Qur'an Convos: Tadabbur
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How to Fight Spiritual Distractions
Why is reading the Qur’an different for us than reading other things? What are the distractions that can steal our attention away from Allah? What can we do to put our hearts in the right state to connect with His Words?
In this episode, Sh. Suleiman Hani talks to Dr. Safaruk Chowdhury, a Research Scholar in Islamic theology and philosophy, about overcoming spiritual distractions.
Dr. Safaruk is a Research Scholar in Islamic theology and philosophy at the Ibn Rushd Centre of Excellence for Islamic Research.
Catch the show every Monday on our Youtube Channel or the main Yaqeen Podcast channel on your favorite listening platform here.
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Transcript
This transcript was auto-generated using AI and may contain misspellings. As-salamu alaikum wa rahmatullah and welcome to Qur'an Convos, a podcast where we explore the many ways in which you can connect with the Qur'an. In season one we're covering the theme of tadabbur or what it means to reflect deeply on the Qur'an and this is based on the works of Imam al-Ghazali rahimahullah on the 10 inward acts for the Qur'an's recitation. Alhamdulillah today we are excited to welcome our dear brother and esteemed guest Dr. Safarouk Chowdhury. May Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala reward him. He's a research scholar in Islamic theology and philosophy. Welcome to Qur'an Convos Dr. Safarouk. As-salamu alaikum wa rahmatullah. How are you today? As-salamu alaikum wa rahmatullah. It's my honor and pleasure to be with you today. Thank you for having me. BarakAllahu feekum. Jazakumullahu khairan. Before we start Dr. Safarouk, I would like to ask you a personal question. We usually ask our guests and this inshallah ta'ala is to motivate those who are listening to connect deeply with the Qur'an and to understand what it means to try to connect to the Qur'an. Can you share perhaps one instance in your life when you were reading the Qur'an or listening to the Qur'an and it evoked a deep emotional reaction? What was happening? What did you read or hear? What did it make you feel? Of course feel free to share in proportion to how comfortable you are inshallah. Jazakumullahu khairan. Bismillahirrahmanirrahim. Alhamdulillah. Wasalatu wasalamu ala rasoolillah wa ala alihi wa sahbihi wa man wala. Shaykh that's a yes that is a personal question. MashaAllah it is a very penetrative question. I guess one surah that is one of my favorites, my personal favorites is chapter 19 surah Maryam. The chapter on Maryam alayhi salam and what I found when listening and reading passages from
this surah, lots of ideas, well you know it provoked lots of thinking in me and lots of ideas you know did pop into my head but one idea was at the time the idea of vulnerability and especially the form of the vulnerable body. So you know in those who perhaps are familiar with the surah I think in verse four Allah azza wa jal mentions that Zakariya alayhi salam because he's talking about Zakariya. He says qala rabbi inni wahna al-azmu minni wa shta'ala raasu shayba wa lam aakum bi du'aika rabbi shakiya. So Zakariya alayhi salam says oh Allah my bones have become very brittle and my hair has become as you know it's become white and it's spread across my head and I've always made dua to you and never been disappointed. So here we see um sort of Zakariya alayhi salam mentioning his frailty in his old age and of course he also mentioned about his wife not being able to bear a child you know he says wa inni khiftu al-mawalimi wa mara'i wa kanaatimra'ati aakira fa habli min ladunka al-waliyya. Zakariya alayhi salam says I'm really concerned about uh like sort of my relatives my faith of my relatives that come after me and my wife is unable to bear a child again this kind of physical impediment and so he says fa habli min ladunka al-waliyya so please grant me an heir and then Allah azza wa jal accepts the dua and grants him Yahya alayhi salam. Now that's one instance of vulnerability but a bit further down in the surah um we see we read about Maryam alayhi
salam and how she is exposed to um physical stress harm and danger due to her carrying Nabi Isa alayhi salam and um the Quran mentions um that she you know because of pangs the labor the pangs of labor um you know she Allah records her distress you know fa ajaa'a hal makhaadu ila jiz'i al-nakhla qalat ya laytani mittu qabla hadha wa kon tanasi ammansiya the pains of labor drove Maryam alayhi salam to the trunk of a palm tree and she cried out you know I wish I had died before this day and I was something forgotten so again the sort of the physical vulnerability mentioned in the surah. Interestingly enough sorry Sheikh I know I'm going on a bit here but uh there's also this kind of social vulnerability of Maryam alayhi salam because because you know she's carrying Isa her people um and Allah mentions fa atat bihi qawmaha tahmilu then you know she carried this newborn Nabi alayhi salam to her people qalu ya Maryam laqad jitte shay an fariyya and her people just are shocked Mary how can you certainly done a how can you've done a horrible thing and brought a child you know um your father was not an indecent man and your mother was not unchanged and so there's that social stigma and social vulnerability because you know there's that harm where society is against you you are now exposed to danger anyway um both both manage their vulnerability through seeking help from Allah azza wa jalla to overcome it and so it just
