Al-Huda
Foundation, NJ U. S. A
the Message Continues ... 3/117
Newsletter for May 2011
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8 ways of approaching The Holy Qur'an with purity of intention
1
Read the Quran with no purpose other than to receive guidance
from your Lord, to come nearer to Him, and to seek His good
pleasure.
What you get from the Quran depends on
what you come to it for. Your intention and purpose is crucial.
Certainly the Quran has come to guide you, but you may also go
astray by reading it should you approach it for impure purposes
and wrong motives.
Thereby He causes many to go astray, and
thereby He guides many; but thereby He causes none to go astray
save the iniquitous.
The Quran is the word of God; it
therefore requires as much exclusiveness of intention and purity
of purpose as does worshipping and serving Him.
2 Do not read it merely for intellectual pursuit and
pleasure; even though you must apply your intellect to the full
to the task of understanding the Quran. So many people spend a
lifetime in studying the language, style, history, geography,
law and ethics of the Quran, and yet their lives remain
untouched by its message. The Quran frequently refers to people
who have knowledge but do not derive benefit from it.
3 Nor should you come to the Quran with the fixed
intention of finding support for your own views, notions and
doctrines. For if you do, you may, then, hear an echo of your
own voice in it, and not that of God. It is this approach to the
understanding and interpreting of the Quran that the Prophet,
blessings and peace be on him, has condemned.
4 Nothing could be more unfortunate than to use the
Quran to secure, for your own person, worldly things such as
name, esteem, status, fame or money. You may get them, but you
will surely be bartering away a priceless treasure for nothing,
indeed even incurring eternal loss and ruin.
5 [Do not limit the Quran to just healing of bodily
afflictions, psychological peace, and deliverance from poverty.]
You may also derive other lesser benefits, from the words of the
Quran, such as the healing of bodily afflictions, psychological
peace, and deliverance from poverty. There is no bar to having
these, but, again, they should not become the be all and end all
that you seek from the Quran nor the goal of your niyyah. For in
achieving these you may lose a whole ocean that could have been
yours. Reading every single letter of the Quran carries with it
great rewards.
6
Remain conscious of all the rewards, and make them an objective
of your intention, for they will provide you with those strong
incentives required to spend your life with the Quran. But never
forget that on understanding, absorbing and following the Quran
you have been promised much larger rewards, in this-world and in
the Hereafter. It is these which you must aim for.
Nothing brings you nearer to your Lord than the moments you
spend with His words. For it is only in the Quran that you enjoy
the unique blessing of hearing His 'voice' addressing you.
7 So let an intense desire to
come nearer to God be your one overwhelming motive while reading
the Quran.
Finally,
8
your intention should be directed to seeking only your Lord's
pleasure by devoting your heart, mind and time to the guidance
that He has sent to you. That is what you barter when you
surrender yourself to God: 'There is such as would sell his own
self in order to please God'
Purpose and intentions are like the soul of a body, the inner
capability of a seed. Many seeds look alike, but as they begin
to grow and bear fruits, their differences become manifest. The
purer and higher the motive, the greater the value and yield of
your efforts.
So always ask yourself: Why am I reading the Quran? This may be
the best way to ensure the purity and exclusiveness of purpose
and intention.
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