The Doctrine of the Holy Qur’an
Is the Holy
Qur'an really from Allah?
﴾But [as for
thee, O believer,] verily, thou hast received this Qur’an out of the grace of
One who is wise, all-knowing (6).﴿ [Surah
An-Naml: 6]
How can we
verify that this Holly Qur'an is not from the words of men, that this religion
and this law are not of their laws, and that they are truly from Allah?
In this
conclusion, we will first go beyond the verses of promise and threat, and we
will go beyond all the verses that highlight the Holy Qur’an’s scientific,
linguistic and semantic miraculousness. Allah Almighty says:
﴾Say: 'If
mankind and jinn combined together to produce the like of this Koran, they
would never be able to produce one like it, not even if they were to help one
another. ' (88)﴿
[Surah Al-Isra:88]
We
contemplate its purposes, objectives, legislations and ultimate goals, and
follow carefully to the end:
Allah the
Greatest says in His Holly Book:
﴾Taha.(1) We
have not sent down the Qur'an unto you to cause you distress. (2) ﴿ [Surah Taha: 1-2]
Meaning: you
should not suffer while you have this Qur'an; a speech to all who believed in
it, followed it and applied it as a system for their lives.
We find this
interpretation in Surah Taha: 123 itself:
﴾He said: Go
down hence, both of you, one of you a foe unto the other. But, if there come
unto you from Me a guidance, then whoso followeth My guidance, he will not go
astray nor come to grief.
(123) ﴿ [Surah Taha: 123]
His Almighty
said:
﴾but
whosoever turns away from My remembrance, his life shall be narrow and on the
Day of Resurrection We shall raise him blind (124) ﴿ [Surah Taha: 124]
﴾If they (the
idolaters) tread the right path, We shall give them to drink of water in
abundance (16)
﴿ [Surah Al-Jinn:16]
Allah
Almighty says:
﴾Whosoever
doeth right, whether male or female, and is a believer, him verily We shall
quicken with good life, and We shall pay them a recompense in proportion to the
best of what they used to do.(97)
﴿ [Surah An-Nahl: 97]
When we
reflect on the verses of the Qur'an from the beginning to the end and
contemplate its legislations and laws, we find that the Holy verses centered on
protecting, preserving, and purifying us as well as cleansing us from the
contamination of the mind, the dispersion of thought and the tightness of the
chest. This is through watching over the integrity of the foregoing along with
the protection of our body, its wellness, purity and health.
1- For when
Allah, the Absolute Truth, addresses me in His Holy Book and tells me to
believe that there is no Allah but Him; Who Has no partner, He has thus saved
my mind from the dispersion of thought and its confusion in the multiplicity of
gods and idols (Polytheism). Further, He graced me with the mind to weigh
things in its scales to realize that by the multiplicity of gods the universe
is corrupted, and thus has preserved my dignity from submitting to a weak
creature just like myself.
2- When He
says to me: you should glorify your Lord with His praise; He purified my soul,
cleansed my heart, soothed my chest, relieved my mind and healed me from
obsessions, worries and anxiety.
3- When He
commands me to mention Him frequently and recite His Book, He protects me from
the evils of myself and protects me from the evils of the hidden worlds
surrounding me that are only known by Him. He says:
﴾Say: "I
seek refuge with (Allah) the Lord of the daybreak (1) ﴿ [Surah Al-Falaq:1] And ﴾Say: "I seek refuge with (Allah) the Lord of the mankind (1) ﴿ [Surah An-nas:1]
As well as
in many verses and in the adhkkar of the purified Sunnah.
4- When He
commands me to walk on the earth, to look carefully and to implement reasoning
by contemplating into His kingdom, His cosmic miracles and His Qur'anic verses,
He brings serenity, peace to my heart and comfort, relaxation and well-being to
my body.
5- When He
commands me to perform His worship rituals of prayer, fasting, zakat, among
others, there is an urgent benefit and an urgent need for the serenity of my
spirit and my soul, and the goodness of my body and my life.
6- When He
commands me to be dutiful to my parents, He commands my children, in return, to
be dutiful to me.
7- When He
commands me to raise up my child well, take care of him, discipline him,
educate him, and choose his name well, then that is part of my duties.
8- When He
commands me to maintain my kinship ties, He commands my relatives to maintain
kinship ties with me too.
9- When He
commands me to treat my neighbour well and warns me not to hurt him, He
commands him to treat me well and warns him not to hurt me. This further
includes the passerby, poor, captive, companion, and whoever remains under my
protection. He, too, warns me not to hurt or offend them as He commands them to
treat me in the same way, as I might be, to others, one of the previously
mentioned.
