Ali Ataie – Uniqueness & Superiority of the Qur’an

Ali Ataie
AI: Summary ©
The Quran is a source of conflict, with Sunni positions being both external and internal. The title provides insight into the church's definition of beauty and how it supports their Sunist stance. The title uses various examples of how words and rhetoric create powerful figures and world famous figures. The title also highlights the use of "will" in the Bible and the importance of historical figures and the potential for the Bible to be used for slavery. The importance of the Bible's unique structure and arrangement of words and elo sett is emphasized, as well as its use in the generation of the Bible.
AI: Transcript ©
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I'm going to speak tonight about the Quran,

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the greatness of the Quran,

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the uniqueness

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of the Quran.

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So Allah Subhanahu Wa Ta'ala says in the

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Quran that

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in the month of Ramadan, shahuramadhan.

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That it was in the month of Ramadan

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in which,

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the Quran was revealed

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to humanity.

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So this is a blessed month. It's blessed

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for a number of reasons.

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1st and foremost, because it is it marks

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the commencement of the Quranic revelation,

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to the world.

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The the biatha of the prophet Muhammad,

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the

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beginning of the revelation that came to him.

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So,

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I'm gonna talk about the Quran and I'm

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gonna talk a little bit prob maybe a

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little bit more

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academically,

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than

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than what usually probably happens on a night

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like this where it's more sort of a

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a preaching style or chutba style.

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And the reason I'm doing this is because

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there are a lot of questions about,

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the Quran lately. Of course, there are a

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lot of, you know, anti Muslim,

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you know, people on the internet, whether they're

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atheists or Christian, who are making a lot

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of claims about the Quran, who are criticizing

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the Quran

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in a polemical sort of sense.

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So I thought I'd address some of these

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issues or at least talk about the

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Quran,

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from the standpoint of,

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the

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classical scholarship.

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So, I've chosen to talk about the uniqueness

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of the Quran, right? So, the Quran itself

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issues a challenge,

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okay? This is called a tahadi,

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okay? And,

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the most recent challenge is in

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verse 23.

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Okay. If you are are if you happen

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to be in doubt about what we have

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revealed

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to our servant,

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then bring a surah like unto it, a

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chapter like unto it, and call to your

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aid,

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any whom you want,

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as as as helpers

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other than Allah if you speak the truth,

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truth.

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Right?

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And if you can't do it and you

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won't do it,

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then fear the fire whose fuel is men

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and stones

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prepared for those who reject faith.

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So, Imam Azar Kashid,

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he said that initially

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the challenge

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was to produce

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10,

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was to produce a recital, an account

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like this Quran,

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Right?

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Produce something like the whole of the Quran.

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Then it was reduced, the 10

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Finally, it was reduced to 1 surah.

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That's the last challenge being issued

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in in Medina.

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So the challenge of the Quran

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testifies

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to its ijaz, what's known as ijaz of

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the Quran,

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which is sometimes translated as the

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the insuperability

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of the Quran, the inimitability

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of the Quran. So the the proposition that

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the Quran cannot be,

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imitated.

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Of course, the word iajaz

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is a form for infinitive

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in grammar, meaning to debilitate,

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to disable,

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or to incapacitate.

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So this is this is the concept.

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The word mergiza

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is the active participle.

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In theology, it's a technical term for a

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prophetic miracle, and mergiza is a prophetic miracle

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as opposed to a karama, which is a

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saintly miracle, nonprophetic

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miracle.

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Linguistically,

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murajeeza is that which incapacitates.

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Okay, so the Koran is a murajeeza in

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the sense that

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it incapacitates

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others from producing its likeness.

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Now the first theologians to broach,

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the subject of the nature of the Quran's

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ijaz

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were probably,

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Muertazili

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theologians,

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Muertazilite.

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We call them Muertazili

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theologians. Ibrahim and Navam, for example, from Basra

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in Iraq.

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So his position, and this is the standard

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Muertazili position, is that he says if all

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the Arabs

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were left alone,

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they would have been able to compose

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pieces like those of the Koran. The aqal,

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in other words, would have been able to

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do it. So the Martazilite, they give the

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intellect a status that it doesn't it doesn't,

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deserve. And

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their position really is that the Quran, this

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is the Martezilite position, is that the Quran

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is really more like ipsissima vox,

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is more like the very voice of God.

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In other words, more like more like an

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inspired text rather than a revealed text.

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So it's kind of like what Christians believe

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about the Bible as opposed to like what

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Jews believe about,

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the Torah, Right. It's not the revealed words

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of God. In other words, God is not

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choosing the exact words,

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but rather inspiring a prophet

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to choose his own words. But the meanings

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are are given to that prophet. So that's

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it's more akin to the Muertesilie position. So

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he says if all the Arabs were left

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alone,

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they would have been able to compose pieces.

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So left alone are the operative words here.

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So the Martezidi position is that the Quran's

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jazz is

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external to its text,

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right, rather than internal. It's extrinsic

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rather

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than intrinsic. In other words, it is possible

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for the Arab poets

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to produce the likes of the Quran to

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match its unique style, to rival its eloquence,

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but Allah

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simply will not allow them to do that.

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He will deflect them from that.

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So they call it a surfa. The

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Sarfa is the deflection or the aversion.

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Okay? So Allah Subhanahu Wa Ta'ala will continue

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to incapacitate

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anyone who tries to imitate,

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the Quran from,

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from producing its likeness

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by deflecting them. So the analogy is like

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imagine there's a, there's an expert marksman. Right?

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An expert,

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archer.

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And, there's a target that's 5 feet away

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from him, just 5 feet away.

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And, so he aims at the target. He

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aims at the the target and he misses

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completely.

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And he tries it again over and over

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and over again and he can't seem to

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hit the target. He's an expert marksman.

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It's 5 feet away and he's, he does

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it a 100 times

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and he's 0 for a 100. So then

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his only conclusion must be that something is,

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something is causing me not to do this.

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Something is preventing me

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from hitting the target, right? Prevention must be

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external.

