Qur'an Convos: Tadabbur
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Reflecting on Allah's Word
What is the definition of tadabbur? How can we develop the appropriate seriousness and respect the Qur’an deserves? How can we overcome mental distractions that make it more difficult to reflect deeply?
Join author of The Clear Qur'an, Dr. Mustafa Khattab, and host, Sh. Suleiman Hani as they dive into episode 3 of Qur'an Convos: Taddabur and what about the mindset is needed to start reflecting on Allah’s words.
Dr. Mustafa is a scholar, author, imam and chaplain who is known for his translation of the Qur’an in "The Clear Quran" series.
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. Bismillah walhamdulillah wasalatu wasalamu ala rasulullah wa ala alihi wasahbihi waman wala Assalamualaikum warahmatullahi to our brothers and sisters from around the world. Welcome to Qur'an Convos. This is a podcast where we explore the many ways you can connect with the Qur'an. In this first season, we are covering the theme of tadabbur, or to reflect deeply on the Qur'an in the hopes of getting closer to Allah Subhanahu wa ta'ala. We are focused on the 10 inward acts for the Qur'an's recitation proposed by Imam al-Ghazali. Rahmahullah. Today, alhamdulillah, I'm excited that we have our dear beloved brother and our guest and a scholar, the one who is known as well for his translation of the Qur'an, my preferred translation and the one I utilize in all of my courses, alhamdulillah. It is the clear Qur'an we have with us, alhamdulillah, Dr. Mustafa Khattab. Welcome, Sheikh Mustafa, to Qur'an Convos. How are you doing today, Sheikh? Alhamdulillah. As-salamu alaykum. JazakAllah khair for having me. BarakAllahu feekum, Sheikh. JazakAllah khairan. Sheikh, before we get started, before we get into the topic itself and the advice of Imam al-Ghazali, rahmahullah, I wanted to ask you a personal question we like to begin with, with all of our guests. Is there a time in which you felt when you were reading the Qur'an or listening to the Qur'an, a particular emotional reaction based on something specific that was happening? I know it's a very personal question, so feel free to share within your limits of comfort. But is there something you can share in terms of what were you listening to? What were you hearing at the time? What happened? What was it related to? If you could share to motivate our listeners, inshallah ta'ala. JazakAllah khair. Bismillah walhamdulillah wa salatu wa salamu ala Rasulillah wa baak. I think Surah Yusuf is one of the favorite surahs in the Qur'an. All the surahs are favorite, of course, alhamdulillah. But Surah Yusuf has a special place in everyone's heart.
And in this surah, there is this particular ayah, two ayahs actually, one at the beginning and one at the end. And they are related. So the one at the beginning says, wa sharawhu bisamanim bakhs, darahima ma'dudan. So they sold their own brother Yusuf alayhi salam for very cheap, for a few worthless coins. And at the end of the surah, they came begging for food, his own brothers. They came begging for food and they didn't know who Yusuf was because he looked different. He's now older. He looks like a prince. And they say when they were begging him for food at the end of the surah, wajee'na bi bida'atin musjaatin fa awfilana alkayla wa tasaddaq alayna. They are begging him. They are on their knees and they are offering him a few worthless coins. So when they sold him for very cheap at the beginning, they stabbed him in the back. They sold him into slavery. Every time I come across this ayah, wallahi, I feel like some of the du'at who go unappreciated by their communities. And Yusuf alayhi salam is not the only prophet in the Quran who is not appreciated by his own people. For example, in surah Ghaf and other places in the Quran where the mushrikun of Makkah, they talk about the Prophet ﷺ, they say, law la nuzil haathal quran wa ala rajuli min al qariyatayni aazim We wish this Quran was revealed to someone who is important. Like subhanAllah, and Fir'aun, who was the master of this psychological warfare, he's using those propaganda techniques against Musa alayhi salam. He's saying, am ana khayrun min haathal ladhi huwa maheen? He is nobody. He is worthless. So subhanAllah, these prophets, they came for the guidance of their own people. They are putting their lives on the front line.