reminded me of how you all have vulnerability that is embodied you know rooted in our very physical nature and our physical states and Allah acknowledges this so although we may be talking about something spiritual today and there is spiritual vulnerability but that physical physical vulnerability you know really stuck with me and and and I remember it every time I read the surah. SubhanAllah when you said that you reminded me of a number of of students attendees um random community members we need to ask this question about how has the Quran impacted you how does it uh speak to you in terms of uh its divine origins how do you know it's from Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala aside from all the different facets of ijaz or the miraculous nature of the Quran the most uh the most oft-cited response at least anecdotally with me has been the personal impact of the Quran how it's so relevant to our needs psychological emotional societal uh legal moral needs from every angle uh our means of our way of reasoning our way of thinking and feeling and so just this one example you shared of Maryam alayhi salam and the societal pressure it's a very real pressure that a lot of people go through and oftentimes it's one of the reasons that for some people they hide their their identity as Muslims or they practice as Muslims if they're proud of it and they have conviction in it so the fact that there are all these uh specific relevant uh I don't even want to say gems because it's under stating what we really have here it's just so real and it's coming from Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala the one who knows us in and out but in last week's episode uh Dr. Safarouk we actually discussed the importance of appreciating the
speaker of the Quran and so now inshallah we want to focus on the reader the human being who is reading the Quran so the next inward act from Imam al-Ghazali rahimahullah is that we are focusing on the topic of the attention of the heart and the abandonment of inner thoughts and unlike other things that we read the Quran has guidelines rulings etiquettes that a reader should respect so for example we have uh the importance of reading with proper pronunciation as you're learning the letters of course learning to read with proper pronunciation of the Arabic letters or the example of making wudu or being in a state of purification depending on the madhab before we pick up the mushaf and so on and so forth it's interesting that um Hujjatul Islam mentions Imam al-Ghazali mentioned that regarding the verse Allah azza wa jal says that you know he of course Allah revealed this dhikr this Quran and Allah has taken on um the its preservation he's taken on he's taken it to himself to preserve the Quran Imam al-Ghazali interestingly mentioned that he says one of the ways that we can understand or the means by which Allah has protected this Quran preserved it in the hearts of men and women and within the masahif um within the pages
is the believer continuously reciting it and studying it diligently but but they must be done properly you know by observing its etiquettes and its rightful condition and then he says not only are the external etiquettes and codes that must be followed for the Quran to be preserved but there must be an interior um there must be interior correctness there must be certain actions that are not outwardly but rather they are particular to the individual and internal to the individual and two um the two that he mentioned here from al-Ghazali is one that the two actions is attaining the presence of presence of the heart where he mentions and the other is eliminating inner inner chattering or inner speech what's known as tahadithun nafs now um these are not having a presence of heart like ensuring um that we have the utmost focus and concentration on the Quran and having our undivided attention on the Quran these are not necessarily externally observable there are obviously registers like people can tell if someone's being focused or not but ultimately bringing yourself before the Quran in a certain kind of state that's interior to someone that hudoor al-qalb that presence of the heart is an internal action of someone similarly um when we talk about sort of
tahadithun nafs or one's self-speech or one's own thought desires they could include you know unfortunate whisperings um that controlling that is also an inner inner action so just as there are outward ways to preserve the Quran there are inward ways to preserve to ensure that the Quran is preserved and that is by having a presence of heart ensuring that we have an utmost focus and concentration and eliminating any internal chattering or internal musings or thoughts distracting thoughts um so these two are very very important as conditions or as means by which the Quran is preserved subhanAllah jazakum khair for sharing that so hudoor al-qalb the presence of the heart and the inner speech of the self basically ensuring that that doesn't splinter one's focus into various directions it's interesting when this is applied to the question of are we allowed to let's say recite Quran or review the Quran especially for those who have memorized a lot and they're always wanting to review review review and they're multitasking right they're driving or house chores or walking whatever it may be and one of my teachers said although you are allowed to in terms of the fiqh ruling multitask you want to ensure that you're doing something that does not distract you internally in terms of the state of your heart and your mind because you are able to let's say drive and and review Quran and focus on what you are uh reciting but he said subhanAllah I remember this he said the most important thing is that your heart is there because it'll actually give you barakah in your moraja of the Quran and holding on to it and so Dr. Saprook maybe we can ask this question as well a follow-up what makes the reading and the recitation of the Quran different for us as believers reading it
