Aijazul Qur'an
Chapter 3
Chapter 3
Challenge of the Qur’an Shareef
In previous chapters we have seen that the
prophethood of prophet Muhammad (SAW) was based on the Qur’an Shareef-an
everlasting miracle.
At the age of 40 years, when Prophet Muhammad (SAW)
was meditating in seclusion in the cave of Hira in Makka-Al-Mukarramah the first
revelation from Allah Ta'ala came starting with the word ‘Iqra’ meaning ‘read’.
Then the revelation of Qur’an Shareef was completed in twenty three years. As
the revelation would come to Rasulullah (SAW), he used to recite them to his
companions (RA) who would memorise them by heart and also write them. They used
to recite it daily and convey the same to others then the Qur’an Shareef was
secured in written form and now it was available from two sources viz., those
thousands of learners who had memorized it by heart and the other one was in the
written form. There was never any chance of any mistake as the Huffaz or
learners were remembering it in such a way that not a single word not even a
single sign or dot would go here and there. Any writ-ten form was scrupulously
checked and cross checked by many many Huffaz and then only released for
recitation. The Qur’an Shareef reached us from these two sources by the method
of ‘Tawatur’ (continuity), i.e., one generation passed it on to the next
generation not only in written form but also from heart to heart. In all ages in
Islamic history from the time of the Prophet (SAW) there were thousands of
students who were learning The Qur’an Shareef from their teachers by heart. This
practice continues to date. The Qur’an Shareef is unparalleled in this case and
this is a great miracle of it. No other book, even of one tenth the size of the
Qur’an Shareef, can be memorized like this and there is no example in world
history of any other book being memorized like this. As Allah Ta’ala has
promised to protect this Qur’an Shareef upto the day of Judgement, we are seeing
that the Qur’an Shareef in our hands is exactly same without any addition or
alteration, not even equal to a dot, as it was revealed to Rasulullah (SAW) one
thousand four hundred years ago.
As the number of Muslims increased and Islam spread
to other countries like Rome, Abyssinia, Egypt and Syria etc, the enemies of
Islam got more and more worried. The Qur’an Shareef was cutting the roots of
idolatory and all false ideologies. The Qur’an Shareef challenged them openly:
“And if ye are in doubt as to what we have revealed
from time to time to our servant, then produce a Surah like there unto; And call
your witnesses or helpers (if there are any) besides Allah, if ye are truthful.
And if ye cannot and of a surety ye cannot, then fear the fire, whose fuel is
men and stones which is pre-pared for those who reject faith.
(2:23-24)
The unbelievers and infidels were trying to prove
that the Qur’an Shareef was not the word of Allah Ta'ala but was just poetry,
had it been the word of Allah Ta'ala then whole of it would have been sent down
once only and not in parts. As poets say their poetry in parts so they thought
the Qur’an Shareef also like that. Allah Ta’ala reveals the reason for this
gradual part wise revelation of the Qur’an Shareef at other place:
“Those who reject faith say “Why is not the Qur’an
revealed to him all at once? Thus (is it revealed), that we may strengthen thy
heart thereby, we have rehearsed to thee in slow, well arranged stages,
gradually.”
(25:32)
The second thing which these unbelievers and infidels
would say was that this Qur’an Shareef was not word of Allah Ta'ala but was a
creation of Muhammad (SAW) and that he was not the true prophet of Allah Ta'ala.
The Qur’an Shareef first, in the preceding verses stunned the opponents of
Muhammad (SAW) by putting forward unrefutable argument whereby proving that
Allah Ta'ala, being the only Creator and Sustainer of the universe and mankind,
was alone worth worshipping. It was He who has made the earth a couch and the
heavens the canopy. It was He who sends rain and brings forth therewith fruits
for the sustenance of man. There-fore, the Qur’an Shareef asked people not to
set rivals unto Him as anyone even with a little intelligence understands these
axiomatic facts. People who listened to those arguments had no answer to them
and sensible, unbiased ones would at once embrace Islam, but the preju-diced
ones would still try to create doubts in the truth of Muham-mad’s (SAW)
prophethood.
In order to prove the truthfulness of Muhammad’s
(SAW) prophethood, the Qur’an Shareef asked its opponents, “Well, if you have
doubt in what we have revealed in a gradual, slow and well arranged manner to
our servant (Muhammad (SAW)), then you call all your supporters (you have great
poets, eloquent speakers, you are masters of the Arabic language (as the Qur’an
Shareef is in Arabic), just try to produce, if not the whole the Qur’an Shareef,
just a small Surah like it.”
Now here is a great honour for our Prophet Muhammad
(SAW) as Allah Ta'ala calls him by the name of (His servant) thereby owning him
directly. Indeed it is a great honour for him. Secondly, it again shows that the
greatness of Prophet Muhammad (SAW) is proclaimed in the Qur’an Shareef.
