Internal and External Favors - Portal Gems #21

Est. Read time: 4 min
Edition Number: 21
Adapted from: Perfect Timing
Instructor: Shaykh Omar Suleiman

Assalamu Alaykum,

Today we’re going through a gem from Shaykh Omar Suleiman’s course on the Perfect Timing of Revelation. Shaykh Omar shares a gem about how Surah Duha and Surah Sharh are connected.

Hope you enjoy!

We begin in the Name of Allah ﷻ, the Most Merciful and Compassionate,
We ask that He ﷻ sends Peace and Blessings upon our noble and beloved
Prophet Muhammad ﷺ

Allah ﷻ goes on to remind the Prophet ﷺ:

Remember all of these favors of Allah ﷻ upon you. He found you an orphan, He found you searching, He found you poor, and Allah ﷻ solved all those circumstances for you.

Now here's something very interesting about this: these favors Allah ﷻ mentioned in surah Duha, were these circumstances remedied for the Prophet ﷺ before or after Revelation?

When did Allah ﷻ find the Prophet ﷺ an orphan and take care of him?

Before Revelation.

When did Allah ﷻ find the Prophet ﷺ searching for guidance and guided him?

At the commencement of Revelation.

When did Allah ﷻ find the Prophet ﷺ in poverty and take him to prosperity?

Before Revelation.

These are circumstances, favors that God ﷻ worked for the Prophet ﷺ before Islam - before Revelation comes to him. And that's why if you go into the next Surah:

Have we not expanded your chest for you?

Just as We have bestowed all these favors upon you before, now We are opening your chest, giving you capacity to receive the Quran, the greatest favor yet.

Some of the scholars say that these two Surahs are connected, one after the other. There are two ways to look at this:

The First Perspective - The Greatest Favor

The favors mentioned in Surah Duha were the favors that were done before Revelation and now the greatest favor to you is that Allah ﷻ opens your chest and gives you capacity to receive the gift of the Quran, which is greater than anything else He's ever given you.

The Second Perspective - Internal and External Favors

Allah ﷻ mentions in Surah Duha the remedying of the external circumstances, but look what I did for you inside as well. Because sometimes a person can have everything remedied on the outside but they're still devastated on the inside. So Allah ﷻ mentions all of the remedying of the circumstances of the Prophet ﷺ on the outside in Surah Duha and now takes the Prophet ﷺ to the favor of the inside in Surah Sharh.

Allah ﷻ is giving the Prophet ﷺ the ability, the capacity to receive the Quran. Allah ﷻ says:

Whoever Allah ﷻ wants to guide, Allah ﷻ expands their chest to receive Islam.

So for the Prophet ﷺ, Allah ﷻ willed for him to be guided, and the greatest gift is Allah expands the chest of the Prophet ﷺ to receive what even a mountain could not receive.

May Allah expand our chest for Islam.

أقول قولي هذا وأستغفر الله لي ولكم، فاستغفروه إنه هو الغفور الرحيم

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