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Qur'an
and its Interpretations
Contributor: A. Ameli
- The Prophet's Miracle
Divine Prophets
have always been sent with clear signs, so that men might be
convinced that they had come from God. For this reason those who
have souls like polished mirrors and like clear transparent
springs, glistening and pure so that they can recognize these
signs commit themselves and have faith; like the magicians of
Pharaoh's time who, when they saw the amazing miracle of Musa (A.S.),
how the staff became a poisonous serpent, and understood that
this was beyond the power of a human being, believed in him and
ignored Pharaoh's intimidation.
The disciples
of 'Isa (A.S.) also saw with their own eyes the effects of his
breath when he breathed into the bodies of the dead, and, by the
will of God, raised the dead and gave them life. They were
attracted to him, and the souls and spirits of the dead were
given everlasting life through faith in 'Isa (A.S.). The Prophet
of Islam, who was the last prophet and the best and greatest of
them, and who brought an everlasting religion, the perfection of
all Divine religions, which will last till the Resurrection,
came at the time of his mission with clear signs from God, so
that he could be clearly a proof of the legitimacy of His true
and perfect religion.
* * *
The Qur'an, the
everlasting miracle.
Thus it was
that the Qur'an, the everlasting document of Islam, appeared on
the horizon of human thoughts and ideas. The torch which will
always shine at the apex of the great religion of Muhammad (S.A.)
at the highest peak of human intellects, as long as the sun
rises in the East. It is a brilliant divine sign whose lights,
like the rays of the sun, are essential in every era and century
and for always, for the continuance of life and the safeguarding
of the happiness of all races of humanity. Within this framework
and on this foundation, all that is necessary for man's guidance
has come. It elucidates the foundations of belief and also the
relation of man and God and the ways of strengthening that
relation in words with the softness of the clear waters of
murmuring brooks, and the firmness of the standing mountains,
attractive, eloquent and strong. It describes the social
responsibilities of man; it teaches the ways and the rules of
social behaviour. It puts an end to class differences and
unequal divisions. It wishes the highest in man and his
borotherhood and equality and his elevation.
* * *
Unequalled
Eloquence
Being
conversant with vocabulary and having a good knowledge of words
at one's fingertips is not such a great difficulty, but their
combination and arrangement and harmonisation in a style which
has regard for eloquence and fluency, and the construction of
phrases with a variety of expression yet in the same way in
which they arise in the mind, is the most important skill, and
it is something which is not practicable without observing the
narrow rules of literary exactness, and using craftsmanship and
eloquence. In the art of eloquence, it is said that for
eloquence in any speaking or writing it is necessary to observe
three principles.
1) Proficiency
in words and their meanings.
2) Power of thought and subtlety of eloquence.
3) Power of expression, or skill with the pen.
But it must
always be kept in mind that although all the rules and
requirements of eloquence may be heeded, no one can claim that
his speech or writing is always the best, and that no one can
parallel him. However, Allah the Exalted, Whose range of power
and knowledge is without limit, has so variously decorated His
words in the Qur'an with arrangements and harmonisations of
words that no one, be he the most eloquent man on earth, can
bring its like. And this is the secret of the eternity of the
Qur'an, the |everlasting prophetic document of Hazrat Muhammad (S.A.).
The Qur'an, according to the testament of history, shone at that
time when the Arabs were at the zenith of their literary
development.
The famous
poets and great orators, Imra'ul-Qais, Labid, etc., who are
still counted as outstanding geniuses in the field of
literature, wrote poems and gave orisons which sometimes reached
the limits of greatness and which were written on curtains and
golden plaques and attached to the wall of the Ka'abah. But,
with the rising of the brilliant sun of the Qur'an, all of these
lost their light and were eclipsed like the stars. The eloquent
Arabs were left bewildered by the eloquence of the Qur'an, which
was such that the enemies who were full of hate for Islam and
Muhammad (S.A.), who even took to the sword to wipe him and his
religion out, were unable, with all their efforts, to find even
one short mistake in the language and expression of the Qur'an.
* * *
The Enemies'
Judgment
It was the time
of Hajj. People were coming to Mecca from everywhere, and the
Quraysh were uncomfortable from fear that the news of Muhammad's
prophethood might have an effect on the new arrivals. So a group
of the Quraysh, with Walid at their head, gathered round them
and related what unjust things they could say about the Prophet
and thus dissuade the new arrivals from meeting him. Then when
they were gathered, one of them said, "Let us say this man is
soothsayer." "They will not believe us," said Walid, "for his
speech is not like the sayings of soothsayers." "Let us say he
is mad," someone else volunteered. "No one will accept that,"
Walid replied, "because his speech and behaviour are not like a
lunatic's." "We shall say he is a poet," they said. "This also
will not work, because Arabs know all kinds of poetry, and his
words are not like a poem." "We shall say he is a sorcerer."
