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Imam Bukhari reports from 'Aishah that the Messenger of Allah (may
Allah bless him and grant him peace) would tighten his waist-cloth
(i.e. detach himself from his wives), spend the night in worship and
awake his family, during the last ten nights of Ramadaan. Ramadaan is
nearly over, so make the most of this precious opportunity!
Ramadaan has a special relationship with the Qur'an, of course:
"The month of Ramadaan is the one in which the Quran was sent down, a
guidance for mankind, clear proofs for the guidance, the Criterion;
so whoever amongst you witnesses this month, let him fast it." (cf.
Surah al-Baqarah 2:185)
The word 'so' (fa) in this ayah leads to the following paraphrase of
one aspect of its meaning: "Fast this month because it is the one in
which the Qur'an was sent down" .
Ibn 'Abbas narrates "that the Messenger of Allah (may Allah bless
him and grant him peace) was the most generous person, and he would
be at his most generous in Ramadaan because Jibril would come to him
every night and he would rehearse the Qur'an with him." (Sahih al-Bukhari,
Eng. trans. 6/486) |
This hadith contains recommendation of the following:
coming together for the purpose of reciting Qur'an(as huffaaz
rehearsing together)
checking (one's memory/knowledge of) the Qur'an with someone who has
preserved it better;
increasing recitation of the Qur'an in Ramadaan;
that the night time is the best time to recite, when other
preoccupations decrease and it is easier to concentrate, as in Surah
al-Muzzammil 73:6.
Further, Fatimah (may Allah be pleased with her) narrated from her
father (may Allah bless him and grant him peace), who told her that
Jibril would rehearse the Quran with him (in Ramadaan) once every
year, and he did so twice in the year of his death. (Bukhari 6/485)
After mentioning the above aspects of the Sunnah, Ibn Rajab talks
about the situation of the Salaf (the early Muslims) during Ramadaan:
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"... Some of the Pious predecessors would complete reciting the
whole Quran during the night prayer of Ramadaan every 3 days, others
every 7 days e.g. Qataadah, others in 10 days e.g. Abu Rajaa' al-Atardi.
The Pious predecessors would recite Quran in Ramadaan in Prayer as
well as outside it. Al-Aswad would finish the Quran every 2 nights
in Ramadaan; Ibrahim an-Nakh'I would do likewise in the last 10
nights specifically, & every 3 nights during the rest of the month.
Qataadah would regularly finish the Quran in 7 days, but in 3 days
during Ramadaan, when he would study the Quran especially, and every
night during its last 10 days. Al-Zuhri would say when Ramadaan
began, 'It is recitation of the Quran and feeding of people.' When
Ramadaan began, Imam Malik would cease narrating Hadith and sitting
with the people of knowledge, and stick to reciting the Quran from
its pages, while Sufyan al-Thawri would leave other acts of worship
and stick to reciting the Quran. 'Aishah would recite from the pages
of the Quran at the beginning of the day in Ramadaan (i.e. after
Dawn), until when the sun had risen, she would sleep. Zayd al-Yaami
would bring copies of the Quran when Ramadaan began and gather his
companions around him. ..."
Ibn Rajab later continues, "The forbiddance of completing recitation
of the Quran in less than 3 days applies to this being made a
regular practice, but as for favoured times such as Ramadaan, esp.
the nights in which Laylat al-Qadr is sought, or favoured places
such as Makkah for the visitor, it is recommended to increase
reciting the Quran to avail the time and place. This is the view of
Ahmad, Ishaq & other Imams, and the practice of others indicates
this too."
The purpose here is not to discuss whether or not the latter view is
correct or not, since that is purely academic for most of us, as we
do not get anywhere near reciting the whole Quran in three days!
However, the practice of the Prophet (may Allah bless him and grant
him peace), his Companions, and those who followed their path,
should be clear enough. As a further example, Bukhari (3/79) quotes
from the noble Companion Zaid bin Thabit who answered the question,
"How much time was there between the pre-dawn meal and the Dawn
Prayer?" by saying, "Enough time to recite fifty ayat"; since the
practice of the Arabs was to measure time in terms of everyday
actions, this shows that the Sahabah were pre-occupied with the
Qur'an, especially in Ramadaan.
Compare all this with our sad state, when we talk so much about
establishing Islam, implementing the Quran, etc. and yet have such
little contact with it, maybe not completing its recitation ever at
all since childhood, or perhaps never! Hence we become imbalanced in
our understanding of Islam, because there are ayat which we rarely
or never hear or think about; we repeat only certain selected ayat
over and over again; we lost the context of the verses, the overall
flow, argument and balance of the Quran, all of which is beautiful &
miraculous. Because of this ignorance we go astray from the Straight
Path, split up into sects, lose the blessings of Allah ...
"We took a covenant from those who said: we are Christians, but they
forgot part of the message with which they had been reminded, so we
ingrained amongst them enmity and hatred until the Day of
Judgment..." (Surah al-Ma'idah 5:14)
In Surah al-Mu'minoon (23:53), there is mention of the people before
us (in whose footsteps we would follow), who broke up their Deen
into sects (zuburan), each party rejoicing in what it had. One
understanding of this, from the word zuburan meaning literally
'books', is that each sect left the Book of Allah, & concentrated
solely on the books of its own sect, so "they split their deen up
into books"!
The most twisted, ridiculous, shallow ideas, innovations and
superstitions are propagated amongst Muslims when they are away from
the Quran, because any little knowledge of the Quran would be enough
to dispel them.
Hence, O slave of Allah, leave aside secondary books and concentrate
on studying the Blessed Book of Allah in this Blessed Month (use a
good translation/commentary if needed), for it is the source of all
Knowledge in other books, and keep away from wasting time,
especially in futile discussions and arguments which lead nowhere,
for that is a sure sign of being misguided, as the Prophet (may
Allah bless him and grant him peace) said, "Whenever a people went
astray after they had been on guidance, they were given to
argumentation (jadl)." (Ahmad, Tirmidhi, Ibn Majah - Sahih al-Jami'
al-Saghir, no. 5633) |
Finally, remember that the Messenger (may Allah bless him and grant
him peace) will complain to Allah on the Day of Judgment that his
people neglected the Qur'an (Surah al-Furqan 25:30). Neglect of the
Qur'an is of different levels, as Ibn al-Qayyim writes:
not reciting or listening to it;
not conveying its message;
not judging by it in personal and communal matters, at all levels of
society;
not believing in it.
All Praise is due to Allah, Lord of the Worlds. |
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