Yaser Birjas – The QurAnS Scripts And Styles
AI: Summary ©
The transcript discusses the importance of learning from actions and reactions to the Qur'ah language in modern Arabic script. It explains the classification of mus' writing and the use of letters and numbers in different groups, emphasizing the significance of memorizing Qu Romeo in the current context. The transcript also touches on the importance of memorizing certain qurran for certification and their use in various ways.
AI: Summary ©
What do we learn from the reaction of
Abu Bakr as-Siddiq and Zayd ibn Thabit
when it came to collecting the Qur'an
in one Mus'haf?
What do we learn from their reaction?
What does that tell you?
Yes.
Which means?
What does that even mean?
Dealing with the Qur'an is what?
It's an amanah.
It's an amanah.
I think you heard that also from Abu
Isa the other day when he was talking
about if you're going to be doing tafsir,
you need to worry about what you say
when it comes to the Qur'an.
Yes.
They did not want to do anything that
Prophet ﷺ didn't do.
So they adhered to what?
To the sunnah.
And that's the importance of really having to
adhere to the sunnah no matter what people
say.
They want to stay on the sunnah.
Yes.
So they had the same reaction of Prophet
ﷺ.
Knowing it's coming from Allah ﷺ, the Prophet
ﷺ was eager but also was scared.
So the same thing.
When it comes to dealing with the Qur
'an, it's a serious matter.
It's really a serious matter.
Whether you're memorizing, reading, trying to give halaqa
or a talk on the Qur'an, it's
extremely, extremely important.
So keep that in mind as you progress,
inshaAllah, in your studies of the Qur'an.
So the first phase we talked about which
is the one to put in the Qur
'an, the mushaf together, at the time of
Bakr as-Siddiq ﷺ and eventually he put
that committee together.
They brought all the writing materials that they
had in Medina in one place in the
masjid and they started reviewing them and for
every ayah they bring somebody to come and
recite.
They have two, at least two people to
witness that I heard that from the Prophet
ﷺ until the mushaf was put in one
big volume.
That one big volume, like we said, was
the standard volume.
It's not like we have it today where
you can carry it around and move around
with it.
It was just there to document the mushaf
like an archive.
Where was that preserved?
No, not yet.
It was in the house of Bakr as
-Siddiq ﷺ, the khalifa.
He was kept in the house of Bakr
as-Siddiq ﷺ all his lifetime which didn't
last long.
He was only a leader for how many
years?
Anyone knows?
About two and a half, two something, two
and a half years almost you could say
and then he passed.
Then who came after that?
Umar.
Umar became the khalifa so that standard mushaf
moved from the house of Bakr as-Siddiq
into the house of Umar and remained with
Umar all these years, all these years.
How long did he become a khalifa?
Past a decade.
He's ten plus years and then when he
passed, before he passed, he handed the mushaf
to who?
To Hafsa, his daughter.
Now you're wondering why did he put it
in the house of Hafsa?
The wife of the Prophet ﷺ?
But there was something else.
They haven't picked the next leader yet.
Umar told them you have six people, choose
one of them.
So maybe it was put in the house
of Hafsa temporarily until the leader is chosen.
But once the leader was chosen which was
Uthman, he never claimed it.
He just kept it in the house of
Hafsa until he needed the copy to be
taken care of.
So at the time of Uthman ﷺ what
happened is that the expansion of the ummah
and the expansion of the state…
Jameel, did Tariq meet you?
Okay, he went to look for you.
He went to look to check on you,
alhamdulillah.
No, you're good.
We're worried about you, that's all.
Allah bless you.
So in the story of Hudayfa ﷺ when
the Muslim ummah expanded and they started traveling
all over the world, there happened to be
a meeting of many of the people who
came from different places in the world, obviously
in the Muslim world.
They met in modern-day Azerbaijan which is
basically north from Iran these days.
So this tells you how far the Sahaba
went in their conquest.
From the Arabian Peninsula went all the way
up into Asia, into Asham, Egypt and so
on.
So in that area many of the students
of the Sahaba they also gathered in that
army.
So people from the north of the Arabian
Peninsula, from the southern part of the Arabian
Peninsula, from the east, from the central, they
all came and they gathered there as the
Muslim army.
Now these people they recited the Qur'an
differently, different harfs and different recitations.
So when they would start reciting and leading
each other in salah they were not familiar
with these different sounds.
Alhamdulillah today for us it's easy because we
know the meaning of the Qur'an, even
we hear it online, you go to different
communities and you can recite, listen to recitation
differently, so we have no problem with that.
But those who are unfamiliar with that can
be a problem for them.
Like I remember when we were students in
Medina, the imam of the masjid in the
university, he used to recite different recitations.
So every time he recited different recitations he
would tell us he's going to be reciting
according to such and such and he recites.
And we would enjoy different recitations of the
Qur'an as students of Medina.
However we had a lot of workers in
the jami'ah, like the servers and the
workers and so on, they'd come from different
places of the world, particularly from Bangladesh, India
and these places.
I remember one time one of those Bengali
actually workers sitting next to me in prayer,
and the imam was reciting the recitation of
what's it called?
So this Bengali brother after prayer was over,
he said to me, he goes, what is
this zirata, zirata, zirata?
And I'm like, what am I going to
tell him?
I tried to explain but I don't think
the language was enough to explain what does
that mean.
He was so upset, he's just like, these
Arabs don't know how to read the Qur
'an basically.
So yeah, if you're going to be reading
the Qur'an, make sure that the people
understand what you're reciting.
Similarly one time, subhanallah, in the community I
received a phone call from a different community.
There are some people upset that the imam
that leads the salah for them, he doesn't
know how to recite the Qur'an.
And I'm saying, okay, so how old is
he?
They said, he's that age.
I said, well, reasonable, he should know.
Is he Arab?
He said, yeah, he's Arab.
I said, so what's weird?
How does he not know how to read
the Qur'an?
And then he was asking if we should
have somebody else lead the Qur'an, lead
the salah for us.
I said, you need to have somebody who
is actually is better knowledgeable of the Qur
'an.
He should know that.
Then finally, subhanallah, before we hung up, I
said, wait a minute, tell me, is that
man happen to be maybe from North Africa?
Is he from Morocco, Algeria, Tunisia, these countries?
He goes, yeah, he's from Morocco.
I said, oh man.
I said, okay, you need to ask him
what recitation he is using in his salah.
If he's reciting warsh, then you're fine.
If it's qalun, you're fine.
He's just reciting different recitation.
So yeah, the exact same thing happened.
But look, this has happened today, even though
the knowledge of qiraat and recitation, alhamdulillah, on
YouTube and on the internet is becoming very
popular.
