Re: Qur'an: the Eternal, Living Reality

....as toilet paper.

"Islam Will Replace Collapsing Amerikan Empire"
<islam_to_replace_amerikan_empire@xxxxxxxxx> wrote in message
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> Qur'an: the Eternal, Living Reality
> By Khurram Murad
>
> The Qur'an is the word of the Ever-Living God; it has been sent down to
> guide man for all times to come. No book can be like it. As you come to
the
> Qur'an, Allah speaks to you. To read the Qur'an is to hear Him, to
converse
> with Him, and to walk in His ways. It is the encounter of life with the
> Life-giver. (God-there is no god but He, the Ever-living, the
> Self-Subsisting (by whom all subsist). He has sent down upon you the Book
> with the Truth) (Aal `Imran 3:2-3).
>
> For those who heard it for the first time from the lips of the Prophet
> (peace and blessings be upon him), the Qur'an was a living reality. They
had
> absolutely no doubt that ,through him, Allah was speaking to them. Their
> hearts and minds were therefore seized by it. Their eyes overflowed with
> tears and their bodies shivered. They found each word of it deeply
relevant
> to their concerns and experiences, and integrated it fully into their
lives.
> They were completely transformed by it both as individuals and as a
> corporate body into a totally new, alive, and life-giving entity. Those
who
> grazed sheep, herded camels, and traded petty merchandise became the
leaders
> of mankind.
>
> Today we have the same Qur'an with us. Millions of copies of it are in
> circulation. Day and night, it is ceaselessly recited in homes, in
mosques,
> and from pulpits. Voluminous exegetical works exist, expounding its
meaning.
> Words pour out incessantly to explain its teachings and to exhort us to
live
> by it. Yet eyes remain dry, hearts remain unmoved, minds remain untouched,
> lives remain unchanged. Ignominy and degradation appear to have become the
> lot of the followers of the Qur'an. Why? Because we no longer read the
Qur'an
> as a living reality. It is a sacred book, but it tells us something of the
> past concerning Muslims and non-Muslims, Jews and Christians, the faithful
> and the hypocrites, who, once upon a time, used to be.
>
> Can the Qur'an, 1,400 years later, be a living, relevant force, as
powerful
> for us now as it was then? This is the most crucial question that we must
> answer if we wish to shape our destiny afresh under the guidance of the
Qur'an.
>
> There appear, however, to be some difficulties. Not least of which has to
do
> with the fact that the Qur'an was revealed at a certain point in time.
Since
> then, we have traveled a long way, made gigantic leaps in technological
> know-how, and seen considerable social changes take place in human
society.
> Moreover, today, most of the followers of the Qur'an do not know Arabic;
and
> many who do, have little idea of the living language of the Qur'an. They
> cannot be expected to absorb its idiom and metaphor, so essential to
> exploring and absorbing the depths of the Qur'anic meaning.
>
> Yet its guidance, by its own claim, has an eternal relevance for all
people,
> being the word of the Eternal God.
>
> For the truth of this claim, it seems to me that it must be possible for
us
> to receive, experience, and understand the Qur'an as its first recipients
> did, at least in some measure and to some degree. We seem almost to have a
> right to this possibility of receiving God's guidance in its fullness and
> with all its riches and joys. In other words, despite the historical
> incidence of the revelation in a particular language at a particular time
> and place, we should be capable of receiving the Qur'an now (because its
> message is eternal), capable of making its message as much a real part of
> our lives as it was for the first believers, and with the same urgent and
> profound relevance for all our present concerns and experiences.
>
> But how do we do this? To put it frankly, only by entering the world of
the
> Qur'an as if Allah were speaking to us now and today and by fulfilling the
> necessary conditions for such an encounter.
>
> First, we must realize what the Qur'an as the word of God is and means to
> us, and bring all the reverence, love, longing, and will to act that this
> realization demands. Secondly, we must read it as it asks to be read, as
> Allah's Messenger instructed us, as he and his Companions read it.
Thirdly,
> we must bring each word of the Qur'an to bear upon our own realities and
> concerns by transcending the barriers of time, culture, and change.
>
> For its first addressees, the Qur'an was a contemporary event. Its
language
> and style, its eloquence and rationale, its idiom and metaphor, its
symbols
> and parables, its moments and events were all rooted in their own setting.
> These people were both witnesses to and, in a sense, participants in the
> whole act of revelation as it unfolded over a period of their own time. We
> do not have the same privilege; yet, in some measure, the same ought to be
> true for us.
>
> By understanding and obeying the Qur'an in our own setting, we will find
it,
> as far as possible, as much a contemporary event for ourselves as it was
> then. The essence of man has not changed; it is immutable. Only man's
> externalities-the forms, the modes, the technologies-have changed. The
> pagans of Makkah may be no more, nor the Jews of Yathrib, nor the
Christians
> of Najran, nor even the faithful and the unfaithful of the community at
> Madinah; but the same characters exist all around us. We are human beings
> exactly as the first recipients were, even though many find it extremely
> difficult to grapple with the deep implications of this very simple truth.
>
> Once you realize these truths and follow them, once you come to the Qur'an
> as the first believers did, it may reveal to you as it did to them, make
> partners of you as it did of them. And only then, instead of being a mere
> revered book, a sacred fossil, or a source of magic-like blessing, it will
> change into a mighty force, impinging, stirring, moving and guiding us to
> deeper and higher achievements, just as it did before.
>
>
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------
------
>
> * Based on the book Way to The Qur'an by Khurram Murad. Excerpted with
some
> modifications from:
> http://www.ymofmd.com/books/wtq/Chapter_1.htm
>
>
> Read Also:
>
> Prophet Muhammad as a Political Leader
>
> The Prophet and Uniting the Muslim Ummah
>
> The Prophet's Methods of Education
>
> http://en.fgulen.com.
>
> http://islamonline.net/english/Quran/2005/04/article02.shtml
>
>
>


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