How I Found True Consistency Through This Powerful Ayah

My personal taddabur.

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بِسْمِ اللهِ الرَّحْمٰنِ الرَّحِيْمِ

In last week’s Sunday Serenity I talked about the conditions of our spiritual hearts, How is Your Heart Today? It’s worth reading it or even re-reading to deepen your connection with your heart and Allah. Today I am doing things a bit differently and this is a personal reflection on an ayah of the Quran.

The ayah that I'm reflecting on is:

39:23

ٱللَّهُ نَزَّلَ أَحْسَنَ ٱلْحَدِيثِ كِتَـٰبًۭا مُّتَشَـٰبِهًۭا مَّثَانِىَ تَقْشَعِرُّ مِنْهُ جُلُودُ ٱلَّذِينَ يَخْشَوْنَ رَبَّهُمْ ثُمَّ تَلِينُ جُلُودُهُمْ وَقُلُوبُهُمْ إِلَىٰ ذِكْرِ ٱللَّهِ ۚ ذَٰلِكَ هُدَى ٱللَّهِ يَهْدِى بِهِۦ مَن يَشَآءُ ۚ وَمَن يُضْلِلِ ٱللَّهُ فَمَا لَهُۥ مِنْ هَادٍ ٢٣

˹It is˺ Allah ˹Who˺ has sent down the best message—a Book of perfect consistency and repeated lessons—which causes the skin ˹and hearts˺ of those who fear their Lord to tremble, then their skin and hearts soften at the mention of ˹the mercy of˺ Allah. That is the guidance of Allah, through which He guides whoever He wills. But whoever Allah leaves to stray will be left with no guide.

— Dr. Mustafa Khattab, The Clear Quran

This ayah speaks to me the most because it talks about the Quran as being a book of perfect consistency and repeated lessons. Consistency is a big theme in my life because I recognize that success in the dunya and akhira comes with being consistent—consistent in the obedience of Allah, consistent in working on purifying my heart, consistent in engaging with Allah's book, and working on muhasabah, reflecting on myself. Doing these things consistently every day builds that relationship with the Quran. And failure to do so is also a form of consistency—consistently neglecting the Quran, for example. This can cause my heart to harden and lose guidance. May Allah always guide me.

One of the things I reflected on as well is the part where it says the skin of those who fear their Lord trembles at it, then their skin and heart soften at the mention of Allah. I realize that I'm not there yet. Sometimes I feel my skin trembling, but not always. I think about when Allah says in the Quran (and I’m trying to find that ayah), that if the Quran had been sent to a mountain, it would crumble. I want my heart to be like that. I want every ayah to move me, to make me feel so strongly connected to it emotionally—for my skin to tremble, to have that physical reaction. That physical reaction is also connected to your emotions and your heart.

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Then I realized what is keeping me from having that type of reaction consistently! But it's anger. I have repressed anger towards people—people who have hurt me in some way

So I said to myself how can I apply this ayah to my life?

I have a book called A Handbook of Spiritual Medicine by Ibn Dawud, which is an insightful guide to diagnosing and treating spiritual diseases of the heart. I looked up the diseases of the heart, and , I wrote down the page numbers to review and implement. I have several that I want to implement throughout this week and to continue implementing thereafter, insha’Allah.

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I'm making a lot of dua. This is how I plan on working on it—to really make it something that I do daily and review daily. Having a handbook like this is very handy because it makes it practical, and it's also a reminder because I have it on my desk. I come back to it daily. I look at it because I really want to make this muhasabah (self reflection) this reflection on the Quran, (taddabur)a regular part of who I am—something that I cannot live without because my heart longs so much for Allah, for His Book, to be a better slave of Allah, insha’Allah.

May Allah make it all happen for me, and may Allah guide us all to Jannatul Firdaus. Ameen.

Your Turn: Reflection Questions

Photo by Cathryn Lavery on Unsplash

Choose one or two or all of the questions to reflect on, whatever will lead to the deepest reflection for you.

Re-Read the ayah and contemplate the following:

1. How does the description of the "consistent and repeated lessons" resonate with your current relationship with the Quran?

2. Do you find that your heart softens and your skin trembles at the mention of Allah, as described in this ayah? What do you think might be holding you back from experiencing this consistently?

3. What practical steps can you take to ensure that the Quran moves your heart and guides you daily?

4. Reflect on moments when you felt distant from the Quran. What role did consistency, or the lack of it, play in that?

5. How do you think repressed emotions, such as anger or other diseases of the heart, might affect your ability to feel the depth of the Quran's message? How can you begin to address these?

Much love 💕,

Nour Cauveren