The Way Quran Affects You
By Nouman Ali Khan | 2026-01-08T19:31:11.228351+00:00 | Topic: Quran
The Way Quran Affects You - Nouman Ali Khan
Opening and Greetings
As-salāmu alaykum wa-rahmatullāhi wa-barakātuh, al-ḥamdu lillāhi rabbil-ʻālamīn, wa-s-salātu wa-s- salāmu alá Sayyidi l-anbiyā'i wa-l-mursalīn, wa-alá ālihi wa-s-sahbih, wa-man istannā bi-sunnatihi ilá yawm al-dīn, Allāhumma ajʻalnā minhum wa-min alladhīna āmalun wa-amilū sāliņāt, wa-tawāsaw bi-l- haqq, wa-tawāsaw bi-l-şabr, amīn ya rabbil-'ālamīn.
I was actually, my head was spinning as I was sitting here listening to what was going on and some of the presentations that were given before me, and even though I have been given a topic, I'm not going to respect it at all. I'm just going to talk to you about whatever I feel like. So, because I'm leaving after this so it's okay.
The Imagery of Rain in the Quran
What I actually really wanted to talk to you about is an imagery that's presented in the Qur'an which describes the role of the Qur'an and how it brings about change in the world. A lot of the lessons taught in the Qur'an are taught through imagery. So Allah (عز وجل) makes us think about phenomenon in nature and making us think about something in nature, He gives us or He teaches us wisdom about something spiritual.
And one of the most common examples given to help Muslims understand the role of the Qur'an is actually the imagery of rain. Like Allah will say:
"- He sent water from the sky."
And the obvious parallel is, you know, it should be pretty straightforward for everybody to understand, Qur'an came from the sky just like water came from the sky.
The Qur'an is pure just like water is pure. The Qur'ان brings dead hearts back to life just like water brings the dead earth back to life. So, at that level the parallel should be pretty obvious, right? And the water is the way by which all life is sustained on this earth.
And Allah's revelation is actually a means by which life has meaning on this earth. So, in a sense life is also sustained by revelation just like it is sustained by water. And that's why water and our relationship with Allah are interconnected.
Water and Purification
So, every time we go and speak with Allah, we must purify ourselves with it. We make wudu, right? And even the throne of Allah (عرشه على الماء).
Like in surah al-Mulk when Allah (عز وجل) describes His kingdom in the very first ayah He says:
"How blessed and incredibly empowered with blessing, endowed with blessing is the one that has all kingdom in His hand." That's referring to Allah.
And by the end of that surah:
"What do you think if your water was to disappear?" Because the one of the greatest kingdom, the king of all kings actually the first manifestation of His kingdom in the Qur'an is actually water. It's rain. And this is a very important bit of imagery for a student of the Qur'an.
If you're gonna journey through the entire Qur'an, you have to pay attention to water. It's one of the most fundamental themes of the book of Allah. And I wanted to just say one or two more things about that.
Just about the relationship between water and the Qur'an. When Allah (عز وجل) for example says, that you know, if your water was to disappear:
"who can bring you pure, you know, cleansed, purified water?" This imagery is actually very complicated. And you have to study all, a lot of the parables in the Qur'an to kind of draw a big picture.
But I wanna in this session give you kind of an overview. That's to me just completely changed my life. It really did. It really changed the way I study the Qur'an. And I think about the role of the Qur'an in the world. Not just for us, for the entire world.
The Diversity of Growth from Rain
I want you to think about rain. It rains all over the world. And of course because of rain, vegetation is produced all over the world. But vegetation that's produced is not of the same kind. There are different regions that have different kinds of trees, different kinds of flowers. It may be the same fruit, it could be apples.
But the apples from one region taste completely different from the apples of another region. Isn't that the case? So the water is actually exactly the same. It's still the same old H2O.
But when it meets with the earth, the goodness that it produces is of such incredible variety. And each of them have their own function and their own purpose. As a matter of fact, the plants that grow in a particular region are best suited for the animals that live in that region.
