BAGAIMANA MEMAHAMI WATAK DALAM KISAH Al-QURAN?
Cara Baru Menghayati Al-Quran Dengan Seronok
alhamdulillah we're back in uh the segment YT 199 i apologize about last week we had uh some technical difficulties that forced us to uh forced me to shut down the stream and then we had to redo it and we are here again so I apologize and thank you for your patience and thank you for your uh support for this channel inshallah despite all of the challenges we're having um this segment inshallah will be a continuation of the series that we started uh about 2 months ago 3 months ago um two months ago uh regarding uh the subject of uh the trouble with organized religion the troubled the trouble with organized religion is a uh topic that really covers a lot of um issues we've covered mo most or a lot of these issues during the last 5 years on this channel but on on this series we are um we are focused on a specific sequence of events that took place and the Quran talks about starting with N and then eventually transferring to Ibraim and we are right now in the middle of the story of Ibraim and then eventually how Ysef took that uh initiative to include religion under the power of the state under the control of the state and then uh eventually how Musa came to try to repair that problem by introducing the concept of divinely guided kings or as we know them nebun and then so on so forth so this sequence of events which is outlined in the first segment in this series segment number one uh you can find it on the channel you can refer back to the earlier segment on this series and you'll understand so this is what the series is all about in order to understand some of the stories and how they're really relevant to the topic of this series we had to deal with the topic of today which is learning about characters understanding characters understanding how the Quran presents characters and this is uh an art this is a uh sort of a subject matter that comes from novel writing it's a different field than Islamic studies but it's really critical to understand how the Quran deals with such characters so as you see inshallah in this segment we're going to deal with multiple uh issues the the the agenda for today includes uh uh reviewing a little bit the concept of a future rasool and the concept of the zipper model we talked about this in YT 198 uh which is the segment right before this one uh and then uh we're going to deal with the concept of character what is a Quranic character we have to understand that concept the Quranic character uh what is what are the characteristics of Quranic characters what how do we learn about characters h and then we're going to switch to the concept of a metaphor of a diamond i'm I'm going to use the concept of a diamond to present or represent the idea of what characters mean to us in the Quran eventually we're going to deal with uh the conclusion which is putting it all into action for us as part of this um of this community marvelous Quran community i hope you stay with us all the way to the end inshallah we get started so as a reminder regarding the concepts of the future rasool and the zipper model both of these concepts we've talked about before especially in YT 198 the segment right before this one in the segment right before this one we've talked about uh Ibraim introducing the concept of a future rasool and when I talk about rasool I want to remind you that there in the Quran there are three different types of rasool not one type of rasool so you have a rasool from Allah an example is Muhammad sallallahu alaihi wasallam you have an example you have you have a rasool from the from the and this is a different type of rasool and an example is or you know perhaps and so on so forth those areas messengers from the Malika and they have a different function they have a different role the rasool from Allah brings a scripture and the role of the rasool in general is to iterate repeat verbatim the message he's given in some cases the the rasool from the also have a mission we refer to those from the asun the Quran refers to them as specifically those who are the the the prophets in the tradition of the Torah and Muhammad sallallahu alaihi wasallam had a role of being a nbi at the last nabbi of the Torah so we've talked about this in YT 133 YT 134 YT 135 i highly encourage you to go back and refer to those segments to understand the concept of the difference between ni and rasool and how Muhammad sallallahu alaihi wasallam is a nabi in the tradition of the Torah but a rasool from Allah bringing us a brand new scripture the Quran uh that has been preserved for the last 1445 years approximately so this is the concept of a rasool now Muhammad sallallahu alaihi wasallam I forgot to mention there's a third type a third type of rasool a third type of messenger and that is mentioned as an example in the story of Ysef a rasool from a human being to a human being or from toss so a rasool can be different types of rasool so there is a dua we've talked about this uh in the last segment YT198 where Ibraim makes a dua along with is aka Muhammad sallallahu alaihi wasallam later of course they're they're not physically in the same in the same lifetime uh so Ibraim made it during his life and and is aka Muhammad sallallahu alaihi wasallam made the same dua later in his life for a future rasool who comes later to explain things and to provide knowledge about the book scripture and uh al hikma the the instruments of extracting evidence we've talked about all of these things over time we focused on them last last segment YT 198 and I'm just reminding you now what is the importance of this future rasool well that is a character that is an important character so therefore later on as we start talking more and more about the the future rasool and again this is a future rasool of the second type meaning from the maha not from Allah and there are many such future rasool so Muhammad sallallahu alaihi wasallam talked about them in some of the narrations perhaps perhaps he referred to such future rasool as a or as a khalifa or as aid whatever you want to call them and Muhammad sallallahu alaihi wasallam in the narrations talked about such future rasool in different labels and uh he himself Muhammad sallallahu alaihi wasallam used different labels for himself so this is a well-known concept it's not a strange thing don't don't think it's strange that the same person or personality if you want are referred to uh under different labels that's that's fairly normal you know all the traditional scholars would tell you that is a label for another some of them say it's the it's some of them do not agree with that and so on so forth so the concept of using a label to refer to another personality is a very common thing not just in the Quran but also in the tradition and all the scholars understand this if you find uh difficulty accepting that well that's because you're not exposed to enough knowledge from the tradition and from the Quran so Muhammad sallallahu alaihi wasallam referred to this concept under different labels and that's perfectly fine the Quran clearly tells us in ayah 381 and we've talked about this in YT 198 ayah 381 tells us that the nabun had a covenant to expect a future person a rasool described literally as a rasool who comes to correct what they have the Nabiun as we explained many times before our specific group specific bunch focused on delivering the knowledge uh related to the Torah especially the 612 mitzvah the commandments and explaining them to their people and changing them over time and so on so forth so the concept of a future is tied directly to the concept of Nabune and the Nabun all of them all of them including Muhammad sallallahu alaihi wasallam expected a future rasool to come from the Mikah to explain things regarding the Quran and so on we talked about some of these concepts a little bit in 198 I'm repeating them for the sake of uh your benefit specifically under this topic the topic of characters of the Quran because this is one such character now we also talked about the concept of the zipper model the zipper model as you see is the cooperation between the earthlings and um um and those as well as those in those who are in a state or status of uh pending their final judgment from Allah subhana wa tala on whether or not they're going to pass into um into into the final feros so in the final state of feros so so this cooperation is based on the concept that uh the bring us some knowledge by the will of Allah subhana wa ta'ala and then we toil we work on the scripture we work on learning from this life and and take a scoop take a from uh our knowledge during our sleep specifically during the days period which is the semiconscious uh state before deep sleep and then uh they learn from us but they also bring us additional knowledge so there is cooperation they take and they come and they bring and they take and they come and they bring and so on so forth so this collaboration this cooperation is to the benefit of all realms not just this realm the realm of this life but also for the benefit of the realms many realms in the afterlife so when we understand this concept which is a real important distinction between what we present based on the Quranic afterlife model versus what they taught us in the traditional model which is a biblical afterlife model if we understand these differences and we understand the the technical uh specificity with which the Quran presents these details we feel a lot more connected to this life and we feel a lot more connected and vested we have a vested interest in in the beneficial relationship with those who passed before us so because some of those who passed before us are either in or become to come and help us and assist us and learn from us so therefore we have a uh beneficial uh you know helping each other supporting each other us earthlings and those who passed before us now by definition that means that we also are vested or should be vested in the well-being of not just our contemporaries who may become who may become our students or our teachers in the future but also our children who may become our teachers in in the future when we become in the afterlife i hope that makes sense so this zipper model teaches us to worry or not just to worry but to to really care and to put the effort into developing these positive relationships with with all of these groups of characters so when we understand this becomes something really relevant to us and understanding the tesia the purification or the development of our contemporaries and our future generations and and supporting a well-being for them helping them uh have a a good suitable nurturing environment uh good political uh stability good economic development and growth all of these concepts become part of our dean and this is a beautiful concept this concept of the zipper model when we understand this and this is the philosophy of the Quran again when we understand this relationship between us and those who pass before us as well as the vested interest we should have in the well-being of those future generations then we have a complete integration between the past and the present and the future it's a beautiful philosophy of understanding real reality as we said before all of these things are subject to the mul the governance that are that are the rules and the principles and the boundaries if you want that are set up by Allah subhana wa ta'ala very good so now we move to a new concept what is a Quranic character what is a character in the first place so a character in the first place is someone relevant someone relevant in a story you perhaps you you read about a character or