116 Passage 2 | Lessons From History

Lesson 8
We are in the middle of a story. There is one story in Surat Ya-Seen known as the People of the City.
And we have got to the part where Allah has sent 2 messengers to these people but they belied both
of them. Allah reinforced their call with a 3rd messenger. And these 3 messengers come into conflict
with the rest of the city. The people are coming into conflict with them. A heated discussion was
taking place between the messengers and the people. It is escalating. It is getting more serious now.
People are getting more aggressive, more arrogant, more obnoxious towards the messengers.

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And the last thing we heard is that the messengers, in the face of the rejection of the people, are
being called liars, and being told that Allah hasnt given them anything whatsoever. They said, our
Master knows that we are to you truly people that have been sent. This is the second time they say
that. Which shows us that they stuck to their principles. They didnt change their message, they
didnt falter. They said even if you deny us we will stand by this message. We have been given a
mission by Allah .
This was the second time they said it, and they said it with more emphasis. The laam of tawkeed. And
that laam of tawkeed captures the heat of the argument.

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17. And we are not responsible except for clear notification."

What is Balaagha?

So it is a very beautiful ayah. However, if you look closely, there are a number of things we can learn.
They described their dawah by saying it was balagh and mubeen.
As for the first word balagh, it comes from the root word balagha which means to reach something.
Balagha shay, something has reached something else. And then from balagha you get the word
balaagha. What is balaagha? It is a very difficult word to translate. But essentially what it means is to
take normal speech and to make it more impactful. Thats why some of the translations for balaagha
are eloquence or rhetoric. What does that mean? It just means that you are taking normal speech
and making it more compelling and impactful to the people. They said, first, what we have to do is
make our call balagh make it effective so it reaches the hearts of people. Thats the first thing we
have to do.

Mubeen from ABAANA [Razi]

And that call has a second quality as well it is mubeen. And mubeen comes from the root Abaana.
Abaana, Ar-Raazi says, means to separate something. In this context it means to be able to
distinguish between truth and falsehood, good and bad, right and wrong.

= Great Dawah = Job Well Done

So it is very interesting if you put those two things together, what do they mean? It means that
firstly, when they came, they started to call them to Islam. And the way that they did that is:

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Imam at-Tabari explains it to mean that this is an expression of trust in Allah. That these messengers
were saying to their people, we have come here, we have given you the message that we were sent
with. If you accept it, you will be given good fortune. You will be targeted with benefit. And if you
dont accept it then we have done our duty and Allah will take care of this message. That is how he
explained the meaning of this ayah which is an expression of trust in Allah. We are going to do our
job. Weve done what we are supposed to do. Allah is in charge of the outcome. Allah is in charge of
the success of this message, not us.

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1.

The way they spoke and called them was by using speech which was very touching, moving,
captivating. Thats how it reaches peoples hearts.
2. However, the second quality of that message is that when they spoke, it was very clear to
the listener that this is right and this is wrong. Now I understand what you are saying.

Emotionally moving
Touching, moving,
powerful

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Great Dawah =
Job well done

Intellectually moving
Clear
1.

And what that means basically is that part of the quality of their speech is that it was
emotionally moving.
2. And the second part is that it was intellectually moving.
When you say you make something clear between right and wrong, what you are saying is that you
have managed to intellectually convince someone that this is the way to look at something. However
the problem with human beings is that sometimes it is not good enough. You can tell me, explain
things to me in a nice way, but it didnt really move me. I didnt really feel what you meant. So they
said the way we spoke to them moved them and what we said to them had substance.
Sometimes you find both are missing in someones speech, or one is there and one is missing.
Many people are able to give powerful speeches. But if you listen carefully, there is nothing being
said whatsoever. There is no substance to what they are saying. For example, in the US, they have
presidential candidates who give fiery speeches, with huge crowds. But what is being said is not
original.
There is an evangelical Christian channel, a Nigerian preacher speaks with a lot of zeal. He is flanked
by 2 people cheering him, and several incoming calls. But there is nothing good coming out of his
mouth, it is not even a coherent message. He is just speaking in an emotional way and people are
getting fired up.

