EPIC Quran Night
Nouman Ali Khan – Lessons for the Ummah from the Past Present & Future
AI: Summary ©
The internet is a source of light, and the internet is a source of light. The internet is a source of light, and the speaker emphasizes the importance of reading the Quran and understanding the connection to the internet. The internet is a source of light, and the speaker emphasizes the need for a culture of light. The internet is a source of light, and the speaker emphasizes the importance of parenting for children in terms of their overall well-being and overall well-being.
AI: Summary ©
Salam aleikum wa rahmatullah wa barakato.
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I'd like to I had a few thoughts about what I'm going to be sharing with you this evening. And it so happened that I received a message today. I have I received messages from Dr. Akram nadwi are one of my favorite scholars in the world. He's an Oxford May Allah protect him. He's a great Muhaddith and a scholar of the Quran, and fucky. And often he finds something inspiring and he sends it to just people on his Whatsapp group, right? So he sends these articles out. And he says something been cool, which means it's quoted from a scholar in the six in the year 637. And the scholars name was FUCKLOAD. Dina will Hassan Ali Bin Atmel harati. And what he wrote, is so relevant to what I wanted
to share with you today. So I'm going to start by reading what he wrote translating that for you and then I'm going to talk about the ayat that I'm going to talk to you about today which are from Surah Al hedger. So he says, I hope you pay close attention to what he's saying. It's really beautiful. Ma Sadak through heavy Hill, OMA Antifa Holman Quran, one newhome Angela, the fee may not be associated or welline While Burdell Musa been Wolmar Akabane min, Danny Ultramarine and Metallica in the mammoth su bar will pass us facut he says what stops most people in this OMA he's talking in the sixth century now. Right? The 630 is what stops most of this ummah, from properly understanding the
Quran is that when they see the stories in it, and they see Allah telling us about people who are going to get rewarded, and the people that are going to get punished. And when Allah is telling us about different religions and his commentary on different approaches to God, that all of this is just to inform us and to tell us what happened historically, or what's going to happen color while a psychedelic and know that is not the case in America. In Denmark so the who earlier at a bar with 10 b Who be Moshe Bahat in motor karate when he had the hill OMA, actually the primary purpose of telling everything that Allah does in the Quran is to draw our attention of things that are going to
keep happening in this Oma. So listen to that. Again, he's saying Allah is telling us things about the future things about the past different groups of people, Christians, Jews, Michigan, you name it, and he's actually talking about things that can happen inside of this OMA [email protected] Or that will take a while well as our from all kinds of situations of those people, you'll find a glimpse of them, no matter who they are, you will find them in our own Mahatma yazma Assam and Jamia and Quran when Allah He ILAHA Timothy Montalban, Allah had the hill OMA where I met her until a believer who properly understands this concept. We're going to read the Quran from the beginning of
it to the end of it and they're going to see that it applies completely to this OMA and its leadership, who that he has with Alia, the people that are guided inside of this OMA and the people that are lost inside of the soma, the people that are practicing and the people that are not practicing the people that are knowledgeable, the people that are not knowledgeable, it applies to everyone. The Quran is not relevant to a religious community, the Quran is relevant to the entire Ummah, no matter what state they're in, there are people that belong to this Ummah that are drunk, it applies to them too. There are people in this Ummah that are openly committing haram, it applies
to them too. And it's got something for them. It's something applicable to them, it's speaking to them. And it's speaking to the one who's seeking knowledge as a scholar, or someone who's memorizing the Quran. There's a there's a universal application. And so the sinner will find something in the Quran and the one who's trying to do good is going to find something in the Quran is what he's saying. And then he says for Hina even, in fact, the hula hoop bubble for him and it is only then that the doors of understanding will open for a person. You'll the hula hoop you leave Hula, hula noodle realm, that the light of knowledge is finally
going to shine on him with the third EULA who the techy hola who had on Russia. And finally then he'll find himself truly in awe of Allah and fear of Allah. Well, Rafi Snuffy had the hill Oh, mama semi, I'm in Aquila, Coronel malby. I love this statement that he just made, he's going to see glimpses inside this OMA of what Allah talks about in previous nations is going to see in us behaviors that Allah has talked about in previous nations. This is not to say that we are kuffaar Or we're Bani Israel or it's not that but just to give you a small example of what he's talking about, he goes on I'm cello writer, translate translation of this and put it on my Facebook page for those
of you that are interested, but what what he's talking about is like, for example, fit around, right, you're reading about fit on fit on one of the most powerful, you know, rulers in history, one of the most arrogant human beings that ever lived in In fact, in the Quran, the poster child for arrogance is fit our own probably IBLEES wants his autograph that's, you know, high up he was. So now this guy, his behaviors. When you read that when I read that, I'm like, oh, that's fit our Nana hula how terrible he was. But actually, if you pay close attention, for their own has certain behaviors that I might find in myself, phenomena, certain tendencies, if I pay close attention, for
example, when Musa alayhis salam came to him and said, that I have come on behalf of Allah, that you have to let the Israelites go. He said to him, he said to Musa, listen, didn't I raise you here when you were a baby?
Right? He didn't respond. He just said, didn't I raise you when you were a baby? Now that's a really interesting thing that he did. somebody's telling you the truth. And it's hard to hear and you say, after everything I've done for you, you're going to tell me I'm wrong.
Have you forgotten what I've done for you? Now, you don't have to be around. But that's a that's a tactic that people use. It's the kind of gaslighting that's used. Right? So the point is, okay, fine. I knew and by the way, you hear this and you don't say now okay, I know I found in my family, I'm gonna go back and tell them what's that moment said, you're like, that's like,
you missed the point entirely. The point is to find that in myself to see that in ourselves the same thing we do with sort of use of you know, everybody's like I love so that use of I relate to it so much. It's like the best I saw relate to it. Yeah, cuz you you think your use of that's why nobody says I relate to the brothers so much. I'm so much like them. Like they're the villains relate to those guys? Because you know, they had jealousy. I don't have that problem. No, you don't have that problem. Really. Somebody comes to you and says, Hey, some some one of the young girls in the community. Her friend comes as, Hey, I got engaged. And you're like, congratulations, that's counted
in.
