Introduction to The Human Manual

Understanding the messages in the Qur’an for the common man

Welcome to “The Human Manual” – Finding Guidance from the Holy Qur’an. Let’s embark on a journey trying to find the purpose of life. Questioning who has the ultimate rights of determining right from wrong. Searching for the True God. Wanting to be guided by God Himself.

Most people will not bother to ask oneself what is the purpose of being alive. They just follow what society does. When there is a problem in life, most will fall into depression and started thinking that life is meaningless. If a person believed in God and knows why God created him, then he has a purpose in being alive even though society think nothing of him. Most materialistic people will be conscious of what people think of him and he will put on a show that he is better than the next person while belittling a person that he is jealous of. This person does not understand the purpose of life.

A product created by human, eg. the Washing Machine, will come with a manual on how to operate the device correctly. If you keep doing it incorrectly, it will destroy the device.
The Quran is a manual for human to refer to. If human keep doing the opposite of what the Quran has stated, it will make human being becoming a miserable species.
The goal of the Quran is to guide people towards achieving Taqwa and the result is Jannah, Paradise for eternity.

The Clear Quran

[Quran 54:40]
"And We have certainly made the Quran easy to remember. So is there anyone who will be mindful?"

Allah made the Qur’an easy for remembrance. Easy for remembering Allah and remembering the Deen. Easy to get advice from it.

However, someone engaging in deep learning of the Quran will find that it is not that simple. He has to put lots of effort to learn everything about the Quran. Allah never said it is simple. But Allah said it is clear. Just like a professor who wrote lots of mathematical formula on the whiteboard. Those formulas were not easy to derive, but the students found his solutions and teachings clear. Clarity is when something make sense. A complicated thing is easy when you find clarity. 

The scholars writing Tafseer of the Qur’an is not easy. But when we read the Tafseer, it is easy for us to understand clearly the guidance. Humanity has complex problems. The Qur’an addresses those problems with solutions that are clear.

Seeking Allah's protection against Syaithan

Before reciting the Qur’an, we do not want Syaithan to corrupt our intention, therefore we recite the “Ta’awuz”
أَعُوذُ بِاللَّهِ مِنَ الشَّيْطَانِ الرَّجِيمِ
“I seek refuge from Allah against the evils of Syaithan (satan/devil), the accursed (pelted).”

Reciting Taáwuz before reciting any part of the Quran is a command from Allah:

[al-Nahl 16:98]
“So when you want to recite the Qur’an, seek refuge with Allah from Shaytaan (Satan), the outcast (the cursed one)” 

This shows how important it is to recite the Taáwuz. Syaithan will try to stop or deviate you from the Qur’an. He will not want to see a person getting guidance from God.

The word "a-uuzu" أَعُوذُ = seeking protection from the unseen. The kind of protection that will only come from Allah since it involves the unseen world. We do not use this word with physical help such as calling the Police against robbers, etc. 

The next word after "a-uuzu" (I seek refuge) is mentioning the Protector and it must be Allah. Some deviant people are using "A'uzu" to other than Allah. Seeking help from the unseen Jinn.

[Surah Jinn: 6]
وَأَنَّهُۥ كَانَ رِجَالٌۭ مِّنَ ٱلْإِنسِ يَعُوذُونَ بِرِجَالٍۢ مِّنَ ٱلْجِنِّ فَزَادُوهُمْ رَهَقًۭا

"And some men used to seek refuge with some jinn—so they increased each other in wickedness."

Ibn Abbas (R.A) in commenting on this ayah said that the Arabs during the time of Jahiliyyah when in fear while camping at night, will call out loudly to the leader of the resident Jinn in the valley, that he is seeking refuge with the Jinn. This will increase the arrogance of the Jinn syaithan. This is "Shirk" (associating partners with Allah). 

Syaithan will not only seek to disturb us in our religious affairs but also in our worldly affairs. They do not want anything good to a human. He wants to see a person to have a miserable and wretched life.

What is Syaithan?

The word "Syaithan" is an attribute of being far removed. Far removed from righteousness and piety. It is not a specific individual Jinn. It is a generic term to label anyone that has this evil and devilic behavior. The head Syaithan is Iblis. The rest of the  Syayateen are of the Jinn and Men having similar attribute.   

