Tea Talk Series #2 – How To Engage With The Quran & Sunnah

This mean that Rahim Al hamdu Lillahi Rabbil Alameen wa salatu salam, ala Ashraful MBO mursaleen Nabina Muhammad Latina Muhammad Ali he after the Salah was good to sleep alarm elimina may in fact no one found me my attempt and I was in that element era but it means that am I an econ one after law who would occur to

welcome to this month's tea talk. It's January 22 2023. We've just entered the month of Rajab.

Ramadan is right around the corner. Today's tea talk is about how to engage with the Quran and Sunnah. And specifically how to engage with the Quran and Sunnah for spiritual strength, and guidance and conviction. Now we're going to cover

five points, five points because it's a big topic, that inshallah Tada we're going to try to cover a diversity of points, right, but also the most crucial ones. The first point we're going to cover is thinking about Islam or thinking about the Quran and the Sunnah as a source versus a paradigm. I've talked about this a little bit before that, I'm going to spell out exactly what we mean by that. The second thing we're going to cover is we're going to talk about the role of reason, quote, unquote reason when we engage with the Quran and Sunnah, because there's a lot of misconceptions about that.

Third, we're going to talk about a skill and an art, which is reading between the lines. Very, very important when engaging with the Quran and Sunnah.

Fourth, out of five, we're going to talk about characters and stories. And then fifth, and finally, we're going to talk about archetypes and personalization. And it'll become clear in sha Allah Tala what we mean by, by that when we get there. So first, we're gonna talk about the difference between treating the Quran and Sunnah as a source, or a paradigm. And for this, I have a little exercise for you, I want you to close your eyes. Okay, and picture that you are in upstate New York, beautiful upstate New York with its lakes, its streams, its forests, okay, and you look out, and you see this beautiful lake, okay, you see mountains in the distance, evergreen trees, not a sign of human

activity of pollution. And you look out, especially if you pay attention to the water, and the water is blue and crystal clear. And there's waves and there's birds and everything like that. Now, if I were to say to you, that you can open your eyes, I will say to you, now take this bottle of water, right? And go take water from that. Fill it from this lake that you just saw. Would you be willing to do that to fill it and drink from that water?

You might be you might be more willing? Okay, there's some of us who are more or less germaphobic. Right? But for those who are less germaphobic, you'd probably be very willing, or at least you say, if I were to say to you, would you swim in that water? Okay, there we go. Most people will say Yeah, sure. I swim in that water. Okay, if I said that, if I bottle this water, and I said, Can I use this? Maybe if not to drink then at least to wash my dishes or to to shower in or something like that? You would say yeah, you know, the water seems to be pure, right seems to be a pure source of water. Okay. Now take yourself back to that mental imagery that you had. Okay, close your eyes.

Again. Look at the lake. Look at the mountains and the trees. And imagine that the frame is just zooming out slightly zooming out. zooming out zooming out. Now you see a rusty old pipe

that's hanging over that lake and spewing some sort of brown liquid into that water. Okay, and you don't know what that is. It doesn't look good. It doesn't smell good. Okay, now I'm going to ask you the same question. Would you swim in that lake?

Okay, would you bottle up that water and use it for anything, let alone for drinking? Okay, the answer is probably going to be no. Why are we doing this exercise. This is the difference between using the Quran and Sunnah as a source, versus using it as a paradigm because I can take a bottle of water and go to that mountain lake and bottle it up. And I can present it to you and I say look, the source of this water. The source of this water is that mountain stream

and you I can take a picture and I can crop it

and I can crop out the nasty brown pipe with the nasty brown water that's sludge or whatever that's that's spewing into it. I could do that. I could say that's my source. My sources are pure

are okay, it doesn't, there's two things that I hide by saying that my, this is the source of my water. Okay. One is I've hidden, what are the other possible sources that are along with that source? Okay, I have a certain image that I showed, and I didn't show necessarily the whole picture. So maybe off to the side and right out of view, there is that brown pipe with that brown sludge pouring into that same source. So maybe I have that water, but I also have that brown sludge. That's also the source. And I'm not saying that or indicating that.

