An overview of Quranic work by Dr. Israr Ahmed

An Overview of Quranic Work by Dr. Israr Ahmed

By Nouman Ali Khan

Opening Prayer and Greetings

Assalamu alaikum wa rahmatullahi wa barakatuhu. Wa ala sayyidil anbiya wa al mursaleen wa ala alihi wa sahbihi wa man istanna bi sunnatihi ila yoom id-din. Allahuma aj'alna minhum wa min allazina aamanu wa aamilu salihaat wa tawasu bilhaqq wa tawasu bil sabr. Ameen. Ya Rabbul Aalameen.

Thumma amma ba'd.

Introduction - The Loss of Dr. Israr Ahmed

A few weeks ago when the news of the passing of Dr. Israr Ahmed came out, I received it by means of a text message and maybe 10 minutes before that I had just finished listening to one of his lectures on tafsir of a surah. Subhanallah, so I was completely overwhelmed when I heard the news and I've been meaning to say something about him, something just in service to what he has done for me personally and for the Muslims in general.

A Call for Mercy Towards Our Scholars

But I want to start my comments with something on the side inshallah ta'ala. And that is that this ummah, one of its features is that we are merciful to each other. That's one of the main qualities this ummah has that we are merciful to each other. But unfortunately in our times, especially to those who serve the religion like the ulama, people are the least merciful to them.

So we are the least merciful to our own ulama and what ends up happening is our ulama end up saying something that is not agreeable to everyone or ends up saying something that you might even call controversial. And so what we do is in return, we forget every good thing they may have done in their life and we hold on to that one statement, that one quote, that one paragraph whatever they may have said and said "Oh, you're talking about that guy who did this" and because of this they may be kafir or deviant or this or calling people to the Hellfire - all kinds of filthy names will be called and so many ulama have been demonized because of this.

So many ulama in our history have been demonized by Muslims themselves. The ummah that is supposed to be known for mercy among each other is the most vicious to each other. And imagine if this person, whoever he may have been - and this is not about Dr. Israr Ahmed in particular - whoever he may have been, if he is close to Allah and their work was acceptable to Allah and Allah forgave whatever mistake they made, they said something in a speech or something and it was a mistake and Allah forgave it and Allah accepted all the good deeds that they did. Imagine that you and I are hounding on this person and cursing them and publicly ridiculing them, and on the other hand Allah has forgiven him. Where do we stand with Allah Azza wa Jal? Subhanallah, that he may be counted from the awliya of Allah we don't know.

So this is something we have to be - Muslims themselves have to be very careful about. And what I've noticed, and you may differ with me, but what I've noticed is the people of knowledge, the actual scholars, are very respectful. And the people that are gangsters in the cloaks of scholars - they really are, they're mobsters, they have their mafia, they have their crowds and they're trying to hold on to their territory. That's all it is. It's just in the name of religion. That's the only difference. Otherwise, it's no different than the mafia. These are the people that create these kinds of problems and we should ignore that kind of rhetoric and not even respond to it. We should just ignore it as Muslims generally.

Dr. Israr Ahmed's Two Main Contributions

Anyhow, when it comes to the work of the late Dr. Israr Ahmed, rahimahullah, he's known for predominantly two things: there's his political activism and his political thought, and then there is his Quranic work. And I'm going to dedicate this conversation inshallah ta'ala to his Quran related work inshallah, and maybe some other time we can talk about his political thought. But I think the more relevant and the more universal contribution he has to offer is his Quranic service - the service to the study of Quran that he provided.

The Three-Part Structure of His Quranic Education

As an introduction to it, I will tell you that his study of Quran and his education of the Quran for the Muslims was divided into three parts. So you have to organize your thoughts about this man and his ideas - it's three things you have to try and remember inshallah ta'ala.

Part One: Mass Education of the Quran

The first of them is the education of the Quran for the vast majority or the masses of Muslims. There has to be some kind of a program where all Muslims are educated about what the Quran is, what it has to say, what its message is. They have to have at least a bare minimal knowledge of the language of the Quran so they when they are standing in Salah and the Quran is being recited, they know what it has to say, they identify with this book and it gives them a sense of identity. That was the first purpose and the first part of his movement to achieve this goal.

