Nouman Ali Khan – The Method For Learning Classical Arabic
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I must be in Houston this slave question. So Carla, the founder of nightclub blind amigos, salatu salam
ala l mursaleen. vida and he was happy woman's standard he said that he lived with him. Allah Medina made him want me to let me know I'm so sorry hurt but Allah subhanho wa Taala of the southern hemisphere of anatomy from about.
inshallah, I'll divide my talk into two parts. And the moment I start seeing some of you dozing off, I'll cut it short. inshallah,
being in the teaching business, one of the things you learn is there's no point teaching, if you don't have a student in front of you, and how do you know if the students in front of you, their eyes are still open. So basically, that's the formula I try to follow. Anyhow, the talk that I'm going to share with you now is divided into two parts. The first part of it is why study Arabic. The first part is why study Arabic. And the second part is how to study Arabic. So we're gonna try to engage both these parts. I'll probably spend more time on the why and a little bit less time on the how, and then take your questions, inshallah. Tada. So, before we address the importance of Arabic
study, I'm going to play a little bit of the opposite sides advocate.
People say nowadays, well,
not every Muslim has to learn Arabic, that's for the other man, that's for the scholars. I'm just an average Muslim, I make my salah and you know, I don't really need to learn this language. And if Allah wanted me to know this language, he would have made me an Arab. It's in the hikma of Allah that He made some of us Turks and others, Pakistani, and others, Bangladeshi, and others, you know, European, or whatever else allegedly create everybody in Arab. So why do I have to learn Arabic? It's not my fault that I don't know it. And the other argument you hear is Allah centocor are not just to the arrows. What did he say?
He said, Chronos a guidance for all of mankind, right? All of mankind.
So when we hear these arguments, then it's you start thinking, yeah, that makes sense. It's okay to read an Urdu translation, or a Persian translation, or an English translation or French translation, etc, etc. Because that these, these translators, and which is the third argument really, they must know what they're doing. It's not like these people just get up one day and write a translation These are people that know what they're doing. So how can you disregard their work and say, no, nothing compares with on an Arabic You have to learn the Arabic language. So we're gonna try and address this problem inshallah Tada. This, by the way, is a popular line of thinking among many
Muslims nowadays, many Muslims think like this. And I want to address this issue with a number of arguments and we're gonna stick with Quran in the beginning. For the average Muslim in the world, doesn't matter where they come from. If you ask them, why is Arabic important?
Any Muslim? The one who is knowledgeable, the one who's not knowledgeable, the one who's religious, the one who's not that religious, they will pretty much give you the same answer. Arabic is important because of Quran
is the number one answer everybody will give you. And every Muslim man, woman and child pretty much in the world, if they've studied even a little bit of their religion, they know that when they're reading anything except the Arabic of the Quran, that doesn't count as Quran.
The Quran says al hamdu Lillahi Rabbil aalameen. The Quran does not say praise belongs to Allah, the Lord of the worlds that's not on. Anybody will tell you what's going on. I've come to the laggy Babylon, not the translation. Okay, so this is already in the psyche of the Muslims. But we want to take this argument a little bit further.
You see a lot so we're gonna keep it a matter of brief Lorenza was whenever he sent messengers, in order to help them with their mission, a lot also sent with them a miracle. This is what the aqidah of the Muslim the belief of the Muslims is. So the messengers came and tried to tell people something very difficult to accept. I was telling some of the brothers the same thing this morning. Imagine if you live lived a few 1000 years ago, and your neighbor came over to you. And he said, you know, last night an angel came to me and gave me revelation. And he told me that I'm a messenger of God. And whatever I have to say, from now on, it's actually not me. It's from Allah delivered to me
by these angels. So yes, you know, me as your neighbor all this, this our whole life, but from now on, I am a messenger of Allah. And not only do you have to believe everything I'm telling you right now, from here, henceforward everything I told you to do, you must do. Because it's actually not just me telling you to do it. I am telling you to do this on behalf of a higher authority. This is what your neighbor comes and tells you.
Nowadays, we call these kinds of people crazy.
If somebody did that to you nowadays, of course, we know there's no more messengers coming. But imagine even a few 1000 years ago, how easy is that to believe about your neighbor, about your uncle, about your cousin is that easy thing to believe? It's not easy. Most people
But we'll actually find it funny. Can I see this angel?
You sure angel came to you? You show? What did you have for dinner last night? you feelin? Okay. Right? They're gonna think this person is kidding. They can't be serious. Or maybe they're suffering from some kind of psychological disorder. Something happened to them. They were normal yesterday. Now they're talking all crazy, right? When we look at for all we find the messengers on insulin, what did people say about them?
Much known.
Right? Must for Magic has been done on them. They're possessed by a gin. They've got they've been driven to madness. They're insane. They're crazy. Don't listen to them. And we think and we say how can people say that about a messenger? What kind of cruel people must they be? But if you put yourself in those shoes, you can understand that what the messenger is asking you to believe is not something easy. First of all, he's asking you to believe something you can't even see. It's easy to believe in a God by the way, if you if I go to somebody and say, you know, there is someone who created everything, and he's all powerful people, most people say, you know, I already believe in
God. Yeah, that's not hard to believe. But if somebody goes to someone and says, you know, that God chose a human being,
and talk to that human being, and told him what, what he wants us to do, that part of it becomes difficult. Because by nature, human beings don't like to follow other human beings. Easy, it's easier to believe in a lot. It's harder to believe in the Rasulullah, sallAllahu. And all of them here, same problem. So when Allah sent messengers, in order to help them, Allah gave them something that they could show people that would make them easier to believe it would be an easier pill to swallow, so to speak.
For example, with solid on insulin, people are not accepting what he has to say they're ridiculing him. Allah sends him a she camel noccalula. Right? It comes out of a boulder it drinks up an entire lake in one sip.
