Mustafa Khattab – He translated the entire Quran into clear English
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Allah states in the Quran.
Certainly, we've made it a Quran in Arabic,
so perhaps you will understand. Yet considering a
large portion of the world doesn't speak Arabic,
how can we share the message of Allah
to the masses in a way that they
not only understand,
but feel its impact?
Today, we're joined with doctor Mustafa Khattab,
translator of the Clear Quran
and author of the Clear Quranic Dictionary, and
also the Clear Quran for Kids.
Why and how did he come up with
one of the world's leading English translations of
the Quran?
Let's find out.
And one time he was challenged by a
Muslim. So the Muslim told him, have you
ever read the Quran, you and your wife?
And the man said, no. So he said
he received a copy of the clear Quran.
He read it. So by the time he
finished, he and his wife, he accepted Islam,
and now they are working in dawah.
But before we begin the podcast, don't forget
to like, subscribe, and hit the bell for
notifications.
How are you today? How are you today,
chef?
It's so great to have you here with
us today. And I'm also joined with my
brother, Mochlis, from a previous podcast. You may
remember him. A student and teacher of the
Arabic language. Masha'Allah. How are you today, Mukhles?
Sheikh, let's just get straight into it. Yes.
What's the story behind why
you decided to go out and embark on
the, I guess, the momentous
task of translating the Quran into English?
So I studied at Al Azhar, in Egypt
from the age of 7
all the way to bachelor's
in Islamic Studies in English and Translation,
and also master's and also PhD.
So
this is kind of my field as an
insider into Islamic translations.
So I moved to North America back in
2007,
and for the last 14, 15 years, I've
been in the field of Dua.
So I used to give out copies of
the Quran,
and as we say in English, we used
to give it with a pinch of salt
because you were not totally satisfied
with the copies of the Quran, the translations
that you were giving out. SubhanAllah. And I
think,
what eventually triggered,
this project
was in 2013.
I was in Toronto,
downtown. I was a visiting imam here. So
it was a Friday. I was going from
the Masjid
to the hotel room
and the driver that day was not Muslim.
So while I was sitting in in the
back, he said that, you know,
Muslims are good people but Islam sucks. Oh,
no. And I said, dude, why? He said,
because your book, the Quran, calls me an
animal.
And I said, dude, what are you talking
about?
I'm Hafid, I know the whole Quran by
heart and it doesn't say this anywhere. And
he says, no, this is what his translation,
says.
So that night I checked, there's this website
called Islam Awakened
and back then they had about
40, 45 different translations
for each Ayah of the Quran. So I
checked
and the man was right. So some translations,
and of course he cited Ayah
855, Surah Amfal in Nasharat Dawab Bin Dallahi
laveenakafru.
So the worst of all Dawab are those
who are disbelievers.
So
I said, SubhanAllah, the word dabbayin arabi is
very general, but many of those translations,
they say either animal or beast.
So I said, you know, that's it for
me. Tonight,
I'm going to start translating the Quran
and of course I was aware of some
of, you know, mistranslations
and misconceptions about the Quran,
you know, and and those mistranslations
have been used against us. When we go,
you know, downtown to do street dawah, you
know, missionaries would come and they have, you
know, some of of those old translations of
the Quran and they use them against us.
Y'all look there's a mistake here. There's a
contradiction here. And I tell them that this
is not the Quran. This is just a
translation of the Quran. So I I guess
this is what, you know, started this whole
process, back in 2013,
Alhamdulillah.
And I'm happy I I made
this decision that night,
Alhamdulillah.
Masha'allah.
What what what was the process in in
coming up with translation? Obviously, it's quite a,
you know, massive task. So how would you
actually go through and, come up with that
translation?
Yeah. The way I did it,
I said to myself and and my team
that
Allah says in the Quran,
We made the Quran easy.
But many of those translations, especially the old
ones,
they use, you know, thou and all that
stuff and all English and they make it
extremely difficult.
So much so that, subhanAllah, back in 2016,
we have a big conference here in, in
Toronto. It's an annual thing in December.
And this, publisher from a country in Southeast
Asia, he came with a copy of the
Quran and he said this is a project
that he was working on and it's for
kids.
I said, okay. Let me see. And I
opened the book. Masha'Allah. I like the the
butterflies
and the colors and
but the translation was none other than Yousef
Ali from 1934.
Wow. And I said, dude, this is like
crazy.
All the all the English complicated archaic style,
and I told him even college graduates here
in Canada,
they can't understand some of the structures and
some of the words in the translation.
So I don't understand why do we complicate
things too much.
Right? So the standard we set that the
translation, Insha'Allah, will be clear,
accurate,
fluid,
and and,
so it will be relatable and accessible. So
these were the standards that we set.
So the way I did it, I started
with the translation. I started by myself
and it took me initially 1 year to
finish the whole Quran. So I translated
1 page, 2 sides every single day,
in 2014.
Whether it was Eid, whether it was Ramadan,
if I was sick, if I was traveling,
I had to translate one page with the
help of Allah.
Then after I finished,
so I put together a team of about
a 100 people,
brothers and sisters,
old, young, high school students
And we have 3 non Muslims in in
the team,
to help with the word choice. But we
made sure with the Imams and the editors
that the meanings are correct,
but this project, the clear Quran is for
everyone including the Muslims, of course, for Dua.
So they would tell us, you know, this
word is not clear. This concept is difficult.
Put a footnote and so on and so
forth. And Alhamdulillah by the time we finished,
2 of the 3 non Muslims accepted Islam.
