but receive less pay?’ He asked, ‘Have I deprived you of any part of your wages?’ They replied, ‘No.’ He said, ‘That is My bounty’—meaning the amount beyond what I gave you—‘which I bestow upon whomever I will,’ as Allah Most High says: ‘O you who believe, fear Allah and believe in His Messenger. He will grant you a double share of His mercy, make for you a light by which you may walk, and forgive you. Allah is All-Forgiving, Most Merciful, so that the People of the Scripture may know that they have no power to obtain any of Allah’s bounty, and that all bounty is in Allah’s Hand. He bestows it upon whomever He wills, and Allah is the Possessor of immense bounty.’1”)2.

It is our duty to revere the Noble Quran, which is the source of our honor and the path to our happiness; to uphold its rank and standing; to esteem it as it truly deserves; [and to act upon it].

Ibn Masūd—may Allah be pleased with him—said: “Whoever wishes to know whether he loves Allah should test himself by the Quran. If he loves the Quran, then he loves Allah, for the Quran is the speech of Allah.”

He also said—may Allah be pleased with him: “The Quran is the speech of Allah. Whoever rejects any part of it is rejecting Allah Himself.”

There are many reports to this effect. We therefore ask Allah, the Most Generous, to fill our hearts with love, reverence, and veneration for the Quran [and with acting upon it], and to make us among the people of the Quran, who are Allah’s own people and His chosen ones.