Studying Arabic, Connecting with the Qur’an

Rahim al hamdu Lillahi Rabbil alameen wa Salatu was Salam O Allah Allah swilley him Karim Wilder le he was heavy he he made them about. So mighty come on up into la he was out of character and welcome back under LA to another podcast with their own feed. hope you've been enjoying it so far because I certainly have really enjoying it and benefiting so far hamdulillah with all the guests that we've had, of course, this continues today. You must have heard already from quite a lot of international guests. But hamdulillah today we have someone a bit closer to home hunter villa. He is an Imam. He is a teacher. And he's also a writer who handle I've had the pleasure of meeting on a few different

occasions, but today, inshallah gonna have more of an in depth discussion on a couple of things. So it gives me the pleasure to introduce our guest for today's podcast. She asked him Han salaam aleikum wa Alaykum Salama life, for having me radical Africa. Welcome. Thank you so much for joining us for the podcast. hamdulillah. How have you been? handled very well. Yeah, Friday is the day of Baraka and happiness. hamdulillah hamdulillah. Thank you so much for taking your time out.

You have studied quite extensively.

And sorry, by the way, we're going straight into it. Yes. Oh, yeah. So yeah, I mean, hamdulillah you've you've studied quite extensively. you've traveled even to to Cairo, you've you've been to Egypt, and you've studied there, you've studied the Arabic language and and Koran. Can you just tell us a bit about how it was like in Egypt, a typical sort of day in the life of a student in Egypt and and the sort of things that you you got up to, of course, was filler, hamdulillah salat wa salam, ala rasulillah. So I'm, firstly, I'm still a student. I don't consider myself anything other than a student.

I began studying Islam seriously when I was at university. So you might be aware, I was studying pharmacy. And there's a long four year journey. So what happened is that it started off very strange. Before I got to university, I was with a friend who was very close to you studying at the same time in the same place. And apparently, he failed his a levels. And I remember coming back on the train,

he was obviously very depressed by his results. And I said to him, listen, what are you going to eat it for a year and study? Because if it's going to take a year from now to go to, to reset, or to go to university next year? Yeah. Why don't you go to for a year and study. So you actually took the advice, and he went, and when he got when he was out there, he's telling me that this is amazing. And I'm learning so much stuff, hey, you should come as Oh, by the time already started my pharmacy degree. So some of the holidays came around, and he said listen, come over. And Somalia. So he was good, almost three months. So as soon as I did my exam, final exams, I went out to Egypt. And for

those first three months, I did a intensive summer program. And I was like, this is for me. Then I came back the next year, summer holidays again, and again. And again, for the fourth for the four years I was in university every summer holidays to go there.

What I found the most inspiring about Egypt was the fact that you are in the presence of so many other people from different parts of the world.

For example, a lot of Russian brothers then some of us from Chechnya, Soviet Russia, and somehow they were very poor. So where I could afford to do the Summer Intensive programs, which are a bit more costly, they had to do the regular ones. And one of the brothers that we were living with he had been for quite a few years. He said that, you know, we should call them all for food. Because some of them they don't eat me except once a month. And I was shocked. So when they came and we sat with them

first of all, I noticed that they Arabic was like wow, Mashallah, I was barely holding sentences together. But the other thing that really affected me is that they don't even have much money.

Yet, despite that, they've come all this way here. They're willing to live like, you know, a very basic life just so they can learn Arabic so they can understand the Koran. And I think that really affected me game you think I've got so many more blessings in my life. When it comes to money and opportunities? Why isn't it Why am I not as hungry as them to study Arabic to learn the Quran? So that's that's where it began. And then I haven't really looked back after that, and in between the the journeys to Egypt, as continued to studies with the either over Skype or in person with the scholars in this country. But I'm still setting. Maybe now there's more teaching involved is all but

you know, they say about teaching is a form of teaching yourself. Yeah, you must know that when you prepare for a class, that is a reminder, you actually benefitting yourself more than anybody else. So that's why even in a hierarchy of learning at the very top

Comes teaching. Yeah. Because when you teach, you got to tell yourself, listen, if I'm going to tell people that this is what, for example, Allah says in the Koran or the person said, and I need to understand it myself, of course, yeah. But understanding myself, how can I assume the position of telling other people?

You know, what's interesting is this, the fact that you are at university, and it's not like you are studying it, like you are setting quite an intense course. But at the same time, you managed to, like, somehow fit, fit it in in your holiday was crazy. And I remember that. So you do your exams, okay. And every student knows that when you do exam, you don't know whether you passed or failed. If you failed, you got to do research, when you have juries is usually straight after the summer holidays. Right? So if you ask my friends, well, I said, I've done the exam, after all my notes with me on the airplane to Egypt, and then I would wait for the day for the results. Or when the results

case in the past. Yeah, that's it, you know, that those notes will not come in to use again, say it was touch and go. But you know, it's that it's worth it. It's worth that pursuit. You know, if you look at my pharmacy degree hamdulillah is qualified me to have a career to get a good job stability. But is it really more valuable than the Arabic talent? Like how many other benefits have been unlocked? Because of that, that maybe we will not know? not know until we meet Allah? Yeah, so So what are the SWOT because I feel like a lot of people, especially the young students, they feel like it's either or, either I go down the path of seeking the sacred knowledge, or I go to university.

