Abdul Wahab Saleem – Contemplating the Quran – The Resilient Hour
AI: Summary ©
The Islamic Institute of Toronto is hosting a virtual gathering for their episode, with a guest named Sheikh Abdulwaha leading a virtual gathering. The guest, who is a doctor, will lead a virtual gathering for the episode. The audience is reminded of the importance of the Quran for personal growth and overall success, and the importance of writing and memorizing it for personal growth. The importance of warning people about the agenda of Islam and reciting the Quran is emphasized, as well as the need for learning and memory to implement ideas. The episode ends with a reminder to follow the website and social media for updates on the iTSE program.
AI: Summary ©
My beloved brothers and sisters,
Islam, and those watching us around the world,
I greet you with the greetings of peace.
On behalf of our scholars,
our board of directors, our volunteers
at the Islamic Institute of Toronto, I would
like to welcome each and every one of
you to this episode of Resilient Hour.
Resilient Hour is a production of the Islamic
Institute of Toronto
ably directed and produced by our own dear
brother, Mamoun Hassan.
May Allah reward him.
Today's episode
is an important
one,
and we hope that it will be beneficial
for you. It centers around the Quran.
And what
more apt time than these
days of Ramadan
tend to speak about the Quran.
But before we do that, Insha'Allah, a few
housekeeping items, and then we will call on
our reciter to recite the the the verses
of the Quran.
I would like to invite you
to share the stream the stream with your
family and friends.
We do usually have, quite a number of
people joining us locally, but also abroad,
in various countries as far as the Philippines,
as far as, Saudi Arabia,
and,
and and Guyana
and Sri Lanka and other parts of the
world. So please share with your, friends and
family
whether they're locally or abroad.
Also, we do have a messaging system on
the stream, and you can just give the
salaam and tell us where you're from,
where you're watching from. We'd like to know
that we do have an international audience, Insha'Allah.
And if you're lucky, Insha Allah, I will
call your name out. They'll give you a
shout out, Insha Allah, and give you the
salaam. So without further ado, I'd like to
ask our resident,
Harry
at the Islamic Institute of Toronto,
brother, Saifur Rahman Saqib.
His recitation is well known and well loved,
and,
we would like to hear from him the
beautiful verses of the Quran.
Brother.
May Allah
reward you. Who needs music
when, you know, we have this rhythm of
the Quran,
that we could listen to, and it can
bring tears to our eyes, and it can
bring so many emotions.
And so, you know, just listening to the
recitation of the Quran and the rhythm of
the recitation of the Quran,
takes you into a whole different,
atmosphere and a whole different level. And so
those of you,
like yourself, brother Saif, and many others
who have memorized the Quran,
and are actually of the Quran, guardians of
the Quran,
protectors of the Quran.
You know, we I pray that Allah
bless you, and I pray that we could
also emulate and and follow,
the recitation of the Quran and the memorization
of the Quran. May Allah
bless you.
Brothers and sisters, before we continue, a few
quick announcements that I want to make.
First of all, as you know, we are
rapidly progressing towards
the last days of Ramadan.
And,
Insha'Allah,
this Friday,
at Islamic Institute of Toronto, Friday is a
holiday,
Good Friday.
We are,
expecting a large crowd at Islamic Institute of
Toronto for Salat al Jumah,
The Khatib is Sheikh Abdul Hamid. And so
I would like to remind you that if
you're coming to IIT for Salatul Jummah,
may,
you prepare.
If you could carpool, that would be the
best thing so that you can avoid some
of the parking,
problems.
If not, then come as early as possible
so that you can secure a parking,
space in the facilities.
If not, we do have parking
on both sides of Nielsen Road
and, around the community. So please,
bring, a bag for your shoe as you
may be directed to another part of the
building.
Bring a prayer rug also as you may
be directed to a classroom or somewhere else.
And so that we're well prepared and we
don't have any confusion on,
on Friday.
Also,
this coming Saturday night, Sunday morning,
we are entering into the last 10 nights
of Ramadan. Can you believe it?
Ramadan has progressed so rapidly.
And, inshallah, we will be performing,
salatul qiyam
as usual,
starting Saturday night, Sunday morning. We will begin
at 3 AM,
and PM will be led alternately by Sheikh
Abdul Hamid and some of our core who
are there
at IIT and a few other local brothers,
who will be leading the the the the.
