The Qur'an ("Qor-Ann")
is a Message from Allah (SWT) to humanity. It was transmitted to us in a
chain starting from the Almighty Himself (SWT) to the angel Gabriel to the
Prophet Muhammad (SAW). This message was given to the Prophet (SAW) in
pieces over a period spanning approximately 23 years (610 CE to 622 CE).
The Prophet (SAW) was 40 years old when the Qur'an began to be revealed to
him, and he was 63 when the revelation was completed. The language of the
original message was Arabic, but it has been translated into many other
languages.
Trial & Triumph
For three and twenty years, in patience, conflict, hope
and final triumph, did this Prophet of God receive and teach the
message of the Most High. It came, like the fruit of the soul's own
yearning, to teach profound spiritual truths, answer questions, appeal to
men in their doubts and fears, help and put heart in them in moments of
trial, and ordain for them laws by which they could live in society lives
of purity, goodness and peace.
Imprints on the
Heart
These messages came as inspiration to Muhammad
as the need arose, on different occasions and in different places: he
received them, and they were recorded by the Pen: they were imprinted on
his heart and mind, and on the memory of his loving disciples: as the body
of sacred Scripture grew, it was arranged for purposes of public prayer
and reading; this is the Book, or the Reading, or the Qur'an.
The Qur'an is one leg of two which form the basis of Islam. The second leg is the Sunnah of the Prophet (SAW). What makes the Qur'an different from the Sunnah is primarily its form. Unlike the Sunnah, the Qur'an is quite literally the Word of Allah, whereas the Sunnah was inspired by Allah but the wording and actions are the Prophet's. The Qur'an has not been expressed using any human's words. Its wording is letter for letter fixed by no one but Allah.
Prophet Muhammad (SAW) was the final Messenger of Allah to humanity, and therefore the Qur'an is the last Message which Allah has sent to us, humans. Its predecessors such as the Torah, Psalms, and Gospels have all been superseded. It is an obligation - and blessing - for all who hear of the Qur'an and Islam to investigate it and evaluate it for themselves. Allah has guaranteed that He will protect the Qur'an from human tampering, and today's readers can find exact copies of it all over the world. The Qur'an of today is the same as the Qur'an revealed to Muhammad (SAW).
The Last Book The Divine Presence in the text provides food
for the souls of men. The Qur'an is like existence itself, like the
Universe and the beings who move through it. It contains all the elements
of universal existence. It is in itself a universe in which a Muslim
places his life from beginning to end. The Divine
Word
The covenant made between man and God by virtue of which
man accepted the trust [amanah] of being an intelligent and free being
with all the opportunities and dangers that such a responsibility implies,
is symbolized physically by the stone by the stone of the Ka'ba.
Spiritually the record of this covenant in contained in the Qur'an, that
central theophany of Islam which is itself the eloquent expression of this
eternal covenant between God and man. The Qur'an contains the message with the aid of which this
covenant can be kept and the entelechy of human existence fulfilled. It is
thus the central reality in the life of Islam. The Qur'an is the tissue out of which the life of a Muslim
is woven; its sentences are like threads from which the substance of his
soul is knit. The Qur'an for the Muslim is the revelation of God and the
book in which His message to man is contained. It is the Word of God
revealed to the Prophet through the archangel Gabriel. The Prophet was
therefore the instrument chosen by God for the revelation of His Word, of
His Book of which both the spirit and the letter, the content and the
form, are Divine. Not only the content and meaning comes from God but also
the container and form which are thus an integral aspect of the
revelation. In other religions the 'descent of the Absolute' has taken
other forms, but in Islam as in other Semitic religions but with more
emphasis, revelation is connected with a 'book' and in fact Islam
envisages the followers of all revealed religions as 'people of the Book'
[ahl al-kitab]. A man who understands religion metaphysically and
