Riyad Nadwi – 0.1 Actionable Tafsir Dars1
AI: Summary ©
The speakers discuss the third source principle of the church's teachings, which involves the church's first hand witness to the church's teachings and pursuing the knowledge of the church's teachings. They emphasize the importance of science and action in shaping one's behavior and character, and emphasize the need for immediate prognostication and purification in order to engage with the church. They also discuss the importance of action in shaping one's life and emphasize the need for physical touch and engagement with the church. Finally, they provide two research projects related to the topic of children belief in god and the importance of human sophistication.
AI: Summary ©
In another year. We're starting again. This will
be our 1st session of the term, the
whole year.
This year is something slightly different for those
who have who have been at the years
before as well.
Changing looks,
changing to the.
Last year, we did, here, and this year,
and,
I think it will be very beneficial to
all of us.
So we'll be looking at that coming, and,
we'll benefit from the future.
Brothers and sisters,
welcome to our first session
in this new
series, series 5,
in which we are embarking
on a
journey of reflection
on the verses of the Quran,
with a view towards purifying our hearts and
minds
and beautifying our conduct and character.
I know you've all come here today with
a heavy heart
regarding what's happening
in the land of Masjid Al Aqsa.
And
there is something that you should bear in
mind that
the people who
are committing the atrocities and the people who
are
targeting Muslims
do so because
they think that
Islam can be
eradicated from the face of the planet.
And many people have tried this before,
but Allah has taken it upon himself to
preserve this deen.
And the deen will survive. This Islam will
survive in this world,
and no one can wipe it off the
face of the earth.
And
whether the question we should ask the the
question that we should ask is whether we
will be part of that or not.
And
the best way
for us,
living as here as we do,
that we can do
to
respond
is to become better Muslims, is to practice
our deen, is to show that Islam
will not be wiped out because it will
be practiced. And there's no better way
as there's no better way to improve your
deen than to get closer to the teachings
of this deen, the guidance. And the source
of it is Quran.
So here today,
you are doing exactly that. And I hope
that Allah
will bless this
class that we have here with that intention.
We make that intention that we are we
are going to become better Muslims. We are
going to practice Islam,
and we are going to spread Islam.
Because that is what,
people hold
in enmity
that we will burn the Quran and we
will do x y and zed to Muslims
and Islam will be wiped out. Throughout history
people have tried to do this, but it
is Allah. If it wasn't for Allah, if
you look at the odds, it has always
been from the first from the very first
battle in Badr.
The odds are always against us, but
Allah protects his Deen. His Deen always survives.
So now before I dive into the subject
matter and before that I I I would
like to
warn you or apologize in advance that today
is going to be a long session because
it's an introductory session.
And I think we've we should see this
as part of Ibada. We're doing this also,
and we will hope that inshallah, Allah will
bless us and bless those who are suffering.
So, yeah. Before I dive into the subject
matter, what I'd like to do is to
give you a brief
overview,
an introduction of thoughts to the methodology and
the kinds of discussions we're going to have.
As you may have seen from the publicity,
we are going to do tafsir.
Now
so what is tafsir?
What what do you understand of tafsir?
The word tafsir literally means.
It means cash
which is to
uncover.
The uncovering of in,
and the opening.
And it's the word is used in the
Quran, in.
The
the best explanation
or or,
in the term in the meaning of best
explanation.
Now we often hear that the Arabic language
is a rich language. Now what does that
mean to us?
When we say that food is rich, what
we mean is that it has is packed
with good ingredients.
So when we say the language is rich,
we find that
it is rich and unique
in
ways that separates, that sets it apart from
other languages.
And one of the amazing characteristics of the
Arabic language is that
meanings are not only carried in individual words,
but you can find meaning embedded in the
individual
phonemes of the words, which are sounds of
the words.
They're embedded also in letter combinations,
irrespective of the order of the letters.
For example, if you take an English word
like, a verb add,
a d d, and you were to reverse
the first two letters, what would you end
up with?
Dad,
a d d. If you reverse the first
two letters, you will end up with dad.
Right? The now there's no sharing of the
if you take these two English words, there's
no sharing of a semantic field between these
two words.
Ad and dad are in 2 different semantic
galaxies.
Right? The meanings are completely. In Arabic,
that's not the case.
You can find in the large number of
word constructions
that they maintain the semantic field with one
another even when the
letter order is changed around.
And the word tafsir is one of those
words,
which the root of tafsir, if you
look at the root from where the word
tafsir is derived,
it is
where the Arabic students.
What what are the roots what what is
the root of tafsir?
The the three roots. The the trilateral roots.
Who can tell me?
Any anyone on on the sister's side?
The root of tafsir. Fasara. Fasara. Yes. That's
it.
Fasin
Ra.
That's that's the three root letters of it.
Right?
Now,
if you were to switch that around now
and this is what our the Arabic lexicographers
have found is that if that any word
with these three letters in any order
will
give you meanings
in a particular semantic field. And that particular
semantic field is one of the meanings of
uncovering, opening, and discovering.
For example, in the if you were to
switch around the fa and the seen, Fassar
tafsir
is for fasr. But if you change the
scene now to safara and put an elephant
in front, you you you end up with
asfar.
And in Surat Al Mudassir, Allah says in
the Quran, was subhi either Asfar
was Subhih either Asfar. And that means that
when the morning brightens up, something opening up.
When the morning, when the morning brightens up,
there you have. And now similarly, the same
letters, they denote the word suffer, journey. The
word for journey comes from the same root.
Safar, journey. And and the the semantic field
in which this is connected is that when
you travel, you open the, more,
the world opens up more as you
pass through
the terrain,
you the world of your world opens up
to you. So there is that semantic meaning
of of opening in Kasf.
And then, if you change again, if you
change the the last 2, you jumble them
up again. You take the
the,
the scene and stick it at the end
instead of having it in the middle. If
you end up with the word Farasa,
Farasa, which is
which is that to see things, to look
at the out the the outer form of
something and understand the inner form, which is
insight, perspicacity.
