In answer to the video "Why the Quran Was Revealed in Arabic (David Wood)"
After it had disintegrated into many communities, Prophets were sent to humanity to bring it back to its original state when it was a single ummat 2:213. Prophets and warners were thus sent to every community/ummat 10:47,16:36,35:24. These warners will be called to testify against their community on the Day of Judgement 4:41,16:84.
This does not mean that every land and village had a prophet although Allah could have done it 25:51, but when the unaltered teachings of a prophet reaches a people who begin practising it then it is enough for them to be considered part of that specific prophet's ummat, even after that prophet's death as reflected in Ibrahim and Ismail's prayer 2:128.
The Muslims that passed away, of today and the future can all be considered to be the prophet Muhammad's ummat. The Quran clearly uses ummat in this sense, regardless of the individuals composing that ummat being contemporaries or not.
In 2:133-4 for example the prophets Ibrahim, Ismail, Isaac and Jacob and their people are said to be one and the same ummat/nation, since they all shared the same principles of life and religion, and their descendants were still part of their ummat until their teachings became so heavily corrupt that their umma is said to have "passed away". This is stressed again in 2:140-1.
All this shows that those who are included in an ummat, share several common characteristics. The word is mainly used in a physical sense for a common ethnicity or in a spiritual sense for a community composed of individuals linked together by deeply ingrained principals, regardless of time, space or ethnicity. That is why Allah says He could, against their freewill, make all mankind a single ummat (ie spiritually) like it originally was 11:118,16:93.
This means 2 people can share the same physical ummat without belonging to the same spiritual ummat. The prophet Muhammad, his followers, rejecters and even forefathers who had completely strayed from the right path, all belonged to one physical ummat, because they were all Arab Ishmaelites. But the spiritual ummat only included Muhammad, his followers and the believers who submitted themselves to God whether past, present or future. After relating the stories of some among the prophets and eminent personalities that passed, the Quran addresses Muhammad and his followers telling them
21:92"this ummat of yours is a single ummat".
They become an ummat within another ummat
3:104"And from among you there should be a party/ummat who invite to good and enjoin what is right and forbid the wrong, and these it is that shall be successful".
See also 3:113,5:66,7:159.
Ummat actually stems from UMM lit. mother or source. It also takes the meaning of path or direction as in 16:120,43:22.
In 13:30 the Quran alludes to this by stating that the ummat to which the prophet Muhammad was sent, was separate from the umamun/nations that came before it and passed away. This is what happens, as already shown, when a people loses the spiritual connection with a previous righteous people. Similarily, the initial ummat that included all mankind eventually disappeared due to the differences that began to appear, and the alterations to the original way taught by Adam 2:213,10:19.
This scenario kept repeating itself in the course of history after the demise of each prophet who tried establishing a righteous ummat. By the time of the prophet Muhammad, the righteous legacy of the most ancient Arab prophets such as Hud and Salih who had been sent to the Aad and Thamud, down to the prophet Ismail who had founded the Kaaba with Ibrahim his father, and finally Shuayb, was almost entirely forgotten.
Besides the few righteous hanif remnants who remained true to some of this legacy, the pure ways of the ancients had undergone severe corruption through foreign influences. As no warner came to reform the people, the corruption was transmitted to the succeeding generations who added their own lot of corruption in complete heedlessness.
A prophet was thus raised in a qawm/people who did not have any warner 28:46,32:3,34:44 and before which about 60+ generations had passed since Shuayb the last Arab prophet, to warn them of what their forefathers werent warned and to constitute a new righteous and well balanced ummat, that would last so long as the people would hold fast by the uncorrupted and uncorruptable final revelation to mankind 2:143,3:110,36:2-6.
In answer to the video "Why the Quran Was Revealed in Arabic (David Wood)"
In the ancient world, populations were most often scattered in clusters of clans and small villages with a main town close by. When warners were sent, they concentrated their efforts in the mother town so as to reach the surrounding populations more effectively 28:59. When time came for the final message to be sent to mankind, Arabia was most suited to be the place from whence the final expression of the truth would emanate from. It enjoyed a central geostrategic position with regard to the known world at that time. It had been surrounded for long by a belt of ancient civilizations; the Egyptian civilization in the west, the Phoenicians and Assyrians in the north, the Babylonians, Persians and the Indus Valley civilizations in the north-east and east. Further in that direction laid the Chinese civilization.
Arabia in ancient times was thus very much in the middle of the then “civilized” world. Only in that obscure and unbothered land of Arabia could a new state-community with a fresh ideology arise and establish itself, before the intervention of the neighboring superpowers. At the time of Islam's advent, they were the Christian Roman empire of Heraclius I and the Zoroastrian Persian empire of Chosroe II.
In 1350, the estimated population of the earth was 370 million. We are now in the 7 billion, meaning the dramatic growth of mankind has essentially occurred 600 plus years after the death of the Prophet. 4 billion+ of that population exists in Asia alone, meaning right by the Middle East. The major influx of the population of humanity has been in contact with the Abrahamic movement since the time of the Prophet and even before, through the Israelites. Through these growing demographics and population movements, Africa and Europe were also exposed, with South America coming fourth when its population started swelling in the 1500s through European influx. So when it comes to being a region to remind men of the final reckoning there can be no better place than the Middle East.
Interestingly, when the first human civilization appeared, God sent in it His first messenger with a global mission. Mesopotamia, the nation from which Abraham came, is really considered one of, if not the first civilization of mankind and the Hammurabi codes, which is considered the first real legal document, arose from this nation.
The point is, when civilization reached a stage where it was set to become a global culture, the prophetic mission turned global. This is why Abraham became the spiritual imam for all of humanity 2:124. The prophetic mission then took on a collective capacity with the Israelites first and, after their divine destruction and removal from the covenant, the Ishmaelites took on this mission. This is precisely why, when Abraham fulfilled the vision of sacrifice, God promised to bless his descendants as nations.
The language itself of Arabia was most suited for the transmission of the Quranic message
12:2,41:3,26:191-196"The Faithful Spirit has descended with it, Upon your heart that you may be of the warners. In plain Arabic language. And most surely the same is in the scriptures of the ancients".