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Now, the Sunni position

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is that the ijaz

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is internal,

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okay, that it's that it's intrinsic to the

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text. In other words, it is impossible

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for the Arab poets to produce the likes,

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of the Koran. So going back to this

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archery analogy, imagine now this this expert marksman,

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he's trying to hit a target that's 500

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yards away.

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So he tries over and over and over

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again, and he he can't even get close

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to it because it's just impossible. He doesn't

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have the capacity

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to do something like that. So in this

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case, prevention is internal.

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Another analogy is like, imagine there's like a

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room and there's something, there's a book in

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this room. Let's say it's called the book

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of secrets or something. It's on a table

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and you want to get to this book

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and read it. So you go inside the

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room and you notice that there are guards

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there,

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right, that are preventing you from even touching

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the book. So you are being externally

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incapacitated.

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That's akin to the Martez Lee position.

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But now let's say another scenario, you go

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into the room and the book is there.

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So you pick it up and you open

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it and you notice that it's written in

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a strange code that you don't understand. So

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you don't under, so you can't understand it.

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Right? So now you're being internally

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incapacitated, and that's akin to the the Sunni

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position. The nature of the book itself

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incapacitates you. So the problem with the Muertesidi

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position

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is that it does not locate the miracle

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of the Quran

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within the Quran, but rather outside of the

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Quran.

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Okay. Or to put it another way, the

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Martazielite position is like it is as if

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the prophet can move his foot like normal,

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but everyone else is somehow paralyzed, which is

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abnormal.

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And that is the very definition of a

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miracle. Right. Kharkul 'Adat, which is a break

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or breach of what is customary,

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a breach of what is normal. The Sunni

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position

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is as if the prophet can walk on

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water,

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which is abnormal,

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while everyone else can't, which is normal. So

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at the end of the day, both are

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saying the same thing. Imitation of the Koran

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will not be done. Okay. So let's unpack

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this concept

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of of ijaz a bit further. According to

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some Sunni urnama,

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the ijaz of the Quran is detected through

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intuition.

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Okay?

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In other words, its impact upon the listener.

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The way that the Quran causes joy and

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tears and fear and hope. For example,

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others say no because this is subjective,

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right? It's like whose poetry is more beautiful?

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Whose poetry is more impactful? Shakespeare or Wordsworth?

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Some people will say Shakespeare. Some people might

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say Wordsworth. Well, how do you know who's

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right?

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Right. Some would say beauty is in the

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eye of the beholder.

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If you you know, most people find that

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their own children are the most beautiful children.

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That's probably because emotion gets involved

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or they see themselves in their children. So

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we need objective

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standards of beauty.

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Okay.

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Others would argue that in poetry, there is

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an objective standard,

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that Shakespeare is objectively

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more beautiful,

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more eloquent than all of the other poets.

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This is why he became the most beloved

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of all the English poets and why most

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experts say that his poetry

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is superior.

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Therefore, we also have objective standards when it

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comes to

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physical human beauty. And this might not be

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PC,

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but that's Okay.

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It's it's true. This is, you know, this

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is this is what, for example, the nursery

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rhyme Goldilocks and the 3 bears.

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That's what it's trying to teach children,

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that there's a there's a standard for beauty.

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So if you, if you look at the

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prophet

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for example,

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who is the epitome of physical beauty, right?

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He was of medium height not too, not

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too tall, not too short. Right. So that,

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you know, what's known as sort of the

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Goldilocks range. His skin was not too dark,

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not too pale. His hair was not,

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you know, wasn't curly. It wasn't straight, but

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more wavy.

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Right. His build wasn't, you know, he wasn't

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overweight. He wasn't too thin,

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put something in the middle, but he also

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had other qualities

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that are viewed probably cross culturally as being

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beautiful,

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qualities in men. For example, long eyelashes.

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He had very broad shoulders, large forearms, large

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calves.

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Right? He had an aquiline

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nose, which is highly desirable across different, different

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cultures.

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Okay,

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so, so there's, there's,

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there's this objective standard of physical beauty. So

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with respect to the Quran, then this intuitive

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sort of I feel it approach did not

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work for many Sunni

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scholars.

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Right? So people were definitely

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intuiting the Quran's beauty. There's no doubt about

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that.

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People were definitely intuiting the beauty, but scholars

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wanted to know why exactly that was happening,

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right? Just as if you if you saw

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the prophet sallallahu alaihi wa sallam,

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right, you would be overcome,

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overwhelmed by his beauty.

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And you can tell me why

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you were overcome. You specifically tell me why

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he was so,

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so beautiful.

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Okay.

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Now,

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now before we get to that, popular among

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Sunnimutukalimum,

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right, so like the scholastic or discursive theologians,

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was what could be called circumstantial

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evidence.

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So circumstantial evidence is evidence

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that relies on an inference or deduction

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to connect it to a fact or conclusion.

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In other words, indirect evidence,

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like fingerprints at a crime scene as opposed

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to like direct

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evidence, as opposed to like an eyewitness who

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saw an actual crime,

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right. So the Mutakali Mouin mentioned 2 pieces

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of circumstantial evidence.

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So number 1, they say the Arabs had

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reached the peak of their language

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in 7th century Arabia.

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Right. The Hejaz in the late antiquity was

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the height of Arabic.

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Poetry was their pride and joy.

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Right. They have the 7 hanging odes, right?

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Al Mu'alakaat

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at Sabru at the annual festival

00:13:51 --> 00:13:53

at a town called Urqab, just outside of

00:13:53 --> 00:13:54

Mecca.

00:13:54 --> 00:13:55

The Arab poets

00:13:56 --> 00:13:58

would have taken the challenge of the prophet

00:14:00 --> 00:14:01

very, very, very seriously.

00:14:11 --> 00:14:13

Of their culture, he was claiming prophecy,

00:14:14 --> 00:14:15

right? However,

00:14:16 --> 00:14:19

they broke their, their, their custom of normal

00:14:19 --> 00:14:20

behavior.

