In the name of Allah, the Most Merciful, the Ever-Merciful.

A Sublime Principle
If you wish to draw benefit from the Quran, then gather your heart when you recite it or when you hear it being recited; lend it your full ear and come as one being personally addressed by the One who spoke it—glorified be He—from Him to you, for it is indeed His address to you upon the tongue of His Messenger.

The Exalted said: “Surely in this is a reminder for anyone who has a heart, or lends an attentive ear while he is present in mind” (50:37).

Since perfect influence depends on four things—a causative agent, a receptive locus, a condition for the effect to occur, and the removal of whatever blocks it—this single verse encompasses all of them in the briefest, clearest, and most telling wording.

His words, “Surely in this is a reminder,” allude to everything that has preceded from the beginning of the surah up to this point; that is the causative agent.

His words, “for anyone who has a heart,” designate the receptive locus: the living heart that understands from Allah, as He says: “It is only a reminder and a clear Quran so that he may warn whoever is alive” (36:69–70)—that is, alive in heart.

His words, “or lends an attentive ear,” mean that he directs his hearing and gives his auditory faculty wholly to what is being said to him; this is the condition for being affected by speech.

His words, “while he is present,” mean that the heart is witnessing, present, not absent. Ibn Qutaybah (1) said: He listens to the Book of Allah with a heart that is present and understanding, not