The Quran
The Quran (can also be spelled as Qur'an, Koran, or Coran) is the holy scripture of
Muslims. The Quran states that the name of God's religion is Islam and it refers
to its followers as Muslims.
The Quran (Koran) started to be revealed by God to
Prophet Mohammad through arch-angel Gabriel, when he was 40 years old, around
year 610 AD. It was revealed gradually, few verses at a time, over a period of
about 23 years. The Quran is a very unique book that differs from the Bible in
many ways. Unlike the Bible which supposedly contains the sayings of Jesus and
other writings which Christians believe were inspired by God, the Quran is the
"literal" word of God. We mean that the words in the Quran are the exact words of
God. Therefore, the author of the Quran is God himself. Furthermore, also unlike
the Bible, the Quran does not contain the sayings of Prophet Mohammad, nor does
it contain an account of Prophet Mohammad's life.
God in the Quran (Koran) promises clearly to
protect the Quran from corruption. Indeed, God has protected the Quran. The
Quran has remained the same. All the verses that were revealed to prophet
Mohammad by angel Gabriel are included in the Quran that is available today.
The Quran states that the Quran, in by itself, is
the most important miracle that Prophet Mohammad has brought to humanity. Since
Prophet Mohammad was intended to be the last prophet and the Quran was the last
message, God decided to give people a unique miracle that can be examined and
experienced by not only people who lived at the time of the prophet, but for the
hundreds of years to come. So, it was natural for God to choose Quran to be such
a miracle.
That is why the Arabic Quran (Koran) is a unique
miracle. The only book in the world authored by God himself, word by word, and
that is still available today in its original form. People throughout the Ages
have wondered whether they can see God or something that can be attributed
directly to God. The Quran is the answer. It is available today for all humans
to experience how God expresses himself in words. The Quran is a book of
knowledge with a uniquely captivating style, in which every verse is a sign from
God. Each word used in the Arabic Quran was uniquely chosen by God for a
purpose. You can not add or subtract a word to/from the Quran,
without the corruption becoming noticeable.
Scholars have discovered some hidden logic
structures (codes) in the Quran that prove its authenticity and help in
protecting its integrity from corruption.
The Quran (Koran) contains lots of scientific
knowledge, from various fields such as astronomy, geology, medicine, embryology,
etc., that have only been known recently which were totally unknown and could
not have been discovered at the time of prophet Mohammad.
The Quran was revealed in Arabic language and Muslims consider only the
Arabic Quran to be the Word of God because translations are authored by ordinary human
beings, most of the translations were done in the past 100 years, whereas the Arabic Quran is authored by God. Therefore, those
translations are not considered by Muslim as a Word of God or holy scriptures.
The 5 daily prayers of Muslims are in Arabic (Prayer consist of reciting verses from the Quran
as well as saying specific phrases and sentences). However, Muslims are
not required to be able to speak Arabic, other than learning to utter few
sentences in Arabic that are part of regular prayers.
There are many translations of the Quran currently
available. Most of the translators of the Quran are non-Arabs and their
knowledge of Arabic is limited. However, even if they were Arabs, you should not
expect the translation to be perfect. The Quran is in ancient Arabic language.
Many of the vocabulary in the Quran are not used in Modern Arabic. However, even
when compared to ancient Arabic literature and poems, the Quran is far more
challenging to comprehend fully. That is why ordinary Arabs today, including
well-educated Arabs, who are not experts in Arabic language, only understand the
general meaning if they simply read the Quran, without reading additional Quran
commentaries and interpretation books written by Islamic scholars.
Arabic language is a rich, complex language. The same
word may have different meanings. From the same root, you may create tens of
derivatives, each derivative has its own significance. By varying the structure
of a sentence, you can change the meaning of the sentence. That may explain why
translators of the Quran, particularly non-Arab translators, face a very
difficult task. No one knows what is in the mind of God and therefore the full
intended meaning of each word of the Quran. So, translators find themselves
trying to guess what God may have meant.
Furthermore, the most widely-used English translations
of the Quran today were done more than 70 years ago: (a) by Abdullah Yusuf Ali
who lived from 1872 to 1953 , and (b) by Marmaduke William Muhammad Pickthall
who lived from 1875 to 1936 . The discoveries of the miraculous, scientific
information in the Quran primarily started in 1970s. The leading figure in such
discoveries was a French doctor, named Maurice Baucaille, who converted to Islam
and published in 1976 his landmark book, The Bible, The Quran and Science. That is why these popular translations of the
Quran do not present clearly the scientific information, embedded in the verses
of the Quran.
Each word in the Quran may have multi-level meaning
with multi-dimensional significance and may have been chosen by God for multiple
purposes. These unique aspects of the Quran may allow, for example, an ordinary
Muslim to understand the meaning correctly of a word or verse, but only at one
level of depth, while another Muslim may be able to capture a different meaning
or significance at another level of depth. Both could be correct in their
understanding.
You may think of every word or verse in the Quran as a
marvelous painting or piece of art, done by God, the Master Artist and Creator
of the Universe, each person who views it (or reads it) may come to a different
conclusion regarding the message or meaning intended by God through that word or
verse. A Muslim astronomer, who is also expert in Arabic, may be able to infer
information of significance in astronomy when reading a verse that an ordinary
Muslim will not notice.
We have to consider that God may have also chosen to
articulate his message (or multiple messages) in a single verse (or word) with a
specific number of words (or letters) for a good reason. God may have intended
to send us a numerical message, such as a date of an event or number of certain
significance. The Quran was revealed gradually, few verses at a time. However,
the way the verses are arranged in each chapter of the Quran and sequence of the
chapters which does not necessarily follow chronological order are not haphazard
or by chance or coincidence.
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