Night of Quranic Reflections Pt 1

Night of Quranic Reflections - Part 1

Ustadh Nouman Ali Khan

Opening Prayer and Introduction

"All praise is due to Allah, Lord of the worlds, and blessings and peace upon the master of the prophets and messengers, and upon his family and companions, all of them. To proceed:"

(Quran) "So I seek refuge in Allah from the accursed Satan. In the name of Allah, the Most Gracious, the Most Merciful. The Most Gracious. He taught the Qur'an. He created man. He taught him eloquence." (55:1-4).

I'd like to start by making a couple of corrections. I hope I don't do crazy jizbees, as was mentioned in the introduction. Second, I'm not an imam. I alluded to that. The third thing I'd like to say, just in the introduction, is that I'm extremely happy to be here. The only thing that makes me sad is that I didn't get to see your imam. May Allah return him safely from Hajj, inshallah ta'ala.

Changing Course: Reflections on Surah Al-Rahman

It's a wonderful resource that you have. I originally prepared a different set of ayaat as Imam Abdul Nasser has indicated, but it was said in the introduction, and then Muhammad recited them, masha'Allah, so beautifully, the ayaat from Surah Al-Rahman. So I changed course in the middle of Imam Abdul Nasser's talk, and I've decided to give you some reflections from Surah Al-Rahman instead.

Also, because it was announced, I think some of you might have come under the impression that we're going to cover those ayaat, so I didn't want to leave you disappointed either. Obviously, I can't do justice to these ayaat in a limited time, and I'd like to think of myself as someone who has a lot of respect for attention spans, so the moment I see any eyes roll upwards, I will cut it short and call it an evening, inshallah.

The Principle of Tadabbur in the Quran

But anyhow, obviously we can't talk about the entire surah, but I will share some reflections, inshallah, about the beginning of this remarkable surah of the Qur'an, surah number 55. So often we recite Surah Al-Rahman. The first thing I'd like to share with you is a principle of the Qur'an that Allah Himself lays down in the Qur'an.

And that is, it's in a small phrase, I won't even give you the entire ayah. Allah Azzawajal says,

"so that they may reflect deeply upon His ayaat."

So they may engage in the activity of tadabbur, this is called tadabbur, deep reflection, thinking, pondering, trying to understand what is the meaning behind these words, literally behind, because tadabbur comes from dhubur, to be behind.

So you know when you really want to understand something, in English they say, know it backwards and forwards, inside and out, the closest thing to that in English, you know. So they have a deep understanding of the ayaat.

Understanding "Ar-Rahman" - The First Word

And now what's interesting about that phrase, one of the many things, is that when Allah Azzawajal gives us a statement, and it's broken up into many ayaat.

is actually one sentence, it's not two sentences, it's one sentence. But it's two ayaat, it's two different ayaat. So in light of that principle, what Allah is demanding from us, subhanahu wa ta'ala, first and foremost is, each ayah should be reflected on for its own merit, first.

As a sentence, as a kalam, as speech that is continuous, that's its own right. But ar-Rahman by itself is enough for you to reflect upon. That word in and of itself is something that deserves your attention.

So even though that statement is so powerful

that statement in and of itself is incredible, but Allah stopped at

He made that an ayah, and then He gave us the ayah, you know,

So what is it that we should reflect upon in the word

Personal Reflection on Allah's Mercy

I'll start with the most basic, the easiest thing. I think anybody here, people who know Arabic or don't know Arabic, at least know this word because they say it every day. Every day they say,

Every day they say,

The word

is something you hear all the time.

And probably all of you, if not most of you, know the meaning of the word, or at least some idea of the meaning. It has something to do with mercy, or Allah being merciful. So the first thing that you and I are being asked to reflect and ponder upon is, how is Allah merciful to me? What does that mean? What is Allah doing for me right now that is a display of Allah's mercy? That's the first thing.

