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Approaching the Qur'an
Consultant to IslamOnline.net — India
The noble Qur'an is the word of Almighty Allah, which started to
be revealed to humanity in the blessed month of Ramadan through
His Messenger Muhammad (peace and blessings be upon him).
The major themes of the noble Qur'an are
Knowledge can be divided into two broad categories: knowledge of
the perceptible world (Ash-Shahadah), and that of the
imperceptible world (Al-Ghayb).
All our sciences give us knowledge of the world, nature,
history, and arts; such knowledge is called the knowledge of
Ash-Shahadah. But humans can never acquire the knowledge of
spiritual realities beyond the world of our senses unless
Almighty Allah Himself reveals such knowledge. These belong to
the world of Al-Ghayb.
We should always remember that Allah is not only the Creator,
but He is also the Sustainer and the Disposer of all the affairs
of the whole creation:
[Allah
is the Creator of all things, and He is the Guardian and
Disposer of all affairs. To Him belong the keys of the heavens
and the earth, and those who reject the Signs of Allah, it is
they who will be in loss.] (Az-Zumar
39:62-63)
This means that the whole of human progress through history,
which humanity proudly claims as its achievement, would not have
been possible if Allah had not helped and guided it at every
step. Allah says,
While we, for all practical purposes, have been given the
ability to make decisions and to work in our own ways toward
attaining freely chosen objectives, Almighty Allah is in
control, and humans, as well as all other creatures, are never
free from Allah's overriding power and sovereignty:
[And
you shall not will, unless (it be) that Allah, the Lord of the
worlds, wills] (At-Takwir
81:29)
From this we should realize that Allah guides us in our affairs
in ways that are mysterious, and we are utterly helpless without
His guidance , even in those things where we presume to be
self-sufficient. Sadly, most people are unaware. This is Allah's
guidance acting, at one level, upon the affairs of the human
race and controlling the course of history.
At another level, we have the noble Qur'an before us, and we (as
individuals as well as communities) are asked to choose the
divine guidance in the Qur'an to manage our day-to-day affairs.
It is up to us to accept or reject this divine guidance, as
there is no coercion in religion. But most of us are unaware,
and this unawareness is a deficiency that can be rectified by
means of humility, because this latter is the first step toward
knowledge and wisdom. Also unawareness is often coupled with
arrogance, which is a trait of Satan, and we are easy victims of
the guiles of Satan. Thus the dangerous combination of
unawareness and arrogance leads people to ignore divine guidance
and to adopt whatever expedient courses available to them for
the gratification of their immediate desires and for the
attainment of their short-term goals.
Toward a Proper Approach to the Qur'an
The first step.We
should earnestly pray to Allah for protection from Satan. Allah
gives in the noble Qur'an repeated and emphatic warnings
to humans about the risk of following the dark suggestions of
Satan:
[O
you who believe, enter into Islam wholeheartedly and follow not
the footsteps of the evil one [Satan], for he is to you an
avowed enemy.] (Al-Baqarah
2:208)
And because Satan is out there with his minions to mislead us,
Almighty Allah particularly admonishes us to ask for His
protection from Satan when seeking guidance from the Qur'an:
[When
you do read the Qur'an, seek Allah's protection from Satan, the
rejected one.](An-Nahl
16:98)
Beseeching Almighty Allah for protection from the guiles of
Satan means that humans must have full faith in Allah, the
All-Merciful, as the Creator and Guardian Who can protect us
from every harm.
The second step. We
must sincerely believe that every word of the Qur'an is Allah's
speech and that Allah will guide those who seek His guidance to
the truth. We should read the Qur'an with an earnest desire to
increase faith so that we may belong to those who are described
in the Qur'an by the following words:
[Believers
are those who, whenever Allah is mentioned, feel a tremor in
their hearts, and whenever His revelations are recited to them
increase their faith .](Al-Anfal
8:2)
The third step. We
should remember Allah with gratitude for He guided us to the
Qur'an. Only Allah — not any one else — could guide us to His
noble book of guidance. For this reason, we should praise the
One Who deserves praise, for He created and blessed us with all
the bounties we enjoy, and — what is more — He guided us to the
truth.
The fourth step. We
must show readiness and determination to follow the teachings of
the Qur'an. This should be an expression of an unquestioning
resolve to surrender to the will of Allah as expressed in His
book. This also indicates that we are prepared to do without all
selfish interests, lust, greed, foolish pride, and arrogance —
in short, any love for the fleeting pleasures of life. In other
words, this is a changeover to a new life dedicated to Allah's
pleasure.
The fifth step. The
Qur'an should be read with full awareness that now we are with
Allah, listening to His words, which are meant to guide us along
the straight path. So, when reading the Qur'an, we must take
enough time for the verses to get a grip on our hearts and
minds, so that the teachings contained therein can be imbibed to
the greatest possible extent.
Levels of Reading the Qur'an
One may say that there are three levels of reading the Qur'an:
The first level: visual reading of the Qur'an.That is
to read the Qur'an with eyes fixed on the words, and with the
voice raised to such a level that makes it audible only to
oneself.
Once this is attained, a truthful prayer to Almighty Allah can
be
[Praise
be to Allah, Who has guided us to this! We would not have been
guided, had not Allah guided us.](Al-A`raf7:43)
Indeed, the praise of Allah must be intense and most sincere, as
it is Allah Who has bestowed upon us the noble Qur'an.
Gratitude and joy lead to trust, hope, and greater gifts. The
One Who has bestowed the Qur'an upon us will surely help us in
reading, understanding, and following it.
Professor Shahul Hameed is
a consultant for IslamOnline.net. He was previously the Head of
the Department of English, Farook College, Calicut University,
and the president of the Kerala Islamic Mission in Calicut
, India. He is the author of three books on Islam published in
the Malayalam language. His books are on comparative religion,
the status of women, and science and human values.
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