Brilliance Of The Book
Date:
Channel: Nouman Ali Khan
File Size: 28.58MB
Episode Notes
Ustadh Nouman Ali Khan delves on the amazing features and the brilliance and the inimitable, incomparable beauty of the Qur’an.
There are four categories of the Arabic language – spoken Arabic, proper Arabic, ancient Arabic, and Quranic Arabic. The Quran has this perfected eloquence in ancient Arabic and Quranic Arabic. There’s no poetry like it. There’s no other literature like it.
The Quran doesn’t repeat itself across its coat on coat chapters. Also, the Quran can’t ever be divided. You know why? Because the Quran defies human logic. Are the Madni Surahs or Makkan Surahs first and then the Madni Surahs? Rather, it’s all mixed together. Is the shortest Suran first and then the longest Surah last? Is the longest Surah first and the shortest Surah last? No. It’s doesn’t follow the norms of size, subject or chronology. It has its own unique order. It is incomparable, even in its structure. The next discussion is aimed at the word ‘Ayah’. The word ‘Ayah’ is unique. Nothing else has Ayat. only the Quran has Surah and it has Ayat.
The Quran’s message, lessons, wisdom and the Sunnah’s wisdom are timeless. But the Quran’s language and the mode of communication is not timeless. It was revealed at a very particular time with a very particular language.
AI Generated Transcript ©
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in sha Allah tala, in this hour and 15 minutes or so we're going to have a session on the brilliance as It's entitled the brilliance of the book. The way I'm going to conduct this session is not going to be a lecture. And I know you've heard that before. And then you still get a lecture. So I'll be trying to make set some ground rules and charlotta. anyone here ever attended a class with me? Anyone here? Okay, a good number of you, those of you who haven't Good for you.
What we're going to be doing in chat lies, I'm going to try and present a topic to you as though you and like two other people are sitting here. Don't pretend you're sitting here with like, 300 people. And I'm going to be repeating things I'm going to ask you to repeat them with me. And in the middle of it all, I'm going to start asking questions to see if you remember what we just talked about. And then we're going to build ideas one after after the other to get to certain conclusions, inshallah Tada. Before we talk about the amazing features and the brilliance and the inimitable, uncomputable beauty of the Quran, we have to set some groundwork some foundational work. So we have to talk about
that first. So the first thing I'm going to talk to you about is the three kinds of Arabic.
If you're taking notes, take notes, if not take mental notes.
Three kinds of Arabic.
Now, I'm going to oversimplify This is not an academic lecture. So I'm trying to present this in a way that's easy to remember easy to understand in Sharla. There are many more kinds of Arabic but for this discussion, three kinds of Arabic. I'm not going to list them on the screen. I'll just tell you what they are. We'll call them spoken Arabic. Number one, spoken Arabic.
Number two proper Arabic.
And number three, ancient Arabic.
Who remembers don't look at your notes.
Call it out, call it out. Call it a spoken.
Proper, ancient, okay. Spoken Arabic is like another word for it is busted Arabic
or slang or twisted, demented, mutated, ugly, also called Amir. Amir is dialectical Arabic meaning Egyptians have their own Algerians have their own Moroccans have their own the the Lebanese have their own the people from college from the Gulf states they have their own everybody has their own which Arabic
spoken Arabic They have their own spoken Arabic. Okay. They can be as far apart for those of you that happen to be they see from like from Urdu Punjabi.
Okay, it could be that far apart. Or in English, it could be like English versus guy knees. If any of you know if you've ever heard guy a nice proper guy knees, you can't really understand it if you just know English, unless the guy in his fellow decides to use English with you. Otherwise you can't understand. Okay? So though they are related, they're not the same. They're not the same. Now, that's spoken what were the other two
proper and ancient in that order. Remember them in that order spoken proper, and then ancient.
The newspaper, The Arabic newspaper, The Arabic, you know, news television program, or Jazeera or whatever. That is all in proper Arabic. That's all in proper Arabic. The the the Arabic term for that is unforced Ha. And
also, if you've taken Arabic In college, they call it Modern Standard Arabic. What they mean by that is
proper Arabic. Okay. That's proper language. It's correct. Arabic. It's enunciated correctly. It uses the rules of grammar spoken Arabic. Is it too concerned with grammar? No, but proper Arabic is proper arrogant Arabic is actually appropriate. Arabic correct Arabic. So when you're learning proper Arabic When you're learning, you're learning correct Arabic. There's nothing wrong with it. But I did give you a third category.
Ancient Arabic, we have to understand the difference. It's easy to understand the difference between spoken Arabic and proper Arabic. But the one you really have to understand the one piece most people overlook, you know which which difference it is between proper Arabic and ancient Arabic. Ancient Arabic is far more sophisticated, far more advanced, far more complex, far more intricate, far more involved than proper Modern Standard Arabic.
In other words, if you go to Egypt, all your friends are going to study Arabic is going to go study to you go to Egypt, you come back speaking proper Arabic, that still doesn't mean you have an understanding of what
ancient Arabic there are two different things. And for the most part, the subtleties, the complexities, the minor issues in ancient Arabic, the things that Arabs would be able to hear and tell Oh, that's what's going on. That is no longer the case today.
