00:00:05 -->
00:00:36
Our speaker today is no mana de Haan. He's the head of bayona Institute the largest and fastest
growing Arabic studies program in the country. He has previously served as an Islamic Islamic
teacher, Islamic Studies teacher and Muslim center chaplain for Adelphi University, Arabic professor
at NASA Community College, and Director of Education and mercy who, currently brother in Oman is
busy ensuring the growth and sustainability of Vienna which has crossed the 6000 student Mark
Alhamdulillah.
00:00:37 -->
00:01:08
He's involved in numerous translations and research projects, projects, all revolving around
classical Arabic curriculum development, linguistic analysis and the sea of the Quran. But the No
Man's understanding of the language and Tafseer has been influenced by numerous scholars, scholarly
resources, both classical and contemporary. He has retained his focus on the Quran related studies
for a number of number of years and considers himself an intermediate student of the language and a
beginner student of the Quran.
00:01:09 -->
00:01:12
Without further ado, I would give you bernama
00:01:17 -->
00:01:18
Santa Monica
00:01:24 -->
00:01:25
hamdu Lillahi Rabbil alameen
00:01:26 -->
00:01:29
wa Salatu was Salam ala MBA, he will mousseline
00:01:31 -->
00:01:33
were there early. He was happy he was minister Nebuchadnezzar he
00:01:36 -->
00:01:43
along with john Domine home, Amina Latina Amanullah, Amina sorry heart, whatever. So Bill, whatever
sub sub, I mean, I mean
00:01:46 -->
00:01:47
administrate on the regime
00:01:49 -->
00:01:50
has a Bella holiness.
00:01:51 -->
00:01:58
While you're in the Ruby, Valley, Alamo and Navajo Allahu Ahad Walia Dhaka, Al Bab
00:02:00 -->
00:02:05
from Saudi Arabia, silly Emily, Melissa de Cali
00:02:06 -->
00:02:10
Allahumma sabitha angle multi Bella ilaha illAllah. Me number nine, I mean,
00:02:11 -->
00:02:19
I have a monumental task before me today to share with you in two parts, two parts of this
presentation broken up with a break in the middle,
00:02:21 -->
00:02:23
a huge subject.
00:02:24 -->
00:02:40
And I was given a different title before and I requested it to be changed. Even though the subject
is very similar, I was given the title miracles of the Quran. And that's too big a title for me to
handle. So I changed it to literary characteristics of the Quran, those of you that saw the
advertising materials.
00:02:42 -->
00:02:48
It is, there's a reason for which I chose this title. And I'd like to share with you why in this
introductory phase of my talk,
00:02:49 -->
00:03:11
I'll center it around one thing. I've taken the Arabic portion of a small portion of the ayah that I
recited to you in the beginning, has Abdullah holiness, Allah speaks about the Quran. And he says
this is a Bella. And I'm not going to translate that yet. It is a bolo for people below Bulacan
Arabic means that which reaches someone else,
00:03:12 -->
00:03:19
a communication or communicate. This Koran is meant to reach people, it is a message to people. Now,
00:03:21 -->
00:03:57
because Allah calls it a means of communication or a communicate a message, I wanted to speak to you
today First, about the essential components of communication. I want to keep this very, very simple.
I'm not going to try to bother you with heavy grammatical terms or Arabic terminology because that's
not my intention today. What I want you to be exposed to is this dimension of an appreciation of the
Quran there is almost lost entirely upon people who are not students of the Quran in Arabic, which
is the majority of Muslims, and perhaps all of mankind. In addition, they don't appreciate one
dimension of the Quran that I'd like to highlight for you.
00:03:58 -->
00:03:59
When we communicate,
00:04:00 -->
00:04:09
there are essentially three components that you have to keep in mind. There are three aspects to
communicating. The first of them is the speaker himself.
00:04:11 -->
00:04:47
You know, when I'm talking to you, there's already before I even open my mouth because of my
appearance, my gender, my age, all of that what you see with your eyes. You haven't even heard me
speak yet. But you've already passed some judgment. You've already passed some sort of predisposed
conclusions about how I'm going to speak or what I'm going to talk about. Think about it this way. I
have kids, right. And, you know, when tax season comes around, I go speak to my friends that are
accountants and I'm taking their financial advice, whatever. What if my six year old kid came to me
and gave me tax advice? Really good tax advice, but it came from my six year old would I take it
00:04:47 -->
00:04:59
seriously? No, not because what she says is wrong. But because it's coming from a source that I
don't really acknowledge for that content. I don't expect it from her now
00:05:00 -->
00:05:18
If I get that same exact financial advice from a financial advisor from an accountant from an
auditor, well, I take that advice seriously. Sure. It's gonna completely change the way I perceive
that information. So the speaker is a big deal. I'll give you a more relevant example. As far as the
religion is concerned, my kid doesn't give me financial advice, by the way. So
00:05:19 -->
00:05:29
you're, you come to a football, you go to a machine, you're attending a football, you got there a
little late, so you didn't get into the main hall, you sat outside by the shoes or something. So you
didn't see the thing.
00:05:30 -->
00:05:42
Nothing happened to me, this young guy wearing jeans and a T shirt, baseball hat on backwards,
barely appeared on his face. And he gives the most killer hope by you've ever heard in your life.
00:05:44 -->
00:05:50
The people that are sitting in the front row, as they're listening to the football, you know what
they're thinking, and a better repeat my salon right after he's done.
00:05:52 -->
00:06:31
And the people that are outside that haven't seen him that heard this clip, but you know what
they're thinking, I wonder where the shift studied? I wonder where he's from? That was amazing. What
was the chef's name? Why? Because the one who speaks, the one who speaks certainly affects how we
understand what they're saying, this is a human flaw, but nonetheless, it's there. It's there. Is
this applicable even in the Quran? Absolutely. The Quran as we go forward, you're gonna see the
Quran elicited two kinds of responses, either people were mesmerized by this book and fell in love
with this book, and were willing to change their entire lives when they heard this book. It had that
00:06:31 -->
00:07:00
power on them. On the other hand, you had people that were so annoyed with this book, they had such
a deeply rooted hatred for this book, that they would do anything to get it from stop from from stop
it from being spread, spread across to the other people to responses, there was no empathy. There
was nobody that heard the Quran and said, sounds interesting. That didn't exist. There are only one
of these two responses. Now I want to share with you something on this about the who speaks
component of communication briefly.