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Their speech has balagh, it is powerful, it emotionally charges people, but it has no substance. There
is no intellectual stimulation.
Sometimes, we may find a person who has no balaagh but he is mubeen. He knows his stuff. He
explains things to you, but the way he explains it, his voice is so monotone, there is no expression on
his face, he doesnt life his voice, he doesnt lower it, people are having the best sleep of their lives.
Sometimes it happens at khutab on jumuah. It is blameworthy, but sometimes the khateeb also
sounds boring. But if you listen carefully he may be saying really good things.

And that is how someone becomes a great daaee that he is able to emotionally charge people.
And the Prophet , Ibn Qayyim mentions in Zad al-Maaad, that when he would stand on the
mimbar, his face would change colour and the tone of his voice would change such that the people
thought he was summoning them to a counsel of war. He would speak with that emotion. And in one
narration, he had a deep vein that used to go across his forehead. And sometimes it would bulge, for
example when he became angry. He was passionate about what he was saying. And he was able to
captivate his audience. This is our Prophet .
And a person needs to work on both of these things if he wants to be a successful daaee.

Note Character & Dignity of Messengers

There is something else we learn. We learn about the character of the messengers. If people are
being rude to you, calling you liars, saying that you come here, you are imposters, you are lying, they
become aggressive towards you, then usually the reaction is people become rude to one another
and start to insult one another. However the prophets of Allah didnt do that. They said, whatever
you say, we are going to stick to our message, but we are not going to start insulting you back. We
are not going to start being obnoxious and rude to you back.
This is very telling because it is difficult to be like this. And it is human nature to try and give as good
as you get. But as one of the wise people said, dont reply to a foolish person, hes got more
experience. If you lower yourself to the fools level, you lose because he has got more experience
than you. They didnt lower themselves to the level of insulting and hurling abuse. Rather they
maintained their dignity and character.

Nazm Link:

&

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Sometimes someone has this and sometimes someone has that. The messengers of Allah had both.
At the highest possible level. Which makes the whole thing even more beautiful, because it means
we are not just trusting in Allah to make things happen. We are going to do our best. And the best
means trying to convince people emotionally as well as intellectually.

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This links back to the first passage. In the beginning of the surah, Allah told the Prophet he was
of those that had been sent. Now a story has been given of those that had been sent before him.
And look at their character. Their character is upright and straight just like the Prophet was upon
a straight path. Meaning, his character was upright, he was a straight arrow. And then we are given
an example of prophets that illustrated that saying of Allah.

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What did the people say in response to the prophets words?

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18. They said, "Indeed, we consider you a bad omen. If you do not desist,
we will surely stone you, and there will surely touch you, from us, a painful
punishment."
This ayah is very interesting. It is quite serious now. Now theyve gone to threatening them. Giving
them death threats.
Look how it began though. Before issuing a death threat, they engaged in what we call propaganda.
When they said , At-Tabari said it means, we see an evil omen in you.

And there is also a saying of one of the early Muslims, as Muqaatil mentioned, that what that meant
is that there was a drought in their city which lasted for 3 years. With no rain, no pastures, animals
are going to be dying from malnutrition, people are suffering economically. They were going through
a depression. So they said, the drought, the suffering we are going through as a nation is because of
you guys. It is because you Muslims came to our country that our economy began to suffer.

Tatayyur = Superstition
Tatayyar comes from the root tayr which means bird. And the connection is that the ancient people
would be superstitious. They saw a flight of birds, they would say it is a good or bad sign. Even in
todays times we have superstitious things, such as breaking a mirror, a black cat passing, etc. People
have superstitions even now.
So they said we see your presence to be a source of misfortune for our society. There are only 3 of
them.

Propaganda 1st, then Threats

Why do they say that? Because first of all, this is not a response to the message. It is not an
intellectual response to rejecting the message. An intellectual response would be to say I cannot
accept the message of Islam because it doesnt make sense for XYZ reason. But instead of that,
saying you are causing the rain to stop or are causing the country to fall into depression, or are bad
luck. Thats not an intellectual response. So already, they are admitting defeat. When you are unable

