Ayden Zayn tells the compelling true story of a man who asked God to show him a sign that Islam is the truth, and how he immediately received that sign in the Qur’an. Many Muslim scholars point out that this is one of the many miracles of the Qur’an; that its message oftentimes speaks to us, or to our current situation, in a profoundly relevant way. This phenomenon was the inspiration for the khutbah as just days before it was delivered, the khateeb experienced this miracle himself. Follow along as he shares his deeply personal account of this “miracle” and the lessons we all can learn from it.
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FULL TRANSCRIPT:
Allah tells us in the Qur’an, in surah 2, ayah 2, the English translation of which reads: “This is the book about which there is no doubt, a guidance for those who are conscious of God, those who are conscious of Allah.”
Before I embraced Islam, which was a very long time ago, I was given a Qur’an—I was given an English translation of the Qur’an. And when I opened it and I read it for the very first time, immediately what I realized is that the Qur’an was just that: it was, it is, and it always will be a Book of Guidance, the Book of Guidance. Because what I realized was that any page that I would go to—doesn’t matter what page—any page I would open it up to, somewhere on that page was some teaching or some principle that had benefit for human beings, that if understood correctly and if implemented could have some kind of benefit for human beings. So what I did was, I put this phenomenon to the test. And back then, even before accepting Islam, I would open it just randomly to any page, and indeed every single time I did that, I found somewhere on that page something of guidance.
Now, certain people who may have misconceptions about Islam and the Qur’an may say, “What? The Qur’an a book of guidance? You mean the same Qur’an that commands Muslims to kill the unbelievers? The same Qur’an used by terrorists as a ‘jihadi or terrorist manual’?” But the person of knowledge knows better. And while this is not the topic of my khutbah, I feel it’s an important topic to address very briefly. This is a classic case of something called “quote mining.” This is the tactic of deliberately extracting a quote out of its context in order to distort its original meaning. And what you will find is that every time some pundit makes this claim, whether on TV, the internet, or elsewhere, they always focus on one particular verse and ignore the verses that come before or after it. And so what they do is they make this message of guidance appear as if it is a message of pure evil. And this is so easy to do; it’s so easy when you employ this tactic.
I’ll give you just one example: perhaps the most commonly extracted verse, Chapter 2, Verse 191 of the Qur’an. The English translation says: “And kill them wherever you find them.” Of course, if we read this verse only, it sounds horrific. But the verse that comes immediately before it is almost always conveniently ignored. Why? Because this verse explains exactly who are to be killed. Verse 190, the verse preceding the killing verse, says in English: “And fight in the way of God those who fight you, but do not commit aggression. God does not love the aggressors.” And so verse 190 qualifies verse 191 by establishing an important condition: that those who are to be killed are the aggressors, the ones who attacked you first. They are not civilians; they are not non-combatants; they are the warmongers.
And sadly, you’ll find this act of extracting a quote out of its context to change its meaning is the case with every single verse which they say is a verse of terrorism, a verse of evil, or some kind of injustice. They don’t give the whole picture, because that requires much more time and much more effort. If it’s not a textual context, then the issue could even be more nuanced in the form of a historical or circumstantial context, or even the possibility of abrogation, or analyzing the vast commentary by Muslim scholars throughout Islamic history and today, or the fact that they almost always quote the English translation only and ignore possible alternate translations which could have a different meaning altogether. So, with some effort, some objectivity, and honesty, it shouldn’t be too difficult to, at the very least, realize that the Qur’an is not a book that condones terrorism. And again, I realized this before accepting Islam.
Now, Alhamdulillah I accepted Islam. And after I accepted Islam, someone gave me a VHS tape called “The Pathways to Islam.” Some of you may be saying, “What is a VHS tape?” Maybe some of you younger folks. A VHS tape is a video. And this video was a panel session of three reverts or converts to Islam, and they were talking about their story, about how they accepted Islam. And they spoke about a lot of different things, but one thing, one thing that stood out to me and that stuck with me until this day was what one of the brothers said. He said: “We not only read the Qur’an, but the Qur’an reads us.” And at that time I was young, I was new in the religion, new in the faith; I didn’t really get what he was saying. What does he mean, “The Qur’an reads us?”
Now, my memory, I’ll admit, is not very good. From what I can recall it being so long ago, I don’t recall that he actually explained what he was saying. He didn’t really go into details about it. So what I did was I passed it off and I said, “You know what, it’s just a cliché. Sounds like a neat thing to say, but the Qur’an reads us?” But over time, as I read more, as I studied more, with more experience I came to understand what he meant: that the Qur’an reads us.