So this Saturday night,
Sunday morning, early at 3 AM,
please come out 4 PM,
and Insha'Allah, it will be a blessed gathering.
As I said,
our guest tonight is, Sheikh Abdulwaha Salim,
and we will be discussing
about the Quran.
And I think that,
Sheikh Abdulwahabs Salim is evidently,
qualified
to discuss,
the Quran with us.
Instead of introducing him, I will be asking
him a few questions about his education journey.
So we'd like to bring Sheikh Abdulwahab into
the stream,
so that, we can discuss,
the educational journey and background of Sheikh Abdul
Mohab.
It's such a pleasure to see you. I
haven't seen you in a while.
We have been communicating through WhatsApp and various
other
media, and, I have been following your educational
journey since you were in Medina, I believe.
And, and then I think I kinda missed
you. I learned the other day that you
were in Malaysia for 9 years, which, you
know, is quite a surprise to me. So
if we can start off by you giving
us a a bit of an idea of,
you know, your studies and where that has
taken you, and you're back now in in
Canada.
Give give us an idea of what you've
been up to.
Okay. So,
well, firstly, it's a pleasure to be with
you as well. And, I was on this
Resilient Hour a couple years ago, and then
I think that's that's the last time
we went of crossroads.
So in terms of my educational journey, it
started when I was
about 6 or 7 years of age, which
is the time that my parents,
took me out of, day school to memorize
the Quran.
And, and then after that, there was a
bit of a discontinuity in in my Islamic
education, but, you know, whatever you'd learn at
home.
Around, I think around 14 or 15, I
decided on my own to undertake Islamic education.
So I started learning Islam specifically
under the teachers that were available in Toronto.
So I learned whatever I could during that
time about 3 years. I
was going to day school, but I'd also
decided to discontinue day school at that time,
and and this was a personal decision of
my own.
And,
I'm really glad I made that decision. And
in the morning time, I would go to
the my teachers' homes,
and I was very fortunate to have, blessed
teachers very close to me. So I'd literally
walk,
about 10 minutes, and and I would find
my way to my teacher's home. And I
spent about 2 years doing that
until,
I decided that about time that I take
this overseas. I was looking for different opportunities,
and,
the opportunity that opened up for me was
in in a place called, King Saud University
in Riyadh.
So there I did my associate degree and
then, also an undergrad.
I graduated from both programs with distinction
And, and from my undergrad with honors,
That was in Shirk and Surajak.
Then I came back to Canada essentially to
do a master's degree in religious studies. I
started the program,
but for for a reason or another, I
didn't quite like the program.
You know, the reason, basically, I think for
me was that I didn't feel like the
program was rigorous enough. This was in University
of Alberta, at least for my purposes.
And,
and then,
I'd uprooted my whole family. I had a
scholarship in in King Saud University as well
for my master's.
I had, basically called off that scholarship,
But,
but this is what Allah had chosen for
me. So I think Allah gave me a
better path at that point. I decided to
take my family and myself and go to
Malaysia. This was in 2013.
And,
from 2013 to about 2020, I was in,
Malaysia and a little bit beyond that as
well, on and off because I would come
back at times.
And
that's where I did my master's. I also
did a postgraduate diploma. Master's was in tafsir
al Surah, tafsir al uloomin Quran.
And my dissertation was on
Judeo Christian traditions in,
in tafsir literature. Ibn Kathir is an example.
And,
and then I did a postgraduate diploma in
Islamic banking and and finance.
And meanwhile,
I'd also signed up for a PhD in
tafsir
as well. This was in the Quran and
Sunnah department at Islamic University of Malaysia.
And that I finished
last month.
My my, you know,
my vibe, I was last month.
Thank you very much. Quite, quite an interesting
journey. And, you know, I should, I should
upgrade, brother Mahmood
because he should put the doctor in front
of your name,
inshallah. So, now we have doctor Abdulwaab Salim
and, you know, it's really a pleasure to
have you. I know you gave the at
IIT,
you know, some years ago.
And,
the the fact that, you know, we can
leverage,
your presence here in Canada is quite interesting.
And, hopefully, Insha'Allah, you know, you will be
with us for some time and offer a
course.
You know, come on down to Toronto. Where
where are you, by the way, currently?
I am in the outskirts of Edmonton, Alberta.
Okay. Masha'Allah.
