Islam Is Easy (Stop Feeling Guilty) | Surah Al-Muzzammil | Nouman Ali Khan

The Universal Reach of the Quran

Allah made this religion travel almost every culture on earth. Every culture on earth. And it's incredible that wherever Islam traveled, the Qur'an traveled with it.

The French read the French translation of the Bible. The British read the King's James translation of the Bible. The Italians have an Italian translation of the Bible. The Spanish have a Spanish translation of the Bible.

The Indonesian Muslims, the Bangladeshi Muslims, the Senegalese Muslims, the Moroccan Muslims, the Chinese Muslims, the Australian Muslims. What are they reading? The Turkish Muslims, the Albanian Muslims. What are they reading? The Qur'an.

The history of Islam is proof that Allah made this Qur'an easy in a way that every culture on earth was able to not only learn, but teach their children to this day. To this day. It's one of the most amazing qualities of the Qur'an that it can be learned by anybody. Anybody. And at any age.

Allah Decrees the Night and the Day

And Allah decrees and calculates the night and the day. قَدْر also means to set a limit. قَدْر comes from قِدْر, which is a giant cauldron or a pot that contains something.

Allah creates the containings of the night and the day. Allah creates the calculations of the nights and the days. Allah puts limits on the nights and the days.

He put limits on His rizq. He put limits on His rizq. So Allah puts a limit on the night and the day. Beautiful phrase.

Why? Because now Allah is saying some nights are long and some nights are short. Is that true? Winter nights, very long. Summer nights, very short. And in Europe, there are places that don't even have a night. They're really short.

The Variation in People's Lives

But there's something else going on here. The night of the Prophet ﷺ and the night of the believer, are they the same? No. The day of the Prophet ﷺ and the day of the believer, they're the same? Allah mentioned طَائِفَةٌ مِّنَ الَّذِينَ مَعَكَ — a group. Each member of the group has a different day and a different night. Yes or no?

That is also, in a very holistic way, Allah didn't just say that He has made calculation of the night and the day and decreed the night and the day. He's also decreed everything that goes on with each individual in the night and with each individual in the day. And so, some people are able to pray more sometimes and less sometimes or not pray at all. And that's part of the decree of Allah.

Some people have a night shift at a hospital. They're a nurse in the emergency and they have a night shift. They can't pray Tahajjud. They're stopping somebody from bleeding to death. They can't pray. There's somebody that's busy. There's somebody studying for an exam until 3 a.m. because they have an exam at 7 a.m. They're not going to pray Tahajjud or maybe that's the only time they'll pray Tahajjud.

But the ayah is actually now, it's talking about Allah. But by talking about Allah, it's actually talking about how much variation Allah has created in the lives of people and how different their days and their nights are. How different their burdens are. How different their capabilities are. How different their opportunities are.

Some people have more free time. Some people have no free time. Some people are busy. Some people are not. Some people have a job. Some people are unemployed. Some people are healthy. Some people are sick. Variety. But all of that is included, kind of packaged in, in Allah decrees the night and the day.

Allah Knows You Cannot Count It Exactly

And Allah knew that you are not going to be able to count it exactly. Ya Allah, you told us half, a third, two thirds, little less, little more. And at the end of all of that, you said, I already knew that you do not know how to count this exactly.

The word تُحْصُوهُ comes from إِحْصَاء. إِحْصَاء comes from حَصَاة. حَصَاة are pebbles. When the Arabs had a hard time counting something, then they used pebbles and they put them in a jar. Okay, one, two, three, four. So now it's an exact count.

The modern version of مُحْصَاة or a counter, is if you see, people don't use cash anymore. And if you're in the cash business, then you're shady. But anyway, when you go to the bank and you're depositing a huge mound of cash, they have that cash machine. That's the مُحْصَاة now. That's the tool that counts exactly.

Allah says by using the word أَن لَّن تُحْصُوهُ you're not going to be able to count the times exactly. Also Allah is saying you're not going to be... Ibn Ashur takes another route in this. He says this is actually اسْتِعَارَة, meaning the amount of سَجْدَة, the amount of تَسْبِيح, the amount of دُعَاء. You're never going to be able to keep track of how much you did and how much you didn't do. Not just the duration of night, but how much ذِكْر you did and how much is it worth. You can't calculate any of that. That's beyond your ability.