This is this can only be from a lot because we know how much a bladder of an animal can hold. Right? So when they see that, Okay, you know what, maybe he's Yeah, he's pretty much a messenger, if we were standing next to him was running around when the water was splitting. If you were standing right next to him, if before you're kind of skeptical, and this guy's gonna get us killed. Some of the people this is actually the Old Testament. Some of them married in this, their own their own books, he's gonna get us killed, look at what he wants to. Now we're either our two choices are either down here or be slaughtered by the armies of the Pharaoh. And at that point, when you saw the
water party, would you have any doubt that he's a messenger of Allah, not at that point. At that point, your doubts would disappear. This can only be a messenger of Allah. Right? Because something that you see something that no human being can do, that can only be from Allah subhanaw taala so we know that Allah gave Our Messengers a very difficult mission, all of them. The message was very difficult to deliver but to help them deliver the message a lot also gave them a miracle. allows it will also give them a miracle. When we come to our final messenger, sallAllahu send them
Allah gave him the message, we call it Quran.
Allah gave him a miracle, what do we call that?
Same thing. The Quran is the message and the Quran is the miracle. With Salim alayhi salam, he had the message and it separately he had a miracle with Musa alayhis salam he had a message and separately he had a miracle with Lisa they said um, he had a message and then also he had a miracle two separate things with Muhammad Rasulullah sallallahu alayhi salam, what did Allah do? One thing, Quran is the message, and it is also the miracle both at the same time.
I was telling this to my sixth grade class one time, I used to teach at a school I was teaching a sonic studies and I was explaining this to my students. And one of my students said, Brother, No, man, it's not fair.
I said, what's not fair? He said, Well, all these other messengers got such cool stuff.
They got us a cane turning into a snake, a dead guy comes back to life, a water when the river completely parks or ocean completely opens up, right? You got all kinds of cool stuff. And all we got is a book.
Now it sounds blasphemous, but he's onto something. There's a difference between what Allah gave the other messengers in what Allah gave to Muhammad, Allah, he's a little longer on him. So there is a difference, a fundamental difference. And the fundamental difference can be summarized in this way. What Allah gave to the previous prophets and messengers are they he was Salam was something for the eyes to see.
Baba, Allah gave to Mohammed Rasulullah sallallahu alayhi wa sallam, predominantly something for the ear to listen to the Quran. Yes, ma una. Allah says they listen. First me Oh,
Listen to it carefully submit now a foreigner we heard and me obeyed in a seminar on an audible. We heard a unique put on the Quran is first and foremost a listening experience. Allah azza wa jal describes our messenger on a subtle salam, yet to him as he, he recites onto them, the iaat, he doesn't give it to them to read first. The book form is later on, within the messenger to personalize, he made people listen to himself. He delivered the Quran. And this was an audio experience, right? As opposed to all the other messengers and their miracles, they were video experience, you see the difference? Now the difference. Another difference is, if I was fortunate
enough to live in the life of a messenger of previous messenger, let's say in the time of a scientist, and I saw him perform his miracles. And I teach my children, he said, was a messenger of Allah because he performed these miracles, I saw it with my own eyes. My child believes me. And when he got his child grows up, he teaches him the same thing. And then his child teaches this child. But further down, the great grandfather, who saw it with his own eyes has a different kind of belief. Because he saw it with his own eyes. But the great great great grandchild, does he have the same kind of belief? There's a difference, right? He believes it because his parents told him, but it's
not something he saw himself. It's not something he saw himself. Leave this point aside for a moment, we just said for us is a message and choral is also a miracle.
Allah azza wa jal put two things in the Quran. When somebody translates the Quran,
even in the best translation, at the most, they will try to capture some of the message, they will try to capture some of the message. But it is impossible to capture the miracle.
It's impossible. The miracle of Quran is only in the words of Allah,
his own choice of words. That's what makes them miraculous. So if I try to tell you what it means in English, or any other language, I may be able to give you something about the meaning of the ayah. But I cannot, I cannot display to you the beauty and the miracle of the eye. Oh, that's impossible. That really is impossible. And I wanted to demonstrate to you there's no board here. So this is an oral exercise, actually, let's do the oral exercise like we did this morning. A lot as it was and he says and sort of
what Bacca
Bacca.
The while in the beginning is like the English capital letter. Like when you start a new sentence, you begin with a capital letter in Arabic, while can be used for many things, over 21 things. One of them is enough to start a new sentence. So you can think of the wind the beginning as a new sentence. The rest of the ISS, Baca vocabulary. Now listen to this carefully. What's the first letter you hear when I say Rebecca? What's the first letter of the Arabic alphabet that you hear?
everybody heard the law, Rebecca. Now listen for the last letter. Rebecca, I can't hear.
What's the last letter you heard? Okay. Now listen carefully for the second letter. Rebecca. What's the second letter for Rebecca? But listen for the second last letter. Rebecca, that can be
what's the second last letter?
Rebecca, what's the third letter?
calf Rebecca can bear was the third last letter.
You notice something?
It's spelled backwards and forwards. The same way. It's spelled backwards and forwards the same way. In English literature. We call this a palindrome. Something that spells backwards and forwards the same way like Bob, or racecar. racecar is an interesting conundrum in English.
olara xojo gave our messenger sallallahu alayhi wa sallam words that he didn't write down. Why not? To be anemic? Allah tells him You didn't write anything down with your head, you don't know how to write. So this is entirely an oral exercise for the messenger. So the longer it you send them. And he once he says something, he doesn't edit it, he doesn't correct it. That's it. I will reveal that and that's it. There's no I didn't mean to say that. Let me change the way I said it, etc, etc. Right? It's exactly the way Allah instructed him to recite.
The challenge for mankind is you see the ayah, the simple translation of the ayah would be declared the greatness only of your Lord. That will be a simple translation of what I'm
trying to say declare the greatness only of your Lord in English, or French or German, or Japanese or Chinese or Italian.
Or Russian or or do or Farsi, you pick the language? Say it so that it spells backwards and forwards the same way and say it so you only have one attempt orally, no writing down looking up in dictionaries.
How possible is that?
So hon Allah, I can translate the ayah. But could I translate the miracle? in English? If I tell you declared the greatness only of your Lord, you get some of the message? What do you get the miracle, you don't get the miracle. The miracle of Quran is in the Arabic language. And this is just one small example.
