1-2 Kitaab &; Qur’an
Nouman Ali Khan – Surah Yusuf #6
AI: Summary ©
AI: Transcript ©
Elif
Elif
moving in.
So today we're getting started with a study of sort of use of IRA IRA. And I'm going to try to limit these lectures to between 30 and 45 minutes at the most, my intention today is to cover the first two items. So, even though we had a five part introduction, and it was rather long, there are lots more things to say in the introduction, but I decided to intersperse them through the course of the lecture itself. Instead of holding off on getting started with the sutra, on its own, so let's begin each and I'll start by translating the ayah number one for you and then discuss it a little bit. Alif Lam ra tinka. advocate Avi bien, la flamme Ra. Those are the miraculous or divine signs of the
clear and clarifying book, that would be a simple translation of the first ayah. Those are the miraculous signs or the divine signs of the clear and clarifying book. The first thing to note is the opening letters of the Surah Al Islam.
If you're a regular reader of the Koran or student of Foreign Studies, you know that a lot of students in the Quran are in groups, they're bunched together, right. And if you don't know that, well, now you're going to learn something about that. So there are a number of scholars that have a similar style and you can tell that they are related to each other or Allah wants us to consider them connected to each other more deeply. By the way, Allah opens those slots in the sutras that open with Alif Lam raw are like that. So you have this is Surah number 12. I'll take you back to school number 10, which is universe, and it's important to know so number 10. Eunice is a Maki
surah. And all the way from there to Surah. Number 23 are going to be lucky slots. So 10 1112 1314 all the way to 23 are schools that were given to the Prophet slicin in Makkah, right before that. So let's number eight and nine are my Denisova. So this is a this is part of a larger group of soldiers that are that are mucky within them also. You know, this first part are a bunch of soldiers actually five of them that begin with Alif Lam and Ra. So you find in the beginning of sulit units Alif Lam rock Tikka tikka, Hakim, those are the miraculous signs of the wise book. So here we saw the clear and clarifying book in the 10th solar in the beginning, the wiser, 11 solar and if lanre again,
the double of chemo IR for Scylla toamasina will be a book whose I articles miraculous signs were stitched together and then they were opened up and explained on behalf or from from from the one that that contains or possesses all wisdom and has all news then sort of use of the one we're looking at Alif Lam rock Inca to get up we will be then after that is the only one that doesn't have a lifelong raw sort of rock. It has Alif laam Meem so it's the only one that's got a little bit of an extra letter Alif Lam Meem rock tilaka kitabi When did you really cannot be COVID Huck.
Solo number 14 Ibrahim Alif Lam Rokita will
be
coming soon number 15. Again, I live in Canada to kitabi movie. So you've got each one of them opening with Elif Lama and then saying something about the book itself. The revelation itself, it seems, obviously we don't know what the letters mean. There's lots of theories about that. But clearly, Allah knows best if he did not chose not to tell us what Alif Lama or Alif laam Meem or Gulf higher insight, etc me. But the entire purpose of the book is for us to learn. Right? And the question, the first question that arises is how do you want me to learn something? I don't even know what it means. What am I supposed to learn from that? Right? Because Allah says, In the Quran, he
talked about, obviously, when you teach someone, you're helping them understand and hear you have a number of soldiers in our case right now that are beginning with letters we don't understand. We don't know what the purpose of them is, right? There are a few things about that that are important to note. The most important of all of them is an orientation will love
it as if you know if a teacher was going to teach you something. It's important for a teacher to also set limits and say this is what I'm going to teach you. And this is beyond the scope of your knowledge.
At the moment,
and a lot teaching us guidance, one of the first parts of his orientation to us over and over again in different suitors is, there are some things you are not meant to know. And I will be the one who knows, and you don't. And this is an important orientation, a lot has all knowledge, including what Alif Lam rock means. And you and I don't, we don't have that knowledge. And that reminder is necessary, especially in certain solos. Now, why is it? For example, in the story that we're studying right now, in the surah, most of its going to be select Use of is going to be about the story of use of Elisa. So why is that reminder important for us in studying so the use of these
three are coming in the beginning are going to be an introduction, before we get into the story itself? Well, it's important because the story of use of a salon has a lot of details. There's a lot of people involved. He's got 11 Brothers, their parents, there's a lineage, there's a map involved, there's this going on, you know, and so they're there.
