8 Reasons You Should Read the Qur’an Everyday Even If You Don’t Understand It

Outline

• Introduction
• #1: The First Command and Word of the Qur’an was “Read!”
• #2: Reading the Qur'an Purifies You
• #3: Reading the Qur'an Protects You from Transgression and Immorality
• #4: Reading the Qur'an Protects You from All Sorts of Evil
• #5: Reading the Qur’an Puts You at Peace and Tranquility
• #6: Reading the Qur’an Earns You Tenfold of Rewards Per Letter
• #7: Reading the Qur’an Leads to Understanding it
• #8: Reading the Qur’an Here Prepares You to Reading it in the Paradise
• How Would I Understand the Qur’an?
• Conclusion

Introduction

Alhamdulillah… All perfect thanks and praises are due to the Almighty Allah, who has brought down the Qur'an. I send peace and blessings upon whom the Qur'an was descended upon, Ḥabībī Muḥammad, his household, his companions and all those who follow his guided path till judgement day.

It's fundamentally known, that in order to master any knowledge, understand it and then put it into practice, you need to have enough reading for it. If this statement is true in general, it is truer in the case of the Qur'an than anything else. This article highlights 8 reasons you should read the Qur'an everyday even if you don't understand it. It therefore aims to lifting the fear out of the hearts of my Muslim brethren, who have stopped reading the Qur’an, or are about to, simply because they don’t understand what they read in the Qur’an.

Before laying down the 8 reasons you should read the Qur’an everyday, I find it necessary to indicate that reading alone doesn’t enable you to achieve the best out of the Qur’an. Likewise, understanding alone doesn’t make you pure and a more practising Muslim. You need to understand it, in order to internalize it and put it into practice. This need for understanding it, however, does never nullify the need for reading it, nor does it undermine it.

Now, what are the 8 reasons you should read the Qur'an everyday even if you don't understand it?

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#1: The First Command and Word of the Qur’an was “Read!”

Yes. You read it right. The first word that was revealed in the Qur’an was a command which says: “Read!” In other words, the first verse that was descended upon our beloved Prophet ṣallā Allāhu ‘alaihi wa sallam commanded him to “Read!” Thus, the first encounter of the Prophet with the Qur'an was reading. Therefore you should read. Read… read… and read the Qur'an even if you don't understand it. It all starts with reading.

In addition to that, the name “al-Qur’ān” is originally derived from the Arabic word “Qa-ra-a / Qirā’ah” which means “reading”. In Arabic, the Qur’an is called “Qur’ān” because it is a combination of verses (āyāt) that form chapters (suwar) to make a book for reading.

Moreover, reading broadens your mind, grants you wisdom and keeps you informed. That is if you understand what you read, right? The following sections are sub-benefits of reading the Qur’an, even when one doesn’t understand it.

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#2: Reading the Qur'an Purifies You

The second reason why you should read the Qur'an, even if you don’t understand it, is that it purifies you. It cleanses your heart. It lightens your body for acts of worship. The Qur’an consists of the words of Allah.

The words of Allah are sacred, and thus its spiritual dimensions are beyond our vision and reach. What we don’t know regarding these dimensions are more than what we do know. Therefore, it has uncountable benefits, which are attained only by reading.

We can't attain purification for our souls when our hearts are stiff and numb towards the Qur’an. This is true even if we understand the meaning of the words of the Qur'an.

In order to enable our hearts to function, free from its default diseases, reading the Qur’an is the solution. Furthermore, spirituality doesn't take effect based on understanding. The next thing you gain after purification is protection from transgression and immorality.

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#3: Reading the Qur'an Protects You from Transgression and Immorality

Being protected from transgression and immorality is that you will be protected from getting involved in acts that lead to them. To simplify this, I'd say, help me to search for someone who recites the Qur'an every other day. The minimum is one verse, but most importantly this person reads it everyday. If you find him, my assumption is that you will see him in a higher level of morality and kindness if he’s compared to any Muslim who doesn't read the Qur'an everyday.

Here, I find it important to indicate, that reading it everyday doesn't include professional reading for job or payment. Therefore, if you teach the Qur’an everyday, or you are an Imām who leads prayers everyday, please exclude yourself. This exclusion also includes participating in Qur’an competitions or TV shows. This is simply because, by default every Muslim reads the Qur’an everyday in his ṣalāh. But that is not counted, until he sits down with the Qur’an in a special session, just between Allah and him.

In addition to being protected from transgression and immoralities, reading the Qur’an also protects you from all sorts of evils.

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#4: Reading the Qur'an Protects You from All Sorts of Evil

Yes, indeed. Reading the Qur’an protects you from the evil you know and the evil you don’t know. The evil you’ve heard of and the evil you’ve never heard of. The evil that is near to you and the evil that is far from you. The visible evil and invisible evil.

