Hamzah Wald Maqbul – Riyd alSlihn Guarding the Qurn 03182018
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So, Sayidna Abdullah bin Mas'udur radiAllahu ta'ala who
he narrates that the
prophet
said, whoever reads a letter of the Quran,
or a letter of the book of Allah,
that person
will receive
a good deed. And a good deed is
rewarded,
according to 10 times its worth.
And then,
clarified
because the word harf in the Arabic language,
it can mean a letter, but it also
can mean other things,
like a particle or just a small basic
unit. So he said he said explicitly
that I don't say that alif, lam, mim
counts as one harf. Rather, alif counts as
a harf, lam counts as a harf, and
mim,
counts as a harf.
And it's narrated by Tirmidi.
And I think it's really
interesting that this
particular example is given by Rasulullah
because we have a lot of people who
aren't able to understand part or all of
the Arabic,
in the Quran that they recite.
Well, guess what? No matter, you know, how
wonderful your Arabic is and whatever,
nobody understands what Alif Lam means.
But still,
a person receives 1010 rewards minimum
for the aliph and for the lam and
for the mim.
And,
it's a an indication toward
the the the reality of the book of
Allah being more than more than what people
think of it on the surface because this
was the this is actually in many ways,
it it it it's a subtle illusion toward
a a reputation of the of the which
considered the Quran to be the word of
Allah or the speech of Allah only metaphorically
and,
tried to understand it through the realms
realm or the lens of rationality. Not the
realm, the lens of rationality.
Right? So there's a lot of the,
they had a lot of,
a lot of,
when
the
the
tried to, like, over rationalize the dean.
And they didn't try to over rationalize the
dean because
they were more rational people, and Olamah didn't
have a bone to pick with them because
they're anti rational.
But, look, if you believe that this is
why he comes it's a revelation that comes
from
a a realm beyond time and space, then
you have to you have to accept the
fact that there are certain things you're not
going to understand
about it, and you have to accept the
fact that it's overwhelming. And if Allah is
Allah, then his will be overwhelming,
and everything he brings will be overwhelming.
If you try to bring it down to
the size of, like, what you're able to
understand in its entirety, obviously, there's a large
parts of the dean that are actually well
served by good understanding.
But there's some things that are beyond it.
If you try to hack everything down to
size, that itself is irrational.
That itself is irrational because then there's no
need for MBIA alaihimus salaam. And, I mean,
at the the was a big big group
of people, and there are some more extreme
amongst them that didn't get much light of
day, or or in terms of, like, acceptance
from the Ummah
that, you know, they believe things like that.
Like, you know, everything that comes to Revelation,
the
the the perfect or the perfect intellect was
able to arrive at that, on its own
anyway,
thus defeating the point of
of of of having any sort of. So
these things about, like, is
the night in which the Quran is revealed
and it's worth more than a 1000 nights.
And it's kind of the overwhelming nature of
the of the Quran or, of all these
things. The they
they enjoyed
sticking into the and saying, hey, yo. If
this was if this is supposed to all
make sense, then what's this all about? Because
it it doesn't it doesn't it's irrational to
say that all of these things are rational.
There are a lot of things that don't
make sense. So you can either say, okay,
is not a useful part of the Quran,
or you can make up some meaning for
it or whatever.
But, the had a you know, they enjoyed
sticking it to them. We mentioned did I
mention this before in this about the last
hadith of Bukhari?
The the last hadith of Bukhary is,
There are 2 words
or two phrases that are
expressions that are light on the tongue and
heavy in the scale pans in the day
of judgment.
And,
and,
beloved to
the the most merciful
to say,
glory be to Allah, and to be him
be praised.
Glory be to Allah,
the magnificent.
And,
one of the reasons Imam Bukhari left put
it at the end of the book was
to, you know, just, like, kinda shank the
Muertazilah on the way out. Because they used
to have, like they used to pick on,
like, little weird stuff like,
oh, a lot does it need, like, scales
to weigh things? So any reference in the
Quran, the scales is just completely just a
metaphor for God's justice and his judgment.
No.
Like, it's like the
if it was just a metaphor, he wouldn't
be talking about the deeds being actually weighed.
So at any rate, you know, when you
have your approach to the Quran,
like everything else, everything, like everything else, there's
a frame of reference you have to understand
it from. And the first frame of reference
you have to understand from is the frame
of reference of
akhida. That in akhida, what is the Quran?
It's the eternal and uncreated speech of Allah
Subhanahu wa ta'ala.
The ink on the paper and the words
that come out of the the sounds that
come out of the, you know, your voice
box and, you know, the movement of your
lips and your tongue, etcetera.
That that's not what the Quran is. The
Quran is something
real more real and deeper than that. And,
it's reality is overwhelming.
And these hadith regarding the the Quran only
makes sense when a person gets to that
or it comes to that understanding. Go
So said now Abdulahidmi Abbasan Radiallahu Alaihi wa
Salam
said, the one who has inside of his
the body cavity inside of his chest,
inside of the hollows of his body,
that one that doesn't have any Quran,
that person is the analogy the analogy of
that person is that of a a house
that's
not inhabited, a house that's been abandoned.
There's no furniture there. There's no people there.
The you know, whatever. The water doesn't work.
There's no electricity. There's not, obviously, in the
original times, there was no running water and
electricity in the houses. But the idea is
that think about a house that's completely abandoned
and there's no,
you know, there's there's nothing going on over
there. It's not a nice place to go.
It's maybe somewhere like
like, in this country, what happens with houses
like that? Usually, meth meth addicts will take
the copper out of the pipes
and, you know, usually, drug addicts will go
there to shoot up or, like, get high,
or people will, like, smashing
windows and do kinda weird things over there.
It's not it's not a nice place to
come into.
And so the analogy of a human being
that has inside of their hearts some part
of the Quran, it's like a house that's
being kept, that's clean, that has people in
it. The children are there. There's love there.
It's something it has a different meaning.
You know, if, like, if, for example, if
you used to live in a place and
then you come back years later after having
moved and you have all these warm and
fond memories and, like, the people who live
there now are, like, not taking care of
it, So it kinda upsets you or annoys
you. Right? So this is a superlative
example that it's not just that. It's the
place is completely abandoned.
There's nothing. There's no left inside of it.
And this is important to understand why because,
these are these are, like, spiritual realities.
So a person may look real
fit,
physically fit, handsome, beautiful,
wealthy, intelligent, all of those things.
But to Allah,
the person is nothing.
And someone might say, well, that's good for
Allah, but for me that looks really nice
and wonderful. What the problem is that, yo,
Muqiyama, when you meet Allah
it's his,
it's his, will that's done, and it's his,
decree that that matters. Nothing else really matters
after that. And this is part of Allah's
helm. He you know, one of his sifatas,
he's al Halim, he's the forbearance,
which means what? Because
Allah is not like us shackled in time
and space,
he
doesn't have the impatience of being locked in
sequential time that a person may turn out
to be a really good person.
And because of that, Allah loves them even
when they're, you know, kinda on their way
and not there yet. And the person may
be a really horrible person
and regardless how pious or wonderful they look
in the middle, Allah
still despises that person.
And so he that's what he's saying. He's
pronouncing a reality regarding that heart, that heart
that the Quran never entered into.
That's an eternal pronouncement that this person is
like. It's like the house that has no
one living there. It's abandoned. It's useless. It's
not being,
you know, its purpose is not being fulfilled.
It's just a waste,
and it's a shame.
And just like that, the person whose heart
doesn't have any any any of the Quran
inside of it, that person is
that person is like an abandoned house.
And the commentators, they say,
they say with regards to this hadith that
also,
there's like a sliding scale as well.
So if the the person who has
some Quran,
it's like the house is
in kind of good condition.
The person who's memorized the entire Quran makes
Amal on it, fears Allah
reflects over its meanings, etcetera, etcetera, that that
person then
their their their meaning is being fulfilled even
more.
Go ahead.
He narrates that the the prophet
said that it will be said to the
Sahibul Quran.
I mean, the most
simple the most simple meaning here is the
companion of the Quran, but most of the
commentary commentators
say this means,
the one who's memorized the entire Quran.
And,
it's not like a unanimous consensus. Some of
them say, no. It applies everybody who has
any part of the Quran
memorized.
But, most of them say that the Sahib
al Quran, this is a special honor that
will be given to the
of the book of Allah Ta'ala.
And not only just the of memorization that
they can without having to look, you know,
recite the Quran.
But hefav is a interesting word. Right? Because,
like,
memorize memorize in English
I mean, you can see memory, remember. They
have the same they have, like, a a
a like a similar nominal stem. Right? Whereas
HIFS isn't like that.
Is not like the.
Rather
means what? It means to guard or protect
something.
And the the meaning of guard and protect,
It it it means not just in your
memory, but also in your actions, in your
thoughts.
So there could be a person who can,
like, pair it the words of the Quran,
but
they waste it. They waste the Quran in
their actions or they waste the Quran in
the the way that their mind is put
together.
This happens a whole lot.
And sometimes you will find, like, in more
comical I mean, we would be comical if
it's not funny, but in more comical example,
the professional Quran reciters that, like, seem not
to have been affected by the teachings of
the book of Allah even slightly.
Even though generally speaking, even if a person
has
is
relatively lax in their deen, having memorized the
Quran has some effect on them. But there
are some people who, you know, that's just
their their Nasib in in life is that
they should receive the outward and they are
bereft of any of the the meaning of,
of the inward benefit of of the book
of Allah Subhanahu Wa Ta'ala. But at any
rate, the Sahib al Quran is what the
companion of the Quran, that the Quran is
with them by day night. And even the
meaning of it, the Hafiz
Hafiz just doesn't mean that you can, like,
do like a like a ketchup in a
basement in Lombard. You know what I mean?
The the Hafiz is the one who, I
mean, was intended to,
learn it holistically like the Sahaba used to
learn the the Quran holistically. Like, when they
memorize the ayah, they'd also learn the meaning
and they learn the
implications
and they would, like, you know, learn the
implications in aqidah and and akhlaq and whatever.
And and they would,
you know, strive to, like, think how do
I practice this ayah? And then they would
say, like, okay. I'm gonna practice this ayah
for, like, the next week. And then they'll
go and learn the next one in such
a way. There are many people as the
Kholefar
Ashidun, all of them became her father eventually.
According to
according to, Sayyuti,
there's some difference of opinion as to whether
they're Hafaz during the life of the prophet
or not, but all of them became Hafaz
eventually. The only one who was doing the
life of the prophet was
Sayidna Uthman radiAllahu
anhu. Otherwise, the rest of them, it was
a gradual process for them to learn it.
If Sayna Abu Bakr Siddiq and Sayna Amar
radhiallahu and Sayna Ali radhiallahu,
they're gonna take that amount of time to
learn the the the hifs, then maybe hifs
is more than just, you know,
what you can blow through at, you know,
blow through at at one of our local
reward our honorable that teach the to the
children. But there's a
it's part of that also that when the
kid can, like, breeze through a separa without
any mistakes or whatever, without any mistakes, you
know, it's good to tell them, like, okay.
This is, like, step 1, Insha'Allah, and this
is such a high maqam with Allah ta'ala.
And then one day you'll learn Arabic, you'll
understand what it means, you'll learn what the
fiqhav of this is. You'll understand what it
is deep, and then you'll be a half
of the Quran. You'll carry the Quran with
you and you'll be a a protector of
it. You'll be a Sahib al Quran,
a person who's like a companion of the
Quran. So the angels will say to those
people it's a hadith of the prophet
that there are the Maqamat and the the
stations in Jannah are divvied up and parsed
up by by aya.
This and there are other ahadith that may
maybe mentioned that there's different ways of dividing
the Maqama at the stations of Jannah,
but they're you know, and so they're not
mutually exclusive of one another, but there there
are
It's narrated from the prophet sallallahu alaihi wa
sallam,
and Hakim narrates it and he said it's
a hadith sahih.
And Imam Behati narrates it in his Shur'a
Al Iman
that the number there are stations are numbered
also according to the number of ayat of
the Quran,
and there's no maqam higher than the one
who the maqam of the person who's the
half of
Quran. So, you know, one might say, well,
what if someone's a half of the Quran
and, you know, nowadays and they live in
Villa Park? Does that mean that they'll be
with, you know, in the same as the
Ambiya?
