Tafsir of Surat al-Takathur.

The Shaykh : Praise be to Allah, Lord of the worlds, and may Allah send prayers and peace upon our Prophet Muhammad, and upon his family and his Companions, and upon those who follow them with excellence until the Day of Judgment.
As for what follows:
This is the eighty-eighth session of the Open Door, which takes place every Thursday of every week. This is the eighth Thursday of the month of Safar in the year 1416. We begin this session with where we left off in the tafsir of the portion of Surat al-Naba, where we have reached Surat al-Takathur.
Allah Mighty and Majestic says: : This is a declarative sentence in which Allah Mighty and Majestic informs the servants, addressing them, saying: The meaning of "alahaakum" is: it occupied you until you were preoccupied with what is more important than the remembrance of Allah the Exalted and the performance of His obedience. As you know, the address is to the entire Ummah, except that it is specified to those whom matters of the Hereafter occupied from matters of this world, and they are few. We say they are few because it is established in the two Sahihs that Allah Blessed and Exalted is He says on the Day of Resurrection: , and this is a huge number. If not one in a thousand of the children of Adam is from the people of Paradise, and the rest are from the people of the Fire, then the general address in such a verse follows its original principle, because one in a thousand is nothing compared to them.
And as for His saying: , it includes competing in wealth, competing in tribe, competing in status, competing in knowledge, and in everything in which boasting can occur. Evidence for this is the statement of the owner of the garden to his companion: A person may compete in his wealth, seeking to have more wealth than the other and a wider trade. A person may also compete in his tribe, saying: We are more numerous than them, as the poet said:
"You are not more numerous than them in pebbles *** Rather, honor belongs to the one who is more numerous".
"More numerous than them in pebbles": because they used to count things with pebbles in the past. For example, if these people had ten thousand pebbles, and the others had eight thousand, the first group would be more numerous and more honorable.
So the poet says:
"You are not more numerous than them in pebbles *** Rather, honor belongs to the one who is more numerous".
Similarly, a person competes in knowledge, and you find him boasting over others with knowledge. But if it is with religious knowledge, it is good; and if it is with non-religious knowledge, it is either permissible or forbidden. The important thing is that what people compete in is knowledge, and this is the norm for the children of Adam: they compete in these matters, neglecting what they were created for, which is the worship of Allah Mighty and Majestic.
And His saying: means: until you visited the graves, meaning: until you died. The human being is inclined to compete until he dies. In fact, the more he grows older, the more he grows in hope. He grows old in age but young in hope, until a man who is, for example, ninety years old has more hopes and long expectations than a young man who is fifteen years old. This is the meaning of the noble verse, namely: that you were preoccupied with competing in this world from the Hereafter until you died.
It was said that the meaning of is: until you began to compete with the dead as you compete with the living. A person would say: My tribe is more numerous than your tribe. If you wish, go to the graves and count the graves of ours, and we will count the graves of yours, and we will see which is more numerous. But this is a weak opinion, far from the context of the verse. The first meaning is the correct one: that you compete until you die.
And His saying: , 'Umar ibn 'Abd al-'Aziz (may Allah have mercy on him) used this as evidence that the visitor must return to his homeland, and that the graves are not a place of permanent residence. It was also mentioned that some Bedouin heard a reciter reading: and he said: "By Allah, we will surely be raised". Why?
Because the visitor, as is known, visits and returns, so he said: "By Allah, we will surely be raised", and this is the truth.
By this, we know that what some people mention now in newspapers and elsewhere, saying about a man when he dies: "He has moved to his final resting place", is false and a lie. This is because the graves are not the final resting place. Rather, if a person believed the implication of this phrase, he would become a disbeliever in the Resurrection, and disbelief in the Resurrection is apostasy from Islam. But many people take words at face value and do not know their meaning. Perhaps this is inherited from the atheists who do not acknowledge the Resurrection after death.
Then Allah the Exalted said: . It was said that "kull" means restraint, meaning: restrain yourselves from this competition. It was also said that it means "truly."
And the meaning of is: you will know the outcome of your affair when you return to the Hereafter, and that this competition will not benefit you. It came in a hadith from the Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him), as narrated by Muslim, that the servant says: meaning: he boasts with it, and the rest is left for others. And this is the truth.
