بِسْم الله الرحمن الرحيم
The Prophet ﷺ said:
"إن الله كتب الإحسان على كل شيء"
"Verily, Allah has enjoined Ihsan (Perfection) upon everything" [Muslim]
We should perfect every single action we do, by performing it in a way pleasing to Allah. Now we're dealing with the Qur'an, and we have to deal with it with الإحسان. How?
This consists of two levels:
1) You and the Qur'an
You want to study a Surah. You have to build a relationship with that Surah, without going to the Tafseer book. It's just you and the Qur'an.
In this level you need to recite and listen to that Surah repeatedly. While doing that, you have to notice and observe many things:
-> The repeated words
-> The similar words
-> The names, attributes, and actions of Allah with His enemies and believing slaves
-> The Articles of Faith
-> The Stories
-> The Parables
-> The Rulings
Etc.
2) The Tafseer Book
Whatever you came out of questions from the first level, will be answered in this level. Open the Tafseer book and try to find out the answer to your questions.
The mistake many people make is directly going to the Tafseer book, that's why most of the people don't reap even half of the benefits of that Surah.
Allah mentioned in [32:24] that He granted Bani Israeel leadership when they:
a) Had certainty in the آيات of Allah
b) Were patient
We want our faith to increase to the level of certainty; which is perfect knowledge which motivates a person to take an action. If you study and don't act, it means your knowledge hasn't yet reached the state of certainty.
How can we reach the state of certainty?
1) By learning in the correct way and from the correct sources.
-> It's not correct to learn the Qur'an, know Tajweed, and have no idea what you're reciting. This is a form of abandonment of the Qur'an.
-> Another incorrect way of studying is to know the meaning, but abandoning acting upon it.
We have to read, understand, ponder, act.
Abdullah ibn Amr reported that the Prophet ﷺ said, “It will be said to the companion of the Quran: Recite and ascend as you recited in the world. Verily, your rank is determined by the last verse you recite.” [Tirmithi]
And the companion of the Qur'an doesn't mean the person who memorizes the Qur'an. It's the person who understood and acted upon it, even if he didn't memorize it. Allah will remind him of the verses on the Day of Judgement, and he'll recite and ascend.
The memorizer will be made to forget the verses he didn't act upon, and will not ascend in ranks. This shows us the importance of implementation.
The صاحب القرآن is the companion of the Qur'an; meaning he accompanies it day and night. Ask yourself: Do you accompany the Qur'an in your life?
And the more you accompany someone, the more you become like them. Companions have an effect on the person. So the Qur'an should have an effect on you.
How?
Whenever you go through an situation in your life, your companion will come and remind you. It'll tell you what to do, what to abstain from, what Allah loves, what Allah hates. And if you reach this level of companionship with the Qur'an, it'll be a light for you.
You may go through a problem, a very constricted situation, and no one may know of your pain and what you're going through, but if you're a companion of the Qur'an - Allah will remind you of verses, and it'll lighten your problem, you'll feel good and happy, although you didn't talk to anyone nor did anyone talk to you.
These verses came as a reminder for you and opened your heart. You feel relaxed and happy although you never moved from your place, and the problem still exists. But the feeling in your heart changed, so the problem no longer affects you. This is the effect of the Qur'an on its companion.
We have to strengthen our relationship with the Qur'an.
2) Collecting all the evidences on that topic.
We have to collect the evidences on all of the articles of faith.
E.g. Belief in Allah.
Go through the Qur'an; study the meaning of every single name mentioned, its impact, and worship Allah by these names in your life. These names should have an effect on our lives. And we need to spend our entire lives doing this, if we really want to increase our belief in Allah.
Go through the Qur'an; study the meaning of every single name mentioned, its impact, and worship Allah by these names in your life. These names should have an effect on our lives. And we need to spend our entire lives doing this, if we really want to increase our belief in Allah.
We need to do the same with His attributes and actions with the believers and disbelievers. All this information should be clear in our minds. This is a life project.
E.g. Belief in the Prophets and Messengers.
Who is Ibrahim عليه السلام in your life? - whom you always mention in the Tashahud, before you exit your prayer.
جَاءَ رَجُلٌ إِلَى رَسُولِ اللَّهِ صلى الله عليه وسلم فَقَالَ يَا رَسُولَ اللَّهِ كَيْفَ تَقُولُ فِي رَجُلٍ أَحَبَّ قَوْمًا وَلَمْ يَلْحَقْ بِهِمْ فَقَالَ رَسُولُ اللَّهِ صلى الله عليه وسلم " الْمَرْءُ مَعَ مَنْ أَحَبَّ "
A man came to Allah's Messenger ﷺ and said, "O Allah's Messenger ﷺ! What do you say about a man who loves some people but cannot catch up with their good deeds?" Allah's Messenger ﷺ said, "Everyone will be with those whom he loves." [Bukhari]
Don't you love to be with the Prophets on the Day of Judgement?
Go to the Qur'an and see what Allah mentioned about Ibrahim in سورة الأَنْعَام, سورة الصافات, سورة إبراهيم, سورة الانبياء. Then you'll get the full picture of Ibrahim عليه السلام in front of you. In this way you'll increase your love for him, and gather with him on the Day of Judgement.
And do this with every single Prophet. Allah said that the believers will be witnesses for the Prophets against the other people. How can you be a witness for them if you don't know about them?
These are goals you should have in your life.
If this is your attitude with the Qur'an, you'll have no time for worldly things, you'll be busy with this project. And this is what Allah wants from us.
We should have a program for ourselves. What we do every week in class isn't enough, you have to study more. Everything is available - you just need to give your time.
The Prophet Muhammad ﷺ said, “Learn [study] the Qur’an, and ask Allah to grant you Paradise by it, before when there comes people who learn it and ask by it, the worldy pleasures. Indeed, the Qur’an is learnt by three types of people:
- A man who shows off by it
- A man who eats by it (Uses the Qur'an for worldly gain, for money, etc.)
- A man who recites it for the sake of Allah.
[AlBayhaqi]
- A man who eats by it (Uses the Qur'an for worldly gain, for money, etc.)
- A man who recites it for the sake of Allah.
[AlBayhaqi]
Even the hypocrites read the Qur'an. But what's the problem with them? They had little faith when they read the Qur'an, and believed that once they had it, it would never go away - so they didn't take the means of increasing their faith, until it slowly decreased and completely disappeared. Allah said regarding them in [63:3]:
They didn't take care of increasing their faith, that's what made them disbelievers after they were believers. So this is a dangerous matter; even the hypocrite recites the Qur'an but it doesn't affect his Eeman.
Umar asked Hudhaifah, who was the secret keeper of the Prophet ﷺ, if the Prophet ﷺ considered him one of the hypocrites. And he was Umar bin Khattab. Because he knew that faith increases and decreases; It never remains the same.
The hypocrites don't know this fact. They think that as long as they acquired faith once, it'll remain forever. So they didn't take the means of increasing it and it diminished until it vanished.
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