My Quran Week Experience – The Vision, Journey & Key Highlights
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Channel: Nouman Ali Khan
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AI Generated Summary ©
The speaker discusses their experiences studying the Quran and the importance of understanding the natural and complex world. They emphasize the need for collaborative learning and the rewarding and rewarding experience of studying the Quran in a stressful way. They also discuss the challenges of studying in a stressful way and the potential for deep discussions and engagement with people from different sciences. The importance of "will" in the Quran is emphasized, and rich discussions can bring transformation. The speaker offers resources for Muslims to study the Quran and bring the power of the Quran back to one's consciousness.Transcript ©
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Is this gonna be too much for everybody?
Because they're gonna be like, this is too
so much information.
I thought we're gonna get very, very few,
super nerdy, super
really interested,
you know, senior peep maybe even imams are
interested in this kind of stuff.
And it was the most amazing pleasant surprise.
I think that ayah or that part of
the ayah, I spent maybe an hour and
a half, an hour 45 minutes without a
break
with my audience on that ayah.
And myself and everybody in the audience was
just balling in tears.
The first was a really big shot in
the dark. I was very nervous about that.
The reason for that was
I know my audience is used to hearing
shorter clips, a 20 minute chutba,
at most, maybe a 40 minute, 1 hour
lecture, but this is, like,
3 hours or 2 and a half hours
every day for a whole week. And it's
not like an Arabic class. In an Arabic
class, I ask a bunch of questions. They
answer. It's kind of like a conversation. I
know how to keep breathing oxygen into the
room.
But this is a detailed study of the
Quran, so it's basically me lecturing, and they're
not interrupting in the middle.
And there's a lot of different things that
I wanna incorporate. Right?
I I used to have I've developed a
good system for teaching Arabic, like a method.
And for the first time, I was like,
no. We need to have a methodical approach
on how to study Quran deeply.
Like, word analysis, comparative tafsir, comparative religion,
you know, outside,
questions. Like, there's a system I put in
place. Right? I was like, is this gonna
be too much for everybody? Because they're gonna
be like, this is too so much information.
And
really big shot in the dark. I thought
we're gonna get very, very few super nerdy,
super
really interested,
you know, senior peep maybe even imams are
interested in this kind of stuff.
And it was the most amazing pleasant
surprise,
the the 1st Quran week in in Glasgow,
because the audience was college students, high schoolers,
kids,
Quran teachers, imams,
youth activists, khatebs. It was the entire spectrum.
And the questions and the engagement that came
from it was so incredible. Like, I was
like, wow, they're actually this is something that
can that can work because, you know, my
my goal behind
doing that was to shatter
this notion that
deeper study of the Quran is just for
scholars.
Right? And it's
and if you know it, if you know
something more in-depth about a Surah, good for
you. But it's it's kinda extra stuff. It's
not fundamental to our religion. I was like,
if the if Allah is saying contemplating the
Quran is fundamental to your hearts,
right, in so many words, then how are
we saying that it's not fundamental?
Right? But there was no way to give
people that without making them feel overwhelmed. And
I think
that was a really great first experiment
that encouraged me that this is this should
become an institution and should carry on.
So the the old format of doing Surat
Al Baqarah, Juzamah,
was
which are both of them are very different
formats, by the way. So,
the way I did Juzamah
was I was in a masjid for about
a couple of years, actually. The original time
I did it. It was a weekly halaqa.
So the Baqarah was everyday in Ramadan and
then continued as a weekly thing for a
couple of years.
And that's in a single community. Right?
But then with with these surahs, which I
kind of with with the work that I've
already done, decided to start with Surat Adariyah
51 onwards.
Basically, it's as many Surahs as can be
studied that are 4 pages or less. Basically,
that's the rough idea.
I figured instead of sitting in front of
a camera
and doing that in one place, why not
use every surah as a unique opportunity
to go in front of a live audience,
a fresh audience that has been done something
like that before
and give them that experience
and see what will come of it. Like,
it's so much easier for Bay Yin and
for myself to stay home, turn the camera
on and do this. Right?
But the the the Scotland experience
made me realize that this actually is a
seed that can turn into something in each
of those communities.
And that's only been validated as I've traveled.
Like I know now people that came to
Quran Week and that became the start of
a very serious commitment to Quran studies, Arabic
studies, their Islamic education
that has now turned into
not only their own growth, but they're starting
Quran circles, podcasts,
you know, discussions, families, study circles.
Really cool Quran inspired activism
is now happening in different communities because they
attend the Quran week, and that was the
spark that kind of started it all. So
it's a really, really cool
opportunity for sadaqa jari, I feel.
Okay. So my first Quran week, as we
said, was Glasgow in Scotland,
and it was Surat Al Dariyat.
And my last Quran week was, Surat Al
Qiyama.
And
I'll have to confess, there's 2 things about
the last one.
