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If you want to identify with the spirit of the Qur’aan, you must practically involve [yourself] with the struggle to fulfil its mission. For the Qur’aan is not a book of abstract theories and cold ideas, which one can grasp while seated in a cosy arm chair. Nor is it merely a religious book like other religious books, whose meanings can be grasped in seminaries and oratories.

On the contrary, it is a Book which contains a message, and invitation, which generates a movement. The moment it began to revealed down, it impelled a quiet and pious man to abandon his life of solitude and confront the world that was living in rebellion against God. It inspired him to raise his voice against falsehood, and pitted him in a grim struggle against the lords of disbelief, evil and iniquity. One after the other, from every home, it drew every pure and noble soul, and gathered them under the banner of truth. In every part of the country, it made all the mischievous and the corrupt to rise and wage war against the bearers of the truth.

This was during my first two months in the Political Security Jail. This was a time when I was allowed no visitors, no contact with family, and no contact with other prisoners. In fact I wasn't even allowed to speak to the prison guards except in whispers and only for urgent needs. This was a time of complete isolation from the outside world.

I was in an underground solitary cell made up of four concrete walls with an iron gate on one side and on the opposite side a small window -rather a hole- covered with iron mesh to allow for some fresh air to come in. I couldn't see much from it because it was about four meters high. Then there was the roof with a bulb hanging from it which was on continuously day and night. Then the floor with a mattress 2-3 inches thick, a blanket, a worn off pillow, a plastic plate, a bottle for water, and an empty bottle "just in case."

There can be no doubt that the Qur’aan is the greatest miracle of the Prophet (saws) - a miracle that can be appreciated by all of mankind. Yet, despite the power and status of the Qur’aan, many Muslims are heedless of it.

It is distressing to see that the Muslims of today have turned away from this great treasure that has been revealed to them - the very Speech of Allaah. They have made the Qur’aan a sacred family heirloom; to be treasured in exotic and expensive covers, yet to be uninhabited by the best of all covers - their hearts; to be recited and listened to in the best and most melodious of voices, yet to ignore its meanings; to be placed high above all other objects in any room, yet to occupy the lowest station in their daily lives; to be read when a death has occurred, yet to be ignored by the living; to be written in the fanciest of scripts and on the most expensive of papers, yet to be heedless of its commandments and prohibitions.

Indeed the Book of Allaah is not a book like any other, it is the timeless Speech of Allaah, not a created thing, a study guide for life and death and what comes after. Therefore it deserves a more careful study than anyone else's speech. It necessitates that its reader return to the early narrations of those who witnessed its revelation and heard its explanation by the one deputed by Allaah to rehearse and explain His Words to humanity, the Prophet Muhammad [may the Peace and Blessings of Allah be upon him].

1. Before you touch it, check your heart.

The key to really benefiting from the Qur’aan is to check your heart first, before you even touch Allah's book. Ask yourself, honestly, why you are reading it. Is it to just get some information and to let it drift away from you later?

Remember that the Prophet Muhammad (peace and blessings be upon him) was described by his wife as a "walking Quran": in other words, he didn't just read and recite the Qur’aan, he lived it.