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Dear brother, we are discussing the twelfth lesson of the series Aqeedah and Inimitability of the Quran. Last meeting we talked about Fitrah (an inborn natural predisposition which cannot change, and which exists at birth in all human beings. It is inclined towards right action and submission to Allah, the One Deity) which is one of the basic factors of the Divine assignment and we will continue with it today.
Forward: Man's characteristics and conditions before knowing Allah:
Dear brother, the Quran is Allah's Words, the Divine Revelation, the Words of the the All-Aware, the Words of the All-Knowing, the Words of the Creator of man and the Words of the One Who knows the secret and that which is yet more hidden. There are a lot of Ayat in the Quran that tackle the reality of man and the subject matter of these Ayat belongs to the contemporary filed of science "Islamic psychology". What is the reality of man, the foremost creature? What is his essence? What is his nature? What are his characteristics? What are his conditions? What brings happiness to him? What brings misery to him? What are his characteristics before believing? What are his characteristics after believing? When is he safe? When does he rejoice? When does he sublime? When does he fall (morally speaking)? These are delicate issues that are mentioned in the Quran. The scholars suggested that whenever the word "man" is preceded with 'the', it means man before believing in Allah.
1- Impatient:
Take for example the following Ayah, Allah says:
﴾Verily, man (disbeliever) was created very impatient; ﴿
Man's characteristics before believing:
﴾Verily, man (disbeliever) was created very impatient* Irritable (discontented) when evil touches him* And niggardly when good touches him* Except those devoted to Salat (prayers)﴿
Man has certain characteristics before believing and connecting with Allah, and he has different characteristics after believing and connecting with Allah. There are a lot of Ayat in which these characteristics are mentioned, and I have chosen some of them.
2- Man resorts to Allah in calamities:
Allah says:
﴾And when harm touches man, he invokes Us, lying down on his side, or sitting or standing. ﴿
Faith is an essential part of man's Fitrah, thus whenever harm touches him, he invokes Allah Alone. I have heard a weird story about a group of experts from an atheist country (which doesn't believe in Allah's Existence) who were on a plane, and though all of them didn't believe in Allah, they invoked Allah when the plane started to tremble and was about to crash as a result of flying amid an electric field of storm clouds.
﴾And when harm touches man, he invokes Us, lying down on his side, or sitting or standing. ﴿
This also happens to the person who is sailing in a restless sea. Allah says:
﴾They invoke Allah, making their Faith pure for Him Alone, saying: "If You (Allah) deliver us from this, we shall truly be of the grateful."﴿
Man instinctively resorts to Allah in hard times, but when is the believer considered a hero? When he resorts to Allah in prosperity, in his settlements, in his travels by a plane or a ship, when he is healthy and strong and when he is young. Unlike him, the disbeliever resorts to Allah only in hardship.
A brother said to me, "After an earthquake hit a big Islamic capital, there were no enough space in its Masajid for its population, who are 15 millions, as they started heading to them to offer the five daily prayers. They crowded in the sanctuaries, courtyards, halls and even the areas around the Masajid. As time passed, people forgot the disaster and went back to their lifestyle before the 
earthquake." Hence, don't be happy about the faith that comes after a disaster, for it fades away quicker than it came, but rather you should be happy about the constant, continuous and solid faith. Allah says:
﴾And when harm touches man, he invokes Us, lying down on his side, or sitting or standing. But when We have removed his harm from him, he passes on his way as if he had never invoked Us for a harm that touched him!﴿
When the doctors give hints to the father whose son has fever that the son suffers from an intractable disease like meningitis, the father starts to make Du'a to Allah as much as he can, but when his son is cured, he says, "This is an excellent doctor, and the medication is really effective."He totally forgets that his Du'a to the Almighty Allah helps his son to recover. This is one of the characteristics of man before getting acquainted with Allah.
3- Man is despairing and ungrateful:
Allah mentions another characteristic in the following Ayah:
﴾And if We give man a taste of Mercy from Us, and then withdraw it from him, verily! He is despairing, ungrateful. ﴿
His faith is not solid enough to make him understand the wisdom behind whatever calamity befalls him. Some scholars said, "Whoever does not get the moral lesson from whatever calamity befalls him, he himself is the most serious calamity." Allah says:
﴾And if We give man a taste of Mercy from Us ﴿
This Mercy is represented in having good health, enough income, a wife, children and a high position.
