Surah Ar-Rahman- A Deeper Look #23 Tadabbur of the Quran - How to Truly Sit with Allah’s Words

This audio is brought to you by Moslim Central.

Please consider donating to help cover our running costs and future projects by visiting

www.muslimcentral.com for the slash donate.

Last time in this Surah al-Rahman series,

but there's something else between you and your spouse,

the husband to the wife, the wife to the husband.

That is a separate issue, that's a completely separate issue,

and you have to turn that into some degree,

as much as you can of Qasira Tuttar.

To help you follow along and reflect more deeply,

we've created a companion workbook for this series.

Download it at bayina.com forward slash Rahman.

We know Allah says that we have to contemplate the Quran,

and we have to think deeply about the Quran,

and doing so, if we don't do so, the reason for that could be that our hearts have locks on them.

So this is actually a pretty serious thing, like Allah really expects you and me to do

contemplation of the Quran. The problem is that most of us don't know where to begin.

How do you do contemplation of the Quran, right?

And outside of these lectures that I'm doing and maybe assisting you a little bit with some

contemplation, how do you engage in that in a good way yourself, right?

So Sheikh Suhaib and I kind of developed this concept of five lenses of contemplating the Quran,

and one major prerequisite before the five lenses.

So I'm going to talk to you briefly about the prerequisite today, and maybe even one lens.

So the prerequisite is when we approach the Quran, what state does my heart have to be in?

What emotional state do I have to be in? What is my attitude towards this book?

Look, we believe the word of Allah is perfect, we believe the word of Allah is from Allah himself,

it has gotten all of that's fine. But practically speaking, when you open up the Quran and you

start to study a Surah, you have to mentally prepare yourself and tell yourself

that everything in the Surah is perfect. I'm not. My understanding is not.

If I'm really going to do Tadabur, I'm not coming to the Quran as a critic.

Any other book you can come to it as a critic.

The Quran, once you've exiled, if you're not a Muslim, if you're not a Muslim, then go ahead,

come to it as a critic. Criticize all you want, until you find the conclusion that it's not worthy,

it's beyond criticism. Allah even says ask questions of it, fine. But once you've entered into

the religion, once you've accepted that this is in fact divine, now your attitude isn't this I

as not making sense to me, how come it says this? I'm bothered by this. No, no, no, no, no,

I'm coming to it. It is perfect already. And I am ready to humble myself to what I don't know.

Right? If I don't come to the Quran with an attitude of humility, absolute humility,

like I just don't know, I believe like this is one of the most important lessons in the Quran

even taught with alif lam mim. First surah after we ask for guidance in the most half order al bakara,

Allah started with alif lam mim, which no human being knows what it means. Like the first lesson is

you don't know, put your need to understand everything and check. Park that at the gate.

Now you're ready to learn the book. Allah, Allah, you know what you don't know. Allah knows you

don't know. Allah knows you don't know. Then you start studying the book. That's the first most

important bit of like the heart filters what I call it. And then not only is it the humility,

but it's also why am I learning this book? Why am I learning surah Rahman? The goal of the word of

Allah is to create a connection between me and Allah, to strengthen a bond between me and Allah.

The goal is not Arabic linguistics. The goal is not to impress myself or anybody else. The goal

is not fun facts. None of those are a worthy goal. There's only one goal. I want to find a deeper

connection between myself and Allah. And the best connection I can make with him is his own words

given directly to me. Like this was facilitated for me. So this is there for a reason. And that

reason is this is, this is where Atasim will be Hablillah, right? Hold on to Allah's rope.

When, when you have, and I have this attitude, here's something that Allah guarantees.

Those who come to Allah with this humility, seeking Allah's guidance, Allah does not let them fall

into misguidance. That's Allah's guarantee. You're like on which of seer should I read, which

translation should I read, which scholar should I rely on, which which which which which look,

there's an endless amount of opinions on that, isn't there? Every, every other person you ask,

who should you listen to will give you a different answer, isn't that true? So you have too many

options of getting information and everybody has their own opinion on who's got the right information,

which means ancient civilizations used to be lost because they had no access to information,

were lost because we have too much access to information. It's over flooded. The only one who can

guarantee that you will not get lost is who? Is Allah Himself? When you come, when I come to Allah

with that humble attitude, then through that endless labyrinth of opinions and information,

one thing is for sure, Allah will not leave me without guidance because He gave me this rope

that's connecting me to Him. So even if I find something that I, you know, maybe I came to a

conclusion, but it was wrong about the Qur'an that can happen, sure, but I won't be misguided.

