Literal or Metaphorical: How to Read Quran

Happy. Alhamdulillah. Continuing in surah muz chapter number 73 verses number five 6 7 and 8. Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala after commanding the prophet sallall.aii alaihi wasallam to recite the Quran in melody, to recite the Quran at a pace that is neither too slow to change the meaning of the the Quran nor too fast to where the mind cannot keep up with the compl with the contemplation of the verses being recited. Allah Subhanahu Waaala then says after commanding him to stand in prayer, stand in prayer for the night, the duration of the night, half of it or a little less or a little more and recite the Quran at a pace. He then says subhanahu wa ta'ala giving us the wisdom behind this command. Standing at night, why night? Why not daytime? What's the difference? What is the difference between the night and the day? He says,.

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Allah subhanahu waala says and recite the Quran at a pace. Then he says indeed we are going to send down upon you a very grave and very heavy word. He says indeed the prayer and the rising of the night. It is most likely for the heart to be in line with the tongue when a person is praying at night. The heart be in line with the tongue. We'll discuss that in a moment inshallah. He says indeed in the day In the daytime you have many things to tend to. However, at night it is more likely for your tongue and your mind and heart to be in line. He says, "And remember the name of your Lord and cut yourself off to him." To him. So this statement I want to ask a question here and this is not rhetorical. I actually want an answer and that is that when we deal with words, the way people speak, we have two types. We can ga categorize all words, all statements into two general categories. What are those general categories? Number one, that which is obvious. And number two, that which is implied. Okay. So what does that mean? We can we can categorize all words into. So that which is understood from the general context and that which is blatant and clear. So what do I mean by this? If I say for instance, this man is a lion. This man is a lion. From that statement there, are you deducing? Do you understand from that that I'm speaking about a human being or a real physical lion? Huh? It's a human being, right? Now, this isn't the obvious. This is implied. This isn't obvious. Obvious would mean that you don't have to look for other cues in the sentence and context to understand what's being said. You just have to you just you just hear it and immediately understand it and everyone would understand it. No two people would disagree in its meaning. Or we could also say there is that which is that which is literal and that which is metaphorical. Let's go with that translation. Literal and metaphorical. Okay. Okay. So, literal, if I were to say the word lion, literal is a is an animal. Correct? Now, if I were to say lion and use it to describe a human being, what do we understand from this? That this man is what?

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The things that we associate with lying. If I say the word snake, right? Snake. Snake is a is a literal animal. It's a reptile. Right? If I say that man is a snake or that man is a reptile, what do we understand from this?

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Smiles just before he eats you. Right? Those are the things we associate with that animal. The literal meaning is an animal. The metaphorical meaning is what what's understood from the context. Okay. What why are we talking about this? This is very important for us going forward in understanding any verse of the Quran. Now being that we understand we all agree that words are potentially literal or metaphorical, right? Which one is the essence of words? Meaning which one is the default position of words? Is the default that I understand everything as metaphorical or is the detail that everything is literal unless it is metaphorical? Which one of those? Do you understand the question? Like what is the default in the way that people speak? Literal meaning, right? The literal because metaphorical it has conditions and anything that needs a condition. Okay, this is this is not beyond us all understanding. I wouldn't take you somewhere I didn't think you could go. Just stay with me. The essence of words is that all speech is literal unless it is metaphorical, not the other way around. Okay? We have literal things we say in English. We have metaphorical things we say in English. Right? If I say to you, this is heavy and I'm speaking about a box. What am I talk? What am I? What do I mean by heavy? That it's physically heavy. So that's literal, right? But what about if the box is this big and it literally only weighs an ounce? I say this box is heavy. What does that mean? Serious, important, fragile, grave. Isn't that what we understand? So what tell what what made us think that this is metaphorical and is not literal because literally is not heavy. Now literal is the essence of words. We know this. Why? If I came running around the corner, eyes big, scared, clearly terrified, running from something and you say, "Whoa, whoa, what's going on? Where are you running?" I say a lion is chasing me. Does your mind go to an animal or does your mind first go to a very brave man?

