Pos 635
– The Qur’an is the final Book of Divine Guidance.....(2)
Though the Holy Qur’an was revealed piecemeal, yet the
entire revelation is one organic whole. It is the Word of God, revealed to the
last of the Prophets, Muhammad (Peace be upon him), through the angel Gabriel.
Whenever there was a revelation, the Prophet got it
inserted at its proper place in the text revealed so far. There is indeed perfect
evidence, internal as well as external, that every single, word or verse or
part of a verse, and every chapter that was revealed has been put where it
belonged, by the Prophet himself under Divine guidance. The Arrangement of the Qur’an was thus a part
of the Divine scheme. The Holy Qur’an
itself says: ”Surely on Us devolves the collecting of it and the reciting of it.”
(11xxv: 17). The Holy Qur’an thus
existed in a complete and ordered forms
in the memories of numerous companions in the lifetime of the Holy Prophet, and
had also been reduced to writing on such materials as were available for
writing purposes in those days.
The Holy Qur’an is divided into 114 Chapters, each of
which is called a Surah meaning laterally ”eminence” or ”high degree”. The Chapters are of varying length, the
longest comprising one twelfth of the entire Book. All the Chapters, with the exception of the
last thirty-five, are divided into sections (rukun). Each section dealing
generally with one subject, and the different sections being interrelated to
each other. Each section contains a
number of verses. The total number of
verses is 6,240.
Another important division of the Holy Qur’an relates to
the Makki and Madani surahs. The Holy
Prophet, after he was raised to the status of prophethood, lived at Mecca for
thirteen years. Then he was migrated to
Madinah where he spent the last ten years of his life. Those surahs of the Holy Qur’an which were
revealed before the Hijrah are called Makki Surahs and they are ninety-two in
number, whereas those revealed after Hijrah are called Madani Surahs and are
twenty-two in number. Again there are certain Makki verses in Madani Surahs
and vice versa.
The Qur’an is addressed to the entire humanity,
trancending all barriers and limination of race, region or time. Furthere, it seeks to guide man in all walks
of life, spiritual, temporal, individual and collective. It contain directions for the conduct of the
head of state as well as a simple commonore, of the rich as well as the poor,
for peace as well as for war, for spiritual well-being as for cemmercial and material
prosperity.
The Qur’an seeks, primarily, to develop the personality
of the individual and then shape them into an ideal society, for ushering in an
area when goodness and virtue may flourish and evil and vice eliminated. It declares that every human being will be
personally responsible to his Creator. The method of the Qur’an is that it not
only gives commands, but also tries to educate the people and convince them about the validity
and usefulness of its injunction. That is why the ”lillah” (undeclining reason)
of a command is often given. It appeals
to the reason of man and invites him to exercise his own intellect in order to
understand himself, his station and purpose in life, his conduct with his
fellow-beings and, above al, his relationship with his Sustainer.
(To be continued...)
---------------------oooo------------------------
(Ref: Ser.(9) - (34) ISSN
0127-1482) Bhg. Agama J.P.M. 1983.
No comments:
Post a Comment