بِسْم الله الرحمن الرحيم
1) Who their Lord is
Meaning: We will reveal to you this weighty Qur'an that combines glorious meanings and has honourable attributes.
This indicates that (nightly prayer after one has slept) is a more suitable time for understanding the meaning of the Qur'an, at a time when the heart and tongue combine in reciting it, and when life's busying affairs are given less attention. In this state, one is more aware of what one recites, and thus, their affairs will be made right for them.
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There is great benefit in studying the Mufassal part of the Qur'an (From Surah Qaf until the end of the Qur'an). The Surahs in this part correct our Aqeedah (Belief), thoughts, and behaviour. All the Surahs which were first revealed on the Prophet ﷺ take care of the Aqeedah, and teach us about the reality of this life, and the reality of ourselves.
The problem with most people is that they do not know why they are here in this world, who their Lord is, and what is required from them. They perform acts contrary to the purpose behind which they were created for, because they do not know. This means that it is important to study the last part of the Qur'an.
The Prophet ﷺ taught the following matters to his companions. These matters lead a person to تزكية النفس. And the derivations of the word تزكية is mentioned in about 4 Surahs in the last part, to indicate that Allah revealed this part of the Qur'an to purify our souls.
1) Who their Lord is
When you know who Allah is, it will definitely lead to the reformation of your soul.
2) Their Priorities in Life;- What they should be occupied with and concerned about from what is trivial. In other words, he taught them their Deen. الدين comes from the word دين which means something obligatory for us to fulfill; we will be accountable for it on the Day of Judgement. When you know what your priorities should be, your behaviour will change. And this is exactly what happened to the companions.
For 13 years, the Prophet ﷺ taught the people who Allah is and the important things in life. The result of which is that:
3) When they moved to Madinah, the laws were revealed, and they did not find difficulty in complying with it, because their hearts were prepared and softened. So if we want to reach the level the companions did, we should first focus on learning about Allah from the Qur'an and Sunnah, and learning about the reality of this life - the abode of trials, and the priorities we should have in it. This is all what is focused on in the last part of the Qur'an. If we study it our behaviour will change, and we will find no difficulty in complying with the command of Allah. But our problem is that we do not know what is important from what is not important. People give precedence to Dunya related matters over acquiring knowledge; over studying the Qur'an and the Sunnah. They are occupied with the least important things over the most important.
How to Study the Qur'an with Ihsan
The Prophet ﷺ said in a Hadith:
"Verily Allah has prescribed Ihsan on all things" [Muslim]
Allah commands us to perfect everything we do. Reciting the Qur'an is an عبادة (Act of Worship). We are thus required to perfect our study of the Qur'an. How? There are two levels:
#1 - Build a relationship with the Surah you want to study, without going to any Tafseer Book. This is by:
- Reciting it profusely
- Observe what you are reading; Notice the Articles of Faith, Stories, Rulings, Parables, Descriptions of People, etc.
- You will come out with many questions. Then you go to the second level:
#2 - Find out the answer for your questions in the Tafseer Books
The mistake that many people make is that they directly go to the Tafseer Book when wanting to understand a Surah.
The objective behind studying the Qur'an with perfection is to increase in faith until we reach the level of certainty.
E.g. Until when you give food, the verses about the أبرار from Surah Al-Insan comes alive in front of your eyes. This indicates you reached the level of certainty.
E.g. The weather is hot and you give charity, and you remember the Hadith about one of the 7 who will be shaded under the Throne of Allah on the Day of Judgement:
وَرَجُلٌ تَصَدَّقَ بِصَدَقَةٍ فَأَخْفَاهَا حَتَّى لَا تَعْلَمَ يَمِينُهُ مَا تُنْفِقُ شِمَالُهُ
"...a person who spends in charity and conceals it such that his right hand does not know what his left hand has given" [Bukhari #629]
The texts you learn and memorize should be alive during the situations you go through. And you will not reach that state unless you study the Surah in detail; with Ihsan.
