 Assalamu alaikum warahmatullahi wabarakatuh, this is Rami and Surah and this is my recording for MCC's Nightly Quran Reminders during Ramadan of 2020. We pray that Allah SWT is making this the best Ramadan for you and your family and making these last 10 nights that we are in right now the best of your Ramadan. Ameen Ya Rabbil Alameen. Last week I was finishing up some of the discussion about the pattern of the Quran and how some of what is mentioned at the end of the Quran is or at the beginning of the Quran is reflected in the last surah. So those last surahs in the Quran especially starting on chapter 90 on down reflect a lot of the lessons that are found in the beginning of the Quran in the longer surahs. Now one thing we have to remember is that when we look at the Quran we should not ever judge a surah or an ayah based on its length and this is something that Imam al-Ghazali points out in his amazing book called Jewels of the Quran. I encourage you to purchase that book and go through it but he says don't be deluded by thinking that the importance of a surah or an ayah is by the length or about how many words are in that that's not what's what's intended and so for the majority of Muslims who are not going to memorize the entire Quran or at least aren't going to be able to read through the Quran on a regular basis you can rest assured that you can get all of the lessons from the longer surahs in that last section of the Quran namely the last Juzib but even the last from 90 the last 20 or so surahs of the Quran you can get so much out of just those surahs and so especially in these last ten nights of Ramadan if we're not able to to do a khatim all the time even and throughout the year as well if we're not able to recite the Quran regularly which we should be doing but if we're not able to do that let's at least familiarize ourselves with those last surahs of the Quran know what they mean know what their their the stories are behind them so that we can get those lessons and so to to emphasize how important those last surahs are I want to turn to a discussion about the chronological order of the Quran now we know that the Quran as we recite it now starting with Fatiha and Surah al-Baqarah all the way down is not the way it was revealed that was the way that of course was the final intention of how the order of those surahs should be but it's not the way that they actually came down and so what is the the the order of how they came down and this will help us understand even the the lessons that are in those surahs the how to pair them up with events that happen during the life of the Prophet Muhammad sallallahu alaihi wa sallam and even see some of the theme so one of the things for example that we'll see is that at the beginning of the revelation the surahs are talking about to heed about the oneness of Allah and about general good character that characteristics that we should have feeding the the hungry taking care of the orphan and so forth it's in the later surahs that actually a lot of the laws come down surah al-Baqarah surah al-Nur surah al-Talaq surah al-Tahreem and so forth and those main surahs up at the front of the Quran surah al-Baqarah Ali Imran al-Nisa that have a lot of the rules of Islam were actually revealed later during the Medinan period of the Prophet sallallahu alaihi wa sallam's life sallallahu alaihi wa sallam now some of the scholars like Imam al-Siyyuti says that Imam Ali radiallahu anhu actually has his mushaf was in the chronological order was listed in the order of how the surahs are revealed if you look online chronological order of the Quran you can find some of these lists but one thing to remember is that Imam al-Siyyuti mentions he says it's not we cannot say for a fact what is the order of the surahs there's a lot of research that has been done there's approximations on on the order and we know we have a good general idea and even to some details of the order of the revelation of the Quran but we can't say for sure for a hundred percent fact that this is the way it was ordered but with that said Imam al-Siyyuti does have a listing and not only does he have a listing but he also has an entire book and it's been translated into the into English and I encourage you to purchase this book and add it to your home library for you and your family your children to read through it's called secrets within the order of the Quran by Jalal al-Din al-Siyyuti and not only does he list out the the order of the Quran but he also goes through some of the secrets in the final ordering of the Quran so let's just take a few minutes to look at each of those one of the things that we'll see is that in the in the beginning of the the the message the the surahs that are mentioned look at this surah al-alaq of course iqra bismi rabbika alladi khalaq we know that surah al-qalam surah al muzammal and surah al-mudathir and al-fatiha now these five surahs so alak, qalam, muzammal, mudathir and al-fatiha these five surahs take note these were the only surahs that were mentioned for about the first three years of Islam so for the first three years of Islam that's all the Muslims had to recite and they're reciting that over and over again so what secrets are in those surahs what secrets we know the fatiha actually contains the entire message of the Quran in the fatiha that no other ummah was given that so that something like the fatiha so that should motivate us even more to make sure that we know at least for the fatiha every single letter if we're just reciting it from memory but we don't know what every single thing may it means let's take this these last ten nights of Ramadan to go back and say okay at least the bare minimum of what each one of those words mean I want to know what those words mean then after three years then we get surah al-mesad but in the first and Imam Isioulti breaks it into and some of the the listings into basically four periods three being Meccan beginning Meccan middle Meccan and late Meccan and then the Medinan surahs but if we just look at the first Meccan surahs we have surah then Mesad because that was or that's when the Prophet was ordered to take the message now publicly Abu Lahab cursed him and the response was surah al-mesad then we have taqweer surah al-a'la surah al-layl al-fajr al-duha al-inshirah al-asr al-adiyat al-kawthar al-ma'oon al-kafiroon you can hear as I'm naming all of these these are all those short surahs at the end of the Quran