Khutbah Ul Hajja

(Sermon of Necessities)

All
Praise is due to Allah: We Praise Him: We beg assistance of Him: We ask
.Him for forgiveness. We have faith in Him: We have reliance on Him

We fly for refuge unto Him (to deliver us) from the mischief of our minds and
from the evil consequences of our actions.

Whomever Allah directs shall not go astray: and whomever He allows to go

astray, no one can guide.

We profess that there is nothing worthy of worship except Allah, and we

further profess that Muhammad is His Servant and His Messenger.

Oh you who believe! Fear Allah as He has the right to be feared, and do not
die except as Muslims.

(O mankind! Be dutiful to your Lord, Who created you from a single person,
and from him He created his wife, and from them both He created many
men and women, and fear Allah through Whom you demand your mutual
(rights), and (do not cut the relations of) the wombs (kinship) Surely, Allah
is Ever an All-Watcher over you). [al Nisei4:1],

(O you who believe! Keep your duty to Allah and fear Him, and speak
(always) the truth 70 . He will direct you to do righteous good deeds and
will forgive you your sins. And whosoever obeys Allah and His Messenger
(SAW) he has indeed achieved a great achievement (i.e. he will be saved
from the Hell-fire and made to enter Paradise). [al-Ahzaab 33:70]. (Sunan
al-Nisaai: Kitaab al-Jumuah, Baab kayfiyyah al-khutbah).

O you who believe! Fear Allh and keep your duty to Him. And let every
person look to what he has sent forth for the morrow, and fear Allh. Verily,
Allh is All-Aware of what you do[]. (18) And be not like those who forgot
Allh (i.e. became disobedient to Allh) and He caused them to forget their
own selves, (let them to forget to do righteous deeds). Those are the
Fsiqn (rebellious, disobedient to Allh). (19) Not equal are the dwellers of
the Fire and the dwellers of the Paradise. It is the dwellers of Paradise that
will be successful. (20)
Allah Tala states:

Ayah 15: Establish of what been said already

Earth is easy for benefiting

So Allah Tala is telling that exclusively for us Allah, has made the earth
, which means something that is submissive, some thing that is low,
something that easy, something that soft, and manageable.

And subhan-Allah see how easy Allah Tala has made the earth
Look
at the ground it is easy to cultivate, soft to dig wells, easy to pull out its soil,
minerals, metals to benefit us.

Explore all sides of the earth

So
walk in its
. The word
comes from
the root of mun-kab or shoulder. Walk on its shoulders, what does that
mean? Scholars comments and say that this an expression. The root of the
word shoulder is na-ka-ba which means sides of something. So there is a
reference to walk on all sides of the earth, it is strong, it is for your benefit,
look at the greatness of Allah.
Also Ibn-Abbas comments that the word
refers to the
mountains. So Ibn-Abbas is telling us that this refers that the earth at is
highest, and strongest points meaning the mountains is accesssable to us,
and for our benefit.

Verbal Idiom: Strong yet humble

Another comment on this phrase of
refers to the
verbial idiom of camel that is an animal that is so strong and powerful, but
it is at the same time so humble that when you want to get on its
back, it lowers itself and you literally walk on its shoulders to climb
on its back.

Eat/Consume of Allahs Provisions

So here the scholars comment that the word

rizq
refers not only to the food, but all the benefits that we get from the earth.
From its, water, plants, animals, farmland, metals, minerals, and so on.

Go and work and benefit from the earth

Scholars also comment that this
working to benefit oneself.

also refers to going out and

In a Hadith by Rasullah who said Allah loves the believers who work
with their hands, in other words the person who is not idle but
applies the talents bestowed upon him by Allah.
Omars RA Def of Those who put their trust
In another hadith reported Tirmidi, Omar past by a group of people who
passed by a group of people who ask who are you people. They responed by
saying that we those who put trust in Allah. Omar RA said, No you are not
people who have trust in Allah, but people who sit around waiting to
get something from others, in others you are free-loaders. And Omar
then said who is the one who puts their trust in Allah? It is the one who
plants the seed in the earth, and then he puts his trust in Allah Tala.
Rasullah SAW example of tawkal
Similarily Anas (radi Allahu anhu) reported that a person asked Rasul Allah
(sal Allahu alaihi wa sallam), Should I tie my camel and have Tawakkul
(trust in Allah for her protection) or should I leave her untied and
have Tawakkul. Rasul Allah (sal Allahu alaihi wa sallam) replied, Tie her
and have Tawakkul. (Hasan) [Jami At-Tirmidhi]
Return back to reflection
So after Allah Tala tells to that He has made the earth managable, tractable,
easy for us to us, and go and explore all its tracts, all its corners, and benefit
from its bounties, Allah then says,

So our attention is again returned back to the hereafter.

Resurrection is like unfolding

So the root of
refers to spreading, to unfold. And so the day of
resurrection is when we are go through hashr gathered together in one huge
crowd, and then nashr or spread into our various groups.

Also from an indivdual basis, when we are compacted in our graves, and out
bones and flesh turn into dust, then on the day of judgment those same
bodies will come together and be spread into our normal form.
So the discourse or reflection is, you are walking around this earth you are
benefitting from it, you are exploring it, you are enjoying from all of its
bounties, but realize that you will die, into that same earth, and one day you
will come back out of that same earth, to your Creator Allah Tala, and all
this benefit you are getting has a conclusion, and realize who is giving you
these benefits it is Allah Tala, and you will held accountable by Allah, again -

Ayah 16 Same Earth can swallow you

Have you found a sense of security (do you feel completely secure) that the
One in the heavens [Allah], that He would
envelope, suck something.

which refers to compress,

This is a harsh word, even by its pronunciation.