﴾And if We give man a taste of Mercy from Us, and then withdraw it from him, ﴿
He doesn't comprehend that there is wisdom behind this withdrawal. The Almighty Allah says:
﴾Say (O Muhammad, peace be upon him): "O Allah! Possessor of the kingdom, You give the kingdom to whom You will, and You take the kingdom from whom You will, and You endue with honour whom You will, and You humiliate whom You will. In Your Hand is the good.﴿
Hence, giving kingdom to someone, taking kingdom from another, enduing someone with honor and humiliating another are for man's own goodness:
﴾In Your Hand is the good. Verily, You are Able to do all things. ﴿
When the graces are taken from man, he becomes a desperate ungrateful person; he is in despair of Allah's Mercy. On the other hand, the believer never becomes desperate or frustrated, because he is sure that there is profound wisdom behind whatever harm touches him, and he says, "O Lord, I am satisfied with your Qada' and Qadar (preordainment and predestination), and I am pleased with whatever happens to me. If there is no anger from You on me, I will forever be content, and to You is the supplication until You are pleased."
((O Allah, I appeal to you for the weakness in my strength, and my limited power, and the treatment of contempt and humiliation from people. To you, the most Merciful of all the merciful ones, you are the Lord of the oppressed, and you are my Lord. Under whose care are you leaving me to? To an enemy oppressing me? Or to a friend you have given control of my affair? If there is no anger from you on me I will forever be content. However, your blessing is vastly important for me.))
Your heroism should not appear in prosperity, but in hardship, and thus being content with the calamities which Allah decrees is the most exalted rank of certainty:
((If Allah wants to do good to somebody, He afflicts him with trials, so if he remains patient, He favors him over sh3er, if he is grateful to Him, He draws him closer to Him.))
Hence, the believer should never be despairing and ungrateful. Being defeated from within, and being desperate and frustrated by saying all is over is the gravest danger that might afflict this Ummah. It is not over as long as Allah is with us, and He will never decrease the reward of your good deeds.
Dear brother:
﴾And if We give man a taste of Mercy from Us, and then withdraw it from him, verily! He is despairing, ungrateful. ﴿
Before believing, man tends to be desperate and ungrateful, whereas the believer is optimistic and grateful, because Allah the Almighty pacifies him by saying:
﴾ Say: "Nothing shall ever happen to us except what Allah has ordained for us.﴿
He doesn't say, "ordained upon us" but He says, "ordained for us" which indicates that whatever happens to us is for our own advantage.
The graphic line of the believer is ascending continuously even after his death, which is a dot on that line. Hence, one of Allah's great graces upon the believer is that the blessings of the Hereafter are connected with those of the worldly life.
3- Man is an open opponent:
The Almighty Allah says:
﴾He has created man from Nutfah (mixed drops of male and female sexual discharge), then behold, this same (man) becomes an open opponent. ﴿
Man is created from Nutfah that is invisible to the human eye, and it makes him shameful of if it stains his cloths. This Nutfah comes out of private parts and goes into private parts, and once again it comes out of private parts as a beautiful whole infant who needs care, hygiene and breastfeeding. However, after man grows up and becomes a prominent person, he starts spreading the word of Kufr and atheism by saying, "I am so and so, man is the centre of the universe" and so on. Not to mention, he elevates himself to a Divine status. Allah says:
﴾He has created man from Nutfah (mixed drops of male and female sexual discharge), then behold, this same (man) becomes an open opponent. ﴿
He uses his eloquence and fluency in refuting some religious facts claiming that he has free thinking and that everything should be rationalized, forgetting that the Almighty Allay says:
﴾Verily, he thought and plotted* So let him be cursed! How he plotted!* And once more let him be cursed, how he plotted!* Then he thought* Then he frowned and he looked in a bad tempered way* Then he turned back and was proud* Then he said: "This is nothing but magic from that of old* "This is nothing but the word of a human being!"* I will cast him into Hell-fire* And what will make you know exactly what Hell-fire is?* It spares not (any sinner), nor does it leave (anything unburnt)!﴿
One can go on reading till the end of the Ayah.