And there’s another video that I watched, this time on YouTube, so a little bit more recent, that in my opinion epitomizes what he was talking about. And this video was a lecture of another convert or another revert—some people like to say revert, some people say convert, either one’s fine with me. He was talking about how he had a very difficult time in his life. One year was particularly difficult when his parents divorced, and around the same time one of his friends died. He was an Australian guy. Maybe you’ve seen the video, a very popular video on YouTube. And he spoke about how these events in his life led him to ask the major questions like, “Why are we here? What is the purpose of life?” And he was raised by parents who were atheists, but he himself had that inclination to do some research and find out, “Is there a God? What is there? What’s out there? What does this all mean? What is the purpose? Why am I going through struggles?” And so he went on a quest. He did his searching. He searched Christianity, he researched Hinduism, Buddhism, Mormonism. He researched all the different faiths, and then he came to Islam.
And so one day, to make a long story short, he found himself walking into a masjid, and he met a group of Muslims. And then he presented all his questions: “What is this about? What is that about? What do you guys believe about this? What do you guys believe about that?” And every single time, as he says in this lecture, he says every single time the brothers there, they pulled out a Qur’an and they said, “Oh, here, go to this page, read this verse.” And that struck him. He realized that the Qur’an was a message of guidance, was a Book of Guidance; that every time he asked his questions, he found the answers in the Qur’an.
So over a few months, he kept on going back to the masjid, being with the brothers, praying with them. Hadn’t become Muslim yet, but was thinking about it, was in the back of his mind. And one day he said, “You know, I want to bring the Qur’an home. Can I, can I borrow it? I want to go home and I want to read it.” They said, “Sure, of course, absolutely.” So he did that, took the Qur’an, went home, did his reading. A few weeks later, he said to himself, “That’s it, I’m done. I want to become Muslim. It’s very clear in this book; this is the way of life for me.” So he waited until the sun went down, nighttime, warm summer night. He wanted to set the mood. So he opened the window, he lit a candle, he dimmed the lights. He was reading the Qur’an. And then he closed the Qur’an, put it on the shelf. He said, “Allah, or God, this is it. I want to take my journey into Islam; I want to take that leap. I believe in it; I’ve read the Qur’an and it makes sense to me, but I need that, that extra push. I need that, that extra little push to just prove to me that this is true.” So what did he do? He said to God, he said, “Please, just show me a sign that Islam is indeed the truth.” And he waited. And he said, “I just want nothing big, nothing big at all. Just maybe a bolt of lightning or something.” And he waited. Nothing happened. He tells us in this lecture, absolutely nothing, not even a sound coming from outside, not even the backfire of a car. So he said, “Okay, I’ll give you another chance. God, this is another chance for you to prove to me that Islam is the truth.” And so he waited again. And nothing, not even the creak in the wall of his house. Not a sound. All he was looking for was a tiny sign. Absolutely nothing. And he was disappointed. He said, “Okay, I tried, didn’t work.” So he grabbed the Qur’an off the shelf, he sat back down, he opened it up back to where he was reading. And what verse did he read? “Indeed, in the creation of the heavens and the earth are signs for a people with reason.” Subhan’ Allah! He asked for a sign and Allah gave it to him, not in the way that he expected, not in the way that he wanted, but in the Qur’an, in the very next verse.
But the point that I’m making is that the Qur’an is that miraculous book that does this, that speaks to us, that, like the brother said in the panel session “Pathways to Islam,” that reads us, because it’s Allah’s words. And this is what we have to realize, and this happens time and time again.
Now, if you want to watch this video, you can go to this website: it’s called 30factsaboutislam.com/sign
Some years ago, my wife and I were having a discussion, and it was regarding an issue that we weren’t really sure what Islam’s position was on it. The conversation didn’t get to a point where it compelled us to do any real research; we didn’t go online or Google it or anything, just a question that we had in our mind. The next day, I happened to be reading the Qur’an, and I came across, again without any research, I came across the verse that answered my question that was pertaining to that discussion. And I’m sure we all have stories like that, how when we read the Qur’an, we feel like it’s speaking to us, that it’s speaking to our situation.
Now, something happened to me a few days ago. It happened again. What happened again? The miraculous nature of the Qur’an became manifest. This past Tuesday at work, a colleague of mine who’s a practicing Christian came to my desk and asked me, “What is the first prayer that you pray here at work?” Because Alhamdulillah, we have a room where we pray, and all the brothers there—we have a few brothers there at work at my office—we all get together and we pray in the prayer room. And this guy fasts regularly. In fact, I asked him one time, I said, “Well, why do you fast? Are you doing it for dietary reasons? Are you doing it for health reasons?” “No, no,” he said, he’s doing it for the higher purpose. So we got into conversations, and I realized that this guy was a good Christian, always talking about God, not really talking about Jesus so much, but talking about God, the Creator, and wanting to live his life in service to Him. And so he fasts, he prays, goes to church. And so he asked me if he could use the prayer room, if he could use the prayer room so that he can pray. And I said, “Absolutely, of course. Of course you can pray. By all means, go for it. Only one condition: take off your shoes.” And so he did that.