So from the same word.
And,
we have in Hadith,
said, it took for us I mean, for
inahu yandurubinu rillah.
That fear the the insight of the believer,
of a true believer,
for he sees with the
light of God, light of Allah, the light
in his heart. He will see through and
through.
You know, that used to happen in, Sayna
Uthman
and saw a man come
visit him and he said, you come to
visit me and I can see Zina in
your eyes. And he said, he was shocked
because he had he had he had misused
his eyes before coming in to see Uthman
radiya and and he could see it in
his eyes. That is Firafa.
So
so
the
if we were to say now that your
that this your tafsir class will be a
safar, a journey,
and it will be it will brighten up
your life.
It will be an isfar. It will be
brighten up your life and and
you will develop
firasa, which is capacities for insights, then all
four of these meanings
are embedded in the three letter at the
root of the word of tafsir. All of
these. All those meanings I've just given you,
they're all from that one that that basic
trilateral root,
meaning of insight.
Now this is just one aspect of the
amazing multi dimensional
semantic
linking of phonemes and morphemes in the Arabic
language. Some scholars have even discovered patterns of
meaning in the individual letters,
individual
letters, depending on where they are in the
in in
in in the order of the of the
of the three letters.
That, for instance, the letter ra, if that
happens to be in the beginning of a
word,
then invariably, mostly you find that that word
will mean something that link that that that
that is about linking and joints and connection.
Just from that one letter, Ra, at the
beginning.
From that, we have rusk,
the link
the this joint of,
risk. In fact, the word risk in in
English, your your risks,
is,
is actually an Arabic word. It's it's came
from rusk.
But Risk, Raqaba,
Rahem,
silat Rahem. Wherever there's Ra in the beginning,
you will find it is in that semantic
field of connection.
So,
inshallah, we will delve more in this
later on in the series, but I wanted
to give you a taste of the kind
of reflections we're going to have in this
series.
Now there's another word you might have heard
in in this context, which is tawil.
Tafsir and tawil.
Now tawil also comes from Awal, from the
beginning for
which is return to returning to the primary
meaning, but both terms are synonymous.
Although some scholars have linked tawil to,
broader meanings of opinion,
and other meanings, but
both,
both both terms are synonymous and they use
interchangeably.
Now istilahan, which is the technical definition of
tafsir. What what does tafsir mean technically?
And there are several definitions for that.
But
there is one definition which is,
broadly accepted, widely accepted, and that is the
definition,
by Imam Zarqashi in his
Quran. And that's the one I'm going to
read to you today which is,
That the knowledge through which you learn
the
you understand.
That it is the it is the branch
of knowledge in which meanings of the Quran
are understood
and where deriving of injunctions and wisdoms are
explained in clear intelligible terms.
And in that
there are 4 points of pivots, there are
4 pivots in that. You've got Ilham, Fahem,
Bayan and Istikharaj. You've got the knowledge,
you've got understanding,
Bayan, clarification, and Istikharaj which is the derivation.
This is the definition,
of course, is is one that is inspired
by verses in the Quran. And, 2 verses
in the Quran. 1 in Surat Al Nahal
and the other in Surat Al
Imran.
Where Allah
says,
that we have revealed the Quran to you
so that you
explain to the people what has been sent
to them. This is
being addressed with this.
Surely, Allah did a tremendous favor to the
believers when he sent a messenger to them
from among themselves,
from among them who recite his verses before
them, and purify them, and teach them the
book and the wisdom.
Now the first first important point
to bear in mind
here is that Allah Subhanahu Wa Ta'ala did
not send
the book. He did not reveal the book
on its own. He did not send the
book, though
Allah Subhanahu Wa Ta'ala is perfectly capable of
doing so. He could have caused the tablet
to descend from the sky
and land
among the Arabs. They were experts at at
the language,
but he did not do that.
He he could send them the tablets. You
could he not?
The Arabs were experts at at the language,
but
he chose to send the the book
together with someone to explain the book, to
teach the book, to exemplify the book. This
has to be bare born in mind that
that that this is
a crucially important point to bear in mind
especially in today's world where the we find
people who
think that they
need we own they say we only need
the book
and clearly this is not the case the
book is making itself.
In fact, it's saying the opposite. It says
that we have sent you and we have
sent the book itself is saying that we
have sent
the prophet sallallahu alaihi wa sallam to teach
it and to explain it.
Now, the saying it it it is saying
alongside the revealed word, you you also need
the prophetic guidance to explain it. So in
simple terms,
if you were to put this in everyday
language,
the Quran
is not a DIY manual.
The Quran is not a DIY manual. It
came with the best expert support there can
be in the person of Rasulullah Sallallahu Alaihi
Wasallam.
The companions of the prophet Sallallahu Alaihi Wasallam
witnessed the practice of the Quran in the
character
and in the conduct of the prophet Sallallahu
Alaihi Wasallam who taught them the meanings and
the methods of interpreting it.
They learned Tafsir from Rasool Allah Sallalahu Alaihi
Wasallam directly, and from them their students, and
from that an entire branch of knowledge
emerged. We now know as
Ilm ul Salih Tafsir.
In other words, the,
from
this body of scholarship,
we we have the normative
principles of exegesis that came into be.
This is now what is the normative principles
of
exegesis? What is Usulut Tafsir? If you're going
to approach Tafsir, then you must know something
about Usulut Tafsir.
Now the approach that we'll be taking in
this series will be to follow the traditional
Usulut Tafsir methodology. The normative
principles of exegesis which is the method of
drawing from a well established
scheme of interpretation,
that is arranged in a hierarchical manner. Starting
at the top,
we have tafsir
of Quran
by Quran. That is the first
principle. That's the first source principle of tafsir.
Is that you explain Quran by Quran, where
parts of the Quran explains other parts of
the Quran.
An example of that, you know, Surat al
Fatih here we say, Surat al Ladina anamta
alayhim.
Idir al Surat al Ladina,
and
Amta alayhim. Oh, that guide us to straight
path path upon whom you have favored. Now
that
is explained further on. Who are the people
you have favored? How how is that explained?