So even the average Arab doesn't hear what the Arab have 1400 years ago heard, they hear a different kind of Arabic. So what the first thing we have to understand is, why was proper Arabic even born? Why not just keep the Arabic of the ancient times? How can be changed? How come it went through a difference? So that's what we're briefly going to try and explain. Okay, so far, you're with me? Okay. So what's the mistake of the minister when he critiques the Quran?
He judges the book based on proper Arabic while it should be judged based on ancient Arabic, actually, it is the standard of ancient Arabic, it is the standard itself. Okay. So now let's talk a little bit about where this difference occurred. You have these Arabs before the messenger came to Lahore, obviously, you have these Arabs, they just hang out in the desert. They don't have any buildings. They don't have much of a farming community. They don't, they haven't even discovered oil yet. They're just kind of hanging out in the sand.
their neighbor is the Persian Empire. Another neighbor is which Empire, Roman Empire if you know anything about empires, they're always looking to increase the size of their backyard. You know that about empires, right? They're always looking to expand, but something interesting happens. Do they expand into the Arab territories? No, they're like, why should we send our soldiers out to get barbecued in the sand? What are we going to get out of this anyway, leave these Arabs alone, they've got you, they're useless. They have nothing we can take over if they have monuments, buildings, cities, you know, natural resources, we should go after them. But they got nothing to leave them
alone. So the Arabs are by themselves, the Arabs are just hanging out by themselves. Now, when you're by yourself, you're isolated. For the most part, I mean, there was some travel abroad. And there were some influences from outside cultures. But for the most part, the Arabs enjoyed an isolation that no other nation enjoyed.
And when you're isolated, your language becomes refined, your language becomes more and more pure, because you're only talking among your own people. You're only talking among each other. The Arabs became so refined in their Arabic, you know, every nation has this thing called nationalism, or patriotism. You take something in your country and say we make the best cricket bats or whatever, you take something and this is your pride, this is what you have that nobody else has. Right? This is the thing you have, there is even such a thing as state pride. Right? You know, so every state has something that they are, you know, we have the best whatever, right? We have, we have the
highest murder rate in the country or something. So something to take pride in. What did the Arabs take pride in? Did they take pride in the structures that they build, the armies that they have? What did they have that they could take pride in. That's it, that's all they had was language. So when you take pride in something, you really take care of it. It's a national, it's a matter of national identity. So it became a matter of Arab identity, to be focused to excel, to drop everything else and worry about this language. So much, so that language was the highest thing to know. So much so that if there was a poetry competition between tribes, and you know, there was a in
the ancient form of desync competitions, because we have two poets, and they're gonna dis each other's tribe, literally, the one who wins, the one who wins,
has been successfully humiliated the opponent tribe for generations to come. And the one who loses chances are has lost his head. Because of losing that competition. Because he didn't just lose the competition. He lost the pride of his tribe. He lost the dignity of his tribe. So they took Poetry and Literature very, very, very seriously. This was a very serious thing. I'll give you some things about what how they took it so seriously, or how they were pretty cool in the way they did poetry and some interesting things. I can't write I'm not going to write Arabic on the screen, because I don't expect everybody to read it. But I'll tell you a small example of a poet. They spoke in
riddles. They spoke in images and that's the other thing I want to mention to you. What did they see when they woke up? When they looked outside? What did they see?
desert, nothing. When you see nothing, you develop a very vivid imagination.
When you see you know our kids have no imagination alone.
They have no imagination. You know why? Because they watch stuff all the time. So when you tell them to imagine something, they imagined something they've already seen. But a good imagination is the one which can imagine things that it hasn't seen. And this was the Arab imagination. So their words were very imaginative if you've heard a good hook, but are you heard at the senior class, if you heard the Hadeeth class, and the the speaker, the scholar stops at one word, and draws an entire picture?
Inside that word, why? Because the Arabs used very picturesque words, no words were full of imagery. So I'll give you this poem. This poet, he started making poetry about how generous he is, how much he gives him charity. And his wife complained to him, she said, we don't have food to eat, what are you talking about?
We're bankrupt, and you're making poetry about how charitable you are. And he turns to her and he responds to her in poetry for sale to harpoon Island mechanic alley, and I'll tell you what that means. In Simple English, it means heavy rain doesn't get along with a house on top of a hill.
I'll say that again, heavy rain doesn't get along with light.
A house on top of the hill Now, what does that have to do with being charitable or being poor? What's he talking about?
But you know what he was talking about? Now imagine, in your head, imagine a hill. And then imagine what on top of
a house and what's going on? Heavy rain? Where's the water? Stay up there? Does the water come to the bottom of the hill?
He says, What is provision comes from the sky.
And there are two kinds of people in the world. There are lowly people. And there are high people, people that are closer to God, and people that are worldly. If your house is above, aren't you closer to the sky? Right? So the water doesn't stay with me, meaning the provision doesn't stay with me. I keep giving it and who does it stay with? Where does it create a puddle. So the people that are richer, actually lowly.
And I'm high. And he says all of this by saying just what a high house doesn't get along with heavy rains. So they spoke in these riddles. They wanted you to imagine what they're trying to get it. They wouldn't just say it. And if you didn't get it, they say ha, I'm
not a
foreigner. You know, so this was a sensitivity to language that they enjoyed. Anyhow.
