Quran

       The Holy Qur'an - The Key to Success

The Quran (English pronunciation: /kɔrˈɑːn/^{[n 1]} kor-ahn , Arabic: القرآن‎ al-qurʼān, IPA: [qurˈʔaːn],^{[n 2]} literally meaning "the recitation", alsoromanised Qurʼan or Koran) is the central religious text of Islam, which Muslims believe to be a revelation from God (Arabic: الله‎, Allah).^[1] It is widely regarded as the finest piece of literature in the Arabic language.^[2][3][4][5] Muslims consider the Quran to be the only book that has been protected by God from distortion or corruption.^[6] However, major textual variations and deficiencies in scripts mean the relationship between the text of today's Quran and an original text is unclear.^[7]

Muslims believe that the Quran was verbally revealed from God to Muhammad through the angel Gabriel (Jibril), gradually over a period of approximately 23 years, beginning on 22 December 609 CE,^[8] when Muhammad was 40, and concluding in 632 CE, the year of his death.^[1][9][10] Shortly after Muhammad's death, the Quran was collected by his companions using written Quranic materials and everything that had been memorized of the Quran.^[11]

Muslims regard the Quran as the most important miracle of Muhammad, the proof of his prophethood^[12] and the culmination of a series of divine messages that started with the messages revealed to Adam and ended with Muhammad. The Quran assumes familiarity with major narratives recounted in the Jewish and Christian scriptures. It summarizes some, dwells at length on others and, in some cases, presents alternative accounts and interpretations of events.^[13][14][15] The Quran describes itself as a book of guidance. It sometimes offers detailed accounts of specific historical events, and it often emphasizes the moral significance of an event over its narrative sequence.^[16][17] The Quran is used along with the hadith to interpret sharia law.^[18] During prayers, the Quran is recited only in Arabic.^[19]

Significance in Islam

Muslims believe the Quran to be the book of divine guidance revealed from God to Muhammad through the angel Gabriel over a period of 23 years and view the Quran as God's final revelation to humanity.^[9][50] They also believe that the Quran has solutions to all the problems of humanity irrespective of how complex they may be and in what age they occur.

Revelation in Islamic and Quranic concept means the act of God addressing an individual, conveying a message for a greater number of recipients. The process by which the divine message comes to the heart of a messenger of God is tanzil (to send down) or nuzūl (to come down). As the Quran says, "With the truth we (God) have sent it down and with the truth it has come down."^[51]

The Quran frequently asserts in its text that it is divinely ordained. Some verses in the Quran seem to imply that even those who do not speak Arabic would understand the Quran if it were recited to them.^[52] The Quran refers to a written pre-text, "the preserved tablet", that records God's speech even before it was sent down.^[53][54]

The issue of whether the Quran is eternal or created became a theological debate (Quran's createdness) in the ninth century. Mu'tazilas, an Islamic school of theology based on reason and rational thought, held that the Quran was created while the most widespread varieties of Muslim theologians considered the Quran to be co-eternal with God and therefore uncreated. Sufi philosophers view the question as artificial or wrongly framed.^[55]

Muslims believe that the present wording of the Quran corresponds to that revealed to Muhammad and according to their interpretation of verse 15:9 it is protected from corruption ("We Ourselves have revealed the remembrance and We are its Protectors").^[56] Muslims consider the Quran to be a guide, a sign of the prophethood of Muhammad and the truth of the religion. They argue it is not possible for a human to produce a book like the Quran, as the Quran itself maintains.

Muslims commemorate annually the beginning of Quran's revelation on the Night of Destiny (Laylat al-Qadr), during the last 10 days of Ramadan, the month during which they fast from sunrise until sunset.^[53]

The first chapter of the Quran is repeated in daily prayers and in other occasions. This chapter, which consists of seven verses, is the most often recited chapter of the Quran:^[1]

"All praise belongs to God, Lord of the Universe, the Beneficent, the Merciful and Master of the Day of Judgment, You alone We do worship and from You alone we do seek assistance, guide us to the right path, the path of those to whom You have granted blessings, those who are neither subject to Your anger nor have gone astray."(Quran 1:1-7)

Respect for the written text of the Quran is an important element of religious faith by many Muslims and the Quran is treated with reverence. Based on tradition and a literal interpretation of the Quran verse 56:79: "none shall touch but those who are clean", some Muslism believe that a they must perform a ritual cleansing with water before touching a copy of the Quran although this view is not universal.^[1] Worn-out copies of the Quran are wrapped in a cloth and stored indefinitely in a safe place, buried in a mosque or a Muslim cemetery, or burned and the ashes buried or scattered over water.^[57]

In Islam, most intellectual disciplines including Islamic theology, philosophy, mysticism and Jurisprudence have been concerned with the Quran or have their foundation in its teachings.^[1

Danial Mahdi 

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Sangrah Sadat