The Quran: A Treasure Meant for Reflection | Hidden Treasures Episode 12 | Shaykh Mohammad Elshinawy

The Quran: A Treasure Meant for Reflection

Allah says in the Quran:

A book We have sent down to you, mubarak — that is blessed — liyadabbaru ayatih — so that they may deeply ponder, reflect on its verses.

SubhanAllah. The Quran was described as blessed, but described as being sent down for reflection. And the reason why this is a treasure to begin with is because it sort of got buried — or reversed — this whole formula. The Quran was sent down as if it were sent down for reflecting on it above all else, and yet a lot of times we treat the Quran as if it came down, above and before all else, to be tokenized for some blessings. No. It is blessed, and whoever reads it is blessed, and every letter of every verse will give you ten blessings — but all of that is what? To get you to reflect on it. The transformative power of the Quran lies in tadabbur.

What is Tadabbur?

What is tadabbur? Tadabbur is from dubur — dubur means the back end of something. It is as if Allah is instructing us to not just consider what it means, but to check behind every last word: what's in it for me? What does this have to do with me? This is what it means generally. And this is a profound realization when a person has it.

The Doom of Nations Who Buried This Treasure

In fact, you will find in the Quran another profound realization — that the doom of nations was found in when they buried this treasure. Among these previous nations were those who were oblivious to the book, knowing nothing about the scripture except how to repeat it:

And so all they do is speculate. Meaning: if all you do is recite the verse, you are oblivious to the meanings of the verse — you will have no choice but to speculate on what was intended by the verse. So they took their beliefs from flimsy foundations, from speculations. They're in the dark. Why? Because all they did was recite.

Al-Hasan al-Basri: Recitation Is the Beginning, Not the End

One of the earliest Muslims, al-Hasan al-Basri rahimahullah — who met 300 companions of the Prophet sallallahu alayhi wa sallam — he said: the Quran was sent down to be acted upon, and yet people took its recitation as the action. That was not the action — that was the beginning of what should have sparked action: reflecting on our recitations.

How the Companions Reflected on the Quran

In fact, the companions themselves — when one of them would recite a verse, Allah says:

Say: — what would he do? He would stop and say: "O Allah, increase me in knowledge." He would reflect: is this a command? I need to be following the command.

Another companion of the Prophet sallallahu alayhi wa sallam, on his deathbed, wept. And they told him: why are you weeping? This person was side by side with the Prophet sallallahu alayhi wa sallam, there in the battle, sacrificed blood, sweat, and tears. You did so much — what regret could you possibly have in life? He said: there remained a verse in the book of Allah that I have not acted on.

Allah said — when speaking about the etiquette, the ethics, the protocol of visitation — you visit someone in their house, and if it is told to you "go back," then go back. You knock on someone's door, they say it's not a good time. No — "I invited you, go back, try later."

Allah says: then go back — it is purer for you. Do not feel that entitlement; be humble and just go away, it's not a good time. He said: I was never told "go away," I was never told "come back later" — so there remained one verse that I had not acted on.

The Prophet's Night Prayer: The Model of Tadabbur

And they all took this from who? From the Prophet sallallahu alayhi wa sallam himself. Hudhayfah radiyallahu anhu mentions in the hadith:

(Sahih Muslim, Book 6, Hadith 772)

I stood next to the Prophet sallallahu alayhi wa sallam one night, and he began to recite. He recited Al-Baqarah, and he recited An-Nisa, and he recited Ali Imran — I couldn't believe how much he was reciting. But he was taking his time, and every time he got to a verse where it was prompting the glorification of Allah, he would stop and glorify Allah — he would say سُبْحَانَ اللهِ — "Glorified is Allah." And when it got to a verse that was scary, he would stop and say: "O Allah, grant me refuge from what I fear." And when it prompted hopefulness, he would stop and ask Allah from His bounty.

So may we be of those who begin with the reflection of engaging with the verses, and then the reflection of getting to the actions.