The Purpose of the Qur’an - Shaykh Mustafa Abu Rayyan

The Purpose of the Qur'an

إِنَّ الْحَمْدَ لِلَّهِ نَحْمَدُهُ وَنَسْتَعِينُهُ وَنَسْتَغْفِرُهُ وَنَعُوذُ بِاللَّهِ مِنْ شُرُورِ أَنْفُسِنَا وَمِنْ سَيِّئَاتِ أَعْمَالِنَا، مَنْ يَهْدِهِ اللَّهُ فَلَا مُضِلَّ لَهُ وَمَنْ يُضْلِلْهُ فَلَا هَادِيَ لَهُ، وَأَشْهَدُ أَنْ لَا إِلَهَ إِلَّا اللَّهُ وَحْدَهُ لَا شَرِيكَ لَهُ وَأَشْهَدُ أَنَّ مُحَمَّدًا عَبْدُهُ وَرَسُولُهُ وَصَفِيُّهُ مِنْ خَلْقِهِ وَخَلِيلُهُ، أَرْسَلَهُ اللَّهُ إِلَى النَّاسِ كَافَّةً بَشِيرًا وَنَذِيرًا، فَبَلَّغَ الرِّسَالَةَ وَأَدَّى الْأَمَانَةَ وَنَصَحَ الْأُمَّةَ وَتَرَكَنَا عَلَى الْمَحَجَّةِ الْبَيْضَاءِ لَيْلُهَا كَنَهَارِهَا لَا يَزِيغُ عَنْهَا إِلَّا هَالِكٌ، فَصَلَوَاتُ اللَّهِ وَسَلَامُهُ عَلَيْهِ وَعَلَى آلِهِ وَأَصْحَابِهِ وَمَنِ اهْتَدَى بِهَدْيِهِ وَاسْتَنَّ بِسُنَّتِهِ وَدَعَا بِدَعْوَتِهِ إِلَى يَوْمِ الدِّينِ.

نَحِيبَتِي فِي اللَّهِ أُوصِيكُمْ وَنَفْسِي بِتَقْوَى اللَّهِ وَالْإِحْسَانِ، فَإِنَّ اللَّهَ مَعَ الَّذِينَ اتَّقَوْا وَالَّذِينَ هُمْ مُحْسِنُونَ.

My beloved brothers and sisters, I start by praising Allah and sending blessings and salutations upon our beloved Messenger Muhammad salawatullahi wa salamu alayh.

The Greatest Blessing: The Qur'an

My brothers and sisters, the greatest thing Allah has bestowed upon us — or one of the greatest things Allah has bestowed upon us — is the Qur'an. This beautiful revelation that we have, this Furqan — the Furqan meaning the criterion that distinguishes between truth and falsehood. This guidance where Allah mentions:

Indeed, this Qur'an guides to that which is the most upright. This Qur'an — in it there is no doubt:

This is the book, and clearly there is no doubt in it, and it is a guidance to those that have piety. The book of Allah that you see on the shelves in the masjid. The book of Allah that we recite when we pray — the Fatiha, the smaller chapters, the larger chapters, from Al-Baqarah to An-Nas. The Qur'an that we ensure our children memorize. The Qur'an that perhaps you grew up going to madrasa and learning. The Qur'an that when we want to know what is halal and haram, we look back towards. Our whole lives revolve around this book. We learn halal and haram from it, right from wrong from it, the stories of the past from it, what's going to come in the future from it. The book of Allah — those that act upon it, Allah will raise them; those that don't, they will eventually fall.

How Our Communities Misunderstand the Qur'an

Now that you understand what the Qur'an is, my brothers and sisters, what I want to dedicate this khutbah to is the importance of the Qur'an and how often our communities misunderstand it. And I want to start by talking about when we send our children to madrasa — what the objective is behind it.

No doubt many of you youngsters here go to madrasa, and many of the elders here have children that go to madrasa. And we celebrate the memorizing of the Qur'an — just not too long ago we had one celebration here in the masjid about our huffadh, may Allah bless them and protect them. And we wish — at least I hope that we wish — our children all memorize the Qur'an. But this concept of becoming a hafidh and memorizing the Qur'an is something that we often abandon as we grow older. It is something that we tell our children to do until they get to college age, and all of a sudden that discussion isn't there anymore. You rarely see someone in university or with a full-time job trying to memorize the Qur'an. As a community, we relegate it to something we tell children to do — and that's a fact.

What I want to ask you all is: why was the Qur'an revealed? Who was the Qur'an revealed for? Was it revealed for us to tell our children to memorize it, to the point where it became a cultural habit? No matter how religious your household is — whether in your household you pray or you don't pray — you send your children to madrasa. You may be involved in tons of muharramat, yet the very book that tells you to stay away from those prohibitions is the one you tell your children to memorize. What contradiction are we living by? We have completely disregarded and misunderstood the purpose and the objective of the Qur'an, my brothers and sisters.

If someone were to ask you today: what is the purpose of the Qur'an? The answer is not — and definitely not its primary purpose — to be memorized. And it would have been a great thing if all of us were memorizing the Qur'an, young and old. No — it is the children that we tell to memorize. "You go to madrasa, I've got more important things to do." This is not the relationship that the greatest of men and women, the Sahabah, had with the Qur'an.

My brothers and sisters, Allah revealed the Qur'an for guidance. It is هُدًى لِّلْمُتَّقِينَ. We are told to recite the Qur'an often — in the Qur'an itself we are told to recite it, to ponder upon it, to act upon it, to judge each other with it. This is the point of the Qur'an — to learn from its lessons, to live by it.

The Shame of Reciting Without Understanding

We are in a very, very dire situation, and I'll tell you why. Many of you here, every Friday — may Allah bless you and reward you — dedicate yourselves to reading Surah Al-Kahf on Yawm Al-Jumu'ah. You come early to the masjid and you read Surah Al-Kahf. Why do you read it? Because the Prophet told us that from one Jumu'ah to another it is a light. Because it was the act of the righteous. Because you want reward from Allah. But why do we read Surah Al-Kahf? The point of Surah Al-Kahf is to ponder over the lessons that are being taught within it.

Isn't it shameful — sad even — that you have been reading Surah Al-Kahf Jumu'ah after Jumu'ah, Friday after Friday, and if I were to ask you: what does this mean —

What does that mean, my brother? What does that mean, my sister? What is Allah telling us here? And you would say: "I don't know, I recite it, I read it." We have fundamentally misunderstood the purpose of the book of Allah — fundamentally misunderstood it.

If I were to give you a priority list of what we should be doing with the Qur'an, number one, my brothers and sisters, should be that we understand what Allah is telling us. There are so many lessons in the Qur'an coming from the Almighty Allah — telling you: don't have this behavior, have this behavior instead; stay away from this, do this instead; encouraging you to worship, to pray, to give charity. Maybe if we read the Qur'an as it is meant — with understanding — we would have been in a better state as an Ummah. Maybe if we read the Qur'an with understanding, many of the shirk, and the bid'ah, and the innovation, and the sins within our community would disappear. This is why you have people that have memorized the Qur'an but they don't act upon it — because they don't understand what they're reading.

I ask you, billahi alaykum — when you attend Tarawih and you hear the whole Qur'an cover to cover again, may Allah reward you for your worship — the point of it is that you hear the Qur'an, the whole Qur'an, with its values, with its morals, with its lessons, with its stories, with its commandments, with its prohibitions — that you hear all of it, and that it changes you. That it has an impact on you when you understand the statements of your Lord. This is the point of the Qur'an, my brothers and sisters. The Qur'an that made the Sahabah accept Islam when the Prophet recited upon them — because they understood the language the Qur'an was revealed in.

We are in a state where we do not understand the language — and that's not our fault. We're not Arabs. In fact, now many of the Arab world have abandoned the Arabic language that is in the Qur'an and they struggle to understand it. So the African, and the person from the Subcontinent, and the Russian — they will all struggle. But that's not an excuse. That's not an excuse, my brothers and sisters.