rather than let's say reading something else what what distinguishes this from that um well of course I mean the the kalam of Allah azza wa jalla the creator um it's not the same as kalam al bashar or you know the words of human beings so the speech of Allah and the speech of human beings you know are infinitely different so it becomes a serious matter because this isn't any old speech um and so there there has to be a certain um mode of approaching it and engaging with it and that the Quran often highlights the need for purity um so there must be a engagement with this kalam that is free from impurities there are ritual impurities of course but there are also impurities that are um internal to a person so they could be that these states could be sort of unfortunately you know um states of disobedient recalcitrant from sort of from heeding Allah's words so really purity isn't necessarily just having physical purity so the Quran does mention la yamassuhu illa al mutahharoon only the pure can touch it um and there's a whole legal discussion about that as you know sheikh um but nevertheless um we got to be mindful of not only our external ritual state of purity but our internal spiritual state of purity so connecting with the Quran requires those two interface of those two things uh you you bring up a number of really uh crucial I think follow-ups and I I know the uh perhaps those who are listening are going to be wondering about sometimes the first thought is like okay what's the ruling on this the ruling on that
touching the mushaf wudu that's for that's beyond the scope of what we are discussing here uh for those who are listening uh and I appreciate sheikh the the way that you uh discussed it and raised it but I I want to go back to that very first point the the emphasis on purity the emphasis on being in a state of purity oftentimes people are thinking about the rulings in terms of wudu but also being pure in terms of the state of the heart and realizing that uh it's a factor in how receptive your heart is to the Quran and how much you are able to connect to the Quran this is why a number of scholars would write about the etiquettes of connecting with the Quran or the etiquettes of the students of the Quran or those who memorize it oftentimes would start with intentions or taqwa they would talk about god consciousness mindfulness of Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala in different ways and this is why uh when someone asked uh Malik bin Anas rahimahullah ya abu abdullah is there anything that will improve my memory meaning of the Quran and Malik responded if anything will improve it it is to give up sinfulness the disobedience of Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala because there is an impact that it will have in terms of our receptive receptiveness uh towards the Quran connecting with the Quran and so on and so forth but here on this but here on this point a lot of times when we hear that we should purify ourselves in order to connect with the Quran oddly some people might feel insulted in some way like they are being called impure and so I've heard this before myself and it is a common question so maybe we can answer this I know it's a theological slash uh philosophical in some sense uh question is the human being according to Islamic theology is the human being impure I mean according to to our aqeedah our belief is that we don't have this idea of a fallen nature in the way that Christianity
took up that idea there is no um bad or broken nature um from which we are to be redeemed or saved so there's no salvation in that sense I've been saved from some kind of inherited um sinful state we don't have that idea of transfer of sin um so no we don't have this idea of where we are intrinsically impure rather you know what is what is the case is that we have the potential to you know transgress to defile and to violate and the malayika mentioned this the angels did raise this about allah azza wa jal that you know would allah place one of his representatives on earth um giving them free will um that are going to you know cause corruption and shed blood so we have the potential to sin and and violate and defile and and things like that but we don't have we're not we don't we don't have this sort of intrinsic broken nature um and so alhamdulillah this is not from from our um our aqeedah our belief now where I think uh some issues of this idea arise is with regards to the idea of something called the nafs and it's variously translated it's a very um sort of complex term it occurs many times in the quran in many different valiances and it's variously translated as the self the soul and things like that but if we were to just to sort of narrow it down and to give two broad meanings the nafs one meaning of the nafs could be or is the power of anger and sort of your base