Yeah, but it seems like you've sort of you did both. And so it is possible, that means right, you have to do both. Because if you're idealistic about these things, you're never going to progress in your life at all. If you think about even the job that you get a lot of us the jobs that we have, we don't fully enjoy them, man even, maybe just partially enjoy them. Some of them. Some of us don't enjoy them at all. But we realize that it's not an ideal world. So I need to do whatever job I can get. If it's a job that I 100% enjoy. Fantastic. It was 50% I'm not going to say you know, I'm going to wait for that perfect job. Yeah. So if you think like that, when it comes to our everyday life,

why not then about the deen of Allah? If I can't go to the best country in the world to study with the best teachers? What about the local teachers? What about studying from home? Why don't have that same attitude? Many scholars they say for example, law says for taco law, Mr. Darden fail as much as you can. The idea is that our ability, it differs from person to person. Yeah, so the expectation expectation of Allah towards us, is based on a person's abilities. Someone has the ability to go around the world and study or the other another person doesn't have that ability. He will be judged according to his ability, you'll be judged according to yours, just make sure you max out that

ability that allows given you

see, thing is, you know, when you when you go and you pursued like a degree, it seems it seems to be like a tangible end result, you know, you get the degree, you can get a job. And, and, you know, I guess things have changed nowadays, but like, you know, where you're going, right? Yeah, but a lot of people they have this idea, you know, if I do study Arabic, okay, I benefit I start understanding the Quran. But really, where can that take me? And I know, you said that the benefits that you saw from studying, it far sort of outweighed the benefits of you going to university. So do you mind just touching on that a bit? Like, what what are the benefits? So I think when you start learning

Arabic, the first immediate

I can say, moment of inspiration that you feel always when you're standing in salon, that your mom's reciting. Yeah. And there's just one word, he says, and you're like, Oh, I know that word. I know what that means. And you're like, this is real. This actually is bringing me closer to Allah. And I think for people that are studying Arabic, one of the key reasons, a lot of us fail and restart, is because we don't get the motivation correct. Or we don't get that motivation on a regular basis. So I always try and advise students is that look, wherever your teacher is, ask them to show you the benefit of what you learnt in terms of theory, in the Quran. In the very lesson itself. Once you can

piece together what you're learning with the Quran directly, then that becomes the sort of motivation that keeps you going long term. And that's really important when you're studying Arabic. For me, that was one of the most difficult things. I'm not some people their mind is like designed to study languages. You can study multi languages, five language, six languages, some people they struggle, and I'm one of those people. So it's a long road. And I remember when I started, one of the brothers said, Listen, studying Arabic is like climbing a mountain. Alright. It's only when you get to the top that you get some enjoyment or benefit. And it was a good piece of advice at the

time. But later on, I realized that's not true. It's just the way you're learning it. If you were to learn with every step

Yep, you're shown the benefits of that from the Koran, or from the Hadeeth or from whatever. It's like a moment of enjoyment every single time you learn something, so it doesn't have to be like a mountain. Yes, it could be like, you know, a tiny hill that you walk over every single lesson. Yeah. So, so let's say someone now is on this path of studying Arabic language or put it on whatever wherever it might be.

And now like they're thinking to themselves, you know, like, what can I do with this? You know, like, Is it is it just the fact that I'm just going to become a teacher?

Or you know, much like yourself, you're an Imam. So like, maybe Imam is not for them. Like what else can I do with this? You know, so what what sort of like not career options but you know, like something that the end result sort of thing from your experience what else can you do with with the with the Quran with with the studies, if you want to look from a career perspective, I remember when I was setting Egypt there are many non Muslims studying Arabic alongside me. And some of them were studying for what we would call some dubious reasons maybe to become Secret Service agents, right work in the Arab world. Other people were doing it to become teachers and professors eccentric

cetera.

You can become an interpreter, for example, translator there's, there's money in all of those things. Do I advocate you to studying Arabic? For those reasons? Not really.

I think that one of the biggest benefits of learning Arabic is that you can teach your children how to worship Allah, right after yourself. My daughter, my eldest daughter, she's eight years old. So whenever she reads Hold on to me,

she's got this habit. Now what she was finishing is a bob, what does that mean? and be like, Oh, so Abba satola that means that, you know, once upon a time the person he found, because the blind man came to him, and then she's like, okay, and

and just having the ability to give small insight to your child about laws, words, is, it should be the bow, the main reason why you learn Arabic, and are because you directly are being the one who takes the hand and brings them closer to Allah, but Allah so few.

So I think, good intentions, they will go a long way, in studying in studying Arabic, at the end of the day, it should be a religious pursuit, before worldly one, but no doubt, you know, Allah is the one who gives Baraka and everything. So it could take you down a path where, Mashallah, it benefits you in both in dunya in Africa.