Reading the Qur’an even without understanding it protects us from the harm of the evils within us too. Your temptations to commit sinful acts cut down to be under control, insha Allah.

Also, reading the Qur’an crates a shield around you. This shield can’t be penetrated by all those sorts of evil. When you are protected from all these types of evils, you earn peace and tranquility.

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#5: Reading the Qur’an Puts You at Peace and Tranquility

Believers attain their inner-peace and solace through remembering Allah. And the best form or remembrance is reading the Qur’an. Every verse in the Qur’an serves as remembrance (Dhikr). But not every Dhikr serves as Qur’an.

With inner-peace, you won’t have trouble in managing crisis of this testing world. With solace, bigger problems becomes small, and smaller ones become non-existent, insha Allah.

Once you are put at peace and tranquility, you are set for the tenfold of rewards per letter, guaranteed for Qur’an readers.

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#6: Reading the Qur’an Earns You Tenfold of Rewards Per Letter

Every letter you read in the Qur'an earns you 10 rewards. This is regardless of whether you understand it or not.

Take Sūrah al-Kauthar for example, it has an estimated number of 39 letters. You can read it in less than 20 seconds (1/3 of a minute), and for that, you get the minimum of 390 rewards from Allah. These rewards can be increased and multiplied depending on your level of sincerity, but it never decreases. Repeating the Sūrah for three times (1 minute) earns you 1,170 rewards instantly. Now imagine if you are to spend 15 minutes with the Qur’an, how much rewards will you reap?

What is applicable to Sūrah al-Kauthar is applicable to Sūrah al-Fātiḥah. And what is applicable to both al-Kauthar and al-Fātiḥah can be generalized on all the Sūrahs (chapters) of the Qur’an.

Now, you are ready to understand the Qur’an, insha Allah.

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#7: Reading the Qur’an Leads to Understanding it

There are many non-Muslims who understand the Qur'an without reading it as a form of ‘ibādah like Muslims do. This is because they understand the language of the Qur’an. And their understanding for the language of the Qur’an isn’t the only factor that enables them to understand the Qur’an. They’ve learnt to understand it. That’s why.

What is it that you ever understood without reading it first? Understanding the Qur’an starts with reading it. In other words, you can’t understand it until you’ve read it repeatedly. Additionally, no matter how one understands the Qur’an, the number of times he reads it has to surpass the amount of his understanding for it.

This is because, with every new understanding, there must be a reading. And he first started with the Qur’an with reading, before embarking on understanding.

Read it, understand it, practise it, and you shall read it again, in the Jannah, inshā Allah,

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#8: Reading the Qur’an Here Prepares You to Reading it in the Paradise

When all the dwellers of the Jannah take their places and settle inside there, the companions of the Qur’an (Ahlul-Qur’an), or those who used to recite it day and night in their life, will be invited one by one, to come forward and read it, just like they used to read it in this life.

The more they read, the higher they are elevated in ranking. This is regardless of whether or not they understood what they read in this life. The only secret is because they believed it’s the book of their Lord. The book of Allah is significant even when it’s not understood. Therefore, in addition to all the benefits it has for your, your reading for the Qur’an serves as a rehearsal for a greater performance in the Jannah. Now, you will be asking, how would I understand the Qur’an then?

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How Would I Understand the Qur’an?

We have to understand that understanding the Qur’an is not by just reading it. It’s rather by learning to understand it. We don’t understand the Qur’an because we’ve not learnt to understand it. We’ve not attended any ḥalaqah of Qur’anic understanding. Have we?

Learning Arabic doesn’t guarantee understanding of the Qur’an either. There are many Arabs (Muslims and non-Muslims) who don’t understand the Qur’an. This is although they are Arabs who speak and understand the Arabic Language. Why? Because they’ve not learnt to understand the Qur’an.

Thus, if you want to understand the Qur’an, you need to attend classes and ḥalaqahs (learning circles), and this should be separated from the reading you do. Understanding it will help us to better apply its teachings in our lives.

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Conclusion

Learning to master the Qur’an requires different levels of relationship with the Qur’an. This involves reading, memorization, understanding and implementation. Each of them is important, and achieving them all gives you a firm mastery of the Qur’an. None of them undermines the other. But in order to attain the last three qualities: memorization, understanding and implementation, you have to have a good deal of reading for the Qur’an.

We all want to our hearts purified. We want protection from all sorts of evil, jealousy, hypocrisy, transgression and immorality. We want inner-peace and solace. We all want rewards from Allah for doing little. We want to understand the Qur’an. The key to attaining all that lies in reading the Qur’an.

It’s important that, as much as we have to read the Qur’an, we have to regularly check our intentions before reading it. Our intentions for doing it should always be to earn His pleasure and to get closer to Him.

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Until our next article, I leave you in Allah’s protections.

Allāh knows best.
Allāhu Ḥāfiẓ 🙂

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