The language barrier between God and mankind
It is very important for mankind to become aware of the fact that there is a language problem between God and human beings. It is because God knows everything he needs to know about his plan and purpose for creating his universe and mankind but a human is born as a baby not knowing anything at all. The question that faces God and human beings is, how can God make humanity understand what he wants of them and how can mankind try to make sense of what God says to ensure they have understood the message of God properly before they act upon it faithfully so that plan and purpose of God could become fulfilled? People evolved their human language gradually over a very long period of time and the human babies still take years to learn their human language through their direct interaction with things and with each other in this environment called the world or the universe. The main point in this respect to realise is that God could not tell humanity anything at all in human language till people had invented and developed a human language. Even after having inventing and developed human language people could still not understand message of God till people developed a mechanism whereby they could make sense of what God intended to convey. It is because people can only know what they communicate to each other because they interact with each other but human beings do not interact with God at all as they do with each other so they could not understand message of God unless they developed a mechanism for understanding the message of God in their language. In other words God even if he uses a human language to communicate his message to them still will be conveying his own thoughts not human thoughts, so he will be using same words but not the very same meanings of words as people mean for each other when they talk to each other. Moreover people cannot know words they have not invented yet nor the meanings of words which they have not realised yet because they have not yet arrived at that stage of learning and knowing things. So God when he reveals his message become limited by what people at the time know. This makes very difficult for mankind to see point of view of God about things ie they cannot put themselves in shoes of God. This is why unless there is found a way around this difficulty the language barrier between God and humanity cannot be broken down. This is where my work on the Quran can be found very helpful by mankind because it begins from this point. It shows limits of philosophers and scientists as well as of people who claim to know deen of Islam regardless they claim to be Muslims or nonMuslims.
The problem of communication between God and human beings could be understood through realising the situation of a highly educated father with his newly born child. How can such a father convey his message to his newly born child? Father has to understand how his baby understands things and try to convey his thoughts to baby using baby language because baby does not know any other language. For conveying a highly complex and sophisticated message in baby language father has to wait till baby develops and grows to the stage where at he could make sense of message of his father in some way. This is why God had to give people time to develop and grow in knowledge before they could be sent his message. This is why human beings were given brains and senses as well as bodies and things to interact with in this universe in order to learn things just like we human beings give our children toys to play with and learn from their interaction with toys. The other main question people must ask themselves is why God created people as babies instead of fully knowledgeable grown up people? It is because God is a living being so as a living being he had the urge to express himself and to express himself he could only use his power of creativity so he ended up creating his creation and sending his revelation for human beings because he wanted someone with ability to appreciate his creativity out of choice and that is why he gave mankind ability to learn things by themselves so that interference from God remained to a bear necessity otherwise human beings could not appreciate God freely as too much intervention by God could undermine his plan and purpose for creating mankind. This is why message of God is the way it is. It is not a huge book containing detail of everything because human beings could not carry around a huge book or read it due to their very limited life span. This is why God had to do his best for sending people his message and people had to do their best to make sense of whatever they are given by God as his message. So it is a compromise between the best God could do and the best mankind could do. The idea that God can do anything because he has the power to do so therefore he has done this and that and the other is a nonsense. It is because no matter who does anything one is limited by one’s own plan and purpose. If one does not follow through one’s plan in order to fulfil one’s purpose than all falls apart and one fails in one’s objectivity. This is why even though God is powerful he cannot do things which ruin his plan and purpose. This is why a lot of things people say about God or attribute to God are nothing more than their self invented nonsense because it does not take into account plan and purpose fo9 God in context of real world realities. This nonsense is called make beliefs or different versions of religion and secularism. All this will be explained in detail as we go along and things will start making sense to those who wish to learn.
The next thing one has to ask oneself is, how can human beings overcome the language barrier between God and human beings? Before God could communicate his message to people they had to have a language in which God could communicate to them his thoughts. Since a human language is just words and meanings the question is, where did the words and their meanings come from? To understand the answer of this question one has to observe creation and see what God has brought about in this world. Long before he created people he created other things. He started with nonliving things and from that he brought forth or evolved living things and from the living things he brought about or evolved human beings. God created things and things were given certain properties by God for his plan and purpose. This is why we can see nonliving things are fully programmed but living things are partly programmed though some more than the others. The least programmed creatures are human beings who needed guidance of God to give them basis for their future development and progress. This is why people are created to self program themselves by way of explorations and discoveries with a little bit of guidance from God that gives them the basis or foundation to develop and grow from where they are ie from their natural state or stage of existence as human beings. Human beings have been endowed with great potential for development by God in order to be capable of serving his intended plan and purpose. The plan and purpose of God will become obvious when humanity studies the message in the Quran in detail. As for knowledge people learn things by observing and copying already programmed things as to what they do and how they do it and that way they learn how things interact with each other and fit in with each other which helps human beings develop rationally by reasoning things that are self evident as to how they are interlinked or interconnected or fit in with each other. This is how from obvious world people can become capable of looking into hidden realities in the real world and deduce things rationally and that way arrive at the right conclusions about things.
It should be clear to a person that unless people had a language and they developed it to a stage where at God could send his message to them they could not benefit from the revelation of God this is why God had to wait till people evolved from animal stage to human stage of existence. However even then God had to wait till people could make proper sense of his message in order to benefit from it. This is like some grown up person instils in mind of a young child some message to remember which can only make sense to the child when he has grown up and has reached the stage of knowledge required for its proper understanding. This is why human progress has been very slow due to interaction between people and other living and nonliving things as well as between people themselves. People have real problem in trying to make proper sense of message of God because it takes them a lot of time to learn sense of making proper sense of things provided they have had a deep and wide life experience about things about which message of God talks. If not then such people are little better than animals who have not yet developed to stage of humanity. This is why knowing how words came about and how they got their meanings becomes of vital importance to know because without knowing that mechanism people cannot develop a possible vocabulary which could introduce them to meanings of words which are used by God therefore people cannot develop a proper context of message of God without knowing such meanings of words used in the message of God. Unless human beings come to this stage of awareness about problem of language between God and mankind this problem cannot be solved. This shows how God is limited by being a God and how humanity is limited by being human beings in context of use of language. Since people cannot know anything beyond their time of development and progress and God talks about realities of things as they are so there is a huge gap between knowledge of God and knowledge of people. This is why people cannot be sure what the message of God actually means unless they come to know some basic rules of understanding the text of the message of God. Once they come to know the rules then they can be reasonably sure about understanding the message of God properly just like knowing formulas for mathematical expressions for solving the mathematical problems. Though people talk about detail of message of God but no matter how detailed message of God is it is still up to people to make proper sense of it and different people need different amount of detail for understanding it properly. Moreover God can only detail message up to a stage otherwise that will interfere with God given freedom of humanity due to God having a plan and an purpose for his creation that stops God from over doing things which could ruin his own plan and purpose for things. However some people being more able to make proper sense of message of God can detail his message for others to help them understand the message of God as it ought to be understood, though most people only try to confuse each other more and more due to being ignorant or illiterate or uneducated or untrained or unskilled or being unable to think properly themselves.
The idea of human language is of such importance to understand that without it even an atheist is unable to answer to himself any serious questions about existence of God in a logically consistent way. For example if one asks oneself is there a God, one cannot say there is no God because one cannot prove so no matter how hard one tries. Moreover it is impossible to prove a negative. This is why the real question becomes if there is a God then what is the proof? This question can only be answered by those who know the answer by saying God does exist and the proof is his creation and his revelation. However the question then becomes how do the creation and the revelation prove existence of God to mankind? They prove existence of God to mankind by people studying them both in detail in light of each other. This is where in comes idea of research and exploration and discovery. This is why people who are not interested in idea of studying things in depth and in width cannot know anything much about anything be it the universe or God or his revelation. In order to study the universe people must learn language to the best of their God given abilities. Likewise in order to make sense of revelation of God they must learn language of message of God which is very different from what people use with each other for communicating their ideas to each other. This is why they need to develop a dictionary that could help them understand message of God. So far all dictionaries written by people are only collection of some words that are brought about by people and their meanings used by people. This is not sufficient for understanding of message of God by people. So people who do not understand this problem of language between God and mankind their opinions are nothing more than their wishful thoughts that have no basis in reality. So those who dismiss the idea of existence of God unless they can explain logically consistently how they came to their conclusion of nonexistence of God they are simply talking nonsense. It is because they have no choice but to accept possibility of existence of God but if one accepts the possibility of existence of God then on ends up with a huge problem on one’s hands which is one has to explain reason for creation and revelation of God in light of what mankind can clearly observe in this real world with their own senses. Not only that but one also has to explain how God could communicate his message to mankind in this world the way it exists and ensure his message was understood by mankind properly if they chose to study it properly. So people who have no idea about such important questions and their relationship to each other whatever they say about God cannot be taken just on its face value. It is because if people cannot find a way or accept it whereby God could communicate his message to people then their acceptance of possibility of existence of God falls flat on its face due to break down in their logical consistency in their explanation, therefore whatever such people say about God cannot be trusted. All this will be discussed in great detail as things develop in this study of the Quranic message.
The difference between facts, theories and laws.
First of all words fact and theory both have various meanings which depend upon the context of their use or purpose. However in one respect facts are objects or things that are detectable with human senses either directly or with help of instruments ie real world realities are facts be they within our own reach or not. In this context theory means explanation that helps make sense of the things or facts or real world realities or objects. In the same context laws are those observed realities which repeatedly happen the same way or are made to happen the same way. It is a matter of if, then and always. Law means a way of doing something or a way of making something happen the same way. For example, if water is poured on the ground then it will flow downhill due to gravity. Since this will happen always therefore we can take it as a rule. If anything consumable is put in the fire then it will burn. Since this will happen always therefore we can take it as a rule.
Coming to theory of evolution. It is not a fact in the sense explained above because it is not a real world reality or an object but an explanation of some observed realities or objects. Whether this explanation is complete or incomplete depends upon facts or objects used in the explanation. The more the number of facts there are the better the explanation of the facts is because the increased quantity of things in the sample helps understand something better just like quality control sampling. The higher the sampling frequency the more likely it is that faulty goods will be caught and less likely that faulty goods will escape detection.
Since for Godless explanation of evolution samples so far collected or are available are not sufficient in numbers therefore it is not as good an explanation as is necessary or needed therefore to take it as a something water tight is not right. There are far too many gaps between things which clearly show they do not transform into each other smoothly enough rather they need more and more intermediary things to go between them. This shows steps or breaks or irregularities which lend support to God based idea of evolution rather than the Godless based idea of evolution. For example, big bang seems to be a controlled inflation of the universe or expansion of the time and space for serving some purpose rather than a random explosion which could have led to chaos instead of the fully functioning universe.
As for evolution based upon divine intervention there is more than sufficient evidence. For example, so many variations in each and every kind of things in ways that cannot be explained any other way than external intervention due to gaps between species of things. More than that the origin of things which did not exist is better explained that way only. That is, a thing which we accept has come into existence had to have a parent or originator otherwise it could not come into being. I am here due to my parents and the chain goes back but it has to stop at some point in time. If this does not stop then that leads us into infinity which is impossible for things that come into existence because before a child thing could come into existence its parent must first have to be there and if parents of parents are not there then how could their children come into existence? This being the case we have no choice but to except that ultimately there is something there which was always there which did not need a creator which brought the non-existing thing or things into being eg the universe and things in it. Since things need to be functional that come about otherwise they cannot survive this means they need designing and planning because allowing things to happen randomly is not going to produce any results regardless of length of time. You can break a glass bottle and let the pieces lie on the ground they will never become a bottle again regardless how long they are left lying there. This is why saying Godless evolution is a fact is wrong. It is not only about first cause but planning and designing as well. Unless there is some planning and designing involved in a project just a random knock or cause does not turn something into a perfect working model. If we say matter or energy is ever existing and has ability of intelligent designing then we are replacing one thing with another ie God for identical qualities of matter so where is sense in that? If God evolved things it still needs a lot of explanation eg what was purpose of God for creating things? How did he create them? How do they work to fulfill his objective? Etc etc. Idea of God can only be eliminated once we have better explanation than the one offered by the allegedly revealed scripture. However first we need to learn enough to understand this scripture that is said to be from God ie the Quran.
I blame our human ignorance for lack of our understanding of the allegedly divine scripture because I have my reasons to believe so. For example, to begin with we humans depend upon external physical realities for learning by interacting with them directly. It is because our minds create images of things or models which we see. As things are or they interact with each other we try to figure them out. Through this learning process we learn simple reasoning which becomes more and more complex and sophisticated as we learn more and more about things. This is why those who have wider and deeper life experiences have better understanding of things than those who have narrow and shallow life experiences. This is why people with wider and deeper life experiences can easily see logical connections and disconnections between things. This helps people to see what goes together and what does not. This is how we gradually become rational thinkers. However to think about abstracts is still another world to learn about and anyone who is not good at learning reasoning about real world realities certainly cannot be good in learning about abstract concepts because in that case one has to rely entirely upon reasoning to try and understand things.
Let me try and explain this in another way. Let say our bike has broken down and we need to repair it. Since bike is basically a physical thing with almost all parts visible to us we can easily find most of the faults in it just by physical visual examination of it which involves simple reasoning. The same cannot be said about our tv set when that breaks down. This time there are many more parts involved and a lot of things in it involve electricity which means electrons are not visible to us to see where they are going and how the fault is preventing them from working. It is easy for a mother to put on anti septic cream when her child slightly injures himself while playing in the playground, however if a person has internal pain due to something gone wrong inside then that cannot be easily diagnosed due to being invisible to the eye. So one has to arrive at a conclusion by reasoning things out, so we can see how visible things help us learn about invisible things. Therefore first stage of learning is to learn about what is visible and within our reach. Without first going through this stage of reasoning we cannot develop to go to the next stage of process of learning reasoning.
This is why just because we have managed to understand a little bit about real world realities it does not mean we can understand the scripture attributed to God. That is because to understand the scripture people need to especially prepare themselves as it needs a higher stage of learning reasoning by human beings. That is because it is word of God but in human language and the problem is in decoding it accordingly.
Why do we need higher stage of learning reasoning to understand the scripture? It is because without scripture there is nothing to tell us with reasonable certainty regarding origin of the universe and ourselves, how things came to be what they are, what is purpose of all this and how things are supposed to work to fulfill any purpose if there is one? Such things are beyond our senses that is why the need for guidance. However just because we can read a scripture does not mean we can understand it properly or we can follow it faithfully. This needs knowledge about things that a scripture talks about otherwise we cannot understand it. What sense can a baby get when a politician starts talking to him about politics? Absolutely none. Since scripture is mainly for peace and harmony between people at its basic level so that they could then together concentrate on higher objectives rather than fighting with each other and losing the sight of higher goals therefore it needs full attention for our proper understanding of it to benefit from it.
This is why we cannot be right in dismissing things out of hand till we have done our bit properly regarding the scripture. Divine scriptures were not needed if we were already fully programmed like robots. Scriptures are needed because we have been programmed a bit and a bit we must program ourselves like self learning robots. In short God has designed us to find out God but by our own sense of creativity and effort that is why we must discover the scripture and the creation for ourselves.
As for the objective of deen of Islam, it is to fulfill the purpose for which Allah has created this universe and mankind in it. I have yet to explain in detail what that purpose is or why Allah bothered to create the universe and us human beings in it. So anyone interested in detail study of the scripture should carry on reading what I am going to explain about it so that one could come to know it.
Just to help people keep in mind, Allah created things because he being a living being decided to express his existence and that he did by way of creation and revelation. Why revelation? Because he wanted to create a creature called human with a limited free will so that it could appreciate his existence and ability of creativity out of choice with a little helping hand from God himself through his guidance. This means deen of Islam is not something that is fully worked out set of instructions like a flow chart for each and every person rather it only gives guidelines to use for figuring out rest of it by ourselves in light of those guidelines and real world realities. This si the main reason for people consulting each other regarding matters of deen of Islam.
To appreciate God to that degree humanity has to reach a level of knowledge all by itself to be able to understand the scripture properly because it has been created knowing nothing at all but with brains and senses and bodies that can help it achieve that objective with help of God's revelation and creation by interacting with them.
This is the starting point of deen of Islam ie the purpose why God created things including human beings and why human beings have been left on their own by God to learn things by themselves through direct interaction with things after being created knowing nothing at all. This is why God advises a way of life for mankind that could help them fulfill the purpose for which God created human beings.
What is deen of Islam? It is a way of life which if understood properly and followed faithfully by mankind can lead them to blissful, dignified and secure life in this world and any effort by anyone made in that direction will be rewarded both in this life as well as in the life to come. Any people who will reject and oppose that way of life will end up in painful suffering in this life by hands of each other as well as in hereafter because whatever way of life people will invent and adopt by themselves will never lead them to blissful, dignified and secure existence instead it will always lead them into conflicts and wars with each other because no way of life people will ever be able to invent and follow that could be free of concept of personal gains at the expense of each other. This is why deen of Islam will take over humanity in due course completely ie after a lot of conflicts and fights with each other people will gradually come to realise that they have no way of life to live by other than the way of life whereby they could live with each other as a united, peaceful, progressive and prosper human community ie an ummah.
What is the way of life about whereby Allah wants people to live? It is about living for each other and not living at the expense of each other. It is because personal vested interests at the expense of each other lead people into all sorts of harmful and destructive divisions and conflicts with each other sooner or later. That is how comes about rivalry and animosity which leads to hatred between people that turns into conflicts which lead to unending wars between people.
Why must people live for each other? It is because they have been created to depend upon each other. Some have been created with much more advantages as compared to others only to work together as one single human family ie they have been created for purpose of complementing each other and not for taking undue advantages of each other. Why must anyone work for anyone else instead of oneself? It is because all human beings belong to God and everything also belongs to God so all things must be used according to his guidance so that his purpose could become fulfilled. If people will not do so then because all people are not created equal therefore those better off will try and take undue advantage of the disadvantaged and so the conflicts will start which cannot be ended till people do what God says ie use his provisions according to his wishes to ensure well being of all people. This is why in deen of Islam there is no right for anyone to rule over others or to buy or sell anything because nothing belongs to anyone to do so. People have right of use of things from God but only if they use them according to guidance of God not otherwise. This is why there is no ruling class or money lending business elite or priestly class in actual deen of Islam. All these are tricks and mechanisms for using masses abusively by cleverest among them.
The objective of deen of Islam is very clear which is to unite mankind for their own good to ensure well being of mankind. Now when you want to unite people you not only need goals and guidelines but a program as well. This is why the Quran not only gives a program for accomplishing the stated goals but also guidelines for formation of a constitution and laws to go with it so that people could organise and regulate themselves as a proper human community according to them for accomplishing the stated objectives. This is why goals, guidelines, program, constitution and laws all have to be consistent with each other so that the whole thing could work smoothly like a machine. This is what deen of Islam basically is in a nut shell.
All human invented ideologies are based upon pyramid scheme for power through manpower or wealth or fooling people in the name of God through various versions of religion or secularism which present a very odd and twisted concept about God over which people waste a lot of time in arguing with each other endlessly as is very much obvious from the debates on various discussion forums.
The difference between deen of Islam and mazhab
To understand the Quran one has to know the difference between the mazhab and deen of Islam and the way to understand the Quran properly. Why? Because till people realise what mazhab is and why it is what it is they cannot have the idea of what deen of Islam is and why it is what it is.
Mazhab is basically result of natural human thought processor. As we know we human beings are born not knowing anything about the real world and its realities. All we are born with is brain and senses and body to make sense of the world in which we are born and things in it including ourselves. In my writings I explain why God has created us the way he did or the way we are. When we start struggling in this word from our births till our deaths we find out many things about this world that we knew nothing at all about. All this leads some of us who have paid enough attention to things to question our origin and purpose and functioning etc etc. This is where at we get stuck because we cannot go any further from here. This is human thought and that is called mazhab=religion ie we think there has to be a creator of all this we see before us. Whether there actually is a creator or not we have no way to find out for sure so we turn to various practices to find out the best we can. This is what we call spiritualism. As people want to know if there is a God or not and if there is one how to reach God to ask him questions we have in our minds so this leads mankind into different directions so people do all sorts of things in order to get near to God as they think better for themselves. This gives birth to many different ideas and practices which we call religions or versions of religion. However no matter what people think and do in the name of God they cannot know anything about God for sure because God is not within their reach through their brains and senses. At this stage people who wish to take undue advantage of each other in the name of God do so therefore people end up divided into many religions and sects within those religions. This is all a mazhab or religion is from the beginning to the end.
Now the deen of Islam aspect of this equation is God getting in touch with humanity. Since people cannot get in touch with God but God can so he gets in touch with mankind through his revelation eg in this era it is the Quran that is God's revelation. This is the fundamental difference between deen of Islam and mazhab. It is a case of people looking for God and God looking for people and when the two meet that is when the connection becomes complete. Think it as if you want to get to the top of a mountain but you cannot on your own so someone drops you a rope from there to help you get there but you can only use that rope if you could rise to the height needed for you to see and catch the rope. However to get to the top of the mountain one has to be able to use the provided rope properly otherwise one is in danger of falling off and breaking one's neck.
The rope itself does not do anything to get you on the top of the mountain, it is because your creator and sustainer has a purpose in mind for creating you and that purpose does not allow him to make the rope do everything for you to get you to the top of the mountain instead he wants you to make your own effort as well in getting to the rope and using it properly. It is God and man working together that can help humanity succeed in accomplishing the purpose of God that is assigned to humanity by God. This is the main reason mazhab is very different from deen of Islam. This explains what is going on around the world in the name of mazhab and deen of Islam ie why there are soofies and mullahs and this and that and all claim to have something to do with Islam. This is like you have to travel from one place to another but you have to use various modes of transport to get there. You may start walking then take a bus and then get into a ship and then into a plan etc etc to reach your destination. What is going to help you make your journey without problems is your best preparation for it. If you think you can get from a to b without needing any preparations then you will be prone to losing your way at many point along the way either by sticking to a particular mode of transport not knowing when to get off one thing to get onto another. This is what religions and sects are about and that is why people are lost in them because they get into this journey without making necessary preparations ie without educating themselves about finding out the truth in this regard. This is why confused people have so many make beliefs and do all sorts of ritual acts in order to please God as they think. This is why it is very important to understand proper concepts about God so that we do not have wrong expectations about God and from God. This is the main reason getting to the revelation of God and making proper sense of it becomes vitally important otherwise we could end up believing all sorts of wrong things and doing all sorts of wrong things in the very name of God thinking them to be right and proper. Such a thing then could become a barrier in our path when it comes to searching for guidance from God.
Let us suppose a person has made necessary preparations and he gets to the revelation of God ie you have the Quran in your hands which claims to be a guidance from God for mankind. From here on another journey starts and that is how to make sense of the text of the Quran or Hadith or any written text be it about history or anything else. This again needs a lot of preparation and the foundation for this purpose is to know what is the original human language, how words came about and how they got their meanings. Why is all this important to know? It is because if we do not know these things then we cannot be sure about human language itself never mind any message of anyone for anyone in any language. It is because without knowing these facts about language we could accuse each other about making up things by ourselves as we go along. To make sure this does not happen these facts are absolutely necessary to know. Since the Quran is merely a text or a collection of written words and nothing more unless we agree its words have a firm foundation and certain concretely established meanings by way of various mechanisms we cannot talk about it or anything else for that matter. This should make absolutely clear to a person looking for guidance from God why such a person has to know certain basic facts about human language clearly before sitting down with the scriopture to make sense of its text.
