Clarity of Thought
By Nouman Ali Khan | 2026-01-09T14:09:14.785473+00:00 | Topic: Knowledge
Khutbah: Clarity of Thought
By Ustad Nouman Ali Khan - July 4, 2014
Opening Remarks and Disclaimers
There is no God but Allah. In the very beginning of this khutbah, I'd like to make two admissions, two disclaimers. The first of them is that the subject matter that I've chosen after a long time thinking about it is rather difficult.
But I think it's important enough that even though I typically when I choose a topic for a khutbah, I try to make it as simple as I can. But I think this matter is important enough and critical enough for all Muslims that I try to address it. So I pray Allah (عز وجل) gives me clarity in speech and clarity in thought that I'm able to convey something to you of benefit.
The second thing, I'm reminded as soon as I entered and I saw our Imam sitting here of the famous expression of the Arabic language, When the morning is there, you don't need a lamp. So if the Imam is here, I don't even know why I was invited to give a khutbah. But inshallah ta'ala, now that I'm in this position, I pray that I can give it some justice.
Two Dimensions of Our Relationship with the Quran
So in this brief khutbah, I want to talk to you about two dimensions of our relationship with the Quran. Allah (عز وجل) has described our relationship with the Quran in many ways. It's not one kind of relationship or many relationships we have with the Quran.
For instance, it is a reminder for us and it is a means by which we remind each other. So it is a dhikr that is for ourselves and also we remind others by means of the Quran. It is something we have to think about, we're constantly called upon to think about the Quran, to listen to it carefully, to reflect upon it.
The Concept of Tadabbur (Deep Reflection)
And when it comes to reflection specifically, which is the dimension a little bit I want to highlight today, as I started with the ayah of surah Muhammad:
Allah asks the question, why don't they think deeply about the Quran? When it comes to the Quran, why don't they engage in deep thought? Why don't they engage in deep reflection? The word تدبر comes from دبر which means the behind of something, the back of something. And تَدَبُّر means you hear something, and when you hear something, there's a surface of it. And you have to really engage in
thought to understand what are the implications and the consequences that are behind the statement that's being made.
What is behind it? So in other words, there is depth in the words, and you have to dive in to understand. A visual example would be that of the ocean. You're looking at the surface of the ocean, and you can see the ocean, but you have to appreciate that there's something going on underneath.
And there are a lot of treasures and a lot of depth that lies that didn't meet the eye. Just because you saw the surface, you don't know everything there is to know about the ocean. It's going to require some effort and some exploration, before you can figure out what really lies in the depths of this ocean.
Two Types of Problems: Spiritual and Intellectual
Now having said that Allah (عز وجل) when He talks about reflection in the Quran, interestingly enough, He makes the same statement almost identically twice. He says:
Why don't they reflect? Or don't they reflect deeply into the Quran? But one time, when He talked about this problem that people don't reflect, He actually made it a problem of the heart. So He said:
Or is it the case that their hearts have their own locks placed on them? The hearts are locked up.
The Spiritual Problem
The hearts having a problem is described in different ways in the Quran. It is a spiritual problem, I think every one of you can understand that. When people don't do the dhikr of Allah, they don't remember Allah, they don't have the fear of Allah in their hearts, the love of Allah in their hearts, the remembrance of Allah in their hearts, then the hearts start getting locked up.
When the people's eyes and their ears are listening to all the things that distract them from the remembrance of Allah, then the hearts start becoming hard, and they start getting locked up. So Allah is saying, you are so distracted by so many other things, that your heart is not interested anymore in spending time reflecting on the Quran, and internalizing the Quran. This is a spiritual problem that Allah highlights in Surah Muhammad.
The Intellectual Problem
Yet in another case in the Quran Allah (عز وجل) says:
This is the only other time Allah makes the same statement. And He ta'ala, that don't they reflect on the Quran, had it been from someone other than Allah, they would have found a lot of contradiction, inner conflict within the Quran. The Quran, one part of it would have contradicted another part of it.
Now the idea of finding consistency, when things are consistent with each other, and when things contradict each other, this is not a spiritual exercise, this is an intellectual exercise. When you study a book and you say, chapter 5 is contradicting chapter 3, or you're saying this page is contradicting that page, or this formula contradicts that formula, or this scientific conclusion contradicts that scientific conclusion, when you're looking for these kinds of consistencies or inconsistencies, these correlations or these contradictions, then what you're talking about is something that is intellectual, not something that is spiritual.
The Interplay Between Heart and Mind
What I'm trying to say is on the one hand, Allah (عز وجل) is saying that the reflection, or the lack of reflection into the Quran is a spiritual problem. And on the other hand, He's saying that the lack of reflection into the Quran, had you truly reflected, you would have become convinced that there are no contradictions, and therefore this cannot be the word of a human being, this can only be the word of Allah, and you would have been intellectually convinced. You would have reached that conclusion with your minds.
