Striking Examples From The Quran #01

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they said the MD Dr Melissa Annie Oakley hamdu lillah wa salatu salam ala Rasulillah. While earlier he was happy he is behind oh my god, everyone, once again some early tonight I'll record

I'm going to sound a little bit out of it. Because I'm jet lagged. I got here today, this afternoon with my family. So make sure that we're all able to recover from the interesting experience on the plane, which I'll look quickly enough. But I want to not make this session very long. I wanted to give you guys an introduction of some of the things that I'll be talking to you about.

In sha Allah with Allah, I hope to make these sessions some of them short and some of them long. Which is why I know some people want to pray eight and get home some pray 20 and get home some pray to and get home. Some stay home, that's okay.

But those of you that want to have through the month and inshallah wait until the end of the prayers, and enjoy session, chocolate, the intention of these sessions, I decided to call these series, striking examples. And I chose this name because this is actually inspired by a phrase that Allah uses in the Quran, in different varieties of Allah. And Allah struck an example, quite literally, at most has struck an example, or academically driven Allah Who,

that's how Allah strikes examples now that even in English, sounds strange, we give you an example, we don't strike an example. The teacher doesn't strike an example he gives an example. So what's this expression of what would muscle in the iron? What's its purpose? So first, let's understand how he's talking about example, anyway, in the Quran, the idea of striking something is to create shocking, or new or unexpected sound. So if I out of nowhere, did that, all of a sudden, what just happened? Even if somebody's out there, all of a sudden their attention, they stopped in the middle of conversation and said, What's going on over here? Right? So the idea of striking something is to

mediate spontaneous attention.

And, you know, in the middle of class teachers, sometimes they don't strike an example, but they do strike the table or in some countries strike the student. Right? And it gets everybody's attention. It gets everybody the courtroom, sometimes there's a procession proceeding going on. And the lawyer says something or the witness says something or, and all of a sudden, now when he starts talking in the courtroom, you're not supposed to be talking in the courtroom, and what does the judge have to strike the hammer to shut everybody up? Right order order, right? So the idea of ranking is to actually rejuvenate your attention and to get your attention, because now the something really

fundamental and essential is being set but the question is, Allah is already speaking in the Quran, the speech is already going on. Right? So for example, the first example that inshallah we're gonna dive into tomorrow happens this is what 20 or 17 via Nakara a couple of pages of Quran you've already heard, the people who are listening to the Quran are already listening from the beginning and all of a sudden now Allah strikes an example, what's the purpose of that? The purpose of that is to you know, how you say,

the final nail

right? The icing on the cake, if you will, the final touch. This is actually one of Allah's method G's in the Quran, that he will mean something that is very important. And it's made up of multiple parts. So it's easy for you.

Like many of you, your

Ramadan is here, so many of you have to do groceries, special groceries, Ramadan, because we want to make sure we gain weight and Ramadan. So

with an introduction of this, get this, get this, get this, get this get this and immediately, like can you just text it to me?

That's not gonna happen. I'm not a half I'm barely in your legal class and you want me to know all of this, right? So the idea is, we can easily forget that there's a long thing and especially if it's important, it's easy for you to lose sight.

So what Allah does really interestingly, is he ties multiple lessons that were just taught together in one exam,

multiple multiple lessons, use them together and present them as an example and the

The idea of an example is, it's supposed to be so simple. It's something you're already familiar with the temple is something some new lesson is actually something active if you're already familiar with it. And Allah is using something already familiar to you, remind you of the new lessons, I'll give you a silly example of an example from my own life. When I first started becoming serious on praying five times a day, I realized I really don't know why North East western South, randomly and this is before the days, open the app and tell me, which were the tablets. By the way, those of you who have tried those apps, no, usually points towards I don't know, America, when you're when you're

standing right in front of the HUD home. But back in the day, you the idea was you're supposed to look at the sun, you're supposed to tell which way and you know, me being in New York at the time, the law was East northeast. So how much even over Easter? I barely, I was in New York City, which is surrounded by buildings, all buildings. And you don't really get to see the sunset and the sunrise or most of the time, especially in the fall, it's it's cloudy. How are you going to base it on shadows and things like that? Right. So I just know, it's East northeast, but I have no idea which way east Northeast is or what's going on. So one of my friends helped me out. Because you know,

you're not getting laid for us or, or Maghrib, or whatever. And you got to just pray wherever you are. So he helped me out but so nice. Okay, well, we will use queens, and Queens for those of you who don't map of New York, Manhattan, the city is a bit west. And further west is New Jersey and East. It's queens. Because wherever you are in New York, because I knew New York, I can walk the entire city without a GPS. And now it's like wherever you are in this step towards Queens.

Queens this, okay, let's see. Okay, so that's done. And now you're now you're facing is now what's on your right, wall. My right if I'm standing with Queens is downtown. And on my left is uptown. Well, now it was down south and up is up north. Just remember, imagine you're facing Queens. And this is down south, and this is up north and what's what's behind you, oh, Jersey, okay, that's west. Okay, now I know which way east Northeast is, I can figure this out. Right. And this crazy enough. For a long time after that. This was maybe when I was eating.

