Nine Keys to Tadabbur of the Qur’an | Jumu'ah Khutbah | Dr. AbdulRazzak Junaid

Nine Keys to Tadabbur of the Qur'an

I bear witness that there is none worthy of worship except Allah, and that there is none like unto Him.

Do they not do tadabbur over the Qur'an? Comes four times in the Qur'an. Two times in the context of hypocrites and two times in the context of disbelievers. How can a Muslim not do tadabbur over the Qur'an?

And what is tadabbur? Tadabbur is النظر في العواقب من دبور الشيء - to look at the end result of something. When you say tafsir, that's to understand the book of Allah. But what do you do when you understand it? Is the Qur'an a book just to be understood and not practiced?

You know, there's a word that we always say, تلاوة of Qur'an. تلاوة is not just to recite. Nobody does تلاوة of a newspaper. تلاوة is not of what you don't intend to follow. تلاوة is to read and then also to put to practice.

So when we do تلاوة of Qur'an, we read it not just like we read any other book, but we read it with the intention that, ya Allah, what you say in your ayat, I will put in my life. That's tadabbur. To look, I understand this ayah, whether through the translation or whether through general Arabic and the different levels of scholarship that a person can achieve by striving. What are you going to do now with the book of Allah?

And so today's khutbah, I'm going to give nine keys that will help all of us engage with the book of Allah and to unlock the secrets of the Qur'an and for us to have a live relationship with the book of Allah. Nine different words that begin with a letter ت.

First Key: التطهير (Purification)

The first of them being التطهير. When you approach the book of Allah, you should approach it purified. And we immediately go to wudu. Of course, that's the physical purification and doing miswak because the mouth, they're pathways of the Qur'an. طُرُق لِلْقُرْآنِ How can you recite something and the mouth is yet not cleaned and the body has not, you have not yet done wudu. To come clean physically but also spiritually, also in your heart.

Allah makes oaths by the celestial bodies:

By the sun, by the moon, by the night, by the day, and then:

He is successful, the one who purifies his nafs. And he perishes, the one who corrupts it. May Allah purify our hearts, Ya Rabbal Alameen. May Allah purify our nafs.

To come to the book of Allah pure, to come into the month of Ramadan and you're ready for the fruits of Ramadan. The ulema, they say, التَّخْلِيَةُ قَبْلَ التَّحْلِيَةِ - Before you can adorn yourself from the light and the fruits of Ramadan, use sha'ban to clean out the bad habits, to leave the sins, to start establishing good habits and leaving those sins. And I ask Allah that we all leave here sinless, Ya Rabbal Alameen. And He accepts from all of us, التَّوْبَةَ اللهم اجعلنا من التوابين.

Second Key: التعظيم (Glorification)

The second thing that a person must do to unlock their relationship with the book of Allah is التعظيم. You must glorify the book of Allah. Allah calls it:

A mighty book. The highest level of speech. The glorious book. They say, كَلَامُ الْمُلُوكِ مُلُوكُ الْكَلَامِ - The speech of kings is the king of speech. That's for human beings. So imagine the speech of رَبُّ الْعَالَمِينَ مَلِكُ الْمُلُوكِ.

When you glorify the Qur'an, you'll see the impact in your heart. And this is what Rasulullah ﷺ taught the sahaba. Who leads the prayer? يَؤُمُّ الْقَوْمَ أَقْرَؤُهُمْ لِكِتَابِ اللَّهِ - The one who leads the prayer is the one who has the most knowledge of the book of Allah.

When the Prophet ﷺ, when they were burying the shuhada of Uhud, they put first those who memorized more of the book of Allah. There was one brother that was so inspired by this. He said, the burial process of Rasulullah ﷺ was done by the one who memorizes the most. How can I be last? And so that inspired him to memorize the whole book of Allah. Ya Allah!

Third Key: التغني (Beautiful Recitation)

The third thing, after glorifying the book of Allah, is when you recite it, to recite it with your heart, with your soul, التغني, to recite it beautifully.

(Sahih al-Bukhari, Hadith 5023)

He is not from us. He does not represent the prophetic method. The one who does not beautify his voice, pours his heart and soul out when they read the book of Allah.

You know, there's a big mistake that people often make in Ramadan especially, when you have all night long, every night, the witr du'a. They look forward to the witr du'a in Qunut more so than the Qur'an because that's when I'm gonna fall into tears. That's when the emotions come out. How is this possible? That when the Qur'an is being recited, we say, hurry up. Imam, hurry up. We want to get to the end of the surah. We have to go home. Look at the clock. But when it comes to the Qunut, we want to give long-standing du'a. And that's the speech of men. How should our response be to the speech of Allah, Rabb al-Alameen? To recite the Qur'an beautifully.

