December 27, 2010
You Must Read That Book!
Section: WRITINGS | 538 reads
You Must Read That Book!
Dr. Pasha
Regardless of Who You Are, or What You Do,
You Must Still Read This Book!
I don’t know who you are. I don’t know what or where you are. And I have no idea what you do or don’t do. But regardless of all that, I would still like you to read that book – the most amazing and incomparable Al-Qur’an!
For, there is no other book quite like that book in the world! There never was, and there never will be. Not to belittle, disparage or put any other book down. But simply to tell you that this is a book you owe it to yourself to read.
This book – I mean that book – is quite unlike any other book you may have read.
I am repeatedly saying “that” book for one simple but powerful reason: that is how that book describes itself – right at the outset: starting out with the fourth letter of its second of 114 chapters. That is why I am alternating between the expressions “this” book and “that” book.
Are You a Christian, a Jew, a Muslim, a Hindu, a Buddhist?
I mean, are you a Christian? Are you a Hindu, a Jew, a Muslim or a Buddhist?
Are you an Atheist, an Agnostic, an Animist or a Deist? Or are you, maybe, something entirely different?
Are you male or female? Are you young or old? Are you rich or poor or something in the middle?
Are you white, black, brown, yellow, red or a happy or unhappy mixture of all of the above?
Are you a student, a university graduate, a holder of what people call a terminal degree, or a high-school dropout? Or are you a physician, engineer, lawyer, government servant, public official, business person or someone looking for a job?
And what are your political leanings? I mean are you a conservative, liberal, communist, capitalist or something a bit more exotic?
And are you from the East, from the West, from the North, from the South, or from somewhere else?
Boxes and Bins, Cells and Compartments that Divide Us
In which of these wonderful little bins and boxes have you chosen to lock yourself up and let them determine and guide your life and destiny. All the little cells and cabins human beings have devised to sort and separate themselves from one another! And then to use those very same bins and boxes, cells and compartments, as the basis and rationale for their mutual rivalries, quarrels, fights, jealousies, hatreds, depredations, dominations and exploitations!
What a way to live – the way we humans have chosen to define ourselves and live our life! But that is us humans. That is who we are and that is how we live.
These are all the familiar roles people embrace; all the delectable identities people impose upon themselves and others; and all the games people play – as individuals, groups, organizations, nations and societies – for all the various reasons they play them for!
But regardless of who or what you are, and regardless of what you do or don’t do – that is, regardless of your belief or behavior, and regardless of your race or religion, gender or age, nationality or language, education or occupation, habits or lifestyle, culture or ethnicity, views or ideologies, likes or dislikes, phobias or obsessions, anathemas or penchants and proclivities – you must still read this book.
I mean that book. This most amazing Al-Qur’an!
Love, Respect and a Little Bit of Pain
You must absolutely, positively read this book. For, there is no other book like it. There never was and there never will be.
Not to insult or attack any other book that you may hold in esteem, but purely to share with you the fact that this book may be quite unique and different from any and everything else that you may have read. And to tell you, with nothing but love and respect, and a little bit of pain, in my heart, that you owe it to yourself to get a first-hand acquaintance with such a book.
Love and respect because that is the least we owe one another as fellow-members of the human race. Pain because this knowledge should be the common and most inalienable right and heritage of every one of us, but it is not.
A Place to Turn to
Did you ever wander through the vistas of life looking for answers? Answers to all sorts of questions, from the most significant to the most trivial? Looking for ways to make sense of your surroundings, your environment and the entire universe – and your own place and role in it?
Did you ever wish there were some place you could go to, someone you could turn or talk to, something you could look up or read, where you would find the answers you were seeking; to relieve the pain you were feeling; and to alleviate the anxiety and confusion you were experiencing?
Where you would find the most authentic, true and reliable information – and advice, and help, and comment – on things that mattered most to you? Even beyond that, where you would see, hear and read God himself talk to you: directly and without an intermediary?
Where you will hear God’s own words directed at you personally, individually and often without equivocation and prevarication?
Too Good To Be True
If you thought all this was too good to be true, then all you need to do is read this book. This most amazing Al-Qur’an. For, this book is that book.
That book — Dhaalikal Kitaab!
That is what the Qur’an says it is. That is exactly how the Qur’an puts it. I am quoting directly from the Qur’an – from that book.
I don’t mean someone or something purporting to speak for or in behalf of God. I don’t mean someone relating to you what God supposedly said to them, but God Almighty himself, addressing you directly, in his own words and voice, speaking to you in First Person and addressing you in Second Person?
