*Dr LaithKubba (Director of the Quran Education Foundation)
**Musharraf Hussain OBE (Scientist, educator and religious scholar)
The holy scriptures are God’s words to humans. They authenticate the divine message and are revealed to and through His messengers. For Muslims Ramadan is the month of the Holy Quran. In one of its nights (Lailat Al Qadr) the holy book was revealed to Mohammad (PBUH). It is recited regularly throughout the month. Other religions have their holy books (the Torah, the Bible etc) which were originally God’s words conveyed by His messengers. These scriptures are revered by Muslims and are repeatedly mentioned by the Quran.
How relevant are these scriptures to modern life? And how do they enhance spirituality and well-being?
Tuesday 5th April 2022
Musharraf Hussain: I am delighted to be here today. I would like to begin with an appropriate recitation from the Quran. It is a real pleasure to speak to you but it would have been better if I was in Abrar House and enjoyed the iftar but it is now God’s gift that we can communicate in this amazing way and convey our message.
The Quran is the guidance for the pious, God-fearing people who are awake. This is a guidance for people who are awake. About the month of Ramadan the Quran says fasting is prescribed for you as it was those before you so you become mutakim. So here is a clear connection between the fasting and the guidance which Allah has prepared for you to make you mutakim. Allah says that the month of Ramadan is the month in which the Quran was revealed.
Allah is saying if you want to understand the worth of this month it is the crucible, it is the receptacle. These 30 days are no different from Shaban, or Rajab or Zul Haja. What is the difference? There are 24 hours. They have the same number of hours. What is so special is because in this month, in one night, in one particular moment, in that very special moment of the Leila al Kadar, in the moment of that very special power we set down the Quran. From that central processing unit in the seventh heaven, all in one go on the 27th night of power, in one moment of it we set down this book. And therefore the whole month is blessed and very special.
This is a spiritual reality. But sometimes our materialistic and idolatrous minds might find it quite challenging and difficult to comprehend that the spiritual reality is something which is very potent.
Ramadan takes us into another true realm, more real than our material world. Ramadan is about spiritual development. It is about spiritual improvement. It tends to be about reconnecting more deeply with Allah. It is a fast tracker. We read about Islam and we hear about Islam and we truly experience it. What makes umrah and hajj so special is that you are actually experiencing what you are really seeing, visiting, and touching. You are touching the place where Rasoul Allah was born. You are walking in that house where he was born. You are standing by his tomb. You experience. That is why hajj and umrah are so powerful.
It is not just an experience that is just talked about rationally and logically. It might eventually evoke some emotions in us and arouse some feelings but that is not all. I am not for a moment berating the importance of logic and rationality and reasoning and scientific observations. I trained as a scientist, and I know science is very useful. The reality of God is a new experience whose value you cannot appreciate. It is wonderful to taste the love of God and the generosity of God and his kindness and the beauty of God and his message.
So that is what makes Ramadan so special. The Quran makes it clear that Ramadan is special because of this great book which was revealed on the Night of Al Kadr. What is the Quran? The Quran is defined by three epitaphs or three nouns. First of all Allah says the Quran is guidance for humanity. There are very clear arguments, evidence and proofs of the truth fullness, the greatness and the majesty. And it is the distinguisher, the separator between right and wrong. These are three amazing names of the Quran, amazing descriptions of the book of God. They should be sufficient to gain the greatness of the book.
What I want to do is to share a powerpoint. I want to use the slide to show you how to study the Quran. I have been doing this myself for about 57.I started at the age of five or six and I have been trying to learn how to study the Quran effectively from memorising it to understanding it. I have been doing this since my childhood and I think it is really important to understand what we are trying to do here.
Deep reading and reflection are necessary. So how do we do this deep reading of the Quran? This is what I want to share with you. My expectation of reading the Quran is the internalization of the Quranic teachings – the message of the Quran. We have to inwardly digest. One of my science teachers used to say inwardly digest what you read. This is a good way of saying understand it. Go to lectures about it, internalize it. You actually practise it so you can apply it. To achieve this you need an effective study method. The point is to use the Quran as a source of guidance and inspiration so that is what I want to share with you.
All these years as I have been learning and teaching the Quran many students would complain that they don’t know where the subject begins and ends because the translators would never actually paragraph or give an indication of the beginning and the end of the story. There is no systematic division of the suras into their stories, commentaries, the narrative the text etc Sadly there wasn’t the kind of distinction that we are used to reading nowadays. No textbook is without two or three headings on a page. So, we are used to having headings and we are used to having bite-sized chunks to digest.