And every every time there's a new edition,
so far in the last, Alhamdulillah, 6 years,
we have published several editions in English only,
in Arabic for kids and so on and
so forth. Every time,
every single time we produce a new edition,
I go through the translation,
I receive feedback from the people, and we
try to refine the work because this is
just a humble human effort
to explain the divine.
And just to say upfront that no translation
is perfect.
The only perfect thing
is the Quran and Arbi, but this is
just a human effort to explain the divine.
And this is why we need to keep
refining it and editing it to make sure
to make sure that it's accurate and it's
accessible.
And sorry. And just, alongside that, did you
have any references that you use like, you
know, books of tafsir or did you rely
on other existing translations?
Yeah. Of course. You cannot translate the Quran
without referring back to all the previous translations.
So you have to check Yusuf Ali, Pickthor,
Sahih International,
Ahmed Zakir Hammad, Abdul Kalim. You have to
study them. And Alhamdulillah, I went through almost
all of them,
and I studied tafsirs.
And I listed, many of them, at the
end of the book. We have like
40 of them at the end of the
Arabic and English edition
from old tafsirs like Ibn Kathir, Qutubi, Tabari,
Nasafi,
Zamakhshari,
and Tashaf, and modern ones like the ones
that have been adopted by Allah Azar in
Egypt,
the one in Saudi and Kuwait and, and
many other ones.
So, basically, I consulted these different translations and
these different tafasir
to make sure that I chose,
the the most accurate meaning,
and I presented it in the most accessible
way.
Was there any particular resource that you relied
on on extra, particularly, let's say, to help
you make a choice? Let's say there were
multiple
opinions that were offered and, you know, you
needed to weigh up those decisions.
Usually,
Tabari because Tabari
gives you the different
opinions
on each ayah or whenever there's a difference
opinion regarding 1 ayah or one word. And
there's also the tafsir by doctor Sayyid Tawhid.
He used to be the the grand Mufti,
and sheikh ul Azhar of Egypt.
So what makes them different from other, Mufasirun
is that they give you the different,
opinions or options and they,
they give you their choice at the end,
That this is the best meaning, this is
the strongest opinion because of 1, 2, 3.
And I used to rely a lot on
their, preferences and choices. Sorry to stop the
discussion. But if you enjoy what you're watching
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JazakAllah Khayron, and let's get back to the
discussion. Sheikh, throughout the course of this translation
journey, were there any moments that, I guess,
stood out to
you? That were just like, this is like
an incredible experience, like, while you're translating the
Quran.
Well, I think what
hit me the most is the consistency of
the Quran.
You know, the stories are repeated. The story
of Musa alayhi salaam, Ibrahim alayhi salaam,
and so on and so forth. The perfect
consistency of the Quran is what stood out
for me, you know.
I I have always been a student of
the Quran, but this is the,
this is the time when I really was
immersed in the tafsirs and the translations of
the Quran. So the consistency
and the beauty of the Arabic language,
you know, so,
just a little bit, you know. So subhanAllah,
the Arabic language is so rich.
So according to,
some of the grammarians
of Arabic, the scholars of Arabic,
Arabic has more than 12,000,000
words.
That's 25 times
the number of words in the English language.
So sometimes we have concepts and structures in
the Quran, in Arabic that cannot be translated
into English.
In the Arabic language, we have more than
a 1,000 words for lion.
You have so many different levels of friendship,
love,
sleep, enmity, and so on and so forth.
But the English language is is like miskeen,
is limited.
And this is why many of those nights
when I was translating the Quran and I
used to break my head over some of
those concepts
because we don't have an equivalence in the
English language.
So SubhanAllah, I was working and there are
some Ayat that took me like a whole
week to translate 1 Ayah, you know. Yes,
I did the initial translation,
but to be fully satisfied with an Ayah,
sometimes it took longer than that, you know.
Like this particular ayah in Surah
It talks about
but the ayah is so powerful in Arabic
and, you know, in English,
when you compare the English to the Arabic,
the Arabic the English is so lame and
and so,
and so limited.
Also some of the words in in Arabic
like the word
in the Quran. So when Ibrahim hit
the idols, the statues with his with his
yameen.
So the scholars of tafsir, they have 7
different meanings for the word yameen.
So it could mean that he smashed them
with his right hand, Yamin,
or he smashed them with all of his
might and power, Yamin,
or he smashed them with the oath that
he took when he said, by Allah, I'm
going to smash you. So the word yameen
means an oath. Seven different meanings and all
of them are acceptable here in this context.
How are you gonna do it with this?
You know, how are you going to deal
with this in English? You are going to
just stick to one meaning
and maybe you can list some of them
in the footnote.
So English is limited but the Arabic is
so rich. And this is one of the
many challenges that people face when they translate
the Quran.
You mentioned that the beginning of the journey
or one of the inspirations for starting the
translation
process was, was Dawah and, you know, tried
to convey convey the the message of the
Quran to to non Muslims in in a
correct way and to clear misconceptions.
How how do you believe that we as
Muslims should
encapsulate
or convey the impact of the Quran? Because
we know that the impact of the Quran,
for example, in the time of the prophet
when they read Surat Najm, you know, we
had the the the the polytheists, the disbelievers,
the people against the prophet sallallahu alaihi wa
sallam prostrating right at the end. So True.
That was because of the connection to the
Quran and the the the understanding of of
the words. But when, you know, we're in
the west and we're trying to convey the
message, to people that don't understand Arabic, the
people that,
don't have the access to to to the
Quran in an original way, how do you
believe we can encapsulate that impact?
