Suhaib Webb – Human Utility & Responsibility Intro To The Qur’an’s First Chapter
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Spinarak Manna him with the name of a lot the Most Gracious, the
Most Merciful hamdu lillah wa Salatu was Salam ala Sayyidina
Muhammad, we sin, peace and blessings upon or whatever the
messenger Muhammad sallallahu alayhi salam and all of the
prophets, that the reason that I gave you, this is like, we will be
using this. So you can use it throughout our time together as we
go through the Quran. So hamdulillah they sent me like,
seven, eight boxes like that, how many people so um, if you don't
want these Quran, just let me know, I'm the the Quran man at the
moment. Hamdulillah. So Bismillah it's great to be here, again,
Senator DC, after some time, I'm the lead, it's been a busy eight
months in particular, right, nine months Hamdulillah. And it's nice
to see people, again, be in a good place that I'm certainly very
comfortable in Hamden louder of anatomy. So when Lauren and I
talked to each other, we thought about like, what we should do. And
she mentioned to me that there were a lot of requests for Quran,
if you need to scoot in, please feel free to scoot into have four
kids. So by the end of the day, I have no voice, not because I yell
at him. I laugh so much. And I talk Hamdulillah.
And then, should I tell them our idea for the future just. And so
like, If this goes well, I think some of you are students at my
online school, we plan to open like an online branch here.
Next fall, that will be like a full time night school sort of
thing, like twice a week, and then give her certificate to people who
finish like a whole system. So this is sort of a trial run, I
have to go to under Lucia like in three weeks, so I'll be gone, like
two weeks, and then I'll be back, like right after eat and we'll
continue throughout the summer. Inshallah Tada. So, the idea came
up to do that. And then I said, Well, consistency is very
important, I'll be traveling. So let's go through the Quran. And
let's do the first chapter of the Quran. And then like the last 10
chapters, because that's what's on most people's playlist. You know,
my own daughter is 23. And she tells me like, I'm not a convert,
like human, I'm not crazy. I just want like 10 chapters, I'm good,
bro, leave me alone. You have to not like like, Ashley didn't just
give me the 10 and leave me alone. I'm good, I'm fine. Bye, thank
you, I want to be something else, which I appreciate her saying to
me. So I think also, it's important because what you pray
with is what you want to be literate in.
Like that brings meaning to your worship. And a lot of times we
struggle, especially I know I'm not a native Arabic speaker, like
we struggle with, like finding that purpose. When the liturgy is
largely like, say in Arabic. So another thing is like, we thought
it would help enhance people's worship. And then of course, now
there's, like so many questions about Islam. I was at the GW
encampment, like four or five weeks ago. And this guy came up to
me afterwards. And you know, he was just like, Man, I need a
Quran, man. It's like, I gotta, I gotta read you guys book I got,
you know, and he's like, after that, would I go for questions? So
I think we can appreciate the moment needs like public
intellectuals, right? In the sense of public players. You can't
always tell people go and talk to the Imam go and talk to the
sheikh. And oftentimes, that's a bad look. When I first became
Muslim, the next week, I was at the MSA booth on campus. And there
was his brother, he's very good friend of mine, from Buxton,
Hamdulillah, and really good, good friend of mine. And so I was a new
Muslim just sitting at the booth, you know, and people would come
and ask him, like, who's Allah? And he's like, Oh, you have to ask
the Imam.
Like, who's Mohammed? He's like, you have to ask the Imam. So I
said to him, like, Man, that's a bad look, bro. Like, you got to
have answers like you can't like when it comes to who's God? You
can't say ask the Imam, you need to have an answer. And then he
told me basically, is a very extreme point in my life. Like,
I'm not confident enough to answer these questions. So I he actually
read the Welcome to Islam books with me. Right. And so we did it
together. So even though he had been born Muslim, I was like, may
read this, you know, and we started reading the ICNIRP
pamphlets, if you know what I'm talking about, like Islam at a
glance. And, you know, why did God send prophets at the booth
together? So it's also important that sometimes when we study this
way, we gain confidence. The fourth is that I will bring like a
scholarly reflection, but I'm trying to bring it in a way
that is like reasonable, not not dumbed down. Right, not dumbed
down. But oftentimes, if you've done a PhD, you understand most
people, especially in the liberal arts, their specialty is how to be
completely irrelevant. Right in their writing in their thoughts,
right? Same thing in religious studies, right? If you go to the
SR, you think you oh, we need a scholar, you don't need a scholar.
You need You need somebody who can function as a cultural, political,
economic street translator. Right. That's really what's needed. And
so, I will offer as you'll see, things that I think are important
for scholarly reflection just to help you sort of build on your
thoughts and your ideas.
And feel free to push back and ask questions. Those of you who know
me it means you're listening right? So we ask Allah subhanaw
taala to give tofield. And to help us and to bless us, we'll be using
this translation. So if you walked in we have like a whole box of
these that someone gave us and hopefully if we finished the last
10 chapters, then we'll go to the fortnight chapter of the Quran.
And we'll try to finish auto Majora to before we start our
first semester hopefully here in the fall with our school insha
Allah. So the word Quran many of you probably have heard, like in
Sunday school, or studying comes from Cara, which means to recite,
that actually is not the correct opinion. That's the second
strongest opinion about what the word Quran comes from.
But in in in surah baqarah he says, well, while Mota Alacati
Yatra boss nibm foresee Hinata Letta Kuru she speak Arabic says
that those women who have been divorced let them wait three
quarrel. We know the scholars differ over what's poro is it
purification or menstrual cycle, right? But the word heal portal is
from the same word as Quran, the same root word. If you have a
dictionary at home, if you look up, ha,
ha, ha Hamza, you're going to find all these meetings there.