You know, are you been looking for your job your friend comes in says, Hey, bro, I just got a promotion.
Mashallah, Rochelle, and inside, you're like,
I've been looking for two years, I can't find a job. This guy's just getting promotions. He didn't even go to a good school. In fact, he was in my class, he used to get C's and DS, and he's getting the job and I can't get a job. That's what's going on. And yet, you don't have the jealousy problem.
We're like, no, no, I love sororities, I want to relate to you so Felisa, I want to be the hero in my story. Right? So what he's saying is if you if you put the proper authentic lens on, you and I are going to see in the Quran, uncomfortable truths about ourselves, and country, uncomfortable truths about others, but mostly actually about ourselves, how does this apply to us. And if you don't put an authentic view on, if you put a self righteous view on your you and I are not going to be able to see what guidance is coming our way from Allah's book. So now, the ayat that I want to talk to you about today, in fact, today, my goal is two things. And I'm hoping that I can give each
of those things 20 minutes. So the first 20 minutes, I actually want to talk to you about my own goals, through these bots, that I'm going to be sharing with you, I have a sort of a 10 year to 20 year plan, Inshallah, and I, you know, this community has welcomed me and I'd like to share with you what it is that I'm trying to accomplish over the next decade or a couple of decades in sha Allah, if Allah gives life, what is it that I'm hoping to do? And why is it that I'm interested in doing that and what I have been doing? And the second thing specifically, I know this community, and Dallas in general, we have a lot of profiles. And so that's a wonderful thing that there is a
culture of memorizing the Quran, but I want to give specific advice to who filed and how to and the families of the who file on within the next three years. How do you get your child to understand the Quran at the base level while they're going to high school while they're going to college while they're not. You know, okay, you made the sacrifice of memorizing the Quran, but most of the times you're going back into high school, college other obligations, how are they supposed to now take advantage of what they memorized? And you know, because
The pathway seems complicated. So, I want to give simple advice on what to do with the whole file then inshallah it will be of some benefit. So, let me start at the top, this is at the end towards the end of Surah, Al hedger, the 15th surah. In the Quran in the order well in the NN, zero, l Mubin. Tell them the prophets, I saw them as being commended tell them, I am the ultimate Warner that is making everything clear. Nobody will warn better than I will. Well, actually in the Arabic language you say Anna, nothing Iran moving. You don't put oil on these words, but you hear what you find is Anna and Nithya. And moving the harbor is Moran Rafi Lang. When that happens in Arabic, it
means no one will warn the way I do. And there is no greater Warning, warning coming and there's never going to be a warning as clear as this. Nobody will be warning you as clear as I will. And now part of that warning come
to see me this is where things get complicated. So I have come to you as a winner. And now Allah comments he says just like we had sent revelation on those, I'll mock the sea mean those who divide those who cut up and divide a democracy mean, this is a strange word and Allah is using the first rune debated what does it mean? Allah is talking about people before the Prophet sallallahu alayhi wasallam nations before and you usually Allah calls those people kuffaar Or the Mushrikeen, or the people of the past, right? Or the people of the Book, there are different words used for them. But this time, he used a very interesting description of the people of the past. Specifically, I
inclined towards the view that this is referring to the Jews and the Christians. There's another view that this is referring to the leaders of Koresh maybe another time I'll describe that position also. But today I'm going to describe how this is referring to the people of the book. Okay. The people of the Book who did what he describes the people of the book here as people who divided things up, divided up. So the question is, what did they divide up? One thing they divided up they said the professor one said, Okay, well, when they heard the Quran, and people said, What do you think about the Quran? They said, the parts of it that I agree with I like the parts of it that are
in the Bible that agree with the Bible. I like those parts. The other parts? No, I don't. So they divide the parts they like from the parts that they don't like that's one kind of division that they do, right? So. So come on in Santa Monica semaine by the way, the previous iOS that Allah so Salam is the ultimate Warner and that warning, previous nations were warned also, and they failed their warning and what did they do with their revelations? They cut up their revelations, they cut them up, right? And the revelation is supposed to keep things together. And the people of the past their mistake was they cut up the revelation and we're gonna see what that means a little bit further. And
the next aisle, Allah defines who these dividers are these people who do division, what exactly do they divide? He says Alladhina Jaya Khurana between those who took the Quran and tore it and cut it up into pieces. Ilene is actually from Abu in Arabic or Abdullah, which means a piece of something. And it's a complex word here, I won't get into the Bulava and the technicalities of the word. But what I want you to know is Allah is saying these are people who took the Quran and they cut it apart. So they don't look at it as a whole. They look at it as a part. Now let's understand two things about the word Quran then I can explain in simple language, two things you don't need to know
about the word Quran. The word Quran can refer to the book of Allah the Quran that we're reciting. But um Quran can also refer to anything that is recited.
So um, Quran in this ayah, according to many of us, can also refer to the Torah and the NGL, because it was also being recited. So now Allah is making a comment about the Jewish and the Christian people. And he's saying, they cut up the Bible, they cut up the old testament and the new they cut up the Torah and the Injeel. And they're doing the same thing with the Quran. So using the word Quran, both of them what they did historically, and what they're doing now, both comments got covered. So to truly understand this, and what the quote I read to you earlier on, was about everything you read about the people of the past, you have to read it as though you're reading it
about yourself like this applies to me, this applies to you, etc. So what I want to do is take a little bit of time and help myself and you understand and review. How is it that the Jews and the Christians and these are two very different religions? How did they divide up their book? What did they do with their religion that Allah is commenting about? And if we learn about that, maybe we'll learn what are we in danger of doing with our religion? What is the threat to us? So in essence, what happened with the with the revelation given to the people of the book like Musa
They sometimes people when we throw in, is that Allah gave them the Book of Allah through Musa lism. And, you know, the basic Sunday School version is they made changes in their book. That's not all they did. What they did is they reduced the book of Allah to just rules and regulations. The entire religion is what halal and haram. It's just fatawa. That's all it is. In fact, they developed a huge body of work on the fatwas on the legal rulings, called the Talmud. So there's the Torah and there is the Talmud, and the Talmud overrides the Taurat. So they've developed this huge, thick book. And once they develop that fifth book, anything they read in the Torah, they say, No, no, no, no, no,
let's see what the Talmud says. Then we're going to override what what the Torah says you understand. So they did develop this legal legalistic way of looking at their religion. And now that they developed it, their fatawa, their rulings and all of that. Now, you can never study the Torah unless the meanings of the Torah are surrendered to the Talmud. This is the intellectual history of the Jewish people. Okay. So what did they do they cut up authority, the authority belong to the word of Allah, but now the authority belong to the positions of their scholars, and if their scholars, interestingly enough, if their scholars had 50 different positions, 50 different fatwas on the same
issue, you know what they said? All of them are valid.