The other main reason for knowing the very first human language is because without it God could never communicate his message to mankind. In fact one can try and communicate a message to someone else without using any form of human language, one will soon realise what I am talking about. One can try and disagree with me on any of the points I have explained here so far but I do not think one can. Human languages are human inventions but God wanted to use human language to communicate his message, which means he meant to convey his own ideas as they were about things because he knows them in reality. For example, there is a big difference in God using word human and a human being using word human. It is because God knows each and everything about a human being but not a human being despite being a human being oneself. This is why a language that has ability to accommodate message of God has to be used therefore God becomes limited by this fact just like a grown up becomes limited by talking to a baby in baby language. A baby cannot use a higher math’s book. So there arises need for God to wait till baby has become a gown up human being and has a lot of experience with real world realities by interacting with them directly which help him learn things. This is why we provide our kids with toys because we think they will help them learn things by playing with them. God has created a lot of things in this universe for the very same reason that people interact with them to learn from experience with them and then once they have enough knowledge then they sit down with book of God and try and make proper sense of it and once they have it then work according to its guidance.
This is why God needed to use an original human language to express his message for mankind which could not be mistaken by learned people in the human world for anything that did not fit his purpose. Any period bound language could not express message of God because no human generation was ever capable of knowing all at any point in time in human history. This is why a language had to be chosen by God that was flexible enough to be understood by all for ever after the message of God was revealed to mankind. Such a book in this era is only and only the Quran as we shall see when we get into detailed study of the Quranic text.
The Quran explains throughout itself what deen of Islam actually is and what it is not. Moreover the Quran is an interactive book because it is for human beings who have been created with ability to self program themselves just like self programming robots. So people who have prepared themselves well should have little problem in understanding its message properly. So people who think God should spoon feed them or do all the work and leave nothing for people to do need to think what they are asking for and why or is there any sense in it at all, because whoever does anything does it for himself so does God. We cannot force our will on God because it is his will that is supreme. Therefore we should not ask God for things that make no sense in the context in which we ask if we sit and think over it. Can one therefore see how the Quran proves to be a book of science and philosophy, society, politics and economics? It is because it is book of guidance and not a book of complete instructions for each and every person to each and every minute detail. It contains only and only what was essential for mankind to know so that they could find their way to purpose of God for creating them. The foundation of deen of Islam is its name ie a way of life which is capable of leading mankind to blissful, dignified and secure existence in this very world which will be rewarded in hereafter as well. Word ISLAAM is from root SEEN, LAAM and MEEM. These letters are same as in Hebrew. Word Islam means same thing both in Arabic and Hebrew and various other ancient languages as well.
Why is it of vital importance to know about origin and development of human language?
It is because to know the message of God properly is not possible without knowing such facts. If people did not invent ways of communicating with each other then they could not explain anything about anything to anyone because they had no way to communicate with each other. The original human language was body language which gave rise to sign language or gestures. The sign language was coded with sounds and pictures and that is how people came to speak, read and write what they wanted to convey to each other. This was the origin and development of human language which became more and more complex with time due to people discovering many things generation after generation. Why knowing this information is of vital importance for people in order to make sense of message of God? It is because message of God is communicated through words and words have meanings. How did the words come about and how did they get their meanings is therefore very important to know for proper understanding of the message of God.
The other main reason for which knowing such information is of vital importance is because God knows things as they are as he has brought them about but people do not because they are born into this world knowing nothing at all. Although people are born knowing nothing at all but they have been bestowed with brains, senses, bodies, things to sense and interact with in order to learn. The learning process begins with observations of real things as to what they are and how they work and then questioning about them and then trying to answer those questions. Once people have learned sufficiently through their deep and wide life experiences through interaction with real world realities then they are ready for undertaking study of the message of God. This is why people who do not prepare themselves for understanding the message of God properly remain confused all their lives and they cannot follow the revealed message of God faithfully no matter how hard they try. This is why just reading the book from God without knowing some important facts is a useless exercise because the message is sent for a set purpose and that purpose cannot be fulfilled till the message is first understood properly and then followed faithfully. This is the main reason the Quran forbids people from following each other blindly like sheep. It repeatedly tells mankind do not follow even your own very ancestors if they have not learned things that are of vital importance for humanity as a proper human community. This is how the Quran emphasises importance of intellectual integrity. If one's ancestors did not learn sense to be sensible people then it is better that a person oneself learns sense to be a sensible person and not be like one's ancestors ie a foolish person.
Deen of Islam is therefore not a personality cult as most people assume it to be. It is a program for God set goals for mankind to accomplish according to his provided guidelines. This is why deen of Islam is about organising and regulating humanity into a proper human community otherwise its set goals cannot be accomplished by mankind according to its provided guidelines. The main reason people must not follow anyone blindly is because no one knows all things other than God and people cannot understand message of God unless they go about it the way they should as explained. If people will not try to know message of God as explained then they can never make proper sense of it ever. If people will fail to make proper sense of message of God then they cannot benefit from its presence. This is why people must make a real good effort for knowing the message of God properly so that they could ensure their own well being as well as of each other both in this life as well as in life to come.
As explained, the message of God is mainly a set of goals with a program for mankind to accomplish according to his provided guidelines for a constitution and laws so that people become a proper human community through organising and regulating themselves. As long as there is no purpose there is no need for any constitution or law but if there is one then there arises need for a constitution and laws because then all that is there or is done has to be according to some sort of foundational values or rules or chaos will become inevitable and that means the mission or purpose or objective will remain unaccomplished. It means when there is no law then anyone can do whatever one likes but once there has come about a law then that law has to be followed by all involved or things based on that law will not materialise. This is why even the law giver has to remain consistent with his provided law or all his promises based upon that law will mean nothing at all. This is why when there is a law then there cannot be any personality cults because persons come under the law be it by their own choice. This is why laws of nature are consistent and constant and do not go through changes once God has set them up for set up systems to operate. This is why guidelines given to mankind by God for forming constitution and laws do not go through changes because they are permanent and that is because goals set by God for mankind to accomplish are also permanent. This is why deen of Allah was always the very same from the beginning till the end. Unless people take these like basics as foundation they cannot make proper or complete sense of the scripture sent by God or the real world realities no matter how hard they try.
God, a proven fact or a mere fiction?
People are born knowing nothing at all so generally most of them remain ignorant, illiterate, uneducated, untrained and unskilled therefore are very limited in their thinking and doing things. That results in false interpretations of divine message because people are not used to organised or purposeful thinking that leads to sure results. There is nothing wrong with being ignorant because that is natural state of human existence but man is created with ability or potential to learn so remaining ignorant is a crime against God and humanity. That is because an ignorant person is of no use to himself or for that matter to anyone else. Knowledge is power and if one does not have this power then one is powerless or weak and unable to do anything much.
Courage comes from knowledge and ignorance only breeds fear. It is through fear of the unknown man has taken forces of nature and other powerful things as his gods. However it is all a process of growing up. Man is born a baby and grows biologically, psychologically and sociologically. From the day God brought things to existence all has been evolving and has reached the stage that we observe today. It was a very long journey and it will remain a very, very long journey till we reach the stage that God has chosen for us to reach. A human being though begins as a single cell the potential placed within this cell is so great that man has yet to realise it for so many generations to come. It is like a huge tree that grows from a tiny seed bit by bit over a period of time.
The Quran has nothing to do with religion and blind faith. It is a book which deals with all necessary information that humanity will ever need for its guidance. The Quran is the only book in the world of its kind as a proof of existence of God and his program. A book that acts as guidelines for a manifesto, a constitution and a set of laws or legislation. In order to know all this from the Quran itself one has to educate oneself to the level whereby the Quran begins to make sense. After all no book is written without any purpose in mind of its author nor anyone does anything aimlessly. Anything that just happens without any intent and effort is taken as a mistake not a motivated act to some end. Even if someone kills someone by his mistake it is still a mistake and not a first degree murder.
What is Quran? Centuries back in time an Arab by name of Muhammad claimed he was a messenger from Allah. People asked him for a proof of his claim so he gave them a book namely the Quran as evidence to prove his claim. That is the book we are going to talk about and see if that claim was true or false.
Before we begin examination of the Quran in some detail, it is necessary for people to know the difference between self evident facts and proven facts. Then it is also vital to realise the difference between testimonial proven facts and theoretically proven facts.
God is not a self evident fact, that is because we humans cannot detect God by our senses directly or indirectly through instrumentation etc but the universe is self evident fact and all that which exists in it because it is detectable by human senses even if by use of instrumentation if not today may be at some stage later.
The Quran is testimony of God therefore it needs to be examined as a testimony just as we examine the testimony of a witness in a court of law to see if it is true or false. However before we can properly examine any testimony of any witness we need to understand it properly because without understanding what a witness is saying we cannot judge whether what one is saying is true or false. If a witness only spoke French language and the examiner only spoke Persian language then things will not workout till one of them learns the language of the other, the same goes for subjects under discussion ie if one person talked about biology but other could only understand physics things will still not work out till one of the persons comes to know the subject the other is talking about. Likewise a child or a baby minded person cannot understand grown up or educated person's terminology. Since no one does anything without any purpose in mind neither one testifies without knowing why one is testifying, so knowing the purpose of the Quran also becomes of vital importance. However once testimony is found to be sound ie without contradictions within and with respect to related self evident facts then it has proven reliable or true. This is called testimonial proof ie reliable testimony of a witness. One has to remember that one cannot add anything to the testimony of a witness from oneself nor can one take away anything from it, it has to be examined as it is and a person has to come up with one’s own explanations to accept or reject it depending upon the fact the explanation offered is a sound one are not. So the Quran has to be examined the way it is given to mankind without saying what should or should not be in the Quran. If the Quran is found lacking in anything objectively only then it could be proven false but then we will have to prove that it does lack in necessary information regarding its stated purpose. That is if the Quran states that it is for this or that purpose but when we examine it, it does not serve that purpose then it surely proves itself false but on the other hand if we find that it serves its stated purpose fully then the Quran has proven its worth fully so it cannot be denied what it claims to be ie word of God.
Coming to theoretical proof, it is a best personal explanation of available evidences or clues. This is needed because something that happened did not happen before our eyes ie it happened in our absence and that there is no any witness to it either upon whom we could rely to tell us about it. That is because we arrived at the scene late and found only whatever clues were left behind to make whatever sense we could from the clues. For example, we are walking along a road and come across a dead body. There is no one there to tell us what happened to this person so all we can do is see whatever clues are there and come up with an explanation. It could be a murder or natural death or suicide or an accidental death etc etc. So whatever clues we find will help us decide what to make of this situation.
So one can see that theoretical proof is not as strong as witness based proof and witness based proof is not as strong as something that happens right before one’s own eyes. That is how far it is possible for humanity to reach the truth about any matter including existence of God.
This also proves the point that if there is a testimonial proof from God then to fall on blind faith is a false idea and is misleading and this idea must have been implanted in human mind by those who wanted to mislead mankind ie the imperial priesthood. It also proves the idea of versions of religion coming from kings and their priests not God to serve their purpose. Islam is deen not religion. Islam is all about brotherhood of mankind based upon testimonial proof whereas religion is a matter of divide and rule using blind faith for following priests and kings. That is how mankind have been used abusively in the name of God and religion. This is why kings and their priests perverted the messages of God to subvert mankind from deen of Allah but they did not succeed in doing that however they succeeded in making fools of ignorant people. The result is a world that we see all around us today. In order to change this situation for the better we all must learn and educate ourselves and each other to save ourselves from abusive use of each other.
So all people must learn the Quran properly to examine it as a manifesto and program from God for mankind to accomplish some goals according his provided guidelines. The basic goals set by the Quran for people to accomplish are unity, peace, progress and prosperity for mankind. The world in which we are born is only a lab for our experimentation to learn through trials and errors till we have become good enough to be one day managers of the universal factory of God. This process needed to be the way it is because we are supposed to learn from working of this universe and make changes to it to make it suitable for our own living in it ie make it compatible with our existence through interactions within this universe. This is why we are provided with all necessary information and raw materials. This will become clearer as I explain the purpose of creation.
It is important to concentrate on logic and evidence as well as consistency and how they combine to prove existence of God positively. If we ignore this relationship between logic, evidences and consistency then we cannot prove anything at all because then we want everything to happen before our very eyes or as far as we are concerned nothing happened at all eg a murder has not taken place just because it has not happened before our own eyes. It shows how flawed is our thinking in that case because we are denying the very principle that is accepted by all wise people in the world whereby they decide all such matters for which there is no direct evidence at all. After all what is TOE about? Yet almost every scientist worth the name accepts it as a theoretically proven fact.
The other way to look at positive proof of existence of God beside testimonial proof is rational proof. It is a self evident fact that this universe is there. This universe was not always there is also an observed reality. This means it was created, why? Because unless something that changes with time is not created by something that does not change with time it cannot come about. Nothing can come out of nothing ie there has to be something that brings about something ie God has brought about this world. How is that possible?
Since we are here and we know that we are not here permanently so something has bought us here but the question is what brought that thing about? The answer is that thing was not brought about by anything because that had to be there always otherwise we end up with an unending chain of creators, which is impossible. Why is it impossible to have an unending chain of creators? It is because then before each creator could create anything the creator himself needs to be created by its creator. Take this chain to infinity and you will see that in that case nothing gets created, we are not supposed to be here in that case. Let me explain it by an example.
I ask you to help me with some money, you tell me that I need to borrow it from someone else to give it to you but that guy tells you the same and so the story goes on for ever and ever, tell me will I ever get the money I asked for? No, never. It is because each guy keeps going to another guy for borrowing the money so this chain of borrowing does not end so that I could get the help I need. Likewise if each creator needed another creator then when will any creator be there to create anything because creation could not be there at all as a result? Since creation is there therefore it had to have a creator that was always there.
Why the creator created this world and sent his revelation? Because creator wanted to express himself. Anything that exists and is lively has the impulse to exert itself ie it wants to be known as a living being. You have urge to be known if you exist and you are a lively being.
Tell me how would you introduce yourselves? Through your actions that show creativity on your part. God could not express himself unless he was being creative because nothing can. The other problem for urge of expression is that you need to be appreciated by something else that is capable of appreciating you as a creative being. In order to express himself God ended up creating this world and to be appreciated by something he created mankind in it. Something that is free to think ie has its own mind and has ability to show its own creativity given the tools and raw materials as well as a chance to prove itself. God has provided all tools and things of need for man to learn in this factory of God through experimentation ie trial and error till man becomes perfect enough to one day manage his universe for his own good. A time when human potential will become fully unfolded before man and that is the time when man will realise how great creator God was that he created such a wonderful thing called man who himself is such great creator as the handy work of God. That is how one day God will be pleased with what he has created and man will also be please with what he has done with his God given abilities and tools and this is how God will praise man and man will praise God in real sense not by paying lip service to God by not doing anything that shows human creativity.
This is why people need to try their best to understand the Quran properly and follow it faithfully. It has nothing at all to do with mullahs mumbo jumbo. The Quran tells us repeatedly that Allah created all things for mankind ie for man to have it under his control one day and to use it to show his creativity through using it sensibly. He created horses and donkeys etc etc for mankind and man was able to think out ways to domesticate these animals for his use. The same way man has to learn how to become controller of the universe by first learning how it works and then using that knowledge for redesigning it so that it becomes like paradise for mankind to live in.
This is why first thing for humanity to do is to eliminate conflicts from between mankind then after unity get on with task of conquering the universe. The Quran tells us that mankind will have blissful, dignified and secure life throughout this universe. So there is plenty to do yet than what we can think of right now.
This is how the universe and the Quran complement each other so God did not fail in expressing himself but we humans have yet to learn much more than we already have to see the purpose God behind all this carry on of ours. We have yet many, many more generations to go before we can say we have established anything much in our own right to be proud of.
God does not want pooja paat instead he wants to be acknowledged and appreciated through knowledge and creativity because only and only learning knowledge about things can lead us to creativity for which God has created us. Only people of knowledge and creativity can truly acknowledge and appreciate God due to his knowledge and creativity. This is why real human beings are graded above all else. God is only great because of his knowledge and creativity by which he was able to express his existence and greatness. So there is no sense in denying the obvious.
The Quran is all about mankind as a single community so it looks at its actions as collective actions of humans as a single family therefore consequences of its actions are also interlinked for the reason of correction of its mindset, attitude and behaviour ie by way of interaction between its individuals and groups etc the human community can move forward in time doing better for itself or worse. When human community does wrong to each other and continues down that lane after some time people rise against this situation and try to pull it off this course to place it on another path that leads to something better. This situation of error and correction will continue till mankind have had enough experience and finally know what is right or wrong and so give up living their lives the wrong way. This is the time when deen of Allah will become truly established among mankind. Even though the Quran teaches things but it is people who need to learn things till they reach the level of learning that will help them realise or actualise what the Quran is actually teaching them. It is like a road map is there but a person to read it needs to prepare himself to be able to make use of it and that takes time and experience. No matter how much parents try to teach their child, the speed at which a baby learns is still a major factor ie learning does not depend on teacher alone but student as well. Since humans are created to learn like self programming robots so they will take time and wil;l make loads of mistakes. Not only that but they will keep erring and they will keep on correcting themselves till they have learned enough to not to make as many mistakes as they do at the start of the learning process.
In the Quran in things that happen man is only held responsible for criminal behaviour and for that intention or motive or purpose behind the action or inaction as well as the course of actions taken, both count.
Life is all about learning but learning is only possible through trial and error. When a person is born he learns to use his brain, his senses, his limbs and in fact his entire body and things available to him.
In this process a person makes many, many mistakes and many a time hurts himself or others. You try to sit but fall over and over, again and again and even get hurt, when you try to learn how to stand, the same happens etc etc. Humans learn things throughout their lives eg you learn to read and write and learn professional skills and go through countless trials and mistakes. The ultimate aim is to be able to do things without making mistakes so we practice more and more in order to be better and better at doing things if not perfect.
This is why there is no concept of sin in Quran- because it is not a book of religion- but about stopping crime because it is about rule of law based system ie Islam. The Quran very clearly states that even if you kill someone by mistake, it is not a crime. It is because for any action to be a crime it has to be motivated by harmful and destructive intent. Any harm that results through mistakes should be compensated where possible through actions for better results ie you try your best to replace loss the best you can as a human being. Only crime is to be punished but the intention for punishment of crime has to be restoration of balance in community that was disturbed by the crime so that unity and peace returns to community after disturbance.
When a crime is carried out or is allowed to be carried out or is helped to be carried out then community spirit breaks down and once motivation for being a community is gone then you are no longer a community but individuals and groups based on private and personal vested interests against the common good or interest. If you committed a crime and others helped you in various ways eg stopped authorities from catching you, charging you, putting you on trial or saved you from being convicted and even after conviction people get you forgiveness then where does all this leave the human community spirit? Moreover why would anyone do that if one is a community friendly person?
In Quran intervention is good if it is motivated for the benefit of human society eg someone was going to kill somebody and you changed his mind, somebody was going to shoot somebody and you took away his gun, people were fighting and you intervened and saved people from bloodshed. Someone was going to take poison and you got there in time and saved him from doing that. Somebody burnt himself and you took him to hospital or put some ointment on him. Someone was accused falsely and you intervened and proved he was accused falsely. Someone is convicted wrongly and you intervene and get him retrial and he is found not guilty and is freed etc etc.
When a person commits a crime, none is allowed to intervene to save him from being charged and put on trial and after conviction from his set out punishment. However, proper advice is allowed so that one does not commit crime to begin with or that one is not charged under false allegation, or put on trial and prosecuted or convicted wrongly or punished wrongly. This is why there is no forgiveness in Quran for criminal unless there is social benefit in doing that because Quran looks at criminal and the victim as members of the same family. If a family has only two brothers and one kills the other then by putting the other to death finishes off the family therefore out of necessity there could be exceptions to rules at times for the community. It is because man is not perfect and all his actions are not necessarily perfect. Therefore the need for a degree of respite is inevitable. From point of view of God his law is fine but from point of view of man, he needs its understanding and he needs to learn its proper application and wherever things fall on man the possibility of error cannot be ruled out so God had to compensate for that. God has limitations as a God and man has limitations as a man. Just as God cannot be expected to do un-Godly things so a man cannot be expected to do things beyond his natural limits as a man. This is why attributing God with human qualities or a human being with Godly attributes is a hugely wrong thing to do because it puts all things in a wrong perspective and context both for God and creation.
Sin is an imaginary concept and so is forgiveness and atonement etc. This is why these are religious inventions by establishment priests to give people sense of freedom from punishment of their crimes in this world by leaving everything to hereafter and then introducing the idea of forgiveness through intervention of good guys to end the sense of punishment for crimes. This way you do what you like and then say certain prescribed words or do some prescribes rituals and all is well, as if you are a new born. These are not Quranic concepts but were adopted into Islam by establishment and its clergy from other religions for their own purposes but later priestly classes accepted them as they are without any due thought process and they keep spreading them. By looking at Muslim societies throughout the world we can see the results of that. Islam is more about this life than hereafter. There is a saying in Urdu that duniya aakhirat ki kheti hai ie the life in this world is the one upon which depends future life or you reap what you sow. The end result depends upon your own thoughts and actions. It is wrong to think that if you commit crimes in this world, you can get away with that just because you believe certain things or say certain words or carry out certain rituals.
The point to remember is that if mistakes are not to be punished and crime has to be that which is motivated and intended then conviction is inevitable and once conviction is there then punishment that fits the crime is inevitable because that is the way God has set up things and no amount of nonsense beliefs and rituals invented by priests can change that. The concept the Quran puts forth is that of collective punishment rather than individual punishment and concept of punishment is based upon cause and effect or consequences of peoples' own actions as a family. The Quran wants humanity to sort out its all problems according to the provided program for set out goals along with guidelines so nicely that one day the world is what it is supposed to be ie a blissful, dignified and secure place called paradise for mankind to live in. So long as people keep neglecting their responsibilities as a proper human community in a kingdom based upon guidance of Allah, the world will remain as hell as people make it for themselves for as long as they want it to stay that way.
This is why people need to understand the Quranic concepts and not listen to their ignorant religious leaders or they are bound to keep suffering the consequences as told in the Quran. This is what evolution of humanity is all about and that is what revolutions are all about. The world is going through cyclic changes and will continue that way till a proper human society comes about that is exactly as the Quran wants it to be. It is people who are going to bring it about not God. He has sent his messenger for the final time to humanity and has said that deen of Islam is finally to prevail ie the world will end up united, peaceful, progressive and prosperous regardless of what opponents of writ of God think or do to try and prevent it. They will lose out and humanity will become the winner. So we all should be part of solutions to problems and not be part of problems. This cannot happen unless we intervene for ensuring well being of humanity by doing things that are of benefit to humanity and stop intervening for harms and destructions of humanity by doing things that benefit none or even harm others. This is why religion is a false concept and deen is a true concept. And this is why priests are wrong but learned scholars of the Quran based deen of Islam are right.
