The Holy Qur’an, the Eternal Miracle

Compiled By: Syed Ali Shahbaz
Indeed, the Holy Qur'an is the only heavenly scripture whose contents have remained safe and unsullied from any human mischief, as per God’s Promise in its pages that no falsehood will ever be able to approach it. Ever since it was revealed to Prophet Mohammad (SAWA) over 14 centuries ago, it has been committed to memory and its contents diligently recorded that unlike the various versions of the Christian Gospel each contradicting the other, the Holy Qur’an is one single book.
For this reason, whenever it is read its message appears as fresh as the day it was revealed. No wonder it has continued to inspire Muslims in every age and geographical place, to the extent that no book has influenced the daily life of its followers and has majestically absorbed hearts and minds, making human beings fascinated at its message. History bears witness that the message of the Holy Qur'an, no sooner was it revealed, the culture of paganism vanished like darkness before its light, while superstition gave way to the facts, realities, and undeniable truths of monotheism and the egalitarian civilization it builds. In short, the Holy Qur'an is life inspiring, and a source of both material and spiritual blessings. According to Imam Mohammad Baqer (AS) the 5th infallible successor of Prophet Mohammad (SAWA) the Holy Qur’an will exist till the sun and the moon exist and will continue to enlighten human life till the end of the world.
In the first ayah of Surah Ibrahim, God says: "(This is) a Book which We have revealed to you that you may bring forth men, by their Lord's permission from utter darkness into light."
Many religious experts believe that the futile efforts of the enemies of Islam to insult the Holy Qur’an is proof of their frustration and their failure to stop the magnetic impact of its folios on the audience. Unwittingly these retarded minds have contributed to the popularity of the Holy Qur’an through their sordid acts, thereby making more and more curious people read and study it.
Once the great German poet Johann Wolfgang von Goethe studied the Holy Qur’an he was profoundly affected by its contents and wrote to his teacher, about what he viewed as interesting ayahs of 10 Surahs, saying: The Qur’an is glorious and bears testimony to wonderful facts. I want to pray for you like Moses (AS) who in Surah Ta Ha, verse 25 of this this Holy Book is quoted as saying: "He said: O my Lord! Expand my breast for me"
Indeed, human beings can rid themselves of fear and anxiety provided that they rely on God, and ponder on the time-tested and time-honoured message of the Holy Qur’an, which contains the mysteries of creation, such as Light and the seemingly powerful Elements of Nature. No doubt, the Holy Qur’an calls itself the Reminder of God for its constant invitation to guidance for all. Ayah 42 of Surah Ha Mim says: "Falsehood shall not come to it from before it nor from behind it; a revelation from the Wise, the Praised One."
It is an all-timed book and not confined to any generation, any specific groups, or any geographical area. For instance, many Qur’anic ayahs address all people without the difference of race, language, class and creed, with the words "Ya Ayyohal Naas" (O mankind) and “Ya Ayyohal Insaan" (O human beings). The Prophet’s Sixth Infallible Successor, Imam Ja'far Sadeq (AS) says the freshness of the wording of the Holy Quran is because God Almighty has not revealed it for a specific people or period. As a matter of fact, it was revealed for all time and for all human beings. Thus it will remain new every time for every people till the day of resurrection. Imam Baqer (AS) says: if an ayah was about a specific people and the people die, then that particular ayah will no longer be relevant any more. In such a case, gradually the whole Qur’an would become obsolete. Thus as long as the earth and the heaven exist, the Holy Qur’an exists as well.

The timeless wisdom of the Holy Qur’an
The Holy Qur’an, the matchless divine scripture which God Almighty revealed to His Last and Greatest Messenger, Holy Prophet Mohammad (SAWA) for the guidance of humanity till the end of the world.
It is the book whose challenge to mankind and jinn to bring about only a single verse matching its unmatched eloquence has remained unfulfilled to this day, as admitted by even non Muslim, Christian scholars of the Arabic language.