So, you went to Egypt, you studied in Egypt, under law, you have the opportunity? Do you have to go to a place like Egypt place like Medina to study Arabic?

Or can you study look, because you mentioned studying locally? So is that a possibility as well? Definitely, today more than before, I mean, you can study with great teachers from around the world from the comfort of your home, yeah, from your laptop, but

what's the best thing you could do the best thing without a doubt is to have what we will call an immersion type of program, which is where you go to an Arab country, which, unfortunately, the limit is limited selection now because of a number of reasons. But to go there, and even if it's for like three months, yes, which could be a summer holiday, you know, your father, you got kids, but some holidays coming around the corner, take them with you for three months, or your student or you're working, you can take a sabbatical, go for a little while, what that will do, it will do a couple of things. Firstly, what I'll do is give you exposure. So you're studying here, but you don't really

know the vastness of Arabic, or the different types of subjects that are possible for you to study. But when you start when you go there, and you see other students studying people that have progressed really far, you see Oh, so those are the books, those are the teachers, those are the subjects and this is where I'm, so that's what I need to go. So I'll give you that kind of roadmap. The other thing is that a good motivation, because you feel like you're part community, you are all in the pursuit of learning Arabic. And then obviously, you're forced to speak Arabic a number of occasions with people, one of the brothers, he had an excellent idea, what he would do is he would

ask his teacher to come live with him for a weekend, every month or every two months, I can't remember. Yeah. And that was an amazing idea. Because for that weekend, you get to speak to your data all in Arabic, and you're gonna be forced to, you know, look up somebody's words in the dictionary and it is going to correct you so many times and by the end of it, Mashallah, you know, you're really going to benefit. So if you could do that just once, what that will do that will put you on a path when you come back, you can continue that path by the online study or local teachers or even self study. All of that is possible. So that's why I would call the best scenario.

Obviously, what is better than all of that is to go there and to pursue a degree in Islamic Studies, which is preceded by some kind of Arabic course. But a level

lower than all of that is listen, look, there's lots of stuff online. Yeah, make a plan yourself. Just, for example, study the Medina book 123. There's lots of videos on YouTube that you can watch, you can make your own notes and we'll find a local teacher and progress. What why is it that you have to look for the best case scenario, wherever you can write recently spent hours teaching academia, and the author of the book given a jewel room.

That piece of work is, you know, the primer into Arabic grammar for 1000s and 1000s of students, right, it's the first book you go to to learn Arabic grammar, was very surprised reading his biography is that Jerome actually only studied locally for the the, for most of his life, only then he went from phase in Morocco, to McCallum karma. And he met many other scholars. And then he pursued further studies. So he became a scholar from his from his local

place of residency. Then afterwards, he explored further options. And a lot of scholars, they say, No, that was the son of law scholars, that they would only seek knowledge outside of their town, when had benefited from the noise that was in their town. I see. Interesting. Yeah, because I think a lot of people they have this, which is true as well, I mean, a lot of our scholars, especially scholars of the past, they did travel, right, they traveled a lot, they travel to different lands to meet different scholars. But what's what's interesting is the point you just mentioned there is that actually, they benefited from the squatters of their locality. And then they would sort of, sort of

move on, which is, which is I guess, we can learn a lot from that today. Because I think, I don't know if you agree with this, maybe it's just me, but is it becoming it's a good trend, but is it becoming a trend in a sense that people are just, like, they only feel like they can learn Arabic? If they go to Egypt, if they go to Medina. And there's this trend now, like, you know, not have to go abroad to have to go abroad, but they haven't like, whilst they've been here, they haven't utilized what they have. So have you have you seen, have you observed this trend as well, you know, I'll tell you about brothers upon law, he

is very, very difficult to hear storia. But

it shows that, you know, this is something common amongst a lot of people, which is very unfortunate. So he went to Egypt, Mashallah. To study to do have the Quran. And he stayed out there for about a year. And he managed to remember, I think, 1010 bottles, as they say, and then he had to come back for some financial reasons. Now, this brother, that when he came back, that was about four years ago, now, because he's someone I see on a regular basis.

Whenever I sit with him, one of the things he always says is, you know, I'm going to go to Egypt soon, soon, I'm doing XYZ, and soon I'll be able to get a ticket and go back out there and complete my health. He'd been saying that from the first day, he came back. And that has been almost five years. And he's still saying that, yeah, that's crazy, that he has put off memorizing the Quran for five years just for that one opportunity to go back to Egypt. I mean, that doesn't make sense. It doesn't mean a lot of people are stuck in that idealistic, you know, mentality. And that's something that we need to get away from. Definitely need to get away from that. So let's talk about the Quran.

Because this seems to be your area of interest. And it's something that even when we've had your your talks, you always managed to somehow bring him back to the core. And so what was it about the Quran from your own personal experience that you've because you know, you can study so much that you can just get to 50? Who went to Hadith? What was it about the Quran that really drew you in? And you know, was there was this something that happened was there it was there like a story is it it was at a point in your life where you felt like you know what, it's like, it's like, what was that was that lightbulb moment for you?

