By Tasha Maria Abraham

It was the 26th of April 2023, and there I sat, in internal turmoil as I did not know who my God was. It had been a few days since I started my journey of actively researching the monotheistic faiths to find the truth, to find God, and the internet was not helping. People had many things to say, differing opinions, agendas and I did not know what to believe. Overwhelmed, I closed all the different websites and opened a fresh browser where I typed in “the Quran”.

On that beautiful day was when my journey with the Quran started. Over the next few days, I started reading one surah a day and penned down my thoughts afterwards. As I look back, I recall how amazed I was and still am to this day to read some of the miracles in the Quran like the scientific facts written down before man could discover it. I previously had many questions about faith and who God was, and Allah ﷻ revealed the exact answers to those questions through His words and the peace that overcame my heart was indescribable. It eventually led me to take the shahada.

I got my first ever physical copy of the Quran with English translation from someone who was giving it away. When I opened it up for the first time, I was shocked to see it printed from the back to the front and thought that it was printed incorrectly and that was the reason the person had given it away. Alhamdulillah, I learned shortly after that that was the way all Qurans were printed due to how Arabic is read, but I always chuckle when I recall that moment.

It’s been over two years since my journey with the Quran started and inshaAllah, many more years to come. In the past two years, I have learned so much, but I would like to share two of the most important lessons I have taken away.

Firstly, one’s journey with the Quran is never ending. There is always something new to learn about the Quran. A surah with only a few
ayahs may have such a rich history behind it and such deep meaning to it and there is so much beauty in that. When we read beyond the surahs, and we look into the tafsir, we understand why Allah ﷻ chose to reveal that verse at that moment, and we also get to learn more about the life of our dear Nabi Muhammad ﷺ in the process.

Secondly, I learned that one’s journey with the Quran is deeply personal. When I first looked at the Quran or any of the Holy Scriptures, I did not have this outlook. I simply thought that God wrote these words for everyone in general. However, the more I read the Quran, the more personal His words appeared, I took away something different every time I read it, although it may have been the same ayah. My favorite activity became opening the Quran to a random page and reading the first ayah my eyes fell on. Alhamdulillah, that ayah would comfort me or fulfill a need I had in my soul at that moment.

Alhamdulillah for being guided to Islam and for being given the gift of the Quran, our dear Rabb’s words. May we never take this gift for granted and always strive to maintain and improve our relationship with the Quran, Ameen.