10- In His
commandments, He stresses on His right to be worshipped by me and that I should
be dutiful to my parents. He elaborates on my responsibilities towards my
kinship and the poor, and speak good to all people whoever they might be, and
pardon them, and commands me to restrain my anger, He actually, aims at
goodness and virtues to lift me out of racism, discrimination and inferiority
to be a valuable balanced individual in my humanity with those around me.
Hence, that is my right, which Allah have granted me and imposed onto them.
Continued…
11- When He
gives the poor great value in His Holy Book in several occasions, and He
commands me to give to charity, help the needy and aid the oppressed. And when
Allah, further, urges me to take good care of the poor, and consider their
needs by observing their outside appearance and life conditions as to preserve
their dignity and save their face. And when Allah warns me not to follow the
charity with injury, He actually commands them to be kind to me and pay
attention to my needs, as I might be like them.
12- When He
punishes the criminal, the corruptor, the thief, the bribe-taker, the cheater,
the aggressor and the oppressor, and threatens to torture them, He actually
protects me from them and saves my life, money, and all my rights from their
evils.
I believe:
‘There is ˹security of˺ life for you in ˹the law of˺ retaliation’ as Allah says in His Holy Book; (179))
Surah Al-Baqarah
13- When
Almighty sets the inheritance laws and even sets the rights for those in the
wombs of their mothers, according to given authorities and priorities, He
imposes my rights and protects them from manipulation and violation.
14- He warns
me against arrogance, envy, and rancor, and urges me to be patient and
forgiving. He warns me against gossip, ridicule, slander, lying, false
statements and espionage. He warns me against gazing at the free women of other
men (non-mahram), spreading obscenity, accusing chaste man or women and
committing indecent assaults, in deed or in words. He orders me to cover up, be
chaste and reconciler among people, seek to bring their hearts together, stay
away from persecution or sedition (fitnah), violence, and mistrust.
Accordingly, Allah imposes on others to respect my privacy, and thus protects
my dignity, honor, home, and my family from any violation. This is to live my
life and those around me in a dignified, compassionate, clean and pure
environment.
15- When He
commands me to be kind to the orphans and warns me from devouring his property
unjustly, He, further, instructs me to keep the covenant and treat well the
weak, the widow, the poor, the traveler and the beggar. Hence, Allah preserves
my rights, as I might be one of them.
16- When
Allah makes the truth, justice and balance basic requirements for every
right-holder, He consolidates the laws and regulations of transactions such as
selling, buying, and having debts, among others. He, further, warns me from
tampering with my money in gambling, pleasure and corruption. As such, Allah
controls my rights and protects them from manipulation, recklessness, injustice
and deceitfulness.
17- And when
Allah legislates an integrated system to manage household affairs, starting
with how to treat and be kind to my husband, my children, and whoever lives
with me in my house, and ending with the entire community and all that is
related to marriage, divorce, breastfeeding, weaning, visits, and the etiquette
of asking permission to enter. When He even determines to me the most sensitive
times of the day (to rest or sleep), and guides me to lower my gaze (ghadh
albasar). In this sense, Allah directs disciplines and teaches them to
guarantee my rights, happiness, stability, and tranquility in my home, family,
and environment.
18- When He
distinguishes my female kind with a surah in His Holy Book (Surat al-Nisaa)
that highlights my affairs and preserves my right to whatever possible
injustice, domination and oppression of some men, He, in fact, takes justice
for me.
19- Allah
enacts general rights and morals for the gathering halls (majalis) and the
paths, such as removing what is harmful from the path, clearing the path for
the passers-by and respecting their rights and being moderate in my pace. He
commands me to speak the truth, be polite and lower my voice, and to return the
greetings in the same way or better (whatever this greeting is or whomever it
is from). He orders me to be faithfully true to their trusts, Amanat (all the
duties, which Allah has ordained, honesty, moral responsibility etc.) and warns
me against perjury or suppress the testimony of truth, even if it means putting
parents, my relatives, and myself on the line. He recommends me to establish
justice and balance, and He commands me to keep the secret. As such, He
disciplines them all to deal with me accordingly, and to respect my personality
by rejecting racism and discrimination, and He recommends them all to coexist
peacefully with me, as a human being created by Him; Allah Almighty.
20- Allah
makes lawful the good types of food (waste not by extravagance). He prohibits
for me the evil food, such as the flesh of the swine and the dead animals
(those animals killed by strangling or by a violent blow or by a headlong fall
or by the goring of horns, and those from which a wild animal has eaten). He
prohibits me from drinking blood and wine. Consequently, He takes care of my
health and saves my body from ills and misfortunes.
