The Qur'an: Essential Teachings. Abdur Raheem Kidwai

is unimaginable in any product of the human mind. Moreover, the several layers of meaning as found in the Qur’ān are its other baffling characteristic. Readers of varying mental calibre grasp the meaning and message of the Qur’ān to their utmost satisfaction. Yet on each reading the Qur’ānic text yields new meanings. It would be pointless to look for such valuable elements in any human work.

       The Qur’ān is essentially the Book of guidance. In this respect, once again, it is unique. Contained in it are directives of abiding value both for individuals in their personal lives and for the society and community at large. Its scheme of instruction envisages every conceivable situation in which man might find himself – adversity or prosperity, war or peace, fear or hope, and a minority or majority condition. In all that the Qur’ān relates, especially of the history of earlier communities, the note of guidance for readers is always to the fore. It is to the Qur’ān’s credit that its immediate addressees, the seventh century Arabs notorious for their evil ways and moral and spiritual degeneration, turned into role models of excellent conduct and enviable morals and manners. Their transformation, needless to add, was achieved, thanks only to the guidance imparted to them by the Qur’ān. More strikingly, the Qur’ān has continued to provide the same guidance to billions of people in every age, including our own times. No book can compete in any degree with the Qur’ān in terms of the perfect guidance it embodies for everyone – the rich and the poor, the old and the young, the specialist and the lay, the male and the female, and the ruler and the ruled. As an impeccable code of conduct governing every sphere of life, it instructs man comprehensively on how to live his life for the best, a way which will secure his deliverance and promote peace and happiness in the world. For its vast range of guidance benefiting every segment of society and for its indelible imprint on human lives the Qur’ān ranks as supreme.

       That the Qur’ān is the infallible Word of God is borne out by the actualisation of its many prophecies. In the given circumstances these prophecies appeared as remotely impossible. The conditions of the day did not favour any of these. The unbelievers of the day took to mocking at these, taking them as wild flights of fancy. However, since these were announced by Almighty Allah, they came true in no time, much to the bewilderment of those who had rejected them outright. To illustrate the point, let us briefly examine just two such Qur’ānic prophecies:

      i. In 615 CE Sūrah al-Rūm was revealed to the Prophet, with these opening verses:

      Alif. Lām. Mīm. The Roman empire has been defeated, in a land close by; but they, after this defeat of theirs, will soon be victorious, within a few years. With Allah is the decision, in the past and in the future. On that day the believers shall rejoice, with the help of Allah: He helps whom He will, and He is Exalted in Might, Most Merciful. It is the promise of Allah. Never does Allah depart from His promise, but most men do not understand.

      (al-Rūm 30:1-6)

      As pointed out by ‘Abdullāh Yūsuf ‘Alī, this prophecy about the Roman victory was made

      when the tide of the Persian conquest over the Roman Empire was running strong. The Christian Empire of Rome had lost Jerusalem to the Persians, and Christianity had been humbled in the dust. At that time it seemed outside the bounds of human possibility … that the tables would be turned and the position reversed within the space of eight or nine years.¹

      ii. While comforting and consoling the Prophet Muḥammad (peace and blessings be upon him) in the early Makkan period when the unbelievers ruthlessly persecuted him and even planned to assassinate him with a view to obliterating his nascent Islamic community, the Qur’ān promised him: “We have exalted your fame,” (al-Inshirāḥ 94:4). In the given circumstances, the Makkan unbelievers took this as a cruel joke. For he was then a lone figure, detested by his own tribesmen, including some of his own family members. By then only a handful of weak, resourceless people had responded positively to his call. Otherwise, he was widely dismissed as an outcast. Within a few years of the above prophecy, however, he reached the zenith of success, both spiritual and material. To this day he is universally acclaimed as the most successful religious figure, even by Orientalists given to Islam-bashing. The following glowing tributes paid by them point to the heights of fame scaled by him, as the Qur’ān promised:

      “It does not seem too much to say that if any one man changed the course of history that man was Muhammad.” (Charles Issawi, “Muhammad’s Historical Role”, The Muslim World, CT, USA 40 (April 1950, p. 95). “Of all men Muhammad has exercised the greatest influence upon the human race.” (J.W. Draper, History of the Intellectual Development of Europe, London, 1864, 1, 329.) “Muhammad is the most successful of all Prophets and religious personalities.” (Encyclopaedia Britannica, XVth edition, p. 898.) “Compare Muhammad with the long roll of men whom the world by common consent has called “Great”. Take him all in all, what he was and what he did, and what those inspired by him have done, he seems to stand alone above and beyond them all.” (Bosworth-Smith, Mohammed and Mohammedanism, London, 1874, pp. 339-340.) “Within a brief span of mortal life, Muhammad called forth, out of the unpromising material, a nation never united before, in a country that was hitherto but a geographical expression; established a religion which in vast areas superseded Christianity and Judaism and still claims the adherence of a goodly portion of the human race; and laid the basis of an empire that was soon to embrace within its far-flung boundaries the fairest provinces of the civilized world.” (Phillip K. Hitti, History of the Arabs, London, 1948, pp. 121-122.)

      These accounts give a fair idea of the veracity of the Qur’ānic prophecies. Needless to add, no human work can even be remotely compared with the Qur’ān on this count.