A Fresh Start
By Nouman Ali Khan | 2026-01-08T19:01:54.978213+00:00 | Topic: Iman
A Fresh Start - Khutbah by Nouman Ali Khan
The Crisis of Misconceptions About Islam
In my observation, and I'm completely convinced of this, I think that the worst misconceptions about Islam are not held by non-Muslims. As a matter of fact, it's by Muslims. We have a skewed view of what religion really is, what this book really is, what Islam really is, and we carry a lot of those mis-notions our entire life.
And it shapes our view of our religion. And that unfortunately this skewed view and a twisted version of what you might think the religion is, what Islam is, can affect somebody so much it might take them away from their deen. It can just literally take them away.
So here we are, interested in introducing Islam to those that know nothing about Islam. And at the same time, in large numbers, even though people don't say, I'm no longer Muslim anymore. They don't come out and say that.
But in their head and in their hearts, they're distancing and furthering themselves from the light that Allah has revealed. And it's happening in our own families, among friends, and we're not dealing with it. We're not addressing that problem.
The Root of Religious Doubt
So I wanted to start by saying that this problem didn't just come out of a vacuum. Why does somebody start doubting their religion or start feeling a lack of, you know, a commitment to their religion? Where did that come from? It's unfortunately because we as an ummah, and I don't blame any one person or any one group or any one school of thought or anything like that. We collectively, we've unfortunately given a biased message of Islam, whether we realized it or not, through the pulpit.
Meaning the way we communicate the message of Islam, the way we teach the message of Islam. When a young child or a teenager came to the masjid and sat and listen to a khutbah, or listen to whatever lecture, whatever else. Overwhelmingly there were some messages that were there, unfortunately for a long time, that should have been balanced.
But they've been imbalanced. And I want to start with those impressions that a young person gets. And these are not something I collected, I came up with myself.
A Global Phenomenon
This is based on a lot of conversations with a lot of young people from very many different parts of the world. And this is not just Muslim youth living in the West. This is young people I've met in Malaysia, or in the Gulf states, or people that I've met in Europe, or people that I've met in Australia, or here in the United States.
So it's a mix of, you know, places in the Muslim world, and also Muslims living here. And actually, surprisingly, the impressions aren't very different between the two. The misconceptions that our ummah has about Islam itself, aren't very different.
And when I say youth, you might think I'm talking about a small segment of the population. The statistics on the world are staggering. The vast majority of the ummah, maybe over two-thirds, is under the age of 35.
So when I say the youth of the ummah, I'm actually referring to the majority of us. We're referring to the majority of people. So if this is a crisis, this is a crisis that doesn't just affect a small group, it almost affects the entire, the entire entity of Islam, the entire entity of the ummah.
First Misconception: Islam is Harsh and Punitive
So the first impression, is that the religion is really, really harsh. Like Allah is really out to punish. Like, no matter what you, the chances are, what you're doing is gonna land you in Jahannam.
And if not Jahannam, at least something should get chopped off in this dunya. Like it's either, either you're gonna get some really harsh punishment here, or if not, you're definitely gonna burn in hell because you were late for Fajr, or because, you know, you ate this thing, or you said this thing, or you did this, or you did that, the other. Right? So, for every little thing, and unfortunately, sometimes this happens through parenting, sometimes this happens through other means, the way we correct somebody is by instilling the fear of Allah in them.
And it's very traumatic to do that to a child. Don't eat that ice cream. Allah is gonna be very angry at you.
No, Allah is not. You're gonna be angry. And now you've made this child scared that Allah is constantly angry, and you better not step in the wrong place because Allah is gonna just ruin you.
And this impression, you know, when you say these things, these things, they're like a piece of dirt that gets lodged in the mind. And it grows and grows and grows. And this child grows, and their assumption about Allah is, Allah's default position is to punish humanity.
What's Allah gonna get out of punishing you? Why do you think Allah wants to punish you? That's the question Allah Himself asks. So what I'm trying to get at is, Allah, the way He speaks about Himself has become very different from the way we speak about Allah. And that impression that we give about Allah, that He's angry all the time, or He wants to punish all the time, or the laws of Islam are extremely harsh and rigid.
