Suleiman Hani – How To Reflect See And Act By The QurAn Sh.
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The importance of creating a greater understanding of the natural scenery and the need for a greater understanding of the natural scenery is emphasized. Pr prioritizing one's life and finding the divine blessings from Islam is also emphasized. The speaker discusses the misunderstandings of Islam and the importance of acknowledging the reality of the world, as well as the need for a strong moral compass and a focus on living in a way that is not evil. The importance of memorizing the Quran and listening to the Quran is emphasized, as well as the importance of listening to the Quran for personal and professional development.
AI: Summary ©
One time a brother in his 30s told
us that he started to feel like his
life was very mundane.
He had been working for almost 10 years
in the same office building, the same cubicle,
and he'd look out the window and he
would see some of the natural scenery far
in the distance, but he would feel very
empty inside.
And he said, is this really all life
is about?
It's 9 to 5, grinding, working hard Monday
through Friday.
And he started to feel empty inside.
Sure, he would go home at the end
of the day.
Eventually, he got married, but he felt very
empty inside.
What is my greater purpose in life?
What am I doing with my life?
And of course, the twist here is that
at the time, he was not Muslim.
And that thought, the reflection on the natural
scenery he would see at a distance, the
desire to be closer to nature and away
from the city, that thought prompted him to
look further into his feelings, the feeling of
nihilism, the feeling that life is meaningless, that
many people have not realizing that Islam fills
that void.
But that's not the proof that Islam is
true.
But a byproduct of truth is that it
does fill that void because it is true.
And as he started to search for truth,
he felt that as people observe the world
around them, naturally things should be directed towards
one ultimate purpose.
And that thought led him to the research,
which later on led him to Islam.
Oftentimes, we neglect the very basic act of
reflection.
Our khutbah today is about three points taken
from three ayat of Surah Saad.
And these three verses are very powerful.
Seemingly, if you were to study every single
one of these three ayats separately, it would
seem to have its own context and story
separated from the other two.
And part of the ijaz of the Qur
'an, the miraculous nature of the Qur'an
is that when you take a step back
and you start to study the tafsir and
the intertwining of different verses, you start to
see how they are connected and how important
those connections are for daily life.
And so what is an example of this?
The three things we'll cover is the act
of reflecting, reflecting especially through the Qur'an,
and then seeing the world through the Qur
'an and then acting by the Qur'an,
putting it into practice.
Allah Subh'anaHu Wa Ta-A'la tells
us, وَمَا خَلَقْنَا السَّمَاءَ وَالْأَرْضَ وَمَا بَيْنَهُمَا بَاطِلًا
ذَلِكَ ظَنُّ الَّذِينَ كَفَرُوا فَوَيْلٌ لِّلَّذِينَ كَفَرُوا مِنَ
النَّارِ We did not create the heaven and
the earth and all that is in between
without purpose, without aim.
But that is the assumption.
ذَلِكَ ظَنُّ الَّذِينَ كَفَرُوا Zan here means assumption,
but an assumption with no foundation.
That is the assumption, the belief system, the
ideology, the philosophy for many people in the
world, those who reject the truth and Allah
Subh'anaHu Wa Ta-A'la gives them
a stern warning.
فَوَيْلٌ لِّلَّذِينَ كَفَرُوا مِنَ النَّارِ This verse standalone
seems separated from the next ayah as well.
And if you were to study this one
verse, you would find within it gems upon
gems upon gems.
That life has a purpose, your life has
a purpose, your job, the raising of your
children, your pursuit of some education, all of
it should be directed towards that purpose.
We do not have in the Islamic worldview
a separation, a complete compartmentalization of our worldly
responsibilities, the things we are accountable for and
the purpose of life.
Because if we do that and we are
falling into that trap, we will find ourselves
experiencing a type of spiritual tension, a disconnect
that I feel the part of my life
is for a dunya and part of it
just a few things that I actually think
are for the akhira or for the akhira.
And Allah tells us, وَلْتَنظُرْ نَفْسٌ مَّا قَدَّمَتْ
لِغَدٍ Let every soul reflect on what you've
prepared for the afterlife.
That means the ibadat, the rituals, but it
also means the responsibilities that you've intended as
acts of worship.
Your job has to be directed towards something
greater, even if it's to take your skills
and utilize it for some cause, for volunteerism,
even if it's to take your source of
income and benefit different campaigns and causes and
charities with it, your communities around the world.