4- Man invokes (Allah) for evil as he invokes (Allah) for good:
One of the characteristics of man before believing is mentioned in the following Ayah:
﴾And man invokes (Allah) for evil as he invokes (Allah) for good ﴿
He seeks making money despite the evil nature that might be within this money, the reckoning in the Hereafter and the punishment that follows it, which might end him up in Hellfire.
﴾And man invokes (Allah) for evil as he invokes (Allah) for good ﴿
Engrossment in the worldly life, in its money whether from Halal or Haram source, in its women
whether through marriage or Haram affairs and in whatever belongs to it regardless of being Halal or Haram is the meaning of the following Ayah:
﴾And man invokes (Allah) for evil as he invokes (Allah) for good and man is ever hasty [i.e., if he is angry with somebody, he invokes (saying): "O Allah! Curse him, etc." and that one should not do, but one should be patient]. ﴿
The believer seeks long-term goals; he seeks Paradise after death, so he endures the tough life for the sake of his principles, faith and purity. Also, he refuses the suspicious income, rejects to get married to the woman who is not religious, declines the position through which he can't serve people, avoids running after money and believes in what Allah Has. Because he believes in Allah and in the Hereafter, his goals become Hereafter-oriented which gives him the power to put up with the difficulties of life in order to stay oft-returning to Allah and obedient to Him. Allah says:
﴾And man invokes (Allah) for evil as he invokes (Allah) for good and man is ever hasty [i.e., if he is angry with somebody, he invokes (saying): "O Allah! Curse him, etc." and that one should not do, but one should be patient]. ﴿
The believer chooses sublime goals; he chooses to gain the rewards in the Hereafter, unlike the disbeliever who chooses the prompt gains whether they are true or false, good or evil, permitted or unpermitted and whether they please Allah or don't. He is constantly questing for money, positions and pleasures. This is man before believing, for his chooses to gain the tangible and materialistic things.
5- Man turns away and becomes arrogant when Allah bestows His Grace on him:
The Almighty Allah says:
﴾And when We bestow Our Grace on man (the disbeliever), he turns away and becomes arrogant, far away from the Right Path. ﴿
This means that one should be prompt in offering good deeds, the Prophet, peace be upon him, said:
(("Hasten to do good deeds before you are overtaken by one of the seven afflictions.'' Then (giving a warning) he, peace be upon him, said, "Are you waiting for such poverty which will make you unmindful of devotion…))
This is what happens when you are taken aback by surprises such as losing your dealership or becoming bankrupt for unexpected causes:
((…"Are you waiting for such poverty which will make you unmindful of devotion…))
Poverty can lead to Kufr:
((…or prosperity which will make you corrupt…))
It is the richness that makes you disobey Allah. I was told that the husband of a notable sister who wears Hijab and who is an upright believer used to have low income, so he travelled abroad for better life and he was able to collect a small fortune. He sent her a letter in which he said, "Unless you come to me wearing latest fad in fashion, don't even think about coming here". What do you call this richness? It is the corrupted richness.
I repeat, be prompt in doing good deeds. Abu Hurairah narrated that the Prophet, peace be upon him, said:
(("Hasten to do good deeds before you are overtaken by one of the seven afflictions.'' Then (giving a warning) he, peace be upon him, said, "Are you waiting for such poverty which will make you unmindful of devotion; or prosperity which will make you corrupt, or disease as will disable you, or such senility as will make you mentally unstable, or sudden death, or Ad-Dajjal who is the worst expected absent, or the Hour, and the Hour will be most grievous and most bitter.))
Dear brother, it is impossible to wake up every day the same as yesterday, because one day you will get sick, and it might be the illness which causes your death. I call it "the exit of life", for the illness which causes our death is our terminal exit in life, just like the terminals in airports:
(("Hasten to do good deeds before you are overtaken by one of the seven afflictions.'' Then (giving a warning) he, peace be upon him, said, "Are you waiting for such poverty which will make you unmindful of devotion; or prosperity which will make you corrupt, or disease as will disable you, or such senility as will make you mentally unstable, or sudden death, or Ad-Dajjal who is the worst expected absent, or the Hour, and the Hour will be most grievous and most bitter.))