I have faced this problem since I started teaching back in early 80s. So, all these years I constantly felt for my students who faced this problem. So, I translated the Quran myself and I decided I would make sections so there are 1500 sections. It is in plain English. I have identified the central theme of each surah so you know what each surah is about.
The surah Abruh is not just about prediction. It is also about the creative power of Allah.Suran Yasin is one of the most famous and the most popular. In it are seven powerful truths of resurrection, of bringing the dead back to life. So that is the theme of this surah. It is really important for us to recognise this. The idea that a surah has a central theme has become very popular. My translation is in plain English and what I mean by plain is simply accessible and reader-friendly. The impact of the majestic book is highlighted. The impact of each heading really grabs you. You will also see from the central theme that there is a message which the Quran up about changing our lives.
The Quran is really like an ap. It really is an interactive ap. And that is what Rasoul Allah said. You read about jennah and the streams that flow through these beautiful landscapes. When you hear about that you should really ask Allah to give you jennah. When you hear about the horrors of the blazing sahara ask Allah to protect you.
It is an interactive book, – you do it. When Allah says to do something, you do it. There is a sense of worship. That is what the Quran is about. It is really a living book. It raises a lot of questions. My father used to insist that when you read the Quran you feel and believe Allah is talking to you. This is the speech of Allah. It is not just a book. This is something very special. It is the light that enlightens your heart. So you can really enjoy the flavour of this amazing book if you read it with heart and mind and with the desire to understand.
Most of the Muslims out there say they will read the Quran in Arabic. I will recite it. I would like to memorise some of the suras and try to learn their meanings as well. That is fine. But you have to distil the message. Getting concepts into your head is not true study. Neither is it what the Quran means. People have to read this book as it ought to be ready. Study it as it deserves to be studied. Most people just read the Quran in Arabic. There is a lot to do.
The next thing to do is to ask what is there for me. Really go behind the scenes, read between the lines. What will this do? Why is it so important? One of the things that we want is for our faith to be strong. We want our faith to get stronger and stronger so that we can come closer to Allah. Allah says those who believe know that their faith has increased. The Quran says the believers’ hearts tremble with fear at the mention of the mighty Lord’s name and they become stronger when the Lord’s name is recited and they put their trust in Allah.
That is the true reading of the Quran. We do need to examine our methodology. The real reading of the Quran moves us. I want to describe what happens to our Christian friends, not Muslims when they read the Quran. Christians – you will see their eyes filled with tears because of the truth they have recognised. They say they believe in Allah and what has come to us is true. Should we not love the Lord and be among the righteous people?
So this is in Al Maida. The Quran tells us what happens to some Christians. This is a very important point to remember. The Quran has criticism of our Jewish brothers. It has criticisms of our Christian brothers and sisters but it never stereotypes. It backs up why it is criticising them. That is the justice of Allah. There is no stereotyping.
That is the biggest problem that we have. It is a sign of not being truly just. Allah is not only just. He is justice. So reading the Quran will increase your faith and it will arouse those feelings and emotions that we are beginning to experience. That is what we are lacking today. Today we lack these feelings. We say we have no feelings. Of course you have no feelings. Your heart is dead so what do you expect?
So, this is why emotions are to be aroused if we are alive to the word of Allah. Devotion is very important. If you read the Quran as it is meant to be read it makes you very devotional – devout, committed, wanting to fall into prostration and glorifying Allah and singing his praises and his ingenuity. That is what it does. It makes you fall into worship.
It is a book of guidance, but it drives home the message deep into the heart and mind. It evolves the attitude, and it inspires you. Every surah develops the central theme from the beginning to the end. Logically there is gradual move to completion. The surahs are disjointed but these are digressions – divine comments.
To give an example of some of these divine digressions would sometimes upset a reader. For example, in surah Al Nour it describes how ten amazing laws have been passed. There are six before the famous verse of Al Nour. It goes on for nearly two pages. There are six fixed laws and then there are four more laws after these two pages. It is being legal. It is talking legalistically and then suddenly it becomes very spiritual. It takes us to the lofty heights of divine closeness and talks about jennah.
Why is that? You know it is a big digression and if we were to read it in a thematic way we would be puzzled. But if we read it we see that Allah is saying what are these laws and what power do they have. I am just giving you an example of the digressions and that we don’t understand them because we do not have the right sections.
