Understanding

You know, all around the world you can find Muslim children being taught to read the Qur'an, in schools, in mosques, and in their homes.

And wherever you go in the world, it is always the same words that they are reading.

But for many of those Muslims the Qur'an sounds very different to the way they speak to each other.

The Qur'an is in a language called "Arabic".

Now, because most people find learning to read much easier than learning a new language,

lots of those Muslims don't bother to learn what the words of the Qur'an mean.

They know that the Qur'an is precious,

so they learn how to say the sounds,

but they don't understand the words that they are speaking.

They forget that what is precious is the meaning of the words,

not just the way they sound.

But the whole of the world of Islam has been built on and shaped by the meaning of the words of the Qur'an.

So perhaps the most important thing a Muslim will ever learn is the meaning of the Qur'an.

After all, a parrot can learn to repeat words in Arabic,

but it takes a human to understand their meaning.

And let's face it, learning things like a parrot can get very boring,

while learning about what everything means is much more interesting, exciting and fun.

Now, how is it possible for the Qur'an to be fun,

when most Muslims seem to take it so very seriously?

Well, just because you take something seriously doesn't mean that you can't enjoy it.

Muhammad the Messenger was said to be like "the Qur'an walking",

and he was known as the most laughing and smiling of men.

Putting the Qur'an at the very centre of your life should make you happy,

which is one of the reasons why the Qur'an is so important.

There are things which make us laugh, like games and jokes,

which are funny but not very important,

and we can forget about them straight away.

Or there are things like sweets that make us happy for a moment,

with a happiness that vanishes almost as soon as those things are gone.

Then there are other things that make us happy, but are important to us all the time,

like being fit and healthy, or the way our families love and care for us.

Sometimes, because they are there all the time, we forget which things are really the most important.

So kids will fight with their parents just to get a bar of chocolate,

and people everywhere do things that they think make them happy,

but which are actually bad for them,

and can even make them ill.

But when someone or something is really important to us

we usually try to behave in a special, more careful way.

If a person is special to us we try to act in a way that pleases them rather than ourselves.

And if a thing is precious to us we keep it clean and safe,

and don't just leave it lying around with old rubbish.

We call that treating people and things with Respect.

So it is with the Qur'an.

Muslims treat the Qur'an in a way that reminds them just how precious it is,

and just as we show good manners to people we respect,

so we have good manners we use with the Qur'an.

In Arabic, such good manners are known as "Adab".

The Adab of the Qur'an is about Purification,

which means keeping ourselves clean when we speak the words

as well as protecting the pages on which those precious words are written.

The Adab of the Qur'an means we treat the Qur'an with the Respect that we owe to the most important words ever spoken,

knowing that these words come to us from the One [Hu] made us all.

So we give the Qur'an Respect,

and also that special kind of Respect that we call Reverence,

full of the love and wonder we feel when we are near those people and things that we call holy.

But what is it about the Qur'an that is so precious?

How is it useful, and what can we learn from it?

Well, this world can be very puzzling for people.

We are born, we live our lives, and then we die,

and the most important thing to learn in all that time is what our lives are for.

Why are we living in this world, and what is the best way for us to spend our time here?

Now some people think that we have to work these things out for ourselves,

like a game that we are trying to play without knowing the rules,

or something we need to put together but have no instructions.

But that would be pretty silly,

if God just made us and then left us to work everything out for ourselves.

So God gave humans the Qur'an

to help them understand the way the world works,

and the way for us for us to play our part in it.

The Qur'an is sent to guide us,

and those who follow its guidance find peace and happiness in this life and the life to come.

And the people who know this are the luckiest people in the world.

They are the Muslims.

For just like a well gives us water that quenches our thirst and helps us to survive,

the Qur'an is a well of knowledge to satisfy our thirst for understanding,

showing us the meaning of our lives.

What do we mean when we say the words that make us Muslim?

What do we know about the words Muslims use to begin things?