You have to know, every person for themselves has to just get lost in thought. What are the things Allah has done for me that are acts of mercy by Him today? Right now? This week? This year? You know, from the things that have happened to you personally, from the things that are going on with your children, the things that are happening with your parents, somebody's parents got sick and Allah gave them shifa, somebody's children were not doing so well, Allah made them better, somebody was in a position of fear, somebody lost their job, somebody's enjoying health, subhanAllah, and we have a roof over our heads, we have food on the table, we have drinks in the fridge, we have these things to thank Allah for, and these are all manifestations of Allah's mercy.

The Difference Between Ar-Rahman and Ar-Raheem

So if you were to try and make a list of things that you're grateful for, or that you think are a proof that Allah is merciful to you, or to me, then that list would just keep going on and on and on, we'd be lost in thought forever, subhanAllah, such a deep statement. But I'll take it a step further now. And at a step further, Allah gave us two names of His mercy. The ones you recite all the time, Allah is kind, Allah is merciful.

But in this ayah, Allah chose this particular one, the words of Allah. So, the word

is different from

and there's a lot of commentary about that, but I'll just summarize it for you, because I want to share a lot of other things with you, inshaAllah. One of those things is that the word

doesn't just mean merciful, it is sigat al-mubalighah, which means it is extremely, unimaginably merciful.

It's overwhelmingly merciful. It's incredibly merciful. That's one thing. The second thing is, the word

indicates, because it's the hyperbole, or it's the powerful form, of what's called an ism fa'il. It's originally ism fa'il, and it becomes mubalighah. What that simply means is, someone who's doing something right now. They're doing something right now. So when we say

one of the meanings inside that word is, Allah is doing something incredibly merciful right now. Or He has done something incredibly merciful.

The Priority of Quranic Teaching in Allah's Mercies

It points to something specific. And to make that easier for you to understand, if I say something like, someone is nice. Someone is nice. I didn't specify any action. I just said they have a quality that they are nice. But if I say someone is being nice. Someone is being nice. Am I being more specific now? What are they being nice? Right now. And they must be doing something particular, which makes me say that they are being nice.

So it's more particular.

is much more specific, much more particular. And it is fitting that Allah uses

because then He mentions specific mercies. In this surah, He mentions a specific list of mercies. So the entire surah, its texture, how we understand this surah, is in light of that one word,

It's like if you don't understand that word, you cannot understand this surah. You cannot understand all of the other ayaat. They color all of the text. They color all of the other lessons of this surah.

And so now when we make a list of all of those mercies, that we can think of that Allah gives us. Allah decides to give us, you know how when you make a list of mercies, you think of the first thing that comes on your mind, that's one way to make a list, right? First thing that came to my mind, second thing that came to my mind, third thing that came to my mind. Another way of making a list is probably in the order of priority.

The most important thing first, or the biggest mercy first, then next, then next, then next. Well, here is Allah's list of priority. Of the things that are a proof of Allah's mercy, the thing at number one is

He taught the Qur'an.

The Significance of "Allama" (He Taught)

When you can think of all the things Allah has done for you and me, the first thing that we should think of, that is proof that Allah is unimaginably merciful, is not just that He gave the Qur'an

not just that He sent down the Qur'an

He said

He used a very particular phrase, He taught the Qur'an. Now in this word, the first thing we learn, and if you go very simply, I think all of you know the next ayah by heart

What's next?

Allah mentioned our creation next, He created the human being.

So He says, the one who's being incredibly merciful, taught the Qur'an, created the human being. But wait a second, creating the human being, I would think comes first, then teaching. But Allah is teaching us here, the fact that you exist even, the fact that you and I are even created, is less of a mercy. And the fact that Allah taught us this Qur'an, is a greater mercy. This is a bigger mercy than my own life.

first, then

The Open Nature of Divine Teaching

In the word

you find something remarkable. You know the word

is what's called transitive in English, it has

to say in Arabic. What that means is, when you say taught, taught, you think of two things, at least. You think of a teacher, and then you also think of who? The student. So there's a

and there's a

There's a third thing too, which I'll mention in a second. But if Allah says He taught the Qur'an, what role does He take? Teacher, teacher, when you mention I taught, like if I say I taught Arabic or something like that, if I said that, the obvious question that would pop in somebody's mind is, well, who did you teach? Who did you teach? Allah did not mention the student.

