Way To The Quran
The New World Awaits You.....
As you come to the Qur'an, you come to a new world. No other
venture in your life can be so momentous and crucial,so blissful
and rewarding, as your journey to and through the
Qur'an. It is a journey that will take you through the endless
joys and riches of the words that your Creator and Lord has sent
to you and all mankind.
Here you will find a world of untold treasures of knowledge and wisdom to guide you on the pathways of life, to mould your thoughts and actions.In it you will find deep insights to enrichyou and steer you along the right course.From it you will receive a radiant light to illumine the deeper reaches of your soul.
Here you will encounter profound emotions,a warmth to melt
your heart and bring tears
running down your cheeks. It is crucial for you because, as you
travel through the Qur'an,at every step you will summoned to
choose,and to commit to Allah.To read the Qur'an is nothing
less than to live the Qur'an willingly,sincerely,devotedly,and
totally.The outcome of your entire life depends on how you heed
the call given by Allah.The journey is therefore decisive
for your existence,for mankind,for the future of human
civilization. A hundred new worlds lie in its verses. Whole
centuries are invlved in its moments. Know ,then,that it is the
Qur'an,and only the Qur'an,whichcan lead you on and on to success
and glory in this world and in the world to come.
What Is The Quran?
It is beyond man's power to comprehend,or to dscribe, the
greateness and importance of what the Qur'an holds for him.Yet,to
begin with, you must have some idea of what it is
and what it means to you ,and such that you are inspired to
immerse the whole of yourself in the Qur'an,in total
commitment,complete dedication and ceaseless pursuit,as it
demands. The Qur'an is Allah's greatst blessing or you .It is the
fulfilment of His promise to Adam and his descendants:
''there shall come to you
guidance from Me, and whatsoever follows My
Guidance no fear shall e on them, neither shall they sorrow'
(Al-Baqarah 2:38)
It is the only weapon your
frail existence as you struggle against the forces of evil and
and temptation in this world.It is the only means to overpower
your fer and anxiety.It is the only
'light' (nur) ,as you grope in the drkness,with which to find
your way to success and salvation.It is the only healing(shifa)
for your inner sickness, as well as the social ills that may
surround
you .It is the constant reminder(dhikr) of your true nature and
destiny, of your station,your duties,your rew It was brought down
by one who is powerful and trustworthy in the heavens-
the heart of the Prophet Muhammad, blessings and peace be on him.
to your Creator.It tells you of Him,of His attributes, of how He
rules o to you ,and how you should relate to Him,to
yourself ,to your fellow meny other existence.The rewards that
await you here are surely many,increasing manifold and
thehereafter.
Quran As a Living Constitution
Can the Qur'an again, be
living, relevant force, as powerful for
us now 1400 years away, as it was then? This is the most crucial
question that we must answer if we wish to shape our destiny
afresh under the guidance of the Qur'an.
There appear, however, to
be some difficulties. Not least of which has to do with the fact
that Qur'an was revealed at a certain point in time. Since then
we have traveled a long way,
made gigantic leaps in technological know-how, and seen
considerable social changes take place in human society.
Moreover, most of the followers of the Qur'an today do not
know Arabic, and many who do have little idea of the 'living'
language of the Qur'an.
They cannot be expected to
absorbs its idioms and metaphor, so essential to exploring and
absorbing the depths of the Qur'anic meaning. Yet its guidance,
by its own claim, has an
eternal relevance for all people, being the word of the Eternal
God. For the truth of its claim, it seems to me, it must be
possible for us to receive, experience, and understand the
Qur'an as it's first recipients did, at least in some measure and
to some degree.
We seem to almost have a
right to this possibility of receiving God's guidance in its
fullnes and with all its riches and joys. In other words despite
historical incidence of the revelation in a particular language
at that particular time and place, we should be capable of
receiving the Qur'an now (because its message is eternal),
capable of making its message as much a real part of our lives as
it was for the first believers and with the same urgent and
profound relevance for all our present concerns and experiences.
But how do we do this? To
put it very forthrightly, only by entering the world of the
Qur'an as if Allah were speaking to us through it now and today,
and by fullfilling the necessary
conditions for such an encounter. Firstly, then, we must realize
what Qur'an as the word of God is and means to us, and bring all
the reverence, love, longing and will to act that this
realization demands. Secondly, we must read it as it asks to be
read, as Allah's Messenger instructed us, as his Companions read
it. Thirdly, we must bring each word of the Qur'an to bear
upon our own realities and concerns by transcending the barriers
of time, culture and change.
For the first addressees,
the Qur'an was a contemporary event. Its language and style, its
eloquence anda rationale, its idiom and metaphor, its symbols and
parables,its moments and
events were all rooted in their own setting. These people were
both witnesses to and in a sense, paticipants in the whole act of
revelation as it unfolded over a period of their own time. We
do not have the same privilege; yet, in some measures, the same
ought to be true for us. By understanding and obeying the Qur'an
in our own setting, we will find it, as far as possible,
as much a contemporary event for ourselves as it was then. For
the essense of man has not chnaged; it is immutable. Only man's
externalities- the forms, the modes, the technologies -
have changed. The pagans of Makka may be no more, nor the Jews of
Yathrib
, nor the Christians of Najran, nor even the 'faithful'and the
'unfaithful' of the community of Madina; but the same characters
exist all around us.
We are humans being exactly
as the first recipents were, even though may find
it extremely difficult to grapple with the deep implications of
this very simple truth.
Once you realize the truths
and follow them, once you come to the Qur'an
as first believers did, it may reveal to you as it did to them,
make partners of
you as it did of them. And only then, instead of being a mere
revered book, a sacred
fossil, or a source of magic-like blessing, it will change into a
mighty force, impinging,
stirring, moving and guiding us deeper and higher achievements,
just as it did
before.