The Qur'aan

Qur'aanic Verse 47:24:

Transiteration:

24. Afala yatadabbaroona alqur-ana am AAala quloobin aqfaluha

Transation:

24. Why do they not, then, ponder over this Qur’aan? Or are there locks upon their minds to keep it [Qur’aan] out? ³

^{Study Note:}

3. Pease view this video in this context – or another. There are many more such videos availabe on youtube.com. You may also go through my article wherein it is explained how the Qur’aan virtually mentions blood circulation by means of which human body is grown and maintained. The Qur’aan discloses this hundreds of years before scientists discovered it!

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The above is an extract from yet-to-be-published Qur'aanic Studies Manzil VI.

Mohammad Shafi

Hadeeth

Qur'aanic Verse 7:185:

Transliteration:

185. Awalam yanthuroo fee malakooti alssamawati waal-ardi wama khalaqa Allahu min shay-in waan AAasa an yakoona qadi iqtaraba ajaluhum fabi-ayyi hadeethin baAAdahu yu/minoona

Translation:

185. Do they not ponder over the kingdom of the heavens and the earth and whatever things Allah has created, and over the likelihood of their own death being near? What hadeeth⁷⁴ would they then believe in after this?

Study Note:

74. This Arabic word has been used in the Qur’aan variously in the meanings of (i) story, (ii) discourse, (iii) speech, or (iv) the Qur’aan itself. In the context of the preceding sentence, in this very Verse, the word here could connote the broad statement as under:

The orderly behaviour of the entire universe gives enough proof of the existence of a super-intelligent Being faultlessly governing it. When that Being can so control such a gigantic thing, He can obviously do the far less complex task of managing and controlling, inter alia, every human life. It is this Being – Whom we call Allah – that is guiding mankind in the proper conduct of their lives, through this Qur’aan. Every human being should grasp this Reality before it is too late. No one knows when death would come. It may be just round the corner.

But the word hadeeth came to acquire another meaning after the completion of the revelation of the Qur’aan, and the departure of the Prophet from this world. Centuries after the death of the Prophet, his orally reported sayings, and those of his companions, came to be recorded in writing. And these recorded sayings came to be known as ahaadeeth (plural of hadeeth). Allah Almighty knows all about the future. And at the time of the revelation of this Verse, He was aware of this future meaning of the term hadeeth. He (Allah), in that sense, is disapprovingly hinting here at future generations of the Muslim Ummah believing in such man-influenced, error-prone ahaadeeth in preference to the well-explained teachings in the Qur’aan, which can also be taken as referred to by the pronoun hu in baAAdahu of the Arabic text. The Verse is thus telling us categorically that the Qur’aan is the best hadeeth; one need not go after other ahaadeeth. 

The Atheist

The Atheist

Who made the clock on the wall?

Or who made the tennis ball?

The atheist has no hesitation

That these are things of creation

Who then created the earth?

None, he answers without mirth

And who did create universe so vast

That its enormity makes man aghast?

No, no, none, cries the atheist

I believe in God, not the least

The earth, the universe, just happened all

God is a creation of minds small

When told: every effect does have a cause

The atheist asks, after a pause:

Who created God then

And who created God's creator, and when?

A beginning does have every effect

If you, O atheist, would but reflect!

But God - an effect He is not

He has no beginning slot

HE always has been and always will be

HE is not a creature like honeybee

If God be there, the atheist says,

Why games of cruelty He plays?

Why are innocents cruelly killed

While poor suffer, coffers of rich get filled?

The atheist speaks like frog in well

On questions unknown does he dwell

What knows he about things outside

His narrow well-view, worldwide

What knows he about child that dies

In distant land, or why there a woman cries

Individually, or collectively, no man

Knows the reasons fully, nor can

Reasons are known to one Entity

And to none else, of a certainty

That Entity is the Creator of all

Whom the atheist doesn't call

Poor fellow's bound to have a great fall

For, refused he has to open

Basic objective of life human.

Mohammad Shafi

Following Fathers' Footsteps

Qur'aanic Verse 37:70:

Transliteration:

70. Fahum AAala atharihim yuhraAAoona

Translation:

70. So they hasten to follow in their (fathers’) footsteps.⁴

^{Study Note:}

4. This is the bane of our modern society as well. Right or wrong, people tend to follow their fathers’ footsteps. Muslims in the Indian subcontinent insist on visiting and praying at dead saints’ tombs because their fathers’ did so. They won’t listen if anyone tells them that their acts smack of shirk in Qur’aanic light.

The above is an extract from yet-to-be-published Qur'aanic Studies Manzil VI.

Mohammad Shafi