Note: The following transcript was generated using AI and may contain inaccuracies.
Alhamdulillahi rabbil alameen, wassalatu wassalamu ala rasoolillahi sallallahu alayhi wasallam wa ala alihi wasahbihi ajma'in, assalamu alaikum warahmatullahi wabarakatuh To all the brothers and sisters tuning in at home, to another episode of Aabidul Sabeelin, I'm on the road today with a very very special guest.
As you can see to the right hand side of me or the left hand side as you guys look, I'm joined by Ustad Jamal. Assalamu alaikum. Wa alaikumussalam.
How are you? I'm very good. Alhamdulillah. So obviously here in the UAE, not your first time here, you've been here before.
How's your trip been? Alhamdulillah, so far so good. We're coming to the end, Alhamdulillah. We're right at the end, I think we'll probably end this video by finishing at the airport inshaAllah, dropping you home inshaAllah.
Alhamdulillah. I wanted to take a little bit of time today, I know we've got a limited amount of time, probably less than an hour we've got, but I just wanted to talk a little bit about the Quran. Okay.
And specifically how to instill a love for the Quran in someone's heart. InshaAllah. Any kind of general thoughts, this is unscripted so we don't really have any script for this, any kind of general thoughts, any place you'd like to start, feel free inshaAllah.
Alhamdulillahi Rabbil Alameen, wassalatu wassalamu ala tammani al-akmalani ala khairi khalqillahi ajma'een, wa ala alihi wa ashabihi wa baraka wa salam wa tasliman katheera. Amma ba'du. First and foremost, JazakumAllah khayran once again for allowing me to have this opportunity to share whatever I can share bi-idhnillahi ta'ala on the AMAU platform.
As for the Quran, as we know the Quran is a speech of Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala. And if the only virtue that Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala gave for the Quran is that it is His speech, then this would suffice. If there were no other virtues in the Quran or the sunnah of the Prophet salallahu alayhi wa sallam, siwa except that the Quran is a speech of Allah, minhu bada wa ilayhi ya'ud, then this would be sufficient for us to instill a type of love for the Quran in our hearts.
And we know from our pure aqeedah and creed and faith that the Quran is a speech of Allah and created perfect, unchanged, preserved, from the moment Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala sent it down onto the heart of the Prophet salallahu alayhi wa sallam until the end of times. So this is the first thing. But specifically, a general Muslim, he must remember that the Quran is a message from Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala to us, to al-bashariyya.
And this is the statement of al-Hassan radiyaAllahu anhu. He said, inna man kaana qablakum ra'awu al-Qurana rasaila min rabbih. Indeed, those who came before you, they used to view the Quran as messages from their Lord, rasail, personal messages from Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala to them, the Creator to them.
And the scholars of Islam, they differ on who this al-Hassan is. Some of them say it is al-Hassan al-bashariyya. So that would mean it is from the second generation of the Muslims, the tabi'een.
And others, they say it is al-Hassan ibn al-'Ali, the grandson of the Prophet salallahu alayhi wa sallam. But whichever one this is attributed to, whether it is al-Hassan ibn al-'Ali or whether it is al-Hassan al-bashariyya, then they're saying that inna man kaana qablakum, those who came before you. So they're definitely talking about the sahaba, that's for sure.
So that's a beautiful, I think, reflection to begin with. The Quran is a message from Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala to us. So we need to love this and we need to pay attention to it.
And imagine subhanallah, the longer the message is to somebody, somebody sends you a message now, the longer it is, the more care that they put into it. The more insha'Allah it's going to touch you, if it's a short message, it's very brief, it may not touch you as much as it would if it was a very long message that a lot of effort went into. And the Quran is 114 chapters, it is 30 ajza'a.
Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala, in the Quran, He speaks to us about Himself, He speaks to us about ourselves. He tells us if we obey Him, what is for us, if we disobey Him, what is for us. He subhanahu wa ta'ala, in the Quran, explains that His mercy has preceded His wrath.
Subhanahu wa ta'ala, He has told the believers what He has prepared for them, Jannah. And all of these things allow the believer to fall in love with the Quran. It's an interesting reflection when you often hear rebirth stories, and they have different levels of their relationship with the Quran before they accept Islam.
Some of them, just listening to the Quran, it shakes them, it makes them cry. They don't understand what's being said. It's appealing to the fitrah that's inside of them.
And then others, they actually read it in their own language, they read the translation of the Quran, and it really changes their life. They can recognize straight away that it's the truth. Yes, this Quran affects everybody.
There's no heart that comes in contact with this Quran, that's seeking the truth, except that it affects it. And the majority of the Muslims, especially in the West, they know about the famous ayah in the Quran, Surah Al-Hashr. لو أنزلنا هذا القرآن على جبل لرأيته خاشعا متصدعا من خشية الله وتلك الأمثال نضربها للناس لعلهم يتفكرون If we were to reveal this Quran upon a mountain, then this Quran will crumble right before your very own eyes, out of khushu' and out of humility towards Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala.
