New Literature for a New Era

The Qur’an also has a chapter called The Women.
The chapter of Annisaa!
But none called The Men.

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The only book of its kind,
This Qur’an.
From 14 centuries ago,
Addressing women,
Making them part of discourse and discussion,
As full partners in life,
Sharing rights and responsibilities,
Equal and reciprocal.

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Only The Qur’an!
Nothing like it in this world!

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It is an amazing book.
This Qur’an.
There is none like it in the world.
Not in language.
Not in meaning.
Not in thought,
Not in content.
Not in form.
Not in style.
Not in language.

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Not in the range of subject matter.
Not in the relevance of concepts to human life.

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Not in the way its concepts transcend time,
And the way they transcend limitations of space.
Holding out hope to every age,
And to every place.
And a powerful beacon of light,
For all times to come,
And for all places.

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A marvel!
A miracle!
A sign!
This Qur’an.
An Aayah in itself.
And each and every one of its passages and sentences an aayah.
A sign,
A marvel,
A miracle.

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And every clause and phrase.

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Valid beyond the coordinates of time and space.
A glaring contradiction in terms,
Yet no less true for being so.

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Free from the shackles of history and geography.
This Qur’an.
Rising above the laws of human specificity.
Transcending the bounds of custom and culture!

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Offering the unimaginable!
Doing the undoable.
That is what the Qur’an does.
Defying decay and obsolescence,
The invariant law of life.

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Even as the world plays catch-up.
Catching up to the Qur’an.

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For, that is what the world does.
For, that is what the world must.
And that is what the history of the world is,
Since the advent of the Qur’an into this world.

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Playing catch up.
Crawling up to where the Qur’an is.
Trying to reach where the Qur’an started.
Trying to do what the Qur’an has done.
Trying to go where the Qur’an has been.

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That is what the world does.
And that has been the history of the world,
Since the Qur’an came.

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The world,
Trying so hard,
With so much trial and error,
With so much pain and frustration,
And with such disastrous consequences for all.

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Trying to play catch-up to the Qur’an.
A little bit at a time.
Over 1400 years past.

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The Qur’an is a marvel,
Muslims!
A miracle!

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There is nothing quite like the Qur’an in the world.
So get to know the Qur’an.

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Try and reach out to it.
And reach out to God with it.

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Read the Qur’an a little,
Every day.
And share the Qur’an a little,
Everyday,
With others,
With whoever you will,
With whoever you must.

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Then, Muslims!

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Reach out to Hadeeth!

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Read Hadeeth at least once a day.
Even if it is just one Hadeeth a day.

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Qur’an didn’t come in the mail.
A very special man brought the Qur’an with him.
From God.
The Rasool.
The Prophet,

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As Muslims often refer to him in English,
Following the Bible.
The Messenger of God.

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This most amazing of humans,
And perhaps the most successful of all,
Who came with this most amazing of books.
This most amazing of messages.
This very very special man.
Who came with this very very special book.
The Qur’an.
Muhammad,

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Sallallahu Alaihi wa Sallam.
God’s mercy and blessings and peace and plenty
Be upon him.
And God’s salawaat and salaam.

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He showed how to read the Qur’an.

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He explained what the Qur’an meant.

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In word.
As well as in deed.

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For one,
And for all.

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And he showed how the Qur’an worked in practice.
For individuals.
And for the society.

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In private matters.
And in public affairs.

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And then,
Using the Qur’an as basis,
And as model and blueprint,
This man changed the world in which he was born.

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He changed the world as the world knew itself.
And as the world worked
And did business.

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And he did so almost single-handedly.
Starting out with no one but himself.
Alone!
And at times almost lonely.
And often harassed and persecuted.

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Yet, he did it.

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Changed the world in which he was born.

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And he did this in ways,
No one else has done it.

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Before him.

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Or since.

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Changing people’s thinking.
And people’s beliefs.
And people’s behavior.
Changing the way the world thought.
And believed.
And spoke.
And behaved.

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This man Muhammad,
May God bless him,
He changed the way humans lived and loved.
And the way they married and divorced.
And the way they treated each other.
The way they treated their husbands and wives.
Their children and parents.
And their relatives and neighbors.

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He changed the way humans treated the powerful,
And the way they treated the meek,
And the downtrodden
And the disadvantaged,
And the dispossessed.

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The way humans treated the rich,
And the way they treated the poor.

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He changed the way the world treated its widows
And its orphans.
The way it treated its friends
And its foes.
And the way it treated utter strangers.

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He changed the way people worshipped God.
As well as the way they viewed this world.
And the way they lived and worked in this world.

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Muhammad,
God’s peace, mercy and bounty be upon him.

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He changed,
Not only the way humans lived their lives,
But also the way they died their deaths.
And the way they were laid to rest.

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He changed a great deal about this world.
This man Muhammad,
May God shower his love, mercy, peace and blessings

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upon him.

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He changed,
Not only the way people made war,
But also the way they made peace.
And the way people organized their days,
And the way they went about their daily affairs.

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He changed the way people formed communities.
And entire societies.
And thus,
He ushered in a new era,
A new order in this world.
A new way of looking at things.
And a new way of doing them.