But then إِحْصَاء also got used in the meaning of something else. It started getting used in the meaning of ability. يَعْنِي أَن لَا تُطِيقُوهُ — which is even more interesting.

Allah Turns to You with Mercy

Allah is now talking to the rest of the Muslims. Look at this beauty. Allah started with the Prophet and a special group that is with him — طَائِفَةٌ مِنَ الَّذِينَ مَعَكَ. But now he's talking to everybody else. So there's a special group that gets up for Qiyam and once or twice they miss it or maybe half the time they're there, something. But then there's the rest of the larger Muslim population that isn't exactly... I mean they're struggling with Fajr. They're struggling with Asr.

Now Allah turns to them and says, I knew that the rest of you weren't going to be able to keep up with this. You weren't going to be able to keep up... You're not capable of doing all of this.

And after all this emphasis on this ibadah, there's kind of a guilt that settles in. Ya Allah, you emphasize Qiyam al-Layl so much and I've lived so much of my life and I've only done Qiyam al-Nahar. I haven't done anything. I've done Niyam al-Layl, not Qiyam al-Layl. I've been sleeping and I don't do Qiyam al-Layl. I feel really guilty. Allah says, I knew most of you can't do it.

So He accepted, He turned back to you lovingly. Now Tawbah usually means repentance. But Tawbah means something else too. When Allah turns back to you with mercy. So here actually it means when Allah turns back to you with mercy.

Like Allah knew you couldn't do it. So Allah turned to you, mercifully and made things easier for you. So the Tawbah here is Allah turns to... Now Allah is turning to the one who is not as good at worshipping Him. Because Allah already mentioned people that are very good at worshipping Him. In the middle of the night, they give up their sleep and they get up and they pray.

Now Allah is talking to people starting with, I know you're not very good at this. عَلِمَ أَن لَّن تُحْصُوهُ. And they're already... The moment Allah says, I knew you're not capable, we're like, yeah, I'm a loser. Allah says, فَتَابَ عَلَيْكُمْ — But He turned towards you. He mercifully turned towards you. He accepts your shortcoming. It's okay. You don't have to be guilty about it. فَتَابَ عَلَيْكُمْ.

Read What Is Easy from the Quran

And then He says, just read whatever is easy for you from the Quran. Whatever is easy from the Quran.

Now one interpretation of that, according to some Mufassirun was, this is for the day five prayers. That the five prayers are فَاقْرَءُوا مَا تَيَسَّرَ مِنَ الْقُرْآنِ. I will disagree with that interpretation because that's coming later on in the ayah. فَأَقِيمُوا الصَّلَاةَ وَآتُوا الزَّكَاةَ — if they're coming together, they mean two different things.

But I will tell you what this is suggesting. It's suggesting those of you that, you're like half the night, a third of the night, two-thirds of the night. I can't even imagine. Allah says, okay, I know you couldn't do it, but I encourage you to start somewhere.

And it's already clear that it's not mandatory. So the ayah has already made with the words طَائِفَةٌ مِّنَ الَّذِينَ مَعَكَ — it's already clear that none of this is mandatory. But now Allah is giving spiritual encouragement.

Remember the previous ayah said, فَمَن شَاءَ اتَّخَذَ إِلَىٰ رَبِّهِ سَبِيلًا — And when you take a journey, you have to take one step. So Allah says, okay, here, let me help you take one step. What's that one step? Just recite مَا تَيَسَّرَ — whatever comes easy from the Qur'an. مِنَ الْقُرْآنِ.

I don't know a lot of Qur'an. I know قُلْ هُوَ اللَّهُ أَحَدٌ and إِنَّا أَعْطَيْنَاكَ الْكَوْثَرَ. That's it. Okay. Just recite that. That's easy for you? You can do that? Okay. Then just recite that.

And so Allah has now opened the door for people that are spiritually way behind. And first He started by telling them, look, I know you're behind. And right now you couldn't get to those numbers. You know, you can't get to a half, a third, two thirds. You're not there. But that's okay. I accept your tawbah. I'm turning to you anyway lovingly. But I encourage you to read. And then instead of setting a number, what's the standard? Whatever is easy. مَا تَيَسَّرَ.

Understanding Ease and Growth

But now we have to spend a little bit of time talking about ease. I'm going to use the exercise analogy again. Okay, I want you to run as long as it's easy for you. How do you know how much you have to run? The moment you start running out of breath. Okay, so every day I just want you to run as long as it's easy.