There's no point in encouraging everyone — especially the youngsters, everyone — to memorize the Qur'an, memorize the Qur'an, memorize the Qur'an, and then we wonder: "Wait, he was a hafidh, what happened to him? He was a hafidh, what happened to him?" I'll tell you what happened to him — he memorized 114 chapters whose meanings he does not understand. What lessons is he meant to take from them?

Let's change our relationship with the Qur'an, my brothers and sisters. And I don't want you to misunderstand me — wallahi, we need more huffadh in our community. We need to encourage our youngsters and our elders and everyone to memorize the Qur'an. And you should dedicate your life to memorizing the book of Allah — there is a great reward in it. And you should recite it as often as possible, for the Prophet said: whoever recites one letter from it has ten rewards. And you should have a regular portion of the Qur'an that you read — there is great reward in reading the book of Allah. But the point of the Qur'an, the objective of the Qur'an, the reason why it was revealed, was to give us guidance. It was to guide us to the straight path. That is the point of the Qur'an.

Which is why, my brothers and sisters, I want all of us here to make that decision: I will not be among those that read the Qur'an and are not curious about what Allah said. How are we meant to call others to Islam, my brothers and sisters? When we tell others, "Come join Islam," and they tell us, "Why should we join Islam?" and we tell them, "You should join Islam because we have the word of the Almighty — we have the truth, we have the statements of Allah Almighty that tells us right from wrong, whereby it gives us a life worth living and an eternal bliss in the Hereafter." When we tell them the message of tawhid and we tell them to join Islam, and they ask us, "What is this message that you're talking about?" and we say, "It is the Qur'an" — and they ask you, "Have you read the Qur'an? Do you understand the meaning of the Qur'an?" And if your answer is, "I went to madrasa when I was younger and I did hifz for a little bit and I know enough to pray by — but as for this great message that I'm telling you about, that I'm calling you towards — I don't understand its meaning and I don't bother learning it, I have no time for it" — this is not the point of being believers of the book of Allah.

Ask Allah to allow us to understand the importance of the meanings and the wisdoms and the letters in the Qur'an, and to not be among those that just focus on the memorizing — ignoring that which is even more important.

أَقُولُ قَوْلِي هَذَا وَأَسْتَغْفِرُ اللَّهَ لِي وَلَكُمْ وَلِسَائِرِ الْمُسْلِمِينَ مِنْ كُلِّ ذَنْبٍ فَاسْتَغْفِرُوهُ إِنَّهُ الْغَفُورُ الرَّحِيمُ.

Second Part of the Khutbah: How Have We Abandoned the Qur'an?

الْحَمْدُ لِلَّهِ وَالصَّلَاةُ وَالسَّلَامُ عَلَى رَسُولِ اللَّهِ.

My brothers and sisters, Allah revealed the Qur'an for us to ponder over these meanings:

Do they not ponder over the Qur'an, or are there locks upon their hearts? The Prophet was sent to us to help us understand the Qur'an:

So that you can clarify for them that which has been revealed upon them. It is a message from the Almighty. It is a message from Allah. It is worth more than anything else in this world. It is more blessed than anything else.

And Rasulullah when he complained to Allah Almighty, he said:

"Indeed, my people have taken the Qur'an to be an abandoned thing."

Ibn Al-Qayyim on Abandoning the Qur'an

What does it mean to abandon the Qur'an? The great scholar Ibn Al-Qayyim rahimahullah — he said to abandon the Qur'an means the following things:

Number one, he said:

It is to never listen to the Qur'an. That was the main crime of the kuffar of Quraysh — that they would put their fingers in their ears. They did not want to hear the Qur'an, and they refused to believe in it. So this is the first one: refusal to believe and to not hear the Qur'an. Alhamdulillah, many of us listen to the Qur'an — continue listening to the Qur'an, whether in prayers or outside of prayers, in your car, at home. Remember that your ears should be hearing the book of Allah.

