We went to first grade at age six, they taught us to make small phrases, we run to the store, we share with our friends, we care for our family, and…. Learning these phrases in first grade were necessary and useful, because it was a prerequisite to becoming literate. Now the question is would it not be awkward if after forty years we reunite our first grade class and repeat the same phrases? Wouldn’t people say those phrases were so you could learn and prosper into the different sciences? If we continued repeating those phrases for forty years, we would have remained illiterate.
Unfortunately, our method with the Holy Quran holds some resemblance to the above description. In other words, we take the first obvious Quran lessons we learned during the beginning of adolescence, and apply the same method to our current years, without benefitting from the deeper understandings of the Holy Quran; and the same applies for our daily prayers and fasting.
Certainly, the Holy Quran carries a deeper truth than its physical appearance as a book; the Quran is a divine treasure hidden within the world’s core, one which has been revealed through a series of stages until it has arrived at the world of mankind in the form of written text on paper, and the form of meanings in our minds, remaining in our hearts and memories. These are the process in which the truth of the Holy Quran has descended. The Almighty Allah has addressed this gem as the following: “Most surely it is an honored Quran, in a book that is protected, none shall touch it save the purified ones.”(1)
Allah (SWT) has made clear that none should touch the Quran, but the purified. This verse makes it clear that a body part cannot touch the verses without proper ablution. Even though the publication of the Quran is done by people, touching the Quran without ablution is not allowed for it is minor level of a divine revelation.
From this matter we can deduce that touching the Holy Quran with our souls also requires our heart and soul’s purification; it is here that makes it difficult, for cleansing our heart and soul requires abstaining from our desires and sins, especially for those who are slaves to their desires.
On the other hand, based on the faith we have in Quran’s curability, we have no choice but to cleanse our souls to reach the Quran’s truth; and as we know, we cannot attain a treasure without trouble.
The best of persons who hold the purification to the divine purity and truth of the Holy Quran, are the Ahl al-Bayt from the family of Prophet Mohammad (PBUH&HP), about which Allah (SWT) has said: “Verily Allah only desires to keep away the uncleanness from you, O people of the House (Ahl al-Bait)! and to purify you a (thorough) purifying.”(2)
Based on the above verses mentioned we can conclude, the highest level of approaching the true concepts of the Quran is closely related to the infallible Ahl al-Bayt of Prophet Muhammad (PBUH&HP), who have been placed in the utmost pure states.
Therefore, in terms of understanding divine concepts, if people want to understand the true essence of the Quran, they must do through the teachings of the Ahlul Bayt (PBUT) so that by acting according to religious rituals, they can cleanse their hearts of all impurities so that they deserve connect to the Holy Quran.
(The above is a selection from “The Month of Ramadan”, By Ayatollah Zia Abadi)
Dear Friend, we congratulate you on the start of the month of divine invitation,
and human blossom under the blessings of the Holy Quran,
the blessed month of Ramadan
Footnotes:
1. (The Holy Quran, 56:77-79)
2. “Verily Allah only desires to keep away the uncleanness from you, O people of the House (Ahl al-Bait)! and to purify you a (thorough) purifying.” (The Holy Quran, 33:33)