So
so our topic today
is the Quran, you know, and, you know,
we've left it kind of open.
I'm hoping, inshallah, that, you know, I can
engage in a dialogue with you.
Not so much me speaking, but me asking
questions.
And you can take your time and elaborate
on,
on the subject matter or elaborate on something
else that you think would be beneficial for
our audience. But as a as a start,
let's say that, you know, I don't know
anything about the Quran. You know, there are
so many people who are not familiar with
the Quran.
You know, they may have all sorts of
ideas about the Quran. If you were to
describe the Quran,
to someone who is not familiar with the
Quran, how how would you describe the Quran?
I would describe the Quran
as
every form of goodness that you can imagine.
Everything good that you can imagine in this
world, Allah
has guided to that good through the Quran.
Few days ago, I was with, a gentleman
who spent, about 10 years of his life,
with the Quran writing on subject. And one
of the things that
he told me
was that during the course of my life
with the Quran, I noticed
that I had gallstones.
And for the 10 years that I was
immersed in my Quranic journey,
I never felt
for once
that I had gallstones.
As soon as I stopped, suddenly that problem
began again.
This is one example of how the Quran
brings immense Barakah to the life of a
person.
The Quran will be your guide. The Quran
will will be your shifa. It will be
your cure. The Quran will be your directive.
The Quran will be your direction. The Quran
will be your friend. The Quran will embrace
you. The Quran will teach you. The Quran
will
even
if I may say, it may even learn
from you in the sense that it
as you're reading the Quran,
it becomes your friend. Okay? One of the
things that
my teacher told me as I was he
was asking me about my journey as I
was just finishing my my PhD,
right after that, my professor, he sat with
me for for lunch, and he said I
have something to tell you. I said, what
is it? He said,
there's a couple of things, but one of
them I want you to know and and
keep with with you for the rest of
your life. And what is that? He said,
is
a friend.
Okay?
So
the the more sincere you are to this
friend,
the more
the Quran, just like a regular friend, will
give you more of itself.
When you have a friend and you're extremely
sincere with that friend in your times of
need, that friend will be around for you,
and it's a very rare phenomenon to have
a friend. Allah even alluded to the idea
that it's a very rare rare phenomenon to
have a friend. Right? It's a very rare
thing in this world for you to have
an actual friend. Even Imam al Shafi'i used
to
say I I bid farewell to this world
if there is no,
good friend who's honest and he has integrity
and he's always fulfilling his promises within this
world. So a friend is a very rare
phenomenon.
In the Quran and throughout the Quran,
Allah
only refers to a friend as in a
singular.
Even when the context dictates plurality, Allah only
speaks in the singular when he talks about
a friend. Why?
When the people are in the hereafter and
they're thinking about their exit routes from hellfire,
they they say,
that we will not have people to inter
intercede
on our behalf, and nor nor will we
have
a friend because
the friend is a very rare thing.
So this rare thing,
you can make the Quran one of those
rare things in your life.
Befriend that Quran.
When you have a friend,
you have food. You have strength. You have
power. You have moral support. You have emotional
support. You have
every single thing you need. That's what a
real friend is. This is what the Quran
does for you. It will be there for
you in your times of need. You feel
down, the Quran will be there to cheer
you up. You feel too excited such that
you're you're losing your composure, the Quran will
set you back into place, and it'll give
you the way to keep yourself cons composed.
But there's one thing that I could tell
you
is that the Quran is everything good that
could ever happen in your life. It's gonna
make you happy. It's going to balance your
your excessive happiness. It's going to fix your
emotions. It's going to,
embrace you when other people reject you. It
will it'll give you a slap when you
think, you know, when you start overthinking about
yourself and you start overestimating your capacities, it'll
stop you right back into place. It'll tell
you you're made of clay, you're made of
a you're made of, *. You're made of
water that happens to be humiliated. It'll give
you every single thing that you need for
you to have that balance.
People the dietary specialists will tell you you
need a specific type type type of diet
to have your body balanced. The Quran is
that balance for your soul.
So take a little bit of this Quran
in your life, and you'll begin to see
the bulk of it. You'll see more health
in your life. You'll see more wealth in
your life. But that's another thing, by the
way. People that spend their time with the
book of Allah sincerely,
they become
they become
needless of everything else within the world. So
they become
they they begin to feel very happy. Okay?
