Lessons from the Stories of the Prophets in the Quraan by Mufti Menk -Aadam AS on Earth

This Ramadan 2011 Tafseer series is originally posted by Du’aa a Day on Facebook. – A transcript of Mufti Ismail Menk’s post Taraweeh Series in Cape Town, South Africa

Shared on 4 August 2011 – See original

Lessons from the Stories of the Prophets in the Noble Qur’aan:

Aadam AS on Earth

 

الحمد لله و كفى و صلى الله و سلّم و بارك على عباده الذين اصطفى و بعد 

All praise is due to Allah Subhana Wa ta’aala, Blessings and salutations upon Muhammad SAW

Thereafter,

Standing in this taraweeh salaah has brought a hadeeth of the Prophet PBUH to mind wherein ‘Aaishah RA narrates that she seen the Prophet PBUH standing in salaah until his feet became swollen. She said to him, “O Messenger of Allah! You have been forgiven all your sins, why are you swelling your feet like this?!” Look at the response of the Prophet PBUH; he said,

(أفلا أكون عبدا شكورا)

“Should I not be a grateful servant!”

Allahu Akbar! Even though he had this rank and status, he wanted to please his Creator more and more. This is what pleased him and made him happy! What can be said of us today? What makes us happy?

If our business is flourishing we become happy. If we are in good shape and good health we are happy. If we have good clothing that fits us well we become happy. If we have a brand new vehicle parked outside we become happy. If we win a ticket to Hawaii and Honolulu we become happy! Lol These are the type of things that make us happy. This happiness is only momentarily.

True happiness comes from pleasing the Creator. It doesn’t matter if people laugh at you because you have a scarf on your head and you are dressing appropriately. Say, “O Allah! This makes me sooo happy! I know You are writing rewards for me for my action and sacrifice.” If you are living in a western country then you know you are dressing correctly when someone somewhere has passed a negative comment about you. Even once. When we cover our hair for Allah’s sake alone. This should make us happy. When we fulfil the commands of Allah and stay away from the prohibitions this is where a believers happiness lies.

In tonights recitation we read some powerful verses, Allah says:

(إن يشأ يذهبكم أيها الناس و يأت بآخرين )

“If Allah wills, He can delete you and bring another people to replace you.” i.e if we do not obey Allah.

Allahu Akbar. Do we know the depth of the word delete! Imagine you tell someone, ‘You, I’ll delete you!’ They’ll just look at you and say, “Whaaat!!!” and in this country they might even take out their gun for you. Lol Hehehe 😉

Allah says in another verse we recited tonight:

( أيبتغون عندهم العزة فإن العزة لله جميعا )

Referring to those who take the disbelievers as friends instead of the believers, Allah says, Are they seeking honour and status with them? Verily all honour and all greatness belongs to Allah alone!”

Once, the disbelievers of Makkah sent ‘Utbah ibn Rabee’ah to the Prophet PBUH. They were very materialistic people at that time. So they went to the Prophet PBUH and made him a few offers. He told him, “What is it that you want? If it’s women you want we will marry you to the most beautiful of our women. If it’s wealth you are seeking we make you the richest of us. If it’s power you want we will make you our leader but please stop what you are saying. Stop this call to one Creator.” Upon this the Prophet replied, “If you were to put the Sun in my right hand and moo in my left hand and ask me to give up my call I would give it up!” meaning, no matter what you offer me, I am here on a mission and I will not trade it for any worldly gains. Thereafter the Prophet began reciting verses of the Qur’aan to him until he reached the verses mentioned the punishment that came to the people of ‘Aad and Thamud. Hearing this ‘Utbah ibn Rabee’ah placed his hand over the mouth of the Prophet PBUH and said, “Stop thats enough now” He then returned to the others, Abu Jahal and them, and said to them, “I have heard a speech, it is so beautiful, it is so powerful, it is like nothing I have heard before. It is definitely not the spaach of any human. “ They all looked at him and said, “What! We sent you there to convince him, and you have come back like you are convinced about him!” He quickly said, “No, no, no I am onnnly telling you what I heard I am not convinced at all!” lol

What about us! We listen to the Qur’aan and iIf we think that the Qur’aan is ONLY to be listened to and say “oooh Iove how this Imam recites and that Imaam and this Qaari etc” than we are no different from the disbelievers!   They were also moved by it’s verses.

Infact, one day I was driving in my car with the Qur’aan recitation switched on… I wouldn’t say ‘blasting’ lol… but mashaAllah it was quite loud and I stopped by the traffic light and in the car next to me were some non muslims and they looked at me and raised their hands with thumbs up and said, “We like your ‘music’!” lol meaning even they enjoy it’s recitation. There is no harm in enjoying its recitation but more importantly we need to live its message! We need to follow it’s injunctions. Shaytaans plan is always to turn people away from revelation.