these are the surahs that we recite in our prayers every single day but one of the things that we'll see is that these surahs that were really the bulk of the surahs for them for the majority of the the first third of that period of the Meccan period the there those surahs al-ma'oon al-kafiroon al-sura al-fil al-falaq al-nas and then al-ikhlas and then starts the second the second section but if we just look at that those last and it's really even just from surah about 96 90 and 96 on down those surahs are what we should be reciting in our in our in our prayers but not only should be reciting them in our prayers let's become more familiar with those surahs let's become familiar with the lessons let's reflect on those lessons let's not just speed through them during the recitation of our of our prayers let's let's reflect on them because in those surahs are the message of Islam you don't have to it's great to study the entire of the Quran and that's what's intended but let's not if we're like the Arabic saying is you're not able to do everything well then don't leave most of it you know even if you can do just a little bit do that and and if you can do that your reflections and your reading and even your reading of the tafsir of those ayahs that's you can get a lot from that now I want to turn to imam sulti's book and again this is the the imam sulti's book which is called secrets within the order of the Quran it's available in English also available online in Arabic and towards the end since we're talking about that imam sulti mentions in this book he says this is a subject like looking at the the particular order of the Quran and what are some of the secrets that we find in the ordering of the Quran he said before him writing this book he never found anything any subject any book that was written on this particular subject he said he found a little bit mention here and there in some of the other earlier Mufassirin but nothing taking it as an entire subject and the majority of what he writes and some of the reflections that he have he says this is from my istinba this is just from my own personal reflections and what I think is so powerful about that is that this is also should be an encouragement to you to look at the Quran and to try to you know to to uncover some of the secrets or why are certain surahs in certain mention in certain ways so to to give one example and we'll just it will just go to right right to the end he says if we look at surah of al kafirun now kafirun was was was revealed because the kufar came to the Prophet sallallahu alayhi wa sallam they said at first they were telling him don't preach Islam then they were saying okay if you're gonna preach Islam you know we'll worship your Lord one day one year our Lord one year no one month one month no one week one week one day one day no we're not going to do that and so the response to that was you had kafirun say to the disbelievers and then it mentions that now then right after that comes surat al nasir and Imam sallallahu alayhi wa sallam he says well what's the connection between having surat al nasir right after surat al kafirun he said the answer it's as if that if if you if you look at surat al kafirun as a response to the kufar who said worship our religion and your religion and we say no we're not going to worship your religion then the responses okay what do I get you get the victory for those who have this firm steadfastness and reject kufr you get a nasir and then the responses well what about the people who don't accept that so we have these two surahs right after here's the stance I don't worship what you worship you don't worship what I worship okay so we have two parties the Dean of Islam and other than that if you respond you get victory if you don't you get the same thing that he got and it doesn't matter how close you are in relation to the Prophet sallallahu alayhi wa sallam because remember Abu Lahab was his uncle and did not know that that did not save him and then Imam sallallahu alayhi wa sallam he says and he mentions other examples of why the surahs are in are in this order and then comes surat al khlas and he says what he finds as a connection between this is actually a response to you al kafirun so when in surat al kafirun it says I don't worship what you worship and you don't worship what I worship well the question might come what is it that you worship so you can see all of these connections between those surahs and of course this is just a short reminder and it's not going to go into a deep lesson but you can pick up this book and look through some of these and then start looking searching yourself for some of the connections that might be there because these are not something that's a definite we know exactly why it is we're just trying to understand why are why is why is the Quran in this order for example if you take surat al fiil surat al fiil is about the destruction of the army of abrahah and how he was trying to destroy the Kaaba and at the end it says kaas fima kool then we have made them like crushed straw and if you read it directly connected to the next surah it says kaas fima kool in li i lafi quresh for the benefit or for the sake of quresh so it actually complete the the meaning of those surahs actually completed itself so here we are ya quresh remember you not see how what you did with what we did with the with the elephants and then and we destroyed them for you li i lafi quresh for your and the same thing happens with other surahs as well imam sio he goes through this the more we learn about the Quran the more we see the the miracles and the beauty of the Quran the closer we will be to it may Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala bring us closer to the Quran during this month of Ramadan during these last 10 days and may Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala keep us close to the Quran for the remainder of the year for the remainder of the year please keep us in your dua we have we I know some people who are in the hospital right now one person who just got out because of COVID I have no other people families who are are suffering and there's people who have lost family members so keep them in your dua and may Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala give you a blessed aid during this this coronavirus epidemic and may he make it the best aid ever for you and your family jizakum law khair as-salamu alaykum wa rahmatullah