Abdur Rahman ibn Yusuf Mangera – Qur’anic Reflections Knowledge The First Command of Islam
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Salam aleikum wa rahmatullah wa barakato. Welcome to the Quranic
reflections. And as usual, let us begin with the verse for today.
Our will do Mila human a shameful annual Raji Bismillah al Rahman al
Rahim if all Bismillah AR beacon lady hot Elko holla call you son.
I mean Nida. You've got wallop Bukal Quran, Lavinia lemma we'll
call them ilevel use an Amana, Mia.
This, as you all know, is the first revelation that we've had in
the Quran. And it is from surah to Allah, which is chapter 96, verses
one to five. And these are probably verses that you read
often and that you must have heard about so many times because of the
detailed incident that took place in 1400 years ago, approximately
over 1400 years ago in the cave of Hira. So, when you read these
verses, it brings to mind that this particular event that took
place in this dry and desolate desert, in this particular part of
Arabia, that was
shrouded in ignorance, and fighting between themselves and
just complete, Jaya Helia and complete darkness.
This is a single event, this amazing event very profound, where
Gibreel Ali Salam came to the Prophet Muhammad sallallahu alayhi
wa sallam in that cave, while he was all alone. That pretty much
changed the course of the whole of human history. And in fact, we
could probably say that it changed the fate of mankind. I mean, I
would say that it changed the fate of mankind. And the reason for
changing the fate of mankind is because finally the next profit
was here, the final profit actually was here, the raw
material, I mean, that the world had been waiting for for over 500
something years. Now, what's really interesting when we look at
these verses, let me just translate the verse for you. Just
so I wanted to mention the backdrop so you understand,
you know, in what kind of a circumstance what kind of scenario
that these words are being revealed in. And this is,
remember, this is the first ever revelation to the Prophet
sallallahu alayhi wa salam, it's the first message now what would
you expect to be in a first message? You know, what are the
most important aspects of Islam? What do you expect that the first
words would contain? Well, let us see what Allah subhanaw taala sent
as the first words. So
Allah subhanaw taala says, Read, in the Name of your Lord who has
created, created basically all that exists, He has created man
from a clot of congealed blood, read, and your Lord is the Most
Generous, who has taught man by the pen. He has taught man that
which he did not know. Now imagine, this is the Prophet
sallallahu sallam, he doesn't know how to read or write.
And suddenly, he's never had an experience like this before.
Right? He's had some dreams. But suddenly he sees this angel in
front of him, the stranger, and he's told to read in the Name of
your Lord who has created everything. That's the first
description, He has created man from a clot, to show that Allah
subhanaw taala is, I mean, giving an example of one of the most
important things Allah subhanaw taala is created in this world,
which is, you know, the human being. And then again, read again,
read again, read so and your Lord is the Most Generous, your Lord is
the Most Benevolent, meaning he's there to help you and assist you.
And he has who has taught man by the pen, the pen is mentioned
right at the beginning, and he has taught man that which he did not
know. So now let us look at this, this event. And these words, they
essentially one of the big points in here, one of the main points in
here is that Allah subhanaw taala speaks about the pen.
He has taught men by the pen, I lemma will column, the pen. So
there's a highlighting of the pen and the tablet, because that is
what laid the foundation of knowledge, scholarship and
civilization. It's the pen generally what does that, you
know, when you have some of the early civilizations that we
discussed, like the Greek civilizations, you've got so much
writing from that time? Because it's through writing that you can
actually preserve something accurately. Many, many traditions,
most traditions, maybe your oral traditions, I mean, even today,
there's many oral traditions and a problem with oral traditions that
is very difficult to maintain accuracy, right and maintain
complete accuracy of the information and and then keep it
going. I think the only civilization that's been able to
do that is the Islamic civilization again, that with the
Prophet sallallahu alayhi wa sallam Hadith initially, you know,
it was all oral. I mean, there were some writings case, some
people did write it, but then they had to invent a completely new
system of cross examination, ascertainment and disparagement,
to keep the knowledge accurate, right? The Quran, of course, was
written straight away, right, the Quran was written straight away.
So you see that in the past that if there are traditions and
civilizations that wrote it down, then you got a more accurate,
you got more accurate history, right from them. And that's why
Allah subhanaw taala mentions this, that the foundation of
knowledge and scholarship and civilization is the pen and the
tablet is essentially you know, what you write on Subhanallah, you
know, had had that not been the case and we we may have not been
the way we are today, you know, we may not have had the same kind of
guidance that we had to do with this, what Allah subhanaw taala
wanted, and this particularly was around the sixth of August, the
610 CE
or 579 ce depending on which version you go with, in the hara
cave in Makkah, and this pretty much is the earliest piece of
Revelation, first installment to the Prophet sallallahu, alayhi
wasallam and one installment, and this shows that our the new faith
the Islam was going to be
completely linked, you know, without being able to be separated
with the pen and knowledge. Now, the most important thing here is
that it was an unlettered prophet and a prophet and, and maybe alone
me, who was blessed with this first divine revelation in this
lonely cave. He doesn't read, you know, he doesn't know how to read
and he's been told to read. And he's given he's been granted a
whole charter for mankind. You know, from this, he's been granted
a very, very important message for mankind. And he doesn't know how
to read, read or write. And this is probably the most unprecedented
history, unprecedented, unprecedented event in history
rather, right? That you've got somebody
who an unlettered person, among a throng of illiterate people,
actually, that brings about a revolution. And he's told to read
first, right? And subhanAllah, after nearly 600 years of nothing,
and it starts off with
Read, Recite, not to worship Allah. That's not the first
discussion. The first thing was not believe in Allah. Or
consider Allah to be one or your prophet. But more it was read.
