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Bismillahirrahmanirrahim. Alhamdulillahi Rabbil-‘Alameen. Wasalatu wassalamu ala sharifil anbiya wal mursaleen. Muhammadur Rasoolullah ﷺ, sallallahu alaihi wa ala alihi wa sahbihi wa sallam. Taslimun kathirun kathiruhum abaduh. My brothers and sisters,
Allah subhanahu wa ta’ala sent His Kitab, and He sent His Rasool, ﷺ,
and He said about this: لَقَدْ مَنَّ اللَّهُ عَلَى الْمُؤْمِنِينَ إِذْ بَعَثَ فِيهِمْ رَسُولًا مِّنْ أَنفُسِهِمْ يَتْلُو عَلَيْهِمْ آيَاتِهِ وَيُزَكِّيهِمْ وَيُعَلِّمُهُمُ الْكِتَابَ وَالْحِكْمَةَ وَإِنْ كَانُوا مِنْ قَبْلُ لَفِي ضَلَالٍ مُّبِينٍ (Quran 16:124). Allah subhanahu wa ta’ala said, which means, “Verily, We have blessed the believers by sending among them a Messenger from themselves.”
And the job of the Rasul is so that he can recite to them our ayat and purify them and teach them our book, the Kitab, and teach them hikmah, wisdom.
And Allah said, and truly before that, they had been grossly misguided.
I remind myself and you that Allah subhanahu wa ta’ala,
when He sent the Quran, He also sent a teacher for that Quran.
It is important to think about this and reflect. Today we live in a world where the so-called educated do not dream of doing it with anything else. But they do it; they have the temerity, they have the guts, and the courage to do it with the Kitab of Allah. And that is, for example, if a person is an architect,
he will not try to advise somebody on a health issue.
He won’t say, “I just looked it up on Claude or Chad GPT and this is what you should do.” He will not say that. Go see a doctor.
If you say, “I have a problem,” I have got a stomach ache, he will say, go see a doctor. If you say, “No, no, but you tell me, how will I tell you? I am an architect, I am not a doctor.”
Right? A carpenter will not try to fix your kitchen sink. He will say, go to the plumber.
And so on. So, you stick to your area of expertise when it comes to anything in this world. But when it comes to the book of Allah, the architect is also a Mufassir. The doctor is also a Mufassir. The carpenter is also a Mufassir. The plumber is also a Mufassir.
Without any training. I am not saying a doctor cannot become a Mufassir. Of course he can. If he has the training, if he takes the time and trouble to acquire the training, just like a doctor can become an architect. He has to go to architecture school. An architect can become a doctor. He has to go through medical school. I am talking about being an architect and trying to prescribe medicine,
which is illegal, which is insane.
But we have people who do this with the Quran.
And to make matters worse,
most of those people are not even people who know Arabic.
They don’t know the language of the Quran. They take a translation from somewhere, English, Urdu, whatever, Telugu. And bring the translation from somewhere. Based on that translation, they will interpret the Quran. They will pass judgments. And they will make fatawa. And they will tell you this is halal, this is haram—different from what Allah mentioned.
For example, Allah has said: أَحَلَّ اللَّهُ الْبَيَاءَ وَحَرَّمَ الرِّبَا (Quran 2:275). Allah said, “Allah has made trade halal”
and Allah has made riba haram. The word haram is used. حَرَّمَ الرِّبَا (Quran 2:275) Allah has made interest haram.
And we have people, so-called great shuyukhs, who have become great shuyukhs, who have got thousands of followers, because they sing the tune of shaitan; always shaitan has more followers than any Nabi.
There are people who have made riba, interest-based dealing, halal. They say, no problem, modern times, times have changed, you can deal with interest.
What Allah made halal, you made haram. What Allah made haram, you made haram.
This is kufr. This saying takes you out of Islam. If you say that, you are no longer a Muslim.
There are people who have zero knowledge of Arabic language. They have got no formal education in Islam. And who have declared that paying zakat is not necessary anymore, because zakat is meant for public good, and you are paying income tax, which is supposed to go for public good. Therefore, zakat is not required.
