Route 114

Al Maghrib
Ulumal Quran Sciences of the Quran
Taught by: SH. Yasir Qadhi
Any good or benefit is from Allah, all the mistakes are mine and from the Shaytan.
FRIDAY FEBRUARY 8, 2008
Sciences of the Quran: An Introductory Class
Announcements
Rules were enumerated
TORONTO A BLESSED CITY
Yasir Qadhi. Begins the lecture by praising the city of Toronto for its class turnout.
Toronto is a blessed city. To see young brothers thirsting for knowledge and selling out a
hall for the purpose of learning Islam, is a good sign.

A SIGN OF REVIVAL
This is a sign of the revival of the ummah. This is a sign that things are changing. Despite
the depressing news on television about the ummah we are seeing things happening. This
is a good sign we are seeing in the ummah.
This is a sold out crowd in the western world where we are small percentage of the
population. You are riding a wave of revival this is the beginning. I am going to different
cities and seeing big changes. I remember when we held classes that had only 70 students
and we thought that was a big turn out. We were impressed with that number.
TORONTO AL MAGHRIB BREAKS RECORDS
Toronto has broken all records in attendance out of all the Al Maghrib classes except for
one city, New York. New York is slowly growing but has not reached the level of
Toronto. We hope that this will start a competition between qiblahs (the different student
groups of Al Maghrib).
The point of this is that we are to be optimistic and this gives us hope, this gives the spirit
of revival and it is the start of a domino effect.
MAKE OUR INTENSIONS FOR ALLAH
One thing that we should be aware of is our intension for attending these classes, that it is
not a fad. On the one hand it is good that it may be a fad and a positive incentive. That is
one of the reasons why the Prophet(pbuh) wanted us to have good friends so we can give
them incentive to go. But then if this is the only motivation we need to make sure we are
learning for the sake Allah.
We are here to learn about the religion of Allah. Now that we are here we need to make
sure that we are here for Allah. A famous scholar said about his search for knowledge,
We began our search of knowledge for reasons other than Allah.
Back then things were different. To study Islam it was like a good job it had good salary
and prestige. However the scholar said
knowledge refused to come to us unless our intension was for the sake of Allah .
OBTAINING KNOWLEDGE AND RETAINING IT
You are not going to gain knowledge if you are hypocrite. You will never reach higher
levels this way. The more you study you learn then you realize that you will do it for the
sake of Allah. Make you intensions for Allah now.
The greatest sign that knowledge has affected you is that you are different after you
learned the knowledge, your life changes, you feel more spiritual. If you feel that you are
not closer to Allah after learning then you must question your intensions. Ali ibn Talib
said

Knowledge calls out to actions. Either knowledge is successful in this call and
actions will come. If actions do not come then the knowledge will go.
Prophet would make dua and sought refuge in Allah from knowledge that does not bring
me any benefit. We should make this intension too.
TOPIC OF THIS WEEKEND SEMINAR
Sciences of the Quran
Why should we study this? Here is a realistic scenario;
A NON-MUSLIM QUESTIONS YOUR RELIGION
Imagine an evangelical Christian and asks you, Why are you a Muslim. You respond
that the Quran is clearly the book of Allah. Then the non-Muslim asks you What gives
you this certainty. You respond, The Quran has been preserved from the time of the
prophet (pbuh).
If this non-Muslim studied a bit he can bring you some points that may raise doubts in
you. These points or issues you can find on the Internet. There are sites totally dedicated
to this.
This non Muslim could bring you a book of hadith and show you narrations from the
sahaba demonstrating that the Quran recited back then was different from the Quran we
know today.
Example 1. Sura Inconsistency
A sahaba said in a hadith that he knew sura Azhab which was as long as surah Al Baqara.
However sura Azhab today is not as long as sura baqarah today.
Example 2. Suras Lost
Another example was that Aisha said that there was a verse of the Quran that she placed
under her bed and a goat ate it and it was lost. The non-Muslim will ask where did that
verse go?
Example 3. Verses Changed
The non-Muslim can also show you evidence that a governor changed 12 verses of the
Quran. However this example is not very authentic.
This non-Muslim can show you verses of the Quran that are not recited anymore. There
are verses that have been abrogated that are still recorded to this day.
ARE ALL QURANS THE SAME?
The non-Muslim can ask you if you if all Qurans are exactly the same. Then you will
reply yes then he can show you Qurans that have additional letters like a Meem becomes
a Wah. You will then look into that book and you see that it was approved by the ulima.(

Issues like this are spread on the Internet. There is one web site that is dedicated to this
spreading these issues.
THE QURAN CANNOT BE IMITATED
You can tell this non-Muslim that the Quran cannot be copied or imitated and this non
Muslim will show you a book called Kitab al Furqan. This book was written as a
challenge to the Quran that it could not be imitated.
HOW DO WE DEFEND OURSELVES?
In order for us to be active Muslims to preserve our identity in the west we need to study
Ulum al Quran (sciences of the Quran). One of the benefits of studying this is that even
if we did not know all the minute details of the sciences of the Quran, studying this will
give is an understanding of where these issues are coming from.
Ulum al Quran
The translation of this is Sciences of the Quran. The word Ulum is plural so we are
talking about many disciplines. Some of these disciplines overlap with hadith, theology,
fiq, usool al fiq.
We will study different sub sciences like we do in university when we study one field.
The knowledge of Ulum al Quran are the sciences of the Quran, deals with the
knowledge of those sciences which have a direct bearing on the
- Recitation
- History
- Understanding
- and Implementation of the Quran
1. Recitation
This deals with subjects like
- Tajweed which is how we recite the Quran properly
- Qirat, blessing of reciting Quran
- the physical etiquettes of reciting Quran.
2. History
Deals with how the Quran
- Was revealed such as in stages.
- How the Quran was written down,
o the script,
o how the Quran was compiled.
o How the style of script evolved.
In regards to the script of the Uthman copy of the Quran, even the
most knowledgeable person cannot read the original script. Only those
who studied the evolution of script could read it.
- Also under this field Mecca and Medina verses.
o What is the significance?

o What are the differences?

Also akhruf what are the changes of the qirat.

3. Understanding
We will study categories of the Quran such as the clear and ambiguous verses. What are
the tools we use to interpret Quran (tafsir). Tafsir is a science in of itself one can give a
whole weekend course on this subject.
How is the Quran miraculous?
- If we know how the Quran is miraculous we can identify or say anything else is a
forgery.
- However no Muslim has left Islam due to false arguments against the quran
- The real danger of these false arguments against the Quran is that it can close the
doors to non-Muslims from accepting dawah.
- So we have to protect our religion with Ulum al Quran
Words of the Quran
- We will learn how the sahaba looked up the difficult words in the Quran, there were
no dictionaries at that time.
KNOWLEDGE OF ULUM AL QURAN AND REQURIED KNOWLEDGE
This knowledge is a basic requirement of every Muslim. We must realize that knowledge
is of levels and of ranks. There is knowledge that all Muslims must know like
rudimentary fiq, praying, zakat etc. However if you are an iman there is knowledge that
you must know to carry out this position successfully.
Some knowledge is obligatory based on your occupation. If you are a businessman you
should know what you could buy and sell. If you do not try to find out this knowledge
you can be sinful.
If you are living in the west you should have enough knowledge to preserve your
religion. If you live in a land of kufr it is more obligatory to learn these sciences of the
Quran to defend this book.
Study the seerah(biography) of the prophet(pbuh) and you can learn how he dealt with
opposition.
In the west you will hear bad things about our Prophet(pbuh) that will make your blood
boil. You will also hear insulting things about your religion. We need to have knowledge
to defend our Rasool. These sciences will help us defend.
BENEFITS OF ULUM QURAN
Any knowledge of Quran humbles you. You appreciate the Muslims that came before.
You start to watch what you say. You become conscience of how ignorant you are. The
scholars say, the more you learn the more ignorant you realize you are. Even when we

learn secular knowledge we realize how little we knew. Every true student of knowledge
feels this.
The knowledge of Ulum al Quran is what one is required to know in order to properly
interpret the Quran.
There are many benefits but amongst them are:
1.
2.
3.
4.

Realizing the greatness of the Quran.

Achieving greater understanding of the Quran.
Increasing ones Iman
Defending the Quran.

YASIR QADHIS SCHOOLING

Yasir Qadhi said he was accepted to Medina University in 1995. He thought that when he
graduated he would be an alim(scholar). He thought all it would take was 5 years of
schooling and he would be fine. He says that he was wrong. He has studied 10 years in
Medina now he says he is a minor student, minor student of knowledge. Maybe with 30
to 40 years study you may reach the level of scholar.
However people who have acquired a little Islamic knowledge and come to the west they
have to teach it because there is a need in the west for this knowledge. There is no luxury
for Muslims in the west to study full time Islamic knowledge.
In the Islamic world there are enough people to teach Islam to the people. So a group of
them can dedicate their life to studying Islam. In the west we do not have the luxury of
studying more. In the west we need to increase the pursuit of knowledge to meet the
needs of the ummah in the west.
EXAMPLES OF SCHOLARS
Some scholars studied for many years such scholars are
- Ibn Khajir Famous for hadith alone and did nothing else. Very few Muslims were
famous for more than one field
- Ibn Taymia was a jack-of-all-trades, he knew all fields of Islam. He was a master at
all of them. He had many specialties. Very few people are like this.
CONSEQENCES OF KNOWLEDGE
- Only when we read more books we will realize that we were ignorant.
- We watch what we say we are more careful
SAYING I DONT KNOW TO A QUESTION
- Scholars say half of knowledge saying I dont know
- If we find a scholar that says I dont know then you can trust this person. He will
not smudge an answer, that is make one up.

Sometimes some alims(scholars) who become famous may be tempted not to say I
dont know

STORY OF IMAM MALIK

A famous scholar known for his knowledge
A man went to Imam Malik with 32 questions from his province from a far of place.
These were questions that the local imams from his province could not answer. So they
gave it to this man who would travel to meet and ask Imam Malik if he could answer
them. When he presented the questions to Imam Malik he answered 15 of the questions
and 17 he said he did not know.
These were very difficult questions. These were questions that alims in the far away
province sent to get answered by imam Malik. Then the man said, I thought you were a
man of knowledge and you could not answer all the questions. What am I going to say to
my the people who sent me, Imam malik said tell them that Imam Malik does not
know.
ANOTHER BENEFIT OF STUDYING ULUM AL QURAN
Another benefit of studying Ulum Quran
- We will appreciate why Allah says something the way He does
THE ARABIC LANGUAGE
The Arabic language is so radically different to English. Other languages are related to
one another. Like French and English, grammar is similar.
Arabic comes from an unrelated tribe of languages. [Yasir Qadhi then says languages
comes in tribes too you know. People laugh moderate level].
So when we translate to English there are many issues. An English translation of Arabic
will yield missing phrases, however in Arabic it is understood the phrases do not have to
be there. The Arabic language developed to a peak of eloquence. In the grammatical
sense translators may translate an Arabic phrase into an incomplete sentence so it does
not make sense to them.
Then there is the issue of changing of first person to second to third all in the same ayat.
This is called Iftifat(<-?) this is common in the Quran. For English speakers they will
lose it, they criticize The Quran for this style.
The irony is that the mushriks of Mecca did not criticize the Quran. They hated
Muhammad more than todays Orientalists. In fact the mushriks praised the Quran due to
its language.
MORE BENEFITS OF STUDYING ULUM AL QURAN
It increases your love for this book. Makes you find things that you never knew for
example: memorization of the Quran.

MIRACLE OF MEMORIZATION OF THE QURAN

Yasir Qadhi points out that we have all memorized parts of the Quran. He then says that
many of us have at least 4-5 suras memorized. The fact that people could memorize the
book from front to back is a miracle.
A professor can teach a Shakespearian play for 30 years but have not memorized it. What
is more miraculous of the Quran is that people have memorized it and they do not even
understand what they are saying. How can people memorize a book in another language,
it never happens with any other book on earth.
We all know about this miracle but we have not thought of it. No other book is
memorized with such diligence and ease.
We will then want to memorize and learn the Quran more. This will also increase our
love for it. We must increase our goals with regards of the Quran. It should be your
intension to memorize the Quran. The point of the class is to increase love of the Quran,
and to defend the Quran with knowledge.

CHAPTER 1
HISTORY OF ULUM AL QURAN
What is the history of Ulum Quran? Where did it start? Like all Islamic sciences it began
with Muhammad (pbuh).
Muhammad was blessed with succinct speech. Muhammad did not categorize what he
knew into sciences. Why did he not do it? Because everything he said was the bases of all
sciences. Everything he said was a precious jewel to categorize it would limit what he
taught.
Scholars categorized it later
WHEN DID CATERGORIZATION BEGIN?
First time the categorizations began to form was during the lifetime of the prophet. The
sahabas primary sciences were fiq and tafsir.
OTHER SCIENCES AND THEIR EXPERTS
Other sciences were there too
- Ibn abu Talib was expert in the language of the Quran.
- Ibn Mashood was the earliest converts to Islam the 6th convert. He said, I heard 70
suras directly from the prophet 2/3rds prophet taught me.
- Ibn Abbas was the interpreter of Quran . No one passed him in this regard.
- Zaid bin Thabit. Compiler of Quran. All the sahaba agreed that they wanted Zaid to
do this task
- Ayisha is a Faqihah Alima (woman scholar of Islamic Jurisprudence) the greatest no
other woman has reached this level of Islamic jurisprudence.
SAHABA AS SOURCS OF KNOWLEDGE
As the Sahaba went to different lands they were the early schools of Islam. Most of these
places were one man shows. One Sahaba would be the light for that place. Students
would accompany the Sahaba for years and learn of them. There were no formal schools
of Islam.
Three centers of learning were founded during that time. Mecca, Medina and Khufa. Just
the fact that the Sahaba were living there. The Sahabas presence was a university in of
itself, people would learn from them. They formed study groups for many years until they
became scholars themselves.
ISLAMIC SCHOOLS
Ibn Abbas was from the Meccan schools. Then the tabiyoon would start their own
universities. You see before people would study with Sahaba personalities they would
just hang out with them.
This is a contrast to today where we have classes.

WRITTEN KNOWLEDGE
Sahaba would hardly talk about one field of Islamic sciences. The Sahaba would pass on
information orally. It was the Tabiyoon who for the first time began writing information
generally.
None of the Sahaba wrote a book that was meant to be distributed to the people. They did
have their own books for personal knowledge.
Third generation of Tabiyoon Imam Malik, let me write a book that will be distributed to
the people. The book is called Muwata
TAFSIR
Tafsirs were at first sketchy, they would only do Tafsir that they had hadith with them.
This would limit the Tafsir.
FIRST COMPLETE TAFSIR
Another Tafsir, by Mukatib ibn Sulayman 150 H, considered to be the first
comprehensive Tafsir of the Quran. But he was not a great alim, he was more of a story
teller. The Tafsir is no considered scholarly work. However what distinguishes this Tafsir
is that it was the first complete Tafsir of the Quran. No one did this up until this time.
TAFSIR LOST AND FOUND
The first scholar to write a complete Tafsir was Muhamm ibn Janir al Qabari 310 H. He
was a great historian of seerah(biography of the prophet), a scholar the Arabic language.
He also made his own madhab and was an expert in Quran
He wrote a book that no one has done on Tafsir. It was really big book on Tafsir. For 100
years it was considered lost but it was found
300H THE INTELLECTUAL PERIOD OF ISLAM
Around 300 H many books began to be written in sub disciples of the Quran. This was a
movement of ummah back then around 250 350 which was the most intellectual period of
the ummah. The knowledge we rely on today was largely compiled back then. Ulum
Quran and its fields were complied at this time.

Madridi 794 H wrote most comprehensive book on Ulum Quran 4 volumes

THE PROPLIFIC SCHOLAR
Jalil Ideen Asoyoti (died 911 H) considered one of the top prolific scholars. He wrote a
lot. The quantity of the books he wrote was unbelievable.
o He was a mediocre alim. He did not excel in any field.
o He did not contribute anything original.
o He published a book on hadith that is used for study today in Medina.
o Wrote a book on Ulum al Quran.
o He made many books in these fields.

o He stopped preaching after a while. To dedicate to writing.

Jahils contribution was that he mastered the presentation of knowledge to the students of
knowledge. He was expert in topically arranging knowledge.
ENGLISH BOOKS ON ULUM AL QURAN
Ahmad von Denfer wrote a book called Introduction to the science of the Quran , most
basic book in English
Bilal Philips Usool at Tafsir a little more advanced than von Denfers
Yasir Qadhi book on Sciences of the Quran, but he wants to update it. He wrote it 10
years ago. Wants to make a second edition. Most advanced book on, science of the
Quran in English. He said that this course will be similar to the book. [He then tells the
people in the audience that naturally all the material presented in the course will be like
the book since it comes from the same mind so there is no other way for him to present
the material in any other way.]
Yasir Qadhi says that the Al Maghrib notes and the slides are taken from the book he
wrote. [Then he jokes with one of the organizers that he did not know this was being
done, despite copyright.] He suggests getting a copy of the book so you can get the dates
and names.
TRAVELLING FOR THE SAKE OF KNOWLEDGE
Yasir Qadhi says that traveling to Scarborough for the sake of knowledge you will be
rewarded for every minute, mile you do for the sake of knowledge. He points out that one
person came from London for this course and another person came from Windsor, just
for the course.
QUESTION AND ANSWER
Question: ???
Answer: The first real tafsir was by Mukatib ibn Sulaymon. This was the first tafsir on
all Quran. But it is not recommended to get this book since he was more of a storyteller.
Muhar Ali The Quran and the Orientalists - Talks about the issues non Muslims have
against the Quran
Imam al kabari related hadeeth that were weak
- most scholars did this
- was not a big deal before
- bukahi and Muslim had saheeh hadith but outside of these books had weak hadith.
Question: What is the difference Ibn a Kabari and Ibn Kathir?
Answer: 500 years. Ibn Kathir concentrated more on the authentic hadith, Arabic
analysis. 80% of Ibn Kathirs Tafsir was translated. The translators probably had a
methodology.

