Friends of the Qur'an

Friends of the Qur'an

Shaykh Kamal El Mekki

Introduction

Okay, since everyone's so serious, I thought we'd start with a joke about that. Fantastic. So basically there was a job opening at an Islamic center and three young men, they went for the interview.

So they were sitting outside and the first one was called in. He came and sat down, board members, everyone's very serious. He said, what's your name? He said, my name is Yassin.

He said, Yassin, recite Surah Yassin, the whole thing. He said, I don't know it. He said, okay, you can't get this job, out.

He leaves. Next guy comes in. (السَّلَامُ عَلَيْكُمْ - As-salamu alaykum) (السَّلَامُ عَلَيْكُمْ - alaykum).

He said, what's your name? He said, Muhammad. He said, Muhammad, recite all of Surah Muhammad. He said, I haven't memorized it.

He said, well, you can't get this position. Thank you for your time. He goes out.

The third guy's waiting outside. These guys are coming out very quickly. He said, what did they ask you guys when you go in there?

They said, well, basically they ask your name and if it coincides with the same name of a Surah in the Quran, they ask you to recite the whole Surah.

He said, oh no. So he goes in, he sits down. (السَّلَامُ عَلَيْكُمْ - As-salamu alaykum) (السَّلَامُ عَلَيْكُمْ - alaykum).

He said, what's your name? He said, well, my name is Ibrahim, but my mother, she calls me Al-Kawthar.

The Power of the Qur'an: A True Story

All right. So imagine you walk up to some of the kids in your local masjid in your community. You know, the kids that just sit in the masjid and they're not bad kids. They just maybe fool around or maybe up to a little bit of the mischief that the young men are used to in the masjid in the community. Imagine you walk up to a group like that of these young men in your masjid and you like, you know, 12, 13, 14 years old, even 11 years old.

And you tell them in a few years, you guys are going to be inside the Kaaba. You're going to go and walk inside the Kaaba, not just close to it, but inside it. Would they believe you? Just they're here in North America and you tell them in a few years, you're going to be inside the Kaaba.

And then ask them, what do you think you would have to do in order to get inside the Kaaba? What kind of things do you think they would say? What do you think will go through their minds? What would get them to this level where they would enter inside the Kaaba? What would they think of?

Some incredible dawah thing or some lecture? What would they have to do in a few years to be inside the Kaaba?

This is a true story of what happened to some of our youth in North America in here in the United States. And there were just kids who would run around the masjid, you know, they pray and what have you. They don't do anything really bad, but they just fool around and play games and hanging out in the masjid.

Then a Quranic school opened up nearby to this masjid, near this masjid. And their parents put them into Quranic memorization.

And in a few years, they memorized the entire Quran.

Then they entered into a competition, Quran memorization competition. And they scored pretty high, alhamdulillah. And they won a trip to Saudi Arabia at the expense of the king.

And they were allowed to perform Umrah. And then the Kaaba was opened up for them. And they entered inside and they stayed in the middle inside the Kaaba.

And then they came back to Virginia. So tell me what else in the world could have given them this honor? What else on this planet could have put these young men inside the house of Allah, inside the Kaaba? And you know, there's nothing, there's absolutely nothing they could have done that would end them and put them inside the Kaaba. Not any amount of lectures that they would have given, no matter how eloquent they were, not any amount of money that they donate to any group, not any type of poetry, not any song, not any nasheed, not acting.

There is nothing else on this world, in this world besides the Quran, besides the glorious Quran, that would put a few young men inside the house of Allah in the Kaaba. And then they were back amongst their community in a few days. Nothing but the Quran could have done that.

Can you think of anything that would put them inside the house of Allah? And this is the nature of the Quran. And that's why the Prophet (صلى الله عليه وسلم) said about the Quran:

(Muslim 817)

"Allah will raise people in rank with this book and lower others because of it."

Some people, Allah will raise them in rank due to this speech, meaning this Quran. And others, they will be lowered because of their disobedience to the Quran, of their turning away from the Quran. It will put them in their proper place. So some people, it raises them high.