Past Revelations sent to different locations and cultures always conformed to the language of the primary addressees
41:44,43:3,14:4"And We did not send any messenger but with the language of his people, so that he might explain to them clearly"
Ezek3:4-5"And He said to me; "Son of man, go, come to the house of Israel and speak to them with My words. For it is not to a people of an unfathomable language and a heavy tongue that you are sent, [but] to the house of Israel".
Every messenger only spoke to his people with their own language, not a foreign one otherwise they might misunderstand
"so that he might explain to them clearly".
This doesnt exclude that the messenger might speak the language of another people or that he might be sent to a foreign nation. This was Yunus/Jonah's case, an Israelite who went to the neighboring Assyrian kingdom as very briefly related in Jonah1-4 but also prophecied among his own people 2Kings14:25. The Quran doesnt say the knowledge of Arabic is a prerequisite to understand it. It says it had to be sent in Arabic because its primary addressees spoke Arabic 26:198-9,42:7,41:44. A non-Arab approaching the Quran in another language than Arabic is perfectly able to understand it, depending on the quality of the translation. The one approaching the Arabic text obviously needs to master Arabic to understand it and translate it. He must be careful in his choice of words so as to try and catch a succinctly as possible the semantic nuances of a word without upsetting any theological concept.
This is no different for a Biblical scholar mastering the intricacies of Greek to aid a study of the Septuagint or learning Latin to grasp later Latin vulgates.
Revelation is not the prerogative of any race, culture or language. All languages are a blessing from God and He has dispersed His creation throughout the planet by equipping them with the use of varying tongues 30:22. The Quran appeals in most of its themes to human emotions because it is the most universal of languages. One of the main reasons the Quran has such an appeal across linguistic, cultural, and temporal divides precisely is because it conveys its message in a way that people can relate to on a basic, universal level. Its message resonates in the emotions and inner genetic spiritual fabric of mankind and that is why it keeps making sense to people from so many different cultures, across time. Translation captures the WHAT but not the HOW of a statement. It may give a sense of what is being said but not how the Speaker conveyed the speech. And it is precisely the eloquence of the Quran that mostly impacted the Arabs. This aspect will forever remain lost in translation, locked in the original language.
Besides the language, there are other things people need to become acquainted with when approaching any ancient writing, so as to avoid any misunderstandings and be able to appreciate the intent behind the words and references. The Quran for instance uses references relevent to the people of the location in which it was revealed. These references might not be necessarily known or experienced by all people of the world but their implicit meanings can still be appreciated if one studies how the primary addressees experienced these references.
For example sometimes in the context of provoking gratefulness, it turns the attention to the availability of all kinds of fruits. The ones it names were typically appreciated by the Arabs of the Hijaz, like olives, dates and grapes 16:11. A foreign reader, as he gets acquainted with the culture of those first addressed by the Quran, can still appreciate the verse's portents by transposing his own taste of fruits with their tastes. There are several other examples, as in 16:81 saying how garments may be used to protect from the heat, and this is because the verse's primary addressees were desert dwellers.
The description again, is not absolute; it doesnt mean garments cannot be used for warmth, since the Arabs also experienced the harsh cold of the night and used these garments for warmth.
As regards the Arabic language, it had several advantages as opposed to the dominant languages of commerce and intellectual discourse of the time; Latin, Greek, Persian, Hebrew. These were so interwoven as media for the communication of various thought systems that they became unsuitable for the transmission of Islamic concepts. The Abrahamic legacy prior to Islam was polluted by the integration of such languages in the course of its transmission.
Only a language free from false theological notions could bring back the Abrahamic legacy to its original intent. It is known and argued by the masters of the language since al Farabi that the Qurayshi dialect, due to its centralizing position in Arabia, had reached the peak of eloquence by acquiring the best of other tribes' speech patterns and poems. The Quraysh used to deny the inclusion into their dialect, of expressions found among tribes bordering non-Arabic lands. Arabic in the time of the prophet counted many dialects, with the most dominant being his own language, that of the Quraysh. The Quran states about itself, over and over that it is in a clear Arabic language, devoid of any crookedness. It does not specify which Arabic. A study clearly reveals that it possesses mainly the features of the Qurayshi dialect, in addition to several others spoken in the Hijaz and Najd. It is this characteristic, the fact that it was expressed in the centralizing dialect of the most influencing tribe, but allowed enough flexibility so as to integrate other dialects, that made the Quran understandable to all tribes; clear Arabic.
The Arabic of the Quraysh in particular had developed to such a level that it could transmit any verbalized message, no matter how abstract the idea. The Quran therefore was in no need to borrow any word or concept to convey any of its themes. That notion is in fact rejected, when it points in derogatory manner to the foreign tongue of one man who was at some point suspected of being the prophet's teacher 16:103. Not only was the accusation faulty from a linguistic perspective, his foreign tongue could never have inspired the matchless Arabic of the Quran, which the Arab masters of the language themselves recognized could not equal in eloquence, but was also faulty from a deeper cultural and theological viewpoint.
None of the words and concepts conveyed in the Quran can be said to have been influenced by the ideological currents of the region. Even the foreign theologies and philosphies to the Arabs, those now deemed closest to Islam and that penetrated deep inside the peninsula, from Judaism's monolatry to Christianity's dying god incarnate, have no effect from near or far, to any of the tenets of the Quran. Also, the accusation as quoted in the Quran is that this foreign person was actively interracting with the prophet, communicating and teaching him yet he was a non Arabic speaker so how could the two have such elaborate exchanges, in addition without ever being noticed? The Quran answers that accusation in a very appropriate way; given that the person they were pointing to spoke unintelligibly (aajami is used buy the Arabs for a language they could not understand) how could the prophet learn any of the stories found in the Quran from him, then reproduce that information accurately in a language they can understand? It is the same as saying that Einstein heard a toddler explaining the theory of relativity, then reproduced that information correctly in a language any physicist would recognize. This calumny was not grounded in any reality, like many other contradictory claims the prophet's opponents used in order to tarnish his well established integrity, in the same manner as prophets before him were unjustly targeted.