Every IRA has its own miracle. Every iron presents its own miracle. The tragedy of our times is most people don't even know the message of fraud. And for the people who know the message of Quran, the vast majority of them don't know, the miracle of Quran. And the Quran is again two things at the same time, right? It's a message and a miracle two things at the same time. So this is something that's almost lost a treasure that's lost from the general knowledge of the Muslim population. And just imagine if our children even knew five I remember I show to the class, they memorize certain codes, and they memorize these rules. If they knew those five hours, and they knew what they meant,
and then they knew the miracle in those ions. Wouldn't they have a different kind of Eman in those if it would mean something more to them. This is why you see a difference between our Eman and the amount of the Sahaba will be along with our Don which mine one of the reasons among the many reasons is that when they heard Koran, they heard the message. And they also heard miracles, they heard two things at the same time, we have the most we hear one thing, at the most, we hear one thing. So this is one reason to definitely be a student of the Arabic language, because we want to appreciate the Quran in its message. And we also want to taste the beauty of its miracle. I want to give you a
simple example just on the side as an argument. Many of you have read poetry, some of you not because you wanted to but because it was part of your class, you had to read it. Or you had to read some literature like Shakespeare, those of you that speak or do a red bar or Hollywood or something, right? You read poetry and song and you know artistic literature in different languages. When you translate a poem from one language to another.
When you translate Shakespeare from English to Urdu, or you translate a boil to English,
does it have the same beauty?
A word the word of a human being? The word of a human being loses its beauty. When translated from one language to another, and I'm not talking about the meaning I'm just talking about the beauty because poetry is about beauty, isn't it? What's lost is the beauty.
We're talking about the word of Allah, can there be any doubt in the beauty of those words?
And when we translate the word of Allah, do you think there's going to be a loss in beauty? To describe this loss in beauty a CLT. Like him, Allah gave a beautiful example. He gave a parable. Su de la la was one of the first scholars to write on the sciences of the Quran, and it can't be a lumen Quran.
And he says, if someone can imagine the distance between the creator and the creation, imagine how how above Allah is from his creation, then you can begin to imagine the difference the distance between the words of the Creator and the words of the creation. Quran is the word of the Creator. The translation is the word of the creation. Is there a distance? Allah? How can you say when substitutes for the other? You can't get that there's no room to make that argument. So this is the first point this is just the first point the miracle of Quran is lost. The second point is Allah azza wa jal in the Quran says the word Quran. He uses the word Quran with the word out to be
in an Armenian
or an Armenian language in Catalonia. takuan
Allah says be listening rbn movie
11 times no Quran Allah describes the Quran as what? Arabic every Muslim believes that every word in the Quran is exactly from Allah you can't add to it you can't take away from it. If Allah describes the Quran as al al al Hakim and I can certainly I see what you're saying, when we will
unfollow wisdom we can never separate wisdom and arm because Allah put them together. When Allah says called on and rbn what two things can we never separate Quran and Arabic Allah put them together we can't separate them. And on top of that, he said
in Simple English we without a doubt we're the ones who sit down and Arabic Quran and Arabic for on so you can
Understand the under tacky loan. So if a Lockwood understanding next to not just put on what did Allah put understanding next to the Arabic Quran? So a key in understanding the Quran is what? Arabic language This was my second point how many times as I mentioned Arabic and Quran 11 times the third point. The third point is what is lost in translation besides the beauty?
I gave the same example in the morning I'll give you the same example now inshallah.
The word knifes the word knifes. You've heard that word before the word roof Have you heard the word roof before? I'm going to recite to you two is one of them has the word nuts in it. The other has the word roof in it. Allah says coolness in the Eco mode. Which word Did you hear?
everybody heard the word knifes then unless has this little slot yes aluna caranya rule which Where did you hear
the average English translation of kulu laughs in the echo mode is every soul shall taste death Tell me what English word was used for knifes. Every soul shall taste death what word so when allies elegant says yes or no naka annual war. The translation says they asked you about the soul. They asked you about the soldiers that the law may let make you an awesome basketball player.
Football Okay, yeah, you guys.
Anyway,
they asked you about the soul. So there are two words in Arabic knifes and
how many words in English?
So Allah said two things. And the translator has no choice in English, but to say one thing. So. So if you and I are thinking that we have an accurate understanding of what the law says meaning the English or any other translation, we're definitely missing something.
The Arabic language is very, very, very deep. I can't begin to tell you how deep because I don't even know how deep it is. I'm a student myself, but I can tell you this. Allah says it's, it's for human beings. He says inside for human beings. He says NSC for people. He says nice for people. He says Bishop for people, he says in see Yeah. And so it's money and for people, all of these are human beings, right? All of these words, when you translate all of them when you get a human being, but a lot of us like a dozen different words. If Allah chose to use a different word, does it mean something different?
Because if it meant the same thing, Allah would say the same thing. The Arabic language for one word has 12 different uses. There are 10 different kinds of anger. There are a dozen different kinds of just seeing,
you know, different kinds of support and patience, different words for it. And a lot uses different words in different places. I'll tell you this. There's another interesting example of this vocabulary issue.
Allies origin sometimes use the word called many of you know what country means what does it mean
Coronavirus, translated heart.
Sometimes Allah uses the word for ad.
How does full ad get translated? heart? Actually heart look at
heart.
So let us just call and allow users to
submit kulu wanna submit kulu banner with if that would allow us or that we'd rather kulu
Lino sub BTV for added What do you use that time for? Sometimes called sometimes for? And both time the translation in English says what? Heart now look at this I believe it's the sort of causes for us wha ha, do me Mustafa, which will deliver useful other code.
You heard the word flat read the rest of the ayah Lola and Ravana Allah
what word is this one?
same ayah beginning of it used for the latter part of it used called when you read the translation both of them get translated
didn't mean the same thing. Because it meant the same thing he would have said the same thing. Those of you that take the course when it comes out solve this riddle for you that inshallah keep you thirsty until then a little bit.
But this the Oh no, we need to build a thirst for the choices of words a lot makes because they're so precise. And there it is impossible to pick another language that can do justice to that precision is very difficult. Even if you translate one word for anger, as far as you know, you know, for example, you take any transit in his anger, and another Arabic word for anger you translated his rage. Most people do not know the difference between
anger and rage, same thing to us. Right? He was full of anger he was full of rage. I mean, we look we use these words interchangeably. The Arabic axiom is there is no one word that is the perfect substitute for another word, every word has its own connotation. Every word has its own taste. So last words are very difficult to communicate in another language the most you can get some general idea. But if you want to get precise, we need to resort back to the Arabic language. This was my third point in regards to vocabulary. My fourth point is regard in regard to syntax, grammar, structure.