00:14:21 --> 00:14:23

They broke their custom of normal behavior

00:14:24 --> 00:14:27

and persecuted and fought against the prophet sallallahu

00:14:27 --> 00:14:30

alaihi wasallam. So this fact supports the notion

00:14:30 --> 00:14:31

that they immediately

00:14:32 --> 00:14:33

recognized the superiority

00:14:33 --> 00:14:34

of the Koran

00:14:35 --> 00:14:37

and simply knew that they couldn't answer the

00:14:37 --> 00:14:37

challenge.

00:14:38 --> 00:14:41

So this piece of circumstantial evidence supports the

00:14:41 --> 00:14:44

Sunni position of the Quran's internal

00:14:44 --> 00:14:45

incapacitating

00:14:45 --> 00:14:46

mechanism.

00:14:47 --> 00:14:48

Okay, or maybe

00:14:49 --> 00:14:51

they tried to imitate the Koran,

00:14:51 --> 00:14:53

right? You hear the Koran, you think this

00:14:53 --> 00:14:54

is beautiful.

00:14:54 --> 00:14:56

And they thought to themselves,

00:14:56 --> 00:14:58

we can rival this. It's kind of like

00:14:58 --> 00:14:58

when,

00:14:59 --> 00:15:01

when you watch an expert calligrapher and he

00:15:01 --> 00:15:03

makes it look so easy and you think,

00:15:03 --> 00:15:05

well, I can do that. This looks easy.

00:15:06 --> 00:15:07

Right? Then you try to do it and

00:15:07 --> 00:15:10

you you it's not even close. So maybe

00:15:10 --> 00:15:11

they tried to imitate the Quran,

00:15:12 --> 00:15:13

but yet they failed

00:15:13 --> 00:15:14

consistently

00:15:14 --> 00:15:15

and collectively.

00:15:16 --> 00:15:18

So this kind of supports the Muertazili

00:15:18 --> 00:15:20

position of an external incapacitating

00:15:21 --> 00:15:22

mechanism.

00:15:22 --> 00:15:25

In a verse that supports this position, as

00:15:25 --> 00:15:26

Allah Subhanahu Wa Ta'ala says,

00:15:34 --> 00:15:34

When when

00:15:35 --> 00:15:37

when our signs are rehearsed

00:15:37 --> 00:15:38

to them, they say,

00:15:39 --> 00:15:41

indeed, we have heard it. And if we

00:15:41 --> 00:15:43

wanted, we could say the like of that.

00:15:43 --> 00:15:45

We could say the likes of it as

00:15:45 --> 00:15:45

well.

00:15:46 --> 00:15:48

Right? So Kaldi Iyad, he mentions he has

00:15:48 --> 00:15:49

a section,

00:15:50 --> 00:15:53

in in in his book on the on

00:15:53 --> 00:15:54

the and he says that there was a

00:15:54 --> 00:15:57

poet named Yahya ibn Hakam al Ghazal

00:15:57 --> 00:15:59

who was, the foremost,

00:15:59 --> 00:16:01

of the poets in Andalusia.

00:16:02 --> 00:16:04

And he wanted to create something like Suratul

00:16:04 --> 00:16:04

Ikhlas.

00:16:05 --> 00:16:07

So he began to work on it. And

00:16:07 --> 00:16:09

then he says, suddenly an incredible

00:16:10 --> 00:16:13

sense of terror came over me. It moved

00:16:13 --> 00:16:15

me to regret and repentance.

00:16:16 --> 00:16:19

Okay. So that's the first piece of circumstantial

00:16:19 --> 00:16:20

evidence

00:16:20 --> 00:16:21

is that

00:16:22 --> 00:16:24

is that the Arabs, it appears that the

00:16:24 --> 00:16:25

Arabs

00:16:25 --> 00:16:26

just,

00:16:26 --> 00:16:27

they immediately,

00:16:29 --> 00:16:29

immediately

00:16:29 --> 00:16:31

began to persecute the prophet

00:16:32 --> 00:16:35

rather than what would have been

00:16:35 --> 00:16:38

expected of them to take the challenge of

00:16:38 --> 00:16:39

the Prophet

00:16:40 --> 00:16:42

very, very seriously and attempt to

00:16:42 --> 00:16:44

answer the challenge. And then eventually, of course,

00:16:44 --> 00:16:46

the greatest living Arab poets,

00:16:47 --> 00:16:48

all of them, became

00:16:49 --> 00:16:51

Muslim. All of them eventually confessed

00:16:52 --> 00:16:53

to the Koran's superiority,

00:16:54 --> 00:16:55

whether it's Hassan ibn Ufabbat

00:16:55 --> 00:16:56

or Abdullah

00:16:57 --> 00:16:57

ibn Rawaha,

00:16:58 --> 00:17:01

Kab ibn Zuhair, even the great Labid

00:17:01 --> 00:17:03

even the Rabi'ah, all of them at some

00:17:03 --> 00:17:06

point threw their hands into the air and

00:17:06 --> 00:17:08

said that we cannot even come close to

00:17:08 --> 00:17:09

anything

00:17:10 --> 00:17:10

like this.

00:17:11 --> 00:17:14

And then the second piece of indirect evidence

00:17:14 --> 00:17:16

is that the Quran has since not been

00:17:16 --> 00:17:17

successfully

00:17:17 --> 00:17:17

imitated.

00:17:19 --> 00:17:19

Okay.

00:17:20 --> 00:17:22

And, and several modern

00:17:22 --> 00:17:25

Arab Christians have attempted to do this.

00:17:25 --> 00:17:26

And their attempts

00:17:26 --> 00:17:27

are

00:17:27 --> 00:17:29

their attempts have been laughingly

00:17:30 --> 00:17:30

pathetic.

00:17:33 --> 00:17:35

So nothing even comes close. So then the

00:17:35 --> 00:17:37

two points, the two pieces then of indirect

00:17:37 --> 00:17:40

evidence, just to recap, are that the Arabs

00:17:40 --> 00:17:42

at the time could not produce its likeness,

00:17:42 --> 00:17:46

Right? The greatest poets became Muslim and the

00:17:46 --> 00:17:49

Arabs since that time have not produced

00:17:49 --> 00:17:50

its likeness.