They're sacrificing their time, their effort, everything, and all they got from their own people is, you know, attacks, assaults. They're not appreciated. And I think this is something that a lot of da'at can relate to. I think this one, this ayah touched me deep when I come across this ayah at the beginning of surah Yusuf. BarakAllahu feekum, Dr. Musawad. Jazakumullahu khairan. That's a really good example, subhanAllah, how oftentimes we're reading ayats of the Quran and we're making personal connections as well, or we're thinking about our experiences in society today or our families, depending on the ayats that we are reading. Jazakumullahu khairan, Sheikh. Dr. Mustafa, in the first two episodes, we established what it means for the Quran to be the speech of Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala and how to fight the distractions of the heart. With those covered, now we're ready to explore Imam al-Ghazali's third inward act for the Quran's recitation, and it is tadabbur. So maybe just to get us started, how would we define tadabbur for our listeners? Well, linguistically, the word tadabbur comes from dabara, which means the bottom or the back of something. Right. Like dubur as-salah, wa adibara as-sujood in the Quran. Falatwalluhumul adbar, don't give them your backs. Right. So the technical meaning is to read the Quran with proper understanding and to connect with the book of Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala on a personal level. So the meaning of tadabbur in this case means to get to the bottom of something. We said that dabara means the bottom or the back of something. To get to the bottom of the ayah, to scratch beyond the surface, to dig deep into the ayah, to understand them, just like the back of your hand. Remember, back and bottom, to get to the bottom of something like the back of your hand, to understand it and to have a personal connection with it.
So Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala says that the main reason for revealing the Quran is to do tadabbur in the Quran. Kitabun anzalnahu ilayka mubarakun liyadabbaru ayati. This is the main purpose for releasing or revealing the Quran is to do tadabbur. And he says, my job is to do hifz. Inna nahnu nazalna al-zikra wa inna lahu la hafidhun. I will take care of the Quran. It will be preserved. I will take care of it. But many of us say, no, no, no, no. You do the tadabbur, we will do the hifz. Right. So again, our connection with the Quran should be, number one, reading it. You have to read the Quran. And number two, understand it. Because what is the point if you read it without understanding? Number three, doing tadabbur on the Quran. Tadabbur, understanding it deeply, reflecting on its meanings and extracting the gems, those gems from the Quran. And of course, memorizing the Quran is a great honor. So I'm not trying to put down those who do hifz. But again, your relationship with the Quran does not end with memorizing the Quran. It begins with memorizing the Quran. And we know from a hadith that Allah will honor the person who memorizes the Quran on Yawm al-Qiyamah and their parents and so on and so forth. The next level is to live your life according to the Quran. Live your life according to the Quran, halal and haram. And I think this is one of the things that make the sahaba stand out, is because they live according to the Quran. Every time an ayah was revealed, do this, don't do this, they took it personally. It's talking to me. This is haram, I'm going to avoid it. This is halal or this is fard, I have to do it.
And many of us, subhanAllah, when they listen to the ayat of the Quran, halal and haram, do this, don't do this. He is talking to my cousin, he's talking to my ammu, he's talking to my neighbor. He's not talking to me. Right. So living your life according to the Quran and teaching it. You know, Rasulullah Sallallahu Alaihi Wasallam says, khayrukum man ta'allama al-Quran wa a'allama those who study the Quran, they learn the Quran and they teach it. And I think this is part of our duty towards the Quran. Alhamdulillah. Jazakumullahu khayran, Sheikh. BarakAllahu feekum. So many gems from what you just shared amongst them is for those who are memorizing or the many parents, mashAllah, who have a high standard and they want their children to memorize the Quran, don't lower that standard. That's a good standard to have, as you heard from Sheikh Mustafa. But in addition, the objective of the Quran is guidance. The objective is reflection. The objective is to act upon it and to establish goodness in this world and goodness in our lives. And so if we just memorize or tell our children, memorize, memorize, memorize, and there's no high standard for reflection, we may be limiting them from their potential in what the objective of the Quran is. So Allah Subh'anaHu Wa Ta-A'la tells us, liyaddabbaru a'ayat. It is to reflect on it. Why? When you reflect deeply, you're able to move forward in terms of progress. Your heart could be purified. You may make the right decisions in life. It might help guide you with some decision. And it's really important for us to emphasize as well that what are you reflecting on? All of the passages of the Quran are called a'ayat, right? An a'ayah is for you to reflect on. A'ayat are in different forms, signs of Allah Subh'anaHu Wa Ta-A'la. Sometimes signs are in nature, the trees and the rain and the leaves and the grain of sand and every beat of your heart and every breath that you take. And also as well here, there's tadabbur and generally tafakkur is very comprehensive on the signs of the a'ayat themselves, the a'ayat of Allah Subh'anaHu Wa Ta-A'la. Dr. Mustafa, perhaps a very practical question that many people will ask since now they understand tadabbur is to reflect deeply on the,