You still have people who don't understand the
difference between the qiraat.
Imagine back then when they had absolutely no
connection with other sahaba or other students of
sahaba, so they only learned the Qur'an
in one way.
That's it.
So when they met in Azerbaijan and they
start leading each other in salah, they start
accusing each other not knowing how to recite
the Qur'an.
Like what kind of Qur'an that you're
reading?
So they almost start fighting among themselves.
And that's when Khadhaifa, he sent immediately to
the khalifa of Uthman, he goes, ya amirul
mu'minin, adrikin nas.
You better save the people before they fight
against each other.
And he told him what was happening.
So Uthman radiyallahu anhu wa rida, it was
suggested for him, look, you need to standardize
the mushaf, the recitation according to the tongue
of Quraysh.
No need for other tongues anymore because the
Arabs are a minority right now.
With all the conquest that was happening, the
Arab became minority within the Muslims.
So there is no meaning of saying, read
different tongues.
One is enough, standardize that.
So that's the idea of standardizing the mushaf
when it came out in Medina.
So Uthman radiyallahu anhu wa rida, what he
did, he went again to, he asked Hafs
radiyallahu anha if he could borrow the standard
mushaf, what they call al-mushaf al-imam.
So he asked for her if he could
borrow the standard mushaf and he took it.
He called the committee again, this time Zaid
being again the head of the committee to
standardize the mushaf.
He chose other group with him and they
started kind of like making sure to write
the mushaf in one particular script.
That script is supposed to be the script
of Quraysh but also accommodating different sounds and
different pronunciations based on different qiraat.
And we're going to see some examples for
that.
And it took them a while to do
that.
Once this was standardized then they ordered all
the other masahif or all the other written
material to be destroyed and they made four
copies from that mushaf.
And these copies were sent to different regions
in the Muslim world at the time.
One was sent to that area to the
east, one to the north, one to the
west and one to the south.
Until this day there is allegedly a copy
that is still preserved in modern day Samarkand
or Tashkent.
It's known as the Tashkent copy of the
mushaf.
And I think we have actually a picture
of it here.
But just before we get to that I
want to explain to you, so you have
the transition I believe in your book alhamdulillah.
So just to add to show you what
does it mean to say the script, the
Uthmani script of the mushaf.
Now in terms of the Arabic calligraphy by
the way there are tons of different Arabic
styles of writing.
Anyone of you had ever taken any workshops
on Arabic calligraphy?
Nobody?
Ask my wife, actually she does that.
So basically the different styles.
The two common styles at the time of
the revelation of the Quran were known as
the Hijazi and Al-Kufi.
The most common two scripts.
Hijazi because Hijazi is the western belt of
the Arabian Peninsula.
That includes Mecca, Medina and all the way
down south and up to the Yemen region.
And then you have the Kufi which is
coming from Iraq.
These are the two common standards and styles
of writing.
You're going to see it in the standard
mushaf.
It has a lot of straight lines.
A lot of straight lines when it comes
to drawing the letters.
We're going to see it later inshaAllah.
But here some of the examples on how
the Uthmani mushaf has to accommodate different qiraat.
If you look at the word here, Al
-Ladhina Hum Ibadur Rahmani Inatha.
The word Ibad, Wa Ja'alu Al-Malaikat
Al-Ladhina Hum Ibadur Rahmani Inatha.
In Surah Az-Zukhruf, Allah ﷻ says, and
they claimed the angels who are the servant
of the Most Merciful, they claimed them to
be female.
So here the word Ibad, as you can
see how it was written.
In the modern style of writing, you will
have to add an alif after ba, so
it becomes Ibad.
So why was it written like this?
Because there was another recitation of the Qur
'an that reads it to be Indur Rahman.
Indur Rahman.
So the dot will be on top.
So it becomes Indur Rahmani Inatha.
Which means the same thing.
Ibadur Rahman, the servant of Al-Rahman.
Indur Rahman means who are with the Most
Merciful, they call them to be females.
So that's to accommodate a different recitation.
Another example over here is to make sure
that it preserves the original letter in the
word.
So As-Salat, As-Salat, there's a, you
know, in the morphology, some letters are omitted
from the word because they're obvious.
So what was the original letter that was
omitted from the word Salat?
It is actually Wa.
So when they write it, they write it
with the original letter not being omitted, it's
still included, but it's not pronounced, it's silent.
So this is why we say As-Salat,
As-Salat.
Another example here, sometimes the script is put
there to emphasize a specific meaning that is
required to be understood from the recitation.
Such as here, وَيَدْعُوا الْإِنسَانُ بِالشَّرِّ دُعَاءَهُ بِالْخَيْرِ
Surat al-Israa, وَيَدْعُوا.
Usually in the modern script of the Arabic
script right now, there is a Wa after
the Ayn, وَيَدْعُوا, it's supposed to be وَيَدْعُوا.
But the Wa was omitted when you recite
the ayah, which means and the insan is
calling, he's basically is calling for evil to
befall him, like out of arrogance, out of
challenge to Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala and
the Prophet said, you know what, bring that
destruction that you claim, bring it.
And then sometimes they do that, وَيَدْعُوا.
So why was it يَدْعُوا without دَوَاء?
If you remember, we talked about the Arabic
language, if you add a letter, it adds
an extra meaning.
If you take a letter out, it has
another meaning as well.
So يَدْعُوا is now shorter in pronunciation than
يَدْعُوا.
So what does that mean?
That emphasizes that their du'a and their
call for destruction is what?
They're very hasty.
Like they don't even have time to pronounce
دَوَاء anymore.
So وَيَدْعُوا, so that's why it's actually to
be quick and fast.
Another example, here the word رَحْمَة, he's written
it with a تَأْ مَرْبُوطَة.
And here it's written with a تَأْ مَفْتُوحَة.
Sometimes to emphasize, to emphasize a specific قراءة,
like in the طَيْء area, and sometimes also
because this becomes رَحَمَاتْ, like the جَنَّاتْ and
جَنَّةْ.
Here when you pause at رَحْمَةْ, you pause
with a هَأْ رَحْمَةْ.
And here when you pause, you pause رَحْمَةْ,
because there's a تَأْ actually, not just تَأْ
مَرْبُوطَةْ.
So the point I'm making here is that
their specific way of writing words in the
script, the Uthmani script and the Mus'haf,
they're not used in the standard Arabic script
today.
So if you read any standard book today,
you will find the words written differently.
Why?
Because they add all the الف's and the
و's and they remove the unnecessary letters, and
they make it basically easy to read.
And that's all academic, you know, books that
you see in the contemporary text of the
Arabic language or the calligraphy.
