Al-Qur’an – The Reading
The message the Holy Prophet Muhammad (Sallal-lahu alaihe wa Salam) got on mount Hira was the first in a series of revelations of Allah conveyed through the Archangel Gabriel. In this way, throughout the rest of his life he received revelations, which were later arranged into the 114 suras (chapters) of Al-Qur’an. At the time of each revelation his physical condition changed. His body became heavy and he started shivering and perspiring profusely. He heard bells ringing and would cry out and fall down unconscious.
The words which came to him at the time of these revelations are held sacred by Muslims. Those words are never confused with the words he uttered in a normal physical state. The words of the revelations comprise the Holy Qur’an. The words of the Prophet himself are called the Hadith. Because the Archangel Gabriel on mount Hira ordered him to read and insisted on his reading, despite his illiteracy, the Sacred Book is known as Al-Qur’an, “The Reading” – the reading of the man who did not know how to read. (95, p. 5)
The Holy Prophet Muhammad (S. A. W.) said that the origin of revelation is the “Heavenly Book” or Ummul Kutub, “Mother Book”, written by Allah and preserved under His Throne. Only part of this book was revealed in the Arabic language. (36, p. 50) Once the Holy Prophet Muhammad (S. A. W.) said, “The Qur’an was sent down in seven dialects.” This statement is connected with the following incident:
Omer-ibn-al-Khattab said: “I heard Hisham-bin-Hacim-bin-Nizam read the chapter entitled Furkan, in another manner than that which I read it, and the Prophet taught me that chapter; and when I read it as he taught me, and he read it differently, I was near being angry with him: after that I waited, till he had finished reading; then I threw my garment upon his neck, and pulled him, and brought him to the Prophet, and said, “O Prophet, verily I heard this man read the chapter Furkan, in a different way from that which you taught me.” And the Prophet said, “Let Hisham go,” and he said to Hisham, “Read the chapter.” And he read it in the manner that he had done; and his highness said, “Thus has this chapter descended.” After that he said to me, “Read it,” which I did as I remembered. Here also he said, “Thus was this chapter sent down.” And as we were confounded when he said of both, thus it was sent down. Verily the Qur’an was sent down in seven dialects: than read what is easy and agreeable to you.” (101, p. 521)
The Holy Prophet Muhammad (S. A. W.) himself made distinctions in his various utterances. For some things he said, “This is the message of God, take it down, learn it by heart, recite it in ritual prayers. This is the Qur’an.” For others, either he said that it was God’s revelation or said nothing, yet in any case he did not demand that these should be included in the Holy Qur’an. These other sayings are the Hadith. The description of his activities is the Sunna. (119, pp. 120-121)
The Holy Prophet decided that the revelations of the fragments of the Holy Qur’an should not be compiled in the mechanical manner of chronological order. He himself gave them a different order. Thus the very first revelation, which significantly praises the “pen” as the custodian of human knowledge, is now in the 96th of the 114 suras of the Holy Qur’an. It was even necessary, since a sura was not always revealed in its entirety, but various parts came down at intervals. According to historians sometimes several suras were given simultaneously in the course of fragmentary revelations. So whenever a new passage was revealed the Holy Prophet indicated its exact place in what had been revealed up to that time. He himself not only gave the sequence of the verses, but also of the suras. This required constant revision and control. So every year in the month of Ramazan, the Holy Prophet had the habit of reciting the till-then-revealed Qur’an publicly and his companions brought their copies and collated and corrected everything. During the last Ramazan of his life he did this twice as a matter of further precaution. These collations and public recitations were called arada, “the presentation”.
