Reading the Qur’an Like a Love Letter | Mufti Abdul Rahman Waheed | Miftaah Circle

Reading the Qur'an Like a Love Letter

بِسْمِ اللهِ الرَّحْمٰنِ الرَّحِيمِ، نَحْمَدُهُ وَنُصَلِّي عَلَى رَسُولِهِ الْكَرِيمِ، أَمَّا بَعْدُ.

I will tell you a true story. And based on this true story, I'll draw a parallel to conclude Shaykh Mikhael Smith's discussion — he wasn't finishing, so he's gonna let me conclude the discussion.

The Story of the Woman Who Missed Her Husband

There was a woman who was in Karachi, Pakistan. She was in her late 20s. She was coming back after a month's trip from America to Pakistan. She had a two-year-old child with her. And she speaks to her husband at the airport, saying, inshallah, when I get to the city — I'm not gonna mention the city, but the city in America that she's gonna get to — I'll see you there. And they're just excited to see each other after a month.

When she arrives at the airport with her two-year-old baby, her husband doesn't come pick her up. It's actually her husband's brother — her brother-in-law — and her mother-in-law. And the cutest moment of a child is when you meet them after two weeks, three weeks — that first few minutes. After that, it becomes havoc. But just the first few minutes is like a beautiful experience.

And so the baby is looking for his father. The father's not there. She right away asks, she says, where is my husband? The brother-in-law says to her, he's at home, just come with us, he couldn't make it. So she sits in the car and makes her way to the house. Upon getting to the house, she finds out that her husband had passed away. Her husband passes away in the time that she was on her flight back from Pakistan to this country. So she missed out on seeing her husband one last time.

The People Who Traveled to Meet the Prophet ﷺ

There were a group of people that came from Yemen at the time of the Prophet ﷺ. In those days, it wasn't as quick as it is today. I decided to come from Michigan to Chicago, jumped in the car — four hours later, I was here. There was preparation. They had to get everyone together. And there was an honor of accepting Islam in the hand of the Prophet ﷺ. So these people were getting together. They got together. And then they're traveling towards Medina.

You know, a poet, he says:

He says, oh Prophet of Allah ﷺ, talking about Medina — if I were to walk on my eyes, not on my feet: لَوْ جِئْتُكُمْ قَاصِدًا أَمْشِي عَلَى بَصَرِي — if I were to walk on my eyes to get to your city, مَا أَدَّيْتُ حَقًّا — I have not fulfilled any right. وَأَيُّ الْحَقِّ أَدَّيْتُ — How can an insufficient, imperfect person like me fulfill any right of the Prophet ﷺ?

Now these people are getting closer and closer to the city of the Prophet ﷺ. And as they start seeing the landmarks, the poet says: وَأَبْرَحُ مَا يَكُونُ الشَّوْقُ يَوْمًا إِذَا دَنَتِ الْخِيَامُ إِلَى الْخِيَامِ — the enthusiasm and the excitement, it just gets ignited as the landmarks get closer to you. You start seeing Mount Uhud from far away. It even happens to us — whose iman is weak. Imagine those people.

He says: وَلَمَّا رَأَيْنَا رُسُومَ مَنْ لَمْ يَدَعْ لَنَا — the moment our eyes fell upon the landmarks, the rusoom, the things that reminded us of the Prophet ﷺ. This well, or the green dome, or Mount Uhud — he stood here, he drank from here — these rusoom. He said, the moment our eyes fell on the rusoom of our beloved.

Brothers and sisters, wallahi you won't understand this until you start seeing the rusoom of your brother who passed away. When you start seeing the clothes that he wore once, the car that he sat in once — sometimes even the food that he liked, sometimes even the things of enjoyment that you used to enjoy together. Jet skiing — but the next time you go, it's emotional. Because that reminds you of your beloved.

فُؤَادًا لِعِرْفَانِ الرُّسُومِ وَلَا لُبَّا — He says, wallahi, seeing our beloved, our heart could not even withstand seeing the rusoom of our beloved. We did not even have the heart to comprehend seeing the rusoom, the athar, the traces of our beloved. But all we could do — نَزَلْنَا عَنِ الْأَكْوَارِ نَمْشِي كَرَامَةً — we got off of our camels and our horses, just because we're close to the city of our beloved ﷺ. It's like — what would the world think of us? That we rode on our camels to the footstep of the Prophet ﷺ? We walked to the Prophet ﷺ.

