not be possible for people to be facing one another. Why? Say it, everyone. It would not accommodate them; they would have to be in rows, row after row, row behind row. But if the place is spacious, even if there were a thousand of them and circular couches were placed for them, they could face one another, and even if they increased, if the place were large. This verse indicates that the places are spacious, and that is the case. For this reason, the lowest of the people of Paradise in rank is one who looks at his kingdom for two thousand years, two thousand years, seeing its farthest point as he sees its nearest point. There is no god but Allah. Amazing, but not amazing, because Allah is capable of all things. And Paradise, its width is like the width of the heavens and the earth. Who can encompass a single heaven? How, when it is the width of the seven heavens, and the seven heavens are one above the other? And whatever is above, its circle is wider. So who can encompass this except Allah (Mighty and Majestic)? Its width is like the width of the heavens and the earth.