And if you can't follow them, you're gonna be in serious, serious trouble. That's the first impression a lot of young people have.
Second Misconception: Islam is Illogical and Superstitious
The second impression I'd like to share with you, is that Islam asks me to do things that don't solve anything.
Like, hey, I'm having trouble finding a job, go make du'a. How's du'a gonna help my job? What do you mean go make du'a? Like, we don't explain to our young, what's the connection between things. Hey, you're getting really angry, go make wudu.
Okay, what is splashing water gonna do, mom? I'm still mad. Go recite this surah. Yeah, okay, I made these, I sounded these things out, but I'm still upset. How is this changing anything? You know what that impression that develops over time in the young person's mind? It's that my parents believe in the superstitious stuff, and then when I'm getting really out of hand, they take me to the imam, and they say, could you recite something on his face? And all of his problems will go away. So they start thinking Islam is full of superstitions. Like it's not logical, it doesn't make any sense.
And it's just like any other religion, where people believe in hocus-pocus, and my parents believe in it too. I'm scared to say it, because mama's gonna go crazy if I say it. But that's really what it is.
And nobody's ever been able to explain to me, rationally, reasonably, why am I even Muslim? Other than the fact that my parents are Muslim, why am I even part of this religion? Other than the fact that I happen to be born in one of those countries, or my parents happen to be one of those countries where majority of the people are Muslim. If I was born in a different family, I probably would have been different. But other than a sociological reason, or a family background reason, I don't really see why this stuff makes any sense.
Islam is just illogical. It doesn't make any sense to me. Add to that yet another problem.
Third Misconception: We Can Never Match the Standards of the Past
And that problem is, every time I hear Islam being talked about, they talk about people that lived a really long time ago, and were pretty awesome. There were some really really good people, only those are the people that will make it to jannah. But that leaves the rest of us here, the leftovers of humanity, which are probably fuel for hell.
And there's a constant comparison about how the people of the past were so so much better, and by implication we must be so much worse. And already I know Allah is angry anyway, and I'm pretty bad. So, I'm failing this thing.
And as a matter of fact, no matter what I do, it's probably not good enough. No matter how much I pray, my salah is not gonna be the same as the salah of Umar ibn al-Khattab (رَضِيَ اللَّهُ تَعَالَى عَنْهُ). It's not gonna happen.
No matter what kind of hajj I do, it's never gonna compare to the hajj of the early scholars of Islam, who walked from their home for two years to make it to hajj. It's never gonna be the same. So, no matter what efforts I make, are probably not good enough, they're probably not acceptable, they're probably not to the standard that Allah wants them to be, because Allah has very high standards clearly.
There were people before, you've heard stories of people that like, they prayed tahajjud for 40 nights in a row, and they prayed fajr with the wudu of isha, or you hear stories even of the companions (رَضِيَ اللَّهُ عَنْهُمْ أَجْمَعِينَ). You know, one sahabi gave, when the Prophet (صلى الله عليه وسلم) asked to give in the path of Allah, Umar gave half of his wealth, and Abu Bakr as-Siddiq (رَضِيَ اللَّهُ تَعَالَى عَنْهُ) gave all of his wealth. And then that's what's said in the fundraiser, right? Umar gave half, Abu Bakr as-Siddiq gave all.
What are you gonna give? And you're like, $10? It's probably not gonna count for much, because he gave half and that one gave full. And we forget, that even at the time when we cite those great companions, the vast majority of the companions didn't give half or full. The vast majority of them, who Allah is pleased with all of them, did not go to the extent that a handful of them went.
Those that went that far, are not the minimum standard. They are heroes, and they went above and beyond the call of duty, that's correct. But to constantly quote that, and to give the impression that, where are you compared to them? Well, that was the case even at that time.
