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S2E1: How can I connect with the Qur'an? | DoubleTake
The Qur’an is the rope of Allah that saves all who hold onto it. It is nourishment for our souls and a light that discerns between truth and falsehood. But its messages and meanings cannot be unlocked without tadabbur: deep and regular reflection. What role should the Qur’an play in the daily lives of those who believe its message? What are the barriers preventing us from building meaningful and transformative relationships with the Qur’an? What steps can we take to finally feel like we’re connecting with God’s final message?
In this episode, host Mohamad Zaoud talks to Sheikh Mohammad Elshinawy, co-author of the Yaqeen Institute paper “Keys to Tadabbur: How to Reflect Deeply on the Qur’an.”
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This transcript was auto-generated using AI and may contain misspellings. Salamualaikum wa rahmatullah We often hear stories of the sahaba and their deep connection with the Qur'an Like when Asma'a bint Abi Bakr was noted to have recited the verse Famanna allahu alayna wa wakana a'adhabassamu For hours and hours or like when Omar radiallahu anhu was heard sobbing when he was reciting parts of surah Yusuf in his prayer Not sure about you, but it's it's been quite a while since I can say I felt truly connected to the Qur'an As Muslims, we know that the Qur'an is supposed to be a nourishment for our souls and a furqan You know a criterion that discerns between the truth and the falsehood But what I came to appreciate through today's episode with Sheikh Mohammed al-Shinawi is that the Qur'an's messages and meanings Can't be truly unlocked without something called tadabbur, deep and regular reflection Today we explore the barriers preventing us from building meaningful and transformative Relationships with the Qur'an and the steps that we can take to finally feel like we're connecting with Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala's final message Welcome to Double Take, a podcast by Yaqeen Institute about the questions and ideas around Islam and Muslims that give us pause Remember to subscribe to the show on YouTube, Spotify or wherever you listen to your favorite podcasts Our guest today is Sheikh Mohammed al-Shinawi. He's a religious director at the Islamic Education Center of Pennsylvania And a research scholar at Yaqeen Institute. He's a graduate of English literature at the University of Pennsylvania A graduate of English literature at Brooklyn College and he studied at the College of Hadith at the Islamic University of Medina and at Mishka University He also co-authored the Yaqeen Institute paper which today's episode is based on called Keys to Tadabbur
How to reflect deeply on the Qur'an. He co-authored that with Sheikh Yusuf Wahab. I hope you enjoy the episode as much as I did Sheikh Mohammed salam alaikum and jazakallah khair for joining us again Wa alaikum salam, my pleasure always Allah khalliq. We're going to get straight into it. Sheikh, there are no silly questions on Double Take We ask simple ones, complex ones. But I have one that is really really simple And that is, what is the Qur'an to the Muslim in the 21st century? We have so many things in our lives to focus on as Muslims. There's protecting our prayer, there's focusing on the type of food that we eat And being conscious of that. It's about being conscious of the surroundings we're in, the dealings that we have on a daily basis The Qur'an, we know it's Allah's words, but as a role in our life these days, what role does it play? The same role it played I guess for the early Muslims Bismillah, alhamdulillah, salat wa salam ala rasulillah, ala aali wa sahbihi ajma'in It is such a simple question that it is complex One of the scholars was asked, what was the relationship of the early Muslims with the Qur'an? And he gave a really nice answer. He said, it's kind of like your relationship with your phone today And that brings us back to how involved the Qur'an was with the early Muslims and in their lives It was as involved as it needed to be in order to be impactful in their lives In other words, Islam is timeless. Islam is for every time and place
