Qur'an:cover To Cover

The Qur’an:Cover to Cover


In the Name of Allah, the Most Compassionate, the Ever Merciful !


Asalamualaikum...May Peace Be Upon You!

I have said many times before and I repeat that when I say Allah…I mean “The Creator”.The ONE who is the Creator of all that exists. The One deserving to be worshipped out of intense love and awe, the One we seek for ultimate refuge.

Allah doesn’t refer to a Muslim God but the Creator.

In fact, there is no Muslim God, Christian God,Hindu God, Jew God etc!


God is God…the Creator… who has created all of us!

The God is God, whatever name you call HIM.

The Creator introduces himself as Allah in Quran as HIS primary name though HE has so many names…of which are those we know and those we do not know.

“Indeed I—I alone—am Allah. There is no God but I”. (Qur’an 20:14)


Glorified is God, the Creator!

All good comes from the God, while evil comes from our own hands.

In-Sha-Allah (God Willing), I am intending to share translation of the Qur’an cover to cover with brief explanation wherever I will be in capacity to share with proper understanding.

But before we begin, I want to address some aspects which could be useful to approach Qur’an and in trying to understand it.For example; what is Qur’an, how it was preserved and compiled, its structure, theme, the authorship of Qur’an, Theme,Structure and its Genre.

{Disclaimer: None of this is my own work.I am myself a learner and in no capacity claim to be in a position to explain anything on/of my own. I will be only a medium to share authentic translation or brief explanations with due acknowledgement to the original sources}


A humble request: whether you are a Muslim or a Non-Muslim, a serious seeker or a casual reader, whether you are reading translation of the Qur’an for the very first time or you are a regular reader…let us start afresh leaving behind any pre-notions!



The Qur’an:

The Qur’an is the supreme authority in Islam.Muslims believe that Qur’an is the word of God.

Qur’an was revealed on Prophet Muhammad (peace be upon Him)in his language which is Arabic through the archangel Gabriel (Jibra’eel).The method of delivery was verbal.


Primary Purpose:

Qur’an introduces itself as:

“A guide for humanity with clear proofs of guidance and the standard to distinguish between right and wrong”. (Qur’an 2:185)

“That is the Scripture; there is no doubt about it—a guidance for the mindful of God”. (Qur’an 2:2)

“This is a blessed Book which WE have revealed to you O Prophet' so that they may contemplate its signs (verses) and people of reason may be mindful”. (Qur’an 38:29)

“O mankind, there has come to you an admonition from your Lord and a cure for what lies within the chests and guidance and mercy for the believers”. (Qur’an 10:57)

“And indeed, you are surely receiving the Qur’an from the One Who is All-Wise, All-Knowing.” (Qur’an 27:6)


Structure:

The Qur’an is made up of 6236 aayaat (verses).

Aayat in arabic literally means a “sign”,for which we roughly use the term “verses” .Aayaat is a plural form of aayat.

Qur’an is composed of 114 Surahs (chapters),all having their proper names.

A Surah usually takes its name from the main theme it contains, a story, or a distinctive word within it. [Surah in Arabic literally means a fence enclosing a specific topic or topics for which we roughly use the term chapters]


In-Sha-Allah, To Be Continued !

 

Thank you dear Rihana for your feedback.

Yes, In-Sha-Allah, there would be brief explanations.

I had to clarify that i am not a scholar or anything closer to that.But surely,I will try my level best to present explanations from authentic sources.

I do not know any online portal for the purpose you have mentioned but if i came across any, i will let you know.

About the font, i was requested long ago to make font bolder so it can be easy to read

In-Sha-Allah, I will keep in consideration your point in future posts.

Thank you once again.

 

Dear Brother,Thank you so much for your kind words,I am humbled.

May God allow me to present HIS words with integrity.It indeed is a heavy task and i am not sure if I will be able to do justice with my limited knowledge and ability but I will try my best.

I admire your quest.

regards,
Yumna

 

Yes, that is what I intend.

Again correct, this is not intended to be a discussion thread.

In my other thread of Qur'an; i randomly share an aayat (verse) from anywhere in Qur'an without following the order and no explanation is given for any verse. while in this thread,I intend to share the translation of Qur'an as it is arranged in physical form that is from cover to cover with some brief explanations and that is the only difference.

I appreciate your quest and as mentioned earlier if i came across any such platform, i will let you know.

Thank you for your interest.

regards,
Yumna

 

The Qur’an:Cover to Cover (#2)


In the Name of Allah, the Most Compassionate, the Ever Merciful !

Asalamualaikum...May Peace Be Upon You!

Qur’an was not revealed as a whole Book or Chapters altogether.Qur’an was revealed in aayaat (verses) for over a period of 23 years.And neither the Qur’an is first book revealed by the God.

The first 3 scriptures revealed are:

1: Torah/Towrat revealed to Prophet Musa (Moses),peace be upon Him

2: Zabur or psalms revealed to Prophet Dawud (David),Peace be upon Him.

3: Injeel or Bible revealed to Prophet Isa (Jesus),peace be upon Him.

4: Qur’an revealed to Prophet Muhammad, peace be upon Him.


Preservation and Compilation

Throughout the 23 years of revelation, the Prophet (peace be upon Him) strived to share the revelation with those around him as soon as it was revealed. He (peace be upon him) did this verbally, as he couldn’t read or write, but he strongly encouraged literates around him to write down the revelation, as well as memorize it.

