Ali Hammuda – The QurAn In The 21St Century – A Timeless Guidance – Winter Conference London
AI: Summary ©
The Q Chevrolet of the Prophet. The Q Chevrolet of the Prophet is a complex and tragic experience that has impacted people, including deaths, joy, and family. The Q Chevrolet of the Prophet provides examples of powerful figures and recounts tragic events. The Q Chevrolet of the Prophet has been designed to address painful and painful moments, and it has been a positive book that provided insight into the spiritual experiences of the Muslims. The Q Chevrolet of the Prophet has been a positive book that has provided insight into the spiritual experiences of the Muslims, and it has been used to describe issues and problems, such as abuse, violence, and abuse of drugs. The Q Chevrolet of the Prophet has been designed to address painful and painful moments, and it has been a positive book that has provided insight into the spiritual experiences of the Muslims.
AI: Summary ©
As-salāmu ʿalaykum wa raḥmatullāhi wa barakātuh.
Al-ḥamdu liLlāhi wa ḥidahu wa ṣ-ṣalātu
wa s-salāmu ʿalā man lā nabiyyā baʿdahu
wa ʿalā ālihi wa ṣ-ṣaḥbihi ajma'īn.
Here are all people of the Qur'ān,
al-ḥamdu liLlāh, and perhaps in your journey
with the Qur'ān, you've noticed a connection
between the topic of mountains and wāhī, revelation.
The Qur'ān seems to be very much
focused on creating that link.
And it makes you think, how come?
What is the munāsabah?
What is the relevance?
First of all, let's establish this link and
prove it and display it.
Speaking about the Prophet of Allāh Almighty, Mūsá
ʿalayhi ṣ-ṣalātu wa s-salām, Allāh Almighty,
He said, وَنَادَيْنَاهُ مِنْ جَانِبِ طُولِ الْأَيْمَنِ We
called upon Mūsá ʿalayhi ṣ-ṣalātu wa s
-salām from the right side of the Mount
of Tūr, the link between revelation from Allāh
Almighty and a mountain.
The same can be said about the Prophet
of Allāh, ʿĪsá, Jesus, son of Mary ʿalayhi
ṣ-ṣalātu wa s-salām.
Towards the end of time, when Allāh Almighty
will allow Yajūj and Majūj or Gog and
Magog to emerge towards the end of time,
Allāh Almighty will say to the Prophet of
Allāh, ʿĪsá, إِنِّي أَخْرَجْتُ عِبَادًا لِي لَا يَدَانِي
لِأَحَدٍ بِقِتَالِهِمْ فَحَرِّسْ عِبَادِي إِلَى الطُّورِ Allāh will
say, I have allowed servants of Mine to
emerge.
Nobody can fight them.
They cannot be resisted.
So, O ʿĪsá, take the Muslims to Mount
Tūr.
Again, you have that link between revelation from
Allāh Almighty and a mountain.
The same can be said about our Prophet
Muḥammad ʿalayhi ṣ-ṣalātu wa s-salām.
His first bit of revelation ever given to
him, اِقْرَأْ, read in the name of your
Lord, was at Jabal al-Nūr, the Mount
of Light.
And his farewell sermon was at the Mount
of Arafah.
Again, this consistent connection between a mountain and
revelation from Allāh Almighty.
What is the relevance in the connection?
Perhaps it could be said that the same
way that the primary role of a mountain
is to stabilize the crust of the earth
and to prevent it from moving and swaying.
Primary role of the Qur'an is to
stabilize the hearts of the Muslims and to
prevent them from swaying and deviating, especially when
they are being tested.
One of the most phenomenal and in my
estimation, underappreciated aspects of the beauty and miracle
of the Qur'an is نُزُونُهُ عَلَى خِلَافِ
الْمُتَوَقَّعِ How the Qur'an goes against what
you would assume, especially when speaking about a
tragedy or a hardship.
The messaging that the Qur'an offers, especially
when framing a pain, is so counterintuitive.
It's not the first thing that comes to
your mind.
It's miraculous.
Think about how when somebody consoles you, when
you're bereaved, when you're hurt over something, what
do they do?
They tap you on the back.
They may offer you a hug.
Some may even cry with you to express
validation and I appreciate your pain.
Now don't get me wrong.
