Has it never occurred to you, that the Qur’an contains a message for you?

Summary of Maulana Shaykh Nazim’s daily Suhbahs

5th April 2010, Monday

Has it never occurred to you, that the Qur’an contains a message for you?

A’uzubillah himinash shaitan nirrajeem

Bismillah-hir Rahman-nir Raheem

Assalamu’alaikum wrh wbkt

• Mawlana welcomed attendees, saying that these were people who sought to cleanse themselves. Such Suhbahs, which remind attendees of the hereafter, purified their ears, their minds, their hearts and their bodies.

Lo! We purified them with a pure thought, remembrance of the Home (of the Hereafter). (Quran 38:46)

Hence Mawlana encouraged people to attend, so that they could achieve blessed and peaceful lives, lives that were full of pleasure and fulfillment.

Indeed whosoever purifies himself, shall achieve success. (Quran 87:14)

• Man is curious by nature. He likes to learn, to know and to discover things. Shaytan strives ceaselessly, in order to make us lazy and apathetic, so that we no longer wish to learn and understand. This is the Age of Ignorance, such is the condition of Man today.

• The Holy Books have been sent, they have reached their respective Nations. The Prophets have spoken, they have advised their own Nations. The Guides too, have been sent. The advice of the Qur’an, the Prophets and the Guides, is to teach Man about his life, to teach him to be wary of the cursed one, and to show him the way to servanthood. Shaytan cannot do anything to stop these words – the words of advice of the Qur’an and the Prophet (saw), have already been sent, and are being repeated by the Guides. But Shaytan and his followers/supporters/helpers sow discord amongst Mankind, by constantly changing these words to create confusion. They cause miscommunication and misinterpretations of these words of advice, resulting in misunderstandings, tension and opposing opinions. This is Shaytan’s mission – to spike heavenly advice with Shayta�nic poison.

• Allah’s Commandments/Laws have been laid out clearly in the Qur’an; He does not make them confusing, as we are weak creatures. The message is meant to be easily understood.

And We have indeed made the Qur’an easy to understand and to remember: then is there anyone who will accept its reminders (advice)? (Quran 54:17)

• Allah commands us to ponder over each Ayah that we read, in order to grow in understanding:

Will ye not then reflect? (Quran 37:155)

And verily We have coined for mankind in this Qur’an all kinds of similitudes, that haply they may reflect. (Quran 39:27)

• Every sentence of the Qur’an is an Ocean of knowledge, understanding and guidance – if only we reach out and seek it by pondering/reflecting about it.

• Allah Almighty has filled Oceans with wondrous creatures, from tiny plankton, to massive whales. There are colourful corals, hidden treasures (pearls, gold etc) and mysterious living things that Man is still discovering, up till today. A person who merely stands at the beach, will see none of the above. He just sees a lot of water, and despite the fact that Allah has said that the sea is filled with all these creations of His, Shayta�n whispers to that person on the beach, “Do you see all these so-called creatures and treasures? No. So don’t be a fool to believe all that. Don’t be gullible. Surely you are not so naive as to believe in what you can’t see, feel or hear?”� Shayta�n doesn’t deny that the Ocean exists; he denies that it contains all that Allah says it contains -�he sows the seeds of doubt.

• So Shaytan teaches Man to stand lazily at the beach, without entering the Ocean – that is, to have doubt in all that is in the Qur’an and in Prophetic advices. Shayta�n whispers to Man, “What do you think of that Ayah? How can you believe it if you do not see it with your own eyes? How can you accept something, if you cannot see it, feel it, or hear it?”�

• Mawlana asked, how can one see the treasures on the seabed, by simply standing at the beach? How can one taste food by looking at it from afar? How can one understand the message of the Qur’an, without reflecting upon it?

• Pondering upon the Qur’an is like a man who has entered the Ocean, and who begins to explore it. If he snorkels, he can see more now (as compared to just standing at the beach). If he dives deeper in, he can see / find / discover / experience even more! If he has a submarine, he can see much more than the snorkeler or the diver has seen. If he uses a microscope to study the seawater, he will discover so many microscopic creatures that cannot be seen with the naked eye. So depending on how determined we are to explore and discover, more and more knowledge is revealed to us. Compare that with the person who simply stands on the beach – what he understands, is nowhere close to those who have ventured into the Ocean.