This open challenge is enough proof of the fact that
the Qur’an Shareef is the word of Allah Ta'ala and that mankind has till now to
date failed to produce even a small Surah despite the fact that the opponents of
Islam have been in the majority in all ages and have always tried their best to
extinguish the candle of Islam.The miraculous nature of the Qur’an Shareef is
established by the truthlessness of its predictions which it made fourteen
centuries ago in which the Qur’an Shareef clearly predicted:
"But if ye cannot and of a surety ye cannot, then
fear the fire, whose fuel is men and stones which is pre-pared for those who
reject faith.
(2:24)
This challenge was repeated by the Qur’an Shareef on
quite a few occa-sions:
“Say, if the whole of mankind and jinns were to
gather together to produce the like of the Qur’an, they could not produce the
like thereof, even if they backed up each other with help and support”.
(17:88)
“Or do they say: ‘He forged it?’. Say, Bring then a
Surah like unto it, and call (to your aid) anyone you can besides Allah, if it
be you speak the truth.”
(10:38)
The Pagan Arabs sacrificed their lives for the sake
of their idols whom they worshipped. They spent their wealth and whatever means
they had at their command in opposition of the Qur’an Shareef. When the Qur’an
Shareef asked them to get a small Surah like this, that it was a much easier way
for them to achieve their goal than losing their lives and wealth. So it is
obvious that they must have left no stone unturned in trying to produce a Surah
like that of the Qur’an Shareef. On the other hand the Qur’an Shareef was
repeatedly challenging them to bring forth even a small Surah and was asking
them to get the support from anybody whosoever they would like. Inspite of these
repeated challenges, failure of mankind to produce any such Surah has proved
beyond any doubt truthfulness of the Qur’an Shareef and that it is a miracle for
all times to come. Allah Ta’ala says that these were the people who were
otherwise quarrelsome, to take up the cudgels for trivial things was their
habit,
“And warnings to people given to contention”
(19:97)
Allah Ta’ala further says:
“Doth not man see that it is We Who created him from
sperm, yet behold he (stands forth) as an open adversary.”
(36:77)
To stand forth as an adversary is the habit of man
and these Pagan Arabs were all the more quarrelsome and they used to say that
this Qur’an Shareef was nothing but tales of earlier men and if they wished they
could also make such statements:
“When our signs are rehearsed to them, they say, we
heard this (before),if we wished we could say (words) like these, these are
nothing but tales of the ancient”.
(8:31)
They said "This is nothing but sorcery, faked up:
never did we hear the like among our fathers of old.”
(28:36)
“They say, ‘Oh thou to whom the message is being
revealed: true thou art mad (or possessed)!” (15:6)
“Will ye go to witchcraft with your eyes open?.”
(21:3)
“And say, ‘what! Shall we give up our gods for the
sake of a poet possessed.?’
(37:36)
“Behold the wicked say, Ye, follow none other than a
man be-witched.’
(17:47)
There are numerous such verses which indicate that
they were quite perplexed by the revelations of the Qur’an Shareef and were at a
loss as to how to counter this. They were trying all methods but nothing worked
for them, as the days were passing, the true miraculous nature of the Qur’an
Shareef and the fact that it was the word of Allah Ta'ala was (more and more)
getting established.
Allah Ta’ala often revealed the greatness of the
Qur’an Shareef viz.,
“And We have bestowed upon the seven oft-repeated
(verses) and the Grand Qur’an.
(15:87)
“We have without doubt sent down the message and We
will assured-ly guard it (from corruption).”
(15:9)
“Allah has revealed (from time to time) the most
beautiful message in the form of a book, consistent with itself, (yet) repeating
(its teaching in various aspects), the skins of those who fear their Lord
tremble threat: then their skins and their hearts do soften to remembrance of
Allah.”
(39:23)
“Ha Mim, By the book that makes things clear, We have
made it a Qur’an in Arabic, that ye may be able to understand. And verily it is
in the Mother of the Book with Us, high (in dignity), full of wisdom.”
(43:1-4)
Arabs before the advent of Islam were very much
backward in many spheres of life but one thing was with them that they were fond
of poe-try. To recite the poetry and then boast over it over others was a common
habit of these Arabs. They had great poets and were having great hold over the
Arabic language. They had eloquent speakers of Arabic. In such circumstances, to
accept the challenge of the Qur’an Shareef was quite natural for them - when the
Qur’an Shareef challenged them, they became enthusiastic, as we have seen them,
in one of the verses above, saying that they could also say similar thing. But
very soon they realised that the Qur’an Shareef was neither poetry nor magic nor
sto-ries of ancients. Its eloquence, sequence, arrangement of words, the topics
it touched, expression with great authority, perfect coherence among varied
topics, truthfulness of predictions and above all its effects on the hearts was
simply marvellous. Their poetry was based on falsehood, wild imaginations and
mundane love stories. They realised that the Qur’an Shareef was speaking hard
historical facts but it did not resemble any history book, its verses had
rhythmical and poetical balance but it was not poetry at all, it was predicting
things but it did not have anything common with astrology and it revealed such
facts about universe which were hitherto unknown to mankind.
