INTRODUCTION TO

QUR’AAN
 What is Qur’aan?
 Alqur’aan Alhakeem is an expression, an
oration of Allah (swt) [At’tauba: 6,
Albaqarah: 75]. It has also been
mentioned as word of ‘Rasool’ the prophet
(saw) [Alhaaqa: 40, At’takweer: 19]. This
is because Qur’aan descended as spoken
words of prophet (saw), whereas Torah
came down written on plates of stone
[Ala’araaf: 145].
 What is the status of
supremeness of Qur'aan?
 The actual reason of its supremeness
relates to the fact that it is an expression
of Allah (swt). The expression is an
attribute of the expressionist and speaks
for all his inherent qualities. Therefore the
word of God and the gleam (strobe light)
of his image are characteristically the
same. This can be understood in a better
way by a comparative study of Alhash’r:
21 and Ala’araaf: 143.
 What is the status of
supremeness of Qur'aan?
 By virtue of Qur’aan being the word of
God, it is an everlasting miracle of the
prophet (saw), has no comparison
whatsoever with any other saying, words
or expression of any other kind. An Arabic
proverb can explain it in a better way, (
) if translated into
modern English one would say “The
expression of the queen is the queen of
expressions”.
 What is the status of
supremeness of Qur'aan?
 Only and only Allah who revealed the
Qur’aan is aware of the actual status of its
supremeness or to a certain extent it
might be known to the prophet (saw), on
whom it was revealed.
 Qur’aan itself speaks for its supremeness
in certain places within Qur’aan such as
Alhash’r: 21, Az’zumur: 23, Yunus:
57-58, A’basa: 11-16, Ar’rahmaan: 1-
4, Alwaqiya: 75-82.
 What is the status of
supremeness of Qur'aan?
 Holy prophet (saw) has many a place
spoken of the supremeness of
Qur’aan as such we are quoting one
of his sermons on this issue.
 The supremeness of Qur’aan as
narrated by the bearer of Qur’aan
(saw).
Narrated by Hazrat Ali (kaw), he says ‘Beware! I
have heard the prophet of Allah saying “let it be
known that a tribulation is about to occur” I
asked, O’ prophet of Allah, what will be the way
out of this tribulation? He said “The book of Allah”
it has the warning examples of nations before
you, information or forewarnings of future i.e.
worldly and ultimate outcome incurring out of
morals and practices of everyone of you. It has
and will have the just solution of your occurring
problems. It is a decisive oration by which the
worldly decisions and the decisions of hereinafter
will be conducted. Allah (swt) will break the one
who betrays the book in defiance; Allah will leave
him astray whosoever looks for guidance despite
the Qur’aan.
This is that towline which provides a strong bondage and
it keeps you harnessed with Allah, it is a reminiscence
full of wisdom and a straight path, this is the one which
is finite truth by following it thoughts do not become
perverted, it can not be tampered with by the languages,
as they did with the previous books, knowledgeable
people will not be saturated by its knowledge i.e., there
will always be a continuous process of deep thinking and
research to find new realities and awareness. It will never
happen that the seekers of the Qur’aanic knowledge will
feel that they have attained the mastery over this
knowledge; instead their quest for knowledge will
increase. Constant recitation of Qur’aan will not wear it
out; they will never get bored of its repetitive recitation,
as with other books people do not find it interesting by
reading it over and over. The more pondering and
thinking, the more interesting it becomes.
The wonders of its deep or apparent realities and
perceptions will never cease to exist. When heard
for the first time the Jinns cried spontaneously:
“Verily we heard the wondrous recitation (The
Qur’aan) guiding towards virtues; hence we
became the believers of it”.
(Surah Jinn: Ayah 1-2)
Whosoever said anything conforming to Qur’aan
had spoken the truth and who so ever acted and
followed it deserves its reward. Who decided
according to Qur’aan made the best of judgments
and who invited others towards the message of
Qur’aan he found the righteous path himself
(narration of At-Tirmizi and Ad’darmi).
 Why Qur’aan was descended?
