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Islamic Rulings -
Living Shariah Verdicts By
Daa'i Jamaal al-Din Zarabozo
Let me state at the
outset that, after being Muslim for many years now, if
I were given the topic of "The Miraculous Quran," as I
see it now, I would be emphasizing and discussing
aspects that were completely unknown to me at the time
that I was studying Islam as a non-Muslim.
I have been studying the
Quran for over thirty years now and it never fails to
fascinate me. In fact, the phenomenon of continually
finding new fascinating aspects of the Quran has been
true for the Muslim scholars throughout the years.
Over the centuries, as they have spoken about the
Quran, later scholars recognize the miraculous aspects
that the earlier scholars mentioned while coming
across other aspects that they consider no less
remarkable and amazing.
Thus, for example, in the
past century, we have had Aishah bint al-Shaati,
Sayyid Qutb and Mustafa Saadiq al-Raafi'ee all adding
components to the overall theory of the miraculous
nature of the Quran.[1] Lately, many have emphasized
what are called the "scientific miracles of the Quran,"
a topic we shall try to visit toward the end of this
lecture.
However, this lecture is
about "my story" and my path to Islam via the Quran.
Therefore, I will be emphasizing those aspects of the
Quran that influenced me the most at that time and I
will give less time to other aspects that I have
studied in detail since then.
However,
this lecture is about "my story" and my path to Islam
via the Quran. Therefore, I will be emphasizing those
aspects of the Quran that influenced me the most at
that time and I will give less time to other aspects
that I have studied in detail since then.
A Very Brief Introduction to the
Prophet Muhammad and the Quran
I am sure
that most of you have some familiarity with the
Prophet Muhammad, may the mercy and blessings of God
be upon him, and the Quran but for some points that I
will make later, I believe a very brief introduction
to the two is in order.
Muhammad
was born around 570 years after the birth of Jesus
Christ. He was born in Mecca, in the Arabian
Peninsula. The people of Mecca were devoted to
idol-worship. The area was not known as a place of
advanced civilization or learning at its time. In
fact, the Prophet Muhammad was illiterate.
At the age
of forty, Muhammad received his first revelation.
Although he was known among his people as "the
trustworthy," the majority of the Arabs belied him and
soon after started a massive campaign to persecute
those who believed in him. After thirteen years of
preaching in Mecca, the Prophet himself left for the
city of Medina, where he already had some followers.
They made him the leader of the city.
The
disbelievers of Mecca did not rest and attempted to
militarily squash the new faith. However, what was
originally a small band of Muslims grew in number and
were able to withstand the onslaught of the
disbelievers.
Within ten
years, the Prophet himself led an army back to Mecca
and conquered it in a bloodless victory. Thus, Islam
became victorious in Arabia and began spreading
throughout the world. The Prophet Muhammad, may the
mercy and blessings of God be upon him, finally died
in 632.
As for the
Quran, it was revealed to the Prophet Muhammad over a
period of twenty-three years. It was revealed directly
to him via the angel Gabriel. He would receive the
revelation and then convey it to his followers. Thus,
the Quran is very different from the Bible. There are
no human contributions to the Quran; it is only the
revelation from God. In other words, you will not find
any stories about the Prophet written by his
Companions in the Quran. In fact, you will not even
find in the Quran any of the Prophet's speech outside
of what he stated to be the revelation of the Quran.
The Prophet's own words have been kept completely
separate from the Quran.
One final
note, the Quran is only in Arabic. The best
translation is not the Quran. Once you lose something
in its original wording and rely only on translation,
the original is truly lost.
The
Story of My Conversion and my Near Baptism
The story
of my conversion is not the most fascinating. However,
one aspect is of interest: the affect that the Quran
had on me.
My family
moved to California from Spain. Thus, we were
nominally Catholic. I had very little exposure to any
religion until a friend of mine in school invited me
to their church. I started attending and this was the
first time that I began to read the Bible. I was
definitely taking everything very seriously. There
then came the time to be baptized. I had no problem
with it except that I decided that, since this was the
first religion I was exposed to, I should just look
around at other religions to make sure that I was
certain about what I was doing. I did not think this
would actually affect my final decision while, in
reality, that near baptism led me to becoming a
Muslim.
I started studying about all religions I could find.
This, obviously, is what led me to the Quran.
[1]
For a discussion of these recent additions to the
concept of the miraculous nature of the Quran, see
Muhammad Rafii Yunus, "Modern Approaches to the Study
of I'jaz al-Quran (Ph.D. Dissertation,
University of Michigan, 1994), pp. 78-91 and 118-125 |
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