Quran The Light to the World
By Omar Suleiman | 2026-01-06T17:53:05.639266+00:00 | Topic: Quran
Quran: The Light to the World
By Shaykh Omar Suleiman - MASCON 2018
Opening
In the Name of Allah, Praise be to Allah, Peace and Blessings be upon the Messenger of Allah, his family, his companions and those who follow him.
SubhanAllah, MASCON is the only convention where people are in their seats before the session actually starts. So, congratulations to all of you, mashaAllah, for the energy that you've been able to maintain and to the organization, alhamdulillah, for the incredible work that all the volunteers have done.
I want you to please make it a point to thank the volunteers on your way out. Make it a point to smile at them, make it a point to say Jazakumullahu khayran. Thank you for using the time that you could have been using to sit and listen to the lectures to facilitate that for us.
So, please do express your gratitude to them inshaAllah ta'ala on the way out. I think we already had the best session of the convention. I'm a little biased, but it's gonna be hard to follow that up with much.
The Quran Reading Us
My session though or my talk right now focuses on the Qur'an as a light to the world. And anytime I think about the inspiration of the Qur'an or the capacity of the Qur'an to inspire people and to move them to another level and to push them in ways that they did not think that they could be pushed before. There's a saying that comes to mind of at least someone that used to be more famous in the Muslim community as a convert, Dr. Jeffrey Lang.
Dr. Jeffrey Lang was a professor that was reading the Qur'an with the intention of refuting the Qur'an. And he has a statement that he says, I was reading the Qur'an and I found it reading me. And I think that's the sentiment a lot of us feel when we read the Qur'an for the first time in a serious or an involved way.
And you pay attention to the words and you pay attention to the instructions and you don't just read it for its recitation or for its inspiration or to get to the end of the page or to finish your juz. But you're actually paying attention to the words themselves and asking yourself, what effect is this Qur'an having on me right now? And what can I do to live up to those words? Because every single section of the Qur'an has something for me to benefit from.
The Mother's Voice
Dr. Lang was asked why he was so comforted when he would hear the recitation of the Qur'an. And he said something extremely beautiful. He said, is the baby not comforted by its mother's voice? Is the baby not comforted by its mother's voice? And you think about that and you think about the effect the Qur'an has on some people that don't even understand it. But it's just recitation and there have been so many beautiful recitations of the Qur'an that we've heard even since the knowledge retreat started a couple of days ago.
And you hear it and even if you don't understand its words, it gets you. And there's a comfort that comes with it. Because at the end of the day, even before the baby understands what the mother is saying, once it knows that the mother is speaking to it, once it feels the presence of the mother, that's enough to comfort it.
In the same way when we approach the Qur'an, once we know that Allah is speaking to us, we should immediately be comforted. That this at the end of the day is not just some revelation that came from Allah to the Messenger. And I am a second-hand user, recipient of the Qur'an. The Qur'an speaks to me very personally.
Not in a way that I would change it or deviate from the intended meanings that came with those verses as they were revealed. But it's personal. It is Allah speaking to each and every single person to guide them to a better way of life and to happiness for all of eternity.
The Story of the Sister from New Orleans
But I want you to think about this and subhanAllah, what is it about it that's so beautiful? And how do we manifest that beauty in a different way? There's a story when I think about that mother's voice. It's a sister from New Orleans actually and she's related to the Archbishop in New Orleans. She's, you know, New Orleans is a very Catholic place.
And the way she converted to Islam was very interesting that she went on, some of you might remember PalTalk. I know PalTalk sounds like VCR now or CD player. But when the internet first started, it was one of those forums or chat rooms where you could go and listen to stuff and download stuff and contribute in these forums.
And so she saw this room on PalTalk called Sufi Spiritual Music. And all they were doing was just playing the Qur'an over and over and over again. So she realized after about a month of listening to it on a daily basis that it was the Qur'an only because someone's voice came on and started to explain the verses of the Qur'an.
So before that she would just go home every day and she'd open it and she just listened to the recitation of the Qur'an, not understanding it, but being comforted by it. And that was her path to Islam though she came from a deeply Christian household.
Light Upon Light
So how do we move beyond that recitation? The Qur'an is the light of all lights. And light is visual enough to be grasped by anyone. So how do we take that light and become part of that light in our own beings? Allah describes this as a light upon a light. And a lot of people probably wonder what does a light upon a light mean? And there is an explanation from Abdullah bin Abbas where he summarizes it very beautifully.