Even those there are gradations
inside of them. But there is a accounting
or a a division of Jannah
that's according to, according to the,
according to the ayat of the Quran.
And in that, you know, in that, like,
whatever scale, there's no there's no maqam higher
than the one for,
half of the Quran. And so the angels
will say to the person,
so 3 three
three commands. 1 is
recite.
Doesn't mean read like you read a book.
Even though
our our
brothers and sisters,
beloved brothers and sisters, they're like, we're the
ummah of read of Iqra, which means that
kids should read a whole bunch of it
doesn't even make sense Rasoolah, salaam,
was, always unlettered.
He never he never read anything.
In fact, there there's a difference of opinion
amongst the the the
the olema
that was he able to read and he
just deliberately didn't, or was he unable to
read? Many of the say that he was
able to read. He knew,
but he made sure not to do anything
through reading. So there's, like, like, you know,
times where he'll tell somebody, you know, like,
he told
to erase where it says Muhammad in the
in the treaty of Hudaybiyah and out of
you know, he's like he's like, I'm sorry.
I can't do it. And so so just,
you know, don't make a big deal out
of it. Just point to to where it
says that to me, and I'll erase it
with my own hand.
And,
this was his and his kindness to the
ummah that he didn't make people do things
that they were, like, super uncomfortable with.
But,
here, iqra doesn't mean read, it means recite.
It means to recite. So recite
Right?
Is the same the same root. Right? Means
ascend. Keep going up and and rank.
And,
is what?
Is to recite the Quran slowly enough that
it's,
all of its Tajweed can be,
it it can be
pronounced in the most perfect way that a
person can possibly pronounce it. So it's not
reading it so slow. Sometimes now they have
something they call tahdig.
At least our Maliki alamat says haram to
recite like that because some people, they recite
so slowly,
perhaps in order to pack in more, like,
art artistry into the recitation.
They recite so slowly that in the middle
of the eye, you forget, like, what the
beginning of the eye was about because it's
just taking so long.
But, tartil is not that. Tartil is slowing
down enough so that you're able to
hit the tajwid as well as you can.
And at that speed,
a person will naturally reside in the most
aesthetically
beautiful way as well. Although the beauty of
a person's recitation has an inward reality and
an outward reality, but the tartil is to
recite slowly enough that you,
you perfect it outwardly because when you recite
really quick, it's lasm, it's it's it's necessary
that you'll miss, you know, you'll miss a
little bit, in terms of in terms of
perfecting the Tajweed. So the 3 commands, 1
is
re recite and the second is ascend and
the third is
is to, make tartil meaning read in a
beautiful voice. And the fact that you're slow
means it will take longer to read. So
if as long as you're reading, you keep
ascending, then the slower you read the better.
So this is essentially the slowest,
speed of recitation that's
That's permissible in the in the sharia
that a person should keep reading and they
keep reciting and they make
like they used to make in this world.
So those kids who are trying to, like,
rush through the I'm talking to you. The
they're trying to rush through their sub up.
Right? Just to get done and run away.
Right? Which says
like you used to read in this world.
So the one who reads more and who
reads slower and with more enjoyment in this
world,
then is it gonna be in in in
Jannah, will they read faster or slower?
Slower and the longer it takes for them
to read, their
will be higher and higher and higher in
Jannah. So it's a good thing.
So it's not people shouldn't be, like, in
a a a race to to get done
with it. And
the your
your your
station in Jannah will
be commensurate with the last,
verse that you recite.
And
the commentators
they write, right, like, that the fakie fakie
Hafiz
that's just like just kind of a poser
that doesn't really whatever. It's like and
the grave. Right?
You're not gonna be able to be like,
oh, smack. This whole dean thing is real.
I better tell them that my dean is
Islam and stuff. Otherwise, I'm going to *.
Right? You can't fake it at that point.
Your capacity to fake it is gone. It's
taken away from you. And so here also
your capacity to fake your your recitation is
gone. It's just a genuine reflection of what
your relationship with the book of Allah to
Allah is. This is this is good because
is
tomorrow's gonna be the first day of Rajab.
Right?
Inshallah.
So,
Ramadan is around the corner. So it's good
to, like, get that, like, get, you know,
know what the benefit is over the recitation
of the Quran so a person can make
the most benefit of Quran. Make make the
most benefit of, of the recitation of the
Quran outside of Ramadan and inside of Ramadan
as well. And people should make niyah that
they go for the
and they should make niyah reciting the Quran
as much as you can.
Ramadan is not a time for iftar parties.
It's,
oh my god, not a time for suhoor
parties. I don't know when this thing started.
And I was, like, in Madrasana. I come
back people doing suhoor parties and stuff like
that.
It's definitely not a time for any of
that stuff.
It's not a time for it's not a
time to go to bands and darsas.
That's what, like, the rest of the year
is for. It's a time for dua, zikr,
salat, and whatever else, like, you know, when
you're tired of standing or whatever, then just
recite as much Quran as you can and
make khatam one after the other inshallah.
So
Go ahead.
So this is a chapter Noe brings then
afterward,
regarding the
regarding the, commandment to,
to preserve the Quran, meaning to whatever view
you memorize to keep reciting it so that
you don't forget.
And the chapter regarding,
cautioning the
from exposing it to
being forgotten. How do you expose the Quran
memorized by but to being forgotten, but not
reciting it?
So the one point I wanted to make
before we we move on from the from
the last chapter with regards to this,
this commandment to recite and to
ascend and to
make of the Quran like a person used
to make it in the dunya. This is
a proof this is a proof that your
your illness, if it's connected with Wahi,
your your knowledge in this dunya or of
this dunya all ends.
Once your brain is gone, like, the physical
memories you have are gone.
And,
the spiritual memories you have are of spiritual
things. They're not physical things.
And even if a person were to remember
all their physics, math, all this other stuff,
is like a day that all the natural
laws of everything is completely altered.
So none of that stuff will be relevant
anymore.
It's like, it's like a person who, you
know, whatever, knows how to use a telegram
telegraph
and then you hand them a smartphone. It's
completely different. It's you're no longer you're no
longer in the same business anymore.
However,
the Quran,
this is again our regarding the Quran that
it's
it's eternal uncreated. It comes from a place
outside of time and space or not dependent
on time and space.
And, the knowledge of why he is like
that as well.
