Blessings of Prayer — Page 29
29 of the Holy Prophet sa and were the foremost inheritors of his knowledge. Allah blessed them abundantly and helped them in their understanding, for they practiced what they preached. The fourth criterion is to meditate upon the meanings of the Holy Quran with the purity of one’s own self, because purity of the self has a certain affinity with the Holy Quran, as Allah says: 15 which means that the verities of the Holy Quran are disclosed only to a person of pure heart, for the two have an affinity with one another. Such a person recognizes these verities, and smells them, and his heart cries out that this indeed is the true way. The light of his heart is an excellent criterion for evaluating the truth. Unless a person is endowed with this quality and treads on the narrow path which the Prophets as have tread, it is only prudent that he should refrain from impertinently and arrogantly assuming the role of a commentator of the Holy Quran. Other- wise his commentary will be based upon his own inference, and this is something which the Holy Prophet sa has forbidden. He has said: 15 Al-W a qi‘ah , 56:80 [Publishers]