Now, the wealth in our hands: either we eat it and it is consumed, or we wear it and it is worn out, or we give it in charity and we send it ahead of us, and it will be before us on the Day of Resurrection, or we leave it for others. It is not possible for the wealth in our hands to escape this fourfold division.
means: you will know the outcome of your affair in the competition that preoccupied you from the Hereafter.
: And this sentence is a confirmation of the restraint a second time.
Then He said: meaning: truly, if you knew with certainty, you would know that you are in error. But you do not know with certainty because you are heedless and preoccupied in this world. If you knew with certainty, you would know that you are in error and in a great mistake.
Then He the Exalted said: :
"You will surely see": this is an independent sentence, not the answer to the "if" (law). Therefore, the reciter must pause at His saying: . We often hear many imams who have knowledge praying and saying . This connection is either due to their heedlessness and forgetfulness, or because they did not contemplate the verse properly. Otherwise, if they had contemplated it properly, they would have found that the connection corrupts the meaning. Because if he said: , the seeing of the Hellfire would be conditioned by what? By their knowledge. And this is not correct. Therefore, it is necessary to be alert and point this out. If you hear someone reading: , point it out to him. Say: My brother, this connection suggests the corruption of the meaning. And you should pause. First: because it is the beginning of a verse, and it is prescribed for a person to pause at the beginning of every verse. Second: because the connection corrupts the meaning.
So, "you will surely see the Hellfire" is a new sentence with no connection to what came before it. It is a sentence of oath, containing an implied oath. The implied meaning is: By Allah, you will surely see the Hellfire. Therefore, the grammarians say in its parsing: that the lam is a preparatory particle for the oath, and the sentence "you will see" is the answer to the oath, and the oath is omitted, with the implied meaning being: By Allah, you will surely see the Hellfire.
And the Hellfire is one of the names of the Fire.
is a confirmation of seeing it. And when will it be seen?
It will be seen on the Day of Resurrection. It will be brought, dragged by seventy thousand reins, each rein dragged by seventy thousand angels. So what do you think of this abode, and I seek refuge in Allah?!
It is a large, great abode, because it has seventy thousand reins, each rein dragged by seventy thousand angels, and the angels are strong and mighty. So it is a great Fire. May Allah protect us and you from it.
means: then, at that time and in that great standing, you will be asked about the enjoyment. The scholars (may Allah have mercy on them) differed regarding His saying: whether the intended meaning is the disbeliever, or the intended meaning is the believer and the disbeliever?
The correct view is that the reference is to both the believer and the disbeliever; each is asked about the blessings, but the disbeliever is asked in a manner of rebuke and reproof, while the believer is asked in a manner of reminder. The evidence that this is general is what occurred in the story of the Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him), Abu Bakr, and 'Umar, when they went out one day suffering from hunger. They went to the orchard of a man known as Abu al-Haytham ibn al-Tayyihan, and they asked for permission to enter. The Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him) said: , because if a person asks for permission three times and is not granted it, he should return. —meaning he brings sweet, pleasant water—, , then he cut a cluster of dates from the palm tree, brought it, and placed it before them. The Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him) said: "I harvested," meaning I picked, and you know that harvesting means taking only the ripe dates. So he said: , because the cluster includes all three types. They ate, then asked for water and drank. Then the Messenger of Allah (peace and blessings be upon him) said: :
This is evidence that both the believer and the disbeliever are asked, but the question differs. The question for the believer is a reminder of the blessings of Allah (Mighty and Majestic) upon us, so that he rejoices and knows that the One who blessed him in this world is more generous than to bless him in the Hereafter; meaning, if He has been generous with His blessings in this world, He will be generous with His blessings in the Hereafter. As for the disbeliever, it is a question of rebuke and warning. We ask Allah the Exalted to employ us and you in His obedience, and to make what He has provided us a means to His obedience. Indeed, He is capable of all things.
Now, to the questions, and we begin with the oath.

The questioner : In the name of Allah, the Most Gracious, the Most Merciful.
May peace be upon you, and Allah's mercy and blessings.
You mentioned that last year you told us that if we are in a gathering, we should not repeat the greeting.