And so whatever you go, like, like,
you work so hard the whole week for
putting in 40 40 hours at the office
and this and that. And then, like, you
only get 2 days off afterward.
And by the time you're done with everything
else, you're really tired. So who's gonna, like,
straggle into real salahim?
Well, the idea is this is that the
illness you get from this, you keep it
with you.
And this is a proof that the Hafiz
is still a Hafiz in the grave even
though doctor and engineer is not doctor and
engineer in the grave.
And the the,
the Nabi is still Nabi in the grave
and in in the
forever, the Hafiz is still a Hafiz forever.
Those people, whatever they have and whatever whatever
they have, they bring it with them. This
is not to say that, like, obviously, the
dunya doesn't help. If you had a lot
of money and you're a doctor and you
helped a lot of people,
the the being a doctor or being an
engineer is a great wasila and a great
means to
achieving other spiritual
goals. But in and of itself, it's gonna
perish.
Whereas the the the the the,
the the the knowledge that's connected to Wahi,
that knowledge will from all of amongst all
of the knowledge, that's the only one that's
gonna still be relevant. It's gonna still stay
with you. So it's worth putting in a
little bit of effort. Like, you know, when
you have, like, a portfolio of the high
risk, high return,
you know, so whatever you learn in the
dunya, it's, you know, it's gonna make you
a lot of money. I'll be honest with
you. K. Learning fit is not gonna make
you a lot of money. And if you
do, it's a sign something also has gone
wrong in the middle as well.
So you put part of your time for
that because it's gonna last forever. So you
don't leave it. You don't abandon it. If
you don't have, like, a
a a job and you're not paying your
rent and you're not whatever you starve to
death, then that's not helping you learn any
fit either. Right? But, or learn, memorize, or
honor any of that other stuff. But, a
person should know what the special
value of this is, why a person should,
expend their their time and their abilities and
and and and gaining this knowledge, the root
of which is the Quran.
And said, Abu Musa Al Ashaari radiAllahu ta'ala
Anhu narrates from the prophet sallallahu alaihi wa
sallam
that he said he said,
Quran.
What all of you all of you,
guard guard this Quran.
Protect this Quran. Meaning what the of the
Quran you should you should guard it. How
do you guard it? By reciting it again
and again.
Right? How do you keep from forgetting the
Quran by reciting it again and again by
reading it from the again and again. The
Allah must say that there's more rewarded reading
from the must have than there is in
just reciting because then the eyes,
the eyes also participate with the ears and
the tongue.
However,
another benefit of it is that what Is
that your memory is some people not some
people, everybody, their memory is also linked to,
like, visual things. Some people have a photographic
memory that's more powerful than others, but by
seeing it, it helps you remember it even
more. And that's one thing I don't know
if, you know, your said this to you,
but I've heard this from many of the
of HIFs in Pakistan. They say, like, use
the same.
Don't, like, flip around and change when you're
when you're when you're memorizing. Because oftentimes, when
you get stuck, you can actually, you know,
summon the picture of the page in your
head,
as a technique of, like, getting yourself, unstuck
from from from somewhere where you're you're not
remembering.
So said,
protect and make hiff of this,
this, the the the remembrance of this Quran.
Because
I swear an oath,
by him in whose hands is the soul
of Muhammad
It is
it is
always trying to, get away,
like a a a a a a hobbled
camel.
So that a camel, if the if it's
hobbled, it's it's tied up with the the
hobbling cord.
That camel, if you let it go, it
can obviously run faster than you. It will
get away from you,
if you let it go, if you don't
pay attention. And the other thing is that,
like, what are you gonna do in the
desert? You're not gonna actually tie the camel
up to a tree. There's no trees there.
It's a desert.
Right? So there are large stretches of the
desert that there's really nothing to tie it
up with. So that's what they that's what
they do. Like, the the old Arabs used
to wear turbans, but the you know, they
wear these, like,
kind of those coils on their head nowadays
in the in the Khaleed.
What are those? Those are those are the
hobbling cords for the camel originally. I mean,
now they're, like, real smooth like wool and,
you know, kind of made to look real
fancy and things like that, and they never
will touch the
the the shank of a camel. But, the
idea was that if you tie the if
you hobble the camel, it's two legs together,
it can't move very far.
So
the idea is even if it's trying to
get away, it'll just, like, make little little
hops,
and it won't get very far.
Whereas, if you don't pay attention for a
long time, it might get very far away.
It may, you know, go far enough away
that you don't know where it went.
Whereas if, you know, you always, you know,
keep an eye on it, it's not gonna
get that far.
So the Quran is trying to is is
is is
Rasulullah SAWS makes the the,
makes the analogy of the camel, like, trying
to get away, that camel that's hobbled at
trying to get away, that if you don't
keep an eye on it, it's going to
get away.
And this is this is the human part
of this is the human part of the
book of Allah because we oftentimes say, oh,
look, it's miracle, Quran. All little kids memorize
it. It's not easy. You didn't memorize it
for free, did you?
Right?
Speaking of which,
Mon Aziz was one of the senior alhamah
here and the HIFS teacher of some of
the people in the room as well. He,
he had open heart surgery today. Right?
Yes. Or say the stent put in. And
he had a heart attack yesterday. Right?
So everybody make dua for Shifa Allah,
give him Shifa and and and, give him
good health inshallah and bring him back to
us and to his family and reward him
for the pain and difficulty that he went
through because he's really a a a real
special person
and a real,
special,
just source of barakah that we have over
here. And,
a proof that, you know, that the man
who's famous is like Eid and the one
who's not so well known is like Laylatul
Qadr. Like, he's a very special person
despite the fact that not a whole lot
of people,
know about him.
And those who know about him don't know
about his specialness. They just call him when
they have a gin problem or whatever.
But,
one of the most learned and and just
wonderful people that we have in this area.
So, yeah, it's not easy. It's not easy
to memorize. Right?
It's not it's not easy to memorize. There's
a lot. Right? If it was easy, you
would have been a Hafiz by now. Right?
I would have been Hafiz by now if
it was easy.
That's the human element of it. Because we
always say, oh, look. The Quran is so
easy to remember and this and that and
the other thing. Yeah. Gives his help to
people, but at the same time, you have
to you have to put in the time
and the effort,
and it's worth it. And if you let
it go, whose fault is that? It's just
your own fault.