So
we believe in the inimitability
of the Quran that you cannot copy the
style, the eloquence, the power, the beauty of
the Quran in Arabic.
However, we also believe in the universality
of the message of Islam and the message
of the Quran.
Only 15%
of Muslims can understand the Quran in Arabic,
85%
they don't speak Arabic
and the great majority of people
on the planet, they don't speak the Arabic
language.
Some some say, you know, everybody has to
learn Arabic and this and but this is
not practical and this is not realistic.
So we have to convey the message of
Islam,
the message of the Quran in translation. And
SubhanAllah, back then when the prophet salallahu alaihi
wasalam, he was communicating with the rulers and
the kings of his time and he sent
letters to Kisra and Qaisar and Najashi and
this and that, He made sure that he
chose a Sahabi
who could understand the language of that king
or that ruler.
And some of those letters, they had ayaat
from the Quran.
And those messengers that were sent, they actually
translated those ayat
in English. Not in English but in the
languages of those people.
Jafar ibn Abi Talib, he was a relative
of the prophet sallallahu alaihi wasallam when he
was in Habashid Abyssinia,
when he recited Surah,
Mariam Tu An Najashi, the Negus of Ethiopia,
he translated
the Ayat into the language of the king.
Because otherwise, if he just recited the words
in Arabic and the king couldn't understand,
the message
was not delivered.
So we have to,
to be able to communicate the message of
of Islam
in a way that people can understand.
And and again,
this should be motivated by the belief that
this is the final message and this is
a universal revelation for everyone. So it should
be accessible to,
to the global audience through the medium of
translation.
Subhanallah, Sheikh. That's that's actually very powerful. And
I guess the timing of your translation
occurred during a time of, I guess, heightened
Islamophobia,
heightened, I guess, Muslim hate. You know, we
had Donald Trump in his presidency saying stuff
like Islam hates us. And as you mentioned
at the start,
non Muslims would pick up the Quran and
say, hey, it's calling us animals.
Another common misconception,
the Quran cause us to fight disbelievers wherever
they are,
kill non muslims wherever they are. Now you're
going out to translate this Quran, and as
you mentioned at the start, one of your
intentions was to make sure that the non
muslim could understand it. Were there any, I
guess, methods
that you, I guess, imposed while translating the
Quran to make sure that certain people won't
be able to mistranslate,
misinterpret,
or I guess,
misconstrue
the Quran?
Yes. So number 1, we made sure that
we provided
Surah introductions to give you the historical context.
Mhmm. We also put footnotes.
And I also grouped Ayah together and gave
them titles based on a theme. Wow. So
this ayat
that triggered this translation, 855, Inasha'Allah
If you go to the translation,
you'll see this passage,
all the, the ayat that are relevant to
the topic are listed together
and the title says
that those who violated peace agreements with the
prophet.
So when you read the Ayat in context,
the Ayat before and the Ayat after and
the following Ayat says,
those who made peace agreements with them and
they violated them every single time. So it's
very clear here that it's not talking about,
you know, everyone. It's talking about a specific
group, the pagans of Arabia
who are at war with the prophet
at this particular time.
And the word Daba is also explained, I
referenced
the word Daba, if you can read it
in the introduction of the translation,
that the word Daba is explained somewhere else
in the Quran. In chapter 24
verse 45 Allah says,
He created every daba.
This word that was misconstrued
for animal or beast, it means a living
being, a moving creature and Allah says that
some of those dawab,
they slither on their billies, some walk on
2 feet, and some walk with 4 feet
and so it's a very general term.
So I think by grouping these verses,
giving them titles,
giving the historical background,
explaining the so called controversial
verses in the Quran. I think you you
make it,
you know, easier for people to to see
the the whole picture and not just a
small pixel.
Mhmm. And I think this is what the
translation tried to achieve. There are some other
good translations out there,
but the historical context is not there.
There are hardly any footnotes.
So
how would a non Muslim
figure out all these concepts on their own
if you don't give them any
context or any
background.
Right? So you have to explain to them
to help them understand
the the Quran.
Subhanallah. I guess
even on saying that, like, although we can
give the context for certain verses, there are
times when the Quran will make people shake.
Like, for instance, the verses about hellfire, which
are, like, scary, frightening,
but at the same time,
they're concepts that need to be said.
And it may be a bitter pill for
many to swallow but they need to be
said because at the end of the day
the Quran came
to shake people, you know, to to provoke
change amongst communities. What would you say about
that Sheikh?
It's very true. SubhanAllah,
usually
when we do dawah, I would love to
connect people with the words of Allah directly,
right?
So when they read the Quran, they would
feel that Allah Subhanahu Wa Ta'ala is talking
to them.
I have seen a lot of people accept
Islam by just reading the Quran.
And
I've seen people, you know, non Muslims who
cry when they read the Ayat of, you
know, some powerful Ayat in the Quran. Like,
this non Muslim lady came to my mosque
here in in Canada.
I showed her because she was Christian. I
showed her the ayat
at the end of Surah 5, Surah Mahidah,
where Allah Subhanahu Wa Ta'ala talks to Jesus
on judgment day, but, you know, did you
ever tell people to worship you and he
said, subhanahu, how can I make such,
claim?
And and she started to cry.
I also remember, Subhanahu Wa Ta'ala, 2 years
ago,
I got this, message on Facebook from someone
in the US
and this person told me that he used
to be an Islamophobe.
He was actively
sneering Islam on social media. He was against
Islam.
And one time he was challenged by a
Muslim. So the Muslim told him, have you
ever read the Quran, you and your wife?