The Qur'an also offers consolation to those
who are hurt.
But how?
Let me show you.
Let me show you how the Qur'an
addresses some of the most tragic situations in
history and how it reframes it and offers
it a positive spin and you'll see where
I'm going and the case that I'm going
to be making this evening.
Consider a genocide that the Qur'an speaks
about.
In surat al-Buruj, chapter of the stars,
the high stars, that speaks of a community
who are massacred, in ditches, who are burnt
alive.
The Qur'an speaks with such positive terms
that even the greatest of optimists wouldn't dare
using those words within the context of a
genocide or a mass killing.
The Qur'an asserts that since they died
as believers and their iman, their faith did
not buckle, the Qur'an concludes, ذلك الفوز
الكبير, that is the supreme success.
Wouldn't occur to you to use those terms
in the context of a genocide.
It's not what comes to your mind when
speaking about a genocide to speak in these
positive terms.
Yet this is what the Qur'an does.
That is the supreme success.
A second example I share with you is
our mother Aisha, the wife of the Prophet
ﷺ.
When she was slandered and accused of a
gross sin that she never committed, how did
the Qur'an comment on the situation?
Did it just cry over her?
The answer is no.
Allah Almighty revealed 16 beautiful ayat from surah
An-Nur, chapter of the light, and that
in of itself is indicative, chapter of the
light.
They will not extinguish the light of Allah.
16 ayat commenting on that painful event in
the life of the Prophet Muhammad ﷺ and
his wife Aisha and her entire family.
And it begins with, إِنَّ الَّذِينَ جَاءُوا بِالإِفْقِ
عُصْبَةٌ مِّنكُمْ Those who came about with the
slanderous lie were a group amongst you.
لَا تَحْسَبُوهُ شَرًّا لَكُمْ بَلْ هُوَ خَيْرٌ لَكُمْ
Do not think that it is bad for
you.
Indeed, it is good for you.
And the ayat, they continue to give a
positive reframing of the entire event.
Allahu Akbar, how positive and beautiful and relevant
is the Qur'an.
A third example, when the Qur'an spoke
about the systematic killing that was happening at
the time of Prophet Musa ﷺ at the
time of the Pharaoh of Egypt who had
condemned every newborn male to an Israelite woman
to death.
Imagine the pain of thousands of women whom
the very moment of conception which you would
think should have been a moment of joy
and happiness and celebration became a moment of
bereavement at the same time when a man
would come into her room, see a male
boy and pass a blade over his soft
throat condemning him to death.
In the verse after it, after describing this
tragedy, instantly, what does the Qur'an say?
وَنُرِيدُ أَنَّمُنَّ عَلَىٰ ٱلَّذِينَ سْتُضْعِفُوا فِي الْأَرْضِ I,
Allah Almighty, intended to confer my favor upon
those who are oppressed on the land.
وَنَجْعَلَهُمْ أَئِمَّةٌ وَنَجْعَلَهُمُ الْوَارِثِينَ And we intended to
make them leaders.
وَنَجْعَلَهُمُ الْوَارِثِينَ And we intended to make them
the inheritors.
وَنُمَكِّنَ لَهُمْ فِي الْأَرْضِ And we intended to
establish them on the land.
وَنُرِيَ فِرْعَوْنَ وَهَامَانَ وَجُنُودَهُمَا مِنْهُمْ مَا كَانُوا يَحْذَرُونَ
And we wanted Fir'aun and Haman and
their armies to see with their own eyes
the very thing that they were afraid of.
Allahu Akbar, the Qur'an is miraculous.
Who could frame such a painful event in
this positive way but Allah Almighty and His
words.
And for me, one of the most beautiful
examples of what I'm speaking about now, how
the Qur'an may address a seemingly dark
and painful event and package it in such
a positive way so that you don't just
see the color red and pain and blood,
but you see more, you see different layers
of meaning.
Another fine example of this is Surah Al
-Fath, the chapter of the conquest.
The context of the Surah is that the
companions of the Prophet ﷺ were making their
way to Mecca to do their pilgrimage and
they were barred from entering.
And then the pagans came out and they
almost forced them to sign a contract the
clauses of which favored the pagans over the
Muslims.
The Muslims were very upset.
