there is nothing more beneficial for the heart than reading the Qur’aan

Ibn Al Qayyim, may Allaah have mercy upon him, says:

In short, there is nothing more beneficial for the heart than reading the Qur’aan and with contemplation and reflection. The Qur’aan encompasses all the levels of the travellers, the conditions of the workers, and stations of those possessing knowledge. It is the Qur’aan that generates love, desire, fear, hope, repentance, reliance, pleasure, entrustment, gratitude, patience, and the rest of the different states that are life to the heart and perfection of it. Likewise, it repels all the rebuked characteristics and actions that cause the corruption and ruin of the heart.
If people were to possess a realization of what recitation of the Qur’aan with contemplation contains, they would devote themselves to it at the expense of anything else. When the person reads it with reflection and he comes across an aayah that he is in need of, for the cure of his heart, he repeats it, even if he does so a hundred times or the whole night. Hence, to recite a single aayah of the Qur’aan with contemplation and reflection is better than reciting the Qur’aan to completion without any contemplation or reflection. It is also more beneficial for the heart and more conducive to attaining eemaan and tasting the sweetness of the Qur’aan.

• Source: Miftaah Daar as-Sa’aadah, page 204 | Ibn Al Qayyim
• Transcribed from: Causes Behind the Increase and Decrease of Eemaan | Shaykh ‘Abdur-Razzaaq al-’Abbaad