Question: How do we know the names of books that are lost if they are lost?
Answer: Because they are referenced in other books. There are many manuscripts that
are referred to in earlier books but considered lost. Governments, museums for many
reasons, hold some of these manuscripts. Even today manuscripts today are showing up
and are published.
Question: Are there any recent Tafsirs?
Answer: Tafsirs are being written today as we speak but most of these books are in
Arabic or Urdu.
Question: What is the best English translation of Tafsir?
Answer: Yasir Qadhi I do not believe in translations because they are written with one
type of mentality. What needs to be done is that classical knowledge has to be written in
English and presented by and to the western mind. However most English-speaking
people with Islamic knowledge have to be activists.
Question: What Tafsir in Arabic do you recommend?
Answer: Depends on your level understanding. Tafsir Afsadi is useful to people who
speak Arabic. If you have weak Arabic then try Tafsir Ajazaee (translated: The Easiest
of Tafsirs). This is a basic book and it give you the simplest of words.
Question: What is the best English translation of the Quran?
Answer: Saheeh International best Quran translation
Question: Is there a method to memorize the Quran?
Answer: Remind me to answer this question next week.
Question: How do we attribute a book we thought as lost, to an author?
Answer: We look at the content. Where the manuscript was found. Even the manuscripts
have an isnad(chain) so and so bought got it from so and so and that person got it from
another person, we can check the people who had the manuscript before. We can look at
the cultural context of the manuscript. We can check to see if the cultural content matches
the times and issues of the authors time period. Also we can look at the authors style.
People all write in a particular way and it is hard to deviate from that.
Question: Qadhi-This is not really a question but a sister from California wants me to
mention that she hails from there. And here is another note from a sister saying she is
from queens.
Qadhi-Is there any other city that wants to be mentioned?
WATERLOO! someone cries out.
MISSSISSAUGA another person says.

Qadhi-Mississauga is not a separate city it is considered all part of Toronto. Is it so bad

that you have to make two rakats traveling prayer from Mississauga?
Question: Can you please share with us your experiences in Chennai (Madras), India?
Qadhi - Satish Babu became Muslim.You dont know who Satish Babu is? You can
see him on YouTube. Yasir Qadhi goes to the podium and the AlMaghrib assistants call
up the Internet. YouTube is displayed on the screen and the search terms are entered,
Yasir Qadhi
Look it is the first one. Then the video is clicked and watched. The audio was too low
and the whole class went silent so they could listen to the video.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9YBdSH_N06c&NR=1
Yasir Qadhi then talks about the revival of Islam is a global phenomenon.
We do not have enough people to teach Islam. There is a thirst of knowledge for Islam.
In India 100,000 in attendance sometimes there are even larger crowds. They called me to
give a talk and I told them I was busy. I have 5 al Maghrib courses to teach back to back.
I told him I only had 2 days. They said they would take it. So I traveled one day and a
half to get there and stayed for the 2 days and traveled back.
They also told me that they need teachers to teach them.
The ummah is lacking is scholars to teach them. The people of India need to be taught
Light of Guidance (Al Maghrib course). I told them if they gave me 1000 people to
teach I will be there.

SATURDAY FEBRUARY 9 2008

MISSED FIRST HOUR OF CLASS
I took these notes while sitting outside of the lecture door.
Then it becomes permissible not to listen to sharia
Had it not been for some guy the majority of the ummah would have been murtazialah
Because of this brave guy
Had it been not for this one
They said that Allah speaks in an internal voice
They say that the only way speech occurs is air going through mouth from lungs. If we
say that Allah speaks like this we are saying that He speaks like a human being. There are
other examples of speech by non-humans. We know that the mimbar(the stand where the
imam stands on) crying because Muhammad pbuh left it. These things do not have lungs
or mouths but they can speak. Even the rocks that Abu Jahil heard say la illaha ilallah.
The dangerous implications are that if you say Allah does not speak in voice or words
and letters or a language then, what is the Quran? The asharis were forced to say that the
Quran is not the actual speech of Allah. The words of the Quran are the created
expression of an uncreated meaning of Allah.
100 years later this distinction came. Later scholars refuted him. This is an incorrect
belief. Most of other fields they agree with Ahlas sunnah wa jamah. With names and
attributes they have a different methodology.
Asharies are within the fold of Islam but differ in some issues.
Question: Can you please talk about the incident of the so-called satanic verses?
Answer: The incident of the satanic verses is more that just the Salman Rushdie book.
What he proposed was not new or novel. He just made a fictional story out of it. This
incident is found in the Orientalists books. The incident is an important one.
SATANIC VERSES VERSION 1
According to this Orientalist version, supposedly the Prophet(pbuh) recited Sura
Najm in Mecca, and he came to verse 15 which says, Have you not seem the idols alt,
uzzah and malat. Then he said that these 3 idols are noble intercessors. When the
Quraish heard this sura they said Muhammad agreed to the religion of the Quraish. So
when the verse Prostate to Allah and worship him came all of disbelievers prostrated
because idol worship was approved by this verse.
Later the next day the musrikoon wanted negotiations and recalled the incident.
Muhammad (pbuh) said that it was Shaytan that made him say those verses. That Shaytan
inspired it. Is there a Muslim source to this? Yes. There is a source for that one. The first
version says that Shaytan whispered in between Jibrils recitation. Generally Orientalists
do not lie they misquote or put an evil twist to it. This one is considered not authentic (it
has an unreliable and untraceable source).

SATANIC VERSES VERSION 2

Another version was that the Muslims and the Quraish were listening to the
Prophet recited sura najm. When the Prophet(pbuh) came to the came to the idol part.
Shaytan cried out in his voice with the addition. However it was not from the
Prophets(pbuh) voice. Only the Mushriks could hear the satanic verses.
Jinns have this ability to be able to physically make one person hear them and not
another person. The Jinns can appear to one person and be invisible to another person.
Allah has given this ability also to the angels.
When the Mushrik heard the satanic verses they made sajdah. This version
reported in a Qabari. Many Ulima consider this to be authentic because Muhammad did
not do anything that went against his established mission of spreading monotheism.
SATANIC VERSES VERSION 3
Version 3 is the strongest version. Many ulima consider this one strong. There is
no such thing as the satanic verses. There is nothing authentic. There is no authentic
chain of narrations from sahaba. The Satanic verses could only be traced back to the
Tabiyoon(the generation after the Sahaba that did not see the prophet) they were the first
to get this story.
The correct version is in Saheeh Bukhari. Sura najm was recited entirely in from
the kabaa the Quraish came to listen to the beautiful voice. Sura najm is one of the most
powerful suras. When you listen to it, it builds to a pitch. Allah builds and builds the
pitch. Allah finishes the speech by saying, are you not amazed of this speech. In other
words, how can you ignore this? Then Allah said bow down the Quraish then bow
down. When they did prostrated the rumor that the Quraish accepted Islam spread. The
Muslim refugees in Abyssinia came back thinking that the Quraish accepted Islam.
Yasir Qadhi has a lecture on this subject in one of this series of CDs. It could be found on
the Internet.
Question: Can you please explain the claim that the Quran created implies that it is
imperfect?
Answer: Created claims that the thing is not divine. A created being is not holy because
it is created. Quran is holy because it is uncreated. To imply that Quran is created it is
similar to any other object. Created objects have an end. Uncreated documents can be
changed because they could be flawed.

NAMES OF THE QURAN

Allah calls his book the Quran 73 times.
An example is Sura israh verse 88. Allah says, If man and jinn got together to produce a
Quran like this Quran they cannot do it. This is not the only name Allah calls his
books. He calls it 77 times al kitab.
Sura baqarah. Has reference a reference to Quran being called kitab. We all know what
kitab means, it means, the written book. It is written in the heavens and with him. And it
is written in this world. It is preserved in writing.
Quran has the greatest claim to authenticity. Even the worst enemies of Islam can testify
this fact. The Orientalists say that the Quran can be traced back to the prophet.
Compared to other scriptures they do not come close to Quran.
The words Kitab and Quran complement each other. It is preserved on paper and recited.
The two go hand on hand. You can never learn to recite the Quran without a teacher.
OTHER NAMES FOR THE QURAN
Al Furqan It is called this in 4 verses.
o Sura 25 verse 1 Allah the exalted because he sent the furqan to his servant.
o Faraqa linguistic meaning - to split up. To separate truth from falsehood.
Separated good from evil
Guidance from misguidance
Separates what needs to be separated.
Dhikr occurs 55 times in Quran
- Sura 43: 33 And this is a dhikr for you and your people.
- Dha ka ra linguistic meaning remembrance.
o Warns you, reminds you, why you were created, where you are going
o Teaches you of Allah
o Reminds you of fundamental questions of existence
The Tanzeel
- Sura 26:192 this is a tanzeel, a revelation from the lord of the worlds.
- Na z ala the verb occurs more over 130 times in the Quran.
o Tells us that the Quran is directly from Allah
o Tells us that the source is from Allah
o Sent from Himself directly
o Reminds us where the book is coming from
- This is the meaning of Tanzeel
- This is also evidence that Allah is above us since the Quran is coming down.
- Refutes the notion that Allah is everywhere
- Refutes also the notion Allah is nowhere as some sects say. They say that Allah has
no direction, to say so is not befitting to Allah.
- Descended from Allah Tanzeel

OTHER NAMES TO THE QURAN

- Other scholars have added other names of the Quran
- Others say that these are not names but rather descriptions.
- Blessing
o sura 10:58 They should rejoice at my blessings and bounty. This is referring to
the Quran.
o Allah refers to His book a blessing
- Burhan
o Burhan Allah refers to his book in saying that a burhan has come from your
lord.
o Burhan means an evidence that cannot be doubted.
o You cannot doubt what the Quran is speaking and telling you.
- Haqq
o Example Allah also calls the Quran the Haq truth
- Mubarak
o Also calls the book a mubarak
o Believing is blessed everything about the Quran is blessed.
o There is nothing evil that comes from the Quran that is why Allah calls it
mubarak
- Rooh
o Sura 42 :52
o Allah describes the Quran of being a rooh, spirit.
o Without the Quran you do not have spirit. You are spiritually dead.
o You are have no spiritual life without this book
STATUS OF THE QURAN
- From hadith the Prophet (pbuh) said , be happy rejoice because this Quran one
portion of it in your hands and the other is in the hands of Allah. Hold on to it because
you will never be destroyed or go astray after it.
o Being described as a type of rope
o In another hadith Prophet(pbuh) said that the Quran is a rope from Allah
dangling here on earth
o If you hold on to it you will not go astray
- In another hadith Muslim, indeed Allah will raise one group of men by the Quran
and he will debase another group of men.
o You cannot be neutral with the Quran
o It will either raise you or debased you
o If you act on it you will be lifted up, jannah, iman or goodness
o If you do not act on it you will be lowered by it.
- In another hadith in Muslim. The Quran is either for you or against you. Again, you
cannot be neutral when it comes to the Quran .
o It will either help you on the day of judgment
- Hadith, Allah has set forth a parable for you so you can think about it.
o There is a road that leads to the destination (jannah) on either side of the road
there are wall which have doors. (so you are on a strait path but you can go

through doors) over these doors there are curtains covered up. From the end of
the road there is a voice that says proceed strait, do not go into the doors. And
whenever someone opens the curtain a voice from above calls out do not lift
the curtain you will be tempted to go inside.
o Explanation: The strait path is Islam, walls are the haram the limits, the open
doors are to the haram that will lead you to them. And the voice that calls at
the end of the road is the Quran. The voice from above is the fitrah or
conscience. Hadith in at Tirmidi
REWARDS FOR RECITING QURAN
- Prophet also described the rewards for those who recite and practice Quran.
- Part of showing glory to Allah is to show respect to
o An elderly gray haired Muslim.
o Also to show respect to a person who knows Quran hafiz. Those who
memorized the book and act upon it,
o And a just ruler.
o Showing respect to these is to honor Allah
- Prophet said the one who recites Quran fluently reaches the level of angels.
- Those who do not read fluently will get double reward for the effort. Hadith Abu
Dawood
-

Hadith says when you recite the Quran you will be rewarded 10 times for every word
you recite.
Hadith says on the Day of Judgment the companion (hamid-carrier, sahib-companion)
of the Quran will be told, Recite the Quran as you used to recite in this world.
And he will rise along with his recitation. Every verse will make him rise one degree
in jannah. Then when he is finished he will end in his place in jannah.
One degree in jannah is the distance between stars.
This is for the companion of the Quran recites it and lives it.
The more you memorize and act upon it you will rise on your level in jannah.
Based on this hadith the levels of jannah are = to the number of verses in the Quran.
This is the greatest reward because there is nothing greater than memorizing the
Quran. But allah knows best.

JEALOUSY TOWARDS PEOPLE WHO MEMORIZED QURAN

- In a hadith in Bukhari, you should not be jealous except in two categories of people.
o One who has memorized the Quran and recites it. You are allowed to say I
wish I had what he has.
o Also you can be jealous of someone who is rich and is charitable. You can
wish to be rich to give in charity. You are allowed to be envious of them. You
want to be like them
- Unfortunately we are envious of the wrong people. Actors, rich people, flamboyant
people. People want to be like them. People look up to them. Every little issue in their
life is prime time news. This shows the mentality of these people. It even

overshadows international news. Who cares if Britney Spears is going to the hospital
again. Is this news?
When you see the tabloids in supermarkets you only see the worst of society. These
people are made as the role models.
Many of us do not feel jealous of people with taqwah or piety
However when we see money we want to be like that. Getting a high paying job and
to get prestige.

TWO TYPES OF JEALOUSY

- Bad jealousy
o You want all good to be striped from that person and want it for yourself
- Good jealously
o You are happy for that person and you want to have a part of it.
BURNING THE QURAN
- Hadith says, When the Quran is captured in a skin it will never be burnt in the fire of
hell.
- What does this mean?
o Some ulima understood this literally because Quran was written on leather.
- We have seen many instances of this. When someone tries to burn the Quran in a
disrespectful manner it does not burn.
- Some Masjids are burnt but the Qurans did not burn.
- Some of the book binding will burn but the actual words will not burn.
- This is a miracle.
- Burning Quran with disrespect will not burn the Quran
- Another opinion when a person memorizes the Quran he or she will not burn in the
fire of hell.
ALLAH DIVIDES MANKIND INTO 4 CATEGORIES
- Allah divided mankind in 4 categories.
1. The believer who recites the Quran is like an udrudjah(citrus fruit) taste is
sweet and fragrance is nice.
2. The believer who does not recite Quran is like a dried up date(sweet taste but
no fragrance).
3. The munafiq who recites the Quran is like the basil plant (basal plant smells
good but bitter when you taste it.)
4. And the munafiq who does not recite the Quran is like collision (desert plant.
This fruit is very small hard and bitter dark) no smell and extremely bitter
taste. Yasir qadhi ate it to understand this hadith it is very bitter and sucks up
your saliva.
- Reciting Quran you become like the citrus fruit. You are radiating a good sent to
people to the people.
- But the Muslim who does not recite is still sweet but has no smell.
- Munafiq (is worse than the kafir because they are worse punished) Even with them
the Quran makes him look nice. It gives them a pleasant smell. Quran is so powerful
the nature of the munafiq is concealed.

o However when you hang around with a munafiq you realize his true nature.
Last the munafiq who does not recite is bitter.

The point of this is that we should have a regular relationship with the Quran.

Chapter 3
How the Quran came to us. How was it recorded? How was it preserved? We start from
the beginning.
-

Wahee (inspiration) a deeper meaning.

Why did Allah inspire people with wahee?

Allah created us in the best fashion and form. And Allah has made the earth for us. All
that is in the heavens and earth is for us. Everything he has provided us air water food.
Allah has also given us our spiritual needs. Allah takes care of our animal needs but how
can He not take care of our spiritual needs? To say that He does not take care of our
spiritual needs is not logical.
As a manifestation of this, Allah has been sending wahedah from the beginning of time.
The first human Adam was a prophet. Adam had knowledge of guidance. Allah has never
left human without guidance. Allah speaks to Adam. Whenever guidance comes who
ever follows it will be safe and secure.
Allah also says in 7:35 Oh children of Adam whenever my messengers come to you
whoever follows their guidance will never be scared or come to any grief or harm.
This leads to another point, mankind cannot find ultimate truth and guidance on their own
without guidance. Mainstream thought is that they can find truths from the intellect.
The very fact that Allah has sent prophets shows that we cannot find truths on our own.
This is a fundamental difference between us and them.
WAHY AND NATURE
Throughout history wahy has been constant. Allah says that every nation had a guidance
even if they had a distorted version of it. The word wahy means to inspire in secret(not in
a negative way) manner.
Inspire in a way that people do not understand. Allah used the word wahy to describe the
laws of nature. All of the laws we study in nature are not there by accident it is a wahy
that Allah has revealed to nature, to the creation.
WAHY AND NATURE EXAMPLE
For example. One of the ways to purify water is to boil it, distill it. The pure water goes
up in steam and the impurities remain behind. Allah says in the Quran that the purest
water comes from the skies. Science proves this. We consider this an immutable law of
water steaming in distillation but Allah says that if He had willed he could have made the
rain come down salty.
What are the implications of this? The laws of nature are in the control of Allah.

Allah uses the word wahy to describe laws of nature. Allah also describes wahy when it
comes to the animal world. Allah says that He inspired the bee.
Tangent. Discovery channel and national geographic is the most halal on TV. You will be
amazed how ants are born with a role. They are not taught these tasks. Also they have
cooperation with each other. How can any person watch this and not believe that it was
created.
Allah calls this type of instinct in animals wahy.
Also in people our instincts are a form of wahy.
WAHY FROM SHAYTAN
Wahy can also come from Shaytan. He can inspire us to do evil. Allah says the devils
inspire with their partners (mankind) to argue with you and reject you.
Shaytan can also inspire you with evil thoughts.
INSPIRATION TO PROPHETS
There are a number of ways this can occur 42:51 important verse. Allah says it is not
possible that any person speaks with Allah except via wahy or from behind a curtain.
Allah has a hijab of noor(light). He has spoken to 3 people we know of.
Three ways the prophet he communicated with Allah
1. Direct wahy
2. Speak with him from behind a curtain (light)
3. Send a messenger send and angel to rely information angel Jibril
We can categorize it even more.
Ibn Aqayam says wahy comes to people in 7 different ways.
1. True dreams, this is something we can all share with prophets. This is something
that is predicting something in the future that comes true. Something Good. There
are three types of dreams.
a. Evil dreams that is scary, terrifying, disgusting, all dreams of a sexual
nature are from Shaytan
b. Dreams from our own souls. Sign of this dream is that we forget of it
when we wake up. This is not relevant to us at all. Trivial dreams from
your own nafs. Some scientists say we dream every single night and we
forget the dreams.
c. Dreams from Allah. You remember it and it is good. It can be symbolic
that you may need to talk to an alim(scholar). You do not wake up
upleasent. Or it can be explicit that comes true. True dreams are 1/46 of
prophethood. That is the only fraction that is left from the prophet. Why
this fraction? Muhammad would have true dreams for 6 months. 6/23
years
SECOND TYPE OF INSPIRATION
Direct inspiration coming without the aid of an angel.