00:07:01 -->
00:07:14
You know, in the Quran, Allah says, vallabh Allahu methanex. Allah struck an example. Now just to
see if you're paying attention, who struck the example? Allah, Allah, so who's the speaker,
therefore? allies quiere.
00:07:16 -->
00:07:53
Allah strikes the example. And of course, when you're a believer, I say to you, I give you an
example. You say, Okay, yeah, nice example. But if I say Allah gives an example, a lot of strikes,
in example, don't you pay more attention? You do, because what did we take into consideration? The
speaker, Allah, but the disbeliever on the other side, on the other side of the spectrum, who the
messenger is communicating the same Koran to if he hears a law striking example, he already tunes
his ears out. He says, I don't want to hear this, what he likes to say, I've heard enough already.
You've been telling me for a decade now. I don't want to hear it anymore. You understand? The only
00:07:53 -->
00:08:07
reason he's refusing to listen to the example is what the speaker the same reason for which the
believer will pay extra attention is the same reason for which the disbeliever will be extra
deterred. You follow? In Surah Al Hajj,
00:08:08 -->
00:08:09
in pseudo Hajj now Medina,
00:08:10 -->
00:08:15
Allah strikes an example magani Quran Baqarah Allah striking example of Allahumma Fanon.
00:08:16 -->
00:08:39
But then when you come to pseudo Hajj is a Maki surah, the majority of communication is taking place
between the messenger and then that vast majority of people that don't believe in what he has to say
yet. Allah says to them, yeah, you hand us people. Listen up, boo Reba methylone. Now listen to the
English rough English translation carefully. Allah says people, an example has been struck.
00:08:40 -->
00:08:46
He says, an example has been struck, who has been omitted from this discussion.
00:08:47 -->
00:09:31
The speaker, he didn't say a law striking example. What did he say? An example has been struck. He
took the speaker out of the picture. You know why? Because when the disbeliever would hear that the
speaker is a lot out of all of a sudden, the rest of the text would become irrelevant. They would
not they would tune it tune out. So Allah azza wa jal in that ayah. Instead of emphasizing the
speaker, he emphasizes something else. And that's the next component of communication. what is being
said, the speech itself, simple words, the content, two components, so far of speech, the speaker
and the content, two things the speaker and the content. So when the last as an example is being
00:09:31 -->
00:09:32
struck, what's the emphasizing
00:09:33 -->
00:09:59
the content, listen to the example forget where it's coming from? Don't judge the speaker judge what
the speech judge the words themselves, right? So there's a difference in communication. There's a
difference in communication. Now, this is of course taken into consideration consistently throughout
the Quran. This is just one small example that I shared with you, but it's something very consistent
and very, you know, the Quran is very conscious of this problem of communication to the point we
find it
00:10:00 -->
00:10:13
An interesting statement almost an axiom of it about the Allahu anhu Companion of the messenger
sallallahu alayhi wa sallam, who said something very interesting. I'll paraphrase it in English for
you. We judge the speech before we judge the speaker.
00:10:14 -->
00:10:18
He says we judge what is said, before we judge who says it.
00:10:19 -->
00:10:46
Because it's perhaps from the most unlikely source that you will find the truth, you'll find the
truth. One of the reasons for rejecting Muhammad sallallahu alayhi wa sallam is that he was an
orphan. And he wasn't a celebrity in the town. And he wasn't one of the two great leaders that
everybody already looked up to. This was one of the reasons that the kuffaar gave, who is here to
speak? Why should we listen to him? And this is actually recorded in the Quran.
00:10:47 -->
00:11:05
You know, one of the two men minakari a tiny Aleem one of the two great men from the towns. Why
weren't they picked? Why would this man be picked to deliver a message? So two components so far?
Let's see if you're still paying attention. What are they? The speaker? And the speech? Here's the
third component component. How do they say?
00:11:06 -->
00:11:14
It's who says what they say? And the third part? How do they say it? If I give you advice, study
harder,
00:11:15 -->
00:11:52
right, your exams are coming over coming coming upon you, and your mom comes to you, your best
friend comes to you and says, You're such a loser, you're wasting all your time, you're pathetic,
you know. And they're the mean to tell you study. Now, they gave you good advice. But the way in
which they gave it made it ineffective. They made it made it ineffective. So it's not just that you
have the speaker and the content, but the way in which you present the content has to be effective,
otherwise, the effect is lost, the communication is lost. In the end, the point of communication is
to influence the audience, not just to have them listen to some things or see some things, but to
00:11:52 -->
00:12:11
actually influence them to influence the change in them. You can't do that if you don't speak
effectively, even if you have something good to say. Let me give you another example. You listen to
a football, incredible content, incredible content. But the way in which it is delivered is
extremely monotone.
00:12:12 -->
00:12:47
It's extremely monotone. Now the content itself is profound. I have For Honor being quoted, I had
ether being quoted, really powerful statements are being stated. But the way in which they are being
stated is so boring, that you will find half the audience passed out. You will. And there's nothing
wrong with the content because the content is divine. There may not even be anything wrong with the
speaker. But what's there what's the problem that time the mode of speech, the style of speech, how
something is being presented three components of speech, the first one,
00:12:48 -->
00:12:49
the speaker, second one,
00:12:51 -->
00:13:37
the content, the speech, the third one, the style, how they speak the medium, the medium, in media
studies, this has given so much important the first axiom you learn when you study media is the
medium is the message. The way you present is equally important, if not more important than how you
present. It's equally important. So now, with that basic introduction, when we turn to the Quran,
then we ask ourselves, and we ask ourselves that revisiting revisiting the question no, Quran is a
miracle. We believe this. No Quran is remarkable. We believe this. The Quran is, you know, it's
stunning in its beauty. We believe this. And it's stunning as communication. But it's stunning in
00:13:37 -->
00:13:47
three ways. It's remarkable and incredible in three ways. It's remarkable in that the speaker is
incredible. The speaker himself
00:13:48 -->
00:13:49
what else is incredible.
