How the Sahaba Connected to the Qur’an | Hidden Treasures Episode 15 | Dr. Muzaffar Iqbal

How the Sahaba Connected to the Qur'an

There is something very extraordinary in the human history that happened at a very specific time, at a very specific location, and Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala made it happen in a manner that has been recorded through authentic eyewitness accounts. There is no event like it, and the event that I'm talking about is the first revelation that came to the Prophet, as we all know, in the cave of Hira.

The Cave of Hira — A Hidden Dimension

If you go to the cave of Hira, there is a hidden aspect, a hidden physical aspect of that cave. Not so hidden in the sense of hidden from the eyes, but it's hidden in the sense that many few people think about it. I spent a night in that cave in 1998. The cave was formed centuries before this event happened — we don't even know when. But the cave is such — the hidden aspect of that cave — is that it is pointing toward the Ka'bah, and there is a triangular space, a small place in the cave through which always cold, soothing wind comes through into the cave. And in that hidden place, there is this beginning of the Qur'an that we now all hold to be the alpha and omega of our deen.

The Sahaba and Their Connection to the Qur'an

I want to talk about the aspect of the Qur'an that some of the Sahaba were continuously doing. Sahaba like Abdullah ibn Mas'ud and Ibn Abbas — they were devoted to the book of Allah and they would recite it day and night, and when they would finish it — as much as the Qur'an was revealed — they would start again.

Imam al-Ghazali on the Hidden Mysteries of the Qur'an

The hidden mysteries of the Qur'an — Imam al-Ghazali, several centuries later, he said that the Sirr al-Qur'an — the most hidden aspect of the Qur'an — is that it is the invitation of Allah to all of His creation. And he said this aspect of the Qur'an is the deepest aspect of the Qur'an, and the invitation is to come to Allah.

In order to come to Allah, you need a path to go — therefore He sent prophets. And in order to reach Allah, once you reach there, you are either to the left or the right. So he said the hidden, most secret aspect — the themes of the Qur'an — are Tawheed, Risalah, and Ma'ad. The first is the invitation, the second is the path to go, and the third is what would happen once you are there.

Discovering Deeper Meanings Through Repetition

So I want to share with you one thing specifically about the practice of the Sahaba — when they recited the Qur'an over and over, beginning to the end and then starting again, they were discovering new facets of the meanings of the Qur'an. And there are certain ayahs of the Qur'an, if you recite them over and over, you will see that they become deeper and deeper in terms of their meaning.

For instance, Allah talks about Bani Isra'il. يَا بَنِي إِسْرَائِيلَ is a phrase very specific in the Qur'an that occurs many times, but when each time you recite it, you discover that يَا بَنِي إِسْرَائِيلَ is addressing a different aspect of the history of the children of Isra'il — alayhis salam — which is Ya'qub alayhis salam. These Yahud — they are the children of Ya'qub alayhis salam.

Until you reach the stage when you see that there is actually a charge sheet in the Qur'an about the Yahud — and then you start to number them. The Sahaba and the later scholars have numbered them: there are 25 specific charges on the Yahud in the Qur'an, starting with يَا بَنِي إِسْرَائِيلَ in Surah al-Baqarah.

The Zahir and Batin of the Qur'an

So the practice that the Sahaba had is not so hidden a practice, but the benefits are hidden — meaning we gain depth by repeating and reflecting on what is said on a given topic in the Qur'an. Each of the topics of the Qur'an — everything in the Qur'an — has a zahir and a batin, and the batin is layered, and is layered according to the receptivity that we have and the tazkiyah we do of our nafs, and the ability to see the depth of the meaning successively — in the sense of gaining more and more clarity — because ultimately it is the clarity of the heart which is the receptive place of the Qur'an that gives us the ability to bind with Allah at those deeper levels.

Because again Imam al-Ghazali said that what you receive in the mind does not move your limbs. In order to move your limbs — to stand, to do your fasting, to stand in the middle of the night and talk to your Creator — the limbs move with the energy generated in the heart, he said. And the energy is generated in the heart through this connection that is almost hidden from the surface, because this is an invisible connection with the book of Allah.

Receiving the Qur'an as the Sahaba Did

So the practice of the Sahaba was to receive the Qur'an as it was being revealed from the Prophet — alayhis salam — take it to their hearts, and then process it at several levels, including the intellectual, but most importantly including the spiritual level, which gave them the power and the ability and the actual moving of the limbs.

A Call to Deepen Our Relationship with the Qur'an

So insha'Allah, this will be beneficial — in this month of the Qur'an — to practice deepening our understanding of the book of Allah through repeated recitation, and deepening our tafakkur and tadabbur on that aspect of the Qur'an.