And the best dictionary to have as Cohen's dictionary, right, the
Cohen dictionary Hans ver dictionary translation is like
really good. And maybe at least in the fall, we have a class on how
to use that dictionary, so you know how to use it is very good.
But if you look at pada, you're going to find a number of
meanings. The predominant meaning that the word Quran comes from is
in the Imam with Gemma, which means to join and bring together
whole.
That's why what do you call a village in out of
Korea? From the same word, right? Because a village is where people
gather together.
And so that's why the menstrual cycle by many ancient Arabs was
called with the same word Kuru, because they theorize that the
blood gathered together in the uterus of a woman.
What does that mean? Then that means that the Quran should make
us whole.
That if we find like contradictions in our lives, if we
find challenges, which we will always find every day of our life,
everyday we live, if there were no challenges and test do I would
have no meaning.
Like if your life was perfect, what would do? I mean, say Oh
Allah, everything's fine. Thanks, Pisa. I mean, like there would be
no passion and that dua there'll be no passion and worship. So
sometimes adversity brings the spice that's needed to live a
layered life which has meaning and also to develop empathy for other
people.
So the idea here is that the Quran helps us resolve contradictions,
and brings us a holistic sense of being and purpose between our
heart, our mind our body, and then our social, the social contract,
our shelter, social responsibility, we find that in
the Quran, Allah subhanaw taala says Schiefer only Murphy SOTL in
the Quran is a completely healing for what's in the heart and minds
of people. And Allah subhanaw taala he calls the Quran Rohan min
and Rena like the oxygen the spirit. What happens to a body if
it is, you know, devoid of oxygen 170 seconds the brain begins to
die. So what happens to a heart that's away from the Quran? So it
literally is a life force, a life source source of wholeness and
completeness.
That takes us now to sort of Fatiha which we're going to start
with the first chapter of the Quran. Undoubtedly I remember you
know, it's a funny story. I had friends a nation of Islam I was
pledging Alpha Phi Alpha if you know what that is. I'm not trying
to reveal too much about my past man. But the The Black and Gold
crossing the Bernie Sanders 1906 Because those were all my high
school friends. That's why I went to high school to play basketball
play basketball for Blake Griffin's father
messed up my leg. So that was done. But a lot of those some of
those people in that scene were involved in like the ministry of
Minister Farrakhan. So the white man is the devil and you know, you
got blue eyes because when the world comes to an end, your pupils
are gonna melt you know, all kinds of stuff out there. Oh my god,
freaking cursed. And I got this big copy of the Quran. The old use
of audio one from like, 1923 that was written in a very colonized
like English like the I go to untruth fourth show with, you
know, all that I needed the dictionary to read that, right,
because I'm Oklahoma we barely speak English. So it's actually
printed backwards.
So I, I was still worried about the white man being the devil. In
fact, I had a friend's very funny. He brought to 5% nations magazine,
which is an offshoot of of the Nation of Islam.
And they had this white guy, he had like a bucket and he was
making dua and he said, Allah
I forgive me for being the devil. He's like this human. I think I
had this or like, it was very scary, you know, like, oh my God
or the devil.
So then the reason I'm saying that is I opened the Quran and it was
backwards. So I understood like, there was very little I could
understand it was Eric, there was Arabic, and there's some Oh, do
you know? And then it was like this massive index and like Bible
paper that you couldn't, you know, use like this because you melt it.
And I was like, oh my god, I'm the devil now. Like, I don't
understand anything. I actually thought that was like 17. But then
eventually, I turned it over. I figured it was printed backwards.
And I found that fight. Yeah.
And that was my first experience. First thing I ever saw in my life,
was Bismillah R Rahman.
From the Quran.
And I was like, I remember even though it was probably integrated,
I was very young. I was in the streets. And I said to myself,
like, what a way to start a book man. Like, wow, like Subhanallah
like, that is a spiral. It's like what a way it started.
So we'll go through al Fatiha for two sessions Wallahi we could go
through Fatiha all summer.
Because Fatiha is the ocean that doesn't end. That's why it's an
opening.
As we'll talk about in a second, I may be critical of his
translation. That doesn't mean that he's a bad person or you
should like write a Reddit post about him or something. He just
has a different way of looking at it than I do. I might be wrong
unless I'm right. I might be right unless I'm
so al Fatiha. The first thing that we learned from Al Fatiha is that
this is the only chapter sent to the Prophet in Mecca and Medina.
Sent twice we'll talk about why possibly next week.
The other thing that we learn about Fatiha is that immediately
it resolves the problem that many people say to themselves, I'm not
good enough for this moment.
Like you run into a lot of Muslims, who have had tough
experiences either cooked inside their own sort of self esteem
oven, or through parental or caregivers, through religious
folks, or just through community that sort of has reinforced this
idea that I suck.
Like, I'm not worthy of this book. Like how am I here.
So the word Al Fatiha, I have a problem with this translation.
Because and I don't want to make it too complicated, but miles will
take some Liberty here. Fat in Arabic is the active participle.
Is the doer like the runner, the opener
and oftentimes the Arabs in ancient Arabic when it comes to
titles, the active participle actually means the object
it's it's
what we call it isn't a law, the law Mr. Metha Illa who?
The passive so it's not the opener as to what
it's been opened for you that's why you're here. So you should be
confident because you didn't even open it yourself. So the word Al
Fatiha doesn't mean the opener it's not the active participle it
means someone opened it for you.
So that means every time like you look at al Fatiha Allah subhanaw
taala has given you photo hat
every time that you look at Fatiha Allah has given you a victory has
given you an opening in Ephrata, Hana Allah Kapha time will be now
because the word feta is synonymous with victory.