Well, in the beginning, I do like to study other topics, like a lot of students a lot of student of knowledge. They like to study other hurdles, for example. Yeah, so even before I used to read like to study muscle and Hadith science, we had these very technical Yeah, they dry a type of subjects. I remember it when I was studying it one of the brothers citizen, shouldn't you be studying like caught on? Or you know how to use that? No, no, no, no, that's what those guys down there. This is the real stuff. These are the proper and afters as that is interesting is good, but how long? Is it really benefiting me? like am I increasing in my body of law, my understanding of this world that we

live in, etc, etc. So I moved on to I got really into fake like, really went into it properly. And I was like, this is the one this is the proper subject for me. And then after going to either at the woods.

I was like, This is the knowledge Yeah, well, that was good. This is the knowledge but then support Allah. Allah, Allah, Allah, He showed me that all of those things are important, but they don't come close to the Quran. And the turning point for me was just reading a trend.

Look, hold on. That's what it was. I bought translation was my uncle, may Allah preserve him he always used to impress upon us the importance of Quran and he say, this Quran by translation. And he said, make sure the pages become worn out. Yeah, because you see Michael on the ends of it become Mona, this is how you're put on should be. And also Okay, that's good, I suppose keep it on me on the train is to and fro work or uni reading, reading reading and it wasn't a brilliant translation. And I wanted to make a point about translations but it wasn't a fantastic present. But what it did is it opened my eyes. Yeah, the Quran is amazing. It talks about so many different things. And I

came with the attitude that Quran I love it, I respect it, but doesn't really talk about things that I need to know, does it really relate to my personal life my dilemmas as the answer to my questions, and

subconsciously, the answer actually was no. Yes, unfortunately.

It was actually known when I began to read it, I began to change my perspective on that actually, it does talk about a lot of the things that I need to know about. And then with Arabic, came a more deeper reading. And then from that day, I haven't looked back, I've only wanted to study put on all the other sciences are important. And we have continued to study them but not with the same vigor, the same passion as the Quran. And that has to be number one for everyone. As in like, someone might think, okay, you can you can you can study the Arabic language, you can start to understand the Quran. But they might think, you know, how deep Can you really go into it? You know, like, have you

studied for a number of years? Some people do here seven, eight years, up to 10 years.

But a lot of people think, you know, really, how much can you study that? You know, how is it that people are still you know, yourself essentially that Yeah, you're still studying, right? You're still a student? Yes. So what would you say to those people that think you know, how much more could you study? The Quran is about Quran is an ocean. And if you imagine that you are going on a dive, okay. What did they call it when you go deep into the seas, scuba diving, scuba diving, let's say you're scuba diving.

When you scuba dive, the for your first impression when your head goes under the water is, all my days, this is amazing. Another life, the coral, the fish, the colors, you're like, you're amazed. Yeah, and then you realize that this is not even point 1% of the ocean.

And if I spent my whole life swimming around the ocean, I would not have enough time to cover the entire ocean. Even now, they say that human beings only know about 5% of the entire ocean away contains and the ocean is more than a third of the whole world. Number six, protecting a loss of privacy is no cut on that.

That if all the trees are made independence, and the ocean was made into ink, and then another seven oceans came to replace the ink with more. They would not be able to write down the Kadima to law towards of Allah. So now if you're a student of the Quran, you're thinking, wow, that's what I'm up against. That is intimidating. Yes. But that also at the same time is very inspiring that you know what? I'm going to enjoy. So my whole life. Yeah, I'm not going to stop enjoying this because this is this going to uncover more and more and more. The mama debris, Rahim Allah, he's one of the first to author a full of seed work. And that seed work is with us until today. He said, I'm amazed at the

person who recites Koran while I have him and he doesn't understand its meaning. okay for you to let that be karate. How does he enjoy his recitation? Like he was amazed that how can a person will not know what a lie is saying that how do you enjoy your recitation?

And this is the thing when you start learning Koran, you start to enjoy life. And I'm not just saying that's a cliche, you actually do, because I'll put on brings meaning into your life, you feel like you know, this is what was missing. This is what is going to complete me. So why would you then turn your back on the spanner? Well, I guess. I mean, so what has amazed you the most about the call?

throughout your journey could be right at the beginning, we even until today like what do you feel like really, you know, has amazing so far. So at the moment, it's the stories, okay, put on. There's a lot of them, right? There's a lot of home suppiler there's a tremendous amount of stories in the Quran. And one of the most fascinating things about the stories that are caught on is that we tend to read them as lessons from history, but they actually actually lessons from the future. Okay, so if you read sort of MBR 21st chapter of the Quran, Allah subhanaw taala will relate to us more than 17 historical figures and their stories or parts of the stories. People that came way before the

process of going back 1000s of years, but before he mentioned them, he said look on the internet. You can Keita Fie, the crew Come fly attack Ilan. That