All of them are true, because they came from a reputable source that are reputable, you know, I live there, Mufti there the rabbi whoever, right, that became equal to divine. In fact, in another place in the Quran, Allah comments on this thing that they did it the Hulu bada boom, bada Urbana home or Baba Mindu Nila. They took their monks and their rabbis, their scholars as gods besides Allah. And there was also some was asked how did they take them as gods besides Allah? Well that's because what they said Halal became Halal what they said haram became haram in the book of Allah Tala didn't matter now, it can get overwritten, you understand? So the Torah just became kind of a formality. Is
this thing you something you recite in America sooner? or later you just recited but the practical life? Or how should I live as a believer that came from the Talmud. So the Torah actually became something ceremonial. And the Talmud became the Practical Guide to living as a Muslim. This is by the way, these are the Muslims of that time. You understand? They're not the kuffaar they're not the Yo, they're the Muslims before Rasulullah sallallahu alayhi wa sallam. Okay? So now, that's one of the things they did as a result, what they also did is they are two separate things. And if you study the Bible, especially what Jesus is doing when he started a salaam comes, and he's talking to
the Jews, he's the last prophet sent to the Jews, right? The way he's criticizing them. He's criticizing them because they have divided their book, they have separated the law, from what's called the spirit of the law, the law from what the spirit of the law so I want you to understand this difference because that's going to inform what we're going to talk about today. Allah has given us rules and regulations he gave the people of the book also rules and regulations, what's halal, what's haram? What is permitted, what is not permitted, what is mandatory, etc, etc, right? But there's also the spirit of the law. The spirit of the law is what is the purpose behind each rule.
So for example, Salah is fourth. Everybody knows prayer is mandatory five daily prayers in the salata mini Nikita Mahkota, it's abundantly clear, there is no exception. Prayer is mandatory. But Allah in the Quran tells us that the the fundamental purpose of prayer is not to fulfill your obligation. The fundamental purpose of prayer is to remember Allah and the fundamental benefit of prayer is that will stop you from doing something evil in the salata turn and fascia you will wake up. Right? That's the That's the purpose. So what is Allah do He gives us a law and then he gives us the purpose. Fasting is mandatory for those who are healthy, right? It's mandatory, but Allah will
add the Allah Contacta code so you can develop Taqwa. So there's always the law, and there's the purpose. And the thing is what the people before us did is they kept the law and they distressed on the law. What time is it supposed to start? What time is it supposed to end? What breaks it? What are the technicalities? What if you do this what if you do that? What if you smell the chicken does your your fasting break? You know, or what you technicalities and 100 questions about the technicalities and what got what disappeared. The purpose this what's called the spirit of the law, it started disappearing. Now the thing about the revelation of Allah, Allah never talks about a law
without mentioning its purpose. It's always
Together, they're all they always go hand in hand. But people over time the Israelites over time, they became so obsessed with the technicalities of the religion, the fatawa, and the religion. And that's all it became. So now somebody came into the masjid, or they were in the synagogue and they're praying, and they pray slightly one degree off from the way they were supposed to pray, or the recruiter wasn't 90 degrees enough, like Brother, you need to work on your back. I know a chiropractor that can fix your Salah. Like you just, you know, you're so you're just checking everybody's like, is it 90 degrees? Or 87 degrees? Or is this a little bit off? Or is his feet were
like this way? And I think they need to be this way, or this way? Or this way? Which way is this supposed to be? When you're just checking everybody's feet? There's some people are checking the, you know, I saw this guy making wudu. And I'm not sure if that's authentic leather or synthetic leather? Or did he just do mus over cotton socks? What kind of socks were those? And you're just like, scanning the entire we'll do section for, you know, when when this becomes an obsession. You know, this became an obsession for the people that came before us, right? And this is what they did. They took the law, and they cut it apart from the spirit of the law. So they became overly
technical. And then the other thing they did at the same time, the Jews specifically, not just not, not only did they cut the law from its spirit, they cut the glorious parts of their history, from the embarrassing parts of their history. They cut those apart. So in their history, they killed profits, and their history. They they tried to change the book of Allah, and their history, they made mistakes. But in their history, they also had many prophets who made victories. There were many great people that follow kata llama, or would it be Yuna cathedra. Quran describes great victories of the Israelites that are even glorified in the Quran. So which parts of their history that they
always talk about? Did they always learn from the glorious parts? And which parts of their history did they never even even think about or even want to bring up the ugly parts of their history? The thing is, when you learn about your history, you learning about yourself. And if you only learn about the good parts, then you're not going to be ready for what's coming ahead. You understand? So what did Allah do? And so little Bukhara he exposed them to the parts of their history that they never talked about. Right? They saw themselves as the chosen people, because they had a certain selective view of history. Now, of course, Muslims never do this. So we don't just quote or murder,
Bob, fast forward to Salahuddin festival. We don't do that. Right. We don't just talk about the glorious parts of our history, and, you know, skip all of the terrible mistakes that we made in our history, and that we should learn and how we gave up and how the Muslims got colonized and how the Muslims ever fought each other and spilled each other's we don't of course, we never forget about. Yeah, we do. Yeah. Same mistake. Same mistake, the ones that they made. This is a democracy mean, Allah makes you have an honest view at history. Allah makes you look at your the law that Allah has given comprehensively. This is on the, on the Jewish side of the table. On the Christian side of the
table, the extreme opposite happened. They saw that the Jewish people were so focused on the law, and the technicalities and the fic and the fatwa, they were so focused on that, that they're losing the house, they don't feel anything. All they're checking for is all the technicalities, but they don't feel anything when they pray, they don't cry in their prayer, there's no emphasis on spirituality. So what did the Christian extreme do? We're going to bring back what spirituality, whatever it takes, we're gonna make our hearts connect to God, right? We're gonna if we have to sing, we'll sing. If we have to dance, we'll dance if we have to scream and cry will scream and cry,
but we're going to bring back spirituality. And these these laws, this fic these rulings, these are the things that made people's hearts hard, we're just gonna get rid of all the laws. Because that's just, you know, outside stuff. That's just appearance and food and this and that. That's not what brings you close to God. Prayer is what brings you close to God, you know, crying to him, besieging him, seeking His forgiveness, bringing a repentant heart, having a soft heart, giving charity be taking care of your fellow man, that's what brings you close to God. So they became obsessed with the spiritual and they became almost allergic to the legal the Shediac. they're allergic to the
Shediac. In fact, the Doctrine and Christianity across its denominations, many of its denominations is Jesus was sacrificed so that we don't have to obey the law. Right? So they actually made this entire narrative where the law is irrelevant. So you see two extremes. Now you see the people before us, they took the DAT, which brings the heart close to Allah, and they sacrifice the law and the other group, they committed themselves to the law and it's technicalities.