let's say, the end result, the consequence, the deeper parts of the a'ayat of the Quran and what's next. How do we advise people when it comes to the practical steps to engage in tadabbur? So number one, we need to understand that the Quran is the speech of Allah Subh'anaHu Wa Ta-A'la. Allah talks to you when you recite the Quran. Of course, we know the famous hadith in Bukhari where Rasulullah Sallallahu Alaihi Wasallam says, when you read al-Fatiha, it's a dialogue between you and Allah. When you say alhamdulillahi rabbil alameen, Allah will say hamadani abdi. When you say all praise is due to Allah, Allah will say, my servant has praised me. When you say ar-rahman ar-rahim, Allah will respond majadani abdi, my servant has glorified me. So it's a dialogue. So once you understand that Allah Subh'anaHu Wa Ta-A'la is talking to you, you will appreciate those words in the Quran. So now imagine if your mom and dad tells you that there's someone on the phone who wants to talk to you, and this is maybe President Obama or, you know, this person, this important person, or the Queen of England, or this president or that king. Can you tell her, no, I'm going to talk to him later or tomorrow, ask him to call back? It doesn't make any sense. So SubhanAllah, Allah Subh'anaHu Wa Ta-A'la is talking to you. So this is number one. Once you appreciate the fact that the Quran is the word of Allah Subh'anaHu Wa Ta-A'la, you will give it the respect and the importance, the significance it deserves. Number two, this story that we read passingly in the seerah, but sometimes we don't reflect on it. It shows you how important the Quran is. SubhanAllah, Ummu Hani, Rasulullah Sallallahu Alaihi Wasallam used to call her my mother after my mother.
And SubhanAllah, when the Prophet Sallallahu Alaihi Wasallam passed away, Umar radiyaAllahu Anhu Abu Bakr radiyaAllahu Anhu, he passed by Ummu Hani and she was crying. And they said, are you crying because Rasulullah Sallallahu Alaihi Wasallam passed away? She said, no, I'm not crying because of this, because everyone knew that Rasulullah was going to die. Because it says in the Quran, innaka mayyitun wa innahu mayyitun. You, Muhammad Sallallahu Alaihi Wasallam, are going to die and everybody else is going to die. But she says, abki alal wahi allathin qata' I'm crying because of this door of revelation that has been closed forever. So imagine this revelation that has been coming down from Allah Subhanahu Wa Ta'ala from the time of Adam alayhi salam, passing by other prophets like Nuh and Musa and Isa, Ibrahim, all the prophets for thousands of years, revelations were coming down. And with the passing of Rasulullah Sallallahu Alaihi Wasallam, this door has been sealed. It has been closed. So the Quran is the last and the final revelation that came from Allah Subhanahu Wa Ta'ala. No more revelations, no more surahs will be coming from Allah Subhanahu Wa Ta'ala. This shows you another aspect of the significance of the Quran. Number three, to really appreciate the Quran, you have to look at the fact that the Quran is a healing, as Allah Subhanahu Wa Ta'ala says in the Quran, shifa. And those who study the Quran, they do tadabbur on the Quran, they know the difference between shifa and ilaj. So shifa is healing. Allah calls it healing. He didn't call it ilaj because medicine, ilaj, sometimes it works, sometimes it doesn't work. Sometimes it will heal something, but it will give you many other side effects.
But as for the Quran, Allah Subhanahu Wa Ta'ala calls it shifa, healing for sure, healing to the individual, whatever feelings they have, whatever struggles they're going through, they will always find solutions in the Quran. If you have been married for so many years and you don't have kids, you can always relate to the story of Zakariya and the story of Ibrahim Alayhim As-Salam. If you have been mistreated by family members, you can relate to the story of Yusuf Alayhim As-Salam. If you have been received with injustice, even though you care about your own people, you give nasiha to the people, but they don't appreciate you, you can always relate to the story of Muhammad Sallallahu Alaihi Wasallam, Musa Alayhim As-Salam and Yusuf Alayhim As-Salam. The stories we mentioned at the beginning, you can relate to the Quran as a family, as a society, as a country. You will always find solutions to all the problems that peoples and families and societies have. Whether we're talking about the economy, politics, social life, and so on and so forth. If you want to learn about politics and political corruption and propaganda techniques, read the story of Musa and Fir'aun. If you want to learn about family dynamics, siblings, rivalry, social aspects of life, read the story of Yusuf Alayhim As-Salam. If you want to learn about financial corruption, read the story of Shu'aib Alayhim As-Salam. If you want to learn about morality in society, read the story of Lut Alayhi Salaam. There are so many things, and all these prophets, the 25 of them, among themselves, they cover every aspect of our life that we need to live a life of dignity in this world. I hope this will give a flavor to our viewers on the importance and the significance of the Quran. The Quran is a book of healing. The Quran gives you meaning and purpose in life.