The second thing that it hides is it hides how do those two things interact? Okay, like maybe I'm going to tell you that I'm getting my water from the far end of the lake way away from the brown sludge. Or maybe I'm getting my water from right underneath of it. I don't give you any indication of how is that brown sludge actually affecting what I put in the bottle. Okay. This is a useful analogy to think about when we're talking about the Quran and Sunnah as part of our lives because everybody and their mother says that they use the Quran and the Sunnah as a source for their personal guidance. But what does that conceal? That conceals two things? What are your other sources

that you use for your personal guidance? Are you also also using the fortune teller and astrology symbols and the zodiac signs and whatever you could be using pop psychology, you could be using what you pick up from tick tock, right? So there could be other sources, and then it doesn't show how you're interacting with that source. Okay, yeah, you can maybe quote from the Koran or you can quote from the Sunnah. And you can say that this is my source. But how are you understanding those two things? Are you understanding them in an authoritative way, the way that the prophets that I said I'm understood them or the way that the Companions understood them? Are you applying them in the

ways and emphasizing the things that the Companions they applied? And they emphasized? Or are you interacting with it in a different way? Are you cherry picking? Are you refurbishing? Are you reinfecting Or re emphasizing Are you taking things out of context and changing them according to a different sort of agenda? So that's the importance we say, okay, Islam is my is the source. There's countries today such as Tunisia and Egypt that say that the Quran and the Sunnah are the source of their constitution. And yet we know that the way that they govern is completely different from the way that the Prophet sighs that I'm going to govern and the Companions govern and things like that.

So it doesn't mean much to say that the Quran and the Sunnah is a source of your guidance, what we're going for is something that's better than a source. We're going for the Quran and Sunnah as a paradigm for your existence. And what does that mean? It means that it is the thing that you filter everything else through. Okay? It's the lens that you see and experience everything that you come across. Right, you are not cherry picking things or taking things from the sources and then twisting them or reapplying them in creative and interesting and unorthodox ways. You are experiencing you're looking out to your daily your relationships and your job and your your friendships and your co

workers and everything and you're trying to make the lens that you're experiencing everything through the Quran and the Sunnah. How would Allah want me to interact with this person? How would the Prophet sallallahu alayhi wa salam, think about what I just said to my mom, to my dad, to my brothers to my sisters, would he be happy with me? Are they he said to us? Or would he have some tender and merciful advice? Or would he have a stern rebuke of what I just did? Or what I just said, Oh, this is the difference.

To say that Islam is a source or that the Quran and Sunnah is a source puts us in a little bit too much control when it comes to how we interact with that source. Whereas saying that the Quran and Sunnah is our paradigm puts us in a position of submission, which is the name of our faith, and surrender to that paradigm and letting it form our sensibilities letting it form, the way in which we go out and we see and we experience the world.

So that's the first thing you know, and I had a really interesting comment from somebody that I lead on hedge that said to me one time they said, you know,

and I really appreciate their honesty because this would be a very hard thing for a lot of us to say they said when I read the Koran

And I read about the bad guys, the kuffar the people in hellfire. I've got specific people in mind.

Said, there's people in my life I said, Yep, they got a comment.

And I said, Wow, that's really interesting, because that's pretty much the opposite way that we're supposed to interact with the Corps. And we're supposed to put ourselves in that situation and say, How am I like that person? Right? It's not a, it's not a rubric by which you're going around judging everybody. Okay? It is supposed to form your own sensibility of how I interact with people, right? But ultimately, it's supposed to be so you can fix yourself. And so there's a degree to which by taking it as a paradigm, taking it as a lens, we are submitting ourselves to it, and we're the ones who are changing. We're the ones who are letting it do work on us, as opposed to us doing work on

it.

So Islam is our paradigm, the Quran and the Sunnah is our paradigm, much, much more than a source. The next thing we're going to talk about how to interact with the Quran. And sunnah is what is the role of reason. This is a hot topic and a much misunderstood topic. A lot of people they want to talk about the role of reason, in faith. And a lot of people in America they assume that faith and reason cannot go together or that logic and faith cannot go together. And this is their trauma from Christianity. And then there's other people within the Muslim community that want to say that, well, you know, you just have to believe and we don't ask the questions why or why did Allah legislate

this? Or Why did Allah legislate that? And we shouldn't necessarily think about these things. It's only about obedience, and they have a point. They have a point but but to act as if reason has no role in our faith, it makes to two very, very large mistakes. First of all, it thinks of reason as a threat. When reason is not a threat in factories and is a means of salvation. Allah subhanaw taala says in Surah Surah Mulk that one of the regrets of the people of Hellfire is that they did not use their reason. We'll call it hello Kunta Ness Mao, O Nathie. Two, if only we had either listened meaning obeyed or had used our reason. And how many times is Allah subhanaw taala. Say in the Quran,

Allah Allah Quran Tapi Loon, right? Or he says something about Athleta attack the loon? Don't you think about it, won't you use your reason? That's the first thing. The second thing is that we have to be very, very clear, by what we mean when we say the word reason because there is no one thing called reason, which is why people get it wrong. When they say that, well, this School of Theology or this flavor or movement of Islam, though they prioritize reason over revelation. Whereas we we prioritize revelation over reason. This is an incorrect way of framing it. Because reason is not just one thing.

