Therefore, the invitation to bring reason and understanding to the Qur’an is spread on almost every page of it: Why do you not hear? Why do you not see? Why do you not think? Why do you not reason? Why do you not ponder? Why do you not understand? Why do you not take it to heart? To whom are these invitations addressed if not to every human being who possesses the faculties of hearing, seeing, and thinking?

It is also emphatically declared that the Qur’an has been sent down to be understood.

Likewise, the Qur’an praises as the true “servants of the Most-Merciful” (a `ibadu Ar-Rahman), those

Conversely, it castigates as worse than animals those who do not use their hearing, sight, and hearts to listen, see, and understand:

You cannot gather the real blessings and treasures of the Qur’an unless you know its meaning, unless you understand what Allah is saying to you, unless you exert yourself personally to find that out.

The hadith which discourages reading the Qur’an in less than three days also makes the need for understanding clear: you will not understand it. One who does not understand the meanings or who does not reflect over them is in no need of this directive. Al-Ghazali, in his Ihya’, gives many examples of how the Companions and their followers devoted themselves to this task.

Anas ibn Malik once said, “Often one recites the Qur’an, but the Qur’an curses him because he does not understand it.” The sign of faith, according to `Abdullah ibn `Umar, is to understand the Qur’an: “We have lived long. ... A time has come when I see a man who is given the whole Qur’an before he has acquired faith. He reads all the pages between Al-Fatihah and its end without knowing its commands, its threats, and the places in it where he should pause; he scatters it like the scattering of one fleeing in haste.” `A’ishah once heard a man babbling over the Qur’an and said, “He has neither read the Qur’an nor kept silent.” `Ali said, “There is no good in the Qur’an reading which is not pondered over.” Abu Sulayman Al-Darani said, “I recite a verse and remain with it for four or five nights and do not pass on to another verse unless I have ended my thinking on it.”

Obviously, if the Qur’an is a book of guidance for every man, the “man on the island” is as much entitled to receive its guidance as the man immersed in scholarship. Even if there are no teachers and no books, you must know it clearly, still devote your time, individually and collectively, to its understanding, to ponder over it, to find its meaning for your life and find out what it says to you.

The risks inherent in such a venture, however, need to be clearly recognized and appropriate measures need to be taken to guard against them. Observing a few guidelines should ensure that you avoid these risks.

First, remember that understanding the Qur’an is a vast, multi-dimensional process, comprising many types, aspects, degrees, and levels. You should know them all. Understanding to nourish the heart will be of a very different order from understanding to derive legal precepts.

Second, evaluate yourself and recognize very clearly your limitations and capabilities. For example, evaluate your understanding of the Qur’anic framework of guidance, your grasp of Arabic, your familiarity with the Hadith and seerah (Prophet’s biography), and your access to sources.

Third, understand your objectives precisely, and set specific goals for your study. Never attempt to do anything beyond what your limitations and capabilities allow.

For example, if you do not know the Arabic language, do not delve into grammatical and lexical issues. Confine yourself to direct, literal meanings. If you have no knowledge of things like tanzil (revelation), nasikh and mansukh (abrogation), and the works of the earlier jurists, you should not begin to derive your own fiqh from the Qur’an, or criticize and support any particular view.

Fourth, never take as conclusive nor start propagating any of your findings that are different from or against the general consensus of the Ummah. This is not to bar you from holding your views or to deny that the opinion of the learned may be wrong, but to controvert or go against them you must possess an equal learning, if not more.

Fifth, whenever in doubt about your own conclusions, which may be often in view of your limited knowledge, keep your views in suspension unless you have made a full comparative study or discussed them with a reliable, learned scholar of the Qur’an.

* Based on the book Way to the Qur’an, Chapter 5: “Study and Understanding.” http://www.ymofmd.com/books/wtq/index.htm