50 Passage 1 | The Quran and the Heedless

Lesson 4

6. That you may warn a people whose forefathers were not warned, so
they are unaware.

Detailed Study of Surah Ya-seen Ustadh Asim Khan

This ayah is going to speak about the role of the Prophet . You have to appreciate that this came
down in the 10th year of Hijri. 10 years after the Prophet has been given his prophethood, he is
living in Makkah, and ibn Ashur said it came down around this time. He has been doing dawah for 10
years. 3 years were to those closest to him, privately, to those closest to him and after that he went
publicly with his message. After 10 years Surat Ya-Seen is coming and it is telling us the role of the
Prophet is to warn a people.
The laam in is the laam of taleel, laam of in order to. Why are you being given this Quran? In
order to do this. What is it? To warn a people whose forefathers were not warned, so they became
heedless people.

Two views MAA nafi vs mawsool

There are 2 interpretations to this ayah.
The first interpretation is that you were sent to warn these people because their forefathers were
not warned. The forefathers of the Arabs, they had no prophets that came to them. The last prophet
that came to the Arabs was Ismaeel . So this is going back many, many years. So between
that time and the prophet , many generations of Arabs have passed and no prophet has been
sent to them. The first interpretation therefore is, you need to warn them because no one before has
come to warn them. And as a result they have become heedless people.

The second interpretation is,

You need to warn these people just like their forefathers were warned. It is the opposite, almost.
You need to warn them just like their forefathers were warned. Like when Ismaeel came to them,
and he gave them dawah, and the message he gave. That was given to them before. He came and he
warned them. You need to do the same thing now. That happened to their forefathers, and you need
to do it for them now.

Passage 1 | The Quran and the Heedless

51

However, even though both opinions are mentioned by at-Tabari, ibn Uthayman says that the first
interpretation seems to be more correct. Why? Because Allah mentioned in Surat as-Sajdah,

That you may warn a people to whom no warner has come before you [so] perhaps they will be
guided24.
It is very clear there that the Prophet is told that you need to warn them because no prophet
has come before you to them. And this makes more sense, to say this, and it is confirmed in this ayah
as well.

So what happened was that because their forefathers were not warned, they became . The
word doesnt just mean heedless. It means neglectful as well. The , the Arabs would say, is a
simpleton, the gullible person, the one you can trick easily, take advantage of. Thats the person.
The reason you have to appreciate that its not just heedless is because somebody may hear that the
Prophet is told to warn them because they were not warned before so they became heedless of
Allah. So it means like they didnt know any better.
It is like someone who parks in the wrong place, he gets a ticket, and then he says to the ticket
inspector, there is no sign there to tell me that I am not allowed to park here. Why are you giving me
a ticket? I dont deserve to be given a ticket. No one has told me that this is the wrong place to park.
However, the word doesnt mean this. It means that they are being condemned for being
neglectful and not worshipping Allah.

Ahlul Fatra
And the fact that no one has come to warn them does not excuse them of becoming polytheists.
Before the coming of the Prophet there were some people whom the scholars of seerah called
hunafa. Some examples of Hanifs were Abu Bakr as-Siddiq, Waraqa bin Nawfal, Zayd bin Amr an
Nufayl. They refused to worship idols and wanted to worship Allah alone. These are the same people
who are being discussed. No warner came to them but despite no warner coming to them, they
didnt become idol worshippers.
24

As-Sajdah 32:3

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The gullible/simpleton is

52 Passage 1 | The Quran and the Heedless

What does that mean? It means that Allah has given every human being a fitrah, this natural
dispensation. And that, in and of itself, is a form of guidance. It will stop a person from worshipping
other than Allah. And it will always be pushing the person to want to worship Allah. They may not
know how to, they may not know details, but that is because the prophet hasnt come to them.
So these Arabs decided to worship idols. The fact that no
warner came to them does not excuse them. And that is
how we understand why, even the parents of the prophet
, he himself said, are in the hellfire.

Detailed Study of Surah Ya-seen Ustadh Asim Khan

Why? How is that the case? Because Allah has already given
inside every human being the ability to distinguish between
truth and falsehood in a general sense. And to stop a
person from doing something as foolish as worshipping
idols. So if a person did that, then they have committed a
crime despite not having a prophet come to them. And
Allah knows best.

