Chapter 2:
Basic Prerequisites
Certain
basic states and attitudes of heart and mind are a necessary prerequisite to any
fruitful relationship with the Qur'an. Develop them as much as you can. Make
them part of your consciousness, keep them ever-alive and active. Integrate them
in your actions. Let them penetrate the depth of your being. Without the help of
these inner resources you will not receive your full measure of the Qur'an's
blessings. They will be your indispensable companions, too, throughout your
journey.
These inner
resources are neither difficult nor impossible to find. Through constant
awareness and reflection, through appropriate words and deeds, you can acquire
and develop them. The more you do so, the closer you will be able to come to the
Qur'an; the closer you come to the Qur'an, the greater will be your harvest.
First:
Come to the Qur'an with a strong and deep faith that it is the word of Allah,
your Creator and Lord.
Why should such a faith be a necessary prerequisite? No doubt such is the power
and charm of the Qur'an that even if a man takes it up and starts reading it as
he would an ordinary book, he will still benefit from it, should he read it with
an open mind. But this book is no ordinary book; it opens with the emphatic
statement: 'This is the Book [of God], there is no doubt in it' (al-Baqarah
2:2). Your purpose in reading and studying it is no ordinary purpose; you seek
from it the guidance that will transform your whole being, bring you and keep
you on the Straight Path: 'Guide us on the Straight Path' (al-Fatihah
1:5) is the cry of your heart to which the Qur'an is the response.
You may admire the Qur'an, even be informed by it, but you cannot be transformed
by it unless its words soak in to awaken you, to grip you, to heal and change
you. This cannot happen unless you take them for what they truly are the words
of God.
Without this faith you cannot come to acquire all the other inner resources you
will need to reach the heart of the Qur'an and absorb its message. Once it comes
to reside in your heart, you cannot but be filled with the qualities and
attitudes such as sincerity of purpose, awe and reverence, love and gratitude,
trust and dependence, willingness to labour hard, conviction of its truth,
surrender to its message, obedience to its commands, and vigilance against
dangers which stalk to deprive you of its treasures.
Think of His majesty and glory and power, and you will feel awe and reverence
and devotion for His words. Reflect on His sustenance and mercy and compassion,
and you will be filled with gratitude and love and longing for His message. Know
His wisdom and knowledge and kindness, and you will become willing and eager and
ready to obey His commandments.
That is why the Qur'an reminds you of this important truth again and again: in
the very beginning, in the opening verses of many Surahs, and frequently in
between.
That is why even the Messenger, blessings and peace be on him, is instructed to
proclaim his own faith: 'Say: I believe in whatever God has sent down in this
Book' (al-Shura 42: 15). In his faith all believers must join him: 'The
Messenger believes in what has been sent down to him by His Lord, and all
believers too' (al-Baqarah 2:285).
You must, therefore, always remain conscious that each word that you are
reading, reciting, hearing, or trying to understand, has been sent for you by
Allah.
Do you truly have this faith? You do not have to look far for an answer. Just
examine your heart and behavior. If you have it, then, where is the desire and
longing for companionship with the Qur'an, where is the labour and hard work to
understand it, where is the surrender and obedience to its message?
How do we obtain this faith, and how can it be kept alive? Although there are
many ways, I will mention only one here . The most effective way is reciting the
Qur'an itself. This may look as if we are moving in a circle, but this is not
really the case. For, as you read the Qur'an, you will surely recognize it as
being the word of God. Your faith will then increase in intensity and depth: Believers
are only those who, whenever God is mentioned, their hearts tremble with awe;
and whenever His revelations are recited to them, they increase them in faith
... (al-Anfal 8: 2).
Second:
Read the Qur'an with no purpose other than to receive guidance from your
Lord, to come nearer to Him, and to seek His good pleasure.
What you get from the Qur'arn depends on what you come to it for. Your niyyah
(intention and purpose) is crucial. Certainly the Qur'an has come to guide you,
but you may also go astray by reading it should you approach it for impure
purposes and wrong motives.
Thereby He causes many to go astray, and thereby He guides many; but thereby He
causes none to go astray save the iniquitous
(al-Baqarah 2:26).
The Qur'an is the word of Allah; it therefore requires as much exclusiveness of
intention and purity of purpose as does worshipping and serving Him.
Do
not read it merely for intellectual pursuit and pleasure; even though
you must apply your intellect to the full to the task of understanding
the Qur'an.
