By Muhammad Aalif Tan

We intend this article for the sake of Allah SWT, Prophet Muhammad SAW and our beloved teachers Insha’Allah.

Alhamdulillah Alhamdulillah Alhamdulillah.

All praises to Allah SWT for allowing us to be connected to Him through the Quran, for giving us iman, making us Muslims and giving us Prophet Muhammad SAW as a guide to the Holy Quran.

One of His biggest blessings for us, is giving us a Quran teacher, with a sanad that links us directly back to Prophet Muhammad SAW.

How great an honour that is, for such an undeserving slave.

Our journey to Islam started 6 years ago but had not been actively exploring or learning the Quran all these while.

We have always thought that reading the English translation would suffice, hence we did not make any efforts nor intention to learn the Arabic recitation.

But even so, there was close to zero effort to read even 1 page of the Quran in translation per day, not even per week or per month.

But this changed after we started attending classes with our teacher, Ustaz Sameer. His words gave us a good reminder and wake up call. How can we call ourselves Muslims if we are not connected to the Quran.

How can we call ourselves Muslim if we don’t pick up the Quran and read at least 1 page, or even 1 verse per day.

I started making the intention in my heart, I want to learn how to recite the Quran.

But it felt like an impossible task to learn a new language and the many different rulings. I didn’t know where to start, so I sought advice from ustaz, where and what course we should take up.

A few weeks later, ustaz started a small iqra circle with some of the brothers before our weekly majlis. Alhamdulillah, through that, Allah answered our intentions.

We were first introduced to the 29 letters and the makhraj (exit point), followed by iqra book 1, and tajweed, etiquette with the Quran and sciences of the Quran.

There were many struggles in the beginning. Almost half of the time I’m just clueless at what ustaz is saying and I was also the slowest in class.

Certain letters require us to use parts of our tongue/mouth to pronounce, which we don’t normally use.

It took some time to recognise the letters and memorising the pronunciation. And when ustaz started introducing the rulings, wajibu ghunnah, nun sakinah, idgham, ikhfa etc etc, I was totally lost. No idea what any of those words meant and it was hard for me to catch. It definitely did not come without a struggle.

But ustaz always reminds us of this hadith from our Prophet Muhammad SAW:

“ Verily the one who recites the Qur’an beautifully, smoothly, and precisely, he will be in the company of the noble and obedient angels. And as for the one who recites with difficulty, stammering or stumbling through its verses, then he will have TWICE that reward.”
Sahih Al-Bukhari

SubhanAllah, Masha’Allah.

Verily, Allah SWT is the most Just, and He knows our struggles. All we need to do is to be patient, to put in the effort to practise, to revise, and to trust that surely Allah will ease the journey for us.

Alhamdulillah. It has been around 1.5 years since ustaz started the class for us. By the Grace of Allah and the teachings of our ustaz, we are finally able to start reciting the Quran.

We write this reflection with the intention Insha’Allah, to inspire anybody reading this, to come back to the Quran.

Whether you have dropped off from previous learning, or have yet to start at all, now is the time. Take the first step and Insha’Allah, Allah will make it easy with your next.

Abu Hurairah Radiyallahu ‘anhu reports that Nabi Sallallahu ‘alaihi wasallam in a Hadith Qudsi narrated that Allah Ta’ala says:

I treat My slave according to his expectations from Me. I am with him when he remembers Me; and if he remembers Me in his heart, I remember him in My heart; and if he remembers Me in a gathering, I remember him in a better and nobler gathering (of angels). If he comes closer to Me by one span, I go closer to him an arm’s length; if he comes towards Me an arm’s length, I go towards him two-arm’s length; and if he comes to Me walking, I run to him.
Bukhari