There are two kinds of requirements for understanding the Quran or there are two kinds of requirements benefiting from the Quran.
The first kind of requirement, you could call them academic Learning the Arabic language is an academic requirement, Studying Tafseer is an academic requirement, Understanding the linguistic analysis And the tradition, all of these are academic requirements. They require you to study Anything that requires you to study becomes an academic requirement, But more important than the academic requirements, there are certain psychological requirements, If you don’t want to use the word psychological, you can even call them spiritual requirements, for benefiting from the Quran And those are the harder ones.
As a matter of fact somebody who is intelligent can learn the Arabic language in no time they can study tafseer in no time, Memorize Quran and even in no time And understand and know a lot about Allah’s book in very little time, But the psychological requirements, the attitude requirements In really benefiting from the Quran They are a life long struggle, They are something you can meet at one point in your life and lose at a later point in your life, They are not something you get to keep, they are something you have to fight to maintain and you have to more than anything else, you have to fight yourself To maintain those requirements, I can tell you That 10 years ago, I knew a lot less about the Quran As the days and the months and the years went by, I knew more and more and more about the Quran And even though in the grand scheme of things, I still know very little about the Quran, Those original requirements that are psychological in nature, I still have to struggle with that every day… I have to struggle with those Its not like I graduated and I met those requirements like you know you take prerequisites in college, You meet the prerequisite and that’s it, you don’t have to go back to it anymore. That’s not the case with Quran these requirements they are of a different nature.
The first of those requirements Is understanding and reminding oneself every single time. Why am I learning Quran? Why am I reading Tafseer? Why am I learning Arabic? Why am I memorizing Quran? What is the point of all of this?
The intention behind all of this And all of you know the cliche answer, the cliche answer is “This is so I can have guidance”, “Quran is guidance”, “We study it for guidance” But, that term is used so often, That we actually don’t understand what that really means What does it mean, that I am asking Allah for guidance? What that means is, That on a given day… Every single moment of my day I will be presented with choices, Should I stay in bed or should I wake up? Should I look there or, should I look down? Should I talk back or should I stay quiet? Should I earn my money this way or, should I find another job? Should I pursue this or, should I leave those friends? Should I hang out with them… or, should I not hang out? Should I respond back to the text message or not? Choices All the time, every second of the day… you and I are going to be faced with choices. When we ask Allah for guidance… we are asking Allah for the strength to make the right choices. That Allah empowers us because of his word to make the right choices The guidance of the Quran That’s what that means.