In Surat in Nisa, we have
that we have give
those who
we
have
guided.
The same word is is used again.
And ama Allahu alayhim. That
the who are the people who are favored?
Allah is explaining. He says they are the
the prophets,
the those who are steadfast in defirmers of
truth, the Shuhada, the Martins, and the Salihid.
And those are the excellent
of those are our our companions.
So this is the first Usul in the
scheme.
Tafseer of Quran with Quran. Exegesis of the
Quran by the Quran. That's the first one.
The second source principle is the scheme in
this scheme is interpretation
of the of the Quran
through Hadith,
by the teachings of the prophets of Allah
Subhanahu Wa Salam.
For instance, we are commanded in the Quran
to pray.
But the details of how to pray and
when to pray and the details of that
is found in Hadith. My favorite
example in this one is the Surah in
Surah Al Maryam, the verse 96, where Allah
says,
That indeed those who have believed
and do righteous deeds, the most merciful them.
Allah
will appoint for them affection.
Now what does that mean?
Allah will appoint for them affection.
In Hadith, we find the explanation, the tafsir
of it, in the words of Rasulullah SAWSALAW.
He said he said,
That if Allah loves someone,
Nadajibreel.
He calls the angel Gabriel.
He calls him and he says,
that I now love this person.
So
so you must also love him.
Then he proclaims that love in the heavens
all over the world, all all over all
over the galaxies,
and the heavens of
that love is proclaimed and everyone loves him,
or her, whoever Allah loves.
And then
that love, he says, and then
and then that love descends into the earth
for that person.
And and the reverse, I'd say, happens. And
then,
Rassula Sallallahu Alaihi Wasallam then mentions this verse,
the same verse. He says,
Wadalika,
that this is
That Allah will create for them affection. So
that's a that's an interpretation. That's an example
of an interpretation. So this is the second
usool, the second source principle in the tafsir,
in in in Usul of Tafsir, in the
normative,
principles of exegesis. You have tafsir of Quran
through Hadith.
The third one is
Quran, tafsir of Quran
by the Sahaba.
The the companions of the prophets of the
Allah Almighty Wa Salam.
Now
why are they qualified to explain Quran? Why
are the Sahaba qualified?
So there are three answers to that question.
The first is that
they because they were taught by
Rasulullah Sallallahu Alaihi Wasallam directly. He taught them.
He made he explained it to them.
He he he taught them directly and he
also
prayed to Allah. He also asked Allah to
enlighten their hearts with the understanding of Quran.
For example, Abdullah ibn Abbas says that, Gammani,
Rassulullah, salallahu alaihi wa sallam, that he that
Rassulullah salallahu alaihi wa sallam helped me closely
and then made a dua. And he said,
what did he say? Allahumma'alimu
alikmatawataawalalkitab.
Oh, Allah. Teach him
wisdom. Put wisdom. Put the knowledge of wisdom
in his heart and the tafsir, the tawil
of the Quran. It put the explanation of
Quran into him. So
that's the first reason. The second reason is
that they were
first hand witnesses
to the divinely inspired application of the verses
in the life of the prophet sallallahu alaihi
wa sallam. And in the application
of the first community of Muslims,
they
they had first hand
view of what was happening.
And the 3rd answer to that is that
we all know
how important context is. If someone's sitting if
someone says bring me water,
and you are unaware
of whether whether they're sitting at table or
they're sitting in the bath, you would not
know what they meant. Whether they wanted a
glass of water or a bucket of water.
If they say if you just see the
sentence, the context, you need you need to
know the context. So the Sahaba, they they
had first hand knowledge of Asaba bin Nuzul.
They the knowledge of the circumstances of the
revelation. So they understood what was being said,
you know. And not only that, they they
they actively pursued this knowledge.
The the knowledge of the context of revelation
will how when things were revealed.
So for example, Abdullah ibn Masood,
in in a report by in Sahih Muslim
in in Sahih Bukhari,
he he says, oh,
by Allah, other than whom no one should
be worshiped, he says that,
That no
no
Surah has been revealed in the book of
Allah
except that I knew I know where it
was revealed.
Except that no verse has been revealed except
that I know where it was revealed.
And if I knew that anyone knew anything
more about this than I did and that
and a camel would would would
would get me there, I would write to
him to find it. So they pursued they
actively
pursued pursued this knowledge.
They had firsthand experience of the Quran coupled
with a thirst for obtaining it and preserving
this knowledge.
Therefore, whenever there is a consensus
among the Sahaba on a particular meaning of
a verse, then we're not allowed to contradict
it. We're not allowed to come and say,
oh, wow. I have some new funky idea
about about this verse. No. Because that is,
breaking the scheme. That is that that that
is
destroying
the the entire edifice. The integrity of the
structure of the scheme has to be maintained
for the scheme to work.
We cannot bypass our entire legacy of received
wisdom.
Now that said, in places where there are
differences of opinion,
then there are established rules to deal with
the higher
sciences of Usul Tafsir and in,
in, in Usul Hadith and Usul Al Fiqh,
where weighing and ranking and prioritizing takes place,
but that is mostly beyond the scope of
this,
series.
So this is the 3rd Qusul, the 3rd
source principle of the scheme.
Tafsir of Quran through the teachings of the
Sahaba.
Now the 4th one, the 4th principle is
the
scheme of Qusul of Tafsir via the teachings
of Tabi'in.
The teachings
of the students of the Sahaba, the Tabireen.
Right? The Tabireen,
and
why are they important? Why why are they
important in this scheme?
1st, because they lived with and saw the
Sahaba exemplified the Quran
in their conduct and character, and they also,
many of them specialized in the field of
tafsir.
And they became scholars and experts in tafsir
by studying and,
they studied the the text in-depth,
with the Sahaba. For instance,
Mujahid ibn Jabbar.
He he said that, I've,
Arabton who I I I
in the word, he said, that,
that I I went through the Quran with
3
times
and
and and I stopped at every ayah and
I asked
And I asked him about this ayah, where
where was it, in what context was it
revealed, and and about what
was said about it.
