Why Does This Verse Break the Pattern?

Alhamdulillah. Continuing in the final and closing verse of surah al chapter number 73 verse number 20. This is a longer verse. It's the longest verse in the chapter. And at first glance, this verse seemingly doesn't match up with the rhythm of all of the previous verses. Meaning there's a big distinction and a very deep difference between and a very fundamental difference and distinction between the Meccan chapters and the Medini chapters. Chapters that were revealed prior to Hijra are referred to as Mecci. chapters that were revealed after the event of Hijra are referred to as Medi. Those two eras because Mecc Mecc and Medanin, as we've mentioned before, this is not a reference to a place. It's a reference to a time, an era. So, we have the the Mechi epic or era and then we have the Medani epic or era. And these two eras have very distinct verses, very distinct subject matters, very distinct very distinct context to one another. One, we have the prophet sallall.aii alaihi wasallam and his companions living as a minority amongst a majority of aggressive non-Muslims and combative non-Muslims. Then we have in Medina, they're still somewhat a minority though they were the growing major their majority was growing very fast and very quickly. But now they are no longer just a subject. They're no longer subjects to another king or another rule. Now they are at the helm of beginning their own state. And so these two eras have very differentloop. They have very different with respect to the Quran. You can see a very distinct difference in even the length of the verses, the subject matter of the verses, even the language and diction of the verses are very distinct and different. For this reason, the scholars may differ somewhat on which verses are Medani and which verses are mechi. We have a general rule, general principle and that is that when a chapter is revealed in Mecca, it starts being revealed in Mecca is that all of the chapter is Mecci. And if a chapter is revealed in Medina, all of the chapter is going to be Medi. But that is not an absolute rule. There are some chapters that are predominantly mechi but have Medani elements or verses and vice versa. There are chapters which are predominantly Medani but have what? Mechan verses. Understanding this is very important and the scholars have taken great pains to ensure documenting and scouring every corner of the books of history and the books of hadith in search of identifying exactly which chapters and which verses were revealed in which era. Why is that so important? Why is it so important that we identify what was revealed in Mecca versus what was revealed in Medina? Who wants to take a go at that? Why is that so detrimental? Or why is that so important and so of such importance that it warrants such precision from the scholarship of Islam.

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Information.