From the very beginning there were were two forces: (حزب الله و حزب الشيطان )  The group of Allah and the group of Shaytaan.  Allah teaches us how to protect ourselves from Shaytaan. Allah tells us that O children of Aadam, don’t allow Shaytaan to trial you like he trialed your parents, Aadam and Hawaa and took them out of Paradise.  Shaytaan cannot be a protector for those who believe. We are trialed by him daily but it is our duty to ask Allah’s protection from him. Alla says: ( و قل رّبي أعوذ بك من همزات الشياطين و أعوذ بك ربي أن يحضرون )

“And say: O my Lord, I seek refuge in You from the whisperings of the devil and I seek refuge in you My Lord lest they should come near me.”

The verse of Ayatal Kursi is also another powerful tool for protection from all forms of evil. Also, we should recite the Al-Mu’awwathatain:  Suratul Falaq and An Naas thrice every morning and evening.  Allah says: ( إن كيد الشيطان كان ضعيفا )  Certainly the plot of Shaytaan is weak. So Shaytaan can not harm you, he is weak, unless we allow him to overpower us.  If we seek Allah’s protection he will not be able to affect us. It literally creates a metal armour around you. It is a protection against ‘ayn (evil-eye), jealousy, envy, magic and jinn kind. For your info Jinn are so frightened of man….

A story comes to mind… on a much lighter note 😉 There was once a very soft-natured man getting married. His friends told him, you are so soft natured this woman is going to control you completely. So he asked what he should do. They told him that on the first night they will let a cat into the room and he should take a stick and beat the cat up until it dies. On the other hand, the bride to be was being told how lucky she is to have such a sweet and soft natured husband 🙂 First night came and the friends executed the plan, cat came and the man beat it up till it dies, the bride just looked on in shock and wondered what did everyone mean by soft natured lol after that every time the husband wanted anything done he would say, do this.. or else! And the wife would quickly carry out his order fearing that the same fate that met the cat would meet her! Meeting her friends she asks , ‘What soft nature were you talking about, everything he asks me to do he threatens me saying, ‘Do this or else!’ The friends said, ‘Noooo, all you have to do is just defy him once and see what happens.” So the next day the husband says in a stern voice, “I want my tea ready first thing in the morning OR ELSE!” She turns around with narrowed eyes and says, “Or else WHAT!” He says in a low voice, “ or else…  I’ll have it ready in the morning…” lol hehehe 😉

So all we have to do is defy the Devil – I’m not saying the husbands are devils lol- and the devil will not be able to harm you.

Returning to the story of Aadam AS and Hawa AS on earth, they came down on the earth and Allah granted them children. Hawa AS gave birth 20 times, each time to a set of twins, a boy and a girl. Each set was of different colour, looks etc Because they were the only people on the earth they had a different law with regard to marriage.  When they became of age, then between two sets of twins, the girl of the one set would marry the boy of the other and the boy of the first would marry the girl of the second.

And Aadam AS was granted Prophet hood as he had to remind his children and guide them. So constantly he use to advise them and remind them about Shaytaan, their enemy and how he took them out of Jannah and so on. That brings us to an important point, how often do we as parents sit with our children, speak to them, advise them on how to dress, how to interact with others etc. This was the way of the Prophets from the beginning. We need to keep or children on the right track inshaAllah.

Amongst Aadam AS children were Cane and Abel or Qaabil and Haabil in Arabic. When the time came, Aadam AS told Qaabil that he would have to marry the suster of Haabil and that Haabil would have to marry his sister. Now Qaabils sister was very pretty and Haabils sister was not. And Haabil was very good looking whereas Qaabil was not. So Shaytaan put this thought in his mind, that why should I marry Habils sister who is not as good looking as my sister and why should he get to marry my sister who is so beautiful! See how from the very beginning they were conscious about looks and appearance! So he had this evil thought in his mind. He refused to marry Haabils sister so they went to Aadam AS and told him the story, he was upset, he tried explaining to them, eventually he told each of them to offer a sacrifice to Allah and whoevers sacrifice was accepted can have his way.

So Haabil was a shepherd and and Qaabil was a farmer. Haabil put forward an offer of his best animal and put it on the mountain. Qaabil on the other hand put forward what was almost rotten of his produce. In those days when a sacrifice was accepted a fire would come down and consume it. And if it was not, no fire would come. So Haabils sacrifice was consumed by the fire and Qaabils was not.

This teaches us that us, too, when we give out our Zakaat which is an obligatory charity, we should give out that which is good, not that which we don’t need and don’t want and what is expired etc. When it comes to volantry charity then yes, we may give whatever we want which is acceptable, second-hand clothing etc. Remember that charity does not decrease your wealth. How much are you going to consume and how much can one human being use?!