There's the journey involved. There's the Empire, the Egyptians, the Minister, the minister's wife, it's called, it's called proto far in, you know, in biblical literature. So there are lots of characters and individuals and names and places and information involved. Lots of karate skipping on on a lot of them. In fact, I told you that the father of use of an insulin is Yahoo, the word Yahoo doesn't occur in this surah. Allah just says his father, his father, their father, their father, doesn't mention him by name, not here. Other places. You mentioned some but not here. Right? So it's important for us to know that ally is withholding information, allies withholding information, and
the first thing he's withheld is what does that mean? Right? That's the first thing he withheld. And that's the last way of saying, there are some things that you need to know for the purpose of guidance. And there are other things that you become very curious about, but they won't serve the purpose of guidance. So I want your attention on what will serve the purpose of guidance. And I also want you to know that there are some things are only meant to be known by Allah, no matter how curious you get. Now, what happens is with Allah and Ron, we learned that there are people that become obsessed with the things they're not meant to know. Like, they're just obsessed with. I have
a theory on Alif Lam, Meem, I think I figured it out. Or I know what the seven skies mean, I got I got it. Or there are there are realities, Allah describes that the, you know, the actual nature of them, there's no way for us to know or verified. But people become obsessed with those obscure parts. Like I met someone after a football one time, it was in California somewhere. And this gentleman sat me down and said he found the cave, where the people of the cave, were sleeping, he found it. I was like, how do you find that one? Look, I looked at the words of the Quran. And then I looked at Google Earth, and then I, you know, in the sun position, and he, I mean, for an hour, I'm
just trying to eat my chicken shower. And it went stale, because the guy was just pinpointing the exact location. I think it was in New Jersey somewhere. We're kidding. But the point is, you're obsessed with something that if a lot wanted you to know the geographical location of the cave, he tell you, right, so we become obsessed with other information. It's actually similar in this story. People a lot of times ask. So what happened to the minister's wife? Does she like getting married to him later? or What was her name? But what was her name? And how old? Was he when this happened? And why are you obsessed with all these questions that let him teach you about? So he's withholding from
the beginning to orient you? And then he's also saying they'll come? I think it will be. Those are miraculous revelations signs of the clear and clarifying book. In other words, the book is clear in and of itself, and somebody comes along and says, But wait, I'm not clear on some of the historical details. I'm not clear on some of the names. I'm not clear on some of this other information. And allies pretty much teaching us that what needs to be clear has been made clear. And what he did not make clear was for your own benefit, is to teach you that's not everything that you are curious about needs to be made clear. the mandate of guidance comes from a law not from us. So that's a
remarkable orientation. And one of the benefits of the beginning. The other thing I feel there's a question about deca, which I'm translating as those are the divine signs, the of the clear and clarifying book, right, so the words those sounds like it's far away. And it's remarkable that that's being used, because the word book is referring perhaps to the actual written word of Allah, which was not given to the Prophet sallallahu sallam, the actual written word of Allah is speaking Dobby mcloon naomasa who illuminata Harun, it's in a hidden book with a last possession that only the closest angels can access. And from it, what is learned by geminiani salaam is delivered to the
Prophet sallallahu sallam. So the original
With whom, Allah and that's far away. And when you point at something foreign Arabic you use value Karthika or use faraway. So those are the miraculous signs. Those are the divine signs of the clear clarifying book. Now the word book becomes understandable because the word book obviously refers to something written in your hands, or rich, something, a document. But the prophet SAW Selim, we know, well, my contact at lumen company, human keytab, or metalphoto, bionic. You weren't reading any book before this, and you didn't write it with your own hands. So the prophets doesn't have access to books per se. He doesn't even have access to books. So why is the Quran calling itself a book,
especially in makin Quran early for? You know, the migration hasn't even happened yet. We're not directly dealing with the Jews and Christians even though there are some narrations of the Jews asked a question about the migration, but there's not much interaction with them. What Ally's telling us as to things by use of the word book, one thing he's telling us is the perhaps the origin of the Quran is it's part of a much larger book that contains all of the scriptures of Allah. So it contains what was given to Sophia rahima Moosa. It contains the scripture is given to Abraham, the scripture given to Moses, the scripture is given there after what was given to David to doubt, what
was given to Jesus all of its contained in there, every every one of them is there in the Koran is there true. And these are part of that original book. So that's one implication. The other is that, yes, it's a book up in heaven. But even though it is just words that are being rehearsed, and recited right now, that this these aren't just words, they are a book. In other words, what you are reciting without any paper in front of you is actually a book. And it will actually become a written book, also accessible in written form, almost like the destiny of the Quran to come like we have a copy of Quran now in front of us, people at the time, when they were hearing the word book, they had
no book in front of them, right. But although I knew it was gonna turn into light, accessible to humanity. So he already called out what's coming in the future by saying these are the clear and clarifying book as it is in the heavens and as it is here. The other important thing is some of us who don't believe that the word think of those refers to an Islamic law, in other words, and Islamic law are the are those out of the book. Now, why is that important? Because that's as if a lie saying and if downright, is a group of teachings of the Quran, this sort of yunos sort of use of the Brahim, then hedger, and by the way, the only one that doesn't have left, Islam, mira is alive, and
its name is Alexandra.
Kids pretty cool. But let's just say he pointed that I was like, well, that's peculiar, you know. But anyway, these sutras clearly are connected as if I say this teaching belongs to this group. These are outcomes that part of the book and that's why mamarazzi and others also said when Allah calls the book here, Kitab Kitab can also refer not just to the entire for on not just to look in the food, guitar can actually refer to a surah by itself,
into a single slot can also be called Get up and a single slot can also be called Koran. A single select can also be called a corpsman. Because the word without means a writ is something written, not the whole thing but something and for unnaturally means recital. And a single Sula is a single recital at another school is another recital and another surah is another recital and in that sense, each slide is also a Koran. Okay? So
he takes it in that meaning to that perhaps a less talking about, and this is an Islamic law, yet another portion of the book that begins with a left llama belonging to that group. Okay. Now I come to the fact there's two important things and I, I realized a lot of you are interested in this series because of the story of use of a salon. But you know, what's really important for all of us is we have to humble ourselves to the way Allah teaches, to the way Omar speaks. You might think there's some parts that are juicy, I can't wait to get to.
