INTERPRETATION OF THE QURAN
An Enlightened Rendition of the Entire Quran according to the Subject Matter in English
A New Paradigm in Understanding the Quran (copyright 2007)
By FAROOQ MIRZA
VOLUME ONE
DIVINE REVELATION FROM ADAM TO JESUS
(1) The Quran (2) The Majesty and Glory of God (3) Origin of Universe and Life (4) Old Testament Prophets (Adam, Able, Cain, Noah, Abraham, Lot, Isaac, Jacob and Joseph) (5) Moses (Musa) (6) Later Hebrew Prophets (Elijah, Elisha, Samuel, King Saul, David, Solomon, Sheba and Jonah) (7) New Testament Prophets (Mary, John the Baptist, and Jesus) (8) Differences with Jews and Christians (9) Sectarianism and call for unity among monotheists
VOLUME TWO
DIVINE REVELATION TO THE LAST PROPHET
(10) Pre-Islamic Arabian prophets (Hud, Salih, Ishmael, Shuayb and Job) (11) Prophets and God’s Judgment in this life (12) Idol-Worship in Pre-Islamic Arabia (13) Non-Believers (pagans of Arabia) (14) Mission Of Muhammad (Mecca Period) (15) Objections of pagans of Mecca to Islam and Quranic rebuttal (16) Muhammad’s Mission (Medina Period) (17) Battles against pagans and Jews of Arabia (18) The conquest of Mecca and later conflicts (19) The concept of war (jihad) and peace in Islam (20) Muhammad's legacy and his family life
VOLUME THREE
FREEDOMS AND RESTRAINTS IN ISLAM
(21) Free Will and concept of state (22) Islamic Laws (23) Islamic way of life and five pillars (24) Economic regulations and laws of inheritance (25) Women’s rights, sex, marriage and divorce (26) Sins, good works and salvation (27) Al-Ghayb, Afterlife, resurrection and the last Hour (28) The Day of Judgment (29) Hell (30) Heaven
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OUR MISSION:
TO PROMOTE MODERATE ISLAM: And thus have We willed you to be a community of the middle way (Quran 2:143).
INTERFAITH UNDERSTANDING: Do not argue with the followers of earlier revelation (Jews and Christians) otherwise than in a most kindly manner -unless it be suchof them as are bent on evildoing [And are therefore not accessible to friendly argument: the implication being that in such cases all disputes should a priori be avoided] and say: “We believe in that which has been bestowed from on high upon us, as well as that which has been bestowed upon you: for our God and your God is one and the same, and it is unto Him that We [all] surrender ourselves.” (Quran 29:46).
PEACE ON EARTH: When you are greeted with a greeting [of peace], answer with an even better greeting, or [at least] with the like thereof (Quran 4:86). If they incline to peace, you incline to it as well, and place your trust in God. And should they seek but to deceive you [by their show of peace] - behold, God is enough for you! [Even if the enemy offers of peace only with a view to deceiving you, this offer of peace must be accepted.](Quran 8:61-62)
PREFACE (WHY THIS BOOK)
ISLAM A WORLD RELIGION
Islam is truly a world religion extending from Morocco, opposing Gibraltar on the Atlantic, eastward by way of Egypt through the entire Middle East, Pakistan and Indonesia to the Philippines to the Pacific. It encircles the larger part of the warm areas of the globe and is still on the move. There are many religions dying or on their way out. Not so Islam. Youngest of the major religions of the world, it is again stirring with some of the strength and vigor of youth. Numbering in the vicinity of 1.2 billions followers, one out of every six persons in today’s world belongs to this religion which guides both thought and deed to a detail not often paralleled in the West. Nor is Islam merely consolidating its position; it is expanding and expanding rapidly. Today Islam is spreading not only in Africa and Southeast Asia but even to some extent in China, Europe, and the United States. Some claim it to be the fastest growing religion. Muslims are now very much part of mosaic of Western societies, increasingly visible in Europe and the United States. In short, Islam is a vital force in the contemporary world. In an increasingly globally interdependent world, mutual understanding is both important and necessary. Thus, to understand the world in which we live in requires knowledge and appreciation of our theologically interconnected and historically intertwined Judaeo-Christian-Islamic heritage.