So now when this happened and Haabils sacrifice was accepted, Qaabil was furious and Shaytaan whispered to him to kill him. Look at how Shaytaan once again put the blame on someone else when it was Qaabils own deed which caused his sacrifice not to be accepted! But he wanted to take out his anger on his brother instead of blaming himself.

As parents I would just like to raise this point that sometimes unknowingly we tend to favor and give preferences to that child of ours who is better looking, or that child who is more intelligent. This is very bad as it creates an inferiority complex within the other children and I have received countless emails from children regarding this and they just cannot speak it out to their parents. It really creates so much negativity with in a child which affects them for the rest of their lives so we need to be conscious of this. I always say that people are good but t is Shaytaan who is bad.

Haabil said to Qaabil, “Verily Allah accepts only from Al-Muttaqeen (the pious). If you stretch your hand to kill me then I will not stretch my hand to kill you for I fear Allah the Lord of the Worlds.”

But Qaabil was adamant. Shaytaan put it in his mind to strike his brother with something heavy in order to kill him and so that is what he did and he killed his brother. The first murder in humankind. The minute the brother was dead Qaabil began to regret. And that is shaytaans system, all along he makes the sin seem so tempting and he beautifies it for us, then the minute we execute it he runs away leaving us feeling terrible, full of regret. That is why if you are a true believer than after committing a sin you will feel so bad and so regretful. The hadeeth says, when a good deed pleases you and a bad deed makes you unhappy, then that is a shign of a believer.

Qaabil didn’t know what to do with the corpse of his brother, so he carried it and took it far away to a place and left it there. When Qaabil returned to Aadam AS, Aadam AS enquired from him where his brother was. He replied saying he has no idea. Aadam As knew something was amiss immediately. The next day Qaabil went to where his brother lay and was filled with so much guilt but didn’t know what to do. The following day when he went he noticed the corpse was decaying and beginning to let off a stench. Due to his feeling of guilt and remorse Allah sent two crows. One killed the other and then dug a hole in the ground and buried it. Watching this scene Qaabil learnt what to do with the corpse of his brother and so he buried it in a similar manner.

The death of Aadam AS

It is reported that Aadam AS became very sick one day and he wished for a fruit of Jannah, the taste of which he could still remember so he wished for it.. Subhaanallah 🙂 Allah told him to go to a certain place and there is something there for him. Due to his ill health he was unable to go so he sent some of his children. When they got there they found angels who were carrying tools they had never seen before. The Angels went back with his children to where Aadam AS lay. When they entered the house Hawa AS recognized the Angel of death and immediately went behind her husband. Aadam AS told her not to worry he thereafter questioned about the 40 years still remaining which we have made mention of already.

Before his soul was taken he gathered all his children and told them that Allah will send messengers to you, do not worship any other besides Allah . Stay away from the Devil and know that Shirk (ascribing partners to Allah) is the greatest sin. It is said that Aadam AS was sooooo happy at the time of his death. Why? Because he knew that now, through the door of death he is going back to Allah and back to that garden of Paradise he was once in! Allahu Akbar!

May we also realise the reality of this. The hadeeth says that death is a gift to the believer. No more worries of this world, no more credit crunch and power cuts and problems and troubles. I like to give the example of a child at school. They may work very very hard but how can they receive their prize if they do not attend the prize-giving!!!! 😉 We have o die in order to get the reward fof all the good actions we do. That is why when people die we should know they are in a better place then we are. Yes we feel sad, we miss them but we shouldn’t question the decree of Allah.

Whatever Allah decides is the BEST! We need to know this especially as mu’mineen and believers! They are gone and we too, are going to be going soon. We are all heading that way!

Anyway, after Aadam AS’s soul was taken the angels, together with the children went to a place where they took their tools and dug a hole and put Aadam AS in it and buried him. They then turned to the children and said, “This is the way you will bury your dead.” And up to today that is the method adopted by Islam to bury the dead. We leave a bit of air between the body and the wooden planks which are placed on top. I was told that this oxygen allows the body to decompose properly, unlike bodies in mass graves where the sand is directly on the body, the bodies do not decompose properly. Subhaanallah

Where was Aadam AS buried? It is said he was buried in Sri Lanka or at a mountain in Makkah known as Jabal Abi Qubais. Allah knows best!

And with this we conclude the story of Aadam AS.

Worth mentioning is how many prophets were sent to earth?The names of 25 messengers are mentioned in the Quraan. Some narrations suggest that 124 000 messangers were sent to earth since the beginning till the Prophet PBUH…

و صلّى الله و سلّم و بارك على نبيّنا محمّد و آله و أصحابه أجمعين ، سبحان الله و بحمده سبحانك اللهم و بحمدك أشهد أن لا إله إلا أنت أستغفرك و أتوب إليك! والسلام عليكم و رحمة الله و بركاته!