There are different multiple traditions of reason. One of those traditions of reason comes through the Greeks Greek philosophy, especially Platonists and Neo Platonism. And this is the force we've talked about before that has influenced Christian theology that we see today and had an influence on Islam as well, though the Great's of Islam of theology, rebuked it and refuted it. But there is a tradition of reason that is internal and inherent to the Quran and the Sunnah ALLAH SubhanA. Allah uses reason all throughout the Koran, when he is trying to convince us that He is the only

entity that only being worthy of being worshipped. He is using reason. He doesn't say to us believe it, because I said so. The Prophet sallallahu alayhi wa sallam does not say believe it because I said so. They use reason to convince us and then once we've been convinced and persuaded, then obedience is expected to follow because that then becomes a moral issue. So people get afraid of reason and asking, Well, why did Allah say this? Or Why did Allah say that? Or Why did Allah use this particular word here? Or Why did Allah subhanaw taala give us this ruler that rule? The only thing you have to be worried about is whether that person is asking from a place of sincerity or

not. Because there are two types of questions. There are sincere questions and those are moral questions. And there are insincere questions and those are immoral questions. An example of an immoral question would be an example, such as Benny Israel either in Surah Surah Baqarah, when they are commanded to sacrifice a cow

and they say what type of cow?

Do they really want to know what type of cow? Or are they trying to get out of it and procrastinate, they're trying to get out of it and procrastinate, they're trying to delay. They're trying to do whatever they can do when the kofod they say, If only he would show us an idea if only he would show us a sign. Or if only he was given a book, or if only he was given this miracle, or why don't you send down this miracle or that miracle? Are they asking out of sincerity? No, they are not asking you out of sincerity, they are asking out of arrogance, and therefore it is immoral. They don't really want a sign, which is why I lost Fanta. Allah repeatedly calls them out on this and says,

Listen, if we showed you every sign, you still wouldn't believe because these people are not genuinely asking. They're really just trying to procrastinate and get around the issue, as opposed to as opposed to people such as Ibrahim Alayhi. Salam and Musa alayhis salam who asked questions of Allah subhanaw taala in the Koran and are not rebuked Allah subhanaw taala doesn't blame them for asking questions. Ibraheem Alehissalaam asked Scaife to Hinomoto How are you going to resurrect the dead? He wants to know, Allah subhanaw taala asked him, if Allah told me like, don't you don't you believe? He says yes. But I want to put my heart at ease. And so Allah is bound to other than shows

him he tells him to gather the birds and cut them up and put them on different mountaintops and then call them and they all come back together.

So that is a question that is a moral question because it comes from a place of sincerity. And Allah subhanaw taala does not blame us for asking questions. As long as we are coming from a place of sincerity and asking more questions because we want to be on a firmer footing, we want our faith to be stronger. That's why we're asking the questions. So we shouldn't hesitate. If we have good reasons to do so. We have sincere reasons for doing so we want to understand Why did Allah say this? Why did Allah say that? Why did he legislate this? Why did he legislate that? Because the more that we know, if we have the right sincere disposition, the more it will put us on firm footing, and it

will strengthen our faith.

And so we shouldn't be afraid of the role of reason. The thing that we have to be concerned about is that we're using the reason that is internal to our tradition, the reason of the Koran, the reason in the Koran, the reason in the Sunnah, and not some sort of other tradition, foreign tradition of reason, and philosophy that comes from outside of it, that would necessitate us reinterpreting things and getting in a whole lot of mess. So that's the second point. Don't be afraid of reason. We use reason for everything we use reason to accept that the revelation is true in the first place. Yes, we do. We use reason to

implement and apply the criteria that Allah gives us in the Revelation such as how do I determine what's a false god from a true God? Allah subhana, Allah says, false gods can't speak. They can't guide they can't create, they can't defend themselves. They're not eternal, all these sorts of criteria. We're using reason here. He's telling us to take these criteria and go out and apply them to everything that you see.