And I thought to myself, I said, Subhan’ Allah, I need to give him a Qur’an. And I felt so ashamed because for two years before that, we’ve been having conversations about religion, and I realized how spiritual he was. And I said to myself months ago, I said, “I should give him a Qur’an.” But as is human weakness, we procrastinate, and we procrastinate. And I felt so ashamed. But then I had the resolve and I said to myself, “You know what, I’m going to give him a Qur’an right away so that maybe Allah will talk to him, talk to his particular situation.” So that struck me.
And so I went home—not immediately, finished out my work—but that evening I went home, and I thought to myself, “You know, it should be a good lesson for my, for my children.” And so as we were eating dinner, I said to my, my kids, I said, “You know, this good Christian guy, he came to me,” and I told him the story. And I said, “You know what we should do? You know what I should do? You know what I’m going to do, Inshallah? I’m going to give him a Qur’an tomorrow, because he’s so ready in my mind—Allah knows best—he seems like he’s so ready for the message of Islam.” And I said to the kids, “All we need to do is give him the opportunity, let him read the Qur’an, give him access to Allah. Let it talk to him through the Qur’an, through His words. And it will be my colleague’s decision whether or not he wants to accept it. If Allah blesses him, then he will heed the message, Inshallah.” And so what I told them is what I heard in that first video, that the Qur’an reads us; that when we read it, it talks to our situation, our unique particular situations, all of us. And as I already gave to you the examples in my life, the examples in this Australian guy’s life, and I’m sure all of you, most of you, can relate to this, that you’ve done this many times.
And so I said to my kids, I said, “Let’s do a test again. Let’s do this, this, this kind of test of this phenomenon of Allah talking to us.” Now, it’s important you understand that this is the first time I’m doing this with my children. This is the first time I’m doing this random page, quote-unquote, test. And so I turned to my six-year-old and I said, “Pick a page, any page, randomly. Let’s open the Qur’an and let’s see if there is a beneficial teaching. Let’s see if Allah is talking to us.” So he said, “Okay, Daddy, I pick page 100.” This is what it says on page 100, and Wallahi, this is the truth; this happened three days ago. It says: “Who is he that will loan to Allah a beautiful loan, which Allah will double onto his credit and multiply many times? It is Allah that gives you want or plenty, and to Him shall be your return.” So the verse talked about charity. And one of the things that me and my wife are always telling the kids because they’re now at the age where they get an allowance, we say, “When we give you an allowance, try to give back something; try to give in charity.” And so they understood it. They saw, they said, “Wow, okay, that relates to us. This is a teaching of benefit for us.” So they got the point. So, test passed, check.
Then I turned to my eight-year-old and I said, “You pick a page.” She said, “Okay, Daddy, I pick page 250.” Totally random. First child picks page 100; page 100 says: “Who is he that will loan to Allah a beautiful loan?” Page 250 says: “And loan to Allah a beautiful loan.” Subhan’ Allah! I mean, I couldn’t have asked for anything better. Wallahi, random pages: 100, 250 for my six-year-old and my eight-year-old. Subhan’ Allah, what a lesson, not only to them, but to me and to all of us, that Allah is talking to us through the Qur’an.
It gets better, because I have a third child that I asked the question to. “What did he say? What’s your page?” My 10-year-old says, “Daddy, go to page 999.” I said, “Okay, totally random.” Listen to what this says, keeping in mind the context of my friend at work who I just told them about, which is the reason why we’re doing this in the first place: “And thus it is that We have sent down the book to you, so the People of the Book believe therein.” Who are the People of the Book? Jews and Christians. My friend at work was a Christian, is a Christian. And I just had the resolve, I have this whole experience with him of understanding that he is looking for the truth. And so my intention was to give him a Qur’an. What a lesson for us, that in these three verses, picked randomly, but nothing random about the results, because this is Allah’s book, and in it He’s speaking to our particular situations.