And the man said, no, I just, you
know, bits and pieces, you know, to just
so he challenged him to read the whole
Quran.
So he said he received a copy of
the clear Quran,
he read it, so by the time he
finished he and his wife, he accepted Islam
and now they are working in Dawah. SubhanAllah.
By just reading the Quran.
So subhanAllah when you read it you get
the whole picture, you understand what Islam is
and what Muslims stand for, and you see
that the beauty of this religion and the
universality of the message.
Subhanallah. It's a testament to the Quran in
and of itself. I think at the end
of Surah Al Isra, if I'm correct,
the people that have knowledge
when they are when they are I don't
wanna translate the Quran in front of a
translator of the Quran, but you know the
people of knowledge when they hear the words
of Allah,
they fall on their faces crying and they
have this fear or you know or maybe
the sheikh is better to translate than myself.
Yeah. You translated
But, You should make your own translation of
the No. I'm I'm The clearest,
latest Quran ever. I have too long till
I get to that level, Sheikh. Too long
till I get to that level.
So when you have an everyday person or
everyday Muslim, let's say,
that wants to start studying the Quran,
what are some tips that you have, for
example, to use the clear Quran? How how
should a person use that? Should they start
mess let's say, be from the beginning read
to the end? Should they start with maybe
the sort of that they already know when
they read in their salah? What what do
you recommend?
I usually ask them to start with the
introduction of the translation.
It tells them what Islam is because Islam,
contrary to what people believe, didn't start with
prophet Muhammad sallallahu alaihi wa sallam. So Islam
was the message that was delivered by all
the prophets of God from Adam to Muhammad
SAW.
There are many prophets are mentioned in the
Quran. So we believe that there is only
one God,
There is one humanity
and this God
sent to this humanity one message that was
delivered by many prophets.
There's a Hadith al Musa Alimah Muhammad. Allah
sent
124,000
prophets
and they all came with the same message
and the message has always been have faith
in 1 God
and be a good guy. Do good.
So even when you look at the 10
Commandments,
have faith in 1 God, don't worship other
gods, and from 5 to 10, don't kill,
don't lie, don't steal, be a good guy.
And we have those commandments in the Quran
in in surah and am at the end
and in surah Islam, have faith in Allah,
honor your parents,
don't cheat, don't kill, don't lie and so
on and so forth. So basically, I tell
them start with the introduction.
It tell it talks to you about
the stylistic features of the Quran because many
people they think that the Quran is just
a biography of the prophet
which is not.
And one thing people realize when they read
the Quran, the Quran is not about the
prophet,
the
Quran is about you. So the prophet salaam
is teaching you to read the Quran to
connect
with Allah Subhanahu Wa Ta'ala and of course
there are some examples from the prophet salaam
in the Quran and his seerah and so
on and so forth.
But the Quran is there to help you
have a better relationship with your creator and
a better relationship with His creation.
So the introduction also answers a lot of
questions about what Islam is, who Muhammad Sallallahu
Alaihi Wasallam was.
All these different questions that even the crazy
ones that people ask about Islam, you know,
Islam and Jihad and terrorism and
democracy and shura and hijab and non Muslims
in Islam and all of these things, they're
answered in the introduction. So we clear these,
We give them out of the way
before they get into the,
the Quran. So whether they start from the
beginning from Surah 1 Fatihah in Baqarah or
they start from the end,
it doesn't really matter.
The most important thing there is a message
that these always emphasize
whatever you read in the Quran, have faith
in Allah, be a good person. It doesn't
matter where you read,
which surah you read. Right? So this is
the message that is echoed
throughout the
Quran.
I have an I have another question. Just
as an Arabic teacher, I encourage people to
learn Arabic and I say, you know, this
is your your a way that you can
understand the Quran.
But then we have another way that you
can understand the Quran, which is through the
use of translation.
So how do you see these 2 you
know, when you have a Muslim that sort
of,
has has these 2 different paths that they
can take, how do you sort of, like,
weigh between the, the 2 or balance them
up or, you know, how do you what
do you recommend to someone?
So reading the Quran in Arabic is like
eating fresh food,
and eating reading Quran in translation is like
eating canned food.
So I hope this analogy makes sense. Yeah.
So there is nothing like reading the Quran
in Arabic.
So for those who are not able to,
study or learn the Arabic language, I would
tell them
read a good translation.
Everyone claims
to have produced the finest, the best translation
in the world, even if they are the
least qualified.
Right? So I'm saying this as an insider.
You know, SubhanAllah,
some translate translations were done by professionals,
by like
trained translators in Islamic Studies and Arabic and
Urumu Quran and all these branches of knowledge.
You know, just
like, you know, there is someone who claims
to be a doctor,
but they don't have any training or any
qualifications
and nobody would ever trust them with their
life or or their health.
But there are doctors who studied,
they were trained,
they know what they're doing, and they have
credentials. And this is what I'm asking people
to do. So if you look for a
translation,
make sure that the translator is qualified.
Make sure that they have the right
because some translations were done, you know, by
people from those
heretical sects
and mixed up and so on and so
forth,
so
and so on and so forth.
If you are able to study Arabic then
Alhamdulillah,
this would be best because as I said
the Quran in Arabic is so rich
and it would help you with the Dagbur
understanding
the shades of meanings and the meanings of
the Ayat in Arabic. Whereas the translation is
only limited to one meaning.
And this is why,
produced this the Clear Quran dictionary which was
released earlier this year.
