What Is the Qur’an?

اقرأ بسم ربك الذي خلق

Recite! In the name of your Lord who created all

The Quran is the recitation of Allah’s speech that was revealed over the course of twenty-three years to the Prophet Muhammad ﷺ. The word quran, or “recitation,” comes from the same Arabic root as the first word of God’s revelation to the Prophet: iqra, “Recite!” Elsewhere throughout the revelation, Allah refers to the Quran as a kitab, or “book”; a furqan, or “criterion”; a huda, or “guidance”; and a dhikr, or “reminder.”  The Quran therefore plays many roles in the life of a Muslim. But it is experienced most pristinely as an aural recitation that calls believers to a life of remembrance of God and adherence to His guidance and laws.

One of the greatest challenges for newcomers to Islam in familiarizing ourselves with the Quran is that it defies many of our expectations of scripture. Unlike the Bible, it has relatively little narrative and it does not proceed in chronological order. The great Scottish historian, Thomas Carlyle, despite speaking highly of our Prophet ﷺ, described the Quran as the most “toilsome reading as I ever undertook. A wearisome confused jumble…. Nothing but a sense of duty could carry any European through the Koran.” Indeed, the Quran challenges its readers and listeners. It exposes us, with all of our human limitations, to the limitless speech of God. In it, God speaks directly to us, calling us to belief in Him, pointing to His signs throughout creation, and describing aspects of the unseen beyond our direct observation. Moreover, the Quran is often conversational, asking us questions meant to draw us into states of deep reflection—“So which of the favors of your Lord will you deny?” It is unique among God’s revelations to humanity. So how should we approach it?

Fortunately for the readers of this blog, sincere intention is what carries one through the Quran, allowing us to swim in its oceans rather than sink in its depths. God describes the Quran at the beginning of its second chapter, Suratul Baqarah, saying “that is the book in which there is no doubt, a guidance to those with God consciousness.” Simply put, those who approach the Quran seeking God will find Him. God’s speech reflects back to us the contents of our own heart. By the same token, God informs us that those who approach it with impure or self-serving intentions will not find guidance in it: “as for the disbelievers, they argue, ‘What does Allah mean by such a parable?’ Through this test, He leaves many to stray, and guides many. And He leaves none to stray except the rebellious.” This is one of the meanings of the Quran’s title, al-furqan, the criterion. It distinguishes its readers and listeners into separate camps based on the intentions they bring to it.

Unfortunately, the difficulty many sincere people encounter is questioning their own sincerity! So let’s look at an example of God’s response to genuine struggle with His revelation. Some of the Prophet’s Companions once came to him complaining that the Quran had so few stories in it, i.e. not enough easily digestible content. Allah responded to them directly with the verse from Suratul Waqiah, “I swear by the positions of the stars, and this is a vast oath if you but knew, that this is a generous Quran.” Anyone who has been blessed to witness the night sky in an area with no light pollution knows that it is a marvelous experience. But it is also overwhelming! The stars first appear as a random scattering of lights with no apparent order. Yet anyone intimately familiar with the night sky can use the position of the stars to navigate the ocean (or the desert) with amazing precision. To the trained eye, the night sky is neither random nor confusing; it is a generous guide. The Quran is like this. With careful study, deep patterns emerge that unlock its secrets and guide us directly to our Lord.* God’s response to the companions was a hint at this connection, and an encouragement to persist in studying His revelation. We experience humility when confronted with our limitation. But with humility, the gates of understanding begin to open.

One incredibly practical piece of advice that I would like to offer to newcomers to the Quran is to start with its final chapters and work backwards. This too allows us to experience the Quran in roughly the same way as the Companions, may God be pleased with them. Every chapter in the Quran is categorized by the place of its revelation, Makkah or Madinah. Most of the final chapters are in fact from the earlier, Makkan, revelations, which spanned the initial thirteen years of Islam. These chapters introduce us to the revelations with which God attached the hearts of the early Muslims to Himself and His Messenger. They describe God Himself, His signs throughout creation, as well as the unseen and the life to come. In short, they expose us to the Quran as that overwhelming vision of the night sky. Bring nothing but your desire for God and the beauty of these chapters will captivate you until your eyes adjust and the deep patterns in His revelation emerge.

