Posts tagged quran

So it’s said (truthfully or not, whatever) that if you read Surah al-Layl before you go to sleep, you’ll dream of what you love most.

I’m near the end of the Quran so Al-Layl happened to be the last surah I read before I went to sleep last night.

I dreamt of my ARDC card. :P

(That’s the card you get when you’re licensed to practice law in a given state.)

Hahahaha. I don’t know if it’s ‘what I love most,’ but, you know, maybe. I just thought that was funny.

I absolutely LOVE setting up my iPad/iPod to play the Quran for hours on end while I work on something (usually something that involves writing/editing). I am always super productive while the Quran is playing right in my ears. 

But I also feel a little weird that I’m not devoting 100% of my attention to the qirat. I’m listening respectfully, but I’m also focused on what I’m doing as I edit and revise. (Plus, whenever I sit and listen to the Quran, 100% focused on it and not doing anything else at all, I usually fall asleep, which I also feel is pretty rude, so I avoid that.)

IDK. Any other Muslim have thoughts on this? 

I started it months ago. Every day (or every other day, or once a week if things were nuts) I would randomly pick a Quran ayaat from this handy generator and then I would get to work. I’d read the translation on Quran.com just in case they varied (sometimes there were minor usage variations that helped me better get at the real meaning behind it), and then I’d read the tafsir in Maariful Quran. Then if a certain concept was discussed in it, like tawakkul, I’d go read some articles on that. And then I’d remember what Hamza Yusuf said - “you will find yourself in the Quran, I guarantee that you will” - and I’d apply that verse to my own life and the problems I’m facing at that moment. No problem or concern was too big or too small to relate to the verse if it worked and helped me with my understanding of it.

And right now, after several days of hemming and hawwing (yeah, sometimes the reflections on the verses take me several days to piece together in my mind), I finally finally finally arrived at an excellent understanding of the 48th verse of Surah YaSin. I wrote like four flipping pages on it (handwritten, so probably 2 typed pages).

I feel like I know the ayaat now. (Even though I don’t - I’m positive there is SO MUCH MORE to it that I haven’t touched on at all, but that’s okay.) I feel like the ayaat is part of me, as my boss would say. (That’s what he tells me when he hands me a new case file - “Read this, make it a part of you.) I feel like I can internalize the message of the ayaat and implement it in my daily life.

I like this feeling. I’ve had some great mini-epiphanies with a lot of the other verses I’ve worked with, but this is the first time that I’ve ever had an epiphany like this. I can share my reflections if anyone cares (I might, even if no one cares), but basically I’m just really happy with the important lesson I learned, found in one teeny tiny ayaat in Surah YaSin. Which makes me think, there are so many ayaat in that Surah - imagine if I pulled such a heavy lesson from each of them. And then from every ayaat in the Quran. Imagine how much that would help me.

This is random and babbly so whatever.

Message me your email address if you want PDF versions of the Maariful quran tafsir.

365days365deeds:

I found this awesome book of prayers, mostly from Quran and Sunnah, it seems, and wanted to share with my readers. There are also lots of ahadeeth mentioned at this book, and it’s a little less than 300 pages. Be aware that the verse numbers for the Quran are a little off - just by one number or so.

For example, it states that “Rabbi zidni ilm” is the 115th ayaat of Ta-ha, when we know it’s the 114th. If you’re cross-referencing this book with one of the tafaasir of your choice (this is what I’m doing), just double check the actual Arabic ayaat instead of going purely on the numbers, because you will be so confused.

CLICK HERE TO DOWNLOAD THE PDF. (free)

There are 18 days left, roughly - wait, maybe 17. Whatever. I have to finish 13 more juz in about 17 days.

It can totally be done, iA.

I’m excited! For the first time I’ll have finished an entire Quran in Arabic in Ramadan! :D (iA)

Edit: 13, not 15 more. Hah.

365days365deeds:

hoomie:

And not aware of the Corpus Quran project, get thee hence.

This is an amazing resource for anyone who wants to know more about Quranic grammar, the meaning of Quranic words (there are helpful external links to more in-depth Arabic linguistic sources) and just be able to pick out and understand more and more words commonly used in the Quran

In my opinion, this resource would be very helpful when examining the pure Arabic script with the aid of whichever translation or tafaasir you like. (Personally, I love Maariful Quran, but only because my great uncle, Muhammad Hasan Askari, translated the first 1.5 juz from Arabic for the compilation. The only reason he didn’t translate more was because he passed away. May God reward him for the work he did and the knowledge he both gained and spread.)

lifeisabitch-the-end:

“God does not forbid you to be kind and equitable to those who have neither fought against your faith nor driven you out of your homes. In fact God loves the equitable.” Chapter 60, Verse 8

My old Islamic studies teachers at my old Islamic school tried to get me to believe that God said in the Quran that Muslims shouldn’t be close friends with anyone who’s not a Muslim. They said, “Yeah, keep them as friends if you like, but not CLOSE friends. Don’t tell them your secrets or anything. Because they’re not Muslims and they may betray you. It says that in the Quran.”

Now, even as an impressionable eleven year old who didn’t know much about Islam, even THEN I knew that that was SOME NONSENSE.

When I asked where in the Quran God said not to be close friends with anyone that wasn’t a Muslim, they pointed me to the verse.

The irony?

It’s the verse in this surah, quoted above. It says:

O ye who believe! Take not my enemies and yours as friends (or protectors),- offering them (your) love, even though they have rejected the Truth that has come to you, and have (on the contrary) driven out the Prophet and yourselves (from your homes), (simply) because ye believe in Allah your Lord! If ye have come out to strive in My Way and to seek My Good Pleasure, (take them not as friends), holding secret converse of love (and friendship) with them: for I know full well all that ye conceal and all that ye reveal. And any of you that does this has strayed from the Straight Path. 60.1.

Yep.

Not even joking. THIS was the surah and the verse they used to try to “prove” that to me.

I was like, okay, and then I skipped down several verses and pointed to the one the OP posted. I was like, “What about that?”

They didn’t have an answer. (Because they were wrong, Wrong, WRONG.)

The Quran is very clear: Be friends with nonMuslims. Be nice to everyone. Be close friends with them if you like. Be kind and helpful and loving and compassionate to everyone. EXCEPT those people who say that Islam is a false religion, steal your stuff, and cast you out of your home, like the Makkan pagans did with the Muslims in 7th century Arabia.

It was basically the equivalent of God telling the early Muslims, “Hey, you know your Jewish neighbors in Yathrib/Madinah? You know your Christian neighbors in Abyssinia? Be friends with them! Hang out! Go bowling, I don’t know, I gave you free will, you figure out what you want to do. But you know those Makkan Quraish who literally stole your land, your home, and every single thing you own but for the clothes on your back? Yeah, maybe DON’T invite them to your bowling party. Because they will probably steal your bowling ball and run away with it and then no one will have any fun.”

:|

I should translate the Quran for children. And relate everything to bowling.

Friendly blasphemy aside, there’s a big difference between OMG DON’T BE FRIENDS WITH ANYONE WHO DOESN’T BELIEVE IN GOD AND MUHAMMAD AND EVERY LITTLE THING YOU BELIEVE, and, hey, maybe don’t be super tight with bigoted Islamophobes like Pam Gellar and Pat Robertson and Michelle Bachmann and Ann Coulter, because chances are they will screw you over.

People who teach the Quran to children should KNOW WHAT THEY ARE TALKING ABOUT. It is so dangerous when they don’t.

:/

(via acquiringknowledge)

And not aware of the Corpus Quran project, get thee hence.