There were several sahaba who couldn't do that. And who didn't do that? You understand? So, but we give this impression that this, if you can't reach this, then you're probably a lost cause anyway. And of course there's a narrative that most people are going to end up in Jahannam.
So chances are, I mean look at you, seriously you think you're gonna go to jannah? And this impression is given that you, I mean, you're not really the heaven type. You know? I mean you could try, but you and I both know. And you know how I know this impression? People come to me, and the first thing they say to me is, you know, I'm not a good person, I know that, but I just have a question.
Why did you already, Allah hasn't passed judgment on you yet, why have you passed judgment on yourself? Why did you pass that verdict on yourself? Well, you know, I've done a lot of mistakes, or I know Allah is very angry with me. Really? You know Allah is very angry with you? Did you receive an email? Did you receive some kind of communication directly from Allah that Allah is angry with you? You know what it is? People keep telling you Allah is angry with you, and you start believing people as though they have some direct channel with Allah. They don't.
They don't. People's opinion of you is not Allah's opinion of you. There's a difference between those things.
But you start accepting that about yourself, and you lose hope, and become disconnected.
Fourth Misconception: The Quran is Irrelevant to Modern Life
Then of course, it also seems that these stories that I'm being told, or these accounts that I'm being told, they don't seem relevant to my life. Like I've literally sat in gatherings when people come up and said, well, I was reading the Qur'an, it was talking about the battle of Uhud, or the battle of Badr.
What does that have to do with my life? I'm not going into any battle. It's not relevant to me. I've heard, I've had these conversations, not with non-Muslims, I've had these conversations with Muslims, right? And you know what? At some level you could say (أستغفر الله العظيم لا حول ولا قوة إلا بالله) What kind of question is this? You can say that, but if you don't engage in a civil conversation with people, that genuinely have that question, that problem is only going to get worse.
You understand? It's not gonna get solved by you doing istighfar of Allah, and going into a corner, and every time you see them, you say, (أعوذ بالله من الشيطان الرجيم) is not gonna solve that problem. This needs a conversation. This needs engagement.
And so, it becomes hard. The claim is that it's hard to relate to.
Fifth Misconception: Everything in Islam is Forbidden
And of course, the final one, among many others, is that most things in Islam are forbidden.
Chances are, what I'm doing is probably haram. Hey, laughing is haram, right? Hey, speeding is haram, right? Hey, getting a nice car is haram, right? Like even kids, like at Sunday schools, in masajid where they're learning Islam, you know the most common question kids ask their teacher? Hey, blank haram, right? Isn't this haram? Isn't that haram? And constantly haram, haram, haram, haram. Like as if, Allah naturally made all things haram, and a few things that He allowed to make halal.
While the reality is the exact opposite.
He made for your benefit, whatever He made on the earth. He made it for humanity's benefit.
And then He Himself says
That He only forbade from you the few filthy things, dirty things, disgusting things, impure things. Those are the things He made forbidden. But our impression is, chances are anything we're doing is constantly forbidden.
This narrative that Islam equals most things are haram. When you have that impression, you know what that means? That means if I become serious about Islam, then, or if I start taking my religion seriously,
then I'm probably not gonna live a happy life. Because anything that makes me happy is probably forbidden.
The Problem of Religious Extremism in Behavior
So, I'm not gonna have the friends that I have, I'm not gonna do the activities that I do, I'm not gonna do anything that actually brings any joy in my life, and I'm gonna be miserable. And if you think, and you start thinking maybe that's not true. Maybe, because I've heard Islam if you follow it, it gives you peace, it gives you happiness, maybe I should.
But then you look at people in your family, your friends, that used to not be very religious, and then Allah put something in their hearts and they became religious. The problem with that is, a lot of times when people find Islam later on in life, they have a lot of guilty conscience for the life they used to live before. So, they try to become more Islamic than Islam itself.