And doing so using the direct-address mode of conversation that you are used to all your life. Calling out to you from beyond space and time, saying: “O, You!”
And yet assuring you all the time that he is close – closer than you think; closer than your own jugular vein; and, always, close enough to hear and answer you when you call him.
Have you – has your soul, deep down inside you, in the very core of your being – ever felt a need, a hankering, a craving, an urge, a burning desire, an aching for something just like that?
If you have, then you must read this book. This most incomparable Al-Qur’an. For, this book is that book.
Dhaalikal Kitaab – as that book describes itself.
Call Me and I Shall Respond
“Call me!” God Almighty says to you in this – that – book. “I shall respond.”
You never had it so good. You never had that kind of an open, unconditional commitment from anyone.
No supervisor, no superior officer, no business tycoon, no CEO, no owner of an industry, none of the wealthiest and most powerful people around, no prime minister, no president of a country, no king or queen ever told you that or gave you that kind of an open-ended, unqualified assurance.
Think of the good old days, as they say, or maybe not so good old days really, when human beings owned other human beings as slaves and when some human beings and their societies and nations and races got rich trading some other human beings, often based on their race and color and place of birth, not for a day or two, not for a decade or two, but for centuries. Think of those days when humans owned humans and had complete control and domination over them.
Do you ever think a master told his or her – for there were women slave owners too – slaves the same thing that God Almighty is telling you in that book: “Call me, I shall answer?”
That is why you must read that book, for there is no other book quite like that book in this world.
There Is No Other Book Quite Like It!
That is right.
There really is no other book in the world quite like that book. All you need to do is read that book and find out for yourself. Compare it to all the other books you know and come to your own conclusions.
You owe that much to yourself, do you not? Your life in this world and your destiny in the next world is worth at least that much to you, is it not?
When you pick up and read that book you will find that it is a book that elevates and exalts you beyond anything you ever thought was possible.
In that book you will read and hear God talking to you directly. What could be a greater exaltation of a mere mortal human being than that? When and where did you have an opportunity and experience like that in your life before?
You will find that it is a book that answers all the questions that were burning holes in your heart for you can’t even remember how long.
That provides you that ultimate solace and comfort you felt you needed when all human efforts to reach you and sooth the turmoil inside you failed to do their job.
You will find that it is a book that provides you clarity when all attempts on your part, and on the part of all others, to remove the chaos and confusion prevailing in and around you never quite accomplished their goal.
A Million Candles to Light Your Life
That book will open up pathways before you that you never thought existed. And it will light up a million candles along those pathways for you to pursue your hopes and aspirations and the destination of your choice.
That book will provide for you a wonderful new direction, and rich new vistas, in which to point your life and channel your efforts, resources, talents and energies. It will give your life a whole new meaning; and give your existence and struggle on earth a whole new purpose and perspective; and give your energies a whole new boost.
You will find that it is a book whose reading puts a new spring in your step; a new tilt in your chin; a new smile on your lips; a new contentment on your countenance; a new sparkle in your eyes; a new confidence in your demeanor; and a new hope, optimism and courage in your heart.
You will find it to be a book whose reading and contemplation make your relationship with the rest of the universe around you one of calm communion; one of serene peace and tranquility; and one of supreme joy and bliss. And, at the same time, set your heart ablaze with the twin emotions of boundless love for and unimaginable fear of your creator.
And wrings from your eyes, believe it or not, steaming, cascading streams of intense and sublime joy, sorrow, contrition, remorse, shame, love, bliss, felicity and devotion, as God’s words begin to clear the cobwebs in your soul and burn away the darkness in your heart, and as you begin to feel the awesome and indescribable power, majesty, glory and presence of God Almighty near and before you.
A Book of Timeless Miracles
It is a book of timeless miracles and unending epiphanies – and of unimaginable psychological and spiritual exaltations and transportations of joy and sorrow – from beginning to end.
If you want, you can simply refer to it as a book of miracles. For, everything about that book is a miracle. In fact, that book is so full of miracles, cover to cover, that it refers to every one of its own passages as a miracle – as an indelible and timeless marker for humanity to discern the truth and come to its creator.
How else could it be if it is a book in which God Almighty speaks directly to all of humanity?
That is why I say there is no other book quite like that book. And that is precisely also what that book itself says about itself.
