Hamza Yusuf – Sacred Text Messages S01 E09 – A Little Bit of Quran is A Lot

			Upon the regime, display Narayan Rahim Salatu was Salam ala Sayyidina Muhammad wa ala alihi wa
sahbihi wa sallam to semana Sarah Marie comb rahmatullahi wa barakatuh Alhamdulillah here for
another episode in sha Allah of sacred text messages, looking at text messages from our Lord, and
from our beloved Prophet sallallahu alayhi wa sallam, and some of the words of the righteous from
our community of great scholars and spiritual masters. So today I wanted to look at a verse which
has come to us in Surah, tell for on and in the Arabic language will for pan is the criterion. So
the it's one of the names of the the intellect is the mechanism of forgone. So you follow in other
		

			words, it distinguishes between Huck and Bartlett between truth and falsehood this way, all might
have been a hop over the line was called and thoughtful because he was the one that distinguished
between truth and false In fact, the Prophet slicin him said every oma has more had death more had
nothing like the people that
		

			that they hear things and he said, and from my own life there were among my oma those that would all
Marvin hapa would be one of them. People that hear things in the conscious they say in other words,
the angels speak using their tongues. So it's like an inspiration and the profitable I said, um,
		

			when has Sandy been with habit? Or the lawn who was the one of the poets of the province Elias
Adams, beautiful, artist, creative person, and the province I Sam, he used to tell him to recite
poems, because the machete keen would write poems, the policy is in my code would write poems,
basically lampooning the Muslims. And so his son he said, Why don't you answer them with poetry? So
these these were like now they have these in rap, they have these these rap battles. So this was
something that the Arabs did So has anybody with avid he would get up in the Provo would say, you
know, Aloma yo bureau headquarters, Allah strengthen him with the Holy Spirit. So it's, it's, in
		

			other words, inspiration. And great artists and great poets very often have to kind of inspiration,
which is why they're, they're associated with the prophets in that way they call the prophets poets,
because there's a relationship between revelation and inspiration, but they're different. So it's
very interesting, in sorta to forgotten that Allah subhanaw taala actually has Allah subhanho wa
Taala has our prophesized him saying he's basically relating a DA made to his Lord in the Quran. And
it says laucala rosu era in akami a todo Haider Anna Matura. Oh my Lord and and the messenger said,
oh my lord, surely my people in homie it tagu harder core Anna Majora, they have taken this Quran as
		

			a neglected thing as such an abandoned thing. In other words, they have abandoned this book. And a
few things are one in a foamy Omen the Arabic language is is distinguished
		

			by the fact that it has to be from the the father, so it's the patrilineal line. So when you say
gholami it means your your patrilineal line doesn't mean the matrilineal line and that's why in the
Quran in surah Rajaratnam the 49th surah Allah subhana wa Taala says latest car common medical, let
not one people mock and other people, but then after that says what any sentence in this and that
not the women mock other other women. So it distinguishes between the bone which are the males and
the women in that sort of that era. And one of the intriguing aspects of this word also in the
Quran, is that all of the prophets when they speak to their people, they say, yeah, call me
		

			all my people, because they were from them. patrilineal Lee, and they were from the petrolium in
line, but when Jesus speaks, he says, Yeah, Benny is right here, because his mother was Marian but
he didn't have a father from those people. So he's the only prophet that when he addresses his his
Benny inside, he doesn't say yeah, Tommy, because he does. They're not his home. And there's a
hadith in Sahih Muslim where the province of Assam was asked if there was any strangers amongst
them, and they said phoolan so and so is from the aquatic. He's from the matrilineal side, and he
said even Oh,
		

			telecom Minh home, that the son of the mother of a people
		

			is is one of them. In other words, he's saying this they're not strange even though they're not from
the home but he's saying they're they're the same as them. They're not strangers amongst them. So
when he says my people he's he's referring to his, the people that he's related to by by lineage and
he means the Quraysh in Mecca and generally the Arabs also because the prophets Isom is
extraordinarily unique in that he's related somehow to all of the Arabs, there's only a handful of
tribes that that he did not have some relationship with. And then he also through marriage, he was
related to many of the tribes. So he says, this is a complaint really, he's saying he ought to be in
		