There are people who have given a fatwa to say that in zakat, if you have gold and silver, you need to pay zakat on that only once in your lifetime,
not every year. Hmm? I remind myself when you use that, you can give any fatwa you want. It doesn’t change the hukum. It does not change the law. The law is something; it is the hukum. The fatwa is somebody’s opinion about a particular law. The opinion does not change the law.
Right? You are going through SIR just now. If somebody says, “All this is nonsense, no need to, don’t worry about it. Forget all forms, nothing, nobody.” If the BLO comes to your house, tell him, Salaam Alaikum, I am not interested, I won’t talk to you. Does it change the law?
You can say all this. Does it change? And this is not even a law in the right sense, but even if it is a law, does it change the law? Then how does it change Allah’s law? So if somebody says that, in the Quran, Allah said this and do this and do that, the first question to ask is, where did you get this from? Who is your teacher?
And if he says, “I don’t need a teacher. I am, you know, I am educated. I am reading a translation of the Quran,”
word for word translation.
Do you know Arabic? I don’t know Arabic, but I studied some Arabic grammar, this, that.
Then you should tell him, please save yourself and save others.
Go and get a teacher. Study the Quran Al-Kareem systematically under a teacher.
Before you talk to him, talk to people and tell them, this is right and that is not right.
Just reading the Quran for yourself, reading a translation, taking some lessons from this, practicing, Alhamdulillah, whatever we can practice, no problem. You can do that.
Even if you don’t know Arabic, that’s still, I won’t say it’s no problem. It is a problem. You must learn Arabic, but until we do that, this is possible. But getting into the position of being a teacher yourself, getting into the position of giving opinions to people, that’s a different thing. I am reading for myself and I, whatever I understand, I practice. What I don’t understand, I leave it alone. I say, “This is the word of Allah.” Even if I don’t understand it, it is still the word of Allah. I will not make tafsir on this.
This is Alhamdulillah, there is no problem with that. But taking the word of Allah and expressing opinions on this and that.
And a lot of these people, they start off by criticizing,
and denigrating, and defaming, the scholars, the ulama.
What do these scholars know?
They don’t know; only you know.
So I remind myself when you, beware of arrogance.
Beware of Takabbur. And this is the worst of it. If there was any generation, if there were any people, who had the right to say, “We have the Kitab of Allah with us. We can understand it on our own. We don’t need anybody.” If somebody had the right to say that, it was the Sahaba of Rasool Allah. It was that generation of people. Because they had the language. They were the experts in the language. The Quran came in their language.
They could have said this. Nobody said it.
Nobody said it because Allah Himself said: يَتْلُوا عَلَيْكُمْ رِيبَ اللَّهِ (Quran 16:43). Recite for them the ayat which have been revealed to you. Then purify them and prepare them to receive this Kalam. This is not some ordinary thing written on some piece of paper. This is the word of Allah. This is the speech of Allah. This is Allah speaking to you. You can’t just take it. You have to prepare yourself.
We must purify ourselves. Purify your hearts, your lives, and your niyyah (intention). Purify your akhlaaq (character). Otherwise, the Quran does not sit still within us.
Then Allah commands the Prophet to teach them the Book. But whom? People for whom it is their language; they know the tongue. So what exactly is there to teach? Yet obviously, there is something of immense importance and seriousness that requires a Rasool (Messenger) to come and convey it. Allah did not say “teach each other.”
Allah did not say “go to the nearest linguist.” Allah said, “I am sending the teacher.”
I am sending the One I have selected for this purpose. He is the Rasool. He will teach you. It is not merely what you understand or what you sit together to figure out.
It is precisely what my Rasool tells you.
And Allah says, take whatever my Rasool gives you. Take it. Whatever he forbids you from, stop doing it. Fear Allah; His punishment is severe.
Whatever blanket statement comes from him, accept it. Whatever he stops you from, cease immediately.
Allah did not say, “whatever he gives you, think about it logically before taking it.”