intellectually must either accept religion as such, that is, all orthodox
tradition, or be in danger of either intellectual inconsistency or
spiritual hypocrisy. The unlettered nature of the Prophet demonstrates how the
human recipient is completely passive before the Divine. Were this purity
and virginity of the soul not to exist, the Divine Word would become in a
sense tainted with purely human knowledge and not be presented to mankind
in its pristine purity. Sacred Text, Sacred
Language
The form of the Qur'an is the Arabic language. Arabic is
sacred in the sense that it is an integral part of the Qur'anic revelation
whose very sounds and utterances play a role in the ritual acts of
Islam. The formulae of the Qur'an read in prayers and acts of
worship must be in the sacred language of Arabic which alone enables one
to penetrate into the content and be transformed by the Divine presence
and grace [barakah] of the Divine Book. That is also why the Qur'an cannot
be translated into any language for ritual purposes. The very sounds and
words of such a sacred language are parts of the revelation. Religion is not philosophy or theology meant only for the
mental plane. It is a method of integrating our whole being including the
psychical and corporeal. The sacred language serves precisely as a
providential means whereby man can come not only to think about the truths
of religion, which is only for people of a certain type of mentality, but
to participate with his whole being in a Divine norm. This truth is
universally applicable, and especially it is clearly demonstrated in the
case of the Qur'an whose formulae and verses are guide posts for the life
of the Muslim and whose continuous repetition provides a heavenly shelter
for man in the turmoil of his earthly existence. The text of the Qur'an reveals human language crushed by
the power of the Divine Word. The Qur'an, like every sacred text, should not be compared
with any form of human writing because precisely it is a Divine message in
human language. It is not the sacred text that is incoherent. It is man
himself who is incoherent and it takes much effort for him to integrate
himself into his Centre so that the message of the Divine book will become
clarified for him and reveal to him its inner meaning. The whole difficulty in reading the Qur'an and trying to
reach its meaning is the incommensurability between the Divine message and
the human recipient, between what God speaks and what man can hear in a
language which despite its being a sacred language is, nevertheless, a
language of men. But it is a sacred language because God has chosen it as
His insrurment of communication, and He always chooses to 'speak' in a
language which is primordial and which expresses the profoundest truths in
the most concrete terms. The Qur'an is composed of a profusion and intertwining of
plant life as seen in a forest often combined suddenly with the geometry,
symmetry and clarity of the mineral kingdom, of a crystal held before
light. The key to Islamic art is in fact this combination of plant and
mineral forms as inspired by the form of expression of the Qur'an which
displays this character clearly. Power
The power of the Qur'an does not lie in that it expresses
a historical fact or phenomenon. It lies in that it is a symbol whose
meaning is valid always because it concerns not a particular fact in a
particular time but truths which being in the very nature of things are
perennial. Of course the Qur'an does mention certain facts such as the
rebellion of a certain people against God and His punishment of those
people as we see also in the Old Testament. But even those 'facts' retain
their power because they concern us as symbols of a reality which is
always present. The miracle of the Qur'an lies in its possessing a
language which has the efficacy of moving the souls of men now, nearly
fourteen hundred years since it was revealed, as much as it did at the
beginning of its appearance on earth. The Book
The Book is first of all al-Qur'an, namely a recitation
from which its common name is derived. It is a recitation in the sense
that it is a means of concentration upon the truth for 'recitation' is a
concentration in which ideas and thoughts are directed towards the
expression of a certain end. It is also al-Furqan, that is a discernment,
