Allah: The Quranâs Purpose, Primacy and Promotion – 54th Annual ISNA Convention
Yasmin Mogahed – The Quran’s Purpose, Primacy and Promotion
![Yasmin Mogahed](https://artwork.muslimcentral.com/yasmin-mogahed-150x150.jpg)
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This Jasmine has just launched her brand new book love and happiness, which is available at this event and at the end of the session actually she will be signing some of her books along with her other book which is reclaim your heart, which is received international acclaim. She is currently an instructor for a motive Institute, A writer for Huffington Post, international speaker and invited lecturer at Oxford, Harvard, Yale, Stanford, and many other universities around the world. Without further ado, I will go ahead and have her come up and speak to you guys inshallah.
Santa Monica
out with a relay human a shaytani r rajim Bismillah R Rahman r Rahim salatu salam ala rasulillah who Allah Allah savage mine, a Bish rally Saudi Arabia Siddeley Omri wahala, locked as Emily's any of Gokhale.
So what I wanted to talk about today, first of all, I want to say that I was really happy to see what the theme was for this convention. And that was coming back to the quarter and for hope and guidance, I think that now is a time where we need this more than ever. And I want to talk just briefly about how the Quran can be a source of transformation for us. We just have the delay completed the month of Ramadan, the month of the Quran, it's a month where people who don't typically maybe aren't as exposed to the book of Allah are are even just by going to throw we are at the masjid will be exposed to the book of Allah subhanaw taala but see one thing that happens a lot
of times as we go into Ramadan, we come out of Ramadan and we're the same as we came in. We haven't changed inside Yes, we have read a lot of power and we have prayed a lot of records. We have fasted a lot of days, but many of us leave Ramadan completely unchanged. We we leave Ramadan as we entered Ramadan. And if we are leaving Ramadan as we entered Ramadan, that means that there was something missing. See, the Quran essentially was not revealed just for us to decorate our walls with or to put on necklaces. The Quran was revealed to change us the Quran was revealed to transform us. And the Quran was what transformed people at a time when the same people who used to be so barbaric that
they would bury their girls alive, they were able to transform through this same book that we have into some of the best people to walk the earth. And this this process of transformation can only happen when we interact with the hood and in the way that Allah intended for us to interact. So what I want to say is I kind of what I have a brief, you know, period of time to speak to you. So I want to just focus around one area and NACA and in which Allah subhanaw taala says in the Lucha Allah, you know, maybe Coleman had the, you know, maybe unfussy him that Indeed Allah does not change the condition of a people until they change what is inside themselves. The reason I want to talk about
this area is because we are experiencing a time right now, where we want to change our condition. We are experiencing a time right now of a lot of suffering, of a lot of pain, we are seeing suffering. You know, down the street, we're seeing suffering across the ocean, we are seeing suffering in our own homes and our own lives. We are feeling pain, we are seeing pain every single day on the news, we are seeing pain on our news feeds every time we open social media. It's not just hijab tutorials anymore, right? Now it's talking about what all the all the pain that's happening, all the suffering that people are going through. And so we have to find a way to be able to not just cope with this,
but understand what is it Allah subhanaw taala wants from us? What type of transformation does Allah want from us. And here in this area that I just quoted, I'll repeat it in the La hyla yoga mat, Bill Coleman had the vitamin D and footsy him, this area is about change. This area is about it's a formula. It's not just a formula, but it's a divine formula, right? Because you can get a formula from a doctor, it's called the prescription right? You can get a formula from a scientist. But this is a divine formula. So it's from God, telling us how to change telling us that the formula, the divine formula for transformation, and that is that our condition, our external condition, you know,
that condition that we want to change so badly, our political condition, our economic condition, our social condition, our emotional mental health can all these conditions that our condition, externally will not change until we change what's inside ourselves. Now, there's going to be a lot of people at this conference and Alhamdulillah they're going to talk to you about activism. They're going to talk to you about the action that we need to take and
That is a conversation we need to have. We need to talk about how to get involved, we need to talk about helping and getting involved with our neighbors and with, you know, and creating bridges, and we need to talk about that. But there's another discussion which we need to have. And that is, what do I need to change within myself? How do I need to change? There's something that you noticed in Ramadan, and that is all of us know that the the Hadith of the Prophet sallallahu Sallam that tells us that in Ramadan, the shayateen are chained. Right? We all know this. And many people ask this question. Well, okay, so how can we don't all become angels? Right, the shelter in our chain? So how
can we don't all become angels? Did anyone transform into an angel for a month? Absolutely not? Absolutely not. And you know why that is? Because we have something that is even more difficult to tackle than the shaitan. And that's the neffs. The, our own selves. You know, it sounds like a funny question. But my mom sent me this, this article about, someone asked a question, something that actually might not occur to most of us, but was a very interesting question. And the question was, when Shai bon disobeyed Allah, who was his shavon?