The Quran tells people to find out things and if you do not know them ask those who really know them. Don't go to those who do not know them. Who knows things and who does not can become obvious from what they tell us ie knowledge speaks for itself.
Do nonMuslims who criticise the Quran know how to study the Quran properly?
Do nonMuslims who criticise the Quran know how to study the Quran properly? Do people who claim to be Muslims know how to study the Quran properly? Are nonMuslim scholars only responding to nonsense of Muslims which they take for deen of Islam or do they have anything original to contribute to the proper understanding of the message of the Quran?
My question to all such scholars is, please tell me what are the very basic requirements for understanding anything at all? I ask this question because both Muslims and nonMuslims claim that the text of the Quran is nothing more than a jumble of verses that make no sense on their own. Is there anything in this universe that anyone can make any sense of without pondering over it? Was the universe and were the things in it there before a person was born? My answer is yes. Was that person aware of all that he saw with his own eyes, heard it with his own ears, smelled it with his own nose, tasted it with his own tongue and felt it with his own sense of touch? Was he born with proper understanding of all this? No, not at all. If that is the fact then how did one come to make sense of all things that he has become aware of so far? The day scholars come to realise this fact they will come to know that the Quranic text is not a collection of random verses. The universe was a perfectly working order complete system before our birth but we only came to know about it once we used our own brains and senses as well as bodily mechanisms to explore the universal realities to make sense of them. It is we who began to see connections between things after we started observing and doing things with whatever we could get our hands on. This is how gradually we built our information bank about the universal realities and our brains by constructing, de-constructing and reconstructing that information started making sense of things. The process is exactly the same when it comes to the Quran. As anyone comes across anything the very first time, things seem disconnected or remote and random till one starts making sense of them, so the Quran is not any exception in this respect.
To understand anything, to begin with we only need brain language which is all pre-programmed just like a computer comes ready to process information. If we did not have pre-programmed brains to a degree we will not be able to process any data that we sensed with our senses. Imagine putting on windows on a computer that had no cpu=central processing unit. More precisely the ALU arithmetic logic unit that acts as a cpu. All this is called hardware. The brain is a biological computer if you like. That is biologically hard wired ready to make use of its senses and to process any information it gets through them as a mechanism for stimulus or a window to outside world.
Brain keeps collecting information through its senses but it then wants to act on this information so it uses its body mechanisms to express itself or connects to outside world to influence it the way it wants. This is how comes about interaction between things in the environment one is born in. This interaction forced people to communicate with each other using additional languages basically body language and sign language and then that led to spoken language as sounds made by people began to take form of codes for real world realities as their names or names of their actions or the way they seemed related to each other etc etc.
Unless people therefore understand the origin and development as well as use of spoken and written language they cannot understand anything about the origin and development of revelation of Allah throughout times and places or origin and development of humanity itself.
This should leave one in no doubt at all as to why so called scholars both Muslims and nonMuslims fail to make proper sense of the text of the Quran. It is because the language provides the very foundational context of any spoken or written word in any book not just the Quran.
The truth is both Muslims and nonMuslims scholars seriously lack knowledge about deen of Islam and due to that all people are busy killing each other due to animal behaviour or worse.
From my above explanation it should be very clear how important communication is between people and therefore the importance of language becomes very much self evident. Now think about how a human baby learns a human language. Once a baby is born into this world his brain and senses begin to work according to environment of this universe so he keeps observing things as they happen all around him and so data keeps gathering in his head as time goes on. He tries to make sense of things as much as he can at each moment of his awareness. He begins to see that people and things around him react to each other through body movements as well as some sounds. After long period of quiet observation he tries to act the same way in order to copy others in their movements as well as their sounds. He begins to see that others also react to him as he makes some moves or sounds so he keeps remembering these little things and that way builds up a bank of codes in his mind for movements and sounds as words. From this it should be clear that people only come to know what they have picked up through their observations and nothing beyond till they develop capability of thinking at higher level. Not only that it also makes it amply clear that thinking does not start all by itself rather there has to be some triggering factors that draw attention towards something to think about. So learning is all about something drawing attention of people and then people exploring the thing towards which their attention is drawn. If attention of a person is not drawn to something in some way ever, one will never become aware of it ever.
This should explain how people learn a language and why they speak only that language to which their attention has been drawn and do not speak any other language to which they have not been exposed. Take this to origin of human species ie how people invented language in sense of listening and talking as well as reading and writing. Human species came about from tree of life just like other species of living things and developed with time. They started as another species of animals in human shape and gradually developed various way of communication among themselves through observing other things that were already there. Originally humans were driven by their drives and reflexive behaviour due to their very limited thinking capacity due to their limited observations and life experiences. However as they built on their experiences generation after generation they began to think first and act later instead of acting first and thinking later. Just as a human baby acts first and then thinks if he is forced to do so by some sort of reaction to his action so original humans gradually became a thinking people who began to reason things out just as babies gradually learn to reason things. This is why the wider and the deeper the life experience one has the better one's making sense of things is.
Since we know how human language came about and developed question arises, how did people give meanings to words? Originally people had certain imaginations in their heads about things they observed so there were no words but then they made bodily gestures to each other and learned to code them in their minds and that helped them to code sounds as well. Any bodily gesture made by anyone meant the whole things not just one word as we know it today. If one raised his hand to show someone I am going to beat you up that is what it meant by raising of hand that way. If one showed by gesture of hands that I am going to catch you, that is what it meant by that gesture. But as soon as sounds became codified the bodily gestures took form of words the same bodily gestures were translated into meaningful words that made sense to people among themselves. The sound language came about because people wanted to explain to each other things they could not explain by bodily gestures alone eg for preservation purposes for future generations. The same urge led mankind to finding a way of writing down the information. This is how people ended up drawing pictures to explain events they experienced. Pictorial writing gave way to letters and letters were modified again and again to refine them for ease of writing. Likewise spoken language went through modifications for sake of refinement or precision. If we go back to how baby starts talking using very same word for each and everything but then as time goes on he develops capability of saying more and more words to say what he wants to say. With time he builds up vocabulary and so did human beings originally generation after generation. As we can see each and every step in human development was driven by need or usefulness. In other words all this helped mankind to survive and progress because knowledge and skills help people get through life easier as compared to those who remain ignorant and unskilled.
Originally people drew pictures of things as a way of writing down what they wanted to say eg they drew picture of a head of an ox or a bull to represent power or authority. They drew picture of a tent to represent family or a household, picture of water to represent sea or a human head to represent chief and so on and so forth. If we look into Arabic letters they are meaningful words eg ALIF means bull and it represent power and authority or stick, BAA means house because originally it was pronounced BAAIT in Hebrew where Arabs got it from. What is known as RAA in Arabic was RAISH in Hebrew or in Arabic RAAS=head or chief. Likewise letter AIN means eye both in Hebrew as well as Arabic. Since all letters in Hebrew are meaningful words so they are in Arabic. The root system also originates from Hebrew and ancestral languages. In root system a few letters are taken as a unit or set or root which is given the meanings based upon individual letters as well as sum total of meanings of all letters. This is why each root has various concrete meanings as well as derived meanings because originally each meaning was a label given to a reality in real world eg BAA=BAAIT=house and house is a concrete reality then word BAAIT itself has three letter root ie BAA, YAA and TAA, so these meanings keep on expanding with each extra word and its combination of letters. YAA means YAD both in Hebrew and Arabic and it means hand. This is how letters were attached meanings in forms of roots. Once a letter was given concrete meanings a set of conceptual meanings also came about based upon what a things was and what it did or what it was useful for or was used for or the way it worked or served a purpose. For example, letter AIN means eye but what is eye and what it does or is used for is also part of meanings of letter ain. This is why in Arabic a root can have many meanings not just one or two. Now that things about origin and development of language are explained in detail it is easy for anyone who has knowledge to see how many objections people raise against the Quran based on lack of understanding of language as to how it came about, developed and was used and as well as how words got their meanings or how language works in actual fact etc etc.
Let us now turn to the Quran. People ask, why Allah does not explain each and everything in detail in the Quran? It is because Allah had a purpose in his mind and had a plan for mankind due to which he created people and the rest of the universe and sent his revelations for mankind to live by so that purpose and plan of Allah comes to its fulfilment. All this is explained in detail in the Quran the final revelation of Allah for the mankind. Whenever anyone does anything one has some reason or purpose for doing it. Allah created mankind and the universe and sent his revelations because he is a living being and wanted to express himself. The only way he decided to express himself was through creation and revelation. Since he wanted to express himself he decided to create mankind for appreciating his creator out of his own choice and that is why humans are taken as special creatures of Allah unlike all other creatures.
Since humans have been created with ability to choose to do things at a higher level than all other creatures therefore Allah could not fully program people to be like fully programmed robots instead he had to program them to a degree and leave them to program themselves for the rest of things that is why he gave people brains, senses, bodies, provisions and revelations to learn and do as they please. This is why the Quran only contains information as much as it serves the purpose and plan of creator of the universe and nothing more than that. It is the implication of what one does that binds one to his plan and purpose and so Allah himself bound himself by this purpose and plan and nothing can make Allah change his mind because if he changes his mind then his purpose and plan will fail and that is impossible ie plan of Allah cannot fail. No one forced Allah to take on this responsibility upon himself but he decided to do all this so he will go through with it no matter what. Since Allah has a purpose and a plan to fulfil so it is not possible that Allah should do anything that ruins the whole thing for him.
Allah is capable of lots of things but only as a God just as man is capable of doing things but only as a human being and this is why the Quran is the way it is. What do I mean by that? I mean that the Quran is a limited text in a language that was not yet fully developed. Why Allah had to send the Quran in an ancient language and why he chose Arabic in particular for the revelation of the Quran as his final message for humanity? It is because Arabic was the only language that could serve purpose of his revelation in this age. Why? Because it was a root based language and that made it very flexible for meanings of words so Allah could express his thoughts in a human language that was so flexible in its meaning therefore it could accommodate thoughts of Allah for guidance of mankind. Not only that but all other root based languages were not as wide spread as Arabic at the time and since then. This is what made it right for the purpose of Allah. But why Allah did not wait till Arabic language developed to its fullest? It is because a fully developed language becomes very precise therefore needs more text for explaining the very same thing because it has more words for more concepts. Let us go back to development of a human baby. A human baby begins with less words to tell many things and as he grows with time he gets to know more and more words for telling about more and more things. However his ratio of words and thoughts gradually reduces ie he uses more number of words for expressing lesser number of thoughts and that is what leads to precision use of language. So what the baby told us using a word or two now he can tell us in many words. His parents had no problem understanding him because they had learned to make sense of what he used to say when he was speaking less number of words. So people who learn things can understand them and those who do not bother to make sense of things they do not understand them regardless the language is under developed or over developed, course or fine.
If the Quran was revealed in a fully developed language its text ought to increase many folds than the text of the Quran we have. Imagine Allah revealing a huge encyclopaedia containing each and everything we humans ever needed, could we make any use of it? No, why not? Because human brain is not that capable to cope with that amount of information. As things are in this universe the way it works, it will have been impossible for people to copy information and share it with each other or to preserve it for coming generations or to carry it about etc etc. So even though Allah was capable of sending people a huge book, people were not able to cope with it due to human limitations. This is why people need to look at things in the context they are explained in the Quran by Allah himself instead of telling Allah what he should or should not have done. This is not for people to decide but right of Allah because when Allah decided things people were not around to give him their suggestions. Moreover if Allah followed our human suggestions instead of doing what he wanted to do, this universe will still be worked upon by Allah because each person will have told Allah many different ways to create things, so plan of Allah will still not have seen the light of the day.
This explanation should make clear to anyone with knowledge why knowing things about language is so important because then one can clearly see implications of attacking the Quran from the wrong angles eg why Allah did not explain things in more detail etc.
The study about origin and development of language tells us that words have various meanings and that those meanings are based upon solid foundation beyond a shadow of doubt. This deals a fatal blow to criticism of the Quran by those people who say that Muslims are seeing things in the Quran which were not there before after they have been discovered by scientists? It shows that if people who claim to be scientist do not have knowledge about the origin and development of language then they can end up making false claims about something they know nothing about. This is how looking at things in their proper context reveals the truth beyond a shadow of doubt. Take for example letter AIN in Arabic. It means eye but it also means a spring why? Because when eye cries it sheds tears and that is why it also means a source of water ie water spring or well or pond or river or sea etc etc. Moreover the very same letter ain means help or support and that is because eye is very much helpful to a person who uses it to see things to find his way to things or around things. This is why to guard or to keep an eye on things and likewise many other meanings come about as a result of a rule whereby meanings of words keep on expanding. On one hand this flexibility in the language helps accommodate various concepts but on the other it also creates a problem that if a word can have so many meanings then how do we choose the right meaning of a word?
After language based context one has to look at the text on basis of its purpose. For example, if I am going to employ someone to guard a place as a watchman then other meanings of word AIN will fall away and that means I am not talking about a water spring. Likewise if I am lifting something heavy and need help with it then I am not looking for a guard or water spring and that is how context makes things very clear despite a word having so many different meanings due to context of origin and development of language. Likewise when we look at words in the Quran we need to keep in mind that we are looking at the Quran as a supposed word of Allah. Why do we need to do that? Because the Quran so claims ie it tells us it is word of God. Since the Quran itself claims to be word of God therefore we have no choice but to examine it for what it claims to be. We cannot investigate something for which we have no claim or accusation or no reason to investigate. Unless there is some case to answer or some accusation or claim about something we have no reason to start an investigation. Only when we have a reason for starting any investigation we will start an investigation. When it comes to the Quran, we cannot start an investigate for what it does not claim to be because we can only start an investigation for what it claims to be and since it claims to be word of God so that is the only reason we can start investigating its claim to see if it proves itself true or not. This means anyone trying to prove the Quran is not the word of God is looking at things the wrong way round. It is a situation like someone claims he has murdered someone and another person comes along and says no he did not. Now we have two opposite claims but the priority rests with person who claims to have murdered someone.
So first we will have to ask the person who claims to have murdered someone to bring his evidence and only if he fails in providing one that we may go to the other person to see what is his evidence for claiming he did not murder someone. However if the person who claims to have murdered someone comes up with a credible or irrefutable evidence then the other person is proven wrong who claimed he did not murder someone. This means people who instead of investigating the Quran for its claim raise other claims against it but have never been able to properly investigate the Quran in the first place to begin with their claims about the Quran are not credible at all. To show they have investigated the Quran for its truth the first things they will need to know is origin and development of language and then the purpose of revelation of the Quran in the context of the Quranic text. If a person is unable to show the Quran has any model in its text but in actual fact there is a model that can be shown from the Quranic text then the case is clear that either the person investigating the Quran does not have the tools needed to know how to investigate the Quran properly or that one is being deliberately dishonest for one reason or the other better known to oneself.
What do we need to keep in mind when we investigate the Quran for its truth? We need to keep in mind that if the Quran is truly word of God then it is talking about things exactly as they are so all meanings of all words need to be taken in that context because God is creator of all things he is talking about in the Quran ie he is talking about things from his point of view where he talks from his point of view unless he is quoting others. The other thing we need to keep in our minds is that we are human beings and as human being we do not know facts as they are till we learn about them in detail through our own research and exploration. So it is a matter of fact that we may not know actual facts about things because we may not have learned them yet therefore we will not be able to make proper sense of things we never learned but the Quran talks about them. So if we do not know things about things then we cannot be certain in expressing our opinions about them till we have come to know them. If we say something is right or wrong without knowing it then that is not the right way to do things. For example, Allah talks in the Quran about human beings in detail but to know what Allah is saying we also need to reach our own understandings about human beings through our own research and exploration or we will not know what Allah is talking about if we are not familiar with things he is talking about regarding human beings.
The question is, have we carried out our own research and exploration as to what human beings are so that we could make sense of what Allah is exactly talking about when he talks about human beings? Allah talks in the Quran in detail about human society, politics, economics etc etc but if we do not know anything much about any of these subject matters then how can we claim we know what the Quran is talking about? Likewise Allah talks in the Quran in detail about philosophy of science and philosophy of history but do we know what philosophy of science and philosophy history is about? Allah talks in the Quran in detail about his program, goals and guidelines for mankind but do we know anything about all this? Allah talks about the universe and things in it in detail but have we carried out any research and exploration to know the universe and things in it? He talks about constitution and laws for mankind but do we know anything about them? Allah talks about organisation and regulation of human society but have we ourselves properly learned anything about organisation and regulation or have we managed to organise and regulate ourselves properly as a proper human community? So who has investigated the Quranic text properly in detail to reach a proper conclusion one way or the other about the Quran?
All this explanation should show very clearly to people of knowledge whether anyone has investigated the Quran properly ever since its revelation after the messenger of Allah passed away. To be able to answer questions about deen of Islam one has to know the Quran properly and one cannot know the Quran properly till one has reasonable grasp over idea of origin of language, how it got its concepts therefore meanings. It is because the Quran was revealed in a particular human language at a particular time in written form as well as in form of reading.
No mullah has any idea about the origin of language, its development and progress and the relevant implications. This is why almost all translations of the Quran are mostly defective because they do not take into account the contexts of the Quranic text. Who can say anything for certain about anything if one has no idea what human language itself is? If anyone wants to make sense of the Quranic text, one has to look for information outside the box in which so called scholars and mullahs have put people for a very long time now.
1)Which scholar or mullah do you need to go to for studying origin of language? All you need to do is learn any facts about any language from any people who are expert in knowing and teaching those facts about a language and they do not have to be Muslims only or nonMuslims only. In fact they can be atheists or theists or neither.
2)Which scholar or mullah do you need to go to, to learn about realities of real world? All you need to do is go to people who observe real word realities and explore and carry out research works therefore discover things and inform people about them.
3)It is a matter of fact that one cannot understand the Quran unless one knows facts about the human language and the language used for the Quran by Allah. Because it gives us foundational context of the Quranic text. It is due to having proper sense of human language that we are able to make sense of realities of our universe in which we are born. It is then that these realities of real world give us secondary foundational context to see what the message of the Quran may be. If we do not know things about language or real world realities then we have no way of knowing what words are and what they actually mean. This is why the Quran puts emphasis on using our God given brains, senses, bodies and provided things including his revelation properly, otherwise people are nothing more than animals. In fact God himself labels them worst of all the animals.
4)Only if one has sense of these contexts, the context of the Quranic text within itself becomes important not otherwise. Once we have the understanding of the Quranic text in these contexts only then we have the context for things attributed to the messenger of Allah as a criterion to see if they are true or false. Once we have all these things properly in their proper contexts we can see what people attributed to people is true or false because then we have the solid criterion to judge things by.
All this explanation shows that one does not need any scholar or mullah to explain anything at all because learning and doing things is common heritage of humanity. We can learn anything from anyone who knows it. However whatever we learn we have a duty to pass it on to others for ensuring well being of mankind.
The Quranic use of languages helps expand human power of thinking. How does it do it? It does it by using less number of words for expressing more number of concepts and facts. It is because when things are talked about in less detail then the listener has to put pressure on one's own mind to think out what the speaker is talking about and that helps mind expand and become more sophisticated ie the more one tries to figure out things the more human mind expands and becomes more capable of making sense of more things which in turn helps humanity make progress and prosper. Through revelations Allah has been drawing human attention to things so that people are stimulated to explore things and grow both physically and mentally. So the revelations by Allah played a huge role in helping humanity to be what it is though people did not make full use of it so far otherwise world could have been in a much better state than it is.
To address questions about Quranic transmission is also important. The fact is, the Quran we have today is the same as the one the messenger of Allah left behind. it is because the transmission of the Quran has been flawless. The Quran came to us in three different ways independent of each other. In form of written text that has been copied from written copies. In form of memorised words through chain of hufaaz (=memorisers of the Quran by heart) and in form of meanings of the words used in the text. You cannot write the Quran out of memory alone particularly uniformly nor memorise it from written text without differences due to nature of the Arabic language the way it is due to its origin, development and progress as well as its use and working. Because there is uniformity in memorised Quranic text as well as there is uniformity in written Quranic text copies that concretely proves it beyond a shadow of doubt the Quran was transmitted flawlessly. It is because the way Arabic was written in ancient times people could not memorise the Quran as a uniform recitation from their individual writings due to inter-changeability in spellings of words and likewise they could not write it down from memory as a uniform text due to various ways of writing the same words due to replacement of letters in words due to multiple roots of the very same words. This is why any claim that the Quran was not a written down text in the time of the messenger of Allah falls flat on its face.
Anyone who knows about origin of language and its development knows that Arabic uses a letter replacement idea in words a lot. It is because Arabic is a relatively new language as compared to its sister or ancestral languages such as Aramaic, Hebrew, Ugarit, Phoenician, Syriac, Akkadian etc. Since Arabic comes from other languages so it borrows words from them therefore it ends up using multiple roots to express the very same concept due to transliteration problems between languages. For example, word MAKKAH is also called BAKKAH why? Because these two words Arabic borrowed from two or more different languages. It is like word PARAAN and FARAAN. In Persian both sounds exists ie P as well as F but in Arabic P sound does not exist so the Arabs use their own closely resembling sound to P which is F or B. So while Persians say PARAAN Arabs say FARAAN. The same is the case with word PAKISTAN ie Arabs say BAKISTAN ie they replace P with B.
This problem exists between languages as a matter of fact. It is also a matter of fact that languages have been borrowing from each other heavily because they are interconnected just like generations of the people themselves. In some cases one language has borrowed from another language directly but in other cases indirectly ie first a word was borrowed by one language so it was modified to suit use of that language and then from that language it was borrowed by another language and was modified to make it suitable for use in that language. So depending on from how many different languages a word has been borrowed by a borrowing language it became pronounced and written in different ways in the very same language that borrowed it and this is the case in case of Arabic language as well. In Arabic letters like TAA, SAA and TWAA are interchangeable because they sound very close. Likewise letter BAA, FAA, MEEM and WOW are interchangeable. The case is same with letters SEEN and SWAAD or letter ZAAL, ZAA, ZWAAD and ZWAA. Letter ZWAAD however can also be interchanged with letter DAAL because it is also called DWAAD instead of ZWAAD. Same is problem with letters KHAA, QAAF and KAAF, HAA and HAA etc etc. Over a period of time in Arabic itself letters and pronunciations became standardised but transliteration related problems between different languages remain the same even today. Arabs did not modify their language beyond 28 letters symbols but they modified the language by adding symbols for vowels including HAMZAH eg FATAH, KASRA, DAMMA, MADDA, SHADDA and a short alif symbol which is placed above or below a letter to make it equal to adding ALIF or YAA. The Quranic text is based upon that standard. There has been no modification in number of letters since the revelation of the Quran. So long as the Quran remains in existence and people keep adhering to it, there will not be any modification in Arabic language of that nature which changes it completely into a modern language breaking its ties with its past like other latest languages. However borrowing between Arabic and newer languages continues even today and so it continues between other languages as well.