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That's because the default is literal. Metaphorical is the exception in words. Right? This goes for everything in the Quran. We have to have a we have to have a ground rule. We have to have a foundation that we understand words by. We either take everything metaphorical and literal is the exception or we take everything literal and metaphorical is the exception. When we go to understanding the Quran, the Sunnah and all sane human beings say that literal is the default. Metaphorical is the exception. Right? Sometimes both are intended. Right? Sometimes both are intended. If I pick up my son that's growing up, right, and I say, "Oh, he's heavy. This could mean both, right? Means that he's literally heavy and at the same time he's very what? Very important. Correct? So there's no problem with both meanings being accepted together. Sometimes it's only the literal that's mention that's understood. Sometimes it's only the metaphorical that's understood and sometimes both can be understood. Okay, if we understand that then we understand that the default with respect to the words of Allah is that they are literal in meaning and the exception is metaphorical. So for instance, if we go to and this is by the way, this is an issue which is not agreed upon amongst the majority of Jews and Christians. A huge portion of Christianity and Jew Judaism believe that the Bible or the Torah or what have you is metaphorical. It's not literal in its meaning. So when they say for instance Adam and Eve were in a paradise and they were told do not eat from a particular tree that this is this didn't actually happen because they say well we had we had evolution you know people started as bacteria and turned into fish and grew legs and came outside and stood up and and turned into human beings. So there was no beginning where it was Adam created by Allah with his hands. Adam alis being created from clay and how being made from his rib. This is all a metaphor. Do we understand that? That is not the way that we understand the Quran. This is what we refer to as alia. Albinia is a group that came out around the second century after Hijra who were deeply influenced by rhetoric of the Greeks and Romans and Persians. And as a result they understood it the opposite that everything is metaphorical and literal is the exception. So when Allah says that he hears doesn't mean that he really hears. This is what they say. Hearing is something specific to human beings. We hear the creation hears but Allah does not hear. So he is all hearing but he doesn't hear. This is exactly how they say he is allseeing but doesn't see. He is all knowledgeable but doesn't have knowledge. He loves but he doesn't have love. He is merciful but has no mercy. And this is exactly how they say it.