The Quran will solve all your problems. The Quran will give you a map, just like you're lost in the desert, and you find a map that shows you where you can eat, where you can survive, what to do and what not to do. Look at the Quran this way. When you look at the Quran, the next time, inshallah, think about the manufacturer's manual that comes with your phone or with your laptop, with your car. It tells you how to maximize the benefit from this product. If, like Allah Subhanahu wa ta'ala, He created us and He sent us this manual on how to live our life the proper way, a life of dignity and a life of respect. So He says, this is good for you, do it. This is bad for you, avoid it. So I think once you look at the Quran this way, you will appreciate the Quran even more, inshallah. Jazakumullahu khairan, Dr. Mustafa. Jazakumullahu khairan. So many different gems that you shared. When it comes to tadabbur, let's say a 30 second opportunity that someone has, a two minute opportunity between two breaks or two things that are happening, and this person decides to open the mushaf or their Quran up on their devices, and they want to read one ayah of the Quran. What would it look like in a very practical way? Because we may have some viewers who want to understand the most basic sense possible. We may have, alhamdulillah, many new Muslims or some non-Muslims watching as well. What does it mean for someone to take one verse of the Quran and to engage in tadabbur? What does that look like? Well, it would be great if the person can speak or understand Arabic. But to be practical here, more than 85% of Muslims don't speak or understand the Arabic language. So I always say that the difference between reading the Quran in Arabic and reading the Quran in translation
is like eating fresh and canned food. So reading the Quran in Arabic is like eating fresh food, and reading the Quran in translation is like eating canned food. It gives you a flavor of the food, but it is not the same thing. The Arabic language is very rich. We can talk about this for a whole week. But for the sake of our viewers who don't speak the Arabic language, try to get yourself a good, decent translation of the Quran. I recommend Abdul Halim, I recommend Ahmed Zakir Hamad, Dr. Musharraf Hussain, and I'm not here to promote the clear Quran, but it's a decent translation. There are other translations that were done in the past, even though we appreciate them, but English is evolving and some of the translations are old, and so on and so forth. And no translation is perfect. We know this much. No translation is perfect. No translation will ever take the place of the Arabic language. A translation basically is a humble, imperfect human effort to explain the perfect word of Allah. Put it this way. SubhanAllah. But again, I know of a lot of people who accepted Islam by just reading a good translation of the Quran. Wallahi. Because even in translation, you still get some of the beauty, maybe 1%. You will get some of the flavor of the Quran. So get yourself a good translation. If you can read it in Arabic, Alhamdulillah. If you want to study the Arabic language, maybe I can recommend the Clear Quran Dictionary, which will help you understand the Quran in Arabic in just four to six months. The Quran is made up of 2,000 root words. 2,000 root words. This is a very small number. So once you master those 2,000 words, you will be able to understand the Quran in Arabic. And believe it or not, I was talking about 2,000 root words. You already know 100 of them because they are used in the English language
without you knowing that those English words came actually from the Quran. I'll give you a few examples. Maraja al-Bahraini al-Taqiyan. I made a list at the beginning of the Clear Quran Dictionary of those 100 words. Maraja, we have the word in English, merge. Merge. They mean the same thing. They sound the same. Kahf and cave. Ifk and fake. Salid and sald. Fatarakahu salda. Even words like inherit, narrate, and so on and so forth. SubhanAllah, it's very interesting. So my next advice would be you need to think and reflect and free your mind and read the ayah before and the ayah after to get the full picture. And it's also important to read the writings of some of the greatest minds in Islamic history who put so much time in understanding the Quran in Arabic. They studied Nahw and Sarf and Balagha. They studied Tafsir, Ulum al-Quran, Azbab al-Nuzul. So they studied so many sciences so they can reflect on the Quran and give us those gems. You have people like al-Fakhri al-Razi. You have people like al-Zamakhshari al-Kashshaf, who was a genius of the Arabic language. You have people like al-Baydawi, al-Alusi, al-Tahreer wal-Tanweer, al-Tahir ibn Ashur. These are giants of tadabbur. If you don't have the time to do tadabbur yourself, you can learn from the gems of those scholars. And subhanAllah, the scholars of Islam, from the time of Abdullah ibn Abbas, from the time of Rasulullah Isa A.S. until Yawm al-Qiyamah, they will always read the Quran and find a lot of gems in the Quran. And this is one of the unique features of the Quran. Like if you read a book, let's say a story or a novel or whatever story you read, you read it once,