ISLAM UNDER ATTACK
Islam is under attack from both external and internal forces. There is a constant barrage of false propaganda from the critics of Islam. In the Western media, Muslims are generally negatively stereotyped. Distorted image of Islam as a monolithic reality dubbed as Islamic fundamentalism, a term often signifying militant radicalism and violence. Judging the mainstream majority by the acts of a minority, the distinction between the religion of Islam and the actions of an extremist fringe is obscured. Thus Islam, a rich and dynamic religious tradition of the second largest world religion, has been buried under the menacing headlines and slogans. Many Muslims are disturbed by this trend and some resort to violence, playing right into the hands of provocateurs. However, such ideological warfare against Islam is ongoing since its inception. See the chapter “Objections of pagans of Mecca to Islam and Quranic rebuttal.” For fourteen hundred years, critics of Islam have used every mean at their disposal to debunk Islam, but Islam always has emerged stronger than before. There is a silver lining to this negative publicity. Many people with bias against Islam and Muslims will accept such criticism at a face value. However, those seeking the truth will scrutinize and verify facts on their own. One such example is the story of former US congressman Mark D Siljander, a staunch member of Christian right. In his book, “A deadly misunderstanding, a congressman’s quest to bridge the Muslim-Christian divide,” Mr. Siljander takes on an eye-opening journey of personal, religious and political discovery. Through his scholarship and his sojourn, Mr. Siljander builds a compelling case that any faithful reading of religion and its teaching should serve to unite, not to divide. He documents that people of great faith traditions all share the same core values and ideals: compassion, respect for life, and kindness toward others are but some of the many common threads tying together men and women of faith.
The much greater threat to Islam comes from within, from its own clergy and Muslims itself. Unfortunately, most of the clerics are poorly educated and lack the broader perspective of very complex modern life. Clerics both Shia and Sunni spread hate against each other and are the root cause of sectarianism and schism in Islam. Many Muslims of today are uneducated and unable to read the Quran. The source of their knowledge is the religious authorities. Centuries of subservience to authoritarian regimes and semi-educated and in some cases downright bigoted Islamic clerics combined with deplorable ignorance of the content of the Quran have shackled their mind. For long periods since Muhammad first called his people to the unrivaled oneness of God, Muslim nations have wandered from the spirit of the Prophet. The practice of true religion has often been replaced by mere profession that routine observance has counterfeited for authentic action, that fervor has waned and devotion to God and his prophet have dwindled into meaningless verbiage. Muslims living in occupied lands are weak, divided and humiliated people. Humiliation breeds revenge and violence in a small fringe of radical Muslims, which tarnishes the peaceful image of Islam.
REFORMATION OR RENAISSANCE
There are strong indications that at precisely the present, when history seems to be focusing around the Near and Middle East, Islam is emerging from the partial stagnation which followed in the wake of its once mighty empire. Do Muslims need to reform Islam and develop secular societies in order to enter modernity? Is modernity is synonymous with Westernization? Or does Islamic societies need renaissance and to rediscover their rich heritage and evolve strategies to keep religion in the public life as a moral anchor and still somehow nurture liberty, pluralism and equal rights for all?
The West has succeeded in pulling their societies out of dark ages into the age of enlightenment by holding firmly to the Kantian motto: dare to know. The Western civilization attained modernity after the reformation of Judeo-Christian traditions. The separation of the Church and the state is one of the fundamental concepts of the American constitution. After waking up with a vengeance from the suffocating strangulation of the Christian Church, there began the distinction between the secular and the spiritual. The complete severing of ties with God opened a Pandora’s Box of relativistic ideologies with nothing permanent or true to hold on to. The Islamic world in their second renaissance must do likewise with one exception. Since in Islam, the original knowledge was based upon revelation, the motto of new Islamic renaissance must read: dare to know under the guidance of the Quran, which is the only infallible and perfect source of our guidance. Secularism will not work because Muslims have deeply held faith in Islam. During the communist era when many Christian societies were accepting Godless ideology, most Muslim countries rejected communism. The great Afghan war against Soviet Union is one example.