What the same thing with criteria for prophet hood, who's a true prophet from a false prophet, a true prophet will not claim to be anything more than what he is a true prophet will not ask for financial compensation a true prophet will not claim to make people rich or his followers rich. A true prophet will not claim to know everything of the unseen. He gives us these criteria, reason, so that you can go and use the criteria. This is also part of how we're supposed to use reason or the role of reason, or a certain tradition of reason that we're expected to use. How do we extend and apply the Quran and the Sunnah to new situations, the work of the automat using HT hat and using PS

and these sorts of things. Now we have Bitcoin now we have aI we've got, you know, we've got the AI chats, you know, we've gotten people now they are forging essays and doing all sorts of crazy things with deep fakes and whatever. How are we going to use Allah's guidance in the Sharia in the Quran and the Sunnah to apply to every single new situation that comes down the road? We're going to use reason. Yes, not any reason, not the reason of the Greeks, not the philosophy of the Greeks the reason that Allah gave us in the Quran and Allison, so we should not be afraid

had a reason then we shouldn't get into the false dichotomy and saying, Well, we prioritize revelation over reason, as even Taymiyah argued when he argued against the logicians and the theologians, he said that it is about using that real reason does not contradict authentic revelation whatsoever. So it's not a question of how much reason it's a question of what type of reason are we talking about?

That's point two. So we discussed

using is the Islam and the Quran and Sunnah as a paradigm rather than a source. We talked about the supposin role of reason and more accurately, we talked about which type of reason we're supposed to use when we're interacting with the Quran and Sunnah. Now we're going to talk something a little bit more technical, we're talking about the art and the skill of reading between the lines. This is an extremely, extremely important skill to develop when engaging with the Koran especially, and also the Sunnah, because Allah subhanaw taala treats us like intelligent people. He treats us like intelligent people in expecting us to use our reason, in giving us these sorts of criteria. And also

not spelling absolutely everything out explicitly. There are certain things that he I don't want to say hides in the text that's a little too dramatic, but something less than hides, he implies them. Okay, he implies them. And there's a few different ways in which that happens. Sometimes Allah subhanaw taala, he uses very specific words. So he uses certain word choice. And in that word choice, there are certain subtle meanings that are beautiful to reflect upon. Other times Allah subhanaw taala uses a particular order of words, the syntax, and he has a message for us in the in the word order that he uses. And then other times, and this is my favorite one allows pond to otter,

he responds to doubts that the reader is having or might have, without actually naming the doubt whatsoever. he anticipates it and responds to it, but never says what it is. And I'm going to give examples of each of these three things. Okay, so when we're talking about word choice, okay, let's go to the beginning of Surah Al Baqarah, Allah subhanaw taala. He details three types of people. He details the believers and he defines who they are. Then he talks about the Kufa Okay, the rejecters of truth and then he talks about the hypocrites. So when he talks about the kofod He says in Alladhina Cafaro so when early adopter home m&ms only at home, now you'll be known hartham Allahu

Allah Calobra him or Allah seminary him or other other sorry Himadri Shaohua what a home are they born alim? He says the punishment for the cool fall the people who deny and reject faith are their Boon alim. He says we translated as a great punishment. Okay, that was punishment. Alim is the word he uses to describe that punishment.

Then he starts talking about the hypocrites Amina Nassim a Akoto M and Nabila until the end of it, and when he talks about what's going to be there and he says, what a home are they're born, Aleem. He uses a slightly different word. He says they're going to have the balloon a punishment Aleem. So, we had the kuffaar are going to experience Adi buena, Alim and the hypocrites are going to experience all that boon. Aleem.

Does Allah subhanaw taala just pick two random words

or might there be a meaning behind the difference between these two words? And might the difference between these two words reflect something about the people that they apply to and describe our professor one of my favorite professors in the Islamic University of Medina, his name was Muthana Abdel Fattah from Jordan. He said that and he you know presented this to us in class. What's the word that Alim is related to in the Arabic language is awesome? Bones. Okay? Bones are something that's very physical, something very corporal, okay. And this is applied to the Kufa

the word that Aleem is tied to IS LM, okay, and LM is a type of pain but it's usually a hidden pain that you can't see. If you have a headache or you have some sort of stomach ache or something like that. Usually we use the word LM to describe it. Okay, as opposed to something like Jarrah which is like an injury like a cut that's on the surface.

For us, right? So our professor motha novel Fatah, he said that each of these two words corresponds to the group of people that they apply to. Because Allah subhanaw taala describes the punishment for the coup far as Alim as physical and Corporal because their denial is obvious and out in the open, Alim whereas the hypocrites their denial is hidden and internal.

And so the word he uses to describe their punishment or that one Aleem

is also has connotations of hidden and internal and Allah knows best. Well, this is presented by our professor with another Fatah and he has won awards for his research and tafsir Michelle Tabata Cola, I had him for two semesters in the university, Allah subhanaw taala doesn't do anything arbitrarily. He doesn't do anything just playing around. If there's a difference between two words, you best believe that there's a purpose behind that difference whether we can know it or not, that's a different thing. And, you know, there's we, we might get close to it, or we might not we don't have certain knowledge. But there's a and there's things to reflect upon. That can make us more amazed

with Allah subhanaw taala and his book. So when you go to the English translation, and you read, it's a great punishment.

