Human beings read encodings such as words or numbers seen by the eye with their own language.

Picture a street in your mind… Think about the service area, the company name or the message of the advertisement placed on the buildings next to the streets. The two-letter three-digit or three-letter two-digit number plates of the cars you see… Shop signs hanging to explain the scope of the profession being carried out inside… Think of the headline of the newspaper on the coffee table, the breaking news given with subtitles on the television…

How many things we read during the day, right?

Maybe you have never looked at it from this point of view. In fact, when evaluated from this point of view, we even say, “How much I have been reading.” Now we will say whether we really read a lot or whether we look a lot. Do we read because we look, or do we look to read?

If we read because we look, visually impaired people would never be able to finish a book and would be condemned to be associated with ignorance. However, although there are scholars who are blind, there are many ignorant people who are sighted. Reading by sight can be considered as a convenience or advantage, but it cannot be said to be a condition of reading.

When we consider looking to read, we see that it has great meanings for those who know how to look. Looking to read not only carries meaning for this person, but this person who looks to read not only makes sense by reading, but also reaches information that he can transfer to his life in line with his own capacity. This is where the sincerity of the person who looks to read comes into play. In fact, reading not to look but to understand brings sincerity as a meaning. Because even if it is full of elements that meet the needs of the reader, the information to be transferred to life is measured by sincerity. The more sincerity there is, the more information to be applied. The more a person applies his/her knowledge to his/her life, the more desire arises; the more desire he/she has, the more happiness and prosperity he/she achieves. What about the knowledge read without sincerity?

In that case, rather than application, material ready for sale or presentation comes out. Knowledge that does not benefit the person himself is not the one who offers it for sale. This is similar to a commodity bought with commercial logic. He who pays the price gets it. Even if it is not sold, that knowledge is not his because it is on sale. And the person himself has ceased to be associated with it. However, knowledge does not need to be sold. Everything is doomed to decrease as it is shared, but only knowledge increases as it is shared. For this reason, it does not need to be sold. Just as the meaning of knowledge that does not need to be sold would die when it is put up for sale, what this knowledge needs is to be shared, with us being the ones who need it. For this reason, those who put their knowledge on sale should not be treated as scholars. A scholar does not sell his knowledge; if he does, he is not a scholar. Because a scholar is a person who has a sense of responsibility, who acts with what he knows and shares it with those in need.

Unless the meaning to be formed by looking is embodied in life, it cannot be a truth accepted as valid for human beings. The integration of reading and life, on the other hand, not only makes looking meaningful, but also enables looking by understanding. In this context, the Qur’an informs us how understanding will be realised as follows.

Allah (swt) says the following:

Surely in this (the Qur’an) is an admonition for those who have a heart or who are present and give ear.[303]

For example, if asked whether there is a possibility that a person would not understand a book he knows by heart, the answer would be, “If he has memorised it, how could he not understand it, of course he has understood it.” The answer is logically correct. If he memorises the meaning he is supposed to deduce from the book he reads, but he cannot deduce that meaning himself, would he still be considered to have understood it, the answer would naturally be “no”. Because information that is not understood, only memorised, has no meaning. Notice that both examples involve memorised knowledge. Sometimes, even if a person memorises a book, he does not understand it. For this reason, reading must be inseparable from understanding. Without understanding, there is no point in memorising, reading or spending time.

Islamically speaking, there are hafiz and scholars (!) who do not know the message of the Holy Qur’an, but have memorised the verses. Since these people have memorised the Holy Qur’an, they act on the assumption that “I understand” and pass on information from the book. Those who listen to this information and accept what is said as true are exposed to misinformation and these people of faith, who endeavour to put what they have learnt into practice, are condemned to disaster. This is a great loss for people of faith. These are the benefits and harms of reading and understanding, looking and seeing for the individual and society. So, if you ask, how can we understand who is telling the truth without taking the memorisation of these people as a basis, the Holy Qur’an gives the following answer.

