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This is a funny (but sad) incident I
read some time last year... It was included in a paragraph that spoke
about understanding the Qur'an, need for tadabbur etc.
Abu
'Uthman al-Jahidh narrates: Yahya ibn Ja'far informed me of an
incident saying,
'I used to have
a neighbour from the people of Faris (Persia) who would weep the
whole night through (in prayer). One night I was woken up by his
weeping and loud cries, he was sighing and hitting his head and chest
- repeating only one verse from the Book of Allah. When I saw what he
was going through, I said to myself, 'Indeed, I must hear this verse
that's killing him and that has driven away my sleep!' So I listened
in on him and behold he was reciting the verse;
وَيَسْأَلُونَكَ
عَنِ الْمَحِيضِ قُلْ هُوَ أَذًى
"They
ask you concerning menstruation. Say: that is an Adha*... "
[al-Baqarah 2: 222]
[Dumoo' al-Qurra]
... Just goes
to show the importance of actually understanding what we recite!
---------------
*Adha (a harmful thing for a husband to have a sexual intercourse with his wife while she is having her menses), [taken from Muhsin Khan's translation of the meaning of the Qur'an (2:222)]
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