[Surah An-Naas: 6]  مِنَ ٱلْجِنَّةِ وَٱلنَّاسِ
"(Syaithan) From the Jinn and humankind"

The word "Ar-Rajeem" الرَّجِيمِ = is describing the "cursed" action of Syaithan that deserved to be pelted at. It is an adjective describing Syaithan's action.

Additional Ta'awuz

The Quran teaches additional wordings in seeking refuge from Syaithan:

[Surah Fussilat: 36]
وَإِمَّا يَنزَغَنَّكَ مِنَ ٱلشَّيْطَـٰنِ نَزْغٌۭ فَٱسْتَعِذْ بِٱللَّهِ ۖ إِنَّهُۥ هُوَ ٱلسَّمِيعُ ٱلْعَلِيمُ
"And if you are tempted by Satan, then seek refuge with Allah. Indeed, He ˹alone˺ is the All-Hearing, All-Knowing."

Deriving from the above ayah, the Sunnah is to recite this du'a:
أَعُوذُ بِاللَّهِ السَّمِيعِ الْعَلِيمِ مِنَ الشَّيْطَانِ الرَّجِيمِ مِنْ هَمْزِهِ، وَنَفْخِهِ، وَنَفْثِهِ

"I seek refuge with Allah, the All-Hearing, the All-Knowing, from the accursed Satan, from his spurs (poking), blowing and puffs (spits)"

We invoked the attribute of Allah "The All-Hearing and All-Knowing" since this is disturbance from the unseen world. Protection from the "whispering" of Syaithan that we do not physically hear but the "Was Was" (whispering) goes into our heart. Only Allah hears what the Syaithan is doing and able to give the protection that we need.

Hence we are acknowledging our weakness in front of Allah when we are reciting this du'a. We internalize the meaning of this du'a while sincerely seeking His protection. No harm can befall upon us except with the permission of Allah.

The tactics of Syaithan

Here is a brief list of the tactics of Syaithan, eg:

• To forget - When we forget to act upon anything good that we have intended to do, that is from Syaithan.
  [Surah Al-Kahfi:63]
  He (the servant of Musa a.s) replied, “Do you remember when we rested by the rock? ˹That is when˺ I forgot the fish. None made me forget to mention this except Satan. And the fish made its way into the sea miraculously.” 

• Sleepiness/ Laziness - When you have the intention of doing something but is hindered by feeling sleepy and weak, that is from Syaithan. When we seek refuge in Allah, we will be more energetic.

• To feel scared or sad more than what is natural - When any normal person does not react in fear or sadness the way that you behave. High anxiety that overtakes you when others are generally calm.
  Humanly fear is normal such as fear of an unchained Tiger in front of you, fear of earthquake shaking your home, etc. What is not normal is when you are overly in fear of the future, overly fear of a job interview, overly fear of getting married, etc.
  When we seek refuge in Allah, we will be optimistic.

• Procrastination is from Syaithan. Syaithan wants you to not do anything and loose everything. When we seek refuge in Allah, we will become more engrossed in what we are doing.

• Was-Was, Syaitan's whispering - Eg. Disgusting thoughts that come from no where and appears in your mind. Sometimes you day dream. In normal situation, you will not be thinking of those. Syaithan entices you to think of those fantasy or evil action. He has no power to physically force you to do it but he whispers and influence you to act sinfully. On the day of judgement, this is what Syaithan will say to those who followed him:

[Quran Surah Ibrahim: 22]
".. I did not have any authority over you. I only called you, and you responded to me. So do not blame me; blame yourselves.. " 

Please memorized the additional Ta'awuz that the Prophet s.a.w taught (as mentioned above).

When to recite the Ta'awuz

In summary, we recite the Ta'awuz when :
- before we recite the Qur'an
- when we are to start the Solah
- when we are in solah before reciting anything
- before we enter the toilet
- when we are angry
- when we are frightened or in fear
- when we inclined to do evil
- when we are at a new unfamiliar place, recite this:
أَعُوذُ بِكَلِمَاتِ اللهِ التَّامَّةِ مِنْ شَرِّ مَا خَلَقَ

“I seek refuge in the perfect words of Allah from the evil of what He has created.”

And Lastly: At anytime without any reason, we are allowed to recite the Ta'awuz for anything that may come from Syaithan without us realizing.

The Chosen Servant

[Quran Surah Al-Hijr: 39 - 40]
Satan responded, “My Lord! For allowing me to stray I will surely tempt them on earth and mislead them all together, except Your chosen servants among them.”

Syaithan is unable to influence Allah's "chosen slaves". Those who are piously righteous in worshiping Allah and doing good deeds.