On the authority of Abu Sa’eed Al-Khudree (May Allaah be pleased with him) he said that the Messenger of Allaah ﷺ said: “There will come a people who will recite the Qur’aan but it will not go past their throats. Three types of people read the Qur’aan: a believer, a hypocrite, and a criminal (Faajir).” [Musnad of Ahmad, Al-Haakim and others, graded Hasan]
Umar رضي الله عنه used to be afraid of being one of the hypocrites, because he knew that faith increases and decreases. He was afraid that his faith might decrease and he would reach the state of hypocrisy. The believer is always concerned about the level of his faith. He does not rely on his prayer and fasts and consider himself a believer. Even the hypocrites prayed and fasted in this life; it is not a matter of praying and fasting, but how much belief has settled in our hearts. We need to increase our faith out of fear of hypocrisy.
There are four stages we have to follow when doing Ihsan with the Qur'an:
1) Preparation
2) Study
3) Memorization
4) Revision
The most important stage is
STAGE #1 - Preparation (التهيئة)
Evidence for this Stage: In As-Sa'di's interpretation of Surah Muzzamil [73:1-6]:
"O you wrapped in garments"
"Stand (to pray) all night, except a little."
"Half of it, or a little less than that,"
"Or a little more; and recite the Quran (aloud) in a slow, (pleasant tone and) style."
There are two commands:
1) Stand in prayer at Night
2) Recite the Quran with Tarteel
Why?
فأن الترلتيل القران به يحصل التدبر و التفكير و تحريك القلوب به و التعبد بأياته و تهيؤ و الإستعداد التام له
The Tarteel style helps to contemplate and reflect about the Qur'an. It moves the heart, as one worships Allah by reciting the Qur'ans Ayat, and prepares one for reciting the Qur'an (with contemplation)
Verse 5-6:
"Verily, We shall send down to you a weighty Word"
أي: نوحي إليك هاذا القرآن الثقيل، أي: العظيمة معاينة الجليلة أوصافه و ما كان بهادا الوصف حقيق أن يتهيأ له، و يرتل، ر يتفكر فيما يشتمل عليه
Meaning: We will reveal to you this weighty Qur'an that combines glorious meanings and has honourable attributes.
What is described in these terms is worthy of being prepared for, to be reciting in the Tarteel way and contemplated regarding what it contains.
"Verily, the rising by night (for Tahajjud prayer) is very hard and most potent and good for governing (the soul), and most suitable for (understanding) the Word (of Allah)"
أقرب إلى تحصيل مقصود القرآن يتواطأ على القرآن القلب و اللسان و تقل الشواغل و يفهم ما يقول و يستقيم له أمره
This indicates that (nightly prayer after one has slept) is a more suitable time for understanding the meaning of the Qur'an, at a time when the heart and tongue combine in reciting it, and when life's busying affairs are given less attention. In this state, one is more aware of what one recites, and thus, their affairs will be made right for them.
If you really want to understand a Surah, get up at night and recite it in night prayer with Tarteel. At this time the heart and tongue are connected; there is nothing to busy you.
The Preparation Stage (المرحلة التهيئة) consists of three steps:
a) تكرار قراء السورة و سماعها - Reciting and listening to the Surah repeatedly.
b) ملاحظة الألفاظ و المفاهيم - When you do that, observe the letters and meaning;- Take note of the Articles of Faith, Stories, Parables, Rules, Descriptions, repeated words, similar words, etc.
c) القراء التفهيمية - Recite the Surah verse by verse trying to make yourself understand. If you do not understand you put a question.
We have to do two things in this stage:
i) تلخيص الملاحظات - Summary of Observation
Make a Table:
[The Verse - Belief in Allah - Other Articles of Faith - Story / Parable / Description]
This makes it easier to understand the Surah.
ii) تسجيل الاستفهامات - Table of your Questions
Sometimes you may not understand a word in the verse or the wisdom behind a specific Name of Allah being mentioned. Here you make another table to write these questions. Take these questions with you to the Stage of Study from the Tafseer Books.
