Introduction
1. Revelation:
It
was Ramadan.
It was one night at the end of Ramadan.
The Prophet was alone in the cave 1
in Mount Hira'.
In that solitude,
2 now so dear to him, he heard a voice, an angelic
3
voice.
It was the voice of Jibril.
The Angel said, "Recite 4
!"
and the Prophet's answer was, "I am not a reciter." 5
Thus the Prophet later
on told his wife and Companions: "Then the Angel took
me and held me tightly in his embrace 6
until he had reached the limits of my endurance 7
. Then he released me and said: "(Recite!) I said, (I am not a reciter),
and again he embraced me until he had reached the limits of my endurance."
The Angel held the Prophet tightly the third time, then released him, and
said:
"Recite; and your Lord is the Most Bountiful. He
has created man from a clot 8
of blood. He Who has taught by the pen. Taught man what he knew not."
The Prophet recited these words after the Angel, and he said later on,
"It was as if the words were written on my heart".
Revelation is the Divine source of our knowledge. It is really the source
of know1edge for all creatures, because the word revelation in Arabic means what we call
innate 9knowledge
to "animate" 10
beings, like ants and bees, even to "inanimate"11
`objects like clouds and seas, and the earth and the heavens.
One form of revelation to mankind is granted to the faithful among men
and women alike: Zakaria and Maryam. A higher form was granted Musa, when
Allah spoke to him "from behind a veil 12
and a third form is when an angel is sent as a messenger to the human messenger.
This is how the final form of revelation took place to the final Prophet
and Messenger, the Prayers of Allah and His Peace be upon him.
Innate knowledge in mankind is always true, but is most of the time clouded
and obstructed 13
by instinctive inclinations for worldly enjoyment. Knowledge from nature
around us is incomplete so long as our senses cannot perceive the whole
truth even in things nearest to us. That is why Divine revelation is the
surest source of true knowledge.
The heavenly Messenger,
Jibril, saw the Prophet quite often, and the last time he saw him for a
long time was in the last Ramadan before the Prophet's death, when the
Prophet recited the whole Qur'an in the presence of Jibril. That was the
last angelic visit, and the last recitation of the complete Qur'an by the
Prophet.
2. Al-Qur'an:
Al-Qur'an is not the first revelation from Allah, but it is the last. Like
the other Books before it, Al-Qur'an is a Book of guidance, not only to
Muslims, but to humanity as a whole. Al-Qur'an does not refute 14
all of the Books before it, because two of the Books before them, the To-rah and
the Gospel have guidance and light.
But Al-Qur'an replaces these two Books and all Books before them, because
much of the light and guidance in these two Books has been obscured by
human heresie's 15
and the darkness of historical dissension 16
and interpolation' 17
The way the Prophet explained and applied the teachings of Al-Qur'an is
called the "Sunnah" and
Al-Qur'an and Sunnah are the laws that guide Muslims in all spheres of
life: personal and social, in all the affairs of the individual and the
state, in war and peace. Thus Al-Qur'an and Sunnah summarize the whole
life of the Prophet from birth to death.
3-The Eternal Message:
At the age of forty, Muhammad was entrusted with a message to the worlds:
"And We have not sent you except as a mercy to the
worlds". (Al-Anbiya" 107).
These worlds include mankind, and other creatures as invisible as the jinn
and as barely understood by mankind as those creatures that swarm 18
the whole universe around us. Before he was forty, he had been known as
an honest man, who could be entrusted with the honor of settling the dispute
between the various tribes of Makkah about placing the "Black Stone" when
they decided to rebuild Al-Ka'bah in the Sanctified Mosque. He was also
known for his aversion 19
for the idols 20
that were hanging in Al-Ka'bah. He never prayed to any of them. These idols
went on hanging there until Makkah opened its gates to him in the 8th year
of the establishment of the first Muslim State in Al-Madinah. That was
the time when he destroyed these idols, saying:
"And say: Truth has come and untruth has vanished;
surely untruth has ever been bound to vanish". (Al-Isra'-81).
Thus the first thing he came to teach the world is monotheism: the Oneness
of Allah. This monotheism was not the choice of one of the idols that were
hanging in Al-Ka'bah, and exalting him above all the others and preaching
his worship, as some orientalists 21
claim. Nor is it the unity of God, which may be interpreted in various
ways as some like to interpret it as a trinitarian 22
creed 23
contrary to the very concept of Oneness. In Al-Qur'an, Allah (Exalted be
His name) is both One and Absolute:
One since He cannot be two or three or more; and He is also Absolute since
He cannot be conceived to be part of anything else or to beget or be begotten.
This is the idea behind one of the shortest Suras of Al-Qur'an.
"Say: He is Allah, the One Allah, the Eternally Absolute. He did not beget
and He was not begotten .And no one has ever been His compeer."
The immense significance of this surah cannot be over-emphasized; it is
the corner-stone of the whole edifice 24
of Islam in its laws for the individual and the state in that Memorable
Decade. That Memorable Decade was a vindication 25
of Revelation, a trail blazer 26
for the noblest in man, establishing the Imperial City under the inimitable
leadership of the Prophet, manifesting the peak 27
of human achievement under the Divine Eye, setting the Moral Code for all
ages to come, and holding illimitable dominion over 28
human
destiny.
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