|
THE
QURAN: THE HOLY SCRIPTURE OF ISLAM
By the
Quran we mean the rhythmic verses, phrases, sentences and the
chapters uttered by the Holy Prophet of Islam, not in his own
words, but as the book of God, revealed verbatim to him, and which
he proclaimed as his everlasting miracle bearing testimony of his
Prophethood. He challenged with this Quran not only the Arabs of
his own time who doubted its Divine origin, but also those Arabs
and non-Arabs who would disbelieve it in the future.
God had
revealed His books to His Prophets before the Prophet Muhammad
(upon him be peace), which were sent down in the same way as He
revealed the Quran to him. God informs us in the Quran of the
names of some of the books He had sent down to Prophets before the
holy Prophet of Islam, namely the Pages of Abraham, the Torah, the
Zabur (the Psalms), and the Injil (the Gospel). We have not been
informed of the names of the books given to other Prophets, so
regarding other religious books, we are not in a position to say
with certainty whether they were originally revealed books or not.
The
Quran exists exactly as it was revealed to the Holy Prophet of
Islam
The Quran
is fully preserved and not a jot or tittle has been changed or
left out of it. It was revealed over twenty-three years on
different occasions, and during this gradual revelation, each
verse, sentence, phrase or chapter was written down and memorized
by many Companions of the Prophet. Thus the Quran was put into
writing and collected and arranged under the supervision of the
Holy Prophet himself. When the Prophet (peace be upon him) passed
away, all the verses and chapters of the Quran were in written
form and in the memories of many Companions. At the battle of
Yamama, which took place during the caliphate of Abu Bakr, the
first Caliph, seventy of the Companions who knew the Quran by
heart were martyred, and Umar, in fear that the Quran might be
lost, went to the Caliph and counseled him to collect the Quran
into a complete book. Abu Bakr instructed Zayd Ibn Thabit to
undertake this task, and it was announced that whosoever had the
whole Quran, or any part of it, with him should produce it.
Then chapters of the Quran were collected from the pieces of
wood, bones, and pieces of leather, and they were all compared
with the memories of the living reciters. People used to come to
Zayd with passages and he used to accept a passage only when it
was supported by at least two pious, knowledgeable persons. It
should also be noted here that there were some Companions who had
written down the whole Qur’an before the demise of the Holy
Prophet.
The third
Caliph ‘Uthman ordered Zayd, Abdullah Ibn Zubayr, Said Ibn al-‘As,
and ‘Abd al-Rahman ibn al-Harith to prepare copies of the Quran,
and after this task had been accomplished he sent the copies to
the far corners of the State. In recent years, one of these copies
was found in Turkistan, and it was found to be a verbatim version
of what we have today. So the Quran exists exactly as it was
revealed to the Holy Prophet of Islam (upon him be peace); not a
word-nay, not a dot of it-has been changed. It is available in its
original text and the Word of God has now been preserved for all
time.
The
former Divine books available are only translations of their
originals sent down in languages which have long been dead
The former
Divine books were sent down in languages which have long been
dead. In the present era, no nation or community speaks those
languages, and there are only a few people who claim to understand
them. Thus, even if these books existed today in their original
and unadulterated form, it would be virtually impossible to
understand them correctly, and to interpret their injunctions and
put these into practice. Furthermore, an important point is that
the original texts of most of the former Divine books were lost
altogether, and only their translations exist today, and it goes
without saying that the translation can never be the same as the
original. Therefore, even if they had not been corrupted, this
would mean that we still do not have them in original. The Quran,
on the other hand, exists in the language in which it was
revealed, and this language is a living one; millions of people
speak it, and millions more know and understand it.
Many things
have been inserted into the former Divine books which are against
reality, opposed to reason, and which affront every instinct of
justice. The Old Testament, for example, depicts the Prophet Aron
as an idol-maker or idol-worshipper, David as adulterer or a man
of loose conduct, and the Prophet Solomon as idol-maker, idolater,
and a man practicing witchcraft. The Quran purifies from all
ungodly thoughts and actions Jesus, Aron, David, Solomon, and all
other Prophets from Adam to the Last One (peace be upon them all).
It expressly negates what the four Gospels affirm concerning the
crucifixion , resurrection and physical sufferings of Jesus at the
hands of the Jews. It denies the doctrine of sonship, the
incarnation theory, and the theories of transmigration of the
souls, and union with God. From the beginning to the end, the
whole book is full of wisdom and truth, with nothing unjust,
indecent and misleading in it.
What is the
Quran and how can it be defined?
The Quran
is the eternal interpretation of the book of the universe and the
interpreter of sciences dealing with the phenomena of creation. It
comments upon the visible and invisible worlds, and discloses the
spiritual treasures of the Divine Beautiful Names in heavens and
the earth. The Quran is the key to perceiving the hidden
realities behind the events taking place in both nature and human
life, and is the tongue of the Hidden World in the Manifest World.
