Living the Qur’an Through Its Names | Jumu'ah Khutbah | Dr. AbdulRazzak Junaid

Living the Qur'an Through Its Names

I bear witness that there is none worthy of worship except Allah, and that there is none like unto Him. Praise be to Allah, Almighty — our creator, the originator and designer of the heavens and the earth — and upon the best of creation, Muhammad صلى الله عليه وسلم.

We send our salutations upon him, his family, his companions, and all those that follow them in goodness till the end of times.

My dear respected brothers and sisters, many of us want to strengthen our relationship with حَبْلُ اللَّهِ الْمَتِين — we want to strengthen our relationship with the book of Allah. But sometimes we approach it with our own thoughts, rather than approaching the book of Allah as Allah intended for us to have a relationship with كَلَامُ الرَّحْمَن — with the speech, the eternal speech of Allah.

They say:

The one who does not know you will not value you.

If you have, for example, one of the best doctors in the world walk into a hospital and they don't know who he is — can they benefit from him? If you have one of the grand scholars of the world step foot into a masjid and you don't know — he's not wearing his garment or so — will you know that this person is one of the greatest scholars? So for us to truly benefit from the Quran and to value it in our lives, we have to know: what did Allah say about the Quran? What does the Quran have to say about the Quran?

We all know that Allah gave and revealed to us the beautiful 99 names of His. وَلِلَّهِ الْأَسْمَاءُ الْحُسْنَىٰ فَادْعُوهُ بِهَا — and we worship Him through that window of understanding the divine: that He is Al-Rahman, Al-Rahim, and all of His beautiful names.

The Quran also has names, and our relationship with the book of Allah should be transformed based on the names and descriptive qualities that Allah gives the Quran itself. There are four names that we are going to discuss today, inshallah, and these are the four names that many of the Mufassirun have mentioned as being the proper names — like Imam Al-Tabari in the introduction to his Tafsir:

The rest of them are descriptive qualities — meaning the Quran is Shifa, but when I say Shifa you don't always think of the Quran — you might think of honey. But when you hear Furqan, you know it's talking about the Quran.

The First Name: Al-Qur'an

The first of these names is Al-Qur'an. What does this mean? This is the verbal noun of the verb قَرَأَ يَقْرَأُ — to recite, to read. It is literally the recital — and not just a book that is recited once or twice. It's not قِرَاءَة. It's فُعْلَان — Qur'an — a book that you have to keep reading, keep reading, keep reading and keep reciting until you meet Allah. It's the recital that you must do every single day, and every believer must have a daily connection with the book of Allah.

Allah says:

Throughout the entire Quran, the ism al-ishara that is used is always the one that is near and dear — Allah doesn't say that Quran. He says this Quran. Meaning for it to be a guide in your life and in my life, it has to be close to us — it has to be with us every single day. And when we do that, it will be our continuous guide: يَهْدِي — it's a present tense verb to show you continuity. It will always guide you. It will guide you as a parent, as a son, as a daughter, in your work, in the community. The Quran will always be your continuous guide if you keep it near and dear and you keep it close. That is the first name: Al-Qur'an.

The Second Name: Al-Kitab

The second name that Allah gives the Quran in the Quran itself is the one we see in Surah Al-Baqarah:

الْكِتَاب — Al-Kitab. The word قُرْآن appears in the Quran over 60 times. الْكِتَاب appears over 250 times — that is the most common name in the Quran itself: the Book.

What does الْكِتَاب mean? When Allah preserved the Quran, He promises:

Allah promised the preservation of the Quran. As for the books that were revealed before:

They were entrusted with it. They failed to keep that responsibility. They distorted it:

They would take out what they didn't like, they would add what they wanted to give themselves power. And of course you see all of the internet memes of the land being promised to them 3,000 years ago — people are laughing at this — why? Because they've distorted the message.

As for the Quran, it was promised by Allah to be preserved. Tens of millions of Huffadh have memorized the Quran. Just within Dallas alone we have thousands of people who memorized the book of Allah from cover to cover. And when we talk about the epistemology and the preservation of the Quran, Allah did not leave it just to the hearts of people. It was preserved:

Not relying on one or the other. The Quran was preserved as an oral tradition through a chain of narration, and it was preserved in writing from the time of the Prophet صلى الله عليه وسلم — where he had dozens of Sahaba as scribes who would literally write the book of Allah. Thousands of Sahaba were memorizing the Quran from his time. And today we have over 4,000 complete manuscripts of the Quran, and over 4,000 incomplete manuscripts — chapters here and there — thousands and thousands of manuscripts of the Quran from the time of the Prophet صلى الله عليه وسلم, century after century after century — from the time where Uthman had it written and copies were made, and even after, where they added marks for the letters by Abul Aswad Al-Du'ali and Imam Al-Farahidi who then wrote the tashkeel. All of the manuscripts over the many centuries, over the many continents — from Sana'a to Topkapi to the Vatican — all across the world, and you will find the same book of Allah.

Alhamdulillah, that we are Ummat Al-Quran. May Allah elevate us to the Quran, ya Rabb. That is the second name.

The Third Name: Al-Furqan

الَّذِي يُفَرِّقُ بَيْنَ الْحَقِّ وَالْبَاطِلِ — the criterion, the one that distinguishes between what is misguidance and what is guidance, what is false and what is truth. That is Al-Furqan.

