Surah 2 AL-BAQARAH- The plots or conspiracies, tricks or mechanisms used by rulers, mullahs, money lenders, their touts and supporters to cause divisions or dissensions, rifts or conflicts, hatred and wars between mankind and the ways to remove them for unity, peace, progress and prosperity of mankind
This surah is named AL-BAQARAH from root BAA, QAAF and RAA. Concrete meaning of this root is to tear something apart in some sense for some reason. Also to rip apart something in some sense to expose its contents, to search extensively, to carry out research work, to explore extensively, to try to discover or uncover something in some sense, to bring situation under control, to find and solve problems, lion or bull, an animal domesticated for use eg cow, scholarship, dissention, separation, division, conflict, corruption, sacred cow, make beliefs, division of power between monarchy and priesthood on basis of land and religion, something held sacred or as if sacred, something beyond question or criticism, division of power between rulers and priests on basis of state and religion, division of power between political elite and religious elite and capitalist elite on basis of economics and religion and secularism, division between people on basis of religion and secularism and capitalism, to travel around, to split or split up, to gash, to plough, to enlarge, to stretch or expand, to cause trouble or mischief, to be strong or powerful, to shelter or shield or protect or secure, to cause instability or chaos or confusion or anarchy or panic, to cause to fall in identity crisis, to destabilise, to upset things, to turn things upside down, to be energetic or lively or active, to jump about, to hang onto something in some sense for some reason, to plot or scheme or conspire, to spread rumours, to slander, to backbite, to spread gossip, command and control centre, ruling elite, top part or section of something, chief or head of a tribe or people, leadership, to provide with refuge or shelter, to take into care, to guard or look after, to think or reflect or ponder, constitution, rule of law, tradition, custom, family or following or support etc etc.
The Quran does not name its surahs randomly by choosing a word from the surah itself as told by mullahs rather the surah title is intended to convey the message related to the heading from within the surah contents. As can be seen in surah 1, the name was AL FAATIHAH and this word does not occur in surah alfaatihah, however the concept behind this title is to convey a few things a)the opening or starting of the message of Allah, b)that it is a proclamation ie an open declaration from God through His messenger to the mankind and c)it is to convey overall picture or context of the message of the Quran etc etc. Likewise here the chosen word is AL-BAQARAH and it is turned into definite article with AL=the. So the concepts this title conveys are related to divisions, rifts, hatred and wars between people and reasons behind them as well as the way to resolve these conflicts.
The Quran shows two fundamental categories of people from which the rest of divisions come about or arise a)people who want to live on basis of guidance of Allah according to his advised way of life as a proper human community that is caring and sharing because they live for ensuring well being of each other and b)people who want to live as they wish on the basis of personal gains at the expense of each other or at the expense of community life based upon community spirit. What is the difference between the two ways of life for people? The difference is that in case of people based upon guidance of Allah there is no master slave relationship between people because DEEN from Allah is Islam which is all about brotherhood of mankind therefore there is no concept of rule of a human being over another human being and there is no mechanism in there for using each other abusively in order to exploit each other for personal gains at each other’s expense, so there is no business for profit concept within the proper human community at the expense of each other. It is because brotherhood is all about people dealing with each other on basis of love and compassion as a single human family caring for each other and sharing everything with each other fully instead of dealing with each other on basis of business for profit or personal gains at the expense of each other, which leads to terrible conflicts in all kinds of relationships because in that case profit comes before well being of people therefore each person is for himself ie the idea of survival of the fittest or laws of jungle. Since people can only live by laws made by themselves or by laws based upon revelation of Allah and some people choose one way of living and the other another therefore arise divisions and conflicts between them. It should therefore be clear which group of people can be or is trouble maker and why. Not only that but people who choose to live by self made laws on basis of personal gains at the expense of each other and therefore at the expense of community based life end up with rivalries, animosities, hatred and wars among themselves due to vested personal interest based conflicts. This is why we see the whole world is plunged into conflicts and wars by choice of such people. Despite all this being very clear these people remain ignorant due to their arrogance due to which they give no importance to revelation of Allah and for all sorts of conflict which are started by them for obvious reasons they blame them on those who invite all towards way of life advised by Allah. In addition to that they employ people and mechanisms in order to try to confuse those to whom they can reach about deen of Allah so that they too join them and no one pays any worthwhile attention to deen of Islam. The result of that is becoming very much obvious to the human world in shape of their death and destruction throughout the world. All this in the name of way of life invented and promoted by a few dominant people and accepted by masses who are living like creatures without brains because on one hand they accept abusive use of themselves for personal gains by accepting that way of life and then on the other hand they complain about it saying, look what is happening to us ie we are being used abusively as if we are not human beings at all or are animals.
Since each party has to justify its way of life to itself and its supporters otherwise they will not get the needed support therefore one party tries to explain the truth to people while the other uses tricks and mechanisms to make fool of people at large or masses. Divisions are caused by people who are dominant in society in order to secure their dominant positions and statuses in the society by trying their best to undermine their opposition hence the need for a strong propaganda machine for them for pushing their agenda to make it successful. This explains why people who try to gain personally talk so much nonsense against the other party and even against each other due to conflicts of interests between themselves. The question is, what they want to gain for themselves out of creating so many conflicts among human beings using various tricks and mechanisms? They want to gain power if possible to rule others ie they want to become masters of others by trying to turn them into their slaves. Since people are people and have brains therefore if they let others know their intentions then they will fight back because no one wants to be slave of anyone else willingly therefore they invent tricks and mechanisms to try and get people under their control that way. There are only three possible ways people can enslave each other a)by strength of their arms b)by making fool of them and c)by giving them incentives. Since no person is strong enough to fight all human beings in the world to beat them into submission therefore there has to be some other way or mechanism for such people to make other people accept their slavery willingly. On this basis these people form alliances ie if you accept me as your king then I will give you some rank in my group eg make you my army general or give you control of a piece of land or give you some wealth to have others work for you etc etc.
The only opposition against these people comes from guidance sent by Allah for mankind and the people who support that guidance because those people cannot be intimidated, fooled or bought through incentives and bribes etc. The question arises, how can these people overcome the missionaries of Allah? It is very easy because mankind are born ignorant and to keep them ignorant, illiterate and uneducated has ample benefits ie they can be fooled easily therefore can be conditioned for abusive use easily. It is like the case of a baby. You just put him in a baby cart and he does not know how to get out of it because he has not yet learned how to do that. So when rulers, mullahs and money lenders use tricks and mechanisms to trap simple minded people they cannot see how to get out of that trap. The task of missionaries of Allah is very, very hard indeed because before they could convince anyone to be on their side they need to spend a lot of time and energy in trying to educate them. Education involves three stages a)help people become self aware b)help people become aware about other things and people and c)help them realise the fact that there is more to life than meets the eyes. Simple minded people are not self aware to higher degree nor are they that widely and deeply aware of real world realities so they hardly have much sense about Allah and his guidance. This is enough problematic as it is but on top of that rulers, mullahs and money lenders brainwash and indoctrinate such people to condition them into people that suit their purpose of exploitation. One of their purposes is to make sure these are enemies of messengers and messages of Allah in the name of Allah and his chosen people so they redefine those ideas and use them to program these people. The effect of this programming is that these simple minded people do harmful and destructive things in the name of Allah thinking they are doing good so Allah will be very much pleased with them. So one can see how many layers of problems these people become buried under and therefore how difficult job it becomes for a messenger from Allah to help and get these people out of all these troubling mindsets, attitudes and behaviours in order to get them free from all kinds of bondages or slavery.
The main problem is division of power between various kinds of leaderships and followings as opposed to Islamic way of life based upon concept of a proper human community. The main divisions are power that chiefs, kings, emperors or rulers or ruling elite hold over masses, the priestly class whom the emperors install and who install them when priestly class takes over kings and money lenders or money changers or people who use wealth for controlling others for personal gains etc through setting up buying and selling mechanisms for people and goods or services. So people cause conflicts among themselves on basis of rulership in the name of country, God or wealth etc. In short the causes of conflicts are land and resources, means of production and distribution because people mishandle each other and mismanage resources. Some take undue advantage of others so the Quran in this surah explains things to people in order to educate them as to what is going on and what they should be doing and how they should do it so that mankind could have united, peaceful, progressive, prosperous and secure existence. It is because Allah has created mankind for complementing each other and not for abusing and destroying each other through advantages they have been given over each other. This is why there is need for proper use of brains, senses and bodies by people to achieve that. This is why no one is free to do as they please for themselves because it inflicts harms and destructions upon others in human population. This is why all must live by rule of law advised by their creator.
The Quran is free of offering people any miraculous or magical solutions instead it educates people to enable them to solve their own worldly problems using that wisdom as explained in detail already. This is why the Quran is not to be misinterpreted and misrepresented as a religious holy book for pooja paat sort of worship and concepts of miracles or magic which religions use to exploit masses. It is instead a guide for creating a manifesto, a constitution and a set of laws for unity, peace, progress and prosperity of mankind. It is for learning and teaching sense that enables people to handle things sensibly not miraculously and magically which make no sense. They just confuse people as they usually do. God wants to lead people out of the darkness of ignorance into the light of knowledge ie information and its proper understanding because that is what knowledge is. Knowledge makes things clear to minds of people just as light makes things obvious as to what they are or where they are etc etc. This will become more and more obvious as we read the arguments the Quran raises to confront people who try to fool each other with their make beliefs and tricks. Each time a people asked for miracles, messengers of Allah told them there is no miracle but revelation to prove what is true and beneficial for mankind. In this fight between truth and falsehood, right and wrong it is not miracles or magic that can decide the issue but the relevant information and its proper understanding that can prove the truth true and falsehood false logically consistently and purposefully. So the Quran is a proof from God for mankind to accept and follow and see the results of their own thoughts and actions based upon it as proof of truth of its program or message. In other words the Quran puts before people some concepts for their benefits and tells people to try them and see if they work or not. If they work then they will prove the Quran is message from God for mankind but if they do not then that will prove the Quran false. Rationally a non-permanent being cannot be the original creator as explained already in detail because then each creator will need a creator itself and that will lead to an unending chain of creators of creators which does not stand to reason due to lack of consistency. It is because if each creator needs a creator itself then if a creator of creator has not come about then how can the creation that is supposed to be created by it? So only a creator that existed always could bring about creation and not a creator that itself need a creator to create it..
Tricks are used by those who make false claims that cannot be proven logically consistent on basis of related evidences. So those who claim supernatural powers are liars as far as the Quran is concerned. It is because Allah did not give anyone any supernatural power because it could serve no purpose whatsoever in his scheme of things as we will see when we go through the Quran more and more. The world is set up to work the way God explains it because he is the one who set it up for his own purpose. There are only two supernatural events a) the existence of the universe and b) the existence of the revelation. Other than that all natural world events are becoming explainable by study of nature as mankind advance in their knowledge due to hard work of those who study things in detail as time marches on.
The words used in the Quranic text have conceptual and contextual concrete meanings and not what people attribute to them because if scrutinised people cannot justify those meaning that they give to certain words. For example, take word jinn, how did people come to know there are such and such invisible beings if they were never able to see them in the first place? The existence of God is a different matter because that is provable through existence of universe and revelation that cannot be refuted but existence of things like invisible good and bad living beings that people are unable to detect with their own senses or any scientific instrument how did they come to know about them in the first place to interpret the words of God that way? This is how it shows up that people have been making up words and concepts that have nothing at all to do with universal realities and reason. People who have attached nonsense meanings to words only did so to confuse each other either deliberately to gain something out of it or due to their own ignorance about things that is all.
The messengers of Allah therefore did not come with miracles because they came to educate people and you cannot educate people with miracles or by putting up magic shows. The reason people asked for miracles is because the rulers and priests etc put them up to it so that by making nonsense demands on messengers of Allah they could keep them from learning any sense from them because if they learned sense then they will become aware of what is happening to them and why or who is making this to happen to them and how. This is why people even today run to holy men with magical powers for the solutions of their worldly problems instead of learning how to analyze problems and find their solutions. They do not realise that these holy men and women have been put in place by the establishments because this way masses do not question the people in-charge over their livelihood. It is the best trick because it is still successfully used on ignorant people. If this thing was not in place then when people had any problems they ought to blame the rulers and could force them to solve their problems and humanity could have moved forward but such things hold mankind back from progress towards prosperity. So one can see how useful tool it is for ruling classes to use concept of miracles and magic, demons and angels or holy men etc to keep the masses confused and in chaos. By diverting attention of masses from real issues towards nonsense issues, it gives rulers freedom to carry on with idea of divide and rule and use people abusively.
Masses do not realise that if these so called supernatural beings or powers were so much at work, the world in which we live we ought to see so many things happening supernaturally all around us every day without any physical cause but we do not see such things happening at all. Each time we try to find any cause behind an event it eventually turns up after a lot of hard work. Moreover humanity would have made discoveries that it has made now so many years back in time if people had all these powers which ignorant people attribute to some tricksters. Science will mean nothing at all because supernatural beings in human control and magic power in their hands could have worked wonders very long ago. So much spending on spying and weapons would not be of any use because supernatural beings and people with supernatural powers will be far ahead of everyone else in the world. A lot of things about the earth and solar system and rest of universe we have come to know now will have been known to us already long time ago and in much more detail. Since there is so much animosity between individuals and nations, if people had access to such powers then why will they need armies and weapons and people to spy on each other? Why they did not use jinns and magic to steal swords and spears of one people and handed them over to the others and why they will use spears and swords instead of supernatural weaponry to fight each other? Perhaps people need to think a bit instead of running after tricksters for miraculous and magical solutions of their problems. It shows people are not only stupid but lazy and crazy as well who think they should be handed everything in the plate like a cake without they actually needing to work for it. One has to ask, what is difference between these people and those who use and abuse them? If a person has a headache, his relatives and friends suggest to him people who know some holy words and when they recite these holy words and blow or spit on the person with headache then one feels one is cured of headache, however, if one has an accident and his limbs are lying on the other side of the road, no one suggests to him let us go to so and so holy man or magic man because everyone knows magic man or holy man has no solution for this problem which exposes the truth very clearly that all this hype about power of magic and holy man is just hoax. That is how it shows we love making fool of ourselves that is why we love our make beliefs and so we let others make fool of us as well. All such reasons make it very obvious that the Quran is a factual book and does not contain any nonsense that ignorant people attribute to it. This book draws our attention to real issues and problems and educates us to look for real solutions with help of each other. It is a manifesto from Allah for distribution so that those who like this program come together and organise according to the Quran as a constitution from Allah and regulate the community by laws based upon its guidelines for the goal of unity for peaceful, progressive and prosperous existence. This surah is named AL-Baqarah because the human community is weakened by divisions and fights whereby community spirit becomes damaged. In the Quranic context the Quran deals with human community so it talks about what it goes through and why. If it does not follow path of life wisely then it ends up in all sorts of troubles so it is advised to follow path of wisdom and have a reasonably good life. Since people due to lack of wisdom end up divided the Quran shows the road to unity of mankind. In this surah we will see some stories about past human communities and how they fared in their life. How people turned against each other and how they were brought together again and again etc etc.
Proclaim! In the name of Allah, the provider of things for biological, psychological and sociological development and growth of mankind.
1) ALIF LAAM MEEM.
In this verse there are only three letters about which so far I have only one explanation ie that these letter are repeated in this surah but they are used as exact multiples of nineteen ie the same number that is number of letters in the very first verse of the Quran ie bismilla hirrahmaa nirraheem eg baa, seen, meem, alif, laam, laam, haa, alif, laam, raa, haa, meem, noon, alif, laam, raa, haa , yaa ,meem. So if we counted total number of alifs used in this surah we will see they are exact multiple of nineteen. Same will be the case with letters laam and meem. The number of bismillas in the Quran is also multiple of 19 ie 114, and there are total 114 surahs in the Quran. The number of letters in the Arabic alphabet is 28, of which 14 are used in 14 combinations in 29 surahs, which is exact multiple of 19. There were originally 17 shapes in which Arabic alphabet were written. Although there has been a bit of modification in Arabic writing than the original eg there were no dots or diacritical marks in the original Arabic writings. However this does not have much effect on basic writing or reading but it helped people to read the Quran a bit easier who did not know Arabic. The main textual version of the Quran is HAFS version that is said to be proper version and is wide spread though there are other versions as well that are less known with more copying errors in them than hafs but not of the nature that makes any noticeable difference in the actual message. These differences are mainly due to diacritical marks or dots or the way a letter is written due to rules of Arabic language eg a normal TAA may be written in round form which is also pronounced HAA as in word RAHMAH which is also written as RAHMAT etc. Some differences resulted from regional variations of language itself ie not all Arab spoke the language the same way but none of the differences change the basic necessary message of the Quran in any way. People have termed these differences as various ways of reading the Quranic text. The main thing is that HAFS version is the only version that has been spread widely. Only scholars are aware of other versions or people of the area who speak the language and still continue those versions.
These letters tell us that on their own they have no meanings just like numbers on their own have no value. Letters or numbers are mere symbols that stand for concepts and concepts therefore are fundamental units for understanding bigger picture through their combination in a certain way. For example, letters stand for variations in sounds and when those sounds are uttered in a particular way they end up as words and phrases and sentences etc. This is what we call human speech or language. Just like letters stand for sounds so words stand for certain given conceptual meanings. Complex communication is not possible without a set of words with understood conceptual meanings for a community of people. This is why knowing some basic facts about language is of vital importance eg its origin, its development or use etc etc. The Quran cannot be understood just by reading words and looking up for meanings of words in dictionaries. It is because the Quran originates from God but it is for people who are born without knowing much and they cannot know much unless they make real good effort to learn things. Since what people have yet to learn they cannot give it proper meanings till they reach that stage in their learning therefore understanding of the Quran is not an easy task just like knowing the meanings of these letters. Dictionaries can help but they are never up to date because the knowledge has no end in sight and if knowledge keeps on increasing with time then dictionaries will keep on changing for various reasons related to progress with time and changes that take place. So all ways of learning in comparison to Quran are as if a child is learning about disciplines that have been established by adults, so it takes time for a child to reach the stage whereat things explained by adults start making sense to him ie he will reach there in his own time in his own way. In other words if you give a street map to a person who cannot make sense of it then it is useless for him. So a person has to learn all necessary things needed for understanding the Quran before one is able to make proper sense of the Quran.
This is why words in the Quran need to be understood as concepts and then how those concepts work out in relation to each other needs to be worked out. This is why simple translations of Quran-like text are useless because they cannot convey the message of the Quran which is main purpose of its revelation. This is why it involves a lot of effort by way of trial and error. This should explain why all translations of the Quran as a simple text are mostly wrong. The other reason why translations of the Quran are mostly wrong is because they are based upon translators own make beliefs. This means instead of trying to find message of the Quran from the Quranic text in its own context one is bending the message according to one’s own make beliefs and baseless ideas. This is what makes it more of a message of confused translator instead of the message of God because any such a translation is bound to be full of contradictions of all sorts flaws. If people follow certain rules to ensure their explanations of the Quran are within those accepted rules then it is highly likely that we have understood and conveyed the Quranic message as close to the original as it is humanly possible. No way can people guaranty elimination of human element in the understanding, conveyance and use of the Quranic message. So long as there is no major problem, odd errors should cause no serious harm or concern. It is very important for people to understand that only and only the actual Quranic text is word of God not its translations and interpretations by people regardless how good they may be because they are totally human works which could contain errors here and there even if they have been carried out very, very carefully.
The main thing to remember is that nearly 1500 years ago a man called Muhammad in Makkah, Saudi Arabia proclaimed messengership from God. People at the time confronted him for evidence so he produced the Quran as evidence for the truth of his claim. He said it was testimony of God sent to him by God. It is therefore up to people themselves to study the Quran properly and test it for consistency between its claims and available evidences and explanations. It is very important therefore to treat it as a testimony of God and see if there is anything wrong with it its purpose wise. If what it explains makes sense the way it explains it then the testimony is reliable otherwise not. The Quran is neither a self evident fact nor a scientific theory by a human being so it should not be treated as such. Self evident fact is stronger evidence than testimonial proof but testimonial proof is stronger evidence than a theoretical proof. It is because one good explanation is actual witness based explanation of events or facts but the other is personal opinion about facts where there is no witness to the actual events or facts explained. On the other hand self evident facts as they happen are personally witnessed by the person making the decision about them so other witness and evidence is not needed ie the whole thing is self explanatory for the decision maker. This is why such facts are stronger proof than a testimonial proof. On the other hand theoretical proof is based upon circumstantial evidence and needs construction, deconstruction and reconstruction till it makes proper sense to mind otherwise mind will ignore it if it can or it will be found very troublesome for mind till this problem is solved otherwise it could destabilised already confused mind yet more, so one could fall victim to identity crises unless one already has. As for the letters in this verse, the way they are used seem to tell us these letters have something to do with proving what is claimed in the verses that follow. How they do that I have no clue so I will leave things at that for the time being. If anyone is interested one can refer to others for explanations of these letters who may have knowledge about them. I am sure one day their meanings will be discovered by someone. Their main purpose seems to me is to tell mankind to know the origin and development of human language and try to understand the message of the Quran on that basis because trying to understand the Quran by using mere words and their meanings limits its meanings to a particular time or use of language by a particular people. Since people of the time of revelation of the Quran did not know what we know today therefore if we limit the Quran to use of language of that time then we cannot take the Quran for word of God because word of God cannot be limited by any human understanding of things of any time because there will always be something that we human beings will not know and therefore we will fail to know the message of Quran properly. It is because word of God is based upon facts and explanations for all times to come since its revelation so people will keep on discovering new things in it all the time just like a baby find something new every day to talk about while growing up and discovering things for himself. Moreover I have already explained the meanings of the alphabet letters so it is up to thinkers to see how these letters can be fitted with the rest of the text of the Quran in this surah. When things click together we will know what they are. For me it is important to try and explain what the rest of the text of the Quran may be telling us rather than try to first solve problem posed by these letters. All I can do for the time being is to say, these letters are proof of the fact that this is such a book in the message of which there is no room for reasonable doubt that it is guidance for those who wish to be consistent with way of life advised by Allah and each other. The question is, who are these people who are looking for guidance from Allah? They are those who become self aware and aware of real world realities which then make them question their origin and purpose etc. This book is useless for those who do not think to become self aware or aware about real world realities because they cannot rise to level of thinking which helps them become aware of importance of revelation of God as already explained. All the provided raw material in this world is useless for those who are not interested in making use of it for ensuring well being of mankind. Likewise those who use raw material for abusing humanity cannot benefit from revelation of Allah because they are overwhelmed by sense of self importance due to which they try to take things under their control as much as they can so that they could use others abusively as much as they can so they have no time to think about higher goals set by Allah for mankind. This is why when people are called to guidance of Allah only sensible people respond to it sensibly. The rest respond just for using guidance of Allah as a tool for their own personal satisfactions. Such self centred people be they religious or secular have their own agendas rather than trying to understand agenda of their creator and sustainer and taking it upon themselves as a mission for the good of mankind. This is why be one a ruler, a money lender or a mullah one cannot get his way for long because that is the way Allah has set up his universe to work to make such people face the consequences of their thoughts and actions against others sooner or later. One has to think about what is the purpose of guidance from God if it only tells people to do as they please instead of telling them the right way to think and do things. People are born ignorant so they need guidance all the time to become a sensible people. This is why guidance has to be about what people cannot know all by themselves or need endless time to come to know it which they do not have. This is why guidance of Allah does not follow thoughts and ideas of people but instead tells them how to think and why.
2) This is that message from Allah in form of a book which contains all necessary information such as a program for a set of goals as well as set of guidelines for a constitution and legislations that can lead people to a life free of instability, regrets and anxiety because in it is proper guidance beyond any reasonable doubt for those who desire to be consistent with it and with each other for their blissful, dignified and secure existence as a proper human community.
