Engaging With Non-Muslims: Sharing the Guidance of the Quran | Khutbah by Nouman Ali Khan
By Nouman Ali Khan | 2026-06-04T19:39:03.651044+00:00 | Topic: Khutbah
الله أكبر، الله أكبر. لا إله إلا الله. (Allah is the Greatest, Allah is the Greatest. There is no god but Allah.)
The Three Common Elements of Religion
Generally in the world, of all the different religions there are in the world, they seem to have three things in common, three elements that make up a religion. And people can look at Islam the same way as those other religions. Every one of those religions has some beliefs that are unique to them. So Christians believe what they believe, Jews believe what they believe, Muslims believe what they believe, Hindus believe what they believe, and each of those belief systems are very unique to each other. They may have some common elements, but they have a unique identity, each of them.
The second element that every religion has is some kind of rituals, rituals of worship, whether it's Sunday at the church, or the Sabbath, or it's Salatul Jumu'ah, and Hajj, and Umrah, and fasting, and these are specific rituals to us, and they have their own rituals, we have our own rituals. Hindus have their rituals, Buddhists have their rituals, etc. So you've got beliefs and you've got rituals.
And then thirdly you have certain ceremonies, like birth, and death, and marriage. There are specific ceremonies, Hindus celebrate birth a certain way, marriage a certain way, they have a ceremony for marriage, they have a ceremony for death. Muslims have the Aqeeqah, we have the Nikah, we have the Janazah, the Christians have theirs. Every religion has these elements.
So the three things I mentioned were beliefs, and rituals, and ceremonies. And every religion has them. And the problem with this sociological way, the sociologists will look at this and say, this is what a religion is. And so they look at Islam also and say, look, Islam has these three things too, and that's what Islam is. And this has become such a popular way of thinking about it.
The Problem with Hyper-Individualism
And it helps, especially in the modern secular world, because then you could say, your religion is your business, my religion is my business. Everybody has a right to their own religion. You have your beliefs, your rituals, your ceremonies. Oh, that's how you guys do things, this is how we do things. You do your thing, I'm gonna do my thing, all good. This is the worldview. And it's a hyper-individualistic worldview, where you don't have to have a conversation with anybody else about what they're doing, and they don't have to talk to you about what you're doing. Everybody do your own thing, right? This is hyper-individualism.
The thing that's lost in all of this, for Muslims that have been Muslims, we have been holding on to this religion for a millennium and a half. It's been a long time. And so we're all born, a good chunk of us are just born into Islam. We're just born into it. And because we're born into it, Islam for us is what we're raised on. Just like you were raised on a certain kind of food, a certain language, a certain culture. You're raised on a certain religion. So the religion and your language and your culture, all of them become one thing. They become one mixed salad that you consume, and that becomes a part of your identity. And we don't separate those things from each other easily.
Islam as Conversation, Not Just Ritual
What is lost in all of this is where Islam began. Islam didn't begin as just some beliefs and some rituals and some ceremonies. In fact, Islam began as a conversation. Quran itself is a conversation. And it was a conversation that was at least had three directions. I'll focus on three because for the purpose of the khutbah, it'll make things easier to remember. The way religions are viewed are beliefs, rituals, and ceremonies. And the way the Quran, our religion, at the center of it is this conversation that God had with humanity, right?
Three Types of Conversation in the Quran
The final message is first there's a conversation between myself and my Maker. It's a conversation between me and Allah. And He'll tell me how to worship Him. He'll tell me what pleases Him, what displeases Him. He's gonna tell me the terms of my relationship with Him.
Second part of that is my relationship with my fellow believers and others. How do I deal with my parents? Are there any instructions? How do I deal with my spouse? How do I deal with my children? What are my obligations? What are my responsibilities? How do I treat my neighbor? Etc. That's a second set. And whether that has to do with the sharia or other things or some of the hikmah in the Quran, the wisdoms in the Quran, the rules and regulations in the Quran. The second part is about how we engage with each other, how we treat each other, how we behave towards one another.