And they sacrificed What brings you close to Allah. They separated those two things you understand? And then Allah gave us he gave us the Quran. And in fact, when Allah says about the Quran in the ayat before this one he says, well look at the attina Cassava mineral Muthoni will Quran Allah Aleem, and we have given you seven of the often repeated ones like the ayat of the Fatiha. You know, that's most common interpretation of this phrase, The Seven ayat of the Fatiha repeated most often. And on top of that we have given you the Great Quran. And what that means is we've given you a revelation like no other. If given you a revelation like no other now, the law can never be
separated from the spirit of the law. The spiritual can never be separated from the legal they're always together. One of the most technical places in the Quran two of the most technical places will be the passages on divorce and the passages on inheritance technical legal stuff, this one gets one six this one gets to third this one gets one, you know one for this one does this fractions right? And then okay, if you divorce her this much time passes, and this and how much matter do you owe and technicalities? Every one of those ayat has a vicar of Allah in it, every one of them Subhanallah you know, what can Allah who aren't even Hakima what Allah and Allah Allah Allah Allah Murphy
unfrequent Vibrato is discussing a legal thing. And while it's discussing a legal matter at the end of the IR, what is there a spiritual reminder, in the middle of three, four pages of my oath of divorce, have you either solo it was solid and mastaba Comala community, make sure you guard your prayers, and stand in front of Allah with humility, while in the middle of the Ayat of divorce. Why? Because the Quran never allows you to separate the legal from the spiritual, it fuses them together, it fuses them together. But there's one more important piece of lien. And that piece is that the people before us, they broke up into many different groups, denominations, if you go to we don't
have as many actually in Texas, if you go to Arkansas, if you go to Little Rock, every other block has a different denomination church, it's crazy. And they're all worship and love Jesus, but they're different kinds of Jesus, depending on the church you go, but theologically, very different from each other, their view of salvation of the divinity of Jesus, all of it, similarities, but major differences, right.
Similarly, the Jewish people develop many differences among themselves. And sometimes what these differences did is that they looked at the Bible.
And they looked for the the verses that could make their church look like the right church.
And they could make their school look like the right these are the verses that we use to show that we are the right saved group, everybody else is wrong. Of course Muslims have never done anything like this. We don't break up into groups and then select some ayat from here some a Hadith from there. Those are the standard a hadith for our group. We quote these leads to show that everybody else is going to * were the ones that are saved Alhamdulillah we await Oh, yeah. With that one pretty good too.
And Latina joggle Khurana as the I won't name groups, I don't even have to you guys know everybody's some group or the other. Some some ideological thing or the other young man came to me started talking to me about Brother, how come you never talk about this? And that? I was like, why don't you talk to me about it. Tell me. He goes Allah subhanaw taala says and he quotes and I then he quotes another I then he quotes another and I was like, I'm gonna quote the next three out for you. Just hold on. Then I quoted the next three that he was going to court he was how did you know? I was like I've been around your block.
You guys have a curriculum, your quote these ayat, to justify your position. You don't even know what Surah they came from. You don't even know the ayah before in the eye after you're so obsessed with your delene to get to your point that the Quran itself the Quran itself is just a set of references. You can just take this little quote here, little quote there and slap somebody across the face and say see I got the hook you got the button.
I know exactly what you're doing. I played this game before all the times. Other people will take this hadith, this hadith, this hadith, put it together and say here.
I would be in some Halaqaat we'd be studying Quran and say hey, how can we don't never say you said that Surah know that surah is not important for our group. For this for this purpose. Really now you can decide which rules are important and which ones are not important.
And this is a reality in which entire groups justify their because the religion is no longer
or where the book of Allah is in the supreme place. It's actually the group that's in the supreme place. And then the book is being used to justify how right that group is you understand the book is just a weapon almost a just a crutch, a referential tool. Now I want to come to the vision that I have I don't comment if you've been listening to me for years you know, I don't comment on any group any denomination ever. I'm not interested. And I've I've when I was exploring my own religion in New York back in college days when I was like, Yep, I want to be Muslim like Muslim Muslim not Lowercase Capital M Muslim, that I wanted to understand what is the deen is about and in New York you had even
back in the 90s you had 150 masajid masala has different places, depending on which Masjid you go to you get a different kind of Islam.