And this is a parable that we strike to the people in order for them to ponder. But I wanted to add a few more examples from the Quran and the Sunnah of different creations of Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala also being affected by the Quran. So for example, we have the concluding verses of Surah Al-Najm أَفَمِنْ هَذَا الْحَدِيثِ تَعْجَبُونَ وَتَضْحَكُونَ وَلَا تَبَكُونَ وَأَنْتُمْ سَمِيدُونَ فَاسْجُودُوا لِلَّهِ وَاعْبُدُوا And that's the final ayah of Surah Al-Najm, and it is a place موضع سجود التلاوة, to perform prostration.
Ibn Abbas radiallahu ta'ala anhuma, in the tafsir of this ayah, he mentions that the Prophet ﷺ, he read this. And he read this by the Kaaba. And he says فَسَجَدَ النَّبِيُّ صلى الله عليه وسلم He prostrated.
وَسَجَدَ مَعَهُ الْمُسْلِمُونَ وَالْمُشْرِكُونَ وَالْجِنِّ وَالْإِنْسِ The Muslims and the polytheists of Mecca. The polytheists, the mushrikun. The idol worshippers, the jinn, the inns, every single person prostrated after they heard this ayah from the Prophet ﷺ. So that means everybody got affected.
That's one example. Another example that's very very powerful, is in the tafsir of an ayah in Surah As-Sabah. And Imam Al-Bukhari, he mentions this as well.
وَلَا تَنْفَعُ الشَّفَاعَةُ عِنْدَهُ إِلَّا لِمَنْ أَذِنَ لَهُ حَتَّى إِذَا فُزِّعَ عَنْ قُلُوبِهِمْ قَالُوا مَاذَا قَالَ رَبُّكُمْ قَالُوا الْحَقَ وَهُوَ الْعَلِيُّ الْكَبِيرُ And Imam Al-Bukhari commented on this ayah in Kitab Al-Tafsir and in Sahih, and he says that if the angels, they see an indication that Allah SWT spoke revelation, and they don't know what Allah SWT said, بِمَا أَمَرَ What did He command? What did He prohibit? They don't know necessarily what Allah has commanded or prohibited, but they know Allah spoke revelation. يُسْعَقُونَ He says, all of them, they fall down into prostration. فَلَمَّا أَثَاقُوا And when they rise from this state of unconsciousness, they get up, then they ask the other angels that were nearer to Allah SWT.
سَأَلَ بَعْضُهُمْ بَعْضَ They ask the other ones, مَاذَا قَالَ رَبُّكُمْ What did your Lord say? The other ones will reply and say, الحق, Allah spoke the truth, وَهُوَ And He is, الْعَلِيُّ The Greatest, الْكَبِيرُ SWT The Highest. So this is the state of the angels as well. So the mountains are affected, the angels are affected, the believers are affected, the disbelievers are affected, the jinn are affected, the ins are affected.
And this is the speech of Allah SWT. That's sometimes what we have to reflect upon our own hearts and our own relationship with the Quran. When we hear ayat that are saying that the mountains, we see mountains as something huge, something you can't penetrate a mountain, it's like massive.
We hear about Mount Kilimanjaro, Mount Everest. If Allah and Allah is the وَمَنْ أَثْتَقُوا مِنَ اللَّهِ خَدِيثَ Who is more truthful in speech than Allah? For Allah is telling you that if this Quran was revealed upon a mountain, it would crumble because of the fear of Allah. And then we don't get affected the same way.
We have to ask ourselves, why is that? Our hearts are harder than the mountains. Absolutely, absolutely. Because we are not going to doubt the Quran.
We're not going to say the problems with the Quran. And no Muslim would say that. So that means for sure there's a problem with yourself.
If you are having a piece of dessert, and all of your friends and all of the people around you are enjoying the dessert, and you are the only one who's not enjoying it, there's a problem with yourself, not the dessert. Everybody's enjoying it. And just like that, there's a problem with this person.
And this is the statement of Uthman radiAllahu anhu, لَوْ طَهُرَتْ قُلُوبُكُمْ مَا شَبِحْتُمْ مِنْ كَلَامِ رَبِّكُمْ The authentic report on Uthman ibn Affan, the companion of the Prophet ﷺ. He was known as Dhul-Nurayn, the possessor of two lights. He was the only companion who married two daughters of a prophet in history. And not any prophet.
