Nouman Ali Khan – The Quran Library #04 Themes & Stories, Defence of the Quran
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Okay. So as a general point, by the
way, this is what our scholars have taught
us that before
reading a book,
you must read the introduction of the book
because whoever does not do that has wronged
and done injustice
to the author.
Because you will not understand, you know, how
they've approached the book. And why do authors
take 85 pages
to talk about everything except the book itself?
Some some do and some don't.
I think some is an unfair word for
why
do they respond
to Western criticism in Arabic?
Well,
that's a good question.
Okay.
Well,
there's a lot of books here because, Sheikh
Saif got a little excited about this section,
Quranic subjects. So hopefully, we can
start undoing these building blocks. But, yeah, tell
me why you're so excited about this again.
Okay. So, I mean, this is a section
about,
what we can call.
We studied that as a subject in Al
Azhar. So these are actually some of the
books that I used to study. 1 of
our
He wasn't a direct teacher of mine, but
he's
a scholar in our faculty,
Can you explain tafsir maldoyi a little bit?
You said subjects, but Yeah.
So tafsir al dua is basically an approach
to
surveying a topic throughout the Quran. So if
the well, we'll see some examples but we'll
take one about,
okay.
Some of these are quite complex.
A simple topic could be
bees. Okay that was only there's not many
verses about bees that would be very easy
so there wouldn't be much to write But
if you took for example hikmah.
It's a big one. Hikmah in the Quran.
You know, where does the word hikmah appear?
What are the circumstances of it? What does
it therefore mean? What could be understand by
taking this global view of the Quran
rather than the local view of a particular
ayah.
Because when you're studying,
whether it be a word or a concept
or an idea in one ayah,
your picture is not complete until you see,
okay, what else is said in the Quran
about this? How does that shed light on
what I'm understanding here? Right. So that's a
general operation of tafsir.
Then you can also take that and just
write
a subject paper on that,
on that On that particular word, theme,
subject. And that should follow certain
principles and norms and approaches, which is what
they talk about as a subject of tafsir
malbuoy. I see.
So I've thrown a whole bunch of things
down here, you know,
peace in the Quran,
the Quran in the Quran,
The Quran says about the Quran. So I've
got some very few things on that.
So what can we understand about how Allah
deals with different nations over time?
Interesting. You know, very, very useful book.
Dialogue in the Quran. Dialogue in the Quran.
So what is gonna be a very powerful
literary dimension of the Quran? So it's not
always about the meaning of a word or
or a It could be a stylistic thing
too. Right? An aspect of the Quran.
Right. Yes. So hawar,
all types of discussion that takes place. It's
not the word you're looking for Right. In
this dialogue. We're looking at the dialogue. Dialogues
themselves. So this is actually one of the
the early works in this in this genre
by Sheikh Mohammed Abdeladraz
who's an important author in in in Quran
studies. He's the author
of. Right. I've read
which is called the Quran and eternal challenge
in English. Right.
But he actually wrote this book originally in
French. I don't have the French one. I
don't know if it's really published.
But this is an English translation. This is
the Arabic translation. How many you don't read
French?
I don't read French well,
but I do try sometimes.
So but it'd be nice to have it.
You know? I wouldn't mind if someone has
got his book in French just because there
there'd be a lot of barakah in there.
But in a way, the the the Arabic
translation by Abso Subur Shahin Mhmm. Oh, I
bet yeah. Yeah. You see the connection? Yeah.
Yeah.
In a way, I feel like he was
translating it back into Arabic because it's an
Arabic topic.
You know? Right. To the Quran. So but
he he he made it as if that
that feels like the original book.
The
constitution of ethics in the Quran.
So Very interesting. And what he did was
he he also and he did this at
the Sorbonne in Paris.
He,
he compared the Koranic approach with
various western,
ethical thinkers and philosophers.
So there's the English translation,
from the French I think. I mean we
have quite a few English followers.
I think it might be worth a read.
Of the Quran. Yeah. I would prefer, to
be honest, that they translate from the Arabic
even than the French. But Really?
Yeah.
