Why do people really reject Islam?

Life as a prophet, as a messenger, is historically categorized and into two eras. The first era is the Meccin era before he made his migration to Medina. And the second is the Madani period when he made his migration after he made his migration to. Medina Maki and Madani. While it is a reference to the place, it is actually a name of an era. It's not the name of the place in this context. So, when we say this is a Meccan chapter, it could have been revealed elsewhere. What's important is that, it happened in the era of Mecca, meaning prior to Hijra. And post Hijra is even if it was revealed in Mecca. is a chapter according to all the scholars of Islam. However, it was revealed in was revealed in Mecca because it was after Hijra, therefore, it is categorized as Madini. We know that this chapter is one of the later chapters to be revealed. Some of the scholars such as in his book Tafir Al Quran Al Kareem. what's known as mentions that this chapter was revealed after Surat Ibrahim. Surat to Ibrahim is a later Surah and you can really tell. How can you tell? If you know the prophet history well. If you know his biography well, you'll know that first he was appointed as a prophet in Ramadan. and that this occurred 13 years before his migration In the cave of Hera. This narration is well known. most of us have heard the story. And so when he was appointed as a prophet and those first verses were were revealed to him He was appointed as a prophet but he was not yet commanded to to invite and to call everyone to Islam. It was a phenomenon that happened to him and he was it was to his discretion. He didn't have to tell anybody about it. He didn't have any particular message per se to call people to as of yet. And so the scholars mentioned that he was appointed as a prophet with Iqra. And he was appointed as a messenger with deather. Because death was revealed right after Surat Iqra. Now, in Allah clearsly clearly tells him you know call to Islam. and When he began to call to Islam, it wasn't a it wasn't a collective call. It wasn't a call to everyone. Mentions a number of stages that the Dawah went through. That is calling of people went to went through and the stage is that his spreading of Islam went through. First of all, it was to himself. Second of all the second phase was his close family members, right? Third of all, it was his close tribesmen and the people of Mecca and then after that, it was anybody else that came to Mecca or outside of Mecca. These were the four stages that the prophet went through in his Dawah and so, we see from this that things were kind of warming up throughout his Mekken era. First, it was just him and his very close relatives just Khadijah just very close. Right? Then after that it expanded a little more. And the Dawah became more general and his close tribesmen. And this is when this is the era when the prophet stood on the mountain and called everyone. And they and he said, if I told you there was an army coming from the other side of this mountain, would you believe me? This story happened in that phase. This was a little while. This was a few years after. Now, why was it that? Because obviously, not everybody is not people aren't going to be told when he told Abu Bakr told Omar or told Alib and Abu Talib and Khadijan. It wasn't this needs to be kept a secret. No, it's Wasn't a secret thing. It was just he told those who were close to him And it was to their discretion. And so words started to kind of spread amongst people. Even though he had not specifically said it. And this was kind of to ready people's minds for what was to come. So, we know that if we know these stages of the Dawah we know that we can read a chapter from the Quran and we can tell what which era it is from. Is it from the Meccan period or is it from the period? We can tell because the people that Allah is speaking to, the one the people Allah is speaking about, the type of people, the type of responses to certain arguments. There are argu which are purely mechan arguments, alright? Such as the rejection of resurrection. This is something that was kind of unique to the pagan Mechans at the time. likewise, when we find chapters speaking about Christianity, that is something that came after Hijra because there weren't any Christians or Jews in Mecca and if there are any responses to the people of the book, in Mecca, it is very scarce and it's because the people of the had somehow communicated this to the prophet otherwise most of those issues are dealt with in Madinah. Also, you'll find that the length of the verses actually are they change. The length of the verses and the Meccan period are very short. They're very taught and they kind of rhyme and they're kind of almost the same amount of syllables whereas in the period, the verses get longer and more elaborate. They're not speaking about general things that verses are speaking about very detail issues with regards to law and governance and so forth and the verses become longer. Also, is something that is mostly specific to the Madini era. and the Meccan period was usually right? But this is not an absolute law. This is not an absolute rule. There are exceptions to each rule. We also noticed that there is a change in the tone in the Meccin period because the climate was changing, right? At the beginning, it's just giving the facts. Right? So, it's just commands and general but when the people of Mecca are invited to Islam and they reject Islam then it starts speaking about mockery. they were kind of mocking the prophet and then it comes to them harming the prophet and his followers. Right? Physical harm. financial harm. And these chapters they're very clear because Allah's speaking about those incidents that happen with previous prophets. Like here. So, is going to be roughly placed at eight or nine 9th year after prophethood about four or five years before Hijrah. Somewhere around there. We can't be absolutely sure. There's no way to be absolutely positive if we don't have a clear cut statement from the prophet or his companions. But we can kind of put it there roughly. Right? Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala opens this chapter by saying that people people's reckoning is coming swiftly close Yet, they are in a state of spiritual needlessness. And kind of a spiritual fog. That they are in. So, there reckoning is swiftly approaching. Yet are in they are in a state of heedlessness and they are in a state of spiritual slumber. Now, what is meant by their reckoning? The people's reckoning. Anytime you read this verse, it's never been more true for you than than the time you read it. Why? Because every single day, we are closer than we've ever been to death ever. So, today, Right now, everyone of us, you and I, we all are, have never been closer to our death than we are right now, right? And so, this verse rings true every time we read it and it is even more and more true for us every time that we read it because every time that we read it, we are closer to our death than we've ever been before. And this in itself is not necessarily bad. what makes it bad? It makes it bad if you are in a state of heedlessness and spiritual slumber. In this case, it's bad. It's not a good thing because the clock is burning and we are kind of you know, just we're we're we're not really taking things seriously, right? Of course, this verse was revealed regarding the disbelievers of Mecca. They of personify the full extent of heedlessness, the full extent of spiritual slumber. However, it also applies to everyone of us in some way. Because none of us is completely free of heedlessness. None of us is completely free from spiritual slumber. Raffler. We're just not. was famously quoted as saying he said, people are asleep and when they die, they will truly wake up. That's when they wake up from their sleep. And so, this is what makes our swiftly approaching reckoning, that's what makes it scary. That's what makes it terrible and that's what makes it tragic. Is that we are in this state and our death and our reckoning is swiftly behind us. Hadiel Jumla.