You get here's the most important thing. Here's the number one thing you must know. And then you go to the next question. No, no, no, here's the number one thing you must know. And you go to the third question, the number one thing you must know is don't go to this much to that question.
But you know what i did I I don't like to learn about things from the outside. I like to learn things from the inside. So when I got into one group, I really got into that group. Then I got into the next group, I really got into that group and then the third group and I really got into that group until I started asking some questions. So are we gonna study the Quran or are we gonna know rather we're just gonna this is the book we're gonna study and this is these are the Delisle we're gonna study and these are the why are we being so selective? Why can't we just study the you know, Allah just did give us a book and he said, it's pretty great. Subliminal Mahtani Well, Khurana
Levine we've given you the great most repeated the Quran that is supposed to be repeated often read over and over again. How can we ain't written and over over and over again? How many of you guys that are running the Holocaust have read the entire Quran and with forget translation, even if even if a translation that'd be huge. Can you tell me what this guy said? Allah says a sutra that was like, Okay, what else is essential to Rod? Do you know how it begins?
We don't know. And this is supposed to be I'm not commenting on the Ummah, I'm commenting on people that are involved in Islam in some way. Even the people that are involved in Islam are so partial to their approach to the Quran to the word of Allah. Right? And the word of Allah was supposed is the thing that revolutionized the Sahaba that changed the world. This book is actually what brought change to the world. This is just reality Robbie, the letters the messages of my master, and yet it became a secondary tertiary thing.
Then I decided, Okay, I'm gonna get into Quran studies. I just want to get involved deeper and deeper into Quran studies. And there again, I ran into a problem because when I was studying the Quran at first, I said I don't know much so I'm going to study to see dibuka few Rahim Allah al ko Toby Tabari when my Arabic are good enough, you know jolla lane. I started reading the early tafazzin. And the Athar thought I started studying that stuff. And I'm realizing that most of the time we're not studying the Quran, were studying what was said about the Quran. And then I developed another problem this might sound controversial to some of you, but I'm gonna say it like it is. I
started sensing and I asked some of my teachers how come Allah says this. And we say in also looked of seed, we say the Quran explains itself and Quran you fasudil Barbu Dharma we say this bond, I read a classical seed under the ayah. There's not an explanation from the Quran. There's an explanation, not even from an agreed upon Hadith, not even an explanation from it, we go straight to a quote from a Sahabi, who which the authentication can be questioned. First of all, but on top of that, we quote this a Hobby Lobby Allahu Anhu. And then we say, this is the only way to look at this idea. There's the only possible thing you can say about this idea, wait a second, he's not the only
Sahabi he's the only Sahabi that we quoted.
Right? And on top of that, this is not the only possible position, there are other Sahaba other opinions, this is the one that gets recorded. And on top of all of that, how can anyone claim that the word of Allah was contained in the mind of one person?
In the mind of any any any one person, this is the word of Allah? How can the infinite word of Allah that will continue to give and give and give be contained by one opinion by one position by one attempted understanding? And among the Sahaba, there were differences? So which one is you know, they're all making human attempts sometimes to understand. So then I ran into that and I started discussing this with all my privately I never give public lectures about this. This was my own journey. And I'm trying to say, hey, we say the word of Allah is in the highest place.
but a lot of times, when you explain this idea, you put something else in the highest place. And then you superimpose that on the idea. But the idea was saying something else helped me understand it. And they're like, Yeah, you're right. But that's what it says. Or that's what they said earlier. But why did they say it? I'm just kind of, can you just shut up? Can you just start ask that? So then I, as I traveled the world Alhamdulillah, I started meeting other men that have dedicated their lives to studying Quran to really diving deep into Quranic studies. And I started benefiting from their thought process. Around the world, I met people like Professor Abdullah halimun, in London,
you know, or Dr. Criminal, Louis, for example. And of course, my dear, he's younger than me, but he's brilliant. Doctor, so hip said it was in Glasgow in Scotland, and that I meet some amazing students at the International Islamic University in Malaysia that are doing remarkable work in Tafseer. You I met some incredible imams in Turkey. I meet these remarkable people around the world, like,
we need to get together. What is the study Quran together? We need to have some collaboration. Because if the people that are involved in Islamic studies aren't even doing justice to the Quran, they're not what do we expect the average Muslim to know? Like, what are we gonna expect them to know? I'll tell you a sad story. Not too long ago, a young scholar. And these are scholar, I'm not a scholar. I'm a student. I'm a researcher, but I'm not a scholar, and I have no hesitation in declaring that to you. He came to my my office, and he saw my library. My Library is just Quran related work. And one of the books was open. So he goes, Ah, this is the Tafseer you read? I was
like, yeah, when it's a thematic issue. I start with this one. But if it's a linguistic issue, I read it no sure. I Lucy Alka Schaff. Sometimes a Razzie. If it's a historical issue, I might do another Maduro Maduro fit and so will it was sewer and there's some other books that I might consult first. If it's, you know, a comparative religion issue, I might go here. If it's Ebola or related issue, I might go here. And he's like, Oh, can you make a list for me?
And I was like, but you're, you're the scholar. Yeah, but we didn't focus on that we were studying. Conversely, I was like, Okay, that's great. You were studying these other subjects. I respect those subjects. But bro, this is Islam. The Islam was a building. The main pillar in that building is why it's the Quran. Quran studies is at the core, everything else stems from it. Everything else is a byproduct of what is happening here. But you know, what's happened, everything else has become primary. And Quran studies have become secondary. I went to Dr. Akram nadwi. And I said, Where can I go in the world to study the Quran? He just smiled at me.