*I am deeply grateful to Sh. Hamza Yusuf for this insight into Suratul Waqiah.

Who Is Allah?

“Allah” is the name God most often uses to describe Himself in the Qur’an. Likewise, it is the Arabic cognate of the Hebrew and Aramaic words Elohim and Alaha that all Biblical Prophets, including Jesus, upon him be peace, used to call upon Him. But who indeed are we calling upon with this name?

The best introduction to Allah comes from Allah Himself in the opening chapter of the Qur’an known as the Fatihah. This is a chapter that the Prophet Muhammad ﷺ called “the mother of the Qur’an” because it distills our scripture’s knowledge of God, and humanity’s relationship to Him, down into seven simple verses. Let’s look at the first four verses to see how they describe Allah:

1. In the Name of Allah, the Ever Merciful, the Especially Merciful

2. All praise is due to Allah, Lord of the worlds

3. The Ever Merciful, the Especially Merciful

4. Sovereign of the Day of Judgement
   

The first verse of this chapter is one that we find at the beginning of nearly every chapter in the Qur’an. In it, Allah identifies Himself by His two predominant attributes: al-Rahman, the Ever-Merciful and al-Raheem, the Especially Merciful. Mercy is emphasized twice here because it is the primary means through which God interacts with humanity. His greatest mercies to us are giving us existence after non-existence, and granting us bodies, minds, and souls that allow us to survive in this world. The mercy that comes from al-Rahman is the kind of mercy that is constant and unwavering because we could not exist without it. In addition, we receive from Allah as al-Raheem the kind of mercies that we often refer to as the blessings in our lives--companionship of friends and family, sustenance to provide for ourselves and others, or luxuries purely for our enjoyment. To draw an analogy to many of our childhoods, the first kind of mercy equates to the food, water, clothing and shelter our parents provided us while the second kind of mercy is analogous to an allowance, the kinds of clothing we like, and the occasional dessert.

In the second verse, Allah identifies Himself as “Lord of the worlds.” This implies all of the connotations of the word “Lord” that we understand in English. Allah is master of the heavens and the earth, and all that is in between them; He rules over them with a watchful eye; and He ultimately sits in judgement over every one of us. However, there is more to Rabb, the Arabic word for Lord. A rabb is also a nourisher, a sustainer, and a cherisher of those whom he rules. Rabb is closely related to tarbiya, raising children or even crops--an act that requires as much love and care as it does power and might. Allah’s name al-Rabb builds upon al-Rahman and al-Raheem: He rules the universe in accordance with His mercy.

This mercy is reiterated in verse three, a point that we will return to.

In verse four, Allah returns to another of His majestic attributes, Malik, meaning sovereign or king. Here He identifies Himself as the sovereign of the Day of Judgement, a day when all of humanity will stand before Him to account for their actions in this world. This verse brings Allah’s description of Himself in this chapter full circle: He is a merciful Lord who created all the worlds, who rules over them, and to whom we all ultimately return. This is the essential knowledge of God that humanity needs as well as the answer to the question, “Who Is Allah?” He is our Creator, our Sustainer, and our final destiny.

The Fatihah, like the Qur’an, is a bottomless ocean and there is no end to the wisdom we can derive from it. But let’s look at two more lessons from this chapter. The first is that while Allah is One God, unique and without partner, He has many names that we can use to call upon Him. The Fatihah introduced us to a few: al-Rahman, al-Raheem, al-Rabb, and al-Malik. Allah informs us of ninety-nine of His names throughout the Qur’an and instructs us to call upon Him by these names: "Say: Call upon Allah or call upon the Ever-Merciful. However you may call, to Him belong the Most Beautiful Names." (17:110)

The second lesson is in how we are to relate to these names. These four verses of the Fatihah alternate between mentioning names of beauty, al-Rahman and al-Raheem, and names of majesty, al-Rabb and al-Malik--keeping them in perfect balance. So too are we to balance our relationship to His beautiful and majestic attributes. Allah’s beautiful qualities, His mercy, love, and forgiveness inspire hope and unencumbered worship in us whereas His majestic qualities inspire fear and careful fulfillment of His commands and prohibitions. Excessive focus on either can lead us into carelessness or undue strictness in our religion. Allah reveals both His aspects in the Fatihah to introduce us to the balance we must strike in our worship and worldly conduct. Yet just as He first mentions His beautiful qualities, al-Rahman and al-Raheem, so too are we to remember that mercy is His primary mode of interaction with His creation. As the Messenger of God ﷺ informs us: “When Allah completed the creation, He wrote in His book with Him upon the Throne: Verily, My mercy prevails over My wrath.” 