00:13:50 -->
00:13:58
The speech, what else is incredible. The style, there are three things. Now let's turn to the
speaker briefly, okay.
00:13:59 -->
00:14:00
The speaker in the Quran is who?
00:14:02 -->
00:14:07
Allah subhana wa Tada. But additionally, additionally, I want you to think about this.
00:14:08 -->
00:14:16
The disbeliever who hears the messenger reciting Quran does not believe that it's from Allah. Who
does he believe the speaker is?
00:14:17 -->
00:14:54
the disbeliever believes, or he thinks that the speaker is Maha Messiah. For the believer, he knows
that the messenger is only a medium by which the words are being delivered and the words belong to
Allah. So the messenger is actually quoting some elements and he's quoting Allah. But the
disbeliever says, These are not ullas words, because if he said that he'd be a Muslim already, he
wouldn't be a disbeliever anymore. So now think of it from this point of view. The believer
understands that the actual speaker is Allah, which is miraculous enough for the believer. But let's
look at it from the disbelievers point of view, from the disbelievers point of view, who's the
00:14:54 -->
00:15:00
speaker homosassa keep that perspective in mind this is important because Allah says this
00:15:00 -->
00:15:33
is a communication not just for believers, but for who? How did I begin this talk? This is
communication for all people. And the vast majority of people believe already that these are not
words of Allah that these are words of Muhammad, even then it is miraculous. What about Muhammad's
background, some of Allahu Allahu wa sallam gives away that he is not, he can't be the speaker. He
can't be the speaker. And if he is there's something, you know, unusual taking place. There is
knowledge of the history of any slide.
00:15:35 -->
00:16:09
Just a side note, this is not the subject of my speech. It's just a side note. Muhammad sallallahu
alayhi wa sallam comes and he starts giving this information that exists in the classified texts of
the People of the Book, by the way that people have the book. Now, some Bible studies, they want you
to read the Bible, what the Bible is, Jehovah's Witness will come to you with a little pamphlet says
what is what does the Bible really say? Right? But the ancient Christian was not well read in the
Bible. Bible studies was limited to biblical scholars. And if you had a question about the Bible,
you didn't go and look it up yourself. Where did you go? He went to the priest, he went to the
00:16:09 -->
00:16:43
rabbi. For the Old Testament, it was classified information. It's almost like it was considered so
high class or so difficult to access for yourself. It's kind of like reading the United States
Constitution for yourself. You go to a lawyer to interpret it. You go to somebody who studied that
stuff. It's their thing. It's not your thing, right? The messenger sallallahu alayhi, wasalam,
starts saying things that existed only in their classified documents, and only their higher level
scholars would discuss them. And he's just uttering those words. So already, they knew that he's
actually not the speaker.
00:16:44 -->
00:17:31
They had, they realized very quickly that he can't possibly be the speaker. He can't be. Just on
this point, just a side note, the historicity of the Quran, the historical integrity of the Quran.
Hey, man, you know who her man is in the Koran. He is the minister, or one of the ministers of who a
federal common is mentioned in the Quran about six times. And the law tells us about how men that
fit our own commanded him to build them a tower, fit own commanded him to build him a tower. Now, is
there a mention of a man in the Bible? Sure. Is there a mention of Harmon building a tower? Sure.
But the Harmon in the Bible didn't work for Pharaoh and he worked for another king named Xerxes in
00:17:31 -->
00:17:32
the biblical Book of Esther.
00:17:33 -->
00:18:11
So the biblical Catholic scholars in the 1600s who were first getting into orientalist studies,
Islamic Studies, they look this thing up in the Quran is Aha, we found a mistake in the Quran. Look,
they're talking about how nine working under fionn while the Book of Esther tells us that henann
worked under the king named Xerxes 1000 years after the pharaoh in Babylon, not even in Egypt, and
he built him a tower you ever heard of the story, the Tower of Babylon? So the challenge the
history, historical integrity of the Quran, Allah they said from the disbelievers point of view, or
Muhammad must have plagiarized it from a priest and made a mistake, because He mixed up the story of
00:18:11 -->
00:18:19
the Tower of Babel. Right, and the story of Xerxes with the story of the Pharaoh and he's confused
between the two of them. That's what he did this quotation and
00:18:21 -->
00:18:41
what's really interesting is, in the late 1800s, the Catholic scholarship, the body of Catholic
scholarship, unanimously denied the Book of Esther as a valid source of history. They acknowledge
their own book, they acknowledge that their own book unanimously is legend just stories made up
names made up.
00:18:42 -->
00:19:07
The Jewish Encyclopedia even now tells you the Book of Esther has noticed no historical value, none
whatsoever. But then it remains this one question remains the Quran tells us that this Quran tells
benissa about the things that even they disagreed in. Even they disagreed in some stuff, and this
person tells them this speaker is giving this to you. He can't be the speaker then there's some This
knowledge is coming from somewhere else. Now check this out.
00:19:08 -->
00:19:26
You know, Maurice bukata, is famous Muslim who wrote Bible for art and science. Before he got into
that subject. He was a historian. He wanted to study Islamic history. When he came across this
problem presented by Catholic priests, he did a lot of research. You see what happened in the late
1800s was
00:19:27 -->
00:20:00
the Egyptian hieroglyphics were now being revived as a language because he griffix had died about
almost 2000 years before the Prophet placed on them. Egyptian hieroglyphics had died as a language,
and they were revived by German and French scholars. The study is called Egyptology they traveled to
Egypt, they studied the hieroglyphics and they developed a scheme of you know, spelling those images
and turning them into pronounceable words and all this stuff. Okay. It started about 120 130 years
ago. So they got into this study, and they made documentations of who the ministers that are
mentioned
00:20:00 -->
00:20:11
They're the documents of the Egyptians, what their roles were, et cetera, et cetera. Marie's travels
to France goes to an Egyptologist and asked him, by the way, in your records, did you see any name
Harmon?