And so I gave the book on Wednesday, two days ago, to my friend at work. And I said, “You know, I want to show you a little bit in the book, just open it up,” not, not to the actual text of the Qur’an, but to the introduction, because the introduction tells a little bit about how Islam relates to Christianity and Judaism. But no, you know what he did? He flipped right to the text. He’s like, “I want to see this for the first time.” He’s never been given a Qur’an before. He opened the page and he saw the name of Moses. He saw the name of Moses. He said, “You guys believe in Moses?” I said, “Yeah. Moses is mentioned more times in the Qur’an than Muhammad, peace be upon him and peace be upon all of the Prophets.” He was fascinated. I said, “There’s a chapter in the Qur’an called Mary.”
Subhan’ Allah, if someone shows an interest in Islam or they’re spiritually inclined and open-minded, we should make an effort to give them a Qur’an in the hope that they will understand the message. Yes, use your wisdom. If you feel like somebody is arrogant and is closed-minded and has a hard heart, you use your own judgment. But ultimately, it’s up to Allah to do His work. Allah is the one that opens the hearts. And so we have a responsibility to share this message. And my encouragement is, have faith that Allah will speak to these people, will speak to us through His words in the Qur’an.
And so we ask Allah, O Allah, open up our hearts and bless us to see the beauty of this deen, bless us to see the beauty of the words in the Qur’an, Your words, Allah. Bless us not only to read them, but to understand them, to accept them, and to implement them. And please, Allah, bless all of the Muslims and guide us and reward us, unite us and help us. Shower Your mercy and Your blessings upon Prophet Muhammad, his companions, and his family until the end of time. And please, Allah, bless all of those who are seeking the truth, open up their hearts and guide them and guide us. Ask Allah for forgiveness.
(End of first khutbah)
So I want to tell you a brief story about a time when I was interviewing a student, Islamic school student. It was for a documentary that I was helping to produce. And she was basically telling us of her experience in Islamic school. And so one of the questions I posed to her, I said, “Tell us, you know, what have you learned?” Actually, one of, you know, the usual things that she learns about the Five Pillars, the Six Articles of Faith, Allah, the Prophet, peace be upon him, et cetera. But I wanted something more than that. I said, “Tell me something from the Hadith that you’ve learned.” And she started reciting a Hadith in Arabic. Well, I said, “It’s great she knows the Arabic.” I said, “What does it mean? Tell me what it means. Translate it for me, because we’re making a video that’s in English; we want people to understand what it, what it means.” She said, “Oh, we, we didn’t, we weren’t taught the meaning.” I said, “What? What do you mean you weren’t taught the meaning?” She said, “No, they just taught us the Arabic.” I was like, “Okay, do you understand the Arabic?” She said, “No.” Subhan’ Allah.
This is one of our problems. Not only are many of us not understanding the message, but we’re also passing that on to our children, that we’re teaching them the Arabic recitation. And yes, I am not dismissing, I am not downplaying the importance of the Arabic. That is important; there are blessings in that. Even if you just know the Arabic and you don’t understand it, you’re playing a part in preserving the Qur’an. You are getting rewards for just reciting even one syllable of the Qur’an, so that is important. But it’s not more important than understanding the meaning of the message.
And this is the lesson, my message that I want to leave to you is that we have to understand the message. Why? Why do we have to understand the message? Because it’s a Book of Guidance. Allah is telling us things to do, telling us things not to do, warning us of Hell, giving us glad tidings of Paradise, telling us so many lessons in the Qur’an. But these lessons are of no use to us if we don’t understand it.
Allah tells us in the Qur’an, in surah 7, ayah 3, the English translation says: “Follow what has been revealed to you from your Lord”. And you cannot follow it unless you understand it. So what we need to do, we need to not fall into the trap, the cultural trap, of only reciting the Arabic. Yes, again, it’s ideal to learn the Arabic because a lot of meaning is lost in translation. So I’m encouraging you to learn Arabic, I’m encouraging you and our children to learn the Arabic, to recite the Arabic, but not at the expense of understanding the message. Our children and us as well need to understand the message of the Qur’an, especially if you’re sending them to public school and all the things that they’re exposed to. They need to understand what Allah, the Creator of the universe, is telling them to do. We need to teach them the lessons, not only the Qur’an, but the Hadith as well, because in these things are lessons, there are instructions, and there is guidance for us.
So, O Allah, give us the guidance. Forgive us for all of our sins, first and last, big and small, overt and covert. Shower Your mercy and blessings upon Prophet Muhammad, his companions, and his family until the Day of Judgment. O Allah, please open up our hearts, make our hearts receptive to the message, make our hearts soft, and please, Allah, forgive us and guide us and shower Your mercy and Your blessings upon all of the Prophets who brought Your message, upon all of the companions, and upon all of the righteous believers throughout all of time. Ameen.