1, it was Los Angeles, which I, you
know, with my experience with American communities and
traveling, my assumption was LA's,
like, the most relaxed crowd. They don't take
anything seriously. They're gonna roll in. If it's
a 7 o'clock program, they'll roll in at
maybe 8 o'clock. You know, like traffic, it's,
like, so hard. Like that,
they're gonna be like that.
And that was my assumption. And then the
other was Sutokoyama because I only had a
couple of weeks to prep. I was like,
okay. This Sura is just a page and
a half, so this will be easy. I
think I can manage in 2 weeks prep
time.
And very quickly, it dawned on me that
2 weeks was not nearly enough. Those 2
weeks were more hours than soon as I've
studied for 3 full time weeks with the
entire team.
So to both, I underestimated. The,
the the the kinds of interactions
in
Los Angeles in King Fahad Masjid
were very unique.
One of the coolest things there's a couple
of things that
stick out to me. A fellow was doing
his PhD work in
neurology,
particularly working on consciousness.
And so Tokayama opened up with the guilty
conscience. And they talked a lot about the
concept of consciousness and how it's been discussed
in our,
you know, Islamic literature, how it's been discussed
in Christian tradition, Jewish tradition, philosophical tradition, the
scientific tradition, how things would do in the
scientific community. And this guy, I didn't I
don't know his background. He's sitting there. His
jaw is dropping like,
I have to have something to share with
you. And he starts sharing his research that
he's doing at the PhD level on this
subject and how in line with the Quran
it is. That was incredible to me.
Another couple of 2 really cool stories. There
was a senior sister that was in the
program, and she said, I have to tell
you because we had an open QA session.
I have to tell you something. I was
like, what? She goes, I graduated from Azhar.
She had graduated from Jami Atul Azhar maybe
30 years ago. She's been teaching Quran to
kids in Los Angeles for many years. And
she goes, what you're doing is really important,
is very unique, and it must be done.
And I I wanna help in any way
that I can. And I was like, yes.
I found a female scholar that wants to
help.
So, like, connecting
with people like that. And then a couple
of young kids that are college students, graduates,
actually,
from Minnesota. I had done a Quran week
in Minnesota, and I see familiar faces sitting
in the front row. I was like, what
are you guys doing here? Like, it's the
Quran week. You can't miss it. Like, you're
you were gone out of America for so
long, you know. So they they they flew
in, both of them.
They started even a podcast just on the
number of the Quran.
And so the the, you know, the way
it was different from the first Quran week
was I'm starting to see the fruits of
it
in really interesting ways.
And, what it's what it's spawning into, what
it's really turning into. And,
that was
probably the thing that that really stuck out
to me about this, Qur'an week.
Different Surahs, different challenges.
I would say probably one of the most
challenging Suras to study,
from just
how many different sciences had to be tapped
into was.
Because history,
politics,
law,
language,
coherence,
like, there's so many things that had to
cross section to understand
what Allah is getting across in at
a deep level. So that was really awesome,
and that was a great experience in Sydney.
A surah that was very challenging from a
from a personal reflection perspective
was Surah Taha Boon. I think it was
probably one of the most rewarding surahs,
that I've studied thus far. I always knew
it's special, but,
you know, just just the way that that
emerged even for myself in that study was
just super special.
So Surat Al Qaban,
talks about calamity in a way that
pretty much nowhere else in the Quran discusses.
Allah is knowledgeable of the state before the
calamity, the state during the calamity, and the
state after the calamity.
Allah is knowledgeable of what I understand and
what I don't understand,
what I know and what I don't know.
Allah knows how this calamity
translate into a blessing in this life or
the next life or both.
I don't know any of that. Allah is
the one who knows all of it. Just
comfort in Allah knowing.
And I really wanted to dive in because
the phrase
occurs multiple times in the Quran. But why
does Allah use the word for calamity? What
is this
how does how is the Quran talking about
tragedy?
Right? And every every person's life has tragedy
tragedy. Societies have tragedy. The world has tragedy.
Tragedy can be
going on inside somebody. It can be going
on visibly. It can be going on in
the world and and and, like, war and
genocide and things like that. Right? So how
is the Quran talking about this problem?
And specifically, when it comes to to me
personally and my relationship with tragedy, how is
Allah commenting on that? And where is he
commenting on that? The way he does that
in Surat Al Ta'ala, but I don't wanna
give it away because that'll turn into I
I won't stop talking about it. But, like,
it was it was very moving because usually
these these studies are very academic also.
But I'm telling you that I think that
ayah or that part of the ayah, I
spent maybe an hour and a half, an
hour 45 minutes without a break with my
audience on that ayah.
And myself and everybody in the audience was
just balling in tears as we're going through
this.
And then people came up to me and
said, you know, I lost a child and
nothing helped me like this did like Desaiya
did. And other people came up to me
and said, I've never understood tragedy in this
way. Other people just just completely, utterly speechless
except
for, I just needed this. I know I
just really needed this, and the world needs
this. And I was like, you're right. The
world does need this. We need this this
ayat. Yeah.