The Quran comes to these people upon the Messenger of Allah sallallahu alayhi wa sallam in this environment, where they take a word and they rip it apart. When you say something that is open to criticism, they will criticize it to the nth degree. They will shredded to pieces. They were extremely critical. I mean, if you think movie critics today are critical. They were nothing compared to the poet, the poetic critics of the Arabs, they would critique words, they will try to outdo each other. Of course, the best way to beat a poet is to do what
not to attack his personality but to attack his What?
his poetry attack his poetry, and now you've got something the Quran is revealed. And you know, what, what are some of the things that the disbelievers said about the Quran?
What did they say? Do you have
one allegation was it's the word of a poet, another allegation
magic.
What else? fortune teller fortune teller.
It's plagiarized from the Bible, right? It's taken from another source. All of these none of these say except in one place and unrefined. If we wanted, we would have come up with something like this. Luckily,
we could say something like this too.
Did they say? No, they just, we could do it.
And then they called it poetry. They called it poetry and their own their own poets. When they went to challenge the Messenger of Allah sallallahu sallam, they came back swearing what law he This is not what it's not poetry.
Then they said he's a mind reader.
Now if he's um, See, the thing is when you have contradictory allegations, like if you're if you're a guy, and by the way, the mind readers and back in the ancient times, they spoke mumbo jumbo, they spoke these weird words that nobody understands. And they will say, this guy is casting a spell, you know, you know, that's what he's doing. But these words make sense. The words that the messenger was saying, did they make sense? They were thought provoking words. So they were clearly not words of a mind read. Understand when they say kahin they don't mean
like our times, some kind of psychic abilities. They mean words that people that they knew that spoke this gibberish, and they were supposed to have some magical effect.
But the one you have to acknowledge
It's oft repeated in the Quran is the allegation that he that these are words of insanity that he's possessed. And that he is that that these are magical words. First of all, when you say this is magic, you've already accepted that this is not normal, this is paranormal, right? by them accepting that the Quran is magical, or even alleging that the Quran is magical, they accepted its power. They accepted its power, it's an acceptance of its power. And to say that he is insane means they couldn't come up with saying they couldn't come up with any allegation against the Quran. So if you can't defeat the Quran might as well accuse Who?
The messenger so I saw them, you know, when you lose the debate of ideas, then you start attacking personalities.
Right? That's it's very common, when there's a debate on issues, you can't beat them on the issues might as well beat them on what it's called character assassination. Right? So this is what they tried. But in and of itself, the Quran, they actually even in their criticisms, they acknowledge this victory, they acknowledged its victory. Now the quick problem Oh, no, go very, very quickly. inshallah, because we're losing time.
Islam came a legate. With victory, it became a power did it remain in the Arab world?
No. Islam spread that Islam to remain did it continue to spread only among the Arabs or did it also start incorporating non Arabs? honors, to the point where a point came, where the vast majority of the OH MY happened to be Arabs are non Arabs, non Arabs, non Arabs became the majority, Arabs became the minority, which means all the non Arabs were now basically one Arabic one on one students. Right? They were good at Persian or Roman or whatever else, but now they were becoming students of Arabic. When you have the average taken of the level of Arabic of the oma has the average level gone down? When the oma becomes international? Yeah, it goes down. Also, the Arabs are now interacting
with an entire global civilization, the Muslim Arabs, they're traveling all over the place when you travel, does your language deteriorate? Sure. My older was awesome.
Until I had kids. Now just speaking, I talked to them I said, Dad, you're talking to Lou again. So your language deteriorates over time because of influence from other languages. So the only part of your language you keep is the most essential parts to get the point across the deeper things, the higher things in literature, they start withering away. The Arab scholars, the Muslim scholars realize this. They realize that Arabic as an as a phenomenon, what did he what existed in the in the isolated desert is now changing?
And this is a serious problem.
Why do you think this is a serious problem?
What do you think?
Koran in one word, the Quran, why? Because if we don't appreciate the amazing Arabic of the desert, then we won't appreciate the amazing Arabic of what of the Quran. Our appreciation of the Quran is going to deteriorate. So we have to take measures to preserve the ancient Arabic. This starts happening even in the first century.
You have lexicons dictionaries of Arabic collections of poetry written by Arabs saying Kala Irabu, the Arabs said, Why are they saying the Arabs said that this word means this, this and this, their Arabs do? What they mean is the desert Arabs, the ancient Arabs, the original Arabs, the Arabs in whose tongue in whose expression the Koran came, they said this, that's how they understood it. It may have changed 100 years from then. And we're not talking 100 years later now. We're talking a millennium and a half. So the language changed quite a bit. When we study the Arabic of the Quran. We're not studying proper Arabic, what are we studying? ancient Arabic, do you understand how we got
from ancient to proper? Right globalization, the expansion of Veoma that's how we got there. But the study of ancient Arabic remains critical. It remains critical, the problem of our times in appreciating the Quran.
Most people what they know about the Quran, is it an Arabic or in translation?
Most people what they know about the Quran is in translation. It's in translation. And most people that know the Arabic of the Quran from Arabic, knowing in proper Arabic or ancient Arabic, they know it in proper Arabic. They are themselves not students of ancient Arabic, so even their understanding,
except the scholars except those who dedicate themselves to that study, except them is reduced.
Very limited appreciation of what the Quran is actually saying.
It's very, very powerful stuff. And it's been reduced to very, it's we got a very shallow version of this incredibly sophisticated text. So this was the foundation This was the first thing I wanted to share with the problem, the problem itself, but also, it has been held widely, that you can only appreciate the beauty the amazing perfection of the Quran and what language
and Arabic. But you know, Allah azzawajal revealed this called art as a miracle, not just a miracle for one group of people.
