Exegesis of Surat al-Hujurat, verses (13 and 14), and other selected verses and what is derived from them.

The Shaykh : Praise be to Allah, Lord of the worlds, and I send prayers and peace upon our Prophet Muhammad, the Seal of the Prophets and the Imam of the righteous, and upon his family and his Companions, and those who follow them with excellence until the Day of Judgment.
And I ask Allah the Exalted to make us and you among those who follow them with excellence until the Day of Judgment.
As for what follows:
This is the twenty-fifth meeting after the hundredth of the meeting called "The Open Door," which takes place every Thursday of every week. This Thursday is the thirteenth of the month of Muharram, year 1417. We are speaking in it about the saying of Allah, Blessed and Exalted is He, from Surat al-Hujurat: The address here is a general call to people in general , even though the beginning of the surah addresses those who believe. The reason for that is that this address in the verse we are discussing is directed to every human being, because boasting about lineages and pedigrees comes from every human being. So He, the Exalted, says: The address is to the believer and the disbeliever, the righteous and the wicked. He is Adam. She is Hawwa. This is the well-known view among the scholars of exegesis. Some of them held that the intended meaning of the male and the female here is the species, meaning that the children of Adam were created from this species, from a male and a female. This is evidence, meaning in the verse there is evidence that a human being is composed of his father and his mother, i.e., he is created from the mother and the father. This does not contradict the saying of Allah the Exalted: This is because if we say that the intended meaning of the backbone is the man's backbone and the ribs are the woman's ribs, there is no problem. And if we say by the stronger opinion that the backbone and the ribs are two descriptions of the man, because the gushing water is the man's water, whereas the woman's water is not gushing. And on this basis, the human being is created from the man's water. But the man's water alone is not sufficient; it must connect with the ovule that the woman's womb secretes. This pairs with that, and the human being is created from both, i.e., from his father and his mother. So "male and female" may mean two specific individuals, who are? Adam and Hawwa. Or it may mean the species, i.e., the male of the children of Adam and the female of the children of Adam. And on this interpretation, i.e., on the second interpretation, it is problematic that Allah the Exalted mentioned in other verses that the human being was created from gushing water, which is the man's water. The answer to that is to say: What? That this gushing water cannot form a fetus on its own, but it must connect with the ovule that the woman's womb secretes. And at that time, it is created from a male and a female. Good.
Meaning: We made you peoples and tribes. So Allah made the children of Adam peoples, and they are the roots of the tribes. And they are below the peoples. For example, Banu Tamim are considered a people, and the sub-tribes of Banu Tamim that branch out from the root are called, yes, they are called tribes.
What is the wisdom? Is the wisdom of this creation that people should boast over one another, with this man saying: I am from Quraysh, and this one saying: I am from Tamim, and this one saying: I am from such-and-such, I am from such-and-such? No, this is not the intended meaning. The intended meaning is mutual acquaintance, that people should know one another. For if it were not for what Allah the Exalted made, a human being would not know which tribe he is from. And for this reason, it is among the major sins for a person to claim descent from other than his father—may Allah have mercy on you—because if he claims descent from other than his father, he changes this innate disposition with which Allah created people, which is that they are peoples and tribes for the sake of mutual acquaintance. So it is said: This is so-and-so, son of so-and-so, son of so-and-so, up to the grandfather who was the father of the tribe. Meaning: Not so that you may boast about pedigrees and lineages. Nobility is not that a person is from such-and-such a tribe or from such-and-such a people. Nobility is taqwa (mindfulness of Allah). And the nobility that is true nobility is only the nobility with Allah the Exalted. A person's nobility among his kind is nobility, no doubt, and a person is praised for it if he seeks thereby the Face of Allah. But the true, beneficial nobility is the nobility with whom? With Allah. And by what is it achieved? By taqwa. The more a person is mindful of Allah, the more noble he is with Allah. So if you want to be noble with Allah the Exalted, you must have taqwa. You must have the taqwa of Allah the Exalted. For all of it is good, all of it is blessing, all of it is happiness in this world and the Hereafter. And how often the word taqwa reaches our ears. What is taqwa? Is it a word that passes on tongues and goes through ears? No. It must be a great, honored, revered, respected word.
Taqwa is that you stand by the obedience of Allah the Exalted. This is taqwa. So check: Are you standing by the obedience of Allah? Then you are a person of taqwa. Are you in opposition? Then you are not a person of taqwa. And a person misses out on taqwa to the extent that he opposed the command of Allah and His Messenger. So taqwa is the obedience of Allah by doing the commands and avoiding the prohibitions. If we see a person who goes to the mosque and prays with the congregation and is humble in his prayer and performs it with all its virtues, and another who is the opposite, who prays in his house and his prayer is limited to the obligatory, which of them is more mindful of Allah? The first is more mindful of Allah. So he is more noble with Allah, even if he is a mawla (client) of the mawali or a mawla of the mawali, and the other is of the highest lineage among people. For the one who is more mindful of Allah is the most noble with Allah the Exalted. Every person loves to gain favor with the ruler in this world and to be the closest of people to him. So how should we not love to be the closest of people to Allah the Exalted and the most noble with Him? The matter is desire and Shaytan, otherwise the matter would be clear. Have taqwa of Allah the Exalted so that you may attain nobility with Allah. We seek forgiveness from Allah and repent to Him.
With everything, because here it is absolute and not restricted by any condition. And expertise is knowledge of the inner realities of things. Knowledge of the outward appearances is no doubt a quality of praise and perfection, but knowledge of the inner realities is more eloquent. So He is All-Knowledge of the outward appearances and an Expert in what? In the inner realities. So when knowledge and expertise come together, this becomes more eloquent, more eloquent in comprehensiveness. And it may be said that expertise has a meaning that exceeds knowledge, because the expert among people is the one who is knowledgeable about a thing and skilled in it, unlike the person who has knowledge only but no skill, for he is not called an expert. So on this basis, the expert includes a meaning that exceeds knowledge. Then Allah the Exalted said: Who is the most mindful of Allah? Who is the most noble with Allah? The evidence.