And the life that is sustained in that region. And those same plants would not be able to nourish animals from another region. So the kinds of plants that grow in a dry climate like Arizona or something, are not the same as the kinds that grow up in the northeast.
And the animals and the plant life, they interact with each other. Now why am I telling you all of this? Because when Allah (عز وجل) sends the rain, just like He sends revelation, the effect it has on people is not the same. The way that Qur'an affects you, is not the same way that it affects me.
And how I am going to sprout, how I am going to mature, how I am going to now come out of the ground and be given life, is not gonna be the same as you. Not everyone of you has to become a speaker, nor are they meant to. Not everyone of you has to become a scholar of Islam, nor are they meant to.
You're a different kind of plant. It's the same water, it's the same Qur'an that inspires all of us. But the good that it produces from us is actually extremely diversified.
Diversity in Service to Islam
Some of you are gonna be artists. Others of you are gonna go into politics. Others of you are gonna be historians. Others are gonna be academics. You're gonna touch virtually every field in human existence. But all of it is going to produce good, if it is inspired by the Book of Allah.
If it is inspired by the Book of Allah. Now I want you to understand a parable. If you have contaminated water, if you have contaminated water, you still might get vegetation. But that vegetation will be contaminated. And you wouldn't wanna eat the food that came from contaminated water. Because it's got in a sense some level of poison.
Our direct relationship with the Book of Allah will actually purify what we produce. And of course when plants come out of the ground, they don't just feed themselves. They're the ones that are feeding off of the water and the ground.
But they're the source of nourishment for everybody else. People inspired by the Qur'an are supposed to nourish everybody else around them. You see it's that same imagery that we're building upon more and more and more now.
Two Types of Vegetation
But here's the most important part of all of this. Allah (عز وجل) on multiple occasions, even like in Surah An-Naba what I was talking about yesterday, I didn't get to describe this point. Multiple times He says, water has two different kinds of effect.
On the one hand,
- On the other hand,
- What that means basically, is water can give vegetation that is either through farming, you know grains or seeds that are planted into the ground and they're grown crop that is grown. Or you know gardens and woods and you know endless trees and forests, which no gardener had to do. When you travel up and down the East Coast and you see the hilly areas for example up in Pittsburgh or something or you know go towards Massachusetts in these areas, people didn't plant those trees.
Those trees naturally occur. There's two kinds of vegetation. You can call it wildlife, wild vegetation and then there's cultivation, right? There's farming. And they're fundamentally different even though both of them depend on what? They both depend on water. On a side note, I want you to keep this mind as I build this image. You know, the first act of human civilization according to most anthropologists, the first thing that human beings did as an organized society was cultivate, farming, sustained growth of food.
They couldn't just run around and find a tree to pick fruits from. And they couldn't just scrap food and be hunters and gatherers. Now they had to become a civilization and the first act of civilization was farming.
The Parable of Farming vs. Wild Growth
Now, they're two very different things, aren't they? Because when you farm, you have to do a lot of work on the land. You have to prepare the soil. You have to make sure it's free from insects. When you plant the seed, you have to plant it carefully. You have to make sure it's getting enough water. If there's not going to be enough rain, you have to conserve the rain and conserve the water and sprinkle it over time. Right? And you have to... It's constant tendering. It's like raising a child almost. That's what you have to do. Which is why, by the way, even in the Qur'an, the raising of Maryam by Zakaria, the language used,
is the language of growing a plant. Because taking care of a plant is much like taking care of a child. It's delicate and you have to work on it.
But on the other hand, in the Amazon, on the other hand, in the middle, you know, in the woods, nobody has to take care of anything. It just kind of grows and grows and grows and keeps on growing year after year after year. Doesn't it? So the parable has to be understood.
Two Effects of the Quran
When the Qur'an is revealed, there are going to be two kinds of effects. It's the effect like the jungle. Nobody did any work on the jungle. Nobody did any work on the woods and those plants grew on their own. There are going to be people in the world that are just gonna be exposed to the Qur'an and nobody actually affected them. Nobody talked to them.