So I'll repeat it again because very important
at your down moments read Fatiha
because when you read al Fatiha, it means that you as the prophet
as Allah says to the Prophet, you do throw it Allah through it, no
matter I made to either meet or that can Allah Rama. Here also,
Marfa, Dr. Shaitan you didn't open up anything Bella Fattah, Holla
Holla caddy Surah, Allah opened it for you.
So if Allah were to open something for you, you should feel valued.
You should feel worthy of the moment you should feel that this
is your moment of truth. You should listen to the voices that
tell you you're not good enough because it's not your business.
You're not the guide. You're the guidance. You're not the one who
directs you're the directed. And I want you to think about this
because this is what we're going to talk about. One of the themes
of Fatiha that people miss is the idea of how do we
manage human utility with God's plan.
It's really one of the secret of our Fatiha it's never talked
about.
Think about it You alone we ask for help You alone we worship
the entire chapter actually underneath it all
There is this beautiful relationship between using my
agency and pushing in. And then understanding that Allah is the
sole controller of all things. And here it starts. Because we know
out of many things that Allah may have given us the ability to do.
We cannot guide
in Nicoletta demon, but what I can Allah Hi yah de May. Allah says to
the Prophet, you can guide who you love. We guide who we want even to
the Prophet sallallahu alayhi wa sallam my father, he died in
August. That's another reason why I wasn't around. Because when he
died, he's like, I want the Muslim to handle my estate. I'm like,
Man, why don't you just be
like, if you trust me with your estate, dude, like, you should
have jumped on Team present. But that's a long story. You know? But
I was with him like begging him, man, just consider it. Think about
it. I'm adjoining Oh, come on, man. Jump on team. Hello. He's
like, No, I'm good.
I'm good. Just handle my estate when I'm gone.
So we can guide who we want. It's frustrating.
And now even in this moment, we see people becoming Muslim like we
would never think
they'll become Muslim or they'll have an interest in Islam. It's
always a reminder that that is not our quality
goal in alHuda hood Allah Quran says guidance is from Allah.
So that means that when you read al Fatiha when you open al Fatiha,
it has been opened for you. We say fair, it will be Martin and muffle
that its form is the active participle. But its meaning and I
don't mean to be too nerdy is the passive voice.
Why would it do that? Think about what I just said you that said to
you about what we're going to talk about tonight at a deeper level.
What is the meaning of the chapter, the meaning of the
chapter is the marriage between your agency and utility and God's
plan. So even though it means God opened it for you, it's in the
active participle to remind you, you still got to do something.
And that's that's where you lose things in Arabic and English.
And you'll see this a few times we'll talk about for example,
environmental justice essential to Fatiha, how to talk about Al Al
Amin al al Amin is the form of human beings but it's talking
about the world. Why is the environment given the form of
amount of human beings because it has the rights we have.
And that's something I hope you can appreciate. When you sit with
me, the more you study religion, you will be able to prove to
yourself the lie of trans modernity. Trans modernity says
the more you study religion, the more you become limited and
limiting.
That is post enlightenment Christianity sphere.
Islam and Christianity have gone opposites historically. Right and
their sense of power, political power, economic power, and
religious power. Islam has the opposite it says in order to be
free study,
in order to be autonomous in a healthy way, learn religion.
So alpha, I said something quickly, but I need you to pay
attention to it is the active participle means it's like the
subject of a verb even though it's a noun, it carries this meaning in
Arabic. So the meaning though, is that it's the object.
So why would it have the form of the subject if the meaning is the
object to remind you that this relationship has to happen? You've
got to work and then you leave it to us. You got to take steps, but
you got to leave it to Allah. You have to make effort. But at the
end, the outcomes are not in your hands. Well, that Tasha una isla
Masha Allah who will add Oh, taco, what I had on my finger, the Quran
says, you want it but you can't do it.
And so that's the theme for today that we're going to talk about.
The other lesson that we take from Al Fatiha
is, God bless you. Hi Mikayla. Another lesson that we take from
Surah Fatiha is you're worthy of this moment.
Out of all the things I used to live on 14 to V. So I know my wife
and I, we made the mistake of living there. We had no idea where
we were living until it was Saturday nightmare. And the US
Street was poppin you know, or like, let's just like go out and
have like a nice, you know, dinner, whose man Ma sha Allah was
going down. You know, it was a cool place, good neighborhood. And
there's a lot of things we could be doing tonight. A lot of things
happening in the nation's capital, a lot of things to distract us,
but Allah chose you to be with Fatiha Fattah halacha has a lab
boy
that's why you open your prayer. With what do Ah, what's it called?
The stiff ta
seeking victory.
Seeking an opening from the same word as Fatiha.
Because when you start you
Your prayer you achieved a victory over your enough's
you achieved an opening through kind of the challenges of the
world the existential pain and suffering that we see everyday and
even success that can be intoxicating. And still you
prayed.
So it's called SDF TA.
That takes us to the first part of Al Fatiha, which is the BAS mela
is the first thing I ever saw in the Quran.
And here are respected Sheikh who have a lot of love and respect for
the professor. He translated it as in the name of God.
The challenge here is that the word be Bismillah doesn't mean in
it means with.
If I say anatomy, just to be honest, and
I came with
semi GTB severe
model to be severe, I passed by him the idea of movement. The idea
of being with accompaniment, that's why it's called bat Musa
hubba Lexa hobby.
Same word, moo. Sahar Musa hubba.
The back of accompaniment. So for hanging out, we're back and up.
That's that back. So it begins Bismillah with Allah, because
everything you brought to this moment is with Allah.
Every everything that led to this point
where you may or may be experiencing incredible euphoria
to success,
you may be somewhere in the middle, or you may be going
through some challenges Bismillah
with Allah
it's important because this helps us reframe how we translate faith
in general. When they say faith in God or Eman in Allah.