And Amirul Mu'mineen Umar رضي الله عنه objected
and he made his voice heard and he
said, why on earth should we accept these
lowly conditions when we don't need to?
They signed the contract.
It seemed to be the worst thing to
ever happen to the Muslims.
And then Allah Almighty reveals Qur'an and
what does Allah Almighty say?
إِنَّا فَتَحْنَا لَكَ فَتْحًا مُّبِينًا Indeed, we have
granted you, O Prophet ﷺ a clear conquest.
And indeed it turned out to be that
it was the greatest event in the life
of the Prophet ﷺ that pushed the fortunes
of Islam across the entirety of the Arabian
Peninsula.
And Umar when he recited this ayah, he
said, O Messenger of Allah, is it really
a conquest?
Allahu Akbar.
Even he was shocked that difference between the
statement of Umar, is it really a conquest?
And the Qur'an that says, we have
granted you a conquest is the difference between
man and the Lord of man.
It's the difference between the rationale of humans
and the rhythm and the meaning and the
positivity of the Qur'an.
And you go to the end of Surah
Al-Fatihah, what does Allah Almighty say?
وَالَّذِي أَرْسَلَ رَسُولَهُ بِالْهُدَىٰ Allah is the one
who sent His Messenger with guidance.
وَالدينِ الحَقِّ وَالدِّينِ الْحَقِّ And the religion of
truth.
لِيُظْهِرَهُ عَلَى الدِّينِ كُلِّهِ So that it prevails
over all other ways of life.
That's within the context of an agreement that
the Muslims at first really did not want.
This is the Qur'an.
Such a positive book.
What you take from these examples that I
just shared with you, is not just the
positivity of the Qur'an that Allah Almighty
has blessed us with, and how we also
need to see our pains and struggles through
the positive lens of the Qur'an, but
also this message take note of it.
How the Qur'an was a living reality
between the Muslims.
How the Qur'an was never divorced from
the reality of the believers.
Our Qur'an was never some ritualistic book
that we hum from a sheet and nod
our heads to and rock back and forth
for.
No, this was never the Qur'an.
The Qur'an was always a book that
engage with the day-to-day issues of
the people.
Whether political, the Qur'an had something to
say about it.
Whether it was social, whether it was economic
or financial, whether it was something pertaining to
the mental health of a believer, sadness, happiness,
celebration, defeat, loss.
The Qur'an was engaging with the day
-to-day.
The Qur'an was a live commentary on
the problems on the ground.
This was the book of Allah Subhanahu wa
ta'ala.
The case that I am making this evening
for us is for us to develop a
similar relationship with the Qur'an.
When you say the battle of Badr, what
is it?
It's strictly a military encounter that happened at
the life of the Prophet ﷺ, a battle.
We wouldn't say that's a religious thing.
Yet the Qur'an had something to say
about it.
Chapter 8 of the Qur'an, surat al
-Anfal, is commenting almost entirely on the battle
of Badr.
Then came the battle of Uhud.
What is Uhud?
It's a battle, it's a military expedition.
You wouldn't think of it as an Islamic
thing.
Yet chapter 3 of the Qur'an, one
of the longest chapters of the Qur'an,
is commenting on that event and what took
place, and how the believers were sad.
It corrected understandings, aligned visions, boosted morale, gave
bandages to wounds.
This was what the Qur'an was doing.
Not just something you recite in your prayer.
Tabuk, Muslims went to Rome.
The Qur'an had something to say about
Tabuk.
Chapter 9 of the Qur'an, surat al
-Tawbah, commenting on the hypocrites, commenting on the
finances, commenting on the social matters, commenting on
the fighting, commenting on the pain, commenting on
the sacrifice.
The Qur'an was a living reality with
the believers.
Not something condemned to a shelf that we
open up in Ramadan and enjoy a nice
tune for in the beginning of events like
this.
The Qur'an was more.
It was a living organic thing that was
with them in their day to day.
Is the message clear?
And let me give you a 21st century
example of how it is possible for us
to do the same.
Let me give you a relevant example, a
case study that we can put through the
lens of the Qur'an and see what
the Qur'an has to say about it.
What happened not too long ago there in
Syria, when the average Syrian rebelled against tyranny
and * and torture and theft and plunder
and toppled brutality and criminality.
And so many of us were surprised yet
had we developed an intimate connection with the
Qur'an, I argue that surprise would not
have been so great.