			only a todo Heather Khurana Majora. But then Allah Subhana Allah says, What kinetica unnati culina
Vienna I do one minimal Jeremy and like that we give every prophet we ordained for every prophet,
enemies from the criminals. So this is part of the dunya I mean, this what's really important to
understand is that you are going to if you're on the truth, you are always going to have enemies.
This is the son of a lot. This is a laws want in his creation, that he has placed on the path of
righteousness enemies. For for the wisdom is Allah subhana wa Tada. So he's telling the Prophet,
this is what we have done. But then what does he say? Well katha be Arabica had young one of Syrah,
		

			but it's enough for your Lord as a guide. And as someone who will give you victory. In other words,
don't worry. Ally's guiding you so so stay on the path. And don't deviate, don't, don't swerve or
divert. And then know that Allah is going to give you Nasir, he is the one in terms of Allah young
soracom that he will give you victory if you give his faith victory. If you if you give help to his
faith, he will give faith to you. And so this this idea of abandoning the Quran, our scholars have
said that there's different ways that we abandon the origin. And and and one of the things about the
latter days is the prophets Allah is that I'm told us that the way out of all of these problems in
		

			the latter days would be to go back to the origin. And so the the ways that that our community
abandons the Koran
		

			is is first of all, they they leave listening to it had euro summer he what Eman B is is, is they
don't listen to it. So one of the interesting things about the Koran is that if you accustom
yourself to reading it on a regular basis, it's something that not only you can habituate yourself
to but if you don't do it, you won't feel well. But that takes time, just like any type of exercise.
If you if you're if you're exercising, if you get used to a regular exercise regimen, then when you
leave that you don't feel well this is well known is that is people if you get into any habit, when
you stop doing it, yeah, it's it's uncomfortable. If we brush our teeth every day, if for whatever
		

			reasons, you're not able to do it, you don't feel your mouth doesn't feel clean, you don't feel
good. And the same with many, many things. people drink coffee, or tea every single day. If they
don't have it, they get they get disturbed by it. And some people actually can be very grumpy. And
in fact, it's almost like a joke that people say I haven't had my coffee yet, like don't talk to me
yet. Well, there's also habituating yourself to the haoran making it a habit. And and and even if
you take one of the things that I learned from a navy seal, not personally but I heard a talk by a
navy seal. And it was very beneficial because and I wish I would have known this many, many years
		

			ago. But he said that people who exercise don't exercise, they often don't exercise because they
think I don't have a half hour or 45 minutes. But he said the mistake in that is that take a
baseline that you can do every single day without any difficulty. Even if it's five minutes that you
just say, I'm going to exercise every single day for five minutes. And then what you do, what you'll
find out is that when you do that five minutes, it'll turn into seven minutes or 10 minutes or 15
minutes. But if you have that baseline that's very accessible and very easy. It will become a habit
and that habit will grow.
		

			The same is true for the Oran just take just commit to yourself every single day to read half a page
of course
		

			One or even two, I have Quran whatever it is, but commit yourself to that and don't stint on it. And
what you'll find is that half a page will turn into a page. And then the page will turn into two
pages, and then the two pages into three pages, whatever you do so for the traditionally what
Muslims did, and one of the things I love about Morocco, is that they've really held to this
practice is that they recite a Jews every day. And in fact, they start on the first of the month,
the lunar month. So for instance, like I know, today is the third day, for instance of ribbit Thani
because it's the third * in which is ends at bacara. So you end back on and then the begin, let
		

			them run. So so that is because of the practice of just doing the Jews during the lunar month. For
most people, you can do a Jews in about half an hour, maybe it'll take 40 if you do it with,
		

			with with teal, it's going to take longer, what what Atenolol khorana 13. And so if you do it with
Tapi, what they call tap peak or 30, that it's going to take probably about 45 minutes. But if you
do it with half hour, which is the faster mode, you can do it probably in 20 minutes. I mean,
there's some people that can do it in even less than that without stinting on the takeaway, but that
takes a lot of practice. In fact, I have a Kuwaiti friend,
		

			Chef Abdullah, ma talk, who does 30 hatom every Ramadan. So he does every single day he does Fatima,
the entire Quran, and he does it in the harem. These are half of the Quran. So he had a friend who
wanted to go to the harem with him. He said, I'm going to do it with you. I'm going to recite a
huddle every day. And he said, No, you can't do that. He said, No, I can do it. I trust me. He said
no, that takes a lot of practice is actually very difficult to do. And he said no, I can do it. And
so he said, Okay, so they went to Medina. And so he said the first day, he was doing his cotton. And
after a little while he looked back at his friend, he was asleep.
		