﴾And when We bestow Our Grace on man (the disbeliever), he turns away and becomes arrogant, far away from the Right Path. ﴿
He turns away from Allah and from his religious duties forgetting all about the Hereafter, sickness, punishment, afflictions, being watched by Allah and being in Allah's Hand:
﴾And when We bestow Our Grace on man (the disbeliever), he turns away and becomes arrogant, far away from the Right Path. And when evil touches him he is in great despair. ﴿
The believer heads towards Allah when he is rich and his love to Him increases, so in case he loses these graces due to Divine wisdom, he is pleased with Allah and keeps turning to Him with gratitude and praise. A man was circumambulating the Ka'bah saying, "O Lord, are you pleased with me?" Imam Ash-Shafi'i was just behind him, so he said to him, "Are you pleased with Allah, to have Him pleased with you?" The man was surprised upon hearing those words, and he asked, "Glory be to Allah, who are you?" AshShafi'i said, "I am Muhammad Ibn Idris". Then the man asked again, "How can I be pleased with Allah while I am asking Him to be pleased with me?" Ash-Shafi'i said, "When you are pleased with calamities the same way you are pleased with graces, you are pleased with Allah then".
﴾And when We bestow Our Grace on man (the disbeliever), he turns away and becomes arrogant, far away from the Right Path. And when evil touches him he is in great despair* Say (O Muhammad, peace be upon him, to mankind): "Each one does according to Shakilatihi (i.e. his way or his religion or his intentions, etc.),﴿
6- Man is covetous:
Man is covetous before believing and is keen on the things he possesses to such an extent that he doesn't spend from what he owns, and he leads a poor life till he dies, leaving behind his wealth. Moreover, stinginess is an intractable disease, and it is one of the psychological disorders. Allah says:
﴾And whosoever is saved from his own covetousness, such are they who will be the successful. ﴿
Hence:
﴾and man is ever miserly!﴿
He doesn't spend and his hand is not stretched forth. On the contrary, it is tightly closed, Allah says:
﴾And let not your hand be tied (like a miser) to your neck, nor stretch it forth to its utmost reach (like a spendthrift), so that you become blameworthy and in severe poverty.﴿
Hence, before believing, man doesn't spend, but rather he collects money only. By Allah, there are lots of stories about the indescribable stupidity of misers. Some of them lives poor life to such an extent that sh3er might think that they are poor people and deserve to be helped, while in fact they own millions but they are stingy. Niggardliness is a disease that terminally and deadly afflicts the soul, and it resembles the intractable and fatal diseases which afflict the body.. Allah says:
﴾And man is ever miserly!﴿
Man is keen on what he possesses and holds on to it.
7- Man is ever more quarrelsome than anything:
Another characteristic of man before believing is mentioned in the following Ayah:
﴾But, man is ever more quarrelsome than anything. ﴿
((A Bedouin came to the Prophet, peace be upon him, and said, "O Messenger of Allah, advise me, but do not make it too long." The Prophet, peace be upon him, reauthord the following Ayat,﴾ So whosoever does good equal to the weight of an atom (or a small ant), shall see it. And whosoever does evil equal to the weight of an atom (or a small ant), shall see it.﴿ [Az-Zalzalah, 7-8]. Then, the Bedouin said, "Enough said".))
These two Ayaht were enough for him to understand Islam. Allah says:
﴾Surely, Allah is Ever an All-Watcher over you. ﴿
Is this Ayah not enough for you? Allah says:
﴾Whosoever does righteous good deed it is for (the benefit of) his ownself, and whosoever does evil, it is against his ownself ﴿
How about this one? Allah says:
﴾And never do We requit in such a way except those who are ungrateful, (disbelievers). ﴿
Is this one not enough? Allah says:
﴾But for him who [the true believer of Islamic Monotheism who performs all the duties ordained by Allah and His Messenger Muhammad, and keeps away (abstain) from all kinds of sin and evil deeds prohibited in Islam and] fears the standing before his Lord, there will be two Gardens (i.e. in Paradise). ﴿
Is the aforementioned not enough? Allah says:
﴾Then whoever follows My Guidance shall neither go astray, nor fall into distress and misery. ﴿
Is this one not enough for you? Allah says:
﴾And whoever follows My Guidance, there shall be no fear on them, nor shall they grieve. ﴿
Is this not enough?