So you might find some places and he mentioned like two or three and I was like two or three in this Oma. We're a fifth of the world's population. And our book is the Quran. And you're telling me there are two or three places in the world that I can go to properly deeply study Quran. Okay, then I asked him other subjects, where can I go to study FIQ 100. Places, Hadith, 100. Places history 100 lists are long, which is the theme subject in Islamic Studies, study of the Quran. I was shocked. Like, how is this possible? Why is this happening? So the few people that are working in it, they need to be brought together. And that's one of the things that I tried to do. Actually, my this a
series that I've been working on for 10 years now is a series of trying to explain a surah of the Quran as best I can. And behind me because I know I can do my own studies comparative to see it and all that. But that only has so much that I can get. So I have a group with me, of scholars and researchers. And we discuss whatever lecture I'm going to give we discuss it together for a couple of hours, we go back and forth. And then I ask all of my hard questions. We debate we research counter argue and then I give my dumps on whatever topic because I believe in collaborative learning. I don't believe in I have the answer. I figured it out. I actually believe in taking
advantage of other people's remarkable, you know, contributions. And in any field, the field moves forward when people collaborate, right? And I've seen by the way non Muslims are collaborating in the study of the Quran far better than the Muslims are. I've talked about this one time before I'll tell you a story. I'm actually going to go to one soon I think Chef hacer might be going to but I'm definitely going I signed up already. It's exciting and Rome. I want to see what they do there. I want to see how they do it. But I went to a symposium at Oxford University a few years ago.
They had 100 Different Orientalist Quran studies specialist PhDs, non Muslims most of them from around the world people flew in from Australia, from Tel Aviv
you know, Israelis
scholars of the Quran, right? And Chicago, Harvard, you name it, people came from all over the world. And there were some Muslims there too. And it was a symposium for a weekend on the muddy Quran. And each person was presenting their thesis and the other academics that were sitting there are ripping them apart.
Like, the guy will say, This is my thesis and last rather stupid. And I here's why. And they're just terrible part. And then the guy that's being tear torn apart, he was thanking them.
He's taking notes. Thank you. That's, that's really good. Thank you. Thank you. He's not like, Oh, you're gonna call me coffee? You're bigger coffee than me.
Are you gonna give me I'm gonna give a football on you? No, no, no, they were collaborating. They were learning to under non Muslim so they after all of it, they went for a vodka together at the local bar. But they're studying Quran now. I got angry. I was like these people collaborate so well, from around the world to study Allah's book, How come I've never seen this? How come we're not doing this? We should be doing this better than anybody else. This is our book. You know, and most of the
Theses were bogus, but we do some real work. So so one of my primary motives is to actually get scholars, researchers enthusiast and Quranic studies from around the world together. And to bring like minds together, and to be to be able to engage in real deep studies and Quranic studies issues and how it relates to the average Muslims life. That's one part. The next part, this should take five minutes, is related to myself and my mom. This next part is not scholarly, it's down to earth again. And that is by the time I was 17 years old, I didn't know anything about the Quran, and I'm raised a Muslim, and most of my life was in the Muslim world. I went to Islamic I went, I was in
Saudi Arabia. I was in Pakistan. And then finally I came to the US, right, I came to the US when I was 15 years old. But by the time I was 17, I barely knew anything about the Quran. And if I barely know anything about the Quran, there are hundreds and millions of Muslims around the world average good Muslims that know nothing about the Quran for next to nothing. They know that they know a few suitors they memorize when they were kids. They were forced to memorize the translation of a couple of schools if they went to a Sunday school or an Islamic school or whatever. But they don't know they know that it has like been offered.
That's that's judgment, a brotherhood and judgment a There you go. That's your, that's your Quran. That's what the average person knows. And that was like, Maybe this got really bad in my generation. Let me ask my mom. Hey, Mom, when you were growing up, what did you know about the Quran? She goes, I went to Catholic school. I don't know.
I was like, those were the best schools in Pakistan. So our parents sent us to Catholic school.
I was like, Okay, but what did you know about the Quran? She was probably not heard about, you know, Tiamat and dosa and Jana will do words for heaven, * judgment day. But, boy, anything specific? No. I Fatiha I remember, I read the translation one time.
That's my mom's generation. And she's that's not one person. That's hundreds of millions of mothers. Now grandmothers that knew next to nothing about the Quran, their children next to nothing about the Quran, their children, hundreds of millions of them. This is not a crisis of how do I raise my child in America that they know their religion, bro, this is the Muslim world. This is happening in Sri Lanka, this is happening in India, this is happening in Pakistan in Bangladesh, it's happening in Malaysia and Indonesia, is happening everywhere. So this is a global crisis of the OMA at large.
We don't know. And I don't blame us. I don't blame us. Something has to be done to take us from almost zero to at least a basic level of understanding the Quran a basic, we don't have to become overthrown. But a basic level of understanding the Quran has to be there. So when I thought man, I got to, I don't know I need to learn right? And people aren't teaching it so I'm just going to try to figure out the Quran myself. I bought a translation of the Quran actually, I was given a gift. You guys ever heard of the use of the translation of the Quran? I got to use it for the translation of the Quran when I was 18 years old. I I ever I remember falling asleep on the on the F train in
New York City when I was reading the use of value translation, because I was trying to make a lot of sense. First time I read glad tidings to the believers. I thought it was talking about the detergent tide. Like why is why is there detergent in local? Who's ever used Glad Tidings bro? Have you ever been given glad tidings to your friend, glad tidings upon the coming of aids like we nobody talks like that I can't make sense of hast thou not CNF? Right. It's great for that time, but it's not making sense. And then people then afterwards have written easy
Your English translations of the Quran, right? And then people come to me and say, oh, sorry, here's an easy english translation of the Quran do you recommend it and I read two three to three strands if translations and I'm like,
I'm gonna go, I just because it's easy english doesn't mean it's good translation. It's horrible translation horrible. Like I don't want to, you know, criticize somebody else's work but the quality of work is so bad. And then people are reading it and obviously they're confused. They're like I tried to read it. It didn't make sense. You know, one of the things I do when I'm, a lot of times I'll get in a taxi or just ride I'll just interview people about the Quran. Especially if I'm lucky enough they don't know who I am. I just have a comment. So have you read the Quran?
