Hamzah Wald Maqbul – Riyd alSlihn Spiritual Virtues of the Qurn 03112018
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So we continue with the chapter,
about about Fadliquran.
The chapter with regards to the
virtue of the recitation of the Quran.
And,
I guess someone should ask why is this
in the book. Is it just in the
book? Because, like, Rialdo Salahi is a book
of pious stuff and this is, like, something
pious to talk about, or does it actually
have some,
or some,
compatibility with what the reason the book was
written for is.
And the answer is obviously the latter. The
is a book of teaching the spiritual path
toward us toward Allah
based on the book of Allah and the
sunnah of his messenger Sallallahu Alaihi Wasallam.
And more than just being a source of
knowledge of what to do in that spiritual
path, the recitation of the Quran itself is
an act of piety in itself is a
a a weird
it is
a
a litany of
that a person,
should do and must do and has to
do in order for
their heart to be enlightened.
And in order for them to progress in
the path to Allah Subhanahu Wa Ta'ala.
And,
this is something
we probably mentioned last week, and it's worth
mentioning again and again,
that
we kinda don't take it seriously.
In fact, we, like, really don't take it
seriously. In fact, there are a lot of
people
who have, like, super amplified voices in our
community. They don't know how to read Quran.
Like, they never bothered to learn how to
read Quran,
which is fine. I'm not saying, like, you
know, oh, look at you.
I don't I know how to read Quran
and you don't.
I, myself, was one of the people who
didn't know how to read Quran until,
until, you know, until I was an adult.
And if your mommy and daddy didn't hire
a Qadhi Sab to teach you, then go
learn yourself. If you're an adult, go learn
yourself.
In North America,
in many places, there's a proliferation of ulama,
and, there's a proliferation of ulama now
in such a way that there wasn't
when,
you know, when I was in middle school
or in high school or graduated from high
school.
And
you don't need a alim or or, you
know, someone who's really a scholar of Deen
in order to teach you
alif, bat,atha, and Tajweed.
You don't need any of that. You need
really somebody with a relatively simple, amount of
learning,
and
practice.
Just some practice because Tajweed all the rules
of Tajweed in order to read
adequately, and it can be transmitted in less
than 10 hours of instruction.
And the rest of it is just a
matter of practice.
People don't wanna put in the time to
practice because
no one's gonna click like or retweet or
whatever,
or or, you know, no one's going to
see how awesome you are when you're sitting
at home reading Quran alone,
except for Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala. And many
of these hadith, they they they have they
deal with that. So the first one we
read,
and say that say that in
call
it
Say the I say the Aisha
narrates that the messenger of Allah
he said,
the one who reads the Quran proficiently, reads
it well, knows Tajweed,
knows how to read the letters, etcetera, etcetera,
can read quickly and and and well, and
gets the star on their chart at at
school at COL.
That that person is
with in their station
the Safara.
The Safara, there are two meanings that that
the give for them. The more obvious meaning
is the one who
is a scribe.
Safar in in Arabic, it means to travel,
but one of the mean meanings of safar
is also a scroll.
And so the the the
is the one who who who writes,
who writes down on the scrolls.
Musfar is also, like, to, illuminate.
Right?
It also means to illuminate, which is something
interesting. In Urdu,
the boring way of saying ink is
the, like, the black
because you the ink is usually black on
a white paper. The classy way of saying
ink is
which means light, you know, like the the
the the thing of light
because the ink may be black, but the
outwardly.
But the haditha, the reality of it is
what? It's it's illuminating,
at least for, hopefully, for most people.
Also it's not the power of literacy
is not really being used for very good
purposes,
nowadays, but that's the idea.
So that's the first meaning. The second meaning
is what? Is those angels that are the
ones who take the messages of Allah
to the creation
because every angel receives wahi from Allah,
receives revelation from Allah,
but it's according to their rank.
And,
so the higher ranked ones, they convey the
command to the to the to the lower
ranked ones.
And the,
the the the ones who live in the
heavens, they convey the command to the ones
who live in the earth.
That that person is with the Safara till
Kiram.
Kiram is the Jema'ah of Karim.
It means noble,
in this context.
Al Barara.
Al Barara is the the the,
has to it refers to Bir, which is,
piety. And piety means what? It doesn't mean
just having a long beard in utopia.
Piety means the one who renders everyone their
their right.
The one who renders everyone their right. The
person who's never gonna cheat anybody. That they
render the right of Allah to Allah. They
render the right of the to
to the to the to the Quran, to
the Quran,
their parents to their parents, etcetera, etcetera.
Elders, youngers, everybody. No one, they they don't
they don't stint anyone their rights.
So the one who's proficient at reading the
Quran,
that one is with the
which is a good goal. Right?
Why do you think your mama makes you
wake up and read Quran in the morning
when you're sleepyhead?
Because she wants you to be what?
With the noble angelic scribes,
the pious noble angelic scribes that convey the
messages of Allah
to the people. Right? She doesn't want you
to be a a bum.
Right?
That's a good thing. Right?
Who said this? Rasool Allah sallallahu alaihi wa
sallam.
So it's okay. You know, like, I think
people have this overreaction. Like, there's one out
of every 40
Muslims.
I should really say theisis. They have, like,
you know, some sort of, like, recollection of
their Qadhi saw beating them like a donkey,
which may or may not have happened because
some people are very sensitive from amongst our
people.
But, you know, even if it did happen,
it doesn't mean that everybody should stop, like,
pushing their children to learn how to read.
You don't have to threaten your kids to
like, by beating them. You don't have to
actually beat them. You can, like yourself, use
your common sense and, like, listen in on
Kari Saab's lessons when,
you know, the kids are are at or
whatever just to make sure that nothing crazy
is going on.