Allah said He taught the Qur'an. He didn't say He taught the human being the Qur'an, He taught people the Qur'an, He taught the messenger the Qur'an, He taught Jibreel a.s. the Qur'an, so he could teach them. Nothing. He just said He taught the Qur'an. And you know what the mercy of that is? It's open. Anybody can become the student.

He didn't restrict it. He didn't limit it. He just said He taught it. Who's gonna be there to teach it? Who's gonna be there to learn it?

It's an open challenge. Is there anybody coming forward? Anybody wanna learn? Anybody wanna become the student? SubhanAllah.

The Honor of Having Allah as Teacher

And then the other thing is, you know, people pay extra money to go to an expensive school. Right? But people pay extra money to go to an expensive school. And they may... Maybe, you know, if you're in higher studies, you look for the top specialist in that field and it's an honor to study under the top specialist of that field or to attend their lecture or to become, you know, to come under their tutelage,

etc., etc. Right? It's considered kind of a high privilege. And so a lot of these lofty institutions of learning, they tend to be very expensive also because their faculty is very high caliber.

You know, they're very high caliber faculty. So when you get to study from somebody high up, then it's considered a major honor. In this case, who is taking the credit for being the teacher? Allah.

He's teaching. So whoever becomes the student, in the end, who's the teacher? Can there be a bigger honor than that? I mean, it's already merciful enough that He created us. But now He's giving us this unimaginable mercy of being our teacher. Of being our teacher.

The Chain of Teaching from Allah to Us

But you can think, no, no, no. Allah didn't teach me the Qur'an. My Sunday school teacher taught me the Qur'an. You know. Or Hafiz Sahib taught me the Qur'an. Listen. Allah Azzawajal teaches Jibril A.S. Jibril A.S. teaches Muhammad (صلى الله عليه وسلم). Muhammad Rasulullah (صلى الله عليه وسلم) teaches the Sahaba. The Sahaba teach generation, and the next generation, so on and so on and so forth, until your Sunday school teacher, and then you. And then inshallah your children, and then others, right?

But in the end, in the end Allah is saying, no, the translation didn't teach you. The YouTube video didn't teach you. The tafsir book didn't teach you. The imam didn't teach you. The teacher didn't teach you. In the end, who was the teacher

value this gift, it doesn't mean much to you. And the fact that you never use it, you never even look at it, is pretty good proof that you don't like it or you don't really appreciate it. Even if you tell your cousin, whoever, I loved it, it was awesome, great. You're just saying that, you don't mean it. The proof is in the pudding, the proof is in the fact that it's in the closet.

So if Qur'an is sitting on the shelf the entire time, you know, it doesn't get any of my time, it doesn't get any of my attention, then you and I can say anything we want. We can say we love the Qur'an, it's amazing, it's beautiful. But the proof is already there that you don't value it. The proof is in the time you spend, the attention you give, the value you give to it. So this mercy of Allah,الرحمن,if you appreciate Allah's mercy, an immediate effect of that would be you and I would become students of Qur'an. May Allah make us students of His book.

The Continuous Nature of Divine Teaching

Okay. Then, on top of this, in addition to this, when Allah Azzawajal says in His phrase,عَلَّمَ الْقُرْآنَ and I said He didn't mention who, I said it's not limited to a person, but also that a thought probably crossed your mind and I should just spell it out, it's not even limited to generation. It's not like He taught one generation and that's it. He continues to teach. Whoever comes to this book seeking guidance, whoever comes to this book with good intention, then it is He who is teaching. It is He who will continue to guide them. One has to have sincerity. One has to really be looking for Allah's mercy though. One has to be that way.

