In the Name of Allah the Most Gracious and Merciful

Question 3a: Muslims  claim that  KORAN  IS THE  WORD  OF  GOD. IN the  first chapter  of  KORAN  it  is stated that " I BEGIN  THIS  BOOK IN  THE  NAME  OF  GOD  THE  COMPASSIONATE AND  THE  MERCIFUL"

The  question is who is this I ? Is it  GOD,  PROPHET  OR  MAN  ?
How can  GOD  say that  I  BEGIN  IN  THE  NAME  OF  GOD  ? KINDLY  CLARIFY
                  

Question 3b: It is stated that there are ten signs of doomsday to be established. Out of these 10 signs Iam not clear what is
 1)Daabba
2) Appearance of Yajuj and Majuj.
 Can you kindly explain these signs.

Your first question is about Quran.It is an interesting question. Quran is the Word of God. There is no doubt about that . I don't know whether you are standing to throw a few objections on Quran or you want to understand it, with open mind & open heart.If you are trying to do the former,I would suggest that you don't need to bother .Lots of western scholars ( called orientalists) have written heaps of books on that subject  & islamic scholars have given fitting replies. The only thing you need to do is to go through the library of books on that subject.

But, I take that you are a genuine person who is trying to understand Quran & got stuck on the very first line.

The right translation for Bismillahir Rahmanir Rahim is not I begin with...., I is not there, though many translators have used ' I '. The correct translation  would be, " In the name of Allah, most gracious most merciful."

This is a trivial point. As you will recite Quran  you will find  " Praise be to Allah,the Cherisher & Sustainer of the Worlds: Most Gracious Most Merciful; Master of the Day of Judgment."(S1,A2-4.) Who is saying that? Then it follows ," Thee do we worship , & Thine aid we seek"(S1, A5). Who is saying that?  Obviously, it is the humble human being . But, where the words have come from? From GOD, who has taught the human beings to say that. If He would not have taught us we would not have learnt it in any other way.

You will find different formats in Quran . In places God speaks as first person, " O mankind ! We created you from a single ( pair ) of a male & a female..." (S49 A13). Someties He is referred as third person, " He it is Who created the heavens & earth in six days..." ( S11 A 7). In some places it is mentioned ,"say',eg. " So say: O my lord! Grant Thou forgiveness & mecy! For thou art the Best of those who show mercy" ( S23 A118). And at some other places , the word say is not mentioned ,eg. " Show us the straight way" (S1 A6).That's the the way Arabic language is & was at the time when it was revealed.People at that time did not object to the language, although they did kept on blaming that the prophet is making it up himself. But this kind of objections that has been brought up in the later centuries by those who did not know the Arabic language very well, were not put at that time.  One must understand that Quran was revealed in Arabic,  addressing the Arabs at the first instance. So the language & the style of the language is the same as it was used by them , & then not only Quran was preservrd in its original form, but the language ,its vocublary, style were preserved as well.

So, in short, that is the way we have been asked to start, In the name of Allah, Most Gracious Most Merciful. Let me tell you a little bit more. in Quran Allah has ordered us , " When thou dost read the Quran ,seek Allah's protection from Satan the rejected one "(S16 A98).So all the muslims when they start reading the Quran they do say , "I seek Allah's protection from Satan the rejected one ",although it is not written there, & then we say, In the name of Allah , Most Gracious & Most Merciful, which you will find written at the begining of suras. Not only that , muslim say it before starting every good  & right thing, (one is not supposed to do any bad or wrong thing anyway). So it has become part of the habit, culture and the way of life that one remembers Allah and seeks His help and mercy. The guidance, that has  been shown through Quran is the greatest of all mercy.

If you have any doubt about Quran being the Word of God, then I would suggest you to read the preface of Quran translated by: Abdullah Yousuf Ali. If you cannot find it I can send you the  photocopy, If you give me your postal address. Here very precisely I will try to point out a few things.

#1: Quran claims to be the book of Allah, I will quote a few ayat of Quran and you will be able to find many others. S17: A105;  S126: A193;  S2: A176;   S3: A3;  S7: A 196;  S135: A1;  S2: A23. I can keep on quoting many more but you can find them as you will go through Quran. 

#2: God claims that "We have, without doubt, sent down the Message; and We will assuredly guard It (from corruption)" S15: A9; and historicallty that is a proven, there is no change in Quran and says ".....There is none that can alter the Words of Allah...." S6: A34. Not only that the arabic language itself has been preserved as well, so that the original words could be understood.