uh in the Quran you read about you know or the woman uh you know the woman who uh who was present in surah 27 we've talked about her in the story of man in the series on the story of uh or the woman who was uh subordinate woman oriz etc etc all of these are characters so what is A character is someone a character is someone who is irrelevant who speaks or acts in a story or a parable um and usually a character is given a reference name pay attention a reference name not necessarily their real name is exposed not necessarily but it doesn't exclude it so we have to be careful when we read the name of a character it is a reference name what does that mean a reference name that's only a descriptor in general a descriptor it's not a real name not necessarily except perhaps Muhammad sallallahu alaihi wasallam because we have historical evidence to the existence of Muhammad sallallahu alaihi wasallam through some of the documentation that reached us uh from the first century history and so on so forth now we have to understand that each character is given distinguishing characteristics strength and weaknesses etc etc in the Quran pay attention because every character every character every character who's a human being by definition comes with certain weaknesses certain underlying uh shortcomings and that's part of what makes them a human being if you believe there are perfect human beings described in the Quran then you don't understand the human nature itself allah subhana wa ta'ala and Muhammad sallallahu alaihi wasallam told us that every human being makes mistakes subject and liable to be fallable so by definition the Quran is full of characters who are fallable who are perhaps uh exhibiting to us through their stories in the Quran some of their shortcomings and it's it's interesting and it makes it human and it makes the Quran very real it's for real people who are living and breathing in this life because all of these characters I should say most of them we we're going to see there are some characters who are not human beings but we'll see but the point is all of these characters come with their own shortcomings and come with their own strength and come with their own uh you know uh story arc as we will see and some of these story arcs are the typical hero arc which is basically the hero arc is the sequence of events that you find in a typical movie or a typical story the Quran has similar things we're going to talk about those a little bit so here are some examples the man who purchased Ysef it's ayah 12:21 the man who purchased Ysef we're told uh that that man purchased Ysef despite ayah 20 ayah 20 of the same surah uh the Quran told us that the those who kidnapped Ysef into slavery sold him very cheap and they were not really uh holding him in high value in high esteem so they they sold them for a few dirham and again we're going to talk about the dirham concept a little later or maybe in a couple of segments in the future when we deal with the story of Ysef and we understand that dirham really relates to the time of Muhammad sallallahu alaihi wasallam what are you saying Dr and Ysef was sold in this in the time of Muhammad sallallahu alaihi wasallam we're going to understand this more inshallah as we go forward again the characters are really interesting in the Quran and once you understand the characteristics of these characters and you start taking their seat in the story you know you assume yourself there you start understanding them based on understanding that character itself you understand the the perspective of that character when when that character says a certain word or a certain expression or slaps her face as in the woman of Ibraim what is she thinking what is she doing you know one of the examples that we have in here is that um uh there's a dog in Alf that's a character that's a character representing you know the name is a dog it's a descriptor but in reality as I explained when we talked about the story of the companions of the cave the dog is actually a person a leader or maybe even a group of people who are tasked with defending the old way that that defending the traditional Jewish non nonQuranic way of thinking and therefore they are uh standing ready to pounce on anyone who wants to bring new ideas new thoughts new ways of thinking to the future generation to their future generation so the dog is a descriptor clearly it's not it's not it's not a it's not a physical dog we saw in the story of Albak surah alak the story of alah the mosquito well that's how it's translated but really aloud is a group of people again we've talked about that Adam is a character uh in surah 625 the concept of the donkey the donkey is actually uh a a character and and and that character is given certain characteristics so it's not the physical donkey that the Quran is talking about you know we talked about the the monkeys the monkeys the the apes that are mentioned in in several ayat couple of ayat in the Quran we're not talking about monkeys and we you know refer back to the segment about the monkey that uh was stoned by her community and we've talked about that narration and we explained it based on the Quran the donkey or pira the monkeys if you want is an Arabic word is a loian uh term that when you go back to its root it's referring to human beings human beings who have certain characteristics so all of that understanding of the characters characters of the Quran is really important to understand the Quran itself and it's really fun and it's really important uh to deal with the depth of of insight that these descriptors give us in the Quran so go back to going back to the man who purchased Ysef after we learned that that the siblings or those who uh kidnapped Ysef into slavery sold him very cheap we understand that the man who purchased Ysef was an astute uh negotiator we also understand that he was a planner because he said in 12:21 to his woman and he's speaking uh regarding the plans he has for you regarding the future so he's already planning he has a plan he has a plot and at the end of that same ayah we see we see that and Allah shall overcome his undertaking meaning the undertaking of that man uh we've explained all of this clearly in the series on Ysef so I encourage you to go back to that series on the channel and understand so um uh so these are examples of characters um uh this is the last example I want to share with you there are tons of characters and tons of examples these are just a few to get you to reflect about how to deal with the psychology of that character how to get inside inside the nests of that character and understand uh understand that they have they they bring a living dynamic uh to the stories not only that but we know from what we've seen before ever since the story of Sullean that these characters perhaps perhaps narrated their own stories in the Quran what do you mean Dr henry these characters were living hundreds maybe thousands of years ago i know but they're nfs their naps in the afterlife contributed to the knowledge that Muhammad sallallahu alaihi wasallam received and therefore what they told Muhammad sallallahu alaihi wasallam about their own stories and they composed and they narrated parts of their stories in the Quran with the supervision of Jirel of course that's possible we've explained all of this in many segments before so it's really fun to understand all of these dynamics happening about the Quran all of a sudden the Quran as you will see even more becomes not just a fixed text a dead text but a living text you're interacting with these characters perhaps live we're going to see more inshallah so really really important concept no stuffing of useless words in the Quran and no stuffing of irrelevant characters in the Quran what is that saying that's saying that every character in the Quran every character in the Quran is an important character an important aspect of the knowledge that Allah subhana wa ta'ala is imparting to us i hope this is really clear and um I hope that uh you're you're following with us i'm just checking to make sure that alhamdulillah we have every everybody with us please give me a thumbs up if you are um if you are participating uh just to make sure that we are we're on track very good um I'm kind of concerned because we're not receiving any feedback from people very good okay so we continue inshallah with um with um uh presentation so we've talked about um what is a character now we go to uh the concept of um how the Quran invites us to analyze various characters so I've given you a little bit of a taste now we're going to dive a little bit more so each character is given distinguishing characteristics as I said distinguishing characteristics including strength and weaknesses so here are some examples first I want to introduce a new concept that I haven't talked about before on uh on the channel on YouTube we've talked about it on the MQ live for those who are subscribed on the website as you see on the right hand side you can subscribe to this channel you can al also join us and visit our website and subscribe on the website to support us to support this project but more importantly to receive a lot of advanced knowledge the advanced knowledge is offered in the form of weekly MQ live and uh access to the notes files access to the books about DAT the Abrahamic location type of data and access to the community forum which gives you interaction with all the members and gives you a chance to learn and to addition you know to to to validate some of your toiling some of your research and some of your understanding you have a community of practice so to speak uh all of that becomes available uh to you when you join us as a member on the website most importantly the weekly advanced classes that we offer on the website all right so nada is a concept that we've covered before nada as you see the verb nada from the root is used in the Quran is used in the Quran to mean something more than just to call just to address just to yell if you want uh or to get somebody's attention that's the traditional way of understanding that word but in the Quran it's used specifically with a specific semantic that semantic is to object or to correct someone is saying something and you na you do nada that means you're correcting what he's saying you're sort of objecting to it or you're appealing as we're going to see is appealing to his lord or to advice when his lord or the and so on so forth they're advising they're admonishing so there's the concept of objecting changing uh something that was said uh correcting what was said appealing uh to change and so on so forth so it's not just to call i hope you understand that's the difference between the words in the Quran using the Abrahamic location versus the way the Arab poets understand so to an Arab poet nada means to yell to somebody to call them to get their attention but in the Quran it means something more something more specific if you want so as an example in ayah 11:42 Ibra is calling not just calling he's correcting he's appealing to his son why because there's a drowning uh scene and there's there's a rejection by his son and is appealing to his son to come with them come ride or pile on if you want in the ship in the boats in the folk as you want to understand it of course there are no ships or boats in the story of N it's a totally different story so the Quran is telling us it's not just he said to his son no he's he's objecting he's correcting he's admonishing if you want he's advising all of those concepts are part of nada well what does that tell us about N no is that type of person he's he takes um his his liberty to call on his son to correct him