			So this is the thing that you have to just take what you can do prophesies of actually did not like
for people to do it
		

			less than three days. But some of them did do it
		

			every day. And there are many, many scholars that it's recorded that they recited around every
single day, but at least do try to do a page just a page of recite. If you don't know how to recite
then then you have your challenge. So you learn first you do the the basically the the neurons or
something or the bond Daddy, there's a whole bunch of different ones. So you learn that Bobby boo,
you Bobby boo 30 to 30 foo and then you start doing that fubu right.
		

			Things like that. And then once you learn that, it's not actually not that hard. And then you learn
the rules of Tajweed so you should practice with somebody who knows you don't have to learn the
actual names of all the rules, but you have to learn how to recite the Quran properly without what
what they call the hand jelly. So a left hand huffy is a little more difficult to get to remove that
takes time to do it and the majority of scholars permit that of not always getting the harm or
something that doesn't change the meaning. So you could learn that and there's a lot of resources
for Tajweed even online there's a lot of resources for Ted sweet It's always better to have a
		

			teacher but we have amazing resources now with recorded a scholars like EMA mudhouse study by far is
is the master of the Cora and so just take something even if you listen to it from the cars the the
CD or online digitalized, however you listen to it, just you recite it with them. This means he'll
Rahmani r Rahim and then do that every single day. So So and then also you can listen to the Quran
being recited. So people prefer different
		

			parties to other parties. Like allegedly Shakeology is very popular party. There's Sudanese styles
in Monod Khushi in Morocco who did a beautiful wash recitation, which was the the favorite of Hema
Matic knafeh is Clara. So those are all things that you can do. And then the second type of
abandonment is a hydro roller MLB. So it's abandoning practicing it. We're in nakara. Whoa, I'm
gonna be even if you read it, and actually believe in it, you don't practice it. And there's a lot
of Unfortunately, there's a lot of Muslims that don't practice in fact,
		

			I, somebody sent me a text of somebody who I thought was a serious student of knowledge, but the
behavior on these comments that this person made on that I felt I felt embarrassed for him as a
person, because he was refuting some other person online. And the things that the way he talked
about this person the way I mean, this is really sad because like he was calling him names and they
and this is somebody who, you know, is noted in the community to be a learned person, and yet he's
led to an Abu Zubaydah lowcarb. Allah says in the 49th chapter, don't call each other names. I mean,
it's, it's prohibited to do that to make fun of people to come. You know, some people, they say,
		

			like, say terrible names about people, they'll take use of and make it like doofus, you know,
because they don't like a person. So that's, that's what our teaching is. That's our, that's our
teaching. That's how Muslims, that's the level of our community where we actually make fun of
people's names. Malcolm cave attacco Moon what, what's going on? And so, that's a good example where
the Quran says do not call people names. So if you're calling people names, you're not practicing
the Quran. There's a hadith that says maybe a man's reciting the Quran and the Quran is cursing him.
Because the Quran says Lana to Allah, Allah Academy, * the liars. So you're, you're telling
		

			lies, and then the or you're reading Quran, but the Quran is telling you that you're damned because
you're a liar. So there are many, many examples of that of just not acting according to the cooloola
nasya hasna. Speak beautifully to people, even the Christians, Allah says, Let us abilitynet their
own Eman, do Neela Don't curse the idols of those who worship other than Allah. Don't make fun of
Hindu idols. I saw somebody you know, in in, in a one of the Gulf states they were selling Ganesh,
is it Ganesh Ganesh, the, the it's the it's the the idol that, you know, Hindus personify the the
the Ganesh Ganesh, the Hindus personify the the abundance in Ganesh and that's why you see it in
		

