Building a Relationship with the Qurʾān
One evening I had iftar with some fellow students at my teacher’s house. After iftar we expected to spend some time, perhaps asking questions and benefitting from our teacher’s presence. But then he did something that had more of an effect on me than a night of discussion. Inadvertently he picked up his Qurʾān and embraced it. From the way he was holding it and the look on his face I could tell that he was going to spend the night with it. Reading it, being affected by it and contemplating its meanings. He truly loved the Qurʾān and for him it was alive. While he may have also intended to spend some more time with us, the Qurʾān completely distracted him. He then said: “Let us recite a dua together before we go home.” Which of course meant it was time to leave. After reciting a small dua we found ourselves outside. What to do now except to return home and try to build that relationship ourselves?
In our communities and especially in the month of Ramadan we are focused on quantity of recitation. With that increased amount we start to feel a connection, but this is a fleeting visit. The Qurʾān finds itself on our shelves for most of the rest of the year and this is because we don’t really approach our interaction with it as a relationship. Or our relationship with it is business-like.
The true personality of the Qurʾān remains hidden to us and what we don’t know about we can live without, or perhaps find something similar somewhere else in our lives.
But the Qurʾān can be such a close friend that if a person had nobody else they wouldn’t feel lonely. It can cure our ailments, enlighten and enliven us. It is something we cannot do without or replace. Until we find our relationship with the Qurʾān, we cannot teach the next generation how to interact with it and their relationships with the Qurʾān will be like ours have been for most of our lives. So make this Ramadan the month of finding and building a relationship with the Qurʾān and find strategies to develop that relationship year on year.
May Allah grant us a beautiful relationship with the Qurʾān and the Infallibles (as