But, like, you know, you should you should
push your kids a little bit. There's a
happy medium between letting them, you know,
row free like a a pack of feral
animals,
and on the other side, like, completely, like,
chaining them up like some sort of, like,
nightmares Nazi experiment. There's a happy medium in
the middle, like, with all things.
May Allah
give and make our children,
like like the
So what about that's for the one who's
good at reading Quran. What about the one
that's hard for him? Is it hard sometimes?
Is it?
Yeah. Alright. So if the one the one
that's good at it, that's what their reward
is, then what does it how much less
does the person who it's hard for get?
Rasulullah
said that the one who reads the Quran
and they stutter,
they have a hard time saying the word.
They have to say the word again 2,
3, 4 times,
which is definitely the case for me,
often,
that I I can't belt it out, you
know, a 100% correct the first time.
And it's hard for that person to learn.
That person will get 2 rewards.
The person will get 2 rewards, meaning 2
such rewards for their
recitation. Meaning they don't get less, they get
more. Why?
Because it's harder. And this always happens. There's
always some kid who's in hiss. Whether you're
may memorizing the entire Quran or you're just,
you know, you know, trying to memorize some
short surahs or whatever.
There's always someone who's gonna cruise through it.
There are there are children who
and this is a miracle of the Quran
that I mean, it's not every kid,
but, like, there are children in every batch
that will get to a point where they
can memorize the Jews, like, once a day.
Like, they get they get going and they're,
like, last 10, 15 Azar, like, they do
them once a day 1 juz in a
day and they can burn through them. Every
every HIFS teacher who's been like, every HIFS
teacher who's been teaching HIFS,
you know, for at least 2, 3 years,
they'll they'll see at least one of them
several know several of them. I know people
like that and I know people who've taught
people like that. I suspect you may have
been like that or something something close close
to that,
inshallah. But, Allah
accept. So that that happens. But then what
happens to other kids? The other kids, they
get, like, dejected.
Like, oh, so hard or, like, oh, I'm
new to Islam or, oh, I wanted to
start memorizing, but I'm old now or I'm
not so smart or whatever, and they get
down and beat themselves up. And, that that,
you know, you can
spare yourself the heartbreak of beating yourself up.
Rassoulullah Sallallahu Alaihi Wasallam already gave you the
and the glad tidings
of
of getting double the reward.
So you can spare yourself the heartbreak. There
was one young man who came to me
and he
he he he he, like, almost cried.
And he said, my father,
you know, he says, you're ashamed to the
entire family. All my friends, their sons finished
their hypses in such in such amount of
time. And you're taking, like, double the amount
of time. And you're so bad and you're
stupid and you're an idiot and I hate
you and your embarrassment and shame and whatever.
And I don't wanna memorize the Quran anymore.
I said I can't do anything. You know,
I mean, your father is a hammar, your
father is a donkey. What can I do
about it? You shouldn't say that. For you
to say that is haram, but for me
as an external party, why would someone do
that to their children?
I don't I don't see why. If he
had known, right, if he had known that
Allah makes it easier for some people and
harder for others. And the one who it's
harder for that person, they'll get double the
reward then maybe he wouldn't have done that.
But it's not just important to do the
right thing. It's also important to do it
the right way. That's why knowledge is good
because he he was, you know, on the
brink of convincing his son to, you know,
just give up altogether on deen in general,
much less on recitation of Quran. That's not
a good consequences of putting your kid in
hiss. You don't wanna put your kid in
hips so that he turns out to grow
up to become a monofic or atheist or
whatever. Right? You wanna teach your kid to
do hips. Why? To be a better Muslim.
So this is this is important. You know,
it's important for people who go through difficulty
to know that the difficulty is only sent
by the one who wants to reward you
for it. It's not it's not like a
and it comes back to the thing that
we mentioned a couple of weeks ago that
Allah says, I am as my slave thinks
of me. So if you have bad opinion
of Allah,
you know, like, you know,
many of our Christian and Jewish brothers and
sisters, they do. They feel like Allah is
there to poison to punish them. I heard
this from orthodox rabbi from his own lips.
And I have no need or benefit in
making this up who said that the Torah
was God's punishment,
on on Banu Israel because it has so
many rules in it and it's so difficult.
And if that's the way you think of
it, maybe it was. Maybe, you know, if
that's your opinion of Allah, maybe that is
the Torah is a punishment on you, and
you deserve to be punished through it. But
for the rest of us, that's not what
our opinion is about Allah. Allah
Allah didn't send down the Quran so that
people can be,
wretched because of it. Rather, he sent it
to some people because,
because he he he loved them. And there's
great in it. I sat I remember when
I was on my way to Mauritania. I
think maybe this is because I repeat my
stories a lot. Like, Rafa is, like, probably
heard all my stories 10 times already, and
so he hears his 11th time. He's like,
man, maybe I should just get some work
done, you know, like, for the other class
or for work, you know, next week because
I heard them all. This one I'm pretty
sure I've not told any of you. I
sat next to
a a a a someone on my first
time I went to Mauritania on the plane
and he seemed like a pretty Shicley fellow.
And one nice thing about Mauritania is there's,
like, a lot of people. It's not like
everybody,
but, like, it's not also difficult in a
crowd of, like, 20 people to find someone
who has, like, a a really,
like, decent amount of knowledge.
An amount of knowledge that you would find
rare in in America.
And so,
I sat next to an old chef and
I you know, he he's like, well, where
are you from? What are you doing? Where
are you going? Etcetera.
Now that I'm more jaded, I'd probably be
like, none of your business got lost. You
know, you're probably a spy or whatever because
that's what life does to you. You become
old and grumpy.
But in those days, I was real happy
to share with everybody.
And so I told him, yeah. I'm gonna
go study Dean, and I'm gonna this and
I'm gonna that. And he's like, where are
you going? And I said, I'm going to
Al Hajj Al Fafu. He's like, oh, Zahid
Zahid min adunya. You know, he has nothing.