to admonish him to uh get him to pay attention he's doing something wrong i hope it makes sense well the problem also with is that also to his Lord what is he doing well if you read ayah 45 from surah 11 as you see in here when you read that ayah and we've talked about it in the very first segment uh on in the series why no stories equal no objected no was objecting to his lord his master what is he saying he's saying uh my lord you have promised me to save to save my family to save my and my son is one of my and your promise is true and the very next ayah his lord replies his lord replies uh uh he's not one of your this is not a good toiling on the traditional or on the divine lexicon so and then his lord admonished him so with that exchange from surah 11 and here are the ayat that I uh I highlighted for you in here on the screen if you read those ayat according to the traditional interpretation you don't understand this concept but if you read the translation as we gave it in the very first segment on the series why no stories equal no Quran about three and a three and a half years ago you understand that first the definition of does not include family it includes cohorts that's why his lord is telling him he is not one of your he's not one of your cohorts it's not about family and then second you learn about the characteristics or the personality of n has no problem correcting or admonishing or appealing appealing in this case objecting if you want to his lord that's strange a nebi is objecting to his lord yeah well you know that happened and it occurs also in the Quran ibraim Ibraim uh appealed to his uh Lord also when he said or you know is looking for information he says show me how you revive the dead and then MS said and you know all of those are concepts where a prophet um uh uh is appealing or sort of reaching out to their lord with some sort of a question in the case of Ibraim his lord says "Have you not believed?" And Ibraim says "Yes I have." Ibraim had some uh unsettled business unsettled feeling in his core unsettled understanding in his rational thinking if you will where he was not sure that some of the things he was learning especially about the afterlife he he he could not swallow it so he's he's saying "Show me show me how you revive the dead." Well what did you call that a form of doubt and all the scholars almost all the scholars who dealt with understood that without doubt there is no learning there's no knowledge so the prophets as well as because there are two different types of prophets again nabun and all went through the same thing so we understand that the Quran invites us to reflect and to understand these characters deeply with insight about what they're going through they're human beings they're human beings and they go through the same challenges weaknesses shortcomings as well as doubts that some of the human most of the human beings if not all go through now let's continue with the story of N to understand how um how the story teaches us uh more about the characters so let's take the perspective again in in ayah 11:42 let's take the p perspective of the son if you put yourself in the seat of that son what's going on with that son well he's rejecting what his father is inviting him to his father is inviting him to pile on with us or to join us ride with us if you want but it's pronounced which means to pile on with us think about this so the son said I don't want to be part of your group that's literally what he's saying because the describes the son he was isolated he was separated meaning he was an individualistic type of person now you understand the personality of that son with a new light what did the son say he used logic the same logic that he learned from his father no so he says well you're advising me the son is saying to his father you're advising me not to drown and I have to pile on with you or to join you in writing whatever you're writing and be part of your group i don't want to be part of your group suffices for me to make dua that's what he's saying he's saying I shall take refuge uh with a mountain again the mountain in Abrahamic location in the understanding of the Quran mountain refers to the compositional unit that is part of sentences and ayat of the Quran or in general of any scripture or of the of the terminology used or talked to that nebi or that prophet by the male so their location their terminology their expressions include compositional units and compositional units as we've seen from the story of Ibraim and the four birds are part of how we make dua that's why it's really important uh to join us on our website so you can learn how to make dua using the terminology of the Quran okay back to the story with the son so the son is saying I will make dua by taking refuge this is ayah 11:42 and you know ayah 11:42 is presenting the son in a very rational smart astute way to respond to his father so the sun is saying like you taught me like you keep talking about make dua make dua make dua and we said the are reference to dua because they help you uh save yourself in in the wavy uh you know rough sea if you want sea of confusion so you make dua and Allahh responds so the son is saying I'm going to take refuge to the compositional unit that will safeguard me from drowning very logical argument and says today there is no saving anyone from the command of Allah true the the the response by is valid because he's a he's a he's knowing or or offering knowledge that's not available to the rational thinking of the sun but the sun is presented in a way that's rational and we should understand this we should appreciate this and we should recognize that the son is not necessarily a just a pure rejector no he's he's offering a good understanding of what his father has been talking about and he's sort of I don't want to say throwing it in his back but he's using it in his argument with his father that's part of the character of that son we have to understand this by by sitting in the seat of that son you get to taste the story in a different light and now you start thinking okay well the son is not that bad but why did Mu reject him there must have been a reason why did the son get punished there must have been a reason he's described as he was one of those who drowned and so on so again that that sort of activity of of understanding the character takes you further in terms of understanding the story i hope this makes sense so we conclude that for sure preferred his independence to group think so he was an independent person he's saying I don't want to be part of your group i don't want to be yielding to your groups if you my father no you're teaching that we should make dua that's what the definition of fulk is referring to then I'm going to make dua and that should protect me correct that's logical very good so what was missing the son clearly was missing something and no maybe could not have could not deliver properly that knowledge to his son does that apply to our lives does that apply to our relationship with our children does that apply to our relationships with our fathers and elderly and imam uh does that uh bring some a a new perspective on the relationship between the religious leaders in our community the self-appointed religious leaders I should add the teachers if you want and the students are the students to deal with this story in a much different way uh you know the the leaders are they supposed to deal with this story and learn from it new things of course they are but it starts with trying to focus on one character and understanding uh what that character was thinking and what is really going on in that story in the Quran so as we see these stories become live you know living stories they become relevant to us let's take another example ibraim with the use of his term yahati yeti oh father yahi in in Islamic uh tradition is an is sort of an unknown uh term what do I mean if you go back to the books of taps you find that all of those who deal with the linguistics of the books of taps not just superficial telling stories all of those who deal with with the linguistics of that word they have no clue where that came from it was not used by the Arabs in their poetry before the Quran so they don't understand what is what is this not something the Arabs used before the Quran again don't believe me go check with the books of you know go check with or and you'll you'll understand so as we trace it through the Quran we analyze that word and who's using it clearly it's Ibraim so in four different occasions ayah 42 to 45 of surah 19 surah Mariam Ibrahim is addressing his father and he says yeah and he is admonishing him he's also um warning him about a punishment and warning him about taking the side of shaitan and being a an ally of shaitan so those are not kind terms from a son to a father so pay attention this teaches us the relationship between Ibraim and his own father as an antagonistic relationship ibraim was a rebel think of a of a rough rough teenager who is yet to have the discipline of dealing respectfully with their father in general a teenager in most of the parts of the world especially the western world uh they don't deal with their parents very well at that age this is kind of the impression we get of Ibraim in those so is not a term of an of endearment is not a term of respect it's a term of correcting admonishing if you want so the way we should translate it is I know something you don't because literally that's how it's introduced to us in those ayat 42 to 45 it's not terms of endearment it's not one of the terms of endearment so now we understand a little bit about the personality of Ibraim he is not afraid to take a stand against his own father against what his father taught him when it came to the issues of of shik and believing in in the unity of Allah and so on so forth ysef used the same term in ayah 124 and this is a big revelation now a huge revelation and again in ayah 1200 the same yahati so if we understand the concept of yati from the character of Ibraim whom we know is a sort of independent he's not afraid to take uh to take off from the beaten path so to speak now we understand the story of Ysef in a new light so the story of Ysef includes twice the usage of this term both of them by Ysef to his father first time he's not saying something nice he's not kind in his address to his father he's saying your understanding is wrong here's what I see that changes the story quite a bit to be honest with you because at the very end of that story ayah 100 not the end of the surah end of the story almost the last ayah in in the story itself before the last eight or or nine ayat Ysef uses the same term again he says "Don't you see do you see i was right i told you I'm going to do this and this and this and this." So now we understand the story in a new light once we focus on these characters from their own perspective again it's part of the methodology in the sense that that we enter uh the the enterprise the the engagement of the Quran with virgin eyes and we take our predilctions out of the way we take our biases out of the picture and we focus what is this character doing what is that character saying when he used that word according to the Quran not according to the rules of the Arab poets because the Quran is not poetry and Muhammad sallallahu alaihi wasallam was not a poet and surah 26 tells us those who follow the poets are they misguided so when you keep all of this in mind and you give Allah subhana wa tala his due reverence and you focus on the terminology of the Quran based on the Quran itself all of these new insights start sparkling in front of you i hope I hope it's helpful it