He married two daughters of the Prophet Muhammad ﷺ. And the Prophet ﷺ even said about Uthman, if I had another daughter, I would have also given. The angels, they said about Uthman radiAllahu anhu that we are shy of Uthman radiAllahu anhu. So Uthman he mentioned, لَوْ طَهُرَتْ قُلُوبُكُمْ مَا شَبِحْتُمْ مِنْ كَلَامِ رَبِّكُمْ And this is very, very, very powerful.
If only your hearts were pure, you will never ever be satisfied from the Book of Allah. You would only want more and more and more. The Qur'an will be something that you can never put down.
And this is something that everybody even wants. How can I make the Qur'an the closest thing? رَبِعَ قَلْبِي Like the prophetic du'a. How can I make the Qur'an the spring of my heart? Something that's always near to me that I never put down.
It is in the statement of Uthman. The heart has to be pure. Wallahu ta'ala anhu.
So what advice would you give to someone who might be watching this at home and they want that. They see others around them that maybe have that. And they want that relationship with the Qur'an.
Where can they start? What's the first step? The first thing I would say is the statement of Uthman radiyaAllahu anhu. Because the Qur'an, it resides in the heart of the person. And the Qur'an has been sent down so the heart of the believer can be moved.
Like Allah mentions, الَّذِينَ آمَنُوا وَتَطْمَئِنُوا قُلُوبُهُمْ بِذِكْرِ اللَّهِ أَلَا بِذِكْرِ اللَّهِ تَطْمَئِنُوا الْقُلُوبُ Indeed, in the remembrance of Allah, the Qur'an, the dhikr, all types of remembrance of Allah, do the hearts find rest. So your heart is meant to find rest in this. And Uthman's statement is to do with the heart.
So the first place that one should start is to purify the vessel, to purify their heart inshaAllahu ta'ala. How do you purify your heart? You purify your heart as legislated through the Qur'an and the sunnah. Well the first way is استغفار والتوبة والإنابة إلى الله سبحانه وتعالى To seek forgiveness, to repent and to return back to Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala.
Another way to purify your heart is to keep your heart far away from things that corrupt it. من الأقوال والأفعال actions and statements that may corrupt this heart and maybe even different people's presence and different things that may influence your heart in a negative way. You keep your heart safe from all of these places and you look after it.
And you remember the hadith of the Prophet ﷺ that if you keep this heart upright then everything about it is also upright. You are a person who is upright. But if this heart is no good then you are no good.
The Prophet ﷺ he said this to the nearest meaning. So I would restrict it to those two things inshaAllah ta'ala. The first one being استغفار, forgiveness, repentance to Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala and turning back to Him.
And secondly, to just be on watch and ensure that you never allow this heart to come into contact with things that may corrupt it. You know I was just actually looking into something related to this topic recently and it's well known like the hadith you mentioned إِنَّا فِي الْجَسْرِ الْقُلُّهُ وَإِنَا الفَسَدَةَ فَاسَدَةَ جَسُّ الْقُلُّهُ People know that the heart is like the general of the limbs. So if the heart is upright and good then the rest of the body will be good.
But I also saw another hadith which is connected to this. There was a hadith which was spoken by Shaykh Abu Bani, may Allah have mercy on him. And it said لَا يَسْتَقِيمُ إِمَانُ عَبْدٍ حَتَّى يَسْتَقِيمَ قَلْبُهُ So now we understand that the heart is controlling the body and the tongue is controlling the heart.
And this is something that I only recently kind of looked into and discovered that it shows the importance of the tongue because this is really kind of having an impact on the heart. So that's another thing. The final thing I'd add for people who maybe want to understand or want to start that relationship with the Quran is that they have to understand who Allah is.
They have to know Allah because ultimately like you said at the start, the Quran is the speech of Allah. Once you understand who Allah truly is, His names, His attributes, then you'll get more of an appreciation for His talk and His words. Absolutely, absolutely.
And just to continue and to add on the two points that you mentioned, the first point regarding the tongue, the hadith is very powerful. And subhanAllah, when you look into the Sunnah, you find many ahadith that speak about the dangers of the tongue. And because we're speaking about the topic of the Quran, I'm going to try and make a connection after I say some of the ahadith perhaps.
So the Prophet ﷺ, he speaks about, he was asked, What is that which places the majority of the people, admits them into paradise? The taqwa of Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala and also, good etiquettes and dealings with the people and good manners with the people. These two things admit the people into Jannah the most. Then he was asked, What is that or messenger of Allah that admits the people into the hellfire the most? He said the mouth and he said the private parts.
And the scholars when they speak about this hadith, they're not speaking about the mouth necessarily, they're speaking about the tongue. That's what they focus on. So that's one hadith.
Another hadith is the hadith of Mu'adh radiAllahu anhu. When the Prophet ﷺ, he said, Is there anything that throws people onto the fire face first except the harvest of their tongue? Is there anything other than this? Showing that the Prophet ﷺ is saying that this tongue is very severe and it is very, very serious. The Prophet ﷺ, he also says, He said the believers, they are those who keep the other believers safe from their tongues and their hands.
