Certain basic states and attitudes of heart and mind are a necessary prerequisite to any fruitful relationship with the Qur’an. Develop them as much as you can. Make them part of your consciousness; keep them ever alive and active. Integrate them into your actions. Let them penetrate the depth of your being. Without the help of these inner resources, you will not receive your full measure of the Qur’an’s blessings. They will be your indispensable companions, too, throughout your journey. These inner resources are neither difficult nor impossible to find.
Through constant awareness and reflection, through appropriate words and deeds, you can acquire and develop them. The more you do so, the closer you will be able to come to the Qur’an; the closer you come to the Qur’an, the greater will be your harvest.
Section 2.1: Faith in the Word of God
First: Come to the Qur’an with a strong and deep faith that it is the word of Allah, your Creator and Lord. Why should such a faith be a necessary prerequisite?
No doubt, such is the power and charm of the Qur’an that even if a man takes it up and starts reading it as he would an ordinary book, he will still benefit from it—should he read it with an open mind. But this Book is no ordinary book; it opens with the emphatic statement: “This is the Book [of God], there is no doubt in it” (al-Baqarah 2:2).
Your purpose in reading and studying it is no ordinary purpose; you seek from it the guidance that will transform your whole being, bring you and keep you on the Straight Path: “Guide us on the Straight Path” (al-Fatihah 1:5) is the cry of your heart to which the Qur’an is the response.
You may admire the Qur’an, even be informed by it, but you cannot be transformed by it unless its words soak in—to awaken you, to grip you, to heal and change you. This cannot happen unless you take them for what they truly are—the words of God.
Without this faith, you cannot come to acquire all the other inner resources you will need to reach the heart of the Qur’an and absorb its message. Once it comes to reside in your heart, you cannot but be filled with qualities and attitudes such as sincerity of purpose, awe and reverence, love and gratitude, trust and dependence, willingness to labour hard, conviction of its truth, surrender to its message, obedience to its commands, and vigilance against dangers that seek to deprive you of its treasures.
Think of His majesty and glory and power, and you will feel awe, reverence, and devotion for His words. Reflect on His sustenance, mercy, and compassion, and you will be filled with gratitude, love, and longing for His message. Know His wisdom, knowledge, and kindness, and you will become willing, eager, and ready to obey His commandments.
That is why the Qur’an reminds you of this important truth again and again: in the very beginning, in the opening verses of many surahs, and frequently throughout. That is why even the Messenger—blessings and peace be upon him—is instructed to proclaim his own faith: “Say: I believe in whatever God has sent down in this Book” (al-Shura 42:15). In his faith all believers must join him: “The Messenger believes in what has been sent down to him by his Lord, and all believers too” (al-Baqarah 2:285).
You must, therefore, always remain conscious that each word you are reading, reciting, hearing, or trying to understand has been sent for you by Allah.
Do you truly have this faith? You do not have to look far for an answer. Just examine your heart and behaviour. If you have it, then where is the desire and longing for companionship with the Qur’an? Where is the labour and hard work to understand it? Where is the surrender and obedience to its message?
How do we obtain this faith, and how can it be kept alive?
Although there are many ways, I will mention only one here. The most effective way is reciting the Qur’an itself. This may look as if we are moving in a circle, but this is not really the case. For as you read the Qur’an, you will surely recognize it as being the word of God. Your faith will then increase in intensity and depth:
“Believers are only those who, whenever God is mentioned, their hearts tremble with awe; and whenever His revelations are recited to them, they increase in faith…” (al-Anfal 8:2)
Section 2.2: Purity of Intention and Purpose
Second: Read the Qur’an 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 Qur’an depends on what you come to it for. Your niy’yah (intention and purpose) is crucial. Certainly, the Qur’an has come to guide you, but you may also go astray by reading it if you approach it with 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” (al-Baqarah 2:26).
The Qur’an is the word of Allah; it therefore requires as much exclusiveness of intention and purity of purpose as does worshipping and serving Him. Do not read it merely for intellectual pursuit and pleasure, even though you must apply your intellect fully to the task of understanding it.
Many people spend a lifetime studying the language, style, history, geography, law, and ethics of the Qur’an, yet their lives remain untouched by its message. The Qur’an frequently refers to people who have knowledge but do not derive benefit from it.