khalas, you are done with it. But the Quran, the more you read it, the more gems you will discover. The sweeter the Quran becomes. And as I said, generations after generations till Yawm al-Qiyamah, every time a scholar or a generation reads the Quran, they will always find gems that were not discovered by the previous generation. And you can never find this with anything except the book of Allah Subhanahu wa ta'ala. So I hope this will help, inshAllah. There are so many other tips, but I hope this will help inshAllah wa ta'ala. BarakAllahu feekum, Dr. Mustafa. And of course, that was a very humble push, but for those who are listening, there's no doubt whatsoever. And I say this very generally, that the clear Quran is one of the best translations that we have right now, alhamdulillah, mashaAllah. And the clear Quran dictionary is extremely useful for all of those who want to maybe expedite or perhaps, yeah, maybe expedite your learning of the language of the Quran. It will help you immensely, as well as the clear Quran for kids. I wanna give an example, BarakAllahu feekum, for all your efforts and the entire team. I wanna give an example of Tadabbur in one of the narrations that the Prophet Sallallahu Alaihi Wasallam was reciting an ayah and repeating it, and reciting it and repeating it over and over and over. And oftentimes, you don't keep repeating the ayah over and over and over, unless there's some kind of emotional connection. There's a deep thought and contemplation. There's something that's being evoked. And in this particular report, I believe it was the ayah, IntuAAadhibum fa-innahu mi'ibaduk wa-intalfirul laum fa-innaka anta alAAazitul hakeem. Translated as, and we have Dr. Mustafa here, so I should never be doing translation while he's with us. Loosely translated as, if you forgive them, they are, if you punish them, they are your servants. Oh, Allah, if you punish them, they are your servants. And if you decide to forgive them or to have mercy on them, then you are the Almighty, you are al-Aziz, you are in control, you have the decision,
you have the power. Fa-innaka anta alAAazitul hakeem. And you are the all-wise, meaning based on your wisdom, you know who deserves to be punished and who deserves to be forgiven. And this was in the context of Surah Al-Ma'idah and the Dua of Isa Alayhi Salaam. But think about how Prophet Muhammad Sallallahu Alaihi Wasallam in a way was engaged in this deep contemplation. And obviously, as a messenger of mercy, he wants all people to be guided. The Prophet Sallallahu Alaihi Wasallam is constantly concerned, even with those who abused him and attacked him, even with the Islamophobes of today and the bigots of tomorrow, Prophet Sallallahu Alaihi Wasallam wanted people to be guided and would constantly try and try and try. Even if they would reject the message numerous times, he would keep trying to give them the means, the signs, the ayat, until some of them were ready to finally accept the truth and others did not. But think about how he felt Sallallahu Alaihi Wasallam. With many examples, all of us from our lived experiences of a day or a time in which perhaps you were going through something or you were experiencing something in life in which you needed a reminder. And because of your daily connection to the Quran, you ended up reciting an ayah and you thought about it and you just reflected and you said, you know what, this isn't what I needed today. The more you connect with the Quran, the more likely you are to experience those kinds of beautiful reminders and moments in which we are in need of motivation, resilience, comfort, healing, guidance, and so on and so forth. Shifaun lima fissudhoor It is a healing for what is in the hearts. We are in need of it. May Allah Subh'anaHu Wa Ta-A'la keep us consistent. So tadafur comes in different forms in terms of the practice, but at the end of the day, it's for you to take your time with it, to reflect deeply on it, to reflect on the names of Allah mentioned in certain ayat, to reflect on the pairings of some of the names of Allah Subh'anaHu Wa Ta-A'la that are always or frequently together, to reflect on, as Dr. Mustafa said, the ayats that came before and the ayats that are coming after, and some of the lessons that you will find.