You wanna have happiness in your life?
Here's an expert advice on this one. Go
ahead and take the Quran as your friend.
You'll begin you'll just start to become happy.
Right?
And
Allah has given
us all over the world right now. On
my table, there may be, like, 5 or
something like that. In the Masjid, 100 of.
I remember I had a friend in school.
This was, my 1st year in school.
Very dear friend of mine. His name was
Abu Bakr.
I I lost touch with that individual,
but I I still love him. And,
he told me that in in the town
that he grew up in in Africa,
he was from Gambia. If he's hearing that,
then I would, like him to contact me
so I can get back in touch with
him.
He told me that we
would
have
a limited capacity of mushafs.
We'd have a limited capacity of mushafs
in the masjid.
And so I would literally sit
in front
of
the the bookshelf
waiting for a musaf to be placed back
on the shelf so I can pick it
up and read.
This is how people are longing to read
the book of Allah.
But we have the words of Allah everywhere.
If you have 10 devices, all of them
have the Quran. If you have a computer,
that's got the Quran. If you have the
Masjid, they've got Qurans in it. What are
you waiting for? Just pick up the Quran.
Start reading it. You'll become happier. You'll become
more healthy. You'll become more wealthy. You'll all
the pains of life will go away.
It'll absorb all of the difficulties
that you have. It'll give you happiness.
It'll cheer you up. It will put you
back into your place. It'll give you that
balance that you need in your life. It'll
give you direction as well.
That's the Quran.
That's a beautiful
perspective on the Quran.
And, you know, it's it's it's interesting that
you would say that
take the Quran as a friend, and I
think that's quite a a fascinating analogy
in the sense that, you know, a friend
that you can lean on and a friend
that will support you. Beautiful.
Ashish, I wanna take you back, like, to
the to to the very moment,
or moments, and and period before the Quran
was revealed. You know, I went for, I
went for Umrah a couple of times and
Hajj and so on.
And, you know, I saw the mountain,
and, a number of people, you know, were
able to climb the mountain and go to
the cave where the prophet sallallahu alaihi wa
sallam was meditating and things like that. And
and I was actually fascinated to know
that a couple of things. Number 1,
Khadija
used to climb that mountain
and go to the prophet sallallahu alaihi wa
sallam and bring food for him and so
on. And and that's quite, you know, in
itself, I mean, she was not
a a a a very young,
lady.
As we know, she was older than the
prophet sallallahu alaihi wa sallam.
And and then, you know, that momentous occasion
when the Quran was revealed.
So so take us, to that time,
when the Quran was revealed and how you
know, if if I were to kind of
imagine an IMAX movie,
you know,
when when that that mountain and the prophet
sallallahu
alaihi wasallam was there, of course, we can't
depict that.
And then Jibril alaihi wasallam, you know, in
all his splendor and all his glory. Take
us take us back to that moment of
the revelation of the Quran.
So this particular
story is mentioned in so in in Bukhari.
And,
it's one of the first hadith in Bukhari
where,
Imam al Bukhari, he talks about the chapter
of Badu al Wahi, the beginning of Revelation.
And he said that Aisha said
that,
that
when the
when the revelation it it began,
the beginning of the revelation was that
the prophet
would get dreams.
And another report of.
He would get dreams that would come true.
That every time the prophet would see a
dream, then that dream would come and become
a reality become a manifest reality.
And then,
the prophet
he began to love
seclusion.
And he would go to
and he would stay there in.
Days on him, he would stay the prophet
over there.
And he would stay there doing what? He
would stay there worshiping Allah.
And the reporter, he said that at the
handmis over here means that
the prophet sallallahu alaihi wasallam would go there
to avoid sin. In other words, he would
go there to worship Allah And
here, the prophet sallallahu alaihi wasallam,
would sometimes come down to Khadija or Khadija
would go to the prophet to drop off
food.
And,
and this is also mentioned by Aisha
in the hadith as well. And then,
as the prophet is within this time, suddenly
down came the malak, the angel.
And,
the prophet
saw him from from a distance, and, it
was a very momentous occasion.
And
the angel,
said to the prophet sallallahu alaihi wasallam,
he said that, Iqra.
And the prophet sallallahu alaihi wasallam said,
He said, read, and the prophet said, I'm
not capable of reading.
Then the then the angel,
he held the prophet sasallam,
and
he he he hugged him very tightly. Okay?
