Quran

If Islam, the Quran, and Sunnah are so easy and simple, why is it that so much of our lives is at odds with it and their contents?

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In Surat al-Nahl, Allah Most High commands us to “ask the people of the message if you do not know” (Q16:43).

It is amazing how many people consider this verse appropriate for matters related to medicine, engineering, and shoe repair, but then reject its application to matters related to Islam and Islamic scholarship. Often they will defend this with claiming that Islam is supposed to be easy and simple.

If Islam, the Quran, and Sunnah are as easy and simple as they claim, why are so much of our lives at odds with it and their contents? And why is it that so many of the folks who claim its ease and simplicity and reject scholarship are also struggling with basic and evident personally-obligatory matters of the religion?

The focus of our struggle should be on removing excuses that prevent us from practice, not searching for excuses to remove us from it altogether.

Announcing Publication of Imam al-Nawawi’s Etiquette With the Quran

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Etiquette-HALFIt is a great honor to announce the print edition of Etiquette With the Quran, a translation of Imām al-Nawawī’s Al-Tibyān fī Ādāb Ḥamalat al-Qur’ān. This enduring classic concerns the etiquette a Muslim must or should have with regard to handling and reciting the Quran (the Muslim scripture). The topics this volume raises include: ritual cleanliness, opportune times for recitation, the etiquette that students have with their teachers (and that teachers must have with their students), and variety of other issues that every Muslim should know and frequently ask about.

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Completing the Quran and Its Supplication

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It is recommended to complete the Quran during Ramadan. The following excerpt from Imam al-Nawawi’s Etiquette With the Quran touches on many of the legal issues and etiquette related to completing the Quran.

The Etiquette of Completing the Quran

There are several issues concerning completing the recitation of the Quran [khatma].

WHEN TO COMPLETE: The first etiquette concerns its timing. As previously mentioned, it is preferable for someone reciting the Quran on his own that [he complete it] during Prayer. Another opinion is that it is preferable for it to occur in the two rak‘a of the obligatory Morning Prayer, and in the two sunna rak‘as of the Sunset Prayer, and the two rak‘as of the Morning Prayer is better. In another opinion, it is preferable for the completion [khatma] in the beginning of the day for one turn [of recitation], and at the end of the day for next turn.

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