Al-mu'min: Mohammad Shafi

2. But blind belief is not just that. We cannot see electricity flowing in a wire, but we believe a wire is live with electric current if a connected bulb lights, although we do not physically see the current with our eyes. We do not say our belief is a blind belief in this case.

3. We are certain in our belief in the unseen current, because of the effect – lighting of the bulb – it causes. So, blind belief precludes such cases wherein we believe in existence of even unseen things by virtue of effects these things cause.

4. Now let us consider one particular effect – out of innumerable such effects – that we can see: the coming into existence of a human new-born child. What is the cause of this effect? Parents? But, as anyone can see, they are just instruments used for bringing about the effect. They know nothing about the nitty-gritty of how a fertilised egg is transformed from a tiny speck into fully formed child in the mother’s womb, and made ready to face the harsh outside world.

5. In order to understand the conceptual enormity, the complexity and the ingenuity involved in this transformation, let us have just a rudimentary look at some of the processes the fertilised egg in the mother’s womb goes through.

6. The first thing that happens to the tiny zygote is the laying down in it of a rudimentary form of a network of vessels for circulation of blood. The heart is not yet formed, but there is a tiny bulge of the blood vessel located at its place. At the end of the first 3 weeks after conception, this infinitesimal bulge starts beating and the blood in the network of vessels starts circulating! The network comes in contact with the wall of the uterus when and where it gets nourishment and oxygen from the mother’s blood by osmosis. This continually ongoing nourishment is meticulously and methodically used in the development of the different parts – including the heart – of the foetus till it is transformed into a recognisable human child well equipped to face the outside world.

7. The mother remains consciously unaware of all the details of what is going on in her womb. Some power or force [Cause] other than her own self is just using her body to meticulously and gingerly fashion and bring into existence a new human being [effect] there.

8. That Cause cannot just be like that unconcerned electric current lighting the bulb in the example quoted above. Unlike the electric current, this Cause is superbly intelligent as to all the needs of the effect it is producing and superbly fashions it accordingly.

9. Mankind has named that unseen, super-intelligent, caring Cause as God. Belief in God cannot therefore be dismissed as blind or superstitious. The belief is the Truth based on reason and rationality.

Mohammad Shafi

Author of QUR’AANICSTUDIES – A Modern Tafsir

26^th September, 2015

Thursday, 10 September 2015

Jesus = Adam

Translation of this Qur’aanic Verse 3:59: Indeed, for Allah, the case of Jesus is like the case of Adam whom He created out of dust and then said to him "Be" and he was!

2. Jesus was likened to Adam as, unlike other men, they were both created without sexual intercourse between man and woman.

3. Besides this basic statement, Allah Almighty, it seems, ingeniously concealed in this Verse a proof – proof that the Qur’aan is genuinely divine and not man-made.

4. For, at the time the Qur’aan was revealed, over 1400 years ago – and in the manner in which it was revealed – only Allah Almighty could have made the statement in the Verse mathematically correct. Remember that the Qur’aan was not revealed all at once; it was revealed in portions over a long period stretching for 23 years! At the time of its revelation, moreover, mankind was bereft of any of the modern facilities of internet and laptops. It did not have even paper and printing press!!

5. It was in those circumstances that the Qur’aan miraculously made the statement in the above-quoted Verse mathematically correct in the sense that, throughout the entire Qur’aan, the word Eisa (Jesus) occurs 25 times and the word Aadam (Adam) also occurs exactly 25 times! I have myself verified this amazing fact. It is unlikely that those 7^th century Arabs to whom the Qur’aan was first revealed were aware of it. It came to light only recently, after the advent of computers.

6. The word Eisa occurs in Verses 2:31, 2:33, 2:34, 2:35, 2:37, 3:33, 3:59, 5:27, 7:11, 7:19, 7:26, 7:27, 7:31, 7:35, 7:172, 17:61, 17:70, 18:50, 19:58, 20:115, 20:116, 20:117, 20:120, 20:121, 36:60. And the word Aadam occurs in Verses 2:87, 2:136, 2:253, 3:45, 3:52, 3:55, 3:59, 3:84, 4:157, 4:163, 4:171, 5:46, 5:78, 5:110, 5:112, 5:114, 5:116, 6:85, 19:34, 33:7, 42:13, 43:63, 57:27, 61:6, 61:14.

Mohammad Shafi

Author of QUR’AANIC STUDIES – A Modern Tafsir

Saturday, 17 August 2013

Muhammad in Bible

Qur'aanic Verse 61_6:

Transliteration:

6. Wa-ith qala AAeesa ibnu maryama ya banee isra-eela innee rasoolu Allahi ilaykum musaddiqan limabayna yadayya mina alttawrati wamubashshiran birasoolin ya/tee min baAAdee ismuhu ahmadu falamma jaahum bialbayyinati qaloo hatha sihrun mubeenun

Translation:

6. And when Jesus son of Mary said, “O Children of Israel! I am the Messenger of Allah to you confirming what was there in the Torah before me and giving good tidings of a Messenger to come after me. His name is to be Ahmed [Praised One].”² Yet when he has come to them with clear evidences, they say, “This is magic manifest!”

Study Note:

2. Watch this YouTube video.

An extract from yet-to-be-published Qur'aanic Studies Manzil VII.

Mohammad Shafi

Tuesday, 4 June 2013

Landing on Moon

Qur'aanic Verse 54:1:

:

Transliteration:

1. Iqtarabati alssaAAatu wainshaqqa alqamaru

Translation:

1. The Hour (the time when the present world will end and the Hereafter begin) has drawn near and the moon is visited.

Study Note:

1. The Arabic word shaqqa has a number of meanings. Most translators have given it here the meaning of ‘split’ and thus attributed to Prophet Muhammad [peace on him] the performing of the miracle of splitting the moon in two and then rejoining the two parts. Such a miracle – if it did happen – would have indeed been a unique one! The Qur’aan does say that the earlier Prophets were endowed with the gifts of performing various miracles. But none of such miracles involved moon or any other heavenly body! All those miracles were restricted to things of this mundane world. This miracle attributed to Prophet Muhammad is preposterous on another count as well. Nowhere else in the Holy Book does Allah Almighty mention performance of any miracle – on mundane things or otherwise – as performed by earlier Prophets like Moses and Jesus. The Book, on the other hand, points out the fact that the earlier peoples had failed to follow their Prophets despite the latter showing them the miracles! The stress was therefore laid on Prophet Muhammad’s Ummah to look for miracles in the natural creation of their own selves and of all things around them, and thus attain to faith in Allah Ta’ala. That being the unmistakable tenor throughout in the Qur’aan, it was indeed preposterous for the Prophet to come up suudenly with such an unlikely miracle. Moreover, shaqqa alqamar is meant in this Verse to be the Sign for the approaching end of this world. There were definitely no signs of the approaching Doom over 1400 years ago when this Verse was revealed. But there definitely are such signs now when nation after nation is engaged in piling up weapons of mass destruction [WMD]. And this piling up was preceded by Man’s first visit to the moon in the late sixties [Watch the Video]. This Verse foretells that visit.

The above is extracted from yet-to-be-published Qur'aanic Studies Manzil VII.

Mohammad Shafi

Tuesday, 14 May 2013

A Star does Perish

Qur'aanic Verse 53:1:

Transliteration:

1. Waalnnajmi itha hawa

Translation:

1. By the star when it perishes!¹

^{Study Note:}

1. The Arabic word hawa has been used in Verse 20:81in the sense of something getting perished. But, here, the people living at the time the Qur’aan was revealed – and for centuries thereafter – had difficulty in understanding a star getting perished or destroyed. So those people rendered the said Arabic word as ‘sets’ or ‘disappears’. And they understood the Verse as alluding to a star that disappears from the sky as day breaks. But this obviously is a contrived rendering. At day-break, not one, but all stars [other than the Sun of course] disappear to the naked human eye. It is but an illusion. Now, when human knowledge has taken a quantum jump, we know for a fact that stars do get destroyed! Take a look at this video. Qur’aan is a living Book valid for all times till the Last Day. We cannot hold it hostage to the limited understanding of any people in the past.

The above is extracted from yet-to-be-published Qur;aanic Studies Manzil VII.

Mohammad Shafi

Saturday, 11 May 2013

Houris

Qur'aanic Verse 52:20:

Transliteration:

20. Muttaki-eena AAala sururin masfoofatin wazawwajnahum bihoorin AAeenin

Translation:

20. “Reclining on couches ranged in rows!” And We shall give them Houris⁵ with lovely eyes as companions.

Study Note:

5. Believers may well remember that this Arabic word hoorin is mutashaabih in terms of Verse 3:7. Its exact meaning is beyond understanding of us humans in this world. In terms of the said Verse therefore we should not indulge in our error-prone human opinions about it. Indulging in such an exercise on this word has already created a fitnah [mischief] among the people, Muslim as well as non-Muslim. Muslims particularly should remember that those eligible to go to Paradise would be incapable of doing anything wrong or indecent there.

The above is extracted from yet-to-be-published Qur'aanic Studies Manzil VII.

Mohammad Shafi