The Quran as Mercy and Cure

Now, the Qur'an itself. Allah Himself is incredibly merciful. He taught the Qur'an, but you know our children nowadays and ourselves even, we're exposed. When we think of the Qur'an, when we think of the Qur'an, what thoughts cross your mind? Sharia law. You know, it's tyrannical, it's barbaric, it's merciless, it's a very angry book, it's very hateful, all this rhetoric all the time. Not just in the media, but even maybe things you hear from your co-workers, maybe you hear from your political science professor in college and kids hear it from other kids in high school.

You hear this kind of thing all the time. The last thing you hear with Qur'an is that it's mercy. You don't think of it like that. Because you don't hear that. What does Allah say?

We send down from the Qur'an something that is a cure. A cure.

And by the way, when somebody is sick, the biggest thing they can thank you for is what? The cure. That's the priceless thing. If somebody is for example, they have all the wealth in the world, but they're dying of a disease. And you say, what do you want to pay for a cure? What are they ready to pay? Everything. Give me this cure, that's it. The word cure, basically what Allah is teaching us is the most valuable thing a sick person needs. There's nothing more valuable to a sick person than the cure. Nothing more valuable. And Allah says, what I sent in the Qur'an is a cure. وَرَحْمَةٌ لِلْمُؤْمِنِينَ So what He taught itself

is merciful. It's not a source of putting us in difficulty.

Allah wants to make your burden easier for you.

Not to make your life harder for you. The purpose is, you know, the Qur'an came to make your life easier. It came as a mercy. And it came from the merciful. SubhanAllah.

The Creation of the Human Being

Then He says

Amazing words again. You know, in simple translation, it just really created the human being. But the word insan is very unique commentary about the origin of the word insan. And it's argued essentially to have come from two origins. There are two kinds of opinion, lines of opinion among linguists and even among sahaba. One kind of opinion, one line of opinion is that the word insan comes from نسي نسية which means to forget. So insan literally means the forgetful one.

The one who forgot. Now the question is, the one who forgot, what? You have to know something to forget it, right? Before we came to this earth, were we introduced to Allah? We were. We were introduced to Allah. And if you don't know that, you should look up surah number 7, surah al-a'raaf, ayah number

I talk about that ayah often. In which we took a covenant with Allah before we even got here.

We took an agreement with Allah. The problem is when we come to this earth, what happens to us? We forget. And of course when someone forgets, what's the thing that will benefit them? Reminder. Now you tell me, one of the main purposes of the Qur'an and one of the main definitions of the Qur'an, we even heard it in the previous lecture.

Qur'an is nothing but a reminder.

It is, no, no, no. It is nothing more than a powerful means of reminding. Powerful means of delivering reminder. Qur'an itself.

وَمَا هُوَ إِلَّا ذِكْرٌ لِلْعَالَمِينَ It is nothing but a reminder. So if somebody by definition is forgetful, what will be the most beneficial thing for them? Reminder, Qur'an. There's a correlation between the two.

The Alternative Etymology: Seeking Compassion

Others say the word insan comes from the root origin of seeking love, you know, or uns. Uns, you know. Compassion. And it's considered the opposite of الوحش. Meaning like wild beasts and animals, when they're about to go and have lunch or eat or whatever, like a gator or a lion or something, they're not gonna be nice to the rabbit before they say, you know (بِسْمِ اللَّهِ أَكْبَر - bismillah akbar) They just go at it.

But human beings have the ability to show mercy to each other and even to other creatures and they can, you know, so they have this unique quality of love and compassion. And so someone who is pre- programmed with love and compassion, the perfect thing for them would be a message that is full of love and compassion. Qur'an.