Word KITAAB is from root KAAF, TAA and BAA. Concrete meaning of this root is to gather loose things together and tie them up for their preservation. Also written material, layers of material, written letter or record or account or decree or a set amount, army regiment, something prescribed or imposed, a book is called kitaab because loose pages of a writing are collected together and tied in form of a bundle of pages for their preservation, library or a place wherein books are kept for preservation or information, information storage or collection centre, there are pages of written down laws that are put together or the constitution or law or program that must be adhered to, written document, record of knowledge of God about his grand design and purpose, the Quran, revelations of God, books from God, teachings of God, writ of God, verdict or decision of God, ordinance from God, appointed time, prescribed period of time, prescribed punishment, written scrolls, desk, school, place of learning reading and writing, to write or prescribe or mark or etch or engrave or record, to write down a contract, to ordain, to decide, to put letters together, to write down or cause to write down, to predestine, to make obligatory, to make incumbent, to put a ring around something to stop it from getting out of it or from doing something undesirable or unwanted, to stop unwanted pregnancy by taking necessary measures, to sew the mouth of a sack so that things do not escape from it, to tie the mouth of water skin to stop water escaping from it, to put a wall around a house with a gate to stop anyone unwanted coming into the house, to collect ideas or information about something into a written book, palm of hand, to be in grip or in control of, to be tender hearted or kind, coffin, chest, tomb, house, shelter, kingdom etc etc. In the Quranic context the Quran is a set of guidelines or a blueprint for a manifesto and a constitution as well as legislations for people if they wish to live as a proper human community. The use of word AL-KITAAB in Quranic context shows that the Quran was put together by the messenger of Allah in form of a written book by himself and its message was spread by him as far as he could and beyond that with help of his supporters who came to join him along the way. The Quran was put before people as a program from Allah for the goal of bringing people together so that a proper human community could be raised and a kingdom based upon guidance of Allah could established that is founded upon a constitution and legislations based on guidelines provided by Allah in the Quran through an education based revolution. This is the nature of the mission called deen of Islam or way of life advised by Allah.
Word RAIB is from root RAA, YAA and BAA. Concrete meaning of this root is instability. Also to go to and fro, to agitate or be agitated, to cause or be in chaos or confusion, to be infirm or unstable mentally or physically, to wobble or deviate, to oscillate, to doubt or suspect, to cause or cast or show doubt, to be uncertain or unsure about something, to suffer anxiety or worry or calamity, to become depressed, to entertain, to accuse, to alarm, to suffer an accident or misfortune or ill fate or mishap, to be indecisive, to be in an undetermined state of mind, to be suspicious about something, to be guilty, to be dubious, to beguile, to deceive, to cheat, to pretend, to have a reputation that is false, to pretend to be what one is not, to fear, to slander, to spread rumours, to suffer from complexity or multi personalities disorder, to conspire, to plot, to think clearly, to plan ahead, something that has something to do with a command and control centre, top part or section of something, ruling elite, leadership, power, authority, reach, jurisdiction, grip, to have a hand in making something happen, to trick, to have control over, to shelter or hide or protect or shield, to stop, to obstruct, to separate, to cut off, to divide, to provide with refuge or sanctuary, family or following or support or assistance, head or something like head in some sense, hand or something like hand in some sense, house or something like house in some sense, unease in the mind or state of regret or anxiety or confusion and difficulty that comes about when one faces a problem but cannot pin point it and has no solution for it. This leads one to identity crisis due to mental instability because of confusion. When one is not sure about things, one falls in doubts and becomes victim of make beliefs and superstition and therefore self confidence disappears. So in the Quranic context freedom from RAIB is a great thing for a person or nation to have. In life people face many problems but if they try to solve them according to ideas given in the Quran, life could become worth living. It is because people have needs and wants and if they fulfilled their needs and wants according to some sort of good set up and rules and regulations then lots of problems could be solved that way but if each person did things as it suited one then conflicts become inevitable and community sense in people can fall apart. After divisions it is then much more difficult to bring people together because they have lots of complaints against each other that become difficult to get rid of. So the best thing for people is not be quick in trying to break off ties or relationships, they are very difficult to rebuild. This is why people must avoid disinformation and misinformation because that could lead to mistrust and distrust and therefore to suspicions and break down of relationships. So we can see why word RAIB is used right at the start of the book.
Word MUTTAQEEN is from root WOW, QAAF and YAA. Concrete meaning of this root is to be consistent with the path that is full of dangers to a particular beautiful destination with all due care and precision. Also to tread a path full of dangers very carefully so that no harm or destruction comes to oneself or others using the same path, to be consistent with the group that treads the same path full of dangers so that togetherness provides safety and security for all in the group, to be consistent with the guidance of God that can lead people to blissful and dignified as well as secure existence, to be consistent with God and humanity for ensuring well being of mankind, to be mindful of God, to guard against thinking such thoughts and taking such actions that could lead people to harms and destructions by hands of each other, to remain alert and fully prepared for dealing with problematic or dangerous situations or circumstances that may arise from time to time, to walk carefully along a difficult or dangerous path so that one makes one’s way safely through it to one’s chosen and desired destination, to have a mission and to fulfil it with all due care, to have situations or circumstances fully under control at all times so that one does not in danger or in trouble due to one’s negligence or carelessness, to desire or have wish for safe and secure existence, to have things in one’s attention, to pay attention to, to wish or desire for, to not to lose track of things that are vital for ensuring one’s safe and secure existence, to guard against, to pay attention to, to be mindful of, to be alert or aware of or about, to prevent something undesirable from happening, to take precaution or precautionary measures for protection against something harmful or dangerous in advance, to be attentive, to obviate, to avoid, to beware, to fear, to be concerned about, to safeguard, to protect, to caution, to warn, to act on provided warning, to shield or be shielded from, to keep safe from, to preserve or be preserved from, to distance or be distanced from, to move away from, to be saved from, to be moved away from, to be careful about, to be consistent with, meeting of minds or actions or both, to be pious, to be cautious, to keep in mind, to keep something in forefront of one’s mind, to stay away from, to forbid or stop, to defend, to fend off, to be in awe, to hook onto or link to something in some way for some purpose, to deviate from something in some sense, to fall off or away from something in some way, to hang onto something in some sense, to have reach or jurisdiction, to have control over something in some sense, to have hand or be involved in something happening etc etc. In the Quranic context people are supposed to tread the Quranic path being fully aware of what is involved in it so that it could lead them to unity, peace, progress and prosperity and so that they do not fall victim to side tracks that could lead them to harmful or destructive end results by hands of each other through divisions, rivalries, animosities, hatred and wars.
In a way word ZAALIK here also connects this surah to the first surah beside connecting it to letters in the first verse ie this is that promised guiding book with all essential information that if understood properly and followed faithfully can lead mankind to blissful, dignified and secure existence. That is if they will think and do what this book tells them then they will get the kind of life this book talks about or promises. It is like somebody gives someone a building plan for a nice house and all the needed raw materials and says now work on this plan and you will end up with a beautiful house. A very clear message to those who think that if they need anything then all they need to do is, pray to God for it a lot of times and with all due sincerity and it will be given to them by God. When this does not happen as they think then these people tell each other we are not sincere enough in our prayers that is why God is not listening to us so they keep trying harder and harder but it still does not happen so they come up with excuse of reward for prayer in hereafter. In other words people try to fool themselves and each other as much as they can for as long as they can till it dawns upon them that God has not set up the universe to work this way or they come to know this fact for themselves. These people do not realise that they cannot make Allah bow to their will through a lot of crying and emotional outbursts because God does not want just sincerity but sincerity as well as the right way for showing their sincerity. Their prayers remain unfulfilled because this not the way God is portrayed in the Quran because deen of Islam is not a religious nonsense based upon baseless dogmas and rituals. So people better read this book very carefully and try and understand the whole thing properly and then do it faithfully as it explains and then see the results by doing things that way. In other words one needs to find out full picture of things from the Quran on basis of real world realities before getting down to business of executing the program the Quran puts forth. This program is for people for accomplishing some goals according to some guidelines after coming up with sense of its proper context and perspective and then following the Quran in that sense faithfully. So only those works will be defined as proper which help one accomplish the stated goals according to provided guidelines and all other works will only waste one’s time and effort as well as they will delay fulfilment of the stated objectives of God for mankind so they could lead people to needless painful suffering for as long as they continue on that path. It is like somebody tells one to go to a shop and buy some food and instead the person goes away and wastes time here and there and comes back without food. Now not only the task assigned has not been carried out and the purpose has not been served but without food people will have to go through hunger because of having no food to eat. So if Allah tells you to build the house because he has provided you with all you need then there is no point you saying back to Allah, please do it for me, is there? If Allah meant to do your part as well then what was the point in Allah giving you the house map and all the needed raw material and telling you all the rest is up to you? This explains one reason at least why people are poor and hungry or lazy and crazy ie because they are thinking it is total responsibility of Allah that he should do each and everything for them as if they are only here to sit and pray for things and they will get them. This is very wrong concept about Allah in heads of people but the question is, where did it come from? It came from mullahs because it is they who misconstrued concepts about God to trick people into make beliefs and useless rituals. However why did they do so will become clear as we progress with study of the Quran because everything cannot be explained in one place or in a couple of words. It is because most people think they are very sensible yet follow all the nonsense they can think of. This is why the human world is the way it is. If people had learn that much sense as they claim then human world ought to be in much better state today than we see all around us.
3) Such are the people who commit to working for unity, peace, progress and prosperity of mankind for their brilliant future yet hidden from them by establishing the supportive network of proper human community in order to open up for all, the ways and means to sustenance which We have provided for them in form of raw materials.
Word YUMINOON is from root ALIF, MEEM and NOON. Concrete meaning of this root is something that is itself safe and secure and acts as foundation for safety and security of other things. Also something that is stable itself and provides stability for other things, to be safe, to be secure, to guard, to keep, to trust, to pledge, to be confident, to be at peace, to be satisfied, to believe on the basis of evidence, to have faith based on reason, to take something for granted or as a matter of blind faith, to hold onto baseless beliefs, to put trust in something for some reason for some end goal or purpose in mind, to be believed or trusted, to trust someone with or over something, to have a valid reason to trust someone or something, to feel safe or secure, to be in a time of safety, to be at peace with, to be comfortable with, to be satisfied with someone or something about something, to guard against, to wish to be safe from, to attain true faith, to put faith in, to be entrusted with, to have peace or tranquillity, to be peaceful, to commit to working for unity and peace, to commit to working for progress and prosperity, to undertake working for cause of peace and prosperity, to charge someone with a trust, to discharge one’s trust satisfactorily, to have inner calm, to be honest or trustworthy, to be or become relaxed, to be or become calm, to be sincere or serious about something, to hold a certain belief about something or someone, to be adherent to the truth, to be committed to facts and explanations as oppose to taking things on face value, to be peaceful and make others commit or submit to peace in some sense, to be or become free of fear or worry or anxiety or tension, to have no fear or worry, to not to breach one’s trust, to help one become free of fear or worry or anxiety, to affirm or confirm something in some sense, to attest to the truth of something, to bear witness to the truth, to proclaim truth, to reflect what is true or is a reality, to have thoughts and words as well as actions consistent with each other, to not to be in two minds about something, to fulfil one’s given responsibility or duty to the full, habitually honest person, a person always found to be consistent in his word through his actions etc etc.
In the Quranic context AMAN means physical and mental security and reliability in a person ie one is at peace internally and externally knowing one has nothing to regret about the past and nothing to worry about in the future. It is because unless one has peace inside oneself one cannot be confident and secure enough to radiate peace outside oneself and likewise if peace is missing from outside oneself then the same troubles and worries are sensed by senses of brain and the worries become internalised. In other words a human by nature is such a being that it is affected both internally and externally ie the outside things affects its inside and its inside things affect its outside or external world. One takes things in from outside and one ejects things from inside after certain mental and physical processes. So people who want peace try to spread peace to others and people who want troubles and wars spread troubles to others. Whichever force succeeds in this struggle is reflected in the world that people see all around them.
Word GHAIB is from root GHAIN, YAA and BAA. Concrete meaning of this root is gap or distance or difference between two things in some sense. Also disconnection or discontinuity or break or absence of linkage between two things or points, something unknown or unseen or invisible or hidden or not in view, the future, depth of a wall, setting of the sun or moon or stars, hidden depth or deep bottom, lowland, dense forest that is full of trees etc, deep well bottom of which is not visible, roots of tree buried in the ground, to gossip or slander or backbite or spread rumour or lies or falsehood, to vanish or become invisible or absent or unseen or concealed or doubtful, to travel in the folds of the earth, unseen is something that exists but is not visible to the eye, depression, hollow, something that is unknown at one time can become known at another time eg future is something that is hidden but as time marches on it become present therefore visible, to have or not to have reach, to have or not to have jurisdiction or control, to have or not to have power or capacity to do something, to shield or shelter, to provide with refuge or sanctuary or protection, to guard, to have or not to have family or following or support or back up, to stay away, to withdraw, to leave, to depart, to vanish from someone’s sight, to be swallowed up, to set, to go down, to slip from memory, to forget, to lose consciousness, to lose awareness, to lead away, to take away, to faint or swoon, to veil, to become oblivious, to drive out of mind, to cover up, to be transcendental, to calumniate, to do something behind someone’s back, to do something treacherously, to foresee or foreknow, to know secretly, to do something insidiously, wood, copse, thicket, jungle, reed, judgement by default, depth of a dungeon or ditch or the like, trance, daze, stupor, nonattendance, defamation, truancy, narcotics, anaesthetics, a woman whose husband is absent, grass widow etc etc.
In the Quranic context here this root means anything that is not obvious because of lack of information about it which leaves a gap in one’s knowledge eg result or outcome of an action. There is time gap between a cause and its effect. The gap indicates absence of result of an action for a period of time. When one says something bad about someone who is absent it is called GHEEBAH. In opposition to this word SHAHAADA is used from root SHEEN, HAA and DAAL, which means constant ie connected or without gap. An eye witness is present at scene of crime so he is connected with what he has witnessed. In the Quranic context words needs to be understood in a particular context eg the Quran is a manifesto ie a program or roadmap or a plan of actions upon which people ought to act or work but only in hope that end result will be good for them because the end result of acting on the program of the Quran is not obvious in reality till it becomes a reality. People can only examine the Quran on paper and see if its program can work, if they become confident that it can work then they should go for it and once they start they should keep going till results begin to appear in reality ie plan start taking shape in reality like a builder works on a map of a building to give it shape in reality once he is happy with the map of the building or its technical drawing by an architect. It is in this context Allah asks people to give loan to Allah ie trust Allah that his set-up systems and laws will bring about the results promised in the Quran for mankind provided they played their parts properly in this program as asked to do. For example, people throw about seeds in the field in the hope they will in time grow into crops. Provided people have prepared their fields properly and seeded them on time under proper conditions then in due course the result will be a good crop. So the time between carrying out a program and its results is meant here by word GHAIB. It is not about blind faith in existence of Allah because existence of Allah can be proven through indirect evidences and their best explanation that is impossible to refute. The question is, where did the idea of total blind faith come from? From mullahs because they wanted to turn people ignorant and unreasonable so that that way they could make them believe anything using their tricks. This will become very clear as we progress through study of the Quran. The main thing to pat attention to is that if each of the people believed whatever one liked then they will end up with many differences between them and the Quran demands unity of mankind in ideology. This ideological unity between people is impossible unless people become rational thinkers because then reason based explanations will lead them to ideological unity as stronger arguments in favour of solid ideology find their way into minds of people. Blind faith idea will keep people confused therefore in chaos for ever so they can never be united so the program the Quran puts forth for the ummah cannot be turned into reality because that way an ummah cannot come about ever. A clear proof that mullahs are misleading people regardless of to which religion they belong so they should not follow them blindly or remain in painful suffering forever by hands of each other because disunity, hatred and wars are all inevitable in that case. For program of Allah to become a reality people need to work together and to do so needs them to become literate, educated and trained so that they could have the needed information and the sense of making sense of things so that they could understand program of God properly and then act upon it faithfully. If not then people can carry on doing whatever they like and keep on facing the consequences and complaining about God as they usually do instead of listening to God has to say to them.
Word SALAAH from roots SAWD, LAAM and WOW/YAA. Concrete meaning of this root is to join in some sense for some reason or purpose. Also to make some sort of connection between things for some reason or purpose, to bring about network or linkage or interaction between people, to contact or communicate with each other, things joined together or the point where at they join together, things separating from each other or the point from which they separate or branch off, a point of convergence or divergence, middle part of human body from which legs separate, the tail part of a four legged animal from which its hind legs separate, two things that are joined to each other in such a way that one is right behind the other without any gap for another of them to fit in, a joining point where at all things are tied together like many animals are tied to the same pole each standing or sitting in its own space, central or main contact point for things, a network node or joining point at which all things converge or diverge from, the small of the back, the two bones surrounding the root of the tail of an animal, to hit a camel on that part, to come at the rear of, to walk behind each other like a camel caravan, to run side by side like horses in a race course trying to race along each other, to connect with each other in some way for some reason to serve some purpose, to bend or mould or model or shape or form something according to some given model or specification or standard for some reason or purpose, to adhere to something in some sense for some purpose, a gathering point or place, a point of contact for people to come together to serve some purpose, to stand before God with full awareness and sincerity to reaffirm the covenant with God, to read the Quran for reminding oneself about the message of God so that one remains connected to God and people, to proclaim the Quran among people to deliver its message to people for reminder so that people connect to God and with each other, to bring about a network of humanity as a proper human community to fulfil the goals set by God for mankind to accomplish, to pray, to reaffirm before God and each other support for mission of the final messenger of Allah individually and collectively, to adore or supplicate, to learn and teach deen of Islam, teachings of deen of Islam, a place where duties and responsibilities of deen of Islam are carried out, masjid or synagogue or something like masjid or synagogue in some sense, kingdom based upon guidance of Allah, a kingdom inhabited by those who are based upon guidance of Allah, to roast, to broil, to fry, to burn, to scorch, to cause to suffer, to suffer hardship or difficulty or poverty, to warm up before an open fire, to suffer the heat of scorching fire, contingency, plan of action for an emergency, to prepare in advance for any eventualities or disasters or catastrophes, to be ready for dealing with any situation that may arise out of the ordinary, to be ready for dealing with unforeseen events or happening or occurrences, to have contingency plans worked out, to practice emergency drills, to link up with, to take care of, to guard, to motivate or inspire or urge or push or pull, to make or use weapon or tool, to have reach or jurisdiction, to have power or capacity to do something, to have a hand in something happening, to have involvement in something, to participate or take part in something in some sense, to reflect or think over something, to work out something about something in some sense, to ponder over facing issues, to think out ways for solving facing problems, to work out contingency plans, to be ready for uncertainty or future, to have or show concern for something in some sense, community network, prosperity, blessings, abundance of things, good will, best wishes, a training place or institution of some sort, a race course for training horses for racing, a place where people gather for doing something as a community, essence, juice, extract, lively or active, roots or braches or trunk, leaves, thorns or flowers or fruit, something that stands firmly in its place yet keeps spreading or growing in some sense, something that drives or forces something into doing something in some sense, something that connects something to something in some way, something twisted or bent, something that can hold something when it is hanged on it, to have a grip or control over something in some sense, one thing following the other closely and faithfully, commandments of Allah etc etc.
Since the Quran provides guidelines for a constitution and laws for interconnection of people to work as a united organised and regulated human community therefore word salaah in Quranic context means community network whereby members of human community support each other to achieve a common set goals eg unity, peace, progress and prosperity etc. So people who read the Quran and after examining it feel that this is what they want then they are told to come together to organise as a community on the basis of the Quran as a constitution for them and regulate the community by laws based upon the Quranic formulas that lead to united, peaceful, progressive and prosperous existence of human community. In other words a person is committed to working for unity and peace only if he is connected properly to God given manifesto and constitution and laws and establishes supportive network along with other people of similar mindset, attitude and behaviour. In a household wherein people do not live organised lives, there is always trouble and clash due to each person trying to do his own things in his own ways in his own time and at many occasions times coincide so people get in each other’s way causing troubles for each other. If these people lived by good house rules agreed between them then they could save themselves from lots of troublesome situations. So one can see word SALAAH is a very comprehensive word for human community network based upon the Quran. SALAAH is known as second pillar of deen of Islam ie first pillar is TAWHEED ie belief in one God on basis of messengership bestowed upon the final messenger Muhammad. This is what makes the real difference between mazhab and deen of Islam ie deen of Islam is not mere human thought process but that it is a thought process based upon revelation from God via a named messenger. Since God according to that message is only one tis becomes foundation of deen of Islam or first pillar of deen of Islam. Word ILAAH in the Quranic context means God but also king or ruler or sovereign of this kingdom of the universe. This is why while God is the ruler of this universe none of the people has right to claim rulership or ownership of anything at all. Since nothing belongs to anyone other than Allah in this world then question arises, how can people fulfil their daily needs for living? This is where come in the rest of four pillars of deen of Islam ie deen of Islam tells people to establish a proper human community network for this purpose in a kingdom. Once a proper human community comes about, it must not be damaged and all must work for its growth and prosperity. The SALAAH concept comes first because without people working for becoming a proper human community all else fails or cannot come about. This is why deen of Islam joins people together and it does not break them up into sects and parties fighting each other. This is why the Quran tells people repeatedly to stick together and do not divide into sects. It is because if people divide then they cannot fulfil their daily needs with dignity and security because fighting between themselves leaves no time for people do thing which they need to do for their survival. This is why words AAMILUSSAALIHAAT are used meaning mend rifts between people ie mend broken relationships between people so that they could become a community. If people have many problems with each other they are not going to become one community while the problem between then remain this is why those problems must be removed from between people. These problems need to be removed in such a way that relationships between people become as if they were never broken or fractured at all. This is how the Quran teaches people to go about things. So as people get the message of their creator and sustainer they should ponder over it and once they comes to understand it properly then they should pass on the message to others and come together to form a community network, so that task of forming humanity into an ummah becomes a reality. This is why the Quran is a book about a mission assigned for humanity by God to carry out faithfully. So each and every person who claims to be a Muslims is bound by the covenant he has entered with God by declaring his/her faith in deen of Islam. This is why the Quran keeps telling people fulfil your obligation to God and each other. Each and every act prescribed in the Quran for people has a purpose behind it and unless people do things objectively and purposefully nothing they do matters. If the Quran wants people to build a building called deen of Islam then each and every person must come to know how to build that building and what part that person has to play so that that building becomes a reality. One cannot just declare faith in deen of Ilsm and then go and do things that have nothing at all to do with deen of Islam. It is because mullahs have misled Muslims that ummah is in the state that it is. People have no idea what deen of Islam is otherwise they could have brought about the kind of ummah the Quran teaches long time ago. Muslims are living a life of confusion and chaos. This will remain the situation till people start studying the Quran properly. It shows how different deen of Islam is from religion or secularism.
Word RIZQ is from root RAA, ZAA and QAAF. Concrete meaning of this root is provisions for sustenance of life. Also things for use or consumption of all mankind to fulfil all their biological, psychological and sociological needs and wants forever, anything that can benefit or ensure well being of humanity in some sense, something that keeps happening repeatedly, rain, maintenance, something that helps sustain life, subsistence, fortunes, means of living, livelihood, earnings, fruit of one’s labour, income, bounty, return for one’s efforts, life support system, to provide with ways and means of living, to equip someone with all one needs to carry of living, to seek sustenance or necessities of life, to give someone something on time so that one could continue living, to give useful things away freely to those who need them, to work for a living, to bestow with or favour with or grant bounties, to grant as means of sustenance, to sustain, to help or support, to make or use tools, to use raw material to make something useful out of it, to set up or organise or regulate sustenance for something, to give someone something to hang onto life, to plan ahead, to work out things for sustenance of living things, to maintain things, to provide something of need to someone, to reward, to pay wage, to provide with outcome of one’s labour etc etc.
