Last night I went to Taraweeh prayer. I am relatively new to the masjid and this is basically my first Ramadan in this city. At this Masjid there are 3 or 4 hafiz who take turns reciting. When one gets tired, another jumps in and begins where the first one left off.
Eventually a young hafiz began to recite, he made a few mistakes and the other hafiz corrected him, this happened a few times. I was struck by the power that these four individuals hold. The ability to recite our entire Qur’an from memory, every ayat, every surah. It blows me away.
As they recite, I understand little of what is said. Maybe every fourth word at best…mumineen…Bani-Isreal….maidah…
I remember a hadith that states that one day the worst of the sahaba will be better then the best that our Ummah has to offer. They were surely at a greater advantage. In the Prophet Muhammad’s (saws) time, the Holy Qur’an was preserved through memory. When the Prophet recieved a revelation, he shared it with the Sahaba and they memorized it from his lips. Back then, when a reciter made a mistake, the majority of the congregation probably noticed. Here only 4 have the ability to correct.
I yearn to be among those who find the words of the Qur’an easy to recite. When I read the Qur’an in Arabic, every phoneme is a jihad. Stammering and stuttering along, I feel like a pre-schooler trying to tackle Shakespeare. I am an ant who wishes to be king of the jungle. How the lions must laugh at him!
However, I have to remember that with each letter lies a reward. And the more I struggle, the greater the Hasanaat.
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SubhanALLAH. Exactly, you get more hasanaat! And us poor souls who know the language are accounted for not pronouncing it correctly (it’s a struggle trust me). May Allah increase your iman and strength.Ameen.
Asalaamu Alaikum,
This post summarized my feeling exactly. I am amazed at the hafiz and have so much respect for them. Trying to read the Qur’an in it’s entirety in Arabic is, I believe, my biggest jihad to date. I pray that Allah makes it easy for those who are struggling to read the Qur’an and that we do not give up but persevere.
ma’a salaamah
Organic, Thanks for stopping by. Inshallah, Allah will make reciting the Qur’an easy for both of us.
Hijabi, It’s a jihad for me, too.
assalaamu alaykum,
i empathize. each ramadan i really want to read my daily juz in arabic, and i’ve tried more than once, but subhanAllah it’s just plain hard and sloooow going. so i have always ended up reading it through in english. inshaAllah some day it will be easy, or at least easy enough to read a juz a day. it reminds me how important it is to me to raise my children up so that reading arabic is as easy for them as english. as for the whole understanding what they’re reading bit, that’s a whole other challenge…
It’s just a matter of practice. Listen to Qur’an tapes and recite along with them. The more you practice, the more your tongue will become accustomed to the words and the sounds, and the easier it will become. Also, try to look up or learn the words you don’t know. This way the recitation will also become a form of Arabic learning and training. May Allah reward you.