In the pre-Islamic period the Arabs used to pride on their literary genius and command of the language that couldn’t be matched by even the advanced cultures and civilizations of the two super-powers of that age, the Romans and the Iranians, as well as other developed lands such as the Chinese and the Indians. In Arabia, every year poets and the literati used to gather at the Okaz market place to demonstrate their skills in the intricacies of Arabic poetry, and a panel of judges would select the finest masterpieces to be written with gold water for display throughout the year as hangings on the walls of the Ka’ba. The most eloquent of these poems were seven in number and known ever since as “Mo’allaqaat as-Saba”. It was under these circumstances that God Almighty commanded Prophet Mohammad (SAWA) to formally announce the universal mission of Islam and gradually revealed to him the Eternal Miracle of the holy Qur’an. The eloquence of the holy Qur’an instantly over shadowed the finest masterpieces of Arabic literature, to the extent that Lubbaid bin Rabi’a, the author of one of the 7 finest odes, became so fascinated that he stopped composing poems anymore and devoted himself to the recitation of the holy Qur’an. When asked as to why a poet of his calibre has stopped composing poems, he said: In front of the Qur’an, all our poetical talents are in vain, and so mesmerizing are its verses that I know of no sentences and phrases superior to them.
Thus, the holy Qur’an is undoubtedly the eternal miracle of Prophet Mohammad (SAWA). Its ayahs when revealed in Mecca in the form of short surahs amazed the Arab literati. The ayahs had an instant but paradoxical impact on the Meccans. If on one hand, they were stunned and absorbed by the matchless eloquence of the ayahs of the holy Qur’an, on the other hand, most of them refrained from accepting the wisdom of their meaning, since they found it against their superstitious and pagan beliefs. In other words, unable to put aside the pagan culture of their forefathers who had gone astray, they failed to grasp the logic of the holy Qur’an and its invitation to ponder and accept the undeniable reality of monotheism and virtue. Thus, most of the Arabs adopted a hostile attitude towards the Prophet and considered his words as magic, while the few who opened up their minds to experience its rays of enlightenment could be likened to the magicians of the days of the Egyptian Pharaoh who on witnessing the miracles of Prophet Moses (PBUH) instantly realized that this was not sorcery but manifestation of the majesty of the One and Only God. The holy Qur’an thus shook the very foundations of paganism, and with the relentless efforts of Prophet Mohammad (SAWA) its rational message started attracting people towards monotheism and virtue. The literati began to admit that this scripture was neither prose nor poetry, but the Immaculate Revealed Word of God, the holy Qur’an.
After the passing away of Prophet Mohammad (SAWA) and the hijacking of the rule of the Islamic state by persons whom neither the holy Qur’an granted any political authority, nor the Prophet ever hinted at their legitimacy, the coup leaders of Medina refused to accept the first ever Mus-haf or compilation in book form of the holy Qur’an, as per the order of revelation of its ayahs, which the Prophet’s divinely-decreed vicegerent, Imam Ali ibn Abi Taleb (AS), presented. Their enmity to Imam Ali (AS), whom they had deprived of his right of political leadership of the Islamic state, made these neo Muslims ignore the holy Qur’an itself, because they knew that as the person closest and nearest to the Prophet, even before the formal proclamation of Islam, Imam Ali (AS) had precise information of as to where each and every ayah was revealed by God Almighty to the Prophet over the 23-year period, as well as the meaning and purport of the ayahs. As a result, certain distortions or improper interpretations of the ayahs of the holy Qur’an started occurring in the Muslim society, which though spreading through conquests of other lands and winning new converts to Islam, became devoid of the true Qur’anic spirit. This spiritual vacuum made the new generation of Muslims realize the folly of having turned away from the Ahl al-Bayt and the Qur’an, the two vital factors so profoundly stressed as Thaqalayn by the Prophet before his passing away.
Thus, over twenty years after the Prophet’s departure, the project to compile the Qur’an as Mus-haf or in book form, started, and the resulting copy, although not in the order of revelation as presented earlier by Imam Ali (AS), succeeded in collecting between two covers, all that had been revealed by God to Prophet Mohammad (SAWA). The endorsement of this copy by Imam Ali (AS), whom the Prophet used to refer as Qur’an an-Nateq or the Speaking Qur’an, meant that nothing of the divine revelation was left out, nor was anything added to it, although the sequence of the surahs and some ayahs was not in the proper place, as the compilers placed the surahs revealed in Medina at the beginning of the book and the surahs revealed in Mecca at the start of the Prophet’s mission, at the end of the book. Nonetheless, in order to preserve the Eternal Miracle of the Qur’an and to ensure that no multiple versions of this last heavenly scripture ever emerge, as was the fate suffered by the previously revealed scriptures, like the Torah and the Evangel, which the Jews and the Christians tampered beyond recognition, Imam Ali (AS) on becoming caliph of the Islamic state, never brought into public view his Mus-haf which was in the order of revelation, because this might give a pretext to the next caliph to bring out a different version. Moreover, the committing to memory of the entire Qur’an by persons known and respected as Huffaz (plural of Hafez) ensured the eternity of this Immortal Miracle.
