 As-salamu alaikum wa rahmatullahi wa barakatuh, welcome again to another episode of your weekly Islamic chat show, Live by Islam. I'm your host Ismail Al-Bulk and today we want to talk about something which is a very important topic. In fact, it's probably one of the most important topics as we're going to be talking about the Qur'an which is, as we know, should be our guide for life, should be a book that we read and should be a book that we try to reflect upon and implement in our daily lives. The fact that it is the final revelation from the Creator Allah and to do that with me is Brother Ustaz Abdur-Rahman Hassan. As-salamu alaikum. Zakhir Allah Khair for coming on, visiting again from the UK. Now, as I mentioned in the start, we want to talk about the Qur'an, about pondering upon the Qur'an. And I'm sure you're going to mention some of these, but we know that there are so many verses and so many things that point to the fact that the Qur'an was revealed to reflect upon, to ponder upon, to contemplate on, not just to memorize and read, but to benefit from it and try to implement it in our lives. So, here Allah is asking a question and the Ulema here, they say this is a question, but it's a Taqreer. Allah is trying to affirm something in the question, which is that you should ponder over the Qur'an and that should be something a Mu'min does. Then Allah Subhanahu wa Ta'ala right after that, he says in the first ayah that I mentioned, because a person who doesn't ponder on the Qur'an has not come with the ultimate reason why the Qur'an was sent down. In which we have sent down it for it to be pondered over. So anybody who reads the Qur'an and just comes with the recitation has not come with the reason and the purpose and why Allah sent down the Qur'an Subhanahu wa Ta'ala, which is for it to be pondered over. The first verse is quite profound if you think about it because it's saying, do they not ponder or reflect upon the Qur'an or are their hearts sealed or do they have a lock on their hearts? So that's quite a serious thing. So some people may think it's not that okay I read the Qur'an, I recite it, I've got no idea what it really means, but that's not a big thing. But we can see here that it is a big thing and it's something that the viewers should reflect on this alone, the fact that if you are of those who are not pondering upon the Qur'an, not taking heed from it, and many of you may even understand it, but you're just not taking heed, it's not affecting you, it's not making a change in the way you behave, in the way you worship, in the way you act, then being of those, you may be of those who have a lock on your heart, and that's not a category that anybody wants to be amongst. He says that the am in this verse, it's not a question or it's not as we would say in translation, or rather what Allah is saying is, there are locks on their hearts. Just like an affirmation basically. Now Allah is trying to actually say that those who are not pondering on the Qur'an, they are locks on their hearts, and when we say that pondering on the Qur'an and understand what's in the book of Allah swt, we're not saying that you have to understand it like the Ulama Al-Kibar and the Mujtahideen, and the scholars of Tafseer like Ibn Jarrir and others, the way that they pondered on the Qur'an and they understood it, we're not saying that every single person has to have the pondering of the Qur'an to that level. Now they had another level of understanding of the book of Allah, but what we're saying is that you understand the ultimate meaning in the verses, and the ultimate intent that the Qur'an has, and so the Qur'an has an objective, that the Qur'an's Maqasid, the objectives of the Qur'an are three. The first one is Taqirul Aqidat wa Tawheed Al-Sahihah, that the Qur'an has come to establish a Tawheed and correct Aqidah, so that we understand that. The second is that the Qur'an came to establish a Taqirul Al-Halali wa Al-Haram, to establish which is Halali and which is Haram, and last but not least, it is to tell us this Qisas, the lessons in the previous nations that came, and in each and every one of them, when Allah mentions them, He says to us after it, that these verses have come down, so those who are wise, those who are educated, those who are intellectual, that they can take lessons from it. So many people who you see that can't ponder over the Qur'an, don't understand the objectives of the Qur'an. When you come across a verse that's talking about Al-Aqidah, and Tawheed, you need to understand that these verses are pertaining to matters of Aqidah. When it comes to the chapters or the verses that are talking about Al-Halali wa Al-Haram, you now need to know that what is required from you is implementation, and that you're pondering on it from that angle. Also, when Allah tells you stories of the previous nations, and after that Allah mentions subhanahu wa ta'ala their final outcome, the consequences of their actions, and how Allah destroyed them when they went against His command, and He blessed those who followed Allah's command. Again, it's a lesson for you to ponder. So the person with understanding the Maqasidah of the Qur'an can have insha'Allah a powerful ability to ponder on the Qur'an now. You mentioned subhanahu wa ta'ala about some of, for example, the stories, and we know that some of the verses and some of those stories were revealed as well to the Prophet Muhammad SAW, like about Musa A.S., to show the Prophet SAW that you're going to go through trials, but the