He's a man who's completely done away with
the dunya. And so he he said he
gay he started telling me encouragement about studying
knowledge,
which is what people in this Ummah used
to do back when, like, Muslims were Muslims.
Now it's like, oh, Batey, you're not gonna,
like, whatever, get married and you have to
how are you gonna become a doctor if
you learn how to read the Quran? And
you can do both.
Chicago is a good proof that you can
do both, if you if you if that's
your thing.
So
so he he he he was encouraging me.
And one of the things he he said,
he said, don't give up if it's hard,
and don't give up when you when you
have, like, hardships. And, he mentioned,
because in Mauritania,
and I've mentioned this before that they part
of the is that you have to memorize
the rest of them. If you can't write
the rest of them out, like, if you
write
with the, with the instead of with the
or whatever,
that's wrong. It's not the rest of Methmani.
Right? So they make you memorize the Rassam
as well,
the orthography.
So he said that that one of the
masters of Rassam in his age,
the reason he became, like, so good at
it was that he he was tested by
his shift to get Ijazah. So he wrote
out the whole Musaf
only to make, like, a very mindless mistake
in.
And,
because of which, his teacher failed him and
made him sit through the the lessons all
the way through from the beginning again. And,
obviously, a person like us, you know, people
like us are like, can I just do
it like a, you know, 2 year weekend
Alemb course and then become a Milana or
whatever, like, type attitude that we have about
stuff?
You know, someone like that would be like,
this is it. I'm done. Right? But I
already know this. I'm gonna move on. And
if my teacher doesn't like it, I'm gonna
go to someone someone else. But he actually
went through it and
just like
the person who knows the city the best
is the one who's gotten, like, really lost
in it.
The the person
who has to go through, has to go
through their lessons again with that amount of
detail,
then they know it like in a way
that the person who passed the first time
doesn't.
And this is something actually I I attribute
this also. I read very slowly in Arabic.
I can read in English very quickly.
I you know, from school, I I remember
I'd read through things much faster than other
people with a decent amount of comprehension.
But Arabic, it's somewhat frustrating that I read
very slowly to the point where even when
we would sit in the dora hadith, when
it would be time to read the Ibarah,
I would ask for a turn and, like,
the masha'if after, like, a minute or 2,
they would be like, okay, Hamza, you read
1 hadith a day and that's it. Like,
because otherwise, the the will take forever if
you read.
And,
but what's the benefit of it? When you're
reading like a machine gun,
then you may skip over a lot of
stuff. Whereas when you're reading slowly, you can
ponder over things that you're reading.
Does it mean that people should intentionally be
like, yeah. I'm not gonna practice reading anymore
so that I can be slow. No. I
mean, the ideal is to combine both of
them and there are great number of people
in the that have. But,
there's always some in it, the difficulty that
you go through. And
ultimately, rewards
you for for not for the deed itself,
but for something in your heart that brings
you to that deed.
And this is part of our as well
that it's impermissible to describe the deed from
the Taqweenie
from the Taqweenie,
perspective.
It's impermissible to describe the deed as you're
doing it yourself.
From the
perspective,
the the the the deed is is more
closely linked to your intention than it is
the actual action of it.
It's more closely linked to how you feel
about it in your heart
than than the actual doing it of doing
of it. Because Allah Ta'ala is the one
who creates all the circumstances for the doing.
Many a time a person wishes to do
something good and they're not able to or
they wish to do something good And, it
happens despite their inability to do it or,
you know, any number of permutations of of
of of wishing to do something and it
happening or not happening.
So, you know, it's it's it's it's important
to understand that that these things are not
ends in in and of themselves, but they're
they're a means.
And what are they a means to? They're
a means to Allah being pleased with you
and happy with you. So Allah will be
so happy with you
as if you're one of the noble and
pious angelic scribes if you read well. And
if you don't read well, then he'll be
double double happy with you.
That's,
that's that's like a big deal.
So we continue on
He narrates
he narrates that the messenger of Allah
said, the likeness of the believer who recites
the Quran is like,
like a citron.
It's
it's, what you call, its
smell is or its fragrance is pleasant
and its taste is pleasant.
So citron is like,
it's it's it's kinda like,
it's like the orange, but it's like
like long and oblong. It's not like as
spherical as
oranges are,
and it has a really thick rind,
but it can be very fragrant.
This is one of the things, by the
way, some somewhat of a side note,
because we have,
like this hyper,
hyper industrialized
agro business.
So many fruits and vegetables, their actual qualities,
we'll never know. Most people have never tasted
a tomato before because they pick all the
tomatoes raw.
And the actual
taste of a tomato is like one of
the last things that the tomato flavor is
one of the
last things that's imparted by the vine when
the tomato is ripe. But the problem is
they pick them when they're ripe. They have
they don't have a
shelf life,
long enough to make it to market. So
you have to go to, like, a farmer's
market
to actually taste the tomato. So at any
rate, the citron,
the reason I mentioned this is, I come
from
a very different part of the Indian subcontinent
as the the gentleman present,
ladies and gentlemen present
in the,
in in the in the audience,
which is Punjab.
So there's a place in Punjab in in
West Punjab called Sargoda,
and Sargoda has the most amazing
oranges.
If you
in they're in season in the winter. These
are some of my most pleasant memories of
Lahore
that that you sit on a charpie with
a very which is basically like a like
a a a
a bed frame with instead of a mattress,
it's just like rope,
interlaced rope. And you you,
in a cold room with a very thick
blanket,
you eat those, small
mandarin,
oranges from from Sargoda.
If you open one of them, the entire
room becomes fragrant.
My father
somehow managed to order,
order a tree from from from from Punjab
to California.
People may or may not know this, but
the Central Valley of California was originally settled
by farmers from Punjab.
