Seventh: Say to yourself: Allah will surely give me all the rewards He has promised me through His Messenger for reading the Qur'an and following it.

Many rewards are promised in the Qur'an. Assured are the spiritual gifts in life, such as guidance, mercy, knowledge, wisdom, healing, remembrance and light, as well as worldly favours such as honour and dignity, well-being and prosperity, success and victory. Eternal blessings such as forgiveness (maghfirah), Paradise (Jannah) and God's good pleasure (ridwan), too, are reserved for the followers of the Qur'an.

The Prophet, blessings and peace be on him, has told about many more rewards. Take any standard Hadith collection like Bukhari, Muslim, Mishkat or Riyad al-Salihin, read the relevant chapters concerning the Qur'an, and you will find them there. Some of them you will find in this book as well, especially at the end.

For example: 'The best among you is the one who learns and teaches it' (Bukhari). 'Read the Qur'an, for on the Day of Resurrection it will come interceding for its companions' (Muslim). 'No intercessor will be superior in rank to the Qur'an' (Sharh al-Ihya'). 'On the Day of Resurrection, the companion of the Qur'an will be told to read the Qur'an and ascend, as high as the last verse he reads' (Abd Da'ud). 'For every letter that you read you will get a tenfold reward' (Tirmidhi).

Store as many of these promises as you can in your memory and recollect whatever you find relevant, whenever you can. Trust, expect, and seek from Allah their fulfilment in your case.

Observance of such a measure, what the Hadith call imanan wa ihtisaban (believing and counting), greatly enhances the inner value of your deeds. One Hadith tells that there are forty virtues. If a person performs any of these, hoping for the reward and trusting in the promise, Allah will admit him to Paradise; the highest of these virtues is as little as making a gift of some milk to one's neighbour (Bukhari).