Nobody gave them da'wah. They didn't attend any halaqas. They didn't attend any circles. They didn't know even what a masjid is. They just got exposed to the Qur'an and just like vegetation grows by the will of Allah, the seed of Islam grew inside of them and they came to Islam all on their own. Only because they got exposed.
That's all. That's all that happened is they got exposed. Because water has that effect on any good soil. When good soil is brought into contact with water, life is produced. But then on the other hand, civilization cannot move forward expecting accidents, expecting people to just stumble upon the water. You have to have cultivation.
The Importance of Organized Effort
The reason I so believe in an organization like YM, the reason I believe in a system where people are regularly getting together, trying to hold on to the word of God, especially young people, is because it is the closest thing to farming. Because in the state of farming, you have to constantly tend to people. You have to constantly take care of people and nurture them.
And then you have to let them go and make sure they receive more water again. And let them go and they receive more water again. You understand the image? This requires effort on our part.
The Qur'an has already been revealed. So all the water has already come down. But we get, Muslims get happy when they watch a video on YouTube or a post on Facebook, I stumbled upon the Qur'an, I read a little bit of it, it spoke to my heart, and now I'm Muslim.
We're like, yeah, Islam's coming. It is coming. But that's not farming. That's what Allah does. That doesn't absolve you and me from what we have to do. You understand? We have to do our part. We have to be the farmers. And let me tell you why I keep harping on this imagery of a farmer.
The Prophet's Greatest Achievement
Because at the end of the Prophet's mission (صلى الله عليه وسلم),towards the tail end of it, when one of the greatest victories of Islam was handed to the Prophet (صلى الله عليه وسلم),Surah Al-Fath, right, Hudaybiyyah. One of the greatest victories handed to him, Allah describes that victory at the end of the day. What is the great accomplishment of the Prophet (عليه الصلاة والسلام)? It's actually the people that he cultivated. The greatest accomplishment of our Messenger is the people that he produced.
And those people are compared to the growing crop at the end of Surah Al-Fath. You know? And so Allah (عز وجل) says about them:
- he gives a... I won't translate that for you yet. This is just Muhammad, the Messenger of Allah (صلى الله عليه وسلم) and his incredible followers.
It's an ode to the incredible followers of the Prophet (صلى الله عليه وسلم). Now after that Allah says:
- Actually, what's the method of the Torah? He says:
- He actually says, Rain comes and the crop is produced. It becomes mature and becomes firm.
It was a tiny little blade of grass and it grew and it's grown taller than the farmer. And the farmer looks at it. The farmer looks at it and he's so impressed. Like the Prophet (صلى الله عليه وسلم) looks at his followers and says, I've left something good behind. I've left something good behind.
Investing in People Over Buildings
Today in the United States, the Muslim community is a minority. We are at a lack of resources. And everywhere you go, whether you're in Ohio or California or you're in the South, like in Baton Rouge,
Louisiana or New Orleans or you're in Texas or wherever you go, we are trying to build these communities. And all over the country unfortunately, sometimes you have people that take the very little resources that we have.
We don't have a lot of resources to begin with. The few resources that we have, we are obsessed with masjid expansion. We're obsessed with it. We want to take every penny that we have and build on top of what we've already built. Homie, you don't even have half the masjid filled for Jumu'ah. Why are you expanding? What is this expansion for? Well, at Eid we have a problem.
Go pray Eid in the baseball field. Who cares? And then the speech, the artificial speech given is, we believe in the youth and that's why we're expanding. What youth? What youth do you see? You can't even pronounce youth yet.
You know. And all of these funds that are supposed to be invested into people. The Prophet (صلى الله عليه وسلم) did not leave buildings behind. He left people behind. He left people behind. Even if you have a small little dinky little musalla next to a 7-Eleven in a shopping strip, but every penny you make, you're investing it into young people that is far better than a gigantic masjid with high ceilings and three times the air conditioning cost because of the high ceiling.
