Transcription
The learner of the Quran is learning something that was taught to Muhammad, Rasulullah, making him strong. And then he passed that on to the Sahaba, making them strong. And they passed it on for generations. And today, you and I are learning the Quran, which is making us what? Strong.
Now, now we get to the juicy part. A young man came to me in the audience yesterday and said, "How come Allah says this about Jibril? Allah didn't mention his name here. Allah didn't mention Jibril's name here." So, let me translate this for you first. "The one intense and great powers." Intense and great powers is the one who taught him. Who's this intense one in great powers? But the "who" could mean "taught him," and it could mean "taught it." So, the mighty one taught the Prophet, and the mighty one taught the Quran. Both meanings are true. Both meanings are withheld, which is also interesting because both the Prophet and the Quran were referred to in the ayat before. When he said it was about the Prophet, you knew it was about the Prophet. When he said it was about the Quran, you knew it was about the Quran. And the "who" in Allah, who combines the Prophet and the Quran, taught him.
But the question the young man asked was really nice. Why is he saying the mighty one taught him? Like, the great, intensely strong one taught him. What's the point of saying that? We're going to try to explore that little by little. First of all, "shadid" is the plural of "quwwa." "Quwwa" is the plural of "quwwat." It means might, strength. And "quwwa" is powers, strengths. What Allah is saying is this: Messenger Jibril doesn't just have one kind of strength; he has multiple strengths, and each one of those strengths are intense. Okay? So, "shadid" adds intensity, and "quwwa" is multi-dimensional strengths. His ability to travel is like no one else. His ability to understand is like no one else. His ability to destroy is like no one else. His ability to lead is like... each one of those is strengths, you understand? So, he's got multiple dimensions to his strength, perhaps encapsulated in the narration by the 600 or so wings that he has. Each wing might represent a different strength, might represent something else, because he only showed a few of them, or one of them, to the messenger. So, you know, there are so many dimensions to that the way that he's being described.
Then, now, "the one that's great in strength." The word "mighty" and "great strengths." Why would there be a need to mention that? One reason could be it's a threat. By the way, my teacher is really strong. And when you're messing with me and this education process, and you're making fun of it, you're actually also making fun of my teacher, who's really strong. You don't want to mess with him. It becomes kind of a "kinaya," an indirect threat to those that are poking fun at the revelation, you understand? So, that's another implication.
But then, this is where it gets really beautiful. When I say, "I learned from a genius teacher," you know what that means? That I was benefiting from some of his genius. When I say, "I learned from a very creative artist," that I'm benefiting from his what? Creativity. It's making me more creative, right? When I'm learning from a mighty teacher, what am I getting from it? Might. Good. It's as if Allah is saying, "This messenger, from your eyes, looks like he has no political clout, he has no backing, he has no financial backing. You millionaires of Quraysh are strong. He's in a position of weakness. All the people that follow him are bankrupt or slaves or beat up." So, he looks like he's in a position of weakness. But the one teaching him is the ultimately strong creation of Allah, and He is making him ultimately strong. Just because you can't see it doesn't mean it's not true. This is actually a very, a pun intended, empowering message.
The learner of the Quran is learning something that was taught to Muhammad, Rasulullah, making him strong. And then he passed that on to the Sahaba, making them strong. And they passed it on for generations. And today, you and I are learning the Quran, which is making us what? Strong. It gives us strength because the teacher wasn't just described as someone knowledgeable or someone trustworthy, somebody incredibly strong. It's empowering to me to learn the Quran. It empowered the messenger to learn the Quran. And so, the religion doesn't stand in a position of weakness, even if it looks like the Muslims are downtrodden, or they're losing the battle, or they look like so many Sahaba died, or the Sahaba are getting burnt, you know, with coal, or stepped on, or tortured, or whatever. All that looks like weakness, weakness, weakness, and weakness. But actually, no one on earth is stronger than them. Nobody's stronger than they're in the position of strength because they have something nobody else has. They have Iman. They have Quran inside them.