This is a miracle for
humanity, everybody, everybody. So even though we will never taste the Quran, like the Arabic the time of the messenger soliloquies, and we're never going to be able to get there. Because we can't reverse time.
We can still make attempts to display the beauty of the Quran in every language, including English, we have to at least try we have to try because it is a right of the people to know how beautiful this book is. We can't just say Oh, it's so awesome in Arabic. I can't even tell you in English Forget it. You can't do that. That's not fair.
You know, and this is by the way, this is something you hear about all the time. Oh, this word in Arabi is so beautiful English.
And you're like what?
Tell me something at least. So the Quran is
it's it has this perfected eloquence
to the point where you have spoken Arabic Then what?
proper Arabic Then what? ancient Arabic which one is the most sophisticated? And then you have Quranic Arabic.
That's number four.
Spoken Arabic, proper Arabic, ancient Arabic and then a category in and of itself. But onic Arabic like nothing else? Like nothing else. There's no poetry like it. There's no other literature like if there's no literature in any language like the Koran nothing. There is not a book not a chapter but a line you can't compare to anything else you can't. And first we'll talk about this from a very simplistic point of view then we'll take some examples okay.
The Quran is made up of how many sutras
$114. Now, what is the common translation of sutra?
What is sutra translated into?
chapter, right? So what is translated into chapter Now you tell me
chapter one, chapter two, chapter three, chapter four is chapter four based on chapters one, two and three.
No, in every other book it is. In every other book you don't repeat in chapter four, what you already discussed in what chapters one, two and three, four is based on the first three, there's no repetition there's some sort of logical sequence that you can decipher.
The Quran doesn't repeat itself across its quote unquote chapters. So they're not really chapters.
It's not really a chapter will be called chapter is something else. This is something else. A story book has chapters two, but what happens the chronology moves forward.
Also the Quran you can even divided you can even call it unit one unit two unit three you can even do that. You know why? Because the Quran defies human logic.
Are the muddy surahs are makin surahs first and then another nice rose No, it's all mixed together
is the shortest sooner first and then the longest surah last is the longest surah first and shortest pseudo last? No, it's not going by size order. It's not going by subject order. It's not going by chronological order. It has its own unique order. Unlike what
every other book there's nothing like it is um comparable even in its structure.
Now the problem with human beings is when they have they get used to a structure chronological order, numerical order size order these are all orders right subject order when they find none of these you know what the accusation is against the Quran?
Yeah, there is no order.
The accusation against the Quran is hey, we didn't find chronological order. We didn't find subject order. We didn't find you know, size order. So that must mean there is no order it's chaos. French orientalist German orientalist read their literary criticisms of the Quran.
And you will find them saying the Quran has no structure.
It's chaotic by the luck. Now, just on a side note, I do want to mention, you're thinking to yourself out who cares about these coups far? They're saying Nicola has no structure we believe
a lot challenge them.
Look into the Quran.
Allah challenge that, didn't he?
And when they're critiquing the Quran, aren't they doing what Allah had asked them to do?
They are.
So when they are making criticisms of the Quran, they are actually fulfilling the destiny of the Quran. And we are in a position we are in an obligatory position to respond.
We're in a position to respond. Our response is that we believe forget them. No, no, no. We have we believe with eyes open, we respond to criticisms, we have answers. When you have no answer. You say go away. You're a disbeliever. But we're not a religion of no answers. We are in an intellectual civilization, we have answers. We have answers. So now, the first thing was about the structure of the Quran. The second thing is the word ayah. So there's surah except we can't really do anything with sudo can't really call a chapter it's a proprietary term, a unique term, its own file format. Right? not compatible with anything else. What's the other thing? I uh, what's it translated as?
is translated as verse.
Now the word verse, think of it in English. word is the word verse get used?
Don't think of religion. Don't think of Islam. Think of the word verse in English. What is the thing that comes to mind when you hear a verse?
poetry song verses of a song versus in lyrics? verses of poetry, right?
If not song and poetry. Where does verse come up in English discussion?
The Bible, the second connotation of verse is biblical. So either you're thinking of poetry and song, or you're thinking of the Bible. Now, interestingly enough, the Koran is very adamant in letting us know wha wha hoo, what a *. Mama who are the Cali sheriff, this is not the word of a poet. This is not poetry. We didn't teach him poetry at all. It The last thing you should be thinking about when you hear for honors, what poetry any comparison to it.
And the last thing you should be thinking is that this is plagiarized from where
the Bible but the two things that come to mind when you hear verse, even subconsciously, maybe it doesn't come to your mind. But the average English speaker does it come to their mind? Sure. And if we're doing darwell, we have to be clear what words we use what connotations what messages we send. So there's a problem. The word AI is it's unique.
Nothing else has if
nothing else has. Nothing else has sudo Allah has Quran surah and it has a unique, unique forms. can even call them sentences you know, can you think of an ayah? That's just one word.
That's just one word. Can you think of an AI anybody?
will answer is two words, stewards
of man, one word.
I can think of three IOD that go together to make one sentence al hamdu Lillahi Rabbil alameen or Ratna Rahimi Maliki Yomi Dini?