00:20:12 -->
00:20:50
And he says, Well, I wouldn't know you have to go to Germany. But where did you get the name him?
And he said, Well, there's a messenger, a man who claims to be a messenger in the seventh century,
who says that there was a minister of Pharaoh, whose name was what? ham on and he told him to build
a tower. He said, That's impossible. Nobody could have had access to any names from that time
because the language has already died at the prophets time for how long already 2000 years. So he
travels to Germany to look up the names of different architects and constructors and ministers under
the name under the federal specifically under the pharaoh at the time of historical era of Busan,
00:20:50 -->
00:20:57
Moses. What does he find Hammad minister of the stone quarries construction.
00:20:58 -->
00:21:32
This name is discovered in the 1900s the tout that they actually have a statue in Austria, I
believe, Hammad written on it underneath they revived it from Egypt, his name is Herman in Austria,
the statue is sitting there. And we don't know for sure if that's the amount of of, you know, of the
Quran, but still, the name exists. The fact that he's in charge of construction exists. And this is
something they didn't have, but which speaker had the Messenger of Allah, but actually, the speaker
is who then Allah subhana wa, Tada. This is just from the historical point of view, something that
they used to laugh at the Muslims came back and blew up in their own face.
00:21:35 -->
00:22:00
This is just one dimension. But the dimension I want to focus on with you today is not the first or
the second. The second is the content, the content, but it's the third, not what Allah says, not
just that alone. But how he says it. What makes the Quran so unique in the way in which it
communicates the way in which Allah says stuff is so powerful and so incredible. You see
00:22:01 -->
00:22:09
the Quran when it's translated? Maybe, maybe you'll get the content of what he says, maybe
00:22:11 -->
00:22:15
what will you definitely not get 100% how he said it?
00:22:17 -->
00:23:02
That's lost. What he said, maybe you get something out of translation, maybe. But how he said it is
gone. That's it, because how he said it exists in what language in Arabic, even if you explain to
somebody in Arabic in your own Arabic, it's still not how he said it, you understand? So the
creative beauty, the unique beauty, the unparalleled, Majesty, really Avila's words, they cannot be
translated, something from the meaning can be translated. But the actual impact that the original
words have nothing else can have in appreciating this gap between our attempts to translate the
Quran, and allows own words, to appreciate this gap. You know what a cu t Rahim Allah said, he said,
00:23:02 -->
00:23:42
if you can appreciate the distance between a lion his creation, meaning how far above the line is
from his creation, then you have some idea of the distance between the word of Allah and the word of
the creation. What is translation, it is the word of creation. It can never be a substitute for the
word of Allah, it can't be. This is not a lecture on what is lost in the content. We could talk
about that too. There's a lot lost in the content too. But I want to talk to you about what is lost
in the beauty and the style. And how can we as non Arab speaking audiences, as people that aren't
exposed to the Arabic language, at least even begin that journey of appreciating the Quran in that
00:23:42 -->
00:23:57
light? That is something that has been held dearly by Muslims for a very, very, very long time, and
is almost entirely lost upon the Muslims in our times. You see, when we hear that the Quran is a
miracle, as we heard in the introduction before I got up here.
00:23:58 -->
00:24:01
How is the miracle of the Quran presented?
00:24:02 -->
00:24:06
Mostly if you Google it, the first thing you'll get is scientific phenomenon. The Quran is not true.
00:24:07 -->
00:24:25
Another thing you might get is some crazy number 19 theory. Right you'll get that some statistics.
Another thing you might get is the crawl had predictions like Rome is going to be it was dominated
but it will come back and take over again predictions in the Koran. But do we believe that every eye
of the Quran is a miracle?
00:24:26 -->
00:24:31
Do we believe that? Is it a miracle from the very time it was revealed or later on?
00:24:33 -->
00:24:46
From then, from its inception, the very big first communication we had with Dr. On the first
interaction human beings had with the Quran every last I have the Quran is a miracle. This is what
we believe. How many out of Quran are predictions?
00:24:47 -->
00:24:59
Very few. How many out of cron are dedicated to scientific phenomenon. Very few. How many of these
things were even known to the Arabs of that time. Almost nothing.
00:25:00 -->
00:25:12
So what is it that mesmerised these people? What is it that every time the messenger opened his
mouth, that there would be some Aloha and he said, and they would be dumbfound they didn't know what
to say.
00:25:13 -->
00:25:18
three stories and I'm done with the introduction, inshallah Tada, this is the question we're going
to try and answer in the second part.
00:25:19 -->
00:25:28
The first story very interesting is the story of profane Amara dosi. Interesting fellow. He was the
leader of his tribe, he was also a very skillful poet.
00:25:29 -->
00:25:35
And he decided to pay his respects to Mecca to visit and make, you know, go out of the house.
00:25:36 -->
00:26:15
All Arabs had had shared regard for what city for Makkah, so to show their dedication, he will show
his dedication, he came as the leader of his tribe, the leaders of kadesh realized that he's coming.
And when he comes, he might hear the prophet SAW them reciting Quran. And if that happens, he might
get enchanted. So we better protect another tribe leader from falling at the hand of Muhammad
sallallahu alayhi salam, because when a tribe leader becomes Muslim, who also follows the whole
tribe, so you got to take care of business, they go to meet him outside Mecca before even comes in.
They said him, listen, you've got a problem in the city right now. There is this man. He says these
00:26:15 -->
00:26:33
words. And these cast spells on people, it turns father against son, husband, against wife, Brother
against brother, it is causing this unity in our tribe. These people are being possessed by demons
when he speaks to them. We don't we think you're an important figure for your tribe.
00:26:34 -->
00:26:43
We think that your your, your your integrity is going to be compromised. If he's able to cast his
spells on you. We will advise you to go back. We don't want you to come into Makkah.
00:26:44 -->
00:26:56
He's hesitating to go. But he says no, I came all this way. I'm at least gonna go and make the love.