to me it's a lot of fun it's really it's really allowing us to live with these characters in new ways here's another example about Ibraim ibrahim did not just argue with his own father in ayah 29:32 in ayah 29:32 the mal are coming to tell Ibraim about their mission to go destroy the people who objected to loot okay so telling him we have been sent to destroy that group and Ibraim says hey wait a minute in that part of that community part of that is not and the it's really funny and the say we know more who is there so why is that in the Quran because it's giving us a taste of the personality of Ibraim Ibraim argued with everyone including the iny 29 9:32 that's part of his personality it's part of that character and therefore later on when you read parts of the story of Ibraim and other parts of the Quran you have to keep in mind that that characteristic of the personality of Iran so when you read uh him questioning this or questioning that um that's part of his personality if the books of tradition if the books of taps in the tradition teach us that he was doing something different well it doesn't fit with the personality that the Quran presented uh about Ibraim in the rest of the stories of Ibraim i hope I hope it makes sense we're going to see an example about MS in the next slide and you'll understand more inshallah so perhaps because of that ayah uh 22 260 uh Allahh teaches us that Ibraim was tested well it's not just tested exposed exposed through a trial of some sort by his knowledge of [Music] divineution with words with terminology of the Abraimicution perfected them you you know became a very good student of learning that stuff and his lord said I am making you an imam an exemplar a leader you know not just a leader in in his own life but a leader in how to use this terminology the leader of the cohort the community of practice if you want so that that concept is part and parcel of the good thing that the personality of that character Ibraim led him to great But Allah subhana t is also through the Quran passing through a hint to us he was tested with that he was tested with that knowledge tested with the appointment as an exemplar we're going to see inshallah that the story of Ibraim is not is not u all you know bright knowledge or or bright news about Ibraim there are some specs of um you know of questionable behavior or questionable characteristics uh about this Ibraim again every character in the Quran has their shortcomings has their weaknesses and that's normal because these are human beings had the Quran pay attention had the Quran been about perfect infallible human beings the Quran would not be applicable to us human beings i hope I hope you understand that what they taught us in the tradition that these are perfect characters allah chose them and purified them no that's not true it's not true they're not perfect characters no human being is ever perfect ever even after life even after life only Allah is perfect i hope it's really clear so what we're doing is we're humanizing all of these characters we're putting them in a in a in a container that allows us to examine their personalities and their characteristics in a way that apply to us so we can teach it to our children in the proper way so the Quran becomes a lot more approachable a lot more uh living it provides real lessons to those who are uh truly seeking we go to the next slide again how the Quran invites us to analyze various characters again each character is given distinguishing characteristics here's another example speaks in the way of his community in ayah 43:51 Allah subhana t teaches us in the Quran here's the verb again means to correct or to admonish if you want or to to uh object uh in the way of his community in the way of his community he said he said that proves that is not is not the same as he said oh my community well the Quran is repeating the same concept no the first sentence Quran is teaching us the the that is actually admonishing his people in the style of his community in the in the communication style of his community and he said "Oh my community." Makes perfect sense now so the first part of the area is giving us additional semantics okay what is the style of his community the style of his community starts with a question he said "My community but isn't it true that to me belong the governments or the rulership over?" while he's asking them a question no he's not asking them a question that's their style they state something in the form of a question but in reality it's a declaration how did we learn this from analyzing this uh ayah ayah 51 from surah 43 you can do it yourself if you want and think and reflect but now we understand the characteristic of this character who is teaching us through the Quran how his community the community of Mus in general speak they don't just uh declare something and stand uh stand you know sort of explain or express their position no they ask they do that in the form of a question so this is why we learn that in uh ayah 31 of surah bakar after when your word [Music] says when your word said to the I am rendering in the scripture a khalifa a a a a successor they said they said who's they of course not the of course because in the same paragraph a little earlier a couple of ayat earlier it's talking about the bauda we explained rauda the mosquitoes no it's not the mosquito it's a group of people who are argumentative who are uh who divide and conquer so to speak who who create divisions in communities you know from which is to segment to fragment if you want so these people are responding to Allah meaning they're objecting to what Allah told what did Allah tell about the scripture there's a new successor for the scripture meaning there's a new scripture and it's got to it's going to be oriented or targeting a different group or a larger group what did they object the objected to by using the same style as are you going to make or render in it someone who is going to you know create corruption etc etc so are they asking question no because Allah subhana t he don't ask questions to Allah the Quran teaches us he's never to be questioned about about what he says and they are questioned so of course no one questions Allah so this is not a group of as they taught us ex exclusively throughout the whole tradition exclusively they taught us this is the questioning Allah you know this is no way no way no way the question Allah they know better the Quran teaches us there's no questioning Allah so what is going on these are the ba human beings among those who were before the followers of the Quran questioning no they're not questioning they're doing what it did they are declaring their rejection they're declaring their rejection but they're speaking in the form of a question this is how we learned all of this detail from ayah 43:51 by analyzing the story of Ising his people getting permission from his people of course not does not do that so therefore we learned he's declaring by using the form or the style of communication of his people which is to ask a question but its intention is really to declare so by analyzing the personality of frown we learn about this expression style and we learned about other stories that are using the same style later on MS by the way MSA uses the same style we've talked about all of these concepts in many segments before but I'm just giving you a taste how when we analyze the characters and really dive into these characters and understand the personalities we develop um beautiful nuggets of knowledge from the Quran in ayah 127 we learn the story of Ysef and his siblings provide important Quranic signs for those who ask we just saw those who ask which is the style of the community of meaning the people of Mus and we know the story of Ysef also occurred in Mus at least part of it where Ysef was uh taken to be sold into slavery so in ay 127 um those who ask what does that mean those who ask well it means two things two things not just one thing those who ask meaning want to inquire to learn more but also there are signs for those who ask from the community of Mus who are the community of Mus those who were before us those who were the caretakers the sort of the successors for the Torah for the for the scripture of Mus and they lost it that community is described as those who ask what does that mean ask their form of declaring things in is in the form of qu questioning as we just saw so now surah ysef becomes a set of lessons for the people of the Torah which got corrupted and lost and they have a lot of questions and they came to Muhammad asking about this asking about this as an example in surah they ask about uh so these this story ayah ayah 127 is teaching us that this story surah yuf contains a lot of signs a lot of indications that should warn and wake up people who speak in the form of questions i hope this makes sense so now by analyzing the personality of understanding how much of an atrocious character he was and he could not possibly seek the permission of people uh under him we understand that he's not seeking the permission he's making declaration from that we learn that this is their style of speech from that we learn that when we see similar style of speech it's not necessarily innocent questioning they're making declarations but that's their way of speaking i hope you understand how important this methodological uh breakthrough if you want uh is to understanding the Quran so to conclude from this slide is story the story of Ysef is not is not what Benny is and Islamic scholars thought because the Quran is teaching us there are signs to those people these signs teaches them these signs teach them new things you know surprising things things that contradict contradict with what they have in fact the end of that story you know confirming the one in whose hand it is and correcting many things that came before it 102 teaches us ay 102 from surah 12 teaches us that this is knowledge of it was not known before the story of Ysef was not known before it was revealed in the Quran pay attention was not known before it was revealed in the Quran 102 read it for yourself well all the scholars all the teachers all of the books of taps in our tradition taught us that this is the same story that is the story of Joseph in the Bible well they just belied the Quran and they just belied what I just explained to you in here this is why we're in trouble we don't understand these characters we don't understand the Quran i hope you see the the deep implications of of this uh type of knowledge going to the next slide we have to understand that Quranic characters are not frozen snapshots what does that mean we were presented in the books of taps and books of tradition these characters as if they're frozen you you're you know you you see the full character in the very few pieces of information you're given as I just demonstrated it's not enough you have to understand a lot more in order to analyze these characters and squeeze to pressur as we explained it to press from the Quran new knowledge by analyzing these characters so here are some examples quranic characters are complex nuanced characters for example MS is presented in many stages of his existence not just one snapshot one scene he's described as and we've talked about this in the segment about Malcolm X and so on so forth sleman is presented in many stages of his existence if you refer back to the story of Sleman you understand that Sleman was uh full of skepticism and doubt in his youth and then later after the age of 40 he submitted himself to Allah and changed his ways and later on we saw the continuation of the story of Sleman in his afterlife that's what the