As Islam spread across the neighbouring lands and non Arabs started embracing its truth in multitudes, the need for explanation and interpretation of the ayahs of the holy Qur’an became a necessity. Thus began the science of exegesis, with qualified Islamic scholars, well versed in the intricacies of the Arabic language, expounding the meaning and purport of the ayahs in order to preserve the purity of their revelation and to dispel any doubts that may arise on the proper understanding of God’s revealed. Here also the Eternal Miracle of the Qur’an became more manifest as new dimensions of its unrivalled wisdom began to be discovered. Like an unfathomable treasure trove, whenever one delves into it, new and more glittering bezels of wisdom come to light. The great Arabic literary figure, Jahez, who was of black African origin, in his book titled “Nazm al-Qur’an” has proved on the basis of the grammar, syntax, rhetoric and phonetics of the Arabic language that the holy Qur’an remains unsurpassed in its literary excellence and is without doubt eternal.
If the letters and terms that comprise the main nucleus of words are firm they create a fluent and fascinating prose which profoundly affects the readers, as well as the audience when recited. The holy Qur’an refers to this fact in ayah 23 of Surah Zomar, which reads: “Allah has sent down the best of discourses, a scripture consistent with itself…”
Here God Almighty first describes the holy Qur’an as a book whose contents are consistent throughout the text, which means that everything in the scripture exactly fits in its place, similar to the different pieces of an Arabesque design. This negates contradiction gives added beauty to the expression of its contents, unlike human words that are self-contradictory, whether in speech or in writing. Even the best of poets are inconsistent and at times self-contradictory as is clear from their own so-called masterpieces. The extraordinary harmony, the solidarity of concepts and the unique tone and beauty of the ayahs testify that the words of the holy Qur’an are the words of the Almighty Creator. The other outstanding characteristic of the holy Qur’an is the purposeful emphasis on its ayahs, in a way that despite the repetition of some of its anecdotes and advices, the words acquire added freshness. One of the main principles of eloquence is to repeat something when necessary for further effect on the audience, without the least contradiction, and to remove any iota of misunderstanding of the earlier instance. In this way, the holy Qur’an removes many of the ambiguities that may arise.
The next part of ayah 23 of Surah Zomar, reads: “Whereat quiver the skins of those who fear their Lord, then their skins and hearts soften to Allah’s remembrance. That is Allah’s guidance, by which He guides whomever He wishes; and whomever Allah leaves (to go) astray, has no guide.”
Here God describes the electrifying effect of ayahs of the holy Qur’an on hearts and minds, which are at first become awe-struck, so as to jolt and awaken the conscience, in order to be more receptive. In the second stage the ayahs create soften the hearts and thereby pave the way for acceptance of the undeniable truth that gives the inner sense of tranquility and peace of mind. The tone of warning makes mankind ponder on the signs of the Creator, while the tidings of mercy make us realize of the bliss that awaits us. The history of Islam is full of instances of the impact of the words of the holy Qur’an on the hearts of not just the believers but of the disbelievers as well, who after initial denial, found the logic and rationale of the ayahs irresistible, and finally accepting the message of truth. It is related that when the holy Qur’an was recited to the holy Prophet’s companions, their eyes would be filled with tears and their bodies would shivered. Imam Ali (AS) has described these characteristics of the pious in the best way, saying: They get up at night and recite the holy Qur’an while pondering on its words seeking through its ayahs the solution to their pains and problems. Whenever they come across an ayah that gives tidings their hearts become joyful, and whenever they come across an ayah that contains warning, they reflect deeply on its contents with tears flowing down their eyes, as if they are hearing the agonizing cries of the inmates of hell.