Exegesis of Verses (75 - 82) of Surat al-Waqi'ah.

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 upon those who follow them with excellence until the Day of Judgment.
As for what follows:
This is the two hundred and fifth session of the Open Door, which takes place every Thursday, and this Thursday is the fifth of Safar in the year 1420.
We begin this session, as is customary, with the exegesis of verses from the Book of Allah (Mighty and Majestic). In the previous session, we reached the saying of Allah the Exalted: . Allah (Blessed and Exalted is He) informs us that He swears by the positions of the stars. The "la" in His saying: is for emphasis and affirmation, not for negation, because the intent is to affirm the oath, not to negate it. This is like His saying: , and His saying: , and His saying: , and the like. In such cases, "la" is used in the form of negation, but the intent is affirmation and emphasis.
An oath is the affirmation of a matter by mentioning something of great importance using specific particles, namely the waw, the ba, and the ta. Regarding His saying: , the scholars (may Allah have mercy on them) differed. Some said that the intent is the times of the descent of the Qur'an, because the Qur'an was revealed in parts, and a divided thing is called "munjam," just as a debt paid in installments over years or months is called a "munjam" debt.
It was also said that the intent of "the positions of the stars" is the positions of their rising and setting, because their setting indicates the day and their rising indicates the night. The alternation of night and day is among the great, major signs of Allah (Mighty and Majestic), which no one can do except Allah (Mighty and Majestic). Thus, Allah (Blessed and Exalted is He) swore by what indicates the coming and going of the night.
It was also said that the intent of "the positions of the stars" is the "anwa" (star constellations). In the pre-Islamic age of ignorance, they revered them to the extent that they said, "The rain descends with the anw," and they would say, "We were rained upon by such-and-such an anw." The important point is that Allah the Exalted swore by the positions of the stars regarding one of the greatest matters, which is His saying: . However, Allah clarified the greatness of this oath before clarifying what was sworn upon, saying: "And indeed, it is a great oath." He used the parenthetical sentence in His saying: to indicate that we must be alert to this oath and its greatness so that we have knowledge of it.
He said, the Exalted: , meaning: That which was revealed to Muhammad (peace and blessings be upon him) is indeed a noble Qur'an. "Nobility" here means goodness, splendor, and beauty, as in the saying of the Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him and his family) to Mu'adh ibn Jabal when he sent him to Yemen and ordered him to make clear to the people that they had zakah in their wealth. He said: . "Kara'im" is the plural of "kariimah," and the intent is the good, beautiful sheep. The Qur'an is noble in its reward, for a letter is a good deed, and a good deed is multiplied tenfold. It is noble in its effects on hearts and their rectification, for reading the Qur'an softens hearts and necessitates humility before Allah (Mighty and Majestic). It is noble in its effects in calling people to the Shari'ah of Allah, as He said, the Exalted: . The important point is that the Qur'an is noble in every sense of nobility.
He said, the Exalted: . The scholars differed regarding the hidden Book. It was said that it is the Preserved Tablet, based on His saying, the Exalted: .
It was also said that the intent is the books in the hands of the angels, as He said, the Exalted: . Ibn al-Qayyim (may Allah have mercy on him) preferred this view in his book *Al-Tabyan fi Aqsam al-Qur'an*, stating that the intent is the scrolls in the hands of the angels. Most of the exegetes are of the opinion that the intent is the Preserved Tablet.
, meaning: No one touches this hidden Book except the purified ones, who are the angels, whom Allah the Exalted purified from associating partners with Allah and from sins. Therefore, no sin occurs from the angels; rather, they are obedient to the command of Allah and carry it out as Allah willed.
. Before we move on to the verse before it, some exegetes went to a strange view, saying that the intent of His saying: is: No one touches the Qur'an except one who is ritually pure. However, this is a weak view that the verse does not indicate, because if that were the intent, it would have said "except the ones who purify themselves" (meaning those who perform ritual purification). But it said "the purified ones," meaning purified by Allah (Mighty and Majestic). So this view is weak. If it were not found in some of the exegesis books in people's hands, we would not have addressed it, because it has no value. The correct view is that the intent is the angels.
If we say that the intent of the hidden Book is the scrolls in their hands, then it is clear in His saying: . And if it is said that the intent is the Preserved Tablet, then likewise, the purified ones may touch it by the command of Allah (Mighty and Majestic), or they may not touch it.
He said, the Exalted: The speech of Allah the Exalted is revealed, not created. It is derived from this noble verse that the Qur'an is not created, because it was revealed from Allah, so it is His speech, and His speech is among His attributes, and His attributes are not created.
In His saying: , there is an indication that we must act upon it, because the One who revealed it is the Lord who is obeyed, the Creator, the Provider, whom we must obey in what He commanded and refrain from what He forbade and prohibited.
. "The worlds" is everyone other than Allah, and they are called "worlds" because they are evidence of their Creator. If a person reflects on this creation, it leads him to the greatness, authority, mercy, and other attributes of Allah (Mighty and Majestic). He said, the Exalted: , meaning: After this clarification of the greatness of the noble Qur'an, do you smear it? That is, do the disbelievers smear it and remain silent about its clarification and acting upon it? This interrogative is for condemnation, because it is obligatory for one who believes that it is a revelation from the Lord of the worlds, that it is a noble Qur'an, and that no one touches it except the purified ones, to be frank and explicit and not to smear it. And Allah the Exalted said in another verse: . But this is not the case. It is obligatory for the believer to present his religion, take pride in it, and display it, contrary to what was the case before. Unfortunately, many people today, if you find one of them standing to pray, he is shy to pray, and he may even compromise and delay the prayer from its time to conform to those who do not pray. This is a great error. Rather, it is obligatory for a person to be frank and not compromise in the religion of Allah (Mighty and Majestic).
, meaning: You make the gift of Allah to you a means of denying Him, as He said, the Exalted: . Among this is when a person attributes the blessing of Allah (Mighty and Majestic) to the cause, forgetting the Causer (Glorified and Exalted is He), such as saying, for example, "We were rained upon by such-and-such an anw," meaning he attributes the rain to the anw, not to the Creator (Mighty and Majestic). This is a type of associating partners with Allah, as it came explicitly in the hadith of Zayd ibn Khalid al-Juhani (may Allah be pleased with him): , meaning: They divided into two groups: a believer and a disbeliever. .
And, if Allah wills, the discussion of the rest of the surah will come in the next session, if Allah wills. Now, to the questions. We start with the guests. Do you have a question? Ask, or give it to the person next to you, or on the left.