And if you feel like you're struggling to do so, it helps to begin listening to a video series on the Quran from scholars and people of knowledge. Tafsir is not easy, by the way, and translation is not easy, by the way. So anyone who's taken on that journey of translating the Quran or the tafsir of the Quran, a lot of knowledge was required for that. An immense amount of effort was required for that. May Allah Subh'anaHu Wa Ta-A'la put barakah in the efforts of all of our brothers and sisters who put forth these gems so that we can benefit from them, from their efforts. So I would recommend utilizing some of the common video series from trustworthy scholars and organizations so that you are able to take the end product. Oh, this is a point of reflection I had not considered. Amongst them is the organization Quran Reflect. They're doing a wonderful job with, basically with tadabbur. And this is a way for you to practice, inshallah ta'ala. Shaykh, now I wanted to ask this question because it's on a lot of people's minds. Today, in the era of technology and social media and very short attention spans, as a number of studies have found, and many people are anecdotally reporting that they have short attention spans. They can't focus for long because different types of technologies or social media apps are bombarding people with quick messages and clips and trying to grab their attention as quickly as possible, unfortunately. So many people today are feeling like they are distracted, always distracted when reading the Quran. This applies to many other things, but let's talk about just the Quran. Last week, we were exploring basically this topic of focusing when we're engaging with the speech of Allah Subh'anaHu Wa Ta-A'la. What are some advices or what's an advice you could share about how to overcome the mental distractions that for many people make it more difficult or very difficult to reflect deeply on the Quran? What can they do when they sit down to actually read the Quran in a very practical sense? My advice to people who want to do tadabbur on the Quran,
connect with the Quran on a personal level and give time to the Quran. Give time to the Quran. Like if you say that I want to do tadabbur but I don't have time for the Quran, this is just like someone who says, I want to die in sajda, but they don't even pray. So basically you need to give it time, just like anything in our lives. If you want your marriage to succeed, you have to give it time. If you want to learn a new language, you have to give it time. You know what? There is this brother, his name is Nasir. He is Chinese, but he's Muslim. He came to Jordan to learn the Arabic language and he came across this Jordanian lady. Her name is Hadeel, I believe. They have a video on YouTube that talks about their life together and they got married. And because of his love for his wife, Hadeel, Nasir learned the Arabic language. Now he speaks fluently, mashallah, because of his love for his wife. Now, if you really love Allah Subh'anaHu Wa Ta-A'la, you have to give more time and more effort to learn the Quran, the word of Allah Subh'anaHu Wa Ta-A'la. And I always find a lot of motivation in the story of Nasir and Hadeel. You know, he was motivated by love. And I think we can do the same thing with the Quran, even though it deserves more from us, but if you love the book of Allah Subh'anaHu Wa Ta-A'la, you will give it the time and the attention that it deserves. Read the Quran. And as I said, the Quran is the word of Allah Subh'anaHu Wa Ta-A'la. The Quran can transform your life in a positive way. The Quran can solve all of your problems. You talk to Allah Subh'anaHu Wa Ta-A'la. I spoke earlier about shifa, and I forgot to give an example. And this is a true story I heard from one of the shuyukh. He's my friend, he lives in the UK. I have to tell you this story. I know Sheikh Suleiman would like the story.
So he says that he had a relative in Egypt many years ago, we're talking about the 1970s, and his relative had an ear infection. So he went to the doctor, he checked him, yes, you have an ear infection, and he gave him tablets. And he says, every six, eight hours, take one pill, take one tablet. And I want to see you after three days. However, the patient didn't wait for three days. He came first thing in the morning. And he said to the doctor, I took the first tablet, I was in pain. I took the second tablet, I was crying. I took the third one, I couldn't sleep at night. And this is why I came. So the doctor said, SubhanAllah, let me check you. And he examined his ear, and to his surprise, he found the three tablets stuffed inside his ear. So the medication was correct, but the way of applying or using it was not the right way. So I think once you understand whose speech the Quran is, why Allah Subhanahu wa ta'ala sent the Quran, and your job in this world as a abd to Allah Subhanahu wa ta'ala, you live your life according to this book, and you have to connect with it. So once you understand this relationship and your duty towards the Quran, it will be easy for you to do tadabur. If you don't have time for the Quran, I'm sure you can make the time, just like you make time for a lot of unnecessary activities in our lives. I'm sure you can find and make the time for the Quran, inshallah. And wallahi, some of the ulama, Sheikh Ibn Taymiyya, Sheikh Ibn Al-Qayyim, Sheikh Fulan, those people, they spend a lot, a big portion of their life studying the Quran and reading the Quran, but they did other things like fatwa on the side, a lot of things like seerah on the side, and before they died, they seemed to agree, you know, based on the things that they said,