In answer to the video "Why the Quran Was Revealed in Arabic (David Wood)"
5:15"O people of the Book! Indeed Our Messenger has come to you, to explain to you much of what you have concealed of the Book and pardoning much, indeed there has come to you from Allah a light and a clear book/mubin".
When the Quran describes itself with mubin, it always is in the context of declaring that it is clearly a book from God, not man made. The root is B-Y-N and it means between. The action of the verb is "betweening". This betweening can mean clarifying because one can know better the difference between two things. It also can mean distancing because the betweening makes things become apart.
The Quran clearly seperates what is human and what is divine, and it is in that sense that it is mubin, not in the sense of "easy to understand". To wholly grasp the Quran certainly is not an easy task and one must beware of a hasty approach to it, drawing wrong conclusions from isolated verses or sentences taken out of their context. One must take the time, allow the whole of the Quran to be revealed to one's mind before attempting to interpret its message
75:16,20:114"and do not make haste with the Quran before its revelation is made complete to you and say: my Lord, increase me in knowledge".
This is how the Quran is
54:17"facilitated/yassarna for remembrence".
The "taysir" of the Quran doesnt refer to it being made easy but rather facilitated, ie the means to grasp are within reach but require personal effort.
When the Quran says that it contains the explanation of everything 6:38,16:89 like the previous revelations 6:154,7:145, it means it answers all questions pertaining to salvation, as can be seen from the direct context let alone by having a basic grasp of the book's explicitly stated purpose. These important issues have been made easy to grasp and devoid of any possible room for ambiguity. These crucial matters are expressed in the form of concise and straightforward statements
19:97,44:58,11:1"a Book, whose verses are made decisive/uhkimat, then are they made plain, from the Wise, All-aware"
3:7"He it is Who has revealed the Book to you; some of its verses are decisive, they are the basis/mother of the Book".
UMM al Kitab literally translates to MOTHER of the book. In the highly conceptual language of the Arabs, because the mother takes her child to his goal of physical development, the word came to be used in other contexts for that which help in attaining a goal. In this case, the decisive verses help us reaching to the truth. These decisive verses are well obvious and scattered throughout the Quran. Each of these verses on its own, is Umm al Kitab, just as a group of them is Umm al Kitab.
Islamic tenets arent the result of centuries of conjectures and proof texting from ambiguous verses, as is the case with Trinitarianism. The Quran states about itself that it is a book dedicated to spiritual guidance so containing "all things" means all that pertains to spiritual betterment just as one reading from the HB saying
Ps119"all your precepts concerning all things"
doesnt need to be spoon fed that the statement encompasses all religious matters relevant to the addressees, not medicine or cooking recipes.
The Quran was revealed to instruct humanity in such a way that no excuse will be left when we will be brought back to our Creator. It is a book of belief, reflection, and invocation, as well as a book of law, wisdom, and guidance. With Muhammad as His last messenger, Allah has finally sealed the line of prophethood and firmly established His religion in its ultimate form. It follows that the Quran must accompany man until the Day of Judgment providing him with guidance.
This honored Quran 56:77 is a Book of clear light 64:8 with the certain Truth 69:51, sent down from the Light of the Heavens and the Earth 24:35 the Lord of the Worlds 32:2, the Supreme King and Ultimate Truth (al haqq) 20:114,26:192. A favor from Him free from imperfection, incredibility, conjecture, free from any misleading discrepencies, rightly directing to what is most upright and making all things manifest 12:1,17:9,18:1-2. It is wrapped up in wisdom 2:231,31:2, a source of mercy guiding to what is most upright 17:9, bringing the people out of spiritual darkness into light 57:9, to the way of the Mighty, the Praised One in the heavens and Earth 14:1-2, as were the purpose of previous revelations. It is full of the most excellent and just admonition 4:58,38:1, abounding with good, blessings, guidance and healing for the hearts 6:92,38:29,41:44 a verification of what is before it and a distinct explanation of all things necessary for salvation 12:111. It is sent with the truth for the sake of mankind 39:41,10:57,14:52,25:1 not belonging to any particular group of people 24:35, and a proof from the Almighty 4:174 removing all doubts from the seekers of truth and providing evidence against those who choose to disbelieve in it 23:65-67,36:70,45:20. The supernatural importance of this Book is such that mountains would crumble, the earth would rent asunder from its weight 59:21,13:31. This kind of imagery is meant at contrasting those whose hearts are more inert and harder to penetrate by divine guidance, than a massive mountain would be.
It clarifies all the things necessary for the salvation of mankind 16:89 which is why it addresses all the people of the earth 38:87-88,49:13,7:52,14:52 calling for brotherhood in faith regardless of one's race 49:10, sent with a messenger of glad tidings and warnings to all 17:105,21:107.
It is the Dhikr or the Reminder, bringing back humanity to its original God-consciousness 16:44 and making clear to them on those who were given the Book before that about which they differ 16:64, the Muhaymin (guardian) over what came before it from Allah
5:48"To thee We sent the Scripture in truth, confirming what came before it, and guarding it in safety"
It is Al-Furqan (The Criterion), the standard which distinguishes truth from falsehood. The word furqan literally means "that which distinguishes one thing from another" in the context of human God-consciousness
2:185"The month of Ramadan in which was revealed the Quran, a guidance for mankind, and clear proofs of the guidance, and the Criterion" 8:41"on the day of distinction (yaom al furqan)" 8:29"He will grant you a distinction(furqaanan)"
as well as in the context of divine scriptures providing certainty in the distinction of good and evil. It is used for past revelations 2:53,21:48 and for the Quran and nothing can overrule this supreme criterion, not the hadiths and not even the Prophet
10:15"It does not beseem me that I should change it of myself; I follow naught but what is revealed to me".
It is Al-Mizan (the balance) and contains Divine Justice to seperate good from evil
42:17"Allah it is Who revealed the Book with truth, and the balance".
Al-Mizan and Al-Furqan are equivalent in meaning, they both decide between the people with equity, and contain the true knowledge and explain the duties of the servants towards their Lord. These appellations stress the fact that revelation - and revelation alone - provide an absolute criterion of all moral valuation.