And let me show you how.
Do you remember when the city of Ghouta
in Syria was bombed with chemical weapons?
Do you remember the images that came out
of the city?
Go and see it if you've forgotten to
appreciate the signs of Allah in the universe.
Do you remember when the city of Hula
was massacred?
I remember it.
Do you remember when the city of Hama
was massacred?
30% of its inhabitants were systematically killed
in mosques and hospitals and parks and other
places.
A third.
Do you remember when we were lamenting the
situation of our women folk who were being
raped en masse?
Women in their thousands who were delivering children
behind the bars of their prisons?
The fathers of whom were their very captives.
Do you remember this situation?
Do you remember the men who were being
buried alive because they refused to say, there
is no God but Bashar?
Do you remember those scenes?
I remember them.
Do you remember the sight of those children,
I'm sorry to say this, who were beaten
to death at the hands of this regime?
At the time, what were many Muslims saying?
Where is Allah Almighty?
Where is He?
استغفر الله وأتوب إليه.
But the Qur'an had something to say
about the likes of these events.
What did it say?
حتى إذا استيأس الرسل until when the messengers
despaired.
وظنوا أنهم قد كذبوا and they were certain
that they were denied.
جاءهم نصرنا That is when our victory came
for them.
فنجي من نشاء and we saved whom we
will.
ولا يرد بأسنا عن القوم المجرمين And our
punishment is never averted from the criminal people.
Today, nobody is saying where is Allah.
Today, everyone is saying alhamdulillah.
I think some of us will owe Allah
Almighty an apology because we had not seen
the events through the Qur'an had we
done that, we would not have doubted Him
back then.
Another example linked to Syria.
To show you how the Qur'an can
be seen as an interpreter of the modern
day events of our lives and our individual
ones as well.
Do you remember when the Syrian regime fell,
many Muslims were saying, my God, that was
so quick.
11 days.
How?
It seemed that the regime was being rehabilitated
into life and they were bringing it back
into the Arab League.
How?
During their ascendancy, they toppled and collapsed and
crumbled this quickly in less than two weeks.
The Qur'an had something to say about
the likes of this event.
حَتَّىٰ إِذَا فَرِحُوا بِمَا أُوتُوا أَخَذْنَاهُمْ بَغْتَةً فَإِذَا
هُمْ مُبْلِشُونَ Allah said, until they became so
arrogant with all what they had, that was
the moment we seized them suddenly and we
plunged them then into despair.
فَقُطِعَ دَابِرُ الْقَوْمِ الَّذِينَ ظَلَمُوا And so the
wrongdoers were totally uprooted.
وَالْحَمْدُ لِلَّهِ رَبِّ الْعَالَمِينَ And all praise belongs
to Allah, the Lord of the worlds.
The Qur'an had something to say about
that.
If only we had pushed the events of
Syria through the lens of the Qur'an,
we would have arrived at these conclusions.
We would never have doubted our Lord.
Another example.
Now when you see the average Syrian in
all of their ethnic and religious minorities, insha
'Allah, looking at the palaces that were left
behind, and the wealth, and the cars, and
the treasures at the expense of the people.
You cannot help but remember what Allah Almighty
said, كَمْ تَرَكُوا مِنْ جَنَّاتٍ وَأُيُونٍ How many
gardens and water springs did they leave behind.
وَزُرُوعٍ وَمَقَامٍ كَرِيمٍ And land, and beautiful homes
that they had left behind.
وَنَعْمَةٍ كَانُوا فِيهَا فَاكِهِين And luxuries that they
once enjoyed.
كَذَلِكَ وَأَوْرَثْنَاهَا قَوْمًا آخَرِين Thus it was, we
gave it all to another people.
لا إله إلا الله And when you see
your average Syrian in all of their ethnicities
and religions, alhamdulillah, celebrating the fall of this
brutal regime, not one of them shedding a
tear for them.
You cannot help but recite, فَمَا بَكَتْ عَلَيْهِمُ
السَّمَاءُ وَالْأَرْضُ وَمَا كَانُوا مُنظَرِينَ The heavens and
the earth did not shed a tear over
them, nor was their punishment delayed.
Sometimes the heavens and the earth will cry
when a believer passes away because your righteousness
is no longer going through the sky, so
it misses you.
