Exegesis of Surat Qaf, Verses (10-13), and Other Selected Verses and Their Lessons

The Shaykh : Praise be to Allah, Lord of the worlds. [Opening] 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 Pious, 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 one hundred and thirty-second session of the Open Door, which takes place every Thursday of every week unless there is an obstacle. This Thursday is the twenty-fourth of Rabi' al-Awwal, 1417. We begin this session with what is facilitated of speech regarding verses from Surat Qaf, which is the saying of the Exalted: The Exalted says: Because rain descends little by little, and it may be referred to as "He sent down" because the wadis and valleys flow with it.
And His saying: means: from above. Because this rain descends from the clouds, not from the sky which is the preserved ceiling, as evidenced by the saying of the Exalted: So it descends from above. The wisdom in its descent from above is to encompass the peaks of the mountains, the resting places of camels, the plains, and the wadis. Because if it came walking on the surface of the earth, it would not reach the peaks of the mountains. But Allah, Mighty and Majestic, made it from above.
And His saying: Among its blessings is that Allah causes to grow Gardens are orchards with many trees. Orchards with many trees are called gardens because they conceal what is beneath them. Every orchard with trees intertwined with one another is called a garden. As for His saying: He means the crops that are harvested. So Allah mentioned here the trees and the crops. From the trees, fruits are picked, and from the crops, grains are harvested. Allah singled out the date palm because it is the noblest of trees. For this reason, the believer was compared to it, as the Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him) said: Ibn 'Umar (may Allah be pleased with him) said: Meaning, he was shy to speak while being the youngest of them. So the Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him) said: It is the tree mentioned in the saying of Allah the Exalted: For this reason, He singled it out here for mention and said: meaning: tall. meaning: arranged. You find the date clusters in their stalks arranged in the most beautiful arrangement. And with that, you find these fruits watered by the thin, soft stalk, even though it may sometimes contain more than thirty grains or more.
meaning: We did that. We sent down water from the sky. We did that. meaning: a gift and grace for the servants. The servants here include the believing servants and the disbelieving servants, because the disbeliever is a servant of Allah, as Allah the Exalted said: The intended meaning here is cosmic, decreed servitude. As for legislative servitude, one is not a servant of Allah unless he is obedient to His command, avoids His prohibition, and believes in His news. So includes the disbelievers and the believers.
meaning: with the water We sent down from the sky. A town, because it is feminine in form but masculine in meaning, it is permissible to describe it with a masculine descriptor. meaning: a dead town. He brought it to life with this water that descended from the sky. How is it brought to life? You find the earth cold and desolate, with no vegetation in it. When Allah sends down rain, it buzzes with vegetation, turns green, and flourishes. This is life after death.
meaning: like that revival is the emergence of people from their graves to Allah, Mighty and Majestic. Allah the Exalted mentioned the emergence because some of the servants of Allah denied it. And their argument was that they said: How will You bring bones to life after they have crumbled and become dust? This is considered abhorrent and far-fetched by them. But Allah, Glorified and Exalted is He, clarified that it is not far-fetched, and that just as they see the dead earth, rain descends upon it and it comes to life. So the One capable of bringing the earth to life after its death by the descent of rain is capable of bringing the dead to life after their death. This is a clear and obvious analogy.
Allah mentioned these deniers for two benefits.
The first benefit: consoling the Messenger (peace and blessings be upon him) that he is not the first messenger to be denied, but messengers before him were denied, as the Exalted said: It was said: he is a poet. It was said: he is a madman. It was said: he is a soothsayer. And Allah the Exalted said: This is a benefit of mentioning the stories of previous nations, and what is it? Consoling the Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him). Because when a person sees that others have been afflicted with a similar affliction, he is certainly consoled, and the affliction becomes lighter for him.
The second benefit: warning the deniers of the Messenger (peace and blessings be upon him). For this reason, He said at the end of what He mentioned: meaning: the threat of Allah with punishment has become binding upon them. And the Exalted said: meaning: each of these nations was recompensed with the like of their sin, so they were punished with the like of their sin. For example, The people of Noah denied Noah (peace and blessings be upon him). And he remained among them for a thousand years except fifty years, meaning nine hundred and fifty years, calling them to Allah the Exalted. But they did not benefit from that at all. Whenever he called them so that Allah would forgive them, they put their fingers in their ears and covered themselves with their garments, covering themselves, and they were arrogant in arrogance. And he remained among them for this period. And Allah the Exalted said at the end: The people of the well. A people to whom their prophet came. Their prophet came to them, but they killed him in the well. The well is the pit. Meaning: they dug a pit and buried him. This is one opinion.