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Were very influenced by them and subsequent groups that came along later. However, this Baltia looks at everything as being metaphorical unless there's evidence to state that it is that it is literal. So they'll look at something and this is this is heresy. This is heterox. This is zen is what we call this. Why? Because this means that all of the commands of the Quran and sunnah are are circumstantial. Allah says stay away from alcohol. Well, it doesn't mean that alcohol is haram. It just means that stay away from anything that will make you behave as if you are drunk. But alcohol itself is not haram. This is their words, not mine. This is what led them to this is because everything is metaphorical. Right? And they later began to say there is no prayer five times a day. Prayer is the awakenedness of the heart. Right? There is no fasting. Fasting is refraining from things that you are addicted to things this. And so because it's a slippery slope when you say Allah rose above his throne, they say there's no real throne. It's not a throne. It just means that Allah assumed kingship, right? Well, that's a problem because if the throne is not literal and there is no real tangible physical throne, then the prophet sallall.aii wasallam said that paradise's ceiling is is what? Huh? the throne of Allah. The prophet sallall.aii wasallam said if you ask Allah for paradise ask him for the highest point of feros because its ceiling its sky is the throne of Allah. But then if we say the throne of Allah is just a metaphor then that means that paradise is also what is a metaphor. And if paradise is a metaphor, then that means that the seven heavens, which paradise exists above, is also a metaphor. And if the seven heavens are a metaphor, then the earths are a metaphor. Correct? And they continued down this slippery slope until they said, "There is no difference between the creator and the creation. They are the same thing." Why is that? Because just right now when I say the word unicorn, what just popped into your head? Everyone, huh? A horse with a horn, right? And wings. Does a Does a unicorn actually exist? No. So this creation is actually all just as we have thoughts in our mind. This creation is all just a thought in the mind of the creator. This is what we call pantheism. Hinduism is based on pantheism that there is no difference between the creator and the creation. Where did all this start? What was the you know sometimes there's a thread that if there's a thread here you say shikh let me get that thread you the whole arm falls off right that's what that thread was this topic of literal and metaphorical which one is default you see how that little question how much is based on it so when we hear that there was a man named Adam and he was created from clay and Allah created him with his hands and he put a soul into him and he told the angels to prostrate themselves. Is all of this literal or is this just metaphorical? This is absolutely literal. Absolutely literal. When our prophet sallall.aii alaihi wasallam tells us that Allah created the heavens and the earth in six days and then and then rose above the throne. And then inki he tells us that men wasallam the first one to be for the to be brought from his grave on the day of judgment will be the prophet Muhammad sallallahu alaihi wasallam. He said, "I will ascend from my grave and find misam holding to one of the a part of the throne of Allah." Holding to one of the legs on the throne of Allah. Now if we say the throne is metaphorical then what's that mean? That means MS is metaphorical too. Correct? That means the grave is metaphorical too. Right? That means that everything is a metaphor. Nothing is literal. Everything is just a metaphor. This is so important that strictly everything is literal in the Quran and Sunnah unless it is clearly evidenced and clearly bolstered by the Quran and Sunnah that this is an exception to the rule. It's not meant literally. It is rather meant what? Metaphorically. This is such an important such an important principle of understanding the Quran. When Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala says stand, it means literally stand. Unless something in the context tells us that what was meant by that was metaphorical. Do you know the story of the two companion the the two groups of companions when the prophet sallallam said you remember this narration do not pray hurry go to do not pray unless you are in there's a narration now that could mean do not pray assur unless you are physically Or it could mean hurry. Hurry so fast that you wouldn't miss and you could catch it in. Those are the two meanings, right? Which one is literal? Which one is literal? Huh? Praying physically there. That is literal, right? And what is metaphorical? hurry up. Correct. Now, the companions didn't agree. Some of them said, "No, we have been commanded to pray in so we will pray in." And they continued and they missed time and they prayed it in. And the other said, "No, what's important is we what's what's meant what he meant was for us to hurry, but it's time for and if we don't pray now, we will miss salah in its proper time." Now, some of them prayed on time and some of them prayed at Ben. When the prophet sallallah.aii alaihi wasallam was later told about this. Which one did he point out as being correct? he pointed out as being what he intended was haste, hurry. But he did not blame either of them. Why didn't he blame either of them? because they have a they have an excuse in understanding the literal because the default is literal. Right? That is what is meant by this narration which many of us have heard. They were both correct in doing what they thought was right. But the truth is one. It's not two. There can't yes and no can't both be correct simultaneously at the same time. Right? It can't be black and white at the same exact time. It can't be day and nighttime at the same exact time. It has to be one. These are two conflicting mutually exclusive things. Everybody understand that? Now, Sheh Ali, why did you take us around this block here? Well, first of all, we are going to be getting into a lot of that in the future in the Quran because when we hear Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala describe himself, his descriptions are literal or metaphorical. They are literal as befitting for his majesty and we will discuss that inshallah. But they are literal. They are not metaphorical. If if the names and attributes of Allah are not literal, then what else could possibly be literal? That is the strongest most self-evident truth in all of existence. The names and attributes of Allah. How could anything be literal if the names and attributes of Allah are not literal? They are literal, but they also carry a metaphorical meaning with them. Because as we said metaphor and literal they don't necessarily clash. Now where did all this come from? Because Allah says indeed we are going to send down upon you a very heavy, very grave, very lofty word. Heavy here means literally heavy or heavy here means important. Which one is it? Important important literal said while I was sitting next to the prophet sallall.aii wasallam his knee was resting on my thigh. This is inahkari. and revelation came down upon him and I felt a weight to his body. I thought that my thigh was going to break under the weight of revelation in a mus Ahmed the prophet sallall.aii alaihi wasallam was on his camel in Mecca when surah Mah was revealed and when surah Maha was revealed his camel started to buckle under the weight of revelation and he had to get off of his camel to save its life under the weight of the revelation. That means that this verse is literally these words when they were revealed had a literal weight and an influence on the physical world. But it's also metaphorical because they are very heavy in their meaning. They are very grave words, right? And so when you go now go home and open something like and read what the Sahabah or the or the scholars of say about this verse. Some of them will say literally heavy and others will say no very important. Which one is correct? Both of them. Both of them are correct. As long as a literal meaning can carry an appropriate metaphorical meaning, the verse means both and we only resort to one or the other when it is impossible to harmonize the two. This is how we unlock and start to understand the Quran. I know it's very easy to sit back and listen to stories and we do that right how many narrations and stories and do we hear here a lot but this is what knowledge is this is how knowledge works now when you hear someone say Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala doesn't have a face we say The Quran says that, right? You say, "No, that's metaphorical." We understand now how the scholars of Islam arrive at the conclusions that they arrive at. We will, this is a very important lesson. This is probably one of the most important lessons we've ever had since I've been here. And we will always refer back to this lesson and this principle going forward in the Quran because this topic comes up almost every single verse that we read.

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And.