And you know what is so profound about the names of the Quran — as Imam Al-Alusi mentions in the introduction to his Tafsir — that all of the qualities of the Quran go back to two: Al-Furqan and Al-Kitab/Al-Qur'an. Because قُرْآن linguistically and كِتَاب have the meaning of gathering. When you say مَا قَرَعَتِ النَّاقَةُ — the she-camel has not gathered in the womb the child. And when you say الْكَتِيبَة — the katiba is a battalion, a group of men that are like a unit in an army, gathered together. So it is a book that gathers all that is good, gathers all of the sciences, gathers all of guidance — and it is a book that separates what is real and what is false.

And so, subhanAllah, just as the names of Allah have jalal and jamal — have majesty and beauty, strength and softness — just like that, the Quran and the names that Allah gave to His speech have that majesty and that beauty.

It is a book that when you bring it into your life, it will be noor — as Allah says. Without the Quran, we are in darkness. It is a book that Allah describes as shifa — without the Quran, our hearts will never be at peace, our ummah will never be at peace. We will be in stress, we will be in anxiety, we will have physical ailments. The Quran is our shifa. The Quran is our ruh — without it, we are spiritually dead. A person who does not have Quran in their life is spiritually dead.

The Quran is Mubarak — with it, all of the blessings come and gather into our lives. May Allah bless our homes and our families, ya Rabb. The Quran is huda — guidance. Without it, we are misguided. All paths will look the same without the guidance of the Quran. The Quran is rahma — and how much do we need rahma in today's world? How much mercy do we need in today's world?

The Quran is aziz:

It is a mighty book. It is a book that when you take it into your life, it will bring izzah to you — it will bring izzah to the ummah of Muhammad صلى الله عليه وسلم, our beloved messenger. It is a book that is aziz — meaning that unless you rise up to it, it will not elevate you. Unless you put effort into your relationship with the book of Allah, it will not take you where you need to go. And so just like we always visit our phones, we need to be visiting the Quran more often.

I ask Allah to make us people of Quran.

The Second Khutbah

Alhamdulillahi rabbil 'alamin, wa al-salatu wa al-salamu 'ala sayyidina wa nabiyyina wa habibina Muhammad, wa 'ala alihi wa sahbihi ajma'een.

We discussed three names of the Quran thus far in the khutbah: Al-Qur'an, Al-Kitab, Al-Furqan.

The Fourth Name: Al-Dhikr

The fourth proper name of the Quran — as many of the Mufassirun mentioned, like Al-Tabari — is Al-Dhikr. And when we say dhikr, there are four layers of meaning.

The First Layer: Lahjun bil-Lisan — Recitation with the Tongue

The Quran must be dhikr that we actually do with our tongues.

Remember Me — read the Quran — and I will remember you, I will honor you, I will elevate you. So the Quran must be in our daily routine as tilawah:

Constantly reading the book of Allah.

لَهْجٌ بِاللِّسَان — you must recite the Quran for it to impact your life and to live the Quran as dhikr.

The Second Layer: Al-Tafakkur bil-Janan — Pondering with the Heart

You must ponder over the verses, you must reflect over the verses, so that it could be a means of reminder for you:

So the Quran must be a book that we don't just read for barakah and hasanat, but also to apply into our lives. How much emphasis do we give to our children to memorize the book of Allah? Where is that same level of emphasis for them to learn the Arabic language and then try to implement the teachings of Al-Qur'an Al-Karim? So we must ponder over the verses — al-tafakkur wa al-tadhakkur.

The Third Layer: Al-Istihdar wa 'Adam al-Nisyan — Keeping It Present and Not Forgetting It

We must actually remember the Quran and not forget it in our daily schedules. As Yusha (alayhi al-salam) said:

Dhikr is literally to remember — and Shaytan made him forget. And so we shouldn't let Shaytan make us forget to recite the Quran. We must keep it as part of our lives. And when you remember the Quran, the Quran will remember you.

The Fourth Layer: Al-Sharaf wa al-Fakhr — Honor and Pride

When all three layers exist in a person's life — that they recite the Quran, they ponder over the Quran, they live it every day, they don't forget it, they don't put it on the back burner — the fourth one will exist. And that is al-sharaf wa al-fakhr:

Allah says: We have revealed such a mighty book — in it is your honor, in it is your pride, in it is your remembrance, O ummah of Muhammad صلى الله عليه وسلم.

We cannot expect that the ummah of Muhammad صلى الله عليه وسلم will regain that sharaf, will regain that honor that we had, unless we go back to the Quran. We ask ourselves: how is it that the Muslim ummah is in the situation it is today? Before we ask that, we must ask ourselves: where is my relationship with the book of Allah? Where is my children's relationship with the book of Allah? Once we answer that question, we will get the dhikr that we seek — we'll get the nur, the light of the Quran. We'll get the rahma of the Quran. We'll get the healing of the Quran. We'll get the guidance of the Quran. All of the barakah of the Quran will come once we return back to the book of Allah.

I ask Allah to make all of us from the people of Quran.

We ask Allah to grant us the tilawa of the Quran in the night and in the day. I ask Allah to make the Quran a light for us, a guide for us, a rahma for us. And I ask Allah to grant izzah to Islam and al-muslimeen through Al-Qur'an Al-Karim.

I ask Allah to grant izzah to the believers through Al-Qur'an Al-Karim.