And the second opinion: The people of the well means that they were a people around water, and they were not a large multitude. And with this, they denied their messenger. And they were the people of Salih in the land of al-Hijr, which is known. They denied Salih and said: And this was a challenge. So what did Allah do to them? He sent upon them a shout and a quake. Likewise, 'Ad. Allah sent Hud to them, so they denied him, and Allah the Exalted destroyed them with the wind. Allah sent And they boasted of their strength, saying: So Allah the Exalted showed them His power and destroyed them with the gentle wind, which has no visible body, and with that, He destroyed them completely.
To whom Allah sent His Prophet Musa (peace be upon him), and who was known for his arrogance, stubbornness, and haughtiness, to the extent that he belittled his people and said to them: "I am their Lord." He said: So they obeyed him. Then Musa (peace and blessings be upon him) came to them with clear signs, but they lied. And Allah the Exalted showed them a sign that they boasted of, which contradicted what Musa brought, namely magic. So they gathered all the magicians in Egypt for Musa (peace and blessings be upon him), and they assembled and threw their ropes and staffs, casting magic over them, so that people saw these ropes and staffs as if they were what? Snakes and vipers, and people were terrified, as Allah the Exalted said: Until Musa (peace and blessings be upon him) felt fear in his heart, meaning he saw that the entire environment around him was full of snakes wanting to devour whatever they encountered. So Allah the Exalted revealed to Musa: He threw his staff, and it swallowed all these snakes. This is among the signs of Allah, for the snake, as is known, is not of that magnitude, yet it eats this, as if this removes its fear. When it ate these ropes and staffs, the magicians saw something that astonished them, and they could not control themselves except to believe, and with that, a complete faith, the magicians were cast down prostrating. Consider the saying of Allah the Exalted: He did not say: "They prostrated," as if this was something that compelled them to prostrate, as if they prostrated without choice due to the power of the great sign they saw. And despite this clear and evident sign of the truthfulness of Musa (peace and blessings be upon him), Pharaoh did not believe and said: He intended to attack Musa and those with him who believed. So Allah commanded Musa to leave Egypt toward the east, toward the Red Sea. So he obeyed the command of Allah and left Egypt toward this direction. Then Pharaoh followed them with his soldiers in anger, intending to destroy Musa and his people. When they reached the sea, Musa said, and the people of Musa said to him: Meaning, we will not be overtaken. So Allah revealed to him to strike the sea with his staff. The sea, which is a long distance wide. He struck the sea, and the sea split into twelve paths, and the pieces of water became like mountains, and these paths that were flowing with water and slippery mud became a dry path by the permission of Allah in an instant. So Musa and his people entered, crossing from Africa to Asia via the sea. When they were all inside, entering and exiting to the eastern side, Pharaoh and his people entered. Yes, when they were all inside, entering and exiting to the eastern side, Pharaoh and his people entered. When they were all inside, Allah commanded the sea, and it closed over them. When Pharaoh realized he was drowning, he declared: To humiliate himself, for he used to deny the Children of Israel and attack them, so at the time of death he acknowledged that he followed them and that he was one of their followers, meaning that he walks behind them. But what was said to him? It was said to him: You believe in the One in whom the Children of Israel believe, and that you are among the Muslims? So his repentance was not accepted because he did not repent except when death approached him, and repentance after the approach of death does not benefit, as Allah the Exalted said: Repentance does not benefit when death approaches. We ask Allah the Exalted to grant us and you repentance before death. But Allah said: Meaning, not with your soul; the soul left the body, but the body remained floating on the water. Why? Allah explained the wisdom: Because the Children of Israel were terrified of Pharaoh, so if it had not become clear to them that he drowned himself, their suspicions would have gone in every direction, perhaps he did not drown, perhaps he will come out to us from another side. So Allah reassured the eyes of the Children of Israel by having them see his body sinking in the water. And the rest of the speech on what was mentioned of these nations will come, if Allah wills, in a future meeting, which will be, if Allah wills, at the beginning of the study, because this is the end of the break, and there is no meeting unless the study begins, if Allah wills. And now to the questions, and each person has only one question, and whoever is from the people of the town has no right to ask, because the Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him) said: Please proceed.