Understanding Our History
By Nouman Ali Khan | 2026-01-08T22:04:59.403898+00:00 | Topic: Muslim Identity
Understanding Our History
Nouman Ali Khan - Malaysia Tour 2015
Opening Praise and Invocation
All praise is due to Allah, and peace and blessings be upon the Messenger of Allah, his family, and all his companions. As for what follows:
"My Lord, expand for me my breast and ease for me my task and untie the knot from my tongue that they may understand my speech." (Quran 20:25-28)
The Problem of Muslim Identity
The problem of thinking about ourselves, you know, thinking about Muslim identity. And what I want to present to you first is basically a kind of a riddle.
The Prophet (صَلَّى اللَّهُ عَلَيْهِ وَسَلَّمَ) moves to Medina. And of course in Medina he directly encounters the Jewish community among also the Christian community. And in Surah Al-Baqarah Allah decides to address the Jewish community that lives in Medina directly:
"O Children of Israel" (Quran 2:40)
He decides to talk to them directly. And many many ayahs in Surah Al-Baqarah are that direct conversation between Allah and Bani Israel. He speaks to them in the second person: You did this, you did this, you did this. Right, so he's talking to them in a very immediate and a very direct conversation.
The Divine Promise and Human Failure
And the ayah that I want to use as a space to talk about the nature of that conversation Allah says:
"And [recall, O Children of Israel], when We made an appointment with Moses for forty nights. Then you took [for worship] the calf after him, while you were wrongdoers. Then We forgave you after that so perhaps you would be grateful." (Quran 2:51-52)
When we promised Musa and we took a promise from Musa to be with us for 40 nights. Allah had taken an agreement with Musa to come to him for 40 nights. And when he was gone for 40 nights:
"Then you took up the calf to worship"
Even after, just right after he left. So as soon as he left you people started worshipping the calf.
The Paradox of Historical Responsibility
Now the words that are important here that present the curiosity is the words (اتَّخَذْتُمُ) - "All of you started worshipping the calf." The Quran is talking to the Jews living in Medina, yes? Who worshipped the calf? Who worshipped the cow? Their ancestors from many, many, many generations ago, isn't it? They didn't have a cow that they worshipped. They didn't have a calf that they worshipped. It was their many, many generations old ancestors.
And Allah talks to them and says: "When I called Musa and you people started worshipping the calf. And you were the ones doing wrong. Then I forgave you."
I didn't do it and you didn't forgive me. The one you forgave is my great, great, great, great, great grandfather somewhere back in the day who I don't even remember the name of. Him, you forgave him. Why are you talking to me like I did it?
So the Quran talks about Bani Israel and their history. And it doesn't use "them" - it uses "you." You people. But you and I know that we are not blamed for the mistakes of our ancestors. That you know like the Christian concept of original sin - we don't have that. We don't have "your great grandfather was a hypocrite so you're a hypocrite." We don't have that.
Personal Reflection on Ancestry
You know my ancestry for example. My ancestors are Buddhist. A few generations back, you know 7, 8 generations back they're Buddhist. They're not Muslim, right? So that doesn't - that's not held against me. That's not held against me. So why is Allah talking to them in this way? That's the question we're going to try to address inshallah.
And through it we don't just learn something about Bani Israel - we learn something about ourselves. This is more important for ourselves.
The Disease of Superior Thinking
See what happened with Bani Israel is they suffered with a lot of - from a lot of diseases. They had their religion. They were the only people left of that much knowledge of scripture. Nobody even comes close.
Actually even in Medina or anywhere, arguably in the world, that has that much scholarship in their religion at the time as the Jews had.
Their rabbis were incredibly, incredibly knowledgeable. As a matter of fact the word used for them was Ahbar - Ahbar is people that are dipped in ink. They wrote so much and they produced so much and they studied so much that they're just called people of ink. So it's no small thing. There's no small amount of knowledge they had.
But the thing is, to preserve the integrity of Islam, to preserve the integrity of religion, it's not just knowledge that you need. You don't just need knowledge. You need the right kind of thinking. It's possible that somebody has a lot of knowledge but they don't have the right kind of thinking.
