WHAT IS THE QURAN?<\/p>\n
There have been many incredible works of literature, such as Shakespeare\u2019s plays and fantasy epics like Lord of the Rings. What ties these works together is that they are the product of great human minds. As amazing as these works are, can you imagine how much more amazing a book would be if God Himself authored it, surely it would be the greatest book ever produced. Moreover, imagine that God answers all the important questions that human beings have about life, such as why we are here and what happens to us after we die. Finally, imagine if God authored this book with you in mind, a book that addresses you as an individual. Wouldn’t you want to read such a book? The Qur’an is exactly that book.<\/p>\n
The word “Qur’an” is Arabic for “recitation”. Indeed one of the many things that make the Qur’an unique is that it claims to be the literal speech of God. Muslims believe that the Qur’an was dictated to Prophet Muhammad, may God\u2019s peace be upon him (or pbuh for short), by God Almighty through the angel Gabriel over 1,400 years ago. The Qur’an was not revealed all at once but rather gradually over a period of 23 years during the lifetime of Prophet Muhammad (pbuh). It may surprise readers to learn that the Qur’an contains the same core message as other divinely revealed Scriptures, such as the Torah of Moses and Gospel of Jesus (peace be upon them) and Muslims believe that in their original form, these previous Scriptures were also sent from God. The Qur’an informs us that Muhammad (pbuh) is the final Messenger in a long line of Messengers that God sent before him, such as Abraham, Moses and Jesus. This is another of the unique aspects of the Qur’an; it acknowledges all of the Abrahamic faiths and all of the Prophets sent by God.<\/p>\n
The Qur’an is also unique in history in terms of the revolutionary impact it had on society. Pre-Islamic Arabia was not a very pleasant place to live in. Given the tribal structure of Arab society, any disputes often led to blood feuds between tribes that would consume whole generations. Slavery was an economic institution of the Arabs. Male and female slaves were sold and bought like animals, and they formed the most depressed class of the Arabian society. Arabia was a male-dominated society to say the least. A man could marry any number of women and when a man died, his son \u201cinherited\u201d all his wives except his own mother. Women, as a general rule, had virtually no legal status: fathers sold their daughters into marriage for a price and women had little or no property or succession rights. The most powerful class of the Arabs was made up by the capitalists and money-lenders who took 100 per cent interest on loans. Infanticide, particularly the burying alive of female infants, was a norm. Finally, illiteracy was common among the Arabs, as were alcoholism and adultery. I think you can appreciate why this period of Arab history before the dawn of Islam is known as the period of ignorance!<\/p>\n
Can you imagine being tasked with reforming such a society? Have a think about how long it would take one person to cure all these social ills. One generation? Perhaps several generations? You may even view it as an impossible task. Just to give you an idea of the scale of the challenge, let’s look at an attempt in recent Western history to eradicate just one of these social ills, alcoholism. In 1920 the United States government passed a nationwide law to ban the sale, production, importation, and transportation of alcoholic beverages for moral and health reasons. This is commonly known as Prohibition and although consumption of alcohol fell at the beginning of Prohibition, it subsequently increased and led to other problems such as corruption and organised crime. The law was repealed in 1933. The failure of one of the most powerful governments in the world to tackle just a single social ill should make us reflect on the Qur’an. The Qur’an managed to completely reform not only alcoholism but all the social ills of Arabian society in a single generation, just 23 years! This was a revolution the likes of which the world has never witnessed.<\/p>\n
The impact of the Qur’an on the world is not just historical. What must be noted is that although the Qur’an was revealed in 7th century Arabia, its message is meant for the whole of mankind. In fact there are over 1.5 billion Muslims in the world today because of the Qur’an. Just to give you a practical demonstration of just how many Muslims there are in the world, at any given moment on any day someone, somewhere, is praising God by reciting the Qur’an in their prayers. You must be wondering to yourself, what is it about the Qur’an that has made such an imprint on the hearts of over a billion Muslims?<\/p>\n