00:17:51 --> 00:17:55

Now, many many medieval Sunni theologians were not

00:17:55 --> 00:17:57

satisfied with this type of indirect evidence

00:17:58 --> 00:17:59

primarily because

00:18:00 --> 00:18:02

the Muertazil could also argue these points to

00:18:02 --> 00:18:03

support

00:18:04 --> 00:18:06

the Sarfa that the Koran has

00:18:07 --> 00:18:07

an external

00:18:08 --> 00:18:08

incapacitating

00:18:10 --> 00:18:10

mechanism.

00:18:11 --> 00:18:13

So they sought direct evidence of the Koran's

00:18:13 --> 00:18:14

ijaz,

00:18:14 --> 00:18:16

and they believed that this could be done

00:18:16 --> 00:18:17

from a literary

00:18:17 --> 00:18:18

standpoint.

00:18:18 --> 00:18:22

Okay, so the 3 major classical Sunni authorities

00:18:22 --> 00:18:23

who undertook this task

00:18:24 --> 00:18:26

were called the Abu Bakr al Baqilani. Right?

00:18:26 --> 00:18:28

His book is called The Ajaasul Quran.

00:18:28 --> 00:18:30

You have Abdul Qahir al Jorjani,

00:18:34 --> 00:18:36

and then you have Ibu Jazay Al Kalbi

00:18:36 --> 00:18:37

in his book

00:18:39 --> 00:18:40

Okay.

00:18:40 --> 00:18:43

Al Batilani Al Georgiani Al Kalbi.

00:18:43 --> 00:18:46

According to these classical Sunni urnama, it is

00:18:46 --> 00:18:48

unique stylistics

00:18:48 --> 00:18:49

what are called asalib,

00:18:50 --> 00:18:54

unique stylistics and unmatched eloquence balaga

00:18:54 --> 00:18:57

which is at the seat of the Quran's

00:18:57 --> 00:18:57

ijaz.

00:18:58 --> 00:19:00

So by unmatched eloquence, they mean that the

00:19:00 --> 00:19:02

Quran is objectively

00:19:02 --> 00:19:04

more eloquent than the poets.

00:19:04 --> 00:19:06

Okay. So like Musa, alayhis salaam,

00:19:06 --> 00:19:09

he confounded the sorcerers with his, you know,

00:19:09 --> 00:19:11

white magic. It was objectively

00:19:11 --> 00:19:15

superior, objectively more powerful. Isa, alayhis salam, confounded

00:19:15 --> 00:19:15

the

00:19:16 --> 00:19:18

physicians and healers of his day with his

00:19:19 --> 00:19:22

ability to heal people, his quote unquote medicine.

00:19:22 --> 00:19:23

The prophet

00:19:23 --> 00:19:25

then confounded the poet Ashura

00:19:26 --> 00:19:28

of his day with his style and eloquence.

00:19:29 --> 00:19:32

So with respect to eloquence, what makes a

00:19:32 --> 00:19:32

speaker

00:19:33 --> 00:19:34

more eloquent than others?

00:19:35 --> 00:19:36

So his

00:19:37 --> 00:19:38

superior choice of words

00:19:39 --> 00:19:41

and his clear and concise communication.

00:19:42 --> 00:19:44

Okay. This is what makes his words more

00:19:44 --> 00:19:44

powerful,

00:19:45 --> 00:19:45

more interesting,

00:19:46 --> 00:19:47

more motivating,

00:19:48 --> 00:19:49

more persuasive

00:19:50 --> 00:19:53

and more memorable, I. E. More impactful.

00:19:53 --> 00:19:55

So eloquent speakers make an impact

00:19:56 --> 00:19:57

upon the heart and mind.

00:19:59 --> 00:20:01

Okay, so let's start with albarkilani.

00:20:01 --> 00:20:02

So albarkilani,

00:20:02 --> 00:20:04

he said that the style, the uslub of

00:20:04 --> 00:20:05

the Quran

00:20:06 --> 00:20:07

defies classification,

00:20:08 --> 00:20:10

right? It has unclassifiability,

00:20:11 --> 00:20:13

as he puts it. In other words, it

00:20:13 --> 00:20:17

broke the custom of the existing literary norms

00:20:17 --> 00:20:19

that were known to the Arabs at that

00:20:19 --> 00:20:20

time.

00:20:20 --> 00:20:22

So the hark of the adat,

00:20:22 --> 00:20:24

right, the breach of,

00:20:24 --> 00:20:26

of what is customary

00:20:27 --> 00:20:28

was not only

00:20:28 --> 00:20:30

external to the text with this initial sort

00:20:30 --> 00:20:31

of Arab

00:20:31 --> 00:20:34

reaction to the text to fight the prophet

00:20:34 --> 00:20:35

but it was preeminently

00:20:36 --> 00:20:37

internal to the text.

00:20:38 --> 00:20:39

Right? The Quran's unique,

00:20:40 --> 00:20:41

you know, abnormal,

00:20:41 --> 00:20:42

uncustomary

00:20:42 --> 00:20:43

style.

00:20:43 --> 00:20:45

The Quran is an amazingly

00:20:46 --> 00:20:46

eloquent

00:20:47 --> 00:20:47

and

00:20:48 --> 00:20:49

masterful fusion,

00:20:53 --> 00:20:53

fusion

00:20:54 --> 00:20:56

of, of, of poetry and prose,

00:20:57 --> 00:21:00

right, with, with incredible rhetoric as well.

00:21:00 --> 00:21:01

Okay.

00:21:02 --> 00:21:05

And there's there's actually no record of any

00:21:05 --> 00:21:06

poet at the time of the prophet

00:21:07 --> 00:21:08

actually answering

00:21:09 --> 00:21:10

the challenge.