And the superior form of life, quality of life is grounded in mimicking these generations as best we can Another one of the scholars, he mentioned that they were so attached in the early generations to the Qur'an Around the clock, that it became their clock In other words, if you read the Ahadith about how much time was there, they asked the Sahaba May Allah be pleased with them, between Suhoor, that pre-dawn meal when you're fasting and between the Fajr prayer They would say about 50 ayat, 50 verses It was their metric even In another Hadith, they asked about what is the ideal length of the Witsr prayer That one Raka'a in the end that the Prophet used to end his night vigils or night prayers with And they would say it was like the length of Surat Al-Inshqaq And so notice how close they were to the Qur'an that they would measure things by the Qur'an You think of all these different Ahadith saying the Prophet would not sleep without reciting As-Sajdah Or Al-Mulk or Al-Isra or Al-Zumar And we also need to contextualize, this doesn't mean he did all of those every single night But generally speaking, if you were to sit back and just calculate the amount of Qur'an they read in Salah And the amount of Qur'an they read in their in-betweens during the day And then the amount of Qur'an they did in their night prayers This is hours of Qur'an, it really is I mean the Prophet Sallallahu Alaihi Wasallam would put his head in the lap of Aisha radiAllahu Anha and recite Qur'an when a Hadith mentions He would get up and pray for a third of the night, that's all Qur'an, the other Hadith mentioned And so that is how involved it was in their day to day And I'm glad you mentioned the early Muslims And at that time there's a story that When I cross I'm honestly very shocked and it makes me feel a little bit bad about my relationship with the Qur'an
But it's a story of when the Prophet Sallallahu Alaihi Wasallam was making Tawaf around the Kaaba And the leaders of Quraysh, non-Muslims were there Abu Jahl, Abu Lahab, the whole crew And they were mocking the Prophet Sallallahu Alaihi Wasallam And so the Prophet Sallallahu Alaihi Wasallam decided to recite some Qur'an and he chose Surat An-Najm And so he stood there reciting Surat An-Najm which is a very very heavy surah, a beautiful surah, a couple of pages And he gets to the end of the surah where Allah Subhanahu Wa Ta'ala says Fasjudu Lillahi Wa Abudu, prostrate to Allah and worship Him And of course the Prophet Sallallahu Alaihi Wasallam is a Sajda in the Qur'an He makes Sujud and the Muslims made Sujud But what was shocking was that the likes of Abu Jahl and Abu Lahab also made Sujud And when the Prophet Sallallahu Alaihi Wasallam got up and looked and saw that the non-Muslims were making Sujud He said Amantum Billah, are you actually Muslims now? And they were overtaken by the verses and Abu Lahab tried to make Or Abu Jahl I think it was, who tried to make an excuse for his Sujud saying No no, we don't believe in Allah but we heard our forefathers being mentioned in those verses So we made Sujud, so he was flustered But the fact that people who don't believe in the Qur'an and Allah's word at that time Felt the need to prostrate and were in awe of the verses I look at that and I say ok, honestly when was the last time, oh my god man When was I last connected? So what am I missing? Yeah, so I actually had the same dilemma with this incident in Sahih Al-Bukhari That Ibn Abbas Sallallahu Alaihi Wasallam mentioned that the Prophet Sallallahu Alaihi Wasallam made Sujud at the end of Surat An-Najm
And the Muslims and the pagans and the humans and the jinn, everybody present made Sujud It's very deflating for a person to read that at face value But I want to say two things, first of all don't be too hard on yourself Because I think it's a little bit different when the Prophet Sallallahu Alaihi Wasallam is the one reciting That's part of the impact of the recitation, what comes from the heart and what kind of heart will reach the heart And how it will reach the heart, it's different It is not purely just I have to reach the level of mastery of Arabic that the pagan Arabs had No, no, no, not like that There has to be a degree of exceptionalism here for the Prophet Sallallahu Alaihi Wasallam But there is also the fact that they were paying attention, we can come back to that And also the fact that they understood, we can come back to that And there is also the fact that they realized, and there are different avenues to realize Not just the Arabic, realize the weight, like you said, they're heavy verses, the weight of that reality You know when Malik al-Midinar Rahimahullah would have his students recite to him And they would finish reciting, he would call their attention to this He would say, listen carefully to what the most truthful has just said from above his throne To help them realize the reality of what they just heard You know Ibn Abbas radiAllahu anhu also, he would tell the people, the generations after the sahaba, his students Had Allah not facilitated the repetition of his words on the tongues of the creatures, the human beings Nobody of the creation would have been able to repeat the words of the creator In other words, realize this is a gift, this is not an accomplishment That realization, that glorification of Allah's word upon realizing it is what adds to the effect