For a long time after that, even if I was traveling somewhere in like, Texas, Louisiana, or anywhere else. And it's like three in the afternoon or like, I gotta pray East northeast, right? Now at least they don't have buildings so you can see your shadow. Right? I know the sun's east over there. Now imagine I'm looking at Queens and I figured out

because of the exam. In my head, I was able to use it over and over and over again. I know some people are like, really, really stupid, I could convey that. I wasn't that good at direction. Right? So the idea behind that is what does an example do? It takes something that you think is complicated, uses something you're familiar with, and then builds on it and we'll never forget that we're every time you're starting to forget you can imagine the same example again, and you're sorted out, you're settled. Okay, so what is then now let's come a little closer to what Allah is doing with his examples. Allah, every time you study an example, especially where Allah says love Allah

Houma felon, or uses the word Messiah, Messiah literally quite literally means example, or equivalent.

The interesting thing is, that's not the only time Allah is giving examples. There's lots of examples in the Quran, where Allah just gets right into the example without even telling you he's giving an example, that he'll do that a lot of times, and the more you study the Arabic language, or the history of the Arabs or their phrases, you will know like some of you, for example, and you say that sounds too complicated. But English speakers here, not here in Manchester, but people in London, watch a lot of TV and watch a lot of shows and, you know, entertainment and stuff. But if somebody makes a reference to a movie in the middle of a conversation, right, just makes a reference

from a dialogue in the movie, if everybody's seen the movie, or everybody knows that show, or everybody knows that tagline, right? Then they're automatically you don't have to say hey, by the way, I'm going to reference this movie and this famous line, just watch out, you know, Aster, Lavista baby. And then I'm gonna, like, those of you that are older are like, yeah,

you have to tell me twice. So. So the idea is just seamlessly bring it in because

right, it's part of the culture. So you can just bring it up and everybody knows, hey, he was referring, making a reference to that movie or that song or that poem or that, you know, that sporting event, or that event in history, etc. The Arabs used to do that all the time. And the Quran did that to the Quran very naturally used expressions and phrases that the Arabs were associating before Islam with certain things in their culture. Right. So that's by studying the culture from before

Islam is important for, because they want to see when is Allah using some of that when he's talking, but for other people, because Allah knows the Quran will spread around the world, and it will spread very fast. Some examples, he made sure that they're not subtle, that they're spelled out in good detail that they're, they're elaborately spelled out. So what's the common thread between all of the examples, all of them, and this is the thing I want you to remember, all of them are painting a scene.

It's like, it's like a painting. It's like, you could even think of it as a movie clip. And now in our culture, like in ancient times, you might have said, Oh, it's a picture, but it's actually a moving image. So you're gonna see, for example, tomorrow, you're gonna see the image of somebody in the middle of a desert, it's dark, it's cold, you know, it's scary, and they're trying to rub a couple of rocks together, or they rub a couple of sticks together, and they're trying to start a fire in the middle of the desert. Right, and they're desperate, because it's getting more and more dangerous. And hypothermia can set in, or, you know, pressures from around snakes or whatever else.

They don't know what dangers lie around them. So they're really, you know, trying hard to get this fire started. And eventually, they're able to start this fire and then the scene begins. So it's a small scene, that now it's easy to remember that scene. But like I said, this is iron number, what's 17? Before that, ALLAH is talking about a lot of things that built up, and then he brings up the scene. So now it's up to you to understand, in this scene, which part of this scene is reminding you of which of the ayat that came before it? So you can make an easy mental connection with all of those lessons. And now that that image forever becomes a lesson of the Quran. That image itself

becomes a lesson of the Quran and other you know, Inshallah, we'll go through many examples through the Quran this month. One that comes to mind immediately, is Allah describing, for example, false gods, right, people used to worship idols. And they used to believe there are spirits behind those idols, or they represent the children of God or all kinds of other crazy ideas, right. And they used to sacrifice animals in front of those idols, do you support the blood in front of the, the idols, they used to bring milk and put it they used to put flowers on the idols and things like that, right, so to show reverence, to show respect for those idols, and like candles, and all this kind of

stuff, right?

The problem is, when you have flowers, and you have blood, and you have food, and you have milk, and you have this stuff, what does it attract? It attracts flies, right? It attracts flies. And now the thing is, if I went there, as a tourist to the temple, and I saw that somebody came with a lot of respect, and put a glass of chocolate milk there, and I said, Oh, I know chocolate milk. And I decide to,

I'm gonna get beat up, I might even get killed the unit, you can't touch that that's sacred. That's for the that's for the wooden whatever. This was the marble whatever, right statue, but the fly comes, it flies over and what does it do?

So that looks good. I'm gonna have some, but then it flies away.

And the poor guy who's worshipping he has to Hey, hey, come on. That's from my God. That's not for you. Come on, leave it alone. Please, stop, stop destroying my religion. My God is not powerful enough to stop you from eating his food.