And,
believe it or not, Kamal,
the Quran has only oh
Our friends at project Quran hooked us up,
the clear Quran dictionary.
So you believe it or not, the Quran
has only 2,000 words. It's built on 2,000
words repeated in different forms.
So those words are verbs,
verbs, nouns, and particles. So the total is
2,000 words
and of course they are repeated
tens of thousands of times throughout the Quran.
So if you study those 2,000 words,
then you should be able to understand
the meaning,
of the Quran. And I made it super
easy for you.
At the end of the book,
there is this poem.
It's called Rahi ul Quran or the niktar
of the Quran.
242
lines of poetry. So
I made a poem
and it rhymes
with those 2,000 words of the Quran. So
I made it this poem poem for the
hab students of the Quran. So once you
memorize those 2,000 words,
it becomes easy for you inshaAllah to master
the Quran in Arabic. And of course you
will need to,
you know, study, read some tafsir to to
to get some some more insights,
on the ayat of the Quran.
So the bottom line is if you can
study the Quran in Arabic, Alhamdulillah. If not,
then if you read it in translation, you
still get some barakah, some of the blessings,
of the Quran as well. Alhamdulillah.
Masha'Allah.
Shaykh, I'm a go off to a side
point insha'Allah.
Translation of the Quran aside, someone who spent
like an incredible amount of time, and I
ask Allah to make us of Ahlul Quran,
someone who spent that much time with the
Quran.
We want the Quran to hit our hearts,
and you spoke a little bit about tadabur.
How do we achieve a level where an
Ayah of the Quran
will hit us? You know, you you mentioned
the story about the Christian woman who read
the the last page of Surah Al Ma'ida,
and then we hear the prophet Sallallahu Alaihi
Wasallam, he will repeat the verse on the
last page of Surah Al Ma'ida. Yes. And
he would just cry and cry and cry
over this one verse. We heard another story
of I think it was Imam Malik,
the last verse of
and he just repeated it and repeated it
and cried and cried
how do we reach that level where the
Quran just immerses, hits our hearts through this,
I guess, this exercise of Tadabur?
Exactly. So
Hot topic,
heavy topic. Yes it's yes it's it's a
good question and and we need like a
week to cover this topic. But briefly, Alhamdulillah,
when you read in the seerah, people like
Al Motta'im ibn Adi, Juba'ir ibn Motta'im,
he accepted Islam because of 2 ayat in
Surat Tur. Ayat 3536,
Did they create themselves
or did they were they created by nothing?
Did they create the heavens and the earth?
In fact, they had no certainty. So he
said when he heard those 2 ayaats from
the prophet salallahu alaihi wa sallam, he accepted
Islam immediately.
And the stories are so many.
So,
I guess
it it is it all comes down to
our attitude towards the Quran. Because
if you go to my village in Egypt,
you know,
usually if you hear some Quran
playing in in someone's house, usually you ask
who died
because it has come to be associated in
at least in my village also in some
other places
with death. They play the Quran if someone
dies.
Even though Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala says in
the Quran,
this Quran is a reminder to those who
are truly alive.
So we need to understand that, you know,
when you buy a phone or you buy
a laptop or a car, it comes with
the manufacturers
manual.
So the Quran is your manual. It came
from Allah Subhanahu Wa Ta'ala to show you
how to function in the best way and
and and how to live a decent life
based on this book. Right?
And this book Allah calls it
healing for sure to all of your problems,
psychological,
spiritual,
financial, social, political, whatever problem that you have,
the Quran has the solution for it. And
SubhanAllah, I remember one time I received a
question from a young student, a Muslim student,
and he said, when I told them that
Allah sent a total of 124,000
prophets
and he said, why are not all these
prophets mentioned in the Quran? And I told
him if all those prophets are mentioned in
the Quran, it wouldn't be the Quran anymore.
It would be like something like the Encyclopedia
Britannica.
Right?
So the whole purpose is for Allah Subhanahu
Wa Ta'ala to sample
some of those prophets
because those prophets, each one of them dealt
with a problem that we have in our
daily lives.
So if you are talking about political corruption,
read the story of Musa and Faraun.
If you want to read about, you know,
family dynamics and social life and siblings rivalry,
read the story of Yusuf alaihis salam.
If you want to talk about morality,
read the story of Lut alaihis salam. If
you want to read about financial corruption, read
the story of Shoaib alaihis salam.
So all these prophets together,
they give us the whole picture
and Muhammad
came to teach about all these things
so we can
live a good life in this dunya and
make it to Jannah in the nest. So
once you look to the Quran
as shifa healing for sure. Allah did not
call it a Ilaaj medicine.
He calls it shifa healing because Ilaaj medicine,
maybe it has side effects.
Maybe it will not heal you. But Allah
says,
Now the problem is and I have to
tell you this story. It's a true story
that happened in Egypt a long time ago.
1 of the Imams,
he told that he had a relative in
Egypt and this relative had an ear infection.
So he went to the doctor and the
doctor told, he examined his ear and he
gave him some,
some pills and he says,
I want you to take this medication.
Take one pill every, 8 hours and I
want to see you in 3 days. However,
the patient came back the next morning
and he said, you know, when I took
the first pill, I was in pain. I
took the second one, I was in tears.
I took the third one. I couldn't sleep
the whole night and this is why I
came.
So the doctor said, subhanAllah, let me examine
your ear again. And he looked and he
found the 3 pills
stopped in his ear.
Oh, man.
So the problem here is that the medicine
is is the right medicine
that but the way of using it is
wrong.