In answer to the video "Why the Quran Was Revealed in Arabic (David Wood)"
The harmonious, consistent repetitions of various topics in the Quran are primarly meant to stress some important pillars of belief
25:50"And certainly We have repeated this to them that they may be mindful, but the greater number of men do not consent to aught except denying".
The first objective of that literary feature is thus enhancing man's remembrance of Allah 39:23. It also is a way of explaining itself
17:41"We have explained (things) in various (ways) in this Quran".
According to the Quran therefore, its master exegetist is none but the Book itself, explaining itself 75:19,16:89. The Prophet is its second exegetist and interpreter 3:164,16:44,62:2. The Quran being primarily self-explanatory establishes from the onset 2 conditions for its proper understanding; the importance of considering the context of a verse and the fact that the Book is one integral whole; every verse and sentence has an intimate bearing on other verses and sentences, all of them clarifying and amplifying one another. Consequently, its real meaning can be grasped only if we correlate every one of its statements with what has been stated elsewhere in a different context. A full picture of its ideas can be appreciated by means of cross-references.
Allah warns the prophet, in the context of exposing the followers of previous scriptures for their transgressions, not to withhold anything of what he is commanded to convey, or else it would be as if he did not convey the entirety of the message from beginning to end
5:67"O Messenger, announce that which has been revealed to you from your Lord, and if you do not, then you have not conveyed His message. And Allah will protect you from the people. Indeed, Allah does not guide the disbelieving people".
This holistic approach was considered by the earliest Quran scholars, down to the contemporary ones. This means the Quran and its meaning isnt locked to the common man's comprehension, provided it is effectively pondered upon. Al-Tabari for example states that the Quran has 3 kinds of material: that which is only known to God, but irrelevant to hermeneutics, that which only the Prophet could explain, but extremely marginal, and that which any knowledgeable person of Arabic language can explain, practically all of the Quran. Al-Tabari included a chapter even refuting the position of those who claimed that only the Prophet can interpret the Quran.
As a side note, the tafsir section in Bukhari includes many interpretations without isnad, and that are not even those of Muhammad, his Companions, or his Followers.
Some Quranic passages are repeated word for word, in the case of prayers or general pillars of faith but in story telling, the repetitions are rarely if ever the same. This is because in the Quran when it comes to reminding of past narratives and anecdotes, the objective isnt dry storytelling and genealogies as in most of the Bible where one can easily and quickly lose track of names, places and other details.
These little details, if omitted wouldn't make humanity miss out on anything in terms of guidance, and in fact confuse the reader and distract his attention to trivial matters. The Quran is not a historical record or dry, impartial document: it is argumentative and impactful to get people to believe and actively reform themselves and their environment. Its powerful statements are in an intellectual, spiritual and emotional language that every culture across time and space can appreciate. The Quran's objective isnt story telling, but "message telling" and maximizing its audience's attention to the precept(s) of the story. Muslims will not be asked on the Day of Judgment the details of the people of the cave or how Noah's flood occurred, how many generations passed between a person and another, the names in a genealogy or whether they memorized the names of people in the Quran. They will be questioned as to how they responded to the lessons from the different incidents and stories related in the Quran. Thus to focus on the message, the Quran injects the passage of a well-known story, whenever the larger context a sura requires it. And when it does so, it only puts the details of that story that are relevant to that specific context.
That is why one sees variations in repetitions, but never contradictions. The only exception to that style of narrative is the story of the prophet Joseph/Yusuf which takes the form of a beginning to end narrative in one place, and a highly eloquent, intricate one at that.
Those unable to appreciate that Quranic style speak of contradictory, or incomplete repetitions. This is because first and foremost they approach the Quranic text with the above Biblical paradigm in mind; the Quran, instead of being read on its own is seen as a garbled version of multiple Judeo-Christian sources. If, however, the text is approached according to its own thematic unities, its lack of historical detail and absence of chronological order become unproblematic. And this is the prevalent approach among western scholarship nowadays. The second common problem for those reading the text occurs when they are unable to connect the different repetitions properly among one another and fail to grasp the manner in which each repetition fits in the context of a particular sura. This a side note isnt circular reasoning as it doesnt presume the notion of textual coherence. It is textual coherence that objectively establishes itself, through consistent repetitions, recurrence of similar themes and notions in different contexts. These repetitions always retain a core meaning, and are always thematically correlated with similar passages in other suras, like conversations and dialogues between the suras.
The brilliant Pakistani scholar Islahi called the recurrence of themes in several suras "complementarity".
A topic which appears at a place reappears in another background and context where the initially hidden meaning becomes quite apparent because the meaning is suited to be developed in that particular context. Teachings, precepts, stories or anecdotes are mentioned in various styles and with different aspects in different contexts and in numerous backgrounds so that if at one place a reader is not fully able to understand something, he can grasp it fully at another place, and if at one place an argument is not fully appreciated, he can comprehend it in the background of a different context. If an element within a story is only meaningful in a specific context, and that in the course of revelation, that specific context does not reappear in a manner so as to necessitate the repetition of that element from within the story, then the element or detail is omitted.
Sometimes an incident is repeated tersely or partly in order to remind the audience and reader of the overall message that is relevant to a particular context, without recalling it of every precise details.
Sometimes an incident is repeated tersely or partly in order to remind the audience and/or reader of the overall message that is relevant to a particular context, without recalling it of every precise details.
Sometimes a story is repeated by omitting some previously mentioned details in order to reveal some new elements, this way keeping the story brief and to the point, without communicating too much information at once. When it relates the same event at different places it sometimes quotes different dialogues between different protagonists hence the variation in wordings. As also said, this variation is also due to the importance of giving different angles to the same dialogue or incident that is relevant to the context within the sura.
Sometimes the characters might also repeat themselves slightly differently from amazement or in the case of messengers quoted with variations it is because during their career they repeated themselves obviously differently at different times.
The Quran, using these literary devices and many others, explains itself
7:58"As such we manage the signs to people who are grateful"
54:22"And certainly We have made the Quran easy for remembrance, but is there anyone who will mind?".