And subhanAllah, this is just a fa'ida but in Tajweed, we know that the articulation points and the makharij of the Arabic letters, they are divided into five main organs of speech. So you have al-jawf, which is the empty space in the throat and the tongue. You have al-halq, which is the throat.
You have the tongue. You have the shafatan, the two lips. And you have the nasal cavity.
So there's five. But when you look at the letters and the distribution that the scholars have given across the five sections, the majority of the letters, they are executed from the tongue. So the scholars of qiraat, they say, they make the connection through the ahadith and this and this.
And they say, if the majority of the letters are being articulated from the tongue and there are many, many ahadith that have come regarding the severity of the tongue, they say be careful of what you say. Allahu Akbar. That's a beautiful connection.
We're just coming to a destination that I need to stop at inshaAllah. We'll carry on the discussion in the future. Okay, that was a beautiful reflection that you mentioned about how you connected the points of the tongue and you brought it back to the articulation points inshaAllah.
I've got a question for you then. We hear a lot of these people who, we want to make dua all the time for Allah to make us from the people of the Qur'an. What does it exactly mean to be a person of the Qur'an, from the people of the Qur'an? May Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala make us of them.
It's a very high station, inshaAllah, to be from those people. The understanding of this is very interesting. So it's not what comes to mind instantly that to be from the people of the Qur'an, you have to be somebody who knows Tajweed or necessarily you need to be a hafidh of the Qur'an.
You need to be somebody who knows the Qur'an or have a beautiful voice. This is part of it. And no doubt, if you know these things, it's possible, very possible that you could be from the people of the Qur'an.
But there's a necessity that you are from the people of the Qur'an. The answer is no. Just like it doesn't necessitate if you don't know those things that you're not from them as well.
So both of these things don't necessitate each other. Ibn Qayyim, may Allah have mercy on him, he mentions that it is to do with implementing the Qur'an and applying the Qur'an in your life because this is the maqsood and the objective of the revelation of the Qur'an. Ibn Qayyim, he even says that if the person does iqama of the huroof, he establishes the letters and he recites in an immaculate way with great Tajweed and mastery and articulation and he describes it to be like the arrows that are hitting the target.
That's how you're reading the Qur'an. You're reading it perfectly. Every arrow is hitting the target, every letter is hitting the makhraj and you're reading it like that.
But he said you don't implement the Qur'an, he says you're not from the people of the Qur'an. So he gave an example of somebody who can read the Qur'an very well. But we don't want to also dwell on this because some have made it seem as if that reciting the Qur'an and knowing the Tajweed and perfecting this is not something which is important either.
So they really disregard that. So we're not disregarding it, nor are we saying it is the all and all. There's a balance for both of them.
So the main thing is the implementation of the Qur'an along with the knowledge, just like all other types of sciences that you learn in the Sharia. It's about knowing and then it's about implementing afterwards. I want to talk a little bit more about your journey.
You've always had a very special journey and this has been documented before and this is the time where I wish we had more time to discuss it in more detail. But probably where I want to start, and I mention this to established man as well all the time, one thing we notice in the UK is that from your particular culture, the Somali culture, people read the Qur'an very seriously from a very young age. Has this always been the case even in previous generations or has it just been something new? Can you shed some light on that? I'm not that old, so previous generations I don't have a lot of knowledge.
I haven't witnessed many generations in my life. But from what our mashayikh have mentioned and what they have told us, it is something that the Somali community are known for. MashaAllah, they are known to be a people of hift, especially for the Qur'an.
And I don't think it's implemented as much anymore. There's probably some implementation, but before it was really implemented in Somalia that the young children, they would not be sent to school until they memorise the Qur'an. They memorise the Qur'an first, then they go to school.
So if you do it like that, think about it now in the UK or the West, school is pretty much mandatory. So if we use that as a yardstick, if the school is mandatory, the Qur'an will be mandatory. So that's how they all become hufadh, and it makes a lot of sense.
So that's one thing. I remember the masjid that I grew up in, and Ustadh Darfan was also in as well in London, Masjid al-Sunnah. This masjid, when I was memorising the Qur'an there, there were on average 1,000 students that were studying per week.
1,000 students across the week, different groups, different classes, and the masjid is quite big, brothers and sisters. And I remember this very vividly. There were about 100 plus hufadh at that time that I was there, and there's 1,000 students altogether.
That's a ton. And I remember one brother, subhanAllah, he was an Albanian river brother. He said that if memorising the Qur'an is fardhu kifaya, then Masjid al-Sunnah have taken the burden from all of us.
