When They Left the Prophet Standing - 30 Verses For 30 Days 28/30

Salamun alaykum, dear brothers and sisters, and welcome to the 28th clip of this month of Ramadan. In this clip, we are going to delve into Verse number eleven from Surat ul-Jumu'a, the last Verse of Surat ul-Jumu'a. In this Verse, Allah Subhana wa Ta'ala is speaking about the importance of the Friday prayer, and how the believers at that time, some of the Muslimin even, when the Prophet was delivering his khutba, and when the Prophet was speaking to them, they would get up and they would leave for even the smallest of issues that would come up, they were willing to get up and leave.

And there is a number of lessons that we can derive from this Verse of the Qur'an. So the Verse starts out like this: "Wa idha ra'aw tijaratan aw lahwanin faddu ilayha wa tarakuka qa'ima" (61:11). Ya Rasuli Allah, they are such that if they see a business that they can engage in a transaction that they can engage in, they will leave you standing "wa tarakuka qa'ima" (61:11). "Aw lahwan" (61:11), or even if there is a mere entertainment, just something happening, right? Something interesting, they will just get up and leave while you are standing there.

And then the Verses of the Qur'an continue and says: "qul ma 'inda Allahi khairun min al-lahwi wa min at-tijarah" (61:11), and tell them that what Allah Subhana wa Ta'ala has, what Allah Subhana wa Ta'ala has to offer, is better for you than any mere entertainment, and even from the business that is happening.

So the first thing we have to address here is why did Allah Subhana wa Ta'ala switch between "al-lahwa" and "at-tijarah"? Initially, He says that: they will leave you for "at-tijarah" or for "al-lahwa". And then He says, when they leave, tell them that Allah Subhana wa Ta'ala, what He has to offer is better than the 'lahwa' and even the 'tijarah'. The reason why He switched the places of these two is because in the second part of the Verse, Allah Subhana wa Ta'ala is trying to say, what I have to offer to you is better than a mere entertainment and even better than a tijarah. So in order to make that jump from a mere entertainment, something interesting that is happening, for example, to something that actually has a little bit of value, like money you can make, or business that you can engage in, Allah Subhana wa Ta'ala switched the place between 'lahw' and 'tijarah', even though initially it was 'tijaratan aw lahwan'.

But the second point that I really want to spend some time on, is this. This really shows us that even the Prophet of Allah, when he was speaking to people and these are people who supposedly believed in him, the moment something like this happened, they would get up and leave. And some of the ahadith, say that businessmen entered into Medina, and people felt like they could go and engage in this business that they left. Some of them left because something interesting was happening, for example. The lesson that we have to learn from this line or this Verse of the Qur'an is that in life, no matter how wonderful you are, or how great you are doing things, the reality is that people will react in different ways. And not everyone will have the capacity and the understanding and the maturity to value the work that you are doing.

And this should not dishearten you, and this should not take away from your enthusiasm if what you are doing is the right thing, and if you are bringing value to others not everyone in the community might understand the importance of what you are doing yes, not everyone in your family, even at times, might understand. You should try to explain to them but the reality is not everyone is going to really understand the importance of what you are doing and if people were willing to get up and leave when the Prophet was standing and giving a hot bar speaking to them, then where does that leave us?

Then if the Prophet is dealt with in this situation, then if someone like me or like you whose value doesn't come close to the Prophet. If there are times where people do things that might be deemed disrespectful we have to learn from the Prophet that the Prophet was patient and he did not allow this to stop him from the work that he was doing.

Sometimes we might deal with this in a family with relatives, with different individuals. This should not take me and turn me into the type of person who does not want to do good things anymore, because some people did not appreciate the good work that I was doing. If it is a good thing and I am able to do it, and I think it is important, then I should continue doing it and maybe out of every ten people, one or two people people might really appreciate. But that is exactly how the case was for the Prophet as well. That is why they would leave the Prophet while he was standing and he was delivering his Khutba.