sexual appetite um and in this sense the word nafs is a comprehensive word for all the evil attributes that a human being attaches itself to or acquires like jealousy hatred arrogance things like that so I think some people think because we have a nafs we must therefore be intrinsically bad or evil and and so our purpose in life is to rid ourselves from our nafs that's not quite accurate it's just the nafs is a disposition or a power to have aggression and this kind of inclination sexual or base inclination so what we're required to do is not change our nature from bad to good we're required to struggle against the nafs when it becomes overpowering so this is where we get this idea of mujahadah nafs so al-mujahid man jahad man jahad and that's the whole fee particular or come upon a rasulullah alaihi salatu wasalam and hadith is hassan the hadith is a is a is a good hadith and so the prophet said that the the mujahid the the the combatant the fighter is the one who fights against his own appetites and desires his nafs so we're required to bring the nafs under control and subjugate it and it's a condition to enter jannah actually in fact so there is that meaning of nafs and then there's the nafs that is the human being in reality i.e. the person itself and this is described in various ways in the quran in various states and we have the three famous states mentioned in the quran we have a nafs al-ammara bisu the soul that is that enjoins or inclines to evil and this is a state of an individual who protests
and you know and relinquishes obedience to allah and really follows his desires and passions that's the nafs al-ammara bisu that's the individual who has succumbed to his passions then you have a nafs al-lawwama the self-accusing soul this is a state of a person who's struggling against their passions and their desires and they're rebuking themselves for neglecting for neglecting worshipping allah azza wa jal and then you got the third type of nafs or individual and that is the nafs al-muqtima inna this is the individual who is calm and ready to surrender to allah having eliminated all distractions and disturbances from their desire so so it's not that we have a we have an evil nature we have potentials to be bad and potentials to take on on bad qualities and if we do we are obligated to struggle to rid them to rid ourselves of them allah knows best allah knows best that's a great explanation um you made me think of the the ayat in surat ash-shams allah swears by the nafs gave you the potential to choose the path of evil wujoor and taqwa the path of god consciousness mindfulness righteousness and then it continues allah says he has succeeded the one who purifies the nafs and it's interesting to see how there are different contexts and different usages of the term and oftentimes as you stated uh sometimes students would ask uh about it because it seems to be confusing it is sometimes as you stated dr safarouq it's interchangeable with uh the concept of the soul or according to many scholars uh in the quran it's used interchangeably in allah
subhanahu wa ta'ala knows best but in the context of you know purification of the heart we're usually talking about those base desires we want to overcome and uh subhanallah i'm thinking about a statement from imam al-ghazali rahim allah as well and he he says what's translated as the amazing thing is that you're willing to punish your family members or friends for their mistakes and their shortcomings with the belief that if you let them off the hook they're going to rebel against you but then you let your nafs off the hook so you make a mistake you let your nafs off the hook even though you are your biggest enemy the harm that your nafs inflicts upon you is greater than anything your family can do because the most your family can do is disturb your worldly life which will all perish one day but your nafs yourself can cause you to lose the everlasting life of the afterlife so therefore it is more worthy of punishment and discipline so jihad the nafs really here should be a focal point and although it seems to be a side point oftentimes we uh we don't let people off the hook very easily you know one or two mistakes and we hold these grudges or assumptions or thoughts about them but we're always letting the nafs go and that is a very dangerous thing especially if it becomes a habit and we ask allah subhanahu wa ta'ala to protect us allahumma ameen dr safarouf on that note yeah we know that the heart can become distracted the nafs it has its own role its own it's a factor in terms of its impact what are the things that can distract our hearts from allah subhanahu wa ta'ala and make it difficult to connect spiritually right i mean uh imam al-ghazali mentions um i mean first of all of course you know to there are a number of ways by which you know the ulama have diagnosed a lack of connectivity with a person and allah azza wa jalla or the quran