I can't speak about anybody else. I I
will say that
I became more
acutely aware
of the need for collaborative learning
with the Quran, especially when it comes to
contemplating the Quran,
taking advantage of people that are experts in
particular fields
and drawing from their knowledge
and giving credit where it's due. Like, there's
no way I'm a student of politics and
political philosophy, but that doesn't mean I'm an
expert in it. Right? I I I dabble
in,
you know, background in psychology, but I dabble
in psychology. But that doesn't mean I'm I'm
the leading expert in in psychology
by no stretch of the imagination.
So I'm I'm technically, I'm an expert in
no field.
Right? So
what what I'm trying to do now is
have rich discussions and engagement with people from
these different sciences
and bring to them the the problem question,
the curiosity from the Quran on a particular
ayah, particular phrase and saying,
what do you see here? Like, how would
you respond to these questions?
Right? And then taking some of their insights
and documenting them and then discussing them as
a group.
Right? And what one of the things that
group discussions has done as part of the
prep for,
Quran week subject matter is that
questions or criticisms of an idea. Maybe I'm
thinking I'm leaning towards a conclusion and then
a criticism comes along and I'm like, I
never thought of that.
Right? And then that becomes a new discussion.
And then sometimes what's what's even cooler is
sometimes the entire group is stumped.
Like, we none of us have the answer.
And then we have to go to others
and say, hey. We're all stumped here. Can
you help? Right? So
the idea isn't that I'm trying to present,
the final word on the final word.
My my my hopes with Qur'an Week are
I really genuinely think this will be the
spark
that somebody will take
and really do something with it. Like, I
can touch on the depth of the ayah
as much as I think we're doing deep
work. Right?
A a a 4 page surah or even
a page and a half surah,
my collective number of hours on study for
for those
3 2 to 4 pages is about a
100 hours minimum
in those couple of weeks, not to mention
the team's hours.
And then on top of that is the
hours in the Quran week itself. The day
of the lecture, I'm studying
from Fajr until Asr, and then I go
to the lecture. So it's a good, you
know, 50, 60 hours
in the Quran week itself. But those hours
are me getting to where I think
the ayah can touch, but then somebody will
come along. I genuinely feel because of this
work. Somebody will come along and say, I
never thought of it this way, but it's
leading me down another rabbit hole, another path,
and opening up an entire world of discovery
inspired by the Quran,
like the neurologist, for example. Right?
And and others that have that have come
across. So that's that's really the hope, not
to be the authoritative final
word on this, but to show the richness
of what tafsir and tadabur of Quran
can actually bring to the world.
So the dominant emotion is that I'm just
in awe of
the
richness of the Quran and also
guilt
for subconsciously
underestimating
the Quran.
Oh, Surat Al Qiyama is about the akhira.
There's other surahs about the akhira too. This
is gonna be easy.
No. No. It's not. Right? So there's a
there's a I've learned over and over again
that subconsciously
somehow this idea creeps in that this Surah
is basically saying what some other Surah's have
already said. So no need to go to,
you know.
And instead of thinking of each surah as
a divine gift
descending from the heavens
that is unique in its beauty and its
signature.
Like, for God's sake, would you ever look
at 2 babies and say same thing?
Would you look at, you know,
you you wouldn't do that with, like,
any other creation of Allah. You look at,
like, the uniqueness, the beauty, the intricacy of
it all. Right?
But we don't do that.
I'm not going to say with anybody else.
I don't do that enough with the Quran.
And every time I take on another Surah,
the mindset
beforehand is don't underestimate
it. Like, I tell myself that. But even
then some part of me is like, but
it is kind of the same, though.
And then when I get in it, then
it's like I got slapped with the study
itself.
See, it's not the same. Yes, Allah. Yeah.
You Allah. I keep forgetting.
You Allah. I need to
so that's probably 1.
The 2 is
the second is
how powerful
this,
book is to bring about a transformation.
And the the feeling that comes to me
is there are things you can study that
are intellectual curiosities and you learn more about
them and it's fascinating stuff.
The Quran is not just fascinating stuff. The
Quran is transformative
stuff.
So like,
diving deep into a Surah
or contemplating the Quran, even an ayah,
can actually be transformative
for an entire life,
for a person, can be transformative for an
entire family,
and by extension, can be transformative for the
for for society, for the world.
Like, don't underestimate what this word can do.
It's not just yeah. Yeah. And I'm not
dismissing the fact that the study of the
Quran increases our imam, connects us closer to
Allah. But the Quran does that and uses
that to do so much more.
And we've we need to bring that
that power, that untapped power of the Quran
back to our consciousness.
Right? That's what I feel like Quran week
has has helped me do also.
I hope you guys enjoyed that video clip.
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