Aswaatul Qurraa|

Many of us have an addictive relationship with Facebook. We check our accounts compulsively, multiple times a day. It is sometimes the last thing many of us do before we sleep and the first thing we do when we wake up; time flies when we’re on it, and it can become obsessive. Yet how many of us have an addictive relationship with the Quran? Some of us want to establish a relationship with the Quran, but may find it boring, or difficult to understand, or simply not fast enough. We’re used to status updates, pictures and vivid virtual conversations. We prefer real people, an interchange of words and tangible friendships – or at least, Facebook friendships. A lot of us don’t even really know the people we add as friends. In reality, what we prefer is what the Quran already offers and more; it’s just up to us to experience the paradigm shift, with Allah’s help. Here are a few ways we can work to establish our relationships with the Quran.

From Facebook to Quran

What is it about Facebook or other forms of social or popular media that makes us come back, over and over, sometimes multiple times a day? Whatever it is, identify why we keep going back. Then, tweak our reasons for that connection and apply it to the Quran.
When we read stories about Nuh, Moosa, Essa, Mariam (May Allah’s peace be upon them all) — when we read about their struggles or the people who they called to the worship of Allah, recognize those as the Quran’s updates. The conversations that Allah quotes in the Quran, the arguments of the people to their Messengers, those are all comments to posts in the Quran’s feed. The Quran is more intense and exciting than anything on Facebook. We just need to add it and tag it as our Best Friend.
Sometimes we find Facebook addicting because of our ability to interact with our friends. So let’s find the Quran addicting because of our ability to interact with Allah. When we read Quran and we want to like something, say Alhamdulilah (all praise is to Allah)! When we personally want to respond to the Quran, put up our hands and make du’a!

Now, our comment allows for us to directly strengthen our connection with the One Who can hear us and will answer us! When we read the descriptions of Paradise and Hell, know that Allah Most High is uploading images for us to focus on and be impacted by; when we’re captivated or horrified by the image, comment through our actions! Do the actions which will include us amongst the people of Paradise and keep you from being in the excruciating fire. That type of commenting will bring everlasting results in this life and the Next and, Allah willing, Allah subahanahu wa ta`ala (exalted is He) will tag us as His friends in this life and the Hereafter.

Make the Quran Our Best Friend

Oftentimes, when we’re sad or lonely, when we’re bursting with joy or excitement, when we’re apathetic or just need some down time, we post it. We let everyone know how we’re feeling, what we’re thinking, something that went down in our day or what we wished didn’t go down. We often treat Facebook as a best friend; checking it and reconnecting frequently. Here’s our opportunity to start shifting that connection; let’s start calling the Quran our best friend. With ourselves, let’s start using the term, “Best Friend,” for the Quran.
If we have a human best friend, think about the way we run to answer their call when we know they’re about to tell us the outcome of a life-changing decision. Think about the way we laugh at inside jokes we post on each other’s walls and comment on a million times over to the annoyance of all our other ‘friends’ whose feeds are overtaken by our conversations.

Now, apply that same understanding of our best friend relationship to the Quran. If we take the Quran as our Best Friend, we’ll run to it when we see it near, knowing it’s calling us, ready to listen to whatever it wants to share for our own benefit, guidance and happiness. When we’re distraught, feeling lonely or at loss, we’ll go to our Best Friend, hold it to our hearts, open it and begin reading it, reciting from it, revelling in its mind-blowing empathy, its heart-warming sympathy, it’s perfection of wisdom which relates directly to our situations. When we’re excited beyond measure; ready to jump through the roof because we finally got into that school, got that job, regained our health, going to get married to that dream person or had the blessing of a child, we’re going to pick it up and shed tears of joy or words of elation with it, knowing that in reality, we’re going back to the One Who gave us all that we’re excited about in the first place.
Like our best friends, we’ll understand the Quran’s inside scoop, its special messages and the guidance it shares with us because we have a special connection that no one else can gauge.

Building Our Relationship

Let’s think about people we’re friends with on Facebook; would we really know about all that’s going on in their lives if they didn’t choose to share pictures of their meals, their vacations, or post about their daily struggles and conversations? Would we really be able to keep up with that many people, some very close friends and some whom we may have met less than a handful of times, if we weren’t in constant connection with them through social media – even if we weren’t actually personally connecting?

But let’s also consider our true best friends. The depth of our friendships likely didn’t happen overnight; we become continuously attached to the person we’ve already connected with because of our consistent ability to reconnect and re-align.
Then what about the Quran? How can we expect to know our Creator if we do not even open the social media through which He reveals Himself to us? If we’re willing to read through the posts of people we sometimes barely know, then what about reading through the posts of the One Who created us and all of those people? How can we develop a relationship if we are not willing to consistently converse with the One Who gave us the ability to speak (or sign) at all? How can we expect a depth of friendship to simply just happen with our loving Creator if we are not the ones taking any steps towards embellishing our relationship?

Yet despite the sometimes little attention we give it, the Quran’s feed is always beasting, waiting to be our closest friend! Why? Because when we establish a relationship with the Quran, we are, in reality, establishing a relationship with the One Who created us and knows us best. When we think about Allah, when we make an effort to draw nearer to Him, He comes to us with speed. Therefore, let us run to Him through our relationship with the Quran!

Let us set a certain amount of Quran that we must read, regardless of the circumstances, every day. From one page or more, do whatever amount we can do consistently and stick with it because the Prophet Sallallhu Alayhi Wasallam taught us that the best actions are those that are small, but consistent [Bukhari]. Reading the Quran daily, year-round, is better than reading a ton only in Ramadan and then disregarding it.

Facebook can be a great networking tool, but if used obsessively, we can become addicted to a media which often brings minute tangible benefits to our lives. Allah’s Book is an incredible networking tool which will connect us to the Creator of the Universe, the One through Whom we can gain tangible benefit in this life and the eternal hereafter. Let us make the Quran our best friend in this life and in shaa Allah it will be our best friend in the Qabr and on the day of Judgement, interceding for us. Let us always remember the following hadith:

Buraidah Radiyallahu ‘anhu narrates: I was sitting with Nabi Sallallahu ‘alaihi wasallam and I heard him saying: When the man devoted to the Quran will come out of the grave Upon its splitting, on the Day of Resurrection, indeed the Quran will meet him like a person whose colour has changed due to weakness. The Quran will ask him: Do you recognize me? He will say: No I do not recognize you. The Quran will ask him again: Do you recognize me? He will say: No, I do not recognize you. The Quran will say: I am your mate, The Quran, which kept you thirsty at the mid-day’s heat and kept you awake at night. Every trader wishes to earn a profit from his trade, today you are exceptionally rewarded in your trade. So he will be given a kingdom in his right hand; and in the left a certificate to live in Paradise for eternity, and a crown of dignity will be placed on his head. His parents will be given to wear two such pairs of dresses whose value cannot be paid by the people of this world. His parents will say: Why have we been given these dresses to wear? It would be said: For your son’s memorizing of the Quran. And then the man devoted to the Quran will be asked: Recite, and rise in ranks to the upper storeys and adorned rooms of Paradise. He will ascend as long as he recites, whether it be fast and fluently or slowly with pauses and distinctly. [Musnad Ahmed]

The personification of the Quran as a weak and pale man in the above hadith is in fact a portrait of the man devoted to the Quran. He had become weak because of reciting the Quran at night, and acting upon its commandments during the day.

So, let us spend less time on Facebook and let’s go to Allah’s Book, to our Best Friend, to the Quran.

Visit Aswaatul Quraa for a depth of resources on the Quraan