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122 Passage 2 | Lessons From History

to articulate an intellectual response and have to resort to insulting or superstitious ideas then you
have already admitted defeat. But there is something else. When you curse people and you say you
people are bad luck to us, what that does is that it creates a climate of fear. It is similar to the
narrative on immigrants in present day. But people believe it because of the hysteria being created
about immigrants. Just like the hysteria being created about the Muslim community.
The real interesting thing is, why is there a need for propaganda? They said, if you dont stop this, we
are going to pass a law that says that you people can be stoned to death. Thats what they are
saying.
What we see is that they needed to make the people feel as though we can abuse this minority. And
the way we can do that is by making them fear them. Once we make them fearful of them, we can
do whatever we want. And this isnt something exclusive to this story. If you read the story of Moosa
and Firawn, Firawn uses the same tactics.
Allah mentions in Surah al-Araaf
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48

The Chiefs of Firawn said, are you going to leave Moosa and his people to cause corruption in the land
and they are going to make people abandon you as well as their deities? Then he said, we are going to
kill all of their sons.
The policy to slaughter their sons came after their propaganda about Moosa and his people. And this
is exactly what is happening today against the Muslim community. There is so much propaganda
creating fear and then you see there are laws being passed in parliament which happen to be
targeting Muslims.
This is some of the analysis of this ayah.

means curse/abuse/revile you [Qurtubi]

Al-Qurtubi said there is another possible meaning for this. He said it could possibly mean to abuse/
curse/ revile. However, in the Quran, he also said, the words rajm only ever refer to killing, nothing
less than that. However in this case it may be that they are not talking about killing but are talking
about abusing because the second punishment is painful punishment.
You will experience from us a very painful punishment, meaning, we are going to torture you.
One of the interesting things about the word minna, meaning us. We are going to punish you with a
painful punishment. And the punishment is going to come from no one other than us. What does
that mean? What does that tell us?
48

Al-Araaf:127

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Lets say someone wants to do something bad to somebody else, they call the hitman. Pay ten
thousand pounds, go and take this guy. Or if you are in government, you get the mercenaries
involved and they go and do the work they dont want to get their hands dirty with this. But they
said we are going to do this with our own hands. Why did they say that? What does that tell us about
them? They are willing to do the dirty work with their own hands. What that tells us is that they had a
little bit of hatred in them. They want to do this with their own hands. It shows us they had deep
seated hatred for these messengers of Allah. Imagine, this is the level that things have reached!

BI-KUM vs MAA-KUM

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Nazm Link:

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19. They said: Your evil fortune is with you; what! if you are reminded! Nay,
you are an extravagant people.

Theological Principle on Misfortune

What did the prophets say in response to this? They said, this evil omen is with you. What does that
mean? At-Tabari said that your good and bad fortunes in life, they are around your neck. Meaning,
whatever good and bad happens in your life is because of you, not because of us.

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Which is interesting because they didnt say, you are saying we are an evil omen? Youre an evil
omen! They didnt say that. They said, you guys, that bad luck, if its there, it is because of you.
If you put that in the context of what Qurtubi said, he said that the rain is stopping and you are
experiencing depression and drought, that misfortune is because of you and because of your bad
behaviour with Allah.
And that is an important point for us as well to reflect on our own lives that when misfortunes come
our way, bad things happen to us, we should ask ourselves, is this happening to us because of
something I did.
In that hadith of Taif where the Prophet goes to Taif and is rejected by the people. And Ibn
Ishaq said that he stayed there for ten days trying to call those people, it wasnt just a one day event.
He stayed there for ten days. In the beginning he asked the tribal leaders to accept his message and
if they werent going to accept it then not to tell the Quraysh. But they rejected him. And then he
went to the people and asked them to accept the message but they rejected him as well. And then
they sent the scum of the society to stone him. As he left Taif, he left bloodied. He was in a state of
shock because he said himself to Aisha that I didnt realize where I was until I reached
one courtyard. And there I sat down. And it was there that he made this powerful dua.
To You, My Lord, I complain of my weakness, lack of support and the humiliation I am made to receive.
Most compassionate and merciful! You are the Lord of the weak, and You are my Lord. To whom do
You leave me? To a distant person who receives me with hostility? Or to an enemy to whom You have
given power over me? If You are not displeased with me, I do not care what I face. I would, however, be
much happier with Your mercy.49

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http://www.islamweb.net/emainpage/index.php?page=showfatwa&Option=FatwaId&Id=190579

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Why did he say that? He said that because sometimes

bad things happen to us because we do bad things.
When we sin, may Allah forgive us for our sins,
sometimes it can trigger a calamity to come our way.
If that happens, blame yourself. Dont blame other
people. And also, ask for forgiveness from Allah.
Because the only way that calamity will stop is if you
ask Allah to forgive you. This is a very important
lesson for us to learn.

