4 Guided Steps in the Quran for Self Transformation - Nouman Ali Khan

[Music] thank you for joining me on this live webcast on facebook and i'm really grateful for those of you that had already attended it and are getting a review of the lecture that i gave i hope to cover everything that i did in the live webinar that i covered before and i'll follow inshallah as much as i can the same exact format i'd like to start with a personal experience and then explain to you exactly the structure of this brief lecture inshallah when i started learning about religion and got interested in islam in my college days there were many avenues to take there were i mean you could have studied islam any number of ways and depending on which way you start learning your entire view of islam gets shaped by your in a sense your first impression and new york where i started learning about islam was a pretty crazy place depending on which masjid you go you get a different brand of islam pretty much right and so i was and i was really eager to just acquire everything that i could from anywhere that i could and i just have this habit when i get into it i just really really entirely give myself to one thing and i did that i did i studied islam with one group then another then another then another one scholar then another then another just completely giving myself truly trying to understand the point of view until i stumbled upon one thing that and when i experienced it i knew that something inside me had completely changed it happened in ramadan early on in my journey when i didn't even know much about the arabic language at all and i attended a program where my teacher who happens to be my arabic teacher my quran my first quran teacher dr abdul sami was covering the entire quran in translation and when he was covering it in translation and giving a brief synopsis of every ayah presenting it as a conversation it was the first time that i actually felt that i can connect with the quran as a book that personally speaks to me up until then i tried reading the quran in translation i found myself disengaged with it very easily i found myself confused about many things that it had to say very easily if you want to study a particular topic in islam fine you can go ask a scholar read an article maybe get a book but if you wanted to get a good grasp of what is the surah about or what is this ayah talking about or what is you know what are these passages about etc it's it seemed like you have to go a lot farther than translation to really get it and the materials that are available beyond translation what we call tafsir easily seem pretty complicated it's not something that you can easily just study and grasp so i felt like there's a disconnect connect between myself and the quran even though it's the primary text of islam but in this ramadan experience it was the first time that i truly truly felt connected with the word of allah these sessions would be like i don't know two three hours long and half an hour in 20 minutes in even i'd lose sight of the fact that i'm in a lecture i'd feel like allah is talking to me you know and it just it was so powerful an experience that at the end of that series i went to my to to him he didn't know who i was went up to him and i i literally asked him i just i really want to do what you do and i meant two things by that i want to teach what you teach because it's so meaningful what you've taught and i want to be able to contribute in that way but more importantly i want to be able to take from the wellspring that you take i want to be able to learn like you've learned you know and he's the one who then inspired me to become a student of the quran and of the arabic language and that journey then continued that snowballed into things i didn't expect i was just a kid trying to learn more about the quran and some of somehow some of the few things i taught friends and family maybe gave a hood by here and there it snowballed into you know podcasts that started getting downloaded in the millions and speaking requests all over the world and my a phenomenal opportunity to meet remarkable scholars from everywhere to learn from and now you know bayern institute's been around nearly a decade or actually more than a decade now so alhamdulillah things transpired from there but it all began with that kind of ramadan quran experience and that brings me to what this webinar is about this is a webinar about the beginning of the 62nd surah suratul jumaah and these ayat in the in the course of my study when i studied these particular ayat they resonated with me in a very special way because i felt like they summarized my own journey into the quran and in a sense into islam itself like how i felt transformed from within and how my outlook on life changed was a process and that process of change was actually very beautifully articulated in these opening ayat of suratul jummah and that's my intention today to share with you and so i'll get right into now just some things about the discussion i'm going to have with you and hopefully inshallah you'll be able to stick with me and go through it in a systematic way and i hope to keep things organized so that you can keep things in your mind i'm interested not just in giving a lecture but in sharing something with you that that you internalize so well you can share it in your own words with somebody else in sha allah the first thing i'm going to try to do is share give you an introduction to juma the 62nd surah of the quran just say a few introductory comments about it the second thing i hope to do is to cover four names of allah the first ayah of this surah describes allah with four of his names very beautiful profound names in a certain special order so we're going to talk about those four names a little bit and that order and what it signifies then we're going to talk in the second ayah about the task given to the prophet sallallahu alaihi our messenger was given the greatest mission ever given to a human being and that entire mission has been summarized in the second ayah by four tasks these are the four things the prophet had to do to bring about the kind of transformation that he did and at the end of this discussion the final discussion i'll have with you is what does all of that mean for my and your own self-transformation these four guided steps in the quran for self-transformation that's what i called this webinar that's what they're about at the end we learn these lessons from the quran and then extract from them at the end what applies to ourselves so let's begin with that introduction the first discussion and a brief introduction to suratul juma it belongs to a group of surahs called the musa bihat that's a big arabic word you may not know what it means so let me tell you briefly musa bihat actually means those that declare allah's perfection what these surahs have in common is all of them begin with either subbahalillah or usabi everything has been declaring allah's perfection perfection everything in the skies and the earth has been declaring allah's perfection and will continue to declare allah's perfection and is already declaring allah's perfection these are the declarations at the beginning of this group of madani surahs within which this surah belongs to juma belongs but the other thing that these surahs have in common that should be noted is that all of them first begin with the heavens and the earth declare allah's perfection and then they compare the heavens and the earth to the believers living in madina after the prophet had migrated and the new community of muslims was formed in madinah it compares the state of the muslims to the heavens and the earth essentially saying the skies in the earth do what they're told allah created them and they submit before allah and declare his perfection why do you have levels of faith some of you very committed some of you not committed at all some of you even hypocritical some of you were very weak in their conviction there's this variation