'there are rewards,' said the prophet, 'for all endowed with fresh and tender hearts' • anyone who kills a sparrow for nothing, it will cry to god against him on the day of resurrection • there would enter paradise a people whose hearts would be like the hearts of birds • righteousness is that about which the heart and soul feels tranquil • there is none among believers who plants a tree or sows a seed from which a bird or person or animal eats but that it is regarded as a charity of him

First Things First • 01 March 2009

Learn Qur'an first. Learn it well. Learn its language. If Arabic is your tongue, still learn its language. Memorize from it -- juz 'amma, at least. Surat al-Kahf. Ayat al-Kursi. Amanar-rasul. More if you can -- Ya Seen, al-Mulk, ar-Rahman. Chapters and verses about which the particular blessings were recorded by the companions and our scholars, radhi allahu anhum. Get ambitious -- take on al-Baqarah. Take what you like. Start from the beginning. Work backwards. Choose randomly. Just learn Qur'an first.

Read tafsir. Ask questions regarding that which you do not know, do not understand, and regarding that with which you do not agree. Read Ibn Kathir -- we've all seen it online. Read it. Read the Maariful Quran -- download the PDFs if the price is high. Google the Tafhim al-Quran, Tafsir al-Jalalayn, and read, all free.

Perfect your prayers, insha'allah. Forget that you've known how to pray for almost as long as you've known how to walk and to speak; read a guidebook, or three. Remind yourself. Pray behind an imam when you are able. Learn supplications, and to evoke them from the heart.

Learn the seerah. Learn love for the prophet, salallahu alayhi wa salam. Learn a love that is not lipservice.

Then comes the works of legalists and philosophers.

Then comes the back and forth between al-Ghazali and ibn Rushd, if you please, or back copies of al-Manar and video clips of the Doha debates, if you prefer. Increasingly obscure translations or totally contemporary transcripts.

Then comes navigating the merits and pitfalls of all the possible -isms.

Then comes disagreements regarding the translation of this word or that -- discussions of roots, contexts, classical versus modern meanings, constrictions, restrictions, abrogation, and the full scope of metaphor.

Then comes the politics, reformations, applications, allegiances, arguments, dueling rulings, picking the locks on ijtihad, dawah, outreach, identity politics, criticisms, community actions, activisms, rebuttals, refusals and refuseniks, and all the boycotts, blog warriors, masjid malcontents, all around spiritual masochism you can handle.

But however tempting those things may be ...

Learn. Qur'an. First.

Or you'll be talking out your ear.

(A kind reminder to myself as much as anyone.)

6:32 PM •

Comments:

"And Remind for verily a reminder benefits the believer"(51:55)
Masha Allah great post sister :)

posted by

Anonymous • 03 March, 2009 14:29

Masha Allah, that is very true.We all need to keep learning the Quran till we draw our last breaths, thank you.

posted by

farntta • 04 March, 2009 01:09

MashaAllah, mashaAllah.

So many of us have it backwards, myself most definitely included.

Thank you for the reminder sister.

posted by

null • 05 March, 2009 07:01

Salaams,
Thanks for sharing this profound and judiciously detailed advice.

Some food for thought, if you don't mind, from somebody who struggles with this. It can be hard not to "have things backwards" like this, as most of us certainly do (myself in particular, which is one of the reasons I sometimes am hesitant to blog about religion) as we get inundated with info, ideas, and distractions at a time when we already lack traditional knowledge.

This is certainly the proper order of spiritual and educational priorities for a committed Muslim. The interesting--and difficult--question to my mind is the point at which one is as a non-scholar Islamically obligated to nonetheless try to be part of the solution to pressing problems of the day. Enjoining good and forbidding evil presumably also means at least in some cases contributing to reform, however imperfectly. Are there "simple" things that we can concern oneself with without contradicting this greater spiritual journey on in the mean time, or must one remain silent until attaining a requisite level of knowledge? (And that's not getting into the question of one's nafs etc.)

Am not disagreeing. Just pondering the challenges involved for those of us who strive to be engaged in the issues of the day in a constructive manner in this postmodern era. I don't pretend to have the answer or balance.

Ws

posted by

svend • 26 March, 2009 15:07

Salaams,
On further reflection, would you mind deleting that comment (and this)? Don't want to distract people from your point.

Thanks.

posted by

svend • 26 March, 2009 19:44

This is a tad out of the blue, but I stumbled upon this post and I want to say that it gave me the direction I needed to approach Islam again, but in the right way. JazakAllah khair :)

posted by

Anonymous • 18 June, 2009 18:15

Nice article.Wish to see more in the future.

posted by

Telugu Movie News • 08 February, 2010 05:02

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