Are there additions in the Arabic that the
French the English doesn't
have? I'm I'm not sure.
My feeling is probably based on
the as a say translator? Yeah. I think
the translator understood well enough that, his translation
then becomes authoritative
in understanding what was intended by the author
in French. Yeah. Yeah. I wouldn't always say
that, but in some cases
so here, I've got a kind of subset
of things to do with Al Qasas al
Qurani.
Okay?
So let me just move some of these
other things out of the way which are
not necessarily
okay. Let's see. There's love in the holy
Quran by Prince Ghazi of Jordan.
That's become quite famous.
I have the the Arabic one as well.
And then we've got
oh, there's a whole book on,
really?
Check
out. Because there are several
different ayat where it seems that
the prophet is being, you know, told off
Correct. By his lord and master in some
particular way. Yeah. So what do we understand
by these? What what can you learn by
looking at these junctures together?
That's what that book is concerned. Doctor Salah
al Khaled, isn't it? He he passed away
quite recently.
Islam. It's quite a nice topic to see
how Aqidah has dealt with in the Quran
itself.
You know,
manners of speech.
You could say centrism,
moderation, balance
according to the Quran.
And this is one that, Sheikh Shehri was,
I asked him about that. You asked him
for a good book on,
but it's to say parables and examples in
the Quran. Yeah. He recommended this one to
you. Can I see that?
Yep.
You better put your sample on this one
too, brother.
If it goes to good use, then, you
know no. You're still not getting used.
So
because I've seen you under pressure situations say
yes to things and later say why did
I say yes? Oh, by now I know
you long enough that I can just say
no. Yeah. There's no pressure now.
So, yeah, classes of Quran.
Stories in the Quran,
I guess,
you know, it's kind of obvious you got
famous works like,
Ibn Kathir's stories of the prophets. Right.
So
a lot of the stories in the Quran
are stories of the prophets, but not exclusively.
Not exclusively.
Beyond that, this is quite a nice one
by doctor Ahmed Naoufal where he talks about.
So oh, there he is there.
So this is a nice sort of So
he's talking about
logical. The the Quran's approach to describing the
stories? No. He's talking about how
we, when writing about Quran,
can have a good methodological approach.
Oh,
I think. Oh, so he's not okay. Yeah.
I think because I'm pretty sure I haven't
read this book or have maybe
dipped into it at least.
Okay. So as a general point, by the
way, this is what our scholars have taught
us that before
reading a book,
you must read the introduction of the book
because whoever does not do that has wronged
and done injustice
to the author because you will not understand,
you know, how they've approached the book. Why
do authors take 85 pages
to talk about everything except the book itself?
Some some do and some don't. You know?
No. More of I think some is an
unfair word for
to describe the proportion of the ones that
you Even you can skim the introduction. But
but the other thing to say is that
before putting the book on the shelf,
read the introduction, read the, you know, index
page, and then you get a sense of
what that book is before it goes on
your shelf and maybe gets lost there.
So so generally speaking, I follow that rule,
but there's probably a few cases where I
didn't have a good time.
We've got some which are nicely
this is Fadl Abbas again. Remember we saw
his face over here. Yeah. He's got a
really nice book. Look at stories in the
Quran and not just of the.
This is a really nice one by Abdul
Karim Zaidan. So what are they doing when
they're looking at stories in the Quran? Are
they just extracting lessons? Are they So the
reason I put this under
is because what you do is you gather
different ayaat pertaining to like a prophet like
Musa islam his stories in so many places.
So you need to reconstruct
the order in which these events are happening
so that person can understand,
how that is. Mhmm. And then they're basically
telling the story
and connecting things together
and where necessary filling gaps.
You might get some further information from hadith
and so on that helps you to,
to fill any gaps in your story based
understanding.
So it's interesting like for example, salih alaihis
salam,
First thing he does is mention what 8
Surahs he's been talked about in,
and then,
the difference in style and the way he's
talked about as opposed to Nur and between
Nur Hud and Salih alaihi wasalam.
And then finally,
an overview
and a sequential
account of the story of Salih alaihi salam.