And so Rasuulullah
cautions
the against
against that because it's it's it's hard just
like once the camel bolts, you can't
get it back. It's easier to it's actually
easier to memorize in the first place than
it is to correct a a a a
a mixed up memory.
Like, once you let it go so much
that the words get all mixed up in
your head and you
that's like a train wreck. That's really difficult
to undo those knots. It's easier to memorize
in the first place. The only way a
person can prevent themselves from, you know, from
from getting to that point where it's even
worse than it was before is by
constantly,
repeating.
So in in, like, whatever the triangle of
death, what's the,
what's the average number of repetitions that, like,
a a HIFS kid has to do in
order to memorize a page or memorize their
subak?
40. 40. Right? You re repeat the less
than 40 times, you should memorize it. Right?
So in Mauritania, the way that they memorize
is they they repeat every a 1000 times.
And someone asked them someone of
the asked them, like, what's your system for
door for review?
And they said, we don't have basically, if
you repeat the lesson a1000 40a1000,
by the way, is, like, order of magnitude,
like, 2 orders of magnitude different. Like,
it's a lot. There's a big difference there.
2 you're jumping from 2 digits to 4
digits. Right? So he said if you repeat
anything for a 1,000 times, you won't ever
have to make the note of it again.
And, honestly, I never my my my, I
never saw them I never saw them, miss
an miss an eye or mess it up
or switch or whatever. It just it just
doesn't happen.
So that's that's a different that's a different
methodology.
I don't think our kids
our kids would, like, rebel if we, like,
subjected them to it.
But, that's that's how the the Ummah used
to take this seriously. It's because of this
that they did things like that.
Go ahead.
Yeah. So
said who says something very similar
that the likeness of the Sahib al Quran,
the half of the one who memorized the
Quran. Whether it be all of it or
part of it
is not like, nothing except for
the, camel that's tied.
If the owner of the camel keeps an
eye on it,
you know, he'll be able to restrain it
from darting. And if he unties it, it's
gone.
Go ahead.
So the chapter regarding the the the recommendation
or the
or or liking,
beautifying the voice with the Quran
and seeking,
that a person should desire to recite the
Quran with a beautiful voice,
and to hear it such as well.
Said Abu Hureira he
narrates that,
or he said that I heard the messenger
of Allah
say,
doesn't listen to anything like he listens to
a prophet,
who has a beautiful voice,
who,
recites the Quran beautifully,
out loud, and he recites it out loud.
So hadith both of Bukhari and Muslim.
So here, what's the meaning of
in, like, lexically,
it means to sing.
But it doesn't mean here that you sing
the Quran like a like a artist does.
In fact, there's a difference of opinion,
and you can read about that in the
in the of
of the because
he forbid people from reciting the Quran like
a singer recites.
Whereas the
he he,
he said, no. Not only is it is
it, permissible, but it's recommended as well.
And,
the the the
discussion that discussion or that difference of opinion
revolves around what does the the the meaning
of,
Tahani here mean?
Does it mean, that you you sing it
like a song,
or does it mean,
in the manner of?
Means what? Right?
In Arabic
means a person who's wealthy,
majazan,
metaphorically. But the literal meaning of it is
a person who is free of need.
So,
Malik argued that
that the, the meaning of of,
of, of,
in these Hadith,
it means to recite the Quran
and not need anything other than that.
So,
one is like for ideological
purposes that you don't need to read the
Quran. And this is something that irritates me
to no end. Right?
If
you're giving, Jumakutba
or you're giving a Darce,
a Darce of, like, a formal Darce Darce
of. One thing is people in their own
conversations and things like that. You can talk
about whatever you like, I guess, you know,
within the bounds of Sharia, but, like, I
wouldn't be that judgmental. But somebody who's
presenting themselves as a person of knowledge in
front of the home,
or, you know, giving, like, a ritual sermon,
for example.
And for god's sakes, they're quoting, like, the
most weird people
in their sermons just to sound cool and
educated and whatever. Don't quote a kafir in
your in your unless there's a real need
for it in order to illustrate some point
from,
as an example of it. In and of
itself, there's it's completely inappropriate.
And in your duros and there are some
people, they don't enjoy themselves until somebody,
quote some sort of European
philosopher or some sort of, like, whatever
pop culture reference or whatever. That's not
is that thing that stays with you when
time and place ceased to exist.
That's not that's not That's not the of
There's some people
that are like, oh, man, this is like
this finally, there's a who's really like saying
it and teaching it properly and it just
people say stuff like that and all it
does is it betrays their their It betrays
their their ignorance. That Allah clothed them
in in in in the hijab of his,
like, of of of his being a
And they removed the hijab and showed their
nakedness in front of everybody, showed their shame
in front of everybody. And they don't they,
you know, they don't even understand that they've
done that.
Don't don't don't
don't stand in front of the qom and
talk nonsense,
or try to validate wahi
by something that is kufr
or issues from kufr
or try to validate,
the words of Allah and his
Rasul from the words of the creation.
Because even Rasulullah sallallahu alaihi wa sallam's words,
He doesn't speak from vain desire
rather even his speech is a wahi, it's
a revelation that is revealed to him.
And so Malik Malik took the the meaning
of tahani in in these different places to
mean what?
To mean,
being sufficed by the Quran, not needing other
than the Quran.
And so like I said, I mean, you
wanna quote somebody, you wanna quote some philosopher
or some pop figure or whatever, go ahead
and do it outside of the masjid.
The Arabs used to enjoy poetry. They used
to love poetry. And Rasulullah,
by and large, didn't stop people from
from
their literary pursuits.
I mean, the the Quran,
and the Sunnah,
they
they
look down
on on those poets that talk about stupid
things and pointless things.
But there's also a recognition
that there's great hikmah and wisdom in in
in poetry and things like that. So Saeed
Nama
he found that people would say in the
Masjid. Right? This is a big thing nowadays.
People are like, oh, Masjid should just be
you know, it shouldn't just be a place
where you pray. Well, the name, you know,
knowledge of basic knowledge of Saraf and, like,
the actual word masjid indicate that that's actually
what it is. It's a place where you
mix sajdah.
But further than that, they say, oh, like,
you know, it should be everything should happen
over there. So say, the
people used to hang out in the time
of the salaf, they used to hang out
in the masjid a lot.
