Importance of The Glorious Qur'an - Essay Example

Download file to see previous pages Introduction. The Qur’an is the holy text which holds the fundamental ideas underlying the Muslim faith as it is practised across the world. It holds a special place in the lives of Muslims because it is believed to be the word of Allah Himself, as revealed to the Prophet, Muhammad, and written down for the benefit of all who wish to learn from it. This paper examines the origins of this special book and summarizes its main contents. It then explores the importance of the Qur’an throughout history, in earliest times, and then in the twentieth century. Finally there is an examination of the Qur’an’s impact on the world today and the prospect of its continuing influence on the world in the future, along with a summarizing conclusion regarding the overall importance of the glorious Qur’an in human history. The Origins of The Glorious Qur’an. There is a huge gap in the understanding of men and the understanding of Allah, which cannot be bridged by human intelligence. While Allah is good and merciful, human beings are easily distracted, and can achieve a mixture of good and bad things in their lives. It is perhaps for this reason that the Qur’an was given to mankind: it is a collection of revelations which are intended to guide human beings into the ways of peace and goodness. Other religions, and in particular Judaism and Christianity, also have their sacred texts, which have many elements in common, since these three religions are among the ahl-al-kitab (people of the book). The Qur’an is the particular holy book that was given to Muslims, and its name means “recitation”, implying that the prophet Muhammad did not invent the words himself, but in fact recited the words of Allah (Sonn, 2010, p. 1) Although the words of the Qur’an may have been first written down by listeners at various points in the lifetime of Muhammad, the text that Muslims now use has been carefully arranged by scholars after Muhammad’s death in 632 CE. The text is divided into 114 surah (chapters) each of which has a title, and a number of ayat (verses). It is written in Arabic, the language of Muhammad’s native land, and from the very beginning scholars have taken great care to preserve the exact and correct form of words that was used from the very beginning. A minor addition was made in the ninth century when scholars added some marks to indicate vowels, because the existence of different dialects of Arabic meant that ambiguities and differences could creep into the reading of the text in different places. (Sonn, 2010, p. 5) Muhammad himself taught believers read the text, and also learn it word for word, and be able to recite it so that the message is preserved complete and unchanged in their minds. This tradition was continued by Muslims after his death, leading to the formation of mosques and schools dedicated to passing on the knowledge of the Qur’an to future generations. Muslims treat the actual text of the Qur’an with the deepest respect, and make use of portions for decorative and ceremonial purposes. There are additional sacred texts, known as the hadith which gather together some of the sayings of Muhammad and these are often ...Download file to see next pagesRead More