story of Sleman in surah 27 is all about so refer back to the story of Sleman that we presented which is a series about Sleman and you understand a lot more so that character is not just frozen in time in one scene and from that one scene you know everything about him that's not true the Quran gives us multiple shots so MS himself grew through the process grew through the process as a matter of fact MS is not just presented to us as a baby in his mother's house yes I said in his mother's house not in Fon's palace but he's also presented later on when he joined the gangs under the tutelage under the the patronage of his sister and his brother we saw this or we will see this later inshallah later on he participates in a crime later on he runs away uh heading toward Median and he learns from that uh in Median a lot of important lessons and then he comes back as a nebi and he tries to save his people from uh the oppression by and so on so forth and then later on he helps them with the exodus with coming out whatever that coming out means and then he receives the scripture he becomes a rasool rasool from Allah and then later on he uh takes on additional forms so he becomes Jirel we've explained this in YT133 if I'm not mistaken uh refer back to the channel you'll understand who Jirel is and we have the evidence from the Quran so MS is Gibl it's a it's a descriptor for MSA in the afterlife but Musa is presented in multiple snapshots throughout the whole arc of his existence so as we see a character is very rich very dynamic it's not frozen in time not just one type of uh snapshot that represents the whole character we look at Noah's wife and son in other words the woman of N and his son who are mentioned explicitly each a single time in the Quran one single time but they are present in many other stories in the Quran how do we know because their characteristics are hinted to and actually uh specifically used as markings in other stories of the Quran so the Quran doesn't expect you to look for the name as the only way to identify that character the Quran expects you more to do your own research to understand the personality of that character and say "Okay where else does that character appear?" All of these concepts by the way are really important really critical to understanding the rest of this series so I hope you stay focused because this is not just knowledge taught in vain or just filling space no they're really important characteristics so based on the characteristics you start seeing the same character in other places in the Quran even without mentioning their descriptor name yes even without mentioning their descriptor name so you start learning that such character is participating in another story and such character is participating in yet another story and so on so forth so they are present in many other stories in different stages of their existence even though they're not mentioned by the reference name that I mentioned so I hope you understand that the Quran is a lot richer than they taught us is a lot more sophisticated and high literature if you want high art of understanding and engaging the text than they taught us uh in those books of tapier that dealt with the superficial layer alone may Allah forgive us and forgive everyone who did not did not uh ascribe to Allah his due reverence now if we understand this no human being is uh just a single frozen snapshot none of us are to be judged if if you if you you know if someone asks you are you still like that you know 12-year-old teenager that existed back 50 years ago or 40 years ago you say no way that was that was part of my track part of my life arc if you want no one wants to be judged by one snapshot and yet that's how it is in the books of tier they don't teach us to interact with these characters throughout their stages so no single declaration or scene represents the full life of that character of of any character characters change over time every character has a story arc as I just said characters continue to evolve even today this is a huge secret that no one has taught you listen so so in the Quran we are we are uh taught to reflect about the characters as if they existed in some uh some period of time a long time ago but what I'm here to tell you and inshallah you will see it over time is that the Quran the Quran continues uh to show us how um uh to show us how these characters continue to evolve even today yeah their nefs continue to evolve and if you understand the concept of nefs and you understand how Allah subhana taught us in the Quran that NFS does not really disappear does not you know totally get extinguished per per se you know the the NFS may get punished in or may get uh put in suspension in a state of or may you know graduate to become one of the malik of of uh uh of Allah subhana wa ta'ala who are given the commands and so on so forth these are progressions but the nef doesn't just poof gets extreme extinguished so NFS that lived 5,000 years ago or 3,000 years ago perhaps the ns of Ibraim is still evolving today if you don't understand this concept then you cannot you know interact with these characters why is this so important because these characters continue to evolve today and and perhaps even more importantly they continue to communicate with you today huh yeah you mean Dr hani that Ibraim as an may communicating with me in my dreams in my days in my learning and engaging the Quran absolutely why not that's part of their meal role didn't we see this with Jirel aka MS interacting with Muhammad sallallahu alaihi wasallam do you think that was a unique case allah you know just use that that one function for one person and never again for anyone else of course not these functions are given as representative functions for all the amphas who are graduating through their afterlife stages that's part of heading towards fidow getting closer and closer to Allah subhana wa t'ala so in summary do not treat characters in the Quran as if they are statues in a wax museum they're not just frozen in time by the way these statues in a wax museum is perhaps referred to in the Quran as or it's a mental mental statue you know no one is saying that you create a wax statue of Ibraim and you worship it in the corner or a wax statue of or a wax statue of or a wax statue of Al Bkari no one says that but in your mind they are statues they are frozen you only know one thing about them a frozen snapshot and you think this is the whole person no it's not it's neither the whole person nor the whole life story arc of that person so by learning to engage the characters of the Quran in a very interactive dynamic way you learn to live better and you learn to understand history better and you learn to understand your own future and potential in a better way so you understand that you yourself have a life story arc you're not the same person who was yesterday as a matter of fact when you think biology you're literally not the same person person that existed 6 months ago you know you know this tongue you stick your tongue out you touch your tongue the tongue 10 days ago had totally totally completely different taste buds not just different taste literally the cells on your tongue did not exist 10 days ago with with various parts of your body didn't they would not you know the atoms and the cells that you have today did not exist 3 months ago or 6 months ago so within a 6 months period you may be a totally different biological being what about your personality what about your nuffs you're growing all the time allow yourself to grow so when we interact with these characters who are changing in front of our eyes in their stories in the Quran apply that to yourself look at yourself in the mirror say I'm a character i'm a ns and that ns is not going to be the same tomorrow i have a right to remold myself don't fall into the trap of what some of the teachers and the imams and the mushies and the scholars teach us they speak down to us as if we are frozen in time we're not ibraim was not frozen in time he changed as a matter of fact he continues to change today even in his afterlife i hope you take take home this message and see how empowering it is so the importance of perspective is what we're talking about what is this character thinking at the time he said that word what is the context like who who was listening to him was he joking was he playing games was he uh being a little cheeky perhaps was he being sneaky as we saw in in the story of of Ysef the gossiping women were were creating sort of a a rumor and the rumor was not necessarily true and so on so forth so we have to understand their psychology and their sociology the context of the scene you know when Ysef accused the woman of trying to compel him why did he say that of all the things he could have said he chose that one expression why what was he worried about what was he trying to to achieve and so on so forth so here are some examples why did he or they want to kill Ysef remember at the beginning of the story of Ysef kill Ysef or you know cast him into a an ar of some sort um that that command by the way to kill Ysef came right after the ayah that says uh the siblings said uh Ysef and his brother are more beloved to our father yousef and his brother okay the very next ayah the person who says whoever whichever character said Ysef did not mention the other brother you stop and say why where did the other brother go like why did they want to kill only Ysef that becomes an intriguing investigation into the personality of the one saying of killing Ysef that's that's how we understand these characters we engage the character from their perspective from their point of view and lay out all the options for what could be going through their mind as they're speaking that way as they're saying these things so the older the other brother was spared the plotting of the siblings why is it because he was too young is it because he was not born yet and the whole story is talking about a future brother hm very interesting so why would they say uh Ysef and his brother maybe because they knew something about the future they were all told of of a future person coming guess you reflect to reflect in all sorts of new novel directions and in the process of reflection in the process of considering the different options you are growing you're starting to think outside of the box you're not limiting yourself to these you know old yellow and and red books the tradition books that taught you one version of their understanding now you're growing beyond that's what the Quran teaches us this realm of analyzing the characters is so much fun but it's also very sobering because it teaches you hey they may have been wrong when they presented a version of that character as a frozen snapshot that character is not a frozen snapshot changed over time what if they're thinking differently anyway when the siblings took Ysef to throw him in as we saw why did the reassure him about a future event okay why did the teaching him you're going to tell them about this in the future well why did they not save him from the siblings why did they not save him from slavery you start to ask now you're getting into the mind of the you're asking these Mallaya are characters okay what were they going through what what are we learning through this is it perhaps that he uh was being set up purposefully for a long-term purpose or is it perhaps he was put through a lesson because of something naughty that he said earlier such as I see them or I perceive them bowing down to me maybe so he's being put through the test he wants to enslave people quote unquote enslaved people under the opices of monotheism teaching