This is the level of contemplation and inflection and implied meaning that is hidden from us when we're engaging in the Quran, in a language other than what Allah revealed it in.

So that was an example of the first type of reading between the lines, which is the word choice that allows patata uses a loss bounds, it uses very specific words. And those Words have meanings. And sometimes it can be something to increase our faith when we reflect upon and ponder upon the differences in the subtle shades of meaning with those words. The second type is the order of the words that Allah subhanaw taala uses many, many times in the Quran, Allah describes something and he used a certain word order. And then he'll describe something a little bit different. And he'll say the same phrase, but just change the order of the words just a little bit. Now does this is this

just purposeless? Or does this also have a purpose behind it as well? Of course, we would assume that Allah is found to Allah Who does everything with wisdom has a purpose behind this as well. And so there's two pages and soltana matita that demonstrate this type of thing. One of them, Allah subhanaw taala is talking about a certain group of people he's talking about bandits. Okay. He's talking about the punishment that's going to happen for banditry. Okay. And Allah subhanaw taala he says when he gets down to it, they know Yes, yes. Yes. What a home fill out karate. Sorry before that. Let home fit dunya is Yun there's in the dunya is humiliation. Allah home fit dunya is Yun

okay? Then just a little bit later, Allah's power to Allah he's talking about the hypocrites among Bani Israel. Okay, and he uses the same exact phrase just he switches the order of two words. Okay, he says Daddy color home his Yun Valley color home his Yun fit dunya so the first one we had Lahoma his Yan fit dunya okay, there's is humiliation? I'm sorry. The first one was what a home fit dunya his Yan there's in the dunya is humiliation. And here we have Valley callaham has Yan fit dunya? There's is humiliation in the dunya one puts humiliation first one puts the dunya first why would Allah Subhana Allah make this subtle difference? Just a page or so apart from each other? Allah

knows best but our professor Mithuna Agha Fatah said that one of the possible reasons is that it responds to what each type of person wants the most. Allah is giving them the opposite as punishment. So if you look at the bandit, what is the bandit want the most? He wants to be feared. He wants reputation. He wants to be notorious. He wants to be on the nightly news. He wants the kids that he wants their mothers to use them as a boogeyman right to eat your vegetables or else the bandits gonna get you right? That's what he wants. He wants the reputation. And so the thing that's prioritized for them is dunya presume that they're going to have this humiliation Okay, whereas what

is the

thing that we were told other points in the Koran that that Yahoo the bene Israel loves the most. What do they love the most? They said that they love the most the dunya they love the dunya the most they fear death, they don't ever want to die. Right and so Alas bound to Allah says for them. He says for them, the home fit dunya his own right he prioritize the dunya because that's the, that's their real goal. Okay, they don't want to meet their maker in the afterlife. So Allah is bound to Allah, it's possible that he is putting one in front of the other to respond to what it is their actual goals are.

So that was we talked about word choice. And we talked about word order. And then finally, we're going to talk about when Allah subhanaw taala anticipates, anticipates a doubt that the reader might have. And he actually responds to that doubt in the text. Without naming what that doubt is. And this happens a lot actually, in the Quran. That's one of my favorite things that happens if you go to the famous area, then Surah Al Baqarah, where Allah says, Indeed, those who have attained to faiths, as well as those who follow the Jewish faith, and the Christians and the Sabians, all who believe in God and the Last Day and do righteous deeds, they'll have their reward with their

Sustainer no fear need they have and neither shall they grieve. This is a famous idea that a lot of people take out of context to try to mean some sort of interfaith thing, right? That everybody's going to heaven or something like that. Okay? That interpretation, not only is it wrong, okay, but it misses the context. That verse before and the verse after, where does this verse belong in Surah Al Baqarah, it's actually really amazing. Allah subhanaw taala. And this part of the surah is blasting Benny straw you, he's blasting him. He's bringing up every little thing that it's like, you know, the last straw, you know, they had so much opportunity, they were given so many blessings, and

just every single, every single time they were given a blessing, they denied it, they rejected it, they were ungrateful. And so there's this long list that Allah has found that otter is giving. It's like, look, we brought you out of Egypt, you complained about the food. You know, we gave you the Torah, you started worshipping the golden calf, you know, either that is limited, all those things. And then in the middle of it, Allah puts this verse

in the middle of it. This long list means after this verse happens, Allah keeps on going with the list of the things that Benny Israel did wrong, and allows favor upon vana Israel. But in the middle of all of this list, he puts this verse,

certainly those who have believed and those who follow the Jewish faith and the Christians and the Sabians, whoever believes in Allah on the last day and do righteous deeds, they're gonna have they're rewarded, they're Sustainer. And no fear need they have and neither shall they grieve. What's Allah trying to say?