And so this interesting phenomenon in the book of Allah (عز وجل) that sometimes He talks about the heart, and sometimes He talks about the mind. Sometimes He talks about القلب, and sometimes He talks about العقل. And it's interesting that both of those have a lot of interplay in the Quran.
Examples from Surah Al-Baqarah
Just a couple of examples, even though there are literally dozens upon dozens of examples of this phenomenon in the Quran, that I want to share something with you about, inshaAllah ta'ala, hopefully this argument builds in a consistent way, in a logical way.
Allah (عز وجل) talks about (بنو إسرائيل) in Surah Al-Baqarah, I think all of you know that. He extensively talks about (بنو إسرائيل). And the story of the cow itself that was slaughtered, in order to discover who the killer is.
So the Israelites were told to take this piece of flesh, and to throw it on to the dead corpse. And then the dead will rise and reveal the actual killer.
كَذلِكَ يُحْيِي اللَّهُ الْمَوْتَى
That is how Allah gives life to the dead. In other words, this miraculous story is being described. And then Allah says to the Israelites, He says to them:
وَيُرِيكُمْ آيَاتِهِ لَعَلَّكُمْ تَعْقِلُونَ
And He keeps on showing you His miraculous signs, so that you could think. So that you could think, you could apply your aql.
In the very next ayah, Allah says:
Your hearts became hard. Allah first said that you refused to think. I gave you ayahs so you could think. But since you didn't think, your hearts became hard. Allah did not say your minds became hard. He said your hearts became hard. SubhanAllah. The previous problem was one of, why don't you think? And then immediately after, there's a spiritual problem that rises.
Examples from Surah Al-Hadeed
Similarly, you find in Surah Al-Hadeed, Allah (عز وجل) talks about the hearts:
Their hearts had become hard. Their hearts had become hard. Most of them are corrupt. He's talking about the people of the book.
A long period has passed over them. Their deen that was so pure and so beautiful, has been corrupted. It's been changed. All that is left is some empty ceremonies. That's all that's left. And so their hearts have become hard, and most of them are corrupt.
Most of them are not really truly interested in what their deen, what the revelation of Allah actually has to say. And in the very next ayah, Allah says:
Know that Allah gives life to the earth after it had died. And then Allah سبحانه وتعالى says, we clarify the ayat:
لَعَلَّكُمْ تَعْقِلُونَ
So that you can think. So that you can think. The previous ayah was about the heart becoming hard, a spiritual problem. And then the next, listen to the ayat carefully, so you can think.
The Connection Between Spiritual and Intellectual Purification
In other words, our spiritual diseases are not disconnected from our intellectual problems. When your mind becomes clear, when you can think clearly about this deen, then it will help you cleanse your heart. And when your heart is cleaner, then it will cleanse your thoughts. These are interrelated to each other.
Which is why ulama that commented on the profound statement of Allah (عز وجل)
Allah purifies the people. That the messenger of Allah (صلى الله عليه وسلم) would purify the people by reciting the Quran onto them, that they understood that this tazkiyah, this purification is two parts. Allah will purify the way people think. And Allah will purify their hearts, their motives.
He will remove the greed from their hearts. He will temper the, He will control or limit the temptations they have, the urges that they have, will put a check on them. But at the same time, He'll teach them how to think properly.
The Current Problem in Muslim Education
I bring all of this up for a very particular reason. As I travel, and I travel alhamdulillah now not only in the United States but outside also, I'm noticing a consistent problem. We emphasize the education of Islam as Muslims, at least now there's at least some emphasis that we need to educate ourselves and our children about Islam.
But the problem that we're having is that we're emphasizing the acquisition of information. We're emphasizing this idea that our children have to know certain du'as, and certain surahs, and they have to know how to read the Quran at least in Arabic. Their tajweed should be good, and all of these are important things, none of these are unimportant.
But there's this emphasis on al-'ilm, on knowledge. But at the same time, there are almost no emphasis on those two things. On the one hand, how do you cleanse the heart, on the spiritual condition, and on the other hand, there's no emphasis on thought, on thinking.
Examples of Unclear Thinking
When you have a young man come up to me and say, how do I explain? Or even a grown Muslim come up to me and say, how do we explain to our co-workers that we're fasting? How do we explain to them? Because they're not Muslim, and we need to explain to them that we're fasting, and they think it's weird. So can you give me a good answer for them?