I can make mistakes, but I won't be misguided, you know? I can learn, I can grow, but I won't be

misguided. This attitude has other benefits, you know what its other benefits are? But I learned

from my Shaykh, this, this, this. But I read this, this, this. I've learned from people that I love,

absolutely love. Like I love Dr. Ishaa Rahman, Rahim Allah, right? I studied so much Quran

under him. I love Dr. Abdu Simea, may Allah preserve him and protect him, right? I went to a

door of the Qur'an with him. I love Shaykh Dawud Busnaan in Musqat, who I did, I did

a, I did a door of the Qur'an with him. I love people that I've studied the Qur'an with and

learned the Qur'an from, Shaykh Shah-e-Arabi, I've read almost all of his stuff here,

although all the way up to Sultanajim before he passed, right? Rahim Allah. But that doesn't mean

that I'm loyal to them. And it's not because if I read something from one of them that I love so

much, that I found compelling evidence elsewhere, that I'm like out of love for them, I cannot

disagree. I will humble myself to the word of Allah, to the truth, even if that means I find that

I was wrong, or I was less, I was holding on to something less convincing. I could share something

with you about Nahu Nalya Kutu and Marjan, and one of you can come after the lecture and say,

by the way, I think you're wrong, and here's why. And here's what I've read, and here's what I've

researched. Is it possible or no? Yeah, totally possible. And I have two options. Well, no,

what the books I read and the people that I learned from said this, there's this. So you can take

your little opinion and go back where you came from in South Jersey, right? Or I can actually say,

you know what? Thank you, because you helped me see something in Allah's book that I didn't see

before. You opened a door. I didn't have open before. This happens only when we're not, we're not

impressed with our own selves or our knowledge. We're actually humbled before Allah's word. Like my

only loyalties, I just want to understand what I'm better. That's it. That's all I want. It's great

song. Okay. So that's the first and foremost prerequisite. Now, once that prerequisite is done,

there are five things you can do, five lenses you can put on to be able to help contemplate the

Quran. And the first lens that I'd like to share with you is called the lens of language. It's

called the lens of language. Allah chose Arabic for a reason. The Arabic language is remarkably rich.

It has depth. Not only does it have depth of word, meaning inside a word, there's an entire story

as you've been seeing over and over again, right? But also in its grammar, in the way that sentences

are structured, you know, in the way that words are spelled, there's there's the there's the morphology

of it. There's the tassarif of it. There's the grammar and syntax of it. There's the rhetorical devices

in it. The balagha of it. There's so many sciences of Arabic that can seem overwhelming and like,

well, I don't know that stuff. I'm not Arab. I'm, you know, I'm a Bangladeshi Muslim. I'm a Taiwanese

Muslim. I'm an Indonesian Muslim. I don't know this stuff. How am I, how am I supposed to contemplate

the lens of the language? Well, you have two choices. For now, you either have to depend on someone

who knows the language better and they can help you. You can at least say, hey, I read the translation

of this ayah and it says, Allah gets angry. Can you tell me more about the word anger in Arabic?

Like, is there something more behind that word? And you can go to somebody that's that has more

knowledge and they can dig into that word for you and you can contemplate the meanings of that word.

You understand? So you have to develop that desire to gain access to Arabic. On the last day,

I'm going to show you what what I've been able to do with helping people like yourself at least

learn enough Arabic that you can start doing Quran cert study yourself. Like, if you're willing to

put in a year, year and a half part time, you can be doing Quran research yourself, part time,

not full time, part time. You can be studying the Arabic yourself, all these dictionaries that I'm

quoting and stuff. You can be opening them yourself. You can be doing that digging yourself.

But that just requires a commitment. If you want to, for now, you can depend on someone else.

But if you really developed that thirst of, I want to do the contemplation of the Quran through

the lens of language, because Allah chose this language, then you can get there. It's not a crazy

lofty goal that you can never reach. You can reach it. It's an attainable thing. Okay, so that's your

first lens. But I'm going to leave you today with your second lens. And the second lens is going to

be the world. I call it the world of the Quran. This is my favorite lens, actually. I call it the

world of the Quran. When Allah is talking about the two seas, or he's talking about ships, right?

Then if I'm really doing the W, you know what I should do? I should start studying ships.