Allah did not even say, “if it makes logical sense, ask Him.” Allah did not even say, “whatever He gives you, ask Him to clarify.” No. Whatever He gives you, take it. If He says stand on your head, stand on your head. That is all.
This requires complete and total obedience. Not unthinking obedience, but obedience because you know who is giving that instruction.
Just like when you go to a hospital: The doctor says, “take this medicine.” You do not ask the doctor, “show me your degree certificate,” or “what is this medicine? What does it do?”
I have a headache. You are told to take the tablet. It will go into my stomach. My head is here. My stomach is there. Geography aside.
Why don’t we question every detail?
Because you are a fool? Because you are blind? No. Because you know the doctor. Because you believe the doctor is qualified. He is giving you instructions. I do not have to ask you every single detail; I trust you. I have faith in you. Because I know who you are. Alhamdulillah. You tell me something, I will do it.
So, satisfy yourself that the Rasool is truly the Rasool.
That is how one enters Islam. By saying, Ashadu an la ilaha illa Allah wa ashadu anna Muhammadan Rasool Allah (I bear witness that there is no deity worthy of worship except Allah, and I bear witness that Muhammad is the Messenger of Allah). So, once you have accepted Islam, knowing the Rasool is indeed the Rasool, then what remains as the question?
Believe the Rasool, follow the Rasool. So, Allah says, “teach them the Book.”
Therefore, for those who were *sahib ul kalam* (possessors of speech), it was their *Kitab* (Scripture); it was their language. For them, if it was necessary for the Rasool to come and teach them, how much more necessary is it for us? To follow the teaching of Rasool Allah without interjecting our own ideas, not inserting our own thoughts, not adding whatever we want to say.
And not only must we refrain from doing so, but we also need the courage to teach others this stuff.
And tell others.
“Inna nafsun la’ammaratun bis-su’i illa man rahima Rabbuh” (Indeed, the soul is incited to evil except for those whom my Lord has given mercy). The nafs takes you only towards sin, except for the one whom Allah has blessed. Shaitan only misguides.
And this is one of the most powerful forms of misguidance, one of the most potent deceptions practiced by Shaitan upon those who consider themselves educated. This does not happen to the uneducated person.
You know, an ignorant crowd says: “Aam ne jaata, malta paani jaata jaa ki.” (The water came, I thought the water would come.) “Ya aisa aaya wal sab kya karna.” (So what should be done?) “Unni jo aisa wale kar leta.” (He will do it as he likes.)
Yeh bimaari is hamare padhe likho ki hai. (This disease belongs to our educated ones.)
So please, let us remind ourselves and each other: Let us not play games with the Kitab of Allah Subhanahu wa ta’ala.
Go to a teacher. If you want to learn? Go to a teacher. If you want to read a translation and try to understand the Quran yourself, no problem. Alhamdulillah. Please do it. But keep your mouth shut regarding other people. Do it yourself. Try to understand to the best of your ability. Pray tahajjud. Cry before Allah Subhanahu wa ta’ala. Ask Allah, “Ya Allah, teach me correctly. Show me.” And so on. And then when Allah gives you tawfiq (success), go to find a teacher and learn under them. But keep your mouth shut. Do not teach others. You are not qualified. You are *jahil* (ignorant) as far as teaching is concerned. Keep your mouth shut. Otherwise, you will face Allah Subhanahu wa ta’ala on the Day of Judgement. Believe me. You will stand before Allah on the Day of Judgement and you will have to answer to Him how and why you had the guts to take His Book and teach it to others in your own way.
Prepare the answer for that if you intend to do so.
We ask Allah Subhanahu wa ta’ala to save us from ourselves and from Shaitan, especially from these kinds of fitan (trials), which are major, major problems in the Deen that can literally take us out of Islam if we are not careful. We ask Allah to help us remain steadfast upon Islam. Wa sallallahu ala nabiyyil kareem wa ala alihi wa sahbihi ajmain bi rahmatika ya Rahman, Rahimeen. Walhamdulillahi Rabbil ‘Alamin.