According to the Quran RIZQ means anything useful for living things to carry on living and growing. When Allah says I give people food or drink or things for their use it does not mean that individuals are given things by Allah directly therefore Allah makes some people rich and others poor. It simply means that Allah has created everything for the needs and desires of mankind but it is up to people to follow his advice and do things as advised so that each and every person fulfils his responsibilities and duties in order to ensure each and every person could get whatever one needs and wants for peaceful, progressive and prosperous life. One has to remember that not just body needs food but mind also needs food for thought. This is why if people organised and regulated themselves as a proper human community as told by Allah in the Quran they will have blissful, dignified and secure existence in this world and yet more beautiful life in hereafter. This is why there is no concept of mechanisms for abusive use of people by each other for personal gains at the expense of each other. One either chooses to live by way of life advised by Allah or against it. If people will choose any way of life against the way of life advised by Allah then they will never find fulfilment ever because they will fail to develop to the full potential that Allah has placed in them. It is because their self invented ways of life will destroy them by hands of each other long before they could realise their full potentials. Divisions based on rivalries and animosities only lead to hatred between people and wars so human community fails to grow to its full potential as fights carry on between people on basis of survival of the fittest or law of jungle. This is why there is no concept of charity for the poor in deen of Islam because people are not allowed to make each other poor in the first place just like members of a good family do not force poverty on each other through competing against each other in order to undermine each other by trying to dominate each other. Any family that does that ends up destroyed instead of developing to its full potential. Members of a good family help and support each other to do better not force each other to do worse than each other. One has to become aware of causes of poverty and destruction to realise how great the teaching of the Quran is. A family ends up in poverty or destruction if its members sit idle or waste time on useless things which do not yield the needed return for its dignified survival. The same is the result if members of a family think and act insanely, senselessly, recklessly or dangerously. All these things lead the family only and only to self destruction. If humanity is a good family then its members have no choice but to educate each other out of thinking and doing things that could harm or destroy it instead of withholding education from each other through copyrights of intellectual properties. After all from where did each and every human being get his knowledge? From humanity itself then it is only right that, that knowledge is allowed freely to pass on to the rest of people so that it helps them become more and more sensible people so that they could organise and regulate themselves better for better ends. So in the Quranic economic system each person has to work to the best of one’s ability to produce things and it is up to ummah to distribute it or to deliver it to the point of need freely for those who need it. However one should take only as much as one needs or whatever ummah can provide ie whichever is lesser of the two. The rest of it if there is any will have to remain with the ummah to use it as and when the need be. One must remember all decision of the ummah are unanimous decisions for ensuring the well being of the ummah in light of the Quranic guidance. This is why all decisions of the ummah fro beyond question by anyone till the ummah meets again to decide any future matters about itself on yearly basis. In case of any emergency ummah can meet earlier as well to deal with the situation at hand. One can see how each thing is connected to others in so many different ways this is why we cannot look at things in their isolation from each other. This is why SALAAH is connected to SOWM and ZAKAAH and HAJJ but we will come to know about these things as we progress in our study of the Quran.
Word YUNFIQOON is from root NOON, FAA and QAAF. Concrete meaning of this root is a tunnel through, which is open at both ends or something like it in some sense. Also a hole through for a string in a trouser or skirt which is used for tying the trouser or skirt around the waste, to put something into the tunnel at one end so that it could be taken out from the other end, a desert rat’s tunnel, passage through the earth, to die, to find a good market, to become depleted, to spend or use, to give away something useful freely to someone who needs it, to support one’s family or community or cause, to contribute, to act hypocritically, to be or become a hypocrite, to show hypocrisy, expenditure, to use the fruit of one’s labour to help others, to donate, to gift something useful to someone freely who needs it, to be generous in helping and supporting others, to work for well being of others, a person who enters a cause after ensuring there is a safe way to come out of it as well, a person whose mind and tongue are at variance with each other, someone who says one thing and does another in order to deceive others, a good or proper chain of demand and supply whereby things do not remain in storage for long, the end of something, loss of hair on a camel due to becoming fat, to keep open the fruit of one’s labour for ensuring well being of humanity, breaking apart, pushing away, disparity, hypocrisy, the use of something for something, spending, discrimination, to deceive or cheat or trick or con, to make fool of, to be on the slippery slope, to be active or lively or energetic, to be quick or fast in doing something, to move away or distance oneself from something, to create a gap or difference between things, to spread rumours or backbite, to slander, to hang onto something, to jump about, to be mischievous, to be infirm or unstable, to be doubtful about something, to lack solid foundation etc etc.
Here in the Quranic context word nafaq means to organise and regulate people into a proper human community in order to use provided things by God properly so that thereby well being of proper human community is ensured. People should work to the best of their abilities and share according to their needs whatever they produce. There should not be any negative discrimination of any sort against any person in the ummah. There is no room in deen of Islam for discrimination on basis of race or colour etc. In other words people must do all they can to produce things of needs as a community and distribute them as per needs and wants of people in such a way that none is left out. The idea is that Allah is creator of all things and owner of all things and people can only manage things as told by Allah himself. Unless people organise and self regulate themselves properly as well as work properly, things will not work. So people who wish to bring about a human community based on the Quran they cannot be people who are clueless about things and stuck in blind faith and make beliefs or useless rituals and works based on false ideologies that cause divisions between mankind whereby people end up hating each other and then in wars against each other.
4) Such as those who commit to working for unity, peace, progress and prosperity of mankind according to this program which is sent to you the people of this era and according to that which was sent for people of earlier eras before you because they too are reasonably confident that this program can deliver them blissful, dignified and secure future.
Word UNZILA is from root NOON, ZAA and LAAM. Its concrete root meaning is settler. Also something that takes residence in some place after coming from somewhere else, a guest is called a guest because he comes from somewhere and takes residence in the house of his hosts, in the Quranic context a message comes from Allah into the mind of his messenger hence the need for use of word reveal because it is not something that a human being could know by himself or could up with oneself, a dwelling, habitat, hospitality, food offer, provisions, disembark, flood, rain, stage, rank, to do or accomplish something in an organised and regulated way over a period of time be the time taken shortest or longest, to combat, to duel, calamity, seizure, an attack of illness, to send, to come, to visit, to arrive, to reveal, to come down, to bring down, to descend, to alight, to befall, to dispatch, to cause to fall, to bestow upon, to engulf in, to facilitate, to grant, to provide, to accommodate someone in some sense, to provide someone with accommodation, to include or take into the group or care, to embark upon, to carry or be carried, to come through or go through, to come down with or send with, victuals, provisions, to appear or turn up, revelation of God, the Quran, destination, goal, guest, visitor, rank, position, a temporary resting place during a journey, place of alighting or descent, fish or something like a fish in some sense, agile, lively, smooth, slippery, fast moving, active, to be agitated, to be in difficulty, to be in trouble, to be restless, to flounce or flutter, to feel uneasy, to toss and turn in pain, tool or weapon or something like a tool or weapon in some sense, a way through to something, something instrumental in achieving something or getting something done, an instrument, something used to have something or to do something, ways and means, ladder, hammer, axe, chisel, rope, pen, pencil, ink, spear, sword, gun, ox-goad or something like an ox-goad in some sense, a stick with a pointed end to jab an ox or an animal to make it move faster, something that urges or motivates or inspires or pushes or encourages something to do something in some sense etc etc.
In the Quranic context message of Allah comes from Allah who sends it into the mind of his messenger. It is information from God that is somehow put into the mind of the messenger of Allah by Allah for purpose of guiding people as to how they should live their lives in order to have a great life in this world and to attain yet better life in hereafter. It is very important to understand the fact that Allah has placed huge potential in mankind to become something great given the time to develop. Education and training only brings out what is already inside a human being as one’s ability or capacity. Education simply put acts as a stimulus or trigger for people to start learning or taking in information from outside and work on it in mind and then put it into practice and be able to do things that way. All though all human information comes from outside into human brain through senses but some also comes from God by means unknown so far. This is why creation and revelation are known as two acts of God that are not known how they produce the results that we can only observe and verify only on the basis that they are out of human capability ie human beings cannot create the universe from nothingness and they cannot produce the like of the revelation of God eg the Quran in this era. This Quran is not mere words but an ideology that only God could come up with, why? Because it covers the information that is not within grasp of human mind even today let alone bring about such information. This is why the Quran puts forth a challenge for mankind that they cannot produce a surah like it ie an ideology for a way of life. The shortest Quranic surah in the Quran is AL-KAWSAR 108. It is only three verses with only a few words but it claim that messenger of Allah and people who accept his message have been given a roadmap to abundantly blissful, dignified and secure existence. This is verifiably true as we shall see once we have become familiar with the text of the Quran the way we should in due course. In the Quranic context word surah does not mean just a chapter or lecture of the Quran but a way of life and information about it throughout the Quran. Why this information was impossible for mankind to come up with is because human beings have very limited brains and senses and to know what the proper way of life should be needs someone who knows things inside out ie the full picture in this regard and that source can only be and is only and only our creator and sustainers. This is why he used word GHAIB in the verse above. It is because unless we accept his claim that he knows what we know and he also knows what we do not know and cannot know unless he tells us. The very basic point is that Allah is himself is GHAIB in sense that we cannot see or hear him and had he not told us about himself we could never be sure ever if there was a creator or not. The very same creator and sustainer guides us about how we should live in order to have a great life. We try to guide each other many a times but our guidance is never perfect because we at best can hope we prove to be right but many a time that very guidance we give to each other causes us many problems. This is why we are at wars with each other all the time throughout the world thanks to advisors of our rulers, mullahs and money lenders etc etc. If we had written a book for guidance of humanity it will have been something like that. The Quran is not a book like that because it is a book that is perfect for the purpose it has been sent. We cannot know the Quran till we study it in great detail. This work is nowhere near perfect explanation of the Quran but it is a try so that people start thinking in the right direction and then start producing better works on the Quran. Here the Quran also answer the question what happened to people who followed earlier books from God. They simply turned to new book which God sent for them in their time because they were a learned a people and the rest continued with their make beliefs and rituals based upon their own collections of writings which are still there even today. The books people have today and attribute them to God are nothing like the Quran in their information structure. At most they are just story telling books written by story tellers of the time with reference to what was told in the earlier books which were sent by God to his earlier messengers. Even Muslims Hadith collections are compiled in a very different style from them. They are like Muslim books of biographies of the prophet of deen of Islam in which people try to tell about life of the messenger of Allah. In the books other than the Quran one will see ample additions and subtraction because Muslim emperors made their imperial mullahs to do so in order to give legitimacy to their make beliefs so that they could have backing of masses for their misadventures in the name of God. All tis will become clear as we progress in our study of the quran.
Word QABL is from root QAAF, BAA and LAAM. Concrete meaning of this root is facade. Also position of something in relation to something else in sense of place or space or time or reputation or rank or idea, face of a building, an artificial or deceptive front, outer appearance, a superficial appearance of something, face of a mountain, encounter, to confront, to face, to be face to face with something, to oppose or resist or hesitate or prevent or shield, opposite, openly, to come, to approach, approach or reach, before, to accept, to admit, to take in, to receive, direction or goal or objective or aim or destination, midwife, to consent, willingness, to be pleasing, to compare, to kiss, kiss, section, type, sort, group, host, faction, tribe, clan, squint, power, capacity, surety, guarantor, spontaneous, possibility, to draw near, to turn to, to enter, to rush in, to hear, to answer, to grant, to face one another, to combat, to rival, to contest, to contend, to face towards Kabah in Makkah when praying, faith, belief, way of worship, a place of worship, the front side, the front part, the forefront, in front, in plain sight, in the future, power, strength, towards, facing, fronting, in the past, of old, ancient, without, in spite of, to begin with, the first part of something, the leading part of something, leadership, beside, adjacent, nature, to take something from someone, husband, family, children of same father, a rock placed on mouth of a well, to refer to, to use something as a reference point, to learn sense after acting foolishly, to not to leave something alone, to pursue something, the focal point, the purpose, to be clever or deceptive or mischievous, agile or fast moving, active or lively or energetic, something that jumps about, something unstable, something that is always on the move, to imitate or copy, to be image of something, to hang onto something, shelter or protection or sanctuary, constitution or rule of law, following or support or tradition, precedent or example, to hide, to cover up, to wrap up, a stick with a pointed end to drive oxen, spear or dot or arrow, something that motivates or inspires or urges or pushes or encourages something to do something etc etc.
Word AAKHIRAH is from root ALIF, KHAA and RAA. Concrete meaning of this root is to put something behind something in order of happening. Also to delay or postpone, to make something happen afterwards, the outcome of an action, the end result of a process or action plan, the effect of a cause, destination or goal or point of reference, the last, the other one, another, the lasing or permanent thing, to endure, to continue into the future, the future, to defer, to grant respite, to reprieve, to respite, to put off, to leave undone or do something incomplete, to be in the process of completing or concluding a process or something, to be held back, to lag behind, to come after, to follow, to pursue, the consequences of thinking or saying or doing something, to remain behind, additional or further one, something different, the different one, that other one also, the last one, the rear or behind or end part of something in some sense, the latter, the final part, preceding or past or previous, coming generations, something after which nothing similar takes place, the new beginning in a new way, something most valuable as compared to something least valuable, revolution that ends one way of life and brings in another one, the new world order or new social or political or economic landscape, the edge of the eye as far the eye ball can move in either direction, the end or edge of camel litter, the time period when deen of Allah will become fully established in this world, life after death, hereafter, life in the next world as compared to life in this world, time period of bloody revolutions or uprisings or upheavals, the time when seed is sown in the soil and the time when it is harvested, to keep an eye on the future as well not just past and present, to look for better or brilliant future for coming generations, power or authority, instability, something fragile or delicate, something sophisticated, something impure, to plot or plan or scheme, to conspire, to think, command and control centre, central nervous system, chief, management, ruling elite, top part or section of something, cream of the crop etc etc.
As always to determine the meaning of a word in the text of the Quran depends upon its context. The Quranic ideology is based upon cause and effect rule but with the understanding that not all causes produce instant end results ie there is delay between cause and effect. It is as if you follow a course of action and wait for the results to appear. A plan takes time to become a reality in real life. In the Quranic context, because the Quran is a program from God therefore when people will act for fulfilling this program it is going to take time before people will see the results of their thoughts and actions according to it because the result is expected at some point in time in the future therefore the future is consistent and constant so it includes the idea of life after death or revival of humanity just like the earth is revived with rain and becomes green again and again after going through various seasons. It should be remembered that verses of the Quran have multiple complementary meanings as well the way the text of the Quran is structured. Allah does not demand blind faith in the Quran instead he wants people to have faith in the Quran on basis of its verifiably true program that makes perfect sense on the paper and that is why it should be used and benefited from and that will turn it into a concrete reality. This will then show it is truly from Allah beyond any reasonable doubt.
Word YOOQINOON is from root YAA, QAAF and NOON. Concrete meaning of this root is to arrive at certainty about something through careful observation of evidences and careful consideration of arguments about something. Also a state of mind when one is very sure about something due to considering evidences and arguments related to it, to have the best possible explanation about something in one’s mind that gives one reason to accept something true with reasonable certainty, to arrive at a certain belief or conclusion about something after extensive research and exploration about it, verification, to find something absolutely certain, to ascertain, confidence, trust, be convinced about something in some way for some reason, to be sure, to become aware of the reality of something, to know the reality of something, to have no reasonable doubts about something, to be certain about something beyond a shadow of reasonable doubt, life experiences, experimental truth, demonstrated truth, some idea that turns into a reality, something considered verifiably true, an actual fact that is accepted true, something that is considered reasonably true due to logical consistency, grip, reach, jurisdiction, power or authority, to have a hand in something happening, to make or cause something to be or to happen, handle, to have understanding of something, to comprehend something, to encompass or surround something in some sense, to know something, to jump about, to be unstable, to hang onto to something in some sense, to be mischievous, to be agile or fast moving, lively or active, deceptive, illusive, something smooth or slippery, something energetic etc etc.
The idea given in these verses is to scrutinize the program told in the Quran to see what kind of world will come about if the Quranic program is followed by mankind. So those who verify this message for themselves and reach the conclusion that this message can delivered what it claims become very sure about its workability. It is because a program or plan that can be seen to be a failure is not worth the effort for delivering to others. It is therefore important for people to understand this message themselves properly and then take it to others to help them understand it so that then they could come and join the program to carry it out for their own good as well as of others.
5) Such are the people who follow proper guidance from their Creator and Sustainer faithfully therefore they are bound to succeed in accomplishing their assigned goals by Him according to His provided guidelines.
Word MUFLIHOON is from root FAA, LAAM and HAA. Concrete meaning of this root is to work on the land to ensure survival and prosperity. Also tiller of the land, cultivator of the plants, to cultivate or plant, to prosper, to develop and grow, to increase, to succeed in doing something, to accomplish a set goal, to remain alive, to cut or break something, to negotiate, to mediate, to tear or rip apart something for some purpose, to till or plough the land, to fulfil one’s goal or ambition, to work towards a much greater return, to come to good fortune, to succeed in getting or achieving or accomplishing something, to work towards a better end or bright future, people whose hard work pays off, farmers who succeed in harvesting much greater yield than expected of a seasonal crop under normal conditions, people who get expected or promised results for their hard works due top working according to a fully worked out action plan, to do something by one’s own positive initiative voluntarily for better future by relying on set up systems and laws of nature and succeed, to become more and more efficient, to use something to gain something more in return, to create distance or difference between things in some sense for some purpose, to organise and regulate things properly for better end results, to do things differently for better results, to put people into working groups for efficiency, to do something inspiring or motivating, to put restrictions around something in some sense to make it concentrate or focus on something in some sense for efficiency, to put restrictions or obstacles of some sort in the way of something for some purpose, to remove obstacles or restrictions that cause inefficiency, to understand and follow directives or guidelines towards a particular end to ensure success etc etc.
One is only successful when one has a goal and guidelines and works according to a workable plan towards it therefore one ends up being successful in fulfilling one’s goal. If a farmer plants proper seeds in his properly worked out field at right time in right conditions then they grow and return many more seeds for each one that was sown. So people who understand properly goals set by Allah for them to accomplish according to his provided guidelines and given plan and work faithfully according to them they are bound to be successful. The idea is, do not do aimless and useless things or in a useless way because that will produce no results or not beneficial results but instead harmful and destructive results. Therefore people should think things through thoroughly from the beginning to the end and then take actions according to fully worked plan for a set goal. You only reap what you sow therefore if one does not understand what is required for sowing seeds then one will not get the result one is looking for. Likewise if people think they should act according to the Quranic program then first thing they need to do is understand the program properly as well as its goals and guidelines then work out what is needed to implement this program and then go through with it and then see the outcome or end result of their thoughts and actions for it. The Quran uses farming ideas because they are to be there forever for people to learn from. Farming is not about sitting on the mat praying to God, grow my crops but about working on the farmland as explained by God so that his set up systems and laws deliver the outcome as promised. Not working on the farm and expecting anything from God is nothing less than foolishness. Moreover FALAAH is not about God letting people fall into some trouble and then saving them instead it is about God setting people some goals to accomplish according to his provided guidelines. This is the context according to the Quran in which success of mankind matters and is said to be a great achievement.
6)As for those dominant people and their supporters who reject and oppose the way of life advised by Allah and instead commit to working for the opposite way of life to the one advised whereby they inflict harms and destructions upon each other for personal gains at the expense of each other, it matters not to them whether you warn them or you warn them not about the harmful and destructive consequences by hands of each other in time to come for thinking and doing harmful and destructive things to each other because in their minds they are determined not to listen to you and think things through therefore they are not going commit to working for unity, peace, progress and prosperity of mankind.
Word KAFARU is from root KAAF, FAA and RAA. Concrete meaning of this root is to shelter. Also to resist, to oppose, to absorb, to hide, to cover up, to shield or protect, to restrict, to limit, to create a distance, to move away, to misuse something in some sense, to refuse to use something properly or for the purpose it is given for, to leave, to depart, to differ or create difference, to discriminate, to reject, to isolate, to boycott, to break up or break off, to harbour, to cushion, to be kind, to be tender hearted, to be easy going, to be ungrateful, to have or show no respect, to have or show no concern, to pay no attention, to be heedless, to not to listen, to plot or plan or scheme, to think, to consider, to deny, to cover seeds in the soil, to plant seeds, to wear garment over the shield, to disbelieve, to unbelieve, to blaspheme, to be an infidel, to be unfaithful, darkness of night, the night, the sea, great valley, rain, to prostrate, to show humility, to reject idea of existence of God, to be an atheist, to be an idolater, to attribute to God what he rejects, to disobey, to ignore, to avoid, to fail to acknowledge, to refuse, to fail or refuse to recognise, to behave outrageously, to behave irreligiously or religiously, to turn away from, to begrudge, to offer, to make an offering, to sacrifice, to relieve, to acquit, to be a husband, to be a guardian, to look after, to refuse to live by commandment of God, to be obstinate, to be ingrate, to be a planter, retribution, punishment, atonement, compensation, reparation, expiation, planter, control centre, management, ruling elite, chief or head of a people, something that offers some sort of opposition to something in some sense for some purpose, something that acts as a shield against something in some sense for some reason or purpose eg to shield or isolate someone from light or knowledge or good works etc etc.