You many of you have read the law Have you don't be matamanoa you heard that before? Well, levels abutilon. me my family. Let's break this sentence up into three parts. Allah, severe, and de matar three parts. Have you ever heard what Lahu Bhima Dharma Luna hobby?
You've read that to many of you. This also has three parts. Allahu de matar, maluna and Habib, are both sentences they do both of them contain the same three ingredients. The word of lies there, the word Kabir is there the word the mathema loom is there, but is there a difference? Allah Habib hubiera matamanoa por la de matar maluna OBO there's a difference. Read virtually any translation of these ayat, whether it's Urdu or Farsi, or English or Spanish or German, you're going to get exactly the same translation,
or both.
To the tune of Elias full knowledge of what you do, or lawfully has complete news of what you do, essentially translated exactly the same way. But did Alize though it didn't say the same thing? No, he said two different things. Right. So the issue of Oh, you can just read the English translation, or somebody says, I read the whole Quran in translation, really haven't read 400.
That's it's not casual reading. It really isn't casual reading.
Or it is a book that demands from its reciter from this reader that it'd be read over and over and over again, if you want to understand you can't read it once and understand it. It's not that cheap, the understanding of Quran it's expensive. If you have to pay for it with time and effort. You can't just get the understanding of what I'm just reading it casually. And people that do most of the time get misled.
I heard I read this is local, and it says this, and people don't even know the Arabic of it. And they're arguing on behalf of it. So this was really my fourth cases on behalf of grammar for medical differences. Okay, there's a difference between when a law says law IE bot fee. What's the last sound you heard on vibe? Ba. But then he says now how fun early him was
on how you didn't hear how far What did you hear? How fun. But when he said he didn't say when he born he said law eba was Sophie said law. So
they cannot be translated exactly the same way because they're not using the same principles of the Arabic language. They're two different principles they demand they require a different translation. But that's not the sensitivity most translations have. And it's very difficult to capture some of these things in other languages besides Arabic. Arabic makes many things clear that you know there It has certain elements that other languages don't possess. And this is not to insult English or Urdu or any other language. Remember, every language is from Allah. Allah Himself said some kind of Watada.
He taught the human being articulation, whether you are taking lead in Chinese or Swahili or some, you know, tribal dialect in the middle of Australia or something. All of those are from Allah. All articulation is from Allah azza wa jal, Allah just took one language and honored it above the others by giving it an extraordinary amount of clarity. And this is important because you know, the worst thing that can happen to a religion is misinterpretation.
The worst thing that can happen to a religion is misinterpretation. And much of the misinterpretation in the Christian tradition, you know, where it starts from? It starts from translations.
It starts from translations. So when when you call somebody the son of right, in the Arabic also in the Arabic expression, also, You're the son of the soil in English also, he's the son of the soil, sons of the land, right, son of the seed means he's always at sea. Right? So these sorts of confusions that occur in translation are avoided by a large xojo giving us the absolutely clear Arabic Quran. So these are a few simple points I wanted to make about Iran. Now very, very quickly, the next part, the messenger told us and you've heard this many times in Hawaiian otherwise, it's a hadith that says, hey, it's mentioned in the city of Guatemala, and it's actually Morocco and it
also appears in Muslim hydrocone. Montana man Khurana
and in another variation Baccarat the best of you are the ones who learn for an end
Teach. The best of you are the ones who learn to teach grammar.
We all agree that the people who understood the prophets words for the long run is the people who understood his words best. Were the companions, the Sahaba
my understanding of Hadith is limited compared to the understanding of if no, I'm not, so the Allahu anhu. And then we'll look at Columbia Law when the Sahaba because they were right there when the teacher was teaching, right? When we teach our children we quote this Hadith, the best of you are the ones who learn Quran and teach for God.
So you say, I'm going to teach my child Koran, I'm going to invite a sheriff or a car to come to our house are going to send me to the machine. So he learns Hold on, right? When we talk to each other, and we say my child is learning for us, what do we normally mean?
is going to read the guide. Right, the safe kind, and then he's going to recite the letters. There is going to read the entire Koran, right? does most of our concept of teaching our children have anything to do with understanding for
the average Muslim when they say I'm going to teach my child Koran they mean two things, recitation and memorization. They mean these two things. Again, remember these two things, because this is going to become important in a second recitation and memorization. Remember these two things?
obey the law, who was advising the Sahaba?
The Sahaba were majority where From where? Arabs, Pakistani, Bangladeshi, where were they from?
They were Arabs. He's advising the Sahaba teach your children Arabic, like you teach them to memorize Quran
and Arab companion, advising these Arab companions to make sure that their kids learn Arabic as important as them, for them to memorize the Quran. This is the priorities of the Sahaba on the top sister on the menorah we have indeed you can learn Arabic because it's part of your deen. This is what he said. He said, Now you know it. When we look at another statement of Omar the Allahu anhu. He said no one should be teaching for unaccept someone who knows the language because they can make mistakes. There's a famous incident of somebody making a mistake in fraud in the life of homophobia, Latina. But the real kicker that I want to share with you the one that I when I read it, I had to
stop reading. I really had to stop reading Institute dakara Allah describes a nation that Allah gave them a book before us. He gave them a Sharia before us and he gave them a book before us. So they had a messenger. They had a book and they had a Sharia just like us. But they did not do justice to their book. And they did not do justice to their messenger.
In one ayah Allah describes how they failed with their book,
unless as woman who Muna manaakitanga in the Amani, were in a room in the eye of unknown among them are undereducated unlettered people, they don't know the book except their own wishful thoughts, and they do nothing but make assumptions and it means they don't know what it says. They just think they know what it says. This is what these people did with their book, which book isn't talking about
thorat authority. Now listen to this. The word that you that Allah used for saying that they don't actually know they think they know wishful thoughts is the word unani. Amani,
the one of the great facilities of Quran probably the greatest of them all ignore Abbas on the love of God on Houma. And
when these people were making the feel of this I you know what they said? Manny 18, our Yamuna heathman por que la bella la luna mafia.
