In the name of God most merciful, most compassionate

In the introduction to this collection, and the first part of the series, I went into some depth on the nature of the Qur’an, and what we can extrapolate from it about the universe as a whole.

Before I continue this examination of the nature of the Holy Qur’an, and the secrets that we might, by God’s will, be able to begin to glimpse, I think it would be best to first take a step back, and look at how we can apply the general notion, of a heightened perception of what the Qur’an truly is- towards our readings of it, our prayers, our supplications and our general worship- whether it is within this Ramadan that we are now eight days into, or well beyond that still.

I will, God-willing, outline in this article what, in some sense, we are able to use the rest of the musings from this blog towards achieving: greater surety, and thus greater piety, worship, serenity and nour, in this life and for the next, insha’Allah.

These particular reflections, in some sense, are personal ones, which I have discovered over the years, and which have seen a great deal of success for me on a personal level, allowing me to heighten my worship of God and my connection to Him, in the times that I have successfully applied them.

These methods, which God-willing I will outline in this post today, stem from precisely those reflections I have begun to ponder upon in my previous posts in this series, in the sense that I came to the realisations of today’s post on the basis of realising the depth of the nature of the Qur’an and what it is- exactly the topic I that have started to touch upon in my other posts thus far.

In some senses, to be able to achieve these steps one must have a firmness of faith in their heart, so as to be able to feel with certainty and burning faith the truths below, and to hold to them truly and thus use them to elevate worship.

For this reason, the rest of the work I have begun, and hope to continue, in this blog, on the nature of the Qur’an initially, and on its Truth in general, serves as the intellectual basis for these methods of which I will speak, the underpinning source of inner knowledge that leads to heightened worship.

This need not mean that these guidelines cannot be followed by themselves, towards achieving a greater piety and a greater serenity- but to me, at least, they are most effective when they are underpinned by a certain surety of foot and certainty of mind. To some degree, the rest of the work on this blog is aimed towards achieving this, and it is my hope that even for those who find these steps difficult, will find them God-willing easier upon reading more of the material that I yearn to produce and re-produce on these pages.

And even to those who have achieved this surety, and no doubt the many who have achieved piety far and beyond my own by many measures- even to them, I must note that these methods are something that has worked for me, and has heightened my faith, piety and worship- and I merely post them in the hope that it might set others upon the same path I have trod, though I cannot in any way guarantee the success of this method, nor can I truly claim this to be some truth that is universal for all.

My hope, therefore, is that I can at the very least set others upon a similar path to that I have taken myself- even if it is never necessarily identical, and will necessarily be taken, by each individual, in their own way.

All they need to do, to begin- is to open their hearts to God, and to ask for light, guidance and piety.

1. Praying to God with an Open Heart for Taqwa & Guidance

And so that is precisely the first point, and the first step towards achieving this elevated state of worship and connection– and Salah, the Arabic word for prayer, means literally that: a connection, which is made with God- and so the five prayers a day are, then, our deepest, and most pervasive connection to our Lord and Creator.

But, in order to heighten this connection, to truly feel its depth, and to feel the fullest benefits of it, it is my opinion that the first thing any who seek to achieve these ends- is to pray. To make dua’a, from the bottoms of their hearts, that God guide them to serenity, and piety, and faith, and connection.

This can be initiated at any moment, and often, once you put it in your mind, seems to come by itself- without even planning it, after a raka’a of prayer, you may find yourself supplicating to God, opening your heart and praying that He open it further, and guide you to further piety and light.

Nor say of anything, “I shall be sure to do so and so tomorrow”-

Without adding, “So please Allah!” and call thy Lord to mind when thou forgettest, and say, “I hope that my Lord will guide me ever closer (even) than this to the right road.”

{Al-Kahf, 18-23:24}

This is the first, and in truth, the most crucial step. Do not think that you will be capable of reaching any degree of piety and earnest and peace in prayer, without first asking your Lord for it, with an open heart.

Nor is there any guarantee that it will work, the first time round, or the second, or the third. But we can only keep praying, each time asking for it, begging from our Lord for this guidance and light, knowing that each time we ask, we are surely nearer to it, and nearer, insha’Allah, to God.

Whether in the midst of our sujood, our prostration, or after we have completed a prayer, or whenever the thought strikes into our mind, we turn our attention to God and bend our mind to ask with our fullest earnest, that we be guided to truth, and to be given Guidance by Him. And if we do so, insha’Allah, God will answer us, if He so pleaseth.

Indeed, I think there is something to be said for the importance of this first point, that if done properly, there may not even be need to read further along this list, for the best of Guidance comes from God, and if He blesses you with it then you are in need of no guidance of any other kind.

