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Bismillāh ar-Raḥmān ar-Raḥīm. Alḥamdulilāhi Rabbil-‘Alāmīn. Wa salātu wa salāmu ‘alā ashrafil-anbiyā’ wal-mursalīn. Muḥammadur Rasūlullāh ṣallallāhu ‘alayhi wa ‘alā ālihi wa sahbihī wa sallam. Tasliman kathīran kathīrān. Muḥammadur Rasūlullāh ṣallallāhu ‘alayhi wa sallam. My brothers and sisters, we are on our subject of approaching the Qur’ān al-Karīm in the way that Rasūlullāh ṣallallāhu ‘alayhi wa sallam taught us to approach the Kalam of Allāh subḥānahū wa ta’ālā.
And as I mentioned to you, I remind myself on you
that it is essential to remember that even though Islam is simple, it is not so simple that anybody, without any training, without any understanding, without knowing the language of the Qur’ān, can understand it and can interpret it and can teach it. This would be very foolish to believe that. And not just foolish in a regular sense, but foolish as in it is something that threatens our own Ākhirah. Because the Kalam of Allāh subḥānahū wa ta’ālā is not a simple matter. We can’t just say whatever we like about it. It is something which is of incredible importance. It is Allāh subḥānahū wa ta’ālā speaking to us. And that is why some of the greatest of scholars of Islam,
for example, Imām Ja’far Ṣādiq, radhiyallahu ‘anhu, also, if I’m not mistaken, Ibn Abbs radhiyallahu ‘anhuma. These people, they used to say, when they were speaking about āyāt of the Qur’ān, they used to say, “as Allāh subḥānahū wa ta’ālā said to me.” Now, he’s not claiming to get Wahi. When he says Allāh said to me, that’s not the meaning of that. He’s not claiming that he’s getting Wahi. When he says Allāh said to me, he means that the Kalam of Allāh has come to each and every one of us. And the Kalam of Allāh has come to each and every one of us. And the Kalam of Allāh is Allāh subḥānahū wa ta’ālā speaking to us. Because if you think about it, when Allāh subḥānahū wa ta’ālā said, “Aqībuṣ-Ṣalāh,” Establish Ṣalāh. Right? So now, for example, if I’m sitting in an empty room, there’s nobody in this room, just two chairs, and I say, “Establish Ṣalāh.” Makes absolutely no sense. Right? Suppose I say, “Sit down.” Who should sit down? There’s nobody here. It’s “Establish Ṣalāh.” Who must establish Ṣalāh? There’s no one here. Right? So when there is a statement that is being made, when there is a command that is being given,
then the presumption is that there is somebody to listen to this command. The command is not just given in the air somewhere. The command has been given to people who are sensible people who can understand this command. And they are supposed to carry out this command. This is a natural, logical assumption of any command statement.
So when Allāh subḥānahū wa ta’ālā is saying, “Aqībuṣ-Ṣalāh,” He’s saying it to,
He’s saying it to Nabī ṣallallāhu ‘alayhi wa sallam, but also He’s saying it to every single one of us. Right? That is the meaning of the command. Otherwise, where is the sense in saying, “Aqībuṣ-Ṣalāh” or anything? There is nobody there.
So therefore, when these people, when they say, “Allāh said to me,” and I’m not saying you should say this as normally, that’s not, you know, we don’t say this normally when we are speaking. I’m only saying this in a teaching session. When you say, “Allāh said to me,” Allāh spoke to me, this is where He’s talking about the way He approaches the Qur’ān al-Karīm as if Allāh is speaking to Him. I mentioned this story before also. Allāh, He said that His Father had said, He had set a routine for him that he must not get up from his place after Ṣalātul-Fajr. He said, “I had to sit there and recite three juz of Qur’ān every day.” You know, three sūrah. And he said, it was a long veranda and I would sit there and I would be reciting Qur’ān. My father would be walking up and down. So the whole time that he was reciting Qur’ān, his father would be walking up and down, listening to him. And he said, because one day my father stopped and he said to me, “You will never understand this Kalam until it comes into your heart, until it is nazīl in your heart, until it is revealed to you, until it comes into your heart as it came into the heart of ‘Īsā.”
