TheUltimateStanding

لزلزلة سورةا
Surah Zalzalah

Bismillah.

Allah swt said in surah al Zalzalah: 1

زُلْزِلَتِ الْأَرْضُ زِلْزَالَهَا إِذَا
“When the earth is shaken to its utmost convulsion”

Allah swt revealed this ayah and surah in Makkah - It was a Makki surah.

It was a surah revealed at a time when the messenger Muhammad had no power, but a handful of believers. When the people at that time were receiving the revelation before the Islamic state in Madinah.

Although the prophethood of Muhammad was written before he [saw] was even born, his mission had only started when he was 40 years old, and it was at this age when he was given the revelation.
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The revelation however is of two types:
Al Wahi al-Qur’aani: The Qur’aanic revelation - Sayings of Allah swt
Al Wahi al-Nabawi: The prophetic revelation - Sayings and actions of the Messenger Muhammad [saw], this is also known as the Sunnah of Muhammad.
Besides the sunnah of Muhammad we have a different Sunnah - the sayings and actions of the Sahaabah. This may is not revelation, but their understanding of the two types of revelations is binding upon us.

The sahaabah are the ones who have understood the revelations better then anyone else - simply because the revelations were sent regarding them, concerning them, judging their lives.

Nobody can claim they know the Qur’an better then any sahaabah - be it Abu Bakr, or Omar.

And Allaah swt said:
وَالسَّابِقُونَ الأَوَّلُونَ مِنَ الْمُهَاجِرِينَ وَالأَنصَارِ وَالَّذِينَ اتَّبَعُوهُم بِإِحْسَانٍ رَّضِيَ اللّهُ عَنْهُمْ وَرَضُواْ عَنْهُ وَأَعَدَّ لَهُمْ جَنَّاتٍ تَجْرِي تَحْتَهَا الأَنْهَارُ خَالِدِينَ فِيهَا أَبَدًا ذَلِكَ الْفَوْزُ الْعَظِيمُ
“That he is pleased with them, and they are pleased with Allah.”
[At-Taubah 9:100]

For them is prepared the Jannah under which rivers flow.

The sahaabah are the Ahlus Sunnah Wal Jamaa’ah, they are too An Firqathun Naajiyyah (the saved sect) - the sect in Jannah, whereas the other 72 sects are in hellfire, as the hadith mentions.
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So this ayah and surah was revealed in Makkah. And the people to witness that were the sahaabah - Abu Bakr, Omar and etc. The sahaabah were the ones Allah swt was addressing and reminding.

This surah (Zalzalah) was revealed to remind them and to remind those after them something that is very important.

Remember that at the time when they were in Majmoo, the muslims were facing severe suffering, and torture. It was at this time when Muhammad had come out, openly and publicly on mount Safa, and said to the people:
“Oh people of Makkah if I said to you, that behind me is an army coming to invade you, would you believe me?”
And the people declared “yes! You have always spoken the truth, you are al amin”.
But when he [saw] continued to tell them that he was the messenger of Allah, and that there was nobody worthy of worship except him, did the people turn their backs, and his uncle Abu Lahab said to Muhammad, that may your hands be destroyed.

How can it be, that one minute they call Muhammad the truthful, the trustworthy, and then the next minute they turn their backs, and curse him [saw], and reject him? They continued to attack him, calling him majnoon, a lunatic, a liar just because he [saw] called for La illaha Illallah.
Then Allah swt revealed to reassure him [saw]:
مَا أَنتَ بِنِعْمَةِ رَبِّكَ بِمَجْنُونٍ
“You are not by the mercy of your lord mad or possessed.”
[Al Qalam 68:2]

So yes, they did face a time of hardship and rejection. The people refused to acknowledge them.

Look to the story of Bilal - how he was tortured for embracing Islaam.
He was beaten and tortured, in the hot desert, lying on the hot sand - heat from the sun which will burn you. Not only that, but they poured boiling oil on his body in the middle of this hot desert. The rock on his chest was not only that he faced as many say. But he was in this position, this torturing position for days.

Look to the story of Amaar bin Yasser - how he too was tortured and lashed in the hot desert.
In fact they lashed him so much, that even when he died, the marks remained on his back. When they looked to his body when he passed away they said that you could still see the signs of torture in Makkah.
Amaar bin Yasser was the one who saw his own mother die in front of his own eyes. His father was thrown into a well and killed.

And we have Khabaab - who was killed for refusing to compromise.

Why did they face such extreme hardships, which are totally unbearable? Simply because they refused to reject the kalimaah La illaha Illallah!

They refused to compromise any hukm shar’ee, or leave any part of Islaam.

Indeed they did face true hardship. Nothing like the hardships we face today. Yes you may be arrested from time to time, you may have your passports taken away, you have been imprisoned for some years - but you haven’t witnessed the murder of your mother, the boiling oil over your chests, and the stabbings in your private parts.