The Quran has, you know, a teacher who knows what he's doing, and no one knows what he's doing better than a lot. A teacher knows where you need to begin.
And what you need to hear first, before you get to the next lesson, the next lesson in the next lesson. So the sequence of the IR is a divine curriculum. What does he want your attention on first, he decided. So you'll notice that the first three IR have nothing to do with the story of use, and he wants this first. He wants us to go through this first before we get into the store. So there are some things in here that I think are worthy of attention. And I'm going to make sure I highlight those first before we get into the fourth I onwards. So what are those things? In simple words, there's a big difference in when you speak and when you write.
When you speak and when you write if you're writing an essay.
writing an email, or you're writing your thoughts about something or writing an article or writing a post on social media or something like that, you can write a paragraph, then you can go back and edit some words, you can take some sentences out, or you misspelled something, or you wrote a word that wasn't meant to be there, or you repeated yourself and you cut some sentences out altogether, or this paragraph seems, seems unnecessary. Now, you can go through a refinement process. And then you can give it to somebody else and say, hey, look, take a look at this, this this remote and I post it, and then they realize, Yeah, looks good, I will change this or this or this right, though.
So what I call an editorial process. So in writing, there can be an editorial process. And because of that editorial process, writing sounds a lot more formal. It sounds a lot more regimented, and structured and organized and serious. As opposed to that when you're speaking. Mostly, when you and I are speaking, we're casual. And we mess up and you repeat ourselves. And we have gaps in speech and we say the wrong word. Or we have grammatical, you know, mistakes. Even as I was just explaining this to you. I said, grammatical, you know, mistakes, I throw in the, you know, in the middle, I wouldn't do that. If I was writing, it would seem odd. If I threw a you know, in the middle in
speech, it sounds fine. Right? So we have conjunctions, or words or expressions we throw into speech that don't make their way into writing. Right? And so the Quran is being called a kitten writing.
Right? So that means that there are there is no room for Aha, right? You know, of course, kind of like small add ons here and there that you can take out later on and edit them. If something is written. And back then there was no backspace button, there was no select and cut or delete, there was no undo. All it was once it's written, and it wasn't even written on paper, it used to be carved. Once it's carved, that's the final version. There's no editing it. So the Quran is claiming that whatever is coming out of the prophets mouth socialism is the final draft, it's the original. And there's no any possible, there is no edits that are gonna happen this, this is it. So that's
another implication of Kitab versus or encore admins recital. So peran is what is heard. Kitab is what is seen in red. Right? So 11 merges the two when describing the art book as GitHub, which refers to the written origin. And then he describes it as for iron, which is the Arabic That is recited. So both of those are unified, the oral tradition and the written tradition are connected together. That's, that's a unique feature of the Quran now. So Tikka tokita, will be the other two movie, which is an important word. But one more thing about the story of Joseph is known to the Jews and the Christians for, you know, 1000s of years. They've known this story for a very long time It
predates Moses. Right? So it's a it's a very old story. And it's one of the most fundamental stories in biblical tradition for both the Jewish and the Christian people. It is in their book, it's at the end of the book of Genesis. And we believe that as the story was told in the Bible, it was actually revealed originally by allies that within themselves, right, so it's a it's originally revelation, whatever version of it, there is now we believe the original was actually revelation. Right? And the author of that revelation is Allah. And the origin of that revelation is the ultimate book that contains all revelations. So the story that occurs in the Bible, originally was in this book, and it
was hunted down to them, but he didn't send them down this, this revelation in Arabic, he sent it to them in Hebrew, because the people were Hebrew. And so he took the knowledge that was in that book, and he transformed it into Hebrew and delivered it to the Israelite people right now is the same author, same story. But he's going to now retell the story, not repeat the story. This is important. When you repeat something, you're saying the same thing again.
He's not repeating the story. He's going to retell the story. retell the story means he'll say he'll talk about the same events. When he'll talk about them in a new way, all together. He's going to highlight things that were not highlighted in the previous scripture is going to make you think about things that you didn't think about in the previous string search if you read that book, or if you read that story. And so he is going to, it's coming from the same author. So it's the same story, but now it's being retold. Okay, now I get to and this this will become clear in the next day or two. But now I want to get to the probably the most important part of this particular if I look
it up, and it's quality, the description of the book, meaning the description of the surah and also the description of the Quran as a whole and being a novena. I translated as clear and clarifying. So I use two words to translate a movie. The these are divine signs, or those are divine signs of the clear and clarifying book. So I want
Take some time to explain to you the difference between the word clear and the word clarifying and why both of those are important. Okay, clear means something clear in and of itself. By itself, it's clear. Now that poses a question, what do you mean by clear and clear? In what sense, right? And clarifying is something the next step after that. So let's first talk about clear, clear means that the work makes itself clear that it's not the word of a human being.
Like when you hear it, you can clearly tell a person didn't offer this. If you contemplate it, that conclusion will become one, clear. And the word clear in Arabic, you know, movie comes from the verb abana, which comes from the origin, banner, which means to separate the meaning when you read it, it separates itself from the word of human beings, you can tell this is not the product of a human mind.