But then there's a third part. And the third part is, this Quran, a big part of it, is a conversation with people that don't believe in the Quran. It's actually not a conversation between us and Allah, and us with each other. It's a conversation between us and others who are not like us. So Allah will say, for example, يَا أَهْلِ الْكِتَابِ People of the book in the Quran. يَا أَيُّهَا النَّاسُ People.
Now we could have a halaqah in the masjid or I can give you a khutbah and I can recite those ayat to you, where I say, يَا أَهْلِ الْكِتَابِ But who am I actually talking to right now? I'm talking to Muslims. I'm talking to Muslims. And yes, there are places that Allah says, يَا أَيُّهَا الَّذِينَ آمَنُوا Those of you who believe. That's a conversation we're having with Allah. Or the conversations we're having with each other. But there's necessarily a conversation happening in the Quran with people of other faiths.
The Lost Legacy of Ibrahim
Now where did I begin? I began with every religion, the new world, every religion, you do your thing, I do my thing. We don't have to have a conversation about it. You keep your business in your corner, I'll keep my business in my corner. And the Quran is not interested necessarily in debate. Even though debate does happen in the Quran. Quran is actually engaging in conversation. It's engaging in conversation with other faiths.
Ibrahim (peace be upon him) legacy was lost over centuries. And the lost legacy of Ibrahim (peace be upon him) showed up in three ways. The Quran makes an argument that the Jewish people held on to the legacy of Ibrahim (peace be upon him) but lost their way. The Christian people held on to the legacy of Ibrahim (peace be upon him) but lost a part of it. Even the mushrikun of Mecca who were still doing hajj, who were still doing tawaf of the Kaaba that was built by Ibrahim (peace be upon him) had lost their connection to Ibrahim (peace be upon him).
So Allah had a conversation with the Jews, with the Christians, and with the mushrikin about the lost legacy of Ibrahim (peace be upon him). Had a conversation with them. Talked to them about their father Ibrahim (peace be upon him). Talked to them about the prophets they already believed in. The majority of the prophets mentioned in the Quran are prophets that are already talked about in the Bible. These are already very well-known prophets. But some things about what those prophets were teaching was lost. Some things about their story was lost. And now that was being restored.
So this conversation, even though I can sit and talk to you as a Muslim about the story of Musa (peace be upon him) and the story of Ibrahim (peace be upon him) and the story of Adam (peace be upon him). A big part of the agenda of the Quran was to have the same conversation but with our Christian neighbor. Just a conversation. And this is not converting them. This is just having a conversation. And this was part of the agenda of the Quran.
The Christians of Najran at Masjid al-Nabawi
So much so that in Medina, there was word spread beyond the region that there is a man claiming to be a prophet. He claims that he is the final messenger of God. And he receives the word of God. This was the rumor spreading about the coming of Rasulullah (peace be upon him). And Christians in Najran heard about it. They had a church. They were part of the larger church hierarchy. And people from the church, clergy, dressed in clergy garb, part of the hierarchy of the church, came and visited Medina. And they wanted to talk to this prophet who claims to be getting revelation from God. Because they believe in revelation too. They want to hear what he has to say.
So these Christians that came to visit the Prophet (peace be upon him), you know, back in the day, there were no hotels. They didn't say, oh, you came, here's a best western, here's a motel 6. Just stay over there and then after Juma we can talk. Their hotel was al-Masjid al-Nabawi. They stayed in the Prophet's Masjid (peace be upon him). And these are priests. These are clergymen. These are church people.