But I present all the same the following approaches that I have been guided to myself, in the hope that they may make the journey for others easier- and indeed, much of these approaches and mindsets itself comes from advice I myself have read- guidance from God need not come in the form of unspoken inspiration, but rather often guidance comes in the form of us being guided by God to the words of others that might aid us on our quests.

2.(a). Bearing Near in Mind the Closeness & Presence of God

We believe in God with all our hearts. We believe He is there, we believe He created us and we believe that to Him is our return. To the very core of our essence, and by God’s grace, we believe this.

But from our worldly, earthly, mortal standpoint- it can be very difficult to keep this in mind, to keep it at the forefront of our mind, and the forefront of our hearts. We cannot see God, subhanahou wa ta’aala, with our eyes. But we can, in our hearts, and with his permission, feel His presence, if we hold on, in our minds, to His closeness.

When My servants ask you about Me, then (tell them that) I am near. I respond to the call of one when he prays to Me; so they should respond to Me, and have faith in Me, so that they may be on the right path.

{Al-Baqara, 2-186}

After praying to Him to guide us, I believe this is the second most important part in achieving this piety and serenity in prayer.

We can, as we recite the Qur’an in our prayer, keep at the front of our mind how close God is, even if our human eyes cannot see him. We can bear in mind that these are His words that we are reading, and that he hears us, he hears our recitations and hears our words.

When we press our foreheads to the ground, we can keep the thought in our mind, that we are not merely performing a physical action- but we are, in this act of sujood, submitting ourselves entirely to God.

As we make our prayer, our supplication, our dua’a, as we sit after our prayer, we can bear in mind that these words are being heard by Him, that He is near, and that He hears us, and will answer us, insha’Allah, in one way or another.

We know this in our hearts, but we must also keep it in our minds at all times.

It can truly change everything about our recital of Qur’an, our prayer, and our dua’a. It can be the difference between perfunctory performance, and the truest worship, the deepest connection with our Lord and Creator.

Bear it always in mind: your words are being heard, your Qur’an is being heard, and your prayers are being witnessed- and if you do so, you will see what difference this can bring to your worship.

2.(b). Submitting to God: Surrendering Ourselves in the Sajdah

Islam is submission– to God almighty. Therefore, when we bear in mind the closeness of God, the next step is to take this chance, to submit to Him, whilst we are aware of His presence.

In prayer, the easiest way to achieve this submission is in the sajdah, while we are prostrate, our foreheads planted upon the ground. This is no mere physical action, but a highly symbolic one- it is the act of fully surrendering ourselves to God, and it is not merely a physical act, but a spiritual and mental act. Thus, when we are in the sajdah, and aware of the nearness of God- we must then also perform sujud in our hearts, as well as with our bodies, and bow to our Creator with our minds as well as our heads.

Once we are aware of His presence, we can fully submit to ourselves to Him, whilst knowing that He is watching, and that He is near. In doing this, we are performing one of the greatest acts of worship, and we are performing it as perfectly as we can.

Submission, and in the sajdah especially, means letting go of any notion that we are able to achieve anything by ourselves, without the aid of God. It means accepting, completely and totally, in our hearts, that our entire lives are in the hands of God, and so is our death. It is accepting that we are entirely His, and to Him is our return. It is not just speaking the words, nor performing the prostration- but it is our complete surrender to Him, that brings us closest to him than we are ever able to be in any other position.

When our heads are bowed upon the floor and our eyes closed and lost in darkness- and as we keep firm in our minds that God is truly there, and witnesses our worship- it is then, I believe, that we are somewhere near the closest that we can be to our Lord, and one of the times that it is easiest to feel His presence, should he bless us with it.

Righteousness is not (merely) that you turn your faces to the East and the West; but righteousness is that one believes in Allah and the Last Day and the angels and the Book and the Prophets, and gives wealth, despite (his) love for it, to relatives, and to orphans, the helpless,the wayfarer, and to those who ask, and (spends) in (freeing) slaves and observes the Salāh (prayers) and pays Zakah-and (the act of) those who fulfill their covenant when they enter into a covenant, and, of course, those who are patient in hardship and suffering and when in battle! Those are the ones who are truthful, and those are the God – fearing.