But the Arabic text of the Mus'haf
is very unique to it.
We're going to come to that.
So the first script, let me show the
script as it is in the old or
standard Mus'haf.
Look at this right now.
So these two pages, these two pages here,
or these two pictures on the left side,
are actually allegedly, again, from the Tashkent Mus
'haf, which exists today in Samarkand, in Uzbekistan,
I believe.
So it still exists there.
And they say this copy, as you can
see how massive this copy is, is one
of those original copies of the four copies
that were sent by Uthman ibn Affar.
It's disputable.
They still claim it to be true and
genuine.
Maybe it's actually a copy from the copies.
It is an old copy, no doubt about
it.
That's no doubt about it.
But is it one of the four master
copies that Uthman produced during his time?
Allah Allah.
We don't know.
But look at the letter here.
See, this is what we call the Hijazi
and the Kufi style.
There is no dots.
There is no Fath or Dammah.
There is nothing like this.
So the script was very basic, or you
could say primitive script, if you wanted to
put it this way.
But that, again, was written in a way
for all the qiraat to be included.
Here, this one is what is considered, this
is actually two pages, the only two pages,
surviving two pages of a Mus'haf, an
old Mus'haf, that is known to be
the oldest known script of the Mus'haf.
And it was found in 2015, was found
in an archive in one university, was hidden
there all these years.
It was brought from modern day Iraq by
an Arab Christian who brought it actually to
a specific university and it's preserved over there
since 2015.
It was discovered when they did all the
investigation and analysis and testing and so on.
They found that to be written in the
very early age of the time of Islam,
which means there's a big, big chance these
are the handwritings of a Sahabi, handwriting of
a Sahabi.
I remember also, I've seen another actually two
pages from Surat, I believe Surat An-Nahl
at the time, and it's preserved in the
Harvard University.
And they also claim it to be, that
it goes all the way back to the
time of Umar bin Khattab, which means a
Sahabi handwriting.
Do you know where this is preserved right
now?
In what university?
Birmingham.
Yours guys, over here, you stole everything from
us.
Right?
From Rosetta Stone to the Mus'haf, everything,
you just, and you call it, you know,
British Museum.
Yeah, right?
Anyways, so this is one of the, look
at the script over here, no fatha, no
dhamma, no khasra, no dots, nothing.
So because it's very standard.
This was added later.
So the first thing that was added after
the standard writing were the grammar dots.
So the grammar back then was not fatha,
dhamma, and khasra, were dots.
So these dots were done in red and
black.
So they put them on the top of
the last letter, or after the last letter,
or under the last letter, to indicate fatha,
dhamma, and khasra.
It wasn't until later that the other ulama,
they started kind of like trying to make
it easy.
They invented the fatha, dhamma, and khasra to
indicate the sounds, and they removed all these
dots.
And to emphasize the tanween, they doubled the
harakat.
So two fathas means an, two dhamma means
on, two khasras means in.
So that's kind of like all just was
added to the artistic side of the calligraphy
until it became as beautiful as we see
it today.
That's it.
Allah Allah.
Yes, you had a question.
Sorry again.
Oh, do we know which one is this?
This is actually Surah Maryam and Taha.
Surah Taha, to be specific, they said.
This one is actually, here is, So this
is Surah Al-Kahf actually, here.
Surah Al-Kahf.
Oops, sorry.
If you can read from here.
So I could read it because I could
recognize it.
It's not like a, if I didn't know
the surah probably just like, what is that?
SubhanAllah.
So yeah, so this is how it used
to be before.
And that's again the standard letter.
So now with the modern style of Arabic
calligraphy that was invented and was enhanced and
made more beautiful, they still kept the actual
standard words.
But they changed, of course, on the shape
of it to look nicer and make it
easier to recite.
So let's talk about the standard structure of
the mushaf right now.
The standard structure of a mushaf.
So we have the mushaf, the masahib right
now has been standardized into 30 juz, right?
And each juz is divided to eight quarters,
or actually two hizbs.
And each hizb is divided to four quarters.
So each juz, two hizb, and each juz
is eight quarters.
And each quarter has a specific number of
ayat.
The standard is usually about two, actually, pages,
two and a half pages, one and a
half, two and a half pages per quarter,
the standard.
So if you look at that, obviously it
depends on how many lines you put in
the page, that's how big the number of
pages will be.
But the standard one in the Medina mushaf
is about two pages, two and a half
pages per quarter.
So that makes every juz about 20 plus
pages.
Every juz.
Now, who divided the mushaf into these adzab?
Is it the Prophet ﷺ?
No.
Is it the sahaba?
Is it the committee of Zayd ibn Thabit?
The answer is no.
That actual classification came way later, way later
by the scholars of the masahib and the
Qur'an to make it easy for the
ummah to memorize the Qur'an.
So juz al-ammah, juz al-tabarakah, al
-baqarah having two and a half juz and
so on, all of this was ijtihad of
the scholars of the past.
And it wasn't standardized until later.
Like they were masahib without any indications of
the adzab and the number of pages and
number of quarts, nothing like this, from the
old one.
As you can see here, there's no even
punctuation for the ayat.
They wouldn't even divide the ayat.
But it was later on that the ulama
started dividing these masahib into adzab.
Now what about the surahs of the Qur
'an?
Who said that this is surah al-baqarah,
surah al-imran, surah an-nisa, surah al
-ma'idah?
Those surahs to say that it starts from
this ayah to end this ayah, whose classification
was that?
Now, most of the surahs basically, we know
that coming from the Prophet ﷺ because the
Prophet ﷺ he would say surah al-baqarah,
surah al-imran, he would say surah ar
-rahman, surah read this surah to me, surah
an-nisa.
He would name them by specific names ﷺ.
And some other surahs' names were disputable among
the ulama because the Prophet ﷺ used multiple
names for them.
So they would choose one name to say,
okay, we'll choose this name to be the
surah.
So, for example, surah al-tabarak, what is
the actual name for surah al-tabarak?
Surah al-mulk.
So is it called surah al-tabarak or
surah al-mulk?
Surah al-tabarak because of how it starts.
So what's the name of the surah?
Is it surah al-tabarak or surah al
-mulk?
The actual official name is surah al-mulk.
So where is the name al-tabarak coming
from?
Because when they used to speak, they would
say surah al-tabarak by how it starts.
So again, there were multiple names per surah
sometimes and the ulama, they made their ijtihad
and they chose one and say, okay, we're
going to call this surah al-tabarak or
surah al-mulk.
Like surah Muhammad, there's another name for it,
what is it called?
Al-qital, surah al-qital.
But the actual name for the surah is
surah Muhammad.