And study the history of sailing and navigation. I should study buoyancy. I just, if Allah mentioned

something, I want to enter into its world. Allah took me inside the world. I want to go in it.

I want to dive deep in it. When we were studying surat al-Diyat, Sheikh Suhaib and I, Allah opened

with the winds. I swear by the winds that carry. The winds that carry. So guess what we did?

What did we start studying? We started studying winds. We didn't just study the Tafseed of

Qurtubi and Jalalayin and you know what did they say about the wind? No, no, we went to national

geographic, started reading article after article, started watching documentary after documentary

on the wind and learned some incredible things. Like there are winds that actually have pathways

across the oceans. And the coast of Florida has sand on the beach that has traveled from

Sub-Saharan Africa over the ocean, thousands of miles. When Allah says the winds that carry.

Whoa, entire atmospheric pressures are carried, humidity is carried, pollen is carried, volcanic

ashes carried across continents. Like the amount of earth that is carried by wind is incredible.

It's mind-blowing, you know. And he just captures this incredible,

eco reality in just one phrase with the Adiyat of Allah. That's it. I'll give you another example

of entering the world of the Qur'an. The angels came to the house of Abraham, Ad-e-Salam,

is very old. And they, you know, they sat down and he said, why are you really here? And they told

him that they are here to tell him that he's going to have a child. And when they told him

that, his wife, Allah says, his wife started screaming. So she slapped her own face,

and she said, old woman, Baron, infertile. She said two words, old woman infertile.

Allah could have just said, his wife was shocked. What did he say? He said, she screamed,

she slapped her face, she said, old woman, she said, infertile. But the angels didn't come to

talk to her. Angels came to talk to, oh, Abraham, angels are going to be that, excuse me,

sir. Could you put your wife in check? Like, this is official divine revelation business between

God and a prophet. Like, can we, lady, can you just calm down a second? You know, get your house

in order. The sister section, could you please calm down? She lost it. She's really upset.

And she screams these words. And what's remarkable is when she yells at the, she's yelling at the

angels. Who yells at angels? I'll tell you who, Abraham's wife yells at angels. And she yells

at them. And then she, then they start talking to her. Right? Like, they came to talk to Abraham,

right? But then the Quran, now they're talking to who? The wife, which means this was part of God's

plan. This was Allah's plan that she was going to get shocked. And part of what was going to happen

was they're going to end. Now, think about this. Just when I say enter the world of the Quran,

use your imagination for a moment. Abraham, Ali, some lived well over 100 years. Okay? How many

minutes, how many hours in a day, 24? How many minutes per hour, 60? How many seconds per minute?

Okay, this conversation, maybe 20 seconds, this conversation is 20 seconds out of how many

days of the life of Abraham, 100 and something years. Allah could have told me so much about the

life of Abraham, because there's a hundred something years to pick from. Right? And what did he choose

to tell me from this long life of Abraham, Ali, Saddam? He chose to tell me a few seconds here

and there. And some of those seconds that he chose are his woman, his wife slapping her face,

screaming and saying two words. You know what? Allah wants me to enter into her world.

Allah wants that I enter it. I can't just pass by. I need to know what's going on here.

We had to do a study when we were studying Surat Al-Vadiyaat. We had to do a study of infertility.

We had to study the women that were old and never had a child and their psychological states.

Study the relationship between depression and infertility, self-image and infertility.

Right? And we learned amazing things. We studied psychological papers, research papers,

sociological studies on infertile women and the rates of infertility, about 10% of women on the

planet in our infertile, it's a terrifying number. Right? What are these women go through? Because

this woman's gone through it. She's married to Abraham Ali Saddam, right? Abraham Ali Saddam

is always concerned for the next generation and she can't give him a child. And he doesn't leave

her and he's gotten old with her. You don't think she feels a burden all these years that she

wasn't able to give her Abraham a child. Ali Saddam, the man that she loves. And all these years

she couldn't have a child and she's old and almost dead and angels show up and say congratulations.

You're going to have a child and she goes, excuse me. Where were you for the last 90 years?

Now you want it? This is good news now. Now adjus. Seriously, adjus.

Are you couldn't give me a child when I was 25? 35? 45? 55? I'm like 95 years old. Now you want to give me a

baby. How am I going to even have that child? How am I going to feed that child? I can't barely walk

myself. And now you want me to take care of a baby. And all this time, I tried to have a baby

and you kept me bare and you kept me infertile. She's angry. She's angry. Why now?