And it's not only him saying this about
himself, we find other scholars like Ibn Abi
Malika saying that,
Salaibni Abbas radiAllahu an radiAllahu anhu anitafsiri
wamaahu alwalwah. That he has the scrolls and
he's sitting with him. He was doing it
and he said, Fakaribnu Abbasuqtubhatasaaarahoo
That he he asked him on on in
the entire tafsir. And according to one report,
he's he's he read the Quran. This is
a tabiiri. He reads the Quran to in
in in the Ibras
30 times.
He says.
So
the Tabi'in are scholars in this right, and
they have
a position in this scheme.
And then the 4th,
the 5th that that was the 4th principle,
the Tabi'in.
The 5th source principle in Tafsir of Quran
is through the language of the Arabs, which
is what we were talking about. It's knowing
the language of the Arabs. Because the language
in which it was revealed
now that they are they they they are
they are familiar
with the nuances of the language, the registers
of the language.
So
the the well, the verses
there are several verses in the Quran in
which there there are no asbaab and nazool.
We don't have context for everything. We don't
have hadith or or or Sahaba or Tabi.
Now the only way to explain that is
is by relying on the language.
But to do this, one must obviously be
well versed in the nuances of the language
and its usage
and all the related subjects
for the language. Not because you can speak
Arabic, you can you should go and and
and do this. You have to, you you
have to be well versed. Linguistic analysis
is also useful when there's a difference of
opinion. So you can use linguistic,
analysis
to prioritize or or or or to choose.
And then finally, the 6th source principle of
source of tafsir
is
the,
tadabur and istimbat,
which is the deliberation and deduction.
Is that you ponder and deduce.
And this sorts of tafsir engages with
the subtleties of the Quran, which are, of
course, endless.
There are endless subtleties in the Quran and
knowledge that can be derived. This is the
words of Allah. The Quran the Quran is
a endless ocean of knowledge.
And the more one ponders, the more it
opens. However,
this is not a free for all exercise.
It is not a license
for radicalism in tafsir, you know. All deliberations
and deductions
must remain
broadly within the teachings of the above five
sources. It has to be within that framework.
You don't it it cannot radically contradict
other parts of the Quran or contradict
established sunnah or establish Ijma or the Sahaba
or Tabayeen or go against
the Ijma, the the consensus of these, of
these prior sources.
In other words, one cannot claim that they
have derived the conclusion about a particular meaning
that radically
contradicts all the other sources.
For that would only undermine the structure of
the received wisdom.
It
it it it would render
the role of the prophet
as default, as as
irrelevant. And that is,
completely antithetical to what the Quran itself is
teaching.
The deliberation. So so this is Istimbat
that we will be engaged with in this
series will include
reflections on modern discoveries as well.
Particularly in the field of cognitive science,
but without any claim of definitive conclusions. This
is everything
I will say in this regard will be
tentative
as all such deliberations should be.
No one should claim that they have now,
you know, and this is a problem of
modern times, claim that they have now discovered
the real meaning of a verse. That's,
problematic.
You know, there there are people who tend
to think that because they have discovered something,
that all previous commentators were just wrong and
were lost. And that's
completely the the wrong way. Apart from the
arrogance and statement, it also undermines the structure
of the scheme we've just mentioned. Now so
so yeah. So we are going to be
engaging also with modern reflections such as scientific
discoveries, etcetera.
And,
it they should be regarded as nothing more
than props
or crutches.
Now what do I mean by crutches? I
mean,
the
using modern scientific discoveries as a support mechanism
to bridge the gap or the chasm
of distance, distance of time, distance of language
that separates us from the 1st generation of
interpreters.
So I'll be drawing from discoveries in
in the cognitive sciences in particular because that's
an area in which I have some expertise.
I suppose I should tell you a bit
about myself.
For those of you who are new here,
I'm, in addition to studying 12 years,
Islamic studies, I wrote a successful
doctoral thesis on memory distinctions in psycholinguistics,
which is in the field of,
cognitive science.
And so I'll be drawing on
both of these areas to bring home meanings
and messages in the Quran.
Now a goal in one of the goals
in citing scientific studies will be to help,
what I see today as a cluttered minds
and fractured,
patterns of thoughts in the minds of people.
Because we live in a world today where,
modern
human cognition,
is is cluttered. We are,
drowning in information
but starved of knowledge.
Yeah. I repeat that. We're drowning in information
but starved of knowledge.
The Arabs at the time of the prophet
sallallahu alaihi wasallam were people who lived a
natural life. They, you know, close to nature.
They understood the pure Arabic language with all
its nuances and facets and registers.
Indeed, the pride of their age was derived
from their expertise in their language.
The Sahaba or the companions did not need
all the props and crutches
that later generations were found
needing, you know, you know, the to read
the text or to understand.
For example, they did not need dots in
the text. They did not need diacritics, you
know,
and all of that. They understood. They were
able to read. But
over distance and over time, people influenced by
other cultures and languages in latter years.
The need for crutches, the need for patches
arises. And likewise, for the modern mind, in
my humble opinion,
the,
the referencing of scientific discoveries may serve
as a patch to holes in our thinking
and aids in to our understanding of a
book in a language that is foreign to
us in multiple ways.
Now another key aspect of the methodology that
we'll be adopting
in this series is a tafsiru
b'aynilaman,
which is Tafsir
focused on action. Hence the title actionable Tafsir.
It's,
and this is intended to be a journey
of reflection on the verses of the Quran
with a view to,
purifying our hearts and minds and purifying our
conduct and character because this is the purpose
of the book.
The purpose of Revelation is for people to
follow and act on it.
For if there were just, you know, if
it was meant to just be kept in
shelves or just to read for enjoyment, then
that would put us in the description in
in on our 'uzubillah.
The terrible description,
description that we find in Surat Al Jum'ah
where Allah says,
like loads books, loads of books on a
on a donkey,
but nothing else.
So like like donkeys carrying loads of books
of scrolls.
