Introducing Quran To People

بسم الله الرحمن الرحيم
In the Name of Allah, Most Merciful, Most Compassionate

Assalaamu alaykum

If I was introducing the Quran, I have to look at myself first and say, "Am I a credible presenter of the Quran? Do I embody at least some of the things that the Quran tries to teach us?" This is because the Quran can be a proof for you or a proof against it. There will be people who recite the Quran and they are actually reciting against themselves, not for themselves. The meaning here is that they are not living up to what the Quran is asking them, what Allah wants them to do. The biggest detested thing to Allah is to say what you do not do.

It is important to understand that the transmitted sciences, rational sciences, scientific knowledge are tools to ultimately prepare us for the ultimate knowledge, which is the knowledge of Allah. This inheritance is vast and you can take as much as you can carry. It is not like the inheritors of faraid (inheritance) and wealth. Anyone can take this inheritance as much as he wants, regardless of age, color, race, economic status, strength, size, etc. The inheritance of the Prophet sallallahu alayhi wasallam is for everybody and it is waiting for you.

From this inheritance is the khuluq (character) of the Prophet (sallallahu alayhi wasallam). It is his khuluq that Allah praised him.

وَإِنَّكَ لَعَلَىٰ خُلُقٍ عَظِيمٍ

And indeed, you are of a great moral character. (4)

[Qur'an, Al-Qalam 68:4]

This should be what people should associate you, as Muslims, with--not your beards, turbans, thawbs, hijabs, niqabs, jilbabs, not the fact that you don't eat pork nor drink (intoxicates), not the fact that you don't eat and drink in Ramadhan, etc. When people say "Muslims", it is good character.

The Prophet sallallahu alayhi wasallam defines what character is. If you want to see Quran embodied in one individual human being in a manner that never be embodied by anyone else, you should look at the Prophet's character. The character of the Prophet sallallahu alayhi wasallam is beyond anything that we can imagine. Just by attempting to be like him, we reach the best that is in us. From that character was his honor and his love for his family and relatives.

'Aisha (may Allah be pleased with her) was asked about the character of the Prophet sallallahu alayhi wasallam and she replied, "Didn't you read the Quran? His character was the Quran."

The Quran is the whole thing from one aspect and part of the whole thing from another. It is a popular culture today that give the impression that unless something is in the Quran, then people don't have to do it. There is an understanding that Quran is everything indeed but at the same time everything comes from it. All of the ulum come from the Quran.

Someone first introduce the Quran, we usually teach them the Arabic letters. Then they have to learn some of the sounds associated to them. Then they learn these letters have a particular point of articulation. Someone like Sibawe who is acredited with articulating the linguistic aspect of the Quran, most famous grammamrian of the Arabic language talked about these points of articulation. People learn that when they learn tajweed. But If you make the Quran that's all it is, then you don't know the Quran. You haven't penetrated the meanings of the Quran. There are people who specialize and have a degree in tajweed, but if you ask them about aspect of the Quran, they don't know.

Then you put the letters together and make words. Most of the words in Arabic language come from tri-letter words e.g. mu'allim معلم(teacher) comes from tri-letter word علم (to teach). Most of the other words can be derived from the tri-letter roots. Then those letters are put together into sentences and then they make meanings. All of the ulum of Arabic language sprout forth from just the basic exterior part of it. Let's say we move on to the meanings, what traditionally called tafsir (exegesis). Tafsir is part of the exterior part but it is the most inward exterior part, you haven't reached the interior. You don't start getting to the interior, the inward meanings, until it is not based upon just reading this tafsir but based upon these meanings penetrating you. The things then when they unveil themselves to you, you will actualize them within you.

When you read the hadith of 'Aisha above, obviously it has to be that she was talking about the highest level, which is the most inward and interior aspect of the Quran such that it penetrate one to a degree that their character is indistinguishable from those very meanings that sprout forth from the Quran. This is the types of Muslims you want to be.

The best way to introduce someone to the Quran is not to hand them a translation of the Quran or teach them a particular Surah, even though those are ways, but show them how to live the Quran. Be the walking the Quran. Be the meanings that you are going to teach them that comes from a particular tafsir of the Quran. Unless we are embodying those things, it will be difficult for people to have a good introduction to the Quran.

People don't realize this, that you are a walking advertisement of two-- for who the Prophet sallallahu alayhi wasallam was, and for the Quran. Notice when people want to disparage the religion of islam, invariably they disparage, most of the time the Prophet sallallahu alayhi wasallam, and secondarily, the Quran. Because they realized that this defines who we are, as Muslims--Quran and Sunnah. They are actually two aspects of the same unified whole. You cannot divorce or separate the Sunnah from the Quran and the Quran and the Sunnah. Hence you cannot divorce all of the derived discipline which include, the ulum hadith, fiqh, usul fiqh and all the disciplines that come from the Quran. None of these things can be divorced from one or the other. People will be imbalanced when they don't see the whole. When they focus on the trees and lose the forest. When that happens and people see only an aspect of a particular tree and don't see the forest they don't appreciate what Islam really is.

So when we talk about the best attribute of a person, we talk about perfection and completion (kamal). In other words a balance but we take them to the most logical completion. For example, when talk about someone who is generous, we talk about generous the complete way. When talk about someone who is courageous, we talk about it in the most complete way, without cowardess and without recklessness. Whether you read the Quran with meanings or without meanings, you are going to avail yourself to those things.

May Allah allow the meanings of the Quran to penetrate our hearts and grant us tawfiq to serve His religion and make His Words paramount. Ameen.

Allahumma salli 'ala Muhammad wa 'ala aalihi wa sahbihi wasallam.

And Allah knows best and is Most Wise, and He alone grants success, and to Him is the final return of all.

Wassalaam