Then he mentions:

It is to not act upon it. So that which the Qur'an prohibits, stay away from. That which the Qur'an commands, then do it. That which the Qur'an encourages, then you are encouraged to do as much as you can. Remember, it is a source of guidance — try and find guidance within the Qur'an in all aspects of life: in your home life, in your work, in your behavior. Everything is in the book of Allah.

Then he mentions another way of abandoning the Qur'an:

That you do not ponder over it. That when you are reading it, you don't reflect over the ayat. You don't think about what Allah is saying to you. You are either just speeding through it, or you're not interested in its meaning — even if you're not speeding through it, you're not interested in its meaning. Which is why there is no sense of curiosity: what is my Lord saying? What does Surah Al-Masad talk about? What does Ayat Al-Kursi mean? Why is it so important?

You all have memorized Ayat Al-Kursi. But has there ever been a part of you asking: wait, why is it so important? What does it mean? What is Allah telling us about Himself? This is among the ways we have abandoned the Qur'an.

And he mentions:

It is to leave the Qur'an as a means to judge between you. That whenever two are in conflict, they do not return back to the Qur'an as a judge. That our governments — the Muslim ones — do not take their constitution from the Qur'an. And that in every aspect of our life, halal and haram, right or wrong, is not decided by the Qur'an. If we're not doing that, then we have also abandoned the Qur'an.

And finally, he mentions:

It is to leave the Qur'an as a form of healing. That when we are sick, we don't go back to the Qur'an to recite upon each other. These are all ways we have abandoned the Qur'an.

And if you do not want to be among those that the Prophet complained about:

"Oh Allah, my people have taken the Qur'an as an abandoned thing" — then do not abandon the reading, and do not abandon the listening, and do not abandon the believing, and do not abandon the acting upon it, and do not abandon the seeking of it as a form of healing, and do not abandon pondering over it.

Practical Steps: Rebuilding Our Relationship with the Qur'an

My brothers and sisters, memorizing the Qur'an is an extremely high priority. It is a higher priority than much of what we busy ourselves with. But it is not more of a priority than everything else we spoke about today. And the Qur'an itself should be a priority. Among that should include that we are memorizing and encouraging it — because we are desperate for more huffadh. I know, because we are looking for Tarawih prayers — how much we are looking for them.

بَارَكَ اللَّهُ فِيكُمْ إِخْوَانِي فِي اللَّهِ. But that being said, let's not lose focus — with our children, with ourselves, with our families. The point of the Qur'an is that we find hidayah and guidance from it. That is the point of the Qur'an, and you will not be able to do so if you do not understand it.

A few points of advice. Start with — you should have a short-term plan and a long-term plan.

Long-Term Plan: Learn the Arabic Language

A long-term plan would be that each one of us learns the Arabic language so that we know the Qur'an. But that will take time and it's not very easy. But it should be part of your plan. "I need to brush up, to learn more of the Arabic language so that I can understand the Qur'an and the Hadith." This Qur'an is قُرْآنًا عَرَبِيًّا — it is in the Arabic language and we should try and learn it to the best of our ability.

Short-Term Plan: Read the Translation

The short-term plan should be that you start reading the translations of the Qur'an. It doesn't take much. From next Friday, when you come, open the Mus'haf — when you're reading your Jumu'ah Surah Al-Kahf — also go through the translation of the Qur'an. It will help you. It's not perfect, it's not ideal — because for you to truly learn the Qur'an you need to expand upon it; a translation alone is not enough — but it will get you somewhere.

Attend Tafsir Lessons

And between reading the translation — which is an immediate fix — I also want you to start attending tafsir lessons, whether they are online or on-site, in the masjid or elsewhere. You should go anywhere you hear the Qur'an is being explained in a tafsir lesson. Attend. Because wallahi, it will unlock things for you. When you hear the wisdoms behind the statements of Allah Almighty, it will change you. It will change your behavior. It will change your worship. It will change so many things about you — just like it did the companions of the Prophet. So those three things: short-term, read the translation; also, try to attend tafsir classes; and finally, the ideal way — learn the Arabic language to the best of your ability.