Let the Quran Speak to the REAL You | Nouman Ali Khan

The True Purpose of Ramadan: Inner Transformation

I look at Ramadan as I need to revolutionize or really truly transform who I am on the inside, truly, truly, who I am on the inside with His words. His words are going to transform me. Recently somebody sent me a podcast of a very famous self-help and motivational guru, right? And he's talking about his career and how he's been helping and whatever.

And people reach out to him and start crying and telling him, your words pulled me out of a very dark time. And they, I mean, I was almost suicidal and now I'm running my own business. I have family, I have this, I have this, and I just want to thank you.

And I'm listening to this guy and all of that may be true. And I'm thinking, okay, this person said some good things and that really helped somebody. Because someone decided to just let me listen to him because he knows what he's talking about.

Right? I imagine you came with that attitude to Allah. Like, let me listen to Allah, I'm pretty sure He knows what He's talking about. I don't think I'll get better motivation, guidance, coaching, counseling.

Right. The greatest self-help book. The greatest self-help.

Allah as the Ultimate Therapist

And He'll help me see myself, like a therapist helps you see yourself, right? He'll help me see myself like I don't see myself. He'll help me spot blind spots that I can't check. Right? And if I can do that in Ramadan, if I can just sit with an ayah, I can sit with a message, I can sit with myself in Ramadan, then yes, I will still strive for whatever quantity.

But I'm actually far more interested in that feeling by the end that I somehow the Quran spoke to that it didn't just speak to me. It spoke to the innermost me that nobody talks to Allah, right? There's a part of me that I don't let out. Nobody talks to it.

And it doesn't talk to anyone. It just talks with me. This is deep, deep inside there's a Nouman.

The Layers of Our Soul

Nouman is in layers. Usman is in layers. And there's, depending on who you get to know better, they get to know one more layer, one more layer, one more layer, right? So you meet somebody just casually, they meet the outermost layer.

You've known a friend for a few years innermost layer, your friend from childhood, deeper layer, their layers, right? There's layer of you that even your spouse doesn't know, your children don't know, your parents don't know there's a layer that's the real you. That layer can have a conversation with Allah in Ramadan. سبحان الله, right? So I'm going to push back on that point.

Yeah, because I think the next question I can hear people in the comments already. But I don't know how to connect with the Quran on that level. I read it and I don't get it or I don't know how to make it that mirror.

Different People, Different Needs

Yeah. And this is where I'm going to segue into what you do for a living. Bayyinah TV or Bayyinah or just, you know, since the late 90s, you've been doing this, right? So I guess let me frame this in this way.

Let me ask you questions, as if the comment section is asking you questions. So you have Bayyinah TV, right? This is your like Quran library. Yeah, right.

You did Tadabbur and I guess in a way to see the whole Quran from Fatiha to Nas in a very brief way. And you call that concise commentary. Yeah.

Then you've gone into it much deeper. And that's called deeper look. You also have Dream, which is your Arabic program, world famous.

So everyone knows you for this. Yeah. But I think depending on where people see you, it could be the motivational bits online.

Somebody told me I'm the story guy the other day. The story guy? Yeah. Because you have story night.

The first time I ever met you was story night in Glasgow, actually, which is amazing, ماشاء الله. So how is Bayyinah helping people hold up that mirror? And no, let me ask you it from the lens of different people. So okay, I'm a revert.

Yeah, this year is my first Ramadan. I can't do Alif Ba Ta yet. Sure.

And I opened Facebook or Instagram and get a thing that says joined by unity with this Ramadan. Yeah. What's your response to that? How would you advise that person?

The Rain Analogy

So I'll give you an analogy. This raining. There's desert, it's raining on the desert. It's raining on dirt.

It's raining on a rock. It's raining in the Amazon. It's raining on a farm.

It's all earth. In the end, it's still the same planet, same water. But depends on where the earth is, is it extremely dry? Is it rich soil? Is it a grown tree? Is it a barely growing crop? The water has a different reaction.

The water is doing something different for that patch of the earth, right? And then what's coming out is different. Someplace grows a tree, another grows a flower, another grows some wheat. Another grows nothing.

Water bounces right off. It's a rock, right? If you're a new Muslim, what you need is you got you got exposed to a little bit of the water and it brought you to Islam. So the soil is ready.

