Quran Recitation in Prayer Brings Us Closer to Allah
Today I want to talk about the secret of Quranic nearness, why the Awliya, friends of Allah, loved long-standing in Prayer. They regard the Quran as a pathway to the Divine presence. In a letter to his disciple, Khwaja Muhammad Masoom Sirhindi (d. 1660) explained that Quran recitation during prayer is the most effective way of getting closer to Allah. He stresses that during the prayer, the most intense spiritual experience is found in Quran recitation, especially prolonged standing.
Every Sunday morning, I present a show on Radio Dawn for twenty minutes where I narrate some letters written by an amazing friend of Allah, a master of inner wellbeing and health, a doctor of moral and spiritual beauty, a counsellor of psychological conditions. They were written nearly four hundred years ago. Here I want to share a dose of the master’s medicine. I hope you are ready to gulp it.
A pious disciple once asked the master to explain an experience that he had during salah. So, the Shaykh Khwaja Muhammad Masoom Sirhindi wrote back: “The spiritual advancement you found in reciting the Quran is rarely found in other activities, especially the recitation during the prayer while standing. When a person rises above mundane practices, then distinctions fade away, and progress at that level happens through Quran recitation in prayer. As the Quran is the speech of Allah, His Divine attribute, an attribute that is never separate from its source. To join oneself to this attribute, to adopt it, becomes a cause of nearness and closeness to Allah.
The Prophet ﷺ said: “The people of the Quran are the people of Allah and His chosen ones.” It is possible that ‘people of the Quran’ here refers to those who reach this state and have passed beyond outward principles, reached annihilation and subsistence, and become purified of all else besides Allah. Annihilation is to have full control of one’s ego, subdue worldly desires so they are quiet, no lust and hunger for material things. Truly free, liberated from the jaws of the greedy and selfish self.
Until a person is purified from everything other than Allah, he is not among the people of the Quran nor fit for recitation. Any recitation performed before this state belongs to the deeds of the righteous (Abrar), not the deeds of the near ones (Muqarrabin). At this stage, repetition of the pure word (Kalimah-e-Tayyabah) is beneficial and elevating. When the inner self is purified through this blessed phrase, one becomes worthy of recitation. The noble verse “None touch it except the purified” points to this meaning that ‘the Quran is recited only by the clean, free of attachments to anything besides Allah’. In this verse, recitation is metaphorically referred to as “touching” due to its intensity.
The Prophet ﷺ said: “Whoever yearns for Allah should listen to His word.” Another hadith says: “Whoever wishes to speak with his Lord should recite the Quran.” And another: “The memorisers and scholars of the Quran are the friends of Allah. Whoever opposes them opposes Allah; whoever befriends them befriends Allah.” Another hadith states that ‘every verse Allah revealed has an outer and an inner meaning; every letter has a limit, and every limit has a deeper horizon to be explored’” (Letters of Khwaja Masoom Sirhindi).
At higher spiritual stages, distinctions and ordinary ‘rules’ fade; progress occurs through deep engagement with the Quran during the prayer. Because the Quran is a Divine attribute, the speech of Allah, and an inseparable Divine attribute connecting oneself to this attribute leads to spiritual intimacy with Allah.
The Rank of ‘Ahl al-Quran’, they have reached purity, detachment from everything besides Allah, and deep union with The Majestic Quran, is described as the “People of Allah” based on Prophetic sayings: ‘One cannot truly be from the people of the Quran until the heart is cleared of worldly attachments’. Hadiths emphasise: Listening to the Quran expresses longing for Allah. Reciting the Quran is akin to speaking with one’s Lord. Those who carry and understand the Quran are the true friends of Allah.
Only the purified can access the Quran; the verse “None touch it except the purified” is interpreted spiritually: only those spiritually cleansed “touch”, i.e. fully receive the reality of the Quran. The Quran is a means of nearness and Divine conversation. Let us enjoy Quran recitation in prayer. Whilst I always urge students to read the Divine writ with meanings, there is power in Divine words that is palpable, touching and transforming.
