If We Can’t Answer This Question

If We Can't Answer This Question

So people come to you today, they say Islam is about good manners. Just be good to people. Keep it simple.

There's no beliefs, no aqaid, nothing like that. Don't go against the grain, take it easy. Qur'an, mashaAllah, my son — my son read, he's read the whole Qur'an to his teacher, his maulana, his sheikh, his mu'allim.

MashaAllah. Can your son explain to me:

Just tell me the meaning of الصَّمَد — assamad. Everybody here, I challenge you to ask your children this question: What is the meaning of Allahu assamad? That's it.

If they can't answer the question, you know, and I know, we are walking the same footsteps of Banu Israel. Because they don't know the meaning of a small surah, which is a third of the Qur'an. That's how the Prophet described it.

They don't know the meaning of this surah. It will only be a matter of time before our grandchildren will say, mashaAllah, I can recite the whole Qur'an, but I don't know what it means. It's okay, that's my relationship with the Qur'an.

The Reality of Hifth in Our Community

We have huffadh — memorizers of the Qur'an — and this community boasts a large number of huffadh. I will ask, I challenge you all: line up the huffadh, ask them to explain Allahu assamad. Line them up.

Because the Sahabah were not impressed by hifth. In Al-Itqan, Imam al-Suyuti — Jalaluddin al-Suyuti — in his book Al-Itqan fi 'Ulum al-Qur'an, he counts the number of Sahabah that were huffadh, memorizers of the Qur'an, and he says they were under 50. The day the Prophet ﷺ passed away, there were 100,000 Sahabah, and from them, 50 to 100 had memorized the Qur'an.