Again, he’s not saying you have to become a Nabī, no. He means that that is the approach to the Qur’ān al-Karīm, an approach of the utmost respect.
It is not anything else. It’s not some book, that you are reading. No, this is something which is so very, very important. Right? So therefore we have to understand that to gain knowledge, we need other the greatest of others and to approach that knowledge. And this is the knowledge of Allāh Subḥānahū wa Ta’ālā’s Kitāb to approach that knowledge like a starving person or a thirsty person who is dying of thirst approaches the first water that he sees. He hasn’t, he’s crossing a desert. He’s not drunk water for, you know, maybe two days, three days. He’s about to die. His tongue has swollen in his mouth. He cannot swallow. There is no saliva left. He’s crawling on the ground because his energy is all gone and drained. And suddenly he sees this beautiful, pure, clean water, which is in front of him. How does he approach this water?
He doesn’t say, “Okay, let it wait.” He’s dying. He cannot wait. He has to go. How does he approach this water? He knows this is life-giving. If I drink this water, if I just get to there and I drink one sip of this water, one gulp of this water, it will save my life. With that kind of, you know, absolute passion, knowing that this thing and nothing can distract him at that point in time, there’s nothing which can distract this person from getting to this water. This is how we must approach the Kalam of Allāh Subḥānahū wa Ta’ālā. Something which we, which is critically important. I remind myself, when you, when the opposite of knowledge is not ignorance. The opposite of knowledge is the illusion of knowledge. We think we have, and that is lethal because it shuts the door of guidance.
Right? A person who is ignorant and he knows he’s ignorant will go and seek knowledge. But a person who is ignorant but thinks he is knowledgeable, he will not seek anything. He says, “I already know.”
Why do I need to ask? Why should I? Why should I read? Why should I go to a teacher? I already know. He doesn’t know he’s ignorant, but he does not. He’s so ignorant that he does not even realize that he’s ignorant.
And Allāh Subḥānahū wa Ta’ālā mentioned this specific quality with regard to the munāfiqūn: يُخَادِعُونَ اللَّهَ وَالَّذِينَ آمَنُوا وَمَا يَخْذَعُونَ إِلَّا أَنفُسَهُمْ وَمَا يَشْعُرُونَ. Allāh Subḥānahū wa Ta’ālā said they try to fool Allāh Subḥānahū wa Ta’ālā and the believers, but they fool no one except Allāh. They fool no one except themselves and even that they don’t know. They are so ignorant that they are not even aware that they are ignorant. We ask Allāh to save us from that, from this level of ignorance, where we walk around as if we know, even though we know nothing.
And that is why this attitude shuts the door of guidance. Because you don’t go to guidance. You have shut the door yourself. “I don’t need guidance.” “I don’t need teachers.” Okay, so die ignorant. Who cares?
Go before Allāh Subḥānahū wa Ta’ālā and that’s it. That is why in Islam there has always been an emphasis of learning under a guide, learning under a teacher. And a prohibition from free thinking and speculation under the garb of reflection.
Right? This is very, very important. I’m not saying don’t reflect. I’m saying reflect within the boundaries of the Shari’ah. Reflect in a way which is permissible under the Shari’ah. It’s not a free reflection. Why not this? Why not that? You know, the qualities of the Zāt of Allāh Subḥānahū wa Ta’ālā and things like this, which are not some things that we need to reflect on or we can reflect on or we can ever get answers on. Now think about this finally. Frankly, how many people even know t
What is the difference between speculation and reflection? They are two completely different things. Reflection happens within words; it is about what effect this Quran has on my heart. When I read the Quran, what is the actual effect? Allah said: لَوْ أَنزَلْنَا هَذَا الْقُرْآنَ عَلَىٰ جَبَلٍ لَرَأَيْتَهُ خَاشِعًا مُّتَصَدِّعًا مِّنْ شَقِّ اللَّهِ وَتِلْكَ لَمْ تَعْلُومَا نَضْرِبُهَا لِلنَّاسِ لَعَلَّهُمْ يَتَفَكَّرُونَ (Quran 18:103-106). Allah says if this Quran was sent upon a mountain, the mountain would humble itself and crumble to dust from the impact of Allah’s punishment. We recite this for people so that they may reflect. The Quran itself encourages us to reflect. So, what must we do with this Ayah? How do you actually reflect? What is the way of reflecting?