The Noble Quran is 600 pages, and in every Ayah of it there is a law, a rule, a principle, a method and a norm, but people reauthor the Quran and don't apply it. The Prophet, peace be upon him, said in that regard:
((There are people who reauthor the Quran, but are cursed by the Quran, while reciting (because they do not act on what they read).))
﴾But, man is ever more quarrelsome than anything. ﴿
Man is quarrelsome and argumentative. Furthermore, he likes to discuss nonsense matters, and he is preoccupied with the details of minor issues, forgetting about the objectives of Shari'ah the secret and the purpose of his existence. He just keeps quarrelling about minor and trivial matters. In the olden days, people argued with one another in a Masjid about Taraweeh (extra prayers performed by Muslims at night in the Islamic month of Ramadan). Some of them said that "it is eight Rak'at", while the other ones said that "it is twenty Rak'ah. They argued, quarreled and casted accusations on each other, so a notable scholar gave a fatwa of closing that Masjid justifying that by saying, "Taraweeh is Sunnah (supererogatory), whereas the unity of Muslims is Fard (obligatory)."
﴾But, man is ever more quarrelsome than anything. ﴿
I delivered a speech once in a wedding ceremony. I said that the Companions of the Prophet, peace be upon him, in Badr Battle were not more than 300, and they were short of riding camels, so what was the solution? The Prophet, peace be upon him, is the Commander of the army, the Leader of this Ummah, the Master of all creations and the beloved to the Haq (Allah), yet, he said:
((Every camel will be shared by three men. As for me, the other two are Ali Ibn Abi Talib and Abu Lubabah.))
What a great suggestion! How humble the Prophet, peace be upon him, was! He is the Commander of the army, the Leader of this Ummah and the most exalted man in the society. However, he put himself in a level with the soldiers, he said:
((Every camel will be shared by three men. As for me, the other two are Ali Ibn Abi Talib and Abu Lubabah.))
After finishing my speech and sitting down in my seat, a man, who works in Da'wah, was sitting next to me, and he said, "There is a mistake in what you said". I asked, "What is it?" He replied, "The number of the soldiers was 314". The number is not the point in my speech, I meant to say that the riding camels were one third of the soldiers, and that is why the Prophet, peace be upon him, said:
((Every camel will be shared by three men. As for me the other two are Ali Ibn Abi Talib and Abu Lubabah.))
You can notice how some people are very keen on trivial details which make them forget about the major matters and the objectives of Shari'ah:
﴾But, man is ever more quarrelsome than anything. ﴿
Being argumentative is not praised in the Noble Quran. What we need nowadays is Hiwar (discussion), not the argument, which is based on obstinacy. Imam Al-Ghazali said, "Whenever I argue with a scholar, I win the argument, but whenever an ignorant argues with me, he wins the argument."
It is not mathematics. Saying that "the one-eyed man is half sighted man" is correct, but according to mathematics this fact is analyzed as follows: one-eyed man= ½ sighted man, also we can say that the one-eyed man= ½ blind man, so considering the two equations and according to the transitive property of equations, the result will be that ½ sighted man= ½ blind man. When this result is multiplied by 2, the equation will become: the blind man= the sighted man, which is not true at all. The Quran is not mathematics to argue about, because what is mentioned in it is the opposite of the previous equation:
﴾Are the blind and the one who sees equal? ﴿
However, according to the mathematical logical argument, they are equal to the man who can argue with other people for a long time:
﴾But, man is ever more quarrelsome than anything. ﴿
Man spends nine tenth of his time in pointless arguments. Some people argue about how tall Adam was, was he sixty meters tall or only two meters tall? What can we deduce from knowing that fact? There is a golden rule in Islam, "Every matter in Islam, on which we can't build a ruling, is false (insignificant)". Someone once asked me while I was interviewed on the radio, "How did Qabil kill Habil?" To which I answered, "By using 6 mm gun". Well who was there to know?" Such ridiculous questions are meaningless.