Three ayat, bye, but grammatically, one sentence, the previous was one ayah which is one word. Now there are three set three I art but how many sentences? One sentence and then there are entire passages of inheritance law or of giving loans like the entire page in Bukhara, right on giving loans entire paragraph, but how many I had when I you can't confine it to any literary form, except one. There's only one term you can use for the Aya, Aya
it's nothing else. Nothing else fits. Nothing else can can describe it. So Allah gave us this unique literature which is and comparable to any other literature.
And the little bit of time that we have left I want to share with you what makes the Quran so incredible. We just talked about what makes the Quran unique, but not what makes it incredible. Okay, we didn't talk about what makes it incredible yet. Just want to share with you a handful of ayat
when you and I speak, and babies cry.
When you and I speak. We organize our thoughts. I come to the speech I say to myself first I'm going to talk about this, then I'm going to talk about this.
I bet you was that child.
Okay, laugh at me. Do you Okay, anyway, so there you go.
limit when you and I speak, we organize our thoughts. But you and I are incapable when we speak of organizing our words, based on what we're going to say later.
We can't organize our words based on what we're going to say. Later. Let me give you an example. I'll write it on the screen so everybody can see.
Look at this example, read the first line with me gaffar biLlahi
Kapha Villa he repeat after me.
shahidan they never been accom.
cafe Bella he benei webinar calm.
She shahidan.
Do you notice a similarity?
Very similar words. The word scapula occur twice.
is the word shahidan used in both IOD
is are the words benei will be used in both hired there are two different two different places your homework is to find out where. But notice now the rough meaning the rough meaning is Allah is enough as a witness, between me and yourselves. I'll say that again. Allah is enough as a witness between me and yourselves. The second is says a lot is enough between me and yourselves as a witness.
Very similar. The first ayah once again says Allah is enough as a witness, what's the Arabic word for witness? shahidan between me and yourselves but in the webinar,
the second is as allies enough between me and yourselves as a witness. So the difference is sequence. The difference is Allah said witness first, me and yourself later. Then he said me and yourselves first and he said witness later, right.
The thing is, the Quran is hypersensitive, microscopically sensitive to context. When Allah subhana wa Taala speaks, words are synchronized like beautiful architecture. Perfect. You can't move a break from its place or the perfection will be lost. The first ayah Allah azza wa jal ends the ayah in NA who cannot be Eva de hubiera masirah. Allah no doubt he is has full news has always had full news and has been full view of his slaves. The IR ns speaking about Allah,
the IR ns speaking about Allah
when the I ns speaking about Allah, the word for Allah shahidan used first.
It came first. The next I ns la eco who will cause you una two I'm skipping some words, but it speaks about people that are losers. One ends they begin similarly, but one of them ends speaking about Allah. The other one ends speaking about not a lot but people when the ayah ends speaking about Allah, it begins with mentioning a law's attribute as Shaheed first. When Allah ends the ayah, speaking about people, the ayah begins with mentioned of between me and yourselves, between me and yourself, isn't that people, people first. So what is about to be set in the future, actually has an influence on how words are organized even before
we don't have that ability when we speak.
We don't have that capability when we speak. Even when we write we're not that sensitive, but the Quran was not revealed as a written word. It was revealed as what a spoken word. It was revealed as a spoken word. Allah is the one that says National Zoo come home, we provide human them we provide you and who then in another place, he says that National Zoo icon, we provide them in you.
One place he says we provide you in them other places as well.
You provide them and you to us it's the same thing. To us the sequence I mean we would normal people when they speak they wouldn't be so sensitive to you came first then came later it's the same thing. But in the Quran, this is hypersensitive when I talk to
him luck. Don't kill your children because of poverty.
Don't kill your children. What? Because of poverty when he says because of poverty, poverty already exists, when poverty already exists, who are you worried about feeding
yourself. So Allah says, we provide you and then
then he says, When I talk to
me luck, don't kill your children out of fear of poverty, not because of poverty, but fear of poverty. Fear is something in the future, like the children who are coming in the future. So he says, we provide them and you
it is so perfect the word when you study it, when you study this, this is just one area of the cross perfection, the placement of words, the sequence of words, there's just one area. Another area I'd like to share with you. perfection of the choice of words, choice of words, you know who the messenger is? Sure. Which nation was he sent to?
He was sent to meridian.
What Isla Medina aha home, Eva.
To meridian. We sent their brother what the brother who? Should I remember the phrases were Eli mediana aha home sure Eva to madeon we sent their brother shipe
Allah azza wa jal insolate assura
he speaks about lots of profits.
If Allah whom who whom knew when their brother knew said to them, if color know whom whom who would?
How should I translate?
When their brother who'd said to them with if called Allah whom whom Sorry? How should I translate that?
When the brother Saunders said to them,
if all of whom Shoaib
once sure I've said to them,
for everyone else he said their brother knew said their brother Sally said their brotherhood said their brother Luth said, but when it came to show, what did he say? Sure. I said he didn't say what their brother should have said he didn't say that. He skipped out on their brother. Now in another place in the Quran, he says like I told you what Isla de and ah ha ha, I'm sure Eva to muddy and recenter brother shave in this suit our everybody gets the label Brother, brother, brother, brother, brother, the only one who doesn't get the label is who shot Mr. Dyson. Why? Why would a lot so just take that word away? What nation was he sent to?
madeon Medina has another name in the Quran, you know, as Hubble aka. Another name is Hubble aka now madeon is a race of people. And it's also a place It's a race of people. And it's also a place now Aika was a giant tree that they used to worship. So when a lot of calls them that people have Aika is that their racial name or their religious name?