And when they were there, on a daily basis, they do their worship. They do their worship. And they were worshiping who? According to us, they're worshiping Jesus. And where were they doing that worship? They're doing that worship inside the house of Allah in al-Masjid al-Nabawi. While the Prophet is there (peace be upon him). And while they're doing that, why? Because the conversation with them is so important that they should feel welcome in the house of Allah as they are. As they are. With no change in their rituals, no change in their worship. They're probably even wearing their crucifixes when they came. They're wearing their church gear. And they're sitting inside the house of Allah. And they're doing their worship and then they're engaging with the Qur'an. And the Qur'an, ayat of the Qur'an were revealed specifically to have a conversation with those Christians. Specifically.
We Are Not Like Any Other Religion
What I'm trying to tell you is, we're not like any other religion. From the very beginning of this religion, it was a conversation between us and Allah, between how we treat each other, and a conversation with non-Muslims. When we believe in the Qur'an, we believe in all three of these conversations.
The Problem of Isolation
But what happens to a community that's been collected together for a long time? Happens in every religion. People wanna preserve their identity. When I first came to the United States, I came to New York. And New York is a crazy place. Those of you that have survived New York know what I'm talking about. Some of you have made hijrah and escaped the belly of the beast. So you know. But what happens in New York? There's so many different cultures. There's the Chinese, there's the Indians, there's the Greek, there's the Arabs, there's the Jewish neighborhood, etc. And what happens is, because there's so many different ethnicities, it's one of the most migrated two cities historically in the world. People made their own pocket neighborhoods.
So you can go into... Things have changed quickly now. More and more China now. But back in the day, you could go into a neighborhood, and if you don't speak Spanish, people will say, ¿Está en los Estados Unidos? ¿No habla español? What's wrong with you? ¿Qué problema tiene? What's your problem? You don't speak Spanish? You're in America. That's how they would talk to you in Junction Boulevard or in Elmhurst. You could go into some neighborhoods, like in Jamaica, Queens, where all the stores, all the signs are in Bengali. Everybody speaks. There's even a Dhaka Street. Right? The whole thing is Bangladeshi neighborhood. Right? There are neighborhoods in Astoria, where all the signs are in Arabic. Everybody speaks Arabic. It's entirely Arab neighborhood. There are Yemeni neighborhoods, there are Jewish neighborhoods, where everything is in Hebrew.
So, what do communities do? They want to protect their identity. So they start moving into the same area. They start building their kind of shops. They create a mini... There's a mini Lahore in New York. There's a mini Shanghai in New York. There's a mini Lebanon. There's a mini Beirut in New York. There's a bunch of mini, little, little, little towns. And you go in there, and you're not even in America anymore. You're somewhere else. All because they want to preserve their identity. And Muslims feel like, we're the same. We should be preserving our identity. Except when you do that, who are you always talking to? You're always talking to each other.
Remembering Our Three Conversations
The Quran came to have three kinds of conversations. Us and Allah. Us with each other. And us with non-believers. Every time we're reciting, if you're going through a whole, the entire door of Quran in Ramadan, you're listening to the Imam recite. When he recites, يَا بَنِي إِسْرَائِيلَ يَا أَهْلِ الْكِتَابِ يَا أَيُّهَا النَّاسُ And we're standing there listening to these ayahs. Aren't we reminded that these are supposed to be ayahs that are supposed to be heard by others? And Allah gave us a formula on how to do that.
Engaging With Non-Muslims: A Sacred Responsibility
I came some months ago and I spoke to you about an ayah from Surah Al-Ma'idah where Allah told us to invite the people of the book into our homes. Eat with them. And to go to their homes and eat with them. There's one of the last ayahs to be revealed in the Quran, Surah Al-Ma'idah. Why? Because this engagement was supposed to happen. This is absolutely essential.
Let me tell you something before I get to the ayahs. These are not the ayahs I wanted to talk to you about today. But it's building up to it. One of the things I said that makes our religion completely unique is rituals. And so hajj, which is coming up, is one of the most unique, specific rituals to Muslims. Allah mentions the ayah of hajj in Surah Al-Baqarah.