It's far better than that, that you spend on the young people. Don't tell me. We have to get out of the rhetoric. We have to get out of the empty rhetoric that we're building the house of Allah. Yes, you have to build the house of Allah, but you know when the house of Allah is built? When the people that are going to fill it are there. When the people that are going to fill it.
The Reality of Fundraising Culture
And then all we're doing is, we're doing fundraiser after fundraiser after fundraiser to pay for the water stations because we got really expensive ones and the water is being wasted. Or we have to redo the parking lot because the contractor was messed up or whatever. And that's all we're doing constantly.
And people stop coming to the masjid because every time they come to the masjid, they hear another fundraising request. They're like, I don't want to go here. You know. They see some of the khatibs who are regularly asked to fundraise. The poor guy even goes for khutbah up on the mic. He goes, inna alhamdulillah.
I go, here we go. Is there time to get to another masjid? You know. It's a tragedy.
Following the Prophet's Example
But the real investment is our young people. That is actually a sunnah of our Messenger (صلى الله عليه وسلم). Masjid al-Nabwi did not look elaborate when our Prophet left. But the people, it was a mud structure with leaves covering the top. Most of it was under the open sky. That was al-Masjid al-Nabwi.
What are we thinking? What are we thinking? But what the Prophet left behind (صلى الله عليه وسلم) when he's at his deathbed and he can just pull the curtain and look, what he's left behind are these people.
And he's okay. I've left something right behind Ibrahim (عليه السلام), the father of this faith, the only Messenger that we call father, millata abikum Ibrahim. Even him at his deathbed, along with Yaqub, the same thing at his deathbed. They're not even saying, hey, make sure you maintain the construction of the Kaaba. Very important building by the way, don't let it deteriorate.
It's the ultimate masjid. He's just saying, ma ta'buduna min ba'di. What are you gonna worship after I'm gone? That's Yaqub (عليه السلام) learning from the legacy of his grandfather, Ibrahim (عليه السلام). So we have to understand that this cultivation needs to work.
Modern Technology and the Quran
Now I'll quickly move along. I only have 12 more minutes. So I want to move along to a couple of quick concepts that I think are very valuable, at least to myself.
The first of them is that there are two, I mean nowadays, especially the younger guys, especially those of you that are in technology, you understand cloud technology. Right? You have in a sense the world, the data of the world can be shifted up to clouds. And all of us are downloading it on our devices.
Right? And so in a sense, it's kind of the imagery of rain again. Data is raining down on people. Right? And we're actually all accessing the same videos, the same posts, the same materials, and we have equal access to them.
Now we have the opportunity for each of us to be rained on. If somebody wants to listen to a recitation of Qur'an all day and all night, they could. They could literally just put it on their phone.
Right? So you don't have to travel somewhere to receive the water of the rain. Now the rain is customized down to you. You understand? That's the world we live in today.
Digital Access and Local Community
As a result of that, I see my work, particularly my work, I see it as part of, one part of the equation. One part of the equation is, you have to make the Qur'an accessible. You have to make the Qur'an easy to understand. And you have to make the Qur'an accessible online. So that people can reach it anywhere they are in the world. That's one part of the equation.
But even if that rain is made accessible, that doesn't remove the necessity of farming. Because rain alone is not enough to produce a farm. Now I can't be in a weekly halaqa with everybody. I can't. I can't be the one tending to one group of youth and another and another and another. But institutions like YM can.
They can actually take people like myself, Shaykh Omar, others that are doing much better work, they can take the good that we're trying to make available online, use that rain water, and create resources, materials, room for discussion. What does that boil down to practically? If a young person here that's 16 years old, 18 years old, watched a video and it got them thinking. That's not enough.
Even though it got them thinking, they're headed in a good direction, but that's just the first step. Now they need to talk to somebody. They need to interact with somebody. They need emotional support. They need to get their questions answered. I'm not available for that.