[Silence]

Listen to it while in a state of play and idol. in a state of play and idle and just, what does this mean? This means that they listen to the prophet there's a difference between hearing and listening, right? In Arabic, there is and in English, there is. We hear a lot of things but we don't listen to everything. Here Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala tells us that they listen to the prophet listening is a voluntary you voluntarily do that. It's swallowing something. That's a voluntary act. If something ends up in your stomach, you voluntarily swallowed it. Likewise, if you listen to something, you voluntarily are taking this into your, into your hearing and into your ears. Likewise, if you observe something is different than seeing it. We see a lot of things, things that we don't want to see. We hear a lot of things, things that we don't want to hear. But we only listen to things that we want to hear. And we only observe things that we want to observe. That we want to see. And so these people are listening to the prophet they're listening to the Quran. The new verses of the Quran that are revealed. They are listening attentively. But they're not believing. Why? This goes to a root issue which is the issue of determining, rejection, before hearing the evidence. So, they have determined no matter what I hear, tonight, or today, no matter what it is, I'm not going to believe but it sounds good. So, I'm going to be entertained by it. It's entertaining. You know, sounds good, it's great, it tells great stories, there's a lot of wisdom in it but I'm not going to ever believe. I refuse to believe. So, they refuse to believe before they've even heard the message Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala says They disbelieved in it and they haven't it has the message hasn't even been fully explained to them yet. How can you how can you make a judgement on something especially as as grand and as immense as a judgment of what is going on in the hereafter? Is this person a prophet or not? without any evidence. Of course, for us instance, does this mean that everybody who speaks, we need to listen to them first before we we we come to a conclusion? No. If a person comes in today and says, I'm a prophet, listen to my message. Do we listen to him? No, we determine primitively that he's lying, correct? But we do that with evidence. Because the Quran tells us that because the tells us that. We do that with evidence. These people have no evidence. What is dictating their rejection and distinguishing it from their acceptance is their desires, their whims, what they what they don't like. I don't the idea of being resurrected so it doesn't exist. That kind of attitude. I don't the idea of this man being a prophet and not me. And there are people that reject the prophet's message because of that. or he should have been from our tribe, not from Benny Hashem and so, no matter what he does or says, we reject it. There's no evidence. It's not evidence they're using. It's not facts they're using. It is. It is pure desire. Or pure fear of something that they have that they want to continue having or some fear of not having something or or of having something that they don't want to have. Etcetera. And so these are the many reasons why people reject the message of Islam. People do not reject the message of Islam because it makes no sense. Because it's illogical. Because some other book tells them that this is impossible. There's nothing that. There is nothing this at all. There is nobody, noone that can listen to the message of Islam. And then come to a sound conclusion that this makes no sense. We could come to that conclusion regarding the trinity. Yes, you know, three is one and one is three and all this kind of, yes, that's, we can't believe that. However, one plus one equals two. There is no other answer. This is called deduction. the premise is correct, then the conclusion is correct. There's no way to reject a deductive argument. It's impossible. It's illogical. and so, with deductive reasoning, noone can soundly ignore the message of Islam. Usually, what makes people reject Islam is what? Is are the implications of Islam? Oh, this is going to change my life. Oh, I'm going to have to dress different. I'm going to have to eat different. I'm going to have to speak different. I can't do this anymore. People I aren't going to me anymore. People I don't I have to like. Things that. That's what causes people to reject Islam. Not that come to an honest, objective, deductive conclusion that this cannot be correct and this is why the hellfire exists. This is why it exists. It's not because anybody was confused. Rasulullah. That's the condition for a person to be punished. You cannot be punished. You will not be punished by Allah until a messenger has come to you. Whether that be in person or by transmission. That messenger has come to you, that means that you understood the message. And so, if you've understood that message and rejected it, even if you come up with a whole bunch of things later, everybody comes up with things later. Right? Just when people say something and then you ask them about it, they say, no, I didn't mean that. No, that's not what I meant. Anybody could say, that's not what I meant later. We by what you say at first. Usually, what people say first is what they meant. Likewise, they will reject first and then they will come up with all kinds of reasons why this can't be correct. That's irrelevant. That doesn't change the price of tea in China as we say. That doesn't matter. Whatever people come up with later doesn't matter. Iblis rejected the truth. What is the truth that he rejected? is rejection of truth didn't come in the form of I don't believe that Allah told me to prostrate to Adam. He didn't say that, right? I mean, what what clearer truth is there to reject that when Allah is speaking to you directly and you say no. That's about as bad as it's going to get, right? but he, in spite of that, in spite of the angels, all know he's on nonsense and Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala clearly knows what he's going to say before he says it, that it's rooted in arrogance and and and jealousy. In spite of all that, everyone knows, Adam, Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala, Adam, the angels, he, everyone knows. That he just doesn't want to do it. But in spite of all that, he still comes up with some argument. He still says, well, I'm better than him because of this and this and that. He knows that's nonsense and everyone else watching this incident knows that that's nonsense but people don't usually just reject the truth and say, yes, I acknowledge this is the truth but I rejected. Some people do but very rarely. Most of the time, people kind of build this kind of dust storm around themselves to hide their intentions. That's how people usually act. Hello.

[Arabic recitation]