That's also going to be very evident, because some group of Jews came to the Prophet Solomon said, Oh, you have scripture? Well, how did the Israelites come to Egypt, then, can you tell us and he's an Arab Prophet, living in Arabia, you know,
he's actually been there for many, many, many generations, his ancestors have been there for many generations, they have no access to the Hebrew Scriptures. And yet, Allah is going to give to him clearly details of what transpired with this Israelite Prophet 1000s of years ago, and make it very clear that the Prophet size alone has accurate information that was not accessible in a human sense, human beings did not have access to that information. And they know that. So when they hear him talk about it, it's going to be very clear to them that this book is the book of Allah, you get it. So it's the fact that he's going to be able to tell them these things that is going to make it clear to
them. How else is the book clear? So the first thing is, it's clear that it's that it's the word of Allah separates itself from the word of human beings. The second is, it's clear in its message. It's not confusing. It's not ambiguous or abstract, you know that. It's not using words that people can't understand or process or I don't know, what's the point of this? I don't get it. What is it? What does it want from me, it's message is very clear and straightforward. It doesn't beat around the bush and gets to the point. You know, it doesn't speak in abstract terms and speaks it speaks in very direct, clear, explicit depicted terms. In
akima, Daya, tomahto, Silla, sometimes Allah will talk about something briefly, and then he'll explain it himself. So it's a very self explanatory, that's the actual why the word self explanatory or self evident, even is the word vegan from the same origin. I often but you're not, right, that clear in and of themselves. So that's, it's clear its message. And then thirdly, I would add, that the book of Allah is clear in what it wants from me and you.
Like it's clear in its message, it's clear in the way it tells a story and clear, it's clear in the way it describes God. It's clear in its way It describes the afterlife. It's clear in the way it talks about history, it's clear about all those things, its message. But it's also very clear that it doesn't just come to entertain you with a story. It's also very clear that is not just there to give you interesting philosophical or theological information. It has demands. It is it's pulling on its reader and its listener. And it's demanding some of them from them a change in and of themselves, are changing the way they think, or changing the way they feel a change in the way they
control themselves, or changing the way that they commit themselves to certain things and commit themselves away from other things. It demands a change. And it's very clear about that. So in every sense of the word, the book is wide, clear. Now I'm going to give you an example. Imagine that you have a light bulb or a lamp of some kind, right? But you know how the lamps have, or a torch a flashlight, a flashlight has a glass in front, right? That helps the light spread. Now imagine that that glass is not clear. So it's got it's covered in dirt, or it's got mud on it or something on it. When you turn the light on? Is it able to clarify the path?
No, until the glass is clear, it is unable to clarify. Unless it's clear, it cannot clarify. I said the book has two qualities. It is clear and it also what clarifies do so what is it going to clarify? The book is meant to clarify the way we should live. The book is meant to clarify the difference between right and wrong. The book is meant to clarify what really happened in history separating it from the lies because a lot of prophets lies are told about them. And the prime came to set the record straight and make it clear. No, that's not what they were like. That's not what they ever did. This is what they were like this is what the real account is. So it sets the record
straight and it clarifies so and it clarifies the original purpose. It doesn't
clarify the events of history, it clarifies the purpose of history. Everything is heading towards a purpose. There's a reason why these events occurred. There's a reason they're being talked about. And so not just the fact. So, in clarifying This is the second piece, it can only happen if it's what first. Clear first. Now, the thing, this is where the the scary part happens for a Muslim.
The Quran in and of itself is clear. But Allah made it the responsibility of the oma to go out there and clarify.
Take what Allah has given you. That is absolutely what clear and go out there and clarify reality for people living in a taboo was level 1 billion. Those who repented, corrected themselves and then went out and clarified. The book is not going to go on clarifying itself. You know, it could be that some people stumble upon the Quran and find the truth that happens, right? But actually the purpose of the Quran and our purposes in oma the Prophet, social and leftist with this responsibility ballyhoo on me, well, I go communicate on my behalf, even if it's a single ayah, right. Why did you do that? Because our job was to take this crystal clear message and take this light, and then share
it with people. And when people are living in darkness, and all of a sudden they see a little bit of light, they can see things for what they really are. Because light helps you see reality for what it is. If the lights were turned off in this room, I would run into furniture and equipment was the lights turn on, I know what to avoid. So when believers carry the light of Revelation, they're able to ensure it, they're able to help other people see what they didn't see before.
And when they see that they're like, I want to I want Can I hold on to that light? Do you have a tourist Can I have it? And they'll come to it because they see how much it clarifies how much it opens up. And so that's the role of both clear and clarifying and then cello Tada, my, my motivation, my personal motivation for these lecture series for the work that I do in Vienna, is people that I was inspired by the dedicated their lives to one thing they felt that the Quran has not been clarified, not even to the Muslims forget non Muslims. Right that we haven't done our job clarifying the word of Allah, the Book of Allah is clear. But it hasn't been clarified. And that's
where we fell short. And when I first started learning the Quran when I was 1819 years old, I felt like I was robbed for 18 and 19 years, I lived in the Muslim world. I've been praying since I can remember. But I didn't know this book and what it was talking about, not the way that I, when I first actually went through the book, cognitively, with my mind actually open, not falling asleep. I realized, whoa, I have no idea what's in this book. And this is this is our book. And we don't know it. Like it was a shocker for me, right. And so I felt the need for it to become clear to me.