THIRD TYPE OF INSPIRATION

Jibril comes to the Prophet in the form of a man. This type of inspiration was easier. Jibril
did not show himself in his true form. Jibril showed himself 2 or 3 but 2 for sure
according to the scholars. His original form is large covers the skies.
4TH TYPE
Jibril speaks to Muhammad and Muhammad would go into a trance(pbuh)
5th TYPE
Seeing jibril in original form
6th TYPE
Direct inspiration by talking Muhammad directly
7th TYPE
Allah spoke to Muhammad with a voice. Occured once where Allah instructed prayers.
HOW WAS THE QURAN REVEALED IN WHICH FORMS
Muhammad (pbuh) was revealed in dreams. The Prophet said, A sura has been revealed
to me that is more beleoved to me. Sura kauthr. Some scholars say that he did not dream
the revelation. Because the Prophet (pbuh) did not specify that he dreamt it. I could have
been revealed just as he work. The majority of scholars say that the Quran was not
revealed through dreams.
However 3, 4, 5 categories that is how Quran was revealed. What is commen about this
is Jibril. The scholars are adamant on this becaue sura ishurah 192 193. The Quran was
send down by the Holy Spirit (jibril)
6th Category we have no example.
7th category we have an example. Saheeh Muslim. Muhammad said that he was revealed
the last verses of sura baqarah in the night journey. Revealed without the need of jibril.
Ayat al qursi is one of the verses.
Last Hadith
Ayisha asked the Prophet(pbuh) how are you inspired? In other words, how does the
wahy come to you? He responded, in two ways sometimes revelation come to me like
the ringing like a bell and Jibril speaks to me and sometimes Jibril comes as the form of a
man and speaks to me and that is easier for me.
Muhammad (pbuh) goes into a trance but it was difficult. The Sahaba could tell when
wahy was coming to him. He would cut off from the world. The prophet would close his
eyes. He would be heavy. Jabir said that he would get so heavy that he thought he would
break his leg. Allah says that he would reveal a very heavy revelation.

A sahaba said, I used to wish to see the wahy coming down. One time they came running
to me telling me that Muhammad was getting inspiration.(this was during the incident
where the Quraish were preventing the Muslims from performing umrah) He entered into
the tent and saw Muhammad with head down eyes and brow furrowed and sweating even
on a cold night(you cannot fake your sweat). This was a very difficult situation for the
Prophet.
Question and Answer
One of the most common question being asked is, that how is there verses that are not
included in the Quran. We will talk about that later.
Question: What is the status of Arabic in Islam. Should we learn Arabic to be a Muslim?
Answer: It is obligatory to know enough Arabic to conduct the primary acts of worship.
Anything more than this is not Fardh ayn. However you cannot be a student of
knowledge if you are not fluent in Arabic.
Question: How do we understand that, this is the speech of a noble messenger as it
says in the Quran.
Answer: This appears twice in the Quran. This is the speech of the messenger In one
instance it occurs to attribute the messenger. And then this is the speech of messenger
Jibril. Jibrils speech but it did not come from them. Rather this was the words of Allah
that they transmitted.
Question: Do you have to be a hafiz to be a companion of the Quran?
Answers: The perfection of companionship with the Quran is to memorize it.
Question: Is it the same to listen and recite Quran in reward.
Answer: Both are rewarding but not the same in reward. It is an act of worship to listen
to Quran. Allah commands us to do this.
Question: Should you do sajdah when you read the Quran.
Answer: there are 11 places in the Quran where there is sajdah to do. Most agree on
this. However it is preferred that you do sajdah but it is not fardh.
Question: You said that Arabic is obligatory in salat but is it obligatory in dua
Answer: No. Only the duas in salat should be in Arabic anything else can be in another
language.

Hadith Qudsi
This is a hadith that is traced back to Allah. So what is the difference between Quran and
hadith qudsi? The primary difference that is given by most scholars is that the Quran is
the speech of Allah revealed to the prophet in the meaning and in wording.
There are differences
1. The Quran has been put forth as a miracle that can never be imitated in its style
prose or content. Qudsi is not like this
2. Quran has been promised to be preserved
3. Quran reached us in mutawaatir chains of narrations
4. Quran is an act of worship to recite. Hadith qudsi is not an act of worship to
recite.
More differences
The prophet (pbuh) when he said hadith qudsi to his companions the hadith was then
transmitted by the sahaba by meaning. The wording can change. Like when people when
they describe an event. Where is the Quran there is no differences in wording.
Preservation of Qudsi is similar to hadith.

Chapter 4
GRADUAL REVELATION
Stages of revelation. Previous scriptures torah injeel(gospel) they came down at once,
overnight in one occasion. Best example is Musas book. Allah gave him the torah. Musa
came back with the entire book. Same with other prophets they got the books in one time.
The only time this rule was broken was for the prophet (pbuh). This caused an alarm to
the people because they were used to books coming down in once.
And those who disbelieve say why is not the Quran revealed to him at once thus (it is
sent down in parts) that we may strengthen your heart thereby and we have revealed it to
you gradually in stages.
There are indications that the Quran was already written. Allah says regarding the alLawhu 'l-Mahfuz (the preserved tablet in the heavens) 85:21 22. Allah says this is a
Quran majeed full of blessing, glorious. Allah decribes himself, his throne and Quran
as majeed.
AL-LAWHU 'L-MAHFUZ
al-Lawhu 'l-Mahfuz is a tablet that everything that will happen is written on it. 50,000
years before creation. The first object Allah created was the pen. And he said to the pen
write the pen said what do I write. Allah says write everything that will happen until the
day of judgment.
The al-Lawhu 'l-Mahfuz has everything written in it and in it is a special section of
interest, the Quran. This book is with Allah. It is protected no one can touch it or harm it.
There are places even the angels cannot pass Muhammad(pbuh) passed that point. No one
can reach there. That is why it is called the protected tablet.
Second stage of revelation is that it came down from the heavens to earth. There are
seven heavens. Philosophers tried to define the heavens. Samat at dunya is the universe.
What is beyond this 7 other heavens? Of the evidence that indicates this (but Allah is sure
of this) Allah says, we have beatified the samat at dunya with stars. So all stars are
contained in the samat at dunya.
The second stage of revelation is implied in the Quran. Allah revealed Quran in some
place in samat dunya, we do not know where. Ibn Abbas said Allah revealed the Quran
from heavens down to samat at dunya. Allah sent down all of it to the house of honor on
the night of qadr in the month of ramadhan. We also know this in sura baqarah 185.
One important point is that when any companion like Ibn Abbas said about the Quran
talks about ilm of the unseen it cannot be his opinion. We take it as hadith. Because he
could not have made it up he must have heard it from the Prophet(pbuh).

Why did Allah send down Quran in one night and then gradually. Some scholars said
that it combined the methodology of the previous prophets. Allah did not want to break
away from that tradition. Allah wanted to give something special for the prophet.
NUMBER OF AYAT REVEALED.
Sometimes Jibril came down with one sura in its entirety. Falaaq, Nas revealed at once.
Sometimes other verses came down parts at a time. Sura baqarah revealed in 8 years.
Hijirah to the battle of badr this is when the bulk of baqara came down.
Sometimes 2 3 words came down. Of these is imran 95 allah say they are not the same
those who sit idling and those who strive for the sake of allah.
Ibn um maktoon. He came with a stick tapping in the masjid. He was blind. He told the
prophet that he was blind that he could not strive he could only sit. Then Allah revealed 3
words after that.
Jibril came down with different amounts.
REVELATION FREQUENCY
Another question that arises, the frequency of revelation, was it consistent? Sometimes
Jibril would not come with revelation for months. The mushriks would tease, we see your
companion left you (Jibril) or Allah has left you. But then Allah revealed a verse saying
that Allah has not left him. Frequency varied.
There was one trend. The frequency increased as time progressed. The demands of the
ummah increased.
WISDOM OF GRADUAL REVELATION
There are a number of wisdoms. Some of them are mentioned in the Quran others can be
derived.
1. To strengthen the resolve of the prophet against the disbelievers.
2. To simplify its memorization and understanding by the sahaba
a. The sahaba would memorize 10 verses at a time. They would not move on
until they perfect the action and the commands of those verses
3. To prove the truthfulness of the Prophet (pbuh) this way the Quran can respond
to accusations made by the Mushrik(idolaters). There were many challenges made
against the Quran. Story goes that the Quraish came to learned Jews to ask them
for challenging questions to the Prophet. The jews gave the Quriash 3 questions to
ask the prophet(pbuh).
1. What happened to musa and his companion khidr
2. What is the soul and
3. And what was the case of the 7 people in the cave.
GRADUAL REVELATION AND CONSISTENCY
If the Quran was a human document made by the prophet (pbuh) over the same amount
of time there would be contradictions. The prophet (pbuh) would speak to small and

large groups and it would all be the same during all those years.
Nisa 82 if this Quran came form other than Allah they would have found much
contraction in it.
GRADUAL REVELATION BENEFITS AND WISDOMS
The Muslim ummah was revealed gradually to help them with worship. One example of
this was the prohibition of alcohol. This made it easier to follow.
One may ask can a new Muslim apply this type of graduality that the Sahaba
experienced.
The Sahaba back then had to slowly enter Islam because they were coming out of
Jahiliyah(ignorance) . Also they needed to have a community Allah gave them this
concession. But today there is an ummah. Reverts have an established Muslim
community to turn to.
Another wisdom and benefit in this regard is the fact that a gradual revelation helped ease
the burden of revelation on the Prophet(pbuh). He felt great difficulty in the revelation
process. This gradually made it easier.
QUESTION AND ANSWER
Question: When we memorize the Quran can we memorize Arabic alone without
knowing the Tafsir(explanation)?
Answer: It is better to memorize the Quran with learning the tafsir and meaning. But if
you are young you should just memorize it all without meaning because you have a sharp
memory.
Question: Can you repeat the three versions of the satanic verses
Answer: First version says is that the prophet (pbuh) could not tell the difference
between Jibrils speech and Shaytans, it has a weak chain lacks authenticity.
Second version Muhammad (pbuh) recited the verse to Muslims but then Shaytan
screamed out in a voice only the mushrik could hear.
Third version the power of the sura was so powerful that the mushrik bowed down. The
Muslims in Abyssinia came back to Mecca based upon that rumor.
If you read the verse in context then you will find that this satanic verse is cancelled by
six verses follow these verses make fun of idol worship. To affirm idols and then neglect
it.
CLEARING MISCONCEPTIONS
There are verses in the Quran that say that the Quran cannot be tampered with. It has
been in the protected tablet. The trustworthiness of Jibril has been assured. Shura 191.
The trustworthy angel has come down with it. Allah assures the prophet(pbuh) that he
will not mess up anything in the Quran.

Sura Qiyamah refers to Muhammad (pbuh) not to preceed the jibril in reciting it. Allah
tells him to listen to the Quran when he hears it. Allah tells him he will memorize it.
Allah promises he will not forget it. Muhammad had a different memory than others.
THE PROPHET NOT DIVINE
Although he did once make a mistake in salat al fajr, he stumbled on a verse. The Sahaba
did not corrected him. When Muhammad (pbuh) stumbled no one corrected him.
Muhammad (pbuh) asked the sahaba why he was not corrected.
To show that the prophet (pbuh) is not divine. He above all humans but not divine.
Likewise Allah told the prophet (pbuh) to convey the message. The memory of the
prophet is confirmed. Sura mahida say that the prophet (pbuh) must proclaim what Allah
has given you if you dont do it you have not fulfilled your task. Allah promised that He
will protect them from the people.
Some say, how is it that the Prophet(pbuh) was tortured or hurt if he was protected. He
was protected by Allah. There were some minor bruises but Allah promised that the
message would be conveyed. It was a miracle that one man was able to withstand many
assassination attempts.
Allah even ruled out the possibility that the prophet(pbuh) might tamper with the
message. Allah has ruled out this.
Sura 69 v 44-46 Allah says, If the prophet had forged something against us (ie. lied) we
would have held him by the right hand and would have cut his artery.
No human being can lie about Allah and not be exposed in this world.

Chapter 5
WHAT ARE THE FIRST AND THE LAST REVELATIONS?
The first verse revealed, it is agreed, sura iqara.
It is reported in the sera and hadith.
Some scholars of the past had different opinions.
1. First opinion First 5 verse of al laq
2. Second opinion Al mudaththir was the first verse to be revealed. Two sahaba were
talking. One sahaba said it was sura Alaq was the first verse revealed and the
Jabar said that it was al mudaththir. Prophet said that he left the cave and heard a
voice and looked up into the sky. Scholars say that Jabar may have walked in on
the middle of the story the Prophet (pbuh) was telling of the incident and did not
catch the first part of the story.
3. Third opinion is that sura fatihah. May have been the first sura revealed but does
not mean that it was the first revelation
4. Fourth opinion is that bismillah was the first to be revealed but there is no shread
of evidence for this.
LAST REVELATIONS
There are 11 opinions.
2:278, 2:281, 2:282 <- one opinion
In Bukhari it says that 110:1-4 is last sura to be revealed not last verse
The commonly held opinion of the masses was the one he said in his last hajj.
2:281 ibn abbas said the last verse Muhammad received was this one. This is the
strongest opinion because it talks about the end of life, last day
ANOTHER SECTION
the relative first and last verses. The scholars took the subjects and ordered in revelation.
Subject Wine for example.
S2 V 219 wine indication something was wrong
Sura Nisa do not come to prayer drunk
Maida 91 prohibited drinking of alcohol

QUESTION AND ANSWER

Question: Are there verses in the Quran that were not revealed to the Prophet(pbuh)?
Answer: No
Question: Is it true that some suras are more blessed than other?
Answer: Yes. Ayat al kursi holds a high status. Sura ikhlas has a higher level. Even ayats
have higher levels. We know this from the sunnah. All of Quran is blessed but some are
relatively more blessed.
The majority of narrations about the blessings of Quran are fabricated. One person tried
to find the source of the fabricated hadith. He traveled four chains back of the narration
and found the man who fabricated these hadith. He asked him where he got it. He
responded, from myself. His intension was to bring people back to the Quran and away
from fiq and history. These hadith are found in obscure hadith books. But Bukhari and
Muslim have authentic hadith
Question: Did Jibril hear Quran from Allah or did he read if from the preserved tablet?
Answer: Jibril heard directly from Allah. nawas ibn aswan said, when Allah wants to
reveal a revelation he speaks with the revelation to the extent that the angel become
terrified with fear. Then Jibril comes down after the speech is finished. The angels ask
what did Allah reveal Jibril said He has revealed the truth.
Did Jibril also get it from the tablet? Scholars differ in this.
Question: Are some verses just for the prophet and not us?
Answer: Every verse has some meaning to us. There are some verses that address the
prophet(pbuh) but are meant for us.

Example from the Quran. If you do shirk oh messenger of Allah. This is

addressed to him but for us.
Or the example of special rulings of marriage for him but not meant for us.
There are rulings for the Rasool and we can get benefit from them. Some
addressed to him but for us.
Others are for him and us equally.

Question: Was the hijab rulings special to the prophets(pbuh) wives only?
Answer: Sura azhab was for the wives of the prophet(pbuh) but in another verse Allah
address all the believing women. This prophets wives only interpretation of hijab is a
modernist opinion.
Question: If you say the Quran is in Arabic why are we studying in English?
Answer: The Quran can be explained in any language. These are the sciences of the
Quran and that can be taught in any language. Knowledge does not have to be in Arabic.
I am not teaching the Quran(i.e. Arabic words and grammar of Quran).

Question: You said that you need an instructor to learn the Quran, can we take a CD or
the Internet as an instructor?
Answer: These tools are for intermediate level for a student but it cannot replace it as a
Sheikh. A Sheikh can correct your mistakes. However it is better than nothing. When you
do listen to CD or Internet recordings pay attention to the pronunciation, Tajweed rules
etc.
Question: Can a woman in her menstrual cycle recite Quran from memory?
Answer: You cannot touch Quran in impure state but you can touch it with gloves on.
You can recite in your mind silently. In this state you cannot recite the Quran but you
can recite it if you are scared of losing what you memorized. This is applicable for people
who are Tajweed teachers. This type of recital is not for worship but for a job. You can
listen to Quran in state of impurity because Ayisha said Muhammad (pbuh) used to
recite Quran in the mosque and lean into his home (his home was attached to the
mosque) and let Ayisha listen to his recital while she was in menstrual cycle.

THE MAKEE & MADINI VERSES

How Makee and Madini verses are classified
1. Time of revelation - The sahaba themselves categorized verses of the Quran
according to this two categories. Every verse revealed before the hijra was called makee.
Every verse revealed after hijra was called madani. This does not mean it was revealed in
those places.
2. Place of revelation, were the verse were revealed on the physical place despite the
time it was revealed.
3.Address of revelation (rare opinion few scholars adopt this) who it address to the
mecans or the people of madina
How do we know mecca and madani verses? 2 ways
1. Sahaba said this verse was revealed in macca, we can learn from context of where
the surah was revealed
2. Deduce. An opinion Ijtihaad. This is not as strong as the first. When you are an
alim you can do 2 but the layman can do 1.
ATTRIBUTES OF MAKKEE AND MIDANI
COMMON THEMES OF MAKKAN SURAS.
Tawheed
stories of prophets, prophets of old
day of judgment, fear of day of judgment
jannah and nar
angels
refuting idol worship
General verses of being good
Taqwah
Rare ruling in makkee. An example is the killing of daughters. Generally the other
prohibitions came later in medina.
Broad issues of morality in makka.
COMMON THEMES OF MIDANI SURAS.
Perfection of rituals of worship hajj,
salat the details. Salat is referred to in the mekkah but not the specifics.
Sharia, divorce, inheritance, business transactions every detail laws in madini.
Any reference to Christians and Jews in the madani challenging the doctrine of
Christians. There was no mention of the people of the book in medina.
References hypocrites in medina surahs because there were no hypocrites in
Mecca(Muslims had it rough in Mecca only sincere Muslims in Mecca) .

