The Qur’an--Its Message and Merits

 

The Qur’an is the Book of God revealed to Prophet Muhammad (peace be on him), the Last Prophet of God. It is a confirmation and completion of the earlier Books of God revealed to other Prophets before him. It is the duty of Muslims to believe in all these Books as revealed Messages from God. But uncorrupted copies of these earlier Holy Books are unavailable. Because of the passage of time and the bad conditions of preservation, they have undergone changes.

The Qur’an’s story is very different from this. Verses after verses of the Qur’an were revealed to Prophet Muhammad (peace be on him), in the course of 23 years of his life. As soon as he received these verses, he dictated them to his disciples, who not only wrote them down, but also tried to learn them by heart. There were so many people who had memorized the Qur’an among his disciples. From the first day of its revelation, as it were, the Qur’an was in the hands and hearts of the people.

Before the death of the Prophet, the whole of the Qur’an was written down, examined and verified by the Prophet. From that time onwards, it has remained safe from corruption as several copies of it were in the possession of the Muslims. So it was not possible to make any changes to its verses, even if someone wanted to do so.

It is a widely acknowledged fact that the Qur’an is the most frequently read book. Muslims read passages of the Qur’an five times daily as part of their ritual prayer. Besides, they read it early in the morning, as God has recommended its reading at that time. So pious Muslims have been reading this Holy Book everyday repeatedly from the Prophet’s time to the present. This is God’s own plan of keeping the Qur’an safe from corruption.: “Certainly, it was We Who revealed the Reminder (the Qur’an) and certainly, We shall preserve it.” (Holy Qur’an)

One of the wonderful aspects of the Qur'an is that even though it was revealed 14 centuries ago, it incorporates principles and formulations relevant for all time. This means that the Qur'an is not a book like other books. It is unique in its content, its form, its language and tone. Any outsider who has known Islam by hearsay may try to study Islam first by trying to read it, of course in translation. The first thing that he will notice is that it is no ancient book as expected. Another thing he will notice is that this book is not the book of a Desert Arab, as he might call the Prophet. It is true that there are references to desert life in it. But the book deals with life of humanity under any circumstances, anywhere, any time.

One of the miracles of the Qur'an, which was revealed 14 centuries ago is the fact that it can be read and understood by the Arabic-speaking people living today. Every language undergoes changes as time passes, and a hundred or two hundred years is long enough for a language to undergo substantial changes. The English of 600 years ago, sounds an entirely different language from the English of today; this is well-known to anyone who has tried to read Chaucer in the original. Chaucer: an English poet who lived six centuries ago). If that is so, what about the Arabic of the Hijaz region, spoken fourteen centuries ago?

Anyone who knows the rudiments of the history of languages knows that logically it should be impossible for the Arabic-speaking peoples of today to read and understand a book fourteen centuries old. And yet, everyday, every hour, every minute, in fact every second of the 24 hours of the 365 days of every year of the past centuries has been alive with the reading and study of the Qur'anic verses. And it goes on into the future. The volume and scope of it multiplies in every imaginable way with the arrival of the multimedia.

Thus we see that the Qur'an is the ever-present miracle of Prophet Muhammad (peace be upon him), rivaling all other miracles so far. Add to this the astounding fact that, in spite of all the hostile propaganda unleashed against Islam by some of the most powerful organizations in the world today, Islam is yet the fastest growing religion now, by all estimates, whether conservative or liberal.

Muslim or not, shouldn’t one read and study the Qur'an and check whether its ideas are relevant to our information-crazy, hyper-tech world? 

Here are a few verses of the Qur’an in translation, which will give us a taste of what God purports to do through the Qur’an