What doubt might the reader start to have when he is going through this long list of offenses of Benny Israel, you

bet he Australia, all of them are trash, that Allah Spano Tata says, not all of them

by putting this verse in the middle of it, not all of them. So he's anticipating that the reader might have this doubt or start to develop this sort of incorrect conclusion, or start to relate to things in an identitarian way, which is against Allah's point. Last point is that you can't turn faith into an identity, it's a covenant. And so before you start drawing your battle lines and being like, Benny Israel,

and then oh, yeah, we're the we're the Muslims, we got it all figured out. He's gonna stop that right there and say, No, this is not all of them. It just has to do with the ones that were that did these things that broke their covenant that were ungrateful, that deny that rejected all these sorts of things, some of them were righteous, and the ones that were righteous are gonna get their reward. Just like the Muslims, the ones that are righteous are going to get their reward and the ones that rejected then their identity can't save them. So Allah subhanaw taala does this throughout the Quran? He does. Let's take one more example of this that he does where he anticipates something that

the reader is going to think or at least he foreshadow something most people have heard the first idea of sorts in the SAT we recite it or we say it in the beginning with the hairdryer right and the Friday flipper we were talking in Arabic, that's one of the eight that the Prophet sallallahu alayhi wasallam would put in the beginning of his hookah and some most fatigued across the world, they use this

in this area. Allah subhanaw taala says, Be conscious of

your Sustainer, who has crate created you out of one living entity, and out of that has created its mate. And out of those two has spread abroad, a multitude of men and women, and remain conscious of Allah, in whose name you demand your rights from one another. So you use Allah's Name to demand your rights from each other. say for the sake of Allah fear Allah, you owe me this, you owe me that. And of these ties of kinship,

that he just talked about. The first thing Allah talks about he references the fact we created you from one soul, Adam, from Adam, we made it his mate, how Eve from those two we spread. All y'all all you guys come from these two. That's relationships, Allah's foreshadowing family relations. And then at the end of the, he says, You guys petition each other or appeal to each other, usually on two grounds, either through Allah saying, You owe me this, because this is what Allah says, or through your kinship ties. I'm your brother. I'm your father, I'm your son, right, we appeal to each other, and try to get our rights from each other through our kinship ties. The whole first part of sorts,

and he says all about kinship ties and things that happen. We talk about inheritance law, we talk about orphans, we talk about marriage and divorce, all these sorts of things. And Allah subhanaw taala starts it right in the first verse, by saying that this is the thing that's so important, it starts way back with the creation of Adam and Eve. And it's something that you appeal to each other through to get your rights. And so we're going to spell it all out for you right now, the fine details of it.

So we've covered now, using the Quran and Sunnah as a paradigm, versus using it as merely a source we've talked about the role, quote, unquote, of reason. And rather, we've talked about which type of reason and different types different applications we should say, of that reason that is in the Quran and Sunnah. And we've talked about the art of reading between the lines, paying attention, you want to have a better experience reading the Koran, you want to have a more reflective experience reading the Koran, you don't want to just blaze through it, start paying attention to these things. Pay attention to the words that Allah subhanaw taala uses, especially if he if you can understand the

Arabic or some of the Arabic pay attention to the order of those words, especially if it changes a little bit and pay attention to when it seems like Allah is going off topic. When it seems like Allah is going off topic, he's usually respond, ask yourself what's the connection? Because he's usually responding to a certain doubt or anticipating a certain thing that the reader might think incorrectly. Another example by the way, real quick of the word choice is the when I lost my data ends in Iowa with his names because he chooses names that are suitable to the context right and that is something also that is supposed to get will that will bring you closer to the Quran. When Allah

says for example, on sort of her gerat Yeah, you have a nurse in California Camilla crema antologia Anna comb. Sure. Obon Acaba, de la Lita Fu, oh people we have created you from,

from male and female, okay, and we've made you into tribes and nations so that you might get to know each other in a chromosome and Allah here at Qualcomm, Allah says certainly, the most pious among you, is the one who's most righteous in the UK chromosome and the lie at Qualcomm.

What are the names that he uses to finish this idea? And Allah Alima hobby? Certainly Allah is Alim meaning knows everything. Kabir means knows things that nobody else can know.