SPECIFIC CHARACTERISTICS OF MAKKEE SURAS

Every verse that has the word kalla occurs in a Mecca sura
Ha meem, kaf ha, al mukatuaat all suras that begin with this is Makkaee, Except
imran and baqarah.
All the surahs with sajdah are in makkee
All the suras which mentions prophets and iblis in makkee. Except baqarah
Style of verse is generally very short powerful succinct fiery eloquence building
up a pitch like sura najm, haqam. See how Allah challenges the disbelieves in
these suras.
Madina revelations.
1. Every single legal code, prohibition, punishment is madinee
2. Concept of jihad in madinee surah. All references
3. Style, much longer. Eloquence is not as fiery as Makee.
Makee and Madina is not that simple. There are 30 categories in makee and madina
suras. Abdullah ibm Masud said, I swear by Allah there is not a single verse in the
Quran that I know where it was revealed, when and upon whom it was revealed and if
there was anyone more knowledgeable of the Quran I would ride my horse to get to him.
Ali ibn Talib said that he knew when a verse was revealed during night or day,
CATEGORIES OF MAKKEE AND MADANEE VERSES
1. Knowledge of the makkee suras
2. Knowledge of the madina suras
3. Those suras where the scholars have differed makaa or madinee. Fatiha, rahman
have diff opinions of what category they belong to.
4. Makkee verses inside a Madinee sura. The arrangement of the verses not in
chronological order. A verse would come years later and put in a sura from years
ago.
5. Madina verses in Makkee suras
6. Suras revealed in the middle of the hijrah
7. Verses who style resemble Madinee style yet it is Makkee
8. Verses that resemble Makee but is Madanee
Amongst the most noble science of the Quran is the madanee and makkee clasificaitons.
These are 25 categories that if you do not know these categories you cannot do tafsir.
WHAT ARE THE BENEFITS OF KNOWING THESE CATEGORIES?
Why are we so concerned. Of the benefits.
1. By knowing the context we will understand the reference in the verses. Sura
Qasas verse 85 . Allah says the one who revealed the Quran to you will return
you to where you came from. This was one of those verses that was revealed in
the middle of the hijrah so the context tells us that Allah is promising the Muslims
that they will one day return to Mecca after their migration. So knowing the
categories helps you understand the verse. Without it you will be lost.

2. It helps you sift through abrogated verses. Later verses take precedence over
earlier verses. Abrogation can only occur in fiq not in creed or morality.
3. It helps us understand the seerah(biography of the prophet). When we see the
suffering of Muhammad in Meccaand all of the verses that comfort him. Then
later we see the verses of jihad. We see how the problems evolve in the seerah.
4. It lays out the proper methodology of dawah. Helps us plot out the methodology
of revival. We can learn a lot from the makkan stage how to treat non muslims.
When we are in a Madinan stage we treat them differently. These have not been
abrogated. Towards establishing a vision for Muslims in the west.
5. Shows the detailed preservation of our religion. Sometimes it does not matter if it
was revealed night or day but we still have this knowledge. This information has
been preserved and gives us confidence that our religion was preserved.
The green version of the Quran the Medina printing has very good Madini. World class
scholars took part in making the references.

Question and Answer

Question: I cannot read Arabic can I read Quran in transliteration?
Answer: This can only be used as a crutch for a new Muslim. You must learn the Arabic.
Question: Is there any significance of the 19 in Quran?
Answer: There is no significance to any number of times in the Quran. Ahmad Deedat
supported this 19 number miracle but he later withdrew this. Bilal Philips wrote a book
called 19 hoax.
Question: Was the first verse revealed on Ramadan?
Answer: Yes and on laylal a qadr
Question: Is there any source of books that show you the chronological order of the
Quran?
Answer: Yes, only in Arabic. Not in English.
Question: Can we recite the Quran without knowing the meaning?
Answer: It is not obligatory but you will miss out on the meanings. You will be rewarded
partially but only when you understand you will be rewarded fully.
Memorization of the Quran.
Do not be discouraged on memorizing the Quran. Do not compare the Quran with other
books. The Quran will help you memorize it. Dont give up hope make it your intension
to memorize it. You will get more reward in it as an older person.

Day Three
Today there is more difficult and juicy issues. Qirat is what we might be talking about
today. This has the most issues with laymen and scholars.
Chapter Seven
Asbab An nuzzool. Plural of sabab. Means the cause of something. So asbab means the
causes. Nuzool is revelations. So the translation is the causes of revelations.
To be more precise, the event or occurrence (a specific incident) that was the direct cause
of the revelation of a particular verse or surah.
General reasons are asbab an nuzool. Like to guide mankind this is a reason but not asab
an suzool. We are talking about a specific situation.
Categories
1. Most Quran does not have a specific cause.
2. Revealed with a cause like sura ikhlas as a response to a question of the Lord. Nas
and falaq a response o the prophet(pbuh) afflicted with magic.
SOURCES OF ASBAAB AN NUZOOL
There is no guessing of causes. Either we know or we dont. There are two sources.
1. Hadith of the Prophet(pbuh).
2. Statement of the companions.
If causes are not found in these sources then we dont know.
ISSUE IN HADITH WORDING
The issues come when it comes to the phrasing of the Sahaba. When the Sahaba say this
verse was revealed concerning XYZ. Scholars wonder if people were doing this XYZ at
this time or for the future. So it is ambiguous. Some phrasing can be ambiguous. Other
phrases are not ambiguous. We take circumstances of the time to remove ambiguity.
MULTIPLE ASBAAB AN NAUZOOL
Sometimes we get more than one source for causes. Scholars have guidelines.
1. Accepting authentic narration over the weak narration. Example, the Lord has not
abandoned you Allah said in the Quran. This was a response because people said
that Allah abandoned the Prophet(pbuh) by not giving him revelation for a long
time and they made fun of him because of it. Another weak narration related to
the incident was that a dead dog was the reason for not getting revelation.
2. If both are authentic. Take eyewitness accounts over hearsay. For example in the
Quran when it says They ask you about the spirit. This was a response to n
incident involving the Quraish. They wanted to stump the prophet(pbuh) with
difficult questions to disprove his prophet hood. There are two sources for this
incident

1. Ibn Abbas saw this questioning. To ask the prophet(pbuh)

about the nature of the soul.
2. Another hadith said that there were Quraish who asked the
Jews about questions to ask Muhammad.
3. If both are authentic narrations and there are no grounds for which one narration
would be accepted over another, then the verse was revealed for both incidents.
We can accept both because many things can happen at the same time.
Hidab ibn umayah witness this act of adultery. He came to the
prophet(pbuh) what will you do if a man accuses his wife of adultery. If he
remains quite he is in harm he cannot life like this. If he is speaking about
it then he will be punished. He said Prophet I had witnessed it and he
swore that it was true. Prophet said that he will be punished for talking
about it because the ruling at the time was that one needed 4 witnesses to
make such an accusation. Then Hidab ibn umayah said that he was so sure
that Allah will reveal sura about him. And the sura was revealed surat an
noor, concerning the issue
Uwami ijawami. He had the situation as the guy above. Muhammad(pbuh) said
that there are verses already revealed concerning the incident.
We can figure out the order of these causes. Uwami was after Hidab ibn umayah.
4. If both narrations are authentic but occurred in different time frames the verse was
most likely revealed more than once. Why?
To show the verses status
To show the answer is already in the Quran
One example is seeking forgiveness for mushriks after they die. There are
multiple asbaaab an nuzol for this
1. Man asked for his parents
2. Another man asked for --3. Prophet asked for his uncle
Sometimes one cause is the cause of multiple verses coming down witch is the
opposite of above.
Example. Uma salamah said, oh messenger of Allah I see Allah always mentions
men never mentions women. As a response of this Allah reveals a series of verses
over time.
Sura nisa 32, azhab 35, sura ali imran 195
Talks about gender relations, equality in spiritual status.
Legally men and women have differences. Spiritually both have the same
opportunity to enter jannah. Rewards between man and woman are equal.

SAHABA CAUSES OF REVELATION

Another genre the sahaba would record for verse that was revealed for them. So
they would record what they did to cause this revelation.
Umar ibn khatib chosen to be the elite of the sahaba. 4 verses of the Quran were
revealed because of me. Umar also said I agree with my lord on three matters.
Even though the verses came down after he said it.
1. He said to the prophet(pbuh) pray behind the maqab ibrahim then the verse
was revealed
2. He said ya rasoolulah why dont your wives cover themselves. Then Allah
revealed the verse for hijab.
3. Incident that happened with the wife. Prophet(pbuh) left his wife for a month
marital issues and Umars advice to the Prophet(pbuh).
What does it matter if we know the cause of verses coming down? We need to
understand important point in tafsir.
The ruling from any verse depends on the generality if its wording and not
on the specifity of its asbaab an Nuzool
The famous verse in the Quran. Sura 59 verse 7. Whatever the prophet gives you take
what he prohibits you dont take it.
The sbaab is about the spoils of war. However do we restrict the understanding of this
verse to this? No because the wording is general.
If someone says that they do not have to follow the sunnah. Then you quote this verse.
Then he will respond this verse was for war spoils. But then you respond that this verse is
generally worded. So we extend the meaning. The sahaba understood this.
Allahs curse is upon women who enhance their beauty in an unnatural way, such as
plucking eyebrows. A woman who plucked her eyebrows said that she read the Quran
and did not find this. The man said that he read the wording of sura 59 v 7 and extended
to what the Prophet(pbuh) prohibited.
If we restrict the meanings. We can say that the Quran only came only for the sahaba.
This is illogical
GENERAL MEANING OR SPECIFIC MEANING OF A VERSE
When a man came to the prophet. Said oh messenger of Allah I have destroyed myself. I
did things I should not have done with a woman but did not do zina. The prophet said
nothing. The man just sat there depressed thinking that he was doomed. Then prayer
came the man prayed. He wanted to leave and then he was called back. Prophet told him
that Allah has revealed that good deeds nullify bad deeds. The man said that is this just
for me or all the Muslims.

In this case the man wanted to know if the verse revealed only applied to him alone and
not the rest of the ummah.
ABUSE OF CAUSES OF REVELATION
People try to abuse asbaaban nuszzol we take the rulings to the generality of the wording.
Like the guy above the cause was not for this ruling but not restricted to this type of sin it
applies to all sins and forgiveness
THE BENEFITS
You will not understand the verse until you know the cause of revelation. Some verse in
the Quran will be mistakenly understood if you dont know the cause. You will think
you understand it but you will not understand it.
Example
2:158 Allah says, Safa and marwas are of the signs of Allah. So whoever does hajj or
umrah there is no sin upon you if you walk between them. (saf)
Urwah was a mahram of ayiha his aunt. How does this verse indicates that this saf is
wajib. The above verse shows that it is not wajib. She said, this was not revealed for this
rather when the Muslims came to Meccato do the umrah or hajj, they felt awkward doing
the sai. They thought that this was a pagan ritual.
Nailah Esaf were idols placed on the mountain tops. The non Muslims used to touch them
when they walked between the two idols. Safa and marwah were holy things before
jahiliah, Allah says. Allah made it holy before these idols.
So when you know the cause for the verse you can understand it better.
Sura 2: verse 115
Allah says, to Allah belongs the east and the west so wherever you turn you will find the
face of Allah.
Some people misinterpret that you can pray in any direction.
The cause was that the sahaba was praying in the desert and it was cloudy so they could
not find the direction. But in that occasion they could not find the direction because the
sun or mountains were covered and there was a sandstorm.
Tangent. Sandstorms are frightening it can be so dark you cannot see you hand in front of
you hands. The sand can hit you everywhere in you eyes, mouth, (beard) everywhere.
So the Sahaba started to pray and assumed different directions for salat. The verse said
that in those situations it does not matter where you pray.

MISUNDERSTANDING OF SAHABA
Sahaba were known to make mistakes. Their mistakes are worth knowing. Huda ibn
Mathoon, he considered it permissible to drink alcohol. He quoted Maida 93 to Umar Bin
Khitab when he came to question him as to why he drank alcohol.
Allah says. If you are pious and righteous there is not sin in what you eat.
Umar ibn khatib did not accept this interpretation. It was then explained to Huda ibn
Mathoon. How was this misunderstanding corrected? He was explained the cause of
revelation of this verse.
The cause was that the sahaba were concerned that some brothers died before Allah
prohibited alcohol. They were worried that their shaheed would not be accepted.
However the answer was, yes it would be accepted, because of this verse.
We still apply this verse today for people who do not know the rulings of Islam. Like a
new convert. There is no sin for what he or she did not know.
ANOTHER BENEFIT OF KNOWING THE CAUSE OF REVELATION
We apply the verse in the manner they were intended.
FINAL BENEFIT
To give honor to the Sahaba who were the cause of the verses coming down. We increase
our respect for the Sahaba in this regard.

QUESTION AN ANSWER.
Question: Is there is a cause of revelation for no compulsion in religion?
Answer: Certain children of the Ansar had children who were raised by the Jews and the
children grew to adults. The parents wanted to force the kids to become Muslims. The
meaning is that you cannot become Muslim by force.

Chapter Eight
THE COMPILATION OF THE QURAN
This is the most contested issue of the Quran especially by the Orientalist.
As a Muslim we believe in the promise of Allah, regarding the fact that Allah will
preserve the Quran

Hijr verse 9, we are the ones who revealed the dhikr. It was emphasized
Qiyahma 15-17 We will collect it for you and make sure you will recite it
properly.
Sura 40: 41 42 It is a magnificent powerful book. No evil can approach it from in
front of it or behind it.
Sura baqarah. There is no doubt in this book

It will remain pure and pristine. Allah has promised to keep the Quran preserved.
PRESERVATION OF PREVIOUS SCRIPTURES
In contrast to the books before, Allah did not promise to preserve the previous scriptures.
In fact for the previous scriptures the protection of those books were the responsibility of
those ummah of the past. The Quran says that, They wrote the book with their own
hands and claimed that it was from Allah. They knowingly forged books.
Today those books exist in the old and new testament. Where does it say this? maidah 44
Allah says, the priest and the rabbi were the ones put in charge of taking care of these
books they were the ones witnessing over this book.
Therefore from the beginning we have an advantage over them. Only we have gotten this
promise. With this promise in mind lets talk about the preservation of the Quran.
CHALLANGERS OF THE QURAN SAY IT IS PRESERVED
Even those who challenge the authenticity of the Quran they admit that there is no
comparison to the preservation of this book.
Those of the most right wing of Orientalists claim that most of the Quran was from
Muhammad that other was added from here and there. Even the worst enemy of the
Quran recognizes that the Quran was preserved but they cannot say the same to their
own books. They do not know where their books come from.
HOW WAS THE QURAN PRESERVED
We must understand the Arab culture. Literacy was not common in Mecca less than 15
people knew who to read and write. In contrast to our society it is not the norm to be
illiterate. That is why Allah calls the Arabs umi (unlettered) Allah calls the Prophet one
that could not read or write
62:2 He is the one who has sent amounts the umieen a prophet from among themselves.
And this prophet is reciting to them a book

sura araf 158 Allah says, oh mankind I am a messenger sent to all of you from the king of
the heavens and earth.so believe in the prophet who is unlettered.
LITERACY AND MUHAMMAD(PBUH)
We should we proud of this, why? Generally unlettered is not a good thing. Lettered
people are better than unlettered. In fact Muhammad released prisoners of war to teach
kids to read and write. So why is Allah praising the prophet(pbuh) for being unlettered.
Why do we learn to read and write? So we can obtain knowledge. So we can
communicate. We need this as humans. But what if we had a direct link to Allah? What
use is the knowledge of men? So for the prophet(pbuh) he has so much knowledge for an
unlettered person. Also it is a miracle. He did not know how to read but he got all this
information that would not be accessible to person that could not read.
Sura 29 verse 48, You were not of those who used to recite books before this Quran was
revealed.
If he were a literate person then there would be some reason to doubt his prophecy. For
40 years he was not known for any literal activities not even poetry. The Arabs were into
poetry. All of a sudden he produces the most beautiful poetry and eloquence. Poets could
not challenge him.
QURAN WRITTEN DOWN
With this background in mind the quran could not have been written down by
Muhammad or the sahaba. Quantity was less at the start. However the earliest reference
to writing down of the Quran was from the conversion of the Umar. Umar wanted to kill
Muhammad that day and was told that his sister was a Muslim so he went to deal with
her.
We know that his sister had a parchment of Quran. Umar then beat his sister but his
sister said do what you want I will not leave Islam, and then Umar felt softness in his
heart and wanted to read the parchment.
Muhammad(pbuh) was concerned with teaching Quran to his companions. The purposes
of the earliest haliqa(study circle) was to teach the Quran. A sahaba said any time a new
Muslim came the prophet would assign someone to him to each him Quran. The Quran
was memorized, the Arabs had good memories.
THOSE WHO WROTE QURAN SCRIBES
The prophet also set apart scribes to write the Quran down. Kitabu a wahi, these were
scribes that would write down the revelation. There were probably 25 but all the khalifas
were scribes. Ibn Massod, muawiah close scribe of Muhammad(pbuh). The main scribe
was Zaid in Medina.

Whenever an ayat was revealed the prophet(pbuh) would call the scribes. There were few
scribes in the Mecca stage. In Medina would call the scribes to come then he would
dictate the Quran to the scribes.
In one narration in bukhari when Allah revealed nisa 95 the prophet of Allah said. Call
for me zaid ibn thatbit and tell him to being his writing instruments (leather parchment).
Write down the verse. (zaid then wrote down the verse under the supervision of the
prophet.)
Every time revelation came down it would be written down on separate parts. Not one
book. Zaid said, we used to compile Quran from different bits and pieces. This is how it
was done during the time of the prophet.
Later on when more suras were revealed Muhammad gave a commandment, do not write
anything from me other than the Quran. Anything else let him wipe it away. This hadith
was later abrogated. He allowed the Sahaba to write hadith in later medina stage. This act
was to preserve the Quran. But as Islam kept on growing literacy so they were writing
down. Islam spread literacy to everywhere they went.
In the later medina stage people were becoming increasingly literate so
Muhammad(pbuh) had to give a general command.
SAHABA AND THEIR OWN QURAN
Some sahaba had their own person copy of the quran but the arrangement of the suras
was different. The order of the suras were not defined yet.
Abdulah ibn Massud had extra material in his Quran, had duas written from
Muhammad. If you understood the consequences of the time, writing material was scarce.
Ubay ibn kaab he wrote two duas and hadith in one book. Writing martial was scarce.
RECITATION WITH JIBRIL
Another way to preserve Quran Muhammad(pbuh) would recite all Quran he knew to
Jibril and Jibril would recite back. Muhammad(pbuh) would later say to his wife aisha,
Jibril would recite all of Quran every year in Ramadan but this year Jibril recited it
twice. The only conclusion I would get is that I will die.
The prophet would recheck his own memory. By reciting with Jibril we must know that
there was an order to the Quran and they also knew what was abrogated.
This is a sunnah of reciting from teacher to student which exists to this day.
THE LAST RECITATION WITH JIBRIL
Zaid ibn thabid witnessed the last recitation that the prophet did with Jibril. He was the
main scribe of the prophet. Also a linguistic genius. He learned Hebrew in two weeks.
Prophet(pbuh) said I dont trust the yahood or what they write so go learn their language.

