The foremost thing someone who has faith in Allah should do is to know Allah and His Messengers with true knowledge and then to know his responsibilities to Him, his sole Creator. The source which provides this knowledge to man is the Qur'an. In the Qur'an, Allah gives His commands and the limits He ordains for man. Man can attain eternal salvation only when he worships Allah alone without any partner and does his best to meticulously observe these commands and limits. In the Hereafter, the rewards of those who eagerly observe these limits and strive to attain His good pleasure and those who disregard them and try to satisfy their own desires will obviously not be the same.
Allah, in the Qur'an, gives a detailed account of the type of slave who will earn His Countenance. Hence, the primary responsibility of man is to practice what Allah commands in His Book. On the Day of Judgement, people will be judged according to their obedience to the Qur'an:
So hold fast to what has been revealed to you. You are on a right path. It is certainly a reminder to you and to your people and you will be questioned. (Surat az-Zukhruf: 43-44)
That is why you must never pretend you don't grasp that all people should answer the call of Allah and that to this end, they should be knowledgeable of the Qur'an.
The Qur'an, the unique guide providing man all answers and explanations about eternal salvation, is a reminder and an admonition. Allah relates this attribute of the Qur'an in many verses:
This is a communication to be transmitted to mankind so that they may be warned by it and so that they will know that He is One God and so that people of intelligence will pay heed. (Surah Ibrahim: 52)
This is a clear explanation for all mankind, and guidance and admonition for those who have taqwa (awe or fear of Allah). (Surah Ali 'Imran: 138)
No indeed! It is truly a reminder to which anyone who wills may pay heed. But they will only pay heed if Allah wills. He is entitled to be feared and entitled to forgive. (Surat al-Muddaththir: 54-55)
The warnings and advice that Allah gives in the Qur'an are of great significance. A person should re-orient the conduct of his life in accordance with them. Otherwise, societies, where violent disorders and restlessness prevail, will spring up. Such a society becomes unreliable and insecure since people do not observe the limits Allah commands. That is why complying with the commands of Allah is of great importance.
Those who have fear of Allah heed these warnings and pay meticulous attention to them and to putting them into practice in their daily lives. It is OBVIOUS that a life shaped according to one's own personal principles and moral values, totally ignoring the Qur'anic standpoint, will not help one attain eternal salvation.
Do not make the same mistake as many others. Never pretend you don't grasp that you do not have a guide other than the Qur'an and that the Qur'an is a reminder and an admonition.
Each verse Allah relates in the Qur'an is extremely comprehensible and explicit. Therefore when anyone says "I read the Qur'an yet I could not understand it", one should also be aware that this is just a pretext to avoid his responsibility to Allah and a misdeed for which he will be judged on the Day of Judgement. For those who sincerely turn to Allah and seek guidance, the verses of the Qur'an are comprehensible. That the commands of Allah are comprehensible means that we have the responsibility for practising them. Pretending not to grasp this OBVIOUS fact and claiming not to understand the verses is definitely an unjust stance. Allah relates in the verses that the Qur'an can be readily understood:
Am I to desire someone other than Allah as a judge when it is He who has sent down the Book to you clarifying everything? Those We have given the book know it has been sent down from your Lord with truth, so on no account be among the doubters. (Surat al-An'am: 114)
In this way We have sent it down as clear signs. Allah guides anyone He wills. (Surat al-Hajj: 16)
So, never pretend you don't grasp that all verses of the Qur'an are explicit and easy to practise. Do not follow a path you will later regret.
Allah protects the Qur'an, and it has been maintained unaltered for 1,400 years. Allah relates this fact in the following verses:
It is We Who have sent down the Reminder and We Who will preserve it. (Surat al-Hijr: 9)
The Words of your Lord are perfect in truthfulness and justice. No one can change His Words. He is the All-Hearing, the All-Knowing. (Surat al-An'am: 115)
These promises of Allah are certainly sufficient for believers. However, Allah also equipped the Qur'an with some scientific and numeric miracles, revealing once again that it is a Book from Him. Apart from the miraculous characteristic of the Qur'an, it also has a "mathematical miracle". An example of this is the numbers of repetitions of some words in the Qur'an. Some words are surprisingly repeated in numbers which relate to the meanings of the words. Below are such words and the numbers of their repetitions in the Qur'an.
- The statement of "seven heavens" is repeated seven times.
- The number of times the words, "world " and "hereafter" are repeated is also the same: 115
- "Day (yawm)" is repeated 365 times in singular form while "month" (shehr) is repeated 12 times.
- The word "faith" (iman) (without genitive) is repeated 25 times throughout the Qur'an, as is also the word "infidelity or covering over the truth" (kufr).
- When we count the word "Say", we come up with the result of 332. We see the same figure when we count the word "they said".
- The word "devil" (shaytan) is used 88 times. The word "angel" is also repeated 88 times.
These attributes of the Qur'an reveal definitely that it is a Book from Allah. So, do not pretend that you do not grasp this OBVIOUS fact.
The Qur'an is the revelation of Allah. The Qur'an, the divine guide and declaration to humankind, is a sublime Book explaining Allah's religion to all humankind. All the disbelievers' attacks on Allah's religion, seeking to raise doubts in the hearts, including the slander that "the Qur'an is a Book written by the Prophet", are all doomed. In the Qur'an, Allah challenges man to bring a book similar to the Qur'an, if they ever could:
Do they say, "Who has invented it?" Say: "Then produce a sura(chapter) like it and call on anyone you can besides Allah if you are telling the truth." (Surah Yunus: 38)
Say: "If both men and jinn banded together to produce the like of this Qur'an, they could never produce anything like it, even if they backed each other up." (Surat al-Isra: 88)
Despite all the divine attributes of the Qur'an, those disbelievers who pretend not to grasp these attributes will surely have come to a sharp understanding in the Hereafter. Yet it will be too late.
So, don't be like those who raise doubts about the authenticity of the Qur'an, and don't pretend not to understand that the Qur'an is the just book of Allah and no one can bring another book similar to it.
TAKEN FROM "NEVER PLEAD IGNORANCE"
BY HARUN YAHYA, TA-HA PUBLISHERS, UNITED KINGDOM, 2000