Isn't it guaranteed that after a week you're going to run longer? Isn't it? So it became easier to run longer? Because the standard was do so much that is easy. The only way you will know what is easy is the moment you hit hard. That's the only way to know.

So by saying do whatever is easy for you, it's as if Allah said, yes, He's going easy on you, but He also wants you to grow. So He said put yourself through it. And the moment you start having difficulty, the moment you start yawning or your legs start giving and you just feel tired. Okay, just get back and finish the rakah, finish the prayer. It's okay. It's not for you. Or you got too sleepy or you just thought, okay, next day, next day, next day.

What's going to happen naturally? It's going to increase naturally. Like Allah has given us a development program. In the words, and your stamina will build naturally. And the thing is not everybody's stamina builds the same way. And not everybody has the same capacity.

And now you're like, you know, I prayed yesterday. Let me give you the workout analogy again. Sometimes you're doing exercise and you have to leave. Like you got a call from work or you got a call and you were 70% done with your exercise and you have to leave. What do you feel? You feel like, oh, I need to finish that. Forget even psychologically, even physically, your body feels like something's missing. Why? Because you didn't get to your limit. You didn't go at the edge of what's easy.

If you're used to running for 30 minutes on a treadmill and you got a work call and you have to get off the treadmill in 20 minutes, something's off. Something feels off. So what's going to happen when you get in the habit of praying? And then, you know, you used to do shorter and you started doing a little longer, then a little longer, then a little...

Now it's like, I've been praying قُلْ هُوَ اللَّهُ أَحَدٌ and وَالْعَصْرِ for like two weeks now. Something's missing. I need to do more. I think I need to memorize some more surahs. I need to go from like, you know, Surah Al-Asr to maybe إِذَا زُلْزِلَتِ الْأَرْضُ. And after a couple of days of إِذَا زُلْزِلَتِ الْأَرْضُ maybe I need to go to... Maybe I should push myself a little. Let me try. I don't know. Maybe I can do Surah Al-Mulk. Maybe from Mulk, maybe I'll end up in, I don't know, Dukhan. Yasin? Can I do Yasin? Let's see. Yasin to Kahf. Kahf to Baqarah.

I mean, if you think about Baqarah right now, you're crazy. Right now, it's just Ikhlas and Asr. But Allah didn't say get to Baqarah. Allah just said فَاقْرَءُوا مَا تَيَسَّرَ مِنَ الْقُرْآنِ. It's so amazing. Just take a little step. Take a little step.

Allah Knows Some Will Be Sick or Traveling

But then there's a new problem. Ya Allah. Okay, fine. Start from somewhere. There's a new problem. The new problem is, Ya Allah, I have a night job. Ya Allah, I have such an exhausting job during the day that by the time I get home, and I even look at the pillow, I go into a coma. I barely wake up for Fajr. Even this فَاقْرَءُوا مَا تَيَسَّرَ مِنَ الْقُرْآنِ is too much for me. I can't do it. Even this is too much. Even the act of getting up at 3 AM or 2 AM, even that's too much for me. I have too many responsibilities through the day and too much going on that physically I'm just not able to get up. What do I do?

Allah says, He knew that some of you are going to be sick. Some of you are going to be physically incapable. Some of you are not strong enough to even wake up. Some of you are on medication that's drowsy medication and knocks you out for 8 hours. And you have to take the medication. Does that happen? There are people that have to take medication. There are people that have to take medication that lowers their blood pressure. There are people that have to take medication that just completely knocks them out. There are people that need a certain amount of sleep medically. They can't do it. There are people that have a physical disability. They can't get up. They can't pray. They have severe back injury. They have something or the other.

Allah says, Allah knew that there are some people who can't even do what I just said. It's so amazing. Now they're supposed to feel bad because first we were feeling bad that we didn't make it to the half or two-thirds or one-third. Allah said, don't feel bad. Just do whatever you can so long as it's easy for you. Then a group among us starts feeling even worse. They're like, I can't even do that because I'm sick. But he's going to mention three groups.

There's another group that is going around, traveling all over the place. يَضْرِبُونَ فِي الْأَرْضِ means striking in the land, meaning instead of saying يُسَافِرُونَ and يَرْحَلُونَ, يَضْرِبُونَ فِي الْأَرْضِ is isti'ara, it's for ضَرْب. ضَرْب actually means to strike. So meaning they walk so far, their feet feel like يَضْرِبُونَ فِي الْأَرْضِ.