Another purpose of this style being to strengthen the Prophet in the face of various forms of denial and obstinacy from his opponents at different times. The form of the story would echo a situation similar to that which the Prophet was facing.
Some truths are repeated to emphasize their importance and fix them in the minds of the believers. Things such as the oneness of God, repeated more than 10 times in certain pages, or the unavoidable day of resurrection etc. These are things that even if repeated a million times, it still would not be a waste of time or words. The Quran constantly draws attention to those matters both explicitly or allusively because they are realities like the air we breath, which we always need and that require renewal, this way their reiterations becomes a Quranic grace.
What is remarkable from a linguistic perspective is that the Quran was uttered publicly, live and as a speech, which prevents any type of editing and yet it forms one incredibly well knit whole, from verse to verse, paragraph to paragraph, sura to sura. If we take the example of sura baqara, the longest of all and revealed over the course of 10 years while other suras were being simultaneously revealed, it is structured in an interconnected manner allowing it to be thematically structured in many different ways.
This is a vast field of Quranic studies, with many sub-branches, studied by both Muslims and non-Muslim scholars; the interconnection between suras, passages, verses, words and even letters and how the whole thing remarkably fits together. The idea of the Quran being a dull, boring or incomprehensible repetitive book is a discredited proposition, not only by the scholars of Islam all throughout their exegetical works spanning centuries, but also more recently by non-Muslims who have been doing, and keep on doing, a remarkable job at unveiling the intricate connections of the text, from verse to another, paragraph to paragraph and sura to sura. See Norman Brown's work on sura 18 for instance. That weak assertion is only still circulating among uneducated critics of Islam, and missionaries. For most of modern Islamicists, the Quran has to be approached as a text on its own, with its own internal coherence to be properly understood. So long as explanations to its passages are sought from the perspective of its alleged, elusive and countless proposed sources, the Quran will remain an obscure book for those approaching it.
Here is just one of the thematical structuring of sura Baqara, in a symmetrical construction called ring structure;
- 1st subject from v1-20 faith vs unbelief/Last subject v285-6 dua about belief-hypocrisy-disbelief.
- 2nd subject from v21-39 God's creation and knowledge/2nd subject from down God's creation and knowledge v254-284
- 3rd topic v40-103 the Israelites receive the law/3rd subject from down from down about the laws given to Muslims v178-253
- 4th subject Ibrahim faces tests v104-141/4th one from down Ibrahim's nation, the Ishmaelites are tested v153-177
- middle section culminates with the new direction of prayer, the Kaaba symbolizing that new nation and its new law
And all this symmetrical ring structure leads to the statement of the Muslims having been made the ummatan wasata/balanced nation, a statement located in the center of a sura composed of 286 verses, at exactly verse 143. Every single Quranic sura on its own forms, like baqara, a cohesive argument.
Also, because many of its passages can be read through the lens of another passage from within the sura, other analysts have approached its structuring in a pericope.
For example, the story of Adam in sura Baqara pericopes throughout the sura. The Israelites were told to enter a town and enjoy its sustenance v58 similarily to the instructions previously given to Adam and his spouse upon entering the garden v35. But just as Adam and his spouse werent content with what they were given, the Israelites began grumbling for the sustenance they had in captivity v61. And just as Adam and his spouse found their Lord forgiving once they repented, some of the Israelites were eventually forgiven for their worshipping the calf and desisting prior to Moses' return v54.
In answer to the video "Why Muslims Pray to Muhammad (David Wood)"
Throughout time, the opponents of the prophets, because of their incapacity at denying the forceful arguments presented, reckoned that the only way in which they could tone down their ever increasing influence on the masses was to besmear their character and integrity
Ezek21:5"O Lord God, they say of me, 'Is he not an inventor of parables?".
Among their attacks, they would twist their prophecies publicly and deride the revelations
Ezek33:30-31"the members of your people who talk about you beside the walls and in the entrances of the houses..And they will come to you as a public gathering, and they will sit before you as My people, and they will hear your words but not fulfill them; instead they make them into jokes with their mouth; their heart goes after their gain".
These talks did cause them grief and sorrow however they were relieved knowing that God is their witness and, along with the angels, constantly showers them with blessings. Concerning the prophet who is the first and foremost in submission, obedience and devotion to Allah 6:14,39:11-12 we are told that
33:56"Allah and His angels send blessing/yusallun upon the Prophet".
Divine blessings are showered on him as was done with past prophets and messengers 37:113 such as Ibrahim, Ismail, Ishaq, Yaqoub, Musa or Ilyas. The Quran tells us to praise, these eminent personalities, remember their exalted status among later generations 37:108,119,129,38:45-49. Muslims consequently remember them along with all the righteous in the daily prayers. To add to the sense of appreciation from Allah, yusallun is in the present form, which conveys the sense of perpetuity and continuity of a state in classical Arabic. This makes the prophet constantly under Allah's blessings.
When Allah and His angels yusallun on the prophet just like Allah and His angels yusallun on the believers 2:157,33:42-43,40:7-9 it does not mean the ritual salaat of worship. Neither does the word yuqimu precede it 4:103 nor does it say ila/to or for, rather aala/upon. There is no hint at anyone praying to any other than Allah, much less of Allah praying to someone else. Confusing doctrines such as these are found in Trinitarianism, with separate divine entities contingent on oneanother, praying, begging, receiving things, and needing permission from eachother.
Salat stems from s-l-y. It is used in concrete for the horses in a race whose heads connect with the lower back of the one in the front. In the vivid conceptual language of the Arabs, it became a metaphor for closeness in connection, reaching of a goal. All these apply to the ritual salat to God. The goal is Allah with whom a person connects through worship of Him exclusively, the One to Whom all praise is due in the Heavens and Earth and in the Hereafter 34:1. When the angels do salat upon (not to) the believers, the goal are the believers with whom the angels connect by worshipping Allah so that He communicates His blessings on them. At no point are the believers worshipped by the angels, although they are intended in the angels' worship to Allah. Similarly God tells the believers to do salat on their prophet 33:56. Their goal is the prophet and they connect with him by worshipping Allah so that He communicates His blessings on him. Never is the prophet worshipped, intentionally or not.