The Quran's Emphasis on Thinking
This is why the Quran doesn't complain about "Why don't you know? Don't you know?" It actually complains:
"Then will you not reason?" (Quran 2:44)
That's a very common complaint in the Quran. The Quran is not holding against people that they don't know. As a matter of fact when people don't know Allah makes excuses for them and says:
"That is because they are a people who do not know." (Quran 2:78)
The idea means they will eventually learn. But you know whether you know or not, every human being has been given the ability to do what? To think in the right way. To think appropriately.
But what happens with a nation when they emphasize knowledge but they stop emphasizing the right kind of what? Thinking. Then they can't even benefit from their knowledge.
Recognition Despite Corruption
Banu Israel had a lot of knowledge. And by the way you could say "no no no but their knowledge was corrupted and their books had been changed and it wasn't what it used to be." Even if you argue all of that, their knowledge was good enough. Good enough that when they saw the Prophet (صَلَّى اللَّهُ عَلَيْهِ وَسَلَّمَ) they could tell immediately: "This is the one mentioned in our books."
"They recognize him as they recognize their own sons" (Quran 2:146)
Then they recognize him like they recognize their own kids. If that's the case, that means they do have a lot of authentic knowledge still. But seems to be the problem is with what? Thinking.
"Why don't you think?"
That's the complaint Allah makes even against Banu Israel.
The False Superiority Complex
Now to us, you know, we think that if you have knowledge then automatically you must be a good thinker. We assume that. We assume it. So someone who has a lot of knowledge must be a really good thinker. It's not necessarily the case.
Now coming back to the question of history. You see, when you think that you are superior - maybe you think you're superior because you have more knowledge. Maybe you think you're superior because you have a better family background. A lot of people think like that even today, don't they?
They feel like for example they come from a noble family history. A lot of people feel they come - for example if they come from the family of the Prophet (صَلَّى اللَّهُ عَلَيْهِ وَسَلَّمَ) which is a noble history, then somehow they are superior to other people. They can act like they're superior to other people.
Other people might say: "We come from royal family background. We come from you know this noble heritage etc etc. And as a result we are better than others." They develop that thinking.
Universal Human Dignity
Some people even use Islam for it: "I come from a family of scholars and because I'm from a family of scholars somehow I have better DNA than you."
The thing is, whether you come from a family of scholars or not, or even a family of a Prophet, you're still the children of Adam (عليه السلام). You're still gonna stand in front of Allah (جل جلاله) the same way. There's not a VIP row for anybody on Judgment Day. You understand?
Allah doesn't care about your ethnicity or your genetics. The only thing you can bring to Allah is a sound heart. It's all you can bring. He's not gonna ask what nationality, what passport, what visa, you know, what bloodline. That's not gonna be a question. Is that clear to everybody?
Selective Reading of History
Now the thing is with Banu Israel, even though they had knowledge, they started thinking that for some reason they are superior. And when you have that thinking and you study your history, then you study your history with the wrong kinds of glasses on. Through these glasses you even read your own history
and the only thing you read is what makes you superior. You only highlight the parts of your history that establish your superiority even more.
A Muslim might do this. We might read our own history and the only parts of our history we'll read is the ones that make us proud. Yeah Umar bin al-Khattab (رضي الله عنه). You highlight the parts that feel good. What do you ignore? The parts that are embarrassing. Does our history have embarrassing episodes? Absolutely. Absolutely.
Now Banu Israel, when they would talk about themselves as the superior nation - of course they didn't just become the superior nation today. They became the superior nation a long time ago. And they keep talking about the great choices of Allah: How many prophets Allah gave them, what promises Allah gave them, the blessings Allah gave them. They highlight, they highlight that history, that glorious golden history over and over and over and over and over again.
And the more they remember that history, the more it reminds them that how much better they are than everybody else.
Allah's Reality Check
So what does Allah decide to do? Allah decides to give them a reality check.
If you want to quote the best parts of your history and take credit like you did it - you didn't do it. The people who did those great things came a long time ago and they're gone. You didn't do it. And you have no right to take credit for what they did. You're not awesome because of them. They are awesome because of them.
This is why in Surah Al-Baqarah Allah says:
"That was a nation which has passed on. It will have [the consequence of] what it earned, and you will have what you have earned. And you will not be asked about what they used to do." (Quran 2:134)
That's a group of people - they're already gone. They earned whatever they could earn. You're going to earn what you're going to earn. You're not going to be asked about what they used to do. You have to take responsibility for yourselves.