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Nothing less than a revolution,
A new world order, if you will.

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That is what he produced.
This man Muhammad,
God’s blessings on him.

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He changed the way the world looked at itself.
The way it looked at God.
And the way the world did its business.

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And he did all this,
Almost single-handedly.
Almost all by himself.

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Starting out,

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As it happened,
With none but a woman as companion,
His beloved and noble wife Khadijah,
Daughter of Khuwailid,
And mother to every believer since.

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This,
And much,

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Much, much more.

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All of this,
During his own lifetime.
Within one single generation.
Within the impossibly short span of 23 years.

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No more than 23 years!

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And thus he produced,
This amazing man,-
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Allah bless him!
He produced,
A major revolution in this world,
A most thoroughgoing one,

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In the world’s thinking and behavior.
In its social relations and political arrangements.
In its economic structure and educational outlook.

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A revolution
Unparalleled in human history.

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A revolution,
Unlike any produced by anyone else,
Anywhere else.

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All this,
At a time when the world had no newspapers,
And no radio,
And no television.

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At an age before the computer,
And the satellite,
And the Internet

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That is what this man did,
Muhammad,
God’s blessings on him.

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He changed the world,
Utterly and completely,
Almost all by himself.
In an impossibly short time,
In an impossibly difficult world.

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So, Muslims!
Find out for yourself,
What this man said.
In the Hadeeth.
And what he did in practice.
In the Sunnah.

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And how he achieved the amazing results he did.

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And reflect on what you can do,
To follow in his footsteps.
And to move his glorious mission forward.
In the time in which you live,
And in the place in which you live.

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And ponder on ways,
To bring that mission home,
To a new generation,
To a new age,
To a new culture,
And to a new world.

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In the East,
As well as in the West.

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In the North,
As well as in the South.

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And Muslims!
Do so as individuals.
And as groups.
And as a communities of believers in every place.

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And do so,
As a global, timeless community.
An Ummah!
The Ummah!
The ultimate community of all communities.
A community based on choice of belief,
And of behavior.
A conscious and considered choice.

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Not a community by accidents of birth,
Or geography.
Or pigmentation of color.

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But an Ummah.

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As The Ummah!
Global and timeless.
Above borders,

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Beyond boundaries.

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An Ummah,
By conscious, considered and rational choice.

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And then, Muslims!

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Reach out to your family!

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Man to woman.
Woman to man.

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Parents to children.
Children to parents.

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Older ones to younger ones.
Younger ones to older ones.

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Reach out with God,
And with Qur’an,
And with Hadeeth.

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Everyone in the family,
Try,
And reach out to everyone else in the family.

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Reach out with love,
With compassion and kindness,
And with genuine regard and respect.

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And help everyone in the family
To reach out to God.
And to Qur’an.
And to Hadeeth.

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For,
You cannot really be a Muslim,
If,
Being old,
You show no kindness to the young.
Or,
Being young,
You show no respect to the old.

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Islam is about rights,
Muslims,
As much as it is about dues.

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In Islam,
In the system that is embodied in the Qur’an,
In the message that Muhammad preached and practiced,
People have rights.

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Islam, therefore,
Is about respecting the rights of others,
And paying the dues you owe.
And claiming your own rights,
As best as you can.

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Doing all of this,
In the best way possible,
Using means that are the noblest and finest.

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This means,
Muslims!
Taking the highest road you can take.
In word as well as in deed.

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Islam is about what you owe,
And it is about what is owed to you.

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Islam is about responsibility and sacrifice,
It is about courage and confidence.
And above all,
Islam is about love,
And about service.
It is about justice and compassion.

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And then, Muslims!
Reach out to your fellow Muslims!
Beyond your own family.
Beyond the family of blood ties,
To the larger family of faith and fellowship.

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Muslims are but one family.
One brotherhood,
One sisterhood.
One extended family they are,
A kinship of belief,
And of behavior.

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Many a time stronger,
And longer lasting,
This bond of faith,
Than ties of blood,
And consanguinity.

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Colors and races,
Ages and genders,
Tribes and nations,
Geography and history,
Custom and culture,
Welded into one iron wall,
That is what Islam is,
Muslims!

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An iron wall,
Of common belief,
And common behavior,
And shared destiny.

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Under one loving God,
Compassionate and merciful.

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Under the banner of one loving Rasool,
God’s Messenger to humanity.
Following one divine book of guidance,
The Qur’an,
In one common language,
Arabic.

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That is what the fellowship of faith is in Islam,
The bond of belief,
The Ummah of Muhammad,
God shower him with his mercy!

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The Ummah!
Bound by one common mode of worship,
Salah!

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Facing but one common direction,
Qiblah!

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No less than five times a day,
In worship and prostration.
The ancient Ka’bah,
The Abrahamic house of God in Makkah!

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Observing one common month of fasting,
Siyam!
With but one way to begin the fast,
And to end it.

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Same common abstinence from food,
And from drink,
And from sex.

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From dawn,
Until dusk.

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Following the same common clock,
Of eternal time.

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Previous Article: Still Working For Allah – Some Frequently Asked Questions

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