Like think about it, if an animal were to speak in human tongue, we would all be blown away Because animals don't speak human, right? But animal and human are not that different comparing creation to creator, right? These are all creations, so imagine a creation, this is not supposed to be able to repeat the words of the creator So once you actually give this its due regard, you realize it And sometimes Allah may keep it from the believer so that he earns it Or maybe Allah Subhanahu wa ta'ala, you know, knows What do you mean by that? So at times Allah pulls from us or keeps from us the sweetness of faith Because easy come, easy go He knows that if we got it easy, we would take it for granted And that was exactly the downfall of shaitan So he wants you to keep pursuing, he wants you to finish strong So to realize its weight and to chase knowing that weight is there Knowing that, you know, the mercy of Allah does not rush to anyone As Al-Imam Al-Aith Ibn Sa'ad Rahimahullah said, the weight rushes to someone listening to the Quran Or, you know, to know that to the degree of your commitment and dedication There is an endless opportunity for happiness and peace and tranquility there They asked another Imam, how much Quran should we read? He said, it depends on how much happiness you pursue in life, right? It's really up to you, but realizing that is a big part of it You mentioned in your article that you authored with Sheikh Yusuf Wahab About the concept of Tadabur, that the purpose of the Quran in our lives Is for us to actually have that deep contemplation of the verses And do you mind just talking to that? Because I recite Quran, I listen to it often and what not But to what end? What is the purpose? And I think you suggest that the purpose is that Tadabur Do you mind explaining what that is?
Yeah, the Quran suggests that very clearly actually, more than suggests it It clarifies the Quran is blessed and those who read it are blessed And it has the potential for endless, you know, good in our life But contingent upon us engaging with the Quran through Tadabur Or in the form of Tadabur Tadabur means to deeply ponder over its meanings And so all of the 10 good deeds per letter And the virtue of one rank in Jannah for every verse you memorize And all of this and reading it melodiously And all of that is there, I'm not saying it is irrelevant It is there, but the grand prize, the transformative power of the Quran Lies in Tadabur Tadabur comes from the word Dubur Dubur means the back end of something And so Tadabur means to come to terms with, to arrive at what is behind these words The reality, the impactful potency of these words In all honesty, Sheikh, I know you said don't be too hard on myself And maybe this is because Allah is trying to make my path a little bit harder So I strive a bit harder, but I listen to the Quran often I learned how to read when I was about 21, 22 And then I learned Tajweed and I started teaching a bit I memorized a little bit And I can't say I haven't tried, like I'm trying And every single day I'm trying But reading your article, listening to you, hearing about the Sahaba I can't say, like I can't even remember the last time I truly connected with the Quran I don't know what's missing That's an honest question, like what am I missing? What are the barriers stopping me? For someone who's actually listening, reading, memorizing
What are the barriers? What am I doing wrong? So I'm not saying that it has to take this long But what we want to say first and foremost is So what if it takes this long? Our goal is to find Allah's pleasure at the end of our journey And that is by us trying our best, not by arriving That is from Allah's mercy We don't want it any other way And you may have read that some of the early Muslims said that I prayed Qiyamul Layl, night prayers Meaning I lingered on the Quran in the depths of the night for 20 years And then enjoyed them for another 20 Or forget that, let's contrast it I went to school for 12 years and then 4 in college And then some others will say more and more and more To what? To earn a paycheck And buy a house with greenery underneath which rivers flow A swimming pool or something That's what we did And so committing ourselves for 10 and 20 and 30 and 100 years To Allah's book is not a sacrifice, it is a trade-off And an awesome trade-off Allah from His generosity calls it trade Whereas in reality He is being so generous with us How do I know I am getting the paycheck? How do I know? I am giving, I am studying But what am I taking from the Quran? Because I have memorized, I have learned, whatever What am I taking from it? There is so much If you understand the Quran itself Al-Hassan Al-Basri said that a person memorized the whole Quran He is a hafidh of the Quran He said to him, no he is not The Quran is a hafidh of him The Quran is actually a protector of him Because hafidh comes from memorized meaning you have protected it from being lost It comes from protection or guarding He said the Quran actually guards him