a discrimination, in that it is the instrument by which man can come to
discriminate between Truth and falsehood, to discern between the Real and
the unreal, the Absolute and the relative, the good and the evil, the
beautiful and the ugly. Finally it is Umm al-kitab, the mother of all
books. As the 'Mother of books' the Qur'an is the prototype of all
'books', that is, of all knowledge. From the Islamic point of view all
knowledge is contained in essence in the Qur'an, the knowledge of all
orders of reality. But this knowledge lies within the Qur'an potentially,
or as a seed and in principle, not actually. The Qur'an is then the source of knowledge in Islam not
only metaphysically and religiously but even in the domain of particular
fields of knowledge. The Message
The Qur'an contains essentially three types of message for
man. Firstly, it contains a doctrinal message, a set of
doctrines which expound knowledge of the structure of reality and man's
position in it. As such it contains a set of moral and juridical
injunctions which is the basis of the Muslim Sacred Law or Shari'ah and
which concerns the life of man in every detail. It also contains
metaphysics about the nature of the Godhead, a cosmology concerning the
structure of the Universe and the multiple states of being, and an
eschatology about man's final end and the hereafter. It contains a
doctrine about human life, about history, about existence as such and its
meaning. It bears all the teachings necessary for man to know who he is,
where he is and where he should be going. It is thus the foundation of
both Divine Law and metaphysical knowledge. Secondly, the Qur'an contains a message which on
the surface at least is like that of a vast book of history. It recounts
the story of peoples, tribes, kings, prophets and saints over the ages, of
their trials and tribulations. This message is essentially one couched in
historical terms but addressed to the human soul. It depicts in vivid
terms the ups and downs, the trials and vicissitudes of the human soul in
therms of accounts of bygone people which were not only true about such
and such a people and time but concern the soul here and now. Every event recounted about every being, every tribe,
every race bears an essential meaning which concerns us. All the actors on
the stage of sacred history as accounted in the Qur'an are also symbols of
forces existing within the soul of man. the Qur'an is, therefore, a vast
commentary on man's terrestrial existence. It is a book about whose
reading reveals the significance of human life which begins with birth and
ends with death, begins from God and returns to him. Thirdly, the Qur'an contains a quality which is
difficult to express in modern language. One might call it a divine magic,
if one understands this phrase metaphysically and not literally. The
formulae of the Qur'an, because they come from God, have a power which is
not identical with what we learn from them rationally by simply reading
and reciting them. They are rather like a talisman which protects and
guides man. That is why even the physical presence of the Qur'an carries a
great grace or barakah with it. Divine Presence
The Qur'an possesses precisely a barakah for believers
which is impossible to explain or analyze logically. But because of this
Divine presence and barakah it endures from generation to generation. The
Divine presence in the text provides food for the souls of men. It is in
fact a sacred act to recite the Qur'an. Its reading is a ritual act which
God wishes man to perform over and over again throughout his earthly
journey. Existence and Creation
Taken as a whole, the Qur'an is like existence itself,
like the Universe and the beings who move through it. It contains all the
elements of universal existence and for this reason is in itself a
univerese in which a Muslim places his life from beginning to
end. In a metaphysical sense, the Qur'an contains the prototype
of all creation. Metaphysically, the Qur'an has an aspect of knowledge
connected with its text as a book and an aspect of being connected with
its inner nature as the archtypical blueprint of the universe. Multiplicity and Unity
The Qur'an corresponds to the world we live in from day to
day. Man lives in a world of multiplicity and before he becomes
spiritually transformed, he is profoundly attached to this multiplicity.