Prophets before you have had trials. So if someone like the Prophet SAW, who's the best of mankind, the strongest of faith, the strongest of iman, has surahs revealed to help him, you could say, learn a lesson, or to give him support, moral support, then even more so, we need to reflect on these kind of stories and lessons. There are lessons in it. It's not just a mere story, Allah SWT is giving or it's not a lie that Allah made up. So these are lessons. Iusb no Maryam's birth is a lesson for every Muslim. Maybe Allah, he is a kariyah when he was looking after Maryam, and how it all happened. It's a lesson for the believer. Ibrahim, when he says, You look at the man who went against the command of Allah and gave him the book, he turned away from it, he chose the worldly glimpses and neglects of this dunya. There's a lesson in all of this, how Allah destroyed him. For example, you can tell them these stories, Muhammad, let them learn from these stories and these, so the Qur'an, as I said before, it is full of lessons for the believers. And that's why sheikh, he says in his great book, he says that every speech a person speaks, the intention behind it is that it's understood what he's trying to say. The prime minister talks today, he gives a clear instruction to the country, everyone needs to listen to what he's saying. If Allah is being passed, you listen to it attentively. The same is with the book of Allah SWT. And that's why Ibn Jalil Tabri said, the group of people who read the book of Allah SWT and they are not enjoying its recitation, how are they going to read the book in which they don't enjoy it. This Qur'an is so powerful that if Allah was to send it down on a mountain, it would crumble. And that's why there's a great noble Imam, his name is Amr ibn Mura, Ibn Abi Hatim, brings in his Tafseer, Bishanuddin Sahih, with the chain of narration, which is authentic, in Surat Al-Ankabut, where Allah SWT, he says, And Allah says in his vest, we give examples and we give parables. And no one ponders on it and understands it and digest it, Amr ibn Mura said, whenever I read a verse in the Qur'an, and I don't understand what is meant in it and what's the meaning in it, because Allah SWT is giving me a lesson here and I'm unable to understand it. So it's very powerful that a person, he gives time, understand the book of Allah SWT, which is his cure, his salvation, his prosperity, is connected to it. Well, before we go into some of the ways and possibly you can also discuss some of the things that prevent you from pondering upon the Qur'an. Before we go, we've got about maybe seven or eight minutes left for today's episode. We want to talk about what are the ways that people can ponder on the Qur'an. Obviously, we mentioned, you know, very briefly, but we want to give them, maybe you could say, like, a set of things that they can do to improve them pondering on the Qur'an. And then maybe just towards the end, we can talk about things that will prevent someone being able to ponder upon the Qur'an. Now, what we have to understand is that the pondering of the Qur'an, of the Tadabbur of the Qur'an, it actually stands on two basic pillars. The first one is that Tafakkur, which is to think over it, observe the verses. And we've already spoken about that part, which is that the Qur'an is categorized into three, which is that it's Tawheed and Aqeed al-Sahiha, in which it establishes Musa'u al-Ahkam, where it talks about al-Halal wa al-Haram. And third, which is Qisas, stories. That's just the first part, which is that Tafakkur, when you're pondering and you're thinking over the verses. But the Qur'an involves another part, or the word Tadabbur involves another part, which is al-Aamal, implementation. And when a person reads the Qur'an with that thought in their mind, which is that they need to implement the Qur'an, and that they need to understand what Allah SWT, into implementing it, the whole way that you read the Qur'an is different. So each verse, you're looking at it, I personally need to change. So the first one is when you're reading the Qur'an, you're not reading it because you want to use it against somebody else. You don't read it because you want to find deficiency in the Qur'an, or you don't read the Qur'an because linguistically it's so amazing and the power in it. You have to read the Qur'an so you can firstly implement it. And that's what it means by al-Tadabbur. Also the second thing is that the person needs to enhance the Arabic language and learn the Arabic language. By learning the Arabic language, a person is able to go directly to the Qur'an because the Qur'an is in the Arabic language. Allah chose it. So if a person doesn't know the Arabic language, they're understanding the eloquence in the Qur'an is very far. But I mean it's fair to say that while they're going on that learning step, that they should obviously take a translation of the meanings and they should, as much as they can, learn from that. Because we know that the Sahaba used to say that they would memorize 10 verses, understand them and then go on to the next 10. So that's also important for them that in the meantime, don't just put it off and say once I've learned Arabic, which could take many years, they should at least in the meantime, as much as they can read from the translations at least. Which is what gives you the understanding of the Qur'an and having. But that being said, which is the importance of looking at the translation and the English language. But the English language is an understanding