Mustafa Khattab – Tadabbur The Art Of Reflecting On The Quran
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So, his relative had an ear infection.
He went to the doctor.
So, the doctor examined his ear, and he
told him, you have an ear infection, and
he told him, these tablets, take a tablet
every eight hours, and I want to see
you after three days.
Okay, as they say in Somali, no problem.
So, however, the patient came first thing in
the morning.
Not after three days, he came first thing
in the morning.
So, the doctor said, khair, what happened?
So, he said, well, I took the first
tablet, I was in pain.
I took the second one, I couldn't sleep
the whole night.
I took the third one, I was in
tears.
So, the doctor said, khair, inshallah, let me
re-examine your ear, and sure enough, he
looked inside his ear, and he found the
three tablets stuffed inside.
مشكلة وين, big problem.
So, the doctor gave him the right medicine,
but he was using it the right way.
So, whenever I tell the story, people start
laughing, but the problem is sometimes, subhanallah, we
do the same thing with the Qur'an.
It's shifa, as Allah says in the Qur
'an, but sometimes we use it the wrong
way.
But let me first make the distinction between
shifa and ilaj, shaykhna.
Ilaj is medicine, shifa is healing for sure.
Which one did Allah use to describe the
Qur'an?
Ilaj or shifa?
Shifa, because it's healing for sure.
Ilaj, medicine, if you take it, maybe it
will work for you, maybe it will not
work for you.
Maybe it's good, let's say someone has a
fever, so he goes to the doctor, he
gives him ilaj, medicine.
So if you read the, usually the medicine
comes with a flyer, you read the flyer,
my nasihah to you, my advice, don't read
the flyer that comes with the medicine, because
you'll be depressed.
So it tells you, these are the symptoms,
if you take the medicine, it's gonna treat
this little problem that you have, but you
have five pages of side effects.
Starting with drowsiness, all the way to kidney
failure, heart attacks, blood pressure, like what is
this man, I just had a headache, it's
gonna kill me.
So Allah calls it shifa, healing for sure,
not ilaj, medicine.
And the Qur'an is ilaj, it's shifa
for personal problems, family problems, society problems, everything
is there in the Qur'an.
And it also solves the political problems that
we have in society, social, economic, everything.
So I remember one time, I used to
visit a lot of Islamic schools in Canada,
Toronto area, and the kids there in the
school, they asked so many fantastic questions.
Some questions are crazy, like imam, imam, what
color is the black stone?
la hawla wa la quwwata illa billahi wa
sallim wa al-jinni biyidu wala biyawlid?
al-jinni, do they give birth or lay
eggs?
habibi, who cares?
I don't know.
I don't know, man, I don't know.
Another question was, when we live on the
moon or Mars, which way is the qibla?
This is why, brothers and sisters, I decided
to retire as an imam.
khalas, I don't work as an imam anymore.
No more talaq, no more counseling, khalas, finished
for me.
But some of the questions are very good.
Like one kid once asked me, there's a
hadith from a Nabi Sallallahu Alaihi Wasallam in
Musnad Imam Ahmed, other collections, where he says
that throughout history, from Adam to Muhammad Sallallahu
Alaihi Wasallam, Allah Subhanahu Wa Ta'ala sent
a total of 124,000 prophets.
These were the prophets, like Harun and other
prophets.
The ones who came with messages, the number
is smaller, right?
So not every prophet received a book from
Allah.
The number of the prophets who received messages,
revelations, like Qur'an, Zabur, Tawrah, the number
was much smaller.
So he said, why are not all of
them mentioned in the Qur'an?
So I told him, if Allah were to
mention the 124,000 in the Qur'an,
we only have 25 of them mentioned by
name, their stories, sometimes in great detail, sometimes
briefly.
But if the Qur'an were to mention
the 124,000 prophets, it's going to turn
into another encyclopedia Britannica, right?
But the Qur'an is a kitab l
'i'tabar, it's not a history book.
However, Allah Subhanahu Wa Ta'ala sampled those
prophets.
So when it comes to political problems, read
the story of Firaun and Musa Alayhi Salaam.
Social problems, family issues, read the story of
Yusuf Alayhi Salaam.
Financial problems, read the story of Shu'ayb
Alayhi Salaam with his people.
So among themselves, these anbiya, they covered everything
that we need in our lives.
And Muhammad Sallallahu Alaihi Wasallam in his seerah,
in his life, he covered everything that we
need to know about this life, the next
life, social, economic, political, everything is there.
So the Qur'an provides solutions for everything.
However, if you look at the conditions of
the ummah, there are so many issues and
problems.
Why?
Because people turn their backs on the Qur
'an.
Let me give you a couple of examples
to illustrate.
So I'm not going to pick on Indians
and Pakistanis tonight.
I'll be picking on Egyptians because I'm from
Egypt, right?
So if you go to my village in
Egypt, basically, if you go to someone's house
and they play the Qur'an, the first
question people will ask, مين مات?
Who died?
So to a certain degree, people have associated
the Qur'an with death.
They only play it if someone dies.
The book of the dead.
But Allah says in the Qur'an, لِيُنذِرَ
مَنْ كَانَ حَيًّا This Qur'an is a
reminder to those who are truly alive.