And the ulama, they mentioned that the reason
why
Jibril had hugged the prophet so tightly in
this situation was because
the prophet was physically
being prepared by Jibril.
Okay? The idea was that what's going to
come is going to be serious business over
here. Okay? So Jibril, he gave him this
bigger hug getting him prepared
to handle very tough situations thereafter.
And then Jibril let him go, and he
told them again to read. And the prophet
said, I can read.
And the same thing that Jibril alaihis salam
hugged the prophet very tightly. He bare her,
hugged him. And then he let him go
yet again, and he told him to read.
And that's where Surah Al Aq was revealed
to the prophet
at least the 5 ayaat in Surah Al
Aq. And these 5 ayaat that came to
the prophet
they
the the very first message that comes to
the prophet is noon.
Noon,
the very first message is. So
read.
And the second message that comes to the
prophet sallallahu alaihi wa sallam is noon.
Noon and also the pen with which they
write and whatever they write as well.
The next message after that that comes to
the prophet sallallahu alaihi wa sallam is.
Oh, one who has been clothed
and covered in
in the in the sheet.
Stand up tonight. Accept a portion of it.
And then the message after that that comes
to the prophet is
And that's also the one that's been clothed
as well in a sheet, but a different
type of sheet.
And
then the prophet is given another message, and
this is the first commandment in which the
prophet is told now to go and start
handling this business of Dawah.
Stand up and call to your lord. So
there's a chronology of messages that is being
given to the prophet
The first message is that read.
And that's a message to all of us
as well. That if we're trying to call
to Allah
or if we're trying to prepare ourselves, then
the first thing that we need to do
is we need to read. Reading is a
very important habit. You've got to read. Now
the prophet
was not literate, but Allah
would give the prophet
the Quran in a way that he would
memorize
it. Don't
don't raise your tongue with it because we
will collect all of the Quran and save
it into your heart. This is what Allah
says, and this is the opinion of Ibn
Abbas about these ayat as well. So
the idea is that the prophet
is special in that when the prophet is
hearing the Quran, the prophet, you know, absorbs
all of that Quran through divine intervention by
Allah But we have been commanded by Allah
to read and recite
and read in the name of your Lord.
That's the first. Then after we read, we
also need to write as well. And that's
why a lot of,
the people in the world when they're memorizing
the Quran, they have this practice that until
you can write down the Quran, you're not
a.
Okay?
So the the litmus test for your is
after you've memorized the Quran, they give you
a pen, write down the whole Quran. If
you can write it down, then you're a.
If you can't, then you're not really a
half. Right? And and that was one of
the tests that they would do with us
in schools as well when they would make
us memorize things. They would tell us, okay.
Now we give you a pen. Now you
write down everything you've memorized. Right? So,
so that's a very important thing that you
have to also read, and you you need
to write. You need to use the pen.
Right? We're we're now in an age where
people are not using pen. Information is so
readily available. Pens are so important. You need
to write.
Even till today, people say, why do you
have notepads? Because Allah says,
he took an oath by the Kalam.
There's something special about using your fingers, you
feeling that out, that
those kinesthetic movements help people learn things.
So you have to use the pen. Literally,
the the prophet, sallallam, he said,
the first thing that Allah created was a
pen,
and then he told that pen. Write
everything that will be till the day of
judgment. Another report, the prophet said that Allah
said
write down the divine decree. So the pen
is a very important instrument. The very second
revelation that comes to the prophet is about
the pen.
So read and write. This is what Allah
is telling you.
And then
reading and writing is your learning. But now
when you're about to get on another element
of the journey, and this is journey that
everybody should take, and that is now you're
starting to take this message that you've learned
and read. You you wanna bring it to
people, then you've gotta draw that connection to
Allah.
That's why Allah says, yeah, you will Muslim
who had who has been clothed and covered.
Stand up the night except a portion of
that night. So Allah wants you to start
getting closer to Allah. And that's why before
the revelation, one of the things that Allah
gave to the prophets to send them through
intuition
was that Allah
he he taught him to love seclusion.
So being by yourself with Allah
be with Allah. That's very important.
The message that comes after that, and this
is the 4th of the revelations,
is.
Now you've gotta stand and warn the people.
So you've gotta warn. I'll give you one
thing here.