So what we do, SubhanAllah,
you know, we decorate
the Quran with, you know, I am from
the Quran, like the one that was given
to me as a gift behind me here.
Yes, sir. Or subhanAllah,
we,
we recite the Quran when someone dies.
Or some people they do like instead of
sukhana they just open a random page.
You know, they look at a if if
the ayah is positive
Yeah. They do it. If the ayah talks
about jahannam or punishment, they they're on a
way, you know.
But this is not the reason why Allah
revealed the Quran. Allah revealed the Quran as
your guide.
So once you understand that these are the
words of Allah
and these words are meant for you and
these words have Shifa for all of your
problems
and these words will lead you to Jannah.
These words are the last words that came
from Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala. This,
the
the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the,
the, the, one of the Sahaba, when the
prophet
passed away, she was crying and Abu Bakr
Al Umar Radhaalahu, he said, are you crying
because the prophet
died? And she said, no.
Her name was Umuaiman.
And the prophet
called her his mother after his mother.
And she said, I'm not crying because the
prophet
passed away. We are told in the Quran
that he was going to die.
I'm crying
I'm crying
because of the door of revelations
that has been closed
forever.
No more revelations from Allah. This revelation that
started with Adam
with the death of Muhammad sallallahu alaihi wa
sallam, this door has been closed
forever, Khilas. And this is why she was
crying. There's she said there's no more Quran
coming down and this is why I'm crying.
SubhanAllah.
So once you have this personal connection with
the Quran, when Allah says do this or
don't do this,
you know that he's talking to you.
The problem is some of us when you're
either in the Quran,
do this, don't do this. You think, oh,
he's talking to my cousin. He's not talking
to me.
And this is what makes us different from
the Sahaba. When they read something in the
Quran, each and every one of them
understood that this ayah is talking to them
and this is why they acted upon these
ayah. So in a nutshell, your relationship with
the Quran should be reading it in Arabic
if you can or in translation if you
can't,
understanding it based on tafsir,
tadabur,
reflecting on the meanings of the ayaats,
acting upon it,
and teaching it to others if you can.
Insha'Allah.
I wanted to just ask with respect to
reflecting on the Quran. The concern that many
of us have especially,
if we aren't,
sort of, strong or able to access the
Arabic or understand the Arabic, we're not able
to access most of the books of tafsir.
We sort of feel concerned,
you know, coming up with our own thoughts,
our own takes on because it could be
incorrect. What if we're, you know, interpreting the
Quran in the incorrect way? Like, how do
we deal with these concerns that we have?
This is why we said, it's it's good
to, to make sure that you pick a
decent translation of the Quran
to make sure that the translator is qualified
and they are able to capture,
you know, the, the correct meaning of the
ad. Just one meaning, not all of them.
And also as I said, when you read
the tafasir
in Arabic or English, some of those tafasir
have been translated
like Saadi, like Ibn Kathir, and and some
others.
And, also, there is Al Razi al Fakhr
Razi al Tafsir Kabir,
Vaisheikh
Shoaib from Shoaib from the UK. So there
are some,
tafsir that have been translated into the English
language. But let me just tell you if
let's say if you read the Quran in
in translation, can you do tafsir?
Sorry. Taddabur.
By reading
and understanding
and being immersed in in the Tafsir,
SubhanAllah,
you you know that you are reading the
words of Allah Subhanahu Wa Ta'ala.
And if the meaning is correct
and if your mind is attentive because Allah
says at the end of Suratah,
if you want to get the benefit of
this Quran, if you want to be impacted
by the
Quran,
If you want to benefit from the
Quran, those who listen with an attentive heart
and attentive ear.
But if you just read,
like if you you read a newspaper,
you're not paying attention,
you're not reflecting on what you're reading, then
you're not going to get the benefit. But
just let me, give you one example of
tadpah just based on the English.
When you read the last ayah of surah
17, Isra,
Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala says,
Say Alhamdulillah
who has never had any children or who
has never taken a son because the word
can mean son or it can mean children
in the Arabic language.
This is the last ayah, ayah 111
of surah 17.
Now when you move to the first ayah
of surah 18,
the first ayah and second one,
it says what? Alhamdulillah,
right?
So the last ayah of Isra says, say
Alhamdulillah
Then the next ayah, the first ayah of
surah 18 it says, Alhamdulillah.
The last ayah of 17 says, the one
who has never taken a son.
The next ayah of Surakaf says,
and this Quran gives a warning to those
who say that Allah has a son.
So
the
ending of this Surah and the next one,
they're connected.
Now when you look at Surah,
Surah for example, Surah Waqah.
The last eye of Surah Waqah, Fasabi Bismill
Abi Kar Al Aweem.
Right? Say
This is the last eye of Waqah.
The next Surah, the first eye says
SubhanAllah.
Right?
And so the examples are so many even
sometimes the wording is the same.
When you read the last ayah of Surat
Sur Wa'idibaran
Nujum,
when the stars fade away, this is the
last ayah of Surat Surah
52.
The first ayah of 53 says,
when the stars fade away.
The last ayah of Surah Hajj,
Surah 22
it says, Make worship Allah.
The last eye or 2 of Surah Hajj.
The first eye of the next surah
Successful indeed are the believers or humble in
their salah.
Right? Not only that,
when you read in the Quran,
the beginning of the surah matching matches the
ending of the same surah.
I'll give you 1 or 2 examples so
we don't, you know, dwell on this, one.
So for example, this surah 23,
successful indeed are the believers. Right?
At the end of the surah,
the kuffar, the disbelievers will never succeed. Wow.