And by the way, if the mightiest one was needed to teach it, right now, for example, if I was, if somebody's teaching somebody Olympic weightlifting, don't they have to be super strong themselves to be able to teach it? So, the thing that requires great strength to teach, that thing itself must require a great strength. It must be very strong for you, and you have to be really strong to be able to teach it. Jibril was needed to teach the Quran because the Quran is that powerful. The Quran is not weak. The Quran does not succumb to attacks. The Quran does not surrender to criticisms and whims and mockery. It doesn't fall to those things because it's so mighty that it couldn't be delivered by anyone other than the mightiest of all angels, who you have to use all of his different mights to be able to deliver the Quran. We're learning about the power of the Quran and what it took to even reveal the Quran to the Prophet. So, as we pass by this, "Oh yeah, Islam gave the Quran." Nah, bro, there's a lot more going on here. This is the mightiest of Allah's angels being given the heaviest task. And then Allah, how does He describe the Quran itself? "I am going to give you a heavy word. I am going to give you a heavy word." And then He says, "If you saw that coming down on the mountain, you would see it explode from the fear of Allah." This revelation is now coming down. The might, the power of the Quran is being described through the teacher that had this ultimate strength when he was delivering it.
Then, in this, this "mighty," by the way, this is, you know, the "tenuin" in the previous ayah, "great revelation" that is being revealed. Now you're getting a taste of how great it is, you understand? It's Allah is explaining that. Then we, now, with this next ayah, then there's also this idea of chain of narration, which any Muslim familiar with the idea of a Hadith, the concept of Hadith, you know that the chain of narration has to be strong, right? Now, here's the thing. This is incredible. You have to establish a chain between God and His messenger. And the chain is established. Allah, the mighty angel, and the Prophet. And they are all linked. Now, there's a chain of narration. Who's teaching him? Allah's angel. That's one of the most incredible things that I found in this ayah. It blew my mind.
"Shadid" in Arabic. Remember, I didn't go root words on you here. Every word, I have a whole slide for it. I'm just going to talk this out with you. This is too heavy to break up. The verb was used for tying up knots and ropes and strings. That's what it was. When you make the rope tight, so it has to do with ropes. It was used for strong ropes. The original meaning of "quwwa" is a rope. So, "shadid" in its secondary meaning has a rope. And its secondary meaning also has a rope. And the next word is going to be "lumarri." And "mirra" is one of the Arabic words, ancient words, for a rope. So, "shadid" is rope, somehow is associated with rope, somehow. And "mirra," which I haven't explained yet, is also associated with what? Rope. What is the Quran called? "Wa'tasimu bihablillahi jamee'an." Hold on to the Rope of Allah. Hahaha. The mighty one with the tightest rope delivering it to the Prophet. There's literally a rope. Allah says, the messenger says in one narration, "It is the extent, the Quran is the extended rope of Allah from the sky to the earth." And the Islam is now the mighty one holding on to the rope. The imagery is so beautiful and powerful. When you are holding on to the Quran, you're holding on to a rope. Now, imagine what's on the other end of that rope. It goes all the way up through the heavens, through Jibril, all the way up to the Prophet, all the way up to Allah. So, "Alhamdulillah," this is just inside the language of Allah.
Now, I'm going to make you, I want to mold it. I'm going to make you feel bad as a way of motivating you. I know shaming is not a good motivator. Um, I know that because in Pakistan, the only way we motivate people is by shaming people. Like, that's how we wake someone up and motivate them to do something with their life, right? But let me just say, studying the Arabic language and understanding its intricacies will open up so much of the Quran for you. Like today's lens for contemplating Quran's language. Right now, you don't, many of you don't know Arabic. That's okay. My job is to make you feel bad about that, but also to tell you, it's easy to learn. I'm telling you, it is. They're like, "No, it's not. You just..." There's so much information. Yes, it is a lot of information. So was programming, and you're now writing code for apps, you dummy. So is tax code, but you're an accountant. That stuff is way harder. So is calculus, but you're taking it in class and not complaining about it. So is biology in high school. A lot of information. So is the SATs. It's information. So what? Why are you intimidated? You're so capable of learning so many complicated things. But when it comes to this, I don't know. I've seen kids play some video games. The amount of menus and sub-menus and items and upgrades and secret locations and unlock keys that they know off the top of their head. Oh, it's easy. You just got to press XX, Square, R1, L1, and "migda." That's how you kill the bot. You're like, "How did you know that, bro?" You memorized it for every, you know. It's crazy.