In the Quranic context word KAFAROO has various meanings according to where in the text it is used and why. In this verse it is clear that the Quran puts forward a program for unity, peace, progress and prosperity of human community and some people commit to working for that but some offer resistance so they are given the name KAAFIROON as oppose to MUSLIMOON. It is very important to realise that it is one thing that people claim to be Muslims and quite another whether they are accepted as Muslims by Allah or not. It is because people cannot read minds of each other but only through their actions. This is important because if there comes about an Islamic state then it will have to decide matters for Muslims according to Islamic laws within its own jurisdiction with exceptions for non-Muslims where necessary. People can only take people for what they claim to be because they do not know their motives till they become a concrete reality. Once they become a concrete reality then they could be either accepted or rejected as the case may be. For example, if a person claims to be plumber but he is always caught working as an electrician then people have right to question his claim for him being a plumber. Likewise if a person claims to be a Muslims but his works bear witness that he is not because his works are exactly like those who are nonMuslims then his claim for being a Muslims become questionable so one has to satisfy the questioners how can he claim to be a Muslims in such a case. One can only be a Muslim or a nonMuslim in the context of the Quran or the third category is that of hypocrites ie a people who claim to be Muslims but they are not because they pay only lip service to deen of Islam. The other vitally important point is whether people who claim to be Muslims or nonMuslims actually know what deen of Islam is. It is because anyone can claim anything but what actually matters is does one really know what one is talking about? One could be claiming to be a Muslim but has no idea what deen of Islam is. Now if different groups of people claim to be Muslims but they differ with each other having no sense what they talking about could any of them be categorised Muslims? If such like people issue verdicts against each other do they have any real value in the proper context of the Quran? None whatsoever because before one could claim someone else is not a Muslim one has to prove one is a Muslim oneself. This is why unless people define their versions of Islam clearly they cannot make any sense as to why others are excluded from their definition of deen of Islam. People who are born in so called Muslim households claim to be Muslims by birth yet such people have no idea what deen of Islam is because most of them never read the Quran for making sense of its text. Likewise people who enter deen of Islam without knowing anything much about leave it as well and still they have no idea why they became Muslims and why they turned nonMuslims again. Although Allah does not hold people accountable for their ignorance because he created them knowing nothing at all but he does if they remain ignorant after being born because he gave them all they needed to learn sense for making sense of things. This is why people are told repeatedly in the Quran to not to waste their God given opportunity for learning. This is why the Quran repeatedly draws attention of those people only who have already learned sense of making sense of things. He ignores those who have not bothered to learn sense of making sense of things. Such people are said to be fuel of hell fire, why? Because ignorant and foolish people always end up making mess of things for themselves and others. This is why the human world is in the state that it is because most people in the world are ignorant, illiterate, uneducated and trained about making sense of things. Human beings are responsible for their own ignorance not only because they are lazy but they are crazy as well because they try to stop each other from learning things fearing that if someone else came to know better then that person will do to them what they are doing to him. In other words people try to learn better tricks to undermine and dominate each other due to adopting the way of life based upon personal gains at the expense of each other instead of working on basis of brotherhood whereby they could help and support each other ensuring each person is better than the other for the good of humanity. This is how better way of life makes itself clearly known as to why it is better. So people who claim to work for better world should check themselves out are they following the right way of life for this purpose or not. It is because better world cannot be brought about unless people adopt the way of life that goes with it not against it. This is why deen of Islam is not what most Muslims and nonMuslims claim who hardly have any idea what deen of Islam actually is. Each and every messenger of Allah educated and trained people and that way prepared them for work for deen of Islam. None of them feared that if people became clever then they will be even more difficult to handle because they came to realise how effective way of life advised by Allah is in tying people together in a brotherhood. This is how they overcame ideology of divide and rule or rivalry, animosity, hatred and war. The way of life called KUFAR. So anyone who lives by that way of life willingly is labelled a kaafir or an infidel by the Quran. So the Quran calls such people kufaar who reject and oppose the way of life advised by Allah and instead invent, promote, impose and adopt the way of life based upon personal gains at the expense of each other. This is the proper context for word KAFAROO in this verse. The Quran challenges people who claim to be fighting for human rights by questioning the way of life they have adopted for themselves making it very clear that unless they adopt the way of life that is consistent with what they say they are not going to succeed. In other words you cannot have unity, peace, progress and prosperity by adopting a way of life that leads to divisions, hatred and wars due to being based upon personal gains at the expense of each other. The only of life that can go with idea of well being of mankind is deen of Islam, why? Because it has goals such as unity, peace, progress and prosperity of humanity. Not only that but it also has clear commandments for does and don’ts as is made clear in the verses of surah one, which tells people to adopt way of life of those people who were successful in this life and will be successful in hereafter and not to adopt the way of life of those who were losers in this life and will be loser in hereafter.
Word SAWAAUN is from root SEEN, WOW and YAA. Concrete meaning of this root is to be properly balanced in being or actions. Also to have proper proportions or be properly proportioned, to have all things working together properly as a unit or system, of things to work together as a something complete, to work together as a team, to have proper ingredients in proper proportions to be something or to do something, to have power or authority or strength and use it properly or wisely for achieving an objective or accomplishing an intended goal, to have a mixture of things in proper proportions for serving some purpose, to be equal, to be similar or alike in some sense, to even out or be even, to be or become in level with, to straighten, to smooth out unevenness or wrinkles, to fill in the ditches and demolish the dunes to even out the ground or landscape, to remove peaks and troughs, to be together, to stand, to fashion, to form, to shape, to flatten, to raze or level to the ground, to make equal or same, to deem as equal, to be flattened over, to make level, to turn to, to give or pay attention to, to attend to, to intend to do something, to have something in mind to carry out, to turn an idea into a reality, to ascend, to mount, to establish or become established, to settle or settle down, to become stable or firmly settled or established, to have or take things under control, to reach full strength or capacity, to realise full potential, to become of age, to set firmly on, to rest upon, to be central, to be the middle or midpoint, to be just, to be fair, to be same, to be the common factor between things, to be common to all, to be equitable, to make no difference, to not be different, to have no affect on something, to be ineffective, to be right or proper or appropriate or correct or upright, to be straight, to be complete, to be normal, in a normal situation or under the normal set of circumstances, to be in sound health mentally and physically, in succession or consecutively, things that happen one after the other, to make use of each and everything appropriately, to have or create balance between two or more things, something that is free of ups and downs in some sense, something that is properly balanced within itself or makes other things to balance properly, something that is balanced in such a way that it stands on its own feet or is self reliant, to distribute weight among things in such a way that all end up with right weight that they can carry with ease or cop with without any difficulty or problem, to be a properly balanced person both mentally and physically, to make one a properly balanced person, to put something together in such a way that it works perfectly for the purpose it is created for, to have control over something in some way, to bite into something in some way, to affect something in some way, to have influence over something in some way etc etc.
In the Quranic context all words in the Quran are used purposefully as explained already. The Quran puts forth a framework in which everything should fit neatly like bits and pieces of a house fit together if one has proper understanding of it. Bike parts can only fit together as a bike not as a car or an aeroplane. Things will only look out of place when one looks at bits and pieces in isolation from each other or without over all framework ie without taking context and perspective into account. Things told about in the Quran fit together neatly only if they are put together properly or one will see many contradictions in the text of the Quran which are not there in actual fact when the Quranic information is put together properly. This is why knowing the logically consistent way to make sense of the Quran is of vital importance.
Word ANZAR is from root NOON, ZAAL and RAA. Concrete meaning of this root is to raise alarm before something harmful or destructive happens so that people could become alert in time and do something about it. Also to draw attention to something that is of such importance that if attention is not paid to it then consequences could be very serious or disastrous, constitutional or legal obligation or responsibility, self imposed obligation, warning, pledge, threat, alarm, alert, harbinger, herald, vow, pledge or commitment or obligation to God, to consecrate, votive offering, dedication, to threaten or carry out the threat, to proclaim, to declare, to preach, to approach, to reach, to warn against, something that is used for warning or alerting someone in some way for some reason, to guide, to admonish, to deceive, to be active, to be quick in action or act fast, to inform in advance, to spy, to think and act quickly or fast, to let know or inform, to signal, to give a slip to, to make fool of, to succeed in avoiding something, to try to save someone from some kind of catastrophe or disaster, alarm bell, to show concern, to make someone pay attention to something etc etc.
In the Quranic context warning is not a threat by Allah to mankind that if you do anything I tell you not to do then I will punish you rather this warning is in the sense that if you will do things that you are warned against then they will harm you as a natural consequences based upon cause and effect principle. For example, somebody warns you don’t give a loaded gun to a child. If you ignore this warning and let child have the gun then you are putting yourself at risk of being shot by the child. Allah is not interested in punishing people for their wrong deeds but they will come to regret their wrong acts because the results of their wrong actions will do them harm the way Allah has set up things to work for his purpose. The Quran wants people to do well, this is why the Quran begins with Allah being good to people because he provided for them all that they will ever need to be in peace through progress for prosperity. This is what salvation is all about ie staying out of harm’s way or troubles by following the right way of doing things faithfully. Allah has provided people with information about a way of life that can lead them to blissful, dignified and secure existence but if they will not bother with it then whatever else they do is not going to help them have a brilliant existence in this life or in life in hereafter, which in that case is going to be full of regrets. So it is in the best interest of humanity itself to listen to message of their creator and sustainer and work on the world to make it what is supposed to be in light of the message of God otherwise live to regret it. This is how the Quran explains what is going on in this world and why or how it is happening etc etc. This is why it is vitally important for mankind to study the Quran in detail to make proper sense of their world.
7) It is because there is a barrier in their minds of ignorance based arrogance for dominating each other by undermining each other which is preventing them from using their minds properly therefore there is a lack of awareness in them regarding proper use of their faculties of hearing and their faculties of seeing and that is why there is a great painful suffering for them by hands of each other as a consequence of their harmful and destructive thoughts and actions against each other for petty personal gains at the expense of each other.
Word KHAATAM is from root KHAA, TAA and MEEM. Concrete meaning of this root is to seal up something that is open. Also to find or notice something sealed up or blocked up, to see a barrier or blockage in the way of a process, to catch something stopping or preventing something from continuing in some sense, to catch an obstacle or obstruction of some sort in the way of something , to come upon something blocking something in some way, to block or shut off something that is open, to turn off or stop something in some sense that is moving in some sense, to end or finish or conclude something, to end or conclude a process, to finalise something, to put a legal stamp on something to make it officially sealed for legal authentication, to put a barrier in the way of something to stop something from going any further, to discontinue something, to be the very last thing in the order of things, to prevent something from taking place or happening in some sense, to let someone or something stop something from happening, to let someone or something end something in some sense, to let someone or something conclude something in some sense, to wind up, to cover up, to hide, to secure, to shield, to shelter, to hide, to cover up, to protect, to provide refuge or sanctuary for something, to contain something in some sense in something for some reason, container, sealing material, to seal up, to enclose, to brand, to mark, a ring, to wear a ring, to complete, the concluding one, the final act of sealing something for purpose of security or safe keeping, the end part of something, final seal, the one who seals or concludes something, crowning or finishing touch, coffin, chest, basket, chamber, room, fence, womb, water, energy etc etc.
The meaning of this root is to bring both ends together as if to close something in such a way that thing enclosed cannot be accessed unless the cover or wrapper is broken, torn or opened up. An agreement becomes sealed when two parties come close together on same page and seal it by their signatures. A book is closed when both sides of it are brought together to close it. Things and processes are limited in one or more aspects or sense. A thing could be limited size wise, time wise, weight wise, shape wise, purpose wise and so on. The same is true about processes that are started ie they too are limited in various ways eg time wise, quantity wise, function wise or purpose wise etc etc. If one is selling oranges, he must have started selling them when he got them and this process will come to an end when the seller cannot get any more oranges to sell. The other reason is one may open up a shop and then close it after it has served his purpose, so one no longer sells oranges. When people deal with each other they seal a deal ie finalise it or conclude it by coming together in agreement. A farmer seals or covers up seed in the soil after creating an opening or digging a hole for putting in the seed in the soil. When a written agreement is reached, it is sealed by signatures of the involved parties. Word KHATAM is indicative of closure of such a process that was open once upon a time and working ie the people said to be KUFAAR ie rejecters and opponents of deen of Islam did have a working brain and thinking ability when they were born but they misused it and became a people with harmful and destructive mindset, attitude and behaviour. Sense comes through learning and if one does not learn it then one cannot become a sensible person. Also you only know what you learn and if you learn things that turn a person antisocial then those things are going to cause problems for a human society. So it is very, very important that people understand this point and try not to leave children to themselves otherwise children may not turn out to be human friendly. If society does not care for its individuals’ proper development and growth then individuals will not care for development and growth of their society either. Sooner or later the whole society will come to an end due to infighting because each person in such a society will be only for himself ie very, very short sighted or without any insight. Another point to remember is that when Allah says, he has done this or that, it only means that he has provided means for people to express their motives or thoughts in their actions. For example, somebody invented knife. The use of it is up to users not inventor. If any user misuses a knife, it is not fault of the person who invented the knife. So it is necessary to understand things in their proper context. That is people should not attribute things to Allah and his messengers that are not consistent with their beings respectively otherwise one is attributing lies to Allah and his messengers or messages and that is bound to have serious consequences for humanity as a whole.
Word QULOOB is from root QAAF, LAAM and BAA. Concrete meaning of this root is something that changes or develops over a period of time or suddenly. Also human mind or heart, bloody revolution, education based revolution, to return, to have change of heart or mind, to turn into something else in some way, to flip flop, to be unstable, to be agitated, to go to and fro, to keep doing something over and over, heartbeat, to remain engaged in an activity, a place or idea to which one returns or to which one refers as a reference point, destination or goal, aim or objective, to turn over, to turn around, to turn upside down, to turn inside out, to reverse, to twist, to bend, to waver, to dissuade, to investigate, to revert to, to go back to doing the same thing, to be what one originally was before any change, brains, essence, self, inner most part of something, the most essential part of something, the actual or real thing itself, the very heart of something, form or shape, mould, well, to be returned or handed over, to cause to be in a sequence, to alternate, to cause to contemplate, to make one think, to be turned around, to transform, to be tossed about, to be thrown around, to share an idea around, to wriggle, to tremble, to come back, to go back, to become, activity, behaviour, conduct, movement, success in worldly affairs, daily endeavour, place or time of going about one’s business, to change or cause to change, to exchange, to replace one idea or thing with another, any tool with which people plough or prepare the land for farming or something, to probe, intelligence, sense of making sense, to find out something in some sense, to search out, to discover, to explore, anything that is pure or clear or clean of anything that is not supposed to be part of it, the seat of intellect or emotions, something that thinks or feels or expresses itself in some way to make its presence felt, something mischievous or jumpy or agile, something that hangs onto to something in some sense for some reason, to imitate or copy, to be image of, clever, fast moving, active, lively, something that pushes or urges or drives or motivates or inspires something to be something or to do something, spear or pencil or dot or arrow, a stick with a pointed end to jab an ox to make it move faster, family, support, following, life support system, tribe, household, tent, shelter, sanctuary, refuge, shield, protection, safety, rule of law, tradition, custom, constitution, to cover up, to hide, to conceal, to deceive etc etc.
Word QALB means something that changes or develops or grows with time or suddenly. This word is used for human mind because it develops and grows with time due to more and more information it receives. If human mind is taught things, that can speed up its learning process. The same root word is used for revolution because people change their minds about the way things are in their daily life so they decide to do something about it in order to change things for the better ie revolutions come about for social developments of mankind. Brains and senses are given to people along with revelation by God for guidance so that people help their own development and growth as a proper human community but it is left to people themselves to learn things they should. All needs of people are provided for but to organise and regulate themselves to make use of provision is left to people themselves ie to explore, produce and distribute things. Islam is all about community spirit because in that rests goodness for both individuals and communities. This is why when some people abuse others the way to revolution is set and in time things will explode if people will continue along the same path due to heating up of social environment like a sealed pot on a cooker which blows off its top when pressure inside gets stronger than what it can hold inside it.
Word SAMA is from root SEEN, MEEM and AIN. Concrete meaning of this root is ability of hear sound. Also ability to respond to sound signal, to pay attention to what is said appropriately, to hear, to listen, to heed, to respond, to have reputation, to be famous, to command hearing, to be considered worth listening to, to hear of, to have the faculty of hearing, to know to acknowledge, to have widespread recognition, to obey, to let one speak, to hear out someone, to reach the hearing of, to give someone a hearing, to avail an opportunity to some to speak up or to be heard, to attend a hearing in a court of law, to listen to a case, to recognise, to give ability of hearing to, to make something obvious to someone, to explain something to someone for understanding, to listen or hear out someone, to give ear to someone, to pay attention to someone, to draw attention of someone, to eavesdrop, to spy, to have sharp hearing, to endeavour to hear, to listen in, to accept what is said and obey, to overhear, to be sharp of hearing, one given to listening in or eavesdropping, to be too obedient, one who causes or makes others hear, to be all ears, that whish is heard, to be attentive, to be alert, to pretend to hear, to pretend to obey, to pretend to listen, to have sense of making sense of things, to pretend to have sense of making sense of things, to explain, to try to make someone understand, to plan, to see, to have insight into something, to have understanding of something, to hear a cry, to hear a call for help, to dig into something for making sense of it, to explore something etc etc.
In the Quran Allah uses similar words for himself as he uses for other things but they mean as appropriate for his being because hearing of Allah does not depend on sound signals. Moreover sound is only there due to air and in space there is no air so there is no question of sound signals. In other words Allah has his own way of hearing things even if we cannot figure it out how exactly it happens. He is monitoring all things in every way they need to be monitored so that this whole set up works perfectly according to his plan. As we will see the Quran puts far too much emphasis on proper use of brains and senses as well as bodies for human beings in order to have a great life otherwise people are said to be worse than animals.
Word ABSAAR is from root BAA, SWAAD and RAA. Concrete meaning of this root is sense of sight. Also faculty of sight or ability to see things, the ability of human brain to see or understand things, sense of seeing things with eyes on the head or eyes of the mind inside the head, to have sense of things or their understanding, to know, to have knowledge of something, to comprehend, to have in sight or within sight, to have in view, to see, to have vision or ambition, to foresee things due having knowledge about things, to have an imagination about something, to have a notion about something, to have or hold an idea about something, to conceptualise something, to realise, proof, sign, eye opener, to warn, to guide, to reflect, to ponder, to think, evidence or evident, to gain knowledge of something, to keep an eye on, to watch over, to guard, to be guardian over, to look after, to take care, to be given insight into something, hindsight or foresight, to find guidance, to have sharp eyesight, to be intellectually sharp, to plot, to conspire, to plan, to scheme, to manage, to lead, to have control over, to be a chief of a people, to have roots and branches, to have leaves and fruits, to be thorny, to be the very essence of something, to be the seed of something, to shelter or shield, to protect, clear or manifest evidence, to have or offer a powerful explanation about something, to discern, sure knowledge about something, to show the way, to make something clear, to explain about something clearly, light or light of knowledge that gives insight into things as to what they are or where they are or what they do and how they do it, something plain to see, to be capable of seeing into things, to shine, to be bright, daylight, the blood stain on the point of an arrow that is used for hunting is evidence of arrow hitting the targeted animal, shield, armour, to deduce, to reason thing out, to think rationally, to infer, to imply, to reason things out, to figure out things, something that stick in the mind or takes over the mind, a longing, a strong desire for something, a scholar, a luminary, a learned person, to offer an evidence or proof for something, to witness, to be present, something that opens up the eye of the mind etc etc. Word is used for self evident things or universal realities ie for real things in the real world. This word is also used by Allah for himself. Again Allah does not need eyes and light to see things, so when interpreting words these points should be taken into account or one will end up saying wrong things about God which will render interpretation false.
Word GHISHAAWAH is from roots GHAIN, SHEEN and WOW/YAA. Concrete meaning of this root is to cover. Also to overwhelm, to overcome, to cover up, to hide, to conceal, to envelope, to enshroud, to seek to cover, to faint, to visit frequently, to overpower, to overtake, to be or become covered, to be or become overcome, to be overtaken, to be or become enveloped, to be or become overwhelmed, to be or become overpowered, to lose consciousness, to lose awareness, to be or become unaware, to become completely covered up, to cause something to overcome something else, to make animals mate, for man to have sexual intercourse with a woman, euphemism for mating with a female, to search or reach for some means of covering or wrapping up oneself, something that covers or overwhelms something in some sense, to make someone unconscious or unaware, an overwhelming disaster or calamity or catastrophe, to veil, to fall unconscious, to be awestruck, an overwhelming situation or a set of circumstances, the membrane that covers the heart, the skin that is used as cover over sheath of a sword, to come to see someone, harmful and destructive consequences of peoples thought s and actions against each other, the hell mankind create for themselves by mistreating each other, to lose track of time and place or sense of events, to lose sense of awareness or alertness, to have no sense of handling a situation, to act foolishly or ignorantly or senselessly, something that surrounds something in some sense for some reason, to be mentally unstable or unsound, to be weak or slow intellectually, to be dumb and deaf and blind in one’s environment, to put something under guard, to lookafter something, to have control over something in some sense, to have something within reach, to link or connect something to something in some sense, to get hold of something in some sense, to have no sense of purpose etc etc. In this verse a point is made that people have been given brains and senses to use them to gain information and its understanding through life experiences by way of trial and error and become learned so that then they realise the need for revelation of God and look for it and find it and learn it and follow it in order to live a peaceful, progressive and prosperous life ie a life free of regrets, anxiety and confusion. Since people do not use their brains and senses as they should so they become unaware of their purpose and proper use and end up confused so they go after things the way they should not because that will lead them to painful suffering by their own doings ie people make their own lives hell by not using their brains and senses properly as well as of others. The same root is used for loss of sense when one is drunk with alcohol or goes unconscious. Everything becomes dark like night covers up things due to its darkness for people. The same happens when a person is in depression ie everything looks dark for the depressed because he is in trouble from which he cannot find an escape route. When one has no sense of purpose in life one becomes lost in the darkness of confusion or ignorance. So brain and senses should be used to gain light of knowledge so that one saves oneself from the dark end of the tunnel.
Word AZAAB is from root AIN, ZAAL and BAA. Concrete meaning of this root is to put a stop to something in some way. Also to put someone through hardship for some purpose, to block something in some way to stop it from continuing, sweetness and pleasantness of water felt when it is used for quenching extreme thirst, unpleasant events or happenings that stop people from living a pleasant life, limitations or prohibition or restrictions that stop humanity from growing and prospering, fresh or sweet and pleasant water, saliva, pleasantness of sexual activity, rubbish that floats on top of fresh water in a pond which makes it dirty, pieces of cloth which women use for wiping off tears from their faces after crying in case of a death of a loved one, poisonous bushes which if camels eat they can end up dead, hunger or thirst for something that remains unsatisfied, hardship or trouble or difficulty or problem, an obstacle in the way of doing something, a person or horse that cannot eat anything due to extreme thirst for water because any food will get stuck in his throat, a person who stays hungry or thirsty the whole night, a person who lacks shelter or care, to lack things of need, punishment handed out by a court of law to a criminal for his crime, affliction, disunity, sectarianism, differences or divisions among people, fractures in relationships of a human population, to remove or deny sweet water, to deny one necessities for one’s living, to inflict harm or destruction, to oppress or suppress, to torment, to chastise, to hold accountable, water spring or well, to stand guard over, to help or support, controlled entry or exit, way through to something, shelter, sanctuary, constitution or rule of law, family or household, tent, to be pleasant or sweet or fresh or agreeable, to remove or deny sweet water, to torture, to cause pain, to be unable to eat because of extreme thirst, the tip of the pointed object, to go far, to punish, to inflict harm upon, to oppress, to take someone to task for some reason, to put through tough training program, stagnation, jam, become stuck in some difficult or awkward situation in some way, predicament etc etc. Things that stop or put obstacle in the path of unity, peaceful, progressive and prosperous existence or make it difficult or impossible are called AZAAB. Such things make one regret his life and make him anxious about his future and keep one confused. Remaining ignorance is root of all evils in the world because it is an obstacle in the way of human progress and prosperity. Water is also called AZAAB because it stops thirst or because it stops life by drowning people when there is flooding caused by water which destroys lives.
Word AZEEM is from root AIN, ZWAA and MEEM. Concrete meaning of this world is framework that gives something its shape or form in some sense. Also something that gives something its characteristics or value or worthiness or usefulness or structure or character or strength, bone or bones, skeleton, structure, power or authority or strength, reference point or standard or benchmark or specification, something great or grand or immense, to venerate, to measure up to, to be proud or arrogant or determined or decisive, to respect, to observe, to be in awe of, to consider too great a task to attempt it, to be magnificent or majestic, to be severe or important or notable or respectable or honourable, to look up to, to keep an eye upon, to guard, to take care of, to help or support, to learn or drink from fountain of knowledge, water spring or new beginning, ocean of water or knowledge, to cause flooding, to transgress the limits, to overwhelm or become overwhelmed, something to hand something upon, something reliable, something solid or concrete, something lasting or durable or fit for the purpose etc etc.
In the verses of the Quran Allah explains why some more advantaged people fail to use their faculties bestowed by him properly. The reason is their minds are preoccupied with ambitions of dominating each other by undermining each other therefore being focused on that point everything else is out of their minds. One has to realise the fact that human senses ie sense of seeing or hearing etc is under control of human brain at all times. If brain becomes overly preoccupied with something then senses become fully used for that purpose instead of acting as stimulus for drawing attention to other things. In short one cannot be distracted easily from what one is fully focusing one’s attention upon so this acts as a barrier for one’s mind as well as a sort of cover for one’s senses. When a person is involved in deep thinking about something then if another person waves his hand in front of his eyes or calls him for attention then the person involved in deep thinking does not notice it therefore does not respond while wide aware. This is what the Quran is drawing our attention to so that we do not become such people that guidance of Allah has no affect on us otherwise we are doomed. This is how the Quran tells people to wake up to real world realities before it is too late.