And the back in those days when it
was illegal because they weren't legally white,
although I know many many Punjabi and other
people
act very white. But, hey, that's what what's
his name. You know, Bobby, you know Bobby
in Louisiana?
Bobby, he has his, like, whatever gubernatorial
portrait.
He chained himself into white man.
So, you know, it's like shoot for the
stars, land on the moon. Like, general Grievous
is actually a machine, but, like, he not
only wanted to be human. He wanted to
be a Jedi. So you have to, like,
really, you have to really take your hat
off and salute him for his goal and,
like, you know, for aiming high even though
he's just a machine. So, you know, Bobby,
I'm sorry, buddy. You're one of us. But,
you know, at least you, you know, at
least you, you you you dream you you
put catch your set your,
your dream real high. Anyhow, so,
that
that that fruit,
that small orange,
that's still there that's still there in the
house.
If you open it, it still has that
quality that the entire room will become fragrant
when you peel it. And people didn't used
to believe me. My father would sometimes pick
I live now. I I I don't get
them anymore because we live so far away
from California. Otherwise, in Seattle, they would sometimes
bring, like, a bag up,
from the house,
in in LA, the old house. And, really,
you open it up and the entire room
becomes fragrant. I used to, like, save the
peels
and then leave them in the car. And,
you know, the car gets hot from the
sunlight.
It's like a natural organic
it's like organic, like, car
fragrance that's not gonna give you cancer
like the other chemically ones. Right?
So this is what's meant by by what
by this
by this hadith. That it's it's really like
a beautiful thing. It's not it's not like,
you know, you're like, well, I I know
citrus fruits and they don't really smell that
good. They smell good. You're eating it cheap
like fake stuff. That's
why. The person the likeness of the person
who reads the Quran, the believer who reads
the Quran is like a like a citron.
Its smell is pleasant and its taste is
also pleasant.
That its smell is pleasant and its taste
is also pleasant. And these are 2 spiritual
qualities,
and
the the the the the smell is
the smell is a metaphor for how Allah
sees you
from
his his his place of transcendence.
And the the taste is what your own
reality is inside.
That when the believer reads the Quran, Allah
Ta'ala loves him and he's good. He's worthy
of being loved.
And
this also is connected to what we said
from from before,
in regards to
a person's
spiritual,
spiritual progression with Allah
that this is something necessary. It's not just
like I know how to read Quran and
it's just necessary for some priestly function of,
like, leading the prayer or whatever.
It's something that's necessary for Allah to Allah
to love you.
Or at at any rate, it's very important
for for Allah to Allah to love you,
even though it's not the entire deen.
And so Rassulullah
continues, this is the believer who doesn't
doesn't recite the Quran.
His
likeness with Allah is like a date.
The the like a date. It,
it has no fragrance,
even though it's very sweet. Meaning, you may
be a good person, otherwise,
you may render all your legal obligations to
Allah and
to other people and whatnot. You may not
necessarily be going to the hellfire or whatever,
but your quality in front of Allah ta'ala
is is is
is like qualitatively
inferior to the one who recites the Quran.
The likeness of the person who the
the hypocrite or insincere person who recites the
Quran
is like the rehana.
Rehana is a a a a spice,
a sweet basil.
It has no,
sorry. It smells really nice and it has
no sorry. Its taste is bitter. It's not
something that's pleasant to eat directly.
Rather, it's like mixed with other things in
order to,
be, edible in any sort
of any sort of, like,
consumable way.
Meaning what? You may you may give off
an aura of piety,
but if the person is a Munafet inside,
then that aura of piety is
is,
is completely negated by the fact that that
that the person is is a hypocrite. They're
insincere.
And this is something important also to look,
you know, to watch out for because
there's a problem in obviously not reciting the
Quran. There's a problem in reciting the Quran
well also, which is what is that when
people put you forward and when you recite
to be heard by other people
or, to be known or recognized by other
people,
then,
this is this becomes highly problematic. It can
destroy the
the all of the spiritual benefit that we
mentioned from before,
for for which you recite.
This is why I'm not excited about Quran
competitions.
If if it's like for, like, little kids,
I'm not excited about it anyway because I
believe it builds a bad habit. But I
can see some
I can see some possible benefit for it.
If it's for, like, grown people,
grown men, grown women, people who are, like,
you know, like, people who are mukalaf,
it's
completely just a person wasting their time. Why?
Because you may recite
practice for it. You may prepare for it
really well,
but at the end of the day, if
you're doing it for the sake of for
the sake of being in a competition,
then,
you're destroying all of your ajer.
If you're gonna do something and Allah's not
gonna give you any ajer, you may as
well either make money from it or enjoy
it. Because if you're just doing it, you
know, that you're losing in the akhirah and
you're losing in the dunya,
that's just that's just like one of the
worst and most horrible
things that I've I've I've ever heard of.
And I've literally seen grown men weep because
they didn't win a Quran competition.
And I'm like, you really you really are
you for real? Are you serious? Like, what
kind of joke is this? This type of
thing is a calamity in the Umma.
And by the way, you know, the the
virtues of the Quran, if you wanna read
a little bit more in-depth than the chapter
in the about
it, one of the best place to read
is the the forward
that,
Korteubi writes to his tafsir.
And Cordoba was a a refugee.
He fled because he he witnessed the fall
of of Cortoba,
to the to the to the Reconquista,
to the Castilian,
and
and northern Spanish,
Christians that
that basically end up eventually
with the sanction of the Catholic church purging
the Iberian Peninsula of Jews and Muslims.
But,
he ends up in Egypt, and he's buried
in
Al Azhar Sharif. And he writes in his
in his, not in Al Azhar Sharif. I'm
sorry. No. In Cairo. But he writes in
his,
in the forward to the
to the tafsir,
his complete disdain and shock when he comes
to Egypt and sees how they have these
weird,
these weird, like, Quran sitting majalis where where
Quran reading majalis where people sit and they'll
listen to a who reads,
who reads in a beautiful voice. But, like,
how
oftentimes those people are completely in a 100%
heedless of deen and not interested in deen
whatsoever.
