Approaching The Qur'an: The Mind, The Soul & The Limbs

Sheikh Jamal Abdinasir · Approaching the Quran · Sep 7, 2024

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My Notes

Key Takeaways

Actionable steps from this episode

  1. Approach the Quran with your mind first: recognizing Allah's greatness — that He is Lord of everything, does as He wills, and is never to be questioned — is what allows a believer to accept calamity without doubting Allah's wisdom or mercy.
  2. The heart is where Allah looks: sincerity determines whether the Quran truly "enters" you; reading for any share of praise other than Allah's forfeits the reward entirely, however small that share seems.
  3. Purify your intention completely: the hadith of the reciter, the scholar, and the martyr who did their deeds for reputation rather than Allah shows that outward righteousness without sincerity leads to the Hellfire, not Jannah.
  4. A strong heart carries a weak body, not the other way around: an elderly man can walk far to the masjid on a weak body because his heart is strong, while a physically powerful young man may not get out of bed for Fajr.
  5. Approaching the Quran through the limbs means waging war against your own soul: your nafs resists worship at first — force yourself into it consistently, and what feels heavy in the beginning becomes sweet with persistence.
  6. Every external trial is won only after the internal one is: the Quran ties outward victory over one's enemies to first defeating the desires of one's own soul — illustrated through the story of Talut's army at the river.
  7. A pure heart cannot hold two loves that contradict: love of the Quran and love of what displeases Allah cannot coexist in the same heart — the story of the French boy who stopped stealing and went on to memorize the Quran shows how one act of guidance can redirect an entire life.
Episode Recap

Delivered at a UK masjid known for Quran memorization, Sheikh Jamal Abdinasir frames a complete approach to the Quran around three dimensions: the mind, the heart (soul), and the limbs — with one central point drawn from each so the lesson stays memorable and actionable. Approaching the Quran with the mind means recognizing Allah's greatness through what is revealed about Him — that He is Lord of the heavens and the earth, does as He wills, and gives the night for rest and the day for light. Once this greatness settles in the heart, a believer stops questioning Allah's decisions, including painful ones like floods or the suffering of the Ummah, trusting instead that Allah's wisdom and mercy exceed our own, and that calamities draw believers nearer to Him rather than away. Turning to the heart, he stresses that Allah looks only at the heart, not outward appearance, and only accepts a deed done entirely for His sake — even 1% attributed to a desire for praise from someone else voids the whole action, illustrated by the hadith of the reciter, the scholar, and the martyr who are the first three people thrown into the Fire despite their apparent piety, because their deeds were performed for reputation. He contrasts an elderly man who walks painfully to the masjid on a weak body but a strong heart, with a physically powerful young man who cannot get out of bed for Fajr — the heart, not the body, is what carries a person to Allah. The limbs represent the third dimension: actually forcing the soul into consistent worship, since the nafs does not want to pray, read Quran, or make dhikr on its own. He describes this as a war against one's own soul, quoting a scholar who dragged himself to worship against his own resistance until, eventually, it became something enjoyed rather than endured — and ties this to the Quranic principle that outward victory over one's enemies only follows an inward victory over one's own desires, illustrated by the test at the river in the story of Talut and Jalut. He closes with the story of a non-Muslim French boy caught stealing chocolate from a Turkish shopkeeper, who forgave him on two conditions — never steal from him or anyone else again — and gave him free chocolate from then on. After the shopkeeper's death, the boy received a gift: a Quran, which so moved him that he embraced Islam, memorized the entire Quran, and went on to call thousands of people to Islam in France and Africa. The lesson, Sheikh Jamal notes, is that a heart devoted to the Quran cannot simultaneously hold what contradicts it — love of the Quran and love of Allah's greatness must occupy the heart completely for the Quran to truly enter it.