Fourth Key: الترتيل (Measured Recitation)

And the fifth thing is الترتيل:

ترتيل is to recite a measured, clear recitation. The Prophet ﷺ was described by his wives that his recitation was قِرَاءَةٌ مُفَسَّرَةٌ حَرْفًا حَرْفًا - You can hear each and every single letter ﷺ. Every letter was so clear and perfect.

One of the salaf, he mentioned of ترتيل to recite that measured recitation, that clear pronounced recitation. They said تَجْوِيدُ الْحُرُوفِ وَمَعْرِفَةُ الْوُقُوفِ - ترتيل is to recite with تجويد giving each letter its proper right. الحمد لله رب العالمين and to recite knowing where to stop and where to start. Just like in English, you don't put commas and periods wherever you want. The Qur'an is Arabic. So we should read it with understanding and stop at the ending of ayaat. That's ترتيل.

Fifth Key: التأني والتمهل (Taking Time)

The next thing is التأني والتمهل to recite slow, not to make our focus, I want to finish the khatmah, I want to finish the surah, I want to finish the surah, I want to just get over with it. To take your time with the book of Allah.

Allah set the Qur'an over a period of 23 years separated منجم, why? So that it could be given to the sahaba gradually, slowly but surely, step by step. Not to just make our focus finishing, finishing, finishing, but taking one surah, two surahs and deeply pondering over them and applying them in our life.

Umar رضي الله عنه spent over a decade memorizing and studying surah al-Baqarah. Who are we then? May Allah make us people of Qur'an ya Rabb.

Sixth Key: التفاعل (Living with the Qur'an)

The sixth thing is التفاعل. When you read the book of Allah, live with it, live with it. You know, alhamdulillah, in many Muslim countries when the Qur'an is recited, the people they cannot help themselves but saying, subhanAllah, Allahu Akbar, just because of that profound impact of the Qur'an on their hearts.

And this is actually found in the sunnah of Rasulullah ﷺ, where once he recited to them surah ar-Rahman and they didn't have any response. And the Prophet ﷺ tells them, he said, I read surah ar-Rahman to the jinn on the night of the jinn, وَكَانُوا أَحْسَنَ مَرْدُودًا مِنْكُمْ - And their response was much better than you all.

He's talking to the sahaba because every time I said, فَبِأَيِّ آلَاءِ رَبِّكُمَا تُكَذِّبَانِ - Every time the Prophet read the ayah, which of your favors our Lord will we deny? Will you deny? And every single time the Prophet read this, the jinn they would say, لَا بِشَيْءٍ مِّنْ نِعْمِكَ رَبَّنَا نُكَذِّبْ وَلَكَ الْحَمْدُ - There are none of your favors, our Lord, of yours that we deny. And for you is all praise.

The jinn were responding to the ayat. So how should our response, how should our hearts respond to the book of Allah?

Cry when you hear the Qur'an. Cry when you read the Qur'an. Imam al-Nawawi says, البكاء, to cry when you hear the Qur'an, is صفة العارفين. شعار الصالحين - This is a sign of righteousness. Don't think, the brother next to me, the sister next to me, I don't want them to see me cry. Cry. Don't make it about them, make it about you and your relationship with the book of Allah.

Seventh Key: التطبيق (Implementation)

The seventh thing is التطبيق. The Sahaba رضي الله عنهم, when they heard the Qur'an, when they read the Qur'an, they put it to practice.

They were not commanded except to worship Allah. Unfortunately, we have made the tilawah our worship of Allah.

The Practice of the Qur'an

The worship is in putting the ayat into practice and doing amal with the Qur'an. The Sahaba radiyallahu anhum, whenever they would hear a command, they would follow it. Whenever a prohibition would come, they would leave it. When the ayah of hijab came, the Sahabiyyat, the women Sahaba, immediately rushed to put on the hijab. When the ayah of the prohibition of alcohol came, Umar radiyallahu anhum, immediately when the ayah came, he said, انتهينا، انتهينا, we're done with it, we're done. Allah said it, it's done. No more drinking.

When Thabit ibn Qays, who was a very loud companion, خطيب الأنصار, very loud, and he had a very loud voice, and he would be in the presence of Rasulullah ﷺ, and then the ayah was revealed, don't raise your voice over the voice of the Prophet. He stayed home crying, saying, أنا من أهل النار, I'm from the people of hellfire. How could I have raised my voice in front of the Prophet ﷺ?