And once it started to become clear to me, I felt the urge inside me to want to clarify it for others. Because what I found so illuminating for myself, what I found so priceless, it would be a tragedy of mine such a, I can't even keep it in myself. Like I just want to share Hey, you know what I found? You know what people do nowadays, they like a video and share it. Right? And they share ridiculous things they share like baby Yoda,
or whatever, or they share cat cats playing piano or they share stuff like that. But if something really moved you
and something changed your life, something transformed you from inside, wouldn't you want to just tell someone, Hey, you know what I just found, you know what this is just did for me, you know. And so we become in a sense, every believer that comes to the Quran becomes a living testimonial of what the word of Allah did for them.
And then they share that how it clarified things in their life. And then they want to go out and share it with others and clarify their lives. So that's a little bit about did Chi on kitabi movie. Now let's go to the second Ayah into number four. And in our opinion,
no doubt about it. It is we in fact, we sent it down as an Arabic recital as an Arabic recital. So that all of you can understand also means hopefully, all of you can understand. And also it could also mean that so that you might understand. So all of you might understand. And actually I'll even change the word understand, I'll say so you might think and understand that blue means two things thinking and understanding, which are separate. They're not two different two, they're two different things. Okay, so now let's dig into this. And first of all, appreciate its connection. Noticing. The first is a law called it kitaab. And this is calling it for iron. Yeah. So what's he doing? He's
telling us that it's in a written form in the heavens, and it was turned into something to be recited in Arabic on the tongue of Mohammed Salah.
We have sent it down meaning by way of God as as how an Arabic Quran and Arabic Quran. So it's this. It's the story of the Hebrews, the Israelites, the sons of Israel. That's the story of do so it's found originally in Hebrew. And yet now it's coming down as an Arabic recite.
The Arabs have no business telling this story. It's not your story. Yeah, they have no business but the master of the Arabs and the master of the Hebrews, it's all it's all his business telling you what story he wants to tell you.
So he now reclaims the Israelites story of use of an incident as an Arabic recital as an Arabic recital. But then he didn't just stop there, but he's going to tell it as an Arabic recital. First, he could have just stopped there.
So that all of you understand. The first meaning of that can be that the Israelites that were listening, that were there in Medina, or that were secretly feeding questions to the forage, they understand that when he is going to give the story in Arabic, clearly it's coming from Allah because he definitely did not get this from the Hebrew sources. So what's his source? And how did he get this? Nobody else has this? How can you get and why is it so much more clear than even what we have in our own perform? Why is it like that? So he says, for an hour being an Arabic recital, but the other there are other implications of it to the Quran was meant to be recited. Allah could have sent
it down as like the 10 commandments, right like
in the form of tablets, it could have come down in the form of paper, it could have come down as a book already printed, published, but unless it down in the form of the spoken word, you know what that means? That the legacy of the Quran of this world is that it should not just be read, it should be spoken.
Its original experience for humanity is that it's carrier someone love more animals Hello, spoke the Quran.
We say we follow the Sunnah of the Prophet sallallahu sallam. That means we have to speak the Quran to people.
What we've done from that sadhana, is we recite the Quran especially in this month, we recite the Quran and we reduce the Quran to sounds beautiful sounds that are being heard. Those beautiful sounds are critical because they are a part of the Quran. But the Quran didn't come for Audible, you know, enjoyment. The Quran came as a message that should be heard. Right? So the oma shall become people that do the recital, literally, it's called the recital, the thing that is pronounced out loud. But he put it in Arabic, like he, and then well he put it in Arabic was the original audience was Arab. How could they not? Because it says we gave it as an Arabic recital so y'all can
understand meaning y'all are Arabs, all of you are Arabs, how could you understand it in any other language? So it's obvious that he said it in Arabic. But there's a larger question. A lot of knew that when he says all of you understand in 2020, when I read this, I'm not thinking just all of you in Macau understand, or all of you in Macau, Medina, understand or all of you in Hijaz understand, I will be reading this, all of you in Asia, Africa, Europe, Australia, America, all of you across the planet will understand Isn't this a book for all of humanity? which creates the question? Well, if the Quran is for everybody, how can we assist in one language? It's not my fault that I'm, you know,
Asian, or somebody else's fault that they're Hispanic or somebody else's fault that they're Chinese or somebody else's fault. They're Vietnamese, they should come in Vietnamese to the Vietnamese people.
You know, it should come in Punjabi lorries, it should accompany you know, different dialects to different people. How come it's in Arabic, so you can understand? And this is a deep question. Why is it what Alecia Allah says? And the answer to that, for me, what I understand of the answer is a few things. One, the Arabic language, a lot prepared it for the final revelation. Allah prepared the Arabic language for the final revelation. He its story begins with a smile on Instagram and all of that, but a lot chose the gabaa to be in the desert.