And so the Quran guards you in ways that are obvious and ways that are subtle You don't know how many decisions you could have ruined yourself with today And by virtue of the Quran you carry in your heart Allah turned the lights on for you You don't know how many harms would have come your way If your loved ones and so on and so forth And they were diverted from you by virtue of the blessing of the Quran That emanates from your chest And so be certain in that You mentioned an ayah in Surah Al-Isra وَإِلَىٰ يَزِيدُ الظَّالِمِينَ إِلَّا خَسَرًا That some people are elevated by the Quran when they hear it and read it And some people are actually disgraced Or what's that effect? I just want to make sure I'm not being disgraced I feel like I'm trying but I need to know May Allah protect us and you, brother It's a great question And it is a virtuous cycle So in a sense that you need to purify your heart And we'll come back to this in a second In order to benefit from the Quran But also coming to the Quran is of the ways to purify your heart And so it is a virtuous cycle And so what do we mean by that? There are impediments at times We're not just saying just keep trying Sometimes it's not about working harder It's about working smarter as they say in the industry sometimes We were told that the Quran The zalim is only increased in loss by it Sometimes the zalim is so blindfolded by his zulm By the corruption and pollution of his heart That he reads the Quran as he wants to read it Like selective reading He reads it to reassure himself He reads it to tell himself I'm a great person I don't need to change anything in my life So on and so forth And the kibr for example The arrogance in our heart Allah said clearly سَأَصْرِفُ عَنْ آيَاتِيَا الَّذِينَ يَتَكَبَّرُونَ فِي الْأَرْضِ بِغَيْرِ الْحَقِّ
I will turn away from my signs My ayat Ayat are verses right? Signs and verses Those who exhibit arrogance on earth When they have no right to do so And so the impediments like these sins That corrupt our heart You need to rinse yourself of them You need to repeat your repentance every time You mind just like laying them out for me? So you're saying kibr is one of them? Certainly Sins generally Generally sins you know Takes away that sweetness of faith and the Quran For sure As the Prophet said to us for sure That every sin you commit Stains your heart a bit more And if you repent from it سُقِلَ قَلْبُهُ His heart is polished from that stain And if he continues on without repenting It extends and extends and extends Until it overtakes his heart And then he becomes sealed off From understanding From living by You know the guidance that Allah revealed So sins, kibr Is there anything else that comes to mind When I talk about barriers between Me connecting me And that really true tadabbur of the Quran? So of the impediments of course is distractions Allah Azzawajal called his book كتابٌ عزيز It's a mighty book But the word عزيز also means proud أخذته العزة بالإثم He was overtaken by pride And driven into sin by his pride So عزة also means pride And so the Quran refuses to be marginalized in your life And you know going back to that story That troubled us with the Prophet Alayhi Salaatu Wasalam reciting And the mushrikeen prostrating I said they were not distracted This was during the night time You know Inna nashi'ata allayl Allah says the depths of the night أشد وطعا They are more conducive Meaning they are more helpful To concurrence What does concurrence mean? That what you are saying with your tongue Matches with what your heart is Processing or you know reflecting on Or engaging with Concurrence of the heart and tongue
And so that's a part of it as well But that again does not mean That if you start slipping You start getting absent minded This is something you work towards Right? You work towards trying to isolate yourself From anything but the spirit of the Quran As you are reading it Ibn Ata And I always love to share this with people You know he said That you being absent from remembering Allah The Quran is the greatest reminder The greatest form of remembering Allah The greatest dhikr He said you being absent minded As you remember Allah Is not as bad It's still better than Being absent minded from remembering Allah altogether He said so you just persevere and you wait And you keep remembering Allah Even if you happen to be absent minded Until he grants you permission To be present minded And then he admits you into his presence And then he removes everyone else He says from the audience It just becomes you and him in the end So it's something you work towards But identify that dedication is a key I was actually in a lesson once And one of the students asked the sheikh About look I can't really I don't have much sincerity when it comes to a certain act It was actually tahajjud right? And so I don't feel it I can't really you know What's the point if I'm not really Getting the fruits of it And the sheikh was saying Just do it anyway And work on your intentions as you go along So it's to your point about just do the action Just read or recite and what not And let the I guess Tadabbur catch up if I'm not mistaken Yes absolutely for sure Because you know what commitment to the Quran means Commitment to the Quran means you're committed to you know Understand how every single ayah relates to you But who can do that? Who has those mental blocks built
