Quran is the speech of Allah

The precise and real recognition of the Holy Quran can only make this speech of Allah a practical manifesto of our lives. Attraction towards Quran on the basis of needs, desires and other purposes prevents it from becoming a practical manifesto. Similarly surface level and run through information about the Quran is also a cause behind distancing from Quran. Thus a fine, precise and crystal clear recognition can only bring man nearer to Quran. In this context the first point is that man should wholeheartedly believe that Quran is the speech of his Lord. If this point enters our heart and soul then our state will change. Let us explain this point using an example. Suppose you are sitting in a lonely and isolated place, and in this isolated place you hear a voice or assume someone calls you by your name. Now you will look around to see who was calling you; and when your quest is over, no one is seen and after some findings you realize that this was a call from the world of unseen from your immaculate creator then under this situation what will be your reaction? It is possible that your soul would leave your body; this means just by imagining this a person shivers that the voice falling in my ears is that of my lord, it is the call of my creator, it is the speech of the Almighty Allah. Such an instance is counted as an unforgettable moment of man's life; it is possible he may forget everything else in life but he cannot forget this moment, he cannot conceal this moment and in fact in every gathering and meeting he triggers its remembrance. He considers it to be the most significant incident of his life and maybe others might not believe him  denying it by considering it as mere illusion. But the one with whom this incident has taken place for him this is the most pleasurable incident of his life and he won't be willing to exchange this for anything else in this world.

Why is human being not effected by the Speech of God?

As mentioned in the above example if just by assumption we hear the speech of our Lord the state of our self changes to an appreciable state whereas there is not just one but more than six thousand verses of speech of our God present in the Quran. The same speech of our Lord that descended on Holy Prophet (s) is present with us as it is without any apprehension, reduction or distortion. It is in front of our eyes; we can see it and listen to it. This is the same speech from the unseen which came to us by Gabriel through the Holy Prophet (s) but we don't even move slightly after reading, listening and looking at it. Our hearts do not tremble, bodies don't shiver and souls are not effected by looking at this speech.

This proves that for the discussed example after listening to the voice from unseen our state did not change due to the speech of Allah it changed because of the circumstances under which we listened to the voice; we were effected not by the speech of Allah but the way it came to us else if this effect was from the speech of Allah then under all circumstances it should have left the same effect on us; whether it comes to us as voice in an isolated state or we read it as a book descended in form of revelations.

Similarly when we waddle and swing on listening to sweet and rhythmic tones of the Quran reciters then this exhilaration is not due to the speech of Allah but it is due to the rhymes and tones. The accent, style and melody present in the voice of the reciter leaves an effect on us; hence we waddle without even understanding the meaning and  message. If the same verse is recited by someone in a flat voice then we won't be effected at all. The culture which has become common today is that a small child is made to memorize the Quran and then made to recite it in different and unique style; his art and talent of recitation is presented by organizing specific gatherings in different places and people get excited and effected by watching such shows. They are impacted by the unique talent and abilities of the child but no one is impacted by the Holy Quran.

The consequences of absence of Recognition of Quran

It is well known that during the era of Maulana Room there was a big scholarly personality who was amongst the opponents of Maulana Room and used to speak everything against him; he had certain objections on the messages in Mathnawi of Maulana. One day Maulana inquired about his wellbeing from others and asked what is the ex friend and current opponent of mine doing these days. The answer was that these days he is giving lectures on exegesis (Tafseer) of Quran. Maulana said he has no understanding of the Quran so how is he doing its exegesis. When Maulana Roomi was asked, how do you know that he does not understands Quran? Maulana Room replied that whatever I express in form of poems is all Quran whereas he opposes my expressions in poems; if he possessed recognition of Quran then he would have easily realized that all what I say in poems is Quran.

The meanings and messages of Quran present in any language and form are easily identified by those who have recognition of Quran. He easily knows that these expressions are from the Holy Quran irrespective of it being in Arabic, Persian language or any other scientific form.

At times certain poems of Allama Iqbal have complete translation of verses of Quran and those who have recognition of Quran easily realize that these meanings are from Quran.

Those who do not have recognition of Quran consider every Arabic phrase as Quran and on the contrary they even declare Quran as not being Quran. As an example those who are not aware about the realities of miracles they consider everything abnormal as miracle or on the other hand they mark miracles as illusions. The way people considered the miracles of Prophet Moosa as magic. Even today there are people who consider gimmicks and tricks as miracles; they classify scenes demonstrated by Laser lights or some other unclear or abnormal incident as miracle.