From onereason.org<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Indeed one of the many things that make the Qur’an unique is that it claims to be the literal speech of God.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":2699,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_uag_custom_page_level_css":"","_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[47,84],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1747","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-billboard","category-new-article"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/www.ask-a-muslim.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/06\/the-last-testament.jpg","uagb_featured_image_src":{"full":["https:\/\/www.ask-a-muslim.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/06\/the-last-testament.jpg",1280,720,false],"thumbnail":["https:\/\/www.ask-a-muslim.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/06\/the-last-testament-150x150.jpg",150,150,true],"medium":["https:\/\/www.ask-a-muslim.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/06\/the-last-testament-300x169.jpg",300,169,true],"medium_large":["https:\/\/www.ask-a-muslim.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/06\/the-last-testament-768x432.jpg",768,432,true],"large":["https:\/\/www.ask-a-muslim.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/06\/the-last-testament-1024x576.jpg",1024,576,true],"1536x1536":["https:\/\/www.ask-a-muslim.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/06\/the-last-testament.jpg",1280,720,false],"2048x2048":["https:\/\/www.ask-a-muslim.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/06\/the-last-testament.jpg",1280,720,false],"gform-image-choice-sm":["https:\/\/www.ask-a-muslim.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/06\/the-last-testament.jpg",300,169,false],"gform-image-choice-md":["https:\/\/www.ask-a-muslim.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/06\/the-last-testament.jpg",400,225,false],"gform-image-choice-lg":["https:\/\/www.ask-a-muslim.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/06\/the-last-testament.jpg",600,338,false]},"uagb_author_info":{"display_name":"Site Admin","author_link":"https:\/\/www.ask-a-muslim.com\/en\/author\/admin\/"},"uagb_comment_info":2,"uagb_excerpt":"Indeed one of the many things that make the Qur'an unique is that it claims to be the literal speech of God.","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/pcT0IL-sb","jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":1716,"url":"https:\/\/www.ask-a-muslim.com\/en\/what-is-the-quran\/","url_meta":{"origin":1747,"position":0},"title":"What is The Quran?","author":"Site Admin","date":"04\/29\/2014","format":false,"excerpt":"Discover the Truth About the \u201cLast Testament\u201d","rel":"","context":"In "About Qur'an & Hadith"","block_context":{"text":"About Qur'an & Hadith","link":"https:\/\/www.ask-a-muslim.com\/en\/category\/quran-and-hadith\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.ask-a-muslim.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/04\/what-is-quran.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.ask-a-muslim.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/04\/what-is-quran.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.ask-a-muslim.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/04\/what-is-quran.jpg?resize=525%2C300&ssl=1 1.5x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.ask-a-muslim.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/04\/what-is-quran.jpg?resize=700%2C400&ssl=1 2x"},"classes":[]},{"id":5811,"url":"https:\/\/www.ask-a-muslim.com\/en\/are-hadith-necessary-an-examination-of-the-authority-of-hadith-in-islam\/","url_meta":{"origin":1747,"position":1},"title":"Are Hadith Necessary? An Examination of the Authority of Hadith in Islam","author":"Site Admin","date":"12\/29\/2019","format":false,"excerpt":"Introduction The Qur\u2019\u0101n and the Sunnah have served as the primary sources of Islam. Together with the Qur\u02be\u0101n, the statements and actions of the Prophet \ufdfa form the basis of Islamic law and theology. Historically, all Islamic sects have acknowledged the necessity of at least some \u1e25ad\u012bths, even if few,\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "About Qur'an & Hadith"","block_context":{"text":"About Qur'an & Hadith","link":"https:\/\/www.ask-a-muslim.com\/en\/category\/quran-and-hadith\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.ask-a-muslim.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/12\/9sufudixczmy.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.ask-a-muslim.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/12\/9sufudixczmy.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.ask-a-muslim.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/12\/9sufudixczmy.jpg?resize=525%2C300&ssl=1 1.5x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.ask-a-muslim.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/12\/9sufudixczmy.jpg?resize=700%2C400&ssl=1 2x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.ask-a-muslim.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/12\/9sufudixczmy.jpg?resize=1050%2C600&ssl=1 3x"},"classes":[]},{"id":1400,"url":"https:\/\/www.ask-a-muslim.com\/en\/embryo-leech-a-miracle-of-the-quran\/","url_meta":{"origin":1747,"position":2},"title":"Embryo = Leech: A Miracle of the Qur\u2019an","author":"Site Admin","date":"01\/30\/2016","format":false,"excerpt":"New images have been found revealing amazing truths behind verses in the Qur\u2019an that depict the embryonic development. The Qur\u2019an is said to be the Word of God (Allah) and such miraculous phenomena are used to authenticate this statement. The Qur\u2019an claims that the embryo is a \u201cAlaqah\u201d which means\u2026","rel":"","context":"Similar post","block_context":{"text":"Similar post","link":""},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.ask-a-muslim.