Nouman Ali Khan – Seeking Beauty in Faith – Surah Qaf
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AI: Transcript ©
Quran is
constantly calling you to appreciate the beauty of
things around you. Constantly.
In a world that is
so quickly on a highway towards atheism,
and a highway towards scientific materialism,
On that highway, what you're finding more and
more is that the arts,
the arts,
music,
things that were expressions of beauty in human
culture. They are suffering now more than they
ever have.
Once again everyone, Assalamu alaikum.
I would like to share with you, Insha'Allah
that one of the things I'm holding myself
back from as I'm teaching this is the,
you know, I I will tell you what
section we're in as we go,
but what I what I have to hold
myself back from is describing the architecture
of each section.
Each section itself actually has a pretty profound
architecture,
but the more effective way of teaching that
is if you have the text in front
of you, and I can illustrate it. So
if I speak about it verbally, it'll actually
become confusing. Right? So I'm avoiding that. But
regardless, I will tell you something about this
particular section that we're entering. This is gonna
be almost a change of subject. The first
one was, here's where the disbelievers stand their
stands. Right? Now Allah will
say, that they're not just in denial of
a prophet and a warner,
they're not just disregarding the majestic nobility of
the Quran,
they've actually haven't appreciated even the world around
them.
I mean the ayaat that were all around
them
have always been there and they've never thought
about them.
And that's why it's so easy for them
to reject this revelation. This argument is a
recurring one in the Quran, and it's certainly
manifest here.
The thing that I find really beautiful about
this passage that we're about to enter, is
Allah will talk about the sky, then he
will talk about the earth, then he will
say something about the benefits of the sky
and the earth for you and me.
Then he'll talk about the sky again. Then
they'll talk about the earth again. And they'll
come back to you and me again. Sky,
earth,
me. Sky, earth, me. Twice.
That's the beauty of this passage. But each
time, it highlights something entirely different. The
sky and the earth, he talks about how
beautiful they are.
The second time he talks about the sky
and the earth, he talks about how beneficial
they are.
So beauty versus what?
Benefit. You know another way of saying that
is style versus substance.
Right?
So to Allah style is important
and to Allah substance is important.
The deen of Allah is not only about
substance, it's also about
style.
It's also it's not just about function, it's
also about beauty.
You know, it's both.
And that's why, you know,
our our study of the religion,
my study of the Quran for example,
is also a study of 2 things. It's
a study of the substance of the Quran.
What is Allah saying?
What's the purpose in which Allah what Allah
is saying? But it's at the same time
a study of
beauty in the Quran,
the style of the Quran.
These are two things that go hand in
hand. Allah does not let me look at
the universe and say, let me tell you
the sky gives you rain so you can
eat food. Move on.
That's it.
Guys, sorry for the interruption in the middle
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He'll also tell me about a flower
and how beautiful its color is, and how
I can smell
from the field of flowers. I can I
can, you know,
you
know, You know? It's gonna be I can
I can internalize the smell, I can look
at something and just stare at its beauty?
Why is he telling me this stuff?
He should just tell me, slaughter the animal,
eat the meat, make sure it's
and then drink the milk so you can,
you know, gain these nutrients and function.
That's it.
Let me just give you the fuel and
that's it. No. He took his time. Like
one of my favorite places describing this, and
it's gonna come up here too, is when
he talked in in in Surat Al Rahman
about fruits.
You know,
He
said
he could've just said, I give you date
I give you, you know,
dates.
He says, no I gave you dates covered
in wrappings.
Why did he say wrappings? It's the idea
of gift wrapping.
It's the idea that I wanted you to
have this and I wanted you to unfold
it, and then enjoy it. Like he didn't
just give me an orange, he wrapped it.
And he scented it too.
He gave me a banana peel.
Like he gave these things that just beautify.
The colors on them, the patterns on them,
the texture of them, the feeling of them.
These are beautifications of this food. It could
just be an orange could have just been
mush.
That's also orange. By the time a child
is done with
an orange you see what an orange looks
like? Oranges could have just looked like that.
Strawberries could've looked like what you know you
could just mash them a little bit. Here,
eat this.
But the way he packaged it,
even like, you know, these food trucks and
things, they'll take beautiful pictures of food and
blow them up,
you know, and ads of like grapes falling
and this and that. You know what I'm
saying? Because it's beautiful stuff to look at.
It's it's gorgeous to look at. Allah didn't
have to make food beautiful.
I mean He could've just fed us any
way He wanted.
You know, He could've He could've fed like
like we feed animals.
Animals, they don't need decoration on their food.
You just put the hay in front of
the thing and then eat it.
You don't put ketchup on the side and
there's a you know.
Even taste is a part of beauty, you
know that? Food did not have to be
delicious.
Food just had to be nutritious.