The Divine Reversal
Coming back to the point: They would only highlight the glorious parts of their history because it would make them feel better about themselves. And they would talk about them like they're talking about themselves. So Allah reverses it.
So He takes the ugliest part of their history and He talks about them like He's talking about themselves. So He uses "you." And they could say: "Well, why are you using 'you'? It wasn't me. I didn't worship the calf."
Well, you know when you talk about your victories and you talk about your blessings and you talk about people who lived thousands of years ago, you say "we did it. We were this, we were that." You like to put yourself together with them for the good times. How about you put yourself together with them for the bad times too then?
This is a reality check in history.
Modern Nationalism and Historical Distortion
And what happens, you know, in modern times when of course in the last century, century and a half, a lot of new nation states were formed, right? A lot of colonizing nations left and new nations were formed. And when these new nations are formed there are lots of political tensions in the world.
And as a result of those political tensions, when textbooks are made for children and history books are written, then you have to write the kind of history books that make you love your country and your people and your ethnicity and your race more, and they make you hate the enemy more.
So you highlight the parts of your history that increase patriotism and you erase the parts of history that can question it. Our allegiance is not to the truth in so many nations. Our allegiance is not to the truth. Our allegiance is to nationalism. Our allegiance is to this idea of patriotism. This glorified nation. The idea of a glorified nation.
The Islamic Community's Similar Problem
And unfortunately, even within the world of Islam, even within when we think about Islam, we don't like to highlight our own flaws, our own mistakes, our own errors. We'd like to talk about how everything was amazing.
Every time you hear about the people of the past: "They were the most incredible people. Man, I don't even believe they walked on the earth. They probably floated in the air when they walked. That's how awesome they were." You know, you'll hear.
And people then start exaggerating the accounts of history. And how there was a scholar who actually never made wudu his whole life - he was that pure. Or you're sitting there listening to this going, what? So he didn't pray? You know. No, no, no Allah just never made his wudu break. Really? Fantastic. Fantastic.
Allah would benefit some individuals more than he would benefit prophets? Where do you come up with this stuff? This happens as a result of a diseased mind when you can't think clearly, when you have the
wrong basic concepts.
The Quranic Lesson on Historical Honesty
So Allah (عز وجل - azza wa jal) is clarifying those concepts and through it His teaching is something very important. This is a Quranic lesson in one thing: An honest approach to history.
When we study our history, when we study the ummah's history, we have to study it honestly. We have to acknowledge our mistakes. We have to acknowledge where we went wrong. And if you don't study your history, you'll never learn in the future. You'll just never ever learn.
You'll become drugged by the idea that you're already the best. You're already number one. And you'll be the worst. The last people left on the earth. Everybody else will move forward. You're going to be moving backwards because you're already number one in your little mind. It's delusional.
The entire idea of studying history is to take the best examples and learn from them and take the worst of our mistakes and learn from them. To acknowledge our mistakes and not to repeat those mistakes again.
The Importance of Historical Memory
And one of the worst mistakes in the history of the world that is highlighted through Bani Israel is a people who don't look at their own history honestly. That's what gives them the false thinking. That's what makes their thinking false. And that's the highlight. That's the lesson today.
I'll share something with you I like sharing often because it's a - I was very moved by it. A friend of mine Shaykh Naeem Abu Laith mentioned it and I was really really just impacted by it:
Why is history important? Imagine that you're - you just woke up today and you don't remember what happened yesterday or anything before yesterday. Or even if you remember, you only remember the last 24 hours. That's it. You don't remember anything else. You know what can be said about you? It could be said you don't know who you are. Isn't that true? If you only remember the last 24 hours then you don't really know who you are.
The Ummah as One Body
The entire ummah, the entire Muslim world, was described by the Prophet (صلى الله عليه وسلم - sallAllahu alayhi wa sallam) like one body. You know the hadith?
(Bukhari hadith 6011)
"The example of the believers in their affection, mercy, and compassion for each other is that of a body. When a limb suffers, the whole body responds to it with wakefulness and fever."
This ummah is like a jasad - like one body. So it's like one person. And if that one person only remembers the last 24 hours, they don't really know who they are. Isn't it?
So if the ummah doesn't remember its own history, if we don't know, if we don't understand our own past, then it's almost as though we have no sense of identity. We don't really have a clear sense of identity.