Surah al-tawbah, there's another name for it,
what is it?
Al-fadihah, like the, what do you call
it?
Exposé or something like that because it exposed
the munafiqeen.
But the name that we know about is
actually surah al-tawbah.
There's another name for it as well, which
is surah al-bara'ah because the first
ayah, the first word is bara'atu min
Allah, so it's bara'ah.
So the names of the surahs, many of
them from the Prophet ﷺ but also a
lot of those varieties of names came from
the time of the Prophet when they used
to call these surahs based on the beginning
of the recitation or the name of the
surah.
So it was ijtihad of some of the
ulema to choose this name over that name.
But some surahs for sure they are known
by that name because the Prophet ﷺ named
them so, like surah al-fatihah, surah al
-baqarah and so on.
So these are the actual accurate names of
the surahs.
Now in regards to the content of the
surahs, the content of each surah, where this
is coming from?
The content of the surah which means surah
al-kawthar for example three letters, three ayat,
that's it.
Who said there were three ayat?
So the content to say three ayat surah
al-takathur, 200 plus surah al-baqarah for
example, 200 exactly surah al-imran.
The number of ayat, not the number of
ayat, the ayat themselves that is the content
of the surah itself.
Is that ijtihad from the ulema?
Well that's from the Prophet ﷺ.
It's from the Prophet ﷺ for sure.
And where did the Prophet learn that from?
Jibreel, who took it from whom?
Allah ﷻ.
How do we know that?
We know that because when the Prophet ﷺ
used to receive a revelation, he would say,
اجعلوا آية كذا في سورة كذا بين كذا
وكذا which means put this ayah in this
surah between such and such ayah and such
and such ayah.
Like he would dictate the order of the
verses and the ayat in the surah itself.
So it's coming from Allah ﷻ.
Which is why sometimes we wonder, wait a
minute, if we look at the chronological order
of the revelation, is the Qur'an organized
based on the chronological order of the revelation?
No.
Is the surah organized based on the chronological
order of the ayat?
No.
So the organization of the ayat is coming
from the Prophet ﷺ to Jibreel ﷺ and
that's why we say the content is actually
divine over here.
خلاص توقيف as the ulema say.
You cannot play with the order of the
ayat.
Now in regards to the number of ayat
per surah, is that توقيف comes from the
Prophet ﷺ or is that ijtihad among the
ulema?
The number of ayat.
Like how many ayah is surah al-Fatihah?
Seven, right?
But where are the ayat in surah al
-Fatihah?
There's a difference of opinion among the ulema
about what are the ayat of surah al
-Fatihah because in the shafi'i say بِسْمِ
اللَّهِ الرَّحْمَٰنِ الرَّحِيمِ is actual ayah in surah
al-Fatihah.
But other ulema, they say بِسْمِ اللَّهِ is
not an actual ayah.
They divide the last ayah into two ayahs.
سِرَاطَ الَّذِينَ الصِّرَاطَ الْمُسْتَقِينَ سِرَاطَ الَّذِينَ نَعَمْتَ
عَلَيْهِمْ غَيْرَ الْمَغْضُوبَ عَلَيْهِمْ وَرَضَّالِّهِمْ So the بسمرة
is not part of it, basically based on
that.
So that's where the dispute among the ulema.
They say who really designed to say that
the ayah begins by this word and this
word and that word?
Well, the vast majority of the ulema, they
say this is from the Prophet ﷺ.
It's from the Prophet ﷺ and of course
coming from Jibreel, from Allah ﷻ to the
Prophet ﷺ.
Because when the first revelation came, they used
to say هذه الخمس, which means these are
the five.
So five what?
Verses, ayat.
So the ayat, when they were coming down,
they were also being designed to be ayat,
different numbers.
But there were some disputes among the ulema
on where the ayah ends and where the
ayah actually starts.
That's just a slight difference among the ulema
and certain ayat, but not all the musa
'ib, all the musa'ib of the Qur
'an.
Exactly.
Like for example, saying surat al-Anfal and
surat al-Tawbah are one surah.
And others, they say no, they were actually
two separate surahs, which is what we know
right now as it being two separate surahs.
Yeah, so one of the evidences is when
the Prophet ﷺ used to recite the Qur
'an, كان يقف على رؤوس الآيات.
He used to stop and pause at the
beginning of each ayah, at the end of
each ayah.
So pausing على رؤوس الآيات, which means at
the end and the beginning, that determines where
the ayah begins and where the ayah ends.
So that's again, we know that the ayat
come from the Prophet ﷺ.
Now in terms of the classification of juz'
and hizb and a quarter, is that tawqeefi?
Can you change that?
No, no, no, not the order of the
musa'ib.
We're talking about the division of the adzah,
like saying 30 juz', I want to make
them 60 juz'.
Can you make them, instead of having the
juz' made of two hizb, can I make
them on four hizb and make them shorter?
As a matter of fact, it's actually, it
is done somewhere else.
Like in the North African mus'haf, they
go by eighths, not quarters.
In general, the mus'haf is written actually
and is divided to eighths, not just quarters.
So you have the mus'haf, that juz',
one full juz', divided to two hizbs.
And now the standard one we have, each
hizb is divided to quarters, so four quarters
per hizb.
Now the North African mus'haf, they divide
the quarters half as well, making each one
eighth.
So you have in this case, per hizb,
you will have actually, you have what?
Eighth, eighth of eighth basically.
So each juz' is 16 pieces.
Why is that?
Why do you divide it in that fashion?
What's the point of that division?
To make it easy for memorization.
Some, they say that the hizb is too
long, so they go by quarters.
Well, quarters is too long for me, so
they go by eighth.
So those divisions, they're not tawqeefi from the
Prophet ﷺ, it's only ijtihad of the scholars
and the ulama, and therefore, it's okay if
you don't adhere to this classification.
One more thing in the mus'haf, as
we see it today.
You see the mus'haf is, in the
ayat, there are specific, let's say, classifications.
When you have letter jeem, and you have
saad, laam, and alif, maqsura, and qaaf, laam,
alif, maqsura, like salah or qala, and then
you have sometimes three dots and three dots,
and you have letter meem coming down a
certain way.
What are all these classifications in the mus
'haf?
These are now tajweed, tajweed ahkam, and also
related to what we call them ahkam al
-waqf wa l-i'tinaf.
Like, I don't know if you guys, yesterday
or today, at Fajr, subhanAllah, Isa ﷺ was
reciting in a beautiful way, and I'm just
like, oh my God, I wish that people
can enjoy it as much as I'm trying
to enjoy it, subhanAllah.
Because when he pauses, when he stops, when
he resumes, it's just like, whoa, this is
gorgeous, this is amazing, mashaAllah.