00:21:11 --> 00:21:12

The Quran is

00:21:13 --> 00:21:16

an ocean of rhetoric. I mean, sometimes a

00:21:16 --> 00:21:17

college student will feel good if he uses

00:21:17 --> 00:21:19

1 or 2 sort of rhetorical devices in

00:21:19 --> 00:21:21

a in a research paper. The Koran is

00:21:21 --> 00:21:24

just it's full of hundreds and hundreds of

00:21:24 --> 00:21:25

rhetorical devices,

00:21:26 --> 00:21:27

an ocean of rhetoric.

00:21:28 --> 00:21:31

So its miracle was the creation of a

00:21:31 --> 00:21:31

new,

00:21:32 --> 00:21:32

unidentifiable

00:21:33 --> 00:21:34

and inimitable

00:21:34 --> 00:21:35

genre of expression.

00:21:36 --> 00:21:39

Okay. The Koran style is sui generis,

00:21:39 --> 00:21:41

right, which means it's in a class

00:21:42 --> 00:21:44

of its own, totally outside human forms of

00:21:44 --> 00:21:44

literature.

00:21:45 --> 00:21:48

Okay. So it may include familiar rhetorical elements

00:21:48 --> 00:21:49

like

00:21:49 --> 00:21:50

and like

00:21:51 --> 00:21:51

metaphor

00:21:52 --> 00:21:52

and hyperbole

00:21:53 --> 00:21:54

and like simile,

00:21:54 --> 00:21:57

but only to assimilate them into this unclassifiable

00:21:58 --> 00:21:58

otherness.

00:21:59 --> 00:22:02

Al Baqalani compares the ayat to the Quran.

00:22:03 --> 00:22:05

He compares them to the abiad of the

00:22:05 --> 00:22:05

ashar,

00:22:06 --> 00:22:06

the

00:22:07 --> 00:22:10

verses of the greatest of the Arab poets.

00:22:10 --> 00:22:12

And he points out that the Quran has

00:22:12 --> 00:22:14

no weak verses. No verse

00:22:14 --> 00:22:17

in the Quran can be improved rhetorically, whereas

00:22:18 --> 00:22:20

all poems have a weak verse here and

00:22:20 --> 00:22:22

there. Right? For example, like to be or

00:22:22 --> 00:22:24

not to be, that is the question. That's

00:22:24 --> 00:22:28

from Shakespeare's Hamlet. No improvement is possible there.

00:22:28 --> 00:22:30

Right. But there are some verses that can

00:22:30 --> 00:22:32

be improved. So Baqalani says that all Jahali

00:22:33 --> 00:22:34

all Jahali poets,

00:22:35 --> 00:22:37

some of their lines

00:22:37 --> 00:22:40

can be improved, whereas nothing of the Koran

00:22:40 --> 00:22:41

can be improved.

00:22:43 --> 00:22:45

So the Arabs could not find a literary

00:22:45 --> 00:22:47

form to which the Koran corresponded. Right.

00:22:50 --> 00:22:50

Is

00:22:52 --> 00:22:53

this shihr?

00:22:54 --> 00:22:54

Is this magic? Is this quihanna? Is this

00:22:54 --> 00:22:55

shihr? Is this shihr? Is this poetry?

00:22:56 --> 00:22:58

Right? Is this is this magic? Is this

00:22:58 --> 00:23:01

is this a type of like fortune telling

00:23:02 --> 00:23:04

or or sooth saying? Because the diviners,

00:23:05 --> 00:23:07

the fortune tellers, the Quran,

00:23:07 --> 00:23:09

they would they would speak their sort of

00:23:09 --> 00:23:11

predictions in something called Sajjad,

00:23:11 --> 00:23:12

which is rhymed,

00:23:13 --> 00:23:15

rhymed prose. And the Quran

00:23:16 --> 00:23:18

is not exactly Sajjad.

00:23:19 --> 00:23:22

It's it's transcended. It's it's different. It's unique.

00:23:22 --> 00:23:24

They would say, are these sort of fictional

00:23:24 --> 00:23:26

tales of the ancients, Asatirul Awaleem?

00:23:27 --> 00:23:31

Right, they couldn't identify the Quran's literary form.

00:23:32 --> 00:23:32

Okay.

00:23:35 --> 00:23:37

So, that's al Baqilani. Now, al Gourjani,

00:23:38 --> 00:23:40

he seeks to map out a definitive

00:23:40 --> 00:23:43

paradigm for understanding the Quran's inimitable eloquence.

00:23:44 --> 00:23:45

So he downplays

00:23:46 --> 00:23:48

intuition and subjective responses.

00:23:48 --> 00:23:51

He also downplays circumstantial evidence,

00:23:52 --> 00:23:54

as a testimony to the Quran's inimitability,

00:23:55 --> 00:23:57

and he sets out to establish the case

00:23:57 --> 00:23:58

on purely

00:23:58 --> 00:23:59

literary

00:23:59 --> 00:24:00

grounds.

00:24:00 --> 00:24:01

Okay.

00:24:03 --> 00:24:05

So he argues that the Arabs,

00:24:05 --> 00:24:08

they were initially dazzled and struck into wonderment

00:24:09 --> 00:24:11

by the Koran. Jurjani uses the Arabs' initial

00:24:11 --> 00:24:12

reaction as

00:24:13 --> 00:24:14

a proof against the Sarfa.

00:24:15 --> 00:24:17

Right? Their their reaction wasn't

00:24:17 --> 00:24:19

that's nice, but we can do that. No.

00:24:19 --> 00:24:21

It was a state of utter bewilderment. Right?

00:24:21 --> 00:24:24

Ibn Hisham relates the story of Alwaleed, Ibn

00:24:24 --> 00:24:24

Mughara,

00:24:25 --> 00:24:27

arguably the greatest living poet at the time,

00:24:27 --> 00:24:28

that he was absolutely

00:24:28 --> 00:24:30

awestruck by the qara'a of the prophet

00:24:31 --> 00:24:33

And he went back to his people and

00:24:33 --> 00:24:35

he said, this conquers and destroys everything that

00:24:35 --> 00:24:37

came before it of poetry. And then he

00:24:37 --> 00:24:38

said to the people as well, to the

00:24:38 --> 00:24:40

Quraysh, he said, this is not his regular

00:24:40 --> 00:24:42

speech. This is something else.

