This Ramadan, MuslimMatters is pleased to host the Institute Of Knowledge‘s daily Ramadan series: Keys to the Divine Compass. Through this series, each day we will spend time connecting with the Qur’an on a deeper, more spiritual, uplifting level.

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Juzʾ 19: Abandoning the Quran?

“And the Messenger will say, “O my Lord! Truly my people have taken this Qur’ān as something to be discarded!”

This is a very powerful complaint from the Prophet ﷺ. He’s expressing his sorrow and sadness at the Quraysh’s attitude towards the Qur’ān and revelation. The Prophet ﷺ will say that they have abandoned the Qur’ān, which Allah revealed to His Messenger to warn and explain to them what lies ahead for mankind. They refused to listen to it because they feared they would be attracted to its message. Stubbornly, they refused to consider its message which would have guided them to the truth and given them light. When the Prophet ﷺ would recite the Qur’ān to the people of Quraysh they would ignore him, walk away and even put their fingers in their ears. Others would distract people and make them stop listening to the Qur’ān.

As a matter of fact, the leadership of Quraysh and those that opposed the Prophet ﷺ tried everything they could to stop people from listening to the Qur’ān. As we’ve covered before, they would make all types of false claims and accusations. They would say that he composed these words himself, or that he composed them with the help of others. They would say that the Qur’ān is a compilation of old tales. They would say that these are the words of a poet, magician, sorcerer, fortuneteller or a madman. So the Prophet ﷺ will say, “O my Lord! Truly my people have taken this Qur’ān as something to be discarded!”

Some commentators mention that although this verse is referring to the non-believers of his time, it could also be referring to us as Muslims. That the Prophet ﷺ is going to complain about us, his followers, who abandoned the Qur’ān and took as something to be discarded. ibn Taymiyyah (r) said, “Whoever doesn’t recite the Quran has abandoned it. Whoever recites the Quran but doesn’t reflect upon it has abandoned it. Whoever recited the Quran, reflects upon it but doesn’t act upon it has abandoned it.”