 Qur’aan came down as a manual of
guidance for the mankind. Potentially it is
a guide for all humans (Al-Baqarah: 185),
albeit only those who are in search are
guided (Al-Baqarah: 2).
 Qur’aan is a source of acquiring rewards
and blessings but these are the
incidentals, benefits of the secondary
nature.
 When was it descended?
 Qur’aandescended in two phases. It
came all at once during the night of
Al-Qadr from the Eternal Scripture to
the worldly finite skies in the first
phase. During the second phase, it
made a gradual descent on the Holy
Prophet (saw) from 610 A.D. to 632
A.D.
 Where was it descended?
 Geographically Qur’aan descended in
Hijaz; the surrounding area of
Makkah and Madina.
 The last two ayaat of Al-Baqarah
were bestowed upon the prophet
(saw) during Mai’raj; an ascent to
the Celestial Heavens.
 How did it descend?
 It made a descent on the heart of the
Prophet (saw) (Al-Baqarah: 97, Al-
Shua’ra: 193-194).
 The physical aspect or the physical body
of Muhammad (saw) was not the actual
recipient of it; in fact the sole or the spirit
of Muhammad (saw) acknowledged it from
the Holy Spirit (the angel Gabriel).
According to a couplet of Jigger
Muradabadi:
How many names Qur’aan has?
 According to Allam Jalaluddin
Sayyuti in his book “Al-Itqaam fil
Uloomil Qur’aan” he has mentioned
its 55 names, some of them are: -
Al-Qur’aan, Al-Kitab, Al-Furqaan, Al-
Huda, An’Noor, Al-Moizah, Ad’dikr,
Al-Muhaimin, Al-Hakeem, Al-Aziz, Al-
Mubeen, Al-Karim, Al-Majeed and
Ahsan ul Hadith, etc.
 What is the language of Qur’aan?
 Itcame down in pure Bedouin Arabic
of the times.
(Al-Nahl: 103, Al-Shua’ra: 195).
What is the demeanor or the accent
of Qur’aan?
 Qur’aan has an oratorical style; all
Surahs are the sermons of Allah
(swt). It is neither prose nor poetry
(Yaseen: 69, Al-Haqqah: 41). One
can say that the unrestricted modern
Urdu poetry has been derived from
Qur’aanic style.
 How was it compiled and edited?
 The compilation took place in two ways:
 In the sequence of descent
 In the sequence of recitation
 Surah Al-Alaq is the first one in the order of descent,
whose first five ayahs were the very first Wahi (spiritual
revelation). Al-Fatiha is the first surah according the order
of recitation.
 Muhammad (saw) conducted the editing and compilation
side by side. Not only would he keep Sahabah (raa)
informed of the interrelation of the sequence of Surahs,
also he had them written or memorized Ayaat according
to their respective places in Surahs.
 Every year during Ramadan Holy Prophet (saw) would
recite the descended portion of Qur’aan together with
Hazrat Jibraeel (as). In the last year he went over the
recitation twice.
 Qur’aan was assembled in a book form during the
caliphate of Hazrat Abu Bakr Siddeeq (raa).
Hazrat Zaid bin Thabit (raa) accomplished this
enormous task with the assistance of a
committee under his leadership.
 During the caliphate of Hazrat Uthman (raa),
another committee under the same leadership of
Hazrat Zaid bin Thabit (raa) wrote Qur’aan in a
unanimously agreed upon manuscript. Its
samples were sent to seven important cities of
his governance.
 Qur’aan will be safeguarded till the Day of
Judgment since the preservation of Qur'aan has
been guaranteed by Allah (swt) Al-Hijjr: 9.
 How Qur’aan is formulated and
divided?
 The smallest unit in Qur’aan is an Ayah, the
number; however is controversial. In the Nabwi
(saw) days Surahs, which are altogether 114,
were compiled by a formation of certain Ayaat.
Later on the formation of Surahs were composed
into seven segments known as “Manaazil” or
“Ahzaab” with an idea that reciting one “Hizb” or
“Manzil” each day will complete whole Qur’aan in
a week.