The roots of his soul are deeply sunk into the soil of this world. That is
why he loves this world and finds it so difficult to detach himself from
it and attach himself to God. The Qur'an, being like the world, is also a multiplicity
in its chapters and verses, words and letters. The soul in first
encoutering it discovers the same differentiation and multiplicity to
which it is accustomed through its experience with the world. But within
the Qur'an is contained a peace, harmony and unity which is the very
opposite of the effect of the world as such on the souls of men. The
external multiplicity of the world is such that in it man runs from one
thing to another without ever finding peace and contentment. His soul runs
from one object of desire to another thinking that it will find
contentment just around the corner. Yet, it is a corner which he somehow
never reaches. The Qur'an begins by also presenting to the soul the
possibility of running from one 'thing' to another, of running around
corners, of living in multiplicity, but within lies a peace and
contentment which leaves the very opposite effect on the soul. The Qur'an does present itself as the world but a world in
which there is not differentiation and dissipation but essentially
integration and unification. Signs and Realities
The Qur'an is the cosmos, the vast world of creation in
which man lives and breathes. God displays his 'signs' the vestigia Dei,
on the horizons, that is, the cosmos and more specifically the world of
nature and within the souls of man until man comes to realize that it is
the Truth. The Qur'an corresponds in a sense to nature, to God's
creation. That is why when a Muslim looks at a natural phenomenon he
should be reminded of God and His Power and Wisdom. Man should be reminded
of the 'wonders of creation' and constantly see the 'signs' of God upon
the horizons. This attitude which is one of the essential traits of Islam
is enextricably tied to the correspondence between the Qur'an and the
Universe. Human experience is based on a world and a subject that
lives in this world and travels through it. Man's existence can be
analyzed in terms of two realities, a world, a background, an environment,
and a being, a traveller, who journeys through this background and lives
in this environment. The Qur'an again reflects this reality. The chapters of
the Book are like worlds and we who read them like the traveller
journeying through them. Or from another point of view the chapters are
like the worlds, or realms, and the verses like the subject passing
through them. In this aspect as in so many other essential ones the Qur'an
corresponds to the very structure of reality; it corresponds in its
external and inward aspects to all degrees of reality and knowledge, of
being and intellection, whether it be practical or theoretical, concerned
with social and active life or with metaphysical knowledge and the
contemplative life. Besides containing the basis of the Divine Law, the Qur'an
expounds also a metapysics, a cosmology and an eschatology whose
expression and formulation is what it should be. Levels of Meaning
The Qur'an is meant for both the simple peasant and the
metaphysician and seer and of necessity contains levels of meaning for all
types of believers. Many people in fact who read the Sacred Book receive no
more from it than the literal message. This is because no sacred text
opens itself to human scrutiny and reveals its secret so easily. The
Qur'an is like the Universe wtih many planes of existence and levels of
meaning. One has to be prepared to be able to penetrate its meaning. It
is, moreover, particularly in the inspired commentaries, that man comes to
understand explicitly and in more extended form what is contained often
implicitly and in a contracted form in the Qur'an. The inner meaning of the Qur'an can be understood, but for
certain exceptional cases, only through the inspired commentaries each of
which seeks to elucidate and elaborate certain aspects of the
Book. This type of commentary which is a penetration into the
inner meaning of a sacred text is written by a traditional authority who
has himself penetrated into the inner dimensions of his own
being. Man sees in the sacred scriptures what he is himself, and
the type of knowledge he can derive fromt he texts depends precisely on
'who' he is. It is essential to realize that we cannot reach the inner
meaning of the Qur'an until we ourselves have penetrated into the deeper
dimensions of our own being and also by the grace of heaven. If we
approach the Qur'an superficially and are ourselves superficial beings
floating on the surface of our existence and unaware of our profound
roots, then the Qur'an appears to us also as having only a surface
meaning. It hides its mysteries from us and we are not able to penetrate
it. It is by spiritual travail that man is able to penetrate into the
inner meaning of the sacred text by that process which is called ta'wil or
symbolic and hermeneutic interpretation, just as tafsir is the explanation
of the external aspect of the Book. The Arabic term ta'wil contains etymologically the meaning
of the process involved. It means literally to take something back to its
beginning or origin. To penetrate into the inner mysteries of the Qur'an
is precisely to reach back to its Origin because the Origin is the most
inward, and the revelation or manifestation of the sacred text is at once
a descent and an exteriorization of it. Everything actually comes from
within to the outside, from the interior to the exterior and we who live
'in the exterior' must return to the interior if we are to reach the
Origin. When intellectual intuition is present and under the
guidance of revelation one can penetrate the appearance to that reality of
which the appearance is an appearance, one can journey from the exterior
to the interior by this process of ta'wil, which in the case of the Qur'an
means coming to understand its inner message. The idea of penetrating into the inner meaning of things
is to be seen everywhere in Islam, in religion, philosophy, science and
art. There is an inner meaning to the Qur'an not meant for
anyone except those who are qualified to hear and understand
it. The Qur'an possesses an inner dimension which no amount of
literal and philological analysis can reveal. And it is precisely this
aspect of the Qur'an that is least known to the outside world. Religion, Science and
Symbols
Qur'anic commentary was the meeting ground for the
knowledge derived from science and from the tenets of
revelation. The whole process of penetrating the inner meaning of the
Qur'an, of discovering that wisdom which alone is the common ground
between religion and science, is based on this process of ta'wil, which
does not mean seeking after a metaphorical meaning or reading into the
text. Ta'wil in the sense used by Sufis and Shi'ite sages is the
pentration into the symbolic -- and not allegorical -- meaning of the text
which is not a human interpretation but reaching a divinely pre-disposed
sense placed within the Sacred Text trhough which man himself becomes
transformed. The symbol has an ontological reality that lies above any
mental constructions. Man does not make symbols. He is transformed by
them. And it is as such that the Qur'an with the worlds of meaning that
lie hidden in its every phrase transforms and remakes the soul of
man. A Grand Purpose
The purpose of the Qur'an is to furnish guidance to
mankind so that they may be led along the path that would bring them to
their Maker in a state of complete submission to Him, thus fulfilling the
purpose of their own creation.
