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The Qur'an is the word of the
Ever-Living God; it has been sent down to
guide man for all times to come. No book can
be like it. As you come to the Qur'an, Allah
speaks to you. To read the Qur'an is to hear
Him, to converse with Him, and to walk in His
ways. It is the encounter of life with the
Life-giver. [God—there is no god but He, the
Ever-living, the Self-Subsisting (by whom all
subsist). He has sent down upon you the Book
with the Truth] (Aal `Imran 3:2-3).
For those who heard it for the
first time from the lips of the Prophet (peace
and blessings be upon him), the Qur'an was a
living reality. They had absolutely no doubt
that ,through him, Allah was speaking to them.
Their hearts and minds were therefore seized
by it. Their eyes overflowed with tears and
their bodies shivered. They found each word of
it deeply relevant to their concerns and
experiences, and integrated it fully into
their lives. They were completely transformed
by it both as individuals and as a corporate
body into a totally new, alive, and
life-giving entity. Those who grazed sheep,
herded camels, and traded petty merchandise
became the leaders of mankind.
Today we have the same Qur'an
with us. Millions of copies of it are in
circulation. Day and night, it is ceaselessly
recited in homes, in mosques, and from
pulpits. Voluminous exegetical works exist,
expounding its meaning. Words pour out
incessantly to explain its teachings and to
exhort us to live by it. Yet eyes remain dry,
hearts remain unmoved, minds remain untouched,
lives remain unchanged. Ignominy and
degradation appear to have become the lot of
the followers of the Qur'an. Why? Because we
no longer read the Qur'an as a living reality.
It is a sacred book, but it tells us something
of the past concerning Muslims and
non-Muslims, Jews and Christians, the faithful
and the hypocrites, who, once upon a time,
used to be.
Can the Qur'an, 1,400 years
later, be a living, relevant force, as
powerful for us now as it was then? This is
the most crucial question that we must answer
if we wish to shape our destiny afresh under
the guidance of the Qur'an.
There appear, however, to be
some difficulties. Not least of which has to
do with the fact that the Qur'an was revealed
at a certain point in time. Since then, we
have traveled a long way, made gigantic leaps
in technological know-how, and seen
considerable social changes take place in
human society. Moreover, today, most of the
followers of the Qur'an do not know Arabic;
and many who do, have little idea of the
living language of the Qur'an. They cannot be
expected to absorb its idiom and metaphor, so
essential to exploring and absorbing the
depths of the Qur'anic meaning.
Yet its guidance, by its own
claim, has an eternal relevance for all
people, being the word of the Eternal God.
For the truth of this claim,
it seems to me that it must be possible for us
to receive, experience, and understand the
Qur'an as its first recipients did, at least
in some measure and to some degree. We seem
almost to have a right to this possibility of
receiving God’s guidance in its fullness and
with all its riches and joys. In other words,
despite the historical incidence of the
revelation in a particular language at a
particular time and place, we should be
capable of receiving the Qur'an now (because
its message is eternal), capable of making its
message as much a real part of our lives as it
was for the first believers, and with the same
urgent and profound relevance for all our
present concerns and experiences.
But how do we do this? To put
it frankly, only by entering the world of the
Qur'an as if Allah were speaking to us now and
today and by fulfilling the necessary
conditions for such an encounter.
First, we must realize what
the Qur'an as the word of God is and means to
us, and bring all the reverence, love,
longing, and will to act that this realization
demands. Secondly, we must read it as it asks
to be read, as Allah’s Messenger instructed
us, as he and his Companions read it. Thirdly,
we must bring each word of the Qur'an to bear
upon our own realities and concerns by
transcending the barriers of time, culture,
and change.
For its first addressees, the
Qur'an was a contemporary event. Its language
and style, its eloquence and rationale, its
idiom and metaphor, its symbols and parables,
its moments and events were all rooted in
their own setting. These people were both
witnesses to and, in a sense, participants in
the whole act of revelation as it unfolded
over a period of their own time. We do not
have the same privilege; yet, in some measure,
the same ought to be true for us.
By understanding and obeying
the Qur'an in our own setting, we will find
it, as far as possible, as much a contemporary
event for ourselves as it was then. The
essence of man has not changed; it is
immutable. Only man’s externalities—the
forms, the modes, the technologies—have
changed. The pagans of Makkah may be no more,
nor the Jews of Yathrib, nor the Christians of
Najran, nor even the faithful and the
unfaithful of the community at Madinah; but
the same characters exist all around us. We
are human beings exactly as the first
recipients were, even though many find it
extremely difficult to grapple with the deep
implications of this very simple truth.
Once you realize these truths
and follow them, once you come to the Qur'an
as the first believers did, it may reveal to
you as it did to them, make partners of you as
it did of them. And only then, instead of
being a mere revered book, a sacred fossil, or
a source of magic-like blessing, it will
change into a mighty force, impinging,
stirring, moving and guiding us to deeper and
higher achievements, just as it did before.
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