Walid Bin Mugaira who was among the leading staunch
opponents of Islam and a nephew of the leader of the Pagans Abu Jahal. He once
happened to listen to the Qur’an Shareef and he at once said:
“By God, the words which he (i.e., Muhammad (SAW))
says, have a high degree of sweetness and brightness. This (Qur’an) will always
dominate and will never be domi-nated.”
In the same way, Abdullah bin Muqaffah was an
eloquent writer. He decided to write an answer to the Qur’an Shareef, soon after
that he heard some child reciting this verse of the Qur’an Shareef:
“Then the word went forth: O earth! Swallow up thy
water, and O sky! Withhold (thy rain)! And the water abated, and the matter was
ended. The Ark rested on Mount Judi, and the word went forth: Away with those
who do wrong”
(11:44)
He involuntarily cried, “By God, I stand witness to
the fact that confrontation with the Qur’an Shareef was impossible and that it
was never a word of man.”
Listening of the Quran Shareef by the worst enemies
of Islam
Abu Jahal, Abu Sufiyan and Akhnas bin Shuraiq were
the leaders of the Pagans. They were bitter opponents of Prophet Muhammad (SAW)
and were opposing him in every nook and corner of Makkah. But these people were
also in the bottom of their hearts craving to listen the Qur’an Shareef. Once it
so happened that all three left separately from their homes in the darkness of
night to listen the Qur’an Shareef from Prophet Muhammad (SAW) in such a way
that each of them thought that he was alone. On their return they by chance met
one another and felt ashamed. Then they promised not to repeat the same, but
they could not resist the temptation and left the second night again. They again
met one another and promised not to repeat, but the third night they again left
their homes and again met each other after listening the Qur’an Shareef. Then
they asked one another as to how they found the Qur’an Shareef. Each one of them
confessed that this was neither poetry, nor magic, nor astrology nor does it
seem the word of any man. Then Abu Jahal confessed that he also believed the
same but as their family was having an old rivalry with the clan of Abdul Munaf,
so he would never accept it.
Jubair bin Muta’m narrates that once he went to see
Rasulul-lah (SAW), who was at that time reciting Surah ‘Al-Tur’, and he recited
the Aayat:
“Verily, the chastisement of thy lord will indeed
come to pass: There is none who can avert it”
(52:7-8)
Jubair says that on hearing this Aayat he felt so
much horrified as if he was about to get the chastisement of Allah Ta'ala and he
immediately embraced Islam.
In the early days of Islam, going to wife was
forbidden even during night in the month of Ramadhan. Once Hadhrat Umar (RAA)
went to his wife during night in the month of Ramadhan while forgetting the ban.
After the act he soon realised the sin and started melting due to fear of Allah
Ta'ala. He had done so in private but knowing that Allah Ta'ala is always
seeing, he, in the early morning, ran to Prophet (SAW) and himself voluntarily
confessed his sin and requested the Prophet (SAW) to save him from Allah
Ta'ala’s chastisement. It is only because of the firm conviction of a Muslim
that Allah Ta'ala is always seeing, he does not dare to transgress Islamic Laws
even in privacy.
Voluntary Punishment
Thre is a famous incident in Islamic history which
speaks volumes about how much true Muslims fear Allah Ta'ala which forces them
to confess voluntarily even the grave sins which they could have easily hid,
thus avoiding punishment.
A lady came to Rasulullah (SAW) and confessed that
she had committed adultery and that she wanted punishment. Rasulullah (SAW) felt
sorry for that lady but the lady repeatedly insisted for punishment as she did
not want to return to Allah Ta'ala sinful. As she was pregnant, Rasulullah (SAW)
told her to come after giving birth to the child she was carrying. After some
months she again comes herself with the child in her lap and again asks for the
punishment. No warrants were issued for her arrest, no police was sent to arrest
her. She is coming herself as she wants to cleanse her deed book from the black
stains of that grave offence. Rasulullah (SAW) asks her to come after the period
of breast feeding of the child is over which usually lasts upto two and half
years. She again comes voluntarily with the child accompanying her with a piece
of bread in his hand meaning that he no longer now needed breast feeding. You
know what was the punishment to be given to this lady for her crime, which she
knew very well! She was to be stoned to death. Rasulullah (SAW) felt pity on
that lady but he had to order to stone her to death as per Divine Law and
finally that lady was stoned to death. She got herself cleansed in this world,
only and she never wanted chastisement in the Hereafter.