'This is a Book that We have revealed to
thee that thou mayest bring mankind out of every kind of darkness into the
light, by the command of their Lord, to the path of the Mighty, the
Praiseworthy Allah, to Whom belongs whatsoever is in the heavens and
whatsoever is in the earth' [14:1,2]
For that purpose it draws attention to every type of
phenomenon and thereby reveals vast treasures of profound truths, but all
this is in pursuit of its appointed purpose, and must be viewed and
appreciated in that context.
For instance, the Qur'an makes numerous statements based
on historical fact to emphasize different aspects of the guidance it sets
forth, but it is not a book of history. It draws attention to stages of
creation of the universe [21:30] and of man [71:14; 32:7-9; 40:67] but it
is not a treatise on cosmology or on the origin of species.
'He is the one who created the night and the
day, and the sun and the moon, each gliding along its orbit'
[21:33]
'He has constrained to your service the sun
and the moon, both carrying out their functions incessantly'
[14:33]
'He created the sun and the moon and the
stars, all made subservient to man by His command. Hearken, His is the
creation and its regulation. Blessed is Allah, the Lord of the worlds'
[7:54]
'He has constrained to your service the
night and the day and the sun and the moon; and the stars too have been
constrained to your service by His command. Surely, in all this there are
Signs for a people who make use of their understanding' [16:12]
Yet the Qur'an is not a primer on astronomy. It makes
reference to the operation of the law which revives the dry earth through
rain [7:57] and to the wonderful system through which the supply of sweet
and salt water is maintained in rivers and oceans [25:53; 35:12] but it is
not a manual of meteorology or hydraulics.
'He it is who has constrained the sea to
your service that you may eat fresh seafood therefrom, and may take out
therefrom articles that you wear as ornaments. Thou seest the vessels
ploughing through it that you may voyage across the oceans seeking His
bounty and that you may be grateful' [16:14]
Yet it is not a volume of oceanography, nor a guidebook on
pearl-fishing or deep-sea fishing.
'We created man from an extract of clay;
then We placed him as a drop of sperm in a safe depository; then We
fashioned the sperm into a clot; then We fashioned the clot into a
shapeless lump; then out of this shapeless lump We fashioned bones; then
We clothed the bones with flesh; then We developed it into a new creation.
So blessed be Allah the Best of Creators' [23:12-14]
This was revealed close upon fourteen centuries ago, and
yet the Qur'an is not a work on obstetrics.
It mentions that David and Solomon were taught the process
of smelting iron and copper [34:10-13], and this has recently been
confirmed by the discovery of the site of the furnaces and the system
employed for the purpose, but the Qur'an does not treat of
metallurgy. It warns that flourishing ancient civilizations, very
much more advanced than that of Central Arabia of the early seventh
century of the Christian era, were destroyed in consequence of the
disobedience and wrongdoing of the people [30:9] and the discovery of
their remains in different parts of Arabia and of the rest of the earth
has supplied confirmatory proof, but the Qur'an is no archaeological tome.
