Reciting the Qur'an

(gambar dari sini)

dengan jujur, saya katakan saya belum lancar membaca al-Quran. Kadang-kadang, tersasul bacaan, tersilap tajwid. Apa yang paling haru, ada tanda bacaan yang saya tak faham; Belasah saja la labu, fikir saya (AMARAN: JANGAN TIRU AKSI INI).

And when I heard my friends reciting the Quran, I would always feel fascinated with their ability in reciting Allah's kalam beautifully. I wanna be like them. I wanna be someone who could read the words of Allah in a beautiful manner. The Prophet SAW said: 'Beautify the Qur'an with your voices, for a beautiful voice increases the beauty of the Qur'an'. (Darimi)

It's like your love letter which you would always try to find a soothing tone whenever you read it. I want to feel His warm love through His letter, don't you want it too?

Sometimes, I struggled to finish a page of the Quran. Yes, it's one of my many weaknesses. True, during that 'sometimes', I felt demotivated to continue with the recitation. What worse was I didn't believe I can improve.

Well, Allah knows me best. He knows I need motivation. So, when I was in Manchester last week, I came across a book entitled 'In the Prophet's Garden: A selection of ahadith for the young'. I just browsed through it, and (with Allah's will) stopped at page 16.

I was stunned.

It stated,
The Prophet SAW said: 'Whoever recites the Qur'an with skill will be in the company of the noble and righteous emissaries (of God on the Last day); and whoever recites the Qur'an with difficulty, making great effort, will have a double reward'. (Ahmad, Darimi)

Subhanallah. Somehow, when I read that hadith, I was very happy, as if I heard Him telling me that He's looking not at the result, but the effort I actually made.

Oh yeah! For the sake of encouraging you to recite the Qur'an, I'm happy to share this hadith with you:
The Prophet SAW said: 'Someone who is in the habit of reciting the Qur'an will be told (on the Day of Judgement), 'Keep on reciting, and rising higher (in Paradise)! Recite as beautifully as you used to during your lifetime, for your station will be where the last verse of your recitation ends'. (Abu Dawud, Tirmidhi)

Aim for a higher place. Aim for a place nearer to Allah. InsyaAllah.