The Oppression on Quran in the words of Ali (a.s)

If man can acquire the precise and real recognition of Quran then he needs no excuses to refer to Quran and under this situation Quran becomes his guide but if this is not done then Quran becomes like pebbles in the hands of man, the way Ameerul Momineen (a.s) says:

"A time will come after me when Righteousness (Haqq) will be concealed more than anything else and nothing will be more evident then falsehood. There won't be anything more than lies and accusations of Allah and his Messenger. There will not be anything else valueless as Quran for the people of that era. When the Quran is presented the way it deserves to be present and the verses of the Quran are used in routine life that is the time when there is nothing else more valuable than Quran. The towns and populations of that era will have no evil bigger than goodness and evils would be considered as goodness. The graspers of Quran will throw it away and separate them from it, and the memorizers of Quran will forget it. The Quran and its followers will be deterred, wandering around accompanying each other and there will no one available to give them shelter. They will be physically amongst people but still away and separated, they will be with people but disassociated because even if misguidance and guidance gather together still they do not harmonize with each other. People have accepted discords and separated themselves from congregations. They are guides for the book (Quran) and not that the book is guide for them. They only have the name of Quran left with them and they only identify its script and text apart from this they have no recognition of the Quran."

Ameerul Momineen (a.s) while expressing the oppression on Quran says that if the verses of Quran are manipulated and presented to meet personal interests then under this situation Quran becomes dear to them and they consider Quran as a means of fulfilling their lusts and desires. They refer and remember Quran as a means to acquire materialistic and financial means but when the rights of Quran are delivered, its messages are spread in public and when there are talks of implementing its laws, policies and principles they show no attraction towards the Quran.

Imam Ali (a.s) says: The people of Quran of this era which means the rhythmic reciters and memorizers of Quran will forget the Quran, they would have memorized it but would not act upon it and in this era the Quran and its followers will have no supporters.

When discords will be common amongst people and they will distance themselves from unity and compromises. They will present the verses of Quran for creating discords, they will abandon the message of unity and brotherhood given by the Quran; this will be the time when these people will become guides and leaders of Quran and they will not make Quran their guide.

The speech of Allah can become the guide of human being only under the condition of it's correct recognition else the situation will be the same towards which Ameerul Momineen has got our attention to and warned about it.

Need for correct visionary angle for understand Quran

The second significant point in recognition of Quran is when man becomes conscious that this is the speech of Allah and it is the word of my creator then his visionary angle towards the Quran also gets rectified. This is because if referral is made towards the Quran without a correct visionary angle  then the consequences will be similar to that of non referral. There are some people who give high attention to Quran, they give it significance, recite it day and night but still their referral, preparedness and attention has no direction; and under this situation also there is no outcome. This can be understood with an example.

Let us assume there are few persons living together in a house out of which one or two person read Quran regularly and others are unfortunate of this privilege and divine opportunity.  They show laziness or they don't know to read the Quran and it is possible that throughout the life they have not read a single page of Quran. These two categories of individuals reside in the same house for years and are participating in business and other household affairs; like one brother reads the Quran and then goes to the shop whereas other sits at the shop without reciting the Quran but there is no difference found practically in their lives. They both lie, cheat, adulterate, sell things at high price, stampede the rights of others, both have similar thoughts, their ethical behaviour is similar and all other affairs are similar. But by theory this should not be the case; the brother who recites Quran should have the effects of Quran manifested on him and other should be deprived of it but practically there is no difference seen in them.

The reason behind this is that brother who recites Quran and gives importance to it is not having the right direction and visionary angle towards the Quran. This means that his viewing angle is not correct to look at it with the perspective of being the speech of Allah. This is the reason he is deprived of the practical effects of the Quran and he is just reciting Quran for the sake of getting blessings of Quran for his business or maybe for the sake of earning rewards. This point is not specific to Quran only it is applicable to Sunnah, traditions, Ahlulbayt and all other sources of guidance.

Viewing realities the way they are

" O Lord! Show me the realities the way they are"

The realities irrespective of being existential or intellectual, religious or worldly are seen by man in two ways. Either they are seen the way they are or they are something whereas we see them as something else.

The realities are seen against what they are when we don't look at them with an appropriate angle or perspective. Stars are seen as small because we are not looking at them from the right distance. When we see these big realities from a distance of thousands of light years they are either not seen or seen very small. Since thousands of years they have kept man under misunderstanding whereby they are seen as small twinkling lamps but in reality are thousand times bigger than earth.

The same situation is there for other existence and realities; the error of eye is damaging for man in every field but the subject for which it is most damaging is religion and realities of religion. The Holy Quran is the fundamental source of religion but in order to absorb and understand the Quran the role of vision is very high and the current exegesis of Quran is the biggest evidence of this fact.

