Aslam

The Book of Worship Sign in to save

Chapter VIII: Excellence of the Quran

(6) To be free from the impediments of understanding.
Majority of the people do not understand the meaning of the Quran. The reason is that the devil closed the door of their hearts for which they are deprived of the secret meanings of the Quran.

• The Prophet said : If the devil would not have roamed over the hearts of men, they could have seen the mysteries of the unseen

' world. The real meaning of the Quran appertains to the unseen world. The thing which is outside the grasp of the five senses and cannot be grasped except by the light of sharp insight appertains to the unseen world. Similar is the case with the meaning of the Quran.

FOUR IMPEDIMENTS OF UNDERSTANDING THE QURAN

(1) To remain busy in extracting words from the root of words The devil works in this matter. He keeps attached with every Quran reader to keep him away from understanding its meaning. He recites the words repeatedly and yet he understand that he has not pronounced it correctly and rightly. In this way, all his thoughts are centered round the pronunciation of words.
How can the meaning of the Quran come to him in these circumstances ?

(2) The believe the sects blindly. The Quran-reader praises the mazhabs or sects and follows the opinions he heard from others. He believes them without ascertaining the truth or otherwise of the opinion of the sects and follow them blindly. He

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then becomes chained with the chain of belief of the sect and does not try to remove them. His look is directed towards what he heard. A man of firm faith sees it as a snare of the devil and keeps away therefrom. Sufiyan Saori said : Sometimes learning becomes as it were a screen. He understands learning as the opinion of his sect.

(3) To commit a sin repeatedly or to be proud or to remain immerged in worldly passions. They are like dusts on a mirror and screen to radiant star of truth. It is a great screen of heart. The greater is passion and greed amassed in mind, the greater is the screen over the mind, and the lighter is the worldly burden on mind, the greater is the light of understanding. Mind is like a mirror and greed and passion are like dusts in mind. For this reason, the Prophet said : When my followers will consider their wealth as great, fear of Islam will disappear from their hearts.
When they will give up enjoinging good and forbidding evils, they will be deprived of the blessings of revelation. Fuzail explained it by saying that they will be deprived of understanding the meaning of the Quran. God made a condition of the acceptance of Tauba on understanding and repentance, God says : This is deep insight and reminder for every penitent servant. God says : None but a repentant man remembers. God says : Only the wise remember.

Source: Imam Al-Ghazali, Ihya Ulum al-Din (Revival of the Islamic Sciences)
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