and so allah is actually raising the level of faith and hoping to transform everybody through the messages in these surahs in these musa bihat now part of that group once again is suratul jumaah even within this small group of surahs in the quran stands in a unique place why because there's two reasons one first and foremost is because in every other surah allah would describe the skies in the earth and what they do and they're supposed to you sabi lillahi mafi and since the skies in the earth do what they're supposed to do the believers are then criticized why don't you do what you're supposed to do why don't you do what you know why do you say what you don't do he's the one who made you among you there are those who disbelieve among you there are those who believe why is there a discrepancy among human beings and among the believing community when there's no discrepancy in the skies but this surah is unique as soon as allah describes the skies in the earth and they do what they're supposed to he comes to the prophet salallahu instead of criticizing us he comes to the prophet sallam and describes that he does what he's supposed to like just as the heavens follow the order heavenly order of allah the prophet himself sallallahu absalam executed the heavenly order of allah there's a harmony between the skies and the earth and what the what our prophet himself did sallallahu alaihi which is a beautiful unique quality of the surah in addition to the fact that it instead of mentioning two of allah's names it mentions four of his names but we'll get to that in the second discussion now before we get into the the the topic of the first ayah and the four names of allah that i was going to talk to you about i want to talk to you about the overall message of not just this webinar but this entire surah its message is essentially change and to understand that you have to understand a parable an analogy that is very common in the quran quran compares itself on a number of occasions to water raining from the sky that's the comparison that's made and that's an important comparison to understand water comes from the sky the quran came from the sky water is pure the quran is pure water gives life to the earth that was previously dead it had the potential for life when it was previously dead the same way the quran gives life to the hearts that were previously dead they had potential in them but that potential hadn't been activated yet inside or they had the seed inside of goodness but it hadn't been given an opportunity to blossom and to bloom right so that the water and quran analogy is a very powerful one because it's actually an analogy of transformation itself we are in a sense being compared to the earth just like the earth can be transformed by water you won't recognize the land after the greenery comes after the rain has done its effect and before it looks like two different places the same is true of human beings when the effect of revelation takes place this so let's talk about that transformation that how did human beings transform like the earth transforms how did human beings transform what was that change that the quran brought about just looking at it from a historical point of view the revelation of the quran starts when the prophet is at the age of 40 and it discontinues when he's at the age of 63 so that's a 23 year very brief period and in this period an incredible revolution took place in this unknown part of the of the world map in the middle of that desert where there was no massive empire and no no you know grand historians and scholars and things like that in the middle of that completely unknown place a revolution took place a revolution that changed individuals from the from within everything about them changed how they looked at life how they thought about happiness and sadness what their priorities were practically every everything changed about the way they eat the way they sleep how they get married who they get married to how they get divorced what they think about life and death how they clean themselves how they spend their time what should their priorities in a day and in their year in their life be you know how what should they love and what should they hate everything about them emotionally practically in their daily habits transformed it's an incredible individual transformation but it's not just an individual transformation it was also a societal transformation the way businesses conducted change forever the way the economy is organized changed the way people deal with each other what are the rights of men and women and how should they interact with one another in society you know what should be the how do people of different economic classes deal with each other how do governments deal with people and people deal with governments what are the norms and values that govern the behavior of a society what are even the ethics of war how is even war conducted meaning even at a societal level the value system was completely revolutionized within these 23 years it's actually from a historical point of view an unprecedented kind of change within one group of people within one society add to that if you think about the fact that these people had a culture and a tradition that was thousands of years old and when people follow a tradition that's centuries old then they're very set in their ways it's not easy to change them but this something happened in this time that changed them in a way that no other change in human history even compares and that's not enough not only that little small portion of the world map changed but as a result of it in just a few years until to this day the map of the world itself has changed forever you know you and i many of us are muslim today because of what happened in those 23 years it's an incredible incredible change that continues to transform the world as we speak today and it started then and the effect still continues but if you look at it from the quran's point of view yes this is from a historical point of view a political scientist's point of view you know from a sociologist point of view from an economist point of view you know they you know they can see and measure these changes and look at how the map changed and how politics changed how islam spread and all of it but if you look at it from the quran's point of view the most incredible change that happened was one change it was changed inside people's hearts something inside people transformed you know you could talk about how green the earth is on the outside the quran is saying it's that seed within that transformed that's that's the root of all of that change and that's what we're going to try to get at in today's webinar these were my few comments about the introduction to the surah and the subject matter that we're going to be dealing with now i have three more discussions to share with you just briefly outlining them once again the first thing i'm going to talk to you about now is going to be the four names of allah from the first ayah then i'll talk to you about the four tasks given to the prophet sallallahu alaihi in the second ayah and then thirdly we'll tie it all together and try to understand something about transforming ourselves self-transformation so let's begin with the first ayah i'll briefly translate this for you everything in the skies and in the earth declares allah's perfection and will continue to do so the king the pure the authority the wise this is a simplified translation in which i'm going to emphasize the four names of allah that have been mentioned and then we'll dig a little bit deeper once again in brief translation everything in the skies and everything in the earth continues to declare and will continue to declare the perfection of allah who is the king the pure the authority the wise in that order the king the pure the authority the wise okay so let's now talk about each one of these names a little bit and i what i want to start with is actually an observation of imam [Music] who pondered