“A person once told me that he was so busy that he did not have any time for daily recitation of the Qur’an. I put the point to him that he did not possess a true appreciation of the Qur’an or a true sense of its importance. We all have countless things to do every day, yet if we can do them but not have time for the Qur’an, it is a sign that we do not give the Qur’an its due importance.
I advised the person to develop a sense of the Qur’an’s greatness in his heart by studying the ahadith pertaining to the status and virtues of the Qur’an. I then advised him to fix a definite time of day, bearing in mind his other commitments, solely for tilawah. He chose to do his tilawah after ‘Isha salah. I told him not to leave the masjid after ‘Isha without having completed his tilawah. Some time afterwards, I learned that he had become punctual in his tilawah.
I advised the person to develop a sense of the Qur’an’s greatness in his heart by studying the ahadith pertaining to the status and virtues of the Qur’an. I then advised him to fix a definite time of day, bearing in mind his other commitments, solely for tilawah. He chose to do his tilawah after ‘Isha salah. I told him not to leave the masjid after ‘Isha without having completed his tilawah. Some time afterwards, I learned that he had become punctual in his tilawah.
So we all need to do these two things: 1) realise the greatness of the Qur’an; 2) fix a time for daily tilawah and stick to it.
Beware of the tricks of the nafs in this regard; take the example of someone who, after reaching the masjid, has ten minutes in which he can engage in tilawah. He thinks to himself that ten minutes is insufficient to complete one juz, and his nafs persuades him to do his tilawah afterwards when he has enough time.
This is a trap, for the ‘afterwards’ promised by the nafs will never come! If he had made use of those ten minutes and recited as much as possible, he would have been well on his way to completing his daily tilawah. By following the devious nafs he deprived himself completely of any tilawah.
Treat your nafs as you would your child: without fixing a time every day for your child to attend maktab to study, he/she will not be able to learn. Similarly, without forcing your nafs to do certain things at certain times, you will not get it to do what you want.”