21- He
commands me to give my opponents their rights and supports my enemy against me,
if he is subjected to my injustice. He orders me to be fair and tell them the
truth, even if this means I turn against the dearest people to me. He commands
me not to cheat or betray them in a treaty or in a trade of peace or war, even
in the worst times of war. He forbids me to be harmed by a non-combatant like
an elder man, a child, a slave, or the man who is secured in his house. He
orders me not to cut a palm tree or any other tree in vain, drown or burn it.
He orders me not to burn down a building, or demolish it. He orders me not to
kill an animal or hurt it, and most of all, not to maltreat dead bodies of any
creature, whoever or whatever it is. In doing so, He preserves my right as a
human being, even if I am a disbeliever of His true religion of Islam.
22- He
forbids me from exaggeration in the consumption of the sources of good and bounties,
and commands me to be merciful in the slaughter of cattle and to be kind to
animals as well as to void harming insects, birds or plants. In this way in
fact and only for my sake, He takes care of my surroundings and environment and
preserves my right in what He has created and subjected for my benefit.
23- He
undertakes me in my life style and sets laws and manners similar to the
so-called "art of etiquette", though incomparable. He has disciplined
me in how to eat, drink, dress, cohabit, relieve oneself, sleep, walk, bathe,
purify (in the state of Janabah or at the end of a woman’s monthly period) and
present a good appearance. He explored attentively the details of my movements
in His Holy Book, in addition to the illustrations of the purified Sunnah of
our Prophet Mohammed (PBUH) who speaks not of (his own) desire. The common
Sunnah of cleanliness routine elaborates on, for example, using stones to clean
one’s private parts after answering nature call, cutting off the foreskin of
the male organ, shaving the pubic hair, cutting the mustache, clipping the
nails, plucking the hair found in the armpits. Also, using siwak stick (the
exalted to clean the teeth and the mouth), washing and applying oil to the hair
and combing it. This is among other nuances of the delicate, polite and elegant
Sunnah. This is to the extent where I think of myself a descendant of a noble
and royal monarch, who is committed to abide by the shape and the form of royal
protocols. Not the protocols of the kings of the earth, but rather the path of
the kings of the prophets and apostles.
What a
religion is this? What a law is this? What a constitutional Holy Book is this?
That not only elevates soul and myself to the highest degrees and ascents of
perfection, but also prepares me to enter the kingdom of heaven and the
vastness of paradise. If it is not from Allah, the Wise and the Aware, then
who?
How so? When
I see the waves of people, from all corners of the earth, heading towards Him,
the sensible minds sheltering in Him and settling on Him, and the righteous
hearts thirsty for His oasis. Every day I see droves of people surrender to Him
in the East and the West of the world and only a malicious and vicious
disbeliever deviates away from Him. Thus, I am certain that this Book is not
the work of men or others, nor of their laws that are plagued by imperfection,
injustice and imbalance; the laws designed to fit only a particular time.
Rather, it is the true and eternal religion of the Great Wise Creator Who has
revealed the Qur’an to guide me, light the path before me, to have mercy upon
me and to heal me. Hence, I am the ultimate beneficiary, if I perceive it as He
commanded me or otherwise, I am to be doomed as the greatest loser.
﴾We have
brought down to you the book for the people with the truth. (41) ﴿ [Surah Az-Zumar:41]
A Holy Book
meets the interests of human beings and its discourse addressed to them all.
If there is
no promise neither threat, but this mortal world, then I should not want
anything instead of this Holy Book. If I have a weight of an atom of reason,
sense and awareness, I would still choose this religion. How could I not?
Especially, when Allah has promised to grant me a garden whose width is that
(of the whole) of the heavens and of the earth, prepared for the righteous who
believed in him, obeyed him, stood uprightly on His path. When He, on the other
hand, promised severe torment to those who disbelieved in Him, disobeyed His
commands and rebelled against His rule.
As a woman,
it is enough for me that Almighty God honored the action of a woman like me
(Hajar, peace be upon her) when she was walking back and forth between Al-Safa
and Al-Marwa for the sake of saving her son (Ismail, peace be upon him), and
made her path a sacred ritual of Islam, to be followed (in pilgrimage rites) by
the whole nation, men and women, till the Day of Judgment.
Almighty God
also dedicated a whole chapter (Surah) in His book to a woman, namely the
Virgin Mary (peace be upon her) as a praise and honor for her, while there are
prophets who are not mentioned in His book. Almighty God also mentioned in His
book how He conciliated the mother of His prophet Moses with great ease. Her
story is recited in His great Book till the Day of Judgment as an honor to her.
So, what
religion honors woman as the religion of Islam, and what religion preserves her
dignity as it does?
By:
Khalsah Said Alharthy
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