April 24, 2005
“Qur’an!” Is The Answer!
Section: WRITINGS | 214 reads
“Qur’an!”
Is The Answer!
Dr. Pasha
How Did We Manage to Abandon the Qur’an?
Pray tell me, Muslims! Just how did we Muslims manage to accomplish this feat? Just how did we manage to abandon the Qur’an?
We, whom Allah blessed to be the bearers, keepers, servants and custodians of the Qur’an in this world.
We, for whose benefit – along with all the rest of humanity – use and guidance Allah sent the Qur’an into this world.
And along with the Qur’an, out of his infinite mercy and grace, he also sent his beloved messenger Muhammad, Sallallahu Alaihi wa Sallam, into this world.
To teach us the Qur’an.
To show us how to read the Qur’an.
To show us how to understand the Qur’an.
To tell us what the words, expressions and passages of the Qur’an meant.
To demonstrate for us how the Qur’an worked in the real world.
To open for us the doors of divine mercy and blessings that every letter of the Qur’an contains.
To make us see the wonderful wisdom and guidance that is in the words and pages of the Qur’an.
To make us realize the marvels and miracles that every Aayat or passage of the Qur’an holds.
To show us how to put the Qur’an into practice in our daily life.
In our personal affairs.
In our social and cultural affairs.
In our political and economic affairs.
In our moral, military, diplomatic and international affairs.
In short, in every single aspect and dimension of our individual and collective lives:
As persons and individuals;
As families and kinship networks;
As formal and informal groups and organizations;
As institutions and social structures;
As nations and societies;
As cultures and civilizations;
And as the whole world taken together.
And to cleanse and purify us, and to exalt and elevate us, so we would be ready and able to interact with the Qur’an in a positive, meaningful, productive and fruitful way.
In a way that would fill our life – and the lives of all those around us and our world – with the blessings, mercy and grace of Almighty Allah.
That is how Allah describes the role of his beloved messenger Muhammad, Sallallahu Alaihi wa Sallam, in this world. Here is how the Qur’an puts it:
Yatloo ‘Alaihim Aayaatika,
Wa Yu-‘Allihumul Kitaaba wal Hikmata,
wa Yuzakkeehim (Al-Baqarah).
Paraphrase:
He recites for them your Aayats and signs;
And he teaches them the book and wisdom;
And he cleanses and purifies them (2:129).
This was part of a prayer that Prophet Abraham, may God Almighty bless him, prayed a long time ago, asking Allah to bless and guide the progeny of Ishmael, May Allah bless him – his first-born son from Hagar.
Allah also tells us in the Qur’an how he responded to that prayer by his friend Abraham, may Allah bless him, and granted Abraham his wish. For, that is what Allah calls Abraham (May Allah bless him), in the Qur’an: his friend.
See how the Qur’an repeats the exact same concepts and expressions this time also:
Huwalladhee Ba’atha Fil Ummiyyeena Rasoolan
Minhum, Yatloo ‘Alaihim Aayaatihi wa Yuzakkaeehim,
Wa Yu’allimuhumul Kitaaba wal-Hikmah (Al-Jum’ah).
Paraphrase:
He is the one who raised among the illiterate people,
A messenger from among them,
Who recites for them his Aayats and signs,
And who cleanses and purifies them,
And who teaches them the book and wisdom (62:1).
Allahu Akbar!
What kind of a miracle is this?
A miracle!
Call it an event the probability of whose occurrence is infinitesimal; miniscule; really, really, really tiny and small. A miracle is an event that is most unlikely to happen.
Now consider the Qur’an purely in terms of its authorship. Who wrote the Qur’an? Who could have produced it? A human mind? Muhammad? Is that who wrote the Qur’an? What is the likelihood? What is the probability of that happening?
What are the chances, what are the mathematical odds, what is the probability, the likelihood that a book that made its appearance in illiterate, bookless Arabia, in a land without libraries, schools and bookshops, or many scholars or readers of books, will have the same concepts and words repeated in both the prayer of a human being to God, as well as in the divine response of God Almighty to that prayer – each separated from the other by hundreds and thousands of Aayats or passages from the Qur’an?
What is the probability of something like this happening? What are the chances that this remarkable fact is capable of a common human explanation and attribution, and not miraculous evidence of the divine origin and nature of the Qur’an?
Muhammad, the prophet of Allah, Sallallahu Alaihi wa Sallam, mind you, was not writing down all this in a book, which he could go back and change and revise if and as he wanted to.
On the contrary, he simply recited and read out to those around him – his companions (Ashaab), not followers mind you, he called them – these Aayats or passages from the Qur’an, these divine revelations, as the Archangel Gabriel delivered them to him.
So, what is the probability or likelihood that in chapter 2 (Aayat 129) he will talk about the prayer of Abraham about his son’s descendants and then in chapters 3 and 62 – Aayats 164 and 2 respectively – remember to revisit and record God’s answer to Abraham’s prayer in exactly the same words?
Who can calculate the odds of this happening as a routine human occurrence?
That is why I say: Allahu Akbar, what a miracle it is.
And that is partly why passages from the Qur’an are called Aayats - signs and miracles each one of them, rather than verses, as people have so naively taken to referring to them.