When we sin, sometimes it can

trigger a calamity to come our
way. If that happens, ask for
forgiveness from Allah. Because
the only way that calamity
will stop is if you ask Allah to
forgive you.

And also, there is an ayah in Surat Aal-Imraan which is

teaching us the same thing,

Why [is it that] when a [single] disaster struck you [on the day of Uhud], although you had struck [the
enemy in the battle of Badr] with one twice as great, you said, "From where is this?" Say, "It is from
yourselves." Indeed, Allah is over all things competent.50
In the Battle of Uhud, the Muslims suffered. Some 70 people lost their lives at the Battle of Uhud.
And then what happened is after the battle, some people asked a very strange question. Now they
are asked, is it the case that when you were struck with a calamity that also came of a similar level to
those before (meaning in the Battle of Badr your enemies suffered the same, do you say how did this
happen to us? How did we end up suffering like this? He said, say that is from your own self.
And we know in the Battle of Uhud a mistake was made by some of the Muslims. When the Prophet
told them to stay on the hill, some of them departed, in fact most of them departed and didnt
listen to the command of the Prophet . And after that, some fled the battle as well.
This is a lesson that we learn from this.

50

Aal Imraan 3:165

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The dua itself, many of the scholars of Islam said the

dua itself hasnt got an authentic chain of narration.
And part of that dua is him saying to Allah
that is this out of Your anger towards me? If it is not,
then I am happy. But if you could make it easier for
me, I would be even more happy.

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After telling them that your misfortune is coming from your own bad deeds, they said . AlQurtubi says, this means that every time we remind you about Islam, and call you to this beautiful
religion that you say youre a curse to us, youre an evil omen, youre bad luck, is that your response
to us? How could you speak to us in that way?

How are they doing ISRAAF?

Rather you are a nation that does israaf. Now why did they call them a nation that does israaf? Surely
they should have called them a nation that does kufr? Or a nation that belies. Or a nation that is
mufsidoon, a nation who is doing corruption in the earth. Why are they saying israaf?

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The word israaf means to go beyond the bounds, cross the line. Qurtubi said
, it is to
go beyond limit. They took things so far. Every time they were reminded they would show this
behaviour. This behaviour was uncalled for, and crossing the limits.
Respond to reason with reason not violence or superstition. You dont want to accept Islam, fine,
but dont silence the debate or issue death threats!

BI-KUM vs MAA-KUM
Lessons
Disbelief and arrogance are linked
People who are kafir, people who are disbelievers, though they are of many shades, the reason why
they dont believe all boils down to arrogance. And this is the way that the Quran speaks about kufr.
Who is the worst kafir? Iblees. Very interesting that almost every time Iblees is mentioned, his kibr is
mentioned as well. In Surah Baqarah, when the angels were told to bow down:
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Iblees enjoyed the company of the angels, once upon a time he was that pious even though he was
from the jinn, according to many scholars52.
Here again, it seems as though there is a difference of opinion. Did the angels bow down to Allah out
of reverence to Him for creating Aadam or did they actually bow down to Aadam because Allah

51
52

Surat al-Baqarah 2:34

https://islamqa.info/en/8976, second opinion can be read in At-Tabaris tafseer of ayah 50 of Surah al-Kahf

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ordered them to. It seems as though it is the first that they bowed down to Allah in order to
celebrate His creation of Aadam . As we know, prostration to other than Allah is forbidden
except the one thats done out of respect, and thats why some scholars hold the second opinion
that they actually bowed down to Aadam53.
Regardless, Iblees was there in the company of the angels, all of them prostrated, one man standing.
Who was that? Iblees. And then Quran mentions, wastakbara he did kibr. Kibr means to seek
greatness. It is on the pattern of istafala, meaning to seek something. He was from the kafirs, the
disbelievers. If Iblees is a kaafir, and Quran refers to his kibr, then it means we associate kufr with
kibr.