A brother wrote a book about the illness which caused the death of the Prophet, peace be upon him, and he asked me, "What do you think of it" I said, "Will you allow me to be frank with you? It is a useless book, for the Prophet, peace be upon him, died, and it does not matter to know how he died. If you write a book about the Prophetic pieces of advice about health, we will all benefit from it. We cannot make use from knowing the illness which caused his death, whether it was meningitis or another disease." Again the golden rule in Islam is that "Every matter in Islam on which we can't build a ruling is false". Some people think that the entire historical stories shouldn't be subjects of arguments, and let us leave them to historians. Allah says:
﴾That was a nation who has passed away. They shall receive the reward of what they earned and you of what you earn.﴿
Why do people recall historical events, and quarrel and kill one another because of them? What benefit old conflicts and revolutions can bring to us? Allah says:
﴾That was a nation who has passed away. They shall receive the reward of what they earned and you of what you earn. And you will not be asked of what they used to do.﴿
The entire history is summarized in this Ayah. We should stop arguing with one another, and we should set clear goals and means, for we will be in the Hereafter where there is Paradise whose bliss is everlasting, and there is Hellfire whose torment is ongoing. Hence:
﴾But, man is ever more quarrelsome than anything. ﴿
8- Man thinks that he will be left neglected:
Dear brother our topic for this lecture is about the characteristics of man before believing in Allah, Allah says:
﴾Does man think that he will be left Suda [neglected without being punished or rewarded for the obligatory duties enjoined by his Lord (Allah) on him]? ﴿
Will you have sound faith if you see the powerful, the weak, the poor, the tyrants and the oppressed are left neglected?
Reckoning is inevitable:
In the worldly life, there is a man who lives long while someone else's life is cut short in the prime of his age, and there is a woman who is very pretty while another one is not that pretty, so do you think life will just end (with all these paradoxes) without another life after death? Is this reasonable? Will your faith be sound by accepting that there is no life after death? Allah says:
﴾Does man think that he will be left Suda [neglected without being punished or rewarded for the obligatory duties enjoined by his Lord (Allah) on him]? ﴿
Do you think that a tyrant (like Hitlar), who was responsible for the death of 50 million people in the Second World War because of a decision he made in starting a world war, will not be held responsible for those dead people? Do you think that life will end just like that? Do you think that the man, who threw the atomic bomb on Japan, and the one who gave him the order to do so will not be called to account for it, and that everything ends in this life?
﴾Does man think that he will be left Suda [neglected without being punished or rewarded for the obligatory duties enjoined by his Lord (Allah) on him]? ﴿
Do you think there will be no reckoning or standing before the Lord? By Allah the only Deity, whoever caused and will cause the shedding of even one drop of blood since Adam till the Day of Resurrection will be responsible for it:
﴾Does man think that he will be left Suda [neglected without being punished or rewarded for the obligatory duties enjoined by his Lord (Allah) on him]? ﴿
﴾So whosoever does good equal to the weight of an atom (or a small ant), shall see it. And whosoever does evil equal to the weight of an atom (or a small ant), shall see it.﴿
Ibn Umar, may Allah be pleased with them both, narrated that the Prophet, peace be upon him, said:
((A woman was punished in Hell because of a cat which she had confined until it died. She did not give it anything to eat or to drink when it was confined, nor did she free it so that it might eat the vermin of the earth.))
If this is the case in killing a cat, so what about those who annihilated nations like in Iraq where one million were killed and 4 millions became homeless as a result of a false assumption of owning weapons of mass destruction. The Almighty Allah says:
﴾Does man think that he will be left Suda [neglected without being punished or rewarded for the obligatory duties enjoined by his Lord (Allah) on him]? ﴿
Is it rational that an oppressor husband, who excessively humiliates, insults, and hits, his wife, and he takes her money then divorces her, will not be held accountable for his deeds, and that life will end just like that? Is it rational that a drug dealer, who is corrupting the youth of this nation, will not be held accountable for his deeds and life will end just like that? Is it rational that a night club manager, who ruins the youth, men and tourists, will not be held accountable for his deeds and life will end just like that? Allah says:
﴾Does man think that he will be left Suda [neglected without being punished or rewarded for the obligatory duties enjoined by his Lord (Allah) on him]? ﴿
Man thinks that everything can be done by his power, money and decision, and that he will not be held accountable for deeds.