So many people spend a lifetime in studying the language, style, history,
geography, law and ethics of the Qur'an, and yet their lives remain untouched by
its message. The Qur'an frequently refers to people who have knowledge but do
not derive benefit from it.
Nor
should you come to the Qur'an with the fixed intention of finding
support for your own views, notions and doctrines. For if you do, you
may, then, hear an echo of your own voice in it,
and not that of God. It is this approach to the understanding and interpreting
of the Qur'an that the Prophet, blessings and peace be on him, has condemned.
'Whoever interprets the Qur'an by his personal opinion shall take his place in
the Fire' (Tirmidhi).
Nothing could be more unfortunate than to use the Qur'an to secure, for your own
person, worldly things such as name, esteem, status, fame or money. You may get
them, but you will surely be bartering away a priceless treasure for nothing,
indeed even incurring eternal loss and ruin. Indeed, the Prophet, blessings and
peace be on him, said: 'If anyone studies the Qur'an seeking thereby a living
from people, he will rise on the Day of Resurrection with his face as a
fleshless bone' (Baihaqi). He also said that one who learns, recites and teaches
the Qur'an for worldly acclaim will be thrown into the Fire (Muslim).
You may also derive other lesser benefits, from the words of the Qur'an, such as
the healing of bodily afflictions, psychological peace, and deliverance from
poverty. There is no bar to having these, but, again, they should not become the
be all and end all that you seek from the Qur'an nor the goal of your niyyah.
For in achieving these you may lose a whole ocean that could have been yours.
Reading every single letter of the Qur'an carries with it great rewards. Remain
conscious of all the rewards, and make them an objective of your niyyah,
for they will provide you with those strong incentives required to spend your
life with the Qur'an. But never forget that on understanding, absorbing and
following the Qur'an you have been promised much larger rewards, in this-world
and in the Hereafter. It is these which you must aim for.
Not
only should your purpose be pure, but you should also, once you have the
Qur'an with you—both the text and its living embodiment in the Sunnah—never
go to any other source for guidance. For that would be like running
after mirages. It would mean a lack of confidence, a denigration of the
Qur'an. It would amount to divided loyalties.
Nothing brings you nearer to your Lord than the moments you spend with His
words. For it is only in the Qur'an that you enjoy the unique blessing of
hearing His 'voice' addressing you. So let an intense desire to come nearer to
Allah be your one overwhelming motive while reading the Qur'an.
Finally,
your niyyah should be directed to seeking only your Lord's
pleasure by devoting your heart, mind and time to the guidance that He
has sent to you. That is what you barter when you surrender yourself to
Allah: 'There is such as would sell his own self in order to please
God' (al-Baqarah 2:207).
Purpose and intentions are like the soul of a body, the inner capability of a
seed. Many seeds look alike, but as they begin to grow and bear fruits, their
differences become manifest. The purer and higher the motive, the greater the
value and yield of your efforts.
So always ask yourself: Why am I reading the Qur'an? Tell yourself constantly
why you should. This may be the best way to ensure the purity and exclusiveness
of purpose and intention.
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Third:
Make yourself constantly alert with intense praise and gratitude to your
Lord for having blessed you with His greatest gift the Qur'an and for
having guided you to its reading and study.
Once you realize what a priceless treasure you hold in your hands, it is but
natural for your heart to beat with joy and murmur, and for your tongue to join
in: 'Thankful praise be to Allah, who has guided us to this; [otherwise]
never could we have found guidance had not Allah not guided us' (al-A'raf 7:
43).
Of all the intimate blessings and favours He has bestowed upon you nothing can
match the Qur'an. If every hair on your body becomes a tongue praising and
thanking Him, if every drop of blood in your body turns into a joyful tear, even
then your praise and thanks will not match His enormous generosity that is the
Qur'an.
Even if the Qur'an had not been sent down for us, its perfection and beauty, its
majesty and splendour would deserve all the praise at our command. But that this
sublime and perfect gift, having the unique distinction of embodying our Lord's
speech, has been given solely for our sake must intensify our praise beyond
bounds.
Such intense praise inevitably turns into intense gratitude. And no word
expresses this intense praise combined with overflowing gratitude and thanks as
well as does al-hamd.
alhamdu li 'llahi 'I-ladhi hadana li hadha
...