No doubt about it, we sent down this book to you and in it is your reminder. So you think you know it's about them. Allah knows about you, I feel attacked, we don't want you use your intellect to understand that. What does that mean? It means that a larger law Allah relate to those stories

for your benefit. And not just that, it can mean it's not even about them. It's about you. Like when you read the stories, you're reading about your own life, in that the things that they went up against, you're going to go up against this wall. So the way they dealt with it is the way you should deal with it as well. Now, when you read, reread those stories, from that perspective, they've come alive, and they come alive. So today, for example, in the hotbar, I spoke about a story of cartoon, right. And Allah says and sort of passes about his story, that cartoon people that don't know about who he was like,

the bill gates of his time, okay, in terms of money, but in terms of his vanity, who's like Floyd Mayweather, basically, right? So this guy is the most wealthy person in the world. And he's so vain he loves to show off. Okay. A lot of describe that his money is used to keep it in vaults, and the keys for those vaults, they would be carried by a group of men who would become tired because they were so heavy imagine then what how much money

so when it came to Quran, Allah said that what he would like to do is use like to come out in public showing all of his money always both for hora de la comida, zenity, that he came out in front of his people decked out basically he will always best clothes, and I'm thinking if he lived today, probably wearing Gucci and Prada, and all the rest of it. He was driving a copy of a Bentley or something better than that. And he had an entourage of 250 people, some of them facility mentioned that, okay, so he's come out in, let's say, the highest three, or let's say, Westfield or something, and he's dressed to impress, and he's got all of this riches. Okay, being fluent in people's faces.

Allah said, people that crave the life of the dunya, they said, way, in a

world to us only if we had what cotton had in the hula, who held in altium, he has been given so much money.

And I thought to myself, you know what? Pause that story. Think about today's social media. What kind of people do we follow? Usually rich and famous celebrities, sports stars. And when you go through the Instagram page, and this Snapchat channels here, what are they usually doing? They're usually flaunting their money, showing people all the nice places, they went on holiday, nice food that they get to eat the expensive clothes that they get to wear. And what do people say when they see those pictures? They say, Man, if only I could have that.

If only I could have money like that. If only I could dress like they've only sisters, for example, if only I could have skin like that. Only I could hear like their eyebrows like that. And that makes them feel less about themselves. It makes their self esteem, drop and plummet. Recently, I was reading in The Guardian that this fun, they found a correlation between young adolescent girls and their anxiety levels. Yeah. correlating with social media use, most social media is is causing more anxiety. Why? Because you see a fake life. You know, forget all the filters and everything. Yeah, let's say is genuine pictures. Yeah, that's one second from the day.

And they're making out like, that's the whole life. Yes, that's fake. On one level, another level is fake, because that's what you see. But what about here? How do they feel? Do they feel contented? They feel happy? are they feeling on top of the world? Maybe not. Maybe they're the opposite. But that's not what you see. So Allah said, when in the time of qarun, people crave to be like him.

But what happened to him? Allah said for herself, nervi will be dirty law cause earth to open up and swallow him and his house. Why did Allah mention his doubt as well his house, because when people used to walk passes, they'd be like, Man, I wish I lived in a house like that. That's a nice house man. And Allah said, let me show you. Why think of this person. What he represents a pride, vanity. arrogance is not even worth being on my Earth.

It's worth being inside the earth. So don't be like him. Yes, don't try and be like him. And also don't follow people like him. Today in social media, people like to follow those people. Like the people like to follow her on our own. Bella said, you don't want to follow him because if you did follow Him, you'd be following him into the earth. Yes. And the other thing is, who was the person on the other side of the spectrum? Most Allison

didn't have a lot of money. He didn't have a lot of popularity, okay. And people always used to try and disrespect him made his life difficult. But he was the hero. He was the guy to follow. He was the one that you know what Allah loved, and if you followed Him, He will lead you into paradise by Allah's mercy. So

In our times, think about how you follow. Sometimes we only follow people based on hype, we should follow people based on ideas on belief on how close they are to the last panel data. Yeah. So stories is one big thing for me, like in the Quran, we need to reread those stories, there's so much to learn. Wow. So it's interesting how, again, you you just took one like snapshot from that story, which is of cloud one, and then you you made it relevant.

Because a lot of people nowadays they think, you know, the Quran doesn't doesn't really relate to me, you know, these are, like you said, stories, for example, these are stories of, you know, people of the past and it doesn't, doesn't doesn't, you know, relate to us, or, you know, you have some of these rulings, like, nothing to do with me, you know, yeah, Salas a cat. That's, that's about it. So, it's amazing. I mean, can you do that with the whole Quran what you just did there? Is it possible to make the entire Quran relevant? Or is it just just small parts of it, from the beginning into the end is possible. All it takes is a level of understanding and knowledge. But it's an

attitude that needs to change the attitude that needs to change is the Quran is a message from Allah to humanity? It's a message so when someone writes you a message, they expect you to read all and understand all as it relating to you, not to somebody else. Yes. Oh, ballyholme rissalah to be the Prophet said to them, I came to deliver my loads letters, Rizal ads means letters. So Allah sent us letters, is sort of has one letter al Bakr is another letter, and all of them are meant to be read and understood and applied by us is true, some verses are more of a challenge to apply than others. But you can find a way, when you look at when you read them from the right perspective, for example,