Amani, in this ayah means that these people all they did was they now you guys know what the law means?
presentation. And then he went on and he described but he's right. How did he describe them? He had a Muna who have been working on it. And
they know it only by memorizing and reciting, without understanding liahona mafia they don't know what's inside it. They don't know the meanings of what's inside. When I said we teach our children, what did I say? What are the two things we're worried about?
presentation, memorization, even our boss is describing who
he's describing, but inside and their crime against their book. And he says all they do with their book is recitation and memorization and the real crime is they don't know what it says. They don't know what it says.
This description you take to the Muslim world and you say find me a nation of people that love their book, that recycler book, for God's sake, they even memorize their book. But the vast majority of even the ones who memorize it don't know what they're reciting who does that describe today.
It's a scary thought.
That's a scary thought. Because that's not describing the Muslim in the ayah is describing when he saw in the nation that failed before us, it's a very serious issue. It's so serious that look at a shelf in a document. His students are pretty much Arabs.
So when he was about to teach them Arabic, they said we don't need to know Arabic we speak it already.
And he said in the mouth Sha,
Allah de la la mina. He said, the thing that scares me the most is a student of knowledge, who refuses to learn, and that means grammar, Arabic grammar,
that he might enter and yet he had he been devalued Tommy then there's a Hadith of the Prophet sallallahu sallam, in which he says, Whoever lies against me on purpose has guaranteed himself a pleasing hellfire. And he said, this hadith scares me about my students, the ones of them who don't take Arabic seriously, because they might end up making an Arabic grammar mistake in a hadith. And therefore they might end up saying something about the Prophet. So when I saw them that he didn't say, and what did he say about those kinds of people? and guaranteed replacement Empire? And these are Arabs talking to Arabs. This is how seriously they took this subject. Now what if Allah can be
Muslim in his fatwa? It's absolutely mandatory and every single Muslim so you look at the Sahaba you find the concern for Arabic. You look at the great unimog this oma you find the concern for Arabic. Why? Because it preserves the deen it preserves the integrity of the religion. It preserves the proper understanding of the religion, and probably most important of all, it preserves your slot.
It preserves the experience you have stand you and I have standing in front of a large xojo when the Imam is reciting the word of Allah, we should be going through a spiritual experience, because the word of a lie is being recited. The word of Allah is being recited the miracle of Allah is being presented to you and me. And here we are standing in yawning.
Because we don't know what it says. That's a tragedy. These same words, can you imagine, same words, the words that are being recited to us in
those savers when they were recited to hold on the long run, when he was not a Muslim. When he heard the Prophet recite them, he ran away he got scared.
Those same words, when to find those he was the leader of his tribe. He came to Mecca, and he saw the Prophet reciting. And he said, I've heard about this man, when people listen to him, they go crazy. So he plugs his ears, and he starts running.
And then he turns around and says, Well, why should I run away? These are just words, I can handle it. So he unplugged his corks. He goes back to listen to me from the global cinema. Some of our audience, takes the Shahada and tells us the story.
He heard he heard the words and he took the Shahada.
These are the words that the people who hated hated Rasulullah sallallahu Sallam after signatura, Abu sufian before he had become Muslim, Abu jihad. These people you know what they used to do in this 11 minutes talk. They used to go to the house of the messenger Salallahu alaihe salam all night. One is one of them is on one wall, sticking his ear to the wall listening to Quran. The other one is on the other wall. The third one's on the third wall.
And they sneaking home before sunrise. And they run into each other. And so one of them says What are you doing? What are you doing here?
They were addicted to listening to Quran. They swore to each other, they'll never come back. They called each other the next day.
They swore to each other they'll never come back. They called each other the third day listening to Quran secretly. Then they said if somebody finds after you find out, then we're gonna lose our credibility because by the time what they say, Don't listen to this man. The capital of those days was more addicted to the Quran than the believer of our days.
Isn't that sad? That's a tragedy.
It would have more effect on them.
He came to the messenger sallallahu sallam. He was known as like he was the sean hannity of his day. If you know who sean hannity is you guys should know you're in Texas. Okay. So you know he is like political debater insults his opponents. He's known for like, really intimidating his opponent in debate. So they said we can handle Hammad. This is the kuffar talking, we say it's a little lower. I said, and they didn't. Why don't you go debate with him? Show him who's boss. Because I'll handle it. He goes to talk to the messenger and these Quraysh are on the side watching from like, 100 yards. Let's Let's watch this. It'll be a fun match. Right? And he goes to the messenger sallallahu
sallam, and he starts insulting him. What do you want money? You want women? What do you want power? Is that what it is? Is that what you're bothering us and ruining our families? He starts insulting the messenger. The messenger sits quietly and listens. And when the guy has done barking, he says to him authority. Are you done? Are you finished? Can I start now? It says fine. Let me see what you have to say. Also, the last item starts reciting for odd and in seconds. Atiba can't hold
his tears and then he tries to grab the mouth of the messenger sallallahu Sallam stop, I can't take anymore.
And then until the messenger got to the is on the lesson of such that and he made such an odd buck him back. And these the courage they saw him and they said the face you left with is not the face you're coming back with. It's like you've had facial reconstruction surgery.
He didn't become Muslim, but he was completely overpowered by Koran, completely overpowered by Quran that cannot be done in translation. That power of Quran exists in the Arabic Quran, and that is the experience you and I should thirst for we should learn for in the salon. When we don't understand what a lot of us and by the way for sure. Most people think for sure is what paying attention insula being focused insula being humble insula, right.
Alonzo just defines crucial for us. And I'm yet Linda Xena Amano and tuck shampoo, boom, literally, woman
isn't a time yet, for people that their hearts should be full of tissue and dust shampoo, boom, their hearts should be full of all they should be overpowered by the remembrance of Allah. And then Allah describes what is the remembrance of Allah one that has no meaning, and what came down from the truth and what came down from the truth.
The Salah is an experience where we become harsher over the ayatollah.
But when you don't understand what's going on in a lot, and you're really really trying, you're really trying hard to pay attention. The average sincere teenage boy or girl standing in salon not understanding what's going on, are staring really hard at the carpet and saying they missed a stitch over here.