Right? So, they also develop this narrative that they have to be constantly angry, they look upset all the time, every time you see them, or they see you, they're giving you a fatwa, they're giving you a khutbah, they're telling you how you're gonna burn in hell if you don't change your ways, and they just look miserable, they look miserable, and they look disconnected, like they used to have friends, they don't have anymore, they used to get along with family, don't get along with them anymore, everybody's fitna, everybody's fasad, everybody's corruption, I wanna protect myself, I don't wanna be in their gatherings, etc., etc. The more closer to deen you become, the more your cousin becomes a fitna, your uncle becomes a fitna, your parents become a fitna, your spouse becomes a fitna, and you're just sitting in the masjid, or you're just on your own, cut off, and then you start getting the impression, well, I don't wanna get closer to Islam, because if I come any closer to the religion, I'm gonna become like that, I don't wanna be like that, no thank you, I'd rather live a happy life.
So you know what people even have developed? They've developed the impression, hey, are you Islamic or are you normal? Okay, are you like Muslim or are you like Muslim-Muslim? You know, what that means is, that if you become closer to Allah'sdeen, then somehow you lose your ability to be normal, and that did not come from anywhere, it didn't come from a vacuum.
There's actual real behavior of people that makes it seem like the closer to religion you get, the more abnormal you become, the more anti-social you become, the angrier you become, the more judgmental you become, the more miserable you become. So why would that be something that you would want in your life? Why?
The Contrast with the Prophet's Character
When you find the impression that people got of the Prophet (صلى الله عليه وسلم),when they met him and knew nothing about him, they knew nothing about him, and they would meet him. They would want
to stay in his company.
His smile was captivating. Like companions described, he was almost always smiling. And you know, today there's a direct proportion, the longer your beard gets, the tougher your harsh face becomes, like it just gets grumpier and grumpier.
It's a direct proportionality between those two things. That's a problem. That's a very serious problem.
In any case, this is the impression not some non-Muslims have of Islam. This is the impression there are a lot of young people sitting here in the audience that have of Islam. There are young professionals that are now married, having children of their own.
They have this impression of Islam. And if you have this impression of Islam, why wouldn't you be scared to even come into a masjid? Why would you attend an Islamic program? Why would you come to a halaqa? Why would you go to a convention? Because when somebody says, hey, there's this national convention happening, or there's a speech happening, or this program happening, you're like, I don't go to those people. That's the scary stuff.
Have you seen those people? The way they look at you? No, thank you. I would rather have a normal evening. So we've given the... We forget scaring non-Muslims from Islam.
We've scared our own from Islam. We've terrified them. This is the problem.
Personal Experience and the Solution
I haven't yet discussed any part of the solution. In my mind, Allah Ta'alaa'lam, there are a few things that you and I need to do to engage that solution.
Now maybe you're the ones listening to me right now. Some of you actually have these impressions. Maybe you carry some of these opinions. And I'm not criticizing you for carrying these opinions. I can relate that they came from somewhere. And I'll be honest with you, some of these opinions, I carried myself at some point in my youth. I had this impression of Islam.
I certainly did. When I was in college, I saw a guy with a beard, with a flyer for the MSA meeting. I went the other way.
I'm like, no, no, no, no, thanks. I'm not doing that, you know. One time there was a family friends, they had a funeral.
And that was the one time in high school I went to the masjid. I didn't go to Jum'ah. My entire high school, I didn't go to Jum'ah.
I went just one time to the masjid and the imam of the masjid, you know, drove me back home. So this is the, I'm scared to death because the guy is like, you know, super imam guy. And I'm this kid from high
school.
And he's telling me, you know, if you really want to go to Jannah, then you have to, you know, spend time learning Islam and you have to get away from. And I told him, what do you do? I told him, I like playing basketball, I do this, that, you know. Yeah, you have to leave these things and you have to.
And I was like, oh, I need to get out of this car. Can I get out while it's still moving? You know. That's the impression I had.
And it was terrifying to me.
Reconnecting with Allah's True Message
Now, what do we do about that? What are we supposed to do about that? I would argue, and I said this in a subtle way before, but I'll be more explicit now. I would argue the impression we have given people about Allah, we as an ummah.