But at the end of the day, there
has to be something greater.
And that desire to be fulfilled at the
higher level, the highest level, if you will,
spiritually and psychologically, is considered to be one
of the most essential needs of the human
being, even from a secular psychological perspective.
It is one of the greatest needs for
the human being.
Now, with this, we take another practical action
item, which is to reflect often.
وَمَا خَلَقْنَا السَّمَاءَ وَالْأَرْضَ وَمَا بَيْنَهُمَا بَاطِلًۭ Allah
subhanahu wa ta'ala says, سَمَاءَ not سَمَاوَات
in this particular ayah.
And we know that the seven heavens, seven
layers of dimensions, if you will, not seven
jannat, but the seven layers of being all
of the universe that we know of is
السَّمَاءَ الدُّنْيَا, that first heaven.
So when Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala says,
all that you observe of the universe and
the earth that you are on that Allah
made so you could survive for this test
and everything in between, the things you know
of and the things you don't know of,
all of that is for a greater purpose,
was not created بَاطِلًۭ.
It was not created aimlessly.
Allah is perfect subhanahu wa ta'ala, does
not create aimlessly.
And so when you are observing the clouds
and the stars and the seasons and the
northern lights that many people saw last night,
when you observe the natural signs of Allah
subhanahu wa ta'ala, let it be a
moment of reflection.
Let it be a moment in which it
brings you closer to Allah subhanahu wa ta
'ala, even if you're sitting in the workplace.
The ayah right after this, Allah subhanahu wa
ta'ala is addressing something the people of
Quraish would say.
And so he responds to it with one
of the most powerful verses of the Quran
addressing morality.
When he says, أَمْ نَجْعَلُ الَّذِينَ آمَنُوا وَآمِنُوا
الصَّالِحَاتِ كَالْمُفْسِدِينَ فِي الْأَرْضِ أَمْ نَجْعَلُ الْمُتَّقِينَ
كَالْفُجَّارِ Do you think that we, meaning the
royal we, that Allah is going to treat
the people who are good on this earth
like the people who spread corruption on earth?
And then to a greater extreme, the people
of Quraish would say, we're going to be
like you in the afterlife.
They would say to the Muslims, we also
will enter Jannah in the afterlife.
We have money, we have political connections, we
have status, we have power.
So we're fine in the afterlife.
We don't need your message of truth.
And Allah Subh'anaHu Wa Ta-A'la
is addressing that statement of theirs.
A statement, by the way, that we hear
repackaged and regurgitated by many people in the
world today.
You hear this sometimes from some hardcore Zionists.
You hear this.
They say these things as they are destroying
the mosques and the masajid, as they are
bombing four and five countries, as they are
torturing and abusing and ethnically cleansing.
They say these things.
Not only do some of them believe they
are the chosen people of God, they believe
they are safer in an afterlife they don't
have any details about because most of their
emphasis and focus is actually on this life,
the pursuit of this world in theology.
And Allah Subh'anaHu Wa Ta-A'la
then says, is addressing them.
If you think the one who spreads corruption
on earth, the people of Quraish who are
abusing and torturing the Muslims, the people who
are worshipping idols and rejecting the messenger that
has come to them with clear messages.
So that test is no longer a rational
test alone, but it's clearly a test of
your sincerity, your humility.
On that note, do you think if the
distinction between these two is not enough for
you morally, you think that Allah is going
to treat the most righteous of the believers,
the most evil of evil people?
Do you think that Zionist soldier who enters
the home of the Palestinian family and shoots
all of them and kills them?
Do you think that person who bombed that
house or that apartment building in the background
of the video as he's mocking Palestinians and
Muslims and Arabs, do you think that person
who went on to the loudspeaker of the
masjid in Gaza and started mocking the adhan
and mocking Islam, ripping and burning some of
the pages of the mushaf, thinking that would
affect us in any way whatsoever theologically, do
you think that person that abused and raped
and tortured children of different backgrounds and adults
as well is equal to the oppressed?
No sane person morally speaking would say such
a thing.
Yes, these two are the same.
These two will be treated the same in
an afterlife.
The people of Quraysh, that is what they
assume.
And this is coming from a place of
arrogance, not a place of philosophy or theology.
There's no evidence for such a claim.
And that's why Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala
in the previous verse addressed the reality that
life has a purpose.
The people who reject the truth, they don't
believe that there's an ultimate purpose.
They want to live life as they desire.
And Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala is addressing
that same one, that wrong belief you have
about life is like the wrong belief that
some people have about morality, that when we
all die, the good and the bad are
going to be the same.
No, they will not.
The oppressor and the oppressed in the sight
of Allah, in the court of Allah will
never be the same.
And that is a reality we see.
And we recognize that when someone has an
innate desire for justice, you know, as a
society, when we see any kind of severe
injustice and our hearts react to it, we
wish to see justice.
This is a good desire, that innate desire
for all of humanity in some form to
see justice, even though sometimes you will notice
people of corruption disagreeing with it in cases
that are so clear cut.
The innate desire for justice, especially if it
affects you, is a proof that there's going
to be a situation, an environment, a day
of ultimate justice.
The same way that the innate desire when
someone is hungry and needs to be fed,
when someone is thirsty and their thirst needs
to be quenched, it's a proof that there's
something that will satisfy it because it addresses
all of humanity's needs.
There is a day of justice.
And in other verses of the Qur'an,
Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala tells them, مَا
لَكُم كَيْفَ تَحْكُمُونَ On what basis do you
judge?
The good and the evil are never the
same.
Now the good and the evil from the
Islamic perspective have to be defined.
For us, our worldview always goes back to
Islam.
We see the world through the Qur'an.
We see the world through Islam.
So we don't just like chase after whatever
is happening in society.
You hear that there's a situation, just chase
after because that's the trend.
When we see social justice causes as a
noble thing, no doubt, but within the paradigm
of Islam, meaning what?
That we address things, social justice, politics, anything
from the lens of Islam.
If you believe Islam to be the truth,
then the definition of good and bad are
defined within that worldview.
And the way we deal with things are
going to distinguish us from other groups in
society.
So sometimes we will agree on certain things
and work with different groups.
And that's something we learned from the Prophet
ﷺ.
Very specific occasions and goals, this is something
we agree on.
But it's not an agreement or endorsement of
all of your other views.
It's not an agreement or endorsement that there's
no definition of good or evil, that we
are all the same.
No, we believe we have an objective truth.
And the definition of good and evil should
cause us to ask what affects us morally?
Do we have a strong moral compass as
Muslims?
Because the more we learn of our faith,
the more we learn of Islam, the more
we learn of the halal and the haram,
the greater we have of an ability to
distinguish between good and bad in everyday life,
to see the world through the Qur'an.
And then finally, the third verse that again
seemingly on its own seems to be disconnected,
but in fact is very connected.
Allah ﷻ then says, كتاب أنزلناه إليك مبارك
ليتدبروا آياته وليتذكر أولو الألباب The book, the
Qur'an that we revealed to you, O
Prophet, ليتدبروا, ليتدبروا is to reflect deeply.
There's another قراءة ليتدبروا, ليتدبروا.
So they may reflect deeply upon its signs,
upon the ayaat of the Qur'an, and
so that the mindful people, the people of
reason will be reminded.
In other words, you need to be reminded.
You look at this verse and you say,
what is the connection in tafsir between this
and the one before it, and the two
before it, if you will.
And there's a mercy from Allah ﷻ in
the placement of these verses.
His words, every single part of the Qur
'an, every ayah and every part of every
ayah has a wisdom for why it's there.
And so when you think about the verse
before this about morality, the people of good
are not like the people of evil.
What helps you to remember that there's a
moral compass, that there's an afterlife?
What gives you the guidance to know what
is right and what is wrong, that the
muttaqeen are not like al-fujjar, the people
of goodness are not like the people of
evil, the oppressor is not like the oppressed,
the abuser is not like the abused.
What reminds humanity of this?
It is the Qur'an.
It is the guide.
It is a shifa, the healing.
It is a nur, the light for every
type of darkness in this world.
It's the thing that corrects and fixes everything
that's bent spiritually and theologically in this world.
Every type of false ideology is corrected by
or refuted by the Qur'an in some
form.
And so when you think of the placement
of these ayaat, you recognize ultimately the point
of life, the worship of God is reinforced
and clarified in detail through his words, through
his final message.
How do you worship Allah, knowing that this
life was not created batila, without aim?
Through the Qur'an.
So the more you want to fulfill the
purpose of life, the more you have to
connect to the Qur'an.
The more you want to feel fulfilled spiritually
and psychologically, and that life is not mundane
and pointless, and why am I doing all
of this?
The more you have to connect to the
Qur'an.
The Qur'an provides a rational justification that
it is from Allah.