That's the interesting part here. And unlettered person is blessed
with a revelation and directed to recite. So implicit in this
message, this is important implicit in this message, what is
this to us? I mean, this is an event that the Prophet sallallahu
alayhi wasallam went through the Quran has revealed and related and
basically kept in memory until today and forever, really, what is
in there for us. So implicit in this message for us is that his
community would also be a community that will
spread knowledge far and wide. And it will essentially through their
writing, through their learning through their knowledge. They will
be characterized by knowledge, reason, wisdom, and a constructive
approach and all around progress. We're told to be enterprising
through our knowledge. And essentially, the prophesy blossom
is being told through this, you're going to put an end to ignorance,
darkness, barbarism, and error Subhanallah however, what is
really, really important is that that this knowledge is linked to
Allah subhanaw taala. Right. Allah the Alabama Bill column, I live in
Santa marlim Yalom showing that knowledge only comes from Allah
subhanho wa taala. So when you recite Quran bismi robic, when you
recite, recite in the Name of your Lord.
Why do you say recite in the Name of your Lord? Does that mean just
what's a Bismillah? Before you read? No, not just say Bismillah
before you read, not just start in the Name of your Lord, but you
need to read and your knowledge needs to be sanctioned by what
your Lord is pleased with. So there's a number of things that
are mentioned here based on the compound that we have here. So
management reminded here that knowledge should be permeated with
God consciousness with taqwa, Allah subhanho wa Taala has
bestowed the knowledge everything owes its existence to Allah
subhanaw taala
Therefore, it's only under the divine guidance, can knowledge
remain on the right track and prosper, right in a way that it
doesn't lead to the wrong? Look, there's a lot of other bodies of
knowledge out there, right? There's lots of other learning
universities are filled with them, that are non sacred, that really
are non sacred they, I mean, a lot of them are actually a waste of
time, right? Some of them contribute to civilization.
However, they're devoid of goodness, sometimes some of them,
some of them, some of them are mashallah for the benefit of
mankind. But others, they're just a lot of waste of time and a
redundancy. I mean, they could have people doing other things,
but a lot of them are devoid of any connection with Allah subhanaw
taala. And that's what basically takes them off track. In many
cases, while the knowledge might be good, but the people who are
involved in it, it doesn't help them, it doesn't assist them, to
see what the real truth is of this world.
So a massively radical message of the day, and something that would
have been considered to be totally inconceivable in that time and age
in that pre Islamic world. If all the intellectuals of that day, you
know, were asked to guess that, look, there's going to be a new
revelation that's going to come, right, what would you think it
would be the first revelation, they would never have anticipated?
That it would be about writing, or it would be about reading, it
would be about knowledge, right? That that would just, you know,
that just sounds so far fetched, and unknown, actually a concept
unknown to the illiterate Arabs of the time, you know, there were
very, very few people who knew that. However, mashallah, the this
verse wide, it covers every single aspect of knowledge, right? And
modes of acquiring it, like it doesn't tell you how exactly to
acquire it, or only specifies that you must do it this way, or that
way only learned this or that it basically leaves that open. And
it's saying that you can use your mental faculties and its and
develop your intellectual heritage. However, in Islam,
knowledge cannot be divorced from faith, right? We
Islam makes it so amazing that anytime you study something that
just seems to be secular, even, it makes it sacred because of the
purpose for which it's going to be studied. medicine can become
sacred engineering to a certain degree can become sacred, right?
Likewise, many other things, psychology or whatever the case
is, it can be sacred, depending on the intention that it's been done
for, to assist people to help people to understand humanity to
understand yourself better than it can become sacred to a certain
degree.
That means that's why no true no true Muslims should be able to
disregard knowledge at all that they don't learn anything. Right?
Muslims need to prosper in knowledge in terms of education in
terms of studies, right? Because at the end of the day, it's
without that people are going to be misled, and humans, that is how
they're misled. They're misled. Due to ignorance. There's been
scholars who've said, you know, history scholars of history, who
basically it's like Amanda hubby has mentioned that if there's one
Malady and watch one crisis in the Omada, it's always gone through
and where the weakness is coming from, is ignorance, right?