COMPILATION OF QURAN
There was no complete Quran during the time of the prophet(pbuh). There were verses
still to be revealed and verse arrangements not finalized. Muhammad himself did not
command Quran to be compiled.
The reasons why there was no need for compilation of Quran needed during time of the
Prophet(pbuh).
1. There was not pressing need. Sahaba was there.
2. Also to have this book was not possible because the Quran was still being
revealed.
3. Arrangement of the verses and surahs could be not be finalized until the quran
was complete.
4. Abrogation of certain verses.
Immediately after the death of the prophet(pbuh) the Quran was compiled which was the
best time because revelation ended.
THE FIRST COMPILATION OF THE QURAN WHY IT CAME ABOUT
During the battle of Yamamah, 70 companions who had memorized the Quran were
martyred. This happened one year after the death of the prophet. These were the primary
preservers of the Quran. This alarmed Umar. Umar went to Abu bakr and said, oh
khalifah we lost 70 people who memorized Quran let us compile the Quran to keep it
for eternity.
WHO WAS THE BEST MAN FOR THE JOB
Abu bakr said, how can I do something that the prophet did not do. Umar continued to
convince him that this is something that you should do. Abu bakr worried that it was a
bidah. But it was not an innovation because the preservation of the Quran is part of
Islam to benefit the ummah. Abu bakr was convinced. They both agreed. Then they
suggested Zayd bin Thabbot was chosen for the job. They chose him for several reasons
- Main secretary scribe of Muhammad (pbuh) when they called on Zaid, Zaid said, how
can I do what the prophet did not do. They told Zaid he was best for the job because
he was the one who wrote down the wahy of the prophet.
- Zaid was one of the neighbors of the prophet. This facilitated the fact that he would
be called rather than others. Ibn abi dawud has this hadith.
- Another reason why chosen was for his linguistic skills. Today we would call him a
linguist.
- Another reason one of the few people who memorized the Quran while the prophet
who was alive. Very few people would manage to memorize the Quran while they
were alive. Of them 4 most famous
1.
2.
3.
4.

ubay ibn kabb

muad ibn jabal
zaid ibn thaabit
and abu zaid a slave.

These people would always check to see if new revelation would come.
ZAIDS BACKGROUND
Zaid ibn Thaabit was younger than others and had a sharper memory. He was 11 when
Muhammad (pbuh) came to Medina. The teens would be treated as adults in those days.
Teens were intellectually capable of interacting with adults. Lived his teenage years with
the Prophet(pbuh). Zaid was present at the final recitation of the Quran.
Final reason his piety and his Knowledge of Quran. He was a specialist in Ulum al
Quran.
ZAIDS MYTHOLOGY OF COMPILATION
Zaid could have compiled the Quran strait from his mind but he did not do that.
How did Zaid compile the Quran? Zaid said, had abu bakr and umar told me to move a
mountain from one place to another it would be easier than doing this compilation of the
Quran. Shows how he was conscience of the task at hand. He was aware of the future
repercussions of his task.
ZAIDS ANNOUNCEMENT
He made an announcement. He wanted copies of Quran that were written from the
mouth of the Prophet(pbuh). Written in front of the prophet(pbuh) so he told them to
come to the Masjid. He compiled the Quran from these pieces.
MISSING VERSES
Zaid could not find the last two ayats of taubah. He did not add it but then he found it. He
knew what was missing but did not add them unless it fit his criteria.
ZAID COMPLETED COMPILATION OF QURAN
When Zaid finished his task this was the first time 12th year of hijrah it was started on the
13th year it was done. In 1 year in a half if was compiled. All of the major Sahaba was
alive at this time. No famous Sahabi died. The original documents were brought to
compile the Quran. The entire Quran was compiled. Zaid compiled it and it was a team
effort of all of the Sahaba done in medina.
THE ABU BAKR VERSION OF QURAN
There was some difference of opinions of how the suras were arranged . however there
would have been some documentation of any different order. This was called the abu
bakr version. Then this was given to Umar. Then there was a committee of 6. Umar told
them you choice amounst you on who should keep the mushaf.
The mustaf was passed to the daughter of the prophet(pbuh) .
PURPOSE OF THE COMPILATION
The mushaf was meant to preserve the Quran. It was not meant to be the standard
reference.

THE UTHMAN VERSION OF QURAN

Then another fitnah happened in the time of Uthman. This lead to the Uthmaic
compellation of the Quran. This compilation is what is links the Quran to our times.
THE REASON FOR THE UTHMAN QURAN
What happened? In Uthmans time the Muslim empire quadrupled in size. In Abu Bakrs
time he was consolidating the ummah. Umar expanded it and tripled it in size. He fought
empires captured and conquered new lands. Azerbaijan was conquered; this was a
frontier province the sahaba and students come to join the jihad. There was a different
mix of people from the empire mixed in there.
MY RECITATION IS BETTER THAN YOURS
It was here that they realized that the Muslims were reciting differently. They began to
fight with each other in that province. One of Sahaba Hudayfah witnessed this
quarrelling. He left the jihad because there was a greater battle to be fought. He said to
Uthman, oh Uthman prevent this ummah from splitting up concerning this Quran. Make
sure we do not fight about the Quran our holy book like the Christians did. Uthman
called the Sahaba and told them the situation. They were fighting about whose style was
better. 15 years later since first compilation.
THE SOLUTION
Then they discussed and then they came with a solution. We should come with the same
standard Quran same words, same spelling. Make it the only standard of the Quran.
Uthman agreed to this proposal. It was a joint proposal. The senior of the Sahaba never
disputed it.
It is common that people with lesser knowledge fight the Sahaba never fought. Hafza had
the mushaf sends it to Uthman.
Uthman makes a committee of 4 people. Zaid was put in charge of 3[names in book] they
were chosen for their knowledge of Arabic.
THE CRITERIA
Rewrite a copy of the Quran in the spelling of Quraish because it was the style of the
Prophet. Like Britain and English there are different spellings so was the case for Quraish
Arabic and the other dialects.
Zaid was from medina. Quraish would take precedence over spelling. Only spelling not
meaning.
One copy would be sent to each and every province. Then the governor of the province
was instructed to collect other copies and dispose of them. No one was allowed to keep
his or her own copy of Quran (unofficial). These were burnt.

BURNING OF QURANS
Western people thing that burning is a sign of disrespect. Muslims burned it to protect it.
How do you get rid of Qurans. It was written on leather, which is hard to get rid of.
There were no paper shredders back then. The governors who were in charge of this task
destroyed the rest of the Qurans. So all copies of Quran were to be copied from the
standard version
THE STANDARD QURAN SENT WITH A RECITER
Uthman sent the book and a reciter along with the book. Sent physical book and a qari.
He sent;
Abdullah ibn said (mekkah)
mukharah ibn shooah (syriah)
abu ablul rahman assulameen (Kufah)
Abu ibn qias(basrah)
DIFFERENCES BETWEEN THE TWO COMPILATIONS OF QURAN
1. Reason of compilation was different.
a. Abu Bakr version caused by deaths of Sahaba who memorized quran
b. Uthmans version cause because Muslims were fighting over style or
recitation.
2. Number of people involved
3. Number of copies
a. Abu Bakr copy 1
b. Uthman 4
4. Uthman mushaf was meant to be standard. Abu Bakr was not meant to be
standard no Quran to destroy
5. Abu bakrs compilation was from scratch Uthman was a rewriting of Abu Bakrs
compilation
Uthmans burning of all Quran was a drastic move. It was this move that preserved to this
day. Uthmans wise decision not to have variants of Quran.

QUESTION AND ANSWER

Question: How do we dispose of Quran properly.
Answer: Whatever we can do to obliterate the words of Quran. Shred them, recycle
them.
Question: Did original Quran have sura numbers.
Answer: there was no verse numbers or sura names in original version. The Sahaba
wanted only pure Quran.
Question: Was there a rebellion to this ruling
Answer: Ibn Massod said, why should I give my Quran to a child (meaning Zaid). Some
of the Sahaba tried to reason with him. However, he had every right to do what he did.
He was not some nobody. Had a legitimate base. Many years later he agreed to it, agreed
with Zaid.
Question: What about the Shia who say that they have a different Quran.
Answer: Some Shias believe that the Quran is incomplete. Not all. Some Shia believe
that the Quran was tampered with. But not all think this. We should not over generalize
the Shias.
Some say that the verse for Ali was left out. Praises that give proof for Alis Khalifah.
There is no other version of the Quran in existence.
RAYS OF FAITH New Course
May(1st and 2nd weekend)
Sh Waleed Basyouni
This is the 3rd part of Aqeeda course.

UTHMANI SCRIPT
Compilation of the Quran and the differences of Abu bakrs compilation and Uthmans
compilations. There are a number of differences. This brings us to different topics.
We come to the topic to the spelling of the words of the Quran, Uthmani script, we have
to differentiate font, spelling and style.
Fonts change the shape how the words are shaped.
The script of the Uthmani Quran. Must we conform to the uthmani spelling? Vast
majority ulima said that it is obligatory.
One opinion was that this script was sanctioned by the Prophet(pbuh). Not a very strong
position because he did not know how to read.
Second because the Sahaba agreed to this writing style. This is the stronger opinion. Ijma
of Sahaba that Quran had to be written in that script.
Some ulima say that you can update to your script because there was no implicit
restrictions.
But all publishing houses say that the Quran should be the same. To have this sanctity.
FONT SCRIPT OF UTHMAN MUSHAF
Issue of fonts and scripts(writing style, the font) classical Arabic at the time of the
prophet(pbuh) was written in an archaic type of font. No person today can read this script
unless you were schooled and taught. The script is an ancient script.
Old kufic script maif script.
One thing you noticed in these scripts is that there were no dots or tashqeel (vowel
sounds). These were not added. Ancient Arabic did not differentiate ba ta etc. it was
understood by context.
FIRST MARKS ADDED TO QURAN
As Islam began to spread the new Muslims found it difficult to read his script. People
began to add dots and tashqeel dots. The first to add marks Abul Aswal a Duali died 69
AH died. He heard a person mispronounce the Quran to make a statement that was the
difference of iman and kuffer. He heard a person say that Allah has nothing to do with
the idolaters and the prophet. This was due to one vowel sign missed.
This man decided to write the Quran with marking a particular. 60 H first tashqeel was
born. 25 years after Uthman compilation. Then after noqat dots emerged. The non arabs
could not tell what letters represented what. Nasr ibn asim 89 H and yahya ibn yamir
100h.

These added naqat dots. However their version is still difficult to understand due to the
font.
These marks were then added in a different color to differentiate what was Quran and
what were the words of Allah. Many of the early scholars were cautious of these changes.
SCHOLARS RULINGS ON MARKS
Imam Malik was asked about these dots. Imam Malik said, as for the major mushaf they
should not be added. But for the minor books for kids you can add it. Many of the major
scholars were cautious about this. Why were they cautious about this? They wanted to
stick for what the Sahaba did.
MARKS NOW ARE COMMON
The convenience of these marks took over. Then the scholars agreed at the practicality of
it. Before you find few then later both then now you cannot find a Quran without these
marks.
NUMBERING STARTS
The Sahaba did not have numbering of verses. Later on when the numbers were added
they added a Ha 5 then an ayn to mark where you were. Then 5 10 5 10. then later they
put numbers. These were small changes over time.
ANOTHER CHANGE FONT CHANGE
Very early on the font needed to be updated. This font was ancient Arabic. Before Islam
came this was their font. Islam came and gave them a civilization. They had an extremely
rudimentary script. Hali ibn Ahmad died 170. He updated ancient kufi script. Other
calligrapher ibn mukla died 327 introduced the Naskhee script which we are familiar
with.
Ibn al muwal took it to a different level. He created beautiful script. Todays script is a
type of naskhee script.
There is al maghribi script in morocco influenced by kufi script. They evolved their
tashqeel differently. Their Quran is in maghribi script
PRINTING THE QURAN
With the advent of the printing press the first Quran that printed was in germany 1694.
The Germans started study Islamic sciences 1960 there were no rivals in their studies in
Islam. Germany and ottoman Turks were allied. Germans are the most unbiased with
Islamic studies compared to the other Orientalists.
This German who was yahoodi printed Quran for the first time. Huge percentage of
orietalist are yahoodo. Abraham Hinkeman. It was a Quran that had so many mistakes.
1841 Musta Flouigel printed a Quran that was used for many years.

MUSLIMS PRINT QURAN

Finally king Fuad 1900 he commissioned a Quran to be printed. It then became the
standard king Fuad edition you can still find to this day.
1950 king Fahaad gave money to build a printing press in Medina. Very excellent
printing press with excellent scholars top notch that oversee it. They hired the most well
known calligrapher in the world Uthman Taha. He had written the whole Quran. He is
the most famous in the world. His son is also a calligrapher. His son makes those designs
of flowers and decorations. The son is also a world famous calligrapher.
Qurans in Pakistan are more influenced by Turkish.
There is Arabic Braille it is three volumes.
ORIGINAL MUSHAF
What happened to the original Uthmani mushafs? And the mushaf of abu bakr. After he
past away Umar got it then Hafsa got it after Uthman commissioned his version.
Murwad ibn al Hakim wanted to eliminate the Abu Bakr copy. It was a political decision.
Hafsa did not want to give it Murwan. After she died he took it and eliminated it.
Murwad destroyed it.
4-9 opinions of what happened to the original mus hafs.
We do not have a record of what happened to all of them. We do have records of people
seeing them. Ibn kathir the famous historian said he saw one of the mushafs he writes, it
was very large with clear writing written on parchment of camel skin. Fires destroyed the
others.
Ibn Batutah remembers seeing one in medina.
A UTHAMANI MUSHAF IN KAFIR LANDS
There is a clause in Vesay Germany and France and Turkey 1920. One of the clauses is
article 246, within 6 month of this treaty Germany will return the original Koran to the
majesty. The Turkish showed a copy to German royalty from Medina. The Turks took it
and kept it. It is rumored that this is the original Quran.
TASHKENT COPY OF QURAN
The only present copy is the likely candidate. Tashkent in Russia it is rumored to be an
Uthmanic Quran. It is rumored that the Umayyad took to Morocco and then to the other
side of the world then in 1924 returned it to the Muslims of Tashkent. But before the
Russian made facsimile copies and they made available to university. UofT has one. It is
the most likely candidate. The reason why we say it cannot be uthman is because it has
tashqeel.
This Tashkent has marks but not many marks.

PORTIONS OF QURAN TODAY AND MANUSCRIPTS

If we want to talk about portions Quran we have dozens of pages located in western
libraries. Alhamdulilah they ended up in western libraries. Not only do they have better
preservation technology they actually care about preserving it.
But in the non-western world like in India. He visited it and he asked to see the
manuscripts and was lead to their private collection. It was a tattered room, dusty with
moth balls. There were manuscripts in the handwriting of shawkani , muani unpublished.
There were put in office filing cabinets and there was no environment control.
Most of these manuscripts were acquired by Sadeeq Asal Khan, Indias big scholar. He
had the money to purchase these original manuscripts. He was a rich man. Married
princess Sultani of Bulgan.
The reason for this poor treatment of manuscripts is funding.
Point being, their libraries are not as good as those in the West. Yale has a different
procedure.
- You have to id yourself
- They put the manuscript on a cushion
- They know how to bind it as it did in those days
- They watch you while you handle the manuscript
People who own these manuscripts ended up giving it over to the west because of money.
So these manuscripts ended up in the west. 20% were taken by confiscation but most of
them were taken by fair trade.
EXAMPLE OF MANUSCRIPTS.
http://www.islamic- dfawarness.org/Quran/Text/Mss/
This is the number one site for refutation of accusations against Islam. Yasir Qadhi
contributed to one article on this site. Yasir Qadhi knows him. The man is a Phd in nano
technology. An Orientalist came to attack him but he did not know to refute. Then he
learned on his own. Now he more famous for this than his nanotechnology work.