It states that when the Pharaoh who pursued Moses and the Israelites was
about to be overwhelmed by the rising tide and beseeched God for mercy, he
was told his last-minute repentance could not avail him, but that:
'We will grant thee a measure of deliverance
by preserving thy body this day that thou mayest serve as a Sign for those
who come after thee' [10:92].
This was confirmed by the discovery of his body in 1909.
But the Qur'an is not concerned with Egyptology. The prophecies contained
in the Qur'an continue to be fulfilled in every age. All this is in
support of the purpose of the Qur'an set out above.
Qur'anic Journey Knowledge & Understanding
Glory to God Most High, full of
Grace and Mercy; He created All, including Man. To Man He gave a special place
in His Creation. He honored man to be His Agent. And to that end, endued him
with understanding, purified his affections, and gave him spiritual insight; so
that Man should understand Nature, understand himself, and know God through His
wondrous Signs, and glorify Him in Truth, reverence, and unity. Free Will
For the fulfillment of this great trust Man was
further given a Will, so that his acts should reflect God's universal Will and
Law, and his mind, freely choosing, should experience the sublime joy of being
in harmony with the Infinite, and with the great drama of the world around him,
and with his own spiritual growth. Distorted Views
But, created though he was in the best of
molds, Man fell from Unity when His Will was warped, and he chose the crooked
path of Discord. And sorrow and pain, selfishness and degradation, ignorance and
hatred, despair and unbelief poisoned his life, and he saw shapes of evil in the
physical, moral, and spiritual world, and in himself. Reality & Illusion
Then did his soul rise against himself,
and his self-discord made discord between kith and kin: men began to fear the
strong and oppress the weak, to boast in prosperity, and curse in adversity. And
to flee each other, pursuing phantoms, for the truth and reality of Unity was
gone from their minds. Brotherhood of Man When men spread themselves over the earth,
and became many nations, speaking diverse languages, and observing diverse
customs and laws; the evils became multiplied, as one race or nation became
alienated from another. The Brotherhood of Man was now doubly forgotten --
first, between individuals, and secondly, between nations. Arrogance,
selfishness, and untruth were sown and reaped in larger fields; and Peace,
Faith, Love and Justice were obscured over masses of men, as large tracts of
land are starved of sunshine by clouds floating far on high. The Struggling Soul
But God, in His infinite mercy and love,
Who forgives and guides individuals and nations, and turns to good even what
seems to us evil, never forsakes the struggling soul that turns to Him, nor the
groups of men and women who join together to obey His Will and Law and
strengthen each other in unity and truth, nor the Nations that dwell in mountain
or valley, heat or cold, in regions fertile or arid, in societies that roam over
land or seas, or hunt, or tend flocks, or till the soil, or seek the seas for
food or oil or fat or gems, or dig out from the bowels of the earth precious
stones or metals or stored-up heat and energy, or practice arts and crafts, or
produce abundant wealth by machines of ingenious workmanship, or live a frugal
life of contemplation: for all are creatures of One God, and share His loving
care and must be brought within the pale of His eternal unity and harmony.
