Exegesis of Surat al-Balad, from the saying of Allah the Exalted: "So he did not scale the difficult pass..." to the end of the surah.

The Shaykh : Praise be to Allah; we praise Him, seek His help, and seek His forgiveness. We seek refuge in Allah from the evils of our own selves and from the badness of our deeds. Whomsoever Allah guides, none can misguide, and whomsoever He leaves to misguide, none can guide.
And I bear witness that there is no deity but Allah alone, with no partner, and I bear witness that Muhammad is His slave and His Messenger. Allah sent him with guidance and the religion of truth to make it prevail over all other religions. He conveyed the message, fulfilled the trust, advised the nation, and struggled in the cause of Allah with true struggle. May the prayers and peace of Allah be upon him, 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 second session, the seventy-first. This is the seventy-first session, or rather the seventy-first meeting, of the gatherings known as the Open Door Meeting. This is Thursday, the twenty-fifth of the month of Rabi' al-Awwal, in the year 1415.
We begin this meeting by completing the discussion of Surat al-Balad, where we stopped at the saying of Allah, Blessed and Exalted is He: to the end of the surah.
means: the person who used to say: .
means: why did he not scale the difficult pass? And "scaling" (iqtaham) means overcoming with difficulty. Overcoming something with difficulty is called scaling. And the "difficult pass" (al-'uqabah) is the path in the rugged mountain.
There is no doubt that scaling this difficult pass is certainly difficult and arduous for souls. No one overcomes it or accomplishes it except one who has a sincere intention to overcome this difficult pass.
This interrogative is for emphasis and magnification. It means: what have I taught you about the status of this difficult pass about which Allah said: ? Allah explained it by saying: and so on. So His saying:
is a predicate for a deleted subject, and the implied meaning is: it is freeing a slave. Freeing a slave has two meanings. The first meaning is freeing from slavery, such that a person frees slaves who are owned, whether they are in his ownership and he frees them, or they are in the ownership of another and he buys them and frees them. This is one type. The second type is freeing a slave from captivity. For the release of a captive is among the best deeds to Allah, Mighty and Majestic. And the captive may not be released by the enemy except with a financial ransom, and this ransom may be very high and large, which no one scales except one who has faith in Allah, Mighty and Majestic, that He will replace what he spent and reward him for what he gave in charity.
So freeing a slave has two meanings:
The first meaning is freeing the slave from slavery, such that he liberates her if she is in his ownership, or if not, he buys her and liberates her. And the second is freeing the slave from captivity.
He said: or this is for variation, meaning: or feeding on a day of hardship. That is, a day of severe famine, because people may be afflicted with severe famine, either due to the scarcity of the yield of fruits and crops, or due to illnesses in their bodies where a person eats and is not satisfied.
And this has occurred in what we hear about, in the Najd region, and perhaps in other places as well, where people eat and are not satisfied. One person eats the food of ten and is not satisfied, and they die of hunger in the markets, falling down in the markets from hunger. This is one of the hardships.
Or the scarcity of the harvest, such that the trees do not bear fruit and the crops do not grow, so the yield decreases and hardship occurs, and people die of hunger. And perhaps they emigrate from their lands. This is feeding on a day of hardship.
an orphan. The orphan is: one whose father died before he reached puberty, whether he is male or female. If he reaches puberty, he is no longer an orphan, because he has reached maturity and become independent.
And likewise, if his mother dies, he is not an orphan, contrary to what some of the common people think, that the orphan is one whose mother died. This is not correct. The orphan is one whose father died, because when his father dies, he has no one from among creation who earns for him.
And His saying: means: one who is a relative of the person. Because if he is an orphan, he has a share of honor and charity, and if he is a relative, his share of that increases, because he is one whose ties must be maintained. So whoever combines these two descriptions, orphanhood and kinship, then spending on him is scaling the difficult pass, if that is on a day of hardship. Then yes, or feeding on a day of hardship, a poor person who is in dust. The poor person is the one who does not find his sustenance or the sustenance of his dependents. And "in dust" (dhu matrabah) is the place of dust, and the meaning is that he is a poor person who has nothing in his hands. He has nothing in his hands. He is a poor person who has nothing in his hands except dust. And it is known that when it is said of a man that he has nothing but dust, the meaning is that he is very poor, he has no food, he has no clothing, and he has no money. So he is a poor person in dust.
means: he, and then he is not a doer of good to orphans and to the poor, but he is one who has faith in Allah.