That's their religious name.
In the surah where I told you Illa Medina. Aha homeshare eva madeon we sent their brother Sure. When it comes to his race, is he there rather?
When it comes to his race, it's the same race same people same region, he's their brother. But in salt ashara La Jolla. JOHN says but as Hubble aka Elmo, Celine
the people have a collide against the messengers when sure he said to them, he says sure, if not, they're rather shame because Allah use the name of Hubble aka, the name of their religion when it comes to their religion. Is he their brother? So he says Sure, I've said he doesn't say their brother Sharif said there is this degree of sensitivity in the Quran.
In its literary form, that you don't find anywhere else. It's impossible. And it's consistent. over and over and over again. Look at this ayah
says
shumsa yongle de la cama while la usaba Kandahar walk alone FIFA rockin spyphone
Allah azza wa jal speaks of all heavenly bodies,
each of them in their own assigned space they are floating swimming, rotating. What's he speaking about bodies in space planets stars, right galaxies. He's speaking about all of them doing what?
rotate rotating. spell out the first words cologne FIFA, like what's the first letter in Cologne FIFA luck
when you went
What's the last letter?
What's the first letter? What's the second last and second?
What's the third last and third? You notice something What are they rotating around?
What What letter are they rotating around? The word he used for rotating? Yes buffoon. Yeah.
How do you do that? How do we how do human beings come up with that?
A lot as always and speaks and this is not written form. This is not written word. This is spoken word. Allah azza wa jal gave this Quran to the messenger sallallahu alayhi wasallam. So he will recite it unto the people, so he would recite it as a word. We are baffled even the way it's spelled.
Even the way it's written,
but it was baffling, mind boggling, stunning, really stunning.
In its perfected form,
a few very quick cases and ChildLine. Then we'll take some questions.
You know the difference between past tense and present tense.
The Koran uses past tense it also uses of course, present tense and future tense. When I say killed, killed is that past tense present or future? past when I say kills,
as present tense,
as total mind, Allah says woman khattala minun hapa and whoever killed
a believer by mistake, whoever killed a believer by mistake is that past tense or present tense. Remember that okay? Which one is by which is past tense, by mistake or on purpose?
When you kill a believer by mistake, there is an omen, yuck to mean and unmetered whoever kills
a believer on purpose.
whoever killed a believer by mistake, and whoever kills a believer on purpose. So when it came to killing on purpose, which was used past tense or present tense, present tense, same passage, you will think you'd stick to the same tense. But no, when it came to killing by mistake, he uses past tense when it comes to killing on purpose use Which one? Present tense, you know why? The past tense only happened once.
I went to the Texas dollar convention, what does that mean? One time I go to the Texas dollar convention, what does that mean?
I go every year, right. So now here, Allah subhanho wa Taala speaks of a person who killed by mistake. How many times do you kill someone by mistake? You only commit murder by mistake once the second time you say a mistake.
So the one who kills on purpose is a perpetrator. And he should be punished because chances are what? He'll do it again. Hence the present tense because it has continuity.
The past tense murder because it's mistaken, the present tense because it's on purpose. There's continuity Subhanallah even in the tense, even in the choice of words, the tense of words, there is such hypersensitivity that does not exist in any other literary form. These are the things that are lost. These are the things that are lost when you start becoming students of what language
don't say Arabic don't disappoint me.
Quranic Arabic with ancient Arabic, ancient Arabic and it's perfected form is ironic Arabic. Ancient Arabic never reached where Quranic Arabic reached even so the pinnacle of it is called onic Arabic This is why the standard of Arabic is the Quran, the standard of Arabic to judge whether something is good Arabic or bad Arabic the standard of it is the Quran. This is even as understood and appreciated by non Muslims non Muslim Arabic literary so Pamela, last two inshallah examples. And then I'll take your questions if you have any.
A lot as origin says, and this is about the the unique placement of words. What can Licata como matten? Anyone know?
What's atlan Okay, Danica, Martin. What's up, man? This is how we made you and that is how we formed you, a middle nation, a balanced nation. What literally is right in between how we're supposed to be here Java, social media, they get right into the middle of the gathering the horses they penetrate. So Allah made us a middle nation, a middle nation, a balanced nation. This is iron number 143 of swords of Bukhara
is number one again
143 of a total of how many I have a suit of a car
it is the middle ayah of
143 half of 286 and the middle is as we made you a middle mission
last one there many many many angles that we could talk about this the subject from, but we'll hold off on that until the seminar in April inshallah, if you're coming, we'll talk about these areas of the Quran in depth at the end, I'll share with you just some areas that we're going to try and explore. But as the last one, this is very subtle, very small to to come to my head. So I was here to video.
A lot as elegant. I think this is the fourth or the something like the fourth I have sort of absorb How much time do I have, by the way?
15 minutes sweet. Okay, question two. Okay, great.
I'll take this at the end inshallah. All right.
So and So de la de la so just speaks about
spousal issues, marital issues. The Ayah begins with men and moves on to discussing women. The Ayah begins with men and moves on to what women majha de la Julio medulin Minh conveyed nifi jiofi Allah did not put two hearts inside of any man.
He says Allah did not put two hearts inside of any man Li Rajan in in Calvin jiofi.
The rest of the ayah speaks about the as wives the spouses.