Action was the prime focus for the 1st
generation who received this book. The Sahaba radiAllahu,
the companions of the prophet
studied it and memorized it and acted upon
it. Verse by verse.
Surah by Surah. They invested time
slowly
pondering and and inculcating
the teachings of the Quran in their lives.
They they Imam Khurtubi, you know, writes in
his tafsir. He says that,
Zakar Abu Amal Abu Amal Abdul Amalid Dani,
Bismariah and Osman
Waanid Nim Sauddin Wa Ubay. That's,
he's reporting. He said that, that
there's a report from from Osman, and
That
they they used to learn 10 verses of
the Quran and then they will not go.
They will not go further until they understood
they learned what was in it. They
Quran.
They they learned the Quran and action. He
taught us the Quran and actions together.
That we would not we would not learn
the next 10 until
we learned what is what was legal and
illegal. What was Haram and Halal. What was
Amur and Nahi? What was commanded and what
was prohibited.
This focus so that they could put it
into their into their actions in doing something.
This is the focus of putting what is
learned into action is echoed also. This focus
of
action of implementing in your life
is found in the description of the mission
of Rasool Allah SWAMI. His whole mission, he
describes it that that. He said he said
that he in this in in in this
report, he says,
that I was not sent except
to perfect conduct, to perfect character. So
action action being, I was not sent to
accept
good conduct is my mission, to teach people
how to behave in the best manner, how
to build good character, and how to be
good good human beings.
And this is exactly what he did with
the teachings
of
teaching this book. He transformed
the wild Arabs of the desert into builders
of civilizations
like the world had never seen before. With
this book, they rode out of the desert
and transformed the then known world so much
so that when historians looked closely at history
or at the history of the world,
they could not find anyone more influential and
successful
than Muhammad sallallahu alaihi wa sallam. Yeah.
In all of human history,
and for those of you who might think
that this is a subjective exaggeration, you should,
I I suggest you read Michael Hart's, you
know, the historian Michael Hart's book, the 100
the the title of the book is the
100. The ranking of the most influential persons
in history.
This is not a Muslim.
He has no reason to favor Muhammad Sallallahu
Alaihi Wasallam.
And yet of the 100 people in all
of history, he places who? Muhammad salallahu alaihi
wa sallam
in his survey as the most influential people
in history.
That in history on the basis of facts,
you know, the the Arabs say that,
that the virtue is that which the opposition
acknowledges.
So this this is someone who
is
he was a his character was the Quran.
When Umul Mumini
was asked about him, tell us about the
character of the prophet. He said he's his
quote was the Quran. He was a walking
talking Quran. That was Rasoolallah salallahu alaihi wa
sallam.
So another reason for focusing this stuff here
on
action in such an overlooked way,
if you notice I'm emphasizing, I'm saying actionable
stuff here, is that we live at a
time when,
you know, there there there's a modern trend
that's come.
A trend
in is now in vogue
nowadays where people see Tafsir classes as a
good source of entertainment.
You know, you we go to Tafsir, every
everyone goes to Tafsir classes and, you know,
it's it's it's the done thing. And, oh,
I really enjoy the class because the speaker
was funny or charismatic or interesting, etcetera.
And while missing the real message that is
embedded
in these discussions. So
and, of course, all of this is very
well with the postmodern
view of life. Entertainment is one of the
big values of the dominant philosophy in our
time. What is the dominant philosophy in our
time?
Though you might not know the name of
it, you are subject to it. You're influenced
by it whether you want or not. It's
like GAMP. It seeps into you. It's postmodern
philosophy.
And this is one of the big values
of the postmodern
postmodern
way of life is entertainment.
So we,
and
it's a prime focus. You have a salient
silent search for it in everything you you
engage with. With the Quran, this is not
only disrespectful
in a grand scale but also counterproductive
to our interests. Because if entertainment becomes our
main goal, then implementing what is learned
will continuously suffer the tragedy of procrastination.
We will say, oh, I'll do it later.
I'll do it, you know, I'll start later.
But, well, yeah, let me enjoy this bit.
And this is not what the book this
the Quran is not a book of procrastination.
It's not a book to do for saying
for tasweef, you
know. In the Quran,
there are commands to be followed
in general specific in times, you know, the
the within
general time frame and with and there are
specific time frame. Some some things you have
to do at a certain time of the
year like in Ramadan, something a certain time
of the week like in Jumah, a certain
some some things, certain certain things certain time
of the day. You have to pray at
a certain time of the day. And some
things you have to do immediately as you
read. Immediately. What am I talking about? There
are some verses when you read
14 or 15 depending on your fit. It's
that so the last of allah
has a
That when he reads a certain eye, the
eye of,
immediately
that in in these words, in addition to
the immense reward
and pros of of for prostrating, because when
you prostrate, you put the most honorable feature
of your body to the lowest spot you
can find, to the lowest place you can
find on the ground. So you get an
immense reward, you get close to Allah by
doing that. But
there again, in that, there is a training
of immediate compliance. There's no book in the
world where you read
an instruction, you have to follow it immediately.
There's no taslim. There's no procrastination.
There's no room. You're you're being trained. You
have to do a compliance
for the mind and the heart. This is
a training in immediate compliance for mind, heart,
and body. To recognize that you need to
engage with this book in an active and
live response
to the guidance in it.
Even though some of some are time dependent,
this is not a book for Tasweef. This
is not a book for procrastination.
Now
what is the first action
that we need to do when we approach
the Quran?
What is action number 1?
The Quran. But what what do we say
following our? We will go to the Quran.
What does Quran say? This
is
not insult.
He said that this is the noble
Quran. That it
is a register well protected.
That none touch it except in the purified.
So purification is necessary.
Purification is the first action. You have to
purify yourself to approach the Quran. You do
not touch it. Now touch here, one is
a physical touch but engaging spiritually as well.
Engaging with the mind, the heart in a
purified way which we will come to. So
that's the first thing you need to do.