Since revelations continued to come up to the end of his life, no official edition of the Holy Qur’an could be published during his lifetime. When the Holy Prophet Muhammad (S. A. W.) passed away on the 25th May 632 and there was no possibility of new additions, the Caliph Hazrat Abu Bakr (Razi Allahu anhu) appointed a committee under the presidentship of the chief secretary of the Holy Prophet, the Ansarite Hazrat Zaid ibn Thabit (R. A. A.), to prepare a final version of the Holy Qur’an in the form of a book. Hazrat Zaid (R. A. A.) was himself a hafiz (memorizer), but as a further precaution the Caliph ordered that for every verse or word he put in writing, he should have two witnesses, two written documents collated during the “presentations” of the Holy Prophet. People were asked to bring their private copies to the mosque, and show them to Hazrat Zaid (R. A. A.) and his assistant. When the work was completed, Hazrat Zaid (R. A. A.) read it twice from beginning to end and all deficiencies were corrected. The final version remained with the Caliph Hazrat Abu Bakr (R. A. A.) and later was passed to his successor Caliph Hazrat Umar (R. A. A.), and then to Hazrat Umar’s daughter Hazrate Hafsa (R. A. A.), the widow of the Holy Prophet.
After some time, when Hazrat Osman (R. A. A.) became Caliph, he had the old copy brought to him and entrusted it to another commission, presided by the same Hazrat Zaid ibn Thabit (R. A. A.), who brought the spelling up to date and made seven copies. These were publicly read in the Grand Mosque of Medina to the satisfaction of everybody. They were then sent to different provincial centers of the vast Muslim empire with the order that henceforth other public copies should conform only with the official copy and any copy which differed from it should be destroyed. (119, p. 121) But owing to the fact that the Kufic script in which the Holy Qur’an was originally written contained no indication of vowels or diacritical points, various readings are recognized by Muslims as of equal authority. (55, p. 6)
The arrangement of the Holy Qur’an is not easy to understand. Revelations of various dates and on different subjects are to be found together in the same suras. Some of the Medina suras, though of late revelation, are placed first, and the very early Meccan suras placed at the end. In regard to the placing of the very early Meccan suras at the end, some authors propose that the inspiration of the Holy Prophet progressed from inward things to outward things, whereas most people find their way from outward things to things within. (95, p. 16)
Thus, in summary, Al-Qur’an is the word of Allah. It was revealed to the Holy Prophet Muhammad (S. A. W.) in portions over a period of 23 years. It is divided into 114 chapters, or suras, containing in all about 6,200 verses, or ayats. The sayings of the Holy Prophet which he did not include in the Holy Qur’an are called Hadith. If the Holy Prophet had said, “Allah says that…”, it is called Hadith Qudsi, the saintly saying. When there is no precision, it is Hadith. In addition to the Holy Qur’an and the Hadith the description of the Holy Prophet Muhammad’s (S. A. W.) conduct and activities is called the Sunna. (119, p. 122)
This is how the Holy Qur’an was compiled and preserved. It is considered a bona fide scripture by Muslims. Not only by Muslims but many world scholars and scientists also accept the Holy Qur’an as a authentic scripture. Worldwide renowned eminent scholar and great religionist Srila Prabhupada said in this regard:
“According to the climate, according to the population, according to the country, there are different books of knowledge. Just like in India the book of knowledge is accepted as the Vedas, Vedic knowledge. In your European, American countries the book of knowledge accepted as the Old Testament, New Testament. Similarly, the book of knowledge amongst the Muslims, (which) they have accepted as the Qur’an. Actually, they are book of knowledge, undoubtedly. There is no doubt about it. But what are these book of knowledge, religious scripture? Religious scripture means they are meant for training you to that conception of life that you are pure soul, nothing more. They restrict your bodily activities under certain conditions. That is called morality” (27, p. 6).
Another great religious reformer and original spiritual master was Shree Chaitanya Mahaprabhu. He believes in one Almighty God and chanting His holy names is the main process of God-realization for this age. He vigorously preached and distributed love of God without consideration of creed, nationality or social position of recipient. According to historians he was a great expert in all revealed scriptures of the world.
The Holy Prophet Muhammad (S. A. W.) is quoted as saying, “In every one of its (Al-Qur’an’s) sentences there is an external and an internal meaning.” (6, p. 50) The external meaning most people can understand. Therefore it is this internal meaning which lies hidden in the Holy Qur’an that I wish to scrutinize. Now, a most interesting discussion unfolds itself. It took place in the 15th century between the saintly scholar Abdullah Patan and Shree Chaitanya Mahaprabhu who discussed the inner meaning of the Qur’anic verses. Through this discussion the hidden treasures of Al-Qur’an once again were revealed for the benefit of humanity.