There's a style to food. Allah put a
style to food along with a substance to
food.
All
I need is fats,
proteins, carbs,
that's all I need.
Then you can get them in a chemical.
Like blend, just drink that and you're good.
Why do we want the chicken to taste
this way and add the salt and
roast it that way and you know, the
fruits here and the sides there, and the
masala there. Why all of this?
That
all of it is actually style, not what?
Not substance. What is it teaching us? To
Allah,
style is a big deal
along with substance. This is important a distinction
to make because for a lot of people,
life is only about style.
At the expense of what? Substance. Substance.
There are people even in the religious studies,
all they're concerned about is the perfection of
and the beauty of the It's
all about the style
at the expense of substance.
And on the other hand, you have people
that are only concerned with what?
Substance. Just tell me what's halal and haram
and move on man, why are you talking
about trees and mountains?
Just give me the and let me move
on.
There are people only concerned with substance. There
are people only concerned with style. Allah doesn't
let you distinguish between the 2 in his
book. They go hand in hand. This is
the nature in which Allah created the human
being. Okay? Now,
Didn't they look and stare into the sky
above them? The word is used as opposed
to If you use the word
it would actually suggest that they ponder deeply
into the sky. Allah is saying, didn't they
ever even look for a little bit into
the sky?
Didn't they even look up ever? This ayah
means so much to me because I used
to live in New York City.
You know, I used
to go from
my my home in Queens to the bus
stop, to the subway,
to the, you know, the the the the
human sardine can that is the subway system.
And then you come out of there, and
you go into your building, and you go
into your elevator, and you look like this
the entire time, and what do you never
look at?
The sky. Well the first thing I noticed
when I came to Texas.
People won't look
up. Actually the only time they look up
is if it's raining.
That's that's the only time,
you know.
Allah says, Why didn't didn't they look towards
the sky
that is above them, right above them?
How did We build it? Did You ever
wonder how marvelous its architecture?
And how We beautified it.
Ah, beautifying the sky.
In the daytime, he beautified it with clouds,
with its color, with the birds flying in
it. You know?
That's the beauty of the sky above us.
And then you know if it's a bright
sunny day, you just like opening the window,
you just like looking outside, it's natural.
Why do you pay why do you pay
extra for a a room with a view?
Because of the sky,
meeting the ocean,
overlooking the valley, you pay extra for that.
There's another hotel room much cheaper, it faces
the parking lot,
or the industrial air conditioning unit.
And so much but you don't get it
because you want the view. That's what you
came for. It's something appealing to human beings,
this this want of beauty. Iqbal said it
very beautifully actually.
His Urdu poetry,
Right? And the idea behind it is very
powerful. He's he's actually arguing
that human beings have an innate desire to
seek out beauty.
Beauty in what they wear, beauty in how
they live, beauty in what they draw, beauty
in what they build. You know, for men
and for women. A man wants to
design a car and make it look more
beautiful,
and enhance and kit out the interior.
You know, whether you're living in like Junction
Boulevard, Queens and you got spinner rims because
they be they be looking ill or whatever,
or you got like you know
or you've got like, you know, uh-uh you
know, a house and you've redone the interior
and you've got this fancy interior designer to
do it for you. Or you're into fashion
and you're, you know, customizing your clothes or
whatever, human beings seek out beauty.
They look for it in what they eat.
I mean their entire shows dedicated to like
have you seen those ridiculous cooking shows?
You know? I love the presentation how you
place the
garnish on the side, and it's it's really
the texture.
You say so many words. Just eat the
thing.
And they'll have this big plate and this
little little like I don't know how these
people eat. Like if this was a desi
show, there will be food falling off the
plate on the sides, but they'll have this
giant plate and this little leaf of grass
and
like a little bite.
How many of these are you gonna eat,
dude?
You
know? But the idea of the presentation of
food, you know, cake boss,
right, decorating it.
But where does it come from?
I mean, cats don't seek beauty.
Dogs don't seek beauty. Snakes don't seek beauty.
They just seek survival.
I mean, where did beauty come from?
Being that you can also find in animals.
Shelter,
fine.
Hunger, fine. There there there are things functional
things.
But then there are things inside the human
being that you just don't find in anything
else.
Where does the desire to produce music come
from?
To make
art to better and better architecture.
I mean, look at the marvels human beings
have created. If we just wanted to create
places to live, all of them will be
boxes.
He argues that the search for beauty began
when human beings were first created
and they were in the presence of Allah.
And when they because they
witnessed Allah.
And
Al Jama' Allah is beautiful, loves beauty, we
saw the ultimately beautiful and then we left
Him and we've been seeking beauty since.
We came into this earth and we're seeking
beauty since.
This is actually a Qur'anic argument.