00:24:42 --> 00:24:44

And then, you know, peer pressure got to

00:24:44 --> 00:24:46

him and eventually caved in. And his story

00:24:46 --> 00:24:47

is told

00:24:47 --> 00:24:48

in the Koran.

00:24:49 --> 00:24:49

For Jurjani,

00:24:50 --> 00:24:50

the Koran's

00:24:52 --> 00:24:52

style,

00:24:53 --> 00:24:53

composition,

00:24:54 --> 00:24:56

arrangement of words and eloquence is beyond human

00:24:56 --> 00:24:57

capacity.

00:24:58 --> 00:24:59

And like Paqilani,

00:24:59 --> 00:25:02

he demonstrates this by comparing various poems written

00:25:02 --> 00:25:05

by the greatest of the Arab poets with

00:25:05 --> 00:25:07

the with the ayat of the Quran and

00:25:07 --> 00:25:07

concludes

00:25:08 --> 00:25:10

that the latter are objectively

00:25:10 --> 00:25:10

superior.

00:25:11 --> 00:25:14

Okay. And then finally, ibn Juzay al Kalbi,

00:25:14 --> 00:25:17

he said that the Quran's ijaz has 10

00:25:17 --> 00:25:17

elements.

00:25:18 --> 00:25:21

Number 1, its eloquence is above any human

00:25:21 --> 00:25:21

speech.

00:25:22 --> 00:25:24

You can say here that it's impact.

00:25:24 --> 00:25:25

Right? It's impact

00:25:25 --> 00:25:28

for better or worse. Right? Like the Koran

00:25:31 --> 00:25:31

says,

00:25:35 --> 00:25:37

that when you when you mention

00:25:37 --> 00:25:39

your Lord in the Quran,

00:25:39 --> 00:25:41

the oneness of your Lord in the Quran,

00:25:41 --> 00:25:44

they turn they turn back in aversion.

00:25:44 --> 00:25:45

And And this is a question it's an

00:25:45 --> 00:25:47

interesting question that sometimes we get is if

00:25:47 --> 00:25:49

the Quran is if the Quran is so

00:25:49 --> 00:25:51

eloquent, then why didn't all of the Arabs

00:25:52 --> 00:25:54

believe in it as a divine revelation? Why

00:25:54 --> 00:25:57

didn't Abu Jahl, for example, believe it was

00:25:57 --> 00:25:59

a divine revelation? Well, first and foremost, the

00:25:59 --> 00:26:02

Quran is calling to a moral life.

00:26:02 --> 00:26:05

It's calling towards a certain type of life,

00:26:05 --> 00:26:06

right, a certain type of ethic.

00:26:07 --> 00:26:07

Okay.

00:26:08 --> 00:26:10

So if people don't want to change their

00:26:10 --> 00:26:12

lives, it doesn't matter how beautiful or how

00:26:12 --> 00:26:12

eloquent

00:26:13 --> 00:26:14

the message is.

00:26:15 --> 00:26:17

They're not going to believe in it. They're

00:26:17 --> 00:26:19

not going to, to follow it.

00:26:21 --> 00:26:23

Okay. The very sound of the

00:26:23 --> 00:26:24

Quran raptures

00:26:24 --> 00:26:25

non Arabs

00:26:26 --> 00:26:29

and non Muslims as well. Kadi Iyad relates

00:26:29 --> 00:26:31

in his book that

00:26:31 --> 00:26:34

it's reported that Christians heard the Koran and

00:26:34 --> 00:26:35

began to weep.

00:26:35 --> 00:26:37

So Yuti said that several people several people

00:26:37 --> 00:26:40

died when they heard the Koran of the

00:26:40 --> 00:26:42

Koran. I'll tell you this from experience. My

00:26:42 --> 00:26:43

college roommate, who was a Catholic,

00:26:44 --> 00:26:46

I played the Koran for him in the

00:26:46 --> 00:26:46

car,

00:26:47 --> 00:26:50

recitation by Sa'ad al Ghammidi of Surat Yousuf.

00:26:50 --> 00:26:51

And he just kind of sat there and

00:26:51 --> 00:26:53

he was, he had a strange look on

00:26:53 --> 00:26:55

it. And he was literally awestruck by it.

00:26:55 --> 00:26:57

And he told me later that he just

00:26:57 --> 00:26:59

he was thinking about it and,

00:26:59 --> 00:27:01

he eventually ended up

00:27:02 --> 00:27:04

making his shahada a few days later. And

00:27:04 --> 00:27:06

he said one of the one of the,

00:27:07 --> 00:27:08

the key moments,

00:27:09 --> 00:27:11

pivotal moments that led him to that decision

00:27:11 --> 00:27:14

was just hearing the Koran. There are actually

00:27:14 --> 00:27:17

dozens and dozens of Koran reaction videos on

00:27:17 --> 00:27:19

YouTube, by the way. Some of these have

00:27:19 --> 00:27:20

millions of views.

00:27:21 --> 00:27:25

Okay. Christians, atheists, agnostics listening to the Koran,

00:27:25 --> 00:27:26

you see people's jaws drop.

00:27:26 --> 00:27:28

They start weeping profusely.

00:27:29 --> 00:27:30

You know, this guy, he let his little

00:27:30 --> 00:27:33

baby listen to the Quran. His baby stopped

00:27:33 --> 00:27:33

crying.

00:27:34 --> 00:27:34

You know,

00:27:35 --> 00:27:36

I asked one of my teachers about this

00:27:36 --> 00:27:38

and he said, this is because

00:27:38 --> 00:27:41

their tongues are Ajami, but their hearts

00:27:41 --> 00:27:41

are Arabi,

00:27:42 --> 00:27:43

right? The heart, the soul

00:27:44 --> 00:27:44

understands

00:27:45 --> 00:27:47

what the mind can't.