over these four names of allah in this package together and the thing that he felt ties them all together is the fact that all each one of these names in its own way draws you closer to allah each one of these names attracts you to allah and keeps you in close company of allah and he wanted to describe that and so i'm taking some excerpts from from his commentary i'll start with his commentary on the name the king. and then when you're in the company of someone great in this case in the company of the king it's improper protocol for you to just walk away you can't just you know you've been given the the honor of being in the company of royalty being invited to the castle being invited to the inner quarters of a king you it's you're not sitting in a restaurant you're not sitting at a train station or in a movie theater or something you just get up and walk away there's a there's an actual you know proper etiquette respect and protocol that has to be observed because you are in the presence of royalty i actually have experience with this to an extent in the human sense i've had the opportunity to meet with presidents and you know in some cases royal members of royal families in different countries etc and before you meet them there's always a protocol team that tells you here's how you're going to meet the president here's how you greet the king here's where you're going to sit here's how you're going to you let him eat first then you eat this that the other you know there's there's all this stuff you can't just like in the middle of the conversation pick up the phone and say hey excuse me king i gotta take a phone call that's not gonna happen what he's trying to get at is when you get introduced to allah you are in awe of the fact that you're in the presence of royalty and you're going to feel ashamed embarrassed walking away from that presence that grand presence you're so honored that you got to be there why would you want to to leave that presence you'll be you'll be reluctant to leave that presence so this first name of allah draws you in and keeps you there out of reverence for allah the second name of allah al-kudus which i simply translated as the pure he says about it is someone who is free from flaws and because they're free from flaws they're refined pure pure individuals such a person and such an entity is their company is desired let me put that in simple words for you people like refined company we like people that that are pure in their speech in their mannerisms and their behavior their kindness is pure their advice is pure the sincerity is pure you're gravitating towards those kinds of people truthful people honest people people that are genuine with you those are the kinds of people that you want to be around so human beings naturally are drawn towards truthfulness and cleanliness and and and pure kinds of company but even in the physical sense if you live in a polluted area where there's smoke and smog and dust and all of that human beings want to move away from that towards what a natural environment a pure environment where they can breathe fresh air where they can drink pure water purity is something that attracts people in the personal emotional sense but even physically we are drawn towards purity and cleanliness we want to get away from filth and dirtiness you know that's that's a human inclination allah put inside of us so in a sense when you get introduced to allah as the ultimately pure being in his company starts purifying you and thus you feel a change inside of you and you don't want to leave that company that's attractive in and of itself the third so two names of allah so far so good the quick recap would be the king that's the first name the pure that would be the second name the third name of allah is the authority al-aziz he says about it that those who are around the authority and by the way let me translate that a little better i'm keeping it simple so you remember the words the king the pure the authority the wise now we're on authority the third one but let me just give you a little bit more about the word al-aziz from the arabic language it actually combines two meanings it combines the meaning of authority which i've already translated but it also includes the meaning of honor and dignity and respect and if you combine those two the notion that comes from al-aziz is an authority that commands respect that's an important distinction because there are people and there are entities that have authority but they don't have any respect there are neighborhoods in which the police have a lot of authority but the community doesn't respect them that happens there may be an institution there may be people that people respect like a teacher may be respected but he has no authority that might happen but al aziz is someone who has authority and that authority is also respected and so he says then why is this name attractive because all these names are attractive in some way right they're drawing you in closer to allah he says it's similar to the king an authority a noble respected authority has invited you you're in their company you walking away from that company is not degrading them it's degrading you you missed out on an honor you got invited by somebody noble you got invited by the authority so you showing your loyalty you showing you you coming up and showing up and staying there is actually being a as a means of dignifying yourself so one actually becomes dignified in the company of al aziz they get izza because they're in the company of and finally i quickly get to the the final name in this list and finally the king the pure the authority and finally the wise beautifully said when you're in the company of someone wise every moment you miss out on getting wisdom from them is a loss for you every moment you want to take the most of it i mean i have personal experience with this and you might too there are people very few people in our life are a source of real wisdom and if you have those kinds of people you know that they're very sought after company so you getting their undivided attention is not easy and if you do get it you want to cherish every moment that you possibly can to capture whatever wisdom they have to offer you there are some teachers in different parts of the world that i look up to i'll travel and not to go and give a talk or a speech i'll just travel to go see them and ask them questions and if they can give me an hour of their time 20 minutes of their time i'll be grateful because those 20 minutes are more valuable to me than five six hours of studying on my own that wisdom to me is priceless that company is priceless so with the wise every moment is precious and it's a close intimate relationship with a teacher a mentor an elder someone who cares and loves for you and therefore gives you wisdom okay so these are the four names of allah that are described inside of this ayah the king the pure the authority and the wise this was some things about imam razi and how he framed these names together i want to add some of my own observations to that observation and i'd like to share with you that these four names of allah can be further paired up there are four of them you can divide them into two pairs and those two pairs will be the first and the third name are similar and the second and the fourth name have something in common so one and three two and four now let me put words to that that would mean that the king and the authority have something in common and the pure and the wise have something in common so let's talk about that on the one hand what it should be obvious to many of you what does the king and the authority have in common a king is an authority and a king ideally is also a respected authority they they have a lot in common and they both demand loyalty they are you know they're they're authorities that have to be respected they have to be obeyed you have to you have to recognize that they're up here and you're down here you know and authority is superior a