And that's something that that we, you know,
people should have some sort of spiritual common
sense about it. If you actually, like, are
paying attention to the teaching of the Quran
and the sunnah of the prophet sallallahu alaihi
wasallam, you know that a man who's sitting
and reciting the Quran for money,
a man who's sitting and, you know, that
that obviously doesn't care about,
you know, even basic sunun of the prophet
sallallahu alaihi wasallam,
how that is not what the purpose of
the Quran was and it's more of a
mockery of the recitation of the Quran
rather than rather than,
you know, something that's sanctioned or encouraged by
the deen. And this hadith is a proof
that there are people that are gonna be
they're going to recite from Nifaq.
And it will be it will be pleasant.
And some of them recite really well.
And don't take names because you don't know
who they are.
You don't know who's being sincere and who's
not being sincere.
Right? The the point of the point of,
you know, the the point of it is
not necessarily to be a a judge, jury,
and executioner for other people for what's in
their hearts. In fact, that's haram to do.
But the idea is that if you have
common sense, you know, you may not be
able to judge a specific person. But if
you have common sense, someone asks you, okay,
this person, we're gonna be you know, they
asked for, like, a large amount of money
before,
before,
before coming to recite,
then you can you're you're allowed to be
weary of it.
You don't have to say that person asked
for money, their, but you're allowed to be
weary of it. Right? Is so and so
a child abuser? No. Inshallah, they're not. Okay.
Well, do you wanna let them babysit your
children? No. I thank you. I'd rather not.
The former is the,
having good opinion of people that that the
dean prescribes. The latter is not prescribed by
anybody.
There's no there's no in getting ripped off
or getting burned by people. If you have
a feeling that this might, you know, might
not go well, then in your heart say
inshallah, you know, these are good people inshallah,
but I'm not really
I, you know, I choose not I choose
to put my my participation in something else
especially for things that are not obligations.
So this hadith says that the the person
who
the hypocrite who recites the Quran is like
like a Rehana, like the sweet basil. Its
smell is beautiful but its taste is bitter.
Its taste is bitter.
Strangely enough when looking up the word rehana
in Arabic in Arabic characters,
some sort of like pop singer
shows up in the Arabic results.
And and so
what does that mean that this hadith is
saying that anyway,
we can
derive whatever conclusion you want to from that.
But
And, the likeness of the the
the hypocrite who doesn't recite the Quran
is like the wild gourd.
The wild gourd is a a a it's
a type of melon.
It looks kinda like a watermelon,
but it's filled with, like, bitter, bitter,
and kind of unedible
type things. It's not gonna poison you, but
the taste is horrible. So they, like, make
some medicines and things like that from it,
but it's not really it's not really something,
like, useful for a regular person. And so
the bitter sorry. The wild gourd is used
in the bible as a,
as a metaphor of, like, getting a raw
deal, something that looks like it's good but
it's completely useless.
And Allah knows best.
Muslim.
Sayna Amr ibn Khattab radiAllahu ta'ala Anhu, he,
he narrates and it's very interesting that this
narration comes from him,
From amongst the Sahaba radiAllahu ta'ala Anhu.
He said that Allah that the prophet sallallahu
alaihi wa sallam said that indeed Allah ta'ala
will through this Quran raise certain nations
and through this Quran he'll abase and humiliate,
others. He'll raise certain people and through this
Quran he'll abase and he'll humiliate,
other people.
And we
we mentioned earlier, we we read earlier the
hadith of Rasulullah
Rasulullah
alayhi wa sallam that the the best of
you are the ones who learn the Quran
and teach it to others.
And, this is indeed is a an honor.
This is indeed an honor on those people
who
who learn and teach the Quran.
And, you know, it's like, you know, we
don't wanna make it about racism saying one
group of people is better than the other.
Everyone has their and their virtues. And Allah
ta'ala, if he gives virtue to a certain
people, it's not because of what's inside of
them, but it's because of Allah's grace that
he gave it to them. But by Allah's
father,
this is something that that that that's a
pride for the people of the subcontinent.
That the majority of the people in this
country that are
that are busy with the work of teaching
the Quran and the
the of the Quran, teaching how to read
it, and teaching the memorization of the Quran
are are the people of the Indian subcontinent.
And it's not over here. It's in the
Haram and Sharifa as well. If you go,
they they they the halakat that they recently
revived. Otherwise, they're banned for such a long
time in general. The halakat, the daily halakat,
and and the masjid of the prophet
and the masjid Haram and, and the different
then in
neighborhood massages that are sponsored by the the
the government.
For people who want to learn Tajweed, for
people who wanna learn how to read, for
people who want to,
memorize the Quran.
I'm told that by the by the in
Madinah Munawwara that every single one in the
message of the prophet
is either from Pakistan, India, Burma, Bangladesh,
Nepal.
They're they're they're they're all from the without
exception.
And I and I've said this before I
point out, that guy looks like he's an
Arab. Look. He's he's speaking Arabic really well.
He's and then I'll be told go up
to him and say something in Urdu, and
they'll respond to you in Urdu.
This is the follow-up of Allah. He gives
it to whoever he wills. It's not necessarily
something that we should feel that we're better
than others about,
especially not me because I didn't even memorize
the Quran Allah. Give all of us tofir,
But it is something it is a blessing
of Allah Subhanahu Wa Ta'ala.
And,
if a if if if
our people don't
use it
properly and honor it and keep that keep
that tradition going,
then
just like we were the of the first
part of the hadith
that Allah raises certain people through this Quran.