Allah Knows His Creation

خَلَقَ الْإِنْسَانَ He created and this, you know the ayah that comes to mind, Allah says أَلَا يَعْلَمُ مَنْ خَلَقَ (Quran 67:14) Doesn't He know who He created? Whenever you buy something, something complicated definitely, when you buy something complicated, doesn't it come with a manual, right? And so you're like, this manual makes no sense. And the manufacturer can argue, no, no, no, I know what I made, this is the manual, right? Allah literally says in the Qur'an,أَلَا يَعْلَمُ مَنْ خَلَقَ Doesn't He know who He created? Didn't He send this manual for someone He designed Himself? It's perfectly designed for Him خَلَقَ الْإِنْسَانَ

The Meaning of "Quran"

Okay, so now we got to this point. I'm skipping a little bit. We got to this point. But I didn't talk a little bit about the word Qur'an. I should have mentioned something. The word Qur'an itself comes from, you know عَلَى الْمُبَالَغَةِ لِمَقْرُوءٍ كَمَالٌ لِمَا سُمِّيَ It's a kind of word which means something that is read a lot. Something that is recited a lot. So, when someone says, I'm learning Qur'an, or someone says, I'm appreciative of the Qur'an, I appreciate that الرحمن taught me the Qur'an.

The proof of that would be in what practice? Reciting the Qur'an, add one more phrase to that, reciting the Qur'an a lot. A lot. That would be a proof of it. Because by definition, Qur'an is something, by definition, it demands to be recited a lot. It's something that should be repeated over and over and over and over again. It's something that has to be done. It's something that has to become the part of the life of a Muslim.

The Gift of Salat for Regular Recitation

And so that Muslims never forget that. You know what Allah did? Because you might argue, I don't have time, I don't know when I'm gonna recite Qur'an, I don't know if I can, you know, take out 30 minutes, 20 minutes of my day, because I have other things that I have to do. What Allah did was, Allah gave us a program, a schedule, in which you cannot help but after every few hours, you stand and you recite Qur'an. What schedule is that? Salat. That's a mercy from Allah too. That's a mercy from Allah too. SubhanAllah. So you keep reciting this book, you keep reminding yourself, over and over and over and over again.

The Teaching of Speech (Al-Bayan)

At the end of all of this, He says عَلَّمَهُ الْبَيَانَ Quran 55:4) By the way, the Qur'an came down in clear, beautiful Arabic speech. And if human being, the forgetful human being that is looking for mercy and compassion wants to benefit from this Qur'an, well, this Qur'an came in beautiful speech, in perfect speech. So to learn, if you're gonna take a class, like you're gonna take accounting 201 or 301 or something, you know, you better learn the language of accounting 101.

You have to know the language of what you're gonna study. So to make the human being capable, capable of benefiting from this book, Allah said, He even taught him, the human being, He taught him al- bayan. Al-bayan means the ability to speak clearly, to understand speech, to communicate. Right? Allah gave us that ability. This thing that we have, the ability to speak, Allah says, عَلَّمَهُ I'll share a few reflections with that and I'm done, inshaAllah, pretty much. Or almost. So here's what I wanna share with you.

The Parallel Use of "Allama" for Both Quran and Speech

The first thing. Didn't Allah say He taught the Qur'an? He said that, right? And what word did He use in Arabic? علم For teaching the Qur'an, He used علم When He taught the human being speech, what word did He use again? عَلَّمَهُ الْبَيَانَ علم came up again or no? You know what this teaches us? Not only is Allah, one of His amazing mercies that He's the teacher of Qur'an, He's also the teacher of language. And He didn't say عَلَّمَهُ الْعَرَبِيَّةَ He said عَلَّمَهُ الْبَيَانَ What does that mean? Which language? All languages.

And because of that, we have to have respect for all languages. We should not be people that make fun of other people's languages. We should not say, English is the language of the kuffar. I've heard a khutbah like that not too long ago. I was listening to an Arabic YouTube video and the khutbah was very fired up. لَا تَتَعَلَّمُوا لُغَةَ جُورْج بُوش وَتَعَلَّمُوا لُغَةَ نَبِيِّكُمْ like, dude. Don't learn the language of George Bush. No man. You know, that's not how it works.

Allah taught all languages. He honored all languages. But then of all of these languages Allah taught. Because in the end, Adam a.s. was taught speech by Allah. And all the languages are byproducts of what Adam a.s. learned himself. So in the end, the credit goes back to Allah. Whether it's Korean, or Thai, or Punjabi, or Bangla, it doesn't matter. The credit goes back to Allah. But of all of these languages, Allah chose one and honored it above them all. That does not mean the others are not to be respected.