So it's kind of that's his that's I'm
supposing this is his approach to all of
them. Yeah. And what he also does sometimes
because he's looked at some earlier books in
Quran. So Yeah. He's one of the authors
who doesn't pretend like nobody
wrote anything before.
So he'll sometimes shed some light on misconceptions
that that arise or things that have been
written that need some The clarification. Yeah. Yeah.
So
this one is nice as well, by Abdul
Karim Zaidan,
which is focused on lessons for people involved
in Dawa.
Very nice. So, you know, it's it's very
clearly structured that way. He'll he'll he'll mention
the events and then he'll say, okay. These
are the sort of points and the and
the the lessons that we can take as
people who are, you know, trying to work
for the cause of Islam in one way
or another in this world.
And I guess the last one from this
I'd mentioned is, you know, again, a
subset,
a
and
Qurania.
Oh,
actually because they've used the plural word.
So this is nice as well. And, when
we look at English books, we'll see some,
some modern
interventions into this subject as well.
I'd be curious to see what he is.
She. Oh, she. Okay. I mean, I'd like
to think that a male author might also
have written this, but I'm quite glad this
this is a a female author. Hoda Abdelotif
Arian.
Yeah.
So the next bunch that I pulled off
the shelf Yeah.
Concerns well, it's a little bit of a
mixture. This is a classical work by a
Suratul
Quran.
You're complaining that, some of the titles don't
look like they rhyme. Usually, when you look
at the full title, you'll find
you'll find the rhyming version. Yeah.
This,
you know, from what I've been able to
surmise through looking through it, actually has a
lot of overlap with Facebook.
So
I'm not sure exactly what was the,
the nature and purpose of that,
of that,
authorship.
But then a lot of this has to
do with, the history of the Quran
and
some questions and challenges raised against the Quran.
So kind of
apologetic
defense of the Quran. Mhmm.
So You know the word apologetic in the
dictionary and apologetic in academia is
significantly different. Like you could explain the difference.
Yeah. Yeah. So I don't mean like saying
sorry
for the Quran, but just making the argument
for the truth of the Quran. Right. Especially
in the context where, you know, obviously some
people don't believe in that and some people
make arguments against the Quran.
So apologetics
is generally the field in which you mount
that defense and you present the positive arguments
also
to believe that this Quran is from Allah
and also to respond
to contentions by people outside.
So I mean this is such a mixture
of things. This is a classical book for
the Qur'an,
but it's got some aspects of the history
of the Quran which is why I've got
it here. And then I've got books on
the history of the Quran, you know, most
celebrated one
by,
Muhammad Musafal Adhami Yeah. The history of the
Quran text.
So in English this remains
absolutely
the best thing everyone should have, a copy
to be aware of of aspects of the
history. The same author
has got a separate book on
scribes of the prophet and those who wrote
down the revelation.
And he you know, I think he's reached
about 60
scribes.
Although there's some dispute as to the identity
of all of them,
but there could be as many as 65
people who were writing
writing the Quran for the prophet.
But also in Arabic, you know, there are
other works on,
tariq and Quran.
And in particular, doctor Mohammed Hassan Jabal,
who is the author of Al Muir Jamin
al Shittaqi Yeah. You know, we we use
a lot. He has some other books in
in in the field of Quranic studies,
such as this one talking about the 7
akhruf of the Quran. That's the subject that
we'll come back to as well.
He talks about
So, again, the transmission of the Quran orally.
And in this book, which is
The book before this one?
You see?
Yeah.
So history of
a Yeah. He's but he's kind of making
some point about how,
the oral aspect fits in alongside other aspects
and and how there are sometimes some small
details,
which one could,
there are dispute over
some very, very precise details in Tajweed, for
example. And some people will say, well, I
received from my sheikh who received from the
sheikh who received from the sheikh. So that
can't be questioned because of the Isnat aspect.
So he's saying what that goes alongside,
other aspects.
So one can study things in terms of
the
the text and in terms of the linguistics
and to,
and to say that the transmission, the oral
transmission and the the isnaad is one aspect
that exists alongside others.
But,
yeah, in the history of the Quran, he's
got this one.