What is the fly doing? The fly is actually destroying the religion.

Every fly. And so what does little to do? Allah talks about false gods. And then he gives the example of a fly that takes food away. Right? Just to make this point, like, okay, so you could talk about the religion, the history of that religion, the theology behind it, their philosophy, their arguments, and all or you could just remember the flying, problem solved.

So this is what Allah does in the Quran, he uses examples. They're very stunning. They're very striking examples. They're very powerful images, those images become like, you know, things that stay in your head, you want to just keep them in your head, and then the associations with them become multiple lessons in the Quran. Some of those examples in the Quran are brief, some of them are more detailed, but they're always very, very strategic, like Soto Baqarah is the longest surah in the Quran. And you heard the entire first just today, completion of the first job, which is not even a half of sortal Bacara, which you heard today, right? But up until now, we've only heard two

examples. To the rest of the world examples. It was just the text keep got kept scope keeps going. And when we get to the next Joe's, which was going to start tomorrow in sha Allah, we're going to keep going and all the way till the end of Bukhara you're gonna get a handful of examples towards the end, which tells you Allah is not using them all the time. Allah is using them very, very selectively. Allah is using examples very, very strategically.

This is one of the styles or one of the teaching methods of the Quran. And so the last thing I'll share with you for today is the purpose that I've seen shared some purposes with you. But one last purpose of examples. And that is that every, every one of you has been to some kind of learning. You've been in some kind of classroom, in fact, some of you are university now, or high school now or whatever you call it here. And you're you have teachers in whatever subject mathematics, science, history, whatever. You know, the difference between a just any teacher and an amazing teacher, an amazing teacher is able to give you really, really good examples.

And it's amazing if you're teaching something, and students are like, I don't get it. I don't understand it. He just says, Hold on. Let's look at this example. Let's break down this example. And you said, I still don't get it. Okay. Let me give you another example. And now that starts making sense, right? And then the teacher even says, hey, when the test comes, and you get this question, remember this example. Remember this example, go through it in your head. And now you'll know how to solve this problem, or you'll know how to solve that problem, you understand. So a great teacher is able to give great examples. Now the example doesn't benefit the teacher.

The teacher already knows the material. The teacher doesn't have to use an example. The teacher could just say the concept and you have some teachers who do that they just read from the book, or just say the concept they don't give you any examples, no explanation, nothing. They say the test is on Friday in alila. He went nearly Rajon. Right, the rest is up to you.

But the teachers that give you one example then another example then another example that you know exercise drill drill, example example example example. What are they doing? These are the teachers that care about the student. They care about the student. And they know that this for this student, these examples might save their entire academic life. They're absolutely fundamental for them. Allah azza wa jal is highly, highly, maybe with shahada he knows everything. He knows everything. Interestingly, Allah says we are agreeable and Salah Linda's while you're agreeable Lola felonious wala who equally Shia in so beautiful, he says Allah gives examples for the benefit of people, while

Allah Himself knows everything. Someone who already knows doesn't need examples. Someone who needs to know someone who needs to understand they need examples. So Allah is not giving us just what the point of that last comment was. Allah is not just giving us information in the Quran. Allah is not just delivering wisdom to us in the Quran or guidance to us. In the Quran, Allah is teaching in the Quran. And teaching and telling someone are two different things. A teacher, generally a good teacher genuinely cares about the success of their student, a good teacher chooses the example that they know is going to going to work for the student is going to benefit the student, the student is

going to remember this and he's going to be able to pass the hard test. The teacher takes a lot of care and consideration on planning the curriculum, especially the examples, especially the example. So when Allah gave us his final book, which he even describes, you know, Allah Al Quran, he taught the Quran, throughout the history of the world, anybody who teaches anything, uses certain tools, one of the most important tools they use is impacting them. Right. And so that's one of the tools that Allah has used in the arsenal of the Quran, that is so fundamental and so, so important. Because multiple benefits, it makes the concept easy to understand, too, it makes the concept easy

to remember, if you don't remember it, just remember the picture. If you don't remember all the items, just remember the scene, each part of the theme will remind you each of the items that you forgot. So it's excellent for excellent for for your retention for understanding to begin with. It's also excellent, because next time you're walking around, and you see somebody trying, you're trying to light a fire, or somebody likes a match, or somebody lights, you know, you know, a lighter, you're monitoring oval under something, a fire got lit, all of a sudden your mind got triggered most of the home covers a little narrow.

When you start thinking about that, it just becomes natural for you. Because those images tend to repeat themselves. Right, those images come up, actually see a fly sitting on your roof. You're like, Oh, I remember what I said about that. You know what, you know what most basic things about that is? You're not even in a halacha you're not in a martial law setting and reciting Quran you're sitting eating your food and a fly gave you a halacha from Allah if

that's what happened, because of example. So it's a profound benefit that Allah has given us that has made vicar of Allah easier and easier for us. So without inshallah Tada conclude our first question, Monica Longley when it comes to light

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