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THE ETERNAL GUIDANCE
The Holy Qur'an is the final, uncorrupted word of Allah, revealed to Prophet Muhammad (pbuh) as a beacon of light for all humanity. It is not merely a book of history or law, but a living miracle that speaks to the heart and mind in every age. Beyond its sublime language and profound wisdom lies a divine roadmap, inviting every seeker of truth to reflect, to understand, and to find ultimate peace. In this section, we explore the origins, the miraculous nature, and the timeless message of the Final Testament—a scripture that remains as fresh and relevant today as it was fourteen centuries ago.
THE ETERNAL MIRACLE
The Final Revelation
The Holy Qur'an is the literal word of Allah, revealed to Prophet Muhammad (pbuh) through the Angel Gabriel over a period of 23 years. It is the final and most comprehensive scripture, sent to confirm and clarify the previous revelations.
A Living Miracle
The Qur'an is not merely a book of law, but a spiritual, linguistic, and scientific miracle. Its profound eloquence, historical accuracy, and timeless wisdom continue to inspire and guide hearts in the modern age.
A Manual for Life
The Qur'an serves as a "Huda" (Guidance) for all mankind. It addresses the fundamental questions of existence, provides a framework for social justice, and offers a path to inner peace. It is a healing for the soul and a light for the intellect, inviting every individual to reflect, understand, and attain spiritual success.
The Qur’an is the Book of God. It is the last scripture Allah gave the creatures whom He had endowed with self-awareness and the ability to choose right or wrong. The book is the standard, the criterion of right and wrong. It is divine guideness, the only holy guide preserved unchanged from the moments of its revelation to the moments these words are read and to that single moment at the end of time.The Qur’an is a miracle and a mercy to creatures who have every need of Him, Who has no need of us. It is light and joy, a promise of Paradise to believers and warning of the Fire to disbelievers. It is a map of the straight path to Heaven while a caution against the crooked route to Hell.
The Qur’an, unlike any other scripture, names itself. It is very much self-aware. The phrase, Al-Qur’an, means ‘the reading’ and ‘the recitation,’ and Al-Qur’an is the primary name by which it refers to and identifies itself. Appropriately, the first word to be revealed, iqra meaning ‘read’ was conveyed by the Archangel Gabriel to an illiterate merchant in the Cave of Hira above Mecca in the Hejaz of the Arabian Peninsula. Muhammad bin Abdullah resisted ‘I am not a reader.’ Gabriel repeated the command and Muhammad resisted again. The third time, Gabriel went on ‘read, in the name of your Lord who created, created man from a clot. Read, for your Lord is the Most Generous, Who taught by the pen, taught man what he did not know.’ (Verse 96:1-5) So began some fourteen centuries ago, the miracle of the Qur’an’s revelation and the twenty-three year mission of the last of the messengers and prophets.
The Qur’an was revealed bit by bit over a period of twenty-three years. Chapters and verses sent down in Mecca are called Meccan, and those revealed in Medina, Medinian. Most of the Meccan revelation took place in Mecca in the years before the Move (the Hegira). The character of the verses Allah(God) sent down changed afterwards. After the Move, the emphasis in Medina turned to guidance and legislation on social and commercial ties and relationships, on crimes and punishments and the position of the Prophet himself in the new Muslim society and in his own family. Marriage and divorce were treated, inheritance and support were outlined. Contracts and commisions were covered. Murder and theft were defined and punishments detailed. The Responsibility of the society to the individual and those of the individual to the Islamic community were set out.
In a single chapter, it may relate stories of individuals like the sleepers of Ephesus, including prophets like Adam and Aaron and messengers like Abraham, Moses and Jesus, and of peoples, like those of the Prophet Noah and the Prophet Lot. The stories are told to illustrate reality or prove a particular point that Allah is making. Anologies are often drawn , and even science is taught for the same purpose. Man’s experince and knowledge as well as his unique abilities and powers of observation, logic and emotion are called upon and challenged to teach the reality of Allah and His creation. Such is God’s Qur’anic emphasis on empricism in its presentation of the evidence of the existence of God the Creator that it seems a precursor to the scientific method of the modern age.The scripture also names itself with six other words: the Book, the Standard (of right and wrong), the Reminder, the Wisdom, the Guidance, and the Light. It characterizes itself with many more words and phrases.
Allah reports the attitude of the disbelievers, ‘And when Our verses are recited to them, they say, ‘we have heard. If we wished, we would speak like this. These are nothing but fables of the men of old.’ In more than one verse comes God’s own answer,’If man and jinn gathered to produce the like of this Qur’an, they could not produce its like even if they helped one another. When they said, ‘he’s made the book up,’ the challenge of God became bolder. Allah commanded, ‘’Say ‘then bring ten chapters like it, made-up, and call on everyone you can besides Allah, if you are true.’’Finally the challenge was elevated to its most daring level when they said ‘He has invented it.’ Allah then answered, ‘Then bring a single chapter like it, and call on what you can besides Allah, if you are true.’
