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Turkish Muslim Thinker
The Qur'an is the final book
Allah sent to all people. Every person living
on the earth is responsible for learning the
Qur'an and fulfilling the commands
communicated in it.
Most people, however, do not
learn it and fulfil what Allah commands in the
Qur'an, although they accept it as a divine
book. This is a consequence of their not
thinking about the Qur'an, but knowing it by
information gained here and there. For a
person who reflects, on the other hand, the
importance of the Qur'an and its place in
man's life is very great.
First of all, those who reflect want to know
their Creator Who created them and the
universe in which they live, gave them life
when they were nothing, and bestowed countless
blessings and beautiful things on them.
Someone like that wants to
learn what kind of conduct He would be pleased
with. The Qur'an, which Allah sent through His
Messenger, is a guide answering the questions
above. For this reason, people need to know
the book Allah revealed to people as a guide
and in which He distinguished good from evil.
They need to ponder over each verse and fulfil
what Allah orders in the most proper and
pleasing way.
Allah states the purpose for
which the Qur'an was revealed to people:
[It (the Qur'an) is a
Book We have sent down to you, full of
blessing, that they may ponder over its
verses and that people of intelligence
take heed.] (Saad 38:29)
[No indeed! It (the
Qur'an) is a reminder to which anyone who
wills may pay heed.] (Al-Muddaththir
74:54)
Many people read the Qur'an,
but the important thing is, just as Allah
states in His verses, to ponder on each verse
of the Qur'an, to draw a lesson from that
verse, and to improve one's conducts in
compliance with these lessons.
Those who read the verse
[For truly with hardship comes ease; truly
with hardship comes ease.] (Al-Inshirah
94:5-6), for example, reflect upon it. They
understand that Allah creates ease with each
hardship, and therefore, the only thing they
have to do when they meet a hardship is to put
their trust in Allah and find the ease that is
with it. Allah's promise being so, we see that
giving up hope or being stricken with panic in
moments of difficulty is a sign of a weakness
in our faith. After reading this verse and
reflecting upon it, our conduct will go in
line with the verse throughout our lives.
In the Qur'an, Allah relates
stories from the lives of the prophets and
messengers who lived in the past, so that
people can see how are the conduct,
conversation, and life of a person with whom
Allah is pleased, and take them as examples.
Allah states in some of His
verses that people must think over the stories
of the messengers and draw lessons from them:
[There is a lesson in
their stories for people of intelligence.] (Yusuf
12:111)
[And (We left a Sign)
also in Musa when We sent him to Pharaoh
with clear authority.] (Adh-Dhariyat
51:38)
[We rescued him (Nuh)
and the occupants of the Ark and made it a
Sign for all the worlds.] (Al-`Ankabut
29:15)
In the Qur'an, some of the
attributes of past nations, their manners, and
the disasters that befell them are mentioned.
It would be a great misconception to read
these verses merely as the narration of
historical events and an account of what has
befallen past nations. This is because, just
as in all other verses, Allah has revealed the
verses about past nations for us to think
over, and for us to amend our conduct by
deriving lessons from the events that befell
these nations:
[We destroyed those of
your kind in the past. But is there any
rememberer there?] (Al-Qamar 54:51)
Allah has revealed the Qur'an
as a guide to all people. Therefore,
reflecting upon every verse of the Qur'an, and
living according to it by deriving lessons and
warnings from every verse is the only way to
gain the approval, the mercy, and the Paradise
of Allah.
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