00:27:47 --> 00:27:49

Right. And it speaks to the fitzra, the

00:27:49 --> 00:27:51

word of God. It speaks to the human

00:27:51 --> 00:27:53

beings. So so definitely, you know, these people

00:27:53 --> 00:27:55

are intuiting something about the Koran.

00:27:56 --> 00:27:57

And that's and that's

00:27:58 --> 00:28:00

very, very apparent. So that's number 1. It's

00:28:00 --> 00:28:02

eloquence is above human speech. And then he

00:28:02 --> 00:28:04

says the unique arrangement of the ayat and

00:28:04 --> 00:28:05

the suar,

00:28:05 --> 00:28:07

like the structure of the Koran

00:28:07 --> 00:28:09

at the micro and macro levels.

00:28:10 --> 00:28:11

So if you look at something, for example,

00:28:11 --> 00:28:13

one eye, Ayatul Kursi, if you look at

00:28:13 --> 00:28:15

this eye and break it down, it's a

00:28:15 --> 00:28:16

chiasmus.

00:28:16 --> 00:28:19

It has sort of a concentric composition.

00:28:19 --> 00:28:21

But this is also true if you look

00:28:21 --> 00:28:22

at, for example,

00:28:22 --> 00:28:25

larger suwari. Look at Al Baqarah. There's a

00:28:25 --> 00:28:26

book written by,

00:28:27 --> 00:28:29

I believe, Raymond Farron on Surat Al Baqarah.

00:28:29 --> 00:28:31

He says the entire surah

00:28:31 --> 00:28:33

is is has has a symmetry to the

00:28:33 --> 00:28:34

entire Surah, 286

00:28:35 --> 00:28:35

verses.

00:28:36 --> 00:28:38

Michelle Kuper is another. These are non Muslim

00:28:39 --> 00:28:40

scholars of the Koran. You can call them

00:28:40 --> 00:28:43

Orientalists if you want, but phenomenal work they're

00:28:43 --> 00:28:44

doing. He did a book on Surat Al

00:28:44 --> 00:28:46

Ma'ida, Michel Kuipers,

00:28:46 --> 00:28:48

where he looks at the incredible

00:28:49 --> 00:28:49

composition

00:28:50 --> 00:28:51

and symmetry

00:28:51 --> 00:28:53

of Surat Al Maida.

00:28:54 --> 00:28:55

And of course, in our tradition as well,

00:28:55 --> 00:28:56

you have people like Islahi

00:28:57 --> 00:28:58

and Al Farahi,

00:28:58 --> 00:29:01

coherence in the Koran, looking at the coherence,

00:29:01 --> 00:29:02

looking at the composition.

00:29:02 --> 00:29:04

I mean, this is just sort of something

00:29:04 --> 00:29:06

that is getting off the ground nowadays. I

00:29:06 --> 00:29:08

mean, there's going to be a lot of

00:29:08 --> 00:29:10

literature coming out of the academy, at least

00:29:10 --> 00:29:11

there should be, on this topic.

00:29:11 --> 00:29:13

So, the unique arrangement of the Ayat and

00:29:13 --> 00:29:15

the Sur, of course, Fakhruddin al Razi writes

00:29:15 --> 00:29:18

about this as well. Number 3, he says,

00:29:18 --> 00:29:19

al Kabi says, juseyiminu

00:29:20 --> 00:29:21

jusey al Kabi, the incapacitation

00:29:22 --> 00:29:24

of the Arabs to produce something similar

00:29:24 --> 00:29:26

at that time as well as thereafter.

00:29:28 --> 00:29:30

Number 4, the stories of the Koran, which

00:29:30 --> 00:29:31

could not have been known to the prophet

00:29:32 --> 00:29:33

We say maybe he knew about the exodus

00:29:33 --> 00:29:35

and the like the flood or the deluge.

00:29:35 --> 00:29:37

But there are things in the Koran that

00:29:37 --> 00:29:40

could not have been known. It's specialized knowledge,

00:29:40 --> 00:29:41

like from Talmudic tradition.

00:29:42 --> 00:29:44

Right? These are things that are known through

00:29:44 --> 00:29:47

initiatic chains of transmission passed down from, like,

00:29:47 --> 00:29:50

rabbi to student, rabbi to student. How does

00:29:50 --> 00:29:51

he know those things?

00:29:51 --> 00:29:53

Number 5, the predictions of the Koran that

00:29:53 --> 00:29:55

came true, like the defeat of the Persians

00:29:55 --> 00:29:57

within a few years.

00:29:57 --> 00:29:58

Number 6, the perfect

00:29:59 --> 00:29:59

theological

00:30:00 --> 00:30:03

orthodoxy espoused by the Quran, the Tawhid of

00:30:03 --> 00:30:05

Allah restored and refined.

00:30:05 --> 00:30:07

Right. Or as Imam Al Razi says, which

00:30:08 --> 00:30:09

is between tashbih

00:30:10 --> 00:30:11

of the Christians and the tateel of the

00:30:11 --> 00:30:12

Jews.

00:30:13 --> 00:30:15

Right? The confirmation of the wahtaniyah

00:30:15 --> 00:30:16

and ahadiyah of

00:30:17 --> 00:30:18

Allah, rejection of tethbih,

00:30:19 --> 00:30:20

rejection of the trinity,

00:30:21 --> 00:30:23

right? The perfect theological orthodoxy.

00:30:23 --> 00:30:26

Number 7, the superior akham and akhlaq, the

00:30:26 --> 00:30:27

laws and morals

00:30:28 --> 00:30:30

espoused by the Quran, its prescribed orthopraxis,

00:30:31 --> 00:30:34

as well as its what's known as trajectory

00:30:34 --> 00:30:34

hermeneutics

00:30:35 --> 00:30:38

with respect to its laws, that the Quran

00:30:38 --> 00:30:39

clearly is moving toward

00:30:40 --> 00:30:42

the abolition of slavery.