king is superior they're royal and you're a subject you're down here these names of allah what are they what effect do they have the effect they have is they make me loyal to allah obedient to allah humble before allah they make me afraid of allah they may even be intimidating to me they're overwhelming to me about the power and the grandeur of allah and my insignificance that's what's what these names highlight what two names al-malik and al-aziz they are about the greatness of allah and therefore how miniscule and insignificant i am i become you know i become humbled before these two names but if you look at the other two names the pure and the wise well purity refinement cannot be experienced from a distance like those first two names purity and refinement is when you get close to someone and you see their mannerisms and you wisdom is something that when someone puts their hand over your shoulder and gives you advice and understands your situation and it gives you exactly relevant counsel pertaining to your situation i'm reminded particularly in the matter of hakim of the story of luqman in the quran luqman lovingly gives advice to his son and allah says we gave luqman wisdom and then he imparts that wisdom onto his son that that that intimate close loving relationship part of that is imparting wisdom you can't just get wisdom from a distance you have to develop a relationship with somebody for them to impart wisdom relevant to your life to you the other so on the first side alcodus refined company pure company company whose presence makes you feel better about yourself brings you peace in a sense you can think of it like i like to think of al-qudoos and al-hakeem paired also in a sense that when you're in the company of someone pure your heart starts getting purified and when you're in the company of someone wise your mind starts getting purified with their wisdom right so it's hearts and minds that are being refined by the kudus and the hakeem the pure and the wise so two names are distant royal grand even intimidating and two names are close and friendly and and they they bring you near that kind of makes it seem like these four names are near or rather far then near then far then near there's a push and a pull going on as far as how i'm to react to these names between myself and allah that dichotomy and that tension is actually something beautifully articulated in the quran and they're both necessary components of my relationship with allah the distance and that closeness with allah first i want to give you an example of it and the example my favorite example of it among many is the example of musa alaihissalam moses when he saw the fire he was with his family and he saw fire up top the mountain and he told his family you stay here i see a fire maybe i'll get some directions there little did he know he's going to be meeting with allah when he goes up there when he gets there what's the first experience he has allah says there is no doubt i am your master take your shoes off then you are no doubt in the sacred valley of tua he's intimidated allah has established his mastery over him he's just a slave take your shoes off show proper etiquette this is a an intimidating relationship and immediately following that what does allah say and i'm the one that has chosen you i've selected you listen carefully to the inspiration being given like allah is saying i see good in you that's why this choice has been made he's making him feel comfortable now all of a sudden it's closeness with him and immediately following that inneni i am no doubt allah no one is to be worshipped and obeyed besides me be my slave enslave yourself to me worship me that's again mastery and slavery an intimidating a powerful relationship and immediately following that a close relationship establish the prayer so you can remember me a remembrance of allah of course is a matter of the heart and a matter of closeness with allah following that again he scares him and says the hour is coming for keeping it almost entirely hidden so every person gets paid gets compensated in accordance with the efforts they made don't let anybody distract you especially the one who doesn't believe in it distract you from it and they follow their own way and fall off a cliff literally he says he's standing on a cliff so he says they fall off a cliff figuratively you might fall literally as musa is terrified of judgment day he what is in your right hand there musa what's there what's that in your right hand like a casual conversation bringing him close again i wanted to highlight this because this happens all over the quran but now it's important to understand why why does that happen why are some names intimidating us scaring us establishing allah's authority and other names making him a friend and a close ally you know even someone we love and who loves us those two things don't go hand in hand how are they always there together you see if you only have a relationship with allah about authority then you're going to be so scared of allah and so terrified of allah that you will lose all hope if you have a relationship with allah that's all friendship and love allah loves me he knows what i'm going through i love him he's my best friend etc etc you know what happens with friends friends don't have authority over each other friends start saying yeah i crossed the line but so what he's my friend he loves me too much if we became entirely connected to allah through his authority we would become hopeless and fearful only it would be a very depressing outlook on our relationship with allah if our relationship with allah was only about closeness only about friendship and intimacy we would end up taking advantage of that relationship and disobeying him and not regarding his guidelines allah keeps that balance between those two things just like he does between hope and fear it's between authority and closeness that he maintains that balance and that balance is so beautifully knit together in the first ayah of the surah al-malik al-qudoos al-hakim the king the pure the authority the wise they're close and far close and far over and over again subhanallah so now we're ready now that i've given you a recap of these four names the king the pure the authority and the wise now i'd like to talk to you about my second discussion which is about the prophet sallallahu alaihi wasallam and the four tasks allah gave him i want to share first of all the ayah with you and then we'll discuss it in some detail and i'll briefly translate it for you too whoa he is the one who appointed among the unlettered a messenger from within them minhum yet who recites unto them who narrates unto them his miracles his ayat his revelations or miracles you can call the ayat why is akihim and he purifies them well kitab and he teaches them it says the book but you can understand that as the law the term kitab in the quran many places is used for the law so he teaches them the law hikmah and the wisdom once again summarizing the translation and i'll conclude it he's the one who appointed among the unlettered a messenger among them who does four things here's what they are he teaches them he recites the ayat on to them he he narrates on to them or introduces them to the miracles he purifies them he teaches them the law and the wisdom that's the fourth thing even though from much before they had been immersed in obvious misguidance these people were lost for many many centuries many many generations obviously lost worshipping all kinds of false gods and pagan idols right so that's the commentary made in this ayah here once again four tasks have been highlighted reciting the ayaat purification the messenger purifies he teaches them the law and he teaches them wisdom in order to understand these four tasks the first thing i want to share with you is the fact that the prophet of allah among all of the other prophets carries a unique burden being the last messenger isn't just the fact that you're last on the list it means you