I was about 20 years and I absolutely, head over heels, fell in love…
I went into a Masjid in Ramadan. I heard a remarkable scholar explaining the Quran. I had not read the Quran, except in translation before that day. I heard him speak about the Quran in the form of almost a conversation. You know in the Quran Allah (swt) is speaking to us directly. I felt this direct speech of our Lord for the first time. The scholar was doing this every night of Ramadan for about 4 hours at a stretch. He went through the entire Quran in this fashion.
I attended this entire series with him because I was hooked completely; I was mesmerized by this Book. I was completely overwhelmed. I didn’t have any clue… any idea about what this Book was. This Book was always there and I always thought I had read something from it or some translation; I felt I had an idea about what it says or what it has to say. But when I heard what it really has to say for the first time, I felt that there’s like this person in it… there’s this Book that I love so much and I have no relationship with it.
Of course the barriers were many including the knowledge of it, and even the language. I had no idea what the Arabic language was. Not a single clue!
You know what was the only thing that I could do at that time? It was to make Dua!
I just asked Allah (swt) something very simple. I didn’t even know how to ask it in Arabic or anything. I didn’t know any Dua by heart.
I asked Allah (swt): “O Allah! I love Your Book. I love Your Book! I’d love nothing more than to learn it and to teach it! Just make it easy for me to learn it. And make it easy for me to teach it because I love Your Book!”
That’s all I asked and I swear to you by Allah (swt)! I am a terrible student of anything; I am absolutely horrendous specially in learning languages.
I was not a good student in college. I used to hate studying. You know if I ever had sleep problems, the easiest way for me to catch some sleep was to open up a text book and ten seconds later… apathy would lead me to the world of dreams.
I’d have 12 hours of solid sleep because nothing would knock me out like studying. Luckily the teacher, who was presenting the Quran, also happened to be taking an Arabic class. When I attended his class, it was like knots opening up. I couldn’t stop studying. I couldn’t put the books down. I couldn’t stop thinking about it. I was doing like conjugations and going through grammar in my sleep. I was studying it in the train. I was doing it at work, at school, all the time!
I just became obsessed with it. What people around me found so difficult, Allah (swt) made it so easy for me. I knew something had just happened. Allah (swt) had given me a gift in response to my Dua. I tell you: to this day, if I try to study anything else I have a hard time. But when I study Quran, I can spend hours and hours and hours – and it’s easy for me.
Alhumdulillah! It’s a gift of Allah (swt) to me. But this was something that I had personally experienced in terms of the power of the Dua.
Original transcription courtesy www.nakcollection.com; edited by hiba’s team with permission.
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