Arrogance makes you dumb

How do we derive this? Look at the argument of the people
against the messengers. They didnt respond in any
intellectual way. They said you guys are just bad luck. That is
not a strong argument. And then they said, we are going to
stone you. These are not intellectual arguments. This is
because arrogance belies people to the truth. They are
willing to say and do anything in order to reject the truth.
And this sometimes makes them dumb.

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Arrogance belies people to

the truth. They are willing
to say and do anything in
order to reject the truth.

Q. How there can be a difference of opinion about whom the angels bowed to?

1) Allah commanded them to bow to Aadam . Usjudu li aadam.

2) Angels don't have free will. So they would do exactly as commanded.
3) We don't see anything contradicting it, we see the command and then we see fasajadu. So if they
were prostrating to other than Aadam , would Quran not clarify?
4) Sajdah in this case would still be an act of worship to Allah because it was His command to the
angels. So if they obey His command, it is still an act of worship to Him.
5) This is the sajdah of honouring the person, just like Yusuf s family did sujood to him
6) Sujood like this was permitted in previous shariah
So what is the explanation that is given for any other opinion?

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And it is at different levels, some people have a little and some have more. But that is what it boils
down to. If you do dawah to people, some accept, some dont. Some people, they are close to
accepting, if you ask them why dont you accept Islam? Usually it is things to do with enjoying eating,
drinking, or the lifestyle they lead. Usually, submitting to Islam would mean giving up those things. If
a person chooses this over submitting to Allah, what is that except arrogance? They dont want to
sacrifice these things in submission to Allah.

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And there is a very good story about this in the Quran, about a very rich man who became dumb Nimrood.
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Have you seen the one who argued with Ibraheem about Allah? Allah gave him tremendous
kingdom. When you hear a rich man describe the property of another rich man and say he is really
rich, the weight of his words is heavy. Imagine when Allah mentions this man had serious kingdom.
Allah gave him kingdom.

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Qurtubi said the reason this was mentioned is to show us the reason he is arguing about god. The
reason he is saying I dont believe in god, he was arguing about the existence of God is because he
had money. His money, wealth, power has deluded him. That is why he is asking if there is a really a
god. What a connection!
Then what happened is that Ibraheem made him look stupid by giving him a powerful
argument. He says, okay, Allah can do some amazing things. First of all, He can bring the dead back
to life (meaning resurrection). The king said, I can do that as well. Prisoners come out. The one on
death row, let him go free. The one who was to escape tomorrow, kill him. That wasnt the response
to the argument, because what Ibraheem is saying that He can take the souls from peoples
body, not kill people. Anyone can kill people! So even his reponse wasnt a valid argument.
Ibraheem doesnt validate his argument by responding to it. He just continues, and another
thing about Allah is that He brings the sun from the East and sets it in the West, now why dont you
go ahead and bring it up from the West? Now here, the king could have said, you are wrong, I bring
out the sun from the East, But instead,

The mabhoot is one who is flabbergasted, lost for words, unable to say anything in response. He was
dumbfounded, left with his jaw wide open. That was his ending. Why? Because he was arrogant, and
he was dumb because of that.

Not much has changed

Anyone who has listened to this carefully would know that nothing has changed. The same tools are
being used by the enemies of Allah to try and silence the Muslims and the callers to Islam. And this is
a very important thing. Because, knowing this is going to benefit you. Because knowledge is power
and ignorance is weakness. Once you know certain things, it empowers you. Because when you see
the same things it doesnt shock you.

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Surah al-Baqarah 2:258

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Knowing these things, when you see the evil things

happening and being orchestrated, and you read about
them in the Quran, the person doesnt become
bewildered by them. The person says, Allah told this
this happened before, and the reason He told us is
because it is going to happen in the future. Now what
do we do about it? What we do, is what the
messengers did. When they saw these things
happening, they continued the call, they remained
calm, and they relied on Allah for the outcome. We
should do the same thing.

When the messengers saw vil

things happening and being
orchestrated, they continued
the call, they remained calm,
and they relied on Allah for
the outcome. We should do the
same thing.
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Some people become so shocked they start to go into

this conspiracy theory mode. Everything is a
conspiracy. One of Ustadhs teachers loves to put
people down when they are exaggerating about
conspiracy theories. He says, even my toothpaste, the
kuffar are after me through my toothpaste, they put
some chemicals in it that make me miss my salah.