And we've got here oh, this is that
woah. I got it.
Safe.
Here we go again. With the tariq al
Quran,
which is one of the sources that professor
Adame uses.
This is these are some books that are
responding to those who are suggesting that there's,
contradictions in the Quran.
So this is one by doctor Khalidi, who's
another book of his we saw earlier.
Here is not really supposed to be priests,
but it's like
some Christian missionaries and their contentions. So he's
responded to a particular,
book of theirs.
I think by,
yeah, there's a guy who still appears on
YouTube, I think.
Alfadi. Anyway, so he's responding to that. And
this is by Sheikh Shankiti, who's the author
of Adwaal Bayan. Oh, wow. Yeah.
Again, responding to things which may appear to
be contradictory in the Quran, how we understand
them correctly.
Muhammad Mura Ali
is another one who,
you know, he's a Bengali scholar passed away.
Rahmahullah, the Quran and the Orientalists.
This was quite
a influential book for me when when I
first read that and
has
got this book
where he is,
responding to things in Encyclopedia Britannica,
which concern the Quran.
And that probably Why
do they respond
to Western criticism in Arabic?
Well,
that's a good question,
because that's what they can do.
So
this would kind of happen
when in the first place someone can either
read
encyclopedia Hanukkah in his language or if it's
translated into Arabic.
So sometimes it happens that people translate the
work of Orientalists
into Arabic. And then there's and then the
ideas start to spread. And then people are
worried that, okay,
Muslims or Arabs in general will be confused
by these ideas. So we need to respond
to them. So they respond in Arabic for
that audience.
They're not necessarily thinking about
the Western audience, the Anglophone audience.
That's not their primary concern.
If they wanted to reach them, then they
should have these books then translated into those
languages.
I think that there's there's still a divide
and disconnect between
Arabic language material and English language material Correct.
And other languages,
which we need to do something about. Yeah.
And,
you know, again, Marcus Tafsir, whom we visited,
one of the really exciting things that they're
doing
is translating a lot of things into
Arabic,
and not the old orientalist things from the
18th
19th centuries.
But in fact
they're translating the latest pieces of research that
have been published in western journals
So that's really important then. They're letting their
audience of researchers
look at what's being said now
in order to
benefit from any ideas that are good in
there but also to respond to things that
require response.
It's interesting that they're not really doing anything
to translate what the Muslim world's doing.
We are, though. And, yeah, in in in
in reverse,
was actually an acknowledgment of some of that
that we're just assuming that there's nothing really
to be offered.
Yeah. And and and first of all, also
notes in in some of his writings that
there's been an assumption. There's a continued kind
of unspoken assumption in,
in much of Western writings that
secondary scholarship, which is to say, you know,
contemporary scholars are like the people who are
here at this on these lower shelves, especially,
They can't contain any kind of critical insights.
You know? They would just be parroting things.
They'll just be making assumptions
and assertions and Right. Doctrine based.
There would be nothing here that a critical
minded Western scholar
could benefit from,
which he said, we really need to challenge
this kind of assumption or this kind of
bigotry, really, which is what it comes down
to.
What did you find?
I
found
Yeah. So I think again, some people are
again, sort of on polemical
missionary channels.
They will say, oh, there are such and
such grammatical mistakes in the Quran. Right. So
this book specifically addresses these claims of grammatical
mistakes in the Quran. Yeah.
Very cool.
Very, very cool.
Okay.
Show it up up here and then come
next to the
the massive field, which is some other load.
Tafsir.
The central topic of it all. Yeah.
Everything else is feeding into that.
Yeah. We'll come to tafsir next. This has
been great.
Salam, everyone. It's doctor Suheb here. You've had
the chance to look inside my library. Now
I'd love to take you inside some of
what I've learned from there, especially in the
flagship project of the Ibn Ashoor Centre, which
is distilling the insights of a great Mufassir,
Muhammad Al Taher ibn Ashoor.
We have a special course for you
on Surat Yaseen. I'd love you to get
involved. I'd love you to benefit
from our new translation and commentary on the
Quran. Head over to ibinashore.com/academy
to find out more.