Allah says when those criminals were taken away,
the heavens and the earth did not shed
a tear over them.
Now you're going to say to me, I
cannot engage with the Qur'an like you're
suggesting.
I am a non-Arab.
I don't speak Arabic.
I don't know Nahu grammar.
I don't know Sarf morphology.
I don't know Balagha rhetoric.
I don't know Sha'ir poetry.
I don't know Ayyam al-Arab, the ways
of the Arabs.
I'm never going to get to that level
you're suggesting.
I cannot see the world through the lens
of the Qur'an like you're positing.
I say, yes you can.
I agree partly with what you say which
is, these sciences do help you to uncover
the deeper meanings of the Qur'an.
Agreed.
But there is another layer to this that
is accessible to every one of us here.
That layer suggests that those of us who
engage most with the Qur'an are those
who have the greatest number of Islamic activities
going on in their lives.
They are the ones who will benefit, enjoy
and connect with the Qur'an more than
anyone else.
Though you may know hardly any Arabic.
Proof?
Imagine you are a person of da'wah.
You're inviting to Islam, enjoining good, forbidding evil.
All of a sudden, all of the ayat
of the Qur'an that speak about this
now apply to you.
They speak to you.
If however you're now also a person who
was giving in charity for the sake of
Allah, and you work in good projects, all
of the verses that speak of charity now
speak to you.
If you are a person who's struggling to
recite the Qur'an and study the Arabic
language, now all of the verses that speak
about Qur'an now are speaking to you.
They're a lot more relevant.
If you are a sister who is embattled
with the hijab, you're trying to conquer it.
If you are a person who's struggling to
lower his or her gaze, or you're trying
to resist impermissible desires, if you are a
person who has left an impermissible financial transactions,
though it was lucrative.
If you are a person who prays five
times a day, if you are a person
who prays at night, the more you start
doing in your life, the more of the
Qur'an is now speaking to you, the
more of the Qur'an you engage with,
and all of a sudden the Arabic language
is a very important thing, but this other
layer takes you a very far away in
living with the Qur'an, enjoying the Qur
'an, and seeing the world through the Qur
'an.
That is accessible to each and every one
of us.
My brothers and sisters, with all due respect
to the global emphasis on memorizing Qur'an,
wherever we turn, alhamdulillah, we see a masjid
who is teaching children the memorization of the
Qur'an.
And we see centers set up in this
city and other cities, alhamdulillah, to perfect the
recitation of Qur'an.
These are noble things, don't get me wrong.
I'm not knocking any of that.
That was praised by Allah and His Messenger.
But if this comes at the expense of
enjoying the Qur'an, engaging with the Qur
'an, making your life decisions through the Qur
'an, then we would have achieved nothing.
These things that I spoke about pale in
importance when it comes to living the Qur
'an, breathing the Qur'an, having an intimate
relationship with the Qur'an.
What is the memorization and recitation of Qur
'an if it is doing nothing for you
in your life?
And it is not moving you into tears
and happiness and joy, and governing your day
-to-day decisions.
That's the ultimate maqsad and purpose of the
Qur'an.
We may set up centers of memorization in
every city of the country, and each one
of us may be reciting the Qur'an
flawlessly.
But if the Qur'an does not excite
you, if the Qur'an doesn't guide you,
if you do not think of Qur'an
in every turn of your life, then we
would have achieved nothing.
And I say this confidently because memorization of
the Qur'an, as noble as it is,
is not the greatest or even one of
the maqasad, grand objectives of the Qur'an.
It's not.
Imam Ibn Ashur and others have listed about
eight of the grand objectives of the Qur
'an.
Memorization is not one of them.
Tajweed is not one of them.
These are noble activities, don't get me wrong,
do it.
But those eight grand objectives of the Qur
'an is something more.
It's to see the world through the Qur
'an.
Can you say that you have that relationship
with it?
That's the main Risala, message of the Qur
'an.
It was a minority of the companions of
the Prophet ﷺ, by the way, who'd memorized
the whole Qur'an.
Minority.
But guess what?
Each and every one of them understood the
Risala, the message of the Qur'an.
And that's why they took Islam to all
four corners of the world in a phenomenal
amount of time.