I just want to take you through this and come to the conclusion about how to effectively study the Quran. The Quran demands the readers full attention. Applying one’s mind. This leads to reflection and asking pertinent questions. Who is the creator? What does he expect from me? Answer these questions. I am sharing with you how I engage with the Quran and how my students engage with it. The Quran persuades to reason. Ask yourself what is the message for me. What does it tell me about Allah and the hereafter? Its teachings give you the bigger picture and that is really important.
A lot of us have become one eyed. What does that mean – one eyed? We see the world very clearly. As scientists we know it very well. I can measure a microgram. A milligram even! I can measure a billionth of a meter. We are one eyed. We do not know the ultimate reality. And that is what the Quran is about. It is here to open our eyes so that we can see the spiritual realities.
So that it what the Quran does. It opens our eyes. There is a very simple scheme which I present to my students on how to study the Quran. You may have your own method of study: read the Arabic and then read the English translation and that gives the big picture of the message. Summarise what you already know about this topic as you go along. That is asking a lot but that is really engaging with the Quran. Look for what Allah is asking you to do. As you read check each section and see if you know what it means. When you read it for the second time look for the divine orders. As you are prostrated consider once you have understood the feelings.
There is a very simple scheme which I have shared with you. Sorry if I was being a bit teacher like to many of you who are senior to me. Thank you. I will be happy to take questions.
Dr Laith Kubba: Within the 25 minutes that I have I will seek to achieve a few goals. One is to try to reflect on or reconceptualize the position of the Quran in our world – to try to reposition where the Quran should be in our world of course we will all seek to enhance our relationship with the Quran. We all have a relationship with the Quran and we seek to enhance it.
But there are more challenges that I hope to get into by stimulating thoughts, be digging a little bit deeper into the questions. It is a puzzle why the Quran which is so great which created that miracle impact on the face of the earth is not that effective today amongst believers and more so among the Arabs who are carrying that code and the Quran. It is one of the things we ought to look at when we look at the Quran.
We certainly should look at the Quran from our perspective as believers. We also need to broaden the lens if we can and look beyond the limitations we currently have on our thoughts about the Quran.
The Quran Education Foundation is a recently registered foundation in the UK and its focus is to mainly look at understanding the Quran from a modern perspective. That is a keyword that I would like to start with. Trying to address the question of how relevant is the Quran not only in our lives but in human progress in general. Is there a real limit? We need to look at that question by going back a little bit and reflecting on the whole phenomenon.
Our span on earth is very limited and recent. Ten thousand years since I think writing started maybe 5,000 years. That is all. This earth has a billion years of living things on it. The vision that the Quran gives about humans being masters on earth is really being manifested today more than ever and we can see we human being reached Mars with a machine that goes there and brings samples and gives us some results back. We see a lot of that. Where does the Quran fit into that big picture? And as I said we need to look at the big picture not as it exists today but as it emerged over the last 5,000 years.
In the last 500 years, we saw this species – human beings – in particular, who are endowed with the capacity to observe and certainly with enough neurons in their brains to have the memory to be able to have causation and correlation. Very very slowly then we develop a language and emerge as communities.
With the emergence of humanity, there were some existential questions. The first question was about the unseen. What is after death? Where did we come from? Is there a real power out there? What is that power? I know I am here because I wasn’t here before. Where am I heading? All these questions.
And since the early days when people gathered together, they tried to answer these questions because it became a need, and then it became a social need and the human experience – those who study anthropology or religious sociology can tell you about awareness and the human mind for the answers to these questions.
If you look today after so many thousands of years, what do we see in terms of answers to those questions? We see those who have anchored their faith in sciences, and they simply say science can make me conquer nature and know what is happening a hundred million miles away. If you look at the DNA. I really can’t go beyond that limit of what I see and what I observe. And those questions remain unanswered.
And then we have another tree that is 3,000 years old – 4,000 maybe 5,000 years old that tries to answer these questions by going inside through meditation. It has its roots in India with branches in Hinduism and Buddhism. These are all rooted in mediation and in that human experience of 4,000 years.
And then we have those who believe in gnostic-type meditation. And the other half believe in a book. And they happen to be from one tree from Ibrahim. And we believe in more or less the same ideas and have the same narratives, certain values, how to treat others and go beyond oneself. There is a belief in one God and a life after, a certain community.