The beginning of Surah Taha,
we have not revealed the Quran to make
you miserable.
The ending of the Surah it says,
Those who turn their back on the Quran,
they will live a miserable life.
So isn't this something? And so when you
read the translation
and you reflect even in translation, you will
get some of the benefits of Tadabpur.
Right? By just reading the translation.
Because Allah is Kareem.
Yes. He will give you some a flavor
of Tadabpur in the English language, but of
course there is a wealth in the Arabic
language, right?
So I think this is, this is a
good place to start if you don't speak
the Arabic language, you read in a good
translation inshaAllah.
Masha'Allah.
That's heavy. That's very heavy, Sheikh.
You've
you've translated the Quran. That's the first step.
You've come up with the clear Quran dictionary,
the clear Quran for kids. Let's move on
to the clear Quran
for kids inshallah.
Yeah. You got your own copy? We got
it. We got it, Shay.
Yeah. I'm clear.
Love it.
I've had a look through the Quran, clear
Quran for kids, and, it's an amazing resource,
Yeah. Amazing resource, for kids, but adults as
well. Like, you know,
the the things in there are things that,
of course, you know, adults need to to
learn and and reflect upon.
How do you recommend that we use this?
You know, should it be used, in in
schools,
in Saturday schools? Should we use it at
home? Like, how do you recommend we use
it?
So this this, translation is done basically for
beginners
being
students between the ages of 7 to 14,
15
or new Muslims or any novice reader of
the Quran.
It's good to start with this translation.
People who study at home like homeschooling
and for Islamic schools as well because SubhanAllah,
it gives, you know, the, the background. It
gives you learning points, side stories, background stories,
and words of wisdom. And it, of course,
one of the good aspects of this, work,
Alhamdulillah,
this is all because of
the tawfiq Allah Subhanahu Wa Ta'ala. We could
not have done this on our own without
the help of Allah Subhanahu Wa Ta'ala.
Answering the difficult questions that our children ask
about Allah Subhanahu Wa Ta'ala. And some of
those questions
are atheistic in nature because
the kids are, you know, they,
they want to learn and and they don't
mean anything wrong. They just they are curious.
They are inquisitive. They want to, you know,
they want to learn.
Just like in the Quran in surah 2
when the angels said to Allah subhanahu wa
ta'ala, why would you put human beings
who will spread corruption on earth? They they
they were not questioning
Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala. They just wanted to
learn the wisdom.
And in the same way, Ibrahim alaihis salam,
he asked Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala,
How do you give life to the dead?
So our children when they ask those questions
like,
how do we know that Allah exists if
we can't see him? Or who created Allah?
Or why there's so much evil in the
world?
Or and so on and so forth.
Or if Allah is so merciful,
how come that some kids are born with
cancer and
how can people, you know, die from covid-nineteen
and they ask these questions. These are logical
rational questions
and instead of telling them, you know, shut
up. Don't ask these questions in my house.
You're not my kid anymore.
You have to provide them with answers. If
you don't know the answer, it doesn't mean
that the answer doesn't exist.
Allah says
Allah Subhanahu Wa Ta'ala never left anything out
of the Quran. So the answers are in
the Quran, the answers are in the Sira,
the Sunnah of the prophet salallahu alaihi wa
sallam. So we have to be able to,
you know, find answers to these questions.
And the good thing about this translation as
well,
when I was young,
I loved stories and I loved illustrations
because I'm a visual learner and this is
why when I studied at Allah Subhan when
I was a young student,
I used to illustrate
the lessons from Allah Subhan whether we're talking
about history
or
logic or whatever subject, poems, poetry, I used
to illustrate
the poem,
the listen so I can remember,
the the listen from this illustration.
Right?
And also
I believe, allahu 'alaam, that this is the
first translation
that has been edited by kids.
So I put together a big team. You
can read the names,
in the acknowledgments.
We had
50 or more than 50 kids.
Yeah. It's right here on the other side.
The acknowledgments.
Between the ages of 7 to 12,
they edited the translation. We read it together
and we made sure that everything is understandable.
Because if the translation is difficult they wouldn't
understand it. And as we speak,
we are working on part 2 of the
book.
So in in the first part we covered
Surahs. We did Fatihah, but we covered from
49
to 114,
the last,
67
Surahs of the Quran.
And currently InshaAllah, we're working on,
20 surahs from surah 29 to surah,
48.
Because and the reason I divided the Quran
in this way is because there is a
hadith from the prophet
in Muslady Muhammad
where he said that the Quran is made
up of 4 sections,
based on on length mostly. So he said,
the
long surahs are listed first
from Baqarah
to Surah end of Surah Tawba.
These are the long ones.
Then he said,
The Surahs are about a 100 ayaat, give
or take. And these start from Surah 10,
Surah Yunus all the way to Surah Qasas.
Then he said, Al Methani.
The Surahs there are less than 100
and these are from 29 to 48
then Al Mufasal,
the short ones from Qajurat to the end.
So this is how I divided the Quran.
So over the next 4 or 5 years
InshaAllah,
we should have been done with the rest
of the Quran in the same style.
Just another question with respect to that, just
in in terms of how we use, this
book,
you know, in our own homes or or
in the classrooms.
The reality is that many parents or or
even even, you know, our Saturday school teachers,
they might not feel confident,
teaching this. I feel that one of the
challenges that the Muslim community faces
is that, you know, our general,
you know, Saturday school teachers, they're not like
scholars of the Quran. They're not confident to
come up and, you know, teach tafsir to
the to to the children.
How can they take use of this resource?