9- When man's Lord tries him by giving him honour and gifts, he says (puffed up): "My Lord has honoured me:
The Almighty Allah says:
﴾As for man, when his Lord tries him by giving him honour and gifts, then he says (puffed up): "My Lord has honoured me." ﴿
A man goes for tourism around the world and commits sin, might say to you, "Well if Allah wants to do good to his servant, He shows him the Signs of His Kingdom.". Is this how you think of Allah's Love to you? Is Allah's Love manifested in making you stay in many hotels, making you many sin or spend nights in night clubs? This is nonsense. Allah says:
﴾As for man, when his Lord tries him by giving him honour and gifts, then he says (puffed up): "My Lord has honoured me." ﴿
Someone may say, "Had Allah not loved me, He would not have made me rich", well to this man we say that Qarun also was rich, but Allah didn't love him. Allah says:
﴾So We caused the earth to swallow him and his dwelling place﴿
Fir'aun also owned wide kingdom though Allah didn't love him. Hence, the disbeliever thinks naively as he builds his opinion on funny assumptions;
10- Man does transgress all bounds because he considers himself self-sufficient:
Among the other characteristics of man before believing is:
﴾Nay! Verily, man does transgress all bounds (in disbelief and evil deed, etc.)* Because he considers himself self-sufficient. ﴿
[Al-Alaq, 6-7]
As long as man is strong, rich, in control of matters, powerful and has the upper hand, and as long as he can divorce his wife whenever he wishes and can deprive his children from living with their mother (if he divorces her), he forgets that he will be held accountable before Allah.
﴾Nay! Verily, man does transgress all bounds (in disbelief and evil deed, etc.)* Because he considers himself self-sufficient. ﴿
That is why the believer is in a continuous need to Allah, and even though he might be rich and powerful, he says, "O Allah, I forsook my might, power and knowledge, and I seek Your Might, Power and knowledge, O Owner of Power, the Most Strong." In Badr, the Companions sought Allah's Help, so they were granted victory, but in Hunain, and despite they were the elite of their people, the elect amongst Allah's creations and the ones among whom the Messenger of Allah lived, the Almighty says:
﴾And on the Day of Hunain (battle) when you rejoiced at your great number but it availed you naught and the earth, vast as it is, was straitened for you, then you turned back in flight. ﴿
﴾Nay! Verily, man does transgress all bounds (in disbelief and evil deed, etc.). Because he considers himself self-sufficient. ﴿
11- Man is in loss:
Man is in loss before getting acquainted with Allah, Allah says:
﴾By Al-'Asr (the time). Verily! Man is in loss,﴿
Why is he in loss? Because the passage of time consumes him, "O son of Adam! You are nothing but a number of days; whenever each day passes then part of you has gone." To elaborate on these words consider the example of a man who is 67 years, eight months, three weeks, four days, five hours, 18 minutes and four seconds. Every second passes will bring him closer to death. Hence, the passage of time takes part of him.
﴾By Al-'Asr (the time). Verily! Man is in loss,﴿
The passage of time consumes all of us, and after one hundred years, none of the people who are alive now will exist on earth. We all will be under the ground. The Almighty says:
﴾Has there not been over man a period of time, when he was nothing to be mentioned?﴿
Once I checked an answering machine old tape, in which I found messages from more than ten people who passed away. You sometimes delete lots of people from the telephone notebook because they died. Hence:
﴾By Al-'Asr (the time)* Verily! Man is in loss,﴿
Believers are excluded (from that loss), because they become totally different after believing.
Let me repeat one more time, the subject matter of our lesson today is the reality of man before believing. Man before believing is in loss. Bill Gates owns 90 billion dollars, yet he is in loss. The agent of any giant company with daily profits of 2 million Liras is in loss. These are the words of Allah. The price of one acre of land used to be 5000, and now it is 5 million Liras, which is a sky-high price, yet the one who owns it is in loss. People consider such a man a lucky as he lives in an earthly paradise, but this is all nonsense.