00:30:42 --> 00:30:44

I mean, that's it's very, very clear. I

00:30:44 --> 00:30:46

think if you if you engage with the

00:30:46 --> 00:30:48

Quran and you engage with the sunnah, I

00:30:48 --> 00:30:51

mean, Islam initially abolished all forms of slavery

00:30:51 --> 00:30:53

except through war. I mean, people in the

00:30:53 --> 00:30:54

Jahali time, if someone owed you money, you

00:30:54 --> 00:30:56

can make them their their you can make

00:30:56 --> 00:30:58

them your slave. You can just go and

00:30:58 --> 00:30:59

raid

00:30:59 --> 00:31:00

a town unprovoked,

00:31:01 --> 00:31:02

not as not not as a,

00:31:03 --> 00:31:05

a defense sort of maneuver, not as a,

00:31:06 --> 00:31:08

as a, what's known as

00:31:09 --> 00:31:09

a,

00:31:10 --> 00:31:11

a preeminent strike.

00:31:12 --> 00:31:13

But,

00:31:13 --> 00:31:15

but just just going and raiding a town

00:31:15 --> 00:31:17

and taking people as slaves.

00:31:17 --> 00:31:19

So all of these were abolished in Islam

00:31:19 --> 00:31:21

except, except through war. It's called the rik.

00:31:21 --> 00:31:22

It's not called Urbudiyyah.

00:31:23 --> 00:31:25

Right. It's more of a type of indentured

00:31:25 --> 00:31:29

servitude. The purpose was to reintegrate really people

00:31:29 --> 00:31:29

into

00:31:30 --> 00:31:32

the society at large. But one can make

00:31:32 --> 00:31:33

a strong argument

00:31:33 --> 00:31:36

that the Koran is moving towards the total

00:31:36 --> 00:31:37

abolition

00:31:37 --> 00:31:39

of slavery that's called trajectory

00:31:40 --> 00:31:40

hermeneutics,

00:31:41 --> 00:31:42

preemptive strike. That's what I was trying to

00:31:42 --> 00:31:46

say earlier. Number 8, the divinely or providentially

00:31:46 --> 00:31:48

preserved text of the Koran,

00:31:49 --> 00:31:49

Right?

00:31:50 --> 00:31:52

That that there are 10 qira'at of the

00:31:52 --> 00:31:54

Quran. All of them are multiply attested. You

00:31:54 --> 00:31:56

know, you find these videos made by Christians

00:31:56 --> 00:31:58

and this version of the the duri

00:31:59 --> 00:32:01

is different than the havestan, you know,

00:32:01 --> 00:32:03

so they conclude that the Quran has not

00:32:03 --> 00:32:05

been preserved. They don't know the basis. They

00:32:05 --> 00:32:07

don't know the foundations of Ulum and Quran,

00:32:07 --> 00:32:10

that there are 10 qira'at of the Quran.

00:32:10 --> 00:32:12

All of them are multiply attested. All of

00:32:12 --> 00:32:13

them

00:32:13 --> 00:32:15

have have chains of transmission that go back

00:32:15 --> 00:32:16

to the prophet

00:32:17 --> 00:32:19

And these are the same all around the

00:32:19 --> 00:32:20

world for 14 centuries.

00:32:21 --> 00:32:23

Number 9, the ease by which the Koran

00:32:23 --> 00:32:25

is memorized. This is incredible. We have 10

00:32:25 --> 00:32:27

year old her father of the Koran.

00:32:28 --> 00:32:28

The

00:32:29 --> 00:32:31

Koran says we have made this Koran

00:32:32 --> 00:32:34

easy to memorize. And of course, number 10,

00:32:34 --> 00:32:36

finally, the incredible polyvalence

00:32:37 --> 00:32:38

of the text of the Koran, that it

00:32:38 --> 00:32:40

is multilayered in its meaning,

00:32:41 --> 00:32:42

as well as the fact that the that

00:32:42 --> 00:32:44

the reader never tires

00:32:44 --> 00:32:47

of reading the text year after year, decade

00:32:47 --> 00:32:49

after decade. So these are just some of

00:32:49 --> 00:32:50

the things I wanted to mention

00:32:50 --> 00:32:52

about the incredible uniqueness

00:32:52 --> 00:32:54

of our scripture, of the Koran.

00:32:55 --> 00:32:57

And, you know, we should be engaged

00:32:58 --> 00:33:00

with the Quran on a daily basis.

00:33:01 --> 00:33:04

This is something that is commanded in the

00:33:04 --> 00:33:04

Quran.

00:33:06 --> 00:33:08

Of the Quran means to really penetrate the

00:33:08 --> 00:33:10

meanings of the Quran. But not just the

00:33:10 --> 00:33:12

meanings, not just memorizing,

00:33:13 --> 00:33:15

but engaging in a deep level,

00:33:17 --> 00:33:19

studying the Quran, its relevance in the world

00:33:19 --> 00:33:20

today,

00:33:20 --> 00:33:22

understanding that there's 2 types of discourse in

00:33:22 --> 00:33:25

the Quran. There's 2 types of kitab. There's

00:33:25 --> 00:33:27

a kitab of taklief and a kitab of

00:33:27 --> 00:33:29

of wadah. There's a situational discourse of the

00:33:29 --> 00:33:31

Koran that may affect some of its akham

00:33:32 --> 00:33:34

depending on circumstances. So this is a very

00:33:34 --> 00:33:36

deep study that we need to engage in

00:33:38 --> 00:33:40

that is now becoming necessary for more and

00:33:40 --> 00:33:43

more people because the Koran is constantly under

00:33:43 --> 00:33:43

attack.

00:33:44 --> 00:33:45

So I pray that Allah

00:33:46 --> 00:33:47

accepts our fasting

00:33:48 --> 00:33:50

and our prayers. I accept that Allah

00:33:51 --> 00:33:54

I pray that Allah Subhanahu Wa Ta'ala accepts

00:33:54 --> 00:33:55

everything we do

00:33:55 --> 00:33:57

for his sake and purify our intentions. May

00:33:57 --> 00:34:00

Allah Subhanahu Wa Ta'ala bless all of you.

00:34:00 --> 00:34:01

Have a good Eid,

00:34:02 --> 00:34:03

and we'll see you soon inshallah.

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