# The Qur’an Won’t Benefit You Until You Do This | Ramadan Reflections

**Author:** Sh. Mohammad Elshinawy
**Series:** Ramadan Reflections (2025)
**Published:** 2025-03-16
**YouTube:** https://youtu.be/nKHZvgAzCyU
**URL:** https://yaqeeninstitute.org/watch/series/ramadan-reflections-2025/the-quran-wont-benefit-you-until-you-do-this-ramadan-reflections
**Topics:** Acts of Worship, Sharia

## Description
You’re flying through the Qur’an this Ramadan, but it feels distant. Why don’t the words of God move your heart? Why does it reach some people so easily while you struggle to connect? In this reflection, Sh. Mohammad Elshinawy explores the barriers blocking the Qur’an—distraction, heedlessness, and...

## Transcript
**[0:00]** As for tonight's reminder, we spoke last time about the importance of spiritual detox, making amends with Allah, repentance and seeking forgiveness, and making du'a as we approach the Qur'an anew.

**[0:15]** I want to speak tonight about another component, another hurdle we want to overcome, and that is the hurdle of distraction. How do we take more seriously the need to reinforce our walls from the intrusions, right?

**[0:33]** From the catapults of the technology intrusions that are smashing against the walls of our lives. How and why is it so important to insulate ourselves from at least some of this if we want to make headway with Allah's sacred word? At the end of Surah Qaf, Allah says,

**[0:51]** Inna fee thalika la dhikra liman kana lahu qalbun aw alqa sam'a wa huwa shaheed. Certainly in that, all which we state in the Qur'an, certainly in that is a sufficient reminder for whomever has a heart, meaning a living pure heart, or the one who lends us their hearing, who gives his ear while present-minded.

**[1:23]** And so there are two factors here. The Qur'an is a sufficient reminder, but for some people, their pure heart is enough. You know, the idea as Ibn Al-Qayyim so beautifully draws it, he said, when they read the Qur'an, immediately they know it's from Allah.

**[1:43]** Immediately it brings them back to their best state. It is as if the Qur'an serves as a lamp, he says, that shines for them on the wall of their heart, the ayat. Like the Qur'an shines a light on the wall of their heart, and it's almost as if they find the ayat already there, etched in their hearts.

**[2:05]** And this is supported by Allah Azza wa Jal saying elsewhere in the Qur'an, there is light upon light, the light of revelation converging with the light of the purity of the fitrah, of the human being, right? Immediately, they see it, they feel it, they experience it, they engage it, they're transformed by it.

**[2:25]** That's one group of people, and this is a reminder for people with a pure heart. Or someone, maybe the purity is not all there, so they need to apply themselves a bit more by paying their undivided attention, considering deeply these words.

**[2:43]** They will find a sufficient reminder in there, even if the heart is not yet at its best state. That's the idea. Or as some scholars have said, it's as if, you know, the Qur'an of course has enough potency, has enough potential. The heart is the fertile ground, it has to be fertile to be impressionable, you can impress on it, but then there's something in the middle, right?

**[3:04]** There's fog, there's atmospheric pressure, that will weaken the impact. How do you get past that? By leaning in and focusing. Better and more so on your reading of the Qur'an, to give it your undivided attention. As Allah Azza wa Jal said to His Prophets,

**[3:24]** Take the book with strength, meaning what? Treat it as such, as sacred. Don't handle it casually, don't handle it superficially. Or elsewhere in the Qur'an, Allah Subhanahu wa Ta'ala says,

**[3:40]** I'tasimu is translated as hold fast to the rope of Allah. But I said to you, I think last year, the mi'asam is the wrist. So it's as if Allah is saying, hold it and wrap it around your wrist for extra measure.

**[3:55]** So it's double held on. And you find further indications about the importance of your undivided attention, if you want to benefit from the Qur'an, in Allah's statement, It's a mighty book.

**[4:10]** We said mighty can't be changed, we covered that. We said mighty means it can change anybody, we covered that. Here is a third meaning of it being a mighty book. It means a mighty and proud book, because Izzah means pride.

**[4:25]** Elsewhere in the Qur'an, Allah says, He was driven by his Izzah, his pride into sinning. So Izzah could mean pride, good pride or bad pride, but pride. So how is the Qur'an a proud book?

