The Joy of Reciting the Holy Qur’an
What should we do to see God’s Kindness? One of God’s responses is, “My Kindness is free for you in the Qur’an, in the words of the Holy Qur’an. Recite the Qur’an, see My Kindness, taste it, take it, for your need for My Kindness to awaken.” A person who recites the Qur’an a lot and correctly, establishes this relationship.
I will read a tradition for you about this. It has been narrated in Misbah al-Shari’a that Imam Sadiq, (‘a) said, “A person who recites the Qur’an needs three things.” When you are reciting the Qur’an, have three things for this beautiful happening to occur for you. “A humble heart…” Come to God with a heart full of humbleness.
This means you aren’t in love yet, and haven’t understood God’s love. That’s fine. Go to God with obedience and fear. Go to Him in a polite way. The narration continues, “His body must be relaxed.” What does this mean? He doesn’t need to relieve himself. He isn’t too full. He is not too sleepy, or too hungry. I mean, your body shouldn’t trouble you. Are you comfortable now?
“He must find a place to be alone” to recite the Qur’an. Then, what should he do next? “When he starts reciting the Qur’an, while his heart is full of humbleness towards God, the cursed Satan will flee from him. He has released himself from other things, started reciting with his heart, and no factor is troubling him, to stop him from benefiting from Qur’an’s light and its blessings. Then, he sits in an empty place, and seeks seclusion from the people, while having a humble heart and a relaxed body. His heart and being will become fond of the Almighty God (when he recites the Qur’an).”
This means that when a person recites the Qur’an, he will see God’s Kindness and Grace. A person should be somewhat calm, make his heart a bit ready, remove troubling factors, and remove what comes into his mind - the unimportant things and the problems. Problems enter a person’s life to see whether he loses his concentration.
These are the world’s games. The problems are brought up one by one. Joys and tragedies come to see whether you lose your concentration, or not. Try not to lose your concentration. The philosophy of joys and tragedies is for a person not to lose his concentration. That is when you will enjoy reciting the Qur’an!
What kind of enjoyment is higher than this? I don’t know whether the joy of reciting the Qur’an is higher or the joy of becoming a martyr. Aba Abdillah al-Husayn (‘a) said it very precisely that the philosophy of his Ashura movement was dignity. “I won’t submit to anyone.” He himself and all of his beloved ones were cut into pieces. Their families were taken captive. “I won’t submit to anyone.”
But on the day of Tasu’a, he asked his enemies for one thing. To recite the Qur’an. He said, “My dear Abbas, go and tell the enemy to give us a respite for one extra night. My dear Abbas you know how much I love reciting the Qur’an. I want to recite the Qur’an for one more night.” Aba Abdillah al-Husayn (‘a) really enjoyed reciting the Qur’an. He needed this kindness from God. He wasn’t able to easily abandon this kindness from God.
Perhaps the only thing, which a person is able to delay martyrdom for, is reciting the Qur’an. Because when you love to become a martyr, what do you want to happen for you? Do you want God’s Kindness? So, come and see what God is doing with you with the Qur’an. Feel His love.
Qur’an is the words of God’s Kindness. “Recite the Qur’an, see My Kindness, taste it, take it, for your need for My Kindness to awaken.”
[From the series of speeches under the topic of, “How should we believe in God’s Kindness?” Session No. 6]