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The most twisted, ridiculous, shallow ideas, innovations and superstitions are propagated amongst Muslims when they are away from the Qur’an.
Ramadan has a special relationship with the Qur’an, of course:
“The month of Ramadan is the one in which the Qur’an 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 Ramadan 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:
* Studying the Qur’an in Ramadan;
* Coming together for this purpose;
* Checking (one’s memory/knowledge of) the Qur’an with someone who has preserved it better;
* Increasing recitation of the Qur’an in Ramadan;
* 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 Qur’an with him (in Ramadan) once every year, and he did so twice in the year of his death. (Bukhari 6/485)
When Ramadan began, Imam Malik would cease narrating Hadith and sitting with the people of knowledge, and stick to reciting the Qur’an from its pages, while Sufyan al-Thawri would leave other acts of worship and stick to reciting the Qur’an.. Zayd al-Yaami would bring copies of the Qur’an when Ramadan began and gather his companions around him. ...”
Compare all this with our sad state, when we talk so much about establishing Islam, implementing the Qur’an, 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 unbalanced in our understanding of Islam, because there are ayats which we rarely or never hear or think about; we repeat only certain selected ayats over and over again; we lost the context of the verses, the overall flow, argument and balance of the Qur’an, all of which is beautiful and miraculous. Because of this ignorance we go astray from the Straight Path, split up into sects, lose the blessings of Allah...
The most twisted, ridiculous, shallow ideas, innovations and superstitions are propagated amongst Muslims when they are away from the Qur’an, because any little knowledge of the Qur’an would be enough to dispel them.
Hence, O servant 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)
Neglect of the Qur’an is of different levels, as Ibn al-Qayyim writes:
• Not reciting or listening to it;
• Not studying and underst-anding it;
• Not conveying its message;
• Not judging by it in personal and communal matters, at all levels of society;
• Not believing in it.
(Based on an extract from Ibn Rajab al-Hanbali’s Lata’if al-Ma’arif (pp. 179-182), quoted by Fahd bin Sulaiman in Kayf Nastafeed min Ramadan) (pp. 48-50).
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