Project 1: Daura Tarjuma Quran

He basically engaged in two major projects. The first project is called Daura Tarjuma Quran in Urdu. And this was - you know masajid all over the world have the taraweeh prayer during Ramadan and people are feeling a spirit of connection with the Quran and the average Muslim reads more Quran in that month than any other time. So he saw that as a strategic opportunity. Why not do a dars, a lecture series on the entire Quran ayah by ayah, even if in brief translation during that month?

So for example in Lahore where he started this, there would be 20 taraweeh - you know 20 taraweeh of prayer and when Joseph's recited or a little more. After every four raka'a, he'll give a dars on everything that was recited and then a dars, then four more raka'a and then more dars and four more raka'a. So they would do 20 raka'a of taraweeh and then actually go through the entire Quran in translation with brief explanation where necessary. But keep flowing. This wasn't giving a lot of detail to every ayah or a lot of depth, but at least Muslims have an overview of what the Quran says - number one.

And the second benefit of this project, which is huge, is that most of us, especially even the versed or seasoned students of Quran, when we study the Quran, we study one ayah at a time. We study two ayat at a time. We study but very small chunks of Quran at a time or even a subject at a time. For example, the subject of women in the Quran or the subject of taqwa in the Quran or the subject of death in the Quran. So what we do is we take one subject or one ayah or one small piece and focus in on that.

But this approach that he had, you know what it does? It gives you a taste of the Quran as a conversation, Allah speaking. Because instead of stopping at an ayah, you recite, you read the ayah and you read the ayah right after and right after and right after, and what happens is you get a sense of a flow of conversation. And a lot of times even in translation, you will not get a taste and appreciation of the Quran as dialogue, as conversation as you will in that program. And actually the first time I was properly introduced to the Quran was through that program and I felt really like it was a conversation between Allah and human beings.

It feels like that and that's what salah is supposed to feel like by the way. Salah, the purpose of salah is we feel like Allah is conversing with us by means of his words. But because the vast majority of Muslims don't understand the Arabic language and don't understand the language of the Quran, this was his way of compensating. That was the idea. If we can't connect to Allah with the Quran in the salah, at least translate it and connect. The next best thing was his idea, right? So that was the first project that he started every Ramadan and he did it tirelessly.

Incidentally, I tried to do it once like five years ago, five, six years ago in Muslim Center in Flushing and I swear to you I don't know how the man did it. I have no idea. I would study eight, nine hours a day and give three and a half, four hours of lecture that night and I would be exhausted. And he did this for 20, 30 years straight without a break, without a break, subhanallah. I'm just baffled at how he did it every single Ramadan. I did it then and I said man, I made this commitment I'm gonna finish it. I couldn't even stand up straight like by the end of like the 20th day of Ramadan. And at the end of it, I said I'm not doing this again. Forget it. If I do it, I'll spread it over 10 years. Right, subhanallah.

So that's one of his great contributions.

Project 2: Muntakhab Nisab

The second, this is also part of mass education for Muslims, was - okay, if Muslims are not going to make the time to study the entire Quran, at least they should study about a tenth of the Quran in depth or a little more in depth. So he made a course in Urdu. It's called Muntakhab Nisab. It's about 70 hours of lecture in Urdu. Actually in 44 hours of lecture in Urdu, 70 hours in English because he spoke slower in English, right? Rahimahullah.

And he took about two and a half to three juz of selections from the Quran. And he said if you study these selections properly, the purpose of them is it will give you basically a scheme, a framework of all of the subjects in the Quran - all of the subjects in the Quran. And it was based on a simple philosophy that the summary of the entire Quran rests inside Suratul Asr.

That every piece, you know, the first ayah, the second ayah, the third ayah, especially the third ayah of Suratul Asr:

"Except for those who have believed and done righteous deeds and advised each other to truth and advised each other to patience."

