THE QUR’AN AS IT EXPLAINS ITSELF QXP (Fourth Edition) Shabbir Ahmed, M.D., Florida Editor: Iftikhar Ahmad, Ph.D, North Carolina Chief Adviser: Arif Shamim, Karachi Project Director (Online): Raquib Hassan, Australia Contents Contents ii Acknowledgement vii Preface ix The First Dilemma . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . x The Second Dilemma. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . xii Now The Third Dilemma . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . xii The Bewilderment . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . xii A Project Done In Full Public View . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . xiii Introduction xv Glossary - Some Terminology . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . xvi Prophets named in the Qur’an . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . xxii 1 Al-Fatihah - The Opening 1 2 Al-Baqarah - The Cow 5 3 Aal-e-´Imran - The Family Of Imran 87 4 An-Nisaa - The Women 129 5 Al Maaedah - The Heavenly System Of Sustenance 171 6 Al-An´aam - The Cattle 203 7 Al-A´raaf - The Heights Of Discernment 237 8 Al-Anfal - The Spoils Of War 277 9 At-Taubah - The Repentance 293 10 Yunus - Jonah 323 11 Hud - Hud 345 12 Yusuf - Joseph 367 13 Ar-Ra´d - The Thunder 389 14 Ibraheem - Abraham 399 15 Al-Hijr - The Valley Of Rocks 411 16 An-Nahl - The Bee 423 17 Al-Asra - The Night Journey 447 18 Al-Kahf - The Cave 467 ii 19 Maryam - Mary 487 20 Ta-Ha - The Ideal Prophet 501 21 Al-Anbiya - The Prophets 521 22 Al-Hajj - The Annual Convention (Pilgrimage) 539 23 Al-Mu´minoon - The Believers 555 24 An-Noor - The Light 571 25 Al-Furqan - The Criterion 587 26 Ash-Shu´ara - The Poets 599 27 An-Naml - The Valley Of An-Naml 623 28 Al-Qasas - The Narration 639 29 Al-´Ankaboot - The Spider 657 30 Ar-Room - The Romans 671 31 Luqman - Locomon 683 32 As-Sajdah - Adoration 691 33 Al-Ahzab - The Confederates 697 34 Saba - Sheba 713 35 Al-Faatir - The Originator 725 36 Ya-Seen - O Human Being! 735 37 As-Saffaat - Soldiers In Ranks 747 38 Saad - Full Of Truth 765 39 Az-Zumar - The Communities 777 40 Al-Mu´min - The Believer 793 41 Fussilat - A Book Clearly Spelled Out 809 42 Ash-Shura - Mutual Consultation 821 43 Az-Zukhruf - Ornaments Of Gold 833 44 Ad-Dukhaan - The Smoke 847 45 Al-Jaathia - Kneeling Down 855 46 Al-Ahqaaf - The Sand-Dunes 863 47 Muhammad - Muhammad 871 48 Al-Fath - Victory 879 49 Al-Hujurat - The Private Apartments 887 50 Qaaf - Qaaf 893 iii 51 Az-Zaariyat - Those Who Spread The Divine Word 899 52 At-Toor - Mount Sinai 907 53 An-Najm - The Star 913 54 Al-Qamar - The Full Moon 921 55 Ar-Rahman - The Beneficent 927 56 Al-Waaqi´ah - The Inevitable Episode 937 57 Al-Hadeed - Iron 947 58 Al-Mujadilah - The Pleading 955 59 AL-Hashr - The Gathering 961 60 Al-Mumtahinah - The Lady Under Oath 967 61 As-Saff - The Rank 971 62 Al-Jumu´ah - The Congregation 975 63 Al-Munaafiqoon - The Hypocrites 979 64 At-Taghaabun - The Ultimate Loss And Gain 983 65 At-Talaq - Divorce 987 66 At-Tahreem - Prohibition 991 67 Al-Mulk - The Supreme Kingdom 995 68 Al-Qalam - The Pen 1001 69 Al-Haaqqah - The Inevitable Reality 1007 70 Al-Ma´aarij - The Stairways Of Ascent 1013 71 Nooh - Noah 1019 72 Al-Jinn - The Unseen Beings 1023 73 Al-Muzammil - The Great Caravan Leader 1029 74 Al-Muddaththir - Founder Of The Benevolent Order 1033 75 Al-Qiyamah - The Resurrection 1041 76 Ad-Dahr - The Time 1047 77 Al-Mursalaat - The Messages Sent Forth 1053 78 An-Naba - The News 1059 79 An-Nazi´aat - Those Who Dive 1065 80 ´Abasa - Someone Frowned 1071 81 At-Takweer - The Folding Up 1077 82 Al-Infitaar - The Shattering 1081 iv 83 At-Tatfeef - Dealing In Fraud 1085 84 Al-Inshiqaaq - The Sundering 1091 85 Al-Burooj - The Great Constellations 1095 86 At-Taariq - The Brightest Star 1099 87 Al-A´la - The Most High 1103 88 Al-Ghaashiyah - The Great Covering 1107 89 Al-Fajr - The Daybreak 1111 90 Al-Balad - The Town 1115 91 Ash-Shams - The Sun 1119 92 Al-Lail - The Night 1121 93 Ad-Duha - The Daylight 1125 94 Ash-Sharh - The Expansion 1127 95 At-Teen - The Fig 1129 96 Al-´Alaq - The Zygote 1131 97 Al-Qadr - The Majesty 1135 98 Al-Bayyinah - The Clear Evidence 1137 99 Az-Zilzal - The Quake 1139 100Al-´Aadiyat - The Gallopers 1141 101Al-Qaari´ah - The Catastrophe 1143 102At-Takaathur - The Relentless Greed 1145 103Al-´Asr - Time That Flies 1147 104Al-Humazah - The Slanderer 1149 105Al-Feel - The Elephant 1151 106Quraish - The Tribe Of Quraish 1153 107Al-Maa´oon - The Spring Of Sustenance 1155 108Al-Kauthar - The Abundant Good 1157 109Al-Kaafiroon - Those Who Deny The Truth 1159 110An-Nasr - The Help 1161 111Al-Lahab - The Flame 1163 112Al-Ikhlas - The Pure Monotheism 1165 113Al-Falaq - The Rising Dawn 1167 114An-Naas - Mankind 1169 v Self-actualization and Human Destiny 1171 Paradise And Hellfire 1173 Paradise . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1173 Hellfire. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1173 vi Acknowledgement Respected readers, Peace and blessings to you! Respectedreaders,Peaceandblessingstoyou! ImustexpressmysinceregratitudetoArifShamim of Karachi. God has gifted him with a most exceptional command over ”Tasreef-il-Ayaat”, that is, connectingwithduereferencevariousQur’anicversesonrelatedsubjects, andthusshowingtheGlorious Book in its Big Picture. He is a gentleman with profound knowledge of the Arabic linguistics, Islamic theology and history. He has reviewed the entire script, and given me some extremely useful input. Dr. Iftikhar Ahmad of North Carolina is a highly educated and very widely read gentleman. He is an accomplished writer and editor of many books. He is an outstanding Islamic and scientific scholar in his own right. His expertise in many areas of science has contributed significantly to the modern exposition of many Qur’anic verses and concepts. I will remain profoundly grateful to my honorable brother in Islam, Hossein Kowsari of California, for carefully reviewing QXPiii. He had verykindly edited the entiredocument and given numerous ideas and precious suggestions. His ideas and suggestions have been so valuable and convincing that most of them have been incorporated into the QXPiv text almost in their entirety, after due reflection. Without these brothers’ precious advice, editing and input, we would have missed much of the quality of this rendition. May God reward them in both lives! Finally, I must take the responsibility. All that is good and correct in QXPiv (The Qur’an As It ExplainsItself,fourthedition)derivesfromthegraceofGod. Anyerrorsorfaultsbelongtothislife-long student, and for that, he sincerely seeks the protection of forgiveness from his Sustainer. We will remain open to comments and suggestions for the next edition. Sincerely, Shabbir Ahmed, M.D. vii Preface The author of the Qur’an is none but Almighty God. Before the reader is an English rendition of the Glorious Book by Shabbir Ahmed (1947 to ?) an ordinary servant of God. The work, although close to translation, is more of an understanding from within the Qur’an itself. This Divine Writ calls itself An-Noor (the Light) and light needs no extrinsic sources to show itself. Therefore, I have based my presentation on two principles: 1. Focusing on the language in which the Qur’an was revealed. 2. Making use of Tasreef, that is, how the Qur’an repeats its messages from very diverse vantage points. A diligent study of the Book using Tasreef helps us look at the Qur’an in its Big Picture, and this method gives us a phenomenal advantage toward its understanding. I have rendered the terms and linguistics of the Qur’an using the Quraish (Quresh) dialect of Makkah since it is the Arabic dialect in which the Qur’an was revealed to the exalted Muhammad bin Abdullah, the Final Prophet, Messenger and Apostle of God. [570-632 CE] 19:97 And only to this end We have made this (Qur’an) easy to understand in your own tongue (O Prophet). That you might convey thereby glad news to the righteous and warn people given to futile disputation. Being a young member of the Saudi royal medical staff, I had the good fortune of learning the Quraishdialectinthe1970sundertheauspicesofKingFaisalbinAbdulAzizandKingKhalidbinAbdul Aziz of Saudi Arabia. I was blessed with the opportunity to learn Islamic theology in the University of Madinah after having learnt the subject under the guidance of the celebrated names of Qari Baqaullah and ‘Maulana’ Ehtishamul Haq Thanwi in Karachi during my college days in the 1960s. In addition, the opportunity to socialize with the Bedouins was certainly a great advantage since even today they frequentlyspeaktheQuraishdialect. Learningthedialect,bynomeans,amountstoabsorbingtheSaudi theology. Some of the well-known western scholars who learned Arabic by socializing with the Bedouins: • Inthe1810s-TheSwissMuslimtraveler-explorer,JohannLudwigBurckhardt(SheikhIbrahimbin Abdullah 1784-1817). • 1850s - The British Muslim Sir Richard F. Burton (1821-1890), adventurer-explorer-soldier-writer, famous