Exegesis of Verses (01 - 21) of Surat al-Waqi'ah.

The Shaykh : Praise be to Allah, Lord of the worlds, and I 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 ninety-sixth session of the Open Door sessions, which take place every Thursday, and this Thursday is the eighteenth of Shawwal in the year 1419.
We begin this session with what has become customary, which is speaking about the verses of Allah that Allah Mighty and Majestic makes easy for us, and we have reached Surat al-Waqi'ah. Allah the Exalted said: In the name of Allah, the Most Merciful, the Bestower of Mercy. The basmala is a verse of the Book of Allah, independent, not attached to what comes after it or what comes before it. For this reason, the stronger position is that it is not a verse of al-Fatihah, and if a person limits his recitation to to the end of the surah, he has fulfilled 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. The correct position, without doubt, is that it—meaning the basmala—is not a verse, neither 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), and 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. It is only a report of what Sulayman (peace be upon him) wrote: In the name of Allah, the Most Merciful, the Bestower of Mercy, meaning I begin or I recite: In the name of Allah, the Most Merciful, the Bestower of Mercy, Surat al-Waqi'ah.
Allah Mighty and Majestic said: to the end of it. Allah omitted the answer to the condition in these verses so that the mind would consider every possibility, meaning: when the occurrence happens, the great terrors will become real, the division of people will occur, and what Allah and His Messenger informed about regarding what will happen on the Day of Resurrection will take place.
And His saying: is like His saying: 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. He said: 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 a Last Day in which a person is rewarded, the doer of good for his good and the doer of evil for his evil.
meaning: 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 respected 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, and people will trample 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 will be shaken with a great shaking. For this reason, He said: meaning: a great commotion. And you imagine that you are shaking a vessel containing water; how would the water in it be disturbed? The earth on the Day of Resurrection will shake by the command of Allah Mighty and Majestic. This is like His saying the Exalted: and His saying the Exalted: .
Thus, meaning: it shook and was shaken meaning: a great commotion. What? A great one. It was scattered and descended and became a flowing 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, you feel it in the light of the sun scattered. These solid, hard mountains, where the rock is larger than camels, and 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 Adam's descendants in general. Pairs means groups, as Allah the Exalted said: meaning: their groups. And He said the Exalted: meaning: groups. So the meaning of "pairs" is groups, three groups with no fourth: the foremost, the companions of the right, and the companions of the left. People will be divided on the Day of Resurrection into three sections with no fourth.
Allah the Exalted mentioned them not in order of merit. The companions of the right are between the foremost and the companions of the left in rank. So Allah began with them, then secondly with the companions of the left, then thirdly with the foremost. But in the detailed description, He began with them arranged according to merit, starting with the foremost, then the companions of the right, then the companions of the left. This detailed arrangement is contrary to the general arrangement, and it is one of the styles of eloquence. meaning: He the Exalted 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: those who are foremost in good deeds are the foremost in reward in the Hereafter. So it is as if He said: The foremost are the foremost. The foremost in this world by good deeds are the foremost 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-Firdaus, which is the highest level of Paradise, is above it the Throne of Allah Mighty and Majestic. So His saying: meaning: to whom? To Allah Mighty and Majestic. To Allah in the Gardens of Pleasure. He mentioned their abode before mentioning their rank, as it is said: the neighbor before the house. And as the wife of Pharaoh said: What? She began with the neighbor. 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 abode in which there is And He added gardens to pleasure because its inhabitants are pleased in their bodies and pleased in their hearts, as Allah the Exalted said in Surat al-Insan: Recite what comes after it: Radiance on the faces and joy in the hearts. So they are in the pleasure of the Gardens of Pleasure. Is it 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, does not die, and is healthy, does not fall ill, and remains young forever, does not grow old, and above all of that is 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. May Allah make us among those who look at You in the Gardens of Pleasure.