um but hujjatul islam imam al-ghazali mentions that uh distractions of the heart uh from allah and and sort of spiritually accessing and connecting to the quran lies in two things um elsewhere in other places he gives other reasons but two i think perhaps might suffice here so one is giving into one's uh wants and passions and desires and two prioritizing worldly matters so imam al-ghazali mentioned um in this section hujjatul islam says the more the more one's desires accumulate and intensify in the heart the more the meanings of the quran become veiled from that person and the more that one makes matters of this dunya this world less significant is in one's heart the closer one will be to the quranic meanings being unveiled to them so the hujjatul islam is saying the more we can control them if we control our intense desires and and wants and that can include our self-chattering as well our tahdeeth al-nafs the more we control that or lower that um and the more we we make the worldly matters less significant in our eyes the more the quranic meanings will open up to us they'll be unveiled and really we live in a culture sheikh i mean where well under a system as well that regulate that regulates our lives built on ideas like you know sort of my own freedom to do
absolutely whatever i want to do and be whatever i want to be this culture of hedonism you know self-pleasure self-gratification is the most important thing materialism you know physical goods we should always be looking to buy things i more and more and because things are things apparently make us happy um and like emotivism so morality is based on how we feel there are other ideas as well but it shows you how the kind of environment we live in prioritizes pleasure maximization and acquiring goods and satisfying these these two things becomes our preoccupation it becomes our our goals it becomes the things that distract us from what is really most important so when we when we become busy with maximizing our pleasure and busy with acquiring material things these two become the most biggest impediments or distractions from allah because our focus becomes on these things i think imam ghazali's diagnosis i think you know it's very very pertinent and um so following our desires and prioritizing worldly matters these things can become uh impediments and they can lead us to a kind of a disoriented heart a heart that is agitated there's not quite that doesn't have sukhoon it doesn't have that stillness and repose and rest that it's looking for subhanallah for showing that dr safar so uh it's interesting to see how on that particular note of uh the feeling of fulfillment through consumerism so we're living in a hyper consumerist culture it's it's just remarkable and astounding in a very disappointing and harmful way how much waste there is number one and number
two the fact that now there is a movement even in those societies where there is hyper consumerism and people are buying buying buying buying and thinking that you know the the purchase the click of the button or that app or the delivery itself when it gets to their homes that that's going to make them happy and feeling like they need that as well and then it starts to you know they start to become desensitized that becomes your norm but now it's gone to the point where there's like a backlash now people have to talk about minimalism uh as a as a as a means of healing from the clutter around them that really did not make them happy subhanallah and in addition to this uh of course many other other ideas uh beyond the scope of our discussion but as you you mentioned uh the pursuit of instant gratification where really as many studies are finding today people are not able to focus people are not able to wait uh in terms of patience and i'm not even talking about waiting in line or waiting for like a wi-fi signal to connect or anything like that people cannot wait for anything and it's uh it's a very sad reality um you look at the example of reading and education uh learning uh people are reading barely reading headlines barely uh consuming beneficial content now most of it is what's referenced as you know intellectual junk it's not helping them to feel truly fulfilled uh it's just random uh you know tidbits of this and that videos and and uh headline of certain articles it's not beneficial so it's harming people as well in terms of the ability to focus in the state of the heart may allah subhanahu wa ta'ala protect us uh i i remember seeing a video i don't remember the munchard right now i believe it was uh he was from kuwait one of the famous munchadeen uh and they produced this video about locks upon the hearts um and it was a beautiful reference to the ayah in surat muhammad ayah 24
do they not reflect upon the quran or are there locks or shackles upon their hearts and he had people in in that video with the nasheed in the background uh you know doing acts of kindness but it was like unlocking like literally removing a shackle off of someone else and the fact that every person makes a difference as well so when you're working on your purification you're helping others to connect to allah subhanahu wa ta'ala spiritually but that verse is a really powerful verse for all of us to use as a daily introspection now think of the idea of the heart the spiritual heart with a lock on a door so if it's not unlocked if you're not willing to purify your heart and unlock basically what's behind it then you cannot reach what's behind that door and if it's not unlocked then the heart is not going to be as affected in terms of the quran or the signs of allah around us and this is why so many people come across the signs of god and they reject them so when people come across the clear proofs of the quran being from allah subhanahu wa ta'ala or the proofs of prophethood or any other proof of the reality of allah subhanahu wa ta'ala but they they have chosen to have shackles locks upon those doors on their hearts and that's why even as muslims even as believers oftentimes a person reaches a place where spiritually they are they've reached a plateau right so they're not connecting more to the quran they're not improving they're not moving forward or they just blatantly refuse to accept the truth it's the reason that many of us at times will struggle to make progress may allah protect us and grant us humility and purify our hearts the very cure for that shackle is to force yourself to to remedy it with the the quran itself with the quran the internal uh and inward acts of worship that we are mentioning here uh by imam ghazali rahim allah through dua through dhikr but at the end of the day it's something