He says that this means the iman and deeds of a person. Light upon light means the iman and deeds of a person. So he describes this further that there is the light of the fire and the light of the oil. When they are combined they give light upon light. And neither one of them can exist without the other. So when Allah says, (نُورٌ عَلَى نُورٍ - nurun 'ala nur) (Quran 24:35), light upon light, there is a call for your actions to be light.
As they reflect a faith of light that is inspired by a revelation of light. And that injunction should not be taken lightly. You can't preach words of light with actions of darkness. Not as an individual or as a community. You have to be reflective of that. You can't claim that there is beauty in that light if you reflect it in an ugly way.
The Prophet as a Living Quran
And so the light of the Qur'an is not the words remaining on the page of the Mus'haf. It was reflected first and foremost in the person of the Prophet. He was a living Qur'an. (قُرْآنُ يَمْشِي عَلَى الْأَرْضِ - Qur'anun yamshi 'alal-ard) A Qur'an that was walking on the surface of the earth manifesting it in the most beautiful of ways.
If you wanted to understand any verse of the Qur'an, you looked at how the Prophet implemented it. And you saw the most beautiful manifestation of that light in the character of the Prophet. All of the verses about charity. All of the verses about grace. All of the verses about mercy. All of the verses about sincerity. All of that was reflected best in the person of the Prophet.
All of the verses that command us to elevate our interactions with our family to a place of excellence. To elevate our interactions with the community to a place of excellence. All of those verses about God consciousness and everything that we do were manifested most in the light of the character of the Prophet.
And the light that came in the character of the Prophet was not because the light of the Qur'an was insufficient. But it was to show you how you can absorb it. How you can live it.
The Companions as Reflections
And what the Prophet was to the Qur'an, the sahaba were to him. You saw in the sahaba of the Prophet a reflection of his character. Each one of them taking something so beautiful from him. Each one of them manifesting lessons that they learned from the Prophet.
So when you wanted to see the Qur'an fresh, you looked at the Prophet. When you wanted to see the sunnah fresh, you looked at Abu Bakr, Umar, Uthman and Ali. You looked at the people that were around the Prophet that absorbed his character in a way that their characters also became light.
The Transfer of Light
And that torch in Islam is not passed down from the Prophet from his hand to Abu Bakr's hand, to the next person's hand, to the next person's hand, till it reaches us. It is a nur that is transferred from the heart of the Prophet to the heart of Abu Bakr, to the heart of Umar, to the heart of Uthman, to the heart of Ali, to the heart of Fatima, to the heart of Aisha, until it reaches our hearts. The torch is in here.
It's lit in here. And the transfer occurs in here. And it's demonstrated in your hands. But it is not contained in your hands. It's special.
Umar's Transformation
And so beautiful to me that Allah described the Islam, the conversion of Umar ibn al-Khattab radiAllahu ta'ala anhu, also in terms of nur, in terms of light. When Umar radiAllahu ta'ala anhu's actions were all darkness before Islam. Embraced Islam, Allah revealed the ayah
And we gave him life and we gave him a light that he walks amongst the people with. That's the description of Umar radiAllahu ta'ala anhu.
That when he became Muslim, not only was his heart enlightened, not only were his thoughts enlightened, but he had a light that he walked between the people with. That made him more worthy to be a recipient of divine inspiration. Not wahy, but he was muhaddath.
The Prophet mentioned he was a spoken to man. Spoken to by the angels, which meant that he is guided in a way that his actions reflect something of divine revelation. That he was guided in a special way because he made his heart such a worthy vessel of that light that Allah poured more light into the heart of Umar radiAllahu ta'ala anhu.
Light Makes Things Visible
And he was able to use that light to walk amongst the people in the darkness of Mecca in the 7th century. And to continue to do so all the way until the moment that he died, imparting the light from his heart into the hearts of his children who then imparted it to those who studied with them, who then imparted it to those who studied with them, until it reaches our hearts as well. We ask Allah to make our hearts worthy vessels of that nur, worthy vessels of that light. Allahumma ameen.
So we gave him a light to navigate with. And Imam Maududi rahimahullah ta'ala, he said in the understanding of this, he said, light is something which makes things visible, which is itself manifest and helps make other things manifest as well.
Again, light is something which makes things visible, which is itself manifest and helps make other things manifest as well. Which means, Umar was transformed by hearing the Quran. What was the Islam of Umar? It was when he actually took the time to sit down and to read the Quran.