And Allah knows best.

What Is Islam?

“Islam” is a word that most of us know but very few can define. Depending on where you look or who you ask, it can have many different connotations. But what is the real meaning of Islam, and what does it involve?

“Islam” is an Arabic word that means “submission” or “surrender”--in this case to God’s will for us as human beings. Since it comes from the same root word as “peace”, salam, it more specifically refers to the peace that one experiences from living in accordance with God’s will. 

There is a beautiful hadith, or narration of the Prophet Muhammad ﷺ, known as the Hadith of Jibril, that explains Islam in its fullness. It is long, and well worth reading, but I will paraphrase it here. One day, while the Prophet ﷺ was sitting with his Companions, the Angel Gabriel came to them in the guise of a man. He asked the Prophet ﷺ to explain islam, or the outward forms of worship, to him. The Prophet ﷺ replied, “Islām is to testify that there is nothing worthy of worship except God and that Muhammad is the messenger of God, to perform the prayers, to pay the purifying alms, to fast in Ramadan, and to make the pilgrimage to the Sacred House if you are able to do so.” Gabriel confirmed his response and then asked him to explain iman, or belief. The Prophet ﷺ replied, “It is to believe in God, His angels, His books, His messengers, and the Last Day, and to believe in divine decree, both the good and the evil thereof.” Gabriel confirmed this response as well and asked him to inform him of ihsan, or spiritual excellence. The Prophet replied that it is “to worship God as though you are seeing Him, for even if you cannot see Him, He indeed sees you.” Gabriel confirmed this final answer and later departed. Afterwards, the Prophet ﷺ turned to his companion, Umar, and informed him that that man was the Angel Gabriel “who came to you to teach you your religion.”

Together, islam, iman, and ihsan form the three dimensions of our religion. These are the paths we take toward full submission to God’s will. Islam, the acts of worship, guide us toward outward submission. They provide an outlet where we can channel our natural impulse to worship God, to show our gratitude for the blessings in our lives, and to draw nearer to Him in a consistent way. Iman, the points of belief, inform us of, and orient us toward, the great realities of the universe: the oneness of God, the existence of the unseen, the guidance God sends to humanity through revelation, and our ultimate destiny as humans. Ihsan does not add new content to the religion; it enhances the quality of or belief and our worship. Abstract belief in God or worship lacking full sincerity will only get us so far in our quest to draw nearer to our Lord. We are called, instead, to worship God as if we see Him--to imagine how sincere our devotion would be then and to work toward fulfilling that.

On a personal note, I grew up near the beach and I’ve always found surfing to be a perfect metaphor for Islam as it is laid out in this hadith. The best surfers are all Muslims in a sense because they submit themselves to the waves willingly and peacefully. To surf, you first must believe in the realities of the ocean--its waves, currents, and undertows. False perception of the ocean will lead to disaster; right perception of it will allow you to do things you otherwise cannot. Next, you must build upon this knowledge with skillful action. You may know that waves are real, but what do you do with them? Fight them or ride with them? How far out should you paddle to catch one? These are all questions about islam, about outward submission. Ihsan is where this metaphor really takes off. Every surfer surfs as if they see the wave. There can be no halfheartedness when the water rises beneath you and you must ride or be pummeled. So you can watch surfers and learn something real about spirituality: they concentrate all their knowledge of the ocean and skill navigating it into moments of beautiful harmony with an enveloping reality. The best will move with the waves perfectly and even describe their experiences as states of flow where the boundary between themselves and their environment fades. Yet such sublime states are built upon simple foundations, the most important of which is willing surrender to the great truths of the ocean.

What is Islam? You will hear many Muslims say that it is more than a religion--that it is a way of life, that it is all encompassing of our everyday existence. Islam is satisfying in this sense because it offers something to our minds, our bodies, and our souls--and what it offers is always available to us. When Muslims are at their best, Islam is like the experience of surfing, where belief, action, true sincerity meld into perfect moments of devotion to our Creator.