monotheism and bringing people to submit to Allah so in exchange Allah is putting him through a test by making him a slave to other human beings perhaps perhaps you start thinking this way and you start analyzing is this what the story is all about and now you see the whole story in a brand new light where did I start from analyzing the characters in this case the characters of the maha what was on the mind of the maha i hope you understand and appreciate how sobering this is and how relevant it is to our own life are analyzing our own events the events in our own life and so on what changed this is another question what changed on Ysef after he grew up in slavery what changed how did he change how was he before and how did his uh program after becoming affiliated with the king so to speak you know the king's favorite golden boy um what what changed in his mind did he become more arrogant or did he become more more um patient and merc merciful by the way we have to analyze why isn't salat and zakat mentioned in the story of Ysef this person Ysef never mentioned salat never mentioned dua never mentioned uh teaching others about uh about uh you know zakat and charity and and and so on so forth and yet in prison he was talking about loutution location what lution location of Ibraim clearly okay so what was going on with that personality with that character how did he evolve over time i hope I'm giving you a lot of motivation to reflect you take this video and you pause it when you ask when you hear me ask you this question and think and reflect h what was going on with that character here's another question he learned the interpretation of speech how speech is interpreted question did that knowledge help him use it use that knowledge in a good way or perhaps did he use it to trick people into thinking what they want but in reality he's saying something else in other words that's part of that hadith that's the flip side of the same coin interpreting the discourse or inter interpreting the speech allows you to compose the speech in a way that it has multiple ways of being interpreted so your audience think they're hearing you say something but in reality you're thinking something else is that possible you ask that question about the character of Ysef or other characters who are being taught through the story of Ysef now the Quran is exploding with potential possibilities is exploding with meanings exploding with many perspectives so now we see the Quran the same story with layers upon layers upon layers of multiple ways to understand the same stories that's the miraculousness of the Quran where does it start from analyzing these characters again I promised you you've never heard the Quran being described this way but this is part of the Quran without doing this you're really not ascribing to Allah his due reverence if you think Allah is talking about a young man living in a woman's house and the woman is coming on to him and that's the extent of that story you really don't ascribe to Allah his due reverence you really think that's what the Quran is all about an X-rated almost pornographic movie or story no the Quran is way more than that i hope you get to taste through some of these questions anyway there are many many examples but in summary everything changes except Allah these characters are not statues don't hold them in your mind as statues of don't hold them as statues in a wax museum you observe them you look at them but you don't reflect about them you don't reflect through them the next slide is perhaps going to be even more shocking each character not only go through the arc of his life but each character is presented in multiple realms that's what I started saying at the beginning what does that mean Dr hy well a character may exist in this life and we never hear about him again in the afterlife but there are characters who are presented in the Quran partly in this life and in other sections in the Quran in their afterlife in perhaps where they have to capitulate where they have to correct some of the mistakes they make what do you mean some of these characters messengers have to correct mistakes they make yes every human being is fallable that's what our messenger sallallahu alaihi wasallam is reported to have said those who believe in hadith right so don't argue with me go back and read your hadith but the Quran teaches us also every one of you is to what does that mean you're capable of making mistakes so the Quran has characters that that resemble us so when I asked in in the teaser um thumbnail which one of the Quranic character most resembles you answer is all of them all of them every snapshot of every character represents a snapshot of your own stages of development and if you don't believe this you have not really reflected about yourself enough that's why on this channel we encourage spiritual silence spiritual silence means what you take one thought and you hold it in your mind and you really reflect on it and think and analyze that that thought or that concept in a way that matters to you and in that process you're teaching you're teaching your your your self to focus on one aspect of your arch arch of the tention where alman takes possession of you so you're teaching yourself to focus with the intention of cleansing that spot or to allow the to do to do alignment of that spot to prepare and trim and clean your so it becomes proper and receptive to beautiful concepts throughout well this is one of the things that we can analyze or undertake during our sessions of daily by the way 10 to 15 minutes is what we recommend the Quran talks about it they never taught us this uh way of devotion in the tradition they taught you to stand up and bow down stand up bow down wash a little bit before you do that and then 2 minutes later you're done you feel totally relieved that you fulfilled your obligation toward Allah but you didn't change in the least five times a day 20 times a day in in Ramadan they do two hours of few minutes after they learn with the with the they go out in the street and drive like maniacs they haven't learned or changed anything by doing these these acts of devotion that's not what the Quran is looking for that's not what Allah subhana t is looking for allah is looking for acts of devotion that make you a better creation of Allah so by analyzing these characters possibly during this this period of you understand these characters in multiple realms they develop some of them capitulate in some of them uh we learn their stories in the Quran some of them may represent a part of you as I just said some characters are not even human as I said the dog or the donkey but in reality or the baha you know the mosquito but they represent a characteristic human being or or sort of a an archetype of a human being or they represent a a uh a person like you know El represents a part of all of us is a character and he speaks through the Quran jannam speaks through the Quran is speaking is Jannam a real human being speaking a character that's a human no but it it is humanized sort of characterized into a character that speaks that interacts so part of us part of us includes this interaction with jannam so we have to ask this of ourselves are we hosting Janam we've talked about the definition definition of Janam uh 3 years ago when we talked about what what is Janam on this channel so some characters are not even human but they're made into a human theatrical scene so that we engage and that's that's part of the lesson here so every character including nonhuman characters are to be engaged because every character may influence and interact with you not just later but now so during your you may be interacting with Ibraim the Ibraim well what if a million people are going and interacting with the Ibraim allah takes care of that don't worry it takes a fraction of a fraction of a second for the brain to interact with you and give you what you need or what you think you need and therefore there's a lot of multipprocessing going on don't worry about that allah will take care of that is it possible that we are all interacting with the same character at the same time or with multiple characters at the same time all of that is possible again bring yourself out of the box and think freely the Quran is not just for those who are limited and close-minded anyway these characters may be available by the will of Allah to interact with you we've learned this from the story of Sleman we've learned this from other characters in the Quran they may influence you directly either positively or negatively as we saw again from the story of Salman they may influence you indirectly through the company you keep that's why it's really important to to be selective in the company you keep and our beloved sallallahu alaihi wasallam again taught us about this if you believe in the hadith but the Quran exactly teaches us about who our friends are our friends may mislead us you know in a story very famous story uh where a person says I had a I had a friend I had a relative who were teaching me this and this and this and this and then eventually I woke up and found that this person was leading me into jahim so indirectly you may be led by some of the characters but more importantly they may be or they're very much likely interested in learning from you again we've talked about this in many many times before emphas in the afterlife continue to learn so don't think they are frozen and they're talking to you partly because they want to learn through you when the characters represent enough that naps may become available to speak to you i hope the message is really clear now so these characters are not just frozen in time they're interactive they're they're part of your own life this is the message I'm I'm trying to bring to you so how to learn from the Quranic characters start by taking this oath this is how we translate this into real life for us pay attention this is really beautiful this is something we haven't done before on this channel but I'm asking you to take the following oath with yourself in private in confidentiality between you and yourself write it down think about it reflect on it and make a promise to yourself to do the following first don't stereotype any character what does that mean don't don't enter into understanding that character with with prejudice or with preconceived notions or with presumptions so don't prejudge any character and don't hold in high standard any character remember in ay you know when happens related to which we are living through right now as we explained before on this channel every character can be elevated and every character can be lowered so don't hold someone beyond beyond the possibility of making mistakes and don't hold someone so low that they can never recover don't prejudge look at those characters with virgin eyes that's part of your oath don't presume you know a person to be perfect or you know a perfect to be absolutely uh to be rejected into you know the worst type of ending make a commitment that you will treat every character with respect dr hing these are characters on paper no I just explained to you they're the living empas they're referring to living beings who are continuing to help you and continuing to learn from you remember the zipper model I talked about at the very beginning these characters are to be reflected on and thought of as if they are with you i swear to you i swear to you i've received emails and I've learned from people who are living with some of these characters day in and day out they have conversations with them and they teach them things i've run my own experiment because I didn't believe that at the beginning