It's Eman with Allah.
It's faith with Allah.
As for Allah Katya Abu Bakr when a great scholars, he says in
Campbell Quran, Allah Deena you know, in a bill hype, those who
believe in the unseen he says most Sahaba
that they are with the unseen How am I would the unseen by the
choices I make in my life so immediately now we see faith. And
Islam is not simply the acquisition of axiomatic rules
that lead to a cognitive conclusion about God. That's part
of it. But it translates into a social responsibility and my
worshiping Allah as though I see him even though he can't see me
even though I can't see him, I know he sees me. That's what the
height of the man is and tabula aka Anna Katara. To worship Allah
like you see him if I tell you Eman in that doesn't lead to that
ending.
And that's why people in America sometime they have trouble finding
SR they do weird stuff. Sufi is a bit weird Sufism Sharia
this all Sufism is to adhere to the Sharia imamo Junaid said, If
you see someone flying in the sky, and they don't pray don't follow
them.
You'll tear off this summer. And now we became so shallow we went
with the salary issue just like salary he tricked the followers of
Musa he taught good he looked good. He had a nice filter bought
some bots from Korea to like him
and we're gonna follow Him and worship a golden cow because the
cow looks good. I don't like a Prius.
But I would rather be in a Prius with Musa than a Bugatti with
Samory.
The shallowness of religion, because America is very shallow is
very commodified. We can't
you know, amputate that from how it's impacted religion.
So here in Salt, Fatiha. We talk about sort of fatty and Eman. It's
not faith in God's faith with God that leads to what even though I
am calls and my dad just said he can beautiful text, Al Mariya
witness, not physically with God. Of course, God is beyond his crazy
he's transcended, but my heart and my mind, my morals, my ethics, my
behavior. And we see this with these Palestinian people. There
with Allah.
We see it with the Kashmir brothers and sisters just a few
years ago when they put the embargo on them. There with Allah.
We see it with the prophets, when they will go through challenges
and difficulties and have to make the right choice even against what
was maybe popular in society. There with Allah. Ibrahim, no,
Maryam Allah has Salam.
So that helps us now look at faith not simply as information in
Allah, but with Allah implies transformation response
civility, good choices.
How does that make you feel?
Oh, thank you, Siri.
My two year old she she has like mad conversations with Siri. So
funny and serious. Like, I'm sorry, I don't understand. It just
keeps going.
I want puffing rock
series. It's not about puff and rock. But how does it make you
feel? So far we we hit on some important stuff men fat. Yeah,
it's been open for you. And now again, we're hitting on the
important because one of the challenges that we find when
religion is misplaced is it may take away our sense of autonomy
and agency in a way that's also unhealthy. But Islam wants to
balance that. How do we balance the sense of responsibility
action? I'm mostly okay slave for Allah.
Right? I'm gonna put in work, okay, put in work for Allah. It
tempers hyper individualism, which is the Qibla of America at the
moment.
But how does it make you feel to know like, with Allah?
Yes, man.
This is the first time I've ever heard that it's with and you know,
I've read the Quran in English, I've run it in Arabic. And I've
never had that distinction explained to me, which makes me
think that, you know, I know that there's a lot of, you know,
ambiguities in Arabic. And there's like, a lot of interpretations.
And so it's sort of like, yes, that is a freeing feeling to know
that, oh, you know, that this unlocks an entire different
understanding of it. But at the same time, it's like, how much of
it is so misunderstood? And how much of it, you know, I, I was
born and raised in the US. And so it's like, my Arabic isn't
perfect. So how much of that is like lost in translation? And, you
know, the generations that grew up here, I think is important. I did
this for 20 years, right? So I'm, I'm bringing a experience that
maybe not not to boast by any means, but just to be honest,
right? I set the teacher for 20 years, all day, from Senegal, to
Egypt, to Malaysia, India. So of course, the reflections now are
not going to be maybe the reflections that we get not being
in that world, which is not a bad thing. Like I'm sure in your
field, you're going to share me some things with me like I smile I
read, you know, all around it, but I never knew it. So that's the
purpose of teachers. Right? That's the purpose of being around the
educated so we can challenge even his ideas, but to learn things,
and to be pushed in ways that we may have may have never been
pushed before. I think just one of the biggest challenges Sony's is
Sunnis think they're all Jedi Knights, but they're not. I don't
mean you, but in general, Sunnis tend to think that Well, I can be
quite Hamdulillah. Shaheed, if def Simpson Coolio, you know, let
anyone do it. Right. And so there is a a deep scholarship that
you'll see next semester. If we start here. That's very profound,
because the people that lie to you about Palestine lie to you about
your academic tradition.
And they colonize the Muslim mind
where they may not understand the depth of it. And how much work
great scholars put into it. I mean, when you find, like Li Salah
out up to 23 Volume masterpiece in Arabic language, written by an
African and he inherited
the greatest book and the Hanafi myth that was vice emoticon DNS
fe. They're not errors, the magic he made that most of us most of
our texts are coming from MADI Timbuktu synagogue. And those
places. We're not really aware of that kind of stuff. Persia is
where the Sunni Islam ends up in its early iterations. Right. So
there's a lot to be learned. So it's good, I appreciate that
reflection out. And I'll remind you guys, like you're going to
hear thing I said, the very beginning, I'm going to bring some
things, right to make you think, and that are that are rooted in
learning, right? Rooted in profound experiences, and
discussions with great therapists. You know, we did tafsir the SR for
eight years, not just like, and we did it four times a week. So get
ready for more that it's gonna be fun. We'll have a nice ride. No
one else on that idea of witness? Yes, sir. I really liked it.