inserted out of a lot of other essays that as we encourage the people who lived in the time of the process that a man was either fair, I do factory shut an old one. And for some of them, when they would engage in in decency, and injustice, they will say what Jaden, I will allow, Mr. Honor, because they would say that when they were questioned, like why do you guys do that? Well, that's bad, you shouldn't do that. Their response was, listen, this is how we found our fathers do things. Okay, this is our culture. This is our values. Who are you to question that? And on top of that, will America be Who? God made us do it? Now fast forward 21st century, one of the main ideas that

they've tried to propagate? Is that Listen, if you want to choose your sexual orientation, it's fine. Because you know, it's part of your DNA. That's who you are. God made you lighter. So for religious people that like, Whoa, look, I didn't realize it's like that. That's the kind of thoughts that run through people's mind. So the Quran is saying, Hang on a moment. That's not a new argument. Go back all the way. 1400 years in the time of the prophet SAW said him, they came with two arguments. Number one, our fathers did the example. You're the only guy you need without a girlfriend. Okay, so people listen, bro. You know, why do you have a girlfriend? A good looking guy,

man. And he's like,

all Muslim, I'm religious. And they're like, bro, what's wrong with you? Man? Everyone does it. Mom and Dad met each other in a bar like you crazy. You're the only one? And that's like the crush. They said, Our fathers drill like this. Yeah. Yeah. Why are you being the odd one out? Second reason is Allah ordered us to today we say DNA ordered us to now jeans ordered us to. So law says, commenting on those arguments allow would never order you to do something that something indecent, as if to say that you may feel inside an inclination to do something bad. But that doesn't mean God wants you to do. That's like a temptation that we all have. Everyone was able to act on the impulse. There'll be

chaos in the whole world. person feels that stealing if you listen as part of my DNA distill, you know, they'll stop me now.

together. So the Quran is like, giving historical arguments, which are just rehashed later on in our times. And the really worrying thing is that people get taken aback by it. Like why it sounds like a really good rational argument here, man, you know, it's part of our DNA. So like, why would we say about that Muslims? And I'm thinking, you know, read the Quran, and the Quran will tell you, the Quran will tell you that this is what people have said before. And this is what we should be thinking about.

So that this is a historical verse, right? But like I said, it's got a future lesson inside. It's just about the attitude. Very interesting. So there's something there's a concept that a lot of people they have, they have they have been exposed to

which is known as tenable.

And we'll come to maybe how you would translate that word because it's known as an ponder over the Quran right? And there are actually verses in the Quran that

speak about this as well. Yes. about this, this concept of to the Buddha and you know, pondering over the Quran. So firstly, can you just tell us a bit about that book and maybe even present an example as well, of, you know, what we can gain from from pondering over the whole life? Okay, so firstly, there's two extremes when it comes to this idea of pondering and reflecting on the first extreme is that listen, that is not for us. That's for the elite. Okay, and we and the Quran, you know, there's got to be a respectful distance that you got to keep with it, okay? Don't start to dabble in those things. And in no circumstances, you try and engage your intellect with the Quran.

That's an extreme unfortunate that extreme is actually quite rampant. Very, yeah, it's very common, like, you know, who are you to, like start reading the Quran, you start thinking about,

but Allah subhanaw taala he condemned the extreme. Like, you mentioned a verse, a fella to the Barun Quran, Allah, Allah, Allah, Allah says, Don't they ponder over the Quran. And this questioning here FLR is known as the SFM inquiry, which is like a question of contempt, a rhetorical question, as you say, what's wrong with you? Yeah, why don't they ever contemplate on Mr. Lubin, aka foul? Why is it the case that their hearts have locks? Now the amazing thing about that verse, it appears in sort of Mohammed and sort of Mohammed is addressed to the hypocrites, the monasticon allies condemning one afrikan for not doing to the bar. What about Muslims?

And when are

they in the lowest parts of the Hellfire? So the people at the Bertram Hill ally saying your problem is you didn't do to double up on what they're about people that do believe in the Quran? Yes. And do worship Allah with sincerity. That's one extreme. The other extreme is that people, they open the kuranda like, this means whatever I want it to mean run is a book of interpretation. Like, you know, if I wanted to me this can mean that if I want to be in that, it can mean that it's like, you know, when you go to an art exhibition, and people are standing around a painting, you know, what does that mean to you know, it's not about love and peace. And he's that not about war, man. It's about

violence. And someone comes, listen, it can mean wherever you want to me, you are to me love and peace. Fair enough. You want to be in hate and war. Fair enough. That's another extreme. Yeah, and Taku Allahu meloetta. anemone. Allah says people, they say things about Allah, they have no right to say those things. So the balance is in the middle, where a person, once he understands what Allah has said. Then he needs to deliberate and contemplate over that. Now, sometimes a verse is very easy to understand, for example, and hamdu Lillahi Rabbil alameen. All praise and thanks to the Master of the Universe. You don't need to be a scholar to really understand the basic meaning of that, right.