QUESTION AND ANSWER

Question: Is there a possibility of finding these mushafs (i.e. original Uthmani Qurans)
Answer: In the 1970s old Masjid of Yemen dated to 2nd century of hijrah. They wanted
to reconstruct it. Part of their excavations they unearthed a chamber that was above the
musalen and it was full of ancient Qurans that dated back to the earliest centuries.
The people did not know what to do with the discovery so they took it to the government.
The government then gave it to the German Orientalists. Now only Germans had access
to this discovery. And it belonged to a group of Orientalists that are not sympathetic.
They said that these Qurans went against what originals said.
There are some scribal errors but in the end they were not different. A number of article
released Toby Lebster wrote in Atlantic monthly he fell for this hook line and sinker even
though no one had access of information. A German said that they are just lying. They
wanted to make money and prestige.
There are many areas that are uncharted territory we can find new old mus-hafs
Question: Do we get too caught up proving the text?
Answer: We do not have to bring it up until they bring it up. Quran is a proof on itself.
Question: When we give Qurans to the non Muslim can they misunderstand it?
Answer: Yes they can misunderstand. They should not be given the entire Quran
translation. Give them portions of it.
Question: When were the Tajweed rules formulated?
Answer: Tajweed was from the beginning. The pronunciation has not evolved. The way
we recite it is the way the prophet(pbuh) recited it. Only thing that changed was how we
codified it.
Question: How did they categorize the Quran into juz?
Answer: Some ulima divided Quran in 7 parts in India for example. Others are in 30
parts. This is up to the scholar. You will find Madini version is a more academic Quran.
Question: What about starting and stopping marks in Quran.
Answer: More marks have to be added because of the level of knowledge of the ummah
decreases.
Question: Why should we not give Quran to non Muslims?
Answer: The English does not transmit the Quran properly. Westerners dont read more
than 30 pages of anything.
Question: (question could I could not hear)

Answer: Ibn Zaid could not find the last two parts of the Quran. He found only one copy
and it belonged to a guy that the Prophet said his testimony counts as two. For the abu
Bakr book.
Question: Is Tajweed fardh?
Answer : to a certain level yes. Not to the level of ijaza but we need to know some.
Question: Did the general population did not agree with the Quran confiscations?
Answer: the people agreed with it. There was no rebellion to it.
Question: What was the point of copying the abu bakr compellation.
Answer : To standardize the spelling and style. Abu bakrs version had a mixture of style
and spelling.
The medina Quran had an international set of scholars to determine sajdah points,

Saturday February 16 2008

A copy of the Quran was brought in with a Moroccan script. The has a dot
underneath. Even the recitation qirat is different in this Quran from Morocco. (Yasir
Qadhi then recites the differences in surat al baqara )The script has evolved differently in
different places in the Muslim world.
THE BEGINNING OF THE SURAHS
10 CATEGORIES.
Surahs begin in ten different ways.
1. Disjointed Letters 29 suras
2. Glorification of Allah 14 suras start like this, with praise.
3. Started with a call 10 suras
4. Statement of fact Example he believers are successful 23 suras
5. Oath swearing by time, fajr, night, early morning 15 suras that begin with an
oath. All oaths are Meccan. Waw of oath.
6. Starting with a condition 6 suras
7. Starts with a Command 6 suras recite in the name of your lord
8. Question 6 suras sometimes a rhetorical question. Sometimes a question make
you interested in what is being talked about.
9. Invocation - 3 suras, a curse against another person. Against Lahab,
10. Reason or cause Due to the ---of the Qurash.
DISJOINTED LETTERS
1 Disjointed letters (Muqatta aat) : 29 suras
These letters are 14 in number.
Sometimes only one letter is used noon, sawd, qaf
Number of disjointed letters
3 suras begin with one letter . noon sawd qaf
10 Some have 2 letters 10 suras begin like this.
12 suras begin with 3 letters.
2 suras begin with 4 letters
2 suras begin with 5 letters
Interestingly there are 28 letters in Arabic alphabet. And there are 14 disjointed letters.
WHAT DO THESE LETTERS MEAN?
Scholars have been talking about these since the beginning of the Quran.
An Orientalist said that this is a signature of the author who wrote the sura, weak theory.
But we look at the Muslim Scholars said. Allah alim. We do not know. They say that
these letters are vague. This is the opinion of the ulima.

Every book has a secret and the Quran has a secret and these letters are its secret.
Allah has sent a revelation and it make no sense why Allah would reveal something that
does not make sense.
Another opinion these letters represent the names of Allah. Sufis say that these letters
represent the names of the Prophet.
ALLAH SWORN BY THESE LETTERS
Allah sworn by these letters but none of the Arabs swore by the letters. Allah uses the
language of the people. This is a weak opinion.
THESE LETTERS REPRESENT NUMERICAL VALUES
Sufi interpretation. Letters represent numbers. The prophet and the Sahaba did not look
into letters as numbers. Our religion does not have anything to do with Numerology. This
is a pagan custom.
THEY STAND FOR SPECIFIC MEANINGS
A l m Allah Alim That Allah knows all. But there is no evidence for this. To make
phrases out of these letters.
ESOTERIC INTRPRETATIONS
Some say the letters are pictorial for example alif is a man standing in prayer.
THEY ARE FROM THE NAMES OF THE QURAN
Saying that these letters represent names of the sura. However not all the suras begin with
these letters. Nobody refers to the suras by these letters.
THEY ARE MEANT TO BAFFLE THE DISBELEIVERS
To confuse them with phrases. To show how little we know of anything. We do not know
what is the meaning.
THEY ARE REFERENCES TO THE OTHER HALF OF THE ALPHABET
Showing us that the Quran is made by Allah, that cannot be copied by anyone. Hinting at
the impossibility of it.
THEY ARE USED TO ATTRACT ATTENTION
The reality is we cannot be 100% sure what these letters mean. Allahu Alim. This is the
safest opinion.
One thing we know that after these letters the next phrase is about the Quran itself.
There are some exceptions but later the sura one finds the Quran is referenced.
These letters are there to show us how little we know.

CHAPTER 10
THE AHRUF OF THE QURAN
Most controversial of the ulum al quran. This was postponed so our minds have to be
fresh. This is the one topic to confuse the most, Muslims and non-Muslim.
Qirat are living traditions. These differences where did they come from?
Ahruf and qirat are different but they are related. To further compound the problem.
Scholars tried to differentiate what is Ahruf.
MEANING OF THE WORD AHRUF
Plural of harf
1. A letter or word
2. The border the edge of something the brink
It is a certain methodology of reciting the Quran. We have over 20 hadith that Quran
was revealed in 7 modes of recitation. This is found in Bukhari. This was well known to
the Sahaba.
The scholars agree that it was revealed in 7 but what are they?
There was a hadith that Jibril told the prophet(pbuh) to recite in one harf but the prophet
said that his people could not do this. Then Jibril upped the number up to seven.
MODES OF RECITATION CLASH
Another hadith
Umar bin katab bukhar muslim. I was once sitting in the masjid when isham ibn hakim
began reciting sura furqan. But when he began reciting he was reciting in a different way
that the prophet taught me. I was about to strangle him in the prayer but I kept my anger
until he finished. When he said salaam I took him by the collar. I asked him who taught
you this he responded that the prophet taught him. Then Umar said you have lied the
prophet taught me in a different manner. And they both went to the prophet. Then the
prophet have said both were correct. Then the prophet said that Allah has revealed the
quran in 7 ahruf so recite what is easier for you.
Ubay Ibn kaab. He went to the prophet telling him that he heard a person reciting Quran
in a different way. The Prophet told him that it was the way it was revealed. Ubay Ibn
kaab said that a type of doubt entered into his heart that never existed since he became
Muslim. When the prophet patted him gently in the chest and then made dua and ibn kaab
felt sweaty as if Allah was looking at him them the doubts have left.
Asked permission from Allah for different ahruf.

ARUF FOR THE ILLITERATE NATION

I was sent to a nation who has old and young women who are illiterate so 7 ahruf would
be easier on them
The different hruf are all directly from Allah and not from the companions
The reason the prophet requested the number of ahruf to be increased was to make the
memorization and recitation of the Quran easier for his Ummah.
The prophet used to teach the different ahruf to the different companions depending on
the condition and situation of that companion.
THERE ARE 7 AHRUF ONLY
We can infer that this was more common in the medina suras.
What is meant by the 7 ahruf of the Quran ?
The most famous scholar of Qirat Ibn ajazaree. Died 832H He write about the ahruf
I have pondered of the ahruf for over 35 years of my life. Thinking what could they be.
His books are considered the standard books of this subject. Took him so long to reach
this conclusion. Qirat is the most specialized field in islam
A. The first group have opinions which have no basis.
1. 7 different categories of text
2. An esoteric interpretation by certain group claiming that there are 7 levels of
knowledge or 7 degrees by meaning to each verse.
3. 7 different branches of knowledge
The Sufis say that there are hidden meaning to the quran.
Exmaple. Take off your sandals moses. A famous sufi said that get rid of the love of this
world. The sandal becomes symbolic. The quran is not a book of symbols.
General trend of Sufis
To elevated pious person to something higher than his status.
B. Those opinions that have some apparent basis but are weak opinions.
1. 7 different ways to pronounce the words without actually changing the letters.
2. ???
Seven ahruf and qurat are not the same. The masses think that qirat are equal to ahruf.
There is a relationship but not the same.
C. Those opinions that have strong evidence.

1. 7 dialects of the Arabs prevalent at the time of the prophet. Dialects of different
tribes. In ancient Arabic the differences on dialects were more pronounced.
Majority of opinion.
2. 7 ways of recitation such that words are replaced by synonyms. Not bases on
dialects but words. This one may be stronger than 1. Because Umar and that other
fella were from the same tribe.
3. 7 different ways that the verse can be changed. Only because the famous ibn a
jazaree. Singular vs plural, masculine vs feminine. We do not consider this to be
very strong is because it is different in substantive issues. Might categorize how
they differ but not what they are.
HARF DIFFERENCES
One harf does not have extra words the pronunciation can be different and words,
spelling. But never did one sentence have something that another verse had.
AHRUF EXISTING TODAY
Are the Ahruf still in existence today?
If you define position 3 then there are still here today
But if 1 and 2 then there is only one in existence today
1. only one harf exists today
2. all of the ahruf are in existence today
3. portion of the 7 ahruf are preserved.
On what basis did Uthmaan radiyallahu anhu decided which portions of the ahruf to
preserve?
AHRUF CONFLICT
Ahruf started conflict between the ignorant Muslims. One group said that their recitation
was better than another. They did not know the purpose of the ahruf. But so many people
were becoming Muslim that they were learning Quran in different ahruf. The Sahaba
then decided that the purpose of the ahruf was obsolete.
Orientalists say that the prophet did not memorize the Quran and attributed the
differences to the Prophet. What do we expect from them.
A qabari some scolars say that uthmn got rid of all of the ahruf. This is a good position.
Second group position 3.
Third group have ibn kathir, ibn taymiah Position 3. How did they decide which one to
preserve more than one ahruf. They wrote the Quran in a script that could preserve as
many ahruf as possible. As much as he could with one standardized text. But if there
were synonyms of a word he would only write one word.
This is manifested in the qirat of the Quran.

7 ahruf was revealed eventually Muslims of different areas began to meet and interact.
They were going to fight. The Sahaba decided to standardize Quran. So if whatever
ahruf remains it is permissible but there are no more synonyms words from different ahrf
used anymore.
The Sahaba got rid of all of the ahruf and have only one scripts. There are only minute
differences in qirat and it is permissible.
Uthman knowingly left some ahruf(word synonyms) out to make unity in the ummah.
He preserved as much as he could in one script.
Knowledge of the ahuf was lost with the Sahaba. The scholars do not know what they
are. The qurat was made by a person and then it was named after them but they did not
know what the ahruf was.
AHRUF A MIRACLE
Quran ahruf to show the miraculous nature of the quran.
Also shows the truthful of the prophet. He spoke in different dialects How could he know
the dialects of all these areas. This is an honor to the ummah this is the only book that
was revealed in different ahruf. Other books were revealed in one ahruf.
Again the differences in qirat are so trivial we do not find an entire word change.

QUESTION ANSWER
Question: Where ahruf was revealed at the same time?
Answer: Not every single verse was different ahruf.
Question: Did the Sahaba ask about the letters?
Answer: The Sahaba did not ask what the meanings of the letters were.
Question: --Answer: Some qirat have minor changes in letters but no differences in words.
Question: -Answer: The ahruf had complementing meaning. The words were different but the
meanings were exactly the same. Some words have difference connotation.

THE QIRAAAT OF THE QURAN

The meaning of the word Qiraaat
Linguistically:
The word Qiraaat is the plural of the Qiraaah which comes from the root word qra
meaning to read to recite.
The Quran would be sent with a teacher of recitation of the Quran. Each of these
reciters would recite in accordance to the mus-haf. So then scholars would record how
the Quran was recited by different people. 150 350 this is the era when all of the
sciences of the Quran were codified. All scholars refer to this time.
COMPILATION OF QIRAAT
Scholars began to compile qirat just like scholars compiled hadiths. Ibn Salaam said he
compiled 25 qurat. In same city they would recite different qirat. Until finally the most
famous book on qirat the best book by ibn mujahid died 324 and he wrote a book kitab a
qirat.
He chose the 7 best qirat the most authentic. He did this with such scholarship that it
stands above all other compilations. Why did he choose 7 he just wanted to have a
number that corresponded with the ahruf. The scholars did not like this because it would
give the masses the misunderstanding that ahruf and qiraaat were the same thing.
There was time in the first 2 periods of Islam that there were dozens of qirat. The scholars
began to sift the authentic qirat to inauthentic qirat. The conditions were is that it has to
conform to the Uthmaic mushaf.
1. Must conform to the Arabic grammar
2. Must conform with one of the mus-haf of uthman
3. Must have an authentic chain of narrators back to the prophet.
There is no new room for development how to recite the Quran. It is traced back to
Allah.
There are authentic qirat that meet all of the conditions. These were narrowed down to
ten. 7 of jazaree were taken and 3 added to it
OTHER TYPE IS QIRA AAT
1. Saheeh: these are the 10 authentic qiraaat and the conditions of acceptance were
discussed above
2. Shaadh thes qiraaat 4 have and authentic chain of narration back to the prophet
and conform to the Arabic grammar, but do not match the mus-hafs of uthman
and are not Mutawaatir. Means we do not consider Quran anymore. We do not
lead the prayers with them by unanimous consensus of the scholars. These are

memorized in elite institutions. These are memorized for the sake of knowing.
This is the most specialized knowledge in Islam.
3. Daeef these qira att conform with the Arabic grammar and are allowed by the
mus haf of uthmal but do not have authentic chains of narration back to the
prophet
4. Baatil these qira aat do not meet any of the three criterion mentioned above and
are rejected completely. Evil people tried to make changes in this. Even as tafseer.
Now there is no difference of opinion of qiraaat. This was an issue back them
THE AUTHENTIC QIRAAAT AND THEIR QARI
The 10 authentic qiraaat. These people are not the inventors of recitation. Two students
preserved the qiraaat of these teachers. The scholars chose the two best of all his
students.
90% ummah recites one qiraaat
1. Naafi Medina died 168H died over 100 years old learned Quran from 70
tabiyoon who were students of Hurarah or ibn Kaab. Malik ibn Anas was a
famous student of his.
a. Qaloon Warsh qaloon Libya
b. Warsh nasfi morocco and Algeria, Tunisia,
2. ibn Katheer (Died 120 H )al makee, imam ashafi had two students al buzi,
qumbul. The qiraaat are only studied in institutions but not recited in any
country.
3. abu amr al basree 154 AH umar ibn khatab his traced back, students are adoori
asoosi. Until very recently sudan used to recite adoori. Hafs became prevalent in
that area due to print and television
4. ibn amir ash shaamee (Damascus) 118 H studied Quran under abu Darda
a. students isham and ibn thaqwan.
5. asim al koofee (Kufa) 127H capital of the ummah. Intellectual capital in kufaa.
Every era had a capital of intellectual centers. More that one qari was chosen in
that area. Taught to Quran to abu Hanifah . Shurbah Hafs. Hafs became the most
famous one. Hafs from Asim. Zaid ibn Thabid is traced back to him.
6. Hanzah al koofee ibn masud was his teacher. Two students akhalaf, khalad
7. Al Kisaaee on of the founders of Arabic grammar died 189H. Alayf and adoori
8. 130 H
9. 205 H
10. 227 H
These qiraaat are memorized but not recited.
1.
2.
3.
4.

110
123
202
388H

HAFS 90% 95% OF MUSLIMS

The only living qirat over 90% or 95% haf. Why is this the case? Printing Quran,
internet, television. It may be that hafs will be 100%. Only because the countries that
have their own qiraat cannot publish books like the those that publish hafs.
Second most popular is warh 3 5%
Qaloon an nafe is in libiya
Adoori
THE RELATIONSHIP BETWEEN AHRUF AND QURAAAT 3 OPINIONS
1. All the authentic qiraaat based upon one harf of the quran
2. all of the 7 ahruf are preserved in the qiraat such that each harf is found scatted
throughout the qiraaat
3. The qiraaat represent portions of the 7 ahruf but not all of them in totality.
THE BENEFITS OF THE QIRAAAT

Facilitation in the memorization of the Quran

Proof that the Quran is a revelation from Allah
Proof that the Quran has been preserved exactly
Further indication of the miraculous nature of the Quran.

Example
2:259 this verse tell us the story of the man that passed by a deserted town and wondered
how it could be brought back to life. Allah cause him to sleep for 100 years. Then he told
him to wake up and then he saw what was around him. Then the donkey was left as
bones. Allah resurrected the donkey in his eyes. There are two different wordings we use.
Nashaza - cause to rise bones come together and flesh
Shirooha to resurrect in this verse look how we resurrected and come to life
Maidah verse 6 even fiq can be taken from. Cornerstone of how we do wudhu. Oh you
who believe when you stand up to pray wash your faces and hands to the elbow and whip
your heads. Julakum julikum wash feet or wipe feet. There is a concession for the feet.
Both of these are valid and found in hadith. You can wipe your feet.
Not qiraaat is not above another they are equal.
The main benefit is that you love Quran even more. Proof that this Quran comes from
Allah. No one cannot come with a book with different qiraaat that complement. It
boggles the mind. This speech is from Allah.

www.quran.com
RECITERS
Many of the popular qaris are not trained in Tajweed or qirat.
Iman of medina. Shiekh Huthafi
Mishari afasy is ok in Tajweed.

Chapter 12
6 different topics those topics covered in uloom al quran and usool fiq (code of scholars)
Uloom al quran overlaps with other fields.
Usool fiq is the tools to derive fiq. Not fiq but how to derive rulings, methodology.
Different categories each stand on their own they do not intersect.
DEFINITION OF MUHKAM AND MUTASHAABIH
Linguistically
The word muhkan comes from h-k-m which has the following meaning
1. to judge or pass a verdict
2. to prevent to obstruct
The word Mutashaabih comes from sh-b-h which has the following meanings
1. Resembling
2. Unclear
Allah says that all of the ayat Muhkam, Hood 11/1.
In another verse Allah say the whole Quran is Mutashaabih Zumar 39/23. In this
meaning Allah is saying resembling. Meaning its parts resemble each other and that
which is recited often.
No book comes close to this. All over the world this book is recited
3:7
The Quran as Mukham and Mutashaabih. It is He who has sent down to you the book in
it are verses that are entirely clear, they are the foundations of the book.
The Mukham is mostly the book.
Mutashaabih verse has more than one meaning. A wide range of meanings
The mutashaabih verses are understood in the light of the Muhkam verses
Of the mutashaabih verses is that Allah describes Himself as plural. But this also means
as royal we. Christians say that this means Allah is trinity.
MUTAWAFIKA TAKEN AS DYING
Mutawafika. I will cause you to die. Which is one of the meanings of Mutawafika. But
we know that Jesus did not die. So we go back to the Mukam verses. So another meaning
of the word Mutawafika bring to me. Allah also says that Jesus did not die nor was
crucified.
One of the biggest dangers of interpreting the quran to take one verse and forgetting the
rest of the verses.