She's got two questions. The adjus is why now and our team is why now before.

Isn't it? And she's frustrated. And she's so frustrated. She screams at the angels.

And this is so emotional for she slaps her own face and cries out.

You know, this is a very powerful moment in the Qur'an. We have to feel what she feels.

We have to experience what she experienced. If we don't enter the world of the Qur'an,

we'll just pass right by. We'll just pass right by. We won't even know what's going on.

The women that saw Yusuf Ali Saddam and they cut their hand. If you really want to understand

that, you know what you have to do? You have to enter ancient Egypt. You have to enter ancient Egypt

and their desperate housewives. You have to see what their elite families were like.

What kind of parties that these women have? How did they dress? What did they eat? What did they

drink? Did they drink orange juice? You think these elite women, millionaire women,

governors and billionaire business people's wives get together, fancy dressed, and they're sitting

and having oranges? What are they drinking? They're drinking alcohol. They're drinking alcohol.

They're they're dressed provocatively, right? They're saying all kinds of vile things.

And then he walks in. The scene is actually pretty indecent. It's very indecent. What they're

doing with him. And when he's not indulging, they're saying, oh, he's such an angel. Look at him.

He's not even looking this way. Oh, how sweet. What a gracious angel. My my my.

Now they're even more eager to tease. They're more eager to toy around with him.

And he's just in like he sees just demons from hell. He's that's what he sees, you know, and he's

just holding himself back. And this is this is the situation Allah put you so far they said I'm in.

When you enter that world, you see a different Quran. You see like the the the Allah will take you

inside these magnificent places, sometimes in nature, sometimes in history, sometimes inside

the heart of a person, sometimes inside of a scene, immersing you. This is the immersive Quran

experience. So what I want you to do when you study Quran, even if you study a little bit,

what world is Allah taking you inside? Right? What world is he taking you inside? And stay

staying that world for a little bit. Take your time with it a little bit, you know,

like when we talked about the spouses in jannah and they're limiting their sight, right?

Don't just pass me stop. We'll just think about that for a second. Like, let's go inside that world.

What does that look like? What does that feel like? Why is he saying this? What's the big deal?

My late teacher, Dr. Sarach Mahdabati Zayat about Yafood, he says, I have to confess something

because he's a very philosophical man, right? And he he had written papers on a modernity

and Islam when he was 25 years old. And those people are those papers are being studied in

PhD programs, right? He was 25 years old. I read his paper and I'm like, I feel so stupid.

And he wrote it in English. And English is not his fourth language, you know? And this and when

so when he read this surah, he said, I have to confess something. When I heard about the rewards

of jannah, I felt, why isn't the Quran talking about something higher? Why isn't it talking about

wisdom? Allah's company, something more spiritual. Why is it talking about beautiful women? Like,

okay, it's it's still very animal, right? He felt like he had this feeling inside him

that's still animal. And then he came to his own and he and he stayed in that world,

it bothered him and he stayed in that world. And then he he talked about what he what he came to

the conclusion of. And he said, there are enough men in the world that out of obedience to Allah

contain themselves, hold themselves back. When they have the opportunity, they have the the

chance to do so, they have the freedom to do so. But the only thing caging them is Allah's commandment.

That's it. And Allah is giving those men free reign. And he's giving them what they've held

themselves back from. This is actually Allah, just like the you saw Al-Jazat Um-i-Njinsil Amal

in the the criminals, they're running around between two things because they were doing the

running around in dunya. Well, people that were the believer that was restraining himself in dunya

is given unrestrained access in jannah. So this is actually Allah empathizing with his believer.

He's empathizing with it. So like, but he's he wrestled with that, right? He wrestled with the

word of Allah. He stayed in it. He grappled with it. And then he came to these conclusions. So this

is actually the second lens, the lens of language and the really important lens entering into the world

of the Qur'an, entering into the world that it wants you to enter into. And I'm telling you,

if you start doing that, your relationship with the Qur'an will completely change.

Coming up next time in this Surah Ar-Rahman series, I can understand what's the most beautiful

thing from my imagination? I have a standard. I have expectations. I have desires. I can come up with

things that I want. But Allah is not saying, if you do the best, I will give you the best based on

your imagination. He's saying, I'll give you the actual best, which is way above and beyond what I

could have imagined. But even that's not enough. And he said, and I've got some more on top of that.