The way of reflecting is to look at ourselves and say, Allah subhanahu wa ta’ala is saying, if this Kalam was sent onto a mountain, the mountain would crumble to dust. This Kalam has been sent to me. What is happening to my heart? What is happening to my life? What is happening to my nafs? My ego. I think I am somebody; I am something. Is anything happening to that? That ego remains there. In fact, my ego and my ananiyat are stronger and harder than a rock, harder than a mountain. This is true reflection.
Speculation, on the other hand, is asking questions like, “How can a rock crumble?” or “What is the meaning of sending?” Does Allah blast the mountain with sound waves? It is completely worthless talk. There are many people who do this. May Allah have mercy on us. Someone came to me one day and said regarding Surah Yusuf: Yusuf alayhi salam gives his shirt to his brother and says, go and put it over the face of our father, and inshaAllah Allah will give him back his eyesight. So this person tells me that means our sweat is good for our eyesight. I asked, where did you get this idea from? He insisted that Yusuf alayhi salam said his body, so I replied, you are telling me even simply thinking about this guy being the governor of Egypt, he thinks he is wearing a dirty shirt full of sweat which he takes out and gives to his father. I mean, what sense does that make? It is completely insane. But this is how shaitan plays games. And this man was serious; he was not joking. He was very seriously telling me this is the need for this.
I told him, please, have some sense, don’t think like this. It is very important for us to change this thing of speculation and close the gap between speculation and reflection. People don’t know they don’t know the difference between speculation and reflection. And neither are they self-aware. They are self-aware enough to catch themselves speculating when they may have thought that they were reflecting. That is why our tradition from Rasulullah ﷺ is to learn from an ustaz. The Sahaba didn’t learn on their own; they learned from the Rasul ﷺ. The Rasul ﷺ used to depute Sahaba to teach people Quran and to teach people Islam. Many of them were from the Sahaba-us-Suffah. Abu Hurairah r.a. was one of them. Ibn Umar r.a. was one of them. The Nabi ﷺ would say, go and teach. Many of the women he sent to his homes, our Ummahatul Mumineen, and they would learn from the wives of the Rasul ﷺ.
So when the Nabi ﷺ taught, he did not give them a written copy obviously because the Quran was not in printed form, but he didn’t just give them the Quran written down and say, go read it and reflect on your own. These were people who knew Arabic. Even if the Rasul ﷺ had told them, here is the Ayah, write it down, read it and reflect, this would have made some kind of sense. But he did not do that because they were not going there merely to know the meaning. Think about this: People came to the Rasul ﷺ not because they didn’t know the meaning. They knew the meaning. Right? If Allah said, Akhimu Salat, they knew what the meaning was. They came to understand how to pray. They came to understand the usool of the Quran. They came to understand how to approach the Quran al-Karim. Reflection is useful only if you reflect on your own following of the Quran and ask yourself, how much am I following what Allah subhanahu wa ta’ala ordered me to do. So internally, what is the effect on my heart?
But reflection which becomes speculation and free thinking without any boundaries always leads to all kinds of evil. And may Allah protect us, eventually culminating in Kufr and exit from Islam. May Allah have mercy. If we are left to ourselves, that is where we end up. Because remember as I said, it is only by thinking in a particular way that we enter Islam. And it is by changing that thinking that we can also exit Islam equally easily.
I suggest that we remember what Rasool Allah s.a.w. told us about starting something that we would benefit from and what anyone did thereafter following what he started. He said that if somebody starts something good and people follow him, then this person will get the reward of what he started and the reward of all those people who followed what he started because it was good, and vice versa. If somebody starts something bad, that is the big problem with bid’ah. Start a bid’ah and then people start following that. Not only do you have the evil of what you started, but you will get the evil of all those people who followed you in that bid’ah. That’s why we have to be very, very careful about that. So let us not start something which ends up becoming a musibat for us. We ask Allah s.w.t. to help us to do what is pleasing to Him and to keep us safe from the waswasas of our nafs and the waswasas of shaitan. And we ask Sallallahu alayhi wa sallam to the Most Gracious and the Most Merciful and to the Most High bi rahmatika ya arhamar rahimin walhamdulillahi rabbil alamin.