So instead of just
memorizing the ayat
in Arabic,
and and sometimes from what I have seen,
some of the schools they use, like,
you know, old translation of the Quran like
verily,
beneficent.
You know, these are powerful translations but are
not but not for kids.
Kids don't know what beneficent is. They don't
know what
omnipresent and omniscient
and verily. They don't know this stuff.
So basically,
you know, you you need to make sure
that they understand the Ayat.
We need to make sure that they understand
why these Ayat were revealed.
And what I did in the translation, I
used lots of stories
like from different parts of the world. So
we have
a story from Japan, a story from Turkey,
from Egypt, from America, from Canada,
from Somalia, from different countries because Islam is
universal and this is for everyone.
So kids need to be able to relate
to the Ayat.
Right? So you can't explain
an Ayah based on something from Muhammad Ali
the boxer.
Something based on something that Allahama Iqbal said.
Something based on I don't know. So basically
when you explain the ayah based on real,
true stories that happened in Islamic history or
in modern times
with illustrations.
I think this will help kids visualize
and internalize
the ayah of the Quran. It will make
it easy for them
to live their lives according to the Quran.
So in one ayah when Allah Subhanahu Wa
Ta'ala talks about the natural world, I spoke
about the the, different species that we have
in this world and it is sad that
50% of the species that we have today
will go extinct in about a 100 years.
I spoke about the use of plastic
and so on and so forth.
When we spoke about Qadr in part 2
of the book, we spoke about Qadr Ullah
and some people have great expectations.
When we spoke about the last eye of
Surah Luqman, Surah 31 Ayah 34,
we spoke about nobody knows when they are
going to die,
except
it's one of the things that nobody knows
except Allah. He knows what is in the
wombs. He knows what you will earn for
tomorrow and so on and so forth. And
we spoke about, you know, Khadar,
Ajaal,
the lifespan that Allah has written for you
and the hadith of the prophet in Bukhari
where he drew a square in the sand
and there is this line going all the
way out and this is
your this is your hope in life.
And I give the story of Kobe Bryant.
He died in, you know, early 2020
and and I told him the reason why
many people were shocked is because Kobe Bryant
was young. He was healthy. He was rich.
He was famous,
but he had
great hopes in life, things to achieve over
the next 50 years.
But he died young and this could happen
to any one of us.
And the problem is we feel sorry for
Kobe Bryant. Yes, we feel sorry for him,
of course,
but we don't feel sorry for so many
people who die worldwide because they're not as
famous, you know.
So I give stories and examples to, you
know, to, to make this aayah
relevant to their lives, you know. So I
think
tying an aayah to a story
or to an illustration,
it will make them, you know, leave the
aayah and be attached to this aya and
and to understand it rather than just memorizing
it and thank you.
So I gave
I gave some tools,
to the teachers to help them
empower them
to teach the kids and give them some
meanings and insights
that they can use when they teach the
children.
SubhanAllah. That's actually very brilliant. I guess as
a methodology to teach our new generations. To
let them know that the Quran is in
a book.
As the enemies of Islam used to say
ancient tales, but rather it's a book which
is relevant
to this very day, to the modern times.
Yes. As you eloquently presented
I think that's very important
for all of us, those that are involved
in teaching the Quran, to implement
so that the children and our new generations
can have a greater connection with the Quran.
Sheikh, we're approaching almost the end of the
the podcast.
But before we do finish the podcast,
I wanted to ask you a personal question.
Sure. As you mentioned,
Kobe Bryant,
he passed away. All of us will have
to pass away one day. And Yes. A
great
honor would be to pass away
and be resurrected amongst Ahlul Quran.
The
the Yes. People of the Quran,
the people of Allah, and His special chosen
people. And I ask Allah to make you
of these people and all of us Insha'Allah
be it. Amin, Amin.
On saying that,
when you do pass away,
what is the legacy you want to leave
behind with the Quran
if Allah gives you life?
So
it's a great honor to serve the Quran.
So,
I think my motivation, the motivation
behind translating the Quran and the legacy that
I want to leave behind
knowing that this life is short and we
would love to leave a legacy.
I think my biggest motivation is when I
stand before Allah Subhanahu Wa Ta'ala
on judgment day and he will ask me,
Mustafa,
what have you done for Islam?
And I tell him, I tell him Allah,
I've done my best
over so many years to make the Quran
accessible to Muslims and non Muslims,
to the old
and the young
and
I try to spread your message, I try
to
make people fall in love with the Quran
and bring people closer to the book of
Allah Subhanahu Wa Ta'ala
and
I've done my
best.
Even if I have fallen short, I trust
that Allah Subhanahu Wa Ta'ala will forget the
bad and He will accept the good
knowing that I was sincere in this in
this effort.
Ameen Ameen. May Allah make us of those
who are sincere in our efforts and resurrect
us amongst the people of the Quran.
Ameen Ameen.
It's it's been an absolute privilege and honor
to have you join us here today.
And brother Muqless as well.
For those that are willing to purchase the
Clear Quran, they can head over to Project
Quran for those that are in Australia. But
of course, around the world, I'm sure Yes.
Go to our website, the clearqurandot
org. Theclearqurand.org.
You can purchase the the clear Quran for
kids, the clear Quran dictionary.
I myself have got a copy, and I'm
sure I'll be using them
for my children, and and that would be
a means of sadaqa jariyah for yourself, Sheikh
insha Allah.
Once again, for our followers and our viewers,
don't forget to like, subscribe, hit the bell
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and insha Allah, we look forward to seeing
you again.