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You cannot gather the full and
real blessings and treasures of the Qur'an
unless you devote yourself to understanding
its meaning, unless you know what your Creator
is saying to you.
This is not to deny that even
those who cannot understand it may partake of
its blessings. Obviously an overwhelming
majority of Muslims do not know Arabic, and
many do not possess any translation in their
language. But if they read the Qur'an with
sincere devotion, reverence, and love, they
should not fail to share in some of its
riches. For being in the company of the one
you love, even if you do not know his
language, certainly deepens your relationship
with him. Yet immensely greater will be the
blessings and stronger will be the
relationship if you also understand what he is
saying.
On the other hand, merely
understanding the meaning may also be of no
avail. Many listened to the Qur'an from the
lips of the Prophet (peace and blessings be
upon him) and understood every word of it; yet
they went further astray. Millions of people
for whom Arabic is their language understand
the Qur'an; yet it makes no impact upon their
lives. Scores of scholars, Muslims as well as
non-Muslims, spend a lifetime studying and
reading the Qur'an, and their scholarship can
hardly be faulted; yet they remain impervious
to its touch.
Yet, despite this, the urgent
need to devote yourself to understanding the
Qur'an remains. The Qur'an has come as a
guide, reminder, admonition, and healing. It
is not merely a source of reward (thawab),
a sacred ritual, a sacrament, or a revered
relic. It has come to radically change you and
lead you to a new life and existence.
Understanding it is no sure guarantee of
finding that new life, but without it the task
of fulfilling the real purpose of the Qur'an
and inviting mankind to it must remain
extremely difficult.
Personal Study
Why have we to devote
ourselves to understanding the Qur'an, on our
own, and to thinking, pondering, and
reflecting upon its meaning? Is it not enough
that we read or hear its exposition by the
learned? It is most certainly not, even though
that, too, is essential.
You must exert yourself to
absorb and discover what the Qur'an has to
say, mainly for one very important, crucial
reason. The Qur'an is not merely a book of
knowledge, or a collection of do's and don'ts.
It does not merely inform about God and what
He wants of you. It also wants to take hold of
your person and bring you into a new living
and pervasive relationship with Him. Hence, it
should increase and strengthen your faith (iman),
your will (iradah), your steadfastness
(sabr). It should purify you, form your
character, and mold your conduct. It should
continually inspire you and elevate you to
greater and greater heights.
All this can be accomplished
only if you enter into a personal relationship
of study, meditation, and understanding with
the Qur'an. Without pondering over its
messages, your heart, your thoughts, and your
conduct cannot respond to them. Without
immersing yourself in thinking and reflecting
over them, you cannot absorb them, nor can
they impinge upon your life. Just think: Why
should reading the Qur'an with tartil
(careful recitation) have been enjoined upon
you if not for you to ponder and understand?
Why should you be required to pause while
reading the Qur'an, and how can you make
appropriate inward, physical, and verbal
responses which the Qur'an so forcefully
emphasizes if you do not know what you are
reading?
Argument Against Studying
But is there not a danger that
a person who is not guided by a learned
teacher nor equipped with all the necessary
tools of study, and who still embarks on the
formidable venture of understanding, on his
own, the Book of God, may go wrong, even
astray? Yes, there is, especially when you do
not know clearly your own limitations and
goals. But the loss is greater, for yourself
and for the Ummah, if you do not try to
understand at all. While the risks involved in
studying on your own can be averted by taking
certain appropriate precautions and ensuring
that you never go beyond your limitations and
goals, the loss incurred by forsaking such
study cannot be made up.
Fearful of the consequences,
many religious leaders forbid even reading a
translation of the Qur'an without the help of
a learned teacher. Or they lay down conditions
for studying alone which only a handful of
people, after long, laborious learning, can
fulfill. Such counsels, despite their good
intentions, in fact end up depriving you of
the great riches that the Qur'an has to offer
every seeker. While their fears are genuine,
their prohibitions have no logic or basis.
Just think: Can they also
prohibit an Arab from understanding the
literal meaning of the Qur'an? Why, then,
should a non-Arab not read a translation?
Again, can they prevent any person from trying
to find the meaning of whatever he reads and
seeks to understand? Why, then, prohibit
attempts to study the Qur'an and find its
meaning? And finally, what about the first
addressees of the Qur'an, non-Muslim as well
as Muslim? They were illiterate merchants and
Bedouins, with no scholastic tools in their
possession. Yet even some disbelievers were
converted by only listening to the Qur'an,
without the help of any learned exegeses, and
indeed at the first hearing.
Of course, they had the unique
and supreme advantage of "seeing"
the Qur'anic meaning and message in the lives
of the Prophet (peace and blessings be upon
him) and his Companions, who were living the
Qur'an by going through the crucible of iman,
da`wah, and jihad. We do not,
and cannot, have that privilege. Yet even that
should not discourage us. There is no reason
why the Qur'an should not open its doors to us
once we fulfill the necessary conditions, and
most importantly, as emphasized again and
again, we, too, live a life of iman, da`wah,
and jihad as the Companions did.
The protection against going
astray certainly does not lie in prohibiting
every attempt to understand the Qur'an except
by sitting at the feet of a scholar; the cure
lies in observing the right guidelines.
This is not to deny the
essential need for possessing the necessary
knowledge of the Arabic language and of
various sciences of Qur'an (`ulum al-Qur'an),
of reading tafseer (exegeses), of learning
from qualified and reliable teachers, of being
conversant with contemporary human knowledge.
They are important, but only to the extent of
what you desire to achieve from your study of
the Qur'an. You must possess tools appropriate
to your aims, but you cannot dispense with any
attempt to understand the Qur'an because you
do not possess all such tools, or because you
are unable to go to a teacher.
Imagine that you are on an
island; you do not know Arabic, nor have you
any opportunity to learn it; you do not have
resources like a good teacher or a good
commentary, nor can you acquire one. No doubt
you should, under such circumstances,
recognize the need of acquiring appropriate
capabilities to understand the Qur'an
correctly, make every possible effort to do
so. But even so, the Qur'an remains the
guidance for you from Allah.
Fortunately
none of us lives on such an island. Such
"islands" come to exist only in our
perceptions, mainly due to our lethargy and
laziness, inattention and inaction, or our
lack of conviction that companionship with the
Qur'an for understanding it is as essential to
the nourishment of heart and mind as food is
for the body. What is important to remember is
that whether or not one really lives on an
island with only a copy of the Qur'an in one's
hands, the literal meanings of which one can
somehow understand, or whether or not one has
mastered all the Qur'anic disciplines, the
need and demand to devote oneself to
personally pondering over the Qur'an remains.
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