Then there are those who study religious sociology and make distinctions between the founding documents and books and between cultures and traditions. And we must not confuse the two especially when it comes to the Quran. There is a difference between the Quran and the Bible and Torah and all the other books. If you want to say the book of Hadith we have a full text that was revealed and preserved. The text is so accurate that even when it tells the Prophet to tell the people to say something it says ‘say’ and then it gives the Prophet the sentence to say. And sometimes it addressed the prophet, sometimes it addresses the believers, the human beings, the whole people on earth. And sometimes it even addresses creatures that are intelligent and are not on planet earth. They are on other planets and the Quran talks about jinn. It makes references to those creatures who are also intelligent and have the capacity to believe.
And maybe in the 25th century, they will come to earth, I don’t know. Maybe they have visited the earth. We have references to this in the Quran.
If you read the Quran, you will see that this book is for humanity. It is not another sect. It depends on the capacity of the believers and of humanity and how much they can take from it and benefit from it.
The text is like a code that is preserved. At present, I would say the last intervention we had from the unseen into the earth. How wide can we set the lens and try to understand the position of the Quran?
In the Quran Education Foundation, we are trying to come up with a vision that captures the full scene and tries to put the Quran in the sequence of evolution not only of civilisation on earth but the whole universe. There is that vision and it is embedded in the Quran.
It is referenced by other philosophers, the Christians, and the Jews. And that view is that creation which started with the big bang and light is in constant evolution and the names of Allah are transcribed over it. There was light there was order there was life and there was intelligence. And all this is happening in response to Al Wahi a call from Allah to which the beings respond. The whole universe responds to Allah. And it is still emerging. That is what science tells about the emergence of the universe.
So, we know the big picture – that there is a compulsory emergence in the universe. But once humans were created and human societies were created that compulsory emergence became voluntary emergence. So the call of Allah came to us in various interventions the last of which is the book that we have the Quran.
And when it was revealed is created a huge impact on the earth. Those Bedouins who were on the margins of the Romans and the Persians and the Indians and the Chinese were not of this age of civilization. They were just backward. All they had was words and ideas that came to the desert that managed to create a force of change that impacted the earth. We see nearly a billion Muslims on earth. It is quite powerful, and it all came from that book, from those words from the Quran.
The big question as to what happened is simple. The intervention took place. The Prophet died. The Quran was preserved. The natural course is for the Quran to take its place. Humans have to continue their journey voluntarily, they have to exercise their judgment. There will be trials and errors and failures.
The Arab bias of tribalism was very strong and it was mingled with Arab traditions. All the cultures: the Romans, the Persians, and the Indians were part of the natural cultural environment that existed and the Muslims took a lot from it. It is sometimes embedded with our traditions and our hadith.
But the difference, where we differ from all other religions and sects, is that we can always go back to that code and revisit it. Our suggestion, our platform is we are saying we want to revisit the Quran from two perspectives: the first perspective is the modern 21st-century awareness that has been enriched with the scientific knowledge of the human brain and of creation.
Sciences can help us understand ourselves which gives the context of understanding the Quran. So, it is critical to look at the Quran in a modern way. The Quran is a text. You can choose which lens to look at the Quran with. You can choose a 7th-century lens, you can choose a 10th-century lens, and you can use a 21st century lens. The Quran doesn’t change. It is the capacity of the mind and the perspective whether it is culture, whether it is ideology, whether it is a concept. That is the one that is changing.
To broaden the understanding of the Quran if we look at the Quran as a revelation in line with the emergence of the universe then we will see the universe as a book full of science in the same way as the Quran is a book full of verses. The universe is a book full of science. The Quran and the universe are from the same book directly.
We need to look at the book of nature and that is what the Quran always references. And the science that you see in nature and the science that the Prophet talked about are integrated. If you look at the science of the emergence of the human history of civilisation it is a perspective on how to read the Quran.
Currently regrettably what we see is that those who were asked the carry the code could not decode it. They could not live up to it. It is like a donkey carrying books and not being able to realise what the coding and the value of those books is.
So, to go back to our keywords in the understanding of the Quran, to realise that the primary function of this book is to help humanity on earth attempt to ascend a much higher level where society manifests in mercy and God is the most merciful. This is one name of God. Then the society has wisdom manifesting that the society has knowledge. Those are the names of Allah. Allah says seek me through those names if you want to seek Allah then seek him through wisdom and mercy.