Nor should you come to the Qur’an with the fixed intention of finding support for your own views, notions, and doctrines. For if you do, you may only hear an echo of your own voice in it—and not that of God. It is this approach to understanding and interpreting the Qur’an that the Prophet, blessings and peace be upon him, has condemned:
“Whoever interprets the Qur’an by his personal opinion shall take his place in the Fire” (Tirmidhi).
Nothing could be more unfortunate than to use the Qur’an to secure worldly gains such as name, esteem, status, fame, or money. You may achieve these, but you will be bartering away a priceless treasure for nothing—indeed, even incurring eternal loss and ruin.
The Prophet, blessings and peace be upon him, said:
“If anyone studies the Qur’an seeking thereby a living from people, he will rise on the Day of Resurrection with his face as a fleshless bone” (Baiyheqi).
He also said that one who learns, recites, and teaches the Qur’an for worldly acclaim will be thrown into the Fire (Muslim).
You may also derive other lesser benefits from the Qur’an, such as healing of bodily afflictions, psychological peace, and relief from poverty. There is no harm in seeking these, but they should not become the ultimate goal of your niy’yah. For in attaining these, you may lose a vast ocean that could have been yours.
Reading every single letter of the Qur’an carries great reward. Remain conscious of these rewards, and include them in your intention, for they provide strong motivation to remain engaged with the Qur’an. But never forget that far greater rewards are promised for understanding, absorbing, and following it—in this world and in the Hereafter. These are what you must truly aim for.
Not only should your purpose be pure, but once you have the Qur’an with you—both the text and its living embodiment in the Sunnah—you should not turn to any other source for ultimate guidance. Doing so would be like chasing mirages. It reflects a lack of confidence in the Qur’an and amounts to divided loyalties.
Nothing brings you nearer to your Lord than the moments you spend with His words. For it is only in the Qur’an that you experience the unique blessing of hearing His “voice” addressing you. So let an intense desire to draw nearer to Allah be your single, overriding motive in reading the Qur’an.
Finally, your niy’yah should be directed solely toward seeking your Lord’s pleasure by devoting your heart, mind, and time to the guidance He has sent you. That is the true exchange when you surrender yourself to Allah:
“And among people is he who sells himself, seeking the pleasure of God” (al-Baqarah 2:207).
Purpose and intention are like the soul of a body, the inner potential of a seed. Many seeds look alike, but as they grow and bear fruit, their differences become clear. The purer and higher the motive, the greater the value and yield of your efforts.
So always ask yourself: Why am I reading the Qur’an? Remind yourself constantly. This may be the best way to preserve the purity and sincerity of your intention.
Section 2.3: Bringing Gratitude and Praise:
Third: Make yourself constantly alert with intense praise and gratitude to your Lord for having blessed you with His greatest gift—the Qur’an—and for having guided you to its reading and study.
Once you realize what a priceless treasure you hold in your hands, it is only natural for your heart to beat with joy and humility, and for your tongue to join in:
“All praise be to Allah, who has guided us to this; [otherwise] we would never have found guidance had Allah not guided us” (al-Aa‘raaf 7:43).
Of all the intimate blessings and favours He has bestowed upon you, nothing can match the Qur’an. If every hair on your body were to become a tongue praising and thanking Him, if every drop of blood in your body were to turn into a joyful tear, even then your praise and thanks would not match His immense generosity in granting you the Qur’an.
Even if the Qur’an had not been sent down specifically for us, its perfection and beauty, its majesty and splendour, would deserve all the praise we could offer. But the fact that this sublime and perfect gift—embodying the very speech of our Lord—has been given for our sake must intensify our praise beyond all bounds.
Such intense praise inevitably turns into deep gratitude. And no word expresses this combined praise and overflowing gratitude better than al-hamd:
Al-hamdu lillāhi alladhī hadānā li-hādhā…
Why thank Allah for having given us the Qur’an?
Primarily because through it He has guided you to meaning and purpose in life and placed you on the Straight Path. Through the Qur’an, the way to honour and dignity in this world has been opened for you. In it, you are able to converse with Allah. And only by following it in this world can you attain forgiveness, Paradise, and Allah’s pleasure in the Hereafter.
