Essentially, when we talk about praising Allah or glorifying Allah, there are two sides to that equation.
It's like two two sides to a coin, okay? On the one side we say wonderful things, positive things about Allah.
That's حمد of Allah. So, we talk about how Allah is merciful or Allah is just or Allah is wise and Allah is knowledgeable
and all of those things are actually positive statements about Allah, those would be حمد. So, that's on the positive side.
On the flip side of it, we make sure we don't say things that are inappropriate about Allah.
That we consider him of having a son or free from fault or free from injustice.
In other words we continuously declare how perfect He is and by the way we do that by also declaring how imperfect we are.
That's the concept of ‏تسبيح actually. We maintain the perfection of Allah not letting that concept take a dip.
Not letting the notions we have about Allah fall. That's ‏تسبيح. That is why you find in the Quran often when something is said
that may not be appropriate in front Allah that the one who says it should immediately take a step back and say ‏سبحان الله
He is way too perfect. I just said something that kind of brings down the majesty of Allah.
I've taken a step beyond my limits and been disrespectful before Allah and I'm going to go back and pick that back up again
and I'm going to say ‏سبحان الله. For instance when the angels told Allah or asked Allah
"Is it really a good idea to put Adam on the earth? I mean he's going to spill blood, he's going to kill" {مَنْ يُفْسِدُ فِيهَا وَيَسْفِكُ الدِّمَاءَ} [2:30]
And they said we are the ones who don't do that kind of stuff. We declare your perfection {وَنَحْنُ نُسَبِّحُ بِحَمْدِكَ وَنُقَدِّسُ لَكَ ۖ}
when He said to them "I know what you don't know. I know what you don't know."
And then He created Adam AS when they recognized that they realized they said something out of line so they said
{سُبْحَانَكَ لَا عِلْمَ لَنَا إِلَّا مَا عَلَّمْتَنَا ۖ } [2:32] they immediately declares His perfection.
Because they felt that they were out of line. Similarly when you're slandering somebody in a gathering or when you hear
somebody else slandering somebody in a gathering. That offence of slandering somebody isn't just an offence against
the person who's not there. It's also an offense against Allah. Because the prophet ﷺ told us that the dignity of a fellow Muslim
is dearer to Allah than the Kaaba itself ‏والذي نفس محمد بيده لحرمة المؤمن أعظم حرمة عند الله من حرمتك
he told the Kaaba. He told the Kaaba the dignity of a believer is more value than the dignity of the Kaaba.
And he swore by his own life when he said that. So now when you're slandering somebody or you're hearing somebody
slandered in a gathering you should realise that you've not just did an offence against a person you've done an offence against Allah
which is why in Surah Al-Noor when slander is talked about {وَلَوْلَا إِذْ سَمِعْتُمُوهُ قُلْتُمْ} [24:16]
and you immediately should say {مَا يَكُونُ لَنَا أَنْ نَتَكَلَّمَ بِهَٰذَا} we shouldn't be talking about this and then immediately the words are
{سُبْحَانَكَ هَٰذَا بُهْتَانٌ عَظِيمٌ} your way too perfect that was something that was a treachery that was an act of defiance against your perfection
this is a great terrible accusation. So that's ‏سبحانك there again. When human beings commit ‏ شرك
‏or people say statements of شرك what is the Quran say {سُبْحَانَهُ وَتَعَالَىٰ عَمَّا يَقُولُونَ} [17:43]
{سُبْحَانَ اللَّهِ عَمَّا يُشْرِكُونَ} [59:23] His way too perfect for that ‏ شركto happen.
So once again if you go back we do two things with Allah two kinds of ideas we carry in our hearts and minds
praise of His perfection and on the other hand a denial of any kind of imperfection. Those are the two sides of it.
now appreciate the saying of the prophet ﷺ he says "‏سبحان الله نصف الميزان والحمد لله تملأه"
he says saying سبحان الله is half the scale saying الحمد لله completes that scale. In other words if you internalize
both of those two things then your appreciation of God is complete. You could have a God that you believe in that's perfect
but you never praise him that's a problem. If people had a God that they praised but they didn't cleanse him or the notion of him
from ideas like ‏ شرك. But they still praised him like for example حمد is not a problem for Christians they do a lot of حمد.
The problem with them is ‏تسبيح you see because the associations they make with Allah are short of his ‏تسبيح
but the ‏حمد they're people of ‏حمد they do it all the time. So you can have one or the other but the Muslim is supposed
to have both. So now the notion of ‏تسبيح by the way when you say ‏ [20:130] {وَسَبِّحْ بِحَمْدِ رَبِّكَ}
it's a combination of both isn't it? It's actually complete. Do a ‏تسبيح declares His perfection and also do so by praising him.
So it's the negative and the positive together. That's ‏{وَسَبِّحْ بِحَمْدِ رَبِّكَ} but this Ayah in particular is unique because Allah here says
declare the perfection not using the praise of Allah or using the name of Allah but actually says declare the perfection
of the name of your master {سَبِّحِ اسْمَ رَبِّكَ الْأَعْلَى} meaning what are you declaring perfect? Allah's name. Allah's description.
And that's going to be the discussion that we're going to have but before we do I just want to give you a little bit of kind of a scheme
of what's going to happen in the Surah. It's going to be broken up into four parts. I'll explain the logic of those four parts at the end
like I always do. But for now I need you to know that all four parts talk about one main idea.
And that main idea is that Allah has a plan for everything.