Faith Fridays - Surah Al Asr by Nourman Ali Khan

This is an oft-recited surah mostly because it's short but the beauty about this surah is the irony in it's message. As we are late for salah we pick this surah, often not realising the wake up call it is giving us. Bro Nouman Ali Khan is a master at tafseer and is so popular he is too busy to travel outside of America and the UK (we've tried). His tafseer of Al Asr is 3 podcasts long (each podcast more than 30 minutes) but the gist of the surah is summarised in the 8 minute video, with helpful hints along the way.

Read more »

Faith Fridays - Reminders from Surah Baqarah - Nouman Ali Khan [VIDEO]

Every Friday we hope to bring you a khutbah or short lecture in English that we feel may be of benefit to you. Think of it as a weekly khutbah from a different perspective. All you need to do is spend 30 minutes (or less) a week to learn something new.

If you have any suggestions on a video that we should share please send us an email via "Write for Us".

Alhamdulillah Allah has blessed us with another Ramadhan. Take time to make du'a for those who returned to Allah before this blessed month and to ask Allah for peace and tranquility for the family members and friends they left behind.

We know the Qur'an was sent down in this blessed month and we are encouraged to read and contemplate on its verses during this month. As such we bring to you a very short tafseer of Surah Baqarah, verses 1-7. Let's contemplate on the first few verses of the Qur'an and how they set the scene for the rest of the Book.

Nouman Ali Khan heads the Bayyinah Institute, an institute dedicated to teaching Arabic in the United States. His tafseers focus on the origin of words and thus they add a deeper meaning to the message. He is so popular that YMP has been unable to get him to come over to Malaysia!

Technically this isn't a video but it was too good not to post. There is a part two to this short lecture which you can find here.

Read more »

Surah At-Teen and What it Means to Us - Part III

Part 1 here. Part 2 here.


Lessons and Tips

Masjid Al Aqsa from AtlasTours.net

Allah started the surah by mentioning blessed objects and the most excellent characters. Then He emphatically stated that He created Man perfectly and with balance. But when Man strays He can reduce us to the scum of the earth. Those who will be saved are those who believe and act on that belief. So if you know all this why would you want to continue living in ignorance? At the end of the day Allah is the Best Judge of belief and good deeds and the one who lays down the law.

What are the lessons we can derive?

Read more »

Surah At-Teen and What it Means to Us - Part II

Part 1 here


Just a quick recap - The previous verses spoke about blessed objects and places and how they allude to blessed Prophets. These were things that Allah was swearing by. These were the objects of the oath ("I swear by these things..."). Now we're going to find out what is the subject of the oath (the subject meaning what comes next in the sentence). What is this great thing that Allah wants to tell us that He is swearing on all these blessed things?


The Verses

Verily, We created Man of the best stature (mould)

Laqad khalaqna al-insana fee ahsanitaqweem

The “la” here is the pronoun that signifies the highest level of emphasis. “La” is usually translated as “verily” but we rarely speak in this kind of English anymore. To put it colloquially “la” in this sense is akin to saying “for sure!”

Remember that Allah is al Khaliq, the Creator. He created everything and He created all of this from nothing. We, as human beings, we only fashion something new from what already existed. Going by the literal understanding of the four objects Allah is telling us to look at the signs of His creation, how they benefit Man so much. Allah is telling us that He has provided for us everything that we need to live.

Read more »

Surah At-Teen and What it Means to Us - Part I

From Skinny Secrets

As youth sometimes it is a little difficult to relate to the glorious Qur'an. We seem to think that because it was sent 1400 years ago and in the middle of the desert, it's hard to find links with the lives we lead today.

InshaAllah I will attempt to look at Surah At-Teen and try to bring to light some of the thoughts and emotions we should feel when reading this surah. Why surah At-Teen? Because it's a relatively short surah, a number of us would have memorised it and I find it to be a beautiful surah with some very important lessons. For the tafseer of this surah I have relied on two sources, Imam Suhaib Webb's tafseer and Nouman Ali Khan's tafseer (Audio: part 1 and part 2, transcript).

1. By the fig, and the olive,

2. By Mount Sinai,

3. And by this city of security (Makkah),

4. Verily, We created man of the best stature (mould),

5. Then We reduced him to the lowest of the low,

6. Save those who believe (in Islamic Monotheism) and do righteous deeds, then they shall have a reward without end (Paradise).

7. Then what (or who) causes you (O disbelievers) to deny the Recompense (i.e. Day of Resurrection)?

8. Is not Allah the Best of judges?

I will attempt to divide the series according to the following: verses 1 to 3 (the oaths), verses 4 to 8 and finally the lessons we can learn.

Read more »