And that's why they say most of the Salaf as-Saleheen, when they got to Dhul-Hulaifah, they walked six kilometers. And that's why the poet says:

He's saying a person — the moment you get closer to the green dome and the moment you see the green dome — you should fall in sajda and shukr to Allah. Oh Allah, I don't deserve to be here, and so I'm grateful to You. But you're so fixated on the green dome that you're telling Allah, Oh Allah, I'm not falling in sajda, but my tears are falling in sajda. That's what this poet is saying — and he is blind. His name is Professor Iqbal Azeem. He couldn't even see the green dome, but he is saying this.

They Arrived — and He Was Gone

These people then finally enter into the masjid of the Prophet ﷺ. When they enter there, they see Abu Bakr sitting on the minbar. The Prophet had passed away.

You know that lady who came from Pakistan, got home, and her husband had passed away? These people made this long journey to the city of the Prophet ﷺ. And the moment they got there, they realized they missed him. You know how you ever see someone who misses a flight? Missed a flight overseas. Missed a flight to Umrah. They missed the Prophet ﷺ.

To the brothers who are sitting here — I'm from Detroit, I have my own way of talking — Uwais al-Qarni. Wallahi, I searched for this for so long. I wanted to find out that finally when he came to Medina, what was his reaction? Because he couldn't come during the Prophet's ﷺ lifetime. It comes in the books of history that when he finally arrived in Medina, he used to write letters to the Prophet ﷺ. But he missed him. And when he finally arrived in Medina, wallahi, he fainted every few steps. He fainted. He said, I can't stay here.

Bilal couldn't stay there — he just left for twenty years. They say the first few days after the Prophet's ﷺ janazah, a man came from Sham who was a Christian. He walked into the masjid of the Prophet ﷺ and he said, As-salamu alayka ya Rasulallah. The Prophet had passed away. But assuming Abu Bakr was a Prophet of Allah, he said, As-salamu alayka ya Rasulallah. The Sahaba wept — because they hadn't heard "Ya Rasulallah" in days. They started weeping.

Brothers and sisters, these people missed out on the Prophet ﷺ. We missed out on him by 1,400 years. We missed that train.

But He Left Us a Letter

But you know what's interesting? That mother — after a few days — her mother-in-law tells her, Beti, come here. My son wrote you a letter. My son wrote you a letter. Here's the letter.

How do you think she's gonna read that letter? How do you think she read that letter? She got that letter. It was a letter from her beloved that she missed out on. She goes into that room in a private moment, opens that letter, the envelope.

We get letters from people we love who we can't meet all the time. When we get their letters, it's totally different. Every word means something. Shaykh Mikhael was speaking about that earlier — you get fixated on every word. I remember my dad's first letter he wrote to us after my brother passed away. We were waiting for it. We read it so many times. My mom still reads it.

So this woman gets a letter from her late husband. You all know what attention to detail she had when she was reading that letter.

These people that came from Yemen — they missed the Prophet ﷺ. Abu Bakr meets them, they take the shahada. He makes them sit on the side, and then he has one of the Sahaba sit with them and recite Qur'an to them. And as this man started reciting Qur'an, they started weeping. Because this was something the Prophet ﷺ left for them.

The Prophet ﷺ was the means for the Qur'an to reach the ummah. He was the messenger. He conveyed the message. He left us with a message — which is the Qur'an, the letter. Now when they missed out on the Prophet ﷺ, and now they're like — he left us something? Yes.

الْحَمْدُ لِلَّهِ رَبِّ الْعَالَمِينَ — Boom! They started crying.

Abu Bakr says:

Abu Bakr said: "We were just like this — then our hearts became hard."

Read the Qur'an Like a Love Letter

Brothers and sisters, the next time you open the Qur'an, remember — you missed out on the Prophet ﷺ, but you never missed out on his message. Read the Qur'an like a person would read the will of a loved one.

If you don't even have the heart and the decency to take out time to read a will from your mother who passed away, from your father who passed away — the most enjoyable thing for us brothers to do is to read my youngest brother's last messages. It's pinned on our phone. It means something completely different. That's like the last thing we can get from him — the words that he left for us, the voice notes that he left for us.

Next time you open the Qur'an, remind yourself — it was not from Allah's wisdom that we weren't born at the Prophet's time, but he left us with his message. So look at this Qur'an like a person would look at the will of a loved one who left this world.

As-Salaamu Alaikum Warahmatullahi Wabarakatuhu.