In [20:114]:
And in [75:16]:
Allah commanded the Prophet ﷺ to not be hasty with the Qur'an. If that's the case with the Prophet ﷺ, then what about us?
Nowadays people set a limited time to finish the memorization of certain Surahs in the Qur'an. This isn't right. We shouldn't deal with the Qur'an in haste - it's not a matter of finishing quickly.
It took Umar 12 years to finish Surah AlBaqarah, and 8 years for Ibn Umar.
Another thing people do is read the Qur'an solely for the purpose of getting 10 rewards for each letter. And this brings rise to competing in finishing the Qur'an. They don't realize that the Prophet ﷺ mentioned this Hadith in order to encourage us to recite the Quran - not to make it our ultimate goal.
If you understand, ponder, and act upon one verse in your life, it would be better for you than finishing the whole Qur'an in recitation
Instead of being hasty and focusing on finishing, we should put effort to increase our belief in Allah - to learn about Allah from the Qur'an, the articles of faith, our defects, sicknesses, to learn about ourselves. If we did this, we'd look at the Qur'an in a different way; not just any book I flip through without understanding.
And when you recite it slowly and with understanding, you'd know that the Qur'an can not be except the speech of الرب العالمين. It's a miracle from Allah.
And when you ponder over it, you'll love it. And when you love it, you'll ponder over it more. This is a circle you'll never come out of - until the Qur'an becomes an inseparable part of your life. You'll never be able to live without it. It'll be the spring of your heart.
You'll read the Qur'an and find the answer to any doubt you have in your heart.
E.g. People see the disbelievers superior to the Muslims and question why it's so - Aren't the Muslims on the right path? You read [3:196-197]:
When you read the Qur'an, and you come to understand all these facts, you won't be depressed or deceived by what the people say and what you see. If any doubt comes to the believer, he has the Qur'an to refer to.
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The Prophet ﷺ used to leave his family for days and nights and go the Cave of Hira and meditate, searching for the truth. It was far, but you could see the everything from it - from the Ka'bah, to the sky, the earth, mountains, etc. Allah endeared this seclusion in his heart, until one day, Jibreel عليه السلام came with the first verses from Allah - commanding him to read.
The Prophet ﷺ said he didn't know how to read.
Jibreel commanded him again.
Now Jibreel already knew the Prophet ﷺ was illiterate - so why did he command him?
This is something we should ponder over.
القراء is not what the Prophet ﷺ understood, nor what we understand - that we have to read something written in front of us. Jibreel meant for him to read from what he's going to hear; from the revelation.
This teaches us that recitation isn't limited to spelling or reading something written.
Jibreel commanded him to read for the third time, this time saying:
It's as if he's saying - You see all these different creations from the cave - this is the Lord of all this creation. And Allah didn't specify what He created. Because He created everything. Read in His name.
The Prophet ﷺ was on the sound فطرة, and knew that all this creation must undoubtedly have a creator. All actions should have a doer. Something can't exist unless someone put it into existence.
And notice, Allah didn't say, "الذي أعطى" or any other action. He said, "خلق" - because it's the One who created all this who deserves to be worshipped, and no one else.
Verse 2:
Allah then specifies one of His creation: Man.
Why? To draw our attention to the most honoured amongst all His creation. Allah created everything else for man - to serve Him, so that through it, man learns about Allah and worships and attaches himself to Him.
In [16:4-13]:
Who did Allah create the cattle for? "لكم" For us
"لكم"
"لكم"
Who does Allah send down water for? "لكم"
Who does Allah bring forth plants for? "لكم"
Who did Allah subject the day, night, sun, moon, stars for? "لكم"
"لكم"
If you continue, you'd find many more "لكم "'s in Surah An-Nahl, which is سورة النعم. Allah didn't create anything in the universe, except that it's for us. Why? In order for us to know our Lord through them, and then accordingly worship Him.
Verse 3-5:
اقراء is mentioned twice
الرب is mentioned twice
Lessons
This should make you think - What does Allah want from us in these verses?
1) From the repetition of the word "إقراء" we learn:
a) The Importance of Reading
b) Reading will not bring fruit, except after repetition. (I.e. You won't get fruits in just one reading, you need to repeat and repeat)
2) We are commanded by Allah to read repeatedly
Continue reading with patience, until the gate of knowledge is opened for you.
3) One cannot read except by the help of Allah
Don't think that you're doing this with your own ability. It's Allah who helps you read and understand. That's why, whenever you don't understand a matter in the religion, we should advise one another to seek the help of Allah to open our hearts to understand the knowledge. Whenever we understand something, it's by Allah's favour and generosity that He made us understand.
The most disliked matter to the Shaytan is for a person to read the Qur'an, study knowledge, etc. He hates it. So he tries his best to make it heavy on your heart, make you lazy, sleepy, to overcome you and prevent you from understanding. You don't have except Allah to help you to overcome this stage you are in.
3) Learning how to read is a mere gift from Allah.
Don't feel with pride, self conceit, or attribute it to this teacher or school, when you read the Qur'an well or understand what your reading. It's out of Allah's generosity He made you read and understand.
The fact that it's easy for you to hold a pen and write is a gift from Allah. Everything we are taught is a gift from Allah.
Because Allah is الأكرم:- He is the One who teaches the Prophet ﷺ and the people how to read.
4) Reading could be from something written or heard, as in the case of the Prophet ﷺ.
There are different types of reading - it isn't just limited to reading from a paper:
1) Reading the Universal Signs of Allah.
E.g. In [88:7]:
2) Reading the تدابير of Allah - His actions, the decrees that befall us, how He's managing our lives.
When you contemplate on the aforementioned, they lead you to know who Allah is.
3) Reading from listening
4) Reading from a book
On the Day of Judgement, the companion of the Qur'an will be told to read and ascend. A Qur'an won't come to him on the Day of Judgement for him to read; he'll recite what's in his heart, or what Allah will guide him to say - because he may have not memorized a verse, but acted upon it in this in the Dunya.
4) Since knowledge is one of the impacts of Allah's generosity, if you want to know how much Allah honoured a slave, look at how much knowledge He's given him. Then you would know how generous Allah has been with that person. And when we say knowledge, we mean knowledge of the religion; of the Qur'an and Sunnah.
Generally religious knowledge. But what kind of religious knowledge? Look at the end of the Surah:
Beneficial knowledge. Knowledge that makes you worship of Allah.
If the knowledge you're seeking doesn't make you worship and prostrate to Allah, obey Him, humble yourself to Him, it's not beneficial knowledge.
Many people have religious knowledge, but it makes them proud, or they boast with it.
Allah taught them, but this knowledge didn't benefit them.
We should not be hasty. We have to be slow, especially when we deal with the Qur'an. Pondering and acting over one verse is better than understanding many Surahs.
So the knowledge we seek is taught to us by Allah, الأكرم. And this knowledge should lead us to prostate and draw near to Allah.
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