: those who believed in whom? They believed in everything in which faith is obligatory. And the Messenger (peace and blessings of Allah be upon him and his family) explained who it is that one must believe in. So when Jibril asked him about faith, he said: And His saying, Exalted and Majestic: means: they did righteous deeds. And righteous deeds are every deed that brings one closer to Allah, Mighty and Majestic. And it is built upon sincerity and following the Messenger of Allah (peace and blessings of Allah be upon him and his family). So a deed is not a righteous deed except with intention and following. Intention, that it be a deed pure for Allah, and following, that the deed be in accordance with the Shari'ah of Allah, Sublime and Exalted.
So if a person does a deed with the utmost sincerity in it, but it is contrary to the guidance of the Messenger (peace and blessings of Allah be upon him), it is not accepted from him, due to the lack of following. For this reason, the Messenger (peace and blessings of Allah be upon him) said: And likewise, if the deed is in accordance with the Shari'ah outwardly, but there is showing off in it, then it is not accepted and it is not a righteous deed, due to the saying of Allah, Blessed and Exalted is He, in the Holy Hadith: .
And His saying: means: they advised one another to patience. And patience is of three types: patience in obedience to Allah, patience against disobedience to Allah, and patience with the painful decrees of Allah. So they are patient and advise one another to patience. And which of these types is best? The best is patience in obedience to Allah, then patience against disobedience to Allah, then patience with the painful decrees of Allah. And these three types gathered together in the Messengers (peace and blessings of Allah be upon them) and their followers. So here is the Messenger (peace and blessings of Allah be upon him) patient in obedience to Allah, struggling in the path of Allah, calling to Allah, and being harmed and attacked by beating, until the polytheists intended to kill him. And he was patient and counting on reward in all of that. He was also patient against disobedience to Allah; it is not possible for him to betray anyone, or to lie to anyone, or to be treacherous to anyone. And he was also mindful of Allah, the Exalted, to the extent he could.
Likewise, he was patient in obedience to Allah. How was he harmed in Allah, Mighty and Majestic, for the sake of His obedience? Did not Quraysh harm him until when they saw him prostrating under the Ka'bah, they ordered someone to bring the placenta of a camel and place it on his back while he was prostrating, (peace and blessings of Allah be upon him). And he was patient in all of that.
Yusuf (peace be upon him) was patient. He was patient with the decrees of Allah, and he was thrown into the well in the darkness of the pit, and he was harmed in Allah by imprisonment. And with that, he was patient and counting on reward. He did not complain and did not deny what happened to him.
And His saying: means: they advised one another to mercy. They advised one another to have mercy on the other. And mercy is the mercy of Allah, Mighty and Majestic. I mean the mercy of a person for the created beings. It is for animals and it is for those who speak. So he has mercy on his fathers and mothers, his sons and daughters, his brothers and sisters, his uncles and aunts, and so on.
And he has mercy on the rest of humanity as well. And he also has mercy on the dumb animals, so he has mercy on his camel, his horse, his donkey, his cow, his sheep, and others.
And the Prophet (peace and blessings of Allah be upon him) said: Allah the Exalted said: means: these described with these attributes means: the companions of the right, who are given their book on the Day of Resurrection with their right hands: Then He said, Mighty and Majestic: When He mentioned the believers, He mentioned the disbelievers, so He said: means: they denied them The pronoun here came for emphasis. If it were said in other than the Qur'an, "and those who disbelieved in Our verses are the companions of the left," it would be correct. But this is from the category of emphasis.
And al-mish'ama means al-shama' or al-shu'um. Allah the Exalted said: meaning: upon them is a fire that is sealed, and may Allah protect us, from which they will not come out and they are unable to do so. We ask Allah to make us and you among those who believed and did righteous deeds and advised one another to patience and advised one another to mercy. And all praise is due to Allah, Lord of the worlds, and may Allah send prayers and blessings upon our Prophet Muhammad and upon his family and all his Companions. Now, to the questions; we begin with the oath.