The Qur'anic argument is don't you look at
the beauty in the sky? Why do you
think you look at the beauty in the
sky? Don't you look at the incredible architecture
of the world? Why do you look at
that? Why does that appeal to you?
Why is there even a desire for beauty
inside you?
It's actually God you're seeking.
You know, every time you find something beautiful
you get bored and say there must be
something
more beautiful.
And then you seek something
more beautiful and then you seek something more
beautiful and Allah says,
To your master alone is the final end.
The ultimate beauty is with Allah.
That's where we're gonna end up.
This is what these a'at are howled.
Didn't they look to the sky above them?
How did we build them?
How do we build it? How did we
beautify
it?
Cracks, rips, tears,
incisions.
Did you see any of them in the
sky? We saw this in Surat al Mulk
pretty exhaustively.
Then he says he switches our attention. Okay.
Now you're done staring at the sky.
And the earth we laid it out.
To lay out flat.
Okay. To lay out flat.
So first he talked about the height of
the skies and the beauty of the skies.
Now he's gonna switch over and talk about
how the earth has been stretched out and
laid out.
And We dropped in it anchors. He's calling
mountains
anchors.
And it's not a scientific term. This is
actually Allah's way of like
is used when a ship drops an anchor.
And literally in classical Arabic,
It stopped at the
which is the English word anchor.
It's from the Arabic word
Okay?
Like,
you know, buildings come and go, cities come
and go. What stays where they it is?
Mountains.
Mountains are these fixtures Allah place, so you
can you can stabilize and you can even
build societies around them. You know? So Allah
says,
and
just like we enjoy the view of the
sky,
the view of a vast landscape, nothing
Few things can be as beautiful as the
view of a mountain. When you get to
a region that has mountains, and of course
of course Texans have a real appreciation for
mountains because we don't have them.
So when we go to Colorado or when
we go to Washington state or even drive
in California,
oh my god, this is nice.
The ups and the downs,
the valleys, how the sky meets the mountains,
how the how the trees are formed there,
the views from above, the views from below,
you know.
You just kind of can't help notice somebody
has a home at the foot of a
mountain or at the top of a mountain,
your eye just goes there.
This is all pictures of
images of beauty.
And then we sprouted in
it of all kinds of pairs. And
pairs actually means species in Arabic too. Means
group too. Groups that complement each other are
called That's why the Quran will say even
on judgement day,
Not pairs but groups.
Groups among them. But when groups complement each
other, like a pair supposed to complement each
other, that's when they're called
zoj. The idea is Allah put all kinds
of flowers, trees, plants
of colors that complement each other. They just
go together. You know when you and I
do interior design, sometimes the colors just don't
go.
But when Allah paints a landscape with flowers,
trees,
fruits,
The greens, and the yellows, and the oranges,
and the pinks, and the purples, they just
go.
They just go together and they just you
just found them stunning. You don't say that
doesn't match.
You don't do that. This is the idea
of Zoj. But then he adds Zoj and
Bahij.
In Arabic
means to be overjoyed.
Has two meanings, beauty and happiness.
You know what that means? You look at
something and you find it beautiful so much
that it makes
you happy. You look at it
You can't even help it. You're a miserable
person, you're always in a bad mood, and
you look at this thing and you're like,
wow.
Even you smile.
Even if you're the board member of a
masjid. It's also Yeah. It's
an old joke, but, you know, it's timely.
Now check it out.
When he described the beauty of the sky,
he said three things.
How did we build it above you?
In contrast, he said about the earth, how
we stretched it out below you.
He said, How did We beautify the sky?
He contrasted it immediately
with What's the beauty of the Earth? The
mountains.
And then on the other side,
I love this one. There's not a single
crack,
hole
in the sky, but the earth.
He he planted all kinds of gardens in
it. And to plant gardens, you have to
have holes to plant them in. The earth
is full of holes, but those holes create
beauty. The sky is beautiful because it has
no holes. The earth is beautiful because it
has openings.
Because those openings produce color and beauty. The
contrast between the skies and the earth 3
versus 3, so balanced, so beautiful, it's just
the way Allah speaks. Subhanallah.
And what I really find fascinating about these
ayat is that Allah decided to talk about
beauty and joy
and appreciation
and our quest for beauty before he talked
about purpose.
He talked about that first. And as a
matter of fact, the entire Surah began that
way. Nobility is not a need.
Nobility is what adds beauty to life.
You don't need to be treated with respect
to survive.
But if you're not treated with respect, your
life is gonna be ugly.
Human beings
seek respect and dignity because it beautifies their
life.
They went straight to the substance of warning.
And they looked at everything so in an
ugly way, where our decaying bodies, this that,
that's where they took the conversation.
And Allah is focused entirely on beauty. You
know what this makes me think? I know
I'm getting a little too philosophical today, but
I can't help it.