have the heaviest load that has ever been given no other prophet is coming to guide humanity so what he has been given and what he must deliver in those 23 years isn't just it's not isn't just necessary that it transforms his immediate audience he has to be given something that is going to continue to transform humanity until the day of judgment the way prophets used to transform people the job that was done previously by prophets must now be done by this one prophet for every nation every ethnicity every generation every society to come until judgment day that's the burden on our messenger and on top of all of that you know messengers used to be given the this this uh this miracles and grand miracles to be able to bring about their changes to be able to convince people like musa and the staff he's only going to be given the quran he's not going to be given anything else but in order to understand the beauty of these and the flow of these four tasks in depth i'd like to start this discussion with an analogy and i think it ties in some of the key concepts that are being communicated here in this ayat imagine that there's a town that's kind of backwards as a village not very civilized people live there they kind of live they they don't have much in the way of law or infrastructure refinement and one day they see an entourage of horses you know back in the day horses decked out soldiers in uniforms and an ambassador coming with them and the dressed in clothes they've never seen before clearly these people are not from around here and he opens up this grand scroll and starts reading them a message from a king who would like to annex their village he'd like to take over their village and offer them the benefits of being part of their kingdom and you know starts giving them all of this this message from this king and these people look at him and say first of all it's obvious you're not from here but how do we know you're actually here from a king what proof do you have so he shows them you know coins he shows them treasures that can only possibly belong to a king he gives them some kind of indication that he represents royalty if they're convinced they say you know what we'll hear him out we'll want to hear what this king has to say you know we're kind of impressed with the entourage and everything he brought and the the proofs of his his grand royalty we're going to give him a shot if you're going to go to that company of that king you're going to go meet him then you're going to have to address your best you're going to have to dress for the occasion and observe proper protocol you're going to have to refine yourself you're going to have to purify yourself keep on track keep keep in mind what we're talking about in the ayat yet you go meet this king and the king says if you want to be part of my kingdom here are the laws you have to follow hear the regulations you must now adapt this will become your constitution and he over time develops these people and they implement more and more of the laws of the kingdom until they themselves become a very refined well-developed well well-established sophisticated society and only as they develop and grow do they start learning the advantages of becoming a more sophisticated nation they didn't see the wisdom in some of that law before but now they start seeing that wisdom they went through this process of refinement i wanted to give you that analogy because it's kind of like what the messenger did sallah but there are some differences the commonality however is that those people that the prophet came to have not had a message from their king for many many generations the first thing what did the messenger do he recited people heard the message of the quran and he's claiming that this is from god it's from allah they said how do you know it's from allah how do we know what proof do you have that this is from allah the words of allah were so powerful were so grand were so inimitable you couldn't produce something like them you were so overwhelmed by them that the audience that would hear it would know immediately that those words don't belong to a human being they were experiencing the miracle of allah's words directly and that alone was humbling them there were instances where people came to debate with the prophet sallallahu alaihi and he would recite ayat and he would get to an ayah where allah commands everyone fall into sajdah disbelievers the entire congregation of them would fall in prostration that happened the quran quran's words overpowered them and that's the first thing the prophet did introduce people to the miraculous power of the quran he's introducing them and while he's introducing them they are in awe that this this does not belong to this human being this is coming from a much more grand much more royal much more powerful source then some people were in so much awe of that word that they wanted to accept that word and recognize that they want to now become purified these were the people that then accompanied the prophet sallallahu alaihi they became they came all around him they hovered around him they formed a society around him and he would give them constant reminders remind if reminder has any benefit continuous reminder is going to benefit believers the prophet saws would continuously give them reminder through the word of allah and through that reminder two things happens their hearts start being purified of greed of jealousy of materialism of want and worry about worldly things their hearts start becoming more and more connected to allah and less and less connected to material things they start seeing things in a more refined and beautiful way but their minds start getting refined too their thought process starts changing they start criticizing things they previously didn't criticize they started appreciating things previously they didn't appreciate a purification is happening because they're constant exposure to revelation this quran is transforming them with this regular exposure this is why yuzakihim is purifying them and when they they reached a point of purification their hearts and minds were completely submitted before allah after they were in all of allah's miracles already these became the strongest of people people that were willing to leave everything behind and when allah gave them laws finally when allah started giving them laws when he started telling them that certain foods that you've been eating your whole life you can no longer eat certain drinks that are addictive in nature wine and alcohol addictive in nature that you've been enjoying your entire life today's the day you stop drinking that's it certain clothing you know women that love beautifying themselves and dressing up and going out in social gatherings and doing all of that and then quran comes and says no from today on you're going to dress like this and gave them laws when allah gave those laws these people were immediately ready to implement those laws why did that happen because two things had already happened over a long period of time yet they were in awe of allah's miracle they were humbled by allah's words and they were constantly being purified by reminder and then finally they were ready to learn the law i'm reminded i always repeat it because it's such epic words by allah she says if the first thing ever revealed in the quran was don't drink alcohol we would have said wallahi we will never stop the consumption of alcohol ever we will never give it up because we weren't purified yet that's the point that she's making you know so here yet is a very actually teaches them the book is a very very powerful reminder that we have to internalize that laws that the regulations of islam aren't just taught just like that do this don't do this this is what we do with our children nowadays this is haram this is haram this is if you really want them to transform then they have to go through the same process that the quran identified here you know now finally is the endless journey and he teaches