Exegesis of Surat Quraysh and what is derived from its verses.

The Shaykh : Praise be to Allah, Lord of the worlds, and may Allah send prayers and blessings upon our Prophet Muhammad, and upon his family and his Companions, and those who follow them with excellence until the Day of Judgment.
As for what follows: This is the *Open Door* meeting; it is the one hundred and third meeting. We ask Allah, Glorified and Exalted is He, to make it beneficial. This meeting takes place on Thursday, the eleventh of the month of Jumada al-Ula in the year 1416.
We speak in it about the saying of Allah, Blessed and Exalted is He: :
This surah has a connection to the surah before it, for the surah before it contains an explanation of the favor of Allah, Mighty and Majestic, upon the people of Makkah by what He did to the People of the Elephant who intended to destroy the Ka'bah.
So Allah explained in this surah another great favor upon the people of Makkah, upon Quraysh, which is their being accustomed to two journeys in the year: one in the summer and one in the winter.
And "being accustomed" (al-iyaf) means: gathering and uniting, and it refers to the trade they used to conduct once in the winter and once in the summer:
As for the winter, they headed toward Yemen, for its agricultural produce, and because the weather was suitable.
And as for the summer, they headed toward Sham, because most of the trade in fruits and other goods takes place at this time in the summer, along with the suitability of the cool weather. So it is a favor from Allah, Glorified and Exalted is He, upon Quraysh in these two journeys. The first journey: the winter journey, at what time, and to which direction?

The questioner : Yemen.

The Shaykh : And the second is the summer journey to the direction of Sham.
When He reminded them of this favor, which is a great favor, because they find in it many benefits and great gains in this trade, Allah, Mighty and Majestic, commanded them to worship the Lord of the House, Mighty and Majestic:
He said: : as thanks to Him for this favor.
And this "fa" (so) is either the "fa" of causality, meaning: so because of these two journeys, they should worship the Lord of this House.
Or it is the "fa" of consequence, and whichever it is, it is based on what came before, meaning: so with these great favors, it is obligatory upon them to worship Allah.
And worship is: "humbling oneself to Allah, Mighty and Majestic, with love and reverence", that a person worships Allah, humbling himself to Him with hearing and obedience. When a command from Allah and His Messenger reaches him, he says: "We hear and we obey." And when news reaches him, he says: "We hear and we believe."
In a manner of love and reverence: so through love, a person performs the commands, and through reverence, he leaves off the prohibitions out of fear of this Great One, Mighty and Majestic. This is one of the meanings of worship.
And worship is also applied to the very thing by which one worships. And the Shaykh al-Islam Ibn Taymiyyah defined it in this sense, saying: "Worship is a comprehensive name for everything that Allah loves and is pleased with, of words and deeds, apparent and hidden".
And for this reason, if a questioner asked you: Is prayer a worship or a custom?
You would say: It is worship. And if a questioner asked you: You are praying now, what is the meaning of this prayer of yours? You would say: Its meaning is worship of Allah, Mighty and Majestic. I worship Allah, Mighty and Majestic, I humble myself to Him with hearing and obedience and with what He has commanded me.
And His saying: means by it: the exalted Ka'bah, and Allah, the Exalted, attributed it to Himself in His saying, the Exalted: .
And here He attributed its lordship to Him, saying: Is He the Lord of anyone else?
The answer: Yes, but the attribution of lordship to Him is by way of honor and reverence.
Now, Is not everything for Allah?
Everything is for Allah, everything is His property. Why did Allah attribute the House to Himself?
As an honor and reverence.
So He specified it with lordship, meaning: He specified the House with lordship once, and attributed it to Himself another time as an honor and reverence.
In a second verse: and after it He said: : as a precaution against a supposer supposing that He is the Lord of the town alone. So he said: , and for every context there is a suitable formulation. So by His saying: : it is suitable: explaining the generality of the negation so that the polytheists do not claim that He is the Lord of the town only. But here the context is one of revering the House, so it was suitable to mention it alone.
: "Who": Is this a description of the Lord or of the House?
The student: Of the Lord.