Especially because there are things that get lost in
translation. And I really think that when you talk about faith in
Allah, you we always think of Allah as this, you know, very
powerful figure watching over us. And so we can do this, this
concept of fear, you know, so we pray because we fear Allah because
it's so all powerful, but when you when you really kind of absorb the
Arabic and realize this with anything alone, it's not something
to be cut, it's to be feared and loved and he's with you. And if
you're doing great stuff and with good intentions, it kind of
changes your
mindset about how you view God the Almighty is less of a just you
know you got to do the right stuff or else and more with you know
with him in mind with Allah in mind you can do amazing things
because he's on your side and you can feel competent in that and you
can go forward and we've seen the NBA have exactly that they've been
able to pass great trials because they knew allows so I really liked
that distinction because it gets us all to think the right way
about a lot because we go about our data right? And then maybe
duality here right? Let's say I'm about to rob a bank.
And I'm like this mill and I'm robbing a bank now and was with me
so that's one of my My teacher says something beautiful he said
I'll bet that bat will bring a person between fear and hope
like that witness will lead to hope and you know and hope and
God's promise but also a sense of I'm not alone also like I need to
make sure I'm living right and I need to make sure that I'm
I'm adhering to as best I can to God's commands says both right
there's duality here. I will call for Raja ignore him said fear and
hope or like wings on a bird.
Like one wings not gonna work. And America tends to rest between two
extremes at time it's hyper hope at times hyper fear.
We want to be somewhere in our relationship with Allah enough.
Once God has said have enough hope that it doesn't harm your
hereafter have enough fear doesn't harm your dunya like you want to
have like both so there's like a duality there. There's one teacher
from from designed Medina, India, or a teacher who said that all of
Islam is found in this bath.
The whole thing. And at that time when I heard him say that I said,
this guy's crazy. Yeah, but as I, as I grew as I learned, I traveled
a segment. That statement stayed with me. Right? I like
no one else before we continue.
Can you repeat that?
So you don't ruin your year? You said have enough hope. To the
extent that it doesn't run you're accurate because some hope will
take us into you know, doing crazy stuff, right? At least I can think
of my own stuff. I'm speaking of my own way of thinking. If I have
enough fear that doesn't hurt your dunya like I'm so scared I do
nothing.
Right I don't get involved. So then I neglect my social
responsibility. I think another thing I want to say you said that
really appreciate your comment is if you find someone that says it
means in total start fighting with them.
In Arabic we so called STR Rakesh Talaq means one word that has a
lot of meanings from Shark.
Shark needs to associate partner so this word has partners, like
the word we said earlier coral means to bring together his
menstrual cycle, he's purification has all these other meanings,
right? So this is not that kind of thing that you need to get into
arguments and fights with people okay? Even though if you leave
like nope, I think as in I'm not that special. Like I'm not I'm not
going to be angry at you means you're thinking hamdulillah
something else here that's really important is
it's not in the name of God is in the names of God.
A very important principle in Arabic that says a possessive
often means a plural EBA to move forward to Pharaoh Gemma same
rhetoric means that a single Arabs ancient time before, you know,
recent era, they loved to be succinct.
They felt it was important to say as few words as possible, that had
limited meaning.
And that's why one of the miracles of the Prophet is he was Joanna
cannon.
He can say a few things. In the Malla Mallow vignette, like it's
almost every chapter and film this hadith that touches actions by the
intention leave what makes you doubt for what doesn't make you
doubt like sparks my whole day. Right? It's very axiomatic right?
Follow the law. Hey, Yaffa to be mindful of God, Godfrey, mindful
of you, like how many applications is that have? So in a few words,
there's this abundance of meaning, which leads to honestly most
scholars are gonna say like, these are all negotiated understandings.
There's no definitive, but there's principles and rules that lead to
these understandings that we're sharing with you. So actually, it
means be Esma Illa comma A semicolon or Rahman Rahim er colon
sorry, B Esma Illa boom Stop. What are the most important names you
need to know out of all these names? Are ramen
could also mean if you speak out of eat be Esma Illa and ni a
Rahman Rahim means with the name with the names of Allah. I mean,
most importantly, a Ramona right
It's called battle.
Battle, Battle Demon cool. And Arabic.
So that means when you say Bismillah, where this is sort of
high powered nor you know what I mean, you're not it's like you're
saying every single name of Allah
with the names of Allah that I know that I don't know, because we
know, Allah has only told us about some of his knees, but we don't
know his name.
So when you start Bismillah, the meaning is with the names of
Allah.
The Most Gracious, the Merciful,
God to finish soon, but there's a very important point that needs to
be made here. Because for those of you who came late, don't worry,
don't get mad. I've been there, man. You know, I tell my wife
every day. I'm sorry.
No, no, it doesn't matter, man. She where I'm Oklahoma, um, they,
you know, like, what's your excuse, and just the house just
built in.
So I want everyone here to feel very relaxed, you know? Like,
don't don't, I don't like the autocratic system, or like
intimidation as a sort of a means of education. And I believe that I
have a lot to learn from you to, sincerely. And so don't like don't
worry, like if you're late and shaitan comes to you because I
know I used to ride the metro stops. I didn't know what the
Metro is doing. And, you know, it's all good. Don't worry,
welcome Hamdulillah you know, come, though don't don't let
shaitan play with you.
We'll talk about Rahman Rahim momentarily, but there's a point
that needs to be made here man. This is actually the incomplete
sentence.
And that's because it starts with the article preposition. be
harmful.
How forger means article preposition? If you're from the
coffee school we have two methods and language bacillary will will
coffee say hello for huffed
because the letter that the word that comes after it has Kassala so
this what me so bad always leads to cassava bismi B so haibun
and so on and so forth. The point is for it to work it has to be
connected to a verb.