Up and this is extremely hard right? And so we're going to die trying And inshallah earn Allah's pleasure by our attempts Not our mileage So how do I as a simple very simple student of the Quran How do I build that tadabbur? You said okay So private time If it's not going to be in the night Then at least with airplane mode on your phone right? If you're going to read off your phone or read next to your phone You know give it this is Quran time you know The Quran will not give me a part of itself the scholars say Unless you give it all of yourself So give it your undivided attention right? And begin with you know seeking forgiveness from Allah Azza wa Jal And asking him to open your heart to his book And you know the oceans of mercy available for us in his book Subhanahu wa ta'ala And then as you read the Quran Try to draw parallels You might not be able to do it right away You know with every single ayah who can as we said But draw parallels between yourself and any ayah you can So one scholar for example you know read that Allah Subhanahu wa ta'ala Said to the Prophet Sallallahu Alaihi Wasallam We removed from you the burden of your sin right? He was forgiven for his past and future sins That weighed down your back Allah said And so he began to weep and said SubhanAllah like Allah removed from him his sin that weighed down his back So how worried should we be? That our sins are not going to be breaking our back If we don't get forgiven for them It was a beautiful parallel Or when you know when Wuhayb ibn al-Ward Rahimahullah Like he read Ibrahim Alaihi Salaam saying Oh Allah please accept from me the building of the Kaaba That is so profound because we have a partial contribution To building one of our local masjids And we act like you know mission accomplished We have not built a masjid on our own And if we have we haven't built the Kaaba And if we did it's not with the sincerity of Ibrahim Alaihi Salaam So there's a parallel in every ayah In fact you know one of the most beautiful parallels
That come to mind I think it's in the paper When Yahya ibn Mu'adh Rahimahullah read the ayat When Allah is speaking to Musa and Harun Alaihi Salaam Saying go say to Pharaoh a gentle word So that you don't trigger his defensiveness basically So that maybe he'll reflect Maybe he'll consider while he still has a chance Yahya ibn Mu'adh says Ya Allah how kind you are Like how gentle you are This is your instructions and your gentleness Go say a kind a soft word right To someone who says I am your Lord the most high That's what Fir'aun said He said so how about us Like how do you plan to treat us When we say in every sujood Subhana rabbiyal a'la Glorified is my Lord the most high Right look he's even drawing a parallel Of what is being said to Fir'aun And we are inshaAllah the farthest of people from Fir'aun Who we've never claimed you know To be deities or to be gods So try to draw parallels as best you can And the last thing I'll say is Engage with the ayat You know repeat them as the Prophet Sallallahu Alaihi Wasallam did As like you're knocking on the door of the ayah Over and over and over again Until it opens up for you And make dua at the ayat When Allah says and say my Lord increase me in knowledge Stop like Ibn Mas'ud stopped radiAllahu anhu Stop and say oh Allah increase me in knowledge And understanding and piety And so on and so forth The Prophet Sallallahu Alaihi Wasallam would not pass by an ayah in his qiyam Of hope like of jannah and reward Except that he would ask Allah from his bounty Nor an ayah cautioned or frightened Except that he would stop and ask Allah to grant him refuge Engaging with the Quran is part of What will heighten the experience inshaAllah Azza wa Jal JazakAllah khair Sheikh, you know we do this on every episode I have many nephews and nieces Actually 31 alhamdulillah