It was said: The intended meaning is the previous nations. meaning the Ummah of Muhammad (peace and blessings be upon him and his family). According to this opinion, the smallness of this Ummah is in consideration of all the previous nations. And the meaning is not that those who enter Paradise from the previous nations, in consideration of every Prophet, are more than those who enter Paradise from this Ummah. And it was said: The intended meaning of "the first" is the first of this Ummah, meaning a group from this Ummah and a few from its end. And this opinion 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. And in another hadith: And according to this, it is not correct for us to say: a few from this Ummah and many from the previous nations. Rather, we say: meaning: many from this Ummah from its beginning. from its end. .
Sarir is the plural of sarir, which is what a person uses for sitting and sleeping. The scholars said: They are woven from gold. That is: Reclining on their hands and their backs, so they are at ease in their hands and in their backs. That is: Facing one another, and this indicates the spaciousness of the place, because if the place were narrow, it would not be possible for people to face one another, right? Say, everyone, it would not accommodate them; it would have to be row after row after row behind a row. But if the place is spacious, even if there were a thousand of them and circular sarir were placed for them, they could face one another, and even if they increased in number as the place grew larger. 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, and sees its farthest point as he sees its nearest. There is no god but Allah! Astonishing! But it is not astonishing, for Allah is capable of all things. And Paradise is as wide as the heavens and the earth. Who can encompass a single heaven? How so, when it is as wide as the seven heavens? And the seven heavens are one above the other, and the higher something is, the wider its circle. So who can encompass this except Allah (Mighty and Majestic)? Its width is as the width of the heavens and the earth.
So, they are facing one another because their places are what? Their places are spacious, and because they possess a perfection of etiquette such that none of them can turn his back on another. They are all well-mannered, and all their hearts are pure. Allah the Exalted said: For this reason, the Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him and his family) forbade turning one’s back on one another. Turning one’s back includes turning one’s back with the heart, such that each person is facing his own face, and turning one’s back with the body, except in cases of need and necessity, which is a different matter. Otherwise, whenever it is possible to face one another, that is better. If someone were speaking to you while his back was turned to you, would your listening to him and your love for him be the same as if he were speaking to you while facing you? No, and this is an observed and known fact. So, the people of Paradise are on sarir facing one another in a state of reclining. Waladan is the plural of walad or the plural of walid, like ghilman, the plural of ghulam. They move about among them. That is: They were created to be immortal, and they are young boys. Because of their beauty, their purity, their multitude, and their distribution throughout the dominions of their masters. Do you understand? That is: Did you see the waladan, or did you see the masters? The waladan. And if the waladan are such that you would think them scattered pearls, then the masters are even greater and even greater. Akwab is a term for cups that have a handle, and abariq are also vessels that have handles. It has no handle. And His saying: That is: From a specific wine. Meaning: It does not cause a headache, nor does it cause the mind to be lost, unlike the wine of this world, which causes a headache and takes away the mind. It is conjoined to His saying: That is: And the waladan move about among them with fruit. Because of its pleasant appearance, its pleasant smell, and its pleasant taste. Pay attention: This fruit is pleasant in its appearance, pleasant in its scent, and pleasant in its eating and taste, for Allah said: And a person rejects a thing either because of its ugly appearance, its ugly smell, or its ugly taste. The fruit in Paradise is the opposite: it is pleasant in its color, size, scent, and taste. And glory be to Allah, it is given to them in a similar form. Similar in color, size, and scent, but different in taste. And this increases a person’s joy, happiness, and faith in the power of Allah (Mighty and Majestic).
That is: And these waladan move about among them with the meat of birds. We said earlier regarding the verse, we said: Of what they desire. The correct view is that the meat of birds is mentioned because the meat of birds is the tenderest and most delicious of meats. And what does this bird feed on? The answer is: It is not for us to ask this question, for in matters of the unseen, we must believe in them without asking about what has not been conveyed to us. So we say: If these birds need food, how much food they have, for they are in Paradise. And if they do not need food, then Allah is capable of all things.
And with this, the discussion ends regarding what Allah has bestowed in the interpretation of these noble verses. I ask Allah the Exalted to make me and you among those who are foremost in good deeds, for He is capable of all things.