Quran
is
constantly calling you to appreciate the beauty of
things around you. Constantly.
In a world that is
so quickly on a highway towards atheism,
and a highway towards scientific materialism,
On that highway, what you're finding more and
more is that the arts
the arts,
music,
things that were expressions of beauty and human
culture,
they are suffering now more than they ever
have.
You'll find music becoming more and more violent,
aggressive,
thumping,
mind numbing.
You You know music used to be used
across societies even in the Muslim world. It
used to be used for therapy.
You know? And
and
is something that even that there was the
prophet
would enjoy the recitation of the Quran that's
melodious,
and he would, you know, inspire certain poets
to recite poetry melodiously because he enjoyed it.
And you know the Prophet would say, within
within eloquence,
a part of eloquence has it has a
magic to it.
Poetry used to be profound and deep.
What is poetry now? What are the lyrics
to song now? I want to jump. I
want to stand, I want to sit, I
want to lie.
And that's the mild version.
I want
to like
most things that people are bopping their heads
to are written by a second grader.
I mean the level of
sophistication that used to be in the arts,
that used to be in music, that used
to be in, you know,
in paintings.
Like, you know, even paint the the the
study it's an interesting study of like the
Muslim
art
versus Western art.
If you notice Muslim art, we don't depict.
It's not just because haram or whatever.
It's actually if you if you study Muslim
art, you'll find its obsession with
geometry.
Perfect shapes,
perfect curves,
and this is balanced with this side.
Even our calligraphy is all geometric and balanced.
Right? That's and Muslim architecture is all about
order and
balance. You know why that is? Because this
is something
consciously and subconsciously
inspired by
the ayat of Allah in the Quran where
he constantly talks about balance, and harmony,
and things in order. And we actually see
the world this way. And so our art
expresses it.
So western art started with, you know, like
looking, painting things just as you see them.
So you'll find paintings of landscapes and
you know a barn. You see those paintings,
right?
And then arch takes another turn.
By the way, this is
right? So the Muslims are painting what is
behind the mountain. What are they painting? The
order and the symmetry behind it. The source
code. And the western art a lot of
western art was what? What you see.
What you see is what you get. The
river, the tree, the you know. And then
what you see, if you don't know that
there's order behind it,
and all you have is the apparent,
then soon it starts becoming ugly.
Soon everything you see
becomes ugly
because everything you see
is reduced to its basic parts.
There's a reductionism
that starts taking place. So what happens is
I don't see beauty anymore.
I see ugliness.
And you have app
impressionist art and other kinds of art. You'll
see paintings in a gallery where there's a
face and one eye is over here and
one eye is over here and his face
is over here. You've seen those? And people
are suddenly looking at, I wonder what he's
trying to communicate.
The Muslim looks at it and goes, why
did he I mean, you could've just put
the eye there. I mean,
that would've been a lot better.
You know? But now you know what the
artist is saying, this is how I see
the world, ugly, deformed,
purposeless.
And then the art takes yet another turn
where you can have a monkey take a
blotch of paint and smack it on a
wall and call it abstract art.
Because this is what you see now. I
see purpose and purposelessness.
I see randomness all around me. I see
amrul marij even in the art.
That's all I see.
You know this idea of beauty is not
a small thing.
Beauty inspired by faith is not a small
thing. And we, muslims,
have to restore that sense of beauty
especially to the arts because the arts are
one of the most constant forms of human
expression that have survived.
Kingdoms have come and gone, art has survived.
Kingdoms have come and gone, poetry has survived,
You know, powers have come and gone, constitutions
have come and gone,
and yet this has survived. This is something
we have to influence, because this influences human
thought,
It influences a lot, you know.
And this this affects how, you know, even
the way that that film is made.
And you know by the way,
uh-uh the use of obscene language was seen
as something lowly people do
and wasn't considered art ever,
right? And now
box office films which are art, film is
art,
the highest caliber films have the most obscene
language.
The most grossing music has the most obscene
language.
Human beings are deteriorating artistically.
This is what's happening, and that's why these
ayat are important.
Allah created beauty all around us for us
to see. In the mountain, in the tree,
we could see it differently than everybody else.
We find joy in it. And then Allah
says, these are words that are just
I give all of this to you, the
skies and the earth, and
you can call it here
The purpose of it, for the purpose of
you to be given insight.
In in from a I will get like
a little bit Arabic
nerd on you a little bit.
Tabsira comes from Like
The word means to make someone see.
The word
means to really make someone see.
Like
means to remind someone, and means to really
remind someone. It's
a hyperbolized form of making someone see.
Allah says, I made the sky this way,
and I made the mountains this way, and
I made flowers make you smile, to force
you to see,
to really make you see.
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