Or how do I tell my co-worker that I'm making wudu? How do I explain to him? He walked into the bathroom, I was in the office, or I was on campus, and I was making wudu, and he saw me and he thought it was strange. Can you give me a good answer I can give them so I don't get embarrassed?
Or when they see us making salah, they ask what kind of cardiovascular exercise are you doing? So could you explain to me what kind of yoga this is? So what can we tell them?
And you know, in a lot of these kinds of questions, you're looking for an answer that can maybe help the other understand, and you have good intention for those questions, but let me tell you something. Our deen is such that we don't actually, and here's one more I have to add to this, young people come up to me and say, you know, all my friends are going to a Halloween party. All my co-workers are going to a Christmas party. How do I tell them I can't go? How do I explain to them that I don't take part in this stuff?
The Need for Clear Thinking
You know, this question itself, you're seeking an answer, but you know what these questions tell me? These questions tell me we did not train ourselves how to think. We did not teach ourselves how to think, not according to this book.
You see, if you know how to think, that when somebody says, let's go to the Halloween party, you actually turn around and say, what is Halloween? Why do you celebrate it? Before you ask me why I'm not going, what made you dress up like Cleopatra? And what made you dress up like, you know, Barney? And you're going out and knocking on strangers doors, begging for food. Before you explain to me why we're going to do this highly logical exercise, why don't you tell me why you do it? Before I explain to you why I don't do it.
In other words, people that are doing ridiculous things are now asking us why we are not participating, and now we feel like we need to explain ourselves. That's because we're not clear in our thinking. We need to understand, we need to see something that's false, something that's ridiculous, and be able to have the confidence and the clarity of thought to be able to say, listen, I'm not the one with the problem here.
I'm not the one with the problem here. I'm actually the one turning back to the one who created me. I'm the one that has... Alhamdulillah, by the grace of the Creator, by the grace of Allah, at least He's blessed me enough to know that I have a purpose in this life that goes beyond dressing up like, you know, a monkey or whatever, and going and collecting candy or getting drunk at the celebration of Jesus.
What a great way to celebrate Jesus's legacy by the way. Just get drunk at a party and curse your family members out. And we're the ones to blame? We're the ones that have to explain ourselves? You feel like you have to explain yourself? You don't have to be offensive to your co-workers. But at least you have to have the clarity of thought. Clarity of thought. And this is more important now than ever before.
The Global Challenge
Because even though, subhanAllah, subhanAllah, as I travel, this becomes clearer and clearer to me. Even though you go to the countries where Muslims are the majority, Muslim countries, where the schools are teaching Islam, where our children are learning to recite the Quran, you know, where the masajid are still filled. Even there when young people ask questions, they ask questions about, how are we so sure Islam is the right religion? I was watching this video and I got some questions I don't know how to answer.
There are some people who are claiming that there are contradictions in the Quran. There are some people who are claiming that Rasulullah (صلى الله عليه وسلم) wasn't actually a prophet. And here's what they're saying, I don't know how to answer these questions.
I do know how to make du'a though. I know how to make du'a, I memorized that. I know how to make salah, my wudu is pretty good. But I don't know how to defend my deen. Not when it comes to a couple of YouTube videos. This is a problem.
The Reality of Attacks Against Islam
We're emphasizing knowledge, but we're not emphasizing thinking. Anybody can come with any kind of criticism and just post a YouTube video, or create a blog, or post something on Reddit. And our youth and even grown adults read that stuff. And it takes so little for them to be thrown off. So little. That they can read something or hear something and the reality is they will hear something.
The reality is they will see something. You can't stop that from happening. They are going to receive and be exposed to attacks against this deen. Now more than ever before. They are accessible and they are constant. And there are far more attacks against Islam than there are efforts to promote the teachings of Islam. Far more attacks.
So if we don't understand how to think and respond, then even though on the surface, on the outside, it will look like we're Muslim, and we're praying, and the masajid are filled, but on the inside, the hearts and the minds are becoming empty of the clarity of this deen. This is critical. This is absolutely essential.
The Division in Muslim Societies
What's happened in so many Muslim societies and inshaAllah ta'ala this trend is reversing, but it's been going on for some decades now, that there are actually two classes of Muslims in many Muslim societies. There are a group of Muslims in entire villages, neighborhoods, entire families that decide that we will take our deen seriously, we are going to send our children to become hufadh of Quran, and then ulama, and they're going to come back, and they're going to lead taraweeh, and they're going to give duroos in the masajid, and we're going to preserve the teachings of this deen, and we're going to try to live by them as best we can.
In Muslim countries, there are people like this, and communities like this. And on the other hand, there are people who say, these people that are so concerned with their religion, they don't even know what's
going on in the real world. They don't even have a bachelor's degree. They don't even know what, you know, philosophy 101. They don't know anything. They don't know what Richard Dawkins has to say, or what the modern criticisms are, what agnosticism is, what scientific theory is.