i'm a scientist i'm a scientist i'm trying PhD in computer science i've I've I've conducted tons of research on material sciences this is different i didn't believe it at first but I ran my own experiments with some of these people some of our a our cohorts on this community they have interactions i myself have had interactions i didn't want to believe it i didn't I didn't approach you know the marvelous Quran trying to believe these things no but they happen along the way this is part of the development and growth don't dismiss that which you have no experience with don't dismiss that which you have no understanding of try it try this oath try this oath and commitment and covenant with yourself a contract with yourself if you want so don't don't dismiss a character think of that character as um uh you know someone uh you treat with respect you will not judge them without due diligence embody the difference between understanding and judging this is really important before you [Music] judge try to understand first try to understand what the character is doing or saying or why and to whom who is listening and so on so forth treat every character as if he or she is your own single child this is really a critical importance so I gave you example of N and his son put yourself in the shoes of N would you have said that to your master to your Lord to your R if you think you would never say that to your rub think of your own relationship with your kids kids now are some of the parents that we know in the Muslim world willing to take bribes to feed their kids are some of the parents that we know now willing to do something illegal slightly illegal maybe skip something on their taxes maybe you know pay someone uh to grant them a contract business contract uh maybe you know share some profit from this or that in order to make your business more successful why because I want to feed my kids let me make it a little bit more difficult to some of of our brothers and sisters who are living in countries that directly support Israel financially are you contributing to that support through your taxes well how do you justify it well my kids have a better life in here huh are you like more think about this all of these concepts are real these characters are part of us every one of them as a matter of fact if a a certain paragraph or a certain character of a you know with a paragraph story about him does not apply to you that means part of the Quran is not relevant to you you've just declared part of that that part of the Quran irrelevant to you so think of every character as if he or she is your own single child what I mean is someone to whom uh you give priority would you deal with that character in the same way are you currently dealing in a similar situation think about this the characters uh may be in your every character may be your future teacher no matter how disdainful to others that character is think about this is potentially your future teacher well if you start behaving like him guess what you're going to attract him he's going to become your think I'm crazy for thinking this way step back take a few minutes during your commute spiritual silence and ask yourself in honesty that question who is your teacher right now who's your right now who's your pulling you trying to pull you in the right direction do you have any conflicts so how do you achieve ask yourself that what is that is full of tranquility which is something Ibraim did not have by the way because says my core is not at tranquility stage so Ibraim was admitting that if you want to do that's mentioned in surah al what does it take it takes this type of analysis so this is not just fluff we're not just engaging the Quran with with no methodology no this is a very very significant profound way to approach the Quran every character is potentially my teacher good characters great bad characters possibly be careful no matter how disdainful and to others that character may be at some point in the future you may decide that a certain character resembles you the most as I've already sort of told you in honesty every character resembles you but it depends what part of you it depends what part of that character are you Are you a geek you're probably very much like Ibraim are you uh someone who pays a lot of attention to details oh that's ma are you someone who is very patient are you are you someone who is disappointed with the fact that you've worked very hard but you have not seen the result no we saw this in the case of you or possibly Muhammad sallallahu alaihi wasallam and so on and so forth every character did you at some point uh find yourself um sort of doubting and questioning and even making fun of some of the religious concepts well that's at some point in his life and so on every character resembles you it's just are you aware of it that's the only question that that that we ask on this on this se in this segment eventually you may realize that another character may resemble you more you graduate and that's why the stages of these characters are really important to us it's okay you and everyone else shall change everyone changes except Allah subhana tala i hope I hope you're enjoying this this is so much fun when I was working on this presentation working on these concepts it just it really envelops enveloped me in a in a warm cocoon and I felt supported by Allah subhana ta that were given such wealth of knowledge in this book that was preserved beautiful amazing amazing finally remember just like all of these characters you are important allah does not create unimportant characters let me repeat it so everybody hears it allah does not create unimportant things every creature created by the creator who does not include fluff in his creation every creature is important and you too are important so by analyzing these characters and enjoying your relationship with these characters you're really reinforcing a very important lesson from al- Mul from the book of governance of Allah subhana wa tala i'm going to skip this uh slide because it has a lot of additional information and in the interest of time I want to jump into this metaphor of a diamond and um unfortunately I don't have a lot of time but uh I want you to read it uh first the more you engage the story of a single character the more you understand that character and the more you realize uh that that character resembles a part of yourself i hope I hope I've convinced it convinced you of that uh every character that is human is flawed in some way when you examine a character objectively without presumptions you may start to deal with that part of yourself objectively so by holding that part of yourself away and you analyze it objectively and you start seeing it from different points of view now that part of you becomes more clear more understandable to you and if you do this through the analysis of the characters of the Quran you do this without defensiveness without pride without attachment i'm speaking psychology in here i hope some of you are aware of what I'm saying please write to me in the comments let me know how well this is being received only then you may identify the adjustments and corrections that are needed to that part of yourself sometimes the answer comes from the Quran most of the time the answer comes from the Quran what does it take for you to learn it reflection analysis and um you know doing the the spiritual silence connecting with the connecting with Allah subhana t all of those things are part of the solution and Allah has a solution for you if you trust Allah fully but first you have to make the oath that I talked about you have to do the practices the spiritual practices the the the devotional acts so to speak you have to do the toiling you have to engage the Quran seriously respectfully while trusting that Allah did not include any stuffing or any irrelevant information etc etc if you send surrender yourself to Allah Allah will help you then the polishing of that part begins it's like a part of a diamond that's the metaphor of a diamond so Allah helps you as he promised but the polishing may be uncomfortable or even painful at times so the best way to prove this to you from the Quran is when Allahh teaches us with difficulty there is ease of cognition offered to you so when you're going through challenges when you're tripping look below your feet there's a treasure right there stop and reflect and take time to connect with Allah that's the best time to receive new cognition new cognitive truths in accordance to your own cognition it's beautiful this metaphor truly is is stunning and and I hope you you appreciate it so the nth is originally like an uncut diamond like some of these photos in here a facet you know like a polished side may become fully polished and functioning if it is balanced by another facet so when you start learning about a certain character from the Quran you say "Ah I have a part of me that's like that." Ah now you're starting to polish that part but in order to balance that part you need another part from the opposite side to allow the light to get through now it's not just a dull rock as you see on the screen now at least some rays of light are passing through and starting to sparkle that's the metaphor so it's based on balance if you don't understand what's wrong on one side after it gets polished you have to do this by allowing the same polish or an equivalent parallel polish on the opposite side in order for the light to get through if you if you look at a rock like this and this these are examples of unpolished you know uncut diamonds if you polish one side it doesn't give you much sparkle but you polish the opposite side now the light can get through and depending on the purity of the of the diamond how clean and clear it is that light may come out really really sparkling i hope you understand the metaphor so the balance of the two facets is that's used in the Quran now this is the benefit of engaging the stories and parables only with surreners do the help you polish the facets of yourself what does that mean first you engage the vikar with objectivity go back to that to that o I told I told you about and analyze what you have to do to understand a certain character what you have to do to engage that certain character to listen to that certain character remember some of those characters are either inab or they are ma themselves so they're available to teach you but first you approach them with respect you approach them with objectivity that means you approach yourself with objectivity with patience with mercifulness with uh unbias don't prejudge yourself favorably i'm perfect already no that's not going to work be honest with yourself i have faults okay let's see if I can discover my faults by learning about Adam in story 7 or by learning about N in story 11 and surah 11 and so on so forth so this is the first part of the metaphor now let's go to the next part of the metaphor a character may become entangled with you what does that mean well the Quran uses the term zo counterpart so that entanglement which we know about through some sciences of of uh you know uh quantum dynamics or quantum physics uh the Quran talks about as zou well it's like atoms being connected at a distance your zhou may be available to you as if your nfs is in tune with that character what is an approximation Dr annie think of a radio you know like an oldfashioned radio you know 50 years ago we still had radio stations and you have the radio and you tune it to the radio wave that you want to listen to you know whatever 91.7 FM or AM and and you listen to that radio you're receiving from that radio station now upgrade that