I'm gonna pay my respects to the house and then go, they said fine. But at least take this cork.
They gave him a couple of plugs. For what?
00:26:58 -->
00:27:04
If you see him, you will recognize those words. And when you hear those words, just plug your ears
and run.
00:27:05 -->
00:27:39
This is the advice they gave him. He goes in, he's paying his respects to the house. The Messenger
of Allah sallallahu Sallam is there praying reciting Quran. He hears the sweetness of the words and
he recognizes immediately This must be what they were talking about. So what does he do? He plugs
his ears and makes a dashboard. And halfway in his in his job, he stops and he thinks to himself, I
am the leader of my tribe. I'm the pride of my my people. I am one of the most skillful poets in all
of Arabia, some words are gonna overpower me.
00:27:41 -->
00:27:50
I can take this. He unplugs his ears. He goes back to the messenger sallallahu sallam, he listened
to the Quran, he takes the Shahada, and then tells the story.
00:27:52 -->
00:28:16
That's how we know the story. It was alluded to before Abu jihad, Abu sufian, who raped these three
people would hate on the messenger salallahu alayhi wa sallam, they were the elders of the French.
They were the seniors. They were the think tank. And they would sneak in the middle of the night and
put their ears on the profits apartments on the lower audio sound and they will listen to Quran
being recited.
00:28:17 -->
00:28:28
And then they will sneak back before morning. And what happened the first night was they ran into
each other. And they the other didn't know the other was there. So the first guy is going What are
you doing here? He says, Well, what are you doing here?
00:28:30 -->
00:28:59
Right. They read they knew what they were doing there. So they swore they will never come back. They
call each other The next night. They swore they won't come back. They call each other the third
night. They catch each other the third night and they swear by their mothers by the Lord by their
lives. They never gonna come back again. So they don't come back. But Asness. He's curious. He goes
to Abu sufian. And he says to him, we've been listening for three days. What do you think?
00:29:00 -->
00:29:01
Is this the truth?
00:29:03 -->
00:29:10
I was a few answers to him. By the way. I was lucky and became Muslim much later. This is early on.
Of course, it's the truth. What else can you be?
00:29:12 -->
00:29:26
Okay, let's go talk to john. He's been listening to right. So the two of them go and they talk to
me, john. What do you think? Of course, it's the truth. JOHN says Of course, it's the truth. But
then he explained. You see, we're been Mohammed
00:29:28 -->
00:29:29
and he's been Hashem.
00:29:31 -->
00:29:59
Right there. Before I tell you any more of what he said, What did he take into consideration the
speech or the speaker. The rejection of the disbeliever came at the fact that these words are as
powerful as they are as true as they are as flawless as the content is as mesmerizing as the style
is. We are not willing to accept this person. Because when we when we do, Hashem gives charity, we
match them. When they fight. We match them.
00:30:00 -->
00:30:42
They show bravery we match them when one of theirs comes up with these words, we will never match
them so they have won forever. We can't let that happen. That was the reason. Pamela has a different
take on history. Even those who hated the Quran, were mesmerized by the Quran. Even they were
mesmerized by the Quran. last story. This is one of my favorites. I have no idea. You can think of
rubia as the sean hannity of back in the day. Okay. Expert debater. very insulting to those who
oppose him in this in public discourse. He was a negotiator on behalf of conflicting tribes. This
was he was hired for that he was a consultant, you could say that would go in and make demands and
00:30:42 -->
00:31:18
get get the thing done. You know, these are the kinds of people that flourish when they said these
this war of words we're losing, so we got to get somebody who's really good at their words.
Somebody's really good at debate, and discussion and negotiation. So they hired Audubon, and they
say go by you talk to Muhammad, he's sitting there so of course they didn't say some of them. You go
talk to him. You make some demands on him figure out what he wants, humiliate him, by the way, we'll
watch from a distance. Nowadays, we watch football games from a stadium or from the you know, our
couches on TV. This was their sport to watch one want to go against the other in this debate. Right?
00:31:18 -->
00:31:27
So they're watching from a distance. They don't want to get too close. But they're about to enjoy
this matchup between occupy blue labia and who Maha masala
00:31:28 -->
00:32:08
goes very insulting. Extremely condescending. Yeah, Muhammad. What do you want? You want you want
wealth will give you money. You want women will give you women. You want shared power? We'll give
you some power to what do you want make your demands now by already saying that. He is not judging
the content of what Mohammed says Salalah has, he never made any demands of money, nor of anything
else. He is not judging anything but the intentions the person this is called character
assassination. The best thing the best way you can dismantle somebody or somebody's credibility is
that you attack their motives. Why are you really presenting this message? You must have some
00:32:08 -->
00:32:28
alternative agenda hiding underneath, which is why you're talking this way. So he rats off barks
like a dog at the messenger. So listen, the messenger is listening carefully and silently,
patiently. And when he's done in very small, very soft tones. The messenger says to him some of the
above lead. Are you done? Are you finished?
00:32:30 -->
00:32:31
He says fine, your turn.
00:32:32 -->
00:32:36
The messenger Elisa to Islam did nothing but recite Quran.
00:32:37 -->
00:32:39
he recites from
00:32:40 -->
00:32:44
Allah who initiated Nora Jim Harmon. Then z luminara.
00:32:47 -->
00:33:14
The first thing he says, is a revolution rough translation. Of course, I can't match what Allah says
a rough translation. It is something that has been sent down from the exceedingly merciful they'll
constantly merciful. The intention when the attack came from Ottawa. The idea was these are your
words, and you're just trying to get something out of it. The first thing that Brian says in
response is what? This is not my words. Where are they from? Up there you're not negotiating with
me. Who are you debating right now?