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And what is the most important determining factor with respect to the meanings of words? Context. Correct? I mean, think about it. Context is more important than the actual words that are even said. Context can be more important than the actual words that are said. Let me give you an example. Let's say somebody let's say you were to ask me about a a person or you know let's say a particular thing you're to ask me about this what do you think about this do you this or you don't it and I say I love it that I love this compare Compare that to I love it. Right. Oh, I love that. You notice the difference in tone? You notice the different body language? That's context. One is taken to mean, yes, he loves that thing. The other is taken to mean exactly the opposite of what the words themselves say. It's what we call sarcasm. Correct? Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala says he's saying this to the people of the hellfire as they're getting molten hellfire poured on their heads. It will be said to them, "Taste this. Indeed, you are the honorable and you are the noble. How is it? Look how the meanings are clashing here. We've got hellfire poured on his head, which is the lowest of humiliation. And then it said to him, you are the noble. You are the, you know, the things that used to be chanted by their minions to them in the dunya. This is what we call in Arabic, which is sarcasm, right? It's sarcasm. That word that that statement on its own, we wouldn't understand that if it weren't for the context. When we have a verse that is revealed in the context of Mecca, radically different connotations, radically different meanings are derived from the words of that verse as opposed to if they were revealed in Medina. Mecca and Medani is one of the most important sciences of the Quran. So much so that we don't even have that just with the Quran but we also have that with the Sunnah. But with the Sunnah it is less difficult because most of the time the prophet sallallah.aii wasallam is saying something to a person whether it's the narrator of the hadith himself that provides context or an event that is happening. So the context is usually self-evident, but in the Quran, we're not sure. We have to be given that context. And so identifying what is Mecc and what is Medani is the difference between is the it can potentially hold the same difference that our example in our analogy gave of use of sarcasm. For instance, right? If I were to say for you, if I were to say to you, , I really admire this person, and then I were to say, oh, I really admire this guy. Right? That just those ways that I'm saying it, the in intonation, the the inflection in my voice changes the entire meaning, even though the words themselves are exactly the same. Correct? That is why mechi and medin is so critical. Now in identifying mechi and medi the scholars have rules of thumb that they use. So they say okay if we were to gather all of the verses that are mechi and all of the verses that are medin that we are positive this was revealed in Mecca and this is revealed in Medina. and we were to compare those two. So for instance, we are positive it was revealed in Mecca. We are positive it was revealed as a Medani chapter. It was revealed in Mecca but during the Medani era. If we were to compare these two chapters, we would see very distinct differences. So the scholars did what? They took all the chapters that they know are Mecci for sure. There's no difference of opinion. And they took all the chapters that are Medani and are agreed upon amongst the scholarship of Islam as being Medani. And then they compared those two and came up with a couple of key differences that are found to distinguish between the Meccin and Medini. Then there's another group that is different upon. Some say it's Meccin, some say it's Medini. And so they try to apply those rules to this other group of chapters or verses that are Mech. And one of those is the length of the verses. When we look at Mechi chapters, the verses are usually following a very particular rhyme scheme, meaning the ends of the verses, they're all similar and usually they the verses even have the same amount of syllables in them and they have a very particular rhythm to them. And even the letters that are used in the Meccan chapters are different than the letters used in the Medani chapters. Think for instance all of the chapter follows this same kind of rhythm and this same kind kind of rhyme scheme. Then you switch over to something Bakar very different radically different. The longest verse in the Quran is inah Bakar, right? Also, the subject matter, all of the details of the Islamic law, all of the details of Islamic law and so forth were all revealed where in Medina except for salah and a few other things. But what did Mecca really the Meccan era really focus on? The main thing it focused on what was it? The worship of Allah alone without any partners. This is the center thrust of that era and honesty, dignity, courage, valor, , generosity, selflessness. , and then things are looked at in a very general sense. People of hell, people of paradise, right? That there's there's very little gradation there between the two. That's how the Meccan era was. The Medani era we have a lot of details. All the three remaining pillars of Islam were in Medina, Zaka and fasting and Hajj and Omrah. Also when it comes to halal and haram and this is permissible, this is impermissible etc. All those generals general things were filled in those details were filled in where? in Medina. When we look at this last verse, when you read the of the scholars on you, you'll see that they will say many of them will say they'll say this is a Meccan chapter except for the last verse. The last verse, the last verse is a Medini chapter. Why? Well, one of those things, one of those reasons immediately jumps out at you is what? The length of the verses, right? The the start of the chapter, we have about one line, one and a quarter line. This is the the average length of the verses. They follow a very particular rhyme scheme and they have a certain amount of syllables to them. We get to the last verse and it's one long verse that is half a page long. Second of all, it has mention of jihad in it, right? as we'll get to, it has mention of Zaka in it, which we said when was Zakiah obligated in Medina, right? But that isn't all the way correct because there are verses that we are 100% sure are Meccan verses, but they speak about Zakya. How how do we harmonize that? Well, just like just like the general obligations of Islam were mentioned in Mecca and then filled out later in Medina. So for instance, things that are permissible to eat and impermissible to eat. In Mecca, Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala mentions three main things. these three, right? And then the rest is all anything that is filthy, anything that is bad for your body or anything that is right. Then when we get to Medina, then we start having the rulings of how slaughtering is to be done. And we have the rulings of the the the food of a the the slaughtered meat of a Jew or a Christian. And we have the details of anything that has talons, right, that it hunts with or any beast that has you know fangs that it uses to hunt with. All those things came later. So in Mecca we have a general thing and then in Medina we have what details that are filled in. They fit together perfectly. And when we call people to Islam and when people first become Muslim we follow the same formula. We follow the same formula. That's why it's so important as to how these things are documented. The same thing with zakia. Zaka was commanded in Mecca, but it wasn't commanded 2.5% and once a year or during harvest, etc., etc. These details were filled in in Medina. What was made obligatory in Mecca was what? General charity. And we're going to call this general charity, zak. And so this is the method that is used when we look at this verse. The scholars some of them say this is a medin verse. What do they cite for that? Is there any particular evidence a narration something solid unambiguous? No. It's only these general trends. They say it doesn't really match up with the pattern of Mecca. It is matches up with the Medani pattern. But really that's not a strong enough evidence. And for this reason a good portion including are of the view that this verse is a mechan verse and the mention of zak and the mention of jihad which were only obligated way later in Medina. These were actually that Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala was mentioning these things in order for to kind of plant the seed that when we arrive at Medina don't worry jihad will be a thing just not yet right zaka will be a thing just not yet not in this particular way in Mecca you got to remember And we'll end with this inshallah. You got to remember in Mecca a lot especially the younger men right right you know the the the younger guys who was very young. He was about 28 right in in in Mecca or there thereabouts. these younger men, they have a lot more emotion than they do experience, right? And this is why Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala didn't test us by having all of us be here all at once at the same time because we we complete each other. The elders give us wisdom. The youth give us vigor, right? They're emotion. They're emotional. They want to make their, you know, I want to make my mark on this earth and I'm going to you know pound in the chest and you know how they get that we need that but we needed to be controlled by the wisdom of the elders right and the elders very wise but dragging their feet cuz life has beat them beat them up right they're tired and they they've given up on a lot of stuff so we need the youth to come and jolt them awake Right. In Mecca, the youth were very the same exact thing was going on. They were seeing the Muslims, their brothers and sisters being tortured. Some of them tortured to death. And they're constantly saying to the prophet sallallahu alaihi wasallam, let us fight. Let us do this. Come on. I could do this. I could How about if we wait at the outskirts of Mecca and anybody that leaves, we can intercept them. What about if we do this? What about if they don't know who it is? What about if and the prophet sallallam is saying what right? So they are amped up. They want to fight and so Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala tempers that a little bit how by giving by giving indicators that this will eventually be a thing. Not right now. Its time will come. And when its time comes, we're going to need you to put your money where your mouth is. You're going to need to walk the walk. But until then, you need to fight yourself by controlling yourself. And so that's why there are verses that mention things that haven't yet been fleshed out in Mecca and will be fleshed out in Medina. So that on its own is not enough to discount a verse from being a Medani or a Mecci verse. We will continue this inshall tomorrow night.

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How are you?