And he chose it to be in an isolated place with no natural resources up until the coming of the Prophet system, no natural resources whatsoever. So the Arab people were just herding sheep, and, you know, taking their camels across the desert for trade, but they were isolated. And the great empires of the world, the Roman Empire, the Persian Empire, nobody was interested in the Arabs to extend their empire, because even if they extend their empire and take over the desert, what are they going to do? What are they going to get from it? reverse? What are they going to get trees, agriculture, are they going to get gold? Oil hasn't been discovered yet. So we're in a new territory
now. Right now. We're really fighting over arable land, because of its natural resources. But back then what was there? What natural resource it had? No
value to the great empires of the world, which is why you've got the Roman Empire on the one end, you've got the Persians on the other end, you've got the Indians on the other end, and none of them are interested in invading Arabia.
There's just, it's just left alone. This is left to their own development, what are we going to get from it? They're, like, lost in history, this group, and they're by themselves. And when they're by themselves, their language becomes isolated. For the most part, they do pick up some words from Persian and Greek. And when they do trade here, and there, they pick up words, and they incorporate them into their language, but not like what happens to you know, international languages, not not like what happens to cultures that have trade. Right. And this is a good an important language concept. When you are a society that does a lot of international trade, then your own language
deteriorates, because it keeps getting contaminated by outside influences. Right. So an easy example of that for you guys, nowadays, ironically, is locka. locka was the most isolated place back then just for the Arabs. But nowadays, when you go to Mecca, you go to Home Depot or something, and we'll open up you know, and this and this disaster of Corona and allow us to visit the Lowe's house again, when you go there, and you go into the marketplace. You've got some Senegalese guy selling the, you know, the the prayer rugs, and he's selling it to some Indonesian woman. And he's telling her Pantanal pantry. I don't know, do
you understand, and she's responding in Bahasa Indonesia. And he's speaking back in some mixture of English and hoodoo. And I went to an Arab guy, and I said, you know, and
I asked him what restaurant he goes into, look, see.
See, intellect is an Arabic word, like a born and raised,
all the words came in Arabic and just speak this nasty cocktail of what was that's not Arabic. But that's what happens when other cultures come in, and cultures mixed language deteriorates. You don't have that phenomenon in Arabia, they are isolated for the most part. And because they're isolated, they're late. And they don't have much to look at man, when they go out at night, they just look at the stars, because they got nothing on earth to look at. When they're out in the desert in the day, they're hoping they find a tree somewhere. You know, that's why their poetry is about horses, or about that one tree that they found, or the moon or the stars, because
nothing else. So what it did is it made them very imaginative people, their language became full of imagery and richness, right and very expressive. In fact, the word out of me, I was looking into the etymology of the word Arabic, today, it will take me half an hour just to explain what the word Arabic means I will be reinforcing a few things. One of its meanings is actually to express yourself and express all of your feelings in the most elaborate way.
That's actually
immediately he opened up what was going on inside and he elaborated with great detail. And because a very expressive, rich language loaded language, I've actually also met a river that's overflowing.
This is why they also use it for a guy who's got too much in his stomach about
the user for that, too. Why when something is so rich, it's gonna overflow when you become a student of Arabic, one word in Arabic has so much meaning it's like a river gushing and overflowing. That's what it feels like Allah made this language that way. But a society where you're doing trade, you don't have time for that kind of poetic picture, rest imagery, language, you just got to make the deal bunch of the quantity, and you just got to get the deal going and move on. That's why, you know, as I traveled different parts of the world,
and traveled across the United States, some of the worst English ever spoken, that I've ever heard, is in New York City. I mean, some of the worst English you'll ever you'll go to, like, you're going to neighborhoods, like you go to Jackson Heights, or you go to like, you know, Jacksonville vinyl, things have changed. I mean, that was in the 1800s. So I don't know
when you go to some of these neighborhoods in English is like a foreign language. And so beat up in bus and when you come out of New York, and you're actually in some university setting, or some other kind of setting and you're speaking actual, the actual language, you know, the the English language, or you're not supposed to say that.
Because when because that's an economic capital, the world traveled to New York, doesn't it? Not anymore right now among those people, but like the international trade all the time, the point I'm getting at is a lot chose a language that had been isolated, and its words became extremely rich. That's just from a linguistics perspective, not to mention the entire legacy of a smile and a slam and the promise of limited writing, and all of that that's part of the story too, but it was building just this
Seen for what Arabic is going to do. The other remarkable thing about Arabic as I started thinking about this, because it's something a lot of the lavorando said, he said,
he said learn Arabic because it enhances your ability to think.
So he said, Now it's interesting.
And he's talking to who is like learn Arabic?
Wait, sir, we already know it. I don't think anybody would dare say that to him about the law. But the point is, when he was in when he was in a position of rule, Islam was becoming internationalized, and Arabic was deteriorating already.
And our ability to think and contemplate the richness of the words of allies deteriorating, because we're not learning Arabic more seriously. Right. So for the first time, arguably for the first time, not because of colonization, but because of our commitment to faith all over the world. Arabic became the language of the believer, we didn't abandon the other languages, the Persians kept Farsi and master their
you know, the Indians Max, you know, Captain Hindi kept or do kept Farsi kept their local languages psyche and Punjabi and all of it in Barstow. But they mastered Arabic, wherever Islam land, Arabic went with it. So Arabic was no longer a language of the errors. But the Arabs don't own it. As you can see the Spanish Spanish languages for the Spanish, you know, language for disease or something. Right? German, the German language for the Germans. But the Arabic language is for the people of the Koran.