I recited this ayah in the beginning. Safa and Marwa are from the signs of Allah. From the great reminders of Allah. Symbols of God. Whoever does hajj or does Umrah, there's no harm that he goes back and forth between Safa and Marwa. And whoever wants to volunteer, Allah is appreciative. So this is about hajj and Umrah and do Safa and Marwa. Fine.
The Consequence of Hiding Divine Guidance
In the very next ayah Allah says:
Those who hide what we have sent down, from the guidance and from the clear proofs, even after we made it clear for all people in this book, in the Quran. Allah made the message, the proofs of it, the argument of it, the guidance of it clear for all people. And then Allah said, some people hide it. Some people still hide it. Those are the people that Allah curses. Allah condemns them. And those that are created for cursing them, curse them. In fact, anytime somebody recites this ayah, they're also cursing them.
Why is this ayah right after hajj? Hajj has to do with our rituals. It's about us, it's about Muslims. But the whole point of hajj is to remind us of the legacy of Ibrahim عليه السلام. The whole point of hajj is to remind us of the man who stood there building this and made dua that this should be something that people from all over the world should come and see. The whole point of it is to remind us that this religion is not like some exclusive thing. This is for all human beings.
This ayah was actually talking about the Jewish community. The Quran made a claim that some of them knew, or many of them knew that the Kaaba was actually built by Ibrahim عليه السلام. That Rasulullah ﷺ is actually the messenger of Allah. They found it in their own scripture and they were hiding it. They were hiding it. So Allah mentioned them right after. But there's even more implications.
The Current Climate and Our Responsibility
I know there's a lot of anxiety about since the elections, mass deportations, change in policy. I'm sure many of you that are traveling internationally are starting to get more and more royal treatment at the airport. The Muslim welcome is coming back. There used to be a special Muslim welcome after 9-11. Now the special Muslim welcome is coming back. Maybe kids are getting more bullied at school now. The climate at the universities has changed. The workplace, maybe some people are looking at you different now. There's a tension in the air. There's an anxiety. And it's an anxiety across America, across all people. And as Muslims, we're on top of the anxiety list.
So there is that feeling of what are we supposed to do here? What's happening here? And the air is getting harder to breathe. There is a tension, and there is a fear, and there is an anxiety. There's no denying it. And I'm not one to come here and tell you, don't worry about it, everything's gonna be okay. Just make dua, everything's gonna be fine. No, no, no. It's real. The problem is real. But the problem, it's not just enough to be alarmist. Allah has given us certain principles.
Just like you go to a political strategist for political strategy, an economist for an economic strategy. The world doesn't just run on political principles, or economic principles, or social principles. The world also runs on certain spiritual principles. So there's an unseen set of principles on how society works.
The Divine Principle of Clarity
And one of those principles is, when Allah gives revelation to a people, when Allah gives them wahi. And that wahi, that revelation, part of its job, part of the goal of that revelation was to make things clear for everybody else. Now, please understand, making things clear for someone is not the same as converting someone. You just made it clear to them. Now it's up to them. They wanna accept, they can accept. They wanna reject, they can reject. That's completely fine. But your job was to make it clear. That was your job.
If a group of people have the revelation of Allah, and they don't go out of their way to make it clear to people, Allah considers that the same as hiding it. It's the same as hiding it. Because if you're only talking to each other, and you're saying, if they want it, they can google it. If they want it, they'll find it, they'll ask, chat GPT. They don't have to talk to me. I don't have to know anything about it. Then Allah would not have given us, here's a book that I've revealed, make sure you get it printed and distributed. You don't have to do anything. Make sure you upload it somewhere, and you don't have to do it. It doesn't work that way.
We're supposed to be in conversation with people that don't share our faith. And so as I wrap this up, I don't want to be part of that group. I don't want to be from the people, and I don't want any of us to be from the people who pay the price for not sharing the word of Allah the way we should have shared it.