The way when you stop and when you
begin, it really makes big difference when you
listen to the ayah and how you relate
to it.
For example, in surah Ali Imran, Allah ﷻ
says, قُلِ اللَّهُمَّ مَالِكَ الْمُلْكِ تُؤْتِ الْمُلْكَ مَنْ
تَشَاءُ وَتَنْزَلْ مُلْكُمْ مَنْ تَشَاءُ قُلِ اللَّهُمَّ مَالِكَ
الْمُلْكِ Say, Ya Allah, You are Malik al
-Mulk, like You are the King of Kings.
So the ayah translation is, Say to them
or say, Ya Allah, You are the King
of Kings, alright?
So here's how you recite that.
I heard one time, one of the Qur
'aan, Egyptian Qur'aan recited three times and
each time it's very unique, it changes the
meaning.
I'm just like, whoa, where this guy is
coming from?
He said like this, قُلِ اللَّهُمَّ مَالِكَ الْمُلْكِ
قُلِ اللَّهُمَّ مَالِكَ الْمُلْكِ مَالِكَ الْمُلْكِ تُؤْتِ الْمُلْكَ
مَنْ تَشَاءُ What's the difference?
So when he says قُلِ اللَّهُمَّ مَالِكَ الْمُلْكِ
He's now giving you the narration.
He's saying قُلِ اللَّهُمَّ So he's narrating to
you.
But when he says اللَّهُمَّ مَالِكَ الْمُلْكِ He
omitted قل, right?
قُلِ اللَّهُمَّ He said اللَّهُمَّ Start from اللَّهُمَّ
So when you say اللَّهُمَّ مَالِكَ What do
you get out of this?
It becomes a du'a.
So it becomes a du'a right now.
اللَّهُمَّ مَالِكَ الْمُلْكِ And then when you omit
that du'a statement and you say مَالِكَ
الْمُلْكِ تُؤْتِ الْمُلْكَ مَنْ تَشَاءُ What does that
mean?
It's a word of praise.
It says مَالِكَ الْمُلْكِ It's a word of
praise.
So whether you start with قُلِ اللَّهُمَّ مَالِكَ
الْمُلْكِ قُلِ اللَّهُمَّ مَالِكَ الْمُلْكِ مَالِكَ الْمُلْكِ Wherever
you start, it gives a profound meaning of
its own right and that's why al-Waqf
wa l-I'tinaf is important.
So you see these Salah and Qala that
you keep skipping because you want to finish
quickly, you're missing out on the meanings, you're
missing out on the meanings.
So the Salah means you can pause but
it's better to continue and the Qala, it
means you can continue but it's better to
pause over here.
And the Jeem says it's neutral, like the
meaning either way is okay, whether you stop
or continue it's going to be the same
meaning.
So these little things in the Qira'ah
you would not really appreciate unfortunately unless you
understand some of the Arabic language, that's when
you realize okay pausing and stopping here means
a whole different meaning subhanAllah.
So yeah that's why I would say when
you listen to Qira'ah, look for those
who really have that very artistic also way
of stopping and reciting.
They know where to stop, where to resume
because the meaning makes a big difference here.
I want to advise you one thing, if
you plan to memorize the Qur'an, I
highly recommend for you when you try to
memorize, to write it down.
Write what you want to memorize, like if
you want to memorize two ayahs or half
a page, use your handwriting.
If you say, I don't know how to
write Arabic, I want you to learn that.
Why is that?
Because when you use your hands and use
your eyes, the motion, the sound of it
as you try to write it down, it
helps, subhanAllah helps you actually also focus on
what you're reciting, what you're doing.
That's why when I was in Bosnia as
we were helping the kids actually memorize, it
was mandatory for them to write what they
memorized.
Even though they have a mushaf already in
their hands, but we have them write it
down.
So you are memorizing these ayahs, okay, I
want you to write them down for me.
So they write down, mashaAllah.
And they have, some of them mashaAllah, they
have beautiful handwriting.
But that wasn't the important thing, the important
thing is that they learn to write it
down because as they write down, they will
be pronouncing it and repeating it.
So when they memorize, alhamdulillah, it becomes easier
for them inshaAllah ta'ala.
So do that and teach your kids as
well and you will see for yourself mashaAllah
how beautiful it becomes and easier for them
to memorize the Qur'an inshaAllah azza wa
jalla.
Let's move on.
Now alhamdulillah the Qur'an was revealed to
the Prophet ﷺ, was memorized, was written down
with the Prophet ﷺ.
It was then documented in one volume by
Abu Bakr as-Siddiq radiAllahu ta'ala nu
'aridah, standardized by Uthman radiAllahu ta'ala nu
'aridah, and we know that this organization of
the mushaf took generations to bring it to
perfection as we know it today mashaAllah.
So all this is beautiful.
Okay so what was the next level of
preservation of the Qur'an?
The next level of preservation of the Qur
'an is what we call the ijazah standard,
the ijazah standard.
What does that mean?
Our deen is based on what?
Authenticity.
Allah says, qul haatu burhanakum un kuntum sadiqin,
bring me the proof if you're truthful.
So our deen has been based on proofs
and evidences, it means authentication.
You can't claim anything as you wish but
you really really need to make sure that
you have the reliable source of the information
that you're claiming.
So the Qur'an, where did it come
from?
How do you know it's authentic?
That's when we go by what we call
the chain of narrators, right?
The hadith of the Prophet ﷺ, same thing,
it has to go through a chain of
narrators.
Everything in our deen to be authenticated has
to have a source that's reliable for us.
That's the ilm al-ruwaya, it became very
important.
Part of this is narration of the Qur
'an.
So at the beginning of the time of
the Prophet ﷺ, hundreds of people memorized the
Qur'an.
Then those people they would travel around the
world.
Students are learning from these sahaba and they
memorize the Qur'an and they taught them
how to recite the Qur'an.
And then those students they taught other students
and then other students.
So in every generation, every class of the
generations, you will have thousands and thousands of
people who memorized the Qur'an.
Until in our time, mashaAllah, we talk about
millions of people who memorized the Qur'an.
This is what we call al-tawatur, abundance,
right?
But now in order for you to authenticate
your recitation, that I am reciting as perfectly
as it was recited by the sahaba and
the Prophet ﷺ, you have to authenticate that.
That process of authentication is called ijazah.
We give you the ijazah or the license,
then you are licensed right now to read
and recite the Qur'an perfectly and teach
the Qur'an as well too.
To have that ijazah, you're going to need
to have of course that chain of narrators
that takes you to the source.
