let us go for the obvious first. then i will demonstrate how he talks like a AI bot. maybe siri will give you better tafsir. (if you load it with enough tafasir...)
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the word alif doesn't make any sense. the word laam does not make any sense. the word meem does not make any sense. because these are letters of the alphabet. and the only people who learn the alphabet are the people who learn.. who what?... read.
what a stupid idea. looks like NAK didn't get chomsky's memo. language is hardwired in human brain. humans are naturally wont to speak. and even create words.
and these are letters. don't take my word for it - try it with a two year old child who cannot read. ask them to repeat ALIF-LAM-MEEM and some children may stutter, lisp - but most average children will be able to say ALIF LAM MEEM.
it is not a special skill. YOU are an idiot. what the child cannot probably do (unless instructed) is that CANNOT READ from a written, inscribed piece of paper or screen or whatever medium.
READ as in reading the written word. not READ as in recite.
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so the first thing that was given in the surah. is that reminding you that the messenger himself, alayhis salatu was salam has no clue how to read, and yet out of his word comes the word alif-laam-meem, which is impossible for someone who doesn't read.
patent nonsense. the Messenger SallAllahu alayhi wa sallam DID read.
and oh, for those interested in facts: this verse was not revealed in the beginning. rather, this was revealed in madinah. THAT is why i said that people should read itqan, burhan, etc. because they have specific chapters on chronology of verses.
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this verse - in fact, the surah was revealed in madinah without any difference of opinion. some say that the whole surah was madinian, though some have differed and put the last two verses as makki and said that they were revealed in miyraj (as nouman says earlier in the speech).
wahidi [abu'l Hasan ali ibn ahmad al-waHidi al-nisaburi, d.468 AH] in his
asbab al-nuzul says (p13):
the surah is madinian without any dispute/khilaaf. and that the first four verses are for believers and the next two for kafirs.
nouman's assertion that it is reminding of RasulAllah SallAllahu alayhi wa sallam is because of the disease in his heart - the wahabi-deobandi malady in which they imagine him to be like them. al-iyadhu billah.
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which surah are makki and which are madani? according to the second definition, and the relied upon - those verses that were revealed after hijrah are madinian and prior to hijrah are makkan regardless of the location where they were revealed.
thus, zarkashi in al-burhan cites mawardi that the entire surah is madinian except one aayah; i.e. verse 281 of surah baqarah which was revealed in mina on the day of sacrifice (yawm al-naHr) in the last Hajj of the Prophet sallALlahu alayhi wa sallam.
so by the time, A-L-M or alif-lam-meem were given, the prophet was already reciting many aayats. so NAK's explanation is total nonsense and there is no relation to the prophet's being untaught (ummi).
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an-nabiy al-ummi. you know. he doesn't know how to read. now when someone does not know how to read, the word alif doesn't make any sense. the word laam does not make any sense. the word meem does not make any sense.
i will grant it that he wanted to say 'letter' but he said word. alif is a letter "Harf" not a word.
and these are sounds. if NAK has reflected upon it, he will know that arabic is a phonetic language. these are sounds. and sounds can be copied. one can become a fluent speaker of a language without being able to read it. RasulAllah sallAllahu alayhi wa sallam was 40 years of age and was faSiH in the arabic language - no one but a jahil will dispute that. to repeat, what was said to such a fluent speaker - is immensely easy.
the bedouins would speak flawless arabic - without being able to read - according to legend, this ability of the bedouins
killed sibawayh, what is a pipsqueak arabic instructor like nouman ali khan!
so uttering a letter, repeating after another is not a big deal - unless one is as thick as NAK; and if he is not, he is so unrealistic and has no idea how people speak or learn.
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but said "W" "P" "R" the word "W" "P" "R" "X" "Q" these words don't mean anything. these words don't mean anything on their own. they only mean something when you go to school. and you learn the alphabet.
again nonsense. am sorry if i cannot find words to describe this idiocy.
even after you go to school and learn the alphabets: "W" "P" "R" "X" "Q" don't make any sense. they are individual alphabets.
if you do not believe me, you can ask ANY shakespearen scholar and ask him what "W" "P" "R" "X" "Q" mean.
this plays neatly into the orientalist mufassirs who thought that alif-laam-meem meant nothing. and contradict nouman's own statement a while earlier:
what does alif-lam-meem mean, people? what does it mean? A-L-M? what does it mean? Allah and...Allah knows. we don't know.
you acknowledged that you don't know. didn't you?
now watch. what did your oh-so-great knowledge of arabic that makes you a western sibawayh make you? nothing.
because - read this carefully - EVEN after mastering arabic grammar, you don't know what ALIF-LAAM-MEEM means. or do you?
when you don't, then how can you equate this with the Prophet sallAllahu alayhi wa sallam, which is belittling his lofty station?
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there was a brief moment of saving grace, but due to Divine Grace having left you, you were deprived of it. notice, he said:
Allah and...Allah knows. we don't know.
i think, he almost said: Allah and His Messenger know. but held himself back and said Allah knows.
alas!
i will leave the explanation of what these mean for some other occasion, but ulama have said that the qur'an is furqan and that it would not make sense to give something to a person as a 'message' which he cannot understand.
according to zarkashi, there are two opinions - one that say we cannot know the meaning of these disjoint letters; abu bakr siddiq said that it is a secret that Allah knows and sha'abi said: it is mutashabih and we are commanded to believe, not to search for its meaning.
and the other opinion of mutakallimun the disjoint letters have a meaning and can be understood. imam razi said the qur'an was sent for the creation and if they do not understand it, what is the point of sending those verses - because Allah ta'ala commanded us to reflect upon it.
zarkashi said that those who said that it could be understood have more than 20 different explanations of what these letters could be.
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my point is this: when mufassirin and ulama debate about these, how can you say that RasulALlah sallALlahu alayhi wa sallam did not know this?
and if you said, that he did not know prior to "being made to read", then we say that your objection is stupid - because this verse was revealed in madinah.
it is important because when the message began, and the messenger was told "read" [NAK makes a gesture to emphasise] isn't it the same...isn't it as impossible as the messenger knowing alif and laam and meem. isn't it the same problem? the surah begins with the reminder of the fact that the messenger cannot read.
nouman ali khan is raving mad and is patently arrogant. probably drunk upon the delusion that he is some great mufassir.
i urge him to listen to his own advice (earlier in the clip) and learn some humility - if not with others, at least with the Messenger of Allah SallAllahu alayhi wa sallam who was SENT to TEACH the book. imam razi says that the prophets receive from knowledge and it from the knowledge of prophets that scholars and those lesser to them take.
and the messenger was told "read" [NAK makes a gesture to emphasise] isn't it the same...isn't it as impossible as the messenger knowing alif and laam and meem. isn't it the same problem? the surah begins with the reminder of the fact that the messenger cannot read.
no, it is not the same problem. the surah does NOT begin with the reminder of the fact that the messenger cannot read.
on the contrary, it is a reminder of your limits and the greatness of the knowledge of the messenger SallAllahu alayhi wa sallam - no matter how big scholar you claim to be, remember there are things that you cannot know, and the messenger SallAllahu alayhi wa sallam KNOWS them. these are your limits - not the limits of HIM who was given vast knowledge:
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*ibn kathir says in his tafsir that some ignoramuses say that these letters mean nothing; and the answer to them is that we do not know - we can only say that which we are handed by RasulAllah sallAllahu alayhi wa sallam through authentic routes. and we say: 'we believe in all of it'. [even if we don't understand]