We could end up becoming the of the
second part also which is that he also
abases people through it as well. The ones
who abuse it, its teachings and pervert its
teachings or the ones who abandon its recitation
and its teaching,
altogether.
And it really it's it's it's it's amazing.
I I met in the message of the
prophet
one of my classmates from in Lahore.
I've been back been back to see my
for 10 years. I haven't seen the Madrasa
for for more than 10 years now.
Open a way that I can, go and
see them.
I met a classmate of mine and I
I asked him what are you on Hajj?
He says no.
I'm I'm actually,
I'm actually a year ago. I got a
job.
What, teaching the kids to memorize Quran
in in Makama Karama.
And, you know, like, some of these some
of these guys, like, literally come from villages
out in the middle of nowhere,
to be called from, you know, some village
in Punjab
to literally go to the city that Rassoula,
sallallahu, sallam, was born in to teach the
children of Quran. This is a great honor.
This is a great honor. If,
I'm pretty sure, like, whoever is listening in
Indonesia and Malaysia is not really freaking out
about this. If our our brothers and sisters
are, like, who does he think he is?
Do they think they're better than us? Then
come, you know, bring your children and let
them memorize Quran and teach it as well.
And trust me, not only these people, the
entire ummah would be happy to, accept your
leadership in this matter as well. And there
are, many of our our brothers and sisters
who recite really well. But the thing is
this is that, like, you know, push it.
If it's not important,
then it's not gonna become a culture. If
it's not a culture, then, you know, it's
better to be known for,
you know, teaching the Quran or or or
whatever rather than being known for other weird
things that I don't wanna mention right now.
And Allah to Allah, be our protection.
Said Abdullah bin Omar, he
mentions that the messenger of Allah, the prophet
sallallahu alaihi wasallam said that your,
you you
that you could be forgiven
for,
having jealousy
in 2 cases.
Jealousy,
hasa generally is used to to mean that
jealousy
that,
that that someone else has something good, and
you wish you had it, and you wish
they lost it.
Here, the commentators, they say that here the
word hasad is used to mean which is
when someone else has something good and you
wish you had it, but you don't wish
ill or or lost to that person.
That if you see someone else has it,
generally, you should be happy with the lot
that Allah Allah gave you.
Even though you always work for something better,
but in currently in this moment, you should
be happy with what Allah gave you.
And the secret of that is
that if you're thankful for what you have,
Allah will give you more.
But you could be forgiven for for for,
wanting what someone else had in 2 in
2, cases. 1 is a man who Allah
gave them the Quran, the recitation, the understanding
of it, etcetera.
And that person stands by,
stands,
in in its recitation by day and by
by by night and by day. Meaning what?
That they they read the Quran in,
and they they teach it, and they recite
it by day.
And this is,
one of the things we mentioned from before
that,
he wrote that the the the spiritual of
the the
who didn't used to read or add like
people do nowadays. It can be explained by
it can be explained by their their weird
that they stuck with, which is what reciting
Quran,
in.
The Taraweeh would be, interrupted by the Adhan
Fajr,
which means what? They were like really into
it. And, I don't think I don't think
you have to be a relatively pious person
to be able to read tahjood for an
hour.
I don't think I don't think you have
to be that pious of a person to
be able to do it. And it it
it doesn't have to be something that's utterly
horrible. First of all, you have to memorize
a lot of
Quran,
which takes some time but not a lot.
And second of all, you need to know
how to make dua.
And that's what you do in your sajdah.
And third thirdly,
you need to
be able to
I guess, tune out from other stuff,
which involves, like, turning your phone off and
other things like that. And that's one of
the reasons that tahajjud is done in the
in the in the middle of the night
because and it's done after having woken up
because your sleep will erase a lot of
the other concerns and worries that you have,
from the day.
But this is something a person, you know,
should practice it, do it, make make, not
the nowadays
where, like, it's like social,
like, make friends, you know, for a lifetime
and
have wonderful experiences and no.
Right? You make friends on your when you
go to a party.
Who said going to party is haram? As
long as you're not getting drunk or whatever,
so you make friends at a party. Who
do you go to make friends with in
atikaf?
Who do you go to make friends with
in the masjid?
Your kids the other kids' s u l?
No. You can do that during while you're
in school.
When you go inside the Masjid, who do
you go to make friends with?
Allah
ta'ala.
If Allah ta'ala is your friend better, then
you have a very powerful friend. Right?
So,
that's that's
that's, like, someone who is able to do
that. It's a person should,
like, be like, wow. This is amazing.
And,
you know, like some and some advice to
myself
and to many of our,
brothers who especially the ones that are in
Jamat Tabligh nowadays,
in America. I was once told by,
one of the ulama from South Africa
that Mullana Elias
he gave the he gave
the the tarteeb for the regular tablihi, not
for the ulaman, for the huffas,
for the regular
tablihi
that they should make Quran
every 7 days.
So I commented to him. I said, wow,
man. If someone was reading that much Quran,
they wouldn't really need to do such a
hard
sell. People just see their face and and
and and, you know,
make toba by by by seeing them. Imagine
a person who's making khatam Quran every week
for
years.
It would be a different game. What's the
problem?
The problem is these it's not that these
things don't work. These systems that were prescribed
by the 'ulama don't work. It's the people
are not following the instructions.
We're not putting in the work
and then the result doesn't happen and then,
you know,
the one giving dawah is like, oh, the
qom is they're all messed up people. And
the qom is like, who are these crazy
people who come and tell us to pray?
And they're obviously, like, obviously, like, I don't
see anything about them that I want that
I find a redeeming quality that should want
me to follow their guidance and what problems
happen afterward. Imagine. Right? Just do it just
do it like
just do it for what the heck. You
know what I mean? Like, there people do
that. Like, they have reality TV shows. Like,
someone's gonna, like, like, eat McDonald's for 30
days and see what happens. You know, that
type of stuff. Just like on a whim
like that,
just try it.
