I was doing my review with the greatest Quran teacher in the world, Shaykh Moheb Fouda.
I was very distracted and I kept making mistakes in my review until I got to a point of complete frustration and anger with myself. I was upset I didn’t have the verses down better, annoyed at myself for not being focused enough.
He stopped me when I made a mistake and said, “Go back, start the verse over.” I did, and I messed up again. He told me to go back and I still didn’t get it right. At this point, I’m so frustrated at myself that I’m on the verge of angry tears and he starts laughing.
He says, “Why are you upset? I’m laughing! Don’t you want to know why I’m laughing?”
And so I quietly ask, “Shaykh, why are you laughing?”
And he says, “You aren’t Arab. Yet you’ve memorized the Quran! And when you make a mistake, Allah is going to reward you! He is going to multiply your reward! Just because you’re trying! Isn’t that mercy? Look at the blessing of your Lord! You make a mistake…and He rewards you because of it, because you’re trying!”
You who are trying to memorize the Quran but are slow and stumbling and frustrated- you who are trying to read the translation but keep getting too busy or too full of lapses in your life and then feel ashamed to go to His book- The Quran is there for you! Go back to it. Your merely trying, despite your faltering, is a means of His great love for you and reward to you.
Think of Shaykh Moheb laughing, in awe of Allah’s great reward for those who are struggling to know His book. When you want to give up, remember that laugh. And keep going.
- Hafidha Maryam Amirebrahimi
SubhanAllah
May Allah make our companion Quran till death and aftin here after as well ameen