You you also
you you are not allowed to touch it
unless you're purified, but the second action
to engage with the Quran is what? That's
the first, which we will come back to,
perhaps next week. But, the second one we
were going to engage with today because,
I I I I I think that requires
more time.
What is the second thing you need to
do? Here again, the Quran tells you. When
you approach when you approach the Quran, the
first thing
al Quran, That if you when you approach
the Quran, when you read the Quran, then
what do you do? You seek refuge in
Allah from Shayta, from Satan. That's it.
That indeed there there is for him no
authority over those who have
believed and rely upon their Lord.
His authority is over is only over those
who take him as an ally,
and those who, through him, associate others with
Allah.
Now if we are going to read and
study the Quran then, so here,
one of the first things we need to
do is to seek protection. Seek protection
with Allah from Sha'Taan.
Now taking the second action first from
we if we look now what did
how does
other parts of the Quran explains this? When
we look at the Quran for ways in
which Satan leads people astray, what are you
seeking protection from? You're seeking protection from being
led astray. Now how did he do that?
He does there are 2 broad modes in
which Satan
leads you astray. He attacks you from all
directions,
but the 2 ways,
2
broad ways in which modes in which he,
he
he he influences us. 1 is by whispering.
Whispering
schemes for instilling fear, for instilling
suspicion, for instilling doubts
into your mind. As we are told in
the last surah of the Quran, the surah
you all know,
The one who whispers into you into you.
You can do it directly or indirectly, you
know, with,
So you may do it indirectly or you
may do it through a person. The person
sitting next to you who maybe, you know,
working for shaitan because he might whisper it
in in him. I don't mean literally the
person sitting next to you. I mean, the
in in general,
Satan
can be,
a a a a person a a human
being can be carrying the whisper of Satan,
the doubt of Satan. Putting doubts, they can
be in the state of doubt and then
draw you into doubt. That's what it means.
So so that's the second mode.
No. That's the first mode is that you're
whispering, putting whisperings and doubts in your mind.
The second mode is by setting examples for
you to follow. You know getting people to
follow to to set examples or he himself
setting examples.
Now,
Allah Subhanahu Wa Ta'ala warns us about this.
There are
several
commands that are in the mode of
the imperative in the Quran. In fact, there
are 4.
1 is,
do not worship Shaitan. Right? And I think
you're all safe from that unless you sign
up to some dodgy secret society.
I hope you none of you do that.
But, so for that, you do not worship
Shaitan.
The second is
that, he did not divert you. And then
he says,
and then he he shouldn't deceive you as
he did your parent did with your parents
in Janine. And then the the 4th one
is repeated twice. And that one is,
do not follow the footsteps of Shaitan. Do
not follow the footsteps of Shaitan.
And that is both is in
one is in 1 68,
and the other one is in Surah,
in verse,
verse 168,
and the second one is in
207 verse. The first one is about something
tangible, which was food. He said,
So that and then the second one is.
Enter into Islam wholeheartedly
and do not follow the footsteps of Shaytan.
Now when it comes to footsteps and tracks
of Shaytan,
his first big footstep
into
misguidance was what?
It was
pride and arrogance
in his
own sophistication.
That was it. Right?
In in face
of instructions, direct instructions to from Allah. Allah
was giving him instructions, but he had pride
in his own sophistication.
That that's his first big footstep.
What did he say? He said,
that I'm better than him.
That you created me from fire and you
created Adam and you created him from clay.
So therefore, I'm more sophisticated. I'm better.
Now
when we are faced with divine guidance
or divine command and we we need to
we need to seek Allah's protection
when we're we're
seek Allah's protection from being affected by the
whisper whisperings of Shaitan on one hand and
from following in his footsteps in arrogance.
Following in the same type of our arrogance
because if we follow his footsteps,
what does Allah say? Allah tells us that
Inari Badi, lai salaakalayhi salaam that you have
no authority. This is in Surat Al Hijab,
then verse 42. He says that
my my servant you have no authority over
them
except
except those who follow you. In other words,
follow in his footsteps. So it is possible
to follow Shaitan.
To follow him in this. So he's saying
that you will be able to follow. Now
normally, we do not see ourselves as arrogant.
If you ask someone, you know, they say,
you know, are you arrogant? They will say,
oh oh, me? You know, I'm a very
humble person. We all say that, you know.
We all say think very humbly about ourselves.
We have our self image.
Or but
if we take a closer look
at our world view and that our image
and the way
we take pride in our intellect, our intelligence,
We'll find that we see ourselves as the
epitome
of cognitive sophistication.
You know, we see
that
we are at the very top of cognitive
sophistication.
Human beings are just way way up there.
We live in a world where
all knowledge, all insight, all expertise, all consciousness
are perceived to be derived or for the,
the sole products of the human brain.
And we live in this culture, so we
are affected by it. Right?
This is a brain centric view of human
beings,
and and it is pervasive. We we were
affected by this view. We're affected,
by it surreptitiously,
as I say, like gamp. It it creeps
into you,
by just by virtue of being in the
culture.
And according to, you know, some people argue,
they say that, look, the 19th century was
a century of chemistry.
The 20th century was the century of
physics,
and the 21st century is the century of
the brain. That's what
philosophers,
of in modern times are saying because, you
know and indeed, thanks to rapid
advances in the imaging technology,
there have been tremendous amount of discoveries about
the brain,
in recent times. And we now know a
lot more about the brain than we did
a few decades ago. But
by no means, we understand it fully.
It still holds vast mysteries and complications beyond
the reach of our tools.
Now, the reason I'm talking about brains
is that modern the modern conceptions of human
beings as, as the pinnacle of sophistication
is predicated on the idea that we are
unique and special
merely
on the basis of the size of our
brains. That's what we are told. We're told,
look, you're you're you're you're size,
which of course forces this brain centric superiority
view in almost a similar complex
of the Chaitan had about his about fire,
about being created from fire.
That the equivalent of that in today's world
is to see our our brains as the
only source,
with reluctance only source of knowledge, with a
reluctance with a reluctance and rejection
of other sources of knowledge. Now for most
people,
they
this is not
rocket science.
