Day 14

Alif Laam Meem - the Gate of Humility

In order to be guided by the Quran, we need to pass through the Gate of Alif Laam Mee - the Gate of Humility.

Our Quest today is a training of humility. To monitor our heart for symptoms of arrogance and quickly treat it.

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Welcome to Day 14 of Be Quranic. Alhamdulillah we are now in the sacred month of Rajab. The month of Rajab is a reminder that Ramadan 2 months away. It is a good time to start warming up spiritually to prepare for the hard work of Ramadan. Some of our scholars would say that Rajab is the month where we start planting, Shaaban is the month we irrigate, and Ramadan we harvest the reward. We start in Rajab so that we get to taste the sweetness of ibadah in the month of Ramadan.

There are two ibadah that we should focus on; Quran and fasting. And this is what Be Quranic is about; improving our relationship with the Quran; small steps every single day. And alhamdulillah we have been doing this for the past 2 weeks, since the first of January 2024. We ask that Allah grant us steadfastness to continue improving our relationship with His word until our very last breath.

Insha Allah today we embark on a new surah; the longest surah in the Quran and one of the early revelations in Madinah. This surah is called the summit of the Quran by Rasulullah. This surah which is known as Surah al-Baqarah and its twin, Surah Ali Imran will come on Judgement Day as clouds to shelter the people who attached themselves to these surahs. Rasulullah also said that shaitan will not enter a house where Surah al-Baqarah is being recited. These are just some of the virtues of this great surah.

Now let's embark on our journey to explore Surah al-Baqarah which translates to the Surah of the Female Cow.

The first aya in this Surah is Ali Laam Meem. This type of cyptic ayat is called harf al-muqata'at or disjointed letters. Saiduna Abu Bakr as-Siddiq said that these ayat are among the secrets of Allah. Its meaning is only to to Him.

But just because we don't know it's meaning, it doesn't mean we can't explore its lessons. Mufassirin, or scholars of tafseer, the science of explaining the Quran, from the earliest times have explored the multiple lessons and wisdoms that can be derived from these cryptic letters.

Amongst them is that this is a way to attract the attention of the people, especially the Jews in Madinah, who were the secondary audience in this surah. When Rasulullah migrated to Madinah, Madinah had a strong minority of Jews living there. Some Jews settled in Madinah, Khaibar and Yemen after the second expulsion and destruction of their temple in Jerusalem by the Roman emperor Hadrian. According to Saiduna Salmaan al-Farisi, they were in these places waiting for the final prophet and messenger as it is written in their Scripture that he is going to come from land in Arabia where there were plenty of dates. And these three towns; Madinah, Khaibar and Yemen were known for their dates plantation.

Coming back to Surah al-Baqarah, many passages in this surah were addressed to the Jews. One way to attract their attention was to start with these cryptic letters. Prophet Muhammad were known to be an-Nabiyy al-Ummiyy, the unlettered Prophet. In fact Prophet Muhammad himself said, "We are a group of people that neither read nor count." So for someone who doesn't read or write, he would not know letters. Why do people learn letters? So that they can read and write. If you don't read or write, chances are you are not going to know the alphabets.

So when Rasulullah read Alif Laam Meem to the people, it drew the attention of the Jews. Hang on, I thought he doesn't read. How does he know the letters? Now that he has gotten their attention, he delivers the rest of the Surah.

Another wisdom from this short cryptic aya is that it acts as a challenge to the polytheistic Arabs. The Arabs were proud of their language prowess and the most powerful influencers of those days were the poets. They were mesmerised by beauty of the Quran. In fact one of the fiercest enemies of Islam and one of the great poets of the Quraish, al-Waleed ibn Mughirah, admitted that humans could not have written the Quran.

By using these letters, Allah is challenging the Quraish, here are the alphabets that make up the words and sentences in the Quran. If you refuse to accept the truth, go use the same alphabets and produce another Quran. It is like a chef giving the list of ingredients to a delicious food and challenging the people to produce the same dish.

But the most important wisdom, is a lesson of humility to all of us. It is a reminder that there are limits to our intellect. There are things that we can understand and there are things where our intellect are unable to penetrate. And Alif Laam Meem, falls into the second category. We know letters, but we don't know its meaning. Through this short aya, Allah is reminding us to submit to Him. Surrender our intellect to the Almight and All-Wise. It is not a denial of our intellect, but it is to know its limits. And this aya comes after our most important du'a - Guide us through the straight path. And immediately after that, Allah answers our du'a - He says "That is the Book (the Quran), where there is doubt in it. Guidance for the People of Taqwa." We asked for guidance, and Allah answered in the opening of the next surah - you'll find guidance in the Quran. But before you get to the guidance, you need to pass through the gate of Alif Laam Meem. The gate of humility. If you approach the Quran with humility, you'll find guidance in it. Otherwise, you'll have the likes of al-Waleed ibn Mughirah, who was so smart yet so arrogant, he read the Quran and mesmerised by it. Yet he wasn't guided to the truth by the Quran. What was the mental and spiritual block - it was arrogance.

Arrogance, which is the opposite of humility, is one of the most dangerous diseases of the heart. Rasulullah said a person will not enter Jannah if his hearts contain a mustard seed's weight of arrogance. But what is arrogance? When a Sahabah heard about the dangers of arrogance, he asked the Prophet is him loving the finer things in life considered arrogance? The Prophet said no, arrogance is denying the truth and looking down upon others.

So you can have nice things in life, but you should never look down upon others. Always treat people with respect no matter who they are. Imam al-Ghazali said, when you meet someone older, show them respect for they have lived longer than you and may have done more good deeds than you. If you meet someone younger than you, treat them with respect for their shorter years mean that they have sinned less than you. If you see someone ignorant, treat them with respect for when they sin, they commit it out of ignorance which is a lesser evil when compared to people like us who sin knowingly. Sinning out of ignorance would be categorised as ad-dhaallin, the ones that are lost. Whereas sinning knowingly is al-maghdoubi 'alayhim those people that Allah is angry at.

So no matter what the situation is, never look down upon others. Always treat people with respect and have good thoughts on them. And that is our quest today. It is a training of humility. To monitor our hearts for signs of arrogance. Whenever we look down upon others, be it in real life or in our digital life, immediately ask for Allahs' forgiveness and make a sincere du'a for that person.

If you want to take the Quest to another level, consider the trainings of Sheikh as-Sha'rawi. After his passing, his driver said, there were nights after giving a big lecture, the sheikh would tell him stop by at another masjid on the way home. Masjids were already empty at these times at it was way pass isha'. The great sheikh would go into the toilets and start cleaning them. When asked by the driver, he would say that this is a way for him to rid his heart from arrogance. He felt something in his heart for people were praising him for his lecture. So he wanted to remind his heart, that he is after all a slave of Allah. And there is no room for arrogance in this heart.