I don't know, I haven't forgotten the statement. It made me laugh, it made me happy, and it was interesting, mashaAllah, that you say that. So they're known for this, mashaAllah, and they're also known, I would say, for their recitation of the Qur'an.
It's not just hifdh. Their recitation is generally good, mashaAllah, in terms of tajweed and mastery. The Somali community are quite good, alhamdulillah.
As for the reasons, I can't really put my finger on it. I don't know. Maybe there's a secret that we don't know, Allah knows.
But that is true, alhamdulillah. MashaAllah, and is that a similar kind of upbringing that you had then, like when you were younger? That's right. Yeah, I'd say the main thing that helped me in my Qur'anic journey until today, and I ask Allah to preserve it for me, is the mashayikh of the Qur'an that I met.
From the first ones, the early ones, to the ones that I have today, they are people that, from the apparent, we see them to be those who have the features and qualities of the people of the Qur'an, and they are really invested in the Qur'an. And likewise, if the teacher is like that, then inshaAllah ta'ala the students will also be somewhat upon the same path, or a similar path. So my teachers have been those who Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala sent to me, and they tried their hardest to also nurture me upon that, and I've been really impacted by that.
Like my first teacher, for example, who I did the hifz with, Sheikh Abdul Qadir, and I've spoken about him before. I used to remember this man, he lived in the masjid. He lived in the masjid.
And he didn't live out in the masjid because he couldn't live outside the masjid. He could live outside the masjid if he wanted to. The time I was memorizing with him, he was living in the masjid.
I was studying with him. My parents sent me to that madrasah. I was only meant to be studying Fridays, Saturdays, and Sundays.
But because he works there every single day, he would tell me to come to him every single day, and he would teach me for free every single day. It's not to do with the madrasah, there's no extra payment, there's no extra formality. You come to me every single day after you finish madrasah, meaning school, and you come to the tahfir, and you do more memorization of the Qur'an.
On Saturdays and Sundays, because there's no school, you can come from Fajr, because he lives in the masjid. And all of this time spent with the people of the Qur'an, or those who we deem to be from the people of the Qur'an, definitely, definitely influences the person in a positive way. It makes a big difference.
I hear a lot of people talking about the importance of a teacher, having a good teacher. That's a very, very big difference. In the Pakistani community, I feel like there's not as much of an emphasis.
There is still an emphasis to a certain extent, but it's very much on memorization, and the knowledge around the Qur'an, I've found, isn't really taught. Like, why are you doing it? What is the reward of the people of the Qur'an? Who is Allah? It's more like, okay, just go to the center, and just memorize, memorize, memorize, without that understanding. Is that the same with Somali community, or is it actually some more knowledge, and some knowledge being taught around the Qur'an? From what I have found, with the young children, especially in the West that I'm talking about, with the young children that go to madrasah, the element of understanding the Qur'an is not also present, from what I found anyway.
Perhaps the case for Somali and back home is different, but in the West, the majority of the madrasahs, there is some type of seminar on tafsir, or here and there, or raqa'iq, or some sort of reminder. But for them, every single surah that they memorize, do they understand it? That's questionable. So I think that's similar to us, but I feel like what they're trying to do is, maybe because this child is very young, they're trying their best to utilize their ability, their memory, let them memorize, and then inshaAllah the faham will come later inshaAllah.
Yes, yes. And obviously we're talking generally here, we're not talking about every specific family. That's correct.
Absolutely. So your journey then, you started off quite early, at an early age. Yeah.
In Somalia, were you raised in Somalia? No, I just, I went to Somalia for the first time about 10 days ago. Alright. In life.
Okay, inshaAllah. I've never been there before, I was born and raised in London, and I just paid a visit recently for the first time, alhamdulillah. So I started my hift in the UK, I completed my hift also in the UK, walillah alhamdulillah.
MashaAllah. There's a journey or something about that, I don't know the full story, but there's a journey, something about you going to Qatar. Yeah.
That's right. What's exactly about that? I'm sorry, I know I'm really putting you in sweat, and it's ten days before my interview, but... Alhamdulillah, alhamdulillah. So, Qatar, I went for the first time in 2011, and I went there because I was invited by our sheikh, Abdur-Rasheed, Sheikh Ali Sufi, alhamdulillah.
And mashaAllah, I'm sure he's known, at least the name's known to most people. But the sheikh, mashaAllah, I remember Sheikh Abdur-Rahman, once he came to the UK recently, not this trip, but the trip before, which was a few years ago, maybe. And when he came, the sheikh was also paying a visit to the UK, meeting Sheikh Abdur-Rasheed at the same time.
So I remember I asked Sheikh Abdur-Rahman to come and translate for the sheikh, if he was able to. And he accepted, mashaAllah. He said, I'll come and do it.
And he gave a little statement at the beginning, before the lecture began. And he said, Brothers, you brothers only know the sheikh to be a qari. And he said, I'm telling you, that he's a scholar of the Qur'an.
