The Benefits Of Reading The Quran Daily

The Benefits Of Reading The Qur'an Daily

Brothers and sisters in Islam, our khutbah today is about reading the Qur'an every day. Contemplate on what happens to an individual who reads a portion of the Qur'an every single day. That would mean that every single day they're reminded of Jannah, Paradise.

And they're reminded of the Hellfire. They're reminded of how the shaytan is lying in wait for you. How people have been saved. How they have defeated the shaytan. How people have defeated and overcome their desires. How they have made it and passed the test.

You will read every single day about prophets and the difficulties that they encountered. Their relationship with Allah Azza wa Jal. You'll be reminded every single day of the mercy of Allah Subhanahu wa Ta'ala. And every single day you'll be reminded of the punishment of Allah Azza wa Jal.

The Qur'an Was Revealed Gradually to Strengthen the Heart

Allah Subhanahu wa Ta'ala says in Surah Al-Furqan:

In this verse, the disbelievers said, why wasn't this Qur'an sent down all at once? This is one of the objections that they had to the Qur'an. Why wasn't it sent as one book all at once? Allah Subhanahu wa Ta'ala says: كَذَٰلِكَ لِنُثَبِّتَ بِهِ فُؤَادَكَ — thus, meaning it was revealed gradually so that we may strengthen your heart with it. And we have arranged it in its precise stages.

Imam At-Tabari, rahimahullah, comments on this verse saying: to make your heart firm, patient, and tranquil. So the scholars explained that the Qur'an was revealed gradually over 23 years so that the Prophet ﷺ would receive continuous reassurance and support so that he could respond to events as they occurred. Or the verses would come down responding to events as they happened, and so that the believers could absorb and implement its guidance step by step, as opposed to it just being revealed as one complete book.

Ibn Kathir, rahimahullah, comments, saying that Allah Subhanahu wa Ta'ala revealed it in parts according to incidents to strengthen the Prophet ﷺ's heart and to make him constantly in touch with divine revelation.

What's the point of this? The point is that if this is the effect gradual revelation would have on the heart of the Prophet ﷺ, then what would the effect be for us when we read the Qur'an in parts every day? If the heart of the Prophet ﷺ required strengthening and it received that by the Qur'an being revealed to him constantly, then what would — and how would — our hearts benefit if every day we read a portion of Allah Subhanahu wa Ta'ala's revelation?

And we find ourselves caught up in what they call the rat race, always thinking about business or money or ideas or how to become a millionaire, or we get caught up with hairstyles and unfortunately it's not even just for women, even men now — what color to highlight the hair and all that, makeup, coffee. There is nothing in this world that is a better reset button than the Book of Allah Subhanahu wa Ta'ala. There is nothing in this world that resets our minds and our hearts better than the Qur'an.

What the Scholars Said About the Qur'an on Their Deathbeds

And arguably there is nothing more moving than the statements of scholars on their deathbed and what they say about the Qur'an. Because the scholars are people who understood Islam and understood knowledge, and they reaped the benefits of learning and teaching the religion, and they spent their entire lives teaching the religion. And when someone like that realizes that the only thing worthwhile in this dunya was the Qur'an, what does that tell you?

Imam Al-Hasan Al-Basri, rahimahullah — who was considered to be one of the greatest scholars in the history of Islam — when he was on his deathbed, his students told him: advise us, give us advice. He replied: hold fast to the Book of Allah. Keep close to the Book of Allah. In it is salvation.

Some of the scholars said it is very possible he could have been one of the greatest and most knowledgeable scholars in the history of Islam. And this man who spent his life benefiting people and benefiting from the knowledge itself — he's saying: if I can go back and reset my life and start my youth all over again, I would not occupy my life with anything but the Qur'an. It's not a layman saying, "I wish I spent more time with the Qur'an." It's a great scholar saying: if I could live again, I would just spend my time with the Qur'an.

He said before dying: I do not regret anything more than an hour — or a moment — in which I did not remember Allah nor recite the Book of Allah. And this is not someone who spent his life watching movies or sports. He spent his life consumed with knowledge and the religion of Allah Azza wa Jal. But he's saying: there is nothing in my life that I regret more than times where I did not remember Allah or recite the Book of Allah Azza wa Jal.

The Qur'an Stands Regardless of Whether People Believe

In Surah Al-Isra, Allah Azza wa Jal says:

Say, believe in it or do not believe. Imam Ibn Kathir says this verse was revealed as a statement of dignity and confidence — that the truth of the Qur'an does not depend on whether the disbelievers accept it or not. And if everyone on earth believed in the Qur'an, it would not add to the greatness of the Qur'an.

The Qur'an Benefits Even Those Who Don't Understand Arabic

But the problem, brothers and sisters, is that we've been conditioned and programmed to always look for the practical effects or the immediate and measurable results. So I take a class on financial management and I can immediately apply what I learned in that class and I can see the effects of taking that class. Or I do something and I can see the fun and entertainment value of it. But I just read the Qur'an — I don't know what I'm saying, I'm just reading. Perhaps I don't speak Arabic. But how do I benefit?

So the first thing is that it's not an excuse. The fact that I don't understand what Allah is saying in the Qur'an is not an excuse. And the scholars said: when you love someone, you love their speech. And this is so true. When you love someone, you love their speech. Just take the example of anyone you love in your life. Take the example of your children — and their speech, especially when they're very young, it's not of any benefit to you. It's sometimes useless even. And they'll spend hours talking to you, and you're so entertained and so moved by it, because you love them, you love their speech. Or people who are engaged — how much they talk to their fiancé. True story of someone who spoke to his fiancé from Maghrib until Duhur the next day — one phone call. Why? Because when you love someone, you love their speech.