It is like the sun shining in the spiritual sky of Islam, and is
the sacred map of the next world. It is the expounder of the
Divine Attributes, Names, and Acts, and the educator of mankind
guiding them to truths and virtues. It is a book of law and
prayer, and also a book of wisdom and invocation, a book of Divine
commands and worship, and it is a book which contains everything
to satisfy man’s spiritual needs.
The Quran
is the Word of God, the Lord of the worlds, and it has descended
from the High Throne of God, in which God’s Beautiful Names are
manifested at the highest level of manifestation. It is the
collection of the commands to mankind from the Deity of mankind.
It is the discourse of God to all the creatures. It is the
collection of all the favors of God, the All-compassionate, and is
the Divine message to mankind. It is the Holy Book of wisdom
containing all the principles necessary for man’s happiness both
in this, and the next world.
There is
actually no problem of a theological, social, economic, political,
or even scientific nature that the Quran has not dealt with
briefly or in detail, openly or by way of allusions or
symbolically. Its method of approach and presentation is unique to
itself, and never deals with a topic in the systematic way used by
any other author of theology. On the contrary, it expressly says
that it has adopted a special manifold method of its own which is
termed ‘tasrifi’, that is, the display of varities of topics
and the shifting from one subject to another, and then the
reverting to the previous one and repeating the same subject with
deliberation and purpose. It uses unique and rhythmical forms of
recitation to facilitate the understanding, and the remembering of
it:
We
have indeed turned about for men in this Quran every
manner of similitude.. (17:89)
Behold
how We turn about the signs, that they may understand.
(6:65)
The
matchless eloquence of the Quran
Verses are
linked with rhythm and symmetry of form to show forth the signs of
the Divine Unity. Thus the Holy Quran stirs the depths of the
human emotion and intellect to reflect on the unity in variety and
harmony in diversity. The Quran employs a particular rhythm in
each chapter and presents various topics in a variety of ways,
which disclose a unique beauty with matchless eloquence. The
attentive reciter and intelligent auditors experience what the Quran
itself describes:
God
has sent down the fairest discourse as a Book, some parts of
which confirm and resemble others, whereat shiver the skins
of those who fear their Lord; then their skins and their
hearts soften to the remembrance of God. That is God’s
guidance.. (39:23)
The Quran
challenges
Although
the Arabs of the Prophet’s time were highly intelligent and
practiced in poetry and eloquence, they were unable to produce
anything like the Quran. Likewise the hundreds of thousands of
literary men who have lived since that time have been incapable of
duplicating it. Indeed the Prophet challenged those of his age and
mankind at large, to join in hands until the Resurrection to bring
the like of ten chapters or even one. That they are incapable of
this is a proof of the Quran’s Divine origin.
If
you are in doubt concerning what We have sent down unto Our
servant (Muhammad), then bring a chapter like it, and call
your witnesses, apart from God, if you are truthful. (2:23)
This
Quran is not such as to be forged by (any one) but (it is
a revelation from) God, but it is a confirmation of (the
Scriptures) that went before it and (the clearest)
explanation of the Book, wherein is no doubt, from the Lord
of all being. Or do they say, ‘He (Muhammad) has forged
it?’ Say you: ‘Bring you then a chapter like it and call
on (to your aid) whomsoever you can, apart from God (because
He has sent it down), if you are truthful. (10:37-38)
Say
you: “(Even) if men and jinn get united to produce the
like of this Quran, they will never produce its like,
even though some of them to the others be helpers.”
(17:88)
No one has
been able to produce the like of a single chapter of the Quran,
even of the shortest one like ‘Abundance (Kawthar)’, and will
not be able to do so until the Day of Resurrection. The opponents
of Islam have always resorted to arms to resist the Quran, but
in vain. As a Muslim scholar has pointed out, if the Quran or
Islam had been resisted by argument, or science, or the power of
eloquence, it would never have been necessary to resort to arms to
repel it. As time passes the Quran becomes ‘younger and
fresher’ since its hidden unlimited treasures are disclosed one
by one. Islam is the only way of life under which the hopes of
today’s miserable humanity can be rediscovered.
BIBLIOGRAPHY
-
Said Nursi, Sozler
(The Words 1, The Words 2), Istanbul,1958
-
Suat Yildirim, Kur’an-i
Kerim ve Kur’an Ilimlerine Giris, Istanbul,1983
-
S.H. Nasr, Ideals
and Realities of Islam, London,1966
-
M.M. Pouya, The
Genuineness of the Holy Qur’an, Karachi
-
Suphi es-Salih,
Kur’an Ilimleri (Turkish trans.) Konya
-
Abdurrahman
Cetin, Kur’an Ilimleri ve Kur’an-i Kerim Tarihi,
Istanbul,1982
-
Toshihiko Izutsu,
Kur’an’da Allah ve Insan (Turkish trans.) 1975
-
Kur’an’da Dini
ve Ahlaki Kavramlar (Turkish trans.) 1984
|
|