We must work our way to become among Allah's chosen servant. One of the way is to always seek refuge in Allah from Syaithan (i.e, reciting the Ta'awuz). We must make our lives free from the influence of Syaithan as much as possible to realize the goal of going to a place where  there is not a single Syaithan, i.e Paradise. 

Pondering on the Ayaat of Allah

Reading Qur’an is to understand the messages. That is the purpose of this documentation. Syaithan does not fear people who read the Quran without understanding but fears those who read and understand the messages. That was why the Mushrikoon of Makkah will make loud noises when the Prophet s.a.w was reciting the Quran to other Arab tribes because they want to distract them from understanding what was being recited.

The Mushrikun will not bother the Prophet s.a.w reciting the Quran if the people listening are non Arabs who do not understand Arabic and are just enjoying the melody of the Quran.

Only by understanding and contemplation will the Qur’an change a person from being bad to being good. A person can recite the Qur’an for 20 years but has no change in his bad behaviour since all the years of recitation are without any understanding. 

Definition of "Reading"

If you read a magazine or newspaper, the purpose is to understand what you are reading. How about reading a Book containing the speeches of Allah? Most Muslims will just recite making sounds that they have no idea what they are reading. That is not the definition of "Reading". Non Muslims will find it weird. How can you read a book of a language that you do not understand?

Tafsir of the Quran

A Tafsir is a detailed technical explanation of every kalimah (word) and ayah (verse) of the Quran. Example, describing the root letters of a word, the tenses, the linguistic meaning, the context of the ayah, the history behind it and any other relevant sources to explain the Quranic messages. 

Scholars have put lots of effort in producing Tafsir upon Tafsir of the Quran. There were many ways on how the scholars wrote their Tafsirs. One scholar had compiled every word in the Quran into a dictionary of Quranic Arabic explaining each one of them:
Al-Mufradat fi Gharib al-Quran - A classical dictionary of Qur'anic terms by 11th-century Sunni Islamic scholar Al-Raghib al-Isfahani

Teaching and studying the Quran

[Sahih al-Bukhari 5027] Narrated `Uthman:
The Prophet (ﷺ) said, "The best among you (Muslims) are those who learn the Qur'an and teach it."

Learning and teaching is not only about recitation but more importantly is about understanding.

A good teacher is when students understand what is being taught using simple everyday examples. The aim is to get guidance (“huda, hidayah”). A bad teacher is when he is using bombastic words to impress people but nobody understands what he is teaching. 

A scientist will not be able to teach kindergarten kids as good as a kindy teacher will. The kindy teacher may not have the knowledge of the scientist but she can achieve much more with the kids.

The students in turn need to know the skills of learning. There is only so much a Teacher can teach but it is up to the student to personally know how to study.

> Increase in knowledge is not proportional to increase in “iman” (guided faith).
> Increase in sincerity is proportional to increase in guidance.

By only glorifying knowledge will lead you away from guidance.
By glorifying guidance is a start of getting both knowledge and guidance from your Master.

Qur’an as a Miracle to the last nation on earth

If you were with the Jews who saw the sea parted into two, you would be overwhelmed by that miracle. However we did not see this miracle. The Qur’an is an on-going miracle. Therefore the same feeling that was felt by the Jews during the time of Moses (a.s) should be experienced by the Muslims nowadays when reading the Qur’an.

Listen to the preserved divine speeches as it was originally revealed 1500 years ago = Click Surah al-Fatihah.  (If you fear to click it, it may mean that you already believed that it will have some power over you)

Virtues in Quran recitation

Refer to a list of Hadith on the Virtues of reciting Quran.
We need the Virtues from our deeds in order to add on our "Good" Scales on judgement day. Refer to the discussion on Scales of Justice.

Ayah and Surah

The Quran consists of 114 Surahs. The number of ayaat may vary a little from one printed Mushaf to the other. There were no addition or subtraction of ayaat but the slight difference is based on where an ayah starts and where it ends. 

You may refer to these pages = Ayaat and Surah for the full discussion.

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كِتَـٰبٌ فُصِّلَتۡ ءَايَـٰتُهُ ۥ قُرۡءَانًا عَرَبِيًّا لِّقَوۡمٍ يَعۡلَمُونَ

A Book whereof the ayaat are detailed (clear): an Arabic Quran: for a people who know
(Surah Fussilat – 41:3)

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