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/01\/Embryo-Leech-.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.ask-a-muslim.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/01\/Embryo-Leech-.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.ask-a-muslim.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/01\/Embryo-Leech-.jpg?resize=525%2C300&ssl=1 1.5x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.ask-a-muslim.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/01\/Embryo-Leech-.jpg?resize=700%2C400&ssl=1 2x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.ask-a-muslim.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/01\/Embryo-Leech-.jpg?resize=1050%2C600&ssl=1 3x"},"classes":[]},{"id":8523,"url":"https:\/\/www.ask-a-muslim.com\/de\/der-verfasser-des-quran\/","url_meta":{"origin":1747,"position":3},"title":"Der Verfasser des Quran","author":"Site Admin","date":"06\/20\/2020","format":false,"excerpt":"A man's words? Although it has been proven that the text of the Quran has remained the same to this day, how can we be sure that the words are actually from God and not from any other source? This question lets us look at the credibility, authorship, or source\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "\u00dcber den Heiligen Quran"","block_context":{"text":"\u00dcber den Heiligen Quran","link":"https:\/\/www.ask-a-muslim.com\/de\/category\/ueber-den-heiligen-quran\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":4700,"url":"https:\/\/www.ask-a-muslim.com\/en\/does-the-quran-mentioning-stories-found-in-previous-writings-threaten-its-credibility\/","url_meta":{"origin":1747,"position":4},"title":"Does The Qur’an Mentioning Stories Found In Previous Writings Threaten Its Credibility?","author":"Site Admin","date":"03\/23\/2019","format":false,"excerpt":"By Bassam Zawadi \u00a0 Christians love to keep pointing out that stories found in Islamic sources could actually also be found in earlier sources (see here) and by Allah's grace there have also been Muslims refuting these claims (see here). \u00a0 I think what these Christians fail to realize is\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Most Common Doubts"","block_context":{"text":"Most Common Doubts","link":"https:\/\/www.ask-a-muslim.com\/en\/category\/most-common-doubts\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":1498,"url":"https:\/\/www.ask-a-muslim.com\/en\/human-development-as-revealed-in-quran-hadith-2\/","url_meta":{"origin":1747,"position":5},"title":"Human Development as Revealed in Qur\u2019an & Hadith","author":"Site Admin","date":"02\/11\/2016","format":false,"excerpt":"By M. A. Rahim Dr. Albar is a Consultant to the King Fahad Medical Research Center, King Abdul Aziz University, Jeddah. In this excellent, fully illustrated study, written in plain English with only the minimum of technical words, he presents a summary of present knowledge about human embryonic development in\u2026","rel":"","context":"Similar post","block_context":{"text":"Similar post","link":""},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.ask-a-muslim.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/02\/Human-Development-as-Revealed-in-Qur%E2%80%99an-Hadith.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.ask-a-muslim.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/02\/Human-Development-as-Revealed-in-Qur%E2%80%99an-Hadith.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.ask-a-muslim.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/02\/Human-Development-as-Revealed-in-Qur%E2%80%99an-Hadith.jpg?resize=525%2C300&ssl=1 1.5x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.ask-a-muslim.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/02\/Human-Development-as-Revealed-in-Qur%E2%80%99an-Hadith.jpg?resize=700%2C400&ssl=1 2x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.ask-a-muslim.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/02\/Human-Development-as-Revealed-in-Qur%E2%80%99an-Hadith.jpg?resize=1050%2C600&ssl=1 3x"},"classes":[]}],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ask-a-muslim.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1747","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ask-a-muslim.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ask-a-muslim.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ask-a-muslim.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ask-a-muslim.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1747"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/www.ask-a-muslim.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1747\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2701,"href":"https:\/\/www.ask-a-muslim.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1747\/revisions\/2701"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ask-a-muslim.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/2699"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ask-a-muslim.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1747"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ask-a-muslim.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1747"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ask-a-muslim.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1747"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}