—among the unbelievers who turn away from it—saying: “So what is the matter with them that they turn away from the Reminder (49) as though they were startled donkeys (50)?” It is enough of a rebuke for the one who shuns it that he is likened to a donkey—and indeed one of the donkeys of Hellfire.
Allah also made it clear that whoever turns away from it will, on the Day of Resurrection, carry a burden he cannot bear: “And We have bestowed upon you from Our Own Presence a Reminder (99). Whoever turns away from it shall bear, on the Day of Resurrection, a weighty burden (100), remaining under it forever—how evil a load they will carry on the Day of Resurrection! (101).”
Through this Book Allah has opened up sealed hearts, blind eyes, and deaf ears. Concerning it He said: “But whoever turns away from My remembrance shall have a constricted life, and We shall raise him up blind on the Day of Resurrection (124).”
Its wonders never cease, and it never wears out through repeated recitation, for as long as night and day succeed one another. By means of it Allah exalts some people and abases others. He said: “So leave Me with the one who rejects this discourse. We shall draw them on, step by step, from where they do not know (44); and I grant them respite—surely My scheme is firm (45).”
It is the last of the heavenly scriptures to be sent down from the Lord of all worlds; every kind of evil lies in turning away from it, and every kind of good lies in drawing near to it. Glad tidings, therefore, to the one for whom it will be an advocate, and woe to the one against whom it bears witness. “Say: It is, for those who believe, guidance and healing; but those who do not believe—there is deafness in their ears and it is blindness for them. They are being called from a place far away (44).”
Within it lies the greatest promise for the obedient and the severest threat for the sinner. Yet despite all this, most of those who claim Islam today, across the world, pay no heed to pondering its verses, heedless of the Creator’s words: “Will they not reflect upon the Quran, or are there locks upon their hearts? (24).”
They do not adopt its manners nor adorn themselves with the noble character it inculcates. Instead, they seek rulings in misguided legislations that contradict it, unmindful of their Lord’s statement: “Whoever does not judge by what Allah has revealed—those are the unbelievers (44),” and His saying: “They wish to take their disputes to the false judge, though they were commanded to reject him; and Satan wishes to lead them far astray (60).”