If you remember it was said that cognizance of the holy Qur’an requires several steps beginning with recitation of this heavenly scripture. But it was stressed that the most important step is to put the ayahs of the Qur’an into practice in everyday life. Keep us company to continue the discussion.

One of the reasons for sending down of the holy Qur’an is to increase insight. Insight is like a guide which shows the course and obstacles on the way and repels the harms. It leads human being to the destination healthily. When social, political and cultural seditions shape insight prevents from deviation and falling in ideological precipices. Insight helps man distinguish between right and wrong. Insight is so important that in ayah 108 of surah Yusuf God tells the Prophet, “Say, ‘This is my way. I invite to Allah with insight – I and he who follows me. Immaculate is Allah, and I am not one of the polytheists.”

One of the prominent divine characteristics is to have insight and He has sent down the Qur’an which creates deep insight and foresight. In ayah 104 of surah An’am, we read, “Certainly insights have come to you from your Lord. So whoever sees, it is to the benefit of his own soul, and whoever remains blind it is to its detriment and I am not a keeper over you.”

Pointing to benefit and detriment in this ayah indicates that having insight or lack of insight is determining in our life and destiny. Insightful and foresighted people, inspired by the Qur’an, choose the course of life and take steps in a way that leads to perfection and salvation.

The status of insight is further revealed in ayah 203 of surah A’araf, “Say, ‘I only follow what is revealed to me from my Lord; these are insights from your Lord and guidance and mercy for a people who have faith.”

Therefore, insightfulness requires having faith in God’s Book, Qur’an; and that a stable and permanent faith. In ayah 20 of surah Jathiya God puts another condition for being insightful, saying, “These are insights for mankind and guidance and mercy for a people who have certainty.”

Certainty is the faith which never changes or shakes. Both of the said ayahs mention the divine mercy as the important achievement of stepping in the way of God. Another philosophy of sending down the holy Qur’an is to relieve human beings from darkness of ignorance, polytheism, hypocrisy and corruption which lead man toward perversion and ultimate downfall. God Almighty says to the Prophet in ayah 1 of surah Ibrahim, “This is a Book We have sent down to you that you may bring mankind out from darkness into light, by the permission of their Lord, to the path of the All-mighty, the All-laudable.”

It should be noted that God had mentioned these points in all other divine books as long as they had not been distorted. But the greatest privilege of the holy Qur’an is that it has remained intact from the slightest distortion.

We should know that sending down of Scriptures, increasing of insight and stepping in the way of righteousness are all the divine mercies. This is stressed in ayah 9 of surah Hadid, “It is He who sends down manifest signs to His servant that He may bring you out of darkness into light and indeed Allah is kind and merciful to you.”

We hope that the divine mercy will engulf us, too. Amen.

RM/SS