The purpose of this explanation was to show why Arabic has more than one root set for a word in some cases. For example, let us take word KITAAB. It has only one root in Arabic ie KAAF, TAA and BAA. However this is not the case with word ISRAA. This word has a few roots ie SEEN, RAA and WOW; SEEN RAA and YAA; SEEN, WOW and RAA; and SEEN, YAA and RAA. In ancient times all Arabs moved away from each other so they were not one people living in one and the same place speaking exactly the very same kind of Arabic even though originally they come from the very same ancestors. Human race itself is originally one race that comes from same ancestors but people moved away from each other as their needs and situations or circumstances demanded or dictated. After separating each people kept on inventing more things and words to talk about them so today people have come together again but they speak very many different languages from what they learned from their original ancestors though some of the words we can still make out among all people because they remained unchanged or suffered less change despite transliteration problems. Likewise Arabs even though were same people but they moved away from each other and then they were united and so there were differences between their spoken and written language of this nature because each group borrowed from other people of other languages they were in contact with as they needed. All this explanation in my view was necessary to come to the point because it will help people understand something I am going to explain about the originality of the Quranic text.
As explained above a lot of words in Arabic are written using different letters. For example, let us take word SIRAAT. In Arabic language word SIRAAT is written in two ways ie using SEEN as its first letter or SWAAD. In some places people write word SIRAAT using letter SWAAD and in others using letter SEEN so word SIRAAT has two roots ie SWAAD, RAA and TWAA as well as SEEN, RAA and TWAA. If we read the Quranic text, nowhere in the Quran word SIRAAT is written with letter SEEN at the beginning and everywhere in the Quran word SIRAAT is always written with letter SWAAD. You will agree that if the Quran did not come down in written form and people made copies out of their memories as individuals independent of each other then we ought to find that some copies of the Quran ought to have in them word siraat written with letter swaad and in others word siraat written with letter seen. In fact each copy was bound to have letters seen and swaad in different places compared to each other. Since all copies of the Quran to date contain this word written only and only by using letter swaad then how do we explain this consistency unless people were given a copy of the Quran in writing to copy the written text from it exactly as it was? Let me explain this in another way in English. If I dictated to a mixed group of people from different countries in different places to write down word MUHAMMAD, will they all write it exactly as I have it in my mind or will they do it the way they know it according to their own life experiences in their own places? An Italian person will write Muhammad the way he thinks and an English person will write it the way he thinks and a French person will write it the way he thinks etc etc. Some will end up writing Muhammad others Mohammed and yet others Mohamed and so on and so forth.
Word SIRAAT is not the only one but there are dozens of such words used in the text of the Quran throughout the text of the Quran and they have been transmitted constantly exactly the same. This should leave no doubt in one's mind that the Quran was transmitted both in written and spoken forms right from the day one otherwise such differences as explained between copies that still exist in the world of different times and places will have been unimaginable due to nature of the Arabic language. For an Urdu, Farsi or Arabic speaker it is very easy to refute all scholars who think the Quran we have today is not original. How? By looking at ancient copies of the Quran. These copies did not have dots to distinguish between letters to begin with and they did not have vowel marks. What does that mean? To explain what it means let me explain things about Arabic writing a bit. Arabic words are written using full letter shapes as well as stumps of letter shapes. When written in full shape one cannot tell the difference between BAA, TAA and SAA, JEEM, HAA and KHAA, DAAL and ZAAL, RAA and ZAA, SEEN and SHEEN, SWAAD and DWAAD, TWAA and ZWAA, AIN and GHAIN etc without distinguishing dots and that is how Arab used to write Arabic originally in olden times. Likewise when it comes to writing letters as stumps they are written at the beginning of a word or in the middle of a word or at its end. In case of being written in the middle letter NOON also becomes like BAA, TAA and SAA so four letters end up using the very same symbol. Not only that the FAA and QAAF also become indistinguishable as well as letters LAAM and YAA. One can look at ancient Arabic inscriptions as well as copies of the Quran to see what I mean. This being the case none could read a writing unless one already knew the text by heart. If one person wrote something and gave it to another to read who did not know what was written then one will have very tough time to make out what the text might be saying. In short no one could read the written text of the size of the Quran in that style of writing ever if one was not familiar with it already or did not have it in his memory. This is how memory and writing both helped people to keep the text of the Quran properly preserved beyond a shadow of doubt.
In Arabic vowels can be replaced with diacritical marks so each consonant could have six possible sounds eg MEEM could be MU or MOOO, or MA or MAAA, or ME or MEEE etc. So if we wrote just four consonants MHMD, we will have 6x6x6x6=1296 possibilities of pronunciations. These are concrete facts which any scholar can verify for oneself. It is really challenging for any scholar to try reading a text that is size of the Quran merely from the consonants alone without having known it previously. One cannot read such a text unless one has it already in one's memory. This is clear proof that the Quran was memorised direct from the source otherwise merely having a text could end up as countless number of different readings because each word could be pronounced in many different ways due to lack of diacritical marks as well as due to lack of dots for identification of each letter in words. The lack of such huge number of variant reading of the Quranic text in the Muslim world concretely proves that the Quran as we have it today is original. There is no scholar on earth who could ever prove otherwise or enemies of deen of Islam who do not let go any opportunity to attack it will have done it already.
Just as it was not possible to read the Quran from the written text alone uniformly so it was not possible to write the Quran uniformly if it was not copied in writing from the already existing written copies of the Quran. Why not? As explained already many words in the Quran had variant roots so if people sat down to write a text out of their memories as individuals then each person will have made a copy from his memory as he knew how to write a word so there will occur numberless variants written texts. For example, if people had to write down word SIRAAT, some will write it with SEEN and others with SWAAD. Not only that but they will do it in different places in the Quranic text wherever this word was repeated. Since the Quran has many such words in it then we ought to find such variations in huge numbers ie trillions of variants but we do not. How can any scholar in the world explain that? So another clear proof that the Quran came down both in written and memorised forms independent of each other.
These simple explanations are sufficient to prove that people who rely on false reports in Hadith books and other sources to prove the Quran was collected and written down after the prophet are seriously mistaken therefore such reports should not be taken seriously in light of such concrete proofs as stated here. Moreover all reliable reports in Hadis books must be interpreted in this context so that they make proper sense.
This however does not mean there are no copying errors in the existing copies of the Quran, there are but the nature of error is very simple ie humans make all sorts of errors due to absent mindedness in whatever they do. Mind always wanders off when people get tired or bored in doing something so they may end up writing something out of context or missing the whole line of text or add something from whatever is in their minds etc etc. Not only that people add their own notes in books for jogging their memory about some points they think are important to highlight for later referral. So those who were copying the Quran suffered the same but nothing was done deliberately because for that one had to have a purpose in mind. What I mean is that if anyone wanted to change the Quran deliberately then one ought to have some purpose in mind which his new Quran could serve and in that case ummah could never have the same Quranic text which it always have had to date.
So all allegations against the originality of the Quran are mere misunderstanding of the scholars and nothing more unless they have ulterior motives to deliberately say falsehood against the originality of the Quran but that only they know for themselves. A misunderstanding of scholars is that they take modification of written Arabic as changes in text of the Quran. They do not realise that when people face problems they look for solutions. It was found very difficult to read and write the Quran the way the original Arabic was written so they came up with idea of adding dots and diacritical marks to reduce dependency on memory. This is why when new ways of writing the very same text were discovered the number of hufaaz of the Quran dropped from say 90% to a few percent. It is because people could now read actual message from the written Arabic text except for a small number of things so dependency on hufaaz decreased with time and coming about of printing press.
To explain the same point further as an example, if a word was management and it was written as MNGMNT but was modified to management due to development and progress in the language then scholars due to their ignorance took it as a change in the actual text of the Quran, which is silly to say the least. We even today use signs for many things including road traffic signs instead of writing because they are easy to work with than standing on a sign post and reading a sign while people blow their tops off shouting during busy road traffic. So it all depends on how a society organises and regulates itself and how easy it feels with what it does otherwise people modify things as it suits them better. So when things seemed difficult Arabs modified the way of writing Arabic and in doing so benefited from this modification. Such simple explanations are ignored by people or they remain ignorant about them yet they claim their research is of highest standard.
Yet other thing in the Quran is letters in the beginning of some surahs. Some of them if were not pronounced as well as written they could confuse people as to what they were ie words or separate letters eg take surah two verse one letters ALIF, LAAM and MEEM. The way they are written in surahs they could be taken for meaningful words because there is a word in Arabic which is pronounced ALAM eg see in surah 94 verse one.
Yet other evidence is the fact that the very first verse of the Quran is always written the very same way ie BISMILLA HIRRAHMAA NIRRAAHEEM. It is written with 19 letters in it always whereas it can be written with a few more letters eg ALIF in ISM of BISMILLAH is MISSING. Word ISM is written in surah 96 verse one with ALIF. Anyone will find that all copies of the Quran throughout the world are written exactly that way. Had each person dictated the Quranic text out of memory and each person wrote it down the way one knew to write it then we ought to see very many differences in written texts of this nature but there are none.
All copies of the Quran have no bismillah at the start of surah nine. Had people made copies as they liked then we will have found variations between them some including and some excluding letters, words and verses in the text. So there is water tight evidence that the Quran as we have it was written down by the messenger of Allah himself and handed down to his people before he passed away. He actually delivered the message of Allah as it was supposed to be delivered ie in recitation and writing otherwise he could not have been chosen as a messenger by Allah. Even we humans do not choose bad workers for getting our works done if we can help it so how could Allah be expected to do such a silly thing as choose someone unfit for the job? That will have ruined the whole purpose and plan of Allah for humanity. Had the final messenger of Allah himself not left an undisputed copy of the Quran behind and the people at the time fully accepting it then people could have ended up divided about it right from the very beginning for ever and none could have united them on the basis of the Quran after him. Today whatever else Muslims do they have only one Quran and copies of the Quran are available throughout the world even from long time in the past. According to some claims we have copies of the Quran even from the time very near to the time of the prophet and some odd pages even from the time of the messenger of Allah that show exactly the same text as we have it today.
Unfortunately Muslims are not good at preservations, observations, research and explorations. It is a miracle in itself for Quran to have survived intact till now somehow because Muslims are such a people who did very little to advance the message of the Quran properly. The way people claiming to be Muslims are busy killing each other it is not going to take very long before they are all gone. Any remaining ones will be done away with by kufaar. But then Allah has a plan of his own so we will come to know whatever awaits for us good or bad. Muslims fight among themselves due to their ignorance and stupidity and not because there is anything wrong with the Quran.
Please do note that scribal errors are there in the hand written copies of the Quran and so are there printing errors in printed copies as well as book binding errors even in currently published copies of the Quran but they should not be taken seriously as human errors are human nature. These errors if I sit down with copies of the Quran can find and correct but I will not do so nor advise anyone else because that will be tempering with original copies that are historical documents of huge value. However since we are aware of these like errors therefore we should not let them through to newer copies we make through future media that is more capable of helping us for coping with this task. Moreover when we talk to people about errors in the Quranic text we should never claim that there are no human errors in the copies of the Quran. Such errors have no affect upon the actual message of the Quran therefore its integrity.
ancient quran in a german uni dated 649-675ce
http://idb.ub.uni-tuebingen.de/digl...gesearch&sid=77f540065b6795e19457a972a4462911
The oldest fragments of the Quran date 625 ce in National library of Algeria
London exhibition unveils ancient Koran
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=klr3Jy2e3mk
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6nZpClvTaDo
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qsyeR77WT7g
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=p2xKDbOU5wc
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kYAGtR7EdS0
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4H7If_rSl7E
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0RFchKei17o
The problem with claims of all western scholars of the Quran is they are not aware of certain facts about the Quran due to which they have no idea what the deen of Islam actually is. Their biggest problem is mullahs who had no sense of the actual message of the Quran so they misinterpreted the actual Quranic text and misrepresented the message of the Quran therefore the whole response of western scholarship is in that context which is therefore incorrect. A true scholar of the Quran should separate the Quran from what its alleged followers say about it and look at it as a document in its own right and see what it says afresh according to rules explained above by myself very clearly. If one then did not find the actual model of the deen of Islam in the Quran that could not be defeated then one had the right to claim all those things ignorant people claimed about the Quran.
NonMuslim scholars assume right from the very beginning that the message of the Quran is what people who claim to be Muslims say they believe it to be. This means they are not examining the text of the Quran but what people claim about the text as to what it means. It shows their scholarship is not up to the standard the Quran requires for its scrutinizers or cross examiners or critics. This only proves their ignorance and stupidity or ulterior motives just like rulers, money lenders and mullahs or both.
1) Questions have been raised by Muslims and nonMuslims alike whether it is possible to translate the Quranic text perfectly. What has been explained about the nature of the language in sense of its origin, development and the way it works and what is explained about role of God and role of humanity should leave one in no doubt that it is not possible for humanity to interpret the message of God precisely ever. The main reason is difference between the knowledge of God and knowledge of people. However, it is very much possible for all practical purposes for people to know and teach the message of the Quran to each other with a degree of accuracy in sense of its purpose, which is mainly guidance of mankind to some degree or as much as people can make proper sense of it. So any claim that anyone ever knew the whole of the Quran perfectly is a false claim. Even the messengers of Allah only came to know as much of the revelation of Allah as was humanly possible for them according to their own time and place as per their own life experiences. It is because to understand anything at all one has to have related life experience. It is like you teach the Quran to a child for memorising so the message is in memory of the child but sense about the message will only develop in the child as child learns things throughout his life experience as he grows. If a memoriser of the Quranic text never thinks about understanding its message properly then he will never know it properly despite having the text of the whole Quran memorised in his head. All one can say is that messengers of Allah knew the message maximum possible at the time or that no one knew the message as good as the messengers of Allah at the time. Any claim about any messenger of Allah about knowing things beyond human capability is attributing falsehood to the messengers of Allah. In deen of Allah there is no such thing as personality cult. It is because the reference is always the revealed scripture from Allah not any particular person be one a messenger of Allah. It is because only Allah is free of making any mistakes so only his message can be free of all errors.
As for human beings they cannot be declared free of human errors but one can say they never did anything deliberately wrong if they were true followers of the word of Allah. This is why they cannot be the reference point in their own right independent of revelation of Allah. In the Quran Allah talks about prophet Ibraheem as an exemplary messenger of Allah and he is said to be leader of mankind but only so far as his following of the message of Allah. Even when he asks Allah about his biological and ideological children to be made leaders of mankind, he is told very clearly that yes but only if they also followed message of Allah like you. The idea that Quran asks people to follow any messenger of Allah as a model in his own right is attributing falsehood to Allah and his messengers. This is a very important and a decisive point for all people to pay their attention to and who wish to know the message of the Quran properly. A clear proof that deen of Islam is not a personality cult as claimed by mullahs of various sects. This is why the primary source of information about deen of Islam is the Quran not the ahaadith attributed to the messenger of Allah nor the information passed down the generations of Muslims in form of books of fiqh= the so called Islamic jurisprudence. This does not mean the books of Hadith or Fiqh are not important but only as secondary sources to the Quran. The main reason for that is the status or position of the Quran in deen of Islam. The Quran is taken as word of Allah, the master of the universe and all that exists. He is sole ruler of the universe by right of its ownership due to being its creator. This being the case no human being should claim nor should be accepted as an authority on equal footing with Allah. All human beings be they messengers of Allah are still his creatures and not Gods in their own rights so people cannot be given same status as that of Allah.
2) When it comes to interpretation of the Quran, as explained already it must be interpreted mainly in context of its language and its purpose in light of self evident facts or in light of real world realities ensuring one does not introduce contradictions within the alleged testament of Allah or between the alleged testament of Allah and self evidence facts or real world realities when the Quran itself claims to be free of such contradictions and tells mankind to check it against real world realities to see how consistent it is in order to realise how the Quran proves to be word of Allah. That means people who sit down to interpret the Quranic text must first be familiar with things the Quran is talking about because if anyone will try to interpret the Quran not knowing the required information for doing this job then such a person will make tonnes of mistakes and if such mistakes are passed onto people as the message of Allah then it could have serious consequences for humanity as a whole even if such mistakes are result of an innocent adventure by a person. It is because people who will accept the message of the Quran on basis of its translations will not be accepting the actual message of the Quran but its inaccurately translated versions which will be effectively false teachings in its name and by acting upon those teaching people will be doing things that could end up harming them as individuals and as groups.
Likewise people who will reject the message of the Quran due to mistakes in the translations of its message will be rejecting the actual message of the Quran assuming it to be actual message of the Quran instead of taking the translations as erroneous and inaccurate, so they will turn away or remain away from the true guidance of Allah due to mistakes caused by the translators. The consequences will be serious because the result will be more and more divisions among people of the book and more and more people will move away from the book and as people remain divided and divisions increase more and more fights and wars will continue between people because of wrong interpretations of the message. So one can see what is at stake if things were not done the right way. However this will be taken advantage of by those who want things to be that way ie rulers, money lenders, mullahs, their touts and supporters due to their ignorance and stupidity as well as arrogance ie due to their sense of dominating others by undermining them so that they could use and abuse them at will. In short such people will try their best to use the scripture as a tool for manipulating mankind to fulfil their own personal objectives thereby.
3) It is very important that when we talk about Islam we have some understanding of the actual situation. The main issue when we discuss Islam is, what do we take Islam for ie a set of make beliefs and some useless rituals for individuals or a program for mankind for accomplishing some goals according to some guidelines as a proper human community based upon Quranic constitution and laws for running a kingdom in the name of Allah according to his guidance?
Anyone who takes Islam as a religion has to answer a main question, why there are guidelines for a constitution and laws for organisation and regulation of human society? What has praying to do with God and with running of a kingdom or a community? It is because religion is all about individuals having some so called beliefs and doing some acts of so called worship as one sees fit. It is not anyone's business what anyone else believes or does because it is a private affair between a person and his God. The main question one has to ask oneself is, does Islam fit this category? My answer is very clear that Islam does not fit this category therefore I do not accept Islam is a religion nor should anyone who knows the Quran better.
All people who have learned some sense and have studied the Quran for knowing Islam believe that Islam is not only about God and man but about God and man as well as about humanity as a whole. In other words Islam is a way of life that leads mankind to an end that is set by Allah for mankind. It is the main reason why Islam is called deenillah or sabeelillah or ADDEEN or deen of Islam ie the way of life advised for mankind by Allah for a blissful, dignified and secure existence. All this explains why Allah advised this way of life for mankind.
Since in my understanding of the Quran Islam is not a religion therefore any argument over religion of Islam is a nonsense and shows a person is totally confused about Islam be one a person who claims to be a Muslim or a nonMuslim. The main thing is that anyone who thinks Islam is a religion must first prove Islam is a religion before one accepts it or rejects it or raises any objection against it or answers those objections. In other words there is no sense in talking about Islam as a religion because it is not a religion so why waste time and energy on something that is not really there. I therefore oppose views of any person who claims Islam is a religion regardless one claims to be a Muslim or happens to be a nonMuslim. I want such a person to prove from the Quran that his claim is right about Islam that it is only a system of some dogmatic beliefs and some rituals that have nothing at all to do with real world realities. It is because religion cannot be but a private matter for an individual and his God whereas the Quran is very clear that Islam is not a private affair of an individual and his God. This is why in my view Islam is a deen because what is told in the Quran is related to real world realities. The whole message of the Quran is about changing the real world realities for the betterment of mankind to ensure well being of mankind. Since it is a deen so all need to understand it as such regardless they claim to be Muslims or happen to be nonMuslims. So all questions about deen of Islam are to be asked and answered in that context.
Since Islam is a deen sent by Allah therefore it is a program from Allah for mankind for accomplishing some goals according to his provided guidelines. Since it is a program for mankind therefore the message of the Quran must be taken to all people in the world so that they have a look at it and think it over and if they like what they are told they come together to form a community network on basis of a constitution and its laws as per guidelines provided in the Quran. This is the context in which people need to understand Islamic shariah or law or jurisprudence. It is in this context one must come to know the procedure for writing a constitution or forming a law. This is why individuals need to know the Quran and have their opinions and arguments to back them up but it is the ummah that is to decide together what is to be the correct interpretation of the book and arrive at a consensus after having the knowledge needed for interpreting the Quran properly. Unless it is an educated ummah that accepts a constitution or a law as a whole, it cannot be called an Islamic law or shariah. From this explained procedure it should be very clear why fatwas by ignorant, illiterate, uneducated, untrained, unskilled and unthinking foolish individuals mean nothing at all in proper context of deen of Islam in light of the Quran. One must remember that a constitution or any laws must be accepted by all in the ummah freely after at least a simple properly educated majority agrees upon them. None is supposed to accept any constitution or law that goes against the stated goals and guidelines of the Quran. Before people sit down to argue over what the constitution or law should be they must have a very good idea about what are the goals they want to achieve or accomplish as an ummah and what are the guidelines so that no article or clause is put in the constitution that is in conflict with the aims and the objectives of the constitution.
In other words a constitution needs to be written down with declared objectives right at the top of the document. Since aims and objectives are the starting point of written constitution so all clauses that follow must be in line or consistent with these objectives otherwise the so called constitution or the laws will not be worth the paper they are written upon. Once a constitution is structured with all its articles, act and clauses as a complete document with all the needed laws regarding institutions, office bearers and individuals and organisational groups in the ummah then ummah as a whole must examine it with care and see if any mistake has been made in constructing this document before it is ratified and implemented by the ummah. If anything important is left out or something has been added which is not right then changes can be made in the constitution or laws even after ratification but each time any change has been made it must be put before ummah and accepted by it otherwise the document will become invalid as a constitution or law. I will explain what are the aims and objectives or goals set for ummah to accomplish and what are guidelines so people should read through to come to know them because each and everything about the Quran and deen of Islam cannot be explained in one place or in one go otherwise people will not have written or read explanations about the message of the Quran in so many volumes.
The other important point to remember is that the Quran is about three states of existence of Muslims ie as individuals in any place in the world, as a proper human community anywhere in the world and as a proper human community within a kingdom of their own based upon guidance of Allah. Each of these three states of existence has its own requirements. Individuals are only required what they can do as individuals and proper human community is only required what the proper human community can do as a such and a proper human community in a kingdom of its own is required what it can do as a proper human community in a kingdom of its own. In short there are very limited requirements for individuals but requirements increase when people become a proper human community and they increase even more when the proper human community has its own kingdom based upon guidance of Allah. It is because as people who accept deen of Islam increase in their numbers their power increases and therefore their responsibilities also increase towards each other and towards rest of mankind. For example, an individual is mainly responsible for learning and educating oneself about all one can learn in one's life time as well as about learning the Quran and only when one has learned deen of Islam properly oneself one's responsibility increases for teaching it to others the best one can. However it is binding upon individuals to learn about deen of Islam properly and then pass it onto others. It is also binding upon more than one Muslims to always live together as a family fully supporting each other in every way and keep working to bring more and more people into the fold of deen of Islam or into the proper human community based upon guidance of Allah. Once a few people come together they must organise and regulate themselves according to the Quranic guidelines as explained. They must form a constitution to help them organise themselves and work out laws to help them regulate themselves in light of Quranic guidelines as well as in light of ground realities that face them as per their situations and circumstances.
