The Journey of Life

The Journey of Life
The Holy Qur'an
The Eternal, Living Reality

The Qur'an is the word of the Ever-living God; it has been
sent down to guide man for all times to come. No book can
be like it. As you come to the Qur'an, Allah speaks to you.
To read the Qur'an is to hear Him, even to converse with
Him, and to walk in His ways. It is the encounter of life with
the Life-giver. 'God - there is no god but He, the Ever-living,
the Self-subsisting (by whom all subsist). He has sent down
upon you the Book with the Truth ... as a guidance unto
mankind ...' (Al 'Imran 3: 2-3).

For those who heard it for the first time from the lips of
the Prophet, blessings and peace be on him, the Qur'an was
a living reality. They had absolutely no doubt that, through
him, Allah was speaking to them. Their hearts and minds
were therefore seized by it. Their eyes overflowed with tears
and their bodies shivered. They found each word of it deeply
relevant to their concerns and experiences, and integrated
it fully into their lives. They were completely transformed
by it both as individuals and as a corporate body - into a
totally new, alive and life-giving entity. Those who grazed
sheep, herded camels and traded petty merchandise became
the leaders of mankind.

Today we have the same Qur'an with us. Millions of copies of
it are in circulation. Day and night, it is ceaselessly recited. In
homes, in mosques, and from pulpits. Voluminous exegetical
works exist expounding its meaning. Words pour out
incessantly to explain its teachings and to exhort us to live
by it. Yet eyes remain dry, hearts remain unmoved, minds
remain untouched, lives remain unchanged. Ignominy and
degradation appear to have become the lot of the followers
of the Qur'an. Why? Because we no longer read the Qur'an
as a living reality. It is a sacred book, but it tells us something
of the past only, concerning Muslims and Kafirs, Jews and
Christians, the faithful and the hypocrites, who 'once upon a
time used to be'.

Can the Qur'an, again, be a living, relevant force, as
powerful for us now, 1400 years away, as it was then? This is
the most crucial question that we must answer if we wish to
shape our destiny afresh under the guidance of the Qur'an.

There appear, however, to be some difficulties. Not least of
which has to do with the fact that the Qur'an was revealed at
a certain point in time. Since then we have travelled a long
way, made gigantic leaps in technological know-how, and
seen considerable social changes take place in human society.
Moreover, most of the followers of the*rfnan today do not
know Arabic, and many who do hav�,4ttle idea of the 'living'
language of the Qur'an. They cannot t3e expected to absorb its
idiom and metaphor, so essential to exploring and absorbing
the depths of the Quranic meaning.

Yet its guidance, by its own claim, has an eternal relevance
for all people, being the word of the Eternal God.

For the truth of this claim, it seems to me, it must be
possible for us to receive, experience, and understand the
Qur'an as its first recipients did, at least in some measure
and to some degree. We seem to almost have a right to this
possibility of receiving God's guidance in its fullness and
with all its riches and joys. In other words, despite the
historical incidence of the revelation in a particular language
at a particular time and place, we should be capable of
receiving the Qur'an now (because its message is eternal),
capable of making its message as much a real part of our
lives as it was for the first believers and with the same urgent
and profound relevance for all our present concerns and
experiences.