"Sorcerers have special methods, like tying knots and blowing on
them, and Muhammad does nothing like this." Then Walid himself
declared, "I swear by God, the speech of that man has a special
sweetness and pleasantness. His speech is like a tree,
luxuriant, with steady deep roots and branches which bend down
laden with fruit. Thus we can say to people that his speech is
bewitched, because it causes separation between father and
child, wife and husband, sister and brother.'' To discover the
Qur'an's eloquence, and also to find out that it is at the
summit of eloquence, non-Arab speakers can turn back to the
sayings of those Arabs who were experts in the language of those
days and which are recorded in history, and also to present day
authors who write on this subject, and to the acknowledgments of
those specialists in this branch. Fortunately, from the time of
the Prophet (S.A.) till now, all specialists in the art of
Arabic eloquence have confessed to the unparalleled eloquence of
the Qur'an, and have been overwhelmed in the face of it. For
example, the famous contemporary Arab writer Abdulfatah Tabbarah
writes: "Arab history tells us of many famous men, knowledgeable
in the best poetry and prose, like Ibn al-Muqaffa', Jahiz, ibn
al-'Amid, Farazdaq, Bashshar, Abu Nuwas, Abu Tammam and so
forth, but all of them have shown humility when faced with the
Qur'an, and have of necessity confessed that the great Qur'an is
not of the words of man, but a Divine revelation.'' Dr. Taha
Husayn, the powerful contemporary Egyptian writer, said: The
Qur'an transcends the limits of prose and poetry, because it has
special qualities which cannot be found in any poem or prose. So
the Qur'an cannot be called poetry or prose, rather it should be
said:" It is the Qur'an, that is all."
* * *
Harmonisation
of its Themes
The speech or
writing of a person, however skillful or eloquent he may be,
will not be uniform in all conditions and circumstances. In
particular, the works which appear in the days of any author's
first writings are very different from the works which come
after many years and as the result of much experience and
repeated practice; the later works are almost always better. But
the Qur'an, in that it was sent down in the course of 23 years,
and in that it was revealed in various circumstances and like a
long flowing river passed over various stoney places, rapids,
narrows, valleys and plains, and witnessed many amazing events,
it remained forever, like a spring, clear and fresh. The unity
and harmony of the themes and the style and expression of the
Qur'an are a source for wonder. We see this wonder reach its
apex, and notice in the contents of the Qur'an that many
different subjects are dealt with, but the style and unity of
expression remain constant. It is clear that if someone, when he
reached a stage of mastery over a special subject, shows what he
can do, he may display brilliance, but if he undertakes
something in another branch of which he is not a master, he will
not produce any distinctive work. But the Qur'an shines to an
amazing degree in every area.
* * *
Scientific
Wonders in the Qur'an
Although the
first and basic aim of the Qur'an, according to what it says
itself, is only to guide man to the great road of contentment
and prosperity in the life of this world, the world of man, but
on the way, in pursuing this aim, it expresses many truths from
human knowledge in the natural sciences, in physiology and
astronomy. And this is itself another great sign of the wonder
of the Qur'an. For the Prophet, according to the definite
testimony of history, had never studied, grew up in an
environment completely devoid of human knowledge and science
(except literature), and was far from the centers of science of
those days - Greece, Rome and Iran. Now let us see some
indications of this wonder.
1. Meteorology
is a very new science. The knowledge of former people about the
phenomena of clouds, wind, rain and snow did not go beyond
conjecture and what they could see, and, generally speaking, it
had an air of imaginativeness and chance and was never
established on a scientific basis. Captains and farmers both had
their signs and indications for forecasting wind and rain, but
they did not really understand these phenomena.
Thus things
went on for thousands of years, till, in the 17th century A.D.,
the thermometer, and in the 19th century the telegraph, and,
gradually, other things necessary for meteorology were invented
and discovered. In their turn, scientists settled down to
research, till, in the first half of the 20th century, the
Norwegian scientist, Byerkness, succeeded in discovering the
general laws of the formation and movements of clouds and the
occurrence of storms and rains in all places. After him, the
extent of discoveries in this science, as in other areas,
progressed: the rain-bearing properties of clouds, how rain is
released from them, the formation and occurrence of hail,
matters relating to thunderbolts and thunder and lightening and
storms in tropical areas, air currents near the surface of the
earth, and other matters, till knowledge reached extensive
limits. But fifteen centuries ago, when the Qur'an told about
the winds and the rain and other phenomena, it was right when it
told us about the latest, newest discoveries of meteorology.