It is very important for mankind to become aware of the fact that there is a language problem between God and human beings. It is because God knows everything he needs to know about his plan and purpose for creating his universe and mankind but a human is born as a baby not knowing anything at all. The question that faces God and human beings is, how can God make humanity understand what he wants of them and how can mankind try to make sense of what God says to ensure they have understood the message of God properly before they act upon it faithfully so that plan and purpose of God could become fulfilled? People evolved their human language gradually over a very long period of time and the human babies still take years to learn their human language through their direct interaction with things and with each other in this environment called the world or the universe. The main point in this respect to realise is that God could not tell humanity anything at all in human language till people had invented and developed a human language. Even after having inventing and developed human language people could still not understand message of God till people developed a mechanism whereby they could make sense of what God intended to convey. It is because people can only know what they communicate to each other because they interact with each other but human beings do not interact with God at all as they do with each other so they could not understand message of God unless they developed a mechanism for understanding the message of God in their language. In other words God even if he uses a human language to communicate his message to them still will be conveying his own thoughts not human thoughts, so he will be using same words but not the very same meanings of words as people mean for each other when they talk to each other. Moreover people cannot know words they have not invented yet nor the meanings of words which they have not realised yet because they have not yet arrived at that stage of learning and knowing things. So God when he reveals his message become limited by what people at the time know. This makes very difficult for mankind to see point of view of God about things ie they cannot put themselves in shoes of God. This is why unless there is found a way around this difficulty the language barrier between God and humanity cannot be broken down. This is where my work on the Quran can be found very helpful by mankind because it begins from this point. It shows limits of philosophers and scientists as well as of people who claim to know deen of Islam regardless they claim to be Muslims or nonMuslims.
The problem of communication between God and human beings could be understood through realising the situation of a highly educated father with his newly born child. How can such a father convey his message to his newly born child? Father has to understand how his baby understands things and try to convey his thoughts to baby using baby language because baby does not know any other language. For conveying a highly complex and sophisticated message in baby language father has to wait till baby develops and grows to the stage where at he could make sense of message of his father in some way. This is why God had to give people time to develop and grow in knowledge before they could be sent his message. This is why human beings were given brains and senses as well as bodies and things to interact with in this universe in order to learn things just like we human beings give our children toys to play with and learn from their interaction with toys. The other main question people must ask themselves is why God created people as babies instead of fully knowledgeable grown up people? It is because God is a living being so as a living being he had the urge to express himself and to express himself he could only use his power of creativity so he ended up creating his creation and sending his revelation for human beings because he wanted someone with ability to appreciate his creativity out of choice and that is why he gave mankind ability to learn things by themselves so that interference from God remained to a bear necessity otherwise human beings could not appreciate God freely as too much intervention by God could undermine his plan and purpose for creating mankind. This is why message of God is the way it is. It is not a huge book containing detail of everything because human beings could not carry around a huge book or read it due to their very limited life span. This is why God had to do his best for sending people his message and people had to do their best to make sense of whatever they are given by God as his message. So it is a compromise between the best God could do and the best mankind could do. The idea that God can do anything because he has the power to do so therefore he has done this and that and the other is a nonsense. It is because no matter who does anything one is limited by one’s own plan and purpose. If one does not follow through one’s plan in order to fulfil one’s purpose than all falls apart and one fails in one’s objectivity. This is why even though God is powerful he cannot do things which ruin his plan and purpose. This is why a lot of things people say about God or attribute to God are nothing more than their self invented nonsense because it does not take into account plan and purpose fo9 God in context of real world realities. This nonsense is called make beliefs or different versions of religion and secularism. All this will be explained in detail as we go along and things will start making sense to those who wish to learn.
The next thing one has to ask oneself is, how can human beings overcome the language barrier between God and human beings? Before God could communicate his message to people they had to have a language in which God could communicate to them his thoughts. Since a human language is just words and meanings the question is, where did the words and their meanings come from? To understand the answer of this question one has to observe creation and see what God has brought about in this world. Long before he created people he created other things. He started with nonliving things and from that he brought forth or evolved living things and from the living things he brought about or evolved human beings. God created things and things were given certain properties by God for his plan and purpose. This is why we can see nonliving things are fully programmed but living things are partly programmed though some more than the others. The least programmed creatures are human beings who needed guidance of God to give them basis for their future development and progress. This is why people are created to self program themselves by way of explorations and discoveries with a little bit of guidance from God that gives them the basis or foundation to develop and grow from where they are ie from their natural state or stage of existence as human beings. Human beings have been endowed with great potential for development by God in order to be capable of serving his intended plan and purpose. The plan and purpose of God will become obvious when humanity studies the message in the Quran in detail. As for knowledge people learn things by observing and copying already programmed things as to what they do and how they do it and that way they learn how things interact with each other and fit in with each other which helps human beings develop rationally by reasoning things that are self evident as to how they are interlinked or interconnected or fit in with each other. This is how from obvious world people can become capable of looking into hidden realities in the real world and deduce things rationally and that way arrive at the right conclusions about things.
It should be clear to a person that unless people had a language and they developed it to a stage where at God could send his message to them they could not benefit from the revelation of God this is why God had to wait till people evolved from animal stage to human stage of existence. However even then God had to wait till people could make proper sense of his message in order to benefit from it. This is like some grown up person instils in mind of a young child some message to remember which can only make sense to the child when he has grown up and has reached the stage of knowledge required for its proper understanding. This is why human progress has been very slow due to interaction between people and other living and nonliving things as well as between people themselves. People have real problem in trying to make proper sense of message of God because it takes them a lot of time to learn sense of making proper sense of things provided they have had a deep and wide life experience about things about which message of God talks. If not then such people are little better than animals who have not yet developed to stage of humanity. This is why knowing how words came about and how they got their meanings becomes of vital importance to know because without knowing that mechanism people cannot develop a possible vocabulary which could introduce them to meanings of words which are used by God therefore people cannot develop a proper context of message of God without knowing such meanings of words used in the message of God. Unless human beings come to this stage of awareness about problem of language between God and mankind this problem cannot be solved. This shows how God is limited by being a God and how humanity is limited by being human beings in context of use of language. Since people cannot know anything beyond their time of development and progress and God talks about realities of things as they are so there is a huge gap between knowledge of God and knowledge of people. This is why people cannot be sure what the message of God actually means unless they come to know some basic rules of understanding the text of the message of God. Once they come to know the rules then they can be reasonably sure about understanding the message of God properly just like knowing formulas for mathematical expressions for solving the mathematical problems. Though people talk about detail of message of God but no matter how detailed message of God is it is still up to people to make proper sense of it and different people need different amount of detail for understanding it properly. Moreover God can only detail message up to a stage otherwise that will interfere with God given freedom of humanity due to God having a plan and an purpose for his creation that stops God from over doing things which could ruin his own plan and purpose for things. However some people being more able to make proper sense of message of God can detail his message for others to help them understand the message of God as it ought to be understood, though most people only try to confuse each other more and more due to being ignorant or illiterate or uneducated or untrained or unskilled or being unable to think properly themselves.
The idea of human language is of such importance to understand that without it even an atheist is unable to answer to himself any serious questions about existence of God in a logically consistent way. For example if one asks oneself is there a God, one cannot say there is no God because one cannot prove so no matter how hard one tries. Moreover it is impossible to prove a negative. This is why the real question becomes if there is a God then what is the proof? This question can only be answered by those who know the answer by saying God does exist and the proof is his creation and his revelation. However the question then becomes how do the creation and the revelation prove existence of God to mankind? They prove existence of God to mankind by people studying them both in detail in light of each other. This is where in comes idea of research and exploration and discovery. This is why people who are not interested in idea of studying things in depth and in width cannot know anything much about anything be it the universe or God or his revelation. In order to study the universe people must learn language to the best of their God given abilities. Likewise in order to make sense of revelation of God they must learn language of message of God which is very different from what people use with each other for communicating their ideas to each other. This is why they need to develop a dictionary that could help them understand message of God. So far all dictionaries written by people are only collection of some words that are brought about by people and their meanings used by people. This is not sufficient for understanding of message of God by people. So people who do not understand this problem of language between God and mankind their opinions are nothing more than their wishful thoughts that have no basis in reality. So those who dismiss the idea of existence of God unless they can explain logically consistently how they came to their conclusion of nonexistence of God they are simply talking nonsense. It is because they have no choice but to accept possibility of existence of God but if one accepts the possibility of existence of God then on ends up with a huge problem on one’s hands which is one has to explain reason for creation and revelation of God in light of what mankind can clearly observe in this real world with their own senses. Not only that but one also has to explain how God could communicate his message to mankind in this world the way it exists and ensure his message was understood by mankind properly if they chose to study it properly. So people who have no idea about such important questions and their relationship to each other whatever they say about God cannot be taken just on its face value. It is because if people cannot find a way or accept it whereby God could communicate his message to people then their acceptance of possibility of existence of God falls flat on its face due to break down in their logical consistency in their explanation, therefore whatever such people say about God cannot be trusted. All this will be discussed in great detail as things develop in this study of the Quranic message.
The difference between facts, theories and laws.
First of all words fact and theory both have various meanings which depend upon the context of their use or purpose. However in one respect facts are objects or things that are detectable with human senses either directly or with help of instruments ie real world realities are facts be they within our own reach or not. In this context theory means explanation that helps make sense of the things or facts or real world realities or objects. In the same context laws are those observed realities which repeatedly happen the same way or are made to happen the same way. It is a matter of if, then and always. Law means a way of doing something or a way of making something happen the same way. For example, if water is poured on the ground then it will flow downhill due to gravity. Since this will happen always therefore we can take it as a rule. If anything consumable is put in the fire then it will burn. Since this will happen always therefore we can take it as a rule.
Coming to theory of evolution. It is not a fact in the sense explained above because it is not a real world reality or an object but an explanation of some observed realities or objects. Whether this explanation is complete or incomplete depends upon facts or objects used in the explanation. The more the number of facts there are the better the explanation of the facts is because the increased quantity of things in the sample helps understand something better just like quality control sampling. The higher the sampling frequency the more likely it is that faulty goods will be caught and less likely that faulty goods will escape detection.
Since for Godless explanation of evolution samples so far collected or are available are not sufficient in numbers therefore it is not as good an explanation as is necessary or needed therefore to take it as a something water tight is not right. There are far too many gaps between things which clearly show they do not transform into each other smoothly enough rather they need more and more intermediary things to go between them. This shows steps or breaks or irregularities which lend support to God based idea of evolution rather than the Godless based idea of evolution. For example, big bang seems to be a controlled inflation of the universe or expansion of the time and space for serving some purpose rather than a random explosion which could have led to chaos instead of the fully functioning universe.
As for evolution based upon divine intervention there is more than sufficient evidence. For example, so many variations in each and every kind of things in ways that cannot be explained any other way than external intervention due to gaps between species of things. More than that the origin of things which did not exist is better explained that way only. That is, a thing which we accept has come into existence had to have a parent or originator otherwise it could not come into being. I am here due to my parents and the chain goes back but it has to stop at some point in time. If this does not stop then that leads us into infinity which is impossible for things that come into existence because before a child thing could come into existence its parent must first have to be there and if parents of parents are not there then how could their children come into existence? This being the case we have no choice but to except that ultimately there is something there which was always there which did not need a creator which brought the non-existing thing or things into being eg the universe and things in it. Since things need to be functional that come about otherwise they cannot survive this means they need designing and planning because allowing things to happen randomly is not going to produce any results regardless of length of time. You can break a glass bottle and let the pieces lie on the ground they will never become a bottle again regardless how long they are left lying there. This is why saying Godless evolution is a fact is wrong. It is not only about first cause but planning and designing as well. Unless there is some planning and designing involved in a project just a random knock or cause does not turn something into a perfect working model. If we say matter or energy is ever existing and has ability of intelligent designing then we are replacing one thing with another ie God for identical qualities of matter so where is sense in that? If God evolved things it still needs a lot of explanation eg what was purpose of God for creating things? How did he create them? How do they work to fulfill his objective? Etc etc. Idea of God can only be eliminated once we have better explanation than the one offered by the allegedly revealed scripture. However first we need to learn enough to understand this scripture that is said to be from God ie the Quran.
I blame our human ignorance for lack of our understanding of the allegedly divine scripture because I have my reasons to believe so. For example, to begin with we humans depend upon external physical realities for learning by interacting with them directly. It is because our minds create images of things or models which we see. As things are or they interact with each other we try to figure them out. Through this learning process we learn simple reasoning which becomes more and more complex and sophisticated as we learn more and more about things. This is why those who have wider and deeper life experiences have better understanding of things than those who have narrow and shallow life experiences. This is why people with wider and deeper life experiences can easily see logical connections and disconnections between things. This helps people to see what goes together and what does not. This is how we gradually become rational thinkers. However to think about abstracts is still another world to learn about and anyone who is not good at learning reasoning about real world realities certainly cannot be good in learning about abstract concepts because in that case one has to rely entirely upon reasoning to try and understand things.
Let me try and explain this in another way. Let say our bike has broken down and we need to repair it. Since bike is basically a physical thing with almost all parts visible to us we can easily find most of the faults in it just by physical visual examination of it which involves simple reasoning. The same cannot be said about our tv set when that breaks down. This time there are many more parts involved and a lot of things in it involve electricity which means electrons are not visible to us to see where they are going and how the fault is preventing them from working. It is easy for a mother to put on anti septic cream when her child slightly injures himself while playing in the playground, however if a person has internal pain due to something gone wrong inside then that cannot be easily diagnosed due to being invisible to the eye. So one has to arrive at a conclusion by reasoning things out, so we can see how visible things help us learn about invisible things. Therefore first stage of learning is to learn about what is visible and within our reach. Without first going through this stage of reasoning we cannot develop to go to the next stage of process of learning reasoning.
This is why just because we have managed to understand a little bit about real world realities it does not mean we can understand the scripture attributed to God. That is because to understand the scripture people need to especially prepare themselves as it needs a higher stage of learning reasoning by human beings. That is because it is word of God but in human language and the problem is in decoding it accordingly.
Why do we need higher stage of learning reasoning to understand the scripture? It is because without scripture there is nothing to tell us with reasonable certainty regarding origin of the universe and ourselves, how things came to be what they are, what is purpose of all this and how things are supposed to work to fulfill any purpose if there is one? Such things are beyond our senses that is why the need for guidance. However just because we can read a scripture does not mean we can understand it properly or we can follow it faithfully. This needs knowledge about things that a scripture talks about otherwise we cannot understand it. What sense can a baby get when a politician starts talking to him about politics? Absolutely none. Since scripture is mainly for peace and harmony between people at its basic level so that they could then together concentrate on higher objectives rather than fighting with each other and losing the sight of higher goals therefore it needs full attention for our proper understanding of it to benefit from it.
This is why we cannot be right in dismissing things out of hand till we have done our bit properly regarding the scripture. Divine scriptures were not needed if we were already fully programmed like robots. Scriptures are needed because we have been programmed a bit and a bit we must program ourselves like self learning robots. In short God has designed us to find out God but by our own sense of creativity and effort that is why we must discover the scripture and the creation for ourselves.
As for the objective of deen of Islam, it is to fulfill the purpose for which Allah has created this universe and mankind in it. I have yet to explain in detail what that purpose is or why Allah bothered to create the universe and us human beings in it. So anyone interested in detail study of the scripture should carry on reading what I am going to explain about it so that one could come to know it.
Just to help people keep in mind, Allah created things because he being a living being decided to express his existence and that he did by way of creation and revelation. Why revelation? Because he wanted to create a creature called human with a limited free will so that it could appreciate his existence and ability of creativity out of choice with a little helping hand from God himself through his guidance. This means deen of Islam is not something that is fully worked out set of instructions like a flow chart for each and every person rather it only gives guidelines to use for figuring out rest of it by ourselves in light of those guidelines and real world realities. This si the main reason for people consulting each other regarding matters of deen of Islam.
To appreciate God to that degree humanity has to reach a level of knowledge all by itself to be able to understand the scripture properly because it has been created knowing nothing at all but with brains and senses and bodies that can help it achieve that objective with help of God's revelation and creation by interacting with them.
This is the starting point of deen of Islam ie the purpose why God created things including human beings and why human beings have been left on their own by God to learn things by themselves through direct interaction with things after being created knowing nothing at all. This is why God advises a way of life for mankind that could help them fulfill the purpose for which God created human beings.
What is deen of Islam? It is a way of life which if understood properly and followed faithfully by mankind can lead them to blissful, dignified and secure life in this world and any effort by anyone made in that direction will be rewarded both in this life as well as in the life to come. Any people who will reject and oppose that way of life will end up in painful suffering in this life by hands of each other as well as in hereafter because whatever way of life people will invent and adopt by themselves will never lead them to blissful, dignified and secure existence instead it will always lead them into conflicts and wars with each other because no way of life people will ever be able to invent and follow that could be free of concept of personal gains at the expense of each other. This is why deen of Islam will take over humanity in due course completely ie after a lot of conflicts and fights with each other people will gradually come to realise that they have no way of life to live by other than the way of life whereby they could live with each other as a united, peaceful, progressive and prosper human community ie an ummah.
What is the way of life about whereby Allah wants people to live? It is about living for each other and not living at the expense of each other. It is because personal vested interests at the expense of each other lead people into all sorts of harmful and destructive divisions and conflicts with each other sooner or later. That is how comes about rivalry and animosity which leads to hatred between people that turns into conflicts which lead to unending wars between people.
Why must people live for each other? It is because they have been created to depend upon each other. Some have been created with much more advantages as compared to others only to work together as one single human family ie they have been created for purpose of complementing each other and not for taking undue advantages of each other. Why must anyone work for anyone else instead of oneself? It is because all human beings belong to God and everything also belongs to God so all things must be used according to his guidance so that his purpose could become fulfilled. If people will not do so then because all people are not created equal therefore those better off will try and take undue advantage of the disadvantaged and so the conflicts will start which cannot be ended till people do what God says ie use his provisions according to his wishes to ensure well being of all people. This is why in deen of Islam there is no right for anyone to rule over others or to buy or sell anything because nothing belongs to anyone to do so. People have right of use of things from God but only if they use them according to guidance of God not otherwise. This is why there is no ruling class or money lending business elite or priestly class in actual deen of Islam. All these are tricks and mechanisms for using masses abusively by cleverest among them.
The objective of deen of Islam is very clear which is to unite mankind for their own good to ensure well being of mankind. Now when you want to unite people you not only need goals and guidelines but a program as well. This is why the Quran not only gives a program for accomplishing the stated goals but also guidelines for formation of a constitution and laws to go with it so that people could organise and regulate themselves as a proper human community according to them for accomplishing the stated objectives. This is why goals, guidelines, program, constitution and laws all have to be consistent with each other so that the whole thing could work smoothly like a machine. This is what deen of Islam basically is in a nut shell.
All human invented ideologies are based upon pyramid scheme for power through manpower or wealth or fooling people in the name of God through various versions of religion or secularism which present a very odd and twisted concept about God over which people waste a lot of time in arguing with each other endlessly as is very much obvious from the debates on various discussion forums.
The difference between deen of Islam and mazhab
To understand the Quran one has to know the difference between the mazhab and deen of Islam and the way to understand the Quran properly. Why? Because till people realise what mazhab is and why it is what it is they cannot have the idea of what deen of Islam is and why it is what it is.
Mazhab is basically result of natural human thought processor. As we know we human beings are born not knowing anything about the real world and its realities. All we are born with is brain and senses and body to make sense of the world in which we are born and things in it including ourselves. In my writings I explain why God has created us the way he did or the way we are. When we start struggling in this word from our births till our deaths we find out many things about this world that we knew nothing at all about. All this leads some of us who have paid enough attention to things to question our origin and purpose and functioning etc etc. This is where at we get stuck because we cannot go any further from here. This is human thought and that is called mazhab=religion ie we think there has to be a creator of all this we see before us. Whether there actually is a creator or not we have no way to find out for sure so we turn to various practices to find out the best we can. This is what we call spiritualism. As people want to know if there is a God or not and if there is one how to reach God to ask him questions we have in our minds so this leads mankind into different directions so people do all sorts of things in order to get near to God as they think better for themselves. This gives birth to many different ideas and practices which we call religions or versions of religion. However no matter what people think and do in the name of God they cannot know anything about God for sure because God is not within their reach through their brains and senses. At this stage people who wish to take undue advantage of each other in the name of God do so therefore people end up divided into many religions and sects within those religions. This is all a mazhab or religion is from the beginning to the end.
Now the deen of Islam aspect of this equation is God getting in touch with humanity. Since people cannot get in touch with God but God can so he gets in touch with mankind through his revelation eg in this era it is the Quran that is God's revelation. This is the fundamental difference between deen of Islam and mazhab. It is a case of people looking for God and God looking for people and when the two meet that is when the connection becomes complete. Think it as if you want to get to the top of a mountain but you cannot on your own so someone drops you a rope from there to help you get there but you can only use that rope if you could rise to the height needed for you to see and catch the rope. However to get to the top of the mountain one has to be able to use the provided rope properly otherwise one is in danger of falling off and breaking one's neck.
The rope itself does not do anything to get you on the top of the mountain, it is because your creator and sustainer has a purpose in mind for creating you and that purpose does not allow him to make the rope do everything for you to get you to the top of the mountain instead he wants you to make your own effort as well in getting to the rope and using it properly. It is God and man working together that can help humanity succeed in accomplishing the purpose of God that is assigned to humanity by God. This is the main reason mazhab is very different from deen of Islam. This explains what is going on around the world in the name of mazhab and deen of Islam ie why there are soofies and mullahs and this and that and all claim to have something to do with Islam. This is like you have to travel from one place to another but you have to use various modes of transport to get there. You may start walking then take a bus and then get into a ship and then into a plan etc etc to reach your destination. What is going to help you make your journey without problems is your best preparation for it. If you think you can get from a to b without needing any preparations then you will be prone to losing your way at many point along the way either by sticking to a particular mode of transport not knowing when to get off one thing to get onto another. This is what religions and sects are about and that is why people are lost in them because they get into this journey without making necessary preparations ie without educating themselves about finding out the truth in this regard. This is why confused people have so many make beliefs and do all sorts of ritual acts in order to please God as they think. This is why it is very important to understand proper concepts about God so that we do not have wrong expectations about God and from God. This is the main reason getting to the revelation of God and making proper sense of it becomes vitally important otherwise we could end up believing all sorts of wrong things and doing all sorts of wrong things in the very name of God thinking them to be right and proper. Such a thing then could become a barrier in our path when it comes to searching for guidance from God.
Let us suppose a person has made necessary preparations and he gets to the revelation of God ie you have the Quran in your hands which claims to be a guidance from God for mankind. From here on another journey starts and that is how to make sense of the text of the Quran or Hadith or any written text be it about history or anything else. This again needs a lot of preparation and the foundation for this purpose is to know what is the original human language, how words came about and how they got their meanings. Why is all this important to know? It is because if we do not know these things then we cannot be sure about human language itself never mind any message of anyone for anyone in any language. It is because without knowing these facts about language we could accuse each other about making up things by ourselves as we go along. To make sure this does not happen these facts are absolutely necessary to know. Since the Quran is merely a text or a collection of written words and nothing more unless we agree its words have a firm foundation and certain concretely established meanings by way of various mechanisms we cannot talk about it or anything else for that matter. This should make absolutely clear to a person looking for guidance from God why such a person has to know certain basic facts about human language clearly before sitting down with the scriopture to make sense of its text.