them the wisdom why do i call that the endless journey see laws are a finite set of regulations it's a number of rules this is prohibited this is prohibited this is prohibited this is a mandatory requirement this is what you must you must pray five times a day if you can afford to you must go to hajj you must fast in the month of ramadan laws are finite and regular regulated there's not an infinite number of laws in islam but wisdom is an entirely different entity wisdom is an endless lifelong pursuit the quran didn't just come here to give us laws the quran came to give us endless lifelong wisdom my entire life will be spent exploring the wisdom of the quran and i will leave this world having only captured a few drops that's the nature of wisdom and so allah azzawajal says that finally he teaches them the wisdom he teaches them a way to engage with this book and draw more and more and more treasures from it and this is done by means of reflection and contemplation don't they ponder deeply upon the quran you know this is the process that was given and by the way one more thing about about wisdom is that wisdom also starts teaching you the wisdom behind the laws it starts actually showing you that islam isn't just a bunch of regulations it's actually a moral code it's a spiritual code these laws have a spiritual benefit a moral benefit you know that's wisdom behind the laws that starts becoming manifest as you study these are the four steps of transformation that the prophet salallahu was given now i get to one of my favorite parts in this presentation and that is how these four parts that i just shared with you were able to transform that society that had been lost for many many many generations allah is telling us that the quran cannot be underestimated the quran cannot be it's not just a book that you read the quran is a book that you use to be completely transformed these four tasks of the prophet i remind you again he recites the ayat he purifies them he teaches them the law he teaches them the wisdom are actually perfectly superimposed on the four names of allah that i started this discussion with this is one of my favorite parts of this presentation you know allah azzawajal will say and remind you of those four names the king the pure the authority the wise go back to the king the king is known by when people came and saw this ambassador they were skeptical are you really from a king what did he have to show them proof what are the ayats when the messenger recites the ayaat on to the people when he shows them the miracles what is he actually doing he's now showing them the the proof that this can only be from allah through the ayat they get to know their king notice also even in the introduction to the quran one of the first introductions to allah alhamdulillah now there's closeness in and then there's this grandeur the king the kingdom of allah the kingdom of the king of the day of judgment the master and the owner of the day of judgment now the king is known by his signs that's how people will be in awe of allah when they're introduced to the miracle of the quran the second name of allah was al-qudoos means what the pure think about what is the second task of the prophet sallallahu alaihi in the second ayah why you zakihim and he purifies them the pure is the name of allah and inspired by that name this is what your messenger does he purifies people by bringing them closer to the pure this name and this task of the prophet sallam are corresponding to each other this is what the prophet is doing he's bringing these four names of allah into people's hearts he's instilling them into people's hearts if you look at the third name or the third name of allah was al-aziz the ultimate authority the authority that should be respected and what is an authority if not the lawgiver and authority is the lawgiver the messenger salam then teaches the law the law on behalf of who on behalf of the authority whose authority should be respected until you develop an awe and respect for that authority until you don't realize that everything that authority does is there to purify you you will not be able to implement that law you will not be able to live by that law that you're supposed the way you're supposed to so because he's al-aziz the messenger fulfills that of allah by teaching the people the law of al-aziz the constitution of that authority then finally allah's last name in the first ayah was the wise and what is the name of allah that al-haqim corresponding to in the activity of the prophet saw islam the task of the prophet isaiah he says he teaches them wisdom it is allah the ultimately wise who will now teach his messenger to inspire wisdom into his followers into his into the subjects those who will accept this call and accept this faith subhanallah four names of allah directly superimposed on the four tasks given to the messenger of allah this is the incredible incredible journey of the quran that people went through to instill those names that the heavens and the earth recognize when they declare his perfection what allah is saying is if you can internalize these names you will be in harmony with the heavens and the earth that's what the prophet came to do is to bring to you the order that is already all around you you know allah will say for example the star in this the tree do sajdah why is he telling us that the star in the tree do sajdah is there anything that doesn't declare his perfection how come but you can't understand it now we're going to be in harmony with the rest of creation around us you know having said all of that now i get to the juicy part how do we think about self transformation the prophet saws was given it's an interesting question before i get to the prophet saws you know we we think of this amazing transformation that happened and since i was little maybe you've heard this too if you've been attending khudbaz and sermons your whole life how great those companions were how amazing their change was what incredible you know transformation they went through and what amazing submission to allah they demonstrated and you keep hearing about that and you keep asking yourself yeah that was them what about me i mean they were awesome i get it i'm clearly not am i capable of that kind of transformation is the quran only talking to me about an incredible historical transformation or is it telling me something i myself am capable of look at the third ayah look at what allah says there are other than them those who are not from the arabs and others in them could also mean other generations that haven't yet joined them this is the third ayah there are other than the other than themselves who haven't yet joined them and he's the ultimate authority all wise allah is already saying this incredible spiritual moral ethical revolution is not limited to these few people in the company of the prophet sallallahu alaihi this is something that is meant to continue because he is the final messenger others haven't yet joined them they will never have met their prophet but they'll meet the quran they'll never have met the companions but they'll meet the same transformation they're coming they're on the way by saying that even the companions of the prophet saws were like others who are these others we were sitting in the company of the prophet they say we were sitting in the company of the prophet sallam when you know the came down this surah came down and when he started reciting he recited others haven't yet joined them they haven't joined them yet and when they heard this ayah they're like who are these people and the prophet saws looks at salman al-farsi he looks at savannah pharisee and now before i tell you what happens next you need to know something about salman farsi if you don't know his name is for those of you who don't know his name is salman persian tells you where he's from he's from persia he was born and raised in a zoroasterian fire worshiping priestly family his family was part of the religious clergy of