Allah has already given

inside every human being
the ability to distinguish
between truth and falsehood
in a general sense

So this is the first interpretation, and this is probably the

strongest, that the Prophet is being told to warn them
because their forefathers were not warned so they became

.
To warn you need authority
The interesting link between this ayah and the previous one is as follows. The previous one told us
that Quran came from Al-Aziz, and one of the meanings was The Ultimate Authority. This one is
about the Prophet warning his people. There is a link between warning and authority. When do
people take a warning seriously?
If a young boy came to the room and said, brothers, someone is stealing your shoes outside, people
may not take him seriously. But if the imam of the masjid came and said, brothers, someone is
stealing your shoes outside, everyone would jump up and see what is going on. Why is that? The
reason is because the imam has authority. The boy doesnt have authority.
If someone is obese and tells his friend who is also obese he needs to lose some weight, start eating
healthy and start exercising, he wont take his advice seriously even though it is true, because of
where it is coming from because his friend has no authority.
So before telling us that the role of a person is to warn his people, He first told us that he has been
given authority. Because the Quran came down from al-Aziz. He has the mandate to go and warn
people now. This is the link between the previous ayah and this ayah.

Passage 1 | The Quran and the Heedless

53

INTHAAR is to inform someone of something that puts fear in them [Ibn

Ashur]
{See Lesson 2 below}

Lessons
There are some lessons here that you can take away to reflect on. What do we learn from this ayah?

The side effect of not having Quran in your life is that you
become a mugaffil a person who is heedless. Allah
mentioned that those people never had a warner come to
them for so many years, fa hum ghaafiloon (so they
became heedless people).
Isnt this the state of the world that we live in today?
People are heedless about the purpose of their life. Mostly
if you ask them, what is the purpose of our life? Why have
we been created? Most people will be stuck to give you an
answer. And those that do, most likely they will say in jest,
to enjoy ourselves, to live a good life. What does that
mean? It means everyone is about their purpose in life.
It is like exactly the same times as in the time of the

The side effect of not having

Quran in your life is that
you become a mughaffil a
person who is heedless

prophet , people are . So what do people need? They need a warning.

But the lesson here is that for us as Muslims, the further we are from the Quran, the more heedless
we become. And there is proof of this in the Quran. In surah Hadeed,



And let them not be like those who were given the Scripture before, and a long period passed over
them, so their hearts hardened25.

25

Surat al-Hadeed 57:16

Detailed Study of Surah Ya-seen Ustadh Asim Khan

1. Side effect of no Quran is ghaflah

54 Passage 1 | The Quran and the Heedless

This is a message to us that if you dont read the Quran regularly, study it, take it seriously, you will
become . And when you become , your heart will become hard like stone. May Allah
preserve us from that ever happening to us. And the more you read Quran and the closer you
are to it, the more softer and tender your heart becomes.

2. We should be getting our own healthy dose of warning

Detailed Study of Surah Ya-seen Ustadh Asim Khan

The second lesson we learn is, we should be getting our own healthy dose of warning. The role of
warning, ibn Ashur said, inzaar means to strike fear into the heart of a person, that you feel scared.
About what? About Allahs anger, about punishment, the punishment of the grave, all of these
things.
You need to hear about these things regularly. Listen to lectures and talks from people who are
describing to you what is jahannum, what are the punishments that await people who disbelieve and
disobey, because those types of talks and lectures keep your heart alive. They keep you in check. And
this, unfortunately, in our times, is on the decrease. You dont find people talking about hell. Why?
Because they say it is politically incorrect to talk about hellfire. Allah mentioned that one of the roles
of the Prophet is to warn people. About what? About the hellfire.

3. Be a warner
The other lesson that we learn is that if the role of the Prophet is to warn people, then by
extension, our role towards others is also to be warners. And that, you have to ask yourself, when is
the last time you ever warned another person about anything? When was the last time you warned a
non-Muslim about Islam, about the Quran and then they have refused? Have you gone to the next
step of warning them, and saying, if you dont listen, there
are serious consequences?
One of Ustadh Asims teachers went to get his key cut from
a shop and the guy was a white guy, non-Muslim. He
started talking to him about Islam. He said, I dont want to
become Muslim, you guys have to do so many things. He
said, what if it is the truth? He said, I will find out after I die.
He said, but when you die, it is going to be too late. If you
die and you find out it is the truth, you will go to the
hellfire. And the way his teacher said it, he didnt say it out
of bitterness, frustration or as an insult. He said it out of
compassion and concern. He said the non-Muslim looked at
him and didnt know what to say. He took it seriously. So
never underestimate the power of warning people. It has
its time and its place, and the language needs to be wise,

It has its time and its

place, and the language
needs to be wise, but never
shy away from giving
warning to people.

Passage 1 | The Quran and the Heedless

55

but never shy away from giving warning to people.

You will find, and do this as a test for yourself, those people who accepted Islam or reverted, as
them what is it that brought you to Islam? Yvonne Ridleys story about becoming Muslim is
interesting. She was going back and forth after she came back from Afghanistan and seeing
Taalibaan, about becoming Muslim, and then she said what happened is someone phoned her, and
they said to her, if you dont accept Islam you are going to go to the hellfire. Thats it. And she
realized she had to become Muslim.
So let us take heed of the lessons here and become like warners like our Prophet .

Detailed Study of Surah Ya-seen Ustadh Asim Khan

My Reflections