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20. And there came from the farthest end of the city a man, running. He
said, "O my people, follow the messengers.
This ayah is Ustadhs favourite ayah in the Quran.
Another man enters the story, another man enters the scene. Who is this man? Allah describes him.

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Then, from the furthest part of the city, a man came running. He said, my people, follow the
messengers.
Allah says, one man comes. This man is a believer. Where did he come from? He came from the
furthest part of the city. On the outskirts. How did he come? He came running. Not walking, he came
running. Thirdly, what did he say? He said, people, my people, follow the messengers. Meaning, I
believe in them, but you should follow them. Listen to them. Dont behave in this way.
Now, there is so much we could learn from this.

Habeeb al-Najjaar
First of all, ask yourself, why is it that Allah didnt tell us his name?
All of the scholars of tafseer say this mans name was Habeeb an-Najjaar. Habeeb the carpenter. AtTabari mentioned it, Qurtubi mentioned it, Ibn Kathir mentioned it all of them mentioned it.
However, Allah didnt mention Habeeb came. Not even the man came, not even maarifah, it is
nakirah a man came. Some man came. Why did Allah choose not to tell us the identity of this man?
Secondly, what is the significance of telling us that he came from the furthest part of the city? Why
tell us his location? What does that do?
Thirdly, he came running. What does that teach us?

Ponder
Why conceal his name?
He is not called by his name, because if details were mentioned about the man, people would
become fascinated by the details who is this man, where does he live, is he still around. So people
may miss the point of the whole ayah.
By telling us he was a man, Allah was teaching us that you dont have to be a scholar to give dawah.
And you have to really appreciate this because, where is he coming to? He is coming to a place where
the greatest ulama are living. You dont get a greater alim than a prophet. And despite the greater

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ulama being there, the man says, I need to go and tell those people to accept the message. I need to
go and do dawah to them. So it shows us another factor you dont need to be a scholar to make a
difference in the world and to do something valuable in the sight of Allah.

His location is given

Why is is location important?
His coming from all the way outside the city shows his love for his people. He wanted good for them.
And I am prepared to go from one side of the city to the other side.

The speed with which he came is mentioned

His running shows a sense of urgency. It could show it is a state of emergency. They were
threatening to kill the prophets, and it looks like this may be going to happen. Things are escalating.

Lessons
1.

His name is not mentioned and we are told it is a man

why? To teach us, that it is not who we are, but what
we do in life that counts. By not telling us his name,
instead by illustrating what he did, we are being
taught it is what we do in life, not who you are, what
your background is, what your social status is and so
on and so forth.

2. Concealing his name, even though he is known to be

Habeeb an-Najjaar, and calling him a man illustrates
what it means to be a real man standing up for what
is right, even if it means putting yourself in harms way.
Ar-Raazi mentioned this. He said this shows rujoolah
manlihood. This is what it means to be a real man.
Thats why he was called a man.

What it means to be a real

man standing up for
what is right, even if it
means putting yourself in
harms way.

Detailed Study of Surah Ya-seen Ustadh Asim Khan

The fact that he says my people follow the messengers shows that he has got something that was
not given to the messengers. The messengers were foreign. The man was native he was from the
people. Sometimes that helps, because if you come from outside and start to preach, people may
say, what are you doing here, coming to our country and telling us what to do? In our country we
dont do that. So why dont you go back to where you came from?

132 Passage 2 | Lessons From History

3. Concealing his name also suggests that this man was sincere and didnt want to be known for
what he did or wasnt doing it for fame or popularity.
4. Also, by calling him a man sends a message that just because you are not a scholar of Islam, it
doesnt mean that you cannot make a difference in the world and do something valuable in the
eyes of Allah.
5. Telling us that he came from the furthest part of the city demonstrates commitment to the faith
and readiness to struggle for the sake of Allah. It also shows us that he was a man who used his
initative and didnt wait for others to tell him what to do.
6. Highlighting his location as being far away from the location speaks volumes about how effective
their dawah was it reached to the furthest part of the city, where one man became Muslim.