I have way too many troll comments under each video. I can't possibly answer any of them. So that's gonna have to happen on the ground. That's gonna have to happen in study circles. That's gonna have to happen in youth halaqas. And it's gonna have to happen over restaurants where you're waiting for a shawarma to be made.
The Necessity of Local Support
And people, these social interaction opportunities are vital. And without them, the youth will not survive. Don't think that because lots of videos and materials and reading stuff is available online, we're okay. We're not okay. This work is essential. I am telling you, if institutions like YM were not there, I wouldn't be standing here today.
I can guarantee you, I would not be standing here. As a matter of fact, I thank Allah (عز وجل) one of my best friends, the person actually who I consider guided me to at least start praying again, is a YM guy. He's from YM. I'm not gonna tell you his name, he's gonna kill me if I tell him. But the people who know, know. Right? So this is not, I don't take this matter trivial.
I really don't. And when I invest and when I say I contributed and they asked if I should announce it, I was like, yeah, announce it. Because encourage people to support these efforts. Why? Because this is one of the few efforts that I see, if they are taken care of, if they are allowed to foster and cultivate and grow, then not only will you have young people coming, but the ones that have graduated from this institution can act like older brothers to the younger people that have already graduated. There's a mentorship system here, you know, that a lot of us are in need of.
Practical Benefits of Youth Programs
How many parents come and tell me, what do I do with my kids in the summer? My son is going slowly away from Islam. My daughter's got a lot of questions. I don't know what to do with them. I can sit and talk to them, but that will be one of 3,000 emails I have to answer.
You know, I get way too many emails. So I won't be able to give that kind of personalized attention. But there's a YM camp coming up. Why don't you send your kids there? Are you going to be there? It doesn't matter if I'm there. Go, they're going to have an amazing time. And it's not just about YM.
Whether it's an MSA thing or a MENA thing, or a local youth group like Crescent Youth in Houston or other youth groups, it doesn't matter. It doesn't matter. But this is one of the efforts that I truly, truly respect. I really, really do. And I wanted to make that point.
Understanding Surah Al-Hujurat's Context
Now in my 8 minutes, I'll actually give you the subject that I was told. So, one of the least understood complexities of the Qur'an is when a surah was revealed and how that impacts our understanding. One of the most remarkable surahs of the Qur'an when it comes to sabab, when it comes to context of revelation, is the 49th surah of the Qur'an, Surah Al-Hujurat. It's really important to understand when it was revealed because it changes your understanding of the surah entirely.
This surah was revealed after, after the treaty of Hudaybiyyah. The Muslims are now in a situation where the Meccans who are trying to attack them all the time, their hands are tied. So Muslims are in a state of peace. They're no longer in a state of war. They're no longer in a state of emergency. Things have completely calmed down and actually this is a time where instead of the Prophet (صلى الله عليه وسلم) and the Muslims going to tribe and tribe and tribe and preaching Islam, now tribes are coming, wufud, ambassadors and delegations of tribes are coming to Medina and saying, we want to become Muslim.
So people were now coming to Medina to accept Islam and going back and converting their entire tribes. This is the time when Surah Al-Hujurat was revealed. In other words, this is very different from the entire life of the Prophet (صلى الله عليه وسلم) where accepting Islam was a risky venture.
The Context of Easy Conversion
If you accepted Islam in Mecca, it meant your family is gonna, you know, they're gonna kick you out. They're gonna disown you. If you accepted Islam in Medina, it meant you might get enlisted into the military. You didn't just accept a religion, you were joining a war. As a matter of fact, even when the first bay'ah was given, actually when the second bay'ah was given, when the, you know, Al-'Aqaba Thania, when the pledge was given that the Medinans are going to accept Islam, so many of them, they were told, watch out, because if you accept this, the sandstorms of Arabia will head your way. Watch out, you're not just accepting a religion, you're inviting war upon yourself by accepting this religion.