It's quite simple.
By virtue of having a bigger brain, we
triumphed over all the other creatures on the
planet.
And the brain is,
physical. It's a tangible
object, and we can point to it. And
the logic is quite clear. And then, yeah,
it's the brain that, and the size of
our brain. We are, yeah, we are we
are the big brain creatures and that's what
may makes us special.
Now
if
someone comes along and says, oh, well. Is
that true?
Is it really so? If that were true,
then the whales,
in the sea
would be the smartest on the planet because
they have the biggest brains and with the
elephants just behind.
You know, we have 86,000,000,000
neurons and, an elephant has 270,000,000,000
neurons.
So if you're talking about big processing power,
then they have more. But then someone comes
along and say, oh, no. No. No. No.
You don't understand.
Understand. What we're talking here about is
brain to body ratio. Right? That's the that
that that's it. Right? Isn't that? What they
say? It's the brain to body ratio. This
is what,
and and,
and then everyone claps their
taps themselves on the back and say, yeah.
Yeah. Yeah. We're we're all very happy. Until
you look at it very
a bit closer. And then you realize that
the
little mouse has the same. It's what's the
brain to body ratio of the human being?
It's about 2% in body mask of of
of so that's 1 to 40.
That's exactly the same as a mouse.
And little birds do us even better
with 1 to 14.
Birds. Little birds.
And the mighty ant
does
he has a whopping brain
to body ratio of 1 to 7.
So
where do we stand in this?
Now
with this ratio now I know this is
Oxford.
Do we have any,
cognitive scientists or brain
specialist here?
No? No one?
We do. So
does anyone know about EQ?
And civilization
quotient?
Yes.
Okay. Yeah. Okay. About the brain,
there's another
measure that is used about about
the value of the human brain in order
to justify it. There's this model of known
as the encephalization
quotient
where it's related to what you would expect
a
a a a an animal or a
a a a body
of a certain
size to have in brain, and
human beings have a bigger one. So but
then when it's been studied extensively, they found
out that it's the only reason this EQ
has survived
is because of,
confirmation bias.
There there's a model that that proves it
completely. Those of you who are interested, there's
a researcher,
Susana
Hercolano
Husel.
You can write her name.
She has done extensive research on this. And
what she's what she's proven is that EQ,
this encephalization
quotient about the brain being this big sized
brain that was supposed to be well, that's
made made made you so special
is based on probably,
mostly confirmation
bias.
Okay. So
in fact there's a whole host of myths
about the brain that we take for granted
because we happen to live in a hyper
materialistic culture that does not appreciate
anything beyond the reach of our material tools.
For instance, there is this, another big material
problem with the brain is that we constantly
say talk about,
firings in the brain. That the brain is,
you know, there's firing that's happening. The neurons
fire,
and then I do x, y, and zed.
And in that, what we and this is
a fundamental problem
in our understanding of the brain. This is
this is a philosophical and fundamental problem. Is
that we say that the brain fires and
every consciousness is from the brain, everything is
from the brain, and and the brain fires
in in x, y, and zed patterns. And
then I do this and I do that
and I feel this and I and I
act in some sort of way. But in
saying so, what you're actually doing is that
you're giving agency to the neuron,
and that requires the neuron to have a
brain of its own.
And then that brain that the neuron has
needs another brain and then you end up
with infinite regress,
in that. So this is a fundamental problem.
Another big problem people keep talking about connections
in the brain. There are no connections in
the brain.
There are synapses. You know what synapses?
You have patterns of, of relationships where they
cut, but actual connections is not. But we
feel we we we think in terms of
of,
literal connections, and it's not. So there are
lots. So I could go on, but I
think the point is made here that there
is more to human sophistication
than the mere size of our brains.
And
it is important,
I'm not saying that the brain does not
have an important role
to play. But we have,
in addition to that, Allah Subhanahu Wa Ta'ala
has given us an exquisite
and dignified
soul. He's made us. He's given us he's
given us a soul. A gift
that
which he reminds us. He says,
in the Quran, he says
that he that he had he proportioned Adam.
He proportioned our father Adam, and then he
blew into him the created soul.
That he's given you soul and then he
says, when he mentioned soul about in in
terms of question and discussion, he says, where's
Alunaka Alirruf, they ask you about the roof.
Kulirruf,
say, tell them about the roof. Tell
them. That it is with the command of
Allah. That the roof is with Allah. That
Allah commanded it into into you. And
that that that you are not given knowledge
except
a little. That whatever knowledge, all of human
knowledge, everything that you have is little. When
when you when you and it and it
is interesting that that comparison is made. That's
the the reminder
to mention. It it comes with the mention
of the soul. The sophistication of the soul
and then
the tiny amount of knowledge that you have,
that you were not given. So our soul
carries a celestial
history in it. It carries a heavenly history
in it. Deep
embedded deep within our souls. Allah, subhanahu wa
ta'ala, has a memory he's created for us
that through an experience we our souls had
with in the presence of Allah. Every human
being goes through this. Every human being has
this buried deep within within the human every
human being. A memory of meeting Allah. A
memory a memory of of a conversation with
Allah.
And Allah
says in the Quran, and this is very
clear in Surat Al Araf, he says,
He
says, that and mention when your lord took
the children of Adam out from their loins,
their descendants,
and made them testify. Am I not your
lord? And then we all said, yes. They
all testified. Say, yes. Of course. You are
our lord. Least,
you should say on the day of resurrection,
indeed we were unaware of this. It's that
you will not be able to say on
the day of judgement that I had no
knowledge of this, of Allah.
Now you might say that I have no
knowledge of this, but you do.
Irrespective of
this evidence, we believe in this book. Right?
But I'm I'm gonna give you 2 pieces
more of evidence
that, and and this is very close to
us because they,
we, I mentioned this. We were talking about
this on in the AI conference on the
weekend.
And someone has asked for the, the reference.
So I'm gonna I'm gonna mention these two
pieces of research. These these are two
research projects that happened right here in this
university. The first one in the 19 nineties
and was published in the year 2000.