Say, Say, I'm gonna make khatron Quran in
7 days. I have, like, a light work
schedule next week or whatever. I'm gonna sit
down and read like 4 safaris and some
change every day for 7 days, and I'm
just gonna I'm gonna crank right through it,
plow right through it. You wait do it
in Ramadan, you know.
Uh-uh-uh-uh.
Just just, you know, why not? And see
what what what,
what difference it makes in your life.
And this is the tarteva of the many
of the Sahaba
to the point where rasulullah salallahu alaihi wa
sallam had to stop them.
He had to put the brakes on some
of them
saying don't make khatam in the Quran in
less than 3 days.
And some people they take this as some
sort of it's not a fiqi injunction.
It's not like a haram to make khatam
in the Quran in less than 3 days.
The reason
discouraged the sahaba radiallahu anhu from making khatam
in the Quran in less than 3 days
is what? Is that he didn't want them
to breeze through it to the point where
they're only
focused on the spiritual side of it and
not focused on the teachings. Because there's a
lot there. The Quran is like a whole
package of stuff that comes through. Right? So
imagine if a person realized, like, okay, if
I read such and such surah everyday,
I'll make like double the money that I've
been making from before, and they just read
that surah everyday then to make them make
money, right? It's good. It's not bad. You
know? Another person may, like, rob liquor stores
to make money. So obviously this guy is
better than the other one. Right? Because it's
their imam that led it led them to
it rather than, like, a propensity for violence
and, like, lack of respect for,
like, gun and safety laws.
But but
at the same time, you know, it's just
that the Rasool sallallahu alaihi wasallam didn't want
them to lose the other side of it
because they,
after they got into the,
habit of reciting the Quran, they saw so
much of the spiritual benefit
that that that he didn't want them to
drown in that and then lose the the
the the rest of it. Otherwise, there were
and there were people of every generation who
would read more than that, but you could
see in those people that they were people
who didn't let the other side go either.
There are people who used to appreciate
appreciate
appreciate that as well.
So the next the next hadith
I'm sorry. So the continue of the hadith,
and the second one is a man that
you're allowed to have some envy of. It's
a man who gave him great wealth and
he spends it in the path of Allah
ta'ala,
during all parts of the day and all
parts of the night.
And this, ana is like from the the
word an. Right? So
it's a means
a u anin. It's like a it's it's
it's from the same,
from the from the from the same word.
So
read read Quran.
Allah gave you a lot of money. Go
to launchgood.comforward/eternalcreed
and, donate for the book project.
We're we're a couple of bucks shy of
halfway. Right?
To write write this, aqidah project.
Inshallah,
if, you know, you need some sort of
motivation, then know that your your kids are
probably gonna end up learning akhida from it.
And so inshallah that that's that's that's good
motivation. The book will be around inshallah.
Inshallah, books books are around for a long
time.
You know, it's even when you buy books
for your own library. One thing is sponsoring
a book or whatever. Go ahead and buy
it.
Don't be cheap about it. You see a
good book somewhere, people are like, well, I
never read any of my books, so I
don't know. Go ahead and buy it. The
library, the books in the library will be
around after you're dead.
Someone may read it and you'll get the
reward for that as well.
But, inshallah, the the the book project, inshallah,
please do,
please do participate in it. Insha'Allah,
a person
may think these things to be small, but
with Allah, subhanahu wa ta'ala, they're not small.
So we were talking about the the the
spiritual manifestations of of of the recitation of
the Quran.
It's a hadith
narrated
by.
That the man is.
Was
a noble man, from Abu Ashhel, which is
a clan of oaths.
One of the 2,
one of the true tribes of the Ansar.
Ablushal
is,
is is
one of the first
one of the first,
clans of the 2 tribes of the Ansar
that,
accepted Islam in great numbers.
And Usay bin Hodeir,
his father used to have a huge fortification
in Watin, which is one of the 2,
on one of the two sides.
The and
are are the 2 large lava rock tracks
that that bounds Medina from the east and
the west. I forget which one is whether
it's the eastern one or the western one,
but he was a he was a great
leader of oath,
in the generation before the prophet Sallallahu Alaihi
Wasallam came actually just a few years before
Sallallahu Alaihi Wasallam's Hijra.
The had a war with each other and
there's a big battle,
called the battle of
in which many of the leaders of both
sides were killed.
And this is the this is this is
the what? This is the providential hikmah of
Allah Ta'ala
that like the
both like whatever worrying parties of the Masjid
committee that are suing each other. They basically
took each other out before Rasulullah
sallallahu alaihi wa sallam came.
Left. Otherwise, in the battle of Ba'ath, most
most of them, they just ended up killing
each other.
Clearing the way for Rasulullah Sallallahu Alaihi Wasallam's
leadership.
So his father was the commander of Ose
in in the battle of Wath. So he
was a a a a a a a
a a a a a very high rank.
But he, the son, he was one of
the first of the Ansar to accept Islam.
And he actually
accepted Islam before Saad Bin Muad, who is
the chief of oath, accepted it.
Who was a very close,
a very close
person to, Rasulullah Sallallahu Alaihi Wasallam.
And he's the one that Rasulullah Sallallahu Alaihi
Wasallam said about him because he he was
mortally wounded during the handak.
The the of the handak. And,
when he died,
said that that the * shook for his
death.
That the throne in the heavens shook for
his his death.
And,
so he actually accepted Islam before him,
in the second Bayatul Aqaba,
in in Makkamukarama,
before the Hijra.
And,
he was such an important person that when
the Hijra happened, Rasuulullah
salallahu alayhi wa sallam paired people up, you
know,
as brothers from the Ansar and from Muhajin.
So he was made the brother of Zaid
bin Haritha.
