[funxone] Ramadan Month of Qur'an

Ramadan Month of the Qur'an

Based on Ibn Rajab's "Lata If Al-Maarif" and other sources
© Islaam.com

The first part of this is 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).

The advice given in this article is all the more important now that

we are in the last ten nights of Ramadan.

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 Ramadan.

 Ramadan is nearly over, so make the most of this precious opportunity!

Ramadan has a special relationship with the Qur'an, of course:

"The month of Ramadan 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 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 Quran with him

 (in Ramadan) 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 Ramadan:

"... Some of the Salaf would complete reciting the whole

 Quran during the night prayer of Ramadan every 3 days,

others every 7 days e.g. Qataadah,

 others in 10 days e.g. Abu Rajaa' al-Atardi.

The Salaf would recite Quran in Ramadan in Prayer as

well as outside it.

 Al-Aswad would finish the Quran every 2 nights in Ramadan;

 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 Ramadan,

 when he would study the Quran especially, and every night

during its last 10 days.

 Al-Zuhri would say when Ramadan began, 'It is recitation

 of the Quran and feeding of people.'

 When Ramadan 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 Ramadan (i.e. after Dawn),

 until when the sun had risen, she would sleep.

 Zayd al-Yaami would bring copies of the Quran when Ramadan

 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 Ramadan,

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 Ramadan.

 

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 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 Sahih Bukhari (6/521), there is an amazing piece of

advice from the Prophet

 (may Allah bless him and grant him peace):

 "Recite the Quran as long as your hearts agree on it;

 if you disagree about it, stop reciting it

(for the time being)"

-- studying the Quran should bring people together!

 

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 studying and understanding 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.

Abu Dharr, Ramadan 1415.

 

 

 

Computers, Gadgets | Sms Collection | FunXone

If you like this mail, give us a little reward. Invite atleast one of your friend to join this group

__._,_.___

http://groups.yahoo.com/group/funxone/ FunXone: Inbox Fuel for Fun

http://forum.xcitefun.net/  Friends Network for Fun
http://www.smsglitz.com/ Fresh SMS Collection
http://www.magxone.com/ Fashion Photoshoots, Magazines and Cover Pages
http://xbeats.net/ Music, Videos Collection

Your email settings: Individual Email|Traditional
Change settings via the Web (Yahoo! ID required)
Change settings via email: Switch delivery to Daily Digest | Switch to Fully Featured
Visit Your Group | Yahoo! Groups Terms of Use | Unsubscribe

__,_._,___