A researcher
at Wolfson College by the name of doctor
Olivera Petrovich
was interested in the belief in children's belief
in god.
So she studied 400
British students,
British children, 3, 4 years, 5 year old.
And she gave them
artifacts,
pictures of artifacts and things, and,
and natural things like sun and moon and
star and earth,
and things that artifacts of things that human
beings made. And ask them to ask them
who created who made these?
And little children, they they said, when it
came to artifacts, they say, oh, daddy or
some uncle or or or a man made
it. But when it came to the sun
and the moon and the stars and and
the earth, they said god made it predominantly.
And that was
against
the
predictions that they didn't expect that.
So then
it was
suggested that perhaps
the children
are influenced by their parents. That this is
because this idea that someone would born believing
in God is was is
is new
to to scientists because they thought that we
came here as a, you know,
slate. They have the blank slate idea.
So she decided to look for a community
of people
where they do not have
this
idea of a creator god.
So she looked around the world and found
that in Japan,
there's a culture, the the Shinto culture in
Shinto Japan. They do not have the idea
of a creator god.
So she went there and did research among
the Japanese children.
And to the great surprise
of the research
persistence
that were helping on a helping her in
the research, the children
gave the same answer. They said when we're
asked, who created the the sun and the
moon and the stars? They said, Nami sama.
Nami sama. They have a concept of God
but not as a creator. But the children
were saying it naturally.
So this was the first set of research
this happened.
And then
a few years later,
a research project was set up in,
in in the center for,
which was then called the Oxford Center For
Anthropology and the Mind, University, Oxford University Centre
For Anthropology of Mind. And the and the
project was run by someone called doctor,
doctor
Justin Barrett.
It was given
a a grant of £1,900,000
and 57 academics in 20 countries were working
on it. And what they did was they
went around the world asking similar questions, looking
at various people ask of children, they were
focusing on children.
And what they found was that
children instinctively believed in God throughout the world.
And not only that, they believed,
they knew, they had deep within them, they're
born with this thing is that
God is omnipotent. That this God who they
are who they believe in is omnipotent.
He's omniscient. He's omnipresent.
And he's eternal. That Allah that Allah does
not die. That God does not die. And
when they ask, you know, you you know,
the, the cookie jar experiment. It's a psychological
experiment. You you conduct. You you you put
a cookie in you you put
bricks in in the jar then ask the
child,
what would mommy think is in there and
what would he think and to go out
the room and come. There there are lots
of variations of it. But when they ask,
would Allah know? Would god know what was
in the in the jar? The children invariably
said, yes. Sit at this they had yes.
God would know. Mommy wouldn't know, but God
would know. That he's he's omniscient. He knows
he knows what he knows beyond what we
know.
They learn about the they know about the
immortality
of the all powerful
and that he is he is he is,
immortal that he he never dies. They learn
about the immortality of of they know that
Allah is immortal before they learn about the
mortality of their own parents. That's how powerful
this embedded
record in our soul is. That Allah has
clearly created us with. You know, this was,
in in 2011,
the times headline read that belief in God
is part of human nature. Oxford study proves
it. Oxford's probably,
says so.
I and those of you who are interested,
I can give you links to it. Now
now to conclude,
our main message tonight is that
when approaching the study of the Quran,
one must first
one of the first things that we need
to do is to seek protection. We seek
cleanliness,
and that we will come back to next
week inshallah. What does cleanliness mean?
But also about seeking protection from Shaytan with
help from Allah,
not to follow in the footsteps of Shaytan,
not to follow the footsteps of Shaytan
within pride
in our own intellectual sophistication,
Especially
in front of the words of Allah
because that is what Shaitan did. In front
of a direct command of Allah, he
declared his sophistication,
his his superiority.
So we living as we are in this
world with this brain centric,
world in which we live and thinking that
our our sophistication is above. When it comes
to Quran,
when it comes, we should not be running
counter narratives in our minds or
schemes of doubt
and negations in our hearts.
Enter into Islam wholeheartedly
and do not follow in the footsteps of
Shaitan.
So that that that is exactly. For Allah
is the one who created us.
He created the soul
without any request. No one here can remember,
you know, submitting an application to be born.
Do any? We don't. But Allah, we were
non existent. Allah brought us into existence. He
brought us alive. He brought us back. He
brought us into this world. And then he
gave us everything we needed in his kindness,
everything we needed for survival. We needed water.
He caused it to pour from above.
We needed
food. He caused it to sprout from beneath
us in fields and abroad all around us.
We needed air, and he cushioned us
in a atmosphere
with
soft
caring with air. We have endless air. So
this is all the
the kindness out of his love Allah has
created us. And to benefit from
this for a class like this, for Tafsir,
with his revealed word, we must we have
to recognize this the difference between
these words and all other words. The difference
between this book and all other books. This
is not like any other book. This is
not like any other word or any other
set of intelligence,
any other set of intellectual,
pontification.
This is,
something unique. It's about. And to understand the
difference, you have to ponder on this Hadith.
And this is
the I will close with this Hadith, but
keep this in your mind. This Hadith has
to be very clear in your mind. Rasulullah
Sallallahu
Alaihi Wa Salam said,
that the superiority
of the
words of Allah above all other words, above
all other schemes of knowledge, above all other
books, above all other sources of knowledge
is like the
The superiority
of the words of Allah
is like, the superiority of the words of
Allah above all other words
is like the superiority. It's exactly like the
superiority
of Allah himself above his creation.
That's the difference. So this is not like
any other book.
This is what we need to understand.
And once that's clear in our minds, then
inshallah, Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala will bless us
and give us the this understanding
and pour our open our hearts and bless
our journey with insight
and with understanding and practice. Practice. So so
so practicing, seeking refuge from Shaban
is the first step and cleansing ourselves. May
Allah
bless your suffer, bless your journey into tafsir,
with isfar,
with brightness,
and,
with with firasa, with enlightenment,
and keep you steadfast
with his divine guidance.
Now let
us pray.