[Akidah]: A Short Essay About the Quran

Bismillahirrahmanirrahim..Assalamualaikum warahmatullahi wabrakatuh..:)

Introduction.

Religions, whether it is monotheistic nor polytheistic or other beliefs (monism, Satanists, pantheism) has its own scriptures as key references. Judaism (Talmudism) has its Talmud. Christians has the Bible. Illuminatis has its Albert Pike's Morals and Dogmas. Buddhists and its Tripitaka. And, Islam has the Quran.

One questions revolving the minds of sceptics and atheists were: How liable or authentic are the scriptures? Richard Dawkins in his book condemned religion as the tool of evil.When he read the Old Testament, he really cannot believe that the revengeful and spiteful omnipower figure in the Testament can be a God. Richard Dawkins has a point regarding the Old Testament as the scriptures are exposed to numerous editing, fabrications et cetera, but still he cannot be bias towards other religion only because the Old Testament are full with X-rated and unlogical stories.

Quran, as all of the Muslims belief are preserved throughout 1400 years of its existence. I am sorry for the sudden conclusion but let us take a peek about some Orientalists' view about the Holy Scriptures.

And, by the way, this short essay regarding the Quran may not answer all of your questions; as this research was made by me to fill my own questions. If you have more questions lingering in your mind, depressing your mind like a repertoire of annoying bees, I offer you a simple resolution. Clear your mind and take a peek at the Quran.

Oh no, Quran is not a Spellcaster's or a Wizard's book, the answer is not just by reciting it and poof! Miracles occur. No. Quran is more than that. God commanded us "Read" and you can count how many occurences in Quran that commands us to "Think!". This mingles system of our days divided us from God by replacing books with television which constantly ejected by explicit and immoral images. And, when you stop to read, you stop to think! They have succeeded in severing your only relation with God.

Quran and the Orientalists

Those who were inspired to analyse the Quran cannot run away from their sheer amazement of the Quran. In the darkest abyss of civilizations, in the spot where the great empires of the ancients did not bother to even look at, from the desert of Arabia, sprung a scripture that answers all humankind answer, giving resolution to humans' social problems, foretelling correct future events and the list of the Quran's wonders will be infinite.

Washington Irving cannot hold himself from saying;

"..contains pure, elevated and benignant precepts.."

Steingrass is not hyperbolic when he said;

"...is one of the grandest books ever written.."

Goethe in expressing his amazement;

"..attracts, astounds and enforces our reverences.."

Hirshfield, too declared his point regarding the Holy Book as;

"...is unapproachable as regards convincing power, eloquence and even composition..."

Johnson's sincere commentary touched me with its vivid details about the Quran;

"..a Prophet's cry, semitic to the core, yet of a meaning so universal and so timely that all the voices of the ages take it up, willingly or unwillingly, and it echoes over chosen hearts to world-conquests, then gathering itself into a reconstructing force that all the creative light of Greece and Asia might penetrate the heavy gleam of Christian Europe when Christianity was but the Queen of Night"

A question might arise in your minds; "What do you mean? They read the Quran?". Yes,, absolutely yes. More than some of us, I believe.

Quran; Work of Men?



Some orientalists, who have translated the Quran or written anything concerning it, have asserted that the verses and chapters of the Quran remained scattered and disjointed during the lifetime of the Holy Prophet, and that they were collected after his death on the authority of the verbal evidences of the Companions, and hence its genuiness is liable to questions. This assertion only serves to betray the ignorance of those who make it.

It is an untruth to say that the verses and chapters of the Quran were collected after the death of the Propher, for there is strong historical evidences to prove that all verses of the Quran were collected and all the surahs named by the direct instruction of the Prophet himself.

The process of collection was that whenever the verses were revealed the Prophet directed his scribes, the chief of whom was Zayd bin Thabit, to place verses of similar nature together in one surah and himself gave the name to each surah. Sometimes it happened that verses of two surahs were revealed simultaneously, and the Prophet got them recorded seperately so as to avoid confusion. Thus towards the close of the Prophet's life all the verses had been arranged and surahs named.

What was done by Caliph Abu Bakr was to arrange these surahs in the order suggested by the Holy Prophet, and no more. The third Caliph, Uthman, simply issued an official copy of the Quran (which was an exact copy of the one prepared by Abu Bakr), gave it publicity and forbade the use of other copies (which differed from official ones in the method of reading), so that the different meaning might no t lead to differences of doctrines, such as have actually occured in other religions.

Proofs

1. Hudhayfaf, a Companion narrated that the Prophet recited certain verses of the Surah baqarah, Ali Imran, Al-Nisa' in some of his prayers. Menanign that "the scattered and disjointed" verses have actually grouped and ordered by the Prophet.

2. In Sahih Bukhari, the Prophet recited certain verses of Al-'Araf in prayers.

3. Companions knew the names of the surah which the Prophet recited, partially or wholly, in his prayer. So, the surahs has been given by the Holy Prophet and the Companions knew about it.

4. Hakim in the Mustadrak stated that the first collection of the Quran was made during the lifetime of the Prophet himself.

5. Narrations from Zayd bin Thabit; "We used to collect the verses of the Quran in the presence of Prophet, copying them from various piece of paper (Bukhari and Muslim).

Enlightment

So, the accusations such as the Quran was the work of Abu Bakr and Uthman were proved totally wrong. In the Companions time, there were tens of thousand of people remembered the verses from the mouth of Prophet himself, if Abu Bakr, Uthman, Zayd or anybody fabricated the Quran, the huffaz must rose against the false Quran. But, until the last Companions died, there are no complaints aroused among the Companions, indicating that the Mushaf Uthman was a consensus (Ijma') of the Muslims.

Conclusion

Above excerpts were extracted from the book "A Geographical History of the Quran" written by Syed Muzaffaruddin Nadwi".

I hope, this very short essay might enlightened our mind even a bit regarding the Quran. I was spending 8 hours in the University Malaya Library, when I found this book. Before that,in the same rack, I found a book entitled "History of the Quran" written by A. Hadi Makrifat. Thought it may be useful for me to read the book, soon I was utterly shocked as the book was full of Jaafar Shadiq, Kulaini's, Abu Abdullah's narrations and commentary, and not even a single narration from Bukhari, Muslim or any authentic Haidth scholars!

My suspicion confirmed when I saw a narration from Zurarah, a man who famous for "farting at the face of the Imam and called him names", I closed the book. This is a Syiah's work.

Then, Alhamdulillah, I found this book and had the the time to only read its introduction. I hope Allah will grant me another chances for me to get a complete reading of this book. Wassalamualaikum..:)