Maintaining Proper Manners with the Qur’an, and Forgetting the Qur’an

Walaikum assalam wa rahmatullah,

The outward legal obligation is simply:

a) not to recite the Qur’an in a state of major ritual impurity (i.e. anything requiring a ritual bath [ghusl]); and

b) not to touch the Qur’an directly in a state of even minor ritual impurity (i.e. when one requires ritual ablution [wudu]).

The inward legal obligation is:

a) to believe that the Qur’an is the Word of God;

b) to submit to its Commands and to seek to learn and follow its guidance;

c) to love, respect, and venerate it, for the above.

The proprieties (adab) mentioned by the scholars are recommended matters, understood from the guidance of Allah and His Beloved Messenger Muhammad (Allah bless him and give him peace), that are a means to fulfill these inward obligations, because ‘the outward is a sign of the inward.’

Imam Qurtubi: Etiquettes of Reading and Handling the Qur’an al-Kareem

Prophetic Guidance Regarding the Excellence of Reciting the Qur’an (from Imam Nawawi’s Gardens of the Righteous)

Reciting the Qur’an while Busy

And Allah alone gives success.

Wassalam,

Faraz Rabbani