When it comes to the Qur'an, he's a scholar of the Qur'an. He said the asanid that he has in this ilm, ilm al-qiraat, there's not many people who have the type of asanid that he has. Sheikh Abdur-Rasheed, mashaAllah, his efforts in recording the Qur'an and providing that for the people, he explained to us that when he began recording the Qur'an, Sheikh Al-Husri, rahimahuAllahu ta'ala, who was very close to his father, he'd passed away.
He'd passed away, Sheikh Al-Husri, about 30 years ago. So the sheikh now, 30 years before that, around the time that these mashayikh left the world, Sheikh Al-Husri, Al-Manshawi, and so on, Sheikh Al-Husri, he only recorded four riwayat of the Qur'an. Hafs al-Asir, Duri al-Abi Amr, Qalun al-Nafi, Warsh al-Nafi.
And that was it. The sheikh didn't complete it. The sheikh, he mentioned, Sheikh Abdul Rashid, that from his ummiyat and his great desires, he said, I want to complete recording all of the qiraat of the Qur'an and provide that for the people.
And he began his journey and alhamdulillah he completed it. And the sheikh, he's done a lot in terms of the khitmah. So this sheikh, I met him in London at that time, and I had the opportunity to read upon him, and he invited me to Qatar to read the Qur'an upon him in the way that it is done in the shari'ah or the science of ilm al-qiraat, which is to read a khitmah of the Qur'an, a full review, to a sheikh who has an ijazah and a sanad, a sheikh who has a chain back to the Prophet ﷺ on the Qur'an, and to then take it from him and to continue teaching to other people.
So I went and I completed the whole Qur'an upon him in just 10 days. Wa-illah al-hamdulillah. I'm really sorry to interject and pause.
Continue. I've reached the destination, but I'm going to carry on the story. InshaAllah.
No problem, inshaAllah. JazakAllah khair. We're back on the road, and I think there can be a lot more that's said about your journey, but I'm just conscious I don't want it to turn into an interview.
So bringing it back to the love of the Qur'an, what kind of impact does knowing the Arabic language have on how much appreciation and love we have for the Qur'an? What do you think? I think the understanding of the Arabic language plays a huge, huge role, and it allows the person to appreciate the Qur'an to the highest form possible. And the reason is because Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala, He defined me, chose from His wisdom and His knowledge the Arabic language for the Qur'an. And this Qur'an is deen.
It is a deen. Is there any deen outside of the Qur'an? The answer is no. You take your deen from the Qur'an as a primary source for the Muslims.
And Umar radhiAllahu anhu, he says, Innal lughata minal deen. Indeed, the Arabic language, it is from religion. So if the Qur'an is where you take your deen from, and it's Arabic language Allah chose it for the Qur'an, and this great sahabi is describing the Arabic language to be as such, then you see firstly the relationship that the Arabic language has with the Qur'an.
As for the amazing things that you take away from understanding the Arabic language properly, it is first and foremost that you understand the richness of the Qur'an. The Qur'an, because it's in Arabic, Arabic is not like a normal type of language. Arabic, it works in a specific way.
I'll give you an example. It just comes to mind now. In Nahu, we have two different types of sentences.
Jumala Ismiya and Jumala Fi'niya. A verb-based sentence and a noun-based sentence. And they serve two different purposes.
So the one that is verb-based, it is specific to a time. Either it is a time in the past, or it is a time in the present, or it is a time in the future. But the noun-based one, it is something which is unrestricted.
It's not restricted to anything. Now let's give an example. Allah Subh'anaHu Wa Ta-A'la in Surah Khut, He speaks about the glad tidings that the angels gave Ibrahim Alayhi Salam that he's going to have a child after waiting for a very long time, and also being old and in age, and so on and so forth.
So Allah says, وَلَقَدْ جَاءَتْ رُسُلُنَا إِبْرَاهِيمَ بِالْبُشْرَىٰ قَالُوا سَلَامًا قَالَ سَلَامٌ فَمَا لَبِثَ أَنْ جَاءَ بِعِجْلٍ حَنِيدٍ And when our messengers, i.e. the angels, they came to Ibrahim with the bushra that he's going to have his son Ishaq, قَالُوا, they said to Ibrahim, سَلَامًا They said to him, سَلَامًا Translated, if you wish, was peace. But the Quranic word is سَلَامًا To say loosely, we're using the word peace as translation. I'm not saying that's what it means.
I'm just saying perhaps loosely so we understand the topic that I want to address. They said سَلَامًا And he said سَلَامٌ What's the difference between فَتْحًا and ضَمْنًا So we're thinking, people like us say فَتْحًا and ضَمْنًا It's not a big deal. This فَتْحًا and ضَمْنًا It has a huge meaning behind it.