Respecting the Gift of Speech

The other thing that we learn from this ayah, which is remarkable is, the ability of you and I to speak is an honor from Allah. Which is being compared to the honor of teaching what? The Qur'an. Which means we should respect our tongue. We should say things knowing that this gift is an honor from Allah. It should not be used for filthy, vile, low things. It should be used for high things. You should do justice to what Allah has given you. And if someone uses this tongue that Allah gave for such a high purpose, and uses it for filthy language, and for dirty jokes all the time, and that's all that comes out of their mouth, then this is an insult to what Allah gave inside this mouth.

This tongue was given so you can recite Qur'an علم القرآن Then علمه البيان came later. You know. It's an amazing thing to reflect upon. That our language would go through transformation if we appreciated what it is that we have. What it is that Allah has given us in our mouth.

The Extremes in These Opening Verses

علمه البيان And of course in this amazing passage, these few ayahs, there is extreme of everything. الرحمن The name that describes Allah's most extreme mercy. The Qur'an, the most extreme application, manifestation of that mercy. الإنسان The greatest creation of all of Allah's other creations.

We honored the son of Adam. He's given an honor above all other creation.

We gave him an honor, a preference over much of everything else that we've created. So there's one other extreme. Then on top of that, the ability for us to speak.

Another incredible thing. Think of all of the literature, and all of the intellectual traditions of all of the societies that are filling libraries all over the world. All a product of علمه البيان Just a product of that. All of the knowledge that we have today. All of the technology that we have. Everything that we look around boils down to sciences or fields of study that are full of just words and verbs and nouns and adjectives and prepositions.

That's all it boils down to is language. Even in modern philosophy now they're saying the root of all knowledge is language. Language is the key. They're coming back to what Allah started with. SubhanAllah.

Connecting the Extremes: The Best Use of Speech

So now because all these extremes are there, now we should connect all of them. If one wants to become a recipient of Allah's most extreme mercy, and they have been created above all of other creation, and one of the signs that they are the best of all creation is they have been honored to have learned the ability to speak. What is the best use of that speech? Qur'an. Become student of the Qur'an. That would be doing, you would be trying to do justice, and I would be trying to do justice to this mercy that Allah has given us.

Comparing Humans to Other Creation

You know in this surah, and these are my last few words with you inshaAllah ta'ala. As soon as this passage is done, Allah starts talking about something other than the beginning.

It just happened. The beginning was about Qur'an. The sun doesn't learn the Qur'an. The moon doesn't learn the Qur'an. The sky doesn't learn the Qur'an. Allah mentions these things.

Who learns the Qur'an? Who's supposed to be learning the Qur'an? Primarily the human being, and secondarily will learn in the surah even the jinn. That's gonna come a little later in the surah. But why switch over to the other creation? Well, Allah created many other things around us too.

And when He created these other things, they do exactly what they're supposed to do. الشَّمْسُ وَالْقَمَرُ What does that mean, folks? The sun and the moon بحسبانthey exist by a very precise calculation. They're told what Allah tells them what to do, and they do it exactly, precisely. They are so precise, you

can even make your calendar based on either the sun or the moon. Right? So it's a proof of how precise, you know, how precise these creations of Allah are.

The Imagery of Sajda in Creation

And then He says, you know,

Even the star and the tree, and other interpretations of najm also, they even, they fall in sajda, and there's imagery in this ayah. You ever seen a shooting star? Right? It shoots like that. So some ulama say, this is an image of the sajda. Like it's falling into sajda. You know,

والنجم. Others talk about the shadow of the tree getting long, that even the tree makes sajda. When its shadow gets longer, it's like it's falling into sajda.

