Joe Bradford

As-salāmu ʿalaykum wa-rahmatullāhi wa-barakātuh. As-salāmu ʿalaykum wa-rahmatullāhi wa-barakātuh. Ḥayy ʿalā ṣ-ṣalāh.

Read, and your Lord is most generous.

You might find that this situation is strange. That you don't know how to process it, O Muhammad.

But your Lord, the one you're searching for, is not just generous, He's more generous than anyone could ever be generous. So as you will find hardship now, and you've seen hardship, better things are yet to come.

Better things are yet to come from who? From the one who taught mankind the way of the pen.

He taught them literacy, O illiterate man. He taught them how to record history, O person who doesn't know how to read and write.

He taught mankind that which they do not know.

The Beginning of Islamic Scholarship

So O you who these verses have been revealed to, this is a sign that not only will you recite in the name of your Lord, but people will record from you, from your Lord, both the revelation that's revealed to you, and they will write tomes and volumes and volumes about you and this revelation. This was the beginning of the tradition of scholarship within the Muslim community. That there would be a tradition of reading and writing.

That there would be a tradition of transmission and narration. That there would be a tradition of recitation and reading. That at this time the Prophet ﷺ would not understand in the cave of Hira, but would eventually, before the end of his life, he would know that all of this was from Allah and it would all be recorded so that we nowadays read about Him and hear about Him and memorize the verses of the Qur'an revealed to him and read and memorize the statements that he ﷺ said to his companions.

(Jami' at-Tirmidhi)

The Prophet ﷺ, he said, "May Allah illuminate the one who hears the words that I say and then transmits them to those who have not heard them."

The Illiterate Nation and Divine Wisdom

He taught man that which he does not know.

(Sahih al-Bukhari)

The Prophet ﷺ in a hadith he said, "We are an illiterate nation. We do not count nor do we approximate." The Prophet ﷺ in this hadith was talking about the days of the month for Ramadan. He said the month is like this and he showed his fingers three times or like this showing two sets of ten and then one set of nine or three sets of ten. Twenty-nine or thirty days.

The Prophet ﷺ in this hadith however was not saying that illiteracy is somehow a praiseworthy trait. Illiteracy in everyone except the Prophet ﷺ is a bad thing. But in him ﷺ it's a point of his perfection as a person. Why? Because it shows us the power of Allah to bring about all of this knowledge from someone who is illiterate. Just as for each and every one of us to have a child is considered something that is from our kamal, from our perfection, from those things that complete us. But Allah it's not from his perfection to have a child. So there's a difference.

The Prophet ﷺ was describing his ummah at that time saying that we are an ummah that operates according to the basics. But he also, when Abu Shah from Yemen came to him during Hajjatul Wada'a, during the farewell pilgrimage, he ﷺ said, اُكْتُبُوا لِأَبِي شَاهٍ "Write what I'm saying down for Abu Shah." Because Abu Shah complained. He said, I'm not a man who memorizes like you people here in the peninsula. I'm from Yemen. We write things down. He said, then write down the sermon that I've given today for Abu Shah.

Levels of Islamic Literacy

There are different levels of literacy and different functions that being literate take in society. And I briefly want to talk about our literacy as Muslims in the community.

Jabir ibn Abdullah r.a he said, "We learned Iman and then we learned the Qur'an. And it increased us in our Iman."

So there's a basic level of Iman, a basic level of our faith that we all understand. It doesn't go into too much detail. But we understand who Allah is. We understand who the Prophet is. We understand what Islam is. That's the basic level of literacy that small children are given. When they grow and they can read the Qur'an and they can start to process the meanings therein, then it's important to encourage them to do so.

May Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala bless each and every one of our teachers here in Houston. A city that is best blessed by the Qur'an. A city that just 20 years ago nearly every person leading Tarawih came from outside of the city. And now we export people to lead Tarawih in other cities because of the madaris and the Qur'an schools that are here.

Above this is what they call الْمَعْلُومُ مِنَ الدِّينِ بِالضَّرُورَةِ Those things that are axiomatic. Those things which are known about our faith by necessity. How to pray. How to fast. Who Allah is. Some of the basics of Iman. These are things that each and every one of us should know.

Beyond Sunday School Islam

But what I want to stress today is having a level higher than this. Because I get messages all the time through my website or social media people saying I'm confused about this issue or that issue. I hear Islamophobes or bigots talking about Islam in this manner and that manner and I don't know what to do. Do you know what the main issue is with those issues? It's not those people saying them. It's that we as a community haven't progressed beyond that basic level of Sunday school Islam.

We are literate in our areas of expertise. We are literate in anthropology and archaeology and medicine and art and science and in English literature. When it comes to our Islamic literature we're operating at a third grade level. This is something that we have to change. This is something that we have to understand that the Prophet ﷺ said:

(Sunan Ibn Majah)

"Seeking knowledge is an obligation for every Muslim." What does that mean? That means that you go beyond just the basics. Just the Sunday school stuff. Get beyond that and take the book of Allah in your hands and read it and understand it. And understand that you won't understand everything in it at the very beginning. But at least be confident enough in approaching Islamic knowledge and processing the information that is found therein with the ideas of devotion to Allah and justice and equity and dignity for yourself and others in mind. So that when you read something you're not surprised. So that when you read something you can tell the difference between what is from the nur and the light given by the Prophet ﷺ and something which is cultural baggage that's simply being mentioned in the books of scholars who came hundreds of years after him ﷺ.

Taking Hold of the Book with Strength

But it all starts with you.

Allah Subhanahu Wa Ta'ala ordered John the Baptist, "Oh John, take the book with strength."

"And those who grasp to the book of Allah, they will be successful."

It starts with us. If we're to follow the tradition of the Prophet ﷺ, if we're to express our love for the Prophet ﷺ, let this month of Rabi'ul Awwal be an expression of that love by educating ourselves and gaining a level of Islamic literacy where we are confident and we can confidently say to our children, to our neighbors, and to our communities, who we are and what we're about. When we can be honest and open about what we believe and how we practice our faith, so that we can be able to combat preemptively any of the doubts that bigots and haters of Islam would try to bring up.

Oh Allah, make us from amongst those that hear the best of what is said and follow the best of it. Oh Allah, forgive us of our sins for we have truly transgressed against ourselves. Oh Allah, forgive us of our sins for we have truly transgressed against ourselves. Oh Allah, make us firm in our feet. And peace be upon the Prophet Muhammad ﷺ and upon his family and companions. And establish prayer.