They don't know anything. So we're just going to learn a little bit of religion, just because my parents want me to learn something, and they want me to pray and stuff. But I'm going to go to college, get a real education, and stay away from those religious extremists.
And this is happening in the Muslim world. There's an entire population of Muslims who want, they see a guy with a beard, or they see a woman with a hijab, and they go the other way. Like those people are crazy. They don't know what's going on in their head. They live in a different time. They live in a different century.
The last thing they think now when they see a guy that kind of even looks religious a little bit, or maybe a sister that seems to be observing her deen, they look at them and they think, these people don't think for themselves. They're so unsophisticated. They're so backwards. And that population is growing. That population of people is growing. And those are Muslims too. SubhanAllah.
Islam vs. Other Religions on Thinking
This deen, the deen that prides itself, it is the only exception to the statement that was made by Marx. The German statement he made that was translated, religion is the opiate of the masses. That religion is like a drug. It keeps people from thinking for themselves clearly. It's just a way of the church controlling people.
It's true for the church. Certainly. It's true for the church. They banned the reading of the Bible for all Christians. You know the Roman Empire when they established Christianity, or really Paulism as their official religion, they banned the average Christian from reading the Bible. You couldn't even have a copy of it. The Pope will interpret it for you. You don't think for yourself. You don't ask any questions.
The Quran's Emphasis on Thinking
Briefly concluding, this idea that religion keeps people from thinking clearly. There is no book, no sacred text that you can read from one end to the other that keeps complaining about the fact that people aren't thinking for themselves:
It didn't just emphasize the acquisition of knowledge. It keeps on emphasizing thinking, thinking, thinking.
Isn't it the case that their ancestors, they didn't understand anything. They didn't think for themselves.
And they did not receive any guidance. They weren't committed to guidance. This is the one religion that made people think.
The Tragedy of Current Muslim Condition
And it is so tragic that now, overall, we are a people that assume that if you just know some things about this religion, you just know how to pray, you just know how to make some adhkar, you don't need to think more about this deen. It will not make you think. Wallahi, this deen, if there is one thing this Quran will do for you, it will make you think.
If there is one thing it will do for you. It does not [allow you to avoid] thought, constant thinking about clarity, about purpose, about the remembrance of Allah, about justice, about fairness, about what is right and what is wrong. It cannot escape you.
Allah عز وجل did not let anything in your human experience go by without making you think about it:
The skies and the earth, the night and day, the clouds, the ships that are sailing, anything you look at:
All of these are ayaat for people who like to think. All of these became ayaat. There is not an experience you have that you can't call an ayaat. And the purpose of an ayaat, so you can think, so I can think. We are supposed to be a very thoughtful nation.
We are supposed to be engaged over here. And what that does is, it reinforces the zikr of Allah in our hearts. It reinforces the zikr of Allah in our hearts.
Warning Against Following the Path of Previous Nations
So long as we don't give this right of the word of Allah, we don't become a people that emphasize clear thinking. We might fall under the same trap that Allah described for Bani Israel and Ahlul Kitab in general:
Don't become like the people of the book who came before. A long period passed over them.
Please listen to this last comment carefully. It is essential, what Allah says in Surah Al-Hadeed. He basically says, when a nation comes, Allah sends a messenger, and He gives a message, and that message is fresh. And the first generation that takes that message, they properly understand it. And they live it according to its spirit.
But a few generations later, only the rituals are left. Only the surface of it is left. But the heart of that deen, the thought provoking message itself, that used to cleanse people on the outside, but also cleanse them on the inside. That beautified society on the outside, but beautified the souls and the hearts and the minds of human beings on the inside. The inside of it just disappears.
So the only thing left at that point is where we are now.
The Current State of Muslim Practice
It's a sad state where we are now. I still remember every year, you know once in a while, somebody sends me an email in Urdu, or you know, sends me a voicemail, asking which is the night that we have to do some ibadah? A question tells me a lot. That's all the religion is reduced to for some people. That's all that's left.
Why do you think we see more people at the Eid prayer than anything else? They come out, you look like, they're all here, they're from Texas? Where do these people come from? You know where they come from? They come from the fact that the religion, our appreciation of this religion has deteriorated. And so for some people, it's just these little bits and pieces of deen that's left. That's all there is. That's all there is and there's nothing more.
Closing Prayer
May Allah عز وجل make us a people of clear thought. And more importantly, may Allah عز وجل help us raise a generation that is thoughtful, that thinks about this deen clearly, and can stand up for its teachings, and be able to deliver its message in a clear way to the rest of society.