This Ramadan, 1437/2016,
As You Do Your Daily Readings or Tilaawat,
Just Say Alhamdu Lillah!
Dr. Pasha
(Bringing Islam to the World One Concept at a Time!
Taking the Qur'an to Every Home and Heart that Needs It --
And which One Does Not?)
Those of you who are reading the Qur'an on a daily basis -- doing what is called the Tilaawat of the Qur'an -- during this month of Ramadan (please don't do what the media do: call it the "Holy Month of Ramadan"), whether as individuals on your own, or as part of an organized Khatm Program, are doing a great job.
Khatm of the Qur'an, whether monthly, weekly or daily, is a great Islamic tradition. And by keeping it going, you are keeping Islam alive. No less.
You are being God's instrument on earth for reviving and revitalizing Islam in this time and age and in this part of God's beautiful world.
May Allah help you to carry out your undertakings, and accept your readings, and bless and reward you!
And may Allah make your daily (or weekly or monthly) readings of the Qur'an easy and enjoyable for you.
While Allah has made the Qur'an easy -- easy to read; easy to understand; easy to commit to memory; and easy to practice; easy to teach to others -- doing significant amounts of readings during the month of Ramadan, while you are fasting, could be a challenge and at times even a daunting one.
It is all part of the Jihad or persistent struggle that Muslims carry out -- that ordinary human beings deal with -- in their daily lives.
For, that is what Jihad is at its most elementary and fundamental level: the unending human striving and struggle for existence, survival and success.
And these daily readings -- Tilaawat -- are part of the mechanisms Allah and his Rasul, Sallallahu Alaihi wa Sallam, have instituted to protect the Qur'an from attrition and to safeguard and preserve it for posterity.
These private individual and group readings, of course, are in addition to the formal recitation of the Qur'an, that occurs in mosques all over the world, during nightly Taraaweeh prayers: every night for the duration of the month of Ramadan.
Muslims everywhere deserve recognition and praise for undertaking this enormous daily activity to protect and preserve the Word of God -- the Qur'an -- on earth.
That is one secret to how the Qur'an is still with us, after 1400 years, in its original form, while the world lost all its other divine scriptures and had to be content with all kinds of "man-made" imitations, reconstructions and "look-alikes."
But, properly speaking, we humans are not the ones who deserve praise. The one who made us, God Almighty, is the one who truly deserves all praise.
That is why the Qur'an begins with the categorical and sweeping assertion that "All praise belongs to Allah."
Alhamdu Lillahi Rabbil 'Aalameen.
And that means Alhamdulillah for the Qur'an.
Alhamdulillah for the Prophet, Sallallahu Alaihi wa Sallam.
Alhamdulillah for making us Muslim in this day and age as they say.
Alhamdulillah for our Muslim parentage and ancestry for those of us who are blessed that way.
Alhamdulillah for showing us the path of Islam and for moving us to convert to Islam for those of us whom God chose to favor and bless in that particular manner.
Alhamdulillah for guarding, protecting and preserving the Qur'an in its original form and placing it in our hands today in the exact shape and form in which it was first given to Prophet Muhammad, Sallallahu Alaihi wa Sallam, no less than 1400 years ago.
Alhamdulillah for this lovely month of Ramadan -- one more month of Ramadan in our lives, and who knows how many more of these blessed months we will get in the remainder of our lives.
Alhamdulillah for teaching us how to read the Qur'an in its original Arabic text that God sent down.
And Alhamdulillah for enabling us to undertake the reading --Tilaawat -- of the Qur'an in this lovely and blessing-filled month on a daily (or weekly or monthly) basis.
Just as the Qur'an says:
"Just say Alhamdu Lillah!"
Wa Qul Alhamdu Lillah!
END