they said, I wish I dedicated more time to the Quran. I wish I gave all my life to the Quran. And these people would spend many years studying the Quran, but they wish they spent, they dedicated their whole lives studying the Quran. And I think this is something that we can learn from, inshallah. Jazakumullahu khairan, Sheikh. BarakAllahu khairan. A beautiful example and very funny story. I've never heard that before, subhanAllah. I like the emphasis by many academics and researchers, many psychologists who are trying to kind of raise the alarm. I know this seems like a side point, a tangent here. For those who feel like they have no focus whatsoever because of their own habits, because of their own choices, because of the apps that they use. Although the advice here is not just about the Quran, it's a very general advice. A lot of the recommendations are for you to cut down on the things that prevent you from focusing more. So if you find yourself always distracted, you have like a million different apps, 20 different apps, always notifying you, notifying you or giving you notifications, always interrupting your work, your studies, your Quran session, then you need to decrease these things by choice. And it is a choice that you have to make, even if it's not an easy one, because eventually these bad habits will cause us to take in a lot of what's called intellectual junk, and it's not beneficial. And it affects your relationship with the Quran as well as it will affect your relationship with focusing on other tasks in life. But you have a limited amount of time in this world. You have limited capacity in your day. You have a limited capacity in your mind as well, mentally, that you are taking in certain things that will affect you in different ways. So you wanna take in that which is beneficial while also trying to improve your daily relationship with the Quran. I know it seems like a side point, but it is related because it's more of a lifestyle, more of a habit that many people have today,
where they're taking in a lot of harmful things, and then they say, well, I can't focus. Or they take in a lot of, for example, actually, a lot of people say they don't have time. And you realize when you do like one-on-one session with them or you talk to them or you help them out, they actually spend, even though these apps are 20, 30 second videos, they actually spend two to three hours a day on some of these social media apps and other things and video games. And so let's be honest with ourselves as well. If you want to connect with the Quran deeply, it's important to have a specific time, a habit of a specific time, rather than just waiting until you're free, because you have to free up the time for the Quran because it's a priority. In other words, if you don't prioritize it, you're not going to get much out of it. And if you're looking for the healing and the blessings of the Quran, read the Quran in proportion to how much happiness you want. Engage with the Quran in proportion to how much shifa you want. Engage with tadabbur in proportion to how much tranquility and peace you desire. The more you put in out of gratitude to Allah and recognition of what the Quran is, and you cut off distractions, you have your own time, maybe your own space, you have a countdown timer and everything else is ignored at that time. You flip your phone, you put it away, whatever it may be, focus on the Quran during that time. It's between you and Allah Subh'anaHu Wa Ta-A'la. And of course, if you are a part of a family, we want to teach our children as well, our families, our communities, the importance of connecting to the Quran as a family to show them rather than just to tell them, because many youth are telling us, their parents tell them, do tadabbur, learn tafseer, read the translation of Dr. Mustafa Qattab, but then the parents themselves are not showing the children how it's done. And so we encourage the parents out there as well to engage with tadabbur, with your family, as a family, and this is perhaps a beautiful, blessed gathering for a family to have. And as you sit down, repetition is beneficial. If you don't understand, read the tafseer, read the translation as well. And remember this, one of the traps of Shaytan, if you are very dedicated to doing your Quran every single day, and I pray that we are,
then the next step is not for you to cut it off, but rather to you be interrupted by a righteous deed, something good, but it's of a lower priority than what you're doing right now. So one of the tricks of Shaytan is actually, after a certain point, to distract someone from good with another type of good. Focus on what you need to get done, prioritize it, and as one of the brothers said when I was talking to him about making this really important in his life, he said, I realized from all the things that you said about tadabbur and a relationship with the Quran, the thing that helped me most was to think of the Quran not as a side task, or a side goal, or a side anything, rather it is one of the main aspects of my life. When you make it a part of your life mission, the same way you have to eat, in the same way, more importantly, you have to pray your five prayers, he said the Quran is like that for me. When I started to think of it like that, tadabbur became easier for me. We ask Allah Subh'anaHu Wa Ta-A'la to purify our hearts and to make us receptive to his speech, Allahumma ameen. Dr. Mustafa, jazakumullah khayran for your time, for your efforts as we wrap up the episode. May Allah Subh'anaHu Wa Ta-A'la accept from you and your family