that needs to be guarded it needs to be protected it helps us with the purpose of life it helps us with our world views it helps us to deal with everything in the world but at the end of the day it's uh the difference between life and death may allah subhanahu wa ta'ala grant us uh the life of the heart allahumma ameen uh dr safaruk i'm sure there's a lot more we can uh talk about and i'm sure we can extend this out to several hours because it's a really beneficial conversation all that you're sharing uh maybe a slightly relevant question here you've kind of touched upon already is there anything uh practical uh and i apologize i know i'm asking for explicit examples is there anything that let's say at a societal level many people are engaging in in terms of leisure or habits or lifestyles whatever it may be that they can slowly or immediately start to remove from their habits or their lifestyles that would conflict with the quran in their hearts like the example of a person who is you know prescribed a treatment or medication or a certain environment even even with overcoming you know alcohol addiction as an example right the environment is a factor in that so someone who's trying to take in treatment cannot at the same time be taking in uh the the harmful source or whatever it may be the disease intentionally so is there something people can practically cut out so that their hearts are uh inshallah able to connect without distraction or as much distraction yeah you mentioned a beautiful analogy with treatment and uh and you know being an antidote every kind of treatment has dosages right now you can't just gulp down medicine it's got to be taken at certain times um you know if it's tablets maybe twice a day or something like that so treatments have to come in dosages uh so similarly the way we we try and minimize distraction is perhaps by you know doing taking
out parts first rather than sort of you know in one go trying in one fell sweep trying to take away all distractions yeah often simple simple things the things that we have immediately in front of us like our devices some of that you know we need to bring them under control you know um sort of the amount of hours we spend just with this finger doing this whether on a phone or on a tablet or this on a remote you know that's got to stop so the kind of um consumption of whatever kind of data or programs or whatever it might be we need to reduce that um and then start to select um what's beneficial um so that we we can do other things is you know um there is nothing wrong in leisure and and and you know uh making making oneself you know relax relaxation things like that no the sharia is not against that but but we need to ask um there is relaxation that can become indulgence are we indulging in entertainment um and so we need to make reflect and see can we eliminate any acts of indulgence are we being a bit excessive um maybe we can curb curb that a bit so these kind of sort of maybe some kind of minor adjustments may help to kick start that process of eliminating distractions because i know some people might be thinking well i'm nowhere near like imam al-ghazali you know to you know who's reached those spiritual heights but no the issue is to take medicine in dosages and so cut out um access time um eliminate indulgence moderate you know moderation is important here um so whether that could be
you know um moderation in from food all the way to things that one can find pleasurable and and just one thing i want to mention is we in this society everyone's afraid of um self-imposition like everyone's afraid of you know self-control you should everyone espouses the idea we should just be free if you're hungry and you like this pastry grab it and eat it if you want to go to this place don't think just go if you want to do this thing don't think just act no have we're gonna have some restraint um so i think you know um it's very important that we start to reflect on our own habits are we over consuming um whatever that might be from food to data um are we over indulging and so things like that i know it's not very sort of absolutely practical i think a couple of these things might help um to begin the treatment um and then that's all direct intervention is going to become necessary yeah does that and dr separate that is actually very practical it is really important may allah subhanahu wa ta'ala reward you and uh really when when when we think about uh like the the concept of just self-discipline or the trait of conscientiousness even from a secular paradigm has been found to be one that is linked to people's happiness and success because delayed gratification in most cases is what gets you ahead right in your studies in your work in your exercise your fitness whatever it may be and of course it's a part of islam it's actually it falls under the concept of sabr right patience perseverance willpower and i i love the example that you shared it's very practical cutting out things in certain ways and i just want us i i want our brothers and sisters and it's a reminder for myself to think about the reality of someone who takes in something harmful a hundred times a day as an example and they're only reading the quran once but without any focus barely any effort barely reciting on the tongue
