كَمَآ أَرۡسَلۡنَا فِيڪُمۡ رَسُولاً۬ مِّنڪُمۡ يَتۡلُواْ عَلَيۡكُمۡ ءَايَـٰتِنَا وَيُزَكِّيڪُمۡ وَيُعَلِّمُڪُمُ ٱلۡكِتَـٰبَ وَٱلۡحِڪۡمَةَ وَيُعَلِّمُكُم مَّا لَمۡ تَكُونُواْ تَعۡلَمُونَ (سورة البقرة:۱۵۱)

"AS ALSO WE HAVE SENT IN YOUR MIDST A MESSENGER FROM AMONG YOU, WHO RECITES TO YOU OUR VERSES, AND PURIFIES YOU, AND TEACHES YOU THE BOOK AND THE WISDOM, AND TEACHES YOU WHAT OU DID NOT KNOW." (SURAH AL-BAQARAH:151)

At the time of building the Ka'abah Hazrat Ibrahim AS had prayed for two things, first was that among his offspring there be a community who were totally obedient to Allah Ta'alah. The second was to send a Prophet among his offspring.

Allah Ta'alah answered his first prayer in the form of the birth of Ummah of the Holy Prophet ﷺ and calling them the "balanced community". In this verse Allah Ta'alah says that in accepting Hazrat Ibrahim's (AS) second prayer I have sent Rasool Allah SAW amongst you who has the same attributes and duties that Hazrat Ibrahim AS had prayed for.

Among these the first duty is teaching recitation of the Holy Quran. This verse tells us that recitation of the Holy Quran is in itself an end and a duty, even if the reader does not understand its meaning. That is because the teaching of the meaning of the Quran has subsequently been described as a separate duty in itself.

The second duty is teaching the content of the Holy Quran. This tells us that it is not possible to understand the Quran correctly without the guidance of Rasool Allah SAW and that one can not correctly understand the Quran by reading its translation alone. This is because people of Arab had great command of Arabic language and were linguists. They didn't need a teacher to teach them Arabic language, yet in this verse Allah Ta'alah says that Rasool Allah SAW was sent to teach the people what is in the Quran.

The third duty that has been mentioned is that Rasool Allah SAW was sent to teach people wisdom. This tells us that true wisdom and knowledge is what Rasool Allah SAW has taught us, as Allah Ta'alah Himself has declared that Rasool Allah was sent to teach people wisdom. This tells us not only that Ahadith are a source of evidence in Islamic Jurisprudence but also that if a person feels that his opinion is more valid in some matter against a correct (Sahih) Hadith, then weightage would be given to the Hadith and not his opinion.

The fourth duty of Rasool Allah SAW that has been listed is to purify people. This refers to the practical training and apprenticeship he put the blessed Sahaba (Companions) through to remove their negative internal attributes and character traits, and to bestow high quality internal attributes on them.  This means that purely theoretical knowledge of Quran and Sunnah alone is not sufficient for a person to develop a high quality character, unless they have received practical training from a mentor as to how to internalise those high quality moral attributes into their own personal character. Rasool Allah SAW imparted this spiritual training on the Sahaba (Holy Companions) through his Suhbat (company), the Sahaba imparted this on the people who came after them (Taba'in) and the Taba'in on the people who came after them (Taba Taba'in), and that is how this spiritual training has continued over centuries. This spiritual training of internal moral character is also called Tazkiah (تزکیہ purification) or Tasawwuf (تصوّف). Even though at times some incompetent people added some wrong rituals to it and gave it a bad name, but the core and gist of Tasawwuf has always been Tazkiah which has been mentioned in the Holy Quran here, and in every age there have always been people who understood the true spirit of Tazkiah and have practiced it that properly.

From Easy Translation of the Quran by Mufti Muhammad Taqi Usmani DB