for all that you're doing. If I may ask Dr. Mustafa, is there a particular book or project or translation that you're working on right now, or the team is working on now, that we can look forward to inshallah in coming months? Insha'Allah, I've retired from the imam job after working as an imam for 17 years, so I can focus on the second half of the clear Quran for kids. And I will also inshallah in the future be teaching the clear Quran dictionary, and we'll be soon releasing an app inshallah on the clear Quran dictionary, inshallah wa ta'ala. I wanted to add one thing, if you allow me a few seconds inshallah, because I didn't give examples from like personal tadabur on the Quran. Do we have time? Follow Sheikh, yeah. So SubhanAllah, I said that till yawm al-qiyamah, the day of judgment, the ulama will find gems in the Quran. Let me share two quick examples, inshallah. Number one, when I was young,
I used to think a lot about this ayah in surah Hud, surah 11, ayah 71. wa-mra'atu qa'imatun fa-dhahikat fa-basharnaha bi-ishaq. So the wife of Ibrahim alayhi salam, Sarah was standing there, she smiled when the angels were talking to Ibrahim alayhi salam. When she smiled, the angels give her the good news of the birth of a child whose name will be Ishaq. And I said, what is the connection between her smiling and getting the news of a child by the name of Ishaq? SubhanAllah, I came across a book that was written, it was released in 1993 by an Egyptian scholar, his name was Abdul Ra'uf Abu Si'adah. He listed all the non-Arabic names in the Quran, like because Ibrahim, Ismail, Ishaq, all these names come from a non-Arab background and now they are used in the Quran, so they have been Arabized. He proved in his book, two volumes, that every single non-Arabic name in the Quran has a meaning in its original language, and this meaning in the original language has been incorporated in the verse without you knowing the meaning. Every single name of them. I'll give you a couple of examples. Ishaq, ma'atu qa'imatun fa-dhahikat, she smiled, we gave her the news of the birth of a child whose name will be the smiling one, because Ishaq in Hebrew, like it haq in Arabic, smiling one. Wa min wara Ishaq Ya'qub, and after Ishaq Ya'qub, and Ya'qub in Hebrew also means the one who comes fi yaqib, behind. Suleiman, wa aslamtu ma'a Suleiman, in the book it says Suleiman means the one who aslamat, taslim, aslamtu ma'a Suleiman, I submitted with the one who submits. Musa in the ancient Egyptian language, Musa means Walid, little boy.
Alam nu rabbika feena walida, did we not raise you as a little boy? Fir'aun in the ancient Egyptian language of hieroglyphics, it means the big tower. Wa qara fir'aun ya ha manu bnili sarhan, fir'aun means sarhan, and so on and so forth, every single name. So this is a beautiful tadabbur that all the meanings are given in the Quran without you knowing the meaning, and subhanAllah, the meaning is given based on the ancient language, Hebrew, Aramaic, ancient Egyptian, and so on and so forth. One last point, inshallah. This is the personal tadabbur I did a long time ago, because I'm always interested in the stories that are mentioned in the Quran. They're mentioned in every single surah. So one of the challenging examples is surah Yunus. So subhanAllah, I noticed that the story of Nuh, Musa, Yunus are mentioned in this surah, no other stories. And I used to ask myself, why are these three particular stories? Then I realized that subhanAllah, this surah focuses so much on water and rain, water and rain. There are about seven examples of rain and water being mentioned in this surah. Like, jannatin tajree min tahtiha al-anhar namma mathur al-hayati al-dunya kama in anzalnahu min al-samal Like, the rain we send over the sky. huwa allathee yusayyirukum fil barri wal-bahar He talks about the punishment of the wicked in Jahannam, that they will be drinking this boiling water. So water, water, rain, water. And I realized that subhanAllah, these three stories are probably the only stories in the Quran that end with water. The story of Nuh ended with the flood. The story of Musa alayhi salam ended with the drowning of Pharaoh. And the story of Yunus alayhi salam ended with Yunus alayhi salam being in the belly of the whale in water. So there is a lot subhanAllah,
but you need to give it the time and you need to give it the attention that it deserves to come to these conclusions, alhamdulillah. Sorry for taking so much time. This is my passion. Jazakumullahu khairan, Dr. Mustafa. No apologies. That's beautiful, beautiful reflection. We're always in need of more of these reflections. May I ask Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala to accept from all of us and to guide us and to elevate our ranks and to keep us connected to the Quran and to grant us beneficial knowledge, like the knowledge that was discussed over the course of this episode, alhamdulillah. Jazakumullahu khairan, Dr. Mustafa. Thank you for your time. May Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala accept from you and bless you and reward you for all of our brothers and sisters who are listening, this Quran convo has come to an end, but we invite you to join us for the upcoming episodes, inshallah ta'ala. And we invite you as well to start your own habit if you have not yet already. Your own habit of connecting with the Quran on a daily basis. Start today and engage with it with a high level of tadabbur, to contemplate, reflect on what you are reading. We will see you next time, inshallah. Wassalamualaikum warahmatullahi wabarakatuh.
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