The other main reason for knowing the very first human language is because without it God could never communicate his message to mankind. In fact one can try and communicate a message to someone else without using any form of human language, one will soon realise what I am talking about. One can try and disagree with me on any of the points I have explained here so far but I do not think one can. Human languages are human inventions but God wanted to use human language to communicate his message, which means he meant to convey his own ideas as they were about things because he knows them in reality. For example, there is a big difference in God using word human and a human being using word human. It is because God knows each and everything about a human being but not a human being despite being a human being oneself. This is why a language that has ability to accommodate message of God has to be used therefore God becomes limited by this fact just like a grown up becomes limited by talking to a baby in baby language. A baby cannot use a higher math’s book. So there arises need for God to wait till baby has become a gown up human being and has a lot of experience with real world realities by interacting with them directly which help him learn things. This is why we provide our kids with toys because we think they will help them learn things by playing with them. God has created a lot of things in this universe for the very same reason that people interact with them to learn from experience with them and then once they have enough knowledge then they sit down with book of God and try and make proper sense of it and once they have it then work according to its guidance.
This is why God needed to use an original human language to express his message for mankind which could not be mistaken by learned people in the human world for anything that did not fit his purpose. Any period bound language could not express message of God because no human generation was ever capable of knowing all at any point in time in human history. This is why a language had to be chosen by God that was flexible enough to be understood by all for ever after the message of God was revealed to mankind. Such a book in this era is only and only the Quran as we shall see when we get into detailed study of the Quranic text.
The Quran explains throughout itself what deen of Islam actually is and what it is not. Moreover the Quran is an interactive book because it is for human beings who have been created with ability to self program themselves just like self programming robots. So people who have prepared themselves well should have little problem in understanding its message properly. So people who think God should spoon feed them or do all the work and leave nothing for people to do need to think what they are asking for and why or is there any sense in it at all, because whoever does anything does it for himself so does God. We cannot force our will on God because it is his will that is supreme. Therefore we should not ask God for things that make no sense in the context in which we ask if we sit and think over it. Can one therefore see how the Quran proves to be a book of science and philosophy, society, politics and economics? It is because it is book of guidance and not a book of complete instructions for each and every person to each and every minute detail. It contains only and only what was essential for mankind to know so that they could find their way to purpose of God for creating them. The foundation of deen of Islam is its name ie a way of life which is capable of leading mankind to blissful, dignified and secure existence in this very world which will be rewarded in hereafter as well. Word ISLAAM is from root SEEN, LAAM and MEEM. These letters are same as in Hebrew. Word Islam means same thing both in Arabic and Hebrew and various other ancient languages as well.
Why is it of vital importance to know about origin and development of human language?
It is because to know the message of God properly is not possible without knowing such facts. If people did not invent ways of communicating with each other then they could not explain anything about anything to anyone because they had no way to communicate with each other. The original human language was body language which gave rise to sign language or gestures. The sign language was coded with sounds and pictures and that is how people came to speak, read and write what they wanted to convey to each other. This was the origin and development of human language which became more and more complex with time due to people discovering many things generation after generation. Why knowing this information is of vital importance for people in order to make sense of message of God? It is because message of God is communicated through words and words have meanings. How did the words come about and how did they get their meanings is therefore very important to know for proper understanding of the message of God.
The other main reason for which knowing such information is of vital importance is because God knows things as they are as he has brought them about but people do not because they are born into this world knowing nothing at all. Although people are born knowing nothing at all but they have been bestowed with brains, senses, bodies, things to sense and interact with in order to learn. The learning process begins with observations of real things as to what they are and how they work and then questioning about them and then trying to answer those questions. Once people have learned sufficiently through their deep and wide life experiences through interaction with real world realities then they are ready for undertaking study of the message of God. This is why people who do not prepare themselves for understanding the message of God properly remain confused all their lives and they cannot follow the revealed message of God faithfully no matter how hard they try. This is why just reading the book from God without knowing some important facts is a useless exercise because the message is sent for a set purpose and that purpose cannot be fulfilled till the message is first understood properly and then followed faithfully. This is the main reason the Quran forbids people from following each other blindly like sheep. It repeatedly tells mankind do not follow even your own very ancestors if they have not learned things that are of vital importance for humanity as a proper human community. This is how the Quran emphasises importance of intellectual integrity. If one's ancestors did not learn sense to be sensible people then it is better that a person oneself learns sense to be a sensible person and not be like one's ancestors ie a foolish person.
Deen of Islam is therefore not a personality cult as most people assume it to be. It is a program for God set goals for mankind to accomplish according to his provided guidelines. This is why deen of Islam is about organising and regulating humanity into a proper human community otherwise its set goals cannot be accomplished by mankind according to its provided guidelines. The main reason people must not follow anyone blindly is because no one knows all things other than God and people cannot understand message of God unless they go about it the way they should as explained. If people will not try to know message of God as explained then they can never make proper sense of it ever. If people will fail to make proper sense of message of God then they cannot benefit from its presence. This is why people must make a real good effort for knowing the message of God properly so that they could ensure their own well being as well as of each other both in this life as well as in life to come.
As explained, the message of God is mainly a set of goals with a program for mankind to accomplish according to his provided guidelines for a constitution and laws so that people become a proper human community through organising and regulating themselves. As long as there is no purpose there is no need for any constitution or law but if there is one then there arises need for a constitution and laws because then all that is there or is done has to be according to some sort of foundational values or rules or chaos will become inevitable and that means the mission or purpose or objective will remain unaccomplished. It means when there is no law then anyone can do whatever one likes but once there has come about a law then that law has to be followed by all involved or things based on that law will not materialise. This is why even the law giver has to remain consistent with his provided law or all his promises based upon that law will mean nothing at all. This is why when there is a law then there cannot be any personality cults because persons come under the law be it by their own choice. This is why laws of nature are consistent and constant and do not go through changes once God has set them up for set up systems to operate. This is why guidelines given to mankind by God for forming constitution and laws do not go through changes because they are permanent and that is because goals set by God for mankind to accomplish are also permanent. This is why deen of Allah was always the very same from the beginning till the end. Unless people take these like basics as foundation they cannot make proper or complete sense of the scripture sent by God or the real world realities no matter how hard they try.
God, a proven fact or a mere fiction?
People are born knowing nothing at all so generally most of them remain ignorant, illiterate, uneducated, untrained and unskilled therefore are very limited in their thinking and doing things. That results in false interpretations of divine message because people are not used to organised or purposeful thinking that leads to sure results. There is nothing wrong with being ignorant because that is natural state of human existence but man is created with ability or potential to learn so remaining ignorant is a crime against God and humanity. That is because an ignorant person is of no use to himself or for that matter to anyone else. Knowledge is power and if one does not have this power then one is powerless or weak and unable to do anything much.
Courage comes from knowledge and ignorance only breeds fear. It is through fear of the unknown man has taken forces of nature and other powerful things as his gods. However it is all a process of growing up. Man is born a baby and grows biologically, psychologically and sociologically. From the day God brought things to existence all has been evolving and has reached the stage that we observe today. It was a very long journey and it will remain a very, very long journey till we reach the stage that God has chosen for us to reach. A human being though begins as a single cell the potential placed within this cell is so great that man has yet to realise it for so many generations to come. It is like a huge tree that grows from a tiny seed bit by bit over a period of time.
The Quran has nothing to do with religion and blind faith. It is a book which deals with all necessary information that humanity will ever need for its guidance. The Quran is the only book in the world of its kind as a proof of existence of God and his program. A book that acts as guidelines for a manifesto, a constitution and a set of laws or legislation. In order to know all this from the Quran itself one has to educate oneself to the level whereby the Quran begins to make sense. After all no book is written without any purpose in mind of its author nor anyone does anything aimlessly. Anything that just happens without any intent and effort is taken as a mistake not a motivated act to some end. Even if someone kills someone by his mistake it is still a mistake and not a first degree murder.
What is Quran? Centuries back in time an Arab by name of Muhammad claimed he was a messenger from Allah. People asked him for a proof of his claim so he gave them a book namely the Quran as evidence to prove his claim. That is the book we are going to talk about and see if that claim was true or false.
Before we begin examination of the Quran in some detail, it is necessary for people to know the difference between self evident facts and proven facts. Then it is also vital to realise the difference between testimonial proven facts and theoretically proven facts.
God is not a self evident fact, that is because we humans cannot detect God by our senses directly or indirectly through instrumentation etc but the universe is self evident fact and all that which exists in it because it is detectable by human senses even if by use of instrumentation if not today may be at some stage later.
The Quran is testimony of God therefore it needs to be examined as a testimony just as we examine the testimony of a witness in a court of law to see if it is true or false. However before we can properly examine any testimony of any witness we need to understand it properly because without understanding what a witness is saying we cannot judge whether what one is saying is true or false. If a witness only spoke French language and the examiner only spoke Persian language then things will not workout till one of them learns the language of the other, the same goes for subjects under discussion ie if one person talked about biology but other could only understand physics things will still not work out till one of the persons comes to know the subject the other is talking about. Likewise a child or a baby minded person cannot understand grown up or educated person's terminology. Since no one does anything without any purpose in mind neither one testifies without knowing why one is testifying, so knowing the purpose of the Quran also becomes of vital importance. However once testimony is found to be sound ie without contradictions within and with respect to related self evident facts then it has proven reliable or true. This is called testimonial proof ie reliable testimony of a witness. One has to remember that one cannot add anything to the testimony of a witness from oneself nor can one take away anything from it, it has to be examined as it is and a person has to come up with one’s own explanations to accept or reject it depending upon the fact the explanation offered is a sound one are not. So the Quran has to be examined the way it is given to mankind without saying what should or should not be in the Quran. If the Quran is found lacking in anything objectively only then it could be proven false but then we will have to prove that it does lack in necessary information regarding its stated purpose. That is if the Quran states that it is for this or that purpose but when we examine it, it does not serve that purpose then it surely proves itself false but on the other hand if we find that it serves its stated purpose fully then the Quran has proven its worth fully so it cannot be denied what it claims to be ie word of God.
Coming to theoretical proof, it is a best personal explanation of available evidences or clues. This is needed because something that happened did not happen before our eyes ie it happened in our absence and that there is no any witness to it either upon whom we could rely to tell us about it. That is because we arrived at the scene late and found only whatever clues were left behind to make whatever sense we could from the clues. For example, we are walking along a road and come across a dead body. There is no one there to tell us what happened to this person so all we can do is see whatever clues are there and come up with an explanation. It could be a murder or natural death or suicide or an accidental death etc etc. So whatever clues we find will help us decide what to make of this situation.
So one can see that theoretical proof is not as strong as witness based proof and witness based proof is not as strong as something that happens right before one’s own eyes. That is how far it is possible for humanity to reach the truth about any matter including existence of God.
This also proves the point that if there is a testimonial proof from God then to fall on blind faith is a false idea and is misleading and this idea must have been implanted in human mind by those who wanted to mislead mankind ie the imperial priesthood. It also proves the idea of versions of religion coming from kings and their priests not God to serve their purpose. Islam is deen not religion. Islam is all about brotherhood of mankind based upon testimonial proof whereas religion is a matter of divide and rule using blind faith for following priests and kings. That is how mankind have been used abusively in the name of God and religion. This is why kings and their priests perverted the messages of God to subvert mankind from deen of Allah but they did not succeed in doing that however they succeeded in making fools of ignorant people. The result is a world that we see all around us today. In order to change this situation for the better we all must learn and educate ourselves and each other to save ourselves from abusive use of each other.
So all people must learn the Quran properly to examine it as a manifesto and program from God for mankind to accomplish some goals according his provided guidelines. The basic goals set by the Quran for people to accomplish are unity, peace, progress and prosperity for mankind. The world in which we are born is only a lab for our experimentation to learn through trials and errors till we have become good enough to be one day managers of the universal factory of God. This process needed to be the way it is because we are supposed to learn from working of this universe and make changes to it to make it suitable for our own living in it ie make it compatible with our existence through interactions within this universe. This is why we are provided with all necessary information and raw materials. This will become clearer as I explain the purpose of creation.
It is important to concentrate on logic and evidence as well as consistency and how they combine to prove existence of God positively. If we ignore this relationship between logic, evidences and consistency then we cannot prove anything at all because then we want everything to happen before our very eyes or as far as we are concerned nothing happened at all eg a murder has not taken place just because it has not happened before our own eyes. It shows how flawed is our thinking in that case because we are denying the very principle that is accepted by all wise people in the world whereby they decide all such matters for which there is no direct evidence at all. After all what is TOE about? Yet almost every scientist worth the name accepts it as a theoretically proven fact.
The other way to look at positive proof of existence of God beside testimonial proof is rational proof. It is a self evident fact that this universe is there. This universe was not always there is also an observed reality. This means it was created, why? Because unless something that changes with time is not created by something that does not change with time it cannot come about. Nothing can come out of nothing ie there has to be something that brings about something ie God has brought about this world. How is that possible?
Since we are here and we know that we are not here permanently so something has bought us here but the question is what brought that thing about? The answer is that thing was not brought about by anything because that had to be there always otherwise we end up with an unending chain of creators, which is impossible. Why is it impossible to have an unending chain of creators? It is because then before each creator could create anything the creator himself needs to be created by its creator. Take this chain to infinity and you will see that in that case nothing gets created, we are not supposed to be here in that case. Let me explain it by an example.
I ask you to help me with some money, you tell me that I need to borrow it from someone else to give it to you but that guy tells you the same and so the story goes on for ever and ever, tell me will I ever get the money I asked for? No, never. It is because each guy keeps going to another guy for borrowing the money so this chain of borrowing does not end so that I could get the help I need. Likewise if each creator needed another creator then when will any creator be there to create anything because creation could not be there at all as a result? Since creation is there therefore it had to have a creator that was always there.
Why the creator created this world and sent his revelation? Because creator wanted to express himself. Anything that exists and is lively has the impulse to exert itself ie it wants to be known as a living being. You have urge to be known if you exist and you are a lively being.
Tell me how would you introduce yourselves? Through your actions that show creativity on your part. God could not express himself unless he was being creative because nothing can. The other problem for urge of expression is that you need to be appreciated by something else that is capable of appreciating you as a creative being. In order to express himself God ended up creating this world and to be appreciated by something he created mankind in it. Something that is free to think ie has its own mind and has ability to show its own creativity given the tools and raw materials as well as a chance to prove itself. God has provided all tools and things of need for man to learn in this factory of God through experimentation ie trial and error till man becomes perfect enough to one day manage his universe for his own good. A time when human potential will become fully unfolded before man and that is the time when man will realise how great creator God was that he created such a wonderful thing called man who himself is such great creator as the handy work of God. That is how one day God will be pleased with what he has created and man will also be please with what he has done with his God given abilities and tools and this is how God will praise man and man will praise God in real sense not by paying lip service to God by not doing anything that shows human creativity.
This is why people need to try their best to understand the Quran properly and follow it faithfully. It has nothing at all to do with mullahs mumbo jumbo. The Quran tells us repeatedly that Allah created all things for mankind ie for man to have it under his control one day and to use it to show his creativity through using it sensibly. He created horses and donkeys etc etc for mankind and man was able to think out ways to domesticate these animals for his use. The same way man has to learn how to become controller of the universe by first learning how it works and then using that knowledge for redesigning it so that it becomes like paradise for mankind to live in.
This is why first thing for humanity to do is to eliminate conflicts from between mankind then after unity get on with task of conquering the universe. The Quran tells us that mankind will have blissful, dignified and secure life throughout this universe. So there is plenty to do yet than what we can think of right now.
This is how the universe and the Quran complement each other so God did not fail in expressing himself but we humans have yet to learn much more than we already have to see the purpose God behind all this carry on of ours. We have yet many, many more generations to go before we can say we have established anything much in our own right to be proud of.
God does not want pooja paat instead he wants to be acknowledged and appreciated through knowledge and creativity because only and only learning knowledge about things can lead us to creativity for which God has created us. Only people of knowledge and creativity can truly acknowledge and appreciate God due to his knowledge and creativity. This is why real human beings are graded above all else. God is only great because of his knowledge and creativity by which he was able to express his existence and greatness. So there is no sense in denying the obvious.
The Quran is all about mankind as a single community so it looks at its actions as collective actions of humans as a single family therefore consequences of its actions are also interlinked for the reason of correction of its mindset, attitude and behaviour ie by way of interaction between its individuals and groups etc the human community can move forward in time doing better for itself or worse. When human community does wrong to each other and continues down that lane after some time people rise against this situation and try to pull it off this course to place it on another path that leads to something better. This situation of error and correction will continue till mankind have had enough experience and finally know what is right or wrong and so give up living their lives the wrong way. This is the time when deen of Allah will become truly established among mankind. Even though the Quran teaches things but it is people who need to learn things till they reach the level of learning that will help them realise or actualise what the Quran is actually teaching them. It is like a road map is there but a person to read it needs to prepare himself to be able to make use of it and that takes time and experience. No matter how much parents try to teach their child, the speed at which a baby learns is still a major factor ie learning does not depend on teacher alone but student as well. Since humans are created to learn like self programming robots so they will take time and wil;l make loads of mistakes. Not only that but they will keep erring and they will keep on correcting themselves till they have learned enough to not to make as many mistakes as they do at the start of the learning process.
In the Quran in things that happen man is only held responsible for criminal behaviour and for that intention or motive or purpose behind the action or inaction as well as the course of actions taken, both count.
Life is all about learning but learning is only possible through trial and error. When a person is born he learns to use his brain, his senses, his limbs and in fact his entire body and things available to him.
In this process a person makes many, many mistakes and many a time hurts himself or others. You try to sit but fall over and over, again and again and even get hurt, when you try to learn how to stand, the same happens etc etc. Humans learn things throughout their lives eg you learn to read and write and learn professional skills and go through countless trials and mistakes. The ultimate aim is to be able to do things without making mistakes so we practice more and more in order to be better and better at doing things if not perfect.
This is why there is no concept of sin in Quran- because it is not a book of religion- but about stopping crime because it is about rule of law based system ie Islam. The Quran very clearly states that even if you kill someone by mistake, it is not a crime. It is because for any action to be a crime it has to be motivated by harmful and destructive intent. Any harm that results through mistakes should be compensated where possible through actions for better results ie you try your best to replace loss the best you can as a human being. Only crime is to be punished but the intention for punishment of crime has to be restoration of balance in community that was disturbed by the crime so that unity and peace returns to community after disturbance.
When a crime is carried out or is allowed to be carried out or is helped to be carried out then community spirit breaks down and once motivation for being a community is gone then you are no longer a community but individuals and groups based on private and personal vested interests against the common good or interest. If you committed a crime and others helped you in various ways eg stopped authorities from catching you, charging you, putting you on trial or saved you from being convicted and even after conviction people get you forgiveness then where does all this leave the human community spirit? Moreover why would anyone do that if one is a community friendly person?
In Quran intervention is good if it is motivated for the benefit of human society eg someone was going to kill somebody and you changed his mind, somebody was going to shoot somebody and you took away his gun, people were fighting and you intervened and saved people from bloodshed. Someone was going to take poison and you got there in time and saved him from doing that. Somebody burnt himself and you took him to hospital or put some ointment on him. Someone was accused falsely and you intervened and proved he was accused falsely. Someone is convicted wrongly and you intervene and get him retrial and he is found not guilty and is freed etc etc.
When a person commits a crime, none is allowed to intervene to save him from being charged and put on trial and after conviction from his set out punishment. However, proper advice is allowed so that one does not commit crime to begin with or that one is not charged under false allegation, or put on trial and prosecuted or convicted wrongly or punished wrongly. This is why there is no forgiveness in Quran for criminal unless there is social benefit in doing that because Quran looks at criminal and the victim as members of the same family. If a family has only two brothers and one kills the other then by putting the other to death finishes off the family therefore out of necessity there could be exceptions to rules at times for the community. It is because man is not perfect and all his actions are not necessarily perfect. Therefore the need for a degree of respite is inevitable. From point of view of God his law is fine but from point of view of man, he needs its understanding and he needs to learn its proper application and wherever things fall on man the possibility of error cannot be ruled out so God had to compensate for that. God has limitations as a God and man has limitations as a man. Just as God cannot be expected to do un-Godly things so a man cannot be expected to do things beyond his natural limits as a man. This is why attributing God with human qualities or a human being with Godly attributes is a hugely wrong thing to do because it puts all things in a wrong perspective and context both for God and creation.
Sin is an imaginary concept and so is forgiveness and atonement etc. This is why these are religious inventions by establishment priests to give people sense of freedom from punishment of their crimes in this world by leaving everything to hereafter and then introducing the idea of forgiveness through intervention of good guys to end the sense of punishment for crimes. This way you do what you like and then say certain prescribed words or do some prescribes rituals and all is well, as if you are a new born. These are not Quranic concepts but were adopted into Islam by establishment and its clergy from other religions for their own purposes but later priestly classes accepted them as they are without any due thought process and they keep spreading them. By looking at Muslim societies throughout the world we can see the results of that. Islam is more about this life than hereafter. There is a saying in Urdu that duniya aakhirat ki kheti hai ie the life in this world is the one upon which depends future life or you reap what you sow. The end result depends upon your own thoughts and actions. It is wrong to think that if you commit crimes in this world, you can get away with that just because you believe certain things or say certain words or carry out certain rituals.
The point to remember is that if mistakes are not to be punished and crime has to be that which is motivated and intended then conviction is inevitable and once conviction is there then punishment that fits the crime is inevitable because that is the way God has set up things and no amount of nonsense beliefs and rituals invented by priests can change that. The concept the Quran puts forth is that of collective punishment rather than individual punishment and concept of punishment is based upon cause and effect or consequences of peoples' own actions as a family. The Quran wants humanity to sort out its all problems according to the provided program for set out goals along with guidelines so nicely that one day the world is what it is supposed to be ie a blissful, dignified and secure place called paradise for mankind to live in. So long as people keep neglecting their responsibilities as a proper human community in a kingdom based upon guidance of Allah, the world will remain as hell as people make it for themselves for as long as they want it to stay that way.
This is why people need to understand the Quranic concepts and not listen to their ignorant religious leaders or they are bound to keep suffering the consequences as told in the Quran. This is what evolution of humanity is all about and that is what revolutions are all about. The world is going through cyclic changes and will continue that way till a proper human society comes about that is exactly as the Quran wants it to be. It is people who are going to bring it about not God. He has sent his messenger for the final time to humanity and has said that deen of Islam is finally to prevail ie the world will end up united, peaceful, progressive and prosperous regardless of what opponents of writ of God think or do to try and prevent it. They will lose out and humanity will become the winner. So we all should be part of solutions to problems and not be part of problems. This cannot happen unless we intervene for ensuring well being of humanity by doing things that are of benefit to humanity and stop intervening for harms and destructions of humanity by doing things that benefit none or even harm others. This is why religion is a false concept and deen is a true concept. And this is why priests are wrong but learned scholars of the Quran based deen of Islam are right.