00:33:17 -->
00:33:53
You're not fighting me you're fighting allows words. These are his deep they're sent down to me
Tenzin luminox manna for him. Kita when it's a book, it's actually a book. Right now it's being
presented at Where's where does it come from, from dub facilite who's I art whose manifesto whose
demands have made been made absolutely clear. Remember, he asked about demands right? What do you
want, unless as the ions are absolutely clear, do not make certain demands. Now what are those
demands in are they in clear language called are n and V and nicomachea? The moon and Arabic Quran
for for a nation that seeks to know you want to know what we want? You know, you want to know what a
00:33:53 -->
00:34:17
lot once you want to know what what the demands are? Here they are, they're coming. Then Allah azza
wa jal, he reveals the ayah Bashir and when Avila this person came, it's two main functions. Bashir,
you know what that means? Something that gives good news. It comes with good news for you. It's got
a good proposition for you whenever the euro and a warning, a threat when of the law.
00:34:18 -->
00:34:41
For our external home, the home law is known. But most of them ignore it on purpose is to ignore
something on purpose. They don't even listen. And they're the ones that they're the ones who are
actually not listening. They think you're not listening to them. But the real dumb, the real, you
know, people incapable of hearing or those people over there, they're the ones that are not
listening.
00:34:42 -->
00:34:45
So Allah is responding to his negotiation with Iran.
00:34:46 -->
00:34:55
And as the ions are being revealed that people are watching from a distance, right? They don't hear
what's going on, but they see what's going on. They see the face of change.
00:34:56 -->
00:34:59
They see his face change, then what they notice is he's crying
00:35:01 -->
00:35:06
I started crying there expert negotiator, caffeine hater of Islam, in psalter of the messengers
00:35:08 -->
00:35:11
that I don't like he is a super Island, he starts crying.
00:35:12 -->
00:35:22
He cries so much as the IOD Go on, and it gets stronger and stronger in their wording that he tries
to grab the mouth of the messenger sallallahu alayhi wa sallam, please stop, can't take anymore.
00:35:23 -->
00:35:27
The messenger kept on reciting some Allah Islam until he reached the if such.
00:35:29 -->
00:35:29
And he made such that
00:35:31 -->
00:36:10
he comes back out by walks back from this debate, this expert negotiator of the courage, who their
hopes were lying if and he comes back and they say your face doesn't look the same that you left
with. This is not the face you went with. And he comes back and says whatever this man has to say
will become a an enormous event. Whatever this man has to say, will become an enormous event. Now
this is important, because the iographer on the iPad, the messenger was reciting. We don't have time
to go into all of them, but at least the last one for Inaudible. This is towards the end of the
passage for inaudible and if they continue to devote to ignore deliberately, if they've done so
00:36:11 -->
00:36:15
far cool. Then you tell them now who's you
00:36:16 -->
00:37:03
homosassa by the words awed by realizes he's not talking to Mohammed, rather Ally's not dignifying
Akbar, Allah is telling the messenger social to tell him Allah is not telling him directly under to
come, I'm warning you visit for coolangatta Can you tell him that I am warning all of you, all of
you what a pattern, a powerful explosion mislav psychopathy, it was a mood, just like the explosion
that occurred with who had and somehow this is something the Arabs knew. They knew this had happened
in the past. And now what was sitting there just realized he has been issued a direct threat from
Allah himself with the from the words of the messenger that had been given to him by Allah Himself.
00:37:04 -->
00:37:41
He was overpowered, he comes back and says, Whatever this man has to say, I suggest you take it
seriously. Or it's gonna become say a kulula. And he says, It's soon gonna become a huge event. They
say to him Sahara, he did magic on YouTube. He cast the spells on YouTube. He said, see what you
will. It's not magic, but I'm not talking talking to him anymore. He gave up on the messenger slice.
I shared this with you for one reason to illustrate a tragedy. And that tragedy is the disbelievers
at the time of the Prophet sallallahu alayhi wasallam. And the believers shared one thing,
00:37:42 -->
00:37:46
they shared one thing, they were both overpowered by what?
00:37:47 -->
00:37:54
The Quran, they were both overpowered by the Quran. But two believers. On the other hand, the
believers of our times,
00:37:56 -->
00:38:35
not to mention the disbelievers even the believers don't appreciate the power of the Quran. They are
not stunned, mesmerized, overwhelmed by the words of Allah, even in comparison to the way that the
disbelievers used to be mesmerized back then. And that's a tragedy. That's a real tragedy, that that
effect of the Quran is something that is lost. And it's lost to the point where people can actually
make absurd kinds of questions about the Quran say things about the Koran How come it says this How
can it says that it shows that you're not overpowered? I want to give you a visual before I start
doing examples inshallah Tada.
00:38:36 -->
00:38:46
You see if you and I were fortunate enough to live in the time of musala, a salon, and we were
standing next to him when Allah commanded him to strike the staff and the water started parting
00:38:48 -->
00:38:50
would you ever question?
00:38:51 -->
00:39:09
Was it Salaam again? Would you ever doubt? Would you ever have any wavering in your faith? I don't
think so. That's a pretty heavy duty experience to go through to watch that happen and for you to be
to escape from the very clutches of death by a large miraculous intervention.
00:39:10 -->
00:39:24
Our belief is Muslims, as believers in the message of Muhammad sallallahu alayhi wa sallam is that
Allah gave him the final, the lasting and the most powerful of all miracles, which is what? The
Quran
00:39:25 -->
00:39:59
As a result, if we were to appreciate this, as a miracle right now, most of us we appreciate it as a
religious text. As a book of guidance, as a book of knowledge, we appreciate those things. But if we
added to our appreciation, its appreciation its taste as a miracle of Allah, as profound words that
are supposed to change lives just by their impact their power, then we would have an entirely
different sensation of the man. The man before this and the man after this is two different things.
You see when the Sahaba heard Koran, they heard two things.
00:40:00 -->
00:40:07
At the same time, they heard a reminder, advice, guidance, all of that. At the same time, they also
experienced a miracle from Allah.
00:40:08 -->
00:40:11
When we hear put on today at the most, what do we hear?
00:40:12 -->
00:40:14
We hear the reminder, What's missing?
00:40:15 -->
00:40:22
The miracle. The other side, I want you to visualize that you lived, I don't know, 1000s of years
ago in some society.
00:40:23 -->
00:40:25
And when you lived in that society, you had a neighbor.