You get me, the question is basically saying, well, he had no one to whisper in his ear. Right? Do we have an excuse? Right, our excuses, but shaitan made me do it right. shaitan is whispering shaitan and, and his plots and plans. But when shaitan disobeyed Allah, there was no one whispering in his ear. It was his own self. And the the neffs This, this, our own self, the human being, and the jinn have this, this, this part within ourselves that we have to tame. And a lot of times we focus as Muslim so much externally on what we have to tackle, right. Yes, there are problems externally. Yes, there are political problems. Yes, there are social problems. Yes, shaitan is a
problem. Okay. But what happens is so much we have so much focus on, I need to fix what is outside what is external, you know, what I mean? It's Israel's fault, right? It's, it's the West, that the problem is always completely external. But we very rarely stop to look internal and say, What do I need to change? You know, and and you'll see this just every time you listen to a lecture, you know, how when you're listening to a lecture and the speaker saying stuff, and you're just thinking, Oh, I really wish my husband was listening, or I'll really wish my wife, you know, what, I'm going to tell this to so and so. And the whole, the whole thinking process is that person needs to hear this, that
person is this way and that way, but we never really stop and think, am I that way? Right? Is this something I need to think about? Is this something I need to change? And so I want to bring it internal for a second. And I want to emphasize this is not mutually exclusive from the external work. No one can say I'm only going to work internal, and I'm going to neglect the external you can't Allah subhanaw taala told us that the two go together and levena Amma no Whammy lasagna had those who believe and who do righteous deeds and these righteous deeds are both internal working internally and working externally. So I just want to you know, emphasize that but I want to focus
right now for a moment on the internal because Allah subhanaw taala told us that on the Day of Judgment, nothing else is going to matter. Except for the one Allah subhanaw taala says this is on the tongue of Ibrahim Ali Salim in a very beautiful extended door. I would like to see neoma you bassoon yo mela young foul man on? Well, I've been on 11 atolla have the Calvin Selim, do not disgrace me on the day when everyone's brought back the day when nothing will benefit anyone of wealth or children because these are the things that we use as currency in this life to benefit us. But alas Singh on that, in that life, none of these things will be of any value. It's like Monopoly
money, right? You collect it, it's fun during the game, you have some power, right? Because you have the most money, but event but ultimately that money is useless. So this wealth and children ultimately will not benefit anyone. But what will benefit us and that's the question we have to ask because we're on a journey. We need to know what's gonna benefit us in them and at Aloha, Biff Calvin Selim, except for the one who returns back to a law with a healthy heart with a heart that is sound with a heart that is healthy and sound. Calvin Saleem. And so I want to just sort of shift our focus for a moment and not to neglect the external battle and the external work and the external
struggle, but but to shift it internal because ultimately we will not see real change
If we're only working externally, we have to do both we have to work internally as well as externally. So how then and of course, I mean, this is a, this is something people spend their lives scholars have spent their lives studying. How do we talk about building a sound heart? How do we talk about parliamentarian? I probably have about, I don't know, 65 seconds, how many seconds do I have to tell you?
Okay, I have more than 65 seconds. So okay. First, let me just very quickly define collarbone selling what is a healthy heart, called Boone Saleem is a heart that does not have a competitor with Allah inside of it. So what does that mean? It means that there are things in the heart that we love more than we should love. There aren't things in the heart that we fear more than we fear Allah. There aren't things in the heart that we depend on. More than we depend on Allah, you understanding what I'm saying? This is essentially to hate to hate what is La ilaha illallah wa la la la la have asked you what does it mean? Everyone will say there's no God but Allah, that's how most of us will
translate this word, this statement. But let you know, the meaning of trailhead is more than just saying that just saying there's no God but Allah, yes, there's no God, but Allah, yes, there's no creator, but Allah. But it's beyond just that. That is part of it. But it's also saying that I don't love anything, as I love Allah. I do not fear anything, as I fear Allah. And this one is tough. Our dependence. This is a very deep discussion. Where do we put our dependence? I just recently had a question that I answered, we have these like,
little clips where we're answering a question, putting it online, and MongoDB is doing this initiative. And the question was, my parents want me to take off my hijab, because they're worried about my safety and my job. Fair, fair enough question. Yeah. And it's very relevant right now. And this is something that's happening on the ground. And the question is, what do I do?
And before I talk about
the question itself, I want to actually go back to the root of the question. And the root of the question really has to do with, from where do I get my provision? from? Where do I get my protection?
This is part of toe hate, is the understanding. Yes, Allah subhanaw taala does not tell us to put us put ourselves in harm's way. Allah subhanaw taala does not tell us to put ourselves in harm's way. But I want you to dig deeper for a second and really ask yourself, what are we dependent upon for our protection? What are we? Yes, we put on our seatbelt when we drive? Yeah, yes, we put in our effort to find a job. But ultimately, where does our protection come from? Is it from the CFO? You understand? Where ultimately does our risk or provision come from? Is it from our employer? Yes, we have to go and work. Yes, we put on and we take the the means. But, but ultimately, it's a law who
protects us. And ultimately, it's a law who is providing for us. And so we have to be very clear on this. Because when we get unclear on this, and we lose focus, that's when we fall into debilitating fear, debilitating fear, I always warn about this one thing. And that is be careful what you focus on. Right now we're getting a lot of bad news being spread. And it's it sort of spreads like wildfire, you know, you get a spark. And then it just spreads you know what I'm saying with like gasoline very, very quickly.
Be Be careful what you're focused on. If you are a person who is focusing only on bad news, if that becomes most and all of what you're reading about most or all of what you're listening to most or all of what you're talking about, then you are actually going to become your your understanding of reality is going to become skewed. That's number one. Darkness, see, what happens is that what you focus on it grows. And so if we focus on darkness, if we focus on darkness, it grows. That's the thing about focus. So we have to be very careful, yes, we need to be aware, and we need to care about what's happening. But be careful that that's not becoming your ultimate focus. Our focus still
needs to be Allah. It should not be all the horrible things that are happening. We should not lose focus from the protector and just focus on the fire. You understand. And this is a subtle point. But if we focus too much on it, this is when we become paralyzed with fear. And then that fear then leads to thoughts like Well, I think I should go hide. I think I should take off my hijab. I think I should be called
Mo, right? The idea is that because the fear grows as you focus on it, be aware, but be mindful what your focus is on calling Callie Heather was stuck for Lani. Welcome. innovaphone Rahim subhanak Elohim Dhaka Chateau de la bella and istockphoto to Monica Santa Monica Monica de la Helvetica.