Did you read the translation? Yeah, it was confusing. It doesn't make any sense to me as I tried to make sense of it but it just seems like it's talking about Bani Israel. I'm not buddies, right? What's, who's the Who are they? What do I care? I just got to put food on the table for my family. So there's, there's an overall, like mass level unawareness of the Quran. The people that are involved in Islamic studies, I would argue there's a level of Aileen we've cut the Quran out of Islamic Studies it's not at the center you know, our we're only taking select Ayat for particular agendas that's all we're doing. Nobody says hey, let's get together and understand as Bukhara then
let's understand Alia and Ron let's understand a Nyssa. Let's understand Alma Ada and out off and fun doba units who use them
where you're gonna go, what are you going to do? Some of you belong to South Asia
and South Asia. Those of you that are do speaking, there were people in the history of South Asia for example, Dr. Sarek with more recently, Rahim Allah or Dr. Freda Hashmi, some others that tried to do all the others of the Quran right? And millions of people got affected because they're here they've read Quran and translation in Urdu before but it made a little bit of sense for the first time it revolutionized it. Then I asked myself Okay, so this is an those of you that are from Arab countries. You saw the work of Sheikh Mohammed Fotolia shara, we like Maha Allah and His gurus on the Quran that were being played in bus buses in the in Egypt. And, you know, everybody was
listening to his tapes, he's giving gurus how after Quran iya and he's giving these lectures on the Quran. And people are for the first time in a secularized Egypt, coming back to the Quran because he was just sharing Allah's book. That's what he was doing. And then I asked myself, this should be done in English. Let me find who's doing this in English.
It ain't happening. So if this is years ago, I was like I have. I'm a scrub, but I'm going to try those people that are much better than that should be doing this. But if it's not happening, somebody's got to do it. got to start somewhere. And hopefully, somebody will come along and say this idiot No, man, what is he done? Let me let me show you how it's really done. And they'll do a much better job. But it's got to start right and my entire purpose was easy access to the Quran. My most recent trip to Europe a few months ago, I went to one country that I've never been to before I went to Bosnia. Okay, and had a story night a story from the Quran I shared over three hours at a at
a resort in Bosnian, they've never had an Islamic event in English.
I wasn't even sure if anybody would understand English, it was a shot in the dark. It was a full house I finished my lecture, people started coming to me. And I realized something. There were entire regions in the world that we can now access it the English language. English has become a universal language. When I go to Malaysia, people are speaking English like they were raised in New Jersey.
Which means it's not that good because New Jersey
no Malaysians speak good English, not like jersey, okay, so
the world has become smaller. There is an opportunity to make generations of people be able to access the meanings of the Quran to think about the Quran. But I don't just want them to understand the Quran and this is what I'm going to end with my my, my my goal is actually to do two things. Two things people keep talking about we must understand the Quran we must understand the Quran. That to me is item number three. There's two items before then, one we must see the Quran as truly divine.
I have to feel that it can't be human. A human being didn't say this. This isn't manmade religion. This has to be a higher power. How do I make someone feel that even if they understand it, but they don't feel that it's still a problem?
And in my view that the generation that we're in now, Muslims have to be re convinced of their Islam, the fact that they will
were born in a Muslim family is not enough. It's not enough in America. It's not enough in Makkah, it's not enough in Jakarta. It's not enough in Lahore. It is not enough. The generations of Muslims have to be reintroduced to why they should believe in this book to begin with. And the Quran is is capable in itself to convince anyone of its divinity, our MacFie him and Sunnah and he can Kitab him, isn't it enough for them that we have sent a book that is to be read on them, it is enough for them. For previous prophets, miracles used to be enough to convince that this is from God. Allah says about the Quran, the Quran itself is enough, which means we have to present it as a divine
miracle. That has to be done. That's one. The second is okay, fine. It's from God. But what does that have to do with me? I got my life, I got my issues, I got my stress, I got my anxiety, I got my depression. I got my mother in law, I got my father in law, I got my cousin, I got my uncle, my parents hate me, I hate my brother, etc. What does it have to do with me? You know, what am I some guy even told me? What am I going to do with the Battle of butter?
Right.
From his point of view, I understand the question. The question is that of relevance? How is the book relevant to me? What is it giving me? How is it? Okay, fine. I keep hearing comments about it. It's a guidance. It's a guidance, it's a guidance. But that's not going to be enough. I have to illustrate how every idea is something coming out of this idea that brings light into my life, it makes something better, it heals me in some way. She thought wouldn't leave office saloon. It's got a healing for what lies inside of the chests. So there's a there's the divinity of the Quran. And there's the relevance, the connection to the Quran, the connection and then on top of that, you
build the understanding of the Quran, we just keep thinking, which translation should I read? Which Tafseer Should I read to understand the Quran better? Yeah, the understanding is great. But if these these, these matters of the heart are not dealt with first, then the occult can grow, but the heart is still in the same place. You know, we don't want to be like the Israelites who built knowledge, but the spiritual side was dead. And we don't want to be on this side where they wanted to focus on spirituality and the knowledge of the religion was dead, by the way, as politically incorrect as it may sound when you travel the Muslim world, you will see both of those things. You will see Muslims
focus so much on spirituality that they will violate Allah Sharia in the name of spirituality, it is a reality in the Ummah today, and you will see people so focused on the technicalities, that and there's harshness in their speech. There's no other than the way they deal with people. There's no mercy they have to or children or family members, but they're fit because rock solid.
Now you see those 10 the same things. Raeleen Alladhina, Jiang Khurana regaline That's what they did. And these tendencies can only be destroyed, they can be annihilated by us restoring the conversation about the Quran. That's actually what I want to do. I have come here now two weeks in a row.