Ramadan is the time where you allow the rain to actually get in, right? So to me, don't think about educating yourself in Ramadan. I think about getting exposed. If the same five people listen to الحمد لله رب العالمين being explained, right? What they're thinking about when they're listening to it is completely different.

Somebody is listening to الحمد لله رب العالمين can't stop thinking about their mother and how she was in the hospital last month and she's out. Somebody else is thinking الحمد لله they lost their child and then they got reunited with their child. So all they're thinking about is الحمد لله رب العالمين.

Somebody else is still in the middle of a crisis. They're not even in a good time. They're in the middle of a crisis and they're listening to الحمد لله رب العالمين is giving them hope, right? And you know they're all listening and learning the same thing but they're experiencing something very very different.

That's the Quran. That's the Quran. That's what you meant by matter, right? Yes, don't overthink it.

Advice for New Muslims: Just Listen

Number one, for the new Muslim, don't overthink it. Just let the Quran speak to you. Most importantly, let it speak to you.

This is Allah talking. Allah didn't reveal His book to a scholar, to someone with a PhD and this is for PhDs only, Allah revealed. You know for a Shahada and for a degree in Arabic and that's not what Allah revealed.

Allah revealed a message to humanity. Allah wanted to talk to every human being and tell them something. So Allah wanted to tell you something.

New Muslim, non-Muslim, atheist, Hindu, seasoned Muslim, alim, everybody, right? Okay, so then just sit there and just listen. Just listen to what He's saying. Just listen to what He's saying and try to internalize what does it mean for you.

That's all. It's as simple. Don't take notes or what does this word mean or I don't even know Arabic yet.

Stop. Stop, stop, stop. That's not for you right now.

For you right now is, what is this saying?

The Reading of the Heart

You know one of my teachers said it like this. He said the Quran, he was speaking to a bunch of scholars and he said this week the Quran will not speak to our minds because it already has. This week we're going to let the Quran speak to our hearts, right? And it's, he's like he called it the reading of the heart, right?

So I'm studying Quran for 25 years now. Like I can discuss the grammar of an ayah or the seerah of an ayah or the different opinions or different dimensions and aspects of the ayah but you know what? I'm still as much in need of the Quran speaking to my heart as the new Muslim. Maybe even more. Yeah.

Because my reading, the reading of the Quran oscillates between here and here, right? It becomes a mind reading and then it becomes a spiritual reading and a mind reading and a spiritual reading and you've got a, it's okay if you're starting out let it be a heart reading and then as the love of it grows it becomes a mindful reading and it, but if it gets too intellectual then the heart starts like, wait, what about me? It was, you know this is a reminder for someone who has a heart, right?

I think born Muslims need that as well, right? Of course. Not, you know, I know that I framed it in that way just to kind of, you know, don't mean to categorize but and the next question was going to be from, you know, I think you already alluded to it which was that, you know, someone now is hafidh of Quran, does multiple khatams a year, is revising the hardcore in Ramadan because he has to stand there for taraweeh, his prayer legs are shaking, he makes a mistake in Fatiha, right? But he gets through it at the end of it, you know, done. But then he leaves Eid and he's like, oh, I didn't, you know, so.

Advice for the Huffadh: Beyond Performance

Yeah, for huffadh, especially huffadh that are young boys that are, you know, they've memorized and then they recite well and then they get put in a position to lead the prayer, right? And then they're so nervous because they have to review and their muraj'ah goes into high gear in Ramadan and then it's performative, right? And we've created a culture of them having to perform and we've made them performers for our sake, right?

And then nobody's happy, somebody says you recited too slow, somebody says you recited too fast, right? And then there's the, you know, the Ramadan Olympics, who's going to lead on the 27th night, who's going to do the, etc., you know, so. And, you know, I'm gonna do a hot take here, you know, you bring in the qari and, you know, you know, and then you get the TikTok qaris who become famous for, you know, so it becomes a performance.

And, you know what, that's, I'm not here to criticize that, right? At least they're getting some Quran out of this, right? But my concern is for those young men that are leading those prayers, right? My advice to them would be, do what you're doing, that's fine, but identify a small portion of the Quran that you spend time with for your heart, not for your memorization, not for your, you know, your performance in leading the prayer, not for your review.