The questioner : ... .

The Shaykh : Good. The Bedouins is a plural noun for a Bedouin, and the Bedouin is a resident of the desert, exactly like a desert dweller. The Bedouins boasted and said: We have believed. They boasted with their faith. So Allah the Exalted said: It was said that these are from the hypocrites, due to the saying of Allah the Exalted: And the hypocrite is a Muslim, but he is not a believer. He is a Muslim because he is outwardly submissive, for the state of the hypocrite is like that of the Muslims. And for this reason, the Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him) did not kill them despite his knowledge of their hypocrisy, because they are Muslims outwardly and do not oppose. And it was said that they are Bedouins who are not hypocrites, but they are weak in faith. Weak in faith, they walk with people in the outward forms of the Shari'ah, but their hearts are weak; their faith is weak. On the first opinion, his saying: that it did not enter them at all, this is on the opinion that they are what? Hypocrites. And on the second, i.e., that faith does not enter them in a complete, absolute way. They have faith, but faith did not reach their hearts in a state of perfection. And the rule for us in exegesis is: If a verse can be understood in two meanings, it is to be understood in both, as long as they do not contradict each other. If they contradict, the stronger one is sought. Meaning: Obedience in the outward form carries faith in the inward form. Meaning: It will not diminish anything from your deeds, because Allah the Exalted does not wrong anyone. Whatever it is, He is fulfilling for the person. But, glory to Allah, the mercy of Allah preceded His anger. And he is rewarded for it, or not? Answer: He is rewarded for it. And is he rewarded? Is he punished? Intentionally? Is he punished? He may be punished, and Allah may forgive him. He may forgive him. So the bad deeds can be erased, but the good deeds cannot be diminished. And for this reason He said: After that. And these two noble names have come before with us, and we will limit ourselves to this extent. And what is derived from this verse will come, if Allah wills, because now the time for questions has arrived.