Establishing the Qur’an in our life

There are 3 ways of interacting with the Qur’an:

The first and the most common way to engage with the Qur’an is through the worship of recitation. The recitation of the Qur’an has both immense blessings and reward. The Messenger of Allah (ﷺ) said:  “Whenever a person recites a letter from the Book of Allah, a good deed is recorded for him, and a good deed is recorded with a tenfold reward. I do not say that ‘Alif-Lam-Mim’ is a letter, but ‘Alif’ is a letter, ‘Lam’ is a letter and ‘Mim’ is a letter” [Tirmidhi].

So establish a routine that you read a minimum of 10 verses from the Book of Allah a day, whereby you keep the Qur’an alive in your mind, heart and your home. This will help you remain constantly connected to the Qur’an in both blessing and in reward.

The second manner of interaction is to engage with the Qur’an on a needs basis. So when you are faced with a situation in your life or want to research a subject matter, you go back to the book of Allah to find what it has to say. This method of engagement with the Qur’an is primarily the practice of the people of knowledge, the jurists and the scholars whereby they extract rulings and proofs for a given subject matter.

The third is to engage with the Qur’an systematically, taking a handful of verses at a time, reading and reflecting deeply upon them to extract the beliefs, character qualities, behaviour and actions Allah intends you to adopt. This is a gradual process of raising yourself and a lifelong pursuit. It is the same manner how the Companions (ra) interacted with the Qur’an.

Living with the with the Qur’an

It is related that Abdullah ibn Mas’ud (ra) and others, learnt ten verses of the Qur’an at a time, they would not proceed further until they had understood what beliefs, knowledge, law and regulations the verses contained. Abdullah ibn Umar (ra) took 14 years to memorise just Surah Al-Baqarah, he was so joyous after he completed the memorisation that he sacrificed a camel and invited the people to celebrate. Abdullah was not just memorising as many can memorise the whole Qur’an in the space of few years, but he was learning, implementing and applying the Qur’an until the Qur’an became alive in him and was second nature.

So take comfort from these accounts, and proceed gradually even if it is 2 verses at a time and identify from the verses what is it that Allah wants you need to know and what is it that Allah wants you to believe and what is it that Allah wants you to act upon. Adopt the beliefs and start implementing and applying the Qur’an in your life and be Qur’anic people.

“The goal is not to complete the Qur’an but to live by it even if you were to die trying to implement it in your life.”

Summary

Engage and interact with the Qur’an via any of the three ways mentioned. If you want to have a relationship with Allah, then it is through interacting with His Word (The Qur’an). The least is that you have a daily recital of something of the Qur’an, whether it is as much a third of the Qur’an, or one Juz or as little as one verse but do not abandon the Qur’an: Take heed of these words of Allah:

“Verily, this (the Qur’an) is indeed a Reminder for you (O Muhammad) and your people and you will be questioned (about it).” [Az-Zukhruf: 43: 44].