The Light of His Revelation
Joys & Sorrows
And so this light of eternal
Unity has shown in all ages and among all nations, through chosen Messengers of
God, who came as men to dwell among men, to share their joys and sorrows, to
suffer for them and with them -- aye, and to suffer more than falls to ordinary
mortal lot -- that so their message and their life might fulfill the eternal and
unchanging purpose of the Most High -- to lead man to his noblest destiny. The One Truth
Ever this eternal light of Unity,
this mystic light of God's own Will, has shone and shines with undiminished
splendor. The names of many Messengers are inscribed in the records of many
nations and many tongues, and many were the forms in which their message was
delivered, according to the needs of the times and the understanding of the
people; and manifold were the lives of the Messengers, and manifold also was the
response of their people; but they all witnessed to the One Truth: of God's
unity, might, grace and love. Ignorance & Misunderstanding
As the records of
man are imperfect, and the memory of man unstable: the names of many of these
messengers are known in one place and not in another, or among one people and
not among others; and some of their names may have perished utterly; but their
message stands one and indivisible, even though it may have been forgotten, or
twisted by ignorance, error, superstition or perversity; or misunderstood in the
blinding light of time or tortuous Circumstances. Ancient Wisdom
Many were the faiths in the
composite world of Western Asia, Northern Africa, and Europe, and many were the
fragments of ancient wisdom, saved, transformed, renewed, or mingled; and many
new streams of wisdom were poured through the crucibles of noble minds --
prophets, poets, preachers, philosophers, and thinking men of action; and many
were the conflicts, and many were the noble attempts reaching out towards Unity,
and many were the subtle influences interchanged with the other worlds of
further and Eastern Asia -- aye, and perchance with the scattered Isles of the
Pacific and the world between the Atlantic and the Pacific.
The Voice of Unity
The Unfolding
At length came the time when the
Voice of Unity should speak and declare to the People, without the need of
Priests or Priest-craft, without miracles save those that happen now an
always in the spiritual world, without mystery, save those mysteries which
unfold themselves in the growing inner experience of man and his vision of
God -- to declare with unfaltering voice the Unity of God, the Brotherhood
of Man, and Grace and Mercy, Bounty and Love, poured out in unstinted
measure forever and ever.
The Healing Light
And
this great healing light shone among a people steeped in ignorance, brave and
free, but without cohesion or union, simple and rude, but with an easy
familiarity with Nature, accustomed to Nature's hardships and her rugged
resistance to man, but dreaming of the delights of gardens and fruitful fields,
cruel, yet with a rough sense of equality, and wielding a tongue, flexible,
beautiful, and able to respond, with brevity and eloquence, to the sublimest
thoughts which man could conceive.
Love & Justice
Who were fit to be vehicles of this light? -- not men intoxicated with words and
mysteries, men whom politics had debauched or tyranny had subdued, men whose
refinements had ended in vices, who saw Nature only through books or artificial
conceits, or in moods which bred softness, indolence, or luxury, who spoke of
love and justice but practiced gross selfishness between class and class, sex
and sex, condition and condition; and had perverted their language, once
beautiful, into jargons of empty elegance an unmeaning futility.
Exclusive Arrogance
For the glory of Hellas,
and her freedom and wisdom had departed; Rome's great systems of law,
organization and universal citizenship had sunk into the mire of
ecclesiastical formalism, and dogmatism, and exclusive arrogance; the living
fire of Persia's prophet scarce smoldered in her votaries of luxury; in
India, countless castes and kingdoms cancelled the unity of Buddha's
teaching; the wounds of China had not yet been healed by T'ang culture; and
Japan was still a disciple of China.
The Spreading Light
Then, in the sacred city of pagan Arabia, shone a light that spread in all
directions. It was centrally placed for the bounds of the world of men's
habitations in Asia, Europe, and Africa. It made the Arabs the leading nation of
culture and science, of organized enterprise, law, and arts, with a zeal for the
conquest of Nature and her mysteries.
Summary
The Qur'an is both a source of law to guide the practical
life of man and of knowledge which inspires his intellectual endeavors. It
is a universe into whose contours both the natural and social environment
of man are cast, a universe which determines the life of the soul of man,
its becoming, fruition, death and final destiny beyond this world. As such
it is the central theophany of Islam, but one which would never have come
to men and never been understood save for him who was chosen as its
messenger and commentator to men. And it is in studying the life, teachings and significance
of the Prophet that the full meaning of the message of Islam as contained
in the Qur'an can be understood. The Noble Qur'an
in Other Languages
QUESTION: Note : PAGE 2 OF 3
how many versions of Quran muslims have ?
Answer:
only one version ..Arabic version (God words).
that any
translation of the Qur'an immediately ceases to be the literal word of
Allah,
and hence cannot be equated with the Qur'an in its original Arabic
form.