Revealed to you, O Prophet.
And in between you find what?
That it is mubarak.
And so the more you want of divine
blessings from Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala to
take more fruit from your life, to take
more from your time, to take more from
your wealth and your health, you are going
to need that divine blessing.
And you look at the productivity industry and
you find sometimes it's hundreds of millions or
not billions of dollars in some cases combined.
The people will pay a lot of money
for shortcuts or to save time.
Life hacks and productivity hacks and fitness hacks
and whatever other type of hack there is
these days.
And Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala is telling
us there's something that exists in this world,
a divine blessing from him.
You can't get it from anywhere else.
So it can't get it because of your
status or connections.
That divine blessing, the concept of barakah in
Islam is to get more out of less.
More out of the same dollar that you
have.
You feel that it satisfies you.
A small home that has barakah, divine blessings
feels full and satisfactory for its family, fulfilling.
And sometimes a much larger home or a
palace or a mansion feels empty for that
family.
Some people say, I feel like there's no
barakah in my money.
I don't find that it's lasting.
I don't find that it's fruitful.
And other times you will find people giving
so much in charity finding the rest of
their money has more barakah now.
And the same applies to our time.
You spend time reading Quran and the shaitan
might trick someone to say, you're going to
spend all this time not working.
You're going to spend this time.
It's going to take you 30 minutes, 60
minutes every single day.
Yes, it adds more barakah to the rest
of your time.
It adds barakah to your wealth, to your
health, to your life, to your fulfillment that
you desire.
Things that money cannot buy.
So when you think of the Quran being
mubarak, of course it is mubarak.
It is kalamullah.
It's the speech of Allah.
We wouldn't be surprised that it has blessings
that affect us in a worldly sense.
So if you want clarity in life, turn
frequently to the Quran.
If you want life hacks, productivity, efficiency, turn
to the Quran.
And if you think about the maximum potential
you can have, it will always be limited.
No matter how productive you are, if you
have some gap between that capacity and the
divine blessings that you get from Allah.
I'll give you an example through a very
weird analogy here.
I was talking to one of my younger
students and he was telling me about some
game that he was playing.
So we were talking about memorizing Quran.
He was making a lot of progress, mashaAllah.
And he brought up this game and asked
about the ruling of this game.
I said, tell me more about this game.
It's one of those common online games in
which you have a character and your character
has all these skills and you have to
level up these skills.
Very straightforward, very common example across the board.
And he starts explaining how if you spend
a certain amount of time on a specific
skill set, you can level it up to
the highest potential possible.
So I said, give me an example.
He said, well, in the game you can
go hunting, so you can level it up.
I said, what's the maximum you can do?
He's like 99.
Okay, 99.
What happens then?
He's like, that's it.
You're the best hunter out there.
Okay, what's after that?
He's like, that's it.
That's the maximum potential.
How many hours does it take you to
get to that that level that you're playing
this game with?
He said, anywhere between 2000 to 3000 hours.
Just clicking, clicking, clicking, clicking.
Now he's asking about the game in terms
of content.
But what struck my attention was, and this
is the reality and I obviously, and you
recognize this from my own childhood, that some
games that exist out there will require you
to spend thousands of hours leveling up characters
that ultimately at the end of the day
in the real world have no impact, just
time.
And what's amazing about this is if you
were to apply similarly an analogy to your
life and ask as a Muslim, what are
the different skill sets or goals that you
have in life that you want to level
up if you will.
So as we were talking, and he's Alhamdulillah,
someone who's memorizing the Quran, and he's making
a lot of progress with it as well.
We started talking about the time that it
takes to get to the highest level possible
of the Quran.
To memorize it, to understand it, study its
tafsir, and to implement it.
And what's beyond that?
You can teach it as well, review it
all the time, hold on to it as
your companion.
And that's one of many things all of
us can do in life.
But I asked him, how many hours do
you think it would take to get to
level 99 with the Quran?
He said, I don't know, maybe like 1500
to 2000 hours.
And what's remarkable about this is when you
memorize the Quran, it's just one very small
part of the journey with the Quran.
There's the lifestyle that you act upon it.
Liyadabbaru ayati is the goal, to think about
it, to reflect, to see the world through
it.
That a Muslim does not say, I'm either
religious or not, I'm either good or bad.
You have to start somewhere, you have to
start with an ayah, a juz, a wird,
a daily recitation.
So start somewhere and work your way up.
Because you cannot get to in anything in
life.