You all know this. That the Quran either deals with iman and righteous deeds (آمَنُوا وَعَمِلُوا الصَّالِحَاتِ) or it deals with enjoining the truth (وَتَوَاصَوْا بِالْحَقِّ) or enjoining perseverance (وتواصوا بالصبر). Based on that understanding, he devised an entire curriculum.

This was a continuation of a curriculum that was made even before him by a scholar by the name of Amin Ahsan Islahi, rahimahullah. He developed that curriculum first and it was enhanced and added to by Dr. Israr Ahmed. Amin Ahsan Islahi, by the way, rahimahullah, was one of the great influences on Dr. Israr Ahmed, though he disagreed with him on a number of things. You will notice if you are a continuous listener of Dr. Saab that he will mention Amin Ahsan Islahi, rahimahullah, quite a bit. And he was very influenced by his tafsir (تَدَبُّرِ الْقُرْآنِ) and he had a lot of personal interactions with him as well before he passed away.

Anyhow, so this is his first thing - educating the average Muslim with the Quran. The only additional thing I will tell you about that is his theory was that there has to be mass education of at least basic Quranic education and Arabic in the entire Muslim world. All Muslims have an obligation to learn Arabic as best as they can. This is the language of Allah's book. It should be part of minimal education. Like you know in the public or secular world we say at least get a GED or at least graduate from high school. Well his idea was at least know some Quran and at least know Arabic. At least know that much. That much education every single Muslim should have. That was his theory. And that's again mass education.

Part Two: Deep Reflection on the Quran

Now we go to his second layer of service. You can call this (تَدَبُّ الْقُرْآنِ) - deep reflection on the Quran, a deep thorough study of the Quran. He developed this thought and started acting on it more seriously in the early 80s. And he decided to commit himself to a series of دروس where he would study maybe 20 تفسير - 20 تفسير of the scholars, take his own notes, and then present a detailed lecture on every single surah that he would study.

This was not something that you translate and keep going. He would spend hours and hours and hours on an ayah at a time if necessary. He decided that he's gonna do this for the entire Quran. Actually from what he said in one of his lectures, he started that project in 1976 himself.

The Mufassal Darsi Quran Series

The series is called (دَرْسِ قُرْآنِ مُفَصَّل) - that's what the name is in Urdu. So there's (بَيَانُ الْقُرْآنِ) which is the translation and quick overview, and there's (درس قُرْآنِ مُفَصَّل) which is the detailed deep analytical study of Quran.

I don't have access to it except for one third of it. One third of it is recorded and posted online. I think the rest of it never saw the light of day or he did it in his masjid but it wasn't recorded or published or anything like that. But whatever he did do, let me tell you something about it.

I developed that virus myself some time ago that I'm gonna study the entire Quran for myself in depth. In whatever surah I study, I'm gonna go through 26, 27 different sources and properly study it before I talk about it. And he was one of my resources. So I would study 20 different tafaseer and grammatical analysis and the books of this scholar and that scholar and the other scholar, and I would still have questions in my head. And then I'd listen to this man speak for 3-4 hours on the same question I had, and he would solve my problems like you're untying a knot. Incredible. Just the amount of work he put in I appreciate.

And it's a tragedy to me personally. It's a loss that he doesn't have every surah of Quran there where it's not posted. But whatever he does have is an absolute treasure. Priceless. I haven't read anything in the salaf or even in later times by intellectuals - even though they have great contributions - that comes even close to solving the kinds of philosophical problems that he did and the kinds of intellectual problems or historical analysis even.

I mean if you study his historical analysis, for example, and compare it to any other tafseer that you will study, you will be left with questions. You will be left with questions. And he was left with those questions and he kept studying and researching until he found the answers to those questions and simplified them so one day a dummy like me can listen and understand. Of the many thousands, hundreds of thousands that listen and appreciate from his work.

This was the second part, a deep study of the Quran. He unfortunately was not able to finish that series. Whatever he did do though, his book is posted on the website. They've posted it. It's a great contribution. I hope that one day it gets translated into English because it is an absolutely priceless treasure of Quranic studies.

