Fitra Foundation initiates a new sub-genre of exegesis, a novel approach to understanding the Qur’ān’s comprehensive message and multiple layers of address.
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Read the transcript to Fitra Foundation’s first installment of the “This is our Tradition” series, entitled “The True Recitation” inspired by Allah’s Words —
“Those to whom We have given the Scripture, who observe its recitation as is due to it, they are the ones who truly believe in it. Those who deny its truth are the losers.” Qur’ān 2:121
Read the transcript to Fitra Foundation’s second installment of the “This is our Tradition” series.
The great scholars of the past began their works with a signature introductory style. In this way, they initiated their works with eloquence, as if to say — this Islamic tradition is marked by beauty, so those who wish to learn it or impart it, let them clothe it in beauty, for God is beautiful and all beautiful things does He love.
In introduction, before beginning the topic at hand, we present some of the core principles upon which the understanding of the Qur’ān and its rearing method are established. [This is necessary] because true understanding isn’t based upon the plentitude of information but rather the solidness of first principles. There can be no true entrance into sacred knowledge except through the heritage of the deeply steeped traditional scholars of the past who, as Allah informed about them, say —
“We believe in it, as being all from our Lord.” Qur’ān 3:7
Adab is to sacred knowledge what the angel Gabriel is to the Qur’ān. Adab is the mediary between sacred knowledge and the heart. The greater the adab, the greater the receptivity to the revelation.
In so much as the heart leans to the angelic, will it be a receptacle of divine meanings. This is the divine wisdom in the association between fasting and the revelation of the Qur’ān, for it is a form of worship that eclipses the heat of desires and causes the cool moon of the believers heart to reach fullness.
A believer isn’t concerned with placing verses where they please, even where they don’t belong, but rather keen to place themselves in the verses, where they belong.
In summary, finding one’s self in the Qur’ān is the goal, but it necessitates a proper approach. The why, how, and where of that journey is what true scholarship and Tradition provide. When that spiritual map is drawn, then life – itself – becomes the recitation. The beginning is true faith. The pauses are upon God’s commands and prohibitions. The destination is God, Himself. This is the true recitation.