{Al-Baqara, 2-177}

The act of prostration is not just a matter of bowing our bodies- but submitting our souls. It is not too different to the Romantic notion of the Sublime- that which is just beyond human comprehension, so awesome and awe-inspiring and grand and enormous that we are not able to fully grasp it, without shrinking away from it. Indeed, authors who spoke of the Sublime spoke of coming near to it, then drawing away, as our minds tire from attempting to comprehend it- then coming again near it in another trial of comprehension. So too can the sajdah often feel- the first, and then the second- we come as near as we can to our Lord, and must retreat to give our minds rest from the power that lies in even coming a step nearer to His presence, before we go down again, and nearer to Him still, if He so wills it.

3(a). Bearing Near in mind the Nature of the Words of the Qur’an & Their Divine Origin

We can, secondly, not only bear in mind the presence of God Himself, but also in a similar vein, bear in mind the nature of the Qur’an itself. This is the heart of the discussion of this series, on the Truth of the Qur’an, and this is how we can apply these musings and ruminations to our prayers.

When we read the Qur’an, if we have come to be too accustomed to doing so, and from a young age, we can easily slip into forgetting just how miraculous what we are reading is.

For the fuller discussion on the various ways in which these words are more than just words, see the other parts of this series so far (Introduction, Part 1), as well as the parts yet to come, insha’Allah.

What we need to know, for now, though, is one thing: the Qur’an is from God, and it is the Word of God.

With truth We have sent it (the Qur’ān) down and with truth it descended, and We did not send you but as a bearer of good tidings and as a warner.

{Al-Isra’a, 17-105}



This core fact is sufficient to bear in mind, to be able to feel the grandness, the wonder, of what we read. Just as in the previous section I spoke of how it is easy to forget the nearness of God, so too here, it is easy to forget that the words we read are not just any words.

No- they are the words of God, and we must bear this in mind with every Ayah, word and letter we read. Each time we speak them, reciting aloud or in our hearts, we must bear in mind that what we speak is directly from God- it is sacred beyond anything else we have in this world, special beyond any other book or words we have read.

These very words, from their first Revelation, have echoed throughout history, and will continue to echo until the end of time- and well beyond that.

The same words God sent with the angel Gabriel, the same words Gabriel spoke to the Prophet Muhammad, the same words the Prophet spoke and taught to his people- we now speak them too, and in doing so, we are connected in the deepest, most special manner to our Creator.

This, we must bear in mind whilst we read- we are speaking the words of God, and He is witness to our every utterance.

Just as we keep in our minds the nearness of God when we pray, so too we keep in our minds the truth of His words when we recite them- and so we might feel the deepest, most sublime of connections in our worship, insha’Allah.

3(b). Submitting to God while Reciting Qur’an: Expelling All Doubt from our Minds

Islam is submission– to God, subhanahou wa ta’aala. And so just as I spoke above of the nearness of God, and then spoke of what it means to submit to His nearness- now, as I have spoken of the Truth of the Qur’an, let me say a little on what it means to submit to the Truth of the Qur’an.

As we read from the Qur’an, we might ask ourselves: what does it mean to be reading from the Words of God?

It means, above all, that we cannot cast doubts as we read, but instead cannot but accept that each and every word in this Book was placed there by God, and placed for a reason.

It means accepting the words of the Qur’an whatever they might be, and for whatever they might be, and whatever they might mean.

Once we fully accept in our hearts, that these are the words of God, it becomes an utter folly to keep a running narrative, even if it is deep in the back of our minds, asking ourselves what did God mean by this?, asking why did God speak of this? and why did He speak of it in this way?, and why did He command this?

Indeed, Allah does not feel shy in citing any parable, be it that of a gnat or of something above it (in meanness). Now, as for those who believe, they know it is the truth from their Lord; while those who disbelieve say, “What could Allah have meant by this parable?” By this He lets many go astray, and by this He makes many find guidance. But He does not let anyone go astray thereby except those who are sinful

{Al-Baqara, 2–26}

To question, in of itself, is not wrong. Indeed, it is not right to accept without question- for those who accepted without question were those who remained upon the path of their fathers, who would not use their minds to seek for the truth.

To seek the truth is something that is encouraged by the Qur’an, and to accept with our minds and the full conviction of our hearts is not the same as to accept blindly and without question. Indeed, insha’Allah in the coming posts on this blog I will be posting and positing many questions- and looking for their answers.

But these questions must be conducted consciously, and with the intention of finding the truth wherever it lies- not wherever our minds might want it to lie. We must seek therefore not the answers we wish, but the truth of what God intended, as far as we are able to see it. When we seek answers in this way, holding faith in our hearts but seeking to understand that which might first seem impossible for our minds to understand- we may then find our answers, God-willing.

But such questions must be conducted in isolation. What this means, in effect, is that these questions should not run through our heads each and every time we read from the Qur’an- each time we are presented with a comparison wondering what could God have meant by this parable?, second-guessing each verse as it comes, wondering what was meant by it, wondering even, if we agree with it.

