Most important to remember is that what you read in the Qur'an is the word of Allah, the Lord of the worlds, which He has conveyed to you in a human language, only because of His mercy and care and providence for you. 'The Most-merciful, He has taught the Qur'an' (al-Rahman 55: 1-2). 'A mercy from your Lord' (al-Dukhan 44: 6).
The majesty of the Qur'an, too, is so overpowering that no human-being can comprehend it. So much so that, says Allah: 'If We had sent down this Qur'an upon a mountain, you would have seen it humbled, split asunder out of the fear of Allah' (al-Hashr 59: 20).
Hazards and Perils
Rejoice you must, in the mercy and blessing and generosity of Allah. Seek you must, for the treasures that await your search herein. But the Qur'an opens its doors only to those who knock with a sense of yearning, a sincerity of purpose and an exclusive attention that befit its importance and majesty. And only those are allowed to gather its treasures, while they walk through it, who are prepared to abandon themselves completely to its guidance and do their utmost to absorb it.
It may quite possibly happen therefore that you may read the Qur'an endlessly, turn its pages labouriously, recite its words beautifully, study it most scholarly, and still fail to make an encounter with it that enriches and transforms your whole person. For, all those who read the Qur'an do not profit from it as they should. Some remain unblessed; some are even cursed. The journey has its own hazards, as it must, just as it has its own precious and limitless rewards. Many never turn to it, though the Book always lies near at hand, and many are turned away from its gates. Many read it often, but come back empty-handed; while many others who read it never really enter its world.
Some do not find, but are lost. They fail to hear Allah even among His own words; instead, they hear their own voices or those other than Allah's. Still others, though they hear Allah, fail to find inside themselves the will, the resolve and the courage to respond and live by His call. Some lose even what they had and, instead of collecting priceless gems, they return with back-breaking loads of stones which will hurt them for ever and ever.
What a tragic misfortune it would be if you came to the Qur'an and went away empty-handed – soul untouched, heart unmoved, life unchanged; 'they went out as they came in'.
The Qur'an's blessings are limitless, but the measure of your taking from it depends entirely upon the capacity and the suitability of the receptacle you bring to it. So, at the very outset, make yourself more deeply aware of what the Qur'an means to you and what it demands of you; and make a solemn determination to recite the Qur'an in an appropriate manner, so that you may be counted among 'Those whom We have given the Book, they recite it as it ought to be recited; it is they who believe in it' (al-Baqarah 2: 121).
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