Quran
Names of the Qu'ran
The Quran (literally "the recitation"), also sometimes transliterated as Qur'an, Kuran, Koran, Qur'ān, Coran or al-Qur'ān, is the central religious text of Islam, which Muslims consider the verbatim word of God (Arabic: Allah) and the final divine revelation.
Besides its proper name, the Quran is also known by the following names:al Kitab The Book;al Furqan The Discriminant: al Dhikr The Exposition; al Bayan The Explanation; al Burhan The Argument; al Haqq The Truth; al Tanzil The Revelation; al Hikmat The Wisdom; al Huda The Guide; al Hukm The Judgment; al Mau'izah The Admonition; al Rahmat The Mercy; al-Noor The Light; al-Rooh The Word
Undistorted Holy Book
The Holy Quran, which was revealed more than 1400 years, is the sole Holy Book which remained unchanged; no human tamper or addition was made into it , no deletion was made to any word, all the Arabic copies in the different parts of the world are identical , it is the same as it was first revealed. The version of the Holy Qu'ran in hand now, is the same as that which was recited at the time of the prophet, many studies have been made by Muslims and non-Muslims on the Quran and all converged on one point: the Holy Quran remained unchanged. And this is not strange since God says in the Holy Quran that He Himself will guard this book:
"Surely it is We Who have revealed the Exposition, and surely it is We Who are its guardians" (15:10)
What does the Holy Quran Contain
The Holy Quran is divided into 114 Surahs or Chapters and each Chapter consists of individual Ayaat or verses. There are in total 6,348 verses in the Holy Quran.
The Holy Quran is a book of guidance for the world; it contains scientific, historical and mental verses that prove the existence of God thus undermining all the claims of atheism, it explains the concept Lordship and divinity, it explains the concept of monotheism unclothing polytheism especially man-god worship, It lays down for its adherents the law and commandments, codes for their social and moral behaviour, and contains a comprehensive religious philosophy.
The Holy Quran contains accounts of some perished nations, stories of prophets making them innocents from the calumnies leveled against them in the Old Testament. In the Name of Allah, The Most Gracious, Ever Merciful.
Quranic corrections of the Jewish Bible
The Holy Quran corrects many of the crooked dogmas that infiltrated the Holy Book, among which the concept of divinity and lordship that were distorted in the Holy Book. While the Bible, owing to human interpolations, states that God is one person among three persons, the Holy Quran refutes this claim. For the sake of brevity we mention some of the points that the Holy Quran corrects in the Holy Book:
· The evolution of the human embryo in mother's uterus
· The creation of heaven and earth
· The cow and the guilty Priests
· The flood of Noah
· Prophet Joseph's dream
· The Divine Character of God
· Adam or Eve to blame ?
· Isaac or Ishmael sacrificed ?
· Bible, Koran, and the Prophets
· Kings and Pharaohs in Egypt
· The place of the Arch of Noah
· The period in which Haman appeared
· The story of the birth of Jesus and the story of his crucifixion.
Evidences to its divine source
Unlike the Holy Book, the Holy Quran presents a flood of evidences of its divine sources such as:
· Miraculous unprecedented literary style
Arabic scholars have identified many linguistic aspects that distinguish the Quran from all other works and sets it apart as a miracle. Herein, only a few shall be mentioned briefly
o Each word that is used in its precise place and cannot be moved or exchanged for a close synonym without its beauty or meaning being loss.
o The Quran has a unique sentence structure and rhythm that sets it apart from both prose and poetry, sometimes resembling one more than the other but never being completely one or the other.
o The sentences use the smallest number of words without losing any necessary meaning. In other words, they are concise, which adds to their beauty, while at the same time they convey all that needs to be conveyed.
o There is a perfect balance as well as a consistency in style between emotional and intellectual passages of the Quran. Draz noted that this beauty can only truly be found in the Quran:
· Two forces are always active within a human being: the intellectual and the emotional. They have different roles and directions. The first aims to know the truth, and to identify what is good and beneficial so as to adopt it. The other records its feelings of pain and pleasure. A perfect style is that which satisfies both needs at the same time, giving you intellectual satisfaction and emotional pleasure…Do we find such perfection in human style? We have seen the writings of scientists and philosophers, and works of poets and fine prose [yet they cannot meet this goal]
· Prophecies that came true at the time of the prophet and even now.
The Holy Quran gave wonderful prophecies that had been revealed to the prophet and came true at the time of the prophet such as the triumph of the Roman Empire over the Persian one and the conquer of Mecca and many others.
As to our modern age, the Holy Quran has given prophecies that came true in our modern age such as the conquer of space and many others.
Mental and logical evidences
The Holy Quran, unlike the Holy Book, is free from what can be illogic, in the Holy Quran you can read a full chapter called" Mary", the mother of Jesus while you can't find a single word about Prophet Muhammad's mother, or his wives or daughters.
No doubt, if any person authors a book, he must leave something in this book about his sufferings, something about his experiences, something connected with his character, yet, in the Quran you can't find anything like this but rather there is a verse that blames the prophet because he didn't answer a question that a blind man asked because the prophet, at that time, was busy explaining Islam to some of the elite.
The Holy Quran has a very wonderful nature; once you read the Quran you can feel it sympathizing with you, sometimes blaming you telling you the solutions of your problems, answering your queries; you feel as if it were a close friend that you are always agog to meet.
The Holy Quran sits well with the Human nature, once you read the Holy Quran, you will find that all its verses do not opposes the human nature or mind, the holy Quran always calls its adherents to use mind, according to the Holy Quran blind faith or belief is rejected in the Holy Quran. Saifuddin Dirk Walter Mosig, U. S.A. says
"I have read the Sacred Scriptures of every religion; nowhere have I found what I encountered in Islam: perfection. The Holy Qur'an, compared to any other scripture I have read, is like the Sun compared to that of a match. I firmly believe that anybody who reads the Word of Allah with a mind that is not completely closed to Truth, will become a Muslim."
Scientific evidence
The Holy Quran gives evidences to its divine source that suits the sound culture of every age. In our modern age, the age of science, the Holy Quran gives floods of scientific evidences that are completely in agreement with modern science and even endorsed and approved by world non-Muslims scientists, for the sake of brevity we mention some of these scientific miracles:
· The origin of the universe
· The gaseous state of the universe
· The expansion of the universe
· The darkness of the universe
· The black hole
· The pulsar
· The explosion of the supernova
· The layers of the atmosphere
· Iron being sent from outer space
· Formation of the clouds
· Details of the developments of human embryo in mother's wombs.
· The rotation of the earth and its shape
· The internal currents in the deap seas
· The earth major rift
· The mountains
· The sea set on fire
Professor Keith Moore, one of the world's prominent scientists of anatomy and embryology. University of Toronto, Canada It has been a great pleasure for me to help clarify statements in the Qur'aan about human development. It is clear to me that these statements must have come to Muhammad from God, or 'Allah', because almost all of this knowledge was not discovered until many centuries later. This proves to me that Muhammad must have been a messenger of Allah.
Another scientist, Professor Armstrong, Scientist works at NASA says" I am impressed that how remarkably some of the ancient writings seem to correspond to modern and recent Astronomy. There may well have to be something beyond what we understand as ordinary human experience to account for the writings that we have seen."