Qur’an:
A Model of Clear and Concise Communication
Dr. Pasha
(Bringing Islam to the World One Concept at a Time!
Taking the Qur'an to Every Home and Heart that Needs It --
And which One Does Not?)
Much like the Fake News Environment and the Culture of Alternative Facts and the shameless public practice of “Spin,” as these aberrations from and violations to truth colour, distort and ravage our consciousness and sensibilities today and garble and saturate our communication channels.
And much as Muslims are, generally speaking, light years from the light of the Qur’an.
And much as the Qur’an was supposed to be Mother’s Milk to Muslims.
And much as the Qur’an is a cure for all ailments that afflict the human breast and heart and interior.
As the Qur’an itself puts it:
Shifaa-un limaa Fis-Sudoor.
The fact is that if you are into the Qur’an, as you should be, then you can see with your bare eyes that the Qur’an is as clear, emphatic and definitive as anything can ever be.
I mean on every subject the Qur’an touches, in all those Aayaats that can be categorized as Muhkamaat: clear cut and precise and definitive ones.
The Qur’an provides the last word on all things it touches in its Muhkamaat. And it does so in the simplest and most elegant manner that anyone can possibly understand or imagine.
So much for the Qur’an being a collection of “Verses” as most English-speaking Muslims imagine or tout. Just like the Bible, they think.
The Qur’an is clear and precise and concise, with amazing economy of diction and efficiency of meaning. Ocean upon ocean of meaning that never ends and that only comes to the fore only as the world – and the individual – grows and matures and crawls on hands and knees closer to the Qur’an.
And with all this, the Qur’an is Self-Revelatory and Self-Explanatory. It speaks to people directly. I don't know of any other book that calls out people almost by their name: O People!
Yaa Ayyuhan Naasu!
That is one reason perhaps God did not appoint any priests or clerics or Mullahs to be the keepers and custodians of the Qur’an and its meaning to the world.
Maybe that is one reason why God did not place any intermediaries, not only between himself and his people, but also between his word, the Qur’an, and the people whose fate both in This World (Duniyaa) and the Next (Aakhirah) he tied to their interrelationship with the Qur’an.
As a result, God Almighty placed and positioned every man and woman – mind you “Woman” too – in direct contact and communication with the Qur’an, making each individual – male as well as female – responsible for their own fate – both in this world and the next.
All by themselves.
And as if to drive home the self-evidence of this reality Almighty Allah picked an Un-Lettered, Un-Educated, Un-Schooled and Un-Tutored man to be their Teacher and their Tutor and their Leader for all times and places for as long as the world lasts – and beyond.
Allahu Akbar! What am amazing story it is!
And how few Muslims understand this story! And how fewer still are able and willing to share this story with the rest of the world! While they are busy tending their beards and powdering their noses!
Read the Qur’an:
Huwalladhee,
Ba’atha Fil-Ummiyyeena,
Rasoolan Minhum,
Yatloo 'Alaihim Aayaatihi,
Wa Yuzakkeehim,
Wa Yu’allimuhumul Kitaaba,
Wal Hikmah!
Wa In Kaanoo Min Qablu Lafi Dalaalin Mubeen!
Here is a paraphrase of sorts. And, from the point of Linguistic Theory if you will, all claims to Translation are nothing but paraphrases in masquerade.
And even a so-called “Paraphrase” is all too frequently nothing but a brazen display of one’s ignorance and limitation of knowledge and understanding of God’s Word as well as God’s World – with an “l” after the letter “r.”
For, the two – God’s Uncreated Eternal Spoken Word – the Qur’an – and God’s Created World – the Duniya – are closely correlated. And a deeper and more meaningful understanding of one cannot be achieved without an equally solid grasp of the other.
Meaning: You do not have a meaningful and active relationship with the Qur’an, you cannot be expected to have a deeper insight into the nature and affairs of this world the Duniya.
So, keeping all these caveats in mind, here is a crude Paraphrase of the above Aayaat Kareema that I came up with for the purposes of this Write-Up:
“God Almighty is the one that,
Raised up in a community of completely
Uneducated People,
A Messenger from their midst,
Someone who Reads Aloud God Almighty’s
Aayaat to them,
And Cleanses and Purifies them,
And sets about teaching them all things
Abstract and Theoretical,
As well as all things of
Practical Utility and Benefit to them in this World.”
And that is also why, to the extent an ignorant and foolish human like me has been given to understand, every single individual passage of the Qur’an is called – by the Qur’an, mind you, and not by hangers-on or interlopers or self-anointed spirituals or commercially driven hoodlums – an “Aayat.”
Aayat means a sign, a marker, a landmark event, a most extraordinary thing the like of which the world cannot find.
In short, an Aayat means a “Miracle.”
So, every Aayat of the Qur’an is a Miracle. A Living and Vibrant and Eternal Miracle. Every Aayat is an Unassailable Citadel of Truth and an Impregnable Bastion of Spiritual Meaning and Worldly Wisdom. It is a Fortress that nothing can touch or affect or impact or breach from any direction.
The Qur’an puts it better:
Laa Ya’teehil Baatilu
Min Bayini Yadayihi
Wa Laa Min Khalfihi.
The English-speaking Muslims, eager to dive into the hole dug for them by the Earlier People – Jewish and Christian writers on the Bible – changed this miraculous expression of the Qur’an, Aayat, into an anti-Qur’an Christian-Jewish expression: “Verse.”
“Earlier People,” of course, is an expression borrowed from the Hadith Sharif that talks about “Those who were before your time.”
And when Allah’s Rasul, Sallallahu Alaihi Wa Sallam, made these predictions – and he made so many predictions in his life that it is hard to keep count of them for an ignoramus sinner like me.
On this topic he said, what I am paraphrasing most broadly here, a time will come when you will follow The Earlier People as faithfully as you can, so much so that if they dived into a Lizard’s Hole, you will not be far behind.