And others, it puts them in their place for how they dealt with the Quran. So these young men, it's the Quran that put them in this place. And even in simple instances where people stand and one of them is supposed to lead the salah, which one will advance forward? Which one will get to that rank of being the imam? It's the one who has more memorization of the Quran.

So the Quran, this is its nature. It raises some people and those who turn away from it, it puts them in their proper place. So what is our relationship with the Quran and which group will we be with? Inshallah, the first group.

Different Relationships with the Qur'an

But no doubt, every single one of us in this room, we want to improve our relationship with the Quran. Some people, their relationship with the Quran is that of letters and pages. It's a physical book.

And this is a strange relationship, right? It involves a lot of strange rules. For example, you find people make up this rule that if you have a Quran in your bag, then your bag should never go below your waist because that's insulting to the Quran. So you'll find the guy walking with his bag like this, everywhere he goes like this.

Why? Well, there's a Quran in it and I shouldn't lower it. So respecting the pages, the physical letters of the Quran. And this is a relationship that involves putting the Quran on the highest bookshelf.

It has to be higher than all the other books, the novels and all that. And then Ramadan time will come up, get it, get it ready, read a little bit, we become friends with it. Then when Ramadan's over, it's time for Eid.

Okay, it was nice knowing you. I'll see you next year, inshallah. Put it at the highest place, inshallah. This is the respect we have it. It's a weird relationship. It involves a lot of hugging, a lot of kissing, a lot of rubbing, you know, kiss them.

A lot of rubbing, all kinds of weird things involved with take the book, like turn it, kiss, hug, hug, hug. Yeah, all kinds of strange, strange things you see. And that's what it is, right? Involves putting it under babies, you know, babies born, take that little microscopic Quran, you know that one, right?

And it comes with a magnifying glass, and who's this jerk who's gonna read it? What an annoying person, yeah? Why don't you just get a regular sized one, yeah? You're gonna get the microscopic one, get a little magnifying glass.

Why? You know why? They make it that small so you can stuff it under the baby's pillow, so it can protect the baby. Ah, protect the baby. You know how you can disprove to them that it protects the baby? Go to someone's house that has a little Mus'haf under the baby's pillow and smack their baby.

Yeah, practical example. Okay. All right, obviously this doesn't raise people in ranks, does it, right?

So, raising the ranks of people due to the Quran has something to do with understanding it, has something to do with acting upon what's in the Quran.

Heroes of the Qur'an: Their Stories and Examples

So some of the heroes we're going to talk about in this lecture, they've been raised in rank to the point that we mentioned their names hundreds of years later, and some of them, some of the names you may not even recognize them. Who is this person? Who is that person? So, but we're going to mention them today, hundreds of years after their death, because of this relationship they had with the Quran. A relationship of reading, understanding, and acting upon the Quran.

And you see many people being raised in rank in such a way. For example, and some of the things, some of the ways they recited the Quran was what is, what's made them so amazing.

Ibn Mas'ud's Advice on Reading the Qur'an

The way they recited the Quran, I would like to read you the advice of Ibn Mas'ud, when it comes to reading the Quran.

This is how he gives you advice when it comes to reading the Quran. He says, do not read it like you're reading poetry. I mean, just for whatever is the rhythm in it or the rhymes in it.

That's not what it's for. So don't read it like you're reading poetry. Stop at whatever is amazing in it, pause there and contemplate.

Something's amazing. Don't just rush through it. Pause and contemplate.

And move the hearts with it. Amazing advice, yeah? Move your hearts with it. Let it cause your heart to be moved.

Which is amazing. He says, and do not let the concern of one of you be the end of the surah. Do you know what I'm talking about?

Yeah? You want to recite Al-Baqarah.

So what happens? You put the bookmark at the end of Surah Al-Baqarah. And you keep reciting and reciting. And every time, what do you do? How thick, how much left? You recite a little, then you go, how much left now? And you count the pages.

Okay, ten more pages. Okay, so some of you are laughing because you know what I'm talking about. And this is the advice of Ibn Mas'ud.

It's amazing. He said, do not let the concern of one of you be the end of the surah. Enjoy it while you're there.