Gratitude and joy lead to trust, hope, and greater gifts. The One who has given you the Qur’an will surely help you in reading, understanding, and following it. Thankfulness and joy generate an ever-renewing vigour that helps you approach the Qur’an with fresh zeal each time.
The more you are grateful, the more Allah grants you from the riches that the Qur’an contains. Generosity evokes gratitude, and gratitude makes you deserving of even more generosity—an unending cycle. Such is God’s promise:
“If you are grateful, I will surely give you more and more” (Ibrahim 14:7).
Having the Qur’an and not feeling immense gratitude for it can only mean one of two things: either you are unaware of the blessings it contains, or you do not value them. In either case, you should be deeply concerned about the state of your relationship with the Qur’an.
The feeling of gratitude that fills every part of your heart and mind must also flow through your words—frequent, sincere, and constant. Thank Allah at every stage of your journey: for being given time for the Qur’an, for reading it correctly, for memorizing it, for every meaning you discover in it, and for being enabled to follow it.
And gratitude must also be expressed through action.
Section 2.4 Acceptance and Trust
Fourth: Accept and trust, without the least doubt or hesitation, every knowledge and guidance that the Qur’an conveys to you.
You have the freedom to question whether the Qur’an is the word of Allah or not, and to reject its claim if you are not satisfied. But once you have accepted it as His word, you have no basis whatsoever to doubt even a single part of it. To do so would negate what you have already accepted.
There must be total surrender and commitment to the Qur’anic teachings. Your own beliefs, opinions, judgments, notions, and whims should not be allowed to override any part of it.
The Qur’an condemns those who receive the Book as an inheritance and then behave as doubtful and skeptical believers:
“Those who were made inheritors of the Book after them are indeed in disquieting doubt about it” (al-Shura 42:14).
The Qur’an also repeatedly emphasizes that every measure was taken to ensure that it was revealed and conveyed without any corruption. It affirms:
“With the truth We have sent it down, and with the truth it has come down” (al-Isra’ 17:105).
“Perfect are the words of your Lord in truth and justice” (al-An‘am 6:115).
Accepting and trusting the Qur’an as wholly true does not mean blind faith, a closed mind, or an uninquiring intellect. You have every right to reflect, question, and strive to understand its meanings. But what you cannot fully comprehend is not necessarily irrational or untrue.
If you were in a mine where you knew every stone was a priceless gem—and experience had proven it—you would not discard those whose value you could not yet recognize due to your limited tools or perception.
Similarly, no part of the Qur’an can be dismissed as outdated, old-fashioned, or mere myth. If God is the Lord of all times, then His message remains valid for all times.
To accept some parts of the Qur’an and reject others is, in reality, to reject it entirely. There is no room for partial acceptance in your relationship with the Qur’an; logically, there cannot be (as per al-Baqarah 2:85).
There are many diseases of the heart and mind that may prevent you from accepting the Qur’anic message and surrendering to it. These are described within the Qur’an itself. Among them are envy, prejudice, the pursuit of personal desires, and blind adherence to societal customs.
But the greatest of these are pride and arrogance—a sense of self-sufficiency (kibr and istighnaā’)—which prevent you from abandoning your own opinions, recognizing the word of God, and accepting it with humility.
“I will turn away from My signs those who are arrogant upon the earth without right; though they see every sign, they do not believe in it. And if they see the path of guidance, they do not take it as a path; but if they see the path of error, they take it as a path” (al-Aa‘raaf 7:146).
“Those who deny Our signs and are arrogant toward them—the gates of heaven will not be opened for them, nor will they enter Paradise until a camel passes through the eye of a needle” (al-Aa‘raaf 7:40).
Section 2.5 Obedience and Change
Fifth: Bring the will, resolve, and readiness to obey whatever the Qur’an says, and to change your life, attitudes, and behaviour—both inwardly and outwardly—as it requires.
Unless you are prepared, and begin, to shape your thoughts and actions according to the messages you receive from the Qur’an, all your dedication and labour may be in vain. Mere intellectual exercises and emotional experiences will never bring you anywhere near the real treasures of the Qur’an.