And so moving forward, I'm going to suggest
in the minute that I have left or
so, four things to achieve the theory that
I shared with you, to see the world
through the Qur'an, to develop that intimate
connection with the Qur'an, and to make
your life decisions on the basis of the
Qur'an.
Here are four suggestions that you can take
away.
The first of them, I suggest in the
build-up to the month of Ramadan, each
one of us picks up a pen and
paper and chooses a basic tafsir, explanation of
the Qur'an, a basic one of your
choice, it doesn't matter, and summarize every ayah
of the Qur'an on the mushaf that
you recite.
Don't use a laptop.
Don't use your phone.
Don't use a computer.
There is something special about using a pencil
and pen because Allah taught with the pen.
There is something miraculous that happens in terms
of absorbing meaning and growing in iman when
you are putting pen to paper and the
topic is Qur'an.
Summarize every ayah, pick 10 or 20 ayat
a day, a pace that you can keep
up with and do this until you finish
the journey.
Some of our contemporaries, they said, they did
exactly this, and the outcome was phenomenal.
That's number what?
That's number one.
Number two, I suggest that the scholars of
the Qur'an and students of knowledge connected
to the Qur'an pair up with people
who are specialists in the tech industry and
they produce transformational audiovisual content pertaining to the
stories of the Prophet for children at top
-notch high quality.
And when I say high quality, I mean
something that matches the quality of Disney or
may even surpass it as well.
That's suggestion number two.
En route to making the Qur'an a
living reality in our midst.
Number three, I suggest that each and every
family gathers around the book of Allah Almighty
at least for 20 minutes a week.
Choose a text of your like or a
video series of your like or a book
of your like.
Come together as husband and wife, as siblings,
as roommates, and gather around the Qur'an
and allow space for negotiation and conversation and
contemplation.
Allow room for mistakes as well.
And those who are saying that my family
is lacking sakinah tranquility and lacking rahmah, mercy,
I say to you the Prophet sallallahu alayhi
wasallam has guaranteed sakinah tranquility and rahmah and
mercy upon those who gather around the Qur
'an.
That's a big ROI.
That's number three and I conclude with number
four.
And I suggest that we consider as rich
men and women, businessmen and businesswomen to set
up centers of tadabbur contemplation across our city
and across the country as well.
Just as we pride ourselves in having centers
that teach the memorization and the recitation of
the Qur'an, I advocate that we set
up centers for the contemplation of the Qur
'an.
Places that we go to, we subscribe to,
we register with, and we learn how to
access the treasures of the Qur'an and
to see the world through the lens of
the Qur'an.
Where are these centers and how are we
so late in producing them when we are
such a sizable ummah who are at their
ascendancy, alhamdulillah.
Those who have applications or are influencers or
have businesses or have a fleet of cars
or have a chain of restaurants, fund these
centers, speak to your imams, committees, think about
how we make this a reality and let
us set up citywide competitions for the contemplation
of the Qur'an.
Have you seen competitions about the memorization of
the Qur'an?
That's a noble activity.
What about competitions for the best contemplation of
the Qur'an?
Titles could be, for example, How Surah Al
-Buruj Addresses the Topics of Genocide and Applying
it to the 21st Century.
That could be a paper that we put
forward or a presentation for our children and
we come together as a convention and we
give out expensive prizes, allow the children and
allow the adults to live with the Qur
'an and to extract these life-changing meanings.
That's the purpose of the Qur'an.
Another title could be, How Surah Yusuf Addresses
Mental Health, Sadness, Depression, and What Can We
Learn in the 21st Century West.
Imagine if we did that as parents, as
children, as adults, as scholars, as students, as
laymen.
The type of engagement with the Book of
Allah.
This is absolutely necessary for an ummah that
is growing and its trajectory is this way.
In conclusion, and I leave you with this,
brothers and sisters, alhamdulillah, we are fast tracking
and we are rushing towards the end of
times.
And no doubt this means a lot of
joy but also a lot of pain and
tribulation.
And so the nation of victory, the generation
of leadership, of justice and mercy, that generation
is not one that will be developed and
built online.
That is a generation that will be only
built in the masajid, in the mosques.
It will be built under the bright light
of the Qur'an.
وصلى الله على نبينا محمد والحمد لله رب
العالمين السلام عليكم ورحمة الله وبركاته