Can you know who's the most pious? Can anybody Allah just told us that the best person is not? Its color your skin? It's not your race, not your tribe is the most pious? Can you know who's most pious? Can I know who's most pious? Only Aloka know whose most pious which is why he ends that Surah with his name clubby, the one who is informed about hidden things.

That's reading between the lines.

The last two points that we have, okay, characters and stories. And then finally, archetypes and personalization. These two points go together and we'll try to be brief because we're already at around 4042 minutes.

Okay, what's the point of characters and stories? Okay, there's two dimensions to it. And there's one dimension that is kind of a dead end and it's not completely a dead end, but it really limits our ability to engage with what Allah is trying to tell us. Okay, Allah Subhana Allah tells us still

stories that are historically true. Okay.

Adam and Noah, and ASA and all the prophets and all the individuals mentioned Yes, historically true. However, why is Allah subhanaw taala telling us these stories? Is he telling us these stories in order to give us historical facts, to be able to say, well, this happened or that didn't happen? Usually not.

What it is instead is that first of all, human beings pedagogically pedagogically, they learn best from stories, which is why Allah subhanaw taala revealed the Koran not as a book, but send it through a human messenger.

If Allah subhanaw taala wanted, he could have given us the Quran just like we have it today. But he didn't do that. He chose not to do that. Why? Because it's important human beings. Allah has found that Allah created human beings to learn the best from stories and from the stories of other people. So when we see other people living their lives and the you know, the arc that they have to go through that their life follows disappointments and setbacks, and redemption and triumphs and these sorts of things. It hits us as why we go to the cinema, we watch movies, right? It hits us on an emotional level, that we can't even have words for we can't even describe. And we remember those

things much, much more than just ink on a page and just remembering some sort of theoretical or analytical tree ties. So Allah subhanaw taala tells us through stories, he teaches us through stories. This is also something about the egalitarian nature of a SNAM. And a proof that this is from Allah Spano Tata, because it's not some book of philosophy. It's not some book of theory. Some people such as myself, Hamdulillah, Allah created me, I like to read theory, I enjoy it, I kind of get a kick out of it. Most people aren't like that. Most people are like, What are you talking about? What is this nonsense? What are you going on and on and on about? You know?

And that's fair, most people shouldn't have to do that you shouldn't have to get a philosophy degree to go to Jannah. Right? And so ALLAH SubhanA, Allah isn't going to make revelation like a philosophy treatise or a book of philosophy. He's going to make it stories that you can follow people that you can pattern yourself author of. And so it's not just, it's not just about historical fact. Was there really a global flood? Or was it a local flood? A flood of new ideas? Or was it really this? It wasn't really that that's surface level stuff. Okay. What it really is that what does it represent? What were the things that Noah had to deal with? Look at him and his son, right, and his son didn't

want to follow the guidance never got on the ark, you can guide who you love, right? No son thinks he's going to be safe on the mountain. Okay. Relying on material means a material causes thinking that that suffices you instead of the help of a loss, found out all these lessons, right? Allah gives us these characters and these stories, so that they become the arsenal of our lives, they become the characters and stories of our lives, so that we're interacting with the world. We've got these stories ready made. Okay. Ah, that's like how Ronin Musa and this is like Ali at the Battle of better and this is like this story here. And this is like that story there. It's supposed to be an

arsenal, and intellectual and emotional arsenal that we keep with us wherever we go, so that we can use it as a paradigm and evaluate and experience the world according to those characters and those stories. The last point that we have is archetypes and personalization. So archetype what we mean is that each one of these characters represents something. Okay? That it's goes beyond the meaning goes beyond that one individual. You talk about padrone we've talked about Caitlyn before. padrone is not just a historical figure, he's an archetype. What does he represent? He represents everybody like him. Everybody who believes that I've got the money and I've got the nice house because I worked for

it. Because I worked hard just because my own smarts got me my success. Right. And every Native informant who's going to sell out his people just for a buck remember he was the cousin of Musa on a sauna. And he's the Enforcer the boss man over them with cracking the whip over Benny Israel even though he's from Benny Australia. He's a sellout. So every sell out that's called wound so you can live your life and go through and when you see something in your scenario, we see this all the time I have had one of the Muslim world get colonized