So Allah swt revealed this Ayah:
زُلْزِلَتِ الْأَرْضُ زِلْزَالَهَاإِذَا
“When the earth is shaken to its utmost convulsion”
[Al-Zalzalah 99:1]

Allaah swt firstly attributed the earthquake as a property and belonging to the earth.

When we link another ayah with this, we see the lesson.
Allah swt says:
يَا أَيُّهَا الَّذِينَ آمَنُواْ اتَّقُواْ اللّهَ حَقَّ تُقَاتِهِ وَلاَ تَمُوتُنَّ إِلاَّ وَأَنتُم مُّسْلِمُونَ

Oh you who believe! Fear Allaah as he should be feared, and die not except in the state of Islaam (ie - muslims)”
[Ale-Imran 3:102]

Imagine how the muslims in makkah at that time understood the words in this ayah. Imagine the hard impact it had on their hearts. They were being tortured, murdered, threatened with death, boycotted by the Quraish.

At that time, anyone who was Muslim was called extremist, lunatic, majnoon, fundamentalist. They would call the people not to listen to Muhammad, calling him insane, a magician. The propaganda and media was everywhere.

Imagine how low, and defeated the muslims felt at that time. Many muslims today, if they were faced with such hardship, would they not turn round and give up? Would they not leave it to the side and not bother with it, for it is too much to handle?
- But Allaah swt ordered them (and us) to fear him swt the way he deserves to be feared - meaning dare you to compromise anything. {This taqwa’ is not just to say you fear Allaah and do as you like, but you must fear Allaah as Abu Hurairah described:
“at taqwa is like walking through a thorny path, taking care so that you don’t touch a thorn by mistake”}

Yet Allaah swt ordered them, that if they are to die, they are to die as muslims only!

And when Amaar bin Yasser was broken completely physically and mentally - he rejected Muhammad in order to be left alone. Due to duress he said a word of kufr - and when he went to Muhammad [saw] he was weeping and crying for saying this one word. And Allaah revealed the ayah:
“Whoever disbelieves except the one under duress whilst his heart was full of imaan will be punished”

Muhammad [saw] testified that Amaar bin Yasser was full of imaan from head to toe. They were the sahaabah.

The sahaabah were those who did not want to compromise an inch of their deen. They did not want to die, except that they were muslim - they did not want to die on the kufr, the nifaaq, the jahl, the munkar. In fact they wanted to die on the tawheed, on the kalimat-tul laa illaha Illallah, they wanted to die as muslims only. They wanted to fear Allaah the way he swt deserves to be feared.

These ayath were revealed to warn us that we must not give up at a time of crisis. He swt warned us that just because there is war in Iraq, don’t leave your deen, joining the Americans and British army, don’t ally with them and start to say to the people that there is no jihad, and that the jihad is fithna’.

Don’t start to say that we are living in Dar ul Islaam and hence we are obliged to obey the taaghouthi rulers. Don’t start to say to the people that the mujahideen are khawaarij, and the tawagheeth are heroes. Don’t become 007 just because of the small hardship you face.

We must be like the sahaabah.
- When Allaah says go out openly publicly calling for the deen of al Islaam, go!
- When Allaah says go to jihad, go!
- When Allaah says fear Me, as I deserve to be feared - fear him!
- When Allaah says rise against the kufr, nifaaq, jahl - rise!

We cannot stand back ignoring the calls of Allaah. Rather we must act the minute we hear the call as the sahaabah did. When Allaah orders us, we say Samehna’ wa Atha’na - that we hear and obey. There is no need to make excuses saying, that the kufaar have an upper hand, that we have no strength, that we have no covenant.
If the kufaar have an upper hand, you must fight that upper hand till you have the upper hand. If you have no strength, you must try your best to convert your weakness to become strong, and if you believe that you have no covenant, instead of becoming 007, you must leave the place to a area where you are safe and do not need to become 007.

This is exactly what the sahaabah did.

The sahaabah were tortured but they never compromised
The sahaabah were killed yet they never compromised
The sahaabah were lashed but they never compromised

Bilal was killed, yet he never gave up in saying Ahadun Ahad, Ahadun Ahad (- until Abu Bakr as-siddique came and freed him from Umayyah bin Khalaf.)

- Why? Because they feared none but Allaah!

So Allaah swt warned the sahaabah and those after the sahaabah (ie ourselves), that whatever hardship and crisis you face today is nothing.

Therefore we must never let the shaytaan come to us and weaken our imaan more, so that we start to commit sin, we start to disobey Allaah and we start to forget how we used to fear Allaah at the time of ease.

It’s almost natural for us to fear Allaah in falling into the haraam at the time of ease - but when we are faced with the smallest of small hardships, we forget Allaah. And possibly we end up like MCB - who have completely sold their deen for the ease of funds and so-called masajids.