Higher Than Angels
For starters, this book will show you that your status in God’s eyes was even higher than that of the angels. So much so that God made the angels prostrate before you as a human being, when he created your progenitor, Adam – may Almighty God bless him.
That book will show you how God Almighty created everything in heaven and earth just for you. And how he made you – man as well as woman – his own personal representatives on earth.
It will show you how your existence on earth is an integral part of God’s grand plan for you – and for his world. It will tell you how, as a baby, God brought you into this world pure and free, and completely unburdened by any guilt and untarnished by any sin, to be able to perform that exalted duty: to be God’s representative on earth.
That book would lay down for you, right at the outset, the parameters of right and wrong, and good and bad, and would also provide for you in many cases the rationale for doing so?
That book would make distinct for you the boundaries and demarcations that God has set up to separate the lawful and the permissible from the forbidden and the unlawful for you and for the whole world, and would outline for you the consequences of breaching those boundaries that God established for your own good and for the good of this world.
A Divine Bridge to Other Revelations
In many ways you will find in that book echoes of some of the other books you may have read before, and that may contain snatches of divine revelations, whether it is the Bible or the Gita or something else. But only in purer and more complete form. And in the original text in which that book was first revealed to Prophet Muhammad, may God bless him and all his other prophets and messengers, 1400 years ago.
You will find that book to be a divine bridge to all the other faiths and divine books and revelations that came before it. As if someone had sat down and gone through those other books carefully and methodically and revised and updated them to meet your present-day and future needs and requirements.
It is a book that to a significant degree would place your fate and destiny in your own hand – based on your own choices and decisions; based on your own action and inaction; based on all your omissions and commissions; and on the knowledge you acquire and the judgment you use.
Be Your Own Judge!
That book would then tell you to go ahead and be your own judge and it will inform you that on the Day of Judgment God too would hold you accountable for what you do or don’t do in this world based on pretty much the same standards that you use in your own daily life and you think are the just and fair and correct ones.
It is a book that would clearly give you the right of choice, as a rational human being, to make up your own mind with regard to issues, and the choices you make, determine the grounds for what happens to you in life and after death.
It is a book that would give you the guarantee that not an iota of good you do in this world would ever be lost or discounted. It is also a book that would, at the same time, warn you that even the smallest amount of bad you do in this world may haunt you and catch up with you.
And all the time, this book would hold open before you the prospect of God’s unbounded love and eternal Grace and invite you to turn to him and repent.
That is why you must read this book, for there is no other book like that book.
Dhaalikal Kitaab!
Reprieve and Redemption
That book would at all times show you the way out of your predicament by throwing open for you the doors of repentance, reprieve, redemption and restitution.
Not by way of absolution of your sins through another human being like you, not through some magical formulas, but through a genuine change of heart and repentance on your own part.
You must read this book – that book – for in this book you will hear God Almighty call out to the sinners of the world directly and openly:
“O my slaves who have wronged themselves!
Despair not of the grace, love and mercy of God!
For, God forgives all sins!”
When did you ever hear that call that loudly, that clearly and quite in those terms? Not in a voice modulated and mediated through other human beings like yourself, but in God’s own voice that speaks to you directly and without intermediaries?
It is a book that would proclaim to you the unity and equality of the human race in terms you never quite saw or heard or understood before.
It is a book that would solve the mystery of the male-female dynamic – parity, equality, balance, harmony, reciprocity and complexity – in terms clearer and more powerful than you ever thought was possible. And all of it flowing out of its pages in unstoppable torrents of enlightenment for the past 1400 hundred years and changing and enveloping world cultures and civilizations as they moved forward from continent to continent and people to people.
Logic and Reason as a Pathway to God
You will find it to be a most remarkable book in a number of other ways too. That book would show you how to use your reason, judgment and common sense, not only to solve your practical problems in this life, but also would guide you to find God and reach out to his love, Grace and mercy, both in this and the next world.
It is a book that would teach you how to use your natural powers of logic as well as intuition, and all your skills of research and analysis, not only to make your life on earth better and more fulfilling, but also to work your way to God Almighty. That book would thus turn knowledge and science into your friends and allies on your journey to God and not make them hindrances and stumbling blocks.
That is why you must read this book – that book – regardless of who you are or what you do and regardless of whether you are Muslim, Jewish, Christian, Hindu, atheist or something else. For, you need that book in your life as much as anyone ever needed anything in this world.
For, that book is God’s own personal gift to you that he sent to you through a very special personal messenger.
Wait No More!