This is the true Muslim character, a true Muslim will
not do any illegal thing even if he knows that he can escape punishment. This is
the clear distinction of Islamic Laws over the secular laws.
Readers are advised to read the incident of Ka’b Ibne
Maalik (RAA) which is mentioned in detail in the Qur’an Shareef in Surah Toubah
and also mentioned in detail in Hadith books. That is a marvellous incident
which demonstrates how Islamic Laws are executed by Muslims not superficially
but by the core of the heart.
Social and Spiritual Benefits of Islamic Laws
Mundane secular Laws do not touch the moral and
social values of its citizens whereas Islamic Laws not only take care of social
and moral values of its citizens but also aims at spiritual upliftment of the
individual as we have already discussed that following of Islamic Laws is not
only legal but is religious obligation as well.
There are numerous Qur’anic verses and Ahadith on the
subject but it is not possible to quote all of them here, few are quoted as
under:-
The Qur’an Shareef says:
"O ye who believe! let not some men among you laugh
at others, it may be that the (later) are better than the (former), nor let some
women laugh at others, it may be that the (later) are better than the (former).
Nor defame nor be sarcastic to each other. Nor call each other by (offensive)
nicknames. Ill-seeming is a name connoting wickedness, (to be used of one) after
he has believed. And those who do not desist are doing (indeed) wrong. O ye who
believe avoid suspicion as much (as possible), for suspicion in some cases is a
sin. And spy not on each other, nor speak ill of each other behind their backs.
Would any of you like to eat the flesh of his dead brother? Nay, ye would abhor
it... But fear Allah, for Allah is Oft-Returning Most Merciful. (49:11)"
"Verily spendthrifts are brothers of the satans. And
the satan is to his Lord (Himself) ungreatful. (17:27)
"Kill not your children for fear of want, We shall
provide, sustenance for them as well as for you. Verily the killing of them is a
great sin." (17:31)
"Come not nigh to the orphan's property except to
improve it, until he attains the age of full strength; and fulfil (every)
engagement, for (every) engagement." (17:34)
"And do not eat up your property among yourselves for
vanities, nor use it as bait for the judges, with intent that ye may eat up
wrongfully and knowingly a little of (other) people's property." (2:188)
"Serve Allah, and join not any partners with Him. And
do good to parents, kinsfolk, orphans, those in need, neighbours who are of kin
neighbours who are strangers the companion by your side, the way-farer *ye
meet), and what your right hands possess, for Allah loveth not the arrogant, the
vainglorious. (4:36)
"O ye who believe! Ye are forbidden to inherit women
against their will. Nor should ye treat them with harshness, that ye may take
away part of the dower ye have given them, except where they have been guilty of
open lewdness. On the contrary live with them it may be that ye dislike a thing,
and Allah brings about through it a great deal of good." (4:19)
"Those who, when they spend, are not extravagant and
not niggardly, but hold a just (balance) between those (extremes)." (25:67)
"Those who witness no falsehood and, if they pass by
futility, they pass by it with honourable (avoidance)" (25:72)
There are numerous Ahadith also on this topic in the
treasure of Ahadith, I will be quoting few of them here:
“A true believer is one from whose tongue and hands
other believers remain safe”
“One who deceives is not from us”
“One who does not love our youngsters and does not
respect our elders, is not from us”
“One who does not show mercy, is not shown mercy”
"Salaam is before the speech"
"Don't curse the dead"
"Don't ask (beg) people for anything"
"To abuse a muslim is impiety and to fight against
him is infidelity"
"Abstain from sitting on the roadside"
"(Perfect) Muslim is one, from whose tongue and hands
other muslims remain secure"
"The one who doesn't keep his promise, has no Deen
(Islam)"
"None of you should urinate in a hole"
"When anyone of you has to take a bath, he should
ensure veil"
"Man must not look at the private parts of other man
and woman must not look at the private parts of other woman."
"Rasulullah (Sallallahu Alaihi Wasallam) forbade
slapping or beating on anyone's face"
"One who has Imaan on Allah Ta'ala and on the day of
Qiyamah must honour his guest"
"One who has Imaan on Allah Ta'ala and on the day of
Qiyamah must speak a good word or keep silent"
" One who has Imaan on Allah Ta'ala and on the day of
Qiyamah must behave properly with his relatives."
Man is Most Honoured in an Islamic State:
Islam has given great honour to man. If somebody asks
me to describe Islam is one sentence, I will describe it as “Service to
Humanity”. If you study whole the Qur’an Shareef, Ahadith Sharef, everywhere you
will see that this all is aiming at this pivotal idea.
DARUL ULOOM ILAHIYAH
INSTITUTE OF ISLAMIC RESEARCH
ILAHI BAGH, BUCHPORA, SRINAGAR, 190011, KASHMIR, INDIA