Connecting Ourselves to the Quran this Ramadhan

بسم الله الرحمن الرحيم
In the Name of Allah, Most Merciful, Most Compassionate

Assalaamu alaykum

When we stand in taraweeh this Ramadhan, we should be present with Allah. Try to bring to heart that we are standing before our Lord. Listen attentively to the recitation of the Quran. Feel in your heart the magnitude of the Speaker subhanahu wa ta’ala.

Allah subhanahu wa ta’ala (glorified is He) says, 

لَوْ أَنزَلْنَا هَـٰذَا ٱلْقُرْءَانَ عَلَىٰ جَبَلٍ لَّرَأَيْتَهُۥ خَـٰشِعًا مُّتَصَدِّعًا مِّنْ خَشْيَةِ ٱللَّهِ ۚ وَتِلْكَ ٱلْأَمْثَـٰلُ نَضْرِبُهَا لِلنَّاسِ لَعَلَّهُمْ يَتَفَكَّرُونَ ﴿٢١

If we had sent this Quran upon a mountain, you would see this mountain crumble and become weak from the fear of Allah. And these examples We present to the people that perhaps they will give thought. (21) ” [Quran, Al-Hashr 59:21]

It is in this great Book the guidance for all people, for all generation, for all times. It abrogated all sacred laws that came before it. This is the Divine guidance that will remain till the end of time. This is the eternal speech of Allah.

Outside of taraweeh, we should strive to recite the Quran everyday. Reciting the Quran has great merits, not just in terms of reward, it also has a strong impact in illuminating our hearts. When you recite the Quran, it illuminates your heart. It changes us at the deepest level of our being even if we don’t understand what is being recited. 

 

The Prophet (Allah bless him and grant him peace) said,  "The best of my nation's devotions is the recitation of the Qur'an." One of the reasons is because of this impact of the Quran in our hearts. Another reason is because Quran is the source of all other knowledge. When someone take a path to learn, the first thing that they do is that they memorize the Quran. Reciting Quran is the very best of adhkar in that we remember our Lord. It is part of the miracle of the Quran, that the mere recitation of the Quran is meritorious, let alone to study it or recite it in prayer.

'Ali (may Allah ennoble his face) has said: 'The one who recites the Qur'an while standing in prayer receives one hundred rewards for each letter; the one who recites it outside the prayer but in a state of ritual purity receives twenty-five rewards for each letter; and the one who recites it without ritual purity receives ten rewards for each letter.' 

You must have a wird of the recitation of this mighty Book to be read every day. [Imam Al-Haddad] This is very serious.

A wird is a spiritual watering hole. A wird is anything that we do regularly time and time again. We get the true benefit of our various awrad when we are consistent and present with Allah in whatever it is that we are doing. 

The Quran is that it be recited. The primary transmission of the Quran is an oral transmission. You can only imagine to be in the time of the Companions (may Allah be pleased with them all) as they listened to the Prophet (Allah bless him and grant him peace) as he was reciting the Quran. The Prophet (Allah bless him and grant him peace) used to recite in a way that it would allow the Companions behind him to understand the meanings. There is an outward and inward dimension to that. The outward dimension is knowing when to emphasize certain word, when to stop, the tones that should be used when you recite the various types of verses. The inward dimension to that is that, from the blessings of the Prophet's recitation, that the meanings of the verses come to the heart of the Companions.

For those who are still struggling with Arabic, they can listen to the Quran. Listening to the Quran is a very good thing, but we should also strive to recite the mighty Book every day. To emphasize this point, we have various ahadith narrated by our mother, Aisha (may Allah be pleased with her). She asked the Prophet (Allah bless him and grant him peace), “What acts are the most beloved to Allah.” Here, she opened up the door for us to know what is most beloved to Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala. From here too we can understand why Prophecy is very important. There is no way to come to know that by means of experiment, philosophy and any outward means unless one has been informed of it. This is why everything else has to be governed by prophecy.

Narrated `Aisha (may Allah be pleased with her):

Allah's Messenger (Allah bless him and grant him peace) said, "Do good deeds properly, sincerely and moderately and know that your deeds will not make you enter Paradise, and that the most beloved deed to Allah is the most regular and constant even if it were little." [Bukhari]

In reality, no action is small. However, our adab (manners) with Allah, is that everything that we do, even if it be a great action, we deem it to be small because we don’t want to see it as emanating from our own self. And every wrong that we do, even if it is small, we don’t want to think it is small.  Even the slightest mistake, let alone a sin, we deem it to be serious. You should not think of your sin as being great or small. Rather you should think of it with regard to the One you are disobeying.

We should imagine a sin like a mountain above us that is ready to crumble upon us. The hypocrite and the wicked sees a sin as insignificant.

The Prophet (Allah bless him and grant him peace) says, "The believer sees his sins as if he were sitting beneath a mountain which he feared was about to fall upon him, whereas the wicked sees his sins like a man who finds a fly settle upon his nose, so he does this (one of the narrators said: He brushes it away from his nose)." [Bukhari]

When you start taking your Deen seriously, it is very easy to become imbalance. The majority of people is in a state of heedlessness. But even those people who take this Deen seriously, it is easy to become imbalance. So remember what the Prophet (Allah bless him and grant him peace) says, "your deeds will not make you enter Paradise." Here, the Prophet (Allah bless him and grant him peace) is teaching us that balance. You should have high aspiration and you should do everything you can to reach that aspiration but you don’t rely in your actions. It is not your action that is going to get you into Paradise. What can enter you into Paradise is the Mercy of Allah.

