Alhamdulillah this week I completed my first round of hafalan for Surah al-Ankabut (العنكبوت ) – The Spider 🕷️🕸️
I listened to this on the day I finished the last few lines. It’s a good one from Ustaz Nouman as always and very relevant, so here are some notes.
about Surah al-Ankabut
- protection (modern: citizenship) = ولاية
- origins- saddle stuck to the camel, protection and stuck
- support no matter what, the only thing that gives you rights including for life and safety
- late Makkah surah: boycott of the Muslims, starved, tortured and killed – in an otherwise free and peaceful society in Makkah for belief and actions…believing in Allah & Rasulullah revoked family, tribal and elite protections
- the only time in Makkah surah that the word (منافق) mentioned- higher bar than munafiq in Madinah, the high status of the sabiqun is cos of how difficult their tests were
- choosing between idol or man (businessman behind the religion – the mushrik union, the billionaire minority mob boss) as أولياء or Allah as ولي
- quote from polsci professor: the more police you see on the streets, the weaker the gov
- we think the opposite, but to get to that point of unleashing force on own people is a sign of getting out of control
- religion as business
- Islam as initial competitor – try to buy Rasulullah out, try to use propaganda, cant win – so violence
the example of the spider
- rhetorical style إطنب – repetition of عنكبوت ، بيت to make a visual point in our minds
- spider silk is one of the strongest materials in the world, stronger and more flexible than steel.
- material is best but architecture is full of gaps, used in weakest possible way
- home is meant for protection but spider web does not protect, its just to trap weak creatures like flies and suck blood.
- cannot trap strong (like believers) only flies (like kuffar, as Allah gives example elsewhere)
- spiders move house the moment it’s inconvenient, got competition, they go elsewhere and set up the same web
- colonial masters left and just restructured into a bank
- “in the spider’s mind, he is the apex predator”
- house for offense, overconfidence / arrogance that dont need defence – but Allah said they are totally vulnerable & exposed
- dependent on sucking blood to survive
- dependent on nature (Allah) or others (buildings) to build their web
- the spider lives alone for own benefit- hyper individualistic
- its not everyone who is the spider, its the capitalist elite being ولي – everyone else is fly
- the kafir is alone in the desert, alone in the ocean, alone as a spider in his web
- flies (ذباب ) vs honeybee (نحل)
- fly – hyperconsumer spending a lot of time on the web, going here and there, doesnt care whether its eating dirty things
- the flies are feeding the spider
key lessons
- Qur’an comes after two groups the most: the arrogant and the filthy rich
- “the entire Shari’ah is designed to ensure spiders don’t exist”
- inheritance laws
- zakat
- orphan wealth management
- and from there: alcohol, prostitution, gambling, broken families – follow Shari’ah, get rid of the bloodsuckers, society issues will be fixed
- the cycle of revolutions that fail is that new spiders replace the old spiders. the solution of Shari’ah as a system makes sure there are no spiders
- “the entire Shari’ah is designed to ensure spiders don’t exist”
I must admit that this lecture alone has made me rethink the Spiderverse.