EDUCATION A SACRED DUTY
Answer to many of the problems of Islamic world is going back to basic, which is education, education and more education. Education is a sacred duty for every Muslim. According to the Quran: God will exalt by [many] degrees those of you who have attained to faith and, [above all,] such as have been vouchsafed [true] knowledge: for God is fully aware of all that you do (58:11). The saying of the Prophet: “The superiority of a learned man over a mere worshipper is like the superiority of the moon on the night when it is full over all other stars”. The importance of education is so vital in Islam that scholars are exempted from Jihad or defensive war (9:122).
Islam does not allow priesthood, therefore it is incumbent upon every educated Muslim to study the Quran and understand it to the best of his/her ability. This is the only way to wrest the message of the Quran from the monopoly of Mullahs. Also, on the Day of Judgment, man will appear in a lonely state before God to answer for what he/she did or did not do in their first life and there will be no intercession by any Prophet, cleric or religious scholar.
At this juncture, Islamic societies are at a crossroad. There are rejectionists among Muslims, who are against anything Western. Then there are some who want to follow the West blindly and want to discard the Quran. (Through out this book, the translation of the Quran is presented in bold letters and the explanation in parentheses.) And [on Judgment Day] the Apostle will say: “O my Sustainer! Behold, [some of] my people have come to regard this Quran as something [that ought to be] discarded!” (25:30) [As a mere wishful thinking and, therefore, of no account, or as something that in the course of time has ceased to be relevant. The expression “my people” signifies only such of his nominal followers as have lost all real faith in the Quranic message. In the present passage, prophetically, by the deceptive argument that the Quran, having been enunciated fourteen centuries ago, must now be considered obsolete.]
REVIVAL OF ISLAM
Like all great religions, Islam has also passed through many stages in its development. Throughout its long history, the community has had to respond to internal and external threats to its continued life and vitality. As a result, Islam has a long tradition of religious renewal and reform, extending from its earliest history to present. The concepts of renewal (tajdid) and reform (islah) are fundamental components of Islam’s worldview, rooted in the Quran and the Sunnah of the Prophet. Both concepts involve a call for a return to the fundamentals of Islam. Islah is a Quranic term to describe the reform preached and undertaken by the prophets when they warned their sinful communities and called on them to return to God’s path. Tajdid is based on a tradition of the Prophet: “God will send to this ummah (the Muslim community) at the head of each century those who will renew its faith for it.” The two major aspects of this process are first, a return to the ideal pattern revealed in the Quran and Sunnah, and second, the right to practice ijtihad or creative thinking (see under Islamic law), to interpret the sources of Islam. Implicit in renewal is: (1) The belief that the righteous community established by the Prophet at Medina already possesses the norm; (2) the removal of un-Islamic historical accretions or unwarranted innovations that have corrupted the community life; and (3) a critique of established institutions, in particular the religious establishment’s interpretation of Islam
TRADITIONAL ARRANGEMENT AND REARRANGEMENT ACCORDING TO THE SUBJECT MATTER
Before we accept or reject its message, an objective and thoughtful enquiry of the Quran is a prerequisite. This is easier said than done. The Quran is a unique book and unlike any other book, it does not have a beginning, middle or the end. It is not arranged according to different topics or subject matter. The traditional Quran is arranged in accordance with the inner requirements of its message as a whole, and not in the chronological order in which the individual passages were revealed. The seemingly abrupt transition from one subject to another is also in accord with the Quranic principle of deliberately interweaving moral exhortation with practical legislation: and this in pursuance of the teaching that man’s life - spiritual and physical, individual and social - is one integral whole, and therefore requires simultaneous consideration of all its aspects if the concept of the good life is to be realized. In accordance with the system prevailing throughout the Quran, a lengthy passage dealing with purely moral or ethical questions is usually followed by verses relating to social legislation, and this with a view to bringing out the intimate connection between man’s spiritual life and his social behavior.
In retrospect, a discussion of varying subjects within a same chapter may appear unconnected and may cause confusion and misunderstanding, especially for those not familiar with the uniqueness of the Quran. In this book, a new radical approach is taken as the Quran is presented according to the subject matter. One of the cardinal principles in understanding the Quran is that its message must not be viewed as a compilation of individual injunctions and exhortations but as one integral whole. For example, the subject of divorce is discussed in the Quran in chapter 2, 33, 58, 60 and 65. By compiling all the verses about divorce at one place make it easier to understand. This easy-to-understand format will make the Quran more accessible to a common man, rather than limiting its study to academics, Islamic scholars and clerics.