Pay attention when we for a second
we recognize nouns in Arabic by a number of ways. One of the
simplest ways is when you see a casserole
great nomadic we had to memorize was called elfia to pneumatic is a
poem 1000 lines we had to memorize it in high school he says be Jerry
what can we anyone need that well, and he says be Jerry what 10 When
one needs if you see a word Roger Khasra what 10 When and in own or
L lesser now?
I just taught you grammar man.
Mashallah,
if we look at this phrase Bismillahi r Rahman Rahim
for that back to work.
It has to be connected to a verb based on what I just told you. I
know it's late. And the glycemic index is off the chain because
you're not eating sweet green anymore because their team Z their
CEO, oh yeah, you didn't see me in there. See the CEO going on
Instagram. Oh, Lana Talalay. Allah destroy this talisman.
Mr. Mee Lai, who Rahman Rahim good roots Cafe bismi Allah He or
Rahmani? r Rahim. Me is there a verb there?
I said we recognize a noun because it has a casserole. Every single
word in the phrase has a what? casserole means e sorry. Break it
down. E
so then where's the verb man?
Oh my gosh.
This is the poorer This is the Quran is implied. Look at your
mom. Your mom is still getting it. Did mom say that? The new mom did
you say who said it in play? I thought I thought the new mom said
because my mom always said my wife always told me mommy brain was
like no problem baby. You know, so good. It's implied. Excellent.
It's implied. Why though?
Like for example, what's the first verse sent to the Prophet it has
the same exact form except the verb is there How does it start
the Quran base so that Accra recite with
so why would it do it in the bus mother think about the theme of
tonight
employing your agency employing your place and their in your
relationship with religion at a broader theme the bus Mala is
challenging you to have enough confidence to step into the
relationship that you will have hola and you put the verb there.
But then that means my verb may be different than some years verb and
some years where obey me may be different than Saudi has a verb
that
It's wise like that because everyone has a place at the
religious table.
Now you see something different, the pixels are a little wider now.
So that means when I walk, I can say Bismillah I walk with the name
of Allah, when I eat, I eat with the name of Allah. When I read, I
read with the name of Allah, when I hate, I hate with the name of
Allah. When I demonstrate,
I demonstrate with the name of Allah.
So we take from this, the relationship between and we'll
build on it next week more
employing your agency or utility and having a relationship with
faith.
But marrying it with the last transcendence and the demands he
has for you.
So that's why most scholars of Tafseer if you look at it, they
say a teddy will be similar. I began with Allah
or Accra Obis I recite with the names of Allah.
Everybody understand what was just said to shall repeat it one more
time.
Don't be shy, it's important. If you didn't understand that, that's
my fault. That's not your fault.
This phrase Bismillah R Rahman Rahim starts with a bat bat is a
article preposition.
We know that in order for it to work, it's an Arabic thing. You
find an English to write, it has to have a verb.
If we say that one of the signs of a noun is that it ends and that
small mark that goes eat than me is right now there's no verb
there. It's called mouth in rhetoric, we have an entire
section called on methyl FET hidden things. It's all over the
Quran that in so now if you think about what I'm showing you, and
you went to Sunday school, you went to msa or you went to Minot,
ignem maths wherever you are overseas. And someone said to you,
the Quran is everlasting miracle that is applicable to every moment
in every situation in every environment. And they never told
you how I just showed you how.
Because the Quran, I learned this I did a degree in education, which
means I did sign up for a life of perennial poverty.
And I couldn't get married in the community. What do you do on the
teacher? Oh, just have the tea.
But
yeah, Bismillah R Rahman R, he
is challenging you and I,
to insert ourselves. And that's kind of counter to what we heard
when people said Quran is a miracle Quran is a miracle,
everlasting miracle. But did they tell you how do they show you how,
what are the most important ways that the Quran stays relevant and
a miracle to the end of times, is this idea that throughout the
Quran, actions are hidden,
because actions change throughout history.
And the active reader when I did my degree in education, we had
this course where we had to learn how to take people from being
passive readers, to Active readers. And one of the ideas was
to make them part of the narrative,
right to find some commonality to find a relationship with the
characters in the story. Well, here's the religious scripture. In
the very first verse of that scripture, it's saying, I can't
work without you.
And you can't work without me.
So it brings together this beautiful symmetry, this beautiful
relationship of, I need to have enough confidence to step in.
And let me insert where I'm at in life. I think I told some of you
this story before. When we first began as a whole group of Bloods.
I don't know if you know what the bloods are in Oklahoma. We all
became Muslim together. We're all friends, young high school
buddies. Some of them are shoe now. It's funny when I see them,
I'm like, yo, what's up J dogs.
Thank you. Thank you so much. May Allah bless you. Like, don't call
me cheetah right.
Happened Shahab last summer he went to Syria I caught him J dog
got mad at me. But this accident this route, I remember he.
So we had a friend of ours, we used to memorize the Quran with
the chef from Senegal who spoke Wolof he didn't speak English, so
I learned negative monk for a girl audit. And second day in my life
as a Muslim. I understood what Nanga Toshifumi negatory from he's
come here right now. Put all that together. I was terrified to him.
I loved him. He was my teacher. And so we the bloods would go and
memorize the Quran was shake. We learn how to read edit by time
everything with him from Sinhala. We didn't speak French. He barely
spoke English. We didn't speak Arabic. We just speak Wolof. It
was to be a sitcom. We did that for five years. I memorized the
Quran for two years Hamdulillah
we had a brother, he could not stop smoking marijuana. So he will
come for after fajr on Saturday, and he would be blazed up. He
smelled like a dispensary. And you know, we were new Muslims. So we
had we're like, Hey, man, you know, we're not that far.
gone from this
what is that sticky? Icky what is that Endo, right? We were like man
stuff Allah Allah Allah Allah Allah Muhammad Rasul Allah right?