Another way people use it back there, because
car insurance is not farz in Egypt.
Here you can't drive if you don't have
a car insurance.
But back there, if you don't have car
insurance, it's not a big deal.
So what they do, they put a copy
of the Qur'an in the front of
the car or in the back for protection.
Again, if theft and accidents and so on
and so forth.
Some people, they just frame ayat of the
Qur'an and they put them on their
wall in the living room to make it
look nice.
Some others, and I'm guilty of this, when
I was young, في الجاهلية الأولى So what
we used to do, we didn't know istikhara
back then.
They would open the Qur'an randomly, a
random page, and they take a look at
the first ayah they see, and they act
based on that ayah.
So let's say for example, someone wants to
marry Zaynab.
So they open a random page, first ayah.
Oh, I see this ayah here.
If it's positive, if it talks about jannah,
نعيم, good things, خلاص, Zaynab is approved.
But if you open a random page, جهنم,
barbecue, like, suffering.
No, Zaynab is ابتال.
I'm gonna go for Fatima, right?
People do this, and I did it when
I was young.
Subhanallah.
The weirdest thing, the weirdest use of the
Qur'an that I've ever heard in my
life, I was in Alberta, Canada, and one
time, this guy came to me and he
said, he got an advice from a friend
of his, because his own grandfather had been
sick for a number of years in and
out of the hospital.
He was suffering, basically.
Allah shower him with mercy.
So his friend told him, I know your
grandpa has been suffering for a long time.
If you want to end his suffering, just
read surah Zalzalah on him.
It's going to finish him off.
As soon as you read it, janazah, you
will be in jannah, خلاص.
I said, I've never heard this like, عجيب,
هذا كذب محد.
له قرنان.
I've never heard anything like this in my
life.
So استجيبوا الله والرسول إذا دعاكم لما يحييكم.
The Qur'an gives life, it doesn't cause
death, and so on and so forth.
So this is how many people use the
Qur'an, just for decoration, it looks nice,
mashallah, this and that.
No.
Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala revealed the Qur
'an for a reason.
The basic level of your connection with the
Qur'an before we talk about tadabbur is
to read the Qur'an.
Read the Qur'an.
I know the majority of us, the majority
of Muslims, 85% they don't know or
understand the Arabic language.
May Allah reward you for your struggle.
You'll get double the rewards that I personally
as an Arab would receive because of your
effort.
The next level is hifz, memorization.
And we have this notion in some cultures
that your relationship with the Qur'an will
end as soon as you become hafiz al
-Qur'an.
Where did this come from?
Your relationship does not end with hifz, it
begins with hifz.
This is the basic level.
The next level after hifz is to understand
the Qur'an, understand the meaning of the
Qur'an.
And subhanAllah, most of the deviant groups in
the history of Islam have capitalized on people's
misunderstanding of the Qur'an to prove their
own existence.
For example, there was an Egyptian guy who
became very popular in the 1980s in the
US, Towson, Arizona.
His name is Rashad Khalifa.
Number 19 in the Qur'an and this.
And he became very famous.
And at some point he claimed to be
a prophet.
نبي من مصر.
You know, mashaAllah.
مصر طلعت فرعون وطلعت الأمر.
What is this, man?
They asked him, what is your proof that
you are a prophet?
He says, my proof is in the Qur
'an.
Okay, فين الدليل?
He says, Allah says in the Qur'an,
وَإِذْ قَالَ رُبُّكَ الْمَلَئِكَةِ إِنِّ جَعَلُوا فِي الْأَرْضِ
خَلِيفًا My last name is Khalifa, so it's
talking about me.
What is this, man?
So the ayah in surah Baqarah, ayah 30,
where Allah talks about putting a Khalifa on
earth, an authority.
So he said, this Khalifa, the word Khalifa
refers to my last name.
And some people actually fell for it.
Tens of thousands of people followed him.
So he abused their misunderstanding and they followed
him.
Subhanallah.
So understanding the meaning of the Qur'an,
this is a higher level.
The next level is to live your life
according to the meanings of the Qur'an.
What is unique about the sahabah of the
Prophet ﷺ is that when they listen to
the Qur'an, they felt it was talking
to them personally.
يعني مثلاً if Allah says, do this, don't
do this, they took it personally.
He is talking to me.
Abdullah ibn Rawaha had this impressive story.
It says that one day he was sitting
with his wife and all of a sudden
he started to cry.
So she saw him crying, she cried too,
in support.
So if this happens today, you are sitting
with your wife, you start to cry.
Oh Allah, we need to take you to
the doctor.
There is a problem with you.
So she cried too, and she asked him,
why did you cry?
He said, I remember this ayah from the
Qur'an where Allah says, وَإِن مِنكُمْ إِلَّا
وَارِدُهَا Each one of you will pass over
Jahannam.
So I started to think about this, and
I realized that me too, because Allah says,
everyone will pass over Jahannam, the believers will
make it to the other side, the kuffar,
the munafiqun will fall down.
He said, I was not sure if I
will make it to the other side or
fall down.
And that's why I got scared, I started
to cry.
He took it personally.
But for many of us, subhanAllah, when they
hear the ayat in the Qur'an, do
this, don't do this, he's not talking to
me, he's talking to my cousin, he's talking
to my neighbor, not me, I'm a good
guy.
