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WHAT IS THE QURAN?
HOW CAN IT BE DEFINED?
The Quran is an
eternal translation of the great book of
the universe and the everlasting
translator of the various ‘languages’
in which Divine laws of the creation and
operation of the universe are ‘inscribed’;
the interpreter of the books of the
visible, material world and the world of
the Unseen; the discloser of the
immaterial treasuries of the Divine
Names hidden on the earth and in the
heavens; the key to the truths which lie
beneath the lines of events; the tongue
of the Unseen world in the visible,
material one; the treasury of the favors
of the All-Merciful One and the eternal
addresses of the All-Glorified One
coming from the world of the Unseen
beyond the veil of this visible world;
the sun of the spiritual and
intellectual world of Islam and its
foundation and plan; the sacred map of
the worlds of the Hereafter; the
expounder, the lucid interpreter,
articulate proof, and clear translator
of the Divine Essence, Attributes, Names
and acts; the educator and trainer of
the world of humanity and the water and
light of Islam, which is the true and
greatest humanity; the true wisdom of
humankind and their true guide leading
them to happiness; and for human beings
it is both a book of law, a book of
prayer, a book of wisdom, a book of
worship and servanthood to God, and a
book of commands and invitation, a book
of invocation, and a book of mediation,
a holy book containing books for all the
spiritual needs of mankind, and a
heavenly book which, like a sacred
library, contains numerous booklets from
which all the saints and the eminently
truthful, and all the purified and
discerning scholars and saints of
different temperaments have derived
their ways peculiar to each, and which
illuminate each of these ways and answer
the needs of all those with different
tastes and temperaments who follow them.
Having come from the
Supreme Throne of God, and originated in
His Greatest Name, and issued forth from
the most comprehensive rank of each
Name, and as is explained in The Twelfth
Word, the Quran is both the word of
God as regards His being the Lord of the
worlds, and His decree in respect of His
having the title of the Deity of all
creatures, and a discourse in the name
of the Creator of all the heavens and
earth, and a speech from the perspective
of the absolute Divine Lordship, and an
eternal sermon on behalf of the
universal Sovereignty of the
All-Glorified One, and a register of the
favors of the Most Merciful One from the
viewpoint of the all-embracing Mercy,
and a collection of messages some of
which begin with a cipher, and a holy
book which, having descended from the
surrounding circle of the Divine
Greatest Name, looks over and surveys
the circle surrounded by the Supreme
Throne of God.
It is because of all
these that the title of Word of God has
been, and will always be, given to the
Quran most deservedly. After the Quran
come the Scriptures and Pages which were
sent to some other Prophets. As for the
other countless Divine words, some of
them are conversations in the form of
inspirations coming as the particular
manifestations of a particular aspect of
Divine Mercy, Sovereignty, and Lordship
under a particular title with particular
regard. The inspirations coming to
angels, human beings and animals vary
greatly with regard to their
universality or particularity.
The Quran is a
heavenly book, which contains in brief
the Scriptures revealed to the previous
Prophets in different ages, and the
content of the treatises of all the
saints with different temperaments, and
the works of all the purified scholars
each following a way particular to
himself; the six sides of which are
bright and absolutely free of the
darkness of doubts and whimsical
thoughts; whose point of support is with
certainty Divine Revelation and the
Divine eternal word, whose aim is
manifestly eternal happiness, and whose
inside is manifestly pure guidance. And
it is surrounded and supported: from
above by the lights of faith, from below
by proof and evidence, from the right by
the submission of the heart and the
conscience, and from the left by the
admission of reason and other
intellectual faculties. Its fruit is
with absolute certainty the mercy of the
Most Merciful One, and Paradise; and it
has been accepted and promoted by angels
and innumerable men and jinn through the
centuries.
All these qualities
mentioned so far to define the Quran
either have been proved in other places
or will be done so in the following
pages. None of this is mere assertion on
our part; rather, whatever we claim is
based on clear arguments.
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