**[4:40]** They said the Qur'an is too proud to accept to have the leftovers, the crumbs, the spare time, the spare emotions, the spare moments of your day. You give it your undivided attention or it's not opening up.

**[4:55]** That's the idea. Or as some of the scholars have said, The Qur'an will never give you a part of itself until you give it all of yourself. You know, so many people, it's not Arabic.

**[5:16]** Yes, of course, Arabic is an upgrade and a game changer, but it's not Arabic. Once they apply this rule, they always say, SubhanAllah, like, how didn't I see this before? So many people have said this to me, and I've said this to people as well. Once you actually do it, say, SubhanAllah, like it's right there.

**[5:32]** How could I not have seen it? Because it's not about skill. It's about dedication, completely different. This is why Imam Suyuti, he said it is disliked for a person when they're reading Qur'an to stop, get interrupted to speak to somebody else.

**[5:52]** And Al-Halimi, may Allah have mercy on him, said the reason is because this suggests that that someone else is more important than the Qur'an. And Al-Bayhaqi narrates that Abdullah ibn Umar (رضي الله عنه), When he would be reading Qur'an, he would refuse to answer anyone until he finished.

**[6:12]** Finish this session. So it's like a semi-formal session. It's a sanctified session. This is the way you need to treat it. You know, I'm citing all these wonderful personalities, and I don't mean to muddy it,

**[6:27]** but some of you may know who Simon Sinek is. I think this is from Simon Sinek. He's telling young entrepreneurs when they're engaging with businessmen and stuff. He says to them, do you know what it means when you put your phone on the table? What does it mean?

**[6:42]** Sorry, guys, I'm about to hurt everyone. Touch where it hurts. What does it mean when you put your phone on the table? When you put your phone on the table during the meal or the meeting, it means you are not important. The only reason I'm giving you the time of day is because the notification hasn't went off yet on the phone or in my head.

**[7:03]** As soon as I get a notification, I'm going to grab it. Only reason I'm entertaining you, giving you any attention is because it hasn't gone off yet. That's with your fellow human being. And so the Quran, we need to figure out a way to start formalizing the relationship,

**[7:21]** upgrading the relationship. Very important. In fact, the Prophet (ﷺ), he said something profound, and I will close with this. He said, at a janazah, when they were in the graveyard,

**[7:38]** about to step into the grave to receive the body and tuck it in, هل فيكم أحد لم يقارف في الليلة? Is there among you someone who was not intimate with their spouse last night?

**[7:54]** So Abu Talha stood and said, أنا. And so he told him, step down into the grave and receive the body. Of what the scholar said is derived from here, is that if that had just happened and it was an early janazah in the morning, something like this,

**[8:10]** this crowds your ability, even though it's halal, this is your spouse. It crowds your ability to take the reminder from the gravesite. Because you just had your fill of one of your primary appetites, your carnal appetites.

**[8:25]** So we're not even talking about the sins that deaden the heart from last session. We're talking about sometimes putting boundaries on the halal, between the halal and your engagement with the Quran so that you can open doors of benefit that weren't there before.

**[8:42]** The Prophet (ﷺ) also said, in the hadith of Aisha and Sahih Muslim, he said, لا صلاة بحضرة طعام ولا هو يدافعه الأخبثان. There is no prayer when we are in the presence of food.

**[9:01]** The food has already been served. You filled your nostrils with the aroma, right? You're not to pray in that state, nor in the state when the two urges, number one and number two, bathroom urges, are pressing you. Because you will not be present-minded.

**[9:17]** أَوْ أَلْقَى السَّمْعَ وَهُوَ شَهِيدٌ This is also why the Quran said to us, إِنَّ نَاشِئَةَ اللَّيْلِ هِيَ أَشَدُّ وَطْءًا Those night hours are prime time for concurrence. That's when the notifications and the interruptions die down.

**[9:34]** So it's prime time for concurrence, meaning what? For the tongue to concur with the heart. That's the idea. Because in Tadabbur, it is not really about you stopping at an ayah.

**[9:49]** It is about you opening your heart wide for an ayah to stop you. That's what you're looking for. And so this undivided attention component is central to that. May Allah Azza wa Jal help us incorporate some of it.

**[10:05]** والله تعالى أعلم. وصلى الله وسلم وبارك على نبينا محمد وعلى آله وصحبه أجمعين.

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