The Quran as a Guide to Learning
Studying our book, studying Quran - this is my last comment now - studying the Quran isn't actually just about studying tafsir. Isn't just about studying Arabic. Just about studying the vocabulary of the words and what the ulama said.
Studying the Quran teaches you what other things you have to learn. The Quran will highlight areas of knowledge, areas of awareness that you have to build in yourself. Not only the book, but the book will make you aware of other things that are valuable. It's incredible.
Learning from Firaun's Example
A alim one time asked me - we were sitting together, a bunch of ulama, and I was the only one who was not a alim - and he asked me: "Why do you think Allah talks about Firaun so much? I mean, every ayah of the Quran is supposed to be guidance for the believer. Why are we listening to Firaun? Firaun talks a lot in the Quran. You know that? He talks a lot. Why do we have to listen to Firaun? You know and everything he did and how he walked and how he talked."
I was like, listen: You have to understand the genius of evil politicians. You have to. If you're gonna live in this world, you have to understand politics and you have to understand the best of it. And Firaun was a genius evil politician. And you have to study how he operated because he's not the only one. There's gonna be lots of Firauns after him. And if you understand him, you'll understand all of them. You'll be able to navigate with them. You'll be able to deal with them.
This is valuable guidance. Through this you'll understand the corruption of, you know, regimes, dictators. You'll be able to understand them. So everything in the Quran has value and it gives value to things on the outside.
The Value of Studying History
And today's lesson is the value in understanding and studying history.
Young people here are doing their degrees. They're doing medicine. They're doing engineering. They're doing accounting. And one student says "I'm gonna study history" and their parents say "What? What are you gonna do with history? Who's gonna give you a job? Where are you gonna go to work? You know where are you gonna get employed? History doesn't pay the bills. Don't study history."
So we took our smartest kids, our smartest men and women, and we made them doctors. We made them engineers. We made them programmers. We made them architects. And we did not care to make them what? Historians. Political scientists. Sociologists. Anthropologists. Psychologists. No.
The Need for Thinkers
And you know what? As a nation we decided an entire generation of people should just be workers. We're just workers. I mean a doctor - with all due respect to doctors - is skilled labor. It's labor. You're a laborer. You're specialized but you're still laboring. An architect is still a laborer in a specialized field.
Who's doing the thinking on behalf of this ummah? Who's thinking on behalf of this ummah? Who's restoring our identity as an ummah? The best of our minds are not being used because they're too busy doing other things.
I want you to study this and study that. And you know the sad thing is, if you ask "Why are you studying this? Why are you in this career?" You know what the answer is most of the time? Number one answer: My parents told me. Number two answer: It's a good job. That's it.
So the only legacy we're leaving for our next generation is: The most important thing in your life is looking for a good job. I'm not against getting a good job. By the way, get a good job. I'm all for it. But you know what? The world needs more than just people that make money and one or two careers.
The Importance of Humanities
You know, I would argue if I had it my way, historians would be - and historians and theologians and you know people that are studying psychology and sociology - they would be the highest paid professors. They'd be the highest paid researchers. In my opinion. Because they're the people who impact how society operates. You know, they give direction to society. And if they have an Islamic mindset, man, they can bring a lot of good to the world.
So even if - for the young people here that are studying - while you're studying accounting, mashallah, inna lillahi wa inna ilayhi raji'oon - on the side take as many history courses as you can. Learn as much about other things as you can. Things that actually, you know, make you a refined human being. A deeper thinker.
You know, learn sociology. It's an important subject. There's a lot of sociology in the Quran. There's a lot of psychology in the Quran. There's a lot of political science in the Quran.
And somebody says "No, no, no, but I want to study - I want to be a doctor because there's embryology in the Quran." Yeah, and like one or two ayat. There's some reference to it. But that's - it's not at the heart of it. At the heart of it is human engagement. You know.
So these humanities, they are important and we have to restore them from the Islamic perspective. This is a critical thing. And of course history is at the center of that.
Conclusion
With that reminder I conclude inshallah.
Thanks for watching guys. I hope you benefited. I'd like to encourage you to actually embark on a comprehensive journey into the Quran. I've done a video translation and explanation of the entire Quran. It's called Quran Cover to Cover. I'd like you to check it out on Al-Bayyinah TV. Just do a little bit of it everyday and before you know it you'll have gone through the entire Quran in translation with me. Hope you can take part.