The Qur’an, then, is the greatest miracle of the Messenger Muhammad. Like the Prophet himself, most of those hearing these verses were illiterate. This did not mean, however, they were without great literature. Illiteracy did not prevent these Arabs from producing and appreciating great poets, and yet, in the miracle that persists till this day, no one succeded then, nor has anyone succeeded since, in meeting even the last form of the challenge, the production of a single chapter like it in as few as three short verses or as many as 286.
Its beauty in Arabic, its truth, its poignancy and its power link directly with the soul. Alone and in congregations, grown men and women again and again are being reduced to tears by its clear and clarifying, empathetic and sympathetic, moving and merciful, miraculous Arabic verses. Such is its awesome beauty and power that there is great virtue to the believer who reads or recites it without understanding it. Even in translation, when stripped of its jewels of diction, rhyme, alliteration and rhythm, its meaning pierces the crust of cynicism, skims off the scum of sins, fans hope, raises the soul and rings and resonates in the logic and learning of the brain to flood the spirit with joy and delight. No other work or monument in human or divine literature in any language has ever matched the role, respect and reverence it enjoys among Arabs and others in Islam. Such has been the appreciaton of its readers for fourteen centuries that is the foundation and the structure for Arabic as a single language. Indeed it became, and it remains today, the single most important monument of Arabic literature and islamic civilization.
Its miraculous nature does not end with its inimitable language, style and rhetoric. Its content, too, is astonishing and astounding. Not only does it lay out the meaning and the prupose of life, the relationship of God to man and His other creatures, the organization and the structuring of human society, but it also establishes the morals and the basis of a legal code. Finally in its instruction on the reality of creation, it revealed basic elements and axioms of the study of the universe, embryology, and geology. Nearly fourteen centuries ago the Qur’an, for exmaple, put forth as truth, what is now considered by scientists as the big bang theory of the creation of the universe. ‘ Have not those who have disbelieved seen that the heavens and the earth were one mass, then We ripped them apart and from water made every living thing? Will then they not believe?’ In no part of the Qur’an can one find a verse that has been disproved by modern science. One can find verses presenting principles and facts that could never have been understood by any other than Allah over thirteen hundred years ago.
REVELATION
As related above, the revelation of the Qur’an began with Gabriel overwhelming Muhammad bin Abdullah and reciting the first verses of the Qur’an, the command to read. It was the lunar month of Ramadan. And the day was one of the odd-numbered days of the last ten of the lunar month, thought by many to be the twenty-seventh of that month. The Prophet was about forty years old and the year was about 610.C.E. or roughly twelve years before his move to Medina. On that first night, Gabriel also told him that he was the messenger of God.
Qur’anic revelation was of a unique kind, revelation in words. In the case of the Qur’an, the words were sent down to the lowest of the seven heavens. From there, God has sent them down with Gabriel. He brought them down and taught them to Muhammad. The Qur’an, as in Verse 4:2 quoted above, was ‘a sending down’, ‘a revelation’ as rendered by many English translators. In answer to a question, the Prophet told of receiving the revelation. ‘Sometimes it is revealed like the ringing of a bell. This form of revelation is the hardest of all, and then this stage passes after I have learned by heart what has been revealed. Sometimes the angel comes in the form of a man and talks to me, and I learn by heart whatever he says.’ Aisha , the wife of the Prophet and the narrator addded’ Indeed I saw revelation descending on him on a severe day of cold, and, as it left him with his brow dripping in sweat.’
PRESERVATION
Divine Preservation: Unlike any other book in history, the Qur'an has remained perfectly preserved in its original Arabic text for over 1,400 years. This is a fulfillment of the Divine promise: "Indeed, it is We who sent down the message and indeed, We will be its guardian." (Qur'an, 15:9), so it was God himself, who undertook the preservation of the Qur’an.
The first apparent measure of God to preserve the Qur’an as He had sent it down is shown in the verses ‘(Muhammad) do not mumble the Qur’an to hurry it. It falls on Us to help you learn and recite it. And when We read it, follow the reading. The it falls on Us to explain it.’ Gabriel it was whom God appointed to help the Prophet memorize the Qur’an. He in turn recited the verses as they came up to his companions. Most of them, who were illiterate like the Messenger himself, memorized it. However, the Prophet also summoned those who were lettered, and they wrote the new revelation down on whatever material was at hand. Such transcriptions remained in the Prophet’s house. As the verses came, Gabriel instructed Muhammad where to place each new verse among those having already been sent down. Muhammad even supervised the companions’ compilation of the scraps of written materials. The Prophet had the companions recite back to him the portions they had committed to memory, correcting them if he heard a mistake. Obviously, since the revelation of the Qur’an continued till a short time before the Messenger’s death, there could be no effort to write down the full Qur’an, the entire collection in one book. However, there is evidence that the large, already revealed portions of it were set down in writing during the Prophet’s life time for the purposes of its publication and dissemination.