By the way, before the establishment of the
print and the publishing machines, the ulama of
the past, especially in the Ottoman Empire, they
resisted the print houses and printing books.
Why is that?
Anyone knows?
Besides calling it bid'ah and this is
coming from the kuffar and all that kind
of stuff.
But there was one thing that they were
worried about.
What is that?
Huh?
Misprinting?
No.
The authentication process.
Because in the past, when the ulama used
to write books, they go where?
They go to a scribe house and they
say, hey, I want a copy of this
book.
It's not like today, mashaAllah, you have multiple
copies already in print.
No.
No.
The book is written, there's one copy.
Or you bring your own master copy with
you and you say, I want a copy
of this book.
So the scribe, they write the book for
you and then they give it to you.
Once the book is given to you right
now, you need to authenticate it.
How do you do that?
You read the book to the teacher who
has an ijazah from his teacher, who had
an ijazah from his teacher, who had an
ijazah from his teacher, all the way to
the source, the author.
That I read this, I heard the book
from the sheikh.
So everything was proof read and was corrected
accordingly.
And then they sign on it and they
put the date that the sheikh signed on
the book that is authentic.
So when you take it from that scribe,
the scribe puts his name and his date
on it.
But you need to authenticate the book with
another teacher.
So that every book back then, all these
documentation and signatures and dates, to authenticate the
source.
So that's how important it was.
And the mushaf has more importance as well
too.
So that's why they need to authenticate that.
So they were resisting prints because when you
start printing in massive copies, how are you
going to authenticate all of that?
So that was kind of one way of
resisting it.
Which is, I don't blame them for it
because sometimes you buy books, I used to
buy books from Medina, there were some printing
houses, they were really, really butchering books along
this time.
Literally, like whole chapters are missing and you
have, you know, words are just butchered and
because all what they need is just money.
They print books just for the sake of
printing it to sell it cheap, subhanAllah.
And so we used to avoid certain print
houses because their print is bad.
Alhamdulillah, now it's much better.
So they have a better standard for that,
alhamdulillah, ameen.
So the Qur'an is the same thing.
The ulama, they have to know where you,
who was your teacher?
Is that a reliable source or not?
Do you have an ijazah from your teacher
or not?
Where's the proof for that ijazah?
So it was usually in writing.
And that ijazah will contain the chain of
reciters or qaris all the way to the
source over here.
So it has to be certified and granted
by a qualified Qur'an teacher.
What makes that Qur'an teacher a qualified
Qur'an teacher?
His ijazah or her ijazah.
And what qualifies that ijazah from the source
that is also qualifying them to become, you
know, professional qaris?
Certify the student has recited the entire Qur
'an to the teacher from the mushaf, which
means the ijazah comes in two formats.
There's an ijazah of qira'ah or ijazah
of hifz.
So the ijazah of qira'ah, it only
certifies you that you have recited the Qur
'an from cover to cover correctly according to
the rules of tajweed.
And that's the teacher will certify you that
you are now qualified to teach people Qur
'an and tajweed of Qur'an.
That's what you're qualified for.
That's it.
Some, they have the qualification for memorization, which
means they have memorized the Qur'an according
to the recitation of Hafs and Asim from
this teacher to that teacher all the way
to Asim himself, which will lead them of
course to the sahaba afterwards.
Now you can't get an ijazah if you
mess up with the tajweed or your pronouncements.
So no matter how good you think you
are, you need to make sure that you
pronounce correctly with tajweed and also the vowels
and the sounds are perfect.
So you can be the best qari, but
if you don't really have the right pronouncement
of letters or tajweed, you're missing the letter,
you cannot get that ijazah.
Ijazah has to be for the pronunciation and
for the tajweed as well too.
Some of course people, they have mashallah, multiple
ijazah.
What does that mean?
They have it in different qira'ah from
different teachers and so on.
Now what is the best ijazah by the
way?
What makes ijazah the most highly sought after?
What is the best ijazah you can look
for?
The shortest chain?
The shortest chain to the Prophet ﷺ?
And also what?
I mean who the teacher is?
The teacher.
So if you know that you're going to
be taking your ijazah from this shaykh, but
his shaykh is still alive, which is better
for you to do?
To take from this teacher or go to
his source?
I'd rather go to the source to make
my chain shorter.
However, if you're unable to reach that shaykh
because of geographical problem or issue, whatever that
is, then what do you do in this
case?
Just study with the local shaykh, better for
you.
Even if your chain is longer, you're still
good.
If Allah blessed you one day to go
to his teacher and learn from them, then
you could get an ijazah from that teacher
as well too.
Some ulema, and that's something I want you
to be careful with, some ulema are more
strict with ijazah than others.
Some ulema, they only take the ijazah for
the barakah.
What does that mean?
They don't listen to the whole Qur'an
from you.
So what do they do then?
They listen to a few ajzah, different random
parts of the Qur'an, and they notice
if you recite well and your ahkam are
well, they give you general ijazah.
That general ijazah is good, but it's barakah,
for the barakah.
If you really need that true ijazah, that
hard working ijazah, you're going to have to
recite the whole mus'haf from cover to
cover, word for word, before that teacher can
actually say, I'll give you the ijazah for
it.
Now, very good question.
Should that ijazah be acquired within a specific
time frame or could it be in five
years for example?
Now it depends on the shaykh, but usually
the mashayikh, they want you to do it
in the shortest time as possible.
Instead of giving throughout the whole year or
two years, they do it in a few
months.
And that's why, I don't know about the
UK over here, but alhamdulillah in the US
we have some ulema and some qurra who
give ijazah.
One of them is Shaykh Waid al-Manisi,
he's in Minnesota.
And he has one of the shortest sanads,
mashallah, of the recitations, and that's why a
lot of students they go to him to
Minnesota to do qurra and get ijazah from
him.
And alhamdulillah he also travels around the country.
So when there's a mu'tamar or a conference,
he would go there and he would dedicate
his time to listen to the students who
travel to that conference just to get ijazah
from him.
And I've seen him, subhanallah, in those sessions,
he would be sitting down with four or
five students just waiting their turns to recite,
subhanallah, and that's the barakah of keeping our
qurra alhamdulillah authenticated and of course you know
not certified so not everybody can claim wasaat
is kind of intruding on the subject of
the qurra.
Now, can you take ijazah online?
You can, you can, I mean there's no
doubt you can, alhamdulillah at least it gives
us a hope that we don't have to
wait forever to get the ijazah.
By the way some ulama they're very strict,
they don't accept ijazah over the internet, they
don't.
They want you to be present so that
at least they certify you in person.
So it depends on how strict the qari
is.
Can you get ijazah just for one portion
of the qurran?
Yes, you can.