Building Bridges: A Practical Approach
That doesn't mean you have to become preachers. Please understand, that's not what I'm saying. That doesn't mean you have to go knock on your neighbor's door, and say, I want to tell you about the Quran. The formula is actually very simple. We just have to know our non-Muslim neighbors. In particular, I would start with our Christian neighbors, in particular. The Quran takes a special interest in the Christian people. The Quran talks about them differently from all other people. You might not know that.
The Quran disagrees with them in some things, and is very strong in its disagreement. The Quran praises them in some things. The Quran agrees with them in some things. The Quran tells believers to cooperate in some other things. It's actually a complex and very rich relationship that we're supposed to have with these people. And that's why as Muslims were about to go into Roman territory, they were being told, eat with them and invite them over. Engage with them. Speak with them.
I've made a decision for myself also, more recently. I'm just gonna go start talking to... I'm just gonna start visiting some churches, just to hang out. To see what they're doing. Say hi to the pastor. No conversions. Just come over for dinner. Let's talk about some stuff. No theological nothing. But you know what? They believe in the story of Adam عليه السلام. So do we. But we have a very different version. It'd be pretty cool to compare notes. Let's have a conversation about it.
And you know, even if we strongly disagree from beginning to end, the fact that you're sitting on the same table, the fact that you're sharing a meal, what does it do? It humanizes you to them and them to you. If I just sit here and talk about, they do shirk with Allah, and they do this, and they do this. I'm talking about some caricature I have in my mind. I'm not talking about a human being. I've made up a fictional character, a fictional Christian, and I'm talking about them.
But when I sit and eat with them, and I know that they go through the same things that we go through, and they have family like we have family, and they have challenges like we have challenges, and they see us, a lot of the suspicion and the animosity gets reduced. I'm not to say you don't put your guard away. There are people who have bad intentions towards us. There are people that are two-faced. There's no denying it. But Allah still wants us to have an engagement and a conversation with them.
And if we don't have a conversation with them, then we will end up paying a price. And I'm telling you that price is not gonna come from an administration. It's not gonna come from the federal government. It's not gonna come from the governor of Texas. It'll come from Allah Himself. The price will be paid. We'll have to pay a price of the consequences of not carrying our part of the book.
Practical Steps Forward
So what's the practical takeaway that I wanna leave you with today? I think every one of us needs to... I think as a community in general, but even as individuals, we have to become better acquainted with this conversation. You have to make an agenda for yourself. I wanna understand the Quran better for you before anybody else, for you. What is Allah actually saying to me? What is He saying?
And when you engage with this book, when you try to learn more about this book, you're going to have questions, and you're gonna start asking each other, or asking people who know more. You're gonna get a better, deeper, richer understanding of what this book is about, and what it's saying.
Then I would like you as an assignment to pay special attention to the stories in the Quran. Why? Because the stories in the Quran are big echoes of stories in the Bible. That's a big part of what the conversation should be about. Because that's how Allah brought them into the conversation to begin with. Allah brought the Jews and Christians into conversation with the Quran by talking to them about Musa عليه السلام, about Adam عليه السلام, about Nuh عليه السلام, Book of Genesis. Adam, Book of Genesis. Abraham, Ibrahim عليه السلام, Yusuf عليه السلام. The story of Joseph is a massive story in the Bible.
This gives you an opportunity to not just... Don't just go to the point of disagreement. By the way, we believe in Jesus, but not like you. You don't have to start with Jesus. You can start with Adam. You can start with Ibrahim عليه السلام. Because the Muslims think the only time we talk to the Christians, we should either talk to them about Rasulullah ﷺ. Muhammad is the messenger of Allah, or Isa is not the son of God. That's it. Those are the two things we need to talk about with Christians. That's not true. Most of the time, the conversation the Quran was having was on other things, on common ground. This was one of the final pieces. This was the final piece.