No, he's talking to you, this is for
you.
The next level is to make the Qur
'an the judge in your life.
So Allah is the judge.
He rules for you.
This is right, this is wrong, and so
on and so forth.
So let me focus a little bit on
tadabbur al-Qur'an.
Tadabbur al-Qur'an, which means deep reflection
on the meanings of the Qur'an.
Because those who listen to the Qur'an,
sometimes they read it superficially or listen to
it passingly and they're playing with their phone
or it's playing in their car, they're not
even listening.
This is not tadabbur, you're just killing the
time.
But you need to read and think and
reflect.
Tadabbur in the Arabic language comes from dabara,
which means bottom or back.
Dabur al-salah, like in the back or
the bottom of.
Which technically means to understand the book just
like you know the back of your hand
and to get to the bottom of the
Qur'an.
This is the meaning.
Back and bottom, the back of your hand
and the bottom of something.
You get to the bottom of something.
And this does not happen like this, it
takes time reading, reflecting, understanding the meaning.
Let me give you some fruits of tadabbur
from the Qur'an.
Because so many ulama have written about tadabbur
and deep reflection.
And your mind will be blown when you
listen to these facts.
Because it will make you appreciate the Qur
'an even more.
And it will make you realize that this
Qur'an cannot be from Muhammad SAW, it
has to be from a higher authority.
A few examples to illustrate.
For example, we know that the Qur'an
is not arranged now chronologically in the order
of revelation because surah Iqra is not number
one.
It's close to the end.
So Rasulullah arranged it based on instruction from
ilham wahi from Jibreel AS, based on orders
from Allah SWT.
So we read surah Fatiha.
At the end of the surah, إِهْدِنَا الصِّرَاطَ
الْمُسْتَقِيمِ صِرَاطَ الَّذِينَ أَنْعَمْتَ عَلَيْهِمْ غَيْرِ الْمَغْضُوبِ
عَلَيْهِمْ وَلَا الضَّالِينِ It talks about three types
of people.
This is at the end of surah Fatiha.
You go to the next surah, surah Baqarah,
the beginning talks about three people.
So three types of people here, three types
of people at the beginning of Baqarah.
المُتَّقُونِ الْكَافِرُونِ الْمُنَافِقُونِ Surah Fatiha ends with dua.
Surah Baqarah ends with dua.
Surah Al-Imran ends with dua.
Okay, what is happening here?
The ending of one surah leads to the
beginning of the next surah.
يَعْنِ مَثْنًا Surah Isra, surah 17.
Last ayah, 111.
وَقُولِ الْحَمْدُ لِلَّهِ الَّذِي لَمْ يَتَّخِذُ وَلَدًا Say,
Alhamdulillah, who does not have children.
This is the last ayah of surah 17.
You go to the next surah, next chapter.
What is the first words of surah Kaaf
we read every Jummah?
Alhamdulillah.
Well, it says here, say Alhamdulillah.
Alhamdulillah.
لَمْ يَتَّخِذُ وَلَدًا He does not have children.
The ayah after it says, وَيُنذِرَ الَّذِينَ قَالُوا
اتَّخَذَ اللَّهُ وَلَدُهُ To give a warning to
those who say that Allah have children.
It's the same, connected.
So this surah is connected with the next
one.
Surah 22.
Surah Hajj.
The last two ayah talk about Salah.
اِرْكَعُوا وَاسْرُدُوا وَاعْبُدُوا رَبَّكُمْ The next surah, surah
Mu'minun, surah 23 begins with قَدْ أَفْلَحَ الْمُؤْمِنُونَ
الَّذِينَ هُمْ فِي صَلَاتِهِمْ خَاشُونَ It talks about
Salah.
Those who pray with Khushu will be successful.
Connected.
Not only that, the beginning of the same
surah is connected with the ending of the
same surah.
Surah Mu'minun.
قَدْ أَفْلَحَ الْمُؤْمِنُونَ At the beginning of the
surah, the believers will be successful.
At the end of the surah, اِنَّهُ لَا
يُفْلِحُ الْكَافِرُونَ Indeed, the kafirun will never succeed.
It's connected with the beginning of the surah.
Subhanallah, even when you go to surah Tawr,
the last ayah of the surah, وَإِدِبَارَ الْنُجُومِ
When the stars fade away, this is the
last ayah of surah Tawr.
Surah Najm is the next one.
When the stars fade away, وَالنَّجْمِ إِذَا هَوْ
The same meaning, the same wording, and so
on and so forth.
Now another point of reflection, تَدَبُّرُ in the
Qur'an, something they call the ring structure.
You probably heard that word before, which means
if you were to fold a surah, a
chapter of the Qur'an right in the
middle, or an ayah right in the middle,
the first half will match the second half
perfectly.
So remember Rasulullah received the Qur'an in
an oral tradition.
He didn't read or write.
The way it was revealed, he memorized.
Surah Yusuf, for example, has 14 different topics.
Surah Yusuf, 14 different topics.
If you fold the story right in the
middle where the king had the dream, the
first half will match the second half perfectly.
For example, first few ayahs of Surah Yusuf,
the introduction, it talks about the Qur'an.