SHORT BIOGRAPHY OF MUHAMMAD ASAD
Muhammad Asad’s Journey into Islam
From Berlin to Mecca
By Ismail Ibrahim Nawwab
Two roads diverged in Berlin in the 1920's: a well-worn one to the West, the other, rarely traveled, to the East. Leopold Weiss, a gifted young writer, traveler and linguist with a thorough knowledge of the Bible and the Talmud and with deep roots in European culture, took the road eastward to Mecca. He traveled that road as Muhammad Asad, and his name now figures prominently on the roll of 20th-century English-language Muslim scholars and thinkers. The story of how Asad walked out of Berlin, away from the West and into a new spiritual life is best told in his own words and an Old Testament simile: “After all, it was a matter of love," he wrote, "and love is composed of many things; of our desires and our loneliness, of our high aims and our shortcomings, of our strengths and our weaknesses. So it was in my case. Islam came over me like a robber who enters a house by night; but, unlike a robber, it entered to remain for good.” Muhammad Asad was born Leopold Weiss in July 1900 in the city of Lvov (German Lemberg), now in Poland, then part of the Austrian Empire. He was the descendant of a long line of rabbis, a line broken by his father, who became a barrister. Asad himself received a thorough religious education that would qualify him to keep alive the family's rabbinical tradition. He had become proficient in Hebrew at an early age and was also familiar with Aramaic. He had studied the Old Testament in the original as well as the text and commentaries of the Talmud, the Mishna and Gemara, and he had delved into the intricacies of Biblical exegesis, the Targum.
His family moved to Vienna, where 14-year-old Weiss ran away from school and tried unsuccessfully to join the Austrian army to fight in the First World War. No sooner had he finally been officially drafted than the Austrian Empire collapsed, along with his dreams of military glory. After the war, he pursued philosophy and art history at the University of Vienna, but those studies failed to satisfy him and he abandoned them to seek fulfillment elsewhere. Vienna at that time was one of the most intellectually and culturally stimulating cities in Europe, a hothouse of burgeoning new perspectives on psychology, language and philosophy. Not just its academic institutions, but even its famous cafés reverberated with lively debate centered on psychoanalysis, logical positivism, linguistic analysis and semantics. This was the period when the distinctive voices of Sigmund Freud, Alfred Adler and Ludwig Wittgenstein filled the air and echoed round the world. Weiss had a ringside seat for these exciting discussions, and though he was impressed by the originality of those pioneering spirits, their major conclusions left him still unsatisfied. At this stage, Weiss, like many of his generation, counted himself an agnostic, having drifted away from his Jewish moorings despite his religious studies.
He left Europe for the Middle East in 1922 for what was supposed to be a short visit to an uncle in Jerusalem. There he came to know the Arabs and was struck by how Islam infused their everyday lives with existential meaning, spiritual strength and inner peace. Weiss now became - at the remarkably young age of 22 - a correspondent for the Frankfurter Zeitung, one of the most prestigious newspapers of Germany and Europe. As a journalist, he traveled extensively, mingled with ordinary people, held discussions with Muslim intellectuals, and met heads of state in Palestine, Egypt, Transjordan, Syria, Iraq, Iran and Afghanistan. During his travels and through his readings, Weiss's interest in Islam increased as his understanding of its scripture, history and peoples grew. In part, curiosity propelled his explorations, but he also felt something darker - in his words, “a spiritual emptiness, a vague, cynical relativism born out of increasing hopelessness” - from which he needed to escape. He remained agnostic, unable to accept that
God spoke to and guided humankind by revelation.