This surah is named AL-BAQARAH from root BAA, QAAF and RAA. Concrete meaning of this root is to tear something apart in some sense for some reason. Also to rip apart something in some sense to expose its contents, to search extensively, to carry out research work, to explore extensively, to try to discover or uncover something in some sense, to bring situation under control, to find and solve problems, lion or bull, an animal domesticated for use eg cow, scholarship, dissention, separation, division, conflict, corruption, sacred cow, make beliefs, division of power between monarchy and priesthood on basis of land and religion, something held sacred or as if sacred, something beyond question or criticism, division of power between rulers and priests on basis of state and religion, division of power between political elite and religious elite and capitalist elite on basis of economics and religion and secularism, division between people on basis of religion and secularism and capitalism, to travel around, to split or split up, to gash, to plough, to enlarge, to stretch or expand, to cause trouble or mischief, to be strong or powerful, to shelter or shield or protect or secure, to cause instability or chaos or confusion or anarchy or panic, to cause to fall in identity crisis, to destabilise, to upset things, to turn things upside down, to be energetic or lively or active, to jump about, to hang onto something in some sense for some reason, to plot or scheme or conspire, to spread rumours, to slander, to backbite, to spread gossip, command and control centre, ruling elite, top part or section of something, chief or head of a tribe or people, leadership, to provide with refuge or shelter, to take into care, to guard or look after, to think or reflect or ponder, constitution, rule of law, tradition, custom, family or following or support etc etc.
The Quran does not name its surahs randomly by choosing a word from the surah itself as told by mullahs rather the surah title is intended to convey the message related to the heading from within the surah contents. As can be seen in surah 1, the name was AL FAATIHAH and this word does not occur in surah alfaatihah, however the concept behind this title is to convey a few things a)the opening or starting of the message of Allah, b)that it is a proclamation ie an open declaration from God through His messenger to the mankind and c)it is to convey overall picture or context of the message of the Quran etc etc. Likewise here the chosen word is AL-BAQARAH and it is turned into definite article with AL=the. So the concepts this title conveys are related to divisions, rifts, hatred and wars between people and reasons behind them as well as the way to resolve these conflicts.
The Quran shows two fundamental categories of people from which the rest of divisions come about or arise a)people who want to live on basis of guidance of Allah according to his advised way of life as a proper human community that is caring and sharing because they live for ensuring well being of each other and b)people who want to live as they wish on the basis of personal gains at the expense of each other or at the expense of community life based upon community spirit. What is the difference between the two ways of life for people? The difference is that in case of people based upon guidance of Allah there is no master slave relationship between people because DEEN from Allah is Islam which is all about brotherhood of mankind therefore there is no concept of rule of a human being over another human being and there is no mechanism in there for using each other abusively in order to exploit each other for personal gains at each other’s expense, so there is no business for profit concept within the proper human community at the expense of each other. It is because brotherhood is all about people dealing with each other on basis of love and compassion as a single human family caring for each other and sharing everything with each other fully instead of dealing with each other on basis of business for profit or personal gains at the expense of each other, which leads to terrible conflicts in all kinds of relationships because in that case profit comes before well being of people therefore each person is for himself ie the idea of survival of the fittest or laws of jungle. Since people can only live by laws made by themselves or by laws based upon revelation of Allah and some people choose one way of living and the other another therefore arise divisions and conflicts between them. It should therefore be clear which group of people can be or is trouble maker and why. Not only that but people who choose to live by self made laws on basis of personal gains at the expense of each other and therefore at the expense of community based life end up with rivalries, animosities, hatred and wars among themselves due to vested personal interest based conflicts. This is why we see the whole world is plunged into conflicts and wars by choice of such people. Despite all this being very clear these people remain ignorant due to their arrogance due to which they give no importance to revelation of Allah and for all sorts of conflict which are started by them for obvious reasons they blame them on those who invite all towards way of life advised by Allah. In addition to that they employ people and mechanisms in order to try to confuse those to whom they can reach about deen of Allah so that they too join them and no one pays any worthwhile attention to deen of Islam. The result of that is becoming very much obvious to the human world in shape of their death and destruction throughout the world. All this in the name of way of life invented and promoted by a few dominant people and accepted by masses who are living like creatures without brains because on one hand they accept abusive use of themselves for personal gains by accepting that way of life and then on the other hand they complain about it saying, look what is happening to us ie we are being used abusively as if we are not human beings at all or are animals.
Since each party has to justify its way of life to itself and its supporters otherwise they will not get the needed support therefore one party tries to explain the truth to people while the other uses tricks and mechanisms to make fool of people at large or masses. Divisions are caused by people who are dominant in society in order to secure their dominant positions and statuses in the society by trying their best to undermine their opposition hence the need for a strong propaganda machine for them for pushing their agenda to make it successful. This explains why people who try to gain personally talk so much nonsense against the other party and even against each other due to conflicts of interests between themselves. The question is, what they want to gain for themselves out of creating so many conflicts among human beings using various tricks and mechanisms? They want to gain power if possible to rule others ie they want to become masters of others by trying to turn them into their slaves. Since people are people and have brains therefore if they let others know their intentions then they will fight back because no one wants to be slave of anyone else willingly therefore they invent tricks and mechanisms to try and get people under their control that way. There are only three possible ways people can enslave each other a)by strength of their arms b)by making fool of them and c)by giving them incentives. Since no person is strong enough to fight all human beings in the world to beat them into submission therefore there has to be some other way or mechanism for such people to make other people accept their slavery willingly. On this basis these people form alliances ie if you accept me as your king then I will give you some rank in my group eg make you my army general or give you control of a piece of land or give you some wealth to have others work for you etc etc.
The only opposition against these people comes from guidance sent by Allah for mankind and the people who support that guidance because those people cannot be intimidated, fooled or bought through incentives and bribes etc. The question arises, how can these people overcome the missionaries of Allah? It is very easy because mankind are born ignorant and to keep them ignorant, illiterate and uneducated has ample benefits ie they can be fooled easily therefore can be conditioned for abusive use easily. It is like the case of a baby. You just put him in a baby cart and he does not know how to get out of it because he has not yet learned how to do that. So when rulers, mullahs and money lenders use tricks and mechanisms to trap simple minded people they cannot see how to get out of that trap. The task of missionaries of Allah is very, very hard indeed because before they could convince anyone to be on their side they need to spend a lot of time and energy in trying to educate them. Education involves three stages a)help people become self aware b)help people become aware about other things and people and c)help them realise the fact that there is more to life than meets the eyes. Simple minded people are not self aware to higher degree nor are they that widely and deeply aware of real world realities so they hardly have much sense about Allah and his guidance. This is enough problematic as it is but on top of that rulers, mullahs and money lenders brainwash and indoctrinate such people to condition them into people that suit their purpose of exploitation. One of their purposes is to make sure these are enemies of messengers and messages of Allah in the name of Allah and his chosen people so they redefine those ideas and use them to program these people. The effect of this programming is that these simple minded people do harmful and destructive things in the name of Allah thinking they are doing good so Allah will be very much pleased with them. So one can see how many layers of problems these people become buried under and therefore how difficult job it becomes for a messenger from Allah to help and get these people out of all these troubling mindsets, attitudes and behaviours in order to get them free from all kinds of bondages or slavery.
The main problem is division of power between various kinds of leaderships and followings as opposed to Islamic way of life based upon concept of a proper human community. The main divisions are power that chiefs, kings, emperors or rulers or ruling elite hold over masses, the priestly class whom the emperors install and who install them when priestly class takes over kings and money lenders or money changers or people who use wealth for controlling others for personal gains etc through setting up buying and selling mechanisms for people and goods or services. So people cause conflicts among themselves on basis of rulership in the name of country, God or wealth etc. In short the causes of conflicts are land and resources, means of production and distribution because people mishandle each other and mismanage resources. Some take undue advantage of others so the Quran in this surah explains things to people in order to educate them as to what is going on and what they should be doing and how they should do it so that mankind could have united, peaceful, progressive, prosperous and secure existence. It is because Allah has created mankind for complementing each other and not for abusing and destroying each other through advantages they have been given over each other. This is why there is need for proper use of brains, senses and bodies by people to achieve that. This is why no one is free to do as they please for themselves because it inflicts harms and destructions upon others in human population. This is why all must live by rule of law advised by their creator.
The Quran is free of offering people any miraculous or magical solutions instead it educates people to enable them to solve their own worldly problems using that wisdom as explained in detail already. This is why the Quran is not to be misinterpreted and misrepresented as a religious holy book for pooja paat sort of worship and concepts of miracles or magic which religions use to exploit masses. It is instead a guide for creating a manifesto, a constitution and a set of laws for unity, peace, progress and prosperity of mankind. It is for learning and teaching sense that enables people to handle things sensibly not miraculously and magically which make no sense. They just confuse people as they usually do. God wants to lead people out of the darkness of ignorance into the light of knowledge ie information and its proper understanding because that is what knowledge is. Knowledge makes things clear to minds of people just as light makes things obvious as to what they are or where they are etc etc. This will become more and more obvious as we read the arguments the Quran raises to confront people who try to fool each other with their make beliefs and tricks. Each time a people asked for miracles, messengers of Allah told them there is no miracle but revelation to prove what is true and beneficial for mankind. In this fight between truth and falsehood, right and wrong it is not miracles or magic that can decide the issue but the relevant information and its proper understanding that can prove the truth true and falsehood false logically consistently and purposefully. So the Quran is a proof from God for mankind to accept and follow and see the results of their own thoughts and actions based upon it as proof of truth of its program or message. In other words the Quran puts before people some concepts for their benefits and tells people to try them and see if they work or not. If they work then they will prove the Quran is message from God for mankind but if they do not then that will prove the Quran false. Rationally a non-permanent being cannot be the original creator as explained already in detail because then each creator will need a creator itself and that will lead to an unending chain of creators of creators which does not stand to reason due to lack of consistency. It is because if each creator needs a creator itself then if a creator of creator has not come about then how can the creation that is supposed to be created by it? So only a creator that existed always could bring about creation and not a creator that itself need a creator to create it..
Tricks are used by those who make false claims that cannot be proven logically consistent on basis of related evidences. So those who claim supernatural powers are liars as far as the Quran is concerned. It is because Allah did not give anyone any supernatural power because it could serve no purpose whatsoever in his scheme of things as we will see when we go through the Quran more and more. The world is set up to work the way God explains it because he is the one who set it up for his own purpose. There are only two supernatural events a) the existence of the universe and b) the existence of the revelation. Other than that all natural world events are becoming explainable by study of nature as mankind advance in their knowledge due to hard work of those who study things in detail as time marches on.
The words used in the Quranic text have conceptual and contextual concrete meanings and not what people attribute to them because if scrutinised people cannot justify those meaning that they give to certain words. For example, take word jinn, how did people come to know there are such and such invisible beings if they were never able to see them in the first place? The existence of God is a different matter because that is provable through existence of universe and revelation that cannot be refuted but existence of things like invisible good and bad living beings that people are unable to detect with their own senses or any scientific instrument how did they come to know about them in the first place to interpret the words of God that way? This is how it shows up that people have been making up words and concepts that have nothing at all to do with universal realities and reason. People who have attached nonsense meanings to words only did so to confuse each other either deliberately to gain something out of it or due to their own ignorance about things that is all.
The messengers of Allah therefore did not come with miracles because they came to educate people and you cannot educate people with miracles or by putting up magic shows. The reason people asked for miracles is because the rulers and priests etc put them up to it so that by making nonsense demands on messengers of Allah they could keep them from learning any sense from them because if they learned sense then they will become aware of what is happening to them and why or who is making this to happen to them and how. This is why people even today run to holy men with magical powers for the solutions of their worldly problems instead of learning how to analyze problems and find their solutions. They do not realise that these holy men and women have been put in place by the establishments because this way masses do not question the people in-charge over their livelihood. It is the best trick because it is still successfully used on ignorant people. If this thing was not in place then when people had any problems they ought to blame the rulers and could force them to solve their problems and humanity could have moved forward but such things hold mankind back from progress towards prosperity. So one can see how useful tool it is for ruling classes to use concept of miracles and magic, demons and angels or holy men etc to keep the masses confused and in chaos. By diverting attention of masses from real issues towards nonsense issues, it gives rulers freedom to carry on with idea of divide and rule and use people abusively.
Masses do not realise that if these so called supernatural beings or powers were so much at work, the world in which we live we ought to see so many things happening supernaturally all around us every day without any physical cause but we do not see such things happening at all. Each time we try to find any cause behind an event it eventually turns up after a lot of hard work. Moreover humanity would have made discoveries that it has made now so many years back in time if people had all these powers which ignorant people attribute to some tricksters. Science will mean nothing at all because supernatural beings in human control and magic power in their hands could have worked wonders very long ago. So much spending on spying and weapons would not be of any use because supernatural beings and people with supernatural powers will be far ahead of everyone else in the world. A lot of things about the earth and solar system and rest of universe we have come to know now will have been known to us already long time ago and in much more detail. Since there is so much animosity between individuals and nations, if people had access to such powers then why will they need armies and weapons and people to spy on each other? Why they did not use jinns and magic to steal swords and spears of one people and handed them over to the others and why they will use spears and swords instead of supernatural weaponry to fight each other? Perhaps people need to think a bit instead of running after tricksters for miraculous and magical solutions of their problems. It shows people are not only stupid but lazy and crazy as well who think they should be handed everything in the plate like a cake without they actually needing to work for it. One has to ask, what is difference between these people and those who use and abuse them? If a person has a headache, his relatives and friends suggest to him people who know some holy words and when they recite these holy words and blow or spit on the person with headache then one feels one is cured of headache, however, if one has an accident and his limbs are lying on the other side of the road, no one suggests to him let us go to so and so holy man or magic man because everyone knows magic man or holy man has no solution for this problem which exposes the truth very clearly that all this hype about power of magic and holy man is just hoax. That is how it shows we love making fool of ourselves that is why we love our make beliefs and so we let others make fool of us as well. All such reasons make it very obvious that the Quran is a factual book and does not contain any nonsense that ignorant people attribute to it. This book draws our attention to real issues and problems and educates us to look for real solutions with help of each other. It is a manifesto from Allah for distribution so that those who like this program come together and organise according to the Quran as a constitution from Allah and regulate the community by laws based upon its guidelines for the goal of unity for peaceful, progressive and prosperous existence. This surah is named AL-Baqarah because the human community is weakened by divisions and fights whereby community spirit becomes damaged. In the Quranic context the Quran deals with human community so it talks about what it goes through and why. If it does not follow path of life wisely then it ends up in all sorts of troubles so it is advised to follow path of wisdom and have a reasonably good life. Since people due to lack of wisdom end up divided the Quran shows the road to unity of mankind. In this surah we will see some stories about past human communities and how they fared in their life. How people turned against each other and how they were brought together again and again etc etc.
Proclaim! In the name of Allah, the provider of things for biological, psychological and sociological development and growth of mankind.
1) ALIF LAAM MEEM.
In this verse there are only three letters about which so far I have only one explanation ie that these letter are repeated in this surah but they are used as exact multiples of nineteen ie the same number that is number of letters in the very first verse of the Quran ie bismilla hirrahmaa nirraheem eg baa, seen, meem, alif, laam, laam, haa, alif, laam, raa, haa, meem, noon, alif, laam, raa, haa , yaa ,meem. So if we counted total number of alifs used in this surah we will see they are exact multiple of nineteen. Same will be the case with letters laam and meem. The number of bismillas in the Quran is also multiple of 19 ie 114, and there are total 114 surahs in the Quran. The number of letters in the Arabic alphabet is 28, of which 14 are used in 14 combinations in 29 surahs, which is exact multiple of 19. There were originally 17 shapes in which Arabic alphabet were written. Although there has been a bit of modification in Arabic writing than the original eg there were no dots or diacritical marks in the original Arabic writings. However this does not have much effect on basic writing or reading but it helped people to read the Quran a bit easier who did not know Arabic. The main textual version of the Quran is HAFS version that is said to be proper version and is wide spread though there are other versions as well that are less known with more copying errors in them than hafs but not of the nature that makes any noticeable difference in the actual message. These differences are mainly due to diacritical marks or dots or the way a letter is written due to rules of Arabic language eg a normal TAA may be written in round form which is also pronounced HAA as in word RAHMAH which is also written as RAHMAT etc. Some differences resulted from regional variations of language itself ie not all Arab spoke the language the same way but none of the differences change the basic necessary message of the Quran in any way. People have termed these differences as various ways of reading the Quranic text. The main thing is that HAFS version is the only version that has been spread widely. Only scholars are aware of other versions or people of the area who speak the language and still continue those versions.
These letters tell us that on their own they have no meanings just like numbers on their own have no value. Letters or numbers are mere symbols that stand for concepts and concepts therefore are fundamental units for understanding bigger picture through their combination in a certain way. For example, letters stand for variations in sounds and when those sounds are uttered in a particular way they end up as words and phrases and sentences etc. This is what we call human speech or language. Just like letters stand for sounds so words stand for certain given conceptual meanings. Complex communication is not possible without a set of words with understood conceptual meanings for a community of people. This is why knowing some basic facts about language is of vital importance eg its origin, its development or use etc etc. The Quran cannot be understood just by reading words and looking up for meanings of words in dictionaries. It is because the Quran originates from God but it is for people who are born without knowing much and they cannot know much unless they make real good effort to learn things. Since what people have yet to learn they cannot give it proper meanings till they reach that stage in their learning therefore understanding of the Quran is not an easy task just like knowing the meanings of these letters. Dictionaries can help but they are never up to date because the knowledge has no end in sight and if knowledge keeps on increasing with time then dictionaries will keep on changing for various reasons related to progress with time and changes that take place. So all ways of learning in comparison to Quran are as if a child is learning about disciplines that have been established by adults, so it takes time for a child to reach the stage whereat things explained by adults start making sense to him ie he will reach there in his own time in his own way. In other words if you give a street map to a person who cannot make sense of it then it is useless for him. So a person has to learn all necessary things needed for understanding the Quran before one is able to make proper sense of the Quran.
This is why words in the Quran need to be understood as concepts and then how those concepts work out in relation to each other needs to be worked out. This is why simple translations of Quran-like text are useless because they cannot convey the message of the Quran which is main purpose of its revelation. This is why it involves a lot of effort by way of trial and error. This should explain why all translations of the Quran as a simple text are mostly wrong. The other reason why translations of the Quran are mostly wrong is because they are based upon translators own make beliefs. This means instead of trying to find message of the Quran from the Quranic text in its own context one is bending the message according to one’s own make beliefs and baseless ideas. This is what makes it more of a message of confused translator instead of the message of God because any such a translation is bound to be full of contradictions of all sorts flaws. If people follow certain rules to ensure their explanations of the Quran are within those accepted rules then it is highly likely that we have understood and conveyed the Quranic message as close to the original as it is humanly possible. No way can people guaranty elimination of human element in the understanding, conveyance and use of the Quranic message. So long as there is no major problem, odd errors should cause no serious harm or concern. It is very important for people to understand that only and only the actual Quranic text is word of God not its translations and interpretations by people regardless how good they may be because they are totally human works which could contain errors here and there even if they have been carried out very, very carefully.
The main thing to remember is that nearly 1500 years ago a man called Muhammad in Makkah, Saudi Arabia proclaimed messengership from God. People at the time confronted him for evidence so he produced the Quran as evidence for the truth of his claim. He said it was testimony of God sent to him by God. It is therefore up to people themselves to study the Quran properly and test it for consistency between its claims and available evidences and explanations. It is very important therefore to treat it as a testimony of God and see if there is anything wrong with it its purpose wise. If what it explains makes sense the way it explains it then the testimony is reliable otherwise not. The Quran is neither a self evident fact nor a scientific theory by a human being so it should not be treated as such. Self evident fact is stronger evidence than testimonial proof but testimonial proof is stronger evidence than a theoretical proof. It is because one good explanation is actual witness based explanation of events or facts but the other is personal opinion about facts where there is no witness to the actual events or facts explained. On the other hand self evident facts as they happen are personally witnessed by the person making the decision about them so other witness and evidence is not needed ie the whole thing is self explanatory for the decision maker. This is why such facts are stronger proof than a testimonial proof. On the other hand theoretical proof is based upon circumstantial evidence and needs construction, deconstruction and reconstruction till it makes proper sense to mind otherwise mind will ignore it if it can or it will be found very troublesome for mind till this problem is solved otherwise it could destabilised already confused mind yet more, so one could fall victim to identity crises unless one already has. As for the letters in this verse, the way they are used seem to tell us these letters have something to do with proving what is claimed in the verses that follow. How they do that I have no clue so I will leave things at that for the time being. If anyone is interested one can refer to others for explanations of these letters who may have knowledge about them. I am sure one day their meanings will be discovered by someone. Their main purpose seems to me is to tell mankind to know the origin and development of human language and try to understand the message of the Quran on that basis because trying to understand the Quran by using mere words and their meanings limits its meanings to a particular time or use of language by a particular people. Since people of the time of revelation of the Quran did not know what we know today therefore if we limit the Quran to use of language of that time then we cannot take the Quran for word of God because word of God cannot be limited by any human understanding of things of any time because there will always be something that we human beings will not know and therefore we will fail to know the message of Quran properly. It is because word of God is based upon facts and explanations for all times to come since its revelation so people will keep on discovering new things in it all the time just like a baby find something new every day to talk about while growing up and discovering things for himself. Moreover I have already explained the meanings of the alphabet letters so it is up to thinkers to see how these letters can be fitted with the rest of the text of the Quran in this surah. When things click together we will know what they are. For me it is important to try and explain what the rest of the text of the Quran may be telling us rather than try to first solve problem posed by these letters. All I can do for the time being is to say, these letters are proof of the fact that this is such a book in the message of which there is no room for reasonable doubt that it is guidance for those who wish to be consistent with way of life advised by Allah and each other. The question is, who are these people who are looking for guidance from Allah? They are those who become self aware and aware of real world realities which then make them question their origin and purpose etc. This book is useless for those who do not think to become self aware or aware about real world realities because they cannot rise to level of thinking which helps them become aware of importance of revelation of God as already explained. All the provided raw material in this world is useless for those who are not interested in making use of it for ensuring well being of mankind. Likewise those who use raw material for abusing humanity cannot benefit from revelation of Allah because they are overwhelmed by sense of self importance due to which they try to take things under their control as much as they can so that they could use others abusively as much as they can so they have no time to think about higher goals set by Allah for mankind. This is why when people are called to guidance of Allah only sensible people respond to it sensibly. The rest respond just for using guidance of Allah as a tool for their own personal satisfactions. Such self centred people be they religious or secular have their own agendas rather than trying to understand agenda of their creator and sustainer and taking it upon themselves as a mission for the good of mankind. This is why be one a ruler, a money lender or a mullah one cannot get his way for long because that is the way Allah has set up his universe to work to make such people face the consequences of their thoughts and actions against others sooner or later. One has to think about what is the purpose of guidance from God if it only tells people to do as they please instead of telling them the right way to think and do things. People are born ignorant so they need guidance all the time to become a sensible people. This is why guidance has to be about what people cannot know all by themselves or need endless time to come to know it which they do not have. This is why guidance of Allah does not follow thoughts and ideas of people but instead tells them how to think and why.
2) This is that message from Allah in form of a book which contains all necessary information such as a program for a set of goals as well as set of guidelines for a constitution and legislations that can lead people to a life free of instability, regrets and anxiety because in it is proper guidance beyond any reasonable doubt for those who desire to be consistent with it and with each other for their blissful, dignified and secure existence as a proper human community.