Part Three: Islamic Renaissance

Now his final contribution to Quranic studies - the title he liked to give this himself was Islamic Renaissance. He called this an Islamic Renaissance. And the idea he had was that the Quran is the most sophisticated document - not just from a religious point of view, but from a justice or domestic solutions, political solutions, economic solutions. You talk about any problem that exists in the world, the Quran is the most sophisticated document that has the solutions to it.

And to present that to the world, is that easy you think? To go to an economics professor and say "You know what, all the problems of modern economy, the solutions are right here in this book." Is that easy to do? It's not. And he said they'll probably laugh at you if you do that. "What are you talking about? You're just like those Christians who - Bible thumpers they call it, right?"

So he said in order to actually prove to the world that the Quran has the solutions to every problem humanity has ever faced and has the guidelines to create and to live by the most harmonious society ever seen by history, what we need are scholars that have a deep study of the Quran on the one hand and a deep study of one of the humanities on the other.

The Problem of Colonized Minds

And he was a big - he used to talk a lot about how we Muslims, specifically Muslims are colonized. We were colonized by the British and the French and the Spaniards or whatever else, right? But our lands were colonized before, but now our minds are colonized. When they left, they left our minds as being colonized.

What does that mean? That when you think about getting a good career, what do you think of? You think of some kind of technical science or some kind of you know medical, technical, financial. Meaning you want to be a worker in the end. You want to serve the empire, right? And any education that doesn't have to do with being in a job or you know technically doing labor, rather has to do with thought and deep reflection and thinking and intellectual pursuit - for example sociology or history or political science - when you go into those careers, the Muslim parents will say, "What are you wasting your time for? Why are you thinking about economics? What kind of job are you going to get? What are you going to do with sociology? What are you going to do with psychology? What are you going to do with anthropology or history? Useless stuff."

And he says actually it is those sciences - they call them humanities. Those of you that are in college call them the useless courses, right? Those are the sciences that actually are the foundation of a society. The sociologists and the economists and the political scientists - these are the people who frame how society functions. Everybody else just works in it. But these are the people who craft society, who design society.

I mean look at the times in which we live and Wall Street and this and that and the other. It starts with Adam Smith, right? It starts with an economist. It starts with a writer. You know you talk about the huge Soviet Union and this amazing empire, but it starts somewhere else. It starts with a writer, with Karl Marx. It starts with a sociologist. Actually he was a sociologist and an economist.

So he says that Muslims have to be deep and very powerful intellectual sociologists at the same time deep students of Quran. And bring these two together. And by bringing them together you show the world how amazing the solutions of the Quran are for society. So instead of presenting the Quran as us versus them, it is us for them. If you understand what I'm saying. So here's a solution that will help you solve your problems, this is good for you. Not even for me, it's good for you. And that's the amazing power that the Quran possesses.

The Higher Studies Project

Now in order to pursue this project - I told you to pursue his first project he did two things: Darjamai Quran and Muntakhab Nisab. He did two things. For the deep study of Quran he had his own project Mufassal Darsi Quran. To pursue this third project, he took a risk. I will tell you about this risk he took.

He studied Islamic history and learned something. You know what he learned? He learned that Muslims when they were in Spain, they were the head of world civilization. All the universities, all the intellectual heads were where? They were under Muslim rule. And the Europeans were in the dark ages.

So how did the Europeans make a comeback? You cannot have a comeback until you have scholarship, you can't do it. The reason the western world is at the head of the planet today - why are they leaps and bounds ahead of everybody else? Because they have the most sophisticated universities than anybody else. The centers of learning are also centers of society and centers of civilization. The Muslims were the places where universities were and they were also leaders of the world.

So how did the Europeans make a comeback? Where did they send their young men? Where did they send their young blood? To the Muslim universities. And they were taking a big risk because if the Europeans go to Muslim universities, they might become Muslim and we might lose them. So this was a big risk for the Europeans because they might lose some of their freshest talent to the Muslims.

But these Europeans went - a lot of them were lost to Islam from their point of view. We gained them, they lost them. But a good number of them learned what they had to learn and went back to Europe to make Europe a better place. And thus started the Enlightenment. They started translating the works of the philosophers were gone. They were only available in Arabic. The Greek philosophers, you couldn't find the Greek text. You could only find the Arabic text. So the Europeans came, translated them back into European languages and took them back with them. So this reversal.