Why thank Allah for having given us the Qur'an? Principally because He has,
thus, guided you to meaning and purpose in life and brought you on the Straight
Path. The way to honour and dignity in this-world has been opened for you. In
the Qur'an, you can converse with Allah. Only by following the Qur'an in
this-world can you attain forgiveness, Paradise and Allah's good pleasure in
that-world.
Gratitude and joy lead to trust, hope and greater gifts. The One who has given
you the Qur'an will surely help you in reading, understanding and following it.
Thankfulness and joy generate an ever-fresh vigour which helps you to read the
Qur'an always with a renewed zeal. The more you are grateful, the more Allah
gives you of the riches that the Qur'an has to offer. Generosity evokes
gratitude, gratitude makes you deserve more generosity an unending cycle. Such
is God's promise: 'If you are grateful, I
will surely give you more and more' (Ibrahim
14: 7).
Having the Qur'an and not feeling immensely grateful for it can only mean two
things: either you are ignorant of the blessings that the Qur'an contains, or
you do not attach any importance to them. In either case you should be seriously
worried about the state of your relationship with the Qur'an. The sentiment of
gratitude that permeates every pore of your heart and mind, must also pour out
in your words, which should be profuse and incessant. Thank Allah at every step
of your journey: for having had time for the Qur'an, for reading it correctly,
for memorizing it, ?or every meaning you discover in it, for having been enabled
to follow it. Gratitude must also be transformed into deeds.
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Fourth:
Accept and trust, without the least doubt or hesitation, every knowledge
and guidance that the Qur'an conveys to you.
You have the freedom to question whether the
Qur'an is the word of Allah or not, and to reject its claim if you are
not satisfied. But once you have accepted it as His word, you have no
basis whatever to doubt even a single word of it. For to do so would
negate what you have accepted. There must be total surrender and
abandonment to the Qur'anic teachings. Your own beliefs, opinions,
judgements, notions, whims should not be allowed to override any part of
it.
The Qur'an condemns those who receive the Book as an inheritance and then behave
as bewildered and puzzled, doubting and sceptical 'believers'.
Those whom the Book has been given as an inheritance after them [the early
people], behold they are in doubt about it, disquieting
(al-Shura 42: 14).
The Qur'an also repeatedly emphasizes that every measure was taken to ensure
that it came down and was conveyed without any adulteration. And affirms:
With the Truth We have sent it down and with the Truth it has come down
(al-Isra' 17: 105).
And perfect are the words of your Lord in Truth and Justice
(al-An'am 6: 115).
Accepting and trusting the Qur'an as true, and wholly true, does not mean blind
faith, closed minds, unenquiring intellects.
You have every right to enquire, reflect, question and understand what it
contains; but what you cannot fully comprehend is not necessarily irrational or
untrue. In a mine where you believe that every stone is a priceless gem and it
may have proved to be so you will not throw away the few whose worth your eyes
fail to detect or which the tools available to you are inadequate or unable to
evaluate.
Nor can part of the Qur'an be discarded as being out of date and old-fashioned,
an old wives' tale. If God is Lord of all times, His message must be equally
valid fourteen centuries later.
To accept some part of the Qur'an and to reject some is to reject all of it.
There is no room for partial acceptance in your relationship with the Qur'an;
there cannot logically be (al Baqarah 2: 85).There are many diseases of the
heart and mind which may prevent you from accepting the Qur'anic message and
surrendering to it. They have all been described in the Qur'an. Among them are
envy, prejudice, gratification of one's desires and the blind following of the
ways and customs of society. But the greatest are pride and arrogance, a sense
of self-sufficiency (kibr and istighna') which prevent you from
giving up your own opinions, recognizing the word of God, and accepting it with
humility.
I shall turn away from My revelations all those who wax proud in the earth,
without any right; though they see every sign, they do not believe in it, and
though they see the way of rectitude, they do not take it for a way, and if they
see the way of error, they take it for a way
(al-A'raf 7: 146).
And those who deny Our revelations and wax proud against them the gates of
heaven shall not be opened to them, nor shall they enter Paradise until a camel
passes through a needle's eye
(al-A'raf 7: 40).
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Fifth:
Bring the will, resolve and readiness to obey whatever the Qur'an says,
and change your life, attitudes and behaviour-inwardly and outwardly-as
desired by it.
Unless you are prepared and begin to act to shape your thoughts and actions
according to the messages you receive from the Qur'an, all your dedication and
labour may be to no avail. Mere intellectual
exercises and ecstatic experiences will never bring you anywhere near
the real treasures of the Qur'an.