We were still going because it's those of us who embraced Islam
Islam is an adventure and exploration not a cultural icon
that's frozen in history is very much lived. Like that. I found a
guy one time shooting heroin in the womb.
And he was like, I made it man. 27 days Ramadan, bro. I said
Hamdulillah. Man, let's, let's make last two.
Right? We didn't. That's just the life of people who embrace Islam
was very much transition interfaith emergent religiosity.
So that brother would come to the Halacha placed, you know, or
smelling of the remnants of a night of enjoyment. And so then I
said to him, when I said, I needed to fear a lot, man.
I got mad for all the wrong reasons. He told me it's like, I
can't stop, bro.
I just it's like, it's a very social, it's a social drug. Right?
Like, I can't stop being around these friends. So then I said to
him, go talk to the Schekman. Like, because we thought the
Sheikh is like a guru. Sheikh will have some answer from the heavens,
bro is gonna fix you.
So you went to the chef?
Chef, he said, Brother, you know, broken broken accent. I love the
shape. Brother. I know one thing if you do it, you'll never do it
again. So then we were like, wow,
what is that? He said, say Bismillah R Rahman Rahim before
you smoke.
So then, you know when you convert, you're arrogant enough to
be stupid. And and you know, I was old enough to be wise young enough
to be stupid. Basically. I was like stuff a lot, man. Throw the
shit. But then he said to the chef, Chef, if I say Bismillah R
Rahman r Rahim. I was shocked to see exactly. You won't do it.
Because Allah is with you.
And then our brother he went, actually you went into Alcoholics
Anonymous. Like we took him. We went to rehab Hamdulillah he got
himself together. Really good brother man got beautiful
children. I remember that. Mr. Motta?
Yes, man.
I feel like it's a common theme with a lot of us that we don't
find, like the miracle. We don't really understand it much later in
our lives. Do you feel like this is so hard to grasp a concept for
kids and like, incorporated that?
Like, I How would you explain it to a child?
I mean, I think one thing pedagogically, right, we have
people who specialize in early childhood. Like we have to
appreciate the fact that when did the degree you know, I did a
degree in Elementary Ed. And I remember going to bed, early child
and I was like, Oh my God, how do you do this? Right. Like, it's
very different. It's a whole nother world. You have also
different like you have a Waldorf method. I know. I know, some
Muslims who have a Waldorf school who do the Molad. You know, my
daughter goes to a Waldorf school, she loves it, she goes go outside.
Right. So I think we need to bring in people that like in our
commute, we have a lot of talent. But you know, for me, I think it's
just important as parents, just to remind them that God is with you.
God loves you.
got hooked, we'll hold you accountable. We can use like
universals with children, we don't need to get in particulars. reason
I'm doing this for you is because sometimes I know if I say
something, as you should, you should question it. So that's why
I'm walking you through it like this. It's right there. You see it
in front of you. Right. And then in the also because this is a
class or a study, you're going to take the translation that we've
given you home, study it next week, I have some questions for
you, by the way, I have some stuff written. So you kind of have this
as something, I want you to take things out of here.
Right? And I don't also want by any means I couldn't, but to like
have all the answers. Like I want you to walk out here sometimes
with some dissonance like Wow, man, I never heard this before.
Like I love when you said I was like I did my job.
But Isn't it incredible? to note that the bus mother can't work
without you.
And it doesn't mean that it's God's weak or God needs you. It
just means you got to be confident enough to push into the situation
you have to step into a relationship with God. That's why
in the in the Quran, it says those who seek guidance, ie tendo if
that means they seek it. They're there we guide them. And it's sad
as sometimes religion is used. I experienced this in the church
to undermine someone's proper location of confidence. Right
where they're trying to come and have relationship with with with
Eman. They're trying to build themselves up to have relationship
with faith. And then to have it sort of crushed can be
devastating. Whereas the first chapter says, Look,
pushing
Yes, man. Can you explain that again? I didn't quite catch
about how, how this deals with us and how we're supposed to insert
ourselves because that bat, at the very beginning has to have a verb.
And there's no verb here. And this isn't in rhetoric called what we
say or the omitted words. They're purposely admitted, omitted,
excuse me, to bring the reader in because the goal of the Quran was
the Quran say Allah, Allah come talk to you don't think what did
we think you have to ask yourself? Why why did somebody think if
everything's there, what am I thinking about? So the Arabs, they
are known at times to like, for example, if
if, you know, I said to you Italy's unity Idris man, you know,
I mean, it's just
an Arab, as I said, who I'm talking to you like, I have to say
everything for you. So it's common in their language, but also
sometimes it's used as a rhetorical device, what's called
touch with a salmon in rhetoric which means to to dampen the
palate of the reader
to make the reader say,
what's what's going on here?
We have to appreciate this this the Quran is the last miracle sent
to humanity, it's not going to be a boring text.
Sharpie says we learned that karate had to memorize one poem
that was written by a blind chef who will Hyrule jellies and Leia
human who Hadith who he says is the best gathering is the Quran
and it's speech will never bore you.
But tests tell you who your Doofy hitter Jamala and the more you
actually study it, the more beauty you find in it.
And the challenge within America is that we have to raise our level
of awareness of things like we have to there's where's our
pedagogy? That goes back to your question like do we like if you go
to Pakistan whether you agree with or not, they have Dustin's army
they have a system they're going to teach you you're gonna go from
here to here, here to here in America is that I started this to
this weekend course watch these YouTube videos this podcast read
this book as good but that's not necessary education, education,
learning the fundamentals so you can read like this on your own.
This is basic Arabic Why don't tell you is basic. Don't think
this high level this basic, very simple, simple stuff. Why? Wasn't
the Bedouins man
they were not refined people.