• Mawlana gave a personal example from his own life. When he was a very young boy, he liked stargazing, and most kids of his time thought that stars came from the embers of their ovens, that had floated up into the sky. Soon telescopes were invented, and Mawlana said that, for the first time, people could see so many things that they had only conjectured about before. See how Man’s knowledge grows, and how he is naturally a very curious creature? Then Man learnt how to put telescopes on satellites/rockets. The photos and sights that came back, stunned the world, it made all that they had learnt prior to that, obsolete. Man now knew that the Universe was so vast – this was in stark contrast to when they were kids who thought that stars were just glowing embers in the sky! See how understanding grows with reflection and effort, and each new level of understanding is a completely fresh experience, that makes the old knowledge outdated and irrelevant?

• Such are those who stand on the beach, without diving in – they know the Qur’an exists, they may even have read it, but they have never bothered to ponder over its advice, in order to unlock the hidden wisdom contained within, and so they are racked with Shayta�n-sown doubts and wrong ideas about religion. So explore the Qur’an and just like the diver and the astronomer in the examples above, you will make many discoveries. Each discovery is not the end; it is merely a step, on the ascending stairway to the peak.

• Shayta�n never likes for Man to ascend. He loves those who have shallow knowledge, he tells them that that is enough, that that is indeed the peak already, so that they will stop striving. Disregard this satanic whisper, and dive deeper, urged Mawlana! Don’t just read the Qur’an – reflect and ponder about its meaning, and you will keep unearthing more and more pearls of wisdom and understanding.

• Allah did not create the Oceans for us to just stand and look at them. So many people are taking benefit from the Oceans – people go fishing, travelling, swimming, diving, hunting, exercising, sailing in it – and all you want to do, is to look at it? Similarly, Allah did not send us His Divine Words, the Holy Qur’an, just for us to read blindly and to be contented with a shallow understanding of its message. No! Whilst so many people are climbing to unimaginable spiritual stations and unearthing eternal honor from it, are we going to treat the Qur’an with disinterest and doubt? Do you know that you will be questioned on Judgement Day about which Ayahs of the Qur’an you had upheld/obeyed in your life? Each Prophet was given authority to unlock the secrets of their own books to their Nations, it was only the blind ones from their Nations who kept saying, “We don’t understand, we don’t see what you are talking about.”

• Today, almost all schools (from kindergarten to Universities) have ceased to teach the Qur’an. Children no longer learn to read it, and even if they did learn to do so, no one is there to help them understand the secrets contained within it. Mawlana said that it is wajib for us to teach our children the Qur’an and to explain to them its meanings and secrets. Do not make Qur’anic study optional, and do not make the Qur’an inaccessible to our children. The study of the Qur’an and its messages must be given topmost priority in our mission to educate the Nation. We must know that all education and understanding must be based on the Qur’an, so our children’s education must be built on that foundation. We ourselves must build our entire foundation, on the message of the Qur’an! Without that foundation, there is no rahmah, no blessings in our lives, and that of our children! Instead of blessings, curses descend upon such people, and Mawlana said that for every curse that befalls an unbeliever, twice that amount befalls a believer (for he knows about the Qur’an but chooses to ignore it) and for every curse that befalls an ordinary citizen, ten times that amount befall those in authority (for they have the power to make changes to the education system, but they do not do so).

• Mawlana reminded us that to deflect these curses, we must study the message of the Qur’an that is contained within the Ayahs. Reading it blindly by rote, is not what the Qur’an is sent for – it contains a message for you! The Qur’an teaches you to know your Lord. It teaches you secrets about yourself, your enemies and your special relationship with Allah, with the rest of creation and amongst yourselves.

• We are not lowly animals – animals are happy to eat scraps and straw. We are honored creatures – hence we are given an honored Book with an honored message. Why are we discarding this distinguished message, and seeking the lowly, insignificant knowledge of dunya�? There is nothing more important that the knowledge and message of the Holy Qur’an! Mawlana ended the Suhbah with a poignant doa, “Ya Allah, bestow upon us a true understanding, one that makes us pursue servanthood to You, forgive us, and send us one who will teach us and guide us, on this journey to become your sincere servant, just as we had promised You we would become, on the Day of Promises.”� Mawlana, while reflecting about the billions who had gone astray, said very dejectedly after this Suhbah, “Today, I am very sad.”�

Fatihah.