So,
he noticed that there were a group of
people who,
they would sit and the poets they would
sit in the masjid. They're pious poets. Right?
Nice guys.
You know, beard and, like, you know, pray
5 times a day on time and stuff.
You know? So they weren't, like
like like, whatever. There's some other kind of
more like the alcohol and, like, LSD and,
like, those type of poets. It wasn't it
wasn't them. And so Omar said, Omar
who found you know, found that they're just
they sit in the masjid, then they recite
their poetry or they recite, like, cool poetry
that they heard. So he actually had a
a courtyard built outside of the masjid. He
said, you guys, when you wanna do your
poetry, just go sit in that courtyard over
there, and, whoever wants to listen to you
will listen to you. And when you wanna,
like, recite the Quran or prayer or whatever,
you can come inside the masjid after that,
which is, you know, it's kinda actually, if
you think about this, kind of a compromise
between the two models because,
it's still not the masjid,
but it it's something kind of attached to
it. It's not like kicking a person out
and saying, like, get lost completely.
But the point is this is that the
there there is some sacredness and some horma
to,
to the din
that it doesn't
it shouldn't be tacked on with something that's
not deen and it doesn't need anything else
other than what is deen.
So Shafi'i
says no this means to recite in a
singing voice. Now culturally speaking in America,
the Shafi'i interpretation has 1 and I don't
think it's for entirely scholarly purposes. Although I
don't have a, I don't have a,
like, a beef or a bone to pick,
that's fine. If someone wants to recite the
Quran in a nice voice as long as
it's within the rules of Tajweed and things
like that, everybody likes to hear it.
But,
Malik Rahim
he makes that wheel of every,
every place in the Quran where it said
that or sorry. In the in the hadith
of the prophet sallallahu alaihi wa sallam where
it said to recite with a beautiful voice,
it means to say the Tajweed properly.
It doesn't mean to sing like a singer
sings
because they used to the the you know,
they were Malik was a Sharif. He was
from the Asaraf of the Arabs. He was
from the noblemen of the Arabs
and, you know,
super
artistry in singing, they associated that with slaves.
That was something like a slave does to,
entertain you.
So it's like, you know, imagine somebody brings,
like, a dancer into the masjid.
You're like, what is this? Like, get this
person out of here. Would you want, like,
a dancer to, like, lead the salat?
Probably
not. You know, you're not gonna say I
hate you. You should go kill yourself, which
is, you know, that's another extreme. But, like,
at the same time, that's not the type
of person that the community will respect.
And, what helps Malik's position also is the
fact that he grew up as as Satiza
were the the the the salaf themselves.
So he he grew up in the in
the masjid of the masjid and the he
saw the Tabir in lead leading the prayer,
and all of them used to recite with
a plain voice.
So to this day in in Morocco, Mauritania
and things like that, even though the Mauritanians,
they they they'll be real hardcore when discussing
the the fiqh of this issue, but you'll
catch them reciting the Quran in a singing
voice anyway.
But they won't do it in the salat.
The salat
So it's fine. They recite it with Tajweed,
and if they don't, they don't, like, try
to justify it.
But, their interpretation, the proper old school Maliki
interpretation is what is that it should be
recited the the beautification
Quran is that it should be recited with
with with the most accurate Tajweed possible.
It shouldn't be sung like a, like a
song.
And, Shafi'i said no. It's
it's,
it means that it it should be sung
in a or listened to an a, or
and recited in a singing voice.
And,
one of the meanings also of Tarani that
the
the the olema have mentioned
is that it should
a person who has a person who has
ramen has,
pain inside of their heart or feels
some sort of, like,
you know, they they have some sort of
grief inside of their heart, that the recitation
of the Quran and the listening of the
Quran should make them feel better.
The Quran
means what? That when you have some some
some bad feeling inside of your heart, the
recitation of the Quran should make you
feel better. And this is something that's also
experienced by many people, and you don't have
to be a big super like Hafiz
or,
a a sheikh or or or, you know,
whatever,
big Sufi or whatever in order to,
in order to have that feeling. There are
many people like that, and people oftentimes it's
very interesting. They don't
they don't
make quick
refuge take quick refuge in the Quran rather
they try everything else. And then when they
have nothing else, they're like, oh, man. I
should probably try to read the Quran because
whatever. And then it makes them feel better.
So this is one of the meanings of,
of of also.
So Abu Hurair says
that I heard the messenger of Allah Sallallahu
Alaihi Wasallam say, doesn't
listen to anything. Obviously, he hears everything. Listen
here means what? Listen.
That that, because the difference in listening and
hearing,
it's a subtle difference in in the heart
of Allah
here to listen means what? It means that
that he accepts it,
and he is pleased with it.
That Allah doesn't listen with the ear with
the with the hearing of pleasure and acceptance
to anything like he listens to
a a a prophet who has a beautiful
voice, and all of the prophets have beautiful
voices.
And our
had the most beautiful voices,
from amongst the prophets alayhi wasallahu alaihi wasallam
that he he doesn't listen to anything like
he listens to, a a a prophet who
has a beautiful voice, recite the Quran,
with Tarani,
and recite it, so out loud.
Go
ahead.
So,
So, for those of you who were there
for my band and,
in the Yemen fundraiser, which
maybe a couple of you, I think,
we mentioned that Abu Musal Ashari was a
Yemeni,
who actually made before
making Hidra to Abyssinia into Madinah Munawara.
At that time,
Yemen Yemen was
mostly, like, Jews and Christians
or not if not mostly, then a great
number of them were,
Jews and Christians.
And it was at least
at least a a established part of the
culture of Yemen.
And they were, familiar with with the the
prophets and with their stories,
and they held them in honor.
And so said Abu Musal Ashari
he
he recited the Quran for the messenger of
Allah
so it's in that context that he said
to him,
indeed, you were given a,
is like a like a like a musical
instrument.
You were given a a a a a
a musical instrument from the musical instruments of
the,
the the the family of Dawud alaihis salam.
And the,
the commentators say that the Alidawud here, it
doesn't mean that, like, the family of Dawud
alayhis salam was well known for reciting the
Torah beautifully or reciting the Zaboor beautifully rather.
It's just him.