Back in Berlin from the Middle East a few years later, Weiss underwent an electrifying spiritual epiphany - reminiscent of the experience of some of the earliest Muslims - that changed his mind and his life. “Out of the Quran spoke a voice greater than the voice of Muhammad.” Thus it was that Weiss became a Muslim. He converted in Berlin before the head of the city's small Muslim community and took the names Muhammad, to honor the Prophet, and Asad - meaning “lion” - as a reminder of his given name. He abruptly left his newspaper job, and he set off on pilgrimage to Mecca. The psychological and emotional dimensions of Asad's migration were even more important than the physical ones. Asad regarded Islam not as a religion in the conventional, or western, sense but as a way of life for all times. In Islam he had found a religious system and a practical guide for everyday living that were harmoniously balanced. “Islam appears to me like a perfect work of architecture. All its parts are harmoniously conceived to complement and support each other; nothing is superfluous and nothing lacking; and the result is a structure of absolute balance and solid composure.” Asad spent some six years in the holy cities of Mecca and Medina, where he studied Arabic, the Quran, the hadith - the traditions of the Prophet and Islamic history. Those studies led him to the firm conviction that Islam, as a spiritual and social phenomenon, is still, in spite of all the drawbacks caused by the deficiencies of the Muslims, by far the greatest driving force mankind has ever experienced. His academic knowledge of classical Arabic made easier by familiarity with Hebrew and Aramaic, sister Semitic languages was further enhanced by his wide travels and his contacts in Arabia with Bedouins. He mastered the Arabic language, not only through academic study, but also by living with the tribe who spoke the Arabic dialect of the Quran.
To study Muslim communities and cultures further east, Asad left Arabia for India in 1932. There he met the celebrated poet-philosopher Muhammad Iqbal, the spiritual progenitor of Pakistan. Iqbal persuaded Asad to stay on to help elucidate the intellectual premises of the future Islamic state. Asad soon won Iqbal’s admiration, and public acclaim, with the publication of a perceptive monograph on the challenges facing modern Muslims.
Asad moved to Pakistan after its creation in 1947 and was charged by its government with formulating ideological foundations for the new state. Later he was transferred to the Pakistan Foreign Ministry to head its Middle East Division, where he endeavored to strengthen Pakistan's ties to other Muslim countries. He capped his diplomatic career by serving as Pakistan's Minister Plenipotentiary to the United Nations - a position he resigned in 1952 to write his autobiography, The Road to Mecca. After writing this book, he left New York in 1955 and finally settled in Spain. He did not cease to write. At 80, after 17 years of effort, he completed the work that had been his life's dream, and for which he felt all his life till then had been an apprenticeship: a translation and exegesis, or tafsir, of the Quran in English. He continued to serve Islam till his death in Spain on February 23, 1992. With his death passed a journalist, traveler, social critic, linguist, thinker, reformer, diplomat, political theorist and translator, a scholar dedicated to the service of God and humankind, and to leading a righteous life. But death will not be the final chapter in Asad's close relationship with the Muslims: His luminous works remain a living testimony to his great, enduring love affair with Islam.
Asad, in fact, represents an outstanding example of a phenomenon of modern times: the conversion, on both sides of the Atlantic, of a number of western writers and intellectuals to Islam, and their passionate commitment to its vision and way of life. The circumstances and particulars of their entering the fold vary, but there are usually three overarching reasons common to them: belief in the divine origin of the Quran, in the prophethood of Muhammad and in Islam's message to lead a righteous life. Their acts of faith have shown a wider western public that Islam is not a quaint, fanatical religion followed by wild natives in remote regions, that, on the contrary, Islam's message and teachings are relevant to, and appropriate for, reasonable and thoughtful people in the most advanced areas of the world.
Dr. FAROOQ MIRZA
The author came to the United States for medical training. The first impression after setting foot in the U.S is of awe at this great country, but slowly the feelings of awe give rise to sobering reality. In this land of plenty, there is still poverty, hunger, homelessness and drug abuse. A small but permanent underclass of mostly women and children exists in ghettos, out of sight and out of mind of most American. Millions of young men unable to function in the society are incarcerated. Why such a dichotomy within this otherwise great society? What went wrong? The purpose of above description of social ills is not meant to denigrate America but to learn from its mistakes. The poverty and many of the social ills of the West are not due to lack of resources, but due to moral ambiguities (see chapter women’s rights, sex, marriage and divorce). How can Muslims avoid these pitfalls while entering modernity and developing their societies? Although born in a Sunni-Muslim family in Pakistan, this author no longer considers himself a Sunni, only a Muslim (see the chapter “Sectarianism and call to unity among monotheists”). The author is a pediatrician with Master in Public Health. With the help of a computer and ten years of hard work, “THE MESSAGE OF THE QURAN” is rearranged according to specific topics and subject matter.
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