إِنَّ أَزَلْنَاهُ قُرْآنًا عَرَبِيًّا لَعَلَّكُمْ تَعْقِلُونَ It talks
about the Qur'an.
This is topic number one from the beginning.
Topic number 14, the last one, talks about
the Qur'an.
مَا كَانَ حَدِيثًا يُفْتَرَى وَلَكِن تَعْقِلُونَ Qur'an,
first topic, Qur'an, last topic.
Second topic from the beginning, Yusuf a.s.
sees the dream.
Second topic from the back, topic number 15,
13, the dream came true.
Number three from the beginning, the brothers make
a conspiracy to kill Yusuf or to throw
him away.
Topic number three from the back, they apologize,
we made a mistake.
Topic number four from the beginning, the wife
of Al-Aziz was busting all the moves
trying to seduce Yusuf a.s. Four from
the back, she said he is innocent, he
didn't do nothing.
Five from the beginning, the women were making
all the plots against Yusuf a.s. Five
from the back, they said he is innocent,
he is a good man.
He goes to jail, he is out of
jail, the king had a dream, the king's
dream is interpreted.
Subhanallah, the first half matches the second half
perfectly.
You will do this exercise when you go
home tonight.
See Ayah Qursi from Surah Baqarah and the
ayah that says, شَهْرُ رَمَضَانَ الَّذِي أُنزِلَ فِيهِ
الْقُرْآنِ Each of them has about seven sentences.
The first one matches the last one.
The second sentence matches the second last.
The third, the third from the last and
so on and so forth.
So Rasulullah a.s. could have never done
something like this.
This is amazing.
This has to be from Allah subhanahu wa
ta'ala.
Another level of tadabbur, the numbers in the
Qur'an.
I'm not gonna talk about how many times
the shayateen and the mala'ika are mentioned.
The same number of times.
Jannah, Jahannam and so on and so forth.
Something else.
We know the story, the four stories in
Surah Kahf we read every Jummah.
So the first story, the youth in the
cave.
So the first story, the youth in the
cave.
Allah begins the story, لِنَعْلَمَ أَيُّ الْحِزْبَيْنِ أَحْصَى
لِمَا لَبِثُوا أَمَدًا How long they stayed in
the cave and so on and so forth.
And at the end, Allah subhanahu wa ta
'ala gives us the number of years they
stayed in the cave.
وَلَبِثُوا فِي كَهْفِهِمْ تَلَاثَ مِئَةٍ سِنِينًا أُزْدَادُوا تِسْعًا
So at the beginning of the story of
the youth in the cave, Allah subhanahu wa
ta'ala poses a question.
We did this to show how many of
them will know the exact estimation of how
long they stayed.
لَبِثُوا لِنَعْلَمَ أَيُّ الْحِزْبَيْنِ أَحْصَى لِمَا لَبِثُوا So
the word لَبِثُوا is used at the beginning
of the story of the youth in the
cave.
It means they stayed, they remained.
At the end of the story when Allah
gave the number of years they stayed, He
said, وَلَبِثُوا فِي كَهْفِهِمْ They stayed.
So you see لَبِثُوا stayed at the beginning
of the story.
لَبِثُوا stayed at the end of the story.
If you were to count the Arabic words
between لَبِثُوا stayed at the beginning, لَبِثُوا stayed
at the end.
If you were to count the Arabic words,
by words I mean verbs, nouns, and particles,
how many do you think they are?
309 words.
309 words.
Is this a coincidence?
I don't think so.
Another example.
The story of Nuh عليه السلام is mentioned
in the Qur'an in many places.
Surah Shu'ara and so many different places.
وَالْأَعْرَافِ وَهُودِ Different places in the Qur'an.
Surah, the story of Nuh عليه السلام is
mentioned.
However, Surah Nuh in Tabarak is the only
surah that gives you his da'wah techniques.
What he did when he was giving da
'wah to his people.
سُمَيْنِي دَعْوَتُهُمْ جِهَارًا ثُمَيْنِي أَعْلَنْتُ لَهُمْ وَإِسْرَرْتُ لَهُمْ
إِسْرَارًا فَقُلْتُ اسْتَغْفِرُوا رَبَّكُمْ He created this and
he invited them publicly, secretly, individually, collectively, his
da'wah techniques.
How many years did he stay in da
'wah?
950 years.
If you were to count the number of
letters, Arabic letters in Surah Nuh, the only
surah that focuses on his da'wah techniques,
how many Arabic letters in that surah from
the beginning to the end?
950 Arabic letters from the beginning to the
end.
Where did this come from?
So Rasulullah ﷺ could never do anything like
this.
It was inspired to him by Allah ﷻ.
Another level which came as a shock to
me because I found this out recently, a
few years back, there was a professor from
Egypt, Abd al-Ra'uf Abu Sa'dah, رحمه
الله.
Back in 1992, he came up with this
theory because he studied Arabic, he studied Hebrew,
Aramaic, ancient Egyptian.
So the guy was very knowledgeable, masha'Allah.
So his theory was, he released a book
in Arabic and in English about the non
-Arabic names in the Qur'an.
For example, the name Ibrahim, originally it didn't
come from Arabic, Abraham, it came from Hebrew
or Syriac or Aramaic.
It's not originally an Arabic name.
