Last, but not in any way least, by comprehending what you are reading in the Qur'an you will need to involve your inner person. This may be one of the most important and most effective ways to participate.

While it is obligatory on everyone to understand what the Qur'an is saying to him before its message can penetrate into the heart, it is not an absolute condition without which one cannot share at all in the blessings of the Qur'an. There are many who understand every word of it, yet their hearts remain closed to the Qur'an; there are many who understand not a word yet they achieve intense states of devotion, a relationship with Allah, love and longing, nearness to Him, and obedience. This is because the relationship with the Qur'an is dependent on many factors—we have listed earlier seven prerequisites of which understanding is one. There will always be millions who will never learn Arabic nor be able to read a translation nor find time to spend on such pursuits. Yet even they must not despair. So long as they try their best to acquire the means to understand the Qur'an, so long as they approach it with the necessary conditions, so long as they sincerely attempt to live by the teachings of the Qur'an as they come to know of them through other sources, so long as they read the Qur'an even if they do not understand its meaning, they can hope to receive their share of its blessings.

Yet all this can in no way diminish even to the slightest extent the immense importance of understanding what the Qur'an has got to say to you. Here we are using understanding in the sense of knowing directly what the speech says. The further stages of pondering, reflecting, reaching fuller meaning, making it relevant to our concerns, is something we shall take up later.

Why is merely comprehending the direct meaning necessary? Firstly, concentrating on the direct meaning of the Qur'an will greatly help you in keeping your attention exclusively focused on it, in inducing various states of consciousness and inducing acts of the heart and body necessary for bringing your inner self in a pervasive encounter with the Qur'an. Secondly, only by comprehending will you be able to let the words start the process through which you will acquire and intensify the faith, which will in turn lead you to lives lived by that faith, by the teachings of the Qur'an.