			Hindu restaurants and things like that they put it there, because it's like, it's gonna bring them
success, worldly success and things like that. So this was a Muslim lady who saw this, and she was
in the store, and she took it and smashed it. Now, that person,
		

			the impulse in that I can understand, because they had like a failure or a kind of,
		

			you know, just jealousy for the, for the religion on the Arabian Peninsula, like how could you have,
but that's not how we behave. That's now on YouTube. And then somebody in India sees that, who
actually considers that to be a sacred thing. And I made this mistake myself, because I had a talk
where I gave and I mentioned Kali
		

			in a negative way and and I regretted it so I'm, I will point the finger at myself too. We make
mistakes like that, but the Quran is telling us don't do that. Because these are things people hold
sacred. So then we get mad when they draw cartoons and say, Oh, this is what they believe in and
make fun of it. But if Muslims are going to do that, if we're going to make fun of the of their
religion and their Bible and say, oh, they're Bible's full of this, or that, we're gonna mock the
Buddha or mock that if Muslims are going to do that, that don't expect them to respect our religion,
we have to have mutual respect, and that's what the Quran says. In fact, if you look at those
		

			verses, which are quite amazing, I mean, they're really stunning. Allah subhanho wa Taala says,
that, that he has made each oma
		

			that their actions appear good to them.
		

			So they actually it seems good to me, Allah tells us he's going to explain this all when we go back
into the into the into the other world where we came from Allah said he's going to explain all the
differences and everything so people need to be patient with one another but it's really important
to act according to the Quran don't don't I mean I'm so I get distraught by seeing how
		

			many of the Muslim leadership the way they talk about other Muslims and I'll tell you something that
broke my heart This is a God's honest truth. I met with somebody who's literally the head of the
religion desk for a major network in the United States. And he told me something that broke my heart
He said, You know, I cover every single religion in the United States. But after say, you he said
that Muslims, you guys are the worst with one another. The way you guys talk about each other, and I
said, What do you mean? He said, You know, when I enter
		

			You have an ask about, and then they just trash. So and I really hurt me to hear that, you know? And
I said, What have you heard that from me said, No. And I said, Well, that's all. We're not supposed
to do that. So these people are not following the religion by doing that. And then he told me
something very interesting. He said, Do you know the evangelicals have a kind of pact, where they
don't disrespect one another, even if they disagree with them. So you don't hear evangelicals,
trashing other evangelicals? So I called one of my evangelical friend, he's a pastor from Texas. I
come just I wanted to test this hypotheses. So I said to him,
		

			you know, Pastor, can I ask you, what do you what do you think of Joel olsteen. And I knew that he
had a different view of because he wasn't a prosperity gospel type preacher. And this is what he
said. He said, Well, you know, Joel, and I, we differ in our theology, but I think a lot of people
get solace from Joel's preaching, and I think he helps a lot of people. And and I pray for Joel. And
that's what he said to me. I was like, wow, I was thinking about Muslim like, have you? Yes.
Awesome. What do you think about this Muslim or that Muslim leader and they don't follow Him, He is
dead and don't follow him. He's a Wahhabi, and don't follow him. He's a Sufi and don't follow him.
		

			He's follow everybody but me. I mean, this is kind of Yeah.
		

			Follow every don't follow anybody but me. Yeah. So anyway, that's acting according to the Quran. And
then how'd you attack him? He went to Hong Kong, LA, he and then also not using the Quran as an
arbiter. So the deen doesn't become your source of arbitration. And I'll give you one example. I was
once asked to this, these parents were having a dispute about Habana or child custody. And so the
father said that he was content with me being the arbiter and the wife agree they were getting a
divorce. And they agreed, so they came in. And and so they both agreed, they brought me in as a How
come? You know, they both agree. So I said, well, by Sharia, the children should stay with the
		

			mother. And the husband just said, I'll accept that. So he was hoping because he thought like, I was
a friend of his or something that I was going to side with him. And I didn't and so he just
rejected. So there's a lot of people that when the shitty works for them, they're all for the
shittier. But when it doesn't work for them, they just simply say, No, I don't agree with that. Or
they, you know, I get people they asked me, What do you think about rebar, you know, like a
mortgage? And I my responses, how many people have you asked before me?
		