He says now it's time where the Muslims have to come to Western universities, gain the highest form of knowledge, and then return that intellectual tradition to the Muslim world. That was his idea.

And for that purpose he started an experiment. It was called IQW - Institute of Quranic Wisdom. And one of the projects within that was called the Higher Studies Project. It's one of the tragedies in his life, that project. It was called the Higher Studies Project.

The purpose of it was he would have some young brothers that would go and study with him in Pakistan and they would study the Quran and Arabic and all of this stuff. And when he felt confident with them, he would ship them off to the United States and they would do higher studies here, do their PhD in Sociology or History or whatever else.

And he did do that. There were a number of brothers I actually knew them personally myself. And they learned under him and then they came back here and they joined Hartford Seminary, they went to Harvard, they went to Yale, they went to different universities. And guess what ended up happening with most of them? They lost the other side or their ideas completely changed. And what he intended completely backfired. It completely backfired. I know of one exception. I know of one exception of his two dozen students that I knew that engaged in this project.

And he was actually hoping that I would be one of those volunteers. But I said I'll stay in LSP. It was HSP, Higher Studies Project. I wanted to be LSP, Lower Studies. I was actually more fascinated with his Tadabburul Quran work and I said I don't have the brain cells for the Higher Studies Project. And that idea, it was a little - even when they would talk about it I was like what, what are you talking about.

It's a remarkable idea, it really is. But we didn't have the infrastructure or the wherewithal to be able to execute that idea. I don't take merit away from that idea. It's a profound idea, it's an amazing idea. But we have to have a proper strategy to be able to execute it. He did whatever he could within his human capacity to fulfill that idea. And may Allah accept that from him and that great concern for the Ummah.

The Book: Islamic Renaissance

It's actually for those of you that are interested, read this book, it's amazing reading. He wrote this, it's hard for me to believe he wrote this in 1965 when he was like 24. He wrote this when he was 24. It's called "Islamic Renaissance: The Real Task Ahead." Read it twice. It's like maybe 40, 50 pages. But it'll blow your mind if you're a serious reader, first of all. It'll blow your mind that this guy is not like an Englishman and he's writing this sophisticated language. Most Islamic books are written in poor English. This is good English. This is English that'll make you feel bad like I should've paid more attention in English class in high school English. And second of all, the ideas in it are extremely powerful. Very potent ideas.

His Personal Philosophy and Lifestyle

Now the final thing I will tell you about Dr. Israr Ahmed and I'll conclude inshallah. This is one of his lost treasures I held that for last. He said that there are two views of looking at Islam.

One view is you look at Islam and you say what does it do for me? What is halal for me? What can I enjoy? What more can I do? You make more and more things permissible on yourself. You ask what more luxuries can I take part in in this life. And there's another view of Islam which is what more can I do for it? What more can I do for it?

So one view is Islam is in service to me. And the other view is I am in service to Islam. And he said that the sahaba were predominant - if you study what they did and the kinds of questions they asked to the messenger - what more can I do? How do I get to Jannah? Tell me the most amazing thing I can - the most beloved thing to Allah that I can do. In other words they weren't asking how much less can I get away with. They were asking what more can I do?

And if you look at the questions of the Muslims today when they go to the ulama, what do they ask? Do they ask what more can I do for Allah? Or do they ask what more dunya can Islam give me? Essentially. Is this halal? Can I eat that too? Can I go there too? Can I buy this too? Can I get in this business also? Can I wear that?

The mentality has become I want to be served by the religion and feel good about myself and not have to feel guilty rather than me serving myself to Islam.

His Extreme Opinion on Material Life

And in this he had a very I would have to say extreme opinion. But in the end I have to be jealous of him. I have to be jealous of him because having that extreme opinion - I don't know of anybody who could have that nowadays, I don't know.

You know what his extreme opinion was? He said until the deen of Islam needs help - he said look around you and ask yourself the question: Does the deen of Islam need help? And I don't think any Muslim would look around and say no, deen needs no help at all. I think all of us know very well we are living in times where the deen needs help.