The Quran tells people to find out things and if you do not know them ask those who really know them. Don't go to those who do not know them. Who knows things and who does not can become obvious from what they tell us ie knowledge speaks for itself.
Do nonMuslims who criticise the Quran know how to study the Quran properly?
Do nonMuslims who criticise the Quran know how to study the Quran properly? Do people who claim to be Muslims know how to study the Quran properly? Are nonMuslim scholars only responding to nonsense of Muslims which they take for deen of Islam or do they have anything original to contribute to the proper understanding of the message of the Quran?
My question to all such scholars is, please tell me what are the very basic requirements for understanding anything at all? I ask this question because both Muslims and nonMuslims claim that the text of the Quran is nothing more than a jumble of verses that make no sense on their own. Is there anything in this universe that anyone can make any sense of without pondering over it? Was the universe and were the things in it there before a person was born? My answer is yes. Was that person aware of all that he saw with his own eyes, heard it with his own ears, smelled it with his own nose, tasted it with his own tongue and felt it with his own sense of touch? Was he born with proper understanding of all this? No, not at all. If that is the fact then how did one come to make sense of all things that he has become aware of so far? The day scholars come to realise this fact they will come to know that the Quranic text is not a collection of random verses. The universe was a perfectly working order complete system before our birth but we only came to know about it once we used our own brains and senses as well as bodily mechanisms to explore the universal realities to make sense of them. It is we who began to see connections between things after we started observing and doing things with whatever we could get our hands on. This is how gradually we built our information bank about the universal realities and our brains by constructing, de-constructing and reconstructing that information started making sense of things. The process is exactly the same when it comes to the Quran. As anyone comes across anything the very first time, things seem disconnected or remote and random till one starts making sense of them, so the Quran is not any exception in this respect.
To understand anything, to begin with we only need brain language which is all pre-programmed just like a computer comes ready to process information. If we did not have pre-programmed brains to a degree we will not be able to process any data that we sensed with our senses. Imagine putting on windows on a computer that had no cpu=central processing unit. More precisely the ALU arithmetic logic unit that acts as a cpu. All this is called hardware. The brain is a biological computer if you like. That is biologically hard wired ready to make use of its senses and to process any information it gets through them as a mechanism for stimulus or a window to outside world.
Brain keeps collecting information through its senses but it then wants to act on this information so it uses its body mechanisms to express itself or connects to outside world to influence it the way it wants. This is how comes about interaction between things in the environment one is born in. This interaction forced people to communicate with each other using additional languages basically body language and sign language and then that led to spoken language as sounds made by people began to take form of codes for real world realities as their names or names of their actions or the way they seemed related to each other etc etc.
Unless people therefore understand the origin and development as well as use of spoken and written language they cannot understand anything about the origin and development of revelation of Allah throughout times and places or origin and development of humanity itself.
This should leave one in no doubt at all as to why so called scholars both Muslims and nonMuslims fail to make proper sense of the text of the Quran. It is because the language provides the very foundational context of any spoken or written word in any book not just the Quran.
The truth is both Muslims and nonMuslims scholars seriously lack knowledge about deen of Islam and due to that all people are busy killing each other due to animal behaviour or worse.
From my above explanation it should be very clear how important communication is between people and therefore the importance of language becomes very much self evident. Now think about how a human baby learns a human language. Once a baby is born into this world his brain and senses begin to work according to environment of this universe so he keeps observing things as they happen all around him and so data keeps gathering in his head as time goes on. He tries to make sense of things as much as he can at each moment of his awareness. He begins to see that people and things around him react to each other through body movements as well as some sounds. After long period of quiet observation he tries to act the same way in order to copy others in their movements as well as their sounds. He begins to see that others also react to him as he makes some moves or sounds so he keeps remembering these little things and that way builds up a bank of codes in his mind for movements and sounds as words. From this it should be clear that people only come to know what they have picked up through their observations and nothing beyond till they develop capability of thinking at higher level. Not only that it also makes it amply clear that thinking does not start all by itself rather there has to be some triggering factors that draw attention towards something to think about. So learning is all about something drawing attention of people and then people exploring the thing towards which their attention is drawn. If attention of a person is not drawn to something in some way ever, one will never become aware of it ever.
This should explain how people learn a language and why they speak only that language to which their attention has been drawn and do not speak any other language to which they have not been exposed. Take this to origin of human species ie how people invented language in sense of listening and talking as well as reading and writing. Human species came about from tree of life just like other species of living things and developed with time. They started as another species of animals in human shape and gradually developed various way of communication among themselves through observing other things that were already there. Originally humans were driven by their drives and reflexive behaviour due to their very limited thinking capacity due to their limited observations and life experiences. However as they built on their experiences generation after generation they began to think first and act later instead of acting first and thinking later. Just as a human baby acts first and then thinks if he is forced to do so by some sort of reaction to his action so original humans gradually became a thinking people who began to reason things out just as babies gradually learn to reason things. This is why the wider and the deeper the life experience one has the better one's making sense of things is.
Since we know how human language came about and developed question arises, how did people give meanings to words? Originally people had certain imaginations in their heads about things they observed so there were no words but then they made bodily gestures to each other and learned to code them in their minds and that helped them to code sounds as well. Any bodily gesture made by anyone meant the whole things not just one word as we know it today. If one raised his hand to show someone I am going to beat you up that is what it meant by raising of hand that way. If one showed by gesture of hands that I am going to catch you, that is what it meant by that gesture. But as soon as sounds became codified the bodily gestures took form of words the same bodily gestures were translated into meaningful words that made sense to people among themselves. The sound language came about because people wanted to explain to each other things they could not explain by bodily gestures alone eg for preservation purposes for future generations. The same urge led mankind to finding a way of writing down the information. This is how people ended up drawing pictures to explain events they experienced. Pictorial writing gave way to letters and letters were modified again and again to refine them for ease of writing. Likewise spoken language went through modifications for sake of refinement or precision. If we go back to how baby starts talking using very same word for each and everything but then as time goes on he develops capability of saying more and more words to say what he wants to say. With time he builds up vocabulary and so did human beings originally generation after generation. As we can see each and every step in human development was driven by need or usefulness. In other words all this helped mankind to survive and progress because knowledge and skills help people get through life easier as compared to those who remain ignorant and unskilled.
Originally people drew pictures of things as a way of writing down what they wanted to say eg they drew picture of a head of an ox or a bull to represent power or authority. They drew picture of a tent to represent family or a household, picture of water to represent sea or a human head to represent chief and so on and so forth. If we look into Arabic letters they are meaningful words eg ALIF means bull and it represent power and authority or stick, BAA means house because originally it was pronounced BAAIT in Hebrew where Arabs got it from. What is known as RAA in Arabic was RAISH in Hebrew or in Arabic RAAS=head or chief. Likewise letter AIN means eye both in Hebrew as well as Arabic. Since all letters in Hebrew are meaningful words so they are in Arabic. The root system also originates from Hebrew and ancestral languages. In root system a few letters are taken as a unit or set or root which is given the meanings based upon individual letters as well as sum total of meanings of all letters. This is why each root has various concrete meanings as well as derived meanings because originally each meaning was a label given to a reality in real world eg BAA=BAAIT=house and house is a concrete reality then word BAAIT itself has three letter root ie BAA, YAA and TAA, so these meanings keep on expanding with each extra word and its combination of letters. YAA means YAD both in Hebrew and Arabic and it means hand. This is how letters were attached meanings in forms of roots. Once a letter was given concrete meanings a set of conceptual meanings also came about based upon what a things was and what it did or what it was useful for or was used for or the way it worked or served a purpose. For example, letter AIN means eye but what is eye and what it does or is used for is also part of meanings of letter ain. This is why in Arabic a root can have many meanings not just one or two. Now that things about origin and development of language are explained in detail it is easy for anyone who has knowledge to see how many objections people raise against the Quran based on lack of understanding of language as to how it came about, developed and was used and as well as how words got their meanings or how language works in actual fact etc etc.
Let us now turn to the Quran. People ask, why Allah does not explain each and everything in detail in the Quran? It is because Allah had a purpose in his mind and had a plan for mankind due to which he created people and the rest of the universe and sent his revelations for mankind to live by so that purpose and plan of Allah comes to its fulfilment. All this is explained in detail in the Quran the final revelation of Allah for the mankind. Whenever anyone does anything one has some reason or purpose for doing it. Allah created mankind and the universe and sent his revelations because he is a living being and wanted to express himself. The only way he decided to express himself was through creation and revelation. Since he wanted to express himself he decided to create mankind for appreciating his creator out of his own choice and that is why humans are taken as special creatures of Allah unlike all other creatures.
Since humans have been created with ability to choose to do things at a higher level than all other creatures therefore Allah could not fully program people to be like fully programmed robots instead he had to program them to a degree and leave them to program themselves for the rest of things that is why he gave people brains, senses, bodies, provisions and revelations to learn and do as they please. This is why the Quran only contains information as much as it serves the purpose and plan of creator of the universe and nothing more than that. It is the implication of what one does that binds one to his plan and purpose and so Allah himself bound himself by this purpose and plan and nothing can make Allah change his mind because if he changes his mind then his purpose and plan will fail and that is impossible ie plan of Allah cannot fail. No one forced Allah to take on this responsibility upon himself but he decided to do all this so he will go through with it no matter what. Since Allah has a purpose and a plan to fulfil so it is not possible that Allah should do anything that ruins the whole thing for him.
Allah is capable of lots of things but only as a God just as man is capable of doing things but only as a human being and this is why the Quran is the way it is. What do I mean by that? I mean that the Quran is a limited text in a language that was not yet fully developed. Why Allah had to send the Quran in an ancient language and why he chose Arabic in particular for the revelation of the Quran as his final message for humanity? It is because Arabic was the only language that could serve purpose of his revelation in this age. Why? Because it was a root based language and that made it very flexible for meanings of words so Allah could express his thoughts in a human language that was so flexible in its meaning therefore it could accommodate thoughts of Allah for guidance of mankind. Not only that but all other root based languages were not as wide spread as Arabic at the time and since then. This is what made it right for the purpose of Allah. But why Allah did not wait till Arabic language developed to its fullest? It is because a fully developed language becomes very precise therefore needs more text for explaining the very same thing because it has more words for more concepts. Let us go back to development of a human baby. A human baby begins with less words to tell many things and as he grows with time he gets to know more and more words for telling about more and more things. However his ratio of words and thoughts gradually reduces ie he uses more number of words for expressing lesser number of thoughts and that is what leads to precision use of language. So what the baby told us using a word or two now he can tell us in many words. His parents had no problem understanding him because they had learned to make sense of what he used to say when he was speaking less number of words. So people who learn things can understand them and those who do not bother to make sense of things they do not understand them regardless the language is under developed or over developed, course or fine.
If the Quran was revealed in a fully developed language its text ought to increase many folds than the text of the Quran we have. Imagine Allah revealing a huge encyclopaedia containing each and everything we humans ever needed, could we make any use of it? No, why not? Because human brain is not that capable to cope with that amount of information. As things are in this universe the way it works, it will have been impossible for people to copy information and share it with each other or to preserve it for coming generations or to carry it about etc etc. So even though Allah was capable of sending people a huge book, people were not able to cope with it due to human limitations. This is why people need to look at things in the context they are explained in the Quran by Allah himself instead of telling Allah what he should or should not have done. This is not for people to decide but right of Allah because when Allah decided things people were not around to give him their suggestions. Moreover if Allah followed our human suggestions instead of doing what he wanted to do, this universe will still be worked upon by Allah because each person will have told Allah many different ways to create things, so plan of Allah will still not have seen the light of the day.
This explanation should make clear to anyone with knowledge why knowing things about language is so important because then one can clearly see implications of attacking the Quran from the wrong angles eg why Allah did not explain things in more detail etc.
The study about origin and development of language tells us that words have various meanings and that those meanings are based upon solid foundation beyond a shadow of doubt. This deals a fatal blow to criticism of the Quran by those people who say that Muslims are seeing things in the Quran which were not there before after they have been discovered by scientists? It shows that if people who claim to be scientist do not have knowledge about the origin and development of language then they can end up making false claims about something they know nothing about. This is how looking at things in their proper context reveals the truth beyond a shadow of doubt. Take for example letter AIN in Arabic. It means eye but it also means a spring why? Because when eye cries it sheds tears and that is why it also means a source of water ie water spring or well or pond or river or sea etc etc. Moreover the very same letter ain means help or support and that is because eye is very much helpful to a person who uses it to see things to find his way to things or around things. This is why to guard or to keep an eye on things and likewise many other meanings come about as a result of a rule whereby meanings of words keep on expanding. On one hand this flexibility in the language helps accommodate various concepts but on the other it also creates a problem that if a word can have so many meanings then how do we choose the right meaning of a word?
After language based context one has to look at the text on basis of its purpose. For example, if I am going to employ someone to guard a place as a watchman then other meanings of word AIN will fall away and that means I am not talking about a water spring. Likewise if I am lifting something heavy and need help with it then I am not looking for a guard or water spring and that is how context makes things very clear despite a word having so many different meanings due to context of origin and development of language. Likewise when we look at words in the Quran we need to keep in mind that we are looking at the Quran as a supposed word of Allah. Why do we need to do that? Because the Quran so claims ie it tells us it is word of God. Since the Quran itself claims to be word of God therefore we have no choice but to examine it for what it claims to be. We cannot investigate something for which we have no claim or accusation or no reason to investigate. Unless there is some case to answer or some accusation or claim about something we have no reason to start an investigation. Only when we have a reason for starting any investigation we will start an investigation. When it comes to the Quran, we cannot start an investigate for what it does not claim to be because we can only start an investigation for what it claims to be and since it claims to be word of God so that is the only reason we can start investigating its claim to see if it proves itself true or not. This means anyone trying to prove the Quran is not the word of God is looking at things the wrong way round. It is a situation like someone claims he has murdered someone and another person comes along and says no he did not. Now we have two opposite claims but the priority rests with person who claims to have murdered someone.
So first we will have to ask the person who claims to have murdered someone to bring his evidence and only if he fails in providing one that we may go to the other person to see what is his evidence for claiming he did not murder someone. However if the person who claims to have murdered someone comes up with a credible or irrefutable evidence then the other person is proven wrong who claimed he did not murder someone. This means people who instead of investigating the Quran for its claim raise other claims against it but have never been able to properly investigate the Quran in the first place to begin with their claims about the Quran are not credible at all. To show they have investigated the Quran for its truth the first things they will need to know is origin and development of language and then the purpose of revelation of the Quran in the context of the Quranic text. If a person is unable to show the Quran has any model in its text but in actual fact there is a model that can be shown from the Quranic text then the case is clear that either the person investigating the Quran does not have the tools needed to know how to investigate the Quran properly or that one is being deliberately dishonest for one reason or the other better known to oneself.
What do we need to keep in mind when we investigate the Quran for its truth? We need to keep in mind that if the Quran is truly word of God then it is talking about things exactly as they are so all meanings of all words need to be taken in that context because God is creator of all things he is talking about in the Quran ie he is talking about things from his point of view where he talks from his point of view unless he is quoting others. The other thing we need to keep in our minds is that we are human beings and as human being we do not know facts as they are till we learn about them in detail through our own research and exploration. So it is a matter of fact that we may not know actual facts about things because we may not have learned them yet therefore we will not be able to make proper sense of things we never learned but the Quran talks about them. So if we do not know things about things then we cannot be certain in expressing our opinions about them till we have come to know them. If we say something is right or wrong without knowing it then that is not the right way to do things. For example, Allah talks in the Quran about human beings in detail but to know what Allah is saying we also need to reach our own understandings about human beings through our own research and exploration or we will not know what Allah is talking about if we are not familiar with things he is talking about regarding human beings.
The question is, have we carried out our own research and exploration as to what human beings are so that we could make sense of what Allah is exactly talking about when he talks about human beings? Allah talks in the Quran in detail about human society, politics, economics etc etc but if we do not know anything much about any of these subject matters then how can we claim we know what the Quran is talking about? Likewise Allah talks in the Quran in detail about philosophy of science and philosophy of history but do we know what philosophy of science and philosophy history is about? Allah talks in the Quran in detail about his program, goals and guidelines for mankind but do we know anything about all this? Allah talks about the universe and things in it in detail but have we carried out any research and exploration to know the universe and things in it? He talks about constitution and laws for mankind but do we know anything about them? Allah talks about organisation and regulation of human society but have we ourselves properly learned anything about organisation and regulation or have we managed to organise and regulate ourselves properly as a proper human community? So who has investigated the Quranic text properly in detail to reach a proper conclusion one way or the other about the Quran?
All this explanation should show very clearly to people of knowledge whether anyone has investigated the Quran properly ever since its revelation after the messenger of Allah passed away. To be able to answer questions about deen of Islam one has to know the Quran properly and one cannot know the Quran properly till one has reasonable grasp over idea of origin of language, how it got its concepts therefore meanings. It is because the Quran was revealed in a particular human language at a particular time in written form as well as in form of reading.
No mullah has any idea about the origin of language, its development and progress and the relevant implications. This is why almost all translations of the Quran are mostly defective because they do not take into account the contexts of the Quranic text. Who can say anything for certain about anything if one has no idea what human language itself is? If anyone wants to make sense of the Quranic text, one has to look for information outside the box in which so called scholars and mullahs have put people for a very long time now.
1)Which scholar or mullah do you need to go to for studying origin of language? All you need to do is learn any facts about any language from any people who are expert in knowing and teaching those facts about a language and they do not have to be Muslims only or nonMuslims only. In fact they can be atheists or theists or neither.
2)Which scholar or mullah do you need to go to, to learn about realities of real world? All you need to do is go to people who observe real word realities and explore and carry out research works therefore discover things and inform people about them.
3)It is a matter of fact that one cannot understand the Quran unless one knows facts about the human language and the language used for the Quran by Allah. Because it gives us foundational context of the Quranic text. It is due to having proper sense of human language that we are able to make sense of realities of our universe in which we are born. It is then that these realities of real world give us secondary foundational context to see what the message of the Quran may be. If we do not know things about language or real world realities then we have no way of knowing what words are and what they actually mean. This is why the Quran puts emphasis on using our God given brains, senses, bodies and provided things including his revelation properly, otherwise people are nothing more than animals. In fact God himself labels them worst of all the animals.
4)Only if one has sense of these contexts, the context of the Quranic text within itself becomes important not otherwise. Once we have the understanding of the Quranic text in these contexts only then we have the context for things attributed to the messenger of Allah as a criterion to see if they are true or false. Once we have all these things properly in their proper contexts we can see what people attributed to people is true or false because then we have the solid criterion to judge things by.
All this explanation shows that one does not need any scholar or mullah to explain anything at all because learning and doing things is common heritage of humanity. We can learn anything from anyone who knows it. However whatever we learn we have a duty to pass it on to others for ensuring well being of mankind.
The Quranic use of languages helps expand human power of thinking. How does it do it? It does it by using less number of words for expressing more number of concepts and facts. It is because when things are talked about in less detail then the listener has to put pressure on one's own mind to think out what the speaker is talking about and that helps mind expand and become more sophisticated ie the more one tries to figure out things the more human mind expands and becomes more capable of making sense of more things which in turn helps humanity make progress and prosper. Through revelations Allah has been drawing human attention to things so that people are stimulated to explore things and grow both physically and mentally. So the revelations by Allah played a huge role in helping humanity to be what it is though people did not make full use of it so far otherwise world could have been in a much better state than it is.
To address questions about Quranic transmission is also important. The fact is, the Quran we have today is the same as the one the messenger of Allah left behind. it is because the transmission of the Quran has been flawless. The Quran came to us in three different ways independent of each other. In form of written text that has been copied from written copies. In form of memorised words through chain of hufaaz (=memorisers of the Quran by heart) and in form of meanings of the words used in the text. You cannot write the Quran out of memory alone particularly uniformly nor memorise it from written text without differences due to nature of the Arabic language the way it is due to its origin, development and progress as well as its use and working. Because there is uniformity in memorised Quranic text as well as there is uniformity in written Quranic text copies that concretely proves it beyond a shadow of doubt the Quran was transmitted flawlessly. It is because the way Arabic was written in ancient times people could not memorise the Quran as a uniform recitation from their individual writings due to inter-changeability in spellings of words and likewise they could not write it down from memory as a uniform text due to various ways of writing the same words due to replacement of letters in words due to multiple roots of the very same words. This is why any claim that the Quran was not a written down text in the time of the messenger of Allah falls flat on its face.
Anyone who knows about origin of language and its development knows that Arabic uses a letter replacement idea in words a lot. It is because Arabic is a relatively new language as compared to its sister or ancestral languages such as Aramaic, Hebrew, Ugarit, Phoenician, Syriac, Akkadian etc. Since Arabic comes from other languages so it borrows words from them therefore it ends up using multiple roots to express the very same concept due to transliteration problems between languages. For example, word MAKKAH is also called BAKKAH why? Because these two words Arabic borrowed from two or more different languages. It is like word PARAAN and FARAAN. In Persian both sounds exists ie P as well as F but in Arabic P sound does not exist so the Arabs use their own closely resembling sound to P which is F or B. So while Persians say PARAAN Arabs say FARAAN. The same is the case with word PAKISTAN ie Arabs say BAKISTAN ie they replace P with B.
This problem exists between languages as a matter of fact. It is also a matter of fact that languages have been borrowing from each other heavily because they are interconnected just like generations of the people themselves. In some cases one language has borrowed from another language directly but in other cases indirectly ie first a word was borrowed by one language so it was modified to suit use of that language and then from that language it was borrowed by another language and was modified to make it suitable for use in that language. So depending on from how many different languages a word has been borrowed by a borrowing language it became pronounced and written in different ways in the very same language that borrowed it and this is the case in case of Arabic language as well. In Arabic letters like TAA, SAA and TWAA are interchangeable because they sound very close. Likewise letter BAA, FAA, MEEM and WOW are interchangeable. The case is same with letters SEEN and SWAAD or letter ZAAL, ZAA, ZWAAD and ZWAA. Letter ZWAAD however can also be interchanged with letter DAAL because it is also called DWAAD instead of ZWAAD. Same is problem with letters KHAA, QAAF and KAAF, HAA and HAA etc etc. Over a period of time in Arabic itself letters and pronunciations became standardised but transliteration related problems between different languages remain the same even today. Arabs did not modify their language beyond 28 letters symbols but they modified the language by adding symbols for vowels including HAMZAH eg FATAH, KASRA, DAMMA, MADDA, SHADDA and a short alif symbol which is placed above or below a letter to make it equal to adding ALIF or YAA. The Quranic text is based upon that standard. There has been no modification in number of letters since the revelation of the Quran. So long as the Quran remains in existence and people keep adhering to it, there will not be any modification in Arabic language of that nature which changes it completely into a modern language breaking its ties with its past like other latest languages. However borrowing between Arabic and newer languages continues even today and so it continues between other languages as well.
