Dr. Mohammed Muhsin Khan.
He passed away at the age of 97 after living a century amongst us.
And his story is very inspiring because it gives hope to those
who are not even Ulama (scholars) you don't have to have ilm (knowledge) to benefit the Ummah.
You don't have to have traveled and studied religion just to benefit the Ummah.
You can benefit the Ummah no matter what your field is
Dr. Muhammad Muhsin Khan
He is the person who first translated Sahih Al-Buhari into the English language,
and he translated the Quran and other books into the English language.
When no such translation existed.
But his story is very interesting.
Dr. Muhsin Khan was born in an Afghan family
in, of course, the pre partition India and born in the 1920s.
And he was of the first batches to study abroad, overseas in the West.
He studied in England, and he got his MBBS, which is his degree in medicine.
And then he pursued a specialty of heart and chest diseases.
This is in the 1950s when hardly
any Muslim was living in the West, much less studying in the west.
So he became top notch in his field.
And then an offer came to him from King Abdul Aziz of Saudi Arabia
to come and be in charge of the specialty unit of heart and chest diseases
in the military hospital, a very prestigious, very well-paying.
He said this to me directly.
He said, I was not a religious person and I did not choose the job
to go to Saudi Arabia, to go to Mecca and Medina.
I chose the job because it paid well. He said this to me directly.
I chose the job because it paid well.
I left England and I went to the city of Taif
which was where the military hospital was. This is in the late 50s.
And he stayed there and he established his credentials.
Then in 1961, the Islamic University of Medina,
where I studied for 10 years, had opened up in 1961.
They needed a hospital for the students and faculty and staff.
And I visited that hospital a few times.
So they needed a doctor.
Excuse me. But it's 1961.
And back then, there are no qualified Muslim doctors.
You have to be Muslim to live, Madinah.
So by royal decree, not that he wanted it.
Dr. Muhsin Khan was transferred to become the chief doctor
for the University of Medina as a doctor, not as an aalim, not as a shaikh.
And he entered Medina as a doctor because of the salary.
How many among us would love to live there because of the religion?
And he told me this directly.
I went there because of the job and because the king forced me.
I didn't want to go to Medina because he had a good position in five.
But he went to Medina and he said within a few weeks I saw the Prophet ﷺ in a dream.
And it's a very long dream.
And at one portion of the dream, the process, and was sweating.
And he Dr. Muhsin Khan he took it that sweat and he drank it.
He woke up and he was shocked.
What does this dream mean?
He went to the rector of the university.
Sh. Bin Baz the the grand mufti at the time.
This is 1960 something.
He went to Sh. Bin Baz and he said, "Shaikh..."
"...you know, I'm the doctor of your hospital..."
"...I saw this dream. What does it mean?..."
The shaikh said to him, this means you are going
to benefit the sunnah of the Prophet ﷺ
Dr. Muhsin told us, "I was shocked..."
I am a medical doctor. I'm not a shaikh or aalim
And I don't know anything about Islam.
I'm not even that religious back in that day.
But Allah had plans for him.
Allah had plans for him that even he did not know. He was shocked.
He goes, what can I do that can benefit the Sunnah
So he said, I began asking around because he knew that this is a dream
he has to do something.
And he discovered this is 1960, something that
these famous and important books had not been translated.
Nobody spoke fluent Arabic and fluent English at the time.
And he realized that he spoke fluent English because he's trained in England
for so many years. He spoke fluent English.
So he said the idea then came to me that perhaps
Allah azza wajal is showing me to translate these books for the Ummah
But he didn't have any ilm (knowledge)
So he went to Sh. Bin Baz and Sh. Bin Baz assigned him another great scholar, Dr. Taqi Al-Din Al-Hilali
He was a Moroccan scholar who back in the 1930s
went to Germany when Nazis were ruling, and he did a PhD in Islamic studies.
So he spoke French and German and English and Arabic, a multilingual scholar.
So he was assigned Dr. Taqi Al-Din and Dr. Muhsin on the two of them in the 1960s,
when there was no authentic translation of the Quran done by Muslims back then.
It was done by non-Muslims.
And no book of Hadith had been translated by this point in time.
And the two of them sat together.
He gave up his job and they translated maShaAllah tabarakallah
the entirety of Sahih Al-Bukhari and a commentary of the Quran.
One of them is multivolume and the other one is one volume.
Now, why am I telling you this story?
Because for me, it's such an inspiring story
that you can benefit the Ummah in a global scale.
I am positive that 95 percent of, you know, Dr. Muhsin Khan
But you don't know his story.
You have this translation at home, but you don't know anything about him.
Do you know he's not a shaikh? He's not an Aalim?
He didn't study full time Islamic studies.
He himself was shocked, how can I help the Ummah, but Allah azzawajal had a plan for him!
So with a ikhlas under the guidance of ilm and ulama
and with sincerity and with humility and humbleness and wallahi
I met him a number of times.
You would not even think
that this is a medical doctor from England with prestigious degrees and money.
You would not even know this. Such a humble and simple person.
He would be lost in the crowd.
You would not know him if you didn't know who he was.
And yet what he did literally impacted the English speaking world in its entirety.
What is the takeaway message, dear Muslims? Very simple.
You, too, can benefit the Ummah in your own way.
Don't let barriers that you put in your head like he himself said.
I haven't studied ilm, OK, but I have something else I can do.
I have another talent that Allah has given me.
Every one of you sitting here without a question, without a doubt,
you have something to contribute that is unique to you.
No one other than you can do what you can do.
So think, what can I do?
And then do it and Allah will open up doors. And how do you know?
What do you know?
Maybe the door that opens up in front of
you will be a door that will benefit the entirety of the Ummah
and will leave a Sadaqa Jariyah, the likes of which you cannot even imagine.