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The foremost thing someone who has faith in Allah should do
is to know Allah and His Messengers with true knowledge and
then to know his responsibilities to Him, his sole Creator.
The source which provides this knowledge to man is the Qur'an.
In the Qur'an, Allah gives His commands and the limits He
ordains for man. Man can attain eternal salvation only when
he worships Allah alone without any partner and does his best
to meticulously observe these commands and limits. In the
Hereafter, the rewards of those who eagerly observe these
limits and strive to attain His good pleasure and those who
disregard them and try to satisfy their own desires will
obviously not be the same.
Allah, in the Qur'an, gives a detailed account of the type of
slave who will earn His Countenance. Hence, the primary
responsibility of man is to practice what Allah commands in
His Book. On the Day of Judgement, people will be judged
according to their obedience to the Qur'an:
So hold fast to what has been revealed to you. You are on a
right path. It is certainly a reminder to you and to your
people and you will be questioned. (Surat az-Zukhruf: 43-44)
That
is why you must never pretend you don't grasp that all people
should answer the call of Allah and that to this end, they
should be knowledgeable of the Qur'an.
The Qur'an, the unique guide providing man all answers and
explanations about eternal salvation, is a reminder and an
admonition. Allah relates this attribute of the Qur'an in
many verses:
This is a communication to be transmitted to mankind so that
they may be warned by it and so that they will know that He
is One God and so that people of intelligence will pay heed.
(Surah Ibrahim: 52)
This is a clear explanation for all mankind, and guidance and
admonition for those who have taqwa (awe or fear of Allah). (Surah
Ali 'Imran: 138)
No indeed! It is truly a reminder to which anyone who wills
may pay heed. But they will only pay heed if Allah wills. He
is entitled to be feared and entitled to forgive. (Surat al-Muddaththir:
54-55)
The warnings and advice that Allah gives in the Qur'an are of
great significance. A person should re-orient the conduct of
his life in accordance with them. Otherwise, societies, where
violent disorders and restlessness prevail, will spring up.
Such a society becomes unreliable and insecure since people
do not observe the limits Allah commands. That is why
complying with the commands of Allah is of great importance.
Those who have fear of Allah heed these warnings and pay
meticulous attention to them and to putting them into
practice in their daily lives. It is OBVIOUS that a life
shaped according to one's own personal principles and moral
values, totally ignoring the Qur'anic standpoint, will not
help one attain eternal salvation.
Do
not make the same mistake as many others. Never pretend you
don't grasp that you do not have a guide other than the
Qur'an and that the Qur'an is a reminder and an admonition.
Each verse Allah relates in the Qur'an is extremely
comprehensible and explicit. Therefore when anyone says "I
read the Qur'an yet I could not understand it", one should
also be aware that this is just a pretext to avoid his
responsibility to Allah and a misdeed for which he will be
judged on the Day of Judgement. For those who sincerely turn
to Allah and seek guidance, the verses of the Qur'an are
comprehensible. That the commands of Allah are comprehensible
means that we have the responsibility for practising them.
Pretending not to grasp this OBVIOUS fact and claiming not to
understand the verses is definitely an unjust stance. Allah
relates in the verses that the Qur'an can be readily
understood:
Am I to desire someone other than Allah as a judge when it is
He who has sent down the Book to you clarifying everything?
Those We have given the book know it has been sent down from
your Lord with truth, so on no account be among the doubters.
(Surat al-An'am: 114)
In this way We have sent it down as clear signs. Allah guides
anyone He wills. (Surat al-Hajj: 16)
So, never pretend you don't grasp that all verses of the
Qur'an are explicit and easy to practise. Do not follow a
path you will later regret.
Allah protects the Qur'an, and it has been maintained
unaltered for 1,400 years. Allah relates this fact in the
following verses:
It is We Who have sent down the Reminder and We Who will
preserve it. (Surat al-Hijr: 9)
The Words of your Lord are perfect in truthfulness and
justice. No one can change His Words. He is the All-Hearing,
the All-Knowing. (Surat al-An'am: 115)
These promises of Allah are certainly sufficient for
believers. However, Allah also equipped the Qur'an with some
scientific and numeric miracles, revealing once again that it
is a Book from Him. Apart from the miraculous characteristic
of the Qur'an, it also has a "mathematical miracle". An
example of this is the numbers of repetitions of some words
in the Qur'an. Some words are surprisingly repeated in
numbers which relate to the meanings of the words. Below are
such words and the numbers of their repetitions in the Qur'an.
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The statement of "seven heavens" is repeated seven times.
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The number of times the words, "world " and "hereafter" are
repeated is also the same: 115
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"Day (yawm)" is repeated 365 times in singular form while
"month" (shehr) is repeated 12 times.
-
The word "faith" (iman) (without genitive) is repeated 25
times throughout the Qur'an, as is also the word
"infidelity or covering over the truth" (kufr).
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When we count the word "Say", we come up with the result of
332. We see the same figure when we count the word "they
said".
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The word "devil" (shaytan) is used 88 times. The word
"angel" is also repeated 88 times.
These attributes of the Qur'an reveal definitely that it is a
Book from Allah. So, do not pretend that you do not grasp
this OBVIOUS fact.
The Qur'an is the revelation of Allah. The Qur'an, the divine
guide and declaration to humankind, is a sublime Book
explaining Allah's religion to all humankind. All the
disbelievers' attacks on Allah's religion, seeking to raise
doubts in the hearts, including the slander that "the Qur'an
is a Book written by the Prophet", are all doomed. In the
Qur'an, Allah challenges man to bring a book similar to the
Qur'an, if they ever could:
Do they say, "Who has invented it?" Say: "Then produce a
sura(chapter) like it and call on anyone you can besides
Allah if you are telling the truth." (Surah Yunus: 38)
Say: "If both men and jinn banded together to produce the
like of this Qur'an, they could never produce anything like
it, even if they backed each other up." (Surat al-Isra: 88)
Despite all the divine attributes of the Qur'an, those
disbelievers who pretend not to grasp these attributes will
surely have come to a sharp understanding in the Hereafter.
Yet it will be too late.
So, don't be like those who raise doubts about the
authenticity of the Qur'an, and don't pretend not to
understand that the Qur'an is the just book of Allah and no
one can bring another book similar to it.
TAKEN FROM "NEVER PLEAD IGNORANCE"
BY HARUN YAHYA, TA-HA PUBLISHERS, UNITED KINGDOM, 2000
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