Like for example Juz Amma, if you get
ijazah in Juz Amma, you cannot teach Juz
Tabarak, you can only teach Juz Amma as
a qualified teacher.
But can you teach qurran to other people
from other portions of the qurran, you can.
But if someone wants to get the full
certified qurran, then yeah, I certify you for
this, for example, that's all.
So that's why I hope that our qurran
teachers in this country and also in our
Islamic schools, I hope they have ijazah.
If they're just teaching because mashallah they're good
at reciting the qurran or because they're Arab,
that's a problem.
We need them to be certified inshaAllah wa
ta'ala because again that gives confidence to
the process itself inshaAllah.
Now another thing about the ijazah, something we
need to know about the ijazah, that's when
after of course knowing how to do tajweed,
then you start looking into the mastery of
one particular qurran.
And the most popular one we said was
Hafs An-Asim, so you do that.
If you want to add another one like
Shorba, that becomes another riwayah, An-Asim as
well too, so you have to do another
recitation before you are qualified with another certification.
So that's why when you hear that mashallah
our qari, our imam here is certified, he
has ijazah in the ten qurraat, you guys
need to understand what does that exactly mean.
That's a big deal.
It's not like anything, it's not just like,
oh I just can download that from the
internet yani.
No, it is really really a big deal
to have an ijazah with one qurraat, let
alone with the ten qurraat.
May Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala preserve you
all and give you the ability to do
that ya rabbil alameen.
Some ulama after of course they require from
you as part of your ijazah is to
at least to study one particular text, and
I think you guys, you have Tuhfatul Atfal,
is it Tuhfatul Which one do you have?
Al-Muqaddim Al-Jazariyya.
Al-Muqaddim Al-Jazariyya, oh okay.
So Al-Muqaddim Al-Jazariyya for example.
So they demand that you study actually one
of those ahkam in order to qualify you
as well, and if you want to be
also certified with qurraat, then sometimes they mandate
that you memorize or at least study Ash
-Shatibiyya, which is a whole different realm.
The University of Medina, the qurraat, those who
graduate from the qurraat school, they have to
go over the entire text.
They don't necessarily memorize it, but at least
they have to go through the Ash-Shatibiyya
all together because it has all the different
qurraat in one line of poetry.
Do you know what the shortest chain right
now?
I know one of the mashayikh was Az
-Zayyad actually in Egypt, he had the shortest
chain at that time.
I'm not sure if he's still there or
not.
But how many people in that chain, Allah
A'lam, I don't know.
What is inside Ash-Shatibiyya?
Oh man, look I'm an Arab and I
can't even read it.
I can't read it.
Why?
Why?
Because it's one of the most technical, one
of the most technical poetries or poems.
It's a poem, it's a hundred different lines
of poetry.
The purpose of it is to document all
the variations of the qurraat in one poem.
So when you read it, the first few
lines by the way they're easy, Arabic easy
you can recite that, simple, because it's very
just introduction.
But then once he starts talking about the
qurraat, it becomes very technical.
And he uses certain codes.
So he codifies the certain words and those
anchorments that he uses in these codes, he
uses them in the poem so that the
professional qari would know when he uses these
actually kind of like codes, he knows what
we're talking about.
But the average person when they try to
even read it, they don't have no clue
what he's saying.
It's actually difficult really.
So for these students to study it, subhanallah,
mashallah, they're amazing.
Look it up online and try to see
for yourself, if you want you can go
on YouTube and listen to some of it
inshallah ta'ala.
Let me see if I can get something
here for you quickly.
Anyone has internet here jama'a?
Because I have the full signal but it
doesn't give me anything.
Anyway look it up on YouTube, look for
Al-Shatabiyya and listen to it and see
for yourself inshallah ta'ala.
Yes sister?
If someone says that they have ijazah with
10 qiraat, you need to say, qiraat Asim
bi riwayat Hafs, that's enough.
So you have the qiraat of Asim but
bi riwayat Hafs.
And if you study Shuba then you have
the 2 riwayat, the most popular 2 riwayat
from Asim.
If you have 1 riwayat from each qari
then you can say I have 10 ijazah
and 5 qiraat or 6 qiraat.
You don't have to have all the riwayat,
you don't have to have all Hafs and
Shuba to have the recitation.
You can have 1 riwayat and it will
be fine inshallah ta'ala.
So Asim has 1 qiraat, like 1 style.
Hafs and Shuba, students of Asim, they recite
with a bit of variation in terms of
the fathaat and kasraat.
Like sometimes you see that the recitation goes
with fathaat and the other one recites with
kasraat.
Like what difference does it make there?
It might be sometimes change the verb from
passive to active.
Active verb, passive verb, that's all.
So it just kind of changes the profound
meaning of the word, that's all, wallahu a
'lam.
Yes?
Why don't you go back to the surah
and read it inshallah ta'ala and see
what was the reason behind it.
So the story is, this question is about
when the Prophet ﷺ received the revelation, then
there was interruption and he was going to
the mountains, kind of like he was thinking
that he was going crazy.
So he wanted to jump off the mountain,
but Jibreel comes to him and says, no,
no, don't do this, Anta Rasulullah, Anta Rasulullah.
So read the story, the background of the
story, you can check it out in the
surah books inshallah ta'ala.
Okay, in the last few minutes inshallah ta
'ala, I want to just go over one
aspect of the Qur'an which is the
Mecca and Madani Qur'an, quickly inshallah, Mecca
and Madani Qur'an.
So what is the Mecca and Madani Qur
'an?
The Mecca and Madani Qur'an, it's basically
if you open the mushaf and you read
the index of the surahs, sometimes they indicate
Mecca, Madani, Mecca, Madani.
So they tell you this surah is Mecca,
this surah is Madani, this surah is Mecca,
this surah is Madani.
What's the difference between the Mecca and Madani
Qur'an?
So the Mecca and Madani Qur'an is
indicated or defined by the time of the
hijrah.
So they say anything that was revealed before
the hijrah of the Prophet ﷺ to Medina
would be considered Mecca regardless of its geographical
location.
And anything that was revealed after the migration
of the Prophet ﷺ to Medina would be
considered Madani regardless of its geographical location.
So for example, surah or the ayah actually,
the very famous ayah of surah Al-Ma
'idah, اليوم أكمنت لكم دينكم و أتممت عليكم
نعمتي و رضيت لكم الإسلام دينا.
Where was this revealed?
On Arafah, just outside of Mecca even.
In Arafah, outside of Mecca, but when was
that?
The ninth hijri year, so nine years after
the hijrah.
So even though it was revealed in Mecca,
you could say, we still call it an
ayah to know what?
