What can you achieve in 3 years?

Graduation Keynote Speech: Shaykh Uthman Khan

There were plenty smiles, a few tears and a lot of hugs as Shaykh Uthman Khan's, Qur'an Reading students received their Ijazah's in Hafs an Asim, Ashara Sughra, and Ashara Kubra on Saturday, July 30th, 2016. We were jittery, happy but mostly humbled at the culmination of nearly one to eight years of hard work. As we listened to Shaykh Uthman's keynote speech, we were inspired to make plans for our futures with the Qur'an and set more practical goals for ourselves. 

We always have enough time if we use it wisely. Our dilemma is not shortage of time but prioritizing our goals. A major component of successful living is putting first things first. Anything that is wasted effort represents wasted time. Most of us have some kind of dream trapped within us that has somehow become stifled because of lack of time. Most things that are worth doing require a real time commitment. Many of us have given up on our dream business idea, academic certificate or a vacation all because we don’t have the time.  Maybe if time were no object and we had no pressing responsibilities, we would devoute our days on some interesting, high-reward project. So instead we should be thinking, what is truly worth doing, whether we have time or not?

The Qur’an is worth reading correctly and studying thoroughly, whether we have time or not. It takes nine months to learn to recite the Qur’an with some level of efficiency (CriticalLoyalty) and ten months (Bayyinah.tv) to learn the meaning of the Qur’an. None of this is possible unless we allocate a time for it. 

The early Muslims in Makkah devouted three years of their lives to five verses of the Qur’an. In these three years, they experienced a profound change in form, from one stage to the next – as the caterpillar changes its form to a pupa and then finally to an adult butterfly. A caterpillar is born with the life that causes it to become a butterfly. It doesn’t put on a butterfly costume or strive to act like a butterfly. As long as it eats the right nutrients, it grows into a genuine butterfly. All human beings are born believers – we have a natural receptivity to religious belief. The Qur’an is spiritual food and nourishment that brings our religious beliefs to life and gives it direction. 

When the early Muslims consumed the verses of the Qur’an for three years straight, they grew in faith and conviction. Their three years of devoution to just five verses, regenerated their mindset. It gave them a new set of world-views that turned into revolutionary behavior. They sacrificed their personal wealth and comforts, risked their relationships and put their lives in dangers over just five verses of the Qur’an. In three years, just five verses, radically transformed their culture and their social, financial and political aspirations.

Such is the power and purpose of the Qur’an. Every Ramadan, we go through the Qur’an for thirty days and it hardly makes a dent in our attitude and our choices. Why? Because we read the Qur’an like a rearview-mirror. We glance over at it from to time to see the traffic behind us but it doesn’t really change our course of action. We treat the Qur’an as a timeline of past events, a distant story …but for the early Muslims, the Qur’an was happening in real time. Their entire life was captured by the Qur’an; their life revolved around the Qur’an. For us, the Qur’an is subjective history but for them, the Qur’an was personal and an intimate narrative.

Allah sent down the Qur’an to transform us, not simply to inform us. The Qur’an should give us a bigger heart, not a bigger head.

Instead of having a superficial relationship with the Qur’an, we should view it as a mirror and a best friend. The Qur’an is not a mere quote dispenser or repository of miracles. We should read the Qur’an as our biography. Put ourselves in the situation described in the verses and apply the teachings, the criticism, the good news and the warnings to the individual scenarios in our lives.

روى ابن ماجة (215) وأحمد (11870) عَنْ أَنَسِ بْنِ مَالِكٍ رضي الله عنه قَالَ : قَالَ رَسُولُ اللَّهِ صَلَّى اللَّهُ عَلَيْهِ وَسَلَّمَ : ( إِنَّ لِلَّهِ أَهْلِينَ مِنْ النَّاسِ ) قَالُوا : يَا رَسُولَ اللَّهِ ، مَنْ هُمْ ؟ قَالَ :

 هُمْ أَهْلُ الْقُرْآنِ ، أَهْلُ اللَّهِ وَخَاصَّتُهُ 

The Prophet Muhammad (s.a.w) said, "Indeed Allah has special people (chosen) from among mankind." The companions (r.a) asked, O Prophet (s.a.w) who are they? He replied (s.a.w), "They are the people of the Qur'an, who are people of Allah and His special chosen ones."

Many professing Muslims mistakenly believe that they are more special than the other Muslims from different schools-of-thought. This hadith is important because it makes a point of the fact that Allah's people, His special and chosen ones, are those who devout themselves to the Qur'an. They are an embodiment of the Qur'an. The Qur'an manifests itself not just when they apply rules of ghunna and ikhfa or when they are explaining its tafseer or asbab an nuzool. Qur'an is alive in their personality, their character and their day-to-day decisions.