Or this one goes this way. And that one goes that way. It's not symmetrical, or they're closing their eyes trying to picture the garba in front of them. Right? They're doing all these creative exercises to compensate for the one thing, which is what to pay attention to the eye art that are being recited. Allah is talking to us in Quran it's a personal experience for the believer. That void needs to be filled. And we're lucky if we had that then our most of our problems are solved. Because that would mean five times in a day we come and take a lot of advice in life. That's what's allowed becomes we take counsel from Allah when we stand and recite Quran, instead of us reciting
Quran the Quran starts reading us, telling us what our life's like. I'll tell you one quick story about myself. I have 104 children, my oldest daughter has now when you when you have, how many of you have more than one child? Okay, those of you that do can testify to this. When you have your first child, everything's awesome about them. Oh, my god.
Oh my god, they're standing. Oh my god. They said something. Even if they said, Yeah, right. It's amazing. Right? Did you record that?
By the time you have your third fourth child, you're like, what's his name again.
But everything about the first child is special. I'm at home. I'm making salah and my daughter is like on the side. Okay, now, Eliza was his favorite on the human being. He didn't give him tunnel vision. He gave him peripheral view, too. Right. So I'm making Salah, but she's in my view. Okay. And for the first time in her life, she put her feet on the ground, have your hands on the ground pushed off, and she's standing up for the first time.
Right? This is my first child and he's standing up for the first time and I'm in a lot.
So I'm in Salah, and I did this
because it's a big deal.
And it so happened by the mercy of Allah azza wa jal when I was reciting Soto Manasa, own to myself.
And the next I recited to myself, was Yeah, you handle Athena Ave, LA to come and welcome to come and Vickery lucky woman here for
those of you who have Eman
don't allow your money, or your kids to take you away from the remembrance of Allah. And whoever does so they are the ultimate, those are the ultimate losers.
So how Allah? What difference does it make when you know what you're reciting? And when you don't know what you're reciting? If I don't know what I'm reciting, I go past it. And I finished my Salah. And if I know what I'm reciting, I forget that I have a child. My whole world starts collapsing in front of me. Because Allah speaks directly to my life. There's a difference. So this is probably the number one reason we should say Arabic is important. Now the last thing I'm going to tell you about the importance of Arabic last last thing, the biggest obstacle between the average Muslim living in the United States and Arabic studies, the biggest obstacle is their own conviction that Arabic is
hard.
You and I say I'd love to learn Arabic brother. I just can't take two years off and go to Egypt or Saudi. I can't do it because I don't have that kind of time. I have
Family to provide for I have full time commitments. I'm a mother, I'm a child, etc, etc. I can't do it. And it's difficult. I tried. I got fired up one time and I went to a conference and I bought a couple of Arabic books and I read the first two pages. By the time I got to the third page I came across the word subjective and indicative and prepositional phrase and I said so Hanukkah lahoma will become the Highland
lake. The book is still on the shelf looks brand spanking new. Right? happens to a lot of us.
So we have this conviction, that Arabic is difficult. And when we see somebody who knows her because Mashallah, that guy's so smart.
Right? Like Elon made it easy for him. He didn't have to make any effort. It just came to him. But you know, when you see a painter or a calligrapher you see how easy they make it look.
You don't see the hundreds of hours they spend doing this.
All you see is the final product and you say Mashallah, this guy's got amazing talent. Allah bless him. Allah bless him after he sweat over it for years. Somebody recites Quran beautifully. Now Allah gave him such a beautiful voice. No, no, no. The first time he decided he couldn't get through the villa with a shake for 35 times. For two months. He was resigning fighting because he couldn't get it through. He stayed on it right. So we have to first of all shattered the idea that anything to do with fraud is difficult, because a loss promise is what are called the Yes sir. nalcor analytic for Halloween with Deccan, our own promise. Without a doubt. We have already made the Quran easy for
remembrance.
Allah is guaranteed for and is made easy. He didn't say he made it easy for the arrows. He didn't say he made it easy for the people who come from Southeast Asia because they already speak will do and lots of words are the same. You know?
He said he made it easy for everyone. He didn't put a condition on it. He made it easy. He just put one condition you know what that one condition is? lithic.
He made it easy. If you your intention for learning Koran is to remember Allah. If that's your intention, then Allah guarantees himself that he made it easy. But then he poses a question so how to love what a question for Halloween? What decade?
Is there anyone who consciously wants to make the effort to remember? Remember who remember me? He said I made the Quran easy for remembrance. So is there anyone who wants to make Vicar?
Anyone who wants to remember Allah? What does this ayah teaches us? It teaches us the ultimate dhikr of Allah is what
score on inwa in the Quran. in unison
la causa I'm a vicar, the ultimate reminder you want to do dhikr of Allah the best liquor of Allah is a nickel that a large fortune himself.
That's the word of Allah. And he says anyone wants to come forward and make the care of me I've made it easy for them. So to me this easy learning the Arabic alphabet is easy learning the vocabulary is easy learning Arabic grammars easy studying to CDs easy. memorizing Quran is easy. All of that's easy, because Allah said what? He made it easy. millions of children around the world without photographic memory without even knowledge of the Arabic language, memorizing Quran.
Isn't that a fulfillment of his promise? He said he made it easy.
He made it easy. There are people I know that are that were, you know born in non Muslim families. And they were raised, you know, completely in western civilization in their late 30s. They took the Shahada, and now their father Quran. Allah made it easy. They didn't. It's not an accomplishment. It is the gift of Allah for the one who wants to remember him. This is the change in our intention, number one. Number two, the famous Hadith of the Prophet sallallahu alayhi wa sallam, to a hadith I'll tell you a little one a little scary. The other encouragement that I got to mix those two up, the scary one is
the Messenger of Allah sallallahu Sallam was describing the end of time, one of the signs of the last day.
And he said that in the habit,
this will happen when knowledge disappears, when knowledge is gone, this sign will occur. What's interesting about this hadith is that the in the narration, we don't know what the sign is, because what what is about to happen in this event was so shocking to the Sahaba that they forgot the sign of the hour. So what happens next,
immune evasion will be Allahu anhu asks the Prophet sallallahu sallam, he says what can you say and how would
How will knowledge go away? Or messenger of Allah? When Allah
will nucleus nuku abna una una home.