But just it no longer belongs to an ethnicity. In fact, some of the most remarkable works on the grammar of the Arabic language and the rhetoric of the Arabic language were all written by non Arabs, all of them.
See bow waves anon arrow. The linguistic deceit of doper onizuka, scharff is non Arab fossil democracy in his grammatical commentary, non Arab, the pivotal works in Tafseer studies that we lean on to understand the grammatical nuances of the Quran, non Arabs, one after the other, one after the other. So problema why because, and that's not to say that our did a better job, never came to the edge and learned it and said, this ain't yours anymore. This is everybody's,
well, are
there others in them that haven't yet joined it. So I know I'm taking a little long. But I got to finish this point, because this is so important, folks, this is so if you've, if you've been sleeping through everything else, just wake up for like 10 minutes, and then you're good, then you can go back to sleep.
here's, here's the thing.
In the history of religions, in the history of religions, you've got religions were the people that represent religious leadership, whether it's the same, or it's the preacher, or it's the rabbi, or it's the minister, or it's the Pope, or it's the SWAMI or the pundit, whoever is a religious figure, the spiritual figure, the scholarly figure, who knows the secret word, and takes care of the sacred monastery, whoever they are, the custodians of the religion. And the public doesn't actually know the religion. In order for the public to know anything about the religion, where do they go, they go to the gatekeeper, they go to that religious leader, and he or she will tell them what the religion
needs, right, so they can't have direct access to it. Even if they try to have direct access to it, they're gonna have very limited access, historically speaking, and the actual access will belong to that.
And when that happens, that's when that extreme happens, then I'll give you an analogy. Imagine that you don't know a lot about cars, you know, basically nothing about cars, and you go to the mechanic shop, and you're trying to get your car fixed. And the mechanic tells you, you need a new engine, and you need new tires, and you need a new steering wheel, and you need a new set of seats, and you need a new a new basically new everything. And you're looking at it like
because you don't know any better. You have to go by His Word. Is it possible that because he knows and you don't know, it can take you for a ride, it can take advantage of your lack of knowledge, your lack of understanding he can if you're an informed consumer, however, if you know a little something about cars, or when he says you need a new engine, and you record him and say, Why do I need
any explains that he says, actually, I got a second and third opinion. And I did some research, I don't need a new engine at all. I'm reporting you to the Better Business Bureau or whatever. Right? Because you're an informed consumer, you can't be taken advantage of. What is the history of many religious traditions? Not entirely, but in and by the way, this happens within Islam too. There's one person or two people who know everything. And if you question them, it's like you're questioning God Himself. How dare you question me. I'm the authority here. I'm the authority. So the religion started belonging to the clergy. And the population is just at basically held hostage by the clergy
and the church.
Ask them and they adore them and you love them, but they better not cross the line. Because they're gonna, they're gonna get put in place. As a matter of fact, the clergy can decide the juror conflict.
If you mess with them too much, they can decide that you no longer believe it. Or you're a heretic, or you need to be cleansed, or you need to be punished or you're deviating, or you're no longer pure, etc. So they can condemn you, as if God Himself condemning you. That's one extreme, the Protestant extreme was, forget it, the Catholic Church is trying to control our reading of the Bible. We can read it ourselves.
It's the Word of God, we should have access to it for who for ourselves. And so on the other extreme, you got people, a million people reading the Bible and a million people coming up with different conclusions about what the Bible means.
And so you've got more denominations coming out from my personal reading. I think the book is saying this. And I think it's saying that and I think he's saying that and something as fundamental as who Jesus is, has a different answer, depending on which the * of the church you go to
you go to a, you know, cities across America, where you have different denominations and churches, and you have a conversation about the truth, the reality of Jesus, Jesus will be a common point right there Christians common point, but because of the open reading of the Bible, and the open like me, I enjoy pretty how I feel. My feelings are actually the most passive, right? Everybody got their own version. Everybody got their own church started, everybody got their own congregation, everybody got their own, sometimes their own profits, they declared themselves profits, according to their own reading of the Bible. They became profits, all kinds of craziness. Why? Because it's a free for all.
What is the Quran? Quran is also good delivery religion. And if previous religions ended up either in chaos, anarchy, or in dictatorship, right, those are the two right? Then how's the How is Islam going to be protected? Allah says, We sent it down as an Arabic. So first of all, there won't be confusions about translation, or what a word might mean, or what it might mean. Because all of you whether you are on one corner of planet Earth, or the other cluttered current on planet Earth, you're discussing the same exact word
you're discussing, and between the Arabic word and you're looking at its meaning in the same exact places. You're there's no confusion about what a word means. You're all in the same place. Then, because of that he didn't say so that your religious leadership understands, and then they can explain it to you. What did he said, so that who understands who thinks and understands, so that all of you think and understanding they're going to be decreased? Some people can think a little bit and understand a little bit. So they'll go to those who have spent a lot more time thinking and understanding scholars, don't go to them and ask them questions. But now because they are informed
consumers, because they also for themselves, think and understand, they don't think and understand as much as someone who studied 20 years, but they're still they still have a brain that functions, they still think. So when they ask the clergy, a scholar, and Mr. Musharraf, whoever, when they asked him a question, or her a question, and they get an answer to that question, and the question is not making sense in light of this ayah or is not making sense in light of what I previously learned. You can say, hey, that doesn't make sense. I don't understand explain it.