They go long distances, exhaust themselves to do the work, to work on the farm, to work in the well, to work wherever. They have long commutes. They're stuck in traffic all day. These people. And they're pursuing the favor of Allah. يَبْتَغُونَ مِن فَضْلِ اللَّهِ. And what does يَبْتَغُونَ مِن فَضْلِ اللَّهِ mean? They pursue the favor of Allah.

The Fadl of Allah: Rizq and Blessing

What is the favor of Allah? The immediate meaning is rizq. The immediate meaning is rizq. They're trying to make a living. There's somebody driving an Uber all night and then working in a store all day. There are people like that, aren't there? How are they gonna ever... They barely get any sleep. There are people that have two jobs and three jobs. They can't survive if they don't do that. They barely get any sleep. They don't have the luxury of going to sleep and then waking up in the middle of the night and then they can't do it. There are people that have such exhausting jobs, 16-hour jobs, 17-hour jobs. Or they have their drive to work is two hours and then the job and the drive back is two hours. They physically can't do it.

They're not able to do it. That's a lot of people, isn't it? That's a lot of people. Now Allah is describing all the people who unfortunately couldn't do Qiyam al-Layl.

Let me add a little bit to the يَبْتَغُونَ مِن فَضْلِ اللَّهِ so you understand something beautiful about ابْتِغَاء فَضْلِ اللَّهِ. The فَضْل of Allah I said means rizq. Like Allah says it in Surah Al-Jumu'ah — يَبْتَغُونَ مِن فَضْلِ اللَّهِ وَاذْكُرُوا اللَّهَ كَثِيرًا.

But the فَضْل of Allah has another dimension. When a believer does business, makes a living, then the believer is an honest believer. The believer is an honest salesperson. The believer is an honest doctor. The believer is an honest construction engineer. The believer is an honest government employee. So there's one less corrupt person in the industry. There's one less corrupt business person. There's one less corrupt salesperson.

And because you're doing things, you're not acting in a way that's corrupt. The business itself has Allah's blessing in it, has the فَضْل of Allah in it. And that blessing isn't just limited to you, it actually spreads. You're creating a ripple effect by you doing right within Allah's pleasure in your workplace. You're actually generating more good just by being at work because you are not part of the corruption. You're part of the purification of the economy just by your existence in the economy. This is also the فَضْل of Allah.

And by you doing right, you have actually now created, maybe you're a business owner. I particularly like the example of business owners because if they're doing something right, they're doing the halal way of running a business. Then they have employees and they're doing right by their employees. And now they've created an opportunity for several families to earn a halal living. And all of that فَضْل goes back to the one who created the business. So even them working all day at the restaurant and laboring and all of that, they're actually also getting the فَضْل of Allah not just in the dunya sense, but also spiritually. Allah has actually made this a spiritual exercise too.

So the one who was sick, lying in a hospital bed all day, can't even get up, feels like I can't do anything. And the one who's working hard says, I'm just pursuing dunya. I have no spiritual outlet because I'm always lost in the material. I'm incapable.

Those Fighting in the Path of Allah

And then Allah mentions the third group. And there are people who are at war. They're fighting in the path of Allah. They're at war. And if they're at war, then maybe they're sustaining injuries. Maybe they're standing guard duty all night. Because somebody has to guard the camp. Maybe they're fighting all day. So they need as much rest as possible because they need their energy to recuperate for the battle the next day. Maybe that's the case. So they can't pray.

So these are three different scenarios. What does Allah say about all three of these scenarios?

He says, you also read whatever is easy from it. It's so beautiful that Allah did not restrict that to Qiyam. The ayats before were about Qiyamul Layl. Now Allah is saying, it can include Qiyam. But you know what? While you're lying sick in bed, while you're traveling on your camel all the way in the desert going to this business meeting, when you're driving the Uber, فَاقْرَءُوا مَا تَيَسَّرَ مِنْهُ. When you're sitting in the store, فَاقْرَءُوا مَا تَيَسَّرَ مِنْهُ. The Qur'an, the spiritual engagement, you're fighting in battle, you're just taking a break, and what do you do? فَاقْرَءُوا مَا تَيَسَّرَ مِنْهُ.

Allah says, because the point, remember the point wasn't the numbers, remember that? And now what's the actual point? Remembrance. Remembrance. And so Allah made it even more easy, at least do this. And even then not too much, whatever is easy for you.