The Prophet ﷺ was concerned about him, where is Thabit, I haven't seen him in a while. And he asks about him, his neighbor Sa'ad ibn Mu'adh, he said, يا رسول الله, I don't think he's sick, I didn't hear anything. And so Sa'ad went to go check up on him, and then Thabit tells him, that don't you know that I was so loud in front of the Prophet ﷺ, and this verse was revealed, I'm from the people of nahr. اللهم أعذ قريقابنا من النار. Sa'ad went back to the Prophet ﷺ, the Prophet ﷺ told him, tell him he's from the people of Jannah, بل هو من أهل الجنة. May Allah make us people of Jannah, يا رب العالمين.

You see how they immediately put the ayat into practice. May Allah allow us to put the Qur'an into practice, يا رب العالمين.

The Eighth Key: Repetition (التكرار)

The eighth thing is to repeat the verses التكرار. When you hear an ayah that impacts your heart, repeat it, repeat it, repeat it, let it melt away at your heart. Come before Allah and let the Qur'an melt your heart. التكرار.

The Prophet ﷺ, he spent the entire night concerned for all of us, reading,

crying for his ummah, أُمَّتِي أُمَّتِي.

Sa'id, رحمه الله, he spent all night reciting the last verse that was ever revealed.

And he was falling into tears. So many examples of our righteous predecessors that would repeat the verses. I ask Allah to allow the Qur'an to melt our hearts, Ya Rabbal Alameen, and to make us people of Qur'an.

The Ninth Key: Learning from Teachers (التَدَارُس)

My dear brothers and sisters, we have discussed eight of the keys that begin with the letter T that can help us change our relationship with the Qur'an. The ninth of them and the final one and perhaps the most important is التَدَارُس. To have a relationship with a teacher. To have a relationship with a teacher.

The Prophet ﷺ said

(Sahih al-Bukhari, Hadith 5027)

The best of you, the best of all of us are those that learned the Qur'an and teach it. May Allah make us learners and teachers يا رب العالمين.

You know one of the most profound advices that I ever got from one of my teachers in my journey of Qur'an. He said يا عبد الرزاق إِمَّا أَنْ تَقْرَأْ أَوْ تُقْرِئْ. There's no third. Either you read to a teacher or you're listening to your students. Because when you do it by yourself the Qur'an is بالتلقي.

The Prophet ﷺ every Ramadan he would review the Qur'an with Jibreel. The Sahaba رضي الله عنهم, they took it directly from the mouth of Rasulullah ﷺ. The Qur'an is a journey of student and teacher. So find your teachers whoever they may be. May Allah guide us to those that guide us to him عز وجل.

The Example of Ibn Abbas and Mujahid

Ibn Abbas رضي الله عنه, that one companion who the Prophet ﷺ said and made the dua for him اللهم فقهه في الدين وعلمه التأويل. I ask the same for us اللهم فقهنا في الدين وعلمنا التأويل. The Prophet made dua for him to have a deep understanding of the Qur'an. Deep understanding.

His closest and most successful student was the Tabi'i Mujahid. When you open up any book of Tafsir you'll see Mujahid, Mujahid, Mujahid, Mujahid. Why? Because he was the top student of Ibn Abbas. He mentioned of himself that I read the Qur'an to Ibn Abbas رضي الله عنه 30 times. 30 times. And each time I read to him every ayah I would stop and ask him about it. When was it revealed? What does this mean? What does this ayah mean? What is this context? Asking him 30 khatmas. And that's why the scholars of Tafsir they focus so much on the narrations of Mujahid because he literally absorbed the Tafsir of Ibn Abbas.

This can only happen my dear brothers and sisters when we find those righteous teachers that also guide us and take us to learning the book of Allah.

Closing Du'a

I ask Allah to make us people of Qur'an. I ask Allah to impact our hearts with the Qur'an. I ask Allah to bless us in Sha'ban and to allow us to reach the month of Ramadan. I ask Allah to bless us in Sha'ban and to allow us to reach the month of Ramadan. I ask Allah to allow us to reach the month of Ramadan. I ask Allah to allow us to reach the month of Ramadan. I ask Allah to empower Islam and Muslims and to support our weak brothers in Gaza and to support our weak brothers in Palestine and in Sudan and in all Muslim countries O Lord of the worlds. I ask Allah to make us people of Qur'an by stabilizing the situation of Muslims everywhere.

O servants of Allah, Allah commands justice, goodness, وإيتاء ذي القربى وينهى عن الفحشاء والمنكر والبغي يعظكم لعلكم تذكرون. أقول ما تسمعون أقم الصلاة.