April 24, 2005
“Qur’an!” Is The Answer!
Section: WRITINGS | 214 reads
We Forgot Allah, Allah Forgot Us
This is what happened, Muslims!
This is what happened to us.
And this is what happened to the world in which we live.
We Muslims forgot the Qur’an.
And in the process we forgot Allah.
As a result, Allah forgot us.
Nasullaha Fa-Nasiyahum (9:67).
So much so, he even made us forget ourselves
Nasullaha Fa-Ansaahum Anfusahum (59:19).
He made us forget who we are.
What our true identity is.
What our real purpose in life is.
What our role is in this world.
And what our duties are.
To ourselves.
To others.
And to God Almighty.
We turned away from Allah, and Allah turned away from us.
It is as simple as that, Muslims!
It is as simple as that!
Wa Tawallaw Was-Taghnallah (64:6)
Now tell me Muslims!
Pray tell me!
Those who forget themselves, and whom Allah forgets, what kind of people are they?
What kind of people will they be?
Bemused?
Lost?
Dazed?
Unsure of themselves?
Divided, bickering and quarrelsome?
Ignorant and foolish?
Weightless and worthless?
Miserable and wretched?
Hunted, hounded, harassed and set and preyed upon by everyone?
And now tell me Muslims is that not the lot of the Muslims today?
How can it be otherwise?
Read the Qur’an for answers, Muslims!
Read the Qur’an!
For, that is where the answers are.
Those who turn away from Allah have a miserable life in store for them, says the Qur’an.
Wa Man Aa’rada ‘An Dhikree,
Fa Inna Lahoo Ma’eeshatan Danka (20:124).
Therefore, Muslims!
If the question is, what is wrong with the Muslims today, the answer is, the Qur’an, the Qur’an, the Qur’an: The Muslims have abandoned the Qur’an.
That is what is wrong with the Muslims.
“The Qur’an!” That is the answer.
The Muslims have abandoned the Qur’an.
That is my answer.
If the question is, what is wrong with the world today, my answer is, the Qur’an, the Qur’an, the Qur’an: The world has turned its back on the Qur’an.
“The Qur’an!” That is the answer.
That is what is wrong with the world.
The world has turned its back on the Qur’an.
That is my answer.
“The Qur’an!” is the answer.
The Way Out for Muslims: An Immediate Return to the Qur’an
The only way out for the Muslims, therefore, is to return to the Qur’an.
Muslims must return to the Qur’an.
And do so immediately.
And do so in a thorough and comprehensive manner.
And do so with full sincerity and devotion.
If the question is, what is the way out for the Muslims, my answer is, the Qur’an, the Qur’an, the Qur’an: Muslims must return to the Qur’an.
“The Qur’an!” is the answer.
Muslims must read the Qur’an.
Muslims must run to Allah!
Fa-Firroo Ilallah! (51:50).
They must run to the Qur’an.
That is my answer.
“The Qur’an!” is the answer.
And what a direct and short answer it is.
And what a clear and self-evident answer it is.
And yet what a powerful, effective and life-giving and life-changing answer it is.
And how easy it is to understand and to put into practice.
Because that is part of Allah’s guarantee to us: that he has made the Qur’an easy for us.
Wa Laqad Yassarnal Qur’ana Lidh-Dhikr (54:17).
Not once or twice, but four times in the same Surah – Surah 54 – Al-Qamar .
Allah has made the Qur’an easy. That is what Allah says in the Qur’an.
Easy to read.
Easy to learn.
Easy to memorize.
Easy to understand.
Easy to remember.
Easy to teach.
And easy to practice.
All of this rendered easy by God Almighty himself, so that we will pay attention (54:17; 17:4).
So that we will take heed.
So that we will turn away from the path of self-destruction (2:195; 16:33) and embrace the light and the guidance that are in the Qur’an and that came directly from Allah (10:57; 5:15; 64:8).
