Page 38 - Taking the Qur'an as a Guide
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TAKING THE QUR'AN AS A GUIDE
considered just and right. As Allah states in the Surat al-
Baqara: 120: "Allah's guidance is true guidance." Therefore,
the goals and ways devised by people to realize their own in-
terests can never lead them to the truth and salvation. The pur-
pose of humanity's existence and how to attain it, the ideal
morality and good conduct that must be shown throughout
one's life, how to lead a physically and spiritually healthy life,
the moment of death and what will happen to one's soul on the
Day of Judgment – all of these are related in the Qur'an.
A person must read the Qur'an carefully in order to benefit
from it and be rightly guided:
Those to whom We have given the Book, who recite it in
the way it should be recited, such people believe in it.
As for those who reject it, they are the losers. (Surat al-
Baqara: 121)
Reading the Qur'an as it should be read becomes possible
when people have love and fear of Allah and adhere to it.
Those who read the Qur'an in this way submit themselves to
every judgment in the Qur'an and commit themselves fully to
the meticulous observation of every verse.
Given this, those who adhere to it base all of their decisions
upon light of the Qur'an and the Sunna of our Prophet (saas).
Thanks to this attribute, believers can discriminate between
right and wrong and make the best decision. As the verse:
"Right guidance has become clearly distinct from error"
(Surat al-Baqara: 256) also makes clear, people of faith do not
attempt to find a middle way between the Qur'anic values and
the life of ignorance; rather, they are committed fully and as-
suredly to the Qur'an, which is the straightest path. Allah com-
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