Ismail is not originally an Arabic name, it's
a Hebrew name.
A name like Musa, Musa is an ancient
Egyptian name.
Fir'aun, an ancient Egyptian name, and so
on and so forth.
He said, every time Allah ﷻ mentions a
non-Arabic name in the Qur'an, there
are 61 of them in total, 61 non
-Arabic names in the Qur'an, when Allah
ﷻ mentions those non-Arabic names in the
Qur'an, He gives you the meaning in
the same ayah from those original languages even
if the language was dead at the time
of revelation.
Let me give you a few examples.
When the wife of Fir'aun, when they
found Musa ﷺ in the basket, he didn't
come with a name tag that said Musa.
That was not his name.
He didn't come with a name, you know.
No name.
What did they call him?
They called him Musa.
It's an ancient Egyptian word which meant little
boy.
No name.
Little boy, just a little boy or kid.
Musa in ancient Egyptian.
The ancient Egyptian language was there 2,000
years before Rasulullah ﷺ was even born and
before the Qur'an was revealed.
So Musa, when you read in the Qur
'an, when Fir'aun talks to Musa ﷺ,
he says, قَالَ أَوَلَمْ نُرَبِّكَ فِينَا وَالِيدَ Didn't
we raise you, Musa among us, as a
little boy?
Musa, little boy?
So the word is used in there.
Another example.
In Surah Hud, وَامْرَأَتُهُ قَائِمَةٌ فَضَحِكَتْ فَبَشَّرْنَاهَا بِإِسْحَاقَ
وَمِنْ وَرَاهِ إِسْحَاقَ يَعْقُوبُ So we see two
names.
Ishaq and Yaqub are mentioned in the same
ayah and both meanings, both names are defined
in the same ayah.
Both names come from Hebrew.
So the word Ishaq, his wife Sarah, the
wife of Ibrahim ﷺ, was standing there.
She smiled.
So we gave her the good news of
the birth of a son by the name
of Ishaq.
What does Ishaq have to do with her
smiling?
Because Ishaq in Hebrew means the smiling one.
So Ishaq, like the Haq in the Arabic
language, the smiling one.
Not only that, the meaning of Yaqub is
also mentioned in the ayah, وَمِنْ وَرَاهِ إِسْحَاقَ
يَعْقُوبُ Yaqub means the ones that comes after.
So the ayah says, and after Ishaq, there
will come Yaqub.
So both names are defined.
Another example, from ancient Egyptian.
The word Fir'aun, Pharaoh, is a title.
In ancient Egyptian, Fir'aun means the big
tower, the tall tower, or the big house.
This is the meaning of Fir'aun, tall
house, big tower.
وَقَالَ فِرْعَوْنُ يَا هَمَانُ بْنِلِي صَرْحًا So Fir
'aun said to Haman, his chief architect, build
me a big tower.
Fir'aun, big tower.
The word is defined in the ayah.
What does Zakariya mean?
Zakariya means the one who remembers Allah in
Hebrew.
زِكْرُ رَحْمَةِ رَبِّكَ عَبْدَهُ زَكَرِيَّ Zikr Zakariya.
What does Ismail mean in Hebrew?
Ismail means Allah answers the dua.
This is the meaning of the word Ismail.
Eel in Arabic.
حَتَّى مَعْنَاهُ إِلَىٰهُ الْإِلَٰهُ Ismail means Allah answers
the dua, listens and answers the dua.
الحَمْدُ لِلَّهِ الَّذِي وَهَبَلِي عَلَى الْكِبَرِ Ismaila وَإِسْحَاقَ
إِنَّ رَبِّي لَسَمِيعُ الدُّعَاءِ Alhamdulillah who blessed me
with Ismail and Ishaq.
Indeed Allah hears and responds to all dua.
What is the meaning of Maryam?
Maryam in Hebrew also means the one who
submits and humbles herself in worship to Allah.
يَا مَرْيَا مُقْنُوتِي لِرَبِّكِ وَاسْجُودِي وَارْكَعِي مَعَ الرَّكْعِ
The same meaning is given in the ayah.
And this is true for each one of
the 61 names that are mentioned in the
Qur'an.
Now some of you will say well I
don't speak the Arabic language.
Like the majority of Muslims, 85% of
Muslims, they don't speak or understand the Qur
'an In Arabic, how can I do Tadabbur?
Well, as I said at the beginning, Allah
will give you the reward for doing your
effort.
You get the reward for doing your best.
Let's say you have a back problem.
You cannot stand up in Salah.
You sit down.
This is the best you can do.
You will get the full reward just like
the person who is standing next to you
in Salah because this is your best.
And so on and so forth.
Allah will give you the reward for doing
your effort, for doing your best.
So if you are not able to read
or understand the Qur'an in the Arabic
language, try to study Arabic if you can.
Because the Qur'an in Arabic is like
nothing else.
English is very miskeen.
Like when I was translating the Qur'an,
Brother Hisham here, stand up.
Stand up.
Brother Hisham used to live in Canada with
me.
And he is one of the three chief
editors of the clear Qur'an.
Turn around.
Let them see your beautiful face.
JazakAllah khair.
Now he lives here locally, alhamdulillah.
So we used to think a lot about
the ayat, the meanings of the Qur'an
in the Arabic.