In a narration of Muslim, Aisha (may Allah be pleased with her), if she were to do a good deed, she would stick to it. This is the way of the early people. The other religious responses, is that most of us in our religious practice, what we tend to do is one of the two extremes. Either to be inconsistent in the very little that we do, or try to take on so much that it is burdensome that we are not able to be consistent and not sustainable. The balance is that middle way and that we recognize that this is a long journey and even though it could end at any moment, what comforts us is that we have intention. And from the blessing from our intentions, even if we fall short, inshaa Allah we will reach our intentions potentially that we cannot reach even with our actions.

How this all relates to our own nafs (lower self)? The nature of our nafs is that it either wants to not to have anything with something or it wants to go to extremes in that thing.  In other words, our nafs itself is greatest tool of Shaytan to create imbalance within ourselves. If we can get a hold of our nafs we can move towards balance. The secret of consistency lies in our relationship with our own nafs. In other words, consistency teach us to train ourselves. By being consistent, even if it small, it is very difficult for the nafs. That consistency, even in reading the Quran for twenty minutes, or perform two raka’as of prayer, the secret lies in our relationship with our own nafs. So the Prophet (Allah bless him and grant him peace) informed us that, “the most beloved deed to Allah is the most regular and constant even if it were little."

It is said that someone who stand at the door, continuously knocking, is not like the one who comes and go. One of the righteous said, don’t stop any of your service, even it becomes apparent to you that it hasn’t accepted, it is enough of an honor that Allah has placed you in his service, in a state of worship." 

This allows us to be consistent and motivate us. This is from the mercy and compassion of the Prophet (Allah bless him and grant him peace), that he taught us this religion, all of which is ultimately be present be Allah.

Consistent righteous deeds shape our souls in the best of ways like a consistent flow of water over a rock that enable to make a depression on the rock.

We should make our intention today to have a wird of reciting the Qur’an. How much? It is recommended, the least is reciting 1/30 of the Quran and complete it (khatam) in one month, and the most is to complete it every three days. This is the various ways the salaf approach the Quran. If it is difficult try to read a juz, then at least read half a juz. If this is difficult, then read five pages. If this is still difficult, then recite one page a day. If you don't know Arabic at all, then open up the Quran everyday and look at a page, and make an intention to read were you able to do so. 

Have a wird of listening to a qari (Quran reciter) recite for five minute daily. Also, read the translation of the Qur’an. 

We all must have a connection to the Book of Allah. We should recite the Quran everyday whether we are traveling or at home. 

The majority of people that came before us would do a khatam or two a week. They would start reciting before Fajr into a little bit after Fajr, and after Maghrib into a little bit after Isha. A lot of these people were common people. According to Imam Nawawi, many would finish the khatam of the Quran in a day, two khatams, three khatams, or even eight khatams of the Qur’an (4 khatams during the day and 4 khatams at night). Uthman ibn ‘Affan (may Allah be pleased with him) used to complete the recitation of the Quran in one raka’ah of prayer. Mashaa Allah. This information is not to make us feel we are doomed because we are far from this practice. But the purpose of knowing this is two-fold -- first to understand the importance the early people  place the Quran. Second, if you can’t be like them, then resemble them-- do what you can. One of the blessings is, if you approach the Quran with ta’dhim (magnify, exalt and respect Allah’s Book,) Allah will give you opening in His Book that he might give to someone who knows Arabic well. The key is that we love and respect the Quran and have a relationship with the Quran to the extent possible. 

We should strive to have connection to the Quran seriously—to start learning the meanings and the vocabulary,  so the meanings start opening up to us. This Ramadhan is a great opportunity for this. We should try to recite a juz a day this Ramadhan. There are also other verses and chapters of the Quran as well, that we should have recite regulalry because of the special benefit in them like al-Sajda [32], al-Mulk [67], al-Waqi'ah [56] and the last two verses of al-Baqarah [2:285-286], every night before going to sleep. Al-Dukhan [44] on Sunday Thursday evenings, and al-Kahf [18] on Thursday nights and Fridays. Read, if you can, the Seven Saving Ones (Surahs al-Sajda, Yaa-Sin [36], al-Dukhan, al-Waqi'ah, al-Hashr [59], al-Mulk, al-Insaan [76]) every night, for their merits are great. Also mornings and evenings the first few verses of Surah al-Hadid [57], the last few verses of Surah al-Hashr [59], Surah al-Ikhlas [112] three times and the two refuge-taking Surahs three times each; similarly, al-Ikhlas and the last two Surahs [al-Falaq 113, An-Naas 114] together with Ayatul-Kursi verse [2:255] and Surah al-Kafirun [109]

Quran is the Truth we should prepare to receive. The Truth is not in need of people but  people are in need of the Truth We need to adjust ourselves to the Truth Many of us are very fake in the lives that we live. When we look at our own selves, the nafs is the ultimate imposter.  It is only to the extent that we overcome the fakeness of our souls, which wants us to cling to this world, that we open up our heart to the Truth, and we start to embrace that Truth and we start to live by that Truth, and little by little that someone becoming as-Siddiq. After Prophets, the greatest rank we can attain is As-Siddiqqun. 

May Allah make us of the Siddiqqun. May Allah make the Quran the spring of our hearts and the removal of our distress and concerns. May Allah make its recitation be made easy for us. May Allah enable us to dedicate our lives to the Quran and dedicate our lives to service of the Quran and live the meanings of the Quran.

Ameen. 

Ramadhan Kareem to all of you.

Allahumma salli 'ala Muhammad wa 'ala aalihi wa sahbihi wasallam.

And Allah knows best and is Most Wise, and He alone grants success, and to Him is the final return of all.

Wassalaam