Pakistan and India, North Africa, East Africa, West Africa, how did it get colonized there were called ruins everywhere. They were called ruins everywhere the British show up the French show up the Italian show up. And they're looking for the cartoons, someone to sell out. And they found them. They say how much what's your price? Give us your number. Give us the keys, open the door. Let us do our work. We'll hand you the whip. We'll hand you the gun. We'll make you chief of police or the head of the army. That's exactly how it happened. So we see now how important this figure is called Ronan half of the Muslim you say where's caught on in the Quran? Who's caught on? What are we

talking about? I don't usually make it past fatsia and federal Canet. They don't make it to chapter 28. We're gonna call it one is right. So it's important to have this arsenal with you. That's how you're going to actually start to use the Quran and the Sunnah as a paradigm to experience the world. You have these characters and you realize the archetypes that they represent. Okay, Ibraheem Alehissalaam is an archetype. Right? In addition to being a historical figure, how he interacted with his father, right? Something that is extremely emotional, how he had to what he had to give up, okay, I was talking with some converts earlier today, his sacrifice of His Son or his attempted

sacrifice of His Son, that's an archetype. You and I were not asked to sacrifice our sons for a reason, because we're not Ibrahim. But why does that story exist? Why did Allah ask Ibrahim alayhi salam to do it? So that when you and I are in a position where we should or have to sacrifice something less than that, we remember Ibraheem Alehissalaam and say, Well, if he was willing to sacrifice his own son, I can sacrifice cigarettes, I can sacrifice whatever it is that I'm addicted to, you know, like Instagram or whatever it is, you know, it's not a big deal. So the archetype Okay, and then we come to that brings us very lovely to the last point, which is personalization,

which is making it all about you always said you don't want to be holding the Quran and the Sunnah, and go on around and being the world's policeman. Right and saying up, here's another one. I found them fit around. Yep, you're fit down over there. You You're caught on over there. You might have your suspicions. Okay, but you keep them to yourself. It's not your job. That's not your primary job. Your primary job is to look how are you like fit out? How are you like Padam Okay, fit around, was willing to use the entire apparatus of the state and the military or whatever, to just get what he wanted.

What he wanted was was top that was his God. And so if Musa or anybody else challenged, it is, uh, you know, you guys are all gone? You know, he started developing conspiracy theories, right? What does he say? As soon as when Musa and Harun are coming to him?

And what does he tell us advisors? He says they want to turn you out of your land.

They're just after your power. Right? Look at how he's trying to play everybody off against each other. Do we do that? Some some of us do. When the magicians accept Islam.

When the magicians accept Islam, he comes up with this crazy theory he says Moses your teacher, he taught you magic you guys are all conspire this together. This was all something that you guys all put together before. Right? Are there people like that? That can't face the truth? Yes, there's people like that maybe sometimes us were like that. God Oh, and how are we like God on how are we selling out? How are we assuming that we live in a house and the dude on the street is sleeping on the street? Because we did something right and he did something wrong?

How are we like total?

How are we like those three different types of people a loss and the beginning of sorrows of Velcro? How are we like the righteous emoticon? How are we like the Kufa in what ways do we deny the revelation you want to say you're a Muslim? Your name is Mohamed and you do this and you do that? But you don't come to the masjid. You don't pray in the masjid.

Okay.

If the companions were alive today and looking among you, would they be able to tell that you're a Muslim?

I don't know. It's an open question. But everybody has to ask themselves this right the Koran is a is a self help book. And I don't mean that in any disrespect to the Koran. Because most self help books are trash, you know, but what I mean is that it's meant for us to interrogate ourselves, understand the world around us. But don't forget to interrogate yourself. Well, Allah Huzzah, atta Arnhem. So just to recap, we talked about how to engage with the Quran and Sunnah for spiritual strength and guidance and conviction. We said five points point number one, a Quran and the Sunnah has to be a paradigm for you has to be your paradigm in life, not just the source. You have to let

it transform you

Number two, the role of reason as that it's not a question about how much reason we use, it's a question of which type of reason we use. We use the reason that's in the Quran and the Sunnah. The reason that Allah expects us to use and demands that we use to obtain paradise and to apply our last panel to understand the laws guidance and to apply it, we don't use foreign traditions of reason that are going to make us understand the revelation in an unorthodox way. Three, we said the art and skill of reading between the lines, Allah subhanaw taala does everything with purpose. He does everything with wisdom. And so the words that he spoke, the words that he chose, have purpose and

wisdom, the order of the words have purpose and wisdom. And when he seems to go off topic and change the subject in the Quran, that also has purpose and wisdom, and you will feel much closer to the Koran and much closer to Allah Spano Tata, if you start asking those questions, Why did Allah choose that word? And not that word? Why did Allah order that sounds this way and not this way? And why did the last pound to oughta suddenly changed the top of your start talking about this other thing? Then finally, we talked about characters and stories and how they represent archetypes and the need to personalize that and make it all about evaluating and trying to grow ourselves.