While others who could not read and write used to memorize it verbatim.This was the basis of how Muslims believe the Qur’an became preserved, not purely through written or oral means, but with both strengthening the other.

The companions around Prophet (peace be upon Him)constantly strove to memorize the signs (verses), with many eventually memorizing the entire book, and simultaneously used to record these signs (verses) on parchment, leather, bone, wood, stone, basically whatever means they had around them.The companions were busy in learning the Qur’an and teaching it to others.

The Prophet (peace be upon Him) used to recite the entire Qur’an once a year during the month of Ramadan (month of fasting) to angel Jibra’eel, but in the last Ramadan before the Prophet (peace be upon Him) passed away, he recited it twice. This second time was called ‘the last presentation’. This final presentation was attended by a number of the companions and scribes of the Prophet including Zayn Bin Thabit (Chief scribe of the Prophet to record Qur’an).

It is important to know that whenever any revelation descended upon Prophet Muhammad (peace be upon Him) , he would call one or two of them to come and write down whatever he had received of the Qur’an. Those were called the Scribes of the Qur’an, and there were forty-eight of them.

Next, the companions who had written down whatever the Prophet(peace be upon Him) had received would read what he had written down to the Prophet (peace be upon him), so that if there was any error or missing word, the Prophet would correct it. Once the Prophet(peace be upon Him) authenticated that part of the Qur’an, he ordered the companions to teach it to others. Thus the divine text had been recorded immediately upon revelation on palm parchments, pieces of leather, and any of the writing tools of that time.

By the end of the Prophet’s life the entire Qur’an was written down in the form of uncollated pieces.

With the death of the Prophet(peace be upon Him), the leadership of the community passed to Abu Bakr Sidiq (the first Caliph), who was quickly beset by conflict on the outskirts of the now considerably large Muslim state. This conflict led to the battle of Yamamah, which saw many of those who had memorized the Qur’an killed.

Seriously concerned about that matter,‘Umar Ibn Al-Khattab (who eventually became second caliph) discussed it with Abu Bakr; he suggested that since many reciters had been killed, it would be safer that the Qur’an be collected in the form of a book.

Abu Bakr was convinced with the idea, and he called Zaid Ibn Thabit for this mission.Abu Bakr assigned him to authenticate and collect the oral and textual Qur’anic revelations into a single bound volume using only those aayat (verses) which had been written in the presence of the Prophet himself.

It is reported that on this heavy responsibility Zaid Ibn Thabit said, “If they had asked me to carry a mountain, it would have been easier for me than this mission.”

Having complete awareness of the monumental responsibility ,Zaid Ibn Thabitfollowed a certain procedure in collecting and authenticating the Qur’an.

He announced that all those who have any parchment of any Qur’anic text that was written in the presence of the Prophet (peace be upon Him) should submit it to him(Zaid) with another two witnesses acknowledging that this aayat (verse) had been written and verified in the presence of the Prophet himself.These manuscripts would then be verified by those who had memorized the entire Qur’an at the hands of the Prophet.

This was where the important concept of tawatur or multiple attested sources, came from. In order to be 100% sure that a verse of the Qur’an was in fact a verse of the Qur’an, it needed to have multiple independent chains of transmissions from different memorizers of the Qur'an.

In this way, any aayat (verse) that came to Zaid could be corroborated through both written and oral means, essentially guaranteeing that every single verse put in the final book was conveyed by the Prophet (peace be upon Him).

Once this had been completed by Zaid, he documented the complete text which became known as the Suhuf (scrolls), and gave it to Abu Bakr. This was now the official text of the Qur’an.

After few years (when first two caliph had already passed away),Usman Ibn Afan was the Caliph and the Islam had spread incredibly rapidly, now reaching from Libya in the West to Khorasan in the East. With this influx of non-Arabs who had embraced Islam, different dialects in reciting Qur’an were reported.

In order to stamp out this issue; Caliph Usman decided that the original Quraishi dialect would become the official reading style of the Qur’an.

Zaid Ibn Thabit was again appointed to perform this important task.

Qur’an in the era of Caliph Abu Bakr had been compiled with the intent of preserving it, whereas in the era of Caliph Usman it had been compiled with the intent of publishing it and sending it all around the Muslim world.

A committee of 12 companions was formed to essentially repeat the process of Zaid ibn Thabit, gathering all of the primary sources.

After Usman’s compilation was done, the companions’ other manuscripts and notebooks which had any Qur’anic texts and explanations and comments recorded by them were burned. Many companions were saddened to see their notes being burned, but for the sake of preserving the Qur’an, and to prevent its text from mixing with any human comments or prophetic explanations over time, they accepted the loss of such notes which were linked to many beautiful memories as they sat writing down what they had learned from the Prophet (peace be upon him).

But during that time, the words were not yet dotted nor did they had any diacritical marks.Over time however, skeletal dots began to be used in new copies of the Manuscript, and this quickly became the standard for all personal copies of the Qur’an. So apart from the development of new calligraphy styles and publishing methods, every Qur’an from then until today has been exactly the same.

That is a 1400 years of successive chain of people who learnt the same book from their teachers, and taught the same book to their students, and to this very day we open a copy of the Qur’an, and know with conviction that this is the same glorious book which was revealed by the Almighty God to the Prophet Muhammad (peace be upon Him) through Angel Jibra’eel. [Source: collected from different sources]


In-Sha-Allah, To Be Continued !