﴾By Al-'Asr (the time). Verily! Man is in loss,﴿
Death will come to every person.
12- Man is created in toil:
﴾Verily, We have created man in toil.﴿
Man is weak; a clot in his blood might paralyze him, so no matter how great, prominent, powerful, rich, educated and well known you are, the bones in your body depend on your blood fluidity. Furthermore, an invisible tiny clot in brain vessels is enough to paralyze you. Man's power, wealth, prestige, dominance, positions, gains, licenses, CV, memberships and travels (to a number of countries) depend on cellular growth. The cells may break free from the normal restraints on cell division and begin to follow their own agenda for proliferation causing cancer. As a result, we read the name of the deceased (out of cancer) in the obituary, and people start offering their adolescences by saying, "Azzama Allahu Ajrakum (may Allah multiply your reward for your patience in this calamity)". Death puts an end to his life. Hence:
﴾Verily, We have created man in toil.﴿
Some people became bed-ridden for thirty years, while sh3er might die in one second without any apparent reason, such as those who die because of a heart attack or a stroke:
﴾Verily, We have created man in toil.﴿
A trivial disorder in man's health can end his life. A relative of mine, who used to be a student at the Faculty of Medicine, and whose family is a very notable educated one, was diagnosed of anemia, though he used to eat nutritional and healthy food. He saw many doctors, and finally he was told that his spleen (the graveyard of red blood cells) was overworking to such an extent that it took the dead and the alive red blood cells, while the spleen of a normal person takes only the dead red blood cells (about two million and a half red cells) and decomposes them to their basic elements, sending the hemoglobin to the bile and reusing the iron in forming new red blood cells in the bone marrow. That relative died of that disease. Man's life is under the mercy of the hormone which is secreted from the pituitary gland (the queen of glands). This gland weighs only half gram. Whatever disorder happens to the hormone will turn man's life to a living hell.
﴾Verily, We have created man in toil.﴿
Man is fragile.
The respiratory center in the cerebellum of a man I know failed, so he had to stay awake all the night in order to breathe voluntarily. If the patient who suffers from such a disorder sleeps, he will die. Breathing involuntarily while we are sleeping is a great grace. That man couldn't sleep in order to be able to breathe voluntarily. After a period of time, his family found an expensive medicine which could help him get some sleep, but the pills had to be taken every hour, so he used to set up many alarm clocks to wake him up every hour to take his pill. His son, who lived in America, visited him, and because that man was so exauthord about his son's arrival, he couldn't hear the alarm clock, so he was found dead the next morning. When the respiratory center in the cerebellum fails, one should stay awake in order to breathe.
﴾Verily, We have created man in toil.﴿
Man created in toil, he does transgress all bounds because he considers himself self-sufficient, he is in loss, he is ever hasty and he thinks that he will be left Suda [neglected without being punished or rewarded], because he is heedless before believing in Allah. All these characteristics of man before believing in Allah are summarized in the following Ayah:
﴾Verily, man (disbeliever) was created very impatient* Irritable (discontented) when evil touches him* And niggardly when good touches him* Except those devoted to Salat (prayers)﴿
A brother, who was a steward, told me that their plane entered an electric field inside the cloud layer, which wrecked the plane's windshield, and its radar stopped working, so the plane was about to crash. He said to me, "The passengers were terrified. Some of them were crying, sh3er were cursing their bad luck, some were wailing and sh3er were tearing their clothes, so the pilot asked me to calm the passengers down, but I couldn't have control over them. Then the pilot asked me to find a calm passenger to help me out, and I found one, but upon approaching him to ask for his help, I found him fainted."
I repeat what I said earlier, man is very impatient:
﴾Verily, man (disbeliever) was created very impatient* Irritable (discontented) when evil touches him* And niggardly when good touches him* Except those devoted to Salat (prayers)﴿
13- Man is created weak:
﴾And man was created weak (cannot be patient to leave sexual intercourse with woman). ﴿
﴾But, man is ever more quarrelsome than anything. ﴿
In this blessed meeting, we tackled the Quranic Ayat in which the characteristics of man before getting acquainted with Allah are mentioned. After knowing his Lord, man becomes totally a new one.