Enjoy the verse, the line that you're on. Don't be worried about, okay, am I almost done? Almost, what's the time? Coffee, tea, just all kinds of other thoughts. Live that moment right there.

Beautiful advice from Ibn Mas'ud.

Abdur-Rahman Ibn Auf and Abdullah Ibn Abbas

One of the narrations says something amazing. The narrator says, I saw Abdur-Rahman Ibn Auf reciting the Qur'an upon Abdullah Ibn Abbas.

I saw Abdur-Rahman Ibn Auf, one of the ten given glad tidings of paradise, reciting the Qur'an upon Abdullah Ibn Abbas. What's so amazing about this narration? It's really amazing. Anyone figure out what's so amazing about it? Something absolutely amazing about it.

Abdur-Rahman Ibn Auf, the ten given glad tidings of paradise, one of the early Muslims, and Abdullah Ibn Abbas. Who was he? He was a child when he when he was doing his thing. He was a child, little boy, and now this grown man companion is going to recite the Qur'an upon this young man, Abdullah Ibn Abbas.

That's amazing. So how does this young boy get to the state or into the level where after a few years, one of the great companions, one of the ten given glad tidings of paradise, is reciting upon him? And you all know the answer. It's because of his relationship with the Qur'an.

It's because how well he understood and knew the Qur'an. So understanding, knowing the Qur'an, knowing what Allah is telling us, that's the key. That's what's more important.

Amazing Examples of Dedication

And there are many other of these amazing narrations. One of them, his name was Salam Ibn Abi Mutia. He says, starting with Qatada, he would finish reciting the entire Qur'an in seven days.

So in seven days, he's done with the entire Qur'an. When Ramadan comes, he finishes in every three days. Every three days, he finishes the entire Qur'an cover to cover.

And when the last ten nights of Ramadan would come, he would finish it every single night. Every night finishes reading the entire Qur'an.

Another by the name of Hamza, he says, I looked at the Qur'an until I feared to lose my eyesight. Reading it so much, constantly looking at it. He said, I was afraid that I would lose my eyesight. And he would read in the masjid until people would leave and disperse.

And he would not sleep at night. His neighbors say they would hear him all night reciting the Qur'an. So imagine that.

And he says, I looked at the Qur'an for so much and so long that I feared I would lose my eyesight because of that. And then there are people who watch so much television that they fear they will lose their eyesight because of that. This is the sad part, is that we will be resurrected on the same plane as such people.

People who did that. So there'll be a guy whose eyesight deteriorated from television, even though it doesn't really do that. But let's just suppose, his eyesight got worse from television.

"Read the Qur'an in seven. And within a week you did do an entire khatm and do not read it in less than three." And likewise, Aisha رضي الله عنها she says that the Prophet صلى الله عليه وسلم:

Abu Dawud 1394

"He would not recite the Qur'an in less than three."

So that means the maximum, according to these narrations and hadith, the maximum you should recite per day would be ten juz, right? Ten juz is the maximum you would recite per day. So the examples that we gave then during this lecture, weren't they kind of contrary to what's in these narrations? And Imam al-Nawawi رحمه الله, he answers this and he says, this differs according to people. He says, for the people of contemplation who want to contemplate the Qur'an, it is preferred that they don't go over ten juz per day so they can understand it because the hadith says you will not comprehend it. It doesn't say, as Ibn Hajar رحمه الله says He says:

"So increasing or doing over ten juz per day, it's not haram, but you will not comprehend it."