Detailed Study of Surah Ya-seen Ustadh Asim Khan

7. By informing us that one man from the outskirts believed may indicate that people who live in
the rural parts may have softer hearts, and are more spiritual than people who live in the inner
city. This is something that people who travel can attest to. Sometimes, village people live
amongst nature, so their disposition is different from people who live in the middle of the city.
8. Allah told us the man came running, or came in haste. This demonstrates his zeal and passion for
promoting the truth. It also shows us he cared a lot about the welfare of his people.
9. When he finally reached the town centre and stood in front of his people, he told them to follow
the messengers. This demonstrates that though he had faith and was passionate, he knew which
lane was his and he stayed in that lane. A person needs to appreciate his level and the level of
other people. Sometimes, people get a bit zealous and lose track. Sometimes people do things
they are not qualified to. Know your position. He had eeman, passion, but when he reached the
scene, he said, this is where I stop and they begin. He said, now you follow the messengers.

Qaryah becomes Madinah

10. In the beginning we were told the messengers were coming to the qaryah. Wheras here, the
same place is referred to as madinah. Give them the parable of the people of the qaryah. And
here we see a man came from the middle of the madinah. What is the difference between a
qaryah and a madinah? It is the same place!
Some scholars say a madinah is even bigger than a qaryah. So the reason why Allah used the
word madinah is to illustrate just how far he came from. He came so far. It is like he was living in
the outskirts of the madinah. And if that is the case, our attention is being drawn to the distance
he travelled.
It teaches us another lesson that we should not make excuses in our lives. If anyone had an
excuse, it would have been him. He could have said, the situation is really bad, but if the
messengers cant do this, what am I going to do?

Passage 2 | Lessons From History

133

Or he could have said, it is happening all the way over there, and I am all the way over here.
Surely someone closer can do something. Isnt that the mentality some people have? When
something happens and you are far away and somebody else is close, you say, hopefully one of
them will do something about it. He says, I am all the way on the other side, I am going to do
something. Which teaches us that we should not make excuses for ourselves.

Detailed Study of Surah Ya-seen Ustadh Asim Khan

May Allah inspire us with the story.

134 Passage 2 | Lessons From History

Someone asked me: what is #MyFavourite verse in the Quran?
It has to be verse 20 in Surah Yasin:

Then, from the furthest part of the city, a man came running. He said, My people, follow the
messengers.
This one lone believing man came to help 3 Prophets whose people turned nasty towards them and
were about to kill them....
Why do I love this verse sooo much? Because it teaches us 10 beautiful lessons (in fact there's more!):

Detailed Study of Surah Ya-seen Ustadh Asim Khan

1. His name is not mentioned and instead he is referred to as a man, why? To teach us that its not
who we are but what we do in life that counts.
2. Concealing his name- even though he is known to be Habib al-Najjaar- and instead calling him a
man illustrates what it means to be a real man: standing up for whats right even if it means putting
yourself in harms way.
3. Concealing his name also suggests that this man was sincere and didnt do what he did for fame or
popularity.
4. Also, by calling him 'a man' sends a message that just because youre not a scholar of Islam it
doesnt mean you cannot make a difference in the world and do something valuable in the eyes of
Allah.
5. Telling us he came from the furthest part of the city demonstrates commitment to the faith and
readiness to struggle for the Sake of Allah. It also shows us he was man who used his initiative and
didnt wait for others to tell him what to do.
6. Highlighting his location as being far away from the location of the Messengers speaks volumes
about how effective their Dawah was: It reached to the furthest ends of the city.
7. By informing us that one man from the outskirts believed may indicate that people who live in the
rural parts have softer hearts and are more spiritual than people who live in the inner city. This is
something many people who travel will attest to.
8. Allah told us the man came running or in haste this demonstrates his zeal and passion for
promoting the Truth. It also shows us he cared a lot about the welfare of his people.
9. When he finally reached the town-centre and stood in front of his people he told them to follow
the messengers. This demonstrates that though he had faith and was passionate he knew his which
lane was his and he stayed in it!

Passage 2 | Lessons From History

135

10. Note how the story began about Messengers coming to the Qarya whereas here the same place
is referred to as Madinah. It is said that when a Qarya is vast in size it can take the title of Madinah, so
perhaps the choice of madinah here is to impart a sense of emphasis that the man came from such a
far distance. The Believing man was then teaching us yet another lesson: dont make excuses for
yourself in life.

Detailed Study of Surah Ya-seen Ustadh Asim Khan

Posted by Ustadh Asim on Facebook on September 29, 2016.