			Like people are looking for somebody just to say to them, it's okay, you can do this. You can ask
people to go out, as you know, you'll get plenty of different opinions about lots of subjects and
things like that. But it seems like people really, there's a lot of people that just follow their
own desires. And it's it's very sad. So that's very important. How do you rotate the Buddha he was
tough at home and he is reflecting on the Quran says a variety, the Bruner Koran, don't they reflect
deeply on this Quran the prophets Allah Islam said most of them are common few beta mu beauty.
		

			Yet Runa keytab Allah waited out asuna han beno, they read the book of Allah, but then they study it
with one of people forget that, which is a Sahih Hadith. They forget that aspect of they don't just
read it, they study it the Quran was revealed to be to be reflected on and thought about and even
though we don't derive an account from it, there's still a great deal that we can learn by reading
the Quran. We have translations of the Quran that are relatively good, we have to be careful, and
you always have to have recourse but we even have good now, commentaries in English, where people
can read you have to be careful with commentaries because not not all of it's accurate. Even the
		

			great commentaries have problems that scholars have pointed out, but people should reflect on the
Quran. And then he said how juristische fair what the Dow will be, and then also not using the Quran
as a means to heal Westerners you know, men are Quran Maha Shiva, we have revealed in this book,
what is a healing for people UEFI you know, McAfee pseudo it will heal what's in the, in the hearts.
So the Quran is actually a healing. I mean, one of the things about the sounds of Quran, especially
if you do the tissue eat properly, the sounds of the Quran are going to affect you. So if you just
like
		

			me
		

			Those are sacred sounds. And and and they're amazing sounds. So just the heart of and the prophets I
sent him said that each heart has 10 rewards each. And he said adfly meme is not a horrible, each
one is a hot Eddie lamb meme. One of the things about the MOCA ad these mysterious letters at the
beginning of some of the chapters in the Quran. And all in here, one of the things about this is
that if you study any book of linguistics, they will say that phonemes are meaningless, that
phonemes only become meaningful when they when they're combined into words. So basically, they're
saying the foundation of all meaning is meaningless. What the Koran is refuting is that know, the
		

			very building blocks of meaning are meaningful, we just don't know the meanings. So its meaning all
the way down, which is really something amazing that what book what human being could have thought
of putting just letters in the Koran, just what human being could have thought of starting a book
with sounds, because it's almost like ballif
		

			me that he could keytab like, it's moving from meanings that only Alon knows to meanings that he's
conveying to you. But in the end, it's only Allah who knows all the meaning. So just take a little
bit every day of the Quran, just just that little bit, and just exercise with it until it becomes
habitual. And one of the things that you have to really be careful of don't take more than you can
handle. So just take what you can and do it every day. And then once you get that established, you
can increase it incrementally until hopefully you're doing a huddle at least once a month. And
because that really is a goal to have what hanifa Delano said that if you do a huddle at least twice
		

			a year, you won't be from those who have abandoned the Koran. So just at least twice don't do it
just in Ramadan. I mean some people do it just in Ramadan suffered a lot just in Rome is huge to do
it in Ramadan, but don't let Ramadan be the only time that you do have them. Try to do a hatom at
least a second hatom throughout the year and but build up to two reciting it on a regular basis. And
inshallah May Allah give all of you tofi up, wherever you are, the Book of Allah is it's just so
beautiful. It sounds beautiful, even if you don't understand this. Have you been as Jimmy used to
get so moved when he would hear the Koran and and somebody said to him, you know Persians you're
		

			your mother tongue. And yet you know you're so moved by the Quran he said lisanna Jimmy like an RV
RV. He said My tongue is Persian but my heart is Arabic. So the even the Agim can be moved by and
there are many people who have have been moved to tears just from hearing the Quran recited it can
penetrate the hearts.
		

			In fact, Allah says had he revealed it on a mountain you would see the mountain obliterated so what
would it What would it do to Corona? If that's what it could do to to the to the mountain? It could
certainly obliterate Corona handiness or Morocco Morocco, loca