Halaqah: Surat An-Nas #114

Salam 3laikum!

This will be the beginning of a new series of posts inshaAllah. In our halaqah (small study circle) we started with the last sura and are moving backwards with recitation, translation, and tafsir.

Every week I prepare for the lesson by:

1. writing out the sura in Arabic

2. writing the translation of each word below the Arabic word

3. writing out the translation by phrase/ayah

4. taking notes on the important sections of the available tafsir

Since I am doing this anyway, I thought inshaAllah I will do my best to share here what we have learned :-)

So to begin inshaAllah:

Surat An-Nas

Word by Word Translation: http://corpus.quran.com/wordbyword.jsp?chapter=114&verse=1

English:

1) Say "I seek refuge in the Lord of Mankind,

2) the King of Mankind,

3)the God of Mankind,

4)from the evil of the whisperer, the one who withddraws after whispering-

5)who whispers into the chests/hearts of mankind-

6)from among Jinn and mankind."

Tafsir Notes:

Lord, King and God of Mankind are three attributes that are completely unique to Allah and reserved for him alone.

Verse 4: Al-Waswaas is the whisperer. Every person is assigned a whisperer (devil, shaytan) who makes evil look beautiful, compelling, and enticing

• It is reported that the devil sits on your heart/chest and whispers when you are heedless about what is expected of you and then withdraws when you remember Allah or when you obey him
• Abu Dawud reported that one of the compantions of the Prophet Mohammad, salAllahu 3layhi wa sallam, told him that sometimes he would say things to himself in his mind that he would rather fall from the sky than to say aloud and the Prophet Mohammad, salAllahu 3layhi wa sallam, responded "Allahu akbar, Allahu akbar, Alhamdulillah aladhi rabba keidahu ila-al-waswasa" meaning Allah is most great! Allah is most great! All praise and thanks are due to Allah who sent his (shaytan's) plot back as only a whisper.

So we see that our whisperer is constantly working on us and it is a great achievement when we hear a whisper and overcome the urge to act on it subhanAllah.

Ya Rabb, Ya Malik, Ya Allah protect us from the whisperer and give us the strength to stay on the straight path ameeeeen.