The prophet Muhammad is commanded to reciprocate, and do salat on the people 9:103 as it will give them a sense of relief. Never did the prophet worship any believer. Finally when Allah does salat upon (not to) someone, such as the prophet, then similarly Allah's goal is the prophet with whom He connects, not by worshiping him, but by communicating His blessings on him. Salat is not equal to worship but may include it. Salat is a connection with a goal. The type of connection and goal are different depending on the sender and receiver. Between created entities their goal is to connect with oneanother, never through worshipping one another, rather through worshipping Allah that he might send his blessings. When God is the sender of salat unto His creation, He establishes connection with it not by worshipping it or any other entity, but by blessing it with His guidance 33:43. Had the action of Allah doing salat involve the worship of another entity so that it might bless another, then the result would instead be for that worshipped entity itself to cause the blessing. But the guidance comes from Allah alone
"He it is Who does salat upon you, and His angels that He might bring you forth from the darkesses into the light, and He is merciful to those who put their trust in Him".
Again, when someone does salat on another who isnt worthy, he will not receive Allah's mercy. This shows again, the implication of doing salat is to communicate something from Allah upon another, never from another divine entity. Consequently the prophet is told that he should not do salat (yusalli) on the disbelievers when they die because they have been forbidden from Allah's forgiveness 9:80,84. The result of Allah doing salah upon someone is therefore to bestow goodness from Himself on the person. But because mercy best encapsulates goodness from Allah, we find in the Quran and ahadith the salah from Allah equated with mercy from Himself
2:157"Those are the ones upon whom are salawaat from their Lord and mercy. And it is those who are the [rightly] guided".
The WAW which is translated in general as AND, also often means inclusion of a particular entity within the general more encompassing entity. The purpose is to highlight one aspect of the more encompassing concept. Salah from Allah therefore includes mercy, as well as other good things one may think of. Al Bukhari reports from Sufyan Ath-Thawri that
"The Salah of the Lord is mercy".
He also reports that
"Allah's Salah is His praising him".
The following narration, although weak also explains what is meant by the salah of Allah
“The Israelites said to Musa: Does your Lord pray? Musa said: Fear Allah, O Sons of Israel! Allah said: O Musa! What did your people say? Musa said: O my Lord, You already know? They said: Does your Lord pray? Allah said: Tell them My prayer for My servants is that My Mercy should precede My Anger. If it were not so, I would have destroyed them.”
In another equally weak narration
“He (the Prophet PBUH) asked: ‘What is His Salah?’. He (Gabriel) said, He says: ‘Perfect, Most High is the Lord of the angels and the Spirit, My Mercy overwhelms my wrath.'”
The same reasoning applies to the greeting of "salaam" which is a supplication to Allah, that He might bestow peace on another. When Allah in turn greets with "salaam" He is bestowing peace from Himself upon another
11:48"It was said: O Nuh! descend with peace from Us".
To the dwellers of heaven, their peace will manifest by Allah appeasing their hearts to the fullest
5:45-7"in the midst of gardens and fountains. Enter them in peace, secure. And We will root out whatever of rancor is in their breasts".
No entity obtains salaam unless shown the way by Allah
20:47,5:16"God shows unto all that seek His goodly acceptance the paths leading to peace/salaam and, by His grace, brings them out of the depths of darkness into the light and guides them onto a straight way".
In sura yasin, when someone receives the word of peace from Allah, the verse ends by stressing Allah's mercy, because it is only through His mercy that peace enters the hearts of the believers 36:58.
A comparable terminology is in regards to the concept of intercession. Speaking of the hereafter, the prophet said
"Then the prophets and Angels and the believers will intercede, and (last of all) the Almighty (Allah) will say, 'Now remains My Intercession. He will then hold a handful of the Fire from which He will take out some people whose bodies have been burnt, and they will be thrown into a river at the entrance of Paradise, called the water of life. They will grow on its banks, as a seed carried by the torrent grows. You have noticed how it grows beside a rock or beside a tree, and how the side facing the sun is usually green while the side facing the shade is white. Those people will come out (of the River of Life) like pearls, and they will have (golden) necklaces, and then they will enter Paradise whereupon the people of Paradise will say, 'These are the people emancipated by the Beneficent. He has admitted them into Paradise without them having done any good deeds and without sending forth any good (for themselves).' Then it will be said to them, 'For you is what you have seen and its equivalent as well.'"
The word for intercession here is Shafa'a which is linguistically different than tawasul. Shafaa of Allah is not a pleading action to another God. The people of paradise here recognize that it is Allah Himself who caused those people to enter heaven. This will be the ultimate act of Mercy, hence the people of paradise referring to Allah as al Rahman. Those sinners for whom Allah did not allow any intercession will ultimately be honoured by the shafa'a of Allah Himself, once their sins have been cleansed in the hellfire. The shafaa of Allah is to come between the person and his punishment, then doing as He pleases and deems fit; which is to take the person out of hellfire and place him in paradise. Shafaa between human beings entails that someone, allowed by Allah, comes between Allah and another person so as to honour and uplift that person.
By now it has been made clear, salat is an action that does not always include worship, neither by the sender nor to the receiver of the salat. Further it is not exclusive to the prophet Muhammad. He is a nabi like all the others between whom Muslims should never discriminate 3:84. Nor is the command to salla reserved for the prophets; it is a universal and recommended action between all believers equally. In any language words can carry different implications depending on the subject. We can extend the parallelism further. The entire Quran is the word of Allah, including its words of prayers and worship. When Allah revealed sura fatiha for instance, he was not worshipping Himself or another deity while He uttered it. Allah identifies Himself as the author of those words, meaning when He utters them, they will not apply to Him as they would to another. The sender of a letter containing instructions for another to follow, will not apply to the author if he begins reading those same instructions.
A similar terminology is God's repeated command that the believers should "aminu" in the prophet. Although often translated "believe", that rendition doesnt do full justice to the word which literally means to "make oneself safe in an entity" ie fully trust it. So the believers are to fully trust their prophet and feel safe in him just as he does in them 9:61.