Or when its branches bear fruit, the branches come down like they're going into sajda. Right? SubhanAllah. You know what that does? When you're walking down, you know, walking up and down, like, 168, and you see trees, you should just remember sajda. And I'm serious. It changes the way we look at the world around us. And I know it's very hard to see stars in New York City. Right? So, if you ever get a chance to go to Albany, or like, out in the boonies somewhere, Texas would be nice. Yeah. You know.

You look at the stars, what should they remind you of because of these ayahs? Of sajda. Of submission. When you look at the sun and the moon, you know what they should remind you of? Discipline. Sticking to time. Because they follow precise calculation.

The Comparison: Creation vs. Human Beings

You know in this comparison, what Allah is teaching us? Look, I made you the best creation. These creations are awesome, but they're less than you. But even though they're less than you, look at how much better they're doing. They're doing what they're supposed to do. And you were even taught the Qur'an. You weren't taught the Qur'an. You were taught the Qur'an. You were given bayan. You were created in this high form.

And by the way, it's something I should have mentioned. That ties to what was in the previous talk. When Allah says, for human beings, the teaching of the Qur'an begins with who? Who's the first teacher of the Qur'an among the human beings? The Messenger of Allah ﷺ. When Allah says, necessarily included in the teaching is the teacher. You even have the gift of the Messenger of Allah ﷺ.

The Question from Al-Imran

In another place in the Qur'an, Allah asks a very tough question. Those are the ayat I was gonna cover originally in Al-Imran

How would you disbelieve? Among you, the ayat of Allah are being recited. And even among you is the Messenger of Allah. How would you disbelieve? Mercy upon mercy. Because the Qur'an is being described as mercy.

And even the Messenger of Allah ﷺ is described as mercy.

That's mercy also.

The Balance and the Warning Against Transgression

But coming back to this point. There is a comparison between us and the rest of creation. Between human beings and the rest of creation. The other creation is supposed to be less than us. But they don't budge, they don't violate. And Allah says, He set the sky. He placed it down and He put a balance on it. He set a scale for it. But then He says to us,

That you should look at that balance and you should learn that you should never violate the balance. You shouldn't do it.

When we look at, you know, some ulama commented, there is chaos in the world, right? There is chaos. There is people cheating each other, people swindling each other out of their homes. There is Wall Street, there is Midtown, there is, you know, maybe even Hillside, I don't know. But there is corruption in the world. There is wars, there is corruption, you know, there is crime. But, you know, as far as... And these are things that human beings do.

But as far as the creation of Allah is concerned, the sun comes up and the sun goes down. And the bird leaves its nest and it comes back to its nest, you know. And the wind blows and the clouds move. But Allah created that all these other creations, they stick to the plan. They stay in harmony. And we look at all these other creations and we don't learn. We don't learn, subhanAllah.

The Bottom Line: Our Duty Towards the Quran

This is just some reflections from this remarkable, remarkable surah. And the bottom line of it, the bottom line of it that I wanna share with you is that Qur'an deserves our time. The Qur'an deserves our attention. The Qur'an deserves that we try to learn its language.

And by the way, this will be the last point. You know, the bottom point, the bottom line of this entire lecture, when Allah said,

(علمه البيان - ʿallamahu al-bayan) He taught the speech. What did we say, the best use of that speech will be? The best use of that speech will be to understand and learn the Qur'an. You know necessarily what that does? What that does necessarily is learning the language of the Qur'an is something Allah made us capable of.

Allah's Guarantee of Making It Easy

Nobody can say, I can't learn Arabic. They can't say. Maybe somebody will get more advanced than other people. Somebody will do better than, someone will do better than others. Someone will have to take a few more classes or cry a little more. Or when they draw the letter ج, it looks like the map of Pakistan or something. But that'll happen.

But in the end, Allah's guarantee, if you're looking for His mercy, He will make it easy. Making it easy is not your job. That's something Allah has taken upon Himself. You and I just have to make the commitment. We just have to make the commitment.

Closing Prayer

May Allah Subhanahu Wa Ta'ala give us an appreciation of Allah's Messenger. And may Allah give us an appreciation and love of His book. Subhanahu Wa Ta'ala