A couple of few years ago, an incident
took place. Someone brought me to some school,
and they decided to interview me for a
job. Even though I didn't want the job,
I kinda got forced into the interview.
So one of the things that I learned
from that and you learn from any situation,
even situations you don't really wanna be in.
Right? So I'm in this situation. I'm like,
okay. Let's make the most of it. Learn
something out of this. So the lady that's
interviewing me, she says that, sheikh, we want
you to work for us.
And I said, okay. But, you know, I'm
I'm playing along.
But
the one thing that we want is we
don't want
you to warn the children.
So what do you mean you don't want
me to warn the children?
We we want we want everything to be
all happy. Go lucky. That's it. We want
you to just tell them about agenda. We
want it all to be Jannah, Jannah, Jannah.
Okay.
Sure. The first commandment to the prophet
when it comes to public engagement is
stand up and warn. You've gotta warn. Yes.
The prophet is Bashir,
and he's also Mubashid, but at the same
time, he's also Nunzil.
He's also Nadir.
So the prophet
has been given this duality of action, bashir
and Nadir. It's not.
All the prophets are.
They give black tiding, but they also warn
people. So you need to warn society. You
need to warn people because,
you know, if we make everything all happy
go and lucky doesn't work out. The prophet
had
to take on this hard mantle. It's very
difficult to face the backlash when you start
warning people because people get uncomfortable,
uneasy.
The prophet had to make people uneasy. If
everything was easy and it was all happy
going lucky, they've given him a lot of
bargains, the prophet sallallahu alaihi wa sallam. Why
would the prophet sallallahu alaihi wa sallam walk
away from all those bargains and and and
and go into exile and go into eating
leaves and and and
and and and and why how would all
these these things happen? Why would the prophet
tell some Sahaba to go and run away
to to Habasha, to Abyssinia? And why would
the prophet
migrate,
out of Mecca to Medina while, he's basically
a renegade running away from
what that society would consider rule at that
time?
Warning is is part of part of the
faith. You've gotta warn people because Islam is
based on 2 things. The prophet
said that
that
that iman happens to be between fear and
hope. And what's interesting about the word raja
is that it's one of those words which
is al abdad, and what that means is
it has two different meanings.
The Mufasidin in this particular ayah, they said,
what what is it with you that you're
not hoping for the honor of Allah
They said it means hope and fear because
you hope from the honorable, and you also
fear the hanru. Because the word raja has
both meanings. So you can't have complete absolute
hope in Allah except that you have also
an element of fear from Allah as well.
So Allah wants you to have that hope,
and he wants you to have that fear.
And the word is rajah actually in Arabic,
interestingly enough, it has both meanings.
I ask
Allah to give us the balance between fear
and
all. Thank you.
You know, the Sheikh, we could go on.
I have so many questions to ask about
the Quran.
I am a bit cognizant of the time.
Iftar tonight is 7:39, so Insha'Allah we have
a few minutes more. But before we actually,
you know, engage again, I just wanted to
remind our viewers that,
at Islamic Institute of Toronto, we are having
our campaign, our Ramadan campaign,
1 in 1,000, giving $300. There is a
QR code on the stream. So those of
you who are watching, you can actually scan
the QR code. It takes you directly to
our
Ramadan page, and there you can actually,
learn a little bit more about, you know,
what we're doing at IIT. But also, you
can you can give a donation to IIT,
and we do have information about Zakatul Fitter
and Zakatul Mail. So plea please feel free
to to explore those pages. And, InshaAllah, if
you so wish,
you can give a donation of, $300
or any amount,
to continue this great work that we're doing
here at Islamic Institute of Toronto.
So let's return to to the discussion, and,
you know, I have to be kinda wise
in the type of questions that I'm asking
so that we can cover some of the
topics.
Shaykh, I know you know, we know what
the relationship
of the prophet sallallahu alaihi wa sallam was
to the Quran.
You know, we know that he was as
Aisha
said he was the walking Quran. He would
spend nights in in reciting the Quran,
and until, you know and he would weep
in his recitation of the Quran. And he
was the prophet of Allah sallallahu alaihi wa
sallam,
not an ordinary,
person.
But but if you can, you know, educate
us a little bit on what was the
relationship
of the companions of the prophet
to the Quran?
You know, both men and women. And, you
know, I've read a number of stories about
their relationship of the of the companions of
the and the reason why I'm asking you
this is that,
you know, in this day and age,
and especially now, you know, in the recent
few months, there are so many people who
are discovering the Quran.