Umar's Encounter with Surah Taha
And to pay attention to those words. It wasn't the first time he heard the Quran, but it was the first time that he was sitting down and paying attention to it and opening his heart to the possibility of what those words could mean. When Umar sat down and read Taha, how many times that he heard the Quran recited before that? How many times did he hear it from the mouth of the Prophet Sallallahu alayhi wasallam and the Muslims that were around Mecca that he was trying to persecute?
But sitting on his sister's couch in her living room with Taha in front of him, open heart, listening, it took a few verses to transform Umar radiyaAllahu ta'ala anhu and he never looked back.
So Umar was transformed by hearing the Quran, but Umar transformed the world around him by the Quran and with the Quran. He manifested that light in a way that guided his actions and in a way that could guide entire societies.
The Prayer to Become Light
And what do we do when we ask Allah Azawajal to make us worthy of that vessel, of being that vessel? You ask Allah, O Allah, make me a light. O Allah, make me a light. In someone's life, number one, to this world, number two. I'm gonna say that again.
O Allah, make me a light, number one, in someone's life, number two, to this world. In response, O Allah, you be my light, number one, in the hereafter, number two. So you provide that nur to someone else.
You be a light in someone else's life and to the world that's around you. The response of that is being a recipient of Allah's light in the hereafter. Being comforted with the light of Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala and having light to guide you through the hereafter.
Light Shines Brightest in Darkness
And someone says now, we're living in dark times. The Quran is a light to the world, but this is a dark world. And you're right. This is a dark world. I would not say that it's darker than when the Prophet sallallahu alayhi wa sallam received revelation. But it certainly is dark.
There is a lot going on around us that can engulf us in hopelessness and pessimism. And make us wonder if what we have is capable of really lighting up the world around us. If what we have is sufficient to deal with the world around us.
But we can't forget that light shines most beautifully when it's dark. The darker it becomes, the brighter the stars become. The more captivating the light of guidance becomes.
Malcolm X's Prison Experience
The way that Allah azza wa jal opens up an opportunity for you and I to present something to the people around us that offers light in the form of comfort, in the form of clarity, in the form of purpose that they would not have considered had it not been as dark as it is right now.
You know, subhanAllah, one of the things that one of our heroes at Hajj Malik al-Shabaz, Malcolm X, may Allah have mercy on him, would say is that he never once questioned Allah about why he had to go through the prison experience. Because at the end of the day, the darkness of Malcolm's solitary confinement in prison made the reception of some lights of Islam.
The first time he reads the Quran is in prison. The first time he starts to read, and he read all the history books he could find, the first time he starts to read those lessons is in prison. He would not have been able to appreciate it had he not been in that darkness.
Opportunities in Dark Times
So when you're in a state of darkness, the light becomes so much more captivating and that is one of the reasons why Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala gives us the opportunity of dark times. You have an incredible opportunity living in one of America's darkest eras to be able to demonstrate the beauty of the light of the Quran in the prophetic character as demonstrated in your own character.
You have an incredible opportunity when people see no reason for hope to be the hope of somebody else. These are incredible opportunities for us as American Muslims today. Alhamdulillah, Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala allowed us to live in this time.
Alhamdulillah, Allah allowed us to be in a state where while the world around us becomes more suffocating and darker, we still have the freedom and the ability to preach the Quran and to highlight the character of the Prophet (صلى الله عليه وسلم - sallallahu alayhi wa sallam) and to live with the character of the Prophet (صلى الله عليه وسلم - sallallahu alayhi wa sallam) in our own capacity to show people the beauty of Islam.
So yes, you might be shocked to hear this, but Alhamdulillah for Donald Trump. It feels wrong to say it. But Alhamdulillah, Alhamdulillah for the dark times because now we can discover the light more clearly for ourselves and we can impart that light in a more effective way to those that are around us.
The Quran Keeps the World Light
Where does the Quran play into this? Now the Prophet (صلى الله عليه وسلم - sallallahu alayhi wa sallam) mentioned that the ultimate darkness in this world will not set upon us until there is not a single verse of the Quran
remaining in this world. And that's significant that the Prophet (صلى الله عليه وسلم - sallallahu alayhi wa sallam) would draw that parallel that when there is not a single verse of the Quran anymore in this world, the world has been completely engulfed in darkness and that is a sign of its ending because the Quran is needed to keep the world light.