They spoke to him in the verb-based manner. And he replied to them in the noun-based manner. I'll break it down so it makes more sense.
When they're saying سَلَامًا This is a جُمْلَ فِعْلِيَّ They're saying نُسَلِّمُ سَلَامًا We are giving you سَلَام now that we have come to you and to give you this glad tiding. We are giving you سَلَام May peace be upon you, O Ibrahim. So he replied and he said سَلَامٌ أَيْ سَلَامٌ عَلَيْكُمْ He's not saying May peace be upon you, O angels.
He's not replying like that. Meaning may peace be upon you, O angels, now as well. He's saying may peace be upon you, always.
Now I guess even more powerful because in the Quran, Allah says وَإِذَا حُيِّيتُمْ بِتَحِيَّةٍ فَحَيُّوا بِأَحْسَنَ مِنْهَا أَوْ رُدُّوهَا إِنَّ اللَّهَ كَانَ عَلَىٰ كُلِّ شَيْءٍ حَسِيبًا If you are greeted, then greet in the better way. Greet in a way which is better than the way you were greeted. And if you can't, then at least greet in the same way.
What did Ibrahim do? He greeted them in a much better way. The angels said We have given you peace. May peace be upon you, now.
And he said May peace be upon you, forever. So all of this is understood through a Fathan above that. So if a person doesn't understand that, then he won't be able to appreciate this benefit now that we, for example, extracted.
It's true. I think I can give the perspective more from a layman's perspective. My relationship with the Quran has been very different to yours.
I wasn't really raised around that kind of environment. And even now it's something that I'm still struggling with. I'm nowhere close to memorizing the Quran.
I've got a lot of work to do. And even, I think, when I first started, and I'm talking about when I first started taking the Deen seriously, it was one of the first things that I really found a sweetness in. Back then, I found the Deen difficult.
I found it difficult to pray five times a day. I found it difficult to fast in Ramadan. But the one thing with the Quran, learning how to read it, at that time, I was in my 20s when I just learned how to read it.
Just learning how to read it. Forget memorization. Just learning how to read it.
And I remember thinking that this is something that is really enjoyable. There was a sweetness to it that at that time, I didn't have with the other actions. Alhamdulillah, there's many actions I found a sweetness in.
But back then, it was one of the few. Alhamdulillah. And even with the Arabic language, again, I've got a lot of work to do with the Arabic language.
But just the small bits of understanding, it just unlocked just the odd gem here and there. Just one or two. So I think, imagine if I had the Arabic language the way some people have it.
It's so true. And how much it would unlock. It's so true.
It's so true. And I think I would add to what you said as well. If we are doing it, this whole purpose of this episode is to instill, we said in the beginning, the love of the Quran in our hearts, first and foremost, and also the hearts of those who are listening to us and different ways that we could do that.
So through the examples of what I mentioned and through what you mentioned as well, Shahid, if this is the gems that we are already extrapolating. Example, people like us, we have a long way to go. Then imagine, the more you learn, subhanAllah, it's that statement, that famous statement, it's true.
The more you learn, the more you realize you don't know anything. The more you realize you have a lot more to learn. You're already enjoying the Deen as it is with the little bit that you know.
So what about if you know a lot, if you have a great deal of understanding in terms of the Quran and the Arabic language, what can you unlock if you can unlock so much from the Quran? And it's not just a theoretical discussion. It's not just like, oh, this is a... It impacts the way you are. And there's another ayah in the Quran that a lot of people use to show the importance between the Fatah and how it can change the meaning.
Innama yakhsha Allaha Innama yakhsha Allaha Exactly. So that shows that the people of knowledge, they're the only ones who fear Allah. So this knowledge that we gain about the Quran and the Arabic language, it will actually have a deep impact on the actions that we perform as well as the way we live our lives.
Yeah, I mean, understanding the Quran from this different... Another example, inshallah ta'ala, that will help us all become motivated in studying the Quran and different sciences that are related to the Quran is this science of ilm al-qiraat. And we mentioned it in an AME class recently as well. For example, surah al-Baqarah.
The Prophet sallallahu alaihi wa sallam Allah transmits that they came to him, the people came to him and they asked him a question and they said, like they normally would do, يَسْأَلُونَكَ They ask you, O Muhammad, عَنِ الْخَمْرِ وَالْمَيْسِرِ They ask you about wine and they ask you about المَيْسِرِ They ask you about gambling. Say to them that in these two things there is a great sin, إِثْمٌ كَبِيرٌ And Imam al-Shatibi rahimahu allahu ta'ala, he says, وَإِثْمٌ كَبِيرٌ شَاعَدِثَا مُثَلَّثًا He says, this word, إِثْمٌ كَبِيرٌ It has been read as a ثَا It has been read as إِثْمٌ كَثِيرٌ by Hamza and Kitha'i. Two of the Qurra, al-Asharah, they read إِثْمٌ كَثِيرٌ Now, كَبِيرٌ it means something which is big.