People who have never discovered the Quran and
never knew about the Quran, but they see
little children in Gaza,
you know, quoting the Quran
and and, and being hopeful because of the
Quran. They see mothers in Gaza and other
places. They see men and women who are
living the Quran even in such,
difficult circumstances.
And so I'm I'm curious
about the time of the prophet sallallahu alaihi
wasallam and the relationship of the companions
to the Quran itself. If you could spend
a few minutes telling us about that.
Okay.
So that that's a good question, actually. I
think that the first,
element of that relationship
of the Sahaba and
most of the Sahaba. This was their relationship.
They would
memorize the Quran very slowly. Okay? Most of
the sahaba, they had a 10 tendency of
memorizing the Quran very slowly.
And the purpose was that every single time
they would memorize
a set of 10 verses, they would take
the 10 verses and understand what those verses
say as well, and then they would go
on to the next bit and then the
next bit and the next bit and next
bit.
The Quran,
but you do it really well. You read
it, for example, a 100 times or a
150 times or more than that, and that
basically remains with you forever. Right? So the
Sahaba generally had a tendency of memorizing very
small portions if they were to they were
to memorize. And the person would memorize just
and they would consider this person, you know,
a a very great human being because that's
a huge task because they're doing it so
slowly. Right? The fact that he or she
has the discipline to be able to do
so much,
that's great. And and again, they would memorize
it in a way.
The problem with us is we have so
many. So what we do is we we
rely on the. So we say, oh, you
know what? If I forget it, I'll just
use the. They had ax very limited access.
If I'm telling you about this African friend
of mine from Gambia,
who who had trouble getting a most have
in our times where most haves are literally
printed by the tens of 1,000 or 1,000,000
or or more.
So
how about that time where they just had
a couple of copies?
You know? So you if you memorize, that's
your that's it. You've gotta have it retained
for the rest of your life.
The the Sahaba,
Zaid, and and and Ubayi, these companions would
literally
correct the musaf against their memories because they
had memorized so well. If people had miswritten
something from their memories, the people that have
better memories would say, no. No. You you
got it wrong over this how it needs
to be written. So memory was the main
thing that they would rely on, and, yes,
they had written copies as well. So the
idea that I'm trying to get to is
that they would spend a lot of time
memorizing,
and a very little bit of their memorization
would equate to a lot of hours because
we kind of have things memorized. We don't
actually have it memorized. Right? So they would
they would do this very little bit at
a time, but they would keep going and
keep going. And then the Sahabi that gets
through 4, 5, 7 years of the memorizational
journey and gets the whole Quran down, then
this is considered a half of the Quran.
It's a big deal. Right?
That's the first thing.
The second thing is that they would learn
the and the
They would learn the the knowledge, and then
they would learn how to implement that as
well. And it seemed the prophet
said
Quran that the prophet's behavior was the that
whatever was listed within the Quran. And a
Shafi'i used to say that whatever the prophet
said, he understood it from the Quran. So
the prophet would would would basically take the
general passages of of of the Quran and
implement them to show how
to implement the Quran and how to understand
the words of Allah.
That's one angle. Then another angle is the
recital of the Quran.
Most of the companions of the prophet
they would finish the Quran every 7 days.
Okay?
They had a regiment. This is basically called
the Sahabic regiment of the Quran.
So every 7 days,
again, most of the companions of the prophet
not all of them, they would finish the
Quran,
yeah, for for the most part within these
7 days. So you had,
on the first day, what they would do
is that and if if you memorize these
words, then you would remember this for the
rest of your life. So the first thing
that you need to know is.
Brother Farhad, can you repeat it after me?
Fami bishok. Fami bishok. Fami bishok. So once
you remember these words, you should never forget
for the rest of your life the connection
with this haba'at to the Quran. Okay?
So,
the way it works is that
fa rep represents
Surat Al Fatiha. Okay?
So the word, it represents
They would start at
and they would finish right before Surat Al
Maidah, which is the me. Fa,
me, bishop.
Alright? So Surat Al Maidah. So meanings from
Surat Al Fatihah all the way till Surat
and Nisa is what they're doing. This is
the 1st day of the 7 day regimen
that they have.
The second day, what they do now is
they start from Maidah,
and they go all the way to Surat
at Tawba.
