the story the backstory is I are not completely convinced of the backstory but anyway the story
is that Masada said I made a statement about how knowledgeable he is on the earth like he's
perhaps the most knowledgeable human being on the earth and Allah said there's someone who
knows more than you and you need to go learn from him and he's he will meet him where the two oceans
meet so he gets determined to learn now and you know grabs this assistant and they go out to sea
to find this person that Allah has instructed him to meet okay yeah say that again yeah it's Hawaii
it's it's closer to New Jersey thank God we don't know where this place is thank Allah we don't know
where these places you know what would happen if we knew where those places there'd be a bunch of
Pakistani entities out there looking for Heather and then just you know Punk over my child or you
know or something thank Allah that we don't know where this place is okay there's a reason some
things are kept a mystery in the Quran like for example the wall of ya'juj and ma'juj for God's
sake it's not the Wall of China God we don't know and that's okay it's okay and by the way I should
remind you of something that perhaps you weren't this wasn't your year when I started certain cop
so I should remind you of this the first story in this surah is the people of the cave and the
great crime committed with that story is that people asked irrelevant questions how long did
they stay how many were they who cares that's not the point you shouldn't order to say Allah I love
the kohlrabi a little bit idea to him Allah Allah will be my love with you Allah knows
better Allah knows better Allah knows better he hammered that in in the first story and then he
tested you and me with three more stories in this surah in all of them you have to ask weak when
did this happen who why where what location what year who's this young man you're gonna
ask questions about dhul-qarnayn same kinds of questions you're gonna ask questions about Busan
today even to to Gardens where are these Gardens who are they are they at the time of the Prophet
or like Allah first taught you here's how I want you to learn stories learn to not ask too many
questions by the way in this story the teacher is gonna say what don't be accent too many questions
and I'm not going to tell you the whole story had a fella come in who the Quran until I mentioned a
little bit to you think about a little bit I tell you don't worry about anything else it's actually
a Las way of telling the story it's not just the story itself right which is why the outside this
is the background this is where they went did they go by land or sea irrelevant yeah
fantastic question excellent question how do we draw the line between seeking knowledge because
that's what we're trying to do and asking too many questions the you can ask as many
questions as you want learn to ask the right questions and you can ask as many questions
as you want the thing is the thing is not you don't have the right to ask questions the thing
is what is the thought process that leads you to your question you're learning the story of Yusuf
hey what's the minister's wife's name I mean and scandalous lady what's her name you know
well so your question didn't arise from something Allah made you curious about what Allah emphasizes
you ask about what Allah emphasizes you learn to de-emphasize you see I naughty but not we'll see
the way he taught this to me even though I've taught this in the beginning of the talk I'll
repeat it for you guys because it's important for you guys there's the saying in Arabic I
don't if you guys learned at home at Allah did you learn that one okay take what's in front of
you just take what's in front if you trust your teacher then you'll focus on what he's giving you
not what he's not giving you what happens is well stardom is teaching you one day what long time ago
about what's about often with someone off a day but are there some cases I know you're teaching
me this right now what are there exceptions that you haven't told us about that perhaps clearly
in your experience it isn't the time to discuss but I feel that you really should because I have
curiosities beyond what you're telling me so check if CC gave this epic story man so good
because there's this guy he's like successful in business right and he's made hundreds of
millions and he decides after making all this money that he just wants to teach young people
entrepreneurship he's gonna teach business he's not going into the teaching profession because
he needs the money he just wants to do it as a benefit to young people the next generation so
he goes to business school and teaches by the way if you have a professor like that take his class
if you have a guy that's been a business professor for thirty years as opposed to a guy that left the
business world and came to be a professor go to the guy that's left business the this world and
to come and be a professor because they give you real-world knowledge right down textbook
knowledge so he goes in teaches this class and he wants to teach students by way of example so he
says you know guys if there's this young this man wants to start a business first he did a lot of
research into his product and the location where he wants to open his retail establishment he did
a lot of research about pricing and rent versus buying he looked at the tax strategy he looked at
the location he looked at the kind of you know advertising and branding and the colors that
he should be looking at he looked at you know inventory and income versus expenses how much
should be spent he's spending in the first quarter the second quarter what were his projections for
the first he made this whole story up about this guy who's starting his business and he put it in
the form of a story why because then students can remember it easier if you make a list of things
right then it's harder to remember if you put it in a story like you know words are upset or
feminine it's just easier to remember right so he makes this amazing story and he tells it in class
and everybody's like taking notes and one student raises his hand and says so what color shirt does
he wear every day and the professors is looking at him like did you really just ask me this and
another student raises his hand yeah I was not I was less curious about the shirt but his socks
really concerned me what kind of socks does he wear and the professor is baffled and he goes
home and he's so upset and his wife asked him what happened and he says you know that story
I wrote she goes yeah how'd it go well I did a great job but here are the questions that came
forward can you believe what they were arguing about how in the oricon again and checkup tells
the story and then he says now read say hakuna ethyl acetone review uncle where guloona ham
satin Saudis or Granville garage bumpy lab where kourounis are at one with a mineral kaboom kerubim
now I was like oh Allah is so offended by the stupidity of this argument that
he records the whole thing can you believe what they're arguing about what I just told
you and what you're discussing that's what I mean by asking the right questions I'm
not want you to think about certain things we want to think about all the things he
doesn't want us to think about what are the other brothers names in the story of
Yusuf you know why why Allah didn't tell you what about his mom I didn't mean anything
about his mom I want to know why mom yes I'm sure you want to know about his mom
but Allah wants you to think about his dad can you just pay attention just worry about
the dad if you want to worry about the mom read the story of Moosa you can worry about
the mom well then you know why was dad is that clear like asked what are the one of the most
beneficial things you'll learn in the study of Quran is what kinds of questions to ask what
to think how to think not every curiosity is healthy you know guy the Quran it keeps asking
you to think think think this thought process gives you direction without thought process you
don't have direction your questions go in every direction you know and unfortunately this is the
unfortunate thing you must maintain commitment to your thought process when you study Islam
you have to be committed you know why because you're going to read a lot of books and you can
read a lot of seers where they're not committed to the same thought process so there's gonna be
six pages on what color the dog was in the story of the cave in classical to see and did he have
spots or not and what his name was and it's gonna be a classical text and you're gonna say
I'm reading the tafseer of falada falada been forgotten I have a jaw sign in it yes you do
that's great you can read a lot of stuff but you have to maintain your thought process and
you have to identify what's critical in what's not you see that's not going to be done for you
unfortunately you have to develop that yourself you know and to me the best way to develop it
is commitment to Quran commitment to the primary text the more you you ponder over
Quran and you look at how Allah speaks and what he emphasizes it just teaches you what