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Five Lenses to Reflect on the Quran
Day 18: The Lens of General Lessons (Part 3) and conclusion
As we bring this short introduction to the Five Lenses to a close, let me summarize the key questions associated with this Lens of General Lessons:
- How can I express the basic meaning of this ayah as a general principle, lesson, or fact of life?
- What other cases is this general point relevant to, and what analogous situations help me appreciate the wisdom of this ayah more?
- What change points does it contain, and how does it elicit a spiritual response such as inspiring me to ask Allah ﷻ for something?
“What is the basic purpose of reflecting on the Quran?”
The basic purpose for each of us reflecting on the Quran is to expand the relevance of every ayah and find its application to our own situation. This is one of the core skills of reflection.
“The basic purpose for each of us reflecting on the Quran is to expand the relevance of every ayah and find its application to our own situation.” Dr. Sohaib Saeed
It has some resemblance to the scholarly process of extracting rulings, which of course requires much deeper and broader training. The mirror image of that “istinbat” (inference) is to use the ayah as evidence for the point so extracted: this is called “istidlal”.
“Can you share an example?”
A nice example I heard recently was when a speaker talked about how we need to move beyond feeling angry about things that are going wrong in the Ummah – what we need to do next is to pick up the Revelation to find solutions! He said, “After all, Prophet Moses got angry, but then he picked up the Tablets.”
“We need to move beyond feeling angry about things that are going wrong in the Ummah – what we need to do next is to pick up the Revelation to find solutions!“ Dr. Sohaib Saeed
It was such a mind-blowing point to hear! What’s useful for us here is to think about how such an insight is constructed: first, the person needs to reflect on the ayah (in this case a moment in a story) and try best to understand what is happening. Then they form that idea as a general point and lesson, and finally it can be shared in this neat reverse style!
“What if I get things wrong?”
Of course, like every Lens we may try to use, we could get things wrong. And like always, I emphasize that the main thing is to find the benefit for yourself, before feeling like you need to share amazing insights about the Quran. At QuranReflect we are trying to encourage people to talk about the Quran and to do it well, and at the same time, we are creating a space to try out our ideas with people who share these reflection goals, with the safety net of our scholars and review team. To learn more about QuranReflect, visit QuranReflect.com/FAQ
I pray this attempt to capture the vast and intricate topic of Quran Reflection through these Five Lenses has been of help to you, and I welcome all feedback to improve the ideas and their presentation in future. May Allah bless you, and happy reflecting!