fire worship he he denounced his religion couldn't take it didn't make sense to him he sought the one true god and he was you know persecuted imprisoned tortured because of his belief he was an embarrassment to his family he escapes prison runs off seeking truth and ends up in the mentorship of a christian monk who teaches them previous teaches in previous scripture you know the old testament the hebrew bible and he teaches them the message of islam jesus also teaches them the signs of a final coming prophet who's going to come in the land of medina so salman farsi says i need to go there if there's a sign any any hope that a final prophet is coming i want to go and see so he goes and actually gets caught up gets enslaved ends up in madinah as a slave and remains there waiting in anticipation for the prophet salam and when the prophet saws finally came to madina he presented himself and said this is how i've come i came seeking you you know i come back to the story this is a persian who was in an environment that had nothing to do with islam had no message no preaching to him he sought the truth himself and ended up in the company in at the footsteps of the prophet saws this is the man people asked the prophet when this ayah came others haven't yet joined who are they he pointed at salman farsi and said you know iman if faith were so far it was on planet jupiter men like him people like him would have reached it there are people that are going to be on a quest no matter where they are in the world how far away from islam they are how they have no idea is they have no knowledge of the arabic language or of muslim society or nothing they don't know what quran is they don't know the revelation is nothing they have no clue whatsoever and those people are going to find allah and he says these are the people that allah is talking about in this journey in other words that that transformation did not stop with that generation it continues by pointing at salman al-farisi was in fact pointing at all of us he was telling us the transformation that you and you and i are capable of and so we need to understand what it means to engage in that journey of transformation this is what i want to share with you now towards the conclusion i don't want you to just experience or just hear this theory of transformation i want to let you know that i've turned that sort of into a mission of my own how can i help myself and others engage in that journey of self-transformation we feel that we have a solution to implement the lessons that i've taught to you today in this ayah through something we call bahina tv some of you are familiar with it but i'd like to introduce to you how beyond tv operates and what we're hoping to accomplish for yourselves in it it is it is at the end of the day my life mission everything i try to do is to create this resource so people can experience the transformation that i myself am so inspired by and i hope that you will accept this journey from me what i told you about the tasks of the prophet saws let's go back to that actually before that let me tell you what being a tv is about it's about you going on a journey through the entire quran in a way that that brings light into your life in a in a way that you can manage i know people are busy some of you are moms some of you are working professionals college students you have different engagements in life we're always going to be busy we need to have an engagement with the quran for those who cannot drop everything and just study the quran full time we need an engagement with the quran that we can systematically continuously and seriously make progress with the quran on our own schedule so here's our plan for you the first plan for you is to study just the fatiha number one that's all i'd like you to do is study the fatiha we've put a recording of the fatiha together i i delivered it some years ago and the purpose of this fatiha isn't just to introduce you to the quran of course the best introduction to allah and to the quran itself is allah's own introduction which is the first surah the fatiha but the way i present it is to highlight how is it actually so beautiful it can only be divine like i'm not just translating it and teaching you some of the lessons inside the fatiha i'm trying to highlight is it's miraculous beauty and power that's what i'm trying to do i really love this does particularly i have a special bond with it because i've met people who used to be pastors and people who followed other faiths who came to islam because they heard the stars they heard this explanation of the fatiha so i feel that that's an important start and an important part of our contribution for you the study of the fatiha once you're done with the study of the fatih my hope is that you're now curious about the rest of the quran if is so unique so beautiful so remarkable what else have i been missing out in the quran what else does it have to offer and that's where i'd like you to take you to divine speech divine speech is a program i put together many years ago i traveled many parts of the world teaching this seminar and it's been recorded now alhamdulillah and available on being a tv i'll tell you simply the purpose of divine speech and the way i like to define the purpose of divine speech is what happens at the end of divine speech when you're done with divine speech you're supposed to be able to come out and say wow this is definitely from allah this is not the word of a human being that's all i'm not even trying to convince you i'm just trying to show you what makes the quran remarkably inexplicably beautiful inexplic just humbling overpowering that's all i'm trying to do i travel with it and i taught this seminar sometimes even in universities and other places and non-muslims attended and to my account at least in front of me 15 people that i know of took shahada at this program they were transformed just i didn't do this it's just i'm just explaining what i've come to understand about the power and beauty of the quran through the second step called divine speech here now that you've done you know you're being you're in awe of the quran now you want to take that next step that third step is going to be to get a picture of what the message of the quran is all about an overview you know an overview a thematic overview of the quran the major subject matters in the quran the way that this course was put together is i took passages from the quran that represent some of the main concepts in the quran if you visualize the quran as a building these are the pillars holding it together so if you study these few passages you have a pretty good idea of the subject matter of the quran so no matter where in the quran you're studying you can tie it to one of these passages right that's the notion behind it so before you study the entire quran you get kind of a bird's eye view and a pretty decent notion of the major subject matter within it that's the uh you know the the overview of the quran a thematic overview of the quran from there now you're actually ready to embark on a step-by-step journey into the entire quran but i don't want you to do that too in depth yet i want you to have a good view of the entire a good read a guided read of the entire book and that's why i put together a concise commentary on the quran this video series is just you listen to 15 20 minutes of quran every day little by little by little and as you keep going and making progress in your reading of the quran it doesn't matter if it takes you two years or five years it doesn't even matter but you're getting drops of the quran in translation with brief explanation especially the parts that are hard to understand that are commonly misquoted or mistranslated parts that are particularly confusing i'll highlight in simple language hey this is what it actually means or hear some of the lessons that come from this but not too in-depth it's not overwhelming the point of it is you're getting your daily dose of quran now and you're