The cause behind differences in interpretation of verses

The exegesis or interpretation of the verses of Quran has begun from the time of descend of Quran. Some of the companions of Prophet (s) used to do exegesis of the verses of Quran and some of these are still securely present. After them also this work did not stop and in every era there has been a big quantum of scholars doing exegesis of Quran. From the time of descend of Quran thousands of exegesis have been done and presented out of which some are still secure whereas others are lost. The interpreters of Quran have delivered great services towards recognition and understanding of the words of Allah. The interpretation of several divine revelations which Muslims are acquainted with today are all the outcome of the efforts of these interpreters but due to certain exegesis and interpreters certain difficulties have also developed in the understanding of Quran. One of the difficulties seen is that every interpreter has adopted a specific angle of understanding the Quran and its divine verses; and has closed their eyes on other dimensions of the Quran. This was because as time passed new schools and sects came into existence amongst Muslims and these sects developed differences on several aspects towards each other. Thus this sectarian differences also started to leave its effects on the vision towards Quran; the consequences of which was that ever interpreter related to a particular school did the exegesis according to a specific angle and vision.

The drawbacks of Absoluteness

On the other hand the thoughts of human beings have been also been a victim of a big calamity and danger of Absoluteness. This implies when man starts to think that whatever he has understood is the final say and what I have understood cannot differ from reality. He thinks that righteousness is what I have acquired and the correct visionary angle is the one which I have applied. With this kind of thinking man closes the doors of finding truth on himself and also others. This kind of thinking is referred to as Absoluteness. When man considers his understanding as the only truth and absolute truth; and closes the doors of thinking and understanding on others then it becomes very difficult to reach that reality.

Blind following is an obstacle in understanding Quran

 Human beings blind following adds more flux to the gold. Walking as that of flock of sheep is amongst the weakness of human being. To follow someone without thinking and understanding is blind following. This attitude is found in scholars and specific intellectuals also along with ordinary people. Many possessors of knowledge are also followers of others. Writers, columnist and orators who copy others are also found in abundance, they consider it a sin to think away from the thoughts of others. Specifically when absoluteness and self admirations issue a verdict that thinking away from what we have thought is an innovation and opinion based commentary; and this verdict later amalgamates with the blind followers coming in future then all the doors of reaching the reality are closed. Under this situation Quran just becomes a reference to be used in debates by the individuals of every school for justifying their claims.

When the originators draw a line on the stone and the forth coming people blindly follow that line then the time for abandoning of the word of Allah starts. Thus it is necessary for the addressees of the Holy Quran that they should benefit from the opinion of the exegist but should not become a captive of schools specific visions. They should definitely take benefits from the interpretations but should not become captive of certain crooked visions.

Need for reciting Quran from all dimensions

It is necessary to view Quran from all dimensions because Quran keeps an eye on every aspect of human beings life. By looking at the Quran from all dimensions a new scene of Quran comes in front of man which cannot be seen by any other angle. The addressees of Quran should be ascertained that if they analyze the Quran with some new dimension which was not used by previous exegesist then this would never be considered as misguidance or innovation; and if the conditions and prerequisite of exegesis are met then this interpretation will also not be considered as Exegesis by opinion (Tafseer bil ray). This is an unavoidable fact that the Quran itself grants new dimensions to its addressee. In fact those individuals who try to amend or rectify the Quran is also due to lack of correct vision, they do not change themselves in fact they change the Quran and this is their biggest difficulty. Let us explain this with an example so that for Quran the point can become more clear. You can imagine a building which is very big  and has several doors which open in different direction like north, south, east and west just like Masjidul Haram or Masjidun Nabawi. There are many doors to enter these mosques and from whichever door you enter you will see a different scene. Like if you enter from one door of Masjidun Nabawi you will see that part of Kaaba where there is the Black Aswad Stone , if you enter from other door you will see Rukn-e-Yemeni. In order to see the complete Kaaba we have to circumbulate the Kaaba but even after this circumbulation the roof and the inside of Kaaba are hidden from the eyes. In order to see these it is necessary to go on the roof and inside the Kaaba. If a person is habituated to enter this mosque through one particular door only all the time then he can never visualize the entire Kaaba. There are some people who are sitting behind a pillar inside the mosque and they cannot see the Kaaba properly. If this person desires that Kaaba should be moved from its position so that I can see in full or says that Kaaba is this much only what I see from behind the pillar then such a person would be told to leave his dream of moving the Kaaba from its position and instead come in front from behind the pillar and change your viewing angle then you will be able to see the Kaaba with a different scene.

It is the same situation with the reciters and interpreters of the Quran who are sitting behind the pillars of their schools and are looking at the Quran by hiding behind their already made walls. When they cannot see completely or if they cannot see the scene which they like they change the Quran. For them it is said or should be said, that they do not change themselves but they change the Quran.

.... To be continued