Okay?
Fami,
Bishok.
Alright. Now
obviously is what?
All the way to Tawba is, again, it's
it's around, give or take around 4, 4
and a half. Just this this is the
general regimen that they have, 4, 5. Just
something like that. Right? And then they start
off
at Okay?
From
to
that's the next thing.
And then
b shawq
is
the bat represents Surat Bani Israel, which is
also known as Surat Al Isra.
Okay. Surat Bani Israel, which is also known
as Surat Al Isra.
So Bishawb is the ba' for Bani Israel.
And then they would do from this is
the day 4, from Banu Israel all the
way to Fuqan or Surah Al Isra all
the way till Fuqan.
Then you have the sheen for Surah to
Surah to Surah,
and they would do this,
on day 5 from Surah to Surah all
the way till Surah Tia Si.
And then, obviously, they have,
which is the.
And then from
all the way to Surah Al Hujurat, which
is the beginning according to one opinion of
Hizbul Mufasa,
or it is the last surah before Hizbul
Mufasa, and then comes the guaranteed Hizbul Mufasa,
which is Surat off all the way till
Anas.
So let's recap that. So the day 1
would start at Surat al Fatihah fa. This
is 2nd day would start at Surat Al
Maida,
which is.
The 3rd day would start at Surat Yunus,
which is.
And the, 4th day would start at Surat
Bani Israel or Surat Al Israa. The 5th
day would start off at,
Sheen, which is Surat to Shura,
and the 6th day would start off at
so
that wow over there.
That represents,
and the 7th day would be Surat Taaf,
and they would finish the Quran. Now one
may say, how can I do this? Every
7 days, I recite the whole Quran.
Most of the Sahaba, they were reciting the
Quran every second day. This was the way
that the Sahaba would divide up the Quran.
There was no division of the Quran
in 30 Jews. There was no division of
the Quran in 60 Jews. Okay?
Because we have the division that we have,
which is the,
30
Jewish Jewish division.
And then we have the other division, which
is the 60 Hezbollah division, which is largely
the one that's used in, all of the
that are written based on, Walsh.
Right?
And,
so neither was there a 60 part division,
nor was there a 30 part division, nor
there was there the the Ravish division, which
is the 27 part division, nor was there
the so all of these divisions that happened
later on,
they're all just to make things easier. 27
part division because they're all trying to do
the khatam within 27 months. So they did
it that way. Thirty parts because the prophet
told of the love, and, we asked to
read in 30 days.
60 parts, again, to make it easier for
reciting as well. These were all later divisions.
The only division that the Sahaba had was
this tahzid that I just talked about, which
was.
This is the main relationship when it comes
to recitation
that the Sahaba had with the Quran.
Okay. So I think
Yeah. You know, the Quran is an ocean.
And and, Jay, if you were sort of
an almost an ocean of knowledge
about the Quran, and it's really,
it's it's it's really unfortunate that we can't
carry the conversation,
we have in Toronto here, we have one
minute more for the other end.
And I know Alberta, you know, Edmonton is
is is different, but we definitely need to
bring you back.
I mean, there's so much more to learn
about the Quran. I wanted to ask you
about the compilation of the Quran.
I wanted to ask you about
the inimitability
of the Quran. I wanna ask you about,
you know, so many things about the Quran.
So we are looking at developing a course
of the Quran. You and I spoke about
this, so many times inshallah. Perfect. And now
that we have, you know, the the the
livestream,
inshallah, we should be able to develop a
course. So
on behalf of IIT,
I'd like to thank
you.
There is so much to learn about the
Quran. May Allah make us good learners, good
students, and a good friend of the Quran,
inshallah, as you have mentioned.
Brothers and sisters, this is the end of
the episode,
for Resilient Hour. This is brought to you
by the Islamic Institute of Toronto.
In Toronto now, it is time to break
the fast in regions
west of Toronto. It would be later.
And, we hope inshallah,
Allah
accept your fasting
and,
and,
keep, connecting with us on our website, social
media,
and, InshaAllah, we hope to see you on
Friday for salatuljumah,
for taraweeh,
and we hope to see all of you,
InshaAllah,
at our qiyam starting on Saturday night, Sunday
morning. I will ask, our dear brother, Amun,
to call the Adan.
And, on behalf of IIT,
we are,
ending the episode.