Failing to obey the Qur'an and to change your life-because of human frailties
and temptations, natural difficulties and external impediments is one matter;
failing to do so because you have no intention or make no effort to do so is
quite another. You may, then attain fame as a scholar of the Qur'an, but it will
never reveal its true meaning to you.
The Qur'an reserves one of its most severe condemnations for those who profess
faith in the Book of God, but when they are summoned to act or when situations
arise for decision-making, they ignore its call or turn away from it. They have
been declared to be Kafir, fasiq (iniquitous), zalim
(wrongdoer).
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Sixth:
Always remain aware that, as you embark upon reading the Qur'an, Satan
will create every possible hazard and obstacle to stalk you on your way
to the great riches of the Qur'an.
The Qur'an is the only sure guide to the Straight Path to God; to walk that path
is man's destiny. When Adam was created he was made aware of the hurdles and
obstacles man would have to surmount in order to fulfil his destiny. All his
weaknesses were laid bare, especially his weakness of will and resolve and his
forgetfulness (Ta Ha 20: 115). It was also made plain how Satan would try to
obstruct him at every step of his journey:
I shall surely sit in ambush for them all along Thy Straight Path; I shall,
then, come on them from between their hands and from behind them, from their
right and their left. Thou wilt not find most of them thankful
(al-A'raf 7: 16-17).
Obviously the Qur'an the 'Guidance from Me' is your most powerful ally and help
as you battle all your life against Satan and strive to live by God's guidance.
Hence, from the very first step when you decide to read the Qur'an till the last
when you try to live by it, he will confront you with many tricks and guiles,
illusions and deceptions, obstacles and impediments which you will have to surmount.
Satan may pollute your intention, make
you remain unmindful of the Qur'an's meaning and message, create doubts
in your mind, erect barriers between your soul and the world of Allah,
entangle you in peripheral rather than central teachings, tempt you away
from obeying the Qur'an, or simply make you neglect and postpone the
task of reading it. All of these
dangers are fully explained in the Qur'an itself.
Take
just one very simple thing. Reading the Qur'an every day, while
understanding it, sounds very easy. But try, and you will find how
difficult it becomes: time slips away,
other important things come up. Concentrating mind and attention become
something you wish to avoid: why not just read quickly for barakah.
It is with the consciousness of these perils and dangers that your
tongue should, in obedience to the Qur'an 'When you recite the Qur'an,
seek refuge with Allah from Satan, the rejected' (al-Nahl 16: 98)
say:
a'udhu
billahi mina 'sh-Shaytani 'r-rajim
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Seventh:
Trust, exclusively and totally, in Allah to lead you to the full rewards
of reading the Qur'an.
Just as
it has been Allah's infinite mercy that has brought His words to you in
the Qur'an and brought you to it, so it can be only His mercy that can
help in your crucial task. You need weighty and precious provisions, and
these are not easy to procure. You face immense dangers, which are
difficult to overcome. Whom can you look to but Him to hold you by the
hand and guide you on your way. Your desire and effort are the necessary
means; but His enabling grace and support are the only sure guarantees
that you will be able to tread your way with success and profit. In Him
alone you should trust as true believers. To Him alone you must turn for
everything in life. And what thing is more important than the Qur'an?
Also, never be proud of what you are doing for the Qur'an, of what you
have achieved. Always be conscious of your inadequacies and limitations
in the face of a task which has no parallel. So approach the Qur'an with
humility, with a sense of utter dependence upon Allah, seeking His help
and support at every step. It is in this spirit of trust, praise and
gratitude, that you should let your tongue and heart, in mutual harmony,
begin the recitation:
Bismi
illahi 'r-Rahmani 'r-Rahim
In the
name of Allah, the Most-merciful, the Mercy-giving
This is
the verse which appears at the head of all but one of the 114 Surahs of
the Qur'an. And also pray, asking His protection:
Our
Lord! Let not our hearts swerve [from the Truth] after Thou hast guided
us; and bestow upon us Thy mercy, indeed Thou alone art the Bestower
(Al 'Imran 3: 8). |
Source: Way to
the Qur'an,
By
Khurram Murad, Paperback 144 Pages,
Published by The Islamic Foundation UK, ISBN: 0-86037-153-0
This
inspirational work shows how to approach the Qur’an in order to develop a
better understanding. |