People will hate this religion and they will become your enemy. So don't just think it's some spiritual thing, there's a God, I like the idea, I like revelation, I like this man Muhammad (صلى الله عليه وسلم) I think I can accept him as a messenger, I'm ready to convert, yay. Now it's about halal chicken.
It's not like that with them. They're gonna risk their life if they accept Islam. But ever since Hudaybiyyah, accepting Islam was actually just accepting a spiritual truth. It wasn't a life-risking venture, it wasn't a political disaster, it wasn't a risk to your entire tribe, you understand? That wasn't the case anymore.
The Problem of Easy Islam
You know what happens then? What happens is when a lot of people accept Islam, and it's just a religion to them, it didn't come at a price, they didn't have to think about risking their entire life, it was just something to do. They didn't realize the value of what they were stepping into.
You know when you make a lot of sacrifices to get something, you value it? When something comes to you easily, you don't value it? You don't really realize what it's worth? If a kid here, if a young kid here had to work himself, 40 hours, 50 hours a week, minimum wage, save up money, and then buy a car, Wallahi Al-Azim, he will treat that car like his bride. He's gonna take care of her, he's gonna wash it, he's gonna talk to her when he's driving, you okay there? I heard a little extra purr. You know? But if you take that same 18 year old, and the father just hands him a car, it's gonna be wrecked in a day.
It's gonna be ruined, he has no value for it. Because there was no sacrifice involved. The people that were now coming into Islam, actually didn't realize that this is something very expensive.
Our Youth and Inherited Islam
Why am I bringing this up? Because we have an entire generation of Muslims, young generation of Muslims, who were handed Islam by their parents. They didn't sacrifice, they didn't risk their life to accept Islam, they were just handed it. Here, here's Islam.
And as a matter of fact, not only do they not realize the treasure that they've been given, they actually think it's kind of annoying. I gotta go to masjid again? I gotta go to Sunday school? I don't wanna go to this conference. God, why do we have to take us to this conference every time? Do I have to sit in this lecture? Yes, it's a Noman Ali Khan lecture.
You will sit there and listen. Because if you listen, you will become good Muslim. I hate that guy. There's so many young people here that were dragged by their parents. Because they're thinking something's gonna happen in this hall. Sorry guys.
I meet so many of them. This is my son. He's not that good. But he's good. Please, please pray for him. This kid's like, I hate you right now.
Allah's Response to Taking Islam for Granted
But you know what? At the end of the day, this is why these ayats are so important. They thought, they were a group of people that thought that they're doing Islam a favor by being Muslim. Like they're above it. And it's like, they came to the Prophet, some of these delegations came to the Prophet (صلى الله عليه وسلم) and said you know, we accepted Islam. We didn't pick the other side. We came to your side.
I mean, there should be some kind of appreciation, you know, for accepting Islam. Because we didn't even fight you. And they're talking like they've done the Prophet a what? A favor.
Allah comments on it Himself. Allah decides to comment on that Himself. He says
"- They're trying to impose upon you that they've done you a favor, that they've accepted Islam.
"- Don't try to impose upon me the favor of your Islam.
"- Instead, it is Allah. He is now imposing that He's done a favor upon you.
"- That He has guided you to what will eventually be faith. In other words, Allah changed the word Islam to what?
"- If in fact you're truthful. I have given you the opportunity to accept Islam and Islam is a path that will one day lead you to what? إيمان
The Distinction Between Islam and Iman
What I'm trying to tell you is when Islam is passed down easily without sacrifice, then it's not إيمان it is only what? It's only Islam. But it is a favor of Allah that at least you're on the road that leads to إيمان. Allah is telling you, He's done you an amazing favor that He put you on this road that leads to إيمان.
And that is why in this surah, for the first time, Allah (عز وجل) in the entire Qur'an, He didn't do this, except here, in this surah. He made a distinction between someone who has إيمان and someone who just has Islam. This has never happened anywhere else in the Qur'an except here in surah Al-Hujurat.
"- Bedouins say, we have إيمان, we have faith, Allah says, no, tell them you don't have faith, you have Islam.