If you had wished and wanted and waited for any or all of this, and a host of other things of this nature besides, then wish no more!
And wait no more!
For, your wish has come true. God has granted you your wish. And that book is here! And that book is the incomparable, the most amazing, Al-Qur’an. A book directly from God Almighty that you absolutely, positively must read.
For, it is a book that may be quite unlike anything that you may have ever read or heard of before in your entire life.
Reach out and grab hold a copy of that book today – either in the original Arabic or in a translation of it in any language that you are most comfortable in. For, Almighty God has made that book available, ready and waiting for you.
And he did it from before you were even born, knowing, as only he could, that once born in this world you would need that book. You would need that book to navigate the murky and turbulent waters of life on earth as much as you would need your mother’s milk.
Or as much as you would need air to breathe, food to eat or water to drink.
God Prepared the Earth for You
God Almighty prepared all those things for you – did he not? And kept them all waiting for you before you ever set foot on earth – did he not? So also did he prepare and keep this most amazing book ready and waiting for you from before your birth, as a birthday present for you. The greatest, the best and the most valuable and useful one you or anyone else would ever receive.
So reach out and pick up a copy of that book today. And, as that most amazing book itself says, read!
For, that is what that book commands all of us to do: to read!
Iqra’!
All of this from 1400 years ago, when most people in the world neither knew how to read nor were many of them even allowed by the kings and lords and the religious leaders to read. Beginning then, this book ushered in the greatest cultural, intellectual and lifestyle revolution this world has ever known.
It was on the foundations of inquiry, liberty, knowledge and culture supplied by that book that the world built its latest march to science, culture and civilization over the past nearly a millennium and a half.
That Book Calls Itself “The Reading”!
That is right.
That is what that book calls itself. It calls itself, believe it or not, “The Reading”! And that too in the 7th Century – not in the 20th or 21st Century. And that again in the middle of the Arabian desert.
Or “Something to Read!”
And it calls itself “The Writing”!
And it calls itself “The Book”!
What a book indeed!
How can there be a book that calls itself “The Reading“? And which then turns around and calls itself “The Writing“? And then finally labels itself “The Book”?
And then says it is that book?
And all this 1400 years ago, when reading and writing were the prerogative of the rich and the privileged few. When reading and writing were allowed only for the royals, the clergy and the nobles. And when most of the rest of the people of the world were forbidden by law from reading and writing, at times on pain of death.
Can you imagine that? Did you know that there was a time when human beings were prevented from reading, writing and teaching by law and by use of brute force?
Till this book came along and liberated humanity and conferred upon all human beings, regardless of their birth or rank, the most inalienable right to read and write. And in fact commanded every one of them to read.
That is why you must read that book, because that is what that book calls itself: it calls itself “The Reading!”
It calls itself Al-Qur’an, which in the Arabic language means “Reading” or “Something to Read.” Or, simply, to read.
And It Did So 1400 Years Ago
What none of us should forget is this basic and most astounding fact: that book did all this, not yesterday or today, not a century or two ago, but all of 1400 years ago.
There is no other book in the world that ever called itself “Reading” – 1400 years ago.
And that book then goes to call itself “The Writing!” – Al-Kitaab. And there is no other book in the world that ever called itself that – 1400 years ago.
And that book also calls itself “The Book,” which is another meaning of the Arabic expression “Al-Kitaab.” And indeed The Book it is – a book quite unlike any other book that you may ever have read or will ever read! And there is no other book in the world that called itself that either – 1400 years ago.
And, mind you, these are not the titles conferred upon it by its readers, admirers and devotees. These are all words which that book itself uses to describe itself – all of it going back 1400 years ago.
So, pick up a copy of this most amazing book today and read it. For, this book is that book.
Read that book. For it is “The Book” and it is “The Reading”!
And it is “The Writing.”
All of it divine; all of it from God Almighty, the most loving, the most forgiving and the most caring.
A Personal Letter to You from a Loving God
There is another meaning to the Arabic word Kitaab that many people do not fully understand or appreciate. And yet it has the most profound significance and implications for all of us – and for the whole world.
Arabic language frequently uses the word Kitaab to mean letter – a written message sent by someone to someone else. This would make that book a letter sent by God Almighty to each and every one of us directly and personally. Now, that puts that book in an entirely different perspective and brings out its relevance to us and our lives in ways that are absolutely stunning.