The, adopted the hitherto of adopted son of
the prophet Sallallahu Alaihi Wasallam. So he was
a very important person. So, he although he's
not named in the hadith, but the commentators
they mentioned it was Sallallahu Alaihi Wasallam.
That a man, was reading Surah Al Kahf.
A man was reading Surah Al Kahf, which
is a surah that it's
the sunnah says that it its recitation protects
a person from fitna, and it's a a
it protects a person from the dajjal, and
that it's Masoon to read on Fridays
that,
a man was reading Surah Al Kahf,
and he had a
a horse that was,
tied up with 2 with 2 ropes.
It was just, you know, tied to tied
to tied to wherever it was. And so
he was reading through his whole calf and
his horse is next to him tied up,
and a cloud a cloud came down,
and it was coming down closer and closer.
And,
the horse the horse, like, freaked out and
tried to tried to like, it was kinda
getting scared and and and and making noise
and tried to bolt.
And so,
the this thing happened
that this cloud came down over him
to the point where the cloud, it came
down so low that it surrounded him. And
the horse it was causing the horse to
be agitated.
That that he slept on it and then
in the morning he went to the prophet
and mentioned that this happened.
And, said
that this is the that comes down because
of the Quran.
And the word is actually a word that's
used in the the Torah as well.
And,
it is a an expression
that's used I mean,
means literally, like, calm and and and, calm
and and peace.
But it's used to mean the holy and
sacred presence of god himself,
which is not a spatial,
it's not marked by some sort of special,
point, but there's some special of Allah
that that comes, in in in in sacred
places and sacred times.
That's known as the that the came down
on.
So this is a spiritual kefir. This is
a spiritual condition that happens to people who
recite the Quran.
I'll I'll admit I've read Surat Al Kahf
several times, the Sakena. I don't to my
knowledge, never came down on me. But, you
know, if you have if you put in
the time and whatever,
if your heart is present, there's a lot,
you know, there's a lot more than just
the words of the Quran that are coming
down. And it's very interesting too because
the Quran itself as a reality is a
an uncreated
attribute of Allah.
The divine speech is not like the speech
of human beings.
The words themselves are not the Quran rather
the words themselves are the ones that invoke
the effect of the divine speech in a
in a place,
or or on a person.
And,
Surat Kahf itself, one of its last ayat,
is
If the if the,
if the the ocean.
How many oceans are there?
Really, there's only 1.
Right?
To say if the ocean was if the
if the ocean was made into ink to
write the words of my lord,
the ocean would have finished before the words
of my lord finished even if we brought
another ocean like it.
Meaning what? It is a Ishara
toward the the the Quran itself being from
Allah to Allah Sifat, from Allah to Allah's
own
attributes which are in themselves transcendent and infinite.
They're limitless.
So the fact that you know, like,
you know, what, like,
means you can translate it word for word.
That's just like one thing out of like
a lot of stuff going on. You
know, if you knew how to take from
the recitation of the Quran like the Sahaba
and whom were, you know, maybe the the
Persians and the Egyptians and Syrians would show
you
some respect too. You know what I mean?
Why
too. You know what
I mean? Why? They knew how to take
from that. They knew, like, a lot more
of what was going on. And even then,
they didn't wet their beaks in the ocean
of of what's there in the Quran.
And so this this hadith is a a
a a a display of what that that
the Sahaba their
experience of the Quran was something else. There
was something more going on than just
just like being able to say this word
means this and this word means that. Even
though there's a lot of in that, there's
a lot of barakah and that that knowledge
as well.
But there's a lot of there's a lot
more going on. It's a lot deeper than
that.
Inshallah, we'll stop the dares
here.
But just a reminder,
inshallah, again, the book project is going on.
Please do help the book project.
Brother Abdul Raffa and,
Imran Qasem have been, like, working really hard
on getting this thing off the ground,
the the launch code and all of these
other things. Inshallah.
If and and I know more than half
of you have already given anyway.
But, if you could share it with your
friends,
make a personal call or whatever,
this is something that,
you know, this is something that I, you
know, I should hope would be
a reason for a person's,
a person's
najat and their forgiveness inside of their grave
that you should be able to communicate,
with some,
with some amount of
competence and intellectual robustness,
what the,
of the of the are and preserve it
for other people. English is like a really
weird language. Like, the majority
of learning materials in the English language regarding
Islam are written by
very heterodox groups. They're written by Qadianis and
Rawafid and,
modernist or orientalist or whatever. And we live
in an age where I mean, even in
the nineties for some reason, you know, in
the nineties, if someone wanted to go study
Dean, it meant that they were gonna go
to the Alama.
Nowadays,
people, the first thing they think about when
they say study dean is to go to
the university,
which is fine. It's not haram or whatever,
but
it represents a shift in
in in what the locus of authority is
in our community. And the fact of the
matter is a lot of these things, you
won't find them over there. You have to
have them through
transmitted through the tradition.
And the reason people go to university is
because they see somebody who studies the dean
in the old way. That person is not
gonna get a job. That person is gonna
fight with board members. Whereas, at least in
the university, you'll be able to pay your
rent and things like that. I'm not gonna
grudge anybody
wanting to pay their rent.
But,
this is these are projects that used to
be done,
on the funding of the state
and in the backing of the state and
and wealthy patrons.
The wealthy people don't pray 5 times a
day anymore, and the state could give less
of a dam.
But the good thing is,
you know, because of this crowd crowdsourcing and
things like that, we have other ways. Has
given us other ways to
to come and bring that type of that
type of patronage and support. And it's really
not not all that much money, and we're
already halfway done with it. So if the
brothers and sisters could please,
you know, spread the word and
give some sort of personal appeal to whoever
they know. You can read about the project
launchgood.comforward/,
eternal
creed.
Give you, our reward. And hopefully, the the
the the project gets funded soon, and, we
don't have to turn
into a NPR pledge
drive,
again.
Are there any questions?