The Power of Shared Stories
I've been in gatherings with non-Muslims, with Christians, with Jews, where I never talked about their religion. I just talked about Ibrahim عليه السلام. Only about Ibrahim عليه السلام. Only a few ayahs of the Quran about Abraham. And guess what? They're sitting there. Rabbis sitting there crying. Sitting there crying. Why? Because they know. They know. They hear something that touches them.
I know imams that just read even a very Shakespearean old translation of Surah Maryam to church groups. Just the translation of Mary. The story of Mary. It's not even Jesus, just Mary. And the entire hundred people sitting there bawling their eyes out in tears. He didn't even... He was just reading. He didn't even look up. He looks up and he sees everybody's crying. Why? Because there's something in them also that is drawn to this message. And we haven't shared. We haven't gone. We haven't had the conversation.
Engage with that conversation. Acquaint yourself. Better educate yourself. Learn this. Because it is part of what makes us be loyal to the book that Allah gave us. It is part of the burden that all of us have to carry. It's not just a job of one or two. Rasulullah ﷺ turned to the entire ummah before he left. And he said:
(Sahih al-Bukhari, Hadith 3461)
He turned to the entire congregation.
Some people, when he was giving his farewell address, some people were Muslim for one day. Some people were Muslim for a few hours. Some people were Muslim for a week. And he's telling all of them, go whoever is here, give this message to whoever is not here. Share it with whoever is not here. Clarify.
So this is the ayah I'll leave you with. On the one hand I said, those who hide the revelation are under a curse. That's what Allah says. The very next ayah Allah says:
With the exception of those who repented. Because they recognized that was a crime. That they should make tawbah. Then they fixed themselves. How do you fix yourself? You learn it yourself. وَبَيَّنُوا And they clarified it to others. وَبَيَّنُوا فَأُولَٰئِكَ أَتُوبُ عَلَيْهِمْ Those are the people whose repentance I will accept. May Allah accept all of our repentance. And may Allah equip every one of us to be able to understand His book better. And to be able to talk about it, not in confrontational ways, but in inviting ways. In non-aggressive ways.
With our... Especially our Christian friends. Many of them... You'll hear a lot of talk about, we don't want Sharia law. Muslims and their Sharia. So much of the Sharia is in the Bible. So much of what the Quran talks about, even its rules and regulations, are already biblical. And it's confirming many of the... مُصَدِّقًا لِمَا بَيْنَ يَدَيَّ مِنَ التَّوْرَاةِ So much of it is in the Jewish scripture. So much of it is in what even the Christians believe. And what they hold to be scriptural.
So, the more we learn about this, the more a healthy conversation we're going to be able to have. And you don't bring a change in society from the top. You always begin to bring it from the bottom. I'm not saying, go have a conversation with Joel Osteen. I'm not saying, let's invite Jordan Peterson for a... Don't start there. Start with your neighbor. There's a small little church down the street from your house. I know it. This is Texas.
Give your neighbor's gifts. Give them just... Give them a cake. Give them something and say, Hey, we've been here. We haven't met. But just wanted to let you know I'm your neighbor. Would love for you to come over sometime this week. Something. Even that gesture. Can you see how... what an impact that would have? They're watching something on the news about Muslims. And then they're seeing the kindness of their neighbor. Isn't that already creating a conflict in them?
And then they engage in conversation with you. And they realize the people that they hold dear in their Bible, you have more respect for them than they've even heard their own pastor have. When they hear more love from your mouth coming for Nuh, for Adam, for Ibrahim. They're like, what is this? You guys are like more Christian than us. You're more faithful to the Bible than what I've heard from my people. It's gonna send a shockwave. But you're part of that.
Don't think it's gonna come from the top-down. It's not gonna come from the khateeb, or the imam, or somebody else has to do it. Now we're in this mess together. We're in this mess. Everybody's in this mess. And I'm telling you, we can have strategies this or that or the other. But until we become people whose tawbah Allah accepts, our problems are only going to get worse. They're not going to get better. May Allah allow us to be of those that truly sincerely are able to live up to the mandate of tawbah.