Nouman Ali Khan – My Favorite Way to Teach Quran Q&A

			cycle static. Hello.
		

			What's your name? My name is Ibrahim. Oh, it's cool. I just met you off the street and decided to
pick you up. And the rest. Yeah, so you can have a chat with me. Yeah, yes. Rahim hamdulillah as a
second day today, and how old are you? I'm 20. I'm 20. I have a series of questions I want to ask
you. Okay. So one of them has been I know, you host a lot of events, and you partake and join in
with a lot of events. I partake. Yeah, yes. I just don't know which one is which type of event is
your favorite event.
		

			today? Oh, for the longest time, my favorite event has been story night.
		

			It's something I sort of conjured up almost a little over a decade ago.
		

			I had this idea that the Quran has, of course, profound stories, but it tells them in the most
amazing way. And of course, a story is only interesting if it's told in an interesting way, right?
But the way we tell the stories of the Quran is very uninteresting, or at least I felt that way. So
I wanted to bring out some of the, I guess, storytelling elements of the story. And see how that how
an audience responds to that. Right? Because I think part of the appreciation of the Quran is how,
how moved, were you when you heard it? Like, you know, kids can go watch a movie, or you like to
watch a movie and be like, Whoa, that was awesome. Right? Yeah. But if you hear a story from the
		

			Quran, like, let me tell you about the story of and this happened. And this happened. You're like,
		

			yeah, I already know. I heard it. You're not moved by it. So Leah, religiously, officially, we're
supposed to say these are the best stories. This is the most amazing, of course, the movie industry,
the, you know, the manga industry or whatever else. That's all nonsense, it's garbage, etc. But
billions of people are watching that stuff and enjoying it. And they're drawn into it because of the
story. And here you have the Quran saying it's the best storytelling ever. And but even people who
believe in it aren't, like, wowed by it. They're just like, okay, yeah, that's great. It's nice. So
I wanted to tell the story, stories of the Quran as a storyteller, not as a lecture. So this was
		

			like, there's no paper in front of me. There's no podium, there's no, I'm not standing in a place.
I'm not sitting on walking around. And I'm talking to the audience, it could be non Muslims in the
audience, kids in the audience, adults in the audience, I'm going to tell you the story of the Quran
exactly how Allah tells it from a certain portion, and episode, not even a whole story and episode.
		

			But I, it almost started feeling like, you know, like,
		

			I don't want to compare directly, but like, you know, like a comedy special with a comedians walking
around and just having conversation with the crowd. Right? I want to take that approach. And there
are some moments in the Quran that are actually the bring, they bring out laughter. There are
moments in the Quran that bring out tears or moments in the Quran, they bring out fear. And the
stories have a lot of those elements.
		

			So I experimented with this and see how it's gonna go over. Because you don't imagine yourself
sitting in an Islamic lecture. Like, laughing your face off, and your whole family's like, this is
hilarious, etc, right? This wasn't a thing. So I tried it. And the response was unbelievable. And,
		

			you know, because through humor, and through narrative storytelling, you can actually break a lot of
ice and get through to people in ways that otherwise you can't. So I started doing different stories
of the Quran, like I take one story, travel the world and share that story. That's a story night.
Then I take another one travel the world and I've been doing that for I think I've done 10 story
nights so far over the last, or maybe eight, three nights so far over the last 10 years or so. It's
been a it's been a pretty cool experience. I remember watching one of your hotspots with Mario
Nadella. And I was I remember being so moved by it, by the way you described there, how how she she
		

			you know, she wished death upon herself. And when I was reading it when I read it, normally, I don't
actually know Lucaya. But when you explain that kind of law, so moved by I was like, Oh, wow, I
never really contemplate it like that. You know, so that's the thing you have to you have to
humanize the situation, right? You're not reading about some character reading about a real person
who felt real things. And you have to, I would argue, you have to almost imagine yourself in the
room.
		

			And you're looking at this, you know, this woman, like crying and wishing for death and you're
right, you should feel her some whatever pain, you know what I'm saying? And that's what comes
through in the storytelling in the Quran to me, so yeah, that's been my favorite.
		

			I guess the favorite kind of event that I do
		

			Because I can see how it impacts even kids and adults together. You know, I guess one of the coolest
things about doing it is sometimes I will do it in a banquet hall. And there's like the non Muslim
staff. That's the hall where I'm doing it. They've got the security staff, they've got the
chauffeurs, and they got the non Muslim workers in the in the room, or the hotel banquet hall. And
they stopped doing their work and they start listening. And then they'll come up and they'll say,
you know, I've heard the story in the Bible, but I never knew it was like this. You know, and in
more recent story, nice, I'd even have devout Christians come to the program with their kids. And
		

			listen to the Quran version of the biblical story. Like the story of Yusuf alayhi salam and they
give me some really positive feedback afterwards. Like I really love this please do more of this
right so even coming from non Muslims. That's why it's actually been my favorite kind of event.
Thank you. Welcome.
		

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			Feel more life, you know, sometimes I love I cry but at the same time I understand Quran more in a
different more wonderful way. It's really really captivating. It gets you in the zone. Like he makes
funny jokes and explains stuff in good ways. But aside, he just makes like he adds fun into it,
venture into it.
		

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