The terms Allaah swt used in this ayah, are immeasurable. In fact it is so great that everything from inside will come out.
Allaah swt said:
وَأَخْرَجَتِ الْأَرْضُ أَثْقَالَهَا
“And the earth throws out its burden (Athqaalaha)”
[Al-Zalzalah 99:2]

In the tafseer of Abdullah ibn Abaas of this ayah said: “ ‘Athqaalaha’ is all the graves.” Therefore all the people from all times will be raised without choice on that day.

However, the hour will only rise over the heads of the kufaar, or the faasiqeen or the faajireen, simply because Muhammad [saw] said:
“The hour will not rise except over the kuffar and the fujjar.”
As for the believers, a wind will pass them and take their soul like they sneezed.

Further, Allaah swt says:
وَقَالَ الْإِنسَانُ مَا لَهَا
يَوْمَئِذٍ تُحَدِّثُ أَخْبَارَهَا
“And man will ask, ‘What is going on?’
The earth will speak out all the news”
[Al-Zalzalah 99:3-4]

Allaah swt declares that on this day, at this moment will the souls ask what’s going on, from there will the earth speak against their bad deeds.

When Tony ruled by kufr, and Ahmad obeyed him - the earth will speak out and say ‘Ahmad walked on my back whilst obeying Tony’
When a woman and man fornicates - the earth will speak out and say ‘they feared none, and fornicated on my back’
When the thief took the property which did not belong to him or her - the earth will speak out.
And when the Muslim ummah has been attacked by the kufaar - the earth will speak out, that the rest sat there and did nothing.

It will be a time where no soul would feel comfortable - a time very difficult.

When the earth testifies all the good and bad, the hadith states that it will then report it all the Allaah swt.

Allaah swt said:
بِأَنَّ رَبَّكَ أَوْحَى لَهَا
“Because Allaah ordered it (the earth)”
[Zalzalah 99:5]

The earth submits to non but Allaah, and on that day it will be ordered to speak out.

In the tafseer of this ayah it states that “all the stones and all the inanimate things will speak out”.
Allaah swt said in Surah Fussilat ayah 11:
“…and he said to it (the earth): ‘Come together willingly or unwillingly.’ They said: ‘We do come (together), in willing obedience.’ ”

And further on into the surah, Allaah swt says:
يَوْمَئِذٍ يَصْدُرُ النَّاسُ أَشْتَاتًا لِّيُرَوْا أَعْمَالَهُمْ
“At that time people will come out in groups to be shown their deeds.”
[Al-Zalzalah 99:6]

On that day, man will be risen with those whom he was with on earth.
If he was a man who was with the musrikeen - he will be risen with them.
If he was a man who was with the Labour Party - he will be risen with them.
And similarly, if he was a man with the muslims, the mujahideen, and the sincere da’ees - he will be risen with them.
If he loves Islaam, loves Muhammad, loves the sahaabah - he will be risen with them.

Abdullah ibn Abaas said “Allaah will take all the people as delegations. And will drag the kufaar to hellfire (as if) they were thirsty and hungry (for it).”

The kufaar will say, that ‘we deserve it, if only they had listened and obeyed they would not have been here”.
They would start to say, we thought we were correct and the muslims were wrong - if only we had listened to them, and allied with them rather then having fought them.

And Insha’Allaah, George Bush will say ‘Indeed the world was divided into two camps, had it only been that I had been in the camp of Islaam rather then my camp of Kufr and failure.’
And Insha’Allaah every kaafir, every munafiq, every mushrik will see their failure, their hardest failure on the day.

When Allaah swt said:
“…to see all their own deeds”
[Al-Zalzalah 99:6]

We know that the deeds are the physical and the verbal actions. And they are of two types - the good and the bad.
On this day your books will be opened, and your cassettes and videos will be played - and you will have to face it on the day of judgement.

Allaah swt says:
فَمَن يَعْمَلْ مِثْقَالَ ذَرَّةٍ خَيْرًا يَرَهُ
“Whoever has done a small atoms weight of good, shall see it.”
[Al-Zalzalah 99:7]

The good is not what our desires say is good, rather it is what Allaah swt says is good - regardless of what the majority think today.

And finally, Allaah swt says in the surah:
وَمَن يَعْمَلْ مِثْقَالَ ذَرَّةٍ شَرًّا يَرَهُ
“Whoever does an atoms weight of bad, shall see it.”
[Al-Zalzalah 99:8]

And similarly the bad is not that which the majority say, or the laws within your desires say - it is what Allaah swt says it is.

And in another ayah Allaah swt states,
“By your lord, I am going to account all of what you used to do…”

And when Allaah swt makes an oath, we are to be shaken so hard that we loose consciousness. We should fear him so much. When we hear the oath, we should be able to see each others faces go white out of fear, we should be gob-smacked! Because Allaah swt never breaks his oath - and it will be something big!