In fact, Aayaat is the name that God Almighty himself gives in the Qur’an to passages of the Qur’an, which is another miracle in itself.
For, how many books do you know that call their sentences, phrases, letters and passages Aayaat – or miracles and marvels?
A Book unlike Any Other Book
Pray tell me then Muslims!
Just how did we do it?
How did we manage to turn our back on such a book?
We, who know only too well how the Qur’an is the means to true success and happiness in life on earth.
We, who understand only too thoroughly how the Qur’an is the means of success and salvation in life after death.
Just how did we manage to turn our back on a book that came directly from our creator and our master – addressed to us?
A book that he sent through his trusted messenger, may Allah bless him!
Qur’an:
Wa Nazala Bihir-Roohul Ameen (26:193).
Paraphrase:
The trusted Rooh brought it down (26:193).
A book that is God Almighty’s specially preserved and protected word on earth.
A book that remains in its pure and original form with us to this day (15:9; 9:32; 61:8).
A book that God Almighty sent to help and guide us (17:9 72:2; 2:97; 2;185; 27:2).
A book that he sent to show us the way out of our woes and troubles.
Hudan Linnaas wa Bayyinaatin Minal Hudaa
wal Furqaan (2:185).
Right here in this world.
As well as in the next world (2:201; 3:148; 4:134).
And whenever humanity runs into a fork on the road.
Whenever humanity faces a difficult choice.
A book that is pure light.
Noor.
From a God who is the light of the heavens and earth.
Allahu Noorus-Samaawaati wal Ard (24:35).
What a glorious combination of light upon light this book is!
Noorun ‘Alaa Noor (24:35).
From a God who is closer to us than our jugular vein.
Wa Nahnu Aqrabu Ilaihi Min Hablil Wareed (50:16).
From a God who is close enough to answer our call when and as we call him.
Ujeebu Da’watad Daa’I Idhaa Da’ani (2:186).
From a God who is all-hearing, all-knowing and all-seeing.
Wa Huwas Samee’ul ‘Aleem (2:137).
Wa Huwas-Samee’ul Baseer (42:11).
From a God who is most praiseworthy and most glorious.
Innahoo Hameedun Majeed (11:73).
From a God who is most merciful and even more merciful and compassionate.
Huwar Rahmaanur Raheem (59:22).
This book – this glorious and incomparable Qur’an – which is such amazing and wonderful advice from Allah to us!
Mau’izah.
How did we manage to turn our back on such a book?
A book that is a cure for all that ails our hearts and cultures and societies.
And our troubled world.
Ash-Shifaa’.
Mau’izatum Minr-Rabbikum,
Wa Shi-faa-unl-Limaa Fis-Sudoor (10:57).
A book that calls out to us and addresses us directly, as no other book does.
As “Yaa Ayyuhannas!” (2:21).
As “Yaa Ayyhal Insaan!” (82:6).
As “Yaa Ayyuhalladheena Aamanoo!” (2:13).
And as “Yaa ‘Ibaadiyalladheena Asrafoo
‘Alaa Anfusihim!” (39:53).
A book that talks to us about us.
Feehi Dhikrukum (21:10).
A book that talks to us about our families.
A book that tells us to work to save our families from hellfire.
Qoo Anfusakum wa Ahleekum Naaraa (66:6).
And warns us that our own families may sometimes keep us from getting closer to Allah.
Inna Min Azwaajikum wa Awlaadikum’Aduwwal
Lakum, Fahdharoohum! (64:14).
A book that continually reminds us about our appointment – our meeting – with God (6:154; 13:2; 18:110; 29:5).
A book whose very name is “Reading.”
Al-Qur’an! (17:9).
Or “To Read.”
Or “The Thing to be Read.”
A book that calls itself “The Book.”
Al-Kitaab (2:2; 2:176; 4:140; 7:2).
And refers to itself as Al-Furqaan (25:1).
The standard.
Or the criterion.
Or the separator and the sorter.
Between right and wrong.
Between light and darkness.
Between truth and falsehood.
Between success and failure.
Between victory and defeat.
Between those blessed by God and those destined to damnation and hellfire through their obduracy, intransigence and persistence in evil.
No other book is called any of that.
No other book did ever have a name like that.
Or content quite like that.
A book unlike any other book in the world.
Not just in its name, but also in its content.
A book that we were clearly told to read.
A book that we were ordered and commanded to read.
A book our beloved Rasul, Sallallahu Alaihi wa Sallam, left with us as a safeguard and guarantee for our future.
A book that has been running the world for the past 1400 years.
And from time immemorial before that.
And shall as long as the world lasts.
For, this book is that book.
Dhaalikal Kitaab (2:2).
Eternal, ageless, everlasting.
From that true master of ours.
Dhaalikumullahu Rabbukum (35:13; 40:62).
A book without a doubt.
Laa Raiba Feeh (2:2).
A book without confusion or contradiction (4:82).
A book that builds on what the earlier prophets and messengers of God had taught.
A book that offers humanity a common platform to live and work together.
A book that provides humanity a joint agenda of success in this world and salvation in the next world.
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