So powerful, so beautiful.
And the English is so miskeen, so limited.
What is this man?
So is there a perfect translation of the
Qur'an?
No, there is no such thing as a
perfect translation of the Qur'an.
The only perfect thing is the Arabic.
English is miskeen, limited, French, Urdu, Turkish.
They are very limited.
Just one or two examples to illustrate.
The Arabic language has 25 times the number
of words in the English language.
25 times the number of words in the
English language.
There are words in the Qur'an in
Arabic, you cannot translate because they have no
equivalence.
Like these words we don't have even in
the English language.
So you can read the tafsir in your
language, read the tadabbur of ulama like Zamakhshari
and Al-Kashaf.
There is a website called Qur'an Reflect,
they show you tadabbur, you can read the
tadabbur by imams and scholars and so on
and so forth.
So I have dedicated my life in the
last 11-12 years to the service of
the Qur'an.
As I said, eventually I retired as an
imam, so I can focus entirely on the
clear Qur'an.
The first translation of the Qur'an that
I did was back in 2002 to 2005
from the haramain in Mecca and Medina.
We're trying to make the Qur'an easy
and accessible in an international language like English.
So we would sit in the studios from
the haram in Mecca and Medina behind Shuraim
and Sudeith and Hudhaifi and translate the Qur
'an, the subtitles.
You still see those lines, the subtitles, when
they broadcast the taraweeh in Ramadan.
So this was the second one.
I was in Toronto, 2013, I was visiting
as an imam and I had this, mashallah,
nice robe from Pakistan with a turban like
a prince, mashallah, from Hollywood or Bollywood.
And I was going to give Jummah khutbah,
so the cab driver that day was not
Muslim.
And he said something out of the blue.
I was sitting in the back and he
said, you know, Muslims are good people, but
Islam is not good.
I said, dude, why?
Why are you saying this?
He said, because Islam calls me an animal.
The Qur'an calls me an animal.
I said, I'm Hafidh al-Qur'an, it
doesn't say this anywhere.
And he cited 8.55, surah Anfal, inna
sharra al-dawab bi'inda Allahi allatheena kafro.
And I explained to him that da'ab
does not only mean this, but it means
human beings, anything that walks on earth, as
Allah says in surah An-Nur, ayah 45,
wallahu khalaqa kulla dabbatin min ma'famin wa
man yamsha'a ala batni wa man yamsha
'a ala jlayn.
It's a very general term.
He says, no, I'm an animal according to
the Qur'an.
I said to him, understand you cow, you're
not an animal.
So most of the translations say either animal
or beast.
So this is when I decided to do
the clear Qur'an, just to stick to
the true meaning of the ayah, because other
translations are either confusing or they are used
by missionaries to attack Islam because there are
certain mistakes.
Are there any good translations out there other
than the clear Qur'an?
Of course.
The clear Qur'an does not have a
monopoly on the truth.
So Muhammad Abdel Halim from Oxford is an
excellent translation.
Ahmed Zaki Hamad from Al-Azhar, it's an
excellent translation.
But this one is more user-friendly, the
titles, the background stories and so on and
so forth.
But there are good translations out there.
But some others, subhanAllah, they were not qualified
to translate in the first place.
The sad reality, subhanAllah, khalas, we're almost done,
like 10 more minutes?
Yes.
The sad reality, Muslims are the only faith
community on the planet who will accept a
translation of their holy book by someone who
is not qualified and someone who is not
even from the faith.
If you apply this to Jews and Christians
or anyone else, like let's say you go
to a synagogue or a church and tell
them, hey, my name is Mustafa or Mufasa
or anything.
I'm not from your faith and I didn't
study your book.
I know nothing about translation but I have
produced the best translation of the Bible.
They will kick me out.
But Muslims do it differently.
Someone like an accountant.
No translation training, no training in Islamic studies,
uloom al-Quran, nasikh mansuh, nothing.
Someone who is not even from the faith
like NJ Dawood.
This guy hated Rasulullah so much and he
translated the Quran and it's celebrated as one
of the best translations even though it's full
of mistakes and problems.
Another beautiful saying from our brothers and sisters
in India, Pakistan.
How many of you speak Urdu?
Raise your hand.
MashaAllah, we have a big number here.
We say in Urdu, Half a doctor is
dangerous to your life and half a scholar
is dangerous to your faith, your iman.
So just like when you get sick, you
go to the best doctor.
If you want to learn about the faith,
you go to the best scholar.
Not just the guy of the streets.
You have to get someone who is reliable,
someone who is qualified.
So this is why we did the clear
Quran.
We tried to make it clear and easy
and accessible.
We worked a lot on the flow of
the translation.
So for example, We tried to reflect the
rhythm of the ayat in the Arabic even
though it's less than 1% of the
beauty of the Arabic.
So we said in the English, the sun
and the moon travel with precision.
The stars and the trees bow down in
submission.
As for the sky, he raised it high
and set the balance of justice.
So you will see a lot of rhymes.
And recently, subhanAllah, in Ramadan, we released the
clear Quran audiobook app.
So download the app tonight.
It's a little commercial here but that's okay.
The clear Quran audiobook app.
So we started back in 2018 when I
started working on the project.