You can't get from one to 99 without
going through the levels in between.
So start somewhere now.
Every single day for the believers, there has
to be a connection to the Quran, listening
to that.
Alhamdulillah, we have access to the thousands or
millions of recordings out there.
Find a reciter you enjoy listening to, a
surah you're trying to memorize.
And as you commute back and forth to
work and other places, listen to it often.
Children, as they're falling asleep, let them listen
to the Quran falling asleep.
And even if you have it playing in
the background in the house for the barakah
of it, this is permissible according to many
scholars.
So the point is for us to connect.
Because when you see the world through the
Quran and you act by it, you'll start
to see how it changes you in times
of ease.
But especially in times of difficulty, may Allah
protect us.
The people of Gaza, for example, statistically, it's
known amongst the different cities of Palestine in
general, are some of those who adhere the
most to the Quran.
Some of the greatest numbers of hufadh, those
who carry the Quran, come out of the
place of Gaza.
May Allah accept our brothers and sisters as
shuhada in every land and place.
And the same applies to other Muslim countries.
The same applies to Syria where there are
many hufadh as well and other lands.
And so when you think about this and
you see how the people of Gaza, as
they're being bombed and killed and tortured and
mutilated, and much of the world is still
quiet or afraid.
Alhamdulillah that another part of the world is
active and engaged.
But it inspired so many people to look
into Islam.
And that comes through what?
Adhering to the Quran.
Not in a superficial way, not for the
parent who just wants to show off, my
son, my daughter is a hafidh or hafidha
with a title.
Do they understand the Quran?
Because that's much more precious than just memorizing
and having a title and moving on.
To live by the Quran is the goal.
What is the practical advice?
Because we always are in need of practical
advice.
Number one, start daily with some kind of
contemplation upon the Quran.
Seek the barakah from Allah through the revelation
of the Quran.
Alhamdulillah, there are many series online.
We have access to a lot of resources,
how to reflect on the Quran, how to
get closer to Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala
through it.
A few years back, I remember I did
a Ramadan series called In Love with the
Quran with Al-Maghrib Institute.
And some people would reach out.
Alhamdulillah, we received a lot of messages of
people whose lives started to change through their
habits.
And there was a brother whose story stood
out.
And it was that he's in his 50s.
It was that he regretted, as he started
to experience the beauty of the Quran in
everyday life, he regretted not starting this habit
20, 30, 40 years ago.
That I wish I used to do this
in my 20s.
I don't know why I said I was
too busy.
I don't know how I made that excuse.
You'll always be busy.
You will always be busy.
But we don't make excuses for the things
that we value.
We don't make excuses for things that matter
to us.
The Quran changes and adds barakah to the
things you're pursuing of this world that should
be again for the sake of Allah subhanahu
wa'ta'ala.
As you study the Quran, it takes you
on this journey.
You're traveling to the past and you're seeing
these past nations and prophets and what they
went through.
And you take lessons for the Muslims of
today.
As you study the Quran, it transports you
to the afterlife in hundreds of verses with
so much detail like no other faith in
the world.
And you start to think about the visualization
of the day of judgment.
You start to think about paradise and hellfire.
May Allah subhanahu wa'ta'ala grant us jannah.
Allahumma ameen.
So take this as a daily practice.
Number two, my strong recommendation for everyone.
Have some kind of structured weekly tafsir class
if not daily.
Something weekly for the entire family.
Something you're consuming online.
A class that you are taking live with
an instructor or an institute.
But do something that is structured and take
it seriously like you would a job interview,
a project for school, a class that is
timed and attendance is mandatory.
Take it very seriously.
Because within the span of 12 months, within
the span of a year, the one who
took this seriously will find that they've gained
so much barakah from the practice of studying
the Quran that it would affect all the
other pursuits in their lives.
Some weekly practice.
And finally, number three, listen to it every
single day.
A day should not pass by in which
we are not connected to the Quran in
some form.
We are in need of the reminder.
The people of reason surround themselves with reminders.
The people of intellect from the Islamic perspective
will seek that connection to the speech of
Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala.
And imagine the day you meet Allah and
you feel even more connected to him, appreciative
of the mercy of guidance in this world.
Now you're meeting the creator whose speech you
studied and lived by in this world and
it protected you throughout this life and in
the grave and on the day of judgment.
May Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala make us
and our families amongst the people of the
Quran in reflection, in studying, in listening, in
memorizing, and dying upon it as well.