Now the thing is allies did not say a lie did not put two hearts inside of any human being.
He excluded Who?
Yeah, he just said he didn't put two hearts inside of any man. And this is perfection in its literal form, not literary but literal form, because women can get pregnant and when they get pregnant, how many hearts are inside? Could be two or more. So Allah says he didn't put two hearts inside of any man.
Even in its literary form, literal form, literally, you can't play the devil's advocate. Now what about women? You said in turn, women have to hurt No, he can't because he said man, he allegedly.
There's this thing in Arabic called indicom. You may have heard of it in touch with it's also in south and south. It's a it's the science of morphology of Arabic. What it does is it lets you fuse words together and I'll show you one thing.
Okay, read the first word out loud for me.
Yet at the bottle yard Yata borrow. What's the second word?
Yet the Burro. They're actually the same word. The Arab says yeah, tada borrow too much work. So let's just take the time to die and fuse them together, put a shadow on top make life easier. So he says yet the borrow they're the same word. This is called a long fusion. fusing two letters together for convenience. In modern Arabic, they're the same in classical Arabic. They're a little bit different, which is the abbreviated form.
What do you think? The second one yet the bottle is abbreviated yada,
yada, W is the complete form. Now, the double in Arabic means to reflect, to ponder, to ponder, which is a more complete form of the word again
Yata de barro Allah azza wa jal when he speaks about the entire Koran, he says if Allah
Allah Allah, Allah, Allah.
Allah Quran did he use the complete form? Yeah. When he speaks of any part of the Quran, not the whole thing. Just some IRA. Some word, guess what?
He uses the partial form liegt the barou iottie. He Leah de baru it, he uses the partial form of the word when he speaks about a part of the Quran. And he uses the complete form of the word when he uses what he speaks of the complete Koran yet.
Even in the way words are spelled, there's a miracle. Even in the way they're spelled. There's perfection. There's precision. There's my new detail. There's my new my new detail. So this is where we're kind of what I've shared with you thus far is on the micro level meaning we're zooming in on the is zooming in on a word. We're looking at a word with great, great detail and trying to explore the sophistication of the Quran from that point of view.
One, but there are other issues. For instance, Allah azza wa jal, you know he gives many examples in the Quran. He gives many, many examples you want to do an example before we go.
This is one, one of my favorites. Okay, we'll do one of my favorites.
Some of you may have heard this before, but that's okay. It's good to remember.
Allah subhanho wa Taala he speaks in social hedge SoTL hadrosaur number 22. This I believe is iron number 31.
When alpha and ilaha illa mushy Kenobi, they are solely dedicated to Allah while not committing any ship with him whatsoever. Woman usually Camilla and whoever was to commit ship with a lower is to come up with a law that can never hurt Romina sama he then it is as though he fell from the sky I want you to remember this example. Whoever does ship with a law is like someone who fell from the sky okay.
This is the first part of the example of luggages the comparison between the mushnik and the guy falling from the sky. Then he says First of all, then birds are snatching off of him birds are having lunch on this guy. Birds are eating him. I will definitely be heavy p mechanics
or wind is blowing him away to a far off unchartered place. three parts of the example. First part he's falling from where the sky second part what's happening. Birds are eating in third part.
Hmm. Wind Blows him away to a far off place. No Dickey of famous orientalist one of the first pioneer orientalist who critiqued the Koran. He wrote that as an example, the point of an example is to make sense to the audience. After all, why does it teacher give an example?
To make the subject easy? Right, the subject is hard. Let me give you an example. Now if my example is harder than the subject,
then it kind of beats the point, right? So you have to you have to give exact examples to the audience to the listener to the student. That makes the subject easy. That makes the subject more approachable. It's something you can relate to. No, Dickey argues look falling from the sky. Nobody's ever seen it. I can't relate to it. Neither could the Arabs, even if not the day of airplanes, who could ever have imagined falling from the sky? example doesn't make sense. Then he says birds are eating from him. He argues 9.8 something meters per second square. What kind of birds are these? that this guy is falling with acceleration due to gravity, and these birds are still
eating him? And what size of birds are these they're eating alive, man is he's falling from the sky beyond imagination. Can't see this happening. Then he says, while you're falling from the sky, if you fall off to an uncharted place, or you fall in a famous place, aren't you equally dead?
So what's the point of fall falling in an uncharted place? So he critiques the example he says the example doesn't make sense. The only problem once again, his criticism is based on proper Arabic without an understanding of what? ancient Arabic, one of the things I didn't tell you about ancient Arabic is that it has its own expressions, idioms and idiom in English. Is that cool?
If you said, that's cool. 100 years ago?
What are you talking about? It's Florida. It's not cool. So you wouldn't think of that school the same way? The words are the same, but the meanings changed. Isn't that true? Right. The words are exactly the same. We're living in crazy times. kids go to a basketball game, they come out and they say, that's cool. And the other kid says that was hot. And they mean the same thing. Right?
So expressions change expressions change. The Quran uses expressions of the ancient Arabs. Did those expressions change over time? Yes. You have to understand if you take the expression and you understand it, literally, you've lost the meaning. It's not literal. It's an expression, you have to understand the expression behind it. Like when somebody says to you know, use crying over spilt milk. You say I didn't spill milk, I lost my job, man. But you've missed the point. Right? There's that expression. So But anyhow, let's quickly go to this example who finished on time?