That means, beginning today, beginning right now, and beginning wherever one may be, every Muslim must take one step forward – one small step forward – on a personal scale of getting closer to the Qur’an.
And thereby getting closer to Allah.
And closer to what Islam really is.
That is all we need to do.
And that is what we must do.
Take One Step Forward!
Take one step toward Allah.
Take one step toward improving our relationship with the Qur’an.
And with Allah.
That means those of us who have not set eyes on the Qur’an – who knows for how long! – must run to the nearest place where there is a copy of the Qur’an – and feast our eyes on it.
That means those of us who have not touched the Qur’an – who knows for how long! – must reach out to the nearest copy of the Qur’an we can find and touch it with our hands, making sure we make Wudu first.
That means those of us who have not picked up and held a copy of the Qur’an in our hands – who knows for how long! – must do so right away.
That means those of us who have not opened the Qur’an and turned its pages – who knows for how long! – must do so now, without wasting one more minute.
That means those of us who have not read a word, an Aayat, a passage, a Surah from the Qur’an – who knows for how long! – must do so at the earliest possible opportunity.
And must keep doing it systematically forever thereafter.
And those of us who never learned to read the Qur’an correctly – for whatsoever reason – must do it now. They must leave no stone unturned to teach themselves how to read the Qur’an correctly.
And those of us who do not know any part of the Qur’an by heart must set about memorizing parts, passages, Aayats and Surahs of the Qur’an systematically.
Memorizing as much of the Qur’an as they can.
And those of us who do not understand the Qur’an must undertake immediate, serious and systematic efforts to do so now.
And those of us who never thought of putting into practice what the Qur’an teaches, must set about doing so now.
That is all we need to do, Muslims! That is all we need to do!
That is all we need to do to turn our lives around.
And to make Allah’s world a better place for all.
All we need to do is to take one step forward – beginning today, beginning right now and beginning wherever a person may be.
One step forward in the direction of the Qur’an. For, the answer is “The Qur’an!”
Muslims May Have an Excuse
However, we Muslims may have an excuse – for the distance we have put between ourselves and the Qur’an.
There may be mitigating circumstances that apply to the terrible state in which we are today.
In the case of most of us at least.
We all know, most of us were never really taught the meaning of the Qur’an – the way it should have been taught.
We all know, understanding the Qur’an was never a priority in the Muslim community in which we grew up, going back who knows how long.
Study of the Qur’an was not, who knows for how long, a part of the Muslim culture where we came from – wherever it was.
So, Muslims, it is perhaps quite fair to say that most of us started out with a handicap – with an empty, blank slate.
Someone, somewhere along the line, forgot to tell us what we must do with the Qur’an.
Someone, somewhere along the line, forgot to teach us the Qur’an and its meaning.
Those who loved us – and the Muslim community as a whole – gave us everything except the Qur’an.
They taught us everything except the Qur’an.
Someone, somewhere along the line, dropped the ball, as they say in America.
Someone, somewhere along the line, fell asleep at the wheel, as they say.
But all that is in the past, Muslims!
All that is in the past.
That is what happened to us then.
Then is the past, and the past is dead and gone.
The question is what do we do now?
Now is the present, so, how do we take charge of our present?
And how do we save our future?
People don’t live in the past, Muslims! They live in the present.
And they move toward the future – and do so inevitably and inexorably.
So, what do we do to fix our present and safeguard our future?
That is the question, Muslims, that is the question: How to save our present and our future. Because there is nothing we can do about the past – except to learn from it and determine not to make in the future the mistakes we made in the past.
So, what is the way out for us?
The answer is clear, and there is only one answer.
The answer is “The Qur’an!”
The way out is the Qur’an: for us and for the world.
The way out for all of us, beginning today, beginning right now, and beginning from wherever we may be, is to take one step forward toward the Qur’an.
To read it.
To learn it.
To try to memorize as much of it as we can.
To understand it.
To teach it.
And to practice it.