He said how can Norwich disappear when we have recited Quran and we make our kids reciting it
Kids will make their kids recited. Now wait a second, the Messenger of Allah sallallahu alayhi salam did not say Quran will disappear, what did he say? knowledge will disappear? How does the Sahaba understand knowledge?
What did he say? How can always disappear while we still have hold on? When the Sahaba heard knowledge, the first thing that came to their mind was, hold on that this was the fundamental education for them.
The messenger tells us someone or somebody in another country or other
whoever wants knowledge, whoever intends to have knowledge, let him commit to the Quran. Let him stick to the Quran. This is you know, this is knowledge. This Hadith appears.
But anyway, the Hadith ever been away when he said how can now is disappear? The messenger got so angry.
He got so angry, I cannot wait.
He said to him, by your mother lose her child in debate. That's how angry he got Salalah
and then you know what he said? Our Lisa handy Hillier? Who'd wanna follow the Idaho lottoland gene Lyon to demean her woman she don't you see these yahood? And don't you see these nosara these using these Christians? Right in front of their hands? What do they have thought and enjoy and benefit? They benefit nothing from them? Well, do you see them?
So he described a time that's coming. When knowledge will disappear. Koran is still here. Like the Jews still have the Bible and they have the Old Testament. But even the parts that they haven't corrupted, they don't even follow those parts. Instead of even complaining or they change the book, the parts they didn't change, they're not being followed either.
Right? The Muslim has the book of Allah in front of him. He has the halal and haram and the folden you know, all in front of him. Was he is he benefiting from it? No, by and large, no. So this is a scary thing that we all have to you know, inshallah gonna take into consideration other positive hobbies and I'm pretty much done in the next 12 minutes. I promised 11 Actually, I'll stick to my time.
This is probably my favorite hobby for learning Arabic. My favorite. The messenger says hello Buhari Sonam and Matthew, Bill, Ronnie Massara, and caramel Birla.
The one who gains expertise in the Koran is among the top ranked angels,
a Sephora, ROM and the noble, the righteous, the top ranked angels, the ones who get to touch local muffle those angels. Who has that rank. Once again, you remember
the expert info on the expert reciter the expert in the knowledge of Quran, the expert in memorizing for the expert in you know, did you meet etc, etc. Whoever gains expertise and called on gains that knowledge.
But that's not you and me. We're not experts.
What about us? The messenger says so a lot more so than when levy tatata fee.
As far as the one who stumbles in it, and finds it difficult is concerned, he stumbles in it. He can't pronounce that it hurts his throat. Every time he tries it and comes out. Every time he says Bob Zod comes out. It happens. He tries to say he could he ends up saying Zika right can pronounce it can't remember the grammatical principles finds the language difficult finds it challenging. This is the next category. The first category was the expert. The second category, the guy who has a hard time.
He says find out who is on that person has twice the reward of the first one.
The one who has a hard time. So if you and I started by saying most people say Arabic is hard, I tried is difficult. If it's difficult, I am envying you.
I should be jealous of you. Because you get twice the reward of anyone who's awesome at it.
Is there any reason left for us not to not to learn this book. The one reason could have been it's too hard and the messenger sallallahu Sallam took that away
is that if it's hard, you've got twice three horse
solahart. So it leaves no excuse behind you know, those of you that are in college, you go to a course the professor's like really hard. And the class is boring. You say man, I'll just take it next semester. Right? soon as it gets difficult you find reasons to postpone. When a laws book gets difficult and becomes reason to stay. The messenger changes our attitudes on the love audience. So this is a refreshing of our intentions. We make the intention and allow opens the doors. That's on our end is the intention. That's all you just have to make the intention and you will see a law come to doors instead of having the theoretical discussion is Arabic important or not. I can give you
proofs at the all day long of why Arabic is important. But until it enters into your heart that there's a love of this book. There's a thirst for this book that you want to have and you want to acquire it for yourself.
Till that happens, no knowledge no fatwa No, the need is gonna help. You have to have that thirst and you want to have a better prayer. You want to recycle and you want tears to come down your eyes because you read the Word of Allah. That thirst will make you learn. That thirst will make you learn, I want to taste the miracle of Quran in the Arabic language. What is so remarkable about this language, this this word that allows us and how can this only be the word of Allah? inshallah Tada, the next time I see you, whenever Allah wills, I'll share with you the wisdom, the divine wisdom in a larger window using the words Alhamdulillah. In fact, Allah says, Al hamdu Lillahi Rabbil
aalameen. Right. How come he didn't say in Alhamdulillah la casa team says sometimes he didn't say Linda held hands, he said Alhamdulillah he didn't say if Mandala Mandala right he said destiny nabooda destiny, but he didn't say
he doesn't say akmola He doesn't say a shokuhou de la or Athena Ola he chose specifically to say what Alhamdulillah? Why is this one phrase better than all the other possibilities? What makes this one perfect? Right? These are the kinds of studies that you are able to engage in and appreciate the perfection of the words of Allah, the perfection house of Allah tala, this can only be his word, it can't be anybody else's. And those of you that are into literature, English majors or you know, history majors that have read a lot of literature, so proud of love, you will appreciate all the bodies of literature, all the great minds that have ever lived on the on the face of this earth. All
of their minds put together the best literature in the world put together cannot compete with but one surah of the Quran, you will appreciate that not just in theory, but in practice. If you become a student of this book, inshallah Tada. So now I'm like six and six minutes and 15 seconds, I'm going to talk about how to study Arabic. Okay, the biggest step in how study Arabic is the intention, I want to remember Allah, that's why I'm learning not because I want to order a shower from the Arab restaurant. Okay, I'm learning because I want to remember Allah, if that's your intention, already, half the job is done. Because what was going to be hard. Now Allah has made it
easy, right. So that's, that's half the job right there. The intention. The second issue, the second ingredient that all of you need, is actually what our program, it was created with this one idea in mind that Allah facilitated the Quran. When I started learning Arabic In the year 2000. I didn't know any Arabic before 2000. And when I started learning, I went to one teacher, another teacher, another teacher, and I found that the Arabic course is very difficult. The terminology is difficult. They want you to memorize a lot, all sorts of pressures. And I realized the difference between the western model of learning and the eastern model of learning, and basically what it boils down to is,
in the Muslim world, there's no such thing as a bad teacher.