The Shaykh : Of the Lord, so its grammatical case is accusative. For this reason, it is good to pause and say: then say: because if you connected it and said: the listener would think that "who" is a description of the House, and this is far from the meaning and does not stand with the meaning.
: Allah, the Exalted, explained His favor upon them, the apparent and the hidden favor: so feeding them from hunger is protection from destruction in a hidden matter, which is the food they eat.
protection from destruction in the apparent matter, because fear is apparent. If the lands are surrounded by the enemy, their people fear, and they refrain from going out, and they remain in their shelters. So Allah reminded them of this favor : and "Amin" is a place on earth, which is Makkah. And for this reason, its trees are not cut, its grass is not mowed, its fallen fruit is not picked, its game is not hunted, and no blood is shed in it. And these characteristics are not found in other lands, even though Madinah is sacred and has a sacred precinct, but its sacred precinct is far less than the sacred precinct of Makkah:
The sacred precinct of Makkah: no one from the Muslims can come to it for the first time without being in a state of ihram; it is obligatory upon him to enter ihram. And Madinah is not like that.
The grass and trees of the sacred precinct of Makkah are forbidden to be cut absolutely. As for the sacred precinct of Madinah, a dispensation was granted for some of its trees for plowing and the like.
Hunting in Makkah is forbidden and there is a penalty for it, and hunting in Madinah has no penalty.
The important point is that the greatest place of safety is Makkah, where even the trees are safe in it, and even the game is safe in it.
And were it not that Allah, the Exalted, made things easy for His servants, even the beasts—meaning: even the livestock that are not game—Allah, the Exalted, had mercy on the servants and permitted them to slaughter and sacrifice in this place.
And Allah reminded them of this favor in His saying: meaning: Do they not thank Allah for this?
So this surah, as you see, is entirely a reminder to Quraysh of what Allah has bestowed upon them in this great House, and in safety from fear, and in feeding from hunger.
So when it reaches you: What is the duty of Quraysh toward this favor? And likewise, what is the duty of whoever resides in Makkah now, whether from Quraysh or others?
We said: The obligatory thing is to thank Allah, the Exalted, by performing His obedience, by complying with His command and avoiding His prohibition. For this reason, if sins increase in the sacred precinct, the danger to its people is greater than the danger to others, because a sin in a superior place is greater than a sin in an inferior place. For this reason, Allah, the Exalted, said: : So Allah, the Exalted, threatened whoever intended in it, meaning: whoever intended in it to commit transgression, let alone whoever committed transgression.
And it is obligatory upon a person to remember the favor of Allah upon him in every place, not only in Makkah. Our country, praise be to Allah, today is a safe land of the world, and it is among the most affluent and comfortable lands in the world. Allah, the Exalted, has fed it from hunger and secured it from fear. So it is upon us to thank this favor, and to cooperate upon righteousness and piety, and upon enjoining good and forbidding evil, and upon calling to Allah with insight, deliberation, and certainty, and to be brothers who are united.
And it is obligatory upon us, and especially upon the students of knowledge, if they differ among themselves, that they sit for consultation and calm discussion, the aim of which is to reach the truth.
And when the truth becomes clear to a person, it is obligatory upon him to follow it, and it is not permissible for him to defend his opinion, because he is not a legislator who is free from error, so that he would say: My opinion is the correct one, and what is other than it is the error. It is obligatory upon the believing person to be as Allah has willed for him: .
As for a person defending his opinion and insisting on what he is upon, even if it becomes clear to him that it is false, this is an error. This is the habit of the polytheists who refused to follow the messengers and said: .
We ask Allah to make permanent for us and for you the favor of Islam, and safety in the homelands, and to make us brothers who are united upon the Book of Allah and the Sunnah of His Messenger (peace and blessings be upon him and his family).
And we begin now with the questions, starting with the right side, on the condition that each person has only one question.