Word KITAAB is from root KAAF, TAA and BAA. Concrete meaning of this root is to gather loose things together and tie them up for their preservation. Also written material, layers of material, written letter or record or account or decree or a set amount, army regiment, something prescribed or imposed, a book is called kitaab because loose pages of a writing are collected together and tied in form of a bundle of pages for their preservation, library or a place wherein books are kept for preservation or information, information storage or collection centre, there are pages of written down laws that are put together or the constitution or law or program that must be adhered to, written document, record of knowledge of God about his grand design and purpose, the Quran, revelations of God, books from God, teachings of God, writ of God, verdict or decision of God, ordinance from God, appointed time, prescribed period of time, prescribed punishment, written scrolls, desk, school, place of learning reading and writing, to write or prescribe or mark or etch or engrave or record, to write down a contract, to ordain, to decide, to put letters together, to write down or cause to write down, to predestine, to make obligatory, to make incumbent, to put a ring around something to stop it from getting out of it or from doing something undesirable or unwanted, to stop unwanted pregnancy by taking necessary measures, to sew the mouth of a sack so that things do not escape from it, to tie the mouth of water skin to stop water escaping from it, to put a wall around a house with a gate to stop anyone unwanted coming into the house, to collect ideas or information about something into a written book, palm of hand, to be in grip or in control of, to be tender hearted or kind, coffin, chest, tomb, house, shelter, kingdom etc etc. In the Quranic context the Quran is a set of guidelines or a blueprint for a manifesto and a constitution as well as legislations for people if they wish to live as a proper human community. The use of word AL-KITAAB in Quranic context shows that the Quran was put together by the messenger of Allah in form of a written book by himself and its message was spread by him as far as he could and beyond that with help of his supporters who came to join him along the way. The Quran was put before people as a program from Allah for the goal of bringing people together so that a proper human community could be raised and a kingdom based upon guidance of Allah could established that is founded upon a constitution and legislations based on guidelines provided by Allah in the Quran through an education based revolution. This is the nature of the mission called deen of Islam or way of life advised by Allah.
Word RAIB is from root RAA, YAA and BAA. Concrete meaning of this root is instability. Also to go to and fro, to agitate or be agitated, to cause or be in chaos or confusion, to be infirm or unstable mentally or physically, to wobble or deviate, to oscillate, to doubt or suspect, to cause or cast or show doubt, to be uncertain or unsure about something, to suffer anxiety or worry or calamity, to become depressed, to entertain, to accuse, to alarm, to suffer an accident or misfortune or ill fate or mishap, to be indecisive, to be in an undetermined state of mind, to be suspicious about something, to be guilty, to be dubious, to beguile, to deceive, to cheat, to pretend, to have a reputation that is false, to pretend to be what one is not, to fear, to slander, to spread rumours, to suffer from complexity or multi personalities disorder, to conspire, to plot, to think clearly, to plan ahead, something that has something to do with a command and control centre, top part or section of something, ruling elite, leadership, power, authority, reach, jurisdiction, grip, to have a hand in making something happen, to trick, to have control over, to shelter or hide or protect or shield, to stop, to obstruct, to separate, to cut off, to divide, to provide with refuge or sanctuary, family or following or support or assistance, head or something like head in some sense, hand or something like hand in some sense, house or something like house in some sense, unease in the mind or state of regret or anxiety or confusion and difficulty that comes about when one faces a problem but cannot pin point it and has no solution for it. This leads one to identity crisis due to mental instability because of confusion. When one is not sure about things, one falls in doubts and becomes victim of make beliefs and superstition and therefore self confidence disappears. So in the Quranic context freedom from RAIB is a great thing for a person or nation to have. In life people face many problems but if they try to solve them according to ideas given in the Quran, life could become worth living. It is because people have needs and wants and if they fulfilled their needs and wants according to some sort of good set up and rules and regulations then lots of problems could be solved that way but if each person did things as it suited one then conflicts become inevitable and community sense in people can fall apart. After divisions it is then much more difficult to bring people together because they have lots of complaints against each other that become difficult to get rid of. So the best thing for people is not be quick in trying to break off ties or relationships, they are very difficult to rebuild. This is why people must avoid disinformation and misinformation because that could lead to mistrust and distrust and therefore to suspicions and break down of relationships. So we can see why word RAIB is used right at the start of the book.
Word MUTTAQEEN is from root WOW, QAAF and YAA. Concrete meaning of this root is to be consistent with the path that is full of dangers to a particular beautiful destination with all due care and precision. Also to tread a path full of dangers very carefully so that no harm or destruction comes to oneself or others using the same path, to be consistent with the group that treads the same path full of dangers so that togetherness provides safety and security for all in the group, to be consistent with the guidance of God that can lead people to blissful and dignified as well as secure existence, to be consistent with God and humanity for ensuring well being of mankind, to be mindful of God, to guard against thinking such thoughts and taking such actions that could lead people to harms and destructions by hands of each other, to remain alert and fully prepared for dealing with problematic or dangerous situations or circumstances that may arise from time to time, to walk carefully along a difficult or dangerous path so that one makes one’s way safely through it to one’s chosen and desired destination, to have a mission and to fulfil it with all due care, to have situations or circumstances fully under control at all times so that one does not in danger or in trouble due to one’s negligence or carelessness, to desire or have wish for safe and secure existence, to have things in one’s attention, to pay attention to, to wish or desire for, to not to lose track of things that are vital for ensuring one’s safe and secure existence, to guard against, to pay attention to, to be mindful of, to be alert or aware of or about, to prevent something undesirable from happening, to take precaution or precautionary measures for protection against something harmful or dangerous in advance, to be attentive, to obviate, to avoid, to beware, to fear, to be concerned about, to safeguard, to protect, to caution, to warn, to act on provided warning, to shield or be shielded from, to keep safe from, to preserve or be preserved from, to distance or be distanced from, to move away from, to be saved from, to be moved away from, to be careful about, to be consistent with, meeting of minds or actions or both, to be pious, to be cautious, to keep in mind, to keep something in forefront of one’s mind, to stay away from, to forbid or stop, to defend, to fend off, to be in awe, to hook onto or link to something in some way for some purpose, to deviate from something in some sense, to fall off or away from something in some way, to hang onto something in some sense, to have reach or jurisdiction, to have control over something in some sense, to have hand or be involved in something happening etc etc. In the Quranic context people are supposed to tread the Quranic path being fully aware of what is involved in it so that it could lead them to unity, peace, progress and prosperity and so that they do not fall victim to side tracks that could lead them to harmful or destructive end results by hands of each other through divisions, rivalries, animosities, hatred and wars.
In a way word ZAALIK here also connects this surah to the first surah beside connecting it to letters in the first verse ie this is that promised guiding book with all essential information that if understood properly and followed faithfully can lead mankind to blissful, dignified and secure existence. That is if they will think and do what this book tells them then they will get the kind of life this book talks about or promises. It is like somebody gives someone a building plan for a nice house and all the needed raw materials and says now work on this plan and you will end up with a beautiful house. A very clear message to those who think that if they need anything then all they need to do is, pray to God for it a lot of times and with all due sincerity and it will be given to them by God. When this does not happen as they think then these people tell each other we are not sincere enough in our prayers that is why God is not listening to us so they keep trying harder and harder but it still does not happen so they come up with excuse of reward for prayer in hereafter. In other words people try to fool themselves and each other as much as they can for as long as they can till it dawns upon them that God has not set up the universe to work this way or they come to know this fact for themselves. These people do not realise that they cannot make Allah bow to their will through a lot of crying and emotional outbursts because God does not want just sincerity but sincerity as well as the right way for showing their sincerity. Their prayers remain unfulfilled because this not the way God is portrayed in the Quran because deen of Islam is not a religious nonsense based upon baseless dogmas and rituals. So people better read this book very carefully and try and understand the whole thing properly and then do it faithfully as it explains and then see the results by doing things that way. In other words one needs to find out full picture of things from the Quran on basis of real world realities before getting down to business of executing the program the Quran puts forth. This program is for people for accomplishing some goals according to some guidelines after coming up with sense of its proper context and perspective and then following the Quran in that sense faithfully. So only those works will be defined as proper which help one accomplish the stated goals according to provided guidelines and all other works will only waste one’s time and effort as well as they will delay fulfilment of the stated objectives of God for mankind so they could lead people to needless painful suffering for as long as they continue on that path. It is like somebody tells one to go to a shop and buy some food and instead the person goes away and wastes time here and there and comes back without food. Now not only the task assigned has not been carried out and the purpose has not been served but without food people will have to go through hunger because of having no food to eat. So if Allah tells you to build the house because he has provided you with all you need then there is no point you saying back to Allah, please do it for me, is there? If Allah meant to do your part as well then what was the point in Allah giving you the house map and all the needed raw material and telling you all the rest is up to you? This explains one reason at least why people are poor and hungry or lazy and crazy ie because they are thinking it is total responsibility of Allah that he should do each and everything for them as if they are only here to sit and pray for things and they will get them. This is very wrong concept about Allah in heads of people but the question is, where did it come from? It came from mullahs because it is they who misconstrued concepts about God to trick people into make beliefs and useless rituals. However why did they do so will become clear as we progress with study of the Quran because everything cannot be explained in one place or in a couple of words. It is because most people think they are very sensible yet follow all the nonsense they can think of. This is why the human world is the way it is. If people had learn that much sense as they claim then human world ought to be in much better state today than we see all around us.
3) Such are the people who commit to working for unity, peace, progress and prosperity of mankind for their brilliant future yet hidden from them by establishing the supportive network of proper human community in order to open up for all, the ways and means to sustenance which We have provided for them in form of raw materials.
Word YUMINOON is from root ALIF, MEEM and NOON. Concrete meaning of this root is something that is itself safe and secure and acts as foundation for safety and security of other things. Also something that is stable itself and provides stability for other things, to be safe, to be secure, to guard, to keep, to trust, to pledge, to be confident, to be at peace, to be satisfied, to believe on the basis of evidence, to have faith based on reason, to take something for granted or as a matter of blind faith, to hold onto baseless beliefs, to put trust in something for some reason for some end goal or purpose in mind, to be believed or trusted, to trust someone with or over something, to have a valid reason to trust someone or something, to feel safe or secure, to be in a time of safety, to be at peace with, to be comfortable with, to be satisfied with someone or something about something, to guard against, to wish to be safe from, to attain true faith, to put faith in, to be entrusted with, to have peace or tranquillity, to be peaceful, to commit to working for unity and peace, to commit to working for progress and prosperity, to undertake working for cause of peace and prosperity, to charge someone with a trust, to discharge one’s trust satisfactorily, to have inner calm, to be honest or trustworthy, to be or become relaxed, to be or become calm, to be sincere or serious about something, to hold a certain belief about something or someone, to be adherent to the truth, to be committed to facts and explanations as oppose to taking things on face value, to be peaceful and make others commit or submit to peace in some sense, to be or become free of fear or worry or anxiety or tension, to have no fear or worry, to not to breach one’s trust, to help one become free of fear or worry or anxiety, to affirm or confirm something in some sense, to attest to the truth of something, to bear witness to the truth, to proclaim truth, to reflect what is true or is a reality, to have thoughts and words as well as actions consistent with each other, to not to be in two minds about something, to fulfil one’s given responsibility or duty to the full, habitually honest person, a person always found to be consistent in his word through his actions etc etc.
In the Quranic context AMAN means physical and mental security and reliability in a person ie one is at peace internally and externally knowing one has nothing to regret about the past and nothing to worry about in the future. It is because unless one has peace inside oneself one cannot be confident and secure enough to radiate peace outside oneself and likewise if peace is missing from outside oneself then the same troubles and worries are sensed by senses of brain and the worries become internalised. In other words a human by nature is such a being that it is affected both internally and externally ie the outside things affects its inside and its inside things affect its outside or external world. One takes things in from outside and one ejects things from inside after certain mental and physical processes. So people who want peace try to spread peace to others and people who want troubles and wars spread troubles to others. Whichever force succeeds in this struggle is reflected in the world that people see all around them.
Word GHAIB is from root GHAIN, YAA and BAA. Concrete meaning of this root is gap or distance or difference between two things in some sense. Also disconnection or discontinuity or break or absence of linkage between two things or points, something unknown or unseen or invisible or hidden or not in view, the future, depth of a wall, setting of the sun or moon or stars, hidden depth or deep bottom, lowland, dense forest that is full of trees etc, deep well bottom of which is not visible, roots of tree buried in the ground, to gossip or slander or backbite or spread rumour or lies or falsehood, to vanish or become invisible or absent or unseen or concealed or doubtful, to travel in the folds of the earth, unseen is something that exists but is not visible to the eye, depression, hollow, something that is unknown at one time can become known at another time eg future is something that is hidden but as time marches on it become present therefore visible, to have or not to have reach, to have or not to have jurisdiction or control, to have or not to have power or capacity to do something, to shield or shelter, to provide with refuge or sanctuary or protection, to guard, to have or not to have family or following or support or back up, to stay away, to withdraw, to leave, to depart, to vanish from someone’s sight, to be swallowed up, to set, to go down, to slip from memory, to forget, to lose consciousness, to lose awareness, to lead away, to take away, to faint or swoon, to veil, to become oblivious, to drive out of mind, to cover up, to be transcendental, to calumniate, to do something behind someone’s back, to do something treacherously, to foresee or foreknow, to know secretly, to do something insidiously, wood, copse, thicket, jungle, reed, judgement by default, depth of a dungeon or ditch or the like, trance, daze, stupor, nonattendance, defamation, truancy, narcotics, anaesthetics, a woman whose husband is absent, grass widow etc etc.
In the Quranic context here this root means anything that is not obvious because of lack of information about it which leaves a gap in one’s knowledge eg result or outcome of an action. There is time gap between a cause and its effect. The gap indicates absence of result of an action for a period of time. When one says something bad about someone who is absent it is called GHEEBAH. In opposition to this word SHAHAADA is used from root SHEEN, HAA and DAAL, which means constant ie connected or without gap. An eye witness is present at scene of crime so he is connected with what he has witnessed. In the Quranic context words needs to be understood in a particular context eg the Quran is a manifesto ie a program or roadmap or a plan of actions upon which people ought to act or work but only in hope that end result will be good for them because the end result of acting on the program of the Quran is not obvious in reality till it becomes a reality. People can only examine the Quran on paper and see if its program can work, if they become confident that it can work then they should go for it and once they start they should keep going till results begin to appear in reality ie plan start taking shape in reality like a builder works on a map of a building to give it shape in reality once he is happy with the map of the building or its technical drawing by an architect. It is in this context Allah asks people to give loan to Allah ie trust Allah that his set-up systems and laws will bring about the results promised in the Quran for mankind provided they played their parts properly in this program as asked to do. For example, people throw about seeds in the field in the hope they will in time grow into crops. Provided people have prepared their fields properly and seeded them on time under proper conditions then in due course the result will be a good crop. So the time between carrying out a program and its results is meant here by word GHAIB. It is not about blind faith in existence of Allah because existence of Allah can be proven through indirect evidences and their best explanation that is impossible to refute. The question is, where did the idea of total blind faith come from? From mullahs because they wanted to turn people ignorant and unreasonable so that that way they could make them believe anything using their tricks. This will become very clear as we progress through study of the Quran. The main thing to pat attention to is that if each of the people believed whatever one liked then they will end up with many differences between them and the Quran demands unity of mankind in ideology. This ideological unity between people is impossible unless people become rational thinkers because then reason based explanations will lead them to ideological unity as stronger arguments in favour of solid ideology find their way into minds of people. Blind faith idea will keep people confused therefore in chaos for ever so they can never be united so the program the Quran puts forth for the ummah cannot be turned into reality because that way an ummah cannot come about ever. A clear proof that mullahs are misleading people regardless of to which religion they belong so they should not follow them blindly or remain in painful suffering forever by hands of each other because disunity, hatred and wars are all inevitable in that case. For program of Allah to become a reality people need to work together and to do so needs them to become literate, educated and trained so that they could have the needed information and the sense of making sense of things so that they could understand program of God properly and then act upon it faithfully. If not then people can carry on doing whatever they like and keep on facing the consequences and complaining about God as they usually do instead of listening to God has to say to them.
Word SALAAH from roots SAWD, LAAM and WOW/YAA. Concrete meaning of this root is to join in some sense for some reason or purpose. Also to make some sort of connection between things for some reason or purpose, to bring about network or linkage or interaction between people, to contact or communicate with each other, things joined together or the point where at they join together, things separating from each other or the point from which they separate or branch off, a point of convergence or divergence, middle part of human body from which legs separate, the tail part of a four legged animal from which its hind legs separate, two things that are joined to each other in such a way that one is right behind the other without any gap for another of them to fit in, a joining point where at all things are tied together like many animals are tied to the same pole each standing or sitting in its own space, central or main contact point for things, a network node or joining point at which all things converge or diverge from, the small of the back, the two bones surrounding the root of the tail of an animal, to hit a camel on that part, to come at the rear of, to walk behind each other like a camel caravan, to run side by side like horses in a race course trying to race along each other, to connect with each other in some way for some reason to serve some purpose, to bend or mould or model or shape or form something according to some given model or specification or standard for some reason or purpose, to adhere to something in some sense for some purpose, a gathering point or place, a point of contact for people to come together to serve some purpose, to stand before God with full awareness and sincerity to reaffirm the covenant with God, to read the Quran for reminding oneself about the message of God so that one remains connected to God and people, to proclaim the Quran among people to deliver its message to people for reminder so that people connect to God and with each other, to bring about a network of humanity as a proper human community to fulfil the goals set by God for mankind to accomplish, to pray, to reaffirm before God and each other support for mission of the final messenger of Allah individually and collectively, to adore or supplicate, to learn and teach deen of Islam, teachings of deen of Islam, a place where duties and responsibilities of deen of Islam are carried out, masjid or synagogue or something like masjid or synagogue in some sense, kingdom based upon guidance of Allah, a kingdom inhabited by those who are based upon guidance of Allah, to roast, to broil, to fry, to burn, to scorch, to cause to suffer, to suffer hardship or difficulty or poverty, to warm up before an open fire, to suffer the heat of scorching fire, contingency, plan of action for an emergency, to prepare in advance for any eventualities or disasters or catastrophes, to be ready for dealing with any situation that may arise out of the ordinary, to be ready for dealing with unforeseen events or happening or occurrences, to have contingency plans worked out, to practice emergency drills, to link up with, to take care of, to guard, to motivate or inspire or urge or push or pull, to make or use weapon or tool, to have reach or jurisdiction, to have power or capacity to do something, to have a hand in something happening, to have involvement in something, to participate or take part in something in some sense, to reflect or think over something, to work out something about something in some sense, to ponder over facing issues, to think out ways for solving facing problems, to work out contingency plans, to be ready for uncertainty or future, to have or show concern for something in some sense, community network, prosperity, blessings, abundance of things, good will, best wishes, a training place or institution of some sort, a race course for training horses for racing, a place where people gather for doing something as a community, essence, juice, extract, lively or active, roots or braches or trunk, leaves, thorns or flowers or fruit, something that stands firmly in its place yet keeps spreading or growing in some sense, something that drives or forces something into doing something in some sense, something that connects something to something in some way, something twisted or bent, something that can hold something when it is hanged on it, to have a grip or control over something in some sense, one thing following the other closely and faithfully, commandments of Allah etc etc.
Since the Quran provides guidelines for a constitution and laws for interconnection of people to work as a united organised and regulated human community therefore word salaah in Quranic context means community network whereby members of human community support each other to achieve a common set goals eg unity, peace, progress and prosperity etc. So people who read the Quran and after examining it feel that this is what they want then they are told to come together to organise as a community on the basis of the Quran as a constitution for them and regulate the community by laws based upon the Quranic formulas that lead to united, peaceful, progressive and prosperous existence of human community. In other words a person is committed to working for unity and peace only if he is connected properly to God given manifesto and constitution and laws and establishes supportive network along with other people of similar mindset, attitude and behaviour. In a household wherein people do not live organised lives, there is always trouble and clash due to each person trying to do his own things in his own ways in his own time and at many occasions times coincide so people get in each other’s way causing troubles for each other. If these people lived by good house rules agreed between them then they could save themselves from lots of troublesome situations. So one can see word SALAAH is a very comprehensive word for human community network based upon the Quran. SALAAH is known as second pillar of deen of Islam ie first pillar is TAWHEED ie belief in one God on basis of messengership bestowed upon the final messenger Muhammad. This is what makes the real difference between mazhab and deen of Islam ie deen of Islam is not mere human thought process but that it is a thought process based upon revelation from God via a named messenger. Since God according to that message is only one tis becomes foundation of deen of Islam or first pillar of deen of Islam. Word ILAAH in the Quranic context means God but also king or ruler or sovereign of this kingdom of the universe. This is why while God is the ruler of this universe none of the people has right to claim rulership or ownership of anything at all. Since nothing belongs to anyone other than Allah in this world then question arises, how can people fulfil their daily needs for living? This is where come in the rest of four pillars of deen of Islam ie deen of Islam tells people to establish a proper human community network for this purpose in a kingdom. Once a proper human community comes about, it must not be damaged and all must work for its growth and prosperity. The SALAAH concept comes first because without people working for becoming a proper human community all else fails or cannot come about. This is why deen of Islam joins people together and it does not break them up into sects and parties fighting each other. This is why the Quran tells people repeatedly to stick together and do not divide into sects. It is because if people divide then they cannot fulfil their daily needs with dignity and security because fighting between themselves leaves no time for people do thing which they need to do for their survival. This is why words AAMILUSSAALIHAAT are used meaning mend rifts between people ie mend broken relationships between people so that they could become a community. If people have many problems with each other they are not going to become one community while the problem between then remain this is why those problems must be removed from between people. These problems need to be removed in such a way that relationships between people become as if they were never broken or fractured at all. This is how the Quran teaches people to go about things. So as people get the message of their creator and sustainer they should ponder over it and once they comes to understand it properly then they should pass on the message to others and come together to form a community network, so that task of forming humanity into an ummah becomes a reality. This is why the Quran is a book about a mission assigned for humanity by God to carry out faithfully. So each and every person who claims to be a Muslims is bound by the covenant he has entered with God by declaring his/her faith in deen of Islam. This is why the Quran keeps telling people fulfil your obligation to God and each other. Each and every act prescribed in the Quran for people has a purpose behind it and unless people do things objectively and purposefully nothing they do matters. If the Quran wants people to build a building called deen of Islam then each and every person must come to know how to build that building and what part that person has to play so that that building becomes a reality. One cannot just declare faith in deen of Ilsm and then go and do things that have nothing at all to do with deen of Islam. It is because mullahs have misled Muslims that ummah is in the state that it is. People have no idea what deen of Islam is otherwise they could have brought about the kind of ummah the Quran teaches long time ago. Muslims are living a life of confusion and chaos. This will remain the situation till people start studying the Quran properly. It shows how different deen of Islam is from religion or secularism.
Word RIZQ is from root RAA, ZAA and QAAF. Concrete meaning of this root is provisions for sustenance of life. Also things for use or consumption of all mankind to fulfil all their biological, psychological and sociological needs and wants forever, anything that can benefit or ensure well being of humanity in some sense, something that keeps happening repeatedly, rain, maintenance, something that helps sustain life, subsistence, fortunes, means of living, livelihood, earnings, fruit of one’s labour, income, bounty, return for one’s efforts, life support system, to provide with ways and means of living, to equip someone with all one needs to carry of living, to seek sustenance or necessities of life, to give someone something on time so that one could continue living, to give useful things away freely to those who need them, to work for a living, to bestow with or favour with or grant bounties, to grant as means of sustenance, to sustain, to help or support, to make or use tools, to use raw material to make something useful out of it, to set up or organise or regulate sustenance for something, to give someone something to hang onto life, to plan ahead, to work out things for sustenance of living things, to maintain things, to provide something of need to someone, to reward, to pay wage, to provide with outcome of one’s labour etc etc.