He says until the answer is yes, the deen of Islam needs help, he said you shouldn't enjoy your food. You shouldn't buy new clothes. You shouldn't get an extra car or buy a house or expand your property. Live to the bare minimum and give everything else to help Allah'sdeen. Until that is done, until Allah is happy that the deen is established, you shouldn't be happy. That was his opinion.

And you know having that opinion is one thing, living by it is something else. He would come to the United States - you know scholars come from abroad, we put them up in hotels. Even I go at a conference and they'll book me a hotel room. The guy doesn't stay at a hotel. He's sleeping on the floor in the masjid. He's sleeping at somebody's house on the floor. And he's eating like simple meals. And he's

dressing in the same clothes. He's got two pairs of clothes - one's in the wash and the other he's wearing. That's what he's wearing for two months, three months in a stretch. Subhanallah.

It is one thing to say I'm not going to enjoy life, I'm going to give everything to it. But it's another to do that. I can't even go visit his institute in Lahore which I never had the fortune of visiting. But my friends and colleagues did. How is he living? What kind of life is he living? It's a remarkable thing to have people that not only say that but put literally what they say. Put your money where your mouth is. And he was expecting that for Muslims.

It's a very high expectation. We're barely holding on to the minimal fard. And here he was saying give everything up for the sake of this deen. Put everything into it. The Urdu expression was he would say it all the time - forget about everything else, the deen needs your help. That was his calling.

And I know that this is not the position of the majority of theologians that they say the Muslim - it's okay for you to have extra pairs of clothes, you don't have to be that extreme. And I say that fine. If you compare it to the vast majority of scholars, it is extreme. But man I'm still jealous to want akhira that bad and to let go of dunya that strongly. That's something we have to admire. It really is.

And in that sense I feel of all his contributions, it is that idea that he lived by, that he presented constantly, that he educated people with. That idea alone makes me think it's a huge loss to the ummah that we have a person like that and a fire like that that was burning in his heart that is now gone.

Personal Reflection and Future Plans

And I pray that Allahazzawajal blesses our efforts and those of us that were in whatever small capacity his students or fortunate to take benefit from his thought, his ideas, his lessons. I pray that we are able to do some justice to what we learned and to be able to present something from the Quran in that light.

I want to tell you in the end two things inshallah and I'm done. The first of them is - this happened about a year ago, I decided for myself, I told you to study Quran in depth. And Alhamdulillah I have a partner with me now and our intention is to do a detailed study of the Quran and present it in tafsir for English speaking audiences based on whatever he did but additional resources also - classical tafsir, the works of Dr. Fadil Saleh Hussain Marai, other intellectuals of our time that have done great work in Quranic studies.

And whatever we have presented so far, we've posted up on our website as a free service. The tafsir lectures that whatever we've done so far - I've started this about a year and two, three months ago and I've finished Juz Amma so far. I just finished Juz Amma like two, three weeks ago and I'm taking a break and then I'm going to go back and start from Surah Yasin.

But my colleague who's here visiting also from Texas, Shaykh Abdul Nasir, he's sitting among you actually. He started Juz Tabarak, he started Juz Tabarak last week and he's continuing also with those durus and we're posting them. It's a detailed ayah by ayah study. So if you would like, if you don't have access to the

English - I know it's not really a comparison, but it's whatever's available to you in English - you can take advantage of that from our site at bayyinah.com inshallah ta'ala.

Arabic Program Announcement

And on that note, two things I took from him - Quranic studies and Arabic. And inshallah ta'ala this summer there is an Arabic program coming from our institute to New York. It's not coming here to Bayshore, it's coming to Muslim Center in Flushing. And my colleague Abdul Nasir will be teaching it. So I'm going to ask him to talk about it for about five minutes.

Jazakumullahu khairan for listening.

[Shaykh Abdul Nasir then spoke about the Arabic program details, followed by a Q&A session with an attendee who shared his personal memories of Dr. Israr Ahmed, Maulana Maududi, and Amin Ahsan Islahi from his student days in Lahore.]