So now that you've understood that all praise and thanks belongs to Allah, the Master of the Universe. Now let's go to the second level, which is contemplating. Now if all praise and thanks is due to Allah, what does that mean for me personally? Well, it could mean that I should thank Allah more. I should praise Him more because he deserves all praise and thanks, and why doesn't praise and thanks come from my lips as often as it should do. The other thing is that if Allah is that I'm Bill, Allah mean the Master of the Universe. That means there's a relationship between me and Allah. And the relationship is if he's the Master, I am the slave. Do I live like a slave? What is the

slave live, learn? Think about slave master relationship in this world, the slave he listens to the orders of the master. When the Master says do the slave does it whether must say don't do the slave doesn't do. But the difference between a law being the master and us being the slave is that a lot only asked us to do the things that are good for us. Whereas the master in this life only asked to do things that are good for him. And when it comes to Allah, Allah only tells us to do the things that will benefit us will help us will make our lives better. And the opposite is the case with the master of the dunya. So then you're thinking okay, and hamdu Lillahi Rabbil aalameen one Listen, I

just got from that is, man, I should be more grateful to God. Yeah. Second list is second lesson is, am I really living like a slave of God? Because Allah is the master and unsafe. But that is not difficult. Yeah, no, it's not. It doesn't. It doesn't take a genius to do that. The Quran came for humanity, like I said, so every person will be able to make the book according to the ability and the ability increases. The more Arabic You know, the more you study the Quran. And the more you engage your mind and your heart. So the same verses can be re read. And you find more gems in them. Yeah. More lessons in them. And when you read the books of the sea, you find some incredible things.

Yes. I'll give you another example. A last one that says

kita Enza. Now aleikum wa Baraka Leah W. Aya, t Walia, Taka Sora Saad, Allah says that this book kita boon

We sent it down to Mubarak. And anything that has Baraka gives goodness more than expected. Allah celebrates the Quran is something that contains an unimaginable amount of goodness that you couldn't imagine how much goodness it has for you. Then Allah says the reason we sent it down Leah de baru, it is in order to reflect over the verses, which is interesting, because for a lot of people, the reason they have the Quran in their life is either to recite it, or to get rid of black magic, or when the person getting married and the moms have comes out, and he's been recently put on, etc, etc, or to hang it around the rearview mirror. And so, insurance premiums don't go up that much. So

those are the kinds of reasons but unless, you know the first reason why read the Quran is not for those reasons, even though they're all good to a certain extent. It's in order for you to use your intellect to to ponder over why said that's the first reason well yet

the second reason is to become affected, to become affected by what Allah said, here and both go hand in hand. Once you ponder, you get affected, okay? And then Allah said, who can do this all Alba, which means people have lube lobe is the inner core of something and refers to the actual the intellect, but Allah never said people have intellect. Allah said people over and above, which means that the difference between alkalyn lube and the scholars say the difference is the lobe is the innocent mind. The sincere mind, not the intellect that's being tainted by preconceived ideas. Yeah, yeah. So some people will they have a distorted understanding of God, or the Quran. And then when

they read the Quran, they only see problems. They only have criticisms. And they ask lots of dodgy questions. But the same verses are read by another person who has a sincere heart who loves Allah, and they find the complete opposite.

Now one of the squatters, he made a number of this verse, okay, so to double on the verse of the double, and he said, as in altea, is a scholar who passed away in the seventh century, he wrote an incredible book of deceit. He said that one of the lessons we learned from this verse is that it is better to recite the Quran slowly than to recite it fast. And I thought to myself, how does that verse teach you to recite the Quran slowly? Yeah. And then I thought about it is true, because if the reason why Allah revealed the Quran is to contemplate, if you speed recite the Quran, you don't give your mind a chance to think, isn't it? If you read something 100 miles an hour, your mind

doesn't even have a charter Think about it. Like when you go for throw away the mommies stuff hula Formula One racer, you don't even catch one word, let alone reflect over it. So now Thea said that verse teaches us is better to recite the Quran slowly than to recite it quickly. So that was his reflection from I mean, that was that level of reflection is a high level. Right? Yeah. You know, for many of us, that's not possible. That's what I mean by so great. It depends, is the basic level, intermediate level, advanced level? scholarly level? Because I guess our focus is more on reciting or, you know, how many hattan? can I do? You know?

So let me try and do one a month, which is, like we're saying we're not we're not saying it's a bad thing, per se. But do you feel like we need to just take our time a bit more? And you know, just ponder maybe. And I guess what you mentioned is well, translations, right? Yes. So is that is that where you would start? And is that something you should just continue relying on? Or does that have its own pitfalls as well? No, I think as a short term, as a short term fix as a short term plan, every person should invest in a good translation of Quran.

