And that attention was such that people became so involved with this book that it was constantly on their minds. What Allah az-Zawjal had said was constantly on their minds, and they were looking forward to the next thing. In fact, they used to sit around in their discussions and say lawlaa nuzilat surah, if only another surah would be revealed. When will the next surah be revealed. And for some people, when the surah, when the verses will be revealed, and the prophet (SAW) would recite them to those people and say “Look Allah (SWT) had just revealed this to me,” then there would be two types of people. There would be some who would say, “what is this, more commandments, more instructions, more dos and don’t don’ts? Ayyukum zaadathu hadhihi imaana. Who’s imaan is this reall increasing, we knew 50 verses before now we knew 55? So what?” Allah (SWT) says fa ammalladhina aamanoo fa zaadathum imaanawwa hum yastabshiroon. Those who had iman in their heart, as their understanding of the Quran increases, their Iman also increases. And, every thing new that they learned about it, it makes them happy. Then there are those who have Allah calls it a sickness in their heart. Those who have some kind of a disfunction in their hearts. So, they were in doubt before, the more verses they read and understands, their doubts continue to increase. So what happens, those doubts continue to build up and they end up walking out of Islam. Today also there are some people who are reading the Quran, they are misunderstanding it, and they are looking at it with the eye of doubt, with the eye of suspicion, and the eye of why. Why this? Why this? Why this? Without understanding the basics. So one of our duties and responsibilities as believers, just as Muslims, is that we increase our involvement, engagement, and attention with the Quran. This is a necessary component of our deen. If we do this, this book is going to keep us all on the right track and is going to continue to push us to success. When we don’t do this, we fail as individuals. And when we don’t do this collectively, then we fail as groups, as communities, as a nation. So this is a great favour on us, by Allah (SWT) that he is giving us the time, the opportunity to build this connection. During your school, in this schooling, you cannot possibly learn everything in the Quran. Some Alhumdulillah, they will be fortunate enough to come out having memorizing the whole Quran. But then there’s a next process for them, to learn about this, what have you memorized. To understand, it’s a lifelong commitment with the Quran. The idea in this type of school is to give you a good, strong familiarity with the Quran in terms of being able to read it. And with the Arabic programs that we have now, being able to understand it. And to the Islamic studies programs, being able to really flesh out the meanings, the applications, the lessons from it. This is what can be done in this time and in this context. But the most valuable thing that could possibly take place, what is more valuable than all of that is you build an inseparable bond with this book. You become attached to it, and you make a commitment to yourself in front of Allah (SWT). Not to your parents, not to your teachers, but to yourself, and to Allah (SWT) that you will remain attached to this book. You will remain connected with this book, engaged with this book until you leave this world. And that is really what is required from the ummah today. May Allah (SWT) enable us to start moving in that direction, and also give us that attention and that attachment with this book, that we’re not at peace until we’re engaged with the Quran.