Ignorance of their faith in particular, right? So that's why
Allah subhanho wa Taala
tells us to study knowledge, however, not all knowledge,
knowledge is sanctioned, Allah subhanaw taala would forbid such
knowledge as that which would create mutual hostility, that
would create wars that would contribute towards that would
contribute to destruction, pillage, and basically doing
things just purely for material gains, or selfishness, and so on
and so forth. Now, remember, in Macau, only a few there were a few
scribes, there were only a few people that knew how to write and
read. And they had heard the reference. In fact, according to
Sheikh Abdullah Hassan Ali nadwi, he says that if you look in older
Hindi poetry, you hardly ever see reference to the pen. So the pen
in Arabia was actually not a very important aspect. I mean, for us,
I mean, we have martial art pens everywhere, you know, we have
pens, we have virtual pens, we have all sorts of pens and writing
is just like martial law, everybody writes, but you have to
understand where this initially came down, right? Where there was
actually nothing, not even the preacher Helia poetry would
mention pens, pen, a pen was not important because nobody knew how
to write except very, very few people. Right? They just relied on
the oral tradition.
The other thing that Allah subhanaw taala kind of implies in
here and tells us is that knowledge is inexhaustible, right?
You can't attain all knowledge. Right? Because Allah says, Allah
subhanaw taala is teaching you that which you did not know. Now,
there's a lot of things that we don't know. Right? So there's
multiple things there's infinite things that we don't know. That
means knowledge can encompass multiple things and infinite
things. Of course, human can never have that kind of knowledge. Allah
subhanaw taala has obviously knowledge of everything. So how
does this relate to each one of us? Well, mashallah, there's some
fungus right who have taken the time off from a young age if their
parents had prepared them and they went to study they were sent to
study as Allah subhanaw taala says follow Allah for I mean cool if
you're a demon hunter Eva Talia de facto houfy Dean while Yun
Hirokawa with origin elation, Lando Mia their own, right. So
they, they were, they were encouraged to go and study and
they started. And then there's other people who, mashallah when
they older, they've started to study, and they've done an intense
form of study. Now, what I'm going to tell you is that for everybody
here, you're sitting here today and listening to this is a method
of study, right? However, our study needs to be more focused,
and it needs to be a bit more targeted, and it needs to be a bit
more substantial. I mean, lectures, right lectures, they're
generally inspirational, right? They provide a bit of knowledge,
but they're mostly inspirational, and they're more encouraging. We
need to go beyond that, we need to go beyond that. And every single
individual, I mean, everybody can't become a full scholar.
Right? Whatever scholar means, you know, scholar means that you have
a certain amount of knowledge that you've accomplished a certain
amount of knowledge and you have Ejaz Earth and you have
authorizations, licensing, to be able to say that, okay, you've
accomplished yourself in this science and this science and this
science and you need a number of those to be considered a Muslim
scholar. However, regarding our this world and the Hereafter, the
sacred knowledge, everybody needs to develop themselves in that
regard, because we will just become enriched our civilization
will become better. And our person, our human being, our our
own selves, will enhance themselves by knowledge, the more
people in a family that know about religion, and about the Quran and
the Sunnah, and the fake and the aqidah, and the history and
everything like that, that that family is just a much better, much
more aware family. They're prone to less problems prone to less JD
JD is Raif. Right? JD, unfortunately, is rife. And the
only way to combat that is through knowledge. Because that's what
Allah subhanaw taala because remember, the Quran came down as
the first revelation, excuse me, Robbie color, the Holo came down
in the time of Jr, Haiti that was characterized by ignorance and is
to remove that is to remove that darkness. Right? So that's why
what we would say is that go and learn something and on a regular
basis, learn something find the circles of Hadith and tafsir
classes, Fick classes, Aqeedah classes, and mashallah, now we
have absolutely no excuse, because things are available online, even
if locally, nothing is being disseminated. The best thing
obviously, is to join a formal class, right where you have to go
in and be there at certain times, and there's an examination and the
supervision, those are always the best because we work with more
discipline, humans work with more discipline. However, if that's not
available, or it doesn't suit your time, then there's the on demand
classes like we have Andre Yan Institute, that's essentially what
Rayyan Institute was created for, and go and check it out a yoga
institute.com I mean, go and learn something and take your whole
life, you know, take whole life, take one course a week, take one
course a month, but go and sign up and go and study something, take a
book and study them, right. But the main thing is that we need to
read and we need to learn and we need to recite and we need to
educate one one another so that we can have a more prosperous
society, exactly how Allah subhanho wa Taala has mentioned as
being as in the first revelation Jazak Allah here please remember
us in your doors may Allah subhanho wa Taala bless you all,
and till the next time in sha Allah Assalamu alaikum wa
rahmatullahi wa barakato
Jazak Allah here for listening May Allah subhanho wa Taala bless you
and if you're finding this useful, you know
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Wabarakatuh