of a person's explanation. So this is what a person believes the verse means. When I explain a verse to you is my belief, my aqida is reflecting off the translation of the verse. So it's also in very, very vital input. Like that is salam for lula alhamdulillah, their translation of the Qur'an is very good. If somebody reads that, they will get a very good understanding of it. Because obviously we have some translations out there that should generally be avoided. I'm trying to remember the one that comes to my mind. One of the very famous translations, which the translator interpolated some of his own beliefs into it. And I'm trying to think of those, I'll just completely sit my mind. It's one of the most famous ones that people like to read out there. But I just can't, it just slips my mind right now which one it is. But it is what, you know, so the best thing to do is, like you said, stick to the dada salam, or the ones that are coming. The international one, is it good? From the king fahd, for example, those kinds of ones, those ones. I've heard that people say that the Sahih International is easier to read. And as far as I know, if you're going straight for the translation, now unfortunately there's some organizations, they do their own copy of that print and they add an introduction and stuff. That's a different story. But I think that's, Abdullah Yusuf Ali was the one I was referring to. His translation is the one where he interpolates a lot of things. So he'll explain a lot of the verses about Allah's sifat or Allah's attributes as not really this. And he gives his own explanation to what they are, and lots of other things. But like you said, the dada salam is a really good one to go by. Even now that what they've done is, by Sheikh Safiyur Rahman Al-Muarkafuri, he summarized Tafsir al-Muqatir. So what they did now is they translated it into English. So if a person also uses that translation and a little of explanation that they used of ibn al-Kathir, it's also something that a person would, but if you do study the Arabic language, Tafsir al-Muqatir is an amazing kitab, which is jam, samurai, very good. Some people, it might be hard for them because of the fact that ibn al-Kathir brings many of the, he brings many of the asaneed hadith with his chains and etc. And it does need a lot of sciences for you to understand it. I was going to say, if that's hard, then they can start off with Tafsir al-Sahir al-Muqatir. One of the some of the Mashaikh and the Talabat al-Ailm, I knew what they used to do was that Tafsir ibn al-Tafsir al-Muqatir is what they finish every single month. Like every day they'll do wonders. Before they go to sleep, they read wonders and go to sleep. And then that every single month, Tafsir al-Tafsir al-Muqatir is what they finish. And this is something a person should also basically train themselves to come with. And that's why Imam al-Shatibi says a very powerful statement. He says, وَإِنَّا كِتَابَ اللَّهِ أَوْشَعُ شَافِعِينَ وَأَغْنَا غَنَاءٍ وَأَهِبًا مُتَفَضِّلٍ وَأَغْنَا غَنَاءٍ وَأَغْنَاءٍ وَأَغْنَاءٍ وَأَغْنَاءٍ وَأَهِبًا مُتَفَضِّلٍ وَخَيْرُوا جَلِيسِ اللَّهِ مَلُّوا حَديْتُهُ وَتَرْدَادُوا وَيَزْدَادُوا فِيهِ تَجَمُولًا That the Qur'an is the greatest thing that's going to intercede for you. But it's only going to intercede for you once you've come with this understanding, once you've come with its implementation, once you've enhanced yourself in knowing this book. وَلِدَالِكَ اَمْحَمْدِ الْأَمِينَ شَقِيطِ يُسْتُ صَيْئِ That if a person wants the success of this world, من أراد الدنيا والآخرة فَلْ يَتَعَلَّمْ كِتَابَ اللَّهِ لَرِمْ لُقْفَضَ نَالِجَ وَدِيْ لَرِمْ لُكَةِتْ فُوِّدَ قُرْعَانًا Now we've got about literally two minutes left. So in these last final two minutes, maybe we can quickly run through, if not all, at least the main things that would stop you from pondering the Qur'an. So the person can then look at themselves and say, hang on a second, you know, some of those things that was not that they had mentioned, I do those things or I'm suffering from those things. Now I understand why I can't ponder. Now, the first one is no doubt, you know, sins. They darken your heart. And so you can't see the, the Noor and the light in the Qur'an. I complained to my teacher, I complained to him and when I complained to him, I told him about my bad memorization. This is Shafiq, may Allah's mercy be upon him. Now he advised me, he said to me, leave of sins. Leave of sins because sin, it extinguishes the light of the, the, the, the Deem, the Qur'an and the Sunnah. So anybody who sins, when the heart becomes darken, every vest that's coming doesn't apply to you. The person can't see the goodness in the Qur'an. The treasures and the gems that are in it. And he can't follow what's being told for him to follow. So staying away from sins, I think it's one of the biggest reasons why people can't see the vest. And as Allah says in the Qur'an, That it's not your eyes that become blind, it's really the heart. So you can't even see the, what's in the Qur'an. And if you look at the kufar of Quraysh, when Allah swt mentions that they can't understand, what Allah is saying to them, is because there's seals on their hearts. That's why Allah says, Well we come to the end of today's episode. JazakAllah to you for coming on again. And also to the viewers, may Allah reward you for tuning in. Please tune in, inshaAllah, same time, same place next week. And as always, I leave you with the greetings of Islam. As-salamu alaikum warahmatullahi wabarakatuh.