Author: Rabia Tariq
Quantity without depth doesn’t matter, but it’s the quality and the right intention (Ihsaan: excellence) that matters.
Practice reading the Quran with ‘understanding’, instead of running a marathon or a sprint, to finish the entire Quran, merely fulfilling a man-made ritual. Indeed, recitation has its own great reward but reading the verses with understanding is more profound and acknowledged in the Quran.
Most of us have had this ideology & mindset since childhood that we want to rush the Quran reading during Ramadan. We feel accomplished when we finish reading all 30 chapters with just ‘Arabic reading’ while not knowing the actual meaning of any one of the Surah. Not even a translation.
In order to bring quality and excellence to our Quranic study, we should recite a few verses of the Quran with ‘Tadabbur’ (deep reflection, understanding & contemplation). The best way to do ‘Tadabbur’ is to stick to one ayah and read its translation, understand its context, and then move on to another ayah (verse). As I said earlier, quality is more important than quantity.
In easy words, ‘Tadabbur’ is an Arabic word and it can be defined as an Internal reflection in our own language, of how a specific verse relates to me individually, what it means in my day-to-day life and how can I contemplate and observe the mentioned signs around me. It also means repetition, i.e. pondering over a single verse, again and again, to derive its meaning from different angles in the real world around us.
The main key to ‘Tadabbur’ is that we ask ourselves while reading a single verse: why has Allah mentioned this specific part in this place, and not anywhere else, or what does He want me to learn from this? We then reflect on our past, present, and future and try to create a linkage between our experiences in regard to that specific verse.
In the Quran, Allah says:
˹This is˺ a blessed Book which We have revealed to you ˹O Prophet˺ so that they may contemplate (‘lee-tadabbaru‘) its verses (with understanding), and people of reasoning may be mindful (take heed).
Quran Chapter 38, Verse 29
A very common mistake that we all make is going after quantity instead of quality. Getting to the finish line and completely forgetting the purpose of reading.
JazakAllah kheir
Very well scripted! I learnt the translation of namaz to increase my meditation during namaz and it really worked. Reading Quran without even knowing is futile, unless we know what we are reading. You explained it very well! Beautiful blog!
I agree here with you and this is something we all should think abt . Instead of rushing to complete it and not knowing the meaning of even a single word we should read less with translation atleast. no doubt a quality post
A quality post for Ramadan.
Sister, could of small points:
Ikhlas is intention / sincerity ..
Ihsaan- is excellence. Yes they are intertwined but perhaps be good to explain these terms.
Also, regarding tadabbur, maybe after reading and understanding ayaat, going away and think about these. Eg a walk or a hike or just sit and reflect.