I went to, I was in Pakistan, and in one of the universities, they were having a Tekken tournament. It was pretty cool. You want to play Tekken? You're too Islamic for Tekken? Like, they don't know. They don't know. I beat the guy, right? And he's like, "How do you know these combos?" I was like, "I memorized them in college." They're still the same, right? We're capable of learning. We just tell ourselves we're not. And Shaitan doesn't hold you back from learning like Final Fantasy 87. He doesn't. He doesn't hold you back from learning like every character and every, you know, so much about anime. It's scary. How do you even remember these names? They all sound the same to me. You remember all of them. You remember all these movie references, all these, your father of songs. I don't know. It's so much work. "Mashallah," you must have worked so hard. No. Any human being is capable of learning anything that becomes a labor of love. Anything. Humans, the brain is incredible. It's incredible. And on top of that, when you're trying to learn this language for the sake of Allah, you're, you're holding to a rope. So divine help starts, you know, by Wi-Fi coming through into your heart and your soul and your brain, and it opens up in ways you never imagined before. How dare you say it's hard? How do you like that? That's an excuse. You better watch out. That is not an excuse.
And so, anybody, and by the way, whoever holds on to the Quran is becoming what? Strong. Your mind will become strong. Your memory will become strong. Your ability will become strong. Your confidence will become, everything will become stronger. Just hold on to Quran. Begin. So, I'll tell you this last one. The reason I brought all this up, you remember I told you there's three kinds of audiences? You guys remember that? Anybody remember what they were? Neutral. Up until now, up until Ayah number four, the language was the language of the neutral, the unsure, or the opponent. Ah, everybody's clear. That was the language of the opponent because very strong language. But he doesn't say here, "Yeah, yeah." No emphasis, no stressors. Neutral style. Neutral style. But we know that the conversations happening with opponents, right? So, the question then is, why would you be talking to an opponent and use what? Neutral style.
One of my friends was traveling. Told me, "You got to watch the show." I was like, "I don't know. I have nothing to do right now." "Okay, I'll watch an episode." He showed me an episode of One Punch Man. Some of you might know what that is. I've watched one episode. I didn't need to watch anything ever again. It's like, I'm done. Are all the episodes like this? He goes, "Exactly like this." I was like, "Then why are you watching this?" This is a huge monster trying to kill this guy, and he's just calm. "Like, I see that you're strong. I see that you're about to use your ultimate move." And he's just completely unfazed and unmoved. Why is he unfazed and unmoved? Because he already knows this guy is no match for my strength. It may look otherwise, but I don't have to be intimidated by him. I don't have to respond to him. By the time Allah gets to where the Quran comes from, there is no need to stress the strength of Jibril alayhisalam or to prove the strength of the power of the Quran and the empowerment of its messenger. Just normal speech. As if to say, "You have no power against this. You are powerless against this." It's incredible. Sometimes stress makes language amazing. Sometimes removing stress makes the language amazing.
Hey guys, you just watched a small clip of me explaining the Quran in depth as part of the deeper look series. Studying the Quran in depth can seem like a really intimidating thing that's only meant for scholars. Our job at Bayyinah is to make deeper study of the Quran accessible and easy for all of you. So take us up on that challenge. Join us for this study, the deeper look of the Quran for this Surah and many other Surahs on bayanatv.com under the deeper look section.