Madaniyyah, because it happened after the hijrah.
Surah Al-Fath, where was it revealed?
Surah Al-Fath was revealed between Mecca and
Medina on the journey back to Medina from
the Hudaybiyyah.
So it's not in Mecca, it's not even
in Medina.
So what do we call Surah Al-Fath?
Madaniyyah, because it was revealed after the hijrah.
So the marking of Madani and Mecca Qur
'an is the hijrah of the Prophet ﷺ.
Now when it comes to what's the majority
of the surahs and what is that?
So here the ulema, they say almost two
thirds of the 114 surahs are considered Mecca.
But why is that?
Although there is more Madani ayat than Mecca
ayat, but two thirds of the surah are
Mecca.
How so?
Yes?
The shorter surahs, because the majority of the
Meccan surahs were the shorter surahs.
So in terms of number of surahs, most
of them are Meccan, but in terms of
the length of the ayat, most of them
are actually Madani.
So like we could say that Surah Al
-Baqarah which is a Madani surah, it's two
and a half juzas.
That's how many surahs from Juz Amma and
Juz Tabarak together, all that combined, a lot.
But the majority of the surahs are Meccan,
but the majority of the ayat you could
say in terms of the length, they're Madani.
Some surahs usually predominantly Meccan, but you have
one or two ayat that have been put
in there, as from the Madani Qur'an,
and sometimes actually the opposite.
So that tells us that who indicated this
ayat should be put in this surah, that
surah?
The Prophet ﷺ.
Because the Qur'an was not organised based
on a chronological order, it was for a
book of guidance.
So the need for this ayah to be
in this surah was essential, and that's what
the Prophet ﷺ would do.
As an example of that, so Meccan verse
in a Madani surah, which is in Surah
Al-Ansas, some of the ulama they say,
وَإِذْ يَمْكُرُ بِكَ الَّذِينَ كَفَرُوا لِيُثْبِتُوكَ أَوْ يَقْتُلُوكَ
أَوْ يُخْرُجُوكَ وَيَمْكُرُوا وَيَمْكُرُوا اللَّهُ وَاللَّهُ خَرَى
الْمَاكِّرِينَ So in the surah they say, this
ayah speaks about the event of the hijrah,
when the Prophet ﷺ was still actually in
Mecca, and that's when he left his house,
protected ﷺ.
So it was revealed in Mecca, but was
later on added to Surah Al-Anfal in
the Madani Qur'an.
Just an example to show you.
So what's the benefit of learning about the
Meccan Madani Qur'an anyway, what do we
get out of it anyway?
A few reasons here, historic, and some of
it is legislative.
So the historic facts that we learn from
the Qur'an, it gives a clear understanding
of the context of the revelation.
Like when you know when it happened, how
it happened, the story behind it, it gives
you profound understanding of the ayah.
Like the ayah we just cited earlier, when
we know this happened when the Prophet was
leaving his house, Allah protected him and they
couldn't see him ﷺ.
Identifies possible reasons for revelation.
Like sometimes the ayah was revealed for a
specific reason, a specific incident, so now we
know why this ayah was revealed.
And so we know if it was in
the Mecca era versus the Madani era obviously.
And documents clear image of the life of
the Muslims before and after.
How they were in Mecca and how they
were in Medina, complete different of course in
lifestyles.
And it shows gradual rules of revelation, which
is part of what we call an-nasih
wal-mansuh, the abrogation of the Qur'an.
From a legislative point of view, it helps
us recognize nasih sometimes.
Like if we know that an ayah was
revealed in Mecca and then another ayah in
Medina that has a ruling that might be
contradictory to it, we know that this most
likely have abrogated the early one.
Such as when we know the ayat about
for example, stay peaceful, don't fight back, all
of this was in the Mecca era.
In Medina, what was the command to the
Prophet ﷺ?
Target their necks, do this, do that, so
basically like all about fighting back.
So we know that there was a chronological
order over here.
Sometimes it's ashab al-asr, like if we
don't know a specific rule that happens in
the past, so what do we do?
We go by the early revelations that's in
Mecca, if there is no objection or no
amendment to it, we will continue what we
call ashab al-hal, the continuity of original
rule.
So there are specific legislative rules that we
study that in usul al-fiqh, if you
ever had the chance to study usul al
-fiqh, there's a whole chapter on that inshaAllah
wa tabarakahu ta'ala.
And finally, just to give you an idea
about Mecca and Madani Qur'an, so from
the chronological order, the Mecca was revealed before
the Hijrah, the Madani after the Hijrah.
Now in terms of the themes and the
content, the theme and the content of the
surahs, and also talk about the language and
the style at the same time.
So you look at the Mecca Qur'an,
what is the main characteristics of the Mecca
Qur'an?
Yes, more about what?
The creation?
So what would be the main theme of
the Mecca Qur'an?
Establishing faith and belief.
It was about establishing the aqeedah.
So there were three major themes, three major
themes.
Number one, Allah, the oneness of Allah Azza
wa Jal.
Number two, the day of judgment.
And number three is what?
The Prophet ﷺ, the credibility of the messenger.
Three major themes in the Mecca Qur'an,
Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala, so speaking about
Allah, His attributes, His beautiful actions and so
and so.
Talking about the day of judgment and hereafter
and the ma'ad and the life after
death and so on.
And then talking about the credibility of this
man as being the messenger of Allah.
So three themes.
The Madani Qur'an on the other side
was focused on what?
Establishing the society.
Now we live in a Muslim society, now
we need to regulate the society.
So there are a lot of themes about
halal and haram, transactions, the societal arrangement, rules
of engagement, many many themes related to that
subject.
So, now since the Qur'an in Mecca
is revealed to establish faith and talk about
the day of judgment and so on, you
will see that the surahs most likely will
have short verses, short ayat.
Why?
To have what?
Not necessarily the reason for that, not because
they don't want to listen to it, it
has to be short, no.
But there's something else about short ayat versus
long ones.
It's more powerful, more impactful.
I mean if you're going to say something
to your child, would you use a long
statement or would you use a short statement?
So would you tell them, honey, sweetheart, could
you please, you know, blah, or you say,
be quiet.
Right?
So mostly you're going to go with be
quiet.
Why is that?
Because it's more impactful.
It's short, it's direct to the point.
So the Meccan Qur'an will have shorter
ayat because it's more powerful and impactful.
But the Madani Qur'an requires what?
Explanation.
It needs to explain the ruling of this
and the hukum of doing that and to
deal with this, the types of waters or
even eating these animals or not or transactions
and marriage and divorce and a lot of
details required.
That's why you find the ayat in the
Meccan, in the Madani actually longer than in
the Madani Qur'an.