Failing to obey the Qur’an and to change your life due to human frailties, temptations, natural difficulties, or external obstacles is one matter; failing to do so because you have no intention or make no effort is quite another.
You may then attain fame as a scholar of the Qur’an, but it will never reveal its true meaning to you.
The Qur’an reserves some of its most severe condemnation for those who profess faith in the Book of God, but when they are called to act, or when situations arise requiring decisions, they ignore its guidance or turn away from it. Such people are described as kāafir (disbelievers), fāasiq (rebellious/iniquitous), and ẓāalim (wrongdoers).
Section 2.6: Hazards and Obstacles
Sixth: Always remain aware that, as you embark upon reading the Qur’an, Satan will create every possible hazard and obstacle to hinder you on your way to its great riches.
The Qur’an is the only sure guide to the Straight Path to God; to walk that path is man’s destiny. When Adam, peace be upon him, was created, he was made aware of the hurdles and obstacles that man would have to overcome in order to fulfil his destiny. All his weaknesses were laid bare—especially his weakness of will and resolve, and his forgetfulness (For details: see Ta Ha 20:115).
It was also made clear how Satan would try to obstruct him at every step of his journey:
“I shall surely sit in ambush for them along Your Straight Path; then I shall come upon them from before them and from behind them, from their right and from their left—and You will not find most of them grateful” (al-Aa‘raaf 7:16–17).
Clearly, the Qur’an—the “Guidance from Allah All-Mighty”—is your most powerful ally and support as you struggle throughout your life against Satan and strive to live by God’s guidance.
Therefore, from the very moment you decide to read the Qur’an until the moment you try to live by it, Satan will confront you with countless tricks and deceptions, illusions and distractions, obstacles and impediments that you must overcome.
He may:
- corrupt your intention,
- make you heedless of the Qur’an’s meaning and message,
- plant doubts in your mind,
- erect barriers between your soul and the remembrance of Allah,
- distract you with peripheral matters instead of essential teachings,
- tempt you away from acting upon the Qur’an,
- or simply cause you to delay and neglect reading it altogether.
All of these dangers are explained within the Qur’an itself.
Consider a simple example: reading the Qur’an daily with understanding sounds easy. But when you try, you may find it difficult—time slips away, other tasks appear more urgent, and focused attention becomes something you avoid. You may even settle for quick recitation merely for barakah (blessing), without reflection.
It is with awareness of these dangers that your tongue should respond, in obedience to the Qur’anic command:
“When you recite the Qur’an, seek refuge with Allah from Satan, the rejected” (al-Nahl 16:98),
by saying:
أعوذ
بالله من الشيطان الرجيم
I come in Allah’s protection for Satan, the cursed.
Section 2.7: Trust and Dependence
Seventh: Trust, exclusively and completely, in Allah to lead you to the full rewards of reading the Qur’an.
Just as it is Allah’s infinite mercy that has brought His words to you in the Qur’an and brought you to it, so it is only His mercy that can help you in this crucial task. You require weighty and precious provisions, and these are not easy to obtain. You face immense dangers, which are difficult to overcome. To whom can you turn but Him—to hold your hand and guide you on your way?
Your desire and effort are necessary means; but His enabling grace and support are the only sure guarantees that you will be able to proceed with success and benefit. In Him alone you should place your trust as true believers. To Him alone you must turn for everything in life—and what could be more important than the Qur’an?
Never be proud of what you are doing for the Qur’an or of what you have achieved. Always remain conscious of your inadequacies and limitations when faced with a task of such عظيمة - immense and unparalleled. Approach the Qur’an with humility, with a deep sense of dependence upon Allah, seeking His help and support at every step.
It is in this spirit of trust, praise, and gratitude that your tongue and heart, in harmony, should begin the recitation:
بِسْمِ
اللَّهِ الرَّحْمَٰنِ الرَّحِيمِ
In the name of Allah, the Most Merciful, the Especially Merciful.
This is the verse that appears at the beginning of all but one of the 114 surahs of the Qur’an.
And also pray, seeking His protection:
“Our Lord! Let not our hearts deviate after You have guided us, and grant us mercy from Yourself. Indeed, You are the Bestower” (Āal ‘Imrān 3:8).