00:40:27 -->
00:40:32
And your neighbor knocked on your door one day, and he says to you, an angel came to my house.
00:40:33 -->
00:40:35
He told me that I'm the Messenger of God.
00:40:36 -->
00:40:42
And I'm supposed to deliver this message to all of mankind. I've already delivered it to my family,
and they rejected me.
00:40:43 -->
00:40:44
And since you're my neighbor,
00:40:46 -->
00:40:53
the right of the neighbor is that I tell you, and by the way, I'm a messenger of God, and everything
I say, isn't actually my own words, their words of who
00:40:54 -->
00:41:16
I've got of the of the Divine, let's say Allah Subhana, WA, Tada. Okay, the words of Allah. And
following me actually doesn't mean that you're following me it means you're obeying Allah. There are
two problems with this statement. The neighbor who opens the door and listens to all of this says,
Wait, so first of all, you're asking me to believe that an angel talk to you
00:41:18 -->
00:41:19
that God speaks to you.
00:41:20 -->
00:41:23
You're my neighbor that I've known for 20 years.
00:41:24 -->
00:41:55
And this is hard enough to believe. But on top of that, you want me to change everything about my
life, based on every word you say? Two things that are very hard to do one to believe that,
especially when your own family says you're What? You're crazy. Your own family says you're crazy,
and you want me to believe you. And I'm not only should I believe what you're saying, I should
follow you in everything that you do. And as the more I follow you, the more people not just call
you crazy. Who else are they gonna call crazy? They're gonna call me crazy.
00:41:56 -->
00:41:58
I think about it, thanks. Close the door.
00:42:00 -->
00:42:20
And I'm giving this to you because the messengers of Islam, the messengers of Allah that were sent
to different nations, we know that they give Dawa to their people. But it's not like our dharma. We
have it easy. We're in the millions. We're in the millions. It's easy. When you're the only one who
believes something in entire city. You know what you are?
00:42:21 -->
00:42:21
You crazy?
00:42:23 -->
00:42:58
What did the people call the messengers? Have you ever read? What did they call them? insane? They
call them insane. You say all those evil people, they call them crazy. They call them insane? How
could they do that? Put yourself in their shoes? How easy is it to accept if no one around you
believes? If no one around you, everybody around you is a skeptic, no one believes this is a very,
very difficult thing to believe it's not easy. The Sahaba are the best of people the best generation
for a reason. Their Eman was the hardest bridge to cross. When someone takes the Shahada today is
way easier than the bridge they had to cross.
00:42:59 -->
00:43:04
Much, much more difficult. And the hardest, the hardest of all is the work of the messenger himself.
00:43:05 -->
00:43:36
And him because you know what luck shows the most intelligent people on the face of the earth to be
his messengers. They're the most intelligent people. And they're smart enough to know that when they
go around knocking doors, and telling people that they get revelation from God, what should they
anticipate practically, they should anticipate that people are gonna say that they're insane,
they're gonna lose their credibility, people are gonna laugh at them, even hurt them even be annoyed
with them, they'll lose the touch touch with their families, that's all going to happen to smart
people can figure this person can figure that out for himself. They knew this going into this
00:43:36 -->
00:43:59
message, but they didn't have a choice. Because they didn't take this up as a hobby. This was given
to them as a responsibility. They had no choice in the matter. Put in this impossible position these
messengers onto him have sought to sell them and help them and only to help them deliver this
message. Allah would give these messengers something that would make their claim more believable.
What was that thing?
00:44:00 -->
00:44:12
The miracles, Allah would give His messengers miracles, so that the skeptics would be quiet
silenced. So the reason for not believing him is not that they didn't see any proof. The reason is,
I'm too arrogant to follow him.
00:44:13 -->
00:44:50
That's the only reason left. The reason isn't intellectual anymore. That's the only reason left and
how do you eliminate the first reason the intellectual problem, you eliminate it by giving the
people something that can only be from a life can't be from a human being. It can't be the product
of the human mind. It can't be creation. It has to be something beyond. It can't be something that
can just occur naturally. You see, which is why when we read about the miracles of different
prophets, the blind person being able to see again, the dead coming back to life, the clay bird
turning into a living bird, all of these things are clear signs that this man is not talking on his
00:44:50 -->
00:45:00
own behalf. He's speaking on behalf of Allah Xhosa. But Allah gave this nation the ultimate miracle
of all, he gave this nation this one
00:45:00 -->
00:45:02
Muslim Ummah and for the rest of mankind, give them four on
00:45:03 -->
00:45:13
this, the staunch difference between Koran and all the other miracles is what? All the other
miracles were for the eyes to see. You could see a dead guy come back to life.
00:45:14 -->
00:45:23
You could see it. You could see the body of water party, you could see that. But the Quran was not
for the eyes. The Quran was for what?
00:45:26 -->
00:45:33
You see something that penetrates your heart. That's what the previous messengers with the Quran in
SME an algebra first me Allah who's me?
00:45:35 -->
00:45:59
What is the lesson? Listen. Listen to it. Yeah you have Nast believe Amazon first me Oh, listen to
it carefully. Listen to this plot. It's a miracle for the IRS is different. All the other miracles
were for what? The eyes. This is this when I was explaining this to my fifth grade classroom back in
the day, one of my students I repeat this often he said, Oh, man.
00:46:00 -->
00:46:07
I said What happened? He said, it's not fear, brother, the mind is like, what's that fear. He said,
all those other prophets got such cool stuff.
00:46:09 -->
00:46:10
We just got a book.
00:46:12 -->
00:46:43
I know it sounds blasphemous, but he's got a point. It is different. We do claim that a book sitting
on the shelf in the machine is the ultimate miracle of God, the ultimate miracle of Islam, the proof
of Islam sitting on each bookshelf this must have. So there has to be some basis that has to be
explored. On what basis do we make this claim? And why subhana wa Taala, he changed the direction of
the miracles. He didn't make it something for the eyes to see, when people saw the water party. They
told their children about it.