Every episode I have a think about who's going to ask this question And one of my nieces, she's a nine-year-old She's asking you Sheikh I'm about to start my journey with the Quran And I hear about this concept of tadabbur And that actually the purpose is really to connect with Allah By deep reflection of the verses What advice do you give me as a young person Starting my journey with the Quran In order to build that tadabbur? Okay, so I would tell her that the Quran is a world of secrets But they're hidden like right in front of you Once you earn them, you notice them So just like we don't tell people our secrets on the first day of school We don't tell people our secrets on the first day of school The more time you spend with the Quran More dedication you show to the Quran That is how many more of the secrets of the Quran will start getting revealed to you And once they get revealed to you, you're going to be blown away And you're going to notice that it's so obvious How didn't I notice that before? And you'll realize I simply hadn't deserved it yet That's the first thing I would say And the second thing I would say to her very quickly Is I want you to say what the Prophet ﷺ used to always say Oh Allah, make the Quran that fountain that quenches my heart And the light that illuminates my chest And what uplifts removes my sadness And that which chases away all of my worries I would teach her that dua I'm going to use that
Honestly, we could go on for hours But I know you're a little bit pressed for time And I really want to fit in some rapid fire questions if that's okay A little bit different to last time Are you ready? Sure Okay, a couple of easy ones So what was the latest book you were reading? John Hoover's Ibn Taymiyyah Okay, interesting Any nuggets you want to share from it? One of the most fascinating parts of the book so far About halfway through is the fact that Academics, especially Western academics of course They need to commit themselves to objectivity And sometimes it makes them a little bit vague And a little bit austere in their writing And it appears that someone, you know, as well grounded He's of the foremost authorities on Ibn Taymiyyah in the world today Like John Hoover, he actually multiple times You know, struggles to hide his admiration for Sheikh Al-Islam Ibn Taymiyyah SubhanAllah Rahimahullah SubhanAllah Okay, number two If you were to have dinner with someone who's alive Specifically to discuss the Quran Who would that person be? Sheikh Al-Dadu Al-Shanqiti Rahimahullah Hafidahullah Hafidahullah, I said Rahimahullah InshAllah, we're gonna have to try to arrange that Because that's the second time you mentioned him BarakAllahu fik Yes, it is That's actually why I mentioned him the first time So I'm excused Okay, okay Random, really, really random questions related to the Quran
Recitation of the Quran or memorization of the Quran? It is, there's too many variables here And I've spoken to some of you about this before Recite as much as you can until you find room to memorize new So recite what you can out of the Mus'haf and from what you already memorize And because keeping what you have takes precedence over gaining what you don't But ideally you will make room for both a little bit at a time Okay, Surat Ash-Shura or Surat Maryam? I have to say Surat Maryam Because I'm the religious director at the Jesus son of Mary mosque in downtown Pennsylvania Okay, you know there's a new machine that prints on walls It's a wall printer so you can design anything It's huge, it's like the size of probably the bookshelf behind you And you bring it to your house and it prints something on the wall So I get it for you, your housewarming party And you can choose any verse in the Quran to print on your wall What verse is that? Respond to Allah and his messenger when he invites you to that which gives you life In Arabic? استجيبوا لله وللرسول إذا دعاكم لما يحييكم Why? Because the verse continues on to say and know that Allah intervenes between a person and his heart And so many people wonder about the whole agency question And I get it a lot and we all wonder about it like you know Do I have control over my heart or not? Allah gives you an invitation to invite his aid and support and guidance into your life
And if you decline the invitation then the same way we may will be severed from this world We could be severed from our hearts as well And so he begins and he initiates you know to save us and grant us grace and grant us guidance And know at the end of the day that if we are turning away from him That could already be a sign that he has turned away from us And so may we be grateful for the opportunity JazakAllah khair Ameen I'm going to mention a few surahs and I want to know what first comes to mind In terms of your feeling like what feeling does it evoke? Surat Ar-Rahman Rahman okay thanks I guess that one right Surat Al-Isra Prophecy Surat Al-Dukhan History History Last one Surat Al-Mulk The grave Okay one last question and we'll close it here English-speaking Muslims who have struggled with Arabic What would you recommend for them to read in order to connect with the Quran? Like if there's a book or if there's a resource that you recommend for them to start their journey Or just to spark that journey of Tadabur Quranreflect.com It's an awesome platform JazakAllah khair Perfect that's amazing Sheikh Mohammed it's always a pleasure having you on Double Take And inshallah we'll see you next season inshallah
BarakAllahu feek
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