It's it's the the like, Al is like,
what they call,
what they call,
It's it's mentioned, but it doesn't have its
meaning. It kind of, like, it burns up
in the
in the,
in the context of what's being said that
he says you it says if you recite,
like, say, Nadaoud al Islam,
which is a a a very beautiful comment.
Sorry. Very beautiful compliment.
And,
this is the of Muslim. Sorry. The Ruayah
of Bukhari. The Ruayah of Muslim.
Rasuulullah salahu alaihi wa sallam comments mentions to
him the next day. He said that you
recited so beautifully as if you were given
the musical instrument of Da'ud. The musical instrument
here is a majaz metaphor for how beautiful
his voice was,
alayhis salaam.
And he said that that if only you
could see how happy I was to hear
you recite yesterday.
So it's meaning reciting reciting beautifully
is is,
is is a is a good thing. Again,
does that mean to recite as if you're
singing, or does that mean to,
just perfect your Tajweed under your sight? This
is a difference of opinion amongst the that
we don't, you know,
I think we're not we're at a point
here that this is not really anything that
we should, like, pick grudges of one one
another, whoever picks whatever, inshallah, as long as
you're not robbing a liquor store, recite the
Quran however you think is best amongst the
parameters of the of the ulema. But,
reciting it well is a good thing.
So people should learn Tajweed.
And that's another thing. To learn Tajweed is
not that difficult. There are, like, a bunch
of people who who know Tajweed. I mean,
knowledge of Tajweed is relatively
well proliferated in this country even when compared
to 15, 20 years ago.
Like, I remember when I first heard Tajweed,
I was like, oh, man. It's Quran 2.0,
man. Like, I never heard this before. But,
like, now,
people know Tajweed.
Recite,
in with.
And I never heard anything
a voice more beautiful than than his or
than than
it. Go ahead.
So
who narrates what the prophet
said, whoever doesn't
recite the Quran with Takani. So meaning either
they recite it in a singing voice or
they they recite it in such a way
that they have need for nothing else other
than it.
That for the person who can't do though
that thing, he's not one
of us. And it's a a meaning he
doesn't recite the way that we recite. And
it's a hadith of Abu Dawood. And, now
we're,
you know, now we're remarks that yet here
means to recite the Quran in a beautiful
voice,
which he would say.
Allah to have mercy on all of them.
Go ahead.
The prophet
once said to me, recite,
recite to me the Quran.
And I said, oh, messenger of Allah, how
how how can I recite to you, and
you're the one upon whom
the Quran was revealed?
Should I recite to you even though you're
the one upon whom the Quran was revealed?
Meaning, you know it better than I do.
He said, no, I like to hear it
from other than me.
I like to hear it from other than
me. There's like a slight
a very I shouldn't say slight. It's big,
but it's very subtle.
A very subtle
illusion to a principle in in the dean
here,
which is
working for the pleasure of Allah Ta'ala
and being recipient of the pleasure of Allah
Ta'ala. 1 is an active process and the
other is a passive process. Which process is
superior? The active one or the passive one?
What?
It's the passive one.
Usually, people
people, they say it's the active one. Why?
Because they wanna be in control of stuff.
The idea is if you're gonna do what
you're gonna do, most human beings in fact,
all human beings, if bereft of Hidayah and
guidance from Allah to Allah will end up
destroying the entire world in order to satiate
themselves.
There's no in that.
Rather,
the the
the the the
the of,
of, of being Maf'ul,
versus being.
Has more in it.
The the the one who's a passive recipient
of Allah's,
grace
is superior to the one who's
actively working for it. Why? Because at the
best, they they're gonna be even.
Because the person who's working for it, they're
working for it so that they can receive
it.
So the the former exerted himself, whereas the
latter, there's no need to exert. You're just
getting it right now. This is part of
those the the secret of the superiority of
Saidna Abu Bakr over Saidna Omar
And,
this is one of the reasons Saidna Amar,
he learned this lesson from Saidna Abu Bakr,
who is his sheikh after the prophet sallallahu
alaihi wa sallam.
And he learned this lesson from him and
you see he's like like ultra mellow in
his old age.
Why? Because Mushahada is superior to mujahada.
To bear witness to the greatness of Allah
is
a is a is a
a spiritual path that's more powerful and will
move a person along faster than than,
than a person's own struggles and a person's
own deeds.
Now,
you know, as a complete novice, like someone
like myself,
this doesn't mean that I'm gonna be like,
oh, I'm gonna stop doing good deeds, and
I'm just gonna, like, contemplate over the greatness
of Allah
You have to be in a position in
order to do that as well.
And that requires a lot of what what
I refer to as the remedial work of
the that
you have to get your heart right in
a position to be able to understand what
any of this means in the first place.
The point is is what? That even the
name of the prophet sallallahu alaihi wa sallam
is Muhammad. It's not Muhammad.
It's it's the even the name of the
prophet is that he's the one who is
praised.
He's not the one who's the name doesn't
mean the one who's praising. Even though
no prays Allah like he did or as
much as he did. But it means that
he's the one who's praised. What's the point
of praising Allah and loving Allah if he
doesn't love you?
And if he loves you, who you know,
what is what need is there to ask
any other question afterward?
Whether you earned it, you didn't earn it,
you deserve it, you didn't deserve it, all
of those things become irrelevant at that point.
So there's a subtle ishara here that the
messenger of Allah
he
he loved to hear the Quran from other
than him.
He loved that it passed over him as
well. His job, his Wadhifa, everyone has a
job in this in this world. Right?
Even if you're unemployed, your job is to
look for work.
Everybody has has has has a job that
they have to do in this world.
Even if you're dying, you know, your job
at that time is what, Mikkis Tafar, Mikzicker,
you know, big du'a for
the. Everyone has something that they should be
doing at at at at some point.
His job was what? His greatest job and
his greatest responsibility, his was to take the
and the trust of the Quran and give
it to the people. So he had to
recite it.
But
for his own,
spiritual,
for his own spirituality, he enjoyed hearing it,
from other than him. So they're like Abu
Musal Ashari
who recited it, etcetera. It's like you'll see
it's very rare that, for example, the messenger
of Allah is there and someone else will
lead the prayer.