The impression we have given people about Allah is not actually the way Allah presents Himself. Allah speaks Himself a certain way, about Himself, introduces Himself a certain way. But we talk about Allah a certain other way.
In other words, our narrative of Islam is very far from the narrative of the Qur'an itself. That's Allah speaking Himself. You know, when people that don't know a lot about Islam ask a question, hey, why does it say in the Qur'an this, this, this? You've heard this question, why does it say in the Qur'an this, this, this? Think about the language of that question.
Why does it say this? Why does He say this? That's Allah talking. But the level of disconnect is so powerful that in your mind this is just a book, and it says, it speaks. In your mind it's no longer clear that it's in fact the One who made you, and loves you more than anyone ever will, and the One who takes care of every breath you take in, every breath you take out, and every beat of your heart is the One speaking to you here.
That thought is gone. It's just an it that says something. And now you have questions about it.
This is a disconnect from Allah speaking Himself.
Allah Has Already Answered Our Prayers
There are lots of people that even if they don't consider themselves religious, when they're in times of trouble, they turn to prayer. They make du'a to Allah.
Ya Allah, just show me a way. I don't know what to do. Give me some guidance.
I need a way out of this mess. And they come and they say, they'll say maybe even say to me, say to others, I keep praying for a solution. I keep praying for some direction.
I don't get it. Why isn't Allah giving me help? Why isn't He guiding me? Well, I'm here to tell you something. For all of those of you that have had those instances where you're praying to Allah, you're asking for an answer, and you seem to not be able to find that answer.
You keep asking Allah and He's not giving it to you. It's because He already did. He already did.
He spoke to you. (رِسَالاَتُ رَبِّي - Risalatu Rabbi) The Qur'an is called messages or letters from my Master.
He wrote these letters to you, to you and me, for what we go through, for the problems you and I have. Why do you think in the Fatiha we recite
Guide us.
Tell me what to do. I don't know what to do. When you're at a loss, you're in trouble, you don't know who to turn to, you don't know what the answer could be.
Then you personally, how many times have you ask yourself this question, I can't answer it for you, I can only answer it for myself. How many times when you're at a loss, you're in trouble, you don't know what to do, you've just opened Allah's book and said, ya Allah, just tell me what to do. Let me find the answer in your words, in your words.
The Direct Connection with Allah Through the Quran
And you know what's so sad about that? It's that for a huge majority of Muslims, we've even made that difficult. This book came for you to connect to Allah directly. We know that for a fact, because when you stand in salah, you're supposed to recite, when you're standing, you're supposed to recite Qur'an.
And you're supposed to pay attention to the Qur'an you're reciting. That in and of itself is explicit proof that there's no scholar between you and Allah. There's no mufassir between you and Allah.
There is no someone more knowledgeable between you and Allah is interpreting it for you. It's just you, the words of Allah and Allah. That's it.
That's the connection between you and Allah. It's the rope that connects you to Allah directly, the Qur'an. But what has become your relationship and my relationship with the Qur'an? Do we actually open it to find what Allah is saying to me personally? And you could say, I don't know Arabic, I only have a translation.
Fine. Okay, you only have a translation. And maybe you should seek the answer even in that translation.
And you don't understand what Allah is saying. Well, if you don't get what He's saying, come over and ask after Jummah. Hey, I was reading this, I didn't get it.
What's that about? Just ask. Ask somebody who doesn't, maybe who's studying more than I do. And I'm not saying I have the answers.
But I'm saying you will find, Allah will gift you people in your life that might know the answer better than you can figure it out. But if you don't open Allah's book, and you don't seek to ask those questions, and you don't come to it with one attitude, you're not opening the Qur'an to figure everything out, you're not opening the Qur'an to criticize it, you're not opening the Qur'an to become a scholar, or to quote it at somebody else, or to win an argument. You're opening Allah's book because you want a direct connection with Him, and you'd rather He speak for Himself.
You would rather He speak for Himself than somebody else speak for Him. You understand? And you don't tell yourself, well, I'm not a scholar, I'm not at this, I'm not at that. Listen, I've said this a thousand times, I'll say it again.
