QXPiv March, 2007 - Ourbeacon.com

QXPiv May, 2007
By Shabbir Ahmed, M.D., Florida
Chief Adviser and Editor: Hossein Kowsari, California
Reviewed by: Abdullah Ali Bashoeb, Hijaz ACKNOWLEDGEMENT Respected readers, Peace and Blessings unto you!
I will remain profoundly grateful to my honorable brother in Islam, Hossein
Kowsari of California, for carefully reviewing this humble work of mine. He
has very kindly edited the entire document and given numerous ideas and
precious suggestions.
His ideas and suggestions have been so valuable and convincing that they
have been incorporated into the text almost in their entirety after due
reflection.
A very widely read gentleman, Brother Kowsari, is an outstanding Islamic
scholar and exponent of the Qur'an in his own right. He has the honor of
having translated the Glorious Book into Persian. Primarily a scientist,
throughout his life, he has delved into very diverse areas of scholarship,
such as Astronomy, Philosophy and World History.
His command over the English language reminds me of the legendary figure,
'Maulana' Muhammad Ali Jauhar (d.1931) of the British India. As most of the
educated people from the Indo-Pak subcontinent know, he was a living legend
as the editor of the most revolutionary and popular daily newspapers of his
times, "Hamdard" (Urdu) and "Comrade" (English).
Khwaja Hasan Nizami once wrote, "Jauhar knows more English than all the
Indians combined together." Brother Kowsari seems to know more English than
all men and women I know, combined together.
Brother Abdullah Ali Bashoeb is a remarkable scholar of the Qur'an from the
blessed Hijaz Sharif. A gentleman with profound knowledge of the Arabic
linguistics, Islamic Theology and English, he has thoroughly reviewed the
entire document and given me some extremely useful input.
Without brother Kowsari's precious advice and editing, and brother
Bashoeb's input, I and the reader would have missed much of the quality of
this rendition.
May God reward them in both lives!
Finally, I must take the responsibility. All that is good and correct in
QXPiv (The Qur'an As It Explains Itself, fourth edition) derives from the
Grace of Allah. Any errors or faults belong to this life-long student, and
for that, he sincerely seeks the protection of forgiveness from his
Sustainer.
Sincerely,
Shabbir Ahmed, M.D. PREFACE
The author of the Qur'an is none but Almighty God. Before the reader is an
English rendition of the Glorious Book by Shabbir Ahmed (1947 to ?) an
ordinary servant of God.
The work although close to translation, is more of an understanding from
within the Qur'an itself. This Divine Writ calls itself An-Noor (the Light)
and light needs no extrinsic sources to show itself. Therefore, I have
based my presentation on two principles:
1. Focusing on the language in which the Qur'an was revealed.
2. Making use of Tasreef, that is, how the Qur'an repeats its messages from
very diverse vantage points.
A diligent study of the Book using Tasreef helps us look at the Qur'an in
its Big Picture, and this method gives us a phenomenal advantage toward its
understanding.
I have rendered the terms and linguistics of the Qur'an using the Quraish
(Quresh) dialect of Makkah since it is the Arabic dialect in which the
Qur'an was revealed to the exalted Muhammad bin Abdullah, the Final
Prophet, Messenger and Apostle of God. [570-632 CE]
19:97 And only to this end We have made this (Qur'an) easy to understand in
your own tongue (O Prophet). That you might convey thereby glad news to the
righteous and warn people given to futile disputation.
Being a young member of the Saudi royal medical staff, I had the good
fortune of learning the Quraish dialect in the 1970s under the auspices of
Malik Faisal bin Abdul Aziz and Malik Khalid bin Abdul Aziz of Saudi
Arabia. I was blessed with the opportunity to learn Islamic theology (as
Fazil Deeniyat) in the University of Madinah after having learnt the
subject under the guidance of the celebrated names of Qari Baqaullah and
'Maulana' Ehtishamul Haq Thanwi in Karachi during my college days in the
1960s.
In addition, the opportunity to socialize with the Bedouins was certainly a
great advantage since even today they frequently speak the Quraish dialect.
Learning the dialect, by no means, amounts to absorbing the Saudi theology.
Some of the well-known western scholars who learned Arabic by socializing
with the Bedouins:
. In the 1810s - The Swiss Muslim traveler-explorer, Johann Ludwig
Burckhardt (Sheikh Ibrahim bin Abdullah 1784-1817).
