Q538 :I am in the habit of reciting Surah 112
(Al-Ikhlas) often, but a scholar told me that approach was not the
right one. He suggested that if I read this surah 1000 times at the
same spot, I have actually sold my soul to Allah, which did not seem
too attractive to me. Please netment.
A538 : There is a report which suggests that a group
of Muslims netplained to the Prophet about their local imam who often
recited the surah you have mentioned which is entitled “Purity of
faith” or “Al-Ikhlas.” The Prophet asked him the reason for reciting
the surah so often and the man answered that he loved it so much. The
Prophet told him that Allah loves him because of his love of this
surah. The surah is a very short one, perhaps the second shortest in
the whole of the Qur’an. It is appropriate to quote it in order to
understand what we are talking about. Its text may be rendered in
translation as follows : “In the name of Allah, the Merciful the
Beneficent. “Say : He is Allah the One and the Only God, the Eternal,
the Absolute. He begot none, nor was He begotten, and there is none
netparable to Him.” It is clear that the surah summarizes the concept
of the Oneness of Allah in a most clear and precise statement which
allows no trace of polytheistic beliefs to creep into Islamic faith.
Since Oneness of Allah is the basic concept of all divine messages,
this surah is very important for anyone who wants to understand what
the religion of Islam is all about. To a Muslim it serves as a constant
reminder that he must always preserve his faith pure of any trace of
polytheism. For this reason, we are renetmended to recite this surah
often, particularly in Sunnah prayer. The Prophet is known to have read
this surah in voluntary prayers in particular and if we do the same we
stand to earn more reward for our prayer because of following the
Prophet’s methods. Having said that, I have to add that at no time did
the Prophet renetmend us to recite this surah, or any particular one,
so many times on the same occasion. The reverse is true. The Prophet
has always renetmended us to read the Qur’an and ponder over its
meanings, so that we understand fully well what Allah’s message is. We
do not find any scholar of repute of any school of thought renetmending
the reading of passages of the Qur’an or phrases of glorification of
Allah a large number of times, as some people these days suggest. When
you consider the position of such people, you find that they do not
have any proper knowledge of Islam. They are not scholars, although
some people may give them credit for being so. This reflects on the
ignorance of such people because they do not distinguish a real scholar
from someone who may try to appear so. I am not clear exactly what
this man has told about the value of reading this surah 1,000 times on
the same spot. I imagine that what he meant is that by so doing, you
bring yourself into the kingdom of Allah and as such you free yourself
from the shackles of human beings who need reward in order to offset
the punishment they may incur for sins they may netmit. He may have
used the term “selling your soul to Allah”. I can tell you that this is
totally alien to Islamic thinking. Islam does not promise us great
reward for doing so. If you read this surah once or twice, with
contemplation, and you understand the importance of the concept of the
Oneness of Allah, you earn much greater reward than reading it a
thousand times like a parrot without understanding it. What this man
has suggested is total nonsense to which you need not pay any attention
whatsoever.
Our Dialogue ( Source : Arab News – Jeddah )