You'll also be walking from one class to another saying, قُلْ هُوَ اللَّهُ أَحَدٌ اللَّهُ الصَّمَدُ لَمْ يَلِدْ وَلَمْ يُولَدْ وَلَمْ يَكُن لَّهُ كُفُوًا أَحَدٌ. And I should probably learn more Qur'an because this was a 20-minute walk. I mean I could keep repeating it, but I also want to learn some more. You know what? مَا تَيَسَّرَ. Remember I told you the ease will get bigger and bigger and bigger. So you'll just keep, فَاقْرَءُوا مَا تَيَسَّرَ.

Your Rabb Knows

And so the Qur'an became a natural part of the believer spirituality whether they are capable of standing in the middle of the night or not. Allah mentioned groups that feel that they can't. And Allah acknowledged them. Notice the opening of this ayah.

Your Rabb knows. Your Rabb knows you're sick. Your Rabb knows you're a full-time student. Your Rabb knows you have a night shift. Your Rabb knows you have two jobs. Your Rabb knows you're taking care of four kids. You barely get any sleep. Your Rabb knows you're taking care of a baby. You can't pray. Your Rabb knows. Your Rabb knows.

And then to all of you He says, just read whatever you can. Have Qur'an in your life. Just have Qur'an in your life.

Allah Made This Quran Easy for Every Culture

This ayah actually raises another question. But I don't even know how to read the Qur'an. What about me? I'm French. I don't know how to read the Qur'an. I'm German. I don't know how to read the Qur'an. My parents never taught me. I just became Muslim two weeks ago. I don't know how to read the Qur'an. So, could you make it even easier for me? Can I just like read the translation in French or German? Could that be?

My personal response to that, اللَّهُ أَعْلَمُ, is that Allah made this religion travel almost every culture on earth. Every culture on earth. And it's incredible that wherever Islam traveled, the Qur'an traveled with it.

The French read the French translation of the Bible. The British read the King's James translation of the Bible. The Italians have an Italian translation of the Bible. The Spanish have a Spanish translation of the Bible.

The Indonesian Muslims, the Bangladeshi Muslims, the Senegalese Muslims, the Moroccan Muslims, the Chinese Muslims, the Australian Muslims. What are they reading? The Turkish Muslims, the Albanian Muslims. What are they reading? The Arabic Qur'an.

The history of Islam is proof that Allah made this Qur'an easy in a way that every culture on earth was able to not only learn but teach their children to this day. To this day. It's one of the most amazing qualities of the Qur'an that it can be learned by anybody. Anybody. And at any age.

Do you know when Islam first spread and as it was spreading to non-Arab regions, all the new Muslims were all adults. Majority were adults. And they were all learning what? Qur'an. You're not the first new Muslim to learn the Qur'an. New Muslims learning the Qur'an that have no background in Arabic has been going on for centuries and centuries and centuries. This is not a new problem. This is an old thing.

But you know what? The Muslims understood something. If Allah is saying, read whatever is easy from the Qur'an, then we better make sure that we make it easy for our children to learn it. We make it easy for an adult who didn't know to learn it. We need to make education of the Qur'an, the reciting of the Qur'an, the memorizing of the Qur'an, the understanding of the Qur'an, easy. And Muslims have been doing that since the birth of Islam.

You Have Never Tested Your Limits

But now, after all of that time, we have the audacity and the laziness to say, it's too hard for me. Really? In the age where you have more learning tools than ever in human history, you have more resources than ever in human history, people would not, people would, how long would they travel to even get a copy of a book? A copy of a book. And now you have, not just a PDF, you have the book turned into an app with flashcards, with voiceovers, where you can tap and it can recite it for you. You have so many tools now that couldn't have been imagined by the people before.

The idea that it's hard for me is a lie because you never tested where your ease comes to an end. Remember I told you, you cannot say something's hard for me until you've actually done whatever is easy. And you can't know what's easy until you hit what? Hard. You didn't even begin and you said it's hard for me. You didn't even begin. How are you saying it's hard for you?

And by the way, it could be that you ended up with a bad class or a bad teacher or a bad resource and it didn't work for you. But does that mean you've exhausted every possible resource and every possible avenue? Human beings are ingenious. If you really want to figure something out, you'll figure it out. You'll find an outlet. And the people who want to turn to Allah, Allah will never leave them without a resource. Never.