I reached out to Morgan Freeman to narrate
the translation.
He agreed.
We sent him a copy.
Then someone took him to court for a
different issue.
We're not going to talk about the details.
So we dropped him and we got an
all-Muslim team.
Brother Mark Strong is a popular Muslim in
Toronto, a recent arriver to Islam.
Very soothing, beautiful voice.
Then we got Sheikh Yasser Qadi, Omar Suleiman,
Yasmin Mujahid, different imams to narrate the translation.
We have like 15 different voices.
It's not just like one regular monotone boring
guy narrating the translation.
No, we have the main narrator.
But if there is a voice in the
translation, like Pharaoh or Iblis or someone, we
have a character that voiced this section.
So we reserved the evil character.
We reserved the evil character like Iblis and
Pharaoh for a British guy.
I don't know why we did that, but
it was very befitting.
But we balanced this out when we got
a British sister to do the good female
characters in the Qur'an.
So we're not racist or anything.
So it balances out.
So it's good, alhamdulillah, and it's dramatized.
So if the ayah talk about the Battle
of Badr, you will hear the horses and
the swords in the background.
It's very soothing and it's very engaging.
The Clear Qur'an audiobook app.
We did the Clear Qur'an for kids.
And we had a team of over 70
students between the ages of 7 and 13,
14 to review the translation with me.
So it's so easy for them to understand.
We used stories, illustrations.
We answered their difficult questions about the Qur
'an.
Then we did the Clear Qur'an dictionary.
As I said, most Muslims don't speak the
Arabic language.
I remember back in 2016, I was leading
Taraweeh at Anatolia Masjid in Toronto, a Turkish
Masjid.
So it was the 12th night of Ramadan.
So after we finished Taraweeh, Surah Yusuf, we
had an Egyptian Qari, very emotional, very beautiful
voice, mashallah.
So after we finished Taraweeh on that day,
Surah Yusuf, this Pakistani brother came after namaz
and he was extremely angry.
He was yelling at me after namaz.
Imam Sahib, how come you have this problem?
What's wrong with you, Imam?
I said, what did I do, man?
So initially when he started yelling at me,
I said, maybe the biryani we had for
iftar was so spicy like Jahannam, this is
why he's angry.
Then it turned out, he told me that
I stood in salah for over an hour
that night and he couldn't understand anything because
Arabic was not his native tongue.
And what bothered him the most was the
Arab people in the audience, in Surah Yusuf,
very emotional, they started to cry.
He didn't know why, and this is why
he was angry.
So I said, khair, inshallah.
Kuih maslani.
We'll do something about it, inshallah.
So over the next 6-7 years, I
worked on the clear Quran dictionary.
The Quran has 2,000 root words.
If you know them, you're good to go.
2,000 root words repeated about 100,000
times.
And at the end of the dictionary, the
clear Quran dictionary, there are 9 pages.
I made something like a poem that rhymes.
Those 9 pages have the 2,000 words
of the Quran.
If you study them, khalas, you're good to
go.
The Quran is easy, but we make it
difficult.
Finally, inshallah, in my last 5 minutes, every
year in Ramadan, and now, since I joined
Furqan Project, I go to different masjids to
promote the clear Quran.
So last year in Ramadan, I was touring
the US and Canada.
I flew from Turkey, I came to Canada,
east to west, in the US, north to
south.
So every day I was visiting a different
city.
Last year, I probably did something around 50
,000 miles in Ramadan last year.
I was flying every single day in Ramadan.
So one day I'm in Washington DC, tomorrow
I'm in Alabama, the next day I'm in
North Carolina, the next day I'm in Tennessee.
I was all over the place.
By the end of the month, I was
totally exhausted.
25th of Ramadan, I was at the Diyana
Center of America in Maryland.
And that night, I had the best dream
of my life.
So subhanallah, I prayed salatul fajr, I just
wanted to get some sleep before I go
to the airport for the next flight.
As soon as I closed my eyes, I
felt my body was being seized, and I
started to have this dream.
So in the dream, they said, Chalo, chalo,
come.
You are being escorted to present a gift
copy of the clear Qur'an as a
hadiyah gift to Hazrat Muhammad Sallallahu Alaihi Wasallam.
So I walked with them, long story short,
I stood in front of Rasulullah Sallallahu Alaihi
Wasallam, the beautiful face, the lovely smile, very
bright, very broad shoulders, and the full beard,
the turban, not very tall, not very short,
the exact same way he's described in hadith
of Ummul Ma'bad Sallallahu Alaihi Wasallam.
Every time I mention this story, I get
goose bumps.
So may Allah Subhanahu Wa Ta'ala gathers
together with Rasulullah Sallallahu Alaihi Wasallam in Jannatul
Firdaus.
Ameen Ya Rabbil Alameen.
So now, what do we do?
And after this dream, I said, this is
an isharah, a sign from Allah that you
have been working on the Qur'an, you
translated the Qur'an like five times so
far, now is the time to work on
the life of Rasulullah Sallallahu Alaihi Wasallam.
So inshallah, in about a week, we'll be
releasing the clear seer of our kids.
This was motivated by the dream that I
had in Ramadan last year.
365 days with Rasulullah Sallallahu Alaihi Wasallam, 52
weekly themes.