Some of the better translations of the Quran, I used to be really keen on the icpd translation of the helium translation box of press. But recently, I've been reading Dr. Mustapha hottub translation, which is called the clear put on, all three of these can be bought on Amazon, by the way. But Dr. Mustapha hotjobs, translation for me stands head and shoulders above the rest of the moment. It's number one, the English is easy to understand. Okay, there's no vowels and lows and all the rest, do you think is Arabic? Why sidetracked English, in order to have much brackets in it either? That's one thing. Secondly, he manages to capture the spirit of the meaning. Okay, into the

English language, I think about being a good translator is you have to be a master of both languages.

So you know, Arabic, fantastic, but have you mastered English? So you might be you might understand what should be said in English, but you can't say in English. And that's the problem with a lot of translations. That meant they very good, but sometimes, you need a translation for the translation. And as a problem. You don't understand the translation though. What's the purpose of the translation? Right? So my advice is look, buy a copy of translational Koran, then have a one year target. And the target is to go through a cover to cover cover to cover and just by doing that, you would have increased your knowledge of Quran exponential

I remember on Sundays mornings, I used to go for a jog. And I jog past a church. And at that time in the morning, there's lots of families going to church, a lot of

families that are from Nigeria and Ghana, and they're going, they're dressed in their best clothes. And they all have a Bible in the hand. Now, I saw that many of them their Bibles, they have, you know, the annotated stickies? Yeah. Coming out of it, okay. And the pages are worn out as well. So when they go there, and the preacher speaks, they open their Bible, and they go to that verse, and they will highlight it and they put a sticky there and their Bibles looked like you know, they've been revising them. I thought to myself, Subhan Allah, these are people, they have a book, which is half the truth, if that had been distorted, we have the complete truth in the Quran. But how many of

us have ever studied the Quran? Read it, tried to understand what lysing or sat in the presence of someone teaching it and it made me think, well, this is a problem. We need to shift away from that man that's that needs to be history for us. So the first thing is by good translation, have a yearly target to read the English translation cover to cover Charla inshallah, I mean, coming towards the end now, it's been really interesting, but I want to just bring out some practical tips know, how we can you know, how the listeners because many, many of the many of the listeners and the viewers you know, they, they maybe haven't studied Arabic language, they might not have the the opportunity to

do so.

And others might, but how can we start bringing the Quran into our lives? Do you have any tips for for us? Okay, so one tip I like to always make mention of is to have a family deal with the Quran. And the family day is very simple. One evening, you, your wife, your children sit around the table, you open up the translation of Quran, you read one of the small sutras from the last bar from the last years. You read the Arabic, maybe you get your chart, read the translation. And then all you do is say what do we learn from this? Like we just read Surah

philos is cool holo had last month, and you read the translation that say he is uniquely one, the one who has no need and takes care of the needs of others. And he has no son like children, and you know, my wife, husband, what do we learn from that? Have a discussion. And then when someone says something, you will find that another person will say something, and then another person will say something, and that time is quality time. And that's what they call an Eric modasa modasa is the idea of not teacher led by discussion lit. Yeah, and that's the that's one of the most effective ways of learning the Quran. Of course, somebody may say something which you're not sure whether it's

right or not, no problem. We'll check it. Maybe we'll go to the mom the next day say, Mom, we reading this verse, and you know, we thought of this, is that, okay? And then you'll get your answer. Or you may say, you know what, hold on, we don't know whether that's correct or not, let's move on to something which we are sure of. So there's always ways in order to kind of govern that teaching, but it must be something that's done every week. And I'm aware of many people that do this, and their children benefit immensely. He has the children benefit immensely. That's that's one practical tip. Another tip that I have is that whatever part of the Quran you've memorized, go

online, find that associate of that surah and learn it. Because that's what are you reading the Salah, when you know the interpretation and the seed of that surah your Salah will be transformed because you're reading that surah and you're thinking about the meanings and you're in that time worshiping Allah and then Yahushua will start to come in as well. So go online, every every sort of that you memorize, make sure you learn at zero it brilliant, so family time and and basically your own reflection as well. Studying a bit more and finding out how many lives are really good tips and hopefully inshallah our listeners and viewers at inshallah inshallah so I hope so and they're able

to connect with the Quran walks, I think, as we discussed, you know, it's not just about

reading and it's not just about memorizing, but also it's about connecting the color and making it relevant. I think that's the most important lesson that I've personally taken away. Whereby it's not just stories, it's not as rulings but actually can relate to us. So inshallah, you know, it's something that I've learnt as well so

thank you so much for your time. I mean, Baraka Luffy Thank you, and to all our listeners and viewers. We hope you've enjoyed and learned a lot from this. This is a very practical episode this one about the Quran and it's probably one of the best topics that we can really discuss on any platform. So hamdulillah we had the opportunity to sit with Chef awesome, and to learn a lot from him. Radical African, thank you so much. Once again for tuning in. And for listening. We hope you benefited. Make sure inshallah

You pick up those plans and learn more and also, inshallah, subscribe to the YouTube channel and keep an eye out for future episodes coming your way very very soon for myself should be it and the rest of us till next time ceramide equilon Rahmatullahi wa barakato