going through the entire quran this way this is the quran a concise commentary and then comes the the final step to me my favorite step actually and you don't want to jump the gun and get there first i'd like you to go through this process and take your time with it the final step is what we call a deeper look and deeper look is what i decided to do myself and you'll experience this too once you go through the quran one end to the other you'll realize there's so much more i want to learn i passed it's like i touched the surface of the ocean there's so much going on deeper i want to go back and experience it again and again and again and again and so what i decided to do a few years ago is i restarted my study of the entire quran i'm studying it like i'm assuming i've never studied it before and i try to study it in more depth than i've ever tried to study it before i've actually even put together in being alhamdulillah i'm very grateful we have a research team put together that helps me study the quran in depth before the in-depth lectures are given so that i can we can make our best effort in trying to offer you a deeper meaning and i have a more profound understanding of the word of allah to the best of our ability that's a deeper look that's something i'm going to be engaged in for the foreseeable future i see years and years ahead of me where i'm going to be doing a deeper look and that's what i want for you is to be engaged in this journey to go along it's i'm not interested in you finishing the journey i'm just interested in you taking a step in that journey and that's what brings me to the conclusion of this webinar these five items that i mentioned to you starting with the fatiha doing divine speech doing the the overview of thematic overview of the quran the concise commentary and the deeper look these five steps you know what they're inspired by they're inspired by those four tasks given to the prophet sallallahu alaihi that's what i want to show you the first task of the prophet saws he introduces people to the miracles he introduces people to the grand or you know the amazing word of allah that humbles them before their king that is actually the thought behind putting the fatiha series and the divine speech series together you go through those two steps because that's our way of giving you some taste of yet that's that first task of the prophet saws the second task of the prophet salallahu was will use him he cleanses them he purifies them how did he purify them continuous consistent reminder the thematic overview and then the concise commentary of the quran what are we hoping it is for you continuous consistent reminder it's a means by which we're hoping your hearts are purified your your minds are purified you're listening to 15 20 minutes a day on your commute and you're finding advice that will guide your day you're going to find relevance more and more and more of the quran in your life because you're getting a daily dose dosage constantly i don't actually expect you to sit with a pen and paper and do this i just need you to get exposed that's all that itself has a cleansing effect but so if you go back to the tasks of the prophet it was yellow which is here divine speech and al-fatiha in divine speech well yuza kihim purifies them purifies them we're hoping through the constant reminder of you know the the thematic overview and the concise commentary but then the prophet sallam was given that latter task which was he teaches them the law and the wisdom and teaching obviously is when you become a student and you have a teacher it's more in depth it's engaging now now you have to put pen and paper together and that's where we put the deeper look together the deeper look study is looking at the quran in depth so we can learn the law and learn some of the wisdom of the quran to the best of our ability that's the journey i'm recommending all of you take i genuinely if you were sitting i'm i'm talking to you through facebook live there may be thousands of miles between us but please think of me as someone sitting in your living room right now i genuinely mean well for you if you came to me personally i met you at an airport at a restaurant somewhere and said how do i study the quran this is the advice i give you this is my personal advice to you i can't to with no strings attached i just like you to be part of this journey don't delay it don't procrastinate it don't spend hundreds and you know hundreds of hours doing this immediately no all i need is little by little by little um the best deeds are the ones that are the most consistent even if they're a little that's all that were asked we just need to be if if i can die in this journey through the quran i have succeeded that's all i care about that's all i want for you so if you can if you trust my advice this is the journey i want you to embark upon go to baina.tv don't delay just sign up today there's a there's a two-week trial that i've put together with my team so you can get an idea of how things work give it a shot you know make some commitment that in the morning commute you know or you know in the afternoon or in the evening before you go to sleep you'll take your daily dosa just a little bit just a little bit just a little bit and i'm hoping that through this and some of you are familiar there's thousands of videos of me on youtube there's tons of i talk a lot my mom tells me right there's tons of content all over the place yes it is but it's scattered this is a plan of study this is like you've taken me as a tutor for your quran studies that's what this is so with me and my colleagues we're hoping you embark in this quran journey and i honestly genuinely pray that each one of you is blessed in this journey that you and i don't become lazy in this journey that allah brings risk and beauty in our life and benefits and barakah to ourselves our children our loved ones people around us are inspired because of the light that we continuously receive from allah's book my intention for putting this together is to make him happy your intention should be to make him happy just to connect to his word ya allah i just want to understand your word better i want to live by your word better i want to be inspired inside of my heart with your word better that's all that's all the inna tv is about i don't care about anything else if we did nothing else this is all we did i'd be happy i'd be completely happy and i'd be so happy for you if you give us the honor of embarking on this journey with you i hope to see you inshaallahu ta'ala in this two-week trial get started let friends and family know i would even say let non-muslim friends and family know about it get them a subscription i have employees who gave the subscription to their parents non-muslim parents who are who've been listening to theirs of quran you know christian mothers you know that are that are going through surah imran and studying it why not let them be introduced to allah's book what better way for them to learn about islam than the quran itself let allah speak to them directly so i'm hoping that this is a service that allah accepts from all of us i'm so grateful that all of you attended today i'm very also i'm really also very excited that we've also put an app together so those of you that want to listen to our stuff and can't watch the videos you can actually download it's downloadable audio within the app itself so you can find it on the app store you know the iphone app is available and android is also available so it's a a neat way to be able to consume this stuff inshallah ta'ala even if you're on the go i hope i genuinely hope you take advantage thanks so so very much for listening today you

Channel: Bayyinah Institute

Views: 1,423,286

Rating: 4.8828144 out of 5

Keywords: Nouman Ali Khan, Arabic, Quran, Islam, Bayyinah, Bayyinah TV, Bayyinah Institute, Koran, Islamic, Education, Muslim, islam, muhammad, muslim

Id: 9J6dxR6wkjg

Length: 63min 8sec (3788 seconds)

Published: Thu Apr 06 2017