Allah (swt) says:

Verily, man is in loss. Except those who believe and do righteous deeds, and advise one another the truth, and advise one another patience. [304]

Yes. Indeed, man is in loss. In order not to be in loss, the Qur’an brings the methodology of doing righteous deeds and recommending the truth and patience[305] as an order. It points out that people should not be considered knowledgeable when they memorise, but when they apply what they know to their lives as righteous deeds and recommend truth and patience in their discourses. These verses, beyond the method of determining the right knowledge holder, contain the basic elements for the prosperity and rise of societies and give us the formula for the reform of society very clearly. The society will be reformed only by those among us who do righteous deeds and recommend truth and patience. It also gives us the prescription to get rid of the current distress that all humanity is in as an individual, family and society. The world’s social degeneration, the collapse of morality, violence, unrest and unhappy individual life… All of them are based on the non-application of this system; righteous deeds + right + advising patience.

The most dangerous creature on earth is the uninformed human being. Because in order to fulfil the purpose for which he was created, man must recognise and know his Lord, avoid the harams and regulate his life line with the halals. Everything is expected from a person who does not practice this. For this reason, the first commandment that came to our Prophet (s.a.v.), who was waited for centuries, was IKRA (READ). Although Allah (swt) knows best that our Prophet was illiterate, it is quite thought-provoking that the first verse was “Read”.

The most important thing to understand here is the importance of reading. Because the verses come to warn all humanity through an ummah Prophet. While this message given by the Creator to humanity through the angel in charge continues as “Look at what you were created for”, it is reported that people who forget why they were created and disobey the Creator do not obey the command to “read”. And then, as if to inform to whom the gratitude is to be given, it is conveyed who is the one who informs man of what he does not know and who teaches him to write with the pen. Because apart from what he is informed and taught, man is nothing. Allah (swt) knows best.

Allah (swt) says the following:

Bismillahirrahmanirrahim. Read! In the name of your Lord, the Creator. He created man from an embryo[306]. Read! Your Lord, who taught man what he did not know and taught him to write with the pen, is the Most Gracious.[307

The fact that Allah first spoke to humanity with these verses through a human being whose path was constantly observed during the centuries spent in patience with blasphemy, oppression, injustice and injustice, summarises the reason for the heedlessness of humanity. “Read!”, but not to look beautiful to others, not to gain authority and fame, not to attain a knowledge that is kept separate from the knowledgeable, but “In the name of your Lord, the Creator…” Read more…

Reflecting on this news, which summarises what needs to be done, leads us to draw the following conclusions.

“Read; those of the People of the Book did not read. Do not be like them…” says the Holy Qur’an, summarising the reasons for the deviation of the past nations.

Allah (swt) says:

There are some among them who do not know the Book. All they know is hearsay. They only speculate and surmise. [308]

“Read; if you do not read, you will make those who seem knowledgeable (those who are far from righteous deeds but have a lot of memorisation) as gods…” in another sense…

Allah (swt) says:

They have taken their scholars and their priests as gods besides Allah, and the Messiah, the son of Mary. But they were not commanded except to worship one God. There is no god but Him. He is Exalted from what they associate with Him.

“If you do not read, you may accept the mistakes of those who say ‘I have read’ as true; you may think that being subject to them is being subject to Allah…” perhaps he is saying.

Allah (swt) says:

Know well that the true religion belongs to Allah alone. Those who leave Him and take other friends say: “We worship them only that they may bring us nearer to Allah”. Surely Allah will judge between them concerning that in which they differ. Surely Allah will not guide those who are liars and ungrateful.

He also warns: “Read, otherwise you will become proficient in ignorance and you will start distorting the words and meaning of the Qur’an like the former followers of religion…”.

Allah (swt) says:

“Some Jews pervert the words from the place where they were put, and twist their tongues, and bear a grudge against religion: “We have listened and we have disobeyed, so hear, and ‘Raina’, take care of us.” If they say: “We have heard and obeyed, so hear and look after Us”, it would certainly have been better and more right for them. But Allah has cursed them for their disbelief. So they do not believe, except a few of them. [311]

Ikra is the answer to the question of where we, as human beings, have gone wrong.