What does that mean for our current discourse? I think we can all agree that in our discourse there is a serious lack of the Quran. There is a lack of the Quranic ethos. There is a lack of the ethics that we draw from the Prophet (صلى الله عليه وسلم - sallallahu alayhi wa sallam) which are the manifestations of the Quran.
The Problem with Our Activism
On one hand, you have those of us who are active in our broader communities and we often fail to root our ethics and our activism in the Quran. And we have to admit that. We have to accept that we're not doing a good enough job of rooting our activism and rooting our ethics in the Quran.
Rather, where you usually find the Quran in the public space is when we're merely offering it as a verse appropriate to an occasion. Not actually shaping the way that that action or the way that that organization or the way that that particular demonstration is going to proceed. But rather offering a verse that is somehow related to that occasion.
So we have to challenge ourselves to do a better job of rooting our ethics and rooting our activism in the Quran and by extension the sunnah of the Prophet (صلى الله عليه وسلم - sallallahu alayhi wa sallam) which is the greatest example of the Quran.
The Threat of Stagnation
On the other hand, the greatest threat to religion is not refutation. It's stagnation. When the only thing religious discourse has to offer are the do nots of recourse to real problems in society, religion faces a sense of stagnation.
The Quran cannot speak to people if the only time we bring up verses of the Quran are when we're telling people about how they're doing something wrong. As opposed to talking about how the Quran has the rights to their wrongs.
If the only time we bring up the Quran and the sunnah of the Prophet (صلى الله عليه وسلم - sallallahu alayhi wa sallam) as people of religion is to refute those that seek out illegitimate solutions to legitimate problems and not bring about a new form of ethics, a unique set of ethics, then of course people are going to feel alienated by the Quran.
Being American Qurans
So just as the Prophet (صلى الله عليه وسلم - sallallahu alayhi wa sallam) was the greatest manifestation of the Quran, and Umar radiyaAllahu ta'ala anhu was a manifestation of the light of the Quran and given a light to navigate amongst the people that other people could also use to navigate with. We have to ask ourselves, what does an American Quran look like in the 21st century, and no I'm not talking about the book, it's still the Quran. I'm talking about you and I being the American Qurans.
I'm talking about you and I being those manifestations of the Quran. What do Quranic ethics look like in the very real forms of darkness that we face today? You cannot just bring up religion to refute the hashtag or to refute someone else's activism that you claim is misguided. You have to show what Quranic activism looks like.
You have to show what our ethics look like in action. You have to show that not only is there a way to root our engagements and root our activism and root our ethics in the Quran, but if you do so that that activism will be more effective, more serious, more strategic, more wholesome, more beneficial than any other activism that's out there.
The Challenge of the Quran
Now I really want to end with this. SubhanAllah, time flew. It really flew. I actually want to challenge us with the Quran because the Quran at the end of the day is a challenge to all of us.
Dear people of the Quran, may Allah Azawajal make you an eye of us. Do you really mean to say that a book of whom of the first ayat of which of the first ayat revealed was
(Quran 81:8-9), when the young girl that was buried alive by her parents will be asked for what crime you were killed.
Do you really mean to tell me that the Quran has nothing to say about those young children that are in cages not thousands of miles away but at your borders here in the United States? And I want us to put up a picture.
I hope they can put up that picture for us right now. And if they can't put it up then I'll talk about it. But I want you to look at this.
The Story of Jacqueline Cal
This is Jacqueline Cal. She was caged and suffocated and murdered by our government at our border. When I read
(Quran 81:8-9) That's the picture that comes to my mind.
I want you to look at that little girl and ask yourself does the Quran call you to act in her favor? Does the Quran call you to humanize her or have you dehumanized her like the people that killed her to say, well it's not like it's a Palestinian baby. It's not like it's a Syrian baby. She's just from Guatemala.
Oh, and her parents shouldn't have sent her here in the first place or put her through that in the first place. When that girl is asked on the day of judgment, for what crime were you killed? You mean to tell me as a person who reads the Quran who memorizes Juz Amma, you have nothing to say about that? You feel completely unmoved to act in her favor?
A Call to Action
And I want to leave you on that thought. And I apologize because it's not a hopeful thought, but I hope it's a thought that will cause us to pause for a moment tonight and to think about am I really connecting the Quran to my own life and to the world that's around me?
The Bible was used as a justification to cage her and kill her. And many of our Christian brethren rejected that and said not in our name. Now how will you use the Quran to advocate for her and those like her?