Most of the deviant groups that have left orthodox Islam they take the mutashaabih verses
and forget the Muhkam.
ARE THE ATTRIBUTES OF ALLAH MUTASHAABIH?
The attributes are muhkam meaning they are understood in the sense that the linguistic
meaning and connotation of these attributes are known and the attributes that are
Mutashaabih.
HAQEEQEE AND THE MAJAAZEE
This differentiation did not occur in the Quran or sunna. Who said so? Later scholars of
Islam. We do not find this in the sunnah. What is the definition? Haqeeqee is the first
meaning you get example the word lion you think of the animal.
Majaazee is what you get from the context he was a lion on the battlefield so you
understood that he fought courageous in the battle field, not that he was an actual lion on
the battlefield.
Another example is that children should And lower onto them wings of mercy to their
parents. So do we have to put on fake wings? No we show them mercy in a nice way.
The controversy is that groups have used this to find meaning in the Quran majaasee
THE AAM AND THE KHASS
Aam is a word that applies to all the members of a specific set, no matter how small or
large.
Example, all souls will taste death. It applies to all souls no exception. Unless we find a
khaas verse.
Khaas is a word that is used to denote a limited number of things including everything to
which it can be applied.
MUTLAQ AND MUQAYYAD
For us it is the same but one difference like the aam applies to a set but it applies to one
member of the set. Allah says you should free a slave but only one but anyone of them.
Muqayyad occurs when Mutlaq is specified by an adjective. A condition. For example
free a slave but a believing slave. As a penalty for saying something vulgar to your wife
who you do not want to be intimate with You are a whore. Jahiliah Arabs did this.

THE MANTOOQ AND MAFHOOM

The Mantooq of a verse is the apparent meaning that can be understood directly from the
words in a sentence. Example. if you pass the class you can take the next class.
Mafhoom of a verse is an understanding of the verse that is not explicit in the words of
the sentence. Can you make a ruling on mafhoom? It depends on the type of Mafhoom.
Do we derive fiq from the implications? There are many opinions on this.
Without knowing these sciences then you cannot begin to make interpretations of the
Quran. Those who have a disease in their heart will take unclear verses and interpret it.

QUESTION AND ANSWER

Question: Desi verses Arabs which recitation should I follow?
Answer: Quran recitation does not differ from where you are from. Only those who
have studied Tajweed they all sound the same. However if you did not study under a
reputable sheikh you will make mistakes. All races make mistakes.
Question: Can you go through akhruf and qurat again?
Answer: Allah has revealed the Quran in 7 ahruf, words, pronunciations, dialects he did
this to facilitate memorization at that time. Later these versions caused fitnah with the
new Muslims. The Sahaba then decided to create a standard Quran. Some of the ahruf
were preserved in the Quran.
Question: Is it fardh to preserve the Qirat.
Answer: It is a living tradition. Hafs is taking over everything. Is it bad or good? Every
Qira aat is being preserved. You dont need 1000 of people to memorize it. We have
books on this so there is no real need to preserve them.
Question: Is it allowed to mix up Qira aat.
Answer: It should not be done generally only if it is for a reason like educational
purposes. You cannot do this in salaat. However if you are being tested it is ok.
Question: How should explain harf to non muslim
Answer: You dont, just talk about tawheed.
Question: Can a sister recite quran to a non mahram
Answer: Yes in a professional setting and where there is no fear of something happening.
Sister with sister is better.
Question: How many of the Sahaba were hafidh?
Answer: We can say that they were very few. We know that there were 4 during the
lifetime of the prophet. The reasons for this are that people were interested in
implementing it. And the Quran was not in book form.

Chapter 13 -- was here

Abrogation in the Quran
This is he subject that the Orientalist use to attack the Quran
The definition of Naskh
Both Naasikh and mansookh come from the same root n s kh which has the following
meanings:
1. To remove to abolish to abrogate
2. To transcribe or copy
3. To replace to supercede
For abrogation there should be two verses.
ABROGATION OF WIDOW RULINGS
Rulings pertaining to widow. There are two verses that are in clear contradiction
2:240, those of you who die and leave their wives behind will have to be unmarried for
one full year.
Abrogation
2:234 These women will remain waiting 4 months and 10 days.
This is what we are familiar with today.
Therefore these two verses cannot be reconciled. This is one of the cases that one verse is
abrogating the other. Ibn abbas asked why did you put it in this order Uthman said I will
not put anything that is not in its proper order. So we know that the order was specified.
Ibn Abbas was a student at this time.
ABROGATION OF QIBLA
Change qiblah. We do not find in the Quran where the Muslim should face Jerusalem.
The prophet knew this from the sunnah. This verse came 2:144 this abrogated the sunnah.
Allah says we will change your face to a qiblah to one you will like.
This qiblah to turn you face is an abrogation of the sunnah
SUNNAH ABROGATING QURAN
Some of the scholars did not allow this occur. This is controversy but the majority
allowed it.
2:180 Allah says, It is mandatory upon you if death comes to you, you must write a will
for your relatives.

SUNNAH ABROGATING THE QURAN

Most of this sura came after the battle of Badr. Surat Nisa came after baqarah and in it
has the laws of inheritance. Nowhere does it say do not write a will.
There is no writing of a will when the inheritors are you family. We write a will to
people who we want to give to who are not family.
It is not obligatory to write a will in an Islamic state.
We should write a will in this country(Canada) because the government will split
up the inheritance to Canadian law.
This is the sunnah abrogating the Quran
This is the one that raises the most eyebrows. With regards with the verse still being
found in the Quran.
ABROGATING THE RULING ALONG WITH THE VERSE.
When a woman feeds a baby who is not her child then the children of that woman
becomes haram for that baby to marry. This was common in the old days.
When a child is suckled 10 times it becomes the foster child.
Ayisha said that she used to recite it, she uses past tense showing it was abrogated.
Authentic narration that one of the Sahaba said sura azhab (10 pages today) it used to be
as large as sura baqarah.
SECOND CATEGORY ABROGATION OF THE RULING WITHOUT THE
ABROGATION OF THE VERSE.
We still find the ruling is found in the Quran but we do not apply the ruling.
Another example of this Nisa 15 (4 -5 H medina stage) Allah says, those women who are
guilty of fornication confine them to their houses until they die or Allah makes a way out
for them.
This was a ruling given in the middle period of Islam.
Then sura noor revealed (3 years later) the whole purpose was chastity and rulings of
fornication. Woman guilty of fornication whip them 100 lashes. Prophet (pbuh) said,
Allah has made a way out for them This is a reference to the previous verse.
The ruling still applies but Allah lifts up the verse. There are limited examples of this.
The suckling child another verse came down 5 feedings and this ruling was found in the
Quran but was lifted. The ruling still applies. Feeding means that the child stops eating
on it own accord.
The recitation of the verse lifted up.

Adultery is punished by stoning in an Islamic state.

When the married man and woman fornicate stone them to death as a punishment of
Allah
Hadith umar khitab said that he was worried that people will say that stoning does not
exist in the Quran. He said that if it he was not afraid of being accused of adding
something to the Quran he would have added the verse of stoning. This shows that the
Sahaba knew what as abrogated in the Quran.
RULINGS OF THE NASKH MANSOOKH
When we compare the rulings
1. The naskh ruling is more difficult than the mansookh. Example Like adulterer
2. The naskh and mansookh is equal in difficulty. Example Changing of Qiblah
3. The naskh is easier than the mansookh. This is the most common example. An
example of this is the fasting of Ramadhan. Before one had one meal and did not
eat until maghrib the next day. This probably lasted for 2 ramadhans until this
verse came 2:187 Now it is permissible for you to be intimate with your wifeeat
and drink until you see fajr then fast until the night. The previous verse said that
one would have to fast like the people before you only one meal a day.
4. Abrogated Mujadid 12-13 allah reveals a Quran right then and there abrogated it.
Oh you who believe if you wish to speak privately to the prophet give charity.
Then in the next verse he abrogated it.
GENERAL ABROGATION OF THE PREVIOUS RELIGIONS
General Naskh.
Quran abrogates all of the previous scriptures. We do not turn to the other books for
guidance. This is a general abrogation. Allah says that there is only one way to Him and
that is Islam. He will not accept any other religion.
One of the blessings of this the scripture has been protected. It also means that the Quran
is more superior to other books. Allah has perfected our religion for us.
Maidah : 3 Allah says he has perfected our religion.
This religion is applicable for all times and places, perfect in application.
SPECIFIC NASKH.
Some verses were revealed to facilitate later verses to come that will abrogate the
previous. Gradual revelation.
How about rulings that still apply but lifting the verse? We do not know what is the
wisdom we only have opinions of men. Some ulima said of the wisdoms
1. To see how much faith people will have in the sunnah. To see if their opinion will
not overtake the words of the prophet(pbuh).

There are many examples of Allah revealing verse but the ruling still applied when it
comes to aqeedah.
There was an entire passage of the Quran where Muslims were massacred when some of
the mushrikoon pretended to be Muslims. The plot was that they pretended they were
Muslims and asked for teachers and then they were killed them all. Only one person
survived. When this occurred pages and pages were revealed concerning this incident.
These verses were even recited in the prayer.
Who will tell them we are alive and well with our lord this is the shaheed speaking.
All of them are abrogated. These verses the rulings still apply but the verse has been
lifted up.
Only fiq cases we know of that were
Stoning
Sucking
BENEFITS OF KNOWING NASKH AND MANSOOKH
- You need to know it to understand and apply the Quran properly. Until you know
these you cannot give opinion on Quran
- To know the gradual revelation of shariah
- Defence of the Quran and sunnah. Mainstream academics consider uthmanic copy is
the source but how authentic is in question (this is what the Orientalists say we should
defend against this).
NUMBER OF NASKH AND MANSOOKH IN THE QURAN
How many examples of Naskh and mansookh in the Quran?
Some ulima have said 300 verses are abrogated in the Quran. This is the highest level
Others have said 5 this is the lowest level of the spectrum.
VERSE OF THE SWORD
Why the difference? It is due to one concept. The concept called the verse of the sword.
Sura Tawba verse 5. This verse causes a lot of controversy in our time.
What does this verse say, When these sacred months finish take the mushrikeen kill
them What is the concept of abrogation and this verse related.
In the Meccan stage Allah told them to meet their evil with good. Later on Allah
legislated jihad. Later jihad verse was more apparent. Surat tawbah came down near the
end of the life of the prophet. This verse says that all non muslims should be expelled
from Arabia. Some ulima make this area smaller or larger. No mushrik has a right to live
in this area. Some ulima say that this verse abrogates all verses before this about treating
non muslims. All of the scholars that have more than 100 verses abrogated it is because
this verse. That is why there is such a large spectrum. There is no middle ground.

What are the implications of this? Those who emphasize military jihad say that this verse
abrogates this. Scholars who had the same idea were not military type. The verse of the
sword does not abrogate anything. So when the ummah is at a type of strength you can
apply the verse of the sword. But in a state of weakness this verse does not apply.
OUR SITUATION TODAY IN THE WEST
Our situation is similar to the people living in Abyssinia. They did not cause controversy,
did not want to install an Islamic state. They were guests of the states. We are living as a
minority in a non-Muslim land.
The Sahaba in the Meccan stage they could have caused so much damage. The meccans
did not have bodyguards but they were patient. We could learn lessons from this stage.
Abrogation is not a common phenomena in the Quran. There are very few 7-8 meaning
ruling is abrogated but we still recite them.

QUESTION AND ANSWER

Question: Is there only one correct Tajweed or does every qiraaat have its own
Tajweed.
Answer: Every Qiraaat has its own Tajweed. How radical are the differences? Not
much. These differences are traceable.
Question: Is there are difference between singing of Quran and reciting Quran?
Answer: Some songs have dhikr or Quran sounding like rap. People of piety or taqwah
do not do these types of things. This is a phenomena that is going on today because of the
evil time we are living today. Some people turn to nasheeds as a resort to get off of
music.
Question: Concerning this calligraphy project I thought I would be seeking material
gains and not for the sake of Allah.
Answer: Contests like this encourage people to race one another in good deeds. Also to
encourage people to learn Quran. The Quran competitions give money. If you want the
praise of Allah and material gain it is permissible to have a dual intension. But if you
want the praise of the people then it is Haram.
Question: What am I going to do with my project (ccaligraphy of quran) if I cannot hang
in my house.
Answer: Scholars did not encourage it. But there is not a problem with it. However not
encouraging it is neutral, not haram or halal.
Question: Is it haram to gather together to recite Quran?
Answer: Quran khanee. It is very rewarding and encouraging to get together to recite
Quran in a group as an act of worship. However to set an occasion to an event like birth
of a child, house or death. Bidah is when you do it in an occasion. We should get together
to study the Quran, Tajweed etc.
Question: What is the difference on Tajweed and qiraaat?
Answer: the Tajweed(how you recite) is dependent on Qiraat. 80% is the same there are
some differences.
Question: How much Tajweed is fardh on a Muslim to learn?
Answer: Every Muslim should learn enough Tajweed so people can understand what
they are reciting. It is not obligatory to learn the rules. The prophet said that those who
recite Quran fluently are with the noble angels.
Question: Is it allowed to have the Quran in your lap?
Answer: You are allowed but you need to be in wudhu to totch quran(the mus-haf). You
can touch it with a glove. But you cannot touch it in janabah.
Question: What is the etiquette when you finish reading the Quran.
Answer: There is nothing specific you do. The Sahaba said that you can say a special dua
at the end. One Sahaba brought his family to make a dua together. A weak hadith says

that Allah has to respond to a dua after you finish reciting Quran. Another weak hadith is
that when you are done Quran start it again.
Question: Islam web . net has all the qiraaat.
Question: What is your opinion are some qaris?
Answer: If you are listening to get baraka(blessings). Then listen to one who moves you.
If you hear one with nasal voice it is wrong. If a nasal voice makes you cry then listen to
him but do not learn Tajweed from them.
Abdul Kanakaree very smooth voice.
Basraee also good.
There is a video on youtube why are they crying? it was shown in class
Question: Tarootee one of the masters of Qiraaat. Check them on youtube.
Question: I still dont understand the wisdom of the abrogated verses.
Answer: We do not know but Allah says he will bring something better we put our trust
in Allah. This is one of the main issues non Muslims attack us with.
Question: I want to study the quraaat what should I do.
Answer: Memorize the Quran, you have to perfect the Tajweed. You need to find a
sheikh.
Question: Is there any instance of any verse being forgotten where the people did not
know it being abrogated.
Answer: No, An incident where Ayisha wanted to find a verse she wrote it and the
parchment and lost it because a goat ate it. The isnad is not strong. It is very strange how
non Muslims find these obscure works. They ignore authentic reports and report these
strange things. So if they come with this take it with a grain of salt. Non-muslims do not
believe in isnad they consider it all the same.

Chapter 14.
This is one of the most interesting chapter. Ijaaz al quran. It deals with the miraculous
nature of the Quran.
CONDITIONS FOR AN ACT TO BE CONSIDERED MU JAIZAH
To differentiate it. There are 3 things that are strange
1. Mujizah miracle
2. Karama is something miraculous to a pious person not a prophet
3. Black magic
These break the law of nature as we perceive them. These are extraordinary. These we
cannot quantify or study.
Categories 1,2 is from allah category 3 is from shaytan
HOW CAN WE TELL THE DIFFERENE BETWEEN THEM.
It is a miracle that cannot be duplicated.
- splitting the red sea
- staff into a snake
- occur in the hands of prophet
- does not happen in the hands of people
- they are unique and happen to that person
- proves the prophet of his authenticity
- murjizah occurs when the prophet will predict it or happens when he wants it.
All prophets got Mujizah. The bigger the prophet the more dramatic the miracle.
KRAMA HAPPENS TO THE PIOUS SERVENTS OF ALLAH.
An example to two Sahaba were traveling at night and it was dark. A light came to guide
them and when the two had to split up the light split. They were guided to their homes.
Then they told the prophet and he said that it was a gift from Allah.
Krama is not asked for. It is a gift from Allah. Unlike a Mu jizah it is asked for from the
prophets.
BLACK MAGIC HAPPENS WITH THE WORST OF PEOPLE
One magician can fly and another one can do the same. Does not involve anything
supernatural everything that the jinn can do. It looks miraculous because it is not
common to our sense of reality.
The Quran cannot be imitated by men. This is the miracle of the prophet(pbuh). How do
we know it is a miracle? All prophets got miracles.
The prophet said. There is no prophet that Allah has sent except that he given miracles
due to which people believed in him. And the miracle that I have been given is the
Quran or is the wahy. That is my miracle the Quran. Then I hope therefore to have the
largest number of followers on the day of judgment.

Because of this miracle of the Quran that it is the most powerful miracle that he has the
largest ummah on the day of judgment.
5 verses in the Quran challenge mankind to produce something similar to the Quran.
Get the references in your notes. Allah asks for people to produce Quran similar in
various sizes and the challenge was lowered because they could not do it.
The Quran is miraculous in many ways. Dicuss ten of them, Ijaz.
1. the eloquence
The Quran is a book that cannot be imitated by men. This is the miracle of the
Prophet(pbuh). How do we know it is a miracle?
The Prophet(pbuh) said. There is no Prophet that Allah has sent except that he given
miracles due to which people believed in him. And the miracle that I have been given is
the Quran(or is the wahy). That is my miracle the Quran. Then I hope therefore to have
the largest number of followers on the Day of Judgment.
Because of this miracle of the Quran that it is the most powerful miracle that he has the
largest ummah on the Day of Judgment.
5 verses in the Quran challenge mankind to produce something similar to the Quran.
Get the references in your notes. Allah asks for people to produce Quran similar in
various sizes and the challenge was lowered because they could not do it.
MIRACULOUS NATURE OF QURAN
The Quran is miraculous in many ways. Discuss ten of them, Ijaz.
1. The eloquence of the Quran is high above that of any human speech.
a. Allah always sent miracles that were relevant to that people. In Moses
time black magic was at its height in Egypt. When Moses staff turned into
a large snake the magicians knew that this was not black magic.
b. At the times of the Romans they excelled in medicine so Allah gave Jesus
the power of healing.
c. Fast forward to the time of the Arabs they were highly developed in
language. Allah then revealed a Quran, which is a linguistic miracle.
i. The problem with teaching the miracle of language to someone
who does not understand Arabic it does not make sense to them.
ii. The philosophers who read the Quran in English they give it
negative reviews. The irony is that the enemies of the
Prophet(pbuh) had nothing but praise for the
iii. Quran. Arabic and English are not even in the same category. The
eloquence of the Quran can be relayed by stories of that time.