For example, it
has now been proved that it is possible for a cloud to reach
saturation point but to yield no rain, and for it to be just
microscopic particles tiny enough to hang suspended in the air
and not to fall and cause rain; however, by means of invisible
particles of salt which are blown by the wind from the surface
of the sea it will rain. Or, something more important; the
humidity in the air gathers round the crystallised snow flakes
which lie at high altitudes and which are scattered by the wind.
Eventually small drops and the first rain unite together, and,
as a result of mixing and colliding together in the wind, they
gradually become bigger and bigger, and because of their own
relatively heavy weight fall from the massed clouds. This is
what the Qur'an made clear 15 centuries ago:
"And We send
winds for making fruitful, and then We send down water from the
sky, thus We give it unto you to drink of it." (XV;22)
2. Until the
invention of the aircraft and the possibility of high-altitude
flying, man's knowledge and experience did not encompass needles
of ice beyond the clouds. Till then no one knew that mountains
of ice-needles existed in the sky above man's heads. But the
Qur'an is very clear when it says:
"He sendeth
down from the sky, from mountains therein, hail..." (XXIV;43)
3. Living
things in other worlds. Man, with the help of his knowledge of
space, has set foot on the moon, but the matter of the existence
of living things on other worlds has not proceeded beyond
theory, and we can say that, from many signs, only it is
possible that there are living things such as animals or man on
some other planets and stars. But the Qur'an declares
unambiguously:
"And of His
signs is the creation of the heavens and the earth and of what
He hath spread out in both of them of animate beings, and for
their gathering together when He willeth, He is All-PowerfuL"
(XLII;29)
4. In Surah 36,
verse 36, we have:
"Glory be to
He Who created all the pairs of what the earth produces, and of
themselves, and of what they know not."
And in Surah
20, verse 53, we read:
"And He sent
down water out of the sky, and therewith We have brought forth
various pairs of plants."
In times when
man's knowledge did not permit the respected interpreters of the
Qur'an to know that plants and growing things came in pairs and
couples, they interpreted and observed pairing in classes,
species or by form and matter or other philosophical terms which
do not exist in the pages of the Qur'an. But today, on the basis
of new research, it has been discovered that not only are men
and animals created in pairs, but other living things also. One
of the most amazing phenomena in the world is the pairing and
fertilizations of plants, which is all explained in natural
science books.
* * *
The Qur'an
Makes a Challenge
Not only from
the point of view of eloquence, but also, as we have seen, in
the fields of human ideas and society, and for all levels of
understanding, the Qur'an is a miracle. For rhetoricians it has
its eloquence, for philosophers its wisdom, and for scientists
its different kinds of knowledge. For all these reasons the
Qur'an addresses all people and says: "If you say this book is
the word of man, bring its like and its equal."
"Say: 'If man
and jinn banded together to produce the like of this Qur'an,
they would never produce its like, not though they back one
another." (XVII;88)
"Or do they
say: 'He has forged it.'? Say: 'Then bring you ten surahs the
like of it, forged; and call upon whom you are able, apart from
Allah, if you speak truly. ' Then if they do not answer you,
know that it has been sent down with Allah's knowledge, and that
there is no god but He." (XI;13-14)
"and if you are
in doubt about what We have sent down on Our servant, then bring
a Surah like it." (II;23)
But we see from
the testimony of history from then till now no one has had the
courage to do this and produce its like. Of course, during the
time of Muhammad (S.A.) and after his death, some Arabs, like
Musailemah, Sajah and Ibn Abi'l-'Awja', planned to challenge it
but they were not able, and eventually confessed to their
incapacity. In the time of the Prophet (S.A.), the enemies of
Islam, who used the most awful means in their work, torturing
the Muslims, laying economic boycotts on them, plotting to kill
Muhammad (S.A.), and so forth, had no one who could do a simple
thing like bringing one surah like the Qur'an. In the present
day, too, those who spend millions of dollars trying to destroy
Islam would certainly attack it in this inexpensive and easy way
(bringing a surah like the Qur'an) if they could. If they had
been able to do that up to now, it would have been a victory for
them and the end of Islam and the news would have been blown on
all the trumpets of the world's newsmen.
In the end it
is necessary to remind ourselves that if we get to know the
Qur'an, or get to know it better and put its great, magnificent
and precise project into action, greatness will be ours, and
more. The huge edifice of our, the Muslims, greatness collapsed
when we stopped putting the commands of this heavenly book into
practice. So we fell down, we were satisfied only with the name
of Islam. Our departed greatness will return when we leave this
crooked way and, starting again, become new Muslims and put the
Qur'an at the top of the sights of our hearts and our wisdom,
and make it an example for life, as the Prophet said: "When
calamities encompass you like the darkness of the night, reach
for the Qur'an." (Usul al-Kafi, vol. 2, p. 599)
* * *
(The Roots of Religion,
p. 136-146).
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