According to the Quran RIZQ means anything useful for living things to carry on living and growing. When Allah says I give people food or drink or things for their use it does not mean that individuals are given things by Allah directly therefore Allah makes some people rich and others poor. It simply means that Allah has created everything for the needs and desires of mankind but it is up to people to follow his advice and do things as advised so that each and every person fulfils his responsibilities and duties in order to ensure each and every person could get whatever one needs and wants for peaceful, progressive and prosperous life. One has to remember that not just body needs food but mind also needs food for thought. This is why if people organised and regulated themselves as a proper human community as told by Allah in the Quran they will have blissful, dignified and secure existence in this world and yet more beautiful life in hereafter. This is why there is no concept of mechanisms for abusive use of people by each other for personal gains at the expense of each other. One either chooses to live by way of life advised by Allah or against it. If people will choose any way of life against the way of life advised by Allah then they will never find fulfilment ever because they will fail to develop to the full potential that Allah has placed in them. It is because their self invented ways of life will destroy them by hands of each other long before they could realise their full potentials. Divisions based on rivalries and animosities only lead to hatred between people and wars so human community fails to grow to its full potential as fights carry on between people on basis of survival of the fittest or law of jungle. This is why there is no concept of charity for the poor in deen of Islam because people are not allowed to make each other poor in the first place just like members of a good family do not force poverty on each other through competing against each other in order to undermine each other by trying to dominate each other. Any family that does that ends up destroyed instead of developing to its full potential. Members of a good family help and support each other to do better not force each other to do worse than each other. One has to become aware of causes of poverty and destruction to realise how great the teaching of the Quran is. A family ends up in poverty or destruction if its members sit idle or waste time on useless things which do not yield the needed return for its dignified survival. The same is the result if members of a family think and act insanely, senselessly, recklessly or dangerously. All these things lead the family only and only to self destruction. If humanity is a good family then its members have no choice but to educate each other out of thinking and doing things that could harm or destroy it instead of withholding education from each other through copyrights of intellectual properties. After all from where did each and every human being get his knowledge? From humanity itself then it is only right that, that knowledge is allowed freely to pass on to the rest of people so that it helps them become more and more sensible people so that they could organise and regulate themselves better for better ends. So in the Quranic economic system each person has to work to the best of one’s ability to produce things and it is up to ummah to distribute it or to deliver it to the point of need freely for those who need it. However one should take only as much as one needs or whatever ummah can provide ie whichever is lesser of the two. The rest of it if there is any will have to remain with the ummah to use it as and when the need be. One must remember all decision of the ummah are unanimous decisions for ensuring the well being of the ummah in light of the Quranic guidance. This is why all decisions of the ummah fro beyond question by anyone till the ummah meets again to decide any future matters about itself on yearly basis. In case of any emergency ummah can meet earlier as well to deal with the situation at hand. One can see how each thing is connected to others in so many different ways this is why we cannot look at things in their isolation from each other. This is why SALAAH is connected to SOWM and ZAKAAH and HAJJ but we will come to know about these things as we progress in our study of the Quran.
Word YUNFIQOON is from root NOON, FAA and QAAF. Concrete meaning of this root is a tunnel through, which is open at both ends or something like it in some sense. Also a hole through for a string in a trouser or skirt which is used for tying the trouser or skirt around the waste, to put something into the tunnel at one end so that it could be taken out from the other end, a desert rat’s tunnel, passage through the earth, to die, to find a good market, to become depleted, to spend or use, to give away something useful freely to someone who needs it, to support one’s family or community or cause, to contribute, to act hypocritically, to be or become a hypocrite, to show hypocrisy, expenditure, to use the fruit of one’s labour to help others, to donate, to gift something useful to someone freely who needs it, to be generous in helping and supporting others, to work for well being of others, a person who enters a cause after ensuring there is a safe way to come out of it as well, a person whose mind and tongue are at variance with each other, someone who says one thing and does another in order to deceive others, a good or proper chain of demand and supply whereby things do not remain in storage for long, the end of something, loss of hair on a camel due to becoming fat, to keep open the fruit of one’s labour for ensuring well being of humanity, breaking apart, pushing away, disparity, hypocrisy, the use of something for something, spending, discrimination, to deceive or cheat or trick or con, to make fool of, to be on the slippery slope, to be active or lively or energetic, to be quick or fast in doing something, to move away or distance oneself from something, to create a gap or difference between things, to spread rumours or backbite, to slander, to hang onto something, to jump about, to be mischievous, to be infirm or unstable, to be doubtful about something, to lack solid foundation etc etc.
Here in the Quranic context word nafaq means to organise and regulate people into a proper human community in order to use provided things by God properly so that thereby well being of proper human community is ensured. People should work to the best of their abilities and share according to their needs whatever they produce. There should not be any negative discrimination of any sort against any person in the ummah. There is no room in deen of Islam for discrimination on basis of race or colour etc. In other words people must do all they can to produce things of needs as a community and distribute them as per needs and wants of people in such a way that none is left out. The idea is that Allah is creator of all things and owner of all things and people can only manage things as told by Allah himself. Unless people organise and self regulate themselves properly as well as work properly, things will not work. So people who wish to bring about a human community based on the Quran they cannot be people who are clueless about things and stuck in blind faith and make beliefs or useless rituals and works based on false ideologies that cause divisions between mankind whereby people end up hating each other and then in wars against each other.
4) Such as those who commit to working for unity, peace, progress and prosperity of mankind according to this program which is sent to you the people of this era and according to that which was sent for people of earlier eras before you because they too are reasonably confident that this program can deliver them blissful, dignified and secure future.
Word UNZILA is from root NOON, ZAA and LAAM. Its concrete root meaning is settler. Also something that takes residence in some place after coming from somewhere else, a guest is called a guest because he comes from somewhere and takes residence in the house of his hosts, in the Quranic context a message comes from Allah into the mind of his messenger hence the need for use of word reveal because it is not something that a human being could know by himself or could up with oneself, a dwelling, habitat, hospitality, food offer, provisions, disembark, flood, rain, stage, rank, to do or accomplish something in an organised and regulated way over a period of time be the time taken shortest or longest, to combat, to duel, calamity, seizure, an attack of illness, to send, to come, to visit, to arrive, to reveal, to come down, to bring down, to descend, to alight, to befall, to dispatch, to cause to fall, to bestow upon, to engulf in, to facilitate, to grant, to provide, to accommodate someone in some sense, to provide someone with accommodation, to include or take into the group or care, to embark upon, to carry or be carried, to come through or go through, to come down with or send with, victuals, provisions, to appear or turn up, revelation of God, the Quran, destination, goal, guest, visitor, rank, position, a temporary resting place during a journey, place of alighting or descent, fish or something like a fish in some sense, agile, lively, smooth, slippery, fast moving, active, to be agitated, to be in difficulty, to be in trouble, to be restless, to flounce or flutter, to feel uneasy, to toss and turn in pain, tool or weapon or something like a tool or weapon in some sense, a way through to something, something instrumental in achieving something or getting something done, an instrument, something used to have something or to do something, ways and means, ladder, hammer, axe, chisel, rope, pen, pencil, ink, spear, sword, gun, ox-goad or something like an ox-goad in some sense, a stick with a pointed end to jab an ox or an animal to make it move faster, something that urges or motivates or inspires or pushes or encourages something to do something in some sense etc etc.
In the Quranic context message of Allah comes from Allah who sends it into the mind of his messenger. It is information from God that is somehow put into the mind of the messenger of Allah by Allah for purpose of guiding people as to how they should live their lives in order to have a great life in this world and to attain yet better life in hereafter. It is very important to understand the fact that Allah has placed huge potential in mankind to become something great given the time to develop. Education and training only brings out what is already inside a human being as one’s ability or capacity. Education simply put acts as a stimulus or trigger for people to start learning or taking in information from outside and work on it in mind and then put it into practice and be able to do things that way. All though all human information comes from outside into human brain through senses but some also comes from God by means unknown so far. This is why creation and revelation are known as two acts of God that are not known how they produce the results that we can only observe and verify only on the basis that they are out of human capability ie human beings cannot create the universe from nothingness and they cannot produce the like of the revelation of God eg the Quran in this era. This Quran is not mere words but an ideology that only God could come up with, why? Because it covers the information that is not within grasp of human mind even today let alone bring about such information. This is why the Quran puts forth a challenge for mankind that they cannot produce a surah like it ie an ideology for a way of life. The shortest Quranic surah in the Quran is AL-KAWSAR 108. It is only three verses with only a few words but it claim that messenger of Allah and people who accept his message have been given a roadmap to abundantly blissful, dignified and secure existence. This is verifiably true as we shall see once we have become familiar with the text of the Quran the way we should in due course. In the Quranic context word surah does not mean just a chapter or lecture of the Quran but a way of life and information about it throughout the Quran. Why this information was impossible for mankind to come up with is because human beings have very limited brains and senses and to know what the proper way of life should be needs someone who knows things inside out ie the full picture in this regard and that source can only be and is only and only our creator and sustainers. This is why he used word GHAIB in the verse above. It is because unless we accept his claim that he knows what we know and he also knows what we do not know and cannot know unless he tells us. The very basic point is that Allah is himself is GHAIB in sense that we cannot see or hear him and had he not told us about himself we could never be sure ever if there was a creator or not. The very same creator and sustainer guides us about how we should live in order to have a great life. We try to guide each other many a times but our guidance is never perfect because we at best can hope we prove to be right but many a time that very guidance we give to each other causes us many problems. This is why we are at wars with each other all the time throughout the world thanks to advisors of our rulers, mullahs and money lenders etc etc. If we had written a book for guidance of humanity it will have been something like that. The Quran is not a book like that because it is a book that is perfect for the purpose it has been sent. We cannot know the Quran till we study it in great detail. This work is nowhere near perfect explanation of the Quran but it is a try so that people start thinking in the right direction and then start producing better works on the Quran. Here the Quran also answer the question what happened to people who followed earlier books from God. They simply turned to new book which God sent for them in their time because they were a learned a people and the rest continued with their make beliefs and rituals based upon their own collections of writings which are still there even today. The books people have today and attribute them to God are nothing like the Quran in their information structure. At most they are just story telling books written by story tellers of the time with reference to what was told in the earlier books which were sent by God to his earlier messengers. Even Muslims Hadith collections are compiled in a very different style from them. They are like Muslim books of biographies of the prophet of deen of Islam in which people try to tell about life of the messenger of Allah. In the books other than the Quran one will see ample additions and subtraction because Muslim emperors made their imperial mullahs to do so in order to give legitimacy to their make beliefs so that they could have backing of masses for their misadventures in the name of God. All tis will become clear as we progress in our study of the quran.
Word QABL is from root QAAF, BAA and LAAM. Concrete meaning of this root is facade. Also position of something in relation to something else in sense of place or space or time or reputation or rank or idea, face of a building, an artificial or deceptive front, outer appearance, a superficial appearance of something, face of a mountain, encounter, to confront, to face, to be face to face with something, to oppose or resist or hesitate or prevent or shield, opposite, openly, to come, to approach, approach or reach, before, to accept, to admit, to take in, to receive, direction or goal or objective or aim or destination, midwife, to consent, willingness, to be pleasing, to compare, to kiss, kiss, section, type, sort, group, host, faction, tribe, clan, squint, power, capacity, surety, guarantor, spontaneous, possibility, to draw near, to turn to, to enter, to rush in, to hear, to answer, to grant, to face one another, to combat, to rival, to contest, to contend, to face towards Kabah in Makkah when praying, faith, belief, way of worship, a place of worship, the front side, the front part, the forefront, in front, in plain sight, in the future, power, strength, towards, facing, fronting, in the past, of old, ancient, without, in spite of, to begin with, the first part of something, the leading part of something, leadership, beside, adjacent, nature, to take something from someone, husband, family, children of same father, a rock placed on mouth of a well, to refer to, to use something as a reference point, to learn sense after acting foolishly, to not to leave something alone, to pursue something, the focal point, the purpose, to be clever or deceptive or mischievous, agile or fast moving, active or lively or energetic, something that jumps about, something unstable, something that is always on the move, to imitate or copy, to be image of something, to hang onto something, shelter or protection or sanctuary, constitution or rule of law, following or support or tradition, precedent or example, to hide, to cover up, to wrap up, a stick with a pointed end to drive oxen, spear or dot or arrow, something that motivates or inspires or urges or pushes or encourages something to do something etc etc.
Word AAKHIRAH is from root ALIF, KHAA and RAA. Concrete meaning of this root is to put something behind something in order of happening. Also to delay or postpone, to make something happen afterwards, the outcome of an action, the end result of a process or action plan, the effect of a cause, destination or goal or point of reference, the last, the other one, another, the lasing or permanent thing, to endure, to continue into the future, the future, to defer, to grant respite, to reprieve, to respite, to put off, to leave undone or do something incomplete, to be in the process of completing or concluding a process or something, to be held back, to lag behind, to come after, to follow, to pursue, the consequences of thinking or saying or doing something, to remain behind, additional or further one, something different, the different one, that other one also, the last one, the rear or behind or end part of something in some sense, the latter, the final part, preceding or past or previous, coming generations, something after which nothing similar takes place, the new beginning in a new way, something most valuable as compared to something least valuable, revolution that ends one way of life and brings in another one, the new world order or new social or political or economic landscape, the edge of the eye as far the eye ball can move in either direction, the end or edge of camel litter, the time period when deen of Allah will become fully established in this world, life after death, hereafter, life in the next world as compared to life in this world, time period of bloody revolutions or uprisings or upheavals, the time when seed is sown in the soil and the time when it is harvested, to keep an eye on the future as well not just past and present, to look for better or brilliant future for coming generations, power or authority, instability, something fragile or delicate, something sophisticated, something impure, to plot or plan or scheme, to conspire, to think, command and control centre, central nervous system, chief, management, ruling elite, top part or section of something, cream of the crop etc etc.
As always to determine the meaning of a word in the text of the Quran depends upon its context. The Quranic ideology is based upon cause and effect rule but with the understanding that not all causes produce instant end results ie there is delay between cause and effect. It is as if you follow a course of action and wait for the results to appear. A plan takes time to become a reality in real life. In the Quranic context, because the Quran is a program from God therefore when people will act for fulfilling this program it is going to take time before people will see the results of their thoughts and actions according to it because the result is expected at some point in time in the future therefore the future is consistent and constant so it includes the idea of life after death or revival of humanity just like the earth is revived with rain and becomes green again and again after going through various seasons. It should be remembered that verses of the Quran have multiple complementary meanings as well the way the text of the Quran is structured. Allah does not demand blind faith in the Quran instead he wants people to have faith in the Quran on basis of its verifiably true program that makes perfect sense on the paper and that is why it should be used and benefited from and that will turn it into a concrete reality. This will then show it is truly from Allah beyond any reasonable doubt.
Word YOOQINOON is from root YAA, QAAF and NOON. Concrete meaning of this root is to arrive at certainty about something through careful observation of evidences and careful consideration of arguments about something. Also a state of mind when one is very sure about something due to considering evidences and arguments related to it, to have the best possible explanation about something in one’s mind that gives one reason to accept something true with reasonable certainty, to arrive at a certain belief or conclusion about something after extensive research and exploration about it, verification, to find something absolutely certain, to ascertain, confidence, trust, be convinced about something in some way for some reason, to be sure, to become aware of the reality of something, to know the reality of something, to have no reasonable doubts about something, to be certain about something beyond a shadow of reasonable doubt, life experiences, experimental truth, demonstrated truth, some idea that turns into a reality, something considered verifiably true, an actual fact that is accepted true, something that is considered reasonably true due to logical consistency, grip, reach, jurisdiction, power or authority, to have a hand in something happening, to make or cause something to be or to happen, handle, to have understanding of something, to comprehend something, to encompass or surround something in some sense, to know something, to jump about, to be unstable, to hang onto to something in some sense, to be mischievous, to be agile or fast moving, lively or active, deceptive, illusive, something smooth or slippery, something energetic etc etc.
The idea given in these verses is to scrutinize the program told in the Quran to see what kind of world will come about if the Quranic program is followed by mankind. So those who verify this message for themselves and reach the conclusion that this message can delivered what it claims become very sure about its workability. It is because a program or plan that can be seen to be a failure is not worth the effort for delivering to others. It is therefore important for people to understand this message themselves properly and then take it to others to help them understand it so that then they could come and join the program to carry it out for their own good as well as of others.
5) Such are the people who follow proper guidance from their Creator and Sustainer faithfully therefore they are bound to succeed in accomplishing their assigned goals by Him according to His provided guidelines.
Word MUFLIHOON is from root FAA, LAAM and HAA. Concrete meaning of this root is to work on the land to ensure survival and prosperity. Also tiller of the land, cultivator of the plants, to cultivate or plant, to prosper, to develop and grow, to increase, to succeed in doing something, to accomplish a set goal, to remain alive, to cut or break something, to negotiate, to mediate, to tear or rip apart something for some purpose, to till or plough the land, to fulfil one’s goal or ambition, to work towards a much greater return, to come to good fortune, to succeed in getting or achieving or accomplishing something, to work towards a better end or bright future, people whose hard work pays off, farmers who succeed in harvesting much greater yield than expected of a seasonal crop under normal conditions, people who get expected or promised results for their hard works due top working according to a fully worked out action plan, to do something by one’s own positive initiative voluntarily for better future by relying on set up systems and laws of nature and succeed, to become more and more efficient, to use something to gain something more in return, to create distance or difference between things in some sense for some purpose, to organise and regulate things properly for better end results, to do things differently for better results, to put people into working groups for efficiency, to do something inspiring or motivating, to put restrictions around something in some sense to make it concentrate or focus on something in some sense for efficiency, to put restrictions or obstacles of some sort in the way of something for some purpose, to remove obstacles or restrictions that cause inefficiency, to understand and follow directives or guidelines towards a particular end to ensure success etc etc.
One is only successful when one has a goal and guidelines and works according to a workable plan towards it therefore one ends up being successful in fulfilling one’s goal. If a farmer plants proper seeds in his properly worked out field at right time in right conditions then they grow and return many more seeds for each one that was sown. So people who understand properly goals set by Allah for them to accomplish according to his provided guidelines and given plan and work faithfully according to them they are bound to be successful. The idea is, do not do aimless and useless things or in a useless way because that will produce no results or not beneficial results but instead harmful and destructive results. Therefore people should think things through thoroughly from the beginning to the end and then take actions according to fully worked plan for a set goal. You only reap what you sow therefore if one does not understand what is required for sowing seeds then one will not get the result one is looking for. Likewise if people think they should act according to the Quranic program then first thing they need to do is understand the program properly as well as its goals and guidelines then work out what is needed to implement this program and then go through with it and then see the outcome or end result of their thoughts and actions for it. The Quran uses farming ideas because they are to be there forever for people to learn from. Farming is not about sitting on the mat praying to God, grow my crops but about working on the farmland as explained by God so that his set up systems and laws deliver the outcome as promised. Not working on the farm and expecting anything from God is nothing less than foolishness. Moreover FALAAH is not about God letting people fall into some trouble and then saving them instead it is about God setting people some goals to accomplish according to his provided guidelines. This is the context according to the Quran in which success of mankind matters and is said to be a great achievement.
6)As for those dominant people and their supporters who reject and oppose the way of life advised by Allah and instead commit to working for the opposite way of life to the one advised whereby they inflict harms and destructions upon each other for personal gains at the expense of each other, it matters not to them whether you warn them or you warn them not about the harmful and destructive consequences by hands of each other in time to come for thinking and doing harmful and destructive things to each other because in their minds they are determined not to listen to you and think things through therefore they are not going commit to working for unity, peace, progress and prosperity of mankind.
Word KAFARU is from root KAAF, FAA and RAA. Concrete meaning of this root is to shelter. Also to resist, to oppose, to absorb, to hide, to cover up, to shield or protect, to restrict, to limit, to create a distance, to move away, to misuse something in some sense, to refuse to use something properly or for the purpose it is given for, to leave, to depart, to differ or create difference, to discriminate, to reject, to isolate, to boycott, to break up or break off, to harbour, to cushion, to be kind, to be tender hearted, to be easy going, to be ungrateful, to have or show no respect, to have or show no concern, to pay no attention, to be heedless, to not to listen, to plot or plan or scheme, to think, to consider, to deny, to cover seeds in the soil, to plant seeds, to wear garment over the shield, to disbelieve, to unbelieve, to blaspheme, to be an infidel, to be unfaithful, darkness of night, the night, the sea, great valley, rain, to prostrate, to show humility, to reject idea of existence of God, to be an atheist, to be an idolater, to attribute to God what he rejects, to disobey, to ignore, to avoid, to fail to acknowledge, to refuse, to fail or refuse to recognise, to behave outrageously, to behave irreligiously or religiously, to turn away from, to begrudge, to offer, to make an offering, to sacrifice, to relieve, to acquit, to be a husband, to be a guardian, to look after, to refuse to live by commandment of God, to be obstinate, to be ingrate, to be a planter, retribution, punishment, atonement, compensation, reparation, expiation, planter, control centre, management, ruling elite, chief or head of a people, something that offers some sort of opposition to something in some sense for some purpose, something that acts as a shield against something in some sense for some reason or purpose eg to shield or isolate someone from light or knowledge or good works etc etc.