كَثِيرٌ means quantity, a lot. So independently they're two different meanings. But when you bring it together, look at what you benefit.
The scholars, they say, how do we understand if it's independent and these two قراءات they're meant to strengthen one another and to complement one another and to not negate one another. How do we understand this? And what the conclusions they're reaching, the scholars of Tafsir and the scholars of Qur'an, it makes you dumbfounded sometimes. They're saying, they asked the Prophet ﷺ about خَمْر and they asked the Prophet ﷺ about gambling.
Take خَمْر for example. When a person is intoxicated, he's going to fall into إِثْمٌ كَبِيرٌ great sins because his mind is not present. And he's going to fall into many sins because his mind is also not present.
He doesn't know when to stop. He'll just continue. He'll loot a shop and he'll fall into another sin and he'll walk a few miles and he'll do something else.
And he doesn't know that there's a limit. He doesn't see the wrong to be wrong because his mind is not present. So they're saying, إِنَّ الْقِرَاءَ بِمَثَابَةِ آيَةٍ Indeed, each قراءة is like an independent ayah in the sense that it gives you its own beautiful meaning.
But again, it complements each other. It associates to one another. It helps one another.
And it allows you to understand the Qur'an in a more rich way. And again, this is just one example. Imagine if we were to unlock the Qur'an and Allah SWT was to give us a lot of understanding of it, we would appreciate it so much more.
I think that's an excellent place to end it. I know we're limited in time so I think that's a beautiful place to end it. But just these kind of brief discussions, just like the brief discussion we've had today, it really makes you realize why the Prophet ﷺ said, خَيْرُكُمْ مَنْ تَعْلُمَ الْقُرْآنَ وَعَلَّمَهُ The best of you are those who learn the Qur'an and teach it to others.
May Allah make us of them. A beautiful thing as well, just to add on that same point, is in the Qur'an, Allah SWT divides all of the creation or the human beings into two categories. In Suratul Bayyinah, Allah SWT, He says that the kuffar and the disbelievers, they are شُرُّ الْبَرِيَّةِ They are the worst of humanity.
And then Allah SWT, He says that the believers and those who do righteous actions, أُولَٰئِكَ ذِي آهُمْ From amongst, خَيْرُ الْبَرِيَّةِ They are the greatest of humanity. So by being believers and doing righteous actions, we are the best. وَلِلَّهِ الْحَمْدُ كُنْتُمْ خَيْرَ أُمَّةٍ أُخْرِجَتْ لِلنَّاسِ You are the best of nations that Allah SWT sent out to the people.
So being a Muslim and submitting to Allah SWT and His religion, it makes you the best by default. But in this hadith that you mentioned in Surah Al-Bukhari and the authority of Uthman ibn Affan, it's saying خَيْرُكُمْ And the scholars, they also make another connection here and they say that this pronoun that's saying خَيْرُكُمْ the best from amongst you, is speaking about the Muslims. But if the Muslims were the best, and the hadith is saying the best, it's the best of the best.
مَنْ تَعَلَّمَ الْقُرْآنَ وَعَلَّمَهُ And another benefit here that people misunderstand sometimes is it is مَنْ تَعَلَّمَ الْقُرْآنَ وَعَلَّمَهُ It's both. And if you have one without the other, then the خَيْرِيَّ is not what is mentioned here. It's not for the one who has one thing.
It's for the one who has both. And if you learn the Quran and you don't teach it, so you do تَعَلَّمَ الْقُرْآنَ only. You just learn it.
Every single knowledge, every single science has a Zakah. You need to teach it. And if you don't teach it, then you haven't given it its due right.
You haven't given it its due right. And if you do the second part without the first, meaning you teach it without learning it, then you are somebody who is teaching people something you haven't learned yourself. فَاقِدُ الشَّيْءِ لَا يُعْطِي If you don't possess something, you can't even pass it on.
So both of them are needed and that's very important. I think it's a very nice way to add to what you mentioned because some people think it's one or the other. So if I'm teaching the Quran and I haven't really learned it, I'm unqualified for example, they have this hadith in mind and that's perhaps not the right thing to do.
And to also restrict yourself from the خَيْر and not to teach the Quran whilst you have learned it, Allah has blessed you with it, favoured you with it, is also perhaps not the best thing to do. But to complete both of those things, it makes you the best of the best. والله تعالى عليك.
JazakAllah khair. Thank you for the opportunity. Thank you so much.
May Allah bless you as well and preserve you and hopefully we can do that again. InshAllah. Wa alaikum salam.
Wa alaikum salam.