. 1850s - The British Muslim Sir Richard F. Burton (1821-1890),
adventurer-explorer-soldier-writer, famous for the first ever
English translation of "The Arabian Nights".
. 1860s - The German non-Muslim scholar-traveler-explorer,
Heinrich von Maltzan (1826-1874). Unfortunately, upon his return
from Arabia, much furor was raised by his fellow men and the
dejected von Maltzan went to Italy and committed suicide by
throwing himself from the Tower of Pisa!
. 1920s - The Austrian Muslim Leopold Weiss (Muhammad Asad 1900-
1992), traveler-explorer, journalist-author, exponent of the
Qur'an.
. 1960s - The French, not widely announced, Muslim surgeon-scholar-
author, Maurice Bucaille. (1920-?)
The first ever commentaries of the Qur'an were written in the third and
fourth centuries after the exalted Messenger during the Abbasid Dynasty
when Zoroastrian influence held sway in Islamic politics, society and even
in the Arabic literature. The commentators of the Qur'an, historians,
Muhadditheen (the Hadith/Tradition collectors) and Fuqaha ('Islamic'
Jurists) overwhelmingly originated from among the non-Arab Persians.
The late Allama Ahmad Amin Al-Masri sums up the resulting chaos in his
excellent work Fajril Islam:
"Very certainly, the reader will agree with me that the Persian literature
gave an entirely alien complexion to the Arabic linguistics."
Many celebrated thinkers and authors in the Islamic world strongly agree
with the Egyptian scholar on this score. We need not go into details since
the point will become sufficiently clear soon, when we cite some examples.
How was mankind robbed of God's Final Revelation? He Himself extols this
Revelation, "And this Grace of your Lord is better than all the treasures
that they may amass." [43:32]
By robbing I mean giving alien, erroneous and misleading meanings and
concepts to the original matchless, powerful and glorious Qur'anic terms.
Here is how it happened:
The First Dilemma: While the language of the Qur'an remained untouched, its
words and terms were made to lose the splendor they so beautifully conveyed
in the original, revealed Arabic. So much so, that the Qur'anic terms were
dressed up with the erroneous philosophies prevalent in the once
Zoroastrian culture of Persia, and they became widely accepted even among
the Arabs!
This staggering tragedy explains why, how and where, even the Arabic
speaking people lose their touch with the Qur'an! The Book describes this
staggering tragedy very clearly,
25:30 And the Messenger will say, "O My Lord! These are my people, the ones
who had disabled this Qur'an making it of no account." [They had
immobilized it like villagers who bind a cow by tying her front foot to her
horn. Mahjoor = A cow thus immobilized]
This ill treatment of the Divine Message and the subsequent filling of the
void with conjecture is THE cause of the Muslim downfall on a Global scale. Any nation that holds on to this Divine Writ in letter and spirit can build
a Paradise on earth. The early Islamic history is a great testimonial to
this claim, but we will explore this point a little further.
How, then, do the others continue to make progress?
Naturally, a very important question arises here. In the last several
centuries, the West and many other non-Muslim nations have been making
spellbinding advances in education, science and technology and in their
governmental systems without the Qur'an! The short answer is that they have
been using well their faculties of reason and intellectual inquiry.
Another very significant factor has been quietly playing its role in this
regard. The Qur'an has been, perceptibly and imperceptibly, making a
Universal impact on human civilization during the last fourteen centuries.
The celebrated French surgeon, thinker and historian, Robert Briffault
(1876-1978) has very convincingly elaborated this fact in his remarkable
work, "The Making of Humanity."
Muslims, on the other hand, after disabling the Divine Revelation, have
also allowed their intellect to paralyze. They have fallen easy prey to the
utterly senseless dogmas fabricated centuries after the exalted Prophet and
his noble companions.
However, the rule stands for all nations that the Last Revelation of God
economizes human effort (Sir Allama Iqbal). It can give them eminence they
have never imagined before, scientific and moral achievements side by side,
in a short span of time without having to go through the prolonged ordeal
of learning through trial and error. And thus, they can adopt a progressive
system of life that embraces all that is good, promoting the well-being of
humanity, while avoiding all that is evil and harmful. Furthermore, this
Revealed System of Life is fully sustainable and durable.
How Does The Current Arabic Rob The Qur'an?
44:58 Certainly, (O Prophet) We have made this Qur'an easy in your tongue,
in order that they mig