There were plenty of occasions in which, you know, for the vast majority of the sahaba, they were not students. The vast majority of them that carried the Qur'an were not students. A handful of them were students.
Most of them just knew the word of Allah, and they contemplated it. That's it. That was their connection with Allah's book.
That's the early history of Islam.
The Example of the Jinn Listening to the Quran
One of the most remarkable places in the Qur'an is Surah Al-Ahqaf. The Prophet was leaving Taif. He was reciting some Qur'an. Qur'an came to him. And he was reciting some Qur'an.
And you know that the jinns are invisible, right? The jinns are invisible. Some jinns were passing by. They heard the Qur'an.
And they just stopped in their tracks. And they kept listening. And now we don't know any of this because we don't see the jinn.
The Prophet doesn't see the jinn. And they listened, and then they spoke about the Qur'an. They had this impression of what they just heard.
And that impression was so powerful, Allah made it part of the Qur'an. It's in Surah Al-Ahqaf. What ijazah did those jinn receive? What university did they study from? What grammar did they learn? They just heard the message of Allah, and they said,
We heard a book sent down after Musa.
It seems to be guiding to the truth, to a straight path. And those words themselves in the Qur'an, in the Qur'an itself. In other words, don't let some people tell you that unless you have degrees in Islamic studies, you should not be opening this book.
This book, Allah asked all of humanity to open it. All of humanity, Muslims and non-Muslims. How are Muslims saying they can't open it? How in the world?
And then if they do open it, just open it to recite it for every letter will give you 10 good deeds, but don't look at the meaning.
Don't look at the meaning, because you'll get confused. You're told, don't look at the meaning, you'll get confused. Seriously? This one book came to get rid of all confusion.
And now you say, don't look at this book, because you'll get confused. The irony of these attitudes that we have been fed. Unfortunately, we've been fed.
The Quran as Personal Guidance
And I don't dismiss the value of scholarship. I don't dismiss the value of studying tafsir. But first and foremost, your relationship with Allah is not an academic relationship.
It's not a mental exercise. First and foremost,
(Quran 10:57) A counsel that came to you from your master.
Advice. Allah calls the entire Qur'an just advice. All of it is just advice.
You know what you do? Whatever you're reading, maybe you don't see the advice directly. Alif, Laam, Meem. I don't know what that means, but I know one thing, there's some advice in it.
I know one thing, there's some advice in this. How could this be advice? Let me ask. If I can't figure it out, let me find out.
Whatever you're reading is going to be in one way or the other, advice for you. And you and I are constantly in need of advice. And there's no better advice than someone who truly truly loves you.
You know, when you need advice, you don't go to people you know they have something against you. When you need advice, you don't go to people you can't trust. When you need advice, you go to someone who know they've got your back no matter what.
They're not gonna judge you. You can tell them anything and you can be open with them and they'll give you the best advice. You trust their wisdom, you trust their counsel, you trust their confidentiality, you trust that they're looking out for you, you trust that they don't have anything against you.
These are your prerequisites before you ask somebody advice. And sometimes you ask the wrong person advice and you say, I'm never gonna ask that person advice again. Nobody will give you better advice than Allah.
A Call to Personal Engagement with the Quran
And that will never happen if you don't personally make that journey, personally make the effort to open this book. The month of Ramadan is coming and the reason I iterated this is that you personally have to now open this book, personally, with nobody else around. And you have to just read a little bit of it every day.
I'm not saying recite it just every day or recite two pages every day. I don't put those criteria on you. We're too far from those standards for me to impose that on you.
Even if you're gonna read one ayah a day, half a page a day, two minutes of reading a day, whatever. You can even put it up on your phone. Whatever you might wanna do.
But do that, engage in it, engage in it. And I encourage you, these khutbahs, they go up on Facebook live. As you read it and you come up with questions, post them.
Let me collect the questions. When we can get together and just start discussing some of those questions for you. Why not? Maybe somebody else had that question too.