For, now it is our turn to act. Not our parents’ or grandparents’ turn.
For, now everything is up to us. Not up to our parents or grandparents.
It is now for us not to drop the ball, regardless of who may have dropped it in the past.
It is now for us to be awake and not to fall asleep at the wheel, no matter who may have fallen asleep at the wheel in the past.
Because now we are in charge of our lives, not the ghosts of our past.
We do not have an excuse any more.
Allah has put us directly in charge of our destiny.
And of our present and our future.
He has put the Qur’an within our reach. For, the answer is “The Qur’an!”
Therefore, it is all up to us now.
It is now we who must step up to the plate.
It is now we who must march up to the wicket.
It is now we who must pick up the ball and run.
It is now we who must score the goals.
And pile up the runs.
And win the matches.
And lock up our success in our Dunya and in our Deen – in this world as well as in the next world.
It is, therefore, now entirely up to us to ponder the deeper meaning and connotations of the Aayats and passages of the Qur’an.
It is now our job to put some of what we read in the Qur’an in practice.
It is now our job to reflect on ways of putting all of the Qur’an in practice.
It is now up to us to wonder how in a span of 23 short years Prophet Muhammad, Sallallahu Alaihi was Sallam, changed the world using the Qur’an.
It is now our duty to figure out ways of doing the same in our time and in our own communities.
For the benefit of the world in which we live today.
It is now for us to figure out ways for making the reading of the Qur’an more correct, more proper and more meaningful.
In our mosques.
In our schools.
In our homes.
And in our communities.
It is now our duty to work out the mechanisms to make sure that all other Muslims in our community – and in our society and in our world – learn to read the Qur’an correctly.
They understand it properly.
And they practice it diligently, faithfully, enthusiastically and wholeheartedly.
It is now our job to work out ways to make sure every non-Muslim in our community, in our society and in the world at large has an opportunity to read the Qur’an.
To hear the message of the Qur’an.
And to reflect on the Qur’an if he or she chooses to.
And to embrace the Qur’an if it is her or his choice to do so.
Using the right and the freedom that God Almighty gave everyone.
A right and freedom, of which he made us – Muslims – the custodians and keepers in this world, even though we Muslims may be among the last to know it.
Or the least to care or do anything about it.
Therefore, Muslims, that is what the answer is.
The answer is “The Qur’an!”
To return to it.
To reclaim it.
To relearn it.
To learn to read it correctly and properly.
To embrace it all over again.
To immerse ourselves into it.
To teach it.
To understand it.
And to put it into practice.
And to help everyone in the world to be able to do the same.
We no more have an excuse for not doing it, no matter what may have happened to us in the past.
No matter through whose fault, or through what quirk of misfortune or negligence, we may have ended up the way we did – separated from the Qur’an physically, emotionally, intellectually and spiritually.
Taking the Qur’an for granted.
Putting the Qur’an on the backburner of our life.
Because, now it is all up to us.
Because, now we are in charge of our lives.
And of our destinies.
Because from now on, it is we – and we alone – who must answer for what happens to us in this world – as well as in the next world.
“Qur’an!” Is the Answer
And Muslims!
If the question is, what must the world do to get out of the troubles it is in, my answer is, the Qur’an, the Qur’an, the Qur’an.
The world must embrace the Qur’an openly and wholeheartedly, even as it has been, all along, stealing and copying things from the Qur’an secretly and surreptitiously.
That is the answer.
“The Qur’an!” is the answer.
That is the answer.
That is the one and only answer, regardless of the question.
That is the answer now and forever.
The Qur’an!
The Qur’an!
The Qur’an!
The answer is: “The Qur’an!”
“Qur’an!” is the answer.
END
© 2005 Syed Husain Pasha
Dr. Pasha is an educator and scholar of exceptional
talent, training and experience. He can be reached at DrSyedPasha [at]
AOL [dot] com or www.IslamicSolutions.com.
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