How to Introduce the Quran to Non-Muslims
How do we speak to non-Muslims about the Quran? How can we introduce the Quran to non-Muslims?
Because, you know, there is a lot of nonsense out there spoken about the Quran. There are a lot of misconceptions, there is a lot of deliberate mischief.
Well, I want say what Muslims believe about the Quran.
I’ve been Muslim now for 14 years or so; and the more I know of the Quran, the more ignorant I realize I am, but the more beautiful I see the Quran to be.
Even recently, I was in London not long ago, and I heard a talk from a Muslim scholar about the Quran; he gave a very beautiful idea which I will share with you.
Like a Building Site
He said: “Imagine a building site, you go to visit a building site; and all you see on the building site are heaps of sand, cement, buckets of water, and bricks here and there; people rushing around and moving about… You would have no idea looking at the building site what the building is going to look like.
The only one on that site who has a vision in his mind of what the building will look like is the architect. He knows what the final building will be like. Well, the Quran is like that.”
of the same verse were revealed 20 years apart; and maybe the second part was revealed first and then the first part of the verse was revealed 15 years later.
Anyone looking at all the bits of the Quran that were revealed wouldn’t quite understood what the final thing would look like. Allah alone, the architect of all things, knew what it was going to look like.
Anyone looking at all the bits of the Quran that were revealed wouldn’t quite understood what the final thing would look like. Allah alone, the architect of all things, knew what it was going to look like.
The Compilation of the Quran
And then right at the end, the angel Gabriel revealed to Prophet Muhammad how the order of the Quran would be. So the Quran brought together all the verses revealed in different places over 23 years and put into the order we find them today.
Like that building site, we find one verse was revealed here, one verse was revealed there for a particular reason in answer to a particular situation.
Then when it was all put together, the most extraordinary thing happened, the most miraculous thing happened. We find that there are rhymes within verses, that there are themes and sub-themes within verses that no one could possibly have imagined when they were been revealed at the time.
They were revealed here and there piece by piece; but when it was all put together a whole existed that no one could have imagined. It was like all the parts of the jigsaw were all put together. The architect of it all knew what it will say in the end.
There are scholars who go through the Quran and say how many rhymes appear how many times and how many words appear here… There is an extraordinary symmetry within the Quran that is quite miraculous. Leave all that to one side, it’s all very beautiful.
Unchanged Message
The Quran we look at today, it was revealed 14 hundred years ago. If you look at any Quran from any country from any century of the last 14 hundred years and you will see that it is exactly the same Quran; it is completely without change.
The Quran was revealed orally. And then Prophet Muhammad (peace be upon him) remembered the verses; and he told other people to learn the verses by heart.
Not one person, but the whole community. He revealed what had been revealed to him and then they all memorized it and then eventually the Quran was put together. It was written down but it’s meant to be listened to, it’s meant to be recited it’s not meant to be a written book. It was revealed for us to hear.
So if you’re not Muslim, a little thing I would encourage you to do is listen to the Quran.
When Muslims read the Quran, they wash their hands; they keep the Quran in a place of honor. It is never put on the floor for example; it’s treated with courtesy. The Quran is not something we take lightly, it’s Allah Almighty speaking to us.
And what is He saying?
The Final Message
Well, as Muslims we believe the Quran is the final message of God Almighty to mankind.
Had He spoken to mankind before?
Yes He had, in many ways through many messages.
But the Quran confirms everything that had gone before it if it was true. It denies or gets rid of anything that goes before it that was false.
So for example, in one of the Gospels chosen by the Christian church to be part of their canonical scripture, or in the four, it tells us that Jesus is the son of God, whereas the Quran tells us that he is not.
So the mistakes made in the past regarding this teaching were corrected by the Quran.
Watch the full talk:
SOURCE: https://aboutislam.net/reading-islam/understanding-islam/how-to-introduce-the-quran-to-non-muslims/