Finally, the tashahhud during prayer mentions the prophet, but also oneself and all righteous servants of God, present or not. The prophet said
"When you send Salam on me, send Salam on all the Messengers, for I am one of the Messengers".
None of those individuals are glorified, nothing is expected from them, nor are they believed to be able to perceive these words of prayers directly. Calling upon them emphasizes their presence in one's mind. At all moments, God is glorified and asked to send His peace and mercy on them. Talking in this manner to someone absent and beyond sensory perception, dead or alive, doesnt deify the person. This is done very frequently in everyday life. Nothing is expected in return from that person nor is he thought to directly perceive what is said. This is in stark contrast with the worship of saintly personalities as is widely practiced in Catholicism. Saints hear the prayers directly, and are expected to fulfil particular needs of the devotees, either through their own power, or through intercession with a higher stationed entity.
In ancient times, the practice of necromancy consisted in conversing with the dead, inquiring and receiving answers from them through dreams or while awake. The occultist would lie in graveyards, dig up bones and speak to the dead person seeking answers for future matters. The practrice seems to have been widespread among the Israelites in the time of Isaiah (Isa8:19). Of course all this is far from the Islamic prayer in which Muslims ask God to bless the prophet, their own selves and all the righteous present or not.
In Islam, dead people, believers and disbelievers alike, are alive in an intermediary realm until the day of resurrection 2:154,3:169,40:46. An inviolable barrier is placed between us and them preventing any type of interraction between these parallel realms 23:99-100.
The only manner for those alive in that realm to know of things happening in our world, is indirectly. If God decides to convey to them information from the present world. For instance the prophet said
"‘Allah has angels who travel around on Earth conveying to me the Salams of my Ummah".
In addition, there are deeds they have left behind that can benefit them. Things such as an ongoing benevolent action that benefit people down the line (like planting a tree or digging a well) or beneficial knowledge, or a righteous child who will pray for his dead parent.
This is a major Quranic theme, exemplified by the prophet and stressed upon the Muslims; that the best, most beneficial deeds are those that have God and one's fellow human being as motivating factor, no matter how insignificant
"Allah's Messenger said, "While a man was on the way, he found a thorny branch of a tree there on the way and removed it. Allah thanked him for that deed and forgave him".
However the deceased wont be aware of those deeds while they are performed in his name, including prayers, until they are raised
"A man's status will be raised in pradise and he will ask, How did I get here? He will be told, By your sons' duaa for forgiveness for you".
In answer to the video "Why Muslims Pray to Muhammad (David Wood)"
The Kaaba, according to Arab history was constructed by Prophet Ibrahim and his son Ismail. One will find remnants from the time of Ibrahim, thus the 'black stone' fixed on one of the pillars/arkan of the edifice. It is one of the original stones Abraham used to build the Kaaba, as he built other altars and places of worship to God throughout his journeys Gen12:6-8,13:4,18. That Abrahamic practice we are told in the HB, was left to his posterity that similarly built places of worship symbolized by stones erected as pillars Gen28:10,18-22.
Whatever the origin of the Black Stone and whatever the origin of stone worship in Arabia, the pre-Islamic Arabs, neither of Mecca nor of the other places, are never found to have worshipped the Black Stone of the Kaaba. Neither was the Black Stone of the Kaaba symbolical of stone worship, nor were the Prophets Ibrahim or his righteous descendants that emulated his practice, stone worshippers on account of their having stone pillars at their altar.
This is highly significant given the importance of the Kaaba to the pre-islamic Arabs, and of the black stone itself. Stone worship was deeply imbedded in their religions
"We used to worship stones, and when we found a better stone than the first one, we would throw the first one and take the latter".
And yet despite the presence of this special stone at their most revered shrine, they are never found worshipping it, or attributing to it any type of intrinsic power. Umar, who was a Meccan pagan prior to Islam, found it strange to include it in the religious rites. His reaction would have been different had the black stone any type of divine connotation to the polytheists. This shows that its significance was other to the Arabs, that just as the Islamic history teaches, it is an Abrahamic remnant. The Ishmaelite descendants, more particularly the hanif among them, of whom the prophet was part of, those that had tried preserving the way of Ibrahim contrary to the pagans among them, were emotionally attached to it for that reason.
Kissing the stone is a ritual done by Muslims out of imitation of the prophet, it isnt an obligatory ritual, neither is it the same as the respect given to statues. The earliest Muslims, as already said, did not feel the need to kiss it as part of their rituals, showing that it wasnt a pre-islamic habit among pagans. As the Caliph Umar said
"I know you are but a stone that cannot hurt or help, and if i had not seen the messenger of God kiss you i would not kiss you".
The companions in fact refrained from forcing their way through so as to touch and kiss it during the tawaf/circlings, if the place was crowded (Sunan an-Nasa'i 2938).
Unlike the Catholics, who kiss statues with the intention of seeking nearness to those represented by those statues, hoping for a favor from them or nearness to God through them, or Hindus who kiss their idols hoping for the same, Muslims kiss the Black Stone without any personification, expectation or hope in it. Muslims do so on account of an emotional bond with it, and what it represents. Just as one would kiss a picture or random object, hand or individual out of pure emotional attachment. Being near or physically in contact with the black stone is for a Muslim an intense experience due to its ancestral importance, the remnant of the foundational stones of the edifice, as Abraham was erecting it. The remembrance it creates inevitably leads to spiritual uplifting. For comparison among the monotheistic faiths, one could parallel the experience with the Jews weeping during prayer while in contact with the remaining wall of their destroyed temple.
Similarly, later companions of the prophet had never prayed to Allah while in physical connection with parts of the Kaaba, neither were they aware of the prophet doing so
"O Abu abdur-Rahman, why do I only see you touching these two corners?" He said: "I heard the Messenger of Allah say: 'Touching them erases sins".
