- May 2, 2025
Why You Can’t Enjoy the Quran
- Rashidoon -
- 2 comments
Like many previous questions we have addressed, this question is misleading. Its wording masks the real issues and shifts attention elsewhere. Let’s begin…
It is important to know that the heart is reflective and attentive by its very nature, especially toward the Quran. In a sense, the heart was designed to engage with the Quran in the first place. When it doesn’t seem to do so, there is a departure from its natural state, and we need to identify what is causing this anomaly.
The heart is always attentive and active. It is always interested! When it seems to us that it is not, it is because we have not identified—or admitted—what is occupying it. If you are already using the heart’s capacity in areas of interest other than the Quran, your heart has no space left for the Quran. Its thirst for substance is satisfied with other content. Its energy and capacity are consumed in processing that content, and thus, nothing is left for the Quran. This is why you can’t have an enjoyable and captivating experience reflecting on the Quran.
Let’s consider what could be preoccupying our hearts to the extent that nothing remains for the Quran. It is usually a competing narrative about life. Our hearts are intrinsically interested in answers to big questions such as: What is life about? What should I be doing with my life? What is my purpose? How can my life be meaningful?
Modern modes of thinking offer a subtle narrative to answer such questions. The problem with this narrative is that it is not in line with the Quranic narrative. This is why, when our hearts are consumed with this narrative, they cannot accommodate the Quran.
The Quran offers a narrative about life that runs contrary to the religion of modernity, which we are all followers of to some degree. It has been normalized to such an extent that many Muslims have adopted most of its central tenets and considered them in line with Islam. This uncanny plot is at the root of many dilemmas we are facing today, but the connection is subtle, because we are still perceiving and acting from that faulty paradigm.
If you are not willing to bravely challenge the way you have been living, it is extremely difficult to engage with the Quran in a meaningful way.
In future writings, we will offer helpful ways to break from this unhealthy pattern, in shā’ Allāh. The content that Rashidoon offers is designed to help with this process—especially our course: Tazkiyah: Beyond Purification. You may want to have a look: rashidoon.com/courses
Please share your thoughts and questions in the comment section below.
2 comments
This light-bulb moment why music is made haram. When it becomes a filler in our heart there is no room for Qur'an.
SubhanAllah: “If you are not willing to bravely challenge the way you have been living, it is extremely difficult to engage with the Quran in a meaningful way.”
^ This got me thinking … 💭 ‘That is Exactly what The Qur’an does! The Qur’an Challenges the way that we have been existing! The Qur’an Challenges the way that we have been approaching life! The Qur’an Challenges our views, Challenges our opinions, Challenges our perception, Challenges our understanding, Questions our assumptions, Scrutinises our beliefs, Examines our expectations. The Qur’an has a way of shaking us, to awaken awareness and facilitate a growth process of shedding various layers - which can feel uncomfortable and unpleasant, especially if those layers have formed part of our identity and became very centralised in our lives.
I also thought about The Quraysh as an example, The Quran challenged the way they had been existing. The Quran questioned them. The Quran was putting their existence into context, scrutinising their assumptions about Allah and examining their deeper beliefs about the world. The Quran gets deep into what is within The Heart. The Quran is Invasive, because it belongs inside us … perhaps many of us resist internalising The Qur’an due to other things inside us occupying The Qur’an’s Place. Also, the distance between our awareness and the state of our hearts can also be uncomfortable due to the gap between our current awareness and where The Quran puts our attention.
The Qur’an perhaps puts our Attention in places that we don’t want to look, and takes our attention to depth that we feel uncomfortable with, so if we looked in that place we would see that there are things we need to review and things we need to question and perhaps take apart and dismantle completely!
Reading Revelation means Our Priorities are challenged, our values are questioned, our aims and objectives are scrutinised … and if there’s one thing I’ve learnt about us humans, it is that we don’t like being questioned and examined. We don’t like being told that we are wrong. We don’t like doing things differently when we have already been doing things in a particular way out of habit and routine for a long time.
Revelation has a Right to occupy our hearts, though many of us disregard this right or we only “engage” with revelation outwardly on a superficial level assuming that “we’ve done what need to.”. The Reality of Revelation is that it doesn’t accept anything less than being taken deep down to The Depth’s of one’s being. One’s Essence. One’s Foundation. This is The Level where change really happens. At The Essence Level. Anything else that isn’t as deep is mere cosmetic “change” in appearance and detail, which isn’t real change at all (although it may “look” and “seem” like change on the surface).
If The Qur’an doesn’t interact with and Reach our Spirit / Essence, then it will not really change us at all … because it is not reaching where it is supposed to reach, it is being blocked from the very place where it exerts power and influence —> The Heart.
May Allah Free Our Hearts and Guide our Hearts to be Occupied by what is Pure and by what is Good, as well as support us with The Perseverance and Resilience Needed for this Journey of Challenging the various layers blocking us from The Depth of our Hearts and gradually evicting the darknesses currently occupying them, Aameen.