I'm not convinced because I can't stop thinking. I have to be a person of thought. So it I hate the word democratize, but it did open source, religion. It created a transparency in the learning of Islam. All of that starts going away. When we say no, Mashallah sent me the Quran in Pashto I don't want to learn Arabic.
Allah has sent me in Farsi while learning Arabic unless you just have to put onto me in Punjabi. I like Punjabi, or how about Bangla? Our Bahasa life, I want to learn it in my own life. I don't want to learn Arabic. I don't I don't want to follow the Arabs. All the whole This is an error thing died a long time ago, folks. This is this is not an error thing. And first of all, it's not a thing. It's the word of Allah. And second of all, he owns all languages. People don't own a language. People don't own the language, just like people don't own
the same one who said he talked. He said he taught speech. He talks about all speech belongs to a lot.
So if I speak will do doesn't mean I will do it's actually a level and say, all languages are children of the language talk to other mothers. So he gave us the Arabic for on so that we as an oma have a minimal level of understanding, thinking and understanding. And then on top of that, our knowledge and our wisdom can be built.
You know, it's a remarkable thing that Allah did. But imagine what happens to an oma when we abandon our direct connection with the Quran. Therefore, as a result of that, we abandon the study of the Arabic language. We just say let's just recite some slides. Let's have my kid have some polish, I'll come home and he'll recite to hold onto my cave.
They're going to finish you know making the sound the middle of give them a cake of the Islamic party Islamic finish the Koran party, right, which looks like a birthday party, but it's basically a finished reading the foreign party, like microprocessor can do the opposite.
Like, I finished the Quran, they say you finish the Quran. Anybody ever finished?
You're gonna get finished one don't get finished
yet. So we developed this mentality that the Arabic sounds are the four know the Arabic language is not the Arabic sounds. Sounds are only a part of the language. But that message was supposed to be there. And imagine, imagine for a moment just use your imagination for a second. We have, you know, schools around the world machines around the world where kids are memorizing the line. Yes. By the 1000s, hundreds of millions, millions memorizing the entire plot. Can you imagine every man woman and child, every young boy, young girl, that's a teenager a preteen? And they're memorizing the Quran? And they understand every word that they recite every single day? Can you imagine the effect
on their hearts, the effect on their character, as they're just reviewing the plan is their you know, driving to school? You know, because they're, you know, it's not they're not just reviewing it because they have to leave the lobby. So they better get the sounds right. They're reviewing it and as they review it a lot actually talking to them a lot actually, what kind of overall effect would it have on the oma
you know, these were not these will not be memorizers of the kuranda These will be carriers of the
difference between memorizing with a carrier. And he says, We gave this as an Arabic on so that all of you can understand. So I hope you appreciate the value. And the kind of Renaissance the kind of restoration that can come to the oma when we re emphasize the learning of the language of the Quran. So we as a people have direct access to our scripture.
So that we have direct access, like my my, my wish for the oma, my own children, and the kids I see around me people around the world My wish for them is people like me should become irrelevant.
Because they have access. They have direct and they don't have to wonder what this word means. It's not I wonder what they can do that research themselves, they can ask each other and they can, they can have halaqaat among themselves and contemplate the word of a woman themselves. What an amazing thing that would be. So he says we sent it down as an Arabic on so all of you can can think and understand last comment, think and understand I promise to three minutes, three minutes all the time myself.
It will turn out well. Okay.
document I said thinking understanding. Number one, everybody thinks when you can have all kinds of eyes, your thoughts can go in any direction. But the right kind of thoughts lead towards understanding Yes.
Because the wrong kind of thoughts lead towards misunderstanding. The work that we do and actually combines thought and understanding the word doc loon actually also means control over one's emotions.
We gave you an Arabic for on because the Arabic of this Koran is going to empower you, it's going to be so moving, that it will direct direct your thoughts in the right direction. So you come to the proper understanding and give you the ability to stand against your own urges, your own anger, your own fear, your own anxiety, own lust, your own, whatever, your own selfishness, any any emotion that we have inside, it can put brakes on it.
So we gave you an Arabic Quran that is for the mind and the heart. And that's inside the Word document. You know, and the place in the Quran is sort of Docker, Allah says, you know, their hearts became heart Your hearts became hard. And then instead of attacking,
don't use your cut your hearts became hard because after there directly affects the heart too, because it is the opposite of jab jab means in inability to control one's emotions, we have to become thinkers, the Koran is not emphasizing knowledge. This is within my three minutes. Quran is not emphasizing knowledge. The color is emphasizing thinking and understanding. Someone can have this little knowledge, but they think properly and they understand properly. And somebody can have this much knowledge and they never use it to think properly.
Use have an excellent have very little knowledge because he only was a student of jacoba a salon learning from him at a very young age. So as a kid, he got an Islamic education, and then he got kidnapped and then he's in jail and he doesn't know much. He doesn't know much at all, but he knows I mean Salaam is what his father taught him as a child. That's it. And even in his adult years in jail, he is thinking is clear. His understanding is clear. His control over emotions is mighty because he understands revelation in that way. That's what Allah has given us in the in the novel for Ireland.
Now,
tomorrow we'll deal with the third idea of the solar and then the day after we can begin the story itself.