I have how much time? Okay, so I'll take my time. All right. 15 minutes. I'll take less inshallah. All right, so here's the thing.
Allah azza wa jal speaks of the one falling from the sky. By the way, who was this person being compared to the guy falling from the sky? What's he mushrik most of the Arabs at the time. Most of these Arabs didn't believe in an afterlife. Most Arabs believe that the only thing you have to look forward to is what?
Death there's nothing after that. It's game over. That's it.
So if you the only thing ahead of you is what? Death and you're being reminded about Hellfire and resurrection and the sun and the moon colliding, you
know, man, in here in the dunya
This is just worldly life of ours. No matter what we live, we die. That's it. There's nothing more. I don't understand this whole asset of stuff. Allah azza wa jal speaks to this adamant this disbelieving mind. We're trying to relate to this audience. The only thing they have to look forward to if there is no Hereafter is what again, death
If you know anything about the Arabs, they were a warrior people. They were really big on their, their tribal warfare pride, right? Nowadays we have sports teams, right? We take pride in a sports team, and people paint their faces and all that kind of stuff. Their pride was their tribe and their battles. The worst kind of death legacy you can leave behind is the death of a coward.
The death of a loser. Because after all, once you're you're dead, and there's no hereafter, what's the only thing left of you? Your legacy, your reputation, that's all that's left. So now, to the Arabs, they use this expression falling from the sky even before the Quran was revealed. They used to say falling from the sky all the time.
You know what they meant by it, they meant that there are two tribes fighting. One tribe is on top of the cliff, the other tribe is on the bottom of the cliff, which one has the advantage? The guys on top despite being on top of the cliff if they still lost in battle,
and the enemy did, what would their bodies
chuck them off the cliff, they used to call this wide falling from the sky. There are two scenarios either they lost, which means they were lousy fighters, despite having the advantage, or they were running away retreating from the enemy. And in their retreat they trip and what happens? They fall so they die the death of a coward. Either they die the death of a loser or a coward. These are the worst legacies that the Arabs would ever want to leave behind. The ugliest kind of end they could imagine would be captured in the words falling from the sky. Allah speaks to these mushrik these wishek Arabs who don't have any concept of the Hereafter, who have no concept of the humiliation of
the Day of Judgment. So he gives them a word that will help them understand from their worldview. What's the ugliest thing you can imagine? Let me tell you, because like that,
shark is like falling from the sky when you die in battle. You know, this is ancient human tradition. When people die in battle, two sides collided. corpses are lying all over the place. Once the battle is done, what happens to those corpses, each side comes with their people and takes their dead and gives them a proper burial is not what happens unless you feel that your soldier was a traitor, or a humiliation or an embarrassment to your tribe that nobody comes for you.
And when nobody comes for you guess what comes for you. hurts a place which is generally shared in classical poetry is used more than often for vultures, birds of carrion eating dead meat. So now birds are gnawing away at this, this humiliated corpse who is disassociated from its own tribe people they don't even want to have anything to do with them.
These disgusting birds eat their lunch and even they don't want anymore.
Even they don't want anymore. Now what comes
now a wind comes and bro blows off whatever scum of you is left into unchartered territory, you're just trash on the earth, decomposed trash on the earth. The ugliest, ugliest ending that the Arab could imagine, has been displayed in such beautiful terms with one example, just so he could get an idea what you're dealing with what you think shake is a small thing. put things in your perspective. And see how powerful the Koran is. And its examples. The thing of it is, and this is something that may be a point of confusion for some of you, in our times, people say things like, well, the Quran says that it's clear,
I should be able to understand it myself. All these officers, they're just trying to give me their opinion. I'm going to figure it out for myself, which is your way of saying, I want to be able to answer for myself.
But actually, to be honest, the Quran doesn't say that it's clear.
It does. Does it say that it's self evident? Yes. But the Quran never says that it's simple.
We shouldn't confuse clear and self evident with what simple, two different things, two different things. The Quran presents us sometimes very clear solutions to very complex problems. I often give the example of a calculus problem. Imagine there's a really hard calculus problem. And your professor writes a really clear solution to the problem. Now the solution may be clear, but is it simple? No.
Don't over simplify the Quran. Because in fact, it has a great deal of complexity. its complexity contains its clarity. Don't confuse simplicity with clarity. They're two different things. In many places. The Quran is simple, yes. But in many, many more places the Quran is complex. Now, does the Quran have universal guidance, universal benefit across generations? It's timeless. The other argument you get is if the Quran is timeless, why do we have to study history to understand the Quran? The Quran message the Quran is lessons. The Quran is wisdom. The sun has been
them too. They're all timeless, they're all timeless, but the current language, the current mode of communication is not timeless, it was revealed in a very particular time with very particular language. So if you want to get the timeless lessons out of the Quran, you have to study what ancient Arabic You have to go back in time, you have to go study that particular language in which the Quran was revealed, not doing justice to that language waters down sometimes even, you know, deforms the message of the book, it's sometimes even deforms the message of the book, The the aspects of the Quran that I didn't share with you today. From the grammatical point of view, I
didn't talk to you about the old single Quran, I didn't talk to you about the structure of the surah how Allah organizes the surah how the suitors are laid out next to each other to form complete literary, you know, units and structures. We didn't talk about these things I just talked about hearing there sporadically. A few examples of the literary beauty and marvel of the Quran.