That means we can’t view that book as just another impersonal document written for a nameless, faceless mass audience with open boundaries and unspecified demographic and psychographic parameters. What we need to do is to treat that book as a carefully crafted personal letter directed at each one of us individually. A letter that is most uniquely miraculously suited to the needs and requirements of each one of us for a successful and joyous life both in this and the next world.
With love from the maker and master of the worlds, a personal letter for each and every single one of us, man and woman. I don’t know how anything in this world can ever get better than that!
Asking Questions: The Stuff of Human Life
Much of human life is about asking questions and looking for answers, is it not? Answers to all sorts of questions that we can think of? Answers to all sorts of questions that haunt and plague us all the time?
Thinking, reasoning, reflecting, asking questions, looking for answers, seeking clarity and understanding, trying to make sense of what surrounds us – are these not the threads out of which the fabric of human life is woven?
Well, those are all the very things that that book is about. That book will tell you, as it has been telling everyone for the past 1400 years, that far from being a problem or a pain or a curse, these are all some of the noblest and most important and blessed activities human beings can – and must – undertake.
A Book that Encourages Thought and Fosters Inquiry
That is why you must read this book. For, this book encourages thought, fosters inquiry, welcomes questions and opens doors to answers.
Answers to all sorts of questions – questions that you were too embarrassed, confused or afraid to ask; questions that you did not even know had any answers.
Below are some questions that people ask from time to time. The challenge is to find the answers – or at least knowing where to look for them. Answers that would bring a measure of satisfaction, comfort and enlightenment to humans across the spectrum of their many divisions and variations.
The fact is that in life, often, we all need to find our own answers. In a sense, that is what really gives meaning to life – having questions in the first place and then being able to find answers for them. And if those answers turn out to be the right answers, then we are the most fortunate people on earth.
Questions Are God’s Flashlights in Our Heads
The good news is that the answers are all out there. Often, it is just a matter of looking for them – and of course finding them. And, having found them, being able to tell the right answers from the wrong and dubious ones.
And, then, having made that determination, being able to embrace those answers that we consider to be the right ones – and building the edifice of our life and the life of our families and societies around them. That is what human life is all about.
Questions, therefore, are the stuff of human life. They are God’s little flashlights in our bosom turned on and off as he gently moves us along the path to truth and discovery. And ultimately to himself.
Because in the ultimate analysis, God is truth. He is, as that book says, Al-Haqqul Mubeen – the clear truth. That means where truth is that is where God will be. And where truth is kept away from human beings that place then becomes the Devil’s den.
Therefore, the key to this new life of success and joy and bliss is the search on the part of the individual – unremitting, honest, tireless search, a search without fear or favor – and a burning, uncompromising passion for truth.
Thereafter, what often determines the course and outcome of human life – whether in individuals and groups or in nations, societies, cultures and civilizations – is not the mere act of asking questions, but the honesty and integrity of those questions and the humility and the courage with which we embrace the answers that turn out to be true.
God Is Truth
You must read this book, because this book will tell you that search for truth is the very purpose and essence of human life. And it is, therefore, the highest, noblest and loftiest form of human activity on earth.
This book will tell you that truth comes from God. Therefore, you must pursue truth relentlessly, regardless of who or what you are, and regardless of where it takes you.
Al-Haqqu Mir-Rabbika, says this book – truth is from your master! So, why fear truth, when it is from him?
Not only that, this book will further tell you that truth is God Almighty himself. He is Al-Haqq – the truth!
Annallaha Huwal Haqqul Mubeen, says this most amazing book – surely, Allah is the clear and open truth!
And questions are important, because questions give impetus and direction to our search for truth. They are like knocking at doors. Questions help open doors.
God’s Meticulous Plan
Answers come when we have gone through the search process; when we have paid the price in pain, uncertainty, integrity and humility; and when we are in the right place at the right time to receive them.
And that means when Almighty God knows we are indeed ready for them. For, as that most amazing and wonderful book, the Al-Qur’an, tells us God does everything according to a most meticulous and detailed plan.
Never late, never early, but always – always – just when the time is right. That is when and how God Almighty does things.
So, here are some questions that come to my mind when I think about the Qur’an, and when I pick up a copy of the Qur’an and read it. I want to send those questions your way. I want you to see if those questions mean anything to you, and if you can find the answers to those questions – your own personal answers I mean.
Because after all the only answers that matter are the ones that we find for ourselves. Not the answers that someone else may force upon us.
And then you can see where those answers take you and what you want to do with those answers.
So, here it goes!
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