So just you personally engaging the book of Allah is one of the best preparations you can have for the coming of the month of Ramadan.
The Healing Power of Allah's Word
As I wrap this up, insha'Allahu ta'ala,
(Quran 10:57) It's a counsel from your master. And then what does he say? So beautiful.
(Quran (10:57) It is a healing for what lies inside the chest. What lies inside the chest?
From a spiritual point of view, there's hypocrisy in my chest. There's greed in my chest.
There's the love of worldly things in my chest. There's a lack of the trust of Allah in my chest. There are other weaknesses of iman in my chest.
And Allah heals those things. But that's not the only thing in my chest. There's sadness in my chest.
There's fear in my chest. There's anxiety in my chest. There's worry about others in my chest.
There are unanswered questions in my chest. There are so many things going on inside me emotionally, spiritually. All of that is inside my chest.
That's what's going on in my heart. And Allah says, I'm giving you these words so they heal what's going on inside your heart. If you believe Allah, then you'll have no choice but to open the book.
If you truly believe, He's healing what you have in your heart. You and I, all of us, have something going on in us that's bothering us. Every one of us.
And Allah is promising, I've given you something that can solve that, that can help you alleviate it. Go find it. That's the invitation from Allah.
And then after He says شِفَاءٌ لِمَا فِي الصُّدُور then He says وَهُدًى وَرَحْمَةٌ (Quran 10:57) And then He says it's guidance. Guidance meaning do this, don't do this. Take this course of action, don't take this course of action.
Think this way, don't think this way. That's the third step. First you actually accepted that Allah is giving you guidance.
Second, you actually acknowledge that what He's gonna give you is going to heal you. شِفَاءٌ لِمَا فِي الصدور And then comes the guidance. And when you do start taking that guidance after you're feeling the healing from Allah's words, then you truly recognize that Allah is not one to punish.
Allah is not full of spite. Allah is not looking to judge you and put His justice on you. No, no, no.
وَهُدًى وَرَحْمَةٌ It's a mercy. Then you see Allah's love. Then you see how much Allah cares.
Then you see how much Allah is involved in your personal life, in your affairs, in your matters, by means of His word. There's a reason, I'll leave you with this thought. There's a reason Allah didn't say عَلَّمَ الله القرآن He didn't say that عَلَّمَ اللهُ الْقُرْآنَ He said, الرَّحْمٰنُ عَلَّمَ الْقُرْآنَ Quran) 55:1-2) The most loving, the most caring, the most merciful, He taught the Quran.
There's a, you know, because the name of Allah used when He describes His teaching of the Qur'an, is actually the manner in which He taught it. This is why He taught it, because He wanted to give you and me something that will enlighten our lives. May Allah عز وجل make us of those who have light in their lives by means of Allah's word.
The Joy That Comes from Allah's Guidance
And by the way, I know I'm over my time, but just one last thing. What's the point of all of it? If your heart, if you had trouble in your heart and it's removed, when your troubles are removed, you know what happens when your troubles are removed, you get happy. When you had a big problem and it's taken away, it's time for... Alhamdulillah, it's over.
That's the relief you get. What does Allah say?
(Quran 10:58) Because of that, they should be filled with joy. They should be overjoyed.
I just solved your problem. I just cured your disease. I just got rid of your troubles.
Why shouldn't you be filled with joy which I talked about before, is actually overwhelmed with joy. Overly happy. Celebrating.
It's better than everything else they gather. In other words, Allah is telling you and me to gather these gems, these treasures from the Qur'an. Gather them.
Gather a little bit today, the day after that, the day after that. Just gather this Qur'an in your heart. Gather its advice in your heart.
It's better than anything else you'll ever collect. Anything else you'll ever collect. May Allah عز وجل make us collectors of Allah's guidance in our hearts and bring joy to our lives and the lives of those around us through His Immaculate Word.
May Allah عز وجل make us the best prepared for the coming of the month of Ramadan.
(29:45 Quran)
Quran 4:103(