The State of Today's Ummah
I'm here to argue with you, probably something controversial, but what I believe is what I believe, I have to share it with you. And you're free to disagree with me. I would argue that the vast majority of the ummah today is at best in the state of Islam.
And we have to facilitate their journey towards what? Iman. We have to facilitate that journey. And that journey will only be facilitated in two ways. One, the message has to reach them. Two, the company has to be one that facilitates it. Two things strengthen Iman.
It's the reminder, that is the message, and the other is the company, is the environment. What my life work is, and inshaAllah ta'ala, if Allah gives life and I'm able to complete it, and make a contribution, even if it's a droplet of a contribution, in getting people closer to the Qur'an, that's the part of the work, that's the message. But that's not enough for Iman.
Iman doesn't just need the message, even though the message is critical. After that message, what do you need? Support, company. Even the messenger of Allah (صلى الله عليه وسلم) receives
.
He received the Qur'an directly from the angel Jibreel, and he needed company immediately. He comes back to his spouse immediately. Don't underestimate the value and the power of company.
The Cost of Building Hearts vs. Buildings
This is why, if we're not able to provide our youth, you know, supportive company, supportive networks, then we have failed. It doesn't cost millions of dollars, that's the beautiful thing. If this was a masjid fundraiser, they wouldn't be asking for who's gonna give a thousand.
You've been to one of those, right? 50,000, 50,000. Anybody 50,000? 50,000. That's how it would have gone.
It takes very little to produce people. It takes a lot to put bricks together, but it takes very little to put hearts together. It takes very little to put young people to work, and to give them vision.
The Potential of Our Youth
And wallahi al-alim, because Islam is already there. Because Islam, even the youth that are having doubts, even the ones that are not practicing, Islam has still been given to them. They still have Islam.
As a result of that, if they were just given a little bit of water, and a little bit of good company, a little bit of tender care, then these people are going to stand tall. And they're going to make like... I look forward to the day when our young generation rises, and people like me are irrelevant. Like you can look at that, they're carrying it.
They're carrying it. They're doing so much better a job than I ever could. This is actually something I believe in my own organization, and I'm going to leave you with that, my time is up.
Personal Example of Training Others
I have a lot of passions. One of my passions is teaching Arabic. And it's like, the way I constructed my own curriculum for teaching Arabic, it's like my baby. And I'm really possessive over it, and I taught it in a certain way, and I have a method for getting students from one point to another point, etc. And I love that so much, that it took up so much of my time, but teaching Arabic was taking my time away from my studying and teaching of the Qur'an. So I had to give up one of my babies for adoption.
Right? The Arabic teaching. And so what did I do? I trained students of mine. I trained them and I forced them to teach. And I critiqued them, and I whipped them into shape. And I humiliated them when they
taught. I made a list of, you could have said this better, this was off, you don't know what you're talking about, you're a loser, I hate you, etc.
I'm not a nice guy when I'm training somebody. I am not. I'm a horror. I mean, here I'm actually a speaker, I'm not a teacher. As a teacher, I am a nightmare. I will make you cry.
And it's not because your iman went up. You know. Because I want you to learn. I need you to understand it inside out. But you know what, subhanAllah, now most of the Arabic teaching, I don't even touch. I don't even know what's happening inside those classes.
And I know for a fact, they're teaching it a lot better than I did. I know that for a fact. So I know this works.
Final Call to Action
When young people are motivated, they can do incredible, incredible things. A transition can happen. Young people that are here that are not part of such circle, you need to be. It will be your lifeline through college. It will be your lifeline through high school. You have to invest your time into this.
And the parents that are here listening, make sure that your children join some kind of youth circle, where the adults aren't there and the youth can be themselves. They can speak their mind openly. May Allah (وجل) preserve our youth, and not make them the weakness of this ummah, but rather the strength of this ummah.
JazakumAllahu Khayran. Wassalamualaikum warahmatullahi wabarakatuh.