I won't be coming for a while because I'm traveling again, there are some scholars I need to meet. And there are places in the world that I need to go and do some other work Inshallah, but I, I wanted you to, to just get a glimpse of the focus that I have, and some might agree some might not agree and I'd like to have conversations with you about this. But I do believe that it's time that the Quran was restored to its place in our thinking. When Allah says, well Tasi will be humble Allah He Jaime and hold on to the rope of Allah, all together. That means the public consciousness of the Muslims should revolve around the Quran, first and foremost, and then everything else is in second
place. And now, if it's not the case, we need to do something to make that happen. Complaining about that is not enough. We've got to do something about it. And these last 10 or so minutes or less, Inshallah, I want to talk to the whole five. Those of you that have family members that are memorizing the Quran, you put your kids in a health program, or you finished memorizing the Quran, or you memorized it 1520 years ago, you have to understand something, you are carrying the word of Allah, the word of Allah that changed the world, and that those words are not just sounds, they're a message. So you are more obligated to understand the Quran than the other average Muslim, because
Allah gave the space in your heart to be able to memorize it. You have to take more steps than anybody else to understand Allah's book. Because you are in the best position to share Allah's book, it will just come out of your heart. You don't even have to open a book. You could just share the eyelets in your heart. You could just say the surah you understand? So now the thing is when I see that you might feel intimidated as a half of the Quran. Hey, I How am I going to learn Arabic? It's really hard bro. I tried. I signed up for a course and I signed off and got my refund because I got depressed after three sessions when they
Got tumbled off and hold off really? I was modular and that's it. And it was.
It was over for me. I get it. Okay. I'm not asking you to learn Arabic yet. I got a recommendation for you. Please take my recommendation seriously, I'm talking to you as if you're sitting in my living room. You're my 15 year old young kid who's memorized the Quran. And I'm trying to tell you what to do with your Quran. As you go into high school in college, I've done a brief commentary on the entire Quran in video. Fatiha since done. I put it on my website on being a TV. But you know, TV cost $11 A month. If you can't afford it, don't worry about it. Click on gift, get it for free. I don't care. Just get it. Download the app. You know what an app is? I know. Get the get it. Now.
What are you going to do when I start with Fatiha every day? First 20 minutes is 20 minutes sections for the whole Quran. Listen to 20 minutes of it on Monday. Listen to the same 20 minutes on Tuesday. Listen to the same 20 minutes on Wednesday and the same 20 minutes on Thursday, four times listen to the same thing. And the fifth time on Friday, take a little bit of notes. Not every word I said just a few notes. Some words you might want to remember. That's it. That's all you're doing. Four times you listen to the same thing. The fifth time you write some things down next week, the next 20 minutes. Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday, same exact 20 minutes. The fifth time you write it
down, you know what's going to happen pretty soon.
Pretty soon you'll be reciting the same Quran, you do your Mirage anyway, right? You go over it, you do your review. As you're doing a review, the vocabulary will become natural. You didn't even have to memorize vocabulary. You will remember some of the lessons I shared about the ayah some things you might learn about the it will become natural, it'll become associated with what you're memorizing. And this will not happen if you listen to something once you're like, oh, he said four times. I could do it one time. 2x speed I got it. I finished the whole Yeah. And do they have a saying are good or PJH? Hard? Right?
You're running fast ahead. You're running with a bucket but the buckets got a hole. Like I made it. He made it with an empty bucket bro. You cannot retain until you repeat. We're and we're in social media times, right? You got to see a new than a new thing than a new thing than a new thing. And you will remember nothing. Because you're so obsessed with the new. Stop being obsessed with the new use the same one. He listened to one thing, listen to it four times and give yourself time, Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday, and Friday, you take a little bit of notes. You know what I said? Take a little bit of notes. I wasn't talking to the girls. If I was talking to the girls, I wouldn't even
have to say take notes. They will take notes every every one of those days. Because that's girls. Well, you know, what boys do? They write three words are like
that's why I said a little bit of notes. Just one or two words. That's all because I know I'm a lazy note taker myself. When I took notes on the Quran Wallahi a whole page, I'd have three words, I was like, I'll remember the rest.
I forced myself to remember better because I'm such a lazy no take
it will force you to remember more. But that's what I want you to do, even if you don't finish the whole Quran. If you can do that for six months, if you can do that for six months, I don't know when I'm going to be back it will be a few months. Whenever I'm back, the whole fall here that take this recommendation and the families that take that recommendation on the commute to school on the way to work while you're working out whatever just pop it in, or listen as a family 20 minutes the same 20 minutes four times notes the fifth time come and talk to me in six months and tell me that didn't work. Come and tell me your Quran didn't completely transform on what you're reciting you feel about
a differently now. And you know what's going to happen then, after you do this for the entire Quran, you know what's going to happen then, then when you start studying Arabic it will be 100 times easier than you ever thought it would be. Don't even worry about the Arabic yet. Just do this. This is my recommendation for the whole fourth. take that seriously inshallah and you'll see a very big change in your connection to the Quran. My message to you from the end of Surah Al hedger and my vision to you are connected. Allah complains about those who took the Quran and tore it to pieces. They didn't give the Quran its place. They only make give it a referential place. And they separated
its spirituality from its law, its history from its, you know from its reality check its relevance to our life to just being historical. They did that. We don't want to be those people. I don't want to be those people. And I want to be able to show myself and others that the Quran doesn't just belong inside of a halacha in a masjid. The Quran belongs in the university. The Quran belongs in the corporate me
beings the Quran belongs in governments or it belong, its message is universal in every sphere of humanity. This is what I mean and Ireland has an interesting world word, you know, across the fields across the industries across the different activities of human life. The Quran will have something to say some light to give. So I pray that Allah gives success to this mission. And I pray for those that are that are that are helping the team then the orlimar that are that are contributing that are starting to come together in shallow Darla some really interesting things are happening in Malaysia some really interesting that things are happening in Turkey, and other places in the world. May
Allah azza wa jal give us the Kama to those that are trying to serve Allah's book and to make its understanding common among the people. It is our responsibility to share the Word of Allah with humanity. And we, if we take that responsibility seriously, we better shared with ourselves first and get it get exposed to it ourselves. First BarakAllahu li Walakum filled Quran Al Hakim one of our Annual er Camilla T vertical Hakeem was salam aleikum wa rahmatullah wa barakato Jack maloca and said I'm ready