There's only bad students.
So if the student fails, it's not the teachers fault. Whose fault is it? The students fault, even if the teacher was sleeping in class, it's the students fault. There's no such thing as a bad teacher. But in America,
it's almost like there's no such thing as a bad student.
It's always the teachers fault. My professor, he doesn't know how to explain anything. He doesn't explain he doesn't go over the test properly. Rate my professor.com he only got three stars, you know what I'm saying? There's two different worlds. In one world, the teacher cannot be criticized. And in the other world, the teacher is always criticized. Right? But you and I are living in America. And we are in a consumer society. In a consumer society, the customer is always right. So who's paying the tuition?
The student Hmm. Students always right? Guess which teacher is going to get fired from the university, the one who got a bad review? Customers always right. That's how it works. Right? Now, it seems capitalistic and weird, but it's got some element of truth in it. You and I like listening, you know, you're giving me your time.
If I speak to you in monotone, and I have like a really thick Arabic accent, or, or do accent or something. And I, you know, I don't even look around, and I'm just totally boring to you. Right? You're gonna start seeing people checking their watches. And I you know, eye contact with each other. You go to the car First I'll come, I'll be right behind. Right? Because you're paying me your time you're getting your time. Because you see, maybe there's something worth it here. And this is how we work. This is how we operate. Right? If there's a if there's a speech that's really engaging to you as a shift that's doing an awesome job, you're sitting there. When it gets boring you kind of
slowly or you're you're sitting up first, like straight up, then your elbow goes like this. Then it stretches out a little more.
And it goes in stages, right? But the point I'm trying to make is our program. I designed it
Looking at this not as a fault of the audience, but saying, Okay, this is how we are, we can't change who we are.
So we have to create a program where students stay awake. As students, instead of finding the class difficult, they find it easy. So the pressure is not on the student, the pressure is on the teacher. This is the first difference between our Arabic program and most of their Arabic programs. In most of the other programs, the teacher will say, this is your homework. I've already taught you the lesson. Why don't you understand? What's the matter? We'll do it and I explain it properly. All you have to do it again then. Right? Brother, we did this last week, this sort of idea. Our class, you don't understand. Okay, let me explain it to you another way. You still don't get it? Okay. Let me
give it to you another way. You still don't get it. Okay, see me right after class, I'm going to sit with you personally 20 minutes until you get it, but I'm going to make sure you get it. I'm here to make you get it. You're not going home until you get it.
Because all the pressure is not on the student the pressure is on the teacher, right? This is one thing that makes our program different. The second thing that makes our program different is there's a difference in focus. A language has four skills. It has reading, writing, speaking, and listening, reading, writing, speaking, and listening,
when you want to study Arabic for religious reasons, to have a better experience in salaat, to have you know, to understand the football in Arabic, etc, etc,
then you don't care about speaking.
It doesn't matter.
And even if you learn speaking, when you're going to talk to your wife,
you're gonna say leave me alone. Right?
You talk to your you try to talk to your friends, and you sound funny, and they don't talk to you if they respond to you in English. Right? So the opportunities we're practicing speech are limited to begin with, you're not going to use it in at work, you might get fired.
You can't use it on the train, you know what happens?
Right? So the opportunities for practicing spoken Arabic are very limited. After all, we are in the United States. But you know, if I teach you to understand the Quran,
and to listen to it, and to read it with understanding, but I don't teach you how to write, do you have to learn to write to understand?
No, we can learn that later. Let me teach you what you really need right now.
Let me teach you to understand right now, let me teach you to listen carefully right now. Forget speaking. We'll learn it later on. If you really want to learn Arabic later on, then we'll I'll teach you speaking too. But right now I know what you need you but you and I need is we need to pay a little more attention in slot, we need to pay a little more attention in slot, I can give you that in 10 days.
In our 10 day course, I can give you now you're having a different experience. When you're listening to the monitor site. You're paying attention and you're noticing things and those things are starting to make sense. bulbs are going off, it's better than before. I can't claim to you that you're going to know Arabic in 10 days, that's false. That's not going to happen. But I can with full confidence, say inshallah, tada, I exhaust my full energies in making sure you have a solid base in Arabic.
After which if you do your own studies, they will be much easier those books you put away will be easy to read. My job is to take the difficult parts of Arabic and make them easy for you. That's my job. Then if you want to progress, put the work in yourself. That's your job. But I'm guaranteeing my job site, the site that's my responsibility. Now briefly about the program because my time for the lectures over sharpen 11. Our program is called the you know, it said by nina.com vyih.com. And it started two years ago with myself and two other colleagues now and we're a total of five. We travel around the country to massage. And we hold 10 Evening courses 10 straight nights, three hours
a night seven to 10pm for 10 nights. And our programs are attended by women, children, men, everybody. And so our program will come to about 142 communities and 4000 students later it's going very strong and we're booked for almost pretty much for the entire year. And we're making our first stop in Houston in the month of October. inshallah Tada. So I highly encourage all of you, the brothers here and those that you know family members that are not here, the women also that they come and attend the program and participate fully in it. Because first of all, because the list of communities is so huge now. It's difficult to bring the same program back to the same city anytime
soon. So I don't know when else is going to come. I mean, I wanted to do it earlier in Houston because I was interested in looking around in the area too, but I don't have any openings until October. But inshallah don't procrastinate make the intention that you're going to join. Those of you that are not going to be around you can check out the website and it lists wherever the course is going each month.
So you could take it maybe you have some family somewhere in California or Austin or wherever else is going to travel from now until then, and you can attend the course they're too shallow. So I know I didn't take too much time explaining the contents of the course and the the methodology of the course perhaps another time. But I wanted to emphasize more on the first part, the importance and value of learning the subject. Once that is in your hearts and chalong Tada you'll find a way and a level open doors for you, inshallah. So at this point, I'd like to conclude if anybody has any questions or comments, you're welcome to make them inshallah.
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