How to be benefited by the Holy Qur'an

Now that you have got acquainted with the subjects and the objectives
of the Divine Book [the Qur'an], you will have to take into
consideration an important point, as by doing so the door of being
benefited by it will be opened to you, and the passage to knowledge
and wisdom will be wide open to your heart. This point is to look at
this Glorious Book as an educational one, a teaching book by which you
should be benefited, regarding it your duty to learn from it. By
learning, teaching, benefiting and being benefited we do not mean its
different literary syntactical and morphological aspects, nor its
eloquence and rhetoric and other stylistic points, nor being
interested in its stories, tales and episodes from the historical
point of view in order to get information about the past nations. None
of these is included in the objectives of theQur'an, and they are, in
fact, far away from the main objective of this divine Book.The fact
that our advantage from this great Book is quite small is because we
usually do not take it to be a book of teaching and education. We
recite the Qur'an just for its reward. So, we pay attention only to
our intonation when reciting it. We want our recitation to be perfect
and correct so as to obtain its reward, then we stop at that and feel
satisfied with it. Thus, we spend some forty years reciting the Qur'an
without being benefited by it, except the reward for reciting it. If
we do look at its teaching and educational side, we concern ourselves
with its eloquence and syntax and its miraculous aspects, or even
somewhat higher, we engage ourselves with its history, the occasions
of the revelation of the ayahs, the times of their revelation, which
surah or ayah was revealed in Mecca and which in al-Madinah, the
differences in recitations and in the exegeses of the Sunnis and the
Shiites and other secondary affairs which are outside the main
objective and they themselves cause us to be barred from the Qur'an
and to neglect remembering Allah. Even our great commentators of the
Qur'an are very much concerned about one or another of the said
affairs, without opening the door of learning to the people.
The writer believes that so far no "tafsir" [exegesis] has yet been
written to the Book of Allah. Generally, to write a "tafsir" for a
book means to explain the objectives of the book and to draw the
attentions to what its author wants to say. This noble Book, which
Allah, the Exalted, testifies to be a book of guidance and teaching,
and the light of the road of man's journey, its exegete should find in
each one of its stories, or even in each ayah, a directive guiding to
the invisible world, so as to show to the learner the road to
happiness, to knowledge and to humanity. A "mufassir" [commentator or
exegete] is the one who tells us what was the "objective" of the
revelation, not the "occasion" of the revelation as is explained in
the exegeses. In the very story of Adam and Eve and their affairs with
Iblis, from the very moment of their creation till their descent to
the earth, which story is repeated by Allah several times in
theQur'an,there are so many overt and covert teachings [ma'arif] and
admonitions, and it reminds us of so many of spiritual faults and
Satanic characters, as well as many perfections of the soul and human
knowledge which it introduces to us, whereas we still disregard them.
In short, the Book of Allah is a book of knowledge and ethics, and an
invitation to happiness and perfection. So, its exegesis should also
be a book of gnosticism and ethics, explaining the gnostic and ethical
points of view, and other aspects of inviting to its happiness
[sa`ada].The commentator who neglects these points, disregards them or
attaches no importance to them, is, actually, neglecting the objective
of the Qur'an and the main aim of revealing the [divine] books and
sending the messengers. This is a grave mistake which has prevented
theummah,for many centuries, from being benefited by the Glorious
Qur'an, and it has blocked the road of guidance in their faces. We
have to learn the objective of the revelation of the Qur'an
-disregarding the intellectual and argumentative aspects, which show
us the goal by themselves-from the Qur'an itself. The author of a book
knows better his own objective. So, let us have a glance at what the
author of this Book Himself says concerning the affairs of the Qur'an.
He says: "This is the Book, wherein is no doubt, a guide for
themuttaqin[those who fear Allah] ". [299]He describes His Book as
being a book of guidance. In a short surah He repeats saying: "We have
made the Qur'an easy for remembrance, but is there any one who will
mind?" [300]He says:"...We have revealed to you the Remembrance that
you may explain to mankind what has been sent down to them and that
haply they will reflect," [301]and "A Book We have revealed to you,
blessed, that they may ponder over itsayahsand that men of
understanding may remember," [302]and many other nobleayahs,to restate
which would be lengthy.
This opinion of ours is not intended to criticize thetafsirs,as every
one of their authors has taken great pains and striven hard in order
to write a noble book, so, may Allah bless them and grant them good
reward. We intend just to say that the door must be open before the
people to be benefited by this Book, which is the only one leading to
Allah and the only one for educating the souls with the divine
disciplines and laws, the greatest means of connection between the
created and Creator, the strong handle and the firm cord of adhering
to the Might of Divinity. Let the scholars and commentators write
Persian and Arabic exegeses with the aim of explaining the gnostic and
ethical teachings and instructions, showing the way of connecting the
created to the Creator, and expounding the migration fromDarul
Ghurur[the House of Conceit = this world] to theDarus-Surur
walKhulud[the House of Pleasure and Eternity], according to what has
been deposited in this noble Book. The author of this Book is not
as-Sakkaki or the Shaykh, whose objectives were eloquence and
rhetoric, nor is He Sibawayh or al-Khalil, whose objectives were
grammar and syntax, nor is He al-Mas'udi or Ibn Khillakan, whose
objectives revolved around the history of the world. This Book is not
like the stick of Moses or his White Hand, nor is it like the blow of
Christ who could raise the dead [by Allah's permission], to have been
sent down only as a miracle to prove the true prophethood of the Holy
Prophet. This divine Book is, as a matter of fact, a book of
enlivening the hearts with the everlasting life of divine knowledge.
It is Allah's Book which invites to divine affairs. So, the
commentator has to teach these divine affairs to the people, and the
people have to refer to his commentary to learn those affairs, so that
they may attain its advantage:"And We reveal of the Qur'an that which
is a healing and a mercy to the believers, and it adds only to the
perdition of the wrongdoers." [303]Which perdition is graver than that
we keep reciting the Divine Book for thirty or forty years and refer
to the exegeses, and yet we do not get its real objectives?"Our Lord!
We have wronged ourselves. If You do not forgive us and have not mercy
upon us, we shall certainly be of the losers." [304]
Notes:
[299]. Surah al-Baqarah: 2.
[300]. Surah al-Qamar: 17.
[301]. Surah an-Nahl: 44.
[302]. Surah Sad: 29.
[303]. Surah al-Isra': 82.
[304]. Surah al-A'raf: 23.