As in the example of the black stone, Had it been common in the pre-Islamic belief to worship the Kaaba itself then it wouldnt have been surprising for that companion to see another touching it during worship. When the prophet did so, he did not merely touch it but addressed prayers of forgiveness to Allah
"He walked forward until, when he was between the two columns that are on the either side of the door of the Kabah, he sat down, praised Allah, asked of him, and prayed for forgiveness. Then he got up, and went to the back wall of the Kabah, placed his face and cheek against it and praised Allah, asked of Him, and prayed for forgiveness. Then he went to each corner of the Kabah and faced it, reciting the Takbir, the Tahlil and Tasbih, praising Allah, asking of Him and praying for forgiveness. Then he came out and prayed two Rakahs facing the front of the Kabah, then he moved away and said: “This is the Qiblah, this is the Qiblah".
The Quran further stresses that the Kaaba itself is of no intrinsic spiritual value beyond what God has commanded in regards to it. Without God's commission, no place has spiritual excellence or preference in its own essence. The direction in itself is therefore not something to be disputed and argued about. If one wishes to remain in a specific direction as if the place is intrinsically sacred then he may do so. He would have however disobeyed a divine injunction, prioritizing his personal desires and preferences
2:143,148,177"and We did not make that which you would have to be the qiblah but that We might distinguish him who follows the Messenger from him who turns back upon his heels, and this was surely hard except for those whom Allah has guided aright...And every one has a direction to which he should turn, therefore hasten to (do) good works; wherever you are, Allah will bring you all together...It is not righteousness that you turn your faces towards the East and the West, but righteousness is this that one should believe in Allah and the last day and the angels and the Book and the prophets, and give away wealth out of love for Him to the near of kin and the orphans and the needy and the wayfarer and the beggars and for (the emancipation of) the captives, and keep up prayer and pay the poor-rate; and the performers of their promise when they make a promise, and the patient in distress and affliction and in time of conflicts-- these are they who are true (to themselves) and these are they who guard (against evil)".
This is the general principle behind every ritual, to do as one is told, as evidence of submission to the way of God.
There are thus no prayers to the kaaba or the stone. Rather prayers are offered to Allah while touching various parts of it. Not a single pre-islamic practice, as reflected by the companions' attitude to the kaaba, indicate kaaba worship. And the kaaba is only part of the hajj rituals. Just like Muslims pray to Allah while in the presence of that monument, they pray and ask Allah's forgiveness in many other situations, locations and touching other things, including slaughtering animals. All of which have their symbolic meaning similar to the ones described as regards the kaaba.
In answer to the video "Why Muslims Pray to Muhammad (David Wood)"
When Solomon prayed God to listen to the people's prayers that are in direction of the Jerusalem qibla 1kings8, and that the prophet David's supplications were made facing it Ps5:8,138:2 or Daniel's 3 daily prayers were directed to it Dan6:11, none among these people were worshipping the Temple itself.
Muslims praying towards the Kaaba symbolizes 3 things, the fulfillment of the promise made to Ibrahim and Ismail as they were building the Temple long ago, the unity of the divine as reflected in the unified manner in which the prayer is performed, and the obedience of a community to a divine directive. Wherever Muslims are, they are to turn towards the direction of the sacred Mosque 2:146-150. Shatr which is the word used in reference to the direction to pray, means "half" and when used to mean direction, it implies towards the half of the earth where something is located.
The clear ordinance is therefore to "face the direction" where Kaaba is located. Regardless of what the earth's shape is, a particular point on the globe always has at least one direction in relation to another point. That the Quranic statement isnt meant to be an exact science but rather an approximate orientation is reflected in the practice of early Muslims, as well as a statement from God's prophet that "between East and West is a qibla". So one is considered, even today as practiced by many Muslims, as facing the direction of the Kaaba if facing the northern or southern hemispheres with each shoulder directed east and west. This statement is rooted in the pervasive Quranic notion that the spirit of the law must always remain the primary focus of the religion
2:142"The East and the West belong only to Allah; He guides whom He likes to the right path".
As similarly stated in 2:115,26:28,73:9 and more particularly in 2:177, Allah is the Omnipresent grasping the universe as a whole, present in all directions one may like to face and therefore Jerusalem, the Kaaba and all other places belong to Allah, Who intrinsically has no house and no place. The prophet Solomon in the Bible similarly conveyed that transcendental notion. After he had erected the Jerusalem Temple where God was to settle and "dwell in forever", the direction where all obedient servants were to face in prayer if they wanted to be hearkened by God in Heaven,
1kings8:27"But will God indeed dwell on the earth? Behold the heaven and the heaven of heavens cannot contain You; much less this temple that I have erected".
This reality is also echoed in the book of Isaiah
Isa66:1"So says the Lord, "The heavens are My throne, and the earth is My footstool; which is the house that you will build for Me, and which is the place of My rest?".
Without God's commission, no place has spiritual excellence or preference in its own essence. The direction in itself is therefore not something to be disputed and argued about. If one wishes to remain in a specific direction as if the place is intrinsically sacred then he may do so, however the core message would be missed; to obey a divine injunction above one's personal desires and preferences, and concentrate one's energy in outdoing one another in good deeds instead of disputing about what the Quran views as a moot point
2:143,148,177"and We did not make that which you would have to be the qiblah but that We might distinguish him who follows the Messenger from him who turns back upon his heels, and this was surely hard except for those whom Allah has guided aright...And every one has a direction to which he should turn, therefore hasten to (do) good works; wherever you are, Allah will bring you all together...It is not righteousness that you turn your faces towards the East and the West, but righteousness is this that one should believe in Allah and the last day and the angels and the Book and the prophets, and give away wealth out of love for Him to the near of kin and the orphans and the needy and the wayfarer and the beggars and for (the emancipation of) the captives, and keep up prayer and pay the poor-rate; and the performers of their promise when they make a promise, and the patient in distress and affliction and in time of conflicts-- these are they who are true (to themselves) and these are they who guard (against evil)".
This is the general principle behind every ritual, to do as one is told, as evidence of submission to the way of God. That is one of the reasons prayers for instance, are made at specific times, with even intervals where they cannot be offered. Islam is the purest form of servitude to God's will, leaving no place even for religious arrogance
"The Prophet forbade praying after the Fajr prayer till the sun rises and after the 'Asr prayer till the sun sets".
One can of course recite the Quran, reflect on spiritual matters or make dua/supplications in those restricted intervals.