It can imply and refer to the Eclipse (i.e. Khasaf al Qamar [Lunar eclipse]). So
this eclipse is slowly and gradual.
combined with the word 'Ardd (earth) refers to the Earth
sucking someone in.
Think of quick sand as example. But here it refers that this falling
into a quicksand as punishment.
An example from Surat Qasas ayah 81 talks about Qaroon being
punished by being swallowed by the earth:

fa KhasafNa bihee wa bi dharihee al 'Ard

(then We sucked him [Qaroon] and his wealth into the Earth) - surah Qasas
28:81.
So this ayah of this surah is implying; Do you feel safe, that the One who is in
the heavens will not make you suck into the Earth?

In the expression
fully latching and pulling you down.

the letter ba refers to the earth

- then it will quickly move.

Spoon in sugar jar anology

So in order to understand this the scholars give the example imagine you
have a jar of sugar and you put a spoon in it. When the spoon is partially in
what would you do to have the spoon fall all the way into the sugar? You
would shake it. You would shake to have spoon totally enveloped by the
sugar.
This is something imaginable and it is clear that is is an extremely violent
punishment.
The earth will swallow them violently so they cannot be seen
anymore.

Connection with Ayah 15

In the previous ayah (ayah 15) - we saw that the Earth has been made
humble to us

, humble and so we are told to

walk in its paths,

and Eat of provisions that Allah has
given us. So we mine the earth, we cut the earth, we manufacture our
homes, roads, bridges, and countless other benefits.
But if you disobey Allah - then that same humble Earth, the same
earth that we take for grant, that earth will behave violently against
you and destroy you, so obey Allah.

Ayah 17 Punishment from above

(or have you gained some security that the One in the heavens will not rain
down upon you Haasiban..)
So here the
is continuing.

refers to Or which is tells that the same line of questioning

Stones from the sky and example Lut AS people

So the scholars

refers either of two things.

First
could refer to a stones falling from the sky as a punishment. As
an example we find in Surat Al Qamar (54:34) the people of Lut, who violated
the boundaries of Allah by inventing, pioneering, starting the sin of
homosexuality. And after continuous warnings about stopping this immoral
act, so one of the punishments came down including the raining down of
stones from the sky, as Allah informs us:
.

Tornado storms down

A second meaning of
is like a tornado that picks up the stones,
homes, people, livestock, trees and then rains them back down the earth.
So it could be like stones falling from the sky, or a strong tornado
picks up the stones from the ground and pelts them at you. So the
question is do we feel secure from that.

The second part of this ayah is:

Then you will soon come to know how My warning was.
These people who took the message as a joke - they will truly realize that
Allah's punishment is real. Then they will cry to Allah to give us one more
chance. But then it will be too late.
So the warning of the hereafter, the wakeup call is repeated, and
Allah is giving us the warning from different angles. Earlier in the
chapter we were details of the hell fire, and blazing, breathing fire.
Now we are warned from the perspective of the earth below us and
the sky above us. To remind us not to forgetful our true purpose of
life, and our accountability that is coming in the next life.

Ayah 18 Allahs surprise punishment

In ayah 18 the conclusion of the two rhetorical questions of Ayah 16 and 17
is given:

And indeed those before them belied (the Messengers of Allah), then how
terrible was My Unexpected punishment!

Hitting hand on the table

So the Lam here is used for emphasis.

And the
used in classical Arabic refers to a thump, or when you hit your
hand on the table and then make a statement. So when I hit my hand on the
table what does this signify?
It means I am serious, I mean business, I am not playing around. So if I slam
my hand on the pulpit and say Absolutely not talking during the khutbah, it
is haram, then you know I am serious.

Also note how

just sounds powerful. You know ask your Quran teacher
and they will tell that Qaaf is a heavy letter, a full mouth letter, and daal with
sukoon gives you the quality of qal-qa-la or bouncy sound. So here we have a
heavy letter combined with a bouncy letter and becomes a power sounding
word that delivers a punch.

So
And indeed without a
doubt there were those in the past who denied.

So how terrible was My rejection of them.

Kadh-dhaba - someone Denies something or accuse someone of
Lying.

Nakeer = Surprise Punishment

Scholar also comment that the word

root means something

that is undefined. So here

refers to punishment that
comes out of nowhere, unannounced.
And so this word
is used here rather than adhaab, because
when you are walking on the street you do not expect that the
ground will suck you up, or when you look at the sky you do not
expect that stones could rain down upon you.

Transition from 2nd person to 3rd Person:

In aayaat before this (ayah 18), Allah is talking to them in
the 2nd person [You].
Then Allah changes transition (iltifat) - to 3rd person.
There were people who did bad, and how Unexpected
(nakeer) was my punishment.
This transition shows Allah's anger that; He is so angry
that He will not even talk to them directly.
It also implies that look - there were people who did do bad, and they were
punished. You could face an Unexpected punishment (Nakeer) if you follow
their example.

Conclusion Discourse of Ayah 15, 16, 17, and 18:

The discourse or narrative in ayah 15 starts out by telling us that the earth
has been created easy, soft, manageable for us, so we have our way with. So
then go and explore all of its tracts, work, and earn the substance that Allah
has put in it, but remember that in the end you will die, and after you die you
will be returned to your Creator so obey Allah. In ayah 16 the narrative
continues that same earth that you have your way with know that Allah
could make to where it swallows you up, as what happened to Qaroon who
rejected the message of truth, and so the earth was ordered to swallow him
and his wealth. In ayah 17 the narrative continues that the sky that is above
you that you enjoy, its beauty, the sun shining from, the cloudy floating in it,
know that same sky could turn into a violent tornado or you could be pepper
with stones, like what happened with the people Lut who invent homo
sexuality and when they became insistent on this sin, then stones started
raining down on their town.