So that's why al-Nawawi, he says that for people who want to contemplate and understand, it's better if they don't go over the ten so they can understand it, which is what the narration says. Those in places of responsibilities, teachers, judges, people who have a responsibility towards the community, they should read it to the point where it doesn't affect or stop them from performing their duties and take them outside of doing their duties. Then he says people outside of that, I mean, they don't have anything. If they don't read the Qur'an, they're just going to watch TV. He says those types of people, it's best for them to read much, even if it gets over ten juz. So long as it doesn't get to the stage of boredom. So they don't get bored. And someone would just say, I'll read 15 juz a day. Then he'll get bored to death in the in the process. He said, no. But if someone is just going to waste his time, and let's say he read ten juz of the Qur'an, then he's got a few hours freeze. Like, what should I do now? They say, don't read more than ten. I'll watch TV. So I say, no, read five more if you like, read two or three if you like. It's not a big deal now. And if you're going to just waste your time, you can read more than ten juz because it's not haram to read more than ten juz. It just says you will not comprehend it. Yeah. And one time I heard the sheikh, he said that he knew someone who is alive today in our time period who would read 24 juz a day. OK, now he would read 24 juz every single day. Now, I know what you think. It's probably some millionaire who just have to leave the house, right? No, he says it's someone who goes to work. He has children and he has a wife and everything. And he also makes time for his family as well. But he can squeeze it in. He can do it. So it's possible. And if someone can do that, you don't go to stop. Stop what you're doing. Just do ten and then read the Qur'an, watch TV, leave him. So.

The Qur'an as a Book of Guidance

So then the question is, what is the Qur'an, right? And we all know that it's a book of guidance. And beyond the fact that it's a book of guidance, yes, there is reward in reading every letter you get reward to get ten rewards. There is cure in the Qur'an itself, in reciting the Qur'an, reciting it over water and drinking it and so on and so forth. There's enjoyment in reading the Qur'an and other levels. And not just beyond the guidance and the wisdom in it. You can also enjoy just the physical act of reciting or hearing it. You enjoy that there's cures in it. There is reward in reading the letters. But first and foremost, it's a book of guidance. And that's very important because it's a book of guidance. We need to understand what it means. We have to understand what it's saying. The early Muslims, as you all know, they used to learn ten verses of the Qur'an, act upon it and then move on to the next ten because it was a book of guidance. We're supposed to act upon it. So learn ten, act upon these ten, and then they move on to the next ten. So they would focus a lot on understanding and acting upon the Qur'an, more so than just the physical act of memorizing the letters. And this is something where we need to balance in our communities. A lot of times we find people, they will memorize and without much, when it comes to knowledge or understanding what it's saying, very, very weak in that regard. I actually met a sister once, or a girl. She had memorized the Qur'an by age 12 and left Islam by age 17. Memorize the whole book of Allah and left Islam by age 17. It was of no value to her because she just basically was memorizing verses and sentences in another language. She doesn't know what it's saying, doesn't know what her religion is about. She left Islam. And her issues with Islam, just ridiculous little basic knowledge issues. Right. A friend of mine is a cab driver here in Canada. He says someone, a drunk man got in my cab. And my friend has a beard, the cab driver. So he says the guy started to talk to him. You're Muslim. I'm also Muslim. So you're Muslim and you're drunk. So I'm I'm drunk and I'm also a hafidh of the Qur'an. So my friend was a hafidh. He said, I don't believe you. He says, test me. He says, I gave him from the middle of al-Baqarah. He just continued with the ayat while he was drunk. So he memorized the book of Allah, but he didn't understand what he was memorizing. So that's why. And we're not saying don't memorize now and we're not saying anything else. What we're saying is that there has to be some kind of balance. There has to be some kind of understanding as well, because that's why Allah revealed this great book. And that's what there was the way of the early Muslims spend time memorizing and understanding one of them.

Examples of Deep Understanding

His name was Abu Sulayman al-Darani. He said, I would recite the verse and I would spend four or five days on one verse. If I don't understand it, I wouldn't move beyond it. Four or five days on one verse. I wouldn't move beyond this verse until I could understand what it's saying. And even children would be affected by it to this degree. Why? Because they understood the Qur'an. They understood what it was saying. So this is Ali Ibn al- Fudayl Ibn al-Ayyad. We all know Al-Fudayl Ibn al-Ayyad. The great from the early Muslims. And this is his son, Ali, and he was a young man. So the narrator says, I prayed behind Fudayl Ibn al-Ayyad and next to me in the salah was his son, Ali. He would get to some verses. His son would faint and he would be affected so much by the verse. You know something? This is not so unbelievable, even in our times. Actually, this is in Virginia. This happened and the kid didn't faint or anything, but it was Tarawih and the resulting Surah Ar-Rahman and this young boy kept crying throughout the whole surah. So one of our friends asked him, so what's wrong with you? He said, I'm crying because today I understood what Allah meant when he says:

"Which of the blessings of your Lord do you deny?"