It was in the efforts of the Prophet, his companions and the generations of Muslims who followed that we may see how God had the Message guarded and preserved. The major effort during the life time of the Messenger stayed memorization. He had his close companions instruct others in its memorization and before he died there were thousands who had memorized great portions of it. Some memorized all of it. Even the arangement of its verses was well known before the Prophet’s death, for small and big portions of it were recited in the five daily, obligatory prayers as well as in optional prayers. Upon his death, his first political sucessor, the first Caliph, Abu Bakr as-Sadiq, had a complete written copy prepared. When Abu Bakr died two years after Muhammad, the single copy passed to the second Caliph, Umar bin al- Khattab and from him went to Hafsa, his daughter and the Prophet’s wife.
The third Caliph, Uthman bin ‘Affan (23-55H/644-655 C.E) ordered up to five identical copies made, the copy of Hafsa serving as the base and other written fragments and the momories of many reliable memorizers being consulted. The text that emerged in the five copies was the consensus of all the companions and scholars of the time. One copy ‘Uthman kept for himself and four he sent to various parts of the islamic lands. Two of these copies that date from a few years after the death of the Prophet remain with us today, one in the Topkapi Museum in Istanbul, Turkiye, and the second in Tashkent, Uzbekistan. The two are identical to each other and to any other copy of the Qur’an in print or to its imprints in the momories of millions of Muslims.
The history of no other scripture can so be documented. The integrity of no other scripture can so be proven. God has kept His promise to guard and preserve the Qur’an.
TRANSLATIONS OF THE QUR’AN
A Short History of Qur’an Translations into English: Key Milestones
During this era, translations were often not produced from the original Arabic text but from intermediary languages like French or Latin.
The Victorian era brought about more philological and literary approaches to the text.
This period marked a "Golden Age" where Muslim scholars began using English as a medium to present Islam from its own primary sources.
Contemporary works prioritize linguistic precision, socio-historical context, and modern English readability.
A great many new English translations of the Qur’an appeared in the twentieth century. One study on printed translations published through 1980 revealed that only four new, complete English translations existed before the 1900s. By 1980, there were sixty-one more. While translations in sixty-five languages were noted in the study, most editions and new translations were in English. The first printed translation appeared in Latin in1543. The first partial, printed translation appeared in 1515. From 1543 through 1980, a total of 2672 partial and complete editions were published. 427 of that number were in English, and for the 296 complete editions in English, there were thirty-two different translators. Different writers of new, partial translations were forty-eight for a total sixty English translators through 1980. It is estimated that in the decades since then, more than forty-five English translations and new editions have been published with more than twenty new translators. The vast majority of publications in all languages have occured in the 20th and 21st centuries, the greatest number of translations and new editions are in English and the rate of the appearance of new English translations is rising.
It is the two foundations of Islam, the Qur’an and the Sunnah of the Prophet Muhammad, which form the bases of, and provide the primary driving force for all Qur’anic translation. Towards the end of his Farewell Sermon, to more than 100,000 pilgrims, the Prophet Muhammad explicitly passed that responsibility on to his followers: ‘Indeed I’ve left among you the Book of God. If you follow it, you shall never go astray… Let those who’ve witnessed it take it to those absent, for many (of them) may mind it better than those who’ve already heard it. And if they ask you about me, what are you going to say? ’They answered, ‘We witness that you fulfilled the trust, lived up to the prophethood and advised and guided well.’ The Prophet lifted his forefinger to the sky and then to the people and said, ‘ Lord, witness it. Lord, witness it.’
Many muslims have claimed that translation of the Qur’an is impossible. Even many translators, both Muslim and non-Muslim alike, who have tried to give the sense of the Qur’an in English have admitted that a translation equal to the Qur’an in equality and impact is impossible. Nevertheless, they have continued presenting and publishing translations. The paradox is only apparent. What they mean and are really admitting is that the result of their efforts to translate the Qur’an is not and can never be the Qur’an. The Qur’an was revealed in a special, high style of Arabic. Muslims hold it to be inimitable, miraculous. The Qur’an challenged doubters to produce a single chapter like any of its chapters, and more than 1400 years later, no one has tried, let alone succeeded, in doing so.
Despite a translator’s feeling that his predecessors’ efforts have been inadequate, it is impossible to imagine an attempt at, let alone the success of, any effort that ignores the efforts of earlier scholars. All of the new translations owe a great deal to those published before. Many of them are based on one or more previous translations of the Qur’an, and this translation, too, has benefited from the efforts of its antecedents. For those promoting or producing other translations assume or believe they have something to add to the Qur’anic translation phenomenon. Perhaps the assumers have only a confidence, sometimes an over-confidence or presumption, that their abilities or capabilities are greater than those precedessors or colleagues. The believers in the worth of their own labors to translate well may more consciously calculate that they have a new, constructive approach or system for the project.
Philologist Ahmet AKMEHMETOĞLU
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