00:46:44 -->
00:46:55
I saw it with my own eyes, the kids are listening. Then their kids told their kids and their kids
told their kids until it passed on to us. And we tell our kids that Sunday school Hey, by the way,
massage salon. What did he do?
00:46:57 -->
00:46:59
Something about water? Yeah.
00:47:00 -->
00:47:01
It's just a story now.
00:47:03 -->
00:47:18
For the people who were there, was it just a story? No, it was a miracle. But for the people after
them, it's just a matter of faith. It's not a miracle to them. It's a it's a matter of faith but not
of a miracle. Because a miracle is something you could see something you could experience something
you could taste.
00:47:19 -->
00:47:37
So now the atheist comes the disbeliever comes to the Christian or to the Jew and he says to him you
believe Jesus turned, you know, the dead guide back to life or, you know, the bird came back to
life, things like that. You believe that? He says yes. He said, Why? Because the Bible says so. Is
Were you there when it happened? Anybody recorded
00:47:38 -->
00:47:39
it on YouTube?
00:47:41 -->
00:48:01
Why do you believe it? What does the Christian say? It's in my heart. Well, yesterday, the same
atheist the same capital the same just believe when it comes to the Muslim who believe the Quran is
the word of God. Yeah. Oh, yeah. So did you see the angel come down? No, No, I didn't. So how do you
know that? It's the Word of God? Well, let's come study the Quran. Let me show you.
00:48:02 -->
00:48:44
Let me show you. Let me show you why this can't be human. That next part, when I say let me show
you, that's what we need to know. We need that part. for ourselves and for others. We really need it
for ourselves. Because there's no boost in Eman like the boost you get when you experience a miracle
of Allah. There's nothing like it. And we need that to be able to illustrate it to others, because
then they the question will probe them, they won't go to sleep at night, man, I didn't come up with
an answer to that guy. I gotta look this up. I have a friend who was an atheist, who would go around
MSA programs all over the country, just to mess with the speakers. Right? And he would go and ask
00:48:44 -->
00:49:08
them questions, ask him questions, and until he came to one shape, and he gave him a miracle of
Quran, and he said, Oh, yeah, well, I'll do my research. And he did his research. And he did his
research. He did his research. He couldn't find anything until he had to give up literally give up.
And he took the Shahada. And he says when I say I'm Muslim, you know, what was the means? What,
right? The one who submits, he said, I literally submitted, I had to, I gave up, I couldn't do I
couldn't find any more.
00:49:10 -->
00:49:48
said I couldn't I didn't have anywhere else to go paddle. Ah, that is the thing that we need to
revive. That is something that we need to appreciate. I'll just give you one example. One example of
the Quran as a profound miracle. From the literary point of view. Now you guys have taken literature
classes, right? You've taken Shakespeare, you've taken you know, the Plato's Republic, you read, you
read the Odyssey, right? You read all this stuff, I won't call it garbage because everything has
some benefit, but whatever you read this stuff, these are the landmarks of World Literature, the
products, the ultimate products of the human mind, right. Our belief is that the Quran is the
00:49:48 -->
00:49:59
ultimate literature. Compared to any language, the Quran is the ultimate literature. But that's a
subjective thing. If you're literature students, I think this is a science school, but literature is
not objective. It is why
00:50:00 -->
00:50:32
It's subjective. So you say it's beautiful. I say it's ugly, right? You like that poem? I don't like
that poem. You like this song. I don't like that song, don't listen to songs, but I'm saying, Okay,
well, you like this painting, I don't like that painting. It's subjective. So you could argue that
literature is what is subjective. But I began by saying, Allah says that the Quran is by law, it is
a means of communication. And the point the purpose of communication is to influence the audience.
So we will judge what is better literature by what?
00:50:34 -->
00:50:36
what's the what's the, what's the measuring stick?
00:50:37 -->
00:50:52
What influence does it have? What impact does it have on the world? What change does it cause? How
does it change people? How does it influence behavior? How does it modify people's behavior? How
does it command over people?
00:50:53 -->
00:50:59
That will be the judge. That's a practical judge of the power of any speech, any literature?
00:51:00 -->
00:51:24
You could say? It's wonderful, but i don't i don't i think it's just fiction. Or you could say it's
wonderful and it's changed my life the way I live. And if you study this fact, historically, no
society went through a transformation based on a single text. The way in which the Muslims went
through with what was the Quran, no society in human civilization never. And in How many years did
that society get transformed?
00:51:25 -->
00:52:08
23 years this is even orientalist agree. Okay, the Quran is being claimed as revelation. I won't say
it is revelation, from the customer's point of view. We know it's revelation. He says it's been
claimed as revelation at his age of 40. And it stops at the age of what, 6323 years and 23 years,
this man starts at single single handedly sync one person, and by the end of these 23 years, what
change have these words and this man, this speaker, this speech and this style of speech, what have
they influenced? You see the way people eat? Did it change the way people sleep that change the way
people deal with their family change? The way people schedule their day change? The way people speak
00:52:08 -->
00:52:21
to each other change the way they do business change the way they go to the bathroom changed the way
they dress change. The question isn't what changed? You know what the question is? What did it
change?
00:52:22 -->
00:53:06
Everything changed. Everything changed. Whenever there's a quote unquote, revolution in society.
It's either economic, or its political. Right is a political change. There's an economic changes a
military change. But the way people live on a day to day basis, that doesn't change. They don't
change the way they deal with their families that depending on the government changing, or new
system coming into power, that's still the same, they're still the same person. But this change that
the Koran brought unparalleled in human history. What exactly changed wasn't just societal, wasn't
just on the macro level. It even changed the way people think. change everything. Everything from
00:53:06 -->
00:53:35
the very individual level, to the collective level, every every spectrum in between. This in itself
is in evidence of the unparalleled power of the Quran. The unparalleled power of the Quran is
unparalleled in this way, in sha Allah tala after the break, all I'm going to talk to you about is
just examples from the Quran, one after another of different aspects of the Quran as literature. We
take a break now so panicle llamo, bionic, Masha Allah Allah Allah into Mr. Furukawa willick
