Directives for Understanding the Quran
Question
I've been having a discussion with someone regarding the Quran. Essentially I am trying to find some verses in the Quran which say that it is meant to be recited as well as understood. I.ve found many relevant verses relating to the fact that the Quran is meant as guidance and transitively that it is meant to be understood (thanks to searchquran.org, may God reward you!). Is it anywhere in the Quran that it is the duty of every muslim man, woman to read, study and understand the Quran? Do you know of any research that has been done on the matter? I realize that understanding the Quran is an enormous task but is it explicitly mentioned that this study should be done by someone in specific but not muslims in general. I am sort of aware about the concept of tajweed but where does the concept stem from? Was it around at the time of the Prophet (pbuh)? Is the concept outlined in the Quran? Sorry for the barrage of incoherent questions, but any help, pointers, or direction would be greatly appreciated!
Response
A very important thing that should not be ignored is to find out what does 'recitation' mean. The Quran was revealed in Arabic because its direct addressees were Arabs themselves. Quran was not revealed in a random language, rather a language that they understood and spoke and conversed in. It is elucidated that the purpose of revealing Quran in Arabic was so it would be easy for the people of Mecca, where its revelation started, to understand its message.
As a result, when they were asked to recite Quran, they had no choice but to understand it. For an English speaker, it is analogous to asking them to recite an English poem where they do not have a choice but to understand it because it is their own language. The same logic applied when they were asked to perform daily prayers in Arabic, asked to recite Al-Fatihah from Quran and then a few verses in its response; they were forced to understand it because it was their own tongue, they did not have much choice.
Given this understanding, I believe that even if Quran does not say that it needs to be understood, it is apparent that it needs to be without any explicit directive from Quran. However, Quran has gone ahead and talked about the fact that its primary purpose is to understand it:
I think it is evident that the entire purpose of Quran was to be read and understood, and those who went astray, could have been saved had they listened to what Quran was saying.
This exercise of understanding Quran, as can be seen from the above quoted verses, must be done by each and every Muslim. Today, not everyone knows Arabic, but we can make an effort to make up that loss by studying it with meaning and translations. In my opinion, understanding Quran is not necessarily an enormous task. All one has to do is set aside a few minutes on regular basis and just be persistent. If we can spend two hours a week per subject in our school lives, setting thirty minutes aside even every other day to start off is not that daunting a task. This can increase or decrease over time as one finds comfortable, but the effort should at least start somewhere. And even if it is an enormouse task, does that by any chance make it wise to leave away the understanding of a part of Book if the entire Book cannot be understood?
Tajweed of the Quran is the study of getting the correct pronounciation when reciting it so that the meaning comes out as intended by Quran. It is only directed at recitation, not at the meaning. It stemmed primarily as Islam started spreading and people had to be taught how to correctly recite it.
You may get additional information on this issue in these articles previously published on this website: Understanding the Quran and The Need of Understanding Religion.