Today in this 21st century where the most important feature that took place at the turn of the century is the advances that took place in neurosciences and we know about the brain. What has been learned about the brain tells you clearly that the brain has tens of billions of neurons and those neurons fire and create paths in your brain, it creates how you think.
The mind is very much a programme to the extent that there are programmes today that look closely not only at how experiences have shaped your mind but specifically how narratives and statements that you have in your head shape your mind.
If you allow the Quran to programme your mind from a young age and if you approach it with the broadest lens that it is a window to the unseen world to us so that we can ascend and reach more within ourselves to that unseen world and our society. If we allow the Quran to function as a programme to ourselves and our society new pathways will be open to us and our lives.
When I look at the revelation of the Quran it was revealed to the Prophet when he was aged 40. Forty is a very important age for those who learn about passages. It is the peak of maturity that you reach. The Quran was revealed when the Prophet was 40. But the Prophet was with a very young teenager who was very close to him. That is Imam Ali at the age of 13 or 14. He saw the revelation of the Quran verse bv verse and accompanied the Prophet through all these events.
If you want to look at a mind that is shaped by the Quran and by events look at Imam Ali. That is why he was such a striking example when we look at him, some people try to find some divine mystical features and they totally ignore the reality of how he was shaped by the Quran. It is an example for us of what the Quran can do for individuals in shaping their minds.
A psychologist or a neuropsychiatrist will tell you that those who have a narrative in their heads about life those who have a purpose, those who give meaning to life, those who have values, those who see how things are related are much happier, their mental strength is better, they can deal with the complexity and the ambiguity of life much better than those who do not carry that narrative or do not carry that purpose.
This month of Ramadan is the month of the Quran. We all seek to relate to the Quran, and we all have our own ways of how we read the Quran. This needs to change fundamentally on two or three grounds. One is we need to recentralise or reposition the Quran as a source of guidance. We need to change the lens through which we look at the Quran from a simple one to one that looks at a much bigger picture and we can do that by referring to the many, many verses.
That is how we should read the Quran. We have in Arabic (and I can send a pdf file) the Quran as it was revealed, and you see the map of ideas that were revealed from the first verses. They were very profound ideas. They did not talk about beliefs. In the first instance, they confirm the ability to learn and the Quran will give you knowledge that you did not experience before.
So, this Ramadan I am trying to stimulate your thinking. I hope that you who are taking a deep interest will follow up on the ideas by contacting our Quran Education Foundation and I hope we can give our younger generation of Muslims a much clearer, stronger, and broader approach to the Quran where they can relate to it and build their communities based on the Quran.
*Dr Laith Kubba is the Director of the Quran Education Foundation (QEF). He was formerly director of international relations at the Al-Khoei Foundation in London, a global charity and faith-based endowment, and founded the International Forum for Islamic Dialogue (IFID), a London-based network of open-minded Muslim activists and intellectuals. He regularly contributes to global media talks on democratization in the Middle East and North Africa, Islam and democracy, and politics in Iraq. Dr. Kubba holds a B.A. from the University of Baghdad, Iraq, and a Ph.D. from the University of Wales, UK. He was a senior advisor to the Iraqi Prime Minister and a spokesman for the Iraqi government. He was also a senior director for the Middle East and North Africa Programs at the National Endowment for Democracy since 1999.
**Musharraf Hussain OBE is a British-Pakistani born scientist, educator and religious scholar in Nottinghamshire, United Kingdom. He is the Chief Executive of the Karimia institute Nottingham, an author and the Chief Editor of The Invitation, a Muslim family magazine. Musharraf is also a senior trustee of Muslim Hands, an international charity working in over 50 countries. He trained and worked as a research scientist before becoming a full-time imam and an Islamic teacher. From 2000 to 2003, he was the vice-chairman of the Association of Muslim schools. In September 2004, he and Daud Abdullah flew to Iraq, where they appealed to the captors to release British hostage Ken Bigley. In 2005, Hussain received an honorary degree from Staffordshire University. In 2006, he was appointed by the Prime Minister to chair the UK-Indonesian Islamic advisory group, they were tasked to advise the government on countering radicalism and promoting mutual trust. From 2008 to 2010, he was the chairman of the Christian Muslim forum. In 2019, he was awarded the ‘Iman was Amal’ Special Award by The Muslim News for his translation of the Quran.