There is indeed a time for this kind of reflection, and I believe it is healthy and necessary to fully appreciate the wonder and Divinity of the Qur’an. Indeed, I think it is a familiar experience to so many Muslims, of those who have sought to seek answers and to understand the Qur’an as much as they are able to- to have questions arise, about various verses, to wonder as to their meaning, to wonder what the wisdom behind them is- even, in some cases, to wonder what part they have in the Revelation, or to have the straying of the shaytaan into their heart pose still further questions than these.

But those who are familiar with these experiences, are also familiar with how they end: with all doubt expelled, with all questions answered, so long as their answers are sought after with pure intentions. I know this has been the case for me- any question that has arisen, has, through prayer, research, reading and soul-searching, been met with a decisive and resounding answer.

Well then- once this answer has been given to us, why do we still let our minds stray and return to asking the same questions which we have had answered before, to our heart’s complete content?

Because we are weak, and prone to question.

We have explained in detail in this Qur’an, for the benefit of mankind, every kind of similitude: but man is, in most things, contentious.

{Al-Kahf, 18-54}

But we have also been blessed with strength, and no soul bears a burden beyond that which it is able to overcome.

On no soul doth Allah Place a burden greater than it can bear. It gets every good that it earns, and it suffers every ill that it earns. (Pray:) “Our Lord! Condemn us not if we forget or fall into error; our Lord! Lay not on us a burden Like that which Thou didst lay on those before us; Our Lord! Lay not on us a burden greater than we have strength to bear. Blot out our sins, and grant us forgiveness. Have mercy on us. Thou art our Protector; Help us against those who stand against faith.”

{Al-Baqara, 2-286}

And so we have, as a surety, the strength to overcome all these challenges.

Therefore, what this means for our recitals- when we are seeking the deepest serenity and piety- is that we must be conscious of these habits that our minds sometimes resort to. And we must hold them at bay.

When we recite from the Holy Qur’an, the best recital is from the purest heart, that does not seek to stop at every verse, and apply its own understanding to it- but rather, which remains open to each word.

And the key to this, are points 2(a) and 3(a): bearing in mind that these are the words of God, and that He is close and hears our recitations.

Once we have accepted this in our hearts, and kept it close to our minds, how can we ever read from the Qur’an and let our minds stray and pull away?

This is the Word of God- so how can we ever feel like we know better what He says? We cannot. But we must always remind ourselves of this, when our minds stray from its truth.

The Qur’an from which we read is from a realm beyond ours- and its words come from our Creator. Whatever its words might be- so long as we are Muslims, and we accept them as the truth- then let us accept their every letter, and their every meaning, and let us submit ourselves to them, and let us surrender the impossibly greater knowledge and wisdom of our Creator, and let us thus know the truth of the universe from He who knows it best.

Once we have mastered bearing this all in mind, spreading our metaphysical arms and bearing in them these various notions, holding them all together close to our bosoms- then we can read from the Qur’an in the purest manner: with open ears and open hearts, accepting the Truth that is beyond any truth we ourselves are able to glean alone, but instead letting the Divine word wash over us and cleanse us.

Once you have read from the Qur’an in this way, it becomes painfully clear how different this manner of recitation is to the one you may have been used to before- how much more pious, how much more enriching, how warmer, how closer to God it brings you, if God so wills it.

Islam is submission- submission to God, and when we are able to truly submit to God and to every one of his words as we read from the Qur’an, we are closer than ever to taqwah and to khushou’ou.

Closing Words

This, then, is a set of examples- no doubt, among many- of how we can apply our musings and reflections on the Qur’an and its nature, God, and Islam as a whole- and use them not only to elevate and stimulate our minds- or elevate our faith- but also, to elevate our worship of God, and bring us peace of mind and heart on earth, and God-willing, a greater bounty still beyond.

We pray to God to grant us light and guidance.

We keep in mind how near He is to us, and that He sees us and our prayer- and when doing so, we submit ourselves fully to Him, knowing without him we are naught, and that He is our Creator and Master.

And as we read from the Qur’an, we keep in mind that it is- as we have seen time and time again- the Truth, and the Word of God, and thus that what we recite is not human, but Divine- and as we do so, we submit again to God and to His every Word, and we ease our minds from their work during recitation, and instead allow for the light of the Words to wash over us with the meaning it truly holds- and not that that our minds would affix to it.

And in doing so, if God wills it, we might be thus a step closer to taqwah, and mayhaps even too, a step aqraba rashada– but only so if we pray to God to guide us so.