The purpose of this explanation was to show why Arabic has more than one root set for a word in some cases. For example, let us take word KITAAB. It has only one root in Arabic ie KAAF, TAA and BAA. However this is not the case with word ISRAA. This word has a few roots ie SEEN, RAA and WOW; SEEN RAA and YAA; SEEN, WOW and RAA; and SEEN, YAA and RAA. In ancient times all Arabs moved away from each other so they were not one people living in one and the same place speaking exactly the very same kind of Arabic even though originally they come from the very same ancestors. Human race itself is originally one race that comes from same ancestors but people moved away from each other as their needs and situations or circumstances demanded or dictated. After separating each people kept on inventing more things and words to talk about them so today people have come together again but they speak very many different languages from what they learned from their original ancestors though some of the words we can still make out among all people because they remained unchanged or suffered less change despite transliteration problems. Likewise Arabs even though were same people but they moved away from each other and then they were united and so there were differences between their spoken and written language of this nature because each group borrowed from other people of other languages they were in contact with as they needed. All this explanation in my view was necessary to come to the point because it will help people understand something I am going to explain about the originality of the Quranic text.
As explained above a lot of words in Arabic are written using different letters. For example, let us take word SIRAAT. In Arabic language word SIRAAT is written in two ways ie using SEEN as its first letter or SWAAD. In some places people write word SIRAAT using letter SWAAD and in others using letter SEEN so word SIRAAT has two roots ie SWAAD, RAA and TWAA as well as SEEN, RAA and TWAA. If we read the Quranic text, nowhere in the Quran word SIRAAT is written with letter SEEN at the beginning and everywhere in the Quran word SIRAAT is always written with letter SWAAD. You will agree that if the Quran did not come down in written form and people made copies out of their memories as individuals independent of each other then we ought to find that some copies of the Quran ought to have in them word siraat written with letter swaad and in others word siraat written with letter seen. In fact each copy was bound to have letters seen and swaad in different places compared to each other. Since all copies of the Quran to date contain this word written only and only by using letter swaad then how do we explain this consistency unless people were given a copy of the Quran in writing to copy the written text from it exactly as it was? Let me explain this in another way in English. If I dictated to a mixed group of people from different countries in different places to write down word MUHAMMAD, will they all write it exactly as I have it in my mind or will they do it the way they know it according to their own life experiences in their own places? An Italian person will write Muhammad the way he thinks and an English person will write it the way he thinks and a French person will write it the way he thinks etc etc. Some will end up writing Muhammad others Mohammed and yet others Mohamed and so on and so forth.
Word SIRAAT is not the only one but there are dozens of such words used in the text of the Quran throughout the text of the Quran and they have been transmitted constantly exactly the same. This should leave no doubt in one's mind that the Quran was transmitted both in written and spoken forms right from the day one otherwise such differences as explained between copies that still exist in the world of different times and places will have been unimaginable due to nature of the Arabic language. For an Urdu, Farsi or Arabic speaker it is very easy to refute all scholars who think the Quran we have today is not original. How? By looking at ancient copies of the Quran. These copies did not have dots to distinguish between letters to begin with and they did not have vowel marks. What does that mean? To explain what it means let me explain things about Arabic writing a bit. Arabic words are written using full letter shapes as well as stumps of letter shapes. When written in full shape one cannot tell the difference between BAA, TAA and SAA, JEEM, HAA and KHAA, DAAL and ZAAL, RAA and ZAA, SEEN and SHEEN, SWAAD and DWAAD, TWAA and ZWAA, AIN and GHAIN etc without distinguishing dots and that is how Arab used to write Arabic originally in olden times. Likewise when it comes to writing letters as stumps they are written at the beginning of a word or in the middle of a word or at its end. In case of being written in the middle letter NOON also becomes like BAA, TAA and SAA so four letters end up using the very same symbol. Not only that the FAA and QAAF also become indistinguishable as well as letters LAAM and YAA. One can look at ancient Arabic inscriptions as well as copies of the Quran to see what I mean. This being the case none could read a writing unless one already knew the text by heart. If one person wrote something and gave it to another to read who did not know what was written then one will have very tough time to make out what the text might be saying. In short no one could read the written text of the size of the Quran in that style of writing ever if one was not familiar with it already or did not have it in his memory. This is how memory and writing both helped people to keep the text of the Quran properly preserved beyond a shadow of doubt.
In Arabic vowels can be replaced with diacritical marks so each consonant could have six possible sounds eg MEEM could be MU or MOOO, or MA or MAAA, or ME or MEEE etc. So if we wrote just four consonants MHMD, we will have 6x6x6x6=1296 possibilities of pronunciations. These are concrete facts which any scholar can verify for oneself. It is really challenging for any scholar to try reading a text that is size of the Quran merely from the consonants alone without having known it previously. One cannot read such a text unless one has it already in one's memory. This is clear proof that the Quran was memorised direct from the source otherwise merely having a text could end up as countless number of different readings because each word could be pronounced in many different ways due to lack of diacritical marks as well as due to lack of dots for identification of each letter in words. The lack of such huge number of variant reading of the Quranic text in the Muslim world concretely proves that the Quran as we have it today is original. There is no scholar on earth who could ever prove otherwise or enemies of deen of Islam who do not let go any opportunity to attack it will have done it already.
Just as it was not possible to read the Quran from the written text alone uniformly so it was not possible to write the Quran uniformly if it was not copied in writing from the already existing written copies of the Quran. Why not? As explained already many words in the Quran had variant roots so if people sat down to write a text out of their memories as individuals then each person will have made a copy from his memory as he knew how to write a word so there will occur numberless variants written texts. For example, if people had to write down word SIRAAT, some will write it with SEEN and others with SWAAD. Not only that but they will do it in different places in the Quranic text wherever this word was repeated. Since the Quran has many such words in it then we ought to find such variations in huge numbers ie trillions of variants but we do not. How can any scholar in the world explain that? So another clear proof that the Quran came down both in written and memorised forms independent of each other.
These simple explanations are sufficient to prove that people who rely on false reports in Hadith books and other sources to prove the Quran was collected and written down after the prophet are seriously mistaken therefore such reports should not be taken seriously in light of such concrete proofs as stated here. Moreover all reliable reports in Hadis books must be interpreted in this context so that they make proper sense.
This however does not mean there are no copying errors in the existing copies of the Quran, there are but the nature of error is very simple ie humans make all sorts of errors due to absent mindedness in whatever they do. Mind always wanders off when people get tired or bored in doing something so they may end up writing something out of context or missing the whole line of text or add something from whatever is in their minds etc etc. Not only that people add their own notes in books for jogging their memory about some points they think are important to highlight for later referral. So those who were copying the Quran suffered the same but nothing was done deliberately because for that one had to have a purpose in mind. What I mean is that if anyone wanted to change the Quran deliberately then one ought to have some purpose in mind which his new Quran could serve and in that case ummah could never have the same Quranic text which it always have had to date.
So all allegations against the originality of the Quran are mere misunderstanding of the scholars and nothing more unless they have ulterior motives to deliberately say falsehood against the originality of the Quran but that only they know for themselves. A misunderstanding of scholars is that they take modification of written Arabic as changes in text of the Quran. They do not realise that when people face problems they look for solutions. It was found very difficult to read and write the Quran the way the original Arabic was written so they came up with idea of adding dots and diacritical marks to reduce dependency on memory. This is why when new ways of writing the very same text were discovered the number of hufaaz of the Quran dropped from say 90% to a few percent. It is because people could now read actual message from the written Arabic text except for a small number of things so dependency on hufaaz decreased with time and coming about of printing press.
To explain the same point further as an example, if a word was management and it was written as MNGMNT but was modified to management due to development and progress in the language then scholars due to their ignorance took it as a change in the actual text of the Quran, which is silly to say the least. We even today use signs for many things including road traffic signs instead of writing because they are easy to work with than standing on a sign post and reading a sign while people blow their tops off shouting during busy road traffic. So it all depends on how a society organises and regulates itself and how easy it feels with what it does otherwise people modify things as it suits them better. So when things seemed difficult Arabs modified the way of writing Arabic and in doing so benefited from this modification. Such simple explanations are ignored by people or they remain ignorant about them yet they claim their research is of highest standard.
Yet other thing in the Quran is letters in the beginning of some surahs. Some of them if were not pronounced as well as written they could confuse people as to what they were ie words or separate letters eg take surah two verse one letters ALIF, LAAM and MEEM. The way they are written in surahs they could be taken for meaningful words because there is a word in Arabic which is pronounced ALAM eg see in surah 94 verse one.
Yet other evidence is the fact that the very first verse of the Quran is always written the very same way ie BISMILLA HIRRAHMAA NIRRAAHEEM. It is written with 19 letters in it always whereas it can be written with a few more letters eg ALIF in ISM of BISMILLAH is MISSING. Word ISM is written in surah 96 verse one with ALIF. Anyone will find that all copies of the Quran throughout the world are written exactly that way. Had each person dictated the Quranic text out of memory and each person wrote it down the way one knew to write it then we ought to see very many differences in written texts of this nature but there are none.
All copies of the Quran have no bismillah at the start of surah nine. Had people made copies as they liked then we will have found variations between them some including and some excluding letters, words and verses in the text. So there is water tight evidence that the Quran as we have it was written down by the messenger of Allah himself and handed down to his people before he passed away. He actually delivered the message of Allah as it was supposed to be delivered ie in recitation and writing otherwise he could not have been chosen as a messenger by Allah. Even we humans do not choose bad workers for getting our works done if we can help it so how could Allah be expected to do such a silly thing as choose someone unfit for the job? That will have ruined the whole purpose and plan of Allah for humanity. Had the final messenger of Allah himself not left an undisputed copy of the Quran behind and the people at the time fully accepting it then people could have ended up divided about it right from the very beginning for ever and none could have united them on the basis of the Quran after him. Today whatever else Muslims do they have only one Quran and copies of the Quran are available throughout the world even from long time in the past. According to some claims we have copies of the Quran even from the time very near to the time of the prophet and some odd pages even from the time of the messenger of Allah that show exactly the same text as we have it today.
Unfortunately Muslims are not good at preservations, observations, research and explorations. It is a miracle in itself for Quran to have survived intact till now somehow because Muslims are such a people who did very little to advance the message of the Quran properly. The way people claiming to be Muslims are busy killing each other it is not going to take very long before they are all gone. Any remaining ones will be done away with by kufaar. But then Allah has a plan of his own so we will come to know whatever awaits for us good or bad. Muslims fight among themselves due to their ignorance and stupidity and not because there is anything wrong with the Quran.
Please do note that scribal errors are there in the hand written copies of the Quran and so are there printing errors in printed copies as well as book binding errors even in currently published copies of the Quran but they should not be taken seriously as human errors are human nature. These errors if I sit down with copies of the Quran can find and correct but I will not do so nor advise anyone else because that will be tempering with original copies that are historical documents of huge value. However since we are aware of these like errors therefore we should not let them through to newer copies we make through future media that is more capable of helping us for coping with this task. Moreover when we talk to people about errors in the Quranic text we should never claim that there are no human errors in the copies of the Quran. Such errors have no affect upon the actual message of the Quran therefore its integrity.
ancient quran in a german uni dated 649-675ce
http://idb.ub.uni-tuebingen.de/digl...gesearch&sid=77f540065b6795e19457a972a4462911
The oldest fragments of the Quran date 625 ce in National library of Algeria
London exhibition unveils ancient Koran
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=klr3Jy2e3mk
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6nZpClvTaDo
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qsyeR77WT7g
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=p2xKDbOU5wc
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kYAGtR7EdS0
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4H7If_rSl7E
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0RFchKei17o
The problem with claims of all western scholars of the Quran is they are not aware of certain facts about the Quran due to which they have no idea what the deen of Islam actually is. Their biggest problem is mullahs who had no sense of the actual message of the Quran so they misinterpreted the actual Quranic text and misrepresented the message of the Quran therefore the whole response of western scholarship is in that context which is therefore incorrect. A true scholar of the Quran should separate the Quran from what its alleged followers say about it and look at it as a document in its own right and see what it says afresh according to rules explained above by myself very clearly. If one then did not find the actual model of the deen of Islam in the Quran that could not be defeated then one had the right to claim all those things ignorant people claimed about the Quran.
NonMuslim scholars assume right from the very beginning that the message of the Quran is what people who claim to be Muslims say they believe it to be. This means they are not examining the text of the Quran but what people claim about the text as to what it means. It shows their scholarship is not up to the standard the Quran requires for its scrutinizers or cross examiners or critics. This only proves their ignorance and stupidity or ulterior motives just like rulers, money lenders and mullahs or both.
1) Questions have been raised by Muslims and nonMuslims alike whether it is possible to translate the Quranic text perfectly. What has been explained about the nature of the language in sense of its origin, development and the way it works and what is explained about role of God and role of humanity should leave one in no doubt that it is not possible for humanity to interpret the message of God precisely ever. The main reason is difference between the knowledge of God and knowledge of people. However, it is very much possible for all practical purposes for people to know and teach the message of the Quran to each other with a degree of accuracy in sense of its purpose, which is mainly guidance of mankind to some degree or as much as people can make proper sense of it. So any claim that anyone ever knew the whole of the Quran perfectly is a false claim. Even the messengers of Allah only came to know as much of the revelation of Allah as was humanly possible for them according to their own time and place as per their own life experiences. It is because to understand anything at all one has to have related life experience. It is like you teach the Quran to a child for memorising so the message is in memory of the child but sense about the message will only develop in the child as child learns things throughout his life experience as he grows. If a memoriser of the Quranic text never thinks about understanding its message properly then he will never know it properly despite having the text of the whole Quran memorised in his head. All one can say is that messengers of Allah knew the message maximum possible at the time or that no one knew the message as good as the messengers of Allah at the time. Any claim about any messenger of Allah about knowing things beyond human capability is attributing falsehood to the messengers of Allah. In deen of Allah there is no such thing as personality cult. It is because the reference is always the revealed scripture from Allah not any particular person be one a messenger of Allah. It is because only Allah is free of making any mistakes so only his message can be free of all errors.
As for human beings they cannot be declared free of human errors but one can say they never did anything deliberately wrong if they were true followers of the word of Allah. This is why they cannot be the reference point in their own right independent of revelation of Allah. In the Quran Allah talks about prophet Ibraheem as an exemplary messenger of Allah and he is said to be leader of mankind but only so far as his following of the message of Allah. Even when he asks Allah about his biological and ideological children to be made leaders of mankind, he is told very clearly that yes but only if they also followed message of Allah like you. The idea that Quran asks people to follow any messenger of Allah as a model in his own right is attributing falsehood to Allah and his messengers. This is a very important and a decisive point for all people to pay their attention to and who wish to know the message of the Quran properly. A clear proof that deen of Islam is not a personality cult as claimed by mullahs of various sects. This is why the primary source of information about deen of Islam is the Quran not the ahaadith attributed to the messenger of Allah nor the information passed down the generations of Muslims in form of books of fiqh= the so called Islamic jurisprudence. This does not mean the books of Hadith or Fiqh are not important but only as secondary sources to the Quran. The main reason for that is the status or position of the Quran in deen of Islam. The Quran is taken as word of Allah, the master of the universe and all that exists. He is sole ruler of the universe by right of its ownership due to being its creator. This being the case no human being should claim nor should be accepted as an authority on equal footing with Allah. All human beings be they messengers of Allah are still his creatures and not Gods in their own rights so people cannot be given same status as that of Allah.
2) When it comes to interpretation of the Quran, as explained already it must be interpreted mainly in context of its language and its purpose in light of self evident facts or in light of real world realities ensuring one does not introduce contradictions within the alleged testament of Allah or between the alleged testament of Allah and self evidence facts or real world realities when the Quran itself claims to be free of such contradictions and tells mankind to check it against real world realities to see how consistent it is in order to realise how the Quran proves to be word of Allah. That means people who sit down to interpret the Quranic text must first be familiar with things the Quran is talking about because if anyone will try to interpret the Quran not knowing the required information for doing this job then such a person will make tonnes of mistakes and if such mistakes are passed onto people as the message of Allah then it could have serious consequences for humanity as a whole even if such mistakes are result of an innocent adventure by a person. It is because people who will accept the message of the Quran on basis of its translations will not be accepting the actual message of the Quran but its inaccurately translated versions which will be effectively false teachings in its name and by acting upon those teaching people will be doing things that could end up harming them as individuals and as groups.
Likewise people who will reject the message of the Quran due to mistakes in the translations of its message will be rejecting the actual message of the Quran assuming it to be actual message of the Quran instead of taking the translations as erroneous and inaccurate, so they will turn away or remain away from the true guidance of Allah due to mistakes caused by the translators. The consequences will be serious because the result will be more and more divisions among people of the book and more and more people will move away from the book and as people remain divided and divisions increase more and more fights and wars will continue between people because of wrong interpretations of the message. So one can see what is at stake if things were not done the right way. However this will be taken advantage of by those who want things to be that way ie rulers, money lenders, mullahs, their touts and supporters due to their ignorance and stupidity as well as arrogance ie due to their sense of dominating others by undermining them so that they could use and abuse them at will. In short such people will try their best to use the scripture as a tool for manipulating mankind to fulfil their own personal objectives thereby.
3) It is very important that when we talk about Islam we have some understanding of the actual situation. The main issue when we discuss Islam is, what do we take Islam for ie a set of make beliefs and some useless rituals for individuals or a program for mankind for accomplishing some goals according to some guidelines as a proper human community based upon Quranic constitution and laws for running a kingdom in the name of Allah according to his guidance?
Anyone who takes Islam as a religion has to answer a main question, why there are guidelines for a constitution and laws for organisation and regulation of human society? What has praying to do with God and with running of a kingdom or a community? It is because religion is all about individuals having some so called beliefs and doing some acts of so called worship as one sees fit. It is not anyone's business what anyone else believes or does because it is a private affair between a person and his God. The main question one has to ask oneself is, does Islam fit this category? My answer is very clear that Islam does not fit this category therefore I do not accept Islam is a religion nor should anyone who knows the Quran better.
All people who have learned some sense and have studied the Quran for knowing Islam believe that Islam is not only about God and man but about God and man as well as about humanity as a whole. In other words Islam is a way of life that leads mankind to an end that is set by Allah for mankind. It is the main reason why Islam is called deenillah or sabeelillah or ADDEEN or deen of Islam ie the way of life advised for mankind by Allah for a blissful, dignified and secure existence. All this explains why Allah advised this way of life for mankind.
Since in my understanding of the Quran Islam is not a religion therefore any argument over religion of Islam is a nonsense and shows a person is totally confused about Islam be one a person who claims to be a Muslim or a nonMuslim. The main thing is that anyone who thinks Islam is a religion must first prove Islam is a religion before one accepts it or rejects it or raises any objection against it or answers those objections. In other words there is no sense in talking about Islam as a religion because it is not a religion so why waste time and energy on something that is not really there. I therefore oppose views of any person who claims Islam is a religion regardless one claims to be a Muslim or happens to be a nonMuslim. I want such a person to prove from the Quran that his claim is right about Islam that it is only a system of some dogmatic beliefs and some rituals that have nothing at all to do with real world realities. It is because religion cannot be but a private matter for an individual and his God whereas the Quran is very clear that Islam is not a private affair of an individual and his God. This is why in my view Islam is a deen because what is told in the Quran is related to real world realities. The whole message of the Quran is about changing the real world realities for the betterment of mankind to ensure well being of mankind. Since it is a deen so all need to understand it as such regardless they claim to be Muslims or happen to be nonMuslims. So all questions about deen of Islam are to be asked and answered in that context.
Since Islam is a deen sent by Allah therefore it is a program from Allah for mankind for accomplishing some goals according to his provided guidelines. Since it is a program for mankind therefore the message of the Quran must be taken to all people in the world so that they have a look at it and think it over and if they like what they are told they come together to form a community network on basis of a constitution and its laws as per guidelines provided in the Quran. This is the context in which people need to understand Islamic shariah or law or jurisprudence. It is in this context one must come to know the procedure for writing a constitution or forming a law. This is why individuals need to know the Quran and have their opinions and arguments to back them up but it is the ummah that is to decide together what is to be the correct interpretation of the book and arrive at a consensus after having the knowledge needed for interpreting the Quran properly. Unless it is an educated ummah that accepts a constitution or a law as a whole, it cannot be called an Islamic law or shariah. From this explained procedure it should be very clear why fatwas by ignorant, illiterate, uneducated, untrained, unskilled and unthinking foolish individuals mean nothing at all in proper context of deen of Islam in light of the Quran. One must remember that a constitution or any laws must be accepted by all in the ummah freely after at least a simple properly educated majority agrees upon them. None is supposed to accept any constitution or law that goes against the stated goals and guidelines of the Quran. Before people sit down to argue over what the constitution or law should be they must have a very good idea about what are the goals they want to achieve or accomplish as an ummah and what are the guidelines so that no article or clause is put in the constitution that is in conflict with the aims and the objectives of the constitution.
In other words a constitution needs to be written down with declared objectives right at the top of the document. Since aims and objectives are the starting point of written constitution so all clauses that follow must be in line or consistent with these objectives otherwise the so called constitution or the laws will not be worth the paper they are written upon. Once a constitution is structured with all its articles, act and clauses as a complete document with all the needed laws regarding institutions, office bearers and individuals and organisational groups in the ummah then ummah as a whole must examine it with care and see if any mistake has been made in constructing this document before it is ratified and implemented by the ummah. If anything important is left out or something has been added which is not right then changes can be made in the constitution or laws even after ratification but each time any change has been made it must be put before ummah and accepted by it otherwise the document will become invalid as a constitution or law. I will explain what are the aims and objectives or goals set for ummah to accomplish and what are guidelines so people should read through to come to know them because each and everything about the Quran and deen of Islam cannot be explained in one place or in one go otherwise people will not have written or read explanations about the message of the Quran in so many volumes.
The other important point to remember is that the Quran is about three states of existence of Muslims ie as individuals in any place in the world, as a proper human community anywhere in the world and as a proper human community within a kingdom of their own based upon guidance of Allah. Each of these three states of existence has its own requirements. Individuals are only required what they can do as individuals and proper human community is only required what the proper human community can do as a such and a proper human community in a kingdom of its own is required what it can do as a proper human community in a kingdom of its own. In short there are very limited requirements for individuals but requirements increase when people become a proper human community and they increase even more when the proper human community has its own kingdom based upon guidance of Allah. It is because as people who accept deen of Islam increase in their numbers their power increases and therefore their responsibilities also increase towards each other and towards rest of mankind. For example, an individual is mainly responsible for learning and educating oneself about all one can learn in one's life time as well as about learning the Quran and only when one has learned deen of Islam properly oneself one's responsibility increases for teaching it to others the best one can. However it is binding upon individuals to learn about deen of Islam properly and then pass it onto others. It is also binding upon more than one Muslims to always live together as a family fully supporting each other in every way and keep working to bring more and more people into the fold of deen of Islam or into the proper human community based upon guidance of Allah. Once a few people come together they must organise and regulate themselves according to the Quranic guidelines as explained. They must form a constitution to help them organise themselves and work out laws to help them regulate themselves in light of Quranic guidelines as well as in light of ground realities that face them as per their situations and circumstances.