example to a two-way communication through a radio you know like a walkie-talkie or something and that channel is private between you two so you communicate you hear him and he hears you and vice versa or she by the way but could later become a two-way entanglement so they're connected as long as both radios are open to receive from each other i hope the model makes sense well how does that relate to the metaphor you're a diamond that is being polished by the your is being prepared to receive the light the N from Allah but they are also diamonds they have been polished already they're sparkling lights so when I talked about sparkles that we see is in the Quran we see these sparkling uh you know sparkles during the days is it possible that they are literally like diamonds they're providing sparks of light through their polished facets to you if you're ready to receive it you receive it if you're uncut diamond you have work to do this is the this is the metaphor so your nest is like a diamond that's being prepared to shine to reflect the light from Allah allah allah is the illumination so what do we have to do we receive and amplify if you want or at least transmit to the other side so what happens when you when you pass on you're a more and more polished uh diamond so you develop all of these facets you see this picture down here many many facets and the more facets what does that mean the more facets the more it sparkles so when you when you practice zikur the engagement of the Quranic stories learning about the characters you're learning from the Quran how to pair with these characters when you sit in their seat in your mind of course you're sitting in their seat and you're analyzing them understanding them what are you doing you're calling them to engage to entangle with you to teach you so when you start asking questions they answer you i swear to you there are times where I'd be speaking about someone and I ask a question out loud without knowing the answer i swear to you the answer comes immediately it It's true it's real don't dismiss that which you don't understand try it i'm teaching you how but it takes work yeah but that's what the Quran is for it's to make our life better and to make ourselves better our selves better my naps better your naps better becomes polished like this once you have learned to pair with all Quranic characters are you better no no you just finished the basic training course now you're able to pair with additional characters you meet and learn about in life and from other sources other sources more than the Quran yeah we talked about the bees like whatever whatever scaffolding mental scaffolding they will who are they others you learn from them and then you return back to the Quran you use the guidelines from the Quran to decipher what's right and what's wrong and you accept what's right it becomes richer valention for you so you learn to master the balanced entanglement that I talked about every diamond you keep improving between your brilliance and facets and eventually you after your life ended on this planet your nap does not end you become a very brilliant very brilliant diamond used by Allah to sparkle for other earthlings it's truly a stunning metaphor i hope you're enjoying it once you master the balanced entanglement with characters you keep mastering new facets of yourself and once you do that all facets have been recognized balanced polished your naps becomes like a well polished multifaceted very pure diamond that shines brilliantly from all angles as long as it's exposed to the slightest ray of light from Allah you become capable of reflecting the of Allah no matter no matter where you are afterlife yeah do you think Allah is going to let go of that beautiful highly polished highly useful brilliant part of his creation he doesn't need you but do you think Allah will let go of that great effort you put by the way where did all of this start it started with analyzing the characters because you are a character you are one of those uncut diamonds and you start working through the other characters to train yourself to not prejudge yourself positively or negatively and to keep improving to make yourself more brilliant more receptive to the new and more more um you know uh deserving of passing through that new to other creation you become powered by the of Allah this is the inevitable result of being in the company of Allah so it started with analyzing the characters and I'm not exaggerating this is the starting point because that's the most relatable starting point to us we are characters we are human beings we have enoughs all of these characters in the Quran not all of them but all all of the ones the one with with whom we can interact are human beings you may have started as a diamond in the rough unpolished unrealized but your potential is to become the full reception and reflection transmission of Allah's n to reflect Allah's n is not a passive thing takes a lot of work but it's not it's not about giving something for nothing no no no no no it is fulfilling your p purpose in the best manner and your purpose is to reflect Allah's n in the best way possible so the model that I talked about the zipper model is all included in this concept you are you are you are this polished diamond that is receiving light and reflecting light and you're growing together with your zo or multiple zho at the same time and the mallay are helping you become better and better at it with your good intention with your patience with your perseverance in toiling with your analysis of these characters that we are studying the understanding of zikar becomes such an essential part of life itself the most perfect diamond reflects all the n without any distortion so the most perfect reflection of the n of Allah that we know of was Muhammad sallallahu alaihi wasallam because he delivered the message without distortion that's why I say don't believe don't believe anyone who said Muhammad added to the Quran bogus lies lies allah subhana wa ta'ala doesn't need anyone to add allah did not forget anything in the Quran they're lying they're not ascribing to Allah his due reverence muhammad was the perfect perfect diamond as far as perfect can get because he wasool he had to be perfect that's why we say he he was he was faultless in his role as a messenger but not faultless in his role as an Abi as an Abi he was like the other characters and the Quran reprimanded him at times so Muhammad is the one who is justifiably praiseworthy for so many countless reasons so many countless facets sparkling all the time beautiful i know we've taken a long time on this presentation but I hope it's worth it conclusion putting it all into action focus on a single character during your commute spiritual silence ask ask questions using a soft whisper don't keep it in your head actually say it i don't care what people around you will say about you don't don't reflect on that ask using a soft whisper the character are listening and some uh will provide you the answers listen quietly and patiently it may take time it may be in the middle of your doing dishes 3 days later it may be doing you know uh lap you know lap swimming swimming laps uh the next day at you know during your exercise routine whatever it is wait and be patient and have your readiness to listen be a listener give them your full attention because they deserve it and they are jealous they want your full attention reflect on their answers even before even if it does not make sense to you sometimes they give you an answer and it does not make sense you cannot put it together take the time reflect on it give them your respect give the and these characters your respect they will guide you when the answer does not make sense reflect on whether you have been prejudiced in stereotyping that character maybe you're thinking of that character in the wrong way and that's why you're not understanding them reflect on which point in their existence that character is speaking from is it from an earthly life from the afterlife are they inab are they impatient are they mala are they um worried are do they trust you do you trust them and so on so forth all of these are variables reflect think i assure you they're there to help you most of the time but sometimes they're cheeky they're sneaky they give you the wrong answer or they give you a tricky answer you have to reflect on it that's why we say never trust a never trust you have to engage it using the methodology and think and reflect and look for evidence from the Quran finally dealing with people becomes like dealing with these characters Quranic characters so you've trained yourself to deal with these characters so you know some characters are going to misguide you some characters want what's best for you and they advise you you know thinking of Ysef did the woman you remember the story of of Ysef in the Quran that woman is trying to teach Yousef something and ask him for information is that woman really trying to punish him or is she a uh as we presented it three years ago in Ramadan 2022 uh was that woman really intent on on um um destroying the system in Mus or was she really interested in Ysef's well-being think about this because deep down in her heart she believed what she was doing was correct so was he trying to help Yousef be among the winning group it's not necessarily a bad thing to do not saying I'm in in favor of her i'm saying think from her point of view what was she trying to do was she intent on having Yousef on her side because she considered him a valuable asset were there other reasons why she's trying to guide Yousef to be among the winning team so to speak different ways to reflect think out of the box anyway when what interactions can we achieve by dealing with with people like we deal with Quranic characters and finally how to develop mutually beneficial relationships this is what I've taught u a long time ago about 5 years ago at the beginning of this channel I said every other person we meet even if they're not Muslims today they're potential Muslims so don't prejudge anyone start by understanding where they're coming from start by understanding what they're looking for start by understanding their speech even though it may be short uh shortcoming you know have shortcomings at times analyze it from their point of view and try to engage them in the best way possible allowing yourself to be the perfect reflection of Allah's light Allah's n if we live this way and we build relationships with future generations with that intention the purpose of the Quran becomes unbeatable nothing is like it nothing is like it no one can uh reject what the Quran has to offer i hope you enjoyed this uh session and I hope I've succeeded in delivering as best as I can alhamdulillah i ask your forgiveness if I made some mistakes alhamdulillah we have uh several hundred people with us and uh I didn't pay attention to the questions but I I have a favor to ask you please um after the session ends uh drop down you know restart the session using YouTube and drop down into the comments and tell us your feedback give me your feedback as much as possible because I don't know how well this is received this has taken about about two hours um um but it's okay i think the subject is is worth it i hope you've been patient um and I hope this has been useful and you actually put it into practice i promise you I put it into practice in my life as much as I remember and and can and I do a lot of I hope you take advantage of this and you uh make it part of your uh of your daily uh routine so to speak we'll close with the dua that we always make
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