CHAPTER 12
Small Beginnings
I
n a
khuṭbah
I once gave on
Sūrat al-Kahf
, I talked about the parable Allah gave
of two gardeners that have a conversation with each other. In this reminder, I’d
like to share with you the conversation right after that lesson that Allah taught
us. There also Allah says—
wa-ḍrib lahum mathal al-rajulayn
—We strike for
them the example of two men. Here again He says—
wa-ḍrib lahum
—strike an
example for them. This command to strike an example seems strange in English.
I’ll reflect on this a little bit with you. This is actually a command given to our
Prophet (
ṣallā Allāh ʿalayhi wa-sallam
). The Qur’an is Allah’s address to
humanity—Allah is talking to all human beings. But in these kinds of instances
instead of telling us directly and saying—
naḍrib lakum al-amthāl
—We’re going
to give you an example; instead Allah commands His Prophet (
ṣallā Allāh
ʿalayhi wa-sallam
) to talk to the people. Why is that? Because Allah (
ʿazza wa-
jall
) in these
āyāt
highlights the importance of the Messenger (
ṣallā Allāh
ʿalayhi wa-sallam
).
The Qur’an cannot be understood without
the best teacher whom Allah
(
ʿazza wa-jall
) appointed to teach this Qur’an. You can think of the Qur’an like
the curriculum but a curriculum is only as good as the teacher who teaches it. So
at
the end of the day, even though the lessons are from Allah (
ʿazza wa-jall
),
Allah appointed the best teacher in humanity to teach
those lessons and that is
the Messenger himself. So the
āyah
itself is very powerful but the
āyah
will not
carry its impact until the Messenger (
ṣallā Allāh ʿalayhi wa-sallam
) teaches it to
the
Ṣaḥābah
(
raḍiya Allāh ʿanhum
). So Allah is saying: ‘You give the example
to them, when you give them the example it will have a different effect’. From
this not only do we learn the importance of the Prophet (
ṣallā Allāh ʿalayhi wa-
sallam
) himself, as a teacher of the Qur’an,
we also learn a
Sunnah
of Allah
(
ʿazza wa-jall
); and that is that the Qur’an and its lessons have to be shared by a
teacher to students—that it’s not just a personal experience but it’s a communal
experience.
We have to actually talk about the Qur’an to each other, the
amr
is:
khāṣṣatan li-l-nabī wa-lākin iḍāfatan lanā kadhālik
—the
command is
specifically to the Prophet (
ṣallā Allāh ʿalayhi wa-sallam
) and that is
khāṣṣ
for
him, especially for him, but it extends to all of us also; all the believers. We have
to actually engage in reminding each other from the Qur’an, and it has an effect
when a believer reminds another believer from the Qur’an. It’s a different effect
from when you read the Qur’an by
yourself and when you read
tafsīr
by
yourself, it’s a different effect. There’s something about human communication
and
naṣīḥah
, Allah put something special in it.
And so the command in the
beginning
is give them the example, strike an example for them. Not even
saying:
Dostları ilə paylaş: