We can now proceed to get some idea of the guidance and the worldview offered by the Qur’an. A simple way to do this is to turn to the opening chapter of the Qur’an. It is made up of seven short verses and is the most repeated part of the Qur’an. (The word for ‘verses’ of the Qur’an is ‘aayaat’ which really means ‘signs’ or ‘messages’ pointing to the Oneness of the Creator and the purposes of His creation.)
The surah is composed
of three parts.
The first part – verses
1-4 – describes the truth about God. He is the Maker, Owner, Lord and Sustainer
of all creation. With all His might and glory, God is, above all, good and
kind, full of grace and mercy to his creation.
He is also Master of
the Day of Judgement which points to a part of really which is beyond man’s
present perception. This day points to an existence beyond this present life.
It also points to the fact that man has been created with a purpose and that he
must answer to God for his life on earth. It also points to the absolute
fairness and justice of the Creator.
For all these
attributes and bounties, only God is worthy of all praise and thanks. Al hamdu lillaah
– all praise and thanks is due to God alone.
The second part – verse
5 – follows logically from the first part and describes the only proper and
acceptable relationship between man the creature, and God the Creator. It is the relationship between the servants
and the Served.Only god may be worshipped or served:
‘You alone do we
worship and You alone do we ask for help.’
Everyone who utters
these words must abandon the worship of all false gods, including his own
desires and inclinations if these go against the will of God.
The third part – verse 6
and 7 – registers the man’s need for guidance and help from his Maker and
Sustainer and ends with a plea and supplication: ‘Guide us the Straight Way.’
The rest of the Qur’an
is an answer to this prayer. The way of the Qur’an is the Straight Way.
The Qur’an presents
itself as a ‘guidance for mankind’ as a whole. It is not for any one race or
class of people. It is not for any one place or period in time. It is addressed
to all people. In particular, it is for ‘those who are conscious of God, who
believe in the existence of that which is beyond the reach of human perception’.
From the beginning, it puts man face to face with reality as a whole.
Yet, the Qur’an does
not require people to believe blindly. It is addressed to ‘people who think’,
who think about what they can see and hear and observe about themselves and the
world about them; about the earth and mountains, clouds and sky, the sun, the
moon and planets in their orbits, the alternation of night and day, or the
parched earth brought to life after a shower of rain. It asks us to reflect on
the beginning of our own life – from a drop of sperm mingled with an ovum, the
clinging of the fertilised egg to the wall of the mother’s womb, the growth of
this embryo, the formation of bones, the clothing of the bones with flesh and
after an appointed time, the birth of a new being. It asks us to reflect on the
growth of this new being to maturity and strength and then its decline into old
age, weakness and death. It asks us to watch and think about our eyes, our
tongue, our lips. It asks us to think about the seeds we sow, the water we
drink, the food we eat, the fire we light, and all the other innumerable ‘signs’
of creation and the innumerable instances of the Creator’s grace and bounty.
Again and again, we are
asked to observe and think and question: Why should man believe in a single
Creator who is Eternal, Beneficent, Compassionate, Loving, Just? Why shouldn’t
it be one or several of the many other gods in which people believe? Why
shouldn’t the arguments of the materialists and those who deny the existence of
God not be correct? Almost the whole of the Qur’an is addressed to these
questions.
Throughout, the Qur’an
stresses knowledge and reason as the valid way to faith and God consciousness.
It says: ‘Only those of the servants of God who possess knowledge are the ones
who truly stand in awe of Him’ (35: 28).