By Muhammad Uzair bin Irwan

The Rocky Tract (15:9)

إِنَّا نَحْنُ نَزَّلْنَا ٱلذِّكْرَ وَإِنَّا لَهُۥ لَحَـٰفِظُونَ ٩

It is certainly We Who have revealed the Reminder, and it is certainly We Who will preserve it.

The Lord of this Universe has embraced us with a message to better know and serve Him. And, that message which came with God’s Apostle; Muhammad ﷺ, is the Quran. How can one call themselves Muslims when they do not keep that message instilled within us? I speak for myself first of all. At this point, writing at 27 years old, I have not completed reading the Quran in full. I cannot recite from memory the names of each of the 114 Chapters of the Quran. I tell others to read the Quran and come to Islam, yet I myself can’t even recite the Quran without major errors. How can I be true to myself if this is the standard I uphold as a Muslim? The answer is that I am not and never have been. I have been deceiving myself for almost three decades that accepting Islam is sufficient and I ought to humble myself and cry because of that.

I write this not to gain sympathy (though I hope your prayers are with me as you read this), but I write this to inspire my fellow Muslims. I call upon and beg you O’ followers of Muhammad ﷺ, do not be like me. You may be younger or older, but you have time. Time which can be spent to better know the message given to you by your lord.

Do not waste your time obsessing over heedless information that leads nowhere. Establish the knowledge passed down by your Prophet ﷺ first, and do so by any means.

If we don’t have a Quran, get it. If we don’t have time to read it, make time to read it. If we don’t know how to read or understand it, find someone who does. We cannot continue to be ignorant. How long do we intend to stay this way? Shall we continue to be like this forever? No! You know this in your hearts just as much as I know it in mine. So come back to the Quran. Be familiar with it and be obsessed with what it has to offer, because it does have much to offer. A majority of which (roughly 97%) focuses on ethics, morality, the relationship between man and God, and history. The remainder (3%) of which dabbles in commandments and prohibitions. And of course, scattered meticulously all over the Quran are miracles no one could have known 1400 years ago. This itself is a clear miracle for those who understand.

To truly appreciate the Quran, I feel it is also primarily important to know how it came to us. Not in terms of its technicality (Sciences of Quranic transmissions, Hadith sciences, Qira’ats etc), at least not for what I will share in this limited space. But in terms of the tireless efforts of our Ulama and the hardships and sacrifices they went through in order for us to enjoy the unchanged and purest form of the Quran. Their undying conviction to endure calamity after calamity and still think about us. Our Ulama could have been devastated, their knowledge might have been lost and we might not have any mufasireen, muhaditheen, mufakireen or Huffaz. They could have given up the struggle and say “someone else will carry this Religion”. (Thuma’ A’udhubillah) No! Instead, these men pressed on and their names will be remembered for it. May we learn about them and ponder about them before we set aside the Holy Quran.

My dear muslims reading this, if we only truly knew what our forefathers, and their forefathers all the way to the Prophet ﷺ had gone through in order to preserve this Quran for us, we would never take it for granted. Some of their names and even hadith literature were lost to us forever due to oppressive forces (Reconquista of Al-Andalus, Mongol siege of the House of Wisdom in Baghdad, etc..). May Allah ﷻ grant them the highest places in Jannah for their efforts. Piles upon piles of books and knowledge discarded to the fires and thrown to the rivers enough to blacken its streams. Yet, our tradition is still preserved and organic. This was due to the fact that I had mentioned beforehand. Our Ulama never once cared for themselves. Even as some of them perished, they, as a united whole, carried Islam to us, and it is our duty to do the same for the people who will come after us. We live in a troubled time and we may be tested the same way as them. If not us, then our children and their children. May Allah ﷻ protect and preserve all of us.

As I end this paragraph, I have also been able to look into myself and reflect deeply on my actions. That itself inspires me to not go through a single day without gracing my eyes with the words of the Holy Quran. Thank you for reading and may my words inspire you too. May peace be with you.