1. Master poet of the time. Uthba ibn rabee, who heard the
Quran once and accepted Islam
2. jubay ibn m--- , Was a prisoner of war of the Muslims said,
The first time Islam entered my heart was when I heard
surat al Tur. This pagan who was a prisoner of war and
brought into the masjid not knowing what will happen to
him. He said it was as if His heart was about to split up and
jump into the air.
2. The unique arrangement and organization of the surahs and verses. Why
particular words are chosen and not other.
3. The incapability to produce anything similar to it.
4. The predictions of the Quran.
a. For many years the Romans were battling the Persians and it looked like
the Romans were going to lose. It happens that the Romans lost. The
Muslims felt sad. Then Allah sent sura Rum. Allah says that after this
defeat they will be the victors. And on that day the Muslims will be
rejoicing at the Mercy of Allah. The Romans winning seemed impossible
they were losing power. However the Persians were fighting, internal
politics. A battalion from the Persians did not want to fight. Because of
this Heraculus had a resounding victory. Also on that day of victory it was
Ramadan and the Muslims were rejoicing the victory of the battle of Badr
and had no Idea the Romans won that day. Two predictions of the Quran
were fulfilled.
5. Stories of the people of old.
a. Allah says sura imran 44. This is the knowledge of the unseen. You were
not there when they were arguing who would take care of Mary.
b. Yusuf verse 3 this is the story that you did not know before.
c. Most of the stories were revealed in Mecca. These were stories that the
Arab people did not know. There were no books available to them. This
knowledge was with the Jews but they did not teach it to the people.
6. Aqeeda and sharia of the Quran. The message of the Quran the content of it. If
you compare it with any other book. The Quran is simple and understandable.
Message of the Quran is perfect. In the Bible crimes are ascribed to Prophets.
New testament has no sharia, what did Jesus say? I have not come to change the
law of Moses. Paul came and said that there is no laws to follow.
7. above
8. Quran is preserved. No other culture or civilization has this. Allah promised to
protect it.
9. The effect Quran has on the listeners. We were emotionally charged when we
heard the Quran. That people cry like babies when they hear the words of Allah.
Even Non Arabs cry when they hear the Quran.
10. Ease by which it is memorized. What other book can be memorized at the age of
6. People from one land to another who recite Quran it would be exactly the
same. This is a living miracle. Allah says, The Quran is inside the chest of people
of knowledge.

11. The effect the Quran has in curing the sick and combating black magic. Allah
says that the Quran is a cure. Effect the Quran has on the possessed. An article
muslimmatters.org there is an example of exorcism. There are also physical cures
against all types of diseases. Unfortunately these days we do not turn to the
Quran for our physical sicknesses.
12. Of the miracles of the Quran, the scientific miracles of the Quran. However the
level we have taken this aspect in the west is ridiculous.
a. Descriptions of embryology are found in the Quran 1400 before man has
discovered it.
b. Some say that there are 100s types of these verses like space flight this is
silly
c. Also there was a person who got to the actual number of light speed. But
who knows how he did this.
d. What is miraculous is that the Quran describes the natural world
accurately without contradicting science. Any person that wrote a book at
7th century describing the natural we would have found so many
contradictions with todays science

Chapter 14
DEFINITION OF TAFSEER AND TAWEEL
Linguistically the word tafseer comes from fsr which means to explain expound to
elucidate to interpret.
A scholar said,
The example who tries to read the Quran without Tafsir is like a person reading
a letter from the king but does not have a candle.
Without the knowledge of Tafsir we can easily misunderstand the Quran. Such as one
group says that there is a hidden meaning in the Quran (Sufis).
We also say there is secret meanings. How is our statement different from theirs? The
hidden meanings are unlocked by academics study and scholarship.
All of the inner meanings in the Quran have to be related to the apparent meaning of the
passage.
HISTORY OF TAFSEER
When did it start? It started with the Prophet(pbuh) Allah says that he gave the
Prophet(pbuh) the Quran to explain it to mankind. Surah Nahl 16/44
And we have also sent down unto you the reminder and the advice(the Quran) that you
may explain clearly to men what is sent down to them, and that they may give thought.
Sahaba would ask the Prophet(pbuh) on several issues. Prophet would give Tafsir.
The Sahaba had a question about the word zulm in a particular verse. They thought that
zulm in this passage meant all types of zulm. This worried them so they asked the
Prophet(pbuh) and he clarified the issue that zulm meant shirk.
WHO AN SUPERCEED THE PROPHETS INTREPRETATION
The Prophets interpretation cannot be superceded. The Sahaba could not supercede it.
The Sahaba interpreted
Sahaba began to interpret the Quran based upon the Quran itself
then the hadith,
then the Arabic language.
THE GREATEST SCHOLAR OF TAFSIR
No Tafsir from the Sahaba was written down. Some Sahaba excelled in Tafsir. The
greatest scholar Tafsir cousin of Prophet Ibn Abbas who the prophet(pbuh) made dua for
oh Allah teach him Tafsir. He was 13 years old when this dua was made.
He was a companion of Umar because of Ibn abbas knowledge. The other senior Sahaba
had children older than Abbas so they did not like this.

THE FIRST MADRASSAS MECCA

Each of these companions founded a madrassa students would follow them around in
person.
In Mecca Abbas was the founder
Said ibn Jubar,
Mujahid,
Ikrema,
Tawus,
Atab ibn Rabah these are graduates of ibn abbas
Ubay ibn Kaad in Medina. Abu Alia, Muhammad ibn Kaab.
Abdullah ibn masood Kufa left a great leagacy alkama and masrooq, al aswa ibn masid,
Katada These are the biggest names of the Tabiyoon. You will find them everywhere.
These people did not write down books. Only in 150 350 H these sciences were codified.
Ibn Shihad --- none of his books survived there were small booklets.
Mujaid ibn jari aqabari. End of 3rd century he wrote his Tafsir. Greatest Arabic Tafsir in
the Arabic language. Ibn abihakim we have much of his Tafsir but some of it is missing.
Ibn mardaweh we have his Tafsir too.
PRINCIPLES OF TAFSIR.
How do we interpret the Quran?
1. Tafseer of the Quran with the Quran itself. Allah mentions this in the Quran.
Allah says in many verses. Why do not they ponder over the Quran. In many
times Allah raises a question and then answers the question himself. Allah wants
you to find the answers in the Quran. Sometimes the verses explain the previous
one. Adam learnt some word from Allah for repentance. We do not know these
words. To find these words we find it in Araf 23 we then find it in this verse.
2. Tafseer by the sunnah. Example to the verses of fasting. 2:187 eat and drink until
you can distinguish the white thread and black thread. Abu Hurarah took two
threads and looked at it and stopped eating when he could distinguish the threads.
He told the prophet what he did and the prophet corrected him saying it is not
threads but rather the white thread of the fajr the light in the horizon. The
sunnah of the Prophet(pbuh) explains to us things that are not apparent in the
Quran. How much was explained? You will find that there are a few dozen that
the Prophet commented on. So do we say that the Prophet did not do his job? No
he explained the Quran by implementation. The Prophet explained the meaning.
3. Tafseer by the statements of the companions and or tafseer by the statements of
the successors. Allah praises the Sahaba saying that Allah is pleased with them.
Hence the statements of the Sahaba hold a high status but under Quran and
sunnah. Individually a Sahaba is a human who could make errors. As a

community they cannot make a mistake. Sahaba opinion is mostly complementary

not contradictory.
4. Tafseer by Arabic language and Classical Poetry. If the sahaba did not know the
meanings of the words they would turn to poetry. There were no dictionaries.
Poetry was used as the dictionaries back then. Ibn abbas said that the Bedouin had
a pure language. He once heard to girls was arguing over a well. When he heard
the girl say that she was fatir of the water well. When he heard this he finally
knew the meaning of the word fatir. Sahaba would recite poetry to define the
meaning to a word. Certain verses in the Quran suarah 224 227 Allah speaks
about poets in a negative manner. Those who follow them are misguided. They
only speak of things that they do not practice. Only those who are pious and
mention Allah are best. It was said that It is better that a mans chest be filled with
pus rather than poetry. Poetry is not prohibited but excess and useless poetry is.
Speech have the capacity to make men do what they did not want to do. Indeed
everything apart from Allah is useless and vain. Scholars of Islam turned to poetry
to learn words of Quran.
a. Poetry is only used to verify the meanings of obscure difficult words and it
is not used to reinterpret obvious words. Today people turn to obscure
meanings to obvious words.
5. Tafseer by pre Islamic Arab customs. Without this we may no understand what is
being referred to in the Quran. Example 2:189 Allah says they ask you about the
new moon (crescent) say the moon is a time cock for the people and tells you
when hajj is. It is not piety to approach your house from the back door rather piety
is fear of Allah. What does this have to do with anything? Of the customs of
jahiliah(ignorance) they thought it was bad luck to go to the front of the house in a
certain time of the month. They would come from the back and jump the fence to
enter the house.
6. Tafseer by Jews and Christians narratives (al-israiliyaat) we cannot use these
sources as an independent source of Tafsir. We do not know if they are authentic
or not. If we knew they were authentic we could use it. Because we know that
theology does not change. If we knew it was authentic we could interpret the
Quran according to that. Sharia changes but not aqeedah.
TAFSIR BARAEE
Interpret tafseer based on itjihaad. We can make an educated guess. We can always look
at the Quran with new meaning but based on solid academic research.
Tafseer based on whims and desires is prohibited. If anyone one approaches the Quran
based on a preconceived notion is wrong. But approach it with the mind of what is the
Quran telling me.
Many modernists are reading the Quran with a pluralist frame of mind. Approcahing the
Quran With a preconceived notion means you are not looking for guidance rather you
are approaching it with your misguidance.
Mufassir qualifications. In notes.

TYPES OF TAFSIR
What are the books written on Tafsir. From the time of 150H up to our times. We will
mention categories and types.
1. Tafsir by narrations of Sahaba means after every verse they narrate what the
Sahaba and Tabiyoon said. There is no I think or opinions. This is the most
academic and authentic for students of knowledge. For the layman is not good.
Tafsir aqabari and adoor an marfoo???
2. Tafsir of fiq. They concentrated on the fiq. Each madhab made Tafsir of Quran
according to their fiq. Sometimes only the verses of fiq are discussed. Tafir of
Aqurtabee. He did a fiq one and then later a general one. Hanafee Tafsir
aljawswas.
3. Tafsir or scientific rationality Arazee was a big Tafsir. Tried to read into the
technology of their time. In his Tafsir there are a lot of tangents you see that he
tries to incorporate everything he knew of science of his time. He thought that
these his concepts were modern.
4. Tafsir based upon hidden meanings. This tafseer is popular with Sufis. They
interpret it symbolically. Example is Talout and his army. In this story the thirsty
army was tested with the river and those who drink from it was not part of the
army that was going to fight Goliath. Symbolically the river is life and you only
need to take a sip not drink too much of it. If you let your mind wander you can
make up anything.
5. Tafseer for the modern masses. For the first time that the modern masses goes
beyond all these categories. Now more people are becoming educated and can
read now they have access to these sources but they are not trained to learn from
these sources. Tafsir in a way we understand and relate to. Once upon of time
Bukhari was only for students of knowledge. It has a style that was acceptable to
them. But today the masses need a Tafsir they can relate too.
Advice: Ibn kathir is good for English speakers but you still need some training for it, it is
a bit a higher level. You should read the Tafsirs on the suras that you are praying. It is
obligatory to understand what you are saying.

Chapter 16
TARJA OF THE QURAN
TRANSLATION
Of the miracles of Allah he has given mankind different languages. It is said in the books
of history Allah caused mankind to split up after the collapse of Babylon. Once upon a
time we all spoke one language.
What do those who do not speak Arabic do? They should learn Arabic. One upon a time
the Muslim ummah had to learn Arabic. Even on the basic level all children had to learn
Arabic. The education of the ummah was to learn Arabic. Only recently in the last 100
years Arabic was eroded and eliminated.
Like in turkey once you could write in Arabic but now they write in English letters. Atal
turk destroyed it. It was standard to teach Arabic. With colonialism this was obliterated.
We have become a nation to recite a language without knowing how to read it. No
civilization teaches a language without understanding the language.
So we have to resort to translations. We have a verbatim translations and a translation by
meaning.
When you translate verbatim you lose the syntax and or grammar. Verbatim word for
word translations are good to teach Arabic.
Common translation is by meaning. You get the intent by meaning. This is the translation
we are talking about.
Translations cannot be used in prayer. Do not base Tafsir on English translation. We
cannot derive rulings from a translation. Modernists use this.
You cannot translate the Quran without the other sciences. You cannot read into the
verses. Translation cannot take the place of the Quran
FIRST TIME TRANSLATED
As far as we know translation occurred in Abyssinia the Sahaba did not object to the
translation. This was when the Sahaba recited Sura Maryam for the Negus of Abyssinia
which brought them to tears.
Even the letter to Caesar Heraculus had Arabic in it and he knew that it would be
translated. These translations were oral. So there was no objection to translation.
When was the first translation written?
1. Was done in Syria
2. Official translation into Persian Government ordered a translation in Persian.
3. Other translations Turkish. Turkish tranalation 5H.

First western language translation was in 1143 CE by Robertus from Retinessus

England. He was a famous translator of books of medicine. Came to Spain to translate
books of medicine and geometry. He was approached by Peter the Venerable and paid
him a big sum to translate the Quran in Latin. Robertus did not want anything to do
with religion but this money made him change his mind.
This translation was in written form until Martin Luther got a hold of this translation.
Martin Luther took the Quran translation to show how evil the Muslims were.
He wrote an introduction refuting Islam.
Quran in different Western Languages
The first translation in English was really bad. It was by an anonymous author.
1547 the Quran was translated into Italian.
1616 German.
1647 French. From this French translation it was translated to English again.
Alexder Ross Gorge sale made a 1734 translation of the Quran. He learned Arabic from
a translator. He made a lot of commentary from his own head. He wrote an introduction
refuting the Prophet showing how false the religion was wrong. This was the standard
translation of the Quran for a while.
Dr Muhammad Abdul 1905 khan did not go far it was not a good translation. Then finally
one person translated it good English. Muhammad Ali 1920 was a qadiani was a highly
educated person and studied in England. He translated the Quran to fit his ideology. He
mistranslated Quran. His translation had a profound impact after him. The most
important one Yusuf Ali he translated his Quran that we are familiar with. He did not
translated the Quran he plagiarized the Muhammad ali version. There is a book about
this called Searching for solice
He was a very secular Muslim. He worked for the government but added his own
commentary, He did not speak Arabic. He made a fool of himself, Arabs would talk to
him in Arabic and he would not understand. A Qari would recite the Quran and he was
there to translate but he did not know what sura it was. So he started to translate
something else. He was told he was wrong and left the stage.
He did have a flare with eloquence. He did spend time to do commentary and he spiced it
up a little bit. It helped popularize that version.
One English person who translated the quran from scratch from Arabic was Pickthal. He
studied from the ulima. Pickthal is very literal and it is difficult to flow with it.
RECOMMEND QURAN TRANSLATIONS
1.
BEST saheeh international

2.

good translation to learn Arabic by. A word for word translation of the meaning
of the Quran Murhad Ali. He is a great alim one of the few people who understood
Islamic science along with the Orientalists accusations.
3.
M S Abdul Hamin his English was accurate and good.
END OF SLIDES
YASIR QADHIS CLOSING WORDS
We have traveled far and wide with the Quran. The signs of the Day of Judgment is that
the Quran will be lifted from the earth. The Prophet said. before the day of judgment
there will be a time where ignorance will be sent down and knowledge will be raised up.
Ibn Majid said, Islam will fade away like the bright colors on a garment that you are
wearing. Until people will not know what fasting, zakat or hajj are. The book of Allah
will be lifted up in one night not even one verse will remain.
This will happen towards the very end of time after the Dajjal, Jesus and after the victory
of the Muslims. Allah will send a wind from Yemen where only believers will be taken.
When that happens all knowledge will be lifted. What will remain are the most evil vile
of humanity. It will be them that hear the blowing of the trumpet.
Abdullah Ibn Amr said the day of judgment will not begin until the Quran goes back to
its Lord . It will be raised sounding like a bee. The Quran will say, from you I came and
to you I return. I am recited but not acted upon.
In sura Furqaan the Prophet(pbuh) says, Oh my lord my own people took this Quran as
something to be abandoned. The primary meaning was that the Quraish did not take the
Quran as guidance. The scholars also said that this could also mean that the Prophet
might complain about his own ummah abandoning the Quran.
Ibn aqayam said There are various ways to abandon Quran. When we stop listening,
practicing by it, judging by it, thinking about it and ignoring the Quran as a cure for your
diseases.
By the Quran Allah will raise people and there will be those who it will denigrate. Which
group do you want to belong too? The purpose of this knowledge is to love the Quran,
recite it and ponder it. It is a source of blessings. It is a source of blessings if we act on it.

MEMORIZING THE QURAN

Other people have diff of doing so
1.
2.
3.
4.
5.
6.
7.
8.
9.

The first matter. Make sure that your intension is for Allah. Clean heart. You want
to come closer to Allah. If the niah(intension) is good then it will be easy.
Increase worship leave the sins.
Choose a good sheikh who has perfect Tajweed or ijasah. So you can learn from
him.
Make it a regular habit to memorize the Quran. Every single hafz can say this.
Memorizing is like working out the more you do the better you become. One person
in the class memorized 1 juz in one day near his completion of memorizing.
You need to be memorizing regularly.
Be consistent in a minimum quantity. Consistent then stick to it. Do not memorize
less.
Memorize at the early stage of the day. Your mind is fresh in the morning do not
memorize after you come from work. Eventually you will become addicted.
Make sure that you are reciting to somebody consistently. You might misread a
word and memorized it wrong. So someone will hear it so you make sure you are
pronouncing it correctly
Divide your relation with the Quran in 3 things.
a.
New memorizations after fajr, do this consistently. No matter how tired
you are.
b.
Linking last 7 days memorization right after doing the first memorization.
This will do two things
i.
You will memorize the links between your daily memorizations.
ii.
This solidifies your memory of the previous 7 days
c.
Go over the old stuff. juz juz or 1 juz. Old stuff from one month ago.
This should be solid. This is how to solidify your previously memorized stuff.
One more point, make it your habit to listen to Quran all the time. Forget Islamic
lectures. Listen to Quran all the time on your ipod put something that you have
memorized. It will form in your mind and help you out.
There is not secret to memorizing you have to repeat and repeat over and over again.
You need to have to take the time.
Also make dua get inspiration from other people. Or a companion you can compete
with in good.