A summary of the concepts held by the Ahl al-Sunnah.
The guidance of the salaf regarding how to engage with the Qur'an.
The Companions of the Prophet, peace and blessings of Allah be upon him, did not
limit their engagement with the Qur'an
to merely establishing the rules of its recitation,
nor to simply understanding its meanings and reflecting upon them.
Rather, they added to all of that
a commitment to acting upon what it contains.
This is the methodology by which the Qur'an becomes
a guide for a person in their conduct toward Allah.
Ibn Mas'ud said:
"When a man among us would learn ten verses,
he would not move past them until he knew
their meanings and how to act upon them."
And Abdullah Ibn Umar said:
"We lived for a period of time, and one of us
would be granted faith before the Qur'an.
He would read a surah to Muhammad, peace and blessings of Allah be upon him,
and we would learn its lawful and unlawful matters,
its commands and its prohibitions,
and where one ought to pause within it,
just as one of you learns a surah today.
Yet I have seen men who are granted
the Qur'an before faith;
he reads it from its beginning to its end,
not knowing its lawful or unlawful matters,
nor its commands or its prohibitions,
nor where one ought to pause within it,
scattering it about like the scattering of poor-quality dates."