for the first ever English translation of “The Arabian Nights”. • 1860s - The German non-Muslim scholar-traveler-explorer, Heinrich von Maltzan (1826-1874). Un- fortunately,uponhisreturnfromArabia, muchfurorwasraisedbyhisfellowmenandthedejected von Maltzan went to Italy and committed suicide by throwing himself from the Tower of Pisa! • 1920s - The Austrian Muslim Leopold Weiss (Muhammad Asad 1900-1992), traveler-explorer, journalist-author, exponent of the Qur’an. • 1960s - The French, not widely announced, Muslim surgeon-scholar-author, Maurice Bucaille. (1920-?) ix The first ever commentaries of the Qur’an were written in the third and fourth centuries after the exalted Messenger during the Abbasid Dynasty when Zoroastrian influence held sway in Islamic politics, society and even in the Arabic literature. The commentators of the Qur’an, historians, Muhadditheen (the Hadith/Tradition collectors) and Fuqaha (‘Islamic’ Jurists) overwhelmingly originated from among the non-Arab Persians. ThelateAllamaAhmadAminAl-MasrisumsuptheresultingchaosinhisexcellentworkFajrilIslam: “Verycertainly,thereaderwillagreewithmethatthePersianliteraturegaveanentirelyalien complexion to the Arabic linguistics.” Many celebrated thinkers and authors in the Islamic world strongly agree with the Egyptian scholar on this score. We need not go into details since the point will become sufficiently clear soon, when we cite some examples. How was mankind robbed of God’s Final revelation? He Himself extols this revelation, “And this grace of your Lord is better than all the treasures that they may amass.” [10:57-58,16:53, 16:71, 43:32] By robbing I mean giving alien, erroneous and misleading meanings and concepts to the original matchless, powerful and glorious Qur’anic terms. Here is how it happened: The First Dilemma WhilethelanguageoftheQur’anremaineduntouched,itswordsandtermsweremadetolosethesplendor they so beautifully conveyed in the original, revealed Arabic. So much so, that the Qur’anic terms were dressed up with the erroneous philosophies prevalent in the once Zoroastrian culture of Persia, and they became widely accepted even among the Arabs! This staggering tragedy explains why, how and where, even the Arabic speaking people lose their touch with the Qur’an! The Book describes this staggering tragedy very clearly, 25:30 And the Messenger will say, “O My Lord! These are my people, the ones who had disabled this Qur’an making it of no account.” [They had immobilized it like villagers whobindacowbytyingherfrontfoottoherhorn. Mahjoor=Acowthusimmobilized] This ill treatment of the Divine message and the subsequent filling of the void with conjecture is THE cause of the Muslim downfall on a Global scale. Any nation that holds on to this Divine Writ in letter and spirit can build a Paradise on earth. The early Islamic history is a great testimonial to this claim, but we will explore this point a little further. How, then, do the others continue to make progress? Naturally, a very important question arises here. In the last several centuries, the West and many other non-Muslim countries have been making spellbinding advances in education, science and technology and in their governmental systems without the Qur’an! The short answer is that they have been using well their faculties of reason and intellectual inquiry. Another very significant factor has been quietly playing its role in this regard. The Qur’an has been, perceptiblyandimperceptibly, makingaUniversalimpactonhumancivilizationduringthelastfourteen centuries. The celebrated French surgeon, thinker and historian, Robert Briffault (1876-1978) has very convincingly elaborated this fact in his remarkable work, “The Making of Humanity.” ButMuslims, afterdisablingtheDivinerevelation,havealsoallowedtheirintellecttoparalyze. They have fallen easy prey to the utterly senseless dogmas fabricated centuries after the exalted Prophet and his noble companions. However, the rule stands for all that the Last revelation of God economizes human effort (Sir Allama Iqbal). Itcangivethememinencetheyhaveneverimaginedbefore,scientificandmoralachievementsside by side, in a short span of time without having to go through the prolonged ordeal of learning through trial and error. And thus, they can adopt a progressive system of life that embraces all that is good, promoting the well-being of humanity, while avoiding all that is evil and harmful. Furthermore, this Revealed System of Life is fully sustainable and durable. x