He said, I understood what that meant. And now every time Allah's repeating that, Allah's repeating that, it made him cry. So it's possible. I mean, look at how simple this was. All he had to do was just understand it. So we underestimate our youth. We underestimate ourselves. Sometimes if we understand these verses, what would happen? How much would our hearts be moved?

The Spirit of Competition with the Companions

What I love, Allahi, when you hear stories like this of people and they put great effort. I love the story of one of the early Muslims and he was praying at night and he prayed for a long time and then his legs hurt him. So he sat down. After the taslim, he sat down. Then he looked at his legs and he had a stick in his hand. So he took it and he hit his legs, almost like a punishment for them. He hit his legs. He said, do the Prophet's companions think they're going to surpass us by far? You understand what he means? He means the companions are way ahead of us, right? So he said, how big are we going to allow this gap to be? He says, wallahi, we're going to:

"We're going to, basically, it's kind of like we're going to compete or give them a run for their money." The gap is huge, but we're going to make it a little less huge. So then he hit his legs with the stick. He said, I'm going to get up and I'm going to pray. So I love it because he was human and he found it difficult. And then he told himself, you know what? They were human and the gap between us and them is huge, but I'm going to force myself. So yeah, it hurts sometimes, but you force yourself. Sometimes you want to keep going and your body gives up, but you force yourself. And that's what's so wonderful about the narration.

"Yes, we're going to try to compete with them." We're going to try to compete with them. So we hear these stories like, oh, I'm so far away from this. No, try to compete. Like I said, we're going to be resurrected on the same plane as these people. Ali ibn al-Fudayl ibn al-'lyad was a young boy, fainting from the ayat, you know. We're going to stand next to this boy on the Day of Judgment. We're going to be held accountable just like he was. So we put effort. Yes, we're human. Yes, it's difficult, but force yourself, push yourself.

A Practical Approach to Reading the Qur'an

And I want to tell you, one of my favorite things I heard from one of the scholars about reciting the Qur'an. And in the program that he suggested, the example that he gave, he gave it with three juz of the Qur'an. He said, before you go to bed, read three juz of the Qur'an. He said, the first day it will be unbelievable, like Mount Everest. And then you're going to keep checking on it, it's over, right? And then he says, the second night, it's going to become like a small hillock. And then after that, it will become smaller and smaller. And then this is the good part. All right, this is the good part. You with me? He said, then it will become an addiction. Somebody give me an mm-mm-mm over here. Nobody's moved? No? Canadian audiences, huh? So this is the same problem in the UK. Tell jokes in the UK, everyone's like this. I'm breaking the best jokes. One of them goes like this. And that's his laugh. I left the event, like, what happened? What's wrong with these people? Like, what's wrong? So they're not reacting at all. It's like, oh, they were very responsive today. Really? Yeah. Didn't you see the brother who? Okay. Do I see someone from the UK there? Fantastic. Excellent. All right. You know, I tried. I actually tried this. Well, really, the first night, like, before going to 3G, it's like, oh. Second night, it's like, mm-mm-mm-mm. Night after that, it's like, mm-mm-mm-mm. And after that, it's just, khalas. Then it's an addiction. You know what? Don't expect me in the end of this lecture to give you a schedule. Everybody, you know your time. You know what you can do. You know how fast you read. Find out what works for you, where you can enjoy it and not get bored and want to rush through it and look towards the end. All right? And go through it the first night. It might be a little difficult. And the second night, it'll be less difficult. And get just... If you can hold on to the point where it becomes an addiction, then you have struck gold.

Conclusion

I would like to say that if you have enjoyed and benefited from this lecture, then my name is Kamal Al- Makki. And if you did not like this lecture, my name is Abu Isa Ni'matullah. Jazakumullahu khayran. Wassalamualaikum warahmatullahi wabarakatuh. Al-Fatiha.