the heart is not attentive maybe they're not even reciting outside of salah and in salah it's just a rush right they're just trying to get back to what they have to do maybe they're checking something off a list right an obligatory prayer what's the end result or the net result at the end of the day of a hundred you know sins minor or major and then like barely putting in any effort in terms of the state of the heart and the quran that's just one day think about the habits that build up what happens after a week or a month or a year or 10 years of doing this you'll start to notice that the phase of i guess your spiritual uh journey in terms of where you are with allah subhanahu wa ta'ala is linked to how much effort you put in through these these really small habits that accumulate and that's why in islam we are not supposed to belittle uh something called the salat or the minor sins because accumulated every one of these pieces of firewood can make a massive fire as the prophet salallahu alayhi wa sallam gave us in the analogy i guess one advice that i would give on this note uh to kind of transition us to the close here uh a simple advice recite the quran as though it is your final opportunity in this world recite the quran as though it's your final chance in this world to engage with the speech of allah subhanahu wa ta'ala knowing you're going to meet him we have had many brothers and sisters who were given diagnosis of six months or three months or a year and they they would share their feeling towards the quran in that every time now they recite they feel this is my last chance in a dunya to recite so whether or not they understood the tafsir or even the translation their hearts were attentive they were there they were present so recite as though it's your final opportunity in this world and may allah subhanahu wa ta'ala allow us to die in a good state allahumma ameen uh dr safarouk you've given us so many gems but i want to ask you one last question uh in in this last you know minute or two inshallah ta'ala uh connecting with the quran also includes connecting with the one who conveyed it to us
the prophet salallahu alayhi wa sallam so is there a verse in the quran that speaks to the prophet salallahu alayhi wa sallam that you connect with the most or one of the most uh uh sure there are a number but i guess one the interest of time is in certainly set but verse 65 so in rough translation is that allah azza wa jal says about the prophet alayhi salatu wasalam that you know allah takes an oath that uh the believers will never have a true or complete or even valid iman until valid belief until they make you and prophet alayhi salatu wasalam the arbiter or judge in all that they dispute over that's not enough to make the prophet an arbiter and a judge they they when they when they accept the prophet as judge and arbiter they cannot have in their in themselves or their hearts haraj any kind of um uh sort of uh hesitancy or doubt um they accept the prophet in full submission and so that verse establishes you know the authority of the prophet alayhi salatu wasalam you know our feelings our predilections our musing our wins our psychology is not an authority not an authority it's not an authority or a basis for law morality or spirituality after allah azza wa jal is his habib alayhi salatu wasalam as the ultimate authority so you know in
a culture where we're told to promote our own psychology whatever we think and feel and make that the reference and the standard it's a reminder that um for the believer allah and his messenger are the source the reference and the standard and you know this is uh this to me is a very powerful verse very powerful does that make it and dr safaruk may allah subhanahu wa ta'ala reward you uh this does bring us unfortunately it brings us to the end of the episode and this beautiful discussion i i uh i feel that of course we can talk for hours about this topic reward you for your time for our brothers and our sisters take advantage of every moment that you have take the reminders and the advices and the insights you heard during this episode and others take notes if you can about the practical things and start implementing and that first step you take is a sign of sincerity and you will see the fruit in it the barakah in it may allah subhanahu wa ta'ala accept from all of you this quran convo episode has come to an end but we invite you to start with your own conversation we invite you to start with your own practices we invite you to rekindle the things that you have started before by reading from the quran today by connecting to the quran in different forms today and we ask allah subhanahu wa ta'ala to accept from all of us and to make us and our loved ones amongst the people of the quran dr safaruk jazakumul khairan for your time and for your effort and for our brothers and our sisters we will see you next time inshallah wasalamu alaikum warahmatullahi wabarakatuh
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