There is a famous hadith where Prophet Muhammad (peace be upon him) talks about this man who loses his camel and finds with all of his belongings on it after thinking that he’s going to die in the deserts.
He was so happy that he calls out to Allah, and in his happiness, he stumbles and said:
“You are my servant and I am your Lord!” Mixing it up because of how joyful he is in those moments.
Allah Loves Our Weakness
Prophet Muhammad said:
Allah is more pleased with the repentance of one of you than that man would be when he found his camel. (Al Bukhari)
What is particularly beautiful about this is that Allah loves to see you in your brokenness when you’re turning to Him.
When Allah loves to see brokenness in your dua, then how about when you’re reciting the Quran?
And for someone who converts to Islam or someone who’s not used to the recitation of Quran and they’re hearing people recite the Quran beautifully and have no issues grappling with the understanding and thinking, “that could never be me!”
But they’re going to make the effort to learn a little bit of Arabic to work on their tajweed, to recite Quran daily; they’re going to come to the Quran halaqahs and when people go around and recite; they’re okay with being the ones that are going to stumble a bit, and take a little bit more time, they will let that humility take over instead of the arrogance and they’ll go with the process.
Prophet Muhammad (peace be upon him) said:
One who is proficient in the Quran is associated with the noble, upright, recording angels; and he who falters in it, and finds it difficult for him, will have two rewards. (Muslim)
What better do you want than that?
Rewarded Twice
… and he who falters in it, and finds it difficult for him, will have two rewards.
Their station and reward will be doubled the one who recites fluently and with ease.
That’s incredible hadith! Because what it shows you is that the struggle itself is worship and arrogance is a great barrier and hindrance to worship and bettering yourself in the sight of Allah.
It is humbling, especially for someone who knows how to read in another language and has no issues in learning and building themselves up in other ways.
And here they are learning once again how to read and they have to humble themselves either to a teacher, or to people in the circle, but they’re not going to let that get in the way of having that pleasure of Allah and having that station of Allah, so they’re willing to put aside their ego so that they could draw closer to their Lord.
You can imagine if Allah, who loves to see that humble servant who will be broken and mess up with their dua, how blessed it is!
And what station Allah would give to that person amongst the angels who is broken and reciting His words so that he can get closer to Him and become closer to Him and become as fluid and proficient and fluent as the other one who is like a noble scribe.