Mastery of the Qur'an - the Greatest Honor

I truly respect, admire and – for the sake of Allah – Love those who can recite Qur’an with excellent Tajwid, and those who memorized Qur’an, especially those who achieved this during their adult years.

As a person currently undertaking the effort to reach those goals (and having a long way to go), I can appreciate that this is NOT something easy – Mastering Tajwid and Memorizing Qur’an requires massive willpower, enthusiasm, discipline, and istiqamah towards reaching that goal, and a huge deal of self-awareness in fighting off the whispers of Shaytan to make us procrastinate and finding excuses to delay the efforts.

So when I meet, or see, or know of a person who has excellent Tajwid in Recitation, and/or one who memorizes a lot / the entire Qur’an, it immediately earns my respect as I see this person as a person who is serious in his/her Deen: to have undertaken the serious self-motivated and determined effort for years – in spite of the chores, responsibilities, and distractions of every day life – to attain this.

The honor of Mastering the Qur’an is greater and more worthy to be respected than the honor of wealth, titles and lineage - and anyone can attain this if they put in the effort. 

Many people get demoralized at these subjects – especially at Tajwid when they keep on being pointed their mistakes by Tajwid teachers. The reality of Tajwid improvement IS to “hunt for mistakes” in attaining perfection in Recitation – and when one continually stumbles across error after error, in class, in public, in front of friends, sometimes in spite of ‘years learning’ tajwid, still making mistakes – this can make them feel discouraged, embarassed and ashamed in front of others, and give up entirely. Some people avoid entire halaqah sessions because they feel intimidated by Tajwid sessions.

Likewise with memorizing Qur’an – the most common trick of Shaytan to make people give up is to intimidate people into thinking it’s a “heavy” and “difficult” task: like looking up a massive skyscraper one has huge aspirations of climbing. Instead of tackling it step by step, the fear and intimidation prevents them from even taking their first step, and thus abandon further attempts.

And sometimes as we go along, it’s a struggle to maintain the previously memorized parts, then we feel discouraged again, start thinking it’s “futile” and give up. Qur’an requires constant revision to ensure its memorization is retained, as the Prophet Muhammad ﷺ said:

“تَعَاهَدُوا الْقُرْآنَ فَوَالَّذِي نَفْسِي بِيَدِهِ لَهُوَ أَشَدُّ تَفَصِّيًا مِنَ الإِبِلِ فِي عُقُلِهَا”

“Always return and revise (your memorization) of the Qur’an, for I swear by the One in Whose Hand is my soul, it (the Memorization of the Qur’an) runs away faster than camels are released from their tying ropes” (Narrated by Al-Bukhari)

Let’s just take a step back and consider the case of the world’s greatest sportsmen, athletes, and scholars, in any field – do we think that they just ‘attained’ the status overnight? At some point of time they were also struggling amateurs, but through their passion and determination, their effort eventually drove them to the top. One does have to wonder : Had they procrastinated and easily get demoralized, would they even be on the map?

Even if one were to consider the task of attaining a bachelors degree – even that wasn’t easy! Very difficult, to me, in fact.. but Alhamdulillah many of us made it!

Have we put in HALF or even a FRACTION of the effort that we put to obtain our degree as we did in our Hifz and Tajwid of Qur’an in our lives? 

We need to plant in serious determination and effort to Improve our Rectiation and Memorize the Book of Allah, and put aside personal pride, ‘fears’ and procrastination attempts. The Prophet ﷺ would motivate the person who is struggling in his/her Recitation by glad tidings of double rewards for their sincere efforts:

“مَثَلُ الَّذِي يَقْرَأُ الْقُرْآنَ وَهْوَ حَافِظٌ لَهُ مَعَ السَّفَرَةِ الْكِرَامِ الْبَرَرَةِ، وَمَثَلُ الَّذِي يَقْرَأُ الْقُرْآنَ وَهْوَ يَتَعَاهَدُهُ وَهْوَ عَلَيْهِ شَدِيدٌ، فَلَهُ أَجْرَانِ”

"The example of a person who recites the Qur’an and masters / memorizes (it by heart), will be amongst the Noble Righteous Scribes (i.e. noble Angels in Paradise);

And a person who exerts himself to learn the Qur'an by heart, and recites it with great difficulty, will have a double rewards." (Narrated by Al-Bukhari)

May Allah make us steadfast on being amongst these and become the best of mankind.

“خَيْرُكُمْ مَنْ تَعَلَّمَ الْقُرْآنَ وَعَلَّمَهُ”

“the BEST of you are those who Learn the Qur’an and teach it” (Hadith Narrated by Al-Bukhari)