Imagine that you buy a new electronic device. To make your life easier, of course. You have two ways to understand how this device works: The first is to consult someone who uses this device and get technical information and put it into practice by trial and error; the second is to read the user manual placed inside the box. If you do the first, you can reach your goal and make the device suitable for the purpose for which it was purchased, but you will not get information that is suitable for the construction of the device, but information that facilitates your use with the main elements of the shortcut. Why? Because the answer you get from the person you ask is actually the answer received to operate the device and does not provide accurate information. The user manual provides the most appropriate information that makes a device offered to your service available for use with full potential. The manual contains the necessary technical and hardware information, promotional and operating information, a consumer presentation of the features of the device and many detailed and adequate explanations in a clear and concise manner. However, the information you receive from someone else and assume to be correct does not go beyond what the narrator knows. In other words, acting with that information does not lead to absolute truths about the device, but to the depth of understanding of the narrator. The device is left to the understanding of the questioner with its right and wrong. Whatever and how much that person understands, that will be your truth. The situation of Muslims today is not different from the situation of the owner of this device who lives without a manual.

Actions done with the mentality of ‘if so-and-so says it, it is true’ without consulting the instruction manual, leaving the submission to Allah to the ignorance of a needy and incompletely informed person has become one of the most common situations. There are even those who say, “Who are we to understand the instruction manual?”, “It is a book that those between us and the owner of the instruction manual will understand”. In any case, the lowest bottom caused by ignorance and the highest ceiling to be reached in ignorance are reached with these words. So you tried to read and could not understand the book, is that so?

Suppose a village is infected with a contagious disease and is in great distress. Imagine that in spite of all this distress, the medicine for the disease is available in their homes, but they do not use it. What do you think about the reason why the people of the village do not get rid of this disease by using the medicine even though they are suffering miserably from this disease? There are two options: Either they do not know that the medicine in their homes is made for this disease or they do not believe that it will cure them. No other option is possible. There is no other explanation for the fact that so many people are suffering from the same disease at the same time, and the necessary medicine is readily available in their homes, and they know about it, but they do not use it. This is exactly the situation of the Muslim today.

The people of the village in the example are the Islamic Ummah, their contagious disease is not reading, and their medicine is the Holy Qur’an. If Muslims all over the world live poor, miserable, ignorant and unresponsive lives and still do not use the Holy Quran in their homes, either they do not believe that the Quran heals or they do not know that it heals. We prefer to accept this disbelief as ignorance, even though it is obvious that people of this logic cannot be called Muslims. As we have stated in all our narratives, it is this ignorance that has brought us to this state.

Muslims are now nourished by the values of the modern mentality and shape their lives with those values and solve their problems within that understanding. Is there no book or Prophet of this religion? Hasn’t the Ummah been provided with sufficient information about the solution of any issue? … I wonder if it has been looked at even once? If one were to appear before his Lord after a lifetime spent with such an idea, with what excuse could one explain this situation? It is a pity, a pity. We pity our values, our beliefs, our family and our income. Let us learn the word of Allah (swt) from Him without any intermediary by allocating a little time on condition that it is continuous. Let us endeavour to bring together what we have learnt with life. Then life will find its meaning in a different way. Because as Hz Ali (r.a.) said: “There is no good in worship without understanding and qiraat without thinking.”

We will adapt all the rules that should be in any user manual to religion with the aim of better understanding the Holy Qur’an, which is our guide. For this purpose, we will break down the Holy Qur’an like an instruction manual and show that it can be understood without any intermediary, and we will try to explain what and how to use it with the help of verses.

[303] Surah Kaf, Verse 37

[304] Surah Asr, Verses 2-3

[305] The science of method, method, the search for method

[306] Vaccinated egg

[307] Surah Alak, Verses 1-5

[308] Surat al-Baqarah, Verse 78

[309] Surat al-Töwbah, Verse 31

[310] Surat al-Zumar, Verse 3

[311] Surat al-Nisa, Verse 46