You can tolerate and listen to what they're saying whether you understand it or not. But the scholars said, that's the first thing — if you love Allah, you love His speech. But the second thing is, it's not an excuse to say, "I don't understand the Qur'an." In this day and age, there is no excuse. Tafsir is available in every single language. The tafsir of Imam Ibn Kathir is available — all 10 volumes translated in clear crisp English for free on the internet. And it's on our phones. There is no excuse for that.

But the third thing, brothers and sisters — Allah Azza wa Jal says:

Say, it is a guidance and a cure for the believers. And there is no book on this planet that benefits you even if you don't understand what it's saying. There is not a book and not a subject matter that you will benefit from even if you don't understand what it's saying. Not even a story, a fictional story — if you don't understand what's happening in the story, could you benefit from it? And the Qur'an is that book. That someone sitting down, reciting the Qur'an for an hour or two, not understanding anything — not a word of it — and he's benefiting for that full hour or two. Because he's getting reward for every letter, not every word. He's getting the blessings of Allah Subhanahu wa Ta'ala. He's getting shifa, even physically in the body, healing. And he doesn't understand the words.

So not understanding what Allah Subhanahu wa Ta'ala is saying to me in the Qur'an is not an excuse. And understanding what is in the Qur'an — that's the second level. We would prefer people to recite and understand what they're reciting. But this khutbah is not about that. This khutbah is about the lowest level. It's about just reading the Qur'an. We're not going to the next level — that's another khutbah — about understanding its meaning, contemplating what Allah Azza wa Jal is saying to you. This khutbah is about just letting your eyes fall on the pages of the Qur'an every single day.

The World Is Cursed Except for the Remembrance of Allah

There is a hadith narrated by Al-Tirmidhi and by Ibn Majah, and classified as sahih by Shaykh Al-Albani, rahimahullah. From Abu Hurairah, radiallahu anhu, the Messenger of Allah ﷺ said:

(Sunan Ibn Majah, Hadith 4112; Jami' Al-Tirmidhi, Hadith 2322 — classified as Sahih by Shaykh Al-Albani)

The world is cursed, and everything in it is cursed, except the remembrance of Allah, and what is related to it, and the scholar, and the student — meaning the student of knowledge.

Ibn Rajab Al-Hanbali, rahimahullah, says the meaning is that all worldly matters which distract from Allah Azza wa Jal and obedience to Him are blameworthy and void of blessing. And only what's done for Allah's sake — such as dhikr, remembrance, acts of worship, knowledge, and its pursuit — will be exempted from that.

And Ibn Al-Qayyim, rahimahullah, further explains it, saying: اللَّعْن in Arabic is to be pushed away from the mercy of Allah Azza wa Jal. So he says: the curse here, in the hadith, is deprivation of mercy — being deprived of mercy. Meaning that the worldly things have no value in them unless they serve the remembrance of Allah Azza wa Jal.

Ask Allah Azza wa Jal for His forgiveness. Indeed, those who ask for His forgiveness shall prosper.

Practical Techniques for Reading the Qur'an Daily

So one of the reasons many people don't open the Book of Allah every single day is that our days are busy. And we don't have chunks or open moments — an hour or two or an hour and a half or half an hour — just to recite the Qur'an. But the people who have managed to do it, they've done one of two things.

First Technique: Force Time for the Qur'an

Either one, they force time for the Qur'an in their day — just like when we all have our busy schedules and some kind of emergency comes, we drop everything, we force time for that emergency. And there are people in our lifetime — not talking about the early Muslims — who worked a full-time job and had a family and children and everything, and were able to recite 24 juz per day. We're not advocating that. But they were able to force time for the Qur'an.

And there are other things — some people force themselves to read a page every day. And there are people who have a mus'haf next to their nightstand. One of them said — a young man — he said: sometimes I'll turn off the lights to go to bed and remember that I have not recited any Qur'an today. He said: I will just quickly turn the light on, read just one page, and close it. Just that one page is better than nothing. And just to remain upon that habit.

One of the young men said: I heard this scholar say, if you read three juz of the Qur'an before you go to bed — but he said, this is what got me — he said: the first night it will seem like a mountain. And the second night that mountain will get smaller. And then it will become a hill. But that's not the point. The point is that then it will become an addiction. This young man said: I tried it. He said: the first night it was so difficult — I'm in my bed reading three juz. And then the second night I did it, it was so much easier than the first night. And then it got easier and easier until it becomes an addiction.

Second Technique: Take Advantage of Short Moments

The second technique is to not look for open chunks of time in your life. Nobody has that. Nobody looks at next week's schedule and sees that they have three empty hours or one empty hour. But there are people who manage to recite so much Qur'an because they took advantage of short moments.

And I always mention that someone we knew on the east coast of the United States memorized the entire Qur'an inside his vehicle — not in his car and also at the masjid — entirely in his vehicle. He would photocopy a page of the Qur'an and he would clip it to his dashboard. And he lived in a state that is like Houston — in the top 10 worst traffic in the country. He said: there's an accident — I recite a verse and I memorize it. There is a traffic jam — I recite the next verse and I memorize it. I stop at the light — I memorize the verse. When I finish that page, I photocopy another page and clip it to my dashboard. He memorized the entire Book of Allah sitting inside his vehicle.

And many people have been able to do amazing things by taking advantage of short moments in their life. Because if you add up all these short moments in your week, they add up to hours throughout the week.