That was all, you know, it's like saying somebody spent their entire time perfecting their wudu and never got to the prayer. That's the analogy, right? Okay, yeah. So all of this, all of this recitation and memorization, that's the equivalent of wudu.

The contemplation and the engagement with the word of Allah, that's the actual prayer. That's what this book came for. So you are in a unique position because you have so much quantitative Quran in you.

Use Ramadan to, at least a part of Ramadan should be dedicated to a qualitative reading of the Quran. My other advice to huffadh the rest of the year, especially if you're looking forward to coming of Ramadan and you're preparing for it and this is exciting for you, I'm happy that it is. I would like every hafidh that can understand English, I would like to invite them to go take the year and go through my entire concise commentary and go through it every year.

Not the deeper look, it's okay, just the concise commentary, finish it every year. It's a couple of hundred hours, just go through the whole thing every year and in a couple of years, even if you haven't learned Arabic, you're leading taraweeh and you're actually remembering, at least at the surface level, what Allah is saying.

Understanding vs. Experiencing the Quran

And then that, you know, Usman, this is very important to me. There's so much conversation about people recite the Quran and they don't understand it. I don't think that's the problem. I'll say it flat out, I don't think that's the problem.

I think that's framing the problem incorrectly. Okay, elaborate. Understanding the Quran is not the issue.

What do you do after you understand it? There's, okay, so let's say I know Arabic, so did Abu Jahl, so did Abu Lahab. The worst hypocrites had better Arabic than you. Yeah.

Did they not? Correct. I mean, the ulama of Bani Israel, Allah says, they know the book and they know the Quran and they know the Kaaba and they know the Prophet like they know their own children. So they're super, Allah gave them ijazah in their ilm.

Allah told us that they have super knowledge. So if knowledge was the problem, and clearly the knowledge didn't solve a much bigger problem, right? What happens after understanding it, and even before understanding it is, why are you trying to understand this?

I'm not trying to understand this so I can feel I know the Quran now. Because quite honestly, 25 years and I can tell you there's no such thing as knowing the Quran.

Right. There's no such thing. Okay.

Like somebody's saying, I know the ocean. No, you don't. You know, the few drops that touched you, you know, the one pearl you pulled out, you don't know the ocean.

Nobody knows the ocean. You know, of the ocean, you know, some things about the ocean, right? But you know what, after understanding, there is experiencing, experiencing the Quran.

The Father Analogy

Give me an example of experiencing the Quran. Okay, so let's say your dad talks to you every day. How's the weather? Did you finish your work? Did you take your medicine? There's this bill you didn't pay, etc, etc, etc. Yeah, you listen to your dad every day.

Do you understand him? Yes. But one day he tells you, you know, I remember the day you graduated. I can't tell you how proud I was.

Do you know I prayed for you that day? Do you know this dua I made? Do you know what I said the day your sister passed away? Do you know that day? And he talks to you. You still understand him, just like you understood him when he said, where are the car keys? Right. Right.

But you experienced your dad that day. Allah. You didn't just understand your dad, you experienced your dad.

There was a layer underneath. What I'm trying to say is, the Quran didn't just come to be understood. The Quran came to be experienced.

It's that experience that transformed humanity. Because all the Arabs, the Mushrikun included, understood it. Right.

But the Sahaba actually decided to experience it. Experience it. Wow.

Okay. Right. And what I want for myself, what I want for... And experience is not quantitative.

Experience is qualitative. It's a few words. Like Luqman talks to his son all the time.

But then he has this 45 second conversation with him that the Quran records. We recited in Tajweed, it takes two to three minutes. I'm pretty sure he wasn't talking to him in Tajweed.

Right. So if you don't recite that in Tajweed and you just say it, it'll take you 30 seconds. 30 seconds of advice is in the Quran.

Why? Because that was a transformative experience for that boy. And it serves to be a transformative experience for anyone who allows that to happen for them. Right.

Understanding as a Stepping Stone

So like my advice for... Listen to the concise commentary. Listen to my lectures. The lectures will give you understanding.

Sure. But I don't... I'm not telling you understanding is your goal. Use understanding as a stepping stone into experiencing.

Because you can't get to experience without understanding. But if you stop at experience, you miss the boat again.