In the Quranic context word KAFAROO has various meanings according to where in the text it is used and why. In this verse it is clear that the Quran puts forward a program for unity, peace, progress and prosperity of human community and some people commit to working for that but some offer resistance so they are given the name KAAFIROON as oppose to MUSLIMOON. It is very important to realise that it is one thing that people claim to be Muslims and quite another whether they are accepted as Muslims by Allah or not. It is because people cannot read minds of each other but only through their actions. This is important because if there comes about an Islamic state then it will have to decide matters for Muslims according to Islamic laws within its own jurisdiction with exceptions for non-Muslims where necessary. People can only take people for what they claim to be because they do not know their motives till they become a concrete reality. Once they become a concrete reality then they could be either accepted or rejected as the case may be. For example, if a person claims to be plumber but he is always caught working as an electrician then people have right to question his claim for him being a plumber. Likewise if a person claims to be a Muslims but his works bear witness that he is not because his works are exactly like those who are nonMuslims then his claim for being a Muslims become questionable so one has to satisfy the questioners how can he claim to be a Muslims in such a case. One can only be a Muslim or a nonMuslim in the context of the Quran or the third category is that of hypocrites ie a people who claim to be Muslims but they are not because they pay only lip service to deen of Islam. The other vitally important point is whether people who claim to be Muslims or nonMuslims actually know what deen of Islam is. It is because anyone can claim anything but what actually matters is does one really know what one is talking about? One could be claiming to be a Muslim but has no idea what deen of Islam is. Now if different groups of people claim to be Muslims but they differ with each other having no sense what they talking about could any of them be categorised Muslims? If such like people issue verdicts against each other do they have any real value in the proper context of the Quran? None whatsoever because before one could claim someone else is not a Muslim one has to prove one is a Muslim oneself. This is why unless people define their versions of Islam clearly they cannot make any sense as to why others are excluded from their definition of deen of Islam. People who are born in so called Muslim households claim to be Muslims by birth yet such people have no idea what deen of Islam is because most of them never read the Quran for making sense of its text. Likewise people who enter deen of Islam without knowing anything much about leave it as well and still they have no idea why they became Muslims and why they turned nonMuslims again. Although Allah does not hold people accountable for their ignorance because he created them knowing nothing at all but he does if they remain ignorant after being born because he gave them all they needed to learn sense for making sense of things. This is why people are told repeatedly in the Quran to not to waste their God given opportunity for learning. This is why the Quran repeatedly draws attention of those people only who have already learned sense of making sense of things. He ignores those who have not bothered to learn sense of making sense of things. Such people are said to be fuel of hell fire, why? Because ignorant and foolish people always end up making mess of things for themselves and others. This is why the human world is in the state that it is because most people in the world are ignorant, illiterate, uneducated and trained about making sense of things. Human beings are responsible for their own ignorance not only because they are lazy but they are crazy as well because they try to stop each other from learning things fearing that if someone else came to know better then that person will do to them what they are doing to him. In other words people try to learn better tricks to undermine and dominate each other due to adopting the way of life based upon personal gains at the expense of each other instead of working on basis of brotherhood whereby they could help and support each other ensuring each person is better than the other for the good of humanity. This is how better way of life makes itself clearly known as to why it is better. So people who claim to work for better world should check themselves out are they following the right way of life for this purpose or not. It is because better world cannot be brought about unless people adopt the way of life that goes with it not against it. This is why deen of Islam is not what most Muslims and nonMuslims claim who hardly have any idea what deen of Islam actually is. Each and every messenger of Allah educated and trained people and that way prepared them for work for deen of Islam. None of them feared that if people became clever then they will be even more difficult to handle because they came to realise how effective way of life advised by Allah is in tying people together in a brotherhood. This is how they overcame ideology of divide and rule or rivalry, animosity, hatred and war. The way of life called KUFAR. So anyone who lives by that way of life willingly is labelled a kaafir or an infidel by the Quran. So the Quran calls such people kufaar who reject and oppose the way of life advised by Allah and instead invent, promote, impose and adopt the way of life based upon personal gains at the expense of each other. This is the proper context for word KAFAROO in this verse. The Quran challenges people who claim to be fighting for human rights by questioning the way of life they have adopted for themselves making it very clear that unless they adopt the way of life that is consistent with what they say they are not going to succeed. In other words you cannot have unity, peace, progress and prosperity by adopting a way of life that leads to divisions, hatred and wars due to being based upon personal gains at the expense of each other. The only of life that can go with idea of well being of mankind is deen of Islam, why? Because it has goals such as unity, peace, progress and prosperity of humanity. Not only that but it also has clear commandments for does and don’ts as is made clear in the verses of surah one, which tells people to adopt way of life of those people who were successful in this life and will be successful in hereafter and not to adopt the way of life of those who were losers in this life and will be loser in hereafter.
Word SAWAAUN is from root SEEN, WOW and YAA. Concrete meaning of this root is to be properly balanced in being or actions. Also to have proper proportions or be properly proportioned, to have all things working together properly as a unit or system, of things to work together as a something complete, to work together as a team, to have proper ingredients in proper proportions to be something or to do something, to have power or authority or strength and use it properly or wisely for achieving an objective or accomplishing an intended goal, to have a mixture of things in proper proportions for serving some purpose, to be equal, to be similar or alike in some sense, to even out or be even, to be or become in level with, to straighten, to smooth out unevenness or wrinkles, to fill in the ditches and demolish the dunes to even out the ground or landscape, to remove peaks and troughs, to be together, to stand, to fashion, to form, to shape, to flatten, to raze or level to the ground, to make equal or same, to deem as equal, to be flattened over, to make level, to turn to, to give or pay attention to, to attend to, to intend to do something, to have something in mind to carry out, to turn an idea into a reality, to ascend, to mount, to establish or become established, to settle or settle down, to become stable or firmly settled or established, to have or take things under control, to reach full strength or capacity, to realise full potential, to become of age, to set firmly on, to rest upon, to be central, to be the middle or midpoint, to be just, to be fair, to be same, to be the common factor between things, to be common to all, to be equitable, to make no difference, to not be different, to have no affect on something, to be ineffective, to be right or proper or appropriate or correct or upright, to be straight, to be complete, to be normal, in a normal situation or under the normal set of circumstances, to be in sound health mentally and physically, in succession or consecutively, things that happen one after the other, to make use of each and everything appropriately, to have or create balance between two or more things, something that is free of ups and downs in some sense, something that is properly balanced within itself or makes other things to balance properly, something that is balanced in such a way that it stands on its own feet or is self reliant, to distribute weight among things in such a way that all end up with right weight that they can carry with ease or cop with without any difficulty or problem, to be a properly balanced person both mentally and physically, to make one a properly balanced person, to put something together in such a way that it works perfectly for the purpose it is created for, to have control over something in some way, to bite into something in some way, to affect something in some way, to have influence over something in some way etc etc.
In the Quranic context all words in the Quran are used purposefully as explained already. The Quran puts forth a framework in which everything should fit neatly like bits and pieces of a house fit together if one has proper understanding of it. Bike parts can only fit together as a bike not as a car or an aeroplane. Things will only look out of place when one looks at bits and pieces in isolation from each other or without over all framework ie without taking context and perspective into account. Things told about in the Quran fit together neatly only if they are put together properly or one will see many contradictions in the text of the Quran which are not there in actual fact when the Quranic information is put together properly. This is why knowing the logically consistent way to make sense of the Quran is of vital importance.
Word ANZAR is from root NOON, ZAAL and RAA. Concrete meaning of this root is to raise alarm before something harmful or destructive happens so that people could become alert in time and do something about it. Also to draw attention to something that is of such importance that if attention is not paid to it then consequences could be very serious or disastrous, constitutional or legal obligation or responsibility, self imposed obligation, warning, pledge, threat, alarm, alert, harbinger, herald, vow, pledge or commitment or obligation to God, to consecrate, votive offering, dedication, to threaten or carry out the threat, to proclaim, to declare, to preach, to approach, to reach, to warn against, something that is used for warning or alerting someone in some way for some reason, to guide, to admonish, to deceive, to be active, to be quick in action or act fast, to inform in advance, to spy, to think and act quickly or fast, to let know or inform, to signal, to give a slip to, to make fool of, to succeed in avoiding something, to try to save someone from some kind of catastrophe or disaster, alarm bell, to show concern, to make someone pay attention to something etc etc.
In the Quranic context warning is not a threat by Allah to mankind that if you do anything I tell you not to do then I will punish you rather this warning is in the sense that if you will do things that you are warned against then they will harm you as a natural consequences based upon cause and effect principle. For example, somebody warns you don’t give a loaded gun to a child. If you ignore this warning and let child have the gun then you are putting yourself at risk of being shot by the child. Allah is not interested in punishing people for their wrong deeds but they will come to regret their wrong acts because the results of their wrong actions will do them harm the way Allah has set up things to work for his purpose. The Quran wants people to do well, this is why the Quran begins with Allah being good to people because he provided for them all that they will ever need to be in peace through progress for prosperity. This is what salvation is all about ie staying out of harm’s way or troubles by following the right way of doing things faithfully. Allah has provided people with information about a way of life that can lead them to blissful, dignified and secure existence but if they will not bother with it then whatever else they do is not going to help them have a brilliant existence in this life or in life in hereafter, which in that case is going to be full of regrets. So it is in the best interest of humanity itself to listen to message of their creator and sustainer and work on the world to make it what is supposed to be in light of the message of God otherwise live to regret it. This is how the Quran explains what is going on in this world and why or how it is happening etc etc. This is why it is vitally important for mankind to study the Quran in detail to make proper sense of their world.
7) It is because there is a barrier in their minds of ignorance based arrogance for dominating each other by undermining each other which is preventing them from using their minds properly therefore there is a lack of awareness in them regarding proper use of their faculties of hearing and their faculties of seeing and that is why there is a great painful suffering for them by hands of each other as a consequence of their harmful and destructive thoughts and actions against each other for petty personal gains at the expense of each other.
Word KHAATAM is from root KHAA, TAA and MEEM. Concrete meaning of this root is to seal up something that is open. Also to find or notice something sealed up or blocked up, to see a barrier or blockage in the way of a process, to catch something stopping or preventing something from continuing in some sense, to catch an obstacle or obstruction of some sort in the way of something , to come upon something blocking something in some way, to block or shut off something that is open, to turn off or stop something in some sense that is moving in some sense, to end or finish or conclude something, to end or conclude a process, to finalise something, to put a legal stamp on something to make it officially sealed for legal authentication, to put a barrier in the way of something to stop something from going any further, to discontinue something, to be the very last thing in the order of things, to prevent something from taking place or happening in some sense, to let someone or something stop something from happening, to let someone or something end something in some sense, to let someone or something conclude something in some sense, to wind up, to cover up, to hide, to secure, to shield, to shelter, to hide, to cover up, to protect, to provide refuge or sanctuary for something, to contain something in some sense in something for some reason, container, sealing material, to seal up, to enclose, to brand, to mark, a ring, to wear a ring, to complete, the concluding one, the final act of sealing something for purpose of security or safe keeping, the end part of something, final seal, the one who seals or concludes something, crowning or finishing touch, coffin, chest, basket, chamber, room, fence, womb, water, energy etc etc.
The meaning of this root is to bring both ends together as if to close something in such a way that thing enclosed cannot be accessed unless the cover or wrapper is broken, torn or opened up. An agreement becomes sealed when two parties come close together on same page and seal it by their signatures. A book is closed when both sides of it are brought together to close it. Things and processes are limited in one or more aspects or sense. A thing could be limited size wise, time wise, weight wise, shape wise, purpose wise and so on. The same is true about processes that are started ie they too are limited in various ways eg time wise, quantity wise, function wise or purpose wise etc etc. If one is selling oranges, he must have started selling them when he got them and this process will come to an end when the seller cannot get any more oranges to sell. The other reason is one may open up a shop and then close it after it has served his purpose, so one no longer sells oranges. When people deal with each other they seal a deal ie finalise it or conclude it by coming together in agreement. A farmer seals or covers up seed in the soil after creating an opening or digging a hole for putting in the seed in the soil. When a written agreement is reached, it is sealed by signatures of the involved parties. Word KHATAM is indicative of closure of such a process that was open once upon a time and working ie the people said to be KUFAAR ie rejecters and opponents of deen of Islam did have a working brain and thinking ability when they were born but they misused it and became a people with harmful and destructive mindset, attitude and behaviour. Sense comes through learning and if one does not learn it then one cannot become a sensible person. Also you only know what you learn and if you learn things that turn a person antisocial then those things are going to cause problems for a human society. So it is very, very important that people understand this point and try not to leave children to themselves otherwise children may not turn out to be human friendly. If society does not care for its individuals’ proper development and growth then individuals will not care for development and growth of their society either. Sooner or later the whole society will come to an end due to infighting because each person in such a society will be only for himself ie very, very short sighted or without any insight. Another point to remember is that when Allah says, he has done this or that, it only means that he has provided means for people to express their motives or thoughts in their actions. For example, somebody invented knife. The use of it is up to users not inventor. If any user misuses a knife, it is not fault of the person who invented the knife. So it is necessary to understand things in their proper context. That is people should not attribute things to Allah and his messengers that are not consistent with their beings respectively otherwise one is attributing lies to Allah and his messengers or messages and that is bound to have serious consequences for humanity as a whole.
Word QULOOB is from root QAAF, LAAM and BAA. Concrete meaning of this root is something that changes or develops over a period of time or suddenly. Also human mind or heart, bloody revolution, education based revolution, to return, to have change of heart or mind, to turn into something else in some way, to flip flop, to be unstable, to be agitated, to go to and fro, to keep doing something over and over, heartbeat, to remain engaged in an activity, a place or idea to which one returns or to which one refers as a reference point, destination or goal, aim or objective, to turn over, to turn around, to turn upside down, to turn inside out, to reverse, to twist, to bend, to waver, to dissuade, to investigate, to revert to, to go back to doing the same thing, to be what one originally was before any change, brains, essence, self, inner most part of something, the most essential part of something, the actual or real thing itself, the very heart of something, form or shape, mould, well, to be returned or handed over, to cause to be in a sequence, to alternate, to cause to contemplate, to make one think, to be turned around, to transform, to be tossed about, to be thrown around, to share an idea around, to wriggle, to tremble, to come back, to go back, to become, activity, behaviour, conduct, movement, success in worldly affairs, daily endeavour, place or time of going about one’s business, to change or cause to change, to exchange, to replace one idea or thing with another, any tool with which people plough or prepare the land for farming or something, to probe, intelligence, sense of making sense, to find out something in some sense, to search out, to discover, to explore, anything that is pure or clear or clean of anything that is not supposed to be part of it, the seat of intellect or emotions, something that thinks or feels or expresses itself in some way to make its presence felt, something mischievous or jumpy or agile, something that hangs onto to something in some sense for some reason, to imitate or copy, to be image of, clever, fast moving, active, lively, something that pushes or urges or drives or motivates or inspires something to be something or to do something, spear or pencil or dot or arrow, a stick with a pointed end to jab an ox to make it move faster, family, support, following, life support system, tribe, household, tent, shelter, sanctuary, refuge, shield, protection, safety, rule of law, tradition, custom, constitution, to cover up, to hide, to conceal, to deceive etc etc.
Word QALB means something that changes or develops or grows with time or suddenly. This word is used for human mind because it develops and grows with time due to more and more information it receives. If human mind is taught things, that can speed up its learning process. The same root word is used for revolution because people change their minds about the way things are in their daily life so they decide to do something about it in order to change things for the better ie revolutions come about for social developments of mankind. Brains and senses are given to people along with revelation by God for guidance so that people help their own development and growth as a proper human community but it is left to people themselves to learn things they should. All needs of people are provided for but to organise and regulate themselves to make use of provision is left to people themselves ie to explore, produce and distribute things. Islam is all about community spirit because in that rests goodness for both individuals and communities. This is why when some people abuse others the way to revolution is set and in time things will explode if people will continue along the same path due to heating up of social environment like a sealed pot on a cooker which blows off its top when pressure inside gets stronger than what it can hold inside it.
Word SAMA is from root SEEN, MEEM and AIN. Concrete meaning of this root is ability of hear sound. Also ability to respond to sound signal, to pay attention to what is said appropriately, to hear, to listen, to heed, to respond, to have reputation, to be famous, to command hearing, to be considered worth listening to, to hear of, to have the faculty of hearing, to know to acknowledge, to have widespread recognition, to obey, to let one speak, to hear out someone, to reach the hearing of, to give someone a hearing, to avail an opportunity to some to speak up or to be heard, to attend a hearing in a court of law, to listen to a case, to recognise, to give ability of hearing to, to make something obvious to someone, to explain something to someone for understanding, to listen or hear out someone, to give ear to someone, to pay attention to someone, to draw attention of someone, to eavesdrop, to spy, to have sharp hearing, to endeavour to hear, to listen in, to accept what is said and obey, to overhear, to be sharp of hearing, one given to listening in or eavesdropping, to be too obedient, one who causes or makes others hear, to be all ears, that whish is heard, to be attentive, to be alert, to pretend to hear, to pretend to obey, to pretend to listen, to have sense of making sense of things, to pretend to have sense of making sense of things, to explain, to try to make someone understand, to plan, to see, to have insight into something, to have understanding of something, to hear a cry, to hear a call for help, to dig into something for making sense of it, to explore something etc etc.
In the Quran Allah uses similar words for himself as he uses for other things but they mean as appropriate for his being because hearing of Allah does not depend on sound signals. Moreover sound is only there due to air and in space there is no air so there is no question of sound signals. In other words Allah has his own way of hearing things even if we cannot figure it out how exactly it happens. He is monitoring all things in every way they need to be monitored so that this whole set up works perfectly according to his plan. As we will see the Quran puts far too much emphasis on proper use of brains and senses as well as bodies for human beings in order to have a great life otherwise people are said to be worse than animals.
Word ABSAAR is from root BAA, SWAAD and RAA. Concrete meaning of this root is sense of sight. Also faculty of sight or ability to see things, the ability of human brain to see or understand things, sense of seeing things with eyes on the head or eyes of the mind inside the head, to have sense of things or their understanding, to know, to have knowledge of something, to comprehend, to have in sight or within sight, to have in view, to see, to have vision or ambition, to foresee things due having knowledge about things, to have an imagination about something, to have a notion about something, to have or hold an idea about something, to conceptualise something, to realise, proof, sign, eye opener, to warn, to guide, to reflect, to ponder, to think, evidence or evident, to gain knowledge of something, to keep an eye on, to watch over, to guard, to be guardian over, to look after, to take care, to be given insight into something, hindsight or foresight, to find guidance, to have sharp eyesight, to be intellectually sharp, to plot, to conspire, to plan, to scheme, to manage, to lead, to have control over, to be a chief of a people, to have roots and branches, to have leaves and fruits, to be thorny, to be the very essence of something, to be the seed of something, to shelter or shield, to protect, clear or manifest evidence, to have or offer a powerful explanation about something, to discern, sure knowledge about something, to show the way, to make something clear, to explain about something clearly, light or light of knowledge that gives insight into things as to what they are or where they are or what they do and how they do it, something plain to see, to be capable of seeing into things, to shine, to be bright, daylight, the blood stain on the point of an arrow that is used for hunting is evidence of arrow hitting the targeted animal, shield, armour, to deduce, to reason thing out, to think rationally, to infer, to imply, to reason things out, to figure out things, something that stick in the mind or takes over the mind, a longing, a strong desire for something, a scholar, a luminary, a learned person, to offer an evidence or proof for something, to witness, to be present, something that opens up the eye of the mind etc etc. Word is used for self evident things or universal realities ie for real things in the real world. This word is also used by Allah for himself. Again Allah does not need eyes and light to see things, so when interpreting words these points should be taken into account or one will end up saying wrong things about God which will render interpretation false.
Word GHISHAAWAH is from roots GHAIN, SHEEN and WOW/YAA. Concrete meaning of this root is to cover. Also to overwhelm, to overcome, to cover up, to hide, to conceal, to envelope, to enshroud, to seek to cover, to faint, to visit frequently, to overpower, to overtake, to be or become covered, to be or become overcome, to be overtaken, to be or become enveloped, to be or become overwhelmed, to be or become overpowered, to lose consciousness, to lose awareness, to be or become unaware, to become completely covered up, to cause something to overcome something else, to make animals mate, for man to have sexual intercourse with a woman, euphemism for mating with a female, to search or reach for some means of covering or wrapping up oneself, something that covers or overwhelms something in some sense, to make someone unconscious or unaware, an overwhelming disaster or calamity or catastrophe, to veil, to fall unconscious, to be awestruck, an overwhelming situation or a set of circumstances, the membrane that covers the heart, the skin that is used as cover over sheath of a sword, to come to see someone, harmful and destructive consequences of peoples thought s and actions against each other, the hell mankind create for themselves by mistreating each other, to lose track of time and place or sense of events, to lose sense of awareness or alertness, to have no sense of handling a situation, to act foolishly or ignorantly or senselessly, something that surrounds something in some sense for some reason, to be mentally unstable or unsound, to be weak or slow intellectually, to be dumb and deaf and blind in one’s environment, to put something under guard, to lookafter something, to have control over something in some sense, to have something within reach, to link or connect something to something in some sense, to get hold of something in some sense, to have no sense of purpose etc etc. In this verse a point is made that people have been given brains and senses to use them to gain information and its understanding through life experiences by way of trial and error and become learned so that then they realise the need for revelation of God and look for it and find it and learn it and follow it in order to live a peaceful, progressive and prosperous life ie a life free of regrets, anxiety and confusion. Since people do not use their brains and senses as they should so they become unaware of their purpose and proper use and end up confused so they go after things the way they should not because that will lead them to painful suffering by their own doings ie people make their own lives hell by not using their brains and senses properly as well as of others. The same root is used for loss of sense when one is drunk with alcohol or goes unconscious. Everything becomes dark like night covers up things due to its darkness for people. The same happens when a person is in depression ie everything looks dark for the depressed because he is in trouble from which he cannot find an escape route. When one has no sense of purpose in life one becomes lost in the darkness of confusion or ignorance. So brain and senses should be used to gain light of knowledge so that one saves oneself from the dark end of the tunnel.
Word AZAAB is from root AIN, ZAAL and BAA. Concrete meaning of this root is to put a stop to something in some way. Also to put someone through hardship for some purpose, to block something in some way to stop it from continuing, sweetness and pleasantness of water felt when it is used for quenching extreme thirst, unpleasant events or happenings that stop people from living a pleasant life, limitations or prohibition or restrictions that stop humanity from growing and prospering, fresh or sweet and pleasant water, saliva, pleasantness of sexual activity, rubbish that floats on top of fresh water in a pond which makes it dirty, pieces of cloth which women use for wiping off tears from their faces after crying in case of a death of a loved one, poisonous bushes which if camels eat they can end up dead, hunger or thirst for something that remains unsatisfied, hardship or trouble or difficulty or problem, an obstacle in the way of doing something, a person or horse that cannot eat anything due to extreme thirst for water because any food will get stuck in his throat, a person who stays hungry or thirsty the whole night, a person who lacks shelter or care, to lack things of need, punishment handed out by a court of law to a criminal for his crime, affliction, disunity, sectarianism, differences or divisions among people, fractures in relationships of a human population, to remove or deny sweet water, to deny one necessities for one’s living, to inflict harm or destruction, to oppress or suppress, to torment, to chastise, to hold accountable, water spring or well, to stand guard over, to help or support, controlled entry or exit, way through to something, shelter, sanctuary, constitution or rule of law, family or household, tent, to be pleasant or sweet or fresh or agreeable, to remove or deny sweet water, to torture, to cause pain, to be unable to eat because of extreme thirst, the tip of the pointed object, to go far, to punish, to inflict harm upon, to oppress, to take someone to task for some reason, to put through tough training program, stagnation, jam, become stuck in some difficult or awkward situation in some way, predicament etc etc. Things that stop or put obstacle in the path of unity, peaceful, progressive and prosperous existence or make it difficult or impossible are called AZAAB. Such things make one regret his life and make him anxious about his future and keep one confused. Remaining ignorance is root of all evils in the world because it is an obstacle in the way of human progress and prosperity. Water is also called AZAAB because it stops thirst or because it stops life by drowning people when there is flooding caused by water which destroys lives.
Word AZEEM is from root AIN, ZWAA and MEEM. Concrete meaning of this world is framework that gives something its shape or form in some sense. Also something that gives something its characteristics or value or worthiness or usefulness or structure or character or strength, bone or bones, skeleton, structure, power or authority or strength, reference point or standard or benchmark or specification, something great or grand or immense, to venerate, to measure up to, to be proud or arrogant or determined or decisive, to respect, to observe, to be in awe of, to consider too great a task to attempt it, to be magnificent or majestic, to be severe or important or notable or respectable or honourable, to look up to, to keep an eye upon, to guard, to take care of, to help or support, to learn or drink from fountain of knowledge, water spring or new beginning, ocean of water or knowledge, to cause flooding, to transgress the limits, to overwhelm or become overwhelmed, something to hand something upon, something reliable, something solid or concrete, something lasting or durable or fit for the purpose etc etc.
In the verses of the Quran Allah explains why some more advantaged people fail to use their faculties bestowed by him properly. The reason is their minds are preoccupied with ambitions of dominating each other by undermining each other therefore being focused on that point everything else is out of their minds. One has to realise the fact that human senses ie sense of seeing or hearing etc is under control of human brain at all times. If brain becomes overly preoccupied with something then senses become fully used for that purpose instead of acting as stimulus for drawing attention to other things. In short one cannot be distracted easily from what one is fully focusing one’s attention upon so this acts as a barrier for one’s mind as well as a sort of cover for one’s senses. When a person is involved in deep thinking about something then if another person waves his hand in front of his eyes or calls him for attention then the person involved in deep thinking does not notice it therefore does not respond while wide aware. This is what the Quran is drawing our attention to so that we do not become such people that guidance of Allah has no affect on us otherwise we are doomed. This is how the Quran tells people to wake up to real world realities before it is too late.