Acting upon Qur'an teachings(2/6) - The Obligations Muslims Owe to the Qur’an

Make a Start....

A person who desires to get full guidance from the Qur’an has, first of all, to put himself into this state of mind and afterwards as his contact with the Qur’an becomes closer and closer he will continue to get greater and greater enlightenment from it. The Holy Qur’an affirms:

While as for those who accept guidance, He increases their guidance and bestows on them their piety. (Muhammad 47:17)

It means that if a person actually makes a start, moving under the guidance of the Qur’an, he will soon find himself marching steadily along the straight path and he will go on gradually rising to the higher and higher planes of spiritual development. On the other hand, if a person has not made up his mind to transform himself in accordance with the Qur’anic teachings; the time he spends on reciting the Holy Book will be just wasted. Recitation of the Qur’an, instead of doing him any spiritual good, may actually prove to be curse on him. Imam Ghazali  (RA)  has  quoted  some  mystic as saying that “Some readers of the Qur’an do not get anything from it except the imprecation which it pronounces upon them. When he recites “Allah’s curse is on the liars” while he himself is a liar, he becomes  the  target  of  this  curse.”  Similarly,  when  a  reader reads:

So, if they do not desist (from devouring interest), give them an ultimatum of a war on  behalf of Allah and His Messenger…. (Al-Baqarah 2:279)

and  if  he  himself  violates  this  injunction  of  Almighty Allah (SWT), he becomes the addressee of this ultimatum. In the same way, when those persons who give short measure or short weight and those who indulge in backbiting and carping, read 

“Woe to those who give less in measure and weight” (Al-Mutaffifin 83:1) and  
“Woe  to  every  slanderer  and  backbiter”  (Al-Humazah 104:1), 

then they themselves become the addressees of these dreadful warnings. Reasoning on this line, we can easily understand  what  a  man  will  gain  from  the  recitation  of  the Qur’an if his actions are not in accordance with its teachings.

As for those who study the Qur’an for investigation and research,  for  reflection  over  its  meanings  and  for  writing or compiling books on it, if they do not put the injunctions of the Qur’an into practice, we can say that they are the worst sinners. Their study and research is like indulging in a fascinating intellectual exercise which is tantamount to mere toying with the Holy Book, or even making fun of it. Consequently, instead of guiding them to the right path, it causes them to deviate and go astray:

…by it He causes many to stray, and many He leads to the right path…. (Al-Baqarah 2:26)

These so-called scholars of the Qur’an disseminate all sorts of mischievous interpretations and become instrumental in misleading and misguiding the people in different ways. Their whole  thinking on  the  Holy Book is motivated by a vicious attempt to run after the abstruse and the recondite. The Qur’an has aptly described their motives in doing so in the following words:

…So they follow the part thereof that is figurative, seeking discord and searching for its hidden meanings... (Aal Imran 3:7)

Source:The Obligations Muslims owe to The Quran (Book by Dr. Israr Ahmad)