They were very simple people. Some of them were false, haha, but some
of them weren't by the way.
Their language was rough. Harsh, difficult. So the reason here the
bus Mala every word ends with cassava cassava is a sign of a
noun. For the bat to work it has to have a verb just like an
English preposition. Article preposition has to have ever
where's the verb?
That's why if you go to any Tafseer even get the Euro Tabata
your poor to be whoever it's gonna say a Teddy, Uber Samina, it's
going to have in parentheses, I begin Bismillah.
And the reason that it's missing
is because we we appreciate the comprehensive nature of our
relationship with religion. I'm not just religious in the masjid,
or the huddle Masjid Bismillah I'm entering the masjid with Allah. If
I'm with Allah. It's not just the Masjid. I'm on the bus at home
with my kids, my wife, my family, the importance of thicker boards
of remembering.
So we made a number of points I'm going to finish with one and then
I'm done. Number one we said are the Fatiha actually is the active
participle but means that passive participle, right it means I'd
love to Ha, what was open for you. And I said the reason for this,
and this is another discussion is the idea of framing it in the
active participle. Because if it was only in the past participle,
we wouldn't feel responsible.
But when I say it's fatty, it needs the opener. So once again
the theme of Fatiha is hidden in the name that was given to it by
the Prophet sallallahu Sallam its form is you bits meaning as Allah
doing it, you got to do something.
Then we went to the bus Mala we talked about the word bat meaning
with not in in this context, actually there are five different
meanings of that that suburbia, the only salam to Allah He be
Mahabharata healer who here means I gave him Salam because I love
him back because Allah says Furby told me minute Latina had who have
now added him to your bed and because of their evil that because
of we made things haram on them. So one of the means that that is
because cause that suburbia another meaning of bat is to be
with
I came with someone jet to be semi.
That's one of the interpretations for the bus mother. I like it. I
chose it because my teachers and I discussed it. Not all of them
agreed with each other. But it creates a very different
relationship with faith. That's not just I believe in Allah. So
now when you leave
thing with
Yes, sir.
This might be a complicated question, but how do you know that
that's how do you know that that's not the backbone subject? But you
say that like this
and this is like, it could be. Could be. Oh, absolutely, yeah. So
but as I said earlier, could be said those teachers they that was
there watching them debate this right, just telling you this is
my, what I've concluded my studies my engagement, Akira art and other
things and engaging Arabist so there were some say bad Tabarrok
like when you slaughter you say Bismillah so I slaughter right,
seeking the blessings of Allah
but in our pita it's very important to say a man to builder
it's not because of Allah it could you could say the Saba but it
doesn't give you the feeling of responsibility I believe with
Allah Amis I'm in this relationship and tabula rasa Anika
Tara worship Allah is what you see him even though you can see him
you know he sees you and that leads to making right choices.
The final point that will make good question thank you
is a Rahman Rahim is mentioned because in our efforts to push
into religion, we're going to make mistakes.
So out of all of the names that Allah subhanho wa Taala chose to
mention, as we said, Be Asmat Illa Ibaka. To move forward to Peter to
Pharaoh, Gemma means with the names of Allah out of all the
names that are important in this relationship with the people of
iman, one of the greatest mistakes we'll study this next fall or the
second semester we have a class on the volume of Quran. One of the
greatest mistakes people make is they take verses about your own
people of * and tell the Muslims These are for you.
Even though most of these people are heroic,
whoever takes versus about hypocrites and people in hounds,
this is for you. Saudi Saudi, right? I just came back from work
like I'm like, I will jail like Dude, that's a cop work, bro.
Right. This is a mistake.
But Bismillah R Rahman r Rahim
in my attempt as a person of Eman to push in there are going to be
mistakes and shortcomings.
Kulu Benny Adam Hapa pastor some said everybody makes mistakes. And
we talked about this when we did the Hichem
how the very first hiccup Manasa took at Madala monox. General
General Gisela by how a test how a slip can make someone lose their
Amen. Why did I sin because you're a person.
And you ain't that important? Like there's a subtle narcissism this
idea that my sins are so important it's destroying the world. Like
that's a sand dude. You ain't frickin CC
you ain't that bad? You're not Netanyahu. No series that you you
can't make your evil more than it is just handle your wretchedness
and keep stepping. Right so here Bismillah R Rahman r Rahim in my
attempt to push in I'm going to make mistakes. But never forget
for the people of Amen. For the people of Taqwa for the people who
try Allah as the forgiving the Merciful.
That's very important. So push in.
But pushing to even
push in with this idea of you know if I make mistakes, I'm pendant.
So Hamdulillah we did tonight, Al Fatiha we talked about the meaning
of a Fatiha MUFE to her. And then we talked about the bus mother.
And the next week we have to go through the whole entire thing
rather quickly because we only have two weeks with our Fatiha but
we could spend the whole summer
we could spend the whole summer
but we have 10 other chapters to do him there. That will do nicely.
They're not going to be as deep as this but I do fight to highlight
this because you didn't always need to be like refreshed I always
need to be refreshed with fat try say 17 times a day minimum.
And I'm sure like hopefully after this moment, you gonna say the bus
Mala very different than you did before. It's totally bizarre. I
mean, like I'm with this
man over here.
And even if we say suburbia like the Allah caused this, or if I
know Allah is the one that causes I'm going to handle the very
differently. There's going to be a sense of Sn with what Allah has
given me. So there's any questions we'll take them or comments, feel
free to ask him the law. Any disagreements as well? Like don't
worry hungry though. Ain't that important? Cycle Okay.
Your question how you're doing how you're feeling right now? Pass the
bow around when he was returning Sherpa.
My vocab word is
and I just grabbed two