It only happens through, like, some sort of
adverse circumstance. A couple of hands less than,
you know, what you can count on fingers,
in one hand that that's that that's mentioned
someone else led the why? Because he's the
messenger of Allah. He's the imam. He has
to lead the prayer.
However, you'll see often there are many times
that that many Sahaba
he used to enjoy listening from them and
hearing from them as well. And I I
take from the from this the the the
toward toward what? Toward,
being the passive recipient of Allah ta'ala's grace.
This was the preference of the messenger of
Allah The person who trusts in Allah,
Allah is sufficient for them.
And,
Allah Ta'ala says, you know, ask from ask
for Nabi Sallallahu Alaihi wa Salam said, ask
from Allah
Ta'ala beautifully
and don't don't be in a haste
that just because what you're asking for didn't
come
right when you asked for it, that that
that that impatience should carry you toward his
disobedience in order to
receive that receive that thing that you're asking
for. Because
Rasulullah said because Allah's
grace isn't received through his disobedience.
And so this is a a, you know,
this is a a a lot of people,
you know, I guess they,
they try real hard. They work real hard,
like, punching their fist in the wind. And
it's like the person who keeps changing lanes
in traffic
that you change lanes because the other lane
seems like it's going faster. And then once
you change lane, you see the guy behind
you pass.
Sometimes,
you have to just let the system work
and that that
that ability is,
only to be gotten through what?
Through,
letting the fuddle of Allah pass over you
rather than trying to do it all yourself.
So he says, I like to hear it
from other than me.
So,
sallallahu alaihi wa sallam. So then
says I recited him from Surah to Nisa
until I got to the to this ayah.
Now how will it be when we,
bring,
a witness from every people,
and we bring you as a witness over
over,
over these people over these we over these
people, we bring you as a witness.
And so meaning what? That the
to bear witness against somebody as a it's
not it's not like, it's
it's not a a sign that you're doing
something in their favor.
So
look, you know, that Allah made this to
be a to be witnesses over mankind.
Allah will ask them that did I not
tell you not to kill, not to steal,
not to worship other than me, not to
curse your parents, not to do all of
these things.
And
they'll say, well, we didn't know, and then
he'll ask this,
didn't you tell them? And so some people
will be able to say, yes. I told
them.
And you're you're, you know, you're off the
hook then. They're stuck with their sins.
And
but if they say, well, they didn't even
tell me. I went to work with whatever,
I went to work with Moe for, like,
what, 20 years, and he never mentioned any
of these things to me. Then Allah will
call the prophet
that the Allah will call the messenger of
Allah and
say,
did you not did you not give the
the the message that they should have received?
He says, yes, You Allah, I gave it.
So imagine the nebbih who's supposed to be,
Rahmatullil Al Aminah, that he's supposed to be
a mercy for the worlds. If his testimony
is against you, then something has gone very
horribly wrong. This, by the way, there's this
kinda, like, weird
YouTube videos floating around, that
everybody makes everybody
remember Akida exists again.
So somebody somebody asks, like, oh, the people
didn't receive the the people didn't receive the
the message, so they won't be, you know,
they won't be asked about it from Allah
blah blah blah.
And then the question comes, well, if people
are not gonna be asked by Allah, if
they didn't receive the message, what's the point
of giving them the message that there's a
great likelihood that they're not gonna accept?
And, there's a lot of there's a lot
of benefit in it, and there's a lot
of, reasons.
But a very immediate and practical reason is
what?
Whether they accept it or not, it's their
problem. Whether you deliver it or not is
your problem.
And imagine Rasulullah sama has called against you
to bear witness because you didn't tell somebody
because you're afraid that I mean, there's this
sickness inside of a person's thought process thinking
that I'm not gonna tell them the message
because they won't accept it. Why wouldn't a
person accept it? The message makes a lot
of sense.
People will accept it.
If you have no confidence in it at
all, then that shows the weakness of your
iman as well.
But whether or not any of those things
exist, just the understanding that a person knows
that Allah is going to ask, did you
deliver the part of the message? You know,
you're not gonna be asked, like, did you
explain to them, you know, some subtle
point. But, like, simple things, if you never
mentioned it to to to others and you
don't have to always say it by word.
You don't have to be like, okay, Here,
Jim at work. Here's a pamphlet about the
oneness of Allah. There's 3 types of or
what are you no.
You know, just them seeing you pray as
you're delivering the message to them.
Just them, you know, you know, you share
your with them. It's delivering the message to
them. The one who completely goes incognito and
undercover, a lot of times, I was gonna
ask you about it
and when you know, and the
will bear witness against you. That's that's not
a that's not a good thing that a
person should look forward to. Rather, a person
should look forward to the shafa of the
prophet, sallallahu alaihi wa sallam, they should look
forward to drinking from the how the person
of Allah sallallahu alaihi wa sallam. They shouldn't
they shouldn't,
kind of * the feet out of the
jaws of victory,
by by,
invoking,
the one who should be the as
a,
witness against them. And
so, said, Abdullah bin Masood he,
he he he read when he got to
this ayah that Allah asked the question, how
will it be on the day that we,
bring a witness over every,
people
and, we bring over these ones, you as
a witness.
And the prophet, salallahu alaihi wasalam, he said,
nadub al masrud, who was occupied in his
recitation,
the prophet stopped
him. He said that's enough.
Now now stop. That's enough.
And he said that I looked up at
him, and I I saw that his eyes
are
flowing with tears.
And what what are the tears for? Tears
are what? That his own Shafaqan Rahma and
the Ummah
that the idea that he's going to have
to bear witness against somebody in the Ummah,
it was overwhelming for him. And this also
is a sign that this wasn't just like,
you know, people that's what they say, that
he
just he's a Bashar. He made up the
book. He made it up on his own,
and it's just like an anthology of his
own, like, poetry and literature and it's whatever,
that he made it up to sound nice.
Right?
The aesthetic quality of the the the Quran
is not what made him cry. What is
it? It's the meaning.
And this is a sign that the the
is something that that was real. It affected
him in a way that if someone was
faking it, they wouldn't affect him that way.
At any rate, Allah,
make make us from the people of the
Quran who recited and Allah to give us
the tawfiq, whatever we forgot from it that
we remember again and whatever we remember that
we keep reciting it again and again in
this dunya,
and that we not forget it. And the
al Muqiyama
be a source of elevation of rank for
us.