The Race to Live by the Qur’an!

Introduction & Occasion of Reflecting on this Hadith

On the anniversary of the passing of Ayatollah Muhammad-Hadi Ma‘rifat, a great contemporary Qur’anic scholar, we are reminded of a powerful saying from Imam Ali (peace be upon him):

امیرالمومنین علی (ع): اللَّهَ اللَّهَ فِي الْقُرْآنِ، لَا يَسْبِقُكُمْ بِالْعَمَلِ بِهِ غَيْرُكُمْ.

Imam Ali (as): “Fear Allah, fear Allah concerning the Qur’an; let no one else be ahead of you in acting upon it.” (Nahj al-Balāghah, Letter 47)

Educational Messages from the Hadith for Teenagers and Young Adults

1. Read, Then Do

The Qur’an is meant to guide your actions, not just your voice.

Practical challenge: Choose one short verse this week and act on it for one full day.

2. Do Not Wait for Others

Good deeds – such as reading, understanding and acting upon Quran – should start with you, not with your friends.

Practical challenge: Be the first in your group to pray on time, tell the truth, or stop a bad habit.

3. Let the Qur’an Shape Your Choices

The Qur’an can help you decide what to post, watch, say, and follow.

Practical challenge: Before one online post or reply today, ask, “Does this fit Qur’anic values?”

4. Build a Daily Habit

Small daily steps matter more than rare big efforts.

Practical challenge: Set a fixed time each day for five minutes of Qur’an reading and one action from it.

5. Compete in goodness, not in wrong things

Imam Ali (a) encourages believers to be ahead in acting upon the Qur’an. True success is not being better than others in popularity, possessions, or unhealthy trends, but in faith, character, and good deeds.

Practical challenge: Find a friend and start a “good deeds challenge” together for one week, encouraging each other to recite, understand, and act upon the Qur’an every day.

6. Let the Qur’an shape your identity

The Qur’an helps you know who you are, so you do not let friends, trends, or social media define you.

Practical challenge: Before making one important choice this week, ask: “What would the Qur’an teach me to value here?”

7. Do not copy wrong behaviour just to fit in

The hadith warns us not to let others be ahead of us in goodness, so we should not follow bad habits simply because they are popular.

Practical challenge: Refuse one unhealthy group habit this week, and replace it with one better choice.

Educational Messages from the Hadith for Parents

1. Make the Home Qur’anic

A Qur’anic home is built through daily recitation of the Holy Qur’an, righteous habits, and God-pleasing decisions.

Practical challenge: Create one family routine based on the Qur’an, such as a short weekly family reading time.

2. Let the Qur’an Guide Family Decisions

Faith and Quranic teaching should guide how a family spends time, money, and energy.

Practical challenge: Before one family decision this week, ask, “Is this helping our family live closer to Qur’anic values?”

3. Early and timely teaching of Qur’anic values to children

If parents do not actively and early on teach Qur’anic values to their children, their children may come to shape their identity and values based on social media, entertainment, or unhealthy cultural influences.

Practical challenge: Choose one Qur’anic value each week and discuss its practical meaning with your children through real-life examples.

4. Focus on practice, not only memorisation

Recitation and memorisation are valuable, but the goal is to see Qur’anic manners reflected in a child’s daily behaviour.

Practical challenge: This week, praise your child at least once for demonstrating a Qur’anic character trait such as honesty, trustworthiness, or respect.

5. Celebrate character and faith more than achievement

Children should learn that faith, good character and moral behaviour are more important than grades, wealth, or social status.

Practical challenge: The next time your child succeeds, praise a positive character quality alongside any academic or material achievement.

6. Create positive family competition in the Qur’an

Healthy family competition can motivate children to recite, understand, memorise, and practise the teachings of the Qur’an.

Practical challenge: Organise a weekly family Qur’an challenge in which each family member shares one verse, one lesson, and one action they applied during the week.

Educational Messages from the Hadith for Imams and Teachers

1. Make the Qur’an Easy to Apply

The Qur’an should feel close to daily life, not distant or difficult.

Practical challenge: Link one verse to a real issue people face, such as anger, stress, family life, or social media.

2. Be the first to act on what you teach

Your influence grows when people see that your life matches your words.

Practical challenge: Choose one teaching point and practise it visibly before asking others to follow it.

3. Help people move from emotion to habit

A powerful reminder may touch hearts, but lasting change comes from repeated action.

Practical challenge: Create one weekly Quranic follow-up practice for your group, such as a short reflection, pair discussion, or action task.

4. Build a community that races in goodness

The hadith calls believers not to be left behind; teachers and imams should inspire people to compete in righteous action.

Practical challenge: Start a simple “Qur’an in action” challenge in your community, and ask for one shared deed each week.

5. Value character more than performance

Academic success is important, but Qur’anic character should be recognised and encouraged even more strongly.

Practical challenge: This week, publicly praise a student for demonstrating a Qur’anic quality such as honesty, kindness, patience, or forgiveness, regardless of their academic results.