#3 "No falsehood can approach it from before or behind it: it is sent down by One Full of Wisdom Worthy of all Praise" (S41: A42). You will find that so far nothing that is in Quran has been proved as false.

#4 Presents the prophet as the medium through which the Quran was given to mankind as a humble human being and slave of God. For example "Say: " I am but a man like yourselves, (but) the inspiration has come to me that your God is One God...."(S18: A110)

#5 If you read the Quran, the history and the life of the prophet; you will find that on occaisions he had to wait for the revelation like ," Nor say of anything, "I shall be sure to do so and so tomorrow" (S18: A23). When the prophet said that he will answer the question the next day and it did not happen, because the revelation did not come.

#6 The foretelling in Quran has come true for example read S30: A1-6 and check the history.

#7  The Words of God have been collected seperately as Quran and the sayings of the prophet and his deeds have been collected seperately as hadith. Anyone who is well versed in Arabic can feel the majesty of the language in Quran.

#8 Quran has challenged the humanity and whatever help they can get to come up with ten Surahs (S11: A13), or even one Surah( S2: A23) ,(S10: A38). But so far the challenge has not been taken.

I do not want to go on and on , you will need to read a book on the principles of explanation of Quran to understand this subject fully. Finally I would like to draw your attention on (S2: A26)

which says "By It (Quran), He causes many to stray, and many He leads into the right path; but He causes not to stray, except those who forsake (the path)". so if you are seeking guidance with sincerity you will definitly get it, I pray that may Allah help you in your pursuit. I will be ready to help you in all my life.  Keep on firing the questions. You are most welcome.

Coming to your next question about the signs of the dooms day.

Before I reply to your particular questions I would like to make a note that these signs and foretellings  are only hints, the real picture will only emerge after it really happens. Quran and Hadith mentioned them in very short without giving much detail. Scholars have tried to put some explanation. One has to wait untill the real thing happens, they will be recognized by the signs given.

DAABBAH:

Daabbah literally means animal, anything that walks or crawls on the earth. In Quran, "And Allah has created every animal (daabbah) from water: of them there are some that creep on their bellies; some that walk on two legs and some that walk on four..."(S24: A45) In Quran this sign is mentioned , " And when the Word is fulfilled against them (the unjust), We shall bring forth from the earth a Beast to speak unto them because mankind had no faith in our signs"(S27: A82).

The scholars say that before the Doomsday, this Beast will come out and will talk to the people in their language..three different places have been mentioned where it will appear.. If you want any more details read the explanation of that ayah in Tafseer Ibn Katheer.

YAJUJ AND MAJUJ:

Yajuj and majuj have been mentioned in two places in Quran

1. "They said: "O Zulqurnain! The Yajuj and Majuj do great mischeif on earth shall we render thee tribute in order that thou mightest erect a barrier between us and them" (S18: A94)

2. "Until the Yajuj and Majuj are let through and they swiftly swarm from every hill" (S21: A96)

Most of the scholars have taken that yajuj and majuj are the same as Gog and Magog mentioned in the Bible (in the Old Testament) and the Revelations of John. I came across a scholar who has mentioned that in Rigved (Racha 22: saktha 4: Mandel 7), it says, " O lord save our places of worship from the destruction of Kok" and perhaps Kok is the same as Gog or Yajuj. In kalkipurana, Vakok has been mentioned with Kok, and it is said that their chariot will be off black colour and it will produce the sounds of rats , dogs and donkeys and their eyes will be slanted. Since I do not know Sanskrit I have not checked this reference. You can find about Gog and Magog in Encyclopedia Britanica. Most of the muslim scholars beleive, that Yajuj is the name of a nation that comes from the area of Majuj (probably Mongolia, it's original name is Mog which perhaps became Mog and then Magog). Abul Kalam Azad the first education minister of India had written a research paper on the subject but it is in Urdu. Basically what we believe is that this Yajuj and Majuj will take over and rule most of the nations. When the europeans colonized the rest of the world some scholars thought that they were Yajuj &Majuj. Some others thought that they are Chinese and Russians. When the Mongols attacked in the 12th century they were taken as Yajuj & Majuj, but only Allah knows when they are going to come and who they are.

I will suggest you to read again Tafseer Ibn Katheer explaining the above two verses.

Answered by Hafiz Dr. Ahsan Zafrullah