Ibn Abbas said that the Tafseer is of four kinds:
1) تفسير لا يعذر أحد بجهالته - No one is excused of not knowing.
E.g. "و أقيموا الصلاة" - everyone can understand this, and most of the Qur'an is of this type. It does not require explanation.
2) وجه تعريفه العرب من كلامها - Tafseer which the Arabs know (from their language)
You should go to the Arabic dictionaries.
3) تفسير يعرفه العلماء - Tafseer which the Scholars know
4) تفسير لا يعلمه إلا الله - Tafseer which no one knows except Allah.
RULE: If you do not know how to explain any word to yourself, it means you do not know it.
STAGE 2: Studying (الدراسة)
الدراسة consists of two levels:
1) الدراسة إجمالية - Overall Study
This is by going to a simple concise Tafseer Book, like As-Sa'di.
In this stage you try to find the answers to your questions. If you still do not understand, you go to the next stage:
2) الدراسة تفصيلية - Detailed Study
This is where you refer to detailed Tafseer Books, such as:
1) جامع البيان عن تأويل آي القرآن - By At-Tabari (who died in 310AH - which means he was very close to the era of the Prophet ﷺ)
2) معالم التنزيل - By Al-Baghawi (who died in 516AH)
3) تفسير القرآن العظيم - By Ibn Kathir (who died in 774AH)
4) فتح البيان في مقاصد القرآن by Al-Qanooji (who died in 1307AH)
Evidence for this Stage: The Prophet ﷺ said:
مَا اجْتَمَعَ قَوْمٌ فِي بَيْتٍ مِنْ بُيُوتِ اللَّهِ يَتْلُونَ كِتَابَ اللَّهِ وَيَتَدَارَسُونَهُ بَيْنَهُمْ إِلَّا نَزَلَتْ عَلَيْهِمُ السَّكِينَةُ وَغَشِيَتْهُمُ الرَّحْمَةُ وَحَفَّتْهُمُ الْمَلَائِكَةُ وَذَكَرَهُمُ اللَّهُ فِيمَنْ عِنْدَهُ
"No people get together in a house of the houses of Allah (i.e. a mosque), reciting the Book of Allah, and learning it together among themselves, but calmness (sakinah) comes down to them, (Divine) mercy covers them (from above), and the angels surround them, and Allah makes a mention of them among those who are with Him" [Muslim]
الدراسة comes in conjunction with التلاوة. This means they are not the same thing;- الدراسة is more specific than التلاوة.
In the Arabic Language درس means to repeat and recite the material repeatedly until you understand it.
E.g. طريق دارس - A road which has been worn out, because so many people have continuously walked on it.
When you say درس الكتاب it means you have read that book many times. You read it, pondered over it, know every word in that book.
As-Sindi said, "الدراسة entails everything connected to the Qur'an with regards to learning it, teaching it, its Tafseer, and discovering its detailed meanings"
Ibn Masoud said,
مَنْ أَرَادَ عِلْمَ الْأَوَّلِينَ وَالْآخِرِينَ فَلْيُثَوِّرِ الْقُرْآنَ
"Whoever wants to acquire the knowledge of the earlier and later people, let him يثور القران"
تثوير of the Qur'an means discussing it, studying it, searching its meanings.
تثوير is like bringing what is deep inside to the surface; turning it up and down to see all its sides.
Other scholars said تثوير للقران means reciting it and asking the Scholars.
Ibn Taymiyah said it is required for every reciter of the Qur'an to understand the meaning and act upon it. This is how you give the Qur'an its, and become of the People of Knowledge.
#1 - الدراسة إجمالية - Overall Study
This consists of 4 steps:
1) Recite the Verses Again
2) Read Tafseer As-Sa'di (because his statements are general)
3) Read your Questions and see if the Sheikh answered them
In case of unanswered questions go to the second step - Detailed Study.
4) Read the Verses again with the meaning you have understood from the Tafseer Book.
It is in this way the meaning of the Qur'an will go into your heart, and have an effect on you.
Next Week: Bring your Questions.
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