 After the days of “Sahaba” (raa) Surahs were
divided into ‘Rukuu’ so that in one Rakah of
Salaat, only that much portion of a long Surah
may be recited where one particular topic comes
to an end, they total to 558 in number. Likewise
whole Qur’aan was divided later on into 30 equal
parts to have the whole recitation accomplished
in a month.
 In the beginning of the last century
Maulana Hameed uddin Farahi (ra), a
teacher of Maulana Ameen Ahsan Islahi
tried to reason out that why Makki and
Madni Surahs are not arranged together.
During this thought process he came to
find out that Qur’aan consists of 7 groups
of Makki and Madni Surahs, each group
has a peculiar theme associated to it. Each
group begins with a Makki Surah and
connected with one or more Madni Surahs.
The details are as follows: -
Groups Makki Surahs Madni Surahs Subjects

First Al-fatiha Albaqara- AlMaida Commandments of

(1) (4) Shariah
Second Al-anaam-Al-a’raaf (2) Al-anfaal-At’tauba Belief in Prophethood
(2)
Third Yunus-Almo’menoon An’noor Belief in Prophethood
(14) (1)
Fourth Alfuqaan-As’sajda (8) Al-ahzaab Belief in Allah (swt)
(1)
Fifth Sabaa-Al-ahqaaf Muhammad-Alhujraat Belief in Allah (swt)
(13) (3)
Sixth Qaaf- Alwaqiya Alhadeed- At’tahreem Belief in the Day of
(7) Judgment
Seventh Almulk-Alikhlaas Alfalaq-An’naas Belief in the Day of
(46) (2) Judgment
 What does it mean by Qur’aanic
Insight: -
 Qur’aanic Insight has various aspects to it: -
 Tazzakur (reiteration) and Tadabbur
(deliberation) -----As’suad: 30
 Tazzakur; retaining of advice through
remembrance or to get the gist of an advice from
the narrated subject in a quick overview or in
repeated recitals. From this dimension Qur’aan is
a very easy to understand and clear book
(Alqamar: 17). Tadabbur, which refers to deep
deliberation, is to understand the underlying
wisdom or philosophy of the subject by deeply
pondering over a certain section of Qur’aan. From
this dimension Qur’aan is voluminously vast and
has unfathomable depths, to fulfill the true
requirements of its deep deliberation even a
whole lifespan of a person is insufficient.
 Muhkamaat and Mutashabihaat ()
 Certain Ayaat are very simple and easy to
comprehend; these are called ‘Mohkamaat’ they
contain commandments; we should narrow down
our deep thinking and all of our pondering to
these Ayaat. There are other Ayaat for those our
mind has limitations, we can not grasp the reality
of their subject, these are known as
‘Mutashabihaat’ only perverted minds concentrate
on them attempting to reason out superfluously.
The correct approach would be to testify to those
Ayaat by having a Belief in Unseen.
(Ale-Imran: 7)
 Ta’weel; connotation of Ayaat in
Particular and in General:
 Most of the Qur’aanic Ayaat connote to a
certain background and have a certain
purpose of descent; understanding Ayaat
in the light of their reference and purpose
of descent is known as particular
connotation. However Qur’aan is a
guidance for every era (Anbiya: 10),
therefore it has a general purpose of
descent or a message in general known as
Ta’weel Aam; general connotation.
 The awareness of beliefs, do’s and don’ts: -
 The do’s and don’ts of different aspects of life and
of beliefs can be understood in a better way by
referring to ‘Ahaadith’, Sunnah, The Narration of
Sahaba (raa), and the deeds of Salf Saleheen,
according to a Persian couplet;
 Understanding the Scientific Realities of Qur’aan:
 Qur’aan itself speaks of some of the scientific
realities or it refers to them. To have a better
understanding of them we will have to utilize all
means of modern research.
 How to get the Real Insight of
Qur’aan: -
 The gradual descent of Qur’aan took place
during an extremely hard and harsh
struggle, in order to acquire the real
insight of Qur’aan, one has to involve
himself in a same type of struggle;
striving to empower or establish Allah’s
Deen.
 “People who struggle in my way we most
definitely guide them to our path”.
(Ankaboot: 69)