And inshallah, some Islamic schools, including the one
here in this masjid, Madrasatul Iman and others,
will be adopting this book as part of
their curriculum.
Because we use stories, illustrations to teach the
seerah of the Prophet Sallallahu Alaihi Wasallam in
an engaging way.
So tonight inshallah, after Salatul Isha, as you
exit the masjid, we have a table outside
for the clear Qur'an.
What we want from you is, if you
can at least do a box, sponsor a
box which has 52 copies, it will cost
you $104, which will help us put the
Qur'an in the hands of every non
-Muslim in this country.
So over the last 4 years, alhamdulillah, we
have distributed more than 5 million copies of
these to non-Muslims in the US and
Canada.
And we have seen thousands of shahadahs.
So we need your support.
You guys, when someone accepts Islam, we have
brother Andrew, I met brother Taylor, I met
sister Allison after Salatul Jumu'ah.
You have so many reverts in this community
inshallah.
And some of them came to Islam after
reading this book.
Alhamdulillah.
So this is a blessing from Allah.
Hidayah is not from me.
Guidance is from Allah.
But we bring the Qur'an to their
attention.
As I said in the khutbah today, a
lot of people when they accept Islam, they
have the same complaint.
They say, guys, where have you been like
20 years ago, 30 years ago, when my
parents, grandparents were desperately looking for the truth.
No one told them about Islam.
Nobody gave them a Qur'an.
And they died kafir because of you.
So we have this treasure, the Qur'an,
and we're hiding it.
We don't want to share it.
Wallahi, our neighbors have a right on us.
They will complain to Allah on Yawmul Qiyamah
because of us.
They live next to you 15, 20, 30
years.
They know absolutely nothing about Qur'an, absolutely
nothing about Muhammad Sallallahu Alaihi Wasallam, absolutely nothing
about Islam.
They will figure it out on their own.
No.
They will become Muslim because I'm a nice
guy, I give them biryani, I give them
mansaf, shawarma, chicken suqar, beef suqar.
Do you think they will accept Islam because
you're a nice guy?
Rasulullah Sallallahu Alaihi Wasallam was a million times
nicer and better than you.
But still, he spoke to people about Islam
even when they're on their deathbed, they were
dying, he still talked to them about Islam.
Because they cannot figure things on their own.
So alhamdulillah, especially after the situation started in
Gaza last year, نسى الله أن يحفظهم وينصرهم
على عدوهم وعلى من خذ لهم يا رب
العالمين.
A lot of people are interested in Islam
and many people have come to Islam because
of our Palestinian brothers and sisters.
They're impressed by them.
They read about Islam, they read the Qur
'an and they become Muslim.
And you will find so many stories on
TikTok, Sean King and his wife accepted Islam
after reading this.
There are so many sisters and brothers, they
read the Qur'an, alhamdulillah, clear Qur'an,
they become Muslim.
So inshallah, sponsored boxes.
If you do 10 boxes tonight, you're gonna
get this one as a gift.
A box has 52 copies, $104.
If you do 20 boxes or more, you're
gonna get this one.
Subhanallah, so beautiful with the gold, so heavy,
Arabic-English.
You will need a truck to take it
home.
So you get this one as a gift,
inshallah.
You can do it once, or you can
do it monthly on behalf of your family,
your parents, grandparents, and you will get a
tax receipt, inshallah.
If someone accepts Islam through this, I will
be sharing the reward with you.
Brother Hisham, Furqan Foundation, the masjid here, you
will be sharing the reward with us.
But do your part.
The last thing that I will say, inshallah,
Jazakallah khair Imam Muammar again for your patience
with me, opening your hearts and doors for
me always.
Is when I stand before Allah SWT on
Yawm al-Qiyamah, I will say, Ya Allah,
Wallahi, I have done my level best.
I sacrificed my Imam job for this.
Every day in the last 11-12 years,
every day I put 12-15 hours into
this project.
You look, oh, it's very cute, little book.
No, 12-15 hours every day.
That means more than 50,000 hours in
the last 11-12 years alone.
So we can have something easy, accessible, presentable
to give.
Like, subhanallah, some other translation, verily.
As soon as they see verily, they put
it down.
What is verily, man?
Thou.
This is the age of TikTok and Twitter,
man.
People don't have time to look up words
in the dictionary to understand the book.
And I was talking to one of the
brothers today, he said he was reading different
translations and he was able only to understand
the Quran after reading this because it's easy,
accessible.
He was able to understand the message and
he took shahada, alhamdulillah.
So please support.
Make sure to sponsor one box, 5, 10,
50, 100, and you will share the reward.
You will get a tax receipt.
May Allah reward you and reward your families.
And we have different methods of payment.
You can talk to brother Muhammad Imran and
brother Hisham and the brothers outside.
I think we have a couple of minutes
if someone has a question, inshallah, before Salatul
Isha.
Any questions?
No?
Alas, we're good, alhamdulillah.
That's good.
Jazakallah khair.
Barakallah fikum.
May Allah bless you and your families.
May Allah continue to bless this community.
Ameen, ya rabbal alameen.
Jazakallah khair.
For those who want to read more about
the project, go to TheClearQuran.org TheClearQuran.org
Assalamualaikum.