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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