Allah Only Looks at Your Efforts - 30 Verses For 30 Days 27/30

Salamun alaykum, dear brothers and sisters, and welcome to the 27th clip of this month of Ramadan, InshaAllah in this clip, we are going to delve into verses 34 through 36 of Surat un-Najm. In these verses of the Qur'an, Allah Subhana wa Ta'ala is explaining some fundamental principles of this world and how He calculates the deeds of the human being, that have been there in the scriptures from the earliest of times. These are lines and principles that Allah Subhana wa Ta'ala tells us in the Qur'an that you should be able to find in Suhufi Musa and Suhufi Ibrahim. The scriptures of Musa and the scriptures of Ibrahim.

So it shows that this is a fundamental principle that Allah Subhana wa Ta'ala has revealed to His previous prophets. This principle has been there in their scriptures, and in their books, so to speak. And it is something that also shows itself here in the Qur'an as well. So that shows how critical and fundamental the principle is.

So when you look at Surat un-Najm, it says this: "Am lam yunabba bima fi suhufi Musa?" (53:36), do they not know, and have they not been told about those lines that you find in the scriptures of Musa? "Wa Ibrahima alladhi waffa" (53:37), and in the scriptures of Ibrahim, "alladhi waffa", the one who fulfilled his duties, and that has its own Tafsir. As to what does this part of the verse mean.

What are these lines that are so fundamental? Number one: "Alla taziru waziratun wizra ukhra" (53:38), no one will carry or take on the burden of the deeds of another person, that's number one. Number two: "Wa an laysa li 'l-insani illa ma sa'a" (53:39), and that the human being is not going to be rewarded. He's not going to get any credit for anything except for the effort that he has put in. "Wa anna sa'yahu sawfa yura" (53:40), and that his effort will be seen on the Day of Judgment, meaning that his effort will be presented to him and everyone will be able to see it.

Now, of course, the verses continue, but this is a point I want to stop on, because many times we might find individuals who grow up in families who aren't necessarily the most religious families, and because of that, they might be in a more difficult position to adopt the teachings of Islam and to practice the teachings of Islam. We would look at them, for example, and we would look at another person who has grown up in a religious family. And in the eyes of Allah Subhana wa Ta'ala, we might make this judgment, supposedly, or assuming that this other person who has grown up in a non religious family is behind and that he may not carry as much value.

But what the Qur'an is telling us is that it is not about where you come from, it is not about your background. It is not about what type of a hand you were dealt, so to speak. It is not about what type of a situation you were placed in to begin with. What matters is, wherever you start from, how much do you push yourself forward? How much effort do you put into bringing yourself closer to Allah Subhana wa Ta'ala?

There are those who know nothing about the religion, for example, they just know some basic things, but they act upon it, and they are committed to those basic things. This person is acting upon everything that he or she knows. There are those who know ten times more than that person, but they are not committed to it, right. And so, even though the first person, it might look like he is acting less or he is doing less, in reality, his effort might be even more valuable in the eyes of Allah Subhana wa Ta'ala.

Now, this, of course, is not an excuse for me to sit there and say, well, if I grew up in a non religious family, therefore Allah Subhana wa Ta'ala doesn't expect much from me. No, I still have to do my best. I still have to act upon the religion in its entirety. But this is just a point that shows us regardless of where you start out from, it is not about that, it is about how much you push yourself closer to Allah Subhana wa Ta'ala.

And this shows itself even in the Akhlaqi attributes that we have. For someone who is naturally a patient person. When this person is patient, Allah Subhana wa Ta'ala rewards them to a certain extent. Then you will come across other people who, it is very difficult for them to be patient. Fundamentally, that is how they are. Fundamentally, they are a person who gets frustrated very easily. This person, if he can work on himself, then his reward might be greater than the first person, right.

So there's all of these intricacies. And this is the reason why Allah Subhana wa Ta'ala has not given us the permission to judge one another. Because we don't know the details of the story of each person. We don't know where each person is coming from. We don't know the difficulties that each person is dealing with. We don't know the inherent challenges that every person has in their character. Only Allah Subhana wa Ta'ala knows. And based on that, He can gauge how much effort this person has made to reach the point that they are at now.

Therefore, this judgment has to go out of the window. We can only look at a person's conduct and say that this person InshaAllah is trying to do their best. And that is all that we can do as well. And Allah Subhana wa Ta'ala will reward people based on how much effort that they have made, not based on their background, or what type of family they were born in, or other factors that they didn't have power or authority over.